BusinessMirror November 27, 2015

B C U. O

THE government is optimistic that the eco-

nomy is still capable of expanding 6 percent for full-year 2015, with a “very achievable” 6.9-percent growth in the last quarter seen to cap the year. Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan made the bold assumption, following the 6-percent growth in the third quarter of the year that raised the average growth in the nine-month period to 5.6 percent.

“The fourth quarter will likely be driven by consumption growth because, first, the very low in-f lation, improving employment situation, the low oil prices, of course, it’s also the holiday sea-son. Consumption growth speeds up in the fourth quarter. But this is more than just the holiday season. It’s also the eve of the

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PHILIPPINE government counsels slammed as illegal China’s con-tinued construction of artificial

islands within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) on the second day of hearings on the case it filed against Beijing in the United Nations Tribunal in The Hague. Deputy Presidential Spokesman Abi-gail Valte, reporting on Day Two of the Hearing on the Merits, said the thrust of the Philippines’s arguments “cen-tered on the deprivation of the fishing and exploration rights due to China’s aggressive assertion of exclusive rights” over areas covered by its “baseless” nine- dash line claim. Philippine counsel Andrew Loew-enstein stated that none of the three conditions to establish historic rights are present in China’s case, making its claim “hopeless and indefensible,” Valte said in an e-mail furnished to Pal-ace reporters in Manila. She added that Prof. Philippe Sands also argued that Mischief Reef, Second Thomas Shoal, Subi Reef, Mckennan Reef and Gaven Reef are all low-tide elevations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) and, as such, are “not entitled to its own territo-rial sea, exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.” According to her, Sands also pre-sented to the tribunal the construc-tion activities on the features done by China, asserting that “these changes cannot be the basis of additional maritime entitlements.” C A

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PESO EXCHANGE RATES ■ US 47.0370 ■ JAPAN 0.3834 ■ UK 71.1388 ■ HK 6.0693 ■ CHINA 7.3619 ■ SINGAPORE 33.4974 ■ AUSTRALIA 34.0823 ■ EU 49.9627 ■ SAUDI ARABIA 12.5248 Source: BSP (26 November 2015)

INSIDE

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Life Friday, November 27, 2015

Life BusinessMirror

Life Editor: erard . Ra os • li est le siness irror g ail. o

LL OVING Father, we choose to forgive everyone in OVING Father, we choose to forgive everyone in OVING Father, we choose to forgive everyone in our lives, including ourselves, because You have our lives, including ourselves, because You have forgiven us. Thank You, Father, for this grace. forgiven us. Thank You, Father, for this grace.

We forgive ourselves for all our sins, faults and failings We forgive ourselves for all our sins, faults and failings especially our misgivings. We forgive ourselves for not especially our misgivings. We forgive ourselves for not being perfect, we accept ourselves and make a decision being perfect, we accept ourselves and make a decision to stop picking on ourselves and being our own worst to stop picking on ourselves and being our own worst enemy. We relish the things held against ourselves, free enemy. We relish the things held against ourselves, free ourselves from bondage and make peace with ourselves ourselves from bondage and make peace with ourselves today, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

To forgive everyone

MIRACLE HOUR, LINDA SCHUBERT AND LOUIE M. LACSONMIRACLE HOUR, LINDA SCHUBERT AND LOUIE M. LACSONWord&Life Publications • [email protected]@yahoo.com

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BREATS WITH APPLE AND TART

GREENS »D3

B M WLos Angeles Times

WHEN Adele sings on her new album, HEN Adele sings on her new album, HEN25, about an emotional experience so vivid that “It was just like a movie / It was just like a song,” she’s probably

thinking of a tune by one of her idols: Roberta Flack, say, or Stevie Nicks.

But for fans of this 27-year-old British singer, such a moment could only be captured by one thing: an Adele song. With her big hair and bigger voice, Adele broke out in 2008 as part of the British retro-soul craze that also included Duffy and Amy Winehouse. Her debut album, 19, spawned a hit single in “Chasing Pavements” and led 19, spawned a hit single in “Chasing Pavements” and led 19to a Grammy Award for best new artist. Yet she outgrew any style or scene with the smash follow-up, 21, which presented Adele as a great crystallizer of complicated feelings, an artist writing intimately about her own life (in this case about a devastating breakup) in a way that somehow made the music feel universal.

Despite—or, perhaps, because of—her lack of interest in modern pop-star gamesmanship, 21 also turned the proudly old-fashioned Adele into a profit center for a struggling record industry. In the United States alone, the album sold 11 million copies, enough to make it the biggest-selling title of both 2011 and 2012.

Clearly, the pressure is on to duplicate that commercial success with 25, which comes after a long period of public quiet in which Adele recovered from throat surgery and gave birth to a son (and tweeted no

more than a few dozen times).“Hello,” the record’s brooding lead single, set a

record when it was released last month, racking up 1.1 million downloads in a week. But the song’s enthusiastic embrace only underscored the other, more pressing demand on the singer as she returns: that her music still provide its trademark catharsis.

Put another way, Adele’s fans have been waiting for years for new Adele songs to explain their experiences to them. And they get a worthy batch on 25, an album so full of heavy-duty drama that it makes a more lighthearted peer such as Katy Perry seem like a Pez dispenser. Over tolling piano chords that swell to an echoing throb, she’s reaching out to apologize to an ex in “Hello”—then realizing when he won’t take her call that she cares about him more than she thought.

“All I Ask” is a stunning ballad, cowritten by Bruno Mars, begging a departing lover for one more night of tenderness, just in case “I never love again.” And rest assured that the title of “I Miss You” doesn’t oversell the song’s emotional payload. “Pull me in, hold me tight,” she sings, her voice thick with desire as Paul Epworth’s drums boom like cannons around her, “Don’t let go/Baby, give me life.”

Even as it fulfills those expressive requirements, 25 expands the scope of Adele’s music, taking up new 25 expands the scope of Adele’s music, taking up new 25themes and textures. There are songs about her life as a mother, including the buoyant, shuffling “Sweetest Devotion” and “Remedy,” in which she promises her child, “No river is too wide or too deep for me to swim to you.” It’s a well-worn lyrical idea refreshed by the

ugly-cry intensity of her singing.There are also songs—lots of them—that trade

Adele’s old righteous acrimony for a gentler sense of longing, as in “When We Were Young,” the tune about viewing life as a movie, and the gorgeous “Million Years Ago,” which with its sighing café-jazz arrangement feels like something Barbra Streisand would’ve performed four or five decades ago.

“I miss it when life was a party to be thrown,” she sings, her youth already wasted (at 27!), “but that was a million years ago.”

Time hasn’t dulled her sharp edges entirely. “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” feels like a sly sequel to “Rolling in the Deep,” the scorched-earth kiss-off from 21 that described everything her ex was giving up.

Here she’s over the pain but can’t resist poking a bit of fun at the guy, stretching out the word “lover” so that it sounds like she’s mocking him—especially as set against the tick-tock groove by Max Martin and Shellback, Swedish hitmakers known for getting a similar effect with Taylor Swift.

Those are two of Adele’s new collaborators on 25, along with Greg Kurstin, who brings an 1980s-R&B vibe to “Water Under the Bridge,” and Danger Mouse, who sets “River Lea” adrift in waves of his signature organ haze. Yet, throughout the album, these pop wizards are coming to Adele, not the other way around. They recognize her singularity and work hard to uphold it, to help fill these songs with as much Adele as possible.

What’s truly remarkable is how many people will listen and hear only themselves. ■

Adele’s fans have been waiting for years for new Adele songs to explain their experiences to them. And they get a worthy batch on 25, an album so full of heavy-duty drama that it makes a more lighthearted peer such as Katy Perry seem like a Pez dispenser.

ADELE RETURNSTO EXPLAIN THE BIG EMOTIONSOF YOUR LIFE

The WorldBusinessMirror [email protected], November 27, 2015B3-2

SAN ANTONIO—Nearly 5,000 unaccompanied immigrant children were caught illegally

crossing the US border with Mexico in October, almost double the number from October 2014, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.

Also, in the � gures released on Tuesday, the number of family mem-bers crossing together nearly tripled from October 2014—from 2,162 to 6,029.

Illegal immigration has become a major issue among Republicans in the US presidential race. Billion-aire Donald Trump has called for mass deportations, which some of

his rivals criticize as an impractical plan that would hand Democrats a talking point as they seek to appeal to Hispanic voters.

� e numbers spiked despite ex-pectations of lower numbers due to the colder winter months com-ing, better enforcement along the border and e� orts by Mexican au-thorities to stem the stream of Cen-tral American migrants to the US. � ough tens of thousands of women and children from Central America were caught at the border in summer 2014, it had dropped by nearly half during the 2015 federal � scal year that ended on September 30.

