Reserve Bank of India officials meet bankers, seek feedback on new liquidity tool

March 20, 2019 | 12:03 am

THE RESERVE Bank of India is seeking feedback on its new cash-infusion tool. — REUTERS

MUMBAI — Senior officials from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) met about two dozen bankers on Monday for feedback on the central bank’s new cash infusion tool, according to two bankers who attended the meeting.
While the meeting was aimed at ironing out any procedural issues for implementing the central bank’s debut move, it also indicated the RBI’s willingness to smoothen tight cash conditions in the banking system, the bankers said.
The RBI will conduct a forward dollar/rupee buy-sell swap auction worth $5 billion on March 26, its first such move to infuse rupee liquidity into cash-strapped banks. Under this arrangement, the RBI will buy dollars from banks for three years promising a specified premium for selling back the same at maturity.
The announcement has already pushed down the one-year forward premium by 30 basis points to 3.60%.
“They wanted to understand if we had any suggestions or issues with the implementation of the auction because it is a first for them as well,” said one of the bankers.
“They also didn’t say no to suggestions of conducting such auctions going ahead as well. They said ‘we will see’,” the banker added.
The central bank officials also reiterated that the swap auction was “purely to infuse liquidity” and not aimed at the forex market, the bankers said.
The RBI did not have an immediate response to an email seeking comments on the meeting.
There were some speculations that the RBI had timed the move to also absorb potential bunched-up forex inflows at March-end.
Bankers also suggested lowering the tenure of the swap to below three years as well as reducing the minimum bid size, which is $25 million currently.
While the central bank officials did not promise anything, they said they would like to assess response to the first auction before making any changes, the bankers said.
Some bankers also asked such announcements to be made much more in advance than it was done for the current one, since they needed time to arrange for underlying dollar liabilities from the investors, either in the form of deposits or bonds to offer to the central bank.
“They said this time they didn’t have time since they had to complete this before the end of current fiscal year (March),” said the second banker.
“They said this is an experiment, let’s see how it goes.” — Reuters

BPI Family expects double-digit growth in loan portfolio in 2019

March 20, 2019 | 12:02 am

By Karl Angelo N. Vidal, Reporter
THE THRIFT BANKING arm of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) is expecting its loan portfolio to post double-digit growth this year on the back of increased consumer confidence amid more favorable economic conditions.
BPI Family Savings Bank (BFSB) President Maria Cristina L. Go said the Ayala-led lender is expecting to post 10-15% loan growth for this year, a rebound from the “flat” performance of its lending book in 2018, driven by housing and auto loans.
“We’ve seen a surge in housing applications in the first quarter. I guess it’s also that the customers are more confident making that move already because of the more steady interest rate environment,” Ms. Go said on the sidelines of the bank’s press conference in Makati City yesterday.
“There’s greater consumer confidence. And we’ve seen inflation rate tapered down, so [there’s] that confidence that their disposable income can be budgeted more steadily.”
Headline inflation stood at 3.8% in February, marking the slowest pace in 12 months and easing for the fourth straight month, on the back of milder price increases of food and non-alcoholic beverages.
However, this is still near the ceiling of the 2-4% inflation target band of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for this year.
Meanwhile, some economists believe the central bank will trim its benchmark rates by 25 basis points during its policy meeting on Thursday as the rise in prices continues to decelerate, while others expect the BSP to start cutting borrowing costs next month as they may need more inflation data points.
Ms. Go said the thrift bank’s loan book was mostly steady last year as it was streamlining its processes.
“We’ve been flat last year on our total loans because we’re in a mode of testing and refining our processes because our processes have been unresponsive already given the size of our business,” she said.
“We’ve doubled our business in the last five years from 2012-2017. Therefore, we really have to make sure our processes will remain to be streamlined and competitive.”
Herbert D. Tuason, BFSB vice- president and mortgage division head, said for this year, the bank is targeting to capture P60 billion this year in new home loans. Ms. Go said the lender is expecting housing loans to increase their share in its overall loan portfolio from the current 55%.
Meanwhile, the bank president added that the lender is bullish on expanding its loan book this year given that its partner dealers and developers are expanding their operations outside Metro Manila.
“In both auto and housing [loans], the key growth area had been in the Visayas and Mindanao. That’s where the expansion had been,” Ms. Go said.
“We have a lot of dealers putting up dealerships outside of Metro Manila…. Even our top developers are going out of Metro Manila. You see the Build, Build, Build program of the government has helped.”
Yesterday, BFSB launched a promo allowing clients to receive P10,000 worth of deposit accounts of BPI for every P1 million approved housing loan.
“BFSB hopes to address the need of many Filipinos for housing and savings, which contribute to overall financial health,” Ms. Go was quoted as saying in a statement.
Mr. Tuason said the bank’s current interest rates for housing loans ranges from 7% to 9%.
“We actually have one of the lowest non-performing loan ratios in the industry — a little bit over one percent. That speaks for the asset quality,” Mr. Tuason added.
BFSB was the largest thrift bank in the country in asset terms as of end-September 2018 with P266.36 billion.

