THE MANILA TIMES | AUGUST 09, 2019

Bangko Sentral cuts policy rates by 25 bps

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•• 5 SECTIONS PAGES • VOL. 120 NO. 297 28

FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 2019

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A man braves big waves and pelting rain to look for materials that can be recycled in Manila Bay. PHOTO BY DJ DIOSINA

n US-funded news outfit operating right in the President’s hometown.

SCREENGRAB FROM MINDANEWS and NED.

CIA-linked outfit funds Davao-based anti-Duterte news site

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HE N a tional Endowment For Democracy (NED), accused of being a venue for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) propaganda and destabilization operations in Eastern Europe and most recently in Hong Kong, has added another Internet news site here to its stable of such outfits critical of the Duterte regime. äTiglaoA5

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China delaying sea code – Duterte

BY CATHERINE S. VALENTE

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RESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday slammed China for delaying the passage of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China (West Philippine) Sea and vowed to discuss the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing this month.

What’s inside PALACE: MARTIAL LAW LIFTING IN DAVAO RISKY NewsA2 PAMELA DAVILA PASCUAL President World Trade Center Metro Manila

SMB, TNT CLASH FOR 2-1 SERIES LEAD

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Champion MICE catcher

She thinks the Philippines is still the best place to meet

“That’s why I’m going there. They are delaying it and it’s causing so many incidents, and one day it will — one mistake, a miscalculation there and mahirap na bawian ‘yun (there would be no turning back),” Duterte said during a chance interview.

“It could be China. Nobody else is

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CoA: Millions of DepEd textbooks gathering dust THE Department of Education (DepEd) purchased tons of instructional materials, but millions of copies have not been distributed and are gathering dust in warehouses, according to the Commission on Audit (CoA).

The commission said DepEd acquired “an alarming number of undistributed instructional materials” worth P136.5 million as buffer stock from 2014 to 2017.

Of the 4 million textbooks and teacher manuals it purchased, the DepEd was only able to distribute

Malacañang to ‘abused’ Chinese: File charges

to public schools 652, 842 copies — 230,086 in 2016, 321,103 in 2017 and 101,653 in 2018. The remaining copies — 3,410,137 — are stored in five warehouse in Taguig City.

The audit agency said the acquisition of the instructional materials fell under the “irregular,unnecessary, excessive, extravagant and unconscionable expenditures.”

The DepEd acquired the buffer stock to replace lost or damaged textbooks and manuals and to meet

MALACAÑANG on Thursday urged Chinese workers who allegedly suffered from abuse while working in the Philippines to file complaints, assuring them that the government would not tolerate the violation of their rights.

Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo made the assurance after the Chinese Embassy in China called on the Philippine government to punish casinos and offshore gaming firms that illegally employ its citizens.

According to the embassy, some Chinese workers had their passports taken away, while others were subjected to “extortion, physical abuse and

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PH growth slows to 5.5% in 2nd quarter ALDEN MEETS ‘YORME’

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PHILIPPINE economic growth slowed to 5.5 percent in the second quarter of the year, the lowest since the first quarter of 2015, as the budget impasse and election spending ban affected government spending.

The Philippine Statistics Authority

(PSA), in a briefing on Thursday, said this is also significantly lower than the 6.2 percent expansion in the same quarter last year.

The second quarter economic growth was also down from the 5.6 percent during the first quarter of the year.

National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Claire Dennis Mapa said net primary income from the rest of the world and Gross National Income grew by 3.1 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively.

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ASIAN STOCKS: s

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PSEi

7,914.16 DOWN 0.04%

P52.04 TO $1

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Shanghai 0.93%

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MORE LENDING CENTERS EYED BY LANDBANK PLDT H1 INCOME UP 4% TO P12.2B

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S i n g a p o re 0 . 4 9 %

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Seoul 0.57%

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To k yo 0 . 3 7 %

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TRUMP: FED RATE CUTS MUST BE BIGGER

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S widely expected, the country’s monetary authorities on Thursday resumed trimming key interest rates by 25 basis points (bps) after pausing in June, and adjusted downward its inflation outlook for this year and next.

‘PEZA contributed P10T in 2015-2017’ THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) said on Thursday it and its registered firms contributed a total of P10.05 trillion to the Philippine economy from 2015 to 2017, in an effort to banish whatever misconceptions people have about the state-run agency.

In a statement, PEZA said exports accounted for 70 percent of the amount;

H o n g Ko n g 0 . 4 8 %

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B a n g ko k 0 . 2 6 %

The move was anticipated by many economists and analysts interviewed

by The Manila Times, including those from ING Bank Manila, HSBC, Nomura Securities Ltd. and Union Bank of the Philippines.

“The Monetary Board’s decision [to cut rates] is based on its assessment that

A Bureau of Customs employee inspects several fruits and vegetables that are among the P24-million worth of agricultural products seized at the Manila International Container Port in Manila on Thursday as part of the agency’s anti-smuggling efforts.

PHOTO BY DJ DIOSINA

salaries and wages to direct employees, 12.46 percent; local purchases of capital equipment and raw materials, 7.6 percent; investments, 7.5 percent; taxes paid by PEZA firms to the government, 2.7 percent; and PEZA taxes and dividends, 0.04 percent.

The agency released the data as

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9.09 points to finish at 4,818.32.

“Philippine second quarter GDP (gross domestic product) [came] in at 5.5 percent, which is the lowend of the consensus. However, we did not see a much of a fallout on local equities,” AAA Southeast Equities Inc. research head Christopher Mangun said.

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San Miguel profit falls to P26B in Jan-June SAN Miguel Corp. (SMC) saw its net income slide to P26.15 billion in the first half of the year, dragged down by profit decreases in its petroleum and food segments.

In a statement on Thursday, the listed conglomerate said the amount was a 5-percent decrease from P27.58 billion in January to June 2018.

This, despite its revenues climbing by 2 percent to P509.5 billion in the period from last year’s P499 billion.

Operating income declined by 14 percent to P57.6 billion in the first semester from P67 billion year-on-year, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization dipped by 4

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Make listed companies also public J OSE Arnulfo A. Veloso is a member of the 15-person board of Philippine National Bank (PNB). At the same time, he is the bank’s president and chief executive officer. A public

In a briefing at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) complex in Manila, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno announced that the central bank’s policymaking Monetary Board slashed rates on the overnight reverse repurchase, deposit and lending facilities to 4.25 percent, 3.75 percent and 4.75 percent, respectively.

FRUITS OF HIS LABOR

PSEI FLAT ON LAZY PH GROWTH FIGURE THE stock market traded sideways on Thursday before finishing slightly lower following a slower economic growth figure in the second quarter of the year.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dipped by 0.04 percent or 3.23 points to close at 7,914.16, while the broader All Shares declined by 0.19 percent or

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Bangko Sentral cuts policy rates by 25 bps

BY JORDEENE B. LAGARE

»Corporate NewsB3

Jakarta 1.14%

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FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019

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ownership report (POR) as of June 30, 2019 listed him as indirect holder of 159,101 PNB common shares.

On Aug. 5, 2019, Veloso

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