BusinessMirror November 18, 2014

G-20 plans $2T to boost uneven global economy

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U.N. Media Award 2008

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Life

Walk in your ways

our daily bread and louie M. lacson Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Bold and sculptural, the Fernando handmade iron accent table takes an impressive stand with an inverted drum base, half-sphere top and distinctive hammered texture. each table is buffed and finished with powdercoat and a warm bronze lacquer topcoat.

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intriCate Circle Wall art is available in small, medium or large. these lacy rounds are meticulously handwoven from iron wire in delicate, mesmerizing patterns.

BusinessMirror

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

Tuesday, November 18, 2014 D1

Clear your homes.

Crate and Barrel is here StatueSque Vitrine wood cabinet shows its lighter side with a warm grey finish and pane glass fronts to showcase dinnerware, books or bed linens.

MonarCh Sideboard, with carefully crafted mitered corners and exposed dovetail joinery.

thiS bistro table and side chairs from Crate and Barrel brings style and functionality to any space.

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mong the global brands whose entry around these parts Filipinos have been eagerly anticipating, Crate and Barrel and all of its exquisite collectibles for the home is now available to add lots of style to homes and offices around these parts.

Sm Retail, the leading retail group in the Philippines, announced recently that it has agreed to a basic framework for establishing a franchise with the American home furnishings retailer through Sm Retail subsidiary HmS Development Corp.

Based on the agreement, the new franchise company will be established in the Philippines in 2014, with the first Crate and Barrel store in manila to open at the mega Fashion Hall on november 20. more stores will follow shortly in the first quarter of 2015.

Crate and Barrel opened its doors in 1962 as a family business started by gordon and Carole Segal in Chicago, Illinois. The couple was inspired by the simple, welldesigned, affordable products they had purchased on their honeymoon in Europe. The Segals then decided to open a home furnishings store, calling it Crate and Barrel after the shipping crates and barrels which brought their inventory and became the fixtures of their first store.

Working directly with European ateliers and factories to import their products, Crate and Barrel was among the first retailers to make modern

entertain in style with bar cabinets from Crate and Barrel.

tabletop and kitchenware affordable to American consumers.

Today Crate and Barrel is an international, multichannel family of brands, known for exclusive houseware and furniture designs, excellent value and superb customer service. owned by the otto group of Hamburg, germany, since 1998, the company operates stores in most major north American markets, as well as international franchise locations in Dubai, Singapore and mexico. meanwhile, Sm Retail has over 50 years of experience in the industry. Its retail operations include a chain of department stores, supermarkets, and hypermarkets strategically located in key cities in the Philippines.

It also has a chain of specialty store formats that serve niche markets focusing on a wide selection of merchandise for each category, like appliance stores, home stores and toy superstores.

Beginning with a franchise with ACE Hardware and a joint venture with Watsons, Sm’s retail group has also entered into partnerships with global retailers, and these include Forever 21, Uniqlo, Suiteblanco and Uno de 50. now, clear your homes and offices of furniture and accessories that have seen better days. A piece of heaven on earth is just about to open its doors.

deSigned by Welsh designer Bethan Gray, the Pennie Chair Juniper offers great style and fine craftsmanship at an amazing price. Sleek and inviting curves extend a plush, padded welcome, perfectly scaled for smaller spaces or first-time apartments. Bethan gray was named Best British designer in the 2013 British design awards.

Crate and Barrel’s exclusive housewares and furniture designs come to Manila as it opens its first store in the Philippines at SM Megamall’s Mega Fashion Hall.

Crate and Barrel’s bedroom furniture and bedding collection.

life

ankara Truffle Frame chair with leather cushion

JereMiaH Fabric Back rocker is solid oak with a warm smoke finish, while the textural black-and-white cotton-wool fabric with exposed seams adds a rusticmeets-modern abstract motif for the home.

exPanSive Beckett five-High Shelf anchors the family room, office or kitchen with minimalist styling that puts books, curios and dinnerware on display.

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princess cruises ship docks after outbreak of norovirus World Companies BusinessMirror

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo• corp@businessmirror.com.ph

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Princess Cruises ship docks after outbreak of norovirus

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OS ANGELES—A Princess Cruises ship docked in the San Pedro section of Los Angeles early Sunday after nearly 170 people onboard fell ill in the ship’s second outbreak of norovirus this year, officials said.

Passengers began to show signs of the gastrointestinal sickness a few days into the monthlong voyage to Hawaii and Tahiti. All the ill passengers and crew were treated on the ship. None required hospitalization when the ship, the Crown Princess, reached port, according to cruise officials.

Norovirus is highly contagious

and can be picked up from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces.

In total, 158 passengers and 11 crew members were reported having the illness, which causes vomiting and diarrhea, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Princess Cruises ship’s

Cause of deadly leak at Texas plant still unknown

crew responded to the outbreak by cleaning and disinfecting the ship, encouraging passengers to report cases and collecting specimens for testing. An official with the CDC was expected to board the ship to investigate the outbreak and the cruise line’s response. Specimens would be collected and sent to a CDC lab for more testing, officials said.

In total, 3,007 guests and 1,160 crew members were onboard the ship. Officials said safety measures would be taken so that infected guests disembarking the ship would not transmit the illness to other guests. After the ship is disinfected, the Crown Princess is scheduled to depart for a cruise along the Mexican Riviera, Princess Cruise officials said.

In April the Crown Princess, on a seven-day cruise, departing from San Pedro along the Califor-

nia coast, reported an outbreak of norovirus. The ship carried 3,161 passengers and 1,176 crew members. In January gastrointestinal illnesses struck more than 700 passengers on two separate ships, Princess Cruises’ Houston-based Caribbean Princess and Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas.

The industry’s image has taken a beating, partly as a result of the outbreaks. A measure of the quality of the cruise industry fell 11 percent in February from a year earlier, according to a survey by the Harris Poll earlier this year. The score for trust in the cruise industry dropped 12 percent and scores indicating plans to book a cruise trip fell 13 percent, according to the poll.

Americans have a more favorable attitude about commercial air travel than cruising, according to an online survey. AP

Atari games buried in landfill net $37,000 on eBay

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A PORTE, Texas—DuPont officials said Sunday it is still not clear what caused a toxic chemical to leak from a valve at a suburban Houston plant, killing four workers and injuring a fifth.

Company Spokesman Aaron Woods said DuPont is investigating the cause of the leak of methyl mercaptan at a plant in La Porte.

The chemical is used to create cropprotection products such as insecticides and fungicides.

The workers were exposed early Saturday while responding to the leak that started around 4:00 a.m. and took about two hours to contain.

They all were working there as part of their normal shift when the leak happened, Woods said.

The four workers died at the plant and a fifth was transported to a nearby hospital. The injured worker has been released from the hospital.

Woods said company officials are cooperating with local, state and federal authorities in the investigation.

US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) Spokesman Sandy Gilmour said a seven-person investigative team, led by the agency’s director, Daniel Horowitz, was to arrive at the plant on Sunday. Horowitz will be joined

by Donald Holmstrom, head of CSB’s Western regional office. The CSB is an independent federal agency in charge of investigating chemical accidents.

The chemical, which smells of rotten eggs, also is added to odorless natural gas as a safety measure.

The La Porte plant has 320 DuPont employees. Four other companies are also tenants at the complex.

The emergency manager coordinator for La Porte, Jeff Suggs, said the chemical release was not toxic for those residents, but that it caused an unpleasant odor that people in surrounding neighborhoods could smell . AP

MOVIE director Zak Penn shows a box of a decades-old Atari “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” game found in a dumpsite in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Joe Lewandowski, a consultant for the film companies that documented the dig, says the online auction of 100 Atari games, which ended on November 13, generated $37,000. The “E.T.” game, still in its original box, sold for $1,537. AP

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L A MOGOR DO, New Mexico—What some have called the worst video game ever made has fetched thousands of dollars for a city in the southwestern state of New Mexico. An old “E.T. The ExtraTerrestrial” game cartridge drew the highest bid among 100 Atari games auctioned on eBay by Alamogordo officials.

The games were part of a cache of some 800 Atari video games buried more than 30 years ago in a landfill and dug up in April.

Joe Lewandowski, a consultant for the film companies that documented the dig, says the online auction, which ended on Thursday, generated $37,000.

“It’s really gratifying to see that happening because again to everybody it was a bunch of garbage in the landfill. You’re kind of nutty to go dig it up,” Lewandowski told KRQE-TV.

The E.T. game, still in its original box, sold for $1,537 to a buyer in Canada. The interest in the games has gone global. According to Lewandowski, online bidders from other countries including Germany and Sweden, snapped up items. Earlier this month, a museum in Rome opened an exhibit on the dig that includes dirt from the landfill.

“I keep getting messages from people around the world asking me if there’s any more left, it’s crazy,” Lewandowski told the Alamogordo Daily News. “The people that lost the bids are demanding more but I keep telling them they have to keep checking.”

Reports that truckloads of the game were buried in the landfill have been legend since the early 1980s. The E.T. game’s poor reception when it came out in 1982 was seen as a factor in Atari’s demise.

City documents show that Atari

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ãO PAULO—The investigation into kickbacks at Brazil’s state oil company could forever change the relationship among society and the country’s state and private companies, President Dilma Rousseff said on Sunday.

Rousseff spoke to mostly Brazilian reporters at a news conference in Brisbane, Australia, where a two-day summit with world leaders was ending. Her office posted

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INNEAPOLIS, Minnesota—Target Corp. botched its first impression in Canada so badly that some shoppers inverted its motto to “Expect less, pay more.”

But with a turnaround plan under way, the Minneapolis-based retailer is hoping for redemption this holiday season. “It’s going to be a pretty important moment for Target Canada,” said David Soberman, a marketing professor at the University of Toronto. “They need to get people into the stores and they need to have a good story for people when they get there.” When Target started to open its Canadian stores a year-and-a-half ago in its first international foray, executives initially expected them to start turning a profit by the end of the first year.

Instead, they have racked up nearly $1.4 billion in losses to date.

Some analysts say this holiday season is a make-it-or-break-it moment for Target in Canada.

If the operation does not meet expectations, Target will consider closing stores, said Leon Nicholas, a senior vice president of Kantar Retail. Asked if that is a possibility, Target officials circle around the question.

Executives say they are working hard to fix the Canadian operations and that the holiday season will be an important time to assess how much headway has been made.

“We are making progress, but we still have work to do,” said Mark Schindele, a Minnesota native who was tapped to be president of Target Canada in May after his predecessor was fired.

“The main focus we have right now is getting our basics and foundation right.”

In 2011 Target jumped at the chance to take over 220 Zellers stores, a general merchandise chain.

Its executives decided to open 124 stores in a year, and spent last year managing waves of store openings and hiring 20,000 employees.

“With the benefit of hindsight, I wished we wouldn’t have opened up so many stores as we did at once,” Schindele said. “We probably should have scaled back from what we did.”

The result: Target’s back-end systems couldn’t keep up, leading to difficul-

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ties keeping stores supplied. Customers also complained that its prices were too high, especially compared with Target’s US stores.

The new leadership team has attacked both problems. It has been lowering some prices. To get inventory straight, Target beefed up its once-a-year physical count of items in stores with another count this summer. The goal was to make sure the items on the shelves aligned with what systems said were there. And during this holiday season, Canadian stores will benefit from being able to use last year’s sales data to better predict which items will sell and to make orders accordingly.

In a September survey, Piper Jaffray & Co., the Minneapolis investment bank, found that 52 percent of Canadian women said they had shopped at Target, up from 43 percent in March. And about onethird of those surveyed felt Target’s prices were fair, up from 25 percent in March. Even so, it’s still not clear Target should stay in Canada, said Sean Naughton, a Piper Jaffray analyst. It depends on whether the retailer can show some real progress during the holidays and into early next year, he said. Perry Caicco, an analyst with Toronto-based CIBC World Markets, said in a recent report that he expects Target to keep its Canadian stores intact through the end of 2015, while monitoring to see if a turnaround takes hold. If it ends up exiting, it could sell its assets to another retailer to help curb its losses, he noted. If it stays, he expects Target Canada to generate sales of just $3.4 billion by 2017, far below its initial goal of $6 billion.

