BusinessMirror April 15, 2016

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Friday, April 15, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 188

PLDT, GLOBE OPEN TO SHARING THEIR PASSIVE, ACTIVE INFRA, BUT…

NTC eyes mandatory infra sharing for telcos

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INSIDE

The spirit of counsel

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THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

Life

THE WEEKEND MAVEN: SUMMER ALTERNATIVES FOR KIDS D4

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Friday, April 15, 2016

D1

Duran Duran is looking forward, not back

BY GLENN GAMBOA Newsday

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URAN DURAN is not big on nostalgia.

As one of the biggest bands of the 1980s and one of only a handful to still have arenafilling status, the New-Wave heroes continue to look ahead, even while most of their contemporaries focus on the past. “I love our past work and I love my past life,” said Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon, calling from his London home. “I’m really proud of it and glad that it was us who had the place that we had in that time. But I don’t want to be stuck there. I want to be now, as well. I find that nostalgia and sentimentalism makes me feel very uncomfortable.”

That’s why the band’s recent Paper Gods (Warner Bros.) album sounds so current, as if it could have come from one of the many bands that drew inspiration from them, and why the new tour may be the band’s most elaborate yet.

“It’s big for us,” he said. “We’ve never done that massive kind of Pink Floydtype show, the U2 kind of enormous production thing. We’ve always felt that for us, the music had to do the job. We didn’t want to detract from the music or distract ourselves from the music.”

He says for this tour, the band—Le Bon, bassist John Taylor, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and drummer Roger Taylor—felt that the music from Paper Gods lent itself to a larger presentation.

“The bigness of this, though, it’s light—

the photons are going to be doing the work,” Le Bon said.

“We don’t have giant cranes, or inflatable women, or London buses swinging from the ceiling, or elephants climbing out of toilet bowls. None of that. I like the idea of elephants climbing out of toilet bowls, though.

Very trainspotting.”

It’s that kind of inspired thinking that helped give Paper Gods a bit more edge, whether it was on the funky single “Pressure Off” or the current dance pop of “Last Night in the City.”

Le Bon said the band definitely was looking for something new. “The preceding album, All You Need Is Now, was very much a recapturing of the territory we had in the 1980s,” he said, referring to the Mark Ronson-produced album. “That was the aim of that record.

You can’t repeat that because then you would be stuck in a rut. When we’d been working on Paper Gods for about a year, we hit this very rich seam of ideas and sounds. That coincided with the time when Mr. Hudson joined the project. He got us sounding really edgy, this space around the notes, which we had never had before. That was exciting to us and it was abundantly clear to everybody on the project that this was the direction the album had to take.”

Though there is currently plenty of interest in 1980s acts, especially after the massive “I Heart the ’80s” festival and TV special in February, Le Bon said that really isn’t a road that Duran Duran will ever want to take.

“Some of the other artists, you look

at them and think, ‘I’ve got nothing in common with these people. Why have I been put on the same bill as them?

Just because we were making records at the same time? The music’s not the same.’” ...Of course, we’re Duran Duran and when we play ‘The Reflex’ and when we play ‘Rio’ and when we play ‘Hungry Like the Wolf,’ of course, people think about the 1980s and so do we. But it’s on our terms and it’s a show that we’ve produced and we’ve created, and we’ve created these images and this vibe that makes it relevant now.

That’s what is important.”

Le Bon is quick to point out, though, that focusing on the future doesn’t mean forgetting the past. He said working with Nile Rodgers again on Paper Gods and on the current tour shows the band’s approach toward nostalgia. “We look at the importance of our heritage,” he said.

“That’s really classy, Chic and Duran Duran—that’s what I mean about doing it on our own terms.... To continue that by playing shows with Chic around the United States is amazing. As an evening’s worth of entertainment, it’s unbeatable.” Le Bon said it’s a way of taking a broader look at music.

“Music shouldn’t have a shelf life of 10 years or 15 years or 20 years,” he said. “Good music should have a shelf life of a century or more. When you go and listen to Mozart, you don’t automatically think about guys in powdered wigs, do you? You listen to the music and you get off on the music.

It’s a pure experience.” ■

LIFE

D1

RECORD!

Sports BusinessMirror

‘GREATEST TO WEAR

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| FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana

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OS ANGELES—Kobe Bryant went out with a Hollywood ending to his remarkable career.

He scored 60 points in his final National Basketball Association (NBA) game on Wednesday night, wrapping up 20 years in the NBA with an unbelievable offensive showcase in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 101-96 victory over the Utah Jazz.

Bryant scored 23 points in the fourth quarter, posting his first 50-point game since February 2009 and rallying the Lakers from a 15-point deficit to win the final game of the worst season in franchise history.

With the entire Staples Center crowd standing, Bryant drained a three-pointer with 59 seconds left. He hit another with 31 seconds to play, putting the Lakers ahead 97-96. He finished with an assist before checking out for good with 4.1 seconds left in just the Lakers’ 17th win of the worst season in franchise history.

Bryant took a career-high 50 shots to get there. He posted his highest-scoring performance since getting 61 against New York in 2009. It was the fifth highest-scoring game of his career, and he became the oldest player to score 50 points in an NBA game.

The entire night was a tribute to Bryant, who is retiring after 20 seasons, five championship rings and 18 All-Star selections with the Lakers, who honored him before and after the game. Bryant is just the fifth player in NBA history to play 20 seasons, and the first with just one team.

Between the whistles, Bryant and his teammates conspired for one last omnivorous scoring performance by the third-leading scorer in NBA history.

Bryant surpassed his previous career high of 47 shots, taken in a loss to Boston on November 7, 2002.

It was daylong tribute with thousands of fans thronging the downtown streets around Staples Center and chanting his name from early afternoon. Fans lucky enough to get inside Staples Center greeted him with ovations at every opportunity. Magic Johnson anchored a brief pregame tribute by calling Bryant “the biggest and greatest celebrity we’ve had in this town for 20 years” and “the greatest to wear the purple and gold.”

After blowing kisses and pounding his heart before the game, Bryant got right to work on what the fans wanted to see. But he missed his first five shots before finally pump-faking and finally connecting on a jumper.

Bryant found a rhythm then, finishing the first quarter with 15 points on 13 shots. He kept it up after sitting out the first six minutes of the second, finishing with 22 points despite missing a lastminute shot, his 20th of the first half. AP

night was a tribute to Kobe Bryant, who is retiring after 20 seasons, five championship »ringsTHEandentire 18 All-Star selections with the Lakers, who honored him before and after the game. AP

RECORD!

NBA RESULTS Chicago 115, Philadelphia 105 Minnesota 144, New Orleans 109 Indiana 97, Milwaukee 92 Houston 116, Sacramento 81 San Antonio 96, Dallas 91 Detroit 112, Cleveland 110, OT Toronto 103, Brooklyn 96

Confetti fell as the Golden State Warriors became living legends on Wednesday, finishing the regular season with the best record in National Basketball Association history at 73-9.

Boston 98, Miami 88 Washington 109, Atlanta 98 Charlotte 117, Orlando 103 Golden State 125, Memphis 104 LA Lakers 101, Utah 96 Phoenix 114, LA Clippers 105 Portland 107, Denver 99

400 3-POINTERS

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AKLAND, California— Stephen Curry took a lot of the drama out of getting to 400 three-pointers in a season on Wednesday night. The Warriors star guard got all but one of them in a 25-point first half, then hit the milestone shot 43 seconds into the third quarter.

Curry, who several weeks ago broke his own threepoint record of 286 and is still the only National Basketball Association (NBA) player to even reach 300 three-pointers in a single season, came into the season finale against the Memphis Grizzlies with 392 makes from beyond the arc.

But he got the hot hand early, canning 6 of 9 3-point shots in the first quarter, including three in the span of 57 seconds. Curry, who also needed 41 points to average 30 points for the year, scored 20 points in the opening quarter.

After taking a breather at the beginning of the second period, he returned to the court with 5:47 left. He made No. 399 with 2:48 to go in the half off a pass from Andre Iguodala and had two cracks at No. 400 in the final six seconds before intermission, but both came up short.

Then, with 11:17 to go, he buried No. 400 from the right corner. The Mercury News

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The Mercury News

STEPHEN CURRY makes good on a promise that he would start chucking three-point attempts if he gets to 399. And he didn’t wait long to hit No. 400. AP

quarter, he had already put on a laser show and made six of them.

Three of Curry’s three-pointers came in a flurry on consecutive possessions that took less than a minute. The onslaught began with Curry nailing a 31-footer, and after he confirmed the hot hand with two more, the Warriors led 27-16.

Curry’s sixth three-pointer pushed the lead to 13. After Curry pulled up again and missed from long distance, Festus Ezeli scored on a tip-in and emphatically blocked a shot on the other end as the Warriors went into the second leading 37-23.

Then, it was Klay Thompson’s turn. The other Splash Brother knocked down three straight threepoint attempts to give the Warriors a 61-41 lead.

Curry’s seventh three-pointer came off a wideopen look and gave the Warriors a 22-point lead.

With 399 three-pointers, Curry had two looks on the final possession of the half that missed as the Warriors went into halftime leading 70-50.

Curry made good on a promise that he would start chucking three-point attempts if he got to 399. And he didn’t wait long to hit No. 400.

Forty-three seconds into the third, Curry fired on the Warriors’ first possession and reached that round number he coveted.

The shot went in, and he raised both arms in the air in celebration.

No. 401 would soon follow, and when Curry came to the bench during the next timeout, he received hugs and handshakes and acknowledged the crowd.

Curry had a brief scare in the quarter when he was down for a moment after colliding with the Grizzlies’s Zach Randolph going for a loose ball.

But in the fourth, Curry finally got the rest that the coaches had wanted him to get headed into the postseason.

The next goal is for the defending champions to repeat.

SPORTS

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DJOKOVIC FALLS Sports

AUGUST 5, 2016

112 DAYS ‘Rio won’t be scarred by politics, graft’

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B D L

AKLAND, California—History well in hand, Stephen Curry sat on the bench throughout the entire fourth quarter and surveyed the scene until the final buzzer.

There was nothing but joy all around Oracle Arena.

Confetti fell as the Golden State Warriors became living legends on Wednesday, finishing the regular season with the best record in National Basketball Association (NBA) history at 73-9.

They broke the record for single-season wins by routing the Memphis Grizzlies, 125-104. Draymond Green—the player who openly talked about wanting it the most—came away with the game ball.

“Now let’s go get this championship,” Green told the crowd after the game.

Coach Steve Kerr played on the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls team that went 72-10 with a record many believed to be unbreakable. He gave a nod to his old team, wearing Scottie Pippen socks during the game. Kerr’s new team is something special, too.

“The team held itself to a high standard throughout the season, playing with purpose every night and captivating fans around the world with its free-flowing style, spectacular shooting and flair for the dramatic,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement congratulating the Warriors.

With Curry gunning on a memorable night, records started falling.

The reigning MVP dazzled with a 46-performance over three quarters as he made 10 3-pointers to reach a milestone number of his own and surpass the 400 mark this season.

Curry finished with a single-season record 402 threepointers, shattering his own previous record of 286, as he hoisted a career-high 19 attempts.

The Warriors finished their joyride of a regular season with a 39-2 record at home, and it’s at Oracle where they will have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, which begin on Saturday.

“At the end of the day, the support night in and night out you bring to this arena is incredible,” Green told the fans after the game. “Winning 39 games at home is incredible.”

The Warriors will face the eighth-seeded Houston Rockets in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

First came the in-game fireworks display.

Curry entered the night looking to reach 400 three-pointers this season. By the end of the first

IO DE JANEIRO—The Rio de Janeiro Olympics won’t be scarred by the impeachment proceedings against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, a $3-billon corruption scandal touching scores of powerful politicians and businessmen, and the country’s deepest recession in decades.

That was the message on Wednesday from Rio organizers and International Olympic Committee inspectors, who completed their final official tour of Rio’s preparations with South America’s first games opening in under four months.

“Despite the hardships and hard economic conditions, they are on target,” inspection team member Patrick Hickey of Ireland said.

But Hickey also suggested lowering expectations, saying the games won’t be like those in London four years ago or Beijing in 2008.

