Filipino -Americans protest Chinese intrusion of Spratlys - West Philippines' Sea (WPS)

A large group of Filipino Americans organized by US Pinoys for Good Governance protesting outside the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles about the ongoing dispute between PH and China over the Spratly Islands on Friday, July 8, 2011. (AJPress Photo by Joseph Pimentel)

A SPIRITED and vocal group of Filipino Americans gathered outside the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles and protested China’s intrusion of the resource rich Spratly Islands.

More than 150 Fil-Ams, joined by Vietnamese and American protesters, picketed outside the Chinese Consulate holding up signs that denounce China as a bully and chanted “Who’s Oil? Our Oil! Who’s soil? Our soil!”

“Wake up Filipinos!” said Rocio Nuyda, secretary of US Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG), the group responsible for organizing the protests.

“The Philippines is under siege. This is a big intrusion on the Philippines. China has shown a disregard for our sovereignty. We are the rightful claimants of this land.”

The protest was part of a worldwide gathering of Filipinos concerned about the ongoing dispute over the Spratly Islands -- a group of tiny islands in Southeast Asia, about 150 miles South of Palawan.

The islands are full of natural resources under the sea floor, said Nuyda.

“Why do you think China is doing this? The island is rich in gold, black gold, oil and natural gas. Some say the resources are as large as the deposits in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.”

China and the Philippines are among the handful of Southeast Asian countries that claim the Spratly Islands as their own.

For decades, China has claimed the island as theirs and has placed several military bases to occupy certain islands. The Philippines has geographical claim over the Spratlys because of the islands close proximity to the nation. The RP government cites the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, saying the islands are within the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone.

Other countries that lay claim to the islands include Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.

In May, the Philippines accused China of entering its waters around the Spratly Islands and have sought help from the US government.

The US Senate recently passed a resolution calling for all parties involved to resolve the dispute in a peaceful and multilateral way.

The protest on Friday, though, is just the beginning, said Nuyda.

Nuyda said she was surprised by the large turnout, with only a week’s worth of preparation.

“Honestly, I was only expecting 40, maybe 50 people to show up. More than 150 people came,” she said. “It just shows how important this issue is in our community.”

John Mina of the Filipino American Library participated in the protest.

“As Fil-Ams we need to voice our concern of what’s going on between China and the Philippines,” he said.

Retiree Celia Velasquez agreed. She said China shouldn’t drill oil that belongs to the Philippines.

Nuyda said it’s important for more Fil-Ams to participate and protest China.

“Regardless of your organization, religion, and politics, we are all Filipinos,” she said. “It’s our moral obligation to stand up for what is ours.”

(www.asianjournal.com)

Continue reading

Asian Economy: Philippines Peso ₱ strengthens as inflow of portfolio investments rises

The Philippine Peso ₱ has continued to strengthen during the last few days as a result of the strong inflow of foreign portfolio investments, thus further improving the country's macroeconomic fundamentals.

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country' s central bank, foreign portfolio investments yielded a net inflow of $138.68 million as of June 17 compared to a net inflow of only $2.40 million for the same period in 2010.

The BSP said that the strong inflow of hot money could be attributed to the credit rating upgrade of the Philippines by international rating agencies such as Moodys and Fitch Ratings.

Moody's raised the country's foreign debt rating from three to two notches below investment grade while Fitch upgraded Manila' s long-term foreign currency rating to BB+ from BB, with a stable outlook.

The BSP said that the strong inflows, which went mostly to peso- denominated government securities, came from top portfolio investing countries such as the United Kingdom, Singapore and the United States.

Cumulative transactions in hot money as of June 17 resulted in a net inflow of $2.29 billion, up 228 percent from $696.52 million in the same period in 2010.

Total inflows of foreign capital into the country as of June 18 amounted to $8.57 billion, more than twice the $4.08 billion last year, the BSP said.

On July 6, 2011 (Wednesday) the Philippines Peso ₱ led other Asian currencies in appreciating, going back to the 42-to-a-dollar level, the currency's strongest finish in nearly two months.

