Businessmirror november 30, 2015

Momentum for Climate Deal Grows as Obama Joins Xi at Paris Talks

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ore than 140 world leaders, including US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, are gathering in Paris for France’s biggest diplomatic event since 1948, striving to reach the first truly global deal to curb greenhouse gases.

The two weeks of United Nations-sponsored talks have already gathered pledges to reduce emissions from 177 of the 195 countries involved, signaling broader support for a deal than when envoys last attempted to reach one six years ago. Those discussions in Copenhagen ended in disarray with recriminations between industrialized and developing nations.

Now, with the cost of alternatives to fossil fuels coming down and scientific concern about global warming mounting, there’s stronger political will to act than ever. Delegates open their discussions on Sunday, and leaders are scheduled to speak on Monday to lend political momentum to the process. Continued on A9

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Oxfam activists wear masks of (from left) French President François Hollande, Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Barack Obama, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as they stage a protest ahead of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference in Paris on Saturday. Oxfam wants world leaders to get the best climate deal for poor people. AP/Thibault Camus

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PHL bats for ‘ambitious’ climate deal to fight global warming

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INSIDE

By David Cagahastian & Recto Mercene

he Philippines said it will push for the adoption of a goal to limit the increase in world temperature by only 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century via deep cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions.

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Manila is making the pitch for a more ambitious climate agreement at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change being held in Paris, France, this week.Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said that, aside from the $100-billion fund committed by the international community for climate change-related projects, nations should also reduce gas emissions to limit the

TELSTRA’S ENTRY SEEN BOOSTING GDP growth

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

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he anticipated entry of a new core player in the telecommunications market in the Philippines— with initial investments pegged at $2.5 billion—is expected to boost the country’s GDP in 2016, as the endeavor is seen filling in the gaps in the highly untapped broadband sector.

In theory, the entry of Telstra Corp. Ltd. should help the economy expand at faster pace, given that broadband penetration—seen as a key growth driver for the services sector—should soon trend higher w it h intensif y ing competition, National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) Director Edgardo V. Cabarios said.

A third player, he continued, will shake up the market by bringing prices down and service quality up—thereby increasing the access to the Internet, which is the main backbone of the e-commerce industry.

increase in world temperature.

“Significant levels of finance, including $90 trillion in infrastructure investments by 2030, are a requirement if the world is to deliver on the 2°C goal. Our vulnerable nations are advocating, instead, for keeping warming to a minimum and support the more ambitious, but still feasible, target of below 1.5°C,” Purisima said in his letter to Australian Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.

Continued on A2

‘SE Asia’s central banks need more policy tools to deal with challenges’

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By Bianca Cuaresma & Cai Ordinario

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merging-market (EM) central banks across Asia require more policy tools to deal with rising financial volatility across the economic group due to the divergence of monetary policy and growth in different advanced economies affecting EMs. At the 51st Governors’ Conference of Southeast Asian Central Banks (Seacen), hosted by the Philippines this year in Makati City, the monetary authorities of the member-economies in the region agreed that central banks in the region need to be more united to deal with challenges in financial markets.

“Governors noted that the shifting dynamics of global economic conditions have given rise to increased uncertainty for Seacen economies, particularly in two as-

PESO exchange rates n US 47.0690

pects—growth and financial stability. The governors recognized that risks to Seacen economies’ growth may be transmitted mainly through the trade channel—while risks to financial stability may be propagated through the exchange rate, interest rates and capital flows channels,” the official statement from the Seacen read.

“Toward this end, the governors highlighted that the pursuit of wide-ranging policy reforms should be a continuing process for Seacen economies to cope with episodes of global economic stress,” it added.

In the Philippines the Bangko Sentral ng Pilpinas (BSP) owns a wide array of monetary-policy tools other than the policy rates, such as the special deposit account (SDA) rate and the banks’ deposit reserve ratio. Such are seen as more sophisticated antiliquidity See “Policy tools,” A2

Continued on A2

APPLE ONE TO SPEND P4B FOR FIRST SHERATON RESORT AND RESIDENCES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

By Dennis D. Estopace

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AC TA N, Cebu— St a rwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. has entered into a 25-year contract with a rising local property developer to build the first resort and residences under the Sheraton brand in Southeast Asia.

The project, called The Sheraton Cebu Mactan Resort and The Residences, would be built at a cost of P4 billion by Apple One Mactan Inc., which now owns the exclusive franchise of Starwood’s Sheraton brand.

“Nobody else can use the Sheraton brand here in Cebu,” Apple One Mactan President and CEO Ray Go

Manigsaca told reporters here.

Manigsaca said over dinner he hosted on Thursday he would also have the right of first refusal if a venture would use the other six Starwood Hotel brands, like Westin.

The one-of-a-kind mixed-use hotel and residential property development sits on a 75,000-square-

n japan 0.3839 n UK 71.0789 n HK 6.0733 n CHINA 7.3665 n singapore 33.4344 n australia 34.0266 n EU 49.9402 n SAUDI arabia 12.5434

Continued on A9

Source: BSP (27 November 2015)

A2

News

BusinessMirror

Monday, November 30, 2015

Policy tools. . .

Continued from A1

tools than the more blunt policy instrument that Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. uses with refined hesitation from time to time.

Likewise, the central bank is crafting a new framework called the interest rate corridor (IRC) to increase the efficiency of the main policy rates. The IRC is scheduled for implemention by the second quarter next year and should help make monetary policy operations more effective.

The IRC, the governor also earlier said, makes use of the BSP’s policy rate and special deposits account (SDA) rate. The BSP’s lending or repurchase (RP) rate forms the ceiling and the SDA interest rate represents the floor of the corridor.

Central bank governors in the region also said there is a need to maintain vigilance against the arising risks to monetary policies in the region through the clear identification and management of risks and how these might feed their way into the real sector.

Enhancing domestic sources of resilience, as well as proper communication of monetary policy moves were also said to be important in building up defenses against the negative effects of a more globalized market for central banks.

In a related event, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) urged countries, including the Philippines, to institute financial reforms to prevent the recurrence of external debt crises.

In the Trade and Development report 2015, Unctad said improving financial governance includes reforming the external debt of countries, as well as improving transparency in financial instruments.

“A major driver of this growing indebtedness is the push factor of fast-rising financial capital in flows in the context of rapid and excessive global expansion of liquidity,” Unctad said.

“The concomitant growth of often complex and opaque financial and debt instruments, along with substantial changes in the structure and composition of developing country external debt, have rendered their debt highly vulnerable to the vagaries of private financial markets, in particular, and in the present global economy, more generally,” it added.

Unctad data showed that in the debt crisis of the 1980s and the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-1998, the Philippines had high levels of external debt.

The Philippines entered a currency crisis and a banking crisis in 1983, as well as a sovereign debt crisis in the same year.

The country’s gross external public debt as a share of GDP was at 34.2 percent.

During the Asian Financial Crisis, the Philippines entered a banking crisis in 1997 and a currency crisis in the following year.

The country’s external debt at that time was 42.5 percent and total gross public debt as a share of GDP was at 10.4 percent.

While the level of indebtedness of the country was still lower than other countries affected by the crisis, the Philippine economy still suffered from these external shocks.

“Therefore, the persistent vulnerabilities and challenges posed by international financial markets make it all the more important to ensure that the debate about enhanced debt restructuring mechanisms is taken seriously,” Unctad said.

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PHL bats for ‘ambitious’ climate deal to fight global warming Continued from A1

“We do appreciate the considerable progress achieved ahead of COP21 as your government and other developed nations strive to deliver on the joint 2020 mobilization commitment of $100 billion per year. Although, according to a recent OECD report, 2014 mobilization levels were still $38 billion short of this figure, underscoring just how much remains to be accomplished in the next five years,” he added.

The Philippines is currently the chairman of the Vulnerable Group of 20 countries (V20), a coalition of countries vulnerable to climate change that have asked industrialized countries for more funds to mitigate the effects of climate change.

The V20 is particularly pushing for more climate change-mitigation projects to be implemented in developing countries like the Philippines, which are more vulnerable to climate change and are experiencing more frequent and intense typhoons.

The other members of the V20 are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados,

Bhutan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Nepal, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

The $100 billion sought by the V20 was committed by industrialized countries 2009 to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020. Cuts in greenhouse emissions are expected to be tackled in Paris this week.

The reduction of gas emissions is said to be key in limiting the increase in global temperature by 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Scientists said world temperature has risen by 0.85 degree Celsius since 1880.

Sen. Loren Legarda said the Philippines has “all the reasons” to ensure that a legally binding and universal agreement is achieved in the 2015 Paris Climate Conference because the country has been a victim of climate change for several years now.

“The Philippines cannot afford failure at the Paris Talks. If nations will not agree and commit to a climate deal that will limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, we will experience

more destructive typhoons and stronger episodes of El Niño,” Legarda said.

In recent years, she said the Philippines was hit by stronger and more destructive typhoons such as Tropical Storm Ondoy (international code name Ketsana) and Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan). Currently, food production in the Philippines is under threat due to the drought caused by El Niño.

Legarda, chairman of the Senate Committee on Climate Change, cited a study from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) titled, Global Increase in Climate-Related Disasters, which looked at disasters from 1970 to 2013.

The study observed that if carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere continued to rise, natural hazard-prone countries like the Philippines will be hit hard. The ADB study suggests that climate action needs to be a central component of national plans.

According to Vinod Thomas, coauthor of the study and director general of the ADB’s Independent Evaluation, “Policy-makers and economic advisers have long held the view that climate

action is a drain on economic growth.

But the reality is opposite: the vast damage from climate-related disasters is an increasing obstacle to economic growth and well-being.”

Legarda said the 2015 Paris Climate Conference is a crucial event for the future of humanity and of the world.

“The world’s governments need to urgently, and with conscience, examine how we use energy and how to use innovation and new technologies to provide for the energy it needs in a sustainable and inclusive manner.