“It’s going to be a different games but it will work,” Hickey said.

Nawal El Moutawakel, the head of the inspection team, said turmoil in the country wasn’t having an impact on preparations but that much remained to be done. She termed the venues “98 percent complete.”

“There remain 114 days to go and thousands and thousands of little details are yet to be managed,” she said. “Their timely resolution will make the difference between an average Olympic Games and a great Olympic Games.”

Despite the optimism, Brazil’s government is nearly paralyzed with barricades around government offices in Brasilia to separate anti- and progovernment protesters as the lower House of Deputies prepares to vote on the impeachment measure on Sunday.

Rousseff has often mentioned the games in recent speeches.

“If we are capable of organizing the Olympics, if we are capable of organizing the Paralympics, then we are capable of making our country’s economy grow again,” Rousseff said last week at the Olympic swimming venue.

Rio’s games have myriad problems away from the venues: n US health officials confirmed on Wednesday that the Zika virus causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads. The unequivocal finding could keep tourists away from Rio, and could be bad news for young athletes— particularly young women. Brazil is at the epicenter of the outbreak.

“There is no longer any doubt that Zika causes microcephaly,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden said.

Rio Spokesman Mario Andrada said games organizers would continue to take advice from the World Health Organization (WHO).

“We will follow WHO instructions to the letter,” Andrada said. n Ticket sales are slow. Rio ticket director Donovan Ferretti said 60 percent of Olympic tickets were sold, and 22 percent for the Paralympics. Organizers hope sales pick up after Thursday’s draw for the Olympic soccer tournament. AP

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| FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph

WORLD No. 55 Jiri Vesely proves that nobody, including top-ranked Novak Djokovic, is unbeatable. AP

DJOKOVIC FALLS B J P The Associated Press

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ONACO—Top-ranked Novak Djokovic chose to be philosophical after losing in the second round for the first time in three years on Wednesday, calling it “proof that nobody is unbeatable,” after surrendering his Monte Carlo Masters title in a shocking 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 loss to 55th-ranked Jiri Vesely.

His previous second-round defeat was at the 2013 Madrid Masters to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, a vastly talented shot-maker with a far higher reputation than Vesely, an aspiring Czech player with one career title compared to the 63 for 11-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic.

It was also Djokovic’s first loss in a completed match since November, having retired from a match in February with eye infections. This was his first match of the year on clay.

“There is the proof that nobody is unbeatable,” the Serb said. “I have to move on, it’s already behind me.”

Djokovic saved a match point when he was serving against Vesely in the ninth game.

But the Czech, who had never beaten a top-10 player, sealed the win on his second match point in the next game when Djokovic’s forehand landed wide.

It was his first loss in a Masters-level event since August. Since then, he’d won nine of 10 events, including two grand slams, four consecutive Masters titles, and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Finals.

“I was playing really, really bad,” Djokovic said. “I wasn’t feeling any freshness.”

The 22-year-old Vesely, who named Roger Federer as his idol when growing up, was understandably staggered by his win.

“It’s something amazing. When I went on court, I had completely different thinking,” Vesely said.

“I hoped to win a game, hoped to do well. I really didn’t think I could beat Novak today.”

He did soon notice, however, that Djokovic was off his game.

“Novak wasn’t at his best level, that’s for sure, and he made a lot of mistakes from the

beginning,” Vesely said. “That’s what gave me a little bit more confidence, creating the rallies. I didn’t give him too much rhythm.”

Earlier, eight-time Monte Carlo champion Rafael Nadal dropped serve twice and still beat Aljaz Bedene of Britain, 6-3, 6-3, in the second round, but last year’s runner-up, No. 6 Tomas Berdych, lost to 99th-ranked Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia, 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-3.

In another upset, No. 9 Richard Gasquet lost to wild-card Lucas Pouille, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, in an allFrench match. But it was nothing compared to Djokovic’s loss.

Since January 2015, Djokovic had reached 19 finals in 21 tournaments, winning 15—and the Serb was 28-1 on the year heading into Monte Carlo, having not dropped a set when winning the Miami Masters two weeks ago.

Athough Djokovic looked rusty, it was difficult to predict a second defeat of the season after his retirement to Spain’s Feliciano Lopez in the Dubai quarterfinals.

“I will get a long break now,” Djokovic said. “The time off will serve me well, mentally mostly.”

In terms of ranking, this was Djokovic’s worst since June 2010, when he lost to 74th-ranked Xavier Malisse on grass in the third round at Queens.

Vesely, whose lone ATP title came more than a year ago in Auckland, did not face a break point in the first set, and concluded it confidently on serve.

Djokovic lost his opening two service games in the third set, and an ace from Vesely put him 4-2 up.

Djokovic saved the first match point with an angled backhand volley at the net, but a loose forehand on the next gave Vesely his biggest ever win.

Nadal, meanwhile, was broken for a second time when serving for the match against Bedene at 5-2, but the Spaniard broke straight back to seal victory.

The fifth-seeded Nadal, who won the last of his titles here in 2012, next faces 12th-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria.

“He has a great serve and a great forehand,” Nadal said of Thiem. “I need more victories to be 100-percent confident.”

No. 4 Stan Wawrinka, the 2014 champion, also advanced past Philipp Kohlschreiber, 7-6 (2), 7-5, into the third round and next faces No. 15 Gilles Simon of France.

In other second-round matches, No. 10 Milos Raonic of Canada, No. 11 David Goffin of Belgium, No. 13 Gael Monfils and No. 16 Benoit Paire of France all advanced to the third round.

Paire next faces No. 2 Andy Murray.

SPORTS

@lorenzmarasigan

ATIONAL Telecommunications Commission (NTC) Deputy Commissioner Edgardo V. Cabarios conceded that the No. 1 problem that the whole telco industry faces—which causes the slow Internet speed—is the lack of adequate infrastructure, both soft and hard.

DURAN DURAN IS LOOKING FORDWARD, NOT BACK EAR Lord, may You help us choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven. May we seek the right path that will lead us to the Kingdom of the Father. May we give the right advice to other people. May we be examples of righteousness and proper behavior. If we claim the spirit of counsel, it is because God has given us the grace to possess it.

Amen.

B L S. M

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15,000

When addressed, this could help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) grow and compete within and outside the Asean, and help hasten the expansion of the local output.

C  A

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c_pillas29

OYOTA Motor Philippines (TMP) on Thursday said it could spend an additional P9 billion, on top of the P3.9 billion it allocated for the overhaul of its Innova brand, to expand the company’s production of the Vios model.

TMP officials, led by Vice Chairman Alfred Ty and First Vice President Rommel Gutierrez, said the company may match the government’s P9-billion support under the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) Program.

Company officials said the CARS guidelines indicated that TMP should at least match the amount of incentives

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 45.9830

HANNAH HERBST, 15, from Boca Raton, Florida, presents her project Beacon, an ocean-energy probe prototype, at the White House Science Fair in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Herbst was named America’s 2015 Top Young Scientist and won the 2015 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge for creating Beacon, which seeks to offer a stable power source to developing countries by using untapped energy from ocean currents. TONG WU/MCCLATCHY/TNS

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THE 2016 Isuzu Truck Fest, with the theme “Trucks for Life,” opened at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City on Thursday. Flashing the “No. 1” sign at the event are (from left) Takashi Tomita, EVP of Isuzu Philippines Corp. (IPC); Daisuke Takagi, representative of Mitsubishi Corp. Japan; Hajime Koso, president of IPC; Etsuo Yamamoto, chief engineer of Isuzu Motors Ltd.; and Arthur Balmadrid, senior VP for sales of IPC. The event runs until April 16. NONIE REYES

Toyota may spend ₧9B to ramp up Vios production B C N. P

HIGH SCHOOLER FINDS WAY TO PRODUCE POWER FOR ONLY $12

Number of cell sites in the Philippines, among the lowest in the world

Isuzu trucks top-sellers in Q1, capture 54% of PHL market I

SUZU Philippines Corp. (IPC) disclosed on T hursday that Isuzu tr ucks have gained the No. 1 spot in the heavy-duty truck category in the first quarter of 2016, capturing a 54-percent market share in three truck categories.

“We’re quite happy with our performance this year, because we are already No. 1 in lightduty and medium-duty trucks. Now, for the first time, our heavy-duty trucks, the E and C series, are at No. 1 in the first three months of the year,” Joseph Bautista, IPC marketing head, said at Isuzu’s 2016 Truck Fest held at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

The Japanese car brand showcased its latest vehicle offerings in the Category III, IV and V segments, covering light-duty to heavy-duty trucks.

According to IPC data, total sales in these three categories hit 1,304 units from January to March this year, 34.3 percent better than the previous year.

This figure is remarkably 53.6 percent of the market for trucks. The broader commercialvehicle segment of IPC has notched a 33-percent growth in sales for the first quarter to maintain its third spot in this segment.

In overall sales, IPC is the fourth-largest player in the country, capturing 8.7 percent of the auto market as of March. Catherine N. Pillas

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

it would get in six years.

“It doesn’t have to be the same amount, but we’re expected to put in investments over the six-year period,” said Gutierrez on the sidelines of the All-New Toyota Innova launch held in Laguna province on Thursday.

In March TMP submitted its application to the CARS Program and has enrolled its flagship model, the Vios.

The company committed to ramp up production and increase parts localization to avail itself of incentives.

TMP assembles about 35,000 units of the Vios annually at its Santa Rosa, Laguna, plant. The Vios is one of the two models that TMP produces in the country, aside from the Innova. The company plans to start producing more Vios in

HEN Boca Raton, Florida, high-school student Hannah Herbst found out her Ethiopian pen pal lived without electricity and running water, she knew she had to do something.

So began her quest to build a small and affordable alternative-energy source that could help generate power in developing countries. “Everything that I’m fortunate to take for granted every day she doesn’t have access to,” Herbst recalled in an interview.

On Wednesday Herbst presented her prototype, Beacon (Bringing Electricity Access to Countries Through Ocean Energy), at the annual White House Science Fair, the sixth and final such event of President Barack Obama’s administration, where enthusiastic young exhibitors demonstrated a wide array of inventions from a less-expensive test for Ebola to a more fire-resistant suit for firefighters.

Beacon uses what’s known as a Pelton wheel system—a water turbine—connected to an AC generator to convert the energy produced by ocean currents into electricity. If scaled up, Beacon could power a desalinization pump or a 12-volt battery.

For now, Herbst is focused on making many, smaller-scale units. Unlike existing turbines that are often huge, expensive and operate on the ocean floor, Herbst’s model is cheap and floatable, so anybody can use it. She made one iteration out of recyclable materials for only $12.

Just 15 and a student at Florida Atlantic University High School, Herbst has come a long way since her initial idea almost three years ago.

After presenting her project at county and state science fairs, she entered and won the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, becoming “America’s top young scientist” last fall.

S “H ,” A

S “T,” A

n JAPAN 0.4208 n UK 65.3005 n HK 5.9291 n CHINA 7.0994 n SINGAPORE 34.0564 n AUSTRALIA 35.1862 n EU 51.8734 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.2664

Source: BSP (14 April 2016 )

BMReports BusinessMirror

A2 Friday, April 15, 2016

High schooler. . .

C  A

Herbst sent $3,000 of her $25,000 winnings to Compassion International, the nonprofit that connected her with 9-year-old Ruth and her family in Dessie, Ethiopia.

A couple of weeks ago, Herbst received pictures of the generator they bought with the money. The family also was able to pay some medical bills.

Until her parents, Joel and Julie Herbst, switched her from theater to engineering summer camp in the seventh grade, Herbst hadn’t shown much interest in science. As a newcomer to the field and the only girl there, she felt intimidated at first. But she caught on quickly, and her team won the camp’s weeklong competition. “We’ve got to get more of our young women and minorities into science and technology, engineering and math, and computer science,” Obama said on Wednesday. “We’re not going to succeed if we got half the team on the bench.”

Herbst has since made it part of her mission to encourage other girls in science and math. It’s hard to be in such a male-dominated field, “but once you realize that you can make a difference regardless of gender or any of those other stereotypes, then you’re fine,” she said.