Go-Jek appeal against ride-hailing license ban junked

March 20, 2019 | 12:02 am

MANILA — Indonesian ride-hailing firm Go-Jek lost an appeal on Tuesday against the Philippines’ decision to refuse to grant it a license due to its failure to meet local ownership criteria, in a major blow to its Southeast Asia expansion plans.
Go-Jek, whose backers include Alphabet, Inc’s Google and Tencent Holdings Ltd., had hoped to take on Singapore-based Grab which is the dominant player in the Philippines ride-hailing sector.
The firm applied for a license to operate in Manila in August through wholly owned subsidiary Velox but was denied in January, after ride-hailing was added to a list of industries where foreign ownership is limited to 40%.
“They filed a motion for reconsideration, but failed to fix Filipino ownership requirement,” Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Chairman Martin Delgra told Reuters.
A Go-Jek spokesman said the firm was disappointed and “will now explore our options.”
Several Philippine ride-hailing firms have started operations in the capital Manila and in major provinces over the past two years but have had limited success in eroding Grab’s domestic market share, which stands at over 90%. — Reuters

Angels in America’s relevance

March 20, 2019 | 12:02 am

“ANGELS IN AMERICA is about life and hope in the face of death and despair, and about our interconnectedness as a community and how we need to find a way to discuss our differences by finding common ground.”
Those were the words of Atlantis Theatrical Entertainment Group’s Bobby Garcia, who first directed the play 25 years ago, in a video shown at last week’s press conference in New World Makati Hotel. “There’s so much in Angels in America that is relevant to what’s going on in the world today. It’s important for a new generation to come see the show.”
Atlantis is kicking off its 20^th anniversary with the Manila restaging of American playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, from March 22 to April 7 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati City.
The play won 10 Tony Awards including Best Play when it opened on Broadway in 1994 as well as Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993. It then won a Tony for Best Revival of a Play in 2018.
Millennium Approaches is the first of the two-part play set in New York City in the 1980s whose characters are stuggling with the effects of the AIDS crisis. When Prior Walter finds out that he has the AIDS virus, his lover Louis Ironson, leaves him. Meanwhile, Joe Pitt, a closeted gay lawyer struggles in a marriage with Harper, his drug addicted wife. The two couples’ fates intertwine throughout the story.
HIV refers to the human immunodeficiency virus which, left untreated, causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), which is the failure of the immune system fight opportunistic infections and cancers.
STILL RELEVANT
While set in the early days of the AIDS crisis over 30 years ago in the US, the play is still very relevant, especially in the Philippines where, while the prevalence rate of infection is still low, the rate of increase is rising rapidly — and those getting infected are younger — 32% of the 877 new HIV confirmed positive individuals in December 2018, according to the HIV/AIDS & ART Registry of the Philippines (HARP) were 15 to 24 years old at the time of testing, 48% were 25 to 34 years old.
“What we want to do now is to prevent it, as opposed to keeping it hidden and keeping it as taboo… What we learned from Angels in America was how it started and how we can potentially prevent it now,” said Markki Stroem who plays Joe Pitt, about the story’s timeliness.
“We’re trying to give you at least a small picture of how it felt because it was really life or death. you really thought you really think that when your partner or friend gets AIDS, the next day, he’s going to die. I like the fact that the way you will see certain graphic images in this play is kind of very head on, because I personally think that our audiences need to be challenged as well, to see how graphic it really was,” said Nelsito Gomez who plays Louis Ironson, about the play’s graphic and intimate scenes.
The play also stars Art Acuña as Roy Cohn, Pinky Amador as the Angel, Angeli Bayani as Harper Pitt, Topper Fabregas as Prior Walter, and Andoy Ranay as Belize, with the cast playing multiple roles throughout the show.
“In this play, [as they say], art is supposed to comfort the disturbed and discomfort those who are comfortable. It’s going to create questions that aren’t just for society, not just but what’s happening right now in our own government, and our own society, but in the world,” said Cherie Gil who plays Hannah Pitt.
