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Provides good fun

Harvest Moon: Mad Dash
Nintendo Switch

GAMERS WILLING to set aside any preconceived notions they have of what a Harvest Moon game should be like will find Harvest Moon: Mad Dash to be a worthy addition to their respective Switch libraries. Let’s be honest: The truth is that the Harvest Moon brand does little to add to its engagement. It has none of the farming or relational elements of the usual release in the long-running series; it is, in fact, quite short and simple. Still, it has just enough fun and charm to engage those angling for a diversion absent the commitment that, say, Fire Emblem: Three Houses or Monster Hunter Generations requires.

The Harvest Moon franchise has thrived through generations of consoles; from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom in 1996 onwards, it has engendered a loyal following of gamers that willingly follow platform shifts. It has even survived a potential saturation of the brand. Marvelous’ decision to have subsidiary Xseed Games take over distribution of future titles in North America led to the creation of the Story of Seasons branch. Meanwhile, developer Natsume, which retained rights to the Harvest Moon name, has seen fit to make its own contributions to the series.

As its very title indicates, Harvest Moon: Mad Dash comes from the Natsume side of the equation. And instead of the usual drawn-out story of a newbie farmer in a rural community searching for romance and profit, it features gameplay elements that have more in common with the likes of Tetris and Columns. To earn points, gamers need to put together fruits, vegetables, or fish of the same kind, rotating pieces to make them fit and form perfect squares (2×2, 3×3, or 4×4), and then “harvesting” them as they mature or grow.

Harvest Moon: Mad Dash has a few monkey wrenches thrown in to add to the challenge of produce and crop sorting. Making shapes that are too large will cause the produce to wilt. Taking too long to put together fish in a bigger body of water causes them to disappear. Even as gamers have their character run around the screen to put the puzzle pieces together, they’re also hard-pressed to feed the animals and get eggs, milk, or wool. Chickens, cows, sheep, and alpacas roam the board lazily, blocking their way or preventing them from creating larger shapes.

Aside from animals out to pasture, Harvest Moon: Mad Dash presents hazards such as ice, coconuts, and volcanic lava that fall randomly. There are also wild boars that barrel through the farm and trample everything in their paths. All these can wipe out crops and delay gamers in a frantic race to accumulate points and fill the power meter. Doing the latter allows for jumps to a temporary time-space continuum where the crops are all ready for harvest and distracting obstacles magically disappear, enabling the accumulation of points needed to pass a level.

In Harvest Moon: Mad Dash, each level can yield up to three stars. At the end of specific stages, gamers will need a certain number of stars to move on. More stars also allow for the tapping of Harvest sprites to help in the form of extra time, power boosts, or healthy harvests. Parenthetically, opening the final stage requires acorns won from the Underworld or Skyworld areas; unfortunately, it’s so short as to be almost anticlimactic. When the credits roll, there is a palpable sense of wanting to go back for more. Thankfully, repeating the stages, whether for the opportunity to improve scores or simply for more fun, is seen as a welcome prospect.

Harvest Moon: Mad Dash allows for multiplayer options (up to four players) but extra Joy-Cons are required. Cooperative play opens up the possibility for higher scores as each player does his or her share of “farming” and “harvesting.” In any case, it pitches to a selective audience. It may not be for all, despite its E rating, and it may even disappoint dedicated fans of the franchise expecting gameplay elements typically carried by previous releases in the series. To those devoid of any preconceived notions, however, it should provide good fun. In this time and age of myriad entertainment alternatives that contribute to shorter and shorter attention spans, it figures to keep them engaged and wanting for more.

