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Palace says unused calamity funds on standby for future disasters 

PHILSTAR

THE PALACE on Monday said portions of the calamity fund under the 2020 national budget were unused to give the country reserves to respond to future disasters.

“Siyempre po hindi gagastusin lahat dahil kinakailangang mag-save ng pondo para sa darating na (Of course not all of it will be used because we need to have reserves for a future) calamity,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry L. Roque Jr. told a televised news briefing on Monday.

“Huwag po kayong mag-alala, magagastos po lahat iyan (Don’t worry, that will all be spent),” he added.

Data from the Budget department showed that a total of P25.14 billion in calamity funds under the 2020 and 2021 national budgets remain unutilized as of end-March.

Mr. Roque, citing the department’s policy, said funds for calamities and natural disasters are only disbursed “when the need arises.”

He explained that such funds are released when there is a request filed “or in response to a particular disaster or natural calamity.”

In a tweet on Sunday, former Socioeconomic Planning secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said the government’s lack of sense of urgency “has clearly shone in responding to and managing the pandemic.”

He said the health system hardly improved, adding that the country’s pandemic response spending is the lowest in Southeast Asia.

Mr. Roque defended that those in the administration could not be said to lack a sense of urgency because everyone wants “to spare as many of our family and friends from this vicious virus.” — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza

Probe underway on alleged data breach at SolGen’s office

THE OFFICE of the Solicitor General (OSG) is now looking into the alleged data breach of its confidential documents, including thousands of court cases, Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra told reporters on Monday.

“I will appreciate it very much if the OSG will inform the DoJ (Department of Justice) of its findings, considering the big number of DoJ cases being handled by the OSG,” Mr. Guevarra said.

The OSG is one of the agencies under the Justice department.

“The OSG handles thousands of cases in the Court of Appeals and in the Supreme Court in representation of the government in general, and of the DoJ in particular. The DoJ therefore has substantial interest in finding out the cause of this alleged data breach and any prejudice to the interest of the government that such breach, if true, may have unduly caused,” he added.

London-based cyber security firm TurgenSec said in a statement on April 30 that it came across “a publicly accessible data store which belonged to the Solicitor General of the Philippines.”

It said the store appears to contain 345,000 files and documents “ranging from documents generated in the day to day running of ‘The Solicitor General of the Philippines,’ to staff training documents, internal passwords and policies, staffing payment information, information on financial processes, and activities including audits, and several hundred files titled with presumably sensitive keywords such as ‘Private, Confidential, Witness and Password.’”

The firm said it sent e-mails to the OSG and the Philippine government about the data store on March 1 and 24, but has yet to receive a reply.

The OSG said on Monday it is still verifying the “accuracy and veracity” of TurgenSec’s report, and will “respond appropriately only after a proper verification.”— Bianca Angelica D. Añago

Lawmaker calls for special audit on spent COVID-19 fund

A SENATOR on Monday filed a resolution seeking an early audit of around P570 billion spent so far for coronavirus pandemic response.

Senator Risa N. Hontiveros-Baraquel filed Senate Resolution No. 710 urging the Commission on Audit (CoA) to conduct a special audit on disbursed funds under the two laws specifically passed for the coronavirus crisis before the deliberations for the 2022 national budget, in light of the surge in cases and unemployment.

“The current situation of the country — health care workers lamenting the delay in hazard pay, indigent Filipinos not receiving ayuda (assistance), overextended health facilities — highlights the urgency of transparency in the use of public funds,” the resolution read.

She said more than P568 billion had been released for the country’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response, including the social amelioration program and other health-related programs to stop the spread of the virus, citing the Department of Budget and Management.

The ineffective response led to the surge in cases last month, the senator said in the resolution.

She also said that the President must update Congress on the status of the funds every first Monday of the month in Bayanihan II, noting that the last public submission of report was in January.

“Considering that Congress is set to deliberate on the 2022 budget and must exercise prudence in spending during this crisis, the audit findings would help identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies to guide legislators in their exercise of the power of the purse,” the resolution said.

