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FDA not equipped to validate claims of sugar use in beverages

THE Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday that it does not have the technical capacity to determine whether beverages are sweetened with sugar or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which affects how beverages are taxed.

The FDA was testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, where Rep. Estrellita B. Suansing, the committee’s senior vice chair from Nueva Ecija’s first district, was looking into the FDA’s alleged failure to properly implement the excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB).

The excise tax took effect on Jan. 1, 2018 as part of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law. TRAIN imposed a P12 per liter tax on beverages using high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and a P6 per liter tax on beverages using local sugar.

“Pinapabayaan nila yung mga companies mag-register online and they don’t have the capability to check the item itself or the sugar-sweetened beverage itself na ma-check kung HFCS or local sugar. Kung local sugar ang ginagamit hindi sana magsa-suffer yung local sugar farmers natin na bumagsak yung industry (The FDA allows companies to register products online and they don’t have the capability to tell whether a product really uses sugar or HFCS. If drinks makers really used more sugar our farmers would not suffer and the industry would not collapse)” Ms. Suansing said.

The FDA’s Director for Food Regulation and Research Marilyn P. Pagayunan said that companies typically upload the ingredients of their products when they register online.

She said the FDA cannot independently determine the sweetener used in a given product.

“There is a need for FDA to purchase or procure more equipment for HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) tests,” she said. “Ayun po tina-try po namin magkaroon para ma-determine namin kung nagsisinungaling po yung mga manufacturers (We are trying to obtain such equipment to verify the manufacturers’ claims,” Ms. Pagayunan said.

She added, “The laboratory doing all the testing (has only one) HPLC machine, (and) there are lots of tests.”

According to the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s Revenue Regulations No. 20-2018, the excise tax covers sweetened juice drinks; sweetened tea; all carbonated beverages; flavored water; energy and sports drinks; other powdered drinks not classified as milk, juice, tea, and coffee; cereal and grain beverages; and other non-alcoholic beverages that contain added sugar. — Vince Angelo C. Ferreras

Pag-IBIG Fund set to issue P9.6B worth of mortgages in Mindanao vs P85-B national goal

DAVAO CITY — Mindanao borrowers are expected to take up about P9.6 billion worth of mortgages out of the P85 billion target set for the Home Development Mutual Fund, a fund official said here last week.

“We are hoping to hit the target,” according to Fermin A. Sta. Teresa, senior vice-president for lending operations of the fund, better known as Pag-IBIG.

As of September, Pag-IBIG had lent P6 billion in Mindanao.

Mr. Sta. Teresa said he is confident of hitting the target as more organizations have accessed loans from the Fund, among them schools and local government units. Last year, the fund lent about P7 billion in Mindanao, or about 10% of the P73 billion in mortgages nationwide.

He added that Mindanao’s performance tends to depend on three major cities: Davao, General Santos and Cagayan de Oro. However, recently several other local government units (LGUs) and private employers have been active in accessing funds for their constituents, among them the towns in Zamboanga del Norte.

Last week, the Fund signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ateneo de Davao University and Realty Investments, Inc. to set up of a housing project for employees of the university.

Mr. Sta. Teresa added that there are similar initiatives with other schools in Mindanao, like the one with the Southern City Colleges in Zamboanga City.

“More employers (in Mindanao) are coming in (to become partners in providing housing for their employees). To me it is a partnership because there is the desire of employers to provide homes to their employees,” he added.

Meanwhile, the fund also recognized the best performing developers in Mindanao for the first semester of the year.

The top-performing developers were 8990 Housing Development Corp., the VCDU Realty Corp., Malate Construction and Development Corp., Johndorf Ventures Corp., Urbaneast Developments Inc., Prestige Homes and Realty Development Corp., Bria Homes, Inc., Gensan VSM Realty Corp., Primeland Properties, Inc., and Prima Casa Land and Houses, Inc.

