Aquino cautions vs. corrupt future leaders

 News
Jan 312013
 
Aquino cautions vs. corrupt future leaders

With the midterm elections just months away and with political groups already gearing for the presidential election in 2016, President Benigno Aquino III on Thursday cautioned that reforms must be maintained to avoid a return to patronage politics and corruption. “Without structural reform, another corrupt president might one day take the reins of power; another chief justice might one day again betray the public trust,” Aquino told attendees in the 5th Global Conference of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption, where he was keynote speaker. The conference was a gathering of foreign heads of state to discuss best practices. In his speech, Aquino called on world leaders to be vigilant against corruption, adding that the key to ridding the ranks of government of unscrupulous officials is to make a habit out of transparency by way of creating laws. “The problem of corruption must thus be approached strategically, always with the long-term in mind. Reforms cannot be mere blips in the radar—they must usher in an enduring mainstream of good, honest governance,” he said. “As people in government, we know that corruption cannot be eliminated by sending a few erring officials to jail, or by exposing a single faulty contract, or by removing from office a single oppressive tyrant,” he added. “Only through legislation can the bedrock of inclusiveness and positive, meaningful change be set,” Aquino further said. Aquino, who won on the popular platform of “tuwid na daan (straight path)” also took pride in the gains of his administration, Read More …

IFC okays P1-B investment in SPV

 Economy
Jan 302013
 
IFC okays P1-B investment in SPV

MANILA, Philippines – International Finance Corp. (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group, has approved a P1.02-billion investment in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to purchase Plantersbank’s non-performing loans, the agency said. In a statement, IFC said this would help Plantersbank, run by the family of Amb. Jesus P. Tambunting, unlock its capital and increase lending to smaller enterprises in a move to stimulate economic growth and create jobs. IFC said they have entered into a partnership with OPIF Corp. and Altus Capital Partners to become co-investors for the SPV, called the Philippine Asset Growth Opportunity. “Plantersbank wants to scale up its lending particularly to small enterprises in the countryside and other sectors that promote job creation and grow local economies,” said Tambunting, Plantersbank chairman and CEO. “IFC’s new investment will strengthen our balance sheet, generate liquidity and help us access additional capital so that we can achieve that goal.” Following the global financial crisis, IFC launched a debt and asset recovery Program to make direct investments in businesses that need debt restructuring, in pools of distressed assets, and in specialized companies that manage these assets. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 IFC also invests indirectly through investment funds that target distressed assets and companies. The program allows banks to focus on their core function of extending credit to borrowers rather than on unloading non-performing assets. “IFC’s DARP investments help temper the volatility and lack of market confidence brought about by the global Read More …

LT Group sets dividend policy

 Economy
Jan 302013
 
LT Group sets dividend policy

MANILA, Philippines – LT Group Inc., the newly-consolidated flagship holding firm of tobacco, beer and airline magnate Lucio Tan, has set up a dividend policy promising shareholders potentially hefty returns for a profitable performance. In a disclosure to the local bourse, LT Group said its board of directors “approved the adoption of a dividend policy that provides for the company to declare dividends of approximately 20 percent to be paid out of the unrestricted retained earnings.” Unrestricted earnings represent available cash that can be handed out to stockholders as dividends. The distribution of such unrestricted retained earnings will not affect the financial strength and competitiveness of a company. LT Group said the dividend declaration depends on several consideration of the board of directors. Specifically, the board should decide on factors like “restriction of current and prospective financial covenants, current and prospective capital needs of planned projects and regulatory capital requirements of subsidiaries, among others,” LT Group said. LT Group serves as the umbrella company for Tan’s various businesses including Asia Brewery Inc., Fortune Tobacco Corp., Eton Properties Philippines Inc., Philippine Airlines, Air Philippines Corp., Philippine National Bank (PNB) and Allied Banking Corp. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The conglomerate is banking on good prospects this year, particularly due to the election season that will boost consumer spending. In the nine months to September last year, LT Group’s net income slightly fell to P2.5 billion from P3.08 billion a year earlier as net sales slipped to P18.9 Read More …

Etihad to launch flights between Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam

 Economy
Jan 302013
 
Etihad to launch flights between Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam

