Govt wants to cut tap Omicron tariffs for exposure inflation fight ‘Close borders, risk’ U. Ordinario By By CaiCai U. Ordinario @caiordinario @caiordinario
& Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
CT
LOSING the@jearcalas country’s borders is one of the most immediate HE National and courses of actionEconomic the governDe ve lopment Aut hor ment must take to prevent the lat-it y (Neda) aims to put in place est Covid-19 variant, Omicron, from lower tariffs for a number of reaching Philippine shores, accord-key in the soonest time ingcommodities to local economists. possible to prevent surge in prices. T he new var iant ais a threat, e s p e cThe i a l l yTariff w it hCommission, t he hol id an ay sattachedupagency of theforeigners Neda, has alcoming and more ready issued a notice for public hearbeing a llowed to travel to the ing for lower tariffs and extended Philippines, De La Sa lle Univereffectiveness sit ythe economist Marof ia low Ellatariffs Oplasfor a number of commodities. told BusinessMirror. on the Neda’sbring proposal, TheBased holidays usually in tariffs can be maintained or lowered Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) coal, rice,topork, andChristmas corn in light whoforare eager spend
of the warloved in Eastern with their ones,Europe while which forinvolved countries supplying oil and eigners living in temperate regions wheat.want to relax in tropical usually “(We)like hope get them (lower countries thewe Philippines. This tariffs) in place before they expire. year’s influx of OFWs is expected to corn,since (we want tariffs be For heavier manylower of them wereto be put place) soonest public hearunable toin come home for the holidays ing done,” Neda Undersecretary for in December 2020. Regional Development Mercedita “My recommendation is to protectA. Sombilla BusinessMirror over the borders.told Do not allow people with the weekend. a history of travel to countries with In acases recent presentation to the positive to enter,” Oplas said. Cabinet, Socioeconomic Planning “We should be more restrictive. [We Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said have to be] more protectiveT.in terms his recommendations to keep inflaof our measures.” tion at bay reducing Oplas saidincludes that while this the willMost be Favored Nation (MFN) tariff a setback to some industries,rate thisfor to measure zero, fromconsidering the current that 7 peris coal a fair cent, until December 2022. this could help prevent placing the Forin corn, the Neda recommended country another strict lockdown,
that ashe 5-percent MFN tariff in-quota which, said, the economy can no rate and 15 percent out-quota rate longer afford. be“Itimposed along with a Minimum is better that we do protective Access Volume (MAV) of 4get million preventive measures than exmetric tonsWe until December posed again. have a lot to 2022. lose,” Chua said riceshould MFN tariffs can also Oplas said. “We do it now so be kept at 35 percent until the end of that we can open just before Christthe If year. Thecontained, MFN rate we of 35 mas. it gets canpercent open is set to expire on May 30 this year. it again.” For pork, Neda’s recommendaAteneo Center for Economic Retion isand to Development extend the lower tariffs search (ACERD) until December 2022 it would Associate Director SerasPercival on May 17. Currently, K.lapse Peña-Reyes said closing pork the in-quota tariff is set at 15 country’s borders would bepercent effecwhile is at 25 percent tive butout-quota should still adhere to with the a MAV of 200,000 metric tons. standards set by the World Health The Neda(WHO). also recommended Organization that all non-tariff barriers fortold fish What is needed, Peña-Reyes imports be removed. Last year, the this newspaper, is for travel restricgovernment certificates tions to be putissued in place swiftly andof
necessity to import cover the for government to be to proactive in supply gap with the closing of the imposing them. fishing season. Previous instances when the country had the opportunity to imMerits pose travel restrictions did not preTHEthe TCspread is conducting public vent of Covid-19. Thathearwas ings to determine the merits of mainly because the decision was not maintaining lower tariff rates on made immediately, he said. imported pork andpatay rice as as “Kung papatay [Ifwell we’re reducing tariffs on corn imports to slow] and we get caught flat-footmitigate the impact of the Ukraineed, [that’s risky] We were too reRussiainstead war on of local food prices. active proactive before. TC issued a notice for public We The should learn from that,” Peñahearings proposed tariff adjustReyes said.on “It’s a delicate balancing ments 4 commodities: pork, rice, act. Wefor need to push testing and corn and coal. The TC has scheduled tracing to be properly informed investigation for pork and rice ofthe our decisions. Blanket/shotgun tariffs on March 17 while corn and approaches could have dire consecoal are slated on March 18. quences on the economy.” See“Omicron,” “Govt,” A2 A2 See
NATL GOVTPAYMENTS BORROWINGS PHL DEBT UP 25%,10 REACH P1.2T 2021 FOR MOS DIP TOIN P2.75T w w
n
n Monday, March 14, 157 Monday, November 29, 2022 2021 Vol. Vol.17 17 No. No.52
P25.00 P25.00 nationwide nationwide || 22 sections sections 18 20 pages pages ||