� e 4,973 unaccompanied chil-dren caught at the border last month is the highest number that Washington, D.C.-based think tank Washington O� ce on Latin

America has recorded for October since its records began in 2009, said Adam Isacson, a border expert and senior analyst.

� e high numbers buck the typi-cal trends of crossings peaking in spring then declining through sum-mer and fall, Isacson said. But there was an uptick in families and chil-dren crossing in July, and the num-bers have stayed over 4,000 each month since.

“Rather than a big jump, it’s been a steady burn,” he said. “I think we are almost in crisis mode with this many months of sustained arrivals.”

Most children and families try-ing to cross the border in October were from El Salvador. Increased violence in the tiny country, which averaged 30 murders a day in Au-gust, is likely partly to blame, Isacson

said. Previously, Guatemala had the most families and children ap-prehended at the border.

While the Rio Grande Valley re-mains the center of migration � ows in Texas, immigrants are starting to venture farther west. � e number of unaccompanied children caught in Del Rio sector jumped from 120 to 237, while 187 children were ap-prehended in the remote Big Bend area, up from just 13 a year ago.

According to internal intelli-gence � les from the Homeland Se-curity Department, most families interviewed told Customs and Bor-der Protection o� cials that smug-glers decided where they would try to cross. � ey reported that the cost ranged from about $5,000 to cross the border near Matamoros or Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from the Rio Grande Valley, but was about $1,500 to $2,000 to cross near Ciudad Acuna, across the river from Del Rio.

Carlos Bartolo Solis, director of a shelter in Arriaga, Chiapas, said migrants are eschewing the dan-gerous train that begins its jour-ney near his shelter after raids by Mexican immigration authorities. � e � ow of migrants, however, has not diminished, he said, adding that they are moving along other routes, often walking.

“� ey are moving in hiding,” he said in Spanish.

� e US was caught o� guard by the sudden surge of children and families in 2014 and made several ef-forts to curb the � ow of people cross-ing the border illegally, including media campaigns in Central America to scare people out of attempting the dangerous journey.

US Customs and Border Protec-tion said in a statement this week that the campaigns are still in place and highlight that “those attempting to come here illegally are a top prior-ity for removal.”

Immigrant families caught il-legally crossing the border between July and September told US immi-gration agents they made the dan-gerous trip in part because they felt they were likely to succeed, according to the intelligence � les. Immigrants spoke of “permisos,” or passes, that they believed would allow them to remain in the US. AP

� ousands of children crossed US-Mexico border in October BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—

President-elect Mauricio Macri named a new Cabinet on Wednes-

day that includes members from di-verse Argentine political movements, business executives and a minister with the outgoing government.

Marcos Peña, chosen by Macri to be his Cabinet chief when he takes o� ce on December 10, announced the pres-ident-elect’s appointments at a news conference.

Among the key appointments is Al-fonso Prat Gay as � nance minister. He was Central Bank chief between 2002 and 2004 during the Peronist govern-ments of Presidents Eduardo Duhalde and Nestor Kirchner.

Lino Baranao, the current minister of science and technology, will remain in his post.

“He has been carrying out a very valuable program of science and tech-nology,” Peña said. “For Mauricio [Mac-ri] it has been one of the most successful policies of Cristina’s  government.”

Baranao is the only member of out-going President Cristina Fernandez’s Cabinet to be appointed to Macri’s.

� e president-elect also named ministers from parties belonging to his Cambiemos front, including Oscar Aguad as communications minister, Ricardo Buryaile in agriculture and Julio Martinez in defense. � ey are from the Radical Civic Union party.

Rogelio Frigerio will be minister of the interior, while Union for All dep-uty Patricia Bullrich will be security minister.

Earlier, Macri announced that Su-sana Malcorra will be Argentina’s for-eign minister. Former Shell executive Juan Jose Aranguren will be minister of energy and mines.

� e appointments came after a meeting late Tuesday between Fernan-dez and Macri that left the president-elect expressing disappointment.

Macri said Fernandez was cordial but the talk “wasn’t worth it.” He said they only went over protocol for the December 10 inauguration ceremony.

Macri beat ruling party candidate Daniel Scioli in a presidential runo� on Sunday, ending 12 years of domi-nance by Fernandez and her late husband and predecessor in o� ce Nestor Kirchner.

Macri has said he will tackle Argen-tina’s economic woes, including plung-ing foreign reserves, high govern-ment spending and soaring in� ation. He has also vowed to lift unpopular restrictions on buying US dollars. AP

Argentina’s president-elect Argentina’s president-elect Argentina’s

announces diverse Cabinet

WASHINGTON—Former President Bill Clinton is going on a fund-raising swing reminiscent of his

presidential campaigns of the 1990s. But this time he’s doing it for his wife.

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign has scheduled more than a doz-en December events featuring the former president as her team prepares for an end-of-year � nance deadline ahead of the � rst contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The fund-raising blitz, Bill Clinton’s most aggressive stretch of the year, shows how Hillary Clinton’s campaign can mul-tiply her money largesse with the help of her husband, one of the Democratic Party’s most proli� c rainmakers. Working together, the couple will hold at least � ve fund-raising events on some single days in December.

After staying behind the scenes for much of the year, Bill Clinton has slowly be-gun taking a larger public role in the cam-paign. And it isn’t just with fund-raising. He

introduced pop singer Katy Perry at a con-cert before the Iowa Democratic Party’s Je� erson-Jackson dinner last month and appeared with his wife at a party barbecue in Ames, Iowa, last week.

“No one knows her better than him and no one knows the process better, so it’s a natural � t,” said Ira Lees� eld, a Miami at-torney and longtime Clinton donor. “It’s like Derek Jeter taking the � eld when he was 38.”

The fund-raising push comes as Ver-mont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clin-ton’s main Democratic challenger, makes campaign � nance reform a central part of his message. Hillary Clinton’s ties to Wall Street and � nancial industry donors will in-� uence her agenda, Sanders has said.

Bill Clinton kicks o� December with fundraisers in Seattle, Los Angeles, the Phoenix area and in Laredo, Texas, where he will join with Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas congressman who represents the state’s Rio Grande Valley.

The former president then raises

money on December 7 in Rhode Island with the state’s Democratic governor, Gina Raimondo, and Rhode Island’s congres-sional delegation. He headlines events in North Carolina later that same day.

Later that week, the couple will show how they can spread their fund-raising clout around the country. On December 10 Hillary Clinton raises money in New York City while her husband meets with donors in Pennsylvania with stops in Pittsburgh, Bethlehem and Scranton.

The next day, the former secretary of state will fund-raise in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Saint Louis, while her husband ap-pears at events in the Chicago area and Munster, Indiana.

In mid-December, the ex-president will raise money in Washington, D.C., including an event at the home of long-time Democratic powerbrokers Vernon and Ann Jordan. He will travel to Rich-mond later that day for a fund-raiser with Virginia Gov. Terry McAuli� e, a friend

and fundraiser for the Clintons.The Clintons will head into the holidays

with a New York City dinner concert with musician Sting on December 17. The event will bene� t a new joint fundrais-ing committee called the Hillary Victory Fund and will range from $33,400 per person to $100,000 for couples who serve as event chairs.

David Brock, a Clinton supporter who runs several progressive groups aiding her candidacy, said Bill Clinton is a “gifted ora-tor who has the ability to move people.”

Brock recalled how in the spring of 2013 the former president spoke at a do-nor conference for two of his projects, American Bridge 21st Century and Media Matters. It was no standard stump speech, Brock said. “Rather, o� the cu� , he wove an intricate tapestry for probably 45 minutes about the history of news and its relation to democracy,” he said.

The 150 donors in the New York hotel ballroom were “in a trance,” Brock said. AP

BILL CLINTON ON TRAIL TO RAISE FUNDS FOR WIFE’S CAMPAIGN

NEW YORK—For a short time on Monday afternoon, the Christmas manger at a New

York City church might’ve been able to pass for the real thing: A newborn baby, with the umbilical cord still at-tached, was abandoned there. Now, New York City police are searching for whoever left the child.

It was around 11:30 a.m. on Mon-day when a custodian at the Holy Child of Jesus Church in the Rich-mond Hill section of Queens left the empty chapel to get lunch. When he returned shortly after 1 p.m., he heard a baby crying, but saw no one else around.

� at’s when, New York City police said, the custodian turned to a nativ-ity scene in the front of the church and saw a newborn baby wrapped in towels laying in the manger. Church pastor Christopher Heanue wrote on the church’s Facebook page that the baby was a boy and weighed a little more than 2.25 kilograms.

Emergency crews brought the newborn to a local hospital, where he was in good health, police said.

New York has a so-called safe haven law that says a newborn can be dropped o� anonymously at a church, hospital, police or � re sta-tion without fear of prosecution. But the law, known as the Aban-doned Infant Protection Act, re-quires that the child be left with someone or for authorities to be called immediately.

