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Palay farmgate price falls further in early Oct.

THE average farmgate price of palay, or unmilled rice, declined further in the first week of October, falling 1.6% week-on-week to P15.56 per kilogram (kg), the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

The PSA said in its weekly price update that the average wholesale price of well-milled rice fell 0.3% week-on-week to P38.02 per kg. At retail, prices fell 0.2% to P41.94.

The average wholesale price of regular-milled rice fell 0.5% week-on-week to P33.86 per kg. The retail price declined 0.3% to P37.53.

The price of the staple grain has been on a downward trend since the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law, which removed restrictions on rice imports. In exchange, imports of grain from Southeast Asia are charged a 35% tariff.

The influx of imports has softened the market for palay, the form in which domestic farmers sell their harvest to traders, triggering a government effort to prop up palay prices using public funds. Private traders in some provinces are reportedly offering farmers single-digit prices per kilo of palay, well below the National Food Authority’s support price of P19.

Week-on-week, the farmgate price of yellow corn grain declined 1.6% to P12.34 per kg. The average wholesale price fell 1.0% to P18.29, and the retail price fell 0.1% to P24.26.

The average farmgate price of white corn grain fell 1.7% to P13.51 per kg. The average wholesale price dropped 1.0% to P16.80. The average retail price fell 0.5% to P26.53. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

MWSS orders water firms to maximize treated-water output

By Victor V. Saulon
Sub-Editor

METRO MANILA’s water regulator said it told the capital’s two water concessionaires to maximize the output of their water treatment plants in Muntinlupa and Rizal to mitigate the impact of the water service interruptions which started today.

The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) said it told Maynilad Water Services, Inc. and Manila Water Co. to ramp up the output from their respective water treatment plants in Putatan, Muntinlupa and Cardona, Rizal.

The Cardona and Putatan plants draw water from Laguna de Bay to add to the main supply drawn from Angat Dam in Bulacan. Raw water from Laguna de Bay needs to be specially treated to be suitable for consumption.

In a text message, MWSS Chief Regulator Patrick Lester N. Ty said both companies have also been required to undertake other measures to mitigate the impact of the water interruptions, which the companies said were to slow the rate of depletion from Angat.

“They should strictly adhere to the schedule of water interruptions as announced,” he said.

He said the concessionaires must also provide stand-by water tankers or static tanks; and explore cross-border supply if needed. He said they are also to activate stand-by deep wells and make sure there are water allocations to all consumers within 24 hours to allow them to store water.

“Rationing will start tomorrow (Thursday),” Randolph T. Estrellado, Maynilad chief operating officer, said in a text message, confirming published schedules.

“We expect to continue rationing until releases from Angat are increased to the normal level of 48 cms (cubic meters per second),” he said, adding that for the two concessionaires the level is 46 cms, plus 2 cms for the Bulacan bulk water system.

“The reduced releases have been in place since July in an effort to build up supply in Angat which needs to be filled up before the dry summer months,” he said.

“Ongoing and upcoming mitigating measures are the increased production of our second Putatan plant from 100 mld (million liters per day) to 150 mld, activation of around 50 mld of deep wells, 20 mld of mobile treatment plants, and around 100 mld from continuing reduction of NRW (non-revenue water),” he added.

Mr. Estrellado said that although Angat dam’s releases have been constant at 40 cms, the company has benefited from additional flows from Ipo Dam, also in Bulacan, during the rainy season.

“Unfortunately, the recent dry spell has seen both Angat and Ipo dam levels go down and we can no longer get additional flows from Ipo,” he said.

Meanwhile, Manila Water said it would begin implementing rotational water service interruption on the evening of Oct. 24, 2019, as it had been warning since last week while the water level at Angat dam continues to decline.

“This is necessary because we want to ensure that the still-limited raw water supply will last even beyond the summer of 2020 since Angat Dam may not reach its ideal 212-meter level by the end of 2019,” it said in a statement.

“As such, we enjoin our customers to use water wisely and responsibly. Please store water when available, and just at enough amount to serve your needs during hours of service interruption,” it added.

DPWH says board to study SLEx toll suspension

PUBLIC WORKS Secretary Mark A. Villar said the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) will study requests to suspend the collection of tolls at the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx).

Mr. Villar, who is also a member of the TRB, told reporters Tuesday that the board will take up the matter.

“Wala pang notice kung kailan. Of course, siguro pag-aaralan muna (There is still no word when it will discuss the matter. I expect the issue to undergo study first),” he said.

Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian on Oct. 7 urged the TRB to suspend or reduce the tolls collected by SLEx, which has been severely congested due to construction activity.

“Para mabigyan naman ng kaunting relief ang mga kababayan natin, I do recommend na i-slash or suspend muna ang toll rates (To provide relief to road users, I recommend a reduction or suspension in the collection of tolls),” he told reporters.

