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PHL stock index seen to end year at 8,600 level

LOCAL BROKERAGE firm COL Financial Group, Inc. is “cautiously optimistic” that the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) would end the year at the 8,600 level, as it expects inflation to further slow down and the peso to strengthen against the US dollar.
During a media briefing in Ortigas Center on Monday, COL Financial officials said inflation is seen to have peaked last year and will continue to fall this year, which may put an end to interest rate hikes by the central bank and increase consumers’ confidence to spend.
“Although there are reasons why we should be optimistic about this year, I feel like we have to be cautiously optimistic, I feel like the upside is capped,” COL Financial Chief Equity Strategist April Lynn C. Lee-Tan said during the briefing.
On Monday, the PSEi closed flat at 8,053.92.
Ms. Lee-Tan identified several risks that may hinder the growth of the PSEi this year, the first being the “twin deficits” — the budget deficit and the current account deficit. She noted the “twin deficits” will “limit the peso’s strength and interest rate decline.”
“Our current account is actually in the deficit because of the importation of a lot of capital goods, and if the government will pursue the “Build, Build, Build” program, we will continue to see a high level of budget deficit and current account deficit to continue,” Ms. Lee-Tan said.
She also flagged an expected slowdown in investment and government spending this year, due to the delay in the passage of the 2019 national budget and the election ban. Other risks include a “worse than expected” global economic slowdown, and tighter global liquidity conditions.
“We’re just expecting the market to go back to the mean. Mean reversion lang [only]… So that’s just our expectation of the market,” Ms. Lee-Tan said.
COL Financial expects banking, consumer, cement, and airline sectors are expected to rise this year. Mixed outlook is seen for property, power and telecommunications sectors. — Denise A. Valdez

Quezon City is most searched location on Lamudi

PROPERTY SEEKERS consider Quezon City as the top location when looking for houses, apartments, land and foreclosed properties, according to online property marketplace Lamudi.
In its report “The Digital Property Seeker Series 2019: 2018 Real Estate Market Overview,” Quezon City emerged as the most searched location in the following categories: house, foreclosed properties, land, and apartment.
For the house category, Quezon City accounted for 21% of the visits on Lamudi, more than double Parañaque City, which was in second place with 10%. They were followed by Las Piñas City (6.41%), Pasig City (3.83%), and Cebu City (3.07%).
“Those choosing to set up their residence in these areas could easily access the vastly improved public transportation network promised by the BBB (Build, Build, Build),” Lamudi said.
Among the major infrastructure projects in Quezon City are the first phase of the Metro Manila Subway Project at Mindanao Avenue, Tandang Sora and North Avenue, in Quezon City, and the Manila Metro Rail Transit System Line 7 (MRT-7) that would run from San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan to North Avenue in Quezon City.
For foreclosed property, Quezon City also topped the search category with 7% of the sessions, followed by Dasmariñas City (5.57%), Bacoor City (4.18%), Las Piñas City (3.30%), and Imus (3.16%).
Lamudi said the interest in foreclosed properties in several cities in Cavite “shows that investors are considering locations in different parts of the country.”
For lots, Quezon City was still the most searched location on Lamudi, followed by Tagaytay City, Antipolo City, Santa Rosa City, and Davao.
Lamudi noted apart from Quezon City, many property seekers are looking at investing in land outside of Metro Manila.
“While it is not conclusive, these searches could be in response to the government’s initiatives to decongest Metro Manila,” it added.
Quezon City also dominated the sessions made for apartments accounting for 24.71%, followed by Makati City (11.95%), Manila (7.53%), Cebu City (5.42%), and Pasig City (6.01%).
“It generally implies that apartment living in metropolitan areas would naturally rank high in this category. Apartments are a less costly alternative to houses and in some cases, condos. It is a logical choice for those who are living and working in major metropolitan areas,” Lamudi said.
For condominiums, Makati took the top spot, accounting for 17.8% of the sessions made on Lamudi. It edged Quezon City (15.37%), Taguig City (10.91%), Manila (11.68%), and Mandaluyong City (10.68%).
“It is no surprise that Makati occupies the number one spot. The city is home to the country’s premiere business district. Office workers could simply walk to their workplace from their condo. What is revealing about this data is the placement of Quezon City at number two. The increased conveniences of public transport has made it easier to come from this location with the MRT and LRT lines intersecting in Cubao, a main junction,” Lamudi said. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

Which components of the Philippine economy contributed the most to its growth in 2018?

