BusinessMirror December 6, 2014

By Cai U. Ordinario & Bianca Cuaresma

No matter the slowdown in inflation in November, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda)

warned the public of a possible increase in prices, as consumption activities associated with the long Christmas holidays bite deeper.

By Catherine N. Pillas

The government and local ex-porters have finalized a plan aimed at boosting the export

sector’s competitiveness, an official of the Department of Trade and In-dustry (DTI) said on Friday. Trade Undersecretary Ponciano C. Manalo Jr. said the Philippine export Development Plan (PeDP) 2014-2016 has been endorsed to President Aquino for his approval. “The DTI, in coordination with the Philippine exporters Confed-

eration Inc. [Philexport], has final-ized the PeDP and has submitted it to the Office of the President,” said Manalo at the National export Con-gress in 2014, which is organized by the DTI, export Development Council and Philexport. The National export Congress, now on its 19th year, kicked off on December 1 and will run until De-cember 7. This year’s theme is “Inte-grating SMes to Global Value Chains.” “The PeDP proposes to address challenges faced by local exporters

PESO ExchangE ratES n US 44.6480 n jaPan 0.3729 n UK 69.9902 n hK 5.7584 n chIna 7.2544 n SIngaPOrE 34.0253 n aUStralIa 37.5320 n EU 55.2832 n SaUDI arabIa 11.8973 Source: BSP (5 December 2014)

Continued on A8

Continued on A2

hOw tO maKE It wOrK whEn bOth ParEntS wOrK

U.S. hOUSE lawmaKErS rEbUKE Obama On ImmIgratIOn

Saturday, December 6, 2014 D3

ParentlifeBusinessMirrorwww.businessmirror.com.ph

By Jennifer ChungKinsights.com

Raising healthy well-adjusted kids takes a lot of energy. Working parents can feel like they are being pulled in multiple directions simultaneously, which can be stressful and have an adverse impact on

kids. Whether you are a single parent or a dual-income family, balancing family and career can be challenging. Check out these family-friendly tips to bring structure to a fragmented lifestyle.

n Be present. Parents have to work, that is just a fact of life. Kids sometimes feel neglected when both parents work. Juggling family and career can create a hectic home life and kids can easily sense when they are not at the top of the priority list. stress at work can also rear its ugly head at home by giving in to short tempers and using harsh words. The best way to build a harmonious home life is to be present when you’re home. Check the worries of the day at the door and be intentional about focusing on the kids. Eating dinner together and having a bedtime ritual the kids can count on will help reinforce how much they are loved and cared for.

n Validate your child’s feelings. Encourage your kids to talk about how they feel when you have to work long hours. Validate how they feel and speak in terms that are age-appropriate. Create rules for home that exclude bringing work home. if work must be done, make sure it’s completed after the kids are tucked into bed.

Make family time a priority. Eating dinner together as a family may not always be possible so schedule a family night once a week to do activities together as a family. Having something positive for the kids to look forward to will help balance out the negative feelings

they may experience while you’re away at work.n Create quality time. When kids are young,

early bedtimes play a role in how much family time is available during the week. Make the most of the

time you have with the kids by turning off technology and making them feel like they are your only priority after work. Be intentional about your family plan and schedule time for the things that are truly important.

Kids don’t understand the difference between quality and quantity time when they are little, so it’s important to make all of the time you spend together quality time. Create an atmosphere of love and explain everyone’s role in the family. For mommy and daddy, one of those roles is earning money, etc.

n Have an afterschool plan. Latch-key kids are still at risk if there is no adult supervision after school. Kids should not be left on their own to raise themselves. Kids with working parents can suffer when it comes time to do homework and getting the help they need to succeed. if both parents work, insure there is a plan in place to help your child get homework done by hiring a tutor after school, using school-provided services, or enlisting a family member to help.

n Focus on benefits. increased income generated by both parents working can create additional opportunities for kids that might not otherwise be possible. Traveling as a family, taking art or music classes, or even attending private schools can be a benefit of both parents working. Children with working parents also are exposed to other social settings, which can spark emotional and social development. Kids in households with two working parents learn at a young age that other adults can care for them and meet their needs.

Recent studies show that two income households can produce happy, confident, well-adjusted kids. Focus on what is right for you. Whether that means pursuing a career or staying at home, kids will notice and respond accordingly.

n Jennifer Chung is a parenting expert and co-founder of Kinsights: part parenting community, part online health record. Kinsights provides parents with a safe place to seek answers to their questions while also helping them track their child’s health information.

A yeAr after Supertyphoon yolanda hit the Philippines, the survivors’ stories of resilience continue as they rebuild from the ruins of their storm-ravaged homes.

Since the typhoon’s devastating landfall in 2013, the GMA Kapuso Foundation (GMAKF), with its long-standing commitment to “Serbisyong Totoo,” has been a steadfast advocate in turning these stories of loss into stories of hope through its quick response in times of need and its extensive disaster relief programs.

On the anniversary of yolanda, GMAKF officially turned over 120 permanent concrete houses of Phase 2 and 3 of its Kapuso Village in Tacloban City to select families displaced by the super typhoon.

GMAKF is the first non-governmental organizations to turn over permanent concrete housing to yolanda survivors in Tacloban City. A total of 172 houses were turned over since July 2014. An additional 231 houses will be ready for occupancy in the coming months, fulfilling in part the foundations’ 403-unit concrete housing project in the area.

“For the yolanda survivors, a year definitely will not suffice to alleviate the pain from the loss of family members and ruined homes. However, our commitment to rebuilding lives through this long-term project will help regain hope for many displaced residents,” GMAKF executive Vice President and COO Mel C. Tiangco shares.

The beneficiaries became emotional during the turnover as they recalled the terrifying storm and what they went through. even so, they were grateful for the outpouring of assistance they received from GMAKF and its partners. Through the generosity of numerous citizens all over the world, the project was able to come to fruition. Furthermore, GMA and its roster of stars showed the true meaning of the spirit of community and giving by participating in GMAKF’s yolanda rehabilitation efforts.

Just recently GMA launched its 2014 “Share the Love” Christmas campaign, reminding its viewers that rebuilding lives entails a collaborative effort from generous hearts and passionate spirits. The media giant unveiled the campaign with an event plug featuring Mel Tiangco, joined by Kapuso stars as they shared an early Christmas with the residents of the Kapuso Village in Tacloban. The plug garnered positive reviews on Facebook, with users commenting on the wonderful message of the campaign and GMAKF’s tireless efforts in helping those in need. Facebook user Gerolou posted: “That’s why kind-hearted people trusted GMA Kapuso Foundation because they can see where their donations go.... Hope to fulfill 400 or more houses for yolanda victims onward!” Meanwhile, Facebook user Khryss, a yolanda survivor, praised the video: “It makes my heart smile upon seeing this video and the song has really moved me. Thanks for motivating a lot

of people in doing humanitarian missions. We are still blessed to have people like you.”

Since its launch, over 100 GMA celebrities and news-and-public-affairs personalities have shared the love by sponsoring food, toys, medical treatments and medicines for the foundation’s beneficiaries in the country, including other yolanda-affected areas.

In addition to the housing project in Tacloban, GMAKF also pledged the construction of 24 new classrooms under its Kapuso School Development project within the Kapuso Village.

Meanwhile, another Kapuso Village will soon rise in Palo, which includes 169 concrete houses and 10 classrooms.

GMAKF has also turned over 15 classrooms in Barangay Sulangan in Guiuan, eastern Samar. Moreover, construction and rehabilitation is under way for 40 classrooms in Quinapondan in eastern Samar, and Villaba and Kananga in Leyte.

How to make it work when both parents work

Renewed hope, lasting impactNot a few residents were overcome with emotion as 120 concrete houses were turned over to the beneficiaries of the Kapuso Village in tacloban.

City Councilor Cristina Gonzales-Romualdez, representing the City Government of tacloban, receives the ceremonial key to the Kapuso Village tacloban, from GMA Kapuso Foundation Executive Vice President and Coo Mel C. tiangco.

GMA stars Bianca Umali, Miguel tanfelix, Kris Bernal, Barbie Forteza, Marian Rivera, Dingdong Dantes and Julie Anne San Jose joined GMAKF Executive Vice President and Coo Mel C. tiangco in giving the residents an early Christmas gift.

life D3

C | S, D , [email protected]@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jun Lomibao

SportsBusinessMirror

TIGER WOODS finds himself 11 shots behind first-round leader Jordan Spieth (inset).

AP

B D F� e Associated Press

WINDERMERE, Florida—Tiger Woods took on any shot without pain or worry on Thursday, a feeling he hasn’t had on the golf course in a long time.

As for his short game?He hadn’t seen anything like it in longer than he

can remember, and it was shocking.Woods flubbed four chips. He took two shots to get

out of a bunker on the par-five seventh hole. He didn’t have a birdie putt inside 20 feet until the 11th hole. And on the four birdie chances he had inside 10 feet on the back nine, he made only one of them. And that was a tap-in.

In his first competition in nearly four months, Woods wound up with a five-over 77 at Isleworth, his home course for his first 16 years as a pro. That put him in last place in the 18-man field, 11 shots behind Jordan Spieth, who is coming off a runaway victory last week in the Australian Open.

“One of those days where nothing went my way,” Woods said.

The score was not nearly as significant as his health in what has been a lost year for Woods because of back problems. He had surgery a week before the Masters that kept him out for three months. He had not played since August 9 at the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Championship because of lingering back issues, and the need to build up his muscle structure. Woods missed the cut at Congressional in June in his first tournament after back surgery. This time, he is coming back from injury and he is working with a new coach. In that respect, the score was not

a surprise. It was the 10th time in 12 rounds that he failed to break par since his first return in June.

Even so, some of the shots were shocking, especially around the green.

On the par-five 17th, he hit his second shot just left of the green, pin-high in a deep collection area. Woods no sooner hit his chip that he angrily swung back-handed toward his divot, knowing what was coming next. The ball didn’t come close to reaching the green, and Woods turned his back as the ball rolled back toward his feet.

He compensated on the next shot and sent it well past the hole, and he had to make a 10-footer just to escape with par.

The other two holes where he muffed chips cost him a double bogey at No. 8 and a bogey at the par-five 13th. Two shots out of the bunker on the par-5 seventh led to bogey.

“It is surprising that I could hit chips that poorly,” he said. The 77 was his second-highest score of the year. He had a 79 on the South Course at Torrey Pines in January. What kept the day from being a total loss is that Woods reported feeling “zero pain.”

“I haven’t said that in a long time,” Woods said. “It’s very exciting to step up there and hit the drives I hit—especially on the back nine—and start launching it and feel nothing.”

The opening drive set the tone for the day—and his return. Woods was about to hit his first shot in nearly four months when he heard a loud click of a camera and backed off. Then, he tugged his 3-wood through the fairway, beyond an iron fence into someone’s backyard and presumably into a swimming pool. He had to hit another from the tee and did well to escape with a bogey.

Rust would seem to be an issue, but it certainly

wasn’t the case for Steve Stricker. He hasn’t played since the PGA Championship, either, yet Stricker made five birdies in a bogey-free round of 67 and was one shot behind Spieth, along with Dubai World Tour Championship winner Henrik Stenson, Zach Johnson and Rickie Fowler.

Woods played with Jason Day, who last competed at the Tour Championship three months ago. Day shot a 71. FedEx Cup champion Billy Horschel and Patrick Reed, both at 73, were the only other players over par on a warm, breezy afternoon. Spieth won by six shots in Australia last week for his second career title. The 21-year-old flew home to Dallas, then came out to Florida the next day. He was feeling sluggish on Wednesday, but there was no sign of jet lag on Thursday. And there is nothing wrong with his game.

He ran off five straight birdies starting at No. 6, and saved his round with a 12-foot par putt on the 18th. “I’m excited about how last week went and I’m kind of riding the momentum,” Spieth said. “I’m going to give it my all these last few days.”

Woods felt as though he hit the ball nicely, though certainly not as close as we would like.

Even when he did hit the green in regulation—only four times in his opening 10 holes—he was never close enough for a reasonable birdie chance. He finally got that on the par-three 11th hole, only to miss a 10-foot putt. When he hit his stride on the back nine, his putting was off. Woods missed a three-and-a-foot birdie putt on the 14th, and he never came close on an 8-foot attempt on No. 16.

