BusinessMirror March 29, 2016

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A broader look at today’s business Tuesday, March 29, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 171

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BSP to start tweaking rates in Q2–Nomura I

F the immediate past meetings of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) are of any use, the BSP may opt finally to pull the trigger and make adjustments in the policy rates in two tranches this year—moves seen helping the local currency hold its own against the US dollar in the remaining months of the year.

INSIDE

DESIGNING WITH VIGNETTES The salvation of all

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EAR Lord, we know that in the fulfillment of Your Father’s plan, You not only “emptied Yourself taking the form of a slave,” but also “became obedient to the point of death, death on the cross.” Through such atrocious death, You snatched all humankind from the eternal damnation, in which it seemed destined to end. Love, and only love, was what led You to offer Your life for the salvation of all, including the repentant thief who entrusted himself to Your mercy, and even Your enemies who put You to death. We are forever grateful for Your love and mercy. Amen.

WORD & LIFE, FR. SAL PUTZU, SDB AND MARIA LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Editor: erard . a o • i e t e

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irror

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Life

The well-regarded think tank Nomura Global Economics, in its most recent assessment of the Philippines, said the central bank will likely raise its benchmark borrow-

‘BATMAN V SUPERMAN’ NABS BOX-OFFICE RECORD FOR BEST PRESUMMER DEBUT D3

BusinessMirror

B B C

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

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Designing with vignettes

ing rate or its reverse repurchase (RRP) rate by 25 basis points as early as the second quarter this year.

This moves up the current RRP rate of only 4 percent to 4.25

percent in any of the scheduled ratesetting meetings between April and June this year.

This adjustment, according to Nomura, will be followed by another 25-basispoint hike in the third quarter.

“We expect the second-quarter move to coincide with an announcement that formalizes the shift to a policy corridor framework by the second quarter of 2016,” Nomura said.

The corridor pertains for the most part to a signaling mechanism alerting the markets where the policy rates were to move next.

“If we are correct, the next RRP rate hike we forecast in the third quarter will likely be accompanied by an equivalent shift in both the f loor [special deposit accounts] rate and ceiling [RRP rate] of the new corridor, preserving its symmetry,” the research arm of the financial services giant quickly added.

S “BSP,” A

BY CATHY HOBBS Tribune News Service

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ESIGN isn’t always about the big pieces in a room.

Sometimes, it’s the smaller, specialty pieces that can make a room shine. Vignettes have long been the secret weapon of stylists to make aesthetically pleasing, stylized statements throughout a space. n What is a vignette? A vignette is a snapshot or minigrouping of items to convey a design message. A vignette can be a grouping of furniture items, accessories, such as pillows, or tabletop items, such as sculptural pieces, vases or even flowers. n What makes a good vignette? When it comes to the components of your vignette, consider incorporating your favorite things into a single vignette. Another design idea is using key colors that are present or dominate elsewhere in your space.

DO’S AND DON’TS n Do: Create a vignette using a minimum of three items.

Consider creating a vignette using a single color. Use colorful accents, such as florals and artwork. n Don’t: Overdo it; less is more. Hide your vignettes.

Locations like the floor are never a good location to make a vignette you wish to highlight. Use perishable items in your vignettes. While seasonal items can be interesting, they will be hard to maintain. n

A LEANING piece of art creates an interesting backdrop for this bedside table vignette.

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AseanTuesday BusinessMirror

Editor: Max V. de Leon • Tuesday, March 29, 2016 A5

‘Save Malaysia’ campaign on vs Najib

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ALAYSIAN opposition politicians and leading critics of Prime Minister Najib Razak unveiled a fresh campaign aimed at ousting him, after months of attacks over a funding scandal failed to substantially dent his support.

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APANESE investors have expressed interest in producing textiles for medical use in Thailand and making the country a regional hub for innovative garments and medical equipment, says the National Federation of Thai Textile Industries.

Federation Chairman Somsak Srisuponvanit said Japanese textile companies using high technology would seek local partners to invest in the production of special garments and textiles for medical use.

“The government is promoting a new investment policy under the concept of clusters, expecting to bring Thai industries to the next level, focused on added value,” Somsak said. “Thai textiles and garments also have strong potential to grow and add higher value.”

With new investment in innovation, garment and textile businesses could shift to value-added textiles, such as disinfected bed sheets for hospitals and scrubs for personnel, he said. Somsak said he had discussed the idea with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and various Japanese companies.

The federation sees an opportunity for the garment and textile industry to take the next step into high-tech garments, he said.

He said the textile and garment industry needs to shift away from the lower market, where competition has intensified with countries that have the advantage of low labour costs, such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Lao PDR. Switching to innovative products would help the garment industry enter the upper market with fewer competitors and higher added value, he said.

Apart from elevating the market, Thailand is also working with Sri Lanka on business matching to create new investment in the sector.

Sri Lanka’s government recently brought 25 garment companies to meet 60 Thai counterparts in order to create investment.

The Sri Lankan investors are seeking Thai partners to help expand their business in the country as they see strong potential for Thailand to be the centre of Asean, where demand is seeing significant growth.

Somsak said he expects the value of garment exports to grow 10 percent this year to US$8.6 billion. MCT

Former Premier Mahathir Mohamad and former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin were among those who addressed more than 2,000 people at a convention center in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, with each of the 18 speakers conveying the same message: Najib must go now. “The wait for two years for the next general elections is too long,” Mahathir said.

“Our situation is very bad. We need to recover quickly and two years will be too late.”

Najib is facing his biggest political crisis since coming to power seven years ago, as questions linger over $681 million, which appeared in his accounts before the last election in 2013, funds the attorneygeneral said were a donation from the Saudi royal family. Mahathir, the country’s longest-serving leader who governed until 2003, has waged a public campaign for months to get Najib out of office.

From now until early June, Mahathir and Muhyiddin will drive the ‘Save Malaysia’ effort that will collect signatures from ordinary voters in various cities calling for Najib to step down, said Khairuddin Abu Hassan, a former official of the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO). Mahathir said he’s expecting a million signatories to the petition by the end of 2016, which will be taken to the nation’s royals.

“The powers of the rulers to remove the prime minister are not in the constitution,” Mahathir said. “If we get enough signatures, we can give the declaration to the rulers and I hope they will listen to the voices of the people and can do something.”

The feud has grown increasingly acrimonious, with Mahathir attacking Najib over a series of financial scandals and his economic record, and quitting the ruling party. While his influence has faded in recent

The wait for two years for the next general elections is too long.”

—M years, the public sparring creates risk for UMNO, which has ruled since independence in 1957, but whose broader Barisan Nasional coalition won the last election in 2013 with its slimmest margin yet. The next election must be held by 2018.

Corruption struggle

“UNDER the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Razak, Malaysia is struggling with corruption and money scandals to an extent so serious that we have never faced before,” former law minister Zaid Ibrahim said at the rally. “We are ashamed of what is happening to the country now. We cannot be patient anymore.”

Najib has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said no “individual, however eminent” should try to interfere with or hijack his leadership. He retains the backing of the bulk of UMNO’s powerful divisional chiefs.

“This is the beginning of a long journey,” said Muhyiddin, who was suspended as UMNO deputy president for undermining the organization in his quest to remove Najib.

“Our aim is for Najib to step down and not to topple the government. If we keep quiet and do nothing, they will say ‘look, no one is standing up against us,’” he said of those backing the prime minister.

Joining hands

THE effort to get Najib out of

MALAYSIA’S former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (center) and former Deputy Prime Minster Muhyiddin Yassin (left) listen to a speech during the “People’s Congress 2016” event in Shah Alam, Malaysia, on Sunday. Mahathir and former leaders of the United Malays National Organization gathered to urge Prime Minister Najib Razak to resign over corruption allegations. AP

office has turned sworn political enemies into temporary allies. The government said this month that Mahathir’s move to align with opposition members showed the depth of “political opportunism and desperation.” Jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, a one-time deputy to Mahathir who was fired after a dispute over economic policies in 1998, is among those backing his former mentor.

“What’s important to us the the removal of Najib,” Mahathir said.

“After that, we can decide who will become the next prime minister.”

Former UMNO leaders, who are “conspiring with the opposition,” do not respect democracy and the mandate given by the people, the official news agency Bernama reported on Sunday, citing Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Azalina Othman.

‘Narrow aim’

THE alliance is “a short-term goal so it does not have to last,” said Ooi Kee Beng, deputy director of the ISEASYusof Ishak Institute, a research center in Singapore for Southeast

Asian issues. “It just needs to develop means toward that end over the coming year. In keeping to that narrow aim, it can cause trouble and bring a lot of worry to the government.”

Kamaruzaman Ismail, 63, was detained under the Internal Security Act when Mahathir was premier.

He was among those at Sunday’s rally pledging support for Mahathir’s current efforts.

“What Mahathir did to me was personal,” said Kamaruzaman, an official with opposition group Parti Amanah Negara. “Why I am here today is for the country and the people. I will support this cause for the betterment of this country.”

Poorer ranking

MALAYSIA’S score worsened in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2015 released in January, putting it on a ranking near Slovakia, Kuwait and Cuba. Issues related to troubled state investment company 1Malaysia Development Bhd. contributed to the nation’s fall on the global list to

54th from 50th in 2014, according to the Malaysian head of Transparency International.

“We have to continue with reformation, we have to overcome corruption,” said Ambiga Sreenevasan, one of the nation’s best known civil society group leaders and who met US President Barack Obama when he was in Malaysia last year. “It is time to say ‘no’ to leaders who act as though Malaysia belongs to only them. We don’t want a dictatorship.”

Some of those at the rally expressed anger over rising transport and food costs. The government has removed subsidies from sugar to fuel in recent years, and it implemented a goods and services tax in 2015. Malaysian consumer prices in February rose at the fastest pace since 2008.

“I’m retired, now I have to be more careful how I spend my money,” Chen Soon Chin, 68, said outside the convention center. “I’m concerned about the Malaysian political situation—the corruption, injustice, abuse of power and people suffering because of the heavy taxes.”

Bloomberg News

Q&A on impact of economic land concessions in Southeast Asian countries

20,500 sq miles

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UTHORITIES in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar have granted hundreds of longterm land leases, called economic land concessions, to foreign and domestic developers to set up rubber, sugar or other plantations or mining projects. The goal was to promote development and create jobs, but many concessions have displaced local residents and cut them off from farmland and other resources.

Here’s a closer look at the issue: How much land has been granted?

Some 53,000 square kilometers (sq km) (20,500 square miles) are believed to be under land concessions in Cambodia, Myanmar and Lao PDR. The Cambodian government hasn’t revealed the full extent of its leases, but human rights group LICADHO has identified 272 of them covering 21,000 sq km (8,100 sq miles) in Cambodia, or just over a tenth of the country. Most of those in Cambodia have gone to Chinese, Vietnamese and Cambodian companies, including several with links to top Cambodian government officials.

Why have they led to land conflicts?

A lack of transparency has characterized the programs in all three countries. Authorities made decisions in private, and little effort has been made to consult with affected local populations. In numerous cases, people were cut off from land

Size of land believed to be under concessions in Cambodia, Myanmar and Lao PDR they occupied or farmed without warning, sometimes by force. That’s led to protests, some of which have turned violent. State-linked land conflicts have affected half a million Cambodians through evictions, livelihood deprivation or resource loss, LICADHO estimates. Disputes over land rights are the country’s No. 1 human-rights problem, according to Surya Subedi, former UN special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia.

What rights do indigenous people have?

A major problem in Cambodia is that land ownership was eradicated and title documents destroyed by the radical communist Khmer Rouge in its bid to create an agrarian utopia in the 1970s. A 2012-13 titling campaign helped thousands gain titles, but was also criticized for inconsistencies and failing to

systems and power structures are prone to corruption.

What does the cambodian government say?

Criticism of the program led the government in 2012 to suspend new concessions and it has reviewed each one in a process activists have called opaque. Some 40 have been revoked, but many disputes remain.

In declaring an end to the review last month, Prime Minister Hun Sen pledged to return nearly 10,000 sq km (3,860 sq miles) to poor families, leaving some 11,000 square kilometers for concessions. Human rights groups doubted the claims, saying authorities didn’t disclose how they reached these figures.

They were also skeptical the land would be returned.

Environment Minister Say Sam Al says the concessions program was meant to “improve the livelihoods of our people” as the poor country emerged from decades of conflict, but he acknowledged problems in implementing it. He said he hopes the government’s recent moves will “close a difficult chapter for Cambodia.” The broader goal is to modernize the economy, he said, which will involve change for indigenous peoples. “Through economic growth, job creation, new opportunities,” he said, “we hope that the sons and daughters of these people will abandon their dependence on forests and move on to something else.” AP

ASEAN IN this February 26, 2015, photo, a road runs through a rubber plantation operated by Socfin-KCD, a European-Cambodia joint venture, in Mondulkiri province in eastern Cambodia. In a global land rush, many countries have sold or leased huge tracts to foreign investors, sometimes forcing out those who lived there. AP

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DAY ON A ROLL address disputes. The country’s 2001 land law protects indigenous people’s right to manage their traditional lands while they go through the complex registration for a communal land title, but that is often

Sports BusinessMirror

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| TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph|sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao | Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana

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B D F The Associated Press

USTIN, Texas—The fortunes of Jason Day turned as quickly as the biggest match he faced in winning the Dell Match Play.

Just two weeks ago, he arrived at the Arnold Palmer Invitational without having won in six months and showing few signs that he was ready to crank up that fearsome combination of long ball and short game.

Day now heads to the Masters as the man to beat.

Coming off a one-shot victory at Bay Hill, the 28-yearold Australian overcame a back injury that nearly caused him to withdraw, went far enough in the Match Play to return to No. 1 in the world, outlasted Rory McIlroy in the semifinals and then capped off a remarkable week in Texas by going home with the trophy.

He will head to Augusta National later this week to start preparing. The Masters starts on April 7.

“I am looking forward to it,” Day said. “I know it’s one tournament that I’ve always want to win. So the motivation and the want...there’s no problem. It’s been good momentum for me, confidence-wise, over the last two weeks. I can’t get comfortable with how I’m playing right now. I can’t get lazy, because I’ve got to understand that what I’m doing is working. So I’ve got to keep working on the things that have caused me to win over the last two weeks.”

The last time anyone won back-to-back on the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour was only three weeks ago, when Adam Scott won at PGA National and Doral. What makes Day stand out as a favorite is that the Match Play was his sixth victory in his last 13 starts dating to his record win at the PGA Championship last August.

Jordan Spieth’s loss in the fourth round was the first part in Day getting back to No. 1.

Day winning in the quarterfinals was the second part.

As for that big match?

The record book will show that Day defeated Louis Oosthuizen, 5 and 4, to win the tournament. That was never really in doubt. Day took the lead for good on the fourth hole and extended it because he was making putts at Austin Country Club and Oosthuizen was not.

“A top player these days, he always makes that crucial putt when he needs to,” Oosthuizen said. “We’ve seen a thousand times through Tiger doing it. Jordan does it all the time. And Jason, whenever he needs to make a crucial putt, he makes it. You see him this morning against Rory when he made that putt on 18. He’s always been a great iron player. He’s always been a great long iron player.

“And the way he’s putting now, there’s a reason

why he’s No. 1 in the world.”

The key moment for Day even getting to the championship match was against McIlroy on the back nine.

McIlroy was on the verge of going 1 up when he hit a magnificent shot into the wind, over the water to the left corner of the green, leaving him 6 feet for birdie. Day missed the green left and faced a downhill chip so severe that he went with a full shot to reduce the roll. It worked OK, but not great, and he still had 12 feet left for par.

Day made. McIlroy miss.