Police said that didn’t happen in this case, which has led investigators

to begin searching for the person who dropped the child at the church.

O� cers were canvassing the neighborhood around the church on Tuesday, looking for surveillance cameras that might have recorded something police can use. Authori-ties said they were also questioning witnesses to try to track down the baby’s mother.

“Let us pray for this child,” He-anue wrote, “for his parents and for whomever will receive him into their home.” AP

 Newborn left in Christmas nativity manger at church

AN unidenti� ed woman holds an abandoned baby at the Holy Child of Jesus Church nativity manger in the Richmond Hill section of Queens, New York. New York has a so-called safe haven law that says a newborn can be dropped o� anonymously at a church, hospital, police or � re station without fear of prosecution. PAUL CERNI VIA AP

CHICAGO—Small groups of demon-strators gathered again on Wednes-day in Chicago to protest the death

of a black teen shot by a white police of-� cer, an incident captured on squad-car video that President Barack Obama called “deeply disturbing.”

About two dozen protesters gathered outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Hall o� ce on the day after authorities released a graphic squad-car video showing the o� -cer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times.

The o� cer, Jason Van Dyke, was

charged with � rst-degree murder.The group held banners showing pho-

tos of other black people fatally shot by po-lice in Chicago and elsewhere. Several pro-testers said they were parents of black men who were killed by Chicago o� cers.

“You cannot kill our children and expect us to be quiet any longer,” protester Quova-dis Green said. “It is unacceptable.”

A number of police killings of black men over the past year have given rise to the nationwide “Black Lives Matter” movement, pushing the issue to prominence in the midst of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Obama said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that he is asking Americans to “keep those who’ve su� ered tragic loss in our thoughts and prayers” this Thanksgiv-ing “and to be thankful for the overwhelm-ing majority of men and women in uniform who protect our communities with honor.”

Obama said he is personally grateful to the people of his hometown—Chicago—for keeping protests peaceful.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton weighed in on Wednesday, saying McDonald’s family and Chicago resi-dents “deserve justice and accountability.”

Clinton, who made the comments on Wednesday in an e-mailed statement, add-ed that police o� cers across the country are doing their duty honorably “without resort-ing to unnecessary force.”

One of Clinton’s rivals, Sen. Bernie Sand-ers, said in his own statement that all Ameri-cans “should be sickened” by the video.

Activist Mark Carter called on people to “rise up” and shut down the Magni� cent Mile shopping area on Friday—the day af-ter the Thanksgiving holiday when shop-pers traditionally � ock to stores to take ad-vantage of discounts. AP

Protesters to target Chicago shopping area on Black Friday

IMMIGRANTS, including children, who entered the IMMIGRANTS, including children, who entered the IMMIGRANTS,US illegally stand in line for tickets at the bus station after they were released from a US Customs and Border Protection processing facility in McAllen, Texas. AP/ERIC GAY

ADELE RETURNS TO EXPLAIN THE BIG EMOTIONS OF YOUR LIFE

THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN CROSS U.S.-MEXICO BORDER

WORLD B32

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PHL: CHINAVIOLATIONSFLAGRANT,PERSISTENT

Senate OKs budget bill, sets stage for bicam

FINANCIAL LITERACY High-school students from 35 schools nationwide visited the Philippine Stock Exchange. The Philippine National Bank and ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya Foundation Inc. recently launched a joint program on financial literacy entitled “Young and Empowered Students for the Philippines.” It aims to instill in the youth the value of saving, correct spending and investing. NONIE REYES

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THE Senate, voting 14-1, on Thursday rushed the approval of the Palace-pro-

posed P3.002-trillion 2016 budget bill, setting the stage for bicameral negotiations with the House of Rep-resentatives to quickly hammer out a reconciled version of the money measure that President Aquino expects to sign into law before the year-end.

The awaited Senate approval on third and final reading came after senators ended three session

days of marathon deliberations to meet its schedule to convene the bicameral panel and reconcile con-flicting provisions in Senate and House versions of the budget bill by next weekend. Only Sen. Aquilino Pimen-tel III opposed the passage of the budget bill.

Senate President Franklin M. Drilon confirmed that lawmakers sitting in the bicameral panel will strive to report out a final version by  December 4.  Malacañang remains hope-ful there would be no last-minute

hitches that could derail the agreed schedule of final approval of the 2016 budget to preserve the administra-tion’s record of not operating on last year’s reenacted budget since it took power in 2010. Among the biggest allocations in the proposed budget submitted to Congress were: P411.4 billion for the Department of Education; P378.3 billion for the Department of Public Works and Highways; P124.2 billion for the Department of Health; P123.6 billion for the Department of the Interior and Local Government; P115.8 billion

for the Department of National Defense; P109 billion for the De-partment of Social Welfare and Development; P47.8 billion for the Department of Agriculture; P43.4 billion for the Department of Transportation and Commu-nications; P33.3 billion for state universities and colleges; P28.4 billion for the Autonomous Re-gion in Muslim Mindanao; P25.8 billion for the Judiciary; P22.8 billion for the Department of En-vironment and Natural Resources; P20 billion for the Department of

COURT STENOGRAPHERS' ASSO. 3RD CONGRESS Citystate Tower President D. Edgard A. Cabangon (second from right) receives the plaque of appreciation from Belinda G. Go (from left), national president of Court Stenographers Association of the Philippines; Executive Judge Glenda R. Mendoza-Ramos of the Metropolitan Trial Court , Manila; and Laura C. Velasco, president of the National Capital Judicial Region, during the Third Congress of the Court Stenographers Association of the Philippines, National Capital Region, held at Citystate Tower Hotel, Ermita, Manila. NONOY LACZA

national elections [which is also known to boost consumption spending],” said Balisacan, also the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) director general.

However, other economists are not that optimistic. University of Asia and the Pacific School of Economics Dean Cid Terosa and University of the Philip-pines School of Economics Prof. Ernesto Pernia agree that the most the economy can grow is 6.5 percent in the October-to-December period.

This, Pernia said, will result in an aver-age full-year growth of 5.8 percent.

“The volatile situation in the Middle East and Europe is a looming risk. Also, the expected drought can pull down growth rate,” Terosa said.

Pernia said other risks include the coun-try’s weak exports to China and Europe, as well as the slowdown in remittances due to the strong dollar.

Ateneo de Manila University’s Eagle-Watch economist Alvin Ang said they also do not expect the fourth-quarter growth to reach 6.9 percent, as estimated by Balisacan. Ang said they expect growth to reach 5.8 percent in the fourth quarter, and 6.9 percent was the high-end of their fore-cast. Ang added that a growth of 6.9 per-cent, however, was still achievable given the circumstances. “Our target was 5.8 percent, [and] 6.9 percent is on the high side for the fourth quarter, but achievable. Our fourth-quarter target is about 6.5 percent, bringing full-year growth to 6 percent to 6.2 percent. [We see the] same risks and drivers with the Neda. [The] only difference [is the] magni-tude,” Ang explained. Risks to the government’s outlook, particularly next year, include the pro-longed dry spell and the impending change in administration. Balisacan said that, while the farm sector has already suffered as a result of the prolonged dry spell, growth next

year, particularly in the first semester, is expected to also be slow. Balisacan also said the change in admin-istration will likely affect investor confi-dence and, thus, be a risk to the country’s growth next year. “Some risks still remain that may impede our growth potential. One is the still lingering effects of El Niño on the economy, especially for agriculture. The government has been taking measures to mitigate the impact, particularly on food security and potable water supply,” Balisacan said. “Another risk would be the uncertainties that are naturally brought by an impend-ing change of leadership with next year’s national elections. We need to remain focused on ensuring that the economy is on the right path as political changes take place,” he added.

Q3 performanceIN the third quarter of 2015, the Philip-pine Statistics Authority reported that the economy posted a growth of 6 percent. This was due to the robust growth of the services sector on the production side and increase in government spending on the expenditure side. “The GDP turnout confirms that the economy doesn’t really need further mon-etery stimulus at the moment. But we are mindful of risks from natural disas-ters and global developments, including slower than expected growth among our trading partners. Further, inflation is seen to have bottomed last month. As such, we believe monetary settings continue  to be appropriate for now.  In addition to risks already mentioned, we monitor commodity price developments,” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando M. Tetangco said. The services sector—which includes trade, financial and private services or business-process outsourcing—grew 7.3 percent in the third quarter of 2015. This was the highest growth the sector recorded since the 7.4 percent it registered in the third quarter of 2013.

