BusinessMirror March 15, 2016

HE BNP Paribas Open has never been kind to Andy Murray. The best result the world’s No. 2 tennis player has achieved here was being the runner-up to Rafael Nadal in 2009, which he followed with a quarterfinal exit in 2010 and back-to-back opening-round losses, before he made it back to the semifinals a year ago, where he lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.

Whether that will change will be determined in the next week.

But on Saturday, at least, he showed that on the court—as in his life—he’s capable of adapting to change.

Fending off variable winds on the Stadium 1 court, Murray defeated Spaniard Marcel Granollers, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in a second-round match. By the end they were matching each other grunt for grunt, but Murray prevailed the way he so often does: with patience, speed and great tactics. And his newfound adaptability.

“The end we walk on to the court from, you were playing into the wind. It’s such a huge contrast from one end to the other because of how the air is here,” he said. “So when you’re playing with the wind it’s really flying on you and you feel like if you barely touch the ball, it’s flying a lot. Then from the other side, you know, it’s completely opposite. You really need to give the ball a big, big hit to get it deep.

“Much different conditions to what I have obviously been practicing and playing in, in the last five weeks, against a tough sort of unorthodox player.”

Granollers pushed him in the second set and had two break points in the eighth game before Murray held serve. Granollers saved three break points in the 11th game and took a 6-5 lead, but Murray won the next game at love and pulled away in the tiebreaker, finishing it with a cross-court forehand.

“He’s got quite a different game. He’s a very smart player, as well, intelligent player and often makes the right decisions,” Murray said. “Yeah, made it tough for me.”

But it wasn’t too tough for him to succeed in a previously hostile venue. “I haven’t necessarily played my best here over the years, but I think because the conditions are extremely lively and the balls here are so, so fast, that I don’t know,” Murray said.

“Maybe the quality of tennis isn’t as high as it is in other places when it’s a bit slower. I think when the conditions are calm, you know, I think the quality of tennis is high. But when it gets windy here it can be difficult to play really well, I think. It does make it challenging.”

Murray has recently had a lot of practice at handling change and challenges.

The most profound change occurred when he and his wife, Kim, became parents of a daughter, Sophia, on February 7. He struggles with being away from the baby, though he said Kim will bring her to the ATP Tour Masters 1000 event later this month in Miami.

“It’s been the best thing that’s happened in my life so far and hopefully that continues,” he said a few days ago. “If it doesn’t have a positive effect on my tennis, that’s fine. I’m still very glad that I’ve done it.”

The other major adjustment involved his coaching team.

Amelie Mauresmo remains his primary coach and will be on the road with him 22 to 24 weeks this year, but he’s no longer working with Jonas Bjorkman. Instead, Murray brought on former British Davis Cup player Jamie Delgado, who lives near Wimbledon and is available on a more consistent basis.

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NEWFOUND ADAPTABILITY

ANDY MURRAY prevails the way he so often does: with patience, speed and great tactics. AP

Bjorn Fratangelo took a 4-0 lead in the opening set and kept the match interesting until Novak Djokovic got back-to-back service breaks en route to winning the final five games.

MEDIA PARTNER OF THE YEAR

HILIPPINE Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Globe Telecom Inc. rallied in Manila trading, after San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Telstra Corp. ended talks on joint investment in a new mobile network in the Philippines.

PLDT and Globe, the Philippines’s t wo established phone companies, gained on expectations the collapse of Telstra and San Miguel ’s planned joint venture will weaken San Miguel’s ability to

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

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NDIAN WELLS, California—Novak Djokovic opened his bid for a third straight BNP Paribas Open title on Sunday night by surviving an unexpected challenge from American qualifier Bjorn Fratangelo, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

“All credit to Bjorn on playing a great match, but I wasn’t feeling comfortable at all on the court,” the top-ranked Djokovic said, after extending his winning streak at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden to 12 matches. “I was just trying to find a way, trying to hang in there and make it through.”

The 22-year-old Fratangelo was the French Open boys’ champion in 2011 and turned pro in 2012, but has been playing almost exclusively on the satellite tours. He’s ranked No. 149 and his firstround win on Friday was his first in four matches on the Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour.

He took a 4-0 lead in the opening set and kept the match interesting until Djokovic got back-to-back service breaks en route to winning the final five games.

“He deserved every point he got,” Djokovic said.

“He played a great match, especially in the first set.”

Djokovic, who has a 17-1 record this season, took the court after top-ranked Serena Williams moved into the women’s fourth round with a ragged 7-6 (2), 6-0 victory over Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan.

Later, fourth-seeded Rafael Nadal beat Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

In the opening set, Williams showed the effects of a six-week layoff since losing the Australian Open final.

The two-time tournament champion made 29 unforced errors and seemed completely out of a rhythm against Putintseva, who played aggressively and challenged every close line call.

“I was just trying to find my rhythm out there, trying my best to not get off to a slow start,” Williams said.

“Then I got broken really early and I couldn’t manage to break back. I was just trying to fight out there and do what I could.

“I found it [Putintseva’s style] good to play. I just wasn’t finding my rhythm. I hadn’t played someone like her, so I was just trying to get my bearings there.

I made a lot of errors in that first set. I went for a lot and I usually make those, but I kept missing. Even in the first game. Even though I won, I made some simple errors that just kept going for the first set.”

Williams had to break Putintseva’s serve to force the tiebreaker and then finally began to impose herself on the 56th-ranked Putintseva, winning the final five points.

“My intensity was higher and I started making my shots,” Williams said.

“I was going for it. I just kept missing it either in the net or missing it out.

Really, really close. I started making them, and then I started getting more confidence to continue to go for it, and that kind of helped me out.”

The second set was over in 24 minutes, with Williams making just four errors and winning 24 of the 30 points. She’ll face Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine in the fourth round.

Williams was joined in the fourth round by No. 3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Monica Niculescu of Romania; eighth-seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, who won the final four games of the match to beat Johanna Larsson of Sweden, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5; and No. 19 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, who routed Coco Vandeweghe of the US 6-0, 6-1.

Men’s fifth seed Kei Nishikori of Japan got his tournament under way with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan; No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France beat countryman Vincent Millot; and No. 31 Sam Querrey of the US overcame Thiemo De Bakker of the Netherlands, 7-6 (5), 6-4.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, has joined the defense of Nadal after doping accusations made by a former French minister.

The Spanish soccer giant expressed its “total support” for the 14time Grand Slam winner in a statement on Saturday, which called the accusations by former French Minister for Health and Sport Roselyne Bachelot “unjustifiable and intolerable.”

Bachelot claimed on French television on Thursday that the Spaniard’s seven-month injury hiatus in 2012 was “probably due to a positive doping test.”

Nadal is a prominent fan of Madrid and a “member of honor” of the club.

Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane also backed Nadal.

“I feel bad for what is being said,” the former France great said.

“Everyone who likes sports likes Nadal, whether you are French, American, he is spectacular.”

The Spanish Olympic Committee, National Team Manager Vicente del Bosque and Barcelona Coach Luis Enrique have also supported Nadal, who denies any wrongdoing. AP

RAFAEL NADAL (right) celebrates his victory over Gilles Muller, as Novak Djokovic returns against American qualifier Bjorn Fratangelo. AP

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Marquez said one of the country’s largest banks, for instance, has reported to the PNP that it lost a “substantial amount of deposits to hackers” months ago.

“Last November, for the very first time in their history, one of the largest banks of our country stepped forward, asked [for] our

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Bangladesh central bank blamed

ANGLADESH’S government lashed out at the central bank in a rare public split, as tensions escalate after hackers stole about $101 million from its foreign reserves.

Finance Minister Abul Maal A b du l Mu h it h vowe d to t a k e action against Bangladesh Bank, after it failed to inform the government immediately when the funds went missing from an account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last month.

Other transfers totaling $850 mil-

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PLDT, Globe shares rally as San Miguel, Telstra talks end

compete for wireless users.

Fitch Ratings Inc. said this will support the credit strength of PLDT and Globe in the short term.

San Miguel built a phone network with Telstra’s help to challenge PLDT, the former telephone monopoly, and Globe, the nation’s only other wireless carrier.

PLDT surged 12 percent, the most since 2011, at the close in Manila trading. Globe rallied 7.9 percent, the sharpest gain since June 2013.

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 46.6920 Tuesday, March 15, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 159

PHL banks already losing billions to cybercriminals

Let us be a step ahead of these criminals.”

—M

Bangladesh Bank has the audacity not to inform me.”

—M

lion were blocked, according to the central bank.

“Bangladesh Bank has the audacity not to inform me,” Muhith told reporters in Dhaka on Sunday. “I am

San Miguel’s venture Liberty Telecoms Holdings Inc. plunged 16 percent on volume that rose more than six times the three-month full-day average. Telstra shares gained 2.3 percent.

PLDT and Globe have raised capital spending to boost their digital network capacity before San Miguel’s entry. They have also asked the government to reallocate the 700megahertz spectrum, which has been largely assigned to companies related to San Miguel. Ang last No-

very unhappy about it. The handling of the matter by Bangladesh Bank is very incompetent.”

Subhankar Saha, a spokesman for Bangladesh Bank, declined to comment on Muhith’s remarks when reached by phone on Monday.

The cyber heist has rattled authorities from Bangladesh to the Philippines, where much of the stolen money ended up. Both governments are cooperating on investigations, as they look to figure out how to prevent a similar theft in the future.

S “B,” A

vember said PLDT and Globe have more than enough frequencies between them, and all they need is to improve what they have.

“The announcement is definitely feeding the positive sentiment on PLDT and Globe. These stocks have underperformed in the past few months because of cloud over the industry by the threat of a third player entering the market,” said Rafael Palma Gil, trader at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Bloomberg News

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

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ATIONAL Police chief Director General Ricardo C. Marquez on Monday directed the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) to take more proactive actions in protecting the economy from cybercriminals, as he disclosed that several local financial institutions have already fallen prey to these hackers.

SUNSHINE INDUSTRY The information technology

and business-process management industry is on track to hit its $25-billion revenue goal for 2016, as it crafts a new sixyear growth blueprint. Story on A3. NORIEL DE GUZMAN

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A N M iguel Corp.— through Bell Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (BellTel)—will proceed with the launch sometime in the first half of the year of its telecommunications and high-speed Internet services, with company President and COO Ramon S. Ang promising the same benefits for Filipino consumers as what they would have gotten in the botched partnership with Telstra.

