BusinessMirror May 6, 2016

DELAYS GALORE

Consequences of Duterte’s planned daily flights at Naia

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“PLEASE feel free to call us, the police, or do it yourself if you have the gun, you have my support.”—President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, encouraging the public to help him in his war against crime and urged citizens with guns to shoot and kill drug dealers who would resist arrest and fight back in their neighborhoods. AP

MEDIA PARTNER OF THE YEAR

UNITED NATIONS

2015 ENVIRONMENTAL MEDIA AWARD LEADERSHIP AWARD 2008

“MUSLIMS wanted a hero to represent them, and [Cassius] Clay was the only Muslim champion.... No other Muslim athlete managed to achieve what Clay did.... Thus, he was a symbol for Muslims.”—Mohammed Omari, an Islamic law professor in northern Jordan’s Al al-Bayt University, on Muhammad Ali (in photo with the Beatles on February 18, 1964), who died on Friday at age 74. AP

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

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n

Monday, June 6, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 240

‘Change’ should begin at BOC–manufacturers B C N. P  C U. O @c_pillas29

F

@cuo_bm

OR the manufacturing sector, “change”—as promised by President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte—must begin at the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

WHY OIL PRICES AND POWER RATES KEEP ON RISING DATABASE

Cecilio T. Arillo Part Three

Honor all debts

T

HE impact of the late President Corazon Aquino’s deliberate action resulted in endless electric-bill increases, and a spate of brownouts that continued up to this day.

At that time, the World Bank estimated the cost of daily brownout and unemployment at $1.3 billion.

By June 2003, the National Power Corp. (NPC) had $7 billion worth of debt to its name.

These debts do not include the $250-million bond partly backed by the Overseas Private Investment Corp. (around $500 million of $7 billion had matured toward the end of 2003) and other sovereign contingent guarantees.

As of mid-2004, NPC’s obligations reached more than P1 trillion, P700 billion of which was due the independent power producers (IPPs).

NPC’s financial obligations represented at one time almost one-fifth of the P5.39-trillion national debt.

C  A

HE BM sought the ideas of aviation experts on what to expect at the already-congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), where delayed flights are the norm, once incoming President Rodrigo R. Duterte starts his daily commute by commercial flight from Davao City to Manila and back. Based on what they said, air travelers must suffer the consequences of delays, among others, when all airport activities are temporarily suspended every time he flies. Story on A3

The Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) said the incoming administration should make good on its promise to rid the ranks of the BOC of corrupt personnel if he expects to see a significant growth and more economic contribution from domestic manufacturers.

Jesus L. Arranza, FPI chairman, said that, given the pledge of the incoming president to level the playing field between foreign and local investors, he expects Duterte to keep customs authorities in line. This is part of the “change is coming” pledge that Duterte’s team has been harping

8.1%

P.  |     | 7 DAYS A WEEK

PPP is about resource exchange and interdependence

The average quarterly growth seen by the manufacturing sector since 2013 since the campaign period.

“After promising a level playing field, we expect stricter rules on monitoring customs. Right now, manufacturing is affected by the influx of 5,000 metric tons of steel rebars.

We’re opposing that,” Arranza said, referring to the dilemma of the Philippine Iron and Steel Institute (Pisi) on a recent shipment of rebars.

S “BOC,” A

BMReports

Duterte bloc wields social media to push federalism

PPP Lead Alberto C. Agra

A

RE the resources of government sufficient to be able to undertake all infrastructure projects and public services? What are the contributions of government and the private sector in a publicprivate partnership (PPP)? What is in it for the people, government and the private sector when it participates in a PPP? Should there be a triple win arrangement?

C  A

Senate panel releases report on $81-M laundering probe B B F

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SENATORS and congressmen gather for a joint session to proclaim the winning president and vice president following the official canvass in record time on May 30 at the House of Representatives in Quezon City. AP/BULLIT MARQUEZ B P R-M @PsycheRoxas

First of three parts

B

EDIMPLED and charming at 57, Davao City-based businesswoman Belle VilelaChua breaks into a grateful smile when talk drifts to President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte and his pitch for

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 46.5630

a Federal Philippines.

“Magaan mag-negosyo dito. Ang business permit ko, ako lang nagaasikaso, walang iba, normally on the first or second working day of the year,” Vilela-Chua said. “’Di pa nakaka-alas-kwatro ng hapon, tapos na permit ko. Walang red tape [Business is good here (Davao City). I don’t need anyone to get

our business permit. I attend to it myself on the first or second working day of the year. I get the permit before 4 in the afternoon.

There is no red tape].”

She and her husband Nonoy used to be based in Cotabato City and were engaged in handicraft export.

But they soon shifted to the more C  A

@butchfBM

DE A DL I NE-BE AT I NG Senate Blue Ribbon Comm it te e re p or t on t he $81-million money laundering of stolen Bangladesh funds lists three key legislative and policy recommendations that the 17th Congress should pursue to prevent a repeat of the scandal that tainted the Philippines’s image in the international community.

The draft report is expected to be presented to plenary, as the chamber holds its final session on Monday.

Among the key legislative and policy recommendations arising from the committee hearings— seven in all—are the passage of a bill including casinos among covered institutions under the AntiMoney Laundering Act (Amla); amendment of Republic Act (R A) 9160, or Amla, to strengthen the powers of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to detect, act on and sanction violators; relaxing bank secrecy of peso deposits; and amending the foreign-currency deposit law.

There appears to be a gap in the wordings of the law in a situation of a fictitious account.”—S B R C The panel recommends passage of Senate Bill (SB) 2106, also known as “An Act Designating Casino Operators as Covered Persons Under RA 9160 (Amla of 2001).”

The bill was first proposed with a view to regulating casinos to prevent their use to hide money for financing terrorism.

Under SB 2106, casino operators, with respect to their gaming operations, will be designated as covered persons under R A 9160.

For purposes of casino-related C  A

n JAPAN 0.4278 n UK 67.1764 n HK 5.9927 n CHINA 7.0742 n SINGAPORE 33.8566 n AUSTRALIA 33.6604 n EU 51.9317 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.4165

Source: BSP (3 June 2016 )

A2 Monday, June 6, 2016

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Duterte bloc wields social media to push federalism C  A

lucrative handicraft retail and, in 2005, moved to Davao City and opened Iconarts, a specialty store.

Vilela-Chua said in Davao City they were able to build a house within two years after they started Iconarts. In the last 10 years they have been able to stabilize their business and save enough for a few holiday trips abroad.

That they supported Duterte during his bid for the presidency, there is no doubt, as evidenced by a poster of the couple on Facebook with the message: “We are Filipinos and our President is Duterte—Nonoy and Belle Chua, entrepreneurs.”

A stylized Duterte “change is coming” emblem with the iconic wings of an eagle shadow in the upper right hand of the Facebook poster.

Facebook, Youtube

V ILEL A-CHUA said she f irst learned about federalism early last year, “when news about Duterte going around the country talking about it [federalism] came up.”

She said the big media outlets weren’t giving Duterte that much attention that time. Vilela-Chua

added that she was unfamiliar with federalism. “It wasn’t until former North Cotabato Gov. [now incoming Agriculture Secretary] Emmanuel F. Piñol kept posting about the topic in his Facebook page that I came to fully understand the concept of federalism,” she said. “Eventually, more and more posts and videos about federalism came out in Facebook.”

She added that one of the posts of Piñol included a video on “Ano ba ang Federalismo [What is federalism]?” The video, uploaded in YouTube on April 7—almost a month before the May 9 elections— ran for four minutes and 11 seconds. As of June 5, the video has elicited 63,209 views.

Piñol’s video is essentially a primer on federalism as espoused by then presidential candidate Duterte. It basically compares the present presidential (unitary) form of government with a federal form of government.

Presidential vs federal

THE presidential form of government emphasizes that “power and authority is mostly vested in one centralized government.”

63,209

The total number of views of “Ano ba ang Federalismo [What is federalism]?” YouTube video from April 7 to June 5 “One aspect for this is that income and funds made by each region would all go to the centralized government and, from there, budget is distributed back to each region, basing on the amount the government has set.”

Piñol’s video, titled “Ano ba ang Federalismo,”explains that “in federalism, power will be divided between the national federal government and the local state government.”

“The Philippines shall be divided into different states,” the video explains. It cites as an example the proposed Federal Structure by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, wherein Northern Luzon will be one state and Central Luzon would be another

state and so on and so forth.

According to the video, each state would retain 80 percent of their income and funds and only 20 percent of that would go to the federal national government. The video added that 30 percent of the 80-percent income of each state would go to the [local state government and 70 percent would go to the provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays.

Each state would also have their own set of senators and representatives. Legislative powers are also shared between the national federal government and the local state government. So in basic terms, the federal government is

responsible for the military and protection of the nation, and the local state government would be responsible for their respective states, where each local government has more control over the projects, budgets and laws.

The Philippines has 7,107 islands, each with diverse tribes and cultures and, obviously, each region has their own specific needs. In cases of emergency, we have repeatedly failed to respond quickly since the facilities, technology and funding is mainly focused on where the centralized government is located. The unitary form of government has failed us again and again. By shifting from a unitary form of government to a federal type of government, Duterte believes we can achieve economic reforms, equal justice, progress to each state and decongest Metro Manila as some would have put it.

Executed in clever graphics and attractive colored animation, the video is representative of about 10 other educational videos on federalism now lined-up in YouTube and were uploaded a month or two before the May 9 elections.

Senate panel releases report on $81-M laundering probe

transactions, casino operators are required to comply with customer identification requirements, record-keeping, and to report covered and suspicious transactions, under a proposed change in the moneylaundering regime. SB 2106 sets the minimum for covered transactions in casinos at P3 million.

SB 2106, according to the committee, also “gives the AMLC authority to inquire into, or examine any particular account” with any casino operator deemed related to any unlawful activity or moneylaundering offenses, as defined under RA 9160.

According to the Blue-Ribbon Committee, passing SB 2106 into law “will ensure that there will be no loophole in the country’s antimoney-laundering mechanisms.”

Relaxing bank secrecy

MEANWHILE, the committee also proposes relaxing restrictions under RA 1405 on the confidential nature of bank deposits.

It also proposes lifting the confidentiality of foreign-currency deposits under RA 6426, or the foreign-currency deposit system law.

During the hearings, the Senate probers were aghast by the dilemma presented by private bank RCBC on divulging to authorities the details of four bogus accounts opened in its Jupiter branch. RCBC officials said—and senators disputed—they could not simply divulge this without the waiver of account holders as required by existing law.

The Blue-Ribbon Committee said: “One of the problems that the committee encountered during the hearing is the application of the bank-secrecy law to the case. RCBC was hesitant in disclosing details on the fictitious accounts for fear of violating our bank-secrecy laws.”

“There appears to be a gap in the wordings of the law, in a situation of a fictitious account. There is no depositor that can waive the application of the bank secrecy.

A strict interpretation of the law will then result in a preposterous situation of a fictitious account being protected by our bank-secrecy laws,” it added.

It is high time for the Senate, said the panel, to “reexamine the purpose of our bank-secrecy laws and to make the corresponding amendments to ensure that our bank-secrecy laws will not be used to hide criminal transactions.”

Amla amendments

WITH regard to amending R A 9160, or the Amla, the Committee endorsed 16 key recommended changes as pitched in congressional hearings by the Department of Finance (DOF). Effecting such changes to RA 9160, said the draft panel report “will ensure a more comprehensive approach in combating money laundering in our country.”

The 16 proposed amendments were listed by Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima in a letter to the

Blue-Ribbon Committee. Some of the key changes sought are: n including casinos, real-estate brokers, art dealers and motorvehicle dealers as covered persons under Amla; n setting different categories— but both covered persons—for the “jewelry dealers” and “dealers” in previous metals and stones; n clarifying the definition of covered transactions, depending on the covered person; n designating the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as supervising authority of foreign-exchange dealers, money changers, and remittance and money-transfer businesses for the purpose of the Amla; n adding the fol low ing as unlawful activities under Amla: violation of firearms and ammunition regulation act, cybercrimes, violation of Strategic Trade Management Act (regarding weapons of mass destruction) and tax evasion; n allowing the BSP to check Amla

The graphics are so attractive, there are even comments about them: “Ano gamit n’yong editing software [What editing software did you use]?” or “Anong software ginamit para sa animation [What software did you use for the animation]?” The response was, “+JP tribalscene Adobe After Effects.”

As of June 5, these videos have registered some 9,377 views to a high of 63,187 views. These do not include the videos of news reports on Duterte espousing federalism, which run up to 74,000 views and counting.

It is not the first time that a president pushed for Charter change (Cha-cha) during his or her administration. Shifting to a parliamentary form of government was attempted by Presidents Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who, like Duterte, also espoused federalism.

And, while President Aquino did not espouse Cha-cha, House Speaker Feliciano R. Belmonte Jr. had sought amendments in the economic provisions of the Constitution.

None of these efforts proved successful. Would Duterte be the exception? To be continued

C  

compliance of covered persons under its supervision or regulation; n increasing monetary penalty for administrative sanctions.

A proposed DOF amendment to Amla—which the Blue-Ribbon Committee adopted—seeks to authorize the AMLC, instead of the Court of Appeals, to issue ex parte freeze orders with respect to some unlawful activities.

Another amendment authorizes the AMLC to check compliance with the Amla by covered persons not under any supervising authority.

The AMLC will also be authorized, under another amendment, to issue subpoena and administer oath in aid of its investigation and compliance-checking functions.

Under another amendment endorsed by the Senate panel, covered persons would be allowed to temporarily withhold transactions not exceeding two banking days from occurrence of a transaction, in the course of verifying whether the transaction is

BOC. . .

C  A

The Pisi has been butting heads with the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Product Standards on the issue, alleging that the government agency facilitated the entry of the shipment into the market, sans proper documentation and certification.

The FPI chairman clarified that he is not asking for undue advantage for local manufacturers versus importers, but a tighter watch on the BOC to really level the playing field. “If smuggling, undervaluation or cheating on the standards of a product [food or nonfood] is eliminated, I expect a boost to the local manufacturing,” he added.

Arranza has been saying that the Customs is the economy's first line of defense, so the government must take extra efforts to ensure it is rid of irregularities.

Arranza offered the FPI’s conditional support to the incoming administration, hinged on the crackdown on smuggling.

“We would like to assure that the FPI, as chair of the Fight IT [Fight Illicit Trade] advocacy, we will give full support to the Duterte administration, as what we’ve done before. But we will do it to protect the local industry and local labor by preventing smuggling,” he said.

“We will be around to help; we will not be a fault-finder. But if we find some fault, we will not hesitate to bring that to the attention of the President-elect,” Arranza remarked.

Manufacturing has seen a boom in the last four years, outpacing the growth of services for the first time in a decade.

suspicious or not, and terminate the transaction or account if they find reasonable belief that there is possible violation of the Amla.

The Committee also endorsed a DOF-initiated amendment that reduces the required quantum of evidence as basis for an authority to inquire into, or examine, bank accounts or investments.

It also recommended adding unlawful activities to those exempted from the requirement of a court order before a bank inquiry may be conducted.

The Blue-Ribbon Committee conducted an inquiry into the banking scandal after the Bangladeshi government complained its central bank had lost $81 million to cyber hackers, who caused the Federal Reserve of New York— where Dhaka’s central bank has an account—to clear the transfer of funds to the Philippines.

The money, which landed to four individual accounts, was then laundered in two casinos.

From 2013 to 2016, the average quarterly growth for manufacturing was at 8.1 percent, while services posted an average of 6.6 percent Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) Senior Research Fellow Adoracion Navarro recently told BUSINESSM IRROR the Duterte administration must implement a comprehensive tax and customs-reform program to increase revenues.

“Implementing a comprehensive tax- and customs-reform program that aims to substantially increase revenues— perhaps, target a revenue of 20 percent of GDP (is needed),” Navarro said.

Ateneo de Manila EagleWatch Senior Fellow Alvin Ang said the next administration must address problems in the BOC, especially since it was identified by the President-elect as among the corrupt agencies in government.

Ang said the main thrust of the reforms must be in the “vigorous and sustained” exercise of political will to ensure that all wrongdoers will be put to jail.

“It’s one of the agencies that he said is corrupt. It’s, therefore, important that Customs delivers on its reforms,”Ang said.

“Yes [agency clean up]. Vigorous and sustained. Must put to jail offenders.”

Last year a PIDS study, titled “Furthering the Implementation of AEC Blueprint Measures,” urged the government to pass the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act. It aims to apply international standards in Customs Operations, as well as making importations faster, predictable, efficient and transparent.

The CMTA was signed into law in May

by President Aquino. The law amends the Tariff and Customs Code.

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DELAYS GALORE

Consequences of Duterte’s planned daily flights at Naia

I

B R M

@rectomercene

NCOMING President Rodrigo R. Duterte said he would hop on commercial flights between Davao and Manila as a way to demonstrate his propoor agenda.

Duterte’s plan to scrimp on people’s money is in line with his directive that no Cabinet member should use expensive sport-utility vehicles and they should book on economy class when they travel.

Security experts, however, said Duterte’s plan to commute daily from Davao City to Manila and back is risky.

The BusinessMirror asked experts to comment on Duterte’s plan of taking daily flights. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) said normally, the presence of the Chief Executive in an airplane would automatically alert air-traffic controllers to declare a quasi-emergency.

This is a procedure where airport operations go into “freeze mode” for a while, for security reasons.

“The moment the President steps into the airplane and taxi out in preparation for takeoff, all airport activities are temporarily suspended,” Caap Deputy Director General Rodante S. Joya. “Other airplanes taking off and landing are told to stay at the tarmac until the President’s airplane has gone 20 miles away.”

On the other hand, if the President is arriving, all aircraft operations are also suspended while the Chief Executive’s airplane is 20 miles away until he steps out of the aircraft,” Joya added.

He said this is true if the President is riding an officially designated aircraft, which is recognizable to air controllers, because it carries a code. Joya, however, said he does not know what protocol will apply should Duterte use commercial airlines.

President Aquino’s airplane is known to air controllers as “Kalayaan One”, and “Air Force One” when he goes abroad, in the same manner that American President Barack Obama’s flights are also called “Air Force One.” “The idea of designating specific military aircraft to transport the President arose in 1943, when officials of the United States Army Air Forces, the predecessor to the US Air Force, became concerned with relying on commercial airlines to transport the president,” Wikipedia said.