THE GOOD:

• Fun for the young and young at heart

• Challenging but not frustratingly so

• No commitment needed

THE BAD:

• Too short

• No narrative to provide context to the proceedings

RATING: 7.5/10

POSTSCRIPT: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 is exactly as it sounds, which is to say a game that has Nintendo and Sega’s iconic characters participating in the latest staging of the Summer Games. It’s part of a long-running series that taps multiple licenses to generate crossover appeal. That it works, and how, is attributable to its polish; it isn’t simply a product that lops together seemingly disparate intellectual properties for expediency and quick gains. Bottom line, it’s an extremely well-thought-out title that succeeds in making a variety of sports — events, really — accessible to a population of gamers otherwise loath to dabble in the genre.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 boasts of a Story Mode that, owing to the machinations of Dr. Eggman and Bowser, compels gamers to participate in the 2020 Olympics and the 1964 Olympics, both in Tokyo — albeit with a twist; the former is presented in three-dimensional format, and the latter in eight- and 16-bit graphics and sounds reminiscent of those churned out by the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis. The retro presentation has 10 sports on tap, while the modern one has twice as many; exclusives in each are present, further underscoring the differentiation.

Significantly, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 gives gamers options in steering their favorite characters. Joy-Cons can be used together or separately, and provide motion, directional-pad, and button alternatives. Regardless of choice, controls are extremely responsive, and at no time do they hold back or interfere with the unfolding action. To the contrary, the technical proficiency of the interface proves a boon, especially in light of the immediacy of the proceedings. If there’s any bane, it’s in the waiting time required to get an online multiplayer session going; apparently, there isn’t enough competition out and about and angling for a quick mini-game. And, yes, only one can be set up at a time; after a button-mashing bout that literally lasts for seconds, there is need to repeat the process.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 notably brings back the popular Dream Events, over-the-top versions of Olympic sports. Considering their potential for fun, particularly as party options, it’s too bad that only Dream Racing, Dream Shooting, and Dream Karate make the leap to the franchise’s latest offering. That said, the release also doubles as a repository of information on Tokyo, as well as on the characters themselves. If nothing else, they widen the knowledge of gamers and serve to elevate the title to more than mere passing fancy.

On the plus side, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 puts forth an excellent audio-visual presentation. In fact, no other release in the series looks and sounds better. No doubt, Sega was motivated to put its best foot forward given own ties to the venue of the Quadrennial. Nonetheless, it succeeds in earning its AAA price tag. For all its frailties, it manages to generate interest as a multiplayer marvel, directly involving up to eight, and indirectly keeping more transfixed, in its adrenaline-pumping offerings. (8/10)

THE LAST WORD: Notwithstanding the ridiculous title, Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? — Infinite Combate has gamers out West anticipating its localization. Based on the light novel series written by Fujino Ōmori and published by SoftBank subsidiary SB Creative, the action role-playing game developed by Mages will have an Asian release with English support later this week. Play-Asia currently has it on preorder, with fulfillment of early reservations including an English-language slipcase, an A4-size clearfile, and a code for the digital copy of DanMachi de Shootint wa Machigatteiru Darou Ka. The latter has adventurer Ais Wallenstein and a handful of supporting cast mates negotiating five stages of side-scrolling shoot-‘em-up action.

PQube Games will be publishing Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? — Infinite Combate for release on the Switch, Sony PlayStation 4, and personal computer in North America and Europe early next year.

Capilla de San Lorenzo opens at Robinsons Magnolia

ROBINSONS Magnolia recently opened the Capilla de San Lorenzo, the first chapel in Quezon City named after Filipino saint Lorenzo Ruiz.

The chapel was blessed by Cubao Bishop Reverend Honesto Ongtioco on Sept. 28, which was the feast day of St. Lorenzo Ruiz.

“Fr. Dennis Soriano suggested the name because there was no chapel in Quezon City named after San Lorenzo Ruiz. It is also a tribute to the first Filipino saint,” Jasmin Lucio, regional operations manager of Robinsons Land Corp., said in a statement.

Located on the 5th floor mezzanine of the mall’s new wing, the chapel can accommodate 350 seated and 100 standing churchgoers. Anticipated Mass is celebrated every Saturday at 6 p.m., while regular Sunday Masses are at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Masses are also held every First Wednesday and First Friday of the month.

Staring 2020, there will be daily masses at 12:15 noon and an additional 6 p.m. mass every Sunday.