“It’s definitely a must see, not just because it’s about homosexuality. It’s about everybody’s hypocrisy… It will open up a lot of questions. That’s what art is supposed to do.” — Michelle Anne P. Soliman
For tickets, visit www.ticketworld.com.ph. The play contains strong language and mature content and is meant for audiences over the age of 16.

Rate-hike patience may cost Fed if inflation softens

March 20, 2019 | 12:01 am

FEDERAL RESERVE officials say they’re willing to tolerate an overshoot of their inflation goal. If the opposite happens, the plan is less clear.
Core inflation, excluding energy and food prices, is currently just shy of the central bank’s 2% target. Most economists and policy makers see that lasting, though there’s no guarantee: Inflation expectations have been stuck on the low side, and a cooler housing market is among several factors that could weigh on future price pressures.
If price gains would slow down even as US economic growth more broadly held up, it could put the central bank in a tough spot. Officials have already placed interest-rate hikes on hold amid muted price pressures and looming global risks. They could extend that pause, pledging to keep rates low until faster price gains materialize. But economists said actually lowering rates on an inflation miss seems unlikely, because it could signal undue pessimism.
“The hurdle for a policy inflection point is fairly high,” said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP in New York. “If you ease, you trigger the, ‘what does the Fed know that we don’t?’ trade.”
The stakes are significant. The Fed hasn’t hit 2% inflation on a sustained basis since formally adopting it in 2012. Officials had been hopeful that this would be the year in which they finally clinched their objective.
Policy makers expected to hit 2% core inflation by the fourth quarter, according to their last set of economic forecasts, published in December. They also saw unemployment falling to 3.5%. Together with above-trend output growth, that laid the groundwork for the committee to project two rate increases this year.
Officials will release a fresh set of projections following their two-day meeting that concludes Wednesday, and downgrades look likely. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect just once hike this year, in September, at which point the tightening cycle will have peaked.
Unemployment has been hovering around 4%, so that projection could move up slightly. It’s less clear what revisions, if any, committee members will make to the inflation outlook.
Regardless, there’s a real chance that price gains come in below 2% again this year, making it less likely that the Fed will achieve its symmetric inflation goal on a sustained basis this economic cycle — potentially bad news for the central bank’s inflation-stabilizing credibility.
The median estimate in a separate Bloomberg survey showed core inflation coming in at 1.9% this year. Estimates range as low as 1.6%. Inflation expectations — which the Fed views as a determinant of future price increases — have been coming in on the low side. They recently declined in a survey conducted by the New York Fed and tied a record-low in the University of Michigan survey in February before bouncing back in preliminary March data.
“In a pure machine economy, where machines don’t read into actions, you would ease” and “kind of micro-adjust” if inflation fell well shy of target, said Gennadiy Goldberg, a rates strategist at TD Securities in New York. “Since the Fed is subject to rate-hike cycles, easing is a very high bar.”
So far, the Fed is answering low-inflation risks with patience.
Powell noted in a March 8 speech at Stanford University that core inflation was coming in close to goal, but “despite this favorable picture, we have seen some cross-currents in recent months.”
“With nothing in the outlook demanding an immediate policy response and particularly given muted inflation pressures, the Committee has adopted a patient, wait-and-see approach to considering any alteration in the stance of policy,” he said.
If economic data overall should weaken sharply, the answer is simpler: cut rates. Markets are already pricing in future easing as growth shows cracks around the edges, with both industrial production and Empire manufacturing figures coming in weak last week.
“The Fed is always going to try to sound optimistic until it’s very clear that things are turning worse,” said Julia Coronado, founder of MacroPolicy Perspectives LLC in New York. “I don’t think the bar is that high for a cut, but the threshold is: does the economy weaken.”
Coronado said she’d expect the Fed to act if payrolls slowed notably and growth fell below trend, which has been around 2%, in a way that looks likely to be sustained. — Bloomberg

