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OD of Love, we rejoice that You make Your home in us, and we pray: Come deliver Your Friends, oh God. Strengthen those You have called to proclaim the good news of Christ in new places. Purify our hearts, and renew Your spirit in all the baptized. Endow Pope Francis and all pastors of Your Church to shepherd us in justice, peace and love. May You order our days in peace and lead us to everlasting life. May our days be full of Your grace, guidance and spiritual empowerment so we may be deserving children in Your Kingdom. Amen.

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Friday, March 4, 2016

D1

Hawking celebrity

Are movie stars worried about ‘selling out’ when hawking consumer goods and services?

BY NARA SCHOENBERG Chicago Tribune

M

AYBE you’ve caught Amy Schumer’s breakout movie Trainwreck, her awardwinning TV show, or that high-profile Golden Globes appearance with good pal Jennifer Lawrence.

If not, there’s always the Budweiser commercial.

Schumer’s campaign-themed ad, which premiered during the Super Bowl and has played almost nonstop ever since, is one of many signs that hawking consumer goods on TV isn’t just for has-beens and B-listers anymore. Matthew McConaughey began his moody Lincoln TV commercials within a year of his best actor Oscar win for Dallas Buyers Club.

Oscar winner Charlize Theron appears in TV ads for Dior’s J’adore perfume, and Mila Kunis—whose credits include Black Swan and Ted—is gamely hoisting whiskey barrels on behalf of Jim Beam.

Anyone old enough to worry about “selling out”— and, yes, the term does date you—will be scratching his or her head.

But experts say that millennials, those between 15 and 34 who are increasingly driving consumer and popular culture, are quite comfortable with big actors plugging products.

This is a generation that’s at home with rap music’s embrace of luxury brands, Taylor Swift’s CoverGirl ads, and the commercial-entertainment juggernaut that is the Kardashians.

“This is the most marketed-to generation in human history,” says Lindsey Pollak, author of the best-seller Becoming the Boss: New Rules for the Next

Generation of Leaders.

So while their parents, the idealistic Baby Boomers, might be miffed to see a movie star in a TV commercial, millennials would likely see the situation as unexceptional, Pollak says, and move on to the questions that do concern them.

“What millennials use as their gauge, more than anything else, is transparency,” Pollak says. “With the celebrities that you mentioned, they’re very transparent. With Amy Schumer, it’s ‘I’m hawking for Bud. I’m doing a commercial. I’m not hiding it—this is who I am. I’m using my celebrity to sell a product.’”

The concept of “selling out,” or trading your artistic principles for financial gain, still resonates among Baby Boomers and the grumpy Gen-Xers who followed, and big-name actors still head off to Japan to film coffee, cell phone, liquor and fashion ads that, by mutual agreement, cannot be televised in the United States. In 2012 George Clooney addressed the issue directly during a Newsweek Oscar roundtable (warning: graphic language), saying he makes a lot of money doing coffee ads overseas.

“You do?” he was asked.

“I do and I don’t give a [expletive],” Clooney said. “People will go, ‘Oh, that’s a sellout,’ and you go, ‘You know what? [Expletive] you.’ I don’t rape the budget of a movie. We shot Ides of March for $12 million. We shot The Descendants for under $20 [million]. We’re not killing the budget on the film, so we get to make those films and if they make money, then good. Then they made money. But I’ll go make money somewhere else. I’m interested in movies. That’s what I like to do.”

The concept of compromising art for commerce

features prominently in the recent T-Mobile ad featuring Drake singing his mega hit “Hotline Bling,” but here it’s played for laughs.

A bunch of clueless marketing types keep asking Drake to change his song to include information about data charges and upgrade eligibility, and he agrees with an attractive mix of irony and good cheer: “Fantastic idea! These changes don’t ruin the song at all!” In the end you learn that he’s really pitching for T-Mobile, which apparently wouldn’t make an artist do this kind of cheesy rewrite.

In the Golden Age of Hollywood, top actors did print ads, but by the 1960s attitudes were changing.

Boomers took their anti-establishment street cred seriously (“Don’t trust anyone over 30”) and they took sides: You were for the Vietnam War or against it, for civil rights and women’s rights or opposed, a member of the hippie counter-culture or a puppet of mainstream consumer culture.

Big movie stars who wanted to be taken seriously steered clear of TV ads—in the US, at least. By the 1980s Paul Newman was doing commercials in Japan.

In the 1990s stars including Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster appeared in Japanese ads, according to Japander.com, which defines a Japander as “a western star who uses his or her fame to make large sums of money in a short time by advertising products in Japan that they would probably never use.” The word can also be used as a verb.

There was a ripple of surprise—and discontent— when Brad Pitt filmed a lamentably goofy Chanel ad that aired in the US in 2012, and YouTube comments sections suggest that some viewers still see a TV ad as a step down for a star.

“My guess is there are some purists” who object to the ads, says Neal M. Burns, a professor of advertising at the University of Texas at Austin.

“If Marlon Brando had been advertising for Lexus, I wouldn’t have been happy.”

But millennials tend to reject the kind of stark either/or thinking that pits artistic purity against crass commercialism.

Tiger Woods famously proclaimed, when asked about his ancestry, that he was Cablanasian—or all of his ancestries, Caucasian, black, Native American and Asian. He wasn’t going to choose; he was going to include—in effect, he was rejecting the boomer dichotomy implied by the question.

“Being your own brand, being your own identity, kind of plays into [everything for millennials],” says Pollak, an expert on millennials in the workplace. The attitude is, “I’m going to make my own choices. I’m not going to judge you for whether you get married or not, or have children, or when you do that—there’s no timeline anymore.’ It’s something I admire about them,” Pollak says.

There are economic factors too, Pollak says.

Because of the financial crisis and student debt, a lot of millennials have side gigs—they may be launching an app while they’re working at a bank— and they embrace that duality.

“You don’t just have to be an actor. You can be an actor and a pitchman for a brand and a singer and a perfume designer,” Pollak says.

“You can be multiple things, as opposed to just a doctor. Or just an actor. I think there’s a lot more understanding that people have multiple facets and multiple income streams.” ■

LIFE

D1

INNOVATION AT ITS FINEST

Motoring

Editor: Tet Andolong

Friday, March 4, 2016 E1

INNOVATION AT ITS FINEST T

S    R S. P

HERE is a reason for every multipurpose vehicle (MPV) follower to rejoice, as Toyota Motor Philippines finally unveiled the all-new Innova.

Also, the arrival of this wellloved MPV completed the country’s leading automotive company International Innovative Multipurpose Vehicle (IMV) lineup upgrade.

Along with the latest Hilux and Fortuner models, the new-generation Innova literally took the center stage in the recent launch event at the majestic Bellevue Hotel and Resort in Panglao, Bohol.

It may no longer be a surprise for this writer and most of the motoring journalists who witnessed the preview earlier this month, but the impact and excitement were still there to see the official introduction.

No less than Executive Chief Engr. Hiroki Nakajima revealed the various enhancements involved in the overall design concept.

He shared the vision for the Innova to be “The MPV designed for Multiperformance.” With the primary objective to change the typical MPV appearance to be more luxurious, Nakajima further explained, “I am confident that this groundbreaking image will satisfy customers who are looking for something special, in addition to the Innova’s much-loved heritage.” True enough, the exterior styling has evolved into a wellsculpted frame with more evident character lines and profiles. The fascia alone already boasts of an entirely fresh set of slender headlamps aligned to the upper portion of the pronounced front grille with blended glossy dark tone.

C  E

FRESH and revolutionized

E1

RORY MAKES SWITCH

Sports

DISRUPTION in airport operation looms, after the Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) threatened to cancel the seasonal access pass of the Airline Operators Council (AOC), an organization representing more than 30 international airlines flying out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).

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| FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana

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ONTGOMERY, Texas—An 11-year-old boy on Wednesday played the opening shot on a new golf course with codesigner Tiger Woods watching—and scored a hole-in-one.

South Texas Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) junior Taylor Crozier stepped up to the first tee at The Playgrounds at Bluejack National, and knocked in the inaugural shot on the 81-yard par three, sending the crowd—and Woods—wild.

Woods posted the YouTube video on his Twitter page. He ran over to the boy and gave him a big bear hug, smiling and laughing, then shouting to the crowd: “inaugural shot and he holes it!”

Woods has been off the PGA Tour as he recovers from back operations. AP “I feel like it’s something I’m going to stick with regardless of what the outcome is tomorrow or this week or next week,” he said. “I really do feel like it helps me put a stroke on it that I want to. It’s a great feeling. I feel like it gives my putting stroke a bit more of a better rhythm, as well, a better flow. Look, if it doesn’t work right from the get-go tomorrow, you’re not going to see me on Friday morning putting conventional again. It’s something I’m going to stick with for a while.”

‘I’M NO AMERICAN’

MCILROY used three words to try to diffuse a question about Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and how it affects a World Golf Championship played at a Trumpowned golf course.

“I’m not American,” McIlroy said, as the room broke into laughter and some applause.

McIlroy, the 26-year-old from Northern Ireland, knows all about the distractions Trump can cause even when politics aren’t involved. A year ago, McIlroy slung his 3-iron into the water left of the eighth hole out of frustration. Trump hired divers to fish it out, and the practice range on Sunday morning at Trump National Doral became a sideshow when Trump presented the 3-iron to McIlroy.

Now it’s about politics. A local news reporter asked a 72-word question that McIlroy handled with ease. The reporter followed with more generic questions about whether the political “shenanigans” would be a distraction.

“He’s not going to be the leader of my country,” McIlroy said, drawing more laughs. “Look, it really doesn’t bother me too much. I’ve been following it. I really thought I knew what politics were until I started to watch some of these presidential debates. I mean, not saying that the political system in Northern Ireland is too strong at the moment either. It is...it’s shocking.

“Look, I can’t vote,” he said. “And if I were to vote, I’m not sure I would want to vote for any of the candidates.”

McIlroy’s primary residence is about 90 minutes north in Jupiter.

RORY

MAKES SWITCH

A DOUBLE-CRESTED cormorant attempts to swallow a large fish it caught in a water feature near the 10th tee at the Cadillac Championship. AP

SPORTS Players avoiding Rio as if Olympic golf is bad idea

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The Associated Press

HE plane was ready, so that wasn’t the issue.

Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Commissioner Tim Finchem had a free charter lined up for the best players in the world to jet down to Brazil, play 18 and head back home.

The occasion was a test event for the new Olympic sport on a golf course built specifically for the games in August.

The problem was no one wanted to go. Not on a charter, or even a fast boat.

Instead, a few local players will try out the course next week to make sure it is ready for golf’s return to the Olympics for the first time in 112 years. A couple of threesomes, with maybe some lunch thrown in afterward.

Who knows, they might even share some tips on the new course—completed last November after years of delays—with the stars of the game. That, of course, is assuming the stars decide to play for their countries when the Olympics finally roll around.

No real explanation was given why no one raised their hand to play, other than scheduling difficulties. Finchem said in January that arrangements had been made to fly the top players in for the test event, something mandated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for every sport.

It could be they just haven’t caught the Olympic spirit, yet.

The last time golf was in the Olympics was 1904, so there’s not the familiarity of playing for a gold medal as there is in competing for a green jacket.

Or maybe this whole golf in the Olympics thing was simply a bad idea to begin with.

It’s not like the Olympics, already bloated beyond belief, needed new sports. Baseball and softball have been begging the IOC to be let back in the games, only to be told there are only so many medals to go around.

Somehow, though, golf found a way to sneak in. There was something about the pitch made about the possibility growing the game in poorer countries that appealed to the rich folks who run the IOC, though it’s doubtful any of the millions of

Brazilians who live in the slums, called favelas, will be teeing off on the Rio course anytime in the near future.

A bad idea indeed. So bad that it’s hard to figure out just how the powers of golf were able to grease the skids with IOC members to make it happen.

Forget that it makes little sense to take players who compete against each other nearly every week anyway and put them in a 72-hole stroke play format they play every week so they can win a few trinkets to hang around their necks.

Forget that the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup are already established international events with the kind if history and excitement that Olympic golf will never generate.

Forget that taking the top 2 male and female players from participating countries—some of whom won’t be close to cracking the top 100 in the world—will make the field weaker than the John Deere Classic.

It’s already clear the players aren’t exactly rallying around the five-ring Olympic flag. They’ve got better things to do in upcoming months, preparing for the

traditional four major championships and, for some, the Ryder Cup in early October.

You certainly can’t blame them for not going to the test event. The top ones are in Florida this week, where they’re playing Donald Trump’s course at Doral with a $1.62 million first prize at stake. Good chance the Donald himself will helicopter in over the weekend to pay his respects, and next week there’s another $6.1 million for players to share at the Valspar Championship.

Sure beats playing for $5 skins and fighting off Zika-laden mosquitoes in Brazil.

The refusal of any players to go to Brazil for the test event does more than reflect a widespread ambivalence toward the Olympics. It’s a statement that chasing dollars on the PGA Tour is far more important than chasing Olympic gold.

That may change as the Olympics draw closer. But for now playing for Olympic gold seems more like an abstract concept than anything else.

With good reason, perhaps. It has, after all, been 112 years since it’s been done.

C1

ADEC, A.I.M. SIGN M.O.U. ADEC Innovations Foundation and the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) finally ink a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to further advance the development of public-private partnership (PPP) standards for the global health sector by examining and analyzing PPP issues in the Philippines. Signing the MOU are (from left) ADEC Innovations Foundation Vice President Roberto Figueroa, ADEC Innovations Foundation Trustee Lilian Reventar, ADEC Innovations Foundation CEO James Donovan, AIM President, CEO and Dean Jikyeong Kang and AIM Executive Director Manuel de Vera. ALYSA SALEN

‘2015 exports likely fell 2%’ T

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RORY MCILROY signs autographs for fans during the practice round at the Cadillac Championship on Wednesday. AP

The Associated Press

ORAL, Florida—Rory McIlroy is shaking up his putting technique by going to a cross-handed grip for the Cadillac Championship, and he plans to stick with it.

McIlroy posted a video on Instagram that showed him putting with the left hand low, and then he confirmed on Wednesday in his news conference that it was worth a try. He said he typically practices that way to make sure he keeps the right hand from influencing the putting stroke.

“It’s a drill that I’ve always done,” he said. “And I’ve putted a lot just with my left hand. It’s one of those things where the drill started to feel a little bit better than the real thing, so I’m just going to stick with it.”

The catalyst for change was the Honda Classic, where McIlroy missed the cut with rounds of 72-72.

He said there were a couple of putts in the second round that he knew he was going to miss before he even made contact because his right hand was too active.

“So it was, ‘I need to do something here,’” he said. “I was sort of playing around with a few different grips on the putting green over the weekend. This one felt more natural to me because I’ve done it before and I do it quite a lot when I’m just practicing in drills. I thought, ‘Why not give it a go?’”

McIlroy plays the opening two rounds at Trump National Doral with Jordan Spieth and Jason Day, the two players ahead of him in the world ranking. Spieth also putts with his left hand low, and he is regarded among the best mediumlength putters in golf.

McIlroy said he used the cross-handed grip at times during his rookie year on the European Tour in 2008. Since then, he has won 18 times around the world, including four majors. The Masters is just over a month away, the one major McIlroy needs to complete the career Grand Slam.

It sounded as though he would be taking that grip to Augusta National.

These affected airline personnel are not like any ordinary office clerical staff who perform trivial tasks.”—AOC

B C N. P

FIRST SHOT, FIRST ACE

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MOTORING

Friday, March 4, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 14

Miaa, AOC feud threatens to disrupt Naia operations

Implementing the new Naia ID pass would result in the Miaa’s “unjustified, questionable and unsupported claim for unpaid bills, including interests and penalties, some of which date back to the 1970s,” the AOC said.

