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Bill renewing FBS Radio franchise filed at House

A BILL renewing the broadcast franchise of FBS Radio Network, Inc. for another 25 years has been filed at the House of Representatives.
House Bill 8617, if enacted, will extend the Network’s franchise, granted in 1995 and set to expire in 2020.
“The continued operation of FBS Radio promotes healthy competition amongst the participants in the industry,” Sponsor Rep. Cecilia Leonila V. Chavez of the Butil partylist said in the explanatory note.
The FBS Radio Network carries the branding 94.7 Mellow, formerly 94.7 Mellow Touch, and targets urban professionals.
It covers Metro Manila, Cavite, Bulacan, Rizal Laguna, and Batangas. Its broadcast also reaches Pampanga, Tarlac, Bataan and Nueva Ecija.
The measure will allow FBS Radio to continue “to construct, install, establish, operate and maintain radio and television broadcasting stations in the Philippines.”
The bill requires FBS Radio to provide adequate public service time, and sets a maximum of 10% paid commercial time. It is banned from broadcasting obscenity and indecent language, among others.
The network cannot transfer or sell its franchise to other entities without the approval of Congress.
FBS Radio is required to submit an annual report to Congress as part of the terms of the franchise. — Charmaine A. Tadalan

Oct. debt service bill falls 14% on reduced principal payments

THE GOVERNMENT debt service bill declined 14% year-on-year to P29.18 billion in October, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.
The October total also fell 24.38% from September.
The bureau said the government’s principal payments fell in October, more than offset the increase in interest expenses.
Of the total debt service bill, 83% or P24.02 billion was for interest payments, which grew 17.55% year-on-year.
Principal payments meanwhile declined 61.81% to P13.52 billion that month.
Overall debt service in the 10 months to October was P649.72 billion, up 5.33% from a year earlier.
This is equivalent to 88.55% of the programmed P733.74 billion debt service budget for the year, based on the latest Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF) document.
Amortization payments accounted for 54.54% of the total, or P354.38 billion, which grew 2% year-on-year. Interest payments meanwhile amounted to P295.34 billion, up 9.63% from a year earlier. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

