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Pilipinas Shell switches on microgrid system in Palawan community

PILIPINAS Shell Foundation, Inc. (PSFI) has launched a microgrid hybrid power system in Maytegued that will serve the community in Palawan with 24/7 electricity sourced from solar and wind energy.

Sebastian C. Quiniones Jr., executive director of PSFI, said the power system ensures the community that the organization is committed to work with Barangay Maytegued. He is hopeful that the project would serve as the residents’ “enabler” for development and sustainability.

The hybrid system, which was inaugurated on Feb. 4, is able to generate reliable and clean energy service for the island. It is directly connected to 86 households, where 70 solar home systems were distributed. The system serves as the community’s main source of electricity

“Barangay Maytegued is one of the islands of the municipality of Taytay in Palawan. It is home to about 700 people who has had no access to a stable and reliable source of energy since it’s been inhabited,” PSFI said.

Worries over mad cow disease keep European Union cautious on food rules

BRUSSELS — The specter of the 1990s BSE crisis means the European Union is likely to reject US demands it ease strict food safety rules, even with President Donald Trump threatening car tariffs if EU countries do not start importing more US farm products.

With European food and farming exports to the United States worth up to $12 billion a year more than imports, US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue told the EU last month it should adapt its food regulations to reflect “sound science.”

But there seems little prospect Brussels will agree.

Europeans who remember BSE, nicknamed mad cow disease, will not accept any lowering of food standards and no politician could support a trade deal perceived as doing so, said Johan Bjerkem, trade specialist at the European Policy Centre.

“On top of that, you’re negotiating with Trump, for whom not many Europeans have great sympathy,” he said. “Combine these things and it will be very difficult to accept a deal on those issues.”

Trump, who has long complained that the EU’s position on trade is “worse than China,” said on Monday he was training his sights on Europe, raising the prospect of a new trade war.

The EU bans imports of meat treated with growth hormones or poultry washed with peracetic acid, often dubbed ‘chlorinated chicken.’ Both are standard US farming practices.

Washington points to inconsistencies — EU salad leaves are regularly washed with chlorine — and says EU rules are a smokescreen for protectionism. They undoubtedly do benefit EU farmers.

Brussels’ response is that antimicrobial poultry washes mask otherwise far less strict and hygienic standards.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded that the various washes are not a safety concern, but do not replace the need for good hygienic practices during processing of poultry carcasses.

The agency’s study of hormone-treated meat similarly does not conclude that it is unsafe, but says there is insufficient data to prove it is safe.

CAUTIOUS EU APPROACH
The distinction is important, highlighting the “precautionary principle” that guides EU food safety law.

“The US has strict liability for lawsuits, which we don’t have so much in the EU … Here, the sense is more wanting to minimize the risks,” said Mute Schimpf, food specialist at Friends of the Earth Europe.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which passed to humans and resulted from cattle being fed the remains of other livestock, led to a worldwide ban on British beef exports and the culling of millions of animals. It and other food scandals, such as dioxin in feed in Belgium, led to the founding of EFSA in 2002 and inform its safety-first approach.

“It led to the introduction in Europe of the precautionary principle, the idea that if you’re not certain, don’t take unnecessary risks,” said Erik Millstone, professor of science policy at the University of Sussex.

Instead of reporting to agriculture ministries or commissioners also concerned about the welfare of farmers and the food industry, food safety agencies became part of policy on health and consumer protection.

EU labeling laws also tightened at a similar time. In 2003, labels were required to show the presence of more than trace elements of genetically modified (GM) crops. The result was that, while millions of tonnes of GM animal feed are imported into Europe, there are no GM food items on sale to EU consumers.

The United States does not require labeling of GM food and some of its farming lobbies believe Europe is unfairly stigmatizing their products with labels.

The restrictions though are not only in Europe.

The United States bans cheese made with unpasturised milk unless it has been aged for 60 days, ruling out imports of French brie and camembert. Kinder Eggs, a chocolate encasing a plastic toy, are also banned.

A lot of standards essentially boil down to local customs and a suspicion of standards elsewhere, particularly practices promoted by big foreign business.

“We work on the principle that if we don’t do it, it must be bad. Whether that is protectionist or not I leave for others to dwell on,” said Hosuk Lee-Makayama, director of trade think tank ECIPE. — Reuters

How PSEi member stocks performed — February 14, 2020

Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Friday, February 14, 2020.

