-
Such was the confidence of the policy-making Monetary Board of
the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) that price pressures rated
weak at present were to move back to more appropri-ate levels over
the policy horizon, it even scaled back the forecast inflation to
1.4 percent this year, instead of 1.6 percent originally. The
forecast slower inflation this year contrasted sharply against
target inflationranging from 2 percent up to 4 percentnot just for
the current year, but for 2016 and 2017, as well. Appropriate
levels of inflation tell
By Catherine N. Pillas
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is urging the government to
create the enabling environ-ment that will allow more companies to
adopt the inclusive business (IB) modelstagged as profit-oriented
but socially impactful ventures targeting the people at the
so-called base of the pyramidin the country. The housing,
agribusiness and tourism sectors have been identified as good
launching pads for these ventures. This was aired during the
Asia-Pacific economic Cooperation (Apec) high-level Dia log ue on
Inc lu-
sive Business on Thursday at the Manila Peninsula. The IB model,
said eriko Ishikawa, global head of the Inclusive Business Team of
the World Bank-Internation-al Finance Corp., is a private-sector
approach to providing goods, services and livelihood on a
commercially vi-able basis to people at the base of the pyramid by
making them part of the value chain of companies core busi-ness as
suppliers, distributors, retail-ers or consumers. The IB approach,
according to the dialogue stakeholders , is different from social
enterprises in terms of their scale of impact.
It is also different from the corpo-rate social responsibility
(CSR) in that the IB ventures are profit-oriented. The
incorporation of the poor communi-ties makes IB different, as it is
part of a firms core business, and not as mere beneficiaries, which
is how most large corporations CSR projects work. The poor
communities are also tar-geted as a new market for goods and
services under the IB models. The IB models can either be directly
within a companys value chain or a single busi-ness model of a
small company. The IB approach has been determined to have an
important development
See BSP, A8
See Inclusive business models, A2
PESO ExchangE ratES n US 47.1310 n jaPan 0.3836 n UK 71.7145 n
hK 6.0809 n chIna 7.4030 n SIngaPOrE 33.2143 n aUStralIa 33.2564 n
EU 50.6234 n SaUDI arabIa 12.5689 Source: BSP (12 November
2015)
www.businessmirror.com.ph n Thursday 18, 2014 Vol. 10 No. 40
P25.00 nationwide | 6 sections 34 pages | 7 days a weekn Friday,
November 13, 2015 Vol. 11 No. 36A broader look at todays
business
BusinessMirrormEDIa PartnEr Of thE yEar2015 EnvIrOnmEntal
lEaDErShIP awarD
UnItED natIOnSmEDIa awarD 2008
Globe, PLDT try to snatch SMCs 700-MHz band as Telstra entry
starts market shake-up A4
BATTLE OF THE BANDS
special reporT
BSP opts to keeprates steady anew
INSIDE
is spectre the end of the road for oo7?
ford focus raises the bar anew
nO nEED tO StImUlatE EcOnOmy vIa ratE twEaKS fOr nOw
BusinessMirrormedia partner
myanmarS armyOffErS hElPInghanD tO SUU KyI
liFe d1
Govt told to give inclusive business models opportunity to
multiply in PHL
moToriNg e1
pHl popemoBile The philippine-made popemobile made its debut on
the streets of Florence, italy, on Tuesday, when pope Francis
visited the birthplace of the renaissance for the italian episcopal
conference. The pope underscored the importance of reform, asking
the italian clergy to help him pave the way for a new, dynamic
church that leaves its gilded castle and goes out into the street,
even if it takes some hits and gets dirty, in order to make helping
people its primary mission. The popemobile, purpose-made through
the collaboration of almazora motors and isuzu gencars makati, was
recently turned over to the Vatican by isuzu gencars managing
director d. edgard a. cabangon, who represented the aliw media
group as donor. Photo courtesy of LorLyN Lim-ALmAzorAs
fAcebook PAge
Army Chief min Aung Hlaing respects the outcome of myan-mars
election, and is willing to work with a new government led by Aung
San Suu Kyis Na-tional League for Democracy (NLD) , a senior
government official said. The commander in chief of the armed
forces has said that he will accept the posi-tion made by the
myanmar people, and will also work with a new government, min-ister
of Information ye Htut said in an interview. In a sep-arate written
statement, the army offered its congratula-
tions to the NLD ,because it is leading in the election results,
and said it was prepared for national reconciliation talks next
week. Suu Kyis NLD is dominat-ing early returns from the Sunday
vote, and is on track to rout the ruling Union Solidari-ty and
Development Party, the militarys political arm. Aung Hlaing
publicly bowing to the results may reassure the NLD, which fear a
repeat of myan-mars first modern election in 1990, when the NLD
also won a sweeping victory, only to see the ruling generals refuse
to
See Myanmar, A2
By Bianca Cuaresma
The monetary authorities pushed aside on Thursday doubts that
local out-put growth, measured as GDP, could stall over the next 18
to 24 months and kept the rate at which they lend to or borrow from
banks steady in recognition that price pres-sures, and by extension
the monetary-policy settings, remain appropriate.
-
BusinessMirror [email protected] Friday, November 13,
2015 A2 News
Inclusive business models. . . Continued from A1 Myanmar. . .
Continued from A1
Pay hike. . . Continued from A8
impact, as it targets low-income communi-ties and is considered
a step toward reduc-ing poverty. Dr. Armin Bauer, ADB principal
econ-omist, said that, while fiscal incentives are not a must in
encouraging the private firms to engage in IB models, a specific
environment needs to be in place for these ventures to gain
traction. I think there is an issue that govern-ment has to listen
more to business, not just on making a better business environ-ment
but a specific business environment for IB because its something
new, Bauer said during the news conference. Whats needed, said the
ADB econo-mist, is not fiscal incentives, but struc-tural reforms
to ensure the IB ventures will deliver on the twin goals of
becoming profitable but, at the same time, involve the base of the
pyramid community in their supply chain. He cited better land-right
manage-ment and financial guarantees for firms in the housing
industry as an example of structural aid. This need for structural
reform has already been identified earlier in a con-sultants report
on IB that was submitted to the Board of Investments (BOI) by the
Asian Social Enterprise Incubator. According to the report, the BOI
has worked with the ADB in creating a frame-
work for the IB models, and has already piloted an
IB-accreditation system. From the pilot stage, it was determined
that the sectors of housing, agri-business and tourism would be the
initial areas where the IB model could belaunched. Crucial to the
creation of the frame-workas emphasized by BOI Managing Head Adrian
S. Cristobal Jr.is that the IB model must lead to significant job
cre-ation and provision of goods and services to the poor at
considerable scale. From the piloting of the accredita-tion system,
it was also determined that the BOI should give IB Support Services
to encourage companies to adopt the IB model. Among the specific
recommendations is to establish priority access to IB-ac-credited
companies to existing and rel-evant government programs. However,
on the question of the IB ac-creditation process itself, Cristobal
said the BOI is still determining what the best route to take in
giving this preferential treatment to companies. The accreditation
itself is something we have to test first; many of these IB
en-terprises have been growing without gov-ernment intervention.