Several senators including Ms. Hontiveros filed in July last year a resolution for the CoA to audit COVID-19-related government spending which is still pending at the Committee level. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

On World Press Freedom Day, Duterte commits to protect journalists

PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte gave assurance of the government’s commitment to protect journalists on Monday with the observance of World Press Freedom Day.

“This year’s celebration affirms the Philippines’ commitment to protect press freedom as a public good and as an indispensable requirement with vibrant democracy,” he said in a taped message.

The President said press freedom is “a public good” and “an indispensable requirement with vibrant democracy.”

“Let me assure everyone that this administration should remain committed in promoting press freedom as a vital component and indicator of progress anywhere in the world,” he said.

Mr. Duterte also appealed to media practitioners to “uphold truth, fairness, accuracy, and transparency.”

At least 19 journalists have been killed under the administration of Mr. Duterte, according to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility.

The Philippines slipped two notches in the World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders, ranking 138th among 180 countries this year.

Mr. Roque earlier said the government disputes the ranking because the Paris-based media organization considered as affronts to press freedom the issues faced by Rappler and ABS-CBN.

Evaluating the level of freedom given to the Philippine press, the report said the government of Mr. Duterte led a “grotesque judicial harassment campaign” against online news outfit Rappler, Inc. It also cited Congress’ denial of a new franchise for broadcast giant ABS-CBN Corp.

Communist-tagging and online harassment of journalists were also carried out by “troll armies” supporting the government, the report said. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza

DAR finds 2,007 undistributed land titles in Cebu, set to file charges vs involved officials

THE DEPARTMENT of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said it has discovered 2,007 land certificates dating as far back as 1987 that were stored in sacks and left undistributed by its regional office in Cebu.

Agrarian Reform Secretary John R. Castriciones said in a virtual briefing on Monday that the certificates of land ownership covering 1,636.7 hectares were not given out to the supposed beneficiaries.

“We were able to discover 2,007 CLOAs which were placed in two sacks and were set aside and not distributed to our farmers,” Mr. Castriciones said.

The documents were stored inside the Land Transfer and Implementation Division office in DAR’s Cebu provincial office.

“When we tried to peruse the dates of these CLOAs (Certificate of Land Ownership Awards), many of these dated back as early as 1987, 1990, and 1991 onwards. They have not been distributed for the past years. This is quite unfair to our farmers,” he said.

DAR will file administrative and criminal charges against 13 officials who are suspected to be liable in the failure to distribute the land titles.

“The DAR provincial office in Cebu has no right to withhold the distribution of titles the moment that it is released to the DAR by the Registry of Deeds, which means that it is all set and ready for distribution to beneficiaries anytime,” Mr. Castriciones said.

“The fact that they are unable to distribute the CLOAs makes them liable,” he added.

According to DAR, the CLOAs found are authentic as determined by the security features and its corresponding serial numbers.

Mr. Castriciones declined to disclose the names of the DAR officials who will be slapped with charges.

Meanwhile, the agrarian reform head said he has ordered all regional directors to submit an inventory of undistributed CLOAs in their respective areas for transparency.

“Based on initial reports from regional directors, there are undistributed CLOAs at around 254,000 hectares. This includes collective CLOAs and those to be distributed for 2021,” Mr. Castriciones said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

NIA finishes P631-million irrigation project in Ilocos Sur

NATIONAL IRRIGATION ADMINISTRATION PHOTO RELEASE

THE NATIONAL Irrigation Administration (NIA) reported on Monday the completion of the P631-million Barbar Small Reservoir Irrigation Project in San Juan, Ilocos Sur.

NIA said in a statement the project, to be inaugurated on May 6, is estimated to benefit 1,156 farmers in 11 villages in the neighboring towns of San Juan and Magsingal.

The project has a service area of 846 hectares and includes the establishment of an earthfill dam that has a storage capacity of 861,000 cubic meters. The dam is situated across the Bical River.