“Target has been a disaster in Canada, producing sales about half of our initial projections, and running deep operating losses,” he wrote.

But Soberman, from the University of Toronto, says Target also has big incentives to make the expansion in Canada work. The retailer doesn’t have much more room to grow in the US, he noted. And if Target retreats from its first attempt at international expansion, that would suggest it can’t adjust to other countries.

“If Target can’t make a go of it in Canada, almost every other market you can think of is going to be more different,” Soberman said. MCT

OYOTA Motor Corp. said it’s chosen the name “Mirai,” which means “future” in Japanese, for a fuel-cell powered sedan that travels 300 miles (483 kilometers) with a hydrogen tank that can be refilled in less than five minutes.

The announcement, on the eve of the Los Angeles auto show, increases the company’s commitment to fuel cells, as opposed to batteryonly cars, as long-term alternatives to internal combustion engines, said Jeff Liker, a University of Michigan engineering professor.

Toyota also promised to develop and supply fueling stations in northeastern US states.

Liker predicted Toyota’s fuel-cell commitment will be as significant as those that came in 1989, when the company introduced its Lexus luxury brand in the US, and in 1997, when it started selling Prius gasoline-electric hybrids.

Lexus led the US market in luxury sales for 11 years, and Prius is, by far, the top-selling hybrid line, now with four models.

“In most cases, Toyota has been a fast-follower, not a leader,” Liker said. “But when it comes to the environment, they’re seeking to play an aggressive leadership role.”

Many battery-only cars in the US can travel fewer than 100 miles on a full charge, and charging them can take hours. Toyota argues that fuel-cell cars can provide the same clean transportation with far greater convenience.

And with a low center of gravity, it’s particularly fun to drive, Akio

Police on Friday arrested Renato Duque, the former director of services of Petrobras, for his alleged role in the scheme.

“The fact that we are being absolutely open about this investigation is a huge difference,” Rousseff said. “I think that it can actually change the country forever.”

“It’s the first effective corruption investigation being carried out that involves private and public

Continued on A8

Toyoda, the company’s CEO, said in a videotaped statement.

“Today we are at a turning point in automotive history,” he said. “A turning point where people will embrace an environmentally friendly car that is a pleasure to drive.”

Tesla, Honda

IN its statement, Toyota did not provide details on how much the Mirai will cost in the US, or how many the company hopes to sell.

Toyota has said previously the car will go on sale in Japan in April for about ¥7 million ($60,300), with the US and European introductions a few months later.

Automakers are under pressure in California, as well as across the US, Europe, Japan and South Korea, to offer vehicles that emit little or no carbon pollution and reduce petroleum use. Battery-powered cars championed by Tesla Motors Inc. and Nissan Motor Co. store electricity in large lithium-ion packs.

Fuel cells generate it in an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and air, producing only water vapor as a byproduct.

Honda Motor Co. has said it will offer a revamped hydrogen sedan in California in 2015.

In May Hyundai Motor Co. began leasing a fuel-cell version of its Tucson sport-utility vehicle.

To help promote fuel-cell sales, California plans to install more than 50 hydrogen fuel stations within two years, partly with financial support from Toyota and other automakers. Bloomberg News

world companies

a video of her comments online.

The president says the investigation of the oil company Petrobras signaled “an end to impunity” in corruption cases.

Authorities allege top Petrobras officials operated a kickback scheme on contracts involving several billion dollars, with the money later going back to the governing Workers Party and other top parties for political campaigns.

interests. And the first one that is getting to the bottom,” she added.

Rousseff cautioned against condemning the entire company for the actions of some people.

“We have to be careful because the investigation is not over and we cannot go around saying such, such and such are guilty,” the president said. “But it’s an investigation that will shed light on the entire process and the damage it caused.” AP

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gone to waste Sports

By VG Cabuag

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| Tuesday, November 18, 2014 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

WARRIORS CRUSH LAKERS DESPITE BRYANT’S 44 POINTS

GONE TO WASTE L

By Diamond Leung San Jose Mercury News

OS ANGELES—Kobe Bryant poured in 44 points, and the Golden State Warriors just smiled.

Stephen Curry and the Warriors steamrolled the Los Angeles Lakers, scoring a season-high number of points in a 136-115 rout last Sunday that extended their latest winning streak to three games.

“When we look up there and see we’re winning by 30 or 40 points, that 44 is really irrelevant,” the Warriors’ Marreese Speights said of Bryant’s scoring output in three quarters.

The command performance that mattered was Curry’s.

He racked up 30 points and 15 assists in three quarters while holding point guard counterpart Jeremy Lin scoreless. Curry was five-for-nine from three-point range, as the Warriors were a combined 14-for-28 from beyond the arc.

“That’s as good a point guard job as I’ve ever seen, what Steph did tonight, managing the game, being aggressive at the right time, just taking care of the ball, finding guys,” Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said. “The guy has taken it to another level. I think he’s the best in the NBA [National Basketball Association] right now at that position.”

Curry was happy to hear the vote of confidence in the wake of recent games in which he struggled in committing too many turnovers.

“It’s just encouragement to keep doing what I’m doing,” Curry said. “Rough start obviously in turning the ball over. I’m

trying to just be focused on that but still be effective and not be afraid to make mistakes or make plays and just do my job.

“I have such a great team behind me that if I’m able to do my job at a high level, we’ll be pretty good.”

Seven players scored in double figures for the Warriors, including Speights with a season-high 24 off the bench. Klay Thompson scored 18 points, Andrew Bogut had 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Harrison Barnes added 14 points.

Kerr considered this stretch of games the Warriors’ second chance to show they can avoid letdowns, saying before going up against the Lakers that they faced “a total trap game.”

The Warriors started the season 5-0, then went to Phoenix on the second game of a back-to-back and committed 27 turnovers.

Sunday, the Warriors proceeded to deliver such a crushing blow that they began threatening decades-old records in their history against the Lakers. The Warriors at one point led by 38 points—they beat the Lakers by 39 points in 1966. That year, they also scored 144 points on the Lakers.

The Lakers got routed despite Bryant having a big night while still suffering from the effects of flu-like symptoms.

The Warriors were happy to let him fire away and listen to “MVP” chants as the Lakers fell to 1-9 for the second-worst record in the NBA. Bryant was 15-for-34 from the field two nights after the ailing 36-year-old was one-for-14 in a loss to San Antonio.

He missed the shootaround earlier in the day, but had 28

points by halftime and kept launching shots even after getting poked in the eye and lying face down on the Staples Center court in the second quarter.

“I’d rather not have to [take 34 shots], but you can’t just sit back and watch crime happen in front of you,” Bryant said.

The Warriors led by as many as 19 points in the first quarter and by halftime had scored 74 points to set a season high for any half. They looked lively in their second blowout win in as many nights, and it helped that a 25-point win at home against Charlotte the previous night enabled Kerr to rest his starters.

Meanwhile, the lowly Lakers showed little interest in defense. The Warriors scored 54 points in the paint, with Curry dishing out seven assists and Bogut racking up 12 points and seven rebounds in the first quarter alone.

Speights came in for Bogut and began scoring at will.

The reward for the Warriors’ win as promised by Kerr was two straight off days, as the Warriors have four days without a game until they host Utah on Friday.

The Houston Rockets, meanwhile, beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 69-65, for their third consecutive victory.

James Harden scored 19 points and Dwight Howard had 12 points and nine rebounds for Houston.

The last time a team won with 69 or fewer points was Detroit’s 64-62 victory over Utah on March 13, 2005, according to STATS. Both teams shot below 30 percent from the field—the last time that happened was October 29, 2003, when Denver beat San Antonio, 80-72.

Houston shot just 28.8 percent. The last time an NBA

team won with a lower percentage was on February 19, 2000, when Chicago shot 28.6 percent and beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 74-72.

Reggie Jackson had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Thunder. Lance Thomas also had 15 points.

Brandon Knight made three three-pointers down the stretch and scored 20 points, leading Milwaukee to a 91-84 road win over the Miami Heat.

Jabari Parker added 13 points for the Bucks (5-5), who started 5-21 last season. Larry Sanders, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Zaza Pachulia each scored 11.

Milwaukee beat Miami for the first time in the teams’ last 10 meetings, including playoffs.

Mario Chalmers scored 18 for Miami, which was again without Dwyane Wade and lost its third straight. Shawne Williams had 13 points. Wade missed his second straight game with a bad hamstring.

The New York Knicks, on the other hand, held the Nuggets to one basket in the second quarter and ended a seven-game losing streak, 109-93.

With the game tied at 31 entering the period, the Knicks outscored the Nuggets 31-8. Ty Lawson’s lay-up at the buzzer was the lone field goal for Denver in the second.

Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith each scored 28 points for New York.

Arron Afflalo had 18 points and Lawson added 17 points and nine assists for the Nuggets, who have dropped seven of their last eight games.

FEDERER HANDS TROPHY TO DJOKOVIC L ONDON—In a potential blow to Switzerland’s Davis Cup ambitions, Roger Federer pulled out of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Finals less than one hour before his title match against Novak Djokovic on Sunday, handing a third straight title at the year-end event to the top-ranked Serb.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion said he hurt his back in the nearly three-hour semifinal win over Davis Cup teammate Stan Wawrinka last Saturday night in which Federer saved four match points.

“Unfortunately, I’m not match fit,” the 33-year-old Swiss told the crowd at the O2 Arena. “I tried everything I could last night, also today: painkillers, treatment, rest, so forth, warm-up, until the very end. But I just can’t compete at this level with Novak. It would be too risky at my age to do this right now and I hope you understand.”

Top-ranked Bob and Mike Bryan, meanwhile, claimed

their fourth doubles title at the ATP Finals with a 6-7 (5), 6-2, 10-7 win over seventhseeded Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo last Sunday. Playing in the final at the year-end tournament for the sixth time, the topseeded pair won their 103rd title.

Fans appeared to be supportive with applause for Federer when he spoke.

The Swiss is set to play for Switzerland in the Davis Cup final against France, starting on Friday. If he recovers in time, Federer will be chasing the only major trophy still eluding him. France hosts the match in the northern city of Lille and has opted for clay, a slow surface that could further thwart Federer’s chances to perform well.

“I don’t think he was calculating and trying to save his body for Davis Cup final,” said Djokovic. “This is probably the biggest match of the season next to the final of a Grand Slam. I spoke to him, it’s a question mark for the Davis Cup final, as well.”

It was only the third time in Federer’s career that he withdrew, each time due to a

back injury, following walkovers in 2008 at the Paris Masters and in 2012 in Doha.

Following back problems that ruined his 2013 season, Federer enjoyed a superb resurgence this season, losing to Djokovic in an epic Wimbledon final and adding five new titles to his collection.

Federer, the most successful player at the ATP Finals with six wins, also made it to the semifinals at the Australian Open and the US Open, and won his 23rd Masters title in Shanghai last month.

He remained on course for the year-end No. 1 spot until this week and had dropped just one set on the way to the final. AP

Ayala seeks $1.6-B loan to boost power capacity fourfold

WITH the Lakers and Kobe Bryant (left) down by a mile, the command performance that mattered most in the game was Stephen Curry’s. AP

BusinessMirror

Kobe Bryant, who sat out the fourth quarter with Los Angeles down by 36 points, was 15-for-34 from the field in 31 minutes—two nights after he played sick against the Phoenix Suns and missed his first 10 shots before finishing one-for-14 with nine points.

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ROGER FEDERER (right) pulls out in the finals against Novak Djokovic because of a bad back. AP

By Bianca Cuaresma

Latest data from the central bank show cash remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) totaling $2.11 billion in September. This was the largest monthly remittance figure for 2014.

The September remittances stood 7.9 percent higher than cash remittances of only $1.95 billion sent in the same month last year.

The remittances also brought the total cash sent home by migrant Filipino workers to $17.65 billion in the first nine months of the year.

This was 6.1 percent more than cash remittances of only $16.64 billion in the same nine-month period last year.