Right now we are promoting it and we support it, and to the extent
possible for the companies to come within our responsibility as the
BOI, is to
encourage them. For the rules part, were still studying it,
Cristobal said. The trade undersecretary said he is open to a
separate accreditation and reg-istration process for the IB
enterprises, but stressed that the government is also being careful
not to encumber the private sector with more rules.Were studying it
carefully and that its really going to be useful and not add any
more burden to the company. The IB model is currently in the 2014
Investment Priority Plan of the BOI, not as a specific economic
activity eligible for incentives, but as a general economic
strategy. Among the existing IB models iden-tified by the BOI and
the ADB is Manila Waters Tubig Para sa Barangay pro-gram, which
effectively lowered the price of water from 150 cubic meter to P7
cu-bic meter, for the 1.6 million low-income residents of Manila.
Kennemer Foods Cacao Growership Program has also been noted by the
two agencies as a successful IB model, as it enlisted small farmers
to supply cacao beans under growership agreements.
Fidn launchedMEAnWHIlE, the Financial Infrastruc-ture
Development network (FIDn) was launched on Thursday by the
Philippines, World Bank and business groups. The
network is a multisectoral platform for promoting initiatives to
make financial services in the region more accessible, especially
to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The FIDn aims to
expand the reach of credit and other financial services for a more
inclusive regional economy. The work of the FIDn across the Asia
Pacific will be geared toward credit-information systems, secured
transac-tions frameworks, insolvency frame-works and factoring. By
pooling together the vast knowl-edge and resources within
governments, business and multilateral agencies, the FIDn can more
effectively accelerate re-forms to create an enabling environment
for expanding MSMEs access to finance, said Hiroyuki Suzuki,
chairman of the Asia-Pacific Financial Forum and the Apec Business
Advisory Councils Finance and Economics Working Group. The
establishment of the FIDn is one of the deliverables under the Cebu
Ac-tion Plan (CAP), which was submitted to Apec leaders by finance
ministers in the Asia-Pacific region.The CAP has four pillars:
promoting financial integration; advancing fiscal reforms and
transpar-ency; enhancing financial resilience; and accelerating
infrastructure development and financing. With Cai U. Ordinario
accept the outcome. Suu Kyi won the vote even though she was
under house arrest at the time.
Foreign investmentWith the NLD poised to break the armys grip on
direct control of the government, the election is proving to be the
biggest test yet of just how much influence the military is willing
to relinquish after half-a-century rule that left Myanmar one of
the poorest nations in Southeast Asia. the quasi- civilian USDP
government has opened Myanmar to the outside world since 2010,
attract-ing a flood of foreign investment and fueling some of the
fastest economic growth in Southeast Asia. Even with an NLD
government in place, the political system is still rigged to
protect the militarys interests. Key ministries, such as defense
and interior, are reserved for the army, as well as 25 percent of
the seats in each house of the legislature. the military also
controls lucrative parts of the economy such as jade mining. As
long as NLD sees the military as a partner, there will be no
problems, Ye htut said.
Peoples willPrESiDENt thein Sein, a former general, said on
Wednesday his government also acknowledges the outcome and he was
pre-pared to meet with Suu Kyi once the final results are tallied.
Suu Kyi appealed for a meeting with the two men on Wednesday to
ensure the peoples will is respected as the vote count dragged on.
the election commission has released results of about two- thirds
of the seats in parliament being contested. the NLD has won 273
seats to about 27 for the USDP. the NLD needs about 330 seats in
the two houses to be able to select the next presi-dent without
relying on any other party for support. the coun-trys election
commission has said counting could take a week or longer. the
public has expressed their opinion, Suu Kyi said in letters she
sent to Aung hlaing, thein Sein and parliament Speaker Shwe Mann
asking for a meeting. it is important to implement the peo-ples
will in a peaceful manner for the sake of the countrys dignity.
investors are hoping that an NLD government will further pry open
the economy. in a bid to bring Myanmar out of economic isolation,
the USDP allowed foreign participation in industries, such as
energy exploration, banking and telecommunications. Foreign direct
investment, led by spending on infrastructure and low-cost
manufacturing, surged to $8.1 billion in the fiscal year ended in
March, more than 20 times the 2010 level. that jump helped annual
economic growth average more than 7 percent since that year.
Bloomberg News
He also expressed confidence that President Aquino will decide
on what is favorable to the greater number and for the greater
good. I cannot convince Finance Secretary [Cesar V.] Purisima
anymore, he has taken hard position on this matter which I think is
really wrong. It is the President that ultimately makes decision.
The Department of Finance has said the proposal may cause the
government to lose revenues totaling as much as
1.5 percent of the countrys GDP, or P30 billion.
Palace may reconsiderBelmonTe said the Chief executive and his
economic managers will still study the bill adjusting the levels of
taxable income to inflation. Belmonte said he and Drilon presented
to the President the tax-reform measure authored by Quimbo and
Senate Ways and means Chairman Sen. Juan
edgardo Angara. After our meeting, the President told us, sige,
pag-isipan [ok, we will study the proposal], and thats it. Im still
awaiting his decision. But let me just say that both Frank Drilon
and myself made a strong pitch for our proposal, Belmonte said in
an earlier news conference. Belmonte, however, admitted that it
would be difficult for Congress to pass the measure if the Palace
would not certify the bill urgent, considering Congress
has more than one month before adjourning in December. Congress
is also set take another break for the 2016 elections campaign
season in February 2016, he added. Currently, the tax measure is
under the House Committee on Ways and means deliberations. majority
Floor leader and liberal Party Rep. neptali Gonzales II of
mandaluyong said the tax-reform measure could be passed before the
16th Congress ends if the President certifies it as urgent.
-
[email protected] Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo Friday,
November 13, 2015 A3BusinessMirrorThe Nation
According to Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Public
Affairs Office chief Col. Noel Detoyato, the Joint Task
Force-National Capital Region and the headquarters of the
Philippine Army have shifted into blue alert on Wednesday in order
to ensure their readiness to respond to any threat connected with
the Apec gatherings.
Under blue-alert status, 50 percent of the troops are readily
available for possible deployment, according to Detoyato.
He added that units directly involved in the preparation for
Apec have already been deployed to support security efforts.
The military is supporting the Philippine National Police (PNP)
in securing delegates who would be attending the meetings, as well
as ensuring peace and order in Metro Manila.
Here at the GHQ, those troops who are directly involved and
placed under operational control of security forces for Apec were
also alerted, Detoyato said.
Actually, they are already at-tached to the operating units.
Detoyato added that the mili-
Soldiers placed on blue alert for Apec summitSOLDIERS assigned
to secure Metro Manila were placed on blue-alert status in
preparation for next weeks Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec)
forum.
tary will provide necessary sup-port to the PNP and the
Presi-dential Security Group (PSG), which are the lead agencies for
the Apec security.
The role of the AFP is to make available all troops needed by
the PSG and the police, Detoyato said.
Detoyato refused to deal with actual number of troops deployed
but stressed ample forces are being made available.
We have a substantial number. I cannot give you the exact
num-ber but, rest assured, we have sub-stantial number that can
respond to any contingency.
We have taken into consid-eration all class of contingen-cies,
Detoyato added. The AFP has not monitored any specific threat
against the Apec sum-mit, he said
At least 30,000 personnel, the bulk of which are coming from the
PNP, have been mobilized to provide security for next weeks
meetings.
