ANDRE PARAS stole the spotlight in the opening of the Sta. Lucia Land-NCRAA men’s basketball tournament in powering his team, AMA Titans to a one-sided victory, but his double-double performance was nearly overshadowed by another newcomer participant in University of Luzon, a team based in Dagupan, which pulled off a similar one-sided victory at the Cuneta Astrodome.
Mr. Paras, son of PBA legend Benjie Paras, led the Titans in a dominating 93-61 victory over Philippine Merchant Maritime School.
The 6-foot-5 Paras had a double-double performance, finishing with 15 points and 20 rebounds while also blocking six shots.
“With Andre getting the rebounds, we were able to run more and score on transition,” said AMA coach Mark Herrera.
The Titans quickly raced to a 14-0 lead and didn’t look back as the team composed half of the seniors and juniors squad was able to show better cohesion.
The league, which is backed by Sta. Lucia Land and being outfitted by LGR Sportswear, ushered its 25th season with a colorful opening ceremonies.
Philippine Sports Commission Chairman Butch Ramirez was the keynote speaker and guest of honor.
Former PBA chairman and long-time Sta. Lucia executive Buddy Encarnado declared the games open. Mr. Encarnado is the new general manager of the league while Bai Cristobal is the commissioner.
Mr. Paras and the rest of the Titans’ overpowering performance was duplicated by University of Luzon Golden Tigers’ 89-64 bashing of Asian Institute of Maritime Studies.
The Golden Tigers displayed balance firepower with Harvey Kyne Campo leading the way with 14 points. John Ericson Canlas added 13 markers while Robert Caasi contributed 12. Mario Angelito Torio had 11 as the University of Luzon, which traveled as far as Dagupan City early Tuesday morning, barely showed signs of fatigue as it outworked and outhustled its rival, which is just a stone’s throw away from the venue. — Rey Joble
THE Department of Finance (DoF) has ordered the Bureau of Customs(BoC) to reconcile its trade data with China’s in order to get a handle on the extent of smuggling.
The BoC last month reported to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III on the discrepancy between official data of the two countries. The differences suggest that China is recording exports goods that are not reflected in Philippine data.
“The (Customs) Commissioner should invite the Chinese bureau of customs chief here. You have to reconcile your figures on the import-export data. Anyway, the difference is not anymore 60%. It’s only 48% now, but that’s still large,” Mr. Dominguez told Customs Deputy Commissioner Edward James A. Dy-Buco during a meeting on Monday.
According to official data gathered by the DoF, the gap between the two countries’ data was about 60% in 2010, 57% in 2015, 48.7% in 2016 and 48% as of the end of July.
In the first seven months of 2017, the Chinese valued exports to the Philippines at $17.77 billion, while Philippine Statistics Authority estimates that imports from the same country of $9.24 billion.
“(The discrepancy) is going down but it’s still large,” Mr. Dominguez said. “These numbers, we’re not sure if they’re apples to apples. The definitive figure will come out from (Commissioner Isidro S.) Lapeña’s sitting down with his counterpart and working it out,” he added.
However, Mr. Dominguez said that the discrepancy may have resulted from timing issues and the inclusion and exclusion of particular commodities in reporting.
The DoF also cited 2014 UN Comtrade World Exports data that showed a total discrepancy of P1.8 trillion between the value of imports as reported locally and the value of shipments to the Philippines by exporting countries.
He said that foregone revenue based on the UN estimate is about P231 billion, equivalent to 2% of the country’s gross domestic product.
Mr. Lapeña has said that the inconsistencies can be attributed to the gross misdeclaration or undervaluation of goods in terms of either volume or weight; and the possible use of “consignees for hire,” where goods are released to “hidden” traders supported by fake documents — which also allows the importer to evade the scrutiny of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
On Tuesday, the BoC seized a total of P17.5 million worth of counterfeit merchandiseand heavy equipment at the Port of Manila over alleged misdeclaration of the importers’ shipments.
