BusinessMirror January 4, 2016

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Optimism abounds as expansion drivers seen more than headwinds special report

INSIDE

By Mia Rosienna Mallari & Rea Cu

L

RUNWAY TRENDS

STYLE

D2

golden escape

First of three parts

ong graveyard shifts and cold call-center floors have been the norm in Justin Capiral’s workplace in the past three years. But the 22-yearold call-center agent continues to work and dream of better things for his future, even projecting to notch a major milestone this year.

By the end of 2016, Capiral hopes that his long hours in the call-center floor will bear fruit, and allow him the fulfillment of at least one of his dreams—to own a car. “I wasn’t able to achieve it last year because of the not-so-good salary from my previous company,” Capiral said.

Capiral believes that call centers, the main Continued on A2

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c1

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E4

The average GDP growth forecast for 2016, based on the BusinessMirror’s poll.

HIGH-RISE buildings, mostly housing business-process outsourcing (BPO) offices, dot the Ortigas area skyline in Mandaluyong City. The BPO sector is among the biggest contributors in the country’s GDP. In 2014 employment in the call-center sector rose 17 percent, with over 1.052 million Filipinos employed by information-technology and BPO firms. Nonoy Lacza

After a bad year, exports expected to surge 8-10%

By Catherine N. Pillas

when i was 25

6.35%

XPORTERS are bracing themselves up for an optimistic 8percent to 10-percent growth in 2016, despite last year’s disappointing performance, when the sector was dragged down by domestic regulations and an overheating Chinese economy.

Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr., president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport),

said he keeps a buoyant outlook for Philippine exports for 2016, because of a number of government initiatives to shore up the sector.

“We choose to be optimistic, as we continue to seek for ways to improve the way we conduct business, the way we partner with government, the way we approach our markets as they continue to evolve,” said Ortiz-Luis, adding that the standard 9-percent 10-percent growth is possible for the year.

Why exports petered out in 2015

Department of Trade and Industry’s Export Marketing Bureau (EMB) Director Senen M. Perlada said 2015 was a slow year for Philippine exports due to a slew of factors: The rebalancing of China’s economy, hinged on declining reliance on investment and industry-driven growth and shifting to higher consumption, was a key factor that helped soften the Continued on A4

PHL banks on manufacturing to boost growth

By Cai U. Ordinario

I

f there’s something the Christmas and New Year celebrations of decades past have proven about Filipinos, it’s that they all love to shop.

Entire families trooped to shopping malls nationwide to buy gifts for friends and loved ones, new clothes for the young and the old, and new

gadgets that tickle every tech-savvy Pinoy’s fancy.

This is household consumption at its finest. The inflow of overseas Filipino worker remittances and bonuses received by employees from both the public and private sectors became the fuel of Filipinos’ spending power.

While this still represented robust economic activity, Economic Planning

PESO exchange rates n US 47.1660

Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said dependence on consumer spending is “not always good” for the economy.

In fact, the government is weaning Filipinos away from its overdependence on consumer spending to create jobs, as this is temporary and will not assure the creation of quality jobs that provide decent pay.

While malls have been sprouting

all over the Philippines, Balisacan said the quality of jobs in the retail trade is incomparable to those generated by factories.

“Growth driven by investment would mean factories, people employed with higher labor productivity, because there’s much more capital per labor, so people tend to receive higher

ANALYSTS MANAGE 2016 OUTLOOK OF INVESTORS

By VG Cabuag

D

ESPITE their being cautious at the start of 2015, many analysts and traders were still surprised at how the year turned out—seeing the equities market entering the bear territory, a technical term underscoring the fact that prices fell by 20 percent.

For this year, many of the analysts, though still mainly positive in their outlook, are not taking any chances as they try to manage investor expectations.

“Regardless of the 20-percent fall definition, we argue that we are in a bear market, a period of sustained declines in share prices. We expect this bear market to test the patience of most investors,” said Jose Mari Lacson, head of research at Campos Lanuza and Co. Inc. Last year the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange

index (PSEi) fell year-on-year by almost 4 percent to end2015, at 6,952.08 points, from end-2014 at 7,230.57 points. It fell by 14 percent for the year, from its top of 8,127.48. It also saw foreign investors become net sellers at P59.71 billion, a reversal of P55.71-billion net buy in 2014.

