By Bianca Cuaresma

Money sent home by more or less 10 million overseas Fili-pino workers (oFWs) pushed

past record-high remittances set in 2013, and rounded 2014 with cash re-mittances 5.8 percent higher to $24.31 billion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipi-nas (BSP) said on Monday. The new record broke expecta-tions that overseas remittances, an important growth driver for the consumption-led Southeast Asian economy, would expand by up to only 5 percent during the period. According to the BSP, the full-year performance was highlight-ed by remittances aggregating

$2.32 billion in December, also higher by 9.4 percent from remit-tances totaling only $2.12 billion a year earlier. The continued resilience of overseas remittance flows viewed against a backdrop of a slowing global economy in 2014 contrasted

www.businessmirror.com.ph n TfridayNovember 18, 2014 Vol. 10 No. 40 P25.00 nationwide | 7 sections 32 pages | 7 days a weekn Tuesday, February 17, 2015 Vol. 10 No. 131

A broader look at today’s businessBusinessMirrorthree-time

rotary club of manila journalism awardee2006, 2010, 2012u.n. media award 2008

Peso exchange rates n us 44.2770 n jaPan 0.3728 n uK 68.1866 n hK 5.7107 n china 7.0951 n singaPore 32.6960 n australia 34.2967 n eu 50.4359 n saudi arabia 11.8025 Source: BSP (16 February 2015)

Ayala Land income up 26% in 2014 By VG Cabuag

AyAlA land Inc., the coun-try’s second-largest property developer, on Monday said

its net income rose 26 percent last year as a result of the robust perfor-mance of all its units, from residen-tial to office and mall operations.

The company said in a statement its income reached P14.8 billion in 2014, from the previous year’s record profit of P11.74 billion. last year’s rate of growth, how-ever, was slower than 2013’s 30-per-cent increase in its net income and 36 percent in revenues. Consolidated revenues reached

P95.2 billion, 17 percent higher from the previous year’s P81.52 billion. “Moving forward, we will con-tinue to introduce new residential projects and scale up our commercial-leasing operations in support of our 2020 Vision,” company President and CEO Bernard Vincent Dy said.

exPorts, goVt sPending liftedjaPan out of recession in Q4JAPAn’S economy emerged

from recession in the last quarter, growing at a 2.2 per-

cent annualized rate, as exports and public spending helped to off-set weaker residential investment. However, the preliminary data released on Monday put growth for the world’s third-largest econ-omy in 2014 flat at 0.0 percent, the slowest rate in three years, while real wages fell 0.1 percent.

The economy expanded 0.6 percent in October to December from the previous quarter, a rate that fell below many economists’ expectations. Private investment that re-mained anemic, suggesting that businesses and households, which account for the lion’s share of growth, remain cautious about spending.

Remittances at new record highcash sent home by ofws in 2014 surged by 5.8% to $24.31b, or 8.5% of gdP

Continued on A2

See “Ayala,” A8

Thai economy barely grew in 2014 afTer proTesTs, coupThailand’s economy barely grew last year

as tourism, investment and exports fell after months of antigovernment protests and a

May coup. The national Economic and social de-velopment Board said on Monday the economy grew 0.7 percent in 2014, falling short of expecta-tions of 1-percent growth. The government agency predicted southeast asia’s second-largest economy, behind indonesia, will expand between 3.5 percent and 4.5 percent in 2015, as world growth picks up and tourism, exports and investment recover. Renowned for its pristine beaches and high- quality rice, Thailand is also a manufacturing base for electronics manufacturers and several global automakers, including General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. Thailand was hit by months of anti-government

protests before the May coup, which was the latest major episode in a decadelong battle between the country’s ruling class and a populist political move-ment started by telecoms billionaire and former Prime Minister Thaksin shinawatra. The coup has ushered in a period of relative calm but deep divisions remain. The agency said the po-litical instability made the number of tourists de-cline by 1.77 million people compared with 2013. Export volumes rose slightly last year but prices fell, producing a 0.3-percent drop in export value over-all. Thailand temporarily lost its crown as the world’s top rice exporter as it stockpiled rice in an attempt to force up global prices after introducing large subsidies for rice crops. The agency said the economy grew by 2.3 percent in the October-to-december quarter, 1.7 percent higher than in the previous quarter. it shrank in the first half of the year. AP

Three newlywed couples, (from left) artit Thanajindawong and daradai wachirapootthacoon, Prontathorn Pronnapatthun and Chaiyut Phuamgphoeksuk, and Pirat rungthongoran and Nichapatr koomsombut, take part in an adventure-themed wedding ceremony in ratchaburi Province, Thailand. AP

INSIDE

the futureof Verticalcity liVing

egyPt striKesi.s. grouP in libya after Video of mass Killing

REAL-ESTATE prices in the Philippines have been going up and property investors and developers alike have been aggressive in addressing this,

especially since land is scarce in Metro Manila.

There has been a significant increase in the supply of condominiums and other vertical residential developments, and it seems this trend will continue in the next few years. Practically, every property developer is out there in search of more land and more opportunities to sell their products. A look at the market will reveal all sorts of investment propositions and condo units are selling like hotcakes due to the very tempting amortization schemes each developer is offering.

The challenge in the coming years is how to integrate tropical architecture in vertical residential developments. The Philippines is situated in an extremely tropical region of the world where hot and humid days are the norm throughout the year, with rains intermittently providing a respite from the heat. Oftentimes, a client would ask our office to design a home that is open and breezy and “resort-like,” often citing that they want their home to be an oasis from the nonstop heat and the burst of heavy rains.

Homeowners have, of course, the privilege of building their dream home according to their tastes and the climate. But when it comes to high-rise condominiums, curtain walls and glass windows are often employed to give the illusion of space, but this allows heat to penetrate into the building and oftentimes unit owners result to blackout drapes if only to keep the heat out.

What if the next generation of vertical residentials were designed for tropics? If property developers in Singapore or some other tropical country recognize the need to design and build with the environment in mind, why can’t we follow suit? Is it because of cost? Perhaps developers here need to realize they are designing and building for new lifestyles, and

Life Tuesday, February 17, 2015 D1BusinessMirrorEditor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

DEAR Lord, for us You are a miracle worker and powerful preacher. We know Your wonderful teaching. We show our

gratitude to You for having set us free from the power of the devil. We cooperate with You in setting other people free from the negative influence of the Evil One. By living the word, we can be assured of His promise to bring us to His Kingdom. Amen.

Living the word

WORD AND LIFE, FR. SAL PUTZU, SDB AND LOUIE M. LACSONWord&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

‘FIFTY SHADESOF GREY’

SETS RECORDAT BOX-OFFICE

»D3

The futureof vertical city livingURBAN MONOLOGUES 2.0NIKKI BONCAN-BUENSALIDO

design@buensalidoarchitects.comwww.buensalidoarchitects.com

C D

❶ REM KOOLHAAS’S building in Singapore provides balconies that span two floors for each condominium unit.

❷ ZAHA HADID’S d’Leedon in Singapore is a good example for light wells and cross ventilation.

❸ JEAN NOUVEL’S green condominium building merges green architecture and its structural components, providing an interesting fusion of aesthetics and function.

❹ GREEN buildings and vertical gardens can reduce air temperature significantly and purify the air as well.

BRISE Soleils and green walls bring endless possibilities in design and function.

❶ ❷ ❸ ❹

The WorldBusinessMirror news@businessmirror.com.phTuesday, February 17, 2015B3-4

A spokesman for the Armed Forc-es General Command announced the strikes on state radio on Mon-day, marking the � rst time Cairo has publicly acknowledged taking military action in neighboring Libya, where extremist groups seen as a threat to both countries have taken root in recent years.

� e statement said the warplanes targeted weapons caches and training

camps before returning safely. It said the strikes were “to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers.”

“Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield that protects them,” it said.

Libya’s air force, meanwhile, an-nounced it had launched strikes in the eastern city of Darna, which was taken over by an IS a� liate last year.

� e announcement, on the Face-book page of the Air Force Chief of Sta� , did not provide further details.

� e video purporting to show the mass beheading of Coptic Christian hostages was released late Sunday by militants in Libya a� liated with the IS group.

� e killings raise the possibility that the extremist group—which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq in a self-declared caliphate—has established a direct a� liate less than 800 kilometers from the southern tip of Italy. One of the militants in the video makes direct reference to that possibil-ity, saying the group now plans to “conquer Rome.”

� e militants had been holding 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian labor-ers rounded up from the city of Sirte in December and January. It was not clear from the video whether all 21 hostages were killed.

It was one of the � rst such behead-ing videos from an IS group a� liate to come from outside the group’s core territory in Syria and Iraq. AP

IBTASSAL LAMI, mother of abducted Coptic Christian Samuel Walham, one of 21 Coptic Egyptian men seized by Islamic State (IS) militants in the central city of Sirte, Libya, more than a month ago, holds his picture as she weeps at their home in the village of el-Aour near Minya, 220 kilometers south of Cairo, Egypt, on February 14. A video purporting to show the mass beheading of Coptic Christian hostages was released on Sunday by militants in Libya a� liated with the IS group. AP/HASSAN AMMAR

Egypt strikes IS group in Libya after video of mass killing

CAIRO—Egypt said on Monday it has launched air strikes against Islamic

State (IS) targets in Libya after the extremist group released a grisly video showing the beheading of several Coptic Christians it had held hostage for weeks.

LUHANSKE,  Ukraine—A cease-� re that went into e� ect on Sunday in eastern Ukraine appeared largely

to be holding, although continued � ghting over a bitterly contested rail-way hub is threatening to upend the delicate settlement.

The leaders of Russia,  Ukraine, France and Germany, who last week brokered a deal to try to end the con� ict that has raged since April, agreed in a conference call on Sunday that hostilities should also cease around the government-held town of Debaltseve, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s o� ce said. Undeterred, armed separatists appeared intent to pur-sue their claim to the town.

Heavy fog shrouding sodden � elds mu� ed the sound of artillery, but regular shelling could still be heard from Luhanske, a town about 15 kilometers to northwest of Debaltseve and over 80 kilometers west of the city Luhansk.

Associated Press journalists were blocked from moving closer by Ukrai-nian troops, who said it was not safe to travel ahead.

The cease-� re has kindled slender hopes of a reprieve from a con� ict that has claimed more than 5,300 lives. Withdrawal of heavy armor from the front line by both sides was scheduled to begin on Monday.

Attention will be focused in the coming days on Debaltseve, where Ukrainian forces have been fending o� severe onslaughts from the rebels for weeks. The town is a railway link be-tween the main separatist-held cities of Donetsk and Luhanske.

The diminution in hostilities was agreed after a marathon session of di-plomacy that brought together Porosh-enko, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French leader Francois Hollande for talks

in the capital of Belarus, Minsk.In a conference call on Sunday, the

leaders agreed the cease-� re should ex-tend to Debaltseve, according to a state-ment from Poroshenko’s o� ce.

That � ies in the face of the position taken by rebels, who argue they should be granted immediate control over the town as it is entirely surrounded by their forces.

Separatist o� cials have said any force adopted against Ukrainian troops in De-baltseve would accordingly not violate the Minsk agreement.

