Headlines, Bylines and Datelines

By Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak
October 15,2008

BASCO—In 2006, Batanes was able to achieve what most local government units in the country aspire—the absence of poverty among its citizens.

Official poverty statistics for 2006 released this year reveal this archipelagic province in the northernmost part of the country registered a zero percent poverty incidence. Poverty statistics for the years 2000 and 2003 showed that Batanes consistently landed on the ten least poor provinces.

Batanes, the country’s smallest province in terms of population and land area, registered a 10.4 percent and 6.3 percent poverty incidence among families during 2000 and 2003, respectively.

Batanes governor Telesforo Castillejos said the zero poverty incidence could be attributed to the fact that almost all Ivatan families engaged in farming, and therefore has assured source of food. “Almost all the families have a piece of land to till.”

Difficulties of linking with neighboring provinces and the unpredictable weather, said the governor, have taught the Ivatans to be self-reliant. “Our mentality is we cannot always depend on the outside [mainland] especially when the seas are unnavigable so we have to go farming,”

“Even government officials and employees here are involved in farming,” the governor added.

Despite a huge number of families involved in farming, the province’s agriculture sector was not able to take off and maximize its potential due to weather and transportation problems. Tess Castilejos, provincial trade and industry official, said that these problems have discouraged the farmers from planting more crops so they can trade with other provinces.

“They only produce [agricultural products] to be self-sufficient,” DTI’s Castillejos told abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak. The DTI official also said that lack of access to market has hampered the growth in agricultural production. (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)

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This is the second of a three-part series on the province of Batanes. The first part discussed organic farming in the province.

(Disclosure: The author is among the journalists who visited Batanes during a media appreciation seminar sponsored by NEDA.)

October15, 2008

BASCO-Whenever people hear the word “Batanes,” images of strong winds and rains pounding stone houses usually come to their minds. But for the Ivatans, the province’s native inhabitants, the mainlanders’ perception of their home is inaccurate.

“We want to erase the perception that it [Batanes] is dangerous,” said Batanes governor Telesforo Castillejos adding that they want to change this misconception by promoting Batanes as an eco-tourism destination.

Located in the northernmost part of the country and in between the Pacific Ocean and South China Sea, Batanes is on the typhoon belt. The perception that it is always devastated by typhoon might have been caused by the fact that Basco, the province’s capital, hosts the last weather station in the northern part of the country.

“Batanes is always mentioned as a reference point of the typhoon,” said Milagros Rimando, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director for Region II. Rimando added that Batanes is always mentioned in weather reports even when some of the typhoons do not really cross the province’s islands.

Weather and geography

Local officials, however, admit that the frequent weather disturbance, the province natural strong winds and waves, and its archipelagic nature—the province is composed of ten islands—have hampered the development of its agriculture and trade. Lack of infrastructure for transport of goods from one island to another, and from mainland Luzon makes the problem worse.

“We could be isolated anytime,” said the governor adding that the seas are sometimes unnavigable even when there is no typhoon. He added that during these times, goods cannot be brought from one island to another because small vessels and boats are used in transporting them.

The prevalence of typhoons prevents the development of agriculture, particularly the production of staple crops like rice and corn. The province imports rice from neighboring provinces. “We produce only 10 percent of our rice,” said Castillejos.

Governor Castillejos added that vegetable production is very erratic in Batanes because of the weather and transportation problems—scarcity during summer and surplus during the rainy season. He said that during rainy season there is a surplus of vegetables since boats cannot transport them to other markets. “Farmers just feed the extra supply of vegetables to the pigs.” (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)

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This is the first in a three-part series of stories about the province of Batanes.

(Disclosure: The author is one of the journalists who visited Batanes last September as part of the media appreciation seminar sponsored by NEDA.)

 By Jesus F. Llanto    

October 9, 2008–Local government units should focus on five key sectors to become competitive tourism destinations, an expert on tourism told local officials Wednesday.

During the 2008 Local Government Unit Summit held in Makati City, Samie Lim, vice chair of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), said that to develop a strong tourism industry, policies and investments must focus on the five A’s of tourism—arrival, access, accommodations, attractions, and activities.

Lim, who was behind the PCCI’s BizTour5 program that aims to develop private sector initiated tourism programs, said there should be available budget airlines, and chartered planes, cruise liners and ferries to accommodate the arriving tourists. He added that there is a need to develop travel agencies, tour guiding businesses, and world-class airports and seaports.

Investments, he said, should also be poured to tourism infrastructures like roads, ports, energy, telecommunication facilities and sewerage system.

To develop the accommodations needed by the industry, Lim said the country must follow the model of Malaysia.