The young scientist is working to introduce elementary and middle school students to what’s known as STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and help them develop kits of her first prototype.

Recently, Herbst teamed up with 3M, the conglomerate based outside Saint Paul, Minnesota, to figure out how to bring Beacon to market.

While she realizes that her dream is still a way off, she hopes one day to be able to give a version to Ruth and her family. NTC

news@businessmirror.com.ph

NTC eyes mandatory infra sharing for telcos “If you want to be globally competitive, MSMEs have to have Internet access, which is a tool to trade,” he told the B USINESSM IRROR in an interview. “So, we have to lower the costs, so they can be globally competitive. You have to provide that infrastructure.”

Telco infrastructure is divided into two: passive and active. The first one pertains to hard facilities, such as towers, cell sites and cable systems. Active infrastructure, on the other hand, pertains to spectrum.

“In other countries, infrastructure sharing is mandatory—specifically, passive infrastructure, which are towers, buildings, housing and equipment,” Cabarios said. “In the Philippines, it is not mandated, but is only encouraged. However, despite being encouraged, competitors will never give each other access to their passive infrastructure.”

As smartphones continue to evolve into all-encompassing wireless personal computers, telecommunication operators need to construct additional cell sites to enable their respective networks to transmit enormous amount of data.

Cell sites transmit radio-frequency signals, which enable voice and data services in a given geographic area, simultaneously supporting multiple handsets, operating in different frequencies and maintaining customer connectivity even while they are in transit.

Based on a study made by TowerXchange, an independent community for operators,

Toyota. . .

C  A

Vios in 2018. Under the CARS, the company should produce at least 200,000 units in the six-year period.

Gutierrez expressed hope that the next administration will honor the government’s commitments under the auto-manufacturing stimulus program.

tower companies, investors and suppliers interested in emerging-market telecom towers, the Philippines lags behind its neighbors in Asia when it comes to cell sites built.

The number of unique physical cell sites in the Philippines is one of the lowest in Asia with a combined 15,000 cell sites. China has the highest number, with 1.18 million cell sites; followed

by India, with 450,000; Indonesia, with 76,477 cell sites; Vietnam, 55,000; Thailand, 52,483; Pakistan, 28,000; Bangladesh, 27,000; and Malaysia, 22,000.

The Philippines is only higher than Cambodia and Australia, both with 9,000, Myanmar with 7,620 and Sri Lanka with 7,000. To compare, the United States has a total of 205,000 cell towers in place.

“The problem is, since it is not mandatory, we can’t force telcos to share their infrastructure with one another—that would require a law,” Cabarios said. “If we want to reduce costs of telecom services, then we need a law.”

He added that should lawmakers deem it useful, the law should include the specific details as to the cost. “We need a law that will set all the conditions, including costings. If there is law, then telcos have to abide by it,” Cabarios said.

According to a joint study on broadband policy conducted by the United States Agency for International Development and the Foreign Chambers of Commerce, tower sharing could

“We have the CARS Program and Toyota has applied to this program.

This will run in the next six years, definitely within the next administration,” he said.

“So we hope the new administration would honor and give more support in the implementation of this program. Our hope is that the program will be implemented as planned,” Gutierrez added.

For 2016, TMP said it expects sales to go up by 20 percent from

be a solution to increase broadband speed and make it more affordable.

Since this could help in improving their services, the two largest telecommunications companies in the Philippines are open to the idea of sharing infrastructure.

“Tower sharing makes sense, in particular, if you are going to build a new network. If you have an existing network, there is very little benefit because the towers are there already, so if you share, it is not really of big benefit,” Joachim Horn, the chief technology and information advisor at Smart Communications Inc., told the BUSINESSM IRROR in an interview.

He added: “But, we are open to any kind of discussion as long as it is on level playing field, not one operator gets an undue advantage compared to the other.”

Globe Telecom Inc. Spokesman Yolanda C. Crisanto agreed, but said new players should also do their share in building infrastructure.

“We’re open to this concept. But if we do that, some other player will also have to put in their share of the infrastructure. You cannot enter the industry and you wouldn’t build,” she told the BUSINESSMIRROR via phone. Crisanto was referring to the soon-to-be-launched telecommunications company of San Miguel Corp.

“There has to be a middle ground where ev-

last year’s 125,027 units owing to the country’s robust macroeconomic fundamentals. Toyota sales are expected to get a boost from the rollout of the All-New Innova.

TMP President Satoru Suzuki said the company invested P3.9 billion to give its Innova model a face-lift.

The investment was channeled to the modification of its production line, additional parts localization, and the construction of a new parts logistics warehouse.

C  

erybody gets to win,” Crisanto said. “San Miguel declared that they want to be a telco player, so let them do their share of the build. Tower sharing is not an issue, but there has to be equitable amount of investments from all players.”

Building a single cell site ranges from P5 million to P8 million.

But for Horn, tower sharing could prove to be difficult, given the current telco environment.

“Sharing very much depends on the environment, and it is a political, regulatory question that requires the right prerequisites,” he said. “You have to make sure that sharing is not only to give one party undue advantage.”

Horn added that the practice of sharing infrastructure “only works under certain circumstances…which, I don’t think we have here in the Philippines. It depends on the state of rollout. If the operators have already built cell sites, there is not much benefit from sharing. The regulatory environment in terms of who pays what and these agreements need to be there.”

Horn added that the towers of Smart are designed to accommodate a single operator.

“This is not a low hanging fruit. It sometimes sounds so easy, but I have done this in different countries in different circumstances; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” said Horn, who used to work for various foreign telcos.

Of the amount spent to overhaul Innova, company officials said P1.6 billion has been set aside to expand production. An additional 100 employees have been added to the company’s work force to ramp up output.

With the full model change for Innova, TMP has increased its plantproduction capacity by 10 percent, and is now targeting to produce 22,000 units of the model this year.

The All-New Innova’s local con-

tent has also been bumped up to 50 percent from 40 percent.

The Philippines’s production of the Innova is the second-biggest among Southeast Asian countries that produce the model.

Toyota has sold more than 145,000 units of the Innova since its introduction in 2005. The brand replaced the Toyota Tamaraw, the company’s volume seller in the late, 1990s. It bumped off the brand’s predecessor volume seller in the

BMReports BusinessMirror

A4 Friday, April 15, 2016

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Senators eyeing tougher antimoney-laundering law

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B B F

IGHER penalties for banks that drop the ball in gatekeeping against money laundering tops the list of possible remedial legislation senators are eyeing—besides including casinos under the antimoney-laundering law’s coverage—when they finish the inquiry into the $81-million stolen Bangladeshi funds diverted to the Philippines.

The lifting of the bank-secrecy law—as repeatedly lobbied by, among others, the Bureau of Internal Revenue—is also on the list of remedial legislation to consider, according to Senate probers interviewed separately by the BusinessMirror.

Senate Blue-Ribbon Committee probers shared their insights on what remedial legislation they see after five hearings as imperative to avoid a repeat of the money-laundering scandal that has dented the good image and performance of the Philippine banking sector, and raised fears worldwide about the increasing aggressiveness of

hackers attacking financial institutions, such as the central bank of Bangladesh.

The Bank of Bangladesh is one of over 200 banks and foreign gover nments worldw ide t hat have accounts with the Federal Reser ve of New York, whic h released the funds that went to bogus Philippine accounts, based on false instructions sent by the compromised system of the Bangladesh bank.

Assistant Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III wants “higher penalties for banks and all involved” in money laundering, whether witting or unwitting players.

It’s a pitch that runs alongside Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto’s proposal t hat was ra ised in t he most recent hearing on April 12, when he decried the puny penalties— P30,000 a day—that a bank, such as the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), would be slapped with should it be used for money laundering.

Also top of mind as remedial legislation for Recto is one that may allow banks to hold back release of suspicious funds linked to money laundering, ahead of the required court-issued freeze order.

This, after senators were told of the inadequacy of existing laws to immediately block bigtime money-laundering schemes at Tuesday’s resumption of their inquiry into the $81-million laundered funds stolen by hackers from the Bank of Bangladesh account at the US Federal Reserve in New York in a series of transactions in February.

Sen. Koko Pimentel gave a similar proposal as Recto, saying there’s urgent need to “also give [the] Anti-Money Laundering Council [AMLC] [the power] to freeze accounts initially for a very short period like three to four days.”

Likewise, Pimentel believes this unfortunate episode underscores the need to “repeal, amend or relax the bank-secrecy law,” in order to make it harder for money

launderers to operate in Philippine territory.

“These are two other legislative ideas” that may arise from the ongoing blue-ribbon inquiry, Pimentel said, adding that the powerful committee is going through all angles of the scandal to cover all possibilities of a repeat. The committee resumes hearings on Tuesday, April 19.

For his part, Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, chairman of the banks and financial institutions committee and also a blue ribbon member, told the BusinessMirror that “a law cannot avoid crimes from being repeated, but should minimize occurrences.”

Resuming t heir test imony before the Blue-Ribbon Committee on April 12, RCBC officials had said the law did not allow the bank to promptly withhold the releases, not know ing at that time the fund was part of the $81-million cyber heist that raided the Bangladesh central bank account in New York.

RCBC Legal and Regulatory Affairs Group Head Ma. Celia Fernandez-Estavillo recalled that the bank was first alerted about it when RCBC got an authenticated message through SWIFT, also known as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.

But she said the SWIFT 199 code message sent to RCBC did not even indicate it was coming from

the Bank of Bangladesh with an explicit request to freeze the fund releases. “We got no clarification, we [RCBC] were in the dark until February 10,” Estavillo added.

The RCBC lawyer explained that the law does not allow RCBC to freeze the account because the alert that should have been sent was SWIFT code 192, which carries a stop payment priority.

She also pointed out that the RCBC does not have powers to enforce an immediate freeze order, saying this requires a court order.

Still, the RCBC counsel said, the bank filed a suspicious transaction report, and only later learned that it involved the Central Bank of Bangladesh.

Sotto then sug gested that Congress could consider crafting remedial legislation plugging the loopholes that would allow banks to act more promptly in preventing similar money-laundering schemes.

Sotto told the BusinessMirror that lawmakers will include the

banking reforms “in the new law amending the Anti-Money Laundering Act.” Recto, likewise, said he is looking at reforms imposing “significant” increases in penalties for banks linked to money-laundering activities.

“There is a basis for Congress to consider higher penalties imposable by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas [BSP],” Recto said. However, he did not specify higher rates they would propose, leaving it up to the banks committee, chaired by Osmeña, to conduct hearings on the proposal.

A ccord i ng to B SP D e put y Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr., who is also the acting chairman of the AMLC, the RCBC faces liability for involvement in the $81-million money-laundering case, noting that the BSP Charter provides a minimum fine of P30,000 a day “in addition to the imposition of sanctions against erring bank officials.” Recto found this “too small.”

Sen. Koko Pimentel believes this unfortunate episode underscores the need to “repeal, amend or relax the bank-secrecy law,” in order to make it harder for money launderers to operate in Philippine territory.

AseanFriday BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Max V. de Leon • Friday, April 15, 2016 A5

Singapore adopts 2008 crisis policy to boost growth

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INGAPORE’S central bank unexpectedly eased its monetary stance, moving to a policy last adopted during the 2008 global financial crisis, as economic growth in the trade-dependent city-state ground to a halt.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) moved to a neutral policy of 0-percent appreciation in the local dollar, it said in a statement on Thursday. The currency slid the most in five months after the announcement, which came as a surprise to 12 of 18 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, who had seen no change in policy.

“The Singapore economy is projected to expand at a more modest pace in 2016 than envisaged in the October policy review,” the central bank said. “Core inflation should also pick up more gradually over the course of 2016 than previously anticipated.”

As Asia’s financial hub, Singapore is feeling the effects of the global downturn and China’s weakening economy. More businesses were shut than opened in December and February, while bank loans have dropped every month since October, the longest period of

The economy remains mired in an extended spell of deflation and steadily lower growth.”

—BMI R declines since 2000.

Growth was stagnant in the first quarter, with GDP posting zero expansion on an annualized basis compared with the fourth quarter, the trade ministry said in a separate report on Thursday.

That was in line with the median forecast of 12 economists surveyed

by Bloomberg.