Nickel Asia says 2019 ore sales steady

March 20, 2019 | 12:01 am

MANILA — Nickel Asia Corp., the Philippines’ top nickel ore producer, expects its 2019 shipments to be unchanged from last year, although it plans to increase its domestic sales to maximise profits, its chief financial officer told Reuters.
Nickel Asia accounts for about half of the nickel ore output in the world’s second-biggest supplier of the metal. Its ores are exported to customers in China and Japan, who process them to make stainless steel and for use in battery materials.
Top nickel producer Indonesia, though, has been ramping up shipments to China after lifting a ban on metal exports in 2017, with Chinese buyers preferring the higher-grade Indonesian ore, said Nickel Asia Senior Vice-President and CFO Emmanuel Samson.
To counter market share lost in China, Nickel Asia will increase shipments to two Philippine smelters it partly owns, at Coral Bay and Taganito. The plants buy ore linked to London Metal Exchange (LME) prices, Mr. Samson said, with their output then sent to Japan for further processing into “Class 1” nickel.
“As long as Indonesia continues to export ore to China, it’s going to be a very challenging period for Philippine miners,” Mr. Samson said in a phone interview on Monday.
Nickel ore sales for this year will be about the same as the 19.3 million wet tons sold in 2018, which were up from 17.7 million wet tons sold in 2017, he said.
The company, which operates four of the nation’s 30 nickel mines, posted a 9% gain in net income last year to P3.01 billion ($57.1 million), from P2.77 billion the year before, thanks largely to higher LME prices.
Nickel Asia in 2018 benefited from an average LME nickel price of $5.95 per pound on sales to the two domestic processing plants, compared with an average price of $4.67 in 2017.
On the other hand, shipments of unprocessed ore slurry to China last year accounted for 60% of the company’s total sales at 11.54 million wet tons, up from 9.64 million in 2017, although the average price fell to $21.53 per wet tonne from the previous year’s $24.42, he said.
“There’s a lot of supply now that’s coming from Indonesia going into China for stainless steel,” Mr. Samson said. “That part of the business is going to be more or less flat in terms of prices (this year).”
NICKEL FOR BATTERIES
LME nickel-linked deliveries last year to the two Philippine processing plants accounted for 40% of the sales, or 7.81 million wet tons, down from 8.06 million wet tons in 2017.
“The one that is exciting is the LME side of the business,” Mr. Samson said. “Why? Because of the battery story, which is linked to LME nickel.”
Global metal producers expect a surge in demand in the coming years for nickel for use in electric vehicle batteries.
To benefit from higher LME prices, Samson said Nickel Asia would likely boost its LME-linked domestic business to 45-50%, while exports to China would be cut to 50-55%.
Nickel Asia is the only Philippine nickel miner with ownership in processing plants, making it “unique” compared with other local miners, who sell all their unprocessed ore output to Chinese stainless steel producers, Mr. Samson said.
Nickel Asia’s fifth mine, the Dinapigue project in Isabela province in northern Philippines — acquired in 2015 — is still undergoing exploration and development work, he said.
“We’re hoping that next year or by 2021, we can start shipments,” he said, without giving any volume estimates. — Reuters

