BusinessMirror May 30, 2015

AP PHOTOS

“THEIR souls speak to us. They ask us to look inward, to take stock of who we are and who we might become.”—President Barack Obama, remembering the 140,000 people who died in Hiroshima in 1945, after the US dropped the first atomic bomb. Obama spoke while visiting the city, the first American president to do so. AP

MEDIA PARTNER OF THE YEAR

“WE sincerely hope the public and the media will not overread it.”—Chinese laundry detergent maker Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd. Co., in its apology for the harm caused by the spread of an ad in which a black man “washed” by its product was transformed into a fair-skinned Asian man. AP

“AS soon as I did the Heimlich maneuver, a piece of meat with a bone in it immediately popped out.”—Dr. Henry Heimlich, the 96-year-old retired chest surgeon credited with developing the namesake Heimlich maneuver, and who used it to save a woman choking on food at his senior living center in Ohio. AP

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UNITED NATIONS

2015 ENVIRONMENTAL MEDIA AWARD LEADERSHIP AWARD 2008

A broader look at today’s business

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Monday, May 30, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 233

MVP urges govt to clean up ‘messy’ infra contracts ₧ 11B I B L S. M

@lorenzmarasigan

NVESTOR sentiment on the government’s key infrastructure program has been tarnished, at least in the case of a listed infrastructure giant, whose executives said there has got to be a “cleanup” of the mess the current administration has created for not honoring contracts.

Metro Pacif ic Investments Corp. (MPIC) has pending claims against the Aquino administration amounting to P11 billion on foregone revenues arising from the government’s failure to implement tariff increases on tollways and

INSIDE

HERE COMES HANNAH KONG FROM PARIS

delivery of water services.

MPIC also has a P1.9-billion claim on rails, as the government also failed to deliver its end of the multibillion-peso Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT 1) contract: a hundred working train cars, better train

D1

KLAY’S TREYS KEEP WARRIORS ALIVE

5 As: No PPP justice without gender justice

The amount of Metro Pacific Investments Corp.’s pending claims against the Aquino administration

platforms and a fare hike.

“There are projects under this administration and the past [with] issues pending. For example, the arbitration cases on the tollways and the water side. Then the matter of LRT 1—there are obligations of the government with respect to LRT 1 that are unfulfilled,” MPIC Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said.

S “MVP,” A

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LIFE

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

Inclusive growth course a tortuous road for poor

PPP Lead Alberto C. Agra

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HY is promoting women and girls’ rights important in achieving the purpose of public-private partnerships (PPPs)? How can PPPs improve the quality of life of women and girls? How do we dovetail PPP justice with gender justice?

C  A

5 As ON PPP GENDER JUSTICE

ASSERTION BY STATE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

ARTICULATION OF FRAMEWORK ASSESSMENT OF IMPACT

TOWERING condominiums and makeshift houses are reflected on a river in Pasay City. The stark contrast in the living standards of Filipinos only mirrors the huge difference between their way of life, source of livelihood and income status. NONIE REYES B C U. O  M G C. P @cuo_bm

SPORTS

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@_enren

First of three parts

HE cheapest seasonal crop in the Philippines is sold during elections: the vote. Doing so allows the poor to earn from poverty.

As President Aquino is on the twilight of his administration, the poor remains among the populace—scrounging for leftover food at the

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 46.6650

back of restaurants; distributing white envelopes to jeepney passengers; and resting their backs on cold pavements.

Before Mr. Aquino became president six years ago, the faces of the poor are pressed on windshields of cars caught in a traffic jam. As President Aquino steps down, he would have the faces of Kidapawan farmers battling drought, as a sign economic growth remained a promise as elusive as corrupt government officials.

ACTION BASED ON GENDER JUSTICE AUTHOR: ALBERTO C. AGRA

BM GRAPHICS: JOB RUZGAL

C  A

n JAPAN 0.4252 n UK 68.4856 n HK 6.0086 n CHINA 7.1137 n SINGAPORE 33.9777 n AUSTRALIA 33.7155 n EU 52.2461 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.4473

Source: BSP (27 May 2016 )

A2 Monday, May 30, 2016

BMReports BusinessMirror

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Inclusive growth course a tortuous road for poor C  A

It seems the stark contrast in the living standards of Filipinos only mirror the huge difference between their way of life, source of livelihood and income status.

The fifth progress report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) released by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) stated that, while the Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality, went down to 0.47 in 2012, from 0.48 in 1991, the decline in inequality has been lopsided between rural and urban areas.

Data showed that, while inequality nationwide went down to 0.45 in 2012 from 0.47 in 1991, it rose in rural areas to 0.45 in 2012 from 0.39 in 1991.

Slow pace

HOWEVER, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) estimated that the income gap between the bottom 10 percent and upper 10 percent was 11.35 percent in the first semester of 2015. This represented a

Substantially bringing down poverty takes a long time, as experiences of other countries have shown. In the case of the Philippines, there is the added challenge of geoclimatic shocks.” —B decline of 0.72 percentage point, from the first semester of 2014’s 12.07 percent.

Notwithstanding this improvement, poverty reduction nationwide has been slow. The PSA said the country’s efforts in reducing poverty in relation to the MDGs have only been at medium pace using 2012 data.

The MDG target aims to halve poverty incidence between 2000 and 2015. The Philippines used as baseline the 1991 poverty-incidence rate of 34.4 percent, which translated to a target of reducing poverty-

incidence rate of 17.2 percent.

However, based on the 2012 full-year data, poverty incidence was still above the 20-percent mark at 25.2 percent.

Achieving the target means reducing poverty by 8 percentage points between 2013 and 2015.

As early as 2014, former Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said achieving this goal has become impossible.

The national government said it can only bring down the country’s poverty incidence to as low as 18 percent to 20 percent by

2016 and that poverty incidence could be brought down to around 20 percent to 23 percent in 2015.

“Substantially bringing down poverty takes a long time, as experiences of other countries have shown. In the case of the Philippines, there is the added challenge of geoclimatic shocks,” Balisacan said in a briefing in Malacañang in 2014.

According to Dr. Rolando Dy, executive director of the University of Asia and the Pacific’s Center for Food and Agribusiness, eight out of 10 of the poor are in rural areas.

“Why the high poverty? First, we have very low farm productivity relative to Asean peers, except banana and pineapples.

Second, we have very poor crop diversification in the past 50 years, which resulted to lower Philippine agricultural exports, as compared to other Asean neighbors,” Dy said in an e-mail.

Philippine Institute for Development senior research fellow Roehlano Briones, for his part, said two out of three poor workers are dependent on agriculture. He said the low farm productivity and limited diversification have translated to weak value adding, manufacturing and job creation in the sector.

Moreover, Briones said the average wage in the farm sector has not increased dramatically in the past years. “It has not at all kept pace with the average growth in income. What you see is stagnant incomes in agriculture.”

Geoclimatic shocks

THESE geoclimatic shocks have especially been brutal to the agriculture sector. A third of the country’s entire labor force derives its income from the farm sector.

When disasters strike, it is the first to suffer losses.

The country is still experiencing a severe case of El Niño, and the damage caused by the dry spell is significant. As of the latest data, the Department of Agriculture (DA) estimated that the drought and damage caused by pests reached P8.02 billion in the first four months of the year.

With the losses suffered by the agriculture sector, prices of food increased. Food costs are a major contributor to household

MVP. . .

C  A

He emphasized: “To look back, there’s got to be a cleanup. We don’t want to be in a case with the government. We hope to resolve it, so we could move forward.” Broken down, the company is claiming roughly P7 billion in water-revenue losses, and some P4 billion in foregone revenues from its toll-roads business. These, according to Metro Pacific CFO David J. Nicol, are the company’s projected losses by year-end.

“For the water business and for roads business, the claims are going up all the time the longer they take to settle,” he explained. “The more rapidly these can be resolved, the more quickly there’s a smaller claim upon the National Treasury.”

In March last year Maynilad Water Services Inc. initiated arbitration proceedings against the government for refusing to compensate for foregone revenues due to its delayed implementation of water-rate increases.

To recall, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System rejected in 2013 Maynilad’s petition for an P8.58-per-cubic-meter hike in its basic water charge. An appellate panel decided, however, to allow an increase of only P3.0 per cubic meter, much lower than the petition.

Manila North Tollways Corp. sought in April the intervention of an arbitration court for the settlement of roughly P3 billion in foregone toll revenues due to the government’s inaction to petitions for adjustment of the expressway operator.

On the other hand, the toll regulator has not acted on the company’s two rate-hike petitions for the North Luzon Expressway in 2012 and another in 2014.

The first petition was due on the first of January 2013. The second, submitted on September 30, 2014, would bring the cumulative toll-rate adjustment to 15 percent, of which 12 percent was long overdue. The concession the Pangilinan-controlled company holds allows for toll adjustments every two years.

Current toll fees at the thoroughfare (from Mindanao Avenue to Santa Ines) amount to P218 for Class 1 vehicles (cars, jeepneys, pickup trucks and vans); P544 for Class 2 vehicles (two-axle trucks, buses and vans); and P652 for Class 3 vehicles (trucks and trailers with three or more axles).

Cavitex Infrastructure Corp., also in April, filed another claim case on foregone revenues of the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway (Cavitex) to the tune of P877 million.

For the Cavitex, the company is seeking a 25-percent increase in tariff, as its last in-

expenses, especially of the poor. University of the Philippines School of Statistics Dean Dennis Mapa estimated that food costs account for as much as 70 percent against 39 percent for all the households.

The huge chunk of household budgets allocated to food costs increases the inflation experienced by the bottom 30 percent. The inflation rate they experience is often greater than the inflation felt by the average Filipino.

Underinvestment

THE poor are especially sensitive to the rice prices, according to Balisacan. Based on the 2012 poverty data, he said high rice prices were among the reasons there was an increase in poverty incidence to 25.8 percent in the first six months of 2014.

However, economists, such as Benjamin Diokno, said that, despite the poor’s dependence on agriculture as a livelihood and food for day-to-day living, the farm sector has been neglected. In the past 10 years alone, Diokno said both the Arroyo and Aquino administrations were guilty of neglecting the agriculture sector.

“The first reason is that agriculture has been neglected both by the Aquino and Arroyo administrations. Food production grew by an average of 1.6 percent from 2011 to 2015; in fact, it was practically flat last year,” Diokno said. “One needs to focus on agricultural modernization and rural development, because a large part of the typical poor family’s budget is spent on food, and most of the poor resides in the countryside.”

Apart from the underinvestment in agriculture, Diokno said corruption issues are rife in the farm sector, as evidenced by the exposure of the fertilizer-fund scam and issues surrounding rice importation by the National Food Authority (NFA).

“A related problem is that most of the high-profile corruption took place, and is taking place in agriculture, such as the ‘Jocjoc Bolante fertilizer scam,’ the irrigation scam, NFA rice importation, and the serious smuggling of agricultural products such as rice, onion and garlic,” he added.

To be continued

crease was given in 2011. It was supposed to implement adjustments in 2014, as its contract with the government allows for such surges.

In absolute terms, the petitions for a rate hike for Cavitex are as follows: ■ Class 1 vehicles, including cars, jeepneys, pickup trucks and vans, to P27 from P22; ■ Class 2 vehicles, including two-axle trucks, buses and vans, to P54 from P44; and ■ Class 3 vehicles, including trucks and trailers with three or more axles, to P81 from P66.

With respect to the rail business, Metro Pacific President Jose Maria K. Lim explained that his company’s estimated claim of P1.9 billion involves a number of factors.

“The claims amounted to P1.9 billion—that’s a combination of different claims because of the infrastructure, the number of light-rail vehicles delivered and the fare, which is only 90 percent of what it should be,” he said.

Under the deal, the government should deliver 100 working train cars to Light Rail Manila Corp., but was only able to provide 77 vehicles.

The group shouldered the cost of the repair and the rehab of the trains. Now, there are 91 trains working daily, thanks to the company’s initiative.

All these could have been prevented, all three officials said, had the government honored the contracts that it signed with the private sector.

“The regulator has seen fit to simply reject most of it. So we said we should go to mediation,” Lim said. This was not the only case the Aquino administration failed to honor contracts struck under its banner infrastructure thrust, the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program.

Megawide Construction Corp., which bagged the P8.69-billion deal for the modernization and the operation and maintenance of the Philippine Orthopedic Center, also reported agonizing over the same fate.

Due to the delays on a “review” conducted by a new health secretary—no matter that the contract was signed by President Aquino himself—the private proponent abandoned the deal and filed a P400-million claim for damages due to the administration’s failure to deliver on its promise. Still, both companies are scouting for other transactions, despite their sad experience with the government.

With the curtains now falling, President Aquino will have to move quickly to get more deals before it exits on June 30. When it does, the next administration will inherit a pipeline of more than 50 infrastructure deals. “There are new PPP projects that will carry over to the next government—airports and rails. They have a bit of inventory to deal with,” Pangilinan said.

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Monday, May 30, 2016

A3

Fewer jobs available as business outlook less upbeat in Q3–survey

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B B C

@BcuaresmaBM

EWER job opportunities were seen available in the third quarter, as businesses have proven less optimistic in expanding their business in the July-to-September period this year.

In the latest Business Expectations Survey (BES) conducted by the central bank, firms across the country said the employment

outlook index for the next quarter decreased to 23.8 percent, from the 27.2 percent in the last quarter’s survey.

The index is computed as the percentage of firms optimistic about added employment and expansion plans minus the percentage of firms indicating otherwise.

A lower index means the number of firms wanting to expand and hire more employees in the given period decreased as a result of their perception on particular economic events.

“This indicates that more firms will continue to hire new employees than those that said otherwise, although the number of new hires could decrease compared to the previous quarter’s survey,” the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said.

The local firms’ less optimistic hiring and expansion plans mirrored the outcome of the overall business expectations survey for the next quarter.

For the third quarter, businessmen outlook was less optimistic overall due to forecast interruption of activities during the rainy season, lower consumer demand as households prioritize enrollment expenses and expectations of higher oil prices.

