THE MANILA TIMES | AUGUST 12, 2019

Narrow PH budget deficit seen in 2019

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MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2019

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T E AC H E R S TO CO N G R E S S:

Probe textbook fiasco

BY DIVINA NOVA JOY DELA CRUZ

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HE Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Sunday urged Congress to investigate the irregularities surrounding the purchase by the Department of Education (DepEd) of textbooks and instructional materials that were not distributed to public äFiascoA2 schools.

EID’L ADHA

n NPA propaganda in a web-only news site. Contrary to media regulations, Bulatlat doesn’t disclose who its editors are, not even its address.

Party-list system, Yellow and Red media fool youth into joining communists

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T was indeed heartwrenching to hear mothers tearfully relating at a Senate hearing, how their teen-age daughters — for chrissake! daughters — abandoned their homes and schools as they were recruited to become full-time cadres of Anakbayan which, I will mince no words, is one of the fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines. äTiglaoA5

RIGOBERTO D. TIGLAO

Science and politics

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F there are two characters that would make the strangest of bedfellows, these would be the scientist and the politician.

FR. RANHILIO CALLANGAN AQUINO

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FESTIVAL OF SACRIFICE

Muslims pray during the celebration of Eid’l Adha at the Quezon City Memorial Circle on Sunday. PHOTO BY RUY MARTINEZ

ONLY CHINA INTERESTED IN OIL DEAL – LOCSIN FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Sunday said “no other country” wants to conduct joint oil exploration with the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea (WPS or

Give a piece of yourselves, Duterte urges Filipinos AS Muslims mark Eid’l Adha or the Feast of Sacrifice on Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte called on Filipinos to support programs and projects for the common

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What’s inside SC OKAYS REINSTATEMENT OF FORMER CHED EXEC

South China Sea) except China.

Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo had said the Duterte administration was entering into the deal with China

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THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST INCINERATION HAVEN’T CHANGED

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‘Govt firing on all cylinders’ REACH US AT: E-mail: newsdesk@ manilatimes.net Tel. Nos.: 524-5664 to 67 Address: 2/F Sitio Grande, 409 A. Soriano Avenue, Intramuros, Manila 1002

good and to respect authority.

In a statement, President Rodrigo Duterte said the religious festival calls on

Marit Stinus-CabugonA5

Public spending near normal – Dominguez

BY BEN KRITZ GOVERNMENT spending is finally “firing on all cylinders” after being hamstrung by a fiveand-a-half month delay in enacting the 2019 budget, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd told The Manila Times.

In an exclusive interview on Friday, Dominguez said government spending through the

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RED, STEFFEN RULE REGENT AGUILA IRONMAN 70.3

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ARA MINA LAUNCHES OWN MAKEUP LINE

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What’s inside 4PS-TYPE PROGRAM PUSHED FOR FARMERS

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LIPAD TO LEAD CLARK AIRPORT’S O&M SOON

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HANJIN EXPOSURE LINGERS ON METROBANK SHARES Stock WatchB3

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PSEI COMPOSITION UNCHANGED

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Narrow PH budget deficit seen in 2019

BY MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO

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HE Philippine government is likely to post a narrow fiscal deficit this year because of the delayed approval of the 2019 national budget, Moody’s Investor Service said.

“We expect the fiscal deficit to narrow significantly to around 2 percent of

GDP (gross domestic product) in 2019 before widening to 3.0 percent of GDP

in 2020, largely reflecting the negative impact of the budgetary delay earlier this year amid continued revenue increases,” the global debt watcher said in a report released late last week.

Moody’s outlook for the budget deficit is lower than the 3.2 percent of GDP programmed by the interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee.

More sin taxes govt’s priority THE Department of Finance (DoF) will prioritize the passage of additional “sin” taxes under the Package 2 Plus B of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP), Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd said late last week.

“I want to get the ones that have revenue impact out of the way because the revenue measures we have here are to primarily fund the Universal Health Care (UHC),” Dominguez told reporters when asked about the DoF’s order of priority on the passage of the remaining proposals under the CTRP. The Finance chief is pertaining to the Package 2 Plus B, which proposes further increase in the excise taxes on alcohol, electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and vapor

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MONDAY AUGUST 12, 2019

Business Times

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The latest projection is lower than last year’s actual budget deficit of 3.3 percent of GDP. A dispute between Congress’ two chambers over alleged insertions resulted in the four-and-a-half-month delay of the passage of this year’s budget. This forced the government to run on last year’s budget, limiting it to spend for

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Inflation slowdown to continue – DoF

LINGERING WORRIES

A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wall Street in New York City on August 9, 2019. Wall Street stocks opened lower Friday amid lingering worries over slowing global growth and the escalating US-China trade war, and as Uber shares sank on disappointing results. AFP PHOTO

SHARES OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK:

SIDEWAYS TRADING AMID ABSENCE OF CLEAR LEADS

THE stock market is expected to continue trading sideways this week over the lack of catalyst to buoy sentiment.