“Access roads were constructed simultaneously with the lateral canals having the same length with the latter, providing mobility and accessibility for farmers and their farms inputs and products,” NIA said.

The agency said the structure will also help address flooding in the area since it is capable of storing typhoon water that can be used for irrigation. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Reforming corporate income inequality

VECTORJUICE-FREEPIK
VECTORJUICE-FREEPIK

Last year, the Economic Policy Institute reported that the ratio of CEO to average employee pay in the top US companies increased from a low 31 to one in 1978, 61 to one in 1989, 118 to one in 1995, to a whopping 320 to one in 2019. My mind reels at such inequality, but there’s more.

The New York Times reported recently that despite the terrible impacts of the pandemic on corporate bottom lines and jobs, the CEOs of some of the hardest hit companies were “showered in riches.” Hilton laid off almost a quarter of its staff because of pandemic-related losses of $720 million, but CEO Chris Nassetta was compensated with $55 million in 2020. Boeing reported a really bad 2020 with a $12-billion loss and plans to lay off 30,000 employees, but CEO David Calhoun received $21.1 million in compensation.

What’s going on? Shouldn’t these companies be more sensitive to the plight of their employees, especially during these difficult times? If they can afford to pay their top executives so much, shouldn’t they channel the money instead to keeping more employees on the payroll during these tough times? Wouldn’t this be the decent thing to do?

Dan Price, CEO of Seattle-based Gravity Payments, thinks so. Even before the pandemic, he lowered his million-dollar salary in order to increase his employees’ pay to $70,000 over three years. His research had shown that this was the level of salary that would free his employees from financial worries so that they could meet their needs and focus on being good at their work. The results were higher levels of employee productivity and much more business for Gravity Payments that more than offset the cost of the higher employee pay.

When the pandemic came and the company’s business volume fell by half, employees volunteered to take pay cuts so that all of them could keep their jobs. After that, Gravity Payments aggressively helped small businesses devastated by the pandemic to digitally transform and turn their businesses around. As a result, the company managed to recover from its own pandemic losses and repay everyone’s voluntary pay cuts.

The case of Gravity Payments shows what can happen when business leaders are in solidarity with employees and have the acumen to grow customers while giving employees just compensation and benefits. This is a crucial part of stakeholder capitalism that is being promoted by the Management Association of the Philippines, Shareholders Association of the Philippines, and other business associations through the Covenant for Shared Prosperity.

Stakeholder capitalism is essential in building a robust society supported by business activity. One of the major challenges is extreme inequality in corporate incomes. This is why the World Economic Forum recommends the monitoring of the ratio of CEO pay to average employee pay in companies. High ratios of CEO to average employee pay are not sustainable. In fact, they are often exploitative because employees are not paid justly based on their contribution to the company’s output.

The English economist Arthur Cecile Pigou, in The Economics of Welfare, explained that when workers’ real wages are below their contribution to a firm’s productivity, they are being exploited. This kind of exploitation can be observed in many types of corporate situations where people may be fully employed but compensated so low that they are barely able to meet their basic needs. This is the main reason that Price increased his employees’ pay. He had learned from a close employee that she had to get a second job just to cover her basic expenses. He, therefore, found his million-dollar paycheck simply unconscionable, and made the necessary adjustments.

More executives need to follow the example of Price and Gravity Payments. We are finding it hard to cope with the pandemic because so many of our people, even those who are employed, live in unhealthy conditions and have little access to quality healthcare. Physical distancing among the urban poor is nearly impossible, with many of them living in crowded quarters that they can barely afford. Companies who are paying their executives generously while their workers are struggling need to take a hard look at their compensation policies.

The goals of the Philippines’ nation-building project are spelled out in the Constitution: full employment, the eradication of poverty, and a rising quality of life for all. High corporate growth since the late 1990s and leading to the pandemic did not decrease poverty fast enough to bring us at par with neighboring countries like Thailand or Malaysia, or even Vietnam. Is it because the lion’s share of the fruits of growth went to executives? I think so — and this needs to change.