He added: “The TRB can also call for a hearing. In fact, dapat ang TRB ay mino-monitor itong situation dahil ang lahat ng construction ay dumadaan sa kanila eh. They should call for a hearing and then analyze kung dapat bigyan ng relief ang ating motorists. (The TRB should be monitoring the situation because it evaluates all construction proposals. They should call for a hearing and analyze whether motorists should be given relief)”

Skyway Operations and Maintenance Corp. (SOMCO), which is managed by San Miguel Corp. (SMC), is currently undertaking preliminary works on its extension project for the Skyway system, affecting SLEx.

Mr. Villar said the ongoing construction is better undertaken sooner than later, saying: “Mas mabuti nang gawin na natin ‘yan ngayon… Kasi nagkakaroon ng build-up sa area na ‘yan. Kung hindi natin gagawin ngayon, baka in a few years mahirap na (It’s better to do it now, because the area is becoming built-up. If we don’t do it now, it might be more difficult to do in a few years).”

SMC President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon S. Ang has taken responsibility for the road congestion along the SLEx and promised that the problem will be resolved by Dec. 1.

SOMCO said on Oct. 1 that it will expedite the major preliminary work on its extension project. — Arjay L. Balinbin

ALU-TUCP calls for testing of talcum powder after US recall

A MAJOR union said it wants the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to test talcum powder sold by Johnson’s Baby Philippines, citing possible asbestos risk to consumers and manufacturing workers after the US parent company, Johnson & Johnson, voluntarily recalled its “Baby Powder” product last week.

The recall followed the discovery of low levels of asbestos in one manufacturing batch. The US FDA said it found chrysotile asbestos fibers in a US batch of the talcum powder.

In a statement Wednesday, the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) said the Philippine FDA should inspect Baby Powder sold in the Philippines.

Asked to comment, the Philippine FDA said it believes the manufacturing batch that was ordered recalled in the US has not reached the Philippines.

ALU-TUCP National Executive Vice President Gerard Seno said Wednesday: “We are calling upon the FDA to proactively take steps to mitigate the undue anxiety felt by consumers caused by this serious discovery of asbestos contamination in a baby product commonly used by so many Filipinos across our growing population. We are urging them to conduct product evaluation test to assure the quality and safety of the product poses to the health of consumers.”

“Workers involved in the manufacture of asbestos-containing materials, construction workers, electricians, plumbers, pipe fitters, carpenters, power plant workers, boilermakers, shipyard workers, firefighters, and teachers are the type of workers who are highly risk to exposure to cancer-causing asbestos in the country,” he also said.

Last week, a TUCP-affiliated party-list legislator, Representative Raymond C. Mendoza, filed House Bill No. 2636 or the proposed Ban Asbestos Act of 2019, which calls for a ban on the asbestos manufacturing and imports, and the material’s use in the construction trades.

The use of chrysotile or white asbestos is regulated by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) Chemical Control Order 02 series of 2000. Blue and brown asbestos are the only asbestos types banned in the Philippines.

In a mobile message to BusinessWorld Wednesday, FDA Officer-in-Charge Rolando Enrique D. Domingo said: “At this time we have information that the batches involved were not sold in the Philippines. We are now verifying this.”

According to the Johnson’s Baby website, all types of its Baby Powder are asbestos-free, saying that the company uses talc across its product line except for one that uses cornstarch. It said talc is non-carcinogenic.

“Our confidence in using talc is based on a long history of safe use and more than 30 years of research by independent researchers, scientific review boards and global regulatory authorities,” Johnson’s Baby said in its website.

Asked to comment on the ALU-TUCP statement, Johnson’s Baby said in an e-mail that its products are routinely FDA-tested, with the latest taking place last month, which showed no trace of asbestos in products sold in the Philippines.

“We have a rigorous testing standard in place to ensure our cosmetic talc is safe and years of testing, including the FDA’s own testing on prior occasions — and as recently as last month — found no asbestos,” the company said. — Gillian M. Cortez

ADB to support sustainable tourism project for Palawan’s Coron, El Nido

THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it is planning to support a tourism development project with the Department of Tourism (DoT) for the Palawan resort towns of El Nido and Coron, to prepare these destinations to handle greater visitor numbers over the next decade.

In a statement Wednesday, the ADB said it sees the need for investment in the two “fast-growing destinations” in sustainable urban facilities and marine environment protection due to projections of “higher numbers of tourists visiting the islands over the next decade”.

The DoT-led project is set to launch by the fourth quarter of 2020.

ADB will offer solutions and financing for “vital urban infrastructure and services” including solid waste management, drainage, sanitation and clean drinking water, as well as build local capacity to “protect and conserve healthy oceans and rehabilitate key biodiversity-based tourism sites.”