 

Abraham Lincoln’s class hatred

We live, it seems, in particularly trying times of multiple and simultaneous “acts of God.” No sooner had the Angat Dam water level gone dangerously low causing water interruptions than the African Swine Fever decimated our hogs, the Taal volcano erupted, and the coronavirus pandemic exploded disrupting lives, livelihoods, and property. Acts of God happen but we can’t say exactly when and where. And when they come calling, they wantonly lay waste to everything along the way. As a society, we are forced to take draconian measures (lockdowns, evacuations, livestock culling) and to hope we can wait out their ravages. In those times, we draw upon the reserves we built in calmer times. These reserves serve as the ramparts that stand between us and extinction. Our “resilience” is, in other words, anchored on those fateful reserves.

Which is why it is so imperative that we carefully husband the times of relative normality to build up our reserves. Aesop’s resilient ants survive winter because knew in their heart of hearts that the summer sun was for making hay not for fannying about. The ant society is governed by pheromones which leave no place for envy and self-seeking that could divide and weaken the solidarity of the ants. Every ant, in its given own role, struggles mightily to increase the stored reserves of the colony. Which is why the ants are still with us while the dinosaurs have long gone. They will probably be here long after we humans, the dinosaurs of the 21st century, have gone as well.

But not if suddenly ants acquire a class consciousness. What would happen if suddenly the worker class of ants decide that its members too should now exercise their innate but hormonally suppressed capacity to bear offspring of their own and decide to feed on, rather feed, the queen? If suddenly the forager class decides that the soldier class are having too much fun at their expense and sabotage the food train? The colony will soon die out. Not by a physical act of God but by an internal virus of class hatred.

Humans are blessed and cursed with an evolved consciousness. With this come resentment and envy — all the vices and virtues that adorn a human being. Like it or not, we are prone to class envy and even class hatred.

And human societies survive by reining in and harnessing these tendencies towards the production of social reserves. Our dams, our factories, our transport systems, they all embody our reserves. It is the brotherhood of men that rechannel these individual proclivities to productive endeavors. Unhinged, these tendencies result in social chaos and social collapse.

Apropos this rechanneling of proclivities, I am inspired by two quotations which embody my own limited understanding of how economic progress gets engendered or aborted:

“The test of government is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide for those who have little.” — US President Franklin D. Roosevelt

“You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong; you cannot help the poor by discouraging the rich; you cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer; you cannot further the brotherhood by inciting class hatred among men.” — US President Abraham Lincoln

All leaders subscribe to the equity ethic of President Roosevelt. But only a precious few subscribe to the efficiency ethic of President Lincoln. President Roosevelt’s is a commitment to the final outcome of inclusive abundance; President Lincoln’s is a commitment to an efficient path towards inclusive abundance. Lincoln’s efficient path is to rechannel not suppress the varied capabilities of different social classes towards inclusive abundance.

Class hatred is antithesis to the efficient path. Most class hating popular leaders produce economic disasters by an excess enthusiasm for the first to the exclusion of the second. Deng Xiaoping’s miraculous China attests to the wisdom of these two ethics pursued as one. Mao Zedong’s China and Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela attest to the utter folly of the pursuit of equity without the tempering wisdom of efficiency.

It may surprise you as it did me that my first encounter with the brilliant juxtaposition of the above two quotations was not in some ponderous treatise on economic progress but in President Rodrigo Duterte’s 2016 Presidential Inaugural Address. He implied, even as he confessed ignorance of the other cannons of Economics, that these two quotations encapsulated his own innermost economic philosophy. Though more in hope than in conviction, we were reassured. Economic wisdom couldn’t be more succinctly put. In the first two years of Duterte’s presidency, he kept his promise to leave economic policy to his economic team and the economy obliged.

The third year of Duterte saw a switch in the mindset: the second ethic lost ground to the first. After the opposition Otso-Diretso was squelched in the May 2019 elections, Philippine society has been subjected to a firestorm blowing from along the Pasig River. The “hated oligarchs” has resurfaced straight from Joma Sison’s playbook. Suddenly contracts that have served the public well for decades became “onerous” and were threatened with nullification. Has Lincoln’s dreaded class hatred made a landfall? If so, the arteries of brotherhood and thus the capacity to grow our reserves now face rupture. Venezuela beckons.

In that same inaugural address, President Duterte even bound himself and his underlings to the strict observance of the rule of law and the sanctity of contracts: “My adherence to due process and the rule of law is uncompromising.”

“I order all department secretaries and heads of agencies to refrain from changing and bending the rules on government contracts, transactions and projects already approved and awaiting implementation. Changing the rules when the game is ongoing is wrong.”

This is talking the talk of the rule of law and the sanctity of contracts. Walking the walk and staying the course is another matter, but we hoped. President Widodo of Indonesia, already in his second term, stayed the course on the rule of law towards jobs creation. In the Philippines of the post May 2019 election landslide victory, the walk, if at all, is just a chicken walk. 2016 seems so long ago and so far away.