“Today was weird,” Woods said. “I didn’t feel like I hit it that bad. My short game was awful. Didn’t make anything.... Bad chips, bad putts and a couple of missed shots on the front nine on the wrong side compounded the problem.”

CANASTOTA, New York—Riddick Bowe, who beat undisputed champion Evander Holyfield for the heavyweight boxing title in 1992, and popular lightweight champion Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini have been selected for induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Also selected were featherweight champion “Prince” Naseem Hamed of England, light-flyweight champion Yoko Gushiken of Japan, manager Rafael Mendoza of Mexico, referee Steve Smoger, journalist Nigel Collins of England and broadcaster Jim Lampley.

Posthumous honorees include Japanese flyweight Masao Ohba, US middleweight Ken Overlin and US publicist John FX Condon.

Inductees were selected by the Boxing Writers Association and a panel of international boxing historians. The induction ceremony will be on June 14 at the Hall of Fame in upstate New York.

Bowe became the undisputed champ after beating Holyfield for the three major crowns. One of 13 siblings who grew up in poverty in Brooklyn, Bowe somehow made his way to the pinnacle of the sport. He won his first 31 fights to get a shot

at the title, knocking out all but two of them. He fought only 10 times after beating Holyfield in the first of their three memorable bouts, and won nine of them. But it was evident his career was declining when he had to get up off the canvas to stop Holyfield in their final meeting.

Bowe retired in December 1996 with

a 43-1 (33 KOs) pro record, after taking a second straight beating from Andrew Golota, although he won both fights because Golota hit him with low blows.

Mancini followed his father, Lenny, into boxing and turned pro in 1979. In 1982 he scored a first-round knockout of Arturo Frias to win the World Boxing

Association (WBA) lightweight title.Though his career was brief, the

popular Mancini had a profound impact. In November 1982 he defended his title against Duk Koo Kim of South Korea at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in an outdoor bout televised live. Mancini scored a knockout in the 14th round, but Kim suffered brain injuries that led to his death four days later.

The WBA immediately shortened its title fights to 12 rounds, and by 1990 all sanctioning organizations followed suit. But Kim’s death had a negative impact on the sport’s popularity.

Mancini also made successful defenses against Ernesto España, Orlando Romero and Hall-of-Famer Bobby Chacon before losing the title to Livingstone Bramble in 1984, and in the rematch the next year. He officially retired in 1992 with a pro record of 29-5 (23 KOs).

Hamed learned to box at seven and turned pro in 1992. In the ensuing decade, he captured bantamweight, super-bantamweight and featherweight titles and had an impressive string of 15 successful title defenses before retiring in 2002 with a pro record of 36-1 (31 KOs).

The Tokyo-born Ohba turned pro in 1966 and compiled a 25-2-1 record before winning the WBA flyweight championship in 1970. He successfully defended the title five times over the next three years and in his lone bout outside his homeland, stopped Rocky Garcia in the ninth round in the US. His last fight was a successful title defense over Thailand’s Chartchai Chionoi in January 1973. Three weeks later, he died at 23 from injuries suffered in an automobile accident, finishing with a pro record of 35-2-1 (16 KOs).

Overlin learned to box in the US Navy and turned pro in 1931. Perhaps his finest moment was a 10-round victory over future heavyweight king Ezzard Charles. He retired in 1944 with a record of 135-19-9-2NC (23 KOs) and died in 1969.

Condon served as vice president and president of MSG Boxing in 1981 and was matchmaker and commentator for fights on the MSG Network. He died in 1989.

Mendoza was one of boxing’s most respected managers and booking agents. He advised 22 world champions, including Hall-of-Famers Alexis Arguello and Pipino Cuevas. AP

FORMER world heavyweight kins Riddick Bowe (left) and popular lightweight champion Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini get their places in the Hall of Fame.

BOWE, MANCINI HEAD BOXING HALL OF FAME’S NEW CLASS

NOTHING GOESTIGER’S WAYTIGER’S WAY

IN HIS FIRST COMPETITION IN NEARLY FOUR MONTHS, TIGER WOODS WINDS UP WITH A FIVE-OVER 77 AT ISLEWORTH, HIS HOME COURSE FOR HIS FIRST 16 YEARS AS A PRO, PUTTING HIM IN LAST PLACE IN THE 18-MAN FIELD.

NOTHING GOESTIGER WOODS STUMBLES TO A FAT 77 IN HIS RETURN 

sports C1

Govt, businessmen finalize plan to boost exports

U.S. hiring waS likely Solid for 10th Straight month

INSIDE

Massive crowds in Manhattan in 2nd night of protests

WorldBusinessMirror

The

B3-1 | Saturday, December 6, 2014 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Protesters in Washington block 14th street near Pennsylvania Avenue to protest the staten Island, New York, grand jury’s decision not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo in the eric Garner chokehold case on thursday in Washington, D.C. Olivier DOuliery/AbAcA Press/TNs

NEW YORK—Thousands of marchers jammed into Foley Square in

Manhattan on Thursday night over the Eric Garner case before breaking up into the city’s land-mark arteries and into Brook-lyn, as they joined a national cry for change.

In a second night of largely peaceful rallies, crowds shouted for equal justice with signs and chants as they streamed onto the Brooklyn Bridge, the Man-hattan Bridge, the West Side Highway, business-lined Canal Street and Broadway, and tried to shut down the Holland Tun-nel before police repelled them.

Police shut down the Staten Island Ferry terminal on the Manhattan side due to the protests.

Civil-rights leaders on Thurs-day decried the grand jury deci-sion not to charge a white New York City police officer in the chokehold death of Garner and announced plans for a march and a summit on racial justice in Washington later this month.

National Urban League Pres-ident Marc Morial said the lack of an indictment in Garner’s death was “a travesty of justice.”

About 20 civil-rights lead-ers met behind closed doors on Thursday at the New York City headquarters of Rev. Al Sharp-ton’s National Action Network. Sharpton, one of the country’s most outspoken civil-rights ac-tivists, said a civil-rights summit will be held following a December 13 march in Washington.

Shortly after 9 p.m., crowds conducted a “die in” in front of Barclays Center, lying on the roadways and falling silent. An-other large group was headed for Union Square.

On the West Side Highway, demonstrators conducted a sit-in right in front of a line of po-lice. Some of those who refused to move were arrested.

“Shame on you!” protesters yelled at cops.

Police officers walked or rode motorcycles alongside the march-ers. The NYPD was out in force, blocking access to some areas but giving the marchers leeway.

Many drivers honked or

stuck their thumbs up in a show of support, even as protesters brought traffic to a standstill.

“I’ve never seen this level of av-erage citizens at our demonstra-tions,” said one Foley Square pro-test organizer, Daniel Majesty, 33, a hip-hop artist and member of the Bronx Justice Committee and Cop Watch. “This is not your usual cast of characters. This is a people-power protest.”

The show of might and dis-satisfaction over police and community relations was just one of several demonstrations around the country on Thurs-day night.

From Boston to Baltimore, and from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh and Chicago, diver-sity in race and age was seen in the crowds that came out over several recent fatal encounters between blacks and police.

The latest round of protests was sparked by Wednesday’s announcement that a Staten Island grand jury did not indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who held Garner in a chokehold that led to his death.

The news came weeks after a Ferguson, Missouri, grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer in the fa-tal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.

Michelle Tei, 38, of Manhat-tan, came with her infant daugh-ter and 2-year-old son, who had painted on his face the phrase “I can’t breathe,” Garner’s last words as he was held in an ap-parent chokehold on a Staten Island sidewalk as officers tried to arrest him on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.

“As a mother, you want to shield your children from the darkness of the world,” she said. “But they have to learn to fight for justice. We are living in an unjust system and one that is racist.”

Canal Street in Chinatown was a virtual parking lot, as hun-dreds of demonstrators headed toward the Holland Tunnel. When drivers beeped in support, the marchers cheered wildly.

Three moving company workers posted a sign on their dashboard reading: “Ferguson is everywhere.” TNS and AP

Even as emotions ran high in debate on the bill, many involved acknowledged it was mostly a side-show as Republicans struggled to find some way to undo what Obama has done—not just register their disapproval.

Party leaders acknowledged their options were limited given Obama’s veto power, and no clear solution beckoned, even as Republicans prepare to take full control of Congress in January after sweeping last month’s congressional elections.

Outraged Democrats, immigrant advocates and the White House said Republicans were voting to tear families apart and eject parents.

Obama’s executive actions last month will ex-tend deportation relief and work permits to some 4 million immigrants here illegally, mostly those who have been in the country more than five years and have children who are US citizens or legal perma-nent residents.

He also reordered law-enforcement priorities and expanded an existing deportation deferral pro-gram for immigrants brought illegally as kids.

“Rather than deport students and separate fam-ilies and make it harder for law enforcement to do its job, I just want Congress to work with us to pass a commonsense law to fix that broken immigration system,” Obama said ahead of the vote.

Even the bill’s supporters acknowledged that the bill, which says Obama was acting “without any constitutional or statutory basis,” was mostly meant to send a message.

It was part of a two-part strategy by House Republican leadership to appease conservative immigration hardliners without risking a gov-ernment shutdown.

After gaining control of the Senate and adding to their majority in the House, Republicans pledged they would prove to Americans that they were

ready to govern, not just obstruct the president.Yet a bigger battle might lie ahead as conser-

vatives push to use must-pass spending legisla-tion to block Obama.

Republicans hoped that after approving the bill, the party would move on next week to vote on legis-lation to keep most of the government running for a year, with a shorter timeframe for the Homeland Se-curity Department, which oversees immigration.

The idea is to revisit Homeland Security early next year when Republicans will control both houses at the Capitol and have more leverage. The current government-funding measure expires on December 11 so a new one must pass by then.

But that approach doesn’t go far enough for some immigration hardliners, goaded on by outside conservative groups that donate massive amounts of money to candidates and tea party-aligned sena-tors including Ted Cruz of Texas. They say the only real way to stop Obama is to include language in the upcoming spending bill to block any money for his actions on immigration.

Republican leaders fear such spending-bill language could court an Obama veto and even a government shutdown. That’s something they’re determined to avoid, a year after taking a political hit for provoking a 16-day partial shutdown in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn Obama’s health care law.

Democratic lawmakers rallied behind the president on Thursday, and immigrant advocates warned Republicans would be alienating Latinos heading into 2016 presidential elections in which the rapidly growing Hispanic vote is expected to be significant. AP

US House lawmakers rebuke Obama on immigrationWASHINGTON—Emboldened Repub-

licans issued a stern but symbolic rebuke to President Barack Obama

over immigration on Thursday, passing a bill in the House of Representatives declaring his ex-ecutive actions to curb deportations “null and void and without legal effect.”

BANGKOK—A traditional birthday celebration ceremony for Thai-land’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej,

the world’s longest-reigning monarch, has been canceled because his doctors say he’s not well enough to attend.

The king, who turned 87 on Friday, has been hospitalized since early October when he had his gall bladder removed.

The cancellation, announced by the pal-ace, will put a damper on public birthday celebrations, but will not come as a shock to most people. The monarch has been vis-ibly ailing for the last several years.

However, the king’s absence comes at a time of particular concern over his succession.