Instead of waiting for the

BusinessMirror

Henry Ford Awards Best Motoring Section 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 2011 Hall of Fame

■

A

INSIDE

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A broader look at today’s business

HE strong performance of the services sector, as well as the projected recovery in the outward shipments of merchandise goods, will boost export growth this year, an official of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said on Thursday.

Senen M. Perlada, director of the DTI’s Export Marketing Bureau, said services exports account for about 30 percent of the country’s export receipts. The sector, which is projected to sustain its growth this year,

$29B Projected services export receipts this year

propped up the country’s export performance last year.

“Based on our calculation, merchandise exports declined by 5.6 percent. But when it comes to total exports, the decline may have narrowed to 2 percent because of the

services sector,” Perlada told reporters in an interview.

Earlier, the DTI official said exports in 2015 may have contracted by 2.8 percent to 4 percent compared to the level posted in 2014.

He said services exports last year may have amounted to $27 billion and may go up to $29 billion this year.

With electronics expected to do well this year, the government is confident that 2016 export figures will be better. Outward shipments of electronic products account for nearly half of the country’s S “E,” A

Asean powerless to stop China sea incursions–Mahathir

We are dealing with a very powerful country. We can’t tell them, ‘Look, don’t do this, don’t do that, or I will bash your head.’”—M PESO EXCHANGE RATES ■ US 47.2600

S

OUTHEAST Asian nations are hemmed in on the disputed South China Sea, avoiding confronting China because of its sheer clout, according to former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad.

W hile countries like Malaysia may risk further Chinese encroachments by not taking a tougher stance on their claims, there are few alternatives, Mahathir said in a February 25 interview with Bloomberg Television in Kuala Lumpur.

“Can Asean go to war with China?” Mahathir said. “We are dealing with a very powerful country. We can’t tell them, ‘Look, don’t do this, don’t do that, or I will bash your head.’”

China is the largest trading partner of the 10-member Asean and has pledged sorely needed infrastructure investment funds to the region as part of its plan to build a new maritime “Silk Road” trading route from China to the Middle East and onto Europe.

TELCOS: BLAME PHL’S POOR INTERNET SERVICE ON GOVT B L S. M

S

TEADY improvements in the telecommunications industry were seen toward the end of 2015, data from research firms showed, as operators stepped up investments in their data networks.

According to the latest Asia Network Quality Report of JP Morgan Securities, advances were most felt in the carriers’ 3G mobile data service, as the country’s average 3G download speed increased from 1.77 megabits per second (Mbps) in the third quarter to 2.09 Mbps in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Data from crowd-sourcing wireless coverage research firm OpenSignal showed that 3G download speed in the Philippines is now higher than in Thailand’s, at 1.46 Mbps; Japan, 1.56 Mbps; and Hong Kong, 2.05 Mbps.

Note, however, that these

15,000

The current number of cell sites in the country, way below the required 65,000 cell sites for better Internet service

countries have wider and fa r more adva nced LT E coverage, which is, to date, the fastest wireless data technology available.

Among Philippine carriers, wireless services provider Smart Communications Inc. set the pace in this period, raising its average 3G download speed from 1.66 Mbps in the third quarter to 2.54 Mbps in the fourth. “The report highlights the strategy we’ve embraced in our network investments.

S “T,” A

C  A

■ JAPAN 0.4165 ■ UK 66.5421 ■ HK 6.0808 ■ CHINA 7.2145 ■ SINGAPORE 33.8442 ■ AUSTRALIA 34.4667 ■ EU 51.3716 ■ SAUDI ARABIA 12.6060

Source: BSP (3 March 2016 )

A2 Friday, March 4, 2016

BMReports BusinessMirror

Miaa, AOC feud threatens to disrupt Naia operations C  A

Miaa to implement the scheme, the AOC hired a prestigious law firm, AMA and Paredes, to argue their case before the courts.

In a March 1, 2016, letter to Miaa chief Jose Angel Honrado, the law firm reminded the agency that “these affected airline personnel are not like any ordinary office clerical staff who perform trivial tasks.”

“Rather, they perform vital tasks to enhance the security and safety of their passengers, especially at these times when threats from terrorist groups cannot be taken for granted. Thus, requiring them to

undergo the tedious bureaucratic process of securing the daily access passes into your terminals grossly hampers their security and safety operations,” AMA said.

“This is not to mention the fact that, consequently, a potential slowdown of their services will also trigger dissatisfaction coming from tourists who pump in the needed funds that boosts the country’s economy. Taking all these into consideration, the matter on hand is one that concerns utmost public interest.”

Miaa Spokesman David de Castro, in a reply to the BM’s query about their response to the AMA letter, said: “The GM’s office

has been in close coordination with concerned airlines since last year to settle their debts and to renew their contracts with the Miaa.”

He said, “Enough time has been given for them to settle such items.

An extension was also given until the end of February. The Miaa reserves the right to take appropriate action against entities who, among others, fail to pay dues.”

“Management has not prohibited the concerned airlines from entering the airport so as to keep operations continuous,” de Castro said, adding that “compliance with agreements entered into by the airlines with airport management is expected.”

AMA had asked Honrado to give AOC personnel what they have been previously enjoying under the seasonal-pass arrangement “so that they may perform their tasks to promote public interest.”

“Please take note of the fact that these airline companies have been updated in the payment of their current rental payments. They were merely exercising their right to question certain items in their accounts that have no basis to support them,” AMA told Honrado.

AMA added that there were comm it ments bet ween Mi a a accounting and the finance office of the different airline companies to reconcile these accounts.

Asean powerless to stop China sea incursions–Mahathir C  A

That economic clout gives it sway in its territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia over the South China Sea, a key maritime artery for trade and energy shipments. China’s trading influence is increasingly matched by an expanded naval presence in the region, with missiles, fighter jets and radar operating from some reefs and islands it controls.

“It’s going to be the most powerful country in this world, more powerful than the US,” Mahathir said of China. He led Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, during which he made regular trips to China—in part to limit reliance on western nations‚ and trade ties accelerated.

Under his leadership Malaysia advocated a pragmatic relationship with China and promoted what he called “Asian values.”

MH 370 tension

CHINA is Malaysia’s largest trading partner and was its fourth-biggest foreign investor in 2015. A Chinese company is paying 9.83 billion ringgit ($2.3 billion) for the energy assets of a troubled Malaysian state investment company, while others are bidding for rail projects in the Southeast Asian nation.

Ties between China and Malaysia were briefly strained after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370 in March 2014, with more than 150 Chinese nationals onboard. The two countries, along with Australia, are still searching for the plane. Premier Li Keqiang said last November that China wants to enhance maritime and defense cooperation with Malaysia.

China in February sparked new questions about its intentions in the South China Sea after it deployed surface-to-air missiles to a contested island, a move that came just months after President Xi Jinping promised not to militarize the disputed atolls. Under Xi, China has reclaimed land to bolster its claims to more than 80 percent of the waterway that hosts $5 trillion of international shipping a year, adding airstrips and lighthouses.

At least four Asean members also claim portions of the South China Sea. China has reclaimed 3,000 acres of land over two years, warned US military planes and ships from going near areas it controls, and its vessels have regularly clashed with Vietnamese and Philippine fishing boats.

W hile the Philippines and Vietnam have protested, other Asean states have been more will-

ing to accommodate China and its economic muscle. Last November Asean defense ministers failed to release a communiqué from their meeting, amid reports of Chinese opposition to language on the disputes. There was a similar failure at a leaders’ summit in Cambodia in 2012.

Malaysia has avoided overtly challenging China over its maritime claims. Chinese coast guard ships were spotted off the coast of Sarawak last month, sparking worries among people there, official news agency Bernama reported. Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was quick to dispel any concerns, saying the situation was under control and that he’d arrange a meeting between the Chinese ambassador and the Sarawak chief minister to resolve any misunderstanding, the report said.

“If you are thinking of having military capability to fight China, you can forget about it,” Mahathir said. “We have a problem with China, we’ll sit down and talk to them about the problem.

We don’t confront.”

“We don’t believe in wars, we believe in trying to negotiate and to find some peaceful situation to the problem.” Bloomberg News

Exports. . .

C  A

merchandise exports.

Given these factors, Perlada said the government’s target of growing export receipts by 8 percent to 9 percent is “doable.”

The DTI official said there is a need to capitalize on the business opportunities presented by other services sectors aside from information technology and business-process management (IT-BPM).

Perlada said education, tourism-related and engineering services are potential growth areas.

The IT-BPM sector is expected to generate $25 billion in revenues, which accounts for 10 percent of the global market. It is expected to employ 1.3 million workers by year-end.

The Philippines has not been spared from the global gloom that has caused exports of other Asian countries to contract last year.

Merchandise exports declined by 5.6 percent to $58.6 billion in 2015, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Telcos. . .

news@businessmirror.com.ph

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We’ve paid specific attention to enhancing our 3G capacity and resiliency because about 90 percent of our subscribers who go online use 3G handsets.

“Improving our 3G data service delivers immediate benefits to the largest number of people in our subscriber base,” said Ariel P. Fermin, who heads Smart’s Consumer Group.

He added that the company is, likewise, building its capacity to offer better LTE services by widening its coverage and increasing its capacity.

“At the same time, we are also building for the future. So we continue to roll out our 4G/LTE network because we expect more and more people to start using 4G/LTE handsets,” Fermin said.

Combined, the average LTE speed of Smart and rival Globe Telecom Inc. has risen from about 5 Mbps in early 2015 to over 10 Mbps by year-end.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), the parent firm of Smart, had allotted P43 billion in capital outlays last year. Globe, on the other hand, spent around P32.1 billion in capital in 2015.

Bulk of these figures were used to boost the capacity and resiliency of the their fixed line and mobiledata service in anticipation of surges in data usage.

The results of this effort appear to be reflected in the test results in the JP Morgan report.

Smart’s 3G download speeds in Caloocan City, for example, rose from 2.08 Mbps in October to 2.91 Mbps in December last year.

It also rose from 2.09 Mbps to 3.30 Mbps in Pasig, and from 1.77 Mbps to 2.32 Mbps in Davao over the same period.

“This is a moving target because customer habits are shifting to more bandwidth-heavy services like video streaming. Mindful of that, we are focused on building and maintaining a superior network as the foundation of our digital strategy,” Fermin said.

But for Globe General Counsel Froilan M. Castelo, the government must also play its part in driving the digital economy to its peak.

He urged the government to do away with the bureaucracy and allow the local companies to build more cell sites to further boost their networks.

The Philippines, with 15,000 cell sites, is only higher than Cambodia and Australia, both with 9,000; Myanmar with 7,620 and Sri Lanka with 7,000. By comparison, the US has a total of 205,000 cell towers in place.

Castelo said mobile-data explosion, amid growing access to Internet connectivity, requires more bandwidth than the traditional voice and text messaging services.

Thus, it demands the establishment of more cell sites for telecommunication operators to deliver mobiledata services, especially indoors.

As smartphones continue to evolve into a l l-encompassing w ireless persona l computers, telecommunication operators need to construct additional cell sites to enable their respective networks to transmit enormous amount of data.

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

“The continuing clamor for better broadband-service quality and experience has to do with the issue of congestion. Despite various capability upgrades and network modernization using the latest technologies, the disproportionate number of cell sites vis-à-vis traffic in the advent of a digital revolution cancels out the gains of any state-of-the-art network,” Castelo said.

“We have to start facing the reality that more and more Filipinos, especially the millennials, are

joining the digital bandwagon. Using any smartphone, the Internet in the hands of an individual enriches one’s lifestyle.

In so doing, the country’s existing Internet infrastructure needs to catch up with the demand for data whether on mobile or at home.”

The Philippines, being an archipelago, is a challenge to connectivity. With a population of 102 million in 42,000 barangays, it has to have a greater number of cell sites to cover existing usage.

“Today we already need around 60,000 to 65,000 [cell sites] in a three-player market for telco companies to provide a more pervasive reach and better Internet speeds.

In the next couple of years, smartphone penetration will go even higher and we will need to fill that gap, as well,” he said.

Castelo emphasized that the prohibitive permitting environment, site acquisition and rightof-way issues have kept telecommunication operators from aggressively rolling out broadband infrastructure to boost Internet speeds in the country.

Globe alone has more than 500 cell sites waiting to be built at any given time.

“A lot of the infrastructure backlogs in the telecommunications industry could be attributed to challenges in getting local government permits. This is why Globe has been calling on the government to provide policy support for initiatives to improve Internet infrastructure in the country,” he said.

Specifically, prioritizing an Open Access law for the telco industry would expedite the issuance of all the relevant permits for all telecommunications facilities at the local government level. Such legislation is also seen to mitigate bureaucratic red tape and other political hurdles that stand in the way in the deployment of telecommunication and broadband infrastructure, Castelo said.

He pointed out that telecommunication companies are required to secure at least 25 permits—a few of which were also mentioned in the Broadband Policy paper— that cause delay in the deployment of Internet infrastructure such as cell sites and fiber builds, among others.

According to Castelo, securing different permits at the local government level could become very challenging, from the sheer number of permits to the different political personalities that mobile operators have to deal with.

“Permit or regulatory fees imposed by various local government units should cover only the reasonable costs of regulation. Prior to enactment of any pertinent ordinance, local government units should be mandated to present an itemized proof of said regulatory costs,” he said.

“A public hearing involving telecommunications companies and other stakeholders within their jurisdictions should also be conducted prior to the enactment of any local ordinance. Also, when these costs are requested in writing, a local government unit should be able to respond with the requested information in writing.”

If only the government can prioritize telco infrastructure builds, not only will a majority of consumers benefit because of better Internet speed and better service quality but it will also connect other important areas to the Internet in a scale that has not been done before, like public health centers and public schools, Castelo added. “ This will address a lot of issues, especially in the delivery of basic social services, disaster response and education, at the barangay level,” he said.

The United States Agency for International Development and the Joint Foreign Chambers have recently released a Broadband Policy that suggests solutions to the needs of the telco industry in the Philippines.

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Friday, March 4, 2016 A3

‘Make Internet access a legal right of every Juan’

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B J M N.  C

HE chairman of the House Committee on Trade and Industry on Thursday urged the Philippine government to make Internet access a legal right of its citizens.

Nacionalista Party Rep. Mark Villar of Las Piñas, the panel chairman, said more than half of the Filipino population does not have access to the Internet.

“The [Philippine] government must intervene and ensure that the access to technology and, ultimately, information is available to its citizens, regardless of socioeconomic factors,” he said, following the recently concluded Asean Conference on Work-Life Balance.

“Finland already made broadband a legal right. They have recently launched a project that would provide every Finn access to at least 1 megabit per second [Mbps] broadband connection. I can’t see a reason the Philippines should not follow suit,” said Villar, one of the speakers during the conference held in Malaysia.

The lawmaker, citing a study conducted by “We Are Social Singapore,” said only 44 percent, or 44.2 million Filipinos out of 101.1 million, are active Internet users in the Philippines.

“If we look into our neighbors in the Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations], the Philippines registered one of the lowest access rates. For example, 73 percent of those in Singapore, 67 percent of those in Malaysia, 64.5 percent of those in Brunei Darussalam and 43.9 percent of those in Vietnam are able to access the Internet,” Villar said.

Villar added that by removing technological boundaries, the government is able to lessen discrimination and provide a freer and liberal access to data, closing the widening gap of urban-rural divide.

“When Filipinos have free and convenient access to the Internet, with speed at par with neighboring countries, not only do we promote efficiency in realizing work objectives; we also protect our citizens’ right to freedom of speech

and information,” he said.