Firms across sectors were less optimistic, except those in the wholesale and retail trade sector that were more upbeat in their hiring intentions.

Also, the percentage of businesses with expansion plans in the industry sector for the third quarter decreased to 30.3 percent, from 31.3 percent a quarter

earlier. The outlook was weaker across industr y subsectors, except for the manufacturing subsector, which recorded steady expansion plans.

More firms will continue to hire new employees than those that said otherwise, although the number of new hires could decrease compared to the previous quarter’s survey.”

—B S  P

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A4 Monday, May 30, 2016

Camarines solon eyes coalition to change govt to federalism

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B J M N.   C

@joveemarie

N incoming lawmaker is seeking to form a “grand coalition” of political parties for the smooth passage of a measure changing the country’s form of government from republican to federalism via Charter change (Cha-cha).

In a statement, Rep.-elect Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte of Camarines Sur said only the structural “switch in government could pave the way to the genuine devolution of powers from so-called Imperial Manila to the provinces and cities that would allow the country’s nascent economic overdrive to truly trickle down to the countryside.”

“A grand coalition of pro-administration and opposition political parties to spearhead the

federal shift has assumed greater urgency,” Villafuerte said.

Earlier, returning Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon D. Alvarez, who is being eyed as speaker of the House of Representatives in the Duterte administration, said his leadership will prioritize this Cha-cha.

President-elect Rodr igo R .

Duterte said he is pushing for federalism to end the decadelong fighting in parts of Mindanao.

However, House Majority Leader and Liberal Party Rep. Neptali M. Gonzales II said if the next administration wants to change the country’s form of government, it should be done in the first three years of the Duterte administration.

Under t he Const it ut ion, amendments to the 1987 Charter could be introduced either of these three modes: through a duly-elected Constitutional Convention (ConCon); Congress convening itself into a Constituent Assembly (ConAss); or a People’s Initiative (PI).

Villafuerte said Congress must take the lead in pushing the federal shift via Cha-cha.

“Now is the best time to tackle Charter change, and the switch to federalism at the onset of the Duterte presidency minus any suspicion of a hidden political agenda,” he said.

In the Philippines’s current form of government, all funds are centralized in the National Capital Region, and provinces need to remit their income in the

National Treasury; while under federalism, there is autonomy in government rules per province, with independent taxation and economic system.

Under the federal form of government, provinces will no longer remit their income to the National Treasury, but they are required to give a percentage of their income to the national government. A new constitution is also needed if federalism will push through.

“Because we have a unitary form of government, most of the administrative powers and financial resources are with the national government based in Metro Manila,” Villafuerte said.

“Under our unitary form of government, Imperial Manila has exclusive say on how the country’s resources are distributed among the country’s provinces and cities, forcing local government units to often beg for resources from the national government to fund their respective development projects,” he said.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Demand for household-service workers on uptrend as Ramadan approaches

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RISE in demand for Filipino household service workers (HSWs) was noted in the wake of the approaching Ramadan in Saudi Arabia, which also coincided with the increased bogus overseas employment certificate supplied by illegal foreign recruitment agencies (FRAs) from Riyadh.

Licensed agencies in Manila have reported the matter to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA).

Because of this, the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait has imposed strict conditions on the transfer of the househelp to Saudi Arabia, but still many recruitment agencies in Kuwait disregard the conditions and continue the practice.

Last week Hans Leo J. Cacdac of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said Filipinos wanting overseas jobs should make sure they have the correct work permit or work visa before they leave the country.

“They should not accept job offers if they are to leave using tourist visa, even with the assurance from the recruiters that they will find employment for them upon arrival in the country of destination.”

“Foreign workers without proper employment documents cannot work legally in any country and are the constant target of crackdowns. They are also more prone to exploitation by employers,” Cacdac said. “The legal way is to obtain an employment contract and employment visa or work permit, and submit them to the POEA for processing and issuance of exit clearance.”

He also reminded workers of the strict procedure being implemented by the Bureau of Immigration in screening Filipinos leaving as tourists. A traveler found to be misrepresenting the purpose of the foreign trip will not be allowed to board the plane.

The BUSINESSMIRROR previously reported some domestic workers deployed by licensed agencies to Kuwait have been trafficked to Saudi Arabia by some FRAs due to the high demand for Househelp there. HSWs were being transferred to Saudi Arabia for $5,000 by some enterprising employers to their relatives in the Kingdom.

A report from the Saudi Gazette posted on May 27 said many Saudi families are willing to pay any amount of money to get an HSW. This coincided with the thriving black market for domestic workers in the Kingdom.

Househelp brokers are taking advantage of the high demand, recruitment consultant Manny Geslani said. He said the problem has contributed to the emergence of HSW middle men.

Yahya Al-Maqbook, chairman of the recruitment committee at Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said most brokers give false promises to clients and charge less money in order to make customers fall for their scams.

“People should know that recruiting a maid takes longer than two months, and the whole process depends on the red tape and bureaucracy in the country of recruitment. They should know this fact and never believe a recruitment office that promises them to get things done faster,” he advised. Recto Mercene

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AseanMonday

PHL, Indonesia, Malaysia vow stronger cooperation in curbing criminal activities in Sulu Sea

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EFENSE Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin and his Malaysian and Indonesian counterparts agreed to cooperate further in curbing down criminality, piracy, kidnapping and smuggling in the Sulu Sea border area of the three countries.

Gazmin, Malaysian Defense Minister Hashimudin Hussein and Indonesian Defese Minister Riyamizard Ryacudu made this commitment during the sidelines of the Asean Defense Ministers’ Meeting in Vientiane, Laos, on May 26.

All three officials agreed to ensure timely sharing of relevant information and to this end direct their respective intelligence units to be more open in sharing databases of criminals.

Indonesia proposed to have joint posts of coordination within our countries' respective borders.

They also agreed to use existing platforms in undertaking joint patrols. The Philippines regularly conducts coordinated patrols with Indonesia, while the Philippines has antismuggling agreement with Malaysia.

The idea of coordinated patrol is in accordance with the Joint Declaration on Immediate Measures in the Maritime Areas of Common Concern, which was signed by the three countries’ foreign ministers and chiefs of defense forces on May 5.

A framework and subsequently a standard operating procedure are currently being crafted among our respective technical level officers.

The ministers also agreed to pursue joint training, with Indonesia proposing to have joint exercises at least twice a year, although Gazmin reminded the two other ministers that since the Philippine does not have a status of visiting forces agreement with either Indonesia and Malaysia, the Philippines could only conduct exercises with them in the high seas and not within its territorial waters.

To sustain high-level ministerial dialogue regarding this matter, the three ministers agreed to once more have a trilateral meeting this coming June, with Manila slated to host the said meeting. PNA

BusinessMirror

Monday, May 30, 2016 A5

Vietnam PM calls for G-7 climate aid

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SE-SHIMA—Vietnam is hoping Group-of-Seven (G-7) countries and multilateral organizations will continue to assist the country and other Mekong nations in managing and protecting water resources, and improving their capacity to adapt to climate change, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuân Phúc said.

The Vietnamese leader made the call while addressing the first working session of the expanded G-7Summit in Ise-Shima, in Japan’s Mie prefecture, on Friday.

He reiterated Vietnam’s commitment to realizing the Paris Agreement, which was reached at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“Vietnam appreciates the ‘Partnership for Quality Infrastructure in Asia’ and the ‘Japan-Mekong Connectivity’ initiatives launched by Japan, and welcomes the support provided by other G-7 member-countries, including the US and the Friends of the Lower Mekong, for sustainable development in the Mekong River basin through a new initiative on the Sustainable Infrastructure Programme,” he said.

Welcoming issues raised at the summit’s agenda, the prime minister said the matters were crucial and urgent to peace, stability and sustainable development in Asia Pacific and the world at large.

“We are well aware that peace and development in Vietnam is closely linked

with peace and prosperity in the world.

Contributing to handling regional and global challenges is the responsibility and in the interest of each country, regardless of its development status,” he said.

Phúc also applauded Japan’s efforts in ensuring peace, stability and development in the Middle East, health care and gender equality, along with the country’s efforts in assisting Africa.

He said prosperity and sustainable development in Vietnam, Asia and the world may be ensured only in a peaceful and stable environment.

The leader highlighted increasingly complex challenges to regional peace, including maritime and aviation security, safety and freedom in the East Sea. Unilateral activities that go against international law and regional agreements, such as the large-scale reclamation of man-made islands and militarization, seriously threatened regional peace and stability, he said.

The situation requires concerned parties to show restraint and address

disputes by peaceful measures in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea, enhance trust-building measures and preventive diplomacy and work toward a Code of Conduct in the East Sea, according to the Vietnamese leader.

Together with Asean, Vietnam welcomes G-7 nations to raise their voices in support of maritime and overflight security and freedom, as well as the peaceful settlement of disputes on the basis of international law.

The expanded G-7 summit saw the participation of leaders from G-7 members—Japan, the US, the UK, France, Germany, Canada and Italy—along with representatives from the EU, and invited guests, including leaders from Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Papua and New Guinea, and international organizations, such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank.

The expanded G-7 event includes two sessions focusing on high-quality infrastructure, regional security, women’s rights, health care, the 2030 Agenda and sustainable development goals, and cooperation with Africa.

In Tokyo Prime Minister Nguyen Xuân Phúc met on Friday several foreign leaders on the sidelines of the expanded G-7 summit in Japan’s Mie Prefecture, affirming that the Vietnamese government is determined to deepen economic ties with partners.

Prime Minister Phúc met French President François Hollande on the

same day on the sidelines of the expanded G-7 summit.

The prime minister expressed delight at the president’s upcoming visit to Vietnam, which he said would help create new momentum for the strategic partnership between Vietnam and France.

He thanked France for its effective assistance in development cooperation with Vietnam and wished that both countries would improve their mechanisms for exchanging and coordinating economic and national defense-security efforts. He also urged more investment across the sectors of infrastructure, transport, energy, aerospace aviation, agriculture, food processing, pharmaceuticals and green industries.

Phúc said he hoped that France would support Vietnam to gain access to the World Bank’s International Development Assistance beyond 2017.

Hollande praised contributions made by the Vietnamese community in France to the nation’s development, in particular, and to relations between the two countries, in general.

The two leaders agreed to enact measures to double two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and France and increase cooperation to effectively implement the Paris Agreement adopted at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Meeting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister Phúc urged Canada to offer technical assistance to Vietnam to improve its enforcement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and encourage Canadian firms to invest in Vietnam. PNA/VNS

JUDGE ORDERS RELEASE OF DOCUMENTS IN TRUMP SUIT

BusinessMirror

World The

W

ASHINGTON—A federal judge is ordering the release of Trump University internal documents in a lawsuit against the now-defunct real-estate school owned by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

The order by US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego, which came on Friday in response to a request by The Washington Post, calls for the documents to be released by Thursday. The Post reported the order in a story on its web site on Saturday.

Trump University has been cited in anti-Trump political ads during the primary campaign as evidence that Trump doesn’t fulfill his promises.

Trump’s lawyers deny any wrongdoing in the case before Curiel, as well as another suit in San Diego and a $40-million lawsuit filed in 2013 by the state of New York alleging that more than 5,000 people had been defrauded.

The New York real-estate mogul, for his part, has claimed that Curiel is a “hater of Donald Trump” and should be ashamed of how he has handled the case. Trump also has questioned whether Curiel, who is Hispanic, is biased against him because of his call for deporting immigrants in the US illegally.

The lawsuit overseen by Curiel states that Trump University’s nationwide seminars and classes were like infomercials and pressured students to buy more but didn’t deliver as promised, in spite of students paying as much as $35,000 for seminars.

Curiel already has set a November 28 trial date.

The Post reported that Curiel’s order to release an estimated 1,000 pages of documents cites heightened public interest in Trump, and that he had “placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue.” The judge appeared to reject the argument by Trump attorneys that the information had commercial value, saying that there was no support for the assertion that Trump University may resume operations. AP

A6 | Monday, May 30, 2016 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

IN this May 7 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Lynden, Washington. Four years ago, North Carolina was the one that got away for Democrats, the only battleground state President Barack Obama didn’t carry in his resounding reelection triumph. Now, with Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket and state GOP officials embroiled in a contentious fight over transgender rights, Democrats see a ripe opportunity for likely nominee Hillary Clinton to grab North Carolina back in November, as well as boost her party’s prospects in competitive races for Senate and governor. AP

As in ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ Trump generates rivalries

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ASHINGTON—When Donald Trump acquired a pair of Atlantic City casinos in the mid-1980s, he pitted his managers against each other in a ferocious competition over everything, from booking entertainers to attracting highrolling gamblers.

That one of those managers was his wife, Ivana Trump, didn’t earn her any slack.

“His tactic there, as our success surpassed the Castle’s in 1987, was to shove the Plaza’s performance in Ivana’s face, like a mirror, holding it up for her to see the reflection of a less-than-successful manager,” John O’Donnell, Ivana Trump’s rival in the casino wars, wrote in a 1991 book.

Trump’s penchant for encouraging rivalries is now roiling his presidential campaign just as he’s captured the GOP nomination, creating deep uncertainty among Republicans about his preparedness for a complex and costly general election campaign. The tensions boiled over last week with the abrupt ouster of political director Rick Wiley, who left the campaign after just six weeks.

Wiley found himself caught between Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, one of the businessman’s original campaign staffers; and Paul Manafort, a veteran Republican hand who was brought in to bolster the operation in March.

While Wiley was originally hired by Lewandowski, he aligned himself with Manafort’s vision of a more robust and expensive campaign

operation—a vision Trump does not appear to have fully bought into. He also was seen as being unwilling to fill top jobs in battleground states with people close to Lewandowski, according to people familiar with the decision.

Wiley did not respond to requests to discuss his tenure with the Trump campaign. Trump aides would not make the candidate available for an interview, but they did not dispute the notion that the real-estate mogul encourages internal competition.