Then, both were in range on the par-5 12th when McIlroy protected against the water and played his shot out to the right. Day was going to do the same thing with a 4-iron when he felt a gust in his face, and switched to a 2-iron. He took a line right over the water, cleared it by a foot and set up a two-putt birdie that gave him the lead for good.

That’s how quickly control in that match changed.

“Once the wind started gusting up, I said, ‘I’m going to change and for the 2-iron and go for the green,’” Day said.

“In my head, I was saying that. I pulled it a little bit...and it worked out fantastic.”

McIlroy hit a poor chip behind the 13th green and fell 2 down, and he never could catch up.

“I think the morning’s round was probably one of the hardest rounds I’ve had to go through in match-play format,” Day said.

The back injury was all but forgotten when Day motored his way to an easy victory over Oosthuizen. It was the largest margin in the championship match since it went to 18 holes in 2011. Tiger Woods beat Stewart Cink, 8 and 7, when it was a 36-hole final.

Day’s short game was most impressive.

He was just off the green eight times against McIlroy and got up-anddown each time. He did it four more times against Oosthuizen. And yes, he can still hit it a long way. That should work out for him at Augusta National.

“It will be fun to walk through the gates as the No. 1 in the world,” he said.

ignored. Economic-land concessions must meet five criteria before being granted, including consultations with local residents, compensation under resettlement solutions and environmental and social-impact

assessments, but human- rights groups say many concessions have failed to meet these requirements.

In Cambodia, Myanmar and Lao PDR, ordinary people feel they have little recourse because their legal

DAY

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TONY FINAU bags his first Professional Golfers’ Association Tour. AP

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ARLSBAD, California—Lydia Ko won the Kia Classic on Sunday at Aviara, reaffirming her position as the top player in the world heading into the first major championship of the season.

Ko birdied the final three holes for her third straight five-under 67 and a four-stroke victory over secondranked Inbee Park.

IO GRANDE, Puerto Rico—Tony Finau won the Puerto Rico Open on Sunday for his first Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour title, beating Steve Marino with a birdie on the third hole of a playoff at windy Coco Beach.

The 26-year-old Finau won with his third straight birdie in the playoff on the par-5 18th, blasting out of the back bunker to three feet.

“I think I’m still a little bit overwhelmed,” Finau said.

“It probably hasn’t all sunk in.”

Marino was just off the back edge of the green in two, but left his putt from the fringe 4-and-a-half feet short and missed his birdie try to the right.

“I finally played the hole like you’re supposed to,” Marino said. “I hit the fairway and then hit it on the back fringe. I didn’t think that putt was going to be that slow and then I just hit a poor putt on the second putt. Pretty disappointing, played really well.”

Finau and Marino each shot two-under 70 to finish at 12-under 276. Marino birdied the 18th to tie Finau, and got into the playoff when Finau missed a 6-foot birdie putt.

“In regulation, it was a putt that I kind of dreamed of making my whole life,” Finau said. “It’s a putt that you practice for your first PGA Tour victory or just for any PGA Tour victory, so I was a little bit bummed that that sneaked by the hole because I hit a really good putt. But I was happy I had another chance at it and was able to make the second one.”

Finau and Marino each birdied the 18th on the first two playoff holes.

On the first extra hole, Marino got up-and-down from the left bunker, blasting to 8 feet. Finau pitched to a foot from left of the green. On the second, Marino hit a flop shot over the right-side bunker to 10 feet, and Finau pitched to 6 feet from in front of the green.

Marino is winless on the PGA Tour. He also lost in a playoff in the 2009 Colonial.

Finau birdied four of the first 10 holes to reach 14 under, then dropped back with bogeys on the par-3 11th and par-5 15th.

The long-hitting Finau, a 6-foot-4 former Utah high-school basketball star, is in his second full season on the PGA Tour. He’s the cousin of Milwaukee Bucks player Jabari Parker.

“I tried to just stay in the moment really,” Finau said.

“That’s what I learned from last year. You can never look too far ahead and you can’t look back, either. You’ve got to focus on the here and now. I did a really good job of that today even though that putt slipped by in regulation for the win, I knew I still didn’t lose the tournament. I needed to refocus and get ready to play 18 again. That’s what it takes out here I feel like to win. And now that I have that feeling, it’s pretty special.”

Ian Poulter and Mexico’s Rodolfo Cazaubon finished a stroke out of the playoff.

Poulter closed with a 72, missing an 18-foot birdie putt on 18. Playing the event for the first time after failing to get into the Match Play tournament in Texas as the first alternate, the Englishman took a one-stroke lead into the final round.

“It’s a shame. Just slightly disappointing,” Poulter said. “I’m continuing to work on the game to try and improve, and I know if I rectify a couple of poor shots, then my game will improve. Obviously, hitting shots slightly too far right at certain times is costly.”

Cazaubon shot a 68. The Web.com Tour player was making his third PGA Tour start.

“I’m really happy,” Cazaubon said. “I guess I feel really comfortable since the beginning. I didn’t have anything to lose because I play on the Web. I just came here to have some fun here.”

Andres Romero (67), Nick Taylor (70) and Scott Brown (71) tied for fifth at 10 under. Puerto Rico’s Rafael Campos, the leader after each of the first two rounds, was another stroke back after a 72. AP

SPORTS

HAPPY MOMENT FOR WORLD NO. 1 “I just kind of peeked at the leaderboard and saw Inbee was making a lot of birdies—Inbee doing her Inbee things,” Ko said. “I knew that I needed to focus up until the last moment and, fortunately, I made some birdies down the stretch.”

A week after finishing second in Phoenix in the Founders Cup, the 18-year-old New Zealander headed to Rancho Mirage for the ANA Inspiration with her first Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour victory of the year and 11th overall. She also won the Ladies European Tour’s New Zealand Women’s Open in February.

“All the work we’ve put in as a team kind of paid off,” Ko said. “A really happy moment, but I have to focus for next week. I’m really excited to go back to ANA.” She tied for 51st last year at ANA. “I didn’t strike the ball very well last year there,” Ko said. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to hit a few more fairways and give myself a good chance. Obviously, it helps to have

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Second of three parts

USERNAME like Kyuubei is a dead giveaway for fervor over anime and manga, moreso the Japanese animation and comics pop culture. Deep in the Web, Kyuubei is nothing more than another speck of data-consuming user. Unlike millennial Internet residents like himself, the data he expends are put into an entirely different use. “[I get hired by] desperate people who want to know the Facebook password of their enemies or people they’re in a relationship with,” he shakes his head. The man explains that, while he tries to understand the motive of these people, he is saddened by the superficiality of their being.

played well here going into the first major of the year.”

Ko finished at 19-under 269.

Park closed with a 67. The 2013 winner at Rancho Mirage, the South Korean player appears to be over the back problem that forced her to withdraw from the first event of the season.

“We have a really important tournament coming up next week, so I really needed to push myself a little faster to get ready,” Park said. “This is a great finish for me and it’s going to be a good confidence week for me.”

She tied for 30th in Thailand and Singapore in her first events back and missed the cut in Phoenix.

“I have been struggling with ball-striking to putting and everything until probably last week,” Park said. “This week, everything started clicking together. Started to hit the ball a lot straighter and started to get a lot of confidence and, obviously, dropping a few putts gave me a lot of confidence.”

Playing two groups ahead of Ko, Park pulled within two shots with birdies on the par-4 16th and par-5 17th.

Ko pushed the lead back to two with a birdie on the short par-4 16th, holing a 10-foot putt after driving the green and racing her first putt past the hole.

Ko made an eight-foot birdie putt on 17, and finished with a 15-footer on 18.

She bogeyed the par-5 10th after double-hitting a putt from the fringe. The ball popped out of a pitch mark and caught her club in the follow-through, costing her a one-stroke penalty.

“I don’t think I’ve ever double-hit it, especially with a putter before,” Ko said. “That was interesting.

Fortunately, I was able to make the second putt. I think that was kind of the turning point.”

Japan’s Ai Miyazato was third at 12 under after a 66.

The nine-time LPGA Tour winner had her first top-10 finish since 2013. AP

NETIZENS SEARCH FOR OUTSTANDING CPAs 2015 D. Edgard Cabangon (second from left) receives for his father, the late Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, the Outstanding CPA Award for 2015 from the Board of Accountancy (BOA), headed by Chairman Joel Tan Torres (right). Joining them are (from left) former BOA Chairman Hermogenes Pobre, fellow awardees Edwin de los Santos, Dean Estelita Aguirre, Arlyn Encarnacion for Heidi Mendoza and Romeo Manalo for Betty Siy Yap. The awarding was held at the Manila Hotel. RUDY ESPERAS

He gets paid for what he does, but that’s only the surface-level kind of work. The 20-year-old lives for the thrill of hacking, the exhilarating feeling he gains from being able to infiltrate high-profile systems past layers of coding and intricately put up security walls.

Kyuubei is credited for defacing several government web sites in 2011, barely a year before the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 was enacted.

To date, Kyuubei has committed several offenses under the act. Based on the information gathered during the interview with B USINESS M IRROR, the hacker has already several counts of illegal access, illegal interception, data inter ference and system interference.

C  A

China emerging as global hub for money laundering?

JASON DAY now heads to the Masters as the man to beat. AP

FINAU WINS R IN PLAYOFF

WORLD No. 1 Lydia Ko birdies the final three holes for her third straight fiveunder 67 and a four-stroke victory over second-ranked Inbee Park. AP

B M R M

Yes, the hacking should put [the] Comelec on notice that ‘hacking can be done.’ But web site is different from the election servers.”—P

‘SAVE MALAYSIA’ CAMPAIGN ON VS NAJIB Japan to make Thailand textile hub in region

BMReports Hacktivism: A threat to 2016 polls?

NEUTRAL ceramic pieces accented by a silver metallic figurine add interest to a bedroom dresser.

LIFE

news@businessmirror.com.ph

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

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HINA is emerging as a global hub for money laundering—not just for Chinese, but for criminals around the world—The Associated Press has found.

There are a number of options in China for cleaning dirty money, including through major state-run banks, import-export schemes and informal money-transfer systems that date back a millennium, according to recent

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 46.3190

13,500

Number of complaints received by the FBI from victims of cyber-scammers

police investigations and lawsuits in Europe and the United States.

Here’s who law-enforcement officials in the US and Europe believe is laundering money in China: n The FBI says sophisticated cyber-scammers tricked thousands of Western companies out of $1.8 billion in just over two years by impersonating top corporate executives in a

scam known as the fake president, fake CEO or business e-mail compromise scam. The bureau says it has received 13,500 complaints from victim-companies so far, with the number rising dramatically in 2015. The known culprits are not Chinese, but the top destinations for the stolen funds are bank accounts in China and Hong Kong, according to the FBI. C  A

n JAPAN 0.4088 n UK 65.4673 n HK 5.9710 n CHINA 7.1096 n SINGAPORE 33.7848 n AUSTRALIA 34.7439 n EU 51.7291 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.3524

Source: BSP (28 March 2016 )

A2 Tuesday, March 29, 2016

BMReports BusinessMirror

Hacktivism: A threat to 2016 polls?…

“Once I managed to keylog a US citizen and I spent all his credit-card money for exchanging bitcoin and use it to host some CP on TOR,” Kyuubei said in staccato, not caring if the listener understood the hack-speak. “It was worth it,” he said with a grin.

Bitcoins are considered a new-age payment system, a digital asset that operates with no central authority or banks. The CP Kyuubei was referring to is an online lingo for child pornography. He said he used an anonymous browser that prevents traffic analysis, protecting the user from data surveillance and diverts server signals from being tracked down.

According to law, people, like Kyuubei, who willfully use child pornography materials, face six to 12 years of imprisonment and a fine of P0.2 million or $4,317.32 at current exchange rates. He has never been detected.

“The Philippines still does not have a strong protection for technological infrastructure against cybercriminals,” Niño Valmonte, director of product management and marketing at to IP Converge Data Services Inc. (IPC), said.

Valmonte said the most common malware encountered locally are called “worms” and “trojans,” which infect almost half of all computers in the country. Computer worms can self-replicate on computers, or via computer networks, without the knowledge of the user. Trojans are malicious programs that perform actions that have not been authorized by the user.

Government infiltration

FOLLOWING a round of attacks toward government websites before the 2013 elections, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) beefed up the security around government’s online assets emphasizing the additional layer of protection for the agencies providing their services online.

These include the Government Service Insurance System, the National Statistics Office, PagIBIG and Philippine Health Insurance Corp. While not purely a government agency, the Social Security System is also included. The protection

is for such sites requiring sensitive information from its users. If compromised, these data could be used for identity theft and extortion, among others, according to Valmonte.

“It depends on the software, really,” Kyuubei said. “That’s the basis of the system’s vulnerability especially if the software is outdated.”

The young hacker explained the facets of hacking and how overlooking safety measures can pose threats, not only to an individual, but to any organization he or she is affiliated with.

He said accounts can be compromised through the user’s system. If the system’s defenses are weak, it is easily exploitable through bypassing the thin layer of protection it has, Kyuubei explained. The targeted victim can be exploited through any web site he is signed up in, though it may be difficult if the hacker does not have any initial background on the victim.

“The same thing goes with hacking an e-mail.

Based on my experience, you have to do some stalking first before I look for the e-mail. If I find it, all I have to do is check the two questions on his ‘forgot password’ page and that’s when I start gathering data,” Kyuubei said.

He added that hackers can easily pretend to be a relative or a person who has been granted access by the victim. With the inconsistent web-site security in the country records can easily be accessed, example would be from a school registrar web site, or any web site that may contain vital information that can give clues.

If this doesn’t prove to be successful, the next option would be to obtain data through a phishing technique, which involves creating a fake web site, which will fire up the victim’s specific interest, to acquire the username and password. In some cases, the phishing method is used by hackers to obtain creditcard information.

Having strangers access personal computers, too, can also pose a threat to the users through keylogging, which records the keys pressed for the duration of the system’s usage.

“Easy game, easy life,” the hacker said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Assuming an attack is a possibility, it could be orchestrated by anyone who may gain from the hacking, be it to manipulate results, steal confidential data, etc.” Valmonte said.

Questionable safety

LATE Easter Sunday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) web site was compromised, hacked by Anonymous Philippines, through a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, which disrupted the traffic of the web site.

The hacktivist group egged on Comelec to ensure that all of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, which will be used in this year’s national elections, will have its security feats optimized.

“What happens when the electoral process is so mired with questions and controversies? Can the government still guarantee that the sovereignty of the people is upheld? We request the implementation of the security features on the PCOS machines,” the message posted by Anonymous on the Comelec web site said on March 27.

The hacking of the web site created buzz on social media and had netizens questioning the safety of the elections. But Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez was quoted as saying no such ruckus will transpire during the election proper, and no sensitive information was compromised during the hacking.

Jimenez said the Comelec’s Information Technology Department (ITD) and its Web Development Team are already working to restore all the databases of the Comelec web site, as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the Comelec dismissed fears by some groups that hackers might be able to penetrate the poll body’s server that contain election results.

“The election web site will be very secured,” Jimenez said. “It will have its own set of security features, which are different and of a higher quality than the one we are using now.”

He said there are different level of securities being adopted for the Comelec web site

and the would-be election results server.

“It is a difference between securing a grocery list on the one hand and securing a list of commands to the army. Sure they are both important...but are you going to use as many resources protecting your grocery list as your order to the army?” Jimenez explained.

The Comelec web site was restored at about 3:15 a.m. on Monday, said Jimenez. “However, as we continue to scour the site, all databases remain temporarily off,” Jimenez said.

VVPAT

DURING a congressional hearing in the Senate in February, the Comelec disclosed they have reached a unanimous decision not to print receipts or the voter verification paper audit trail (VVPAT ). This document is meant to show the voter that his or her ballot has been received and read by the machine.

