‘6% GDP growth goal still doable’
»Story on B1
HH
Php20.00
•• 5 SECTIONS PAGES • VOL. 120 NO. 301 28
TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2019
Trusted since 1898
Questions for Ambassador Zhao
T
R w w w.manilatimes.net
HE British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made a telling comment while recounting her experience in dealing with Chinese leaders during her visit to China. She wrote: “The Chinese never mince words in their own public statements, but they expect everyone else to do so.” äMakabentaA4
OBSERVER YEN MAKABENTA
PH bans Chinese survey vessels Copied ideas bear fruit in Manila MANILA Mayor Francisco “Isko” Domagoso, who received heaps of praises for his efforts to clean the city, declared on Monday that part of his success comes from copied ideas. Domagoso, who was the guest at the “Hotseat” program of The Manila Times TV, added that bringing order and removing road obstructions are part of the daily tasks of a mayor. He said his principle on governance was inspired by the late Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew. “I’m not ashamed telling others that I’m duplicating things, I’m trying to copy whatever is good for the city,” Domagoso said. Upon taking his post, the former actor cleaned streets and relocated illegal vendors plying the stretch of Recto Avenue and Carriedo. The mayor said he removed illegal vendors from major thoroughfares but
äIdeasA2
C
BY BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO
HINESE ships are no longer allowed to conduct marine research in Philippine waters after Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. included Chinese vessels in the ban that prevented Japanese and French vessels from doing research in the country’s territorial waters. “I banned marine survey ships, amending restriction to France and Japan by adding China,” Locsin said on Twitter on Monday. “To pick and choose invites suspicion of favoritism. Will universalize the ban. Period,” he said.
Locsin added, “Granting exception to one country will automatically lift ban universally. Exceptions invite bribes.” He posted the tweets in reply to the remark of Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo that there is nothing wrong in seeking
äBansA2
Hong Kong airport shut down amid protests HONG KONG: All flights in and out of Hong Kong were canceled on Monday after thousands of prodemocracy protesters flooded the city’s airport to denounce police violence. The abrupt shutdown at one
of the world’s busiest hubs came as the Chinese government signaled its rising anger at the protesters, denouncing some of the violent demonstrations as “terrorism.”
äAirportA2
What’s inside P4.3B NIA DEALS GIVEN TO ‘INELIGIBLE’ CONTRACTORS PROUD TO BE A COPYCAT
Manila Mayor Francisco ‘Isko’ Domagoso discusses his plans and projects on The Manila Times TV’s ‘Hotseat’ program. PHOTO BY GERARD SEGUIA
Evolution, Growth and Impact said the Philippines has the “highest incidence” of fake medicines in Southeast Asia. The report depicted the Philippines as “a hotspot for knockoff drugs.” Recto said the report is alarming because it claims that from 2014 to 2017, fake medicines, mostly from Paki-
stan, India and China, entered the Philippines through an illicit trade network. “On top of this is the reported market penetration of locally-manufactured counterfeit over-the-counter medicines,” Recto said. He said government should unmask which of “these misbranded, spurious, fake, and
äFakeA8
WHEN REVOLUTIONS DEVOUR THE CHILDREN
Antonio ContrerasA4
PH a hotspot for fake drugs? Recto seeks Senate probe SENATE President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto has filed a resolution prodding the Senate to investigate a United Nations report that the Philippines has became a hotspot for fake medicines. The 2019 report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime titled Transnational Organized Crime in Southeast Asia:
NewsA2
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
BLAZERS EYE SHARE OF LEAD VS CHIEFS
SportsD1
MAINE MENDOZA NOT PRESSURED AFTER SUCCESS OF KATHRYNALDEN MOVIE
EntertainmentE1
Please visit our website for more news www.manilatimes.net
A S I A N S TO C K S: s
www.manilatimes.net
Shanghai 1.45%
Singapore (closed)
s
Seoul 0.23%
To k y o ( c l o s e d )
t
Jakarta 0.50%
t
BEYOND BUZZWORDS
Hong Kong 0.44%
t
TUESDAY AUGUST 13, 2019
Business Times
B1
B2
Bangkok (closed)
‘6% GDP growth goal still doable’ BY ANNA LEAH E. GONZALES
T
HE government might be able to achieve the lower end of its economic growth target of between 6.0 percent and 7.0 percent for this year once government spending accelerates in the second half, according to an economist from the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).