Growth is difficult to imagine without energy; and energy that does not take into consideration the needs of future generations can only destroy and not build,” she said.

“For every second that ticks away is but a second closer to the next calamity. The United Nations said economic losses from disasters are ‘out of control.’ We should reverse this situation. Resilience should be at the core of our development policies and strategies. In climate and disaster risks, there may be no second chances,” Legarda added.

Telstra’s entry seen boosting Gdp growth Continued from A1

“A study conducted by the United Nations showed that for every 10 percent in broadband penetration, a country’s GDP will grow by at least 1.35 percent,” he said. “Telstra’s entry in 2016 will definitely help us with that, as there are only 7.5 million fixed line subscribers to date, relatively smaller compared to our population of 100 million.”

NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING NORTHERN LUZON TAIL-END OF A COLD FRONT AFFECTING VISAYAS (NOVEMBER 29, 5:00 AM)

The country’s local output averaged 6 percent in the third quarter, slower than the 6.3-percent forecast made by several economists. This, according to Cabarios, will likely be boosted, once a third player comes into the scene.

However, this might not be enough, at least on his end, as the government also needs to play a key role in developing the telecommunications industry, as in other nations.

“If you look at other countries, they took the study seriously. Their governments inter vened because they wanted to help their micro, small and medium enterprises to make them globally competitive in the e-commerce market,” he said.

In Thailand, for example, the government has invested $114 million to improve the Internet service or availability.

The fund is part of Bangkok’s

economic policy framework.

Vietnamese government, on the other hand, owns two of the three largest telecommunications companies in Ho Chi Minh City. Investments come mainly from the government.

Malaysia has now spent a total of $4.5 billion over a 10year period to make available fiber optic lines to every home in the country’s urban areas.

Other developing and developed economies are

investing billions of dollars to improve Internet access in their countries, Cabarios added. “We also have to look into that prospect,” he said.

Government initiatives revolve only around regulatory endeavors. So far, the government has invested a billion-and-a-half pesos to provide free Wi-Fi access in public places.

This is not enough, according to Cabarios. What needs to be done, he added, is for the government to invest in infrastructure to develop the sector to provide lower Internet costs and better quality to consumers.

“If your investments are purely private, the cost of infrastructure is high, and companies will need to see returns.

If the government invests, it’s an economic return that it will wait for,” he said.

Private investments over the past 10 years, estimates show, would have reached more than P600 billion.

For next year, Fitch Ratings said the incumbent telecommunications companies in the Philippines will invest P85 billion and aggressively roll out high-speed mobile and fixedline broadband networks to offer better services. This year Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Globe Telecom Inc. have programmed a combined capital of P83 billion.

“Prices may go down with competition, but if we leave it to purely to the private sector, we cannot achieve the same level of speed and quality as Singapore has. The government really has to intervene,” Cabarios said.

The main hurdle to this, however, is funding.

“Under the existing laws, we do not have a so-called universal access. The law only states that we have to give priority to the development of infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas, but it did not specify how,” he said.

The proposal of the commission is for the fund to come from 1 percent of the total government revenue.

“We need that to deploy broadband in unserved areas and help small and medium enterprises to compete,” Cabarios said.

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Korean fighter jets PHL bought land at Clark

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WO FA-50 fighter jets the Philippines bought from South Korea finally arrived at Clark on Saturday, with defense and military officials gushing the aircraft have ushered the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) into the supersonic age.

The jets, flown in by South Korean pilots, touched down at Clark Air Base at 10:23 a.m., with officials, including Defense Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hernando Iriberri, welcoming the addition to the Philippine Air Force (PAF) assets under the ongoing capability upgrade of the military.

Lt. Col. Rolando Condrad Peña III, one of three PAF pilots trained in South Korea to fly the jets, compared the FA-50 to high-end sportscars when it comes to other PAF assets he has flown.

This is a fly-by-wire aircraft, according to Peña, who is assigned with the PAF Air Defense Wing. “It is practically an electronic jet, so more of the system. There are a lot of adjustments, because this one has the hands on throttle and stick.” He added that the jets are 4- to 4.5-generation type of aircraft. Rene Acosta

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Monday, November 30, 2015 A3

Aquino eyes stronger PHL-Italy relationship

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OMMUNICATIONS Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. said President Aquino’s trip to Rome is expected to yield an expanded airservices agreement (ASA) with Italy.

The President will discuss strengthening bilateral relations between the Philippines and Italy, Coloma said in Filipino.

Mr. Aquino flew with a Philippine delegation on Sunday on a three-leg mission first to France and later on Italy. It would be in the latter country where President Aquino is expected to meet Pope Francis on a visit to the Vatican.

In his departure speech at the Terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Aquino said he will have separate meetings with French leader FranÇois Hollande and Pope Francis, whom he hosted

in Manila recently.

During the first leg, Coloma confirmed that Mr. Aquino will preside over the Climate Vulnerable Forum at the Paris climate talks among leaders of 195 nations in the 21st meeting of what is called the Conference of Parties (COP21).

“As chairperson of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, the President’s main focus is to build common ground for concerted action among similarly situated countries in strengthening disaster resiliency and enhancing capability in implementing climate-change adaptation

and mitigation measures,” Coloma told the BusinessMirror.

Speaking in Filipino, Mr. Aquino said he intends to share the Philippine experience in coping with disasters that hit the country, as well as its “travails and recovery from severe calamities.”

At the COP21 Forum, Mr. Aquino added that he intends to speak for other countries most affected by “increasingly frequent and more damaging disasters associated with climate change.”

He also cited earlier efforts in Copenhagen to convince countries to adopt measures to reduce greenhouse-gas emission levels, even as he admitted that the conference failed to forge a firm consensus, and instead passed on the task to the Paris conference on UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Mr. Aquino voiced satisfaction with Hollande’s support for the Philippines’s initiatives, when the French leader visited Manila in February

and joined him in the Manila call to Action on Climate Change.

According to Coloma, the President is set to reaffirm Philippine commitments to enforce a 70-percent reduction in carbon emissions by year 2030.

In Italy Coloma said President Aquino would also discuss the Mindanao peace process and agriculture.

On the ASA point, Coloma said President Aquino is expected to expand the deal to open direct commercial flights between Manila and Rome.

The latter agendum comes more than two years after the Philippines and Italy held air-services consultations in Rome in September 2013, according to the Philippine Embassy in Italy.

According to the embassy, “Both sides discussed and initialed the Philippines-Italy ASA and signed a shared memorandum of understanding.”

The ASA allows Philippine air carriers to fly directly to Italy

(Rome, Milan, Bergamo and another point) and Italian air carriers to fly directly to the Philippines (Manila, Cebu, Clark and another point), the embassy said.

According to the Philippine Embassy in Italy, the last bilateral agreement on air-services was concluded and signed in 1969, and Philippine Airlines last flew to Italy in 1994.

“The ASA is expected benefit some 170,000 Filipinos and their families who work and reside in Italy, among other overseas Filipino workers based in Europe, by affording them the option to take direct flights back home, help boost tourism and encourage increased business travel between the Philippines and Italy.”

According to Coloma, Mr. Aquino will meet with President Sergio Mattarella at the Italian leader’s private residence, and later hold a dialogue with select members of the Filipino community. Butch Fernandez

Economy

A4 Monday, November 30, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

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Govt ‘Feesbook’ proposed to fight red tape in securing permits and licenses

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By Recto Mercene

HE national government plans to collect P40 billion in “fees and charges” for permits and licenses next year, prompting a legislator to call for the publication of an online “Feesbook,” detailing the cost and time needed to get the documents.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto said a Feesbook should explain “how much and how long” it would take a citizen to secure permits and licenses.

A Feesbook, he added, could also combat red tape, which, according to a World Bank report issued in October, costs the country P140 billion in opportunity losses annually.

While some agencies have posted the cost of documents they issue on their web sites, Recto noted that there is still “no unified sourcebook” as to the schedule of fees government agencies are charging for their services.

“The measure of transparency is the ease by which citizens get services from the government, especially documents that must be paid for,” he said.

According to Recto, the Fees-

book must contain the name of the employees and the location of offices from where the desired document will be applied for, processed and paid.

“It could be a portal for online ‘shopping’ of documents, a virtual tour of the offices where it can be secured, and with a Google map on how to get there if physical appearance is required in applying for a document,” he said.

“But if all of these can be transacted online, without compromising the authenticity of both the applicant and the permit applied for, then all the better,” Recto said.

The senator reiterated his call for a Feesbook as national government income from fees and charges is expected to reach P40 billion next year, up from the P36.4-billion goal this year.

He described the P40-billion goal as a “conservative minimum,” because it only includes fees and charges considered as nontax revenues and does not count payments for licenses classified as taxes, such as car-registration fees.

The latter, officially called Motor Vehicle User’s Charge (MVUC), will bring in P14.5 billion to the government coffers next year.

Total nontax revenue-collection target for 2016 is P151.5 billion, which is P6.1 billion bigger than this year’s.

Among big nontax revenue earners are the Department of Foreign Affairs, with a collection quota of P4.6 billion for passport services; the Bureau of Immigration, P4.3 billion; Land Registration Authority, P6.3 billion; Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, P497 million; and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), P596 million.

Also not included in the count, Recto explained, are fees local governments charge for licenses and permits, and those collected by government corporations, like Manila International Airport Authority’s terminal fee for departing passengers.

While 2016 budget documents that Malacañang sent to Congress did not indicate any increase in the cost of documents, Recto said any increase in fees and charges would

only be “palatable to the public if it cuts red tape.”

But whatever the rates are, “the result should be faster release of documents and less paper work,” Recto said. “An official receipt is a warranty of fast service, not just proof of payment.”

“If a pizza maker gives your next order free when it misses its 30-minute-delivery promise on cutthroat prices, there’s no reason the government can’t guarantee speedy delivery of service on higher rates,” Recto said.