In House Resolution 1658, Villar said the Philippines has the second-slowest average-download speed among 22 Asian countries, with 3.6 Mbps, next to Afghanistan with 2.52 Mbps.

He said there is an urgent need for Congress to look into the state of the country’s Internet connection so that remedial measures may be passed to address the problem.

The lawmaker added the Philippines, with 3.6 Mbps, lags behind Lao PDR (4 Mbps), Indonesia (4.1 Mbps), Myanmar (4.9 Mbps), Brunei Darussalam (4.9 Mbps), Malaysia (5.5 Mbps) and Cambodia (5.7 Mbps).

He said Vietnam (13.1 Mbps) and Thailand (17.7 Mbps) joined Singapore (61 Mbps) as those above the regional average of 12.4 mbps.

Villar said local consumers spend around P1,000 a month for Internet service, with speeds of up to 2 Mbps, or about P2,000 for up to 5 Mbps.

He said studies show the largest telecommunications company offers 15 Mbps of Internet speed for S$36.9, or around P1,312 a month. In Thailand 799 baht, or P1,100, could give consumers 12 Mbps of connection.

“There is a need to address this alarming and poor state of Internet service in the country, as it impacts on consumerwelfare productivity, right to information and, ultimately, on our economy,” the lawmaker said.

Villar, citing Akamai, a major US-based provider, said the Internet connection in the Philippines has an average speed of only 2.1 Mbps.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is making a big pitch for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)

HYBRID SHIFT

Photo shows Filipino and Thai electric and hybrid vehicle makers during a news conference highlighting the Manufacturing Expo 2016 at a hotel in Makati City. The expo focused on the enhancement of the growth of the electric and hybrid auto market in the region, as well as neighboring countries, with the advent of the Asean Economic Community.

Among the participants are (from left) Chanapa Lertrungruang, project manager of REED Tradex; Dr. Yossapong Laoonual, president of Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand; and Rommel Juan, president of Electric Vehicle of Philippines. NONIE REYES

44.2M

Number of active Internet users in the Philippines to migrate to the online space to expand their market base, saying e-commerce is key to enable MSMEs to participate in global trade. The trade agency said it is targeting to aid 100,000 MSMEs out of the more than 937,000 MSMEs doing e-commerce online by 2020 under its recently launched e-commerce road map.

The road map also envisions fast and

competitive Internet access and increased Internet users.

To do this, the e-commerce office of the DTI will be ramping up its promotion through conducting nationwide road shows.

“We are focusing our promotion activities on e-commerce, not only within the East Asia subregion, but nationally, to help MSMEs to engage in borderless trade. Given the population with in the East Asia subregion, there is a huge market for e-commerce,” Trade Undersecretary for Special Concerns Prudencio Reyes said in a statement.

To date, Asean has 143.1 million Internet users, of whom 44.2 million are from the Philippines. E-commerce road show for entrepreneurs will focus on E-business Models, E-Payments,

E-Commerce Web Site Development, E-Commerce Platform and E-Commerce Marketing.

Prior to training entrepreneurs, training the trainers for business counsellors around the Philippines will also be conducted.

Financing start-ups for MSMEs is also an objective by the DTI in the ongoing profiling of MSMEs. The goal is to set up a system where banks can access specific information, such as the type of business and the capital needed.

This system will reflect the accountability and credentials of MSMEs. The Philippine E-commerce Roadmap 2016-2020, a product of private, academe and government discussions, sets the direction of the industry toward further development. Catherine N. Pillas

Carbon tax will only make power more expensive in PHL–Monsada B L L

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HE Philippines is not yet ready to impose levies on the carbon content of fuels, the Department of Energy (DOE) said on Thursday.

Energy Secretary Zenaida Y. Monsada, during the Shell Powering Progress Together (PPT)-Asia forum held in Manila, said it is “not a good idea” to impose the so-called carbon tax, amid high electricity prices being collected from power users.

“The concern is that we already have a very high power rate. We’re not competitive with our neighbors,” she said. Instead, the DOE is keen on promoting renewable energy (RE) as a power source to balance the utilization of fossil fuels and nonconventional type of energy.

“Putting a tax on carbon may lead to higher [electricity] prices. What we want to do is encourage RE development and classification of baseload and mid-merit plants,” Monsada added.

A carbon tax is a form of carbon pricing. Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel, such as coal, petroleum and natural gas, and is released as carbon dioxide (CO2) when burned.

RE sources, on the other hand, do not convert hydrocarbons to CO2.

Dr. Edvin Aldrian, vice chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeWorking Group 1, said carbon tax is not fit for Asian countries. “It is not really for Asian countries. It is, however, already established in Europe.”

Monsada and Aldrian were invited as panel members to talk about “Energy Transitions and Climate Change Challenge” at the forum.

Shell Philippines showcased the Philippines as a leading proponent of collaborative action in the region, during its annual flagship forum on urbanization and sustainability.

During the forum, local multisectoral partners took center stage in sharing key sustainability projects to address the growing issues on urban and climate resilience, as well as demands on energy, water and food.

“Energy, water and food are the world’s most vital resources and where public, private and civil-society sectors need to collaborate

in order to make the country more resilient,” said Ed Chua, chairman of Shell Philippines.

“Cities, being the largest human habitat of the future, should, therefore, be essential targets of innovation.”

With Shell’s continuous thrust toward shaping a more sustainable future of energy for all countries, such as the Philippines, are poised to survive and thrive in the new challenging conditions that the 21st century may bring, Chua added.

With the increased need for climate resilience and disaster-risk management, especially in coastal communities of the Visayas and Mindanao regions, Shell spearheaded the Automated Weather Station (AWS) network project focused on updating and expanding the existing AWS network of partner climate research institution Manila Observatory, together with Smart Communications.

The AWS is an urban and environmental-resilience project that provides localized weather data to communities to help enhance risk and resilience analysis on weather and climate in key cities, especially coastal cities most at risk to climate-change impacts.

The project provides opportunities to generate new knowledge through scientific research on climate and helps to enhance disaster preparedness of local government units.

The Manila Observatory provides technical analysis of weather and climate data, while Smart provides free connectivity for wireless data transmission. Shell has offered strategically located retail stations and depots as sites for installation of the AWS devices, which provide near real-time weather data in a specific location, such as temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction.

Shell’s partnership with Manila Observatory also extends to upgrading the institute’s weather and climate facilities, including the installation of a high-tech computing facility in 2015, which significantly improved the modeling capacity of its Regional Climate Systems program.

In Palawan, the site of the Malampaya Deep Water Gas-to-Power Project, Shell has embarked on a similar AWS project together with the Weather Philippines Foundation and the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development.

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A4 Friday, March 4, 2016

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Labor groups: Declare wage law unconstitutional

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B J R. S J

ARIOUS labor groups filed a petition before the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday seeking to declare as unconstitutional Republic Act (RA) 6727, or the Wage Rationalization Act, for depriving over 62 million workers nationwide of adequate living wage.

The petitioners also sought to abolish the 17 Regional Wage Boards in the Philippines and to standardize a national minimum wage all over the country.

They also asked to stop the National Wage and Productivity Commission (NWPC) and all the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Boards (RTWPB) from further issuing regional wage orders.

The petitioners include Ugnayan ng Maralita Laban sa Kahirapan (Umalab Ka) Party-list group, senatorial candidate Walden Bello, National Federation of Labor (NFL), Solidarity of Independent and General Labor Organizations (Siglo), Froilan Caratihan, Rusty de la Cruz, Emmanuel Flores Cavanas and Shiela Baylosis.

They argued that, due to the enactment of RA 6727, different minimum wages were set all over the country, with the highest as P481 in the National Capital Region and the lowest as P250 at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

“This [disparate] absurdity is the effect of 26 years of implementing the provisions of RA 6727,” the petition said.

The petitioners said the minimum wage set by NWPC and RTWPB failed to meet the living wage suggested by various think tanks, including the IBON Foundation.

₧571

Difference between the highest minimum wage at P446 and the P1,017 family living wage, according to data from the IBON Foundation Data from IBON showed that in May 2012 the daily minimum wage is P446, while the family living wage is P1,017 with a wage gap of P571.

“Minimum wages in the country have long failed to provide for an adequate living wage for laborers.

This is due to the fact that the criteria in determining minimum wages as defined by RA 6727 are patently erroneous, biased and ultimately unconstitutional,” the petition said.

Under RA 6727 the criteria in determining wages include demand for living wages, wage adjustment vis-a-vis the consumer price index, the need to induce industries to invest in the countryside, fair return of capital invested and capacity to pay of employers.

But petitioners argued that there is no provision in the Constitution, or in any international conventions,

DISASTER MANAGEMENT ALLIANCE An international symposium and launching of the Asia-Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management (A-PAD) Philippines was held at a hotel in Manila on

Thursday to enhance the collaboration and cooperation of private sector, civil society and government partnership for disaster resilience. It was attended by advocates from Japan, Bangladesh, South Korea, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Leaders who attended the event include (from left) A-PAD Chairman Faisal Djalal; Defense Undersecretary Alexander Pama, who is the administrator of Office of Civil Defense and executive director of National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council; and Japanese Embassy Minister for Economic Affairs Makoto Iyori. NONIE REYES

which mandate that a living wage must carry with it the fair return of capital by the employers.

“Although the petitioners are not unmindful of the macroeconomic fact that investment demands return, such must not be included in the equation of formulating a living wage, or even a minimum wage, for that matter," petitioners said.

They added that there are already a myriad of laws protecting the investment and profit of employers that they should no longer be allowed to “hijack what is left of the workingman—fixing of wages.”

The petitioners said the law also violates the equal-protection clause of the Constitution, as well as the Articles 135 and 248 of the Labor

DOTC, Mandaluyong City square off over proposed $1.043-B railway project B C M-C Correspondent

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HE Mandaluyong City Council has issued a resolution expressing “continuing objection” to a reported attempt by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to take over an ambitious urban hybrid-railway project that Mandaluyong City is spearheading with the assistance of the Japanese government.

In Resolution 2574, the Mandaluyong City Council scored the DOTC’s position that the construction of an automated people mover (APM) hybrid rail and monorail public-transport technology, stretching from Manila to Taytay City, Rizal, is “impractical and unfeasible…that will not benefit Mandaluyong City, and even the other local government units [LGUs].”

The City Council said that a study conducted by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Meti), which had drawn up a four-option alignment plan for an APM line in eastern Metro Manila, had already identified the DOTC’s selected alignment, as projected to have low ridership and, therefore, not economically feasible, and will only benefit commuters that pass the Ortigas Avenue and Ortigas Avenue Extension route.

Worse, the council members added that the “DOTC had made a presumptuous major change in the public-transport project by making the project a ‘light rail transit’ project and even packaging the project as a ‘proposed LRT 4’ project.”

The council members lamented that the DOTC had only considered its position on the basis of least cost and not on the economic impact to Metro Manila.

The DOTC’s interference on the

The DOTC’s interference on the project was highly frustrating.”

—M C C project was “highly frustrating,” the council members said, considering that it was Mandaluyong City who had pursued the concept studies and surveys to build an efficient masstransport system for the city.

They added that it was Mandaluyong City which secured the technical grant of Japan’s Meti, as well as the expressed interest of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) for possibly providing financing for the APM line.

The “Study on Medium Capacity Transit System Project in Metro Manila” conducted by TOSTEMS Inc., Oriental Consultants Global Co. Ltd., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and the Japan Planning Transport Association (JTPA) that is under Meti, envisioned to build an APM system starting at the Mandaluyong City Hall and running through the inner city’s suburban areas, straight through the Ortigas central business district (CBD).

The new master plan, which was finished in late 2014, covers an estimated 19.6 kilometers, that will stretch from Taytay, Rizal, east of Metro Manila to Santa Mesa in Manila, running through the Ortigas CBD. The Japanese experts had provided three options: 1) Santa MesaBoni Avenue-Ortigas CBD-Taytay City; 2) V. Mapa-Shaw Boulevard, Ortigas CBD-Taytay; and 3) Gilmore-Ortigas-Taytay City.

Option 1 will be the longest, spanning an estimated 19.6 km, an elevated section of 17.1 km and an underground section of 2.5 km. It is

considered to be the most advantageous for Mandaluyong residents, since it will pass through the city’s residential areas.

Option 2 will span 18.4 km with an elevated section of 16.2 km and an underground section of 2.2 km.

The advantage of the line is it will connect to the Edsa-bound Metro Rail Transit 3 at Shaw boulevard, and with the Light Rail Transit Line 2 at the V. Mapa station.

Option 3 will be the shortest, as well as cheapest, running mostly along the entire stretch of Ortigas Avenue and Ortigas Avenue Extension. It is envisioned to have a span of 14.8 km, and will be fully elevated.

The project, Japanese experts said, seeks to reduce traffic congestion in Metro Manila, especially in the section from Taytay City up to the Ortigas CBD; strengthen the eastern side of Metro Manila with the installation of a track-guided transport system, and contribute to the revitalization of economic activities in Metro Manila.

The eastern Metro Manila APM project is projected to cost at least $1.043 billion including the actual construction of the guideway track, electromechanical systems and rolling stock/APM coaches, including an additional rolling stock that will be purchased in 2029.

If the approval process will be completed by 2016, the Japanese technical experts said the project will be completed, and commercial operations can be started by 2023.

Code, which discourage labor discrimination. Petitioners said that of the 62,189,000 Filipino workers, only 207,507 are covered by collective bargaining agreement.

“This means that virtually most of Filipino laborers do not have bargaining power [with] their employers. That is why a living wage legislation is important. The urgency of

striking down RA 6727 cannot be stressed further. The government must step in to provide for an adequate living wage for the 99.9966 percent of Filipino laborers. Without such legislation, Filipino laborers will always be left at the mercy of unscrupulous employers and subject to exploitation and discrimination,” the petition said.

OIC: Filipino Muslims must remain committed to peace despite nonpassage of BBL

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RGANIZATION of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General Iyad Ameen Madani has called on the Bangsamoro people to unite and remain committed to the peace process after Congress’s failure to enact the proposed Bangsamoro basic law (BBL), which would have been vital in ending the Mindanao armed conflict.

“The secretary-general of the OIC urged the Bangsamoro people to unify, consolidate and converge together toward the advancement of the peace process and the final resolution of the conflict in Mindanao,” the OIC secretary-general said in a news statement issued after his meeting with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim.

While Madani “expressed his deep disappointment over the nonpassage of the BBL, which is a major step toward the final resolution of the Bangsamoro question,” he “urged the leaders of the Bangsamoro people, in particular the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front [MNLF], to utilize the existing mechanism, [the] Bangsamoro Coordinating Forum [BCF], to achieve a more unified position and a more coherent consolidated and sustainable cooperation for the benefit of the Bangsamoro people.”

Madani underscored that the firm commitment of the MILF to the peace process was important in preserving the gains of the peace negotiations and sustaining the cease-fire mechanisms to prevent future violent encounters between forces of the government and the Moro group.

“In spite of the great disappointment, the MILF would continue to uphold the peace process, and would continue to call on the Bangsamoro people to remain patient and to rally behind the full implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro [CAB].”

“The secretary-general also called upon the international community, particularly those involved in the peace process and those that witnessed the signing of the CAB, to urge the incoming administration to save this process and guarantee the passage of the BBL, as originally

agreed upon,” the OIC further added.

The OIC also reiterated its support to the peace process and the full implementation of the peace agreements, such as the CAB, the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), the 1976 Tripoli Agreement and the 1996 Jakarta Agreement.

The intergovernmental organization also advised the Philippine government that the nonpassage of the BBL may become a platform for Islamic extremists to instigate violence in the region. “A failure of peace process could adversely affect the good relation existing between the Philippines and the Muslim world,” they said.