“San Miguel’s entry in the telecom market will definitely be a game changer. When we launch, consumers will benefit from better, cheaper service,” Ang said, after the official announcement of the failed talks between San Miguel and Australia’s Telstra.

Juanis G. Barredo, chief technical analyst of online brokerage COL Financial Group Inc., said delivering on its promise is

ANG TO FULFILL PROMISE TO PINOYS SANS TELSTRA BellTel

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San Miguel’s bet in the telco industry, which, Ang said, will be a game changer

what the public is now looking forward to from San Miguel.

“Telstra would have provided a savvy and big partner. Without it, San Miguel may have to work on proving it can deliver—this may give other telcos breathing room to prepare,” Barredo said.

THE San Miguel-Telstra negotiations ceased over the weekend, due to “commercial issues arising from the possible equity investment by Telstra.” Both San Miguel Corp. and Telstra worked hard to come up with an acceptable resolution to some issues.

Collapse of talks

n JAPAN 0.4099 n UK 67.1478 n HK 6.0174 n CHINA 7.1911 n SINGAPORE 34.0147 n AUSTRALIA 35.2478 n EU 52.0569 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.4519

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Source: BSP (14 March 2016 )

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PHL banks already Ang to fulfill promise to Pinoys sans Telstra losing billions to cybercriminals C  A

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help, and for the first time, admitted that they have, indeed, registered some very significant losses to cybercriminals,” he said.

But Marquez, nor the ACG, despite proddings for them to identify the bank, did not disclose the name of the financial firm, apparently due to concerns over the effects of such report of hacking to the bank and over the possible reactions of its depositors. He, however, said the reported hacking was still being investigated, and that he could not disclose any detail.

“It is still under investigation.

I don’t think the PNP should be the one giving updates on that,” the PNP chief said. Marquez said this big bank is not the only one on the list of commercial and financial institutions that have been victimized by cybercriminals.

“We can only approximate with how much or how many millions, or billions, is the total loss of the banking industry just last year,” he said. The PNP chief urged the ACG to further work and train its anti-cybercrime operations in the financial sector and help guard the economy against criminals who specialize in exploiting the bad side of the Internet.

“Let us be a step ahead of these

criminals,” he said.

Meanwhile, Marquez said the PNP is ready to investigate the reported $81-million moneylaundering case involving the Rizal Commercial and Banking Corp. and some casinos if its assistance would be asked by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

“We are, of course, ready; we are waiting if the AMLC would need our assistance in its investigation,” he said. But even before the case went public, Marquez said the ACG has performed its job by conducting “cyber patrolling,” or initial cyber investigation.

However, he said, the formal investigation would have to be conducted by the AMLC, which they are ready to assist.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto ealier asked the Office of the President to “expedite the signing into law” of a Congress-approved bill creating the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). Recto, principal sponsor of the DICT bill, said early enactment of the remedial legislation will pave the way for timely deployment of DICT “Special Action Forces” in cyberspace, which will be tasked to protect the banking system from hackers. Recto said the threat of cyberattack on the local banking system is real.

However, we agreed we can no longer continue with the talks. I believe this is best for all parties,” Ang said on Monday.

Penn, for his part, said the two groups were not able to meet halfway, and that his camp is concerned about the balance of risks and rewards with regard to the multibilliondollar investment requirement for the joint venture.

“Despite an enormous amount of effort and goodwill on all sides, we were simply unable to come to commercial agreements that would have enabled us to proceed,” he said.

He added: “While this opportunity is strategically attractive, it was obviously crucial that the commercial arrangements achieved the right risk-reward balance for all involved.”

Bell to still ring

BUT Ang said BellTel will launch its services as sheduled.

“We are not yet officially lighting it up is because we are waiting for it to have a perfect signal from Pampanga to Batangas. Once we have the perfect signal, we will switch that on,” he said, adding that the service will eventually be expanded “to all major cities” in the Philippines. “Rest assured that we will be able to provide you a good service.”

Telstra, on the other hand, has offered to continue technical-work design and construction consultancy support to San Miguel.

“Our investment decisions will be guided by our capital-management framework. Investments remain an important part of our future to ensure sustainable growth in earnings and share-

holder returns over time,” Penn said.

New partner

WITH the termination of its negotiations with the largest telco in Australia, San Miguel is now scouting for a suitable partner for its telecommunications company. “We are not rushing. What’s important is that we give Filipinos a third and better choice that they have been deprived of for the longest time,” he said.

Telstra’s par tnership with San Miguel would have provided the latter a better position in the market— especially since the Australian giant is known to provide quality Internet service in its home.

This also strips off the Filipino conglomerate the financial muscle to support its planned rapid expansion to key areas in the Philippines.

Alexander Adrian O. Tiu, senior equity analyst at AB Capital Securities Inc., said San Miguel will now find it more difficult to expand its telco operations without a partner.

“Telstra would have brought in the much-needed expertise, capital and branding. As such, San Miguel might find it more difficult to expand without a partner. This translates to slower and much more conservative expansion,” he said.

More breathing room

THE two incumbent telcos are now on a better and a more relaxed position now that a large threat has been eliminated.

“I think the market will provide for a rally into other telcos—as we are seeing now—and weigh down on San Miguel for the meantime until clear plans surface for the telco venture,” Barredo said.

But nothing has changed for the

game plan of Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT ) Co., whose chairman announced this month that part of the company’s strategy for 2016 is the preparation for the entry of a third player.

“With or without a new player, we are vigorously pursuing our digital pivot strategy which involves a broad range of initiatives,” Smart Communications Inc. Spokesman Ramon R. Isberto said in an e-mail. “This includes major enhancements of the capacity and resiliency of our fixed and mobile networks, which will progressively benefit our customers this year and next.”

‘Break the band’

G LO B E Telecom I nc. Spokesman Yolanda C. Crisanto agreed, but said the more pressing issue on the matter is the “unfair allocation” of the 700-megahertz (MHz) band, which is now wholly owned by San Miguel by virtue of its ownership of smaller telcos.

“This new development about Telstra ending its plan of entering the Philippine market doesn’t change anything as regards to our business direction. The more serious concern is why San Miguel is being allowed to hold on to the entire 700-Mhz band,” she said.

She called on the National Telecommunications Commission to “immediately distribute the 700MHz band for fast deployment of high-capacity LTE-based wireless and fixed broadband that would benefit the entire country.”

Aside from Thailand, the Philippines is the only nation in the Asia Pacific with major issues preventing their allocation of the 700-MHz band to mobile broad-

band technologies, data from international telecommunications association GSMA showed.

Spectrum is the real estate on which telecommunication operators develop their respective network to deliver services to customers. The amount of spectrum assigned to a telco impacts the cost the build capacity, overall network performance, ability to offer new multimedia services and general customer experience of wireless services.

Utilizing the 700-MHz band would allow the deployment of a high-capacity LTE-based wireless and fixed broadband network to deliver higher data rate and LTE wireless broadband service. With the use of the 700-MHz frequency, broadband prices can go down further benefitting consumers.

The regulator has yet to issue a decision on the pending petitions of both Globe and Smart with regard to the reallocation of the spectrum.

For now, San Miguel will hold on to the precious asset, and will continue with the launch of its telecommunications business nationwide, despite the absence of a technical and financial partner. But for Fitch Ratings, the collapse of talks between Telstra and San Miguel will delay the entry of a formidable third telco into the Philippine market. “ Th i s w i l l s u p p o r t t h e c re d i t strength of the incumbents PLDT and Globe in the short term. However, the medium- to long-term threat of greater competition remains as San Miguel said it will still proceed with its own network rollout as scheduled, and will consider other jointventure opportunities in the future,”the credit watcher s a id in a repor t released on Monday.

PLDT, Globe shares rally as San Miguel, Telstra talks end

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Tuesday, March 15, 2016 A3

IT-BPM industry projects $25-B revenues Malaysia, PHL push in 2016 as it prepares new 6-year road map banking integration

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HE information technology and business-process management (IT-BPM) industry sees rapid and sustained growth and is on track to hit $25 billion in revenues this year, according to the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (Ibpap).

Bangladesh. . .

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Bangladesh Bank is investigating eight officials who carry out foreign-exchange transactions by rotation, according to a Finance Ministry official who asked not to be identified because he’s not authorized to speak about the probe. Some of the officials found

Jose Mari Mercado, Ibpap head, told reporters that, while revenues for 2015 has yet to come in, the industry forecast of $22 billion for the year is attainable.

“If we hit the $22-billion guidance for 2015, the industry is on track to hit the $25-billion goal for 2016, because that’s just a 14-percent increase. We have been posting that kind of growth in recent years,” Mercado said.

Ranked second to overseas Filipino workers’ remittances in contribution to the GDP, the IT-BPM sector’s revenues surged to $18.9 billion in 2014, from $8.9 billion in 2010.

In terms of work-force growth, the sector boasts of 1.07 million employees in 2014, from 520,000 employees in 2010.

the central bank’s computer systems inoperative on February 5, a day after the theft, but didn’t immediately inform their supervisors, the official said.

Some of the transfers were blocked, because the hackers spelled the name of one of the recipients incorrectly, according to a person familiar with the investigation who asked not to be identified because he was unauthorized to speak publicly. The central bank said it recovered $20 million of the stolen funds, and

$81 million is outstanding.

Saha, the central bank spokesman, said that Bangladesh Bank has set up a forensic team led by Rakesh Asthana, CEO of World Informatix, a Virginia-based cyber-security company. FireEye Inc. is also involved in the investigation, the company has said.

“Wecan’t disclose any finding of our investigation at this moment, as the Federal Reserve [the Fed] Bank and the Philippines are also involved in this whole process,” Saha said.

Since 2010, the IT-BPM sector has been growing at an average of 21.8 percent, according to the IT-BPM 2011-2016 road map. For 2015, the industry sees employment at 1.2 million, while revenues are expected to hit $22 billion.

The Ibpap is expected to update its projections with a new road map—The IT-BPM Roadmap 2016-2022—which will contain the growth assumptions and strategies, as well as the industry’s employment predictions. The road map will also outline the required interventions to scale up Filipino BPO services up the value chain, as well as the needed government support to sustain the industry’s growth.

Muhith last week said the Fed was responsible for the missing money and planned a legal fight to retrieve the funds. A Fed spokesman said afterward that instructions to make the payments from the central bank’s account followed protocol and were authenticated by the SWIFT codes system. There were no signs the Fed’s systems were hacked, she said.

