www.businessmirror.com.ph ■�Saturday 18, 2014 Vol. 10 No. 40 P. | | 7 DAYS A WEEK■�Thursday, June 25, 2015 Vol. 10 No. 259

A broader look at today’s businessBusinessMirrorBusinessMirrorTHREETIME

ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDEE2006, 2010, 2012U.N. MEDIA AWARD 2008

ROTARY CLUB

JOURNALISM

PESO EXCHANGE RATES ■ US 45.0260 ■ JAPAN 0.3649 ■ UK 71.2581 ■ HK 5.8089 ■ CHINA 7.2512 ■ SINGAPORE 33.7021 ■ AUSTRALIA 34.8849 ■ EU 51.0685 ■ SAUDI ARABIA 12.0069 Source: BSP (23 June 2015)

B R L. A

THE country’s capital, along with other cities in the Asia Pacific, made it to the list

of most preferred destinations for expansion of global retail brands. 

IN February 2014 Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. Cochair-man James Packer described the

construction of the City of Dreams casino in Manila as a “bet on Chi-na.” Sixteen months on, the gamble hasn’t paid off. Instead, the anticipated flood of high rollers from China to Ma-nila’s three casino resorts has so far failed to materialize, and the mar-ket value of operators, like Melco Crown Philippines Resorts Corp. and Bloomberry Resorts Corp., has been shredded as investors fled, making Philippine casino stocks among the world’s worst perform-ers this year. Profits will tumble 56 percent across the industry in

2016, JPMorgan Chase & Co. fore-cast this week.

“ T he chain react ion from Macau hit everyone,” said Noel Reyes, chief investment officer at Security Bank Corp., which man-ages the best-performing Philip-pine equity fund in the past year. “Expectations VIP players will come in large numbers didn’t happen. The stocks have fallen quite significant-ly but not everyone is rushing back in, and there’s no clear light at the end of the tunnel.”

Casino shares have crashed, even as the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index has climbed 4.4 percent this year, peaking at an

C A

Anticipated flood of Chinese high rollers not materializing

Manila joins list of top retail havensGLOBAL BRANDS PICK MANILA AS THEIR 13TH MOST PREFERRED DESTINATION IN CBRE SURVEY

AYALA LAND TO OPEN AT LEAST 5 NEW MALLS

INSIDE

TAYLOR SWIFT SPEAKS

AND APPLE LISTENS... »D3

TAYLOR SWIFT

LISTENS...

D1

Life � ursday, June 25, 2015

Life BusinessMirror

Life Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

W E can claim to the highest because this is the E can claim to the highest because this is the God in whom we believe, whom we worship God in whom we believe, whom we worship and love. To Him we owe everything that we and love. To Him we owe everything that we

are. In His name, we have been baptized. In His name, all are. In His name, we have been baptized. In His name, all our life should be lived. In His name, our earthly life will our life should be lived. In His name, our earthly life will end and our endless life will begin. We must be grateful end and our endless life will begin. We must be grateful to God because we owe everything from Him. Amen.to God because we owe everything from Him. Amen.

We owe everything

WORD AND LIFE, FR. SAL PUTZU, SDB AND LOUIE M. LACSONWORD AND LIFE, FR. SAL PUTZU, SDB AND LOUIE M. LACSONWord&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.comteacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

B M TTribune News Service

Maintaining productivity during business trips can test the patience of even the most disciplined professional. Flight delays, meeting prep and limited luggage space

frequently combine to push many entrepreneurs to their limits. And with so many people juggling multiple clients from the road as opposed to enjoying the long-term salaried positions of old, that extra time has to be made up somewhere. Hotel administrators are all too aware of this fact.

According to Jeff Arman, general manager of Country Inn and Suites by Carlson in Milwaukee, “Business guests not only want to be comfortable during their stay, they expect certain amenities that allow them to be productive on the road.”

Free high-speed Internet, equipped business centers and increased electrical outlets in rooms are becoming standard, even with budget hotel chains.

Once you’ve booked accommodations with key services included, however, what’s left to be done in order to limit your travel stress?

■ Grooming: Staying polished and pressed on the road is absolutely easier said than done. Chipped nail enamel, wrinkled clothing and last-minute networking events after a lengthy workday can all combine to make even the most coiffed travel connoisseur feel frumpy. Wrinkle-resistant wardrobe items and travel-sized grooming solutions will go a long way toward making you look your best.

For instance, Cutex makes nail-polish removal pads for roughly $5 per box that come individually wrapped in moisture-retaining packets. One or two slid discreetly into a slot in the side of your handbag will help you handle minor manicure malfunctions without needing to pack an additional bottle of liquid product. Similarly, four-way nail buffers come in a variety of different widths. Choose the thinnest one available to handle your nail-care needs while still packing light.  Substituting flat cotton pads instead of puffs to use with your facial toner is another precision strategy for saving space on grooming supplies.

While wrinkle-resistant women’s clothing for business trips has gotten a bit easier to find, ferreting out similar menswear items can still prove problematic. One pants solution that’s popped up on the market is Bluff Works. A basic flat-front pant that comes in a variety of colors including basic khaki, brown and black, it’s designed to transition easily from trail trotting to terrace dining and backpacking to boardroom meetings. The price? About the same as a good pair of conversion pants or dress slacks. (Uniqlo also has a collection of Easy Care tops and bottoms for men and women.—Ed.)

If your road warrior wardrobe is comprised of more traditional fabrics and your history with hotel irons leaves something to be desired, you may want to try packing your own travel version.

For instance, Rowenta offers a fairly sturdy solution for $50. Weighing in at less than 2 pounds and folding to less than 8 inches, it provides a simple way to freshen your clothes while taking up minimal luggage space.  

■ Packing: Staying ready to hit the road at a moment’s notice has been refined to an art form by some, and remains a constant struggle for others.

Speaking for myself, I try to stay as prepped for departure as I can while still being able to access necessary items at home with ease. One thing I use religiously to accomplish this is packing cubes. They work as well for organizing dresser drawers as they do for keeping things sorted in your luggage.

So in addition to using them to keep things such as nylons, intimate apparel, camisoles and socks organized, I keep a few prepacked for short business and adventure trips. There are several brands on the market that are affordable for the average person. For example, I’ve seen the TravelWise sets of three go for as low as $20 bucks on Amazon with free shipping.

Messenger bags are another smart way to stay at least partially packed for business travel, and are a nice unisex solution. If you have a favorite one you use regularly for commuting and coffee shop workdays, it will already hold all of your extra cords, chargers, notepads and pens. Depending on how much extra space yours provides, you will have additional space for items that don’t fit easily into your wheeled suitcase.

An interesting messenger design I ran across recently was the trident bag by ECBC. Wide enough for larger laptops with tech slots located in the exterior portions, it has a decent amount of space in the middle for things such as shaving kits, hanging toiletry bags, extra clothing or even camera gear. It also has hidden straps that convert it to a temporary backpack, in case your business trip takes you to a place in Southeast Asia where taxis often take the form of small motorcycles.

■ Supplies: We all have a few extra things we don’t feel we can live without, but it’s important to make sure those personal faves don’t take up too much of our precious packing space. Personally, I like to carry a reasonably posh pocketbook for evening events and dinner meetings.

Since I can rarely justify giving up my tote or computer pack to carry a large one, I’ve made a clutch my go-to solution for years. Packing one in a larger bag makes it easy to plug and play when it comes to combining work with pleasure, and the small size lets you indulge in a more luxurious brand for a fraction of what you’d pay for a full-sized purse. Blu Salt makes one with RFID-blocking card slots, multiple compartments and a detachable cross-body strap for those who prefer to keep both hands free.

Snacks are another critical travel supply you don’t want to forget. Stocking something to fill your tummy can keep you from having a hunger meltdown or stopping for a greasy value meal between flights.

However, choosing the right snacks is about more than grabbing some of your favorite foods. Choose something too bulky, and you could find yourself short on space. Pack nothing, and you could find yourself stranded with no options during an overnight layover.

Portioned packets and resealable food bags can help you stay streamlined. Oatmeal, nuts and even sunflower seeds can be purchased this way, and snack-sized lunch baggies from the grocery store will let you create your own preportioned yummies prior to departure. A fun breakfast option for travelers is Viki’s granola packs.

At less than $1.50 per bag, roughly the cost of your average individually priced power bar, they have a comparable calorie count and offer a gluten-free meal replacement that’s devoid of dairy products. Their sleek size makes them super easy to pack, as well.

Automobile and train travelers who’d like a beverage alternative to water might want to explore the selection of drink flavors from Sparkling Ice.

With zero calories and no added sugar or salt, they offer a fun change for your taste buds. They’re only a buck a bottle, and the narrow shape makes them easier to slide in the side pocket of your day bag.

■ Myscha Theriault is a best-selling author and avid traveler. Having just finished a yearlong trip throughout the United States with her husband and Labrador retriever, Theriault is busy planning her next long-term adventure. Readers can keep up with her adventures on Twitter by following @MyschaTheriault.

PACKING FOR A

BETTER BUSINESS

TRIP

C1

| T

HU

RS

DA

Y, J

UN

E 2

5, 2

01

5m

irro

r_sp

orts

@ya

hoo.

com

.ph

spor

ts@

busi

ness

mir

ror.

com

.ph

Edit

or: J

un L

omib

ao

25

, 20

15

mir

ror_

spor

ts@

yaho

o.co

m.p

hsp

orts

@bu

sine

ssm

irro

r.co

m.p

hEd

itor

: Jun

Lom

ibao

25

, 20

15

mir

ror_

spor

ts@

yaho

o.co

m.p

hsp

orts

@bu

sine

ssm

irro

r.co

m.p

hEd

itor

: Jun

Lom

ibao Sp

orts

Spor

tsB

usin

essM

irro

r

B D

W

Chica

go T

ribun

e

GIVE m

e a th

ree-

shot

lead

down

the s

tretch

of an

im

porta

nt go

lf tou

rnam

ent a

nd I l

ikely

would

have

do

ne ex

actly

as Jo

rdan

Spiet

h did

on Su

nday

at th

e US

Ope

n. W

hich i

s to s

ay I,

too,

would

have

cut m

y tee

shot

on

the 1

7th h

ole w

ay rig

ht in

to a

gnar

ly lie

and l

ater

thre

e-pu

tted f

or do

uble

boge

y.An

d tha

t, folk

s, is

where

the s

imila

rities

end.

With

a th

ree-

shot

adva

ntag

e disi

nteg

rated

, my b

all w

ould

have

com

e out

of

the 1

7th c

up an

d wou

ld ha

ve be

en hu

rled r

ight in

to Pu

get

Soun

d. My

putte

r hea

d wou

ld ha

ve be

en em

bedd

ed de

ep in

th

e gree

nside

soil.

And m

y brai

n wou

ld ha

ve be

en so

fired

th

at th

e ine

vitab

le 12

I wou

ld po

st at

18—

plus t

he tir

ade

sequ

el—wo

uld ha

ve sc

arred

anyo

ne w

ithin

3 mile

s.Sp

ieth?