This followed an inspection of cargo led by Mr. Lapeña, who found fake branded watches, shoes, rice, used clothing, machinery parts and accessories, and other general merchandise.
The shipments, which all came from China, violate various provisions of Republic Act 10863 or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, Mr. Lapeña said. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan
A HAINAN-BASED conglomerate is looking into building a petroleum refining and petrochemical manufacturing facility in the Philippines, according to Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez.
In a statement, Mr. Lopez said he met with Handi Group President Hanling Wu last Nov. 27, where they discussed the possibility of the company investing in the Philippines.
“We welcome business intentions to strengthen our petrochemical industry, which the government actively supports. They expressed strong confidence on the business environment stability during the Duterte administration,” Mr. Lopez said.
Handi Group is described as one of the largest private specialty oil producer in China. The Hainan-based company is involved in oil refinery, chemical industry, trading, investment, and financing.
Mr. Lopez said he broached the idea of Handi setting up a facility in Mindanao, noting the region meets the company’s requirements for power, land and accessibility.
Mr. Wu was quoted as saying the company would require technical staff, particularly engineers, from the Philippines.
“There are a lot of universities in Mindanao that produce quality graduates and professionals in the field of engineering. We have good universities present in all parts of Philippines,” Mr. Lopez said.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s move to improve ties with China has led to more Chinese investment pledges both from the government and private companies. — Anna Gabriela C. Mogato
LAS VEGAS — Machine learning and deep learning — two subsets of artificial intelligence — hogged the limelight at the recent Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent, as the cloud giant showcased a broad depth of advanced AI-powered tools to assert its dominance.
AWS, which leads the public cloud market with 44.2% market share according to Gartner, announced a total of 22 new services during its five-day conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Majority of these cloud solutions featured capabilities for machine learning and deep learning — two subsets of AI that have the potential to automate industries and vastly improve productivity.
“It’s traditionally what AWS has done, as in mass announce a wide variety of products to the market,” said Jens Butler, an analyst at Tech Research Asia in an interview with BusinessWorld. “Some say it is a little bit overwhelming and that can be the case, but let’s be honest, it’s working. What [AWS] is doing is it’s tapping into multiple frameworks, allowing customers and partners flexibility to step across what would traditionally be silos.”
AWS has been rolling out AI-based products every year at its AWS re:Invent cloud bonanza. What’s different this year is that most of the company’s latest offerings are designed to make machine learning and deep learning more accessible to “everyday developers”, something that AWS believes will pave the way to robotics revolution.
Machine learning is defined as a subset of AI that focuses on the ability of machines to receive a set of data and learn for themselves, changing algorithms as they learn more about the information they are processing. Deep learning, on the other hand, is a form of machine learning that attempts to simulate the way human brains learn and process information by creating artificial “neural networks” that can extract complicated concepts and relationships from data.
“[Machine learning] is absolutely the buzzword du jour today. The hype and hope here is tremendous,” said AWS Chief Operating Officer Andy Jassy in his keynote address on Nov. 30. “And still there are a lot of constraints for builders and we know this because we’ve been doing machine learning in a really serious way at Amazon for 20 years.”
Machine learning algorithms, Mr. Jassy said, drive many of Amazon’s internal systems, particularly in areas involving customer experience – from Amazon.com’s recommendations engine to Echo powered by Alexa, from its drone initiative Prime Air to its new cashier-less physical store, Amazon Go. The company’s new mission is to share its learnings on machine learning and make developers and data scientists become experts in this field. Doing so will lead to more innovations in artificial intelligence.
“There aren’t many expert [machine learning] practitioners in the world because it is still too complicated for developers to learn. If you want to enable most enterprises to use machine learning in an expansive way, we have to solve the problem by making it accessible for everyday developers,” he said.
Andy Jassy, Amazon Web Services (AWS) chief operating officer, delivers keynote address at the 2017 AWS re:Invent conference on Nov. 30 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
One of AWS’ latest offerings that serve this purpose is Amazon SageMaker, a fully managed end-to-end machine learning service that removes the guesswork from each step of the machine learning process by providing developers and data scientists pre-built development kits, popular machine learning algorithms, and automatic model tuning.