Philippines looking forward to WTO agreement against fishing subsidies

By Janina C. Lim and Reicelene Joy N. Ignacio
Reporters
THE PHILIPPINES is looking forward to a pending World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement to eliminate fisheries subsidies, saying that such a deal would protect the country’s coastal waters from overfishing.
“As an archipelagic nation, with coastal communities and fisherfolk that rely on marine resources for food and livelihood, it is in the Philippines’ national interest that multilateral disciplines are in place to curtail fisheries subsidies that contribute to IUU fishing, overcapacity, and overfishing,” Ambassador Manuel A.J. Teehankee, Philippine Permanent Representative to the WTO, told BusinessWorld in an e-mail interview.
The WTO’s goal is to meet the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 14.6 which calls for a prohibition on certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminating subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and refraining from introducing new such subsidies, by 2020.
Target 14.6 also recognizes that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiations.
At a Dec. 14 meeting of the Negotiating Group on Rules, heads of WTO delegations expressed their intent to intensify negotiations on fisheries subsidies in the new year to meet the end-2019 target for an agreement, a multilateral commitment scheduled for the January-July 2019 work programme the Negotiating Group recently agreed upon.
In an interview, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Regional Fisheries Office No. V Officer-in-Charge Ariel Urbano Pioquinto said the agency is against granting fishery subsidies and firm in opposing harmful fishing methods.
Mr. Pioquinto, who is the BFAR-designated Philippine expert at WTO meetings, said the country does not offer subsidies to the fisheries sector.
He said the extent of the government’s intervention is to build fish landing centers where fishermen can directly deposit their catch.
“It is a project of the government that can provide clear value in maximizing the benefits of their fishing efforts,” Mr. Pioquinto said.
“We have several fish landing centers in the Philippines to help small fishermen,” Mr. Pioquinto added.
In November, the BFAR and the Department of Interior and Local Government signed a joint memorandum circular to strengthen the implementation of the ban on bottom trawling within municipal waters, stating that bottom trawl method disturbs the seabed and destroys habitats through direct removal of biological and topographic features.
Violators which include the owner, operator, boat captain and master fishermen of the vessel, the chief executive officer of the corporation or the managing partner of a partnership controlling the boat, face confiscation of the catch and fishing gear and a fine thrice the value of the catch or the following value, whichever is higher:
• P20,000 for municipal fishing, but if the offender fails to pay, he should render community service;
• P50,000 for small-scale commercial fishing;
• P100,000 for medium-scale commercial fishing; and P500,000 for large-scale commercial fishing.
Upon conviction, the violator shall be imprisoned two to six years and fined the equivalent of twice the administrative fine, and confiscation and forfeiture of fishing gear and catch, according to the joint circular.
Meanwhile, WTO members have been urged by Washington-based Pew Charitable Trusts to implement the outcomes of the impending agreement.
“WTO Members will have to ratify a new agreement for it to enter into force. Once the agreement enters into force Members will have to start implementing the commitments undertaken in the disciplines. Disciplines set at the multilateral level in a forum such as the WTO set a starting point for nations to respond to unilaterally,” Isabel Jarrett, manager of Pew’s Reducing Harmful Fisheries Subsidies Project, told BusinessWorld in an e-mail interview.
“If rules are passed at the WTO to reduce harmful subsidies to the fisheries sector, member-countries will need to respond accordingly or face disciplinary action,” Ms. Jarrett added.
Pew has said that overfishing and other destructive fishing practices have severely decreased the world’s fish populations, noting that IUU fishing is estimated to cost the global economy more than $23.5 billion annually.
“Fisheries subsidies are one of the key drivers behind the decline in fish stocks. Around $35 billion in government subsidies flow from countries to their fisheries industries each year. Not all of these subsidies are necessarily harmful; however, the majority — approximately $20 billion — are used to defray costs for fuel, new gear, and vessel construction, allowing fishermen to travel greater distances for longer periods of time, even when the value of their catch would not otherwise support it,” Ms. Jarrett said.
“The greatest risk for WTO members is that they do not reach an agreement by 2020. Subsidies that enable overfishing and other destructive fishing practices will not be curbed, and our oceans — and the people’s livelihoods on which they depend — will continue to be under threat,” according to Ms. Jarrett.
The SDG goal 14.6 has a deadline of 2020.
As such, Pew is engaging all WTO members to assist in the negotiations which include technology transfer.
“In addition to eliminating harmful fisheries subsidies, sustainable management requires strong, science-based governance, greater transparency, and improved enforcement of policies, in the next coming years, Pew will be supporting governments around the world prevent overfishing by embedding precautionary science and requirements for the best available data into decision making, for example through work with regional fisheries management organizations to develop and adopt measures to prevent overfishing for 25 internationally-managed fish stocks,” Ms. Jarrett said.

Senate working on resolving data transmission bill issues

SENATOR Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV said the open access in data transmission bill still has a chance to be passed in the Senate before the 17th Congress ends if the committee on science and technology addresses the concerns of some senators on the proposed measure.
Committee chair Mr. Aquino said senators have raised queries “ranging from infrastructure to competition issues” on the proposed measure.
He said he will push for a consolidated bill in the next Congress if the Senate fails to pass the measure before 17th Congress adjournment.
“Our offices are currently seeing if the current version can address their concerns. If we come to agreement, this still has a chance to get passed in January,” he said in a text message to BusinessWorld on Friday.
“If not, we will push for a consolidated version come July,” he added.
The bill seeks to lift the barriers to entry in the data transmission industry by removing various requirements, such as the certificate of public convenience and provisional authority from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), as well as the congressional franchise, for entering the industry.
It divides the industry into four segments: the international gateway which connects to the Internet using the international submarine cables from various countries; the core or backbone network which distributes the data from international cables to Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao; the middle mile which connects to various provinces; and the last mile which delivers Internet services to end-users.
Mr. Aquino has said the passage of the bill will attract more entrants, which will then help drive prices down and improve the country’s Internet quality.
The bill was awaiting second-reading approval in the Senate while its counterpart measure in the House of Representatives, House Bill No. 6557, was approved on third and final reading on Nov. 21, 2017.
It has been identified by the Legislative Executive Development Council (LEDAC) as a priority measure.
Foreign business groups have been calling for several proposed measures filed in Congress, including the Open Access in Data Transmission bill, that will remove foreign investment limits in the telecommunications industry.
The Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines have also urged Congress to prioritize the passage of the bill as well as amendments to the Public Services Act, Foreign Investment Act, and Retail Trade Act before the 17th Congress ends. — Camille A. Aguinaldo