“We are looking at the possibility of celebrating Mass in other languages, like Chinese,” Ms. Lucio said, noting that as of now the masses are in English.

The chapel was designed by Jonathan Gan, inspired by the Immaculate Conception Parish Church.

For the Christmas season, Capilla de San Lorenzo will hold anticipated Simbang Gabi Mass at 8 p.m. beginning Dec. 15, in addition to the regular Mass schedule.

Repo market blowup fueled by big banks and hedge funds, BIS says

THE US Federal Reserve had said investors used repo to finance the purchase of newly auctioned Treasuries. — REUTERS

THE SEPTEMBER MAYHEM in the US repo market suggests there’s a structural problem in this vital corner of finance and the incident wasn’t just a temporary hiccup, according to a new analysis from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

This market, which relies heavily on just four big US banks for funding, was upended in part because those firms now hold more of their liquid assets in Treasuries relative to what they park at the Federal Reserve, officials at the Basel-based institution concluded in a report released Sunday. That meant “their ability to supply funding at short notice in repo markets was diminished.”

And hedge funds are financing more investments through repo, which “appears to have compounded the strains,” the researchers added.

This brings the BIS, the central bank for central banks, into a controversy that has vexed observers for almost three months: Why did the repo market get so bad, so quickly? On Sept. 17, rates on general collateral repo briefly surged to 10% from around 2%.

Many, including the Fed, concluded in the immediate aftermath that two transitory events collided: investors used repo to finance the purchase of a large batch of newly auctioned Treasuries at the same time that quarterly corporate tax payments drained liquidity from that market.

But the BIS doubts an ephemeral supply-and-demand imbalance is totally to blame.

“None of these temporary factors can fully explain the exceptional jump in repo rates,” Fernando Avalos, Torsten Ehlers and Egemen Eren wrote in the latest BIS Quarterly Review.

Reserves — or cash that banks stash at the Fed — are the easiest asset for banks to tap when they want to quickly move money into repo. And it would’ve been logical for banks to pour cash into repo to get those 10% returns from an overnight loan.

The four banks that dominate the market hold about 25% of the reserves in the US banking system, but 50% of the Treasuries. That mismatch likely slowed the movement of cash into repo, the BIS researchers postulated.

CASH BUFFERS
Volatility in the amount of cash the US Treasury keeps parked at the Fed also affected banks’ reserves. “The resulting drain and swings in reserves are likely to have reduced the cash buffers of the big four banks and their willingness to lend into the repo market,” the team wrote.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon has put the blame on regulators themselves. He said in October that his firm had the cash and willingness to calm short-term funding markets but liquidity rules for banks held it back.

Some analysts have also pointed to a new corner of the market which has seen immense growth: sponsored repo. This allows banks to transact with counterparties like money-market funds without impacting their balance sheet constraints. The downside is that it’s only available on an overnight basis, and as a result has further concentrated funding risk.

Along with changing market structure, the researchers also connected the repo ruckus to banks being somewhat out of practice in daily reserve management. That’s because trillions of dollars worth of Fed asset purchases — the so-called quantitative easing program meant to help the economy recover from the 2008 financial crisis — had left the banking system flush with cash for years.

FED CAMPAIGN
“The internal processes and knowledge that banks need to ensure prompt and smooth market operations may” have started to decay, BIS wrote. “This could take the form of staff inexperience and fewer market-makers, slowing internal processes.”

The Fed in 2017 started shrinking its balance sheet and shortages began to re-emerge last quarter. The central bank stopped paring back holdings in August and started buying Treasury bills in October, an attempt to add reserves to the banking system. That was part of its campaign to keep the repo market calm, an effort that began in September with overnight and then longer-term repo operations.

“These ongoing operations have calmed markets,” the BIS researchers wrote.

Still, market participants are wary that trouble may resurface at yearend — a time when repo liquidity has historically been scarce. There’s been high demand from money-market participants for cash via repo that the Fed’s been offering with tenors that will extend into the new year.