The PSEi also snapped its six straight years of annual gains last year.

“This bear market will have the legs to keep itself moving over the next six months and possibly for the whole of 2016.

It will take time for prices to correct to levels that will not reflect the fundamentals under tighter global liquidity and slower economic growth,” Lacson said.

Meanwhile, Justino Calaycay Jr., trader at Philstocks Financial Inc., said since this year is an election year, it could be a boon for the equities market.

Continued on A2

Continued on A16

n japan 0.3920 n UK 70.1783 n HK 6.0857 n CHINA 7.2697 n singapore 33.5176 n australia 34.2652 n EU 51.7411 n SAUDI arabia 12.5766

Source: BSP (29 December 2015)

A2 Monday, January 4, 2016

BMReports BusinessMirror

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Optimism abounds as drivers seen outweighing challenges Continued from A1

revenue earners in the businessprocess outsourcing (BPO) industry, will continue to flourish in 2016.

“The BPO industry is definitely one of the most dynamic and fastestgrowing sectors in the Philippines,” he said.

Capiral’s optimism for 2016 is shared by economists and businessmen across sectors, with the May elections tagged as among the top growth drivers.

The BusinessMirror solicited the forecasts of economists, chamber heads and business executives for 2016. Based on the poll conducted, the average GDP growth forecast for 2016 is 6.35 percent, below the official 7-percent to 8-percent prediction for 2015 and 2016, but way above the average growth in the first three quarters of 2015, at 5.6 percent.

2015 disappoints

With the slow start for 2015, former Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno noted that the country likely failed to meet the government’s target.

“It won’t diverge much from the first three quarters growth—5.6 percent. The higher government spending in Q4, assuming it is significant, will be more than offset by

weak exports and the destruction on personal properties, farm outputs and public infrastructure owing to the two typhoons in late December,” the economist said.

The GDP for the first quarter of 2015 reached 5 percent. The second-quarter growth inched minimally to 5.8 percent, then climbed a little anew to 6 percent in the third quarter.

However, later in the year, several parts of the country were ravaged by typhoons Nena and Onyok, sending possible economic assets down the drain.

American Chamber of Commerce Legislative Committee Chairman John D. Forbes expressed his disappointment over the country’s performance in 2015, and said the country still faces the same challenges this year—high level of poverty, high level of unemployment and underemployment, and a rapidly growing population.

“The catch up that the country has to do with the competing countries in Southeast Asia that have done a better job of economic growth in the last several decades,” the former American diplomat said.

“That said, the Philippines was one of the top GDP growth leaders in Asia again for another year, and

that’s good,” he added.

BPO employs 1 percent of population BPO, the sector where Capiral has spent the past three years of his life, is among the biggest contributors in the country’s GDP. In 2014 employment in call centers rose by 17 percent, with over 1.052 million Filipinos employed by information-technology and business-process management (IT-BPM) firms. This means about 1 percent of the population is working in the BPO industry. According to the National Economic and Development Authority, the sector aims to garner 1.3 million employees and $25 billion in revenues.

The expansion of services—from the conventional customer service to animation, content-marketing writing, graphic design, medical transcription, and software development and other emerging markets, as well as geographical range—helped in sustaining growth in 2015.

“Low inflation and strong external accounts—e.g., OFW [overseas Filipino workers] remittances, BPO growth, and tourism surge with the hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit—showed the strength of the economy. The

continuing fall in debt-to-GDP ratio is also allowing more government spending on infrastructure and basic services,” said Victor A. Abola, associate professor at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P).

“The Philippines showed its weakness in implementation. Public construction started taking off only late inQ2andbig-ticketPPP[public-private partnership] projects are moving so slowly. The DOTC’s [Department of Transportation and Communications] poor performance and excuses reflect the overall weakness,” Abola said.

Govt spending misses in 2015

Senen Perlada, director of the Export Marketing Bureau, noted that had the programmed government budget been spent according to plan for 2015, the economy’s growth would have hit higher than 6 percent.

“You know if the planned government spending happened this year, we would have been 7 [percent] or greater,” he said.