“If such is the case, there would be a f lurry of quasi-emergencies being declared, not only at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) but also

FLYING KISS

Winners of the 2016 Miss Global Philippines blow kisses to the audience after their coronation at Resorts World in Pasay City. The winning beauties are (from left): third runner-up Sammie Ann Legaspi, first runnerup Perlyn Ocampo, Miss Global Camille Hiro, second runner-up Janelle Olafson and fourth runner-up Christine Horstman. RUDY ESPERAS

at Davao Airport,” Naia ramp controller Alger Ramo said.

A veteran air-traffic controller and pilot, Ramo said handling presidential flights are based on established protocol.

“The life of a president is always at risk and these protocols are made so that everyone concerned, or anybody with any link to presidential flights knew in advance what they are supposed to do,” he said.

He cited one incident of quasiemergency occurred during President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s term. She was aboard a small private jet going to Davao to attend a wedding and the air controllers shut down airport operations until she could take off.

Gulf Air happens to be arriving at about the same time that Arroyo’s plane was taking off. Air controllers told the Middle Eastern carrier to divert to Clark International Airport instead of flying around in circles over Manila for the next 20 minutes, since Clark is only 15 minutes away.

Gu l f A i r a l leged ly f i led a complaint against the then Air Transportation Office (ATO) for diverting its incoming f light after it was delayed three hours at Clark. A number of Filipino passengers reportedly complained that the diversion made them miss their connecting f lights to their home provinces.

“These are established protocols,” Joya said of the quasiemergency, adding that normally the Caap would coordinate with the Presidential Security Guard (PSG), the Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa), the Aviation Security Group (ASG), Office for Transport Security (OTS) and all others.

“It takes plenty of planning and coordination to handle a presidential flight, but these are done in advance and we don’t even know if we would still be here at the Caap when President-elect Duterte takes over,” Joya said.

“Birds are not even supposed to fly during quasi-emergencies,” he joked to inject meaning to the protocol. One aviation expert who refused to be identified because he is not allowed to speak on the issue said that, when it comes to security, not all of the President’s directives are followed.

“He might not even know about it, but when President Duterte

boards commercial flights, there would probably be several security men and women aboard without him knowing about it.”

The head of the National PoliceAviation Security Group (Avsegroup), C/Supt. Francisco Balagtas, said that, although the primary role of protecting the President at any airport belongs to the PSG, his group provides additional security to the President.

“We coordinate with the PSG, but of course, once we knew in advance which flight the President is taking, there would be stricter baggage inspection, body-frisking and high visibility of uniformed, armed men around the airport and all the way to the 90-hectare perimeter of the Naia.”

He said normally, the arrival of the President at the Naia would trigger the stationing of more heavily armed guards at various gates, more bomb-sniffing dogs are fielded, closed-circuit television are manned, while helicopters would be flying above.

He added that even firefighters are activated and their vehicles roam the runway for any debris that could be sucked by the engines.

“These and many more compose the security blanket that shelters the Chief Executive whenever he goes,” Balagtas added.

He said the Avsegroup has yet to have a meeting with the PSG and other agencies to discuss how the security precautions would be viewed if Duterte make true his vow to commute.

Balagtas said he is not sure whether the same security precautions that applies to private planes that Duterte would use, would also apply to commercial flights.

Miaa Spokesman Dav id de Castro said: “As it is, there are no concrete plans yet for the President-elect’s commute. The Miaa awaits proper coordination with the team of the incoming President for any special arrangement should daily f lights be the case.”

“Needless to say, the Naia is always ready to accommodate Mr. Duterte as with all previous presidents,” he said.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) said: “The carriers have a set of proto-

cols on presidential flights to any foreign destination, such as selection of pilots, cabin crew and inflight meals.”

“Our cabin crews are trained to provide inflight service that reflects the PAL brand philosophy— heart of the Filipino,” Spokesman Cielo Villaluna said.

“Before each and every flight, a purser or head cabin attendant would remind the team to provide service competence to address the needs of passengers. That is what the incoming President can expect.”

She added that starting June 1, PAL has upgraded one of its Manila-Davao-Manila f lights, from a 199-seater Airbus A321 to a 414-seater Airbus A330.

“The use of big aircraft is in anticipation of increased traffic between Manila and Davao,” she said.

PAL operates eight flights a day between Manila and Davao.

The legacy carrier also flies three times a day to Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

Meanwhile, Duterte said at his thanksgiving party that “all mining companies have to stop mining in Mindanao.” The grand party was held at the sprawling grounds of the inland resort Davao Crocodile Park at Maa district in Davao City.

“Mining people must shape up...

Tingnan ninyo ang Surigao, puro butas na. You have to stop spoiling the land, you’re destroying Mindanao,” he said in his talk during his “One Love, One Nation” thanksgiving party attended by more than 300,000 supporters.

He said the destruction of Mindanao and dislocation of its people, including the Moro people, “ has to change.”

For Duterte, Mindanao’s mineral resources must first be enjoyed by people from Mindanao, like the “coops of Filipinos digging out there, and I’ll just give instructions how not to spoil the land, una muna ang taga Mindanao.”

“There’s a big problem of mining companies. They’re destroying our country. You have to force the military and the police to enforce,” he said, referring to the mining laws that are more often enforced in the breach.

The moment the President steps into the airplane and taxi out in preparation for takeoff, all airport activities are temporarily suspended.

Other airplanes taking off and landing are told to stay at the tarmac until the President’s airplane has gone 20 miles away.” —J

Monday, June 6, 2016

LAWMAKERS’ FIGHT FOR SSS PENSIONHIKE BILL CONTINUES B B F @butchfBM

S

ENATORS doubt Congress can still pass the P2,000 pension hike for Social Security System (SSS) member-retirees during the final session on Monday, pointing out that any move to override President Aquino’s rejection of the awaited benefits for SSS contributors must be initiated by the House of Representatives.

The bill, however, is sure to resurface in July for a fresh start in the 17th Congress.

Mr. Aquino had vetoed the bill in February on serious concerns aired by SSS officials, including actuarial projections that the pension hike would hasten the SSS fund’s slide into bankruptcy.

In rejecting the Congressapproved legislation, President Aquino said he was accountable, not just to the current pensioners, but also future generations of pension holders. “Override must originate from the House where the SSS pension bill came from,” Senate President Franklin M. Drilon told the BusinessMirror over the weekend. “I don’t think there is time,” Drilon added.

Senate Deputy Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III noted that any move to reverse Mr. Aquino’s veto would require more than a majority vote in the two chambers of Congress.

“Yes [Congress can override Aquino’s veto], if there is two-thirds vote of both houses,” Sotto added. Sen. Sergio R. Osmeña III observed that Congress has run out of time to marshal the votes needed to reverse President Aquino’s refusal to grant the additional benefits to SSS retirees. “With

only one session day left, no more time,” Osmeña said, as the Senate and the House are set to adjourn after Monday’s session.

Sen.Juan Edgardo M. Angara explained that, under the rules, the initiative to reverse Mr. Aquino veto should come from their counterparts in the House of Representatives.

“It is the House who must do it if it wishes to do so,” Angara said, noting that “the measure originated from there.”

Angara admitted, however, he does not see this happening “since there is an ongoing debate regarding feasibility of the SSS pension hike and the very viability of SSS is put at stake.”

Still, Senators Grace Poe and Francis G. Escudero are expected to push the measure when the 17th Congress convenes in July. Dur ing their ill-fated campaign for president and vice president, Escudero vowed that if Congress fails to override President Aquino’s veto, they will put the proposed P2,000 increase in the monthly pension of SSS members on top of their legislative agenda.

Escudero explained that, while his resolution expressing the sense of the Senate to override the presidential veto was only three votes shy of the required two-thirds majority vote, the senators must wait for the action of the House of Representatives, where the SSS pension-hike bill originated.

The House needs at least 194 votes, while the Senate needs 16 to override the President’s veto. Under Article VI, Section 2 of the Constitution, the override must be initiated by the chamber where the measure originated.

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AseanMonday BusinessMirror

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news@businessmirror.com.ph

Bangkok airport woes draw spotlight B B K | Bangkok Post, Thailand

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UBLIN—Bangkok’s deficiency in airport capacity continues to irk the global airline industry, as the city was singled out at a yearly summit as the only Asian destination with serious problems.

Tony Tyler, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), on Thursday specifically named Bangkok among five cities facing a severe airportcapacity crunch.

The others are New York, London, São Paulo and Frankfurt, where congestion is critical and efforts to address the problem have fallen short of industry expectations.

“Some governments understand that aviation infrastructure is a driver of national competitiveness. But too many have forgotten. We see that with bottlenecks in cities as far flung as New York, London, São Paulo, Frankfurt and Bangkok,” Tyler said.

“In some cases, we have the paradoxical situation of world-class airports on the ground and gridlock in the skies,” he added.

But Tyler noted that authorities in China are working to improve the frustrating situation there.

“It’s important that we see improvements in the Gulf, as well,” he said, referring to the Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha airports in the Persian Gulf.

“The bigger question is, why aren’t government decisions on infrastructure more motivated by seeing aviation as a force for good?” he asked.

“Short-term politics gets in the way of long-term national interest.”

IATA officials said Tyler made reference to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, because of its importance

as a large air hub in Southeast Asia, frequented by some 100 airlines.

Suvarnabhumi’s expansion is a decade behind the original plan, and only now are Thai authorities beginning to set long-awaited work in motion.

In 2015 Suvarnabhumi, the gateway to Thailand and the largest airport in the country, handled 52.9 million passengers, up nearly 14 percent from the previous year, despite a designed passenger capacity of 45 million a year.

In the first quarter of this year, the airport’s passenger traffic rose by 8.03 percent year-on-year to 15.27 million.

IATA has been pressing statecontrolled Airports of Thailand Plc. (AoT) to fast-track the phase 2 expansion that would provide a muchneeded increase in capacity at Suvarnabhumi, where traffic is soaring by more than 10 percent annually.

In his address to the 72nd IATA general meeting in Dublin, Tyler underlined the importance of aviation to the world economy. With travelers making 3.8 billion journeys by air this year, aviation supports 63 million jobs and underpins 3.5 percent of the global economy, he said.

AoT Chairman Prasong Poontaneat has insisted that bidding for jobs related to the airport expansion is in process and that the expansion, which will raise passenger capacity to 60 million a year, should be up and running in 2019.

KITJA Apichonrojarek BANGKOK POST

Hitachi Zosen keen on Thailand’s waste-to-energy industry

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ITACHI Zosen Corp., a Japanese provider of industrial plants and waste-treatment systems, is breaking into the Thai waste-to-energy industry to capitalize on the government’s promotions.

Ken Okubo, Hitachi Zosen general manager, said the company expects to provide technical systems in Thailand, targeting two to three production plants a year in the next few years.

The company aims to handle more customers, as the industry continues to grow.

“Hitachi Zosen provides a wide range of industrial services but right now the waste-to-energy business is our main focus,” Okubo said.

He added that the company entered Thailand in 1994 as a leading firm in industrial waste treatment.

For the energy business, the company’s first client has ordered an incinerator and flue gas-cleaning system for a waste-to-energy plant in Nong Khai. The plant is owned by Nongkhainayu Co., which will handle waste from nearby communities, with a capacity of 370

tonnes per day and power-generating capacity of 6 megawatts.

The value of the project was not revealed.

Okubo said Hitachi Zosen has provided over 800 waste-to-energy projects worldwide. “We can provide technology suitable for highhumidity waste in Thailand, which is harder to burn,” he added.

He said the company’s systems are proven to produce low emissions, matching Thai and European Union regulations if necessary.

Hitachi Zosen posted revenue of

$3.5 billion last year, with 62.4 percent from industrial plants.

Okubo said Thailand and Malaysia will be its two focal points in Asean because of the size of their economies. He said Thailand has an advantage as its government supports waste-to-energy businesses as a way to tackle trash overload.

The Energy Regulatory Commission said a new round of licensing for waste-to-energy projects with a combined power-generating capacity of 50 MW is expected to open this month. TNS

‘Time to look elsewhere for maid supply’ China admiral touts cooperation

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UALA LUMPUR—Quit depending on Indonesia for maids, give serious thought to sourcing them from Cambodia—this, in short, is Malaysian National Association of Employment Agencies’ (Pikap) suggestion to the Malaysian government.

With Indonesia and even the Philippines having made it rather clear that they do not want their women to work as domestic helpers in other countries from next year, it is time for Malaysia to look elsewhere for its maid supply.

Pikap President Datuk Raja Zulkepley Dahalan felt that Cambodia was the best choice for Malaysia, as its people were known to be disciplined, courteous and gentle, while their culture and traditions were more or less similar to Malaysia’s.

“Even our languages share some similarities,” he said, hoping that Malaysia and Cambodia could hasten the finalization of a pilot scheme to bring in 500 Cambodian maids.

“It’s still at the negotiation stage... but I hope they can speed it up and implement the pilot project in July.”

Malaysia used to source for maids from Cambodia until 2011, when President Hun Sen put a stop to it, following reports of abuse by Malaysian employers and Cambodian recruitment agencies.

However, last December the two countries signed another memorandum of understanding on the recruitment of Cambodian workers and domestic helpers, which outlined a more systematic process for the recruitment, hiring and repatriation of workers, and the protection of their rights.

Maid shortage

RAJA ZULKEPLEY said due to Malaysia’s dependency on Indonesia as its main source nation, it stood to face a severe shortage of maids should the republic go ahead with its plan to disallow its women from working as live-in maids in other

countries from next year.

“If Indonesia implements this plan, it will have an impact worldwide, including Malaysia. It can affect our country’s productivity...as if this is not enough, other source nations, like the Philippines, are also imposing various conditions for the hiring of maids,” he told Bernama, recently.

The Philippine government has also stated its intention to stop sending domestic helpers overseas in stages and it expects the practice to come to a full stop in 2017.

With the two main suppliers aiming to sever their pipelines, how will Malaysia cope with the ensuing shortage of maids?

The Malaysian government is hoping that Indonesia will reconsider its decision on the maid issue. Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has said Indonesia and Malaysia should have more detailed discussions on the matter and added that he would invite Indonesia’s Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri to Malaysia for talks.

Provide training for locals

URGING Malaysia to be fully prepared for a contingency should there be a halt in the supply of maids from the two main source countries, Raja Zulkepley said Pikap was planning to introduce a “home manager” scheme, under which locals would be trained to provide daily or part-time maid service.

“Since we always seem to be dependent [on other countries], Pikap is suggesting that an institute be set up for experienced instructors to train school-leavers, single mothers and others who are interested in providing maid service, regardless of their race. Although not many [Malaysians] are keen to do such work, we still plan to present our proposal for the establishment of such a training institute to the government, and we hope to set it up soon.

“There’s nothing new about our suggestion, as some state governments have done it, too, but they have not been all that effective. We want to use our experience to train Malaysians so that they have another job option, although being a maid would most probably be their last choice,” he said.

Workplace nursery

MALAYSIAN Maid Employers Association (MAMA) President Engku Ahmad Fauzi Engku Muhsein, meanwhile, said since Malaysians hire maids mainly to look after their children when they go to work, the government should encourage employers to set up nurseries at the workplace.

“I believe that, while chores, like cleaning and cooking, can be done by the husband and wife, they rely largely on maids to take care of their children during office hours.

“As such, public agencies and private companies should be encouraged to set up nurseries, which can be operated by trained local child-minders. This is a better option [for the government] than importing maids, who create an outflow of funds when they remit money to their home nation,” he said.

Leaving their children at their office nursery would provide peace of mind to parents and also lead to higher productivity, he said, adding that the childminders’ salaries could be borne by the companies or by imposing a small fee on the employees concerned.

He also agreed with Raja Zulkepley that Malaysia should look elsewhere for its maid supply, adding that countries, like Cambodia, Bangladesh and Nepal, did not mind sending their women to Malaysia to work as domestic helpers.

“At the same time, it’s important that we seek more concrete ways to overcome the maid issue, as we don’t want our nation to be paralyzed due to its overdependence on maids. In fact, the issue must be resolved way before 2020 because it can undermine productivity,” he said. Bernama

while warning on South China Sea

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HINESE Adm. Sun Jianguo used a speech to global defense chiefs to tout his military’s cooperation in the western Pacific, while taking aim at the US for sailing ships near reefs China claims in the disputed South China Sea. Sun’s address struck a more conciliatory tone at the Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore than last year, even as China beefs up its military presence in contested areas. He stressed the People’s Liberation Army’s interactions with the militaries of Southeast Asia and countries like India and Japan.

“The Asia-Pacific countries have constituted a community of shared destiny, interdependent and inseparable,” Sun said on Sunday. “The bright future for the Asia-Pacific region has to be facilitated by common development and common security of all regional countries.”

China contests more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in seaborne trade passes every year, overlapping claims from countries like Vietnam and the Philippines. It has reclaimed more than 3,000 acres of land in the area in the past few years, and built some military infrastructure.

“China advocates a new security outlook, featuring inclusive, shared and win-win security cooperation by all,” Sun said. “From the defense and military perspective, China believes that countries in the Asia-Pacific region should work together to promote security governance.”

Arbitration case

WHILE Sun said China was committed to peace and security, he said China would not accept a Hague ruling on the South China Sea expected within weeks. The arbitration court is considering a Philippine challenge to China’s territorial claims.

In the lead up to the ruling, China has mounted a public relations blitz in the media to promote its position on the waterway.

China’s diplomats have been ferrying around Southeast Asian nations.

Sun said China’s door was open to incoming Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte to resume bilateral talks on their territorial dispute.

“China isn’t out to stir trouble but neither is China scared of trouble,” Sun said. “China will not stand for its sovereign rights to be trampled on.”

“The South China Sea’s freedom of navigation hasn’t been impeded because of the territorial disputes,” Sun said. “We stress peaceful negotiations through legitimate means in resolving any disputes.”

Sun also said China’s military was working well with counterparts in the US, and cited an agreement between the two to manage unplanned encounters at sea. At the same time, he implicitly rebuked the US for conducting freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, where the US has sailed near reefs that China says belong to it.

“If freedom of navigation is compromised in the South China Sea, then China is the largest victim,” he said. “If freedom of navigation is undermined, then China would not be to blame.”