Next in line is Crown Prince Vajiralong-korn. In recent weeks, members of the family of his wife, Princess Srirasm, have been arrested on charges of abusing their connections for financial benefit. AP

thAI elementary-school students pray at a hospital building where King Bhumibol Adulyadej is being treated on November 14 in Bangkok, thailand. AP/sAkchAi lAliT

Birthday ceremony for ailing Thai king canceled

A broader look at today’s businessBusinessMirrorthrEE-tImE

rOtary clUb Of manIla jOUrnalISm awarDEE2006, 2010, 2012U.n. mEDIa awarD 2008

www.businessmirror.com.ph n saturday, December 6, 2014 Vol. 10 No. 58 P25.00 nationwide | 6 sections 28 pages | 7 Days a week

‘Holidays, typhoon to hike prices’DESPItE SlOwEr InflatIOn In nOVEmbEr DUE tO lOwEr PrIcES Of fOOD anD UtIlItIES

worlD B3-1

nOthIng gOES tIgEr’S way

waiting for ruBy president aquino (above, left) looks at a philippine map, as he meets with officials of the national Disaster risk reduction and Management Council in preparation for supertyphoon ruby (international code name Hagupit) in Quezon City on thursday. Coastal villagers fled their homes and sparked panic-buying in grocery stores and gas stations in a central philippine region, as the approaching powerful storm brought back nightmares of last year’s deadly onslaught from supertyphoon yolanda (international code name Haiyan). top photo shows a ferryboat passing by the pasig river, where most giant billboards have been rolled up in preparation for the super typhoon. above right photo shows weather forecaster Chris perez updating the media on the path of ruby at the philippine atmospheric, geophysical and astronomical services administration office in Quezon City. AP/AAroN FAVilA/ AlYSA SAlEN/ NoNoY lACZA

WASHINGTON—US employers are thought to have hired at another robust pace in November in the latest sign that the US is outshining struggling economies throughout the developed world.

Analysts have forecast that the economy generated 225,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate remained 5.8 percent, according to a survey by FactSet. If those predictions prove generally accurate, November would mark the 10th straight month of strong US job gains above 200,000, and would put 2014 on track to be the best year for hiring since 1999. The government will release the November employment report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time on Friday. The improving US job market contrasts with weakness elsewhere around the globe. Growth among the 18 European nations in the euro alliance is barely positive, and the euro zone’s unemployment rate is 11.5 percent. Japan is in recession. »A8

Source: GallupGraphic: Greg Good © 2014 MCT

Percent employed full time, among the entire adult populationWorldwide, men outrank women in full-time work

South Asia

Southeast Asia

East Asia

Former Soviet Union

Men

Women

North America

Middle East and North Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa

European Union

Non-EU Europe

Latin America and Caribbean

Global

33%

29%

35%

48%

KEY:

37%

21%

9%

13%

31%

34%

22%

43%

8%

8%

14%

28%

36%

34%

18%

48%

38%

19%

The Philippine Statistics Author-ity (PSA) reported  on Friday the country’s inflation rate slowed to 3.7 percent in November, the lowest in 12 months.  Socioeconomic Planning Sec-retary and Neda Director General Arsenio M. Balisacan said, how-ever, that the public must not be complacent. he added that other risks that could drive prices higher over the near term include possible food-supply disruptions caused by disasters, like Supertyphoon Ruby (international code name hagupit).  “The advent of the Christmas season, however, poses a possible uptick in food prices. Also, given the country’s vulnerability to disasters arising from natural hazards, the government needs to remain vigilant in ensuring the adequacy of supply of commodities to keep prices stable,” Balisacan said.  Nonetheless, Balisacan main-

tained that economic activity in the Philippines should remain firm, given buoyant domestic demand, a strong external position and favor-able consumer and business senti-ment, which are expected to support the economy going forward. Balisacan said the recent slow-down in the increase of commodity prices was largely due to cheaper food and petroleum prices, as well as low electricity costs. Moderating prices in November helped keep the average inflation in the January-to-November period within government expectations at 4.3 percent. The Development Budget Coordination Committee’s (DBCC) inflation target ranges from a low of 3 percent to a high of 5 percent this year. “This further easing is good news for our economy. Following the slower inflation outcomes in the

BusinessMirror [email protected] Saturday, December 6, 2014A2

News

Continued from A8

‘Holidays, typhoon to hike prices’

business as usual Teresita Pison lines up to dry her daily catch on Manila bay on Friday, as she goes on her daily business despite a looming super typhoon, which is forecast to affect Manila in the next few days. a wide swath of the Philippines, including the capital Manila, is bracing for a dangerously erratic and powerful typhoon approaching from the Pacific, about a year after the country was lashed by supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan), which left more than 7,300 people dead. AP/Bullit MArquez

Lydia Balagot Coloma

died at the age of 89.She is survived by her husband Herminio;

children Maria Lourdes, Herminio Jr.

(Sonny) and Nenette, Yvette and Manuel;

and grandchildren Anna, Francesca,

Marc and Mia.

Her remains lie in state at Saint John

Bosco Parish Faith Chapel in Makati

City. Interment will be on December 9,

2014, at the Manila Memorial Park.

recent months, we expect that the country’s headline inflation rate for the full year 2014 will be within the DBCC’s full-year target,” Bali-sacan said.  Balisacan noted that, for the third consecutive month in November, food inflation slowed to 6.7 percent in No-vember, from 7.2 percent in October.  Inflation of rice, which accounts for about 25 percent in the food con-sumer price index, started to ease in November, with higher rice-stock inventory and importation.  Balisacan said palay production is expected to recover in the fourth quarter of 2014 and this could fur-ther ease price pressures on rice in the coming days. “Lower price increases in food backed this slowdown. Food accounts for about 90 percent of food inflation,” Balisacan said. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) warned of possible volatility in global commodities prices re-sulting from “ultra low prices” as local inflation fell to a 12-month-low in November. In a statement, BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said the Monetary Board will make appropri-ate policy adjustments as needed to curb so-called threats to inflation. “We will adjust the stance of mon-etary policy as necessary to respond to the emerging balance of risks to inflation,” Tetangco told reporters in a text message sent early on Friday. Some of the risks the governor cited include global developments in international commodities. “Over the policy horizon, we will continue to monitor global develop-ments, particularly possible volatili-ty in international commodity prices that could result from current ultra low prices,” Tetangco said. The central bank chief also said prospects of more sustainable growth in the US and the bloc of countries using the euro plus the nor-malization of monetary that bears monitoring for inflation targeting

purposes in the Philippines. Meanwhile, Dubai oil prices fell to its lowest levels since 2010. This translated to lower domestic petroleum prices, as observed in double-digit price reductions in un-leaded gasoline, diesel, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas. Electricity rates were also lower due to the reduction in fuel prices and improved availability of power plants. In particular, the generation charge of Manila Electric Co. went down by 9.9 percent in November. Lower inflation rate was felt across regions. In the National Capital Region (NCR), the inflation rate cooled down to 2.4 percent in November from 3.6 percent in the previous month.  Areas outside of NCR also re-corded lower price increases that resulted in overall lower inflation of 4 percent in November from 4.5 percent in October. Local economists expressed mixed views on the gover-nor’s statement on Friday although everyone agreed the BSP will likely keep the policy rates steady at the upcoming December meeting. Bank of the Philippine Islands Associate Economist Nicholas An-tonio Mapa said the seemingly more aggressive tone of Tetangco betrays the BSP’s close monitoring of pos-sible second-round inflation impact coming into 2015. “I think governor wanted to high-light that although the current price pressures may have abated since rice has been imported, he is still very cognizant of possible second-round effects that have been pushed back to next year (electricity tariff adjust-ment have been pushed back).  Fur-thermore, the recent bout of higher prices was on the back of supply side bottlenecks, which can easily beset our markets once more should the incoming tropical typhoon wreak damage to crops,” Mapa said. “I do not see him acting on De-cember 11, but I am very confident that he does act in the second quarter of 2015 to continue to bring mone-tary policy to a more normal stance,

guarding against possible second-round effects and in anticipation of the Federal Reserve hikes at the end of the second quarter of 2015,” he added. Security Bank Patrick Ella, meanwhile, said the markets should not read too much into the governor’s slight change of tone. “It is paramount for every central bank governor, when making public statements, to remain unpredictable but at the same time communicable. Governor Tetangco is merely cover-ing all the risk factors in the current environment. Such is the art of the central banker,” Ella said. Banco de Oro Chief Market Strat-egist Jonathan Ravelas, meanwhile, said the governor’s statement may be indicative of a wait-and-see stance as oil prices—which weighed heaviest on the November inflation survey— should not stay low for long. Tetangco also said the BSP is watching domestic developments that may affect the inflation num-bers going forward. “On the domestic front, we will monitor how these global developments will affect domestic growth prospects and inflation,” Tetangco said. Tetangco also said the Monetary Board will remain watchful of the impact of natural calamities seen visiting the country given these are the main risks to the country’s inflation in 2013 when Superty-phoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) wrecked havoc in the central Philippines. On short-term inflation pros-pects, the central bank remained confident of hitting the inflation target of 3 percent to 5 percent this year due to lower-than-anticipated inflation toward the end of the year. “Inflation at 3.7 percent is within our forecast range and brings the year-to-date inflation to 4.3 percent. This makes us poised to meet the 2014 target,” Tetangco said. “With lower international oil pric-es and a firmer peso, we are likely to see continued manageable inflation,” he added.

exemption is clear: Proposals like this will result in tax-adminis-tration problems and even com-pliance issues for the business sector. For the tax administrators, clarifying and ensuring only PWDs avail themselves of the exemption, and not unscrupulous individuals seeking to abuse the system, will be highly difficult,” the DOF said. The DOF explained that, if the proposal is enacted into law, busi-ness establishments would have to have separate accounting records for the purchases of goods and ser-vices of PWDs, in addition to that of senior citizens. Another argument presented by the DOF against the proposal re-lates to estimated revenue loss of some P1.12 billion, based on esti-mates that PWDs account for about 1.5 percent of the population. This figure, according to the DOF, could increase depending on how the VAT exemption will be monitored against possible abuse. The DOF said that, since the Phil-ippines is the second-least efficient within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in terms of VAT ef-ficiency, the country cannot afford to pass a VAT exemption that can-not be guaranteed to be availed of exclusively by PWDs alone.

Continued from A1

DOF rejects House bill exempting PWDs from VAT

Investors from sydney to Mum-bai cheered the plunge in crude-oil prices, sending Asian airline shares

to their highest level in three years. the bad news is several carriers could end up losing money from the sudden drop. some Asian carriers, like singapore Airlines Ltd., have hedged fuel at an aver-age of $116 a barrel of jet fuel, when spot market rates are about $85. that can result in losses on paper, as airlines will have to account for their hedges or pay charges to unwind contracts prematurely. oil’s dramatic decline in the past month is a replay of events in 2008 and 2009, when Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Chinese carriers and singapore Air all reported millions in losses because of bets on fuel. An inability to take advantage of a drop in their biggest expense also means air-lines may be reluctant to cut fuel surcharges and lower ticket prices for consumers. “It’s like going to the casino,” Mark Clarkson, a singapore-based business development director at oAG Aviation, a flight data firm, said about hedging. Po-tential losses sometimes could be much bigger than at a casino, he said. “there are a lot of zeros at the end.” Brent and West texas Intermediate crude fell 18 percent in november, the big-gest monthly decline since november and December 2008, after the organization of Petroleum exporting Countries maintained its output, opting to force Us shale gas pro-ducers to cut supply. oil prices are hovering around the lowest in five years.

Bloomberg News

Fuel hedges seen hurting airlines as crude prices fall

[email protected] Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Saturday, December 6, 2014 A3BusinessMirrorThe Nation

SUNRISE SUNSET

6:08 AM 5:26 PM

MOONRISEMOONSET

5:36 AM 5:23 PM

TODAY’S WEATHERMETROMANILA

LAOAG

BAGUIO

SBMA/CLARK

TAGAYTAY

LEGAZPI

PUERTOPRINCESA

ILOILO/BACOLOD

TUGUEGARAO

METROCEBU

CAGAYANDE ORO

METRODAVAO

ZAMBOANGA

TACLOBAN

3-DAYEXTENDEDFORECAST

3-DAYEXTENDEDFORECAST

CELEBES SEA

LEGAZPI CITY24 – 30°C

TACLOBAN CITY24 – 29°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY

METRO DAVAO24 – 32°C

ZAMBOANGA CITY24 – 33 °C

PHILI

PPIN

E ARE

A OF R

ESPO

NSIB

ILITY

(PAR

)

SABAH

(AS OF DECEMBER 5, 7:00 PM)

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 24 – 31°C METRO CEBU

24 – 31°C

ILOILO/BACOLOD

22 – 30°C

23 – 31°C

23 – 30°C 22 – 30°C 23 – 31°C

24 – 29°C 23 – 30°C 24 – 31°C

23 – 30°C 24 – 31°C 24 – 31°C

24 – 33°C 24 – 33°C 24 – 33°C

24 – 31°C 24 – 32°C 24 – 32°C

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

Weekday hourly updates: 6:00 AM on Balitaan, 7:00 AM & 8:00 AM on Good Morning Boss!, 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM

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www.panahon.tv

@PanahonTV

DECEMBER 6, 2014 | SATURDAY

HIGH TIDEMANILA

SOUTH HARBOR

LOW TIDE

4:55 AM -0.17 METER

TUGUEGARAO CITY 22 – 31°C

LAOAG CITY 23 – 31°C

METRO MANILA23 – 30°C

TAGAYTAY CITY 22 – 30°C

SBMA/CLARK 24 – 31°C

24 – 32°C 23 – 31°C 23 – 31°C

22 –30°C 22 – 30°C 23 – 30°C

24 – 31°C 24 – 30°C 23 – 30°C

15 – 23°C 14 – 22°C 16 – 23°C

22 – 30°C 21 – 29°C 22 – 30°C

23 – 29°C23 – 29°C 23 – 30°C

25 – 32°C 25 – 32°C

DEC 7 DEC 8

MONDAY

23 – 30°C24 – 31°C 23 – 30°C

22 – 29°C22 – 29°C 23 – 30°C

Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with Rains with gustywindsStormy

isolated rain showers and/or thunderstorms

Cloudy skies with rain showers and/or thunderstorms.