“This project is critically important for ADB because we share with the Philippine government the goal of seeing local economies thrive on an environmentally sustainable path. Tourism, when managed properly, can be a catalyst for inclusive development that can lift residents of El Nido and Coron out of poverty,” ADB Country Director for the Philippines Kelly Bird said.

ADB will also consider other forms of funding for local businesses and community-based groups to improve the services they offer and maintain tourism benefits for the communities.

“Palawan is known as the country’s ‘last ecological frontier’ and we want to ensure its rich marine ecosystem, particularly in El Nido and Coron, will be protected amid the rapid growth in tourist demand,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said.

Representatives from ADB and DoT went to El Nido and Coron in Palawan earlier this month to gather preliminary leads for project design, holding consultations with stakeholders.

The project will be carried out via the DoT’s Transforming Communities Towards Resilient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Tourism Program. — Beatrice M. Laforga

House committee approves rice procurement instead of subsidies for 4Ps beneficiaries

THE House Committee on Agriculture and Food approved on Wednesday a still-unnumbered substitute joint resolution calling for rice procurement to be funded by the 2019 rice subsidy budget for poor families.

The budget funds will be used to directly procure rice from farmers, who have been realizing declining prices for their produce since the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law in March. The proposals call for cash subsidies distributed by the social welfare department to be converted to rice, to be directly distributed by the department to its beneficiaries.

The substitute resolution consolidates House Joint Resolutions 16 and 322 filed by Representatives Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte, Jr., Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez and Yedda Marie K. Romualdez, which both authorize the use of the rice subsidy meant for beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to procure rice from farmers.

The committee’s chairperson, Quezon 1st district Rep. Wilfrido M. Enverga said the measure will be discussed at the plenary level once legislative sessions resume on Nov. 4.

Once certified by President Rodrigo R. Duterte, Mr. Enverga said that it could be approved on second and third reading on the same day.

“Assuming that there is a certification, once we return, we will ask the committee on rules and the Speaker kung pwedeng mai-prioritize natin ito (if it can be given priority), for sponsorship (on) second reading. Being certified, sa araw narin na ‘yun, pwede nang idiretsyo for third reading (it can be go for third reading on the same day),” Mr. Enverga in chance remarks to reporters.

Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Secretary Adelino B. Sitoy said that the executive department can immediately certify the measure once approved by the House.

“If this is approved by the House and forwarded to the Senate, we can work on the immediate certification,” Mr. Sitoy told the committee.

The 2019 General Appropriations Act provides a total allocation of P33.9 billion for rice subsidies, with the largest portion going to beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). Currently, a balance of P6.97 billion remains undisbursed under the department’s rice subsidy program.

Beneficiaries of 4Ps receive a monthly rice subsidy of P600, equivalent to 20 kg of rice.

DSWD National Program Manager for 4Ps Gemma B. Gabuya said that the agency is drafting a memorandum circular along with the Department of Agriculture and the National Food Authority in preparation for possible direct rice distribution

“Currently, we are drafting a joint memo circular in terms of the mechanics in the distribution of the rice to the 4Ps beneficiaries. We are just awaiting the approval of this resolution, so that we can transfer the funds as initially discussed to NFA to be able to buy palay,” Ms. Gabuya said. — Vince Angelo C. Ferreras

How RPA aids in E2E Business Process Management

A powerful tool, a game-changing technology. Robotics Process Automation (RPA) has been a buzz word for years now. By definition, it’s a software robot that does what a user tells it to do – autonomously performing activities the same way a human user would on a machine. It is frequently used for manual, predictable and repetitive tasks to allow a more productive use of the process owner’s time. Its adoption has allowed companies to gain significant improvements in their operational metrics such as increased speed, quality, and functionality.

Robots execute work by mimicking the way a human process owner would perform the task. They are programmed according to a streamlined and rules-based business process logic, which is why, prior to implementation, it is important that business rules are well-defined.

If business processes are poorly managed and undocumented, it will result in gaps and inefficiencies which will serve as roadblocks from the onset of a company’s RPA journey.

The reality is that many processes are broken. This burdens process owners since they have to do manual, unequal and often redundant workarounds to accomplish the same purpose or amount of work. It also leads to inefficiencies in tasks that are carried out, and the lack of ability to provide the required output in a consistent fashion. Truth be told, whenever these challenges present themselves, the usual road that many organizations take is to add new resources to the process like man hours — an approach that directly impacts the balance sheet, and indirectly, kills employee morale and productivity.

One of the many factors contributing to broken processes is the level of process complexity and volume of unstructured data which process owners have to work with. This includes the large number of interactions among process steps, and the variety and inconsistency of inputs handed off from one process step to another. Working with voluminous data and complex processes is also made even more challenging by the absence of a detailed and updated process documentation that also leads to confusion and ambiguity on how a process is supposed to be done.