Sun also rebutted US Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s comment on Saturday that China risked building a “Great Wall of selfisolation” through its actions on the South China Sea, saying he had had positive interactions at Shangri-La with defense ministers and chiefs.

“Most of them are warmer and more friendly to me than last year and they respect me and trust me more than last year,” he said. “We have not received so many questions about the South China Sea as last year.”

“In fact China is open, inclusive and a responsible country, it is a participator and constructor and contributor to the current international system,” Sun said. “We are not isolated and we will not be isolated in the future.” Bloomberg News

The World

A5 Monday, June 6, 2016 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

BusinessMirror

OVER FLOODS, STRIKES AND SECURITY CONCERNS

French tourism faces challenges

PEOPLE looking at the floods stand on the Alma Bridge by the Zouave statue, which is used as a measuring instrument during floods in Paris, France, on Friday. Both the Louvre and Orsay museums were closed as the Seine, which officials said was at its highest level in nearly 35 years, was expected to peak sometime later on Friday. AP/JEROME DELAY

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ARIS—The weather is awful, striking workers and widespread flooding are causing travel chaos and security fears, following deadly extremist attacks last year in Paris still linger in people’s minds.

Welcome to France—and especially its capital city.

It’s been an uncomfortable time for French tourism—and officials worry that further trouble could damage the country’s image just as it prepares to host Europe’s leading sports event—the 2016 European Championship soccer tournament.

“I have to admit that the strikes, the rains, the attacks—they really damaged the image of France for our foreign tourist friends,” says Herve Becam, vice president of France’s union of hoteliers.

Becam says hotel-occupancy rates were down about 25 percent in Paris, but with Euro 2016 starting next Friday, the situation could still turn around. Paris is one of nine French cities hosting the tournament that captivates Europe for a month.

Others in the country’s tourism sector have urged workers angry over proposed government labor changes to pull back on their repeated strikes and protests—some of which have left long lines at gas

stations, fuel shortages and bridges blocked by barricades.

“There’s still time to save the tourist season by putting an end to these blockages being broadcast worldwide,” said Frédéric Valletoux, head of the Paris region’s tourism committee.

His appeal, however, appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

On Thursday striking workers created blackouts by cutting power to a big electricity line in western France, while other protesters briefly occupied train tracks at a Paris railway hub.

More strikes are planned for the coming days, with unions and the government locked into a tug-ofwar over changes to France’s labor market, making it easier to hire and fire workers.

A record rainfall is adding to the misery. Due to flooding along the Seine River, which winds its way through the capital, French authorities have shut down a host of the nation’s landmarks: The Louvre museum, the national library, the

Orsay museum and the Grand Palais, Paris’s striking glass-and-steel topped exhibition center, to name a few. The Louvre is not reopening until Wednesday at the earliest.

The rising waters have also disrupted rail traffic, shuttered several of the capital’s subway stations, flooded roads and engulfed the Seine’s embankments, forcing riverside restaurants to close down.

Persistent worries are also still in play about the security situation in Paris, a city that has seen two bloody attacks by Muslim zealots in the past 18 months. There’s been speculation that the suicide bombers who blew themselves up in Brussels on March 22 initially planned to strike at the Euro championships.

The French government says some 90,000 police, soldiers, private guards and others will ensure security for the soccer tournament.

But on Friday Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve admitted that the Paris police chief was demanding more security staff to protect soccer fans. Cazeneuve did not say how many more personnel Paris had asked for but said authorities “are working now on adjusting staffing to ensure maximum security.”

“I cannot guarantee we will not have a confrontation with terrorists,” he added.

Despite the worries and the weather, France is still among the world’s very top tourist destinations. Travel insurance provider Allianz said the number of Americans booking summer vacations in Paris was virtually unchanged over last year. And a Paris taxi driver said tourism had bounced back some-

25

The percentage in reduction of hotel occupancy in Paris

what since the November 13 attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.

“The first three months [after the attacks] were really tough,” said cabbie Youness Chouli, 32, as he navigated the capital’s cobbled streets.

“It’s come back, but it’s not the same as last year.”

Visitors interviewed at the Trocadero, the rain-slicked esplanade with sweeping views of the Eiffel Tower, weren’t put off by the threat of an attack—or by the strikes or the rain, for that matter.

Erik Leslie, 33, who was visiting Paris with his family, said he was wasting no energy worrying about another attack.

“What’re the odds that that’s going to happen again?” he asked, adding that if strikes became a problem, “we were just going to trudge forward.”

Canadian tourist Helene Gazaille, who was taking a trip to Paris to celebrate her 50th birthday, wasn’t letting the weather stop her and suggested that strikes were just part of the incomparable French experience.

“We did hear there were a lot of protests but that that was typical,” she said, water dripping from her disposable raincoat. “It’s a ritual of the country.” AP

SWISS MULL OVER $2,500 MONTHLY INCOME FOR ALL

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ENEVA—Would you accept about $2,500 from your government every month, no questions asked?

Swiss voters get a choice on Sunday in a referendum that, while not specifying a figure, asks if they want “unconditional basic income.”

Experts estimate a minimum of 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,560) per month is needed for an individual to make ends meet in wealthy Switzerland, where private-sector health insurance is required and the cost of living is sky-high.

Critics warn that the policy would explode the state budget. The Swiss government itself advises voters to reject the proposal, and polls suggest it will fail in a country known for free-market policies and a high-tech, capitalistic financial sector.

Proponents, however, insist the time

has come for a minimum monthly wage as sweeping 21st-century economic changes, like robots displacing factory workers make jobs more precarious in the digital age. They say they’re seeking momentum more than outright victory.

Polls have suggested that only about one-quarter of Swiss voters back the idea. Still, the initiative cleared the bar for a vote, which in Switzerland’s direct democracy means garnering at least 100,000 signatures in a petition drive. It is one of five issues on the ballot on Sunday, including efforts to raise money for public services and simplify the application procedures for asylum-seekers.

Universal basic income might seem like souped-up welfare, but proponents say it’s actually aimed to supplant welfare. Advocates in Switzer-

land and other European countries also examining the idea say current welfare systems are overburdened by red tape, deterring many potential beneficiaries from applying.

The novelty of unconditional basic income is that everybody would get it automatically. It would be a floor: Salaried workers who earn more than 2,500 francs a month would get no extra money.

Under a proposed model, each child would get one-quarter of the total for adults—about 625 francs per month— a sum higher than state child care outlays for families today.

Possible ways of paying for it would include fees on salaries of people who earn more than the minimum, savings from welfare programs that would be discontinued and taxes or spending cuts in the state budget.

Switzerland’s basic-income push is among the most advanced in Europe.

The Dutch city of Utrecht wants to start a two-year experiment with a similar plan, handing money to residents who already receive welfare benefits.

Ralph Kundig, president of the Swiss chapter of the Basic Income Earth Network, said some economists favored the idea as a way to underpin consumption and support the economy.

“Our parents, grandparents and beyond worked hard so that we could produce more by working less, with machines and so forth,” Kundig said. “The only thing that they did not foresee was that this wealth would only benefit the owners of the means of production.”

Kundig said studies and pilot projects show people wouldn’t just sit at home and do nothing. AP

news@businessmirror.com.ph

BLAIR, BROWN LEAD IN U.K. ‘REMAIN’ CAMPAIGN

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IX former United Kingdom Labour Party leaders, including former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, on Saturday urged the British to vote in favor of remaining in the European Union (EU) in the June 23 referendum.

UK membership in the EU has provided job protection, lower prices and significant benefits for working people, the leaders said on Saturday in a joint statement.

The six, which also included Neil Kinnock, Margaret Beckett, Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband, spoke as the party began a drive to register people before Tuesday’s deadline.

“Europe protects people at work, stimulates jobs and innovation, keeps prices lower, leads global action against climate change, makes us safer against terrorism, and magnifies Britain’s voice and values,” the leaders said. “We understand our party’s value and its people.

Each are strengthened by Britain being in Europe.”

Polls have suggested the battle is tightening ahead of the vote on a socalled Brexit, or Britain exit from the EU, and that warnings by the government, led by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, about the threat to the economy aren’t having an impact.

While the “Remain” side has concentrated on saying jobs will be lost if Britain exits, the “Leave” side has fought on immigration.

Labour leaders will appear on Sunday at rallies across Britain, with Kinnock headlining an event in London.

“If Labour stays at home, Britain leaves,” the leaders said. “And a vote to leave is a vote for a profound and permanent loss the whole country would feel,

whether through lost jobs or lost generations.”

UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon on Saturday said the prospect of withdrawing from the EU is causing concerns among his counterparts in Asia, where he was taking part in the 12-nation ShangriLa Dialogue in Singapore.

“I’ve yet to meet with a fellow defense minister who isn’t concerned at the possibility of a Brexit and who doesn’t understand that that would weaken our collective security,” Fallon told reporters on the sidelines of the security forum.

“It would be a very odd thing for Britain to start walking out of international organizations,” he said. “On the contrary, I think many countries still look to Britain to lead, or behind the scenes to steer, many of these groupings.”

A leader of the Leave campaign, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, defended the group’s assertions about the costs of membership, as he was accused of running “Project Lies.”

Appearing on a Sky News television special on Friday night, Gove was challenged repeatedly about Vote Leave’s statement that the UK sends £350 million ($500 million) a week to the EU, with the first questioner from the audience using the phrase “Project Lies” frequently. The figure has been called “misleading” by the UK Statistics Authority and “absurd” by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

“We give more than £350 million to Brussels,” Gove said. “Now we do get some of that money back. It’s important to acknowledge that. But the truth is that we cannot count on that rebate. I fear that if we vote to remain, that rebate will only be reduced further.” Bloomberg News

Environmental crimes cost world econ $258B

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NVIRONMENTAL crimes are rising due to weak laws and enforcement, costing the global economy as much as a record $258 billion, about a quarter more than previously estimated, the United Nations Environment Program (Unep) and Interpol said.

The groups released a study on Saturday, on the eve of World Environment Day, that said the proceeds from crimes, ranging from illegal logging to the trafficking of hazardous waste and illicit gold mining, are funding rebel groups and criminal syndicates.

The scourge includes a rise in the poaching of elephants and rhinos, along with white-collar crimes, such as exploiting the carbon credit market.

Unep and Interpol said environmental crimes now cost between

$91 billion and $258 billion, compared with a 2014 estimate of $70 billion to $213 billion.

“The last decade has seen environmental crime rise by at least 5 percent to 7 percent per year,” growing two to three times faster than global economic output, they said in an e-mailed statement.

The agencies called for stronger actions, such as legislation and sanctions, and for more investment, saying international agencies’ spending of $20 million to $30 million a year to combat the crimes is just a small fraction of the criminal proceeds.

Their recommendations include disrupting overseas tax havens and boosting economic incentives to stop people “at the bottom of the environmental crime chain” from getting involved. Bloomberg News

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The World BusinessMirror

Monday, June 6, 2016

Sanders, Clinton in sync on immigration

briefs

BOMBINGS KILL 15 IN, AROUND IRAQI CAPITAL

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BAGHDAD—Iraqi officials say bombings targeting a police checkpoint, a restaurant and two markets have killed 15 people and wounded more than 40 in and around Baghdad. The deadliest was a suicide bombing against a military checkpoint in Tarmiyah, about 50 kilometers north of the capital, which killed eight people and wounded 15 others. Three of the dead were soldiers. The two separate attacks on markets in Baghdad killed five people, and the bomb targeting the restaurant killed two people. The attacks come as Iraqi forces are attempting to retake the western city of Fallujah from Islamic State militants. AP

W. AFRICAN LEADERS TO SET UP ANTIEXTREMIST FORCE

DAKAR, Senegal—West African leaders discussed setting up a force to combat extremists in the region and will send an observation mission to Gambia before elections, the regional economic body said on Saturday. The decisions were announced after about a dozen heads of state, including presidents from Ivory Coast, Niger and Mali, met in Dakar, Senegal, for the 49th session of the Economic Community of West African States. “We must constantly reconcile the free movement of people and goods with security measures,” said the new president of the body, Marcel Alain de Souza of Benin, at the opening of the daylong summit. “The multiplication of the number of zones of terrorism in our space obliges us to share information on all activities and to coordinate and mobilize our resources.”

No details we disclosed. AP

SYRIAN TROOPS REACH RAQQA PROVINCE, IS FIGHTING ON 4 FRONTS BEIRUT—Syrian troops reached the edge of the northern province of Raqqa on Saturday, home to the de-facto capital of the Islamic State (IS) group’s self-styled caliphate, in a push that leaves the extremists fighting fierce battles on four fronts in Syria and neighboring Iraq. IS, which controls large swaths of territory in both countries, is fighting Syrian troops, US-backed fighters and opposition militants in northern Syria and is facing an offensive by Iraqi government forces on their stronghold of Fallujah. The Syrian government has had no presence in Raqqa since August 2014, when IS captured the Tabqa air base and killed scores of government soldiers. The provincial capital, Raqqa, became the militants’ first city. AP

U.S. HITTING IS TARGETS FROM MEDITERRANEAN SEA

SINGAPORE—The US Navy’s top admiral says the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman has begun launching air strikes against the Islamic State group from the Mediterranean Sea. That opens a new direction of attack against the militants in Iraq and Syria. Adm. John Richardson said in an Associated Press interview on Saturday that this unusual arrangement is a demonstration of the flexibility of naval power. The Navy for years positioned its carriers in the Persian Gulf to conduct air strikes against targets in the Middle East. The Truman had been in the Gulf but in recent days moved into the eastern Mediterranean and resumed air operations. The Truman eventually will return to its home port at Norfolk, Virginia, and be replaced in the Gulf by the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. AP

THE first humanitarian aid convoy in Daraya, Syria, on June 1. A besieged suburb of Syria’s capital received humanitarian aid on Wednesday for the first time since 2012. ICRC VIA AP

UN: Humanitarian access to needy in Syria worsening

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NITED NATIONS—Access to millions of Syrians in need of help is worsening as violence increases across the war-torn country, the United Nations (UN) humanitarian chief warned on Friday, and the Security Council announced it would formally ask Damascus to allow air drops to besieged areas.

Stephen O’Brien said he told a closed emergency council meeting that recent attacks “are creating new humanitarian emergencies and compounding the challenges,” as access continues to be denied to some besieged locations where needs are most acute.

The five-year-old civil war in Syria has killed some 250,000 people, displaced millions and left vast swaths of the country in ruins, enabling the Islamic State (IS) extremist group to take control of large areas of the country.

A Russia- and US-brokered truce began on February 27, but fighting has continued to rage in many areas. While the United Nations continues to provide aid to millions of Syrians every month, O’Brien said it needs access and “the consent of the Syrian government and all necessary security guarantees, in order to conduct air drops.”

The International Syria Support Group (ISSG), a coalition of world powers known as the ISSG, had

1.1M The number of Syrians whom the United Nations deems need access for aid

called for the UN World Food Program (WPF) to unilaterally deliver food to besieged Syrians starting on June 1 if access wasn’t granted by the government. France’s UN Ambassador François Delattre, the current Security Council president, said the UN “will ask Damascus to authorize humanitarian air drops to reach localities for which land access was denied by the Syrian regime.”

He said Syria’s authorization of some aid convoys to besieged towns is “at best a drop in the ocean.”

“We have not been fooled by the Syrian regime’s ploy to authorize

certain convoys which turn out to be empty of food or medicine or both,” Delattre said. “There is a strong momentum here in the Security Council, a strong pressure on the Syrian regime, to say ‘enough is enough.’”

Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari insisted that “humanitarian aid has never been denied by the Syrian government to any part of the country.” He dismissed “baseless allegations” by some council members that the government is hindering deliveries to certain areas and insisted the council meeting was an attempt “to demonize the government” and exert “political pressure” ahead of the next round of talks aimed at ending the war. Ja’afari, Syria’s chief negotiator at the peace talks, refused to say whether Syria would authorize air drops. The Syrian government announced late on Thursday that it approved the delivery of aid to 36 “restive areas” and partial deliveries to eight other areas in June.

The United Nations had requested access to 34 locations to help 1.1 million people and Syria approved 23 requests in full and six partially, and rejected five, UN humanitarian Spokesman Amanda Pitt said.

O’Brien, the undersecretarygeneral for humanitarian affairs, said the UN needs “full approval” of its June request.

That request included all 19 locations officially designated as besieged areas except Yarmouk, which is covered by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, and Deir el-Zour, which is under siege by IS extremists and is already receiving airdrops, Pitt said.

Of the 17 besieged locations that the UN sought to send aid, Pitt said Syria approved 12 requests in full and three partially—Moadamiyeh, Daraya and Douna, where it approved medical assistance, school supplies and milk for children.

Syria rejected UN requests to send aid to Zabadani, a mountain resort which has been besieged by government forces and Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters since last year, and Waer, the last rebel-held neighborhood in the central city of Homs, Pitt said.

O’Brien said the UN has been able to reach 40 percent of the 592,700 people in besieged areas.

But he said only two besieged locations were reached by land in May, a sign of the potential importance of air drops, which are more difficult and costly.

WFP said it is “activating” its air-delivery plan following a request from the ISSG, which is led by the US and Russia. But it stressed the need for authorizations and funding first.

The UN food agency said late on Thursday that 15 besieged areas would require helicopter operations for air drops if land access is not granted. High-altitude air drops are taking place in Deir elZour and would be possible in two other villages, it said.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, Syria’s close ally, said Moscow is looking at “all possibilities,” including air drops, if they are effective. But he strongly criticized unnamed council members for trying to make humanitarian access a precondition for peace negotiations, calling this “an immoral position.” AP

UCLA shooting renews concerns on classroom locks

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OS ANGELES—W hen an active shooter alert spread across the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) campus on Wednesday, some students found themselves in a frightening predicament: They were told to go into lockdown but couldn’t lock their classroom doors.

Images of students piling tables, chairs and printers against doors on social media sparked alarm and raised questions—yet, it was hardly the first time students at a

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university or school were unable to lock their doors during a shooting.

The same issue arose during other recent deadly attacks, including one at Virginia Tech in 2007, where students barricaded themselves inside rooms, and at Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in 2012, where teachers did the same. Some schools have installed locks in recent years following attacks, but experts say wider adoption has been hindered by the cost to retrofit doors and local fire

codes that require doors to open in one motion during emergencies.

Yet, once an active shooter is in a building, most security experts agree getting into a locked room is one of the most effective deterrents against getting injured or shot.