Tobacco industry still sees demand despite rising taxes

THE tobacco industry expects continued growth on sustained domestic and global demand despite plans to raise the excise tax on tobacco products to discourage consumption and fund the health sector.
“While high excise tax rates had a big impact on production figures and livelihood of our tobacco growers, this will not ‘kill’ the industry. As long as there is market demand for quality tobacco, our farmers will still continue to produce tobacco,” Robert L. Seares, Administrator of the National Tobacco Administration (NTA), told BusinessWorld in an e-mail interview on Tuesday.
“In terms of profitability, tobacco production is not yet a sunset industry. While there is still demand for quality tobacco in the global market, the agency is now focused on higher volume of exports due to the quality of tobacco leaves, particularly Burley, that local farmers can produce,” Mr. Seares said.
Increased tobacco taxes are pending approval, under the Comprehensive Tax Reform Package 2 and Senate Bills 1599 and 1605, which intend to fund the public health sector.
The House Ways and Means Committee approved in principle the measure increasing excise taxes on tobacco products by P2.50 annually until it reaches P45 in 2022, and by 4% every year thereafter.
Mr. Seares, despite saying that tobacco is not yet a sunset industry, said higher excise taxes will adversely affect farmers.
“Tobacco leaf production in the Philippines has been reduced to only 48 million kilos in 2017 from 65 million kilos five years earlier. Our five-year data (2013-2017) shows that the number of tobacco farmers and area planted to tobacco plunged by 40% to 34,465, and 43% to 22,704 hectares, respectively,” Mr. Seares said.
“Take note that excise tax rate has been going up since the passage of the Sin Tax Reform Law in 2012, diminishing tobacco production figures. With another more to increase tobacco sin tax, our tobacco growers are now faced with a more serious threat of losing their primary source of income,” he added.
Demand for cigarettes has declined since the increase in tobacco taxes, according to a study by Professor Myrna S. Austria and lecturer Jesson A. Pagaduan of De La Salle University (DLSU).
The study, “Assessing the Impact of the Philippine Sin Tax Reform Law on the Demand for Cigarettes” found that “the decline in cigarette consumption by smokers contributed more to the total effect of a cigarette price increase on demand than the decline in the number of smokers.”
The study said demand for tobacco has decreased due to the increasing sin tax as well as the existence of alternatives such as electronic cigarettes.
It also found that the current tobacco tax system is easier to administer and effective for the reduction of tax evasion as it imposes a uniform tax rate, and manufacturers cannot misclassify brands or under-declare their products to reduce taxes.
The tax system used to be four-tier in 1997-2012, then became two-tier in 2013, and unitary in 2017, and now will have a 4% annual increase effective 2018.
“To guarantee that cigarettes will continue to be less affordable, the policy goal is to ensure that the relative increase in price due to an increase in excise tax should be higher than the increase in per capita income,” the authors said in their conclusion.
“At the very least, the increase in excise tax should be either 4% as mandated by the law or indexed to the current inflation rate, whichever is higher,” it added.
NTA’s Mr. Seares said that raising tobacco excise tax is one of the most effective and cost-effective measures to reduce consumption, and that it favors the health sector as 80% of the incremental revenue will go to fund universal health care.
“Increasing tobacco excise taxes is a government measure to curb cigarette smoking for health reasons. The purpose really is to lower sales of the product, by decreasing cigarette consumption by increasing the price, and lowering demand for it,” Mr. Seares said.
“[W]e will continue to regulate the tobacco industry to promote a healthful environment for the benefit of the population, but we also have to ensure that the interests and welfare of the tobacco farmers are not adversely compromised,” Mr. Seares added.
Ariel T. Cayanan, Undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture, said that for as long as tobacco remains legal in the country, farmers cannot be stopped from planting it.
“I think the name of the game, not just in agriculture, is your capability to earn. The moment you lose, you can only survive for some time. The tobacco industry has been around for a long time,” Mr. Cayanan said in an interview on Wednesday.
“[Tobacco companies] say they are incurring losses, but who wants to continue operating with losses?” Mr. Cayanan said. — Reicelene Joy N. Ignacio