The Philippine peace panel denounces attack on Islamic diplomats. Meanwhile, Philippine peace panel chairman Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer condemned the assassination attempt against Islamic preacher Sheikh Aaidh al-Qarni, and Saudi diplomat Sheikh Turki Assaegh, who spoke at a university lecture in Zamboanga City on Tuesday.

“The assassination attempt against the Saudi clerk is an affront to the freedom of expression and assembly that we hold dear. The battle of ideas should be fought through words and force of vision and imagination, not through the barrel of the gun,” Ferrer said. According to news reports, al-Qarni and Assaegh were both wounded in the shooting incident, as they were leaving the Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) auditorium in the southern port city of Zamboanga.

Al-Qarni is a prominent Saudi Islamic preacher who is well-known for his self-help book La Tahzan (Don’t Be Sad), which has sold over 2 million copies and was also praised as an ideal read for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

The assailant was identified as a 21-year-old WMSU senior engineering student, Rugasan Misuari III, who was killed on the spot by alQarni’s security entourage.

“We encourage everyone to be vigilant and to stand with us against the sinister designs of those forces that threaten the peace and democracy in our society,” Ferrer added. PNA

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Singapore Air turns to new jet to lure premium paying flyers

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Indonesia’s budget at risk on issues over planned curbs in tax, graft laws

nominated him for president and of which he is a member, are the most vocal in supporting the revisions to the KPK. “The KPK has emerged as a serious threat to political parties, which, along with tycoons and the bureaucracy, are behind state capture and corruption in Indonesia,” said Dadang Trisasongko, secretarygeneral of Transparency International Indonesia. “Now things depend on the president. There will be a cost in rejecting the revisions, but he can hide behind public opinion if he is smart.”

Plunge of Singapore Airlines’s operating profit from peak eight years ago

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INGAPORE Airlines Ltd., hurt by competition from opulent Middle Eastern carriers and a rash of budget airlines, is trying to revive its fortunes the way it knows best: wooing flyers with new aircraft.

The carrier received its first Airbus Group SE A350 in Singapore on Thursday.

While the new aircraft with its extra-wide cabins and a new entertainment system will set Singapore Air apart from local rivals, it might be too little, too late to turn around its fortunes. “This aircraft won’t be enough to turn the fortunes around for the airline,”said K. Ajith, an analyst at UOB Kay Hian Pte. in Singapore, who recommends buying the stock.“That shouldn’t be reason to be bullish on earnings or traffic. Bringing back the glory days—it all depends on competition.”

Singapore Air—the only Asian carrier to fly the Concorde and the first in the world to fly the A380 superjumbo—needs new passengers to stem a slide in earnings. Operating profit has fallen 76 percent from a peak eight years ago. Sales reached a high in the year ended March 2009, as the global financial crisis crimped premium travel. The carrier is counting on cabin comforts to lure higher-end passengers used to its fully flat beds, as well as more price-conscious customers.

“At this point in time we are not really seeing a slower, weaker demand on business class,” CEO Goh Choon Phong told reporters after the plane arrived at Singapore’s Changi Airport.“But with the kind of outlook we’re seeing in the world economy, we do expect that it will affect business demand at some point. That is something we will watch out for.”

Game-changer

QATAR Airways has flown the plane for a while, as has Finnair, which has a deep reach into Asia, so Singapore Air doesn’t have any bragging rights for coming first.

That’s a departure from the A380 jumbo, spearheading a new dimension of luxury travel that included fully enclosed cabins in first class.“This aircraft is hugely important for Singapore Airlines,” said Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation consultancy Endau Analytics in Malaysia. “The A350 will hopefully rejuvenate them and revive their fortunes in the premium and also the premium-economy sectors, which they are focusing on.”

The new plane will be a“game-changer” for the company amid increasing competition, Goh said.

“We acknowledge that competition,” he said in an interview onboard the A350 in Toulouse, France, on Wednesday. “It’s something I’ve been open about. That, plus the emergence of new, low-cost carriers, has structurally changed the landscape for us, especially in Southeast Asia.”

Singapore Air will be the fifth airline to operate the twin-aisle A350. The aircraft will begin flying to Amsterdam on May 9 and Dusseldorf in July, while an ultra-long-range version is planned for nonstop flights to New York in 2018.

Sundeck, Lazy Z

GOH has ordered 67 A350s to expand the fleet and better compete with Emirates and Qatar Airways Ltd., whose passenger numbers have both more than doubled in the past decade. While rising incomes in Asia are spurring air travel, budget airlines are forcing full-service carriers to provide greater value for money in the fight for customers.

Airbus says the A350 consumes 25 percent less fuel than Boeing Co.’s 777 aircraft, while its interior is 6 inches (15 centimeters) bigger than its nearest competitor. Singapore Air’s 253-seat A350 has 42 business-class seats equipped with the preset lounge-style positions of “Sundeck” and “Lazy Z” that are already in its 777-300ER aircraft. There are also 24 premium economy seats and 187 for economy. Bloomberg News

Most critical

A MAN pushes a relative who lies on a hospital bed, as they were told to leave the building following an earthquake, at a hospital in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, on Wednesday. Indonesia lifted a tsunami warning issued on Wednesday after a powerful earthquake off Sumatra sent islanders rushing to high ground. The US Geological Service said the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.8. AP

I

NDONESIAN lawmakers seeking to curb the powers of the country’s antigraft agency are holding up the passage of a tax-amnesty bill the government says is vital for this year’s spending plans.

The government has been resisting attempts to tamper with the agency, known as the KPK, while trying to get the amnesty bill passed this quarter. Legislators have now delayed deliberations on the amnesty bill, and some say its fate is linked to the government agreeing to a revised law that would limit the reach of the KPK. That presents a problem for President Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, in his attempts to boost government spending to shore up an economy that grew at its slowest pace last year since 2009.

Allowing the KPK bill to pass in

its current form risks weakening the front line of Indonesia’s anticorruption battle and delivering another blow to his pre-election image as a democratic reformer.

“Some of the political powers see both laws as ‘one packet’,” said Johnny Plate, a lawmaker from the ruling coalition who sits on parliament’s finance commission and supports the tax amnesty. “So if one is delayed, the other is delayed.”

KPK’s probes

INVESTIGATIONS by the KPK, which was created in 2002 to take over the fight against corruption

KPK

Indonesia’s antigraft agency that already sent to jail 101 national and regional lawmakers

from the police, have led to convictions against scores of high-ranking government officials. Since its inception, the KPK has arrested 101 national or regional lawmakers out of a total of 518 suspects, according to data on its web site. In 2015 19 legislators were arrested, more than in any other category provided by the agency.

In a recent opinion poll by Indikator Politik, 80 percent of respondents rated it the most-trusted institution compared to 40 percent who chose political parties. Indikator

Politik conducted interviews with 1,550 people.

The revision to the KPK law as proposed by lawmakers from several parties, including Jokowi’s ruling party, would limit its wiretapping abilities and establish an advisory body overseeing it. Critics say the changes would make the body less effective.

“We know better than the people who are demonstrating against this,” said Firman Subagyo, a ruling coalition lawmaker who is supporting the changes to the KPK. “The wiretapping moves of the KPK have to be controlled. It has made mistakes in the past.”

Own party

POLITICAL parties that have expressed support for Jokowi have a majority in parliament. But as the delay to the tax amnesty has shown, that doesn’t mean he can rely on them to back his agenda. Lawmakers from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, led by former President Megawati Soekarnoputri, which

IN a recent address to government officials, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro called the proposed tax amnesty the most critical government policy this year.

Under the bill, Indonesians can declare assets at home and abroad and benefit from tax rates as low as 2 percent. The government is targeting at least 60 trillion rupiah in extra revenue—around one-fifth of what it spent on infrastructure last year—and has delayed issuing this year’s revised budget until the law is passed.

Hendrawan Supratikno, a ruling PDI-P lawmaker supporting the KPK revision, said he thought the legislature would now consider the tax-amnesty bill in the second half of the year.

“Both bills need more consideration,” he said, referring to the tax and KPK laws. “Why the sudden hurry?” Brodjonegoro told Bloomberg Television in an interview last week he hoped parliament would pass the amnesty bill “in the next two months.”

“The longer the deliberation process drags on, the higher the chance of it not going through as the government hopes to,” said Wellian Wiranto, an economist in Singapore at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. “Essentially the parliament may be holding the tax-amnesty law hostage.”

The Indikator Politik poll showed that only 20 percent of Indonesians were following news around the KPK revisions, but those that were saw it as an attempt to weaken the body.

Bloomberg News

Cambodia leaders rev up Facebook rivalry as popularity soars

C

AMBODIA’S long-ruling Prime Minister Hun Sen and exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy have gotten an early start on campaigning for elections in 2018, vying for “Likes” in Facebook as the political role of social media grows among the country’s youthful electorate.

Both Hun Sen and Sam Rainsy tend to favor a casual approach, like Sam Rainsy riding a bicycle in the snow, or standing at the beach in a swimsuit.

Hun Sen, swathed in a plush, white terrycloth bathrobe, clutching two mobile phones in the dark; sitting on the ground eating noodles, watering flowers, or hugging his grandchildren.

“Technology can make you ubiquitous,” said one of Sam Rainsy’s recent posts. Given his nearly daily updates from villages, ceremonies and golf courses, Hun Sen appears to agree.

With a general election due in 2018 and local polls next year, Hun Sen increasingly is using Facebook as a way to answer public complaints, monitor dissent and polish his public image.

On February 8 he ordered government officials to set up a working group to track citizens’ complaints and appeals.

“We are in a pre-election campaign already,” said Jonathan Bogais, an expert on Southeast Asia at the University of Sydney. “Hun Sen knows it will be very difficult so he is taking action early.”

Cambodia got a late start: Software enabling use of the local language

2.8M & 2.2M

The Facebook “Likes” of Hun Sen and Sam Rainsy, respectively, quite big for a country of about 15 million people

Khmer script was only developed about a decade ago. But since then the country has leapfrogged straight into digital politics.

Now almost all adults in Cambodia own mobile phones and nearly a third say they have Facebook accounts, according to an Asia Foundation study compiled in 2015. More Cambodians rely on Facebook for news than on the radio, though television still is their leading source of information, the Asia Foundation study showed.

Cambodia has not invested in the kinds of sophisticated surveillance technology used to police the Internet in communist-ruled China, and is unlikely to do so, says Tharum Bun, a blogger and communications specialist based in Phnom Penh.

“I believe the government won’t go down that road because it’s going to be a significant setback to do that,” he said. “A win-win strategic approach is to utilize the Internet, Facebook and digital platforms for social listening, as well as for a modern-time media machine.”

It’s impossible to know how accurate a measure of popularity Facebook Likes can provide. Most popular in Cambodia, as of Tuesday, was Voice of America in Khmer, with nearly 3 million Likes. Hun Sen had 2.84 million and Sam Rainsy had 2.2 million, substantial followings for a country of about 15 million people.

Hun Sen’s grandfatherly images on Facebook belie his reputation as a sometimes ruthless ruler. Social media can also be a potent weapon for damaging reputations.

Over three decades in power, Hun Sen has long exerted strong control over traditional media, and expressing public dissent in Cambodia remains risky. The government has tightened controls on telecommunications and threatens prosecution of online critics, especially those commenting on Hun Sen and his family.

But while the government still engages in violent repression at times, Hun Sen is a master of political strategy and mindful of the changing mind-sets of Cambodians, apparently viewing Facebook as a way to exert control in a subtler, nonviolent way. AP

A6

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Friday, March 4, 2016

Reaction to Trump: Befuddlement, horror

REPUBLICAN presidential candidate Donald Trump, accompanied by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (left) and his son, Eric Trump (third from left), speaks during a news conference on Super Tuesday primary election night in the White and Gold Ballroom at The Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 1. AP/ANDREW HARNIK

B

RUSSELS—Following Donald Trump’s breathtaking string of Super Tuesday victories, politicians, editorial writers and ordinary people worldwide were coming to grips on Wednesday with the growing possibility the brash New York billionaire might become America’s next president—a thought that aroused widespread befuddlement and a good deal of horror.

“The Trump candidacy has opened the door to madness: for the unthinkable to happen, a bad joke to become reality,” German business daily Handelsblatt wrote in a commentary for its Thursday edition.

“What looked grotesque must now be discussed seriously.”

There was also glee from some Russian commentators at how American politics is being turned topsy-turvy in 2016. And in Latin America Ecuador’s president predicted a Trump win could boomerang and become a blessing to the continent’s left.

However, the dominant reaction overseas to the effective collapse of the Republican Party establishment in the face of the Trump Train appeared to be jaw-dropping astonishment, mixed with dread at what may lie ahead.

“The meteoric rise of the New York magnate has left half the planet dumbfounded,” wrote columnist Andrea Rizzi in Spain’s leading newspaper El Pais.

“To consider Donald Trump a political clown would be a severe misconception,” said another Euro-

pean daily, Salzburger Nachrichten.

If Trump is elected to the White House, the Austrian paper predicted, his ideas “would bring major dangers for the USA and the world ...basically a nationalist-chauvinist policy that would make America not great but ugly, and risk the stability of the international order.”

Eytan Gilboa, an expert on USIsraeli relations at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, said the best word to describe Israeli feelings about Trump is “confusion.”

There are certain parts of him that Israelis can relate to, such as his aversion to political correctness, his tough stance on Islamic terrorism and his call for a wall with Mexico to provide security, Gilboa said.

But others have been particularly jarring to Israelis, such as comments about Jews that many consider insensitive and his derision of US Sen. John McCain’s captivity in Vietnam.

“This is something that every Israeli would reject. It’s a highly sensitive issue in a country where prisoners of war are heroes and people go out of their way to release them,” he said.

Trump has drawn concern in China, but not a huge amount of attention despite Trump repeatedly invoking the Asian giant during his campaign to cite US weakness that he would turn around, accusing Beijing of manipulating its currency, stealing American jobs and unfair competition.

Chinese may not be taking his comments too seriously because they believe he won’t be elected or that he’d modulate his positions once elected, said Xiong Zhiyong, international relations expert at China Foreign Affairs University.

“If, hypothetically, Trump became the US president and he held on to his stance and proposals made during the election, China-US relations would be in big trouble in many aspects such as security and economics,” he said. “In that case, the US foreign relations policies will undergo a huge change.”

Thuraya Ebrahim al Arrayed, a member of Saudi Arabia’s top advisory body, the Shura Council, said a Trump presidency would be “catastrophic” and set the world back “not just generations, but centuries.”

“We pray to God that a racist, politically incorrect personality does not win the election,” she said. “How can he tell Muslim students going there to study he will shut the door in Muslim faces?”

Writing in the Financial Times of London, Martin Wolf summed up the mood of a good share of Europe’s business and economic elite, arguing that it would be a “global disaster” if Trump, who won seven states in Tuesday’s Republican contests, made it all the way to the Oval Office.

“Mr. Trump is a promoter of paranoid fantasies, a xenophobe and an ignoramus. His business consists of the erection of ugly monuments to

his own vanity. He has no experience of political office. Some compare him to Latin American populists. He might also be considered an American Silvio Berlusconi, albeit without the charm or business acumen,” Wolf wrote.

He also said Berlusconi, a former Italian prime minister and media tycoon, “unlike Mr. Trump never threatened to round up and expel millions of people.”

Wolf’s verdict: “Mr. Trump is grossly unqualified for the world’s most important political office.”

A Japanese online commentator used much the same language, and likened the Republican frontrunner to the evil nemesis of wizard Harry Potter.