The report also took a look at the European repo market, which escaped the kind of turmoil that engulfed the US in September. But that doesn’t mean all is calm. Beneath the surface, the 8-trillion-euro ($9-trillion) market is becoming increasingly fragmented, raising the risk that cash may not flow through properly, the BIS said. — Bloomberg

SteelAsia sees capacity at 2.5 million tons by 2021

STEELASIA Manufacturing Corporation expects capacity to hit 2.5 million tons in 2021 as it expands operations.

SteelAsia Vice-President and Head of Business Development Raphael C. Hidalgo told reporters at a media event that the company produced almost 2 million tons this year. Its new operations in Compostela, Cebu will expand its production capacity after it goes into operation in late 2020.

“So 2021 will be the real one where you see the number go up. In terms of capacity, we’re going to add another one million tons. But this isn’t one million tons for the present — it’s one million tons for the future. So maybe it will give us an additional half million tons.”

The steel industry in the Philippines is currently dominated by rebar production. SteelAsia plans to expand to other steelmaking, rolling, and fabrication and cold processes. This would address demand through the local production of beams, sheet piles, and angles, among other steel products — instead of importation.

The company is also currently working on its initial public offering, as it plans to go public within two years.

“We started preliminary work already on the corporate side, but going out and starting process with SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) hindi pa (not yet),” Mr. Hidalgo said. — Jenina P. Ibañez

What’s Going On (12/10/19)

Jumanji promo at SM

IN CONNECTION with the screening of Jumanji: Next Level, SM Cinema’s “Action & ARTventure” promo gives moviegoers a reel to real experience over the holidays. Today is the last day to have a chance to win two tickets to Art in Island museum — a single receipt purchase of Jumanji: Next Level movie tickets of at least P500 gives moviegoers a chance to win. Ten winners from the participating SM Cinema branches SM North EDSA, SM Mall of Asia, SM Megamall SM Marikina, SM Fairview, SM Sta. Mesa, SM San Lazaro and SM Manila will be selected on Dec. 16. Deadline of dropping of entries is on Dec. 10 at 10 p.m. This promo is valid for SM Cinema regular theaters and IMAX at the selected branches mentioned above.

Eric Nam in Manila

KOREAN singer, songwriter, and TV personality Eric Nam will hold a concert in Manila on Jan. 10 at the New Frontier Theater in Cubao, QC. The Before We Begin 2020 World Tour will kick off in Asia with Manila as the second leg, following the opening show in Taipei. This will be the first time that the 31-year-old entertainer will perform many of his new songs to a worldwide audience. Nam’s latest album Before We Begin, released on Nov. 14, is his first all-English project. Tickets for the concert are available at TicketNet for P9,299 (VIP, inclusive of Meet & Greet and a signed merchandise); P5,016 (Orchestra); and P2,821 (General Admission). For details visit Instagram.com/onionproduction, Facebook.com/onionproduction, and ericnam.com.

The Rose on tour

SOUTH KOREA’s popular indie band The Rose will perform in Manila, the second of two stops on its a Southeast Asia tour this month. After performing in Kuala Lumpur, The Rose will perform at the Samsung Hall in SM Aura in Taguig on Dec. 15. The tour is in response to requests on fan-initiated concert making platform MyMusicTaste. For details visit https://mmt.fans/Vh74/ or other social media channels of MyMusicTaste.

First Balfour marks 50th anniversary

LOPEZ-LED First Balfour continues to look for opportunities for growth, as the engineering and construction company recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.

“The demands of a growing nation like the Philippines are evident in infrastructure that’s bursting at the seams and barely keeping up with our people’s needs. First Balfour is in position to help alleviate these gaps in collaboration with many of you, our partners, who are always ready to develop projects that rise to these challenges,” First Philippine Holdings (FPH) Chairman and CEO Federico R. Lopez said during his keynote speech at First Balfour’s anniversary celebration.

A subsidiary of First Philippine Holdings (FPH), First Balfour started out by relying on businesses from Lopez Group companies, but now the bulk of its revenues come from non-FPH clients.