The Singapore dollar fell 0.9 percent to 1.3628 per US dollar

as of 8:42 a.m. local time.

“The economy remains mired in an extended spell of deflation and steadily lower growth,” Andrew Wood, an economist with BMI Research in Singapore, said by e-mail. The central bank needed to adjust the currency because “Singapore’s competitiveness has taken a hit,” he said.

The last time the MAS shifted its currency policy to zero appreciation was in October 2008, when the economy was in a recession.

Thursday’s move was the bank’s second unexpected decision in less than 16 months, following an emergency policy change in January last year to combat the threat of deflation.

The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that a prolonged period of slow global growth has left the world economy more exposed to negative shocks. The fund is predicting 1.8-percent expansion for Singapore for this year, compared with the government’s projection of 1 percent to 3 percent.

The services industry, which makes up about two-thirds of the economy, contracted an annualized 3.8 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months, the first decline since the first quarter of 2015. Manufacturing and construction rebounded strongly in the quarter, expanding 18.2 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively.

Citigroup Inc. economist Kit Wei Zheng said in a report last month that the decline in net new businesses for the first time since 2009 signals a possible recession. In the past two decades, the only times that business closures exceeded openings came during contractionary periods—in 2009, 2001 and 1995 to 1997, he said.

Compared with the first quarter of 2015, GDP rose 1.8 percent, slightly better than the 1.7 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

The advance estimate for GDP that was released today is based on only two months’ of data and the government revises the figures when more information is available.

There was a difference of 4.3

percentage points on average between advance and final GDP readings from the start of 2010 to the fourth quarter last year, based on annualized quarter-on-quarter data, according to figures compiled

by Bloomberg. That difference was 1 percentage point for US GDP and 1.5 percentage points for Japan in the same period. Bloomberg News

US: Forced labor continues on Thai fishing vessels Strong earthquake hits Myanmar

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HE US State Department said on Wednesday that forced labor on Thai fishing vessels has continued in the past year despite legal reforms and arrests following an Associated Press (AP) investigation into the country’s seafood industry.

The department made the assessment in its annual global review of human rights practices, released in Washington, D.C., by Secretary of State John F. Kerry. The report covers the 2015 calendar year.

The report finds that the Thai government has reaffirmed its “zero-tolerance” policy for human trafficking and updated many laws that enhance regulatory powers and increase punishment for violations. An amended antitrafficking law provides protection to whistle-blowers and gives authori-

ties the power to halt operations temporarily or suspend licenses of businesses and vehicles involved in human trafficking. But the report says, “the lack of clarity in law and practice on what constitutes forced labor or debt bondage undermined the government’s efforts to identify labor-trafficking victims and prosecute forced labor.”

Reports of abusive work environments, including forced labor, continued in many sectors, including Thai-flagged seagoing trawlers and labor-intensive industries, such as food- and seafoodprocessing facilities, according to the department. Up to 90 percent of workers in the seafoodprocessing industry were migrant workers, it says.

The department cites the AP investigative series on slavery in the

seafood industry that resulted in the rescue of 2,000 men, a dozen arrests, millions of dollars’ worth of seizures, closure of some shrimppeeling sheds, and proposals for new national laws.

The men, mostly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Lao PDR, were recruited in Thailand and brought to Indonesia using fake travel documents where they were subjected to brutal labor abuses. Some had been enslaved for years or decades.

Later in the year, the department will issue a separate report that focuses on human trafficking and exploitative labor and ranks governments on their performance in combating those abuses. Thailand, along with Iran, Syria and Zimbabwe, was last year among 23 countries receiving the lowest ranking in the annual US assessment. AP

A TELEVISION journalist reports on the earthquake from outside the hotel where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are staying near the Kaziranga National Park, east of Gauhati, Assam state, India, on Wednesday. The strong quake that struck Myanmar was felt in parts of eastern India and Bangladesh. AP

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THAI WATER FESTIVAL Revelers douse each other with water during the Songkran water festival on Silom road in Bangkok, Thailand,

on Wednesday. The Songkran festival, also known as the Thai New Year or Thailand Water Festival, was originally celebrated as a way to offer good fortune to elders and pay their respects to the beloved Buddha. Today the festival has transformed into days of water fun, splashing locals and visitors alike with buckets of water, water hoses and super soakers as they gather in the streets. AP

STRONG earthquake, which struck Myanmar, damaged at least nine Buddhist pagodas and was felt in parts of eastern India and Bangladesh, but an official said on Thursday there were no reports of serious damage or injuries in the Southeast Asian country.

The 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck on Wednesday evening at a depth of 135 kilometers (84 miles), 396 km (246 miles) north of Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, according to the US Geological Survey. Residents in Myanmar’s main city of Yangon panicked after the quake struck, causing residents to rush out of their homes. An Associated Press journalist who was in a Yangon hospital at the time of the quake said the six-story Shwegonedine Specialist Center shook strongly and many people, including patients, staff and visitors, ran outside.

The quake was centered in the jungle and hills 220 km (137 miles) northwest of Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city. While the area is prone to earthquakes, it is generally sparsely popu-

6.9

Magnitude of quake, which hit Myanmar on Wednesday evening at a depth of 135 kilometers lated, and most houses are low-rise structures.

In the Sagaing region just southwest of Mandalay, Sa Willy Frient, the director of the Relief and Resettlement Department, said there were no reports of serious injuries.

“There are still no death reports,” he said, adding that nine pagodas had been damaged.

“None of the pagodas collapsed, but there are cracks in some parts,”

he said. Government offices were closed Thursday because of a threeday national holiday to mark Myanmar’s traditional new year, and there was no official announcement about the quake’s impact.

Zaw Myint Htoo, a 38-year-old resident of Mogok, 200 km (124 miles) north of Mandalay, confirmed there was no major damage in that city either.

The tremors were felt in the eastern Indian states of West Bengal and Assam, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were visiting during their tour of India. Prince William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, were staying in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park on Wednesday night and were safe, according to the British High Commission in New Delhi.

“We felt the tremor very strongly, but all is fine,” said British Deputy High Commissioner Scott Furssedonn-Wood, who was accompanying the royal couple. AP

The World BusinessMirror

A6 Friday, April 15, 2016

EU prophets of doom wring Armageddon out of Europe

BEYOND THE HEADLINES: 5 THINGS TO WATCH IN CHINA’S GDP REPORT

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REBOUND in exports, firmer inflation and housing strength suggest China’s economy may have performed better than many had expected in the first quarter.

The first-quarter GDP report due on Friday at 10 a.m. Beijing time, or 10 p.m.

Thursday on Wall Street, will show the world’s second-largest economy expanded 6.7 percent from a year earlier, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists as of Thursday morning.

Premier Li Keqiang said last week growth will be “better than expected” as indicators improved.

Other reports scheduled for release will provide gauges for manufacturing, investment, consumption and employment.

Economists forecast industrial production increased 5.9 percent in March from a year earlier, while fixed-asset investment is forecast to pick up to 10.4 percent in the first three months of the year.

Services have been leading growth, but how much that can offset sluggishness in the old industrial drivers still isn’t settled, nor is the robustness of the improving economic data. Li and other top officials are still pledging to keep growth above 6.5 percent this year.

Here’s what to look for beyond the headline numbers:

Growth drivers

BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron (third from right) speaks with European Parliament President Martin Schultz (second from left) during a group photo at an EU summit in Brussels on March 17.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is at right. AP/FRANÇOIS WALSHAERTS

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OOGLE “European Union Collapse” and you get 32.6 million results. Prophecies abound that economic anxiety, refugee hordes, terrorism, populism, border fences, anti-German resentment, British standoffishness, Russian belligerence and American indifference—the doom-list goes on—will splinter the EU into smaller regional blocs or, in the extreme, into 28 untethered nation-states.

There are germs of truth in these end-of-the-EU storylines: Britain could vote to pull out in June, another shock could propel Greece out of the euro, and the cumulative burdens could aggravate antiEuropean feeling in Germany, the largest and geographically pivotal country in the bloc of 500 million people and up until now the guardian of the system.

Often, however, the prophecies say more about the biases of the prognostication industry and the media’s infatuation with negativity. Multiscenario forecasts— most have three, and a recent exercise by the EU’s border-management agency imagined seven alternative futures—are duly bound to include the apocalypse as an option.

Roubini Global Economics puts a 40-percent probability on the EU not surviving in its current form until 2025—fair enough, given that Britain might be gone soon, tempting others to follow. But it also attaches 40 percent odds to a perpetuation of EU muddlethrough and a 20-percent chance of

a more united bloc, centered around a fiscally integrated euro zone.

History of war

BRUNELLO ROSA, the main author of the Roubini forecast, said he doesn’t specialize in “doom and gloom-type” thinking, though he sees a growing risk of accidents like a British exit, sealing of some internal borders, German leadership crisis or European Central Bank failure to reanimate the euro economy.

“It’s not a question of everything going down the drain,” Rosa said.

“It’s describing quite specifically the channels that could lead to the EU first becoming less functional, and from being less functional, to potentially disintegrating.”

The problem with predictions of atomization is that they require not one, but all 28 EU countries to secede, and all 19 users of the euro to go back to their national currencies. Even the EU’s most die-hard detractors don’t expect that.

Once unbound, the newly disconnected nation states would have to find a way of organizing the af-

500M

Total number of residents of the European Union

fairs of a continent that generates GDP of about $17 trillion, just shy of the US. It stands to reason that they would hit upon something like the present-day EU, which for all its gridlock, beats the alternatives Europe has lived through in its fragmented, warlike past.

Popular backing for the euro, single market and inner-EU labor mobility is solid; while 55 percent of Europeans polled in November said they don’t trust the EU, 66 percent said they don’t trust their national governments.

Ghost union

THAT leaves open the possibility of what Mark Fleming-Williams, an analyst at Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based political-risk consultancy, calls a “ghost EU” ticking along in form but not function. He foresees a gradual chiseling over the next decade into a hard core anchored by Germany and France, with varying links to blocs in Scandinavia, northeast Europe and central Europe.

Britain (assuming it stays intact, which is not a given) and Ireland would form a tandem, as would Spain and Portugal, and Italy would nestle beneath the Alps.

Through it all, Fleming-Williams said, the EU’s German-French bedrock will endure. “There are geopolitical reasons why Germany and France must remain tied together —and the geopolitical reasons are three wars in 70 years before 1945,” he said.

“That’s not that long ago, these are still strong considerations.”

Futurology with a side order of ruin isn’t only a private sector entertainment. EU boffins do the same, with the outcomes rang-

ing from Armageddon to nirvana.

There was a “Global Europe 2050” brain game, published by the European Commission’s research department in 2012, which ran the gamut from fragmentation to standstill to “EU renaissance.”

In March, as EU leaders weighed giving it more powers to respond to the refugee wave, the bloc’s Frontex border-supervision agency got into the act. Its worst-case scenario, “Attrition,” foresees EU shrinkage and the rollback of entitlements like passport-free internal travel over the next decade; the best case reads like the multilateral dreamscapes that were briefly in vogue in the 1990s.

EU allegiance

A 1999 paper by the commission’s in-house think tank nodded to the idealized future of a competitive European social market economy embedded in a rules-based world, but also warned of the cross-border crime, terrorism and untrammeled immigration that have since become daily reminders of the downside of globalization.

Anna Michalski, who coauthored that five-scenario paper and is now an associate professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, said it’s easy to pick on the EU because no one is born with an allegiance to it.

The EU “was imagined, set up and created by a number of thoughtful leaders,” Michalski said. “Obviously, something you have created can be picked apart. It’s harder to say a nation state could be that easily torn apart, but that’s also possible.”

Britain’s near-miss in 2014 when Scotland narrowly voted against bolting from the UK provides evidence of the latter point. The betting is that the pro-EU Scots will try again if Britain exits the EU. That, in turn, could produce the ultimate irony of the Brexit campaign: Britain crumbling before the EU does.

“If the EU didn’t already exist, we would be seeking to create it,” Alex Salmond, former head of the Scottish National Party, told a UK parliamentary committee on Tuesday. Bloomberg News

news@businessmirror.com.ph

FINANCIAL services, the leading growth driver of the economy during the stockmarket surge early last year, probably won’t offer much of a boost this year. That makes the new drivers even more crucial.