 

Dr. Benito L. Teehankee is the Jose E. Cuisia Professor of Business Ethics and Head of the Business for Human Development Network at De La Salle University.

benito.teehankee@dlsu.edu.ph

Tax Guide on CREATE Law

VECTORJUICE-FREEPIK
VECTORJUICE-FREEPIK

(1st of 2 parts)

On March 26 this year, President Duterte signed into law RA 11534, otherwise known as the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act. It is another landmark legislation of the Duterte Administration which took effect on April 11.

The CREATE Act is the second package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program that reduces the corporate income tax (CIT) rate from 30% to 20%. The following are its salient features:

1. CIT rate is reduced from 30% to 25% for large corporations, and 20% for small and medium corporations with net taxable income not exceeding P5 million, and total assets not exceeding P100 million (excluding land) effective July 1, 2020;

2. Minimum CIT (MCIT) rate is reduced from 2% to 1% effective July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023;

3. Percentage Tax is reduced from 3% to 1% effective July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023;

4. The improperly accumulated earnings tax shall no longer be imposed on corporations upon the effectivity of the CREATE onwards;

5. Qualified export enterprises shall be entitled to four to seven years Income Tax Holiday (ITH) to be followed by 10 years 5% Special CIT (SCIT) or enhanced deductions;

6. Qualified domestic market enterprises shall be entitled to four to seven years ITH to be followed by five years enhanced deductions;

7. Registered enterprises are exempt from customs duty on importation of capital equipment, raw materials, spare parts, or accessories directly and exclusively used in the registered project or activity;

8. Value-Added Tax (VAT) exemption on importation and VAT zero-rating on local purchases shall only apply to goods and services directly and exclusively used in the registered project or activity by a Registered Business Enterprise (RBE);

9. For investments prior to the effectivity of CREATE, RBEs granted only an ITH shall continue with the availment of the ITH for the remaining period of the ITH while RBEs granted an ITH + 5% Gross Income Tax (GIT) or currently enjoying 5% GIT shall be allowed to avail of the 5% GIT for 10 years.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) issued several revenue regulations to fully implement the CREATE Law. For easy reference, here’s a summary list of revenue issuances dated April 8, 2021:

a. RR No. 2-2021 which amends certain provisions of RR No. 2-98, as amended, to implement the amendments introduced by the CREATE Act to the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) of 1997, as amended, relative to the Final Tax on certain passive income;

b. RR No. 3-2021 prescribes the rules and regulations to implement Section 3 of the CREATE Act, amending Section 20 of NIRC of 1997;

c. RR No. 4-2021 implements the provisions on VAT and Percentage Tax under the CREATE Act, which further amended the NIRC of 1997, as amended, as implemented by RR No. 16-2005, as amended;

d. RR No. 5-2021 implements new Income Tax rates on the regular income of corporations, on certain passive incomes, including additional allowable deductions from Gross Income of persons engaged in business or practice of profession pursuant to the CREATE Act, which further amended the NIRC of 1997.

To serve as a tax guide especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), here are some of the most frequently asked questions on the CREATE Law:

1. Will small businesses benefit from CREATE law? How about one-person corporations?

Yes. Small corporations including one-person corporations with net taxable income not exceeding P5 million and total assets not exceeding P100 million (excluding land) will be subject to only 20% CIT effective July 1, 2020.

2. Is the reduced percentage tax from 3% to 1% applicable even to individual taxpayers?

Yes. It’s applicable to all non-VAT registered taxpayers with annual gross sales of P3 million and below, effective July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023.

3. If you filed an annual income tax return before the issuance of revenue regulations on CREATE law, can you amend it to apply the reduced CIT rate?

Yes. RMC 46-2021 allows amendment of filed tax returns on or before May 15, 2021 without penalty. Any excess payment due to the reduced tax rate may be carried over as credit in the next period or may be filed for refund.

