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WEATHER FORECAST Vol. 19 No. 98 May 29, 2018 METRO 27°C to 35°C

CEBU 26°C to 33°C

The Nation DAVAO 23°C to 32°C  s ➢ 'Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018' signed Currency Currency 1 Peso in ss COUNTRY ➢ DOF: No suspension of excise tax on fuel in Peso in US$1 Currency ➢ Territorial defense top priority of Duterte gov’t – Lorenzana US (dollar) 52.5860 1.0000 0.0190 ➢ ECOP on national minimum wage: Japan (yen) 0.4791 109.7574 2.0872 Impossible UK (pound) 70.0235 0.7510 0.0143

s Hong Kong (dollar) 6.7029 7.8453 0.1492 The Economy and Business China (yuan) 8.2272 6.3917 0.1215 ➢ ‘Aggressive’ negative list under review Canada (dollar) 40.5662 1.2963 0.0247 ➢ NEDA: 'BPO industry has time to prepare for AI' Australia (dollar) 39.7445 1.3231 0.0252 ssss➢ More hotels, industrial spaces needed in New Zealand (dollar) 36.3895 1.4451 0.0275 Clark — Colliers report EMU (euro) 61.4625 0.8556 0.0163

Corporate Briefs PESO-DOLLAR RATE \ 30 trading days to May 28, 2018 Open: P 52.635 ➢ Phoenix acquires digital payment platform ➢ Robinsons Retail to spend up to P3.5 Bn Close: P 52.490 for store expansion 53.50 ➢ Megaworld eyes P1-Bn sales from 53.00 High: P 52.465 shophouse lots 52.50 52.00 Low: P 52.640 51.50

51.00 50.50 W.A.: P 52.531

Vol.: $ 637.40 Mn

PSE COMPOSITE INDEX 30 trading days to May 28, 2018 Open: 7,669.96

s High: 7,669.96 8,500

8,300 Low: 7,598.13 8,100

7,900 Close: 7,642.90 7,700 7,500 Vol.: 0.502 Bn s Val.: 5.386 Bn

Disclaimer: The articles in this Daily News have been culled from various media sources. We cannot, therefore, vouch for the accuracy of what is reported. For more information on the WBF, you can call 810-96-06 to 09, or visit our website at www.wallacebusinessforum.com.

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The Nation

'Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018' signed President signed the Republic Act 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018 in an effort to correct bureaucratic red tape that continues to hound government institutions. The President said RA 11032 enhances business competitiveness and good governance and is long overdue. One of the most important features of this law, he added, is the standardization of the processing time for government transactions. The law would also limit to a maximum of 3 the number of signatories required in applications for licenses, clearances, permits, certifications and authorizations. Electronic signatures will also be recognized and a zero- contact policy will be implemented to avoid improprieties.

DOF: No suspension of excise tax on fuel The Department of Finance (DOF) cleared the mechanism in the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law that allows the suspension of the increase in fuel excise tax when Dubai crude oil price based on the Means of Platts Singapore (MOPS) averages $80 per barrel for 3 consecutive months preceding the next scheduled increase. In line with this, DOF Undersecretary Karl Chua said the DOF and the Department of Energy (DOE) are closely monitoring the prices of petroleum products. Usec. Chua said that the TRAIN law also provides measures to protect the public from the rising prices of oil products. He said this comes in the form of social grants, such as the unconditional cash transfer and fuel vouchers.

Territorial defense top priority of Duterte gov’t – Lorenzana Defense Secretary said defense amid ongoing territorial disputes is a main priority of the Duterte administration. Without particularly citing the country’s territorial issues with China, Sec. Lorenzana said such challenges need everyone’s action. “The defense of our territory remains a priority and we work hard to safeguard our integrity and sovereignty,” he said. Sec. Lorenzana added that the Department of National Defense remains alert against groups wanting to destroy the country’s democracy and peace.

ECOP on national minimum wage: Impossible Raising minimum wages on a national level to cushion the impact of rising prices on ordinary Filipinos – as proposed by militant lawmakers and labor groups – would be “impossible” and would do more harm than good if allowed, according to Mr. Donald Dee, president of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), said. Mr. Dee pointed out that at present, the salary of workers in the National Capital Region is already one of the highest in Southeast Asia, next to Singapore and Malaysia. The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives has filed a bill mandating a uniform P750 minimum wage nationwide. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary called the proposal contained in House Bill 7787 “ill-advised as it will further stoke inflation and remain even when inflation normalizes.”

The Economy & Business

‘Aggressive’ negative list under review The proposed 11th Regular Foreign Investment Negative List (RFINL), which will be more “aggressive” in opening up more economic sectors to foreign ownership or participation, is undergoing careful review to make sure it is legally sound, NEDA Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon said. “The 11th RFINL is with OES (Office of the Executive Secretary) for legal review before it is endorsed for PRRD’s signature,” Usec. Edillon said. She also said that the government will pursue amendments to other laws like the Public Service Act that will open up telecommunications and other utilities to greater foreign participation, and the Retail Trade Liberalization Act that will do the same to this sector.