The statistics bureau tracks three main sectors, which broadly correspond to agriculture, manufacturing and services, and will update breakdowns for growth in all three on Friday. The tertiary sector, as services is known, accounted for more than 50 percent of GDP last year for the first time ever.

Real estate

KEY housing data will be included in the fixed-asset investment report due at the same time as GDP. One spot to watch for sustained strength is real estate investment, which rose 3 percent from a year earlier in the first two months, up from 1 percent in 2015. Housing starts and capital expenditures will also show how property developers are doing.

“The uptick in construction has helped overall growth in China to bottom out in

early 2016,” Louis Kuijs, chief Asia economist at Oxford Economics in Hong Kong, wrote in a note this week. “However, in our view the uptick in construction is premature and we are skeptical whether it can be sustained.”

Factory figures

THE factory floor is another essential place to take the pulse of China’s economy. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index unexpectedly jumped back to a level signaling expansion last month.

Electricity output and other breakouts of March industrial production will show a sharper picture of manufacturing on Friday. Chemical production may see further deceleration. Auto production will show how the middle class is responding to last year’s vehicle tax cuts.

Labor market

ONE idiosyncrasy of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is that while it publishes thick books full of minutia, it doesn’t release what’s generally the most important single data point for monetary policy and the economic outlook: A credible unemployment rate that’s released to a fixed timetable.

Instead, the NBS announces a surveybased jobless rate at irregular intervals, and the press briefing that accompanies Friday’s GDP release would be a likely time for new data. The last reading was announced by local media in March was 5.1 percent. Another index that may be updated is the job vacancy to job seeker ratio, a gauge of labor demand.

Nominal growth

PULL out your calculator to see the real dollar value that China’s economy expanded last quarter. A weaker yuan and slowing growth mean it added less in dollar terms than the US for the first time in almost a decade last year. Will the gap between the world’s biggest and the second-biggest economy expand further this year?

Nominal GDP, not adjusted for price changes, is released on Friday, but a nominal growth rate is not—it has to be calculated by comparing one quarter’s nominal GDP from a year earlier. Given that corporate profits, government tax revenue and other real-world activities are all counted in nominal terms, working out how the real economy is faring requires a look at these unadjusted numbers. Bloomberg News

Australia PM hails China trade ties on visit

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HANGHAI—Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hailed trade ties with China but skirted sensitive political issues on Thursday, on the first day of an official visit to his country’s key trade partner.

In a speech to business leaders in the financial hub of Shanghai, Turnbull praised a bilateral free-trade agreement signed last year as offering important new opportunities for Australian exporters.

China absorbs about one-third of Australia’s exports, but China’s slowing demand for iron ore, coal and other resources has taken a major toll on Australia’s economy. Two-way trade between them totaled A$150 billion ($115 billion) in the last financial year, down 6.3 percent.

While that dealt a massive shock to Australian trade, the country is now “most of the way through” the crisis and looking for new opportunities in China’s efforts to stimulate personal consumption among its citizens, Turnbull said.

“It is with these objectives in mind that we embrace all of the extraordinary opportunities presented by China’s own economic transition toward a more consumption-driven economy,” Turnbull said, according to a copy of the speech provided by his office.

The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement will eventually eliminate tariffs on almost all of Australian products sold to China. Turnbull singled out exporters of

beef and dairy products, cherries, crayfish and wine as particular beneficiaries.

The pact will also ease employment terms for Australian service providers, including lawyers, educators and financial professionals, while encouraging investments in Australia by major Chinese firms, such as Baosteel, Bright Foods and property developer Greenland Group, he said.

China is also Australia’s most important tourism market with more than 1 million visitors last year.

Australia will further smooth the way for its firms to enter the Chinese market with the establishment of a “landing pad” in Shanghai that will provide physical space for Australian entrepreneurs and access to networks and expertise, said Turnbull, who is leading a large delegation of government officials and about 1,000 business leaders.

Turnbull made no mention in his speech concerns of Australia, a close-US ally, about Chinese activities in the highly disputed South China Sea that were recently criticized in an Australian government report, although he’s expected to touch on political issues with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing on Friday.

China responded harshly to the comments in the Defense White Paper, underscoring Australia’s difficult task of finding a balance between its crucial economic relationship with China and its close security ties with the US. AP

Prosecutors end search at Panama Papers firm offices involved in docs leak

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ANAMA CITY—Prosecutors on Wednesday wrapped up their search of the Mossack Fonseca law firm looking for evidence of any illegal activity in the company at the center of a document leak that revealed details of offshore financial accounts.

Lead organized crime prosecutor Javier Caraballo emerged from the offices after 27 hours of searching to say investi-

gators had seized 100 computer servers that they would begin reviewing.

“We cannot so far establish if we have elements that show some kind of tie [to illegal acts], but we are satisfied with the quantity of information that we have been able to collect,” Caraballo said.

Earlier in the day, Attorney General Kenia Porcell said it was too early to talk about what might have found in an in-

vestigation that she described as very complex. She said investigators were checking the firm’s computers and noted it had servers in multiple locations. Prosecutors are also checking the server of the telephone company that provided the firm’s service.

“I’m not saying there is a crime,” Porcell stressed. Mossack Fonseca has denied any wrongdoing.

The search started on Tuesday, 10 days after news reports began emerging about the document leak known as the Panama Papers. Stories reported that the millions of documents contained details on secretive offshore accounts and shell companies set up by Mossack Fonseca for wealthy clients around the globe.

About 30 demonstrators gathered outside Mossack Fonseca’s office on Wednes-

day to demand a thorough investigation.

“We demand justice. We cannot allow that a law firm cast doubts on the country,” said Luis Gonzalez, leader of the country’s powerful construction workers union. “Investigate these scoundrels and lock them up.”

Some legal observers questioned the government’s delay in investigating the offices.

“The day after the revelations came to light the public ministry should have intervened immediately in Mossack Fonseca, should have collected the data, the computer, gotten all of the evidence,” said Italo Antinori, an expert in constitutional law at Complutense University in Madrid. “A lot of evidence could have been diluted, altered.” AP

A8

The World BusinessMirror

Friday, April 15, 2016

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Video: Some kidnapped Chibok girls alive

L

AGOS, Nigeria—A video appearing to show some of Nigeria’s kidnapped Chibok girls is being aired, along with images of tearful parents recognizing their daughters, who have not been heard from since the mass abduction by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram two years ago.

CNN on Wednesday showed a video, believed to be made in December, of girls wearing the Islamic hijab covering and of one mother reaching out to a computer screen as she recognizes her daughter.

“My Saratu,” she wailed.

On the night of April 14, 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from the Government Girls Secondary School in the northeast town of Chibok. Dozens of girls later escaped, but 219 remain missing.

While Boko Haram is thought to have abducted thousands of people over the years, the mass abduction brought the extremist group to the world’s attention.

The campaign hashtag #BringBackOurGirls went as far as the White House, used by US First Lady Michelle Obama.

The failure of Nigerian officials and the military to rescue the girls brought international condemnation and contributed to President Goodluck Jonathan’s loss in elections last year.

Jonathan, at first, had denied there had been a mass abduction, but international pressure soon

forced him to accept help from other countries.

The United States, Britain and France were among those that sent advisers, including hostage negotiators. US and British drones located at least one group of about 80 of the girls, which was reported to Nigeria’s government and military, but nothing was done.

Andrew Pocock, who was British high commissioner to Nigeria until his retirement last year, told The Sunday Times magazine last month that it was considered too dangerous to the other girls to try to launch a ground or air rescue. “You might have rescued a few, but many would have been killed.... You were damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” the magazine quoted him as saying.

Nigeria’s military has cited the same fears. Yet that has not stopped them from attacking towns and villages where Boko Haram has held thousands of civilians captive. The military boasted last week that soldiers have rescued 11,595 civilian hostages since February 26.

But none has been from Chibok.

CNN reported that the “proof of

PHOTO taken from the video released by Nigeria’s Boko Haram terrorist network on May 12, 2014, shows missing girls abducted from the northeastern town of Chibok. AP

life” video was sent last December to negotiators trying to free the girls. It shows an interview with Information Minister Lai Mohammed saying the government is reviewing and assessing the video.

Sen. Shehu Sani, who has been involved in past negotiations with Boko Haram about the Chibok girls, told The Associated Press (AP) he found the video credible.

Yakubu Nkeki, leader of a support group of parents of the kidnapped girls, said he briefly saw part of the CNN video, in between power blackouts frequent in Nigeria, and recognized some of the girls.

“We are all well,” one of the girls said in the video, emphasizing the

Russian attack jets buzz US Navy ship in Baltic Sea

276

Schoolgirls kidnapped

by Boko Haram from a school in Chibok

“all.” There have been fears that Boko Haram’s increasing use of female children and adults to carry out suicide bombings indicate they are turning captives into weapons, including the Chibok girls.

U.N. PROPOSAL AIMS AT EXTREMISTS’ USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN SYRIA

U

IN this image released by the US Navy, a Russian SU-24 jet makes a close-range and low-altitude pass near the USS Donald Cook on Tuesday in the Baltic Sea. US NAVY VIA AP

W

ASHINGTON—A pair of Russian fighter jets and a Russian military helicopter repeatedly buzzed a US Navy warship at close range earlier this week in the Baltic Sea, ignoring radio warnings and temporarily disrupting the ship’s flight operations.

Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said on Wednesday that two Russian fighter jets flew “dangerously close” to the US guided missile destroyer Donald Cook, as it conducted a routine patrol on Monday and Tuesday.

US officials estimated the Su-24 fighter jets flew as close as 30 feet from the American ship.

“This incident, as you won’t be surprised to hear, is entirely inconsistent with the professional norms of militaries operating in proximity to each other in international waters and international airspace,” Earnest said.

“Any peacetime military activity must be consistent with international law and norms and conducted with due regard for the rights of

other nations and the safety of other aircraft and other vessels,” he added.

US European Command, which oversees military operations on the continent, said in a statement that the Russian jets flew “numerous close-range and low-altitude passes” near the ship.

Russia is one of nine countries in northern Europe with coastline along the Baltic Sea. Tensions have risen steadily in recent years between Moscow and Washington over disputes including Russia’s seizure of Crimea and the conflict in Syria.

The US statement said the first flyby occurred around 3 p.m. local time on Monday when the Donald Cook was conducting deck-landing drills with a Polish military helicopter. It said the jets made numerous passes.

“One of the passes, which occurred while the Allied helicopter was refueling on the deck of Donald Cook, was deemed unsafe by the ship’s commanding officer,” the

statement said. “As a safety precaution, flight operations were suspended until the Su-24s departed the area.”

At about 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the statement said, a Russian KA-27 Helix helicopter flew low-altitude circles around the ship, looping it seven times.

About 40 minutes later, two Russian Su-24 jets flew 11 closerange and low-altitude passes “in a simulated attack profile.”

The pilots did not respond to several radio advisories in both English and Russian, the statement said.

“We have deep concerns about the unsafe and unprofessional Russian flight maneuvers,” the European Command statement said.

“These actions have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries, and could result in a miscalculation or accident that could cause serious injury or death.”

Officials said the Navy is reviewing the incidents and that US officials are using diplomatic channels to address the Russians. TNS

NITED NATIONS—Russia and China introduced a draft UN resolution on Wednesday aimed at preventing extremist groups, like the Islamic State (IS) and the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, from developing or using chemical weapons in Syria.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the proposed Security Council resolution will fill the “missing link” in current resolutions and could serve as a deterrent because “if terrorists plan to use chemical weapons, in our experience, sometimes they try to blame the Syrian government.”

“Our hope is that if they know that we are monitoring their activities, the incentive to use chemical weapons in the hope that the responsibility for that can be shifted elsewhere...will diminish,” Churkin said.

Churkin said there have been numerous reports recently “of terrorist groups in Syria and neighboring Iraq using chemical weapons.”

He cited a report just a few days ago from Deir el-Zour, where government-held areas are blockaded by IS militants, and a recent report from Aleppo “where terrorists used chemical weapons and actually admitted to their use.” There are also numerous reports that extremists may be preparing chemical weapons, he said.