It also recognized employers like the Bukidnon provincial government, the Cagayan de Oro City government, Mindanao State University, the Tagum Agricultural Development Co., T-Nalak Labor Service Cooperative and General Services Multi-Purpose Cooperative. — Carmelito Q. Francisco

TUCP party-list files security of tenure legislation as HB 4892

THE TRADE UNION Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) Party-list said it has filed its version of the Security of Tenure bill, one of various versions of the legislation in play seeking to end the practice of contractualization after a previous bill passed by Congress was vetoed.

TUCP Party-list Rep. Raymond C. Mendoza filed House Bill No. 4892 which if passed will be known as the Security of Tenure Act of 2019. It seeks to criminalize all forms of contractualization and ban all forms of fixed-term employment.

Contractualization, also known as “endo,” denies workers a pathway to permanent employment and benefits, typically by terminating employment before the 6-month deadline for achieving permanent status and forcing workers to sign up again also on a contract basis.

“The bill seeks to provide security of tenure to 9 million Filipino ‘endo’ workers who are being exploited today in a modern form of slave labor […] Endo workers experience not being paid the minimum wage, even as they go without social security, Philhealth and PAG-IBIG coverage. Further they are denied their Constitutional rights to organize and to bargain,” Mr. Mendoza said in a statement.

The measure aims to totally prohibit contracting, subcontracting, manpower agency hiring, and outsourcing, including those undertaken by so-called service cooperatives engaged in manpower supply.

“This Bill seeks to criminalize labor-only contracting which is already prohibited under our existing laws but is perpetually being circumvented to deprive workers of their Constitutionally-guaranteed rights to Security of Tenure,” according to the bill’s explanatory note.

Under the bill, all employees regardless of employment status or position cannot be dismissed without cause or due process.

The measure also provides that all employees, except those under probation, be considered regular including project-based and seasonal employees.

HB 4892 also prescribes fines of P50,000 to P5 million, and imprisonment of six months to one year for violators.

In his July 26 veto message to the Senate, President Rodrigo R. Duterte said that while he stands firm in his commitment to protect the workers’ right to security of tenure, the enrolled bill “unduly broadens” the scope of labor-only contracting, which is already banned by law. — Vince Angelo C. Ferreras

Japan nominee to head ADB helped design ODA fast track for major projects

FINANCE Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said he supports Japan’s nominee to head the Asian Development Bank (ADB), adding that the proposed candidate is well-equipped to lead the bank in helping the region achieve inclusive growth.

Japan has nominated Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Masatsugu Asakawa as the next ADB president following his predecessor Takehiko Nakao’s resignation effective next year. Mr. Asakawa, according to Mr. Dominguez, helped design Japan’s policy for fast-tracking major projects backed by Japanese aid.

Mr. Dominguez said Mr. Asakawa, who is also the special advisor to the Minister of Finance, has extensive experience in international finance, development and taxation which will be a “valuable asset” for the bank.

His background will help the bank continue (to reinvent) itself and (pursue) new strategies to help the region achieve inclusive growth amid a global economic slowdown,” Mr. Dominguez said in a stat

Mr. Nakao, who took up his post in April 2013, announced in mid-September his decision to step down effective January.

Minister of State for Financial Services Taro Aso said in his letter to Mr. Dominguez that Mr. Asakawa was the “most qualified candidate” for the post.

“Special Advisor Asakawa helped set the stage for the ‘fast and sure’ approach we are adopting with Japan now in implementing the big-ticket infrastructure projects being funded with Japanese ODA,” Mr. Dominguez said, referring to official development assistance.