The Philippines ranked a low 95th among 189 economies in overall ease of doing business, according to the World Bank’s (WB) Doing Business Report for 2015.

It ranked 161st as to expenses in starting a business, “one of the costliest in the world,” the WB said in another report—the October 2015 Philippine Economic Update.

“The average firm spends 34 days securing licenses required to start a business,” the report said.

“The process for individuals seeking government licenses, permits, or clearances for employment purposes is also cumbersome,” the report added.

It noted “workers spend anywhere from a few hours to several days traveling in securing police, NBI clearances, registering vehicles and driver’s licenses.”

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Solon wants to use road users’ tax to promote road courtesy and discipline

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se the road users’ tax to mount a massive campaign to promote the rights of motorcycle riders on the road following the World Health Organization’s (WHO) discovery that 53 percent of road accident fatalities in the Philippines are motorcycle users.

Sen. Francis G. Escudero made this appeal, saying it will help promote road courtesy and to also observe the rights of motorcycle drivers.

Escudero said there is widespread observation that motor vehicle drivers take motorcycle riders lightly on the road, acting as if they are superior to their two-wheeled counterparts.

Noting how road courtesy and discipline could prevent accidents on the road, Escudero urged the Road Board to utilize its more than P1-billion Special Road Safety Fund for 2015 to develop road reminders on the importance of sharing the road with motorcycle riders.

Escudero said the Road Board, which oversees the use of funds collected from the motor vehicle users’ charge (MVUC), or the road user’s tax, should step up its media campaign to create a better awareness of the rights of motorcyclists on the road, with motorized two- and three-wheelers now outnumbering cars in the country.

Of the 7,690,038 registered vehicles in 2013, the WHO report said 4,250,667 were motorized two- and three-wheelers; 3,009,116 were four-wheeled light vehicles; 358,445 heavy trucks; and 31,665 buses.

Republic Act 8794, or the Road User’s Tax Law, mandates that 7.5 percent of the MVUC collected by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) should go to a special road-safety fund.

“This is similar to the campaign being done in other countries. We have to remind our motorists to respect the rights of their fellow motorists, especially motorcycle riders, while on the road,” Escudero said.

abaya hopes to complete mrt 3 buyout before aquino steps down

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

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EVEN months is enough for the government to complete the corporate buyout of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3, according to a Cabinet official who remains optimistic despite the roadblocks he had to hurdle in pursuing the transaction.

Tr a n s p or t at ion S e c re t a r y Joseph Emilio A. Abaya said he is hopeful that the government’s P54billion takeover of the train line will be completed before President Aquino steps down from office in June 2016.

His optimism remains high despite the mere seven months left on his tenure as the transportation head.

“We have to sit down again to discuss the transaction. I hope we could still do it. We still have seven months in office. It’s still a long period,” he said in an interview.

The main issue that his office, the Department of Finance, Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank), and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) have to discuss is the losses from the equity value buyout.

He explained that the government financial institutions (GFIs) will probably incur losses due to the buyout, an event that the two banks are not too keen to see.

“I think we are working on getting the opinion of the Office of the Secretary General. We’re now working on the comfort of the GFIs, because I think DBP and LandBank’s main concern is taking a loss in the buyout,” Abaya said.

The budget for the buyout, the main hurdle that prevented the state from executing the transaction in the past, is now included in the 2016 appropriations, under the “unprogrammed funds” section.

Lawmakers decided to scrap the programmed budget for the buyout last year as they deemed it unnecessary to pass money from one government office to another.

The state is pursuing the takeover of the line, as ordered by President Aquino through an executive order in 2013, to improve the sorry state of the train system that fer-

ries more than half-a-million passengers daily.

Should the buyout be completed in 2016, the transportation agency may then bid out the operations and maintenance contract of the line, thereby tapping private-sector efficiency and customer-service orientation for operational needs while retaining regulatory functions for passenger protection.

Abaya noted that once the government completes the transaction, all the money that is being pumped into the facility will now be sound investments. Right now, private-sector owner Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC) enjoys receiving funds for the improvement of the train line.

“We could make better decisions when we become the owner. It frees us from talking to other parties, with the fear of opinions coming from the left field,” he said.

MRTC Director Rafael R. Perez de Tagle Jr., however, believes that a buyout is not necessary to improve the train line. After all, the buildlease-transfer agreement between the government and private sector requires the two parties to cooperate with each other to improve the train line.

All that is needed, he said, is for the government to be open to proposals sent by the private partner —even those that merely want to help in modernizing the train line.

Proposals to develop the line, the official said, were already in place — even before President Aquino took office in 2010.

“Even if the Arroyo administration ignored the previous privatesector proposals to expand and upgrade the capacity of the MRT, this current administration would have had doubled the capacity of the MRT by last year, if only it followed the build-lease-transfer agreement and agreed to work with the private owners to expand the MRT 3’s capacity at no cost to the government,” he said.

Metro Global Holdings Corp., a stakeholder in MRTC, had proposed to shoulder the multibillion-peso upgrade of the train line.

Together with foreign firms

“At the same time, we also have to educate motorcycle riders to respect their fellow motorists’ rights by not weaving in and out of the lanes.

The riders also have to be warned against having a risk-taking behavior, which include riding without protective gears, as well as riding under the influence of alcohol,” he added.

The veteran lawmaker made the proposal as he expressed alarm over the WHO’s findings in its Global Status Report on Road Safety for 2015 that riders of two- or three-wheelers topped the list of road user deaths in 2013.

According to the study based on the 2013 Traffic Accident Recording and Analysis System of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), pedestrians made up 19 percent of the road user deaths; drivers of four-wheeled cars and light vehicles (14 percent) and their passengers (11 percent); and cyclists (2 percent).

In the study, the WHO estimated the road user deaths in the Philippines at 10,379.

Escudero earlier filed Senate Bill 2886, or ”An Act Regulating Street and Road Signs, Waiting Sheds, Speed Bumps, Sidewalks, Pavements, Streetlights and Other Similar Infrastructures,” in a bid to improve road conditions in the country.

The proposed measure mandates the DPWH to set specific standards and measurements for all road infrastructures such as road signs, streetlights, road markings, waiting sheds, sidewalks and speed bumps across the country.

Escudero, currently the chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, said it is important for the DPWH to provide reliable road instructions to motorists not only to promote safety but also to advance aesthetics throughout the country’s thoroughfares. Recto Mercene

Modernization of PHL public transport will benefit EV industry

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NATIVE CRAFTS Handmade accessories are on display at the World Trade Center Christmas bazaar to highlight Filipino craftsmanship and ingenuity. The accessories are ideal Christmas gift items. NONIE REYES

Sumitomo Corp. of Japan and Globalvia Infrastructuras of Spain, Metro Global Holdings offered to “fix” the ailing system through a $150-million investment that involves the procurement of a total of 96 new train cars, and the rehabilitation of the existing 73 coaches, increasing its capacity by fourfold to 1.2 million daily passengers.

Under the proposal, a single point of responsibility will be implemented: meaning the rehabilitation and the maintenance of the line will be handled by a single company.

Separately, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. is proposing to shoulder the upgrade costs of the train system and release the government from the bondage of paying billions of pesos in equity rental payments.

T he group of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan, which earlier entered into a partnership agreement with the corporate owner of the

MRT, intends to spend $524 million to overhaul the line.

The venture would effectively expand the capacity of the railway system by adding more coaches to each train, allowing it to carry more cars at faster intervals. The multimilliondollar expansion plan would double the capacity of the line to 700,000 passengers a day from the current 350,000 passengers daily.

It was submitted in 2011, but the transportation agency’s chief back then rejected the proposal.

On the other hand, German firms Schunk Bahn-und Industrietechnik GmbH and HEAG Mobilo GmbH are seeking to place the whole train system under a massive transformation program to augment its capacity and to provide a safe and comfortable travel to commuters from the northern and southern corridors of Metro Manila.

The P4.64-billion proposal, sub-

mitted in February with Filipino partner Comm Builders and Technology Phils. Corp., calls for the complete overhaul of the 73 light-rail vehicles of the MRT, the replacement of the rails, the upgrading of the line’s ancillary system, the upgrade of the track circuit and signaling systems, the modernization of the conveyance system, and a three-year maintenance contract.

Currently, the government implements a P9.7-billion multiyear venture to overhaul the line. The complete makeover is expected to be done within the term of President Aquino.

These proposals, however, were left to gather dust in Abaya’s office.

The train system has been operating at overcapacity since 2004. Currently, the line serves nearly 550,000 passengers per day. It even reached, at one point last year, the 650,000-daily passenger mark. It has a rated capacity of 350,000 passengers every day.

ollaboration among local and foreign electric vehicle (EV) players has led to the success of the EV industry in the Philippines.

Every year the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (Evap) organizes the Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit in a bid to attract more foreign EV players.

“Their meetings with Evap members have resulted in joint venture partnerships and, subsequently, transfer of technology. As a result, many EV companies from the US, Japan, Taiwan and Korea have set up shops in the Philippines with the goal of making the country a manufacturing hub in the region,” Evap President Rommel Juan said.

EVAP members consist of manufacturers, assemblers, suppliers, importers, dealers, fleet operators and battery-makers. They offer a complete package of EV transport solutions that include electric vehicles, battery-swapping arrangements, charging stations, after-sales services, fleet management and spareparts support.

Juan urged all members to provide a complete EV transport solution to clients. He said there are many EV projects that have been introduced in the cities of Makati, Muntinlupa, Quezon, Antipolo and Naga.

“Evap members and ETrike [electric tricycle] makers Kea Industrial, Phil Etro, Bemac and EV Wealth, have made ETrikes available in the local market with a price range of P260,000 to P425,000 per unit. They have sold about 200 units already.

“For the four-wheeled EJeepneys, local manufacturers such as PhUV and Mytron have units with prices ranging from P850,000 to P1.5 million, depending on the seating capacity, power train configuration and battery system,” Juan said.