As he issued the cease-� re order at one minute after midnight Kiev time on Sun-day (2201 GMT, 5:01 p.m. EST), Poroshenko had said the road to the town remained open and that Ukrainian troops there had been resupplied with ammunition.

Merkel’s o� ce said that the call’s partic-ipants welcomed the general acceptance of the truce, but were concerned about continuing combat operations, especially in the area around Debaltseve.

“They showed determination to work toward a full implementation of the true. As a next step, Tuesday’s agreed on with-drawal of heavy arms had to be started,” the statement said.

The o� ces of both Merkel and Hol-lande said the leaders involved in Sun-day’s call also expressed joint support for adopting a United Nations Security Council resolution codifying the mea-sures adopted in Minsk.

A statement from the Kremlin con-� rmed they discussed the di� cult situ-ation in Debaltseve and also the role of the Organization for Security and Coop-eration in Europe (OSCE) in monitoring the cease-� re.

Under the deal hammered out at last week’s negotiations, the progress of the cease-� re is to be monitored by observers from the OSCE. AP

UKRAINE CEASEFIRE LARGELY HOLDING, DEBALTSEVE STILL TENSE

COPENHAGEN, Denmark—The slain gunman suspected in the deadly Copenhagen attacks was

a 22-year-old with a history of violence and may have been inspired by Islamic terrorists—and possibly the Charlie Heb-do massacre in Paris, Danish authorities said on Sunday.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt mourned the two people killed and vowed to protect freedom of speech and Denmark’s Jewish community.

The suspect was killed in a gunbattle with a SWAT team early on Sunday. He had opened � re on Saturday at a cultural center hosting a seminar on free speech with an artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad and then later at security forces outside a synagogue, police said.

A Danish � lmmaker was killed in the � rst attack. Nine hours later, a security guard protecting a bat mitzvah near a synagogue was slain. Five police o� cers were wounded in the shootings.

Jens Madsen, head of the Danish intelligence agency PET, said investiga-tors believe the gunman “could have been inspired by the events in Paris.” Last month Islamic militants carried out a massacre at the French satirical news-paper Charlie Hebdo followed by an at-tack on Jews at a kosher grocery, killing 17 people.

“He could also have been inspired by material sent out by [the Islamic State group] and others,” Madsen said.

Copenhagen police made no men-tion of Islamic extremism and said the Danish-born suspect had a history of vi-olence and weapons o� enses and con-nections to a criminal gang. They didn’t release his name.

“Denmark has been hit by terror,” Thorning-Schmidt said. “We do not know the motive for the alleged per-petrator’s actions, but we know that there are forces that want to hurt Den-mark. They want to rebuke our free-dom of speech.”

Chief Rabbi Jair Melchior identi-� ed the security guard as Dan Uzan, a 27-year-old member of Denmark’s 7,000-strong Jewish community. Two police o� cers who were near the syna-gogue were slightly wounded.

In the earlier shooting, 55-year-old � lmmaker Finn Noergaard was killed while attending a panel discussion titled “Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression.”

One of the main speakers was Lars Vilks, a 68-year-old Swedish artist who has faced numerous death threats for depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog in 2007. Vilks, who was whisked away unharmed by bodyguards, told the Associated Press (AP) he believed he was the intended target.

Agnieszka Kolek, another panelist, said she heard shouts of “God is great” in Arabic.

“Lars was being evacuated. Every-one was trying to protect themselves and others,” she told AP. “We heard the

gunshots approaching so I thought that the gunman must be in the building.

“And then I thought obviously I must protect myself and I tried to � nd a place to hide,” she said.

After the shooting, she and other participants continued the discussion as an act of de� ance, Kolek said.

The depiction of the Prophet Mu-hammad is deemed insulting to many followers of Islam. While many Muslims have expressed disgust at the deadly as-sault on the Charlie Hebdo employees, they also were deeply o� ended by its caricatures.

Denmark was the focus of anger from Islamists after the 2005 publica-tion of 12 caricatures of the prophet in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. The car-toons triggered riots in many Muslim countries and militant Islamists called for vengeance.

World leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, Ger-man Chancellor Angela Merkel and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, con-demned the Copenhagen attacks.

French President François Hollande visited the Danish embassy in Paris on Sunday, and hundreds gathered outside to show solidarity with victims. Many held candles or banners.

“We need to stand together in Europe and...wherever jihadis try to threaten democracy,” said Sacha Re-ingewirtz, president of the Union of Jewish Students of France and an orga-nizer of the memorial. AP

COPENHAGEN GUNMAN HAD CRIMINAL RECORD, POLICE SAY

JERUSALEM—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Sunday for the “massive immigration” of European

Jews to Israel following a deadly shoot-ing near Copenhagen’s main synagogue, renewing a blunt message that has upset some of Israel’s friends in Europe.

Netanyahu said that at a time of rising anti-Semitism in Europe, Israel is the only place where Jews can truly feel safe. His comments triggered an angry response from Copenhagen’s chief rabbi, Jair Mel-chior, who said he was “disappointed” by the remarks.

“People from Denmark move to Is-rael because they love Israel, because of Zionism. But not because of terror-ism,” Melchior told the Associated Press. “If the way we deal with terror is to run somewhere else, we should all run to a deserted island.”

Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorn-ing-Schmidt expressed support for the Jewish community, telling reporters: “They belong in Denmark, they are a strong part of our community, and we will do everything we can to protect the Jewish community in our country.”

Netanyahu issued his call during the weekly meeting of his Cabinet, which approved a previously scheduled $46-million plan to encourage Jewish immigration from France, Belgium and Ukraine—countries where large num-bers of Jews have expressed interest in moving to Israel. France and Belgium have experienced deadly attacks on their Jewish communities in recent years, most recently an attack in Paris last month that killed four Jews at a ko-sher market. AP

ISRAELI LEADER CALLS FOR MASS JEWISH INFLUX AFTER ATTACK

liFe d1

world B3-4

glow iN The dark giant balloons lit up the Clark Freeport Zone for the last time in Pampanga, as the hot air Balloon Fiesta for this year concludes on sunday. Families and groups of friends chose to spend post-Valentine’s day watching the hot-air balloons glow at night. ALYSA SALEN

Continued on A2

BusinessMirror news@businessmirror.com.ph Tuesday, February 17, 2015A2

NewsAuction for 24 RE sites set on Feb. 23The Department of energy

(DOe) will hold its first renewable-energy (Re) service

contract bidding through open and competitive selection process (OCSP), on February 23, according to Re Management Bureau (ReMB) Director Mario Marasigan.

“Yes, the OCSP will be held at Dusit Hotel on February 23,” Mara-sigan said. The OCSP will feature 24 RE potentia l sites, comprised of 20 hydro and four geothermal power projects ranging from a capacity of 20 megawatts (MW) to 30 MW each. The hydro projects are mostly lo-cated in the Visayas, while the geo-thermal projects are in different parts of the country— one in Luzon, one in the Visayas and two in Mindanao. The whole bidding can bring

in P1.8 billion worth of invest-ments, since the REMB requires service contract holders to allo-cate a maximum budget of P2.5 million for the development of a single MW. This is both for hydro and geothermal projects. Marasigan earlier said the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the National Power Corp. had studied the sites to be auctioned off. Thus, the projects to be offered are commercially feasible. Both local firms and consor-tia, comprising local and foreign

companies, have initially expressed interest in bidding for the sites. Marasigan also said the bid docu-ments will be made available during the launch. The submission period will be a month after the launch, or mostly likely on April 23. The OCSP launch was supposed to be held last December 15, but was postponed due to the lack of venue. Submission deadline was initially set on February 15. Meanwhile, the REMB director said the new sched-ule for the awarding of the bids will be in September. PNA

FISH KILL A Philippine Coast Guard crew member paddles a boat near a school of dead fish, which were found floating early morning of February 16 by the seawall off Manila Bay. The government’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources is still investigating what led to the fish kill. AP

Remittances at new record high. . . Continued from A1

Imported goods. . . Continued from A8

“The weakness in domestic de-mand supports our view that out-put will essentially be flat this year,” Marcel Thieliant of Capital Econom-ics said in a commentary. The government revised ear-lier growth figures, suggesting the technical recession of two straight months of contraction was milder than earlier reported. The economy suffered two straight quarters of contraction fol-lowing a sales-tax hike last April, prompting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to push back until April 2017 a tax hike planned for October of this year. The economy contracted at a minus 0.6-percent pace in July-September, Monday’s data showed, compared to the earlier reported minus 1.9-percent pace. The con-traction in April to July was revised upward from minus 7.3 percent to minus 1.7 percent. Many economists had forecast an exit from recession in the October-to-December quarter, thanks partly to stronger demand in the US, Japan’s largest export market. Abe has sought to foster sustained growth through massive injections of cash into the economy, primarily through central bank asset purchases similar to those used in the US under the Federal Reserve’s quantitative- easing policy. The ultra-loose monetary policy is meant to spur inflation and coun-ter years of deflationary stagnation, but so far Japan remains far short of the government and central bank’s target of 2 percent. More than two years into his ad-ministration, Abe is struggling to get growth back on a sustainable path and make a “new start.” In a major policy speech last week, he vowed to push through the biggest reforms in Japan since World War II, reiterating pledges for sweeping reforms of the government bureau-cracy, labor regulations and other policies to catalyze growth. “Now is the time. Through our efforts, Japan can achieve growth once again,” he said. Sustained growth will depend both on global trends and on whether consumer spending can regain momentum. Abe and other leaders are pushing corporations to raise wages in this year’s spring labor negotiations to help boost consumer demand.

Exports, govt spending lifted Japan out of recession in Q4

Continued from A1

The list of regulated imports can now be downloaded through the BOC web site customs.gov.ph and by clicking the banner BOC Regulated Imports List.  The downloaded imports list comes in three versions: by specific product, by broad category product and by regulating agency. Sevilla said all three lists contain information for over 7,400 regu-lated products ranging from basic commodities like rice and sugar to vehicles, iron and steel products, oil and electronic goods.  Sevilla said the BOC will strictly implement all the requirements shown in the regulated imports list beginning April 20, 2015. “All imports of all products in the list must have the required permits, from all the regulating agencies shown in the row for that product on the list before clearance of any import of that product,” he said.  He added that regulated import list will be updated when there are any changes in regulations, such that the version accessible from the BOC web site will always be up-to-date, and will always be the basis for clearance of regulated goods by customs staff. 