On the expenditure side, Government Final Consumption Expenditure posted the highest growth of 17.4 percent, followed by the export of services at 11.6 percent. However, in terms contribution to GDP, Household Final Consumption still accounted for the largest chunk at 4.3 percentage points. “Strong domestic demand fueled output growth, led by sig-nificant improvements in government spending and household consumption,” Balisacan said. “For the nine-month [period], the average government final consumption expenditure has already reached 7.2 per-cent, a lofty leap from last year’s contrac-tion of 0.2 for the same period, and a 2014 full-year rate of 1.7 percent. This simply shows that the government is proving successful in its efforts to overcome the spending bottlenecks that ham-pered growth in the first semester,” he explained.

Balisacan said the third-quarter data showed that the Philippines remained one of the fastest-growing major Asian economies. The country’s GDP growth was the third fastest after China’s 6.9 percent and Vietnam’s 6.8 percent. The third - quarter data of the performance of India, another fast-growing Asian economy, was still unavailable at this time. Malacañang said  the growth for third quarter validated the thrust of reforms and proved that the economic  fundamentals set by the Aquino administration are strong.“From being the Sick Man of Asia, the Philippines is now seen as a key emerg-ing economy, brimming with opportuni-ties for Filipinos and foreign investors alike,” said Secretary Edwin Lacierda, the Palace spokesman.           According to Lacierda, President Aquino, from the beginning, “placed an emphasis not just on growth but also on inclusivity.This is why we have focused on meaning-fully investing in our country’s greatest re-source, the Filipino people, and also why we have sought to partner with our neighbors toward a more robust and resilient regional economy.” With Butch Fernandez, Bianca Cuaresma

BusinessMirror [email protected] Friday, November 27, 2015 A2

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6% full-year growth doable as strong 2015 finish seen

In the same hearing, Valte said counsel Lawrence Martin took to the podium to argue that based on the Mandarin, Spanish and English transla-tions of Article 121, features that are classified as rocks “cannot have maritime entitlements despite China’s construction.” “Martin also stressed that, under Unclos for a feature to be considered an island, it must be capable of sustaining human habitation and eco-nomic life,” the Palace official noted. Valte reported that during the afternoon session, Reichler returned to the floor to prove before the Tribunal that no civilian settlements were ever established on the features in the Spratlys, arguing that there can only be one reason why this is the case, as the features themselves are “not capable of sustaining human habitation.” She said Sands, likewise, discussed China’s interference with the Philippines’s exercise of sov-ereign rights under the Unclos with respect to liv-ing and nonliving resources in the exclusive EEZ. Sands cited several incidents involving service contracts given by the Department of Energy, wherein the private companies were prevented from doing exploration. In addition, the fishing ban mandated by

China’s Ministry of Agriculture covering areas in the Philippines’s EEZ was also discussed. Sands also complained to the Tribunal that China’s violations are “flagrant and persistent,” and they continue today, Valte said. Martin, in his turn, presented various testi-monies of Filipino fishermen to prove China’s interference in the traditional fishing activities of Filipino fishermen around the South China Sea, particularly in Bajo de Masinloc or Scarborough Shoal. A map from 1784 was presented to prove that Bajo de Masinloc has always been part of the Philippines. Valte reported that Loewenstein closed the afternoon session by presenting satellite images of various installations constructed by China on Mischief Reef, among others. She added that a video simulation was also shown to the Tribunal to demonstrate how a cutter suction dredger destroys the sea bed and trans-fers sand to a preselected area, a machine used by China in its construction activities. The Palace official said Loewenstein further argued that by engaging in these activities, China has clearly “violated the sovereign rights of the Philippines with regard to living and nonliving resources in its EEZ and continental shelf.”

B R A

EIGHT members of a local ter-rorist group affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) were killed on

Thursday in a firefight with Marines in Sultan Kudarat. Major Filemon Tan Jr., spokesman of the Armed Forces Western Mindanao Com-mand, said the suspects were members of the Ansar al Khalifa, a terror cell affiliated with the IS that operates in Syria and Iraq. The group is named after its living founder, Ansar al Khalifa, and was formed in Sarangani. Tan said Marine elements encoun-tered members of the terrorist group at around 5:40 a.m. at Sitio Sinapingan, Barangay Butril, Palembang, Sultan Kudarat. During the clearing operations, the soldiers recovered the bodies of the dead terrorists, including that of an Indonesian identified as Abdul Fatah. Fatah, the Indonesian government said, was a jihadist and a member of the regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). The troops also recovered a Barrette Cal.50 sniper rifle, an M-16 rifle, a .45 cali-ber pistol, ICOM radios and five pieces of IS flag. Earlier, reports said that at least three Syrian nationals, who are members of the IS, have slipped into the country and joined the Khalifa group. The three Syrians were last seen in Central Mindanao along with Indonesian Amin Bako, a notorious bomber and a member of the JI. Bako escaped from the operations of the Special Action Force in Maguindanao in January this year wherein 44 police commandos were killed. During the operations, the policemen killed Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, also an Indonesian terrorist and bomber, and a ranking member of the JI.

Marines kill8 suspectedmembers ofterror cell

BusinessMirror Special Featurewww.businessmirror.com.ph Friday, November 27, 2015 A3

South Korea to help NTC police telcosB L S. M

THE government of South Korea is ex-pected to extend in the next two years an additional $8 million in grant to the

National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to create an interference-free radio envi-ronment by enhancing the institutional capac-ity of the regulator in managing the spectrums.

The amount is on top of Korea Inter-national Cooperation Agency’s (Koica) $4-million aid that the NTC got this year for the establishment of a radio-frequency monitoring and direction-finding system in Metro Manila.

“The P200 million worth of equipment gives us the power to monitor illegal frequen-cies. It allows us to detect and monitor the ex-act location of telcos and broadcast companies that use frequencies above their allocation, thereby congesting the system,” NTC Deputy Commissioner Delilah F. Deles said in an in-terview on Thursday.

South Korean envoy to the Philippines, Ambassador Kim Jae-shin, Koica Country Director Min-hyeon Song, and Central Radio Management Office Director General Dong-hyeong Lee led the formal turnover ceremo-nies of one central monitoring center, three fixed monitoring stations and provision of one mobile monitoring station and one por-table monitoring equipment.

“This one is for Metro Manila alone. Our next target is to roll this technology out in the Visayas and Mindanao, which will re-quire another P400 million each. We will be requesting for this once we’ve proven that the technology is successful for Metro Ma-nila,” Deles said.

The deployment of the new technology will mean “more revenues from the government.”

When a telco or a broadcast company was proven to have been using frequencies beyond its allocation, Deles said, the regulator may impose a fine that ranges from P100,000 to a million pesos.

“Right now, we don’t have much data on the illegal utilization of frequencies, as we only do it manually in the past. But if com-panies are proven to do this, they will be pe-nalized,” she said.

The Philippines is the second-largest re-cipient of aid from Koica, with over $21.8 million in pledges, comprising of 4.6 percent of the total budget of Koica through 2017.

[email protected] Friday, November 27, 2015 •Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de LeonA4 BusinessMirrorEconomy

SUPREME Court Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno announced on Thursday before a gathering of court stenographers that 20

percent of the total collection of judicial regions in legal fees shall go to the respective judicial region’s budget to upgrade facilities.

At the third Congress of the Court Stenog-raphers Association of the Philippines, held at the Citystate Tower Hotel in Manila, Sereno an-nounced the approval by the Supreme Court to give a portion of collected legal fees directly to the corresponding judicial region that collected it instead of the previous practice of pooling the legal fees and apportioning funds from out of the Judicial Development Fund.

“Since it is the National Capital Judicial Region which collects the biggest amount of legal fees, it is only appropriate that a portion

of that collection go directly to that region for upgrading the court facilities,” Sereno said in her speech.

Sereno added that the upgrading of court facilities, such as personal computers and steno-type machines used for recording court pro-ceedings, will allow stenographers to achieve a work-life balance, and will now allow them to comply with the mandated period to produce the transcript of stenographic notes within 20 days from the date of the hearing.

The measure to directly give a portion of the legal fees to the judicial region which collected it is part of the judicial reforms to modernize the Judiciary. Currently, there are pilot courts in Quezon City wherein continuous trials are held to expedite the resolution of cases and prevent long-drawn litigation brought about

by various causes like cancellation of hear-ings due to absences by either the judge, the lawyers or the parties.

Sereno also appealed to the Judiciary to help in plugging the loopholes in leakages in the collection of legal fees so that these new revenues could be used by the Judiciary to im-prove the compensation package of employees.

Citystate Tower Hotel President Dominic Ed-gard A. Cabangon said in his opening speech for the conference, which will run until today (Friday) at the Citystate Tower Hotel, that court stenographers play a vital role in the adminis-tration of justice in the country.

“Your patience and competence are required in making sure that Filipinos who come to the courts are treated fairly and judiciously,” Caban-gon said. David Cagahastian

Judicial regions to get 20% of legal fees–Chief Justice

THE leadership of the House of Repre-sentatives has rejected the proposal of a lawmaker to amend the proposed

2015 Salary Standardization Law (SSL).Majority Leader and Liberal Party Rep.

Neptali Gonzales II of the lone District of Mandaluyong said the proposal of Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio of ACT Teachers to increase the salaries for the bulk of govern-ment employees “will kill the SSL 2015.”

