SC: DOE may take over oil firms’ ops during crisis By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573
T
HE Supreme Court has declared that the Department of Energy (DOE) may take over oil industry operations in times of emergency upon the directive of the President. In a 36-page decision penned by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, the Court declared as constitutional Section 14 (e) of Republic Act 8479 or the Downstream Oil Industr y
Deregulation Act of 1998 which authorizes the DOE to take over operations of private entities in the oil industry given certain conditions. The provision specifically states that “ in times of national emergency, when the public interest so requires, the DOE may, during the emergency and under reasonable terms prescribed by it, temporarily take over or direct the operation of any person or entity engaged in the Industry.” Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo
and 12 other associate justices concurred with the decision released to the public last March 4, 2024, while two others took no part. The Court’s ruling reversed the 2013 decision issued by the Court of Appeals’ (CA) Ninth Division declaring the provision unconstitutional. The SC, instead, gave weight to the arguments of the petitioners led by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza, and the DOE-Department of Justice (DOE-DOJ) Joint Task Force,
asserting that the power to determine the existence of war or other national emergency lies in the hands of the President and that the delegation to the DOE was proper. The petitioners further argued Section 14 (e) provides the specific duration of and restrictions in wielding the takeover power. “Pet it ioners’ a rg u ments have merit,” the Court declared. The SC anchored its decision on See “DOE,” A
BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business Q
www.businessmirror.com.ph
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 Vol. 19 No. 143
P. nationwide | sections pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
HIGH RICE PRICES CITED IN 3.4% FEB INFLATION By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario
P
OOR Filipinos disproportionately bore the burden of high rice prices in February, according to Tuesday’s latest inflation data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Inflation for All Income Households accelerated to 3.4 percent (See: https://businessmirror.com. ph/2024/03/05/inf lation-fasterat-3-4-in-february/) while the increase in commodity prices for the Bottom 30 percent reached 4.2 percent in February 2024. National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa said rice prices accounted for 49 percent or 1.6 percentage points of the inflation of all income households and 79 percent or 3.3 percentage points of the 4.2 percent inflation experienced by the poorest Filipinos. “Because, of course, as I’ve been explaining in the past press conferences, rice has a huge weight on the bottom 30 percent compared to the all-income households,” Mapa said. “The increase in rice price really has a big impact on our headline inflation and the inflation for the bottom 30 percent,” he added, speaking partly in Filipino. Rice has a weight of 8.87 percent in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of All Income Households and 17.87 percent in the index fort the Bottom 30 percent of Filipino households. In February, Mapa said rice inflation increased 23.7 percent and 26.3 percent for All Income and Bottom 30 percent households, respectively. See “Inflation,” A
MEMBERS of ASEAN pose for a photo during the Asean-Australia Special Summit in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, March 5, 2024. From left, the Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese; the Prime Minister of Lao, Sonexay Siphandone; the Sultan of Brunei, Haji Hassanal Bolkiah; the Prime Minister of Cambodia, Samdech Hun Manet; the Indonesian President Joko Widodo; the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim; the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong; the Prime Minister of Thailand, Srettha Thavisin; the Prime Minister of Vietnam, Pham Minh Chinh; the Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, Xanana Gusmao, and the Secretary General of Asean Dr. Kao Kim Hourn. AP/HAMISH BLAIR
CYBERSECURITY RISKS CLOUD BPO SECTOR OUTLOOK IN ‘24 By Andrea E. San Juan @andreasanjuan
T
HE IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (Ibpap) said the BPO industry may not hit its employment and export revenue targets if the cybersecurity issues in the country remain unresolved. “It is to the country’s advantage that we, as an industry with the different subsectors, different BPO players and individually, contribute to the resolution of this problem affecting the growth of the industry,” Celeste Ilagan, Ibpap Chief Policy
Officer, said this in a statement on Tuesday. “If we do not address this problem, our target of creating 1.1 million jobs by 2028 and contributing US$59 billion of export revenue will not happen,” the Ibpap official also noted. Ilagan addressed a “multistakeholder” dialogue which the Ibpap hosted with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other government stakeholders such as the Supreme Court, Department of Information and Communications Technology See “Cybersecurity,” A
Macquarie to invest in PHL RE, mining, digitalization By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla
D
RAWN by the opportunities from the country’s young and growing population, Macquarie Group Ltd. has committed to invest in the local renewable energy, valueadded mining and digitalization sectors during its meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Tuesday. The Australian financial firm said the Philippines has the ideal demographics it is looking for in an investment destination since it has a “young and growing population,” which will provide the company with“a bigger opportunity in terms of growth and organization.”
“What we’re keen to do is to partner with Southeast Asia particularly with places like the Philippines, which are proving to be very good to create that environment for the pension savers money here. To bring capital to health, investing in infrastructure, etcetera,” Macquarie Group Managing Director and CEO Shemara Wikramanayake told the President. Another factor for their decision to expand their local operation, she said, is the country’s push towards their priority sectors. “The whole digitization process, we’re excited about. Also, the energy transition we’re excited about... See “Mining,” A
PESO EXCHANGE RATES Q US 56.0100 Q JAPAN 0.3721 Q UK 71.0991 Q HK 7.1581 Q CHINA 7.7807 Q SINGAPORE 41.7020 Q AUSTRALIA 36.4681 Q EU 60.8157 Q KOREA 0.0421 Q SAUDI ARABIA 14.9352 Source:
BSP 5 March 2024