ASILk Road Fund designed to finance China-proposed “Belt and Road” initiatives

has started operation, China’s central bank said in a statement on Monday. The Silk Road Fund Co. Ltd. was established on December 29, 2014, in Beijing, after President Xi Jinping announced the creation of the $40-billion fund last November, ac-cording to the People’s Bank of China. The company was jointly funded by China’s foreign-exchange re-serves, China Investment Corp., the Export-Import Bank of China and China Development Bank. “The priority [of the company] is to seek investment opportunities and provide investment and financ-ing services during the progress of the Belt and Road initiatives,” the statement said. Belt and Road refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st- Century Maritime Silk Road initia-tives proposed by China in 2013 for improved cooperation with coun-tries in a vast part of Asia, Europe and Africa. PNA

China’s $40-B Silk Road Fund starts operation

Neda Board OKs six transport infra projectsBy Cai U. Ordinario

THE National Economic and Development Author it y (Neda) Board, chaired by

President Aquino, on Monday ap-proved six infrastructure projects of which four will be undertaken under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme. Economic Planning Secretary Ar-senio M. Balisacan said among the PPP projects approved include the P20-billion North Luzon Expressway-South Luzon Expressway Connector Project of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) which will be subjected to a Swiss Challenge. The Nlex-Slex Connector Project involves the construction and opera-tion and maintenance of a 13.4-ki-lometer, four-lane elevated express-way over the Philippine National Railways’ (PNR) right-of-way which starts in Caloocan City and ends in Buendia, Makati City. It will connect

the Nlex and the Slex to decongest traffic in Metro Manila. “Most of these projects aim to have a more reliable and efficient transport infrastructure system. These are consistent with the gov-ernment’s thrust to increase invest-ment in connective infrastructure,” Balisacan said in a statement. Balisacan, who is also director general of the Neda, said the approval of these projects would boost the government’s infrastructure spend-ing until next year. “These projects will support the government’s goal of increasing infrastructure spend-ing to at least 5.1 percent in 2016. We hope that they will be implemented efficiently and effectively,” he said. The Neda Board said it also ap-proved the expansion of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx) project of the DPWH from two (one lane per direction) to four lanes (two lanes per direction). The PPP project entails an estimated gov-

ernment support of P2 billion. Full project cost for TPLEx Ulti-mate Stage is P24.3 billion for the design, financing, construction and operations and maintenance of the 88.5-km expressway from the ter-minus of the Subic-Clark-Talac Ex-pressway in Tarlac City to Rosario, La Union. The Neda Board also gave its go-signal to the rebidding of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway project of the DPWH, for the “highest premium” for the government, with a floor price of P20.1 billion. The third PPP project approved by the Neda Board is estimated to cost P35.4 billion. With a total of 47.018 kms, the project will start from the Cavite Expressway in kawit and will end at the Slex-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna. There will be nine interchanges in areas such as kawit, Daang Hari, Governor’s Drive, Aguinaldo Highway, Silang, Santa Rosa-Tagaytay, Laguna Boule-

vard, Technopark, and a toll barrier before Slex. Other projects given the nod by the Neda Board are the P5.09-billion Panguil Bay Bridge Project and two projects under the North-South Rail-way masterplan. The Panguil Bay Bridge Project, which will be undertaken by the DPWH, involves the construction of a bridge across Panguil Bay con-necting Tangub City in Misamis Occi-dental and the municipality of Tubod in Lanao del Norte. It is expected to reduce travel time along the 100-km national road between Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental, and Tubod to 37 minutes from 2.5 hours. The project’s total estimated cost will be fully financed by the govern-ment. Construction of the bridge is expected to begin this year and will be finished by 2018. Under the North-South Railway masterplan, the Department of Transportation and Communica-

tions (DOTC) will undertake Phase 1 of the North-South Commuter Rail-way (NSCR) Project which involves the construction of a 36.7-km narrow gauge elevated commuter railway from Malolos, Bulacan, to Tutuban in Manila. Also, the NSCR Phase 1 will use the PNR’s right-of-way with 10 sta-tions and a depot at Valenzuela. The project is estimated to cost P117.3 billion and is targeted to be implemented from 2015, with a 35-year operation period starting 2020. The DOTC will also implement the North-South Railway Proj-ect–South Line, a PPP project, which would cost P170.7 billion. It would link Tutuban in Manila to Calamba, Laguna. The project also includes a long-haul railway opera-tion between Tutuban and Legazpi, Albay, and on the branch line be-tween Calamba and Batangas and an extension between Legazpi and Matnog.

starkly against remittances the previous November, when this to-taled only $2.12 billion, itself rep-resenting a five-year low, based on BSP data.   The central bank welcomed the still-resilient remittance flows and acknowledged the overseas earnings of migrant workers and those other Filipinos abroad who regularly send a portion of their earnings back to the Philippines are an integral part of the $270-billion economy.  “The robust growth of overseas Filipinos’ remittances continued

to provide support to the country’s economy, with cash remittances ac-counting for 8.5 percent of gross do-mestic product [GDP] in 2014,” the central bank said. The bulk of the cash remittances during the year flowed from the United States, the United Arab Emir-ates (UAE), the United kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Hong kong and also from Saudi Arabia no matter the apprehension over the economic impact of declining oil prices affect-ing these countries. The central bank also said the cash

remittances grew in both land- and sea-based Filipino workers during the year. In particular, remittances from land-based workers aggregated $18.7 billion, while remittances from sea-based workers totaled $5.6 billion. The BSP said the strong demand for skilled Filipino manpower abroad contributed to the steady growth of remittances for 2014, citing Philippine Overseas Employ-ment Administration’s (POEA) data of a total of 1.6 million deployed OFWs in end-2014.

Also, the BSP cited the 10.7-per-cent growth in job orders for the year, totaling 878,609  approved job positions in 2014. Some 43.6 percent of the processed job orders were for services, production and profession-al, technical and related worker re-quirements in Saudi Arabia, kuwait, the UAE, Taiwan and Qatar. Also, the BSP noted the banks’ tie-ups with so-called remittance centers contributed to the steady remittance growth for the period. The central bank said there were some 4,765 commercial bank tie-ups,

remittance centers, correspondent banks and branches or representa-tive offices abroad as of end-2014. Personal remittances, mean-while, which are remittances in-volving transfers both in cash and in kind, as well as capital transfers between households, also hit a re-cord high in December last year to-taling $2.6 billion, pushing the full-year personal remittance growth of $26.9 billion in 2014. This was 6.2 percent higher than the personal remittances seen in the comparable period in 2013.  

briefscourt nixes jinggoy’s

plea for birthday furloughTHE anti-graft court on Monday denied the birthday furlough asked by detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, saying that “confinement restrains the power of locomotion or actual physical movement.” Estrada asked the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division, chaired by Associate Justice Roland Jurado, to grant him birthday furlough so he can attend a Mass on Tuesday. “Wherefore, the Motion to be Allowed to attend Natal Mass on February 17, 2015 filed by accused Senator Estrada is denied,” the resolution signed by Jurado and Associate Justices Alexander Gesmundo and Maria Teresa Dolores Estoesta read. In his request, Estrada said he wanted to attend Mass with his family on his birthday at Pinaglabanan Church in San Juan City. PNA

metro cleanup resumesSTARTING Tuesday, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will resume the cleanup of creeks and other waterways in the metropolis to prevent floods. Director Emma Quiambao of the MMDA Flood Control and Sewerage Management Office said that the drive is part of the agency’s “Estero Blitz,” that is now on its fifth year. Quiambao said that the agency’s implementation of Estero Blitz used to cover only esteros in flood-prone areas but now, even public markets and barangays in flood-prone areas will also be subjected to the cleanup operation. The agency will deploy 400

british singer meets manila childrenBRITISH singer and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef ) supporter, Nicole Scherzinger, posted recently photos on Instagram of her experiences meeting children and their families living in poverty. Scherzinger, who is of Filipino heritage, spent Valentine’s Day with Unicef, the world’s leading children’s organization, meeting children living in dangerous, overcrowded communities around the capital, many of whom are struggling against poverty, hunger, disease and the risk of violence. “I’m part Filipina so I have a strong connection with the country and feel I have a responsibility to do what I can and bring awareness to the dangers that Filipino children face everyday. It’s been so humbling to meet incredible, inspiring Filipino children who are living in really tough conditions,” Scherzinger said. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Liberal Party Rep. Jim Hataman-Salliman of Basilan, chairman of the House Committee on Peace, Unity and Reconciliation, said the joint investigation of his panel and the House Committee on Public Order chaired by United Negros Alliance Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer of Negros Occi-dental would resume after the Na-tional Police’s Board of Inquiry has submitted its report on the incident. The lower chamber originally scheduled its second and third inves-tigation on Mamasapano incident on Tuesday and Wednesday. Following news reports alleging US involvement in the recent police operation in Mamasapano, Magu-indanao, a party-list lawmaker on Monday asked the House Committee on Public Order and Safety to sum-mon US Ambassador Philip Goldberg to Tuesday’s congressional hearing on the bloody encounter.

Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon of Kabataan said Ferrer should invite Goldberg to shed light on US’s alleged involvement in the Mamasapano police raid, that resulted in the kill-ing of an international terrorist and the massacre of 44 National Police SAF commandos by combined Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter (BIFF) gunmen. At the same time, Justice Sec-retary Leila M. de Lima said the panel of prosecutors tasked to pre-pare criminal cases against Muslim rebels behind the killing of 44 SAF commandos may also look into the alleged participation of US troops in the operation to capture Malay-sian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan and Filipino bomb maker Abdulbasit Usman. In an interview, de Lima admitted that she is aware that several news

news@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Tuesday, February 17, 2015 A3BusinessMirrorThe Nation

SUNRISE SUNSET

HALF MOON6:19 AM 6:01 PM

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LEGAZPI CITY24 – 30°C

TACLOBAN CITY23 – 30°C

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METRO DAVAO23 – 30°C

ZAMBOANGA CITY23 – 31°C

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PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 24 – 31°C METRO CEBU

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Watch PANAHON.TV everyday at 5:00 AM on PTV (Channel 4).

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FEBRUARY 17, 2015 | TUESDAY

HIGH TIDEMANILA

SOUTH HARBOR

LOW TIDE

4:16 AM-0.17 METER

TUGUEGARAO CITY 20 – 30°C

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TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE AREAAFFECTING EASTERN MINDANAO.

(AS OF FEBRUARY 16, 5:00 PM)

METRO MANILA23 – 31°C

Trough of Low Pressure Area is an elongated region of LPA. It can bring in cloudy conditions and precipitation or cold air mass.

personnel for the drive, which will be conducted in two barangays on Tuesdays and Fridays of every week. The agency’s equipment, she added, will be deployed at 4 a.m. “The cleanup drive will start at 5 a.m.,” she said. The MMDA will start the Estero Blitz at Estero de Cabulusan in Tondo, Manila, on February 17 and 18. She said part of the cleanup drive is fumigation to exterminate dengue-causing mosquitos in various barangays. Quiambao said the agency will not only clean public markets but it will also conduct lectures regarding solid waste management. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

reports have disclosed the alleged role of the US troops in the opera-tions but added that the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) special investi-gating team is focused on gathering evidence for the purpose of filing criminal charges against the killers of the SAF 44.  “Definitely, that [US involvement] would be unavoidable to look into. But it really depends, if it has any bearing on the criminal aspect of the matter. Because, as I have said, the focus of the DOJ, the focus of our special team is based on the criminal aspects of the incident,” de Lima said. Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Paulo Navera is the head of the spe-cial team. De Lima added that it would be up to the US government whether to respond or not  to persistent reports about their supposed participation in the operation to get Marwan. This developed as de Lima said the National Bureau of Investigation has already identified the source of the six-minute video that recently went viral online showing one of the killed SAF 44 being shot at close range by alleged Moro rebels. “NBI has already identified the source of the video, who uploaded it,” de Lima said, but added that the video is still being authenti-cated before it can be used as part of the evidence. The SAF troopers were already

withrawing from the area held by MILF and BIFF groups when they were attacked by some 1,000 fight-ers in a corn field. The troopers have just killed Marwan, an international terrorist wanted by Philippine, US, Malaysian and Indonesian authorities at dawn on January 25 when they were at-tacked by the combined MILF and BIFF fighters. “We have said this before and we’ll say it again: It is apparent that the US played a pivotal role in this botched operations. However, I be-lieve that we will not get any new compelling information on Tuesday’s congressional hearing if we will talk to the same PNP and AFP officials. No less than US Ambassador Philip Goldberg should be summoned to the hearing to explain Washington’s role in Oplan Exodus and all the other operations to capture Zulkifli bin Hir,”  Ridon said. Ridon, citing news reports, said that the SAF carried out Oplan Exo-dus under the direction and funding of the US. Bin Hir had a reward of $5 million for his capture from the US. Besides Golderg, Ridon also said that the head of the Joint Special Op-erations Task Force-Philippines, a US military unit representing the US Pa-cific Command based in Camp General Basilio Navarro in Zamboanga City, should be invited in the congressional hearing. With Joel San Juan and Marvyn Benaning

House suspends investigationon SAF Maguindanao raid

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

THE House of Representatives on Monday suspended its investigation on the massacre of

44 Special Action Force (SAF) troopers in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, on January 25. (Related story on B3).