“Our original vision for AWS was to enable any individual in his or her dorm room or garage to have access to the same technology, tools, scale, and cost structure as the largest companies in the world. Our vision for machine learning is no different,” Swami Sivasubramanian, AWS vice president of Machine Learning, said in a press brief. “We want all developers to be able to use machine learning much more expansively and successfully, irrespective of their machine learning skill level.”
A new tool that goes hand-in-hand with SageMaker is Amazon DeepLens, a deep learning-enabled wireless video camera that can run real-time computer vision models to give developers hands-on experience with machine learning.
“You can program this thing to do almost anything you can imagine, for instance, imagine programming the camera with computer vision models where it will recognize a license plate coming into your driveway and it’ll open the garage door, or you could program it to send you an alert when your dog gets on the couch,” Mr. Jassy explained as he introduced DeepLens during his keynote speech.
AWS also unveiled four new machine-learning tools that allow developers to build applications that emulate human-like cognition: Amazon Transcribe for converting speech to text; Amazon Translate for translating text between languages; Amazon Comprehend for understanding natural language; and, Amazon Rekognition Video, a new computer vision service for analyzing videos in batches and in real-time.
ROBOTS KILLING JOBS?
These powerful new services underscore Amazon’s push to transform industries through artificial intelligence, which some experts see as laying the groundwork for a robot revolution. This raises the question: is Amazon killing human jobs in favor of robots?
Data collated by Quartz, for instance, suggest that as Amazon integrates artificial intelligence in its retail operations by introducing robot workers, it will eventually reduce its human workforce in the years to come.
“Amazon’s growing army of robots may seem helpful and benign but they are also highly effective at terminating human retail employees,” Quartz authors Dave and Helen Edwards wrote.
On a global scale, a December study by McKinsey Global Institute estimated that between 400 million and 800 million individuals will need to find new jobs by 2030 as their work will be displaced by automation and artificial intelligence.
Aside from job disruption, some skeptics the likes of Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk warn that breakthroughs in artificial intelligence could do more harm than good. Tales of chatbots creating their own language to communicate with each other and voice-activated digital assistants ordering from TV shopping channels on their own stoke fears about the rise of robots.
Tech Research Asia’s Mr. Butler argued that at this stage, artificial intelligence should not be seen as a threat, and suggested a wait-and-see attitude.
“The examples [of destructive impact of AI or robots] are a small proportion of the real value AI provides. Remember: AI is a learning protocol and it’s going to get smarter the more data it gets access to. Until we allow technology to evolve we’re not going to be able to understand which works and which doesn’t,” he said. — Mira B. Gloria
In 2013, Time magazine called the millennials the “Me-Me-Me” generation and its cover declared that “millennials are lazy, entitled narcissists.” Not surprisingly, the age group helped make “selfie” into Oxford Dictionaries’ Word-of-the-Year that same year.
During a recent forum organized by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Stock Exchange, I spoke on the topic of “Millennials and the Future of Corporate Governance.” Reacting to my talk was a panel of millennials who gave me reason to doubt any simplistic characterization of this dominant group in today’s workplace.
I learned three main things by listening to the panel, which was ably moderated by Anna Licaros, country head of regulatory compliance at Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp. First is that investing in understanding millennials will pay off for business organizations. Secondly, the technology skills of millennials positively affect their views on corporate governance and transparency. Thirdly, millennials intuitively and profoundly understand the social obligations of business.
Hans “Chico” Sy, Jr., vice-president of SM Engineering, Design and Development, explained that millennials tend to be different because they have gone through significant social and cultural shifts beyond the normal generational changes due to amplification of technology. “Millennials are the product of the world and we just have to be more patient and understand exactly what motivates them. The effort paid to this people will pay a lot of dividends in the future.”
The need for managers to better understand and manage millennials is echoed by Espinosa, Ukleja and Rusch, in their book Managing the Millennials: Discover the Core Competencies for Managing Today’s Workforce.