Perlada said the government will be in a hurry to expend the remaining funds. “It will be on catch-up mode.”

He explained the vital role of the banking sector in the circulation of funds that will drive the growth of the economy. “You know the liquidity that is held by the economy, we are

very liquid. ’Yung sa banking system ang dami, so lalabas lahat ’yan, magpapaikot ’yan.”

European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Vice President for External Affairs Henry Schumacher said the GDP growth for 2016 would be stable, but focus on sectors has to be maximized to increase productivity.

“Overall, it has been a good year, driven by consumption. To achieve sustainable GDP growth, there has to be more focus on infrastructure investments, and investments in manufacturing and agriculture supply chains, from agricultural products to finished food products.”

Schumacher said.

Drivers and challenges for 2016

“I think, we could hit around 6percent GDP growth in 2016. Looks like the US economy will strengthen, while China and EU will stabilize,” said Peter Lee U, vice dean at the UA&P’s School of Economics.

The poll conducted by the BusinessMirror garnered about 11 different economic drivers and 16 challenges that the Philippines needs to overcome for 2016.

The economic drivers included OFW remittances, BPO earnings, tourism, foreign direct investments,

Analysts manage 2016 outlook of investors . . .

Continued from A1

“As history has shown, each and every presidential election year in the post-Marcos era has translated to positive annual results in the PSEi. It boils down to being able to identify which sectors—and which stocks in each sector—have a high correlation rating with the market in order to achieve relative safety and maximize potential upside,” Calaycay said.

He said, despite the outcome of the four previous presidential elec-

tions, starting from the time President Fidel V. Ramos won in 1992, the market had always returned positive.

It averaged 20 percent in gains during the four elections, and the last two gained a high of 32 percent.

“This ‘angle’ gives investors hope,” Calaycay said.

“We believe that a return of between 7 percent and 12 percent is a reasonable expectation over the short term, with a longer-run potential of 15 percent to 20 percent.”

Using Calaycay’s figures, this puts an initial target for the PSEi at be-

tween 7,430 points and 7,780 points on the upside. Within the year, however, the main index could trade over a wider range from 6,400 and 8,300 mark, he said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist at BDO Unibank Inc., said the bank is also cautiously optimistic on its outlook and advised investors to structure their portfolio against a worst-case scenario, otherwise known as the “Black Swan” event.

Investors should diversify their portfolio on a mix of asset classes

NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING LUZON TAIL-END OF A COLD FRONT AFFECTING EASTERN SECTION OF CENTRAL LUZON (JANUARY 3, 5:00 AM)

and in currencies, Ravelas said.

He said investments in fixedincome securities could be a mix of cash instruments for liquidity needs, investment-grade bonds, both sovereign and corporates, and a few noninvestment-grade fixed income securities to enhance yield of the portfolio.

He said a mix of short- to medium-term maturity of fixed-income investments provide opportunities for investors to reinvest maturing bond investments in a gradually rising interest-rate environment, or

election spending, public-private partnerships, infrastructure spending, export and manufacturing.

Challenges noted were poverty, amendment of the Charter’s economic provisions, government spending, export financing, power, election results, El Niño and heavy vehicular traffic.

“It may well be at the same level, fueled by election spending. It will be essential for the country to attract much more foreign direct investment,” Schumacher said.

“GDP growth in 2016 would be in the neighborhood of 6 percent, slightly higher than the 2015 GDP growth, mainly because of the May 2016 election spending,” Diokno noted.FranciscoF.del RosarioJr.,president of the Management Association of the Philippines, also remains optimistic that the country’s GDP growth will speed up a little for the year, with a 6.5-percent growth forecast.

Dr. Bernardo Villegas, a member of the UA&P Board of Trustees, projected a growth of up to 7 percent for 2016, to be fueled by OFW remittances, tourism, BPOs, manufacturing investments and housing, among others. The BusinessMirror looked into the top 5 growth drivers and challenges for 2016.

To be continued

Continued from A1

lock in their investment if rates stay persistently low in the next three to five years.