Trump’s unexpected political rise reflects “elitism and opposition to globalization, but at its heart is a xenophobia and populism that comes from ignorance,” said Masato Kimura, former London bureau chief for the conservative newspaper Sankei Shimbun. “Although this is another country’s election, Japan’s allies should raise their voices to help prevent the birth of a ‘Voldemort’ president in the United States.”

In the Mexican newspaper Reforma, columnist Sergio Aguayo compared anti-Mexican sentiments unleashed by Trump to the anticommunist Red Scares of the 20th century, and accused Trump of igniting a “brown panic.”

“We must answer again and again Donald Trump, and make the US government understand that we’re not willing to continue being pointed out as the only ones responsible for problems that are also caused by the United States,” Aguayo wrote.

La Jornada, a leftist Mexican paper, ran a caricature of Trump wearing a “KKK” necktie and declaring, “I will make cremation ovens for the Mexicans and Muslims...and they will pay for their construction!”

In the moderate and predominantly Muslim West African nation of Senegal, Mame Ngor Ngom, editor in chief of La Tribune, a weekly newspaper, expressed hope that in the final analysis, Americans will not be “so thoughtless” as to hand Trump their country’s highest office.

“We think that the Americans won’t vote for him. They already paid the consequences with George W. Bush....Donald Trump will fail,” the Senegalese journalist predicted.

In Russia some took delight in how messy US politics have become.

The popularity of Trump and Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, who took four states on Tuesday compared to the seven won by Hillary Clinton, “bears witness to the crisis of trust in such traditional clans” as the Bushes and the Clintons, wrote Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament, in a post on Facebook.

According to Alexander Dugin, a

Russian nationalist ideologue with close ties to the Kremlin, Trump “is sometimes disgusting and violent, but he is what he is. It is true America.”

In Europe, where some also feel their nations are being submerged by waves of foreign migrants and violent Islamic radicalism is a real danger, not all have condemned Trump.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of France’s far-right National Front, has said that if he were an American, he would cast his ballot for Trump.

On Wednesday Laurent Wauquiez, a French conservative lawmaker, said Trump’s popularity is revealing of a general trend that has traversed the Atlantic.

“What it shows is that in democracies today, citizens no longer want people to tell them what they should think, what they should say. That’s what makes Donald Trump seductive,” Wauquiez told France 2 Television.

In the northern Indian city of Lucknow, one software company executive said he has been impressed

by Trump’s muscular rhetoric.

“Trump looks like a tough guy,” said Rohitash Sharma. “He has clarity of idea, and he means business. He has advocated the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, if these improve the protection and safety of the country. He has a clear road map on how to protect his country from extremist forces.”

Though no fan, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said a Trump presidential win could be a political gift to Latin America’s left, which is recovering from a string of electoral defeats in Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela.

“The most convenient for Latin America is a Trump victory, because his rhetoric is so clumsy, so basic, that I think it would awaken reactions in Latin America,” Correa told a group of radio journalists on Monday. “I think a guy like him would be very bad for the US [but] for the progressive movement in Latin America, it could be positive.”

For weeks, a Canadian web site has poked fun at Trump by inviting disaffected Americans to move to an island off Nova Scotia.

On Super Tuesday, as the returns rolled in, searches for “How can I move to Canada” on Google spiked by more than 350 percent in four hours, Google editor Simon Rogers tweeted. A social-media link posted by Toronto city councilman Norm Kelly that gives helpful directions on how to apply for Canadian citizenship received over 37,000 retweets.

Bruce Arthur, a Canadian sportswriter and political commentator, tweeted this after Super Tuesday: “To my American friends, I have an eight-person tent that I can set up in the forest behind my house but you may need your own air mattresses.” AP

‘MH370 DEBRIS COULD REACH MOZAMBIQUE’ US Supreme Court’s female justices attack Texas abortion restrictions S

YDNEY—Debris that washed ashore in Mozambique that may be from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 turned up in a spot that matches investigators’ theories about where wreckage from the plane would have ended up, Australian officials said on Thursday.

Photos of the debris discovered over the weekend appear to show the fixed leading edge of the right-hand tail section of a Boeing 777, said a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

Flight 370, which disappeared two years ago with 239 people aboard, is the only known missing 777.

The plane is believed to have crashed somewhere in a remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean far off Australia’s west coast and about 6,000 kilometers to the east of Mozambique. But authorities have long predicted that any debris from the plane that isn’t on the ocean floor would eventually be carried by currents to the east coast of Africa.

Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester reiterated that opinion on Thursday, saying the location of the debris in Mozambique matches investigators’ drift modeling and would, therefore, confirm

that search crews are looking in the right part of the Indian Ocean for the main underwater wreckage.

People who have handled the part, called a horizontal stabilizer, say it appears to be made of fiberglass composite on the outside, with aluminum honeycombing on the inside, the US official said.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is running the search for the plane in remote waters off Australia’s west coast, said the part was expected to be transported to Australia for examination.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai also confirmed in tweets about the discovery that it appears the debris may have come from the missing plane.

“Based on early reports, high possibility debris found in Mozambique belongs to a B777,” Liow said in a series of tweets.

“It is yet to be confirmed & verified. @ dca_malaysia working w Australian counterparts to retrieve the debris.” He urged “everyone to avoid undue speculation as we are not able to conclude that the debris belongs to #mh370 at this time.”

Australian officials have seen photographs of the debris and have been in communication with Blaine Gibson, the American man who found the part, said

Dan O’Malley, a spokesman for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).

“We’re aware of these reports that debris has been found in Mozambique,” O’Malley said. “We’re working with officials in Mozambique and Malaysia to investigate.”

Australia will work with Malaysian investigators to examine the object once it arrives in Australia, he said. The ATSB hasn’t made any determinations yet about the potential origins of the debris.

“We have to wait until we have the actual debris examined,” O’Malley said.

“We’re not going to draw conclusions from the photos.”

Some have expressed skepticism that the part could be from the missing aircraft because it appears to be remarkably clean and free of sea life—unlike the barnacleencrusted wing part that washed ashore on the French island of Reunion last year.

That part, known as a flaperon, remains the only confirmed trace of Flight 370.

But Charitha Pattiaratchi, an oceanographer with the University of Western Australia, said if the part was discovered on a sandbank as reported, the motion of the waves pushing it against the abrasive sand may have shaved any sea life off it. AP

W

ASHINGTON—The three female Supreme Court justices led an attack on Wednesday on a Texas law that would shut down about threefourths of the state’s abortion clinics, clashing with their conservative colleagues over what could be the court’s most important abortion case in decades.

Though supporters of the Texas law insist the state’s strict medical regulations were intended to promote health and safety, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued they would actually hurt women. Texas lawmakers, she said, were “only targeting abortion.”

Her comments came during an intense hourlong debate over whether state legislatures, including those controlled by antiabortion lawmakers, should have a largely free hand to regulate doctors and clinics that offer the procedure.

It is the most significant abortion case since 1992, when the justices, including Anthony M. Kennedy, upheld the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling, but declared states may regulate abortion as long as they do not put an “undue burden” on women seeking to end a pregnancy.

It has been unclear ever since exactly what that means. Since 2010, Republicanled states have adopted increasingly stringent abortion regulations. Now, the justices are pressed to decide whether the Texas law amounts to an undue burden for more than 1 million women who live 150 miles from a licensed abortion clinic.

Kennedy and several of his colleagues, however, sounded hesitant about issuing a broad abortion ruling.

At one point, Kennedy suggested the court might want to send the case back to a trial judge in Texas to provide more evidence on the potential impact of the two disputed provisions.

One would require all doctors to have “admitting privileges” at a nearby hospital and a second would require clinics to meet the standards of an outpatient surgical center.

Eight states besides Texas have laws requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, including Louisiana and Mississippi. The court has pending appeals from both states on whether those laws can go

into effect. And five states besides Texas require abortion clinics to meet the standards of an ambulatory surgical center.

Most of those laws are in effect.

Aware of the stakes, the three women on the court took a lead role and said it was obvious to them that the Texas lawmakers had singled out abortion clinics for unduly strict regulations.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that one provision requires women to visit an outpatient surgical center even when they are simply taking a pill to induce a medical abortion. Many women would have to travel hundreds of miles to get there, Ginsburg said.

“I can’t imagine what is the benefit of having a woman take those pills in an ambulatory surgical center when there is no surgery involved,” she said.

Texas Solicitor Scott Keller said that there may be complications, even with a medical abortion. No, not with taking a pill, Ginsburg responded. “It’s not going to occur on the spot. The complication generally arises after the woman is back at home,” she said. TNS

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UN approves toughest sanctions on N. Korea

CHINESE ambassador to the United Nations Liu Jieyi (left) and Egypt Ambassador to the UN Abdellatif Aboulatta (right) vote on a resolution during a Security Council meeting at UN headquarters on Wednesday. AP/BEBETO MATTHEWS

U

NITED NATIONS—The UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the toughest sanctions on North Korea in two decades, reflecting growing anger at Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test and rocket launch in defiance of a ban on all nuclear-related activity.

The United States and China, North Korea’s traditional ally, spent seven weeks negotiating the new sanctions, which include mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by land, sea or air; a ban on all sales or transfers of small arms and light weapons to Pyongyang; and expulsion of diplomats from the North who engage in “illicit activities.”

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said North Korea fired short-range projectiles into the sea just hours after the sanctions were approved.

The US, its Western allies and Japan pressed for new sanctions that went beyond the North’s nuclear and missile programs, but China was reluctant to impose measures that could threaten the stability of the neighboring country and cause its economy to collapse.

Nonetheless, Beijing did agree to several measures aimed at shutting down financing for nuclear and missile programs.

“The international community, speaking with one voice, has sent Pyongyang a simple message: North Korea must abandon these dangerous programs and choose a better path for its people,” President Barack Obama said in a statement.

North Korea started off the new year with what it claims was its first hydrogen bomb test on January 6 and launched a satellite on a rocket on February 7. The launch was condemned by much of the world as a test of banned missile technology.

North Korea ignored the chance to address the Security Council and a spokesman for the country’s

UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But South Korea’s Defense Ministry said North Korea fired several short-range projectiles into the sea on Thursday, just hours after the sanctions were approved.

The North’s launches also came shortly after Seoul approved its first legislation on human rights in North Korea. The South Korean bill’s passage was ahead of the Security Council’s approval of the sanctions.

Defense Spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said the projectiles were fired from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan, and authorities were trying to determine whether the projectiles were missiles, artillery or rockets.

On Monday the official Korean Central News Agency news agency published a commentary saying “it is nothing but a pipe dream for the US to expect the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea [DPRK] to collapse due to ‘sanctions.’ This is as foolish as waiting the missions of the sun and stars to come to an end.”

China, Russia and others expressed hope on Wednesday that the sanctions will lead to the immediate resumption of six-party talks aimed at the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. North Korea withdrew from the talks in 2008.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that “by shutting down, as much as possible, the financing of DPRK’s nuclear-ballistic programs, the idea is to ensure the return to the table of negotiations all the interested parties.”

The resolution bans the export of coal, iron and iron ore being used to fund North Korea’s nuclear or ballistic missile programs but not for general economic use. It prohibits all exports of gold, titanium ore, vanadium ore and rare earth minerals, and bans aviation fuel exports to the country, including “kerosenetype rocket fuel.”

US Ambassador Samantha Power said it’s estimated that the DPRK earns approximately $1 billion annually from coal—a third of its export income—and at least $200 million a year from iron ore exports.

In the financial and banking sector, countries are required to freeze the assets of companies and other entities linked to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

The resolution also prohibits all countries from opening new branches, subsidiaries and representative offices of North Korean banks, and bans financial institutions from establishing new joint ventures or establishing or maintaining correspondent relationships with these banks. It orders countries to close all North Korean banks and terminate all banking relationships within 90 days.

The resolution stresses that the new measures are not intended to have “adverse humanitarian consequences” for civilians, the majority of whom face economic hardships and food shortages.

US Ambassador Samantha Power said that “part of the perverse reality that has no equal in this world” is that North Korea prioritizes its nuclear and ballistic missile programs over the basic needs of its own people.

South Korea’s UN Ambassador Oh Joon said North Korea’s six missile tests and four nuclear tests, according to some estimates, have cost at least $4 billion. Meanwhile, he said, the UN is spending a little over $100 million annually on humanitarian aid to the country.

“It pains all of us to think about how the regime has been developing weapons while people were starving, how the human potential has been wasted away in North Korea,” Oh said.

Under the previous four rounds of UN sanctions imposed since the country’s first nuclear test in 2006,

$1B

North Korea’s annual earnings from coal export

North Korea is banned from importing or exporting nuclear or missile items and technology, as well as luxury goods. The new resolution expands the list of banned items, adding luxury items such as expensive watches, snowmobiles, recreational water vehicles and sports equipment, and lead crystal.

It also adds 16 individuals, 12 “entities,” including the National Aerospace Development Agency, which was responsible for February’s rocket launch, and 31 ships owned by the North Korean shipping firm Ocean Maritime Management Co. to the sanctions blacklist.

That requires the freezing of assets and, in the case of individuals, a travel ban, as well.

Initially, there were 17 individuals on the list, but diplomats said Russia insisted on dropping Jang Song Chol, the Russia representative of the Korea Mining Development Trading Corp. An annex to the resolution on “Items, Materials, Equipment, Goods and Technology” that can be used in missile and nuclear activities was also eliminated at Russia’s insistence, diplomats said.

The resolution also bans Pyongyang from chartering vessels or aircraft, and call on countries to “deregister” any vessel owned, operated or crewed by the North.

As with previous resolutions, the test will be whether UN memberstates enforce the sanctions. A UN panel of experts monitoring the sanctions has repeatedly pointed out that enforcement in a significant number of cases has been weak.

Power, the US ambassador, said North Korea will undoubtedly “try to drive a truck through any loophole they find,” but she expressed confidence that the resolution eliminated them. AP

Friday, March 4, 2016

A7

AS CHINA LEADERS GATHER, NOMINAL GROWTH DROP FLASHES WARNING

O

BSCURED by the focus on the accuracy of China’s growth figures is a tumble in estimates for the economy without adjusting for inflation—a slide that gives a clearer picture of why the country’s slowdown has stoked rising concern about its debt burden.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in dollars, unadjusted for price changes, rose just 4.25 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared with the same period of 2014—a gain of $439 billion. Just two years before, China added $1.1 trillion to the global economy, expanding 13 percent from a year earlier.

“Looked at in this way, financial markets reaction to deteriorating Chinese data is more understandable,” said Arthur Kroeber, the founding partner and managing director at research firm Gavekal Dragonomics in Hong Kong.

Weakening nominal growth makes debt servicing harder, forming the backdrop for moves this week by Moody’s Investors Service to lower its outlook on China’s credit rating and HSBC Holdings Plc. to cut its recommendations on the country’s big banks.

With Premier Li Keqiang’s Cabinet having eased a deleveraging drive last year, investors will get fresh insights into the Communist leadership’s priorities at a gathering of the national legislature starting on Saturday. Along with economic targets for 2016, officials will discuss the party’s new five-year plan.

While in yuan terms the slowdown is more gradual, the decline in nominal GDP gains is still dramatic—to a 6.4-percent pace at the end of 2015 compared with 10.1 percent back in 2013 and in excess of 18 percent in 2010 and 2011. The slide highlights the need to follow through on slashing excess industrial capacity, eliminating unprofitable enterprises and revving up new drivers of expansion.

“The biggest problem with plunging nominal GDP growth is that the cash-flow growth to the corporate sector has declined at a time when

growth in its debt servicing has accelerated,” said Victor Shih, a professor at the University of California at San Diego who studies China’s politics and finance. “Because debt is so much larger than the economy, debt servicing each year will still be two to three times the incremental growth of nominal GDP.” China’s debt-to-GDP ratio surged to 247 percent last year from 166 percent in 2007, propelled by a lending binge in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Days before the National People’s Congress, the central bank this week lowered the ratio of deposits major banks must hold in reserve, letting them deploy more in lending.