HALF MOON

8:51 PMDEC 14

BAGUIO CITY15 – 24°C

25 – 32°C

FULL MOON

8:27 PMDEC 06

SUNDAYDEC 7 DEC 8

MONDAYSUNDAY

9:34 PM 1.10 METER

Partly cloudy to cloudy skies withisolated rain showers

DEC 9 TUESDAY

DEC 9 TUESDAY

TYPHOON “RUBY” (HAGUPIT)WAS LOCATED AT 335 KM

EAST OF BORONGAN,EASTERN SAMAR

Light rains

Typhoon is a cyclone category with winds of 118 - 181 kph.

By Rene Acosta

MORE than 6,000 families living in low-lying and landslide-prone areas in the

Visayas and Mindanao have been moved to safer areas ahead of the expected landfall of Supertyphoon Ruby (international code name Hagupit), which, officials and state meteorologists said, has the same power of last year’s Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) and could devastate Eastern Visayas again.

Govt evacuates thousands seeing Yolanda in Hagupit

This as Interior and Local Govern-ment Secretary Mar Roxas alerted mayors in Metro Manila during a meeting at Camp Aguinaldo on Fri-day to brace for the effects of the typhoon as Roxas warned Ruby could also hit the metropolis because of the large swathe it covers. Roxas, who f lew to Eastern Visayas after the meeting, said he has directed local chief execu-

tives to prepare for the worse and take the necessary action as Ruby could dump strong and inces-sant rain by as much as 400 mil-limeters on a single day. That is far heavier than the 90 mm that Typhoon Ondoy showered in 2009 that inundated Metro Manila, par-ticularly its eastern portion, accord-ing to the head of the Department of Interior and Local Government.

Roxas added that the mayors have at least 36 hours to make the necessary preparation as Ruby is forecasted to make a landfall over Eastern Visayas, the earliest on Sat-urday afternoon. In Eastern Visayas, at least 2,233 families or 12,260 persons (most of them in Tacloban), have been moved to evacuation centers, according to Blanche Gobenciong, director of the Office of Civil De-fense Region 8. She said the preemptive evacu-ation is still ongoing as of 3 p.m. in other areas of the region. The number Gobenciong gave was only those who are in government-run shelters. “We also have an ongoing evacu-ation in Southern Leyte, Western Samar and Eastern Samar. We are still coordinating with local gov-ernment units; it is really a massive movement,” she said. Disaster, relief personnel, which includes policemen and soldiers, have also been prepositioned in key areas in Tacloban for possible rescue operations because, according to Go-benciong, they do not want a repeat of the Yolanda. Yolanda rendered the government useless for at least three days. Even public works and utility workers, who are forming part of the quick-response team, have also been prepositioned in every district in order to ensure prompt

clearing operations and infra-structure repairs once Ruby makes a damage, she added. Gobenciong descr ibed the weather in Tacloban as cloudy. “But there had been no rains for the past three days.” She denied there was panic-buying in the city. Residents only trooped to stores in bigger number than normal as they just wanted to be prepared because of the sudden preemptive evacuation, Gobenciong said. In Caraga at least 4, 293 families, or 19, 259 persons were also evacu-ated to 92 government-run shelters as part of the precautionary mea-sures for the typhoon. Office of Civil Defense-Caraga Director Liza Mazo said these fami-lies are from 48 barangays in Su-rigao del Norte, four barangays in Surigao del Sur and 26 barangays in Dinagat. In Western Visayas more than 400 families were also ordered to leave their homes in seven barangays in the provinces of Capiz and Iloilo, according to Rosario Cabrera, direc-tor of the Office of Civil Defense Region 6. Cabrera said a total of 52,487 family food packs have also been prepositioned and ready for distri-bution in the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo and Negros Occidental, which, except for Capiz, were only having cloudy

skies as of Friday. As of 10 a.m. on Friday, Ruby was at 435 kilometers, east of Borongan, Eastern Samar,  with maximum sustained winds of 215 kilometers per hour (kph) near the center and gustiness of up to 250 kph. It was forecasted to move west northwest at 13 kph. Public storm warning Signal No. 2 has been hoisted over Luzon and the Visayas, specifically Sorsogon, Ticao Island, Masbate, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Samar, Bili-ran, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Northern Cebu, Cebu City, Bantayan Island and Camotes Island. Storm Signal No. 1 was also raised over the rest of Luzon, Vi-sayas and Mindanao, particularly Catanduanes, Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Burias Is-land and Romblon, Capiz, Iloilo, Antique, Aklan, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, rest of Cebu, Siquijor, Bohol, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Surigao del Norte, Dinagat Island, Siargao Is-land, Misamis Oriental, Agusan del Sur and Camiguin Island. Meanwhile, Archbishop John Du announced he met with the priests of the Archdiocese of Palo on Friday to map out the local church’s plan of action for Ruby. Du said he asked all parishes to mobilize their social action commis-sions and called on people to pray.

3 Pinoys confirmed dead, 7 missing in Korea ship mishap

By Recto Mercene

THE Department of Foreign Affairs said on Friday three Filipinos have been confirmed dead and seven

remain missing after a Korean fishing vessel sank in the Bering Sea. Foreign Affairs Spokesman Charles C. Jose He said he would release the names of the fatalities once their next of kin have been identified. Jose said three of the 13 Filipinos involved in Sunday’s mishap were res-cued by a Russian ship and brought to their homeport in Russia. Jose earlier identified the rescued Filipinos as Rowell Aljecera, Mociol Sabay and Teddy Parangue Jr. Aljecera is onboard the Zalive Zabi-yaka, while Saya and Parangue are on board the Karolina-77, Jose said. The crew included 35 Indone-sians, 13 Filipinos, 11 South Korea citizens and one Russian inspector, news reports said. Jose said the rescued Filipinos “are being attended to and being given proper medical attention.” He added that search-and-rescue operations con-tinue despite poor weather conditions. Russian authorities said there were 62 people aboard the ship, which sank in the western part of the Bering Sea near Russia. The South Korean ship was catch-ing Pollock when it sank in a stormy weather, causing seawater to flood storage areas. Authorities in the Russian port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky said the rescued fishermen were well and would be taken to South Korea once the weather improves.

By Catherine N. Pillas

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has expressed confidence that the country’s

exports could grow by more than 10 percent by year-end on the back of the strong performance of the electronics sector.

Export growth in 2014 to breach 10 percent–DTI

With better-than-expected ex-ports growth this year, Trade Under-secretary Ponciano C. Manalo Jr. said the goal of reaching $100 billion in export revenues by 2016 is becom-ing “more feasible”.

“With the merchandise exports’ growth at 9.9 percent in January to September, and the services export registering a 48-percent increase in

the first half of the year, we [may] surpass the target this year,” said Manalo in his opening speech at the National Export Congress 2014, which opened on Friday at the Phil-ippine International Convention Center in Manila.

Exporters belonging to the Phil-ippine Exporters Confederation Inc. set a 10-percent growth target for

2014, while the Development Bud-get Coordination Committee of the government projected a more mod-est hike of 8 percent.

According to Manalo, total export receipts this year can reach $91 bil-lion, above the government’s target of $85.2 billion.

Semiconductor and Electronics Industries of the Philippines Inc. (Seipi) President Dan Lachica said a 6-percent hike in receipts from outward shipments of electronics is “very possible despite port-conges-tion problems.”

The country’s merchandise ex-ports in the nine months to Septem-ber rose by 9.9 percent year on year to $46.59 billion, on the back of a 6.2-percent hike in receipts from electronic products.

Meanwhile, Manalo said services exports expanded 48 percent in the first half of the year.

Outward shipments of Philippine goods could have been higher, if not for the congestion in major ports in

Metro Manila. But Manalo said the recent Port Congestion Forum has come up with measures to address the problem.

Among the agreements made by the Cabinet cluster on port conges-tion include the 24/7 operations of shipping lines and container yards, updating of truck routes and streamlining of customs procedures.

The DTI said the country’s export performance could further improve in 2015, when the Philippines hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Coopera-tion (Apec) summit in 2015.

Manalo said the Apec sum-mit can be used as platform by the Philippines to showcase its products and the competences of the country’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

“SMEs are the backbone of the economy, they take up 96 percent of all enterprises and up to 65 per-cent of domestic employment,” Manalo said.

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

ThE Bases Conversion and De-velopment Authority (BCDA) said on Friday that it has set

the guidelines for the price challenge on the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Express-way (SCTEx) project.

Under the terms, Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) will have the right to match the highest bid for the project,  BCDA Presi-dent and CEO Arnel Paciano D. Casanova said.

The state-run disposition agency is  bidding out the rights, interest and obligations in the management, operation and maintenance of the SCTEx under a business and oper-ating agreement for a period of 28 years ending in 2043. 

The thoroughfare is a four-lane toll road traversing the provinces of Bataan, Pampanga and Tarlac, and is directly linked to the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex). 

Malacanang ordered to subject the deal under a price challenge this month “in the interest of transparency.”

Interested proponents are ex-pected to submit a higher price than MNTC’s up-front cash offer of P3.5 billion, in addition to the 50-50 shar-ing of gross revenues. 

Foreign and local firms, subject to eligibility requirements, are ex-pected to participate in the bidding process that starts this week. They can either be registered corporations or joint ventures and consortia. 

This will pave the way for the long-term maintenance and management

of the 94-kilometer toll road, Casanova said.

 “We are confident that the bid-ding will result in the best deal for the government and motorists,” he said. 

Despite the price challenge, the appetite of Metro Pacific Invest-ments Corp. for key infrastructure deals remains the same, Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan earlier said. 

MNTC bagged the SCTEx con-tract during the Arroyo administra-tion, but the Aquino administration suspended the deal on concern about the revenue-sharing scheme.

Under the original terms of the contract, state-run BCDA shall as-sign to MNTC the management, op-erations and maintenance of SCTEx, as well as the government agency’s rights in the toll operations agree-ment, including the right to collect toll revenues for 25 years, renewable for another eight years.

MNTC, which operates the SC-TEx and the Nlex, had proposed a 50-percent revenue-sharing scheme, which the Department of Finance endorsed to President Aquino for approval last year.

In November 2012 MNTC raised BCDA’s revenue share to P90 bil-lion from the original proposal of P64 billion. 

MNTC also provided a longer pe-riod—from the earlier endpoint of 2016 to the new schedule of 2019 —within which the company would subsidize payment of BCDA’s exist-ing P31-billion debt to the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The loan, which was used to build the SCTEx, will mature in 2041.

BCDA sets price challenge for SCTEx management

Saturday, December 6, 2014 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

EconomyBusinessMirrorA4 [email protected]

AN energy official said the commit-ted power projects in 2015 and 2016 for the Visayas grid would

ease the energy situation in the region.Engr. J. Rey Maleza, supervisor of the

energy industry management division of the Department of Energy (DOE) Visayas field office, said the committed status of the projects signals that the construc-tion and commercial commissioning are already definite.