First Balfour President Anthony L. Fernandez attributed the company’s success to its capabilities system.

“This milestone is no small feat but I believe 50 years is just the result of having a strong and established capabilities system. While strengthening our core engineering and construction capabilities, we have also developed adjunct capabilities including heavy equipment rental (T1 Rentals), geothermal drilling (ThermaPrime), and concrete and aggregates (Torreverde) to help in project delivery,” he said.

Among First Balfour’s prominent projects include the civil works and electrical network for the 150-megawatt Burgos Wind Farm; the North Extension of the Light Rail Transit Line 1 completed in 2010; and the construction of modern data centers for the Philippine Statistics Authority, ePLDT, and Globe Telecom.

How PSEi member stocks performed — December 9, 2019

Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Monday, December 9, 2019.

 

Damage to agriculture from Tisoy reckoned at P3.67 billion

DAMAGE TO agriculture from Typhoon Tisoy (international name: Kammuri, was estimated at P3.67 billion, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

The DA said in its bulletin no. 9 that damage to the rice crop was 104,928 metric tons (MT) worth P1.32 billion, with 77,683 hectares of rice land affected.

Corn damage was 5,895 MT worth P700.92 million, with 41,256 hectares affected. Damage to high-value crops was 84,222 MT worth P1.55 billion, over 13,227 hectares.

Livestock and poultry losses totaled P61.96 million, involving 144,505 animals and 246 farmers. Losses to the coconut industry totaled P28.04 million covering 5.384 million trees.

Fisheries losses totaled P2.18 million, with 39 fisherfolk affected. Losses were mainly sustained by tilapia and mud crab growers, while most equipment losses were to motorboats.

Infrastructure losses amounted to P33.5 million, including greenhouses, research centers, cages, warehouses, demonstration farms, and nurseries. Machinery losses amounted to P706,000 amid damage to threshers, hand tractors, and shredders.

Aside from the DA’s P250-million Quick Response Fund (QRF) for rehabilitation, the Agricultural Credit and Policy Council (ACPC) has set aside P65 million for the Survival and Recovery Assistance (SURE Aid) program.

“The affected regions have a total of 93,711 bags of rice seed, 17,999 bags of corn seed, 1,979 kilos of seed for high-value crops in reserve and ready for distribution,” the DA said. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

Gov’t draft of new water contracts expected to be ready by year’s end

JUSTICE Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said the government is forming a team to draft revised water concession contracts, which will exclude terms the President considers onerous, adding that the new concession agreement will be ready before the year ends.

“We are still forming our team that will come up with the government version of the water concessionaire agreements,” Mr. Guevarra said on the sidelines on an event against corruption.

“We hope to be able to come up with the revised version of a water concession agreement that has not include the onerous provisions… before the year is over,” he added.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte last week said Manila Water Co. Inc. and Maynilad Water Services, Inc. enjoy onerous provisions in their concession agreements with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System.

Mr. Guevarra said last week that the department found “a dozen provisions that were deemed onerous or disadvantageous to the government and consuming public.” He cited among other provisions, the prohibition against interference of the government in rate-setting and indemnities for possible losses in case of government interference.

He also said that the department found irregular the extension of the contracts to 2037 which was granted “12-13 years” before the 25-year concession agreement expires in 2022.

The government will complete the revisions and only then will sit down with the water companies, he said.

The new contracts will be drafted by lawyers from the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), Office of the Government Corporate Counsel, Department of Finance and Department of Justice.

“Marami naman okay na provisions (There are many provisions that are all right). It’s just a matter of weeding out… (the) provisions which we consider onerous or highly disadvantageous but the rest of the agreement can stand,” he said.

If the concessionaires do not agree to the revisions, Mr. Guevarra said the government will bring the matter to the courts.

Manila Water disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange early this month the Permanent Arbitration Court in Singapore ruled in its favor, ordering the government to indemnify it the amount of P7.39 billion over its losses resulting from the government’s breach of obligations. The court is September last year also awarded P3.4 billion to Maynilad on similar grounds.