Far from the popular concept, an RPA Center of Excellence (CoE), which centralizes governance and best practices for RPA implementation, does more than just developing, deploying and monitoring robots; it actually operates on an end-to-end business process model. It constructs a streamlined and harmonized process where robots and humans can work together – effectively aligning people, process and technology. Continuous process improvement is among its core philosophies and is seated at the center of every automation initiative for optimum value.

As a standard, deep process analysis and process standardization are rolled out by the RPA CoE before the actual robot development. Process standardization essentially is the establishment of rules that dictate how people should complete a sequence of tasks. To do this, business rules are sometimes re-defined and data are re-structured so that they can be tested in different scenarios. An effective process standardization means that there is one precise approach to complete a task defined in terms of a clear and measurable end result — a unified way of doing a procedure, reducing process variations that normally lead to inconsistency in the output.

Embedding RPA in the operations challenges business units to re-evaluate, document and update their processes because a detailed process design is a prerequisite of robot development. In practice, this is done by an RPA Business Analyst who also tracks process performance, identifies major gaps and provides solutions. Upon deployment, a comprehensive documentation of the re-engineered process is introduced showing how robots can work side by side with their human counterparts. Process documentation is an established way to sustain the value created in every process step over time.

An RPA CoE simplifies processes. Having a robot in production do transactional procedures eliminates some layers of an end-to-end process. Often, multiple process checks and other steps are rooted out in some parts of the map. This reduces non-value adding activities that may cause potential errors. Using less time and fewer manual interventions, the goal of process simplification is to make work easier to understand and reduce process bottlenecks. This allows human workers to make more efficient use of their time and focus more on value adding activities.

RPA is parallel to process excellence. The collaboration of developers and process technicians give life to an RPA CoE’s mission of building smart robots and optimizing processes. As powerful as it is, RPA alone is not a solution to enhance productivity. It will fall out of alignment if implemented without good business process management. Subsequently, this will cause inefficiency, contrary to its promise. The best cases for RPA implementation are processes that are mature and stable. When RPA is merged with effective business practices, immediate positive impacts are realized which include the company’s overall employee experience and increased economic value.

Clearly, to realize the full potential and value of RPA, companies will need to re-evaluate and re-think their process optimization initiatives and focus more on streamlining processes — the first step all businesses must take in order to keep up with the fast paced evolution towards digital transformation.

The author is a Manager at the Digital Transformation Solutions — Robotics Process Automation of Isla Lipana & Co., the Philippine member firm of the PwC network. Readers may call +63 (2) 8845 2728 or e-mail the author at jay.armand.b.ogayon@.pwc.com for questions or feedback.

The views or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Isla Lipana & Co. The content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for specific advice.

Brexit has the British fleeing to Europe

By Leonid Bershidsky

FIVE YEARS ago, I emigrated to Germany from Russia, because it had abandoned any pretense of wanting to be a European country. Now, I’m watching in amazement as Britons — people we Russians have long considered the epitome of Europeanness — are doing the same, in droves, for the same reason.

It’s well known that tens of thousands of UK citizens have obtained second passports from Ireland as insurance against a post-Brexit loss of the European freedom of movement. But that’s only part of the story. Far more British citizens are applying for passports in other European countries than had been doing so before the Brexit referendum; they’re also moving to these countries in numbers not seen in a decade.

The number of Britons acquiring the German nationality, for example, has jumped from hundreds to thousands a year. There are so many of them they no longer get a traditional ceremony when they receive their German passports.

In 2014, five times as many Russians as Britons became naturalized Germans. The situation has reversed today: In 2018, 6,640 UK nationals obtained German passports, compared with 1,930 Russians. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s international migration database, after Brexit passed, the naturalizations of Britons also went up sharply in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, although the absolute numbers are smaller there than in Germany.

While Britons getting second passports from Ireland mostly aren’t going anywhere, there’s a substantial jump in UK emigration to the rest of the European Union.

While Britons migrated to the continent in similar numbers in the mid-2000s, about half of those emigres were moving to Spain, which marketed itself aggressively to retirees (and enjoyed a housing boom as a consequence). Today, the geography of the UK emigration is much more diverse. And, as with naturalizations, continental Europe is receiving significantly more UK nationals than Russians.

Data from the OECD are only available through 2017. But Daniel Auer of the Berlin Social Science Center, who is working on a study of recent UK emigration with co-author Daniel Tetlow, projects that the number of UK citizens moving to other EU countries increased to more than 75,500 in 2018, and will go up to almost 84,000 this year. That would be an absolute record.

The numbers are bigger than those reported by the UK Office of National Statistics for the outward migration of UK citizens — according to the ONS, net out-migration in the 12 months ending in March 2019 reached 52,000. But Auer considers OECD data and his extrapolations from national statistics in Germany, Spain and Ireland more accurate than British data, which is based in large part on passenger surveys.