The steadily increasing stream of remittances was

Struggling Target Canada faces big test this holiday season

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President: Oil company probe could change Brazil

Tuesday, Tuesday,November November18, 18,2014 2014Vol. Vol.1010No. No.4040

oney earned overseas and sent home by migrant Filipino workers continued to provide fresh fuel for the economy, the group having sent the highest volume of remittance in any single month thus far this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Monday.

Toyota plans ‘Mirai’ fuel-cell car

consoles and more than 1,300 games were found, including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Some of the other discovered titles include “Centipedes,” “Warlords” and “Asteroids.”

After months of planning with state and local regulators, crews discovered numerous game cartridges on April 26.

The dig cost more than $50,000, Lewandowski said.

LightBox Entertainment and Fuel Entertainment pursued the dig for a documentary that is due to come out Thursday.

Alamogordo owns the cartridges because they came from the city’s landfill. The revenue will go to the city and the Tularosa Basin Historical Society. Both groups will meet on December 1 to discuss how to spend the money.

The remaining game cartridges will be sold on eBay over the next few weeks. AP

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Remittances hit 2014 high in Sept

clear your homes. crate and barrel is here D

A broader look at today’s business

CASH SENT HOME BY OFWs STEADILY INCREASING ON SUSTAINED DEMAND FOR FILIPINO TALENT

INSIDE

ear Lord, please deepen our understanding of Your word. Let Your Holy Spirit guide us and enlighten our heart as we pursue Your truth so that we might walk in your ways. Our spiritual growth will only occur when we do our best to cultivate our faith. as believers, we need spiritual food, the basic truths in the scriptures. O Lord, we strive to grow spiritually. amen!

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yala Corp. plans to borrow as much as $1.6 billion to increase its power-generation capacity at least fourfold, as the owner of the Philippines’s biggest builder expands its peripheral businesses.

The nation’s oldest family-controlled company will build a 600-megawatt (MW) coal-fired plant in the southern island of Mindanao and partner with Sithe Global Power Llc. for a 1,000-MW plant in the main island of Luzon, company CFO Delfin Gonzalez told reporters in Manila.

Ayala’s capacity will increase to about 1,500 MW from about 350 MW, Head of Corporate Strategy and Development Paolo Borromeo said.

Ayala’s power push comes amid President Aquino’s See “Ayala,” A2

PESO exchange rates n US 44.9300

ISRAELI AGRO-TECHNOLOGY An Israeli business delegation shared opportunities in agro-technology during the Israel-Philippines: Exploring Opportunities in Water and Agro-Technology initiative on Monday, at the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) office in McKinley Hill in Taguig City, through the efforts of (from left) Gilad Peled, director, Water, Environment and Agro-Technology Department, Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute; Israeli Ambassador to Manila Effie Ben Matityau; Donald Dee, COO and honorary chairman of the PCCI; and Roberto Amores, PCCI director for Agriculture. NONIE REYES

JAPAN SLIDES INTO RECESSION AS TAX HIKE DULLS DEMAND

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apan’s economy unexpectedly shrank in the third quarter as housing and business investment declined following a tax hike, dragging the country into a recession and further clouding the outlook for the global economy.

The world’s third-largest economy contracted at a 1.6-percent pace in the July-to-September quarter, the government said on Monday, contrary to predictions it would grow after a big drop the previous quarter.

The surprise deepens uncertainty when China’s growth is slowing and the 18-country euro zone grew only 0.2 percent in the same quarter.

The gross domestic product (GDP) figures showed acrossthe-board weakness in demand among consumers, manufacturers and builders. Many individuals and companies had spent money before the sales tax was hiked in April, from See “Japan,” A2

Smart spending another ₧17B in 2015–Nazareno

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

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OBILE services operator Smart Communications Inc. will spend roughly P17 billion in capital investments next year to further expand and modernize its network.

Smart President and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno told the BusinessMirror the amount will be mostly spent on projects to further increase the firm’s network capacity in terms of broadband and data.

“We are still finalizing our figures for the budget. But I think it’s

NAZARENO: “We are still finalizing our figures for the budget. But I think it’s about the same range as this year. It will be mostly spent on mobile data and broadband.”

about the same range as this year.

It will be mostly spent on mobile data and broadband,” he said in a chance interview.

The wireless subsidiar y of Continued on A2

n japan 0.3866 n UK 70.4143 n HK 5.7944 n CHINA 7.3287 n singapore 34.6548 n australia 39.2196 n EU 56.283 n SAUDI arabia 11.9750 Source: BSP (17 November 2014)

A2

News BusinessMirror

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Ayala. . . continued from a1 call to boost infrastructure spending in a nation expected to be among the five fastest-growing economies by 2016, according to Bloomberg surveys. Starting as Casa Roxas in 1834, Ayala, which also owns the nation’s second-largest bank, its second-biggest telecommunications company and one of the capital’s two water providers, is aiming to boost the share of its noncore businesses to at least 10 percent of earnings by 2016 from about 3 percent. Ayala closed unchanged at P710 apiece in Manila. The benchmark Philippine stock index rose 0.2 percent.

Investments in the power sector should make a significant contribution to earnings by 2019, with return on equity expected in the high teens, Gonzalez said. The company continues to evaluate infrastructure projects to be auctioned by the government, he said.

Luzon island, which accounts for about 70 percent of the country’s total electricity demand, may be on red alert on account of power shortages for two weeks in 2015 as plants undergo maintenance shutdowns, energy officials said last month.

Ayala Corp. expects some 25percent to 30-percent growth in net income by the end of the year.

“Last year we had P14 billion net income. So this year, we want to have about 25-percent to 30percent increase on that. We have an ambitious five-year plan,” Paolo Borromeo, the company’s group head for strategy and developers, said in a briefing for the company’s listing of reissued series B preferred shares.

Gonzalez said that the company will raise some $1 billion to increase its GN Power Mariveles Coal Plant

Smart spending another P17B in 2015–Nazareno

by 1,000 megawatts (MW) and some $600 million to construct a new 600-MW coal-power plant in GN Power Kauswagan.

“We expect to complete the construction by 2018 for everything we have. We should be able to achieve financial close of the Kauswagan plant before the end of the year, while in Bataan, we expect financial close in the middle of next year.

Our partner is Sithe Power, a unit of Blackstone Group,” Gonzalez said.

He said that the company is looking at export credit agencies to bank roll the said projects.

Officials said the company is on track to hit its goal of 1,000 MW of attributable generating capacity that would make it the fourthlargest power generator, after San Miguel Corp., the Lopez group under First Generation Holdings Inc. and Aboitiz Power.

“But we want more. We’re just the fourth largest,” Borromeo said.

Its other projects include the 155-MW Calaca power plants and wind power plants Bangui and Northwind, amount to an attributable 350-MW capacity.

“We’ll clearly surpass the 1,000 MW. A couple of our wind farms started operating. It will be under FIT (feed-in tariff),” he said.

Ayala Corp. said its consolidated net income during the first nine months of the year expanded by 35 percent, to P14.1 billion from the robust growth of its core businesses, particularly Ayala Land, Globe Telecom and Manila Water. Its banking business under Bank of the Philippine Islands declined in the ninemonth period as a result of higher trading gains.

Continued from A1

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is spending roughly P17 billion this year in boosting its coverage, leveraging the capabilities of its newly modernized network and expanding its transmission network.

The amount is also being spent to increase international bandwidth capacity and expand its third generation (3G) and wireless broadband networks to enhance its data-transmission capabilities. Next year’s budget forms part of the P36-billion capital outlays that PLDT is planning to earmark to bankroll the group’s capacity expansion projects.

The local telco arm of Hong Kong-

based First Pacific Co. will be spending 12.5 percent more in 2015 to “transition more into the digital space.”

However, global debt watcher Fitch Ratings advised PLDT and its competitor last week to brace themselves for lower margins next year, should they decide to increase their capital spending.

The credit-rating agency said the telco industry revenue will rise by a mid-single-digit rate next year, driven by fast-growing data services, which will more than offset stagnating voice and declining text and international revenue.

But profitability will also deteriorate as a lower-margin data ser-

Japan. . . continued from a1

5 percent to 8 percent, and spending has languished since then. “The impact of the sales tax was much more severe than expected,” said Junko Nishioka, an economist at RBS Japan Securities.

Housing investment plunged 24 percent from the same quarter a year ago, while corporate capital investment sank 0.9 percent. Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of the economy, edged up just 0.4 percent.

Given the contraction, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to put off another sales-tax hike planned for next October, slowing progress on efforts to rein in Japan’s government debt, the largest among industrialized nations.

He also will likely make the dismal GDP reading the basis for calling a general election in mid-December to underpin the public mandate for his “Abenomics” policies of lax monetary policy, fiscal spending and structural economic reforms.

With Bloomberg news

Japan emerged from its last recession just as Abe took office in December 2012, vowing to restore the nations’ economic vigor after two decades of stagnation.

But the country is struggling to regain momentum as its population declines and ages. Apart from its automakers, many of its manufacturers have lost their leading edge in innovation while shifting production to cheaper locations offshore.

Household incomes, meanwhile, peaked more than a decade ago, and a growing share of workers are having difficulty making ends meet with parttime, contract work. Wage increases— mostly limited to a small share of workers in big-name companies—have lagged behind inflation.

Most economists had forecast that Japan would expand at about a 2-percent pace after a sharp 7.1-percent annual pace drop in April to June immedi-

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vice replaces higher-margin legacy services, including voice, text and international traffic.

It also warned the two firms that a higher budget could have a negative effect on the companies’ cash flow.

Fitch added that operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and restructuring of the two listed companies are likely to narrow by 100 basis points to 150 basis points in 2015 to 47 percent and 44 percent, respectively, amid unlimited tariff offerings, cheaper data plans and higher handset subsidies.

The Pangilinan-led firm reported a core net profit of P28.6 billion, 1 percent lower than the P28.8 billion

recorded in the same period in 2013 due mainly to the rise in cash operating expenses, particularly rent and maintenance costs, an increase in product subsidies and a higher provision for income tax.

In the same comparative periods, net income declined by 3 percent, to P28 billion, from P29 billion due to the dip in core net income, and the absence of the contribution from discontinued operations recorded in the said period.

PLDT is targeting to fully serve 100 percent of the population with its 3G network by the end of the year. It also aims to expand its LTE network to cover 50 percent of the country by year-end.

ately following the tax hike. A recession commonly is regarded as two straight quarters of economic contraction. Compared to the previous quarter, GDP declined 0.4 percent.

While delaying the next tax hike could undermine confidence in Japan’s ability to repair its battered finances, Abe and his advisers appear to view the threat to Japan’s recovery as the more urgent risk.

In early 2013, Abe and Bank of Japan (BOJ) Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda united in seeking to end the long spell of deflation that they say is discouraging companies and consumers from spending money.

So far, price increases have fallen short of their inflation target of 2 percent, with most of the increases coming from the sales-tax hike and from higher costs for imports due to extreme monetary that has helped drive the value of the Japanese yen to seven-year lows against the US dollar.

On October 31 Kuroda announced the central bank would step up its asset purchases, accelerating Japan’s “quantitative easing” just as the US was ending its own asset purchases. Despite that surprise move, Kuroda has insisted that the economy is still in the midst of a “moderate recovery.”

The BOJ’s move, along with a government decision to shift a large share of the public pension-fund investments out of government bonds and into higher yielding but riskier shares, pushed Japan’s share benchmark to seven-year highs this month.

But in morning trading, the Nikkei 225 stock index tumbled 2.6 percent to 17,037.65.

Monday’s data is preliminary, with a revision due on December 8. Since some of the decline was due to reductions in inventory, things may not be as bad as the GDP reading suggests, economists said. AP

NOV 21

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The Nation BusinessMirror

Priest hits DAR for filing charges vs Luisita farmers

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ROMAN Catholic missionary priest, who is based in the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, assailed the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for suing farmers, whom he said are just standing up for their rights.

“In the first place, if only the DAR had been expedient in deciding on these cases it would not have come to the point of confrontation between the farmers and the military who appeared to be protecting the interest of the Cojuangco-Aquinos who wield political power,” Fr. Jesus Dumaual said in an article posted on Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) web site.

