BusinessMirror March 17, 2015

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ear God, the rejection of Your love, through a life of disobedience, leads us into the darkness of sin, which produces suffering and death, as emphasized in the Gospel reading.

On the other hand, the acceptance of Your love in our lives, especially as manifested in Your Son, Jesus Christ, leads to the realm of light, Jesus, in fact, is the light of the world and He came to enable us to “live in the light” by performing the “deeds of the light.” amen!

Exploring god’s Word, Fr. sal putzu, sdB and louiE M. lacson Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

Life

Philippine developers on a tear

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Duchess catherine tours ‘Downton abbey’ set, gets kuDos for helping series

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BusinessMirror

Tuesday, March 17, 2015 D1

‘Bahay-kubo, kahit munti’ Here is the inspiration for this week’s column. My father, Boom Boncan, showed me this modern bamboo model house in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, inspired by the bahaykubo. It is for the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development.

BOOM BONCAN

Urban Monologues V2.0

Nikki Boncan-Buensalido

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Filipino children’s song that has been passed down through generations inspired me to write this article.

“Bahay-kubo, kahit munti, ang halaman doon ay sari-sari. “[There is a nipa hut, although very small, the plants that grow there are varied].” it goes on to enumerate the many vegetables that grow around the bahay-kubo.

The bahay-kubo has figured in folk songs, legends, short stories and children’s drawings. i was one of those children who drew the philippine countryside with two mountains and a setting sun between them as the backdrop to a rice field with a scarecrow and a small bahay-kubo on one side.

Growing up, the bahay-kubo became quite familiar to me, as we’d sleep in one on visits to the provinces. During my university years, it was a topic we explored in our History of

philippine Architecture subject.

Today a visit to the country’s tourist destinations will not be complete without a sighting of clusters of these houses. even as we race to modernity, the nipa hut still serves as a takeoff point in philippine architecture and design, and a lot of architects have pitched their take on “The Modern Bahay-Kubo.” What makes the Filipino bahay-kubo so unique in our tropical country, and what useful design principles can be extracted from the original to come up with a modern bahay-kubo?

passiVE cooling liVinG in a tropical country has its pros and cons. We have extreme heat and humidity, along with strong winds, especially at the peak of the monsoon season. our architecture also has to deal with these types of extremes. passive cooling is about harnessing these types of energy to work for the house by means of design and construction methodologies, rather than using energy-powered cooling appliances. The bahay-kubo pictured here exemplifies this through the presence of oversized windows in strategic locations of the house for natural ventilation. other fenestrations that allow wind to flow through the house are ventanillas or louvers, and an exhaust route for hot air at the top of the ceiling, to name a few.

Furthermore, wide eaves and overhangs provide shading for the entire house, as well as its surroundings. proper orientation of the house to open up to wind directions (amihan and habagat) may also be helpful when site allows. When this is achieved, heat is deflected away from the house but light is still welcomed. The same principles can be applied to a modern house and, i promise you, you will also get the same wind flow and heat protection.

on stilts ConDiTionS in the philippines also range from rainy to sunny. Raising a house on stilts is also beneficial, as this not only allows wind to enter and circulate from under the house, but also protects it from floods. in the case of the modern bahay-kubo, if the house is raised on stilts, the lower floor acts as a social space for family and friends to come together. in older times, this space also served as an extension of the family space, or a storage for livestock or harvest. Moreover, a house on stilts also reduces the building footprint and has very minimal ground disturbance during construction.

sustainaBlE MatErials, sustainaBlE EnVironMEnt BUilDinG materials also play an important

role in the construction of a bahay-kubo.

These include bamboo, sawali, anahaw and rattan, among others. Bamboo is a type of grass that has utmost strength and flexibility. it is also one of the fastestgrowing plants in the world, hence its sustainability. A typical bahay-kubo is 80-percent to 90-percent bamboo. The leaves act as cladding for the ceiling and the roof. Concrete may also be used, but only recommended for the foundations of the house and so that insects are not able to eat into the house’s foundations. Today the modern bahay-kubo uses more modern materials that are still sustainable and environment-friendly. Certain materials are also certified to be sustainable, as they are eco-friendly or made from recycled products, or those with low volatile compounds, etc.

tHE FaMilY as singlE unit A UniqUe trait among Filipinos is that we consider the family as a single social unit. The family plays an important role in Filipino society. This is something designers and planners must never forget. The spaces within a typical bahay-kubo are limited but big enough to accommodate a whole family living together. The social space adapts to the Filipino family values of being together and sharing their lives with one another.

The idea of family as a single unit dictates that the common spaces of the house are bigger than, i.e., their rooms. Usually, the bigger rooms are the dining or family areas.

This is also evident in the modern bahaykubo. Filipinos love to entertain and have friends and extended families over, thus spaces have to be designed to accommodate large or small groups, and spaces have to be able to open up to each other. one might notice that the dining room opens up to the living area, and the living area may open up to the garden or an outdoor patio. Heck, in a traditional bahay-kubo community, everybody lives so close to one another that they share their big common space with their neighbors, opening the house not only to their family but also to the community.

That is how social Filipinos can get.

There are still a lot more design principles that i can extract from the small bahay-kubo but i will stop here and leave the rest to the imagination. The bahay-kubo, is not just a “small” house; it is a home that is very functional given the limited material choices in the provinces. But with the right choice of materials and the right construction methodology, the bahay-kubo can withstand strong storms. its elements are sustainable and its design principles are still being extracted, studied and translated into modern-day thinking.

Mandaluyong cites dMci Homes as one of its top 10 taxpayers

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Jan Venturanza (center), head of the DMCI Homes Marketing and Customer Care, with the award for DMCI Homes as one of the top 10 taxpayers of Mandaluyong City for 2015. With Venturanza are (from left) Mandaluyong City Business Permit and Licensing Department Head Catherine arce, Mandaluyong City Mayor Benhur abalos, DMCI Homes Project Development Manager april Bernal and Mandaluyong City assessor’s Office Head Gener Sison.

He Mandaluyong City government has awarded DMCi Homes as one of its top 10 taxpayers, and thanked the residential resort builder for contributing to the increased investments in the so-called Tiger City.

Mayor Benhur Abalos presented the award to Jan Venturanza, head of the DMCi Homes Marketing and Customer Care; and April Bernal, project development manager, during the celebration of the Mandaluyong City’s 21st founding anniversary and 70th liberation Day commemoration, dubbed as liberation Ball, at the WackWack Golf and Country Club in February.

Abalos thanked DMCi Homes and the other top 10 taxpayer awardees for enabling the city government to earn p154 billion in revenues from the business sector and p155 billion in total investment last year.

“The city council, our taxpayers and our Ulirang Mandalenyo have shaped what our city is right now,” Abalos said. “We thank each and every one of you, all the

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

NO LETUP IN THE COUNTRY’S RECORD-BUILDING BOOM TRIGGERS GLUT CONCERN

‘bahaykubo, kahit munti’ The light of the world

TfridayNovember 18, 2015 2014 Vol. 10 No. 159 40 Tuesday, March 17,

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industry players and investors, for all of the achievements that we have had.”

Venturanza said DMCi Homes is just doing its job as a good corporate citizen. “it is our duty and privilege to try to support the City of Mandaluyong,” he said, after receiving the award on behalf of DMCi Homes.

Among the DMCi Homes’s residential condominium developments in Mandaluyong City are Flair Towers, Tivoli Garden Residences and Dansalan Gardens. it is also constructing the Sheridan Towers, and the company has other residential projects lined up for the city, according to Bernal.

DMCi Homes was also one of the top 10 companies that paid at least p1 billion in taxes to the Bureau of internal Revenue (BiR) in 2013. The feat won for the company the BiR’s Billionaires’ Club Award last year. it was the only real-estate company among the Billionaires’ Club awardees.

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he country is seemingly in the grip of a building boom, led by developers such as Megaworld Corp. and Ayala Land Inc., that will add a record number of apartments over the next two years.

However, it also threatens to lead to a glut that will weigh on returns for investors.

An estimated 55,000 residential units will come to the market in Metro Manila this year, slowing growth in lease rates, according to broker CBRE Group Inc. Spending by property companies will rise 18 percent to more than P300 billion ($6.8 billion) in 2015 from last year, according to broker Savills Plc. Philippine developers have been on a building spree, as the nation’s biggest economic boom since

CHINA’S LI TO ENSURE GROWTH BusinessMirror

World The

B3-1 | Tuesday, March 17, 2015 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Continued on A2 Delegates applaud as Chinese President Xi Jinping (bottom left) and Premier li Keqiang (bottom right) arrive for the closing session of the annual National People’s Congress at the great Hall of the People in Beijing on sunday. AP/Andy Wong

AGREEMENT FACILITATING U.S. PARTICIPATION IN PPPs SIGNED

China’s Li to ensure growth amid reforms

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remier Li Keqiang pledged to protect job creation in China as the leadership presses ahead with a “painful” push to cut corruption and waste by reducing the role of the state.

Policy-makers will take action if China’s growth, which the government targeted at about 7 percent this year, drifts toward the lower limit of its range and cuts into employment or wages, Li told reporters.

While stripping the government of some of its role in the world’s second-largest economy may face resistance from vested interests, it is crucial, he said.

“This is not nail-clipping—it’s

wrist slashing,” Li said on Sunday at his annual nationally televised briefing, held in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, referring to the restructuring initiative. “It’s like taking a knife to one’s own flesh.”

Li’s remarks highlight the challenges China’s leaders face as they seek to wean the economy off its reliance on exports and investment, a model that’s fueled pollution, corruption and ballooning debt. At the same time, missteps risk further dragging down growth that was the slowest in more than two decades last year.

“It’s a very thin needle that they are trying to thread,” said Andrew Polk, the Conference Board Beijingbased economist. “The downward

pressure on the economy is very strong. All the main drivers of economic growth are decelerating.”

The economy expanded 7.4 percent last year. Bloomberg’s gross domestic product (GDP) tracker, which draws on measures, such as electricity production, shows the pace weakened to 6.28 percent in February.

Li’s comments on Sunday echoed ones he made at his annual briefing in 2013, when he said China would open the economy to more market forces. At the time, he said doing so would be “very painful and even feel like cutting one’s wrist.”

As in years past, he vowed tougher measures to combat pollution, saying controls, so far, had fallen

short of people’s expectations.

Asked whether two companies— China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. and China National Petroleum Corp.—had stymied antipollution controls, he said no one should “use his power to meddle with law enforcement in this regard.”

Yet, much has also changed since 2013, when property prices advanced and GDP would expand at 7.7 percent for the second straight year.

The value of property sales fell 15.8 percent in the first two months of 2015, while China saw a “relatively big” decline in newly created jobs during that time, according to the human resources ministry. The yuan has depreciated 0.9 percent against the dollar this year.

Expansion of 7 percent would be the nation’s slowest pace since 1990.

Li said it won’t be easy to reach even that target. The challenge of making structural adjustment, while maintaining growth is similar to weiqi—a Chinese game that in Japan is known as go—where players must plan for the big picture and also get individual moves right, Li said.

“The good news is that in the past couple of years we did not resort to massive stimulus measures for economic growth,” Li said. “That has made it possible for us to have fairly ample room to exercise macroeconomic regulation, and we still have a host of policy instruments at our disposal.” Bloomberg News

Vietnam targets record year Beijing now world’s 3rd-biggest arms exporter of stake sales in state firms

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EIJING—China has overtaken Germany to become the world’s third-biggest arms exporter, although its 5 percent of the market remains small compared to the combined 58 percent of exports from the US and Russia, a new study says.

China’s share of the global arms market rose 143 percent during the years from 2010 to 2014, a period during which the total volume of global arms transfers rose by 16 percent over the previous five years, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) said in a report released on Monday.

Its share of the world market was up from 3 percent in the 2009 to 2014 period, when China was ranked ninth among exporters of warplanes, ships, side arms and other weaponry, Sipri said.