“As finance deputy for the G20 meetings held in Osaka, Special Advisor Asakawa was instrumental in crafting the G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment and the G20 Shared Understanding on the Importance of UHC (Universal Health Care) Financing in Developing Countries,” according to the DoF statement. — Beatrice M. Laforga

The 2019 HCCH Judgments Convention and the enforcement of foreign judgments in the Philippines

In a global world where cross-border transactions are commonplace, disputes inevitably arise. Considering the difference in the substantive laws and procedures in different jurisdictions, the resolution of these disputes requires multilateral agreement and cooperation between and among states. Thus, one of the keys issues in this field of human enterprise is the recognition and enforcement of foreign court decisions. On this score, the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) adopted on July 2, the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters or the Judgments Convention. The Judgments Convention seeks “to promote effective access to justice for all and to facilitate rule-based multilateral trade and investment, and mobility, through judicial co-operation.” This is intended to fill in the gap in cross-border litigation, particularly the uncertainty of recognition and enforcement of a court decisions in another jurisdiction and seeks to serve as a mechanism similar to the New York Convention on the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards which has been widely ratified by a number of states.

Uruguay was the first country to accede to the Judgments Convention. The Philippines, which participated in the discussions, have yet to accede to the Convention.

The Judgments Convention applies to the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in civil or commercial matters in one contracting state of a judgment given by a court of another contracting state. It shall, however, not extend to revenue, customs, or administrative matters. It further excludes within its scope foreign judgments on status and legal capacity of natural persons, family law matters, wills and succession, insolvency, carriage of passengers and goods, defamation, privacy, intellectual property, and anti-trust matters, among others.

The Judgments Convention mainly provides that there shall be no review on the merits of the foreign judgments in the requested state. This is consistent with Philippine jurisprudence which already recognizes that “a Philippine court will not substitute its own interpretation of any provision of the law or rules of procedure of another country, nor review and pronounce its own judgment on the sufficiency of evidence presented before a competent court of another jurisdiction.” (Bank of the Philippine Islands Securities Corp. v. Guevara, G.R. No. 167052, March 11, 2015) This is also in accordance with the “policy of preclusion” or the policy in all legal systems to limit repetitive litigation on claims and issues. (Mijares v. Ranada, G.R. No. 139325, April 12, 2005)

The Judgments Convention also provides limited grounds for the refusal of recognition and enforcement of a foreign judgment:

a. lack of notification to the parties sufficient to enable them to prepare their defense, or was made in a manner incompatible with the fundamental rules of the requested state concerning service of documents;

b. the judgment was obtained by fraud;

c. the recognition or enforcement of the judgment would be manifestly incompatible with the public policy of the requested state;

d. the proceedings in the court of origin were contrary to an agreement; or a designation in a trust instrument, under which the dispute was to be determined in court of a state other that the state of origin;

e. the judgment is inconsistent with a judgment given by a court of the requested state in a dispute between the same parties; or

f. the judgment is inconsistent with an earlier judgment given by a court of another state between the same parties on the same subject matter, provided that the earlier judgment fulfils the conditions necessary for its recognition in the requested state.

The foregoing grounds are similar to those provided under Section 48, Rule 39 of the Rules of Court with the exception of the ground that there is a clear mistake of fact and law in the foreign judgment sought to be enforced in the Philippines. This may be due to the fact that this ground has been used (or misused) to re-litigate the case in the Philippine courts which is inconsistent with the “no merit review” provision under the Judgments Convention.

However, in Soorajmull Nagarmull v. Binalbagan-Isabela Sugar Company, Inc., (G.R. No. L-22470, May 28, 1970), our Supreme Court refused recognition and enforcement of the foreign decisions as they were found to have been rendered upon a clear mistake of law. The Supreme Court did so on the basis that the foreign decisions make an innocent party suffer the consequences of the default or breach of contract committed by another party. This then begs the question as to whether this case would have been decided differently under the Judgments Convention, or is it possible to frame this under the public policy exception?

At any rate, as the Judgments Convention operates under the framework of mutual trust between and among states, it also provides an “objection mechanism” for a contracting state to notify the depositary of the Judgments Convention, which is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, that its accession shall not have the effect of establishing relationship with another contracting state. In other words, this allows a contracting state to choose which state’s judgments it does not want to be bound to recognize and enforce.