“Cyber attacks are not unexpected,” Muhith said on Sunday. “It appears that our protection systems have some flaws.”

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HE Philippines and Malaysia on Monday signed a bilateral agreement advancing the further integration of the banking systems of the two countries in the region.

In a statement released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday, the central bank said it has agreed with Malaysia’s central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), on the guidelines regarding the entry of qualified Asean banks (QABs) between the two countries.

“The guidelines are contained in the Heads of Agreement [HoA] signed by BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. and BNM Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz in Kuala Lumpur on March 14,” the BSP said.

The BSP said the agreement is in line with the strengthening of intraregional trade and investments under the Asean Banking Integration Framework (ABIF).

The HoA is one of the first bilateral agreements to be signed under ABIF. This, according to the central bank, “marks a milestone within the broader Asean community.”

“While the HoA outlines market

access and operational flexibilities that may be accorded to QABs from each jurisdiction into the other, these QABs shall operate under the prevailing laws and regulations in the Philippines and Malaysia, respectively,” the BSP said.

Tetangco said the agreement shows the central bank’s commitment to support regional financial integration.

Tetangco added that “...being among the first Asean economies to do so only further highlights the importance we place upon the ABIF as a regional initiative, and as the future of our region.”

The QABs are strong and wellmanaged banks, headquartered in Asean and majority owned by Asean nationals. Banks that apply for QAB status must be endorsed by the home country regulator to and may be accepted by the host country regulator based on their bilateral agreement.

The ABIF is designed to realize the vision of “One Asean Community,” using these QABs as the vehicle for maximizing the vast trade and investment potential of the region. Bianca Cuaresma

AseanTuesday BusinessMirror

A4 Tuesday, March 15, 2016 • Editor: Max V. de Leon

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Singapore office rents may see prolonged drop

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INGAPORE office rents may decline as much as 25 percent in a prolonged slump that may last until the end of 2018, as demand slows, according to Daiwa Securities Co.

Daiwa expects 2018 to be a highly risky year for lease renewals and forecasts that rents will continue to fall until then, David Lum, an analyst at the brokerage said in a note to clients.

Lum forecasts a 25-percent drop in rents from the peak in the first quarter of 2015 through the fourth quarter of 2018, while predicting office values will slide 14 percent during the same period.

Daiwa joins other analysts in forecasting declines for the Singapore office sector as the outlook for global economic growth remains cloudy and a large supply outstrips demand for prime space. Singapore prime-office rents may fall up to 20 percent this year after declining 15 percent last year, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., while office values may see similar declines as rents this year after falling 6 percent in 2015.

Lum downgraded real-estate investment trusts (REIT) tied to offices to negative from neutral, and lowered all individual stock ratings to underperform from hold. Singapore office REITs have gained 4 percent to 7 percent this year, beating the 3-percent gain in the FTSE Straits Times REIT Index and the 3-percent decline in the benchmark Straits Times Index.

“We are concerned that their year-to-date performances are now at odds with the deteriorating fundamentals of the office sector, ” Lum said, referring to office REITs.

App Annie

A SINGAPOREAN shophouse may seem an unlikely symbol of Asia’s mobile boom. Yet, one muggy evening in March, about a hundred people packed App Annie Ltd.’s new and larger offices to mark its plan to capture data on millions of new smartphone users.

The start-up will triple staffing at its office in Singapore to 25 people this year as it targets new customers in India and Southeast Asia for the data it compiles on apps, how often they are used and the revenue generated. That’s being bankrolled by a recent $63-million funding, which

25%

Daiwa’s forecast drop in Singapore office rents from the peak in Q1 2015 through Q4 2018 also helped pay for the soiree attended by executives from the industry’s biggest names: Google Inc., Sequoia Capital and Zalora, among them.

App Annie is going where the demand is. Spending on mobile apps in Asia is expected to surge 24 percent to $28.3 billion this year—double that of the Americas—as rising incomes spur smartphone use in markets such as Indonesia. With more than 150 workers in China, where the company got its start before relocating to San Francisco, the Singapore expansion will help it measure the users around the region who’re bypassing earlier technologies.

“Devices are getting cheaper and many consumers are experiencing their first Internet experience through an app in smartphone,” said Bertrand Schmitt, the company’s bespectacled 39-year-old founder.

“Asia Pacific is already big and it keeps getting bigger. For us, that makes the region very exciting as a market. Revenue and downloads, growth are expected to be big.”

App Annie expects China to overtake the US this year to become the largest single app market with an estimated $11.8 billion in revenue.

China is already the world’s biggest smartphone market, while India has passed the US for second place.

The surging number of mobile devices and people going online through apps for the first time are fueling Asia’s mobile software arena, said Avinash Sundaram, a research manager for enterprise mobility at

IDC in Singapore.

“Asia is a clean slate and there are no legacy systems people have to worry about,” he said. “So they have the freedom to create new business models, which is helping to drive this app economy in Asia.” He cited Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s paymentsto-voice messaging service WeChat as an example.

App Annie—derived from App Nanny, to imply it takes care of all things app—is mostly unknown outside of tech circles yet counts the biggest names in the industry among its customers. It competes with Yahoo Inc.’s Flurry and Apptopia, making money by collating data from different sources and then signing up clients for subscriptions of $10,000 to more than $1 million a year.

Game developers to sharingeconomy players rely on its data and analytics to keep track of their businesses, as well as their competitors’.

Google uses App Annie’s services, as does Chinese search rival Baidu Inc., while other customers include Samsung Electronics Co., LinkedIn Corp. and Amazon.com. Inc.

In favor

ABOUT a fifth of App Annie’s customers are venture capital firms, including Redpoint Ventures, according to Schmitt. They use the data to inform their investment decisions and avoid pitfalls as the global economy cools. Its own backers include Sequoia and Institutional Venture Partners.

Market trends appear in their favor. Consumer spending on mobile apps in the Asia-Pacific region, home to more than half the global population, is expected to reach $57.5 billion by 2020, App Annie estimated in February. That’s more than half of the estimated worldwide consumer spending on apps of $101.1 billion.

In markets like India, the influx of smartphones priced below $50 is boosting adoption and downloads. In November 2015 average data usage per smartphone user in India and Indonesia grew by more than 50 percent on year, according to App Annie.

Longer term, the shift to a mobile-oriented economy is inevitable, he said.

“Every business is becoming an app business,” Schmitt said. “Because people are spending so much time on the phone, you need an app to provide a constant, connected experience for your consumers.” Bloomberg News

REMEMBERING THE 64 VIETNAMESE SOLDIERS

Vietnamese residents hold banners during a gathering in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Monday. About 200 Vietnamese gathered in central Hanoi on Monday to remember 64 Vietnamese soldiers who were killed by the Chinese navy in a clash 28 years ago in the disputed South China Sea. They lit incense and laid flowers at the statue of King Ly Thai To, a Vietnamese hero, and then marched around the landmark Hoan Kiem Lake, chanting “down with Communist China’s aggression” in the commemoration that lasted an hour. There were no official commemorations by the government. AP

AUNG SAN SUU KYI (foreground, center), chairman of the National League for Democracy, arrives at the Assembly of the Union complex, which houses the upper and lower houses of Myanmar’s parliament, in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, on March 10. Suu Kyi’s party avoided a potential showdown with the military by opting against nominating her to become Myanmar’s next president. Instead, one of her close allies and a member of the Chin ethnic group were put forward for the post. BLOOMBERG

Myanmar is about ready for its opening bell

M

YANMAR has four currency rates, no credit rating, and a shiny new stock exchange that doesn’t yet trade.

Those are some pieces of the financial puzzle that Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy inherited when it took control of Parliament on February 1. After five decades of military rule, the former dissident’s party will need to grapple with those and other legacies of the country’s isolation.

Investors see potential in the country of about 56 million people.

Myanmar has a capitalist culture—it developed a sophisticated black market during the junta’s rule—and natural resources. The country may end up being among the fastest- growing in the world this year: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts an 8.4-percent increase in real GDP in 2016. Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Myanmar is racing to put into place the financial infrastructure needed to cope with an expected influx of foreign investment and trade.

The central bank granted preliminary licenses to nine foreign lenders in October, including Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China. They’re expected to engage in institutional banking to facilitate the entry of foreign investors. The central bank has said it plans to award a second round of licenses this year.

Myanmar’s currency, the kyat, was pegged to the IMF’s special drawing rights basket for much of the junta’s reign. The official rate was set at about 6.4 kyat per dollar—which made it more than 100 times overvalued in comparison with rates available on the black market.

After the country started moving toward civilian rule, the central bank in 2012 introduced a managed float, initially setting the daily rate at 818 kyat per dollar. That regime is still in effect. Each morning, after commercial banks put in bids for the currency at an auction, the central bank announces a reference rate.

$80B

Mynamar’s funding needs for power, transport and technology projects through 2030 to modernize its economy, according to ADB estimates Banks are then allowed to buy and sell kyat in a trading band of 0.8 percent on either side of that rate.

Commercial banks also have more competitive, unofficial currency rates that they use on the quiet. Then there’s the black-market rate, which accounts for most transactions.

The central bank aims eventually to unify all four rates. Last year it started a slow depreciation of official rates. “The formal and informal exchange rates are now not much different,” says Win Thaw, the central bank’s deputy director general who heads its currency department. “It is below 1 percent. Some of the local banks and foreign banks that were awarded licenses have started forward and swaps trading.”

The reference rate as of February 1 was 1,293 kyat per dollar.

Traded only onshore, the kyat tends to be insulated from global market swings. To see the Central Bank of Myanmar’s rates, run [CBMM] on the Bloomberg Professional service.

For the country’s Treasury bills, go to [MYANMM]. Four of Myanmar’s largest local banks contribute their spot, cross and deposit rates. They are Myanmar Oriental Bank, KBZ Bank, Ayeyarwady Bank, and United Amara Bank.

Modernizing the economy

THE army’s rule left Myanmar one of

the poorest nations in Southeast Asia. As the country emerges from economic isolation, it will need $80 billion of power, transport and technology projects through 2030 to modernize its economy, the Asian Development Bank estimates. Financing might be helped along by a credit rating. The government appointed Citigroup and Standard Chartered last year as its sovereign credit rating advisers, but Myanmar still has no rating.