By By Bernadette Bernadette D. D. Nicolas Nicolas
T
Omicron risk Actual Covid spurs revival deaths in PHL of quarantine may hit ruleshave in PHL 184K–study
@BNicolasBM @BNicolasBM
HE HE national national government government’s shelled gross out more moneyastoof borrowings repay its debtsshrank last end-October year compared to by almost 6 percent ayear-on-year year ago, with to its debt P2.75service trillion.bill hitting P1.2 trillion asLatest thedata Covid-19 from the Bureau of the pandemic on. Treasury showed raged that the govern-
ment’s gross borrowings during the 10-month period fell by 5.99 percent Government’s debt payments from P2.92 trillion a year ago. in 2021 spiked by 25.1 percent With only two monthsyear-onleft for year fromthe P962.47 billionisasalready it had this year, latest figure to pay more for both interest equivalent to 89.6 percent ofand its amortization, based on the latest P3.07-trillion borrowing program. data from the Bureau the Treasury. Broken down, grossof domestic borHowever, the government’s debt rowings from January to October service in 2021 was below settled bill at P2.23 trillion, downthe by P1.29 trillion program for year 5.08 percent from P2.35 the trillion by 6.6 percent. in 2020. To national governTherecall, bulk the of the amount was ment ended 2021 with an P11.73sourced from Fixed Rate Treasury trillion outstanding andby a Bonds (P1.19 trillion),debt followed 16-year-high debt-to-GDP ratio of short-term borrowings from Bang60.5 percent. ko Sentral ng Pilipinas or BSP (P540 In 2021, amortization outpaced billion), Retail Treasury Bonds/Preinterest payments. myo Bonds (P463.3 billion), Retail Amortization payments Onshore Dollar Bonds (P80.84last bilyear surged by 33.1 percent to lion). In the same period, there was P774.73 billion from the previous also a net redemption of Treasury year’s P582.05 billion as both doBills amounting to P43.94 billion. mestic amortization Net and debtforeign redemption means obligations grew.debts repaid comthere were more On the other hand, interest paypared to the amount borrowed durments grew by 12.89 percent to ing the period. P429.43 billion from billion Meanwhile, grossP380.4 foreign borin 2020. rowings in the same period also For December alone,togoverncontracted by 9.7 percent P518.7 ment’s debt payments shrank by billion from last year’s P574.4 billion. 5.1This percent P69.99 billionglobal from wasto raised through P73.78 billion inbillion), the sameprogram month bonds (P146.17 in 2020, as the drop in amortizaloans (P139.98 billion), euro-detion payments thanbillion), offset nominated bondsmore (P121.97 the increase in the amount spent a project loan (P86.41 billion), and for interest. yen-denominated samurai bonds Continued on A2 (P24.19 billion).
By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla
By Cai U. Ordinario
IN
PEOPLE walk past the mural of Gat Andres Bonifacio at Manila City Hall Underpass. The country will celebrate the 158th birth anniversary of Filipino revolutionary ROY DOMINGO hero Gat Andres BonifacioWhile on Tuesday, November 30.with ‘WORSE NORMAL’ many people speak hope about a “new normal,” for many foot soldiers in the transport sector like Rogelio Oliva—here sharing a meal with his wife inside his jeepney—the situation has grown increasingly bad since the pandemic hit two years ago. Sidelined by lockdowns, he had barely begun plying his route when oil prices began their steady ascent, cutting further whatever little income he could eke out. To survive and avoid rent, he and his wife “live” inside their jeepney, bringing out all their meager belongings each time he hits the road. NONIE REYES
OVER 3-M FARMERS LISTED FOR P75-B COCO LEVY FUND JOEY’S 3 WAYS TO AVOID ‘SPOOKING’ INVESTORS IN ’22 By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas
By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz
M A
@joveemarie ORE than 3 million coconut farmers and LEADER of are thenow House of workers regisRepresentatives said the tered with the government’s regPhilippines’s foreign istry, which serves2022 as the basis investment performance for the number of people could to be be betterbyifthe “foreigners areofnot covered utilization the spooked,” and offeredlevy three sugP75-billion coconut fund. gestions on how to avoid this. Philippine Coconut Authority House Committee on Ways (PCA) Deputy Administrator Roel and Means Chairman Joey Sarte M. Rosales said about 3.11 million Salceda, a statement overworkthe coconut in farmers and farm weekend, cited the Corporate ers have been registered with the
government since it started up-
See “Borrowings,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 52.1550 PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.4600
dating its registry following the enactment of the Coconut FarmRecovery and TaxTrust Incentives for ers and Industry Fund law. Enterprises Act (CREATE) as a Rosales explained that about key driver of foreign direct invest500,000 coconut farmers and ment (FDI), which hit an all-time workers were added to the PCA’s high 2018in list2021. that had about 2.5 million According to Salceda, can coconut farmers and farm2022 workers. be an even better year for foreign The PCA’s next step is to coninvestors “if they are not spooked, duct an exclusion-inclusion proeither ourmaking overdependence on cedurebyby the updated imported oil, or bypublic, the results of farmers’ registry providthe elections and its aftermath.” ing everyone the opportunity to To do Salceda check thethis, veracity of thesaid list,the Ronext President must do three sales added. things immediately, “so that 2022 “The list will be posted in public spaces where people can easily see