Data released on Thursday signaled services strength moderated.

The Caixin Media and Markit Economics China services purchasing managers index fell to 51.2 in February from 52.4 in January. Readings above 50 signal expansion.

Slowdown causes

NOMINAL growth has slowed because of factors that include falling industrial output, excess industrial capacity that puts pressure on prices, and slumping prices of raw materials, said James Laurenceson, deputy director for the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.

On an inflation-adjusted, or real, basis China’s GDP for all of 2015 eased to a 6.9-percent increase, a pace that’s affected by the price gauges that statisticians used. Looking at the dollar, rather than yuan, deteriorating economic growth helps explain the periodic panic in financial markets.

“Why has China always been so exciting to international investors and corporates? Because it’s been becoming a bigger and bigger part of the global economy,” said Tom Orlik, chief Asia economist at Bloomberg Intelligence in Beijing. “People used to talk about China overtaking the US in 2020. On the basis of last year’s nominal expansion that would never happen.” Bloomberg News

EU sees climate targets as priority after Paris deal

T

HE European Union (EU) should focus on enacting rules to meet existing climate targets for 2030, rather than move to stricter goals in immediate reaction to a global pollutionreduction agreement reached last year, according to the EU regulatory arm.

The 28-nation bloc may consider a review of climate ambitions as a part of international talks to be held in 2023 on how to deepen greenhouse-gas reductions, the European Commission said in a policy paper published on Wednesday.

Under a deal reached in Paris in December, almost 200 countries agreed to work toward capping global temperature increases since pre-industrial times to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

“We have the deal. Now we need to make it real,” EU Climate and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said in a statement.

“For the EU, this means completing the 2030 climate and energy legislation without delay, signing and ratifying the agreement as soon as possible, and continuing our leadership in the global transition to a low-carbon future.”

EU member-states remain divided on how strict the region’s emission policies should be, with Germany and France leading a push for tougher rules and Poland opposing deeper cuts of heat-trapping gases. A decision on climate targets requires unanimous support from the bloc’s governments. Environmental lobbies have called on policy-makers to step up ambitions, saying that the existing

targets are not enough to prevent drastic climate consequences.

Global deal

THE global deal acknowledges the need to strive for limiting the temperature growth to 1.5 degrees, a key demand of the countries most vulnerable to warming, including island-states imperiled by rising seas. UN climate envoys are due to meet in 2018 for “facilitative dialogue” and then in 2023 for stock-taking.

“The EU should participate in the first facilitative dialogue, which will take place in 2018 to take stock of the collective ambition and progress in implementing commitments,” the commission said. “In this respect, the EU will take part in the first global stock take in 2023, which is relevant for considering progressively more ambitious action by all Parties for the period beyond 2030.”

The European Commission will provide input for scientific work carried out internationally and will prepare an in-depth analysis of economic and social changes needed to step up pollution-reduction efforts to feed the discussion among EU governments, the European Parliament, companies, experts and non-governmental organizations. The EU aims to cut emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030 compared with 1990 levels and has a political goal of reducing pollution by 80 percent by 2050.

The Paris agreement should be signed and ratified by EU member states as soon as possible, according to the commission. By 2020, they should communicate their midcentury strategies on how to shift to low-carbon economies. Bloomberg News

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Friday, March 4, 2016

Syrian villagers hope for calm as Russia keeps eye on truce

SYRIAN children pose for a picture in Maarzaf, about 15 kilometers west of Hama, Syria, on Wednesday. Local leaders and elders sign a declaration pledging to abide by a truce in Maarzaf. The Russian military has helped mediate signing the document. AP/PAVEL GOLOVKIN

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AARZAF, Syria—Just days into a US-Russia-brokered cease-fire, many residents in a progovernment Syrian village long-engulfed in fierce fighting in a central province expressed hope on Wednesday that the truce will prevail and that a sense of normalcy could soon return.

But the cease-fire is partial and, though as such, it has mostly held across the war-wrecked nation, it excludes the Islamic State (IS) group as well as Syria’s al-Qaeda branch, known as the Nusra Front, and other militant factions that the United Nations considers terrorist organizations.

In a stark reflection of those limitations, a car bomb killed 18 commanders of a US-backed rebel group on Wednesday, a serious blow to the rebels, while Syrian Kurdish-led forces took strategic ground in Aleppo province from the Nusra Front, in a surprise offensive aimed at encircling the provincial capital.

Russia’s Defense Ministry, in a bid to secure the cease-fire, said it has set up a coordination center that includes several dozen officers who visit opposition groups and local communities to help negotiate localtruce deals.

On a trip to central Syria organized by the Russian government on

Wednesday, an Associated Press team saw one such document being signed in the village of Maarzaf, about 15 kilometers west of the city of Hama, the provincial capital.

While the city of Hama has been fi rmly under the Syrian government control throughout the five-year confl ict, other parts of Hama province have seen intense fighting.

The town of Salamiyeh, on the northern edge of the province, has been a frontline between government forces and IS fighters.

The Syrian army has been making significant advances in the area, recently securing the desert highway from Salamiyeh to the village of Athriya on the border of Raqqa province, the main IS stronghold, and linking that road to the Salamiyeh-Khanaser-Aleppo road.

That gives the government control over a strategic road linking the three provinces together.

Wednesday’s signing in the vil-

lage of Maarzaf was attended by Sheikh Ahmad Mubarak, a respected local leader whose influence extends across most of Hama province, and hundreds of villagers gathered at the main square.

As part of the process, local leaders sign declarations pledging to abide by the truce and bow to the government control over their territories, in exchange for security guarantees and other assistance. The Russian military said about 30 towns and villages already have signed such documents.

“The Syrian people need peace,” said Sheikh Mubarak, whose private militia has apparently fought alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army in Hama. He praised Russia’s role in the cease-fire, but also expressed hope it would pave way for the release of local residents held in government prisons.

On Wednesday, as the journalists visited, Russian military trucks also delivered food aid to the villagers, and a military medic came to inspect and treat some elderly patients.

“We all hope it will help make the area safer,” villager Ali Aty Muhammad said of the deal. “We are all very thankful to Russia.”

Syrian soldier Saliba Shaaman was toting his assault rifle, a grenade launcher slung over his shoulder, as he observed the village happening.

“The cease-fire is a very good thing,” he said, adding that he had just returned from the front lines near the city of Aleppo.

However, such scenes may seem to clash with reality, where accusations of violations by all sides in the civil war threaten to derail the cease-fire. Several Syrian op-

18

Commanders of US-backed rebel group killed by car bomb

position activists said they have no knowledge of local truce declarations mediated by Russia.

In southern Syria, a car bomb targeted a meeting of commanders of a US-backed moderate rebel group, killing 18, including the faction’s top commander. Dozens were wounded in Wednesday’s blast in Quneitra province.

A Quneitra-based opposition activist who goes by the name of Abu Omar al-Golani said that 20 fighters were killed in the blast, among them the commander of the Syria Revolutionaries Front, Capt. Abu Hamza al-Naimi.

He said the blast went off when several commanders were meeting at the group’s office in the town of Asheh.

The Syria Revolutionaries Front is a moderate rebel group that was mostly crushed in northern Syria in late 2014 by the Nusra Front.

An opposition activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to leak secret information, said the rebel faction was planning to attack Nusra Front in southern Syria.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the car bombing, which also caused widespread damage in the area.

Meanwhile, in the northern province of Aleppo, a Kurdish-led fighting alliance took strategic ground from the Nusra Front and its allies.

The United States and Russianbrokered “cessation of hostilities,” which came into effect early Saturday, has brought the first widescale reduction in violence seen in Syria’s five-year civil war, but has been rattled by alleged violations.

It’s intended to pave the way for the resumption of peace talks to end the conflict, which has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced half the country’s population.

The Russian military says it has mostly grounded its warplanes in Syria, saying it wants to avoid possible mistakes.

In neighboring Lebanon, thousands of supporters of the militant Hezbollah group attended the funeral on Wednesday of senior military commander Ali Fayyad, who was killed while fighting against IS in Aleppo province last week. The funeral was held in Fayyad’s southern hometown of Ansar.

Back in the Syrian village of Maarzaf, a group of heavily armed troops stood next to their sportutility vehicle, adorned with big portraits of Assad and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as Russian military trucks distributed food aid.

One of the soldiers, Hassan Muhammad, who said he fought both the IS and Nusra Front, said he counts on help from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah to help though he also spoke proudly about the Syrian army’s performance.

“We have been fighting for five years, and we have proven our worth by holding out,” he said. AP

Pentagon seeks computer hackers to test, fix cybersecurity vulnerabilities

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ASHINGTON—The Pentagon is looking for a few good computer hackers. Screened high-tech specialists will be brought in to try to breach the Defense Department’s public Internet pages in a pilot program aimed at finding and fixing cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

According to the Pentagon, it is the first time the federal government has undertaken a program with outsiders attempting to breach the networks. Large

companies have done similar things.

Defense officials laid out the broad outlines of the plan on Wednesday, but had few details on how it will work, what Pentagon systems would be tested and how the hackers would be compensated.

Called “Hack the Pentagon,” the program will begin next month. Department officials and lawyers still must work through a number of legal issues, involving the authorization of so-called white-hat hackers to breach

active Pentagon web sites.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he will be “inviting responsible hackers to test our cybersecurity,” adding that he believes the program will “strengthen our digital defenses and ultimately enhance our national security.”

Speaking at a tech-industry event in San Francisco, Carter said the idea came from Silicon Valley, where tech companies offer financial rewards or bounties for finding vulnerabilities.

“We’re trying to adopt what is a best practice,” he said. “It’s a way of crowdsourcing the expertise and having access to good people.... You’d much rather find the vulnerabilities in your networks in that way”—rather than wait for malicious hackers to steal information or compromise a system.

Defense Department systems get probed and attacked millions of times a day, officials said.

The new program is being led by the

Defense Digital Service, which was created by Carter last November.

Officials said the pilot program will involve public networks or web sites that do not have any sensitive information or personal employee data on them.

It is being called a “bounty” program and Carter said the hackers would get some kind of reward, beyond the distinction of having beached the world’s greatest military’s systems. But he didn’t provide details. AP

news@businessmirror.com.ph

76 HUNGRY BOKO HARAM MEMBERS SURRENDER TO NIGERIAN MILITARY

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AIDUGURI, Nigeria—Dozens of emaciated-looking Boko Haram members begging for food have surrendered in northeast Nigeria, the military and a civilian self-defense fighter said on Wednesday.

Seventy-six people, including children and women, gave themselves up to soldiers on Saturday in Gwoza, about 100 kilometers southeast of Maiduguri, according to a senior officer.

All are being detained at military headquarters in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram and currently the command center of the war against the Islamic extremists, according to the officer. He insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to journalists.

The detainees said many more fighters want to surrender, a self-defense civilian fighter who helped escort them to Maiduguri told The Associated Press.

Food shortages could indicate that Nigeria’s military is succeeding in choking supply routes of the Islamic extremists who have taken their fight across Nigeria’s borders. Some 20,000 people have died in the six-year-old uprising.

Boko Haram was declared the deadliest of all terror groups in 2014, surpassing the Islamic State group to which it declared allegiance last year.

In a separate development, soldiers from Nigeria and Cameroon rescued 701 people held captive in the Gwoza district, Local Council Chairman Ibrahim Chikun told reporters in Maiduguri late Wednesday. He said they were freed on Sunday in a joint operation.

Nigeria’s military reported that dozens of Boko Haram fighters were surrendering in September and October last year. It promised those who give themselves up voluntarily that they will be rehabilitated through a deradicalization program.

In the 10 months since he took office promising to halt the insurgency, President Muhammadu Buhari has replaced the leadership of the military, moved the headquarters for the fight from the distant capital, Abuja, to the heart of the northeastern insurgency and resupplied soldiers.

The military has driven the insurgents from the towns and villages where they had set up an Islamic caliphate but Boko Haram has returned to hit-and-run tactics and suicide bombings. AP

briefs

CHOLERA QUIETLY STILL KILLS DOZENS A MONTH IN HAITI

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—A dozen people reclined on cots inside the clinic in the Haitian capital, a few so sick they were receiving intravenous infusions to rehydrate their bodies and spare them an agonizing death.

The worst off one recent morning was a thin and spectral man, weak from the vomiting and diarrhea caused by cholera.

But all were expected to survive. The disease spread by contaminated water is easily treatable, but can lead to death within hours if unattended.

“However I got it, I really hope I never get this sick again,” another patient, Estin Josue, said as he recovered inside an immaculately clean and orderly treatment center in downtown Port-auPrince run by Gheskio Centers, a Haitian medical organization. AP

IRAN: GCC MADE A ‘MISTAKE’ LABELING HEZBOLLAH AS TERRORISTS TEHRAN, Iran—Iran’s deputy foreign minister says a decision by a Saudi-led bloc of Gulf states to label the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah a terrorist organization is a “mistake.”

Iranian state TV on Thursday quoted Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) move was a “new mistake” that would undermine peace in the region and the unity of Lebanon. He said Iran was “proud” of Hezbollah.

On Wednesday, a statement from GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif al-Zayani said the bloc decided to implement the terrorist designation because of hostile acts by Iran-backed Hezbollah within its member states. The decision reflects rising tensions between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite powerhouse Iran, Hezbollah’s patron.

The GCC ruling brings Gulf states in line with the United States, who also consider Hezbollah a terrorist group. AP

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Yearlong spacemen welcome fresh, frigid air back on Earth

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APE CANAVERAL, Florida—Ah, there’s nothing like a blast of fresh, frigid air to welcome you back to the planet after nearly a year cooped up in space.

That’s the word from astronaut Scott Kelly, National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa) space-endurance champ who returned to bitterly cold Kazakhstan on Wednesday, along with his roommate for the past year, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko.

In a Nasa interview before heading home to Houston, Kelly said it was “amazing” to feel the cold air when the hatch of his Soyuz capsule popped open after touchdown.

“I don’t mean to say it’s not fresh on the space station,” he said, “but there’s nothing like new cold air coming into the capsule.”

Both Kelly, 52, and Kornienko, 55, yearned for nature throughout their 340day mission at the International Space Station, a dry run by Nasa for eventual trips to Mars.

“Just like Scott, I wanted to see Earth and I wanted to smell that fresh air. This is an unforgettable feeling,” Kornienko said.

It was the longest an American ever lived in space, although nothing new for the Russians. The world record is 438 days, set back in the mid-1990s at the former Mir space station. Even before that, a pair of Soviet cosmonauts had racked up a full one-year spaceflight.

“Congratulations on your record,” former cosmonaut and Kazak space agency chief Talgat Musabayev said at a welcoming ceremony. He couldn’t resist: “Of course, it was already done 28 years ago.”

President Barack Obama joined the chorus of praise pouring in.

“Welcome back to Earth, @StationCDRKelly! Your year in space is vital to the future of American space travel. Hope gravity isn’t a drag!” Obama said via Twitter.

The White House said Obama spoke with Kelly on Wednesday, thanking him for his service and for sharing his journey through social media. Kelly posted hundreds of photos of Earth.

After landing, the latest one-year space subjects quickly parted company, Kelly flying back to Houston and Kornienko to Star City, Russia, near Moscow.

While en route, Kelly tweeted a picture of his first salad back on Earth, noting it will be important to grow fresh food during Mars expeditions, like his space station lettuce crop.