“It’s easier said than done. We have to be realistic what was provided for under the budget. At this point, it’s hard to make any adjustment to SSL 2015. His [Tinio] proposal

will effectively kill the bill,” the majority leader said in a recent interview. 

Earlier, Tinio urged the House of Repre-sentatives to reconsider its approval on sec-ond reading of the SSL 2015, or House Bill 6268, and admit his proposal to increase the salaries for the bulk of lower-rank employees.  

The bill is calendared for third and final reading by the Lower House starting last Monday. “The House approved SSL 2015 without changing even slightly the paltry hikes proposed by Malacañang for the vast majority of those working in government,” Tinio said.

“After three years of not having salary increases, hundreds of thousands of rank-and-file government employees are furious that Congress gave its stamp of approval to this highly unjust bill,” he said.

In his debates against the bill, Tinio said SSL 2015 will increase the basic salaries of teachers and nurses by a measly P2,205 over four years, or 11.89 percent higher than their current pay (entry-level, Salary Grade 11, from P18,549 to P20,754).  This amounts to additional finances of only P24 per day for these professionals.

Jovee Marie N. de la Cruz 

House leaders reject proposal to amend SSL 2015

[email protected] Friday, November 27, 2015 A5BusinessMirrorEconomy

SEN. Miriam Defensor Santiago warned that the “bloated” national budget of P3.002 trillion for 2016 contains several lump-sum appropriations that are

prone to being unlawfully realigned for election purposes.Santiago said that, in the proposed 2016 budget, there

still remains a total of P166.3 billion in lump-sum items that are akin to the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), which was earlier declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (SC).

Aside from the PDAF-like items in the proposed 2016 budget, the appropriatations bill also contains a definition of savings, which is not in accordance with the SC’s decision on how and when savings can be declared by the President to augment the budget of agencies under him.

Under the proposed 2016 budget’s special provisions, heads of agencies in the Executive branch are being autho-rized to modify and realign programs, activities and proj-ects as may be authorized by Congress under the General Appropriations Act.

But Santiago said these special provisions violate the Constitution’s mandate that only specific officials can “aug-ment any item in the budget of their respective offices from savings in other items of their respective appropriations.”

These officials are enumerated exclusively by Article 6, Section 25 (5) of the Constitution as the following: the President; the Senate President; the Speaker of the House of Representatives; the Chief Justice; and the heads of the constitutional commissions.

However, under the proposed 2016 national budget, ex-ecutive officials are sought to be authorized to declare sav-ings and realign these whenever there is a discontinuance or noncommencement of a project, or when there is a difference between the approved budget and the contract award price.

Santiago said these questionable PDAF-like items in the 2016 budget, along with the new definition of savings, can easily turn into a political war chest for administration can-didates. “Decisions about fund transfers in the guise of ‘sav-ings’ are not necessarily for public purposes but for election-related objectives,” she added. David Cagahastian

Santiago:Administrationcan use part of proposed budget as campaign kitty

B M. S F. A | Special to the BusinessMirror

AN impressive array of world-class international chefs and culinary experts are expected

to attend the second run of Madrid Fusión Manila (MFM), which will be held from April 7 to 9, 2016, at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

Preparations under way for Manila’s largest gastronomy event in 2016

At the signing of the memoran-dum of understanding (MOU) be-tween the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (Icex) on Thursday at the Crimson Hotel in Alabang, Tour-ism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr. announced the initial batch of chef presenters, which includes Joan Roca of El Cellar de Can Roca Restaurant in Catalonia, Spain (3 Michelin stars, No. 1 and one of the world’s 50 best restaurants); Yoshihiro Narisawa of Les Creations de Narisawa Restaurant in Tokyo, Japan (2 Michelin stars, No. 2 and Asia’s 50 best restaurants); Dani Garcia of Bibo Andalussian Brasserie

and Tapas in Malaga, Spain (2 Mi-chelin stars); and Virgilio Martinez of Central Restaurante in Lima, Peru (1 Michelin star, No. 1 with distinc-tion as one of the world’s and Latin America’s 50 best restaurants).

“Taking off from MFM 2015’s suc-cess, next year’s edition of Madrid Fusión Manila aims to gather a larger crowd of foreign chefs, culinary ex-perts and delegates. Madrid Fusión is the single, most important conference for gastronomy in the 21st century, where everyone goes to see the future of food,” he said.

“We envision for the Philippines’s hosting to be sustained year-on-year, as we aim to establish the country as

a center of culinary excellence in the region. MFM will also be one of the highlight events as we celebrate Visit the Philippines Again 2016,” he added. Last year Jimenez said he was hop-ing that the MFM would be held annually for at least five years.

Spain’s State Secretary for Trade Jaime Gar-cia-Legaz signed the MOU on behalf of Icex.

The theme of MFM 2016 will be “The Ma-nila Galleon: East meets West,” in celebration of the 450th anniversary of the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade that linked Asia with the west-ern world via Mexico. Celebrated Filipino chefs will also be participating in next year’s event, the list of which is currently being finalized.

MFM 2016 will once again have three simul-taneous events: the International Gastronomy Congress, Trade Exhibit and Flavors of the Phil-ippines. A notable roster of Michelin-starred Spanish chefs and distinguished Asian and Filipino chefs will demonstrate modern and avant-garde techniques at the congress.

A total of 22 countries and 88 exhibiting companies, which set up 175 exhibit booths, participated in last year’s MFM. There were more than 6,000 trade visitors and 1,381 congress participants. The International Gas-tronomy Congress featured 10 Michelin-star Spanish and Asian chefs, and 10 of the most respected chefs in the Philippines.

The conference consisted of presentations on distinct menus and food preparation. Tradi-tional techniques and culinary practices were rediscovered and made modern and new; inter-esting and unusual ingredients were revealed

and explored; and the latest innovations and trends in the global gourmet scene were dis-cussed and shared.

The trade exhibit brought together interna-tional and national food and beverage compa-nies, which showcased their products, equip-ment and technology to over 6,000 trade buy-ers and decision-makers from many countries. There were food tastings and seminars, a wine tunnel, culinary presentations and destination lifestyle stands.

A monthlong cultural and gastronomic feast, dubbed The Flavors of the Philippines Festival, was held in conjunction with MFM 2015, and featured food tours and tastings, gourmet meals by celebrity chefs in restaurants, roving food trucks and bar crawls, among oth-ers, in many parts of the country.

Registration for the MFM 2016 Internation-al Gastronomy Congress is currently open with regular rates at $450 (P20,000), group rates with minimum of 20 persons at $290 (P13,000), as well as an early-bird rate until January 15 at $320 (P14,000). Students are entitled to dis-counted rates of $410 (P18,000), group rates (minimum of 20 persons) of $245 (P11,000) and an early-bird rate of $320 (P14,000).

There is also the Special 5+1 Group Rate, where one complimentary delegate pass is given for five registered delegates under the early-bird rate applicable on or before January 15, 2016, or under the regular rate for Janu-ary 16 onward.

Those interested to participated are encour-aged to go to www.madridfusionmanila.com.

Friday, November 27, 2015 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

OpinionBusinessMirrorA6

The Philippines’s buying spree

editorial

THE 6-percent year-on-year GDP growth for the third quarter of 2015 was below expectations. It is boring to hear the government’s excuses why its spending did not reach projections. It is

equally boring to hear the pundits talk about how the Philippine economy is consumer-based.

Here is “flash news” for some of the experts—all economies are consumer- based. All you need to do to verify that is to look at Japan.

The Japanese economy has been dead for at least two decades. However, for 30 years beginning in 1960, economic growth averaged 6 percent. In the 20 years from 1960 to 1980, growth averaged an astounding 14 percent each year. In the last 20 years, Japanese economic growth posted an average growth of less than 2 percent.

How could a nation with that amount of economic growth be the “basket” case of the industrialized world? Simple. From 1962 through 1997, the aver-age Japanese household saved—not spent—no less than 15 percent of their income. Personal savings in Japan averaged 11.61 percent from 1970 until 2015, reaching an all time high of 48.30 percent in December of 1997.

Since 1980 the Japanese economy increased in size by 400 percent. The amount of Japanese consumer spending increased by only 100 percent. No matter how much “income” an economy makes through exports, remittances, outsourcing, or whatever, that income does not translate into genuine personal economic growth if the income is not spent. Thinking that government spend-ing can be the magic bullet for an economy is false also. Japanese government spending nearly tripled even as economic growth all but stopped.