Top 10 economic news of 2018

This list and analysis is more focused on East Asia but a brief discussion of the US and global economy is also made. Here we go.
1. Despite rising world oil prices, US interest rates, and other external factors, the inflation rate in the region is declining or flatlining compared to the 2017 levels — except in the Philippines.
Well, some economies also have had higher inflation in 2018 vs 2017 but with rational explanations. China and Hong Kong’s inflation only returned to their 2016 levels, Thailand and Japan’s rose to 1% as they have had very low inflation over the past two years.
2. Malaysia experienced a big decline in inflation after it abolished the gross sales tax (GST) while the Philippines experienced a big increase in inflation after the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.
Malaysia’s GST went from 6% in May 2018 — Mahathir’s election promise — to zero in June. There were across-the-board price declines starting June. Meanwhile the Philippines’ TRAIN law imposed huge hikes in oil, coal, sugar, and tobacco taxes.
3. Despite adverse external business environments, many Asian countries experienced up-up, or down-up or up-down growth rates over the past two years — except the Philippines, which has had down-down growth rates in 2017 and 2018 compared to 2016.
Table1
4. On the so-called “trade war,” the US’ trade and current account (CA) deficit barely improved but the current account surplus of China and Hong Kong have significantly declined this year, implying that the US’ CA deficit is more structural while China’s CA surplus is more political.
5. India, Indonesia, and the Philippines are suffering from worsening CA deficit situations, implying that their merchandise and non-merchandise exports are becoming less competitive.
Table2
6. US interest rate hikes are significant compared to fellow industrialized countries like Japan, Germany, and the UK, among others. This significantly contributed to turmoil in the US and global stocks and commodities markets.
7. Among emerging Asian economies, the Philippines and India are suffering from renewed high public debt addiction.
8. There has been good news of a big decline in world oil prices in the last two months of 2018 — WTI (West Texas Intermediate, also known as Texas light sweet) oil is now below $50 a barrel, much lower than the 2017 levels. The bad news is that Part 2 of the TRAIN law’s oil and coal tax hikes will be slammed starting January 2019.
9. The mantra of high oil and carbon taxes to “save the planet” suffered a big defeat in France, the home of “Paris Agreement.” French President Macron was forced to cancel and remove the high oil taxes to “fight (man-made) climate change.”
10. The Duterte government’s “drug war” has, ironically, coincided with large-scale, multi-billion drugs shipments into the country. This is related to the rise in the perception of corruption and decline in business dynamism and growth slowdown.
So, what’s in store for the region and the Philippines in 2019?
The above numbers and related data are showing a trend — of China’s growth bubble being slowly pricked, of major ASEAN economies showing economic resilience, of the Philippines becoming the odd-man-out, for the worse.
It looks like this trend will continue in 2019. To help reverse the Philippines’ growth decline, the government should step back from huge tax hikes under the TRAIN law, reprioritize integrated PPP (public–private partnership) and abandon hybrid PPP for infrastructure development. This will help cure the fiscal disease of spend-spend-spend, tax-tax-tax, borrow-borrow-borrow exhibited by many governments around the world.
 
Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the president of Minimal Government Thinkers.
minimalgovernment@gmail.com

The unborn and the Law

“God’s greatest gift is human life and we have a duty to protect the life of an unborn child.”
The unborn are some of the most vulnerable and defenseless members of society. They are sometimes neglected, abandoned, and forgotten. But over the years, the government has taken a pro-active role not only in recognizing the rights of the unborn but also in enacting statutes that protect their well-being.
Section 12, Article II of the 1987 Constitution highlights that the State recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution. It shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.
The debate on when protection to an unborn child commences has been put to rest in the case of Spouses Imbong v. Ochoa, Jr. Here, the Supreme Court held that the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (RH Law) itself clearly mandates that protection be afforded from the moment of fertilization. As pointed out by Justice Antonio T. Carpio, the RH Law is replete with provisions that embody the policy of the law to protect the fertilized ovum and that it should be afforded safe travel to the uterus for implantation.
From the moment of fertilization, an unborn child is entitled to, among others, the following rights:

• The right to life. Several treaties and international agreements including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child contain numerous references to the right of the unborn to life. Domestically, laws are enacted to protect the life of the unborn.

Act No. 3815, otherwise known as the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, penalizes intentional abortion committed by any person who shall intentionally cause an abortion; unintentional abortion committed by any person who shall cause an abortion by violence; and, abortion practiced by the woman herself or by her parents and abortion practiced by a physician or midwife and dispensing of abortives.
The clear and unequivocal intent of the framers of the 1987 Constitution in protecting the life of the unborn from conception was to prevent the legislature from enacting a measure legalizing abortion.

• The right to support. An unborn child has a right to support from its progenitors. Support comprises everything indispensable for sustenance, dwelling, clothing, medical attendance, education and transportation, in keeping with the financial capacity of the family.

• The right to receive donations. A conceived child, although as yet unborn, is given by law a provisional personality of its own for all purposes favorable to it. The unborn child, therefore, has a right to support from its progenitors, even if the said child is only “en ventre de sa mere” (in utero); just as a conceived child, even if as yet unborn, may receive donations as prescribed by law. Article 742 of the Civil Code provides that donations made to conceived and unborn children may be accepted by those persons who would legally represent them if they were already born.