In the end, any matter raised for or against the accession to the Judgments Convention should be gauged in the light of its promise for greater recognition and enforcement of Philippine court decisions involving cross-border transactions in other jurisdictions. For now, we shall see what will happen next.

This article is for general informational and educational purposes only and not offered as and does not constitute legal advice or legal opinion.

 

Reynold L. Orsua is a Senior Associate of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution (LDRD) of the Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices (ACCRALAW)

rlorsua@accralaw.com

Tel. No. (02) 830-8000

PNP chief allegedly tried to stop rogue cops’ firing

PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte’s police chief allegedly tried to stop the dismissal of 13 rogue cops who recycled illegal drugs in an illicit business that leads all the way to the Philippines’ national jail and several regional police offices.

Police Chief General Oscar D. Albayalde had intervened in the dismissal of the cops from Pampanga in 2016, when he was still acting regional director for Metro Manila, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director General Aaron N. Aquino told senators investigating corruption inside the country’s jails.

Mr. Aquino was a former regional director for central Luzon.

Mr. Aquino said Mr. Albayalde had asked him to review the cases of the 13 officers because they were his people.

Mr. Aquino narrated his phone conversation with Mr. Albayalde on the prodding of Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who sat beside the PDEA chief during the hearing. Mr. Magalong, who first divulged the involvement of rogue cops in the illegal drug trade inside jails, was a director of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group at that time.

Mr. Albayalde confirmed the conversation but said he was only checking the status of the cases against the policemen who were set to be fired over a questionable anti-drug operation in 2013.

“I could not have possibly influenced a regional director or an upper class,” he told the Senate hearing. “I was only an acting regional director of the National Capital Region Police Office then.”

He said he had asked for an update of the case because relatives of the cops had also been asking him about their fate, being a provincial director of Pampanga when the buy-bust took place in 2013.

Mr. Magalong recounted that on Nov. 29, 2013 the Pampanga Provincial Police Office conducted a buy-bust operation, and reported seizing only 38 kilograms of drugs and the arrest Chinese drug trafficker Johnson Lee.

But further investigation showed the police had seized about 200 kilos of illegal drugs worth P648 million and about P10 billion in cash. Findings also showed Mr. Lee had paid P50 million for the police to present a different Chinese national in his place, Mr. Magalong said.

Mr. Magalong said he later filed a case against the cops in 2014. An order for their dismissal was never implemented, he said.

Senator Richard J. Gordon said the phone conversation gives the panel a reason to question Mr. Albayalde. “He was very very negligent, at the most he was extremely not looking at the ball,” he said.

“When something is under investigation, you don’t call somebody,” Mr. Gordon added. — Charmaine A. Tadalan

SC defers action on Marcos ballot recount

THE SUPREME Court has deferred acting on the results of a ballot recount in connection with the 2016 electoral protest of former Senator Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. against Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo.

“The Presidential Electoral Tribunal has deferred action on the report,” court spokesman Brain Keith F. Hosaka said in a mobile-phone message yesterday. He didn’t say why.

The Constitution mandates the high court, sitting as an electoral tribunal, to resolve disputes involving the presidential and vice presidential races.

Justice Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa earlier submitted a report on the ballot recount in three pilot provinces where massive cheating allegedly occurred.

Mr. Marcos, son of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, identified the provinces as Iloilo, Negros Oriental and Camarines Sur, which had a total of 5,415 voting precincts in the May 2016 elections.

Chief Justice Lucas P. Bersamin said last month they were treading carefully in the electoral protest because it was “a matter of public interest.”

In August, Mr. Marcos asked the tribunal to hasten his electoral protest by directing hearing commissioners to set a preliminary conference because the revisions in the pilot provinces had been finished as early as February.

The tribunal in July deferred action on his motion to probe alleged vote-rigging in three more provinces in Mindanao.

