CNOOC talks very preliminary, says Pangilinan

 Economy
Jun 192013
 
CNOOC talks very preliminary, says Pangilinan

MANILA, Philippines – Philex Petroleum Corp. chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said their discussions with China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) remains “very preliminary.” “I think I was asked earlier if there was a discussion with CNOOC and that continues on a very preliminary basis but (there is) nothing concrete to report,” Pangilinan told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo yesterday. When asked whether he is optimistic that the plan to explore and develop the gas-rich Recto Bank will push through, Pangilinan said: “I think it’s hard to say. At this stage, talks are very preliminary.” Earlier, Philex said it is considering forging a partnership with CNOOC to explore and develop the Recto Bank, which is located within 80 nautical miles from Palawan. The gas-rich area is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Philippines and China. In 2011, two Chinese ships reportedly bullied a civilian vessel commissioned by the Energy department while conducting an oil exploration survey in the area. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 China has denied the allegation and has consistently claimed that it has “indisputable sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea islands and their surrounding waters.  Pangilinan maintained that his company is just discussing purely business issues with CNOOC. “We made it very clear to CNOOC that we are not authorized to talk about government issues so that’s why the talks are very preliminary at this stage,” the businessman said. “I’m sure they will have to go back to their government and we will go back to our Read More …

‘Fishing talks between PH, Taiwan may violate ‘one-China’ policy’

 News
Jun 172013
 
‘Fishing talks between PH, Taiwan may violate ‘one-China’ policy’

SAYS LAW EXPERT: By Tarra QuismundoPhilippine Daily Inquirer 6:44 pm | Monday, June 17th, 2013 Harry Roque, chairman of the Center for International Law MANILA, Philippines — The start of fisheries talks between the Philippines and Taiwan might violate the country’s one-China policy and Manila should instead craft any future pact with Taipei as a local government of China, an international law expert said. Harry Roque, chairman of the Center for International Law, however, welcomed the decision of the two sides to avoid the use of force in fishing disputes — a positive step in what has been rough relations between the Philippines and what it considers a province of China. “Talks may violate the one-China policy. All talks with Taiwan should be because it is part of China. The alternative is to craft as an agreement with a local government of China,” Roque said on Monday. As part of the government’s one-China policy, the Philippines handles its ties with Taiwan not through the Department of Foreign Affairs but through the Manila Economic and Cultural Office under the Office of the President, with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office as its counterpart. Roque, however, has a positive view of the agreement against the use of force in fishing issues, saying the right to life is above the right to use natural resources. “But I welcome the agreement not to resort to use of force against illegal poachers. The right to life is preeminent and superior specially to mere ecological rights Read More …

Global protest set at UN against China ‘expansionism’

 News
Jun 142013
 
Global protest set at UN against China ‘expansionism’

INQUIRER.net US Bureau 2:01 am | Saturday, June 15th, 2013 NEW YORK–A U.S. group critical of China’s claim on islands off the Philippines will hold a protest rally at the United Nations headquarters here on July 24. The U.S. Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG) is denouncing China’s latest “incursion” in Ayungin Reef, located just 105 nautical miles from Palawan. Rep. Walden Bello of the Akbayan partylist announced that his group is joining the July 24 mass action in the Philippines and will encourage its supporters throughout the world to join in global actions to denounce China’s provocative actions in the Ayungin Reef. “China seized the Philippines’ Mischief Reef in 1994, then our Scarborough Shoal last year,” stated Loida Nicolas Lewis, the national chair of USP4GG and former national chair of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA). “This year, China is set to invade and occupy the Ayungin Reef. We refuse to accept China’s expansionist agenda.” Sansha anniversary Lewis explained that July 24 marks the first anniversary of China’s establishment of the Sansha City Prefecture, which Beijing mandated to have jurisdiction over more than two million square kilometers of the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), including islands and reefs in the Spratlys that are within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) protested the creation of the Sansha Prefecture, after learning that its jurisdiction covered the Kalayaan Island Group in the Spratlys, which “is an integral part of the Philippine Read More …