them. This allows everyone to see who are listed in the registry and if can be adoesn’t bettersee year FDIs.” farmer hisfor name then he “First, hire anwith economic team shall coordinate the PCA imthe markets can be confident mediately,” he explained at a recent with. Personnel is policy. PRRD dialogue with coconut farmers. [President Rodrigo Duterte] has “On the other hand, if people not endorsed any candidate yet, would see names on the list and so there is they someare policy uncerthey think not coconut tainty in terms of continuity. farmers or their details are incorWe arethey unsure whether rect, can report it tothe thenext PCA President will keep goodhe reforms for immediate action,” added. intact,” said. The he PCA official noted that “Second, the President has list to the completion of the initial act on inflation. Food and fuel of coconut farmers registry would prices be priority number be justmust in time for the expected rollout of coconut levy-funded
programs as President Duterte is expected to sign the industry one for the next President. susdevelopment plan in earlyI2022. pectRosales fuel prices high saidwill theremain PCA will not instop theupdating first 100 its days next listofofthe coconut administration. Whenthem inflation farmers and enjoined to regisister high, it tends to increase the in order to reap the benefits “risk premium” investors expect of the decades-long idled coconut from a country. That makes levy fund. “We will not stop atthe 3.1 decision to invest in the Philipmillion. We hope that more indipines a little more difficult for a viduals will register in our coconut foreign farmersinvestor,” registry,”heheadded. said. Third, Salceda of saidthe thecoconut next The updating President must commit to propfarmers registry is mandated by erty rightsAct and(RA) institutions. Republic 11524 or the See “Spooking,” A2Fund Act. Coconut Industry Trust See “3-M farmers,” A2
@caiordinario NTER NATIONA L concerns over the possible spread of the 200,000 Filipinos moreEARLY infectious Omicron Comay have died due to govCovid-19 variant prompted the according to a study ernmentvid-19, to reimpose mandatory published by thequarantine Lancet and funded facility-based for all by United States-based arriving passengers in theorganizacountry. tions suchPresidential as the Bill & Melinda Acting spokesperGates Foundation. son Karlo B. Nograles announced research titled, “Estimaton The Sunday that the Inter-Agency ing excess mortality due to the Task Force for the Management Covid-19 pandemic: a systematic of Emerging Infectious Diseases analysis of Covid-19-related mor(IATF) suspended the implementality, reported No. Covid-19 tation2020–21,” of its Resolution 150deaths in theeffectively country hadimposing reached A (s.2021), 53,000 researchers stricter but protocols for allestimated inbound that this could have reached as travelers. much as 184,000. To note, IATF Resolution 150The showed IndoneA had data allowed fullythat vaccinated sia, Myanmar, and the Philippines non-visa travelers from Green List were countries the withhighareasthe to enter the with country est deaths within outestimated the needexcess for facility-based Southeast Indonesia conquarantineAsia. as long as they is secure sidered one of the top countries in negative Reverse Transcriptionthe world with the highest excess Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTdeaths due within to Covid-19. PCR) test 72 hours prior “Excess mortality to their departure. due to the Covid-19 pandemic, defined classified as the net “Except for countries difference between the number of as ‘Red,’ the testing and quarantine deaths during theinbound pandemic (meaprotocols for all internasured observed or estimated alltionalby travelers in all ports of entry cause mortality) and the number shall comply with the testing and of deaths that would be quarantine protocols forexpected ‘Yellow’ on the basis of past trends alllist countries,” Nograles said,in citing cause mortality, is therefore a cruthe provision of IATF Resolution cial No. measure 151-A. of the true toll of the Covid-19 pandemic,” thewhich research He noted Hong Kong, has stated. confirmed a case of the Omicron Based on fall theunder estimates, variant, will also the Yelthe number of excess deaths in low list countries. theThe country may of have reached suspension the rules for a“Green ny w heList” re fcountries rom 175,0 will0 0be to in 197,000 or an average of effect from November 28,184,000. 2021 to See “Covid deaths,” A2 December 15, 2021. Continued on A2
n JAPAN 0.4491 n UK 68.2605 n HK 6.6673 n CHINA 8.2500 n SINGAPORE 38.3775 n AUSTRALIA 38.3704 n EU 57.3027 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.9028 Source: BSP (March 11, 2021) n JAPAN 0.4374 n UK 67.2329 n HK 6.4722 n CHINA 7.9013 n SINGAPORE 36.8968 n AUSTRALIA 36.2807 n EU 56.5758 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4531 Source: BSP (November 26, 2021)