Dumaual, a missionary of the Sacred Heart, said that the of filing charges by the Tarlac Development Corp. (Tadeco) against the Luisita farmers “also means criminalizing land reform cases.”

The case was filed after farmers Vicente Sambu, Jose Baldiviano, Rod Acosta, Mamerto Mandigma and Ronald Sakay were arrested by the police on December 21, 2013 when they, and several others, resisted eviction by the Tadeco with the assistance of the police.

Dumaual said that if the government sincerely wants to relinquish hold on the land in favor of the farmers, “the farmers could be focusing by now on making the land productive and contributing to the attainment of food security for the farmers.”

He, however, admitted that such

is not likely to happen soon.

“The land is prime agricultural land, but it is prime commercial land, as well. It is a question of the priority of our government right now.

Meantime, the farmers will just have to continue with their struggle for land,” he added.

On October 16, Judge Scott Robinos of Branch 1 of the Municipal Trial Court (MTC) in Tarlac City referred the cases of Vicente Sambu and four others for trespassing to the DAR Provincial Office to determine if agrarian dispute is involved in the said case.

Lawyer Jobert Pahilga, Hacienda Luisita farmworkers’ counsel, said that the farmers were just defending their ready-to-harvest crops.

Pahilga argued that the Supreme Court’s (SC) order to the DAR covers all other Luisita agricultural lands for distribution to the farmworkerbeneficiaries (FWBs), including the disputed area in Barangay Balete, where the group were arrested, and over which the DAR issued a Notice of Coverage (NOC) on December 17, 2013.

Before the incident, the accused had already been cultivating the subject land as qualified beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program since 2005.

According to Pahilga, these and other criminal cases filed against the peasants and their advocates in Branch 2 of the MTC in Tarlac are all agrarian in nature. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Tuesday, November 18, 2014 A3

Romualdez to Lacson: Say you are not running in ’16

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By Recto Mercene

ACLOBAN City Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez on Monday told Presidential Rehabilitation Secretary Panfilo Lacson, with whom he is engaged in running word war, to tell the people that he is not running in 2016 and that he really wants to help the people.

“I can work with Lacson, but he has to tell the people that he is not running in 2016 and he really wants to help the people,” Romualdez said at the sidelines of the Kapihan sa Diamond media forum on Monday.

“Tumigil na siya, huwag na niyang bolahin ang tao, sabihin niya ako ang namumulitika? Sabihin na niya sa mga tao na hindi siya tatakbo at aayusin niya [ang rehabilitation ng giniba ng (Supertyphoon) Yolanda],” Romualdez added in Tagalog.

Last week, Lacson scored Romualdez for the slow pace of Yolanda rehabilitation in his area, and added: “overall, the rate of recovery of local

governments depends on different factors including attitude and political will.”

However, Romualdez said the recovery and rehabilitation of Tacloban City would be finished faster than the projected five to 10 years if the recovery efforts continue without disruptions because of the efforts of the private sectors.

“I don’t believe in that, [the fiveto 10-year estimate] if the work continues because the private sector has done so much, because of businesses that are opening…then people will get jobs and they will have purchasing power, some of

them could afford to rent houses and they would no longer transfer to the north,” referring to the area that was badly devastated.

He said that about 50 percent to 60 percent of the rehabilitation work have been achieved so far: “Iilan na lang natitira sa mga tents, tuloy-tuloy ang pag-gawa ng temporary shelters, na-establish na ang ibang utilities sa norte.

“Maraming nangyayari dito kaya kailangan tingnan natin, but overall were about 50 to 60 percent finished.”

“We really need to boost [the economy], we need our airport to be opened 100 percent, we’re losing 100,000 passengers every month,” he added.

Romualdez said the Tacloban City local government has built about 2,000 shelters since construction started and typhoon victims are waiting for the delivery of the housess a week or two from now.

“We are moving, thanks to the National Housing Authority and we would also like to thank [Justice] Secretary [Leila] de Lima for the identification of the dead with the help of the National Bureau of Investigation.

Asked for his priorities, the mayor said they have to get the people into permanent houses; “they can’t stay

where they are now, they will die there, they are in danger zones,” adding that some 3,000 families are in such areas.

The spat Lacson and Romualdez started when Lacson accused Romualdez of supporting antigovernment protesters. He claimed that anti-government placards were found at the back of Tacloban City Hall. Lacson said all local government chiefs should put the interest of their constituents before any personal or political agenda.

In a separate news conference, Lacson said Tacloban City had received about P6.1 billion for its projects and programs—the “biggest amount” extended to a local government.

Of this amount, P230.4 million came from the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Lacson said.

Lacson also said that he had personally confronted Romualdez about the trucks used to ferry protesters that were seen parked in the mayor’s compound. Romualdez, Lacson said, responded by a text message saying “they will be more circumspect the next time around.”

Lacson said he decided to these issues only now because “I’ve had enough.”

Economy

A4 Tuesday, November 18, 2014 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

briefs m.i.a.a. chief to vacationers, travelers: book plane tickets early Most airline tickets are expected to be sold out as early as a month before the Christmas holidays kick in.

“While tickets are still available, as early as now please book your ticket,” Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) General Manager Jose Angel Honrado advised the public at a recent news conference.

Honrado stressed that since this year’s vacation break is expected to be a long one, considering the dates December 24 and 25 fall on a Wednesday and Thursday, passengers should already start booking for plane tickets.

Malacañang earlier declared December 24 and 26 this year as additional special, or nonworking days throughout the country “to foster closer family ties” and “enable [Filipinos] to observe Christmas more meaningfully.”

December 25 and 30 were, meanwhile, declared regular holidays.

He, meanwhile, advised those with tickets to make sure they don’t miss their flights since rebooking is just as difficult once December comes.

“Those with tickets already make sure you’re there since it’s hard to rebook,” he added. PNA

BusinessMirror

Low productivity may imperil growth–ADB

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By Cai U. Ordinario

he Philippines should be able address the declining trend in its total factor productivity (TFP) that may imperil the country’s future economic growth.

At the sidelines of the Asian Regional Cooperation and Integration Conference at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday, ADB Office of Regional Economic Integration Director Arjun Goswami said declining TFP in the country and in Asia is a concern.

Goswami said TFP has great bearing on per-capita income and a major factor in achieving high economic growth.

“Productivity has been a huge factor of that growth and it has great bearing on per-capita income. In certain parts [of Asia] we’re starting to see the slowdown in the growth in productivity [and it] is something that we should be concerned about, it needs to be tackled,” Goswami said.

Goswami said that while the decline in TFP can be attributed to factors such as disasters that wipe out productivity due to the impact on

businesses and workers alike, it can also be caused by structural problems.

In the Philippines these structural problems include the country’s rapid transition from being a predominantly agriculture economy to a service economy.

Goswami said this caused the country’s industry sector to suffer.

He said that while it was ideal for countries to see industry account for 18 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the country’s local industry sector was only accounting for around 15 percent, down from 16 percent between the 1990s and 2013.

“Services is not a bad thing. But it depends on what kind of services you’re doing. If you’re not doing highproductivity services, you’re not going to get high-productivity gain,” Goswami said.

In order to raise productivity, ADB President Takehiko Nakao said in his

mmda to meet with mall operators on holiday traffic, shopping hours With Christmas day just around the corner and along with the expected rise of shoppers flocking to the malls, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is set to meet with mall operators to discuss more stringent measures to help untangle traffic jams in the metropolis this coming holiday season.

“We will ask mall operators to have a staggered mall operating hours… there will [be] synchronization of mall operating hours in such a way it will not generate traffic,” MMDA Chairman Francis N. Tolentino said as he suggested that some malls could be open early while others can operate at late hours.

“For example, all malls in one area will open 7 in the morning until 7 p.m., while in other areas, maybe, they can open late in the evening until midnight,” he suggested. Such measure, he stressed is being implemented in countries like Bangkok and Singapore.

“I have nothing against mall operations, what I am saying is…we will just adjust the operating hours especially this Christmas rush,”he stressed, citing that traffic volume usually increase by 15 percent to 20 percent between November and December. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

opening remarks at the conference that countries must meet or invest in eight areas.

These areas are better infrastructure services; education and health; keep inflation low; push for reforms and open trade; good governance; push for inclusiveness and sustainability; draft strategies for the future; and attain political stability.

Nakao said these conditions can be achieved by individual countries internally but also through regional cooperation and integration (RCI).

He said RCI can help achieve these goals through regional infrastructure investments; trade and trade facilitation; promotion of standards and best practices; macroeconomic stability; regional discussions on various concerns; and the promotion of friendship and cooperation between leaders and countries.

“In my view, regional cooperation

and integration has been always the focus of the ADB since it was established in 1966,” Nakao said. “There is no question that the ADB will [continue to] promote regional cooperation and integration.”

In 2012, when he was appointed

by President Aquino, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said his focus will be to increase productivity, particularly in the Agriculture sector.

Balisacan said focusing on increasing agricultural productivity in the country is not something the government must do just because there is now a resurgence in the interest but to increase agriculture growth nationwide.

He said investing in agriculture should be the focus of the government since many poor Filipinos, especially in the countryside, rely on the farm sector for their livelihood.

‘Emergency powers seen to benefit grafters, favored players in power industry’

phl-turkey expands air services agreement The Philippines and Turkey signed on Monday an expanded airservices agreement, allowing direct flights for the first time between the two countries.

Under the new agreement, both countries will designate one or more airlines for the purpose of operating the agreed services.

Flag-carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Turkish Airlines will operate the flights under the new accord, which was negotiated by both sides since 2010.

The air pact, signed during the official visit of Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davtoglu in Malacañang, grants Philippine carriers three frequencies per week for passenger services between points in the Philippines to Istanbul and Ankara.

It also allows three frequencies per week for all cargo services between Manila and Istanbul.

On the other hand, designated carriers of Turkey are granted three frequencies per week for passenger services between points in Turkey to Clark and Manila.

It was also given three frequencies per week for all cargo services between Istabul and Manila.

Foreign Affairs Spokesman Charles Jose said the agreement will help further expand the operation of Philippine carriers. PNA

news@businessmirror.com.ph

By Marvyn N. Benaning Correspondent

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Time to shop

A shopper takes advantage of the lull in shopping activities at a supermarket in Makati City, browsing on grocery items that shoppers usually buy for the Noche Buena table on Christmas eve. The trade department, meanwhile, said it has launched an intensified drive to monitor the price of Noche Buena goods while urging consumers to report instances of overpricing. Nonie Reyes

Customs told to adopt ‘import data reconciliation’ procedure to address undervaluation of shipments

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wo lawmakers have called on the House of Representatives to direct the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to adopt “import data reconciliation” procedures to reduce, if not totally eliminate, opportunities for the misdeclaration and undervaluation of shipments at the country’s ports of entry.

According to Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez of the Second District of Cagayan de Oro City and his younger brother, Party-list Rep. Maximo Rodriguez Jr. of Abante Mindanao, import-data reconciliation can address undervaluation and misdeclaration problems at the BOC because it is similar to the preshipment procedures where documentation and information from a shipment’s port of origin are provided.

The lawmakers, through House Resolution 1597, batted for the BOC’s adoption of import datareconciliation procedures. The

resolution has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by Rep. Romero S. Quimbo of the Second District of Marikina City.

According to the lawmakers, a study conducted by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Policy Center cited that the BOC collections rose from about P26.2 billion in 1987 to P304.9 billion in 2013, mostly on the back of higher value-added tax (VAT) collections.

The study also cited that in 1990, the gap between potential and actual customs revenues due to mis-invoicing was about P5 billion, using the exchange rates prevailing then. By 2011 the revenue gap rose to P167 billion, and it is estimated there were revenue gaps of P195 billion in 2012 and P189 billion in 2013, the study said.

Relatedly, the lawmakers cited a

report by Global Financial Integrity, a US research firm, which showed that under-invoicing of traded goods has cost the country $23 billion in lost tax revenue since 1990.

The elder Rodriguez said that no less than Customs Commissioner John Sevilla, a few months into his new position, was “shocked” by the BOC’s failure to analyze the rich data it received.