BusinessMirror news@businessmirror.com.ph A4

Economybriefs

solons seek income-tax relief for calamity victimsTWO lawmakers are batting for the grant of income-tax relief to individual taxpayers earning purely compensation income who lost their homes due to natural calamities.

House Bill 5400, or the proposed “Calamity Income Tax Relief Act,” authored by Reps. Ma. Victoria R. Sy-Alvarado of the First District of Bulacan and Julieta R. Cortuna of party-list A-Teacher aims to lend a helping hand, especially to people who are most vulnerable to disasters.

It targets those earning purely compensation income since this class of individuals are currently not spared from the burden of their loss as they cannot claim any deduction or any relief whatsoever despite the occurrence of such total loss of their belongings.

Sy-Alvarado said in cases of extreme and severe suffering of the people, there is a need to balance the government’s primordial need for funds, for instance tax money, and the people’s right to life, liberty and property.

“The country has suffered a lot from natural calamities—those we encountered in recent memory grew even stronger and more destructive due to climate change and extreme weather patterns. Unavoidable and inevitable due to the location of the country, it still pains our people with the brunt of destruction and widespread loss of life and possession,” Sy-Alvarado said.

Sy-Alvarado, a vice chairman of the House Committees on Appropriations, and on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development, said on the part of the State, there should be a recognition of the plight and need of calamity-stricken income taxpayers.

“We must be ready to uplift them in the speediest manner. The benefits of granting these people tax relief is most apparent—these are productive citizens who pay religiously their income taxes, and the sooner we can put their lives in order again, the sooner it is that the State can expect them to partake in paying forward the help they receive in the form of their return to productivity in work and their civic duty of paying taxes,” she said. PNA

bill penalizes children for abandoning parentsA lAWMAkER is pushing for the immediate passage of a bill that would penalize children who would abandon parents who can no longer fend for themselves.

Rep. Roy M. loyola of the Fifth District of Cavite said House Bill 5336, to be known as Parents Welfare Act of 2014, requires children to provide their old and sick parents support for sustenance, clothing, residence, medical attendance and other amenities that would enable them to lead a normal life.

The bill imposes the penalty of imprisonment of one month to six months or a fine of not more than P100,000 if the respondent continues to fail in giving said support for three consecutive months without justifiable cause.

Whoever having the care of protection of a parent in need of support, leaves such parent in any place with the intention of wholly abandoning the latter shall be punished with imprisonment of six years to 10 years and a fine of not less than P300,000, the bill provides.

In filing the bill, loyola said the sights of abandoned elderly in the streets have become common because children failed to provide the necessary support to their old and sick parents.

“This happens despite our moral and natural obligation to support our parents who are in need of our help. On the same vain, our Family Code imposes on us the legal obligation to support our elderly,” he said.

loyola said while government is doing its best in providing support in the form of food and shelter as well as enacting legislation like the Senior Citizens Act, taking care of the elderly is a shared responsibility of the government and the children of the said elderly. PNA

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Gov. Amado Espino Jr. bared plans to put up a regional

government center and an infor-mation technology (IT)/business-process outsourcing (BPO) hub in Pangasinan.

This was disclosed by the gover-nor himself in his state of the prov-ince address (Sopa) on Monday at the Capitol Plaza, Capitol Compound, Lingayen, his eighth since he as-cended the provincial capitol in 2007.

Espino said there is an ongoing negotiation with the multinational company, called MTD Philippines Inc., for this project, as he vowed on continuing the progress of the province.

MTD Philippines Inc. was the firm that built the Putrajaya Mala-sya Government Center in Malaysia.

According to Espino, the compa-

ny’s proposal is for at least P1 billion project to be a public-private partner-ship venture that will not cost the provincial government any amount.

Along with the plan on govern-ment center and IT/BPO hub, the put-ting up of a commercial, residential and tourism multipurpose complex in Pangasinan is highly being con-sidered, the governor added.

He noted that IT/BPO hub plan is in accordance with the current study of the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines.

Further, Espino’s more than 30-minute Sopa centered on the theme “Tuloy-tuloy na pag-angat” or continuing advancement in all sec-tors of governance—agriculture, tourism, health, employment and livelihood, infrastructure, among others—as proven by all the national and regional citations. PNA

By Manuel T. Cayon Mindanao Bureau Chief

DAVAO CITY—The regional office here of the Depart-ment of Public Works and

Highways (DPWH) said it expects a full year of infrastructure buildup of activities after getting a P14-billion allocation for its road and bridge construction and rehabilita-tion projects. Public Works Regional Director Mariano R. Arquiza said all the road and bridge projects are in-tended to ease traffic at the main highways and approaches to the city and in the provincial capitals to the rest of the region. The budget also indicated a sharp increase in the absorptive capacity of the region, double that from its allocation of P7 billion in 2013. A big portion of the road con-struction covers road-widening projects, especially in Davao City and its suburbs, but some of the projects would have to reconstruct old roads to fit them to standard highway specifications. An example of a reconstruction project would be the road connect-ing San Marcelino municipality of the new province of Davao Occi-dental, and Glan of Sarangani, at the other side of the mountain that divides them. Projects in the Davao Oriental side were requested by the Depart-ment of Tourism to link distant resorts and attractions, Arquiza said, and cited the road connecting mountain town of San Isidro, with breathtaking scenes of the Pujada Bay, with Mati City, the capital town of Davao Oriental, to connect it to its white-sandy beaches facing the Pacific Ocean. One road in Davao City would by-pass a major southern intersection in Barangay Ulas, while an interior road network would build the coun-try’s longest tunnel road stretching two kilometers, he said. This tunnel road would be built late this year, while the bypass road would be constructed soon begin-ning at the intersection of the Diver-sion Road and Ulas-Bangkal junction to the area near the Ulas campus of San Pedro College. The bypass road would allow shorter time going to the north-western barangays of Mintal, Tug-bok and Calinan, and would ease access to the interprovincial route going to Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro City. The bypass road would also be expected to ease congestion at the Ulas junction, which often bog down traffic for two to three hours at its worst. “We would expect a lot of overtime work this year,” he said.

By Lenie Lectura

THE Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) may challenge the

findings released by the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) for imposing penalties on the former be-cause it allegedly violated the “must-offer” rule of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). PSALM was among the three com-panies that withheld their full capacity in the latter part of 2013, according to the January 2015 report of market op-erator PEMC released last week. This resulted in a spike in WESM prices. PSALM, along with Therma Mobile Inc. (TMO) and PanAsia Energy Inc., appealed the case before the PEMC but to no avail. “Due to the denial of our appeal and imposition of charges, we are considering our options to elevate the issue to either the ERC [Energy Regulatory Commission] or proper court since we are questioning the jurisdiction of the PEMC on this,” PSALM President Emmanuel Ledes-ma Jr. said in a text message when sought for comment. In its report, PEMC said PSALM’s violation covers the 140-megawatt (MW) Casecnan hydro plant and 650-MW Malaya thermal power plant. The report did not include how much the three firms were ordered to pay, saying it was up to the firms to divulge since the penalties vary. “I think its P78 million for Malaya and P11 million for Casecnan,” Ledes-ma said. TMO, which is also exploring legal options, said it was ordered to pay P239.4 million for with-holding the capacity of its power barges in Navotas. PanAsia Energy, which operates the 620-MW Limay power plant in Bataan, was also fined by PEMC for

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said, “the [Aquino] adminis-tration is ensuring Filipinos’ uni-versal right to housing by giving them a chance to own their own homes. What’s more, placing them in safe communities where they can live and work is a proactive approach to safeguard our people

from natural disasters.”To prepare against climate change,

the national government will need to relocate vulnerable Filipino families living in danger zones.

Because of this, the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Social Housing Finance Corp. (SHFC) will have a shared budget

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

of P7.3 billion to relocate 15,862 families affected by infrastructure projects or living in danger zones to better communities. The NHA itself will also have a budget of P577 million to relocate 7,215 squatter dwellers residing in danger zones to safer areas.

In case of disaster, the NHA will have an allocation of P736 million to give as emergency-housing as-sistance, including the provision of housing materials assistance, to 26,426 victims of calamities.

On the other hand, the SHFC will be assisting 16,500 families to acquire their homes with a budget of P1 billion. The National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. will, like-wise, have a budget of P1 billion as they help families via government-funded home loans.

The Department of Interior and Local Government will have

its own part to play with an allot-ted P1.2 billion to provide squat-ter families with housing units, as well as rental assistance to beneficiary-families.

The 2015 national budget has an allotment of P100 million to provide housing for 341 families of uniformed personnel, includ-ing the Armed Forces of the Phil-ippines, the Philippine National Police, the Bureau of Jail Manage-ment and Penology, and the Bureau of Corrections.

Abad said, “the [Aquino] admin-istration’s efforts to give opportuni-ties to our countrymen isn’t limited to job-generation, but also a chance for homeownership. This is an im-portant part of the inclusive growth the administration is trying to de-velop, where every Filipino can have a chance of finding a place they can call their own.” PNA

dbm allots p11-billion for squatters AS part of the social services

allocation in the 2015 General Appropriations Act, the

national government is earmarking P11 billion to housing, not only to give Filipinos temporary shelter during emergencies, but also to enable them to acquire their own homes.

Psalm won’t take PEmC sanctions sitting down, ledesma says

violating the must-offer rule. PanAsia is owned by Millennium Energy Inc. Under the must-offer rule, gen-eration companies registered in the WESM must declare and offer the maximum generating capaci-ties of their power facilities in the spot market. Aside from PSALM, TMO and PanA-sia, there were other power producers that violated the WESM rule but penal-ties were not meted out against them. These are AP Renewables Inc.; CIP II Power Corp.; Trans-Asia Power Gen-eration Corp.; Udenna Management and Resources Corp.; Strategic Power Development Corp.; and SEM-Calaca Power Corp. PEMC, according to its president

Melinda Ocampo, only investigates breaches of the WESM rules. Any act of anti-competitive behavior is under the jurisdiction of the ERC. “When it comes to PEMC our concern is only breaches in WESM rules. When it comes to anti-com-petitive rules, this is for ERC to find out. It’s beyond [our] jurisdiction,” Ocampo said. For his part, Energy Secretary Car-los Jerico L. Petilla said PEMC’s find-ings are as a result of in-depth findings, “bearing in mind that all involved were given a chance to explain their actions.” The findings, added the energy chief, were based on the work of an independent committee and were af-firmed by the board.