HEAT TEST Employees of the Manila International Airport
Authority conducted on November 12 what they said is a full-scale
crash exercise to meet security standards set by the International
Civil Aviation Organization. A mock aircraft was set on fire in an
area within the Ninoy Aquino International Airport compound to
simulate a plane crash and tested the responsiveness of the fire,
medical, rescue and security personnel. The crash emergency
response exercise was held days before world leaders arrive in
Manila for a conference. NoNie Reyes
By Rene Acosta
-
BusinessMirror www.businessmirror.com.ph Friday, November 13,
2015A4BMReports
e Filipino food-to-infra-structure rm has the right to operate
telecommunications ser-vices using what experts and industry
leaders call as an im-portant swathe of commercial spectrum that
allows for better range and penetration, when com-pared to other
frequencies. is asset is known in the industry as the highly e
cient 700-megahertz (MHz) band. According to the Federal
Com-munications Commission of the US, the location of such bandjust
above the television broadcast channelsallows it to penetrate
buildings and walls easily, and to cover larger geographic areas
with less infrastructure. But, of course, this is relative to
frequencies in higher bands. In the Philippines SMCs sub-sidiaries
hold the right to oper-ate telecommunications services through the
said channel, which is, unfortunately, currently highly
underutilized. e band, a gem to telecom-munications companies, is
ex-tremely precious, that countries all over the world are yielding
mon-etary dividends for its auction. In Manila, however, spectrums
are not tendered, but are assigned.
Incumbent telcos to snatch 700-MHz bandWITH San Miguel
subsidiaries Wi-Tribe holding 80 MHz; High Fre-quency
Telecommunications, 10 MHz; and New Century Telecom-munications, 10
MHz, Telstras entry into the Philippine soil may easily be a
success. But a few months before it de-buts in the Philippines,
incumbent telecommunications providers seem to have been teaming up
to suppress the regional giants plan of o er-ing superior Internet
services in the Southeast Asian country. Citing the quality of the
In-ternet in the country, Ray C. Espi-nosa, who heads Philippine
Long Distance Telephone Co.s (PLDT) regulatory a airs and policies
of-
ce, said reclaiming the underuti-lized frequency and auctioning
it o to incumbent operators will help improve mobile broadband
speeds in the Philippines. ere is a very important facet to this
speed issue that we should focus on and the govern-ment should help
us, as well, to be able to provide the much-needed speed to mobile
networks, he said. e government should work hand in hand with
incumbent and new en-trants to make sure that scarce range of
frequency spectrum that will en-hance the speed of mobile
telecom-
munications is made available on a fair and reasonable basis.
Globally, the 700-MHz band was held by television operators and, as
countries moved away from analog frequencies, the highly op-timal
spectrum was freed up for mobile telecommunications. is resource,
however, is a scarce asset. eres a lot of subscribers out there
already pining for faster Internet mobile service. We can serve
them well if we were given access. at is something that we have
been seeking the intercession of the government on to give us
access and allocation to that very scarce frequency, Espinosa said.
e dominant telecommunications giant owns mobile services provider
Smart Communications Inc., which operates three wireless brands.
Executives of Globe Telecom Inc., the main rival of the 87-year-old
multimedia conglomerate, backed its opponent, saying that the
equitable distribution of the unused 700-MHz frequency band is one
of the answers to the explosion of mobile-data use in the
Philippines. Part of the solution to the clamor for faster Internet
is the harmonization of the 700-MHz frequency. Giving active and
oper-ating telecommunications compa-nies access to this band will
allow the industry to provide broadband and data services at faster
speeds, and in a more cost-e cient man-ner, Globe General Legal
Counsel Froilan M. Castelo said. Globe President Ernest L. Cu said
he is hopeful that the govern-ment will now open its eyes to this
request, as the companys petition for the reallocation of the band
was previously turned down by the Na-tional Telecommunications
Com-mission (NTC) in 2008. ere is no one country in the world that
has the whole 700-MHz spectrum. I wish the government will bid it
out. Its one of the best spectrums of LTE, and San Miguel has been
warehousing the 700 MHz for many years. So, lets see what the
government does with it, he said. Mary Grace Mirandilla-San-tos, an
independent researcher on information and communications technology
(ICT) and telecommu-nications policies, said the calls from both
telcos may pressure the regulator to auction o the much-coveted
band. Although this may seem as a good prospect for both companies,
Mirandilla-Santos was skeptical about their pronouncements. As were
seeing, PLDT and Globe are now moving to pressure the NTC to
auction o the 700-MHz band that SMC has quietly
acquired through the years, sup-posedly for equitable
allocation. While this would seem like com-mon sense, it should be
noted that PLDT and Globe also own a dispro-portionate number of
spectrum allocations and licenses for other bands, she said. e PLDT
Group has the right to operate the 800-MHz, 900-MHz, 1,800-MHz and
2,100-MHz bands. Globe, on the other hand, has rights to the
900-MHz, 1,800-MHz and 2,100-MHz bands. San Miguel Group operates
spectrums under the 700-MHz, 800-MHz, 900-MHz and 1,800-MHz bands.
To date, there has never been a single auction for a spectrum
li-censeall allocations have been assigned by the regulator due
sup-posedly to the higher supply com-pared to the demand for
spectrum. Spectrum management in the Philippines is not seen as
fair, com-petitive and transparent. ere has never been a single
auction for a spectrum license, she said. Espinosa noted that his
com-pany is simply asking for a fair share of the spectrum. We want
to participate in that digital dividend and that in doing
so we will be able to address many of the speed requirements of
the mobile telecoms sphere, he said. If they open up 700 MHz to
public bid-ding, we will obviously participateand that would equate
to a monetary dividend to the government. e reallocation of the
band, he said, should be based on the subscriber base of the
petitioners. e more subscribers you have, the larger the allocation
you get, he said, citing the case of the acqui-sition of Sun, when
PLDT had to unload 10 MHz of the 2,100-MHz bandknown as the 3G
bandto open up the market for competition. As of end-September,
PLDT led the market with 70 million subscribers. Globe trailed
behind with 50.1 million customers. San Miguels Wi-Tribe, on the
other hand, serves 50,000 clients. It would be interesting to see
how the NTC would respond, given the high demand for and value of
the 700-MHz spectrum to the growing mobile broadband market,
Mirandilla-Santos said. Given the high demand and value of the
700-MHz band, the govern-ment cannot simply dismiss the clamor from
the the countrys two largest Internet-service providers.
Sorry, but no auctionAN auction, however, is highly unlikely as
SMC has started roll-ing out telecommunications infra-structure
under the said band. ey have started installing equipment already
under the 700-MHz band. ey have the permit to purchase equipment.
We could recall the band from them if either they have not been
using the asset or have failed to pay the annual spectrum user fees
of P6 per kilo-hertz, NTC Director Edgardo V. Cabarios explained. e
government o cial seemed puzzled as to why the two telcos are
calling on the government to bid out spectrums of the 700-MHz band.
After all, they were not too keen on these in the past. It was
assigned to Wi-Tribe back in the early 1990s. e 700 MHz was
originally assigned for broadcast or point-to-point and
point-to-multipoint services; and back then, they were operating
trunk radio services, he said. It was the only group back then that
requested for the band. Cabarios added that contest-ing the right
for the asset would entail a long and painful process. Its a
quasijudicial process.