The Philippines’s economic growth in the last decade has been fueled by consumer spending, which has created long-term investment. Philippine house-hold consumption equaled 72 percent of GDP last year and too many view this as a negative. Thailand’s household consumption was only 53 percent of GDP, not far behind Indonesia’s 57 percent and Vietnam’s 64 percent. Which of the four countries had the best economic growth? The Philippines, of course.

The Philippines has emerged as the best retail performer in Southeast Asia with industry growth of 6 percent in 2014, the highest among our regional neighbors. And the Wall Street Journal says, “The only performance based on solid growth in both volume and value terms.”

Here are more interesting numbers. From 2012 to mid-2015, the number of supermarkets grew 53 percent. The number of convenience stores rose 60 percent. The stores and malls create jobs.

Of course, the Philippines is not manufacturing supercomputers, aircraft carriers, or even all the clothes we wear. That is certainly not an ideal eco-nomic situation and we need to work diligently on increasing our manufac-turing base for all goods, both consumer and industrial. But for now, we need to keep cash-based consumer spending growing until we can reach for more industrialization.

I WAS asked recently what role I thought the youth ought to play in elections. Like most everyone else, the first thing that came to mind was the number of young people being projected to vote

in 2016. But then I realized that reducing to a statistic like that, no matter how impressive those stats are, was doing the youth a great disservice.

Elevate elections

Without even thinking too long about it, I can easily identify at least three ways that the youth can signifi-cantly participate in public elections.

The youth as think tankIF candidates only considered elections as a real job-application process, they would probably be more inclined to pres-ent actual ideas and workable plans for the government and governance. And if they were so inclined, then the best possible thing they could do is to turn to the youth for ideas.

The youth, after all, benefit from sitting at the intersection of three very important and influential forces: the bleeding edge of information and communications technology, which exposes them to the currents of the world and facilitates the way they share their thoughts—thereby sharpening them—with their peers; the innate

inquisitiveness of the young; and the relative freedom of the youthful mind from the preconceived notions of their elders, of what’s possible or not.

When they are able to effectively harness the power of these three forces, the youth are more likely to identify the most relevant needs—hint: changing street names is not actually a need—of their communities; they are certainly the most likely to come up with innova-tive solutions—like water bottles as light sources—and they’re also going to be the best and most hardworking advocates of their vision, simply because the youth are generally just not willing to accept the word “impossible” in their vocabularies, even if it means having to prove that you can call forth light from saltwater.

The youth as engines of changeAPART from being a supremely viable wellspring of good ideas, the youth are

blessed with so much zeal and vigor that carry within them the potential to change the world.

Like Ditto Sarmiento said: “Kung hindi tayo kikilos, sino ang kikilos? Kung di tayo kikibo, sino ang kikibo? Kung hindi ngayon, kailan pa?” This exhorta-tion speaks of the youth as engines of change, and it does so with excellent reason. The young, for all their angst, intuitively understand that the world around them is still not as perfect as it could be, and that it can be better. The angst, and the apathy, that the youth are so often accused of, only stems from their frustration that the world isn’t better. But out of that frustration can come determined efforts to effect the improvements they think their elders should have accomplished.

To be honest, I can’t blame them. Get-ting older sometimes also means having to settle for the way things are, allowing change to happen only at a very glacial pace. Which is why it is doubly important for the youth to be recruited to the cause of meaningful change, while they have not yet had the fires of their idealism ex-tinguished. Who else can have the deter-mination to turn a kariton into a library?

The youth as advocatesWITH the emergence of social media as the veritable lingua franca of the world, the youth of today have found—and owned—their voice. Just recently, Oxford named the “face with tears of joy” emoji as the word of the year. And it’s not even a real word! But, as Oxford

explained it, the emoji “was chosen as the ‘word’ that best reflected the ethos, mood and preoccupations of 2015.” This reasoning reflects the truth that social media is booming, and is assuming a preeminent position as a communica-tion tool that can be used to spread any message far and wide, whether it be that it’s AlDub’s 19th weeksary or that vot-ers should not sell their votes.

That sort of power used to be the exclusive domain of the mainstream media, but not anymore. Today, anyone with a Twitter account can set the wheels of public discourse going. More than that, though, the availability of all these com-munication tools means that the youth can actually educate each other.

Studies have shown repeatedly that the younger generations are increas-ingly turning to each other for informa-tion, often trusting the Facebook posts of friends more implicitly than, say, a story from a newspaper, or an analysis from an expert, or a teacher’s opinion. In other words, if someone tells a friend that not voting is a loser thing to do, that friend is more likely to believe him than me, if I told him the same thing.

I could go on, but then all I’d be doing is restating the obvious: any campaign that treats the youth as just another vote-rich demographic will be missing out on the many other ways young people can elevate elections.

James Arthur B. Jimenez is director of the Commission on Elections’s Education and Information Department.

SPOXJames Jimenez

Friday, November 27, 2015

[email protected]

ANNOTATIONSTito Genova Valiente

‘SI Putong ba ’yang kasama mo, Sir [Is that Putong with you]?”It was a question coming from a Facebook account. As

happens, there was no name and the photo was not of a person. Before even finding out who was asking, I said yes.

The legend of Putong

Want to get richer? Accept refugees

I then looked into the photos and other details of the Facebook account and found that the person asking was Enan, the former caretaker of the house that used to be my office when I was managing a developmen-tal non-governmental organization.

Enan was talking about the dog in my profile picture. The dog has huge ears that were standing up. He was not at all anxious. I was. His eyes were shaded by black hair that gave him that charming, quizzical look. He certainly looked very cozy in my arms.

Putong was a security guard dog. He was not big. Even after a few months, he remained a medium-sized dog, but with a voice that was loud.

How he came to the office was an odd story. The office, for some rea-son, could not have a security guard. I do not remember now what the is-sue was all about.

One day Enan said he would bring

a dog to accompany him when he stayed overnight in the office. He reported, one day, to the office with a small dog. I took to liking the small dog because he immediately nudged my hand with his mouth without licking it.

The next concern was naming the dog. I do not know how the dog came to be called Putong. We just thought the name fit him. For some reason, he looked like a dog who was a Putong. He was the soundof that name, no crackling conso-nant, no mushy tenderness in the vowels. It was just the right name, not too street-wise but not too do-mesticated cute either. The name sounded as if Putong was more of a boy than a dog. A thinking dog with lots of sense of humor.

Everybody in the office loved Put-ong and everybody liked his name, except for one. I did not know that this young female social worker had trauma with a dog. She was scared

of dogs and the first time Putong, tiny as he was then, came near her, she kicked the dog. Her foot missed Putong by a few inches but the dog became aware that someone in the house, for the office was a house, did not like him. It became a pattern then that when everyone filed out to go home, Putong would growl at that one person. It was irritating for the young girl and it was irritating for me to see Putong growl. Show-ing his fangs as he growled made Putong ugly.

Dogs, I believe, do not know how to hate until we teach them to.

But Putong stayed on and became the guard dog.

Aside from Putong—his name and duty—there was another odd thing about the office: it was right across where I lived. This meant that when I came out of the compound where I lived, I look out to the gray gate of my office.

The organization I managed did not have its own office for awhile. It was then my first task to look for one. We were scouring the area and when it was taking such a long time already, I informed the board that there was one very near.

The problem, I had to tell them, was that it was just across my home. I was worried the staff would extend their office hours into my home, or that they would bring papers for me to sign when I was already home. When finally we chose to rent the place, I made it clear that no one at

all, emergency or not, should go to my home.

The policy of my home being dif-ferent from office affected the status of Putong: he could not be brought to my home.

Then one day, I and the organiza-tion began not to like each other. I resigned. I asked Enan to keep Put-ong. I held Putong for the last time and never again went near him. The problem was my home was just across. When I would go home late at night, Putong would bark upon seeing me. Putong also recognized the grating of the gate of the com-pound. He would bark until I slipped into home.

Each night, long after I had left the office, Putong would bark at the sound of the gate being opened to my home. Each night, I would try very hard not to make a noise as I slowly opened the gate to my home.

Putong one day went home with Enan. It was 2004.

Enan commented how I was lucky to have my photo of Putong still in-tact. He lost his many photos with Putong during Typhoon Ondoy.

Enan told me Putong died in 2008. I still live in the same compound

and the house that was once my of-fice is still there in front. Now, at night, I try hard not to make a noise as I open the gate to my home. I do not want to hear Putong barking and missing me.

E-mail: [email protected]

AS political debates about Syrian refugees rage on both sides of the Atlantic, initial assessments of their economic impact on receiving countries are coming in: The influx

is good for growth.

A new Bloomberg survey of econ-omists predicts that Germany, the biggest recipient of Syrian asylum seekers in the Western world, will get a 0.2-percent boost to its economic output next year if it takes in 800,000 refugees in 2015; that would be 12.5 percent of Germany’s expected 2016 growth. The estimate is in line with the European Union’s (EU) most re-cent economic forecasts, which pre-dict increases of 0.21 percent for the gross domestic product of the EU as a whole in 2016.