4. Is there a reduced income tax rate of 20% applicable to foreign corporations?

No. It’s only for domestic MSME corporations. Foreign corporations subject to the regular rate will use 25% similar to other domestic corporations.

5. Are non-stock and non-profit proprietary educational institutions still exempt under the CREATE law? How about the non-profit and proprietary educational institutions and hospitals?

Yes. The income tax exemptions granted to non-stock and non-profit proprietary educational institutions were not repealed. Non-profit and proprietary educational institutions will be subject to a reduced special rate of 1% effective July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023.

To know more about the CREATE law, you can watch the BIR’s free webinar on its Facebook and YouTube channel. You may also join the Elite Taxpayer Circle and attend the exclusive CREATE webinar for free which was organized by the Asian Consulting Group. For inquiries, send an e-mail to consult@acg.ph or call +632 7622-7720.

This article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the Management Association of the Philippines or MAP.

 

Raymond “Mon” A. Abrea is a member of the MAP Ease of Doing Business Committee, the Founding Chair and Senior Tax Advisor of the Asian Consulting Group and the Co-Chair of the Paying Taxes — EODB Task Force. He is Trustee of the Center for Strategic Reforms of the Philippines — the advocacy partner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Department of Trade and Industry, and Anti-Red Tape Authority on ease of doing business and tax reform.

map@map.org.ph

mon@acg.ph

map.org.ph

Asia’s obsession with food and beauty has a dark side

FREEPIK

AT A RECENT doctor’s visit, my endocrinologist admonished me for gaining two pounds. “You’re not obese” — I’m not even close — “but it’s something to watch,” he told me.

I left the appointment equal parts indignant and unsure. It wasn’t the first time I’d encountered this level of frankness about my body or appearance since moving to Asia. When I was pregnant in Hong Kong, my Chinese teacher confirmed that I must be having a boy. “Boys give mothers beauty, girls take it away,” she said. Years later, my property agent in Singapore was relieved to hear I was pregnant with my second child: “I thought you were just getting fat!”

This hyper-attentiveness to appearances comes alongside a cultural love affair with food. Singaporeans often joke that they start planning lunch as soon as breakfast is over, and “Have you eaten?” is a standard way of saying hello. As one put it, the aunties urging you to eat more are the first ones to tell you you’re fat.

Such competing social messages would be difficult to balance in the best of times. Add the isolation and anxiety of the COVID era, and it’s little wonder that eating disorders are a rising concern. Yet these conditions are still poorly understood, and people who suffer often believe they don’t need help, which makes diagnosis and proper treatment elusive. Despite all the straight-talk about beauty, conversations about eating disorders, and mental health in general, remain taboo in many parts of Asia. In this moment of ultimate social disconnection, such gaps can become a matter of life or death. 

For decades, the medical community believed that eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia were a phenomenon affecting primarily White, wealthy, educated young women. The global spread was viewed as an unfortunate consequence of Westernization, the commercial assault of McDonald’s French fries wrapped up with the cultural assault of Kate Moss.

More recent research suggests this view isn’t quite accurate. A better way to think about this troubling trend is through the lens of development. Ascribing value to excessive thinness is the result of industrialization and urbanization — stages the West reached earlier than Asia — rather than the wholesale export of Western culture, according to a 2015 review in the Journal of Eating Disorders. In other words, the go-go-go lifestyle of economic aspiration — one that keeps track of everything from hours at the office and bonuses, to daily steps taken and photos liked — is to blame. If anything, symptoms associated with eating disorders can be more severe in South Korea, China, and Thailand than the US, the authors noted. One social media craze that rippled across China in 2016, for example, challenged people to cover their waists with a vertical piece of A4 paper, which is little more than eight inches wide.