“Malaysia created a chain of hotels in every major province,” he said adding that these hotels were used not only as for tourist accommodations but also as venues for regional and local conferences.

LGUs should also try to develop historical, cultural and heritage sites and build parks, museums and camping sites, and it must offer sports and recreation activities.

The influx of tourists, Lim added, will help boost the growth of shopping malls, medical tourism facilities, retirement homes, spa and resorts, casino-hotels and convention centers.
(abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak)

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By Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak

October 9, 2008–Local government units (LGUs) were urged to develop business-friendly environments to attract investments from the fast-growing business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

During the 2008 Local Government Code Anniversary Conference held Wednesday in Makati City, local officials were told that they should adopt policies that would make them attractive to BPO investments.

LGUs were also encouraged to follow the measures done by the Bacolod City government in supporting the BPO sector. Bacolod City passed an ordinance endorsing accreditation of Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) sites, and promoted Bacolod as ICT hub by participation in conferences and trade shows and by using website and brochures.

“LGUs sometime have to see themselves as business planner, catalyzer, and enabler instead of being just enforcer,” said Bacolod City councilor and Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology chair Jacelle Batapa-Sigue.

Sunshine industry

Considered one of the sunshine industries—along with mining, agri-business and tourism—that can be tapped by local government units, the BPO industry has employed around 300,000 workers and has estimated revenue of US$ 4.9 billion in 2007.

Dan Reyes, president of Sitel and of the Business Process Association of the Philippines, said that among the advantages of the country in attracting BPO investments are the Filipinos’ English-speaking ability, their cultural affinity to the United States, competitive labor, real estate and telecommunication costs. (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)

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Photo Credit: www.newsbreak.com.ph

By Jesus F. Llanto

Researcher, Newsbreak Online

October 7, 2009—It  may come as a surprise that the Philippines has substantial oil reserves. But the growing number of oil exploration activities in select parts of the country attests to promising finds.

In 2005, the Department of Energy estimated that the Philippines had a total of 456 million barrels of fuel oil. The volume consists of 54 million barrels of condensate, 2,135 billion cubic feet of gas and 25 million barrels of oil.

“These petroleum reserves calculations are based on the 16 sedimentary basins situated all over the country from the Cagayan Valley Basin in the north down to the Agusan-Davao Basin in the south as well as the prolific Northwest Palawan Basin and the Sulu Sea Basin along the western flank of the archipelago,” the DOE said.

Vietnam has 600 million barrels of oil reserves as of 2007, according to the Oil and Gas Journal. Thailand has 290 million barrels of proven oil reserves. Malaysia has 3.0 bilion barrels of proven oil reserves.

This promise of the potential petroleum reserves in the Philippines , together with the recent surges in oil prices, has attracted a number of oil exploration companies to the country. The government has awarded these companies service contracts to explore areas identified as having potential petroleum reserves.

Based on news reports and a list of petroleum service contracts obtained by abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak from the energy department, there are 33 active petroleum service contracts awarded to oil and gas exploration companies as of the end of September 2008.

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By Jesus Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak

September 23, 2008–The Philippines is perceived as more corrupt now than last year, a study by the international anti-corruption group Transparency International showed.

The 2008 Corruption Perception Index showed that the Philippines got a score of 2.3 in 2007—down by 0.2 points from 2.5 in 2007. This year’s score is the lowest for the country since 1995 when the first CPI was devised as a tool for a country’s resolve to fight corruption.

The corruption perception index measures the perception of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and analysts. This year, 180 countries are rated from 0 to 10. A grade of 10 means the country is perceived as very clean while a rating of 0 means the country is perceived as very corrupt.

The Philippines ranked 141st—along with Cameroon, Iran and Yemen—and was behind most of its ASEAN neighbors. Singapore, with a 9.2 rating, was in the 4th place while Malaysia got 5.1 to land on the 47th place. Thailand is in the 80th spot with a rating of 3.5 while Vietnam is in the 121st place with a score of 2.7 Indonesia, which ranked lower than the Philippines last year, was in 126th place with a rating of 2.6

In Southeast Asia, the Philippines fared better than Timor-Leste (145th with a grade of 2.2), Laos (151st with a rating of  2.0), Cambodia (166th with a score of 1.8) and Myanmar (178th with a score of 1.3)

Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden got the highest score of 9.3 while Singapore landed on the second spot with a rating of 9.2. Countries that received the lowest rating are  Haiti (1.4), Iraq and Myanmar (1.3) and Somalia (1.0)

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Photo Credit: www.transparency.org

By Jesus F. Llanto
Newsbreak, Researcher

September 23, 2008–In some areas in the country, farmers who have abandoned planting coconut and cassava are now cultivating these crops again because of  increasing demand for biofuels.