Before you can reassign or recall a frequency, you have to le a
case before the regulatorciting either nonuse or nonpayment of
spec-trum fees. en, of course, the case will go through the Court
of Ap-peals, if a party wants to contest the decision of the
regulator. Its a long process, he said. He urged the incumbents to
simply maximize what their as-signed bands have: a higher
capac-ity, but lower reach. Lower bands have good cov-erage, their
reach is farther. e catch there is this: it has no ca-pacity.
Higher bands have capac-ity, but the area of coverage is smallerso
thats the tradeo , Cabarios said. e key there is to maximize the
use of your assigned frequencies to compete. Under the Philippine
Telecom-munications Policy Act of 1995, the only time when the
govern-ment can auction o spectrums is if the demand exceeds
availabil-ity, ensuring wider access to this limited resource. e
law, however, provides for a periodic review of the allocation and
assignment of radio frequency.
To be concluded
Globe, PLDT try to snatch SMCs 700-MHz band as Telstra entry
starts market shake-upBATTLE OF THE BANDS
B L S. MFirst of two parts
DIVERSIFIED conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) owns a precious
asset that attracted regional telecommunications player Telstra
Corp. Ltd. so much that the Australian fi rm is willing to make a
$1-billion debut in the Philippines. is frequency holdings,
however, are now being contested anew by incumbents that claim to
have no fear of the impending giant that is set to shake the
duopolistic market up.
e PLDT Group has the right to operate the 800-MHz, 900-MHz,
1,800-MHz and 2,100-MHz bands. Globe, on the other hand, has rights
to the 900-MHz, 1,800-MHz and 2,100-MHz bands. San Miguel Group
operates spectrums under the 700-MHz, 800-MHz, 900-MHz and
1,800-MHz bands.
-
Friday, November 13, 2015 Editor: Angel R. Calso
OpinionBusinessMirrorA6
Can the PHL afford a depreciating peso?
editorial
Despite the Christmas season approaching, the next 45 days are
going to be interesting, to say the least. the Us Federal Reserve
Open Mar-ket Committee (Fed) will meet in the middle of December to
decide whether to raise interest rates.
it does not matter what that decision will turn out to be, as
Yes or No will still have an important impact on the global
currency and asset markets. At this point, the odds are that the
Fed will raise interest rates after keeping them at near zero for
six years.
Last week when Us economic data was released that increased the
chances of a rate hike to 70 percent at the December Fed meeting,
the Us dollar imme-diately appreciated against a basket of major
currencies by nearly 2 percent.
the dollar has been strong since August, with the Us dollar
index rising from 80 to the current 99 level, or a 24-percent
surge. the Us dollar has ap-preciated less than 5 percent against
the philippine peso in the same period. this is because there has
been a good and stable balance between foreign currency coming into
and going out of the philippines. Other countries, like Malaysia,
have seen their currencies decrease in value against the Us dollar
by a significant amount.
But for sake of argument, let us assume that the Fed does raise
interest rates next month and the global cash flows into the Us to
take advantage of the higher interest rates there, then this will
affect the philippine peso.
the peso is currently about 47 to $1. probably the worst case
scenario for the immediate future over the next months is that the
exchange rate would move to 50 to $1 or a depreciation of about 6.5
percent. Can the philippine economy afford that amount of
depreciation?
We tend to think of changes on the peso exchange rate in
simplis-tic terms. A lower peso means more money for the families
of overseas workers; a high peso means less money. But that is
completely inaccurate. Changes in the exchange rate have much wider
and far-reaching effect through the economy.
the last time the peso traded at 50 in 2006, the price of crude
oil was $60 a barrel, for a peso equivalent price of 3,000 per
barrel. Now a barrel of oil costs about p2,100 at the current
exchange rate. if the peso went to 50 and global oil prices stayed
the same, oil would cost p2,200 which would not have a sig-nificant
impact on the price of fuel although pump prices would go
higher.
However, inflation might rise nearer the 1-percent level from
its current 0.4 percent. perhaps, the biggest impact would be that
a Fed interest-rate increase might stop the Bangko sentral ng
pilipinas (Bsp) from lowering its interest rates unless the economy
started going down as a rate decrease would further depreciate the
peso, increasing inflation.
Certainly, the philippine economy can handle more peso
deprecation be-cause the government has its fiscal house in order
and the Bsp has done its job properly. We are ready for whatever
happens.
iNCOMpLete biometrics isnt the same as no biometrics at all.
this is the sentiment that underscores the Commission on electionss
(Comelec) recent resolution allowing voters with incomplete
biometrics to vote on election day 2016.
Yay, Kim Chiu!
Lets backtrack a bit.section 3 of Republic Act (RA) 10367,
entitled An Act providing for Manda-tory Biometrics Voter
Registration, mandated registered voters whose bio-metrics data
have not been captured to undergo the validation process. section 7
of the same law provides for the deac-tivation of registration
records of voters who will fail to submit for validation on or
before the last day of filing of applica-tion for registration for
purposes of the May 2016 National and Local elections.
in the implementing rules and reg-ulations (iRR) for RA 10367,
Comelec Resolution 9721 dated June 26, 2013, the Comelec amplified
on these provi-sions by declaring who ought to undergo validation,
and by explaining the conse-quences of a failure to validate:
section 2 of Comelec Resolution 9721 declares that the following
registered voters shall have their biometrics data validated: [1]
those who do not have Biometrics data appearing in the Voter
Registration system [VRs]; and [2] those who have incomplete
Biometrics data
appearing in the VRs.section 8, in turn, made it clear that
despite those with incomplete biomet-rics still being required
to validate, the consequences of failing to validate would fall
only on those who had no biometrics data at all. thus, it provided
that the registration records of voters without biometrics data who
failed to submit for validation on or before the last day of filing
of applications for registration for the purpose of the May 9,
2016, National and Local elections shall be deactivated in the last
election Registration Board (eRB) hearing to be conducted prior to
said elections.
so who has incomplete biometrics, as opposed to those with no
biometrics?
it must be noted that the Comelec uses three kinds of
biometrics: the image of the registrants face, the reg-istrants
digitally scanned fingerprints, and the registrants signature,
captured directly by the personal-computer voter-registration
machine. if a registrant has all three, then he is considered to
have complete biometrics. Anything short of
having all three, by definition, becomes incomplete
biometrics.
With the campaign to have 9.6 mil-lion validated, the
distinction between the two may have blurred somewhat, as focus was
placed squarely on the im-portance of validation process during the
registration period. to accommo-date the expected crush of people,
the Comelec made satellite registrations mandatory for all Comelec
field offices. in fact, in some places, satellite offices were
opened up exclusively for validation purposes, in a wide variety of
locations from gated communities to barangay basketball courts;
from public markets to malls. All for the purpose of bringing the
registration process closer to the people, thereby encouraging
broader voter participation.
the last three months, however, dem-onstrated that a significant
number of people would still fail to meet the dead-line: both those
with only incomplete biometrics and those with no biomet-rics at
all. Which brings us back to that provision of the iRR stating that
the registration records of voters without biometrics data who
failed to submit for validation on or before the last day of filing
of applications for registration for the purpose of the May 9,
2016, National and Local elections shall be deactivated in the last
eRB hearing to be conducted prior to said elections.