 

Raul V Fabella is an Honorary Professor of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), a member of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and a retired professor of the University of the Philippines. He gets his dopamine fix from hitting tennis balls with wife Teena and bicycling.

An unfair society

The Research Institute of Credit Suisse paints a grim picture of wealth distribution in the Philippines. According its latest Global Wealth Report, the Philippines is one of the most unfair societies on the planet where one-tenth of one percent of the population control 76% of the country’s wealth.

In terms of incomes, the report showed that a whopping 89% of adults in the Philippines earn under P500,000 per year (or less than P10,000 per month); 10.2% earn between P500,000 and P5 million; .07% earn between P5 million and P50 million; while the .01% elite earn over P50 million per year.

No surprise, 16.1% of all Filipino families live below the poverty line. These families, mostly consisting of five people, collectively earn below P10,481 per month. On the other hand, a mere 105,000 individuals earn between P4 million to P400 million pesos a month.

The Philippines has a GINI coefficient of 82.6. For those unaware, the GINI index is a statistical number that measure a country’s degree of wealth inequality. The higher the value, the more uneven the distribution of wealth.

How did the Philippines become a society so severely imbalanced?

It was designed that way by the narrow elite who write our laws. The law, and the many regulations that govern business, were purposely written to favor big business and eliminate competition.

As a result, most industries in the Philippines operate with just a few players controlling supply, price, distribution and access. In other words, our industries are set up as oligopolies with little or no pressure from competition. This is particularly true in power generation and distribution, telecommunications, infrastructure development, transport services, manufacturing, agriculture, large-scale retail and wholesale industries.

The few players in oligopolies enjoy scandalous profits despite being inefficient and delivering products and services that are oftentimes substandard. Their owners become bigger (and wealthier) without much pressure to improve.

Moreover, having a relatively small number of large-scale employers in an economy gives rise to a situation called “monopsony.” In a monopsony, the few employers that exist can repress wages so as to maximize profits. They keep the workforce living at subsistence levels while they amass wealth. Case in point: Note how cashiers and salespersons in large retail chains live hand to mouth while their owners roll in profits. Monopsonies exacerbates income inequality.

Why do oligopolies thrive in the Philippines? Oligopolies prosper and multiply because our laws favor them. In particular, our laws give undue advantage to big local corporations to the detriment of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and foreign firms.

Despite the efforts of governments to develop the SME sector — business conditions in the Philippines remain extremely challenging for them. In obtaining business financing, for instance, banks remain tight-fisted in granting credit to SMEs despite the law mandating them to allocate 10% of their loan portfolio to the entrepreneurial sector. In contrast, clean credit lines are readily granted to large corporations.

In project biddings, government agencies and private firms often require a minimum paid up capital and other constraints that preclude SMEs from participation.

Even the justice system works against SMEs. In enforcing contracts, only big corporations have the resources and wherewithal to navigate their way through the justice system. In trade, nontariff measures (NTMs) or steep technical regulations, act as barriers that prevent SMEs from engaging in imports and exports. In government regulations, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and local governments make it tedious (and expensive) for SMEs to obtain the necessary permits, licenses, and tax clearances to operate.

All these make it nearly impossible for SMEs to mature into strong entities that can compete with oligopolies.

With SMEs unable to break the stronghold of industry giants, one would assume that large foreign firms would fill the gap and provide the needed competition.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Again, Philippine laws were written in such a way that it discourages foreign firm from competing with local behemoths.

As we all know, the 1987 constitution restricts foreign participation in industries relating to public utilities, mass media, education, and natural resources. In addition, the constitution puts a 40% cap on foreign equity in most sectors.

A study conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that the Philippines has the most restrictive environment for foreign investors as compared to 62 other emerging economies. While other countries are doing their best to attract foreign direct investments, our constitution discourages them.

The economic laws of the 1987 constitution have worked contrary to the national interest but to the advantage of local conglomerates. It is the reason why electric power supply across the country is perennially in deficit despite being the most expensive in the region. It is why internet speed is among the slowest despite high toll rates. It is why the mining industry remains low yielding and environmentally damaging despite our wealth of natural resources.

The economic laws of the constitution is like a slow-releasing poison that the legislators of the time damned future generations of Filipinos with. We will do well to amend it. The sooner, the better.

In contrast, the sectors that received the highest level of foreign participation by way of equity investments are the most efficient and productive today. They include the hotel and tourism sector, food production, oil and gas.

With SMEs and foreign firms unable to penetrate industries and provide competition, oligopolies are free to manipulate supply and price. They grow not by becoming more efficient but by controlling market conditions.

This is why the elite control the lion’s share of the country’s wealth. What is interesting is that the majority of these families also belong to (or are connected with) political dynasties. The elite write the laws from which they benefit. It is a perverse, self-serving design that we have been forced to live with.