It also verifies that the votes have been correctly placed.

Comelec Chairman Andres D. Bautista explained the process would mean allotting more time during the election proper. Bautista said it would take about 13 seconds to print the ticket, another 15 to 20 seconds for a voter to read and crosscheck the printout and several minutes to change the ribbon once the paper roll is finished.

On March 8, the Supreme Court (SC) requested the Comelec to allow the implementation of the the VVPAT on the vote-counting machines (VCMs) to be used in the elections.

Ten days later, the SC ruled with a 13-0 vote that the Comelec implement the VVPAT. “It is incorrect for the [Comelec] to argue that the law does not require each voter to verify whether the vote-counting machines recorded his or her votes properly.”

The Comelec’s decision to do away with the VVPAT triggered fears that groups would be emboldened to hack and tamper poll results to favor certain candidates. However, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III quickly pointed out the latest cyberattack was limited to the Comelec web site, and noted no indication the poll-body

www.businessmirror.com.ph

C   servers were compromised.

“Yes, the hacking should put Comelec on notice that “hacking can be done” Pimentel told the BUSINESSMIRROR. “But web site is different from the election servers.”

Another group called Lulzsec earlier reported to have claimed separately it gained entry in the Comelec database and leaked it to the Internet. However, this has yet to be confirmed by authorities.

Asked if lawmakers will seek a firm guarantee from the Comelec of the May 9 elections’ integrity despite the hacking of its web site, Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto indicated they intend to do so.

“We must have concrete assurances from Comelec that their computerized-voting systems are well protected,” Sotto III said in a text message to the BUSINESSMIRROR.

Everything’s hackable

IN 2015 Smartmatic TMI Corp. representative Marlon Garcia said in a public statement it will take a hacker 10 years to successfully hack a single PCOS machine.

Only a conspiracy among those with authorized control over the system can possibly meddle with the results, automated-election expert Pablo Manalastas said during a hearing last month.

A single machine has its unique encryption key. The only possible way to hack through it is from the inside, and only with those with access to all the sign-in keys. To date, there are over 96,096 VCMs ready for use in May. Kyuubei thinks otherwise.

“Everything connected to the Internet is hackable. There are so many ways. You can edit the firmware, connect to the Comelec’s SSH and delete all [content in] their database or edit their database to rig the elections.”

Nevertheless, he also thinks this may be improbable. “There is a minimum probability compared to before since ’di tulad ng dati, may utak na sila ngayon. [Unlike before, the people in Comelec appear to be now using their brains.]” To be concluded

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Tuesday, March 29, 2015

A3

China emerging as global hub for money laundering?

C  A n Israeli criminal networks are working with Chinese immigrants across Europe to launder money using a variation of a Chinese informal value transfer system called fei qian, or “flying money,” according to Western intelligence documents reviewed by the AP. The immigrants give their cash to a trusted member of the local Chinese community in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium or Germany. n The bagman gives the Israeli fraudsters bank account numbers in China where they can direct their stolen money. Once the Chinese confirm that the money has landed in the correct account, the bagman

gives the Israeli partners in crime the cash. n In February Spain arrested six executives from China’s largest bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, accusing them of facilitating a Chinese moneylaundering network that sold its services to Spanish and Chinese criminal syndicates in Europe, according to Europol, which also is investigating the network’s links to France, Germany and Lithuania.

Chinese authorities have said the state-run bank will cooperate with the investigation, and that they have no reason to believe the bank was breaking the law. n Three Colombians based in Guangzhou, China, laundered

over $5 billion for drug cartels based in Mexico and Colombia, using bank accounts in Hong Kong and mainland China, according to an indictment unsealed by the US Justice Department last S e p te m b e r. Th e f u n d s, o f te n withdrawn in cash, were used to purchase counterfeit goods in China, which were then shipped to Colombia and other export markets for resale. n Last June France’s financial crimes squad, reportedly accompanied by money-sniffing dogs, raided a Chinese wholesale district in Aubervilliers, just north of Paris, where Chinese merchants are accused of laundering money for North African drug dealers. AP

BSP. . .

C  A

Nomura, likewise, said the risk to the local currency and local assets arising from prospectively higher US interest rates has already dissipated and may continue wane due, among others, to improvements in the monetary policy credibility of the country. Data from the Philippine Dealing System show the peso appreciating by 6 centavos to P46.34 per dollar at the close of trading on Monday, from previous week’s close of P46.40 per dollar.

The total traded volume during the day also ramped up to $617.9 million, from only $557 million reported just before the long Lenten weekend when the local markets were closed. However, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Research Officer Nicholas Antonio Mapa expressed a contrarian view, saying the next policy move from the monetary authorities will likely be a cut rather than a hike. “I still see the BSP cutting the RP [repurchase] and RRP ahead of the interest rate corridor implementation. After the adjustment I do see an SDA adjustment later in the year as the Fed [Federal Reserve] probably hikes twice,” Mapa told the BUSINESSMIRROR. Singapore-based DBS Bank economist Gundy Cahyadi, meanwhile, said the BSP will likely hike the policy rates, an indication of the mixed views the various analysts have on the subject.

“Looking further out, the strong GDP growth momentum still calls for further normalization of interest rates. We continue to factor in one more 25bps rate hike from the BSP this year,”the economist said earlier. Cahyadi said the BSP kept the policy rates steady through 2015 in part because of its “tolerance of a softer currency amid fear of the negative impact

POOR START Traders at the Philippine Stock Exchange converse as the market had a poor start for the week following a long holiday break, with the benchmark index falling 0.35 percent. Only the Industrial and the Holding Firms indexes posted gains at the close of the trading day. ALYSA SALEN

on export growth.” Now that things are looking up for the local currency and the export market, the economist said this will likely “encourage the BSP to further normalize its monetary policy stance.”

As for Mapa, he said the peso will track its regional peers this year and projects a weakening of the local unit as the Fed hike its own policy rates at least twice this year. The policy-making Monetary Board held a rate-setting meeting just before the Lenten weekend when it kept the rates unchanged.

In particular, the Monetary Board decided to maintain the BSP’s key policy rates at 4 percent for the overnight borrowing or RRP facility, and 6 percent for the overnight lending or RP facility. The interest rates on term RRPs, RPs and SDAs were also kept steady. The reserve requirement ratios were, likewise, left unchanged. The BSP said the policy rates were a recognition of the assessment on stable inflation down the policy line, reiterating the target inflation range this year and next will likely be kept.

“The Monetary Board also noted that the risks surrounding the inflation outlook have remained tilted to the downside, as downward price pressures could arise from slower-than-expected global economic activity and potential second-round effects from lower international oil prices,” BDP Governor Amando M. Tetangco said in a statement following the meeting.

“Meanwhile, upside risks to the inflation outlook persist, particularly those that could emanate from the impact of El Niño dry weather conditions on food prices and utility rates, as well as pending petitions for power rate adjustments,” he added.

Expressway-dike deal a ‘hot potato’ for now

T

B L S. M

ENSION rose steeply on Monday inside a packed conference room at the headquarters of the public works department in Manila.

Five minutes into the 2 p.m. deadline of the submission of bids for the P122.8billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike deal, none of the three qualified bidders seem to be keen on presenting their offers.

Two minutes passed and San Miguel Corp., the only group that brought its bid documents during the tender, decided to submit its proposal. But after a few seconds or so, it withdrew its bid, and government officials declared the auction process terminated.

His face flushing, and his eyes pleading, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Officer in Charge Ariel C. Angeles declared the process a “failed bid.”

“There are no bidders that submitted a bid. Right now we have to assess and check on everything as to the reasons of the failed bidding,” he said. “The bidding process was terminated because of a failure to bid. One party

submitted, but they withdrew.”

San Miguel officials present during the bidding refused to give a comment on their group’s decision to back out of the tender process; but the two other parties were more vocal as to their reasons. Team Trident—composed of Ayala Corp., Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., SM Prime Holdings Inc. and Megaworld Corp.—has three key issues on the deal: economic viability, problems with connectivity and the complexity of the deal.

“We looked at the overall economic viability and risks. We took some of those to see if we can get this financed. But we couldn’t get to a sufficient level of comfortability with the economic viability and risks, and our ability to take it to

Right now we have to assess and check on everything as to the reasons of the failed bidding.” —A

the banks,” he said. Connectivity to different growth areas in Metro Manila was also an issue for the socalled megaconsortium. “You have to have a guaranteed access to other central business districts,” Azanza said. “Connectivity is crucial, as it is a 700-hectare development.”

T he dea l ’s comple x it y, he added, made it more commercially unviable. “The other one is the complexity of the deal.

Consequently, the technological solutions for this project were so challenging that the cost implications almost doubled than what the government initially had,” Azanza said.

The project involves the construction of a 47-kilometer floodcontrol dike—on top of which will be a six-lane expressway—on an offshore alignment 500 meters away from the western shoreline of Laguna Lake. It includes interchanges, bridges, floodgates and pumps from Taguig City to Los Baños in Laguna. It also involves the reclamation of 700 hectares of raw land adjoining the expresswaydike. The thoroughfare-cum-dike project will help mitigate flooding along the western coast of the Laguna Lake running from Taguig City to the town of Bay in Laguna.

It will also serve as an alternative transport route to the congested South Luzon Expressway and enhance the hydrology for the ecosystem of Laguna Lake.

“The government also wants this rolled out in seven years. So, its complexity, less connectivity and a very tight time frame to roll this project out. So just imagine how the risk-reward balance was clearly not in the favor of the bidders,” Azanza said. Alloy-Pavi Hanshin LLEDP Consortium of Alloy MTD Capital Bhd., Prime Asset Ventures Inc.,

and Hanshin Engineering Constructions, on the other hand, believes that the bidding process itself was illegal.

“We believe that the bidding process is illegal and is unenforceable and is risky,” MTD Philippines Inc. President Isaac S. David said.

“It is risky, as the signing of the contract, which mandates that we have to pay 20 percent of the premium up front, was set on April 6, a few months before the entry of a new administration.”

He said that his group is not too comfortable with the changing of the guards of the Philippines, as the new set of leaders may choose not to respect the contract that was signed during the last administration. “They can delay or cancel the contract,” he added. The group also submitted its position on the “illegality” of the bidding process.

In its letter to the public works department, the company said that the lack of a presidential

proclamation “reserving the reclamation area for purposes of procurement transaction” made the tender illegal. “Second, the legal personality of the procuring entity is questionable. It has to be the Philippine Reclamation Authority, not the public works agency, nor the Laguna Lake Development Authority,” David said in explaining the contents of the copy of the letter that was furnished to the BusinessMirror.

San Miguel bigwig Ramon S. Ang said the government has to reassess the implication of the project for the private sector before offering it again as a PPP deal.

“The project is just not feasible. The government will have to reexamine its assumptions and redesign a mutually beneficial contractual structure best suited for a deal as large and complex as this one, given its potential to create opportunities that will generate the greatest benefit to a lot of

people,” he said in a text message.

PPP Center Executive Director Andre C. Palacios said that it will be impossible for the current administration to rebid the deal, but said that his camp will continue to support the public works agency in crafting its game plan for the development of the facility.

“I doubt if we can do another bidding within this administration. But the PPP Center and the transaction advisors remain committed to support the implementing agencies in whatever steps they will take for the project,” he said. This is not the first time that the Aquino administration declared a failed bidding for a key infrastructure deal. Two other deals—the expansion of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 and the construction of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway—saw their first auctions failing, but were later awarded to their private proponents after a second try.

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A4 Tuesday, March 29, 2016

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Rise of ‘Duterte Harry’ likened to Trump’s

N

ICKNAMED “Duterte Harry,” after a Clint Eastwood character with little regard for rules, the Davao City mayor casually threatens to shoot criminals, hang them using laundry line or drown them in Manila Bay. His expletives have sideswiped even the deeply revered pope.

Despite such brazen talk, Rodrigo R. Duterte has emerged as a top contender in the presidential elections on May 9 in an impressive political rise that has been likened to Donald Trump’s. The tough-talking mayor finds the comparison offensive and draws the line.

“Donald Trump is a bigot; I am not,” Duterte told The Associated Press, referring to Trump’s proposals to ban Muslims entering the United States and erect a wall along the Mexican border.

Duterte, 70, built a political name with his iron-fist approach to fighting crime in southern Davao City, where he has served as mayor for 22 years. He has been credited for turning the vast port region of about 1.5 million people from a Marxist insurgency-wracked murder capital in the 1980s, to one of a few Philippine cities with a reputation for law and order and economic vibrancy.

A lawyer, former government prosecutor and representative, Duterte is the son of a former Davao provincial governor, who grew up in a middle-class family that valued integrity. He has a penchant for mischief and recalls his mother, a school teacher, often punished him for misconduct, by ordering him to kneel with hands extended sideways in front of a statue of Jesus Christ.

He was once kicked out of high school for involvement in a brawl.

In Davao Duterte has patrolled streets at night on a Harley Davidson and, at times, driven a taxi to try to catch robbers preying on drivers. He banned smoking and reportedly once forced a foreigner to chew a cigarette stick for violating the ordinance. Firecrackers, which kill and injure hundreds in the country during New Year’s revelries, are prohibited and a nighttime curfew for minors has eased juvenile delinquency.

What sets Duterte apart from other politicians is his devil-maycare way with expletives, often uttered in public in the local Filipino language, when he lets off steam over criminality, corruption and government incompetence.

In his most infamous outburst, Duterte used an expletive on Pope Francis to express his disgust over a huge traffic jam caused by a papal visit to Manila last year that trapped the mayor for hours.

Filipino bishops were shocked and he later apologized.

Nowadays, Duterte’s cusses come with his trademark campaign battle cry to “kill all” criminals, fueling longstanding suspicions of his involvement in many unsolved killings of suspected criminals that

Meat processors ask BOC to probe ‘fake’ importers

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HE Philippine Association of Meat Processors, Inc. (Pampi) is appealing to the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to investigate trading companies masquerading as registered meat importing firms, as millions of pesos worth of meat products may have already been imported by these groups.

The association aired this concern to the BOC in a letter dated March 21, after Felix O. Tiukinhoy Jr., Pampi president, found out his firm was mentioned in the Customs Watch bulletin issued on March 16.

“May I respectfully request your office to unmask and prosecute the meat smugglers, with particular focus on the customs broker or brokers who facilitated or filed the false import entries with the Bureau of Customs,” Tiukinhoy said in his letter to BOC Commissioner Alberto D. Lina.

“In the March 16 issue, Virginia Foods Inc. was listed in import entries as a consignee of 28,000 kilograms of buffalo meat allegedly exported by AB Foods Llc. For the record, we neither know nor deal with AB Foods as exporter-supplier. Thus, import documents covering such shipment are spurious,” Tiukinhoy added in a statement.

Tiukinhoy, president of Virginia Foods Inc., said that the trader in question, AB Foods Llc., has also been using the name of at least three Pampi members without their consent to import pork bellies and frozen boneless beef.

The two other companies are Sunpride Foods and Frabelle Corp.

Sunpride Foods was listed as a consignee of buffalo meat trimmings from AB Foods, while Frabelle Corp. was similarly listed as a consignee of pork bellies from AB Foods based on an earlier Customs Watch bulletin published on March 9.

Both companies said they’ve had no dealings with the trader.

Tiukinhoy explained that buffalo meat from India is a restricted and regulated commodity, as per the rules of Department of Agriculture, and requires accreditation from the agency.

“Indian exporters of buffalo meat are accredited by the Department of Agriculture,s and AB Foods is not one of them. Therefore, said importation is patently illegal, using falsified SPS [sanitary and phytosanitary] import permits to release the shipment from Customs,” the Pampi head added in the statement.