Which components of the Philippine economy contributed the most to its growth in 2018?

East-West Seed tops 2019 SSEA index

East-West Seed topped the 2019 South and Southeast Asia (SSEA) Seed Index, which evaluates seed companies in terms of their accessibility, especially to small farmers.
“We are extremely honored by this achievement. East-West Seed has always been synonymous with serving smallholder farmers since it was founded in 1982 and it is evident in everything we do to this day,” East-West President and Chief Executive Officer Bert van der Feltz said in a statement.
Netherlands-based Access to Seeds Foundation launched the second index, which evaluated 24 companies that operate in South and Southeast Asia.
In the first seed index in 2016, East-West Seed ranked first in the Global Vegetable and East Africa indices.
Access to Seeds Foundation Executive Director Ido Verhagen said the evaluation is necessary to see where companies should improve in order to serve farmers better.
“Seed companies play a key role in supporting smallholder farmer productivity. By measuring and comparing their performance, companies can see where improvements can be made to serve farmers better. Research agencies or investors interested in reaching smallholders use our research to identify companies to partner with,” Mr. Verhagen said.
According to Access to Seeds, East-West Seed demonstrates leadership as it has a breeding program for a large number of crops. The foundation stated that East-West Seed’s “high score in Seed Production can be attributed to its collaboration with smallholder farmers, who account for 95% of its production.”
East-West Seed distributes seeds for carrot, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, lettuce, melon, okra, pepper, pumpkin, squash and tomato.
“We see a growing attention for enabling small farmers to cope with the effects of climate change. This makes the Index very timely because seed companies play a key role in delivering new tools and technologies in the hands of smallholder farmers,” Coosje Hoogendoorn, senior research lead of Access to Seeds, said.
“Findings presented by the Index feed the dialogue on how the seed industry can support a growing food production in the world while remaining within planetary boundaries and reduce climate change impact,” she added. — R.J.N. Ignacio

How PSEi member stocks performed — January 28, 2019

Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Monday, January 28, 2019.

 
Philippine Stock Exchange’s most active stocks by value turnover — January 28, 2019.

Growth by elections and FDIs by PSA liberalization

At the UP School of Economics Alumni Association (UPSEAA) sponsored “Economic Briefing” on Jan. 25, the speakers were DBM Secretary Benjamin Diokno and NEDA Secretary Ernesto Pernia. My former teacher in undergrad and graduate economics, Sir Ben Diokno said in his presentation that with high GDP growth in 2017 and 2018, “Duterte hit the ground running.”
During the open forum, I said that with growth of 6.9%, 6.7% and 6.2% for 2016 to 2018 respectively, it should be called “Duterte hit the ground screeching and decelerating.” Compared to the ASEAN 6, our neighbors have flat lining or increasing growth, only the Philippines has a declining growth. Sir Ben said we should not include 2016 in the analysis because it was an election year and all election years have higher growth than the following years.
I checked the numbers and I found that he is partly right, and partly wrong because we should include those election years in our analysis. Below are growth rates for Philippine election years 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, and the respective years after them (See Table 1).
Table1 Oplas
The above numbers show that (1) In 2007, All 10 economies had higher growth than 2008 because the latter was the start of the global financial turmoil that started in the US; (2) In 2010, again all 10 economies had higher growth than 2011 because 2010 was a recovery year after the 2008-2009 economic turmoil; (3) In 2013, all 10 economies except Vietnam and S. Korea had higher growth than 2014; (4) In 2016, all 10 economies had lower growth than 2017, except the Philippines.
In short, since 2016 was a bad year in the region compared to 2017, Philippine growth should have retained if not surpassed the 6.9% growth, but the opposite happened.
I sustain my statement in my column last Friday, that Dutertenomics is lousy in its macroeconomic management. Rising taxes, rising inflation, rising interest rates, and declining growth.
One saving grace that Dutertenomics can do to help reverse this bad trend is to ensure legislation of investments liberalization, foreign direct investments (FDI) especially since these will bring in more foreign capital and technology to blend with local capital and technology in serving local market and labor force.
FDI election
We have the lowest FDI inward stock among the important East Asian economies. We have low volume of air passengers (many of them, from domestic flights) and port container traffic, in TEU, 20-feet equivalent units (See Table 2).
Table2 Oplas
We need to liberalize the entry of more foreign airlines and shipping lines because we are outside the Asian mainland and we are an archipelago with many detached islands.
There are bills in Congress now amending the Public Service Act (PSA, 1936). That 83-year- old law has many sectors listed as “public utilities” and the 1987 Constitution prohibits foreigners from owning more than 40% equity for these utilities.
In these congressional bills — HB 5828 (passed on Third Reading) and SB 1754 (still a Committee Report) — telecommunications and transportation will be lifted out of the list of “public utilities.” This means foreign investors can own perhaps up to 100% equity in telecoms, shipping lines, airlines, and possibly bus lines.
Last December, my family suddenly changed plans and decided to travel to Iloilo. By then airfares were 2x, up to 4x their regular rates. We need more competing airlines or more planes per existing airline to have more flights on peak travel season, more planes require more investments.
So I decided to drive the car via RORO ships again. The problem is waiting for many hours in the ports. We need more competing shipping lines or more boats per existing shipping company. More big boats require more investments.
If FDI and PSA liberalization are done by law before the term of the current Congress is finished, it will be a big boost for Dutertenomics and help pull the economy upwards in the next three years.
 
Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the president of Minimal Government Thinkers.
minimalgovernment@gmail.com

Where is the Philippines in Global Hunger in ASEAN?

What is the score of global hunger in ASEAN?
The Global Hunger Organization just released its 2018 results. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) has four indicators:

• Undernourishment: the share of the population that is undernourished (i.e., whose caloric intake is insufficient);

• Child wasting: the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (i.e., who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition);

• Child stunting: the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (i.e., who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition); and

• Child mortality: the mortality rate of children under the age of five (in part, a reflection of the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments).

“A GHI value of 0 would mean that a country had no undernourished people in the population, no children younger than five who were wasted or stunted, and no children who died before their fifth birthday. A value of 100 would signify that a country’s undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting, and child mortality levels were each at approximately the highest levels observed worldwide in recent decades. (https://www.globalhungerindex.org/).
Table1 Dy
Table2 Dy
Table3 Dy
This comparison will hopefully alert policymakers and politicians on the extent of hunger in the Philippines. The analysis focuses on ASEAN countries with large populations – Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar. Peru was added as comparator as it has a great record in hunger reduction.
OVERALL
In the past 18 years, Myanmar led with a massive decline in GHI between 2000 and 2018, followed by Vietnam. Thailand was next. Indonesia and the Philippines had the highest GHI in 2018, followed by Myanmar.
UNDERNOURISHMENT
Indonesia and the Philippines had the highest degree of undernourishment. Myanmar and Vietnam recorded a rapid reduction from 2000 to 2018.
CHILD WASTING
The Philippines had the highest index among six countries. Myanmar and Vietnam led in the reduction.
CHILD STUNTING
Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar had the highest severity. Indonesia, surprisingly, posted an increase in stunting since 2000.
CHILD MORTALITY
Myanmar had the highest mortality, followed distantly by the Philippines, and Indonesia. Myanmar also posted the largest reduction, followed by Indonesia. Malaysia already posted a low value since 2000.
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PHILIPPINES
The Philippines has a long way to go in reducing hunger. A key contributory factor to hunger is poverty. Low income and high food costs generally limit food quantity and quality intake. The Philippines had a far higher incidence of poverty of 21.6% compared to its neighbors: Malaysia (0.4%), Vietnam (7%), Thailand (8.6%) and Indonesia (10.6%). Myanmar posted 32.1% (Asian Development Bank).
First, since two thirds of all poor come from the farm and fishery sectors, Philippine government policies and programs must address income-raising crop productivity and diversification as well as nutrition. Second, stakeholders can learn from Peru’s experience.
Peru has achieved a good record. Between 2000 and 2018, its GHI decreased to 8.8 from 20.9, unmatched by the ASEAN countries. For example, between 2007 and 2014, stunting among children under the age of five fell from 29% to 14%. The government ministries, regional governments, health professionals and NGOs worked together to reduce child stunting caused by chronic undernutrition. The first 1,000 days in a child’s life are crucial. Children need good nutrition if they are going to develop to their full potential.
(This article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the Management Association of the Philippines or the MAP.)
 