The data show the growing strength of China’s domestic arms industry, now producing fourthgeneration fighter jets, navy frigates and a wide-range of relatively cheap, simple and reliable smaller weapons used in conflicts around the globe.

China had long been a major importer of weapons, mainly from Russia and Ukraine, but its soaring economy and the copying of foreign technology has largely reversed the trend, except for the most cuttingedge designs and sophisticated parts, such as aircraft engines.

China supplies weapons to 35 countries, led by Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, Sipri said.

Chinese sales included those of armored vehicles and transport and

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PaKistaN air Force personnel sit in front of their JF-17 jet fighter at the eigth China international aviation and aerospace exhibition (Zhuhai airshow) in Zhuhai, southern coast of guangdong province, China, in this photon in 2010. AP/Kin Cheung

trainer aircraft to Venezuela, three frigates to Algeria, antiship missiles to Indonesia and unmanned combat aerial vehicles, or drones, to Nigeria, which is battling the Boko Haram insurgency in its north.

China’s comparative advantages include its low prices, easy financing and friendliness toward authoritarian governments, said Philip Saunders, director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs at the US National Defense University.

“Generally speaking, China offers medium-quality weapons systems

at affordable prices, a combination attractive to cash-strapped militaries in South Asia, Africa and Latin America,” Saunders said.

Notable successes include a coproduction deal with Pakistan to produce the JF-17 fighter, widespread sales of the basic but effective C-802 antiship cruise missile, and an agreement to sell the HQ-9 air defense missile system to Turkey that has run into controversy over its incompatibility with North Atlantic Treaty Organization weapons systems.

China also has exploited niche markets—such as North Korea and Iran—that the West won’t sell to, emphasizing its attractiveness to impoverished countries and pariah states, said Ian Easton, research fellow at The Project 2049 Institute, an Arlington, Virginia-based Asian security think tank.

Both those US foes appear to have received satellite jamming and cyber warfare capabilities from China, along with technologies to break into private communications and spy on government opponents, Easton said. AP

ietnam will offer to sell a record amount of shares in state-owned companies this year, with the government planning to publicize a list of assets available to accelerate a program that has repeatedly missed targets.

“With about 280 companies, mostly large conglomerates on the list, this will be a record year for the value of state stakes to be sold,” Dang Quyet tien, deputy general director of the finance ministry’s corporate finance department, said in an interview in Hanoi on march 13. “making the list public with the size of stakes on offer will help attract more investors.”

Vietnam is trying to quicken a share sale program that began in the 1990s, as the government seeks to spur economic growth to a four-year high of 6.2 percent this year. the complexities of the privatization process has hindered plans to overhaul inefficient state companies, whose borrowings have burdened the banking system with bad debt and strained lending. “there’s a genuine desire and effort from the government to speed up the process as much as possible, but delays are inevitable given that current laws make the privatization process rather lengthy from a procedural standpoint,” said michel tosto, head of institutional sales at Viet Capital Securities in Ho Chi minh City. “it’s impossible for the government to achieve it’s privatization goals as originally planned.” the list of state-owned stake sales will be finalized this month and announced soon after, tien said. the government’s privatization plan last year fell short of its target, even as the number of companies that sold stakes

doubled from 2013. in total, 143 stateowned companies sold shares in 2014, compared with a goal of 200. to quicken the process, “they would need to simplify the privatization procedures. too many people need to be involved in the process,” tosto said. “they need to modernize the initial public offering [iPO] and listing procedures, so that the two are simultaneous rather than months or years apart. Reasonable valuations would help.” the stake-sale process will change this year, tien said. Companies won’t “necessarily have an iPO first, but need to find and sell shares to suitable strategic partners who can make long-term commitments for mutual growth, avoiding the situation where our companies could end up being taken over.”

Prime minister nguyen tan Dung has set the end of this year as the deadline for state enterprises to sell noncore investments and banks to reduce bad debt to below 3 percent. Regulators last year said they would form a working group, including officials from the finance ministry and Ho Chi minh City and Hanoi stock exchanges to help state companies sell stakes more successfully. the dong weakened 0.2 percent to 21,422 against the US dollar as of 12:08 p.m. in Hanoi. the benchmark Vn index of stocks fell 0.3 percent.

Vietnam has sold 49.5 million shares in state companies this year, representing 59 percent of the total shares offered since the start of 2015, according to figures from the stock exchanges. the government issued a 2014 regulation requiring state companies to list shares quickly following iPO. Bloomberg News

world

By Lorenz S. Marasigan B3-1

On “Kasangga Mo ang Langit sa DWIZ” “One hundred percent or more than 100 percent, hindi po kami humahawak ng Malaysian passport; Philippine passport ang hawak namin....”—Prof. Mohaguer Iqbal, Moro National Liberation Front chief peace neotiator

www.dwiz882.com

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he government presented its flagship Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program at a forum in New York City to encourage US-based firms to channel their funds into the $272-billion economy’s key infrastructure thrust.

At the recently concluded Eighth Global Infrastructure Leadership Forum in New York City, Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose L. Cuisia Jr. and Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson presented several PPP deals that are currently in the tender process.

“Tremendous opportunities exist in the Philippines for infrastructure development,” Cuisia told the more than 300 participants in the forum.

Among the projects presented were the P122.8-billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway-Dike; the P370-

PESO exchange rates n US 44.2710

billion Mass Transit System Loop; and the Batangas-Manila Natural Gas Pipeline.

The Laguna Lakeshore Expressway-Dike will help mitigate flooding along the western coast of the Laguna Lake running from Taguig to the town of Bay in Laguna. It will also serve as an alternative transport route to the congested South Luzon Expressway and enhance the hydrology for the ecosystem of the Laguna Lake.

The project involves the construction of a 47-kilometer floodcontrol dike—on top of which will be a six-lane expressway—on an offshore alignment 500 meters away from the western shoreline of the Laguna Lake. It includes interchanges, bridges, floodgates and pumps, from Taguig City to Los Baños in Laguna.

It also involves the reclamation of 700 hectares of raw land adjoining See “Agreement,” A2

PAL FLIES TO NEW YORK US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg (second from right) cuts the ceremonial ribbon together with Philippine Airlines (PAL) Chairman and CEO Lucio Tan (fourth from right) to mark the inaugural flight of the flag carrier to New York on March 15.

Joining them are Tan’s wife, Carmen (fifth from right), PAL President and COO Jaime Bautista (third from right) and Beda Badiola (right) from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines. RECTO MERCENE

ALI spending ₧25B for Balintawak project

By VG Cabuag

A

yala Land Inc. (ALI) said on Monday it will spend some P25 billion in the next 10 years to redevelop an 11-hectare shuttered textile property in Balintawak, Quezon City.

The company said the development, called Cloverleaf, will become one of ALI’s “pocket developments” in Metro Manila.

The site is the former Central Textile Mill plant that spans Edsa and A. Bonificio Avenue in Quezon City, one of the busiest streets used by truckers and other motorists, as it leads to the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex). Part of Balintawak market is known among locals as Cloverleaf market.

“Our vision is to create a pocket

urban development that will give people access to refreshing retail, business, lifestyle and residential possibilities—elements that create an ideal urban lifestyle,” said Ana Ma. Margarita Dy, ALI senior vice president for Strategic Land Banking.

The first phase of the project, which will be undertaken in five years and will cost P15 billion, involves the construction of eight buildings, including the 250-room Qualimed Hospital. Company officials said the hospital will serve as the flagship of Ayala Land’s venture with the Mercado family.

There will also be a community mall and five residential towers—600 units will be allocated for Alveo Land Corp. for two towers and 2,000 units for Avida Land Corp.

for three towers.

The second phase, which costs about P10 billion, will include office spaces involving seven more buildings. No other details were given.

“The mall is positioned to be a melting pot [of] Asian cultures, offering gathering and dining concepts not only for residents of Balintawak, but also for locals of Ca-loocan, Malabon, Novaliches and Valenzuela,” ALI said.

The mall and hospital are set to open by 2017, while the Avida and Alveo towers are set to be finished by 2019 and 2020, respectively.

ALI said the completion dates are just in time for the operation of the Skyway Stage 3, an elevated expressway that connects the Nlex and the South Luzon Expressway.

Continued on A8

n japan 0.3648 n UK 65.3042 n HK 5.6996 n CHINA 7.0726 n singapore 31.8084 n australia 33.6943 n EU 46.4624 n SAUDI arabia 11.8059 Source: BSP (16 March 2015)

News

BusinessMirror

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

A2

Agreement. . .

Continued from A1

the expressway-dike.

The Mass Transit System Loop, meanwhile, will connect the fast-developing Bonifacio Global City, Makati Central Business District and the Mall of Asia area in Pasay City. It will improve intercity linkage by providing a higher-capacity public transportation system that would facilitate fast and convenient mobility of goods and services.

On the other hand, the Batangas-Manila Natural Gas Pipeline will transport and supply natural gas to targeted markets in the highgrowth areas of Batangas, Laguna, Cavite and Metro Manila, delivered through approximately 121 kilometers of transmission pipelines from Batangas to Metro Manila.

“Good governance and anticorruption reforms produced marked improvements in the infrastructure sector, which has strong convergence with agriculture, tourism, flood mitigation and an integrated transport system,” Singson said, citing the 250-percent increase in the infrastructure budget of the Philippines in 2015 from its 2010 level.

During the forum, Cuisia and US Commerce Secretary Arun Kumar signed a memorandum of cooperation that “establishes a US-Philippines Infrastructure Collaboration Platform between the Philippine National Economic and Development Authority and the US Department of Commerce that seeks to facilitate US industry participation in Philippine infrastructure projects.”

“The agreement creates a platform for potential US investors to get notification and information about forthcoming infrastructure projects, which would be useful to enhancing awareness and attracting the attention of American investors in the Philippines,” Cuisia said. The government has awarded nine contracts since the infrastructure program’s inception in 2010.

The state intends to plug the gap in the country’s transportation facility in the next decade by rolling out massive infrastructure projects that are seen to spur economic growth.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Philippine developers on a tear across the Philippine capital, KMC MAG said.

The capital region includes 17 cities and municipalities spread across about 640 square kilometers (247 square miles) sandwiched between Manila Bay to the west, and Laguna Lake and the San Mateo Mountains to the east.

Prices of Metro Manila residential condominiums rose 5 percent to P110,000 to P180,000 per sq m last year from a year earlier, according to Colliers. They may rise as much as 6 percent this year, the broker estimates.

Ayala Land, which developed the Philippines’s main business district of Makati City, will spend a record P100 billion this year.

Robinsons Land Inc. is boosting capital spending by 20 percent in the current fiscal year to P17 billion, while SM Prime Holdings Inc.’s 2015 budget is P70 billion, 17 percent higher than last year.

Continued from A1

the 1950s and rising remittances from Filipinos working abroad spur home purchases. The market may need more time to absorb the expected record supply of new units, according to Macquarie Group Ltd. “Some developers may have to slow down in starting new projects because there is a risk of overbuilding,” said RJ Aguirre, an analyst at Macquarie in Manila. “If developers don’t slow down and sales won’t move, we will see a buildup in inventory and receivables that will hurt earnings.”

As inventories increase, investors may find themselves holding assets that are yielding less, said Romeo Arahan, a Manila-based analyst with broker Colliers International UK Plc. Rental yields will be 3 percent to 4 percent in 2015, said Antton Nordberg, research manager with KMC MAG Group Inc., the local associate of Savills. Yields have averaged more than 5 percent since 2011, he said.

Overseas remittances

The number of residential units already on the market is equivalent to about two years of sales, said Aguirre at Macquarie. He maintains an overweight rating on de-

Spending frenzy

Construction will begin this year on 130,000 condominiums

velopers because he said they can delay new projects to rein in the supply. Aguirre prefers residential builders that are cutting or have cut inventory, and those with a relatively higher share of income from office and retail rents.