It’s true that Britons face a lot less bureaucracy than Russians when they want to move to EU member states. And, unlike Russians, they are allowed dual citizenship in Germany while the UK is still an EU member. But I still can’t help my incredulity as I look at the numbers.

Russia is a corrupt country run by an authoritarian ruler who invades neighboring states, and it’s much poorer than the UK. It fits the profile of a country of emigration much better than Britain does. According to Gallup data from the end of last year, 34 million people worldwide would want to move to the UK and only 8 million to Russia. And yet the UK appears to be beating my country of birth at driving people away.

The fact that the UK is still an attractive destination for immigrants makes it likely that post-Brexit Britain will be able to attract enough talent to replace those who leave. The foreigners still come: According to the OECD, the number coming to study — mostly from non-EU countries — has increased even as fewer people have been arriving to take jobs. But the UK government needs to pay more attention to how many citizens are leaving the country and declaring their allegiance to other European states. It needs more accurate statistics, obtainable from destination countries, and policies designed to persuade its people to stay or to come back if they’ve left.

The growing emigration of UK nationals is a measure of policy failure — just as it has been for the Vladimir Putin regime in Russia since the 2014 Crimea annexation. The UK, like Russia, is losing people who disagree with insular policies. Brexiters may consider that good riddance — just like the Kremlin does. But I’m deeply convinced that countries need such people. They’re the ones who connect nations in this increasingly small world, and with fewer of them, countries can quickly lose their edge.

 

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Planning for Bic-tory

I was at a 7-Eleven one early morning, having breakfast. From where I sat, I saw the display shelves behind the counter. They were full of various brands of cigarettes. And this, to me, indicated that despite the increase in taxes on tobacco products, the ban on smoking in public places as well as tobacco advertising, and the big and bold graphic health warnings on cigarette packs, many people still continue to smoke.

Perhaps it is this understanding of the strong “power” of smoking that has allowed even some decades-old consumer goods companies to press on. The tobacco industry, in a way, has given them a longer lease on life. A contrary view, perhaps, to the health warning that smoking “kills.” For in the case of the French Bic company, for instance, smoking actually allows it to live on, and profitably at that.

The rack of Bic disposable lighters was just as prominently displayed as the cigarettes themselves inside the convenience store. And rightly so, perhaps. Gone is the era when smokers also carried boxed matches or giveaway matchbooks from restaurants and bars. Nowadays only a few carry re-usable lighters like Zippo, which have now become more like a fashion statement and a collectible. Most smokers now opt for disposables. And so, in markets like the Philippines where smoking continues to flourish, so do Bic lighters.

Societe Bic SA, or Bic, is based in Clichy, France. It was founded in 1945 and is among the world’s biggest producers of disposable consumer products. Its disposable lighters first came into the market in 1973, or about 46 years ago. This was a year after Cricket, in 1972, started producing cheap disposable plastic lighters. Yes, disposable lighters are nothing new. But, for a company like Bic to continue to profitably sell the same product for almost 50 years, is a tribute to its staying power.

And this is given the fact that the tobacco industry reportedly peaked way back in the 1960s, and since 1965 has reportedly been on a slow decline. But, in terms of absolute numbers, the industry is far from dying. Data from the Centers for Disease Control in the United States show that US farms harvested more than 533 million pounds of tobacco in 2018. And that just a year before, in 2017, about 249 billion cigarettes were still sold in the United States even as, on average, federal and state excise taxes accounted for about 44.3% of the retail price of cigarettes. This sales data excludes the sales of smokeless tobacco as well as e-cigarettes.

As for Bic, by launching its lighter in 1973, it still caught the tail-end of the tobacco peak. And despite the slow, steady decline of tobacco and the advent of the e-cigarette era, the company continued to profitably retail its lighters. To date, it is the No. 1 lighter brand in the United States. It is cheap, and thus popular. In 2016, it reportedly cornered more than 34% of the US market for disposable lighters. North America is in fact Bic’s biggest market for all its products, followed by the “developing markets,” and then, Europe. In 2018, the company made nearly €2 billion in net sales globally.

However, what I find more interesting is that Bic continues to remain strong after 74 years by relying on only three main product categories: stationery, lighters, and shavers. In the fast-moving consumer goods business, having “limited” product lines can be risky. On the other hand, such limitation can also allow a company to remain focused in terms of product development and innovation, and ensuring sustainability.

Of its three main product lines, the oldest line — stationery — continues to sell the most. Unsurprisingly, considering that theses are mainly pens and other writing and coloring products. Lighters follow closely at second, and then shavers, at a far third. In 2018, stationery products accounted for about 40% of net sales, followed by disposable lighters at 35%, and then disposable shavers at 22%. Incidentally, Bic has been selling its pens since 1945, and its one-piece polystyrene shaving razors since 1975.