When asked to further comment on the findings of PEMC, Ledesma said that PSALM is still studying the specifics of the arguments that it will raise. “In general, case might involve nullification of ERC rules allowing PEMC to investigate even if ERC is already investigating,” added PSALM chief said. The ERC has yet to release its own probe. It can be recalled that the Supreme Court ordered the ERC to investigate anti-competitive behavior and abuse of market power allegedly committed by some WESM participants. As such, PEMC conducted the investigations under the “must- run” and “must-offer” rules of the WESM.

Gov eyes govt center, IT/BPO hub in Pangasinan

Davao region gets P14-B allotment for road, bridge projects this year

piggy bread A baker holds a tray of swine-shaped breads that sells for P10 for the smallest loaf and P50 for the biggest at the Picnic Grove in Tagaytay City. kEvin DEla Cruz

shopping rush Shoppers flock the rows of shops and bazaars at the Binondo district in search for a good bargain ahead of the culmination of the Chinese Lunar year celebration, which ushers in the Year of the Sheep. noniE rEyEs

briefs

d.o.h. braces for rise of mers-cov casesThe Department of health (DOh) is gearing for a possible rise of Middle east Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (MeRS-CoV) cases in the country with the anticipated increase of Filipino workers coming from the Middle east for the Lenten and graduation season.

health Secretary Janette Garin warned of a possible increase in the number of cases, noting that in 2014, there was a surge in MeRS-CoV cases in the Middle east in the period between February and April.

“It has something to do with the camels breeding, being transported this season allows more exposure to camels,” she said in a television interview.

“In the case of MeRS-CoV, what happened was before it was animal to human transmission. What we have now is human to human transmission, especially among health workers,” Garin added.

She also reiterated the call to arriving passengers in filling-out of the yellow health form by all arriving passengers “to prevent the entry of MeRS-CoV and other infectious diseases in the country.”

Garin said that a person’s “history of travel to the Middle east region” is a vital information in determining if someone has MeRS-CoV, since the symptoms for this are not distinctly its own.

After the confirmation of the first MeRS-CoV case, she said that “all points of entry” to the country are being closely monitored. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

marikina city hall embarks on expanded breast-feeding driveThe city government of Marikina’s advocacy for breast-feeding has taken a step higher as it convenes business establishments in the city to encourage them to allot breast-feeding areas in their respective establishments. Through the Nutrition Section of the City health Office, Mayor Del de Guzman said that they recently conducted an orientation seminar on the expanded Breastfeeding Promotions Act of 2009 which was attended by representatives of various establishments in the city. The move is in support of Republic Act 10028, or the expanded Breastfeeding Promotions Act of 2009. “Nutrients present in a mother’s milk is unparalleled and very important in a child’s development. With this, we are encouraging all breast-feeding mothers to keep on breast-feeding their infants. Our establishments must have breast-feeding stations that will provide privacy for the breast-feeding mothers and their child,” de Guzman said. On February 20 another orientation seminar on the expanded Breastfeeding Promotions Act of 2009 will be held at the Training Room of the City health Office where representatives of hospitals, banks and city officials will be attending. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

port logjam breeds racket at customs–solonISABeLA Rep. Rodolfo T. Albano III on Monday alerted the Bureau of Customs (BOC) over the worsening congestion in the Port of Manila that continues to cause billions of pesos in lost revenues to various businesses and industries. Albano, member of the house Minority Bloc, said the delay in the release of container vans and cargo at the Manila port has also aggravated the corruption and extortion at the Customs bureau. he said reports reaching his office revealed that unscrupulous individuals are taking advantage of the delays in the release of cargo because of the congestion in Manila ports. This has spawned lucrative racketeering through “facilitation” services in the processing of inbound and outbound cargo. “huge ‘facilitation services’ fees are being charged to businessmen who are helpless and desperate in seeking the release of their shipments,” Albano noted. PNA

By Emmanuel P. Solis Philippines News Agency

LEGAZPI CITY—To sustain the robust tourist arrivals and improve investors’ confidence

in the city, the members of the Vi-sion Aligned Circle have drafted the Legazpi City Tourism Investment Incentive Ordinance.

The group, headed by chairman Asuncion Calleja, coordinator of the City Permits and Licenses Division, has already forwarded the proposed ordinance to Mayor Noel E. Rosal for final review and suggestions.

It was earlier submitted to Councilor Alan Ranola, commit-tee on trade, industry and invest-ment chairman, and Councilor Chito Baldo, committee on tourism chairman.

The ordinance aims to help im-prove the city’s revenue collection and sustain its economic growth, Calleja said.

It further aims to generate more jobs for the city’s constituents, in-crease the value of local products and promote a sustainable tour-ism industry.

It will also strengthen the private-public partnership scheme between the Legazpi City administration and the private sector, she added.

“This is disappointing. MWSS lost its case against Maynilad but is say-ing in effect that its compliance will depend on the outcome of its arbi-tration with Manila Water which is completely separate and independent, although the issues are similar,” said Randy Estrellado, CFO of Maynilad. “If Manila Water loses, does that mean our win will no longer matter? This possibility alone of opposite ar-bitral results shows the two cases are independent of each other,” he added in a news statement.

But MWSS, Estrellado said, claimed this would make the con-sumers confused since a Manila Wa-ter loss would mean a rate reduction. “In the first place, it was MWSS that started it all. They confused us by changing the rules midstream, hence our recourse to arbitration. But is its fear of consumer confusion a valid reason to ignore a perfectly legal decision?” he asked. The arbitral decision is supposed to be final and executory. “M WSS has no choice but to approve the

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

ThE operation and mainte-nance (O&M) contract of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line

2 is one step closer to awarding after all interested groups that submitted prequalification documents passed the preliminary evaluation stage of the auction, a transport official said. “All four interested groups for the LRT 2 O&M project have successfully hurdled the prequalification stage, and may now participate in the actual bid, which is targeted for the third quarter of this year,” Transportation Spokes-man Michael Arthur C. Sagcal said in a text message. he listed the parties as: Aboitiz Eq-uity Ventures-SMRT Transportation Solutions Consortium; DMCI-Tokyo Metro Co. Ltd. Consortium; the Light Rail Manila Consortium; and the San Miguel Corp.-Korail Consortium. “We are pleased to have a com-petitive number of experienced in-ternational rail companies partnered with reputable local firms vying for this project, which is envisioned to deliver world-class services to LRT 2

riders,” he said. The key infrastructure project aims to infuse private sector efficien-cies into the operations of the LRT 2 to provide better service levels to the riding public. The winning bidder will take over the O&M of all 11 stations of the exist-ing line, as well as the 4.19-kilometer LRT 2 Masinag Extension, for about 10 to 15 years. Construction of the P9.7-billion Masinag Extension will commence sometime this quarter. It will take the government roughly a year and a half to fully complete the construction of the railway extension. It will be fully operational by that same time frame. When constructed, the new facility will add 4.14 kilometers to the existing line, which is the youngest of the four train systems in the country. Two additional stations will be con-structed: the Emerald station in front of Robinsons Place Metro East in Cain-ta, Rizal, and Masinag Station at the Masinag Junction in Antipolo City. It will serve an additional 130,000 train commuters from the current number of 240,000.

news@businessmirror.com.ph Tuesday, February 17, 2015 A5BusinessMirrorEconomy

Four groups prequalify to bid for LRT Line 2 O&M contract

new water rates. But without the MWSS board approval, we cannot publish them before implementa-tion,” he said. To cushion the impact of the rate hike, Maynilad volunteered, subject to MWSS board approval, to spread it out over the next three years. For customers using 10 cubic meters or less, the impact on the basic rate per cubic meter is minus P0.14; up to 20 cubic meters, plus P0.64; up to 30 cubic meters, plus P1.23. Estrellado said MWSS’s defiance to implement the arbitral decision, which is final and binding on the par-ties, could jeopardize government ef-forts to entice foreign investments, especially with road shows scheduled abroad this year. The sanctity, stability and en-forceability of contracts are im-portant to a foreign investor, he said. “MWSS is signaling exactly the opposite.” Estrellado said the present MWSS officers created the legal situation themselves when they changed the

interpretation of the concession agreement which the government and the two concessionaires had signed, and which had been in effect for the past 17 years. “We kept our promise under the agreement to invest billions of pesos to improve water service. From out of the blue, MWSS changed the rules and reinterpreted the agreement by saying that we are not its agents but are public utilities like MWSS and Meralco [Manila Electric Co.], and, therefore, cannot include corporate income taxes as part of the tariff,” he added. The decision said that the Mer-alco decision does not apply and “it is normal business practice to factor in one’s corporate income tax in the price of one’s goods and services.” It added that the concession agree-ment itself was very clear that May-nilad is a mere agent of MWSS, the owner of a franchise from Congress, since Maynilad cannot do things independently of, and without any authority from, MWSS.

MWSS refuses to implementarbitral decision for MayniladTHE Metropolitan Waterworks

and Sewerage System (MWSS) has refused to implement an

arbitral decision favoring Maynilad over water rates, claiming it would rather wait whether MWSS would win or lose its other arbitration case against Manila Water.

Legazpi City finalizes ordinance to lure tourism investments through incentives

Based on the draft ordinance, all newly registered enterprises will be exempted from business taxes for a period of two years, while their own-ers will also be exempted from basic realty taxes on property improve-ments, buildings and machineries.

Calleja said the Business Per-mits and Licensing Division will also give assistance in identifying business locations and in securing local permits and licenses for inves-tors who want to engage in business in this city.

“But if the investors will violate the provision of the proposed ordi-nance, it shall be a ground for cancel-lation or revocation of the business registration and the withdrawal of all incentives given to the business,” she stressed. PNA

lethal cosmetics A group of environmental advocates stages a mock beauty pageant to dramatize the health hazards posed by mercury-laden skin-whitening products that are reportedly being sold illegally nationwide. The toxic watchdog seeks the strong enforcement of the ban on mercury-containing cosmetics to protect the public health and environment. NONOY LACZA

blowing bubbles Children at the Blue Wave park and recreation area in Pasay City enjoy happy moments together creating soap bubbles with elders and relatives. KeviN deLA CruZ

By Lenie Lectura

hEDCOR Sabangan Inc. (hSAB) has sought ap-proval from the Energy

Regulatory Commission (ERC) to put up a transmission line that will connect its 14-megawatt (MW) Sabangan hydroelectric power plant to the 69-kilovolt (kV) La Trinidad-Bulalacao-Mo-preco transmission line of the National Grid Corp. of the Phil-ippines (NGCP). In its 17-page decision, the ERC said the proposed transmission line project will “redound to the benefit of the electricity consum-ers in terms of continuous, reli-able and efficient power supply.” hSAB’s dedicated point-to-point transmission facility is es-sential to the delivery of power from the Sabangan plant to the Luzon grid, the power producer said. Based on computations, the transmission line project costs P45,120,293 but the ERC, after further evaluation, ar-rived at a lower project cost of P35,321,673. “NGCP’s 69-kV La Trinidad-Bulalacao-Mopreco transmis-sion line is the shortest, most economical and viable option to connect the Sabangan hydro- electric power plant to the trans-mission system of the NGCP. It will be exclusively utilized by hSAB,” the power firm said. hSAB will avail of the feed-in-tariff (FiT) mechanism for renewable-energy (RE) devel-opers. Its project is capable of producing an average of 55.15 gigawatt hours annually based on the approved FiT rate of P5.90 per kilowatt-hour. A hydropower service con-tract was already executed be-tween hSAB and the Depart-ment of Energy. Under the con-tract, hSAB was appointed as the party having the exclusive right to explore, develop and utilize the hydropower resources within the area along the Chico River in the municipality of Sabangan, Mountain Province. hSAB specializes in generat-ing clean and RE from run-of-river hydropower sources. Its Sabangan hydroelectric plant is a run-of-river development scheme intended to harness the hydro power potentials of Chico River.