Megaworld, which is spending P230 billion in the next four years to build townships across the country, hasn’t seen a demand slowdown, Senior Vice President Jericho Go said.

“At least 70 percent of our projects are sold within the first year of preselling and that’s still the norm for us; there hasn’t been a change,” Go said.

The 10 million Filipinos working overseas, many of whom can now afford more expensive homes, are underpinning demand, Go said.

More than half of the money they send home goes to real-estate-related spending, he said.

Shares rally

Remittances climbed 5.8 percent to a record $24.3 billion last year. The Philippine economy expanded 6.1 percent in 2014, the fastest pace in Southeast Asia. The government is targeting as much

as 8 percent growth this year for the country once known as the sick man of Asia.

Megaworld and SM Prime are among the 10 biggest gainers on the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index this year. Megaworld has rallied 20 percent, while SM Prime has gained 16 percent.

The shares, which have outperformed the 8 percent advance on the benchmark, may gain at least 5 percent in the next 12 months, according to the average of as many as 11 analysts’ price targets compiled

by Bloomberg from brokerages that include JPMorgan Chase & Co. and UBS AG. The Manila metropolitan region is home to 22 million people and the population is forecast to rise to 30 million by 2025, making it the world’s largest urban area after Tokyo and Jakarta, according to forecasts by Belleville, Illinoisbased Demographia.

“Developers are spreading outside Metro Manila, where they see a growing potential,” Colliers’s Arahan said.

Property measures

Policy-makers last year intro-

Oil hits six-year low as dollar weakens. . .

The Australian dollar was 0.1 percent higher at 76.48 US cents, after sliding 0.9 percent on Friday. Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) March 3 meeting, when the key rate was held at 2.25 percent after a cut in February, are due on Tuesday.

Investors raised their bearish bets on the Australian dollar to a record as BlackRock Inc., the world’s

largest money manager, expects the currency to plunge to levels well below what the RBA prefers.

Traders wager there’s a 50-percent change the RBA will reduce borrowing costs again within six months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from swap contracts.

Policy-makers will take action if China’s growth,

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST MARCH 17, 2015 | TUESDAY

TODAY’S WEATHER

METRO MANILA

22 – 32°C

21 – 32°C

TUGUEGARAO

22 – 33°C

21 – 32°C

MAR 20 FRIDAY

TROPICAL STORM “BAVI” (INTERNATIONAL NAME) OUTSIDE THE PHILIPPINE AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY WAS ESTIMATED AT 1,645 KM EAST OF BICOL REGION

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

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

MAR 18 MAR 19 WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

MAR 20 FRIDAY

21 – 31°C

METRO CEBU

24 – 31°C

23 – 31°C

23 – 32°C

21 – 32°C

TACLOBAN

22 – 32°C

21 – 31°C

21 – 32°C

22 – 31°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO

23 – 32°C

23 – 33°C

23 – 32°C

24 – 33°C

24 – 34°C

23 – 34°C

23 – 33°C

23 – 34°C

24 – 34°C

(AS OF MARCH 16, 5:00 PM)

LAOAG

LAOAG CITY 22– 32°C

SBMA/CLARK 23 – 32°C METRO MANILA 21 – 32°C

TAGAYTAY CITY 21 – 28°C

22 – 32°C

22 – 31°C

BAGUIO

14 – 22°C

14 – 21°C

14 – 21°C

METRO DAVAO

SBMA/ CLARK

23 – 33°C

22 – 32°C

22 – 32°C

ZAMBOANGA

TUGUEGARAO CITY 21 – 34°C

BAGUIO CITY 14 – 21°C

TAGAYTAY

21 – 29°C

21 – 28°C

LEGAZPI ILOILO/ BACOLOD 23 – 30°C METRO CEBU 24 – 30°C

TACLOBAN CITY 22 – 31°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 23 – 31°C

ZAMBOANGA CITY 23 – 34°C

PUERTO PRINCESA

ILOILO/ BACOLOD

24 – 31°C

23 – 31°C

SUNRISE

SUNSET

MOONSET

MOONRISE

6:02 AM

6:07 PM

2:59 PM

3:02 AM

20 – 28°C

LEGAZPI CITY 24 – 30°C

PHILIPPINE AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (PAR)

best-performing benchmark stock gauge last year, is up 6 percent this year, and is heading for a fourth straight advance. The number of new mainland stock accounts surged in the two weeks through March 6.

A gauge of mainland companies listed in Hong Kong advanced 0.5 percent, and the Hang Seng Index increased 0.4 percent. Bloomberg News

RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE AREA AFFECTING NORTHERN LUZON.

Ridge of High Pressure Area (HPA) will bring fair weather to the country except for isolated rainshowers and thunderstorms in the afternoon or evening.

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 23 – 30°C

Continued from A8

which the government targeted at about 7 percent this year, drifts toward the lower limit of its range and cuts into employment or wages, Premier Li told reporters. While stripping the government of some of its role in the world’s second-largest economy may face resistance from vested interests, it is crucial, he said. The Shanghai Composite, the world’s

MAR 18 MAR 19 WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

duced measures to curb parts of the property market amid concerns prices were rising too fast. They ordered banks to cap the collateral value of real-estate mortgages at 60 percent. Lenders were tested to determine if they have enough buffers against an asset price crash.

The central bank has held its benchmark interest rate at 4 percent, since raising it by 25 basis points each in September and July last year. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on Thursday its current monetary-policy stance is “appropriate.”

Growth in areas outside of Manila will be important for developers as they rush to construct more apartments, said Lexter Azurin, research head at Unicapital Securities Inc. in the capital.

“Record-high inventory levels for residential property in Metro Manila may be a cause for concern if developers won’t see growth drivers elsewhere,” Azurin said. “Major developers are expanding projects outside Metro Manila into other cities which are also beneficiaries of strong growth backed by remittances and earnings from outsourcing firms.” Bloomberg News

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The Nation BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

briefs only one firm offers dre machines to comelec

THE Commisson on Elections-Bids and Awards Committee (Comelec-BAC) on Monday said only one company has expressed interest to bid for the lease contract of Direct Recording Electronic machines (DRE) to be used in the 2016 elections and with an approved budget of P31.27 million.

Comelec-BAC Chairman Helen Flores also noted that no prospective bidder have come out to express interest to paticipate in the bidding for the Optical Mark Reader (OMR) with an approved budget of P2.5 billion.

In her briefing during Monday’s prebid conference for the OMR and DRE bidding, Flores noted that the pending protest filed

by Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp. on its disqualification may have discouraged other companies from participating in the second round of public bidding for OMR and DRE machines to be used in the 2016 elections.

Flores added that only Scytl Secured Electronic Voting purchased the Bidding Documents for the lease of DRE machines, while there was no prospective bidder yet for the OMR units. Joel San Juan

local officials, cops top ombudsman ‘customers’ THE Office of the Ombudsman on Monday said that local government officials and policemen topped the list of government personnel charged in 2014.

According to the data of the Ombudsman’s Finance and Management Information Office a total of 2,053 cases were filed against local officials, while 1,258 cases were filed against National Police personnel.

The office, in a statement, however, said the number of case filed against local officials has been decreasing from a high of 3,854 cases in 2011 to only 2,053 cases recorded in 2014.

Similarly, a steady decline was also noted in terms of the number of cases filed against police,em from a high of 1,709 cases in 2011 to only 1,258 cases in 2014, it added.

Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

houses for squatters

PALO, Leyte—The local government of this town will use donations for survivors of Supertyphoon Yolanda to build permanent houses for 260 squatter and homeless families.

The move is part of the town council’s proposed declaration to make Palo a “squatter-free” town, Mayor Remedios L. Petilla said.

“All these 260 families will be provided with decent home since we have excess donation by various donors for Supertyphoon Yolanda survivors,” Petilla told reporters.

The ordinance, filed by Councilor Wilson Uy, seeks coordination with land owners, whose properties are being occupied by squatters. PNA

Malacañang does not understand chain of command concept–Ping

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By Rene Acosta

ORMER Sen. Panfilo “Ping Lacson said on Monday that Malacañang is wrong on its claims that President Aquino is not a part of the chain of command in the National Police.

The Palace earlier claimed that Mr. Aquino could not be liable for the death of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos, as he is not part of the chain of command, contrary to the findings of the National Police Board of Inquiry (BOI) that looked into the January 25 operation that ended in the killing of the policemen.

In a radio interview, Lacson said the President of the Philippines has

LACSON: “Mula’t sapul, mula nang macreate ang National Police noong 1991, and regard sa Presidente, siya ang commander in chief.”

been considered by the National Police as its commander in chief

since its creation in 1991.

“Mula’t sapul, mula nang ma-create ang National Police noong 1991, and regard sa Presidente, siya ang commander in chief,” Lacson said.

“Kahit sa bahay meron ngang chain of command; ako No. 2 lang sa bahay,” Lacson added in jest. The former senator was the chief of the National Police when he retired.

The BOI has declared that President Aquino is liable over the operation for violating the chain of command and for dealing with the then suspended National Police chief Director General Alan Purisima.

However, in an apparent attempt to clear Mr. Aquino from any possible charges, the Palace said he is not part of the chain of command, a claim that was suggested by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

Aside from the issue of chain of command, the BOI also faulted Aquino for dealing with Purisima

on the operation, since he was supposed to be serving his suspension ordered by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Likewise, the findings of the panel belied the claims of Mr. Aquino that he has been fooled by the relieved SAF commander, Director Getulio Napeñas, by withholding information from him.

The BOI said the President has been in regular communication with Napeñas and Purisima, with the information shared only among the three of them.

Lacson cited Article VII, Section 18 of the 1987 Constitution, which states, “The President shall be the commander in chief of all armed forces.”

During the interview, Lacson also lauded the BOI for coming out with “comprehensive and objective” report on the Mamasapano encounter.

“Given all the limitations doon sa mandate nila [BOI], I think they delivered what was expected or even above expectations,” he said Meanwhile, the National Police officer in charge, Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, said it is now up to the Ombudsman to investigate and take action against officials named in the BOI report as possibly liable for administrative and criminal charges.

The officials included Napeñas and Purisima.

“Future actions rest with the Ombudsman, which has the power to investigate,” Espina said.

“A copy of the report has been given to the Ombudsman for their action,” he added.

Espina said they were leaving it up to the antigraft agency to make the necessary action in order that there would be no duplication of work.

CA stops suspension of Makati mayor ‘Coup d’état not answer to disaffection over SAF commandos’ massacre’

By Joel R. San Juan

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HE Court of Appeals (CA) on Monday stopped the Ombudsman from suspending Makati Mayor Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. for six months pending resolution of the graft case filed against him for his alleged involvement in the overpricing of the Makati City Hall Building II. In a five-page resolution penned

by Associate Justice Jose Reyes Jr., the CA’s Sixth Division granted Binay’s plea for the issuance of temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop his suspension from office.

The appellate court branded the issues raised by Binay in his plea for TRO as “serious,” that warranted the grant of immediate relief.

The TRO, according to the CA, will remain in effect for a period of 60 days.

“In view of the seriousness of the issues raised in the petition for certiorari and the posssible repercussions on the electorate who will unquestionably be affected by suspension of their elective official, the court resolves to grant petitioner’s prayer for a temporary restraining order for a period of 60 days from notice hereof, conditioned upon the posting by petitioner of a bond in the amount of five hundred thousand pesos, [P500,000],” the CA said.

In his petition filed before the CA, Binay accused respondent Ombudsman Conchita CarpioMorales of acting with grave abuse

of discretion in ordering his suspension despite the fact that the evidence of guilt against him is not strong, in violation of Section 24 of Republic Act 6770, or the Ombudsman Act and Administrative Order 07 (Rules of Procedure of the Office of the Ombudsman).

He pointed out that the Makati City Hall Building II involved fiveconstruction phases with Phases 1 and 2 undertaken before he was elected mayor in 2010.

On the other hand, Phase 3 to 5 were undertaken during his first tem as mayor.