Going public

ONE thing Myanmar has is its own stock exchange. It was a long time coming. Daiwa Institute of Research Holdings, a unit of Japan’s second-largest brokerage, began laying the groundwork 20 years ago. After myriad delays, Myanmar opened the exchange in Yangon in December.

Six companies have been chosen to list, including two banks, according to the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission. First Myanmar Investment, a conglomerate controlled by businessman Serge Pun, aims to be among the first to trade, Pun has said.

Trading on the exchange is expected to begin in March. Foreign investors won’t have access at first. One of the fears is that the bourse ends up like exchanges in Cambodia and Lao PDR, which have failed to take off. Optimists argue that Myanmar’s market has a better chance of success, given that its $66-billion GDP is more than three times that of Cambodia or Laos. “Myanmar’s economy and population are not directly comparable to these nations,” says Melvyn Pun, a son of Serge Pun and a holder of First Myanmar Investment shares. “Myanmar has more than seven times as many people as Laos.” As part of preparation for the exchange, delegates from Myanmar visited Tokyo for “Stocks 101” classes taught by veteran Daiwa traders. Bloomberg News

Thai government targets Iran as key export destination in Middle East

T

HAILAND is targeting Iran as its key export market in the Middle East following the lifting of international sanctions against the country.

Deputy government spokesman Werachon Sukondhapatipak was speaking after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at Government House on Friday.

He said the action plan on economic and trade cooperation between Thailand and Iran took effect on January

16 this year, which paves the way for the two countries to work together on a wide range of issues, including trade, investment, energy and transport.

Prayut wants Iran, which has a population of more than 80 million, to become the key export market for Thailand in the Middle East, Maj. Gen. Werachon said, adding that Prayut also wants Thailand to serve as Iran’s goods distribution hub in the Asean region.

The deputy spokesman noted the two countries want to deepen bilat-

eral relations in all aspects after Iran reached a landmark deal with Western powers last year to limit its nuclear program in exchange for lifting most trade sanctions.

Prayut hailed Zarif for his instrumental role in negotiating with the world’s major powers, subsequently leading to the lifting of sanctions against Iran.

Werachon said this served as an example of a diplomatic approach in dealing with challenging global issues.

Both countries have held high-rank-

ing official visits, he said.

Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai attended the ninth meeting of Joint Commission on Economic, Commercial, Industrial, Technical, Agricultural and Scientific Cooperation between the two countries in Tehran in January, while Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak paid an official visit to Iran last month.

Zarif visited Thailand to bolster trade, energy, science and technology, tourism, agriculture and fishery cooperation.

As part of agricultural cooperation, Prayut was pleased with Iran’s interest in purchasing a large quantity of rice from Thailand, which is ready to offer a wide variety of grains. Thailand, he said, can also provide farm and processed food products.

Following the lifting of sanctions, the financial institutions in both countries will also seek closer ties, he noted.

The two countries will also cooperate in the field of energy, a sector in which Iran has advantages in natural gas, oil

and petrochemical developments.

The two countries, Werachon added, aim to boost tourism.

Relevant authorities will consider increasing direct flights between the two nations. Tourism packages will also be introduced to draw more Iranians to Thailand. Thailand and Iran will also share security information to ward off terrorism and extremism, as well as suppress human trafficking, drugs and transnational crime, the deputy spokesman added. MCT

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Big turnout for protests urging ouster of Brazil’s president

S

WOMEN SWORN IN AS MINISTERS IN U.A.E IN this February 14 image released by the Emirates News Agency, WAM and made available on March 14, (from left) Reem Ibrahim Al Hashimi, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation; Ohood Al Roumi, appointed as Minister of State for Happiness; Shamma Al Mazrui, appointed as Minister of State for Youth; and Noura Al Kaabi, UAE Minister of State for FNC Affairs, take part at swearing-in ceremony for ministers in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. WAM VIA AP

Kerry meets Europe’s top diplomats in Paris P

ARIS—US Secretary of State John F. Kerry called for the resumption of Syria peace talks on Monday in Geneva, following a meeting with France’s new foreign minister and other senior European diplomats.

Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault hosted Sunday’s meeting in Paris, which also included his British, German and Italian counterparts, and the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy chief.

The meeting comes ahead of UN-sponsored indirect peace talks on Syria, which are scheduled to start on Monday in Geneva, amid a partial ceasefire that came into force two weeks ago and has mostly held.

“We look forward to the resumption of talks in Geneva on Monday,” Kerry said in a joint news conference with his counterparts.

Fighting has continued inside Syria, but to a lesser degree than in February. Government forces advanced on the ancient city of Palmyra, which is held by the Islamic State (IS) group, while continuing to clash with jihadists and rebels in other parts of the country on

Sunday. In the northern part of the country, factions arrayed against the government turned against one another in an effort to assert their dominance during the cease-fire. al-Qaeda militants swept through a rebel-held town in northern Syria, arresting US-backed fighters and looting weapons stores belonging to the Free Syrian Army.

Delegations from the Syrian government and opposition, represented in part by the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC), arrived in Geneva on Sunday, but with conflicting visions for the talks.

HNC Spokesman Salem Mislet said the opposition would discuss the establishment of a transitional governing body in which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his associates would have no role.

“The Syrian people have submitted half-a-million martyrs, not to

keep Assad in power for a longer period, but in order to terminate his presence and to put an end to the suffering of the Syrian people and also to put an end to the terrorism that targeted the region,” he said.

But Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallam said on Saturday any talk of removing Assad during the transitional period was “a red line,” adding that the government rejected the United Nations envoy’s call for presidential elections to be held in the next 18 months.

Kerry said Moallam’s comments “clearly tried to disrupt the process” of negotiations.

Kerry insisted that both Iran and Russia—supporters of the Syrian regime—have adopted “an approach, which dictates that there must be a political transition and that we must move toward a presidential election at some point of time.”

The last round of indirect talks collapsed on February 3 over a Russian-backed government offensive in Aleppo. As the Syrian civil war enters its sixth year, Kerry reaffirmed the “determination” of the US-led coalition against the IS group in Iraq and Syria, “to defeat this barbaric organization.”

The meeting’s participants also issued a joint statement on Libya to express their support for the UN-

sponsored unity government and call for its quick installation in the country’s capital, Tripoli.

“Political unity and an inclusive and functioning government is the only way to put an end to the instability that has fueled the development of terrorism in Libya,” the statement said.

Libya fell into chaos after the 2011 toppling and killing of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. The country is ruled by two competing governments since 2014: An internationally-recognized body based in the eastern city of Tobruk and a rival one, backed by Islamist-allied militias, in Tripoli.

EU countries are preparing possible sanctions against officials in Libya blamed for undermining the peace process. The issue will be discussed at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.

Additionally, diplomats have discussed a possible initiative to restart the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, as France hopes to host an international conference on the issue in the coming months.

The new French Mideast peace envoy, Pierre Vimont, will travel to Washington next week to discuss France’s proposal, Ayrault said.

Yemen’s civ il war and the Ukraine peace process were also on the agenda of the Paris talks. AP

ÃO PAU L O — B r a z i l i a n s ratcheted up the heat for embattled President Dilma Rousseff on Sunday, turning out by the tens of thousands for demonstrations across the country calling for her ouster.

The biggest protest took place in Brazil’s economic capital, São Paulo, a bastion of simmering dissatisfaction with Rousseff and her governing Workers’ Party. The respected Datafolha polling agency estimated about 500,000 people took part in the São Paulo demonstration, while police estimates put turnout at nearly three times that number.

Organizers said about 1 million people joined the anti-Rousseff demonstration in Rio de Janeiro.

In a statement, Rousseff said, “The peaceful character of this Sunday’s demonstrations shows the maturity of a country that knows how to coexist with different opinions and knows how to secure respect to its laws and institutions.”

The street rallies came two days after she rejected the idea of resigning. The demonstrations add to an already-difficult position of Rousseff. She faces the twin problems of an impeachment effort in congress over alleged fiscal mismanagement amid the worst recession in decades and the sprawling investigation by federal prosecutors into corruption at state-run oil giant Petrobras that has moved closer to her inner circle in recent weeks.

Analysts said the strong turnout at the protests could further hamper Rousseff’s ability to fight for her political survival and could lead to the unraveling of her fragile governing coalition.

“There is a situation of ungovernability,” said Francisco Fonseca, a political science professor at Pontifical Catholic University in São Paulo. “The president has few cards.”

Fonseca pointed out that the demonstrations continued to be dominated by the largely white, upper middle class demographic that has been staging regular protests against Rousseff for over a year.

“The poor who are affected by the economic crisis aren’t in the streets,” he said, adding Sunday’s protests demonstrated a “generalized discontent with the political system” without necessarily shoring up any particular opposition party or politician.

Organized largely through social media, demonstrations took place in some 200 cities and towns across Brazil. Rousseff had raised fears of possible clashes between supporters of her party and the antigovernment demonst rators, but no serious incidents were reported during Sunday’s protests, which had a festive atmosphere.

Crowds in the yellow and green hues of the Brazilian flag brandished signs reading “Workers’ Party out.”

“She [Rousseff] has to go,” said

Patricio Gonzaga, an unemployed metal worker who took part in the São Paulo gathering. “She is the person responsible for the mess our economy is in—the inflation, recession and unemployment.

She is to blame for me being unemployed and having trouble supporting my family.”

Demonstrators across the country stressed that their anger extended well beyond Rousseff and the Workers’ Party, saying the “Car Wash” investigation into corruption at Petrobras had compromised the entire political class.

“Of course, I want to see Rousseff booted out,” said Maria de Lima Pimenta, a retired schoolteacher who was at the anti-Rousseff march along Rio’s Copacabana Beach. “But then the problem becomes, who will replace her? They’re all crooks.”

Protest organizers stressed that the movement isn’t linked to any opposition political party, and signs endorsing parties were largely absent from the demonstrations.

But several top politicians turned out, including Aecio Neves, the opposition politician who narrowly lost to Rousseff in the 2013 presidential run-off election, and São Paulo state Gov. Geraldo Alckmin. Both were booed, and like other politicians who ventured out to the demonstrations, both beat a rapid retreat.

The Petrobras scandal has ensnared key figures from Rousseff’s party, including her predecessor and mentor, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as well as members of opposition parties.

Political tensions in Brazil have spiked since earlier this month, when Silva was briefly detained by police for questioning, as part of the Petrobras probe.

Silva’s supporters and detractors scuffled in front of his apartment in the São Paulo area.