Hedcor seeks erC approval for transmission line project

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

OpinionBusinessMirrorA6

Is the US a potential fake friend?

editorial

THE alleged participation in the operation to capture Zulkifli bin Hir, the Malaysian bomb terrorist known as “Marwan,” by the United States has repercussions well beyond the military aspect of US forces in service on Philippine territory.

We say ‘alleged” because at this point there is no official confirmation by the Philippine government as to the extent of the US involvement. Reports of various degrees of US contri-bution range from only helping evacuate the Filipino wounded to directing the project from inception to conclusion.

This situation is troubling on so many levels that it is hard to know where to begin the discussion. The political ramifications have only begun to be discussed and the potential to disrupt Philippine relations with the US is great.

The last several years have seen the current administration reach out to the US for sup-port in our territorial claims against China. While this may be primarily a diplomatic issue, it has progressed to the military side with the government’s intention to increase US military presence on PHL soil and increase security cooperation.

The relations that the Philippines has with the US are complicated. But the administration has chosen this path as an important alternative to going it alone against China.

However, there are other areas of our relationship with the US that are just as serious as the security and diplomacy issues.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a US proposed regional regulatory and investment treaty. While not an initial participant, the administration is pushing for the Philippines to be a signatory. We have great reservations about this treaty and its benefits for the Philippines especially in light of the coming Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Integration.

While publicly supporting Asean integration, the US government knows that freer trade between Asean countries is not in the best interests of the US or the TPP.

In Commentary magazine, author Michael Rubin asks, “Why Is the US Sacrificing Thailand to China?” Rubin is an academic as well as a hands-on government advisor on regional geo-politics.

He writes, “Thailand has consistently oriented its policies in support of ties, friendship, and alliance with the US only to feel that the US looks at traditional allies with disinterest if not disdain.”

Why did this happen? Rubin says: “The Obama administration and State Department, how-ever, seemingly ignorant of Thai history or the consequences of mob violence in Thailand’s incredibly diverse social fabric, continues to turn its back to Thailand, its requests for sup-port, and a nearly 200-year-old Treaty of Friendship. Beijing is happy to seize advantage from Obama’s diplomatic temper-tantrum to increase both its activity and influence in Thailand.”

If the reports about deep US involvement in the Marwan are true and the reaction by Filipinos is equally as deeply negative, what can we expect the US reaction to be? More im-portantly, what will China do about its relations with PHL if the US treats the Philippines like it is treating Thailand?

Someone once said, “Don’t fear the enemy who attacks you; Fear the fake friend who hugs you.”

First of two parts

BUSINESS journalists who attended the recent opening of the seventh branch of AllHome in Daang Hari in Cavite, my group’s one-stop home improvement retail unit, asked me

how I was doing after leaving the political scene in 2013.

HERE we are a month and a half into 2015 with the Philippine Stock Exchange Composite Index up about 7.5 percent, and we are still trying to figure out if that increase is justified.

That does not even address what may or may not happen in the future. The year is still young.

Government must take cue from private sector

Should the stock market go higher?

THE EnTrEprEnEurManny B. Villar

I answered that I’m now giving to business the same intensity I gave to politics, plus, of course, the excitement!

Recalling the interview, I believe my remark should be a good advice to other entrepreneurs, or those who are inter-ested in establishing their own business ventures. I also believe I am in a good position to offer such advice, based on personal experience, after going from business to politics and back to business.

As I have been saying in the past two years, this is the best time to be in busi-ness in the Philippines, which has de-fied global crises and continued to grow while other countries fell into recession or slow growth.

When I rejoined Vista Land & Lifes-capes, Inc., my group’s flagship real estate business, I quickly felt the vibrancy of the business sector, and the intensity of

the competition. Businessmen who made plans several years ago are now finding out that those plans were just enough to sustain current operations because ev-erybody continues to plan for the future even while previous expansion plans are still being implemented.

That’s how vibrant the private sector in the Philippine economy has become in recent years, because of the country’s strong fundamentals and improving in-vestment climate, which has prodded global credit rating agencies to rank the country as investment grade.

The current thrust of Vista Land re-flects this vibrancy. It has started ven-turing into other activities outside its traditional housing business. In previous columns I predicted an explosive growth in the retail business. This paved the way for Vista Land to go into retailing,

which actually complements its housing developments.

AllHome, which is under Vista Land’s retail arm All Value Holdings, serves homebuyers in the Vista Land com-munities, as well as homeowners out-side the company’s projects, and even other developers. In the next three to four months, AllHome will open other branches in Imus (also in Cavite, Sta. Rosa in Laguna and in Las Piñas. At least six other branches will open in Mega Ma-nila next year. We also intend to expand the AllHome network to other regions, particularly in Visayas and Mindanao.

All Value, which already operates 24/7 convenience stores under the All Day brand, is also going into super-markets and other retail businesses to take advantage of the consumer-driven economy.

My group is not alone in this ex-pansive mood. As I said earlier, there is intense competition in the business sec-tor. More investments are now coming in. Based on the Bangko Sentral’s latest report, net foreign direct investments (FDI) amounted to $5.7 billion during the period January to November 2014, up 61.6 percent from $3.5 billion in the same period in 2013. The 11-month FDI level was already more than the annual FDI inflow in previous years.

It’s fair to say that the intensity of the business sector is now fuelling eco-nomic growth. In his statement during the presentation of the official report on the economy last month, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan

said that the government ramped up its spending during the last three months of 2014, to reverse the contraction in the third quarter. Private or household consumption consistently grew last year, from 5.9 percent in the first quarter, to 5.3 percent in the second quarter, 5.2 percent in the third and 5.1 percent in the fourth.

In contrast, government expenditure started at a slow 1.9 percent in the first quarter, stood still (0.0 percent) in the second quarter, contracted by 2.6 percent in the third quarter before rebounding to 9.8 percent in the fourth quarter.

The last-minute rebound put the full-year growth in government con-sumption at 1.8 percent for 2014, still a big drop from 7.7 percent in 2013. It also enabled the economy to breach the 6-percent growth mark in Gross Domes-tic Product (GDP), although short of the official target of at least 6.5 percent, and the 7.2-percent posted in 2013.

In the past, the government was expected to take the initiative, or pro-vide the stimulus, to drive economic growth. In 2014, however, the private sector drove the economy. I believe it is imperative that the government ride on the vibrancy of the private sector to push the economy back on the fast lane beginning this year.

To be continued

For comments, e-mail mbv.secretari-at@gmail.com  or visit www.mannyvil-lar.com.ph.

So how can we assess the stock mar-ket and determine of the current and perhaps even if future price increases are reasonable and if there is some sort of ‘legitimate reason’ for going higher.

For more than 100 years during this age of the ‘modern’ stock market, people have been trying to figure out what makes a stock market move ei-ther up or down.

Sensibly, a company’s corporate value and profit outlook should prob-ably be of primary importance. But we know that factor, no matter how good it looks, can be washed away in a moment if the stock market in general turns sour. We think of stock prices as first reflecting corporate value. But then we know that “a rising tides floats all boats and the typhoon sinks all boats”.

In all the stock market crashes, the share price of good companies that continued to have rising profits also

went down considerably.Maybe then we should look only at

the broad market and then examine more closely individual ‘good’ com-panies. However, there are certainly times when the market is going higher and the price of ‘good’ companies un-derperforms the broad market.

Suppose we just forget about the stock market and the individual com-panies and look only at the macro-economic situation. Companies make more money when the economy is good or at least they should. The problem here is that studies have shown that a nation’s stock market tends to perform better when the economy is good but not necessarily great.

Then you have situations like Ven-ezuela where the economy has all but collapsed and the stock market goes higher and higher. But isn’t rampant inflation a reason why the Venezuela

stock market is going up? Sure, but other countries are experiencing de-flation and their markets are rising.

Shouldn’t the relationship of cor-porate value to stock price be the key? That is the way we want to measure ‘expensive’ and ‘cheap’ prices. But even that standard varies from year to year, decade to decade, and market to other markets.

Now do you understand why there are thousands of expert books on stock market investing?

Even most of the old and wise say-ings about the market fall short when examined closely. “Stock prices go higher because there are more buyers than sellers”. That is only partly true. Stock prices go higher because buyers, regardless of the number, are willing to pay a higher price than the lowest price sellers are willing to sell at. If it had only to do with numbers, then buyers would just buy at whatever price sellers were willing to take until there were no more sellers. And actually, that is also what happens sometimes.

Some analysts like to look at inves-tor psychology to understand why pric-es increase and this also makes sense. If people are standing on a street corner looking up at the sky, other people will stop and do the same thing. This is herd mentality. With the local stock market up so much in the past few years, more people are investing and more money in the market means higher prices. Ex-pect, the problem with that idea is that

are not that many more investors in the PSE than there were several years ago. Stock prices may or may not go up if corporate value increases. Prices may go up or down even if the economy is good or bad. Stock prices are deter-mined by investors’ participation but not always.

Money flow, alternative invest-ment yields, and investor psychology and outlook are also good ways to fore-cast stock market behavior. But these factors do not predict market action consistently over time.

There are some consistencies in every theory of why prices move but there are always exceptions and it’s the exceptions that disprove every theory at least a little. But there is not enough consistency over a long time to say, “The stock market is going up because….” and conversely about going down. More importantly, it is almost impossible to accurately say, “The stock market is going higher in future because…”

We expect to be able to predict the future of the stock market the same way weather forecasters do. Take a set of parameters and then draw accurate conclusions. Simply, we can’t.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web site at www.mangunon-markets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

OuTSIDE THE BOXJohn Mangun

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P-Noy should bear full responsibility for Mamasapano

SHOULD President Aquino resign from office, as called for by Retired Cardinal Ricardo Vidal and five Catholic bishops and the mainstream Left in the wake of the January 25

Mamasapano incident where 44 PNP Special Action Forces (SAF) were killed by members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MIFF) and its breakaway group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF)?

ABOUT TOWNErnesto M. Hilario

I don’t think so. From where I sit, what PNoy

should do is to assume full respon-sibility for the debacle, on the basis of command responsibility. After all, he is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the Philippine National Police apart from being the Chief Executive.

While sacked SAF chief Police Director Getulio Napeñas has pub-licly admitted that he is responsible for the what happened at Mamasa-pano, it strains credulity for him to do so particularly in light of allega-tions that then suspended and now resigned PNP chief Alan Purisima actually called the shots in the whole operation, with the full backing of PNoy himself.