“Furthermore, an investor can add stocks in his/her portfolio to protect it from unexpected rise in inflation,” he said. “Several studies show that stocks, while more volatile than bonds, provide higher returns than bonds over the longrun. Therefore, having an exposure of stocks, whether direct securities or combination of mutual funds, ranging from 10 percent to 20 percent, puts the overall portfolio in a

position to take advantage of the base-case scenario, as well as protect the portfolio in a worst-case event.”

There are also other forms of alternative investments, such as commodities, real-estate investment trusts, among others, that enhance the investor’s portfolio by reducing the volatility of the investments, but, at the same time, enhancing the overall yield of the portfolio, he said.

“The key to navigating one’s investment portfolio in a volatile and uncertain financial environment is simply to diversify,” he said.

PSE President and CEO Hans Sicat said that since it is an election year, many of the deals will be done during the first quarter, and then slow down in the second quarter as companies let the elections cool off and see who will become the new leader of the country.

Sicat said the fund-raising activities may resume in the third quarter.

“We are reviewing our capital raising [figures]. I’ll wait for the figures to come in as people are distracted.

People are more interested in politics than economics or business. So that means you have more guys doing stuff most in the first quarter than the second quarter,” Sicat said.

Aside from expected New Year rush on fund raising, the PSE will also be busy on its acquisition of PDS Holdings Inc., the owner of Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp., the operator of the bondmarket trading.

The PSE also needs to convince regulator Securities and Exchange Commission on how the deal— aimed at merging the trading platforms of equities and bond market —can help the general capital market and the public.

“We want to buy into PDS [Philippine Dealing System] because it will create the price scale for us. As an exchange, it will help us add product lines, it will help take some of the vertical integration issues to risk management having the depository.

The longer the delay, the longer it will take for our market to be developed, to be competitive with our Asean neighbors.

“If you look at their [Asean] models, they’re all integrated exchanges in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Fixed income is just a division or a department. It’s like a department store. We’re a department store, but we’re only allowed to sell canned goods and not anything else.

We’re not complete. That’s a simple explanation,” Sicat said.

BusinessMirror

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Monday, January 4, 2016

A3

GREEN DEVELOPER ARTHALAND SEES ROBUST MARKET IN 2016 T

HE market is green and on the go, this is what boutique property developer ArthaLand sees in 2016.

Given the strong momentum from the previous years, the company foresees a robust future in the country’s real estate market as it focuses to play strong in strategically selected growth areas.

It recently announced its foray into the Visayas and Mindanao markets with its purchase of a prime property in Cebu.

ArthaLand is set to change the property landscape in the VisMin region by bringing in its experience in specialized certified sustainable developments in the bustling Cebu City. It plans to develop a world class, green office project to provide at least 51,000 square meters of quality space in the projects’ first phase. The company sees continued growth in the region’s information technology and business process management sector given its pool of highly educated talent.

The green property developer is on course with the delivery of the second tower of its flagship residential project, Arya Residences, beginning the first quarter of this year. Arya Residences is the country’s first and only top end residential condominium to be on target to achieve dual green building certification from the United States Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program and the Philippine Green Building Council’s BERDE (Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence) program. Arya Residences

is located along McKinley Drive in Bonifacio Global City.

Arya’s The Plaza, a destination dining area in the development is also set to welcome guests and diners beginning the first quarter of 2016. This elevated and canopied area will feature carefully curated restaurants and is designed to accommodate the demands of a very discerning affluent market.

The ArthaLand Century Pacific Tower, the boutique developer’s flagship office project is also on track on its construction as it is set to be delivered by the third quarter of next year. The Triple A office building is certified in the US Green Building Council’s LEED program in Gold category. It is also on target to achieve multiple star rating from the PhilGBC BERDE program.

The ArthaLand Century Pacific Tower is designed to provide efficient and sustainable quality office space for multinational companies in the financial, FMCG, pharmaceutical, and technology sectors. It is strategically located at the corner of Bonifacio Global City’s 5th Avenue and 31st Street which is along the row of the business district’s top destinations that include the new Philippine Stock Exchange building, The Shagri-la at The Fort, and the Central Square Mall.

“We look at 2016 with solid determination to deliver quality and sustainability,” shared Angie de Villa – Lacson, ArthaLand’s chief executive officer and president. We see that the market will demand for more calibrated green spaces either

for business, dwelling, or leisure and ArthaLand is here to deliver that.”