These numbers may seem small, especially given some of the hyper-bolic coverage of the “refugee crisis” in Europe. But then, in equivalent terms, the influx of asylum seekers is small, too. The 1.9 million refu-gees, who arrived in the EU between January 2012 and July 2015, have increased the bloc’s population by 0.37 percent. The European Com-mission predicts about 3 million will have arrived between the begin-ning of 2015 and the end of 2017, a tiny number next to the bloc’s total population of 508 million, although people in some neighborhoods where refugees are being accommodated will feel otherwise.

The expected growth will mainly come from government spending. The German government estimates it needs to spend about €12,000 ($12,700) per refugee per year. That money, however, is not going into a black hole: It stimulates do-mestic demand for goods and ser-vices. Economists have long been telling the German  government it shouldn’t be so tight-fisted, because the economy needed stimulus. Well, the refugees have melted Chancellor Angela Merkel’s heart and the stimu-lus is coming.

One could argue that this is unfair to locals: Why shouldn’t they, not some strangers, be at the receiving end of government largesse? As it is, local workers are at risk of being displaced by the refugees, and the governments are only facilitating this with taxpayer money.

The unpopular  answer is that locals are  not procreating fast enough. European economies need more workers to keep expanding as the population ages, so the smarter governments are, in effect, buy-ing immigrants to boost the work force. A more politically acceptable argument in favor of the refugees is that their arrival increases the demand for local skilled workers in the bureaucracy, social services and education. Integrating the newcom-ers is a job that no one, except locals, can take on. And more managers are needed as the work force increases, as it inevitably will. That’s why the positive effect on growth is expected to be higher in 2017.

A recent World Bank study of the Syrian refugees’ effect on the labor market in Turkey, which has accepted more than 2 million Syrians since 2011, registered this effect. “The refugees, who overwhelmingly do not have work permits, result in the large-scale displacement of infor-mal, low educated, female Turkish workers, especially in agriculture,” Ximena del Carpio and Mathis Wag-ner wrote. “While there is net dis-placement, the inflow of refugees also creates higher wage formal jobs allowing for occupational upgrad-ing of Turkish workers, while for women there is also an increase in school attendance.”

Another reason the refugees are generally good for growth is that some of them come with financial as-sets. Right-wing critics of permissive

immigration policies like to point out that some of the newcomers are well-dressed, equipped with modern smartphones and capable of paying human traffickers to bring them to Europe. That’s not all bad. In 2013 the Jordanian Investment Board said Syrians had invested $1 billion in the kingdom’s economy. In Turkey the estimate is $10 billion since 2011. Last year Syrians founded more than 1,100 companies there, 26 percent of all new foreign-owned firms.

Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan all have positive economic growth rates. They complain about the difficulties of dealing with millions of refugees, and their shaky welfare states are certainly under strain. Even so, the newcomers are a force for growth. In Jordan the economic activity rate of Syrians is higher than that of native Jordanians—48.5 percent vs. 36.5 percent. In Lebanon just the humani-tarian aid received by the Syrian refugees  boosted  GDP by 1.3 per-cent last year, almost compensating for the drop in tourism and exports caused by the war in the neighboring country, according to a study by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations’ refugee agency. 

There will be a temporary ad-justment in Europe. According to the EU’s forecast, per capita GDP in the bloc will drop by about 0.15 percent next year because of the in-flux, because for now the refugees will naturally contribute less as a group than the settled population. Europeans will notice the slight drop in living standards: Schools, clinics and police forces will, of necessity, be more strained than before. The labor market, too, will become more com-petitive at its lower end. But soon, as public services expand to cope and the new labor force generates more output, this will smooth out.

Unfortunately, after the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, any ar-gument in favor of accepting more refugees from the Middle East will struggle to be heard.

In Sweden which  has taken in more refugees as a proportion of the population than any other country in Europe, Deputy Prime Minister Asa Romson cried openly on Tues-day as she announced new curbs on immigration, including strict limits on family reunification and a short-ening of residence permits. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls wasn’t as compassionate as he declared, “We cannot accept any more refugees in Europe—it’s not possible.”

This public backlash against refugees will probably reduce the number of asylum applications. Yet, hundreds of thousands of people are already here and their effect on the host economies will be positive, the more so if integration policies are successful and the anti-refugee senti-ment wanes as the newcomers adapt. 

INSTEAD of the usual expensive whole-day affair, Philcoman Research Institute (PCMRI) will hold this year’s 40th National Management Congress with a simple dinner-award night for

the Outstanding Corporation of the Year Award, the Outstanding Management Leadership Award of the Year and the oath taking of new members.

Philcoman Research Institute to hold 40th National Management Congress 

PCMRI Congress Chairman Dr. Pedrito Salvador announced on Thursday at a news briefing at the Legaspi Function Room, Intercon Hotel, Makati City, where the affair will be held on December 10 at 6:30 p.m. with the attendance of impor-tant people from the government, academe and the private sector.

“We opted to hold a simple rite so that funds and other resources we can save can be channeled to research and further studies of important is-sues in politics, economics, sociology and national security,” Salvador said.

PCMRI is a federation of profes-sional and technological societies, management developments, institu-tions, academe, business enterprises and professional managers dedicated to the development of management and improvement of its practices in all aspects of the Philippine society.

The Outstanding Corporation Award goes to Mighty Corp., a wholly owned Filipino multibillion compa-ny operating for the past 70 years, chosen by the board of judges from

eight other nominees in recognition for its outstanding achievements in the fields of economics, finance, agriculture, business and industry;

E-commerce and information technology; strategic management and economy of scales; leadership and governance; adherence to na-tionalism and anti-monopolism; and

Social, cultural and religious ac-tivities that impacted on the country and the society.

The company, proud of its sense of ethics and as one of the country’s largest taxpayers, continuously in-spires the lives of about 293,000 fam-ilies and  employees, business  and trade partners in the adherence to its mission, vision and core values, and has been the secret on its success.

The other outstanding award-ees are:

Dr. Benjamin Sy Santos, national president of the Filipino Inventors Society, for his unselfish and intel-lectual contributions that impacted on the country and society, having successfully invented greenhouse

fixed and portable machines that refined and re-use, pollution-free; its particles turned into asphalt; and is patented here and in 76 other countries.

Dr. Nerza Rebustes for her unself-ish and intellectual contributions that impacted on the country and society in the fields of education, sociology, economics, customs, tar-iff and revenue taxations, research methodology and national security.

Dr. Emmanuel “Noli” T. Santos for his unselfish and intellectual contributions that impacted on the country and society in the fields of business and education, having es-tablished an institution of higher learning and for writing and pub-lishing books on constitutions, management, justice, business, his-tory and culture.

Dr. Cecilio T. Arillo for his unself-ish and intellectual contributions that impacted on the country and society, having written five best-selling books in the fields of edu-cation, research, history, politics, sociology, economics, investigative journalism and national security made and distributed worldwide by Amazon’s CreateSpace, USA, one of the world’s largest publish-ing houses.

Philcoman, PCMRI’s forerunner,

was founded in 1954 by 10 associa-tions and organized groups under the inspirational guidance of Dr. Lilian M. Gilbreth and Dr. Daniel M. Braum, (the latter is chief of the training branch, US Government’s General Services Administration), both of whom were on extended assignment in the Philippines to provide the in-spirational guidance. Dean Cesar H. Concio was the founder and the first Philcoman president serving until 1963.

Affiliated with the World Coun-cil of Management, Philcoman has chalked up a continuing series of achievements in its 61st year his-tory. In fulfillment of its mission to propagate the principles and practice of scientific management in the Asian region, Philcoman has hosted two international manage-ment congresses.

It’s vision is the recognized na-tionwide partnership of people and businesses inspiring outstanding leadership and cultivating highly pro-ductive workplaces while its mission is to conduct research in all aspects of management and provide man-agement and leadership development opportunities and related activities which meet the needs of members and contribute to the effectiveness of sponsoring organizations.

BLOOMBERG VIEWLeonid Bershidsky

European economies need more workers to keep expanding as the population ages, so the smarter governments are, in effect, buying immigrants to boost the work force. A more politically acceptable argument in favor of the refugees is that their arrival increases the demand for local skilled workers in the bureaucracy, social services and education. Integrating the newcomers is a job that no one except locals can take on.