What PNoy should do at this point is to clear the air and concede that he was on top of the whole operation from Day One, but that he failed to coordinate properly with the military in what was a perfectly legitimate operation against two most wanted terrorists.

What we have been seeing in the

past three weeks from Palace spokes-men is a crude and clumsy attempt at cover-up of PNoy’s actual role in Mamasapano.

If the President knew about the ongoing operation on the morning of January 25 but left it to the SAF chief to make the crucial decisions, then he should admit his lapse in judgment and say that he is willing to face the consequences of his actions, whether constitutional or legal, but emphasize that he would turn over the reins of office to his successor after the May 2016 elections.

That’s the statesmanlike thing to do.

Asean legal experts to hold Manila meetingAN association of lawyers, judges, and justices from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will hold its general assembly in Ma-nila this month, and is set to make a courtesy call on President Benigno Aquino III, parallel to the holding of events that include workshops for Filipino lawyers.

This according to Avelino Cruz, regional vice-president of the Asean Law Association (ALA) and president of ALA Philippines, who announced that the Asean chief justices and se-lect ALA officials will visit Malaca-ñang Palace on February 27, the third day of the association’s 4-day 12th General Assembly (GA).

ALA Philippines, where Cruz is also chairman of its National Com-mittee, has worked closely with the preparations of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno as host for the sum-mit meeting of all Asean chief jus-tices, to be held in the world-famous island of Boracay on March 1 to 2, and who will converge in Manila for the ALA GA at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel.

The separate meetings on Boracay are on track, and will be attended not only by ALA officials and delegates as guests but also by members of the Philippine Supreme Court, the High Tribunal’s Zaldy Trespeses said.

Michael Toledo, chairman of the Standing Committee on Legal Infor-mation of ALA Philippines, stressed the importance of the Asean econom-ic integration, saying that bureau-cracy must be trimmed for the free flow of goods, services, and capital among the member-states.

“If you want to stimulate a level playing field, remove the red tape and promote transparency,” asserted Toledo, who also heads the media bureau of the MVP group of compa-nies and is senior vice-president for corporate affairs at Philex Mining Corp. “It may not even be a question about competition policy and law, but about good governance.”

Cruz said the preparations for the February 25 to 28 general assembly

of ALA, founded in 1979 and will meet here in Manila for the first time since 1995, are complete, including the holding of six workshops, with the conference theme “Sharing Pros-perity at the Crossroads of Asean Integration—the Legal Challenges.”

Thus, the workshops will address, among other things, the legal impli-cations on the Asean integration of cross-border practices and commer-cial laws of the Asean legal commu-nity, as well as such fundamentals as commercial arbitration, free access to courts, and the rights of citizens to justice within the Asean countries.

Touching on all subjects of the mandatory continuing legal edu-cation for Filipino lawyers, the workshops are on legal profession, alternative dispute resolution, in-ternational law, business law, trade and investment and legal education. The paper writers and chairmen of these workshops will come from the 10 Asean countries.

Indonesia’s Chief Justice Hatta Ali, the incumbent ALA president, and ALA Secretary-General Swandy Halim have said that preparations of all delegates from the nine other countries who will travel to Manila for the GA are on high gear, and will be ready for the opening day on Feb-ruary 26.

The presidency of ALA, designat-ed in the Asean Charter of 2007 as the regional bloc’s only civil society affiliate for law, rotates among the member-nations every three years. Cruz was nominated January 26 by the ALA Philippine National Com-mittee for the position of incoming president of ALA.

E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.

Edgardo J. Angara

AS Chinese leaders attempt to guide their slowing economy into a soft landing, they’re counting heavily on People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan to keep conditions

stable. It’s a daunting task.

Easing won’t be easy in China

POPE Francis, during his trip to the Philippines, called attention to “scandalous social inequalities” plaguing the country. Indeed, a 2011 World Bank report cited the Philippines as

having the highest level of income inequality in East Asia.

By Josh RoginBloomberg View

CONGRESS is flummoxed about how to deal with President Barack Obama’s proposed authorization

for war against the Islamic State. While there’s a sizeable majority of members who favor putting congressional guid-ance on the war, the lack of agreement on how to do so raises the possibility that efforts to pass legislation will flounder on Capitol Hill.

All week, Republicans and Demo-crats in the House and Senate have been meeting behind closed doors to strat-egize  on  the White House’s proposal, which places vague limits on the use of ground troops, allows the president to expand the war to any country, and sun-sets in three years. Many Republicans want to give Obama (and his successor) more flexibility; many Democrats want to tighten restrictions.

Both parties acknowledge the need for some bipartisan support for their ideas. But neither leadership has fig-ured out how to craft a coalition that can muster 60 votes in the Senate and 218 in the House.

“It is certainly possible this thing could fall apart,” Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House

Intelligence Committee, told me. “The war would go on even in the absence of a new authorization, but that would re-ally be a blow to the institution of the Congress.”

Schiff is engaged in an effort by House Democrats to add stricter defini-tions to the bill’s prohibition on the use of ground forces for “enduring forward combat operations,” a term they argue could have various interpretations. He wants specific language spelling out ex-actly what ground troops could be used for, such as special operations or combat search and rescue.

Some House Democrats are looking to libertarian-leaning Republicans to join in them in opposing any authorization bill that could be interpreted to allow large combat operations on the ground in Iraq or Syria.

“I suspect that there are a number of libertarian-oriented Republicans who share the same concerns. It will be inter-esting to see how many of them there are and how they line up,” Schiff said. “A lot will depend on how many Republicans will be similarly uncomfortable with an-other open-ended authorization.”

The Republican House leadership, on the other hand, is determined to build a mostly Republican voting block to sup-port a bill with more flexibility for the

president, not less. They hold a strong majority, but if they lose 30 Republicans on the bill, they will need to pick up some hawkish Democrats to get it passed.

The Senate will most likely act first on authorization, before the House even has a chance to weigh in. Republicans there are also divided, but along different lines. Although libertarians such as Rand Paul will advocate for stricter restrictions on the president’s war power, the real ten-sion is between those who want to work with Democrats and those who want to take a more confrontational approach.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker favors a compro-mise that can  create  broad bipartisan support, several senior Senate aides told me. His committee has jurisdiction over the bill, so it will go first with hearings and approve the first version of the leg-islation. That bill is likely to track the president’s version, which was based on legislation written by Committee rank-ing member Robert Menendez and his Democratic colleague Senator Tim Kaine.

The Senate Armed Services Commit-tee, led by John McCain, will have its own hearings. McCain and committee Repub-lican Lindsey Graham favor removing all restrictions on the use of ground forces. Their position is shared by a majority of their own caucus, but not necessarily by

enough Democrats to allow the bill to get 60 votes on the floor.

The divisions inside the Republican Senate caucus were visible in a Wednes-day afternoon meeting at the Capitol. Prior to the conference, a memo circu-lated to all Republican senate offices (which I obtained) outlined the Repub-lican concerns with the president’s ver-sion of the bill.

“A legislative restriction on the president’s ability to use force may test the Founders’ wisdom that we have one Commander-in-Chief under the Con-stitution, rather than 535. It may also undermine the seriousness of purpose, conviction, and perseverance the United States likely wishes to signal in its con-duct of the armed conflict against Isil [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant],” the memo stated.

The memo also discussed  wide-spread  frustration and skepticism on Capitol Hill about how the White House has handled the whole issue of seeking war authorization. It noted that the ad-ministration has long called for Congres-sional authorization publicly but waited six months before seriously engaging Congress on the issue or proposing ac-tual legislation.

“As a matter of institutional respon-sibility and good governance, along with

manifesting united support for the ef-fort, it would seem incumbent upon the Congress to debate and consider this proposal,” the memo stated. “It is, unfortunately, far too late to salvage the position of presidential candidate Obama that it is ‘preferable to have the informed consent of Congress prior to any military action.’ ”

After the Congressional recess that begins tomorrow, Senate Majority Lead-er Mitch McConnell will have to decide whether to allow the president’s bill, as modified by Corker’s committee, to come to the Senate floor. Alternatively, Mc-Connell could just introduce an entirely new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), without ground troop restrictions, and use that as the start of the debate. But aides said that bypassing the Foreign Relations Committee could provoke complaints against the process and squander Democrat support, making passage much more difficult.

Even if McConnell sticks with Obama’s bill as the starting place, as the Republican-led Senate votes on amend-ments it  is still likely to move in the direction of loosening restrictions on the president’s actions. Republicans are also going to insist on adding require-ments for Executive Branch reports to Congress on the president’s strategy for

defeating the Islamic State, to empha-size that they do not believe the presi-dent’s current approach is sufficient or effective.

“We need to treat this as affecting the next president, a president who ac-tually is committing to defeating Isil,” said a senior Senate Republican aide, who insisted on anonymity. “We want to write this AUMF as a blueprint for victory, not a blueprint for muddling through.”

For months, the Obama administra-tion and Congress have had an unspoken agreement; both sides publicly called for a new war authorization while neither side actually pushed the issue out of a mutual comfort with the status quo. Now that the White House has made its move, Congress is forced to respond, but infighting among lawmakers could result in a failure to exert the oversight power they claim to wield.

For the White House, it’s actually a win-win. If Congress manages to pass something, it will be seen as a biparti-san endorsement of the president’s war, despite widespread discontent with how he is actually prosecuting it. If Congress balks, the president retains even more flexibility to fight the war than he is ask-ing for, and Congress will have ensured its own irrelevance in the debate.

A regressive tax system

Congressional chaos over Obama’s war authorization

Firming US growth is increasing the odds the Federal Reserve will boost interest rates soon. Europe, meanwhile, is on the precipice of re-newed turmoil as Greece spars with euro-area finance ministers. Japan is limping out of recession slower than hoped (growing an annualized 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter), rais-ing the chances of additional Bank of Japan stimulus.

With 560 basis points worth of monetary ammunition to use be-fore interest rates go negative, Zhou would seem well-armed for the chal-lenge. But what if he has fewer op-tions than optimists think?

Comments over the weekend by Guan Tao, head of international payments at the State Administra-tion of Foreign Exchange, suggest Zhou’s ability to ease may rapidly be evaporating. The problem? Fast-rising “uncertainty and instabil-ity” for capital shifts–conditions, Guan warns, that are eerily remi-niscent of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

As China’s currency watchdog, SAFE normally operates under a cloud of secrecy. For Guan to speak out so publicly suggests there’s good reason to be worried about the kind of sudden and massive outflows that flattened Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand nearly two decades ago.

For the last 12 years, the PBOC has faced exactly the opposite problem: what to do with all the cash flooding into the country as Tokyo, Washing-ton and Frankfurt slashed rates. That pumped up China’s money supply and required some fancy monetary footwork from Zhou, who had to introduce special securities to mop up liquidity. Now, with the dollar is rising and the yuan coming under pressure, incentives to move money out of China are growing. The gov-ernment’s anti-graft crackdown is adding to the problem, as crooked cadres scramble to shift their ill-gotten gains abroad.