“Every project that we build is uniquely special where quality and sustainability converge,” the president underscores.

ARYA RESIDENCES located along McKinley Parkway in Bonifacio Global City is the Philippine’s first and only top-end residential development that is on target to achieve dual green building certification.

THE ARTHALAND Century Pacific Tower is located at the corner of 5th Avenue and 30th St in BGC. The green premium grade building is designed to accommodate headquarters of multinational firms.

2016 IS THE YEAR TO GO GREEN

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ARYA’S THE PLAZA is a canopied elevated dining destination that will accommodate the demands of a very discerning affluent market.

REEN is the color of new beginnings and green is the color of the optimist. As we welcome the new year, it is high time for us to resolve to be more earth friendly. It is our duty and responsibility to preserve and protect the only planet that we have, for our future and for our children’s future.

In 2015, global leaders have made the move to curb the continuous warming of our planet. Now, it is our turn to do our part by adopting environmentally sustainable way of living. One way to do this is to choose to live and work in ecologically-responsible buildings.

Not all condominiums and office buildings are built based on the national and global standard of sustainability. Make sure that they are registered, monitored, and calibrated to ensure optimal resource efficiency.

Green buildings are designed to allow its users to enjoy savings in utility cost, pleasant and healthy environment, and better quality of life.

NATIONAL STANDARD

In the country, the Philippine Green Building Council monitors and calibrates developments that are registered under its BERDE program.

BERDE is the national voluntary green building rating system in the Philippines that is used to measure, verify, and monitor the environmental performance of buildings that exceeds existing national mandatory regulations and standards. According to PhilGBC, it employs consensus-driven, multi-stakeholder collaboration process in order to determine the high standard of evaluating and certifying buildings as truly green and sustainable.

GLOBAL MEASURE

On the global scale, the US Green Building Council’s LEED program is the most popular and highly adopted system in measuring the building’s sustainability features.

LEED is a globally recognized green building

certification program that recognizes best-in-class strategies and practices on care for the environment. To be certified, building projects need to satisfy prerequisites and earn points based on intelligent selection of the building location, water and energy usage efficiency, responsible use of materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality.

CALIBRATED GREEN

As the country’s leading boutique developer that is focused on sustainable developments, ArthaLand’s projects are designed to deliver calibrated green projects.

“From blueprint to construction, even up to the management of our properties, we ensure that the company’s DNA of quality and sustainability is intact in every project that we build,” Gabby Paulino, ArthaLand’s head of Technical Services explained. “This is why we submitted ourselves to the strict standards of national and global standards in green buildings.”

ArthaLand’s green building is set to elevate VisMin property sector

W

ITH its recent acquisition of a prime property along Salinas Drive in Cebu City, ArthaLand is set to elevate VisMin’s property market as it plans to build a world-class green office building to cater to the IT-BPM sector.

The property is located at the

Cebu IT Park area where multinational business process outsourcing firms are currently highly concentrated.

“We are bullish on the VisMin market given its fast paced growth in the past few years. We believe that Cebu, being a global hub in this part of the country, plays a major role in further lifting Vi-

sayas and Mindanao’s position in the Philippine economy,” said ArthaLand president and CEO Angie de Villa-Lacson.

“Strong growth potential is there because of well-educated Visayans and sound business environment. ArthaLand will be a strong partner in the growth of

Visayas and Mindanao by bringing in our experience in building world class, boutique, and sustainable projects in Cebu,” she added.

Nina Cordero, the company’s senior vice president for project and business development on her part affirms that ArthaLand “will make sure that we will take part

in the progress of Visayas and Mindanao beginning with our project in Cebu.”

Cebu is ranked among the best global destination for business process outsourcing, according to Tholons, a global services and investment and advisory firm. According to analysts, Central Visayas where

Cebu is has enjoyed fast progress, with regional GDP outperforming the national average.

“We will build a project that Cebuanos and the rest of VisMin will want to invest in, to work in, and be proud of because of ArthaLand’s mark of quality and sustainability,” Cordero remarked.

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New hubs hold key for sustained growth of domestic aviation sector

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B L S. M

NFRASTRUCTURE constraints in Manila will force the domestic aviation sector to look for new hubs for further growth, making secondary airports in the provinces more palatable to airlines for new transit hubs.