On Wednesday the tension rose again when Silva was hit with money-laundering charges in a separate case.

News reports have said Rousseff, whose second term runs through the end of 2018, has offered Silva a ministerial post that would shield him from possible imprisonment on any charges. Under Brazilian law, only the Supreme Court can authorize the investigation, imprisonment and trial of Cabinet members.

Rousseff said at a Friday news conference that she would be “extremely proud” to have Silva, a once-wildly popular leader who governed Brazil in from 2003 to 2011, but declined to say whether he would join the government.

Turning to calls for her to quit, she said it was objectionable to demand the resignation of an elected president without concrete evidence the leader had violated the constitution. “If there is no reason to do so, I will not step down,” Rousseff said, calling on journalists at the event in Brasilia to “at least attest that I don’t look like someone who is going to step down.” AP

Extremely rare whales make big showing in Cape Cod Bay B

OURNE, Massachusetts— Cape Cod is seeing a lot more of some singularly welcome tourists: endangered right whales enticed by the fine dining possibilities of its plankton-rich bay.

Experts tracking the majestic marine mammals—among the rarest creatures on the planet—say nearly half the estimated global population of 500 or so animals has been spotted in Cape Cod Bay over the past few springs.

They’re back again in what looks like record numbers, thrilling amateur photographers and scientists still anguishing over their future.

“It’s rather extraordinary and

somewhat mind-blowing,” said Charles Mayo, a senior scientist and director of right whale ecology at the federally-funded Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown.

North Atlantic right whales have foraged for centuries in Cape Cod Bay, where their numbers were decimated by whalers who hunted them for their oil and plastic-like baleen bone.

But until recently, they were seldom spotted in the bay. For a stretch in the late 1990s, fewer than 30 whales were sighted each year, said Mayo, who’s been surveying them and their ecosystem since 1984 by boat and plane.

“There has been a huge pulse in

numbers in the past few years,” said Amy Knowlton, a scientist with the New England Aquarium’s Right Whale Research Project.

“Right whales are probably scouting for food all the time.

Maybe when one of them finds it, they call their friends,” she said.

Each whale has a unique marking on its head, and researchers use those to identify and catalog individuals. The Aquarium, which also closely monitors the population, gives specific animals amusing names, such as K leenex, Snotnose and Wart.

Right whales spend most of their time in the western Atlantic, and many are believed to congregate

in the Gulf of Maine. They’re rarely seen north of the entrance to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in Canada’s Maritime Provinces. A few venture as far south as coastal Florida and Georgia, mainly females giving birth to calves— something scientists say doesn’t happen often enough.

Their increasing presence in Cape Cod Bay has caught scientists by surprise. Mayo theorizes that shifting ocean currents—possibly due to global climate change—are pumping more plankton into t he bay, even as the whales’ traditional feeding grounds off the Maine coast falter. AP

IN this April 10, 2008, file photo, a ballet of three North Atlantic right whale tails break the surface in Cape Cod Bay near Provincetown, Massachusetts. The endangered whales increasingly are frequenting the bay, enticed by the fine-dining possibilities of its planktonrich waters. They foraged in the bay for centuries, where their numbers were decimated when whalers hunted them for their oil and plastic-like baleen bone. For a stretch in the late-1990s, fewer than 30 whales were sighted each year. AP/STEPHAN SAVOIA

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Clinton: Foreign leaders wary of Trump

DEMOCRATIC presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets people as she arrives for a campaign visit at 8 Sisters Bakery in Marion, Ohio, on Sunday. AP/CAROLYN KASTER

W

ASHINGTON— Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she has received private messages from foreign leaders asking to endorse her candidacy in hopes of defeating Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

Clinton refused to name the dignitaries, though she said she told them that election must be decided by Americans. But, she said, her experience as secretary of state will offer a powerful contrast with Trump, should they face off in the general election.

“I believe that I will have an opportunity to really focus in on how dangerous a Donald Trump presidency would be for our standing, for our safety and for the peace of the world,” she said.

Clinton is speaking at a televised

town hall hosted by CNN in Columbus, Ohio. She is campaigning in the state ahead of the Tuesday primary.

Clinton said she supports a “very limited use” of the death penalty in cases where there are “horrific mass killings.”

During a CNN town hall on Sunday night, Clinton was asked about her stance on the death penalty by a man who was exonerated after spending 39 years in prison for murder.

Clinton said the states have “proven themselves incapable of carrying out fair trials that give any

defendant all the rights that defendant should have.” She added that she would “breathe a sigh of relief if either the Supreme Court or the states themselves began to eliminate the death penalty.”

But Clinton added that she thinks the death penalty should still be kept “in reserve” for limited cases in the federal judicial system, citing the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 attacks as examples.

At the same time, Clinton said Trump is encouraging violence and chaos to win over voters.

Clinton said, “At our best, Americans have rejected demagogues and fear-mongers.”

Trump wants to round up and deport Latino immigrants, ban Muslims from the United States and also kill the families of suspected terrorists, which Clinton said is a war crime.

She added that he also encourages his supporters to punch protesters that attend his campaign events.

“We can criticize and protest Mr. Trump all we want, but none of that matters if we don’t show up at the polls,” she said. “If you want to shut him down, let’s vote him down.” AP

REPUBLICANS ARE HOPEFUL TRUMP STANDS BY HIS CAMPAIGN RHETORIC

REPUBLICAN presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the crowd during a rally on Sunday, in Bloomington, Illinois. AP/CHARLES REX ARBOGAST

Anti-immigration rivals trounce C Merkel’s party in Germany poll B

ERLIN—A nationalist, anti-migration party powered into three German state legislatures in elections on Sunday held amid divisions over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s liberal approach to the refugee crisis. Merkel’s conservatives lost to center-left rivals in two states they had hoped to win.

The elections in the prosperous southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate and relatively poor Saxony-Anhalt in the ex-communist east were the first major political test since Germany registered nearly 1.1 million people as asylumseekers last year.

The three-year-old Alternative for Germany, or AfD—which has campaigned against Merkel’s open-borders approach— easily entered all three legislatures.

AfD won 15.1 percent of the vote in Baden-Wuerttemberg and 12.6 percent in Rhineland-Palatinate, official results showed. It finished second in SaxonyAnhalt with some 24 percent, according to projections by ARD and ZDF television

with most districts counted.

“We are seeing above all in these elections that voters are turning away in large numbers from the big established parties and voting for our party,” AfD leader Frauke Petry said.

They “expect us finally to be the opposition that there hasn’t been in the German parliament and some state parliaments,” she added.

There were uncomfortable results both for Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their partners in the national government, the center-left Social Democrats. The traditional rivals are Germany’s two biggest parties.

“The democratic center in our country has not become stronger, but smaller, and I think we must all take that seriously,” said Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, the Social Democrats’ leader.

Merkel’s party kept its status as strongest party in Saxony-Anhalt. It had hoped to beat left-leaning Green Gov. Winfried Kretschmann in BadenWuerttemberg, a traditional stronghold

that the CDU ran for decades until 2011. It also hoped to oust Social Democrat Gov. Malu Dreyer from the governor’s office in Rhineland-Palatinate.

However, the CDU finished several percentage points behind the popular incumbents’ parties in both states and dropped 12 percentage points to a record-low result in Baden-Wuerttemberg, with 27 percent support. Its performance in Rhineland-Palatinate, with 31.8 percent, was also a record low.

The Social Democrats suffered large losses in both Baden-Wuerttemberg and Saxony-Anhalt, where they were the junior partners in the outgoing governments, finishing behind AfD. Other parties won’t share power with AfD, but its presence will complicate their coalition-building efforts.

In all three states, the results were set to leave the outgoing coalition governments without a majority—forcing regional leaders into what could be time-consuming negotiations with new, unusual partners. AP

OLUMBUS, Ohio—Showing few signs of trying to ease the nation’s tense political atmosphere, Republican front-runner Donald Trump is standing by his antagonistic campaign rhetoric, rejecting any responsibility for violence at his rallies and defending his supporters who have been charged with assaulting protesters.

“We’re not provoking. We want peace....We don’t want trouble,” he told a large crowd in Bloomington, Illinois, the first of three comparatively docile events from Illinois to Florida as he campaigned ahead of another critical slate of largestate primaries.

Trump’s remarks came after a nearriot on Friday night in Chicago, as Trump canceled a scheduled rally amid widespread altercations among his supporters, detractors and authorities.

His three-state tour also came less than 48 hours before polls open in a five-state slate that could determine whether he wins the Republican nomination without a contested summer convention.

Against that backdrop, Trump continued to blame protesters, the media and even Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders for the increasingly caustic campaign environment that his rivals assailed as “cause for pause” and certain

“to do damage to America.”

Interrupted only sparingly at his events throughout the day, Trump assured his backers their frustration is righteous rage against a corrupt political and economic system. He cast his naysayers as “bad people” that “do harm to the country.”

Though by the end of the night, he seemed to miss the commotion.

In Boca Raton, where he spoke in an outdoor amphitheater on a balmy Florida night, he asked, 20 minutes into his speech, “Do we have a protester anywhere? Do we have a disrupter?”

Trump has tried since Chicago to shift focus to Ohio, where he faces a late push from the popular governor, John Kasich. The outcome will help determine whether Trump can reach the 1,237 delegates required for nomination and avoid a contested convention this summer in Cleveland.

“If we can win Ohio, we’re going to run the table, folks,” Trump said in West Chester, Ohio, his second event on Sunday.Kasich will campaign in Ohio on Monday with 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, while 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin will campaign separately for Trump on Monday in Florida.

Besides Ohio, Illinois and Florida, vot-

ers in North Carolina and Missouri will cast primary ballots on Tuesday.

Trump this weekend called Kasich “a baby,” saying he’s “not tough enough to be president.” He went on to incorrectly identify the governor as “KASE-itch,” deliberately mispronouncing his rivals’ Czech surname. “Like, most people don’t even know how to pronounce his name.

Kase-ick! Kase-ick!” Trump mocked.

Kasich, meanwhile, reversed his months-long practice of avoiding the topic of Trump.

Speaking with The Associated Press aboard his campaign bus between stops in Ohio, Kasich brandished his iPad and read a list of Trump quotes compiled by an aide.

The quotes included Trump’s comments that his audiences should “hit back” a little more and a statement that he’d like to “punch” a protester “in the face.” Said Kasich: “It’s really cause for pause.”