“Information that held vital clues to the BOC’s endemic corruption problems included data showing that the BOC opens up less than 1 percent of shipping containers, but of the containers opened, 90 percent have problems,” Rodriguez said.

He said another problem is that “the BOC’s import-valuation datawere not systematically organized and that the 17 BOC collection districts nationwide do not have a uniform valuation reference.” PNA

he consumer group People Opposed to unWarranted Electricity Rates (Power) has warned that only grafters and favored players in the power industry will benefit from the grant of emergency powers to President Aquino to address a dubious energy crisis next year.

Power convener and former Rep. Teddy Casiño of Bayan Muna said such emergency powers “will most likely be used to skirt government procurement laws for the benefit of favored players in the power industry.”

Power issued the statement on the eve of the second hearing by the House Committee on Energy on a joint resolution that would allow the President to contract additional electricity supply through the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Interruptible Load Program (ILP) and the fast-tracking of repair and construction work on existing and additional power plants.

According to Casiño, “Two dangerous provisions in the joint resolution are those giving private owners of generating sets a ‘reasonable recovery’ on top of reimbursements for their fuel expenses and another that allows all government agencies to retrofit their electrical appliances and equipment through ‘emergency procurement procedures.’”

He added, “We are afraid that the resolution’s mechanism for a ‘reasonable recovery’ will allow private entities to profit from the ILP, with the consumers ending up shouldering such an unjust burden.”

On the provision allowing emergency procurement procedures, Casiño said “this would allow government agencies to purchase thousands of lightbulbs, aircon units, inverters and the like without going through regular bidding and procurement procedures, most likely resulting in overpriced items.”

CASIÑO: “We are afraid that the resolution’s mechanism for a ‘reasonable recovery’ will allow private entities to profit from the ILP, with the consumers ending up shouldering such an unjust burden.”

He insisted that government agencies still have enough time until March 2015 to use regular bidding procedures.

“The proposed emergency or special powers bode ill for consumers who will most likely be burdened by unnecessary and unjust power-rate hikes, and taxpayers whose money will most likely be spent on overpriced electrical appliances, equipment and supplies,” Casiño lamented.

The group said additional powers for the President are not needed for the ILP to succeed.

“In fact, the DOE previously implemented ILPs in the Visayas and Mindanao without need for such emergency or special powers. All it takes is a DOE circular providing the mechanisms for the program and a law passed by Congress to exempt ILP-sourced power from value-added taxes,” Casiño said.

“The Executive already has vast powers, including persuasive powers, to address what is essentially a projected thinning of power reserves for two weeks in 2015,” he stressed.

Casiño added that instead of coming up with short-term fixes for a nonexistent crisis, Congress should instead focus on amending or repealing the Electric Power Industry Reform Act to allow the government to strategically intervene in the power sector by building and running power plants again.

Job terminations cut construction employment in Metro Manila in Q2–PSA

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ore terminations than quits caused the decline in the number of employed Metro Manila workers in the construction sector in the second quarter of the year.

Data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that terminations in the construction sector in the National Capital Region (NCR) increased to 46.9 percent in the April to June period.

“In the second quarter of 2014,

employment in large enterprises in Metro Manila fell to 0.88 percent compared with the 2.49-percent labor turnover rate posted a year ago. The decline was due mainly to job losses in the industry sector, particularly in construction,” the PSA’s Labor Turnover Survey (LTS) results stated.

The LTS showed that overall, employer-initiated or terminations reached 6.38 percent, while employee-initiated separations or

quits were only at 4.21 percent.

Other sectors that posted high termination rates in the second quarter were education at 11.29 percent and mining and quarrying, 10.73 percent.

“More terminations than quits occurred in construction, private education and mining and quarrying,” the PSA said.

The PSA said the decline in employment during the period paralleled the country’s slower economic growth rate of 6.4 percent compared to 7.9 percent

in the same period in 2013.

As a result of the high number of terminations in the construction sector in the second quarter, industry employment contracted 0.68 percent.

There was also a 0.38-percent contraction in the employment in the electricity, gas, steam and airconditioning supply.

The LTS for the second quarter covered 921 large enterprises based in Metro Manila. The sample enter-

prises were drawn from the 2013 NCR List of Enterprises of the PSA, which was updated by the 2013 LTS sampling frame.

The LTS is a quarterly sample survey of enterprises conducted by the PSA since the third quarter of 2002.

The survey aims to capture “job creations” and “job displacements” in large business enterprises based in Metro Manila by collecting quarterly data on accessions and separations of workers. Cai U Ordinario

Economy BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

CIL tally for 2015 hits 171 MW

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HE Manila Electr ic Co. (Meralco) has signed up a total of 171 megawatts (MW) of committed interruptible load (CIL) capacity from various Interruptible Load Program (ILP) participants.

Taipan Place Condominium Association Inc. and Icec Land Corp. are the latest to join the roster of participants, the utility firm said.

Meralco Utility Economics Head Lawrence Fernandez said it has signed up 1.5 MW from Taipan Place and 2.4 MW from Icec Land.

ILP works by calling on business customers with loads of at least 1 MW to run their own generator sets, if needed, instead of drawing power from the grid.

With the ILP, power supply from the grid that will not be consumed by participating customers will be available for use by other customers within the franchise area. Through this, the aggregate demand for power from the system will be reduced to a more manageable level, helping ensure the availability of supply during the anticipated power crisis next year.

“A growing number of commercial and industrial companies are heeding the Department of Energy’s [DOE] call to participate in the ILP—a demand-side management solution regarded as one of the countermeasures meant to help mitigate the projected power-supply strain in the summer months of 2015,” Meralco said.

As of November 14, 30 companies have signed up to join ILP, with a combined deloading capacity of 171 MW. The deadline for ILP sign-up is on December 1.

Meralco said it continues to solicit further participation from its business customers. “The DOE and Meralco sounded a clarion call for nationalism for big power users to take part in the ILP and help address the power-supply situation.”

Among the ILP participants include SM Prime Holdings Inc., which has committed 57.96 MW; Robinsons Land Corp., 23.15 MW; Waltermart malls, 14.30 MW; Ayala Land Inc., 9 MW; Rustan’s Supercenters Inc., 8.66 MW; Shangri-La Plaza Corp., 7 MW; Alphaland Development Inc., 4.5 MW; Megaworld Corp., 4 MW; and Ortigas & Co., 4 MW. Meralco said last month that its customers may have to pay an additional 7.5 centavos per kilowatthour (kWh) in monthly generation charge so the utility firm can compensate ILP participants for the power-generation capacity that they are willing to deload.

Meralco needs to compensate its ILP participants for the expenses, particularly fuel, they will incur when they operate their own generator sets instead of sourcing power from the grid.

The utility firm estimates a P200million payment for every 300 MW of accumulated CIL capacity from the ILP participants. Meralco, in

FERNANDEZ: “It’s a 7.5-centavos-perkWh rate impact on the gen charge per 300-MW deloaded for five hours a day on all weekdays for one month. Thus, if only 200 MW is deloaded, then the rate impact would be around 5 centavos per kWh.”

turn, would have to pass this on to its customers.

“It’s a 7.5 centavos per kWh rate impact on the gen charge per 300MW deloaded for five hours a day on all weekdays for one month.

Thus, if only 200 MW is deloaded, then the rate impact would be around five centavos per kWh,” Fernandez said.

Additional generating capacity

Meralco also announced it has secured as much as 64 MW of additional power-generating capacity from two units of Global Business Power Corp. (GBPC) to meet the growing demand of its customers.

The utility firm signed on November 14 two interim power supply Agreement (IPSAs) with Toledo Power Corp. for up to 28 MW, with an option for additional 9 MW more, and with Panay Power Corp. for up to 27 MW. The said IPSAs are subject to approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission and shall expire in July 31, 2015, unless sooner terminated or extended by the parties.

The IPSAs were entered into to address the forecasted supply constraint and mitigate the company’s exposure to the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) during the summer months of 2015 and as part of Meralco’s continuing efforts to source additional capacities through interim bilateral contracts with power producers with available contracted capacity.

Meralco President Oscar Reyes said last week that the company plans to secure 529 MW of additional capacity via IPSAs from GBPC, 1590 Energy Inc., Panasia Energy Inc. and AP Renewables Inc. “We will sign contracts with Global Power, Bauang and Limay. Also, with Makban for an additional 50 MW, which is a new one,” Reyes said.

Meralco’s IPSAs are meant to lessen the utility firm’s exposure to the WESM, the country’s electricity trading floor.

For the October supply month, Meralco sourced 5 percent of its total power requirements from the WESM, while independent power producers and power supply agreements accounted for 47 percent and 48 percent, respectively.

Based on the DOE’s latest projection, Luzon would need at least 678 MW of additional capacity to cover both shortages and minimum reserves next year. Lenie Lectura

BIR missed Oct target by P12B

T

he Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) missed its collection target for October by more than P12 billion, collecting only P101.8 billion for the said month.

T he P101.8 -billion collection for the month of October falls short of the P114.14-billion collection target set by the Department of Finance (DOF) for the said month.

However, the BIR’s collection for October is P6.2 billion, or 6.5 percent, higher than the collection made by the bureau in October 2013.

Out of the total collection, P99.64 billion came from BIR operations. This is P6.42 billion, or

6.88 percent, higher than the collections from BIR operations in October 2013.

Collection from non-BIR operations, or collection of taxes on items like interest income, amounted to P2.16 billion, or 8.6 percent, less than the collections from nonBIR operations in October 2013.

The regional offices of the BIR collected P39.61 billion, or 21.08 percent, more than the collections made by the regional offices in October 2013.

The Large Taxpayers Service, on the other hand, collected P60.03 billion, or 0.79 percent, less than the collections made in October 2013.

David Cagahastian

Tuesday, November 18, 2014 A5

Rising demand for coal means big business for PHL–PCCMI

T

By Lenie Lectura

he increasing demand for coal in the Philippines remains a great business opportunity as more power firms continue to put up new coal-fired power plants despite environmental concerns, the Philippine Chamber of Coal Mines Inc. (PCCMI) said.

Coal contributes an average of 30 percent to the country’s primary energy supply.

PCCMI Chairman Rufino Bomasang said during the Coal Business and Policy Forum that the country’s reliance on coal-fired power plants should not be a cause for alarm as some environmental groups have cited.

“Coal-fired power generation, however, continues to face the challenge of social acceptability due mainly to concerns about its environmental impacts, real or exaggerated,” Bomasang said.

But clean-coal technologies (CCTs) have already substantially reduced the emission of pollutants to levels approaching those of natural gas, the cleanest of the fossil fuels. Moreover, carbon capture and

sequestration technologies are also being developed and their deployment should substantially reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from coal-fired power generation.

“These favorable developments in CCTs, however, have yet to be fully appreciated, much less accepted, by some policy-makers, non-governmental organizations and hostcommunities,” Bomasang said.

Coal is still the preferred power source because it is cheaper, and Bomasang said it remains widely used even in other countries.

“Understandably therefore, most of the major power plants being built in the Philippines are coal-fired, as it is in the world’s two largest developing countries [e.g., China, India, etc.] and in neighboring Asean membercountries [e.g., Indonesia and Thai-

land]. Even developed countries in the region [e.g., Japan, South Korea, etc.] in fact continue to put up coalfired power plants,” he added.

Bomasang called on the Philippine government and the private sector to join hands in addressing this challenge. “There is a need to convince skeptics that with the advent of CCTs there has already been a paradigm shift in coal-fired power generation from an environmental perspective.

There is a need to convince skeptics that power producers using coal are just as concerned as they are about protecting the environment, particularly in mitigating climate change.”

He urged Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla to help promote dialogue with other stakeholders, particularly other government agencies, who have not always been supportive of coal development and utilization.

Bomasang strongly believes that coal-fired power generation in the Philippines can continue to be a mainstay in providing competitively priced electricity. “We are fortunate that in the energy sector, the policies have remained stable over the years and the Department of Energy’s current moves are primarily aimed at fine-tuning and improving said policies. I strongly recommend that the government continue with stable policies so that we can develop and make use of the still-untapped resources to provide electricity at affordable prices.”