In two separate analyses, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (Capa) said the Philippine aviation sector will see growth resuming in 2016, thanks to the consolidation of local carriers, the up-gauging of flights in Manila, and the construction and modernization of new hubs in Cebu and Caticlan.

The dearth in aviation infrastructure has been stunting the growth of the said sector for the last four years, data obtained from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) showed.

The Philippine domestic market doubled in size from 2007 to 2012—with annual growth ranging from 10 percent to 25 percent —driven by rapid low-cost carrier expansion. But this growth proved to be unsustainable, as it came at the expense of yields and an irrational approach to capacity.

But thanks to the resumption of the domestic expansion of Philippine Airlines (PAL), domestic aviation grew by a modest 5 percent during the first half of 2015, ending the four-year dry spell that started in 2010.

“The Philippines domestic market has seen a surge in domestic capacity in second half of 2015, pressuring yields and profitability. More domestic-capacity increases are likely in 2016, driven by the up-gauging of flights at Manila and new pointto-point flights from Cebu and other secondary cities,” the think thank said.

To up-gauge is to continue operating with the same number of flights for a route, but utilizing a larger aircraft for increased capacity. To wit, a twice daily flight to Davao from Manila utilizing an Airbus A320 that can carry at least 150 passengers per way may be upgauged by using the 247-seater Airbus A330.

Full-year records are usually released sometime in the first quarter of the following year.

Third-quarter results, however, were robust at a growth rate of 31.9 percent, mainly driven by budget carrier Cebu Pacific.

By 2016 industry observers said domestic capacity should increase by as much as 17 percent due to a higher base.

Up-gauging Local airlines sustain growth by operating same number of flights for a route, but using a larger aircraft.

Already, local carriers are set to take delivery of larger jets, which would allow them to change their gauges to higher capacity airliners.

“Likewise, the declining cost of fuel will allow airlines to lower their operating expenses, hence, they can afford to expand their operations and thereby bring down the price due to the relative growth in capacity, which will trigger price competition and market incentives,” Avelino L. Zapanta, an aviation expert, said in a phone interview.

The growth, he added, will be sustained by the increase in international services coming out of

SC DECISION VS BT ‘TALONG’ COULD DELAY ROLLOUT OF GOLDEN RICE B M G P

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HE Supreme Court’s (SC) decision to stop the field testing of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) eggplant and nullify biotechnology regulations could delay the rollout of Golden Rice in the Philippines, experts said.

While research on Golden Rice has not yet reached the field testing stage, International Rice Research Institute (Irri) Deputy Director General Bruce J. Tolentino said delaying the issuance of new rules to replace Administrative Order (AO) 8 could impede its launch in the Philippines.

“At this moment, Irri has no research ongoing in research farms outside of the Irri headquarters experiment station, which, thereby, would require review under AO 8. Thus, at this time, it seems the SC decision has no effect on the ongoing Golden Rice research,” Tolentino said.

“However, should there be an extended delay in the issuance of regulations to replace AO 8, then Irri’s research, particularly those in partnership with the Department of Agriculture [DA] and the Philippine Rice Research Institute [PhilRice], may be subject to delay,” he added.

Irri said Golden Rice contains beta carotene, a source of vitamin A. It is being eyed as a potential food-based approach to address vitamin A deficiency, which is a serious public-health problem that affects millions of children and pregnant women globally.

Last month the SC decided to permanently stop the field testing of Bt eggplant or talong, and declared null and void AO 8 issued by the DA in 2002.

AO 8 provided the rules and regulations for the importation and release into the environment of plants and plant products derived from the use of modern biotechnology.

The High Court ruled in favor of petitioners Greenpeace Southeast Asia and several Filipino activists, academics and politicians. Greenpeace earlier said

the temporary ban on AO 8 includes experiments on Golden Rice.

PhilRice Executive Director Calixto M. Protacio told the BUSINESSMIRROR only new applications for field trials on genetically modified crops will be suspended under the SC’s decision.

“Based on the meeting last December 18 at the Central Office with DA officials and stakeholders, only new applications for testing of genetically modified crops are covered by the SC decision. Thus, the DA will not accept new applications until a new AO is issued,” Protacio said.

