House set to begin plenary debates on 2024 budget By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie
T
HE House of Representatives will start the plenary debates on the proposed P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024 on Tuesday as it is targeting to finish the budget process on September 27. Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, in a statement on Sunday, said the House will approve President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s budget before Congress goes on recess later this month. He said the House would immediately send the appropriations bill to the Senate for its own deliberations upon its approval in the lower house.
ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDS
2006 National Newspaper of the Year 2011 National Newspaper of the Year 2013 Business Newspaper of the Year 2017 Business Newspaper of the Year 2019 Business Newspaper of the Year 2021 Pro Patria Award PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY 2018 Data Champion
“We will work morning and afternoon and on Thursday and Friday this week to meet our timeline. The national spending bill is the single most important piece of legislation Congress passes every year,” Romualdez said. “ Through the national budget, we hope to sust a in ou r re cover y f rom t he Cov id-19 pandemic, create more income and job opportunities for our people, and improve their quality of life through the timely deliver y of basic social ser vices like education, healthcare, infrastructure, and financial aid,” he added. Plenary debates on Tuesday morning on the proposed 2024 outlay will kick off with sponsor-
ship speeches, followed by debates on general principles and provisions and consideration of the budgets of the Department of Finance, Department of Tourism, and the National Economic and Development Authority, including their attached agencies, and certain offices under the Office of the President (OP). On deck on Wednesday are the Office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Elections, Commission on Human Rights, Department of National Defense, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Trade and Industry, and more OP agencies. On Thursday, the House will scrutinize the spending proposals of the judiciary, Department of
Justice, Department of Agrarian Reform, Presidential Communications Office, Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, and state universities and colleges. Friday will see the chamber considering the budgets of Congress, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the Department of Migrant Workers, the Department of Labor and Employment, and the Department of the Interior and Local Gover nment, inc lud ing t heir attached agencies, and funding support for several government corporations. See “House,” A2
BusinessMirror
w
Monday, September 18, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 336
EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS
BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR
(2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS
EXTERNAL DEBT SLIDES TO $117.9B AT END-JUNE T
By Cai U. Ordinario
n
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 22 pages |
@caiordinario
HE Philippines’s external debt declined by nearly a billion dollars as of end-June after the United States Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy in the second quarter, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Data showed the country’s total external debt (EDT) stood at $117.9 billion as of end-June. This is lower by $894 million or 0.8 percent from the $118.8 billion recorded in March. BSP said this brought the external debt ratio—EDT expressed as a percentage of GDP—to 28.5 percent from the previous quarter’s 29 percent. “The decline in the debt level during the second quarter was due mainly to the impact of the US Dollar appreciation against other currencies amid further monetary policy tightening by the Federal Reserve,” BSP said. A stronger dollar, the BSP said, reduced the value of the country’s borrowings denominated in other currencies to $963 million. The sale of Philippine debt papers by non-residents to residents also decreased the debt stock by $305 million. These offset prior periods’ adjustments of $264 million and net availments of $110 million.
BSP also said the country’s debt stock rose by $10.2 billion. Part of the increase was driven by total net availments of $7.8 billion, the bulk of which were from the National Government (NG) at $7.9 billion. The BSP added there was a change in the scope of the external debt to include nonresidents’ holdings of Peso-denominated debt securities issued onshore at $3.7 billion while there were also prior periods’ adjustments of $312 million. “The transfer of Philippine debt papers issued offshore from nonresidents to residents of $1.3 billion and negative FX revaluation of $295 million partially tempered the year-on-year increase in the debt stock,” BSP said.
Maturity
THE government’s medium and long-term debts (MLT) are expected to mature before babies born this year will be allowed to vote. See “Debt,” A2
AN elderly woman carefully selects tomatoes at Paco Market in Manila, where tomato prices have soared to as high as P300 per kilo due to a shortage in supply, as reported by the Department of Agriculture. ROY DOMINGO
CHINA OPPOSES BID TO REQUIRE NATIONS TO PROTECT OCEANS By Malou Talosig-Bartolome
EXPLAINER »B4
CITING SUSTAINABILITY, STARBUCKS WANTS TO OVERHAUL ITS ICONIC CUP. WILL CUSTOMERS GO ALONG?
TEA | DREAMSTIME.COM
@maloutalosig
C
HINA has opposed efforts by small island nations to require coastal states to protect the oceans and seas to stop the worsening effects of climate change. Small islands in the Pacific such as Palau, The Bahamas, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Antigua and Barbuda, are facing the existential threat of rising sea levels caused by climate change. The island nations formed the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COCIS) and sought for an advisory opinion of the United Nations maritime tribunal, the
International Tribunal on the Law of the Seas (ITLOS), on the obligations of countries to combat climate change. COCIS argued that ocean warming and ocean acidification have caused extreme weather disturbances that impact health, ecosystems, infrastructure, livelihoods and food all over the world. In this regard, COCIS wants the ITLOS to determine the specific obligations of the members of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the marine environment, as well as protect and preserve the marine environment to stop ocean warming, sea level rise and acidification. See “China,” A2
FTA with S. Korea makes PHL electronics competitive–Seipi By Andrea E. San Juan @andreasanjuan
L
OCAL exporters of semiconductors and electronics said the Philippines’s free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea would help the industry expand its market share and boost its growth prospects. The Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. (Seipi) noted that around 5 to 6 percent of semiconductors and electronics produced in the Philippines are shipped to South Korea. Seipi President Danilo C. Lachica said FTAs are “always helpful” for
exporters. “Otherwise, we are at a disadvantage, ‘yung countries na may FTA tapos tayo wala…Because the overall unit cost will be higher for us. So it’s definitely beneficial for not just electronics, all the industries na nag-e-export,” Lachica told reporters on the sidelines of the 21st International CEO Conference organized by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) held last week in Taguig City. Sans a trade deal with Seoul, he said electronics from the Philippines would have be less competitive than those shipped by countries that have an existing FTA with South Korea.
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.7160 n JAPAN 0.3847 n UK 70.4072 n HK 7.2450 n CHINA 7.7941 n SINGAPORE 41.6172 n AUSTRALIA 36.5194 n EU 60.3742 n KOREA 0.0427 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.1222 Source: BSP (September 15, 2023)