In a comment over the weekend, P2P Trade Online sales associate Gabriel Jose Perez said market “could remain sideways in the nearterm as the PSEi trades with a lack of clear immediate catalysts.”

“Resistance is at the psychological round number of 8,000, while support is at the most recent low around 7,720,” he added.

This was also amid the ghost season, a Chinese belief where big-ticket investments are being avoided.

Meanwhile, several companies are scheduled to announce their first-half earnings results this week, including LT Group Inc., Ayala Corp., International Container Terminal Services Inc., DMCI Holdings Inc., Semirara Mining and Power Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., Megaworld Corp., and GT Capital Holdings Inc., among others.

On Friday, the bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped by 0.76 percent or 59.77 points to close at 7,854.39 while the wider All Shares declined by 0.71 percent or 34.21 points to finish at 4,784.11.

ANGELICA BALLESTEROS

Does Wendel stand for Sr. or Jr.?

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.M. Wenceslao & Associates (DMWAI) has 3,395,864,100 outstanding common shares out of the company’s 4 billion authorized capital stock (ACS).

A s D M WA I ’s m a j o r ity stockholder, Wendel Holdings Co. Inc. owns 2,136,554,780 common shares, or 62.92 percent. PCD Nominee Corp. holds 646,242,073 common shares, or 18.99 percent, as record stockholder for beneficial owners.

Delfin J. Wenceslao Jr. is the record and beneficial owner of 578,808,847 common shares, or 17.04 percent, according to DMWAI’s general information sheet (GIS).

Wendel Holdings is DMWAI’s majority stockholder. It owns 2,136,554,780 common shares, or 62.92 percent. PCD Nominee Corp. holds as record holder of 636,021,173 common shares, or 18.73 percent, for Filipino, and 44,065,500 common shares, or 1.30 percent, for foreigners.

In its GIS, D. M. Wenceslao & Associates named Wenceslao as holder of 76.98 percent of the family-owned company’s common shares. When computed, the percentage is equivalent to 4,411,358,924 DMWAI common shares.

Wenceslao owns 99.55 percent of Wendel Holdings.

The percentage is equivalent to Wendel’s ownership of 2,126,940,283 DMWAI common shares.

Ownership profile. A public ownership report (POR) as of June 30, 2019 listed DMWAI’s seven directors as holders of 2,173,447,316 common shares, or 79.904 percent of outstanding. The board’s holdings consisted of direct ownership of 578,815,437 common shares, or 17.045 percent, and indirect ownership of 2,134,631,879 common shares, or 62.860 percent.

Wenceslao topped the list with direct ownership of 578,808,847 DMWAI common shares, or 17.046 percent. In addition, he indirectly held 2,126,940,283 DMWAI common shares, or 62.633 percent, for total holdings of 2,705,749,130 DMWAI common shares, or 79.678 percent.

Three of DMWAI’s 12 executives directly owned 62,595 common shares, and indirectly held 1,922,899 common shares, for total ownership of 1,988,824 common shares, or 0.059 percent.

According to the same POR, Wendel

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INFLATION rate will continue to decelerate in the coming months to hit the lower end of the government’s assumption for the full year average, a senior Department of Finance (DoF) official said.

In an interview late last week, Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran said the DoF is hoping for lower August inflation following the lower 2.4 percent print in July.

Beltran stressed that the sustained deceleration in inflation rate would result in a lower fullyear 2019 average, which he stressed would be “more on the lower end” of the interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee’s 2.7-3.5 percent assumption.

“It depends upon oil prices because inflation is also affected by petroleum products, but food items will continue to go down because it has happened for the last five or six months,” he added.

According to the recently re-

leased Second Quarter Inflation Report of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), estimated futures prices of Dubai crude oil as of end-June 2019, which are based on movements of Brent crude oil, showed a lower path for 2019 to 2023, compared with estimates in the previous quarter.

Citing the June 2019 US Energy Information Administration report, the central bank said world oil supply was expected to reach 100.85 million barrels per day (mb/d) this year, slightly lower than the projected world oil demand of 101.14 mb/d.

The BSP also reported that sufficient domestic food supply conditions continued to support easing food prices in the second quarter of 2019.

Food inflation rate slowed down significantly to 3.0 percent yearon-year in April-June after exceeding the upper end of the target of

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