Currently, researchers are still determining whether Golden Rice can produce good yields for farmers.

Members of University of the Philippines League of Agricultural Biotechnology Students (UP-LABS) have also expressed concern that the SC ruling could also hinder research on other GM crops, such as virusresistant papaya and Bt cotton.

UP-LABS said the High Court’s decision could also cause students, researchers and scientists to lose study grants.

“Also, the youth might be discouraged to pursue a degree in specialized sciences because of the lack of institutional support, appreciation and incentives,” the group added.

UP-LABS said nullifying AO 8 is a “major setback” to the efforts of the government to fast-track the development of Philippine agriculture.

“The decision may slow down cornrelated businesses in the Philippines. If the permit on allowing Bt corn is included in the enjoined decision, more than 415,000 corn farmers, poultry and livestock growers, feed millers, will be greatly affected,” the student organization said.

Philippine Maize Federation Inc. (Philmaize) President Roger V. Navarro earlier said corn farmers, feed millers, hog raisers and poultry growers could lose billions of pesos due to the SC decision.

“The decision of the SC has a huge

economic impact. For one, the corn industry’s [output is valued at] about P90 billion, [output of] the livestock and poultry subsectors is around P700 billion. Losses could reach a trillion if you include logistics and opportunity loss,” Navarro said.

UP-LABS agreed with Philmaize that the SC ruling could hinder the country’s bid for food self-sufficiency.

“The government is initiating a time bomb—a hunger bomb—that will explode sooner or later. The government should be pro-food security,” Navarro said.

The DA, however, assured that the government is now formulating a new AO which will govern the importation, propagation and commercialization of GM crops Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said the Department of Science and Technology has created a technical working group with the DA and the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources and Health to review the guidelines of AO 8.

Alcala said the four agencies are crafting a new AO, which will be consistent with Executive Order (EO) 514 as ordered by the High Court.

EO 514 was issued by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2006.

It provided the guidelines for the crafting and implementation of the National Biosafety Framework and sought to strengthen the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines.

The DA had targeted to conclude the review of AO 8 and the crafting of a draft proposal by the end of 2015. Alcala said the DA is eyeing to hold the first public consultation for the draft AO in the second week of January.

Alcala said the government will come up with a “stronger” and “more consistent” joint administrative order on the propagation and commercialization of GM crops.

countryside airports, such as Cebu, Davao, Puerto Princesa and Boracay.

“Second reason the market will be vibrant this year is the revival of secondary routes by our local airlines. The introduction of Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific of more fl ights to and from Cebu to international destinations, like Los Angeles, will require them to launch more domestic fl ights for intra-secondary airport connectivity,” Zapanta explained.

Although for Capa, rapid capacity increases cannot be absorbed overnight—even if the Philippines did not have any growth in 2013 and 2014 while most other

Southeast Asian markets suffered from overcapacity.

“Ultimately, how quickly supply-demand balance returns to the Philippine domestic market depends on the pace of further capacity growth in 2016,” the research agency said. “While it is unlikely there will be another wave of high double-digit expansion, the capacity reductions from prior years will almost certainly not be repeated.”

Despite this rosy outlook, the Philippines might have realized better yields this year, if not for the infrastructure limitations.

“The market is vibrant, but there are constraints. The ultimate solution is for us to build a new airport,” CAB Executive Director Carmelo L. Arcilla said over the phone.

Competition to intensify in Cebu

THE Queen City of the South will likely be the next battle ground for the local carrier, as Manila’s air and land capacity have already been maxed out. The Mactan-Cebu International Airport is currently being marketed as the world’s first resort airport.

“The planned regional expansion at Cebu will likely lead to further yield declines in the Cebu market, impacting profitability of the overall domestic sector. Cebu Pacific has already noticed larger yield declines on point-to-point routes from Cebu, as PAL reentered these markets, compared to trunk routes from Manila,” the Capa explained.

The group of business tycoon Lucio C. Tan plans to move some of its Manila-based turboprops to Cebu, as flights to Caticlan are upgauged. This year Cebgo, a sister of Cebu Pacific, also plans to move one or two of its four Manila-based

ATR 72s most likely to Cebu.