While some may take issue with what they perceive to be a
relaxing of the rules (which it isnt), the fact remains that this
move means registered voters who, through no fault of their own,
have incomplete biometrics information in
the system, will not be unfairly penal-ized by the operation of
the Mandatory Biometrics Law.
n n niN a related story, late last Wednesday, a viral video
surfaced online purportedly showing actress Kim Chiu being allowed
to cut in on the queue at a crowded satel-lite registration center.
the person taking the video loudly denounced the practice of giving
celebrities preferential treatment.
predictably, the irate videographers lament was taken up by
netizens and by thursday morning, a significant number of
social-media posts were condemning both the Comelec for letting it
happen and Kim Chiu herself, for supposedly taking advantage of her
fame.
And then the young lady responded.in a tweet to someone who had
ap-
parently taken her to task, Chiu wrote: i was there 7:30 a.m. po
kasi i had a flight after, my RM [road manager] lined up for me po,
close pa mall. Nung turn ko na po tsaka ako bumaba. [i was there at
7:30 a.m. because i had a flight afterward, my RM lined up for me,
while the mall was still closed. When it was my turn, that was the
time i came down.]
in an understandably caustic rejoin-der, Chiu added: dont judge
if you dont know the real story...dont base sa kung anong nakikita
ng mata...know everything first, bago magkwento. i dont think that
needs any translation, and apart from the dodgy punctuation, id say
those were words of wisdom.
James Arthur B. Jimenez is director of the Commission on
Electionss education and information department.
spoxJames Jimenez
-
Friday, November 13, 2015
[email protected]
annotationstito Genova Valiente
LoveLy in her mid-80s, she paused after warm laughter and long
applause greeted her speech. Then she leaned close to the
microphone and started to sing in that voice known to opera lovers:
And then one day, one magic day, he passed my way/ And while we
spoke of many things, fools and kings/ This he said to me to me/The
greatest thing youll ever learn is just to love and be loved in
return.
Nature BoyApec and poverty
The voice of Fides did not soar over the crowd in the Main
Theater of the Cultural Center of the Phil-ippines; rather, the
words and the music and that voice embraced the audience, telling
them the story of an artist, what she believed in as her ultimate
life principle. The singing was not at all cheesy. That act came
naturally, closing for Fides the artist the years she shared with
the memo-ries of that crowd
The song was Nature Boy, a piece that was popularized by Nat
King Cole.
Amazing always how music can change the texture and contour of a
ceremony. When Fides stepped on that stage that afternoon, she was
the indomitable opera star, a diva to those music students who
learned from her in the 1960s and 1970s and up to the present. But
when she picked that popular ballad, she wanted to tell more, to be
thankful for a life that was not really the core of what was being
recognized that afternoon.
That afternoon in September, a song replaced speech, and sound
became preeminent.
Sound or a particular sound was what Glenn Miller was looking
for when he composed music for the bands of the 1930s and
1940s.
Who remembers Glenn Mill-er? Well, who remembers the last world
war?
I was not born during the war but my generationif some of us
cared to listenwas listening every now and then to music that
accompa-nied the war. And Millers was the background music as young
men
and women from the USand many from the Allied Forcestook a rest
from and prepared for the warfront. In the Mood, Tuxedo Junction,
and that old warhorse, Moonlight Serenade, are just some of the
sound that reminded some genera-tions of war and death, separation
and hunger.
In our old home, Miller was the favored music of grandfathers.
It was thus a gift this month for me to finally view a clear, good
copy of the film, The Glenn Miller Story. Played by Jimmy Steward,
Glenn Miller was the epitome of gentlemanliness of years gone by.
Then I realized that the or-dinary clothing of this man playing
Miller had become the ultimate in fashion now for men who could
af-ford to buy good things.
It is difficult to separate a Holly-wood icon like Stewart from
a popu-lar music giant like Miller in the same way that cinemas of
certain period have blurred for us the distinctive-ness of a real
war and how film pro-ductions have depicted the same war. Then
there is the war and its vestiges that include military
training.
Why did we march under the sun in high school? Why did we carry
gunswooden in high school and real rifles in college for some
during the training?
Hollywood, and not only the po-litical and economic system that
spawned the great war, has designed for us our childhood and
manhood. Hollywood was the source of images about soldiering and,
therefore, of marching.
The film, The Glenn Miller Story, has simplified the war for us.
Music continued in places where America had fielded its men and
women. Peo-ple in those wartime years were the bravest if we are to
believe the film about Glenn Miller. Musicians were even
braver.
The propaganda in the film like The Glenn Miller Story is so
strong because it is embedded in the
narrative about the family in the film, Helen, the wife of
Miller is all ready to bid good-bye to his husband who is
conscripted to the army. And this she does without the gravity of
sadness. It seems the producers in this film, which was done in
1953 and not during the war years, tried to create women and men
who were unnaturally tough.
The most dramatic part of The Glenn Miller Story is when his
family, already informed that he is missing, listens to the
broadcast of his band playing for a Christmas eve concert. Bled of
sorrow, the film barely shows any reaction from Millers family.
When that reedy sound rises into crescendo, there are some tears on
the face of Helen but those were wiped away, and fast. The wife is
soon smiling after all, as one band member says, the music of Glenn
Miller will live on.
The music of Glenn Miller did live on. Bette Midler resurrected
In the Mood. Carly Simon recorded a sul-try version of Moonlight
Serenade.
Wars did not stop. The Korean War was raging by the time the
film about Miller came out. But no music became popular as backdrop
to any war.
E-mail: [email protected]
EaGLE WatCHLeonardo a. Lanzona Jr.
UNLIKe most trade agreements, the Asia-Pacific economic
Cooperation (Apec) operates simply as a cooperative, multilateral
economic and trade forum. The process engages the member-economies
to an open dialogue and fosters mutual respect for views of all
participants. In Apec, there are no binding commitments or treaty
obligations. Commitments are undertaken on a voluntary basis, and
capacity-building projects help members implement Apec
initiatives.
As host of the Apec meetings this year, the Philippines has
proposed the theme, Building Inclusive econ-omies, Building a
Better World. This is a path-breaking development for any
international community as it implicitly accepts the fact that
trade is ultimately not the goal of develop-ment. The priority is
the improve-ment in the lives of the people in the region, not
merely the exchange of goods and services.
In fact, orthodox trade theory has never concluded that growth
will be even. In a world characterized by external economies, those
coun-tries that have pioneered and have started growth earlier will
be able to accumulate wealth faster relative to those countries
that have started late. Convergence in incomes can only be expected
if countries are all competitive and eventually operates under
constant returns to scale or at the most efficient levels. However,
as markets are mostly imperfectly competitive and certain
industries possess substantial market power for some regions,
certain countries that have already gained a foothold in several
sectors, and hence gained some dominance in capital develop-ment,
would eventually experience lower costs of production, and
natu-rally have a greater advantage. Trade, thus, reinforces this
advantage and creates greater inequality.