Maleza said an additional capacity of 135 megawatts (MW) will be added to the grid, with next year’s projects comprising

of four renewable-energy investments.Maleza said the 82-MW coal-fired pow-

er plant of Global Business Power Corp. (GBPC) in Toledo City in western Cebu was commissioned this year.

For this year and 2015, he said the DOE Visayas registered 12 committed projects for the region’s grid, producing an additional generation capacity of 587.6 MW of power.

“The power outlook for the region next year is positive. We see that we will not be in dire need of power. By 2016, the power grid will stabilize with the

commissioning of a coal-fired power plant in Panay,” he said.

Maleza said the region would be able to supply enough power for its hosting of some ministerial meetings of the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next year.

In 2016, a coal-fired power plant proj-ect of GBPC subsidiary Panay Energy De-velopment Corp. would generate 82 MW, Maleza said.

A 54-MW wind farm of Trans-Asia Oil & Energy Development Corp. in San Lorenzo town in Guimaras is also expect-

ed to fully operate as early as January or February next year with its wind turbines already put up, he said.

he said another wind-power project in Aklan is also set for completion and the San Carlos Bioenergy project in Negros Occidental is planned for expansion.

A 15-MW solar power plant is also being mulled in Carcar City in southern Cebu.

Carcar City Mayor Nicepuro L. Apura earlier said a South Korean solar-power investor is still exploring the site where the project is going to be built. PNA

By Cha Monforte Correspondent

STEEL Asia has expressed con-fidence that Mindanao will experience faster growth after

going into an economic stagnation for two decades.

Company president Benjamin Yao made the statement during the inauguration of its P3-billion steel- bar mill in Davao City. The event was attended by top government offi-cials, led by Trade Secretary Gregory

L. Domingo, foreign suppliers and businessmen.

Yao told reporters that the com-pany’s construction of a steel plant in the region is proof of its belief in Mindanao’s bright economic prospects. Steel Asia executives are confident that the creation of the Bangsamoro region will further boost Mindanao’s growth.

The company’s steel plant, which was built on 11 hectares of land, can produce 500,000 metric tons (MT) of rebars per annum.

It was described as “the largest and most modern steel-bar mill, at par with the world’s best” and “is a benchmark for steel industry for modern environmental protection.”

Construction for the mill started in 2011, while test production be-gan in March 2014. Permit for com-mercial operation was issued to the firm in July.

The opening of the Davao plant brings the company’s total produc-tion capacity to 2 million metric tons (MMT) from its six plants, which is

more than half of the country’s de-mand for the product estimated at 3.3 MMT this year. Steel Asia has three plants in Luzon, one in the Vi-sayas and two in Mindanao, includ-ing the new Davao plant.

The company procures raw mate-rials from China, “which has current-ly a glut, oversupply situation of it.”

The Davao plant is expected to reduce the cost of construction in Mindanao as rebar sold in Davao would be on a par with those being peddled in Manila.

Steel Asia bullish on Mindanao’s economic growth

New projects in next 2 years to ease Visayas grid’s power situation

ThE Philippines can focus on services value chains during its chairmanship in the Asia-

Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) next year in an effort to further boost its export competitive position in services trade.

Ramonette Serafica, senior re-search fellow of state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), said the hosting of the Apec is an opportunity for the coun-try to advance its economic interests in services trade and contribute to regional integration.

This is through highlighting the critical importance of global value chains (GVCs) that are now believed to account for more than 50 percent of global trade, she said in a policy note.

Citing experts, Serafica said glob-al services value chains are not as well understood as goods value chains.

“Given the Philippines’s compara-tive advantage in ‘other business services’ and in ‘computer and in-formation services’, advancing re-gional cooperation in services value chains can further strengthen our export position in these activities,” she noted.

Based on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Devel-opment (OECD) value chains in-dicators, Serafica said the Philip-pines had the highest index of GVC participation relative to other Apec economies in electrical and optical equipment in 2009.

Electrical and optical equip-ment is the most dominant GVC in Apec, as indicated by the number of economies where this sector is the most important in terms of GVC participation. The next is mining and quarrying.

“The growing prominence of GVCs has added a new urgency to develop competitive services so that the country can increase its global participation and enjoy bigger gains by way of higher val-ue added, more jobs and greater productivity, improving spillover effects,” she said.

“Whether in goods value chains where services play an integral role or in services value chains, participa-tion and upgrading rely on competi-tive services,” she further said.

Citing OECD data, Serafica said the most prominent services that complement production are trans-port and warehousing.

Banking and insurance, business services, professional services and communication services are supplied at every stage of production.

She also cited a study indicating that small and medium enterprises in the services sector are most en-gaged in GVCs.

“They note that services activi-ties are usually less capital-intensive than manufacturing ones and re-quire less physical infrastructure, an advantage for countries with limited physical and financial capital,” she added. PhilExport News and Features

SEASHELL DÉCOR Decorations made of seashells and stones are being sold by children to tourists in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte. These decorations are priced anywhere from P25 to P100, depending on size. KEVIN DE LA CRUZ

‘PHL Apec chairmanship can focus on services value chains’

Comelec to award P2-B supply contract in FebBy Joel R. San Juan

THE Commission on Elections-Bids and Awards Committee (Comelec-BAC) announced

on Friday that the awarding of the P2-billion contract for the supply of a new automated election system (AES) for the 2016 polls may take place in February next year.

Meanwhile, technology provider Indra Sistemas maintained its op-position to the participation of Smartmatic-TIM Corp. in the ongo-ing bidding process for the new AES.

Of the five companies that bought bidding documents, only Indra and Smartmatic submitted their bid pro-posals for the lease of 23,000 opti-cal mark reader (OMR) machines to supplement the Precinct Count Op-tical Scan units that will be reused in the 2016 elections.

Lawyer Archival de Mata insisted that Smartmatic has no power to participate in the process “because, based on its Articles of Incorpora-tion, its power is limited to the 2010 national and local elections.”

“So our petition, which we raised yesterday, is that it has no power to join in this bidding because it has no power as corporation to participate, thus, its eligibility as a bidder is ques-tionable,” Mata said in an interview after demonstrating their machines on Friday.

Mata said Indra has formally sub-mitted its written objection against Smarmatic before the Comelec. 

Comelec-BAC Chairman Helen Aguila-Flores said it is likely the sup-pliers of the additional OMR and di-rect recording electronic (DRE) will not be known until after two months considering the forthcoming Christ-mas season. Hopefully by February we can award the contract, she added.

The official also cited the bidding procedure they adopted for the 2016 AES was longer “since it is a two-stage competitive bidding process.”

Flores said they are just in the first stage of the process with the submis-sion of eligibility requirements and initial technical proposals, as well as the end-to-end demonstrations of the actual voting machines.

The Comelec-BAC is scheduled to receive the bid proposals for the DRE on Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Bureau of the Treasury Hall of the Palacio del Gobernador Building in Intra-muros, Manila.

THE Land Transportation Fran-chising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has halted the opera-

tions of all provincial bus companies with roll-on, roll-off (Roro) routes to Southern Luzon, Eastern Visayas and Mindanao areas where Super-typhoon Ruby (international code-name Hagupit) is expected to make landfall over the weekend.

The agency issued on Friday a cease-and-desist order in anticipa-tion of the possible impact of the typhoon that, according to govern-

ment weathermen, packs maximum sustained winds of 215 kilometers per hour (kph) near the center and gusts of up to 250 kph.

It was last located 435 km east of Borongan in eastern Samar and moved west northwest at 13 kph. Ruby is expected to make landfall over the Eastern Samar-Northern Samar area. It is expected to bring rough to very rough sea conditions over the seaboards of Northern Lu-zon, eastern seaboard of Central and Southern Luzon, seaboards of the Vi-

sayas and over northern and eastern seaboards of Mindanao.

“In ensuring the safety of pas-sengers, drivers, conductors and to avoid inconvenience in the event they get stranded in various ports due to Typhoon Ruby, the board decided to suspend the operations all provincial bus operators with Roro routes effec-tive immediately,” LTFRB Chairman Winston M. Ginez said.

The order prevents all these opera-tors from dispatching and operating all their authorized units along their

authorized routes where Typhoon Signal No. 1 has been declared by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Admin-istration, resulting to suspension of port operations. It’s better to be ready and stop Roro bus operations so we can avoid accidents amid bad weather, Ginez said in the vernacular.

The LTFRB is collaborating with Land Transportation Office enforc-ers to monitor and ensure that bus operators are complying with the order. Lorenz S. Marasigan

LTFRB stops Roro operations on Ruby’s arrival

BusinessMirror Saturday, December 6, [email protected] A5

Economy

SHIFTED SHIPS Ships docked at the Manila Port Area await their turn to unload different merchandise in cargoes. A truck ban by city officials is being blamed for delays in the flow of cargo taken out of the port. NONIE REYES

By Lenie Lectura

THE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has approved the P703-million budget of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM)

operator for calendar year 2014.In a decision, the Philippine Electricity Market

Corp. (PEMC) was granted the budgetary require-ments in the amount of P702,984,728, lower than the P814,529,000 stated in its application.

The ERC said there was an unutilized market fee of P4.75 million out of PEMC’s approved bud-get for calendar year 2013. Pursuant to an earlier order, any over-recovery or excess in the previous year’s market fees shall be refunded to the custom-ers and deducted from the total budget approved for the succeeding year.

“Thus, the herein approved market fee for cal-endar year 2014 shall be reduced by the unutilized market fee for calendar year 2013,” said the ERC in its 35-page order.

Of the total amount, P380,450,736 is allotted for personnel services; P249,017,530 for maintenance and other operating expenses; P61,077,000 for capi-tal expenditures; P3,312,310 for market-enhance-ment projects; and P13,877,152 as provision for the Department of Energy/ERC monitoring facilities.

PEMC’s proposed market-enhancement proj-ects are intended for improving the performance of its core functions. This will allow it to evalu-ate and implement market rules and regulatory changes, it said.

PEMC was also directed by the ERC to submit within 30 days the contracts it entered into with service providers; list of programs and projects undertaken at end-2014; and status of projects.

The WESM will soon be led by the private sector via the appointment of an independent market operator before the end of the Aquino administration.

Regulator OKs P703-M WESM operator budget

AROROY, Masbate—Five years since 2008, the Mas-bate Gold Project (MGP) Inc.

paid over P2.028 billion in regulatory fees and taxes to the local govern-ment unit (LGU) and the community, according to a top official of MGP sister-firm Filminera Resources Corp. (FRC).

FRC Corporate Affairs Officer Gene Gregorio said that with this amount of contribution to the fiscal resources of the LGU of Aroroy, the MGP accounts for almost eight out of 10 taxes generated locally by the municipal government.

“MGP’s total tax payment to the LGU is almost one-third of its total taxable base, including the internal revenue allotment [IRA] from the national government,” Gregorio added.

Meanwhile, the FRC paid P305 million in 2012, about 43-fold from P7.2 million in 2008.

On the other hand, the Philip-pine Gold Processing and Refining Corp. (PGPRC), which processes and refines mineral products, remitted over P213 million in 2012—more than double the amount of P93.5 million remitted in 2008.

Gregorio said a typical LGU sources taxes from the national government in terms of its share in the IRA and from local taxes such as business permits, business licenses and local fees.

Many LGUs tend to aim for a higher share of local taxes in its total tax base to avoid overdependence on the national government, he added.

Some LGUs strive to generate more of their taxes from so-called internal sources, such as real estate and business taxes, in order to be more independent from the national government and flexible in its plans and projects.

Among the significant sources of local income of the municipality are the real property and business taxes.

Gregorio said from P17.1 million in 2009, Aroroy’s real-estate tax revenues more than doubled to P34.7 million in 2012.

Revenues from business licenses

also shot up sevenfold, from P4.0 million in 2008 to over P28 million in 2012.

The real-estate taxes paid by MGP in 2011 to Aroroy alone would already account for 80 percent of the combined real-estate taxes paid to all the 20 municipalities under the province of Masbate, he explained.

Business taxes paid in 2011 by MGP to Aroroy alone would already account for 64 percent of the com-bined business taxes paid to all the 20 municipalities in the province of Masbate.