He s

wallo

wed h

is do

uble

and t

he re

sulti

ng

indi

gesti

on an

d sim

ply p

roce

eded

to th

e 72n

d hol

e with

a p

lan. R

elax,

focu

s, m

ake b

irdie.

Par 5

, 601

yard

s? Sp

ieth

went

drive

r, 3-w

ood,

casu

al tw

o-pu

tt an

d cap

ture

d his

seco

nd co

nsec

utive

majo

r cha

mpi

onsh

ip.Ye

s, he

need

ed th

e golf

gods

to su

plex D

ustin

John

son

with

a ha

untin

g thr

ee-p

utt f

rom

12 fe

et, c

ausin

g him

to

lose t

he U

S Ope

n, lit

erall

y, by

a co

uple

cent

imet

ers.

But

John

son’s

failu

re—

proo

f of t

he pr

essu

re th

at st

rang

les

the d

enou

emen

t of m

ost m

ajors—

shou

ld on

ly he

ighte

n Sp

ieth’s

acco

mpli

shm

ent,

not c

heap

en it.

To to

p it

off,

Spiet

h ex

hale

d af

ter h

is fo

ur-d

ay ro

ller-

coas

ter r

ide w

ith a

telli

ng ad

miss

ion:

He d

idn’t

hav

e his

best

stuff.

With

his g

ame d

ialed

in at

Aug

usta

Nat

ional

in A

pril,

Spiet

h sho

t 18-

unde

r par

and l

ed w

ire to

wire

at th

e M

aste

rs. W

ithou

t his

best

stuff,

he w

as st

ill ca

pabl

e of

conq

uerin

g ano

ther

majo

r, thi

s tim

e on a

crag

gy co

urse

wi

th m

ini-g

olf r

amps

all o

ver i

ts bu

mpy

gree

ns.

Som

e of t

he fie

ld’s b

est p

layer

s cou

ldn’t h

elp bu

t spe

nd

their

ener

gy rip

ping C

ham

bers

Bay’s

flaws

. Spie

th?

“We g

ot ov

er it

,” he s

aid on

Sund

ay. “

Som

eone

had

to

hol

d th

e tro

phy.”

At 21

, suc

h ap

lom

b is

not o

nly a

bnor

mal,

it m

ight

be

down

right

alien

.Re

alisti

cally

, gol

f will

fail m

isera

bly i

n its

sear

ch fo

r th

e nex

t Tig

er W

oods

, a w

unde

rkin

d who

se po

pular

ity w

ill lau

nch t

he ga

me’s

. Woo

ds’s t

alent

, on-

cour

se fi

re, s

ocial

im

pact

and t

imin

g was

tran

scen

dent

in a

way t

hat c

an’t

be re

plica

ted.

But

the s

port

certa

inly

appe

ars t

o hav

e fo

und i

ts ne

xt m

ajor s

tar, a

n eng

agin

g and

hum

ble T

exan

wh

o offe

rs pl

enty

to ra

lly ar

ound

.Sp

ieth’s

late

st m

ajor t

rium

ph ca

me w

ith an

appr

oach

he

and h

is ca

ddie

calle

d “fre

e roll

ing.” I

t’s th

e golf

equiv

alent

of

haku

na m

atat

a, a w

ay to

alwa

ys re

main

pres

ent a

nd

worry

-free

. And

it’s a

catch

phra

se U

nder

Arm

our m

ay w

ant

to co

rral A

SAP f

or it

s ine

vitab

le Sp

ieth m

arke

ting b

litz.

Afte

r all,

the k

id’s

goin

g to

be a

roun

d aw

hile.

‘SPIE

THW

ILL D

OFO

R NO

W’

B D

F

The A

ssocia

ted

Pres

s

UNIVE

RSITY

PLAC

E, W

ashin

gton

—Th

e co

urse

that

was

built

for a

US O

pen n

eeds

a m

akeo

ver.

An

d whe

n tha

t’s fin

ished

, the

n it c

an fix

th

e gre

ens.

For a

ll the

com

plaint

s—a t

radit

ion ne

arly

as

old as

the U

S Ope

n—th

e las

ting i

mag

e is t

he gu

y ho

lding

the t

roph

y.It

helps

whe

n the

winn

er is

a 21

-yea

r-old

with

po

lishe

d man

ners

and a

tena

cious

shor

t gam

e who

m

ade “

Gran

d Slam

” a su

mm

er to

pic fo

r onl

y the

third

tim

e in t

he la

st 50

year

s. Thr

ow in

som

e hea

rtach

e an

d it’s

an en

ding t

hat w

on’t b

e for

gotte

n. Th

e rea

l m

yste

ry is

how

John

son’s

5-iro

n int

o the

18th

gree

n

didn’t

com

e off

that

slop

e ins

tead

of le

aving

a 12

-foot

ea

gle pu

tt th

at w

as lik

e put

ting d

own a

luge

trac

k.Th

at’s i

ce, n

ot br

occo

li.Go

lf cou

rses d

on’t a

lway

s defi

ne gr

eat p

layer

s. So

met

imes

it’s t

he ot

her w

ay ar

ound

.Va

lhall

a, fo

r exa

mple

, can

not b

e con

sider

ed on

th

e A-li

st of

cham

pions

hip co

urse

s. Bu

t it g

ave u

s Tig

er W

oods

winn

ing in

a pla

yoff

for h

is th

ird st

raigh

t m

ajor, a

nd Ro

ry M

cIlro

y hold

ing of

f Phil

Mick

elson

, Ri

ckie

Fowl

er an

d Hen

rik St

enso

n in t

he da

rk.

The g

reen

s at C

ham

bers

Bay w

ere t

errib

le.

Ever

yone

could

see t

hat.

A few

play

ers—

Billy

Ho

rsche

l com

es to

mind

—co

uldn’t

wait

to sa

y it.

But t

hey w

eren

’t th

at m

uch

worse

than

Pebb

le Be

ach

in 20

10 (“

Thes

e gre

ens a

re ju

st aw

ful,”

Woo

ds sa

id th

at ye

ar).

They

wer

e onl

y slig

htly

mor

e dea

d th

an th

ose a

t Shi

nnec

ock H

ills i

n 20

04.

Go b

ack a

nd w

atch

that

12-fo

ot p

utt W

oods

mad

e at

Torre

y Pin

es to

get

into

a pl

ayof

f and

try t

o co

unt t

he b

ounc

es.

This

is th

e US O

pen,

not t

he Im

mac

ulate

Ope

n.It

is m

eant

to be

the t

ough

est t

est i

n golf

, eve

n wh

en it

gets

a litt

le ex

trem

e.Th

e gre

ens s

houl

d be a

n eas

y fix.

Poa a

nnua

cre

pt in

to th

e fes

cue,

which

led t

o Hen

rik St

enso

n’s

refe

renc

e tha

t it w

as lik

e put

ting o

n bro

ccol

i. Up

close

, it ev

en lo

oked

like b

rocc

oli. I

t was

diffi

cult

to

mak

e put

ts, th

ough

Spiet

h and

John

son m

ade t

heir

shar

e. So

did L

ouis

Oosth

uize

n, w

ith si

x bird

ies on

th

e las

t sev

en ho

les (o

ne w

ith a

wedg

e fro

m th

e fa

irway

). Or

may

be th

ey al

l just

got l

ucky

.Th

e ove

rhau

l has

more

to do

with

an as

pect

of th

e US

Open

that

was s

adly

overl

ooke

d this

year—

the s

pecta

tors.

For 5

0 yea

rs, th

e onl

y way

to se

e a U

S Ope

n in t

he

Pacif

ic No

rthwe

st wa

s on t

elevis

ion. A

nd on

ce th

e fan

s got

onto

the c

ourse

, the

y wer

e so f

ar aw

ay fr

om

the a

ction

that

the p

layer

s loo

ked a

bout

as bi

g as

they

once

did o

n a 19

-inch

TV sc

reen

with

a kn

ob to

ch

ange

the c

hann

els.

Addin

g gra

ndsta

nds i

sn’t t

he an

swer.

At m

idday

on

Satu

rday

, the

18th

blea

cher

s alre

ady w

ere f

illed

and t

he lin

e was

near

ly 50

yard

s lon

g, an

d not

m

oving

. Sou

nds l

ike a

fun w

ay to

spen

d the

afte

rnoo

n at

a US

Ope

n.Ph

il Mick

elso

n’s w

ife w

as st

andi

ng n

ear t

he

first

tee i

n th

e ope

ning

roun

d. Sh

e loo

ked

down

th

e fair

way a

nd d

idn’t

see f

ans o

n eit

her s

ide.

The

18th

fairw

ay w

as on

the l

eft.

A m

assiv

e dun

e was

on

the r

ight

.“W

here

am I s

uppo

sed t

o go?

” she

inqu

ired.

Back

to th

e hou

se w

ould

hav

e bee

n th

e mos

t

prac

tical

answ

er.

The e

ighth

fairw

ay ha

d no r

oom

on ei

ther

side

fo

r spe

ctato

rs. Fo

r a co

urse

that

was

built

with

hope

s of

land

ing a

US O

pen,

ther

e was

no re

ason

it co

uldn’t

ha

ve cu

t view

ing ar

eas t

hrou

gh th

e dun

es w

ithou

t ris

king s

pecta

tor s

afety.

It’s w

orth

going

back

to Ch

ambe

rs Ba

y no m

atte

r wh

o won

. The

US G

olf A

ssocia

tion (

USGA

) wan

ts to

mov

e its

cham

pions

hip ar

ound

the c

ount

ry. Th

e Pa

cific

North

west

had t

o wait

120 y

ears.

It’s a

lso

impo

rtant

for t

he U

S Ope

n to b

e held

on a

publi

c co

urse

ever

y now

and t

hen,

so th

at ti

cks t

wo bo

xes.

But t

oo m

any m

ajors

are t

rend

ing

towa

rd

mad

e-fo

r-TV

even

ts (K

iawah

Isla

nd in

2012

and

Whi

stlin

g St

raits

this

sum

mer

, bot

h sit

es fo

r the

Pr

ofes

siona

l Gol

fers’

Ass

ociat

ion

Cham

pion

ship,

ar

e exa

mpl

es of

that

). Th

e atm

osph

ere o

nly a

dds

to th

e eve

nt. W

hat a

sham

e for

som

eone

who

qu

alifi

es fo

r the

US O

pen,

and

his f

amily

or fr

iends

ca

n’t w

alk t

he w

hole

way

arou

nd w

ith h

im.

It so

unds

min

or. It

’s a bi

g dea

l. And

it sh

ould

be

fixed

if th

e US O

pen e

ver r

etur

ns to

Cham

bers

Bay.

And i

f it d

oes,

golf

fans

will

reca

ll Spi

eth g

oing

bird

ie-do

uble

boge

y-bi

rdie

to ca

ptur

e the

seco

nd

leg of

the G

rand

Slam

. The

y will

reca

ll Joh

nson

ha

ving a

12-fo

ot pu

tt to

win

and t

hen m

issin

g a

4-fo

ot pu

tt to

lose

, all i

n a sp

an of

48 se

cond

s.Th

ey pr

obab

ly wo

n’t th

ink o

f Cha

mbe

rs Ba

y as

the c

ourse

whe

re pl

ayer

s los

t res

pect

for t

he U

SGA

beca

use t

he gr

eens

wer

en’t

pure

.