“How many deaths would it have taken for us to address this issue more seriously?” said Jesus Villahermosa, president of Crisis Reality Training, noting that an assailant, knowing police are on the way, usually won’t bother

trying to access a locked room.

T he for mer deput y sher iff said UCLA was fortunate in that shooter Mainak Sarkar targeted professor William Klug and then committed suicide. If he’d gone on a rampage, he might have easily found students unable to defend themselves.

The university said on Friday it was “assessing safety measures” across the campus and will make appropriate changes. It’s unknown exactly how many school

and university classrooms don’t have doors that can lock from the inside. Villahermosa said the issue is more prevalent on college campuses than K-12 schools.

There are a variety of reasons why a school may not have classroom locks. Older buildings constructed at a time when classrooms typically contained just desks and a chalkboard—and not the expensive technology many have today—frequently did not include them. AP

EDER AL agents came for Erika Andiola’s mother in 2013. A well-known immigrant-rights activist in Arizona, Andiola was able to stop her mother’s deportation after mounting a public campaign. But nearly having her mother kicked out of the country by the administration of a Democratic president eroded any allegiance the young activist felt to the Democratic Party.

Today, Andiola is part of a group of Latino advisers to Bernie Sanders who are vocally critical of President Barack Obama and his party’s record on immigration.

She and other Sanders supporters frequently mention the record number of deportations carried out under Obama’s watch and at times have called on Latinos not to vote for certain Democrats who they believe have blocked efforts to limit deportations.

Their prominence in Sanders’s campaign underscores how much the race between the Vermont senator and Hillary Clinton has become entangled in another fight— a long-running battle between Obama and his party’s left wing over immigration enforcement.

Clinton has tied herself closely to the president, who has solid approval ratings among Democrats.

That has paid important electoral dividends, particularly in solidifying the support of black voters.

But just as she has gathered many of Obama’s friends, the former secretary of state has also inherited his opponents.

Sanders and Clinton have offered largely similar proposals.

Both have pledged to go further than Obama in curtailing deportations of immigrants in the country illegally. Both have turned to immigrant activists, some of whom came to the country illegally, to help design their platforms on the issue.

But their supporters have engaged in fierce battles that often seem to have less to do with the candidates themselves than with the existing administration.

The impact can be seen among Latino voters, many of whom view immigration as a top issue. A new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll of California voters found a generational divide in the Latino vote, with Sanders beating Clinton 58 percent to 31 percent among Latino voters younger than 50 in advance of the state’s primary on Tuesday. Among older Latinos, Clinton led 69 percent to 16 percent.

Obama has spoken frequently about the need for a comprehensive immigration bill that would allow most of the 11 million people in the country without permission to stay. Yet, he chose not to push such legislation during his first term in office, not even during his first two years, when Democrats controlled of both chambers of Congress.

In his second term, a comprehensive bill passed the Senate with a bipartisan coalition, but then died in the Republican-controlled House.

While Obama has given work permits and deportation deferrals to some immigrants with longstanding ties to the US, he has also overseen the deportation of more than 2.5 million people in the country illegally.

Some Latino activists see that as a betrayal.

“If we’re talking about parties being hard on Latinos, let’s talk about the Democrats, not just the Republicans,” Andiola, a Sanders spokesman, said at a heated forum on immigration at University of California Los Angeles this week.

Andiola, who was brought to the US from Mexico illegally at age 11, and who won a temporary work permit under Obama’s deportation deferral program, blamed Democrats for looking the other way while Obama presided over a record number of deportations.

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SURGE BY OPPONENT MAKES RACE A TOSSUP

Can another Fujimori win Peru’s presidency?

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IMA, Peru—Just 10 days ago, Keiko Fujimori seemed to have an insurmountable lead in the race for the presidency of Peru.

In an intense runoff campaign, Fujimori emphasized her youth— she turned 41 in May—solid congressional backing and populist proposals, such as cracking down on rampant crime.

Her 77-year-old challenger, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, had performed abysmally in the candidates’ first debate and was hurt by his decision to spend a week during the campaign in the United States to attend his daughter’s college graduation. But things have gone Kuczynski’s way in recent days, and Sunday’s presidential election is now too close to call, analysts here say.

Sur veys taken in the campaign’s waning days show that Fujimori, a congresswoman and daughter of disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori, and Kuczynski, a former finance minister, locked in a technical tie.

Several factors combined to buoy Kuczynski’s candidacy.

The former World Bank economist improved his performance with a more aggressive approach in a second debate and received the backing of Veronika Mendoza, the socialist member of Congress who finished third in April’s first round of voting.

PPK, as Kuczynski is known, also has picked up endorsements from well-known Peruvians, including Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, who ran for president against Fujimori’s father in 1990, and former UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar.

Also in Kuczynski’s favor is many Peruvians’ abiding animus toward Alberto Fujimori, who was sentenced in 2009 to 25 years in prison on charges of crimes against humanity and corruption.

He also has been accused of approving the sterilization of 300,000 women, most of them indigenous, during his time in office from 1990 to 2000.

300K

The number of women former President Alberto Fujimori has been accused of having sterilized from 1990 to 2000

Residual resentment against her father was blamed for Fujimori’s losing the presidency in 2011, when she was beaten in a runoff by Ollanta Humala after handily winning the first round, much as she did in April against six opponents.

Fujimori captured 40 percent of the vote and Kuczynski 20 percent.

Last month Fujimori’s campaign had to deal with news reports that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was investigating one of her advisors, Joaquin Ramirez, in connection with a money-laundering scheme.

From Washington, the DEA issued a statement on May 16 saying that Fujimori “is not currently, nor has been previously” investigated, but the ongoing controversy that has been kept alive by opposition media has not helped her.

“My conversations with wellplugged-in folks here suggest that there has been some significant movement toward PPK and that the latest polls show Keiko has lost all of the 5 [percent] to 6 percent advantage she had just a few days ago,” said David Scott Palmer, a Boston University international relations professor and Peru expert.

Whoever wins, a new centrist president will replace left-of-center incumbent Humala, continuing a recent trend by which leftist regimes in Latin America are being replaced by market-friendly leaders promising fiscal responsibility

PERUVIAN shamans perform a good luck ritual for the two presidential runoff candidates, Keiko Fujimori (pictured in poster on right) and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in Lima, Peru, on May 30. The South American country is gearing up for a tight June 5 runoff between Keiko, the daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori, and Kuczynski, a former World Bank economist. AP/MARTIN MEJIA

and better security.

Fujimori has worked to erase the stigma of her last name, promising not to repeat her imprisoned father’s authoritarian ways, and to never grant him a pardon.

At the same time, she has leveraged the positive perception many poor Peruvians retain of him for having built schools, clinics and roads in rural areas and for vanquishing the Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, rebel movement.

Her broad base of support was illustrated in April’s election when her party, Force Peru, won a 73seat majority in the 135-member congress. In what analysts describe as populist moves, Fujimori has tried to bolster rural support by saying she would legitimize illegal mining. Many Peruvians prospect for gold illegally in mountain areas, and Fujimori has promised to formalize that business activity.

She also has sought the support of Peru’s sizable conservative evangelical community by coming out against same-sex marriages.

But longtime Peru researcher Shane Hunt says Fujimori has grasped that the main issue for voters during this election cycle is the country’s deteriorating security, a by-product of Peru’s role as a cocaine-trafficking hub.

Crime is an issue especially important to poor voters, who suffer the brunt of the upsurge in violence.

“She doesn’t talk about human rights; she talks about getting tough on criminals, including building five new high-altitude prisons and calling the army and navy into the fight,” said Hunt, who is professor emeritus at Boston University. “In other words, going after the crime problem the way her father went after the Sendero. By so doing, she

Tale of Trump, partner in Azerbaijan project

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ASHINGTON—Si x m o nt h s b e f o r e h e launched his presidential campaign, Donald Trump announced a new real-estate project in Baku, Azerbaijan. The partner was Anar Mammadov, the son of a government minister suspected by US diplomats of laundering money for Iran’s military and described as “notoriously corrupt.”

Eighteen months later, and only weeks after daughter Ivanka Trump released a publicity video of the nearly finished project, references to the Baku project have disappeared from Trump’s web site. Trump’s general counsel, Alan Garten, told The Associated Press (AP) that it was on hold for economic reasons.

Trump often talks of hiring the best people and surrounding himself with people he can trust.

In practice, however, he and his executives have, at times, appeared to overlook details about the background of people he has chosen as business partners, such as whether they had dubious associations, had been convicted of crimes, faced extradition or inflated their résumés.

The Trump camp’s vetting skills are important, as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee turns to selecting a running mate.

THE Trump International Hotel, the highest building, is seen in Baku, Azerbaijan. AP/AIDA SULTANOVA

They would become even more crucial if he won the White House.

As president, Trump would have to name more than 3,600 political appointees to senior government jobs, including critical positions overseeing the national security and the economy.

In the Azerbaijani case, Garten said the Trump Organization had performed meticulous due diligence on the company’s partners, and had hired a third-party firm that specializes in background intelligence and searching global sanctions, warrant and watch lists at home and abroad.

But Trump had not researched

the allegations against the Baku partner’s father because the father was not a party to the deal, Garten said.

Experts on Azerbaijan were baffled by that conclusion.

“W hatever the Trump people thought they were doing, that wasn’t reality,” said Richard Kauzlarich, a US ambassador to Azerbaijan under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s who went on to work under the director of national intelligence during the George W. Bush administration.

A leaked State Department diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks in 2010 described Anar’s father,

Ziya Mammadov, as renowned for corruption and presumed to be a silent partner to a former senior Iranian general and reputed money launderer, Kamal Darvishi.

Ziya Mammadov did not respond to a telephone message the AP left with his ministry in Baku or to e-mails to the Azerbaijan Embassy in Washington. Anar Mammadov did not respond to AP’s e-mails or messages sent to his social-media accounts or messages left with his company.

In a separate case, Trump was asked in a 2013 deposition about why he had not performed better checks on a business partner—a man Trump later deemed “a dud” after the failure of a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hotel project. Trump said he considered word-of-mouth inquiries to be adequate.

“We heard good things about him from a couple of different people,” he said about his partner, during the deposition. “That’s true with the president of the United States. You get references and sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s not so good.”

Trump’s lawyer, Garten, who was in the room at the time of Trump’s statement, told the AP that it was unreasonable to expect Trump to know the company’s full diligence efforts. AP

captures the anger of the poor.”

Hunt added that Fujimori and Kuczynski have said little about making changes in Peru’s economy, which is one of South America’s best performing. The inflation rate of 3.5 percent is among the lowest in the region, and the economy is expanding at a 4-percent rate, growth that Fujimori has claimed as a legacy from her father’s reforms.

“Who wants to fix it if it ain’t broke?” Hunt said.

Kuczynski, meanwhile, has overcome concerns about his age—concerns heightened during his first debate with Fujimori when he came across as doddering and unfocused. “Kuczynski’s biggest negative has been his age. He just didn’t seem to have answers to Keiko’s criticisms or be able to stand his ground,” said George Washington University political science Prof. Cynthia

McClintock, commenting on the former minister’s first debate performance.

But Kuczynski exploited Fujimori’s vulnerabilities in what most observers say was a good performance on May 29 in their second and final debate. He attacked her for adviser Ramirez’s alleged narco connections and reminded viewers that her father was convicted on charges of authorizing death squads and suggested he had a role in the mass sterilizations.

“Sadly, there was a lot of corruption in the government of your father, and that’s one of the reasons he is a prisoner today,” Kuczynski said. While Boston University Prof. Palmer said Kuczynski “definitely made up lost ground,” it remains to be seen whether that and the “DEA stuff will push him over the top.… It will certainly be a close race.” Los Angeles Times/TNS

Harare looks to quails to boost econ

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ARARE, Zimbabwe—A small bird has assumed heavyweight significance in Zimbabwe. Thousands of unemployed people are looking to the quail as a deliverance from the dire economic conditions in this southern African country. While quail farming is already big in countries, such as India, few Zimbabweans outside bird experts and rural folk knew about the shy bird until a few months ago, when rumors spread that the quail has medicinal value.

Now it has gained huge economic, politic al, religious, medicinal and entertainment value in a country whose official statistics agency says the majority of citizens survive on just a dollar a day.

Backyards have been turned into breeding zones by people flocking to cash in on the craze. And a new breed of poachers is risking lion attacks to sneak into national parks to hunt quail birds, Environment Minister Oppah Muchinguri told Parliament.

“Some were almost shot by rangers,” she said last month. Muchinguri in April announced a ban on backyard quail breeding pending research on the supposed medicinal qualities. She was soon eating her own words following a backlash.

“The birds are very delicious,” Emmerson Mnangagwa, the deputy president, said later in Parliament in an attempt to cool down lawmakers angered by the ban. He said people would be allowed to continue breeding.

Quail products now sell for triple the price of chicken products. A fried quail goes for about $5 at many restaurants.

Large chain stores prominently display neatly packaged eggs. On street corners,

salespeople distribute fliers claiming quail eggs can treat an array of ailments, including restoring sexual potency.

The quail craze has echoes of last year’s sudden popularity of dog breeding, which has since been largely abandoned because dogs aren’t eaten in Zimbabwe.

“I have 400 birds, but I prefer selling the eggs because they are more profitable,” said 28-year-old Gwynn Kariwo, showing off a backyard cage teeming with quails in Harare’s poor Highfield suburb.

Stung by competition, a leading fried chicken franchise has been running advertisements deriding the quail as an “overrated sidechick.”

For comedians, the bird has provided steady material, with some suggesting that Zimbabwe introduce a new currency named after the quail. Others prefer to see the religious side of the trend.

“God has sent food and work to starving and unemployed Zimbabweans,” said Francis Manhombo, a former lawmaker. “The problem is that everyone everywhere is doing it, hoping to become millionaires overnight.”

He has teamed up with another former lawmaker, Younus Patel, to supply big chain stores. Their company’s flier quotes a biblical verse that refers to when God is said to have provided quail birds to struggling Israelites on their way to Canaan.

Patel’s phone rang constantly during an interview with The Associated Press as breeders called to try to sell birds and eggs.

Other callers were supermarket agents asking for deliveries because they are running out of stock. AP

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Banking&Finance

Monday, June 6, 2016 • Editor: Jun B. Vallecera

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‘Do not overlook risks to financial inclusion’

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HILE financial regulators and institutions all clamor to achieve a higher level of financial inclusion in the country, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), along with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), said necessary measures should not be rushed to maximize the benefits of financial access to all.

In its maiden research conference in Cebu, the central bank and the BIS discussed issues on financial inclusion and their impact on central banking.

The conference was an initiative of BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. in his capacity as chairman of the Asian Consultative Council (ACC).

“There has been considerable focus on financial inclusion in several forums but we could benefit from a focused discussion on its linkages with financial stability and other key issues,” Tetangco said.

Tetangco said in a media briefing that financial regulators must have the capacity to keep up with the rapid rise of financial inclusion in respective jurisdictions, as broader financial access causes shifts in market behavior.

“Never overlook the risk aspects of finance,” Tetangco said.

In particular, the governor cited the need for greater cooperation among regulators to establish a stronger payments system in the country.

The governor also said financial literacy and ample vigilance in safeguarding the system must be in place to ensure efficient services to those who have access to financial platforms in the country.

Financial inclusion has gained prominence as a global policy agenda, as it complements other policy initiatives on reducing poverty, addressing inequality, and promoting financial stability and integrity.

“This is a very important area for the Philippines. While the Philippines is enjoying early gains from its initiatives in micro-

72%

The percentage of Filipinos who borrow money from informal sources, such as family and friends

finance and mobile financial services, access to financial products and services remains a challenge,” the central bank said.

Latest data from the BSP show 36.4 percent of the country’s municipalities remain unbanked; and, while 43.2 percent of Filipinos save, 68.3 percent of them put savings at home.

Also, while 47.1 percent of Filipinos have loans, 72 percent of those who borrow money get it from informal sources, like family and friends.

The same challenge is being faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), where only 30.5 percent of them have a credit line from a bank.

“Increasing access and effective usage of financial products and services ensure that individuals, households and firms can be productive economic agents toward inclusive growth,” the central bank said.

Just recently, the BSP led the crafting of the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion, together with 12 other government agencies to coordinate financial inclusion efforts in the country.

Alfred Cabangon elected chairman of the board of Citystate Savings Bank; Susan Belen, director

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. ALFRED A. CABANGON was elected new chairman of the board of directors of Citystate Savings Bank at the bank’s annual stockholders’ meeting on May 31 at Citystate Centre Building, Shaw Boulevard, Pasig City. Also named new director of the bank was Susan M. Belen.

Cabangon was the bank’s president from 2005 to 2011. He also sits on the board of the bank’s sister companies under the Fortune Insurance Group, including Fortune Life Insurance Co. Belen, on the other hand, had an intensive and comprehensive banking background for 31 years. She started her banking career in Allied Bank Corp. (ABC) from May 1979 and rose to various positions until April 1986.

She later held executive positions at Security Bank Corp. (SBC) from November 1989 to December 2010. She retired at SBC as vice president, handling Central Metro Area with 30 to 40 branches with a number of achievements, such as conversion of Area Top 3 generating-income branches record-

New RREPI shows no housing bubble in Philippines–BSP T HE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) rolled out the maiden results of the much-awaited Residential Real Estate Price Index (RREPI)—showing a high singledigit growth of residential real-estate prices in the first quarter of the year, compared to year-ago levels.

Results showed the RREPI increased 9.2 percent in the first quarter of the year—with condominium unit prices driving the growth during the period.

“We believe there’s no real-estate bubble right now, but we want to continue to monitor the property sector,” central bank Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said.

“The 9.2-percent growth represents a vibrant housing industry in the Philippines, and the robustness of this conclusion is confirmed by the trends in consumer prices, as well as the recent result of the consumer expectation survey,” said Diwa C. Guinigundo, central bank deputy governor for the monetary stability sector.

The BSP said condominium units posted the highest year-on-year growth in prices at 12.9 percent, followed by townhouses at 8.5 percent.

Asked if the central bank is alarmed by the relatively elevated growth rate of condominium prices, Tetangco said: “Not at all.

They’ve somewhat slowed down in building.

We want to look at the total picture. At this point in time, condominiums, if you look at other indicators, like building permits, there’s no bubble.”