Governor Rolando Yebes of Zamboanga del Norte said that farmers in his region are now going back to planting these crops because of the surging demand and the entry of companies interested in the production of biofuels.

“Before farmers cut their coconut trees and sold them for lumber. Now, they are planting coconuts for biofuels,” he told abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak adding that cassava, which has shown growth in previous years, is expected to increase further due to investments from biofuel companies like Basic Energy Corp., which is reportedly eyeing an ethanol plant in the region using cassava as feedstock.

Constancio Alama, assistant regional director for agriculture of Region IX, said that despite the promise of biofuels, there is a need to ensure that local government units should prioritize the production of food over biofuels. “Bakit uunahin ang sasakyan kung may nagugutom? (Why should we prioritize vehicles when people are hungry?)”

Zamboanga del Norte is not alone. In many parts of the world, with the unprecedented rise in oil price, a tug of war is taking place over using land for fuel or food.

The passage in the Philippines of the Biofuels Act in January 2007 generated a lot of interest about this renewable source of energy. The law aims to break the Philippine’s dependence on imported fuel particularly oil. Two years after the enactment of this law, liquid fuels for vehicles and engine are required to contain at least five percent of biofuel.

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Photo Source: www.sarangani.gov.ph

By Jesus Llanto, Newsbreak

Sept. 16,2008–The Philippines is not immune to the effects of the financial turmoil in the United States but it is in a better position to respond to the impacts, an economist from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said today during the release of the bank’s growth forecast for the region.

“The Philippine cannot be insulated…but there have been macroeconomic policies that have make it less vulnerable and in better position to respond to the negative impacts of these events,” said Thomas Crouch, ADB’s deputy director general for Southeast Asia, during the release of update of the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) Tuesday.

“The cost of insulating is very high,” said Neeraj Jain, ADB’s country director for the Philippines. “It will be bad for the Philippines to cut itself from the global market.”

Jain said fiscal space created by policies implemented during the past two to three years will curtail or limit the impact of these events.

The ADB economists gave their comments as the financial crisis in the US spread following the events on Wall Street, where Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection and rival Merrill Lynch agreed to be sold to Bank of America for $50 billion.

Slower economic growth
The ADB has trimmed down its economic growth forecasts and raised inflation projections for the Philippines. The Manila-based multilateral bank forecasts a 4.5 percent and 4.7 percent economic growth in 2008 and 2009, respectively. The figures are below the 6.0% and 6.2% projected in April. With a report from Reuters.

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By Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak

Wednesday, September 10, 2008–The Philippines’ ranking in ease of doing business has declined: it has fallen by seven notches, a recent study by the World Bank and the International Finance Corp showed.

The Philippines ranked 140th out of 181 economies in the Doing Business 2009 report, which compares the regulations that enhance or constrain business activity. This year’s ranking was a decline from last year, when the country ranked 133rd out of 178 economies.

Last year’s ranking, however, was adjusted to 136th place because of the inclusion of three new countries—Qatar, Bahrain and the Bahamas.

The Philippines was behind most of its Asian neighbors. Singapore, for the third consecutive year, topped the ranking.  Thailand and Malaysia landed on the 13th and 14th spot, respectively, while Brunei ranked 88th. Vietnam was on the 92nd spot while Indonesia and Cambodia ranked 129th and 135th, respectively.

The Philippines performed better than Asian neighbors Laos (165th) and East Timor (170th).

The Doing Business 2009  is the sixth in a series of reports that rank economies based on regulations affecting 10 stages of the life of a business: staring a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business.

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By Jesus Llanto

August 15,2008–President Gloria Arroyo’s recent statement that she is supporting a shift to federal form of government to ensure lasting peace in Mindanao revived the debate on charter change—a process perceived by her critics as her way to stay in power beyond 2010.

Arroyo’s interest in amending the Constitution, however, had started even before she ran for president but she became more vocal about it since she declared her candidacy in 2004.

Based on our research and on official statements of Malacañang culled from government Web sites, Arroyo made charter change one of her key issues when she ran for president, mentioned it in three of her State of the Nation Addresses and has campaigned for amending the Constitution during the latter part of her term.

During the early years of her administration, Arroyo described the debate on charter change as a distraction “from what we need to do to survive.” Her attitude towards the issue, however, changed during the latter part of her administration.

On May 3, 2002, she said in a keynote speech at the First Philippine Political Parties Conference that before the shift to federal and parliamentary form of government, proposed federal states must achieve economic viability and political reforms must be implemented first.

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Photo Credit: http://www.ops,gov.ph/