» JORD

AN SP

IETH

hits

from

the

14th

tee

durin

g th

e th

ird ro

und

of th

e US

Ope

n. A

P

Cham

bers

Bay d

eser

ves a

noth

er sh

ot

at ho

sting

the U

S Ope

n for

no ot

her

reaso

n tha

n the

finish

it pr

oduc

ed. Jo

rdan

Sp

ieth,

with

a big

assis

t from

Dusti

n Jo

hnso

n, did

more

to pu

t this

cour

se on

th

e map

than

view

s of P

uget

Soun

d or

the d

esign

of Ro

bert T

rent J

ones

Jr.

BUSINESS TRIP

THAT CHAMBERS BAY

LIFE D1

SPORTS C1JALANDONI: “We like

growing our mall business, because

it’s anchored on consumer

spending….”

NEW RESORTS WORLD M.I.C.E. FACILITY Resorts World Manila (RWM) continues its aggressive expansion with the opening of its newest Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) facility—the Marriott Grand Ball (MGB)—which can accommodate 2,500 people for banquet functions and 4,000 people for a theater setup. The MGB will formally open on July 1 with a special dinner, highlighted by a concert of soul music icon and multi-Grammy award-winner James Ingram. Present during the news conference are (from left) Food and Beverage Operations Asia Pacific Vice President Ralph Frehner, General Manager Bruce Winton and RWM CEO Steven Riley. ALYSA SALEN

PROPERTY developer Ayala Land Inc. is planning to open at least five new shopping malls in the next few

years, in line with its goal of booking a net income of P40 billion by 2020. Ayala Land Senior Vice President Junie H. Jalandoni said these malls will be in Santa Rosa, Laguna; Manila Bay area; Circuit Makati; and Pasig City. He said it will also open another one next to the TriNoma mall in Quezon City in 2017. “We like growing our mall business because it’s anchored on consumer spending…. From 1.2 million square meters of gross leasable area, we plan to triple this to 3.8 million square me-ters over the next couple of years,” Ja-landoni said during an investors’ con-ference organized by the Bank of the Philippine Islands. Ayala Land currently has the Glorietta

Based on a recent study of prop-erty consultant CBRE, dubbed “How Global is the Business of Retail?,” Manila ranked 13th in the Top 15 target cities globally, with 24 new entrants in the pipeline this year. 

Other preferred sites in the re-gion are Tokyo, with 63 upcoming retail brands; Singapore, 58; Abu Dhabi, 55; Taipei, 49; Dubai, 45; Hong Kong, 45; Beijing, 34; Doha, 30; and Istanbul, 21. 

Meanwhile, only a few cities out-side of the Asia Pacific are on the list, such as Moscow, with 41 new en-trants; Paris, 40; Berlin, 29; Toronto, 25; and Stuttgart, 21.  According to the study, retailers from the Americas and the Asia Pacific are mainly keen

on the region’s market.  “The Asia-Pacific retail market is gaining more ground as a top spot for expansion of international brands. In the Philippines alone, the demand and interest from the local retail market and the affordable rates drive more investors into the country. When this trend continues, the Asia Pacific can even compete with the bigger EMEA [Europe, Middle East and Africa] and American markets,” said Rick Santos, chairman, founder and CEO of CBRE Philippines.

The real-estate consultancy com-pany reported in February that lease rates in Manila are the lowest at $38 per square meter (sq m) when

C A

and Greenbelt malls in Makati, aside from those in Quezon City, Alabang, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Subic, Bacolod, Pampanga and Iloilo City. Apart from expanding its mall net-work, Jalandoni said the company is ex-panding its business-process outsourc-ing (BPO) portfolio. “For us, we continue to grow our BPO business because of the growth of the BPO sector. We will build more offices....

We actually have land bank already for all of our BPO expansion plans, so all we have to do is actually execute. We have locations there in Metro Manila and all over the country,” he said. Jalandoni said they aim to triple in the next five years the office portfolio catering mostly to the BPO market, from 600,000 sq m to 1.8 million sq m of gross area. “Aside from tourism, we’re actually very bullish about the BPO industry.... It’s one of the economic drivers of the country,” he added. As part of Ayala Land’s “2020-2040 Plan,” Jalandoni said that the property developer is also expanding its new businesses, like hospitals, retailing and convenience stores. Under the plan, he said, Ayala Land targets to post a net income of P40 billion by 2020 at an annual growth rate of 20 percent. PNA

THE SON ALSO RISES

HEALTH&FITNESS

Junie H. Jalandoni said these malls will be

Circuit Makati; and Pasig City.

spending…. From 1.2 million square

to triple this to 3.8 million square meters over the next couple of years,” Ja

ference organized by the Bank of the HEALTHEALTHEAL H&FITNESS

BusinessMirror news@businessmirror.com.ph Thursday, June 25, 2015 A2

News

SM Prime eyes Asean markets for expansion. . . Continued from A8

Continued from A1 Continued from A1

all-time high in April amid official forecasts for two straight years of 8-percent economic growth.

China arrivalsShAreS of Bloomberry, which operates Solaire, have lost 27 per-cent this year, and resorts World Manila operator Travellers In-ternational hotel Group Inc. has slumped 35 percent. Melco Crown Philippines tumbled 56 percent as earnings disappointed investors, outpacing even the 36-percent loss at Wynn Macau Ltd., the Chi-nese territory’s worst-performing casino stock. Bloomberry added 0.1 percent to P9.02 at 9:54 a.m. in Manila, while Travellers was unchanged and Melco climbed 3.2 percent to P6.20, poised for its first gain in eight days after slumping to the lowest level since December 2012 on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. down-graded Melco’s stock to under-weight from overweight in a report dated June 21, and cut its 12-month price target by 63 percent to P5.80. China arrivalsArrIvALS to the Philippines from China, the country’s fourth-big-gest tourist market, fell by about 33 percent to 93,043 in the first quarter as the Chinese govern-ment stepped up its anticorrup-tion drive. A simmering territorial dispute between the two nations over islands in the South China Sea also deterred travelers. Geopolitics “seems to be getting

in the way of seeing planeloads of tourists,” Cristino Naguiat, chief executive officer of the Philippine amusement and gaming industry body, said earlier this month. Bloomberry fell to a first-quarter loss of P533 million ($11.8 million) as costs spiked with the expansion of the Solaire casino, increased marketing expenses and provision for bad debts. Travellers’s profit rose 1.6 percent to P1.74 billion, while Melco Crown Philippines, which opened City of Dreams last December, posted a record P3.09-billion loss. “The first-quarter results raised the question; can there be aggres-sive growth without the numbers coming from China?” said richard Laneda, an analyst at COL Finan-cial Group Inc. in Manila. “The growth in earnings didn’t match the pace most wanted to see. The market isn’t overreacting, there’s genuine uncertainty.” ‘Too optimistic’SOMe investors are overestimat-ing the impact of the China market, and the slump in Philippine gaming stocks is excessive, according to Marc reyes-Lao, an analyst at BPI Securi-ties Corp. in Manila. Combined profit at Bloomberry, Travellers and Melco Crown Philip-pines is forecast to jump 47 percent to P13.61 billion next year from 2015, and to P15.59 billion in 2017, according to analyst estimates com-piled by Bloomberg. Based on share-price forecasts, Philippine gaming stocks will return at least 40 percent in the next 12 months.

Bloomberg News

Anticipated flood of Chinese high rollers not materializing

compared to its counterparts in the region.  In fact, according to CBre Phil-ippines Senior Director for Global research and Consultancy Jan Paul Custodio, this actually gets attraction from most international retailers. Normally, he said, rates paid by retailers are probably “two or three times” higher than what they pay here.  At least half of the 164 cities sur-veyed saw more than five new open-ings last year, the report shows. Also, the number of retail brands wanting to penetrate new markets increased by 14 percent based on a like-for-like comparison and in terms of cities reviewed. With the inclusion of new en-trants in the list—Manila, Doha, Toronto, Stuttgart and Istanbul—the study indicates that retailers are looking into new markets for their growth and investment. Category-wise, mid-range fash-ion retailers are the most active globally, focusing on the eMeA.  Those in the luxury and business fashion segments, on the other hand, keep tab on the Americas and Aspac.

examining 50 countries and 164 cities worldwide, the study identified globalization, technology and de-mographic change as core elements affecting the business of retail.  It noted that the recognition of global brands in various countries, the use of technology in assessing a market, and the growing appetite and buying power of consumers the world over constantly drive retailers to expand.  As long as they contin-ue to flock the malls and shopping centers for leisure, the expansion of more brands will, likewise, remain, it added.  More rooms for expansion in PHLThe country’s continued economic progress, complemented by the strong spending power of the peo-ple, are the main factors that attract global retail brands to set shop here, according to CBre’s Metro Manila Market view report for the first quarter of 2015. For instance, Gap opened two more stores in Fairview Terraces and Shangri-La Mall, while inter-national food franchises, such as Burgoo and Coffee Bean widened their scope with new outlets at

Starmall Prima in Taguig. Big fashion brands, such as Old Navy, Gap, Aeropostale and Cot-ton On, were, likewise, driven by the increasing purchasing power of consumers on the back of ro-bust remittances from overseas Filipino workers and employ-ment in the business-process outsourcing industry.  The ever-evolving retail sector also has prompted 24/7 fast-food chains and convenience stores to lo-cate in the domestic market to cater to the fast-growing community. To wit, the second phase of UP Town Center began operating during the quarter, adding around 26,000 sq m to the retail-space inventory.  Global fashion brands here in-clude Penguin, Onitsuka Tiger, Stansbury and Sperry. Food and beverage shops are Mad Mark’s, ra-men Nagi, St. Marc Café, Sbarro and Pepper Lunch. The Industria Mall inside Circulo verde in Quezon City also opened in the first qurter of the year, adding about 14,000 sq m to the total retail-space supply. Meanwhile, the expanding gaming industry also opened a wider door for retail players in

the local market, particularly the luxury segment.  The City of Dreams Manila, which is owned by Melco Crown entertain-ment, started hosting global premi-um brands into the country—rolex, Stuart Weitzman, Linda Farrow, rimowa, Paul and Shark, BCBG-Maxazria and Porsche Design—in the first quarter of 2015.  According to CBre’s report, retail product exenditures will continue to rise throughout the year as the rate of inflation remains manageable.  retail rents, it added, are seen to remain stable, with anticipation of upward pressures due to the contin-ued expansion of existing brands and entry of new foreign brands engaged in food and apparel business.  In general, retail market busi-nesses will stay profitable for the rest of the year, as the Philippine economy and middle-class con-sumption continue to strengthen, the CBre said. The Philippines is hosting this year’s edition of the biennial Asia-Pacific retail Conference and exhi-bition (APrCe) at the SMX Conven-tion Center. The APrCe is the biggest gathering of retail-industry leaders in the region.