Pampi is comprised of 30 members with sales amounting to some P300 billion and employee count of 300,000 workers. Catherine N. Pillas

IN this November 30, 2015, photo, supporters jostle to get wristbands during proclamation of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte as the PDP-Laban’s standard-bearer for the May 9, 2016, presidential elections in Manila. AP

Donald Trump is a bigot; I am not.”—D authorities blame on vigilantes.

On the campaign trail, Duterte has offered to replicate his record in Davao to the rest of a Southeast Asian nation long weary of crime, rebellions and widespread corruption. He portrays himself as the “last card” of the people.

Jumping from mayor to president is a big leap in a country, where leaders have traditionally risen from a national office, mostly as senators. Duterte’s bold pledge to eradicate crime, especially drug trafficking and kidnappings, as well

as corruption, in three to six months has resonated with the public, but also sparked alarm and doubts.

Pressed by a TV journalist in a recent debate to elaborate, Duterte said that suspected drug dealers end up in jail in Manila—and dead in his city.

“When I say ‘leave Davao,’ you leave Davao. If you do not do that, you’re dead. That’s the way the story will go, no drama,” he said to a loud applause.

R ival candidate Manuel A .

Roxas II recalled that P7.5 billion

($158 million) worth of drugs and a number of suspects were seized when he was interior secretary in charge of the national police for three years, but he stressed that the drug menace remains, including in Davao.

The US-educated banker asked how Duterte can end the problem in such a short time and expressed fears of unwarranted killings. A heated exchange ensued.

“If you do not know how to kill people and you’re afraid to die, that’s the problem, you cannot be a president,” Duterte told Roxas.

In a YouTube video last year that has gone viral, Duterte enthralled a crowd of drivers by saying he would have criminals hanged with laundry line. If he becomes president,

he said, “even God will cry.”

Manila Bay would teem with fat fish, the mayor told a TV network in another warning to criminals, adding “that’s where I will dump you.”

The death threats have morphed into much-awaited punch lines spread by word, online and in his campaign ads and rallies. Supporters mob him like a movie celebrity, jostling to take selfies with him.

“He’s like a rock star,” said Dante Jimenez, a leading supporter who founded an anticrime volunteers’ organization in the 1990s, after his brother was killed by drug dealers. “Just seeing him as president would give us a feeling of assurance and security.”

Duterte’s antics have stunned rights activists. Phelim Kline of Human Rights Watch said his “boastful brand of violent impunity should be a path to prosecution, not a platform for political office.”

The watchdog has called for an investigation into suspicions of Duterte’s involvement in extrajudicial killings by the so-called Davao death squads, mostly motorcycleriding masked gunmen blamed for numerous killings of crime suspects and drug dealers. No charges have been filed against the mayor and he challenges critics to bring him to court.

When asked if he would condone extrajudicial killings, Duterte says he would not, but argues that police and soldiers could legally shoot suspects who put up a fight.

Former Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson Jr., former head of National Police, said that based on his long experience, most suspects would surrender when cornered and face years of prosecution, making Duterte’s vow to solve crime in a short period “not doable, if not impossible.”

“No matter how good a sound bite it may sound, it will stay as such—a sound bite,” Lacson said. AP

MGB to spend ₧900M for geologic, groundwater maps

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HE gover nment w i l l spend around P900 million to produce the country’s geologic quadrangle and groundwater maps in the next two years, an important factor in mining, exploration, construction and urban-planning undertakings.

Director Leo Jasareno of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’s (DENR) Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) said the agency will produce new 1:50,000 scale geologic quadrangle and groundwater maps, which is one of the agency’s core functions.

According to Jasareno, about P400 million of the P1.03-billion budget of the MGB this year will be used for works related to the geologic quadrangle and groundwater maps. Next year, of its proposed P1.3billion budget, around P500 million will also be spent for these projects. Jasareno said they intend to complete these by the end of 2017.

The MGB, Jasareno added, started producing geologic quadrangle maps in the 1980s. The project was stopped in 2007 to give way for the production of the more important geohazard maps. “We are now resuming our work on geologic quadrangle maps,” he said, adding that the MGB has only accomplished 20 percent of the task when they shifted focus

This is important because it will identify rocks and soil conditions in the map. This is useful for mining exploration, construction and urban planning.”—J

to producing geohazard maps.

“Now that we have completed our geohazard maps, we will focus on the geologic map. This is important because it will identify rocks and soil conditions in the map. This is useful for mining exploration, construction and urban planning,” Jasareno said.

Since 2005, the MGB has not published geological quadrangle maps.

The MGB targets to complete within the year the map for Region 3 (Central Luzon), Jasareno said.

Jasareno added that the MGB is simultaneously working to produce groundwater maps, which will identify locations or areas with groundwater supply.

The groundwater maps, he said, will be produced upon the request of the National Water Resources Board (NWRB). “ The map will be important to

the NWRB for permitting purposes,” Jasareno added. The groundwater map will identify the volume of groundwater available in a particular area, he said.

He said there will also be water testing to know whether the groundwater in a particular area is still fresh or already contaminated with saltwater.

The MGB’s Lands Geologic Survey Division (LGSD) said geological quadrangle maps have many practical applications. These include applications for vulnerability assessment, solid waste disposal site selection, land-use planning, said Lilian Rollan, chief of the LGSD. Last month, the LGSD conducted a workshop to standardize procedures for geologic quadrangle mapping.

It aims to standardize methods and outputs for geologic quadrangle mapping, and encompassed a series of comprehen-

sive lecture about basic mapping techniques, standardization of methodology for mapping, Philippine Stratigraphy, unified map format and other related topics.

Danilo Uykieng, MGB assistant director, said the geologic quadrangle-mapping activity should be treated as an opportunity to gather all the necessary interrelated data that are relevant to the various facets of MGB, such as mining, geohazard, geologic and environmental.

Former MGB geologists who gave lectures at the workshop, include Rolando Peña of the consulting geologist of Geoscience Foundation Inc., Arnulfo Cabantog, consulting geologist of Apex Mines Co. Inc., and Mario Aurelio, director of the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Geological Sciences.

The MGB geologists from the central and regional offices will be deployed to Region 3, the project’s target area for 2016, to finish the 1:50,000 scale geologic mapping of 64 quadrangles in the region. The geologic map output will be Geographic Information System-based.

The MGB also produces geohazard maps, which are intended to identify areas that are prone to various geological hazards, such as flood and landslides, to aid decision-makers in reducing risks of disasters. Jonathan L. Mayuga

Greenhouse-gas inventory guide for local governments out

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AVAO CITY—Local governments would soon have their manual on conducting greenhouse-gas (GHG) inventory, official version of it having been turned over to the Climate Change Commission (CCC).

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) handed here this month the official version of the manual to the CCC, a Philippine Information Agency (PIA) dispatch said recently.

Divina Chingcuangco, chief of party of the USAID B-Leaders Project, said the manual would help local government draft

their local climate-change action plans.

Chingcuangco turned over the manual on March 10 to Secretary Emmanuel M. de Guzman and Commissioner Noel Antonio Gaerlan, who represented the CCC, during simple rites at the Xavier Hall of the Ateneo de Davao University.

Copies of the manual are expected to be distributed to local government units (LGUs) soon.

The Community-Level GHG Inventory for Local Government Units in the Philippines: User’s Manual would serve as a step-by-step guide for LGUs “in gathering,

managing and quantifying data and information about the level of greenhouse-gas emissions within their respective jurisdictions,” the PIA dispatch said.

It said the manual “walks LGUs through the process of computing GHG emissions and removals from carbon sinks, such as forests. It also contains guidelines on categories of data from the agricultural sector.”

The manual comes with a GHG Inventory Qualification Excel spreadsheet, which can be used as a template for reporting GHG inventories, it added.

On the same occasion, the PIA dispatch

quoted de Guzman as telling news reporters that “a total of 160 LGUs nationwide have complied so far with their respective local climate-change action plans.”

He said some of these areas already showed “best practices in resilience following a calamity.”

“The communities in Camotes Island had warning system that was functional during Supertyphoon Yolanda and they were able to plant mangroves along their shorelines, consequently indicating zero casualty during Yolanda,” de Guzman said. Manuel T. Cayon

AseanTuesday BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Japan to make Thailand textile hub in region

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APANESE investors have expressed interest in producing textiles for medical use in Thailand and making the country a regional hub for innovative garments and medical equipment, says the National Federation of Thai Textile Industries.

Federation Chairman Somsak Srisuponvanit said Japanese textile companies using high technology would seek local partners to invest in the production of special garments and textiles for medical use.

“The government is promoting a new investment policy under the concept of clusters, expecting to bring Thai industries to the next level, focused on added value,” Somsak said. “Thai textiles and garments also have strong potential to grow and add higher value.”

With new investment in innovation, garment and textile businesses could shift to value-added textiles, such as disinfected bed sheets for hospitals and scrubs for personnel, he said. Somsak said he had discussed the idea with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and various Japanese companies.

The federation sees an opportunity for the garment and textile industry to take the next step into high-tech garments, he said.

He said the textile and garment industry needs to shift away from the lower market, where competition has intensified with countries that have the advantage of low labour costs, such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Lao PDR. Switching to innovative products would help the garment industry enter the upper market with fewer competitors and higher added value, he said.

Apart from elevating the market, Thailand is also working with Sri Lanka on business matching to create new investment in the sector.

Sri Lanka’s government recently brought 25 garment companies to meet 60 Thai counterparts in order to create investment.

The Sri Lankan investors are seeking Thai partners to help expand their business in the country as they see strong potential for Thailand to be the centre of Asean, where demand is seeing significant growth.

Somsak said he expects the value of garment exports to grow 10 percent this year to US$8.6 billion. MCT

Editor: Max V. de Leon • Tuesday, March 29, 2016 A5

‘Save Malaysia’ campaign on vs Najib

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ALAYSIAN opposition politicians and leading critics of Prime Minister Najib Razak unveiled a fresh campaign aimed at ousting him, after months of attacks over a funding scandal failed to substantially dent his support.

Former Premier Mahathir Mohamad and former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin were among those who addressed more than 2,000 people at a convention center in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, with each of the 18 speakers conveying the same message: Najib must go now. “The wait for two years for the next general elections is too long,” Mahathir said.

“Our situation is very bad. We need to recover quickly and two years will be too late.”

Najib is facing his biggest political crisis since coming to power seven years ago, as questions linger over $681 million, which appeared in his accounts before the last election in 2013, funds the attorneygeneral said were a donation from the Saudi royal family. Mahathir, the country’s longest-serving leader who governed until 2003, has waged a public campaign for months to get Najib out of office.

From now until early June, Mahathir and Muhyiddin will drive the ‘Save Malaysia’ effort that will collect signatures from ordinary voters in various cities calling for Najib to step down, said Khairuddin Abu Hassan, a former official of the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO). Mahathir said he’s expecting a million signatories to the petition by the end of 2016, which will be taken to the nation’s royals.

“The powers of the rulers to remove the prime minister are not in the constitution,” Mahathir said. “If we get enough signatures, we can give the declaration to the rulers and I hope they will listen to the voices of the people and can do something.”

The feud has grown increasingly acrimonious, with Mahathir attacking Najib over a series of financial scandals and his economic record, and quitting the ruling party. While his influence has faded in recent

The wait for two years for the next general elections is too long.”

—M years, the public sparring creates risk for UMNO, which has ruled since independence in 1957, but whose broader Barisan Nasional coalition won the last election in 2013 with its slimmest margin yet. The next election must be held by 2018.

Corruption struggle

“UNDER the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Razak, Malaysia is struggling with corruption and money scandals to an extent so serious that we have never faced before,” former law minister Zaid Ibrahim said at the rally. “We are ashamed of what is happening to the country now. We cannot be patient anymore.”

Najib has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said no “individual, however eminent” should try to interfere with or hijack his leadership. He retains the backing of the bulk of UMNO’s powerful divisional chiefs.

“This is the beginning of a long journey,” said Muhyiddin, who was suspended as UMNO deputy president for undermining the organization in his quest to remove Najib.

“Our aim is for Najib to step down and not to topple the government. If we keep quiet and do nothing, they will say ‘look, no one is standing up against us,’” he said of those backing the prime minister.

Joining hands

THE effort to get Najib out of

MALAYSIA’S former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (center) and former Deputy Prime Minster Muhyiddin Yassin (left) listen to a speech during the “People’s Congress 2016” event in Shah Alam, Malaysia, on Sunday. Mahathir and former leaders of the United Malays National Organization gathered to urge Prime Minister Najib Razak to resign over corruption allegations. AP

office has turned sworn political enemies into temporary allies. The government said this month that Mahathir’s move to align with opposition members showed the depth of “political opportunism and desperation.” Jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, a one-time deputy to Mahathir who was fired after a dispute over economic policies in 1998, is among those backing his former mentor.

“What’s important to us the the removal of Najib,” Mahathir said.

“After that, we can decide who will become the next prime minister.”

Former UMNO leaders, who are “conspiring with the opposition,” do not respect democracy and the mandate given by the people, the official news agency Bernama reported on Sunday, citing Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Azalina Othman.

‘Narrow aim’

THE alliance is “a short-term goal so it does not have to last,” said Ooi Kee Beng, deputy director of the ISEASYusof Ishak Institute, a research center in Singapore for Southeast

Asian issues. “It just needs to develop means toward that end over the coming year. In keeping to that narrow aim, it can cause trouble and bring a lot of worry to the government.”

Kamaruzaman Ismail, 63, was detained under the Internal Security Act when Mahathir was premier.

He was among those at Sunday’s rally pledging support for Mahathir’s current efforts.

“What Mahathir did to me was personal,” said Kamaruzaman, an official with opposition group Parti Amanah Negara. “Why I am here today is for the country and the people. I will support this cause for the betterment of this country.”

Poorer ranking

MALAYSIA’S score worsened in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2015 released in January, putting it on a ranking near Slovakia, Kuwait and Cuba. Issues related to troubled state investment company 1Malaysia Development Bhd. contributed to the nation’s fall on the global list to

54th from 50th in 2014, according to the Malaysian head of Transparency International.

“We have to continue with reformation, we have to overcome corruption,” said Ambiga Sreenevasan, one of the nation’s best known civil society group leaders and who met US President Barack Obama when he was in Malaysia last year. “It is time to say ‘no’ to leaders who act as though Malaysia belongs to only them. We don’t want a dictatorship.”

Some of those at the rally expressed anger over rising transport and food costs. The government has removed subsidies from sugar to fuel in recent years, and it implemented a goods and services tax in 2015. Malaysian consumer prices in February rose at the fastest pace since 2008.

“I’m retired, now I have to be more careful how I spend my money,” Chen Soon Chin, 68, said outside the convention center. “I’m concerned about the Malaysian political situation—the corruption, injustice, abuse of power and people suffering because of the heavy taxes.”

Bloomberg News

Q&A on impact of economic land concessions in Southeast Asian countries

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UTHORITIES in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar have granted hundreds of longterm land leases, called economic land concessions, to foreign and domestic developers to set up rubber, sugar or other plantations or mining projects. The goal was to promote development and create jobs, but many concessions have displaced local residents and cut them off from farmland and other resources.

Here’s a closer look at the issue: How much land has been granted?

Some 53,000 square kilometers (sq km) (20,500 square miles) are believed to be under land concessions in Cambodia, Myanmar and Lao PDR. The Cambodian government hasn’t revealed the full extent of its leases, but human rights group LICADHO has identified 272 of them covering 21,000 sq km (8,100 sq miles) in Cambodia, or just over a tenth of the country. Most of those in Cambodia have gone to Chinese, Vietnamese and Cambodian companies, including several with links to top Cambodian government officials.

Why have they led to land conflicts?