They differentiated two types of managers in terms of their perspectives on dealing with millennials. The effective managers considered dealing with milllennials a personal growth opportunity. The millennials puzzled and frustrated them but they saw the need to improve their management skills. In contrast, the challenged managers emphasized the need for millennials to “grow up and face the real world.” These managers focus on what they see as the weaknesses of their subordinates rather than their own challenge to adapt to the new workforce.
On the technology front, the much touted digital native status of millennials have positive spillovers for good business.
Mariana Zobel-Aboitiz, general manager of Ayala Malls The 30th, explained that greater access to information means “there are no excuses and there’s nowhere to hide.” She believes that the Internet has put healthy pressure on her generation such that the idea of good governance and transparency is more innate among millennials than anyone else.
What struck me most — in a pleasant way — about the panel’s views on business is that they understand that it is not just a profit-seeking endeavor.
Lean Leviste, founder and president of Solar Philippines, argued for the social role of business: “The challenge of our generation is poverty alleviation… we have the unique task of changing the unequal socioeconomic development in our country. Rather than thinking of business as an end in itself, we need to think of [it] as a means to an end — to create this engine that will do social good for the country. This is not limited to CSR or social enterprises. For-profit businesses are the greatest engines for social good in the Philippines.”
Listening to Lean, I had to remind myself that I was hearing business philosophy from a 24-year-old.
Meanwhile, Danel Aboitiz, president and chief operating officer of Oil Business Unit at Aboitiz Power Corp., emphasized that a company’s social license to operate makes good corporate governance imperative. Through this, the company creates long-term value for its various stakeholders with whom it is interdependent.
In a similar vein, Mariana declared that “value creation goes beyond profit realization to how we contribute to society; not just for altruism but also to grow our markets.”
Chico captured the panel’s thinking in a powerful way. Corporate governance is a system that “lifts the weakest position and makes sure that nobody falls behind. For millennials, we don’t have to be told, ‘Hey, look at the environment. Look at your social impact.’ This is something that a lot of millennials take to heart. They want to believe in the company they work for and the cause that they do. It’s a question of ‘how has the business generally improved everyone?’”
After hearing the thoughts of this young panel of corporate leaders, I thought how wonderful it is that they are dedicating their lives of privilege, foreign-education, and tech-savviness to uplifting their country through business. I better understood what Jose Rizal meant when he spoke of the youth as the hope of the fatherland.
Benito L. Teehankee is full professor of management and organization at De La Salle University.
FOR THE holidays, the Peninsula Manila is presenting a collection of cocktails created by award-winning mixologist and head of beverage of the Peninsula Tokyo, Mari Kamata, featuring her knack for giving classic mixes a twist.
Now, the surprising thing about this multi-awarded bartender — she won the top prizes in 2016’s Seven Star Train Cocktail Recipe Competition in Japan, 2013’s Gin Connoisseur Program 2013 in France, and the 2009 Diageo World Class Cocktail Competition in London — is the fact that she never drinks alcohol.
“I never got into the habit of it. None in my family drinks [alcohol],” Ms. Kamata said during a media preview held on Nov. 22 at The Pen’s Salon de Ning.
But while she is a complete teetotaler, Ms. Kamata said her palate is sensitive enough that a little drop of the mix is enough for her to see if she did it well. This was something she demonstrated throughout the preview where she put a drop of the mix on the back of her hand and tasted it before serving the drink.
“My tongue and nose have really good memory, so I remember if I did it correctly,” she said.
So why did a woman who never drank alcohol want to become a bartender? Well, Ms. Kamata said she has always been fascinated with alcoholic beverages and since, at the time, there weren’t a lot of female bartenders in Japan, she wanted to be one. This meant taking a hotel and management degree with a focus on bartending.
Ms. Kamata’s 20 years of bartending experience, starting at the Intercontinental Tokyo and now The Peninsula Tokyo, gave her enough knowledge about the classics, so she is now into creating original cocktails incorporating the tried-and-tested favorites.