Manila joins list of top retail havens

Ong stressed that the expansion plan is not yet factored in SM Prime’s five-year road map to double its in-come to P32 billion by 2018.The firm allotted P400 billion in capital expenditures until 2018 to grow its office, mall, leisure, hotel

and residential portfolio by twofold. It will construct 26 new SM malls and 20 residential projects in the Philippines and six malls in China. SM Prime will also expand its of-fices, hotels and leisure businesses.Ong said he expects no change in

terms of revenue mix from the cur-rent levels, as SM Prime works to double its income. “We expect that we will con-tinue with the 60-percent revenue contribution coming from our malls, 30 percent coming from our

residential and the rest should be coming from our commercial and the hotel and convention centers. In the next four years leading to 2018, we are looking at the same trend in terms of revenues,” he added . PNA

By Butch Fernandez

Malacañang cast aside calls for aquino cabinet officials poised to run in the 2016 elections to resign early to avert allegations

of misusing public funds in their political campaign. Secretary Edwin lacierda, President aquino’s chief spokesman, on Tuesday shot down pleas for cabinet secretaries known to be eyeing coveted posts at stake in the 2016 national elections for president, vice president, senators and congressmen, including Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, Technical Education and Skills Devel-opment authority Director general Joel Villanueva and Energy Secretary carlos Jericho l. Petilla, among others. The Palace official insisted these potential Palace-backed candidates need not tender their resignations right away, as did Vice President Jejomar c. Binay, a declared 2016 presidential aspirant, who resigned his two cabinet posts early this week.   “While we understand that the the campaign season seemed to have started early for some, the aquino admin-istration continues to focus on the mandate to serve our countrymen by focusing on people, health, education and infrastructure, among others,” lacierda said. He indicated that prospective aquino administra-

tion candidates occupying appointive positions will eventually step down as required by law once the of-ficial campaign period begins. “In due time, the political campaign season will start but until such time, the government will focus on governance,” lacierda said. In a separate statement, communications Secretary Herminio B. coloma Jr. clarified that no election laws are being violated by the aquino cabinet men staying in office even as they are set to run, saying  “no cabinet member has yet declared formally as a candidate” for coveted na-tional posts in the 2016 national and local elections. “cabinet secretaries and all other government of-ficials are expected to abide by the norms of good gov-ernance and ethical conduct. This implies adherence to the election code and other related laws and conducting themselves in such a way that their actions will not be perceived as being tantamount to engaging in partisan political activity,” coloma explained. coloma added: “For the record, no member of the cabinet has formally declared the intention to be a candidate in the 2016 elections. Those that may be in-clined to do so would be well advised to conduct them-selves in a manner that would not be misconstrued as “politicking” by our bosses, the Filipino people.”

By Rene Acosta 

The first lead-in fighter jet for the country had its maiden flight last week in South Korea, hastening the much-needed rearming and equipping of the otherwise moribund Armed Forces, amid the dis-

pute with China in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).The test flight of the newly manufactured FA-50 fighter aircraft

was conducted on June 19 by the Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI), the company that bagged the delivery of a squadron of FA-50 for the Air Force.

The test flight followed an earlier statement by the Department of National Defense (DND) that it expected delivery at the end of this year the first two aircraft from the 12 fighter jets ordered from KAI.

Defense Undersecretary for Finance, Modernization and Materiel Fernando Manalo said KAI will deliver the two aircraft by December as defense officials scramble to strengthen the military.

The squadron of fighter jets from South Korea was procured at the cost of P18.9 billion through a contract signed with KAI in March 2013.

earlier, KAI said it could deliver two of the 12 fighter jets within the first six months next year and the succeeding deliveries, at least in two pairs, in succeeding months until the squadron is completed.

But Manalo said KAI would deliver the first two of the FA-50s at the end of this year, which could immediately go into service with the Air Force.

“They will be combat and mission ready upon their arrival this De-cember,” he said.

The procurement of the 12 brand new fighter jets was the most im-portant acquisition of the Air Force from its long list of needed assets and equipment under the military’s modernization program.

This was only matched by the Philippine Navy which stands to get two frigates, possibly from South Korea also.

The frigates and the fighter jets are seen forming the country’s first line of defense, particularly in the WPS where the country is warding off civilian and military air and navy units of an increas-ingly aggressive China.

Manalo also said they expect the delivery of at least two Bell combat utility helicopters this year, ahead of their f irst sched-uled delivery.

“A minimum of two and a maximum of six,” he said of the delivery.The acquisition of eight combat utility helicopters from the Canadian

firm with a contract price of $106.8 million was signed in March last year by Canada Commercial Corp., owner of Bell, and the DND.

The eight Bell 412eP combat utility helicopters should beef up the air power of the military.

  assisted by activist-lawyers from the University of the Philippines law center, the “Zambales 38” filed an urgent appeal before the United nations (Un) commit-tee on Economic, Social and cultural Rights to seek a declaration from the body that china is violating their human rights by preventing them from accessing their only means of livelihood.  The fishermen, who come from the fishing towns of Masinloc and Subic, e-mailed the petition to the

Un committee after a forum was held at the Pista sa Baryo restaurant here to explore various international remedies available to local fishermen who lost their livelihood because of the maritime dispute.  lawyer gilbert andres, who sent the petition on behalf of the group, said the committee has confirmed receipt of the e-mail just minutes after it was sent.  Prof. Harry Roque Jr., director of the Institute of International legal Studies at the UP law center,

news@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Thursday, June 25, 2015 A3BusinessMirrorThe Nation

said the filing of the case is an his-toric undertaking because it was the first time that people of one country filed a complaint against the government of another.   Typically, he said, complaints of human-rights violations were filed by citizens of a country against their own government.  But Roque said the case filed by the Zambales fishermen was meant to send the message that territorial disputes are not just between na-tions, but also impact on the lives of people who seek sustenance from the resources inside those territories.  “The disputed islands and shoals are only important because there are people, like these fishermen here, who benefit from them,” Roque pointed out.  He added that, unfortunately, the case filed by the Philippine gov-ernment with the United nations convention on the law of the Sea (Unclos) concerns only the territo-ries claimed by the country and not the basic rights of local fishermen to livelihood and life.  “We have the duty to defend the human rights of these people, even if the violators are governments,” Roque added.  according to Miguel Detana, the

former captain of the fishing boat F/B Marvin I based in Masinloc, Zambales, the virtual takeover by china of the Scarbrough Shoal, or Bajo de Masinloc, has robbed lo-cal fishermen of income of about P7,000 per week.  “I have been fishing at the Scarbor-ough since 1991 and we always had a bountiful harvest because there was so much fish in the shoal. now we get so little from the sea,” Detana said.  Detana and the crew of F/B Marvin I had not ventured into Scarborough since april 26, 2014, when their boat was hit with water cannon by a chinese coast guard vessel. now the owner of the boat is selling it to cut his losses.  Inocentes Forones Jr., who also owned boats that once fished at Bajo de Masinloc, said the locals can now only safely fish in municipal waters where they manage to catch about 1 kilo or 3 kilos of fish a day.  The displacement of their income, lawyers said, clearly illustrates how the fishermen’s right to adequate food has been violated by chinese incursion into that part of the coun-try’s exclusive economic zone.  lawyer celeste cembrano-Mal-lari, a UP law center expert on Un-clos, said because the Scarborough

Shoal is just 124 nautical miles from the mainland of luzon, the Philip-pines as a coastal state has every right to explore, exploit, conserve and manage the resources in its waters, as well as the seabed and subsoil.  andres also explained that vari-ous international conventions guar-antee the fishermen of Zambales the right to standard of living adequate for their health and well-being, as well as the right to adequate food.  Roque also said because it can be proven that the fishermen-victims suffered economic losses because of the violation, there should also be compensation for the income they have lost because of china’s incursion.  Roque added they have high hopes that the case against china would prosper, because it can be proven that Scarborough has long been a traditional fishing ground for local fishermen, and that the Philippines exercised control over it before it was forcibly taken over by china in 2012.  He said that at least two precedent cases are on record, wherein the Un committee had decided to respect traditional fishing rights of one country over the claims of another who encroached upon it.

Zambales fishers file HR case vs China before UN

Palace rejects calls for Aquino Cabinet bets to resign early

By Henry Empeño | Correspondent

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Thirty-eight fishermen from Zambales, who are among those displaced by China’s intrusion into the Scarborough Shoal or

Bajo de Masinloc, on Wednesday made history by filing a case against the government of China, accusing the aggressor at the West Philippine Sea of violating their basic human right to adequate food.

Zambales fishermen and lawyer-supporters raise clenched fists on Wednesday as they sent an urgent petition against China to the United Nations Committee on economic, social and Cultural Rights.

Korea test flight first FA-50 fighter jet for PHL

BusinessMirror news@businessmirror.com.ph A4

Economy

briefstrade dept recommends filing of raps

against unscrupulous bakers, millersThe trade department will recommend to the National Bureau of Investigation the filing of profiteering and collusion charges against unscupulous millers and bakers who allegedly refuse to lower the prices of bread and flour. At a news briefing on Wednesday, Trade Undersecretary for Consumer Protection Group (CPG) Victorio Mario A. Dimagiba said the trade department has strong suspicions that there may be collaboration between millers and bakers to keep prices high. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has recommended two cases of profiteering, one for bakers and millers, and a third case of collusion for both.   The trade official maintained that wheat prices have gone down almost 28 percent from the January-to-April period of 2015, and that prices of bread and flour should reflect this decline. The DTI-CPG group said it has sent its third and final letter to 12 bakers and 16 millers last week requesting sales invoices from bakers and explanation from millers. Of the 12, seven bakers responded. Of the 16 millers, five did not respond. Catherine N. Pillas

bill strengthening govt scholarship programs hurdles bicam–angaraA BICAMerAl conference committee has reconciled on Tuesday the Senate and the house of representatives’ versions of the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary education (UniFAST) Act, which seeks to improve efficiency of, and ensure equitable access to, student financial-assistance programs.  “We’ve been filing this bill since my days in Congress and we welcome that this measure is finally nearing passage. I thank the good sponsors, Sen. Pia [Cayetano] and rep. [roman] romulo, for working tirelessly to come up with the best version of this landmark legislation,” Angara, principal author of UniFAST, said.   “With UniFAST in place, we can finally make sense of all the money the government gives for education—to give it more direction, and make sure that the country really benefits from public funds being spent in the field of education,” he added. Among the amendments that the bicam committee has agreed on is the prioritization of the beneficiaries under the Iskolar ng Bayan Act.   Under the Iskolar ng Bayan Program, the top-10 graduates of every public high school is entitled to admission to state universities and colleges of their choice within their province, without having to pay for first-year tuition and miscellaneous fees. Recto Mercene

asia’s taipans set meeting with duterte today

The Department of energy (DOe) has laid down the guidel ines for the sub-

mission of bilateral contracts among Interruptible Load Pro-gram (ILP) participants. Department Circular 2015-06-0003 provides the interim man-ner of declaring bilateral contract quantities (BCQ) in the Wholesale electricity Spot Market (WeSM) and directing the Philippine elec-tricity Market Corp. (PeMC) to establish necessary protocols to complement the ILP. In a nutshell, the circular is in-tended to complement the energy Regulatory Commission’s (eRC) Resolution 5, which expanded the scope of ILP to include contestable customers (CC), directly connected customers (DCC) and the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines. “Basically, the DOe circular allows for the accommodation and WeSM market treatment in the event ILP is activated. This serves as the instruction for PeMC and framework as well,” energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla said when sought for comment. The circular states that trading participants, which deliver elec-tricity pursuant to bilateral con-tracts with CCs and/or DCCs that participate in the ILP and those bilateral contracts to be accounted for in the WeSM settlement as bilateral contracts quantities of the distribution utility (DU) that implemented the ILP, shall submit the schedule of bilateral quantities of the said CC or DCC. “The schedule of bilateral quan-tities in favor of participating CCs or DCCs for intervals when the ILP was activated maybe submitted no later than seven days from the end of the relevant  trading day,” the DOe said. The DOe, likewise, directed PeMC to formulate the protocols to allow for the transparent adjustment of the WeSM processes during  the implementation of the ILP. “PeMC shall submit to the DOe a report on the implemen-tation of ILP, particularly on the impact of the extended bilateral contract quantities declaration to WeSM processes, not later than one month after the final settlements have been issued following activation of ILP,” the circular stated. The agency said it will assess the impact of the implementation of the ILP on the WeSM. Lenie Lectura

preparing for the rainy days An elderly woman shops for an umbrella at a sidewalk stall in Quiapo, Manila, on Tuesday following the weather bureau’s announcement of the start of the rainy season. AlysA sAlen