I can understand why pens continue to lead the way. There is obviously a big market for such a product. And for shavers as well. Billions of people shave every single day, men and women. But, disposable lighters? There have been plenty of initiatives worldwide for several decades now to curb smoking. Yet, the industry continues to survive. It has, in fact, innovated with the shift to e-cigarettes. Unfortunately for Bic, if this alternative truly catches on, it may reduce if not eliminate the need for disposable lighters. At this point, I am certain that Bic is already planning for this eventuality.

A final point of course is the issue of environmental sustainability. Being among the largest producer of plastic-based disposable consumer products, one can only imagine the billions of used pens, lighters, and shavers now in landfills or floating in the oceans. With Bic’s success comes the great responsibility to help with the cleaning up.

In Australia, for example, in partnership with TerraCycle, all brands of pens and markers are now 100% recyclable in Australia and New Zealand. Bic launched the Writing Instruments Recycling Program to encourage schools, offices, and communities across Australia and New Zealand to collect and recycle used pens, markers, and other writing instruments. The products are given back to local communities after they are recycled into garden beds, park benches, and even playgrounds.

Considering that “developing markets,” presumably including Southeast Asia and the Philippines, is Bic’s second biggest market next only to North America, I believe a similar recycling effort should be undertaken locally. It is bad enough that smokers continue to litter our streets with cigarette butts, despite ordinances against this. Bic’s pens and lighters shouldn’t end up the same way. Not even in landfillfs, if they can actually be recycled into park benches and playgrounds for kids. “Pens to parks” or “Light to Play” or “Write to Play” programs should be considered.

 

Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippines Press Council.

matort@yahoo.com

Prosperity and demography in Asia

“The man of system… is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it.”

— Adam Smith,
Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Part VI,
Section II, Chap. II.

SINGAPORE — I came here to be one of the speakers in a forum on “Intellectual Property Rights and Economic Growth” organized by the Adam Smith Center, a new independent think tank headed by a young and dynamic leader Bryan Cheang. The event was held at the Singapore Management University (SMU) School of Law.

In my presentation on “Importance of Brands and Government Policy,” I used that quote from Adam Smith, the father of market economics, to highlight the fact that too much central planning and over-reaching regulations and prohibitions by governments are wrong, that they invite the law of unintended consequences.

The other speakers in the forum were Lorenzo Montanari of the Property Rights Alliance (PRA), Dr. Sary Levy-Carciente, author of the International Property Rights Index (IPRI) 2019, and Dr. Linda Low of the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) School of Business. Dr. Chandran Kukathas, Dean of the School of Social Sciences of SMU gave the welcome message.

Among the things that Dr. Low discussed in her presentation was their ageing population and the rise of migrant workers from neighbor Asia engaged in “3D” work — dirty, dangerous, demeaning — that the locals are not inclined to take.

Having an ageing population when the economy is already prosperous and developed would invite cultural and fiscal problems someday. Who will take care of the many old and retired people when their children and grandchildren are busy in work or school, like changing adult diapers — robots or migrant health workers?

I checked data for age dependency of young people — the higher the number, the better for a future “army” of workers and entrepreneurs and hence, for economic growth — and here is what I got. (See Table 1.)

True enough, in our hotel here, while the concierge staff are young Singaporeans and some Filipinos, many in the restaurant are locals looking to be in their 40s to 60s. The room cleaners are young migrants perhaps from Indonesia, India, and Bangladesh.

Past policies of high government intervention in family planning can backfire today or tomorrow. And this reminds me again of state-sponsored and taxpayers-funded population control measures under the controversial RH Law of the Philippines. If it was a good idea, it would not require legislation and rely on civil society voluntary funding (like Gawad Kalinga, Rotary Homes, Books for the Barrios, etc.) but because it was a bad idea, it needed legislation to coerce more taxpayers funding.

One noticeable thing in highly developed economies like Singapore is the seeming absence of many informal enterprises that compete with the formal sector. Thus, the sidewalks are really wide and clean, with no ambulant vendors that spring up from anywhere and often impede the paths of pedestrians or cars.

One interesting bit of data I came across while I was scrolling the World Bank database is competition by unregistered firms (see Table 2). Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore have no data, so either they cannot get reliable data, or all firms there are registered.

And this further shows one result of too much business regulation by governments, especially by socialist ones like China, Vietnam, and Laos. India’s constitution also declares itself as socialist.

The Philippines’ three new laws — Ease of Doing Business (EODB), Anti-Red Tape, and One Person Corporation — would encourage more Philippine entrepreneurs to go formal while restricting the grubby hands of corrupt bureaucrats from prolonging the agony of business registration and renewal of permits to solicit extortion and bribes. Kudos to the Department of Trade and Industry and Secretary Ramon Lopez for leading these reforms.