During the preview, Ms. Kamata showed how to make three of her cocktails: Matcha Martini, Blood and Sand, and Hennessy Negroni.
The first was a homage to Ms. Kamata’s Japanese heritage combined with one of the best-known cocktails, the martini.
The Matcha Martini features Belvedere vodka and Monin Poir Syrup (and regular simple syrup) with matcha powder (powdered green tea) which is prepared by mixing the powder with cold water, much like how they do it in the traditional tea ceremonies in Japan though replacing the hot water with cold.
The resulting beverage is “fruity with a comfortable bitterness,” as Ms. Kamata described. It’s quite easy to drink because it goes in smooth, almost like drinking an iced matcha drink — but laced with vodka. And watching her preparing is like performance art because of the almost meditative mixing of the matcha and water.
The next beverage was Blood and Sand, a cocktail named for a 1922 movie about Spanish bullfighters starring silent screen star Rudolph Valentino. The classic recipe calls for vermouth but Ms. Kamata switched things up and introduced an Earl-Grey-tea-and-clove-infused Vermouth Rosso alongside a 10-year-old Ardbeg whisky.
She infused the Earl Grey and clove into the vermouth by using an aeropress — those who don’t have the hardware can just steep the ground tea and clove for an hour.
The beverage is “peaty and smoky” with a bit of spice lingering at the back of one’s mouth due to the tea and clove.
Finally, she presented a Negroni, but instead of using the usual gin, she replaced it with Hennessy VSOP to make it an effective before- and/or after-dinner drink and used a smoker (they used maple wood chips) to lend a smoky flavor to the Negroni.
The three drinks presented in the mixology class — and three other cocktails Ms. Kamata created for the The Pen — are available throughout the month for P650 each.
Aside from Ms. Kamata’s drinks, the hotel is also serving its Cocktail of Hope — which uses Bailey’s, milk, mint liqueur and elderflower syrup — for P900 (including a Tree of Hope ornament) and a Mocktail of Hope — which uses Welch Grape Juice, Coke, and sliced pineapple — for those who prefer a nonalcoholic beverage for P790 (including the ornament). Part of the proceeds from the sales of the two drinks will be given to the Make a Wish Foundation. — Zsarlene B. Chua
SEOUL — A US B-1B bomber flew over the Korean peninsula on Wednesday, the South Korean military said, as part of a large-scale joint aerial drill that has been denounced by North Korea as pushing the peninsula to the brink of nuclear war.
The bomber flew from Guam and joined US F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters in the exercises with South Korea. The drills, which kicked off on Monday and will run until Friday, are being conducted at a time of heightened tensions on the peninsula.
They also come after North Korea tested last week what it called its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could reach all of the United States.
North Korea regularly threatens South Korea, the United States and their allies, and its official. KCNA state news agency said at the weekend US President Donald J. Trump’s administration was “begging for nuclear war” by staging the drills.
It also labeled Mr. Trump as “insane.”
The drills also coincided with a rare visit to the isolated North by United Nations (UN) political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman.
Some analysts and diplomats hope Mr. Feltman’s visit to North Korea could spark a UN-led effort to defuse rising international tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.
North Korea’s state media confirmed the arrival of Mr. Feltman and his entourage late on Tuesday without offering more details, later issuing a photograph of him and two members of his team.
Mr. Feltman, a former senior US State Department official, is the highest-level UN official to visit North Korea since 2012. The US State Department said on Tuesday he was not carrying any message from Washington during his visit.
CHINA VISIT
South Korean President Moon Jae-in will visit China next Wednesday for a summit with his counterpart Xi Jinping, Seoul’s presidential Blue House said on Wednesday. North Korea’s increasing nuclear and missile capability would top the agenda, it said.
Mr. Moon will also meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during his four-day trip and visit Chongqing, Blue House spokesman Park Soo-hyun told a news briefing.
Chongqing was home to Korea’s government-in-exile during Japanese rule from 1910-45 and is now an industrial hub of Mr. Xi’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative for infrastructure development.