Churkin said suspicions of possible chemical weapons use by Syria are already under investigation by the chemical weapons watchdog and international weapons inspectors, but there has been no reporting on alleged used of these deadly weapons by “terrorist” groups, he said.

The draft resolution would require countries—especially Syria’s neighbors Turkey and Iraq—to immediately report any actions by extremist groups to transfer, develop or acquire chemical weapons to the Security Council and to a recently established international body comprising the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. It is called the Joint Investigative Mechanism and is charged with establishing who is responsible for chemical attacks in Syria, he said. AP

Some hopes were raised last month when a girl suicide bomber who surrendered to authorities in neighboring Cameroon said she was from Chibok, but turned out to be from a nearby town in the local government area that bears the same name as the town.

There’s been no word of the girls since April 2014, when Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said they had converted to Islam and threatened to sell them into slavery or forced marriage with his fighters. Many recently freed girls are pregnant.

If any Chibok girls get home, some will miss their parents. Two mothers and 16 fathers have died since the mass abduction, some of

them victims of Boko Haram attacks. Others died from illnesses blamed on stress, according to Nkeki, who spoke to the AP by phone from Chibok.

Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is due in Chibok on Thursday for the anniversary of the kidnappings, Nkeki said, complaining the issue has become politicized.

He said the community is angry that their only school remains in the ruins created by Boko Haram, which firebombed buildings as they took off with the girls.

“Boko Haram has achieved its aim. They say they don’t want us to have Western education and our children don’t,” he said. AP

Syrian cease-fire at threat as talks resume in Geneva

M

OSCOW—Truce violations by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are threatening a sixweek-old cease-fire in Syria and peace talks aimed at ending five years of war, the United States warned, as Russia urged Western powers to pressure the country’s opposition to strike a compromise.

As Syrians in government-held areas voted in elections disputed by Assad’s opponents on Wednesday, United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura met the main opposition group in Geneva.

After shuttling between Damascus and Syria’s patrons Russia and Iran, he’ll hold talks with Assad’s government delegation later this week and then both sides separately in what he called “crucially urgent” discussions about a political transition. The US and Russia, who are driving the peace efforts, have set an August deadline for a deal.

The US is “very alarmed” by Syrian statements that they are preparing a joint offensive with Russia on rebel-held Aleppo, the most populous city, its ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said on Tuesday. It’s clear that if the Syrian government doesn’t stick to the truce, “the political process will have little chance of success,” she said.

While Russia and the US have brokered a partial cease-fire, which doesn’t apply to Islamic State (IS) or the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, disagreement over Assad’s future has stymied a broader settlement.

The US is pushing for the eventual departure of the Syrian leader, while Russia is continuing to back him. The conflict, which has killed 250,000 people and forced millions from their homes, has sparked Europe’s biggest migrant crisis since World War II and allowed IS to plot the deadly attacks in Paris and Brussels.

The UN-sponsored peace talks are due to culminate in early elections in 2017 under a new Constitution, but the opposition says Wednesday’s legislative ballot could sink the political process.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said on Wednesday that the opposition, which is demanding that Assad quit, has to let go of its “dream” of a transitional government, The Associated

Press reported.

Assad has offered to form a government of national unity that Western nations say would only provide his opponents a token role.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday called on Western powers and their regional allies to put pressure on the opposition to strike a compromise. He defended Assad’s decision to hold the parliamentary ballot as scheduled every four years, saying the move is needed to avoid a vacuum of power in Syria.

“Both Syrian sides need to show flexibility to reach an agreement and all outside players have a responsibility to press them to accept the principles we’ve agreed on,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.

Russia says Assad’s fate is for the Syrian people to decide, while Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Saturday that the removal of Assad is a “red line” for the Islamic Republic.

There is also disagreement over the truce. Russia says cease-fire violations have been reduced but the US and its allies say that Syria is provoking increased violence.

On Tuesday, France warned against the consequences of government offensives, including around Aleppo, saying Assad and his allies will hold responsibility for “a new humanitarian drama and the failure of the political negotiations.”

De Mistura told reporters on Wednesday in Geneva that while the truce is still holding, there are serious incidents. “If they are too often repeated, that could at least deteriorate the spirit and confidence in it.”

Dozens of soldiers from the Syrian army and allied militiamen were killed in fighting with Nusra and Islamic rebels in the south of Aleppo, the opposition UKbased Syrian Human Rights Observatory said on its website on Tuesday.

A top Russian military commander, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, said on Monday that Syrian government forces backed by Russian air cover were responding to a Nusra assault involving 10,000 fighters aimed at cutting off the main road between the capital and Aleppo. “No storming of Aleppo is planned,” he said. Bloomberg News/ TNS

BusinessMirror

World The

A9 | Friday, April 15, 2016 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

GLEYSE KELLY DA SILVA, 27, holds her daughter Maria Giovanna, who was born with microcephaly, outside their house in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. AP/FELIPE DANA

‘NEVER BEFORE IN HISTORY’

Link between Zika, birth defects proven

A

TLANTA—For the first time in history, a mosquito-borne virus has been identified as the cause of devastating brain birth defects.

That was the conclusion of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, which on Wednesday confirmed that the Zika virus is to blame for severe developmental and neurological problems in newborns.

The announcement came after months of reviewing studies from Brazil to Atlanta that documented the virus’s link to neural stem cell death.

Health officials said the last infectious virus to cause “a major epidemic of congenital birth defects” was rubella, or German measles, in the 1960s. At that time 20,000 babies affected by rubella were born each year.

Researchers studying the Zika virus found that within hours of a mosquito bite it begins to kill fetal neural tissue, the cells that are the building blocks of the human brain and nervous system.

In clinical studies, including one

by Emory University, the virus not only kills neural cells, but transfers the virus to other cells, compromising them at a critical time of a baby’s development. The infection mani-

fests itself in the form of obvious birth defects, such as microcephaly, but has been linked to more subtle developmental abnormalities, which may not manifest for months or even years. The virus has also been linked to miscarriages.

In a paper published on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, the four CDC researchers leading the agency’s Zika response said several studies now prove the link is unmistakable.

“We conclude that a causal relationship exists between prenatal Zika virus infection and microcephaly and other serious brain anomalies,” wrote the four lead doctors of the CDC’s Zika response team.

In a news conference on Wednesday Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, one of the CDC’s Zika researchers, said that even with this evidence, doctors still don’t know “the full range” of problems Zika presents in a pregnancy.

Researchers continue to believe that the first trimester is the most vulnerable time for a woman to be exposed to Zika, but evidence shows that infection later in a pregnancy can cause poor fetal growth, fetal

deaths, or defects that an ultrasound cannot pick up.

“Never before in history has a bite from a mosquito caused such a malformation,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director.

While the link between Zika and microcephaly, a condition where babies have unusually small heads and underdeveloped brains, has long been suspected on Wednesday’s announcement is the first time the CDC has made the direct connection.

The correlation to other birth defects heightens the alarm, even as warmer weather ushers in mosquitoes that could spread the virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently said the link appeared strong, though the CDC said it did not work with the WHO on its report.

Wednesday’s news is likely to increase pressure on Congress to approve $1.8 billion in funding sought by the Obama administration to combat the virus.

It has been more than half a century since an infectious disease caused an epidemic of birth defects, the last one being rubella, the authors said. While there is a vaccine for rubella, there is no vaccine yet to prevent Zika.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will begin Zika vaccine trials in September, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the NIH’s Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said earlier this week it could be months if not years before a vaccine is ready.

Zika is transmitted by bite from

$1.8B

Funding being sought by the Obama administration to combat the virus either the Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, both of which are found in Georgia and nearly 30 other states from California to New York.

The disease is also transmitted sexually.

The CDC is still advising pregnant women not to go to any region experiencing a Zika outbreak because an infection can occur with a single mosquito bite. Pregnant women or those who want to become pregnant shouldn’t have sex with a man who has traveled to regions with Zika outbreaks. But while Zika remains in the blood longer than the 10 days initially believed, after six months a woman or man who has had the virus should be able to conceive without the potential of microcephaly complications, the CDC said.

Researchers at Emory University contributed to Wednesday’s findings. Working with researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Florida State University, the Emory researchers discovered that neural stem cells exposed to the virus begin to die within hours. The remaining neural stem cells not only retain the

virus, but spread it to other neural cells that eventually form the brain.

“It’s attacking at the earliest points of development,” said Peng Jin, a genetics professor at Emory University told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jin was one of 15 researchers on the neural report published in Stem Cell journal.

“It keeps replicating, at least from our cell culture study, that’s what we’re seeing.”

Jin also said there was another potentially menacing feature of the virus. Babies with Zika exposure could appear healthy at birth, but because their brains continue to develop after birth, developmental abnormalities could show up later. There is also the question of why some babies get microcephaly after exposure and others don’t. Jin said that answer could take years to be revealed.

“Maybe there’s something unique within this particular strain of the virus or there might be genetic factors on how Zika attacks or does not attack stem cells,” Jin said.

Frieden and Rasmussen said no one piece of evidence proved the link, but that “mounting evidence and causal relationships” from a variety of studies taken together proved the relationship. Rasmussen said the agency decided to release its verdict now, rather than wait for results from other, ongoing studies.

“We could wait until all the studies were in, but that could take potentially years,” Rasmussen said. TNS

Former ‘Apprentice’ contestants planning to denounce Trump

P

ITTSBURGH—A handful of former contestants from Donald Trump’s reality show The Apprentice say the Republican front-runner should not be president.

Half a dozen past hopefuls of the hit show, including Season 4 winner Randal Pinkett and Season 1 runner-up Kwame Jackson, are planning a news conference on Friday in New York to denounce the GOP front-runner’s bid ahead of the state’s April 19 primary.

In statements, the contestants slammed Trump’s rhetoric as divisive and accused him of running a “campaign of sexism, xenophobia, racism, violence and hate.”

“Trump is passionately and strategically reigniting a dirty and divisive culture soaked in a history of prejudice, fear and hate. It is unpatriotic, anti-American, selfserving, regressive and downright lazy,” Marshawn Evans Daniels said in a statement.

“As alums of The Apprentice, we have had the opportunity to work with Donald in various capacities, including as employees of the Trump Organization,” Pinkett. added “Based on that experience and Donald’s campaign, we do not believe he is worthy of becoming president of the US.” Trump responded with a harshly worded statement slamming the group as “six failing wannabes” to whom he’d shown nothing but respect.

“How quickly they forget,” he said in the statement. “Nobody would know who they are if it weren’t for me.”

Trump said he “couldn’t have been nicer or more respectful” of the contenders and said they were only looking for publicity. “They just want to get back into the limelight like they had when they were with Trump. Total dishonesty and disloyalty,” he said, warning that, “They should be careful or I’ll play hours of footage of them individually praising me. AP

South Korean president’s party suffers election setback S

EOUL, South Korea—South Korean voters handed President Park Geun-hye a stunning political setback by denying her conservative party a majority in the next National Assembly, poll results showed on Thursday.

The outcome, which came as a surprise to many, will likely threaten Park’s plans to push ahead with controversial economic reforms, including plans to make it easier for companies to lay off workers, and blow open next year’s presidential race.

The emergence of a new center-left party also ensures further changes to South Korea’s political landscape, which had long been shaped by twoparty dynamics.

Prior to Wednesday’s parliamentary

election, pollsters had predicted that the ruling Saenuri Party would crush a divided opposition and raise its expectations to take the presidency in 2017, after Park’s single term expires.

But after all the votes were counted on Thursday morning, Saenuri wasn’t even the party with the largest number of seats, let alone a majority in the 300seat assembly.

Saenuri managed to win 122 seats, one less than the main opposition Minjoo Party, which trounced its rival in the capital Seoul and the neighboring metropolitan area, where the two largest parties competed most fiercely.

The People’s Party, a new party created mostly by those who left Minjoo, including its former cochairman and po-

tential presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo, won 38 seats after dominating Minjoo in its traditional strongholds in the southwest Jeolla regions.

Saenuri could possibly overtake Minjoo as the largest party in the next assembly if it manages to lure back some of its former lawmakers who left and ran successfully as independents.