UN: World population to hit 8.1B in 2025

 News
Jun 142013
 
UN: World population to hit 8.1B in 2025

Associated Press 1:07 am | Saturday, June 15th, 2013 POPULATION GROWTH Babies at the neonatal intensive care unit of East Avenue Medical Center. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ UNITED NATIONS—The United Nations has forecast that the world’s population will increase from 7.2 billion today to 8.1 billion in 2025 and 9.6 billion in 2050, with most growth in developing countries and more than half in Africa. The report said much of the overall increase between now and 2050 is expected to take place in Africa and countries with large populations such as India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United States. (As of the May 2010 census, the Philippines’ population stood at 92,337,852. The Commission on Population projected the country’s population as of June 14, 2013 at 97,898,948, based on the 1.98 population percent change.) The UN report, “World Population Prospects,” released on Thursday, said most of the population growth will occur in developing regions which are projected to increase from 5.9 billion in 2013 to 8.2 billion in 2050. During that same period, it said, the population of developed countries is expected to remain largely unchanged at around 1.3 billion people. India to surpass China India’s population is expected to surpass China’s around 2028 when both countries will have populations of around 1.45 billion, according to the report. While India’s population is forecast to grow to around 1.6 billion and then slowly decline to 1.5 billion in 2100, China’s is expected to start decreasing after 2030, possibly falling to 1.1 billion in Read More …

China's 'behavior' needs even larger PHL defense spending – NSC

 News
Jun 132013
 
China's 'behavior' needs even larger PHL defense spending - NSC

A ranking official of the National Security Council on Thursday detailed China’s “aggressive behavior” in the West Philippine Sea, as he called for additional defense spending to uphold the Philippines’ interests in the region. Retired Navy Rear Admiral Vicente Agdamag, now Deputy Director General of the NSC Secretariat, said China’s actions confirmed its “clear intention to consolidate its control” over the disputed areas in line with the Chinese government’s nine-dash line claim. “It started, actually, in March 2011 when a Chinese patrol ship challenged MV Veritas Voyager conducting a survey for Forum Energy, 85 nautical miles off Palawan,” he said, referring to an incident at the Reed Bank in the Spratly Islands. Defense and military officials said two Chinese ships harassed the Department of Energy-commissioned survey ship. The Chinese ships told the crew of the Filipino ship to cease their activities because that was part of Chinese territory. The Chinese vessels left when the AFP Western Command, based in Puerto Princesa City, promptly dispatched a Navy BN-2 Islander maritime patrol aircraft and an Air Force OV-10 light attack/reconnaissance aircraft. No armed confrontation was reported. Agdamag also cited how Chinese ships prevented a Philippine Navy vessel, the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, from arresting Chinese fishermen caught illegally fishing at the Scarborough Shoal, locally known as the Bajo de Masiloc, in April last year. The incident triggered a standoff between the China and Philippines, though China now is in virtual control of the shoal. The Philippine government withdrew its two ships from Read More …

PH hails diplomatic ties with China despite row

 News
Jun 092013
 

By TJ Burgonio Philippine Daily Inquirer 3:28 am | Monday, June 10th, 2013 MANILA, Philippines—Their territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) should not stop the Philippines and China from celebrating the 38th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations, Malacañang said Sunday. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said relations between the two countries were multifaceted and the territorial dispute over parts of the West Philippine Sea was just one facet. After all, there were other facets of this relationship that “we continue to develop and that we continue to move forward on,” Valte said on state-run radio dzRB. “So let’s let the maritime disputes not be the whole of our relationship but, rather, just a part of it. And, again, given the close ties that we have, then that’s worth something to look at all the other facets and check and see if we can move forward on those fronts,” she said. Starting 1975 The Philippines and China opened diplomatic relations on June 9, 1975. Since then, the relations have reached “unprecedented levels” in security and regional cooperation, trade, investment, agriculture, tourism and cultural exchanges, according to the Philippine Embassy in China. In April 2005, then Chinese President Hu Jintao, on a state visit to Manila, and then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo described the relations between the two countries as the “golden age of partnership.” The relations hit a low when Philippine and Chinese ships faced off at Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) in April last year. Read More …