A lack of transparency has characterized the programs in all three countries. Authorities made decisions in private, and little effort has been made to consult with affected local populations. In numerous cases, people were cut off from land

20,500 sq miles

Size of land believed to be under concessions in Cambodia, Myanmar and Lao PDR they occupied or farmed without warning, sometimes by force. That’s led to protests, some of which have turned violent. State-linked land conflicts have affected half a million Cambodians through evictions, livelihood deprivation or resource loss, LICADHO estimates. Disputes over land rights are the country’s No. 1 human-rights problem, according to Surya Subedi, former UN special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia.

What rights do indigenous people have?

A major problem in Cambodia is that land ownership was eradicated and title documents destroyed by the radical communist Khmer Rouge in its bid to create an agrarian utopia in the 1970s. A 2012-13 titling campaign helped thousands gain titles, but was also criticized for inconsistencies and failing to

IN this February 26, 2015, photo, a road runs through a rubber plantation operated by Socfin-KCD, a European-Cambodia joint venture, in Mondulkiri province in eastern Cambodia. In a global land rush, many countries have sold or leased huge tracts to foreign investors, sometimes forcing out those who lived there. AP

address disputes. The country’s 2001 land law protects indigenous people’s right to manage their traditional lands while they go through the complex registration for a communal land title, but that is often

ignored. Economic-land concessions must meet five criteria before being granted, including consultations with local residents, compensation under resettlement solutions and environmental and social-impact

assessments, but human- rights groups say many concessions have failed to meet these requirements.

In Cambodia, Myanmar and Lao PDR, ordinary people feel they have little recourse because their legal

systems and power structures are prone to corruption.

What does the cambodian government say?

Criticism of the program led the government in 2012 to suspend new concessions and it has reviewed each one in a process activists have called opaque. Some 40 have been revoked, but many disputes remain.

In declaring an end to the review last month, Prime Minister Hun Sen pledged to return nearly 10,000 sq km (3,860 sq miles) to poor families, leaving some 11,000 square kilometers for concessions. Human rights groups doubted the claims, saying authorities didn’t disclose how they reached these figures.

They were also skeptical the land would be returned.

Environment Minister Say Sam Al says the concessions program was meant to “improve the livelihoods of our people” as the poor country emerged from decades of conflict, but he acknowledged problems in implementing it. He said he hopes the government’s recent moves will “close a difficult chapter for Cambodia.” The broader goal is to modernize the economy, he said, which will involve change for indigenous peoples. “Through economic growth, job creation, new opportunities,” he said, “we hope that the sons and daughters of these people will abandon their dependence on forests and move on to something else.” AP

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The W

Business Breakthrough seen unlikely in stalled India-EU free-trade agreement negotiations

• Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

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IN this February 28, 2014, file photo, construction workers repair the roof of a building in Lisbon, Portugal. The country’s construction sector collapsed amid the financial crisis, which saw the state take a €78-billion ($87-billion) bailout in 2011. The number of construction workers has more than halved from 612,000 in 2005 to roughly 277,000. AP/FRANCISCO SECO

In Europe, countries challenge austerity but lack cash to spend

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ISBON, Portugal—The construction cranes poking up from the jumble of terracotta roofs on Lisbon’s skyline can be counted on one hand—a dismal reminder for Ricardo Gomes of how little work there is for his construction company.

The Portuguese Socialist government has promised to change that, advocating an end to Europe’s years of budget austerity by increasing spending and cutting taxes. Even respected independent policy-makers, like the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), have said governments should do more to support growth.

But there’s a catch: Despite an easing in Europe’s focus on austerity, countries, like Portugal or Italy, that need to increase spending to boost economic growth can’t afford to do so without breaking the bloc’s rules. And those that can, mainly Germany, are still penny-pinching. “ T here are obv ious limitations” in Portugal’s ability to finance its economy, says Gomes, CEO of construction company SETH. The country’s construction sector collapsed amid the financial crisis, which saw the state take a €78-billion ($87-billion) bailout in 2011. The number of construction workers has more than halved from 612,000 in 2005 to roughly 277,000.

Portuguese officials hope tax cuts coming into force this month will put more cash in people’s pockets, generating a spurt of

domestic demand and firing up the wider economy. That might have a modest impact, concedes Gomes, but he’s not expecting a big pay-off for firms like his.

Capital is still too scarce for big, job-creating investments, he says.

The average price tag of a public works project in austerity-minded Portugal last year was a measly € 89,000 (currently $99,000), according to sector association AECOPS. Public investment is being cut by a further 5.6 percent this year as the government strives to meet the eurozone’s demand for a budget deficit below 3 percent, from an expected 4.3 percent last year.

Private investment is faring no better, as caution reigns: After years of handing out poorly judged loans, Portuguese banks are sitting on close to €18 billion of bad debt.

That’s roughly equivalent to 10 percent of the country’s GDP. With the national economy stalled, Gomes’s company, which specializes in coastal and port engineering, has sur vived by going abroad—80 percent of its business last year was in Africa.

The situation is similar in many of the economically weaker parts of the 19-country eurozone.

Italy is challenging Germany’s focus on debt reduction head on, arguing that spending more would help the economy. “Europe has taken the wrong road, austerity alone is not enough,” Premier Matteo Renzi wrote in an open letter last month. Italy’s economy slowed in the fourth quarter of last year and government debt is the highest in the eurozone after Greece at 135 percent of GDP. Renzi pointed to the example of the United States, whose economy is profiting from a focus on growth and innovation and where President Barack Obama said last year he wanted to “replace mindless austerity with smart investments.”

But unless Italy wants to break the European Union rule to keep the deficit under 3 percent of GDP—a rule his country signed up to— there is little he can do to increase spending. The eurozone economy needs growth any way it can get it.

It expanded a meager 0.3 percent in the final three months of last year, for the second quarter running. The average unemployment rate is 10.3 percent. The ECB has for more than a year been trying to stoke growth by shoveling huge amounts of money—more than €1 trillion—into the eurozone economy through the purchase of bonds.

But as demand for credit remains weak, this monetary approach isn’t paying the anticipated dividends.

National governments, ECB officials keep saying, need to do their bit, too. ECB chief Mario Draghi said last month: “It is becoming clearer and clearer that [governments’] fiscal policies should support the economic recovery, through public investment and lower taxation.” Increases in government spending and tax

cuts are commonly viewed as tonics for listless economies.

But Oxford Economics, a consultancy company, noted last month that eurozone governments are juggling political and financial considerations: “Germany has [fiscal] space but lack of inclination; the opposite is true in France [and] Italy.” The Parisbased Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a respected policy group that represents the world’s most developed economies, has also thrown its weight behind a move away from austerity as soon as the opportunity arises.

“What has changed is that over the past year, eurozone governments have started to openly question” the wisdom of Brussels and Berlin’s policy strictures, said Simon Tilford of the Centre for European Reform, a think tank in London. In Portugal, Finance Minister Mario Centeno, who has a PhD in Economics from Harvard University, is introducing income tax and sales tax cuts, tax rebates, new subsidies for household energy bills and restoring government workers’ pay that was cut. Those steps, he says, will stimulate consumption.

Eurozone officials initially reacted with alarm at the moves, considering Portugal’s debt is high at 130 percent of GDP, but after some tinkering allowed the spending plan to go through.

Nevertheless, “Portugal alone can’t really do that much” to hasten a recovery, Tilford of the Centre for European Reform says. “It really needs Italy, France and Spain to put up a united front and demand fundamental change in the way the eurozone is run.” AP

US museum returns 10th-century Khmer statue to Cambodia

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HNOM PENH, Cambodia— Cambodia on Monday welcomed home a 10th-century Khmer statue that was looted during the country’s civil war before spending the past three decades at an American museum.

The sandstone Torso of Rama statue, which stands 62 inches (157 centimeters) high and is missing its head, arms and feet, was formally handed over at a ceremony in Phnom Penh attended by government officials, the US ambassador and the director of

the Denver Museum of Art. The museum said it acquired the statue in 1986 from the Doris Weiner Gallery in New York City, but only recently learned new facts about its provenance.

“We were recently provided with verifiable evidence that was not available to us at the time of acquisition, and immediately began taking all appropriate steps... for its return home,” Christoph Heinrich, the museum’s director, said in a joint statement with the Cambodian government.

Cambodia’s Secretary of State Chan Thani thanked the museum for voluntarily returning the piece, which he said shows its sensitivity to Cambodian culture.

“The return also highlights the serious looting in the past that had occurred in our country and the government’s efforts to repatriate those artifacts that left the country illegally, which are parts of our soul as a nation,” he said in the statement.

The statue will be returned to its home at the Prasat Chen temple

on the Koh Ker temple complex in Siem Reap province, which is also home to the famed Angkor Wat complex.

It is the latest artwork returned to Cambodia in recent years.

Among the galleries that have repatriated art are the Guimet Museum in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Sotheby’s auction house, Christie’s auction house and the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadea, California. AP

EW DELHI—India and the European Union (EU) are unlikely to make a breakthrough in stalled negotiations for a free-trade agreement (FTA) during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Brussels on Wednesday to attend the 13th India-EU Summit. Modi has stuck to his plan to attend the long-delayed summit on his way to Washington for the fourth Nuclear Security Summit on Thursday and Friday, despite the terror attack in Brussels on March 22.

The India-EU Summit is being held after a gap of four years after the EU last year refused to confirm the dates of a proposed visit

by Modi amid a diplomatic row over the slow progress in India of the trial of two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen in 2012. The last India-EU Summit was held in New Delhi in February 2012 and Indian officials indicated that negotiations remain deadlocked over several key issues.

“Our brief to the prime minister is very clear. We should not give in unless the EU agrees to our demands. We are in the process of finalizing the joint declaration,” a senior government official involved in the process said speaking under condition of anonymity.

Cautious statements issued ahead of the summit by both sides also showed varied expectation.

“The 13th India-EU Summit aims to deepen the India-EU Strategic Partnership and advance collaboration in priority areas for India’s growth and development,” a statement by the ministry of external affairs said.

“The summit in Brussels will be an opportunity to relaunch relations and make concrete progress on areas of mutual interest, including trade and investment, energy, climate, water and migration,” the EU said in its statement.

Talks on the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement—the official title of the free trade pact— started in 2007 but progress has been tardy and marked by flipflops. India cancelled a meeting with the EU chief trade negotiator in August last year in protest against an import ban on 700 of its generic drugs clinically tested

by GVK Biosciences for alleged manipulation of clinical trials.

Later, during a meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, in the Turkish city of Antalya last November on the margins of a G-20 meet, both sides agreed to hold a stocktaking meeting between the chief

negotiators before resuming formal talks. However, the official said there is no consensus how to move forward on contentious issues even after the meeting between commerce secretary Rita Teaotia and the EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström in Brussels on February 22.

Disputed issues include the socalled Mode 4, a provision of the 1995 General Agreement on Trade in Services that seeks to facilitate the movement of professionals from one country to another.

“The EU is not giving any assurance on Mode 4. While we could accommodate some of their demands in automobiles and liquor [the EU wants lower import duties], we cannot accept their demand for a more stringent geographical indications regime,” the official added.

The EU has sought assurances on the facilitation of the registration of Geographical Indicators, mostly relating to wines and spirits. India also wants the EU to declare the country data-safe, which will help Indian information technology and outsourcing companies. But Brussels insists the issue is not part of the FTA negotiations and should be dealt with separately.

The official said that as of now, only the textiles industry has shown any keenness on concluding a deal with the EU. What has further complicated matters is the planned British referendum, to be held in June, on whether the country should remain in the EU. “If the UK comes out of the EU, then there is no need for this trade deal. It will be a wasted energy. We are closely watching the situation,” the official said.

Growing discomfort among Indian firms about the existing FTAs, which have led to imports shooting up and Indian businesses becoming uncompetitive, is another reason the government is being cautious while negotiating new trade deals.

The Economic Survey 20152016 said the 42 FTAs signed by India so far have led to more imports than exports as the country has had to go for larger tariff reductions than its FTA partners because of relatively high tariffs.

Jayant Dasgupta, executive partner at Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan and former ambassador of India to the World Trade Organization, said both India and the EU are in a similar position--each is seeking greater market access while remaining reluctant to further open up its markets, which makes it difficult to strike a deal.

Mint, New Delhi/TNS

Pioneering winemaker finds early success in Myanmar hills

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Y T H AYA , M y a n m a r — W h e n a democratically elected Myanmar president takes office this week after decades of military rule, some will be toasting the historic moment with a beverage decidedly not paired with this tropical, Southeast Asian nation: surprisingly highquality, locally produced wine.

They might pour themselves an Aythaya Sauvignon blanc (“internationally competitive,” says one wine critic), a Shirazbased red (“marvelous improvement over initial vintages”) or start off with a refreshing sparkling rose. These all stem from Myanmar’s first winery, a pioneering effort by German entrepreneur Bert Morsbach, who overcame both political minefields and viticulturally virgin terrain to find himself catering to a growing middle class and booming tourism, which together create more demand than he can currently satisfy. He doesn’t even have enough left over for export.

Morsbach’s Aythaya estate could be mistaken for a corner of Provence or California’s wine country, in a verdant valley tucked into the Shan Hills of northeastern Myanmar, and at 1,300 meters (4,260 feet) probably the

highest vineyard in Asia. Visitors, including a number of young Burmese, sample its wines at his restaurant with panoramic sunset views over the gently undulating vineyard.

The harvests haven’t come easily. A genial onetime mining engineer, Morsbach was among just a handful of individual foreign businessmen in the 1990s operating in a largely isolated country where a xenophobic military regime made the rules. One minister, he says, simply appropriated an earlier venture. And Morsbach had no experience in winemaking, never mind doing it under tropical conditions.

“It was full of obstacles, adverse conditions, but it was a chance to do something new. That was the challenge and it had a reasonable chance of success,” says the 78-year-old Morsbach, whose resume includes building factories in the United States, advising the Laos government and introducing sailboarding to Asia. In the first year of full production, 2004, the estate managed just 20,000 bottles.

This has soared to as many as 200,000 bottles in recent years, and Morsbach says he is about to open another plant with a 1-million-bottle capacity. AP

World

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news@businessmirror.com.ph •

Pakistan vows to hunt terrorists after Easter Sunday carnage

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AKISTAN’S leaders vowed a quick response after a Taliban suicide bomber targeted many women and children celebrating Easter Sunday at a park in one of its biggest cities, the nation’s deadliest attack since a school massacre in 2014.

The blast killed at least 66 people and injured 340, police inspector Shahid Mahmood said by phone on Monday. An offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility and said the group was targeting Christians, The Washington Post reported, citing a spokesman.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called for a united fight against terrorism after the blast, a refrain he has repeated often in the face of a Taliban insurgency that has killed more than 60,000 people since 2001. This one hit close to home: Punjab, t he n at ion’s mo s t p o pu lou s state, is Sharif ’s political base and has seen fewer attacks than areas closer to the mountainous border with Afghanistan. “ T hose who t a rgeted i n no cent c it i z en s do not deser ve to be ca l led huma ns,” Shehba z S h a r i f, P u njab ’s c h ief m i n i s ter and Nawa z’s brot her, w rote o n Tw i t t e r. “ We w i l l c o m e a f ter you . We w i l l hu nt you dow n. We w i l l m a ke su re t h at you r ter ror i n f ra st r uc t u re i s d i sm a nt led complete ly.”

Pakistani television showed a video of people running from

the Gulshan-e-Iqbal park in a residential part of Lahore. The area was crowded with Christians, and many families were leaving when the blast occurred, according to reports. The attack highlights the challenges Nawaz faces in eradicating terrorism in Pakistan, where the military has long used extremist groups as strategic assets against India to the east and Afghanistan to the west. Nawaz has sought to take on Pakistan’s conservative elements in recent months, calling for better treatment of women and executing a man who assassinated a former governor for seeking a review of a blasphemy law.