“PhUV, in particular, the pioneer EV maker in the country, is pinning its hopes on the upcoming Jeepney Modernization Program of the government, which aims to replace regular jeepneys with alternative fuel vehicles such as the EJeepney,” Juan said. Lenie Lectura

Economy BusinessMirror

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Monday, November 30, 2015 A5

CA gives green light to DOTC’s P8.2-B IT project

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By Joel R. San Juan

he Court of Appeals (CA) has given the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) the go signal to proceed with the Road Transportation Information Technology project, which is intended to improve the agencies’ capability to track stolen vehicles.

In an 18-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Ma. Luisa Quijano-Padilla, the CA’s Special Thirteenth Division reversed and set aside the writ of preliminary injunction earlier issued by the Regional

Trial Court (RTC) in Mandaluyong City enjoining its implementation.

The appellate court also ordered the Mandaluyong RTC to dismiss the complaint for injunction filed by lawyer Salvador Belaro.

“On a final note, the DOTC project subject of this petition is undeniably an essential government undertaking to help ease or improve the current sorry state of our nation’s road sector. While there are taxpayers who, like private respondent Belaro, wanted to enjoin the bidding and derail the implementation of the project on the slightest suspicion that there is inappropriate spending of public funds—still, there are many others who wanted to see concrete proof that the government is doing its work using the taxes being paid,” the CA said.

“The DOTC project is one such proof and courts should do its part and ensure that it would have no part in further delaying government projects that are intended to benefit and regain trust of the public, who are the primary stakeholders of the state,” it added.

Concurring with the ruling were A ssociate Justices Normandie Pizarro and Carmelita Salandanan Manahan.

In an order issued on July 31, 2014, the Mandaluyong RTC granted the complaint for injunction filed by Belaro.

In particular, Belaro sought to enjoin the bidding process for the LTO Infrastructure and Information System (LTO-IIS) phase of the project for being illegal due to the agency’s failure to obtain approval from the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) and the Department of Budget and Management Multi-Year Obligational Authority (DBM-MYOA) necessary for the project.

Belaro added that as a taxpayer, he may sue government officials who breached their duty to spend public funds in accordance with the purposes and in the manner authorized by law.

He said he will suffer “direct injury” because the project will be financed out of public funds and fees will eventually be levied on motorists who will be applying for driver’s

license or registering their motor vehicles in order to defray the cost of procurement, such that, he, as a taxpayer, will be injured twice over.

But, the CA said Belaro’s apprehension that new fees will be imposed on motorists because of the project is still premature, considering that the project is still in the initial stage.

“There are no exorbitant fees or charges to speak of because the project is still in the bidding stage,” the CA said.

“With the evidence at hand, this court is left with no option but to rule that public respondent Belaro’s prayer for the issuance of a preliminary injunction for failure to adduce competent, material and relevant evidence in support of an actual existing right that must be protected by the relief sought,” it declared.

The CA added that the Mandaluyong RTC should have also rendered Belaro’s complaint moot as the Neda Board already issued a resolution renewing its approval of the LTO-IIS.

Govt allots P7.51B for senior citizens’ monthly pension Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

A

lawmaker on Sunday said the government will spend a total of P7.51 billion next year to pay for the P500 monthly allowance of up to 1.2 million senior citizens listed under the Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction.

House Deputy Minority Leader and LPGMA Rep. Arnel U. Ty said in a statement that the fresh funding is P1.55 billion, or 26 percent, higher than this year’s P5.96-billion allocation for the Social Pension Program for Indigent Senior Citizens (SPPISC).

This year’s P5.96-billion allocation for the SPPISC is meant for pay for the pensions of up to 897,482 qualified beneficiaries.

“The Expanded Senior Citizens Law of 2010 provides for the P500 monthly stipend of poverty-stricken senior citizens, especially those who are frail, sickly, or have disability, as well as those who do not have a permanent or regular source of income or financial support,” Ty said.

Tourism&

A6 Monday, November 30 , 2015 • Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

TRACING MYAN

THE Ananda Temple in Bagan is one of the many impressive ancient structures in the region.

S    J B

M

YANMAR was not on my bucket list of places to visit, but there was something about this country that piqued my curiosity. I knew little of this nation aside from news snippets of Aung San Suu Kyi.

THE intricate design and distinctly rust-red temples of the ancient city of Bagan show a civilization capable of complex architecture.

Myanmar is slowly opening itself to tourism; the perfect time to visit.

The adventurous side of me could not resist the allure of ticking off a country relatively unknown to tourists.

The Golden City of Yangon

I THOUGHT the flight to Myanmar would be uneventful, but approximately an hour into the fl ight, the pilot decided to turn around. We had to switch planes for a reason I could not remember, the adventure began even before I reached my destination.

The airport, despite its old state, was distinctly Burmese; the paintings on the wall and the temple-like façade masked the inane interior. I could not wait to explore this new country.

A trip through Myanmar’s thoroughfares was like traveling back in time; each moment in sepia tones, past and present on the cusp of breaking out of an old picture frame.

Old sedans, probably manufactured in the 1970s or 1980s, are

parked on the streets and waited for passengers, while rickety buses and trucks shuttled locals back and forth. The decrepit buildings housed residents, shops and restaurants. The battered streets that flooded easily when it rained reminded me of Manila. Men wore traditional longyi (skirts) and women put on thanaka, a yellowish facial paint or makeup.

It seemed like very few things were new in this former British colony.

The city became more interesting as I made my way to the temples, old colonial buildings and monuments on foot.

A cathedral, an Anglican church, the post office, a giant clock tower and other British-inspired architecture were remnants of its colonial past. Mosques and golden temples were also present; the seclusion of the country masked the multiculturalism of Yangon.

The grand and golden temples scattered in different parts of the city contrasted with the dying

buildings and broken streets. It was quite obvious that religion matters to the Burmese, as places of worship were kept in excellent condition.

The holiest and famous temple in the country is the Shwedagon Pagoda. Laden with gold, it towers over the city at 99-meters high with giant statues guarding the entrance of Singuttara Hill and the shrine.

The temple is said to be 2,500 years old and houses holy relics, such as the Buddha’s hair; making it an important pilgrimage site for Buddhists in the country. Adding to its luster, Shwedagon Pagoda has thousands of gems, such as diamonds, sapphires and rubies, just to name a few.

The many stupas, temples and Buddha statues make the pagoda a remarkable destination even for non-Buddhists. Just a step into the pagoda gave me a glimpse of Myanmar’s rich past and vibrant culture, despite the decay prevalent in its modern state.

Shwedagon Pagoda is not the only temple in the city, but it is the most prominent and significant. The other temples in Yangon were smaller versions of it, but also laden with gold that attracts many devotees to pray and pay their respects.

Shwedagon’s golden glimmer under the morning sun is already impressive, more so at night. The thousands of gems and gold plates shone vibrantly, creating their own light amidst the darkness. Despite the late hour, the bustle of people trickled in slowly toward this illumination, beckoning them to let go of their burdens, a chance at rebirth.

Yangon is a city of contradictions; the ancient golden temples at its soul, the dilapidated structures, a body in decay preparing to shed its skin, its ghosts.

Ancient Bagan

I HAVE seen the ancient temples in Siem Reap; Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and Ta Prohm, but the structures in Bagan, Myanmar, were different.

The kings of Bagan were devoutly Buddhist, leading to the construction of thousands of pagodas and temples dating back to the 11th century.

More than 2,000 reddish temples in different states of restoration and disrepair dotted the desert as far as the eyes could see, where devotees pay their respects and breathe life into the shrines.

The centuries-old temples varied

&Entertainment BusinessMirror

tourism@businessmirror.com.ph • Monday, November 30, 2015 A7

NMAR’S ROOTS

DHAMMAYANGYI Temple stands out among the redbrick temples, the view from the deck of Shwesandaw Pagoda.

in design, intricate carvings on its exterior, gold-laden pagodas and spires of different shapes depict the artistry of the ancient craftsmen who built the city.

I was lost in thought as I wandered from temple to temple on a horse cart. The clopping of the horse, the sand of the desert, and the experience of wandering in an ancient and rich city were surreal moments.

There were so many red-brick structures, and after a few hours, they start looking the same, their distinctions lost. However, there were some noteworthy temples because of their uniqueness and grandeur.

The Dhammayangyi Temple

is the largest and widest in Bagan. I walked inside this enormous, yet, hollow temple, trying to imagine kings and devotees coming and going.

The Ananda Temple is a stylistic accomplishment as it conflates Burmese architecture and the influence of Indian design. The white walls, plaques and stone images of the structure tell their own story. Inside, the four golden statues of Buddha face different directions from north to south.

Shwesandaw Pagoda is like any other structure in the plains of Bagan, but once I climbed its tiers, I saw the best view of the ancient city. Atop the pagoda, I had

an overlooking scene of the thousands of temples. It was the perfect place to watch the sunset. The reddish structures transformed from a rusty red to faint orange as the skies also changed from fi re to fading embers.

While the country is relatively opening up tourists, Myanmar’s seclusion has kept many of its sights relatively untouched, and its people genuinely friendly.

From the old colonial buildings, golden Shwedagon Pagoda in the busy city of Yangon, to the ancient temples spread across Bagan; it is a country with a rich culture and history waiting to be discovered.

OurTime BusinessMirror

A8 Monday, November 30, 2015 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Support strong for Comelec proposal to hold voting in malls in 2016

S

TAKEHOLDERS have expressed support on the plan of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to allow voting in malls in the May 2016 polls.

During the public hearing held at the third floor of the Palacio del Gobernador building in Intramuros, Manila, on Friday, participants, including senior citizens (SC), persons with disabilities (PWDs), election lawyers, agreed to the poll body’s proposal and, at the same time, pointed out several concerns.

One of them was the president of the Alyansa ng may Kapansanang Pinoy Retired Navy Capt. Oscar Taleon, who shared the concerns of his fellow PWDs regarding the distance of the malls from their residences or the public school, where they are registered.