Later on Sunday, Kasich told a crowd in Hanoverton, Ohio, without mentioning Trump: “Do we go to the dark side, with negativity, the gnashing of teeth...or do we go to the hopeful and the light side?”

Not to be outdone, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump’s closest competitor in delegate count, and third-place Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, piled on, as well. AP

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Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • Tuesday, March 15, 2016

161 chemical-weapons attacks in Syria’s war, new report says THIS image, taken from video provided by the Syrian activist-based media group Maara Media Center, which has been verified and is consistent with other Associated Press reporting, shows Syrian Civil Defense rescuers running from the site of a second explosion near a hospital run by an international medical charity, also known by its French acronym MSF, in Maaret alNuman, Idlib, Syria, on February 15.

Doctors Without Borders said an attack on a clinic in northern Syria supported by the group has killed several people and that more are presumed dead.

MAARA MEDIA CENTER VIA AP VIDEO

N

EW YORK—As Syria marks five full years of civil war this month, a new report claimed that chemical weapons were used at least 161 times through the end of 2015 and caused 1,491 deaths. It said such attacks are increasing, with a high of at least 69 attacks last year, and 14,581 people wounded in all.

The Syrian American Medical Society said its report released on Monday is the most comprehensive listing of chemical-weapons attacks in Syria so far. The US-based nonprofit, which supports more than

1,700 workers at over 100 medical centers in Syria, said the list is based primarily on the reports of medical personnel who have treated victims, aided by non-governmental organizations and other local sources.

The organization is asking the 15-member UN Security Council and the international community to quickly identify perpetrators and hold them accountable through the International Criminal Court or other means. Much of the report’s documentation has been shared with the global chemical watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Syria’s government has been repeatedly accused by the United States and other Western countries of using chemical-weapons on its own people, even after the Security Council in 2013 ordered the elimination of its chemical weapons program following an attack on a Damascus suburb that killed hundreds of civilians.

The council last year also condemned the use of toxic chemicals like chlorine, after growing reports of barrel bombs filled with chlorine gas being dropped on oppositionheld areas. Chlorine is widely avail-

able and not officially considered a warfare agent, but its use as a weapon is illegal. The new report notes at least 60 deaths from chlorine attacks.

The report also said 77 percent of the chemical-weapons attacks it documented occurred after the Security Council’s order in 2013, and 36 percent occurred after the council condemned the use of chlorine last year.

Syria’s government denies using chemical weapons or toxic chemicals on its people. Reports also surfaced in recent months that the Islamic State group used toxic chemicals in Syria.

The new report does not assign blame for each chemical-weapons attack. That task is for the Joint Investigative Mechanism established last year by the United Nations and the OPCW. It was expected to begin in-depth investigations of a handful of potential cases in Syria this month.

Houssam Alnahhas, a coauthor of

the report who documented attacks in Syria and now pursues medical studies in Turkey, told The Associated Press that he and fellow Syrians are losing hope as the Security Council does nothing in response to repeated violations of its own resolutions.

He now saves documentation of any suspected attacks “for history, you know, so next generations will know that chemical agents were used against civilians and the world just watched people die.”

Both Alnahhas and Zaher Sahloul, the senior adviser and past president of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), said they’ve seen no indication that the current fragile cease-fire negotiated by the United States and Russia has stopped reports of possible chemical-weapons attacks.

The report said SAMS has compiled an additional 133 reported chemical attacks during Syria’s civil war “that could not be fully sub-

TURKEY CARRIES OUT AIR STRIKES AFTER DEADLY BOMBING A

NKARA, Turkey—Turkey’s air force hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq on Monday, hours after a suicide car-bombing in the capital killed 37 people and heightened tensions with the Kurdish rebels.

Nine F-16s and two F-4 jets raided 18 positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains where the group’s leadership is based, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Target hits consisted of ammunition depots, bunkers and shelters. Police carried out raids in the southern city of Adana, detaining suspected PKK rebels, the agency reported. The private Dogan news agency said at least 36 suspects were taken under custody. Fifteen suspected Kurdish militants were also detained in Istanbul, Anadolu said.

Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said three more people died overnight from wounds suffered in the Sunday night attack that targeted buses and people waiting at bus stops at the heart of Ankara. Scores of others were injured.

Police on Monday blocked the boulevard where the attack targeting buses and people waiting at bus stops occurred, as forensic teams scoured the road—which is Ankara’s main artery—for more clues.

SECURITY and forensic officials work at the site of Sunday’s explosion in the busy center of Turkish capital Ankara on March 14. The explosion is believed to have been caused by a car bomb that went off close to bus stops. AP/BURHAN OZBILICI

A senior government official told The Associated Press that authorities believe the attack was carried out by two bombers—one of them a woman—and was the work of Kurdish militants. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

It was the second deadly attack

blamed on Kurdish militants in the capital in the past month and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to bring “terrorism to its knees.”

On February 17 a suicide carbombing in the capital targeted buses carrying military personnel, killing 29 people. A Kurdish militant group, which is an offshoot of the

PKK, claimed responsibility.

Sunday’s blast came as Turkey’s security forces were set to launch largescale operations against militants in two mainly Kurdish towns—Yuksekova, near the border with Iraq and in Nusaybin, which borders Syria—after authorities imposed curfews there, prompting some residents to flee. The

military deployed large numbers of tanks near those towns as the curfews were announced.

Authorities on Monday announced another curfew, to go into effect at 2100 GMT in the city of Sirnak, near the border with Iraq, signaling that the military was also preparing to battle Kurdish militants there.

Turkey has been imposing curfews in several flashpoints in the southeast since August to root out militants linked to the PKK, who had set up barricades, dug trenches and planted explosives. The military operations have raised concerns over human-rights violations and scores of civilian deaths.

Tens of thousands of people have also been displaced by the fighting.

Last week Turkey’s military ended a three-month operation against the militants in the historic Sur district of Diyarbakir—the largest city in the country’s mostly Kurdish southeast.

On Sunday authorities eased the curfew in some streets and one neighborhood of Sur, but the siege over the district’s main areas was still in place.

The PKK has been designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union. A fragile peace process between the PKK and the Turkish state collapsed in July, reigniting a battle that has cost tens of thousands of lives since 1984. AP

A9

9 SUSPECTED CARTEL MEN KILLED IN MEXICAN CITY

C

IUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico—At least nine suspected criminals died in gun battles with government forces on Sunday during an anti-cartel operation in the city of Reynosa, which sits across the US border from McAllen, Texas, Mexican authorities said.

The Tamaulipas state government had earlier reported 10 dead in violence that it said erupted early Sunday, after soldiers, Marines and police began the operation aimed at a drug cartel that operates in Reynosa.

A state police official who insisted on anonymity told The Associated Press that the operation was aimed at arresting the Gulf Cartel’s leader in Reynosa.

The official would not say if Juan Manuel Loza, also known as “El Comandante Toro,” was caught.

The state government said at least three armed clashes occurred over several hours, and gang members also set vehicles on fire and blocked roads. Four soldiers were injured when their vehicle overturned, officials said.

Similar events happened in April 2015, when authorities launched an offensive against another local leader of the Gulf Cartel.

Tamaulipas has suffered through several waves of violence in recent years tied to the drug trade. The Gulf Cartel battled with its former allies in the Zetas cartel for a number of years, but officials say that violence since 2015 has often resulted from a dispute between rival factions of the Gulf Cartel. AP

New officer dies after shooting; 2 shooters arrested

C

HEVERLY, Maryland—Police were going about their business on a Sunday afternoon when a gunman fired at the first officer he saw outside a Maryland police station, prompting a gun battle that left an undercover narcotics officer dying and the suspect wounded, authorities say.

Prince George’s County Police Chief Hank Stawinski said Jacai Colson, a fouryear veteran of the department only days shy of his 29th birthday, died after the “unprovoked attack” outside the station.

The shooting erupted in Landover, a suburb about 10 miles northeast of downtown Washington, D.C. Speaking at a news conference, Stawinski said that once the first shot was fired, several officers fired back at the suspect. He couldn’t say how many shots were exchanged in the confrontation that began about 4:30 p.m.

“Those officers did not shrink. They bravely advanced and engaged this individual,” the chief said.

Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks called the shooting an “act of cowardice” and a “horrific act of evil.” She promised an aggressive investigation and prosecution of the alleged shooter, who was wounded in the return fire but is expected to survive, and another suspect arrested soon after the shooting. Their names were not immediately released.

Stawinski said the second man was believed to have been present with the suspected shooter when the shots erupted, but fled and was later arrested.

He gave no immediate indication what prompted the shooting.

The Washington Post reported one woman near the shooting scene grabbed her sleeping 14-month-old baby from his play pen when she heard what she thought might be either firecrackers or gunshots. The woman told the newspaper she looked outside and saw a man dressed in black firing a handgun.

“He fired one shot, and then he started pacing back and forth, then fired another shot,” said Lascelles Grant, a nurse.

She added in the account that police began pouring out of the station. “Just looking outside, I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, look at all these police officers running out, putting their lives really in danger.’”

The woman couldn’t immediately be reached by The Associated Press.

Immediately after the shooting, police advised residents near the police station to stay inside, and others to avoid the area, because of an “active shooter” situation. AP

A10 Tuesday, March 15, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

A crime for the rich

M

OST crimes can be committed by ordinary people, from littering to murder. But “money laundering” is one of those criminal activities that are reserved for the rich.

The term comes from the idea that money gained from illegal sources needs to be cleaned, so that there is no suspicion when you want to spend it, particularly from government agencies that prefer a person share his or her income through taxes.

American crime syndicates, like the Mafia, were the ones that perfected money laundering by running legitimate businesses through which they put their ill-gotten gains. The local convenience store run by the mob would show income on its books—not from selling soft drinks—but from its backroom illegal-gambling operation.

Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. Chairman and CEO Cristino L. Naguiat Jr. recently said the notion that a casino is the easiest place to launder money is wrong, because no one wins more than the house. While we admire his desire to protect the local gaming industry, casinos have always been the ideal place to launder money.

The casinos never questioned where the wads of cash you exchange for chips come from, and rarely is any one going to question why you are suddenly richer after your trip to the gaming tables.

But Naguiat is correct about the house always winning. That is why, virtually, all the Las Vegas casinos were once owned by the Mob to launder their illegal money.