They left Saenuri after being denied nominations amid a rift between the party’s dominant faction loyal to Park and reformists, which analysts say damaged the party’s appeal to voters.

There has been disappointment among South Koreans over a sluggish economy, with official figures showing household debt reaching new highs and the unemployment rate for people

under 30 reaching levels not seen since the late 1990s, when millions lost their jobs during a crippling financial crisis.

The outcome of the vote indicates that the opposition parties have successfully absorbed conservative voters who have become disappointed with Park. Months before the vote, Minjoo brought in, as Chairman scholar-turned-politician Kim Chong In, who had advised Park on economic policies during the 2012 presidential campaign. Ahn, the founder of one of South Korea’s largest computer software companies, has portrayed himself as a politician whose strength is with economic issues.

The weak showing by Saenuri also shows that voters weren’t swayed by na-

tional security issues as much as they were before, although surveys taken prior to Wednesday’s vote showed strong support for Park’s hard-line approach to North Korea following its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

Hostility between the rival Koreas in election years has often been seen as helping the conservatives by allowing them to highlight their hard-line approach against the North. Liberals have traditionally backed rapprochement policies with the North.

The election commission said 58 percent of the country’s 42 million voters participated in Wednesday’s election, a higher turnout than four years ago, when 54.2 percent of the electorate

turned out. It wasn’t immediately clear whether larger participation by younger voters, seen as more likely to vote for liberals than voters over 50, contributed to the increase in turnout.

Since losing its second consecutive presidential election in 2012, the Minjoo Party has struggled with factional infighting and lawmaker defections, and saw its seats decline from 127 to 102 in the current assembly.

South Korea’s electorate is deeply divided along generational and ideological lines, and also by fierce regional loyalties. Voters in the southeast Gyeongsang regions have for decades overwhelmingly voted for conservatives in parliamentary and presidential elections. AP

A10 Friday, April 15, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Why English?

It’s the Philippines

A

JAPANESE high-school student took to social media complaining and questioning why she had to study certain subjects.

She wrote, “Japanese class: I already know Japanese. Technical skill courses: I don’t plan on becoming a carpenter. Art: Anybody can draw pictures. English: This is Japan.”

The most popular response to her rant was, “Japanese: If you can’t use it properly, you’ll embarrass yourself. Technical skills: If you can’t operate a computer, you’ve got no future. Art: I can’t draw pictures either. English: This is Earth”.

The Philippine government has struggle with which languages should be used for education from primary through college. Should courses be taught in Tagalog-based “Filipino” or in the local dialect, with English as a separate course or for special subjects? There has always been a nationalist argument brought to the discussion, whether nationalism for the country or even “nationalism” for a particular region of the nation.

However, the government, through the Department of Education, has truly been concerned about the best language to be used to create the best educational environment possible. Trying to balance the reality that millions of Filipinos use a regional dialect at home and the desire to have a true national language is not easy. Added into the teaching equation is—as the social-media person from Japan said—“English: This is Earth.”

Talking about language usage obviously involves cultural issues. Chinese is the most widely spoken first language, with over 1.2 billion speakers. Spanish is a home language to 400 million, and English comes in third at about 350 million. While India is home to almost 1 billion, it does not have an official constitutionally mandated national language, although 250 million speak Hindi or a variation. Being in Asia and with our close economic ties to China, it probably would make some sense to be teaching one of the Chinese languages.

Some are even calling for a resurgence in the Philippines of the world’s second language, Spanish, to help cement our relations to South America and, presumably, Mexico. But there are other realities that need to be taken into consideration. English is the No. 1 language of the Internet, with 845 million English speakers. Chinese follows, with some 780 million. Spanish speakers pull in third, with 250 million users.

Since 1974, learning a second language in school has been compulsory in all European Union member-countries, except Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Children as young as six start foreign-language training, and more than 90 percent of this is in English. There are more people enrolled in English classes in China (nearly 400 million) than the entire population of the United States.

Many Chinese students start learning English as young as Grade Three. However, many parents send their children to special English-language learning centers.

The Philippines needs to better conceptualize its program of having the educational system prepare students for the future. Even with all the other educational concerns, foreign-language education should be part of it.

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Auspicious James Jimenez

SPOX

A

LL 82 embassies and consulates opened overseas Filipino voting as scheduled—8 a.m. on April 9, local time; the first overseas Filipino voter ballot in the 2016 national and local elections was cast in Wellington, New Zealand; and Singapore recorded the highest voter turnout on the first day of voting. As of April 11, a total of 24,203 ballots had already been cast.

All in all, an auspicious start for the Commission on Elections’s (Comelec) Overseas Filipino Voting program which, over the past few elections, has often been remarkable for low voter turnouts. Apart from the fact that presidential elections are always a big draw, the high turnout of voters has been attributed by Comelec Commissioner Arthur D. Lim to three things: first, the fact that presidential candidates actually campaigned abroad far more intensively than any candidate for national position has in past elections; the fact that the Comelec had entered into

numerous partnerships with media organizations to ensure widespread dissemination of election-related information; and extensive preparations in cooperation with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and other stakeholders.

Interestingly, it wasn’t a walk in the park getting to this point. The Comelec Office for Filipino Overseas Voting (OFOV) recounted various challenges it encountered. Take the deployment of vote-counting machines (VCMs), for instance.

As it turned out, some VCMs and ballots were held up at the customs of

To cut a long story short, the first day of voting overseas was merely the culmination of months of preparation, peppered with stressful challenges that had to be met squarely and acted on decisively as they arose.

Fortunately, the Comelec-OFOV proved to be more than equal to the task, and now our overseas communities are settling into the month-long voting period. some countries. If it weren’t for the intervention of the DFA and embassy or consular officials, those machines and ballots would not have been released in time. And then there was the delay in the approval of the voting venue in Al Khobar. Appeals had to be made to the Royal Family in Saudi Arabia just to secure the approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

And then, of course, there was the eleventh-hour requirement for the VCMs to print voting receipts. All memory cards—which had already been deployed by the time the Supreme Court ruling was issued—had to be recalled for reconfiguration.

To cut a long story short, the first day of voting overseas was merely the culmination of months of preparation, peppered with stressful challenges that had to be met squarely and acted on decisively as they arose.

Fortunately, the Comelec-OFOV proved to be more than equal to the task, and now our overseas communities are settling into the monthlong voting period.

Back home, in the meantime, we witnessed a surge of “scare posts” on social media, apparently trying to craft an environment of fear and distrust for overseas absentee voting.

A handful of screengrabs of Facebook posts claiming to be horror stories of partisanship and intimidation were relentlessly shared during the 72-hour period after the opening of polls. None of them turned out to be accurate, however, and once it was made clear to the public that all complaints are actually noted down in the minutes of voting—which can easily be verified—the scaremongering subsided to less frantic levels.

James Arthur B. Jimenez is director of the Commission on Elections’s Education and Information Department.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Friday, April 15, 2016 A11

Future Fed rate hikes and what they mean for the Philippines Riz L. Jao

EAGLE WATCH

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N March 16 the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) decided to maintain its key policy rate at 0.25 percent to 0.50 percent, despite a moderate recovery in the world’s largest economy (up 1.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015) along with a historically low unemployment rate (4.9 percent in February), strong jobs data (242,000 new jobs added in February) and a rising, albeit slowly, inflation rate (1 percent in February).

No doubt, one of the main reasons behind their decision is the relatively weak performance of the global economy as a whole: China grew just 6.9 percent in 2015—its slowest expansion in 25 years—while Germany grew 1.7 percent, France 1.2 percent and the United Kingdom 2.2 percent. Similar modest growth rates were also observed in Asia: Japan grew just 0.5 percent; Singapore 2.0 percent; even our own growth rate of 5.8 percent represents our second straight year of slowing growth. All this meant the global economy grew just 2.4 percent in 2015.

So far, consensus estimates suggest that 2016 will be similar to 2015. In January the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its projected global growth rate to 3.4 percent—they have since hinted at possibly lowering it even further. The World Bank projected global growth at 2.9 percent, Fitch 2.5 percent, Pimco 2-2.5 percent and HSBC 2.3 percent.

The less-than-stellar prospects around the world, coupled with the divergence in monetary policy from the various central banks (with the US tightening, while Europe, Japan and China loosening), have led to a strong appetite for US dollar-denominated securities—and by extension, the US dollar. In fact, at the start of the year, the US dollar was at its highest point in almost 12 years.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis That said, it is unlikely that the Fed will choose to maintain its key policy rate throughout 2016. In fact, the CME Group’s FedWatch tool—which backs out the implied probabilities of various target rates from the 30-Day Fed Fund Futures prices—currently places the probability of a further rate hike by the end of the year at 56 percent, down from slightly over 70 percent, after the release of the March 15-and-16 Federal Open Market Committee minutes last Wednesday (April 6).

In textbook economics, the one-two combo of a relatively weak global economic performance, plus an expected rate hike in the US, will undoubtedly put pressure on emerging-market economies—as capital will flow back to the developed world—to which local policy-makers may react in one of four ways: 1. They allow their currency to depreciate; 2. They utilize their international reserves to defend their currency; 3.

They raise domestic interest rates; or 4. They impose capital controls. Or some combination of these four policies.

We can safely ignore the fourth possibility, as capital controls are incredibly unpopular among foreign investors—in fact, capital controls may actually be counterproductive, as they create a “fire-in-a-crowded-theater” scenario, where everyone ends up making a mad dash for the exit. Thus, capital controls are really only a last-effort solution when the first three have already proved ineffective.

Therefore, it is highly likely that we will continue to see a combination of continued weakness in emerging-market currencies; decline of international reserves (especially for those countries that suffer from a weaker current-account balance); and raising of domestic interest rates (the prime example here is Russia, although to be fair, Russia’s situation can largely be traced back to weak oil prices). The first scenario is precisely what has happened here in the Philippines. The peso strengthened from the period 2009 until the middle of 2013, when the exchange rate suddenly shot back up, after the Fed hinted it would begin tightening. Since then, the peso has continued to weaken leading us to the end of last month, its lowest level in over six years.

Source: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas With record-high remittances, business process outsourcing and tourism revenues and relatively lower import requirements compared to past decades, the fundamental direction of the peso is to appreciate. However, the movement of the peso traces largely the moves and expectations of the Fed and the global markets, in general. Hence, the peso will be influenced on a day-to-day by these factors.

What does this predicted Fed rate hike later this year mean for the Philippine economy, the local markets and the peso-dollar rate? Overall, we are in a unique position in that we are currently enjoying robust economic growth, a healthy current-account balance and a strong domestic fiscal position. These fundamental strengths will enable the country to weather most of the uncertainty with regard to the soft global economic environment. For the local financial markets, the elections are also adding to the noise and volatility. Nonetheless, the fundamental strength of the economy will help ensure that the medium-term outlook remains positive.

Riz L. Jao is a lecturer of Economics and a Research Associate for Eagle Watch at the Ateneo de Manila University.

April was a cruel month Tito Genova Valiente

ANNOTATIONS

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OR T.S. Eliot, “April is the cruellest month, breeding/Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing/Memory and desire, stirring/Dull roots with spring rain.”

The month is a metaphor for the poet. For the Filipinos in the month of April, in 1942, the cruel month is part of our colonial history.

The 9th of April remembers the fall of Bataan. It is an irony that we commemorate what is apparent defeat. But, history demands always closer inspection and our eyes can intently discover in the month both the cruelty of war and the valor that Filipinos discovered was present in them.

By this time, the 15th of April,

the Death March that had commenced from Bataan Peninsula had terminated already in Pampanga.

Lives were also terminated along the death route.

The road of the Death March is marked now with small signs.

Up on Mount Samat, which I visited a few days before the Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor), I could not feel anything. Perhaps, it was the fact that the museums were closed and the place around them was unkempt. Perhaps, it was the

festive atmosphere in the area, the untidy stores selling junk food, the hot-dog stand right below the tall monument to the daunting bravery of the Filipinos and the Americans.

War thrives on contradictions.

Histories, which do not serve us anyway because they remain to be narratives from various perspectives, the more dominant persisting, do not help us understand wars as aberrations.