It also denied for being filed prematurely the motion of Ms. Robredo to resolve all pending incidents after the revision of ballots.

Mr. Marcos narrowly lost the vice presidential race to Ms. Robredo, who is now halfway through her term.

Also yesterday, Ms. Robredo said that the high tribunal’s decision on the case will be a test of the country’s electoral process and justice system.

“We need to trust the system because this was the electoral process that gave me the victory as well as to our president,” she said in an emailed statement in Filipino, referring to President Rodrigo R. Duterte.

In the Philippines, the president and vice president are elected separately and may come from different parties.

Ms. Robredo noted the if people don’t trust the electoral process, it means all the sitting officials now are fraudulent. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas and Vince Angelo C. Ferreras

Convicts who have yet to surrender down to 19 — DoJ

THE NUMBER of illegally released convicts who have yet to surrender is down to 19, Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said yesterday.

Most of the felons have just a few more months to serve in prison, the Justice chief said. The Bureau of Corrections had released about 2,000 ineligible felons because they were convicted of heinous crimes.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte last month ordered the convicts to surrender by Sept. 19 or they will be hunted down “dead or alive.”

Justice Undersecretary Markk L. Perete has said they were reviewing the list of felons because some of them were found to have been released not for good conduct but after a pardon or parole.

Mr. Duterte earlier fired his prison chief Nicanor E. Faeldon for allowing the release of about 2,000 felons convicted of various heinous crimes. The law disqualifies them from early release for good conduct.

The Justice department and Department of the Interior and Local Government have revised the rules implementing the law on early release for good conduct, disqualifying recidivists, escapees, habitual delinquents and convicts of heinous crimes.

Eight convicts have asked the Supreme Court to void the new rules for being unconstitutional. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

African swine fever hits another village

THE Agriculture department as identified more areas where there has been an outbreak of African Swine Fever, it said yesterday.

The village of Tatalon in Quezon City has been added to the list after backyard pigs there were found to have contracted the virus, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said in a statement.

Quezon City Mayor Maria Josefina G. Belmonte told reporters the case in Tatalon may have been caused by meat products being brought to its market.

Also affected by the virus are areas in the provinces of Rizal, Bulacan, Pampanga, and Pangasinan. About 20,000 hogs have been culled, the agency said.

Ms. Belmonte said pigs from the village of Pasong Tamo have shown symptoms of the virus. She noted that since Saturday, 62 pigs have been culled there.

The local government has started killing the pigs even before laboratory results are released, she said.

The Agriculture department urged pig traders not to transport pigs from affected areas to prevent the spread of the virus.

“Trucking has to be strictly observed in terms of whether or not the pigs being transported are infected with the virus or not,” Mr. Dar said. “We have now asked the local government units to strengthen their checkpoints.” — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

Group seeks higher pay for private teachers

THE Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) will propose a bill that will increase the salary of private school teachers.

The bill will standardize the salaries of private school teachers and set up a fund for the purpose, Joel E. Tabora, president of CEAP, said at a briefing in Iloilo City.

The proposed law will address the “glaring disparity” between the entry level salary of public school teachers and their private counterparts.

Mr. Tabora said the government has unwittingly created a gap after seeking to address the low pay of public school teachers through a Salary Standardization Law. — Emme Rose S. Santiagudo

Mindanao seeks agri deals with LGUs

THE Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) wants to replicate its marketing agreement with Baguio City with other local governments for Mindanao agricultural products, it said in a statement yesterday.

The agency said MinDA Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol had called on members of the League of Cities of the Philippines to also sign a memorandum of understanding with the agency.

“This will provide Mindanao farmers sustainable markets for their produce and allow local governments’ constituents to buy fruits at prices lower than the prevailing market price,” he said. — Carmelito Q. Francisco

Philippine ICT development, transforming barriers

In the recent Technology and Innovation Summit entitled, “Innovative Philippines: Transforming Barriers to Productivity, Transparency and Inclusive Growth,” organized by the Stratbase Group, thought leaders from government, and the information and communications technology (ICT) sector came together to discuss the challenges faced by the industry, as well as the policy directions and strategies to cope with and succeed in the changing landscape of the digital economy.