Mr. Moon has described the North’s latest ICBM as their most capable yet, although it has several critical points to prove, such as reentry technology and terminal stage guidance.
The annual exercise, called “Vigilant Ace,” is designed to enhance joint readiness and operational capability of US extended deterrence, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
Around 12,000 US service members, including from the Marines and Navy, are joining South Korean troops, while aircraft are flying from eight US and South Korean military installations, officials have said.
The US Air Force has said the size of this year’s drill is “comparable” to previous years.
North Korea has vehemently criticized the drills since the weekend, saying the exercise precipitates US and South Korean “self-destruction.”
China and Russia had proposed that the United States and South Korea stop major military exercises in exchange for North Korea halting its weapons programs. Beijing formally calls the idea the “dual suspension” proposal.
Russia also has communication channels open with North Korea and Moscow is ready to exert its influence on Pyongyang, the RIA news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov as saying on Tuesday. — Reuters
THE world’s biggest football stars will take the spotlight this week in the continuation of the live telecast of elite European club football action on ABS-CBN S+A.
Four-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo and defending UEFA Champions League champion Real Madrid will defend their turf against visiting Borussia Dortmund, who will welcome Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang back in the fold, this Thursday also at 3:30 a.m. on S+A.
La Liga’s all-time top scorer Lionel Messi of Argentina, on the other hand, will get a chance to add to his lead when his FC Barcelona squad faces Villarreal CF led by Cedric Bakambu, at 3:30 a.m. on Monday (Dec. 11).
Earlier this week on S+A, Filipino football fans also saw Brazilian phenom Neymar, Jr. and the rest of France League 1’s Paris Saint-Germain battle Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League. Neymar’s team lost 1-3 to Bayern, who got goals from Robert Lewandowski and Corentin Tolisso.
English Premier League (EPL), meanwhile, will also continue on Sunday (Dec. 10) with the delayed telecast of the Tottenham Hotspurs — Stoke City match at 3:30 a.m. on S+A after the live telecast of the Newcastle-Leicester fixture at 1:15 a.m. Wrapping up Sunday’s football offerings is a nightcap for football aficionados in the country as La Liga’s Atletico Madrid and Real Betis go head-to-head LIVE at 11:00 p.m.
ABS-CBN Integrated Sports announced its partnership with Hong Kong-based holdings company Triple CH last November for the live telecast on free television of top-quality European club football action. Starting December 1, Filipino football fans have been able to watch world-class football in the EPL, often claimed to be the most popular football league in the world, Spain’s top-flight football league La Liga, and the battleground of all the best football clubs in Europe, the UEFA Champions League.
Don’t miss another scintillating week of S+A’s historic venture in making football bigger in the country as they broadcast top-notch European football action on free TV. For more information and stories, visit ABS-CBN’s sports hub sports.abs-cbn.com and follow @ABSCBNSports on Facebook and Twitter.
DAVAO CITY — Davao and its Japanese sister city Kitakyushu will be exploring cooperation in agribusiness, particularly in cacao and eel farming, as an expansion of their current partnership in solid waste management and environmental protection.
Davao Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, in a news conference last week following a trip to Kitakyushu City for the signing ceremony, said while “the focus is the Green Sister Partnership,” Japanese businessmen have expressed interest in tapping Davao’s cacao industry and eel farms.
“For the first time Davao City has a sister city in Japan,” Ms. Carpio said, “Kitakyushu is helping (us) with best practices in solid waste management and environmental protection.”
In that aspect, however, Davao City has nothing to offer in return, she added.
“It started as a Green Sister City Agreement, meaning environmental projects, but developed into agricultural partnerships during the discussion with the mayor (of Kitakyushu),” Ms. Carpio said.
A delegation from Kitakyushu City is expected to visit Davao City next year to look at the cacao sector and eel farms in the Toril area.
Ms. Duterte said initial talks indicated interest in “bulk supply.”
“They will have to look around in Davao City if our supply can meet the demand in Japan,” she said.
During the trip to Kitakyushu, Ms. Duterte, along with seven city officials and two representatives from an environmental organization, visited the city’swaste-to-energy (WTE) facility, Material Recovery Facility, and reviewed waste management practices.