Kelly acknowledged it was bittersweet leaving the space station—his home since last March, currently staffed by three men until the arrival of three more in two weeks.

“I’d been there a long time, so I looked forward to leaving. But at the same time, it’s a magnificent place, and I’m going to miss it,” he said.

Neither will be saying good-bye—in Russian, do svidaniya—to medical tests anytime soon.

Minutes after emerging from their capsule, they were whisked in chairs to a medical tent where they did their best to stand, walk, jump, navigate obstacles— everything an astronaut might need to do immediately upon arriving at Mars.

Nasa aims to put astronauts on the red planet in the 2030s, but first, wants to know how the body—and mind—will fare during the two-and-a-half-year expedition. Kelly ranked physical isolation aboard the 250-mile-high platform, from those he loved, as his biggest challenge.

Kelly looked fit as he emerged from the Soyuz capsule on the remote steppes of central Asia, pumping his fist and giving a thumbs-up. He showed no signs of slowing down a few hours later, as he waited to board the plane for the long flight back to Houston. He needed little if any assistance in walking and said there seemed to be little difference from his five-month station stint five years ago.

The exams—along with blood, saliva and urine collections—will continue for weeks, if not months. In the case of Kelly and his identical twin, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, the testing could last a year, if not longer. The brothers served as guinea pigs—one in weightlessness, the other on the ground.

Kelly’s last tweet from orbit on Tuesday provided a cliffhanger: “The journey isn’t over. Follow me as I rediscover #Earth!”

The brothers will be reunited at Ellington Airport near Johnson Space Center in Houston early Thursday. The welcoming committee includes Scott’s two daughters, ages 21 and 12; his girlfriend who’s been chronicling his mission as a Nasa public affairs officer at Johnson; and his sister-in-law, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Mark’s wife. AP

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • Friday, March 4, 2016

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US airlines vie for Cuba flights

UNITED States Transportation Secretary Anthony Renard Foxx (center back, left) and Cuba’s Minister of Transportation Adel Yzquierdo Rodriguez (center back, right) watch US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Charles Rivkin (seated, left) and Cuba’s Civil Aviation Institute Director Alfredo Pablo Cordero sign the airlines agreement in Havana, Cuba, on February16. The US and Cuba have signed an agreement to resume commercial air traffic for the first time in five decades. AP/DESMOND BOYLAN

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EW YORK—US airlines are looking to serve Cuba primarily from their large hub cities, with Havana being the most popular destination.

At least eight carriers submitted applications to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) on Wednesday outlining what routes they would like to fly. The government will spend the next few months reviewing the requests, and is expected to award the contested Havana routes this summer. Flights to smaller cities—if uncontested and lacking any contentious issues— could be approved much sooner.

Once routes are awarded, airlines will still need time to develop schedules and actually sell seats on

the flights. And while the US government will set the routes, airlines will also need to apply to Cuba’s civil aviation authority for a permit to operate in the country.

All flights operating between the two countries today are charters, but an agreement signed between the two nations last month allows for up to 110 additional flights— more than five times the current charter operations.

Only 20 of those flights can go to Havana, in addition to the current 10 to 15 charter flights a day. The

rest would fly to other Cuban cities.

US tourists still won’t legally be allowed to visit Cuba, but the start of commercial flights will make it much easier for those who fall into one of the authorized travel categories. Charter flights are expensive, frequently chaotic and lack many of the traditional supports of commercial aviation, such as online booking and 24-hour customer service.

Most of the planes proposed by US airlines would carry about 160 passengers.

Nearly 160,000 US leisure travelers flew to Cuba last year, along with hundreds of thousands of CubanAmericans visiting family.

Tourism is still barred, but the number of legal reasons to go to Cuba—from organizing professional meetings to distributing information to Cubans—has grown so large and is so loosely enforced that the distinction from tourism has blurred significantly.

American Airlines was the most

8

Carriers submitted applications to the US Department of Transportation aggressive carrier in its approach, requesting more than half the possible slots to Havana, plus service to five other smaller Cuban cities.

The airline has a large hub in Miami, home to the largest CubanAmerican population.

In American’s filing with the DOT, CEO Doug Parker wrote that his airline has been “the undisputed leader” in charter service, having done so since 1991.

The airline notes in its application that last year alone, it operated 1,084 Cuba charters, while JetBlue Airways had 221 and Delta

Air Lines had four.

Following Wednesday’s route application deadline, airlines and the public have a chance to comment on the flights sought. That process will conclude by March 21.

The airlines won’t get all of their requests, but below are the routes each carrier applied to fly: American is seeking 10 daily flights from Miami to Havana, one from Charlotte and one from Dallas, as well as one weekly flight from both Los Angeles and Chicago. From Miami, it is also looking for two daily flights to Santa Clara, Holguin and Varadero, and daily service to Camaguey and Cienfuegos.

Delta is seeking flights from Atlanta, New York, Miami and Orlando to Havana. All would be daily, except for Miami, where Delta is seeking two daily flights.

JetBlue is looking to serve Havana with four daily flights from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, two from Tampa, Florida, Orlando and New York, and one daily flight from Boston and Newark, New Jersey. It also wants one daily flight from Fort Lauderdale to Camaguey, Holguin and Santa Clara.

Southwest Airlines wants to fly to Havana with six daily flights from Fort Lauderdale, two from Tampa and one daily flight from Orlando.

It also applied for daily flights from Fort Lauderdale to Varadero and one to Santa Clara.

United Airlines is asking for daily flights between Newark, New Jersey, and Havana, with two flights on Saturdays. It also wants Saturday-only flights from Chicago, Houston and Washington, D.C. Alaska Airlines wants two daily flights from Los Angeles to Havana.

Frontier Airlines applied for one daily flight between Denver and Havana, three daily flights between Miami and Havana, one daily flight between Miami and Santiago, four weekly flights between Miami and Camaguey, three weekly flights between Miami and Santa Clara, one weekly flight between Chicago and Varadero and one weekly flight between Philadelphia and Varadero.

Silver Airways, a Florida-based regional airline, wants to fly to Havana twice daily from West Palm Beach, once daily from Fort Myers and Fort Lauderdale, five times a week from Key West, and twice a week from Jacksonville. It also proposed to fly from Fort Lauderdale to nine other Cuban cities. AP

Greece to help 150,000 stranded migrants T

HESSALONIKI, Greece— Greece conceded on Wednesday it is making long-term preparations to help as many as 150,000 stranded migrants, as international pressure on Balkan countries saw Macedonia open its border briefly for just a few hundred refugees.

“In my opinion, we have to consider the border closed,” Greek Migration Minister Ioannis Mouzalas said. “And for as long as the border crossing is closed, and until the European relocation and resettlement system is up and running, these people will stay in our country for some time.”

At the moment, some 30,000 refugees and other migrants are stranded in Greece, with 10,000 at the Idomeni border crossing to Macedonia.

On Wednesday hundreds of more people, including many families with small children, continued to arrive at two official camps by the border that are so full that thousands have set up tents in surrounding fields.

Greek police helped one man who fainted after being turned back

by Macedonian authorities. Others waited stoically for rain covers, or food and other essentials in chilling temperatures, some expressing frustration with bureaucratic errors

by Greek officials.

Syrian Ramasan Al Hassan said he was stopped from crossing the

CHILDREN sit outside at a shelter area for migrants at the Athens’s port of Piraeus on Wednesday. Greek police said up to 10,000, mostly Syrian and Iraqi, refugees were stuck at the Idomeni border crossing in deteriorating conditions. AP/VADIM GHIRDA

border after Greek police took down his details wrong, which meant the date of birth on his official papers and passport didn’t match.

“I showed Greek authorities my papers—I was born on July 24, 1963—and they recorded my date

of birth as January 1, 1963. As a result, I was unable to cross the border.... It’s happened to others too,” he said, adding that the error was eventually corrected.

Mouzalas, the migration minister, met for several hours with

mayors from across Greece, examining ways to ramp up shelter capacity. The ministers of health and education also held emergency talks to provide health care and basic schooling for children, who make up about a third of arrivals in Greece.

Nikos Kotzias, the foreign minister, said the country could handle a capacity of up to 150,000.

“No one in Europe predicted this problem would reach such a giant scale,” Kotzias told private Skai television. “But this is not a cause for panic. The problems must be addressed soberly.”

Macedonia intermittently opened the border on Wednesday, letting hundreds of people in, as European Council President Donald Tusk arrived in the country as part of a tour of the region for talks on the migration crisis.

Tusk, who is due to travel onto Greece and Turkey on Thursday, is hoping to ease tension among European Union (EU) leaders—notably neighbors Austria and Germany— before they hold a summit on migration on Monday with Turkey.

“We must urgently mobilize the EU and all member-states to help address the humanitarian situation of migrants in Greece and along the western Balkan route,” he said.

Greece has asked for €480 million ($522 million) in emergency aid from the EU to deal with the crisis.

EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides said he wants to swiftly push through a proposal to earmark €700 million ($760 million) in aid for the refugee crisis, with €300 million ($325 million) paid out this year. AP

A10 Friday, March 4, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Our China policy has failed once again

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HE lasting legacy of the administration of President Aquino may be found in the waters of the South China Sea. This ocean area cannot be called the “West Philippine Sea” because if you control it, you get to name it just like your own household pet. And China controls the region, as evidenced once again these past two weeks.

Quirino or Jackson Atoll is now under Chinese power, in spite of what the Philippine government or the Philippine military says. The Armed Forces of the Philippines disputed the report of the Chinese presence, saying: “There are no more Chinese ships near Quirino Atoll in the Spratlys as of February 24th aerial survey.”

That is about the same as reporting an intruder to the police and being told, “Don’t worry. The rapist/murderer/burglar is not in the house now.”

We have been complaining for more than a year that the Aquino administration’s policy with regard to China and its encroachment on Philippine territory and economic interests was not working. The government has assured the public that the case before the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration and the support of the United States were the only sensible policies.

While we are waiting for the panel’s decision, in the meantime, the policies have been abject failures. This latest incident of the Chinese preventing Filipino fishermen from the Quirino area shows the Chinese are increasing the pressure. Quirino Atoll is only 140 nautical miles from the southern tip of Palawan, a little less than the distance from Malacañang to the city of Dagupan in Pangasinan.

Depending on the United States has been the overriding policy of the administration. President Aquino has made seven visits to the US and only one to China, back in 2011. For the last two years the US has been “warning” China about its aggressive behavior in the region and China has continuously ignored the US. While the US may have the strongest military on earth, its ability to project power is about the same—or less—than a Filipino barangay tanod.

Russia controls the narrative in both Europe and the Middle East. China’s client state, North Korea, offers its middle finger to the US over its nuclear program. Iran violates its nuclear agreement with the US with a ballistic missile test within days of signing that agreement.

The US responds that it will hold naval exercises with Japan and India later this year. The location is the northeastern part of the Philippine Sea, which is about as far from the South China Sea and still technically in Asia.

Administration apologists say the Philippines has no choice other than the current policy, even if it is a failure to this point.

Questions and answers James Jimenez

SPOX

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ITH trainings of Boards of Election Inspectors and public demonstrations of the vote-counting machines in full swing, I faced my deadline for this space with dread.

Thankfully, when I asked for help, netizens came to my rescue with some questions that needed answering on Twitter.

Are candidates allowed to source funds from public through donations? Who, how, etc.?

Campaign funds can come from direct contributions, or as a result of solicitations, or from fund-raising activities. In general, Philippine election rules don’t regulate these activities as much as it does campaign spending, but there are some prohibitions.

Public and private financial institutions are prohibited from making contributions for partisan political purposes, for one. The same is true

of natural and juridical persons who operate a public utility, who are in possession of or exploring any of the country’s natural resources, who are suppliers of the government, who have been granted franchises, incentives, exemptions, allocations or similar privileges or concessions.

Natural and juridical persons who, within one year prior to the elections, have received a loan in excess of a P100,000 from the government are similarly prohibited from contributing to the campaigns. Educational institutions that have received grants of public funds, of at least a P100,000,

can’t give contributions either. Nor can officials and employees in the Civil Service, members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and foreigners and foreign corporations.

And since all these entities are prohibited from donating, it follows that soliciting or receiving funds from any of them is similarly unlawful.

And, finally, drawing from Section 97 of the Omnibus Election Code, Comelec Resolution 9991 enumerates the prohibited forms of fund-raising. It’s unlawful, the rule says, “for any person to hold dances, lotteries, cockfights, games, boxing bouts, bingo, beauty contests, entertainments or cinematographic, theatrical or other performances for the purpose of raising funds for an election campaign or for the support of any candidate from the commencement of the election period up to and including election day.”

Can the Commission on Elections (Comelec) probe on its own reports that government funds are being used to campaign for admin bets?

I’m assuming this question ac-

tually touches on the Comelec #SumbongKo campaign. About the only probing the Comelec actually does in this instance is to validate whether the report is legitimate, i.e., whether it actually shows an act or activity that might be covered by the campaign rules and regulations, and whether that act or activity actually occurred during the current campaign period. Interestingly, we have received reports before which featured photographs of dodgy campaign posters, from a previous election!

If the report is apparently legit, however, it is then forwarded to the Comelec’s Law Department, for evaluation and further appropriate action.

Is it really possible to disqualify a president or vice president after they assume office because of overspending?

No. As far as I know, once a president-elect has been proclaimed, jurisdiction over the case passes to the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.

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

Opinion BusinessMirror

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The US could use a new economic strategy

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Stopping by Turbina

B J F | Bloomberg View

N his four-plus years as the country’s first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton crafted an economic strategy that helped the US rise from agrarian former colony to global economic power.

Its main elements, Stephen S. Cohen and J. Bradford DeLong write in their brand-new book Concrete Economics: The Hamilton Approach to Economic Growth and Policy, were: ■ High import tariffs to protect infant industries and pay for the infant government.

■ High spending on infrastructure.

■ The creation of a modern financial system, built around the assumption of state debts by the federal government and the creation of a central bank.

■ No US leader since has articulated and then put in place an all-encompassing economic plan in quite the way Hamilton did. But the country has always followed some sort of economic strategy, even if it has seldom been clearly defined.

Hamilton’s plan stayed in place for decades, even under presidents who disavowed it. Then came a succession of strategies—culled from Cohen and DeLong’s book, but given titles by me—that went something like this: ■ The era of free stuff. In the second half of the 19th century, a Republican-dominated US government supplemented the Hamilton approach with free land for railroads and homesteaders, freer labor (the abolition of slavery and the promotion of large-scale immigration dramatically increased the available work force) and freedom for businesses to incorporate without special government permission.

■ The era of intervention.

From 1900 through the 1930s, trusts were busted, regulatory agencies created, taxation revamped and then various experiments undertaken to stimulate the economy during the Depression. The goal was not so much to develop the nation as to try to steer development in ways that spread the benefits more widely.

■ The era of investment. With the US the world’s dominant economic power after World War II, boosting growth abroad took priority over protecting US industry from foreign competition. But huge investments in highways, housing, scientific research and military technology stimulated and shaped the US economy in profound ways.

■ The era of financialization.

Starting in the 1970s, government began to loosen constraints that had kept banks and other financial institutions in check since the 1930s. At the same time, East Asian countries following a Hamiltonian development model built export-led economies that lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty but also battered manufacturing in the US. These two forces combined to give finance a much larger role in the US economy than it had ever played before, which seemed like an OK idea in the 1980s and 1990s but hasn’t looked so good since the 2008 financial crisis.

It is at least possible that this last era has come to an end, with the beginning of financial re-regulation in the US and a halt to the long upward trend in global trade that accompanied the rise of the East Asian ex-

In the second half of the 19th century, a Republican-dominated US government supplemented the Hamilton approach with free land for railroads and homesteaders, freer labor (the abolition of slavery and the promotion of large-scale immigration dramatically increased the available work force) and freedom for businesses to incorporate without special government permission. port economies. It’s not at all clear, though, what’s going to replace it.