We need more economic reforms like even lower personal and corporate income taxes. The ASEAN Economic Community has unleashed tax competition among member countries to attract more investors from the region and rest of the world.

 

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the president of Minimal Government Thinkers.

minimalgovernment@gmail.com

Mobile connections

By Tony Samson

THE PENETRATION rate (a marketing term, Sir) of the mobile phone is almost 100% of the population and that includes infants and nonagenarians. It’s the double-SIM card phones (counted as two) and the multi-gadget culture that have made this jarring statistic possible.

Everyone has mobile connection, carrying his phone everywhere, except in the shower and the casket. (Is the phone cremated with the deceased?) When it rings, one knows who is calling. An unidentified number may be announcing a raffle jackpot, a scam, or a telemarketer pushing personal bank loans. Gone are the land-line gatekeepers to ask, “What company are you from?”

Mobile connections are direct. They leave a target defenseless, with no polite means to avoid a call. (Sorry, I’m having an anxiety attack right now. Can you call later so I can lie down and switch off my phone?)

What’s to stop a pest from sending inappropriate messages to another person whose number he got from a stranger? (Are your earlobes pierced?)

The simplest approach in fending off unwanted communications is simply to ignore them. Cutting off an incoming call in mid-ring alerts the caller with a fast busy and the brusque response this entails. It’s better to let the phone ring, maybe with a voice intercept after seven rings — I’m not running out of the shower to take your call.

And everybody is on the phone. There are pedestrians who seem to be talking to themselves with a cockroach ear transmitter picking up the other one in the conversation. Is walking while texting also a traffic violation?

There are ways of telling if the mobile connection is still working.

A quick response means the person welcomes the message and has time to fashion a short reply, even if it is not the desired response. Gone are the days when an assumption can be made that the message has not yet been received and is being queued in outer space.

Not to get an instant reply can no longer be blamed on a technical glitch. The delayed response of 30 minutes (maybe, he’s feeding the koi) can be allowed. But messages have a certain urgency that requires even just an acknowledgment of receipt, “K” being a frequently sent message. A day’s delay is an answer in itself — don’t hold your breath.

Still, the silent treatment of unanswered messages (also referred to as “ghosting”) with the sender increasing his intensity and pleading levels, is the modern equivalent of unrequited love. The disinterested, even badgered, party no longer reads the long messages before trashing them.

Reforming party girls (I want to go straight after saving your allowances) who want to turn into nuns or get married to wealthy suitors clueless about their past simply change their SIM card and melt back into anonymity and their real names.

The fleeting nature of the contact number which is prepaid and unspecified allows intimate relationships to be mobile. The ATM girl uses the phone as her business address for entrepreneurial forays in e-commerce. She needs no manager and does her own brand ambassadorship, supplying vital information on availability, red alerts, and skin tones. She sets her own fees without deductions for commission and VAT. The phrase “I miss you” with an accompanying teary emoticon is shorthand for “I need to withdraw from your deposit” — preferably the cash variety.

Mobile communications are transforming the way the oldest profession, after landscape architecture (hanging gardens of Babylon), is conducted. Mobile romance is now part of the social scene. While the ’70s system of paging screened out lewd vocabulary which needed to be sanitized for transmission (Can we have coffee), mobile messages go on the air in their purest (or impurest) form — Junjun misses the twins.

The human barrier is removed from even the most inaccessible personality once the contact number is discovered. Still, the connection is easily broken by the simple expedient of ignoring the beep.

Breaking off a mobile connection for good requires merely a new number. And if the other number is kept somewhere in analog form, handwritten in a notebook, the ATM relationship can be revived, unless, of course, the other party too changed number and kept his deposit accounts safe.

As in anything mobile, even the most intense relationships are portable and easily disconnected… or transferred.

 

Tony Samson is Chairman and CEO, TOUCH xda.

ar.samson@yahoo.com

The CCP Art and Power Pas De Deux

By Marian Pastor Roces

“The CCP Art and Power Pas De Deux” was originally published in San Juan magazine in January 1985, and is one of more than 40 essays in Gathering: Political Writing on Art and Culture, the first collection of essays by Marian Pastor Roces, who has written extensively about craft, art, museology, cultural theory and politics. What follows is a condensed version of the essay which is being reprinted in light of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’s 50th anniversary this year.

MY DIATRIBE is fixed on the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), because it is difficult to conceive of the building, the Philippine colossus (“Parthenon,” said the founding mother), as vulnerable. CCP deflected critical examination since its inception; but perhaps that time is past.

The CCP took up the awesome presumption of gathering up all the meanings and ambitions of Philippine culture — an omniscience before which Filipinos became pagans needing to be educated; philistines needing enlightenment.