Geographically, areas within and areas outside the National Capital Region

TETANGCO

(AONCR) relatively follow the same level of growth.

Real-property prices in the NCR increased 9.7 percent, while prices in AONCR increased by 9.4 percent.

Quarter-on-quarter, meanwhile, RREPI grew by 1.9 percent—with prices of real estate being driven by growth in AONCR at 4.2 percent. Prices in the NCR, meanwhile, posted a quarter-on-quarter decline of 0.2 percent.

The RREPI measures the average changes in prices of different types of housing units over a period of time, where the growth rate of the index measures house inflation.

The construction of the RREPI is based on banks’ approved housing-loan applications.

Out of the 109 banks covered, 93 banks, or 85.3 percent, submitted their reports for the first quarter of the year. Bianca Cuaresma

Case clippings CABANGON

BELEN

ing consistent three-year below-average audit rating to above-standard rating in a span of one year turnaround, among others.

Belen is affiliated with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI)-NCR and Pasig as trustee and president, respectively, from 2015 up to the present. She also serves as board of director in Pasig Chamber of Commerce from 2010 to present.

Her other affiliations include PCCI Pasig City Inc. TVET K-12, where she is currently

the committee chairman; Mandaluyong Chamber of Commerce, where she was a board of director/treasurer from 1999 to 2010; Philippine Coast Guard Auxilliary, where she was a commander in rank; Malate/ Ermita Businessmen Association, where she was a member.

During the stockholders’ meeting, Cabangon asked for a minute of silent prayer for his father, the late Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, founder of Citystate Savings Bank.

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GR 215107 Mendoza, J

Perspectives

A new era in bank governance: UK individual accountability rules put spotlight on international banks First of two parts

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ITH regulators in the United Kingdom rolling out the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) on March 7, t h i s g rou nd bre a k i ng ap proac h to ba n k gover n a nce i s g a r ner i ng worldw ide at tent ion—a nd ra i si ng the prospects that its principles will spread globally.

While the SM&CR will bring welcome strength and clarity to bank governance, it presents particular challenges to multinational banks with global matrix organizations, cross-border structures, staffing, systems and transactions.

These banks must now revisit and recalibrate their governance practices to accommodate the SMR’s emphasis on individual accountability and local legal entities.

Although the banks must grapple with the reasonable steps necessary to comply and possible unintended consequences on their operating models, some smart bank boards recognize the SM&CR to be an opportunity to embed governance standards and enhance culture that can drive stronger long-term performance for shareholders.

Senior Managers Regime adds individual accountability THE SM&CR arises from recommendations made by the UK’s Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards (PCBS), which was set up following the Libor rate-fixing scandal, and described existing regulations as a “complex and confused mess.”

With many commentators stating their belief that the banks had possibly grown too big and complex to manage, the SMR is among a wider set of tools and regulations that could improve bank governance and realign risk and reward.

This, in turn, could ultimately benefit shareholders, since better decisionmaking may result when executives have clear individual accountability for their actions, rather than collective accountability at the institutional level.

“A lack of personal responsibility has been commonplace throughout the industry. Senior figures have continued to shelter behind an accountability firewall,” observed Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee and the PCBS, in describing the PCBS findings. “Where the standards of individuals, especially those in senior roles, have fallen short, clear lines of accountability

and enforceable sanctions are needed.”

Noting that the SMR “is not meant to be radical or life-changing,” Andrew Bailey, head of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), explained in a speech that, “We do want to avoid what the PCBS described as the Murder on the Orient Express outcome when firms get into trouble, which is akin to the ‘everyone and no one’ is responsible, but everyone is connected to the event. Clarity of responsibility is, I hope, unobjectionable.”

The regime is also garnering international profile, including in the US, where US Securities and Exchange Chairman Mary Jo White described the SMR as “a very intriguing set of changes.”

The topic is likely to increase momentum at the G-20 Summit as Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is also the chairman of the Financial Stability Board (FSB). If it’s endorsed by the G-20, then one would certainly expect further rules and regulations on the lines of SMR. To be overseen by the PRA and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)—and applying to all banks in the UK, whether they be locally headquartered retail brands or wholesale offices of foreignbased banks—the new regime is designed to make senior individuals within finan-

cial firms personally accountable for breaching regulations or causing serious damage to their institution.

Global banks face Senior Managers Regime challenges WHILE the SMR may be the necessary remedy for past governance failings, many banks face sizable challenges in light of the regime’s focus on precisely pinpointing individual accountability.

Today it is typical for international banks to maintain matrix management across borders, business lines and functions, with key responsibilities held by global business heads or overseas managers located offshore, and with decisions made by committees rather than by individuals. Establishing individual accountability through a legal entity lens in such a construct is a difficult challenge.

The problem is compounded by the fact that a number of foreign banks run their UK operations as a bank branch in another jurisdiction, and they do not have the formal, local governance arrangements that a UK-based bank would; this demonstrates that legal entity-type individual accountability is more complicated for branches.

Issues also arise from global banks’

cross-border transactions, since they often apply remote booking models and utilize regional or global trading hubs, by which a transaction is not domiciled in the jurisdiction where the trade may have originated. These practices make it challenging to clearly define accountability, especially for senior managers in the UK legal entity. With the SMR driving regulators to ask, “Who actually makes the key decisions and understands the risks?” overseas senior employees may also find themselves pulled into the regime.

In addition, if things go wrong and a bank finds itself in financial crisis or difficulty, regulators will ask senior managers to prove they took “reasonable steps.”

This has prompted a lively debate on what constitutes adequate steps, especially as it will be applied in hindsight. While the banks may take obvious actions, such as maintaining better minutes, they should also ensure they have effective governance structures, with clearly defined accountabilities at the outset, and high-quality legal entity managementinformation systems.

This will enable them to respond with a more robust defense if they are challenged regarding the reasonable steps taken. To be concluded

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HILTON RETURNS AS PHILIPPINE TOURISM BOOMS DIPLOMATIC Suite

CONRAD Manila

B R P | Special to the BM

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VER the last two years, two major hotel brands spread their wings and set foot on Bonifacio Global City.

Grand Hyatt and Shangri-La added branding muscle to their already strong presence showcasing their trademark hospitality.

Earlier, Hyatt’s City of Dreams, Nobu Hotel, Marriott Newport City, Novotel and Mercure Ortigas ignited the opening surge. Hotel rooms in Metro Manila will reach a 26-year high and growth for the country’s hotel industry is expected to rise in the next five years. With that, hopes are high that the Philippines can easily surpass its 6-million target by the end of this year.

According to real-estate consultancy firm Pinnacle: “Even with a slight dip in hotel occupancy in Southeast Asia, the Philippines is doing much better than most countries in the region, where drops ranged from 2.1 percentage points to as high as 8.6. Only Thailand and Vietnam bucked the trend with a slight increase in occupancy.”

Another leading real-estate company, Colliers foresees that “established branded hotel chains will come in to take over old, locally managed resorts that are in excellent locations, but are past their prime. Boutique and lifestyle hotels in tourism areas will be the trend in hotel development over the years to come,” it says.

The Philippines is one of Asia’s most active countries in hotel opening scene. It is set to dazzle anew with the launching of Conrad Manila, the global luxury brand of Hilton Worldwide, in June this year.

The luxurious 347-room hotel aims to inspire seasoned travelers and the local market by redefining the status quo and upgrade their impeccable taste to a new dimension.

With Conrad Manila’s entry, rooms are expected to exceed the country’s current 30,500 total in the next two years. Approximately, 3,300 new hotel rooms were completed in Metro Manila from 2014 to 2016.

A physically handsome hotel, Conrad Manila will offer best-inclass service and amenities. To date, it has already exemplified excellence prior to the grand opening, winning the Philippines Property Award as Best Hotel Development, Best Ho-

tel in Architectural Design and Best Hotel Interior Design.

Picture this: The whole shape is iconic, derived from a ship that has permanently docked in Manila Bay waters. Inside is a unique blend of modern art and Filipino artistry, inspired by air and sea wave elements across the bay. In one of its breathtaking lounges, the design allows you to experience an infinite ringside view of Manila’s jaw-dropping sunset, better than what you have probably previously experienced.

On a Friday and Saturday, a stay at the hotel becomes a multiple treat.

As soon as dusk settles, fireworks joyfully welcome your distinguished presence. Here, like everyone else, your stay is celebrated for being an honored guest.

“The Conrad way is luxuriously excellent, physically and experientially. We aspire to inspire so that we exceed expectations. We anticipate and we have things ready for you even before you ask,” says Harald Feurstein, newly appointed general manager of Conrad Manila.

An Austrian with excellent credentials like the hotel, Feurstein has worked with the best hotels in Asia and was Conrad Manila’s first employee from ground zero till the beautiful structure surfaced behind the SMX Convention Center.

“I consider it a badge of honor being part of Conrad Manila’s history from Day One,” Feurstein takes pride in saying.

He is upbeat about Manila’s tourism prospects and acknowledges that the Philippines has a bright future ahead, even brighter than the rest of the former Southeast Asian dragons, which have lorded the scene in the last 15 years. “With consistent above-average 6-percent growth, the Philippines is poised to shine even more,” he says.

How will the hotel market its way in reaching its core market?

Feurstein says, “Diversification will be the key.”

“Hotels are not just for tourism

CONRAD Manila GM Harald Feurstein

anymore. We do not want to rely on a single market alone. We would like to be known as the most innovative among luxury-hotel brands in the Philippines. We want to promote domestic leisure, “staycation” and show the unique Conrad way of excellence with our MICE [Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions/Events] capabilities,” he stresses.

Destination concept

“CONRAD Manila is for the new generation of smart luxury travelers for whom life, business and pleasure seamlessly intersect,” according to Feurstein. As a global luxury brand with 23 properties across five continents, Conrad connects guests to people and places around the corner or halfway around the world.

“It is a privilege for us to reintroduce Hilton Worldwide through the first Conrad hotel in the Philippines, especially in these exciting times as the country is on the brink of rapid economic growth across all sectors,” says Feurstein, who reports to Peter Webster, Hilton Worldwide’s regional general manager for Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines.

On Feurstein’s appointment, Webster says, “I am certain that the hotel will be a significant addition to Manila’s dynamic cityscape. With Harald’s 25-year industry expertise and deep knowledge in hotel operations, I am confident that Conrad Manila is primed for great success in this growing Philippines tourism market. It will be a landmark where one-of-a-kind, inspired experiences will be created for guests.”

Born and educated in Austria, Feurstein already planned to work in a hotel when he was young. “It was my goal and I had no doubts about pursuing it as a career,” he says. After graduating from college, he worked as a nightclub waiter and bartender. He then worked his way up, moving to Switzerland, his first job outside of his home country.

LOUNGE

He spent the rest of his professional life in Asia, and considered each country his home. “All of them has a place in my heart, every place is special,” he intimates.

Feurstein has been actively participating in the development oversight of Conrad Manila since last year. His involvement took him across all facets of hotel management, from planning a good strategy to positioning the hotel as a choice destination for luxury travelers with one aim—give the Philippines a strong competitive advantage in the international hospitality landscape.

Prior to his assignment in Manila, Feurstein was GM of Hilton Pattaya, Conrad Bangkok, Hilton Cebu Resort and Spa, Hilton Kuching and Hilton Batang, and director of Business Development for Hilton Beijing, Hilton Seoul, Hilton Kuching and Petaling Jaya.

He was former food and beverage manager of Hilton Petaling Jaya, Hilton Kuching, Hilton Batang, Norfolk Hotel and F&B director of Hyatt Regency Kinabalu and Grand Hyatt Fukuoka. His hospitality career has taken him across the world to continents such as Europe, Africa and Asia. His past experiences in Asia have taken him to China, Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam and, now, the Philippines.

A man who describes himself as very adaptable to different cultures, Feurstein loves to do a balancing act. “I love to make people to do their best and I am always deeply supportive in developing their career,” Feurstein says.

The tall, bespectacled man loves to lead by example. When people see it in their leader, they inevitably try to do it,” he says. He is very demanding at work because he says he has a purpose. “I’d like to be in a team surrounded by people with a sense

of purpose, because I have a set of goals that I started and want to finish them. I’d like to steer a ship and allow people to do what they’re good at,” he adds.

Outside of work, Feurstein is also a man of action with a lot of passion for extreme sports, like participating in lung-busting ultramarathons.

He has participated in many events of this kind in the Philippines. He has also endeared himself to the Philippines and its people and pays homage to the Filipino, whom he says are naturally hospitable. “Hospitally is naturally ingrained in the Filipino. When you are naturally hospitable, half the battle is won,” he says.

Luxurious amenities

“WE don’t just check you in and check you out, Feurstein says. “We give you the total package,” he punctuates.

Conrad Manila has a 24-hour Fitness Center, a sparkling outdoor infinity pool, tranquil Conrad Spa and an Executive Lounge for guests staying in an Executive Room or suite.

The hotel’s intelligent rooms are equipped with motion sensors that recognize a guest’s arrival, equipped with wired and Wi-Fi Internet access, bluetooth-enabled entertainment technology, 42-inch flat-screen HDTV, espresso machines and hydrotherapy rain showers, with magic mirrors in the bathrooms available in all suites for an uninterrupted entertainment experience.

Suites and executive rooms offer picturesque bay or city views, plus access to the Executive Lounge.

The luxurious Presidential Suite features a spacious outdoor terrace, a private pool and stunning Manila Bay views.

Brasserie on 3 is the all-day dining restaurant serving an extensive buffet selection at breakfast, and an

à la carte menu for lunch and dinner.

China Blue by Jereme Leung offers a modern Chinese dining experience, with an especially created menu that blends contemporary cooking techniques with local flair.

One can enjoy afternoon tea at C Lounge, which transforms from a laid-back lounge at daytime to a sophisticated destination bar after the sunset. You can sip cocktails as you soak up the sunshine in the Pool Bar. The hotel is positioned atop “S Maison”, a high-end retail complex on the edge of Manila Bay. Visually striking, Hotel Conrad Manila is situated within the Mall of Asia Complex and adjacent to SMX Convention Center and the sprawling SM Mall of Asia. It is merely minutes away by foot from the Mall of Asia Arena and approximately 20 minutes away from famed historical and cultural landmarks in Manila.

For 96 years, Hilton Worldwide has been dedicated to continuing its tradition of providing exceptional guest experiences. The company’s portfolio of 12 world-class global brands is comprised of more than 4,500 managed, franchised, owned and leased hotels and timeshare properties.

It has more than 745,000 rooms in 97 countries and territories, including Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Canopy by Hilton, Curio—A Collection by Hilton, DoubleTree by Hilton, Embassy Suites by Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton by Hilton, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Home2 Suites by Hilton and Hilton Grand Vacations.

Real-estate watchers say more brands are due to enter Manila until the end of 2017. With that, hopes are high that the Philippines can achieve its tourism goals within that period.

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

A10 Monday, June 6, 2016

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

WHY FARM TOURISM? Dr. Mina T. Gabor

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THE BM TRAVELER

N a country where the average age of farmers is 57, where rice is still the main farm produce and the income is low, where most produce are highly seasonal, where there are limited areas for families to visit and enjoy nature—farm tourism is a refreshing new addition to the list of tourism products that generates added income to the farmers.

The interest of many people to partake of healthy food and share that same experience with their immediate families has aroused their curiosity to know how crops are produced and livestock is raised.

So has farm tourism sites began to flourish.

Farm tourism is the business of attracting visitors to farm areas generally for educational and recreational purposes while encouraging economic activities that can provide both the farm and community additional income.

Among the many activities that can be experienced when visiting a designated farm-tourism site are children and even adults feed animals, collect eggs, learn the flora and fauna in the area, go horseback riding, hike, learn nature-based

arts and crafts, sing, swim, visit the farm museum if there are any, eat meals with freshly cut vegetables, camp, pick fruits and harvest vegetables, buy products made by the community, try new varieties of fruit juice or winetasting, and stay overnight in the area. The activities vary, depending on the farm that is visited.

As chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, Sen. Cynthia Villar, worked for the passage of vital legislation and amendments to existing laws to complement this growing subsector of the tourism industry.

In a speech at the second Farm Tourism Conference in Daet, Camarines Norte, Villar lauded the organizer of the event, the International School of Sustainable Tour-

ism (ISST), for actively supporting and promoting farm tourism. At the same conference, she vowed to assist farm owners, through legislation, to provide technical, financial and marketing assistance.

By the way, ISST will soon open its farm-tourism and camp-site model where land owners who do not have sufficient funds to develop their properties can learn how to open up camp sites by attending farm-tourism courses.

During the Senate hearing on the farm-tourism bill, many of the farmers-turned-farm tourism operators, reported that they were earning from this newfound activity more than from their usual harvest.

Imagine a farmer who sells his lettuce at farm-gate prices of P10 to P15 per kilo, but by the time it arrives in Metro Manila, the same produce can be sold as high as P50 to P80 per kilo, depending on the season.

In a farm-tourism area, the same lettuce has higher value added. Visitors are willing to pay higher prices per kilo, because it is freshly picked, or the vegetable would have been offered as a meal or fruit juice.

I have visited farm-tourism sites in Australia, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, Costa Rica and some European countries, like Italy.

There, I noticed that jobs and revenues generated for the community are sourced from this activity.

For example, in Costa Rica, a famous coffee plantation has eventually put up one of the world’s best ecolodges where you can stay and wake up the morning after to visit the plantation and try your hand in picking coffee berries. It also has a wonderful restaurant that serves its famous varieties of coffee, sells soaps made from coffee, and other farm products.

In Italy you can rent a cottage situated in the middle of the farm.

If you want to cook your own meal, it can provide the ingredients, like fruits and vegetables, that you can pick just outside your doorstep.

For me, farm tourism is an excellent example of inclusive growth for the communities.

On May 16 President Aquino signed Republic Act 10816, or the Farm Tourism Development Act of 2016. Under the new law, a Farm

Tourism Development Board shall be established to formulate plans and programs for the development and promotion of farm tourism in the country and shall set the overall direction for the implementation of the Farm Tourism Strategic Action Plan.

There are around 100 or more accredited and nonaccredited farmtourism sites in the country, ranging from micro, small, medium and large sizes.

Farm-tourism sites or farm camps help promote tourism and products of the area, especially those produced and manufactured by the rural industries.