By Recto Mercene

AS the government embarks on a building and shopping spree this year, it should

make sure that completed infra-structure projects meet specifica-tions and, likewise, require contrac-tors to repair defects or refund the government for money spent. Sen. Ralph Recto said the gov-ernment should start implement-ing the anti-lemon provision in the Government Procurement Reform Act, which effectively puts a war-ranty on all goods procured by government agencies. Recto said that the “no return, no exchange policy” does not apply on government purchases as the said law, or Republic Act (RA) 9184, mandates suppliers to replace sub-standard goods or face court cases, penalties and blacklisting. “Kung meron, halimbawa, piyesa sa MRT [Metro Rail Transit] train na palpak, kelangan palitan ng supplier. O kung ang bagong footbridge ay ge-gewang-gewang kaagad, obligasyon ng kontratista na ayusin iyon [If, for example, an MRT part is defective, it should be replaced by the supplier, or if a new footbridge is unstable, it’s the obligatioin of the contractor to repair it],” Recto said.

“This means newly built roads which show cracks, new class-rooms which soon develop roof leaks, or irrigation canals which are tattered with holes not long after they have been inaugurated should be repaired by the contrac-tor,” Recto said. Under RA 9184, which the civil service uses as the bible for pro-curement, even official supplies, car parts, appliances bought for the gov-ernment must pass quality testing. If an item is found defective or substandard, the law requires the purchasing unit to demand a replacement from the supplier, he explained. “If a car plate gets easily crumpled, or the color of the numbers fades soon, then the replacement clause in RA 9184 can be invoked once it established that it is not the fault of the end user. “even textbooks riddled with mistakes or lemon lab equipment or substandard hospital beds must be returned and replaced,” Recto said. If the contractor or supplier refuses, he will be banned from join-ing any future bidding for govern-ment contracts, which should be the least of his worries because he will also be hailed to court for violating procurement rules.

According to Recto, the strict implementation of the warranty provision in RA 9184 will deter the construction of substandard infra-structure and the delivery of supplies made of inferior quality. “To ensure that the government has something to hold on to during the trial period of a delivered good or project, the latter must be covered by a performance bond, which can only be withdrawn if the said good or project has proven its worthiness,” Recto stressed. This year the national govern-ment is buying an estimated P63 bil-lion worth of supplies and materials. The 2015 national budget has al-located P437 billion for the construc-tion of various public works. On top of this is the local govern-ment infrastructure spending of P78 billion, while government corpora-tions have programmed P47 billion.

By Lenie Lectura

The energy department has approved the solar-power projects of the Lopez-led en-

ergy Development Corp. (eDC) in the Visayas and Mindanao. The department has approved eDC’s solar project in Bago, Negros Occidental,  but the company was ordered to submit additional require-ments relative to its declaration of commerciality and compliance with the milestone approach. The department also approved the Murcia solar project of eDC, also in Negros Occidental. The project is undergoing pre-devel-opment activities. eDC also received approval for the President Roxas solar-power project in North Cotabato, which is also presently undergoing pre-development activities. eDC officials earlier said the company is looking at 100 mega-watts (MW) to 150 MW of solar-power projects in the medium term as part of its diversified renewable-energy portfolio. erwin Avante, eDC vice presi-dent for corporate finance, earlier said the challenge for solar power projects is simply making it work. “That’s the aspiration for the so-lar company in the medium term. But it all depends on the FiT [feed in tariff] if it’s still feasible for us,” Avante said. eDC owns a 4-MW solar project in

the same area of its 150-MW Burgos wind project in Ilocos Norte. “The challenge to make it work [solar expansion is that] you need to have the perfect formula, which is high irradiance, good site close to a transmission line and cheap land,” Avante noted. “It seems that a lot are postur-ings but let’s see how it ends up. The panels more or less will give you the same level of efficiency so, I think, the battle now is where we can harvest more solar resources,” he said. eDC President Richard Tan-toco said other countries subsi-dize solar-power generation, but the Philippines is facing different challenges aside from the P8.69-per- kilowatt FiT rate. “For us, we have to factor in things that the others do not. For example we have so much taxes and we need to build our own transmis-sion lines. In other projects in Chile when they are built, it’s the govern-ment that builds to them and the cost of land acquisition is different,” he said. Avante, meanwhile, added that the Burgos wind project has one of the best solar and wind resources. “With the flat area that is already available, that would [translate to] 30 MW in Burgos.” The existing 4.1-MW solar project can generate a full-year revenue of P50 million to P60 million,” he said.

Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) executive Director Carmelo L. Arcilla said the Philippine air panel will meet on July 6 to deliberate on the possi-bility of negotiating for more traffic rights with the Middle east, assur-ing that the government will listen to the arguments of the Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific.

“The government is considering the talks, and we are deliberative, so we will hear out the opinion of local airlines. But, at the end of the day, the government will still decide whether to pursue this or not,” he said in a phone interview. he explained that competitors Cebu Pacific and PAL are jointly op-

Thursday, June 25, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

posing the air talks, given that there is no need for additional flights. “They said that there is already an abundance of flights to the Middle east,” Arcilla said. Cebu Pacific Spokesman JR Mantaring said his company is not totally in opposition of the talks, but reminded the government that it should optimize first the current frequencies before getting new ones. “Given the significant increase in capacity over the past year, Cebu Pacific believes that a new round of air talks with the UAe should not be held until all available Manila-use entitlements are fully utilized by Philippine carriers, who are ready, willing and capable of operating routes to the UAe, including Cebu Pacific,” he said in a text message. Under the the air-services agree-ment between the Philippines and the UAe, each nation is given the privilege to operate 28 flights per week between

Manila and the states under the Ara-bian bloc. The entitlements of the Philip-pines are held by PAL with 14, its sister carrier PAL express with seven and Cebu Pacific with seven. Gulf carriers emirates and etihad Airways equally share the coefficients of the UAe. Top officials of gulf car-rier emirates earlier said the Dubai-Manila route has remained unders-erved since the airline’s third daily flight was suspended in December. emirates currently operates twice-daily flights between Dubai and Ma-nila. It’s third daily flight was sus-pended after PAL refused to renew its code-share agreement with the Middle eastern aviation company. The UAe is the Philippines’s third-largest trading partner in the Middle east, with agricultural products, manufactured textiles and packing wares among the top exports to the Middle east.

PAL, Cebu Pacific oppose planned air talks with UAE

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

The government is mulling over the prospect of further liberalizing air-traffic rights with the United

Arab emirates (UAe), but local carriers are not too keen on the proposal, as this will give gulf carriers a competitive edge against homegrown airlines.

Energy dept OKs EDC solar-power projects in Visayas and Mindanao

ASIA’S business leaders, who belong to an association called Asian CeOs, will meet Davao City Mayor rodrigo r. Duterte in Makati City today (Thursday) to hear the story of the transformation of the southern city from a murder capital to one of the world’s safest cities. The captains of industry of Asia have sought the face-to-face dialogue with Duterte to know if the business-friendly policies implemented in Davao City could be adopted as national policies when he becomes president of the Philippines. The Asian Chief executive Forum will be held at the Makati Diamond residences, a new five-star complex at the heart of Makati City on legazpi Street just across Greenbelt shopping malls. Under the stewardship of Duterte, Davao City has implemented a “72-hour Processing Period” for all business transactions where business permit applications are released within 72 hours from the time these are submitted to the city government.

DOe releases guidelines for IlP bilateral contracts  

Recto presses strict implementation of anti-lemon clause in procurement

RECTO: “Even textbooks riddled

with mistakes or lemon lab

equipment or substandard

hospital beds must be returned and

replaced.”

The european Union (eU) is expected to announce at 6 p.m. today (Thursday) the result of

its assessment of the country’s air carriers through a phone patch by eU officials in Brussels during a news conference to be conducted at the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) headquarters in Pasay City. The eU safety assessment team that visited the Caap is composed of the european Commission, the european Safety Agency and member-states of the eU. After a three-week study, the eU is reported to be ready to divulge the names of the airlines that have passed the safety assessment. In April this year, a group of eU delegation came over to the Philippines to assess the safety systems of Philippine air carriers still on the list of carriers banned from

flying over the skies of europe. Some of the airlines who joined the inspection to be able to fly to europe are AirAsia Inc., AirAsia Zest, Air Philippines Corp., Island Aviation Inc. Magnum Air (Skyjet Airlines), South east Asian Airlines and South east Asian Airlines International. Only Philippine Airlines(PAL) and Cebu Pacific Air are out of the eU’s list of airlines that fail to meet international aviation standards. The eU also checked if the Caap had already addressed the previous problems in the air industry. In 2010 the eU banned Philippine carriers from flying to europe after the Philippines failed to comply international safety standards. The country gained back its Category 1 rating last year, allowing PAL to mount flights to europe. Recto Mercene

The WIR 2015 showed that the Philippines has attracted some $6.0 billion worth of FDI in 2014 from $4.0 billion in 2013.

This lifted the country’s rank-ing in east and Southeast Asia from 10th highest FDI recipient in 2013 to rank nine in 2014. The Philippines advanced Macau in WIR 2015 which the latter ranked 10th with $3.0 billion worth of FDI inflows.

The UNCTAD report said China remained the highest recipient of FDIs in 2014, amounting to $129 billion followed by hong Kong with $103 billion.

The country’s Asean neighbors that topped the Philippines in terms of attracting FDI in 2014 were Singapore, $68 billion; Indo-nesia with $23 billion; Thailand, $13 billion; Malaysia, $11 billion; and Vietnam, $9.0 billion.