The establishment of the Philippine Competition Commission in 2016 was a step in the right direction but much has yet to be done to eliminate undue advantages enjoyed by the oligopolies.

So what can be done to level the playing field and promote competition? Three reforms need to be put in place: 1. eliminate the barriers that prevent SMEs from flourishing, the most significant of which is access to credit, ease in government regulation, and lowering cost of trade; 2. open Philippine industries to foreign competition by amending the restrictive laws of the constitution; and, 3. pass the Anti-Political Dynasty Law.

The second and third requirements necessitate statesmanship and self sacrifice from our legislators.

But, as expected, certain members of congress have already said they would oppose the proposal to outlaw political dynasties when charter change is deliberated.

It looks like the elite are intent on keeping their perverse, self-serving design in place.

 

Andrew J. Masigan is an economist.

What explains the increase in self-rated poverty in the last quarter of 2019?

The recent survey on self-rated poverty done by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) piqued my curiosity. The Fourth Quarter of 2019 survey (conducted on Dec. 12-16, 2019) showed self-rated poverty spiking by 12 points compared to the previous quarter. It increased from 42% in September 2019 to 54% in December 2019. In the same vein, self-rated food poverty increased by six points in the same period, from 29% in September 2019 to 35% in December 2019.

To put things in perspective, SWS computed the annual average of self-rated poverty rate in 2019 at 45%, still lower than that of 2018, which was 48%. For self-rated food poverty, the annual average rate for 2019 was 31%, also lower than the self-rated food poverty rate in 2018, which was 33%.

Nevertheless the spike in self-rated poverty in the last quarter of 2019 is surprising, taking into consideration other factors or developments, namely:

1. In the first quarter of 2019, SWS’s survey on self-rated poverty showed a remarkable drop, 12 points below December 2018. This is remarkable given that the reduction in self-rated poverty happened on the heels of the elevated inflation in 2018 brought about by the sharp rise in food prices (mainly, a rice shortage because of a policy that restricted imports) and the increase in petroleum prices, mainly arising from the surge in international crude oil prices. (The culprit is not the tax reform.)

2. According to the SWS, the hunger incidence dropped — from 9.1% of families experiencing involuntary hunger (at least once in the past three months) in September 2019 to 8.8% in December 2019. The annual average hunger rate in 2019 was 9.3%, compared to 10.8% in 2018.

3. The fourth quarter of 2019 SWS survey found an increase in the number of Filipinos who believed their lives improved. The survey result showed that 39% of Filipinos were better off while 21% were worse off, hence a net gain score of +18. This was an increase from the net gain score of +11 in September 2019.

4. Inflation has leveled off at a low rate. In December 2019, inflation stood at 2.5%, compared to 5.1% in the same period in 2018. The annual average inflation rate for 2019 was likewise 2.5%, down from 5.2% in 2018.

5. Philippine unemployment decreased to 4.5% in October 2019, from 5.1% in October 2018. Underemployment likewise declined to 13% in October 2019, from 13.3% in October 2018. One in fact can observe a steady annual decline in unemployment since 2014. Moreover, the unemployment and underemployment rates in October 2019 were the lowest across all quarters since 2005.

How then can we reconcile the increase in self-rated poverty with other indicators (some of which are also drawn from the SWS survey) like the trend of declining poverty (as shown by the SWS’s self-rated poverty and the Philippine Statistics Authority’s official figures on poverty incidence), hunger incidence, low and stable inflation, and decreasing unemployment and underemployment?

SWS founder and former economics professor Mahar Mangahas has pointed out that the most significant determinants of self-rated poverty are inflation, especially food price inflation, and underemployment.

But in the current period, inflation is low, although there was an uptick in the inflation rate between the third and fourth quarters of 2019. The rise in inflation can nevertheless be overcome by a higher increase in income. Underemployment and unemployment have decreased. The increase in employment, particularly in the service and industry sectors, translates into higher incomes. Moreover, the budget for government transfers increased. On top of the conditional cash transfers (CCT), government introduced unconditional cash transfers (UCT) as a compensation for the poor and the near poor in conjunction with the comprehensive tax reform. The UCT was calculated in a way that the amount to be given was greater than the estimated costs that could be attributed to the tax reform.

It is worth mentioning that a 2018 World Bank publication titled Making Growth Work for the Poor: Q Poverty Assessment for the Philippines did state that the leading income sources that contribute to poverty reduction (2006-2015) are non-agriculture wage, government transfers, domestic remittance (note, not foreign remittance), and agriculture wage, in that order. In short, Filipinos escape poverty by having quality employment (wages) and receiving government cash transfers.