“Of course, there’s competition because you want the best,” Lewandowski said. “That’s the type of mind-set you have to have in the federal government.”

Sam Nunberg, a former Trump aide who was fired last year, put the dynamic more bluntly: “He loves playing people against each other.”

Still, Nunberg said he appreciated the competitive environment, crediting it with keeping staffers creative and committed to the organization.

But for other Trump aides, the businessman’s cutthroat style led to mistrust and paranoia “You can’t trust the other guy’s people,” said Stuart Jolly, who resigned as Trump’s campaign field director after Manafort and Wiley were given more power. Jolly con-

HAITI BRACING FOR TROUBLE AS PANEL DELIVERS REPORT

He loves playing people against each other.”—N

firmed on Friday that he is joining the pro-Trump group Great America PAC as its political director.

Some current and former Trump advisers blamed the businessman for withholding information about staff changes from his team, sometimes leaving them to learn about internal developments in the media.

Some have taken to shopping negative stories about their rivals to the press in a bid to undercut each other in the eyes of the boss—even if the stories reflect poorly on Trump.

Even more concerning for Trump as he eyes a likely face-off with Democrat Hillary Clinton is the uncertainty the internal friction has created about the direction of the campaign. People close to the campaign say there are major questions about battleground state hiring, voter targeting efforts and super PAC fundraising.

Those close to the campaign insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the campaign publicly.

Trump turned his fondness for competition into ratings gold with his television show The Apprentice, where rival teams battled against each other to impress the boss. Those who failed were unceremoniously fired—a made-for-television version of events that sometimes played out in Trump’s real businesses.

In 1985 and 1986 Trump acquired full control of two Atlantic City casinos in quick succession.

Ivana Trump was put in charge of one, named Trump Castle, while the other—Trump Plaza—was overseen by casino managers hired away from gambling titan Steve Wynn.

Castle and Plaza managers were expected to compete over everything from casino entertainers to which property bought more copies

of Trump’s autobiography, The Art of the Deal.

The most heated competition of all: Which casino could draw the high-rolling gamblers who would wager thousands of dollars per hand.

By 1987, the larger and more luxurious Plaza was successfully wooing this small but elite set, aided by toptier prize fights in the Atlantic City Convention Center next door.

Instead of allowing the Plaza to establish itself as the unrivaled venue for high-rollers in Atlantic City, however, Trump underwrote Ivana’s campaign to compete for them.

“If we presented a $100,000 player with a gold Rolex watch, the Castle gave him two,” O’Donnell wrote in his book Trumped! The Inside Story of the Real Donald Trump—His Cunning Rise and Spectacular Fall. In a 1997 interview, Trump said “the stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true,” using an expletive to describe his former executive as a loser.

When Plaza managers pleaded to Trump that the competition between his two casinos was ill advised, Trump mocked them.

“What are you worried about Ivana for,” he told one executive, according to O’Donnell’s book. “She’s just a woman. She can’t take the business.”

The competition described by O’Donnell led to an ill-advised, $70-million addition to Trump Castle, dubbed “The Crystal Tower,” and continued even after Trump sent Ivana back to New York and three of the Plaza’s top executives died in a helicopter crash.

Within weeks of the accident, Trump’s Castle team launched a surprise raid on Trump’s other casino: Its top executive leased office space directly above the Plaza’s marketing department, offering the Plaza team raises of up to 30 percent to defect. AP

A SUPPORTER of former presidential candidate Maryse Narcisse from Fanmi Lavalas political party holds up a sign that reads in Creole “Long live the commission,” in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on May 4. Haiti’s provisional President Jocelerme Privert provisional administration recently appointed a commission to verify contested elections held last year that many suspect were tainted by rampant dirty tricks benefiting Tet Kale, the party of previous President Michel Martelly. AP

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ORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—Haitians are preparing for trouble, as an electoral verification commission is due to deliver the results of its monthlong review of last year’s contested presidential and legislative elections.

The five-member panel, led by a Haitian businessman who is a former ambassador to the US, is scheduled to deliver its recommendations on Sunday to the country’s revamped Provisional Electoral Council. It’s also due to provide its report to Haiti’s interim president during a ceremony that could be held on Monday.

It was not immediately clear when the commission’s report will be made public.

The panel’s mostly mum spokesman, Gideon Jean, said there would be no press conference this weekend and then declined to respond to further questions.

National Palace officials said on Saturday they didn’t know when the report would be released.

In recent days, several foreign embassies have warned their citizens in Haiti that the release of the panel’s recommendations and a scheduled Tuesday announcement of a new election date could lead to civil unrest in coming days.

“US citizens are reminded that unrest and protests throughout Haiti could occur,” said a May 25 security message by the US Embassy.

For residents of Haiti’s capital, life goes on. Tire-burning roadblocks and other signs of political turbulence are depressingly familiar in Haiti.

The possibility of paralyzing protests in comings days is a big concern to Adler Augustin, a 29-year-old who has a small business inflating car tires at the side of a busy road in Port-au-Prince.

“All my work is in the streets, so I’m worried I won’t be able to do any business,” he said.

Commission President Pierre Francois Benoit has said a random sample of 25 percent of the roughly 13,000 minutes from polling stations would be audited. In recent days, a team of police officers could be seen at a tabulation center examining thumbprints on ballot sheets.

It’s far from clear whether the verification panel’s findings will provide clarity to last year’s elections or if its recommendations will be accepted by Haiti’s political class.

Robert Fatton, a Haitian-born politics professor at the University of Virginia and the author of The Roots of Haitian Despotism, said doubts and suspicions about the commission are an indication that Haiti’s electoral impasse might actually deepen further.

“I think we are in for a bumpy ride,” Fatton said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. Interim President Jocelerme Privert, who became a caretaker president in February, after a presidential runoff was scrapped for a third time, has been trying to show he can guarantee stability. But in truth, he has very limited power and the election impasse has deepened divisions in the polarized country. AP

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Breakaway Taliban faction willing to support peace talks

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HINDAND, Afghanistan—A senior leader of a breakaway Taliban faction said on Sunday it was willing to hold peace talks with the Afghan government, but would demand the imposition of Islamic law and the departure of all foreign forces.

Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi told a group of around 200 followers in eastern Afghanistan his faction had no faith in the Kabul government, but was willing to negotiate without preconditions. An Associated Press (AP) photographer was present at the meeting.

Niazi is deputy to Mullah Mo-

hammad Rasool, who split from the Taliban last summer after Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was chosen to succeed the group’s late founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

Mansoor was killed earlier this month in a US drone strike in Pakistan and was replaced days later by a little-known conservative cleric,

Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.

The main Taliban faction has expressed similar demands, but says it will only enter peace talks after they have been met.

Mansoor had refused to participate in a peace process initiated by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that included Pakistan, the United States and China.

Representatives of the four countries have held five meetings, without inviting the Taliban. Their aim is to chart a road map toward talks between the Afghan government and the insurgents to end the 15-year war, but the disarray within the Taliban has complicated those efforts.

The Taliban’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, has branded Rasool’s faction “a government army in the shape of the Taliban.” Speaking to the AP on Sunday, he claimed that Rasool was supported by Kabul and Washington. “For us he is nothing more than a local policeman or a puppet of Afghan intelligence,” he said. AP

Monday, May 30, 2016

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EX-PRESIDENTS MEET WITH VENEZUELA GOVT, OPPOSITION TO TRY MEDIATION

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ARACAS, Venezuela—A group of former presidents has held secret meetings in the Dominican Republic with Venezuelan officials and government opponents in an attempt to mediate the South American nation’s political standoff.

The two-day meetings ending on Saturday took place under the auspices of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and just the fact that they existed represented something of a breakthrough in the deeply polarized nation.

But Jesus Torrealba, executive secretary of the opposition alliance, was quick to say that no faceto-face encounter took place, and instead the two sides exchanged messages through the ex-presidents of Spain, Dominican Republic and Panama.

And almost as soon as word of the meetings became known, the two sides were at each others’ throats again taking aim at their respective accounts of what transpired.

The Venezuelan government was represented by Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez and two top officials in the ruling socialist party.

Three lawmakers attended for the opposition.

International pressure is growing on President Nicolas Maduro amid the threat of political up-

heaval and a rapid collapse of the oil-dependent economy. This week the Group-of-Seven rich nations joined numerous governments in Latin America, the United Nations and Organization of American States in calling for urgent talks with the opposition.

Venezuela’s opposition is pushing for a referendum on whether to recall Maduro amid a severe economic crisis marked by triple-digit inflation and widespread shortages of food and medicine.

Meanwhile, the president blames his opponents and the US for trying to oust him from power through an “economic war.”

Underscoring the depth of the economic desperation, 96 metric tons of medicine arrived on Saturday by plane from China. The shipment includes fluids and drugs for treating Zika, whose outbreak in Venezuela has been made worse by a health-care crisis.

The meetings in the Dominican Republic came a week after former Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced that with Unasur’s blessing, he would seek to initiate a “national dialogue” in Venezuela. He was joined in the effort by former President Martin Torrijos and Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic.

Unasur Secretary-General Er-

nesto Samper also met this week with Pope Francis—a popular figure in Venezuela praised even by Maduro—in a bid to encourage the Vatican to play a mediating role.

Following criticism that the encounters were held in secret, the opposition said its representatives stressed several “indispensable” demands for any dialogue: allowing the recall referendum to proceed, the release of people it considers political prisoners, solving the economic crisis and for the governmentto “respect” the constitution and the oppositioncontrolled congress.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez said the initiative was promoted by Maduro to ensure peace, respect for the rule of law and defense of Venezuela’s sovereignty.

Even indirect contact between the opposition and the government is a rare achievement in Venezuela, where the last time the two sides sat down for formal talks was in 2014 following weeks of antigovernment protests in which more than 40 people were killed.

Maduro delivered a constitutionally mandated state of the union address to congress in January, but for the most part government leaders and their opponents prefer to trade insults and accusations of conspiratorial intrigue from afar. AP

FRENCH FUEL Putin visits Russian Orthodox monastic community in Greece SHORTAGES IMPROVE AS SIDES SOFTEN

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ARIS—France’s nationwide fuel shortages— the consequence of a bare-knuckle dispute over labor reforms which have pit militant unions against the government—are easing amid signs that both sides may be seeking a compromise.

Fuel shortages that have led to long lines at the pump are dissipating, the country’s junior transport minister, Alain Vidalies, told journalists on Saturday, although he warned that the crisis wasn’t over and unions, including the far left CGT, have promised even more dramatic action next week.

Some union-watchers say both sides have dropped hints that they’re looking for a way out of the confrontation.

“We’re looking at a return to the negotiating table,” said Dominique Andolfatto, a professor of political science at the University of Burgundy and the author of a book on the sociology of French unions.

He said CGT boss Philippe Martinez said he wanted to meet President François Hollande and highlighted recent statements from French ministers which suggested aspects of their reforms were open for renegotiation.

“They’re thinking, on both sides, about solutions that can help them save face,” Andolfatto said.

Panic at the pump has been among the most serious effects of weeks of French labor action, which has shuttered refineries, blocked fuel depots and disrupted travel across the country. There are increasing worries that the strikes will interfere with football’s European Championship in mid-June.

France’s Socialist government said the labor reforms are needed to reduce France’s persistently high unemployment rate. The CGT and other left-wingers say the new measures will tear apart the country’s social safety net without generating real work. AP

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin (left) with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill (center), visits the Russian monastery Saint Panteleimon at Karyes on Mount Athos, Greece, on May 28. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited an Orthodox Christian monastery on the northern Greek peninsula of Mount Athos on Saturday and took part in celebrating 1,000 years of Russian presence in Mount Athos. ALEXEI DRUZHININ/ SPUTNIK, KREMLIN POOL PHOTO VIA AP

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ARYES, Greece—Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a Russian Orthodox monastery on Saturday as he wrapped up a two-day visit to Greece, which is looking for more Russian investment and tourism as it copes with a prolonged financial crisis and a massive wave of migrants.

Putin, who has sought to capitalize on the strained relations between Greece and many other European Union members, said Russia seeks to cooperate with Greece in the energy sector. Several Russian ministers also expressed interest in the privatization of Greek railways and in the northern port of Thessaloniki, but no major deals were announced.

Only lower lever “cooperation agreements” were reached during the visit.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had said the Russian president’s visit was a chance to “upgrade” relations. On Saturday Putin visited a Russian Orthodox monastery on Saturday on the northern Greek peninsula of Mount Athos. The Rus-

sian leader praised the spiritual uplift and moral guidance provided by the austere monastic community in a sacred place. Putin said the Orthodox tradition shared by Russia is particularly important at this moment in history.

“Today as we resurrect the values of patriotism, historical memory and traditional culture, we hope for...a strengthening of relations” with Mount Athos, he said.

During his trip, Putin expressed gratitude for Greece’s friendship— and used his visit to blast US policy toward Moscow. He described a newly expanded US missile defense system in Europe as a threat to Russia’s national security and said his country would retaliate.

At the height of Greece’s financial crisis last year, Athens had sought aid from Russia as a counterbalance to its difficult negotiations with its EU and International Monetary Fund creditors. The limited concrete results of Putin’s long-anticipated visit left some disappointed.

Iran parliament chief retains post despite reformist gains in elections

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EHRAN, Iran—Iran's long-serving parliament speaker will retain his post, despite gains by reformists in elections held earlier this year, the official Irna news agency reported on Sunday.

Ali Larijani, a 59-year-old moderate conservative, was reelected by 173 of the 281 lawmakers who attended Sunday's session. He defeated Mohammed Reza Aref, a reformist who is more open to expanding social and political freedoms.

Both the moderate conservatives and

the reformists support President Hassan Rouhani and the landmark nuclear deal reached last year with world powers, but the reformists also want to ease restrictions on freedom of expression.

The election of Larijani marks an early victory for the moderate conservatives in the new parliament, which met for the first time on Saturday.

Irna said Larijani, who has been speaker for the last eight years, was voted interim speaker on Sunday. AP

Panagiotis Lafazanis, a former energy minister who has left the ruling Syriza party, said the Greek government had deemphasized the Putin visit in order to curry favor with US and Nato officials.