Department of Information Communication and Technology (DICT) Secretary Gregorio Honasan cited the need to adopt a strategically developmental and competitive approach in the expansion of ICT in the Philippines and veer away from the traditional mindset limited by short “political” timelines.

Mr. Honasan wants the government to adopt a policy direction that maximizes the benefits of available information, communications, and technology solutions to cut through paper-based, multi-layered bureaucracy that has unnecessarily burdened our people who are just trying to make a living.

The new leadership of Mr. Honasan promises to institute very strategic policy reforms that will be more compatible with the pace of technological innovations and immune to short political cycle disruption. The inclusive connectivity now being prioritized under his leadership will be a game changing achievement that will benefit all sectors of Philippine society.

This year, the Global Innovation Index puts the country’s performance at 54th out of the 129 countries. Yes, there is a significant jump in the global ranking. But the Philippines still lags behind other ASEAN neighbors such as Singapore (8th), Malaysia (35th), Vietnam (42nd), and Thailand (43rd).

With the growing number of users of the internet, mobile phones, and social media in the Philippines, there is a need to complement this phenomenon with a conducive policy and business environment that can optimize productivity and increase competitiveness.

The challenges and requirements of a growing and dynamic global digital economy are enormous. It entails strong political will and a paradigm shift to allow more private sector participation and higher investment to ensure faster, cheaper, and more secure connectivity.

We need to make every Filipino ready not just to cope with the challenges but also succeed in the 4th Industrial Revolution.

During the Summit, the stakeholders agree with the DICT’s position that a national broadband backbone is critical to our ICT transformation. It will deliver a fast internet connection to 104,000 access points all over the country. This is envisioned to give free Wi-Fi services to about 25 million users in un-served areas of the country.

We welcome the plan of the DICT to activate approximately 111 nodes using NGP’s spare fiber to cascade capacity to identified growth areas in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao as well as its plan to build at least 20 cable landing stations with more than a thousand kilometers of submarine cable laid out to bring in more links to the international gateway.

But as we embrace the digital world and growing inter-connectivity, we should also be equipped to protect our data privacy and counter possible cybersecurity threats.

Raymund Liboro, Commissioner and Chairman of the National Privacy Commission, cited the “hidden cost of interconnectivity,” where we leave a trail of personal information whenever we access any form of social media. Data power he said can be both helpful and harmful to everyone if not properly managed and secured.

We also welcome the report of Mr. Liboro that the Philippines is pushing for better digital governance, compliance, and leadership concerning the country’s chairmanship in the recent ASEAN data privacy forum.

We are hoping that the National Privacy Commission will be more technology equipped and trained to fully implement the Data Privacy Act. Through this, they can help address the proliferation of cyber threats and crimes amid the digitalization activities of more government and private agencies.

The abundance of human and talent resources in the Philippines presents an under tapped national asset that is ripe for mobilization. Building a vibrant ICT ecosystem, as envisioned by the DICT leadership, requires less capital and infrastructure than hard industries and can cater to a global market.

The government, business sector, and the academe must learn to work in partnership through consultative venues that share information, expertise, and best practices that would guide our policy leaders to address impeding policy gaps and create an incentivized regime that balances regulation, empowers innovative endeavors, and boosts competitiveness.

Let us help strengthen a culture of innovation in our country not just to help our businesses grow but to uplift the lives of the Filipinos.

In the end, we look forward to how the private and government sectors will strengthen the partnership and transcend physical and industry boundaries to build on the momentum of growth and harness digital innovations that will promote the inclusive growth of all Filipinos.

 

Prof. Victor Andres “Dindo” C. Manhit is the President of the Stratbase ADR Institute and Founder and Managing Director of the Stratbase Group.

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