• Other rights and protective measures. The safety and welfare of the unborn are of paramount importance. As such, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Department Order No. 179-17 considered it a valid cause for a trainee to terminate his training contract if she is pregnant and the training program poses a significant risk or hazard to her or her unborn child.

Further, child trafficking is a serious global concern. Hence, a pregnant mother who executes an affidavit consenting to the adoption of her unborn child for a consideration is liable for the offense of attempt to commit child trafficking as defined and penalized under Section 8 of Republic Act No. 7610.
It is said that the children are the hope of our nation, so let us not lose sight of the unborn who will eventually live and lead the nation we create.
The “Day of the Unborn” is observed every March 25 of the year which is also the Feast of the Annunciation to commemorate life and human dignity.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. This article is for general informational and educational purposes, and not offered as, and does not constitute, legal advice or legal opinion.
 
Jenny Ann A. Pimentel is an associate of the Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices (ACCRALAW), Cebu Branch.
(6332) 231-4223
japimentel@accralaw.com.

Books that challenge the consensus on Capitalism

By Pankaj Mishra
Bloomberg Opinion
WE LIVE IN AN AGE of political earthquakes: That much, at least, seemed clear from newspaper headlines nearly every day of 2018. But intellectual tectonic plates were also shifting throughout the year, with ideas once dismissed as the ravings of the loony left breaking into the mainstream.
A Western consensus quickly formed after the collapse of communist regimes in 1989. It was widely believed by newspaper editorialists as well as politicians and businessmen that there was no alternative to free markets, which alone could create prosperity.
The government’s traditional attempts to regulate corporations and banks and redistribute wealth through taxes were deemed a problem. As the economist Milton Friedman put it, “The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests.”
Neither individuals nor companies needed to worry much about inequality or social justice. In Friedman’s influential view, “There is one and only one social responsibility of business — to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits.”
Political fiascos in the West, following its largest financial crisis — events accompanied by the emergence of China, a Communist-run nation-state, as a major economic power, as well as an unfolding environmental calamity — have utterly devastated these post-1989 assumptions about free markets and the role of governments.
Confessions to this effect come routinely from disenchanted believers. Take, for instance, Olivier Blanchard, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, who recently posed the once-blasphemous question: “What comes after capitalism?”
Blanchard was commenting on the recent demonstrations in France against President Emmanuel Macron. He rightly described a global impasse: “Given the political constraints on redistribution and the constraints from capital mobility, we may just not be able to alleviate inequality and insecurity enough to prevent populism and revolutions.”
Nor, for that matter, can we work towards a greener economy. In any case, Blanchard’s admission confirms that we inhabit, intellectually and culturally, a radical new reality — one in which “neoliberalism,” a word previously confined to academic seminars, has entered rap lyrics, and stalwarts of the establishment sound like activists of Occupy Wall Street.
Thus, Martin Wolf, respected columnist for the Financial Times, recently concluded, if “reluctantly,” that “capitalism is substantially broken.” This year, many books with titles such as The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition and Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World blamed an unjust economic system and its beneficiaries for the rise of demagogues.
It is becoming clear that the perennial conflict between democracy, which promises equality, and capitalism, which generates inequality, has been aggravated by a systemic neglect of some fundamental issues.
In The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy, Mariana Mazzucato bracingly focuses our attention on them. Mazzucato has previously written about the innovative role of governments in the modern economy. In her new book, she asks us to distinguish between people who create value and those who merely extract it, often destroying it in the process.
Her targets range from pharmaceutical companies, which uphold a heartless version of market rationality, to internet companies with monopoly power such as Google and Facebook. Her most compelling example, however, is the workings of the financial sector, and its Friedman-style obsession with “shareholder value maximization,” which has infected the corporate sector as a whole.
Reading Mazzucato’s book, it is hard not to wonder just how “neoliberal” ideas and values, which uphold the rationality of the market and exclude notions of the common good, came to shape the conduct of individuals and institutions.
In the conventional account of neoliberalism, Friedman looms large, along with his disciple Ronald Reagan, and Britain’s Margaret Thatcher. Much has been written about how the IMF’s structural adjustment programs in Asia and Africa, and “shock-therapy” for post-Communist states, entrenched orthodoxies about deregulation and privatization.
In these narratives, neoliberalism appears indistinguishable from laissez-faire. In Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism, Quinn Slobodian briskly overturns this commonplace view. Neoliberals, he argues, are people who believe that “the market does not and cannot take care of itself,” and indeed neoliberalism is a form of regulation — one that insulates the markets from vagaries of mass democracy and economic nationalism.
Beginning with the breakup of the Hapsburg Empire, Slobodian’s lucidly written intellectual history traces the ideas of a group of Western thinkers who sought to create, against a backdrop of anarchy, globally applicable economic rules.
Their attempt, it turns out, succeeded all too well in our own time. We stand in the ruins of their project, confronting political, economic and environmental crises of unprecedented scale and size.
It is imperative to chart our way out of them, steering clear of the diversions offered by political demagogues. One can only hope that the new year will bring more intellectual heresies of the kind Mazzucato’s and Slobodian’s books embody. We need them urgently to figure out what comes after neoliberalism.
 