Greek opposition figures were pleased with Putin’s decision to meet opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Greek tourist officials said Putin’s visit would help encourage more Russians to visit Greece. Strained ties with Turkey and lax airport security in Egypt have reduced the number of Russian tourists going to those sun-drenched countries.

During his visit to Mount Athos, where women are not allowed to visit any of the 20 monasteries there, Putin repeatedly praised the spirit of

the monastic community.

“Here in Mount Athos, there is great and important work done on moral values,” Putin said after a Mass in his honor, where he was seated in the bishop’s throne.

Putin flew from Athens to Thessaloniki on Saturday morning, traveled by road to a port near Mount Athos and then took a boat—the only way to reach the isolated community. Instead of the usual small ferry, the Russian president used a 33-meter (110-foot) yacht provided by the Greek navy.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow traveled to the monastery with Putin to help celebrate 1,000 years of Russian presence at Mount Athos.

At Karyes, the administrative cen-

ter of Mount Athos, Putin was greeted by the 20 abbots of the monasteries and 20 representatives of the monks on the peninsula, as well as a representative of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, under whose jurisdiction Mount Athos falls.

Security in Mount Athos was extremely tight. Besides Putin’s large entourage, there was a heavy Greek police and coast guard presence, with divers guarding and inspecting the landing site and snipers deployed throughout Putin’s route.

Trips by other male pilgrims to the Russian Saint Panteleimon monastery were canceled two weeks ago.

Putin headed to Thessaloniki on Saturday night for a flight back to Moscow. AP

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Monday, May 30, 2016

Pilots pay tribute to comrade whose WWII plane crashed

briefs

FIJI PULLS SOME PEACEKEEPERS FROM EGYPT AMID SECURITY FEARS

WELLINGTON, New Zealand— Fiji said it’s bringing home about 65 of the 300-plus peacekeepers it has stationed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and has closed remote bases there as the security situation deteriorates.

Commander Humphery Tawake, who heads the South Pacific nation’s foreign peacekeeping force, said on Sunday that Fiji was asked to scale down its presence by the leaders of the international peacekeeping force stationed in Egypt.

Tawake said the United States and Colombia are also planning to reduce troop numbers, as the peacekeepers find themselves increasingly caught amid fighting between Egypt’s armed forces and militants. He said the decisions on troop numbers were made at the headquarters of the Multinational Force and Observers group. Tawake said five of Fiji’s seven or eight remote Sinai outposts have been closed in the past couple of weeks. AP

1 DEAD, ANOTHER WOUNDED IN FLORIDA SHOOTING SPREE

ORLANDO, Florida—A Florida man is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, shooting his boss and then firing at deputies before being captured, following a seven-hour standoff.

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said 50-year-old Manuel Feliciano was captured early Saturday. Demings said Feliciano may have taken drugs before his arrest by SWAT team members. Demings said Feliciano fatally shot his 45-year-old ex-girlfriend at a home on Friday evening, in front of her two children. Her name hasn’t been released. An hour later, Feliciano allegedly shot his 34-year-old boss who had fired him earlier Friday. The man is hospitalized in critical condition. His name also hasn’t been released. Demings said Feliciano barricaded himself in a house and fired at deputies.

None were hit. Feliciano is being held without bail on murder and attempted murder charges. AP

SUSPECT ARRESTED AFTER GEORGIA DEPUTY SHOT IN FACE

ATLANTA—A suspect was arrested after a sheriff’s deputy was shot in the face during a traffic stop south of Atlanta, Georgia, authorities said. Joe Lee Garrett, 24, was arrested just hours after the shooting happened about 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor told WTVM-TV. Police said Garrett turned himself in and was transported to Russell County Jail. He is being charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, and is currently being held as a fugitive from justice, in relation to the shooting. No other arrests have been made and the case remains under investigation.

The police previously said three people were inside a 1994 blue Chevrolet Caprice on I-85 southbound, about 80 miles south of downtown Atlanta, when they were stopped by the deputy. It was not immediately known why the sheriff’s deputy stopped the car. The deputy suffered a single shot to the face, above the left eye, while walking up to the vehicle Jolley said. He was rushed to a hospital and is being treated. The condition of the unidentified deputy was not immediately known on Saturday night. Police were searching for the suspects, whose car was caught on the deputy’s dash-cam video. AP

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NIGERIA union and civil-society protesters walk past a gas station with the new petrol price in Lagos, Nigeria, on May 18. Militant attacks on oil installations and the threat of a nationwide strike drove Nigeria’s petroleum production and its naira currency to new lows on Tuesday. AP/SUNDAY ALAMBA

Militants blow up Shell, Agip pipelines in Nigeria

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ARRI, Nigeria—Militants blew up strategic gas and crude pipelines belonging to Shell and Agip on Saturday in an increasingly fierce campaign that has chopped Nigeria’s oil production in half, militants and residents said.

A new militant group, calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers, reported in social media they had dynamited the trunk line linking the Dutch-British Shell company’s Bonny terminal and the Brass export terminal of the Italian company Agip. A local community leader Eke-Spiff Erempagamo confirmed the attack.

Nigeria’s oil production had already fallen from a projected 2.2 million barrels a day to 1.4 million barrels, before the latest attacks on the oil industry in southern Nigeria, including three within the past week on facilities of the United States oil major Chevron.

Several companies have evacuated some of their workers.

The Niger Delta Avengers has given the oil companies a May 31 deadline to leave Nigeria’s southern, oil-producing Niger Delta.

“Watch out. Something big is about to happen and it will shock the whole world,” the Avengers warned on Saturday, addressing international and indigenous oil companies and Nigeria’s military.

In a surprise development, community leaders and nonviolent activists have recently sided with the militants, saying residents of the Niger Delta support their demands for a greater share of the country’s oil wealth. Oil pollution has destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers and fishermen.

The militants are also angry the government is winding down a 2009 amnesty program that had paid 30,000 militants to guard

Drug lord ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s lawyers split on extradition case

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E X ICO CIT Y—Jai led drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s fight to stave off extradition to the United States has led to a schism among some of the people he’s counting on most: his own lawyers.

After two of Guzman’s attorneys filed an appeal against the extradition request, a third lawyer quickly disavowed it on Saturday.

Attorney Jose Refugio Rodriguez told The Associated Press (AP) that the move was not authorized

by Guzman and his client will not sign off on the appeal, meaning the courts would not act on it.

“This hurts Joaquin Guzman because it hinders our defense,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez added the lawyers who filed it, Juan Pablo Badillo and Jose Luis Gonzalez Mesa, are not part of the team working on the extradition case. That team is still considering the government’s arguments and plans an appeal in the coming weeks that “El Chapo” will approve. “We have a strategy with Joaquin and we are planning it,” Rodriguez said.

He suggested Badillo and Gonzalez may have been motivated by “a desire for notoriety.”

Gonzalez did not immediately

IN this January 8 file photo, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is made to face the press, as he is escorted to a helicopter in handcuffs by Mexican soldiers and marines at a federal hangar in Mexico City, Mexico. AP/MARCO UGARTE

return a voice message seeking comment, and the AP was unable to reach Badillo. Mexican courts recently approved two US requests for Guzman’s extradition and formally sent notification to the Foreign Relations Department.

However, his lawyers have 30 days to appeal and the case could go all the way to the Supreme Court, meaning it could be months before a final decision is reached.

The convicted Sinaloa cartel boss is wanted in seven US jurisdictions on charges, which include murder, conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana,

money laundering and arms possession. Guzman is currently in a federal prison on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, which borders El Paso, Texas. Authorities suddenly transferred him there in recent weeks from the Altiplano lockup near Mexico City where he was being held before, citing work being done to improve security at the facility.

“El Chapo” broke out of a Mexican prison in 2001 and spent more than a decade on the run, becoming one of the world’s most wanted outlaws before he was recaptured in 2014. AP

installations they once attacked.

Nigeria’s government has deployed thousands of soldiers to defend oil installations.

But the militants announced on Friday they had blown up a stateowned gas and crude trunk line, noting it was “heavily guarded by the military.” Thousands of civilians have fled the fallout from the military campaign, though the army denies reports that uninvolved civilians have been killed.

Supporters of Nigeria’s government and the southern-based opposition party are accusing each other of funding the Avengers.

This year’s renewed campaign targeting the oil industry in the Niger Delta have caused Nigeria to lose its position as Africa’s largest oil producer, with Angola having taken the leading role since March. AP

EW YORK—Air show pilots performed an aerial salute on Saturday to their comrade who died after his World War II-era plane crashed in the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey a day earlier. The P-47 Thunderbolt crashed on Friday night during a promotional flight for the American Airpower Museum on Long Island, which is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the P-47 this weekend.

The plane’s pilot, William Gordon, 56, of Key West, Florida, was a veteran air-show pilot, with more than 25 years of experience. New York City police scuba divers recovered his body from the wreckage of the downed aircraft on Friday night, about three hours after the collision. As bagpipes played in the background on Saturday, pilots flew over the museum in an aerial salute, known as a “missing man formation” in a tribute honoring Gordon.

Scott Clyman, flight operations pilot for the American Airpower Museum, called Gordon “an extraordinary pilot, who understood the powerful message our aircraft represent in telling the story of American courage and valor.” Promotional material for a Key West air show last month said Gordon was an “aerobatic competency evaluator” who certified performers to perform low-level aerobatics.

The single-seat P-47 crashed on a part of the river near where a US Airways commercial-jet carrying 155 people splash-landed safely in 2009 in what became known as the Miracle on the Hudson.

The plane was pulled from the water and loaded on to a barge on Saturday before it was taken to a heliport in lower Manhattan, where investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) can examine it as part of their investigation. An NTSB spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday afternoon. The aircraft, which went down around 7:30 p.m. on Friday, was among three planes that had departed from Republic Airport in Farmingdale, on Long Island, just east of New York City. The other two aircraft returned to the airport and landed safely. AP

Child still critical after lightning hits family gathered in Paris park

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ARIS—Eight children and three adults were struck by lightning on Saturday in a Paris park after a sudden spring storm sent a bolt crashing down upon a children’s birthday party, a spokesman for Paris’s fire service said. He credited an off-duty firefighter with playing a critical role in getting immediate medical help to the victims, but one child remains in critical condition.

Another group of people at a children’s soccer match in western Germany were also hit by lightning on Saturday afternoon, leaving three adults seriously injured.

The birthday group had sought shelter under a tree at Park Monceau, a northwest Paris park, popular with well-to-do families, when a lightning bolt touched down, according to Paris fire service Spokesman Eric Moulin. He put the children’s ages at around 9.

Moulin said Cmdr. Pascal Gremillet, an off-duty firefighter, was visiting a museum nearby when he noticed the commotion and discovered nine of the 11 victims lying unconscious. He immediately went to work. “He saw who was the most seriously injured. He did a quick triage of the victims. He did first aid. He alerted the rescue services,” Moulin told The Associated Press. “Without his actions,

it would have been much worse.”

Gremillet told journalists one child’s heart had stopped beating when he arrived.

“I did first aid and a heart massage,” he said. “The other children “were in shock.”

Dr. Pierre Carli, an emergency medical services official, later told journalists that for one of the children, “the prognosis is probably more serious and he is now hospitalized on life support.”

For the seven other children, the news was “rather good,” Carli said.

Their injuries were not considered life threatening. He said the condition of three of the more seriously injured children was improving. All seven of the children were placed under observation, Carli said. He identified the injured adults as two men and a woman, who is the mother of some of the children.

Footage shot by the fire service showed a dramatic scene at a nearby bank that was commandeered as a makeshift treatment center, with children wrapped in gold thermal blankets sitting and lying on the building’s tiled floor, as firefighters administered first aid before evacuating the victims to area hospitals. Two small feet, smudged with what looked like soot, stuck out from underneath one of the blankets. AP

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Veterans sites in California, Kentucky, Virginia damaged

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OS ANGELES—Memorials to veterans in a Los Angeles neighborhood and a town in Kentucky, as well as a Civil War veterans cemetery in Virginia, were damaged, as the nation prepares to mark Memorial Day, officials said.

A Vietnam War memorial in the Venice area of Los Angeles has been extensively defaced by graffiti. The vandalism occurred sometime during the past week, KCAL/KCBS-TV (http://cbsloc.al/1RAa3mg) reported. The homespun memorial painted on a block-long wall on Pacific Avenue lists the names of American service members missing in action or otherwise unaccounted for in Southeast Asia.

News of the vandalism came as another veterans-related memorial was reported damaged in Henderson, Kentucky. The police say a Memorial Day cross display there that honors the names of 5,000 veterans of conflicts dating back

to the Revolutionary War has been damaged by a driver who plowed through the crosses early Saturday.

In Virginia the Petersburg National Battlefield has apparently been looted, the National Park Service said. Numerous excavations were found at the Civil War battlefield last week, Jeffrey Olson, and agency spokesman, said in a news release on Friday. Petersburg National Battlefield is a 2,700-acre park marks where more

than 1,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died fighting during the Siege of Petersburg 151 years ago.

In Los Angeles’s Venice neighborhood, the wall for missing veterans has been tagged previously, but the latest vandalism covers the bottom half of the memorial for much of its length.

To George Francisco, vice president of the Venice Chamber of Commerce, it’s not just graffiti.

“It’s a desecration. I mean it’s very simple. There’s no sort of other way around it,” said Francisco, who also runs a nonprofit called Veterans Foundation Inc. “I’ve k now n t he sacr if ices these people made in an incredibly unpopular war. So to continue the mistreatment of Vietnam veterans is somewhat shocking, somewhat shocking and quite sad,” Francisco said. Painted by a Vietnam veteran and dedicated in 1992, it declares, “You are not forgotten” and states the number

It’s a desecration. I mean it’s very simple. There’s no sort of other way around it.” —F

of missing as 2,273. According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the number of unaccounted for Americans was listed at 2,646 in 1973.