China's top butcher tries to sell US on takeover

 Economy
Jun 062013
 
China's top butcher tries to sell US on takeover

Wan Long, 72, chairman of Shuanghui International, prepares himself before an interview in his office in Luohe, in central China’s Henan province. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan) LUOHE, China  — At an age when most Chinese executives are long retired, the country’s top hog butcher is taking on a daunting new job persuading Americans to allow him to complete China’s biggest takeover of a U.S. company. Shuanghui International’s $4.7 billion bid for Smithfield Foods Ltd. has the endorsement of the American company’s board. But facing anxiety over food safety scandals in China and complaints about Chinese cyber spying, 72-year-old chairman Wan Long has launched a charm offensive to reassure Americans they have nothing to fear and possibly much to gain from the tie-up. “We want to be vigilant that Smithfield’s brand doesn’t change, its team doesn’t change, its production sites don’t change, it doesn’t cut jobs,” said Wan in an interview at Shuanghui’s 15-story headquarters in this eastern Chinese city. As for reassuring American consumers about quality, Smithfield “already has a very good food safety control system,” Wan said. “With our support, they will do better in quality and safety controls.” Wan’s strategy of talking to reporters and inviting them to visit Shuanghui’s packing plants is an unusual approach in China, where companies are secretive and corporate bosses rarely speak in public. As Chinese companies expand abroad, those habits have hurt some when the United States, Australia and other countries balked at acquisitions by unfamiliar buyers in oil, mining and technology Read More …

US eyes progress on South China Sea tensions

 News
Jun 052013
 
US eyes progress on South China Sea tensions

WASHINGTON – A US official on Wednesday voiced hope that China and Southeast Asian nations will start talks soon on a code of conduct to resolve disputes over the South China Sea after repeated flare-ups. Joe Yun, the acting assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said that China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) made apparent progress during a working-level meeting last week in Bangkok. “I think there seems to be an understanding that at a future date, maybe sometime this year, they will announce a formal beginning of negotiations” on a code of conduct, Yun told the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “If that’s the case, we would genuinely welcome it because we see CoC as a key piece of the puzzle that would bring peaceful resolution” to rival claims in the South China Sea, Yun said. Tensions have soared in recent years as Vietnam and the Philippines accuse China of increasingly assertive claims to territories in the South China Sea, through which around half of the world’s cargo passes. The broader region is also rife with maritime disputes, with the Philippines and Taiwan recently at loggerheads and China and Japan embroiled in a bitter dispute over islands in potentially energy-rich waters of the East China Sea. Yun reiterated that the United States does not take sides in territorial disputes and that a code of conduct, which would formalize rules of behavior, offered the best way to prevent further conflict. “To be frank with Read More …

Gov’t on track to meeting revenue targets – Purisima

 Economy
Jun 052013
 
Gov’t on track to meeting revenue targets – Purisima

MANILA, Philippines – Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said yesterday the country remains on track to meeting its revenue collection targets following a strong economic growth in the first quarter. Bucking a worldwide economic slowdown, the Philippine economy expanded by 7.8 percent in the first quarter of the year – the fastest pace since 2010 – mainly driven by growth in the construction and manufacturing industries. It outpaced Asian powerhouse China, where the economy surprisingly grew by only 7.7 percent. “We are still on track to meet our goals for the tax effort and revenue effort, especially given our high first-quarter growth. We note that in the past, tax effort has gotten a significant boost from the first quarter of the year to the second, and we anticipate the same given our very successful tax collections in April this year,” Purisima said. Tax effort is an index measure of how well a country is doing in terms of tax collection relative to what could be reasonably expected given its economic potential. The Bureau of Internal Revenue, the government’s main tax collection agency, posted collections amounting to 9.2 percent of GDP while the Bureau of Customs’ collections stood (BIR), at 2.6 percent of GDP. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The Bureau of Treasury, meanwhile, recorded collections of 0.9 percent of GDP while other offices collected 0.1 percent of GDP. The government aims to increase the country’s tax effort to 16 percent by the end of Pres. Aquino’s term Read More …

HOW DID THE PHILIPPINES BECOME THE FASTEST-GROWING ECONOMY IN ASIA?

 News
Jun 012013
 
HOW DID THE PHILIPPINES BECOME THE FASTEST-GROWING ECONOMY IN ASIA?

The Philippine economy grew by 7.8% in the first three months of 2013, surpassing every single analyst estimate and putting it just above China as one of Asia’s fastest growing economies. The torrid growth, the best in nearly three years, is especially impressive given that exports declined 6.2% as electronics shipments collapsed. READ FULL STORY

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