Cowardly attack

NAWAZ, who took power in 2013, termed the attack as cowardly and said it was a reaction to the government’s success in the fight against terrorism. The Lahore deput y commissioner’s office said Nawaz visited the city on Monday to review the situation.

The attack occurred as thousands rallied in the capital Islamabad to protest the execution of Mumtaz Qadri, who murdered

NAWAZ SHARIF, Pakistani prime minister BLOOMBERG NEWS

the former governor of Punjab in 2011 over his stance on the blasphemy law. The protesters called for the imposition of Shariah law and wanted Qadri to be declared a martyr. Although Pakistan was created for Muslims as part of a two-state solution following independence from the British in 1947, military ruler Zia ul Haq imposed more stringent Islamic laws only in the 1980s.

Religious minorities—including Hindus, Christians and Shia Muslims—have been frequent targets of sectarian violence.

L eaders a rou nd t he g lobe condemned t he at t ac k. Ind ia n Pr ime Minister Na rend ra Mod i ca l led Nawa z on Su nd ay a nd “u nderl ined t he need for

uncompromising ef for ts to f ight aga inst ter ror ism,” for eig n of f ice Spokesma n Vi k a s Swa r up w rote on Tw it ter. US president i a l c a nd id ates a l so condemned t he at t ac k.

“The United States condemns in the strongest terms today’s appalling terrorist attack,” US State Department Spokesman John F. Kirby said in an e-mailed statement. “Attacks like these only

deepen our shared resolve to defeat terrorism around the world.”

Sunday’s attack was Pakistan’s deadliest since 2014, when the Taliban massacred about 150— mostly students—in their school, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal. It was the deadliest in Lahore since 2010, when a bombing killed almost 100 members of the minority Ahmadi Muslim community. Bloomberg News

We will come after you. We will hunt you down. We will make sure that your terror infrastructure is dismantled completely.”—S

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Electoral reforms take a backseat as cash, booze bribes flood elections in India

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TATES going to the polls this April-May have reported an unbridled flow of black money, or unaccounted cash, and alcohol to bribe voters, a menace the election commission encounters every election in the country.

Officials have seized large amounts of cash and liquor in the poll-bound states of Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. This bribe money might cross Rs 100 crore.

But black money is just one of the malaises plaguing the electoral system, which is crying for serious reforms for decades.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said the election commission seized around Rs 300 crore of unaccounted cash and more than 17,000 kilogram of drugs, and an equally large amount of liquor and arms during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. No one knows how much undetected money was used then.

The Delhi high court last week reminded the government of its responsibility a year after the law commission recommended a set of electoral reforms.

The court plugged a crucial loophole in the tax law that allowed political parties to avoid tax in certain cases of voluntary contributions.

It held that failure to maintain audited books of voluntary contributions of over Rs 10,000 will be liable to be taxed as “income from other sources.”

The poll panel has written to successive governments and held meetings with political parties for decades to convince them on electoral reforms. But its efforts didn’t draw any encouraging response as the political class remained averse to changes in the poll system. TNS

Iraqi cleric meets with PM after beginning Green Zone sit-in

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TWO men write on a wall at a memorial for victims of attacks in Brussels on March 23. Belgian authorities were searching on Wednesday for a top suspect in the country’s deadliest attacks in decades, as the European Union’s capital awoke under guard and with limited public transport after scores were killed and injured in bombings on the Brussels airport and a subway station. AP/VALENTIN BIANCHI

Summit to talk security of nuclear-power plants

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EPORTS from Belgium that nuclear facilities may have been targeted by Islamic State (IS) terrorists will be a top issue addressed by world leaders at a security meeting with President Obama in Washington, D.C., this week.

Martin Malin of the Project on Managing the Atom at the Belfer Center at Harvard University, which earlier this month released a report on global nuclear security, said the situation in Belgium is an “unfolding story” that is being closely tracked going into the Nuclear Security Summit. The gathering on Thursday and Friday

by representatives of 50 nations is the fourth and final summit under the Obama presidency. It follows reports that two suspects in the Brussels airport attacks had videotaped the home of a senior official at the Mol nuclear waste facility in Belgium. Terrorism experts have been concerned about the potential for IS terrorists to create a so-called dirty bomb.

Belgium’s nuclear agency announced it has withdrawn the entry badges of some staff and denied access to other people recently.

While IS has not yet publicly espoused the same firm doctrine or intent to get nukes as al-Qaeda

had, any hint it may be seeking to do so is alarming, Malin said.

“If they do decide that they wanted to acquire a nuclear weapon, they’ve got more money, more access to experts, sort of a bigger base to do so than al-Qaeda ever had,” Malin said. “That’s concerning.”

The Belfer Center report notes out that while there has been no public evidence IS is pursuing nukes, “the group’s apocalyptic rhetoric, envisioning a final war between itself and the ‘crusader’ forces, suggests a need for very powerful weapons.”

“Terrorist use of nuclear weapons may not be a high probability,”

the report reads, “but the global economic, political and social consequences would be so severe that even a low probability should be enough to motivate an intense focus on steps, such as nuclear security to reduce the risk.”

Nickolas Roth, another of the report’s authors, said IS was a non-factor in nuclear discussions two years ago—when Belfer Center’s last nuclear security report was issued. “The immediacy of the potential threat is very much different in this report,” Roth added.

“The risk has increased. That was not something we would have said in our last report.” TNS

AGHDAD—Influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday night after beginning a sit-in in Baghdad’s highly fortified Green Zone intended to be a show of force following his calls to combat government corruption. Earlier in the day security forces stepped aside to allow al-Sadr to enter the Green Zone after weeks of protests in the Iraqi capital. Al-Sadr has repeatedly called on al-Abadi to enact sweeping economic and political reforms.

“I am a representative of the people and will enter the [Green Zone],” al-Sadr told hundreds of his supporters gathered outside the compound’s walls, asking his followers to stay outside and remain peaceful.

As al-Sadr walked through a checkpoint to enter the Green Zone, officials in charge of the compound’s security greeted the cleric with kisses and provided him with a chair. Al-Sadr was accompanied by his personal security detail and the leader of his Shiite militia, Sarayat al-Salam. After he began his sit-in, al-Sadr’s supporters started erecting tents and laying down mattresses.

In February, al-Sadr demanded Iraqi politicians be replaced with more technocrats and that the country’s powerful Shiite militias be incorporated into the defense and interior ministries. After weeks of growing protests in the Iraqi capital, al-Sadr repeatedly threatened to storm the compound if his demands for government overhaul were not met. Baghdad’s Green Zone, encircled by blast

walls and razor wire, is closed to most Iraqis and houses the country’s political elite, as well as most of the city’s foreign embassies. Al-Sadr has called it a “bastion” of corruption.

Most Iraqis blame the country’s politicians for the graft and mismanagement that are draining Iraq’s already scarce resources. Unlike the widespread, largely civic protests last summer, however, al-Sadr’s demonstrations are attended almost exclusively by his supporters, who have made few concrete policy demands.

Earlier this month, Iraqi security forces manning checkpoi nts i n Baghd ad aga i n stepped aside to allow alSadr’s supporters to march up to the Green Zone’s outer walls to begin a sit-in, despite a government order deeming the gathering “unauthorized.”

The move called into question al-Abadi’s ability to control security in the capital.

“I thank the security forces,” al-Sadr said before beginning his sit-in. “He who attacks them, attacks me,” he added.

While al-Abadi proposed a reform package last August, few of his plans have been implemented, as the leader has made several political missteps and struggled with the country’s increasingly sectarian politics amid the ongoing fight against the IS group.

Shiites dominate the central government, while the country’s Kurds in the north exercise increasing autonomy and much of the Sunni population has either been displaced by violence or continues to live under IS rule. AP

The World BusinessMirror

A8 Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Global Catholic Network founder Mother Angelica has died

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ANCEVILLE, Alabama—Mother Mary Angelica, a folksy Roman Catholic nun who used a monastery garage to begin a television ministry that grew into a global religious media empire, has died. She was 92.

Known to millions of viewers simply as “Mother Angelica,” the founder of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) died on Easter Sunday at the rural monastery where she lived about 45 miles north of Birmingham, according to EWTN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw.

“Mother has always, and will always, personify EWTN, the network which she founded. In the face of sickness and longsuffering trials, Mother’s example of joy and prayerful perseverance exemplified the Franciscan spirit she held so dear. We thank God for Mother Angelica and for the gift of her extraordinary life,” Warsaw said in a news release on late Sunday.

Mother Angelica had been in declining health since suffering a severe cerebral hemorrhage on Christmas Eve 2001. She never regained her full speaking ability and had other, less-severe strokes through the years.

Bedridden for months, Mother Angelica was placed on a feeding tube this fall as her health slowly declined, fellow nuns at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery said in an announcement released last November.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said in a statement on Sunday that Mother Angelica will live on forever in the hearts of those touched by her sermons.

“On this Easter Sunday, it is only fitting that the Lord chose today to call home one of his humble servants, Mother Angelica. She devoted her life to ministry, converting untold numbers of people to the church. She left an indelible mark on Alabama, the Catholic Church and the world as a whole,” Bentley said.

Although she had been out of the public eye for years and was no longer appearing on her trademark Mother Angelica Live show, old episodes of her show have remained a programming staple on

Painkiller abuse brings changes to patient care

MOTHER Angelica, founder of the Eternal Word Television Network. EWTN Eternal Word.

“We want you to know how much God loves you, and that’s a lot,” she told viewers at the end of an episode taped in November 2000.

Mother Angelica displayed both deep devotion to Jesus and a comic’s timing on the episode, drawing laughs when she couldn’t reach her Bible during the opening sequence. An unseen aide hands her the book from off camera.

“That’s when you appreciate long arms,” Mother Angelica deadpanned.

Mother Angelica was born Rita Rizzo in Canton, Ohio, in 1923. She entered the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration monastery in Cleveland at age 21 and joined other nuns in moving South to open a new monastery in Alabama in 1962.

With only $200, the nun began broadcasting a religious talk show from a TV studio put together in the monastery garage in suburban Birmingham in 1981.

That show grew into Eternal Word Television Network, which has long had the blessing of the Vatican.

While critics sometimes accuse Eternal Word Television Network of being too conservative or too liberal, it says it tries to stick to the leadership of the Vatican. The network reports extensively on statements and trips by the pope.

Despite its humble beginnings, EWTN Global Catholic Network calls itself the world’s largest religious media network. It has 11 TV networks that broadcast Catholic programming to more than 258 million households in more than 145 counties and territories. AP

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Limit for driving and drinking on US bases in Japan dropped

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OKOTA AIR BASE, Japan— The US military is dropping the limit for drinking and driving on base to match Japan’s ultra-low standard. US Forces Japan (USFJ) said on Monday the move is not related to recent alcohol-related incidents involving service members.

Starting on April 4, the on-base driving limit for blood alcohol concentration will match the 0.03 percent that applies off-base, USFJ Spokesman Lt. Col. Ken Hoffman said by e-mail.

“Currently, there are varying policies on-base that range from a blood alcohol concentration of .03— .05, which creates confusion for service members stationed in Japan,” Hoffman said. “Setting a standard policy across Japan for all service members will eliminate any confusion.”

BAC limits in the states are typically about 0.08 percent, allowing people to legally operate vehicles after consuming a couple of standard-sized alcoholic beverages.

The new policy means that people, who are caught with a BAC between 0.03 and 0.079, face a mandatory 60-day suspension of driving privileges, and commanders have the discretion to impose additional penalties. Military drivers, who are caught with a BAC at or above 0.08, are subject to action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Hoffman said.

Punishment for driving off-base in Japan after imbibing as little as a single alcoholic drink—depending on body weight—can be much more severe: a jail sentence and/or thousands of dollars in fines.

Hoffman said the policy change is not a response to the alleged rape of an Okinawa woman by a US sailor or the alleged assault of a Japanese woman on a Tokyo-bound flight by a Navy officer this month. Alcohol was a factor in both incidents, according to Japanese police.

US personnel in Japan are already subject to a curfew that was imposed following the rape of an Okinawa woman by two US sailors in 2012.

The drink-driving policy change has been under review for several months, Hoffman said.

“There is no relation to recent incidents,” he said.

The change is being made to avoid confusion among US personnel about drink-drive limits on various bases, he said.

On Yokota Air Base, the USFJ Headquarters, for example, people have been permitted to drive with a

BAC below .05, according to the base web site.

USFJ was unable to provide data on rates of drink driving or accidents caused by impaired drivers on its bases. However, Hoffman said the number of alcohol-related driving incidents on US installations is very small and that the new policy will probably not result in much change.

“The point is to standardize the policy across Japan and to bring it in-line with our host nation,” he said.

Customers at a Yokota shopette said they didn’t have an issue with the new limit.

“I drink, but I stay at home and drink and don’t drive,” said Air Force spouse Hazel Alde, 29, who was gassing up her Subaru Forester.

Kevin Sorenson, a civilian manager at the Tama Hills Recreation Area for US personnel in Tokyo, said the policy change sounded like a good idea to him, since it means less confusion about the rules.

“Otherwise, people will think they can drive on-base and then they will be breaking the law when they get off-base,” he said.

Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Powell, a nondrinker, said the claim that the policy change has nothing to do with alcohol-related incidents

sounds dubious.

“From a political standpoint, we have to have a positive relationship with the Japanese and any incidents cause problems,” he said.

The stricter limit should mean fewer off-base incidents, but on-base shuttle services should run longer to help people cope with it, Powell said.

Hoffman said people will have to reevaluate how and when they drink and what strategies they use to get home safely.

“Service members and their families will need to develop plans, just as they would for off-base driving.

We expect everybody to behave responsibly whether they are on or off-base. If you drink, don’t drive.

If you drive, don’t drink. It’s that simple,” he said.

Any type of alcohol-related driving incident, from a mere violation up to a major accident involving serious injuries or death, results in consequences much more serious than an inconvenience, Hoffman added.

There are no plans to provide additional transport options for people living on-base once the new policy is in place. Various installations have programs to provide safe on-base transport for personnel, he said. TNS

Currently, there are varying policies on-base that range from a blood alcohol concentration of .03-.05, which creates confusion for service members stationed in Japan.”—H

SHANGHAI DISNEYLAND OPENING-DAY TICKETS SOLD OUT ONLINE IN HOURS

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N the midst of a national epidemic, doctors and health regulators are trying to find the right balance between helping people in pain and keeping them from overdosing on prescription painkillers.

Prescriptions for opioid pain relievers jumped from 76 million in 1991 to nearly 200 million in 2014. It is unclear how many Americans take the drugs since the total includes refills and multiple drugs for the same patient. Overdose deaths from painkillers more than quadrupled during the same period, to about 19,000 in 2014, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

An estimated 2 million Americans abuse prescription painkillers. More than 40 die every day from accidental overdoses, a rate that a top federal health official calls “doctor driven.”

“We think the pendulum on pain management swung way too far toward the ready use of opioids,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “We’re trying to chart a safer and more effective course for dealing with chronic pain.”

This month, several federal, state and local agencies issued new rules and guidelines for prescription painkillers in response to what the CDC calls the worst epidemic of unintentional drug overdose in the US history: n The CDC said in its new guidelines for doctors that prescription painkillers, like OxyContin and Vicodin, should not be the first-choice treatment for back pain, arthritis and other common ailments.