“I would say siguro, if they were present here sa talk ni Chairman [Juan Andres Bautista] this morning, most of them will be convinced na maganda ang mall voting. One of the concerns lang is ’yung proximity or the distance nila, baka kasi malayo ’yung particular mall sa kanilang lugar,” he said.

He also cited the need for transportation that would take them

from and to the polling centers, if this will be provided by the commission or if the barangay is allowed to provide them such.

Taleon also asked if the interpreters will be provided for deaf registered voters.

“May isa pang concern, especially sa deaf, ’yung pag-produce ng mga intrepreter...ang problema ng deaf is communication, they might not be able to communicate with the Board of Election Inspectors [BEIs],” he added.

Bautista said older voters and PWDs have been asked to sign a request form for them to be allowed to vote at the Accessible Polling Place in malls or special areas in public schools.

“Doon sa mga senior citizens at PWDs, under Republic Act 10366, dapat sila mag-manifest na gusto nila mailipat sa isang alternative poling precinct,” he said, noting that some 300,000 of such voters have filed their manifests.

Bautista added, “Humahanap kami

ormoc to release 2nd tranche of shelter aid to elderly, poor victims of yolanda

O

RMOC CITY, Leyte—The city government submitted to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) regional office the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed by the city mayor for the release of the second tranche of the Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) in Ormoc.

City Administrator Francis Pepito and City Legal Officer Ivan Verallo personally handed the MOA to DSWD Regional Director Nestor Ramos.

The MOA indicates that each victim of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) under the “totally damaged” category will receive the entire P14,286.75 million cash balance from the ESA. Ormoc was allocated P689.36 million from the Comprehensive Rehabilitation Recovery Plan (CRRP), which turned out to be insufficient as the number of families rose from 40,673 to 52,325, with the accommodation of more names in the master list. This reduced by half the P30,000 supposedly due to beneficiaries under the totally damaged category to only P15,713.25 on the premise that the balance will be requested from the national government thereafter.

With the conclusion of the ESA distribution last month, Mayor Edward Codilla endorsed to the city council on October 19 a request that he be authorized to enter into a MOA with the DSWD for the release of the second tranche of ESA for those under the totally damaged category.

The MOA states that the DSWD-8 will download P414.08 million for the distribution of P14,286.75 to 28,984 families.

However, during the meeting called by the SP Committee on Social Welfare, Senior Citizens, Women and Family on November 9, Ramos announced that the DSWD can download only P289.84 million, which is good for P10,000 each. The beneficiaries will also receive galvanized iron (GI) sheets to cover the fund gap. With this information, Councilors Benjamin Pongos and Vincent Rama, committee chairman advised the mayor’s office to submit to the council a revised MOA indicating that the beneficiaries will receive P10,000 and nine GI sheets instead.

Ramos told the two city officials that he pitched for the cash and roofing materials modality because there was no money yet during that time.

“At that time, we didn’t have additional allocation for the CRRP. After balancing all cash available, we determined we can still allocate,” he said.

Ramos was referring to the P492.65-million savings or unreleased funds from the CRRP for the entire Eastern Visayas. He added he will study if the P414.08 million needed for ESA’s second tranche in Ormoc can be obligated from the P492.65-million CRRP savings of their agency. PNA

ng mga precincts na malapit sa mall at ang mas marami ay mga SC at PWDs. Kumbaga ’yun ang pwedeng ilipat, ’yun ang maaring bibigyan namin ng preference sa paglipat.”

As for the transportation concern, the poll chief noted that local officials are not allowed to provide vehicles as it may be construed as a political move.

With this, he said they are looking to coordinate with other government agencies to help provide transportation for the marginalized.

“Ang iniisip po namin, kami po ay makikipag-ugnayan sa Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Land Transportation Office, and Land Transportation, Franchising and Regulatory Board to produce a shuttle. ’Yung mga malls may shuttle din, pero baka sobra na ’yung hinihingi natin...so ang iniisip namin na dapat ang magbibigay ng transportation should be an apolitical group,” Bautista said.

He added that they will be providing and paying the interpreters.

George Garcia, counsel for Sen. Grace Poe, also expressed support on mall voting.

“In my private capacity...ako ay supportive of the mall voting, kaya lang sana masiguro natin that this will not violate equal protection of laws,” he said.

He noted that the poll body should indicate in the general instruction of the proposal, once

SHOWING RESPECT IS TIMELESS A man—a total stranger—helps an elderly woman cross a busy street in Baguio City, showing that respect for the elderly remains alive in these modern times. MAU VICTA

approved, the reason they choose these precincts, among others.

“Sana when we select the precincts for the purposes of the mall voting, doon sa general instruction, ay maayos at maliwanag kung bakit

itong mga presintong ito ang pinili,” the lawyer added.

Under the proposal, polling precincts that are adjacent to participating mall establishments are set to be transferred to the latter, while

More seniors targeted in scams

By Lynn Hulsey and Ken McCall Dayton Daily News, Ohio (TNS)

Easy marks

Scammers target the elderly because they may have money or assets and can be easier to con. An elderly person may be more vulnerable due to dementia or other health issues; they might be lonely and get sucked in by scammers pretending to care about them; or they feel financially insecure and

Family closes two-generation Sacramento tofu business

By Chris Macias | The Sacramento Bee

F

A

S Robert Roosa slid deeper into dementia, scammers took him for everything he had and he nearly lost his Kettering home. By the time his daughter figured out what was going on, she said her 94-year-old dad had given at least $14,000 to sweepstakes scammers and lost thousands more to a trusted acquaintance.

Scammers running cons with catchy names, such as the Sweepstakes Scam, Sweetheart Scam, Grandparent Scam and Pigeon Drop, are increasingly targeting the elderly, preying on them with lies and promises of financial security. The scammers pull heartstrings and make threats. They draw in lonely people with sweet talk and fake friendship. They pressure victims to hand over money quickly and secretly. And they often let up only when there is no more money to take.

“The loss of resources can be absolutely devastating,” said Ramsey Alwin, vice president at the National Council on Aging, an elder advocacy group. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said the money taken by scammers usually is lost forever, especially since many of the scams originate overseas.

“What happens is these people are gone, the money’s gone and you really have a very difficult time ever catching them,” DeWine said.

Fraud complaints filed by people age 60 and older increased by 59 percent between 2011 and 2014, according to the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinal Network.

“We definitely think this is a very big and growing problem,” said Naomi Karp, senior policy analyst at the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

THROUGH DARK AND COLD

A differently abled man carries his child as he wades through throngs of people along Session Road, Baguio’s business district street. MAU VICTA

fall for promises of a windfall. Older people also tend to be more trusting and polite, less likely to simply hang up on a scammer, experts say.

“This is a generation who believes their word is their bond, a handshake seals a deal, and ‘they wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true,’” said Eva Velasquez, president and chief executive of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit that helps identity theft victims.

Elderly people also can be easier targets for charity scams, so much so that at this time of year AARP begins its annual push warning its members to be skeptical of claims that money they give will help orphans or feed the needy. Scammers will use a name that sounds close to that of a legitimate charity or “they’ll say, ‘we’re

the firefighters’ when they’re not the firefighters at all,” said Kathy Keller, AARP associate state director in Ohio.

“It’s unconscionable,” Keller said.

“How do they live with themselves?”

And it isn’t always a stranger who financially exploits senior citizens, said John North, president and chief executive of the Better Business Bureau Dayton/Montgomery County.

“Oftentimes, it is friends or neighbors that are scamming the elderly,” he said. The FTC [Federal Trade Commission] said 171,230 fraud complaints were filed by consumers age 60 or older in 2014, and the estimated annual loss by victims of elder financial abuse was $2.9 billion, according to a 2011 Met Life Mature Market Institute study.

those that are not will remain in public schools.

The poll body is looking to transfer some 2 million voters, or 3.7 percent, of the 54.5 million registered voters nationwide. PNA

(TNS)

OR decades, the Kunishi family were faithful servants to soybeans.

Because a livelihood based on fresh tofu means the soybeans are always calling, ready to be rinsed and soaked, then pressed into a thick milk that ultimately transforms into soft tofu. Holiday dinners, birthday celebrations, a much-needed evening of rest—much of this often played secondary to the high-maintenance needs of the beans.

But in turn, the soybeans were good to the Kunishis. The family’s Sacramento Tofu Co. nourished generations of Sacramentans with its freshly made products. And the business nurtured its owners, one bushel of beans at a time, providing for college educations and food on their own tables.

Now the tofu is gone. Owners Alvin and Dorothy Kunishi have retired and thus ended a 67-year-run of the family business.

Sacramento Tofu Co. ceased production at the end of October.

An Oakland-based business, Hodo Soy Beanery, will take over the Sacramento company’s south-area facility on December 1.

On a quiet recent morning, the remnants of a once-bustling family business were packed into moving boxes or piled around what used to be the heart of its production area. Not only is a signature Sacramento food fading away, but a beloved piece of local food history as well. “After all these years, I think that a little bit I feel bad that I have to shut it down,” said Alvin Kunishi. “And then I can’t provide good tofu for the people who appreciate it. But nobody wanted to take it over. I tell them what they have to go through, and they lose interest right away.”

On a wall of the company’s front business office, Kunishi, 71, keeps a reminder of the business’ roots. A small picture frame holds a fading color shot of the company’s second factory, a humble space on Sixth Street near Southside Park.

The tofu company was housed on the ground floor; the Kunishi family lived upstairs. Sakara-fu Tofu-ten - translated as “Sacramento Tofu Co.”—was founded in 1947 by Alvin’s late father, Hiroshi “Tom” Kunishi. The factory’s original location was on Fifth Street, near Sacramento’s Japan Town, where the Kunishi family settled after World War II. The elder Kunishi had met his wife, Michiko, at the Tulelake Internment Camp, and son Alvin was born inside the confines of the camp—“a barbed-wire baby,” he says. Post-WWII needs Hiroshi Kunishi, who received a business education in Japan as a young man, spent a year picking hops in the Sloughhouse area after returning from Tulelake.