Thus, he said, he cannot be held accountable for any alleged anomaly involving Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the project as he was not yet the elected mayor.

With respect to Phase 3 to 5, which transpired during his first term from 2010 to 2013, Binay said the Ombudsman can no longer hold him administratively accountable for such, since his reelection for a second term rendered the case against him moot and academic.

The C A explained that the Supreme Court held in Garcia v Court of Appeals that “suspension from office of an elective official, whether as a preventive measure or as a penalty will undeservedly deprive the electorate of the services of the person they have conscientiously chosen and voted into office.”

It further noted that the court found serious and urgent the

question of whether the alleged acts were committed in the previous term of office of petitioner. “ T his is because binay i f it were established that the acts subject of the administrative complaint were indeed committed during petitioner’s prior term, then following the settled jurisprudence, he can no longer be administratively charged,” the CA pointed out.

The CA also noted that the Supreme Court declared in resolving the case that it would have been more prudent on the part of the appellate court, on account of the extreme urgency of the matter and the seriousness of the issues raised in the certiorari petition, to issue a TRO while it awaits the respective comments of the respondents and while it is still contemplating whether to issue a writ of preliminary injunction or not.

The CA has set the hearing on the application for issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction on March 30 and 31.

It also directed respondents Morales and the Department of the Interior and Local Government to file their comments on the petition within a nonextendible period of 10 days.

B

ACOLOD CITY—Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who admitted that the government’s mishandling of the Mamasapano issue spawned talks of a coup d’etat, has warned that a power grab would be disastrous to the Philippines.

“I have never seen a situation where people talk openly about staging a coup [d’état],” Duterte told members of the Rotary International from the Visayas and Western Mindanao, who gathered at the L’Fisher Hotel here over the weekend.

Duterte said he heard suggestions of a coup d’etat from retired and active military and police officials in the days following the Special Action Force (SAF) operation to arrest Malaysian international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, which ended in a disaster resulting in the death of 44 police commandos.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) claimed that 18 of its combatants and five civilians also died in the bloody daylong battle in the cornfields of Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

“I warned them against a coup. I said the international community will never look kindly at a nation ruled by a military junta. We will become an international pariah,” Duterte said.

The Davao City mayor who is known to have open communication lines with the leaders of the MILF, the Moro National Liberation Front and the communist New People’s Army,

said forcing President Aquino to step down with a few months left in his six-year term will do more harm than good for the country.

“Some people may not be happy with the way the President explained his side on the Mamasapano disaster, but staging a coup will create more problems for the country,” he said.

Duterte also blasted groups, including national political leaders, calling for an all-out war following the killing of 44 SAF members in Mamasapano.

“Do you know what war is? Do you really understand the meaning of war?,” Duterte asked. “I have seen the horrors of war with my own eyes.

I carried in my arms the body of a nun whose brains were dripping out of her head in the Sasa [wharf] bombing,” he said referring to the terrorist attacks in Davao City several years ago.

Davao City suffered four terrorist attacks over the recent years. The San Pedro cathedral in downtown Davao City was bombed twice, once during the time of Mayor Luis Santos and then during Duterte’s first term as mayor.

Explosions also killed civilians in the Sasa Wharf and in the Davao City International Airport.

Duterte said that in war, the worst victims are civilians who are caught in the crossfire.“We have to talk even if it will take us 100 years. For after all of the killings and the bloodshed, conflicts are always settled in the peace table,” he said.

Troops capture leader of another extremist group in checkpoint

ca junks bid of mini-bus operators to stop phase out

THE Court of Appeals (CA) has junked the plea of operators of minibuses to stop the implementation of the order issued by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) that mandates the phase out of their units that are more than 15 years old.

In a seven-page resolution written

by Associate Justice Maria Elisa Sempio Diy, the CA’s Fourteenth Division held that the petitioners composed of various transport groups failed to support their application for a temporary restraining order or writ of preliminary injunction.

“There is no showing that petitioners-associations will stand to suffer grave and irreparable injury or that they have a clear legal right which ought to be protected. The court thus finds now reason for the issuance of the injunctive relief prayed for,” the CA said. Joel R. San Juan

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Tuesday, March 17, 2015 A3

P

Life saver Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Vice Chairman Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II (second from right) visits pediatric

biliary atresia patient Armand Gabriel Fulgencio (center), who underwent a successful liver transplant recently at the Medical City Hospital in Mandaluyong City. The PCSO extended P1.5 million in financial assistance for the 4-year-old child’s operation. At right is Medical City transplant team head Vanessa de Villa.

OLICEMEN and soldier arrested on Sunday night the leader of a new armed band in Central Mindanao that is among the targets of the ongoing all-out offensive by the military in Maguindanao.

Major Gen. Eduardo Año, commander of the Army’s 10th Infantry “Agila” Division, said Mohammad Ali Tambako, head of the Justice for Islam Movement (JIM), was arrested in a checkpoint at around 9 p.m. along with five of his men in General Santos City.

Año said Tambako and his men were arrested while going to the pier in General City onboard a tricycle.

A separate report from the Armed Forces Public Affairs Office chief Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, identified Tambako’s companions as Datukan Sato Sabiwang, Ali Valley Ludisman, Mesharie Edio Gayak, Abusahma Badrudin Guaimil aka Hansela Omar and Ibrahim Manap Kapina.

Cabunoc said Tambako and his men yielded three grenades and two handguns.

Tambako was arrested on the strength of a warrant of arrest that was issued by Judge George C. Jabido of Branch 15 of Regional Trial Court in Cotabato City for murder and double frustrated murder.

“Tambako is wanted for a string of cases filed against him in a local court in General Santos City,” Cabunoc said.

“Tambako was responsible for beheading farmer Ricarte Dionio in Midsayap, North Cotabato, after he led a group of bandits in attacking a Christian community in the said town in 2013,” he added.

Cabunoc said the JIM leader has been tagged as among those who killed the 44 police commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, on January 25.

The JIM has been the subject of operations by the military, along with the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Maguindanao since last month.

Economy

A4 Tuesday, March 17, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

‘Proposed BBL budget to lift poorest provinces out of poverty’

briefs legislator seeks harbor link probe

A lawmaker has recently filed a measure to investigate, in aid of legislation, the Manila North Expressway or the North Luzon Expressway Harbor Link project, particularly its Segment 10.

In House Resolution 1981, Rep. Fernando Hicap of Anakpawis asked committees on Housing and Urban, Metropolitan Manila Development and Public Works and Highways to investigate the looming threat of forced eviction and demolition of the affected communities of the project.

Hicap said many residents of Caloocan expressed concerns on the likely demolition of their communities.

The Harbor Link Project Segment 10.1 is a 5.65-kilometer, four-lane elevated expressway connecting McArthur Highway and C-3, which costs P9 billion as evaluated by the Department of Public Works and Highways with a right-of-way cost set at P2.2 billion. Construction of the project commenced in the second quarter of 2014 and set to be completed by the second quarter of 2016.

The Harbor Link Project is under the government’s Public-Private Partnership Program. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

philhealth: premium payments needed before hospital confinement EMPLOYEES in the government and private sectors, including kasambahay and family drivers as well as selfearning individuals must have paid at least three months’ worth of premium contributions within the immediate six-month period prior to the first day of confinement so they can avail themselves of their benefits from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

(PhilHealth).

This new development is contained in PhilHealth Circular 32, Series of 2014 and now makes it possible for members to catch up on their premium contributions before the first day of hospitalization.

The policy also applies to qualified dependents of members.

However, payments made on admission date during the confinement period or after the member or dependent is discharged from the health-care institution will not be counted as qualifying contributions, except in some conditions or circumstances identified by the corporation.

“We introduced this policy to allow our members more lead time to pay their premium contributions to ensure entitlement to PhilHealth benefits, so that, in times of sickness or hospitalization of the member or dependents, there would be no problem availing of benefits,“ said Alexander A. Padilla, PhilHealth president and CEO.

T

Sardine packed People squeeze themselves inside a full-packed Light Railway Transit (LRT) Line 1 at the Monumento station in Caloocan City on Monday morning’s rush-hour period. Despite the crowding, commuters still prefer to board the LRT 1, because the railway facility offers faster and reliable service than jeepneys or buses. KEVIN DE LA CRUZ

Three-cornered contest looms anew over P35.42-B Calax project

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By Lorenz S. Marasigan

HREE parties have, so far, signified their interest to bid for the P35.42-billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax) deal, which will be up for its second tender this May.

Department of Public Works and Highways Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Officer in Charge Ariel C. Angeles listed the first two as San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.

The third party that bought bid documents from the department is represented by a law firm, he explained.

“So far, three groups have bought bid documents for the rebidding.

They are San Miguel, Metro Pacific and a law firm that has yet to divulge the entity of the party that it represents,” he said in a phone interview on Monday.

The public-works department opened the fresh tender for the deal on February 27, publishing an invitation, which bore a May 19 deadline for the submission of bids.

The rebidding, Angeles said, will adopt a single-stage process, meaning bidders will have to submit their qualification documents, technical requirements, and the financial proposal in simultaneously.

“We will open each envelop to check if they were able to meet each requirement: qualification, technical and financial. Those whose documents passed the qualification stage, will move up to the technical review. We will then open the financial proposals of those who passed the technical evaluation,” he explained in the vernacular.

The government official said the department expects to finish the process within a month’s time.

“Hopefully, we could finish all these in one month. But, still, the duration will depend on how many parties will bid for this project,” Angeles noted.

The tender process, as earlier reported, will require bidders to place offers higher than P20.1 billion in premium, the reported financial proposal of SMC. To recall, the results of the initial auction for the deal was declared void

by President Aquino, after his uncle'’ firm sought for a reconsideration of its multibillion-peso bid.

It took the government four months to decide on the petition of Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc., which sought to overthrow the offer of Team Orion of Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. Team Orion emerged as the first auction’s top bidder with a premium bid of P11.33 billion.

Business groups, led by the Makati Business Club (MBC), earlier warned Mr. Aquino that his decision to void the initial auction’s results will tarnish the good name of his PPP program.

But, in a recent interview with the BusinessMirror, MBC Executive Director Peter Angelo B. Perfecto said the private sector is still confident that the government will roll out more deals without such similar issues as the Calax.

He noted that investors will continue to support the government’s cornerstone infrastructure program as long as there will be no repeat of Malacañang’s controversial decision on the rebidding of the 47-kilometer expressway.

Angeles said the government hopes to receive at least two bids for the contract.

Optimal, which is chaired by businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., an uncle of President Aquino, is firm in its decision to rebid for the project, SMC President Ramon S. Ang had earlier said.

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.

creation of resource centers in ICC communities pushed A lawmaker has sought the establishment of a resource center in every indigenous cultural community (ICC) in the country to enhance the delivery of basic, social, technical and legal services to the indigenous peoples.

Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat Jr. of the lone district of Ifugao said the resource centers, which shall be created under House Bill 5359, would serve as access centers to boost current government efforts in improving the lives of indigenous peoples.

“Decades after the passage of Republic Act 8371, otherwise known as the Indigenous People’s Rights Act, and despite several engagement on the part of the government and civil society, indigenous peoples remain on the fringes of Philippine society,” Baguilat said.

Baguilat cited geographic isolation as one of the reasons indigenous peoples have a hard time receiving the necessary basic services provided by the government. PNA

President Ramoncito S. Fernandez said his group “remains curious” of the contract.

“We will study the new terms of reference,” he said in a text message on Monday.

The conglomerate, led by tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan, the second winningest bidder during the original auction, renewed its bid bond, signifying its intention to join the fresh tender.

Team Orion and MTD Philippines Inc., on the other hand, are already disinterested in the deal.

“Team Orion is not going to participate in this unprecedented rebid,” Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. First Vice President Roman Anthony V. Azanza III said on February 27.

The project is a 47-km thoroughfare that will link the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway and the South Luzon Expressway aimed at enhancing trade and socioeconomic activities in the region.

