Sublime Text 2 Php Snippet пропуска променливи

Създадох следния фрагмент в sublime text 2, но когато го използвам в рамките на PHP скрипт, той автоматично премахва всички променливи (не техните стойности).

<snippet>
<content><![CDATA[

include 'constants.php';

// Defining connection

$connection = mysqli_connect(HOST, USERNAME, PASSWORD);

// If unable to connect

if(!$connection)
{
$error = 'Unable to connect to database server';
echo $error;
exit();
}

// Checking the encoding

if(!mysqli_set_charset($connection, 'utf8'))
{
$error =  'Unable to set database connection decoding';
echo $error;
exit();
}

// Selecting Database

if (!mysqli_select_db($connection, DATABASE))
{
$error = 'Unable to locate the .'. DATABASE;    
echo $error;    
exit();
}
]]></content>
<!-- Optional: Set a tabTrigger to define how to trigger the snippet -->
<tabTrigger>phpMysqlConnection</tabTrigger>
<!-- Optional: Set a scope to limit where the snippet will trigger -->
<!-- <scope>source.php</scope> -->
</snippet>

Какво наистина се случва?