4Ps on track

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman (left), at a public forum on the “Results of the 2014 Impact Evaluation” in Quezon City, said the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is delivering its commitment to keep children healthy and in school, thus giving them a greater fighting chance or opportunity to be future productive members of society. The 4Ps effectiveness was cited in the latest impact evaluation report funded by the World Bank. Also in the photo are Philippine Institute for Development Studies head of the research team Dr. Aniceto Orberta (center) and Aleksandra Posarac of World Bank. PNA

Jetro aims to double Japan SMEs in Manila in 2 years

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

T

OKYO, Japan—The Japanese organization working to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and other countries targets to more than double the number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) investing in the Philippines in two years’ time.

Japan External Trade Organization (Jetro) Director for Overseas Business Support Ryoichi Ito said his agency is looking at adding 120 more companies to the list of SMEs operating in the Philippines.

This is just part of the larger 1,500 enterprises that Jetro aims to support in expanding their presence around the globe.

“The Philippines accounts for 8 percent of that number, while Thailand and Vietnam will both account for 18 percent each, 13 percent is for Indonesia,” he noted.

Ito said there are currently 77 Japanese SMEs that have operations

around the Philippines.

“The sectors by which they come from are usually from exportoriented industries such as metal working, information-technology, machinery and a small percentage from BPO,” he said, referring to the business-processing outsourcing industry.

The targeted 120 new companies would bring the current number to 197 firms by 2016.

“Jetro helps them from obtaining fundamental knowledge on overall overseas business to developing new markets and diversifying risks on manufacturing functions,” the official added.

The agency assigns overseas investment advisors to gather and provide information on local regulations related to investment and trade. They also provide industrial data and give constructive advice focused on procedures and other topics.

As of November 2014, there are 19 advisors to 17 cities in 10 coun-

tries, namely, China, India, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar and the Philippines.

“Japanese companies have big opportunity to supply highquality, low-priced products. The business opportunities are big,” Ito said.

He said the aging population of Japan is making the market shrink, hence expanding overseas is the only way to go.

“With the shrinking Japanese market, companies should now be looking for new business opportunities in the Asian market,” Ito said.

There are 4.2 million SMEs in Japan as of end-2012, accounting for about 99.7 percent of all companies and 70 percent of employment in Japan, data from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed.

Thus, these enterprises form the very basis of the Japanese economy.

briefs region 3 workers get p13 wage hike

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz announced on Monday a P13 increase for minimum-wage earners in Central Luzon, citing rising prices of basic goods and services.

Baldoz said the increase will effective after 15 days from the publication of notice in a newspaper of general circulation in Central Luzon.

She said based on the report of Ma. Criselda Sy, executive director of the National Wages and Productivity Commission of the Labor department, the new minimum wage in the provinces of Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales will range from P342 to P349 for workers in the non agriculture sector.

At the same time, workers in the agriculture sector will now get P319 daily wage from the current P303, while those in the retail and service establishments will get P338 daily wages from the current P324.

The new minimum wage for the province of Aurora will be P298 for nonagriculture workers; P271 to P283 for agriculture workers; and P228 for workers in retail/service establishments per day. Estrella Torres

malaysian traders eye port investment in palawan

Malaysian investors are eyeing business opportunities in ports, especially in Palawan, to boost connectivity in the Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asia Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), according to the Malaysian trade office.

A news statement released on Monday by the Malaysian Trade Office in Manila (Matrade), the Labuan Liberty Port Management Sdn. Bhd., the port operator of Labuan port on Malaysia, has been in talks with local government units in Davao del sur and Palawan to possibly engage in port development and management in the area.

“We want to establish linkages and strengthen relations we have with the Philippines and explore business together,” Matrade Manila Trade Commissioner Nyaee Ayup said.

Labuan Liberty Port Chairman and CEO Dato’ Sri Mohd Alias Haji Abd Rahman said they are targeting to open a linkage with Labuan port from Puerto Princesa, to serve as a gateway with BIMP. “We’re in the proposal and discussion stage. We’re a management team and we will find a joint-venture partner for this project. What we’re looking at were port facilities, cargo and vessel,” Rahman said.

Rahman added that both ports in Puerto Princesa and in Labuan can work together to increase two-way trade between the gateways.

Palawan is rich in agriculture and livestock products that can be shipped Labuan while Malaysia offers manufactured goods for consumers in Palawan.

Labuan Liberty Port is the only commercial port in the Federal Territory of Labuan. Catherine N. Pillas

impact projects raise year-on-year govt spending by 6.1% to P1.296T–DBM THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said government spending year-on-year increased

by P74.5 billion, or 6.1 percent to P1.296 trillion by August this year to address spending for high-impact infrastructure projects.

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said almost all expenditure items increased from the same month in 2013, including the P6.6 billion or 3.9-percent rise in infrastructure disbursements.

He said the 5.4-percent growth in infrastructure spending by August this year and other capital outlay reached P176.2 billion in the first eight months of 2014 from last year’s P169.6 billion. Estrella Torres

Opinion BusinessMirror

A6 Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Editor: Alvin I. Dacanay

editorial

Putting the numbers in perspective

T

HE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported last week that “hot” money left the Philippines in October and for all of 2014. That month’s outflow was about $180 million, and approximately $1 billion for the year. The local media jumped on this event, with one news website rendering its headline— “‘Hot money’ hemorrhage”—in red letters.

We first need to put that $1 billion in perspective, realistically assess the impact and look at the analysis on that money being taken out of the Philippines.

The Philippine government’s budget for 2015 is approximately P2.6 trillion, which means that it takes the government a week to spend $1 billion. Fortyfive billion pesos is not a large amount of money in the bigger scheme of things.

The implication of this, however, is that foreigners taking $1 billion of their investment out of the country is significant. Seventy-two percent of that $1 billion came from selling Philippine stock-market issues, while the remaining 28 percent came from the liquidation of government debt.

The total value of all the stocks listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) is approximately $195 billion. The $720 million that foreigners pulled out of the local stock market represents 0.4 percent of the total value of PSElisted stocks. Even on a daily trading basis, with a volume of approximately $150 million, the amount of liquidations is only one week’s worth of the total peso volume, or 2 percent of all stock-market volume. Considering that foreigners make up an average of 50 percent of all PSE trading, it is not as if they are jumping off the PSE ship.

The $280 million of Philippine government debt that foreigners sold is about as significant as their stock-market selling. Foreigners hold about $58 billion in government debt paper. So, for 2014, they sold 0.4 percent of their holdings.

But why did they sell? Certain analysts said money flowed out of Philippine government debt for “the prospect of greater interest-rate rewards in the United States.” This makes no sense at all. The Philippine government is paying 4-percent interest on its 10-year bonds, which is higher than the 2.3 percent in the US and 0.55 percent in Japan.

The reason for this net outflow is the ongoing currency war. The US dollar is up about 9 percent against other major currencies in 2014, and almost unchanged against the Philippine peso. However, the peso has lost about 3 percent against the dollar in the last two months, and could lose more.

The outflow of hot money from the Philippines has little to do with “safe havens” or higher nominal return on investment. It is about temporary currency pricing as we approach the end of the year.

On a net liquidation basis for both the stock market and government debt, it is far from a hemorrhage. It is more like a pin prick.

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An invitation to the nation’s tycoons and CEOs Manny B. Villar

THE Entrepreneur First of three parts

I

NVESTMENTS and sustainability are essential to the longterm growth of an economy, while employment is a necessary component that will ensure inclusive growth.

These three words—investments, sustainability and employment— apply to the national economy, regardless of other circumstances, like natural calamities. These came to mind after several quiet visits to Tacloban City in Leyte province and other areas devastated by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan).

Most of the activities in these areas, mainly undertaken by United Nations agencies, other foreign entities, the government and the private sector, continue to focus on immediate relief, like food distribution, health care and the construction of shelters for the poor survivors. Rehabilitation efforts are predicted to last several years, but I wonder: What happens after that?

Even after the last debris from the disaster had been disposed of, and all the damaged roads and buildings had

been repaired or replaced, life for the survivors would be an ongoing challenge if there are no jobs, because investments are not coming in to restart businesses or open new ones and ensure sustainable growth.

My previous two-part series focused on some observations about the plight of the Yolanda survivors, which coincided with the annual observance of Halloween. More than a week later, we still watch television shows featuring the survivors of the world’s worst typhoon on record. A beautiful musical video highlighted the common message of these shows: the rise or recovery of the disaster-stricken areas.

The presentations generally appealed to the emotions, but I would like to get down to the brass tacks. Most businesses are still helping the Yolanda survivors through their corporate

Simple economics John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

T

HERE was an unspoken rule among proper ladies and gentlemen that two topics were not to be discussed during social affairs. These were politics and religion, as there was too much emotion and judgments involved to allow for a sensible conversation. You can now add economics to that list, for it now carries a “moral essential”, like religion, and a theory of what is “best for the people”, like politics.

The first modern economist was probably Scotsman Adam Smith, and the first economy theory came from his 1776 book Wealth of Nations. That book may have been the first formal one written on economics—and probably should have been the last, since most of the theories that have emerged since then did not add much benefit to the world.

Economics is really very simple.

Humans had been doing it for at least 10,000 years without the help of people surnamed Keynes, Freidman, Marx or Hayek, or the other 1,200 names mentioned on Wikipedia’s list of economists.

There are three classes of people who contribute to the well-being of a society, or a family, for that matter. The first group is made up of those who offer a particular skill, like hunting, cooking,

teaching, healing, child-rearing or even storytelling. The second is composed of those “working the earth” through farming, animal husbandry, fishing, gathering wild fruits or other resourceexploitation activities, like mining. The third is made up of what I call the craftsmen, who have the ability to fashion value-added goods from raw materials.

The hunter needs the craftsman to make the bow and arrow from materials provided by the “earth workers”. The hunter is able to track and kill the game, which he then brings to the cook, who prepares and serves it to the larger group. It is a symbiotic relationship that makes an economic system. Everyone pays everyone else from the fruits of their labor.

If there is only one maker of weapons and many hunters, then the law

social responsibility (CSR) activities, like donating cash or goods, including some homes, or planting trees.

However, there’s another way to really help the survivors, and that’s through their businesses. Many businesses, including big housing companies, mall developers, restaurant chains and other industries, can participate by creating more businesses in the areas hit by the typhoon.

For example, banks should not discontinue lending. Instead, they can create a special window for entrepreneurs in Tacloban and other Yolandastricken areas.

I was saddened to learn that some banks stopped their lending activities in the disaster areas after the November 2013 calamity struck.

In addition to the free houses that are being built for the marginalized sector of the population, the government can come up with rate-subsidized housing, which will provide almost interest-free housing loans to survivors who are back at their jobs. I believe this will not only help the people, but also encourage them to grow, aside from generating jobs in the construction sector.

Initially, the returns may not be good for the investors, but for the big companies, their business in Tacloban or other typhoon-hit areas will be small, so that, even if they lose or break even in their operations in these areas, it will have a minimal effect on their bottom line.

So the private sector can really help, not so much in terms of cash or in-kind donations or CSR work, but in an honest-to-goodness desire to invest more in the areas. In fact, I will even suggest that the heads or CEOs of these companies frequently visit their units in the Yolanda-stricken areas to encourage other investors to come in. We call this the bandwagon effect: When the tycoons come, other investors will follow.

Incidentally, I believe that rewards should be given to businesses that stayed open, continued to operate and did not abandon the disaster area.

Businesses that face difficulties in their operations amid the challenges caused by the typhoon should be assisted financially by the banks. If they all exert a concerted effort to boost their presence in these areas and increase their investments, it will create more jobs and inspire the survivors to move forward.

In the long run, it will be the investments from the private sector that will be sustainable, that can really ensure the sustainability of the rehabilitation of the Yolanda-stricken areas. Only then can we see clearly the success of the rehabilitation and recovery efforts in the Visayas.

of supply and demand will probably make the craftsman richer, as he gets a cut from all the hunting. That will go on until one of the cooks decides that he or she can make weapons, too, and the economy will better balance out.