The private partner will take on the financing, design, construction and operation and maintenance of the entire four-lane toll road. The project will also include the construction of centralized toll plazas, a toll-collection system, viaducts and bridges.

The construction of the multibillion-peso expressway is seen to start

by October next year and is expected to be completed in September 2017.

But, with the rebidding, this timetable might be pushed back by a year or two.

Aboitiz keen to join bidding for Casecnan, and CKB contracts

A

Street daredevils

These two Manila Electric Co. linemen brave the summer heat to perform maintenance work on power lines in Las Piñas, ensure reliable power supply, and as a preventive measure to preclude fires caused by faulty electrical wiring. Nonnie Reyes

boitiz Power Corp. (APC) will bid for the Independent Power Producer Administrator (IPPA) contracts of 165-megawatt (MW) hydro-electric power plant Casecnan and 400-MW Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan (CBK) pump storage.

“Casecnan also, if that [the bidding] pushes through, we want to participate. I don’t know about CBK [but] again we will [also]…,” Aboitiz Equity Ventures First Vice President and Chief Financing Officer (CFO) Manuel Lozano told reporters.

An IPPA contract guarantees the right to the winning bidder to choose where the capacity of the power plant will be supplied.

It was automatically awarded to the National Power Corp. in the past, but it is now being bidded out by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) as ordered by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act. Aside from the Luzon-based power plants, Aboitiz is also planning to bid for the IPPA contract of the 210-MW Steag State Power Inc. coal-fired power plant, which it partially owns at 34 percent. PNA

he funding support that the national government will extend to the proposed Bangsamoro region will help lift some of the poorest provinces in the Philippines out of poverty, as well as contribute to lasting peace and rule of law in the area, Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said.

Speaking on the funding issues surrounding the proposed Bangsamoro region, Abad said, “We must consider the prevailing conditions in the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao [ARMM]. These include the 54-percent poverty incidence in the first semester of 2014, and the 81.5-percent simple literacy rate in 2008. These marks are one of the lowest in the country, so the region requires strong and consistent funding support to lift it out of poverty.”

T h ree A R MM prov i nces — Sulu, Lanao del Sur and Maguinda nao—are among the poorest in the Philippines. Under the 2015 Budget Priorities Framework, Sulu was categorized as a Focus Geographical Area (FGA) with high poverty magnitude, while Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao were determined to be FGAs with high poverty incidence.

Abad said the continuing conflict in the area has exacerbated the conditions of poverty there, with estimated damages amounting to P20 billion per year from 1970 to 2001, including damage to property and livelihood. Additionally, there were an estimated 120,000 human casualties between 1970 and 1996.

In a recent release by the Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process, GPH Peace Panel member Senen Bacani said, “For development to catch up with poverty in the Bangsamoro region, the government sees fresh funds in rebuilding these wartorn areas as a tool for strengthening the peace.”

Meanwhile, Abad said, “The Administration is working together with the people of the Bangsamoro to create a region that can take full advantage of our country’s many opportunities for growth. As such, we’re doing what we can to support the Bangsamoro and help them become a major economic hub by providing them with the appropriate budgetary support.”

The proposed funding, based on the provisions laid out in the draft Bangsamoro basic law (BBL), amounts to approximately P35 billion in the first year of the new Bangsamoro region. This amount includes a one-time-only fund of P1 billion for the proposed Bangsamoro Transition Authority toward organizing their systems and structure; a Special Development Fund aimed at rehabilitating the region, amounting to P7 billion in the first year; and an Annual Block Grant (ABG), amounting to 4 percent of the net national internal revenue (NIR) collection of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) less the internal revenue allotment of local government units. This ABG is actually 2.4 percent of the BIR’s net NIR collection which is estimated at P7 billion.

It must be reiterated that the existing ARMM regional government is already receiving an annual subsidy (P24.3 billion in 2015), but the subsidy will be called a block grant under the BBL. Likewise, this proposed block grant, while automatically appropriated to the Bangsamoro government, will still be subject to the safeguards and transparency measures that govern other budgetary releases. Likewise, the BBL, if passed, would create an internal auditing body that shall keep track of government expenditure. This body will not diminish the Commission on Audit’s power to examine, audit and settle all accounts. PNA

Economy BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

briefs 7 oil firms to roll back fuel pump prices on tuesday

Seven oil companies—Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. (PSPC), Petron Corp., Eastern Petroleum, Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Chevron Philippines Inc. (CPI), PTT Philippines, and Seaoil Philippines Inc. (SPI)—will roll back the pump prices of diesel by P0.85 centavos per liter on Tuesday.

Petron Corp. and PTT Philippines will lower pump prices of gasoline by P0.55 centavos per liter, while the five other oil firms will lower their rates by P0.50 centavos per liter.

PSPC, Petron, CPI and SPI said that their kerosene prices will also fall by P1.10 per liter.

Petron will also cut Jet-A1 prices

by P1.10 per liter.

Phoenix Petroleum Philippines will enforce the price changes by 6 a.m. on Tuesday, while all of the six other companies will adjust their rates at 12:01 a.m.

Petron, Phoenix and Seaoil noted that international price movements contributed to the price changes. PNA

villar seeks probe into miaa’s AIRPORT FEE INTEGRATION ORDER

Sen. Cynthia Villar has filed a Senate resolution seeking a Senate inquiry into the legality of the memorandum integrating airport fees into airline tickets at point of sale.

Proposed Senate Resolution 1219 directs the Committee on Government Corporations and Public Enterprises, which Villar chairs, to conduct an inquiry on the mandate, powers and responsibilities of the Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) in the light of the issues surrounding its issuance of Memorandum Circular 8 Series of 2014.

“Specifically, we want to know whether or not it is within the mandate of Miaa to collect fees from OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] and what happens to the amount not refunded by OFWs,” Villar said.

Villar will hold a hearing on the resolution on Tuesday.

Villar said that OFW groups have already expressed opposition against the memorandum, which means another layer of requirements OFWs go through before they could exit the country.

“Miaa’s collection of the IPSC [international passenger service charge] without distinguishing between exempted and nonexempted persons and Miaa’s custody and use of unreimbursed IPSC payments collected from exempted persons are public interest concerns as these are alleged to be illegal, arbitrary and essentially confiscatory,” part of the resolution said.

“There is a need to determine if the implementation of the memorandum, as Miaa claims, will actually result in the decongestion of airport terminals and if Miaa’s possession and use of unreimbursed IPSC payments are legal,” Villar said. PNA

29 overseas workers FROM STRIFE-TORN LIBYA ARRIVE HOME A total of 29 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from strife-torn Libya arrived in three batches over the weekend, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) reported on Monday.

OWWA Administrator Rebecca Calzado said the repatriates availed of the government’s Mandatory Repatriation Program through the Philippine Embassy in Libya.

The first group, composed of eight OFWs arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport via Emirates Airways Flight EK 334 at 10:30 p.m. last Friday.

The second batch, numbering to 16 Filipino migrant workers, arrived in the country at 3:10 p.m. last Sunday onboard Qatar Airlines flight QR 926, while the last batch of five returning workers were flown home also on Sunday, via Emirates Airways Flight EK 334 at 10:30 p.m.

She said OFWs would be provided one-time P10,000 Financial Relief Assistance Program. PNA

Tuesday, March 17, 2015 A5

Congress unlikely to pass resolution on grant of extra powers to Aquino

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By Butch Fernandez & Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

onsumers should be ready to pay higher electricity bills as Liberal Party Rep. Reynaldo Umali of Oriental Mindoro, chairman of the House Committee on Energy, on Monday said Congress may not be able to pass a resolution granting President Aquino special powers to address power shortage due to lack of time.

Umali said that, should bicam negotiations for the measure fail, the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) can still function, but the cost will have to be passed on to consumers, in accordance with protocols established by the Energy Regulatory Commission. “[However] we may approve it [joint resolution at the bicameral committee] but we cannot ratify it at the floor because of the upcoming break,” Umali told reporters.

As of Monday afternoon, the bicameral committee has yet to set a date for the resumption of its meeting for the joint resolution as both chambers of Congress are locked in a stalemate.

Congress will take a break on March 21 to May 3.

The members of the lower chamber are strongly pushing for the no pass-on scheme in using the ILP as it is eyeing to tap Malampaya funds as subsidy.

But the Senate said the adoption of the ILP scheme would cost consumers P7 to P8 per kilowatt hour under its version of the emergency powers. On the time frame, the Senate still wants the special powers to be extended until July

UMALI: “[However] we may approve it [joint resolution at the bicameral committee] but we cannot ratify it at the floor because of the upcoming break.”

2016 while the House wants it from March to July only. Both chambers want the government to mainly use the ILP in generating additional power capacity these dry months.

Hopeful

Malacañang remains hopeful that Congress, which is set to go on a long recess by weekend until May 3, can still deliver on a pending joint resolution adopting the ILP billed to address widespread two-hour rotating brownouts projected to hit Luzon this summer.

Communications Secretar y Herminio B. Coloma Jr. confirmed on Monday that the Palace has not given up expectations that lawmakers would be able to reconcile conflicting provisions in two ILP bills, separately passed by Senate

and House and come up with a consolidated bill Congress can send to Malacañang before adjourning sessions this week. “We continue to work closely with Congress in threshing out issues pertaining to the enactment of a joint resolution to address the possible power-supply shortage for the duration of the summer season,” Coloma said.

In the meantime, Coloma said, the Aquino administration is also pushing for the adoption by consumers of “voluntary” energy conservation measures, in a bid to help reduce the projected power-supply shortfall.

The Palace official admitted that the government is, likewise, relying on the “continuing support from the private sector in using their own generators as an alternative power source, under the Department of Energy’s [DOE] Interruptible Load Program.”

Quoting Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla, Coloma noted that the DOE continues to monitor closely the power-supply situation likely to be affected by the start of the annual maintenance of the Malampaya power plant.

“It is hoped that, with the adoption of these contingency measures, and with full public support, the possibility of rotating two-hour brown-outs in Luzon, which has been projected as the worst-case scenario, may be minimized,” Coloma added.

Royalties

Under the House-approved version, the estimated P100-million to P200-million cost of implementing the ILP would be drawn from the P170-billion Malampaya gas-field royalties, while the Senate version provides that the ILP funding requirement could be passed on to consumers.

Secretary Edwin Lacierda had said Malacañang will decide on the

funding options soon after the Senate and the House of Representatives comes up with a consolidated ILP version. The Senate version estimates that the ILP would cost consumers a low of P7 to P8 per kilowatt an hour, in contrast with the P35 per kilowatt an hour under a DOE proposal to lease 300-megawatt generator sets costing P6 billion for two years, or P10 million per MW. “We will await the consolidated version of the bill, where the Executive branch will be properly guided with their legislative wisdom,” Lacierda told the BusinessMirror earlier.

To avert the projected five-month (March to July) power-supply shortage that could trigger rolling brownouts, the ILP provides a scheme where owners of generating sets, including malls, manufacturers and big companies, would be asked to deload from the Luzon Grid and, instead, use their own gensets at certain hours, for which they would be reimbursed for the balance incurred between using the grid and their own supply.

Tried and tested

Sen. Serge Osmena estimated that up to 1,400 megawatts may be deloaded for a few peaking hours on certain days under the ILP, which, he noted, had been tried and implemented in Cebu and Mindanao back in 2010, after the southern regions were hit with recurrent brownouts due to supply shortage.

Osmeña explained that the ILP would allow President Aquino to address the projected imbalance of power supply and demand in the Luzon grid, particularly in the months of April and May of this year. He noted that, while average electricity demand was projected at 8,700 MW, peak demand on power supply during the hottest summer days in April and May goes up to 9,000 MW.

Metro Manila retail construction-material prices increased 1.5% in February

By Cai U. Ordinario

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etail prices of various construction materials posted a 1.5-percent growth in February 2015, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Based on the latest Construction Materials Retail Price Index (CMRPI) data, the year-on-year increase in retail construction material prices in February was slower than the 1.9 percent posted in January but higher than the 0.5 percent posted in February 2014.