Davao will receive a grant from the Japanese government for the proposed P70-million WTE project, which is planned as a joint venture between Nippon Steel,Davao, and Kitakyushu.
Ms. Duterte said she sees the WTE as a promising alternative to the city’s existing sanitary landfill site, which is expected to reach full capacity in a few years.
However, the WTE facility is being opposed by the group EcoWaste Coalition. — Maya M. Padillo
LIGHT RAIL Manila Corp. (LRMC) on Wednesday said it has appointed Juan F. Alfonso as its president and chief executive officer to replace Rogelio L. Singson.
In a statement, LRMC, which operates and maintains Light Rail Transit Line 1, said Mr. Alfonso assumed his post on Dec. 1. Mr. Singson was also appointed as board director.
Mr. Alfonso was previously the chief operating officer of the Aseagas Corporation, a subsidiary of AboitizPower. He was also senior vice-president for corporate services of AP Renewables, Inc., another unit of AboitizPower.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management from the Ateneo de Manila University and a Masters in Business Administration (Cum Laude) from F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
In September, Mr. Singson, a former Public Works secretary, was appointed as senior vice-president of Manila Electric Co. and president and chief executive officer of Meralco Powergen Corp. (MGen). MGen is the utility’s subsidiary involved in several pending power plant projects.
LRMC is a joint venture of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation’s Metro Pacific Light Rail Corporation, Ayala Corporation’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation, and the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure’s Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) PTE Ltd.
THE ASIA-PACIFIC power sector outlook for 2018 will be stable, Moody’s Investors Service said, adding that business conditions across the region will increasingly diverge as governments implement policies to address growing carbon transition risks.
“The key factors supporting our stable outlook for the power sector in [Asia-Pacific] are the steady market structures or consistency of returns in the region,” said Mic Kang, a vice-president and senior analyst at Moody’s, in a statement.
“Growing demand for electricity will help most Moody’s-rated power companies with dominant or stable market positions maintain adequate dispatch volumes, despite challenges from renewables,” the analyst said.
“As for the higher environmental costs associated with carbon transition policies, such costs will remain manageable, because of the gradual implementation of initiatives, cost pass-through and/or compensation through subsidies.”
The outlook is contained in its report for rated power companies in Asia-Pacific through the end of 2018, “Power sector — Asia Pacific: 2018 outlook stable, business conditions to diverge on carbon transition policies,” which was authored by the analyst.
The report said carbon transition policies would prove to be a key driver of business conditions across the region as each country’s respective target level of carbon emissions and timeframe to achieve its carbon goals would affect its exposure to carbon transition risks.
It said China’s thermal power generators will face the greatest challenges because of the sector’s faster transition towards renewables in light of overcapacity.
The Moody’s report also said the prudent sector reforms would reduce the risks arising from market liberalization.
“Specifically, the proposed or already implemented sector reforms in most countries call for only moderate changes in the operations of most companies through until the end of 2018,” it said.
It added greater funding diversity would help power generation companies to expand capacity and develop renewables.
“Given their large investment needs, a multi-pronged approach that combines bank loans with institutional debt capital will help boost private sector debt capacity,” it said.
While corporate-type debt will remain dominant through 2018, debt funding across the region will gradually include more project bonds, it said.
Moody’s said it could change its outlook for the sector to negative if the exposure of the majority of power companies to carbon transition risk increases substantially and/or intensified competition or sector reforms weaken business conditions.
“On the other hand, the elevated industry risk mainly stemming from carbon transition risk limits the likelihood of a change in the outlook for the sector to positive during 2018,” it said.
Moody’s has maintained a stable outlook on the Asia-Pacific power sector since 2009. — Victor V. Saulon
There has been much noise in media lately regarding a certain black rock. In particular, there has been an effort to create the perception of big public opposition to the Senate plan to increase the tax on coal used for power generation. The lobbying has come from big business, among others, given what they perceive to be the tax’s negative impact on economic growth.