He soon founded the Sacramento Tofu Co. with his brotherin-law and a family friend, sensing they could fulfill a primary food need in the local Japanese community. The business moved to the Southside Park area in the mid-1950s, and Hiroshi Kunishi ultimately took over the burgeoning business.

“There was always a need for tofu in the Asian population,” Alvin Kunishi said. “It was easy to make but took a lot of work.

One person or two people could only make so much. Everyone in the Japanese community, they all ate tofu, so there’s always not enough. My father figured he could provide enough for them.”

The company specialized in a style of fresh tofu that remained consistent over the decades. The rich tofu milk was created inhouse, and no pasteurization entered the process, which could strip the tofu of some flavor. Unlike the benign blocks of some mass-produced tofu, this Sacramento version highlighted a deep soybean essence. It’ll be the first holiday season since President Harry S Truman was in office that this local tofu won’t be available for feasting.

News BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, November 30, 2015 A9

FILIPINOS hold slogans during the Climate Solidarity Prayer March in Manila on Sunday. The group urges decisive actions from world leaders who will gather in Paris for the 21st Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. AP

Momentum for climate deal grows as Obama joins Xi at Paris talks continued from A1

“The stars are more aligned right now to reach agreement than I have ever seen them,” US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern told reporters last week. “We are riding on the wave of those 170 targets that have been submitted.”

The terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris two weeks ago prompted authorities to cancel demonstrations planned by environmental groups, draining some of the color from the event that had been expected to draw 60,000 people to the city. Political resolve for a deal remains.

“What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be when the world

stands as one,” Obama said last week in a news conference with French President François Hollande.

Disagreements remain on the legal nature of the deal, the mechanism that will prod action in the future, and on how much support industrial nations should give poorer countries to cut their emissions and cope with the effects of warming. The leaders depart after their speeches, leaving the thorny issues to envoys drawn mostly from environment and energy ministries.

“Climate finance is a deal killer in Paris,” said Jairam Ramesh, the former environment minister of India and a veteran of Copenhagen.

Industrialized nations must show how they’ll deliver on a promise first

made in 2009 to boost annual climate aid to $100 billion by the end of the century, he said.

Adding urgency is a finding by the World Meteorological Organization that global temperatures probably touched a record in 2015. The pledges—which aren’t up for negotiation—leave the world on track for a 2.7-degree Celsius increase since the industrial revolution, according to Climate Action Tracker, a project by four climate research institutions.

That’s above the 2-degree target set in previous talks, a shift in the climate that would still be quicker than when the last ice age ended.

The most vulnerable nations want a 1.5-degree goal to protect them from rising seas.

“We’re not home and dry in terms of the the 2 degrees, but developing countries are not seeing the money they need in order to cope with the consequences of that shortcoming,” said former UN Climate Chief Yvo de Boer, who led the Copenhagen talks and now heads the Global Green Growth Institute in Seoul.

Another fight on the agenda in Paris will be on how to ensure countries periodically “ratchet” upward their ambition to reduce pollution, said Laurence Tubiana, who as France’s climate change ambassador, will help steer the discussions. Envoys must deliver “a broad message on the low-carbon economy being the new normal.”

It’s not just countries that are

mobilizing. The UN has gathered pledges to fight climate change from more than 2,000 cities worldwide and more than 2,000 corporations, which will be on display at conferences, drawing thousands to venues separate from the heavily policed UN compound.

“Paris will be a watershed,” said Steve Howard, chief sustainability officer of the Swedish furniture retailer Ikea. “It will be a dividing point in time between the fossil-fuel economy and the renewables era.”

The enthusiasm for a deal is in contrast with the meeting in Copenhagen in 2009, when just 55 nations met a deadline to submit pledges.

This time, envoys coordinated their positions and put many of the

elements for the deal in place before arriving in Paris.

The US persuaded its allies and China to back a voluntary approach on emissions cuts rather than a deal setting binding targets. That construction would allow the administration to bypass approval from a hostile Senate, though it’s causing friction with island-nations and the Europeans, with Hollande saying earlier in the month “we must give any accord a binding character.”

“Our survival is based on coming to a good-enough deal,” Maldives Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon said by phone. It must ensure “there are still opportunities for countries to come back with more ambitious targets.” Bloomberg News

APPLE ONE TO SPEND P4B FOR FIRST SHERATON RESORT AND RESIDENCES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Continued from A1

meter site overlooking both Hilutungan Channel and Magellan Bay’s blue expanse.

Manigsaca, who also heads Apple One Mactan’s holding firm Apple One Property Inc., said the hotel would be finished by 2019.

“But we hope we can do it in the last quarter of 2018.”

Manigsaca said a large chunk of the P4 billion he allotted for the project would come from internally generated cash, while the rest would be financed by banks. At least three major commercial banks have

expressed interest in partnering with Apple One, he added.

Manigsaca also told reporters about P2 billion would be poured into the hotel’s development, while the other half of the investment would be for The Residences. The Residences is targeted to be finished by 2020.

According to Charlie Dang, Starwood Southeast Asia Pacific regional vice president, the company not only allows Apple One to use the Sheraton brand but also the Sheraton system.

Dang said Apple One can tap

into the Starwood’s Preferred Guest (SPG) loyalty program, which currently has 21 million members.

He explained the SPG is only 3 percent of Starwood’s base, but delivers 27 percent of revenue to the Stamford, Connecticut-headquartered hotel company.

Manigsaca said he is optimistic the merger of Starwood and Marriott International Inc.—announced on November 16—would have a further positive effect on the Mactan project.

Cyndy Tan Jarabata, president of Apple One Mactan’s marketing partner Tajara Leisure and

Hospitality Group, said the timetable is anchored on the expected increase in foreign and domestic tourist arrival, as the Mactan International Airport is undergoing expansion. “Based on official data, 10 percent to 13 percent of tourist arrival is from the domestic market alone, so that already gives us a good market,” Jarabata said.

Also, according to her, they are targeting overseas Filipinos who come back to the country. Likewise, Jarabata added, they are preparing for additional international flights with the expansion of the airport

and the booming economy not just in Cebu but also in the region.

According to Clint Nagata, founder of Blink Design Group, 85 percent of the total units of the resort would have an ocean view, while the rest would have a view of the pool.

Ninety percent of the materials, like rattan, for the hotel and resort would be sourced locally, Nagata told reporters.

Manigsaca said they are initially placing a tag price of between P160,000 to P180,000 per sq m for the residential units, which will start

at a cut of 64 sq m and up to 160 sq m.

Nagata said the hotel units would have 40 sq m of space.

The Sheraton Cebu Mactan Resort will have 250 rooms and suites, and function space totalling 1,313 sq m.

The Residences at Sheraton Cebu Mactan Resort will feature 186 units, consisting of one- to threefitted bedroom apartments; resident’s lounge; meeting rooms; an amenity floor; recreation facilities, such as fitness center; yoga room and large lagoon pools; and access to resort facilities.

A10 Monday, November 30, 2015 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Is the Philippine election process broken?

T

he 2016 Philippine presidential election is fast becoming a complicated telenovela that, if you miss an episode or two, the plot has changed. Although we might normally think that an election is simply a person who qualifies for office, campaigns for that office and, eventually, voters go to the ballot box to make their choice. Students learn at an early age that this is the way the election process works in a representative political system. But that is not true any longer.

We have always known that the vote-counting process involved many steps and so many hands. A vote for a particular candidate in a far-flung precinct could “evolve” and be tallied for a completely different person. That is bad enough. But now, about 160 days from Election Day, Filipinos do not have any idea who will eventually be on the ballot.

Of course, there is plenty of time, since the official campaign season for the presidential race does not begin until February 9, 2016. All those television “paid advertisements” that we are seeing featuring certain public figures are not in support of their run for Malacañang. These are merely reminders of who might be a candidate in 2016.

Philippine elections come under the authority and mandate of the constitutionally created Commission on Elections (Comelec). The Comelec is supposed to function as a body completely independent of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government. Article IX, Paragraph C, Section 2 reads that the Comelec shall “Enforce and administer all laws and regulations relative to the conduct of an election, plebiscite, initiative, referendum and recall.” Further, the Comelec shall “Exercise exclusive original jurisdiction over all contests relating to the elections,” except for the race for President and Vice President.

While the intent of the Constitution with the creation of the Comelec may have been to remove elections from the power and influence of government, when it comes to the presidential race, everyone is able to get involved.

The Senate Electoral Tribunal is supposed to handle Senate election protests, but now has partially become a de facto judge on the eligibility of Grace Poe to run for president. Because of the multiple interpretations of what a substitute candidate means, Rodrigo R. Duterte’s candidacy will probably be determined in the courts.

Section 69 of the Omnibus Election Code regarding “nuisance candidates,” perhaps, shows how flawed the Philippine election process really is. We may have missed it, but we can find no other country where virtually any adult citizen can file his or her candidacy for President by simply filling out a form and paying a P15 fee for the documentary stamp.

It requires more paperwork, requirements and costs more to get a Philippine driver’s license.

This is not an indication of a vibrant democracy. This is the result of the election process being in chaos. The 1985 Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines includes 283 sections, and is supplemented with no less than nine other major laws affecting the voting process.

This is the 21st century, and it is time for the Philippine legislature to go to work and write a single, comprehensive and realistic election code. Enough of this foolishness that makes a mockery of free and fair elections.

P-Noy leads climate-change delegation Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

T

he late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.’s birthday was last November 27. He would have been 83 years old.

Although we lost him when he was in the prime of life, the legacy he left and the towering example he set in terms of his steadfastness in matters of principle and his willingness to “walk the talk” still serve to inspire and guide us.

His legacy, to a great degree, shaped the manner in which the Aquino administration fulfills its responsibility to the Filipino people—by fostering an atmosphere that benefits all through the implementation of good governance on a framework of principles and values, known as the tuwid na daan.