So, what can possibly explain the significant increase in the self-rated poverty, in light of the positive indicators on prices and employment?

I posit three possible explanations.

The first plausible explanation is that self-rated poverty is also about relative poverty (hence the respondents would indicate sharply differing income thresholds to be above poverty). As lives of households or families improve, as they receive or earn higher income, their standards and expectations likewise get higher.

Second, still related to relative poverty, is the feeling of inequality, again leading the self-rated poor to aspire for higher living standards. Although what has happened is that the rising tide has lifted all boats, and although the lives of the poor have improved, the fact is that the non-poor — the middle class and the upper class — have gained more from the economic gains. To illustrate, the middle class has benefited tremendously from the income tax reform, through a significant reduction of tax rates. The middle and upper classes, too, are the main beneficiaries of populist measures like free college education. The poor, on the other hand, do not have a direct benefit from the income tax reform (they are exempted from paying income tax, for they do not have sufficient income). Nor can their children avail themselves of free college education, for many of the poor children cannot even finish primary education.

The third explanation is the dismal performance of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Land Bank of the Philippines in distributing the cash grants to 10 million poor households and indigent senior citizens. According to the Land Bank, the completion rate of the UCT in 2018 was 81.9%, equivalent to around 8.2 million beneficiaries receiving the UCT amounting to P2,400. But in 2019, wherein the cash subsidy was increased to P3,600, the completion rate was less than half, or 42.85%, equivalent to about 4.3 million beneficiaries. The disbursement rate to Land Bank branches in 2019 was also low, equivalent to 55%, compared to a sterling 97.55% fund disbursement rate in 2018.

For the third reason alone, which is factual, we could have avoided the spike in self-rated poverty.

Self-rated poverty is a politically sensitive indicator. After all, the Filipino people will not vote on the basis of the official poverty data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority. They will vote on the basis of what they feel, what they think. Government agencies and politicians must pay serious attention to it.

 

Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III coordinates the Action for Economic Reforms.

www.aer.ph

Between love and making a living

The day before Valentine’s Day, red roses were selling briskly at P5,000 per dozen/per bouquet at a small flower stand in a Makati mall. What a waste, the dumpy old widow grumbled to herself — whoever guy is giving that near-wilting bunch of flowers to his lady love would do better to give her the cash.

But that is the ritual, Tita. Have you forgotten when it was your day? Ah, yes! My office was like a funeral wake, with bouquets and bouquets of flowers on Valentine’s Day. No reflection on my attractiveness or desirability as a woman — Valentine’s Day was a safe excuse for business friends and other publics, including co-employees, to give something (flowers) without lasting monetary value to the receiver, and less likely to be perceived as “sip-sip” (a lick-ass) or bribing for favors and advantage. I would have returned them all, but I decided to raffle these off, cost-free, to my male staff, for them to give to their “Valentines.” Flowers on Valentine’s Day have become so obligatory.

“In Japan, it’s women who do the gift giving on Valentine’s Day,” a USA Today article of Feb. 13, 2016 said. Friends, family, and office workers are on the list, and the gift on Feb. 14 is traditionally a box of chocolates. The male recipients are to reciprocate, also with chocolates, on March 14, White Day, if they wanted to. Of course, most, if not all, men who receive chocolates from a woman would, out of courtesy, pay back with chocolates on White Day. The Chocolate and Cocoa Association of Japan estimates that $500 million is spent annually on chocolates for Valentine’s Day, which is less than a third of what Americans spend on candy for Feb. 14. Japanese spend another $500 million on chocolate for White Day, the USA Today write-up said.

The ritual, which is called “giri choco,” started in the 1950s and translates as “obligation chocolates.” Women in the workplace are the most shackled by this tradition, as they are expected to buy chocolates on Feb. 14 for their male co-workers, above them or below them in rank. However, growing numbers of women are snubbing the Valentine’s Day tradition, with a recent survey showing that only 35% of women said they planned to offer chocolate to their male colleagues, the majority instead opting to buy presents for loved ones and friends. “Some firms are now banning the office tradition, which is viewed by many in the country as a form of abuse of power and harassment,” the UK newspaper The Independent wrote last week.