The best recourse for the poor countries then is to use trade,
not so much to obtain goods but to learn more of the existing
technology and to gain greater access to capital. Two prominent,
yet controversial, hy-potheses about economic develop-ment are the
so-called advantage of backwardness, such that on compar-ing two
otherwise similar countries the one with the lower initial mean
income will tend to see the higher rate of growth, and the
advantage of growth, whereby a higher mean income tends to result
to a lower in-cidence of absolute poverty. Previous empirical
support for both hypoth-eses has shown that the dynamic processes
for growth and poverty re-duction do not depend directly on the
initial level of poverty. Under these assumptions, we should see
pov-erty convergence, that is, countries starting out with a high
incidence of absolute poverty (reflecting a lower mean) should
enjoy a higher subse-quent growth rate and (hence) higher
proportionate rate of poverty reduc-tion. Indeed, the mean income
and the poverty rate will have the same speed of convergence in
widely used simplified models.
Unfortunately, the empirical proof to these hypotheses has been
untenable for many poorer countries, including the Philippines.
More pre-cisely, while there may have a conver-gence in incomes,
the convergence in poverty has not been significant. economist
Martin Ravallion of Georgetown University explains that very low
income levels effectively ne-gate the advantage of backwardness,
and to a large extent, the presence of a strong middle income will
be crucial to be able to obtain this advantage. Furthermore, with
higher poverty in-cidence, greater inequality in income
distribution becomes a constraint to economic and social
development.
The Apec leaders should then real-ize that trade does not lead
to a trick-le-down effect. In order to address poverty, inequality
itself should be the main priority. In which case, the
market-oriented programs, includ-ing trade liberalization, instead
of
being the solution, may be the cause of greater poverty rates
within and across nations.
For instance, one of the main is-sues of the summit here is the
state of micro, small and medium enter-prises (MSMes). The problem
in the Philippines, as well as in other poor countries, is that
MSMes have re-mained small over the years. Apec has been cognizant
of these prob-lems. However, the solutions being offered are
fundamentally based on the market-oriented processes. These can be
classified into two: (1) the promotion of larger markets to local
industries to secure greater employment opportunities, as
assis-tance for antipoverty measures and supporting social
development; and (2) the enhancement of assistance in
infrastructure building, technology transfer, MSMe promotion, and
de-velopment of supporting industries, demarcation and coordination
with other public funds. In this case, assis-tance not only focuses
on responding to the crisis, but also in strengthen-ing the
existing financial system, developing core human resources, and
upgrading business manage-ment and technical skills.
While these measures are con-sistent with individual country
con-cerns, these programs are inadequate in developing MSMes. What
is miss-ing is the aspect of public goods that can help the MSMes
in poorer coun-tries to prosper and generate positive externalities
to their communities. Public goods become global (some-times called
international public goods) in nature when the benefits flow to
more than one country and no country can effectively be denied
access to those benefits. The pro-motion and protection of cultural
diversity, core labor rights and the environment, through global
coop-eration, are all regarded as global public goods. For
instance, health has been seen to have a significant effect on the
productivity of the poor. Hence, this can be an important in-put
coming from the international community. The provision of public
goods related to human investments, especially from the richer
nations or the wealthier sectors within the country, will be
crucial in reducing inequality and alleviating poverty.
Trade liberalization is a vital ingredient for development,
espe-cially for the Philippines where the trade sector has not
contributed significantly to growth. However, to distribute the
benefits from this policy, complementary institutions must be
established in order to create global public goods. Clearly, Apec
is a crucial vehicle for making this a reality.
Leonardo Lanzona Jr. is the direc-tor of Ateneo Center for
Economic Re-search and Development and a senior fellow of Eagle
Watch, the schools macroeconomic research and fore-casting
unit.
Part 1
eARLIeR this week, Googles Doodle featured one of Hollywoods
glamorous screen legends, Hedy Lamarr, who at the time was often
called The Most Beautiful Woman in Films. More astonishing than her
beauty and her film credentials were her contributions to science
and technology.
Women in tech: Getting over the gender gap
Inspired by how a piano works, Lamarr (who was born in Austria
as Hedwig eva Maria Kiesler) co-devel-oped technology that
prevented Ger-man submarines from intercepting Allied radio signals
during World War II. Called the Secret Communication System, this
patented technology, according to Google Doodle Jenni-fer Hom, laid
the groundwork for widely used technologies like Blue-tooth, GPS
and Wi-Fi that we rely upon daily.
Unfortunately, prevailing prej-udices prevented Lamarr/Kiesler
from receiving due recognition from the scientific community for
her contributions. She wasnt able to join the National Inven-tors
Council as she had wanted to, and even in her old age she was
as-sociated with Hollywood and was offered scripts for roles that
she turned down anyway.
Many other female scientists, en-gineers and inventors have
suffered a similar fate as Lamarr/Kieslers, and 101 years after the
famed actress and inventors birth, huge leaps and
advances in technology have failed to address the fact that
technology is still largely a mans world.
Gender gaps in the 21st centuryASIDe from the Gender Pay Gap,
which is a hot topic now in corporate and tech America, a February
2015 report released in the technology web site Dice.com suggests
that there is also what is called the Position Gapin which men
often occupy more senior roles than women in tech, which also
accounts for the pay difference. The obvious question is then,
Dice.com asks, why more of these positions are not being filled by
females.
At this time, it is unclear why this is the case, although we
sus-pect that a number of societal and lifestyle factors generally
come into play, Dice.com says.
While the Philippines fares well in the World economic Forums
Global Gender Gap Indexranking first in Asia and ninth worldwide in
gender equality in 2014, above even more developed countries, such
as
Germany (12th), Canada (19th), the United States (20th) and
Singapore (59th)the gender divide is still felt in the tech
sector.
Tina Amper, a Silicon valley alumna and founder of the annual
tech start-up conference, Geeks on a Beach, estimates that
female-led tech start-ups comprise only 20 percent to 30 percent of
the whole tech start-up industry in the Philip-pines. She is quick
to disclaim, how-ever, that this is based on anecdotal evidence
alone and is inconclusive.
Looking at Geeks on a Beachs line-up of speakers, however, it
does seem like the tech scene is still dominated by men. This years
roster includes only nine women out of 58 speakers over two
days.
Another Silicon valley alumna, Stef Sy, a Stanford-educated data
sci-entist who founded the data consul-tancy companies Thinking
Machines and Silicon valley Insight, shares a similar observation.
She recounts how tech meetups in the Philip-pines, such as those
for program-mers and developers, still tend to be male-dominated
and awkward at best for female techies. This is what prompted her
and other women cod-ers to be active in the PyLadies com-munity, a
group for women users of the open-source programming language,
Python. PyLadies Manila now has almost 100 members and continues to
grow.
Facing gender biasBoTH Amper and Sy also speak of a gender bias
still existing in the tech world, although Sy says that there seems
to be a bit more balance here than in Silicon valley.
According to Amper, Being a founder is hard enough as it is, so
I
give kudos to anyone who wants to start or run a business[but] I
think the additional challenge of being a female founder comes into
play in certain situationsa female founder with a family may have
additional challenges, such as work-family- self balance.
Sy shares a similar sentiment. There seems to be a glorification
of the working mom and of the notion that you can do it all, she
says. But the reality is that the prime years for starting a
company are the same prime years for having a baby.
In order to create a more em-powering environment, Sy says that
workplace policies should be pro-gressive enough to support working
parentsboth women and menso that men arent chastised for being
hands-on parents and women are able to get the support that they
need at work and at home.
n n nIn the next installment of this
feature, well share specific recom-mendations for getting more
women on board the tech sectorwhether they are tech newbies or
aspiring entrepreneurs. For a macro look at closing gender gaps in
the Philip-pines and the Asia Pacific, an inter-esting back-read is
Boots Geotina-Garcias october 15, 2015 piece here on Women Stepping
Up.