This commitment to public good led to the creation of the Aquino administration’s Social Contract: “To give the Filipino people a country in which inclusive growth exists; to protect their rights whether they are abroad or at home; to create more jobs and opportunities for livelihood; and, ultimately, to give the Filipino people access to a better quality of life.”

Let us discuss one of those objectives: “To protect [Filipinos’] rights whether they are abroad or

at home.” One of those rights is the right to a safe environment; and at the moment, a Philippine delegation, headed by Ninoy’s son, President Benigno Aquino III, is in Paris for a historic climate-change summit that will shape the future course of human activities insofar as they impact the environment.

The Philippines is one of the countries that early on recognized the threat and accepted that steps needed to be taken to reduce and mitigate the effects of climate change.

In 2009 the Climate Change Act was passed, establishing the C l imate C ha nge Commission tasked to coordinate climate change-related actions and policies. In 2010 the agency drew up the National Framework Strategy on Climate Change, and in 2011 the National Climate Change

Action Plan. In 2012 United Nat ions (U N) envoy Ma rga reta Wahlstrom called the Philippines’s laws on climate-change adaptation and disaster risk reduction “the best in the world,” and praised the country for taking the lead in the global campaign on this issue.

From today until December 11, the world holds the historic United Nations Climate Change conference in Paris. President Aquino is among the attendees who will discuss ways to reach the overarching goal of the summit, which is “to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels,” according to an online source.

This 2015 conference, according to the organizing committee, seeks to achieve, “for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, a binding and universal agreement on climate from all the nations of the world.” It is to this end that Pope Francis wrote the encyclical Laudato Si, a call for world action against climate change.

Forecasts show that the impact of climate change upon human health will be severe.

The World Health Organization says that between 2030 and 2050, climate change could bring about some 250,000 deaths each year as a result of high temperatures,

diarrhea, malaria and malnutrition. Direct damage costs to health could be as high as $2 billion to $4 billion a year.

All this will have a negative effect on human survival, even as most countries are still working to reduce poverty, achieve food security and improve the quality of life; this is a struggle on many fronts and the sooner something can be done to reverse the trend of climate change, the better it will be for the whole world.

We, thus, wish the best of luck and lend our warmest support to President Aquino and the entire Philippine delegation to the 2015 climate-change summit, and hope for a treaty of all nations that will address this threat and bring about a positive transformation in the way we treat our environment.

Senator Ninoy would have been glad to see the Philippines supportive of world efforts on this issue that has a tremendous impact on the health and well-being of Filipinos. And with his birthday just last week, let us take his life and death as an example for us to take a stand to fight for what is right and for what we believe in—not only on climate change, but on all the challenges facing our country today. nnn

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

Europe chokes on emissions testing

By Edward Niedermeyer Bloomberg View

T

he Volkswagen (VW) diesel-emissions scandal might have started in the United States but it’s becoming clear that the controversy has opened far deeper wounds in Europe. Though the European Union (EU) is known for its strict vehicle carbon dioxide-emissions standards, the Volkswagen ordeal—which centers around nitrogen oxides (NOx), a hazardous type of diesel pollutant—has revealed profound weaknesses in the EU’s entire regulatory system. With millions of diesel vehicles on the road across Europe, the stakes are high—and environmental groups are anxious not to let this scandal go to waste.

Leading the charge against what he calls major weaknesses in regulation is Axel Friedrich, a chemist and activist who has spent the last 35 years agitating for cleaner auto emissions. Friedrich, with help from environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), says the NOx emissions-testing scandal extends well beyond VW. Vehicles from General Motors’s European division Opel and French automaker Renault have been tested under his guidance and found wanting: Opel’s Zafira 1.6 CDTi emitted up to 17 times the legally allowed levels of NOx in DUH tests, and Renault’s Espace 1.6 dCi exceeded the Euro 6 level by as much as 25 times.

Friedrich argues that these results—along with those from a number of other automakers, that he says DUH will reveal in the coming weeks—is mounting proof that VW’s scandal is just the tip of a massive iceberg. Behind Europe’s reputation for strict environmental regulation, he argues, lies a broken system. And the damage he is trying to head off is not distant and only potentially controversial, as so many emissions issues are. Rather, NOx is a carcinogen whose concentrations in Europe’s urban centers are not dropping as fast as official emissions. “People need to understand that this is not a game,” he told me. “People are dying.”

Better hold your breath. SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES

And yet the automakers that are failing Friedrich’s tests are playing legal gymnastics to defend themselves. Opel and Renault—just as VW initially did—say DUH’s testing methods deviate from official procedure and that, when “properly” tested, their vehicles meet all relevant regulations. But this defense actually makes Friedrich and DUH’s point for them: Official test procedures are so specific that automakers can program their vehicles in myriad ways to recognize testing conditions and perform

better in the tests than they do in the real world.

The fact that NOx emissions rise above legal levels as soon as official testing conditions are abandoned shows that automakers essentially teach to the test, making emissions-monitoring tools nearly irrelevant. By focusing on a merely legal approach to compliance, Friedrich says, regulators and automakers alike are hiding the problem of real-world NOx emissions from the public, See “Europe,” A11

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Opinion

A very ‘lemon’ Lemon Law

The Four Faces of the CFO

BusinessMirror

Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan

A

Dr. Eliseo A. Aurellado

legally speaking

lot has been reported lately about an ubiquitous and popular sport-utility vehicle (SUV) that appears to have a problem with sudden acceleration and has figured in several accidents already. There were at least 97 reported cases and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has already been pressured to step in to investigate.

On July 15, 2014, President A qu i no sig ned R e publ ic A c t 10642, also known as the Philippine Lemon Law, referring to defective motor vehicle products.

Lemons have, likewise, been synonymous with defects. Since the passage of the Lemon Law, many consumers have complained and criticized the said law, claiming that while it is supposed to benefit the consumers, it has become more of a safety blanket for car manufacturers and dealers.

The prescriptive period stated in the Lemon Law only provides for 12 months after the date of the original delivery of a brandnew motor vehicle to a consumer, or the first 20,000 kilometers of operation after such delivery, whichever comes first. Only in this period can a car owner avail himself or herself of the Lemon Law. The said period, however, is confusing and inconsistent with the warranties provided by most car manufacturers, which provide a warranty for the car for at least three years, or 100,000 km, whichever comes first. Also, a period of 12 months is very short since car manufacturers should at least guarantee that the car would function properly for the same period of time that they provide warranties. In most instances defects in the car become evident after more than a year of use.

Another bizarre provision of the Lemon Law also mandates that before one can demand for a replacement of the defective or lemon vehicle, there must at least be four separate repair attempts.

This means that one must at least bring the defective car in the same car dealer or casa at least four separate occasions to give the car manufacturer more than adequate time to repair the same.

It is amusing that the Lemon Law would unreasonably require the purchaser of a defective car to endure driving the same with great risk of endangering the driver, passengers or the unsuspecting commuters in order to avail himself or herself of the Lemon Law rights. Notably, the defects of the Lemon Law surfaced and become more pronounced after the recent spate of complaints about the popular SUV. Most of the complainants cannot use the Lemon Law because the period has either prescribed, or the unreasonable but mandatory four repair attempts have not yet been made on the defective vehicle.

Worse, after complying with the mandatory four separate repair attempts, the purchaser of the defective car cannot still lodge a complaint with the DTI because the purchaser must give the manufacturer, distributor, authorized dealer or retailer a Notice of Availment of Lemon Law Rights. This notice gives the manufacturer,

Europe . . .

Continued from A10

whose health it directly affects.

The reaction from European regulators and lawmakers to allegations of cheating has revealed how deep the problems go.

The initial regulatory upgrade formulated by the European Parliament in response to the VW scandal is headed for failure because it would still allow vehicles

The prescriptive period stated in the Lemon Law only provides for 12 months after the date of the original delivery of a brand-new motor vehicle to a consumer, or the first 20,000 kilometers of operation after such delivery, whichever comes first. Only in this period can a car owner avail himself or herself of the Lemon Law. The said period, however, is confusing and inconsistent with the warranties provided by most car manufacturers, which provide a warranty for the car for at least three years, or 100,000 km, whichever comes first. distributor, authorized dealer or retailer a comfortable period to make a final attempt to resolve the problem to consumer satisfaction.

If the consumer is not satisfied, only then can he or she go to the DTI to complain. It is interesting to note that the Lemon Law vested exclusive jurisdiction to deal with this cases with the DTI such that a consumer cannot immediately go to the regular courts to complain.

To top it off, the consumer is threatened to suffer or shoulder all the expenses of repair and damage to the manufacturer, distributor, authorized dealer or retailer if after the investigation, the complained defective car turns out to not be defective at all.

It is also important to mention that not all motor vehicles are covered by the Lemon Law. As defined in the law, motor vehicles refer only to four-wheel road vehicle that carry passengers but excludes motorcycles and buses, among others. It is still puzzling that despite the proliferation of the motorcycles and the like, the consumers thereof cannot avail themselves of Lemon Law rights.

It is easy to see how the provisions of the said law are heavily tilted in favor of powerful car manufacturers, distributors and authorized dealers. The Lemon Law, sad to say, reeks of inadequacy of consumer protection for purchasers of brand-new vehicles. All these are becoming self-evident with the recently publicized complaint against the omnipresent SUV. As it turns out, the Lemon Law is a “lemon” in itself.

DEBIT CREDIT

I

S the role of the chief financial officer (CFO) evolving from bean counter and custodian to change agent and strategist?

In collaboration with the Finex Research & Development Foundation Inc. (Finex Foundation), the Ateneo Graduate School of Business conducted a study on the perceived role of the CFO. As a framework for the study, the DeLoitte model—the Four Faces of the CFO—was adopted. It states that the CFO is expected to play four diverse and challenging roles: Steward (preserving the assets of the organization), Operator (running a tight finance operation), Strategist (helping to shape overall strategy and direction) and Catalyst (instilling a mind set to help other parts of the organization perform better).