Financial analysts have credited the appreciation of currencies in the region to rising inflows of foreign portfolio investments, which in turn were being driven by expectations that interest rates in emerging economies in Asia would rise further.

Higher interest rates could cause yields of bonds and other portfolio instruments to rise, thus attracting foreign fund owners to invest in them, the analysts said. On Friday, the peso closed at P42.735 against the dollar, up by 32 centavos from Tuesday's close of ₱ 43.055 to the dollar.

On Wednesday's trading, when the peso started to move up, the volume of trade rose beyond the billion-dollar mark to hit $1.102 billion from only $754.59 million previously.

Traders said portfolio yields in the Philippines and its neighbors including China, India, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia are expected to further rise in the months ahead as a consequence of the move of respective countries' central banks to hike key policy rates.

In the case of the Philippines, the BSP has already raised its key policy rates twice this year, the first one by 25 basis points in March and the second by a similar margin in May.

The increase in the key policy rates was meant to influence an increase in the deposit and lending rates of banks.

BSP Governor Amando Tetangco said the inflow of hot money combined with the remittances from overseas Filipino workers and income from Philippine-owned firms abroad resulted in a whooping increase in the country's gross international reserves (GIR) to $68.997 billion as of end-June, up by 42 percent from $48.704 billion posted in the same period last year.

Tetangco said that the latest GIR figure prompted the BSP to rethink its earlier forecast of $70 billion in reserves by the end of 2011. BSP officials are now saying that the GIR could exceed the target amount in the next few months.

The BSP said that because of the below-par performance of the United States and Europe, foreign portfolio investments found their way to the Philippines, pushing the country's foreign exchange reserves to record levels.

The BSP said the latest GIR figure would be enough to cover 10. 4 months' worth of the country's usual imports.

Based on international standards, a country's foreign exchange reserve can be considered comfortable if it can account for at least four months' worth of imports.

According to the BSP, the GIR figure could further boost the country's credit image because it shows that the Philippines has the ability to settle its maturing obligations.

Another significant macroeconomic indicator is the country's balance of payments (BOP) surplus, which, for the first five months of 2011, reached $4.8 billion supported by inflows from portfolio investments, exports and remittances.

The BSP has revised its estimate for BOP surplus this year from $6 billion to $8 billion. The Philippines posted a record BOP surplus of $14.4 billion in 2010, also boosted by strong portfolio inflows.

Continue reading

Metro Pacific Investments Corporation raises ₱8.64 billion for tollroads

Metro Pacific Investments Corporation has placed ₱8.64 billion in new MPIC shares with existing and new investors to raise funds for investments in infrastructure, particularly its toll-road business.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, MPIC priced the 2.4 billion shares it sold at ₱ 3.60 each in a placement managed by CLSA Limited and J.P. Morgan Securities Ltd.

The placement was conducted overnight and garnered strong interest from institutional investors in Asia, Europe, and the US as well as from MPHI.

"This undertaking prepares us for the planned expansion of our tollroads business that will bring us closer to realizing our vision of connecting the North Expressway to the South into one seamless highway," said MPIC president Jose Ma. K. Lim.

MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said "we are very keen to help the Government of President Benigno S. Aquino III make its PPP initiatives work for the good of the country and our shareholders."

Pangilinan was referring to public-private partnerships aimed at employing private funds to build or improve public infrastructure such as roads, railways and airports.

MPIC had planned to raise up to ₱ 8.75 billion by issuing up to 1.25 billion new shares indirectly to investors as well as 1.19 billion common shares to controlling shareholder Metro Pacific Holdings Inc. Through an overnight and accelerated top-up placement transaction, MPHI planned to sell up to 1.25 billion of its MPIC common shares at ₱ 3.57 per share.

The private placement was primarily offshore by way of marketed placing to investors outside the United States as well as domestically to a limited extent to qualified investors.

As part of the transaction, MPHI was to subscribe up to 1.25 billion common shares out of the MPIC's current authorized and unissued capital stock at the issue price of at least ₱ 3.57 per share. MPHI also planned to subscribe to 1.19 billion MPIC shares from MPIC's current authorized and unissued capital stock at the issue price of ₱ 3.60 per share.

 

Continue reading