Nia Terol (@ninaterol) heads corpo-rate affairs for the largest
multinational integrated marketing communications firm in the
Philippines, is a founding trustee of Business and Professional
Women (BPW) Makati, and has been widely published in local and
interna-tional publications. She is also a tech enthusiast and
hopes to be more active in the local tech scene.
The Apec leaders should realize that trade does not lead to a
trickle-down effect. In order to address poverty, inequality itself
should be the main priority. In which case, the market-oriented
programs, including trade liberalization, instead of being the
solution, may be the cause of greater poverty rates within and
across nations.
WomEn stEppinG Upnia terol
-
Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. will proceed with a
$920-million expansion to more than double its power-generating
capacity in Mindanao by 2019, even as the southern Philippine
island faces a possible oversupply. The stock rose for the first
time this week. Alsons, the oldest electricity genera-tor in
Mindanao, has supply contracts for 90 percent of the combined
315-mega-watt (MW) capacity of the three coal-fired power plants
being built by the company, insulating the projects from a possible
glut should all the new plants come on stream, CFo luis Ymson said
on Wednesday. The three power plants will raise the companys
generating capacity to 573 MW by 2019. Mindanao, the nations
second-big-gest island and home to a quarter of the Philippiness
108 million people, will have at least 1,860 MW of new
capacity from 2016 through 2019, as Alsons and other companies,
including Aboitiz Power Corp., san Miguel Corp., Filinvest
Development Corp., and Ayala Corp., complete their plans. Mindanao
had 2,211 MW of installed capacity at end-2014, half of which are
hydropower plants, according to government data. We dont build
plants unless we have off-takers, Ymson said in an interview. We
have practically contracted all the capacity Alsons is building.
Alsons will start operating the first of its new three power plants
in the first quarter of 2016, while the construction of the other
two plants will start in the second and fourth quarters, he
said.
Stake saleAlsons has hired InG Bank nV to arrange a P7.5-billion
($159-million) loan and is considering selling as much as 32
percent
of the company, valued at about P3.16 bil-lion based on Alsons
market value, to help fund expansion, Ymson said. There are four
groups seeking to ac-quire a stake in the company, he said,
declining to name the prospective buy-ers. Direct stakes in the
power plants may also be sold should that be preferred by
investors, he added. Alsons has very promising prospects and
investors interest in the stock will grow as this capacity
expansion comes through, said Astro del Castillo, managing director
at First Grade Finance Inc. Alsons shares rose 1.3 percent as of
2:45 p.m. in Manila, heading for the steepest advance since october
23. The stock ear-lier climbed as much as 1.9 percent. The company,
80 percent owned by the family of Chairman Tomas Alcantara, has
declined 22 percent this year, after surging 51 per-cent in 2014.
Bloomberg News
By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz
The house of Representatives is targeting to approve theproposed
Salary Standardization Law (SSL) of 2015, or SSL 4, after the
Asia-Pacific economic Cooperation (Apec) Leaders Meeting next week,
or when session resumes onNovember 23.
A8
2ndFront PageBusinessMirrorwww.businessmirror.com.phFriday,
November 13, 2015
Passage of state workerspay hike seen after Apec
Alsons to pursue Mindanao expansion
executive of the year Kevin tan (center), first vice president
and division head of Megaworld commercial Division, receives the
trophy on behalf of his father andrew L. tan, chairman of alliance
Global Group inc., for winning the Smart Global filipino executive
of the year during the asia ceo awards 2015 held at the Marriott
Grand Ballroom in Pasay city. Giving the awards are eric alberto
(right), executive vice president of PLDt Global corp.; and Jovy
hernandez, first vice president of PLDt enterprise Group. ROY
DOMINGO
briefsGLoBe, SMart BooSt SaLe of raiL BeeP carDS ONE million
beep cards have been sold to commuters of the three rail lines in
Metro Manila, thanks to initiatives of Smart Communications Inc.
and Globe Telecom Inc. to launch their own debit cards embedded
with the contactless payment technology. AF Payments Inc. CEO Peter
Maher said the figure is the combined result of the standard beep
cards sold in the stations through the tellers and the ticket
vending machines, as well as the co-issuedbeepcards of PayMaya and
Globe GCash.This figure more than triples the initial 300,000
target set by the train operators and AF Payments early this year.
We are delighted that rail commuters in Metro Manila have taken so
readily to the newbeepcard, he said. Today,beepcards are already
used to pay for more than 50 percent of all rail trans-actions on
Light Rail Transit Lines 1 and 2, and the Metro Rail Transit Line
3. The new payment system started a little over four months ago.
Its full implementation, however, only commenced on October 3.
Lorenz S. Marasigan
Sc aSKeD to StoP Lrt cavite exteNSioN DeaLA PETITION was filed
on Thursday before the Supreme Court (SC) seeking to stop the
implementation of the P65-billion concession agreement for the
Cavite Extension Project executed between the Department of
Transportation and Communications (DOTC) andthe Light Rail Manila
Corp. (LRMC) for being grossly disadvatangeous to the government.
The petition was filed bythe Bagong Alyansang Makabayan
rep-resented by its secretary general, Renato M. Reyes Jr.,
Party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna, commuter group Train
Rid-ers Network, Courage Chairman Ferdinand Gaite, Riles convenor
Sammy Malunes, Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA)employee Ma.
Kristina Cassion and scientist group Agham, represented by its
Secretary-General Feny Cosico. We are filing this petition on
behalf of thousands of daily LRT [Light Rail Transit] commuters, as
well as the Filipino taxpayers, who will shoulder the ill effects
of the contract for the next three decades. The contract is loaded
with sovereign guarantees that are contrary to law and detrimental
to the people. The Aquino government, through the DOTC, negotiated
a lopsided contract that will place us deep in debt, Reyes said in
a statement. Joel R. San Juan
Govt to SPeND P289.3M for NeW iNcoMe Survey ThE national
government estimates that it will spend a total of P289.3 million
to conduct the income and expenditure survey, as well as a pilot
study on gender equality. The Philippine Statistics Authority
estimates that it will spend P283.8 million, or P6,305.73 per
household, to conduct the Family Income and Expenditure Survey
(FIES) nationwide. The PSA said it will spend P5.5 million, or
P3,548.39 per house-hold, to conduct the 2015 Evidence and Data for
Gender Equality Project, the first of its kind in the country.The
FIES, a survey that is conducted every three years, aims to collect
data on the level of Filipinos incomes and spending for a
particular period .