About half were those missing in action, and the others were those killed in action, but the body was not recovered. Since then, the remains of more than 1,000 American have been identified and returned and about 1,600 have still not been accounted for, although efforts continue.

In Henderson, Kentucky, Jennifer Richmond, a spokesman for the Henderson Police Department, said the community is devastated and working frantically to repair and replace the crosses that were put on display for a Memorial Day ceremony in Central Park.

She said a 27-year-old local man drove straight through the cross display in the Henderson park, about 130 miles west of Louisville, just before 6 a.m. on Saturday, but investigators don’t know if it was deliberate. Anthony Burrus has been charged with criminal mischief in the first degree and leaving the scene of an accident.

Online jail records do not list an attorney for Burrus. AP

Monday, May 30, 2016

A9

Nasa successfully inflates new space-station room

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APE CANAVER AL, Florida—Nasa successfully inf lated a new experimental room at the International Space Station on Saturday, producing the world’s first pump-itup compartment for astronauts.

T he op e r at ion to ok much longer than expected, stretching over three days in all. But victory, when it came, was sweet.

“A significant milestone has been accompl ished,” Bigelow Aerospace, the inflatable chamber’s creator, cheered via Twitter.

Astronaut Jeffrey Williams spent seven hours on Saturday opening and closing an air valve to ex pand the compar tment.

Enough air finally seeped inside so that the puffy white pod could stretch to its full 13 feet in length and 10-1/2 feet in diameter—the volume equivalent to a small bedroom. Internal air tanks provided the final pressurization to complete the job.

Williams and his five crewmates will have to wait a week before venturing inside. Nasa wants to make certain the chamber is airtight before opening the door.

It was Nasa’s second shot at inflating the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), named for the aerospace company that built it as a precursor to moon and Mars habitats, and orbiting tourist hotels.

BEAM barely expanded during Thursday’s inflation attempt. Experts believe the soft-sided compartment was packed up tight for so long before last month’s launch that the fabric layers had trouble unfolding.

Pressure inside the chamber was relieved on Friday to ease the friction among the multiple layers.

That apparently did the trick. The cubicle swelled an additional six feet in length on Saturday, looking more and more like a giant beach ball with every pulse of air.

In all, Williams opened the valve 25 times Saturday for a total of two-and-a-half minutes’ worth of air flowing from the space station into the chamber. Popping noises could be heard as pressure built up inside BEAM—it sounded like popcorn in a frying pan. Officials said it was the sound of internal straps releasing as the pod swelled in both length and girth.

Nasa insisted on taking it slow to avoid a sudden pressurization of BEAM that could stress the connecting parts of the space station.

The North Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace provided this first inflatable room ever built for astronauts, which it based on a 1990s Nasa concept. Nasa paid $17.8 million for the technology demo, which could lead to an even bigger inflatable room at the space station. AP

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

A10 Monday, May 30, 2016

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Where spring season is all-year round

A SIGHT to behold

FLOWERS abound

S    H D. T

M

OST industrialized countries—the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, most of European nations and even some parts of Africa—experience four seasons: winter, spring, summer and autumn.

GAZEBO

Among the four seasons, I really like spring; it follows winter and precedes summer. It is the time of the year when flowers are in full bloom. Various colors in different forms come alive before your eyes: red, yellow, orange, blue, violet, pink and white.

In the US spring happens from March to May—yes, only three months. If you happen to visit in one of the foothills of Mount Apo (the country’s highest peak), you get to experience spring all-year round.

“Once the plants start their to wither, the gardener immediately uproots all the plants and change them with new ones,” explained Richard Reyes, who accompanied us during the tour, on why flowers are always blooming.

A plant nursery is at the back of the 8-hectare area (100,000 square meters). The plants are raised from seeds, stems or cuttings, until they are ready for transfer as replacements for those that withered already.

The plants are handled with care

have mistaken it to be the place.

“Mountains have always placed a special role in God’s dealing with men,” its web site points out. “The laws were given on a mountain. God has chosen a mountain wherein He would reveal His plan to man. God has given His covenant in a mountain.”

The significance of the place is that it is the birthplace of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name. It was here that Executive Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy was born, grew up and trained spiritually for five years.

According to Cristina San Pedro, who is the human-resource manager, the building structures were completed within six months of 24-hour nonstop construction in 1999. “With his own team of architects and engineers, Pastor Quiboloy himself administered the construction,” she said.

At first, the place was only for the members of The Kingdom of Jesus Christ. “But five years ago, we opened it to the public,” San Pedro

by the gardener. In fact, the leaves of those that are attacked by pests are soaped individually. About 100 people are maintaining the sprawling complex as each 10-sq m has a personnel in charge.

If during a tour you wonder why most of flowers are unfamiliar, it is because most of them are imported from other countries. Every day at least seven trucks of water are consumed to maintain the gardens and their landscapes.

The place is in Barangay Tamayong in Calinan, Davao City. It takes more than an hour (due to traffic and speed limit) to get there. You know you are almost there because you will find some pineapple plantations as you approached; fruit trees, like durian and mangosteen, also abound.

It is known as “The Garden of Eden Restored,” but most people preferred it to be called as the Covenant Mountain and Prayer Center.

The reason: There’s a barangay in Toril named Eden, and some visitors

WELL-MANICURED pathway

HANGING flowers

said. They allowed only 100 visitors per day. “If there’s more than that, a special arrangement from the management is needed.”

The place is open from 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon.

Wearing of shorts, particularly for women, is strictly prohibited.

Closed footwear is most preferred.

Visitors are advised to bring their own umbrella to protect themselves from the scorching heat of the sun.

How do you get there? From the downtown proper in Davao City, take a jeepney that goes to Calinan. Once you are in Calinan, dis-

embark at the area where there’s a lot of habal-habal, or motorcycles.

Tell the driver that you are going to Tamayong Prayer Mountain, although it is more popularly known as Quiboloy’s. Ask first how much, and tell the driver if he can wait for you when you return back (the place is far and secluded, and you may have a hard time finding a ride going back).

For those with vehicles, go straight to Calinan. From the Calinan junction, turn left to the town proper, then proceed to the jeepney terminal. Once you passed by the Wangan Bridge right after the jeepney terminal, go straight ahead going to Barangay Sirib. From Sirib, turn right going to Davao Pineapple Plantation. When you get to Barangay Cawayan, take the road going straight to Lower Tamayong (where you could see a big signage leading to the Covenant Mountain and Prayer Center). From Tamayong Barangay Hall, turn left, and go straight ahead.

New Seoul-based Interactive Cultural Center PHILIPPINES IS THE NEXT BIG FOOD DESTINATION offers MICE groups a taste of South Korea

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NTERNATIONAL visitors to Korea can now discover the best of the nation’s culture all in one place at the new K-Style Hub education and experience center, located in Seoul. Designed to be the city’s main tourism-promotion facility for the nation, the center offers a range of hands-on program—especially food-related—that make it ideal for visiting incentive groups and congress participants.

The centerpiece of the K-Style Hub, the Korean Culinary Center, invites overseas visitors to not only try traditional Korean fare, but to also learn how to make it themselves. Examples include Korean staple kimchi, sauces frequently used in Korean cooking, and Jeju heukdoeji, or black pork. An initiative of the Korea Food Foundation, Korean Culinary Center programs can accommodate up to 40 participants at a time; groups of more than 20 are eligible for a 10 percent discount.

The culinary center’s opening

comes at a time of rapidly growing interest in Korean cuisine, with 2016 a landmark year for corporate incentive visits from nearby nations keen to dine on local favorites in situ. In March Chinese health firm Aurance treated 4,500 of its employees to a chimaek (portmanteau of ‘chicken’ and the Korean word for ‘beer’) party. This was followed earlier in May by the arrival of 8,000 employees of Chinese firm Zhongmai in Seoul to enjoy samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup), a dish traditionally associated with replenishing body minerals during summer.

Other areas of the K-Style Hub contain a variety of information centers and interactive exhibits on subjects including medical tourism, recommended travel destinations across the peninsula, and hallyu, or the “Korean Wave.” Originating in China, the term hallyu refers to the wide-scale popularity of Korean culture through various overseas exports, such as film and

television, fashion, cosmetics and more recently cuisine.

Center exhibits are brought to life utilizing a rich blend of cutting-edge technology, including 3D, holography and virtual reality.

A notable example are the virtualreality goggles offering the wearer an interactive experience of a skijump; part of the K-Style Hub’s efforts to promote the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics, scheduled from February 9 to 25 of that year.

Located near central Seoul’s popular Myeong-dong district, the center is well-placed for business visitors on tight schedules interested in sampling Korean culture, as well as event planners interested in learning about potential activities for their groups.

More information is available on the official K-Style Hub web site. Those interested in utilizing the center for MICE and corporate group-based activities can e-mail the Korea MICE Bureau at mice@ knto.or.kr.

P

HILIPPINE cuisine is being recognized as the next big thing in global gastronomy. Because of this, the country is quickly becoming one of the leading food destinations in the world as proven by the recently concluded Madrid Fusión Manila (MFM) 2016. The wide variety of unique Filipino ingredients greatly contributed to this pride, as worldrenowned chefs were impressed with the diversity and abundance of flavors found in the Philippines.

Topping the list of favorite ingredients in the country is the Philippine lime. More popularly known as calamansi, the fruit owes its popularity to its unique taste and versatility. “It is actually a surprise how a small fruit can be both sweet and sour at the same time,” Barcelona sweet cuisine Chef Jordi Butron shared. “What’s more, it also gives out a distinct aroma,” he added.

Other sour ingredients, such as tamarind and batwan, also caught the attention of the chefs. Pinakurat vinegar or the fragmented vinegar (tuba) blended with local chilli was also

recognized, along with other vinegar variants, such as palm and cane. Michelin-starred Valencian Chef Richard Camarena noted how ingenious Filipinos are in creating appetizing sour food, a rare taste in other countries.

The rich diversity of seafood in the Philippines was another hot topic among these food experts. Finding the best scallops, prawns and unique seaweeds in the country was a great delight to Canadianborn Chef Kevin Cherkas, who is proud owner of Cuca Restaurant in Bali, Indonesia. He said, “I’m blown away by the wide variety of seafood in the country. You cannot even find these ingredients in Indonesia.”

Lato, or the grape seaweed, typically used in salads, also caught the chefs’ attention, as well as the ginamos or shrimp paste, which are both common in the Visayas.

Not to be left out are local fruits, like jackfruit and chico. The Philippine Dwarf mango, in particular, was pointed out by Chef Fernando Perez Arellano, a Michelin-starred polyglot chef, for its sweet but somehow

sour taste. Other gastronomic ingredients, which are included in the chefs’ top favorites, are the popular ube, or purple yam, sweet-smelling pandan leaves and kalingag bark.

Overall, the endless list of unique ingredients in the Philippines impressed these international culinary masters. Chef Oscar Calleja, one of the gastronomic authors of modernist cuisine, said, “Every region in the Philippines has its own flavor, every ingredient has its own personality.”

Presented by the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), MFM 2016 is one of the most prestigious gastronomical events in the world. Hundreds of internationally acclaimed chefs gather every year for conversations about the latest culinary technique and the evolution of flavors. This year’s occasion was slated with the theme “The Manila Galleon: East Meets West,” where the development of gastronomic innovation between different cultures was revisited and the Philippines, a melting pot of flavors, was recognized.

Green Monday BusinessMirror

BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, May 30, 2016

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

Climate change hastens extinction of ‘pawikan’

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B J L. M

@jonlmayuga

LIMATE change is partly being blamed for the dwindling global population of marine turtles. Conservation experts in the Turtle Islands Wildlife Sanctuary (TIWS) suggest that the problem could be worse.

They said El Niño and beach erosion caused by climate changetriggered effects, such as sea-level rise and storm surges because of the intensifying typhoons, might hasten the extinction of these mysterious creatures of the sea.

The downtrend in the number of nesting marine turtles and eggs in the TIWS has been observed over the past decade by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Biodiversity Management Bureau (DENR-BMB) working under Pawikan Conservation Program (PCP) on Turtle Islands, Tawi Tawi.

Aggravating rampant illegal wildlife trade that targets pawikan and the human habitation of beachfronts are the longer hot season, an effect of El Niño and beach erosion, which destroys marine turtle’s nesting grounds.

Experts said it has become extremely hard for these mariners of the sea to dig a pit for their eggs.

One theory is the long dry season, which makes the sand in beaches dryer and harder to dig a pit. Another theory is erosion, which causes beaches to shrink, leaving pawikan no choice but to instinctively scale up and move farther away from the ocean where the sand covering the soil is thinner and much harder for the pawikan to dig.

Whichever is the case, the country’s top biodiversity official said there is a need to validate these theories, particularly at the TIWS, to address the problem.

“We have to validate and know the extent of the effect to beaches caused by El Niño. But what we know is that beach erosion exposes the soil underneath the sand that is harder and more difficult for turtles to dig a pit for their eggs,” Theresa Mundita Lim, director of DENR-BMB, told the BusinessMirror in an interview on Wednesday.

‘Pawikan’ sanctuary

COMPOSED of six islands, Turtle Islands is a municipality in TawiTawi. It was declared as a sanctuary for the endangered pawikan by virtue of Presidential Proclamation 171 on August 26, 1999, creating the TIWS under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Act. TIWS covers an area of 138,357 hectares, which constitute of six islands, namely, Boan, Lihiman, Gre at B a k k u n g a n , L a n g a a n , Taganak and Baguan. As a wildlife sanctuary, the entire town is basica l ly reser ved for t he conservation of the endangered pawikan, a migrator y mar ine species believed to have existed for millions of years, along with the dinosaurs.

TIWS is part of the bigger Philippine-Sabah Turtle Islands Heritage Protected Area (TIHPA), which was forged through a historic bilateral agreement between the Philippines and Malaysia, creating the first and only trans-frontier protected area for marine turtles in the world. TIHPA is one of the biggest pawikan sanctuaries in the world.