DeLong, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley and a prominent and prolific blogger, and Cohen, an emeritus professor of regional and city planning at Berkeley, don’t offer a plan. They simply recommend that discussion of economic policy focus on the concrete —what works—rather than theory and ideology.

How’s that been going lately?

Donald Trump’s economic platform, however muddled and unrealistic, is at least a break from the narrow ideological orthodoxy on economics that has held the national Republican Party in thrall for the past couple decades. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have offered a challenge to the financial-sector-friendly approach that the party’s mainstream settled on in the 1990s. Some in that mainstream have been reconsidering their stance, as well—DeLong was a deputy assistant treasury secretary in Bill Clinton’s administration, and he has gone from defending the deregulatory moves of the 1990s to, in the new book, critiquing them.

Meanwhile, the economics profession’s turn away from theory and toward empirical work, which I wrote about in January, will presumably offer pragmatically inclined policymakers more material to work with in the coming years.

Still, it’s not easy to figure out what the US should do next. Nations playing catch-up—such as the US in the late 1700s, Germany in the 1800s, and Japan and China more recently—have concrete examples they can follow. But the US of 2016 is the biggest economy on the planet, and by most measures one of the strongest.

In the latest World Economic Forum global competitiveness rankings, for example, it trailed only Switzerland and Singapore. There is surely much we can learn from those (and other) well-run little nations, but in the US remains largely sui generis.

I’m almost certain that more infrastructure investment would be a smart part of any new US economic strategy. But I’m not so sure what should be built and where, or what else the nation should be doing. It’s unlikely that any one person would have all the answers anyway. Since Hamilton, US economic strategies have been the product of politicking, intellectual debate and sometimes dumb luck.

Got any suggestions?

Tito Genova Valiente

ANNOTATIONS

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T should have been 3 in the afternoon, with dust swirling around the empty highway, my eyes squinting at the harsh sun. But it was 3 in the morning, a bit chilly, and the road was not empty.

I was getting off at Turbina, a name that conjures, well, machine and massive structures. An invitation from Kei Tan, film curator and scholar, to Pelikultura, a film concourse in the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, has brought me to Turbina. I told them I would be taking the splendid “Skybus,” of the Peñafrancia Bus Co. In that information has been crammed many images: of buses that fly off the road to touch the sky and of transportation companies benefiting from the blessing of a name linked to a Catholic Marian image.

Turbina is a stopover. It is also a barangay of Calamba, Laguna. It is described as the current end of Slex, or Southern Luzon Expressway. Mark the slashing sound of “X,” and you get the speed warranted by these new roads. For many reasons, buses stop by where the gas stations are, and where the vendors are. My bus, however, did not seem welcoming for these vendors. I inspect the vendors who were all huddled down with their baskets: eggs and sand-

wiches, peanuts and bottled water.

A friend of mine who travels this route has warned me that the bottled water, which vendors call “mineral water,” are really water bottled by them. No ionization, no complex process but an open faucet with clear, perhaps clean, drinking water, and some special glue for the bottle cap are all they need. I do not know if this is true but I always heed his caution.

Somewhere around this stop are the towns of Calamba in Laguna and the city of San Pablo. Make a wrong turn, and you find yourself somewhere in Batangas.

I look around and find the ubiquitous convenience store full of people convenient with their coffee and soda. It is very early in the morning, but I see young men and women bound for work. Most of them are wearing caps and bonnets.

Where they are going must be a cold, cold place.

The guard inspects me, because I am bundled up in thick clothes.

Guards in these convenience stores

A

Although justices are not above the law, they have exempted themselves from the code of conduct that applies to all other federal judges.

When lower-court judges face a motion to step aside owing to a possible conflict of interest, other

judges settle the question. Justices on the Supreme Court, however, get to decide questions about their own impartiality by themselves, sometimes arriving at dubious conclusions.

In 2004 Scalia declined to recuse

double as retailers. I was looking for soap and when I kept getting from the shelf and putting back a soap in a large box, he guided me to where

the small soaps were. I look at his badge and it spelled “Tiger.”

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.

The Republican muddle is good for Trump Albert R. Hunt

BLOOMBERG VIEW

A

S Donald Trump continues his march toward the Republican presidential nomination, panic is spreading among Republicans over how and whether they can stop the New York billionaire.

Trump won at least six of the 11 Republican contests on Tuesday, from New England to a convincing sweep of the Southeast. He probably racked up more delegates than all his opponents combined. It wasn’t a clean sweep. Sen. Ted Cruz handily won his home state of Texas, the biggest delegate prize of March 1, and upset Trump in Oklahoma. Sen. Marco Rubio won his first contest of the campaign, in Minnesota, where Cruz also beat Trump. Cruz’s victories and Rubio’s mediocre showing overall sustains the divided opposition to Trump for at least a few more weeks.

Rubio now needs a victory in his home state of Florida in the primary there on March 15. Similarly, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who finished out of the money everywhere but New England, needs to beat Trump in his home-state primary on the same day.

On the Democratic side, it was another big night for Hillary Clinton. She continued to run away from Sen. Bernie Sanders by dominating the South with huge margins among African-American voters. She also won a hotly competitive race in Massachusetts. Sanders easily captured his home state of Vermont and beat

Clinton in Oklahoma, Minnesota and Colorado.

Clinton remains a prohibitive favorite to win the nomination, yet the Vermont socialist did well enough to credibly continue his challenge.

He hopes to frame a big showdown with the former Secretary of State on March 8 in Michigan, where he will make opposition to free-trade deals a central issue.

Much of the Republican party, which has been in denial for months about a Trump nomination, now is engaged in meetings, strategy sessions and debates over what to do about the prospect. It is quickly developing into the most divisive intraparty fight in modern times, worse than the 1964 struggle between Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller, or the 1976 contest between President Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.

Trump and his supporters believe they are tapping into the righteous anger of a frustrated electorate, only to be rebuffed by a privileged establishment defending its own interests. If his quest for the Republican nomination is foiled, Trump seems ready to attempt a party-shattering independent candidacy.

The US Supreme Court is not above the law

NTONIN SCALIA, who was known to be fond of Latin, was probably familiar with the phrase nemo judex in causa sua, or “No one should be a judge in his own cause.” The justice’s death at a resort in Texas, where he was staying free, has raised questions about how seriously the US Supreme Court takes that notion.

Friday, March 4, 2016 A11

himself from a case involving Vice President Dick Cheney and the energy industry, shortly after Cheney and Scalia had gone on a duck hunting trip together to a private camp owned by an oil-industry executive.

(Scalia voted in favor of Cheney.)

Right or wrong, the fact that Scalia made the decision himself did nothing to bolster public confidence in the court’s impartiality.

Justices, like members of Congress, may also accept junkets—

and they often do. A recent analysis of their travel showed that from 2004 to 2014, justices took more than 1,000 trips paid for by outside groups. But the rules regarding disclosure are unclear. Scalia may not have been required to disclose his free stay at the Texas resort in a suite that starts at $700 a night, for example, because exceptions are made for “personal hospitality” provided by a property owner. Even if properly disclosed, justices need

Many Republican office holders and policy experts believe Trump would be an electoral disaster for Republicans. Polls show him running behind Clinton and taking down a lot of Republican officeholders with him as he taints the party’s already troubled image with his anti-immigration and racially incendiary postures.

There’s disagreement about how to respond, with party factions flailing at one another. Some believe he still can be denied the 1,237 delegates necessary to win the nomination at the Republican convention in Cleveland this summer. That would be feasible only if Rubio and Kasich win the winnertake-all contests in their home states in two weeks.

Even then, Trump probably would have a clear lead in the delegate count, and the opposition would have trouble rallying behind one alternative. The reality is that the party establishment will have little influence on the convention without manipulating rules in a way that would assure a rupture.

There are intense behind-thescenes efforts to rally opposition. One outside effort has begun, funded by the family of Marlene Ricketts, owner of the Chicago Cubs and a big Republican donor. It includes antiTrump ads in Florida and Ohio and is being assisted by a former top aide to Jeb Bush. One catalyzing moment was Trump’s jumbled refusal last weekend to disavow David Duke, a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Another party faction argues that the Trump nomination is inevitable, and that to protect other Republicans, especially vulnerable senators, an independent candidacy led

by a conservative should be waged.

Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska is promoting this approach.

It would be hard to carry out, starting with an uphill effort to get on ballots in big states like Texas, North Carolina and Illinois. So far, there is no credible standard-bearer.

Some Republicans have said they wouldn’t support Trump. On the other side, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy advocates trying to work with the maverick billionaire, calculating that he would become more flexible than he appears once in the White House.

Sanders is unlikely to succumb to Democratic pressure to bow out. He is winning delegates and has created an effective money machine of 1.5 million small donors. His campaign believes he can do well in some upcoming small-state caucuses, and he relishes the Michigan primary showdown next Tuesday. Free trade is unpopular there, and Sanders has been a longtime opponent of trade deals while Secretary Clinton is a recent convert to the cause.

Some Clinton strategists believe it won’t be possible to address her weakness with younger voters until the Sanders challenge dissipates.

An FBI inquiry into her private email account potentially could derail her quest. Even if her use of a private server, instead of a government one, survives legal scrutiny, she could be damaged politically if any aides are found culpable.

Either way, the e-mail controversy has taken a toll on Clinton’s reputation for trustworthiness. In recent polls she has the second-highest unfavorable ratings of any major national political figure. The worst is Donald Trump.

provide few details about the nature of their paid trips.

The Supreme Court does comply with the financial-disclosure requirements that apply to all federal judges, but Chief Justice John Roberts has suggested that they only do so out of the goodness of their hearts. The court, wrote Roberts in 2011, has “never addressed whether Congress may impose those requirements on the Supreme Court”—a thinly veiled warning to

Congress that it shouldn’t press its luck. Congress needn’t be cowed.

If the court rejects its authority to establish clearer ethical standards for the judiciary, a constitutional amendment may be necessary.

The Supreme Court has a tendency toward opacity, shunning calls for more openness about its workings, including a refusal to allow cameras into its courthouse. The public deserves a court that is more transparent and accountable. Bloomberg View

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Friday, March 4, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Power plants to have ‘stricter’ standards

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B L L

NDUSTRY stakeholders are forming a technical working group (TWG) to address environmental and health concerns on power plants that run on fossil fuels, particularly coal.

Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada said on Thursday that the meeting with other government agencies and coal power-plant operators pushed through last week.

“We will create a technical working group. We will be joined by the DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources], Climate Change Commission and the technical people of various power-plant owners,” Monsada said at the sidelines of the Shell Powering Progress Together-Asia forum in Manila.

The TWG’s main focus, according to the Department of Enegy (DOE) chief, is to craft stricter standards based on existing rules.

“We are starting it with a series of dialogues with them. Afterward, we will inform the power-plant operators. We will be very critical on emission and energy efficiency,” Monsada said.

The DOE took the initiative to assemble the country’s coal powerplant operators, after the government committed to cut emissions by 70 percent by 2030 during the

21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December last year.

“We are being asked for an update since the conference was held. We called for a meeting. The coal-power plants are cooperative.

We will come out with a template, then we will again discuss this with them,” Monsada added.

Among others, the template will determine the necessary emission level for coal-power plants. “There should be improvement in the operations of old coal plants, but there will be no shutdown because we need power. The technology of the new coal plants are already super critical, thus, it’s less of a concern,” Monsada said.

There are around 20 coal-fired power plants operating in the country today, according to DOE Director for Electric Power Industry Management Bureau Irma Exconde.

Coal, as a source of power, makes up about 40 percent to 45 percent of the country’s power mix, she said.

The ideal mix should be 30-percent gas, 30-percent coal, 30percent renewable energy. Other fuel sources, such as diesel and oil, make up the remaining 10 percent.

The DOE, Exconde said, would like to focus into “improving and reviewing the existing operations” of how coal power-plant operators handle, among others “heat trap emissions and ash trapping.”

Global think tank IHC said that coal is sent to take up 56 percent of the mix by 2020 and only 35 percent for gas. There are 23 new coal-fired power plants lined up for commercial operation in the next five years.

“If coal projects are implemented as planned, Luzon’s coal-generation share will be over 75 percent by 2030, and many coal plants will be uneconomic,” it said. “Without intervention, the Philippines is on the path to having the highest coal share in Asia, despite intent to have one-third rule.”

Coal-fired power generation continues to face the challenge of social acceptability, due mainly to concerns about its environmental impacts.

But coal-plant owners stressed that the new plants being put up are already equipped with clean coal technologies, which have already substantially reduced the emission of pollutants to levels close to those of natural gas.

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan is eagerly waiting for a policy on energy mix.

“We would encourage the government to adopt a policy of energy

We would encourage the government to adopt a policy of energy sourcing. We need to know that energy mix, so the private sector would know where to move next.

Should we turn to coal plants? To gas plants?”—P

sourcing. We need to know that energy mix, so the private sector would know where to move next.

Should we turn to coal-plants? To gas plants?” Pangilinan said when asked for comment on the meeting between the DOE and coal-plant operators that took place last week.

Meralco is the country’s largest distribution utility firm. It’s powergeneration arm, Meralco PowerGen Corp., is developing three coal-power plants. These are the 455-megawatt (MW) coal plant in Mauban, Quezon, 600 MW in Atimonan, Quezon, and 600-MW coal plant in Subic.

AC Energy Holdings Inc., the power arm of conglomerate Ayala Corp., said its coal-power plants are compliant with all the standards set by the government.

“As far as we are concerned, we make sure that we exceed all of these standards. You need to look at a case-to-case basis, whether it’s adhering to standards, impact on community, etc…” AC Energy President John Eric Francia said when sought for comment.

The company is committed to build a portfolio of power-generation assets using renewable and conventional technologies. It has currently assembled over 700 MW of attributable capacity.

Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. (ACR) of the Alacantara group, for its part, said it welcomes the DOE’s move to hold dialogues with coal-plant owners.

“Our coal plants are equipped with the state-of-the-art environmental-protection systems that ensure our strict adherence to the Clean Air Act emission levels.

What the Clean Air Act does not address are carbon-dioxide emissions for which there are no economically viable and technical proven mitigation measures.

Our power plants are supported by forest-based carbon sequestration projects that will help absorb our carbon-dioxide emissions,” Alsons Vice President for Business Development Joseph Nocos said in a text message. ACR is developing two coal-fired power facilities to help

provide a stable source of base-load power for Mindanao and ensure long-term power security for the island.

These are the 105-MW San Ramon Power Inc. plant in Zamboanga City and the 210-MW Sarangani Energy Corp. plant in Maasim, Sarangani.

Former Energy Undersecretary and Chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Coal Mines Inc. Rufino Bomasang said carbon capture and sequestration technologies are also being developed, and their deployment should substantially reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from coal-fired power generation.

“Most of the major power plants being built in the Philippines are coal-fired, as it is in the world’s two largest developing countries [e.g., China and India] and in neighboring Asean member-countries [e.g., Indonesia and Thailand]. Even developed countries in the region [e.g., Japan and South Korea], in fact, continue to put up coal-fired power plants,” he added.

Bomasang said industry players and the government must address the concerns raised by environmentalists to pave the way for the opening of more mine mouth power plants using untapped coals. These potential plants are in Cagayan, Isabela, Surigao, Davao Oriental and South Cotabato, he added.

“In these areas, I estimate that the combined measured and indicated coal resources are sufficient to supply at least another 2,000 MW of mine mouth power-generating capacity,” Bomasang said.