The currency money-laundering scheme involving Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. and our local gambling joints appears to be less of traditional money laundering and more of a plan to transfer the funds allegedly stolen from the Bangladesh central bank quickly, and to avoid being traced to its ultimate destination.

The Philippines’s Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 (AMLA) specifically excluded reporting requirements by the casinos. The argument was that the casino operators would suffer under that regulation. It is all nonsense, since virtually every nation that has legalized gaming also has AMLA provisions at their casinos. Any transaction worth $10,000 or more at a US casino must be reported to the US Department of the Treasury with the identity of the person who paid in or was paid out that amount. The same rule applies in Singapore.

South Korean casino-industry regulations do not meet international standards in areas such as antimoney laundering. But they also have a “for foreigners only” law to enter a casino. China’s central bank has signed a pact with Macau’s financial regulators to bolster cross-border antimoney-laundering measures. Since 2007, Chinese law provides the death penalty for money laundering.

We will wait to see how this current scandal plays out. But one thing is sure. Local gambling operations must be required to be under reporting requirements per AMLA. Anything less is not acceptable.

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Timetable for six-year employment contract Manny B. Villar

THE ENTREPRENEUR

T

HE daily news programs, in all media, in the United States are now dominated by the presidential election on November 8. The number of aspirants for the nomination by the Republican and Democratic parties gradually declined from as many as 40 to four, namely, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Sen. Bernie Sanders, who are vying for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination; and Trump Industries CEO Donald Trump and US Sen. Ted Cruz, who are seeking the Republican Party’s nomination.

One election issue that has not received wide media attention is the term limit. In October 2014 a US-based online journal of politics and foreign affairs published a proposal by Myra Adams, who was involved in the Bush and McCain presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008, respectively.

Adams, writing for the National Review, argued in favor of the idea of limiting the president to a single six-year term, the same as in the Philippines. She said the benefits

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The 1987 Constitution provided for a single six-year term. With no reelection, the president is supposed to be able to concentrate on his job as chief executive for the full six years, instead of using the last year of a four-year term campaigning for reelection. The argument against a single term, on the other hand, is that it is not enough for a good president to do much more for the country.

As a businessman, I look at the six-year term from a positive perspective, that of a CEO. Remember that the president is also the government’s CEO. Knowing beforehand that the job means a six-year employment contract, the president who really wants to do as much as possible for

The money-for-nothing markets John Mangun

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of a single six-year term are: it emboldens a president to take risks and make difficult decisions, just before the last two years, which is considered as a lame-duck period. On the other hand, the two four-year terms have two lame-duck periods (the last two years of each term), which result in four years of presidential prime time, the same as with a single sixyear term.

Until 1972, the Philippines also elected a president for a four-year term, with the option for reelection.

Knowing beforehand that the job means a six-year employment contract, the president who really wants to do as much as possible for the country can, and should, set and follow a strict timetable for his or her administration.

This is particularly important in undertaking major infrastructure projects, which take time.

T

HE lyrics from the British rock band Dire Straits ionic song read: “Now look at them yo-yo’s that’s the way you do it, You play the guitar on the MTV, That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it, Money for nothin’ and chicks for free.”

The song captures the thoughts of a man who “works” for a living delivering appliances and contrasts his wealth with a rock star. The song goes on to say “I shoulda learned to play the guitar, I shoulda learned to play them drums,” and that may be the whole point. When the song was written in 1985, the MTV cable channel had been on the air only four years. Today MTV reaches 92 million American households, and is seen in 100 other countries.

Themis Trading is an American institutional agency stock brokerage firm started by Joseph Saluzzi. Several years ago, he said the financial and asset markets were being ma-

nipulated and when asked for proof, he said something like, “Proof? All I have to do is look at my computer trading screens.”

Mark St. Cyr, a businessman and motivational speaker, recently wrote, “Today, if you’re trying to run a business of any size just how can one use, or view, the latest move in the markets for possible insights on what to do next?

Hint—you can’t.”

We live in a world where information is hard to trust regardless of the source. In October and November, the Australian government reported huge jumps in the number of jobs created, beating

So how do you get that money for nothing? While it goes against my 40 years of “experience and wisdom,” just follow the crowd.

Logic and common sense are not helpful in a world where “up” is “down” and “right” is “left.” All the “bubble boys” and “gloom-anddoomers” are absolutely right. So what? SMC shares went from P46 to P75, and Globe Telecoms dropped from P2,600 to P1,700 on a deal that seemed unlikely to go through from Day One.

estimates by five times. Last month the government admitted the numbers were completely wrong due to “technical issues.”

Yesterday San Miguel Corp. (SMC) reported that its telecom deal with Australia’s Telstra was not going to push forward. But interestingly, some highly connected in the “techie” community have been saying for two months the deal was dead.

If the markets are manipulated—which is often the case—and if the information we get is often

the country can, and should, set and follow a strict timetable for his or her administration. This is particularly important in undertaking major infrastructure projects, which take time.

In last week’s column I mentioned the Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway project, a four-lane toll road that took three-and-a-half years to finish. Since the launch of the Public-Private Partnership Program in 2011, only two other projects had been completed: Phase 1 of the PPP for School Infrastructure Project and the Automatic Fare Collection System.

Based on experience, and with the economy’s demand for more infrastructure projects, my advice to the next president is to finish, as much as possible, all biddings for such projects in his or her first year in office.

The remaining five years should be spent in monitoring the implementation of the projects to make sure they are completed before the end of the president’s six-year term.

Then the president can deliver the last State of the Nation Address with the best title: “JOB DONE”!

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

suspicious—which it is—then how can we take advantage of it? Dire Straits music video of “Money for Nothing” is one of the top-rated in history. The band took its own advice.

So how do you get that money for nothing? While it goes against my 40 years of “experience and wisdom,” just follow the crowd. Logic and common sense are not helpful in a world where “up” is “down” and “right” is “left”.

All the “bubble boys” and “gloomand-doomers” are absolutely right.

So what? SMC shares went from P46 to P75, and Globe Telecoms dropped from P2,600 to P1,700 on a deal that seemed unlikely to go through from Day One. But always remember the old saying: “The light at the end of the tunnel may be an oncoming train.”

As long as you know the markets do not make sense anymore, that will be enough to protect you while you are making the money.

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

Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

The untold stories of Aquino human-rights violation Cecilio T. Arillo

DATABASE Part Four

Horror stories from Hacienda Luisita

O

N July 17, 1987, President Corazon Aquino promulgated her Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) through Executive Order (EO) 228. This was followed by Presidential Proclamation 131 on July 22 and by EO 229. As the skeptics had predicted, Cory’s CARP was not comprehensive enough to dispossess the Cojuangcos of their Hacienda Luisita. To many, it seemed that Mrs. Aquino merely wanted to look good at the expense of others.

The CARP failed to mollify tenant farmers who wanted genuine agrarian reform. Nor did it please landowners who felt the regime was being confiscatory and arbitrary. Predictably, when the CARP was endorsed to Congress for the passage of an enabling law, the heavily landlord-dominated House failed to reach a consensus within the three-month period sought by Cory.

Hacienda Luisita of the Cojuangcos’ Tarlac Development Corp. became a focal point for those critical of EO 229. Asiaweek wrote in November 1987: But skeptics note that under the directive, Tarlac Development doesn’t have to parcel out land. As corporate landowners, it employs “workers,” not “tenants.”

Thus, to comply with the executive order, it may just sell shares to farm hands, and not even all equity, but only “the proportion of stock that land assets bear in relation to total assets.”

The Department of Agrarian Reform estimates the ratio at 35 percent, but Tarlac Development lawyers may argue for less than a third.

Ironically, the CARP set the stage for the eviction of at least 160 families from the San Miguel portion of Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, Tarlac.

On December 9, 1991, on the eve of International Human Rights Day, the Municipal Trial Court in Tarlac, Tarlac, ordered the 160 defendants, against whom individual cases for “ejectment” had been filed by the Tarlac Development Corp., to do the following: 1. To vacate the area occupied by each of them in Barangay Capehan, San Miguel, Tarlac, Tarlac…and to surrender possession thereof to the plaintiff; 2. To pay the plaintiff the reasonable compensation for the use and occupation by each of them at the rate of P1 per square meter per month from March 1, 1991, until such time as defendants and all persons claiming rights under all or any of them shall have vacated the premises in question

and have been considered to have surrendered possession to the plaintiffs of the areas thereof indicated opposite their names; 3. To pay the plaintiff litigation expenses in the amount of P10,000 per defendant; 4. To pay the plaintiff the sum of P5,000 per defendant for and as attorney’s fees; and 5. To pay the plaintiff the sum of P162 per defendant as costs of suit.

On June 23, 1998, Judge Martonino R. Marcos issued a writ of execution for the sheriff to implement the court order. The affected residents were in a dual dilemma: even if they were willing to leave the land, where would they get over P15,000 each to pay the damages and costs awarded by the court to the Tarlac Development Corp.?

There were others who faced dispossession of parcels of land that Ninoy Aquino had supposedly given to them from his share of Hacienda Luisita. According to Ninoy’s confidante Martin “Noy” Brizuela, the Cojuangcos disapproved of Ninoy’s land transfer. The Cojuangcos alleged that the documents needed to carry out the transfer of the land titles were faked.

The controversy led to the filing of complaints in 1977 against the Cojuangcos’ Luisita Realty Corp. Inc. One of these was Civil Case 8411 at Branch 65 of the Regional Trial Court in Tarlac. Branch 65, in Tarlac. Among the plaintiffs were three of Ninoy’s former security escorts—Zacarias de Pano, Pete Aquino and Ed Caymo— who claimed that the parcels of land were given to them by Ninoy as their reward after they successfully recovered unspecified treasure buried in a tunnel by the Japanese in Bamban, Tarlac, during the Second World War. (To be continued) To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@ gmail.com.

The other half holding up the sky Edgardo J. Angara

M

ARCH is National Women’s Month, celebrating the vital role women play in nation-building. This year’s theme is promoting a more gender-balanced and -sensitive society by getting women to participate more actively in mainstream activities.

In fact, women have long played proactive roles in the affairs of the Philippines. Led by the social activist first lady, Aurora Aragon Quezon, the 1937 plebiscite successfully gave Filipino women the right to vote and run for public office. We became among the first nations in the Asia-Pacific region

to adopt universal suffrage.

Eight decades later, Filipino women remain active and engaged.