Popular culture and political theater

March 20, 2019 | 12:01 am

By Maria Jovita Zarate
Theater Review
Charot!
Presented by the Philippine
Educational Theater Association (PETA)
Written by Michelle Ngu and J-mee Katanyag
Directed by Maribel Legarda
PETA Theater Center, #5 Eymard Drive,
New Manila, Quezon City
“CHAROT” is gay slang, one of the many fluid terms generated by popular lingo, often used as an interjection to express the flimsy nature of a statement and to which the appropriate response should be… charot, or char, its abbreviated expression. The word has permeated popular culture such that in television, radio, and social media, the term is used with impunity.
PETA’s season-ender derives its title and spirit from this piece of gay slang. In this one-hour and 45-minute play, charot stands for “charter of change,” an obvious reference to the efforts of the lower house and the President to engineer a fundamental change in the constitution toward a shift from the presidential system of government to a federal form. In this play, PETA takes an unequivocally political position, one that exposes how the President undermines the constitution.
The year is 2020 and there is a plebiscite, the country is referred to as PI, the President is Papsy, and Choinah is encroaching on the nation’s economy. The play takes place on plebiscite day, and opens with a ragtag group of musicians calling on voters to exercise their right and make the entire electoral exercise a display of people power.
A motley group of voters are travelling to the polling precinct in Ernesto Mangamot Elementary School. An afternoon downpour has triggered a horrendous traffic jam. The polls close at five o’clock but there aren’t any signs the traffic will clear.
Gathered in the chaos of the standstill are a millennial couple with opposing views on charter change, the owner of a small store who is also a pregnant mother, a friendly street vendor, an overbearing traffic cop, a casual employee of a department store, a gay Grab driver who was once an OFW, and a woman club performer with robust breasts now aspiring to get a gig abroad.
As the play progresses, another set of characters intervene to break the impasse: an affluent, philantropic woman stands in for the middle class, the mayor’s aide represents the links to powers-that-be, and a nun stands for the politically enlightened sector.
They try to extricate themselves from what is now referred to as “carmaggedon.” They need to go to the polling precinct. As they exchange barbs, their characters unravel: the millennial couple stand by their two separate political positions, the mall saleslady displays a militant side as she bewails the oppressive employment policies of a mall tycoon, the small-time businesswoman is the classic wheeler dealer who curries favor with local politicians, and the silicone-enhanced woman wanting to go abroad makes up for the body fakery with her genuine character.
Close to the deadline, the mayor sends his aide with a helicopter, and picks up those who will vote in support of charter change. Those opposed refuse to climb the helicopter’s ladder as it hovers above them. They are already settled on the thought that they may have to walk to get to the polling precint — until an inflatable rescue boat appears out of nowhere, steered by a politically enlightened nun who goes by the name of Sister Mary Joy.
While the helicopter is safely cruising the skies, and the inflatable boat floats its wobbly way through the flood waters (hey PETA, we haven’t forgotten — it’s a flash flood, it ain’t that deep, and it should subside soon, di ba? ), Charot! throws all need for theatrical élan to the wind, and turns unapologetically instructional: up in the skies, the helicopter pilot pulls out a brochure arguing for charter change while in the muddy waters the nun does the same, but arguing against it. The scene has the unlikely mix of pompousness and tedium. It could be said that the pompous are consigned to be tedious. And dull. The scene is the most insufferable moment of the play.
They reach the polling precinct as it is about to close. And as the plot buckles down to its denouement, the pregnant tindera screams as her water bursts, and the silicone-enhanced woman comes to her aid in a moment of I-am-more-than-my-fake-boobs redemptive act. The newborn is raised above their heads, like the biblical child lifted from the manger to symbolize hope, and they gather around the child as they utter their desire for a better country and a brighter future for the next generation.