I can always understand the bravery of the Americans in the Pacific War, but I still ask myself, from what wellspring of conviction and courage did the Filipino soldiers gather their fearlessness to fight a battle that was imposed upon them?

There is a speech attributed to Capt. Salvador P. Lopez, delivered

by Lt. Norman Reyes, and heard from the “Voice of Freedom” at the Malinta Tunnel in Corregidor on April 8, 1942. The speech, which is familiar to high-school students in the 1950s and 1960s, comes with

the exordium: Bataan has fallen.

The Philippine-American troops on this war-ravaged and bloodstained peninsula have laid down their arms.

With heads bloody but unbowed, they have yielded to the superior force and numbers of the enemy.

The same speech starts to describe the scenario: The world will long remember the epic struggle that Filipino and American soldiers put up in the jungle fastness and along the rugged coast of Bataan. They have stood up uncomplaining under the constant and grueling fire of the enemy for more than three months. Besieged on land and blockaded by sea, cut off from all sources of help in the Philippines and in America, the intrepid fighters have done all that human endurance could bear.

The full speech is available on government museum web sites. Read it, and try to understand the war that was not ours. Read and weep.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.

Trump just hired his next scandal

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B E L | Bloomberg view

ERE is an irony of the 2016 election season. The candidate promising voters that he won’t be influenced by Washington lobbyists is counting on the influence of a Washington lobbyist to save his presidential campaign.

Late last month Donald Trump hired Paul Manafort—who has represented his organization in Washington—to make sure his delegates at this summer’s convention in Cleveland actually end up voting for him.

And for this task, Manafort is wellqualified. He ran delegate operations for the campaigns of Gerald Ford in 1976 and Bob Dole in 1996.

But Manafort’s real specialty is in the netherworld of international lobbying. Trump has criticized both parties as selling out the US to foreign interests. Now, he is counting on a man who has represented many of them. Manafort has offered his services to not one but two presidents driven from power through popular revolution—Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine and Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. He has lobbied for Saudi Arabia, a Bahamanian president suspected of narco-trafficking and a former Angolan rebel leader accused of torture.

For this work, Manafort has been well-compensated. He told a congressional oversight panel in 1989 that his firm normally accepted only clients who would pay at least $250,000 a year as a retainer.

Spy Magazine reported that his firm received $600,000 one year as compensation for his work for Angolan rebel leader, Jonas Savimbi. The Daily Beast reported that Manafort’s work for the Saudis netted him $250,000 for six months of work in 1984. A Justice Department form filed in 2008 from a subcontractor to Manafort’s firm said the PR work alone on behalf of Ukraine’s government was paid at $35,000 a month.

In 2013 Manafort surfaced in a French influence-peddling scandal

involving Edouard Balladur, who was prime minister in the mid1990s. Manafort acknowledged in a Virginia court that he was paid by an adviser to the Saudi royal court more than $200,000 for advice he provided on security issues. That adviser, in turn, funneled the profits of an arms sale back into Balladur’s political campaign.

Manafort did not respond to an email seeking comment. When asked about his Ukraine lobbying on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, he said Trump was now his only client.

Most lobbyists make their money from contracts with clients, like lawyers and other consultants. And Manafort does, as well. But he has also branched out.

In 1989 Manafort was hauled before Congress for a classic example of Washington double-dealing.

His firm received a $326,000 fee for securing for a client a $43-million Department of Housing and Urban Development subsidy for a block of low-income apartments in Seabrook, New Jersey. Manafort then purchased a 20-percent stake in the Seabrook subdivision that was to receive the federal subsidy for which he lobbied.

When a Republican congressman remarked that the whole deal was sleazy, Manafort replied: “We worked the system as it existed. I don’t think we did anything illegal or improper.”

This was not the last time Manafort explored real-estate deals connected to his lobbying work.

Documents uncovered in 2014 from a lawsuit brought about by former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko show that Manafort attempted to set up a real-estate

TRUMP

partnership with Dmitry Firtash, a notorious Ukrainian businessman who financed the party of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and who is wanted by the FBI on bribery and corruption charges.

The documents, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, include a November 6, 2008, letter to Manafort from Firtash’s holding company that says it had deposited $25 million in escrow for a plan to buy a tower in Manhattan and was prepared to invest $112 million for the project with the understanding that Manafort’s own Calister Investments Llc. will be the project’s developer.

David Kramer, a former senior State Department official who worked on Russia and Ukraine and is currently a senior director for human rights and democracy at the McCain Institute in Washington, told me Manafort was “a persistent lobbyist” for Yanukovych when he was in government. “He was trying to paint Yanukovych as something he wasn’t,” Kramer said of his dealings with Manafort. “The Ukrainian president is a corrupt Soviet-style apparatchik who was interested in coming to power for the sake of

serving his own interest and not his country. Manafort portrayed him as somebody who could reform.”

Given that Manafort cashed in on federally subsidized apartments and given that Firtash is accused of trying to bribe public officials, the attempted real-estate deal between the two men at the very least gives the appearance of wrongdoing—the kind of appearance that most presidential candidates would try to avoid.

“Someone who has had such close relations with notorious kleptocrats doesn’t belong anywhere near any of our presidential candidates,” Charles Davidson, executive director of Kleptocracy Initiative at Hudson Institute, told me.

Indeed, in 2008, the McCain campaign considered Manafort for the job of Republican convention manager and then dropped him because of his work with Ukraine and other shadows on his resume.

But Trump is an unconventional candidate. The real-estate mogul with a taste for politics has turned to a political operative with a taste for real estate. In this sense, Trump and his former lobbyist are a perfect match.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Friday, April 15, 2016

Govt to revise PPP process

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B C U. O

@caiordinario

HE Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Governing Board is thinking of revising the PPP appraisal process to better craft PPP projects.

In a policy circular issued in March 2016 obtained by the BusinessMirror, the PPP Governing Board is mulling over extending the project evaluation process of the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) Technical Working Group to 15 working days from the initial 10 days.

In a 2014 memorandum circular issued to then-PPP Center Executive Director Cosette Canilao, former Nation Economid and Development Authority (Neda) Director General Arsenio M. Balisacan said project appraisal for PPPs will no longer go through the ICC Technical Board but through a TWG, which will evaluate PPPs in 10 working days.

“The TWG members shall submit their evaluation report within 15 working days from receipt of the project documents as transmitted by the PPP Secretariat, within which TWG meeting may be called to discuss possible project issues and/or concerns,” the circular said.

The PPP Governing Board is seeking stakeholder comments and will discuss the possible changes to the PPP appraisal process in the scheduled ICC meeting this month, the first ICC meeting this year since October last year.

Apart from extending the evaluation process of the ICC TWG, the PPP Governing Board ordered the PPP Center to also submit accomplished ICC Project Evaluation Forms, an endorsement letter by the head of the agency and other similar documents for appraisal by the TWG. The PPP evaluation process was revised in 2014, in the government’s bid to fast-track

PPP projects for rollout. This resulted in the reduction of the evaluation period to 10 days from the regular ICC evaluation of six weeks.

Critics of this measure, however, expressed concern that the reduction of the number of days for evaluation has compromised the quality of PPP projects.

It can be noted that since the 2014 memorandum circular, several PPP projects have suffered delays and underwent rebidding.

These projects include the LRT Line 1 South Extension and, more recently, the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike Project.

Both were initially approved by the ICC and the Neda Board in 2014.

Other PPPs that have encountered problems recently are the Davao Sasa Port project and the Cavite-Laguna Expressway, which were also approved in 2014.

In the 2014 memorandum circular, the TWG will consist of the Neda, Department of Finance (DOF), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) and the PPP Center, as well as other agencies that may be necessary in project evaluation.

The memorandum obtained by the BusinessMirror stated that the TWG members will conduct separate project appraisals according to their expertise. The Neda will be the one to evaluate a PPP’s economic viability; DOF, its financial viability; PPP Center, its “value for money”; and the DENR-EMB, a project’s environmental viability.

In so doing, PPP projects will go straight to the ICC Cabinet Committee for approval.

This skirts the provisions in Executive Order 230, Series of 1987, which is the Reorganization Act of the Neda.

The act provides that the technical staff of the Neda are tasked to conduct studies and provide development policy measures and recommendations to the Neda Board.

However, through the memorandum issued in 2014, the Neda technical staff, which comprises the ICC technical board, will no longer provide recommendations when it comes to PPPs. Economists, on the other hand, were quick to point out that proper evaluation of PPPs is crucial in attracting investor interest for projects.

This is not only because it is a government undertaking, but because these projects cost billions and ultimately will affect millions of Filipinos who will use these services.

“I believe that the shorter number of days for evaluation is meant to hasten the bidding process,” University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) School of Economics Dean Cid Terosa said. “The problem with the bidding process is the inability of bidders to satisfy the stringent and multiple requirements of the Neda.”

“The government can streamline these requirements without sacrificing integrity and quality of the bidding requirements,” Terosa added.

UA&P economist Victor Abola added that a better approach to PPPs is for the government to seek out design experts worldwide to ensure that the viability of these projects.

Abola said, however, these will require time and much preparation, particularly on the part of the government. However, the government needs to strike a balance to ensure that projects are aboveboard and on time for bidders to still be interested on the projects.

He added that charging investors who want to participate in the bidding process is also another factor why many are not keen on undertaking PPP projects.

“You really have to make sure that your parameters are clear, that it won’t be comparing apples and oranges,” Abola said.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ACCELERATORS TOP ASPIRANTS CUP B D C

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IKE TOLOMIA and Roger Pogoy delivered in the clutch, knocking successive 3s in overtime as Phoenix Petroleum-Far Eastern University (FEU) defeted CaféFrance, 88-81, in the deciding Game Five on Thursday and clinch the Philippine Basketball Association Developmental League Aspirants Cup at the Ynares Arena.

In a game that appeared all but lost, the Accelerators showed the heart of a champion to deny the Bakers a second straight championship.

Only a point separated the two teams with four-and-a-half minutes left in the extra period when Tolomia and Pogoy, who struggled with his shooting all game, hit three-pointers one after the other to give Phoenix a comfortable 84-72 lead.

“Gusto nila. Nakita niyo naman ang nilaro.

We never gave up even when things were not working our way. I thought the guys showed

tremendous character,”said an overwhelmed Phoenix Petroleum-FEU Coach Eric Gonzales.

Mac Belo, who won the Best Player award, also struggled on eight-of-20 shooting, but still finished with a game-high 25 points, including some big shots when the Bakers threatened to pull away.

“Excited akong sobra kaya medyo gigil.

First time ko kasing lumaro sa Game Five sa DLeague. Sobrang thankful ako sa mga kasama ko dahil sa kumpiyansa at suporta nila sa akin,” said Belo, who also had 13 rebounds.

Tolomia turned in 15 points, Raymar Jose had 11 and Russel Escoto added 11 for the Accelerators, who missed three potential game winners in the closing seconds of regulation that ended at 74-74.

It was a disheartening loss for the Bakers, who posted the game’s biggest lead at 50-39, in the third quarter but lost steam in the fourth.

Paul Zamar led CaféFrance with 20 points, but missed the potential game winner with time winding down in regulation.

GOLDEN BOOTERS STAY IN THE HUNT

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NIVERSITY of Santo Tomas (UST) kept its Final Four bid alive with a 2-0 victory over National University (NU) in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines Season 78 men’s football action on Thursday at the Moro Lorenzo Field.

Ronald Batisla-Ong drew first blood with a header in the 16th minute and scored again in the 54th minute to push the Golden Booters to 22 points, one point behind third-running De La Salle, which remained stuck with 23 points after losing, 0-1, to Ateneo also on Thursday.

Nico Macapal found the back of the

net in the 93rd minute to put the Bulldogs to within one goal. But it was too late for the Golden Booters, who bowed out of Final Four contention at the sixth spot with 16 points.

University of the Philippines continued to tow the field with 27 points, followed by defending champion Far Eastern University with 24 points, the same output as Ateneo.

Ateneo (four points) and University of the East (one) took the rear.

Standings: UP 27 pts, FEU 24, Ateneo 24, DLSU 23, UST 22, NU 16, AdU 4, UE 1.

Lance Agcaoili