In this light, our screen-bound era of Instagram escapism has worrisome ingredients. The influencer du jour might be quick to post photos of her turmeric-tinged juices, but certainly not the bag of chips she scarfed while scrambling to meet a deadline. Even those sweaty-chic workout selfies might be misleading. Meitu, a Chinese app that lets you do everything from reshaping your jawline to thinning your nose, has 115 million monthly active users. Beauty apps and other products owned by the eponymous company have been activated on 2.2 billion unique devices globally. The dangers of curated fantasy lives were present before COVID, but can be destabilizing without encountering fallible humans, in the flesh, on a regular basis.

More damaging than social media, however, can be family dynamics, according to Nishta Geetha Thevaraja, a senior psychologist at Singapore General Hospital. While researchers have debated the extent of genetics versus cultural triggers, many doctors agree that families play at least some role in the onset of eating disorders. In Asia, where young unmarried people often live with their parents, this can become a point of vulnerability. Roughly 27% of Singaporean households are families whose youngest member is 16 or older. During the city-state’s two-month lockdown last year, some sufferers were trapped in a 600-square-foot hive of dysfunction — a threat to any fragile efforts at healing.

It’s difficult to say how prevalent these illnesses have become in Singapore, given the lack of research. One study published late last year, citing this deficit, found that 63% of participants screened positive for eating disorders or were at high risk of developing one. Fewer than 2% of those in the former group reported currently being in treatment.

The toll is serious: Anorexia nervosa, characterized by severely restricted food intake, has the highest death rate of any mental disorder, according to the US government-run National Institute of Mental Health. An added complication is that many cases go unreported or get swept up with other ailments, including anxiety, depression, and, for binge eaters, even diabetes, says Dawn Soo, the Asia-Pacific medical director at Cigna International Markets. One study of university women in Singapore found that only 14% could correctly identify symptoms of bulimia, which is characterized by gorging on unusually large amounts of food and ridding the body of it. Almost 40% attributed the traits to low self-esteem.

That bodes ill for treatment. Parents have been unhappy with rehabilitation programs, citing health professionals’ limited knowledge, sparse explanations, poor communication, and a perceived lack of empathy from doctors, among other issues, according to a study of ethnic Chinese adolescents battling anorexia in Hong Kong. The suggested tactics overwhelmingly focused on weight restoration, as opposed to psychological support. Certain approaches, such as home-diet monitoring, were viewed as a “harsh task” that strained the relationship with their children, the authors found. Families were broadly left to figure things out for themselves.

Navigating recovery can be equally difficult for adults. Sam, 43, grew up in the UK and has been living in Hong Kong for four years. She has been battling with anorexia for more than two decades, and was also diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Sam recalls telling herself that she was fat, ugly, stupid, unlovable, useless, and worthless, and came close to being hospitalized in her early 30s for her own safety.

“Unfortunately, with the exception of my husband who has been at my side every step of the way, my family, friends, and work colleagues stayed away and pretended that nothing was wrong,” she wrote in an e-mail. Even her healthcare professionals made mistakes: A general practitioner at one point told Sam she was “very fat.”

Yet fear of saying the wrong thing shouldn’t be an impediment to helping. Look for warning signs, such as obsessional thoughts about food that get in the way of concentrating on anything else. Some people with eating disorders struggle to make conversation at the dinner table beyond the menu, or fall silent to mental calorie-counting. It’s important to give as much attention to these behaviors as weight gain or loss, because some people who suffer eating disorders, such as bulimia or binge eating, appear to be of normal weight or overweight.

When you’re ready to make an approach, try to avoid listing potential health risks, coercions to eat, or prosecutorial questions, such as, “Why are you doing this to yourself?” More productive would be expressing your worry and desire to help. If you notice physical changes, ask how that person feels, rather than focusing on the weight gain or loss, according to Odile Thiang, a clinical adviser at Mind Hong Kong, a mental health charity. A breakthrough will likely take a few attempts.

For some people with eating disorders, the lack of structure during COVID has been debilitating, at times triggering an urge to maintain control with extreme dieting and exercise. For others, the disruption led to even darker places, eventually resulting in death. If the past year taught us anything, it was the value of taking better care of ourselves. To curb these afflictions, it’s important we take better care of each other, too.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

What is the optimal energy mix?