Pankaj Mishra is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. His books include Age of Anger: A History of the Present, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia, and Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond.

The Marawi Relief Effort: $408-million ADB support for a city in need of rebuilding

By Asian Development Bank
MARAWI, PHILIPPINES — Somewhere in this war-torn city, buried under the debris and rubble of collapsed buildings, Aisha’s carefree childhood is gone forever.
When militants stormed into the once bustling city, they burned down the family home, forcing Aisha, her parents, and her seven siblings, including two infants, out into the unknown. Aisha — not her real name — spent fifth grade in Balindong, in north Mindanao. In September last year, she moved into a shelter in Sangonsongan and started sixth grade at a temporary school nearby. She likes to be around other kids, but life in the shelter has been challenging.
“At home, my old place, even if we did not have anything to eat, we were still happy. Here, it’s not so fun,” said Aisha, now 13, her dark-green scarf flowing down from her head. “We have nothing to do.”
More than 18 months after fighters linked to foreign jihadists seized Marawi in May 2017, Aisha is one of more than 73,000 displaced residents still dreaming of returning home. The Philippine government declared the city liberated after a five-month military campaign, including air strikes and house-to-house combat, that ended in October 2017, but the rebuilding effort has been delayed by security concerns such as unexploded bombs.
GROUND ZERO
Today, the city center, known as “Ground Zero,” remains a ghost town of damaged buildings, abandoned homes with weeds growing indoors and outdoors, and crumbling walls with “ISIS” spray painted in red.
About 20% of the displaced population are identified as vulnerable, including the elderly, the disabled, and pregnant women, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. About 13% of the displaced residents are housed in temporary settlement sites, putting pressure on underfunded social services, such as schools and hospitals.
The government has estimated it will cost about $900 million to rehabilitate and rebuild Marawi, not including Ground Zero, which will be covered under another plan. The cleanup alone may last 18 months.
Last July, the government enacted the Bangsamoro Organic Law aimed at building peace, strengthening governance, and supporting development in Mindanao. An interagency group, the Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM), was set up in June 2017 to facilitate the recovery process and coordinate with development partners such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
REBUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE AND SOCIAL SERVICES
On Dec. 14, after working closely with the government and other stakeholders for more than a year, the ADB approved a financing package, including $400 million in loans and $8 million in grants, to assist the government in rehabilitating and rebuilding Marawi.
A $300- million loan will finance 449 programs, projects, and activities under the Bangon Marawi Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Program, with the initiatives focused on local governance and peacebuilding, housing and settlement, business and livelihood, and social services.
An additional $100-million loan will support large-scale, climate-resilient infrastructure projects by the Department of Public Works and Highways, including the construction of about 25 kilometers of roads and 1,700 meters of bridges and viaducts in greater Marawi. Building designs will adhere to improved structural standards and seek to better accommodate children, women, the elderly, and people with disabilities.
The grant will assist the government in restoring water utilities in 19 barangays (villages) currently serviced by the Marawi City Water District, and help the city develop a comprehensive water supply, sewerage, and drainage plan.
It will also support the construction of two local health clinics, to be fully equipped with birthing facilities and sanitation provisions. To improve displaced residents’ access to primary care, three mobile health clinics, two ambulances, two patient transport vehicles, and one monitoring vehicle will be acquired to bring health services to areas where displaced residents have been relocated.
The ADB package will also support the government’s emergency employment program in Marawi and neighboring towns by providing cash-for-work assistance to about 4,000 people, and livelihood support to about 2,000 beneficiaries. In addition, it will help the government restore quality education by providing learning materials and furniture to schools, and training teachers to offer psycho-social support to children in Marawi, which is part of Lanao del Sur province. The province is the poorest in the country, with nearly three-fourths of its population living below the poverty line.
RESIDENTS HOPING TO RETURN TO MARAWI
Noraida, not her real name, can’t wait to move back to Marawi and get her old life back. Before the siege, the mother of two owned a grocery store. Her husband sold car accessories and houses. After the siege, the family moved to an evacuation center in Cagayan de Oro City, before transferring to the Sagonsongan shelter in February.
“Everything was ruined,” said Noraida, 38. “I hope to be back in Ground Zero with my family and parents, because we have been separated.”
ADB Vice-President Stephen Groff, who spoke with Noraida during a recent visit, said it was a “heart-wrenching experience” to visit the shelter and school.
“While they have a relatively comfortable and safe environment now, of course they long to be closer to their family, closer to their friends, and back in the same living arrangements they had for many, many years,” said Mr. Groff.
Mr. Groff, who met with local officials along with ADB Country Director for the Philippines Kelly Bird, Director for Transport and Communications for Southeast Asia Hiroaki Yamaguchi, and other ADB staff, said he was encouraged by the dedication of the government officials of the local governments of Marawi and Lanao del Sur and the central government.
Marawi City Mayor Majul Gandamra said he has been working closely with TFBM and other stakeholders to rebuild his city. “The government is doing its part to really address the needs of our people here in Marawi City,” he said. “With the support of institutions like ADB, I think we are positive that we can. Marawi City will rise up again.”
Aisha, the sixth-grader at the shelter school, still dreams big. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up, and she wants to practice only in a new Marawi City.