MANILA, Philippines – Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, will launch daily flights between the airline’s home-base of Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. The new EY77 and EY78 services will begin on May 15, 2013 and carry the KL code of Dutch national carrier, KLM. The daily flights will complement KLM’s current service between Amsterdam and Abu Dhabi which will increase to daily from the summer and carry Etihad Airways’ EY code, ensuring that the two airlines can offer a combined double daily service. Speaking at a press conference in Amsterdam, James Hogan, president and chief executive officer of Etihad Airways, and Peter Hartman, President and chief executive officer of KLM, also disclosed details of the expansion of the codeshare agreement between the two airlines. Hogan said: “We are delighted that Amsterdam will become a part Etihad Airways’ global network from May 15. The Dutch capital joins a group of 17 leading European cities that Etihad Airways flies to including Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Geneva, London and Paris. The double daily service between Amsterdam and Abu Dhabi will benefit passengers looking to travel from the Netherlands to Abu Dhabi and beyond to destinations like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia.” “This is indicative of Abu Dhabi’s growing importance as a global hub. In addition to Amsterdam, Etihad Airways will also launch flights to Sao Paulo, Washington DC, and Ho Chi Minh City in 2013,” he added. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: Read More …

Aussie with ammo, Fil-Am with gun caught in Naia checks

 News
Jan 292013
 
Aussie with ammo, Fil-Am with gun caught in Naia checks

By Jodee A. Agoncillo Philippine Daily Inquirer 9:19 pm | Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 INQUIRER FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines–An Australian national was caught with almost a hundred 9-mm bullets while a wheelchair-bound Filipino-American yielded a .22 cal. pistol in separate security checks at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City on Tuesday. The Australian, identified as David Andrew Straoud, was scheduled to board Philippine Airlines flight 730 to Bangkok, Thailand, when 99 bullets were found in his backpack during a check through the X-ray machine around 8 a.m. at Naia Terminal 2. Straoud, a 42-year-old oil drilling engineer married to a Filipino woman, was placed under arrest by the Pasay police for illegal possession of ammunition and violation of the election gun ban. In an interview, Straoud claimed that the bullets were placed in the bag by mistake and that his wife Vina Vergara had a license for a 9-mm pistol, which he said she acquired for “self-defense.” About three hours earlier that morning, the bullets went undetected when Straoud flew to Naia from Silay Airport in Bacolod City, where his family is based. “Perhaps, they were still sleepy,” he said as to how security personnel missed the bullets at Silay. Later in the afternoon, Vergara and her son with Straoud immediately flew to Manila carrying the gun license and other pertinent documents. She was working on his bail amounting totaling P60,000 at press time. Also on Tuesday, Esmael Bulatao, a Filipino-American and polio sufferer who hails from Canan, Pangasinan Read More …

Tubbataha Reef accident ignored during meeting of PH officials with US lawmakers

 News
Jan 292013
 
Tubbataha Reef accident ignored during meeting of PH officials with US lawmakers

By Tarra Quismundo Philippine Daily Inquirer 8:59 pm | Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario, right, looks at the guest book which was signed by visiting US congressmen led by Edward Royce, R-Calif., left, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013, in Manila, Philippines. Rep. Royce is in Manila for talks with top Philippine officials, including President Benigno Aquino III, aimed at strengthening relations between the two countries. Others in the photo are Rep. Eliot Engel, D-New York, second from left, Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., third from left, Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., fourth from left, and Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., second from right. AP MANILA, Philippines — The grounding of a United States minesweeper ship on Tubbataha Reef and its increasing damage on the marine sanctuary and protected area in the Sulu Sea was apparently not on the agenda when a delegation of US lawmakers met with Philippine officials on Monday. Officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said discussions between the Philippine and US sides instead focused on furthering long-standing defense and economic ties between the two countries. Environmental issues were discussed broadly, with focus on Philippine initiatives on preparing for and mitigating the impact of climate change, officials said. “There was a discussion of the leadership of the Philippines in terms of conservation of the environment,” said Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary for American Affairs Carlos Sorreta, who was present in the meeting. Asked if there was an Read More …