More ‘sin’ taxes to raise P33B for govt – DoF ADDITIONAL “sin” taxes under the proposed Package 2 Plus B of the government’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) could add P36.54 billion to state revenues in its first year of implementation, the Department of Finance (DoF) said. Package 2 Plus B proposes to further increase excise taxes on alcohol, electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and vapor products to provide more funds for the government’s Universal
Health Care program. Preliminary estimates provided by Finance Assistant Secretary Antonio Joselito Lambino 2nd on Sunday night showed that of the total, P24.7 billion would come from the higher excise tax on fermented beer, P400 million from alcopops, P8.2 billion from distilled spirits, P40 million from wines, and P3.2 billion from e-cigarettes. Under Package 2 Plus B, the tax rate on alcohol
äRaise B3
DOF HIGHLIGHTS H1 ACCOMPLISHMENTS Revenue, policy gains made in less-than-ideal conditions, but challenges remain BY BEN KRITZ IN spite of a budget impasse which virtually halted progress toward the government’s objectives for the first six months of the year, the Department of Finance (DoF) was able to record some notable achievements, summary data released to the media last week revealed. But although public spending is now “firing on all cylinders,” as Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd said, significant obstacles remain, and
may dampen efforts to catch up to expectations for 2019 through the rest of the year. In an interview on Friday, Dominguez detailed the extreme extent to which the delay in enacting the 2019 General Appropriations Act — the result of congressional resistance to the change to a cash-based, rather than obligationbased, budget system — slowed public spending: whereas the normal pace of spending under this year’s budget would have
Analysis
V
äAccomplishments B3
PH’s POGO problem
ERY soon, within a timeframe that can be measured in months if not weeks, the controversial issue of Philippine Online Gaming Operations (POGOs) is going to be resolved, and in a manner that will badly bruise a number of business sectors and government agencies for their lack of foresight. The topic came up in my recent conversation with Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez, and while some of what emerged was “on deep background” as we like to say in this business, it is reassuring that the nation’s chief bean counter is under no illusions whatsoever as to the scale, significance, and implications of
ROUGH TRADE BEN KRITZ the POGO phenomenon. The sore point for the public, of course, is the glaringly obvious fact that the mysterious call centers that have sprouted across Metro Manila and other economic zones are only “Philippine” in the sense that they are physically located here; their management, staffing, and market is otherwise wholly Chinese. The sudden appearance of thousands
äKritz B3
What’s inside SACK UNDERPERFORMING EXECS, DA CHIEF URGED BETTER PERMIT SYSTEM FOR ENERGY PROJECTS SOUGHT AIRASIA TO SPEND $350M FOR NEW JETS
»BusinessB2 »BusinessB2
»Corporate NewsB3
ASIAN MARKETS MIXED AS US-CHINA TALKS IN BALANCE
»Foreign BusinessB4
“To achieve the minimum target of 6 percent for GDP (gross domestic product) in 2019, GDP growth should be at least 6.4 percent in 3Q (third quarter) and 4Q (fourth quarter) of 2019,” Michael L. Ricafort, RCBC head of economics and industry research division and corporate planning group, told The Manila Times.
“[The] 6-percent GDP growth target for 2019 remains achievable through measures such as the accelerated and catch-up government spending on infrastructure,” he added. Ricafort’s statement came after the National Economic and Development Authority and the Philippine Statistics Authority
announced on August 8 that the country’s economic growth slowed to an-over-four-year low of 5.5 percent in the second quarter from 5.6 percent in the first. “The 2Q (second quarter) 2019 GDP growth of 5.5 percent is the slowest in 17 quarters (more than four years) and below market expectations, again largely due to
government underspending, with the delay in the approval of the 2019 national budget on April 15, 2019; the election ban on some government construction/infrastructure projects; the mild El Niño drought that weighed on agriculture; and the slower global economic growth due to the US-China trade war that
äGoal B3
Please visit our website for more news www.manilatimes.net