The OSG said last Friday it will exhaust all legal remedies in response to the ruling in favor of Manila Water and its next steps “will show that the arbitral award was not, to quote Manila Water, due to a ‘procedural lapse’ by government. It is a company’s refusal to become the subject of legitimate regulation.”

Mr. Guevarra said that the arbitration cannot necessarily be enforced because the government is ready to oppose it.

“OSG is thinking of appealing the arbitral ruling to the Singapore High Court or when this decision is enforced in local courts in Philippine court, then (the) Philippine government will surely oppose it on the grounds that the arbitral ruling is against public policy,” he said.

Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) and DMCI Holdings, Inc. hold 52.8% and 25.24% stakes, respectively, in Maynilad. Meanwhile, Japanese trading company Marubeni Corp. has a 20% interest in the utility.

On the matter of the contract extension, the government can disregard the 15-year extension because the extension’s validity is in question, Senator Aquilino L. Pimentel said.

Mr. Pimentel, who chairs the Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, said former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s government had no authority to approve the extension.

“Babalik ako sa aking basic principle na since hindi pa expired ang original contract, wala pang 2022, hindi pa pwedeng i-invoke ang extension (I return to the basic principle that the original contract has not expired, and will not do so until 2022. so it is not yet possible to invoke an extension),” Mr. Pimentel told reporters in a briefing Monday.

“Kung di pa ‘yan implemented, pwede pa s’yang i-disregard ng Duterte administration (If it is not yet implemented, the government can disregard it).”

The MWSS concession deal with Manila Water and Maynilad was extended to 2037. The extensions were approved respectively in October 2009 and April 2010, way ahead their 2022 expiration.

“The Gloria administration cannot tie the hands of the Duterte administration,” he said.

Mr. Pimentel said the government should now clarify whether it will revoke the extension, and begin by 2020 the process of accepting applications for a new concession agreement. He noted that present concessionaires are not necessarily disqualified from applying.

“Start the process by 2020, 2021 of looking for new concessionaires, announcing before the search, the new terms of the concession agreement.” — Vann Marlo M. Villegas, Charmaine A. Tadalan

Coconut farmers need more market options amid low copra prices — expert

THE restructuring of the coconut industry should focus on extracting value-added from all parts of the tree, while farmers should be allowed to tap whatever market opportunities present themselves, including selling trees for lumber, an expert said.

“What we need is the transformation of the industry, so that you have a nucleus-like set up where you have coconut farms surrounding the processing centers and you can utilize all of the value addition from the whole tree,” Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) Research Fellow Roehlano M. Briones said in a phone interview.

He was responding to a question about the recent decision of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to maintain the ban on the export of mature coconuts, which was first ordered in a Marcos-era decree to preserve the raw material supply for the copra and coconut oil industry.

Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar also said that opening up the export market for mature coconuts runs counter to the government’s goal to conduct value-added activities in-country, including processing of coconut oil.

The lifting of the ban was proposed in April while Emmanuel F. Piñol was still Agriculture Secretary. Overturning the export ban would require the repeal of Executive Order 1016 issued by President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Coconut production in the third quarter rose 0.3% to 4.04 million metric tons (MT), according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The average farmgate price declined 20% year-on-year to P4.67 per kilo. In the first nine months, the price fell 26% to P4.84. Mr. Briones recommended that coconut farms be consolidated near processing centers as in the oil palm and sugar industries, to encourage processing of the whole tree and reduce waste byproduct.

“Coconut has such a wide variety of uses… but right now we are still mostly deploying coconut for copra, which is a huge forgone opportunity from the various other products that you can make with coconut,” he added.

The government should also relax tree-cutting rules so farmers can generate income from lumber.

Republic Act (R.A.) No. 10593, which amended R.A. No. 8048, or the Coconut Preservation Act of 1995, requires the PCA to issue permits to cut coconut trees.