Physical therapy, exercise and over-thecounter medications, such as aspirin or ibuprofen, should be tried first. Painkillers should be prescribed at lower doses, and for shorter time periods, according to the guidelines. n Prescription painkillers will now carry the most stringent “black-box” warnings from the Food and Drug Administration about the risk of abuse, addiction and death. n St. Louis County approved a prescription drug monitoring program aimed at preventing people from “doctor shopping” to get multiple prescriptions for painkillers. TNS

ENTERTAINERS perform during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Walt Disney Co. Shanghai Disney Resort in 2011. QILAI SHEN/BLOOMBERG

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ICKETS for the June 16 opening day of Walt Disney Co.’s new theme park in Shanghai were sold out on its official ticketing web site hours after going on sale at midnight on Monday.

Tickets from June 17 to September 30 are still available, ranging in price from 370 yuan ($57) for nonpeak periods, to 499 yuan for peak periods, which include the park’s first two weeks, all weekends and the summer months of July and August.

The 963-acre park, Disney’s sixth worldwide, is three times the size of Hong Kong Disneyland, with nonpeak tickets costing about 20 percent less. CEO Robert Iger has called the China resort Disney’s greatest opportunity since Walt Disney himself bought land in central Florida in the 1960s. The company plans to court 330 million Chinese who live within a three-hour train or car trip of Shanghai.

“Relying on the large desire for family-style entertainment and the

rising purchasing power of Chinese consumers, Shanghai Disneyland is likely to set off massive consumer demand,” Chang Jiang Securities Co. analyst Li Jin wrote in a note released on Monday.

The resort’s revenue is likely to range from 24 billion to 40 billion yuan a year, with up to to 50 million visitors expected annually, according to Li.

Shares gain

SHARES of Disney-related compa-

nies gained in Shanghai trading today as ticket sales began. Shanghai Construction Group Co., which won a bid for Shanghai Disney park’s site formation project, advanced by as much as the 10-percent daily limit, as did Shanghai Jielong Industry Group Corp.

Hotel rooms at Shanghai Disney Resort were also quickly snapped up.

As of noon on Monday, rooms were fully booked at the resort’s two on-site hotels, the Toy Story Hotel and the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel,

for the first two weeks of the resort’s opening, according to the booking web site.

Rooms at the Toy Story Hotel start at 850 yuan, while rooms at the Shanghai Disneyland Resort Hotel are priced at about 2000 yuan.

Shanghai Disney Resort’s ticketing web site requires buyers to register their ID numbers upon purchase to prevent ticket scalping. Walt Disney representatives did not reply to e-mailed questions and phone calls seeking comment. Bloomberg News

PAKISTANI police officers stand guard at the site of a bomb blast in a park in Lahore, Pakistan, on March, 27. A bomb blast in a park in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore killed 70 people, so far, and wounded scores, a health official said. AP/K.M. CHUADARY

BusinessMirror

World The

A9 | Tuesday, March 29, 2016 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Saudi Arabia: 109 Yemenis traded for 9 Saudis amid war

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IYADH, Saudi Arabia—A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which is fighting a war with Yemen’s Shiite rebels, said on Monday it has traded 109 Yemeni prisoners taken during the fighting in the neighboring country for nine Saudis who were held captive.

It was the latest prisoner exchange ahead of a scheduled April cease-fire and peace talks.

A coalition statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency said the trade happened on Sunday, but it did not explain how the Saudis ended up in custody in Yemen. It said

the Yemenis held had been detained in “areas of operations near the border of Saudi Arabia.”

The exchange comes as the Saudi-led coalition and Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis, have agreed to a cease-fire at midnight on April 10 ahead of peace talks starting on

April 18 in Kuwait. Earlier this month, another exchange saw Saudi Arabia release seven Yemenis for one of its soldiers.

In its statement, the coalition said it hoped the tentative calm now in Yemen would allow “aid to reach all Yemeni territories” and would support United Nations’ efforts to end the fighting.

Yemen’s conflict pits the government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, against the Houthis, allied with a former president. The Houthis took over the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in September 2014, and the US-backed coalition began air strikes against them in March 2015.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in fighting, millions are displaced and the Arab world’s poorest country has been pushed to the brink of famine.

In the chaos, a powerful al-Qaeda affiliate has seized a large swath of territory across the country’s south and east, while an upstart Islamic State branch has carried out a series of attacks. AP

State Department: 2 more Americans are Brussels victims

Girl escapes 2-year captivity in Japan; police arrest man

ASHINGTON—Two more Americans have been identified as killed in the attacks on Brussels, the State Department confirmed on Sunday, bringing to four the total number of US citizens confirmed as victims.

The State Department said, “We express our deepest condolences” to those who lost loved ones in the attack, but declined to identify them publicly.

Officials have said previously that at least a dozen Americans were injured in the attack on Tuesday.

Earlier on Sunday, the White House said President Barack Obama telephoned the parents of an American couple identified as among the dead in last week’s attacks.

The White House said Obama offered his condolences and praised Jus-

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tin and Stephanie Shults as epitomizing all that was good about America.

Justin Shults was originally from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and his wife, Stephanie, was a native of Lexington, Kentucky. They graduated together from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. A family member said they were dropping Stephanie’s mother off at the airport and were watching her walk through security when the bombs went off.

The White House said the President also assured their parents that the thoughts, prayers and resolve of the nation are with them at this difficult time.

Thirty-one people were killed and 270 injured in the attacks on Tuesday at the Brussels airport and a train station. AP

OKYO—Japanese police early on Monday caught a 23-year-old man who had been sought since a teenage girl escaped his apartment, after being held captive for nearly two years.

The girl’s disappearance from her hometown in Saitama, near Tokyo, when she was just 13, was major news in Japan at the time.

Police said the now-15-year-old girl escaped from suspect Kabu Terauchi’s apartment in downtown Tokyo on Sunday, while he was shopping in Akihabara, a district known for technology and comic-book geeks. Saitama police said the girl, whose name was withheld because she is a minor, told investigators that she escaped when her captor forgot to lock the door. The girl was seen wearing a sweat suit and sandals in the cold weather, when she called home from a pay phone at a train station in downtown Tokyo. AP

DEATH TOLL FROM EASTER SUNDAY BOMBING IN PAKISTAN REACHES 70

SUPPORTERS of Yemen’s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, seen in posters, who are allies of Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, attend a rally to mark the first anniversary of the Saudi-led military campaign against them, in Sanaa, Yemen, on March 26. On Friday, in his first speech in months, the leader of the Houthi rebels called for street rallies to mark the occasion. AP/HANI MOHAMMED

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AHORE, Pakistan—The death toll from a massive suicide bombing targeting Christians gathered on Easter in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore rose to 70 on Monday as the country started observing a three-day mourning period following the attack.

Meanwhile, in the capital of Islamabad, riots erupted for a second day, when extremists who have been staging a protest since Sunday surged toward the Parliament and other key buildings in the city center. The demonstrators set cars on fire, demanding that the authorities impose Islamic law or Sharia.

The army was again deployed to subdue the rioters.

The Lahore bombing, which was claimed by a breakaway Taliban faction that has publicly supported the Islamic State group, took place in a park, crowded with many families with children celebrating the holiday on Sunday. Many women and children were killed and at least 300 people were wounded.

The attack underscored both the precarious position of Paki-

stan’s minorities and the fact that the militants are still capable of staging wide-scale assaults despite a months-long military offensive targeting their hideouts and safe havens in remote tribal areas.

Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the breakaway Taliban faction, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar told The Associated Press late on Sunday that the suicide bomber deliberately targeted the Christian community celebrating Easter. Ahsan said the attack also meant to protest Pakistan’s military operation in the tribal regions.

The same militant group also took responsibility for the twin bombings of a Christian Church in Lahore last year.

Even though the bombing targeted mainly Christians, most of those killed in Lahore were Muslims, who were also in the park on Easter Sunday. Of the dead, 14 have been identified as Christians, according to Lahore Police Supt. Mohammed Iqbal. Another 12 bodies have not yet been identified, he said.

In Islamabad the protesters

marched into the city on Sunday in protest against the hanging of policeman Mumtaz Qadri in February. Qadri was convicted for the 2011 murder of governor Salman Taseer, who was defending a Christian woman jailed on blasphemy charges. Taseer had also criticized Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws and campaigned against them.

As the protesters reached an avenue leading to the Parliament, the march turned violent, with Qadri’s supporters smashing windows and damaging bus stations. Police fired tear gas but could not subdue the crowds Sunday.

In recent weeks, Pakistan’s Islamist parties have been threatening widespread demonstration to protest what they say is Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s leanings toward the West. They have also denounced provincial draft legislation in Punjab outlawing violence against women. Sharif also this month announced recognition of holidays celebrated by the country’s minority religions, recognizing the Hindu festival of Holi and the Christian holiday of Easter. AP

A10 Tuesday, March 29, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Get a haircut!

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T seems that we are becoming obsessed about how we stand as a nation and a people in comparison to the rest of the world.

Two weeks ago an international survey ranked the Philippines the 90th in “The 2015 World Happiness Report.” Immediately that information became an important topic of discussion. “Why are we only 90th?” “What needs to be done to improve our ranking?”

And then we dig deeper into the topic noting that “Filipinos are third happiest in Asia.” Further, there must be something wrong with the current rankings since in 2015 on the United Nations’ International Day of Happiness, we were placed fifth globally—along with Singapore, Switzerland and Uruguay—on the “Happiness Index.” Unfortunately, we were outranked by Venezuela, which got the No. 3 spot. Maybe if we had 720-percent annual inflation, we might be happier too.

The government is on board with the surveys reminding us about our ranking in corruption, transparency, the quality of government web sites and anything else that elected leaders might even remotely take credit for.

However, there are some surveys that the administration does not want to highlight, such as 54 percent responding to a recent survey that the quality of their lives remained unchanged during the tenure of President Aquino. But, that is no matter. We have found a recent economic analysis and global survey that we all—including the government—can find useful.

Of 71 cities around the world from such diverse towns as Tel Aviv, Israel to Lima, Peru, the Philippines is one of the least expensive places on earth to have your hair cut for both men and women.

This is a price survey of a top-quality hair cut. The most expensive city for a man to have his hair done is Oslo, Norway, where the equivalent US dollar price is $77.72. The lowest-priced city for a man to have some personal grooming is Jakarta, Indonesia, at $4.50. But do not think you have to leave our own shores. In Manila the price is calculated at $5.40 or about P250. The survey is obviously not talking about a shop with a sign hanging in front that says Gupit.

Women in the Philippines are not left out either. Oslo, again, is the most expensive on the planet at $95.04, and again also Jakarta at $4.62.

Manila is the second least expensive for women at $6.18 or about P300.

Interestingly, there does not seem to be any regional trends. The top 10 highest prices are found in Europe, the US and New Zealand. The lowest are in Asia, Africa and South America. But every region is part of top, middle and bottom price ranges. New York City is one of the most expensive and is three times higher than Miami, Florida. Women in Israel pay $55.92, but South Korean women are charged only $15.64.

Is there any economic opportunity here? Our ecotourism and medial tourism programs have not been a great success. How about “Haircut Tourism”?

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BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Founder Publisher Editor in Chief Managing Editor Associate Editor News Editor City & Assignments Editor Senior Editors

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When this nation will rise Manny B. Villar

THE ENTREPRENEUR

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HAVE discussed agriculture and its relation to unemployment and poverty problems many times, and I will continue to do so just to keep these issues alive, because they have persisted for many decades and continue to cry out for solution.

Early this month the World Bank told foreign businessmen who gathered for the fifth Arangkada Forum of the Joint Foreign Chambers that the Philippines must go back to agriculture if it is to alleviate poverty among the people. World Bank’s lead economist Rogier van den Brink said that many countries, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China, have succeeded not only in growing their economy but in reducing poverty by starting with agriculture.

That has always been my position, and I believe it is time to talk about agriculture, poverty and unemployment again as we approach the presidential elections and prepare for a new administration.

The official statistics on poverty, unemployment and on the major sectors of the Philippine economy clearly show why growth, though

HOM

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group—16.7 percent of the total employed as of the same date. Workers in the services sector comprised the largest proportion of employees at 56.3 percent of the total employed in January 2016.

In another area, the Philippine Statistics Authority estimated poverty incidence among Filipinos in the first semester of 2015 at 26.3 percent, equivalent, roughly, to more than 26 million Filipinos.

Among the regions, the National Capital Region (NCR) or Metro Manila, the most urbanized region in the country, posted the lowest poverty incidence at 6.5 percent (despite the informal settlers’ problem in the metropolis).

Outside the NCR, Region 4A or Calabarzon, which hosts many industries and economic zones, posted the lowest poverty incidence at 13.4 percent. The exception is Quezon

The economy may be in trouble John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

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impressive in general terms, has remained un-inclusive.

In 2015 the economy grew by 5.8 percent, but the agriculture sector grew by only 0.2 percent, almost negligible compared to the 6.0 percent posted by the industry sector and the 6.7 percent recorded by the service sector.

Thus, agriculture’s contribution to growth was almost nothing at 0.2 percent. The 5.8-percent GDP growth came only from services at 3.8 percent and industry at 2.0 percent.

Although agriculture is the smallest contributor to economic growth, it is the second-largest employer. Based on the latest Labor Force Survey, workers in the agriculture sector made up 27 percent of the total employed as of January 2016, while workers in the industry sector made up the smallest

Despite the many promises we have been hearing in the election campaigns, no administration can succeed in wiping out poverty if it ignores the plight of farmers, fishermen and other workers in the agriculture sector. First, it is labor-intensive and, second, it is where the bulk of the poor are.

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N July of last year I wrote that the end of the current administration may conclude with an economic whimper and not with a bang. During the previous 12 months, the GDP growth rate was inconsistent and, while there were no particularly negative factors, the growth trend had been slowing.

Full-year data from 2013 showed a year-on-year growth of 7.2 percent.

This slowed to 6.1 percent in 2014 and we ended 2015 with a 5.8-percent increase. When you look at the internals of where the economic growth comes from, it is hard to pinpoint why this downtrend has happened. With the exception of a fairly substantial decline in manufacturing and slight fall in construction activity due mainly to government underspending, things look acceptable.

Certainly, agricultural output is now a problem with the impact of reduced rainfall because of El Niño.

But the great increase in the services sector should help mitigate agri output. There does not seem to have been any particular problem in the overall economic system that would account for the declining trend of growth.

Attributing the problem to government spending may not be accurate, as the spending has been relatively low for some time.

However, I am now looking at some situations that may have the administration end its term not with a whimper but even with a few tears.

The experts both in and out of government are optimistic about the economy for 2016. This is almost uni-

A recent walk through both upscale and two SM City malls revealed something I have not seen for a long time: more than a few empty store locations. Automobile sales are still strong. But even in this sector, there may be too much unjustifiable optimism from the industry.

formly based on the ideas Moody’s Investors Service recently expressed.

“The country’s [Philippines’s] strong growth results from the continued strength of domestic consumption.”

If that is the case, then I believe the Philippine economy is in trouble for the short term.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo recently said that those receiving overseas remittances are saving more, allocating about 10 percent more of the remittances for savings.

This was attributed—in my opinion incorrectly—to increased optimism about the future.

If you are optimistic about future

Province, which is part of Calabarzon but is primarily an agricultural area.

Its poverty incidence as of the first semester of 2015 was 28.2 percent.

Regions where the major economic activity is agriculture generally have high poverty rates. In the Visayas, Region 8, comprised of the calamity-stricken Samar and Leyte provinces, posted a poverty incidence of 47.3 percent, with the province of Northern Samar recording a poverty incidence of 61.6 percent.

In Mindanao industries contributed to the comparatively low poverty incidence of 26.7 percent for Region 11, composed of the three Davao provinces and Compostela Valley.

The other regions, which are agricultural economies, fared poorly: Region 10 at 43.1 percent, Region 12 at 44.5 percent and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at 59 percent.