Bumping into celebrities

By Tony Samson
CELEBRITIES tend to congregate together. (They try to avoid the great unwashed, unless they’re on the stage, and the latter are part of the paying audience.) Certain places or events are jammed with celebrities. They include TV studios, legislative hallways (except when you are called as a hostile witness and thus become an even bigger celebrity), or commercial shoots on location. Events like glitzy fund-raisers for typhoon victims or battered women are magnets for celebrities. (They usually don’t donate cash.)
Places like clubs or fancy restos, where those who have the plastic wherewithal to belong may bump into highly recognizable personalities who make grand entrances as peasants let them through. They strut around (it’s the only way they know how to walk) looking well-scrubbed from all the skin peeling, and trim from liposuctions. Like hyenas, they move in packs and talk loudly to each other — So, you’re back from Istanbul?
People are like the Red Sea that part to let Moses through, leaving in their wake a lot of whispering, of the stage variety that is meant to be overheard. It is the service staff, however, that stop whatever they’re doing, even suspending mid-air the delivery of a plate to an ordinary customer to gawk at the demigods who deign to smile at them — is my table ready?
Certain celebrities can be famous for being famous. Maybe they are constant features in glossy magazines, photographed at club openings chatting up the deejay, milling with artists at art auctions, and emceeing a centennial birthday. Sometimes they are politicians trained to smile at strangers thrown with them in an elevator. In a ride only two floors down, just a nod of deference and acknowledgment of celebrityhood are sufficient. (Yes sir, I know you are involved in the pork barrel scam.)
Fame is conferred under the following categories: 1.) TV hosts of daytime variety shows; 2.) Sportscasters of college games including basketball players of the just concluded college tournament; and, 3.) Certified billboard hunks with eye candy in tow.
The recognition factor depends on high visibility. Has-been’s are seldom acknowledged. Strolling through unnoticed, though wearing loud attire and shoes that shriek “fake,” can be an aging celebrity lawyer who once did work for a deposed dictator and an assortment of notorious clients. But wait, he’s back in the spotlight with even less wrinkles than before, defending the latest tirade against religious figures — he was just kidding.
It is possible on long weekend holidays such as this season not to bump into anybody you know. This bumping business has a Murphy’s Law version. You will only bump into somebody you know if you are trying not to bump into anybody you know. Okay, you may just be conducting research for a novel about an old banker in a country club setting. Having to engage in unwanted conversation is certain to derail your ambience soak. Of course, the tryst of an unmatched pair in a chichi setting has already been overdone.
Celebrities declare in interviews (non-celebrities are never interviewed) that they just want to blend with the crowd. Some anonymous mother may even publicly protest too loudly about the “lack of privacy” of her overly famous blonde-haired TV host child. There is no letup on the requests for selfies. Such pining for anonymity (and the sudden inaccesibility to pricey beach-front hotels) is eventually granted.
Still, it is quite a letdown for an erstwhile celebrity to walk around unrecognized. (Don’t you want a photo with me?) Is he now so passé, unrecognized even by the waitresses? Can the wife of a boxer unaccompanied by her celebrity pugilist still be identifiable after all the facial tucks and peels? She looks so different from her occasional billboard presence that you wonder if this real-life version is in fact an aging star being launched for a game show. The combination of cosmetic surgery and photo-shopping can create a virtual unknown in the flesh.
Sighting celebrities requires a certain cool disdain and indifference from the rest. Just continue sipping coffee, watching others behind sunglasses, a preoccupation unfortunately too easily mistaken for celebrity-hunting. Best to just enjoy the bitter brew and be aloof to all the attention the next table is attracting. The only problem with anonymity bumping into celebrity is that you can’t get the attention of the waiters. It is clear they’re too busy to be bothered.
 