South Korea’s FDI inf lows amount of $10 billion in 2014 ranked seventh in east and South-east Asia.

For east Asia alone, the region’s FDI inflows in 2014 increased by 12 percent to $248 billion.

On the other hand, Southeast Asia has attracted FDI worth of $133 bil-lion in 2014, which went up by 5.0 percent over a year.

“Combined FDI inflows to east

and Southeast Asia grew by 10 per-cent in 2014, despite a slowdown in economic growth, to reach to a historical high of $381 billion,” UNCTAD’s WIR 2015 said.

The report added that global FDI inflows in 2014 declined by 16 percent to $1.23 trillion brought by fragility of the global economy, policy uncertainty for investors and elevated geopolitical risks.

PNA

news@businessmirror.com.ph Thursday, June 25, 2015 A5BusinessMirrorEconomy

EU to announce result of safety test on PHL air carriers today

PHL among top 10 FDI recipients in East, Southeast Asia–UNCTAD

The Philippines is one of the top 10 foreign direct investments (FDI) recipients in east and Southeast

Asia regions, the World Investment Report (WIR) 2015 of United Nations Conference on Development and Trade (UNCTAD) said on Wednesday.

CUSTOMeR of the Manila electric Co. (Meralco) may receive their July bills on a much later date as it awaits

the regulator’s issuance of an order allowing the utility firm to implement a lower tariff.

“We are currently studying how long the start of billing can be delayed, but we hope that we can get guidelines from the regulator by around July 10,” said Meralco Utility economics head Larry Fernandez on Wednesday.

Meralco filed on June 10 an application before the energy Regulatory Commission (eRC) to implement a lower distribution rate of P1.39 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Meralco was targeting to have this imple-mented in July but it could not do so until the eRC gives its green light.

The eRC strictly observes the 30-day rule, in which an application for any rate adjustment should be filed at least one month before the intended date of im-plementation. As such, Meralco should have filed its application before June if it wanted to implement the lower adjust-ment starting July.

Meralco sends the billing to its more than 5 million customers in batches. “To-wards the end of the first week, we issue the bills for the first batch which com-prises about 200,000 to 250,000. The bills usually start to come out around the fifth day of the month. If and when we receive the order from the eRC the delay would hopefully be a couple of days to a week,” company Spokesman Joe Zaldariaga said.

The planned P1.39 per kWh temporary

tariff is 10.4 percent less from the current distribution, supply and metering charges.

The proposed 10.4-percent reduc-tion, if approved, will be applied across all customer classes of Meralco. This translates to the following reductions in the total bill of residential customers at varying consumption levels: 200 kWh-P52; 300 kWh-P89; 400 kWh-P134; and 500 kWh-P201.

Meralco said the lower rate it is ask-ing for is the result of the removal of the second regulatory period (RP) under-re-covery-component which formed part of the average distribution prices approved by the eRC in Meralco’s Final Determina-tion for the third RP.

Meralco clarified that it will be un-dergoing a reset process for the fourth RP under the Performance-Based Regulation (PBR) rate setting methodology. Pending the issuance of applicable rules that would govern the fourth RP reset filing, it will be implementing an interim rate, effective upon approval by the regulator.

According to Meralco, the distribu-tion-related components of the electric bill have not changed since July 2014 and are lower than the rate in the same period last year. Together, the overall distribu-tion charge accounts for only 17 percent of the average customer bill. The rest are pass-through.

Meralco said that it has sought a pro-visional approval from the eRC so that it may immediately apply the lower charges to its customers. Lenie Lectura

Consumer advisory: Expect late delivery of July power bill

SAFETy FIrST Construction workers use body harnesses to ensure their safety while installing steel bars to serve as concrete posts of a high-rise building under construction at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City. PNA

Thursday, June 25, 2015

OpinionBusinessMirrorA6

Kicking the transfat habiteditorial

IN a long-awaited step, the United States Food and Drug Admin-istration (FDI) last week set a 2018 deadline for the American food industry to stop using the artery-clogging transfats that are the nation’s leading cause of heart disease.

The FDA has known for years that transfats lead to higher risk of heart attack and death, and that they have no health benefits. The real question is, why it’s taken the government so long to act. By finally banning these harmful substances, the agency has put the nation on track to save thousands of lives a year, as well as an estimated $140 billion in health-care costs over the next two decades.

Transfats, which are manufactured from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, rarely occur in nature. They were invented around a century ago as less-expensive substitutes for butter, beef tallow and lard than the main dietary fats in use. Since then, transfats have found their way into a wide variety of processed foods, from cake frosting, baked goods and coffee creamers to micro-wave popcorn and stick margarine. They’re often used to enhance the taste or texture of products, but they’ve also been found to increase levels of “bad” cholesterol in the body while lowering “good” cholesterol—hence their association with coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke.

Food manufacturers had already begun to reduce their reliance on transfats in certain prod-ucts in 2013, when the FDA issued a preliminary finding that partially hydrogenated oils were not “generally recognized as safe.” The agency announced at the time that it would hold public hearings on the matter to determine whether any amount of transfats in foods was safe for consumption. The announcement last week came after investigators determined that even trace amounts of the substance posed serious health risks.

Over the last decade manufacturers have cut the amount of transfats in their products by 78 percent, according to the FDA. Under the agency’s new rule, that level must now decline all the way to zero over the next three years, after which food companies will have to petition the government for a special exemption from the rule by showing that their products are safe to consume. Since the FDA has already determined that no amount of transfat can be considered harmless, most experts believe it’s highly unlikely such appeals will be successful.

Until then, the biggest problem consumers will face may be figuring out which of their favor-ite foods on the shelves still contain transfats, and what products they can substitute for them. Manufacturers have been gradually replacing the transfats they once used to give their offer-ings a distinctive taste or texture with other ingredients, so consumers won’t necessarily notice any sharp differences between the newer, healthier versions of the products that will be on the shelves and the processed foods they’ve been buying up to now.

Restaurants like McDonald’s and other national fast-food chains have eliminated transfats from their fried-food menus over the years. Moreover, the benefits of a healthier diet will show up at customers’ doctor’s offices in the form of lower cholesterol and blood-pressure levels, and reduced risk of illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, liver damage and Alzheimer’s disease, all of which are associated with eating transfats.

Because the FDA’s rule won’t go into effect for another 36 months, food manufacturers will have plenty of time to tweak their products, and officials expect the change will cause minimal disruption to the industry. It’s a relatively rare occurrence when government regulators and private industry find themselves able to work cooperatively on a public-health issue in which they both have a huge stake. But they seem to have pulled it off this time. What they’ve come up with is a plan that’s good for business, good for consumers and good for the nation’s health-care system.

The Baltimore Sun editorial

SITTING at the back of a recent investment conference, I listened as one of our local stock-market experts opened the floor for questions. Predictably and almost on cue, an attendee raised

a hand and asked if the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) would continue its six-year bull run, “assuming that there are no negative external developments.”

SAMSUNG is giving South Korea’s National Pension Service an offer it can’t refuse: Support the nation’s biggest conglomerate in its fight against a foreign hedge fund, or else.

Stock-market game theory

Samsung has South Korean investors in its pocket

The speaker replied after a mo-ment of thought that it “was a very good question.” He went on to talk about the domestic economic situa-tion, how companies that had a posi-tive fundamental trend would be the issues to buy, as they would continue to go higher and that all was good in PSE-land for the long-term uptrend.

He sounded very smart and knowledgeable, and the questioner was most satisfied with the answer.

Actually, it was not a “good ques-tion.” In fact, the question was to-tally useless.

A genuine stock-market and eco-nomic analyst I know reacted this way. “That question is like asking a forestry expert how big a tree can grow if there aren’t any storms, droughts, fires, blights, lightning, insects, or anything else that can stop a tree’s growth. The correct an-swer is, “Really big.” But the “right”

answer is, “Who cares?”I spend my working day advising

people about stock-market strate-gies. You do not need my advice if the stock-market world is operat-ing in a perfect paradise, where we can assume “there are no negative external developments.” Likewise, what good can I offer for a dooms-day scenario like a multinational shooting war in the South China/West Philippines/Really, Really West California Sea?

The real world is usually some-where on the ruler between paradise and doomsday often moving toward either end, but not quite getting to the extreme. The stock-market ad-vice that we need is: Where are we on the ruler, and how should we be react-ing to the movement on that path.

It is never a matter of predicting the future—as I keeping saying—but figuring out what to do “if” a

particular scenario unfolds.I wanted to ask the expert if con-

tinuing to “peso-cost average” my stock buying made sense if China fires on a Japanese airplane flying over the Ayungin Shoal. Now, that would have been a good question.

We seem to want to know what to do in the event of a major earth-quake, for example. But, when it comes to something similar for the stock market, most investors—and experts—seem to prefer to leave it all in Divine Hands.

The biggest problem for stock investors, though, is that there are not that many major earthquakes where it is obvious that dramatic ac-tion needs to be taken quickly. Philex Mining Corp. was priced at about P28 per share just four years ago. Now it is selling at about P6.

The stock price has continued to deteriorate, but it was not in a straight line. Further, the earnings had been growing continuously until 2014. The government occa-sionally said that a resolution to the mining industry-tax rules was soon to come. But every investment strategy, other than “sell and run away as fast as you can,” would have lost you money to this point. The only “benefit” of “peso-cost averag-ing” the price is that you would now own a lot more losing shares. Other examples of this are Belle Corp. and Eastwest Bank.

Using Game Theory, stock-market investing is like a game of “chicken,”

where two drivers race their cars head-on toward each other. If nei-ther swerves away, they crash. If one swerves, he is considered a “chicken” and the loser.

Obviously, investors are not play-ing chicken against another person. But they are playing against the re-ality that prices go down faster and easier than they go higher.

Because the loss of swerving is so small compared to the crash, the rea-sonable strategy would be to swerve before the crash or to take a smaller price loss. But what actually happens is that both parties believe that the other will turn away—because it is the sensible thing to do—and each holds on to the deadly end.

The stock-market equivalent of that strategy is embodied by the following thoughts. “The price will eventually go back up.” The company is still making money, and has sound fundamentals.” “The economy is good.” “The price being down means it’s a bargain.” “It’s only a correction.”

However, “chicken” is not the only game played on the stock market. Other popular favorites are “Catch a Falling Knife” and “Bottom Fish-ing for Basura [trash].”

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

OUTSIDE THE BOXJohn Mangun

BLOOMBERG VIEWWilliam Pesek

The Lee family that rules Sam-sung wants affiliate Cheil Indus-tries to take over Samsung C&T at a price far lower than investors like New York-based Elliott Associ-ates say it’s worth. Elliott is rallying support to block a deal it alleges is less about good business than the children of hospitalized CEO Lee Kun-hee wanting to solidify their claims to the company’s throne. As the biggest shareholder in Samsung C&T, with 10.15 percent of common shares, the state-run NPS arguably has the final say.