Despite the many promises we have been hearing in the election campaigns, no administration can succeed in wiping out poverty if it ignores the plight of farmers, fishermen and other workers in the agriculture sector. First, it is labor-intensive and, second, it is where the bulk of the poor are.

When our farmers and fishermen rise, the whole nation rises.

For comments, e-mail mbv.secretariat@ gmail.com or visit www.mannyvillar.com.ph.

income coming in and maybe increasing, you usually spend and not save.

But we are seeing a reduction in consumer spending almost across the board. The trend of retail sales growth on a month-on-month basis is generally lower than during the period 2012 to 2014. Year-onyear data showed a 0.96-percent increase in December 2015 versus 2.3 percent in December 2014. A recent walk through both upscale and two SM City malls revealed something I have not seen for a long time: more than a few empty store locations.

Automobile sales are still strong. But even in this sector, there may be too much unjustifiable optimism from the industry.

While I do not believe that any sort of slowdown in the Philippine economy is going to last more than a few months, there is currently some tension and uncertainty in the people’s economic outlook and that is all that matters.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com.

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Binay ahead on platform-based survey Cecilio T. Arillo

DATABASE

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ICE President Jejomar C. Binay overtook everybody at 27 percent, way ahead of Sen. Grace Poe’s 21 percent and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s 18 percent in the Philcoman Research Institute Inc.’s (PCMRII) platform-based survey conducted quietly at the start of the presidential campaign.

Trailing behind them are Manuel A. Roxas II with 16 percent and Rodrigo R. Duterte with 15 percent.

Founded in 1954, Philcoman, later revitalized as PCMRII, is a nationwide non-governmental federation of professional and technological societies, management development institutions, academe, business enterprises and professional managers dedicated to the development of management and improvement of management practices in all aspects of Philippine society.

Dr. Ernie Gonzales, a fellow of the London School of Economics and Political Science and PCMRII director for Research, said their field researchers had asked 1,200 respondents at random whom they would vote for president if elections were held on schedule on four important issues: social, political, economics and national security.

“The PCMRII survey differs from the usual popularity survey conducted by other research organizations. Ours is a nationalist, policy-oriented research study, where respondents are asked who of the candidates they think have concrete plans for the country based on the four interrelated important issues,” said Gonzales, a post graduate interdisciplinary professor at University of the Philippines-Manila and the University of Santo Tomas.

Simply stated, Binay was the choice of 27 percent of 1,200 respondents; Poe, 21 percent; Santiago, 18 percent; Roxas, 16 percent; and Duterte, 15 percent; with 3 percent out of the respondents still undecided. The sampling errors for national percentages is 3 percent, plus or minus; six for regionals; and the same for metropolitan Manila. With such margins of error, Santiago, Roxas and Duterte are practically tied for the third place, each with no socioeconomics and national security platforms so far.

Each percentage point is equivalent to 440,000 votes, assuming 44 million of the 54 million registered voters cast their ballot on May 9 as ordained by the Constitution. Of the presidential candidates, Binay is the only one with clearly defined platforms on the issues of political, social, economics and, in particular, national security, where he showed his expertise and policies on antiterrorism and cybercrime, which his office put into action in a series of seminars at the start of his term.

On the persistent issues of plunder and corruption, largely sourced from the one-sided Senate, Ombudsman and Commission on Audit investigations, which fall under socioeconomics, most respondents believed that Binay had merely been subjected to prejudgment of guilt by his political enemies to lessen his popularity among the masses and the middle class.

Senator Poe is highly admired among well-to-do respondents, but has no anti-

poverty, socioeconomics and national security platforms.

Meanwhile, Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. topped other vice presidentiables with 31 percent over Sen. Chiz Escudero’s 24 percent, Sen. Gregorio B. Honasan’s 16 percent, Rep. Leni Robredo’s 13 percent, Sen. Allan Cayetano’s 10 percent and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV’s 6 percent.

The issue against Poe is her being pro-oligarch and her lack of concrete socioeconomics and national security platforms; Santiago is popular among women and voting-age students, but her health is pulling her down; Roxas, according to most respondents, is proelite and has no concrete platforms for the masses; and Duterte, for his being confrontational and tendency to put the law in his hands, has not offered a concrete socioeconomics plan at all.

In the vice-presidential race, Marcos is the only one offering concrete solutions to the problem of graft and corruption, the Mindanao problem, the worsening crime situation, foreign affairs, and was cited for having brought the campaign to a high state of civility.

Apart from this, Marcos drew sympathy from majority of the respondents when leftists and some known elitists excessively launched an anti-Marcos campaign. Honasan surprisingly increased his standing from other surveys among the vice presidentiables when members of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), now an accredited party-list organization, and thousands of Guardians throughout the country, who are known for their nationalistic advocacies for social and economic reform, showed their unequivocal support after the start of the official 45-day campaign period.

In the senatorial race, incumbent Sen. Vicente Sotto III led the survey with 51 percent, followed by Sen. Ralph Recto with 49 percent, Rep. Martin Romualdez of Leyte, 48 percent; Dick Gordon, 47 percent; Ping Lacson, 45 percent; Senate President Frank Drilon, 43 percent; Rep. Manny Pacquiao of Sarangani, 41 percent; Sen. Teofisto Guingona, 39 percent; Sen. Serge Osmeña, 37 percent; Sen. Migz Zubiri, 36 percent; former Sen. Francis Pangilinan, 35 percent; former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Director General Joel Villanueva, 31 percent; Rep. Neri Colmenares, 26 percent; Risa Hontiveros, 22 percent; and former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino, 21 percent.

The PCMRII will release its next survey result to the media and on its web site by mid-April, and the last one will be announced on May 2, including its findings on the series of presidential debates.

To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@ gmail.com.

Searching for a Savior?

Edgardo J. Angara

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RECENT Foreign Policy article by Harvard Prof. Stephen M. Walt noted how people across the developed West are becoming more supportive of “great leaders” or politicians who seem extraordinary and strong and who promise miraculous solutions to present discontents.

The desire for bigger-than-life leaders is not unfounded either, given political institutions today have failed to improve people’s lives and provide solutions to increasingly complex and difficult societal challenges. In fact, the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Outlook on the Global Agenda cited “lack of leadership” as the third most concerning global trend, where up to 86 percent of respondents agreed that the world currently faces a “leadership crisis.”

But as Walt wrote in his article, it is time to abandon the pursuit of

great leaders, especially when many analysts have identified an equally noteworthy trend—the rise of authoritarianism across the developed and democratic world today.

Such a rise does not equate to dictators actually taking power but to an increasing number of voters with a psychological profile characterized by a deep desire for order, fear of outsiders and a willingness to allow heavy-handed ways.

This has profound implications.

For instance, a new University of Massachusetts-Amherst poll of

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American voters found that having “authoritarian inclinations” was the single most significant predictor whether they will support Donald Trump.

In 2009 political scientists from Vanderbilt University and the University of North Carolina did a study that attributed America’s polarized politics not to money or to gerrymandering, but to “authoritarians” who comprise a large electoral group across party lines.

Such analyses have yet to be applied and tested in the Philippines.

However, the 2010-2014 World Values Survey showed up to 40 percent of Filipino respondents answered “fairly good” when asked to rate “having a strong leader who does not have to bother with parliament or elections” as a way of governing the country.

This is worrisome, especially when our society’s problems require the concerted actions of the country’s institutions, not necessarily the initiatives of belligerent leaders who believe they have all the answers.

But many of our voters regard

Many Filipinos remain poor Ernesto M. Hilario

ABOUT TOWN

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O you still remember the mantra of then presidential candidate Benigno Aquino III in 2010?

For those with short memories, it’s this: “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.”

After nearly six years, has the poverty situation in the country improved substantially?

I don’t think so.

More than 26 million Filipinos still remain poor, with 12 million of them considered extremely poor, according to data from the National Economic Development Authority (Neda).

Those in the category of extremely poor, from where we sit, are those who do not have enough to eat, and can barely manage to survive from day to day.

But the Neda insists that the current poverty situation has improved compared to the same period in 2012, or two years after President Aquino assumed power, and in 2009 and 2006 under the Arroyo presidency.

The benefits of economic growth have actually trickled down to lower-income families, thus, helping bridge the wealth disparity between the rich and the poor, according to the Neda.

The Aquino administration partly attributes the slight decline in poverty incidence to the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), or the Conditional Cash-Transfer (CCT) Program.

We must concede that the 4Ps program is working as a safety net

for very poor families. In exchange for a monthly dole-out of P1,400, beneficiaries must ensure that their children of school age regularly attend school and pregnant mothers undergo regular checkups in the nearest government health center.

This year, the 4Ps Program has a budget of around P65 billion. Critics say the money spent for the program is better spent for employment generation, but that view assumes that the corrupt and the unscrupulous in government will not steal money intended for the poor.

The 4Ps Program is not the centerpiece antipoverty strategy because it is limited in scope. The amount transferred to poor families is only about 20 percent of their actual monthly needs, and it targets only 15 percent of people below the poverty line.

What it does is to assist the poor cope with daily survival, which is a laudable objective considering that nearly a third of the total population is considered poor.

The country’s 4Ps Program has earned praise from the World Bank, which first implemented smiliar programs in Brazil and Mexico.

Now, every presidential candidate promises to expand the 4Ps Program to attract more supporters

for their electoral bids.

That can only mean one thing: the 4Ps Program is working, even if at a snail’s pace.

We should reinforce our defense capability

CAN we defend ourselves against a foreign aggressor given our current military capability? Apparently not, given the fact that we have one of the weakest militaries in the Southeast Asian region.

While we are now gradually strengthening our military capabilities with the acquisition of modern equipment for our Air Force, Army, Navy and Coast Guard, we have to realize that an increase in the funds for military purchases mean a corresponding decrease in the delivery of basic social services, such as education and health, to the disadvantaged sectors of the population.

Thus, the government is on the right track in giving the United States military access to five bases here to reinforce our defensive capabilities and maritime security.

The military cooperation between the two countries under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca), which went into effect last January, is significant amid the dispute with China over territorial claims in the South China Sea. According to Edca, US military personnel will be rotated in five Philippine military installations.

One of these is the Antonio Bautista Air Base in the western Philippine island of Palawan, directly facing the South China Sea. The air base is some 300 kilometers east of Panganiban, or Mischief Reef, an outcrop occupied by China in the 1990s despite angry protests by the Philippines.

Another is Basa Air Base north

Bloodshed in Brussels: What we’re learning about terror bombers

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HIS time, Brussels bleeds.

Bombings in the Belgian capital’s international airport and its train station killed and wounded many people who were just trying to get from one place to another on Tuesday. Islamic State has claimed responsibility.

A grim fact of modern life: An attack of this scale and sophistication, horrendous as it is, is shocking…but not surprising.

Not surprising, that is, after authorities locked down the city for days after the November attacks in Paris, warning of an imminent terror assault on Brussels. Those predictions echoed in recent days as Belgian officials warned of more attacks from jihadists on the loose.

Not surprising because such vicious bombings now happen with the regularity of a metronome. A few

days ago in Istanbul. A few weeks before that in Baghdad. Before that, Beirut. Before that…

The attacks came just four days after the capture of Salah Abdeslam, the logistics chief of the Paris attacks last November and the last of 10 men believed to have been directly involved in those attacks.

He had reportedly told his captors that he was planning new operations from Brussels.

The timing here could be a coincidence. Or it could be that Abdeslam’s terrorist compatriots feared that he would spill details of an attack before they could launch it. We’ll all learn more as authorities round up the shadowy supporters of terror—the people who aid and abet these barbarians in their increasingly sophisticated attacks.

The Brussels onslaught, and a

just-released 55-page report by French law-enforcement authorities on the Paris horror, show how terrorists have significantly refined their techniques and strategies over the past few years. Four key takeaways: n Better tactical logistics: The Paris attackers showed a high level of coordination in the bombings and in their ability to juggle different modes of attack—bombings, shootings, hostage-taking— to overwhelm first responders.

For instance: French police were already spread thin by attacks at a soccer stadium and elsewhere when terrorists stormed the Bataclan concert hall and took hundreds of people hostage. Terrorists also have become more adept at using encryption programs on cell phones, or using and discarding

disposable “burner” phones, or even seizing cell phones from hostages to thwart police tracking. n More bomb-making prowess: Terrorists no longer need specialized, difficult-to-obtain explosive materials. The Police in Paris say the Bataclan bomb was made with common products—hair bleach and nail polish remover—easily found in drug or hardware stores in any city worldwide. Traces of the same explosive formula were found where attackers detonated suicide vests in Paris. n Greater elusiveness: The attackers in Paris—at least three of whom were wanted on international arrest warrants before the attacks—moved easily between Belgium and France, and sometimes between the Middle East and Europe. How? Echoes of America’s 9/11 attack: Security

services in different countries cannot or will not share intelligence about potential terrorists for “legal, practical and territorial reasons,” The New York Times reports. “We don’t share information,” Alain Chouet, a former head of French intelligence, told the Times. “We even didn’t agree on the translations of people’s names that are in Arabic or Cyrillic, so if someone comes into Europe through Estonia or Denmark, maybe that’s not how we register them in France or Spain.” n Safer havens: Terrorists rely on networks of friends and family to hide them. Abdeslam, Europe’s most wanted man, was captured only a few blocks from where he grew up in Brussels. After the Paris attacks, he had slipped out of France, and eluded Brussels authorities for months, moving

elected officials, especially the president, as little messiahs able to face down the nation’s greatest challenges. This is a hallmark of how our politics remains centered on personalities rather than platforms or principles.

The leaders we need to elect should be competent individuals focused on building better institutions that are more responsive to the needs of citizens. Young and ambitious political upstarts could be trained to become such individuals through a well-developed political party system—except ours follows the model of who has the money and machinery, instead of the character and advocacies worth supporting.

We shouldn’t abandon outright the pursuit for great leaders. Candidates should be subject to the closest scrutiny as to their competence and integrity. What I strongly suggest we abandon is the idea that whoever we elect can miraculously solve all our discontents by themselves.

E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com.

of Manila, home of the Philippines’s main fighter wing, which is also close to disputed waters. Basa Air Base is about 330 kilometers from Panatag or Scarborough Shoal, also occupied by Chinese vessels after a tense confrontation with Philippine ships in 2012.

The other bases where US forces can be rotated are a major army training camp which also has its own airstrip in the north, and two air bases in the central and southern islands of the Philippines.

The designation of five bases that would host the US facilities under the Edca is the next best thing to boost the country’s defense posture and maritime security, while we beef up our military capability.

A side benefit of Edca, of course, is that we can turn to the US for help in disaster response and humanitarian assistance, since the country is highly vulnerable to natural disasters.

Critics of Edca are saying we don’t need the US to protect ourselves from an increasingly aggressive and emerging imperialist power, like China. They are grossly mistaken. As China is apparently bent on bullying other countries in this part of the world with its imaginary and baseless “nine-dash line” over practically the whole of the South China Sea, we need the help of the US and other friendly countries to thwart any further Chinese aggression.

The diplomatic effort through international arbitration under the aegis of the United Nations should go hand-in-hand with alliance building and building a credible defense posture to protect our national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com

around to different parts of the city, according to The Wall Street Journal. He evidently had plenty of help from associates he could trust. Several other people were arrested on suspicion of sheltering Abdeslam and another terrorist.

What Brussels had feared has now happened. Authorities across Europe will sift through this latest attack for clues about how these terrorists avoided capture, and how to prevent the next attack. They’ll seek new insights into what the terrorists have learned and how they have adapted to evolving police tactics.

The groups that feast on the slaughter of innocent civilians have a deep bench of suicidal soldiers, twisted admirers and skilled enablers. Eradicating them will take years. No one is safe until everyone is. TNS