Cai U. Ordinario
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the Wednesdays passage
ofhouse Bill 6268, or the SSL 4, on second readingshowed the houses
determination in providing a timely and necessary pay raise to
government personnel. Its been three years since the last tranche
of the Salary Stan-dardization Law, or SSL 3, was effected and
completed. Its about time we update the compensation and position
classification system for our government personnel to make their
pay competitive with the market rates and the private sector, the
Speaker said. The billprincipally authored by Belmonte, house
Majority Lead-er Neptali M. Gonzales II of Man-daluyong City, house
Committee on Appropriations Chairman Rep. Isidro Ungab of Davao
City,Com-mittee on Accounts Chairman and Romblon Rep. Eleandro
Jesus F. Madronawill modify the com-
pensation and position classifica-tion system of civilian
government personnel and the base pay schedule of military and
uniformed person-nel in the government to be imple-mented in four
tranches, start-ingJanuary 1, 2016. The bill seeks to strengthen
the link between pay and per-formance through an enhanced
performance-based bonus sys-tem, temper the cost of benefit while
maximizing the benefits of employees and allow higher take-home
pay, especially for govern-ment personnel belonging to the lower
salary grades. The measure will result in a weighted-average
increase of 45 percent in the compensation of all salary grades and
raise compensa-tion of government personnel to at least 70 percent
of the private-sector rate. Earlier, Budget Secretary Flo-rencio B.
Abad said the SSL 4
will be effected through a com-bination of a salary increase, a
14th-month pay and an enhanced performance-based bonus to be
implemented over a four-year period,fromJanuary 1, 2016 to January
1, 2019. Abad said the SSL 4 is based on Joint Resolution 4 enacted
by Congress in 2009, mandating the review of the compensation and
position classification system af-ter three years from the last
year of the adjustment to determine the competitiveness of
govern-ment pay in relation to the pri-vate sector and the
compensation strategy to bring government pay closer to market
rate. Under the new SSL, those u nder Sa l a r y Grade (SG) 1, who
are now receiving P9,000 per month, will get P9,478 per month under
Step 1 of the first tranche; P9,981 under the second tranche;
P10,510 under the third tranche; and P11,068 under the final
tranche. Those in the highest level, or SG 33, who are presently
receiv-ing P120,000 per month, will get P160,000 per month in the
first tranche; P215,804 in the second tranche; P289,4010 in the
third tranche; and P388,096 in the final tranche. Tax adjustmentThE
leadership of the house has also expressed hope that the
measure adjusting the levels of taxable income to inflation will
be passed into lawbefore the 16thCon-gress ends next year. Liberal
Party Rep. Romero Quimbo of Marikina City, chair-man of the house
Committee on Ways and Means, however, said Congress leaders are
still waiting for President Aquinos response to the proposal
following the Chief Execu-tives meeting withBelmonte and Senate
President Franklin Drilon on the matter on Monday. I continue to
hopeits not a vain hopethat the tax measure, which we started in
the house two years ago, will see the light of day before President
[Aquino] steps down [in June next year], Quimbo said in a weekly
news fo-rum in Quezon City. The lawmaker added that Bel-monte and
Drilon are pushing for the said proposal as compromise to the
measure lowering income- and corporate-tax rates, which was
strongly opposed by the Palace. Our hope is essentially based on
these things: first, it is of sound policy carried out when we pass
the NIRC [National Internal Revenue Code] in 1997 that the mandate
really was to adjust it to inflation. Second is that it is also
timely; it has been quite a long time that we have really reviewed
the un-changed tax structure itself, Quimbo said.
See Pay hike, A2
ThE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Thursday approved the
initial public offering (IPO) of sustainable real-estate firm
Italpinas Development Corp. (IDC). In its notice, the PSE said IDC
will offer 57.62-million primary shares to the public at up to
P4.20 per share. IDC, which will list at PSEs Small, Medium and
Emerging Board, willraise up to P242 million. Proceeds from the
offering will be used to fund capital expendi-tures for new
projects, land bank-ing and acquisitions, general work-ing capital
and for retirement of existing obligations. The offer will run from
No- vember 23 to 27, while listing of the shares is slated on
December 7. Unicapital Inc.,currently the coun-trys leading and
most active full-service investment house, led by Uni-capital
Securities Inc. President and CEO Leonardo R. Arguelles Jr., whos
also the managing director of Equity Capital Markets of Unicapital
Inc.,is the lead underwriter for IDCs IPO. Italpinas plans to
develop several projects, which range from mixed-use buildings to
condotels, hotels, resorts and beach communities all over the
country. The company, formerly known as Italpinas Euroasian Design
and Eco-Development Corp., is behind Primavera Residences, its
flagship real-estate project in Cagayan de Oro. Italpinas was
established by Ital-ian architect Romolo V. Nati and his Filipino
business partner lawyer Jose D. Leviste III in 2009. Nati is the
chairman and COO, while Leviste is the president of IDC. Primavera
Resi-dences is a mixed-use eco-friendly condominium development in
Ca-gayan de Oro City that incorporates many sustainability
features.
PSE okaysinitial publicoffering ofItalpinas
the Cabinet economic cluster in Malacaang that the $285-million
Philippine economy continues to hum based on inflation numbers
that, while below-target at present, should soon accelerate to
within-target levels down the line. For 2016, inflation is now
ex-pected to hit 2.3 percent, from ear-lier forecast of 2.6
percent. For 2017, inflation was forecast at 2.9 percent, from an
earlier expectation of 3 percent. This means that, for both years,
inflation should fall within the government target. According to
the BSP, lower headline inflation in September and October were to
blame for the reduction in the forecast. This was coupled with the
decline in oil and other commodity prices. The central bank also
said that while the anticipated US Federal Reserve (the Fed) rate
hike were to impact on emerging markets as the Philippines, such
should not be very significant as the same had been anticipated and
factored in by the market for some time now. Instead, the BSP bared
more de-tails to the proposed interest rate corridor or IRC
believed to now be the focus of the monetary authori-ties going
forward. Injecting stimulus to already vi-brant domestic demand may
engen-der inflationary pressures down the road, while the BSP
expects inflation to gradually move within the target band in 2016
and 2017. The BSP opted to stay neutral as it carefully awaits
possible spillovers from the projected Fed rate hike at the end of
the year, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) economist Nicholas
Antonio Mapa said in reaction. The BSP maybe more inclined to
finalize preparations for the IRC, given it had conducted
preemptive moves in 2015 in anticipation of the
Fed rate hike, Mapa added. At the news briefing following the
monetary board meeting, Dep-uty BSP Governor for the Monetary
Stability Sector Diwa C. Guinigundo said the BSP may also implement
ad-justments in the policy rates at the same time it pursues the
IRC. Guinigundo added that the IRC is a work in progress, and
stressed the markets will be less confused if the adjustments were
done policy neutral and purely procedural in nature. Where it is
going to be is some-thing that will be the subject of the decision
of the Monetary Board. how narrow [the IRC will be] is also
an-other policy that will be set, Guini-gundo said. The IRC was
earlier seen imple-mented in the second quarter next year and will
help make monetary operations more effective. The corridor,
Guinigundo also earlier said, will involve the BSPs policy rate and
special deposits ac-count (SDA) rate. The BSPs lending or
repurchase rate will be the ceiling and the SDA interest rate will
be the floor of the IRC. Separately, the risk for finan-cial-sector
reforms to lose steam or become misdirected soon after next years
scheduled elections was rated low under latest assessment conducted
by the global credit watchdog Moodys Investors Ser-vice. The New
York-based ratings firm said the usual political noise normally
cropping up close to or around the electoral process should neither
stop nor derail the reform process. Moodys, in its most recent
paper on political risks around Southeast Asia, said the likelihood
for the Philippines to revert or renege on its reform commitments
remains low just like in two other countries in the region.
BSP. . . Continued from A1