NEDA: 'BPO industry has time to prepare for AI' Amid threats to jobs in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry posed by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) believes the sector still has time to prepare. In a recent briefing, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said the top job- generating economic sub-sector in the country still has the headroom to upgrade the skills of its workers to enable them to integrate with the use of emerging technologies. Upgrading their operations to high value services, he said, is also key to the sector’s survival.

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More hotels, industrial spaces needed in Clark — Colliers report Property developers should take advantage of the government’s implementation of more infrastructure projects in Pampanga, as real estate consultancy services Colliers Philippines urged companies to build more hotels, convention halls, office towers, retail strips, and industrial spaces in preparation for the expected influx of residents and tourists in the area. There are currently 5 infrastructure projects set to be completed in Clark, Pampanga in the next few years. To-date, dominant national players have already established their presence in Clark.

Corporate Briefs

Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. has acquired 75% of 2 companies that own a digital payment platform, which eases the financial transactions between merchants and customers...Phoenix Petroleum bought 75% of the outstanding shareholdings in Action.Able, Inc. from its owners Wildlemon, Inc. and 75% of the outstanding shareholdings in Think.Able, Ltd. from Seawood Prime Ltd. (SPL)...Both Wildlemon and SPL are owners of Pos!ble.net, a digital payment platform...Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI) will be spending up to P3.5 billion in capital expenditures this year to support its development of 100 to 120 new stores...The Gokongwei- led retail company will be opening 13 supermarkets, 3 department stores, 10 to 15 Do-it-yourself stores, 20 to 30 convenience stores, 25 to 30 South Star Drug stores, and 30 to 35 specialty stores...Megaworld Corp. expects to generate P1 billion from the sale of lots in the Shophouse District of its San Fernando, Pampanga township, disclosing that 70% of the available lots have been sold...Megaworld offers a total of 98 lots in the 6.3-hectare Shophouse District...Lot owners may build 3-level shophouses, using the ground and second floors for commercial purposes and the third level as a residential unit.

Word-for-Word

The Philippine Daily Inquirer Editorial says:

Secretary inherited a monumental mess when he assumed office as the new justice secretary in April, and he said as much.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is “suffering from a huge image problem,” he acknowledged in a short speech he made before DOJ employees during his first flag ceremony as justice chief.

“It looks solid, but its structural integrity is suspect, both literally and metaphorically,” he added. “So it is my personal mission to restore the DOJ’s dignified and respectable image.”

The words were a subtle but unmistakable rebuke of the misdeeds and excesses of his predecessor, Mr. Vitaliano Aguirre II, who had resigned in a morass of controversy after 2 tumultuous years in the department.

By the time Guevarra came in, the justice portfolio had been sullied by one outrage after another — the exoneration of confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa and drug suspect Peter Lim, for one, and the grant of witness protection status to accused pork barrel mastermind Janet Napoles, for another.

It was also under Mr. Aguirre that 2 former deputy immigration commissioners — his and President Duterte’s fraternity brothers — attempted the farcical caper of handing over only P49.9 million instead of the P50 million they had received as bribe from casino mogul Jack Lam.

The missing P1,000 was apparently a way to evade the threshold number for plunder and to have their charges downgraded to graft and direct bribery.

It was a brazen mockery of the law, but Mr. Aguirre himself appeared not the least bit bothered. His pathetic defense was that it wasn’t the DOJ that counted the money, but a bank.

The Office of the Ombudsman would have none of that nonsense, however, and went ahead with a charge of plunder against the two ex-commissioners.

Now that Mr. Aguirre is out of the DOJ, more questionable transactions are coming to the surface.

The Commission on Audit recently flagged the disbursement of nearly P816 million that was done during the only full-year fiscal term of Aguirre.

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This was on top of the “undocumented transfer” of another P621 million of department funds, and about P33.5 million that the COA said had been deposited in bank accounts without the proper authorization.

Sec. Guevarra simply has his hands full sorting out the veritable Augean stables that his predecessor had left him, but it looks like the former Ateneo law professor and former deputy to Executive Secretary in Malacañang is living up to the good governance promises he made on his first day in office.

He has promised to look into the fund mess uncovered by the COA, and seems intent on further cleaning house by recently suspending three prosecutors — Pasay City Prosecutor Benjamin Lanto, Inquest Prosecutor Clementine Villanueva, and Assistant Prosecutor Florencio dela Cruz — for 60 days.

Before then, he also filed charges against the 3 at the DOJ Internal Affairs Unit for alleged gross neglect of duty, gross incompetence and inefficiency stemming from their supposed roles in the release of suspects involved in jewelry smuggling at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Most crucially, Sec. Guevarra has reversed Mr. Aguirre’s howler of a decision granting Napoles the mantle of government protection.

The DOJ announced that the principal accused in the pork barrel scam is no longer under the Witness Protection Program — a privilege Napoles was provisionally granted by Aguirre in February after she executed an affidavit implicating more names in the multibillion-peso scam she is accused of running in conspiracy with a host of lawmakers.

The fear, then, was that Mr. Aguirre would use the new list to harass other political opponents of the Duterte administration.

In stopping the DOJ-Napoles arrangement, Sec. Guevarra, it appears, will not be party to any ploy to use his department’s powers that way.

He deserves to be commended for doing the right thing in this regard. May there be more such reforms to come under his watch.

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