“The combined real-estate and local business taxes paid by MGP in 2011 to Aroroy alone would al-ready account for 46 percent of the total real estate and business taxes received by the 20 municipalities under the province of Masbate,” Gregorio said.

Meanwhile the real-estate taxes paid by MGP in 2011 to the provin-cial government of Masbate already accounted for 69 percent of the real- estate taxes collected by the LGU, he added.

Gregorio said assuming the man-dated shares of the LGUs from the excise taxes have been remitted to these LGUs, MGP alone should ac-count for 8 percent of the total tax receipts (combination of local taxes and allotments from the national government) of the 20 municipali-ties of Masbate.

Discounting the IRA, the MGP would have accounted for more than a third of the total tax receipts of the municipalities of Masbate.

The MGP alone should account for 6 percent of the total tax receipts of the provincial government of Mas-bate, Gregorio said.

Without the IRA, MGP’s local tax payments would have contributed over one-half of the total tax receipts of the provincial government.

“Overall, the fiscal impact of MGP’s regulatory and tax payments has, to a large extent, increased the base of local taxes of the munici-palities and the provincial govern-ments,” Gregorio claimed. PNA

Masbate miner says fees, taxes paid to LGU hit P2B

DAVAO CITY—Department of Trade and In-dustry (DTI) Secretary Gregory L. Domingo urged business stakeholders to take advan-

tage of the country’s growth in manufacturing and assured the government will also do its part.

In an interview here, Domingo said, “The in-dustry is fast-growing. The condition is right for us to come in but we need to improve more on education and infrastructure to attain inclusive growth,” he said.

Domingo was the keynote speaker during the opening of the Industry Roadmaps and the As-sociation of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Community Game Plan Regional Roadmaps for Competitiveness on Thursday. He said inclusive growth is when “we experience economic growth as a country where everybody benefits from it.”

“We make sure that we take advantage of our position and, at the same time, take advantage of the demand growth,” he said.

He cited that the Philippines has the ideal demographic attributes, where the median age of our labor force is at 26 compared with other countries like Japan at 46, the US at 37, China at 36 and Europe at 41.

As to infrastructure, he said the government in 2013 has allocated 2.5 percent of gross domestic

product and it is planning to double this to 5 per-cent of the GDP by the end of 2016.

“This is huge funds in support for infrastruc-ture,” he said.

Domingo said the entry of new sources of power in the island of Mindanao will now open invest-ments on manufacturing.

He added that what these investors are waiting for is the stable source of power and, come 2015, there will be new power plants operating.

Most of the inquiries made with our office are related to agriculture and also on tourism, he said.

Domingo said the DTI is implementing the Manufacturing Resurgence Program (MRP), which aims to rebuild the existing capacity of industries, strengthen new ones and maintain the competi-tiveness of industries with comparative advantage.

It seeks to build up manufacturing industries and generate employment, and support smallholder farmers and agri-cooperatives through product development, value-adding and integration to big enterprises for making and financing purposes.

Based on the Manufacturing Industry Road-maps, the MRP targets to close gaps in industry supply chains, provide access to raw materials, and expand domestic markets and exports for Philippine-manufactured products. PNA

DTI chief urges Davao to grab manufacturing growth potential

DAVAO CITY—One of the giant retail stores in the country made the first provincial launch of its lat-est product lines of shoes and bags in the prime

city of Mindanao.Rina L. Bunghanoy, assistant vice president for market-

ing of SM for shoes and bags of SM Store, said it was their first outside of Metro Manila, seeing Davao City’s big po-tential and good prospects.

“We also want to see the market and we want to strengthen fashion in Davao,” she said.

She said shoes and bags are the flagship products of SM because the retail store started with shoes and the iconic Parisian brand.

“I think that is known to all,” she added.

Styles and designs change according to season from spring, summer, back to school and holidays. The buying of shoes and bags is experiential, Bunghanoy said.

A buyer wants to feel it and fit it as well, whether it looks good and comfortable, she said.

She said, “We have the advantage because of our loca-tion where buyers can come and see and buy what they want.” The male shoes of Milanos and Salvatore Mann and the Sugar kids shoes for girls and Tough kids shoes for boys are the latest of their brands.

The holiday season is among the highest in terms of sales and bringing these brands down could give them wider choices. She said the items are crafted with standard and quality, yet affordable. PNA

SM eyes southern city as market for shoes, bags

Editor: Alvin I. DacanaySaturday, December 6, 2014

OpinionBusinessMirrorA6

Specific solutions for specific problems

editorial

WITH most people in the country preparing for the expected arrival of Typhoon Ruby (international code name Hagupit), it might be good to take a moment to talk about ef-

fective leadership in the face of problems.

While some people may occupy a particular position of authority, during a crisis we tend to instinctively know what leadership looks like, regardless of who actually has the authority. There always seems to be that one person who leads others down the stairs of a burning building or organizes others to lift the rubble away from a trapped child after an earthquake.

Effective leadership is not only about a person’s charisma and per-sonality that inspire others to follow him or her. There are other traits that we can see with our own eyes that may best define the most ef-fective leadership qualities.

Perhaps, the one thing that we look for in a leader is a person who can define and clearly articulate a problem. You cannot find the an-swer if you do not know the question. If the problem is clearly defined, then so, too, the solution to it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his State of the Nation Ad-dress two days ago. His country is facing several serious situations, in addition to the economic sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe over the conflict in Ukraine.

In spite of the economic hardships that Russians are experiencing and his shady reputation, Putin’s approval rating is at 70 percent. He understands that leaders must be decisive, and that a wrong decision is better than indecision. In his speech, Putin detailed specific prob-lems and offered specific solutions.

For example, Russia is facing a capital shortage and a collapsing cur-rency because the sanctions have cut the country off from the global financial markets. It is estimated that $130 billion has been taken out of Russia and hidden in overseas banks. Over the past year, the Russian ruble has lost about 40 percent of its value against the dol-lar, and inflation is expected to reach 10 percent early next year. The country needs that money, so Putin has offered a one-time amnesty to anyone choosing to bring his or her money back, with no questions asked. That is a definite answer to the problem.

The easy way out is for leaders to talk in general terms, like “in-clusive growth” and “poverty reduction”, because they cannot be pinned down to a specific solution. Love him or hate him, Putin knows how to lead.

SINCE everyone is getting prepared for the coming of Typhoon Ruby (international code name Hagupit), now might be a good time to talk about the stock market in the same way.

Now, that is not to say that the stock market is going to turn into a disaster, but, then again, you never really know what is going to happen next. Like someone once said, “There is no such thing as a stock-market genius; there are only bull markets.”

Disaster preparedness for the stock market

Hopefully, you are not one of those individuals who spend every day watching the stock market. I say “hopefully”, because there has to be people out there who have real jobs, who make things and sell them, or provide support to those who make and sell those things. Investing in the stock market can help build your wealth, but it does not mean it needs to be a full-time job.

I have been trading the market on and off since Diosdado Macapagal was president, but I do not consider investing as a real job.

So this is directed at you, who might look at stock prices a few times a week or less: The purpose of disas-ter preparedness is survival. That is

why when a typhoon is coming, a list of things to do and not to do is distributed to the public, and private agencies are trying to keep you safe.

Here is my list for the stock market:

Your objective in the stock market is to make a profit. Therefore, you need to sell when the price is high. How do you know when the price is high? When it stops going up. Throw a ball into the air, and it comes back down. But before it comes down, it stops going up.

You’ll get a much better idea of that if you only look at the weekly closing prices. For example, in the weeks of September 22 and 29, Ayala Corp.’s share price stopped going up

at about P725. The price actually did the same thing for two consecutive weeks in August. The price is now about P680.

Prices stop going up before they start going down. There really is a sci-entific explanation on why it is often calm before the storm. Not in the case of a typhoon that we see coming for days, but a normal storm that is often preceded by calm weather.

During a storm, your objective is to find a safe place where you can take shelter. Only a fool would at-tempt to go about his or her normal routine in the downpour. The same applies to the stock market.

Stock prices can be in a down-trend, and you cannot fight the trend any more than you can fight the ty-phoon. The only safe place for your money is out of the market. Bloom-berry Resorts Corp. is the company behind Solaire Resort & Casino. No matter how great you may think the company and its business is, its stock price has been down about 20 percent since the end of October.

The price stopped going higher at P15.50 and is now about P12.50. This might be the bottom, or it might not. But when the share price starts going down, you should look for shelter.

People in charge of disaster pre-paredness constantly tell us that we should have a plan for dealing with

situations that might happen dur-ing a storm, an earthquake or any other calamity. That is probably the one thing most people do not have. Instead of preparing ourselves by knowing what we are going to do if something happens, we become reac-tive, rather than proactive.

The same is true for most stock-market investors. A written trading plan is your most valuable tool to protect your investment, in the same way a flashlight can be a lifesaver during a disaster. Most people will have a fully charged cell phone when the storm comes. Investors need to have a fully charged game plan with a clear strategy, whether the price goes higher or lower.

You are never going to maximize your profits or avoid taking some losses. But what you want to do is first survive, and then prosper. Someone once said, “Life isn’t about how you survive the storm; it’s about how you sing in the rain.” That attitude will get you killed, both in a typhoon and in the stock market.

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

OUTSIDE THE BOXJohn Mangun

SOUTHEAST Asia plans to spend an estimated $7 trillion over the next 15 years upgrading infrastructure. There’s a real risk the money may go to waste.

When even $7 trillion isn’t enough

No one doubts the region needs a serious face-lift. From Bangkok’s crushing traffic to Manila’s crum-bling airports to Jakarta’s floods to Yangon’s power outages, Southeast Asia confronts staggering—and growing—hardware challenges amid the largest urbanization flows that humankind has ever seen. Yet, an even bigger problem could be the region’s software—the skills, health and education of its work force.

“The missing link is productiv-ity,” says Oliver Tonby, a managing partner at McKinsey in Southeast Asia. “To sustain economic growth, many nations will need to more than double their historic rates of produc-tivity improvement.”

The contrast to China is instruc-tive. For all the handwringing over rising labor costs on the main-land, China’s annual output per

manufacturing worker remains a staggering 15 times greater than Vietnam’s ($57,100 versus $3,800), four times that of Indonesia’s and more than three times that of Fili-pinos. The bottomline: Higher wages may not drive as many foreign man-ufacturers out of China and into Southeast Asia, as some have pre-dicted. Why relocate southward only to get less for your money?

Given all the hype about regional integration next year, those num-bers should be sobering. On January 1 the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will take its most dramatic step yet toward creating a Europe-like common market for 600 million people. McKinsey reckons that a better-integrated Asean could generate as much as $615 billion in fresh economic value annually by 2030. But it will take many years

and considerable political will to unify 10 disparate economies that often compete more than they co-operate, and the progress won’t necessarily be linear.

Infrastructure is, of course, vitally important to making Southeast Asia more efficient. As Tonby points out, the Asean would be well served by “overcoming some of the fragmen-tation that has prevented compa-nies, technologies and services from achieving scale in the past.”

But human development—in-cluding aggressive investment in education, training and health care—could be even more critical. Take Indonesia. Southeast Asia’s big-gest economy often touts its demo-graphic dividend—26 percent of its 250 million people are younger than 15 years ago—but that’s a strength only if Jakarta gives them the tools to compete. “We often brag about how much cheaper we are in terms of labor vis-a-vis that of China and vis-à-vis other parts of the world, but we tend to overlook the fact that we’re not as marginally productive as Chi-na,” says Gita Wirjawan, Indonesia’s former trade minister. “We’ve got to do something about building the soft infrastructure for the purpose of creating a much more marginally productive society.”

The same is true in Thailand,

where an inefficient and under-funded education system continues to hold down productivity, as well as Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philip-pines and elsewhere. Even as they map out new highways and railroad tracks, Southeast Asian govern-ments need to increase investment in education exponentially. As of 2012, for example, Indonesia was spending 3.6 percent of gross do-mestic product on education, while Malaysia spends 5.9 percent and Thailand, 7.6 percent. Those ratios need to be closer to 20 percent in the years ahead.