If you are a farm owner or you intend to set up a farm, I suggest you attend the upcoming fourth Farm Tourism Conference at the Summit Ridge in Tagaytay City from July 14 to 17. The conference will show the integration of tourism and farming for better and more efficient use of resources that will provide jobs, increase income and reduce the urban migration of the rural folk. There will be presentations by specialists, video showing, workshops to discuss measures for improving the managerial skills, services like farm guiding and farm efficiency, installing proper signages and others. Listen to experts discuss how to produce pulses, honey, mushroom and others.

This year’s conference celebrates the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Declaration of 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. Pulses are annual leguminous crops yielding between one and 12 grains or seeds of variable size, shape and color within a pod, used for both food and feed. The term “pulses” is limited to crops harvested solely for dry grain, thereby excluding crops harvested green for food, which are classified as vegetable crops, as well as those crops used mainly for oil extraction, and leguminous crops that are used exclusively for sowing purposes.

To know more about farm tourism or if you are interested in farm activities, join the Philippine Farm Tourism Network. For more information, you can contact Regine Ranada at info@isstphiippines.edu.ph.

See you in Tagaytay City this July!

EXPERIENCE OLD MANILA’S TRAMVIA AT LAS CASAS FILIPINAS DE ACUZAR

ENJOY the beautiful scenery of Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar while riding the balsa, a new addition to the resort’s activities.

G

UESTS at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar have another reason to enjoy Manila’s old splendor as the resort recently began operating its own tramvia service.

Also known as trams or streetcars, the tramvia used to operate in various streets of Manila from the late-1800s until 1945. It was the Philippines’s early version of the railway system.

Before this, the calesa and the carruaje or horse-drawn carriages were the typical modes of transportation.

Manila’s first trams were the horse-drawn buggies and one steamoperated tramvia. These were eventually replaced with electric street trams operated by the Manila Electric Railroad and Light Co., or now known as Meralco. They could be seen plying the route of Escolta, Santa Cruz, Quiapo, Binondo and other busy streets of Manila.

Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar, a heritage-destination project of New San Jose Builders, continues to re-

Tourist guides undergo tourism entrepreneurship program

T

HE Philippines is gaining ground as a travel hot spot worldwide.

With the country’s growing economic strength, the country is now looking rosy for tourists who are searching for a tropical adventure. And it is through local tourist guides that visitors can better learn and appreciate the beauty of this island province.

To better empower these people who represent the country’s tourism, Primer Group of Cos.—the company known for the retail and distribution of premium consumer brands in outdoor, urban lifestyle and travel—offered a sustainable tourism entrepreneurship program to help the guides gain more credibility.

Through its Center for Outdoor Recreation and Expedition (CORE), local tourist guides were geared Tubong Lokal’s projects in Baler, Sagada and Palawan. This tourism development assistance program seeks to boost local tourism by providing the necessary skills and gear. CORE is the advocacy arm of Primer Group that teaches the public to support environmental conservation, ecotourism and community development.

According to Kristine Villaflor, program manager, TubongLokal’s primary thrust is to identify and develop feasible tourism opportunities tailor-made for every local community.

“TubongLokal is part of CORE’s many efforts of promoting adventure and ecotourism in the country. We help assist in the procurement of equipment by sourcing grants for the chosen community; help them develop marketing and promotional materials; and link them to our stores to market their tourism products,” Villaflor said.

She added, “Now, TubongLokal is giving tour guides the opportunity to gain more confidence in imparting their knowledge about their locality through its own ongoing projects. We are inspiring them to have the entrepreneurial attitude toward developing sustainable tourism in the community.”

Support for the fisher folks

SINCE 2010, CORE has been supporting the fisher folks in their training and across 10 different sites in the Philippines through the BuhayDagat initiative in partnership with Blue Water Consultancy, the pioneer partnership project of TubongLokal.

The fisher folks underwent training as Reef Rangers (snorkelling guides), giving them an alternative livelihood. In this respect, CORE has distributed rash

THE Riverboat Cruise takes resort guests along the canals of Estero de Binondo in Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar .

live Manila’s yesteryears by introducing the tram service as its latest attraction.

Guests will get to tour the picturesque resort featuring beautiful ancestral houses, scenic plazas and the tranquil seaside while experiencing a tram ride reminiscent of Manila’s long-forgotten finery. The brief ride will be a great chance for children to learn about history, and for guests of any age to imagine a simpler life of the 19th century and just marvel about

the country’s nostalgic beauty.

Aside from the tramvia ride, another addition to the resort activities is the Riverboat Cruise. Guests aboard a balsa will enjoy the ride along the Umagol River while looking at the wonderful resort scenery and Bataan’s mountainside.

Managed by the Asian Grand Legacy Hotels Corp., Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar with its extraordinary rides is in Bagac, Bataan, a three-hour drive north of Manila.

THE tramvia takes guests back to the late 19th and early 20th century as it tours guests around Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar.

guard uniforms, snorkelling equipment and official IDs, which will serve as their certification.

Last year CORE completed an on-site marketing and promotion support for Palaui Island, Santa Ana, Cagayan.

Adopting Baler, Sagada and Palawan

TO further strengthen its campaign, CORE has adopted local communities in Baler, Sagada and Palawan to develop different adventure tours and train more local guides.

For Baler, CORE brought its Expedition Team to explore the community and identify three different adventure activities: trekking, camping and biking.

Furthermore, it coordinated with different public and private organizations to commission local guides to bring the adventure to their potential customers. For a safer outdoor escapade, these guides are immersed in personal emergency training, nature guiding and customer service.

“Our tour guides are the face of local tourism in the Philippines. To make them more credible, it is important for them to be knowledgeable about safety and customer engagement to keep their customers coming back,” Villaflor emphasized.

Aside from this, CORE entered a strategic joint venture with the local organization guides in Sagada, organizing the three-day “High Angle Rescue Training” to promote the safety of the guides and the guests.

CORE coordinated with Sagada’s local government body to officially institutionalize the training. Villaflor said, “Baler and Sagada are just two of the local communities we thrived in to implement the project. CORE also explored Palawan, giving its local guides new uniforms and initial training on basic life support.”

A place for the action-oriented

THE Philippines has become a magnet for action-packed tourists, with tons of exciting outdoor adventures waiting in store for them. For its part, CORE will continue to seek the support of private and public entities to promote outdoor sports while bearing safety in mind.

She concluded, “Embarking on an adventure in the Philippines need not come at the expense of anyone’s safety nor the environment’s protection.

With the help of our local tour guides, every tourist will be able to experience the ultimate outdoor adventure that’s unmistakably Filipino.”

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Monday, June 6, 2016

A11

Beyond the airport: Reasons to explore Narita

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B J B

HENEVER visitors arrive in Narita airport, they either ride the train or bus to Tokyo, or head to another boarding gate for a connecting flight to wherever. This comes as no surprise, because Narita is a busy airport that sees millions of businesspeople and tourists come and go. However, there is more to this part of Japan than transiting in and out of the terminals.

DRESS up in a kimono while exploring the streets of Narita.

STRIKE your best samurai pose while dressed in a kimono.

WALK along Omotesando Road to shop for souvenirs or try unagi.

Wear traditional costumes

IMAGINE wearing a kimono while walking down historic streets and eating unagi, this is exactly one activity you can do while in Narita. For a donation starting at ¥500, you can wear a traditional costume with your friends or family. The kimono is a T-shaped robe with a collar and long, wide sleeves wrapped around the body, with the left side over the right at all times, secured by an obi, or sash. For footwear, a person typically wears zori or geta (traditional footwear) and tabi (splittoed socks).

Kimono is no longer worn regularly by the locals, except during special occasions, such as tea ceremonies, weddings and other formal events. Travel back in time by donning this costume during your visit to Narita.

Visit Naritasan Temple

JAPAN is home to several temples from north to south, one of the most significant is Naritasan Temple. The temple traces its roots to several centuries ago; in 939 Emperor Suzaku gave Priest Kanjo an order to suppress the revolt led by Tairanomasakado. He went to the district bringing an image of Fudomyoo with him and performed a Goma rite to end the insurgency.

Miraculously, on the last day of the rite, the rebellion ended completely. Impressed by the mercy of Fudomyoo, the emperor ordered the construction of a temple to enshrine the image, which later led to the establishment of the Naritasan Shinshoji Temple by Priest Kanjo.

The temple is a popular attraction for excursions and pilgrimages for locals. Many visitors go to Naritasan to attend a Goma

RELIVE the ancient years of Narita by exploring the old temple.

rite, an important service, where devotees pray to Fudomyoo to fulfill their wishes.

A walk through the temple will take you back in time and learn more about the culture and history of ancient Japan. From the Niomon Gate to the three-storied Pagoda to the Komyodo Hall, you can experience the past and discover the importance of Buddhism to the early Japanese.

Try the local specialty

JAPAN is home to a number of delectable dishes, from sushi to ramen to donburi (rice bowls), and Narita is no exception. The city is known for unagi, or eel; its meat is famous because of its high nutritional content.

Narita-based ryokans, or Japanese-style inns, have a history of serving unagi to visitors. There are several restaurants that prepare and serve eel cuisine lining Omotesando Road. One of the most popular ways to eat this dish is grilled on a spit and roasted with soy sauce.

Last-minute shopping

CLEANSING as an act of pleasing the gods

TRY the local specialty, unagi or eel, during a short stop in Narita just before your flight.

DID you regret not buying those jeans in Uniqlo while exploring Ginza? Or forgot to grab a pack of Kit-Kats as pasalubong? Narita is a place where you can go on a lastminute shopping spree, spend the last few thousand yens you have, and avail yourself of the foreign tourists discounts. Go to GU, Uniqlo, Aeon Mall, or Mega Don Quijote to buy clothes, souvenirs, jeans, gadgets, trinkets, or anything you want to bring home. Some stores provide tax exemptions and discounts, if you purchase more than ¥10,000 worth of products and show them your passport.

Narita has plenty to offer tourists who have a long layover before their flight or are curious to see what the city has to offer. The district has an eclectic mix of culture, history, food and shopping that will make you consider adding it to your list of must-see places on your next visit to the Land of the Rising Sun.

NARITASAN Temple is a popular pilgrimage site for locals who want to attend a Goma rite.

QUEST HOTEL OPENS SOON AT CLARK A

NEWLY refurbished Quest Hotel and Conference Center will open soon at Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga, to usher in the comforts of fourstar hotel amenities and quality service to guests. Quest Hotel is known for its “cool, clean and comfy” Icons.

It was first introduced in the Philippines in 2012 and currently operates a busy 427-room hotel in Cebu City. It has received numerous awards, such as the

Agoda Golden Circle Award from 2013 to 2015. Quest is managed by Chroma Hospitality, also managing the luxury brand Crimson Hotels and Resorts–Mactan, Filinvest City and soon-to-open Boracay.

Quest Hotel Clark and Conference Center will have a grand ballroom, meeting rooms and an all-day cafe. The Quest Club lounge and the Charley’s Bar will be added facilities of the hotel when it opens in August 2016.

The renovation and upgrading of the Quest Hotel and Conference Center Clark is part of Filinvest Land’s commitment to bring quality hotels to the country that meets world-class standards. There will be more exciting developments within the Filinvest Mimosa Leisure Estate in the coming months. Other Quest Hotels will soon be opening in Tagaytay and Dumaguete. Chroma envisions to having 5,000 rooms by year 2020.

PHL named among New Gastronomic-8 countries T

HE Philippines has just been included as one of the New G-8 (Gastronomic 8) emerging markets of influence in world cuisine by the Hong Kong-based marketing and communications agency, Catch, On, in its new report, entitled “The Future of Food.”

The report on The Future of Food states that there is a new food order with an appetite for cuisine that defies conventional classification, and where dishes are “inflected” by mismatched ingredients or prepared in ways that question traditional techniques. The report further states that cross-border migrations and population melting pots have produced a generation of “third culture chefs” that innovate their culinary traditions and are mixing ingredients and techniques in unimaginable ways.

This is where the Philippines has come in as a member of the New G-8 countries. Food is an important part of Philippine culture, and Filipinos take their culture of food seriously. The cross-pollination of culinary influences in Philippine cuisine mirrors the country’s

colorful historical influences, and these influences are amplified and interpreted gastronomically for the world by a young breed of bold and tech-savvy Filipino chefs. As more Filipinos travel overseas, they bring with them their culture of food. Philippine ingredients and the country’s signature dishes, like adobo, kinilaw and sisig, are slowly making their way into international kitchens.

“Overseas, the Philippines’s colourful influence can be found in restaurants like Jeepney and Pig & Khao in New York, or Filipino-born, Austin-based Paul Qui’s eponymous restaurant,” according to The Future of Food report.

“There’s a growing movement to preserve and document culinary artisanal traditions that have survived generations simply because they came out of family kitchens.

We’re seeing more self-trained chefs launching restaurants; more men cooking at home; the continued move away from any notion of fine dining; the growing influence of street food; and the popularity of culinary tourism. This is the new

culture of food,” The Future of Food further adds.

Aside from the Philippines, other countries included in the New G-8 emerging markets of influence are China, Iran, Israel, South Korea, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam.

“We are most pleased to announce that as a result of the recently concluded global culinary events here, such as Madrid Fusión Manila and World Street Food Congress, the Philippines is now gaining more recognition as an emerging country, whose indigenous ingredients and culinary excellence are increasingly finding their way into world cuisine.

The fact that the organizers of the prestigious Madrid Fusion decided to hold the first and only Asian edition in the Philippines signaled to the rest of the world the growing influence and importance of Philippine cuisine and the Filipino talent. As more travelers are starting to choose their travel destinations and plan their itineraries based on the food culture of a place, this is definitely an added boost to Philippine tourism,” Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. enthused.

Green Monday BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, June 6, 2016

BusinessMirror

Global energy leaders look to nitty-gritty of climate deal

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AN FRANCISCO—Energy leaders from countries that pump out 75 percent of the world’s climate-changing emissions talked on Thursday on the nitty-gritty of putting last year’s Paris climate accord into action, including funding the needed global technology overhaul.

24 The number of countries and the European Commission represented in the meeting of energy leaders

The annual gathering of energy leaders representing 23 countries and the European Commission was one of their first since December, when heads of 195 countries committed to a deal meant to limit fossil-fuel pollution that is making global weather hotter and more extreme.

With the world already about 1 degree Celsius (1.8˚ Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times, nations have committed to limiting warming to another degree Celsius (1.8˚F) from now, half of that if possible. Convened up the road from

Silicon Valley, the session was part-cheering session for the clean-energ y investment and successes so far, part dire warning for the work yet to be done.

“The urgency of this threat keeps growing,” President Barack Obama said in a videotaped message for the energy officials of China, India and other countries in the Clean Energy Ministerial, a global energy-leaders forum meant to push reductions in carbon emissions. “The Paris agreement has to go into force as soon as possible.”

The United States and China both have signed but not yet ratified the climate accord.

US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and others pointed to the potential miracles of the mundane—like more energy-efficient air conditioners for the 8.5 billion sweaty, crowded residents that Earth will hold in 2030.

That change alone would save the annual outputs of thousands of power plants, energy experts said.

Summit participants lauded a determined national push for LED lights across India, and applauded a number of other countries launching their own LED

campaigns. “It’s the governmentprivate sector partnership that will actually get the work done on the Paris accord,” Moniz said.

Members pointed to successes so far. That includes the global economy managing about 3-percent growth last year without seeing the usual accompanying jump in carbon emissions.

And countries in the Clean Energy Ministerial alone invested more than $300 billion in clean-energy investment in the same year.

With 2016 on pace to follow 2015 as the warmest years on record, however, “don’t think you’ve got a handle on it. Because you don’t,” California Gov. Jerry Brown warned the international political and business leaders and technology mavens.

As much as the world needs cleaner-burning gear, Brown said, it also needs a grim coming-toterms with what he said should be a World War II-style mobilization to cut carbon pollution.

“The political mind is not there yet,” said the California governor, an international figure in the climate-change fight. “The hour is late.” AP

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph

Connecting communities and marine conservation

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HE Philippines is home to an unparalleled variety of marine life—and the gentle dugong is among the most lovable. Malita, a seaside community in Davao del Sur, has become a sanctuary for these gentle marine mammals, which keep seagrass beds healthy through their constant browsing. Food fish, such as samaral and danggit , inhabit sea-grass beds.

Also known as sea cows, dugongs were once common throughout the country—until destructive fishing and coastal development destroyed the vital sea-grass beds they needed to thrive. By 1990s the gentle animals became rare sights.

Dugongs are among the flagship species protected by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Philippines) and are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as vulnerable. The fate of the country’s dugongs lie in the hands of seaside communities, like Malita.

Project Connect

IN 2011 leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, PLDT’s wireless unit, partnered with WWF-Philippines to encourage citizens to help save dugongs and other creatures in the Davao Gulf, which includes Malita.

Smart implemented its Textto-Donate service, an SMS-based donation platform that empowers over 46 million Smart and Talk ‘N Text subscribers to contribute to W WF’s biodiversity conser vation programs using their mobile phones. Funds raised through this platform were used to conduct environmental education sessions for students, parents and community members in

Malita. Project Connect highlights the connection between people and nature—and how caring for the sea ensures fish for all, forever.

“Apart from helping increase environmental awareness, we hope to be able to urge communities to take action and do their part as stewards of the environment through our Project Connect learning sessions,” Smart Public Affairs Group Head Ramon Isberto said.

WWF-Philippines taught 600 students from the Mariano Peralta National High School and Fishing Village National High School about endangered species recently. The session focused on the uniqueness of marine species, like dugong, whale sharks, sea turtles and dolphins; the species’ vulnerabilities to human actions; and the responsibility of humans in conserving our shared home.

The students were also taught the importance of technology in research and conservation, information dissemination, as well as in rescuing stranded species.

Community members of Barangay Fishing Village were also treated to a lesson on April 22 to celebrate Earth Day. The session trained the community to respond properly to marine mammal strandings, which cause the deaths of thousands of whales, dolphins and dugongs yearly.

Teacher Maye believes awareness is very important for today’s conservation stewards. “When we start to make children and community members appreciate how the relationship of nature and humans benefit each another, we create a society of informed citizens who can be frontliners in protecting what this country should be proud of.”