Their penetration into electoral affairs is rather uplifting. In the May 2013 elections, there were 893,418 more female voters than male voters. A recent Grant Thornton survey of 36 developed and developing

Bloomberg View

T

HE nuclear deal signed with Iran earlier this year will, on paper, shower more than $100 billion of unfrozen assets on the country—a quarter of its gross domestic product. It’s also fighting wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, arming Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and testing its own ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel. So far so bad; no good can come of even a share of that money winding up with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

But a week spent in Tehran made clear that Iran’s one-off sanctions windfall is unlikely to be anywhere near enough to compensate for the annual losses the country is incurring from low oil prices. Indeed, if the goal is to starve the Revolutionary Guard of funds, focusing on the unfrozen assets may be a diversion.

In the year ahead, the government forecasts oil revenues of just $23 billion, compared to a peak of over $100 billion in 2011. According to Saeed Laylaz, an economist and former adviser to the reformist

ex-President Mohammad Khatami, even if exports return to presanctions volumes, at a $40-per-barrel price, they will bring the government half as much revenue as in 2013, at the height of the sanctions.

So, even a one-off $100-billion windfall from the unfreezing of Iranian assets would restore government finances to their bloated presanctions level for only about a year.

Thereafter, the government would have to scramble again. The US government has put the figure for unfrozen assets that will get sent back to Iran at $50 billion or $55 billion, because so much of the headline number is either committed elsewhere or tied up in foreign debt. The Obama administration has a political interest in keeping Iran’s windfall low, so take its figure as one estimate.

An adviser to President Hassan Rouhani has said the government already has access to the $100 billion.

But while this may be so, no clearing banks have started handling Iranian funds, so they can’t yet be repatriated. Given that the nuclear deal was as controversial in Iran as in the US, Rouhani has an interest in making the number as big as possible. So take

economies found the Philippines among the countries with the most women in senior positions. Close to 39 percent of the Philippine businesses surveyed showed women in upper-management roles. In fact, the Philippines ranks second overall, being at par with Lithuania and topping even developed economies like Japan, Australia and Singapore.

The World Economic Forum’s 2015 Global Gender Gap Report ranked the Philippines as seventh in the world and the highest in Asia-Pacific for its effective efforts in closing the so-called gender gap.

And the 2015 Mastercard Index of Women’s Advancement (MIWA) describes the Philippines as among the best countries for female workers. The Philippines is one of only two countries in the Asia-Pacific region (the other being, New Zealand) to have more than 50 female

Responsible mining: Can it be done?

Ernesto M. Hilario

ABOUT TOWN

T

HE World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002 acknowledged that mining, minerals and metals are important to the economic and social development of many countries. At the same time, the meeting emphasized the need to address the environmental, economic and health impacts of mining, and to promote the participation of stakeholders throughout the life cycles of mining operations.

In other words, governments should practice responsible mining, defined as mining that adheres to the three principles of sustainable development: economic growth, environmental protection and social equity.

Responsible mining can create jobs, generate foreign exchange to enhance the country’s socioeconomic development and contribute substantially to winning the war against poverty.

Here in the Philippines, mining companies are becoming increasingly aware that they must implement programs that not only protect the environment but also promote social and community development.

A case in point is Philex Mining Corp.’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, which won in the Asia Corporate Excellence and Sustainability Awards in Singapore last year.

Philex practices sound environmental management aimed at optimizing resource utilization through conservation and enhancement. It has supported the government’s re-

forestation program by reforesting over 3,000 hectares and planting over 8 million trees of various species in its Padcal Mine and various project sites.

Last year the mining firm spent P269 million for its Environmental Protection and Enhancement Program. Of this amount, P7.57 million went to various reforestation and forest-protection initiatives within the concession area of Padcal Mine.

Philex Gold is also an active participant in the government’s National Greening Program (NGP) through agroforestry and mangrove reforestation. It uses its Bulawan and Sibutad mine sites for income-generating projects like organic farming.

Philex’s Padcal Mine in Benguet has recently added 100 hectares as a new plantation area in addition to the 330-hectare existing plantation, including 75 hectares of agroforestry. It planted some 205,000 assorted seedlings last year, and maintains bamboo plantations and vegetation at its decommissioned tailings

In Iran, sanctions windfall won’t do much B M C

Tuesday, March 15, 2016 A11

that as another estimate.

Another view comes from business people in Tehran, who think both numbers are too high. They start with the Treasury’s smaller figure as, in their view, the more realistic. Then they deduct money the government had drawn down from the central bank and will therefore return to it, as well as further billions the government has pledged as collateral against investment projects already underway.

“We calculate that this will leave $6 billion to $7 billion available for the government to spend,” says Rouzbeh Pirouz, chief executive of Turquoise Partners, a financial services firm in Tehran. “I’m always telling our people to lower expectations —this is going to take time,” Pirouz told me. People at two other Tehran consultancies I spoke with came up with similar figures. A spokesman at the economy ministry declined to comment.

It seems likely there will be more than $7 billion available by the time this is all done, perhaps substantially more. One Iranian official, who spoke on the condition he not be named, said the government doesn’t yet know how much money there

will be. During sanctions, complex payment, barter and borrowing arrangements were created, and they will take time to unwind. Some payments to Iran made under sanctions and squirreled away in escrow funds will surely return. As the recent sentencing to death of oil trader Babak Zanjani for the sanctions-era theft of $2.7 billion from the National Iranian Oil Co. suggests, other funds won’t.

In Tehran, though, there is a mounting sense of frustration that nothing tangible has happened yet.

At a recent conference organized

by Iran’s central bank and the law firm Open Iran, virtually all discussions led to the same question: When will the major British, German and French clearing banks start transferring Iranian funds so that the big European contracts initialed in recent months can be activated? US banks can’t clear Iranian money due to pre-nuclear sanctions that remain in place.

None of the big European banks are moving yet for fear of being fined by the US Department of Justice— either if the nuclear deal should break down and sanctions snap back into force, or if the US takes a

business or government leaders for every 100 males in equivalent leadership positions.

Of course, despite the outside world’s very positive view, we still have some areas of concern and scope for improvements. For one, it’s absolutely unacceptable that maternal death is 114 for every 100,000 live births in 2015. And one out of four pregnancies (or 28 percent) is unwanted, simply on account of lack of information and instruction for women about proper reproductive health and modern family planning methods.

In less than three months, we will know who our next leader will be. And we all hope he or she will have an inclusive mind and a keen awareness that half the sky is held up by women.

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

storage facility. It is also engaged in management of solid waste, water resources and air quality.

Bulawan Mine in Negros Occidental operated by Philex Gold is also a participant in the NGP through its ongoing agroforestry project. It maintains a 12-hectare coffee plantation and fruit-bearing trees in the project area, as well as a nursery for seedling production.

It is also engaged in the production of organic vegetables, rice, poultry and livestock and aquaculture.

Sibutad Mine in Zamboanga del Norte implements a mangrovereforestation project in Barangay Kanim and has propagated thousands of seedlings. The mine site can be transformed into alternative use for ecotourism. It started with pocket thematic gardens employing organic technologies.

The mining firm is also active in community and development through what it calls Pusong Philex. It invested P98.7 million in its HELP program, consisting of health and sanitation, education, livelihood and skills development, and public infrastructure and support programs in project sites.

In Padcal, Philex implemented projects worth P90 million. In Philex and Philex Gold’s Vista Alegre, Cayas, Bulog projects in Negros Occidental, HELP projects totaled P5.2 million.

In Philex Gold’s Sibutad Mine, Zamboanga del Norte, education and public infrastructure projects amounted to P347,000, while Lascogon Mining Corp.’s mining site in Surigao del Norte embarked on various projects worth P3.27 million last year.

Of top of these, the mining firm

spent P18.6 million for information, education and communication (IEC) and development of mining technology and geosciences (DMTG).

The IEC program aims at increasing public awareness and providing useful, timely and factual information about the company’s activities and its impact on the community.

On the other hand, the DMTG program focuses on research on mining technology, mining operations, environmental protection, advanced studies on mining by qualified researchers, and expenditures for mining scholars and trainees.

Philex applies the participative approach in community development. By fulfilling its obligations and strategically working for countryside development in its areas of operation, it has gone beyond the traditional notion of being an obligated provider and has become a partner for development not just of its host but also of its neighboring communities.

Since the Padcal site is nearing the end of its mine life, Philex has embarked on preparatory work for eventual decommissioning. The mine rehabilitation and decommissioning plan aims to prevent long-term environmental impacts by returning mining-disturbed land to a physically and chemically stable, visually acceptable productive or self-sustaining condition, taking in consideration the beneficial uses of the land and surrounding areas. The decommissioning plan will also ensure that sustainable alternative livelihoods are left behind to the host and neighboring communities.

hard line on the handling of funds from companies that turn out to have hidden beneficiaries still on the sanctions list. (Remember the $9 billion BNP Paribas had to pay in 2014, for busting US sanctions?)

Peter Meyer, a former banker and now chief executive of the Middle East Association, a UK trade association, thinks it will take a good six months.

He points to the settlement agreements that many big European banks have had to sign with the Department of Justice. In the meantime, some of Iran’s private banks, such as Middle East Bank and Bank Mellat, told me they’ve already set up arrangements with smaller European institutions that don’t have a large US exposure.

These will be able handle only smaller transactions.

What’s potentially more interesting than the remaining sanctions issues is that cheap oil may force the government to rely more heavily on taxation to fund its investment plans. Executives at Iranian companies here told me tax officials are now inspecting invoices with greater care, hoping to raise revenues by clamping down on deductible costs. Customs rules have also been changed to make

it harder to game the system.

This economic shift might even bring about deeper change. “If the oil price was still high, the regime wouldn’t need taxes,” Laylaz says.

“If they don’t need taxes, they don’t need people’s votes and can press down on society as much as they like.” It’s no coincidence that the worst period of Iran’s most recent history, the 10 years in which it was run by former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, were years of record oil wealth.

There’s another, surprising wrinkle. Rouhani has called on companies that belong to the Revolutionary Guard and religious charities to be stripped of their tax-free status. That won’t happen without a struggle, but it’s one worth backing Rouhani to win.

One study has found that Revolutionary Guard entities have holdings in listed companies worth just over 20 percent of the Tehran Stock Exchange. Other estimates of the Guard’s share of the economy rise to 40 percent. The Supreme Leader has also been linked to an economic empire worth an estimated $95 billion.

E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.