Higher year-on-year growth rates were seen in plumbing materials at 1.1 percent and tinsmithry materials at 2.5 percent.

There were, however, slower increases in carpentry materials, 2.6 percent; masonry materials, 6.2 percent; and painting materials and related compounds, 2.4 percent.

The PSA also said there were declines in the retail prices of electrical and miscellaneous construction materials indices at -0.8 percent and -1 percent.

On a monthly basis, the CMRPI in the National Capital Region dropped by 0.5 percent in February 2015. Last month it’s growth was posted at 0.1 percent.

“Prices of selected wiring devices, cement, gravel, sand and steel bars were generally quoted lower during the month. On the contrary, sanitary fixtures and metal products used in plumbing were priced higher during the period,” the PSA said.

Data showed that monthly decreases were seen in electrical materials at -1.1 percent; masonry materials, -1.6 percent; and miscellaneous construction materials, -0.8 percent.

The PSA also said there was a slower monthly growth of 0.2

Ethnic accessory

A young sales lady displays to customers and passersby samples of her eight-layered necklace made by T’boli tribesmen in South Cotabato. Each necklace, she says, carries a price tag of P250 each at her store at Carriedo in downtown Manila. Roy Domingo

percent in the retail prices of tinsmithry materials.

Painting materials and related compounds as well as plumbing materials, however, moved faster posting a growth of 0.1 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

“No movement was noticed in

the index of carpentry materials as it recorded a zero growth during the month,” the PSA said.

The CMRPI is a variant of the General Retail Price Index. The CMRPI measures the changes in the average retail prices of construction materials in Metro Manila.

The market basket of the CMRPI is composed of 102 commodities and classified into seven major groups: carpentry, electrical, masonry, painting materials and related compounds; plumbing, tinsmithry and miscellaneous construction materials.

PSALM still has $10.612-billion collectible after power-asset sale

By Lenie Lectura

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roceeds from the sale of state-owned power assets has reached $19.878 billion, data obtained from the Department of Energy (DOE) showed.

In its latest report, actual collection stood at $9.266 billion as of end-October last year. This means that $10.612 billion has yet to be collected from the privatization of government-owned power assets.

Of the total amount collected, $3.534 billion came from power generation assets sold; $3.772 billion from transmission assets; $1.956 billion from appointment of independent power producers administrators (IPPAs); and the remaining from decommissioned plants.

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has yet to receive the payment of $2.611billion from the sale of transmission assets, and $8.001 billion from proceeds of IPPAs. PSALM is the agency mandated

by Republic Act 9136, or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, to handle the sale of the remaining state power assets and financial obligations of the National Power Corp. (Napocor).

“The proceeds were utilized for debt repayment, regular payment of debts and IPP obligations, and payment of other privatization-related expenses,” the DOE report stated.

In particular, $1.298 billion was used for debt prepayment; $4.466 billion for regular debt service; $2.027 billion for lease obligations; $107 million for other expenses; $1 million for Transco operational expenses; and $1.156 billion was placed in temporary investment.

In all, $7.8 billion was used for the liquidation of PSALM’s financial obligations.

Emmanuel Ledesma Jr., PSALM president, earlier said that the government stands to earn roughly $3.2 billion more from the 1,600 megawatts (MW) of power-generation capacity that will be offered to the private sector.

Among the power facilities that are up for bidding are the 32-MW Power Barge 104 in Davao City; the 727-MW Caliraya-BotocanKalayaan hydropower facility; the Agus hydropower plant; the Ippa contracts for the Unified Leyte geothermal power plants; the 210-MW Mindanao coal-fired power plant in Misamis Oriental; and the 140-MW Casecnan multipurpose hydroelectric power plant.

The agency will also rebid the 850-MW Sucat thermal power plant. “There’s still roughly around 1,600 MW remaining. So assuming the rule of thumb is applied, then that’s going to be multiplied by $2 million per MW,” Ledesma said.

Only about 20 percent of government-owned power assets have yet to be privatized since PSALM took over Napocor, the PSALM official added.

So far, the biggest power facility sold by PSALM is the 218-MW Angat hydroelectric power plant to Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-Water) for P19.66 billion.

K-Water took over the facility on Friday, more than four years since it won the bidding in April 2010.

The delay was caused by a number of reasons, including a court battle over the legality of PSALM’s conduct of the bidding.

The privatization of the Angat power facility will not affect the water supply from the Angat reservoir, as the Angat Dam remains the property of the Philippine government.

Other power facilities sold since Ledesma was appointed include the 153.1-MW Naga Power Plant to SPC Power Corp. for P1.14 billion, and the Ippa for 40 strips of energy of Unified Leyte Geothermal Power Plants at P4.6629 per kilowatt-hour.

A6 Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

CNN Philippines is on the air!

A

FTER months of negotiation and more months of preparation, CNN Philippines is now on free-to-air television.

When Nine Media Corp., a sister company of the BusinessMirror, bought a substantial interest in the company behind 9TV, no one had any inclination about what the future would be for the former RPN9 station previously wholly owned by the government. No one, that is, except perhaps Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, chairman of Nine Media Corp.

A thought became a plan, and the plan eventually became an agreement with the largest news provider on the planet, CNN Worldwide. The result is now CNN Philippines.

CNN Philippines joins an exclusive club, including CNN Turkey, CNN-IBN in India, CNN Chile and CNN Indonesia.

While the CNN International broadcast is available in the Philippines—but only on paid cable television—Filipinos are now able to view a substantial portion of the CNN International daily broadcast through CNN Philippines. Being able to offer CNN’s world-class news free to Filipinos is important for the nation. We saw the impact of the CNN International coverage during Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan). Our Filipino tragedy was brought in the homes of countless millions around the globe. And CNN news broadcasters, like Anderson Cooper, became overnight celebrities here in the Philippines.

However, as CNN Philippines offers a portal into the country for the finest in international news, Ambassador Cabangon Chua’s partnership with global CNN more importantly offers access into the Philippines for international viewers. Much of the content will be produced locally from studios in Manila, and the local content will then be broadcast to the world through CNN International.

No longer will foreign viewers get the news about the Philippines from only a foreign perspective. Now Filipinos will be able to tell the story of the Philippines—our story—to a global audience from the Filipino point of view.

The partnership between CNN Worldwide and Nine Media means that CNN Philippines will produce and deliver the news to international standards of CNN. As Ambassador Cabangon Chua said, “We aspire to be the trusted name in news in the Philippines. We are proud to tell the story of the Filipino through the unique content we provide.”

This is the Information Age, and, for far too long, the Philippines, its people and society have been defined by others in places distant from our shores. CNN Worldwide saw the need to both enhance CNN International’s presence in our country and to increase the quality of news about the Philippines around the globe.

CNN Philippines answers both of those goals. As Gerhard Zeiler, president of Turner Broadcasting International, said, “We have so many exciting developments planned for the AsiaPacific region, this is just the beginning.”

Mabuhay CNN Philippines.

Taking the Philippines to the global stage Manny B. Villar

THE Entrepreneur Third of a series

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HE tourism and real-estate industries are mutually beneficial, but tourism is not the only sector of the economy that is benefiting from the property boom, which started with the gradual recovery of prices following the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

The increase in the number of domestic and international travelers is fueling the growth of the tourism industry. It also increases demand for accommodations, which is now attracting more investments in hotels and the entry of international hotel brands. This is just one synergistic impact. Actually, the current real-estate boom has created a multiple ripple effect, spurring the growth of numerous businesses and drawing benefits from these businesses, as well as fueling consumer spending, which, in turn, drives economic growth.

Pleasantly, these ripples are spreading outside Metro Manila, resulting in the emergence of economic centers in the regions north and south of the metropolis.

Mall operators continue to expand their networks, and property

developers continue to establish master-planned communities, as well as office buildings. With many buildings rising and others planned for construction, even the country’s skyline is improving.

In time, the modern skyline of Makati, Ortigas and other parts of Metro Manila will be replicated even in the regions, like in Cebu, Iloilo, Davao and Cagayan de Oro. Property consultant Colliers International believes the outlook for the tourism industry, and, subsequently, for the hotel sector, remains rosy despite the slow growth in international tourist arrivals in 2014.

CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) Philippines also sees a continuing growth trajectory for the property sector, which will be driven by big demand for traditional office space, as well as

for the business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry, and the retail sector. Add to this the housing backlog, particularly for affordable homes, as demand continues to outpace supply.

CBRE officials said in an earlier briefing that the BPO industry would continue to lead the demand for office space. The industry’s expansion, resulting in higher revenues (estimated at $14 billion in 2014 and projected to reach $25 billion next year), will demand new office space in the coming years. The robust consumer spending, on the other hand, will also drive the retail sector, which means new commercial centers coming up, and more consumer products, including global brands, coming in.

A CBRE official said the Philippine retail industry had great potential to be a major shopping haven in Asia.

The numerous property projects going around have caused apprehensions that the country may be facing an asset-price bubble, a situation where property prices rise to a peak and suddenly collapse.

I disagree. The demand, particularly for affordable and middle-income housing, remains bigger than the supply. At the same time, the housing market at present is mainly user-driven, which means consumers intend to live in the homes they buy. This is in contrast to the speculative buyers, who buy units as investment (to be leased out), but who may encounter problems when lessees

What the stock market really is John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

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O hear some people talk, you would think that the stock market—particularly here in the Philippines—began when President Aquino assumed office in 2010. The more knowledgeable can point back to when the stock market “Old Boy’s Club” consisted of men wearing top hats and carrying walking sticks.

Actually, the stock market began during the Roman Republic that began 500 years before the birth of Christ. Quoting Martin Armstrong, “There were societates publicanorum, which were organizations of contractors or leaseholders who performed various services for the government—privatization. Participants in such organizations had ‘partes’ or shares in the venture. This is the origin of corporate shares.”

But do not think that stock-market analysis and stock-market ‘experts’ is a new phenomenon either. Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator and political theorist Marcus Tullius Cicero— who died in 107 B.C.—mentioned the stock market in several of his speeches that have survived the millennia. In one speech, Cicero mentions “shares that had

a very high price at the time.” Perhaps, he was referring to the price earnings ratio of the ancient Roman equivalent of one of our listed property companies.

The key, though, is that, even in ancient Rome, stock prices went up and stock prices went down.

Some people view the stock exchange as a type of casino where prices move the same way that the ball on the roulette wheel goes around. You really cannot figure out what will happen next, and the best you can hope for is a VIP room, where there are plenty of free drinks. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.

These people might be glad to know that Saint Cajetan (San Cayetano) is considered by some to be the patron saint of gamblers. He is also the patron

of the unemployed, which may tell us something important.

Another stock-market group thinks of investing and trading as being similar to a horse race. You check out the horses’ past performance—the track record— and, thereby, pick the next winner from the losers. While the past is not a guarantee of the future, at least, if the horse or company has made money in the past, probably it will make money in the future. You place your bet, and wait a while for the results to come in.

Still, other folks are convinced that the stock market is just a manipulative venture, not unlike a pyramid scheme.

You have to know the right people to know when the next stock-market scam is going to happen. If you’re on the outside, then that is like being at the bottom of the pyramid and the last to lose money, while the smart guys are pocketing your hard-earned funds.

The people who make money in the stock market understand the reality, and what it is actually all about. The stock exchange is where you buy and sell a “financial instrument,” in this case, shares of ownership in a company. A financial instrument is about the only thing we can buy purely to make a profit. You cannot live it like a house or eat it like a warehouse full of rice. You can only trade it.

The stock market is not a casino because prices move, as they did in ancient

become scarce.

Another reason is that the Philippines is still catching up with its neighbors, whose economies were able to recover faster from the Asian financial crisis. That is why their skylines are more beautiful and modern than ours—they took advantage of their own property boom. Malaysia and Thailand, for example, were ahead of us (Indonesia only slightly) because they were booming.