TIHPA is composed of a total of nine islands for the purpose of conserving pawikan, three of which are in nearby Malaysia.

The management of the TIHPA is shared by both countries, making possible the conservation of habitats and sea turtles over a large area independent of their territorial boundaries.

Two of the six islands—Buan Island and Great Bakkungan Island—have been stricken out of the list of nesting sites being monitored by the DENR-BMB because of human encroachment of beach fronts causing pawikans to lay their eggs elsewhere.

Not exclusive for ‘pawikan’

THE TIWS as a sanctuary, according to the DENR-BMB, is not exclusively for the conservation of pawikan. A profile of the TWIS indicates the area is rich in terrestrial and marine flora and fauna.

Turtle Islands supports a diverse population of marine fauna of corals and fishes, as well as two species of endangered marine turtles. TIWS exhibited the highest diversity in terms of marine communities among all Nipas sites in the country.

Two species of endangered marine turtles are found in Turtle Islands. Eighty percent of the country’s remaining marine turtle resource is found in the area.

Turtle Islands is regarded as the only major nesting ground, with more than 1,000 nesters of green turtle (Chelonia mydas) annually in the Asean Region. There are only 10 remaining nesting sites worldwide.

The hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) also occur on the islands, but with a low density in nesting in contrast to the green turtle.

Worldwide, marine turtle population have critically declined, hence, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has declared all species of marine turtles as endangered.

Other wildlife

THE coastline of Baguan Island, according to a biological profile prepared by the DENR-BMB revealed that its coastline is encroached with tropical trees, such as tropical almond and coconut, and many others.

Around 50 seaweeds species were also recorded in the area, which represents 32 percent of the 158 of macrobenthic seaweeds identified from 18 coastal province in the country.

Of the 50 species identified, 23 species are of class of green algae, four species of brown algae and 23 species of red algae.

In terms of diversity, Baguan Island exhibits a significant difference in comparison to the other islands by possessing 47 species of seaweeds compared to Langaan and Taganak with only 25 and 20 species, respectively, according to the DENR-BMB. The islands composing the TIWS are also inhabited by endangered reptiles, such as the monitor lizard, the natural predator of marine turtle eggs and hatchlings.

Baguan Island is known to have more monitor lizards compared to the other islands.

There are two other species of lizard in the TIWS—the gecko and scincid.

Meanwhile, 12 species of birds were identified on Turtle Islands, two of which are endemic to the Turtle Islands, namely the Asian glossy starling and Treton v. vernans.

In all islands, black rats, and fruit and insect bats were also observed.

PAWIKAN DENR-STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION AND INITIATIVES SERVICE

to make their nest. Milana said as part of the conservation effort in the TIWS, after the pawikan succeeded in digging a pit and laying their eggs, the eggs are carefully transferred to pawikan hatcheries where they will be protected against natural predators, including people living in the islands who get the eggs for food.

Beach rehabilitation

DENR-STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION AND INITIATIVES SERVICE

Cool chicks, hot dudes ACCORDING to Lim, scientific studies suggest that a marine turtle’s gender is influenced by the temperature of the nest— something pawikan conservation experts manning pawikan sanctuaries and hatcheries are concerned about with the advent of climate change.

“With warm temperature, it is likely that all eggs will develop into females. This will be a big problem if all hatchlings are all females,” Lim said.

Lim, who started her career in the DENR as one of the staff under Task Force Pawikan, which focuses on the conservation efforts on the Turtle Islands, said marine-turtle eggs are very delicate, too.

While an average of 80 percent of eggs laid actually hatch, very few of pawikan hatchlings may actually survive and become sexually mature to lay eggs and repopulate, a process which takes 30 to 40 years.

Causes of death

SCIENTISTS believe that effects of climate change to the population of pawikan have varying degrees.

At the TIWS, natural predation and climate-change effects, such as sea-level rise, storm surge and extreme heat adversely affect marine-turtle population.

“Storm surge and sea-level rise cause beach erosion. This means we are losing our nesting grounds for pawikan faster,” Lim said.

Also she said typhoons that trigger storm surge are known to destroy marine-turtle nests and exposure to saltwater causes plasmolysis, which destroys the

eggs of pawikan. Accidents, such as falling with their back on the ground to lay eggs, also causes death because of direct exposure to sunlight. A pawikan can die within two hours because of extreme heat.

Another natural phenomenon, called sand switching, is a natural occurrence that shifts sand to other parts of an island or other islands, therefore, diminishing the nesting grounds of pawikan.

Too hot, too dry

LATELY, protectors of TIWS, particularly its most-treasured pawikan, concluded that the number of nesting at the TIWS continues to decrease because of prolonged dry season, which is causing the sand in beaches to become stiff.

Minda Bairulla, TIWS Protected A reas Superintendent, in an e-mail message, told the BusinessMirror that from 2011 to 2015, pawikan nesting in the TIWS is decreasing.

“It has been observed that due to prolonged dry season, marine turtles were unable to nest because the sand is very dry and they find it hard to dig a pit to lay their eggs,” she said.

“Pawikan lays eggs all throughout the year but the peak are in the months of May, June and July.

Around 30 to 50 nesting pawikan are observed to lay their eggs every night on the Turtle Islands,” she said.

In 2015 a total of 12,577 nesters were counted on the islands of Baguan, Langaan and Taganak.

From January to April this year, a total of 1,982 nesters were counted on Baguan and Langaan.

Beaches becoming dry and hard owing to El Niño is also occurring in other pawikan nesting grounds, which calls for the establishment of more marine turtle hatcheries.

With a pawikan nurser y in place, the eggs are protected and released back to their natural habitat upon hatching.

Several hatcheries were created in select areas where many pawikan have been spotted to lay eggs.

Under normal circumstances, pawikan hatch from eggs on shore.

Hatchlings struggle from their nesting ground to the beach. It takes at least a decade for marine turtles to become sexually mature.

Very little is known of how these hatchlings live in their natural habitat until they return decades later for their turn to lay eggs.

Using their fins, female marine turtles dig at least a foot deep to lay their eggs and cover them back with sand.

The incubation period range from 45 to 60 days, according to the DENR-BMB working under the Pawikan Conservation Program (PCP), which expanded the coverage of the Task Force Pawikan, from the Turtle Islands to the entire archipelago.

The effects of climate change due to longer dry season and hotter temperature increases the mortality of hatchlings during the incubation period, said Elsie Milana, a pawikan conservation expert who has a long experience in monitoring the behavior of the marine turtles during nesting at the TIWS. She repeated earlier statements that the hot weather hardens the sand giving the pawikan difficulty

ACCORDING to Bairulla, the DENR office in Zamboanga Peninsula, which has jurisdiction over protected areas in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is eyeing to rehabilitate the eroded beaches.

It is also coordinating with law enforcement agencies to conduct monitoring and patrolling on the islands, which is reportedly being frequented by foreign fishing vessels targeting pawikan.

According to Lim, the DENRBMB will compare old and new aerial photos of the islands within the TIWS to see if the beaches have really changed over the past years, and assess the extent of the potential damage caused by beach erosion.

She said the same investigation may be conducted in other areas that are known to host pawikannesting areas.

Meanwhile, Lim, cautioned against beach rehabilitation by resort developers to improve beaches using heavy equipment. The process involves hauling sands back to beaches, which may damage existing nests.

She also warned against building walls in beachfronts by some resort owners to prevent erosion, saying the process also prevents nesting pawikan from going to beaches to nest and lay their eggs.

“Beaches have natural defense against erosion, which happens because of extensive damage to coral reefs. What we need to do is look into the condition of the corals and rehabilitate these areas where the damage has been extensive. That way, we will have a natural defense against beach erosion,” she said.

She said during her last visit at TIWS early this month, she received reports of the extensive damage to corals caused by dynamite fishing and other destructive fishing methods. This alone, she said, should be addressed with the help of local government units.

Lim is planning to revive the plan to promote Turtle Islands for ecotourism, which will involve the help and support of concerned local government officials.

Tourism, she said, will boost conservation efforts on Turtle Islands as the people become involved and gainfully employed in ecotourism activities instead of illegal wildlife trade.

Science Monday

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

BusinessMirror

Monday, May 30, 2016 A13

Quietly studying victims of A-bomb

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IROSHIMA, Japan—Ikuko Murai remembers when the American Jeeps would come after school to take her and other young survivors to a lab at the top of a hill.

This was the 1950s, just a few years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

“They examined my head and measured my height,” she said in an interview this week. “At that time, Japan still had nothing, so I still remember the candy they gave us, with Disney characters on the wrappers.”

Murai had been an infant when the Enola Gay flew over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, unleashing the first nuclear weapon dropped in war. Now 71, she spends her days as a volunteer at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, donning a green shirt and explaining how she survived while the blast and radiation effects left 140,000 dead within months. Such oral histories are a key part of World War II’s legacy. But in the immediate years after the destruction, American scientists knew that the bodies of Murai and other survivors would also have stories to tell about the unprecedented bombing—and began collecting data on them.

Almost seven decades later, some American scientists—working sideby-side with scores of Japanese colleagues—are still up in Hiroshima’s foothills at the Radiation Effects

Research Foundation (RERF), collecting and analyzing data from hundreds of thousands of A-bomb survivors, their children and control subjects, and publishing studies on their findings.

While largely unheralded outside scientific circles, and unknown even to many younger Hiroshima residents, the researchers’ joint efforts are a unique example of how the two former adversaries forged a collaboration amid the ashes of hate and war, creating a project to benefit people worldwide. With funding from the US and Japanese governments, foundation scientists have produced a body of knowledge that has become the basis for radiation-exposure guidelines for x-ray technicians, airline pilots and even nuclear power-plant workers around the globe.

RERF studies have elucidated the links between radiation and not just cancer, but also cardiovascular disease and other ailments. And researchers’ expertise has been tapped to deal with emergencies, such as the 2011 meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant.

“This is a treasure-trove for the world for research,” said Eric J. Grant, the foundation’s associate chief of research who has spent two decades in Hiroshima. “There are basically no studies that have tracked such a large group for so long.”

Walking into the lobby of the foundation’s Quonset-hut headquarters, opened in 1950, feels more like entering a doctor’s office than a world-class research lab. At the front desk, a smiling woman in a white lab coat offers a hushed irrashaimase welcome to anyone who comes in. For almost 60 years, more than 20,000 atomic-bomb survivors have been tracked in the foundation’s Adult Health Study, coming in every two years for physical exams, electrocardiograms, chest x-rays, ultrasounds and biochemical tests.

They are among 120,000 people in the foundation’s Life Span Study, an epidemiological research effort that tracks hospital and death records, aiming to investigate the long-term effects of atomic-bomb radiation on cancer and causes of mortality. Participation rates in the study have hovered between 70 percent and 80 percent for decades—a remarkable feat considering that subjects are not paid to come back, nor do they receive any direct medical care from the foundation. Treatment is left to doctors at local hospitals.

The continued willingness of survivors to participate is all the more notable given that the foundation’s predecessor organization—a US-funded entity called the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC)—was initially regarded by many with suspicion or even hostility. “They would not treat the patients.

So the people felt that we were guinea pigs twice—first, as targets of bombing; and second, as a sample for scientific medial research,” recalled Setsuko Thurlow, who was 13 when Hiroshima was bombed.

“A close friend of mine as a child was taken to ABCC occasionally. In front of the [male] medical staff, she had to undress, totally naked,” said Thurlow, who ended up marrying a Canadian. “She still remembers the sense of shame and embarrassment and talks about it even today.” That sense of antagonism faded, though, as the US occupation ended, and conditions in Hiroshima improved.

In the 1970s the ABCC was reorganized into a nonprofit foundation, with binational oversight committees and funding from the US Department of Energy and Japan’s Ministry of Health.

At its peak, the research center had more than 1,000 employees. Today it’s down to about 230, and fewer than 5 percent are Americans, though they hold key positions, including vice chairman and chief of the statistics department, and serve on advisory boards.Although the foundation owes its existence to America’s use of one of the most horrific weapons ever devised, current employees say they don’t feel burdened by historical tension on the job.

The march of time, the overarching US-Japan alliance and cultural understanding built up over the decades—not to mention the camaraderie forged by doing groundbreaking science together—have bridged whatever chasms initially existed.

Kazunori Kodama, the foundation chief scientist, had a cousin who perished in the bombing. Still, he said, “I

never blamed the US for my cousin’s death.” Such a perspective is not uncommon among Hiroshima’s Japanese residents, though it often catches Americans off guard at first.

“I was surprised when I came here and found there was no palpable animosity related to the bombings in this organization,” said Harry M. Cullings, a Pennsylvania native who first arrived in the late 1990s and is now the head of the statistics department.

“There are cultural differences— Americans are more brash and opinionated.… They are less reserved about being intellectually competitive in ways that might offend their colleagues. They are willing to get into big arguments,” he said. “In the Japanese culture, people are more reserved and respectful to each other but also less willing to debate—but that’s about it.”

On Friday US President Barack Obama visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial laid a wreath and delivered remarks about the perils of nuclear arms. Residents of this port of 1.1 million welcomed him with open arms.

Many Hiroshima natives see the first visit by a sitting American president to their forever-scarred city as not only a fresh step for global disarmament efforts, but also a momentous, if longoverdue, move to cement the reconciliation between two mortal-enemiesturned-allies. But Obama has no plans to visit the foundation, and scientists here acknowledge that doing so might be tough for the president. Already, his trip is under fire by some Americans who see it as tantamount to an apology (although White House officials insist he won’t use that word).

“I don’t think the political optics are favorable to his coming” to the foundation, said Cullings.

Still, other foundation staffers say Obama’s trip could at least refocus politicians’ attention on issues of nuclear research and safety—and underscore the importance of continued funding.

“Obama’s visit [to Hiroshima] certainly won’t hurt,” said Douglas Solvie, the foundation chief of secretariat.

While 95 percent of the foundation’s funding still comes from the Japanese and US governments, its leaders have acknowledged they need to diversify their sources of support by competing for grants and soliciting donations.