A 2016 editorial of the Japan Times bemoaned that the 1986 equal employment opportunity law — amended in 1999 against discriminatory treatment in the recruitment, hiring, assignment, and promotion of workers for gender-based reasons — has had lackluster compliance even as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2015 required businesses as well as central and local government organizations to compile and publicly disclose plans to increase women in management. Japan’s gender wage gap, at 24.5%, is third-worst among developed countries. But persistent gender attitudes and roles might support the “glass ceiling” which restricts the advancement of women: the male-centric work ethic that requires long working hours and extended male-exclusive bonding after work, vis-à-vis the “tough choice (of women) between their families and their careers,” with married working women having to voluntarily exit the work force to stay home and raise children, or single women opting to stay single to build a career among men. Sodeska! Women hold just 13% percent of managerial positions in Japan, compared with 44% in the United States. According to a recent Reuter’s poll, three-quarters of Japanese companies say they have no female senior executives. “Politics is even more of a male bastion. With women accounting for just 10% of the members in Japan’s lower house, the country ranks 161st out of 193 countries in female political representation, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (The New York Times, Oct. 17, 2018). Combined female representation in politics and in business, Japan ranked at the bottom of the G7 countries in 2016.

Compare the status of women workers in Japan, who comprised 43% of the labor force in 2016, with women workers comprising 49.3% of the Filipino work force, also in 2016, both according to respective national statistics. According to the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW), more than 27% of women in the labor force in 2014 held executive and supervisory positions in government and business. By the May 2016 national elections, 78.5% of elective government positions were won by women voted in by a voter turnout of 43.3 million, 80.1% of whom were women.

These numbers seem to show the higher status of women in the workforce and in society in general in the Philippines, compared to other countries. Indeed, the Philippines ranked eighth (0.799) of 149 nations in the 2018 WEF Global Gender Gap Report, higher by two notches from 10th place (0.790) in 2017, on their progress in gender parity through economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment (Sunstar, Dec. 20, 2018). The report also showed that the Philippines is the most gender-equal country in Asia.

One thing disturbs the pride of achievement in gender-equality though: there must be a social cost, particularly to the family unit, for a mother or female head of family to prioritize making a living over the unpaid services of making a home. Then we appreciate and respectfully admire “the cruel choice” between remaining single (to pursue a career among men) or having a family (and giving up a career) that the Japanese working woman is faced with. For the Filipino working woman, she would have to grapple with the same male-centric corporate and business culture of the “old boys club” that will extract from her, more effort and time at the office at the sacrifice of being home with family.

The Philippine Statistics Authority shows that the number of women Overseas Foreign Workers surpased male OFWs since 2014, growing cumulatively from 451,000 in 2000 to 1.25 million of the total 2.447 million OFWs in 2015. One percent of the 100 million Filipinos in 2015 were women aged 25-29 who flew to Hong Kong and the Middle East to take care of foreign children and the elderly. In Japan, where roughly one-fourth of the population is aging (65 years old and over), going abroad as domestic helper is not done and is not compatible with social traditions of filial love and care. Falling birthrates have left Japan with one of the world’s oldest and fastest-shrinking labor forces, and the nation is focused on strengthening the social foundations of family with planned increased births. The “giri choco” tradition on Valentine’s Day might yet help boost the “Womenomics” of Shinzo Abe that urges women to take the initiative in socioeconomic development.

On Valentine’s Day here, the Social Weather Station (SWS) came out with significant insights on love and making a living:

Three out of five, or 60%, of Filipinos said they will choose their career over their love life if they had to. Of this, 77% of men and 83% of women who never married said they would choose career over relationships. Half of married men and those living with partners would also pick their profession over their love life, while 65% percent of women with live-in partners, and 49% of those who are married would choose their career.

“By sex, 68% of men and 63% of women experienced having a successful love life and career at the same time,” SWS said.

Flowers on Valentine’s Day are always welcome.

 

Amelia H. C. Ylagan is a Doctor of Business Administration from the University of the Philippines.

ahcylagan@yahoo.com

Your attendance is required

By Tony Samson

THE ATTENDANCE CHECK is routine in corporate culture. Scheduled events like the board of directors’ meeting makes presence (if not participation) obligatory. The secretary attests to the required attendance. (Madame Secretary, do we have a quorum?)

Social events oblige the invitee to show up if he confirmed attendance. Monthly coffee reunions regularly hosted by the coffeeshop owner are tracked in a chat group to list down who have confirmed. Woe to the one who said “yes” and then does not show up. A shaming session follows — he said he was coming. He must have slipped into a parallel universe.

To register presence, it is important to seek the host and exchange a few words. After this “hey-I’m-here” moment, you can drift away — let me give you some time to greet your other guests. After a decent interval covering at least three tables but not sitting down in any of them, you head for the washroom and on to the parking lot. Do not use the public intercom to call your driver.

Obligatory attendance is instilled early.

In school, there is the beadle (or his equivalent) that checks attendance, noting tardiness for those who come in after the prayers or the teacher’s erasing of the blackboard to start the new lessons. Maybe, all this is a bit dated as there are now whiteboards and sometimes just screens for Power Point lessons. Also, attendance is probably now just swiped with the student ID. Maybe even physical presence is no longer required as even students can “work from home.” Are there still classrooms?