Rolando T. Dy is the co-vice chair of the MAP AgriBusiness Committee and the Executive Director of the Center for Food and AgriBusiness of the University of Asia & the Pacific.
map@map.org.ph
rdyster@gmail.com
http://map.org.ph

Channeling ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in the workplace

“Bohemian Rhapsody” dominated the airwaves and the movie theaters for several months. My curiosity prompted me to watch the biopic movie of the Queen’s legendary frontman. The music, the lights, especially Rami Malek’s portrayal of Freddie Mercury, made me listen to their music for months. Rami’s portrayal was so real and authentic! He truly deserves his Golden Globe Best Actor Award.
Perhaps Queen’s staying power can be associated with how they shaped their art, similar to the way they coined “Bohemian Rhapsody.” After all, they were bohemians — socially unconventional persons, especially involved in the arts. The ecstatic feeling and unrelenting enthusiasm of these unconventional artists allowed the group to enjoy fame and adulation that are only reserved for the greatest of artists.
After watching the film, I kept humming and listening to “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It helped me shake away stress at work and cope with seemingly snail-pace traffic. Then, as I repeatedly went through the music and the lyrics, it suddenly dawned on me — the song’s message can captivate not only casual listeners, but also business managers as well. I was inspired that the song can be related to workplace success.
Bohemians are risk takers, the go-getters — those can both apply and break the disciplines of creativity and imagination.
The workplace also needs its employees to work in rhapsody, an ecstatic expression of feeling or enthusiasm, to succeed. Enthusiastic employees tend to be more productive since they work with passion and determination, and strive for excellence. They demonstrate a positive attitude in the office. They are able to build healthy relationships which promote collaboration and cooperation. Freddie Mercury was very passionate about his craft, that is why he became very successful and was able to overcome all of life’s hardships.
rock
In music, a rhapsody is a one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated, free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, color, and tonality. Rhapsody means embracing diversity and working together to achieve a common goal. Contrasted moods, color and tonality may symbolize disagreements and conflict in the workplace, and like Queen, team members may clash and arguments may arise. Freddie Mercury left the band to further nurture his personal career. After failed collaborations with other musicians, he realized that his band mates complemented his talent and brought out the best in him. Mending the relationship was not easy, but in the end, they realized they had a common goal of creating great music and making an impact in the industry. They were able to reunite, continue their rhapsody, and came back stronger.
Furthermore, as they continued their musical journey, they eventually realized that their music was not just about earning money and being famous; it was also about using their talent to take part in nation-building and to uplift the marginalized sectors of society. Queen’s performance during Live Aid was Freddie Mercury’s legacy that is forever etched in the hearts and minds of fans and the people they helped. In business, this translates to corporate social responsibility since the traditional concept of organizations as solely profit-making machines has been replaced by the need to also consider social and environmental impacts.
Finally, a rhapsody in music is also referred to as an air of spontaneous inspiration and a sense of improvisation. Musical improvization is the creative activity of an “in the moment” musical composition. This represents flexibility and adaptability in the workplace. To perfectly harmonize, one must be sensitive and attentive to the emotions and musical direction of their fellow musicians as improvization uses no music sheets, standards or patterns. In organizations, teams must be sensitive to the feelings, opinions and perspectives of all members to achieve harmony and cooperation. It should also be able to easily adapt and be flexible to the external environment; as in improvisation where the next note to be played is unknown; no one can predict with certainty the behavior of the market.
Freddie Mercury and Queen are legends as their life story and songs present many learnings and realizations inside and outside the music industry. As the lyrics Freddie sang, “carry on, carry on,” it is up to us, those who continuously appreciate their music and sing their songs, to live out these learnings and make sure that the legacy of Freddie and Queen would live on.
 