Biodiverse Palawan destinations get attention of high-end travelers

PILES of wood chips sit near the RockTenn paper mill on Wednesday in Tacoma, Washington. State regulators released an updated plan to limit greenhousegas emissions from large polluters, including the mill. AP/TED S. WARREN

Washington limits carbon pollution S S

EL Nido Resorts’s Pangulasian Island was named as the place to stay by Condé Nast Traveller when in El Nido, which was identified as among the top beaches in the world.

EATTLE—Washington state regulators on Wednesday unveiled an updated plan to limit greenhouse-gas emissions from large polluters, the latest attempt by Gov. Jay Inslee to push ahead with a binding cap on carbon emissions after struggling to win approval from legislators.

Washington would join nearly a dozen states, including California, that have capped carbon pollution from industrial sources.

The proposed rule requires large industrial emitters to gradually reduce carbon emissions over time. The rule would cover many industries, including power plants, oil refineries, fuel distributors, pulp and paper mills and others.

Inslee, who has called climate change “the single most important issue of our time,” has gained national attention on environmental issues but, so far, has failed in his own state to pass ambitious carbon-reduction proposals, including a plan to charge polluters a fee for emissions. Frustrated by inaction in the Legislature, Inslee last year used his executive author it y and directed state regulators to limit carbon pollution under the state’s Clean Air Act.

“Today is an exciting day in our continued quest to provide cleaner air for Washingtonians,” Inslee said in a video statement on Wednesday.

He said carbon pollution is hurting the state and cited two consecutive record-setting wildfire seasons that burned about 2,000 square miles, among other climate-related problems.

On Wednesday Inslee joined leaders of Oregon, California and British Columbia in San Francisco to sign a climate agreement with six West Coast cities. The pact says they will work together to encourage zero-emissions vehicles, to reduce energy use in buildings and to take other measures.

Under Washington’s proposed rule, expected to be finalized in late summer, large emitters would be required to reduce carbon emissions by an average of 1.7 percent annually.

The rule would initially apply to about two dozen oil refineries, power plants and others that release at least 100,000 metric tons of carbon a year. Many more facilities would likely be covered by the rule, as the threshold is lowered over the next decades.

Kris Johnson, president of the

Association of Washington Business, said his group is still concerned about the potential economic damage from this new regulation.

He said in a statement that the cap “sends the wrong signal to businesses of all sizes, both those that are here already and those hoping to relocate here, by driving up energy costs for employers and families.”

According to the state’s preliminary economic analysis, the rule would cost businesses between $1.4 billion and $2.8 billion over 20 years to comply. But it’s also estimated to provide about $14.5 billion in benefits over 20 years, such as improved environmental and health conditions, according to a state analysis.

Officials with the Washington Department of Ecology say the rule is needed to protect human health and the environment from climate change. It would cover about twothirds of the state’s emissions.

“Carbon pollution has reached rampant levels and we’re committed to capping and reducing it,” said Sarah Rees, Ecology’s special assistant on climate policy.

Some critics said the proposed r u le doesn’t requ i re enoug h emissions reductions and disregards current science. “We are

extremely disappointed,” said A ndrea Rodgers, an attor ney represent ing young act iv ists who sued the state to force it to adopt new rules to limit carbon emissions based on the bestavailable science.

Businesses can comply by lowering their emissions, buying “emissions reduction credits” from others in the program, investing in projects that permanently reduce emissions in the state or buy allowances through another cap-and-trade program, such as ones run by California and Quebec.

It’s the state’s second attempt at an emissions rule. Ecology officials said on Wednesday that the latest version addresses concerns raised by businesses, environmental groups and others when the first draft was released. The agency withdrew that draft rule in February to make changes.

Stu Clark, the state’s air-quality manager, said this version tries to accommodate business growth, recognize actions that have already taken steps to reduce their emissions before the rule takes effect and provides provisions for energy-intensive businesses that face intense global competition. AP

OME of the world ’s most i n f lue nt i a l t r ave l aud iences are creating fresh momentum for El Nido Resorts in Palawan. They bring it to the attention of the top-end segment of the global travel market focused on places that remain untouched and have generally preser ved its biodiversity.

For the past two years, El Nido Resorts’ Pangulasian Island and its environs have been named in the Conde Nast Traveller Readers Awards. The most prestigious was the 2016 Readers’ Choice Awards that chose “The 20 Most Beautiful Beaches in the World” and voted El Nido, Palawan, in the top slot.

In that same article, readers recommended Pangulasian Island as the place to stay when in town.

In travel, a Conde Nast feature has the same impact as winning an Oscar in the movie industry, according to Joey Bernardino, sales and marketing head of the four island destinations that carry the El Nido Resorts brand.

The other three properties are: Apulit, Miniloc and Lagen.

“We have been featured four times in a row over two years and we couldn’t be more grateful,’’ he said. Bernardino explained that El Nido, Palawan, made it to the Readers’ Choice Award on best

beaches in 2015 and 2016. Also this year Pangulasian was named in a Conde Nast Gold List entitled “Our Favorite Beach Resorts in the World,” where it ranked fourth on a list of 13.

It was also part of “Our Favorite Hotels in the World” Gold List that listed 168 names, including properties in the US, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and other continents.

In the latest poll, CNN writers noted: “Shockingly, Palawan remains steadily under the radar” despite its close to 50 powdery beaches set against “dramatic limestone formations [that] boast of the finest and whitest sand you’ll ever see. The water is so blindingly blue it makes the Caribbean Sea look murky in comparison.”

Most of these attributes are the results of the continued biodiversity in this destination, a consequence of the sustainable practices of its most prominent industry players, including the four El Nido Resorts.

T he a r t ic le con notes t h at given its plethora of exceptional beaches, azure waters, relative seclusion and unusual backdrop of rock formations, El Nido Resorts’s Pangulasian, the top place to stay in the area, is most likely to soon make a strong impact on the world travel market.

Science Monday

Monday, June 6, 2016 A13

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

DOSTv online weather channel launched S    S T

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building and P7 million for the equipment.” The agency is in the process of generating more funds.

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N the heels of the devastation brought by recent super typhoons, such as Yolanda (international code name Haiyan), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) recently launched the DOSTv, or the Filipino Weather Channel, to provide the public real-time weather updates and forecasts.

DOSTv started its broadcast at hhtp://www.dostv.ph and was mirrored at www.science.ph and www. dostv.ph/youtube, will feature science and technology (S&T) stories in the country.

Weather channel for Filipinos

THE DOST, through its agencies the Science and Technology Information Institute (STII) and the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), aims to provide the Filipino public reliable and accurate source of real-time weather information, which is highly important in daily activities of households, schools, communities and big industries, such as tourism, aviation and shipping, among others.

DOSTv will also feature news, stories and live interviews on interesting programs, projects, innovations, personalities and advances in the local S&T community.

Engr. Catalino Davis of Pagasa told the BusinessMirror that the agency plays a big and challenging role. “The main role of Pagasa is preliminary weather

information from the agency, live streaming and forecasting.”

STII Director Richard Burgos said STII is working closely with Pagasa. “We are trying to identify more regular forecasters to participate in the show, so that they will be the ones recognized by the public.”

He said the weather forecasters are from Pagasa. “They [weather forecasters] are being groomed by Pagasa to appear in the show.”

Although it is called weather channel, the show also aims to showcase the DOST’s other branches. Davis said, “DOSTv is called the Filipino Weather Channel for a start and later on it should not only focus on Pagasa but also on some other [DOST] services.” He refers to other branches of the DOST, such as the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

S&T documentaries

DOSTv will also feature documentaries and highlight many current issues that the country is facing in the field of S&T that affect the daily lives of Filipinos. The first documentary, which was aired

Future plans

THE Department of Science and Technology recently launched the online broadcast of DOSTv, or the Filipino Weather Channel. Leading the event are (from left) Science Undersecretary Dr. Rowena Cristina Guevara, for scientific and technological services; Undersecretary Dr. Amelia Guevara, for research and development; and Director Richard Burgos of the Science and Technology Information Institute.

during the first livestream of the show, was entitled Unos (Storm).

Unos is a short feature documentary that highlights the lives of people living in permanently flooded areas, such as Malabon.

Its segment producer, Alan Mauro V. Marfal, told the Busin e ssMir ror t h at t he doc umentary is timely. “Now that it is June, most especially when classes are about to resume, the rainy season will surely affect the lives of many Filipinos.”

Marfal added, “In Malabon flood is already a way of life and, next to that, many areas in the Philippines are prone to floods.”

The documentary featured interviews of experts in the weather bureau, urban planners and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority. The planning started in brainstorming ideas for segments and stories. Marfal said,

“We [STII staff] meet together and lay out plans for segments and stories, we identify who will be assigned there…. Our approach is like that of a case study.”

Marfal admitted that this was the first time STII has worked on this kind of production, but he said he feels satisfied. “It is fulfilling for us to know that we hit our goals, and see that the quality of our documentaries is good and is competitive with commercially made ones,” he said.

Four years in the making

THE idea of creating a weather channel for the Filipino public was planned four years ago when former DOST Assistant Secretar y and now National Privacy Commission Commissioner R aymond Liboro was in charge of t he Te c h nolog y R esou rce Center (TRC) and STII. Burgos

told the BusinessMirror in an interview: “They started talking about establishing it [DOSTv] four years ago, and it was easy since Commissioner Liboro was in charge of TRC and STII.” TRC gave the initial funding under the DOST. “Unfortunately, TRC was abolished and all its assets were moved to the DOST and some of their projects were moved to STII,” Burgos said. “So we [STII] are now the partners of Pagasa in this project.” The preparation for DOSTv was made only in three months.

“The marching order was to get it [DOSTv] up and running when I assumed office,” Burgos said, recalling his assumption as director of STII three months ago. DOSTv started with an initial funding of P15 million. “The P15 million was just to jump-start DOSTv,” Burgos said. “Eight million pesos for the

DOSTV will also feature live interviews. According to Marfal, documentary segments will be shown every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while live interviews with experts to address certain issues will be held on Tuesday and Thursday.

STII and other agencies of the DOST are already very busy shooting their documentaries and planning the lineup of stories.

Marfal said, “ The next stories in DOSTv would include the stormchasers of Pagasa, [who] will narrate their experience in catching storms; the Diwata feature; El Niño; volcanic eruption; earthquakes; and telehealth.”

Telehealth is the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies in addressing health-related services in the Philippines.

Burgos said STII is hopeful that the show will continue, considering that its efforts to bring the best information about S&T and weather updates in the Philippines are up to high standards.

“We will have to make sure that we produce things for broadcast, and that the content will be relevant to our public [so that the] people will realize that there are lot of things going on in the country’s science and technology sector.”

DOSTv is set to broadcast every day on weekdays until 2017.

Burgos told the BusinessMirror, “I think now that we have laid our stakes on the ground, now that we have things to show, now that we can show to the people that we can produce quality programs, then we are hopeful we can generate support.”

Pioneering scientists in gravitational wave Ex-DOST Usec, NRCP prexy is new DOST chief discovery among Kavli Prize winners

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INE scientists have won the 2016 Kavli Prize for their groundbreaking work on gravitational waves, brain plasticity and atomic force microscopy.

The Kavli Prize, whose laureates are awarded every two years in Norway, recognizes researchers who have made crucial contributions to the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. In each of the three categories, winners share a $1-million cash prize.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Rainer Weiss and California Institute of Technology’s Kip Thorne and Ronald Drever took home the astrophysics prize for their pioneering work on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or Ligo. After a decadeslong search, Ligo last September finally detected the first direct evidence of these elusive ripples in the fabric of the cosmos.

“This discovery has, in a single stroke and for the first time, validated Einstein’s theory of general relatively for very strong fields,” said Mats Carlsson of the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics in Norway, chairman of the astrophysics award committee, in announcing the prize on Thursday.

“It has established the nature of gravitational waves, demonstrated the existence of black holes with masses 30 times that of our sun, and opened a new window on the universe.”

Thorne and Weiss, who were watching the award ceremony via video feed at the World Science Festival in New York City, embraced over a dining table and drew a standing ovation from the gathered scientists.

The win came just days after the trio picked up the Shaw Prize in Astronomy for their work on Ligo.

Thanks to Ligo, “you can really look out into the universe with a tool you’ve never had before,” MIT physicist Nergis Mavalvala told the audience in New York during a panel discussion following the announcement. Mavalvala told the audience that she didn’t even know what gravitational waves were in 1991 when she met Weiss (who went on to become her doctoral adviser).

“He told me what he was trying to do, and I thought it was totally insane,” Mavalvala said. (In spite of her apparent skepticism, the 2010 MacArthur “genius” grant recipient ended up working on Ligo, too.)

Weiss initially came up with the concept for the detector; Thorne, who met Weiss when they shared a hotel room, was a theorist by training and recruited Drever from Scotland, who was known as a talented experimentalist. “The first time we actually understood that the signals are out there and measurable came really from the work of Kip—the measurable part,” Mavalvala said.

Gerd Binnig, formerly of the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Christoph Gerber of the University of Basel and Calvin Quate of Stanford University, earned the nanoscience award for developing the atomic force microscope, an instrument that allows researchers to examine a surface practically atom by atom.

“Based on this technique, sculpting and analyzing nanoscale structures is now widely used in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology and materials science,” said Arne Brataas of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, chair for the nanoscience award.

Michal Lipson, an expert in silicon photonics at Columbia University who also won a MacArthur grant in 2010, emphasized the importance of

the Kavli winners’ contribution to a vast array of scientific disciplines.

“There is not a single center without this AFM, atomic force microscope,” she said at the panel discussion. “This is a must, it is a tool that all of us use all of the time. So it has completely enabled nanotechnology to be what it is today.”

Eve Marder of Brandeis University, Michael Merzenich of the University of California, San Francisco and Stanford’s Carla Shatz won the neuroscience prize for their individual lines of work on the ways that experience and neural activity can reshape brain function.

Our brains are constantly responding and adapting to experience—making them incredibly plastic—and yet, our personalities and behaviors somehow manage to remain largely stable, said Ole Petter Ottersen of the University of Oslo, the neuroscience chairman.

“It is the elucidation of this delicate balance between plasticity and stability that we celebrate,” he said of the laureates’ work.

For a long time, researchers thought that babies’ and children’s brains were capable of incredible plasticity and growth, but that adults’ brains had a largely fixed architecture. The three scientists showed that the adult brain can be far more flexible and adaptable than previously thought—which opens the door to new treatments for all kinds of neurological conditions.

“The picture of how we experience the world around us has been utterly redrawn,” Ottersen added.

The Kavli Prize is a joint effort by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the US-based Kavli Foundation and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.

Los Angeles Times/TNS

DE la Peña Jr.

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ROF. Fortunato T. de la Peña Jr., former undersecretary of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Science and Technology (S&T) Services and president of the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP), was named as one of the 34 Cabinet men of Presidentelect Rodrigo R. Duterte’s administration.

Duterte, in his news conference in Davao City on May 31, named de la Peña as his new secretary for the DOST. De la Peña, or simply USec. Boy to the members of the science community, is a

staunch advocate of basic research and is widely respected as a diligent, efficient and very effective science administrator in the country and abroad. As proof of this, while he was then serving as DOST undersecretary for S&T Services, he simultaneously worked as NRCP president and as chairman of NRCP Division of Engineering and Industrial Research. He is noted for being the longest serving president of NRCP, from 2002 to 2007, or for five consecutive terms.

In 2013 de la Peña was named as one of the NRCP Achievement awardees for his

outstanding contributions in the field of engineering and industrial research and excellence in science administration.

Besides spearheading the e-governance programs, he is also one of the forerunners of the National Science and Technology Plan 2002-2020, which sets the national policy framework and direction of S&T in the country. These pioneering efforts, along with his achievements as an engineer, as academician and as S&T manager, were upheld by various notable recognitions, like the Dangal ng Bayan and Outstanding Career Executive Service Officer (Ceso) awards by the Career Executive Service Board in 2005.

De la Peña earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering masters in Industrial Engineering and special training certificates in business administration all from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman.

He pursued graduate studies in Operations Research in the Polytechnic Institute of New York and obtained a diploma in Industrial Quality Control from Bouwcentrum International Education in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Prior to his appointment as science undersecretary, he was a noted professor of industrial engineering at UP Diliman College of Engineering, where he also chaired the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.

Other key positions he held include the 15th session chairman for the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development, a high-level agency tasked to promote S&T for development and address issues of digital divide and Internet governance; director of Technology Application and Promotion Institute of the DOST; head of planning Service Division of the thenNational Science and Technology Authority (precursor of the DOST); vice president for planning and development of UP Diliman; and interim executive director for the Apec Center for Technology Exchange and Training for Small and Medium Enterprises.

De la Peña attained Ceso I rank upon his retirement as DOST undersecretary in 2014.

By far, only few government officials have attained this rank. S&T Media Service

A14 Monday, June 6, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Duterte must ‘fix’ mining

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NFORTUNATELY lost in all the controversy about language and insults, President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte has been establishing the foundation of some basic policy decisions that are critical and were ignored in the Aquino administration.

One of the most serious and glaring lapses of policy has been in regard to the mining industry. Rather than try to actually do something about both the taxation system and potential environmental problems for this industry, the Aquino administration simply stopped new mining investment and stuck its head in the sand. While properly recognizing that there were serious issues that needed to be addressed, the government—including the legislature—just ran away.

Pick up a foreign news report about mining in the Philippines and you will always read that the country is one of the most mineral-rich areas on earth. As rich as the country is in mineral products, we are equally as “poor” when it comes to a sensible mineral extraction and processing policy. Is there any nation that has had successive governments as incompetent and ineffective as ours with regards to this issue?

Incoming President Duterte has consistently been an outspoken opponent of mining, resented particularly by the foreign mining interests operating in Mindanao. For more than 20 years, Davao City was completely off-limits to any sort of mining activity at Duterte’s instance. In his comments directed to the mining companies, “I am putting you on notice. I don’t want you here.” Staunch environmentalist Gina Lopez endorsed Duterte’s antimining stance prior to the elections.

Mineral extraction and processing is a complex issue involving national economics, the rights of the indigenous peoples, environmental concerns and—in most mineral-rich area—security. But to simply ignore the Philippines’s mineral wealth makes no sense either. In recent comments, Duterte indicated that maybe the best way to move forward is for ownership of mining companies left to local Filipino companies. This will be a challenge given the great long-term capital commitment need for mining. But it is also probable that Filipinos could more effectively police the mining practices of Filipino companies.