Part of ensuring the foundation’s viability also entails articulating a vision for the organization after the last A-bomb survivors pass away. Although there were still more than 187,000 survivors alive last year, according to a Japanese government census, the youngest are now in their 70s, like Murai.

“Twenty years from now, there will be almost no survivors left. So does that mean no RERF?” asked Ohtsura Niwa, a Stanford-trained PhD who took over as chairman last year. “No. We intend to keep on going, to do something for the next generation.”

The foundation plans to keep studying the children of A-bomb victims to determine whether they have higher rates of cancer or other ailments that could be related to their parents’ exposure. So far, there have been no discernable effects, but this cohort is now moving into the age range where cancer and other disease become more prevalent, so researchers are keen to track them in the coming decades. Los Angeles Times/TNS

A14 Monday, May 30, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

2016: Tax reform now!

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HE most difficult job to have right now is to be a member of the political elite while holding a position as a government official. The problem is that governments are broke.

The only reason that these nations have not all failed is because they can still stay alive by borrowing more money. But the well of borrowed funds is not deep enough. Governments are desperate for more revenue and, when they find new sources, they still need more. It is only when finding new ways to tax the people does government become creative.

Obesity is becoming a global problem, so the solution is to tax soft drinks containing sugar. But then again, if you want to buy fitness equipment to stay in shape, you also pay a tax.

Here in the Philippines, the government takes about 30 percent of the income we earn and then takes about 12 percent of the purchase price of everything that we buy. However, our government only takes about 15 percent of the GDP in taxes. For Australia, it is 25 percent, as also for South Korea.

Indonesia collects less at 12 percent.

Fortunately, the Philippine government has, for the past 10 years, put its financial affairs in order, and is not desperate for increasing revenues. In this environment, genuine tax reform is possible, practical and even probable.

The Department of Finance (DOF) has prepared a scheme that could bring drastic positive change for the people and the country.

The income-tax rate for both individuals and corporations would be cut to 25 percent. To help make up for the revenue shortfall, the tax on oil products would be raised substantially. The value-added tax (VAT) would again be expanded to cover more items and raised to 14 percent. However, the key to the proposal is for the first P1 million of earned income would be income tax-free.

Based on the DOF estimates, 11 million Filipinos would not be paying any income tax at all.

There are advantages and disadvantages to shifting to more taxation on spending from taxing income. But let’s take a positive approach for a moment.

A P10-per-liter tax on gasoline would force the government and the people to find realistic mass-transit solutions and much greater energy efficiency.

In theory and somewhat in practice, a tax on sales inhibits spending, while an income tax inhibits earning more. Wage earners might do more to earn more, knowing that they will not move into paying higher taxes as is the current situation. A higher VAT might discourage some short-term luxury purchases, because saving for purchases, like cars and homes, would be easier and faster.

We like the basic proposal of the DOF. The key is that the Philippines can afford tax reform that will leave more money in the hands of the people while not curtailing government programs.

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PCSO opens 53rd branch Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

F

ROM an initial 25 branches, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) now has 53 branches in its network to better serve Filipinos around the country.

When I and my fellow directors were appointed to serve at the PCSO at the start of the Aquino administration in mid-2010, we found out there was no plans to open additional branches beyond the 25 scattered over Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

As we conducted comprehensive agency reforms, conducted strategic planning sessions and monitored feedback, we realized that there was an urgent need to extend PCSO services in underserved and remote regions. Most in need of access to government ser v ices are the island-provinces reachable only by air and water transport.

Moreover, a great number of our kababayan in the provinces cannot afford to travel to the nearest PCSO or other government office branch that might be several hours away by land and/or water travel. Opening branch offices

By Alberto Agra

PPP LEAD

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Department Manager Laila Galang.

T he branch w i l l ser ve the 201,233 inhabitants of the province, extending to them the PCSO’s assistance for medical- and healthcare-related concerns, as well as support for the nine Lotto outlets and 20 Lotto Express outlets in the province.

We hope that entrepreneurs in the area consider partnering with PCSO to open more Lotto outlets. It is through the PCSO’s conduct of Lotto and its other gaming activities that revenues are generated for the agency’s social-welfare programs, primarily the Individual Medical Assistance Program, which subsidizes part of a person’s hospitalization

or medical-treatment needs.

With the mechanisms and programs that the present PCSO Board of Directors has put into place, the agency is poised to open more branches this year as it seeks to enhance its service delivery to all Filipinos. The agency’s goal is to open a branch office in each of the country’s 81 provinces, insofar as it is feasible and safe. At 53 branches, we are now at 65 percent of that goal.

While in Baler for the inauguration, we also turned over nine ambulances from the PCSO’s ambulance donation program to the municipalities of Baler, Casiguran, Dilasag, Dinalungan, Dingalan, and Dipaculao, and to the Sabang Eco Tourism Area Association Inc., Maria Aurora Community Hospital and Aurora Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.

The aim of this program is to provide each municipality with an ambulance.

As it has for the past eight decades, the PCSO continues to serve the Filipino people with integrity and good governance, commitment to its mandate, and compassion for all. nnn

Atty. Rojas is vice chairman and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

5 As: No PPP justice without gender justice

Judge Pedro T. Santiago (Ret.) Benjamin V. Ramos Adebelo D. Gasmin Frederick M. Alegre Marvin Nisperos Estigoy Aldwin Maralit Tolosa Dante S. Castro

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in their areas would ensure that none of our fellow Filipinos “will be left behind” in terms of access to developmental and social-welfare services that could make a huge difference in the quality of their lives.

After careful study of the PCSO’s situation, we instituted prudent financial measures that gave the agency the means to expand its branch network starting in 2012.

In the four years since then, the PCSO now has an additional 28 branches, a 112-percent increase over the original number of branches, for a total of 53 branches nationwide.

The newest branch is in Aurora province and was inaugurated on May 16. The office is at the Old Hospital Building, San Luis Street, Baler, and is supervised

by OIC-Branch Manager Leopoldo Atacador, under the guidance of Northern and Central Luzon

After careful study of the PCSO’s situation, we instituted prudent financial measures that gave the agency the means to expand its branch network starting in 2012. In the four years since then, the PCSO now has an additional 28 branches, a 112-percent increase over the original number of branches, for a total of 53 branches nationwide.

Continued from A1 According to the Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, in an article PPP and Gender Justice in the context of the 3rd UN Conference of Financing for Development, there is evidence which shows that “existing PPPs in the field of health do not contribute to alleviating fiscal pressure, and frequently fail to deliver health care and services needed by women, especially women living in poverty.”

We hope that if and when the national government enters into and implements a PPP project on health, said “failure” would not happen.

In the Philippines the first PPP project on health—the modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center—was awarded, but will not push through. The private sector walked away due to unmet obliga-

tions of the government.

To avoid such a situation in any and all PPP projects, the following prescriptions—the 5 As—are being offered: (1) Assertion by the State. The State, in any PPP arrangement, must not abdicate its duty to protect and promote the interests of women and girls. Regardless of the modality, the State must define the agenda, set the policy and regulate.

(2) Acknowledgment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 5th SDG states that all nations must “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies, ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decisionmaking in political, economic and

We hope that if and when the national government enters into and implements a PPP project on health, said “failure” would not happen. In the Philippines the first PPP project on health—the modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center—was awarded, but will not push through. The private sector walked away due to unmet obligations of the government. public life, and undertaking reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources.

To achieve this SDG, and the other SDGs, partnerships are needed.

The 17th SDG calls on us to “encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil-society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships.”

(3) Articulation of framework.

Said SDG must be embodied in a framework, either law or rule. The

inclusion of provisions on “gender justice” should also be incorporated in PPP contracts. The formulation of the framework must be inclusive and participative. Women and girls have a stake in PPPs. (4) Assessment of impact. According to the article cited above, the “impact of PPPs on women’s human rights, as well as the way they respond to women’s diverse needs should be specifically considered at all stages: design, implementation, monitoring and assessment.” Specific gender-based key performance indicators must be spelled out in the contract and must be part of the deliverables of the PPP parties.

(5) Action based on gender justice. The welfare of women and girls must be improved, their equal access enhanced and their participation guaranteed. Aside from streamlining and integrating women and girls’ rights in PPP policies and projects, gender-responsive PPP projects must also be identified, prioritized and implemented.

The 5 As must go beyond lip service. There can be no justice through PPPs without gender justice.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

How PreCheck made security lines longer

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Hacking will impact your businesses

B J F | Bloomberg View

Jeffrey Salazar

HE three main explanations making the rounds for why airport security waits have gotten out of control in the US this spring have been:

Lots more people are flying.

Budget cutbacks have forced the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to make do with fewer screeners. The TSA is a bungling bureaucracy.

There is surely something to all three of these, and it’s easy to find statistical evidence for the first two. After a long recessioninduced slump, the number of US air travelers set a monthly record of 75.6 million last July (the previous high was in July 2007), according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and passenger traffic may break that record again this summer. Meanwhile, the number of security screeners, measured once a year by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fell from 47,200 in 2012 to 41,820 in May 2015.

Still—in part because growth in air travel, tight federal budgets and bureaucratic bungling all seem somewhat inevitable at this point—it’s important to look for other causes of the security-line bottleneck. And yes, people have been looking, and finding.

Bloomberg View’s editorial board argues today, for example, that the TSA’s list of items that are prohibited on planes is a big part of the problem. The list is outdated and largely nonsensical, yet ninnies in Congress object to any proposed change. It’s a classic case of “security theater” trumping actual security.

Another angle, pushed this month by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Democratic Senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal, is that the fees airlines charge for checked baggage are causing travelers to bring more, bigger carry-ons that slow security checks. My initial thought was that these bag charges couldn’t be the problem because they’ve been around for years. But it turns out that American became the first legacy carrier to impose a fee for checking even one bag in May 2008, just as air travel was beginning a steep decline. Now that passenger numbers are finally setting new records again, it’s not unreasonable to think that the baggage charges are at least part of the security-line problem.

Finally, there’s what I think may be the most interesting culprit of all: A seemingly good idea for reducing security waits that at this point is probably making them longer. This would be TSA PreCheck, the streamlined screening program (you can keep your shoes and light jacket on and your laptop and toiletries in your luggage, and usually get to go through a metal detector, instead of a full-body scanner) that was rolled out in 2011 and expanded in 2013, as what then-TSA chief John Pistole called the “happy lane.” As Bloomberg’s A lan Lev in and Jeff Plung is reported on Thursday: For the small portion of travelers now in the program that provides access to short lines, it may fit John Pistole’s description. But

for passengers who don’t participate, it has contributed to securityscreening delays and growing tensions at airports because far fewer people signed up than the agency projected.

Devoting staff and machines to PreCheck screening lanes with hardly anybody going through them means taking them away from general screening lanes with lots of people going through them.

Some airport TSA managers have reacted to the crush of traffic this spring by shutting down PreCheck lanes, which is understandable, but leaves no one happy. I experienced this early one Saturday morning this month at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Those of us with the telltale checkmark on our boarding passes got to stand in a separate, shorter line to get our IDs checked, but were then put in the same security-screening line as everybody else. When we finally got close to the machines, I told a TSA worker that I had PreCheck and asked if I needed to take my laptop out or my shoes off. Laptop comes out but shoes can stay on, she said, then allowed me to cut in front of several people and go through the metal detector, instead of the scanner—without ever looking at my boarding pass to verify that I was, in fact, PreChecked. Now that’s security!

The problem, as Levin and Plungis report, is that the TSA expected to have 25 million people in the PreCheck program by now, but so far, only 2.8 million have signed up.

Another 6.7 million get PreCheck treatment because they belong to other trusted traveler programs, such as Global Entry.

Why have so few people signed up? One reason is surely inadequate marketing by the TSA, airports and airlines. Hancock International Airport in Syracuse, New York, offers a seemingly rare example of how to do it right. Forty percent of those who fly out of the airport are enrolled in PreCheck, executive director Christina Callahan testified on Thursday before a House Homeland Security subcommittee: We believe that this is the result of having an enrollment center in the terminal, our efforts to educate the public on the benefits of PreCheck, and while seemingly insignificant, the airport’s offer to validate parking for PreCheck applicants.

Ev e n w it h f re e p a r k i n g , t hough, sig ning up for Pre Check takes work. The process involves fingerprinting, a brief in-person interview, an $85 fee and showing either a passport or a driver’s license plus birth certificate. I signed up for PreCheck on a whim a few years ago when I was waiting at New York’s JFK International for a flight to Brazil and, thus, had my passport with me. Most US air travelers aren’t headed overseas, and don’t carry their birth certificates with them.

Monday, May 30, 2016 A15

DEBIT CREDIT

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HE recent hacking of the web site of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the computer systems of the various banks and companies raises concern on the reliability of the elections and the security of sensitive business information. This becomes of utmost concerns, especially since the suspected Comelec web site hacker is neither an experienced professional nor a group of information-technology (IT) experts but a 23-year-old fresh graduate.

Hacking is the way of gaining unauthorized access to data in a system. This is a serious issue since, in this digital age, companies are dependent on IT infrastructure in storing, processing, planning, scheduling and transmitting not only information but also resources or funds.

Clearly, there is the need to secure data of companies from unwanted access. Companies spend large sums on employing capable IT administrators, backing up facilities, installing antivirus programs and formulating of company policies to ensure that no confidential information will leak or no hazards will flow inside the IT system.

Hacking, no matter what the intention is, causes disturbance in a company’s operations. After a hacking episode, restoring or re-

connecting the system to its normal operation is not only expensive but requires time and attention.

Moreover, the losses arising from hacking is difficult to measure in terms of monetary value.

Imagine the impact of hacking on online retail stores. These will temporarily be inaccessible because of the interference of hackers. The delay, definitely, will result in decline in sales, resulting from potential customers unable to proceed with their intended purchases.