On the merits, the NPS should vote “no.” The mission statement of South Korea’s largest investor—its “principle of public benefit”—gives it a responsibility to promote better

corporate governance. That requires working to reduce the influence of the Lee family, which has lorded over Samsung for decades, at the expense of the company’s stock valuations.

But NPS is almost certain to side with Samsung—and for reasons that sum up everything that’s wrong with Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

NPS is already in far too deep with the Lee family. In addition to its ownership of Samsung C&T shares, it holds stakes in at least 11 other Samsung affiliates, worth $18 bil-lion. That means that what’s good for the Lees—including a low pur-chasing price for C&T—is good for NPS’s returns, and vice versa. To be fair, no one outside Chairman Choi Kwang’s inner circle knows how NPS

will vote at the July 17 extraordinary general meeting. But the extent of NPS’s involvement with Samsung suggests Choi will have little choice but to back the Lee family.

President Park Geun-hye, for her part, has done little since her election 28 months ago to rein in Korea’s family-owned conglomer-ates, the so-called chaebol. Her plans to empower small and midsize en-terprises, tighten antimonopoly laws, and tax-excess cash hoards haven’t gone farther than the draw-ing board. And when the economy slowed, Park actually turned to the very magnates she pledged to cur-tail to ask for their help boosting the economy. It’s entirely possible she will turn to the chaebol anew, as the fallout from South Korea’s outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) continues to slam retail sales and tourism.

(Even here there’s a Samsung con-nection. On Monday [June 22] heir apparent Lee Jae-yong apologized after one of the company’s hospi-tals was identified as a source of the MERS outbreak that has killed at least 27 people in the country. Surprised to hear Samsung owns hospitals? You shouldn’t be.)

The Samsung name, meanwhile, has arguably become the global face of the South Korean economy. That’s why lawmaker Kim Ki-sik is so worked up over Samsung’s brawl with Paul Elliott Singer’s hedge fund, which Kim sees a litmus test for global confidence in the country. “Samsung’s reaction so far has been disheartening in that it doesn’t seem to have put in much effort to convince its shareholders of the validity of the merger,” Kim, an activist-turned-legislator, tells Bloomberg News.

If Samsung succeeds in merging two of its units under such question-able circumstances, it would send a terrible message. Other chaebols will be sure to follow the Lee family’s ex-ample. The Lees, too, would surely feel emboldened to see what else they could get away with. As these family affairs play out, global investors, who already assign lower valuations to South Korean companies than their peers in other countries, might begin leaving the South Korean economy entirely. Meanwhile, the biggest do-mestic investment pools would get in even deeper with the chaebol.

It would be a heartening surprise if NPS said “no” to Samsung. Sadly, it has 18 billion reasons to say “yes.”

Thursday, June 25, 2015

OpinionA7BusinessMirroropinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Grief turned into relief

The Lord is to be extolled, for he delivers from the netherworld, and he turns mourning into dancing and his goodwill lasts throughout life (Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13). The synagogue

official and the woman with bleeding both believed in Jesus, and he turned his mourning and her grief into rejoicing and relief (Mark 5:21-43).

You changed my mourning into dancingThe psalmist promises to praise and thank the Lord before the assembly for delivering him from the peril of death, the netherworld, the pit. The Lord snatched him clear as though out of a grave. The enemies who would have threatened his life and rejoiced at his descent to the neth-erworld could have been an illness or a misfortune or death itself. But God intervened and spared him. The psalmist invites the faithful ones to join him and extoll God as well and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger lasts but for a moment, his favor however throughout life. With the Lord “weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

With insistent, threefold plea, the psalmist turns again to God and prays and begs for the divine mercy to continue for him: hear me! Be gra-cious to me! help me! The psalmist

reminds or argues with God that he has already in his graciousness changed his mourning into danc-ing, his sorrow into rejoicing. The psalmist hopes then that God’s lov-ing kindness will continue in his regard. The Lord can be counted on to come to the help of those who cry for assistance. And so the psalmist intends for his part to give thanks to the Lord without ceasing.

Be cured in your afflictionThe gospel account’s two inter-twined stories of life and death both end with the manifestation of divine mercy and power in Je-sus Christ. On the way to the offi-cial’s daughter who is at the point of death, Jesus has an encounter with an unknown woman who has been suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years and for whom physical cure has not worked. In fact, finan-cial collapse has compounded her physical malady, which makes her

an outcast. The woman has heard about Jesus and she has developed an openness to him. Of her own ac-cord she gets near him and touches his cloak, believing that a minimal contact with Jesus would be suffi-cient to bring her divine help.

And it happened. Both Jesus and the woman know it: Divine power has gone out and has been taken in. But Jesus wants the saving work of divine mercy made conscious and public; he asks: “Who has touched my clothes?” It is to enable her to come forward and acknowledge the “whole truth.” In fear and trembling before the divine presence, the woman falls down before Jesus and speaks of the whole truth about her communion of consciousness with Jesus. And Jesus completes the truth by highlighting her spiritual identity: She is a suf-fering “daughter” of God and her faith is her salvation. he pronounces her cured of her affliction and tells her to go in peace, returning her to the community.

I say to you, ariseThe synagogue official Jairus has asked Jesus to lay his hands on his very sick daughter. Jesus is most will-ing to accommodate: the young girl of 12 is also God’s daughter threat-ened by death. Synagogue officials are critics of Jesus whom they look upon with disapproval for not ob-serving the Sabbath strictly and for consorting with people who do not measure up to the purity code. But the man’s love for his dying daughter made him seek out Jesus and falling

at his feet repeatedly to plead with him to come to their assistance. In his desperation he acknowledges that God works through the hands of Jesus.

The girl dies before Jesus could get to her. But divine healing is more than just physical cure. Jesus knows that divine love can turn death into sleep, and one who sleeps can be awakened. he tells Jairus just to have faith. But he sends away the people who venerate death with loud wailing and ridicule him for saying that the girl is just sleeping. In the presence of her parents, Jesus takes the young girl by the hand saying, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” And he returns her to her family.

Alálaong bagá, one stronger than death is now among the people, ac-cording to the psalmist, one who can turn mourning into dancing. Openness to Jesus is the key to access divine mercy. The ailing woman was convinced that God’s unsolicited love is in Jesus and a mere touch of the hem of his cloak would suffice. Jairus, his wife and the followers of Jesus too needed to have the interior disposition in order to be part of the manifesta-tion of God’s power and goodness victorious over death. It is in Jesus’ own death and resurrection that this saving love would be fully re-vealed and not until then.

Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio-streaming on www.dwiz882.com.

AlálAong BAgáMsgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr.

Dynasties are harmlessBy Jamelle Bouie | Los Angeles Times/TNS

hILLARY RODhAm CLInTOn is the front-runner in the Democratic presidential primary, and Jeb Bush is a front-runner in the Republican one. And although there is a lifetime

of politics between now and the next election, there’s a good chance that, on november 8, 2016, Americans will choose between a Bush and a Clinton for the second time in 25 years. We could have our third Bush presidency or another turn for the Clintons.

Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act

SenATe Bill 2669, also known as the Tax Incentives management and Transparency Act (Timta), was voted favorably on its third reading. This is aimed to promote fiscal

accountability and transparency in the grant and management of tax incentives availed businesses.

By Andrew Zimbalist | Los Angeles Times/TNS

WhY isn’t Sepp Blatter in Canada?Blatter, the Fédération Internationale de Football

Association (Fifa) president who said he would step down in the wake of a corruption scandal, likes to take credit for the global growth of women’s soccer over the last two decades. In an interview with the BBC, he even described himself as the “godfather” of the sport.

The bill introduces the concept whereby the incentives adminis-tered and implemented by various investment-promotions agencies (IPAs), such as the Board of Invest-ments (BOI), Philippine economic Zone Authority, Bases Conversion and Development Authority, Subic Bay metropolitan Authority, Clark Development Corp., John hay man-agement Corp., Poro Point man-agement Corp., Bataan Technology Park Inc., Cagayan economic Zone Authority, Zamboanga City Special economic Zone Authority, Philip-pine Industrial Authority, Aurora Pacific economic Zone and other government agencies (OGAs) shall be strictly monitored. The amounts of the tax incentives granted to registered business entities shall be reported in the Tax Incentives Information (TII).

In the TII, the aggregate data re-lated to incentives availed of by reg-istered business entities and quali-fied individuals shall be reported. Once implemented, the registered entities and private individuals shall submit annual report to the respec-tive IPAs and OGAs, where they are registered. In the report, they will have to state the amount of tax in-centives availed of for the year and other relevant information that may be required, such as project profile, employment, investments made, and taxes and licenses and fees paid. An-nual reports submitted by the regis-tered entities and private individuals shall be consolidated in the TII. The failure of a registered entity or a pri-vate individual to file the reportorial requirements shall be a ground for suspension of the incentives being enjoyed for a particular taxable year. The suspension of incentive may be a harsh penalty though. Instead of a suspension, imposition of fines may be reasonable considering that the same information are already avail-able in other reportorial or filing requirements, such as in the income-tax returns and audited financial reports filed with the Securities and exchange Commission and the Bu-reau of Internal Revenue.

meanwhile, the house of Rep-resentatives also passed house Bill 5831, which is also titled Tax In-centives management and Trans-parency Act. however, unlike the

Senate bill, the reportorial require-ments imposed upon the registered entities and private individuals are more strict. Unlike the Senate bill, the house bill provides that in order for the registered entities to avail the income-tax holiday and other tax incentives with the BOI and other IPAs, the entity must apply within six months from the statutory deadline for the filing of tax returns. Other-wise, this will result in the forfeiture of the incentives for the same tax-able period.

The Timta is part of economic reform which the government is aiming for vis-à-vis public account-ability and transparency, since these incentives granted by government promotion agencies constitute loss or reduction from revenue collec-tions. In addition, it will help the government analyze and rational-ize the fiscal costs, and to optimize the economic and social benefits of these incentives.

This article is for general infor-mation only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal or financial advice on any spe-cific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported therefore by a professional study or advice. Atty. Julie Ann L. Aranda is a senior associ-ate of Du-Baladad and Associates Law Offices, a member firm of World Tax Services Alliance. To reach the author of this column: e-mail Atty. Julie Ann L. Aranda at julie.aranda@bdblaw.com.ph or call 403-2001 local 312.

But he has yet to appear for a sin-gle game of the women’s World Cup in Canada. Indeed, he has not even dispatched his chief lieutenant, Fifa General Secretary Jerome Valcke, to attend. By contrast, both Valcke and Blatter were in Brazil for the entirety of the 2014 men’s World Cup.

Despite his godfather claims, Blatter has nothing to do with the surging popularity of the women’s game. True, he once urged the play-ers to wear tighter shorts—a ploy to grab the attention of a potential male audience—but they wisely ignored his advice. Blatter’s absence reflects Fifa’s not-so-benign neglect of the women’s World Cup.