Angela Marie K. Miravite is a Master in Business Administration student at De La Salle University. She works for a global Quick Service Restaurant brand under its Business Development Group.
angela_marie_miravite@dlsu.edu.ph

Why we queue

By Geronimo L. Sy
IT is a life of queues if you believe me. From the time we queue in our mom’s womb to await our order of birth, to the end when we wait for our turn at the cremation chamber or the procession to the cemetery, it is always a line-up. Either earlier, or later or right on the dot, it doesn’t matter. We start and end with lines anyway.
So why the frustration with the queues at the airports, the MRT/LRT stations, the UV express terminals, the entries to carparks? Why the constant complaints over lines at the DFA, LTO, and the delays in shipments and clearances? Why the desperation in traffic in all our cities, congestion in court cases and held-up of business permits?
A queue is in the natural order of things. Any living organism or dynamic system allows for a state when there is not always a perfect match of services and providers. Either people who want or need the service waits, or the providers are increased to a point where it is not economically feasible. Then the entity collapses. The basic questions are distilled to three:
One, is the wait reasonable? Society functions on the assumption that we are all rational and hence reasonable, beings even if experience teaches us otherwise. When ordering at a fastfood counter, the availability of the next burger is counted in 5 to 10 minutes. When calling for pizza takeout, the standard seems to be 30 minutes. Otherwise, the delivery boy pays for the price of the pizza.
In church and lining up for communion, 15 minutes is the maximum period from chapels to cathedrals. When buying tickets for movies or concerts, 15 minutes is already long unless it is a blockbuster.
We don’t hear about catastrophic queues from these examples. Nobody dies of hunger or from lack of entertainment or boredom.
How long do we wait for a page to load? In the Philippines, this can take minutes when internet speeds are now reckoned in milliseconds. How long to a document from the bureaucracy? If it is your own personal document, the waiting time is days and weeks. If it is related to business, it is weeks to months.
How long is the line to enter NAIA? How long are the lines for immigration and x-ray checks? I leave it up to the readers to determine what is reasonable. The citizenry may not mind crowded spaces if the queues move fast. But if the queues are queuing, this is no longer reasonable. When one has to line up along steep, unsafe and unclean stairs to buy an LRT token, line up again for security purpose, line up again to insert the token, line up again to wait for the overflowing carriages, line up again to enter to find breathing space, line up again to get ready to exit, line up again to insert token, is it reasonable?
This is equally true for businesses when they operate — queuing at customs, at City Hall, by the road before the window period, and for BIR to close a case. People may not die but the damage to incomes and livelihoods and injury to efficiency and competitiveness are real.
This is specially true for the string of cases in court. Imagine final decisions that are made 30 years after the dispute arose? The simplest cases take at least one year to resolve. As a result, properties lay idle, infrastructure decays, accounts emptied and peace of mind corroded.
Two, there are ways to manage queues. There is a field of study called queuing theory. To illustrate, Hong Kong airport uses one, single queue that snakes to immigration. It may be visually daunting upon arrival but going through it is not a pain in the neck. Singapore airport adopts the multiple lines one for each counter and it is always a breeze. Different queues for different conditions.
There are other methods like assigning a queuing supervisor, a triage guy, signage indicating the estimated waiting time, feedback on the service, use of automated gates and at the very least, adequate space and ventilation. Sadly, all of these are absent here.
Three, are the queues natural? Intervals are part of nature. Patience is a virtue. But the situations above are all made by and imposed by man. The queuing times even make the dangerous assumption that one has all the requirements (original, certified, photocopy, reasonable or not), and that there is no extortion or corruption. The assumptions are wrong and these kill slowly.
What is the solution to unnatural queues? Even as we understand the reason for the existence of lines in society, it is not inevitable that life in this country is a life of unreasonably tiring, wasteful and expensive queues. This requires another time.

Peso weakens slightly

THE PESO declined a tad on Monday as the dollar recovered from heavy selling over the weekend following the reopening of the US government after a one-month shutdown.
The local unit ended Monday’s session at P52.57 versus the greenback, 3.5 centavos weaker than the P52.535 finish last week.
The peso opened the session slightly higher at P52.51 per dollar, climbing to as high as P52.38 intraday. It slid to as low as P52.58 against the US currency.
Dollars traded thinned to $886.07 million from the $1.015 billion that switched hands the previous session.
Traders interviewed yesterday said the peso started strong in the morning session before swinging to close near its intraday low.
“The peso is just tracking the dollar move as the dollar recovered in the afternoon session from the aggressive selling seen over the weekend,” a trader said in a phone interview.
Another trader said the peso weakened as the greenback appreciated on the back of the “passage of a stopgap bill to partially end the US government shutdown.”
On Friday, President Donald J. Trump agreed to end a 35-day partial government shutdown without securing the $5.7 billion to fund the southern border wall.
The first trader added that the market is cautious as participants await economic developments overseas, which include the US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting.
“For the week, [the peso] will likely track the region given market expectation that the Fed would retain its dovish bias going forward,” Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa, senior economist at ING Bank NV-Manila, said in a report.
For today, the first trader expects the peso to trade between P52.45 and P52.65 versus the dollar, while the other gave a P52.40-P52.70 range. — K.A.N. Vidal