We are catching up very fast, and I would argue that have better facilities because we are getting the latest, like state-of-the-art cinemas. In effect, this is one of the advantages of being late. We are adopting the latest designs and the latest materials in construction.

Another factor is that we don’t have to worry about a bust, precisely because there’s a lot to catch up. And third, in a sense, we are learning from the other cities that were modernized ahead of ours.

From a personal perspective, I believe the private sector has been learning and adopting these lessons faster than the government. The vibrant private sector is capitalizing on the real-estate boom to lead the change in the Philippine landscape.

In time, I am confident that we can surpass our neighbors.

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

Rome, because of human emotion. If buyers think the price will go higher for any number of reasons, they buy and the price does go higher. If people think the price is too high as Cicero did, they sell and the price goes down. It is not a horse race, because you can sell instantly at any time after buying. There is not any finish line of the race. If you want to think of it as a horse race, think of it that way, with the added ability of changing your bet to another horse in the middle of the race.

No matter how much hype and greed may surround the market at times, it is not a pyramid scheme, since you can buy some boring company that hardly ever has a price change but pays a cash dividend higher than what you can get at a bank.

Investing in the stock market is different from almost anything else we do in life. It is a game where success is measured in money and profits, rather than points on the scoreboard. And like any game, you have to learn it and work at it if you are going to get good results. If you are not willing to do that, buy lotto tickets and pray to Saint Cajetan.

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

Climate change continues, impervious to official declarations Roberto Savio

Inter press service

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OME—It is now clear that we are not going to reach the goal of controlling climate change.

It is worth recalling that the goal of not exceeding a 2 degree centigrade rise in global warming before 2020 was adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009 as a formula for consensus. Many in the scientific community had been clamoring for immediate action—and at most for a 1-degree rise—but bowed to political realism, and accepted an easier target.

The agreement was to block the rise in global temperature before 2020 and start a process for gradually reverting the climate to safe levels, to be concluded before 2050.

Well, in the last four years, we have already witnessed an increase in temperature by 1 degree, and there is only another 1 degree left before 2020.

The European Environment Agency, which publishes a report every five years, states that Europe needs “much more ambitious goals” if it wants to reach its declared targets and, for 2050, European Union leaders have endorsed the objective of reducing Europe’s greenhouse-gas emissions by 80 percent to 95 percent compared with 1990 levels.

However, Germany increased its carbon emissions by 20 million tons in 2012 and 2013, instead of reducing them. This means that, in order to reach its targets, Germany should now reduce emissions by 3.5 percent a year over the next 6 years, which is a difficult, if not impossible, target to achieve.

It will increase energy costs and probably lead to a reaction to block measures which can hurt the economy. By the way, this is the official position of the Republicans in the US Congress, who will fight any climate proposal.

By now, the effects of climate change have become visible, and not just to the climatologists. Last year the total number of people displaced by climatic disasters (such as hurricanes, landslides, drought, floods and forest fires) reached the staggering figure of 11 million people.

Last month New Delhi, India-based think-tank The Energy and Resources Institute issued a study report citing data compiled by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, which maintains a global database of natural disasters dating back over 100 years.

The study found a 10-fold increase to 525 natural disasters in 2002 from around 50 in 1975.

By 2011 the cost of natural disasters had ballooned to $350 billion. In the 110 years between 1900 and 2009, hydrometeorological disasters increased from 25 to 3,526. Together, extreme hydrometeorological, geological and biological events increased from 72 to 11,571 during that same period.

There is no doubt the activities of man are having a dramatic impact on the climate and the planet, affecting people’s

lives, but—as usual—the world is moving on two levels, which are unrelated and opposed.

One of the main issues among countries at climate negotiations has been how much to invest in combating climate change but, here, the signs are very discouraging, to say the least. Take the Green Climate Fund, for example, which was intended to be the centerpiece of efforts to raise $100 billion a year by 2020 but, as of December 2014, only $10 billion had been pledged to the fund.

This is the track for reducing fossil emissions. Let us now look to the other track: What the rich countries are spending to keep them.

According to a report from the Overseas Development Institute and Oil Change International, G-20 governments are actually subsidizing fossil-fuel exploration with $88 billion every year.

The report notes that, “with rising costs for hard-to-reach reserves, and falling coal and oil prices, generous public subsidies are propping up fossil-fuel exploration, which would otherwise be deemed uneconomic.” In fact, G-20 governments spend more than twice what the Top 20 private companies are spending on finding new reserves of oil, gas and coal, and are doing so with public money.

So, on one hand, the system makes the right declarations of principle and, on the other, does the very opposite.

Meanwhile, there are some signs that the campaign against the need for doing something about climate change is losing credibility. It is known that some members of the Republican Party in the US are financed by energy giants, and it goes without saying that they will do whatever they can to boycott any deal on climate change that President Barack Obama may try to agree to at the next climate conference in Paris in December.

It is also known that a number of scientists dissent from the thinking of the more than 2,000 scientists whose work has contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in presenting the link between human activity and deterioration of the climate. Of course, the dissenting voices have received a disproportionate echo in conservative media.

However, last month, the Washington Post reported that one of the leading dissenters and guru of climate change deniers, Dr. Wei-Hock Soon, had been receiving funds from the fossil fuel industry.

BLOOMBERG VIEW

C

AN Asia beat the rising-dollar curse? The question is far from academic considering the central role that a strengthening US currency played in sparking the region’s 1997 crisis, as well as Latin America’s own financial woes a decade earlier.

When the dollar slides, liquidity flows into emerging markets, pumping up growth and assets. As the dollar rallies, it can act like a gargantuan money magnet drawing much-needed investment away from the developing world.

With the dollar now experiencing what many observers believe may be its third “super-cycle” rally in 30 years, emerging markets have reason to worry. Since the 2008 global crisis, outstanding dollar-denominated credit to non-bank borrowers overseas has surged to $9 trillion from $6 trillion, according to the Bank for

International Settlements. (That figure is roughly equivalent to China’s annual economic output.) Chinese companies alone owe at least $1.1 trillion.

In emerging economies with volatile local currencies such as India and Malaysia, issuing debt in dollars can be a smart and pragmatic

A7

How taxation helps or hinders national development Edgardo J. Angara

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ESPONDENTS to the latest AmCham Gallup Survey and the World Economic Forum’s 2014 Global Competitiveness Index cited lack of infrastructure as among the top sources of dissatisfaction in doing business in the Philippines.

Such complaint reflects how years of low infrastructure investment have led to bottlenecks to the country’s economic growth. Even as government aims to ramp up public spending for better roads, bridges, airports and seaports by next year, Oxford Economics data shows that the Philippines will still rank at the bottom of Association of

Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-5 in infra spending.

The same is true for other forms of developmental spending. Based on 2008 to 2011 Unesco data, the Philippines spent only 9.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for every tertiary-level student, where Thailand spent 17.6; Indonesia 23.1; Singapore 27.1; Viet

Nam 60.6; and Malaysia 62.9, during the same period. A World Bank economist noted that Thailand has been able to spend as a share of GDP up to twice on health compared to the Philippines.

In part, this is because tax effort has been historically low. Our tax effort was 17 percent of GDP in 1997, it went down 12.8 percent in 2009 and slowly bounced back to 13.3 percent in 2013. Such effort—or ability to collect taxes—was still lower than the Asean average of 15.8 percent.

Some point to inefficient administration. The World Bank’s 2015 Paying Taxes report noted that a Filipino takes an average 193 hours and 36 payments to comply with their tax obligations. In contrast, it takes only 133 hours and 13 payments for the Malaysian; and only 82 hours and 5 payments for the Singaporean.

Mamasapano hounds Aquino Ernesto M. Hilario

W

ABOUT TOWN

ITH the Philippine National Police (PNP) Board of Inquiry (BOI) report on the January 25 Mamasapano fiasco already out, the public is now closer to knowing the whole truth about what really happened.

The very first conclusion of the BOI report was that the PNP chain of command was violated by President Aquino when he designated PNP chief Alan La Madrid Purisima (who had been under a six-month suspension by the Office of the Ombudsman for alleged graft and unexplained wealth) to oversee the covert operation to neutralize Malaysian national Zulkifli bin Hir alias “Marwan” and two other most wanted terrorists.

According to the report, President Aquino knew right from the start the overall plan and the details of Oplan Exodus to be executed by the PNP Special Action Force (SAF) led by Police Director Getulio P. Napeñas.

Before the report was released, Aquino said Napeñas “fooled him” and fed him “wrong information” on the operation, and therefore should be held solely responsible for the debacle.

Purisima has also echoed the President’s line.

In turn, Interior Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II, upon receipt of the BOI report, blamed Purisima for the carnage.

Meanwhile, Malacañang functionaries are falling over themselves in defending President Aquino from any wrongdoing or lapse in judgment on Mamasapano.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and Malacañang Spokesman Edwin Lacierda have been harping on the

Can Asia survive a strong dollar?

William Pesek

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

strategy–until it isn’t. With the dollar up sharply almost across the board since the start of 2014–23 percent versus the euro and 13 percent versus the yen–and the Federal Reserve set to raise rates, borrowers are going to have a harder time paying back what they owe, let alone taking out new loans. That helps explain why the Shenzhen property developer Kaisa is suddenly making global headlines.

It may soon be the first Chinese company to default on dollar bonds–and could set off a domino effect across Asia’s biggest economy.

Fortunately, the region seems better prepared to withstand currency swings than in 1997. “People are watching the rise of the dollar nervously this time around, but this cycle is fundamentally different from a key structural perspective,” notes economist Glenn Maguire of Australia & New Zealand Banking Group in Singapore. “We must take into account the incredible journey many Asian economies have made

same theme: that the President did not violate the PNP chain of command since there is no such thing in the PNP. They are saying that, since the PNP is a civilian organization under the Executive branch, Aquino exercises supervision over the whole institution and can give orders to subordinates without passing through the PNP chief.

That’s a novel interpretation of the commander-in-chief clause in the Constitution that seems to be aimed at completely absolving Mr. Aquino from any accountability for Mamasapano.

With public outrage over Mamasapano still smoldering, calls Aquino’s resignation continue to reverberate in public forums and street protests. The question uppermost in the minds of many is: Is he ultimately responsible for the disastrous aftermath of the legitimate police operation against two most wanted terrorists?

The answer, from where I sit is: Yes. The President’s two nationwide address to the nation failed to answer this key question. In fact, those two speeches skirted the issue.

Mr. Aquino’s first address to the nation a few days after Mamasapano declared a National Day of Mourning for the 44 fallen SAF troopers. That was the correct thing to do in the immediate aftermath of the carnage.

from low-income, to middle-income, even to higher-income since 1997.”

Maguire offers up several reasons for optimism. Asian exchange rates generally aren’t pegged to the dollar anymore. Current-account balances are less worrisome, and many countries have stockpiled substantial currency reserves. There are fewer currency mismatches between assets and liabilities. Banking sectors are stronger and central banks are far more transparent than they once were.

Still, if emerging markets worldwide slide into chaos, Asia won’t be immune. As recently 2013, remember, when the Fed first started talking about tapering its bondbuying program, India and Indonesia quickly found their currencies in freefall.

In particular, the region may come to regret the still relatively high level of non-financial sector dollar debt.

It stood at around 10 percent of gross domestic product on average

In his second address, Mr. Aquino accepted Purisima’s resignation without even explaining why. He said he and Purisima go a long way back, that their friendship stands to this day as he owes his life to Purisima who was once part of his security detail when Cory was the president.

In the same speech, Aquino said that as the “father of the nation,” he felt responsible for assuring the welfare of the families of the Fallen 44, that he would see to it that their children would receive scholarships and that their families would receive other benefits. But we never heard him say “sorry,” that as commanderin chief, he should have done everything possible to save the lives of the SAF 44.