Fifa’s latest annual financial report touts the $5.7 billion it brought in during the 2011 to 2014 quadrennium. Although the 2011

women’s World Cup in Germany contributed significantly to this sum, you wouldn’t know it from reading the report; it sounds like every last penny came from the men’s 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Given that Fifa does not explic-itly recognize the women’s World Cup’s financial contribution to its coffers, it is not surprising that the women get the short end of Fifa’s prize money. According to the BBC, the total prize money offered to the men’s teams in the 2014 World Cup was $576 million; the total that will be offered to the women’s teams in 2015 is $15 million. Do the math: The men’s prize money is 38.4 times larger than the women’s.

For more evidence of unequal treatment, look no further than the ground on which the players compete.

TAx lAw for BuSineSSAtty. Julie Ann l. Aranda

Women’s soccer owes little to FifaThe men’s World Cup is played on grass. But for the women’s World Cup, Fifa said Canadian venues could use artificial turf. The women protested, to no avail.

Fifa even succeeded in creating some bad publicity for the women’s games by manipulating attendance figures. each of the contests dur-ing the group stage in Canada took place as part of a doubleheader. Fifa counted the number of tickets sold to each doubleheader twice, artificially inflating the true figure.

nevertheless, the Canadian Soc-cer Association has experienced very strong demand for tickets and expects to sell close to 1.5 million seats before the competition ends.

Anyone who doubts the appeal of women’s soccer needs to know that it was the women’s World Cup final between the US and China in 1999 that reaped the highest US TV ratings of any soccer match ever, at-tracting 11.4 percent of US television households. In a distant second was the men’s 2014 World Cup match between the US and Belgium at 9.8 percent.

Perhaps Blatter would like to take credit for the 1999 ratings re-cord, even though he became Fifa’s

president just a year earlier. more properly, the credit should go to Title IX—the federal law that pro-hibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded edu-cation program—to charismatic players such as mia hamm and Ju-lie Foudy, and to soccer’s escalating popularity among young athletes in this country.

There is, at least, one hero of the women’s game within Fifa: Sunil Gulati, the president of US Soccer. After the failure of two women’s professional soccer leagues, first by poor design and second by the great recession and a weak financial model, Gulati committed millions of dollars from US Soccer to found the national Women’s Soccer League in 2013. US Soccer has spent over $10 million so far in supporting the league.

US Soccer covers the league’s front-office expenses, its television costs and the salaries of all the na-tional team players. It is now run-ning two marketing campaigns to promote the women’s World Cup.

Women’s soccer, internationally and in the US, does not need Blatter. It needs leaders like Gulati and the positive attention from the media that it richly deserves.

To many Americans, this is trou-bling. Last year, former First Lady Barbara Bush said that “there are more than two or three families that should run for high office in Ameri-ca.” Sixty-nine percent of Americans agree with that statement, according to a 2014 poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal.

This march, in another NBC News/WSJ survey, 39 percent of voters said they would think more or somewhat more favorably of a candidate whose last name was not Bush or Clinton. Similarly, a majority said that electing hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush would represent a return

to the policies of the past.There’s no denying that the status

quo—of a White house claimed by one or the other family—is unusual, and I won’t criticize anyone disturbed by a pattern of “Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Bush” or “Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Clinton.”

But I also don’t think it’s as bad as it looks. Observers have called this a “dynastic” election. This headline from a January edition of The New York Times, is typical: “Are Two Dy-nasties Our Destiny?”

“Dynasty” might apply to the Bush family. Indeed, Jeb Bush, in his announcement speech, described

himself as “a guy who met his first president on the day he was born and his second on the day he was brought home from the hospital,” before de-claring that “not a one of us [presi-dential candidates] deserves the job by right of resume, party, seniority, family or family narrative. It’s no-body’s turn.” But that term doesn’t apply to the Clintons. hillary Clinton neither came from a political family nor joined one. Instead, she entered politics as a partner to Bill, and after two decades as a political spouse, set out on her own career, first as a sena-tor, then as a presidential candidate, then as a top diplomat, and now—again—as a presidential candidate.

Given the degree to which she’s built her career in tandem with her husband’s, Clinton isn’t a dynastic candidate as much as she’s a tightly connected one.

For some, of course, this is a dis-tinction without a difference, which is why it’s important to note that na-tional political dynasties are a recur-ring part of American life.

The first father-son presidential duo, in the 19th century, was John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, the second and sixth presi-dents of the US. The harrison fam-ily also produced two presidents, William henry and Benjamin. The Breckinridges dominated Kentucky politics and sent senators, house members and a vice president to Washington. Two other antebellum presidents—John Tyler and Franklin

Pierce—came from distinctly politi-cal families.

The 20th century brings more familiar names: Theodore Roosevelt and his cousin Franklin Roosevelt; William howard Taft, his son Sen. Robert A. Taft, his grandson Sen. Robert Taft Jr., and his great-grand-son, former Ohio Gov. Robert Taft III. most famously, there’s the Ken-nedy clan. The fact that dynasties are normal—that Senate seats and governorships and presidencies have moved between and within families with ease—may be alarming (Amer-ica isn’t especially meritocratic) but it’s also mostly harmless.

American democracy wasn’t stronger after two Adams presi-dencies in quick succession, but it wasn’t weaker, either. Besides, despite the frequency of dynas-ties, the vast majority of powerful positions in national politics go to people who aren’t connected to political families.

One last point. George W. Bush was a very different president than

his father, and if elected, hillary Clin-ton will be a different president than her husband. hillary faces a differ-ent Democratic Party than Bill did, and has to make different choices for different ends. The same is true for Jeb and the Republican Party. Their surnames aside, neither is “more of the same.”

When you vote for president, you’re voting for an administration of bureaucrats and assistants and a whole host of appointees. What matters most is the party and its network of operatives, activists and policymakers, not the individual at the head of that party.

If Clinton had won in 2008, her ad-ministration would have looked a lot like the one Obama put together. And on the same score, a Jeb Bush White house probably wouldn’t look too different than a Scott Walker White house or a marco Rubio White house.

The aesthetics of another Clinton or Bush presidency don’t look great. But optics have little bearing on what either candidate would do in office.

George W. Bush was a very different president than his father, and if elected, Hillary Clinton will be a different president than her husband. Hillary faces a different Democratic Party than Bill did, and has to make different choices for different ends. The same is true for Jeb and the Republican Party. Their surnames aside, neither is “more of the same.”

The Timta is part of economic reform which the government is aiming for vis-à-vis public accountability and transpar-ency, since these incentives granted by government pro-motion agencies constitute loss or reduction from revenue collections. In addition, it will help the government analyze and rationalize the fiscal costs, and to optimize the economic and social benefits of these incentives.

A8

2ndFront PageBusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.phThursday, June 25, 2015

  Global growth this year was seen “soft and uneven” at the recent World Economic Outlook report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at only 3.5 percent this year, in terms of the gross domestic product, and 3.8 percent next year.   The so-called economic pow-erhouses as Germany and France, among others, were seen moving in divergent directions.  “The recovery in the US could boost the country’s external bal-ance through export receipts and remittance inflows. However, this could be moderated by the growth outlook for the European Union and Japan, as well as the relatively subdued prospects in EMEs, par-

ticularly China,” the central bank said. The final item pertains to emerging market economies.  “In addition, the global econ-omy could enter a new mediocre era should the current low-growth conditions persist, which could drag down external demand in the me-dium term,” the IMF added.   In the first three months this year, the Philippines reported below-consensus growth of just 5.2 percent, attributed to low govern-ment spending and weak export numbers during the period.   Aside from emasculated exports, slow and uneven global growth was also seen impacting on capital flows, the BSP said.

SENATE VOTE MOVES TPPTO BRINK OF ENACTMENTPresident Barack Obama’s long-

pursued trade agenda took a giant step toward becoming

law on tuesday, and opponents grudg-ingly conceded they now must fight on less-favorable terrain. A key senate vote greatly bright-ened Obama’s hopes for a 12-na-tion Pacific rim trade agreement, a keystone of his effort to expand Us influence in Asia. the trade pact would be a high point in a foreign policy that has, otherwise, been consumed by crisis management, and would give Obama a rare legisla-tive achievement in the republican-controlled Congress. the senate voted 60-37 to advance his bid for “fast-track” negotiating au-thority. that was the minimum num-ber of votes needed on the procedural question. But final passage, expected no later than Wednesday, needs only a simple majority, which would let Obama sign fast-track into law. the president also wants to con-tinue a retraining program for work-ers displaced by international trade. the House and the senate support appears adequate, but even if that measure stumbles, the long-coveted fast-track bill will be on Obama’s desk. “this is a very important day for our country,” said Mitch McConnell, a top republican Congressman. the big majority of democrats, es-pecially in the House, the lower cham-ber of Congress, oppose free-trade agreements (FtAs), as do the labor

unions that play important roles in democratic primaries. they say FtAs ship Us jobs overseas. Obama, major corporate groups, republican leaders and others say Us products must reach more global markets. they say anti-trade forces have exaggerated the harm done by past FtAs. Previous presidents have enjoyed fast-track authority. it lets them pro-pose trade pacts that Congress can reject or ratify, but not change or block. Obama wants to complete ne-gotiations for the 12-nation trans-Pacific Partnership (tPP). Members include Japan, Mexico and Canada. He would ask Congress to ratify it, following weeks or months of pub-lic scrutiny that will give opponents another shot. several such organizations said they will regroup and fight on. For all the bitter politics over trade, many economists say new trade agree-ments like the tPP might affect the Us economy only modestly. Jobs lost to trade might be roughly offset by jobs created, they say. still, Obama and others say greater Us assertiveness on world trade will lessen China’s influence in Asia and elsewhere. Obama says China could eventually join the Pacific rim pact, but China would have to abide by its environmental, economic and work-place rules. White House spokesman Josh ear-nest praised the vote. AP

BSP concerned over unevengrowth in top export markets

By Bianca Cuaresma 

The uneven pace of growth in coun-tries around the world, particularly in developed economies, are a threat

to the country’s economic expansion that could impact the country’s exports, as well as cause volatilities in the local financial markets.

SM Prime eyes Asean markets for expansion PrOPErTy firm SM Prime

Holdings Inc. plans to ex-pand into Southeast Asian

markets, like Thailand and Ma-laysia, to seize the opportunities offered by the forthcoming Asean economic integration. SM Prime COO John Ong an-nounced plans to expand outside the Philippines and China during

an investors’ conference organized by the Bank of Philippine Islands. “Apart from China, because there is certain affiliation in China, but we continue to accept, we continue to receive invitations in other Asean countries like Thailand and Ma-laysia. So we continue to entertain those opportunities and we look at synergy,” Ong said.

He said they are looking to ex-pand within the business segments the conglomerate is engaged in, par-ticularly malls and residences. “We continue to entertain those opportunities. We would definitely entertain [these] and we would be glad to go to other areas in the Asean region,” he added. With the establishment of an

Asean Economic Community (AEC), the region will be characterized by free movement of goods, services and investments, as well as freer flow of capital and skills. The Asean groups Indonesia, Ma-laysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thai-land, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Lao PDr, Myanmar and Cambodia.

Continued on A2

  “Against the present global out-look, a key challenge to the Philip-pine economy is the downside risks to external demand, which could affect the country’s export activity

as growth in advance economies re-mains uneven,” the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said in latest report on the economic and financial devel-opments in the country.