Hackers are not just doing their activities for fun or self-fulfillment. They can do more drastic things that will damage the company. Companies that are hacked lose their integrity and the trust of their stakeholders, which may result not only to closure of the business but may also attract

lawsuits from the public because of their confidential and personal information that these companies fail to secure. Hackers may not be able to steal the data in the system but they can make the information unreliable through alteration and deletion of data.

A hacker can expose researches, trade secrets and formulas, and even financial reports of companies. Once hacked, the competitiveness of affected companies, the security of their customers and other areas of operations will be adversely affected. Information, such as the names, addresses, contact numbers, bank-account information, specimen signatures and the electronic copies of identification cards, are just some of the data that can be compromised.

When these data are captured, it can be used for illegal activities, such as identity theft, unauthorized bank withdrawals and even in making loan application under the name of another person. Hackers can also profit from the hacked information, such as client lists, trade secrets and researches, by selling these to interested persons.

Although Republic Act 10175 (Cyber Prevention Act of 2012) provides for sanctions to offenders with penalty up to P10 million, this may not be sufficient to deter cybercrime.

We must stay alert to prevent hacking and other cybercrimes.

The recent hacking of the Comelec website, the cyber theft of the

S

probably help. But the more urgent security problem rests with the banks, not with the messaging system they use.

The story began in February, when Bangladesh’s central bank fell victim to an $81-million heist.

Hackers used the Swift network to access the bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and transfer funds to accounts in the Philippines, from which they vanished. Similar breaches have happened at banks in Vietnam and

Jeffrey Galang Salazar is a Certified Public Accountant and Master in Business Administration degree holder. He is currently connected with Tong Hsing Electronics Phils Inc., Mold Parts Manufacturing Asia Inc. and Pamantasan ng Cabuyao.

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

Central banks can’t go it alone anymore B M A. E-E Bloomberg View

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HETHER through signals from the Group of Seven (G-7) meeting this week or in the outcome of the latest round of European negotiations on Greece, officials of advanced countries, increasingly, are acknowledging that the problems facing their economies require a new response to take over from the overlong use of narrow short-term tools.

This recognition has been too long in the making and, judging from the regrettable lack of credible and detailed action plans, still needs time to be translated into progress on the ground.

Secular stagnation

BEFORE the G-7 meeting in Japan, several member-countries indicated they understood that their individual and collective policy stances needed to evolve. Germany warned against continued overreliance on central banks, simultaneously stressing the need for structural reforms. Canada and Japan urged a more aggressive and imaginative use of fiscal policy. And the US warned Japan to resist the temptation to intervene to depreciate the yen.

Earlier this week, Greece’s European partners concluded that they needed a greater emphasis on debt relief for that beleaguered economy. In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there was agreement among all stakeholders that Greece’s debt was “highly unsustainable” and needed relief.

In addition, the official said the

parties “accept the methodology that should be used to calibrate the necessary debt relief. They accept the objectives in terms of the gross financing need in the near term and in the long run. They even accept the time periods, a very long time period, over which this debt has to be met through 2060.”

These notable developments reflect an important evolution in mind-sets, which are shifting more decisively toward looking at structural and secular conditions, and away from an excessive emphasis on cyclical considerations. This shift is driven by three developments: recurring disappointing economic growth despite extraordinary monetary-policy stimulus and, in the case of Greece, eye-popping bailout packages; concern that the benefits of unconventional central bank involvement are being offset by a mounting risk of collateral damage and unintended consequences; and recognition that the political context is becoming more complicated, as anti-establishment movements gain momentum amid growing popular mistrust of “elites” both in government and the private sector.

Such thinking should, one would hope, lead to the implementation of progrowth structural reforms, tax

reform in conjunction with lessened fiscal austerity; debt relief for segments with crushing debt overhangs; and effective global policy coordination.

Nonetheless, the translation of greater collective awareness into credible actions remains frustratingly patchy.

Take the case of Greece. Despite the overdue acknowledgement of reality by European creditors—that debt relief is a necessary (though not sufficient) condition for Greece to have any realistic chance of restoring durable economic and financial viability—this recognition hasn’t been turned into clear action. “Fundamentally, we need to be assured that the universe of measures that Europe—is willing to commit to is consistent with what we think is needed to produce debt relief,” the IMF official who described the negotiations said on Wednesday. “We do not yet have that.”

As a result, the fund is unwilling to back with loans the compromise understanding on Greece reached this week. Meanwhile, it is unlikely that the G-7 will implement a much different policy stance once officials return to their national capitals. As a result, the crucial handoff from reassuring words to effective measures on the ground will, once again, fail to materialize.

Yet, greater awareness is a critical ingredient of durable mind-set adaptations and related course corrections, so there is hope that the advanced economies are getting closer to putting in action a much-needed comprehensive policy response. So if not this time, maybe next time.

Still, time is not on their side.

Lessons from the Bangladesh Central Bank cyber heist WIFT can’t do it alone. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift), an organization that enables money transfers worldwide, has come under fire after a rash of bank hackings—some of which bear fingerprints of nationstates, including North Korea. In response, it announced this week a series of new measures aimed at protecting the global financial system from cybercrime.

These steps can’t hurt. They’ll

deposit of the Bangladesh central bank, the many phishing activities on bank accounts and many other related incidents are testimonies that cybercrimes are threats that can happen any time.

Prevention is better than cure.

Communicate to management or the IT in charge of irregularities, issues or any occurrences that you may encounter. Include possible cyberattack issues in the disasterrecovery plans of companies. Basic preventive activities can be put in place, including the regular update of antivirus software, installation of firewalls, strengthening of security by not allowing personal laptops or any devices that can copy and store information, blocking web sites that may be used as channels to connect to the system, preventing employees from using personal e-mail account when making transactions or transmitting information and others.

Ecuador, and possibly elsewhere.

Troubling as the heists may be, it’s important to put a few things in perspective. While $81 million is nothing to sniff at, it’s small in comparison to the hundreds of billions of dollars in transfers that the system facilitates every day.

What’s more, Swift itself did not fail, any more than a telephone fails if somebody uses it to commit fraud. The network passes messages among banks, which then move money on their own. Hack-

ers were able to impersonate the banks, thanks to weaknesses in the systems they used to connect to Swift. This gave the hackers access only to the compromised banks’ funds, not to the funds of the thousands of other institutions that use Swift.

Nevertheless, the breaches are a big deal for an organization founded on trust: For the system to work smoothly, banks must be able to assume that the messages they receive are legitimate. To that end,

Swift has wisely offered to take on more responsibility for the security practices of its members. It plans, for example, to toughen software requirements, expand the use of two-factor authentication (which provides an added identity check), monitor compliance more rigorously and facilitate sharing of frauddetection know-how.

Ultimately, though, Swift can only do so much. The network is fast and efficient because it’s neutral and passive—a feature that any

A troubling aspect of structural impediments to growth is that the longer they remain unaddressed, the deeper they become embedded in the system. Today’s growth shortfalls become harder to reclaim, even as tomorrow’s growth potential is undermined. That, in turn, erodes the potency of any given policy response.

These unsettling economic consequences are amplified by fluid political conditions. Antiestablishment movements are benefiting from the recent history of insufficient growth whose limited benefits have accrued to a small (and already well-off) segment of the population. As the system awaits policy actions, politics is likely to further erode support for established political parties and simultaneously reduce the potential for constructive bipartisan policy-making. Meanwhile, the alternative—a radical shift to the implementation of the more extreme policies advocated by antiestablishment movements—is likely to be contained by the checks and balances in the system. Indeed, the experience of the Syriza party in Greece provides a vivid illustration of the constraining effect of these institutional guardrails.

Advanced economies should be congratulated for their willingness to incorporate a larger dose of structural and secular considerations into their economic deliberations. But every quarter they wait to enact credible and comprehensive measures adds to the difficulty of removing the impediments to inclusive growth and makes the political context even more complicated.

major effort to police some 11,000 member-institutions could impair.

The real solution must come where the failure happened: at the banks. If institutions in developing nations somehow prove unable to defend against statesponsored attacks, some assistance from the developed world might be in order. That said, keeping their money safe is something banks themselves should have the resources and expertise to do. Bloomberg View

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A16 Monday, May 30, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PCC to ink MOAs with BSP, ERC on antitrust enforcement

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B C N. P

@c_pillas29

HE Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) is set to conclude memorandums of agreement (MOAs) with the regulators of the energy and banking sectors to clarify their jurisdiction.

Johannes Bernabe, PCC commissioner, told the BusinessMirror that the agency will be coordinating closely with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to thresh out their functions in relation to competition-related cases.

“Because the BSP has been consistent in saying that, in view of the Asean Economic Community, banks will become larger, and we will need consolidation of financial institutions in the Philippines to compete effectively with larger banks in Malaysia and Singapore. It’s in that con-

text we’ll execute MOAs with sector regulators,” Bernabe said.

The PCC official said the impending consolidation in the sector should be further reviewed by the PCC to ensure that this does not impede competition, and the MOA with the BSP will have to ensure there will be no conflict in the jurisdiction of the two agencies.

“We have different policy objectives, so we need to execute an MOA to collaborate and cooperate, and avoid those potential conflicts in the exercise of jurisdiction,” he added. With the ERC,

the need to clarify the regulatory function of each agency is more pressing, as the agency is also vested with the power to oversee competition-related issues.

“Of all the sector regulators, only one that has an explicit competition mandate is the ERC, so it becomes a little more delicate,” Bernabe said.

Notably, the draft implementing rules and regulations of the Philippine Competition Act repeals the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), or Republic Act (RA) 9136, which details some of the regulatory powers of the ERC. The said provision is what gives the ERC adjudicative power to decide on competition-related cases in the energy sector.

This will most likely be turned over to the PCC, as Bernabe said the quasijudicial PCC is “given primary and original jurisdiction in the implementation and regulation of all competition-related issues in trade, industry and commerce.”

The ERC has not yet responded on how the revocation of this authority will affect its function and how the specific division of power

We have different policy objectives, so we need to execute a MOA to collaborate and cooperate and avoid those potential conflicts in the exercise of jurisdiction.”—B

will be spelled out in the MOA. The PCC was created by virtue of RA 10667, or the Philippine Competition Act, which was signed into law by President Aquino in July 2015.

PCC Chairman A rsenio M. Balisacan said the agency has

quasijudicial powers that allow it to build cases and impose penalties on erring companies or oppose certain mergers and acquisitions.

The commission also has to review powers in the sense that it can re-examine existing government policies that encourage uncompeti-

tive behavior among firms.

Balisacan said the key to succeed in the implementation of the competition law is an “empiricalbased PCC.” Earlier, University of the Philippines School of Economics Associate Professor Agustin L. Arcenas said the competition law is necessary to make Philippine companies “more efficient” amid expected stiffer competition as the economic integration of the economies of the Asean continues to be implemented.

Prior to the enactment of RA 10667, only the Philippines did not have a law against anticompetitive practices in the Asean, according to Arcenas.

Currency traders beware as Danske Bank eliminates human element

D

ANSKE Bank A/S is pitching a new product to help clients net their currency transactions and reduce the need for human traders.

The second-biggest Nordic bank won a contract last week with Sweden’s government to provide the service and is now using that success to attract corporate clients.

“For Danske Bank to be the primary, one-and-only supplier of cash management and foreign-currency dealing to the Swedish state— that’s not something I will stop talking about with clients,” said Johan Wennerberg, head of cash management at Danske’s Swedish corporates and institutions division.

Danske’s product matches foreign-currency sales against pu rc h a ses before t he y ’re swapped into, for example, Swedish kronor. That can substantially reduce the number of transactions with banks, according to Wennerberg. It also means clients are in a better position to control risk and cut costs, which includes eliminating the need for in-house currency traders, he said.

The contract is a muchneeded boost for Danske’s corporates and institutions division. The unit reported a first-quarter drop in pretax profit of almost 40 percent, measured as a percentage of allocated capital, after trading income plunged by a third and oil-related impairments rose.

Danske CEO Thomas Borgen has high ambitions for C&I, a

BORGEN

unit he ran before becoming CEO. Being based in a region with three active central banks means there’s substantia l client demand for currencymanagement services.

Borgen has said the C&I business plays a “vital role” in realizing his ambition of expanding in the Nordics. He ordered a reorganization in 2014 as tougher regulatory requirements and low interest rates weighed on trading and interest income.

Since then, rates have plunged further. What’s more, Danske hasn’t been able to overtake its Swedish peers in the Nordic currency markets. Euromoney

last week ranked SEB and Nordea Bank as the region’s two largest in foreign exchange. But Danske is hoping its effort to reduce the number of transactions in that market will ultimately give it the upper hand.

“Margins aren’t getting bigger in any business on the corporate side, making cost efficiency a high priority,” Wennerberg said. “Every treasury and CFO realizes they should centralize if they have cross-border flows but perhaps they can’t employ more people.

We’re telling them to give us the mandate and we’ll do it.”

Bloomberg News

Clean energy to take bigger share of electricity market by 2030

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ENEWABLE energy will account for 40 percent of electricity output capacity by 2030, almost double of today’s market share, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena).

The expansion will be due to lower technology costs, Adnan Amin, Irena’s director general, said in an interview on Bloomberg TV in Dubai. “We anticipate with the lower technology cost, by 2030 we’re going to have renewables capacity in the global power system at around 40 percent, which is quite remark-

able growth.” That compares with 22 percent today, according to Irena.

The real challenge for renewables is capturing crude oil’s market share in heating, cooling and transportation products, Amin said. “As far as the power sector is concerned, oil plays a very little role in power generation worldwide” at about 5 percent, he said.

Electricity from solar energy is getting a boost as the price of solar power has declined. Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, awarded a contract for a 200-megawatt so-

lar plant in January 2015 at what was then a record-low price of 5.85 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Last month the emirate received a bid for an 800-megawatt plant at a power price of 2.99 cents per kWh. Falling crude prices have made alternative fuels less economically attractive, curbing investment in biofuels, according to Irena. “There is a lot of momentum looking at electric mobility powered by renewables, but we’ve seen a real negative impact has been on biofuel investment,” he said. Bloomberg News