As a symbol, the first building in the complex could only succeed: the beautiful and victorious form rising from the sea is compelling everywhere. Botticelli’s Venus Rising from the Sea is called up. The mythic navels in the seas of Philippine mythology are in the mind’s eye.

The Leandro Locsin building works especially for an archipelagic people familiar with images of the sea; who enjoy a creation myth which has a bird throwing rocks into the sea to form life-giving land (Locsin said he really intended for the building to look like it was thrown there); a people, furthermore, who are attached to the orange and red sunset at Manila Bay and who are known to have regarded that spot of sea at the intersection of what is now Vito Cruz and Roxas Boulevard, abode of mermaids, with some reverence.

So why, ungrateful peasants, are Filipinos not one in singing hosannas? I think some intelligence may be culled from the structure itself.

The CCP as edifice/phantasm insists on a single perspective. It must be viewed from outside, frontally. From the back, it is unprepossessing, even ugly, especially because our backs are turned against the heaven and sea panorama. The form works best as though a drawing on paper, showing the doubling effect of the reflecting pool. This is the single perspective that most aligns with central authority.

Inside the CCP, a dark and inhospitable warren annuls the timeless vision produced by the façade. The tomb effect is made more profound by the fact that CCP is actually two buildings (two architectural plans) stuck together. The plans for a cantilevered, floating front was appended to plans for a regular skyscraper behind, which makes it difficult to navigate the spaces within. Outside is the place of architectural lucidity for this building.

Outside is where most Filipinos have stayed.

Hence the CCP is nothing like the Eiffel Tower, or Borobudur, or Shih Huang Ti’s Great Wall, or for that matter, the Parthenon, all of which are forms simultaneously for looking at, and for looking out from. The entombed employees are essentially time-bound to the calendar of events transpiring under stage lights. The CCP’s stillness and opacity comes close to the obsession with bravura form and symbolic gesture that characterizes baduy.

The Martial Law architect’s need to be great (again or at last) is perfectly matched to the CCP’s raison d’être, and represents a deep discomfort about the validity of Filipino culture; a culture which, from all indications, had no need for monuments. To Locsin, the CCP is a triumph of the large-scale, something which no Filipino has done well before, or since. So far. Hence, even as an achievement, it stands outside the trajectories of Philippine culture.

Despite the singular genius of Locsin, therefore, the CCP is not a monument to the large-scale, but to a humongous inferiority complex.

Our leaders’ lust for elusive grandeur operated in the CCP in systematic ways. It was not only metaphorically that the national ambition was spelled out: because Filipinos so need to be accepted by the world as a five-star civilization, the nation must exert itself heroically at incubating virtuosos. Art must be made for international competition, by prizefighters to hasten the process of legitimization, and by the way, art might be made to entertain Filipinos.

The Filipino is to be educated, post-haste (the disembodied voice on the sound system instruct us not to clap between symphony concert movements); “exposed” (witness Van Cliburn, Margot Fonteyn, Placido Domingo); reminded of supposedly forgotten glory hence the very long parade of “tribes” in costume that was the Kasaysayan ng Lahi and “folk arts festivals” where “ethnic” types sell off the sad artifacts of dying cultures.

In the original version of the compensatory mechanism (the insecure must overcompensate), art becomes a gift, something to be delivered, ultimately to the provinces. The Outreach Program literally reaches out to the unblessed-by-art, instead of art coming out of the dynamics of life, reaching out to the CCP.

This arrogance would be innocuous if it were not so magisterially served up from that building, the site of enormous power. (Surely, there is nothing wrong with being educated.) But this notion of art-as-gift — and its flip-side, art-as-power-strategy — can kill. The near-death of the visual arts avant-garde, “developed” by the CCP Art Museum, is a small tragedy with literally a moral lesson.

This potentially powerful art which sought to subvert the fuzzy-headed, sentimentalizing tendencies of establishment art in the Philippines, was absorbed into the myth-making machinery of the CCP. And there it expired.

Fascism is unavoidable in this discussion because it is impossible to dismiss the signs: for example, the Betsy Westendorp de Brias renditions of a goddess-like Imelda Marcos. Also, in the aesthetics of spectacle which is idealized as a return to religion; in the claims of art in the name of utopian morality, which the Marcoses borrowed from China and the Soviet Union; finally, in art-making subsumed under a bureaucratic State apparatus.

I think that the mind that imagined that art’s link to life is from on high, that art straddles myth on one hand and State system on the other (the legendary Makiling site giving aura to bureaucracy), is an infinitely evil mind. It engaged the Philippines and its refinements in a dance of death.

 

Gathering: Political Writing on Art and Culture is available through the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design Manila (mcadmanila.org.ph) and ArtAsiaPacific (artasiapacific.com).

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