Last week, the Senate voted to hike the excise tax on coal to as much as P300 per metric ton by 2020 from the present P10 per metric ton. The present rate, if I recall correctly, was set in 1996 or more than 20 years ago. It has not been increased since then. The Senate plan, which did not go through the House, is to raise the tax to P100 in 2018, to P200 in 2019, and to P300 in 2020.
I have been supportive of the coal tax hike, primarily because I believe it was about time that the rate was adjusted. The present rate of P10 per metric ton, in my opinion, was absurdly low. And, I think, there is no real strong opposition to taxing coal, considering that we also currently tax oil and other fuel products like diesel, gasoline, and kerosene.
The concern, however, is whether the new tax rates set by the Senate are reasonable. So, the issue is not so much the tax — which has been there for decades — but whether the Senate-approved increase of P100-P300 is a good alternative to other forms of tax. And, of all the arguments I have read so far against the new coal tax rates, my friend Romy Bernardo clearly makes his case.
In his recent column in this paper, he noted that “the P300 per metric ton tax on coal [by 2020] will add P0.14 [14 centavos] per kWh to our cost of generating electricity.” He also argued that using actual carbon emissions as basis for a so-called “carbon tax” on coal, the Senate should not look at anything higher than P60 metric ton. So, P100-P300 is definitely unacceptable.
I would have preferred that Romy shared with his readers the simulations for a tax of P60, P100, P200, and P300 and how they imply on power-generation cost. But, going by his numbers, I reckon every P20 increase in the coal tax translates to a one centavo rise in power cost. And therefore, his P60 can translate to a per-kWh increase of about three centavos.
I believe coal is now sold at about P5000 per metric ton. It was at around P3700 in May. The present tax of P10 per metric ton appears miniscule given these prices. Assuming an average coal price of P4000, a tax of P10 is negligible. But, a tax of P300 is almost 7.5% of that, while an excise tax of P60 drops that percentage to only 1.5% of coal cost.
Assuming that a metric ton of coal generates about 2700 kWh of electricity, and every P20 in tax increases generation cost by one centavo, then a tax rate of P60 translates to a total increase of P81 for 2700 kWh of electricity (from one metric ton of coal) that can be shared by maybe 13 households all operating below 200 kWh — the lifeline threshold.
This then translates to a shared cost of a little over P6 per household. On the other hand, a P300 tax — five times that of the P60 — can then translate to a P30 increase in electricity prices for each of those 13 households. And there lies the rub, really. For, there is substantial difference in P6 and P30, particularly for the poor and the marginalized.
Pardon the computations, please. I cannot aim to be exact here, but I am simply trying to illustrate how even small changes in tax structure can significantly impact on everyday lives. And this, in my opinion, is where Romy gets it right and where the Senate seems to be falling short. The coal tax hike to P300, while seemingly logical, requires more study and deliberation.
An P6-P30 increase in power cost for households may seem reasonable, particularly to those who can afford to pay, but imagine the implications if we start computing the price hike in relation to the amount of electricity consumed by business and industries — which are most likely to pass on that higher cost to consumers by way of higher retail prices.
I remain supportive of the Senate call for a higher tax on coal. However, P300 appears to be way off mark. Doubling of even tripling the current tax rate may be sufficient for now. Perhaps there may even be justification for a P60 tax. This can already multiply the present coal tax yield of P200 million annually to about P1.2 billion — without over-burdening power consumers.
Of course, by compromising on the coal tax rate, the Senate will be hard-pressed to look for other sources of new revenues. It has practically run out of time as it is scheduled to go on recess by late next week. Frankly, I would rather err on the side of a shortfall now, by going ahead with a lower tax rate, and working double time next year.
The disadvantage, of course, is that 2018 is the year before an election year — and maybe a number of our good senators and congressmen are going to seek reelection in May 2019. If so, then the House and the Senate may be even more tentative next year in legislating new taxes. And without new sources of tax revenues, new infrastructure will have to take a back seat.
Marvin A. Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippines Press Council.