The Mexican Connection

 News
Jan 292013
 

8:51 pm | Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 VALLADOLID, The Yucatan—This is not my first time in the Yucatan nor in Mexico, and every time I visit, always as a turista (to act otherwise would be disingenuous), I feel a connection with the country, a stronger one with it and the rest of Latin America than with that country north of the border, where my wife and I live, even as the tangled layers of bloodlines, colonial history, and economic imperatives, among other things, tie us to both the Hispanic world and that of the norteamericanos. Perhaps this can be explained by the simple fact that Las Islas Filipinas—that perla del mar oriente—was under the Iberian thumb far, far longer than the roughly half a century of US colonial occupation. The United States did take over a Southeast Asian country but one that was already Hispanicized. Walking around this lovely, un-bustling 16th-century colonial town, blessedly far from the hordes of visitors that clog Cancun on the Caribbean coast but not too far as to be a long haul from the Cancun airport, I do have a sense of déjà vu, even if this may be my first visit to this particular pueblo that is still largely Mayan. Whenever asked, I always facetiously summarize the legacies of more than three centuries of Spanish rule as the fiesta, the siesta, and la iglesia—with the last being a legacy the Philippines would be much better shaking off. (In this sense, the Mexicans very astutely Read More …

Tatay in America: From macho Filipino to Mr. Mom

 News
Jan 292013
 
Tatay in America: From macho Filipino to Mr. Mom

Kuwento By Benjamin Pimentel 8:47 pm | Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 Jojo Abinales with daughter Angela SAN FRANCISCO – One would hang out at a laundromat watching telenovelas. Another didn’t know the difference between a blouse and a skirt. Meet the Filipino man as Mr. Mom. They cook, do the laundry and take care of their children. In other words, they don’t fit the traditional image of the Filipino male. Or more specifically, the macho Filipino. The ranks of at-home dads, as Mr. Moms are also known, are growing in the United States, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. And they are helping change the parenting styles in America, the story said. Reading that story led me to think of three Filipino Mr. Moms I know. They’re friends of mine, fellow expats now based in the US. To be sure, in a society where having a maid is a luxury few can afford, Filipino men in the US take on far more parenting and household responsibilities than their counterparts back home. I went on paternity leave twice to take care of my kids. But those stints were short, each gig lasting no more than three months. On the other hand, my three friends played that role for at least a year. For one of them, it’s turned into a life-long commitment. It is, they all agreed, a tough job. “It was easy when there was only one child, but when there was another one, it became difficult,” said Romel Read More …

British tourist cries rape; cops make arrest

 News
Jan 292013
 
British tourist cries rape; cops make arrest

By Nestor P. Burgos Jr.Inquirer Visayas 7:51 pm | Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 ILOILO CITY, Philippines—Police have arrested a resort cook for the alleged rape of a British tourist in Boracay recently. Senior Inspector Joeffer Cabural, head of the police’s Boracay Tourist Assistance Center (BTAC), said the rape charge has been filed at the Aklan provincial prosecutor’s office in Kalibo last Monday against Carlo San Jose, 36. The victim, a 23-year-old British woman, reported the rape to the BTAC on January 26, shortly after the sexual assault took place. Cabural said the woman and San Jose, who works as a cook in the resort where the victim had been staying, had a drinking spree the night before the alleged rape. The woman told police that when she became intoxicated, the suspect did not bring her back to the resort but to a staff house in Barangay Balabag in Boracay where the alleged rape occurred. Members of the BTAC arrested San Jose at the staff house. The woman also underwent medical examination, which showed signs of rape, Cabural said. San Jose, now at the BTAC, denied raping the woman and claimed that she was his girlfriend. “Even if they are lovers, it does not mean necessarily mean that there was no rape because there is even marital rape,” Cabural said. Follow Us Recent Stories: Complete stories on our Digital Edition newsstand for tablets, netbooks and mobile phones; 14-issue free trial. About to step out? Get breaking alerts on your mobile.phone. Text Read More …

PSEi hits all-time high for the 11th time in 2013

 Economy
Jan 292013
 
PSEi hits all-time high for the 11th time in 2013

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Stock Exchange index broke past the 6,200 level on Tuesday, setting its 11th record for the year. The bellwether PSEi closed at 6,234.73, gaining 42.31 points or 0.68 percent. This went past the previous high of 6,192.42 posted last Jan. 28. “The volumes we’ve seen in the past few days show that there is increased liquidity in the system that is finding its way into the stock market. This is supported further by expectations of benign inflation and low interest rates. Sentiment continues to be upbeat on the growth performance of the Philippine economy for the year which should support the index’s journey to new territories,” PSE President and Chief Executive Officer Hans B. Sicat said. The Aquino administration said the local index has made 72 all time records since it took office in 2010.

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