How long do you stay in an event?

This is a question that crops up. Staying 30 minutes is a good rule. This even allows taking some drinks and a few canapés. Having a plate in one’s hand signals an intention to stick around… near the buffet table. This spot attracts the heaviest traffic and provides the highest visibility where acquaintances can be greeted and be relied on to remember — yes, I think I saw him heaping food on his plate. It’s good to have your picture taken with a group — check if they’re wearing bowties.

The French have introduced most rules governing etiquette. (Even that is a French word). The French’s most significant contribution to social rules after the French kiss — also known in American slang as “tongue hockey” (first used by Tom Wolfe in Bonfire of the Vanities) is the “French leave.” This unannounced, no-fuss departure originated from a military context, sometimes indicating desertion or escape from prison. It has been coopted by social butterflies to indicate a desertion of a different kind.

The justification for exiting without bidding adieu implies thoughtfulness for not bothering the host attending to other guests. A noisy departure can start a deluge to the exit, so hosts, unless they’re tired and want to sleep, prefer quiet and unnoticed exits of some guests — did you leave the gift? Early leavers are already identified by this bad habit. (Is he just going to the loo?)

But why even bother attending a social occasion if the intent is not to stay till the end, or at least after dessert?

Attendance as well as punctuality are social courtesies that a civil society imposes. The frequently absent are considered unreliable and a bit dysfunctional. Presence indicates interest and inclusion.

Event planners have made RSVP management (with frequent messaging) and guest registers (including the assignment of tables) part of their scope of work. The orderly processing of guests and where they are expected to be seated ensures an efficient way of checking attendance. Name plates on designated seats drive home the point. They also identify gate-crashers.

Obligatory attendance is expected for featured speakers in a civic event. Even here, last-minute cancellations at the highest level have become routine. (He is resting and signing papers at home). Sometimes, no excuse is even offered. A substitute is just sent over to read a speech free of unscripted expletives that need to be explained afterwards.

Attendance, even if brief and hasty, requires “being there,” undistracted and mentally present. (Okay, we’re winding up here).

For leaders attending to crisis situations, attendance goes beyond being marked present and photographed handing out loot bags to evacuees. Verbal tirades off-script tend to drive attention in unexpected directions with unforeseen reactions. Can a clarification be far behind, from someone who wasn’t even there?

 

Tony Samson is Chairman and CEO, TOUCH xda.

ar.samson@yahoo.com

ARTA intervenes, declares Newsnet NTC application approved under EoDB law

THE ANTI-RED TAPE Authority (ARTA) automatically approved News and Entertainment Network Corporation’s (Newsnet) application to deliver interactive pay television and multimedia services.

In a declaration on Feb. 12, ARTA deemed complete the company’s application for a Certificate of Public Convenience to install, operate, and maintain a local multi-point distribution system for the services.

ARTA said Newsnet had submitted all requirements the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) by Oct. 19 2018. Newsnet had also paid its required fees.

Under RA 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018, applications that have not been acted on by a government office within the designated processing time are deemed automatically approved.

Automatic approvals are conditional on the submission of all required documents and payment of fees.

ARTA said Newsnet may now deliver its services to South Luzon, North Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao in the 25.35 GHz-26.35GHz frequency rage, with the authority to charge rates.

ARTA ordered NTC to issue the certificate of public convenience immediately, and to submit a compliance report within three days of receipt of the order.

ARTA also warned NTC that the authority will file an appropriate action if the commission fails to comply with the order.

The Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) law prescribed processing times of three working days for simple transactions, seven working days for complex transactions, and 20 working days for applications involving activities that may pose danger to the public. — Jenina P. Ibañez

BoC, Congress committee at odds over valuation system for imports

A LEGISLATOR said Sunday that Bureau of Customs (BoC) Commissioner Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero can be held liable for graft and corruption, and for violating the Code of Conduct of Government Employees, if he continues to insist on implementing the Bureau’s National Valuation Verification System (NVVS).

“We expect on Monday that the Committee on Ways and Means will again direct the Customs officials to cease and desist the implementation of the illegal NVVS. Any further inaction may force Congress to either hold the Bureau in contempt of Congress and the filing of necessary charges in the Ombudsman for graft and corruption,” PBA Party List Jericho Jonas B. Nograles said in a statement.

The Committee on Ways and Means, citing its oversight powers, has “properly investigated and concluded” that the NVVS is illegal as it is not found in the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, Mr. Nograles said.

The committee has twice officially advised the commissioner in writing to cease and desist from implementing the NVVS which allowed for the “unequal levying of same goods in multiple instances,” he added.

“The evidence clearly shows that the same commodities charged differently. The inconsistencies only mean that there is corruption in the NVVS system,” the congressman said.

