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‘STRONG’ BANKS HELPED POST-LOCKDOWN BOOST w
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By Cai U. Ordinario
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Monday, July 17, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 273
@caiordinario
WET AND FOGGY Tagaytay City, known for its cool, mild climate, experienced an atypical weekend with continuous rain and heavy fog brought by the southwest monsoon, surprising visitors. Some areas in Luzon are forecasted to endure heavy rains until early next week following the departure of tropical storm Dodong from the Philippine area of responsibility. NONIE REYES
HE strength of Philippine banks may have helped the country fight off the lingering effects of the lockdown on economic growth, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). While BSP Governor Eli Remolona did not elaborate on this point in a recent economic briefing in Canada, he noted that Philippine bank’s capital adequacy ratio and liquidity ratio have been above international standards. Remolona said the capital adequacy ratio of local banks was at 16 percent, above the 10 percent regulatory floor established by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. See “Strong,” A2
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 20 pages |
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REMOLONA: “We’re now looking at 6.5 to 8 percent growth in the coming year. How did we pull it off?...The banking system had something to do with it. Our banks have remained very strong.”
MUP ‘bloodiest’ bill to pass in 2nd regular session–Migz By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM
S
ENATE President Juan Miguel Zubiri predicts the measure reforming the pension sys-
MIF set for signing Jul 18, but not estate tax amnesty
tem for the military and uniformed personnel (MUP) will likely be the “bloodiest” that lawmakers will tackle in the second regular session of the 19th Congress. See “MUP,” A2
BIZ GROUPS MAKE WISH LIST FOR PRIORITIES FOR INCLUSION IN SONA By Andrea E. San Juan
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EXPLAINER »B4
DEMYSTIFYING AGING:
INSIGHTS INTO THE DIVERSE PATHWAYS OF AGING AND THE QUEST FOR EFFECTIVE ANTI-AGING INTERVENTIONS
OCAL business groups have tagged better employment opportunities for Filipinos as one of the priorities they wish included in the State of the Nation Address (Sona) of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. Makati Business Club (MBC) Chairman Edgar O. Chua said the business group has listed down around nine priority measures that they wish to see in the President’s second Sona on July 24. However, Chua only zeroed in on the top three measures that the MBC is looking at. These three are the Ease of Paying Taxes, the Apprenticeship Bill and the Public-Private Partnership (PPP). On the first bill, Chua said, “Apprenticeship is one which will also address two things: one is enhancing the competency of our staff—of our people. And then second is it will lead to better employment opportunities for them.” In May 2023, the MBC released a statement urging the Senate to prioritize passage of their version
of the measure. The business group earlier said that passing the Apprenticeship Bill will enable businesses to train workers for available jobs and higher-skill jobs. “Such a bill would allow adequate time for training—in line with practices in some of the world’s most labor-friendly countries—while ensuring it is not used to violate labor rights,” MBC said in May. Another priority reform that the MBC chairman unveiled is the Ease of Paying Taxes. In fact, last May, the business group released a statement urging the Senate to pass the measure. “An Ease of Paying Taxes law will make it easier for all taxpayers, especially micro and small taxpayers, to do their duty to fund government infrastructure, programs, services, and national security,” MBC said in its statement in May. It will also enable businesses, especially MSMEs, to focus more time and effort on creating more and better jobs, the group said. Chua also cited the PPP among the priority measures/programs
that the business group wishes to land in the Sona of the president. “Given the fiscal space, the very limited fiscal space [of] the government...then the PPP should really be pushed so that we don’t slow down the country. We need to continue and even expand our growth rate,” Chua told reporters on the sidelines of the MBC “F2F with Cab Secs featuring Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual” recently. Meanwhile, for the Management Association of the Philippines’s part, MAP President Benedicta Du-Baladad urged the government anew to declare malnutrition as a top priority. “There’s a different impact if it lands in SONA because then all the government agencies that are involved in that program have to step up and do concrete measures but what we want is, there is also a budget accompanying those measures so these are sustained...and they can work,” Du-Baladad told reporters on the sidelines of MAP General Membership Meeting on “Business Opportunities in Asean.”
HE Congress-approved Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill is set for signing into law on Tuesday (July 18), but the awaited estate tax amnesty extension bill’s signing was deferred by Malacañang. Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri confirmed this at the weekend, but clarified that the postponement of the estate tax amnesty extension is simply a problem of scheduling, given the President’s busy calendar. “There’s no problem with the measure itself,” Zubiri told DWIZ in an interview at the weekend, adding that the Palace simply wanted to schedule signing of the two measures on separate dates. Zubiri noted that “many people” are looking forward to the estate tax amnesty extension, and expressed hope it could still be signed before the State of the Nation Address on July 24, or soon after that, though he conceded that President Marcos has a “busy schedule” next week after the Sona as he is set to join several key events of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Bank secrecy lifting
MEANWHILE, Zubiri said the 19th Congress may finally tackle the proposals to lift the bank secrecy in the Philippines when it holds its second regular session, owing to strong pressure, he said, from the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). The Senate leader disclosed that Congress is being repeatedly reminded that “we are the only country in the world” which does not have a law lifting bank secrecy, adding that this makes the Philippines attractive to money launderers. “So I think we are going to prioritize that measure also [that would allow] government agencies, [when there is a court order], to inquire into bank accounts,” Zubiri said, speaking partly in Filipino. He recalled that “the last country [that lifted bank secrecy] is Lebanon I think, which passed their measure. So we’re the only one. See “MIF,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 54.5680 n JAPAN 0.3953 n UK 71.6587 n HK 6.9763 n CHINA 7.6335 n SINGAPORE 41.2706 n AUSTRALIA 37.5755 n EU 61.2635 n KOREA 0.0431 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.5449 Source: BSP (July 14, 2023)