The “no mining under any circumstances” groups bring hypocrisy to a new astounding level. When they organize a “throw your smartphone and laptop into Manila Bay Day,” we might raise our respect.

On the other hand, mineral extraction has been a grim environmental problem since the ancient days of King Solomon’s mines. But if you are smart enough to invent a standard of living that depends on mining, then you should be smart enough to provide for the necessary minerals in a safe way.

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PCSO continues donating ambulances Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

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NE of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s (PCSO)most popular and helpful programs is the Ambulance Donation Program that provides a free brand-new ambulance unit to qualified local government units (LGUs) and charitable institutions.

Under the program, run by PCSO Assets and Supply Management Department Manager lawyer Reena Yason, cities, municipalities, public and private hospitals, charitable institutions, government agencies, and state colleges and universities, among others, may be granted a new ambulance every five years.

The ambulances are the LGUs’ lifelines to the nearest hospitals, and are especially needed in remote areas with little private or public transport.

Fourth- to sixth-class municipalities receive their ambulances as outright donations, while first- to third-class municipalities shoulder 40 percent of the unit cost, with PCSO handing the rest of the amount.

Recently, the PCSO granted

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PPP LEAD

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new ambulances to Albuquerque, Antequera, Balilihan, Bilar, Buenavista, Inabanga, Maribojoc, Pilar, San Miguel, Sierra Bullones, Talibon, Trinidad and Valencia, all in Bohol province, on April 21.

Likewise, the recipients of new units were Carranglan, Nueva Ecija, on April 29; the municipalities of Bacacay, Jovellar, Malilipot, Pio Duran, Rapu-Rapu and Tiwi; Ligao City; and Josefina Belmonte Duran Memorial Hospital and Pantao District Hospital, all in Albay, on May 5; Galimuyod, Ilocos Norte; Bautista, Pangasinan; and Prieto Diaz, Sorsogon, on May 6; South Cotabato Provincial Hospital on May 19; the municipalities of Gloria and Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro, also on May 19; and Dinaig Municipal Hospital in Sinsuan,

bulance to all cities and municipalities nationwide in support of the medical programs in those areas.

Not only are they used to transport ailing patients to hospitals, the ambulances are also used as rescue vehicles during times of natural disaster, such as floods, according to reports from many LGUs. As such, PCSO ambulances are truly useful in more ways than one.

The PCSO Ambulance Donation Program, and all PCSO’s other medical- and health care-related social-welfare programs, are funded by revenues from the agency’s Lotto and other number games.

We thank the public for their constant support for Lotto games, which gives everyone who buys a ticket the chance to be a multi-millionaire while, at the same time, helping their kababayan in need.

Lotto players can consider that in a way, they had a hand in placing all those ambulances bearing PCSO stickers nationwide, where the vehicles are of immense service and usefulness in those communities.

PCSO continues to award ambulances to qualified entities. For the checklist of requirements, please visit pcso.gov.ph.

Maguindanao, on May 23.

Also granted ambulances were the municipalities of Baler, Casiguran, Dilasag, Dinalugan, Dingalan and Dipaculao; Sabang Eco Tourism Area Association, Maria Aurora Community Hospital and the Aurora Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, on May 16.

All the turnover ceremonies were held at the PCSO head office in Mandaluyong City, except for the Aurora turnover, which was held in Baler upon the occasion of the opening there of PCSO’s 53rd and newest branch, and the Bohol turnover, which was held in Tagbilaran City.

As can be gathered from the list of recipients, ambulances are granted all over the country, from Luzon to Mindanao, in line with the PCSO’s goal to provide an am-

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PPP is about resource exchange and interdependence

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As can be gathered from the list of recipients, ambulances are granted all over the country, from Luzon to Mindanao, in line with PCSO’s goal to provide an ambulance to all cities and municipalities nationwide in support of the medical programs in those areas.

Continued from A1 At the project level, a PPP is a contractual arrangement between the government and the private sector to deliver public infrastructure and/or public services, where each party assumes specified functions, bears certain risks, provides contributions, performs particular obligations, and earns benefits and revenues. Without the contributions, support, participation and resources of each party and every stakeholder, there can be no feasible PPP. Government resources in a PPP can be a concession or franchise, subsidy, funds, land and personnel, without which, there can be no viable PPP. The private sector can contribute the capital, expertise, technology and manpower, without which, there can be no PPP. Thus, the relationship between

them is one of resource exchange and interdependence. According to Pfeffer and Salancik, interdependence exists whenever one actor does not entirely control all of the conditions necessary for the achievement of an action or for obtaining the outcome desired from the action. Government must be able to transact with elements of the environment, i.e., business sector, civil society and ordinary citizens, in order to obtain the resources necessary for survival and performance of its mandate.

It is for these reasons that the public sector needs the private sector, and vice versa since they are not self-contained and self-sufficient organizations. A partnership is not one-sided or lopsided.

In a PPP, there is no competition between the parties. There should S “PPP,” A

PPP RESOURCE EXCHANGE Modality

Government

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Build-Operate-Transfer

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Public Land Lease Policy-setting

Financing AUTHOR: ALBERTO C. AGRA

Private Sector

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Fatherhood: The ultimate job

Insights of a young accountant Razzel Ann Vergara

Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan

DEBIT CREDIT

HIS time of year, with Father’s Day fast approaching, we take our time to celebrate and honor the heroes of every household: the Papa, Daddy, Tatay or whatever endearing names we may call them. The importance of the father in the household cannot be understated, for the father plays a significant role in the family by providing and taking care of the needs of the family. However, aside from the conventional role of the father as the padre de pamilya, the father in the modern-day context now plays a more active support role during childbirth of the mother, which is why our legislators in 1996 came up with a law that bolstered the labor standards of male employees who are fathers, by passing Republic Act 8187, or the Paternity Leave Act.

WILL never forget the first time I got my registration certificate as official proof of being enrolled in the BS Accountancy Program I of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines-Lopez, Quezon. Thereafter, I learned that the first stage of being an accountant was illiteracy. I didn’t even know what ACCO (code for Accounting) was. I didn’t also even know that the professors and some other students like me are expecting us to excel in this chosen field.

According to them, all students enrolled in this program belong to what they call “cream of the crop.” In my own translation: best among the enrolling batch. I have no idea or background in accounting, unlike some of my classmates who have taken bookkeeping in high school. I never knew that it was going to be a tough ordeal for me. Upon finishing the introductory accounting subjects, I wanted to sign an affidavit to not pursue accountancy.

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LEGALLY SPEAKING

Basically, paternity leave entitles a male employee seven days of paid leave during delivery of his wife, for the purpose of effectively lending support to his wife in her period of recovery and/or in the nursing of the newborn child.

To be entitled to a paternity leave, the male employee must be lawfully married and must cohabit with his legitimate wife, by cohabiting, meaning they must dwell or live together as husband and wife.

Further, the male employee must have applied for paternity leave within a reasonable time from the date of the expected delivery, or within such period as may be provided by company rules and regulations, or by collective bargaining agreement. However, prior application for paternity leave is not required in the event of a miscarriage.

Another important aspect provided under the law is the limitation on the availment of the paternity leave, the law expressly provides that the male employee is entitled to a paid paternity leave only for the first four deliveries of his lawful spouse. Further, the term delivery, under the law, contemplates of childbirth or miscarriage.

Since the law is categorical that paternity leave is applicable only during the delivery of the legal spouse, it is, therefore, not applicable to common-law relationships, as they are not the kind of relationships contemplated under the law.

It is interesting to note that if an existing company policy or contract gives an employee greater

PPP. . .

C  A

be symbiotic relationship based on trust and resource exchange. In a PPP, after the PPP contract has been awarded, there is either a monopoly or monopsony.

In the bidding process, there is competition “for” the market, but after the award, there is no competition “in” the market.

Surely, one party cannot dominate, or have control over the other, save what is provided and agreed upon in the PPP contract. Resource exchange is critical in a PPP, where the effects and relationship are moderated by the PPP contract, the bid documents and the public good.

However, in a system of interde-

benefits, wherein the number of days of paternity leave granted is greater than seven days, then such greater benefits will apply over the minimum benefits under the Paternity Leave Act. Nevertheless, if the company already provides for an emergency or contingency leave, without any specific mention on paternity leave, then the minimum benefit of seven days paternity leave under the law shall be applied on top of the existing emergency or contingency leave. It must also be noted that in the event the father does not avail himself of his paternity leave during delivery of his wife, then such nonavailment of the paternity leave will not render it convertible to cash.

A thorough reading of the law would suggest that the employment status of the male employee is not material for the entitlement of said leave, since it is not among the conditions set forth to be entitled of said leave; what is important is that, as long as during the time of the delivery, the male employee must still be currently employed.

To ensure strict compliance, the law provides for a penalty for employers who refuse to grant paternity-leave benefits to their qualified male employees, wherein the erring employer may be punished by a fine up to P25,000, or imprisonment of 30 days to six months.

Here’s to all the fathers and soon-to-be fathers out there. I hope this helps.

For comments, you may e-mail me at lpkapunan@kapunanlaw.com. pendence, the identity of each party remains intact. The government cannot abdicate its duty to regulate, set policies, “steer” the project, ensure delivery of basic services, and protect and promote the interest of the people. On the other hand, the private sector cannot enter into contracts that will harm or cause disadvantage to its shareholders. For the consumers, they exercise their freedom to use or not to use the facility, and to support or oppose a project.

In interdependence and resource exchange, there must be a triple win or benefit situation on the part of the government, the private sector and the people, otherwise, there is no reason to collaborate or support a partnership. Win-win-win is both a commitment and a challenge.

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In my second year in college, I came to know that the second stage was incredulity. Yes. I am unable and unwilling that time to believe that this is my path, and this is where I should go. It may be due to the hardships that I was experiencing that time.

However, as I took a few more accounting subjects over the next years, I came to love what I was doing and learning. I realized that this wasn’t all that bad and, that somehow, I can become an accountant. This was the third

I

sider. A British exit and volatile US jobs numbers notwithstanding, the balance of evidence continues to shift. The case is strong for moving monetary policy back toward normal—gently but purposefully, and without further delay.

The US labor market is hard to read. Employers added just 38,000 jobs in May—surprisingly low, even allowing for the fact that the figures are volatile and a strike at Verizon kept 35,000 workers off the monthly payroll count. On the

stage—alacrity. The feeling of being cheerful for you are ready enough to brace the path and everything, no matter what.

It was not smooth sailing.

As the course load in the final years was laden with technical and more difficult accounting subjects, inc lud ing ta x ation, auditing and advanced accounting. The road to the licensure examination was extremely difficult as it can be. Some need to be away from his or her family and study even harder. After ob-

taining my CPA license, I had to be updated with the changes in the accounting profession. I had to engage in Continuing Professional Education. This was the fourth stage—adversity, where I experienced everything. Call it difficulty, hardship, suffering or any other adjectives you can give.

Somehow along the way, this accountant-in-transit woke up one day realizing how far she has become. I cannot say that mastery will bring you to what you aim.

It is important that you know enough. But that is something we cannot quantify.

Being part of the professional accounting community and contributing skills and efficiency in the business arena is such an enormous feeling. This is the fifth or rewarding stage, which I call benefaction. In this stage, the professional accountant plays an important role that contributes to the overall stability and progress of society.

Some members of the accounting community rise up to take leadership roles in the advancement of the accounting profession, whether in their companies, their own accounting firms, within a professional or regulatory body and other institutions.

I believe that this is the sixth stage—prominency. It is not the prestige that matters but the fact of standing out from other recognized personalities.

Allow me to describe the sev-

enth stage as diversity. I believe that this is what we professional accountants can become and attain our optimum potential. In this phase, there is a diversity of education, wisdom, experience and thirst for more learning.

However, it doesn’t just happen by being said or being there. We have to make it so. Diversity can emerge from various sources, such as education, life experience, traveling to other places, mu lticu ltura l af f i l iation and creative hobbies, to name a few.

Achieving diversity rests another burden on our shoulders. But I believe that this is feasible if we unite ourselves in this goal.

This is a call for a revolution of the hearts. As artists have their own definition of their body of work, we accountants should also have our own. Have you thought about yours?

Razzel Ann Vergara is a graduate of BSA at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines-Lopez, Quezon Batch 2014. She passed the CPA Licensure Examination in October 2014 and is currently connected with Vinhar Construction and Marketing, a company specializing in accounting for construction projects and taxation.

This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@ gmail.com

Why oil prices and power rates keep on rising

ding price of $500 million in 1976, making it one of the biggest chunks of the country’s contingent liabilities to be amortized until 2018. Filipinos are still paying close to P300,000 a day to maintain the nuclear facility.

The Philippines already had an oversupply of electricity in 1994, but, strangely, the Ramos administration still entered into new contracts with IPPs, many of them enjoyed financial backing from export credit agencies (ECAs) with Philippine sovereign guarantees.

In fact, ECAs supported three of the five IPP contracts found onerous by the government Interagency IPP Review Committee (IIRC).

These were the Casecnan Multipurpose Irrigation and Power Project (CMIPP), the Sual Coal-Fired Power Plant and the San Roque Hydropower Project, touted as the country’s biggest hydropower.

In these deals, the government committed to pay CMIPP a whopping P80.77 billion, or $1.454 billion, or $72.7 million ($1=P55.55, based on 2004 forex) a year for 20 years, to CalEnergy (CE Casecnan whether or not the US firm actually delivered

the contracted water to the Pantabangan Dam). Aside from tax exemptions, CE-Casecnan is also assured of P40.4 billion or $728 million, or $36.4 million yearly, for the same period as fees for the hydropower created in the course of delivering the contracted water. There is no assurance whatsoever that CMIPP would generate power monthly.

Sovereign guarantee on payments for IPPs’ expensive power, regardless of actual need and performance, appeared to be the major source of greed, thus, it set the stage for NPC’s financial ruin.

Within a short span of time, or by 2000, the principal balance of NPC’s financial-debt obligations had surged to $6.77 billion; $1.23 billion of this amount is owed to various ECAs. But what actually sank the cou nt r y de e per i n f i n a nc i a l crisis was, among others, Mrs. Aquino’s naïve decision to “honor all debts.”

Instead of easing the problem by ma x imizing inter nationa l goodwill brought about by Marcos’s ouster, she and Congress aggravated it by not repealing Presidential Decree 1177, a Marcos edict dictated by transnational creditors that automatically allocated more than 30 percent of scarce public revenues to pay debts, regardless of how the debts were incurred. Worse, she even perpetuated this onerous doctrine into the Administrative Code when she issued Executive Order 292.

As the country grappled with

a shortfall of 1,500 megawatts in programmed additional capacity that triggered 8- to 12-hour daily brownouts, foreign power investors, deliberately enticed by the government with sovereign guarantees and other incentives without looking at the deleterious effect, quietly came into the picture.

Apart from the failure to operate the BNPP, other factors that set off the power shortages were President Aquino’s hasty abolition of the Ministry of Energy on June 20, 1986, and delays in the construction of the 300-MW Calaca coal-fired plant in Batangas province and the 600-MW plant in Masinloc, Zambales. Subsequent lack of strategic planning for the rehabilitation of existing power plants to meet the rising energy demands of the economy worsened the problem.

Mrs. Aquino actually started the power privatization by issuing Executive Order 215 that opened the electricity generation sector to private investors and paved the way for the entry of IPPs and ECAs, like the Overseas Private Investment Corp., Export Credit Guarantee Department and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, which ensured financial backing for the IPPs. Through this directive, President Aquino was keen to encourage private-sector involvement in the country’s economic activities, deeming that the private sector can be a catalyst for nation-building.

To be continued

market if employment opportunities improved. The evidence suggests that a diminishing but still significant number of people would do so. This is the case for keeping monetary policy loose.

Bear in mind, though, that monetary policy is currently extremely loose by any conventional measure, and still would be if the policy rate was raised another quarter-point.

Very low interest rates and a massively expanded central-bank balance sheet (thanks to a prolonged

spell of quantitative easing) are distorting asset prices and creating problems for the future. What’s more, as a way to stimulate demand, they seem less and less effective.

In short, the case for maintaining stimulus is strong, but the case for doing it with monetary policy isn’t.

Ideally, the US would normalize its economic policy by combining fiscal stimulus with a more cautious monetary policy. The country badly needs to repair and improve its infrastructure. Borrowing for

that purpose would be good for the economy and, under current conditions, easily affordable. The Fed doesn’t control fiscal policy, but it can and should signal that it’s no longer willing to carry the whole burden of reviving the economy, and that the balance of fiscal and monetary stimulus is dangerously out of kilter. It needs to avoid the suspicion that it’s dithering and that super-low interest rates will be available indefinitely. Bloomberg View

Cecilio T. Arillo

DATABASE Continued from A1 A s of m id-20 0 4 , Nat ion a l Power Corp.’s (NPC) obligations reached more than P1 trillion, P700 billion of which was due independent power producers (IPPs). NPC’s financial obligations represented at one time almost one-fifth of the P5.39-trillion national debt.

Earlier, a government study com m issioned by t he C red it Suisse First Boston and Arthur Andersen estimated NPC’s net liabilities from obligations to the IPPs at a staggering range between $6.1 billion and $6.77 billion. Worse, these liabilities and obligations continued to grow.

Interestingly, the huge debt of the 620-megawatt Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) that never produced a single watt of electricity and mothballed ever since due to false issues of corruption and safety was converted into Brady Bonds during the Ramos regime.

The BNPP finally settled with its creditors at $2.1-billion, with the government inordinately allowing the contract to swell more than four times its original bid-

What the Fed should do next

F the Federal Reserve (the Fed) was looking for reasons not to raise interest rates when its policy-making committee meets later this month, it now has two.

Today’s new and surprisingly weak US employment numbers, added to investor anxiety about a possible British exit from the European Union, make a plausible case for leaving short-term interest rates unchanged.

That would be a mistake. The Fed needs to step back and con-

Monday, June 6, 2016 A15

other hand, the unemployment rate, reflecting exits from the labor force, fell to 4.7 percent, suggesting a pretty tight market. Pay was up, as well, for an increase of 2.5 percent over the previous year.

T hese conf licting numbers make it hard to measure slack in the labor market—hence the scope for boosting output and employment through further stimulus. The main question is how many of the workers who’ve stopped looking for jobs would get back into the labor