The weakening yuan severely lim-its Zhou’s room to lower rates. Since the 2009 financial crisis, China’s massive credit buildup has led to

overcapacity across industries and too many unproductive investments. (And the bubble continues to grow: China’s broadest measure of new credit rose $328 billion in January, the third straight monthly increase.) Something similar happened across Southeast Asia and South Korea in the 1990s; then, once currencies plunged, dollar-denominated loans blew up.

Today, China can’t boost exports by letting the yuan fall, for fear that untold numbers of foreign-currency deals might unravel. What really worries investors about Kaisa Group, a previously little-known property developer that missed a coupon payment last month, is that no one knows how many other developers may default if the yuan weakens. While the Bank for International Settlements estimates Chinese com-panies owe about $1.1 trillion, nei-ther Zhou nor Chinese President Xi Jinping know for sure.

These risks belie the conventional wisdom that the PBOC will be cut-ting rates early and often this year. By Guan’s logic, any significant moves could do more harm than good. It helps, certainly, that the yuan isn’t full convertible. But then, neither is it formally pegged to the dollar. As China faces capital outflows in the neighborhood of $50 billion a month, as former PBOC economist Ding Shuang has estimated, currency stability will be hard to maintain. And to leaders in Beijing, stability is everything.

China isn’t necessarily headed for a crash in 2015. But those counting on the PBOC to prop up growth need to reconsider their confidence. The further China slows below 7 per-cent, the more likely it is that the government will have to add fresh stimulus itself. That means a credit bubble that surged $20 trillion be-tween 2007 and 2014 will continue to swell. For all Xi’s talk of epochal change, today’s China finds itself much where Asia did in 1997–de-pendent on exports and excessive borrowing, and at the mercy of markets that have no trouble seeing through government spin.

Our outdated tax scheme exac-erbates this dismal situation. For instance, the prevailing personal in-come tax rates and brackets remain unadjusted, nearly 18 years since they were adopted. And with the consumer price index doubling in the intervening years, tens of thousands of young professionals and junior ex-ecutives find themselves catapulted

to the top tax brackets. An entry-level call center agent

would already be paying at the third-highest rate of 25 percent while a mid-level professional with gross monthly income of P60,000 would be taxed at the same rate charged the owner of the company he works for.

Such tax scheme pushes our peo-ple to jobs overseas. A person earning

around $5,700 (roughly P250,000) will be taxed at 2 percent in Malay-sia, 10 percent in Thailand, 15 per-cent in Indonesia and exempt from income tax in Singapore. That same person will be taxed at 25 percent, here at home. This explains why in a 2014 Pew Research Center survey, 31 Filipino respondents said they would recommend “moving abroad” to a young person who wants a good life.

With the current scheme, a sig-nificant portion of the government’s tax revenues come from middle-class wage and salary earners, mostly as taxes withheld. A 2014 UP School of Economics study revealed that up to P240 billion in government rev-enues–representing up to 20 percent of total tax collection in 2013–came from the incomes of only 4.66 mil-lion Filipino families, comprising an overworked and increasingly thinned-out middle class.

What we have is in fact a regres-sive taxation system, contrary to constitutional provisions mandating a progressive one. With much of the population unable to pay taxes and well-to-do families able to avoid tax obligations, the burden falls mainly on the shoulders of the salaried and fixed income earners.

President Aquino recently signed into law a measure that raises the tax exemption ceiling on salary ben-efits such as 13th month pay and Christmas bonus, from P30,000 to P82,000. The measure will benefit an estimated 22 million Filipino wage and salary earners– putting back much needed purchasing power into the hands of middle class families. It should also mark the first of many needed reforms in our unjust taxa-tion system.

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

BLOOMBERG VIEWWilliam Pesek

A8

2ndFront PageBusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.phTuesday, February 17, 2015

Talks on use of VMMC as sitefor ITS North going smoothly

PRICES OF CONSTRUCTION GOODS SPIKED IN JANUARY

LIST OF ALL REGULATED IMPORTED GOODS READY

By Cai U. Ordinario

R etail prices of construction mate-rials in Metro Manila increased by an average of 1.9 percent in Janu-

ary, according to the Philippine Statistics authority (PSa). the year-on-year growth in the Cons- truction Materials Retail Price index (CMRPi) in the National Capital Region (NCR) last month was higher than the 1.6 percent posted in December 2014 and 0.5 percent in January 2014. the PSa noted that the growth in the CMRPi was the highest since October 2014, when it reached 2 percent. in terms of the index value, the CMRPi in January was at 181.4, the highest since October 2014, when the value was at 182. “annual gains in the following com-modity groups were faster: carpentry ma-terials index, 3 percent; electrical materials index, 0.4 percent; painting materials and related compounds index, 2.5 percent; and plumbing materials index, 0.8 percent,” the PSa said. Other indexes, on the other hand, post-ed slower growth, particularly in masonry materials and tinsmithry materials at 7.2 percent and 2 percent, respectively. Further, data showed that the miscel-laneous construction materials index reg-istered an annual decline of 3 percent.

On a monthly basis, the CMRPi in Metro Manila increased 0.1 percent in January 2015. it was the same rate noted in De-cember 2014. “Price hikes were generally observed in tinsmithry materials, common wire nails, gravel, sahara and faucet. Prices of cement and steel bars were, however, lower during the month in review,” the PSa said. Data showed that the tinsmithry materi-als index posted faster monthly growth of 0.6 percent. On the other hand, the increase in the carpentry materials index eased to 0.1 percent, and masonry materials and plumbing materials indices 0.3 percent. Moreover, declines were noticed in the indices of painting materials and related compounds and miscellaneous construc-tion materials at -0.3 percent and -1.1 per-cent, respectively. the CMRPi is a variant of the General Retail Price index. the CMRPi measures the changes in the average retail prices of construction materials in Metro Manila. the market basket of the CMRPi is com-posed of 102 commodities classified into seven major groups: Carpentry Materials; electrical Materials; Masonry Materials; Painting Materials and Related Com-pounds; Plumbing Materials; tinsmithry Materials; and Miscellaneous Construc-tion Materials.

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

The transportation department is working toward the quick rollout of the multibillion-peso

intermodal transport facility north of Metro Manila, with a senior government official assuring that negotiations for the location of the facility—the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC)—have been going on smoothly. 

By Joel R. San Juan 

THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) announced on Monday the creation of the so-called bible of all regulated im-ports and their corresponding requirements that can

be downloaded online. At a news conference, Customs Commissioner John P. Sevilla said it is the first in the history of the BOC that such single reference list of all regulated imported products has ever been done.  Sevilla said the master list of regulated products is intended to minimize corruption and make the importing process more transparent and faster. “There will be less legwork for importers and brokers as they wouldn’t have to go from one agency to another just to inquire about the permits/clearances needed for importation and, at the same time, our frontliners will be empowered as they now have a single reference list for all regulated prod-ucts,” Sevilla said. “They don’t have to guess what permits are needed for a certain product. They won’t make the mistake of requesting for wrong or unnecessary clearance/permit,” he added. Sevilla pointed out that through the master list, the agency is empowering the public so they can transact with the BOC with less hassle and “eliminate any room for cor-ruption among our personnel.” “Some importers and brokers would resort to bribery just to make their transactions with the bureau faster and, at the same time, with little or no knowledge of the import process, traders are often victimized or exploited by unscrupulous Customs employees,” Sevilla explained. 

See “Imported goods,” A2

Transportation  Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo M. Lotilla said although talks with the Department of National Defense for the property are still pre-liminary in nature, negotiations are seemingly favorable.  “Veterans Memorial Medical Center is under the defense department. It will

be an easy ride, hopefully,” he said. The transport official, who also sits as the chairman of the department’s bids and awards committee, explained that VMMC suits the parameters set by the government for the facility.  “The location seems good because it is near the railway systems, so there will

be integrations,” Lotilla said, referring to the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 and the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1.  Soon, the MRT Line 7, which will run from North Edsa to San Jose del Monte in Bulacan, will also rise near the area, providing more connectivity and ease in transportation.  Earlier, Transportation Undersecretary for Planning Rene K. Limcaoco said his agency is looking at three options for the location of the Integrated Transport System (ITS) North Terminal project, namely, the former Philippine National Railway Station in Caloocan, a site in the University of the Philippines and the seedling bank along Quezon Avenue and Edsa. The military-run hospital is the latest addition to the government’s list of pos-sible locations for the intermodal facility, a decision which should have been finalized in June last year.  The transportation department has three key considerations in choosing the best location for the infrastructure: cost, time of travel and passenger convenience.  Once a location for the project has been chosen, the agency will then endorse the deal to the National Economic and Devel-opment Authority Board, which is chaired

by President Aquino.  The P7.7-billion ITS project envisages the establishment of three mass-trans-portation intermodal terminals at the outskirts of Metro Manila—one in the north of Edsa serving passengers to and from Northern Luzon, one in the south serving passengers to and from the La-guna and Batangas side, and one in the southwest serving passengers to and from the Cavite side. Last month the government awarded the P2.5-billion ITS Southwest Terminal deal to Megawide Construction Corp. and partner  Waltermart Property Manage-ment Inc. of billionaire and retail magnate Henry Sy. The P4-billion South Terminal con-tract, meanwhile, is currently under procurement.  The government has awarded nine contracts since the infra-structure program’s inception in 2010. It aims to sign at least 15 contracts by the time Mr. Aquino steps down from office in 2016. The state intends to plug the gap in the country’s transportation infrastructure in the next decade by rolling out massive in-frastructure projects that are seen to spur economic growth. 

The said vision points to the company’s profits growing by an average of 20 percent every year, with the end goal of reaching the P40 billion in net income by year 2020, or more than triple its profit in 2013. “Opportunities that will allow us to build integrated sustainable developments will remain our top priority. Not only do these estates become great places to live and work, but they also provide business and job opportunities to many Filipinos,” Dy said. Revenues from property development, which include the sale of residential lots and units, office spaces, as well as commercial and industrial lots, reached P65.9 billion, or 21 percent higher than the P54.5 billion reported in 2013. Meanwhile, revenues from the residential segment reached P55.9 billion, 26 percent higher than 2013 figures, driven by strong bookings and project completion across all residential brands. In addition, its units Alveo and Avida, which ven-tured into office development, reported aggregated revenues totaling P5.3 billion from their new offices, a fourfold increase from 2013, driven by successful bookings in their developments. These include High Street South Corporate Plaza Towers, Park Triangle Corporate Plaza and One Park Drive in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

The company claimed that market acceptance remained high as the company posted an 11-percent increase in sales take-up against the previous year. “Sales across our various residential brands continue to be good, and we thank our customers for their continued trust,” Dy said. Total revenues from commercial leasing, which includes its shopping centers, office leasing and hotels and resorts operations, amounted to P21.2 billion in 2014, 18 percent higher than the P18 billion recorded in the same period last year. Moreover, revenues of the hotels and resorts sector grew by 40 percent to P5.6 billion in 2014, from P4 billion in 2013, primarily driven by the improved performance of new hotels and resorts. This year the company has allotted P100 billion for capital expenditures primarily earmarked for the completion of ongoing developments and launches of new residential and leasing projects. Among its plans for the year is the development of the Bacolod Capitol project, which will kick off with the groundbreaking of the residential, retail, office and hotel components of the estate. The company will also start the development of the 11-hectare mixed-use project in Balintawak, Quezon City.

Ayala. . . Continued from A1