PETA productions always pulsate with an ensemble energy that is a theatrical experience in itself. From productions traversing the lines of popular culture such as Rak of Aegis to the masterly Brechtian oeuvre Galileo, it is an acting ensemble that moves as one in moments of breathless momentum. In Galileo, Joel Lamangan in the title role was the heart, pumping blood through the arterial valves of his supporting actors so each scene gave you a well-nourished theatrical body politic moving in the space and time of the Enlightenment. In Rak of Aegis, they gyrated and hit the highest notes to keep up with the tradition of “birit singing” with loads of chutzpah. The sense of oneness you see onstage is forged beyond the rehearsal halls and the stage. The acting ensemble goes to a deeper well — a belief that something urgent must be conveyed to the theater-going public, and a conviction that theater is a tool for change and concerted action.
PANDERING WITH POPULAR CULTURE
Charot!, with the immense energy of its ensemble and clarion call to protect democracy, is problematic on many levels. PETA misses that a play is first and foremost a written text, and its finest attributes will only come alive on stage if its formal and most fundamental elements are developed in the writing.
Charot! is all physical plot, bare as a herringbone, its playwrights made busy by the need to ferry one plot point to the next, and in the end piling on one incredible event after another. Splattered in the narrative are many details that test the more mindful viewers’ capacity to exercise “willing suspension of disbelief.” The scenes are unarguably hilarious, verging on slapstick, but still getting the laughs that made for strong audience rapport. However, the banter easily slid into one-upsmanship, where shaming, subtle and outright, became the norm.
Like its other political plays in the recent past, Charot! deployed familiar stock characters as if drawn from social media news feeds. Its use may be understandable — it makes the material accessible to a wide audience, which is a primary consideration for plays that seek to translate understanding of a political situation to political action. However, these characters bear simplified and reductive traits, and are devoid of fresh insights.
Charot! is vapid because it panders too much to popular culture, particularly its expressions found in traditional and social media. Theater audiences are also the passive consumers of these forms as they are conveyed in television, cinema, radio, and Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Unless the dramatist can consciously ferret out the liberating aspects of popular culture, there will be an inherent problem in relying on popular culture’s use of stereotypes, its predisposition to shame, and the paltry insights that can be derived from the spectacle of repeated peals of laughter. And the audiences of such plays, now able to wangle a good number of hundred peso bills to get to the theater, are once again the passive consumers as they laugh, growl, and chuckle in amusement.
It might be well for PETA to ask itself: What are the political advantages that popular culture can give to political theater, especially the kind that seeks to educate about positive, proactive, and concerted action for social change? How can political theater balance the distinct advantages of stock, easily recognizable characters without reproducing the prejudices and discrimination — in short, the shaming — that is so germane to popular culture?
Throughout PETA’s 50-year history it has pursued socially relevant theater, even at the height of the martial law regime. Surely it can turn to other sources of inspiration aside from popular culture’s paltry forms? Through the past five decades, its theater repertoire has been rich and storied, drawn from sources and influences that are moored in local, national, and global theater traditions. A thorough stocktaking will enable the company to steer its socially relevant theater through wiser and more uplifting dramaturgy. After all, in the metropolis’ mainstream theater scene, it is only PETA that takes on political issues and acts in defense of democracy. We need that now and quite urgently.
MARIA JOVITA ZARATE is a member of the jury of Gawad Buhay, the awards body for the performing arts. She teaches at the University of the Philippines Open University.