He said that despite the clear declaration of the House Committee on Ways and Means that NVVS has “no lawful basis, and therefore illegal,” the Customs commissioner continues to implement it “on the false pretext that it is only used as reference and not a replacement of the transaction value of imported goods.”

“The memoranda issued to Customs workers are consistent in the strict implementation of the NVVS system. Why is this? Mukhang merong pinapaboran at pinoprotektahan. (It looks like someone is being favored and protected) Pagkatapos ng Green Lanes ng previous Commissioner, ang panibagong diskarte ay ang NVVS (After the previous commissioner’s Green Lanes system, the new ploy is NVVS). This NVVS is a tool for extortion for some corrupt Customs people,” Mr. Nograles said.

He said his office has evidence dealing with the inconsistencies of tariff assessments under the NVVS and he will disclose the same at the upcoming committee meetings.

Vincent Philip C. Maronilla, BoC assistant commissioner heading the Post Clearance Audit Group, said that the Bureau has sent its reply to the committee through its chairman, Albay Rep. Jose Maria Clemente S. Salceda.

“We already wrote our reply to the Committee through Chairman Salceda. But we want to assure the Honorable Committee that we will abide by any guidance or directive they may have after considering our reply,” Mr. Maronilla told Businessworld in a Viber message on Sunday.

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

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

NVVS and other computer system projects by the BoC were implemented in June 2019. — Genshen L. Espedido

Davao City looking for more projects under World Bank’s PRDP fund

THE DAVAO City government is planning to propose new ventures for funding under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) as it recently re-established the special unit tasked to manage the agriculture-focused program at the local level.

An additional $280-million allocation was approved last year for the PRDP, a World Bank-funded program with the Department of Agriculture as lead implementing agency.

Launched in 2014 as a nationwide assistance program following the Mindanao Rural Development Program, PRDP had an initial P27 billion worth of funding with an additional infusion of $450 million approved in 2018.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio issued an executive order dated Jan. 31 renewing the City Project Management and Implementing Unit (CPMIU) for PRDP, which was first created in 2014.

Led by the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO), the CPMIU is tasked to identify and endorse sub-projects to the PRDP Regional Project Coordination Office as well as supervise the implementation of the approved proposals.

The mayor’s order also specifies that the CPDO will take part in updating the city’s agricultural value chain analysis and the City Commodity Investment Plan, the two major PRDP requirements.

Other key members of the CPMIU are representatives from the City Agriculture’s Office, the City Veterinarian’s Office, and the City Cooperative Development Office.

This cluster is responsible for the Investments for Rural Enterprises, and Agricultural and Fisheries and Productivity (I-REAP) component, which focuses on developing micro, small and medium enterprises.

The City Engineer’s Office, meanwhile, is assigned to supervise the Intensified Building Up of Infrastructure and Logistics for Development (I-BUILD) component.

Of the four PRDP projects previously awarded to Davao City, one has been completed, involving cacao production and dry-fermented beans marketing with a P26-million fund for the 371-member Subasta Integrated Farmers’ Multipurpose Cooperative (SIFMPC).

Two ongoing projects also involve cacao: P7.7 million for the Tawan-Tawan Multi-Purpose Cooperative’s tablea processing and marketing enterprise; and P13.6 million for the Biao Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative’s chocolate processing.

The fourth project involves abaca processing and marketing, with P13.5 million worth of funding for the Tapak Farmers Marketing Cooperative.

The CPDO has yet to determine whether the new proposals will involve the same priority commodities.

Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry President John Carlo B. Tria said aside from cacao, the city government can also look into boosting other high-value crops.

“For the city, we should continue to develop agricultural products like cacao, coffee and durian,” he said. — Carmelito Q. Francisco

Re-export of South Korean waste shipments completed this month

THE Bureau of Customs (BoC) committed to finish this month shipping out all 201 containers of waste products imported illegally in 2018 to the country of origin, South Korea.

In a statement Sunday, Port of Cagayan de Oro District Collector Jon Simon said the last batches of waste were scheduled for re-export yesterday, Feb. 16 and on Sunday, Feb. 23, to “finally rid the country of the illegally imported waste.”

The first re-export took place on Jan. 13 through the Port of Cagayan, involving 51 containers, followed by another 50 containers shipped back on Jan. 19.

In 2018, a shipment declared as plastic waste was found to contain mixed non-biodegradable waste. A warrant of seizure and detention was issued then and appropriate cases were filed for violation of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) and R.A. 6969, BoC said.

Last year, the South Korean government committed to help ship back some 5,177 metric tons (MT) of plastic garbage that was exported illegally to the Philippines in 2018. — Beatrice M. Laforga

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