I think that is about 90 percent of all you need to know to understand an economic system. All the modern enhancements, like corporations, factories and banks, are just a more complex extension of what we have been doing since time began.

The other 10 percent, which is what the 1,200 known economists mostly focus on, is the role of government, and government is not necessarily a good addition to the system.

The word economics comes from the Greek words for “household management”, and, for most households, common sense provides the basis of the management.

The problem with governments’ economic leaders is that they are also political leaders, and even powerful dictators run the risk of being booted out of office. So they want to keep the people happy. Hunting is hard work, whereas storytelling seems like a comfortable job. A government, then, might “persuade” more people to become storytellers, and pay them a good salary, of course, to get the votes needed at the next tribal council.

But without hunters, members of the tribe will starve and die out, but not before they get to hear a good story on their deathbeds.

Modern economists have helped political leaders have the best of both economic worlds. They got many happy storytellers and were still able to put food on the table.

European countries in the postwar period had it the best. Citizens worked 35-hour weeks with six-week paid vacations; enjoyed long maternity, paternity and training leaves; and could retire at age 60 with 80 percent of their salary. Taxes did not matter, either, as Greece discovered. In Athens the people were paying tax on 324 swimming pools while there were actually 16,974 of them.

About 2,000 years ago, a man named Paul of Tarsus wrote a letter to some friends in the Greek province of Thessalonica. He wrote, “If any man will not work, neither let him eat.”

Modern economists and politicians figured out a way to beat that idea: Just borrow money.

Nearly every culture and spiritual religion has a name for a “lord of death”.

Regardless of which economic religion you follow, the only difference is how much and what type of government interference and economic hell you believe in.

To be continued next Tuesday For comments, send an e-mail to mbv. secretariat@gmail.com or visit www. mannyvillar.com.ph.

Send me an e-mail at mangun@ gmail.com. Visit my website at www. mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter at @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

United front vs port congestion

Gina Lopez goes ballistic Butch del Castillo

OMERTA

Ernesto M. Hilario

ABOUT TOWN

I

AM glad that both the government and the private sector are united in addressing the congestion at the Port of Manila, which has adversely affected consumer prices and business operations, and threatened the Philippines’s economic growth.

Port users and stakeholders held a summit on Monday to discuss the growing concern over the port congestion. According to retired Col. Rodolfo de Ocampo, president of the Port Users Confederation, the summit was held to gather key government officials and business groups to discuss various issues in port operations and cargo transport.

“A meaningful and continuing dialogue between stakeholders and the government is imperative to ensure that action points succeed without undue impact on trade,” de Ocampo said. “Broad public and private-sector collaboration is needed in sustaining gains from measures currently being undertaken by these sectors.”

With the congestion hampering the flow of trade, port users are worried that their competitiveness would unduly suffer as a result.

“Cargo delays escalate costs for firms, especially storage fees, higher trucking rates and perishable goods going bad, all of which will eventually be passed on to consumers,” de Ocampo emphasized.

Exporters are also affected by the port congestion, as delays in imported raw materials for seasonal items, including garments, could lead to rejection due to late arrival.

The summit’s attendees discussed and recommended concrete measures to address specific port concerns, including cargo handling, customs procedures, traffic management, antismuggling and security, the regulation of shipping lines, and port development.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya, Customs Commissioner John Phillip P. Sevilla, Philippine Ports Authority General Manager Juan Sta. Ana and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Francis Tolentino were invited to the summit. Others asked to speak at the summit were Guillermo M. Luz, private-sector co-chairman of the National Competitiveness Council; International Container Terminal Services Inc. Chairman and CEO Enrique K. Razon Jr.; and Asian Terminals Inc. Executive Vice President Andrew Hoad.

With more than 300 participants in attendance, including representatives from the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Makati Business Club, as well as the major foreign chambers of commerce, the summit was a timely initiative, as the port-utilization rate reached a high of 110 percent in July due to the truck ban imposed by the city government of Manila in February.

This level has been reduced to about 90 percent, but this is expected to increase again with the onset of the Christmas season.

Why pick on PCOS?

WITH the Commission on Elections (Comelec) set to hold a public bidding for more precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for use in the 2016 polls, certain quarters are apparently eager to stop the poll body from purchasing an additional 40,000 PCOS machines and to disqualify Smartmatic Corp., its partner in the 2010 and 2013 elections, from the auction.

Former Comelec Commissioner Augusto Lagman and his group are pushing for an open-election system (OES) that provides for manual precinct-level voting and counting, combined with the computerized canvassing of votes, which, they say, will only cost between P4 billion and

“Cargo delays escalate costs for firms, especially storage fees, higher trucking rates and perishable goods going bad, all of which will eventually be passed on to consumers,” retired Col. Rodolfo de Ocampo, president of the Port Users Confederation, emphasized.

P5 billion. However, the OES was already rejected by the Comelec in 2009.

Smartmatic, however, believes that, with the globally acclaimed results of the 2010 and 2013 automated polls, and the vote of confidence by no less than the Supreme Court in the accuracy of the machines and legality of its Comelec contracts, the PCOS system should continue to be used in 2016.

Smartmatic’s Cesar Flores asserts that the firm has a solid international reputation as a manufacturer of electronic-voting machines: “We are a world leader in the provision of both types of voting machines, the OMR [optimal-mark reader] and the DRE [direct-recording electronic].

None of our competitors have manufactured...more electronic-voting machines than Smartmatic.”

The mongrel system of manualcum-automated voting and counting junked by the Comelec in 2009 will contravene the intent of Republic Act 9369, which calls for the full computerization of the 2010 elections and succeeding polls through the use of the most suitable automated-election system technology in the “voting, counting, consolidating, canvassing and transmission of election results and other electoral process.”

Besides, the semi-manual system would be vulnerable to the return of the dreaded dagdag-bawas [addsubtract] system that had led to widespread violence and cheating in the past.

Moreover, there is neither fresh evidence nor new basis to warrant the disqualification of Smartmatic from the bidding. In fact, the Comelec has dismissed all electionrelated protests resulting from the failure of losing candidates to show proof of any discrepancy between the PCOS-tallied votes and the postelection recounted votes in the contested areas.

According to the Comelec, it will hold a two-stage competitive bidding process that will be open to all eligible local and foreign bidders and will abide by the Manual for the Procurement of Goods and Services issued by the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB). The poll body’s adoption of the new GPPB process will “result in standardized technical specifications that will include input, not only from the bidders themselves, but also from all stakeholders.”

Helen Flores, head of the Comelec’s Bids and Awards Committee, has assured all prospective bidders of fair treatment at the auction. By “all,” Flores was referring to Smartmatic and the four other companies that have, thus far, expressed interest in joining the bidding: Indra Sistemas; E-Konek Pilipinas Inc.; Election Systems and Software; and Miru Systems Co. Ltd. “The specifications do not favor any single bidder,” she said. “Our basis is the law. They [bidders] are on equal footing.”

E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.

First of two parts

T

HERE is this audit report by the Commission on Audit (COA) that seems to put in a bad light the Lopez Group’s ABS-CBN Foundation Inc. (AFI), a nonstock, nonprofit group that has positioned itself as a champion of environmental protection. It is headed by Regina Paz “Gina” L. Lopez.

The COA report is mainly about how the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) has not been receiving its rightful share of revenues generated for the past several years by the La Mesa Ecopark since the AFI assumed the management of its operations (2004 to 2009).

The audit report, issued in 2011, also raised other fundamental issues in the project’s financial operations, such as the yet-to-beapproved management fee of 15 percent (of gross revenues) that the AFI is demanding, but is already collecting as manager of the ecopark.

Under the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the AFI and the MWSS that is yet to be

ratified by the agency’s board, 40 percent of the ecopark’s net income is supposed to go to the MWSS, 30 percent to the AFI and 30 percent to the Quezon City government. If you do the math, this sharing of net profit, plus 15 percent of the gross, would give the AFI the lion’s share of the park’s income.

However, accord i ng to a n MWSS official, the profit-sharing scheme has all but been unilaterally scrapped by the AFI, which has been handling the ecopark’s revenues since day one. The COA report said: “Since 2005 no distribution of the share out of the net income was done by the AFI. The AFI has gone overboard by collecting

Apec summit Edgardo J. Angara

O

N the sidelines of the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (Apec) Leaders’ Meeting in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin sealed a new energy deal involving a pipeline that will deliver an additional 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China annually.

With an earlier energy agreement costing $400 billion, the deal will cumulatively secure up to one-fifth of China’s gas needs by 2020, according to Nomura Holdings estimates.

Both leaders also signed for China National Petroleum Corp.’s purchase of a 10-percent stake in a Siberian unit of Russia’s biggest oil company,

Rosneft. The buy-in will help the company manage up to $1 billion of its skyrocketing debt.

These moves form part of Russia’s attempts to have deeper ties with China, making a very nice bargain. Russia will have access to a credit line for repaying its dollar debt in exchange for China gaining

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

A7

management fees of 15 percent [of the gross income] and still holding on to the 100-percent net income for the past seven years.”

When I first read the COA report three years ago, my first reaction was to suspect that most of the issues it raised must have been overtaken by events and rendered academic by now.

But a high MWSS official told me these questions have remained unresolved to this day.

As conceived by the AFI, the La Mesa Ecopark project is meant to complement a broader purpose. The operation of the ecopark would be the revenue-raising arm. Reforestation covers some 2,700 hectares of land around the dam site.

As spelled out in the MOA with the MWSS, the AFI agreed “to support and contribute to the reforestation and forest-protection efforts and programs being undertaken by the MWSS in the La Mesa dam area and has agreed to extend full financial support for the implementation of said programs.” The AFI also agreed that its support and contributions to the undertaking would be given “at no cost to [the] MWSS.” The La Mesa watershed is a government-owned property titled under the MWSS and commissioned in 1929. It straddles the boundaries of the cities of Quezon and Caloocan,

the town of Rodriguez (formerly Montalban), and the provinces of Bulacan and Rizal.

It is the transit point of water coming from three other watersheds—Umiray in Aurora province, and Angat and Ipo in Bulacan. La Mesa houses the filtration plant that distributes water to Mega Manila’s 12 million to 14 million residents. La Mesa is also the last forest of its size in the National Capital Region.

But while there is no quarrel or issue with the way the AFI has implemented its La Mesa “resource-management framework plan,” which was approved by former MWSS Administrator Jose F. Mabanta and the agency’s board of trustees in 2002, the questions being raised about the AFI’s handling of the ecopark’s financial operations continue to bother MWSS officials.

Incidentally, it should be pointed out that the there have been four MWSS administrators who have come and gone since the AFI undertook the reforestation effort. These were Jose F. Mabanta, Orlando C. Andrade, Lorenzo H. Jamora and Diosdado Jose M. Allado. The current administrator is Gerardo A.I. Esquivel.

new energy-supply routes.

Such a Chinese-Russian partnership could develop into a formidable alternative to the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership. At the Apec summit, Beijing resumed its calls for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific and announced a $40-billion infrastructure fund for projects across the region for its “21st Century Silk Road” plan—a proposed land and maritime trade route that runs through three continents.

A new Cold War? The “icebreaker” meeting between Xi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was a more hopeful development, given that the territorial disputes in the East China Sea, particularly over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, were discussed.

With the meeting, the two sides have reportedly taken the initial steps toward reconciliation, like establish-

ing a crisis-management mechanism.

That signals a gradual resumption of political, diplomatic and security dialogues, echoing an earlier joint statement from the Chinese and Japanese foreign ministries.

On the other hand, President Aquino and Xi met briefly for the first time and exchanged cordial words over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) territorial dispute.

President Aquino said their “meeting of minds” was marked by “warmth” and “sincerity,” suggesting a new tone and direction to the rhetoric over the dispute.

Based on these developments in Beijing, tensions appear to be easing over the disputes in the South and East China seas. All of Asia might very well achieve its potential to become the global economy’s growth driver.

To be concluded on Wednesday E-mail: omerta_bdc@yahoo.com.