Approved building permits grow 20.7% in Q4 2018

March 20, 2019 | 12:00 am

How PSEi member stocks performed — March 19, 2019

March 20, 2019 | 12:00 am

Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Tuesday, March 19, 2019.

Philippine Stock Exchange’s most active stocks by value turnover — March 19, 2019.

Sotto acknowledges August budget passage scenario

March 19, 2019 | 10:09 pm

SENATE President Vicente C. Sotto III said failure to promptly resolve the dispute of both chambers of Congress over the 2019 budget will prolong the effectivity of the reenacted 2018 budget until August — a scenario that government economists said would dampen gross domestic product (GDP) to about 4.9%-5.1%.
The 2019 budget, which remains untransmitted to Malacañang because of a dispute about modifications made after it was ratified by representatives of both chambers sitting in bicameral conference committee. The House calls its modifications “itemizations” to clarify spending items appearing in lump-sum form.
Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said the 2019 budget has not been withdrawn from the Senate, contrary to claims that an agreement has been reached clearing the way for the House of Representatives to recall it.
“No, we have not withdrawn our version. We’re in discussions about what is the proposed new version,” she told reporters on the sidelines of the Nickel Initiative 2019 Forum on Tuesday. “I’m going to meet today with the House members, and with Congressman Ronnie Zamora,” she added, referring to San Juan Rep. Ronaldo B. Zamora.
Mr. Zamora, who was designated by the Speaker to negotiate with the Senate, said along with Senator Panfilo M. Lacson on Sunday that the House has agreed to recall the P3.757-trillion budget, transmitted on March 11. House appropriations committee chair Rolando G. Andaya, Jr., however, said he was not briefed about the agreement.
When asked if the chamber will insist on its version, which its members itemized post-ratification, the Speaker said, “No, we will insist on no lump sum because that is what is unconstitutional. That’s what we will insist — no lump sum.”
“Now as to the details, we’ll see,” she added.
“If we don’t come to an agreement and then Tito Sotto does not sign the bill, then there’s no bill to send to the President. So I do not know if we will but I would wish we would,” Ms. Arroyo added.
Mr. Sotto said conflicting reports from the House are adding to the confusion in the Senate and added he expects the reenacted 2018 budget, in place since the start of the year, to remain in place until August, if the House of Representatives fails to come up with a decision.
“We’re confused about the real score. We will just wait for them to make up their minds once and for all; otherwise, we can wait until June 30,” Mr. Sotto told reporters in a chance interview on the sidelines of the Senate committee on public service hearing on Tuesday.
“If they do not withdraw and revert to the original ratified version, then it’s going to be in August for sure,” he said. “By May 20, if they do not act, I have no confidence (in the budget passing).”
The National Economic and Development Authority has projected gross domestic product growth to fall to as slow as 4.9-5.1% if the 2019 budget is passed in August.
Senators have alleged that the House realigned P79 billion and P15 billion worth of allocations for the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Department of Health, respectively, after the proposed budget was ratified on Feb. 8. The House later countered that the Senate also made some P75-billion in post-ratification realignments.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s spokesperson Salvador S. Panelo said in a briefing that Malacañang will not meddle in the ongoing dispute, but urged both chambers to pass the National Budget.
“We’ll just wait for them to settle their differences. No move from Malacañang,” he said Tuesday. “We urge them earnestly to pass the bill. We are telling them even that the people will not take it lightly, if they continue to ignore the demands of the time.” — Charmaine A. Tadalan