Governments also must manage urbanization flows to make sure cit-ies are livable, safe and have efficient public transportation. Finally, lead-ers must champion innovation in the private sector and allow for more public services to be accessed online or via mobile phones. “It’s about em-powering people,” says David Carden, a former United States ambassador to the Asean. “Without that, we aren’t going to get the growth that we need.”

True, all this is easier said than done in a region where bureaucracy and corruption too often squander the benefits of rapid growth. But, as Southeast Asia becomes one of the greatest construction sites in world history, it must be sure to build up its people, too.

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BLOOMBERG VIEWWilliam Pesek

Saturday, December 6, 2014

[email protected]

Evangelii Gaudium

41st part

IT is no longer possible to claim that religion should be restricted to the private sphere and that it exists only to prepare souls for heaven. We know that God wants His children to be happy in

this world, too, even though they are called to fulfillment in eternity, for he has created all things “for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17), the enjoyment of everyone. It follows that Christian conversion demands reviewing, especially those areas and aspects of life that are related to the social order and the pursuit of the common good.

Consequently, no one can demand that religion should be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life, without concern for the soundness of civil institutions, without a right to offer an opinion on events affecting society. Who would claim to lock up in a church and si-lence the message of Saint Francis of Assisi or Blessed Teresa of Calcutta?

They themselves would have found this unacceptable.

An authentic faith—which is never comfortable or completely person-al—always involves a deep desire to change the world, to transmit val-ues, to leave this earth somehow better than we found it. We love this magnificent planet on which God has put us, and we love the human family that dwells here, with all its

tragedies and struggles, its hopes and aspirations, its strengths and weak-nesses. The earth is our common home and all of us are brothers and sisters.

If, indeed, the just ordering of soci-ety and of the state is a central respon-sibility of politics, the Church cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. All Christians, their pastors included, are called to show concern for the building of a better world. This is essential, for the Church’s social thought is primarily positive: it offers proposals, it works for change and, in this sense, it con-stantly points to the hope born of the loving heart of Jesus Christ At the same time, it unites its own commitment to that made in the social field by other churches and ecclesial communities, whether at the level of doctrinal reflec-tion or at the practical level.

This is not the time or the place to examine in detail the many grave social questions affecting today’s world, some of which I have dealt with in the second chapter. This exhorta tion is not a social document, and for reflection on those different themes we have a most suitable tool in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, whose use and study

I heartily recommend. Furthermore, neither the pope nor the Church has a monopoly on the interpretation of social realities or the proposal of so-lutions to contemporary problems.

Here I can repeat the insightful observation of Pope Paul VI: “In the face of such widely varying situa-tions, it is difficult for us to utter a unified message and to put forward a solution which has universal valid-ity. This is not our ambition, nor is it our mission. It is up to the Christian communities to analyze with objec-tivity the situation, which is proper to their own country.”

In what follows I intend to concen-trate on two great issues that strike me as fundamental at this time in history. I will treat them more fully, because I believe that they will shape the future of humanity. These issues are first, the inclusion of the poor in society, and second, peace and social dialogue.

To be continued

For comments, send an e-mail to [email protected]. For donations to Caritas Manila, call (632) 563-9311. For inquiries, call (632) 563- 9308 or 563-9298, or fax 563-9306.

INITIATED by the United Nations (UN) 14 years ago, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) stand today as a success story by itself, as some of the eight targets have been

met well ahead of their deadline next year.

AT 18, Joshua Wong is a remark-able figure in the history of Hong Kong. He is a protest leader with

years of experience challenging Chinese government rule. Years of experience? Yes, he got his start as a political activ-ist in middle school.

Wong was arrested last week, then released, for his role as an organizer of Hong Kong’s street protests. The issue is Beijing’s control of local elections. Wong was beaten and groped by police while taken into custody as frustrated authorities cleared crowds from one demonstration site.

Within days, Wong was back on the streets with other student leaders and hundreds of followers, threatening to block government offices from opening. That effort was repulsed.

Wong and two other protesters are days into a hunger strike, but it seems, alas, a desperate move to reignite a move-ment that stunned China with its feroc-ity, but is losing steam. On Wednesday three founders of the Occupy Central movement, men long past their stu-dent days, quietly surrendered to police

and, just as quietly, were released. The authorities weren’t even interested in making arrests.

This kind of conflict doesn’t happen every day in Hong Kong. There is no tradition of democratic activism in the former British colony. China, which has ultimate authority, has little patience for dissent. By design and necessity, Hong Kong’s focus has always been on busi-ness, not the struggle for rights.

Britain introduced local legislative elections in 1985 as it was preparing to cede Hong Kong to China. By the handover in 1997, rules were in place to permit, in time, direct election of the chief executive. The rest of the world was changing, too, with democracy taking hold in places like Indonesia and Taiwan.

China’s not interested, of course. The dispute with the protesters is over an in-terpretation of Hong Kong’s Basic Law. China will permit direct election of the chief executive in 2017, but candidates have to be vetted by a Beijing-controlled nominating committee. The protesters want Hong Kong voters to freely choose the next leader.

Put this protest movement on the Chinese mainland and it would have been over as soon as it started, but Hong Kong is in a unique situation. It is a global city with limited cultural ties to China and enough political autonomy to give angry citizens a voice. To a point.

When police overreacted to protests in September by using tear gas and pep-per spray on students, 100,000 people came out in support of the protests. But by now almost everyone has gone back to work.

And that leaves the students, led by the likes of Wong.

He first came to prominence in 2012 as the skinny, 15-year-old cofounder of a group protesting Beijing’s plan to re-quire the teaching of Chinese patriotism in schools. The curriculum whitewashed history. Wong’s group got 100,000 people into the streets to protest, and, incred-ibly, won the battle. Now he’s back, again at the front of a group that has brought thousands into the streets.

If this weren’t such serious business, it would be amusing to speculate what China’s leaders think of Wong, who still

looks like a middle-schooler and likes to quote Haruki Murakami, the provoca-tive Japanese novelist. Undoubtedly, they are embarrassed and furious. Bei-jing’s nightmare scenario is that street protests would morph into a broad, populist revolt.

It looks like that won’t happen. Whether it does or not, give a hand to the student leaders who have contin-ued to risk their freedom and safety to defend principles of participatory democracy and free elections.

To quote Murakami on fighting op-pression: “If there is a hard, high wall and an egg breaks against it, no matter how right the wall or how wrong the egg, I will stand on the side of the egg.”

That has taken on dramatic mean-ing in Hong Kong. An art installation at one protest site depicts a stack of eggs in front of a wall. A Hong Kong pop star released a song this summer called “Egg and Lamb,” which includes the lyric, “never give up / or you’ll bow your head like a white sheep.”

The song was banned in China. Chicago Tribune/TNS

The UN’s Millennium Development Goals: A success story by itself

Breaking eggs in Hong Kong

The international-development goals were set up following the UN’s Millennium Declaration in Septem-ber 2000. All 189 UN members at the time (currently, there are 193) and at least 23 international organiza-tions committed themselves to help achieve the MDGs by 2015.

Former President and now Mayor Joseph Estrada of Manila signed for the country the declaration docu-ment at the UN Session Hall in New York. This writer, along with other journalists, personally witnessed the historic event.

The eight goals are: 1) to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; 2) to achieve universal primary educa-tion; 3) to promote gender equality and empower women; 4) to reduce child mortality; 5) to improve ma-ternal health; 6) to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; 7) to ensure environmental sustain-ability; and 8) to develop a global partnership for development.

In the 2014 progress report shared with this writer, UN Un-dersecretary General for Economic and Social Affairs Wu Hongbo said:

n In 1990 almost half of the population in developing regions lived on less than $1.25 a day. This rate dropped to 22 percent by 2010, reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty by 700 million.

n Between 2000 and 2012 an estimated 3.3 million deaths from malaria were averted due to the sub-stantial expansion of malaria inter-ventions. About 90 percent, or 3 mil-lion, of those averted deaths were of children younger than 5 years old who were living in sub-Saharan Africa. Since 1995, however, the in-tensive efforts to fight tuberculosis have saved an estimated 22 million lives worldwide. If these trends continue, the world will attain the MDGs on malaria and tuberculosis.

n The target to halve the propor-tion of people without access to po-table drinking water was reached in 2010, five years ahead of schedule. In 2012 89 percent of the world’s pop-ulation had access to an improved source, up from 76 percent in 1990. Over 2.3 billion people gained access to an improved source of drinking water between 1990 and 2012.

n Disparities in primary-school enrollment between boys and girls are being eliminated in all devel-oping regions. In fact, substantial gains have been made in reaching gender parity in school enrollment at all educational levels in all devel-oping regions. By 2012 all develop-ing regions have achieved, or were close to achieving, gender parity in primary education.

n The political participation of women continues to increase. In January 2014 46 countries, includ-ing the Philippines, boasted hav-ing more than 30-percent female members of parliament in at least one chamber. More women are now holding some of the so-called hard ministerial portfolios, such as de-fense, foreign affairs and the envi-ronment.

n Development assistance re-bounded, the trading system stayed favorable for developing countries and their debt burden remained low. Official development assistance stood at $134.8 billion in 2013—the highest level ever recorded—af-ter two years of declining volumes. Close to 80 percent of imports from developing countries entered devel-oped countries, duty-free and tariffs

remained at an all-time low. The debt burden of developing countries remained stable at about 3 percent of export revenue.

n The proportion of undernour-ished people in developing regions have decreased from 24 percent in 1990 to 1992 to 14 percent in 2011 to 2013. However, meeting the target of halving the percentage of people suffering from hunger by 2015 will require immediate additional effort, especially in countries that have made little headway.

n Worldwide, the mortality rate for children younger than 5 years old dropped almost 50 percent, from 90 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 48 in 2012. Preventable diseases are the main causes of younger-than-five deaths, and ap-propriate actions need to be taken to address them.

n Globally, the maternal mor-tality ratio dropped by 45 percent between 1990 and 2013, from 380 to 210 deaths per 100,000 live births. Worldwide, almost 300,000 women died of causes related to pregnancy and childbirth in 2013. Maternal death is mostly preventable, and much more needs to be done to pro-vide care to pregnant women.

n Access to antiretroviral ther-apy (ART) for HIV-infected people has been increasing dramatically, with 9.5 million people in develop-ing regions receiving treatment in 2012. ART has saved 6.6 million lives since 1995. Expanding its cov-erage can save many more. In addi-tion, knowledge about HIV among young people needs to be improved to stop the spread of the virus.

n Between 1990 and 2012 almost 2 billion people gained access to an improved sanitation facility. However, in 2012, 2.5 billion people did not use such a facility and 1 billion people still re-sorted to open defecation, posing a huge risk to communities that are often poor and vulnerable. Much greater effort and investment are needed to redress inadequate sani-tation in the coming years.

n The school-enrollment rate in primary education in develop-ing regions increased from 83 per-cent to 90 percent between 2000 and 2012. Most of the gains were achieved by 2007, after which progress stagnated. In 2012 58 mil l ion chi ldren were out of school. High dropout rates remain a major impediment to universal primary education. An estimated 50 percent of out-of-school chil-dren of primary-school age live in conflict-affected areas.

Wu said the MDGs brought together governments, the inter-national community, civil society and the private sector to achieve concrete goals for development and poverty eradication. “Much has been accomplished through the concerted and focused efforts of all, saving and improving the lives of many people, but the agenda re-mains unfinished,” he said.

The post-2015 development agenda is slated to carry on the work of the MDGs and integrate the so-cial, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable develop-ment. According to Wu, continued progress toward the MDGs in the re-maining year is essential to provide a solid foundation for the post-2015 development agenda.

E-mail: [email protected].

SERVANT LEADERRev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

DATAbASECecilio T. Arillo

Stand in solidarity with courageous women’s human-rights defenders

UNITED NATIONS—Almost two decades ago in Beijing, 189 countries made a commitment to achieve equality for women, in practice and in law, so that all of them could,

at last, fully enjoy their rights and freedoms as human beings.

INTER PRESS SERVICEZeid Ra’ad Al Hussein

They adopted a comprehensive and ambitious plan to guarantee women the same rights as men to be educated and develop their potential, to choose their profession, to lead communi-ties and nations, and to make choices about their own lives without fear of violence or reprisal.

