Maniolas

A woman walks by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo Monday, Jan. 26, 2015. Asian stocks and the euro were weaker Monday after Greece’s anti-austerity opposition party won a big victory in national elections, renewing fears the European common currency bloc could unravel. AP PHOTO/KOJI SASAHARA HONG KONG–The euro sank to an 11-year low Monday but Asian equities largely recovered from early losses after an anti-austerity party won Greece’s election, throwing its international bailout into doubt and raising fears it could leave the eurozone. Oil prices resumed their downward trend after rallying on Friday in response to the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, which fueled uncertainty in the crude market. The far-left Syriza party was two seats short of winning an outright majority in Sunday’s polls, giving it more bargaining power to take a hard line on rowing back austerity measures. The group had campaigned on renegotiating the 240-billion-euro European Union-International Monetary Fund bailout that imposed strict spending and taxation rules on Athens. The possibility of Greece defaulting on its debt repayments is likely to spark renewed fears it could be forced to leave the eurozone. As the result became clear, party leader Alexis Tsipras told thousands of flag-waving supporters in Athens: “Greece is leaving behind disastrous austerity.” The news hit the single currency in early Asian trade. The euro dived at one point to $1.1088, its lowest level since September 2003, before recovering slightly to $1.1200. That compares with $1.208 Friday in New York. Read More …

In this May 9, 2014 photo, an AirAsia A320-200 plane takes off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 in Sepang, Malaysia. AP/Joshua Paul KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Southeast Asia’s biggest budget carrier AirAsia is scrapping fuel surcharges on tickets following the decline in global oil prices. AirAsia said the move also applies to flights under its long-haul arm AirAsia X. Oil prices are now below $50 per barrel after 6 months of declines, pushing down jet fuel prices. Chief Executive Tony Fernandes said the move will help reduce travel costs, stimulate demand and boost tourism in the region. Airlines impose the surcharges to pass on higher fuel costs to travelers when fuel prices are rising. Rivals Virgin Australia and Cebu Pacific in the Philippines abolished fuel surcharges earlier this month. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 AirAsia has dominated cheap travel in Southeast Asia for years but faces rising competition from the proliferation of discounts airlines in Asia.

The deadly clash between elements of the PNP-Special Action Force and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Maguindanao on Sunday showed “security challenges” to the peace process with Moro rebels, the government’s peace panel chair admitted Monday. In a statement, peace panel chairperson Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said the incident could have been prevented through “better cooperation.” “This incident and other recent acts of violence by other armed groups manifest the diverse security challenges that confound the peace process,” Ferrer said. “With better cooperation we will be able to prevent these kinds of incidents,” she added On Sunday, at least 30 members of the PNP-SAF were reported to have been killed in an ambush by members of the MILF in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao. Earlier on Monday, a police official in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said the number of SAF fatalities had risen to 50. Ferrer confirmed that the PNP personnel were on the trail of Malaysian bomb-maker and top Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, known as Marwan, when the incident happened.  The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has offered a $5-million reward for information on Marwan.  The peace panel chief nevertheless said the Philippine government and the MILF will continue pushing for the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law even after the bloody incident. “Our resolve to see through the process of legislating the Bangsamoro Basic Law and implementing the different Normalization programs, including the security components, is only further strengthened,” she said. The clash, however, has prompted Read More …

THE POPE may be long gone from our shores, but Francis fever is still on in the country. One day before the Pope’s visit to the Philippines earlier this month, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) unveiled designs for new commemorative coins to mark the Supreme Pontiff’s trip. Two coins were initially released, with P50 and P500 denominations. And for the first time in history, these coins were not sold over the counter. Instead, people were asked to fill out order forms and e-mail these to the BSP. So how many orders has the BSP received? As of last Friday, there were 22,000 e-mailed order forms, with each person requesting for more than one coin. Three people were originally working on taking the orders and sorting them all out. But with thousands of e-mails, the responsibility of handling distribution has now been spread out over three departments, our sources say. “We’re oversubscribed!” one BSP official noted, when asked about the coins. So strong has been the demand that the policymaking Monetary Board has approved the production of more coins—but this still won’t be enough to meet current orders. See, apart from its scarcity (and Pope Francis’ superstar power), the coins are also legal tender, which means the owners can use them to pay for actual stuff. According to the BSP, pure commemorative coins that are not legal tender just aren’t as valuable among collectors.So if you want the coins but haven’t ordered yet, you’ll be needing a miracle.  Paolo Montecillo Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Panlilio-owned Boulevard Holdings Inc. (BHI) hopes to finally complete its new resort development in Puerto Galera this year. The listed property firm has had problems finishing the resort project as it waited for additional funding. “Management expects the soft opening of the new resort within 2015,” BHI said. The 38-key resort hotel project under construction in Oriental Mindoro is being undertaken by BHI subsidiary Friday’s Puerto Galera Inc. BHI said the project was already 65 percent complete last September, but noted that “there are no changes to the unfinished resort placed on ice and awaiting funding.” Cost to complete the project was then placed at P150 million. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The company, however, said its equity has now increased due to continuous payment of JP Guilds Inc., a major stockholder on BHI subscription of common shares. “The ongoing Friday’s Puerto Galera Inc. hotel construction in Oriental Mindoro will require funds for its capital expenditures. Funds will come from the continuous investments of BHI through equity infusion of JP Guilds Inc.,” the firm said. BHI said it expects to soft open the first 20 keys of the resort within the year. It said the project would help boost the company’s revenues in the future. As of the first six months of its fiscal year ending November, BHI said it suffered a 37 percent decrease in sales and 32 percent drop in total revenues due to “lower saleable rooms brought by the usurpation Read More …