Law abolishing Road Board signed, Palace says

March 19, 2019 | 10:08 pm

PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte signed earlier this month a measure that abolishes the Road Board, Palace officials confirmed.
Malacañang released to reporters on Tuesday a copy of Republic Act No. 11239, “An act abolishing the Road Board and providing for the disposition of the motor vehicle user’s charge collections…” which Mr. Duterte signed on March 8.
The new law requires “all monies collected under this Act (to be) remitted to the National Treasury under a special account in the General Fund to be earmarked solely for the construction, upgrading, repair, and rehabilitation of roads, bridges, and road drainage to be included in the Annual Appropriations Act.”
The law repeals the act that created the Road Board, RA 8794.
The implementation of the law will be monitored by a Congressional Oversight Committee composed of five members of the House of Representatives and five members of the Senate who will be appointed by the Speaker and the Senate President, respectively.
The secretaries of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and the Department of Transportation (DoTr) are tasked, under the law, to jointly, within 30 days from its effectivity, “promulgate the rules and regulations to implement and carry out the intent, objectives, purposes, and provisions” of the law.
The law instructs the DPWH to absorb, “as needed,” the employees of the secretariat of the abolished agency, “without diminution of their salaries and other benefits.”
Employees who are separated from the service as a result of the abolition of the agency and its secretariat “shall receive separation benefits.”
The law also gives the DPWH to take on “all the rights and assume all the obligations and liabilities of the Road Board, and all its records, property, assets, equipment, and funds.”
Unexpended appropriations or allocations shall also be transferred to the DPWH.
The new law takes effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.
The Senate passed Senate Bill 1620, which sought the abolition of the agency, in February. The House of Representatives approved the counterpart House Bill 7436 in May 2018.
The Senate adopted the House version on Sept. 12, but later on the same day, the House of Representatives rescinded the bill’s approval.
The Road Board, under RA 8794, is tasked to manage the funds collected from the motor vehicle user’s charge, which is used for road maintenance and drainage, installation of traffic lights and road safety devices, and for air pollution control. However, the agency has been beset by corruption allegations. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Napocor sees April decision on Agus rehabilitation plan

March 19, 2019 | 10:08 pm

THE National Power Corp. (Napocor) expects the government to make a decision in April on the rehabilitation of the Agus hydroelectric power complex in Mindanao, with three options being studied by the World Bank.
“We’re looking at three options. One is attain the rated capacity, second is increase by 10% the capacity, third is improve the water efficiency,” Pio J. Benavidez, Napocor president and chief executive officer, told reporters after a news conference for an energy event on Tuesday.
The Agus hydro power asset has installed capacity of at least 700 megawatts (MW), with the biggest coming from the 200-MW Agus VI in Iligan City, Lanao del Norte. Agus VI has five operating units, two of which have a capacity of 25 MW each and the remaining three with 50 MW each.
Of the seven separate sites for the Agus hydro power plants, only one Agus III has not been completed. But most of the plants within the complex are operating below their rated capacity, giving plant operator Napocor a lower dependable power output.
The complex, which is owned by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), remains in government hands after the passage of Republic Act No. 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA), the law that restructured the industry and privatized the state’s energy assets.
Mr. Benavidez said improving the efficiency of the Agus complex could be attained by expanding the size of the river and dredging. He said the selection of the best option will be done by the National Economic and Development Authority, along with Napocor and the Department of Finance, the secretary of which chairs the agency’s board.
Mr. Benavidez said the cost of rehabilitating the Agus complex could be between P37 billion and P40 billion. He said the funding will not be sourced from China, as previously considered, but from multilateral lending agencies, including those from France, Australia and Japan. He did not identify the entities.
“Once rehabilitated, it can easily be sold. Its value would be high,” he said.
He said the options to be presented by the World Bank should be ready by April, after which Napocor could start its own feasibility study based on the option selected by the government.
He targets the feasibility study’s completion by April 2020, with the start of the rehabilitation shortly after. The Pulangi hydro complex, a separate government asset, has been isolated from the Agus rehabilitation project.
The Pulangi hydroelectric power plant in Maramag, Bukidnon has three units, each with an installed capacity of 85 MW.
The power generation facilities are considered Mindanao’s crown jewels, and as such their privatization is being opposed by stakeholders in the area. — Victor V. Saulon

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