Surveys in various countries were used as references to discover the current thinking on the CFO’s role.

DeLoitte’s survey found that CFOs preferred the Strategist and Catalyst roles. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (Icao) survey shows that CFOs consider Steward and Strategist as the two most important roles, followed

by Catalyst and Operator roles.

In the Singapore survey (Singapore CFO Institute and Singapore Management University), over 90 percent of the CFO respondents identified Stewardship as their key responsibility.

The Ernst & Young sur vey showed that the Steward role is a priority. In the KPMG survey, 62 percent of senior executives proj-

ect a larger role for finance over the next five years.

T he su r ve y conduc te d b y Ateneo and Finex used the same DeLoitte framework. The sample is composed of 33 respondents who come from 19 different industries. The survey results showed that the Strategist role was ranked the highest, with 29.2 percent of the respondents in agreement.

This is closely followed by the Catalyst role at 27.1 percent and the Steward role at 25 percent. The Operator role, meanwhile, trailed behind at 18.8 percent. All four roles are rated at least “important” for the CFO. The Operator is the least important role for the CFO and is also where the least amount of time is spent on. Meanwhile, from the CEO’s point of view, all

Monday, November 30, 2015 A11

four roles are rated at least “moderately important.” Strategist is the role most important to him, followed by Catalyst, Steward, and Operator roles, in that order.

Comparing the results with the Icao study, the trends are similarly close all throughout the four roles. Male CFOs consider Strategist as most important, closely followed by Catalyst, and trailed behind by Steward and Operator roles. However, the Steward role was ranked highest among female CFOs, followed by Strategist, Operator and Catalyst. Strategist is the most important role among 35 to 44-year-old CFOs. Forty-five to 54-year-old CFOs, meanwhile, equally view Strategist and Catalyst as most important. CFOs aged 55 and above consider Operator as most important. CFOs with accounting background consider Strategist as most important, while CFOs with MBA degree ranked Catalyst the highest. Respondents with other academic background view Steward as the most important role. CFOs with four to seven and seven plus years experience with finance-related functions consider Strategist as most important, while CFOs with one to three years in finance-related functions ranked Catalyst the highest. CFOs in finance industry ranked Steward the highest, while those in the service sector consider Catalyst as most important. CFOs in manufacturing and other industries view Strategist as most important. CFOs of companies with foreign equity regard Steward as foremost, while

CFOs of companies with local equity equally ranked Catalyst and Strategist as the most important.

Strategist was considered the most important role by CFOs of companies with combined foreign and local equity. Operator was the role viewed as least important across-the-board.

Based on the surveys, there appears to be an emerging role for the CFO to be a Strategist and Catalyst while retaining the traditional and foundational roles of Operator and Steward. Because of the shifting role of the CFO, the chief executive officer must recognize that the CFO is an important partner in realizing the vision and purpose of the company in a complex setting.

The study on the emerging role of the CFO may serve to guide Finex and International Association of Financial Executives Institute in the course of their mission to promote and enhance the professional development of its membership.

With a thorough understanding of the CFO’s roles and required competencies, it can contribute to better governance and more effective performance in organizations.

Eliseo A. Aurellado, MBA, PhD, is a CPA who is the former head of Finance Faculty at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business. He is a retired banker and has experienced being in the CFO role during his more than 40 years in private industry. He is the vice chairman of the Board and COO of Metro Stonerich Corp., a Triple A, ISO-certified construction company.

He can be reached through his e-mail address:taxmanely@yahoo.com.

Scientists aim to fight malaria with genetically engineered mosquitoes

W

By Deborah Netburn | TNS

atch out, malaria—scientists are coming for you with genetically engineered mosquitoes. A team of researchers has altered the DNA in mosquitoes so they can fight and kill the parasites that cause malaria inside their own bodies. That way, the insects can’t transmit the deadly parasites to humans.

Fo r com m e nt s , y o u m a y e mail me at lpk apu na n@k apuna n l aw.com.

And for the first time, scientists have armed these malaria-killing mosquitoes with another genetic superpower—the ability to pass on their disease-destroying genes to 99.5 percent of their offspring.

“In principal, if you have a population of 100 million mosquitoes and you released 1 million of these genetically modified mosquitoes into the same area, the new gene would be spread throughout the entire population in less than a season,” said Ethan Bier, a biologist at the University of California, San Diego, who helped create the malaria-proof mosquitoes.

A report on the insects was published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Malaria is caused by a handful of Plasmodium parasites that infect human blood cells and then travel to other parts of the body, causing symptoms such as fever, vomiting, seizures, coma and even death.

Mosquitoes get the parasites by feeding on blood from infected humans, then spread it to other humans during subsequent meals.

However, if the mosquitoes could kill the parasites, they wouldn’t spread from person to person. That would bring the world one step closer to eradicating a disease that kills nearly 600,000 people each year.

The researchers set out to do this by tinkering with the DNA of Anopheles mosquitoes, the ones

that spread malaria parasites.

It began with University of California, Irvine, biologist Anthony James, who has spent 20 years engineering mosquitoes that are resistant to diseases like malaria and dengue fever.

He and his colleagues identified a set of genes in mice that allow them to mount a strong immune response to the parasites that cause malaria in humans. When the scientists inserted these mouse genes into mosquito DNA, the resulting insects were able to resist infection by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite.

James’s team reported that feat in a 2012 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

However, the mosquitoes could pass on their new malaria-resistance genes to their offspring only about half of the time.

“It had to be better than that,” James said.

Enter Bier from UC San Diego and his graduate student Valentino Gantz. Last summer Gantz built a set of genes that used the powerful gene-editing tool known as CRISPR/ Cas9. With this “gene drive” system, engineered fruit flies were able to pass on a spliced-in trait 97 percent of the time, instead of the expected 50 percent. Gantz and Bier published a report on their work in March in the journal Science.

When they saw how successful it was, they started looking for other

to emit up to twice the legal limit of NOx. German regulators are pressuring the testing firms tasked with monitoring compliance to explain how the problems were not caught sooner; the testing firms have responded by arguing that the government’s protection of auto industry trade secrets prevents them from accessing vehicle software codes in order to find the precise “defeat devices.”

Friedrich seems almost bemused by this chaotic response,

arguing that the US Environmental Protection Agency didn’t need access to VW’s engine codes to discover that the automaker was cheating emissions tests. “I have no interest in the code,” he said.

“It’s not important. If [the exhaust] is dirty, it’s dirty.”

Rather than playing whack-amole with each of the specific devices and techniques he finds in his testing, Friedrich’s strategy is to leverage local environmental zones to put pressure on automak-

ers, regulators and consumers.

By suing German cities for failing to live up to their local clean-air plans, Friedrich and the DUH are hoping to trigger European Commission fines, force upgrades to bus and taxi fleets, and even ban noncompliant vehicles from city centers. If local governments have to pay for noncompliance and if consumers aren’t able to drive new cars into city centers, Friedrich believes they will join the drive toward broader regulatory change.

“In principal, if you have a population of 100 million mosquitoes and you released 1 million of these genetically modified mosquitoes into the same area, the new gene would be spread throughout the entire population in less than a season,” said Ethan Bier, a biologist at the University of California, San Diego, who helped create the malaria-proof mosquitoes. applications for their new tool.

James’s mosquitoes were an appealing choice. Among other things, they liked the fact that James’s malaria-fighting strategy relied on making the insects resistant to the parasite instead of simply killing them off.

“Some people had proposed knocking down genes for survival and reproduction, which could lead to the eradication of the species,” Bier said. “We felt more comfortable with the softer approach. James doesn’t harm the mosquitoes.”

That’s not just nice for the mosquitoes, it’s better for the environment, according to Gregory Lanzaro of UC Davis, who studies how diseases spread via insects. If the mosquitoes were wiped out, they would leave a hole in the ecosystem that might be filled by a pest that’s even more dangerous, among other potential ripple effects.

It took Gantz three months to create a gene drive for the mosqui-

toes that included the antimalarial mouse genes that James sent down to San Diego. When it was done, Gantz sent it up to James’s lab in Irvine. The team there inserted it into 680 mosquito larvae.

Among those larvae, 251 survived to adulthood and mated with wild mosquitoes. Those pairings generated 25,712 offspring—two of which had the engineered gene.

But those two were enough.

Between them, they fathered 143 mosquitoes that grew to adulthood, and about half of them had the desired genes. The carriers then bred with more wild mosquitoes, and they produced nearly 6,000 offspring. This time, more than 99 percent of them had the malariaresistance genes.

“To get that primary event was difficult, but the secondary part was fantastic,” James said.

Lanzaro, who was not involved in the study, called the results “very encouraging.” Still, he noted that “a significant amount of work still needs to be done before this system produces a modified mosquito ready for field trials.”

The researchers agreed that they still have a long way to go before they release any of their engineered insects into the wild. Among other things, they would have to be certain that the malaria-resistance genes spread reliably from each generation to the next. They’d also want to make sure that the people who would live among the mosquitoes were OK with them.

“We could do all this stuff in the laboratory, but there has to be a regulatory structure in place before we send them off somewhere,” James said.

After decades of battles over clean air, Friedrich and DUH have landed on a strategy that aims to avoid legal battles with the auto industry over emissions compliance in order to focus the public’s attention on real-world pollution levels. “Delenda carthago,” he said.

“If conditions on the ground aren’t improving, the whole system isn’t delivering.”

Overhauling the regulatory system to eliminate cheating won’t be easy, but with local law-

suits moving forward and a steady drumbeat of new test results being planned, Friedrich says public awareness is growing and the industry is starting to feel the heat. With regulators around the world grappling with the thorny problems of emissions testing in the wake of VW’s shocking revelations, all eyes are on Friedrich’s campaign to move pollution regulation out of the lab and into the real world it was supposed to protect all along.