No longer would hundreds of thousands of women die every year in childbirth because of health-care policies and systems that neglected their care. No longer would women earn considerably less than men. No longer would discriminatory laws govern marriage, land, property and inheritance.

In the years that followed, the world has witnessed tremendous progress: the number of women in the work force has increased; there is almost gender parity in education at the primary level; the maternal mortality ratio declined by almost 50 percent; and more women are in leadership positions.

More important, governments talk about women’s rights as human rights, and women’s rights and gender equality are acknowledged as legiti-

mate and indispensable goals.However, the world is still far from

the vision articulated in Beijing. Ap-proximately one in three women throughout the world will experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. Less than a quarter of parlia-mentarians in the world are women. In over 50 countries there is no legal protection for women against domes-tic violence. Almost 300,000 women and girls died in 2013 from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Approximately one in three married women aged 20 to 24 were child brides.

In many parts of the world, women and girls cannot make decisions on their most private matters—sexu-ality, marriage, children. Girls and women who pursue their own life choices are still murdered by their own families in the dishonorable practice of so-called honor killings.

All of our societies remain affected by stereotypes based on the inferior-ity of women, which often denigrate, humiliate and sexualize them.

Today we have the responsibility to protect the progress made in the past 20 years and address the remaining

challenges. In doing so, we must rec-ognize the vital role of women who defend human rights, often at great risk to themselves and their families, precisely because they are viewed as stepping outside socially prescriptive gender stereotypes.

We must recognize the role of all people, women and men, who publicly call for gender equality and often, as a result, find themselves the victim of archaic and patriarchal, but power-ful, threats to their reputations, their work and even their lives.

These extraordinary individu-als—women’s human-rights defend-ers—operate in hostile environ-ments, where arguments of cultural relativism are common and often against the background of the rise of extremist and misogynistic groups, which threaten to dismantle the gains of the past.

Attacks against women who stand up to demand their human rights and individuals who advocate for gender equality are often designed to keep women in their “place.” In some areas of the world, women who participate in public demonstrations are told to go home to take care of their children.

Consider the recent example of a newspaper publishing naked photos of a woman, claiming she was a well-known activist—an attack designed to shame this defender into silence. In other places, when women claim their right to affordable modern methods of contraception, they are labeled as prostitutes in smear campaigns seeking to undermine their credibility.

Online attacks against those who speak for women’s human rights and gender equality by “trolls”—who

threaten heinous crimes—are in-creasingly reported.

These attacks have a common thread: They rely on gender stereo-types and deeply entrenched discrimi-natory social norms in an attempt to silence those who challenge the age-old system of gender inequality. However, these defenders will not be silenced, and we must stand in soli-darity with them against these cow-ardly attacks.

This is why my office has decided to launch a campaign to pay tribute to women and men who defy stereotypes and fight for women’s human rights. The campaign runs from Human Rights Day, December 10 this year, to International Women’s Day, March 8, 2015. We encourage everyone to join the ranks of these strong and inspiring advocates, on social media (#reflect-2protect) and on the ground.

As we approach the 20-year anni-versary of the commitment made in Beijing, discrimination and violence against women, and the stereotypes that confine them into narrowly fixed roles, must end. Women have the right to make their own decisions about their lives and their bodies.

Guaranteeing and implementing these rights are non-negotiable obli-gations of all states. Female human-rights defenders were instrumental in securing the ambitious program laid out in Beijing. Their work, their activism and their courage deserve our recognition, support and respect.

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein is the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and has extensive experience in international diplomacy and the protec-tion of human rights.

and seeks to ensure that they have a bigger participation in global value chains,” Manalo said. Manalo detailed broad and spe-cific actions that are contained in the PEDP which include: ■ Designing comprehensive packaging-support programs for key export sectors such as electron-ics and other emerging sectors, pro-vide value chain analysis, investment and marketing promotion, access to financing, innovation, and produc-tion  development and design; ■ Simplifying unnecessary domes-tic regulations that impede the move-ment of goods, lower transaction costs, accelerating reforms in mod-ernization of  customs procedures  and automating export, harmonization of policies of various agencies involved in the export process; and ■ Improving access to finance to ensure further development of mar-keting, full implementation of the Magna Carta for SMEs, extension of

credit to exporters from government financing institutions. As of September, 152 Doing Busi-ness in Free Trade Area sessions have been conducted by the Export Market-ing Bureau of the DTI. A total of 18,277 participants attended the sessions. “These are the interventions the DTI will advocate together with the private sector. I am certain that if the government and the private will continue to work hand in hand, we can sustain and even surpass the 10-percent export growth target for 2014 and generate 2.2 million jobs by 2016,” Manalo said. The PEDP 2014-2016 sets a target of $100 billion in export receipts by 2016. The government had earlier downgraded its original target of $120 billion in revenues from out-ward shipments of Philippine goods, saying it is “unrealistic.” Manalo said there is a possibility that the $100-billion export rev-enues may be realized a year early on by next year.

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2ndFront PageBusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.phSaturday, December 6, 2014

forex reserves fall to tw0-year lowThE country’s foreign-

currency shield against the ebb and flow of global

liquidity took another beating in November, when this hit its low-est level in more than two years to only $78.98 billion. This developed in the wake of revised external sector projec-tions by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) involving a deficit in the balance of payments (BOP) at the end of the year. The central bank said on Fri-day the country’s gross interna-tional reserves (GIR) fell to only $78.98 billion in November. This was the third consecu-tive month that the GIR, which reflects the country’s capacity to pay for imports and settle maturing foreign-currency obli-gations, diminished. It was also the lowest GIR in 28 months, or since June 2012, when this to-taled $76.13 billion. The November GIR represent-ed a $430-million decline from last month’s revised GIR level of $79.41 billion, and an even larger drop of $4.59 billion, from the $83.57 billion seen in the same month last year. Data from the central bank showed that the foreign-ex-change component, income from foreign investments and the BSP’s gold holdings pulled the country’s foreign-currency buffers down.

In particular, the BSP’s foreign-exchange operations dropped anew to $238.4 million, from the $294 million seen in the previous month. Adding to this was the reduc-tion of the central bank’s gold holdings during the period, from $7.311 billion in October to $7.23 billion in November. The gains in the BSP’s foreign investments—which made up the bulk of the country’s GIR —also declined from $69.97 billion in October to $69.684 billion in November. The BSP also maintained that the level of reserves remain “ample” as it can adequately cover 10.7 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and income. It was also equivalent to 8.3 times the country’s short-term ex-ternal debt based on original maturity, or six times based on residual maturity. Tetangco earlier bared ad-justments to the central bank’s external payments position, including the GIR. The govern-ment revised its forecast BOP from a surplus of $1.1 billion for the year to a deficit of $3.4 billion by year’s end. Tetangco said he expects to end the year with a GIR level of $79 billion, down $5.7 billion from earlier GIR forecast of $85.3 billion by year-end. Bianca Cuaresma

7- to 8-percent GDP growth in 2015 possible–Balisacan

Dof rejects House bill exempting PwDs from vat

Us hiring was likely solid for 10th straight month

By David Cagahastian

ThE Department of Finance (DOF) on Friday expressed op-position to a bill at the house

of Representatives seeking to exempt persons with disabilities (PWDs) from paying value-added tax (VAT) on certain goods and services. Finance Undersecretary Jere-mias N. Paul Jr. proposed instead that subsidies be granted to PWDs, which, he claimed, is to be a more direct benefit to that sector as pro-posed by legislators. “Granting targeted subsidies through the expenditure approach is more transparent, efficient and effective in empowering PWDs. We reaffirm our commitment to PWDs by advising against a VAT-exemp-tion measure that would be hard to implement and prone to abuse. We will work with Congress to pass sensible and balanced proposals that better serve PWD interests,” Paul said in a statement. The DOF said the proposed ex-emption from VAT for PWDs will expose government revenues to massive risks due to abuses and leak-ages, entail problems for business in terms of compliance and for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in terms of regulation. “ The long-standing inter-national argument against VAT

By Bianca Cuaresma

HigHer projected growth set by the government for 2015 was rated “very realistic”

no matter the disappointing output expansion numbers this year, a Cabinet secretary said.

China’s growth has slowed as it seeks to rein in excessive lending tied to real-estate development. Other large developing countries, including Russia and Brazil, are also straining to grow. Most economists say the US will likely continue to strengthen despite the sluggishness overseas. The US economy is much less dependent on exports than are Germany, China and Japan. US growth is fueled more by its large domestic market and free-spending consumers, who account for about 70 percent of the economy. That trend helps support the steady US job growth. Most of the industries that have enjoyed the strongest job gains depend on the US market rather than on overseas demand. Retailers, restaurants and hotels, and education and health care, for example, have been among the most consistent sources of healthy hiring since the recession officially ended in 2009. Manufacturing, which is more exposed to overseas ups and downs, has added jobs for most of the recovery but in smaller numbers. That is a likely reason why pay growth has been tepid since the recession ended. Companies and industries that are more exposed to international competition typically pay higher salaries. Temporary hiring for the winter holidays may be providing a boost, though it isn’t clear how much occurred last month and how much in December. Shipping companies have announced ambitious plans: UPS has said it expects to add up to 95,000 seasonal workers, up from 85,000 last year. FedEx plans to hire 50,000, up from 40,000. The National Retail Federation estimates that seasonal retail hiring could grow about 4 percent to as high as 800,000. Most recent figures on the economy have been encouraging. Americans are buying more cars, which will likely keep factories busy in coming months. Auto sales last month rose to their second-fastest pace this year. Car sales are on track to rise 6 percent this year from 2013. And a survey by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM(, a trade group of purchasing managers, showed that services firms expanded at nearly the fastest pace in eight years last month. Retailers, hotels, construction firms and other service companies added jobs, the survey found, though more slowly than in October. The ISM’s separate survey of manufacturing firms showed that factories are expanding at a brisk pace. New orders and order backlogs rose, pointing to steady growth in coming months. There have been some signs of moderating growth. Consumer spending rose only modestly in October. And businesses ordered fewer big-ticket manufactured goods that month, excluding the volatile aircraft category. That indicates that companies are holding back on investment. As a result, most economists have forecast that the economy will slow in the final three months of the year to an annual pace of 2.5 percent. That would be down from a 4.3 percent pace from April to September, the fastest six-month pace since 2003. AP

  Socioeconomic Planning Secre-tary Arsenio M. Balisacan told re-porters at the sidelines of a discus-sion in Makati City on Friday that the 7-percent to 8-percent local output, measured as the gross domestic prod-uct (GDP), remain within reach as growth drivers continue to broaden. “As I have said, I expect the first two quarters to be good despite the expectations of some brownouts. But if we are to delete that, we will see a good 2015. I am really quite op-timistic about 2015,” Balisacan said. “We can live with what we have now, the 7 [-percent] to 8-percent target, I think, is still within our expectations. I would see that as very realistic,” he added. Local output growth, which ex-ceeded the target last year, is poised to fall below the government’s target this year ranging from 6.5 percent

optimistic that growth will recov-er for 2015 based on the broader drivers of expansion seen develop-ing in recent years. “As we have been showing, the composition of growth is changing, it is becoming broader, we are seeing the growth not only for consumption but also for investment and trade. From the other side of the economy —before we are only seeing services but now you see industry leading the growth and manufacturing is shift-ing up—these are very positive devel-opments,” Balisacan told reporters when asked on the possible drivers

for his optimistic forecast in 2015.  Balisacan said that with wider sources of growth, the Philippines is rendered “less vulnerable to shocks” and seen to achieve higher growth numbers and quality of life in the medium to long term.  “We are finally seeing growth where quality employment is better, because if your industry is growing, services are growing, there are good sources of employment innovation,” Balisacan said.  As for this year’s subpar growth, Balisacan said there is no point in changing the target for 2014. BALISACAN: “We

can live with what we have now, the

7 [-percent] to 8-percent target, I

think, is still within our expectations.

I would see that as very realistic.”

to 7.5 percent, the economy hav-ing grown by only 5.3 percent in the third quarter due mostly to low government spending. The third-quarter GDP growth brought the country’s nine-month expansion to 5.8 percent, or below the 2014 target of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent. Ba l isacan said he remains Continued on A2

Govt, businessmen finalize plan to boost exports

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