“Anyway, kung talagang kumikita naman yung coconut, magtatanim naman yung mga yan, so instead of making those prohibitions, open up mo yun (If planting coconut pays, farmers will do it, so instead of putting up these prohibitions, the market needs to be opened up),” Mr. Briones said.

However, he said that it would have been more beneficial for coconut farmers to export their harvest since this would give them another market opportunity.

“Just on the current situation, hindi ako pabor kasi medyo mahina ang copra prices (I am not in favor because copra prices are low), so you want to give farmers every market opportunity. It will be good if they can open up that part of the market so that there is an additional source of income for coconut farmers,” he said.

“In the long run, I think it’s also good to open that up because you always want to give farmers an option… I don’t see a reason why giving more options is bad,” he added. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

Duterte says gov’t lawyers who greenlit water contracts could be liable for corrupt deals

PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte said that he wants to speak to the two water companies serving Metro Manila and the government lawyers who agreed to the allegedly disadvantageous concession agreements.

In a speech Monday, Mr. Duterte alleged that the agreements suggested the presence of corruption accompanying the deals clinched by Manila Water Co. Inc. and Maynilad Water Services, Inc., adding that government lawyers involved in preparing the contracts could be liable.

“Hindi ito maareglo hanggat hindi ko makausap yang concessionaire. Gusto ko sa harap ng abogado ng gobyerno na…gumawa ng kontrata (It won’t be resolved until I speak with the concessionaire. I want to speak with them in front of the government lawyers who prepared the contact),” he said.

Mr. Duterte said both water concessionaires charging fees that are not reflected in the level of services delivered.

“The fact (is) that all these years we (have been) paying a fee for water treatment that never came into being… Then corporate income tax is passed on the Filipino people,” he said, noting the companies ability to pass on tax costs.

Mr. Duterte last week claimed Manila Water and Maynilad committed “economic plunder” after Manila Water made a claim for P7 billion in compensation after winning an arbitration ruling in Singapore. Mr. Duterte said the government is not obliged to pay.

The P7 billion was awarded by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Singapore, compensating Manila Water for the government’s failure to implement rate increases covering the period June 1, 2015 to November 22, 2019.

Mr. Duterte delivered his speech made during the oath-taking of newly- appointed flag officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Star Rank officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP). — Gillian M. Cortez

House panel says BoC valuation method could violate WTO rules

THE House Committee on Ways and Means recommended suspending the implementation of the Bureau of Customs’ (BoC) National Value Verification System (NVVS) to determine whether it violates World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on customs valuation.

At a committee hearing Monday, Director Yasser Ismael Abbas of the BoC Assessment & Operation Coordinating Group said that the bureau uses the value listed in the NVVS instead of the transaction value.

The Committee said this may violate the WTO’s Marrakesh Agreement which states: “the customs value of imported goods shall be the transaction value, that is the price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export to the country of importation.”

According to the BoC website, NVVS is a web-based system which BoC Assessment officers may use to verify whether the value declared by the importer is the “price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export to the Philippines.”

It further noted that value verification is based on previous importation “similar and identical goods at the same period of importation, and other methods of valuation available under Republic Act No. 10863, otherwise known as Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.”

NVVS and other computer system projects by the BoC were implemented in June.

The chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Jose Ma. Clemente S. Salceda, said: “Baka ma-sanction tayo ng WTO kasi nga po pumirma tayo na ang pwede lang gamitin sa buong mundo ay yung transaction value at wala nang iba. Basta yung buyer at seller nagkasundo sa isang presyo, yun na dapat ang basis ng dutiable, customs dutiable, transaction. (We might face WTO sanctions because we agreed to the use of transaction value and nothing else. Once the buyer and seller agree on a price, that should be the basis for dutiable value).”

BoC Assistant Commissioner Vincent Philip C. Maronilla told BusinessWorld by phone that the BoC “respects the recommendation of the Committee” and said that it “will conduct further studies regarding the NVVS to address the Committee’s reservations on its implementation.” — Genshen L. Espedido

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