The Department of Energy (DoE) released the Philippines Power Statistics 2020 this week and it shows some interesting data on the country’s energy mix. Installed capacity in 2020 has reached 26,250 megawatts (MW) or 26.25 gigawatts (GW), and the four biggest energy technologies are coal, oil-based, hydro, and natural gas. In actual electricity generation, the four biggest sources are coal, natural gas, geothermal, and hydro (see Table 1).

There are three interesting pieces of data here. One, coal constituted 42% of total installed capacity in 2020 but its actual power generation was 57% of the total. The big increase in coal generation came from the Mindanao grid starting 2016 (double the 2015 level) through 2019 (double the 2016 level). There are no longer daily “Earth Hours” and regular blackouts in Mindanao.

Two, oil-based plants constituted 16% of total installed capacity but contributed only 2.4% of total power generation. This is because they are mostly used as peaking plants, meaning they run only on peak demand hours and days, and are not base load plants running 24/7.

Three, the combined power capacity of biomass, solar, and wind in 2020 was 7.3% of total but their actual power generation was only 3.5% of total. They remain marginal and nearly insignificant power producers after more than a decade since the Renewable Energy (RE) law of 2008 (RA 9513) was enacted.

The anti-coal activists continue to bully the Philippines private energy companies and government agencies even if the Philippines is a minor coal producer compared to many countries. Our 58.2 terawatt-hours (TWH) of coal power generation in 2020 was what Vietnam and Malaysia produced four to five years ago, what Indonesia produced 14 years ago, what Taiwan and South Korea produced 24 and 27 years ago (see Table 2).

Last week I saw two press releases gloating over the cancellation of the Redondo Peninsula 600 MW coal project in Subic:

1. “Green groups hail cancellation of Meralco Subic coal project, ask the same for Atimonan”

2. “Greenpeace to Meralco: drop all dirty energy projects, not just Subic coal plant.”

These are emotional statements based on rhetoric and not on actual energy realities. Here are three reasons why.

One, the anti-coal activists want full decarbonization of Meralco and other energy companies when actual data show that their favorite renewables — biomass, solar, and wind — will only assure us of large-scale blackouts as they contributed only 3.5% of total power generation in 2020.

Two, that Atimonan 1,200 MW ultra-supercritical coal project is a P160-B investment that can create lots of jobs and give the Philippines a very modern, efficient, and stable energy source.

Three, the real “dirty energy” are candles and gensets running on diesel, not coal plants. When you have frequent blackouts, the poor will buy candles (and risk more fires) while the rich will buy more gensets (which are more costly, more polluting).

A friend alerted me to one trend where some legislators become cozy with some rooftop solar companies seeking back channel subsidies in net metering. To avoid indirect subsidies, export energy should be at Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) rates while net metering customers should pay a minimum distribution charge to cover installed facilities, meter reading, etc.

Finally, here are three recent reports in BusinessWorld that caught my attention:

1. “Gov’t may expand role in power generation to build up reserves” (April 28),

2. “NPC sets minigrid, RE construction target of 5 megawatts this year” (May 2),

3. “House bill seeks to ban cross-ownership in power industry” (May 2).

Report numbers 1 and 2 show that the government may violate the EPIRA law of 2001 (RA 9136) where power generation has been transferred to the private sector to encourage more competition and discourage politics in the sector. Government power companies like the National Power Corp. (NPC) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) seem bent on staying around forever instead of fading away under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA).

Report number 3 shows that Bayan Muna continues its abolition-of-the-EPIRA agenda. A distribution utility can own power plants not necessarily to serve its needs but to supply power to various retail electricity suppliers (RES), electric cooperatives in other provinces.

EPIRA is not perfect but it remains a beautiful law. There is a clear division of function between the private sector as power generators and RES, and the government as regulator of power supply agreements and power pricing.