A.R. Samson is chairman and CEO, TOUCH xda.
ar.samson@yahoo.com

Peso to climb on pent-up flows

THE PESO is seen to strengthen this week amid temporary tightness in liquidity as well as pent-up inflows following the long weekend.
Last Friday, the peso ended the week at P52.86 versus the greenback, recovering from its P53.10-per-dollar finish the previous day, as banks built up their peso holdings ahead of the four-day holiday break. Week on week, the peso strengthened a tad from its P52.88 finish on Dec. 14.
A foreign exchange trader said the peso may rise due to inflows collected during the four-day break.
“The last time we had this length of a weekend, flows were thrice the size than the usual weekend. I think with the inflows, it will gap up [the peso],” the trader said in a phone interview last Friday.
Meanwhile, the other trader is expecting continued “tightness in peso liquidity” from last week.
“Dollar is still stronger offshore, but onshore, there is the pressure for banks to sell their dollars for now because it will be expensive for them to hold a long dollar-peso position at this point.”
The second trader added that the movement of the peso will be dependent on political and economic developments offshore since “it seems like the moves recently were headline-driven.”
Reuters reported that US stocks fell on Monday amid concerns of a global economic slowdown, the potential US government shutdown as well as reports that US President Donald J. Trump had discussed firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for increasing interest rates.
Meanwhile, the dollar fell to four-month lows against the yen on Tuesday as investors cut exposure to riskier assets as Washington struggled with a partial government shutdown and open confrontation between the White House and the central bank.
For this week, the first trader expects the peso to trade between P52.60 and P52.80 versus the dollar, while the other gave a wider range of P52.60-P53.20. — K.A.N. Vidal with Reuters

Shares seen sideways in 2018’s last trading days

By Arra B. Francia, Reporter
LOCAL EQUITIES may trade sideways in the last three trading days of 2018 amid a shortened week and as investors take a pause for the holiday break.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped 1.11% or 83.70 points to close at 7,479.71 last Friday, weighed down by profit-taking after the US Federal Reserve hiked rates by another 25 basis points last week.
The main index fell by 0.6% or 44 points on a weekly basis, with losses mostly in the mining and oil counter (3.11%) and the financials sub-index (1.64%).
Average daily turnover went down by 24.83% to P6.68 billion last week compared to P8.88 billion in the previous week. Market breadth also favored losers, albeit at a small difference of 97 to 93.
“With a long weekend coming up, expect the PSEi to respond to the moves of the US market when our market opens once again on Wednesday,” Papa Securities Corp. Sales Associate Gabriel Jose F. Perez said in an e-mail.
“Barring any jarring event abroad, we might see a resumption of the light trading [this] week especially with the shortened trading schedule and another long weekend…”
Online brokerage 2TradeAsia.com said the US central bank’s decision to raise benchmark rates could result in more volatility.
“The Fed’s surprise move to raise benchmark interest rates by another 25 basis points connotes increased funds flow volatility. Appetite towards fixed income is back, as comparative instruments scale up on expectations of increased fiscal and corporate borrowings for 2019,” 2TradeAsia.com said in a weekly market note.
Despite more appetite for bonds, the online brokerage noted that equity remains to be the cheapest funding option for companies.
“So long as business models are scaled to meet investors’ expected dividend yield, capital appreciation potential is present in equities to counter future inflation risks.”
It also added that slower economic growth should not be equated to a recession, as is the fear about the US economy of some analysts due to signs in the yield curve, which has historically shown signals of when a recession will come since the 1960s.
“While trade issue resolutions linger and other geopolitical concerns, slower economic growth should not be equated to recession. Similarly, return on equity may slow for enterprises that are on capital-intensive mode. The aspect to consider, is whether listed companies’ initiatives would bring about revenue model expansion that will support recurring cash flows.”
In the meantime, 2TradeAsia.com noted that volume will likely be light this week due to the shortened trading period ahead of 2018’s close.
The online brokerage placed the PSEi’s immediate support from 7,350 to 7,400, with resistance from 7,550 to 7,600.

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