The President should now make a clean breast of the events and acknowledge that he made a serious lapse in judgment that now makes it imperative for him to issue a public apology.

What the current political crisis calls for is statesmanship of the highest order. A public apology by Aquino will clear the air and show that he is firmly in command of the situation, not pushed to the wall by events.

Acknowledgement of full responsibility for Mamasapano and a sincere public apology does not necessarily entail resignation as demanded by some in the opposition and militant groups, which could only plunge the nation into deeper political crisis. But if Aquino chooses to dig his heels in the Palace until the end of his term, he should be prepared to face a slew of lawsuits once he leaves office, and even the dire prospect of spending time in jail if by chance the opposition wins in 2016.

What’s going on at Alliance Select?

RECENT news reports indicate that Alliance Select Foods International,

in mid-2014, compared with roughly 11 percent in 1997. That “poses a potentially new source of vulnerability” as Fed rate interest rates hikes begin, says Callum Henderson, global head of foreign-exchange research at Standard Chartered in Singapore.

In recent weeks, central banks in India, Thailand and South Korea have surprised markets with rate cuts. But Asia’s window for further cuts may be closing as policy makers take stock of how many local borrowers could face default if currencies fall too far. That goes especially for China, where dollar loans are a fast-growing risk to stability. As Bloomberg economists Tom Orlik and Fielding Chen write in a new report, the “dollar’s strength is China’s weakness.” A weaker yuan, they argue, “would add to repayment costs, adding to financial stress for debtor firms.”

Standard Chartered’s Henderson takes heart from the fact that central banks are encouraging corporations

Our tax system is also prone to leaks, evasion and other wrongdoing. A 2014 Global Financial Integrity report found that the Philippine government lost up to $23 billion since 1990 from technical smuggling, while the Department of Budget and Management estimated that up to P400 billion is lost every year to tax evasion.

And because personal income tax rates and brackets have remained unchanged for 18 years, the tax burden falls unfairly and heavily on the salaried and fixed income earners.

Add to that our inability to broaden the tax base. By simply sitting on the implementation of the Real Estate Investment Trust Act, our own government unwittingly thwarted tax base expansion and delayed vital infra development.

E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com.

Inc. is being buffeted by successive resignations in the past few months.

The firm’s vice president for International and Domestic Sales Juan R. Salcedo III is said to have resigned on February 1 after assuming the position just two months ago.

Three months earlier, the appointment of Raymund See as top honcho signaled a major reshuffle in the company. Is it possible that Salcedo did not fit into See’s leadership style or was he just abandoning what seems to be a sinking ship?

Alliance—a publicly listed company—has suffered poor earnings in the past few years, ending 2013 with a net loss of $2.9 million. Its management is embroiled in a legal battle with its own investors over alleged mismanagement.

In 2014, Alliance’s nine top officials, including the CFO, VP for marketing, treasurer and two board members resigned. In a little over one year, Alliance has gone through two corporate secretaries. Reports say no one is performing the role of corporate secretary since the resignation of Atty. Avelino Sebastian in December 2014.

Even Alliance’s staunch defender Rajat Balain has resigned as Vice President-Corporate Planning, Compliance Officer and Corporate Information Officer. Early this year, Alliance is said to have lost its Senior VP and COO. Current and potential foreign investors in the Philippine tuna industry are closely following developments in Alliance as a case study on how a big investment opportunity can go sour.

Given the silence of the company’s leadership and the rapid changes taking place at the top, one can only surmise how the company is doing and, perhaps more importantly, where it is headed.

E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com

to trim or hedge their dollar debts before the Fed taper begins. Still, even if underlying fundamentals are stronger now, the inevitable flow of capital out of local stock and bond markets will pose serious management challenges.

Both central banks and government policy makers should be acting nimbly and proactively to stabilize their economies. That means devising so-called macro-prudential policies, including limits on capital to defend against turmoil. Governments should batten down the hatches, narrowing current-account deficits even further and widening surpluses.

They must prepare emergency fiscal-stimulus packages, yet also stay focused on investments that raise productivity and competitiveness so that in the long run their economies are less dependent on credit and foreign capital.

It may not be 1997 again in Asia.

But the region has 9 trillion reasons to be ready if things go awry.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Leyte estate to host first integrated copper facility P

lans to integrate the copper industry are taking form, as the government and the private sector are aiming to expand the coverage of a proposed clustered manufacturing zone to include medium and heavy manufacturing industries.

At the sidelines of the Board of Investments’s (BOI) Gathering of Industry Champions, Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp. (Pasar) Chairman Angel Veloso Jr. revealed initial plans for the clustering strategy.

The BOI plan entails the creation of a clustered manufacturing zone at the Leyte Industrial and Development Estate (LIDE).

LIDE, where Pasar’s smelting operations are located, is being considered as the site not just for the manufacturing of copper and copper-based products, but also for other downstream “dirty industries,” to integrate the supply chain of the copper industry. Pasar operates the only copper smelter and refinery at LIDE. It produces mostly copper cathodes for export.

“The zone now is about 600 hectares; but the program now is that it will increase. It won’t be just for copper and copper-based, but the concept now is to expand it to all dirty industries, the medium and heavy industries,” said Veloso, noting that steel manufacturers may also locate in the area.

He said they have finished the portion of the feasibility study on the establishment of a copper-

rod facility, which would entail investments ranging from $10 million to $ 100 million. Veloso said future studies will look into the manufacturing of enameled wires for electric motors.

They are now working closely with the BOI to determine what other facilities can be set up in the zone, as a way of integrating the copper industry. BOI Managing Head and Trade Undersecretary for Industry Development and Trade Policy Adrian S. Cristobal said National Development Co., which is under management of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI0, will fund the study.

Considering the environmental concerns of the communities, the manufacturers that will locate at LIDE must use “green” technology.

The next step now, Cristobal said, is to finish the study to determine if they can attract investors from the downstream and upstream industries.

The DTI is aiming to have a fully integrated copper industry by 2030, with contribution to the national output of as much as 2 percent from the current 0.2 percent.

In the short term, or by 2016, the road map of the copper industry has set a target of operationalizing at least two world-class copper mines.

By 2030, the industry’s objectives are to establish linkages between local mining and smelting, near self-sufficiency in copper rods, and development of higher-value copper products for the local and global markets. Catherine N. Pillas

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Remittances grew 0.5% in Jan, slowest in 6 years M

By Bianca Cuaresma

oney sent home by millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) expanded at its slowest pace in six years to only $1.814 billion in January, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Monday.

Data showed the January remittances grew by a mere 0.5 percent. This was the slowest growth since January 2009, when cash remittances grew by 0.1 percent.

In November 2014 cash remittances hit a multiyear low of 1.8 percent but bounced back to 6.3 percent the following December. The central bank did not cite particular reasons for the slowdown but noted meager growth in both land- and sea-based remittances.

In particular, from the $1.3-

billion cash remittance of landbased OFWs in January last year, this improved to $1.4 billion in January this year. Meanwhile, sea-based remittances grew only from $450 million in 2014 to $500 million in 2015.

The cash remittances orginated mostly from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada.

But no matter the slowdown, the central bank expressed op-

timism the same should remain robust in the coming months, pointing out that the continued demand for skilled Filipino manpower should contribute to the steady inflow of remittances.

“Preliminary reports by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration indicated that 26.3 percent of the total approved job orders of 77,009 in January 2015 were processed during the period,” the BSP said, saying that the processed job orders were intended mainly for service, production and professional, technical and related workers.

These job orders will largely be deployed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan and the UAE.

Weakness is ‘temporary’

In a commentary published in reaction to the slowdown in remittance growth, Barclays Plc. shrugged off the 0.5-percent

expansion in January, saying that this was likely temporary and traced it to the long public holidays during the period.

“While optically weak, we think the print likely reflects some impact from the three additional public holidays during Pope Francis’s state visit over 15 to 19 January, which led to bank closures during the period,” Barclays said.

According to Barclays, the OFW remittances—which make up 8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP— will likely rebound the following month. “The weakness in remittances is consistent with other data for January, such as exports, which were also negatively impacted by the additional public holidays. As such, we would not read too much into the unusual weakness of this month’s data, as we are likely to see a recovery in February,” Barclays said.

OIL HITS SIX-YEAR LOW AS DOLLAR WEAKENS

O

il touched its lowest level since 2009 amid increased projections for US production, while the dollar weakened from strongest level in more than a decade before this week’s Federal Reserve (the Fed) meeting. Chinese shares rose, as the government vowed to support economic expansion.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped 1.1 percent to $44.35 a barrel by 3:20 p.m. in Tokyo, after earlier falling to as low as $43.57. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index declined 0.3 percent, as the euro rebounded from a 12-year low. The Shanghai Composite Index advanced 1.9 percent, after China’s Premier Li Keqiang pledged to take action if slowing growth threatens job creation or wages. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures were little changed.

US oil dropped 9.6 percent last week, and speculators cut bullish wagers to the lowest in more than two years, as falling rig counts fail to cool a supply glut. The Fed may remove the word “patient” from its statement this week, giving it more flexibility on the timing of interest-rate increases as US monetary-policy diverges from efforts by European and Asia- Pacific policy-makers to shore up growth.

“Strengthening of the dollar means weaker commodities and oil is sliding again after seeing some recent gains,” Heo Pil Seok, CEO at Midas International Asset Management, which oversees $9.4 billion of assets, said by phone from Seoul. “The US economy is looking positive and many investors believe that means interest rates may rise earlier than expected, strengthening the dollar.”

Brent slide

WTI crude lost 4.7 percent on Friday, and capped a fourth-straight weekly retreat.

Brent, the benchmark contract for more than half of global oil, fell 0.7 percent to $54.12 per barrel following Friday’s 4.2-percent retreat. The Bloomberg Commodity Index was little changed on Monday after sliding 3.2 percent last week, the biggest slide since November.

The US surplus may soon strain the country’s storage capacity, renewing the slump in oil prices, the International

Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday. US production will expand this year by about 750,000 barrels a day to 12.56 million a day, the IEA said.

Hedge funds and other money managers reduced their net-long position in WTI by 2.5 percent in the seven days ended March 10, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show.

A gauge of energy producers dropped the most among the 10 industries on the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index. South Korea’s S-Oil Corp. tumbled 4.4 percent and Japan’s Inpex Corp. retreated 4.3 percent. Santos Ltd., Australia’s No. 3 producer, fell 2 percent, while BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest miner, decreased 1.2 percent for a 10th straight drop, the longest losing streak since 1998.

Dollar, won

Anger over alleged bribes and kickbacks at Brazil’s state-run oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA brought more than 1 million people to the streets on Sunday demanding President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment. The Next Funds Ibovespa Linked Exchange Traded Fund, which tracks Brazilian shares, dropped 2.4 percent in Tokyo.

The Bloomberg dollar gauge, which tracks the greenback against 10 major peers, climbed 0.8 percent on Friday to its highest level in data going back to the end of 2004.

The euro is heading for its biggest-ever quarterly loss versus the dollar, after the region’s central bank took deposit rates below zero and began buying bonds as it tries to stave off deflation. The dollar touched $1.0458 to the euro today, the strongest versus the joint currency since January 2003, before weakening to $1.0531.

Aussie bears

The won slipped a sixth day, losing 0.5 percent to 1,131.68 per dollar and touching its weakest level since July 2013. Korea’s currency retreated 2.7 percent last week, the most since 2011, as the central bank unexpectedly cut interest rates.

Malaysia’s ringgit dropped 0.6 percent to 3.7020 a dollar.

Continued from A2

ALI spending P25B for Balintawak project Continued from A1

David San Pedro, ALI head for corporate planning, said the Qualimed hospital will be a quaternary medical facility, or a general hospital that has specialization in cardiac care and cancer treatment.

He said the first phase of the hospital is just less than half the size of the countr y’s main hospitals, such as the Chinese General Hospital and St. Luke’s Medical Center. But the company said it can double its size in the next 10 years.