An optimal energy mix is one determined by the energy consumers themselves like the 2020 generation mix. Not by the government and legislators, not by leftist political parties like Bayan Muna, not by anti-coal activists who want to kill coal power competition and push RE favoritism and big gas companies shrewdly hiding behind a climate smokescreen.

 

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

minimalgovernment@gmail.com

Indonesia finds cases of Indian COVID-19 variant

JAKARTA – Indonesia has recorded its first cases of a highly infectious COVID-19 variant first detected in India, the health minister said on Monday, as authorities implored people not to travel to their hometowns for the end of the Muslim fasting month.

Indonesia, which has been trying to contain one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in Asia, stopped issuing visas last month for foreigners who had been in India in the previous 14 days.

The two cases of the Indian variant, known as B.1.617, were found in Jakarta, while the minister said a variant first discovered in South Africa was also detected in Bali.

“We need to contain these cases, while there are still only a few of them,” Budi Gunadi Sadikin told a virtual conference.

Scientists are studying whether the B.1.617 variant is to blame for India’s devastating second wave of infections.

The variant has now reached at least 17 countries including Britain, Switzerland and Iran, prompting some governments to close their borders to people traveling from India.

Authorities in Indonesia, which is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, have banned the traditional mass exodus where people visit relatives for the Eid al-Fitr festival for a second year to curb COVID-19 transmission.

“Do not return to your hometown. Do not go on holiday in your hometown. Be patient,” Doni Monardo, the chief of Indonesia’s COVID-19 task force, told the same news conference.

But before the ban came into force on Thursday some were leaving now to beat the deadline.

“I just wanted to go home, what’s important is that we adhere to health protocols,” said Dasum, a 35-year-old driver from Central Java, speaking at a Jakarta bus station.

Indonesia has reported more than 1.67 million virus infections and 45,700 deaths since the start of the pandemic, though cases have been declining since peaking in January.

Nonetheless, the positivity rate, or the percentage of people tested who are found to have the disease, was still hovering at more than 12% on average last month. The World Health Organization considers positivity rates above 5% to be of concern. — Reuters 

One in two people globally lost income due to pandemic — poll

REUTERS
People walk inside a building in Tokyo, Japan Jan. 23, 2019. — REUTERS/ISSEI KATO

NAIROBI — One in two people worldwide saw their earnings drop due to the coronavirus, with people in low-income countries particularly hard hit by job losses or cuts to their working hours, research showed on Monday.

US-based polling company Gallup, which surveyed 300,000 people across 117 countries, found that half of those with jobs earned less because of COVID-19 pandemic disruptions. This translated to 1.6 billion adults globally, it said.

“Worldwide, these percentages ranged from a high of 76% in Thailand to a low of 10% in Switzerland,” said researchers in a statement.

In Bolivia, Myanmar, Kenya, Uganda, Indonesia, Honduras and Ecuador, more than 70% of people polled said they took home less than before the global health crisis. In the United States, this figure dropped to 34%.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has hit workers across the world, particularly women, who are over-represented in low-paid precarious sectors such as retail, tourism and food services.

A study by the international charity Oxfam on Thursday said the pandemic had cost women around the world $800 billion in lost income.

The Gallup poll found that more than half of those surveyed said they temporarily stopped working at their job or business — translating to about 1.7 billion adults globally.

In 57 countries including India, Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Kenya, Bangladesh, El Salvador, more than 65% of respondents said they stopped working for a time.

Countries where people were least likely to say they stopped working were predominantly developed, high-income countries.

Fewer than one in 10 of those who had jobs in Austria, Switzerland and Germany said they had stopped working temporarily. In the US, the figure was 39%, research showed.

The poll also showed that one in three people surveyed lost their job or business due to the pandemic — translating into just over one billion people globally.

These figures also varied across nations with lower income countries such as the Philippines, Kenya and Zimbabwe showing more than 60% of respondents lost their jobs or businesses, compared to 3% in Switzerland and 13% in the United States. —  Thomson Reuters Foundation