PHL stocks end flat ahead of US-China trade talks

THE MAIN INDEX ended flat at the close of trading on Monday amid global fears over the US-China trade war, but still remained above the 8,000 mark.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained a measly 0.72 points or less than a percent at the start of the week to close at 8,053.92 on Monday. The broader all-shares index likewise climbed just 2.76 points or 0.05% to end at 4,856.38.
Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis A. Limlingan said the tame activity was influenced by the effect to markets of the reopening of the United States government after a 35-day shutdown and anticipation of earnings reports of big foreign firms this week.
“Philippine investors started the week on a rather neutral note as markets breathed a sigh of relief the US government re-opening, and as the big names abroad gear up for corporate earnings,” Mr. Limlingan said in a mobile message.
The US government ended its partial shutdown on Friday as US President Donald J. Trump approved a three-week bill to fund the government until Feb. 15. This led US markets to rally at the end of last week.
Diversified Securities, Inc. Equities trader Aniceto K. Pangan agreed, saying the ongoing US-China trade war, among other challenges, continued to hound market activity in the Philippines.
“Locally, we continue to maintain high overnight interest rates after an increase of 175 basis points, high inflation rate from the range, awaiting 2019 budget approval while global still on trade war leading to slow growth,” Mr. Pangan said in a text message.
Gabriel Jose F. Perez, sales associate at Papa Securities Corp., noted how the local market was able to rise up to 90 points in the morning for an intraday high of 8,143 but failed to maintain this until the closing bell.
Sectoral indices were divided, with the ones in the green led by services, which rose 30.54 points or 1.93% to 1,611.54. It was followed by financials which increased 16.15 points or 0.88% to 1,840.89; and mining and oil which climbed 63.46 points or 0.75% to 8,519.82.
Ending in the red were the holding firms counter, which shed 53.96 points or 0.68% to 7,873.63; industrials, which was down 45.44 points or 0.38% to 11,733.02; and property which lost 9.02 points or 0.22% to 4,004.18.
Some 1.68 billion shares were traded for a value turnover of P9.13 billion, more than the previous session’s P7.88 billion.
Decliners outnumbered advancers, 108 to 102, while 44 names closed unchanged. Foreign investors were net buyers on Monday with P2.27 billion, higher than Friday’s P1.09 billion.
Diversified Securities’ Mr. Pangan said the global issues affected this turnout.
“Market continued its profit-taking by local investors after a strong start with foreign investors at more than P2.2 billion net foreign buying as challenges continued to hound the global market,” he said. — D.A. Valdez

DILG backs bill outlining salary structure for barangay officials

THE Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has expressed its support for a bill filed by Senator Aquilino Pimentel III which seeks to classify barangay employees as regular government employees with fixed salaries and benefits.
“It is only fair to recognize their vital role in carrying out the government’s basic services down to communities,” said Interior Secretary Eduardo M. Año in a statement on Sunday, Jan. 27.
He added, “Most of the national government’s efforts require the support and involvement of barangays and so barangay officials should get the same benefits of regular government employees.”
The Magna Carta for Barangays proposes that a punong barangay should get a salary equal to that of a sangguniang bayan (municipal council) member of his municipality or city, while sangguniang barangay (barangay council) members should receive a salary equivalent to 80% of the salary of their sangguniang bayan members.
As for Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) chairpersons, barangay secretary, and barangay treasurer, they should be entitled to take home an equivalent of 75% of the salary of their sangguniang bayan members.
However, Mr. Año clarified that the salary grade and the rate of the mandatory share of barangays requires consultations with the Department of Finance and leagues of local government units to check if the 25% share of barangays are sustainable.
“In principle, we support Section 11 of the Magna Carta for Barangays on the 25% share of a barangay in all its real property tax collections. But as we know, anything that has to do with monetary policy has to be carefully vetted,” the Interior Secretary said. — Vince Angelo C. Ferreras

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