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www.businessmirror.com.ph

2Friday, November 27, 2015

BUSINESSMIRROR SWEEPS J. BURGOS BIOTECH AWARDS

Inflation seen snappingmonths of decline in Nov

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INFLATION was seen finally creeping upward in November after having declined for many

months prior, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said on Thursday.

cast, it will likely average 1.3 percent over 11 months. Should the November inflation hit the up-per end of the forecast, however, it will likely average 1.4 percent. “Go-ing forward, the BSP will continue to monitor price trends and stands ready to implement measures, in line with its commitment to help-ing deliver price and financial sta-bility,” Tetangco said. The slight uptick in inflation was also seen to have no impact on the current monetar- policy settings the rest of the year. In latest views on the economy of the Philippines, ING Bank econ-omist Joey Cuyegkeng in Manila said the BSP was likely to keep the policy settings steady over the immediate term. “Inflation remains very benign in the near term. But upside infla-tion risk due to El Niño’s impact on agriculture production had kept the BSP from utilizing monetary-policy leeway to support growth,” Cuyegkeng said.

“Inf lat ion remains benign in the near term which would allow the BSP to proceed with

its implementation of the IRC by the second quarter of 2016,” the economist said. Earlier, record-low inflation averaging 0.4 percent in October may have already bottomed out in November, with projected inflation this month seen rising to 0.8 percent due to a modest rise in food prices, the government’s chief economist said on Wednesday. In an economic bulletin, Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran said projected inflation of 0.8 percent in November remain within the 2-percent to 4-percent range that the Cabinet level Development Bud-get Coordinating Council has set as goal for the year.

“Inflation rate for November may reach 0.8 percent, double the price increase last month, suggest-ing that inflation may have already bottomed out after hitting record lows of 0.4 percent in the previous couple of months,” Beltran in the economic bulletin said.

The other measures of inflation, however, continue to be at their lowest levels, which is a sign of a continuing rise in competitiveness of Philippine industries.

Manila office lease rates to rise at slower pace

THE BUSINESSMIRROR swept all the awards at the 2015 Jose G. Burgos Jr. Awards for Biotech Journalism that was held at a resort-hotel in Dasmariñas, Cavite, on Wednesday. BUSINESSMIRROR Senior Editor Lyn Resureccion (second from right) received the award for Institutional Category, correspondent Marvyn Benaning (third from right) bagged the second prize for Best News, and contributor Clement Dionglay (fifth from left) won the first price for Best Feature Category. Noel Provido (fourth from left) of Department of Agriculture regional office in Davao City received the awards in behalf of contributor Henrylito Tacio, who won third prize in the Best Feature and first prize for Best News. Joining them are (from left) board of judges member Ester Dipasupil, desk editor, Philippine Daily Inquirer; Maria Monina Cecilia Villena (second from left), special projects coordinator and network administrator, Searca-Biotechnology Information Center; Joel Paredes member of board of directors, The Jose Burgos PEN Inc.; and Editha Burgos, president, The Jose Burgos PEN Inc. ROY DOMINGO

THE BUSINESSMIRROR swept the awards in this year’s Jose G. Burgos Jr. Awards for Biotech Journalism held on Wednes-

day at a hotel in Dasmariñas, Cavite. For the Best News category, the BUSINESS-MIRROR contributor Henrylito Tacio got the top prize for the article “Think of These—Under-standing Bt technology.” Marvyn Benaning bagged the second prize for “US environmental scientist claims pesticide use by GMOs on the rise.” Reporter Joel San Juan won third prize for his article “Group petitions reversal of CA order vs gene-modified eggplant field tests.” For the features category, “Biotech corn making a farmer the community’s VIP”

written by contributor Clement Dionglay won the first prize. Second prize went to “Scientific interventions provide health-ier rice varieties,” by contributor Rowena Galang-Bumanlag. The third prize went to “Golden Rice,” also written by Tacio. The BUSINESSMIRROR also won the lone prize for Institutional Category which, is given to the newspaper that published the most num-ber of articles on biotechnology. This year’s Ninth Jose G. Burgos Jr. bio-tech awards had Ester Dipasupil, desk edi-tor of Philippine Daily Inquirer; Dr. Vivencio Mamaril, Bureau of Plant Industry-Plant Variety Protection Office head; and Maria

Monina Cecilia Villena, Special Projects Coordinator and Network Administrator of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agri-culture-Biotechnology Information Center as members of the board of judges. The articles were judged based on the blind-judging method wherein the names of the writers and the newspapers where the articles were printed were erased, thereby, making their identities unknown to the judges. The articles were judged based on relevance, 25 percent; qual-ity of story, 25 percent; being in-depth and investigative, 25 percent; and style, 25 percent. Lyn Resurreccion

Senate OKs budget bill, sets stage for bicam

OFFICE rent in Manila is expected to rise by 4 per-cent next year, a slower

growth than in previous years due to the larger supply of office space in 2016. Rates, however, will bounce back in 2017 and 2018, according to Chris Fossick, managing director at JLL for Singapore and Southeast Asia.

He said Manila office rent has had several years of strong demand and lack of supply, pushing up rental rates by 5 percent to 6 percent. The rental growth has been at 6 percent for 2013 and 2014, and a 5-percent hike is expected by end-2015.  However, with an increased sup-ply of 20 percent, or some 870,000

square meters (sq m) in 2016, a slow-er growth of 4 percent in rental rate is in the offing.  In 2015 signs of the slowdown were already showing: 74 percent of the total 748,700 sq m of office space made available in 2015 was leased, compared to 92 percent from the year before. Even with the slowdown, the JLL

executive sees a correction in the trend for 2017 up to 2018, as there will be a foreseen pent-up demand, complemented by lower supply in office space. Office demand is still bolstered by the business-process outsourcing sector to be boosted by new areas such as the financial sector. Catherine N. Pillas

Foreign  Affairs; P18.7 billion for the Department of Finance; P18.1 billion for the Department of La-bor and Employment; P17.9 billion for the Department of Science and Technology; and P12.8 billion for the Department of Justice. Senate and House leaders earlier assured the timely passage of the bud-get bill, saying this  would also enable Congress to take up other pending ad-ministration priority bills, including the controversial Bangsamoro basic law (BBL)  and the Palace-proposed Salary Standardization Law (SSL) that lawmakers are looking to ap-prove before adjouring for the cam-paign season. “After the budget [bill] is the Bangsamoro basic law,” Drilon said. “We have only one senator who will interpellate, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile. We are not aware of any other senator. Assuming that this is the case, we should be able to terminate the period of debates by the first week of December.”

Assuming, he said, that no other senator will interpellate, “then af-terward, we will go to the period of amendment. We still have time. We have December 1 to 18.” “Also, another proposed measure which we will give priority is the Cus-toms and Tariff Modernization Act.”

This, even as the approved 2016 disbursements for big-ticket projects are likely to be suspended in March when the national and local election campaign period kicks in. Drilon disclosed that the legis-lative agenda for next week will be devoted to the bicameral conference committee meetings on the budget bill “to thresh out the differences, so we expect the bicam will finish its work by December 4.”

“We will ratify the Bicam Report the week of December 7 to 11, includ-ing the printing of the budget itself.

So we expect to submit the budget by December 14. That’s our target date so that the President will have a week to 10 days to review the budget and see whether he will exercise his line-item veto as he would, traditionally.”

The Senate president, however, voiced confidence “that we will have the budget finished by the month of December.” Drilon explained “it is so important [to finish the money mea-sure] because in the budget, there is P57 billion for the Salary Standard-ization Law IV.”

“Ang kabuuan po ng alokasyon para sa SSL ay P225.8 billion, which will be given in four years beginning 2016 with an allocation of about P57 bil-lion,” he said, adding: “It is important that the budget becomes effective by January 1, 2016, so that we can expect this SSL IV.”  He told report-ers that soon after passing the 2016 budget bill, “we will give the highest priority to the implementing law on the SSL IV which will now define in definite terms what the salary scale will be for each salary grade of gov-ernment employees.” Drilon disclosed that anoth-er amendment he asked the Senate Committee on Finance to adopt is the restoration of P500 million in the budget of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) “in order that we can speed up the transmission of the election results.” He explained that the Comelec has requested that its budget “be augmented by P500 million for what they call as the electronic results transmission so-lution management and services in order to speed up the transmission of the results [as] this was not in the national expenditure program submitted to Congress.”

“The House of Representatives included this and found the request of the Comelec to be in order and, therefore, augmented the budget of the Comelec by P500 million.”

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In a statement, Tetangco said fall-ing inflation should snap from an eight-month downtrend and begin to expand in November averaging 0.4 percent up to 1.2 percent. “The BSP forecast suggests that inf lation could have bot-tomed out in October to acceler-ate to a 0.4-percent to 1.2-per-cent range in November. Lower domestic oil prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene, as well as de-cline in rice prices may continue to temper inf lation impulses for the month,” he said.

“However, the reported higher power rates, prices of selected veg-etables in Metro Manila and LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] may pro-vide offsetting upside pressure,” he quickly added.

But no matter the expected up-tick, the central bank is certain to miss its target inflation this year earlier seen ranging from 2 percent up to 4 percent. The 10-month inflation rate al-ready average 1.4 percent. Should the November inf la-tion hit the low end of the fore-