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

Now is the time to tackle malnutrition and its massive human costs

By José Graziano da Silva and Margaret Chan Inter Press Service

R

O M E /G E N E VA —T h e scourge of malnutrition affects the most vulnerable people in society, and it hurts most in the earliest stages of life. Today more than 800 million people, or about 11 percent of the global population, are chronically hungry.

Undernutrition is the underlying cause of almost half of all child deaths, and a quarter of living children are stunted due to inadequate nutrition. Micronutrient deficiencies—due to diets lacking in vitamins and minerals, also known as “hidden hunger”—affects 2 billion people.

Another worrying form of malnutrition—obesity—is on the rise.

More than 500 million adults are obese as a result of diets containing excess fat, sugars and salt.

This exposes people to a greater risk of noncommunicable diseases— heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer—that are now the top causes of death in the world. Poor diet and physical inactivity also account for 10 percent of the global burden of disease.

Many developing countries now face multiple burdens of malnutrition, with people living in the same communities—sometimes, even the same households—suffering from undernutrition, hidden hunger and obesity.

These numbers are shocking and must serve as a global call to action.

Besides the terrible human suffering, unhealthy diets also have a detrimental impact on the ability of countries to develop and prosper—the cost of malnutrition, in all its forms, is estimated between four and five percent of global gross domestic product.

Government leaders, scientists, nutritionists, farmers, civil-society and private-sector representatives from around the world will gather in Rome for the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), to be held from November 19 to 21. It is an opportunity they cannot afford to miss: making peoples’ right to a healthy diet a global reality.

Current food systems are unsustainable and unhealthy

CREATING healthy and sustainable food systems is key to overcoming malnutrition in all its forms, from hunger to obesity.

Food production has tripled since 1945, while average food availability per person has risen by only 40 percent. Our food systems have succeeded in increasing production, but this has come at a high environmental cost and has not been enough to end hunger.

Meanwhile, food systems have continued to evolve with an even greater proportion of food being processed and traded, leading to greater availability of foods with high energy, fats, sugars and salt.

Our food systems are simply not sustainable or healthy today, let alone in 2050, when we will have to feed more than 9 billion people.

This means we need to produce nutritious food, and produce it in ways that safeguard the capacity of future generations to feed themselves.

Put simply, we need healthy and sustainable food systems—ones that produce the right balance of foods in sufficient quantity and quality, and that are accessible to all—if we want to lead healthy, productive and sustainable lives.

Acting now

IN preparation for ICN2, countries have agreed to a Political Declaration and a Framework for Action on nutrition containing concrete recommendations to develop coherent public policies in agriculture, trade, social protection, education and health that promote healthy diets and better nutrition at all stages of life.

The Framework for Action gives governments a plan for developing and implementing national policies and investments throughout the food chain to ensure healthy, diverse and balanced diets for all.

This can include strengthening local food production and processing, especially by family farmers and small-scale producers, and linking it to school meals; reducing fat, sugars and salt in processed food; having schools and other public institutions offer healthy diets; protecting children from

the marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks; and allowing people to make informed choices regarding what they eat.

While health, agriculture and education ministries should take the lead, this task includes all involved in producing, distributing and selling food.

The Framework for Action also suggests greater investments to guarantee universal access to effective nutrition interventions, such as protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding, and increasing nutrients available to mothers.

Countries can start implementing these actions now. The first step is to establish national nutrition targets to implement already agreed-upon global targets, as set out in the Framework for Action.

ICN2 is the time and place to make these commitments.

The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization are ready to assist countries in this effort. By transforming commitment into action and cooperating more effectively with one another and with other stakeholders, the world has a real chance of ending the multiple burdens of malnutrition in all its forms within a generation.

José Graziano da Silva is the director-general of the United Nations’s Food and Agriculture Organization and Margaret Chan is the director-general of the World Health Organization.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Tuesday, November 18, 2014

‘Port logjam will continue due to lack of cooperation’

T

By David Cagahastian

he problem of port congestion remains, but only because of the increase in imports that comes with the coming of the Christmas season, Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya said on Monday.

Two months after the lifting of the truck ban in Manila, which was blamed for the current congestion at the ports, yard utilization remain at high percentages, ranging from 88 percent to 92 percent the week immediately past. As of Monday, Abaya said the Manila International Container Terminal , operated by the International Container Terminal Services Inc., had an 85-percent yard utilization rate. This was 5 percent higher than the 80-percent yard utilization rate the government plans to achieve as part of the effort to decongest the ports.

Abaya said the high utilization of the ports is normal during the Christmas season. Nevertheless, he said, long-term solutions are needed

to ensure that the problem of port congestion is effectively addressed.

He cited several other reasons that resulted in the port congestion, which should be addressed not only by the government but also by the private sector.

In his speech at the Ports Summit organized by the Port Users’ Confederation (PUC) in Manila, Abaya said there are some sectors that are not doing their share in solving the problem of port congestion. He said the indifference might force the government to act through regulations that will impose certain requirements on warehouse operators and international shipping lines.

The PUC’s Ports Summit is aimed at providing a forum for the govern-

ment and the private sector to discuss current issues, especially the problems of port congestion and worsening traffic in Metro Manila. The recommendations that will come out from the discussions will be given to the government for possible action.

“The international shipping lines should have enough depots for their empty containers. This is another problem that we’re trying to solve.

But the government doesn’t have a clear handle or push button to regulate these international shipping lines but they still have a role to play because if they’re not part of the solution, then they’re part of the problem,” Abaya said.

“That’s why we call on the warehouses and the shipping lines that before the government decides to mandate you to have your own container yards, you should develop, build or lease your own container yards,” he said.

Abaya explained that the withdrawal operations of importers and brokers are hampered by the underutilization of Sundays and early Monday mornings, which, in turn, are caused by the fact that warehouses are closed during these times.

He added that there are some shipping lines that find it economi-

cal to use the port as a warehouse, which necessitated the raising of storage fees at the ports to discourage cargo owners from using them as storage facility. Other measures the government recently put in place to address port congestion include the use of the ports in Subic, Zambales and Batangas City as extension ports of those in Manila. But, Abaya said, eventually the government and the private sector would have to come up with long-term solutions in keeping with the country’s economic development and without contributing to port congestion.

Some measures the government is looking at include the development of another major port in the Manila Bay, probably in Sangley Point in Cavite or in Bataan province, or the development of both the Subic Bay port and the Batangas port to distribute the development not only in the capital, but also in the northern and southern parts of Luzon.

Another short-term solution the government plans to implement in February is the truck scheduling system, a computerized system that will schedule the trips of truckers so that they would only be allowed to travel when they are on their way to a scheduled pickup or delivery at the pier.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PHL AMONG THE TOP MARKETS OF MEDICINE COUNTERFEITERS

By Catherine N. Pillas

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he Philippines appears to have become the eighth-largest market for counterfeit medicines in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a global watchdog of bogus pharmaceutical products.

“In the world, Asia has the most number of cases of counterfeit-drug incidents. Europe has half the number of cases as Asia. In Asia, the Philippines is ranked in the Top 10 with the eighth most number of incidents,” said Samson Chiu, Asia Pacific director of the Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI), in a news conference held on Monday morning.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is observing this week the National Consciousness Week Against Counterfeit Medicines.

The PSI, whose members include international researchers, is a Washington-based nonprofit organization that disseminates information on counterfeit pharmaceutical products for public safety.

According to PSI, the number of reported cases in Asia from 2011 to 2013 totaled 2, 876 cases, with Europe only at 1,213. Latin America follows with 1,169 cases, and North America with 736 cases.

In Asia, China and India are the two biggest sources of fake medicine; they account for 90 percent of fake medicine circulating worldwide.

In terms of incidents, the Philippines had 50 cases reported from 2011 to 2013. China, likewise, ranks as the top country with the most number of cases with 718 reports over the same period.

According to Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines Deputy Direc-

tor General Allan B. Gepty, about 80 percent of fake medicines circulating in the Philippine market are smuggled.

Health Assistant Secretary Nicolas B. Lutero III, currently the officer in charge of the FDA, said the landscape today points to the proliferation of smuggled medicines rather than local laboratories illegally manufacturing drugs.

Philippine Chamber of the Pharmaceutical Industry Director William P. Fabroa estimates that fake drugs have infiltrated 10 percent to 15 percent of the local market. He, however, said the impact on Filipino medicine brands, such as Biogesic, has been minimal.

Counterfeiters are mostly targeting imported branded drugs.

Actual figures or estimates on the economic losses from fake medicines are not available.

“We’re not estimating the loss in financial terms, rather on how this affects the health of the general public,” said Tetsuya Ikeda, director of Security at Pfizer Inc. Pfizer products that are being faked mostly, added Ikeda, include Aricept for Alzheimer’s Disease; Celebrex, an anti-inflammatory drug; Genotropi, human growth-hormone drug; Lipitor to combat high cholesterol; Norvasc, for high blood pressure; and Viagra, among others.

“In the Philippines, most of the counterfeit drugs are from foreign sources who want to take advantage of the market here,” Ikeda said.

Ikeda estimates that 50 percent of drugs sold online are counterfeit.

Groupon and similar discount sites, as well as Facebook, have been used to distribute counterfeit drugs.

‘Cook’s test kitchen inaugurated

By Roderick L. Abad

C

OOK Magazine launched on Monday its first-ever kitchen studio, which will serve as its recipe-testing and demonstration facility.

Chef Dino H. Datu, Cook editor in chief, revealed that, for the past 15 years since the monthly culinary publication’s inception, they have been doing photo shoots of their featured recipes in just home kitchen setups.

“So we wanted a formal test kitchen, for one of the main emphasis of Cook is we want all the recipes that we feature to be tested to know how they taste and are served,” he said.

Located on the seventh floor of Vista Hotel in Cubao, Quezon City, the cutting-edge test kitchen is fully equipped with Hafele-branded appliances and fixtures, BergHoff cooking and table wares, as well as Gree airconditioning technologies.

Datu noted that such an ideal kitchen environment will allow them to do almost all the recipe contents of the magazine without limitations.

Nathaniel N. Sagun (from left), vice president/national sales director, The Fundamental Kitchen; Juan Carlos Pineda, executive vice president, Ugong Trade and Holdings Inc.; Chef Dino Datu, editor in chief, Cook Magazine; T. Anthony C. Cabangon, BusinessMirror publisher; Dr. Archie Nacpil, manager, Kitchen Appliances Division, Hafele Philippines Inc.; and Marlon A. Aldenese, advertising sales manager, Cook Magazine, lead the opening of the Cook Magazine’s Kitchen Studio on the seventh floor of Vista Hotel in Cubao, Quezon City. NONOY LACZA

While it took years to realize such facility, Cook Publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon expressed his gratitude to Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, chairman of the ALC Group of Companies, for providing the location of the kitchen studio, as well

as their partners. “[With] this one, we’ll be able to help the industry with the test kitchen,” he said, while citing that it will also double as a venue for product trials and launches of their partner-companies.

Remittances hit 2014 high in Sept Continued from A1

attributed to sustained demand for skilled Filipino manpower overseas—both in land-based and seabased labor.

In the January-to-September period, cash remittances from landbased workers grew by 5.4 percent to $13.5 billion. Meanwhile, seabased workers sent home $4.2 billion worth of remittances during the same period, expanding by 8.3 percent from last year.

About 80 percent of the total remittances during the month came from the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada, according to the central bank.

The central bank also attributed the remittance f lows to the increasing number of remittance channels established by bank and non-bank institutions around the world.

“As of end-September 2014, the number of commercial banks’ established tie-ups, remittance centers, correspondent banks and branches or representative offices abroad totaled 4,587, 4 percent higher than the level as of end-September 2013,” the central bank said.

The central bank also cited preliminary reports from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showing 680,392 job orders for the January-to-September period. About half of the job

orders were for service, production and professional, technical and related workers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar.

Meanwhile, personal remittances, which account for both monetary and material transfers, amounted to $2.3 billion in September, rising by 8.1 percent from the comparable month last year.

The remittances were highest at $2.154 billion in December last year, when it helped fuel consumption activities that also helped drive the economy forward at an annual rate of 7.2 percent in terms of the gross domestic product during the period.

About a third of the $270-billion Southeast Asian economy is consumption-driven.