Cebgo currently has four of its eight aircraft based in Cebu, and is also planning to allocate to the Cebu base the ninth and tenth aircraft which are being added to the fleet in 2016.

“Overall, the long-term outlook for the Philippines domestic market is relatively bright. There are huge opportunities to open new point-to-point routes,” Capa said.

“Demand for such routes is growing, as the economy expands and a larger portion of the population is able to opt for short flights instead of ferries—particularly as low fares stimulate demand.”

Such routes also enable Philippine carriers to fly fewer domestic passengers via Manila, where slots are at a premium and should be used where possible to cater to the local Manila market.

“The consolidation from recent years also has whittled down the playing field to only three groups, with one of the competitors relatively insignificant and only competing on trunk routes. This has created a relatively rational environment in the Philippines compared to most other major Southeast Asian domestic markets,” the research body noted.

There is always the prospect of the remaining competitors waging irrational market-share battles, but such battles are likely to be shortlived as the incumbents stabilize the market, producing a healthy supplyand-demand balance, it added.

Executives of local carriers have expressed their intention of expanding their operations in the domestic market via secondary airports, with PAL eyeing Cebu; Cebu Pacific, Davao; and Philippines AirAsia, Boracay.

After a bad year, exports expected to surge 8-10%   A investment and industry-driven growth, and shifting to higher consumption, was a key factor that helped soften the demand for Philippine exports to the world’s second-largest economy.

Specifically, the EMB sees a decline for total exports, merchandise and services, to a range between -2.8 to -4.0 against 2014 performance.

“EMB estimates that total 2015 exports will range between $84.1 billion to $85.1 billion, or a decline of -2.8 percent to -4.0 percent,” Perlada said in an interview with the BusinessMirror.

According to latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released in October, shipments of manufactured goods went down 5.1 percent to $4.061 billion, against $4.2 billion in October 2014.

The peso’s appreciation against the dollar early this year, credited to the Central Bank’s efforts to keep inflation within target, was also a factor that reduced export receipts in the early part of 2015.

Perlada said the lingering effects of 2014’s port congestion spilled over to 2015, which also slowed down exports.

He also pointed to the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) controversial expansion of its list of commonlyused controlled/regulated chemicals as another source of difficulty for exporters last year.

“There’s also the disruption caused by issues regarding PNP’s regulation of “commonly used controlled chemicals,” which affected not only the operations of large exporters, such as electronics companies, but also those SMEs [small and medium enterprises], such as handicraft exporters, among others,” Perlada said.

EMB sees 8- to 9-percent growth

ON the part of DTI-EMB, it sees a slightly lower 8-percent to 9-percent

growth in export receipts for 2016.

“The DTI and the Export Development Council has no adjusted official growth-target range yet for 2016. But at the level of EMB only, our rough estimate is that a single digit growth rate of 8 percent to 9 percent for total exports for 2016 is doable, mindful of the lower base expected for full year 2015, which we estimate at around $84 billion to 85 billion,” Perlada added.

The EMB director said the growth rate in the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP), the private-public blueprint for the export sector, remains unchanged for 2016. The document indicates a growth rate target range of 6.2 percent to 11.2 percent.

The outlook is propped up by the Philippines’s drive to increase productivity in the manufacturing sector, signaled by the DTI’s continuing manufacturing resurgence program (MRP) that began in 2012.

“Further, we see the resurgence in our own manufacturing industry, positive impacts of the Asean Economic Community, increased access to duty-free exports under the generalized systems of preferences of the European Union and of the United States, and a competitive exchange rate,” Ortiz-Luis added.

The MRP is a stimulus program that aims to build the existing capacity of industries, strengthen new ones and maintain the competitiveness of select industries with comparative advantage.

The broad manufacturing sector has been prioritized, given that it is the third-largest contributor to the country’s total employment in 2013, and the substantial capital needed for investments in the sector.

Aside from the thrust to increase manufacturing productivity, the Philippines is also enjoying a preferential trade scheme from its third largest

trading partner, the EU. The Philippines was granted beneficiary status to the EU-Generalized System of Preferences Plus (GSP+) scheme in December 2014, allowing it to enjoy zero-tariff duty on 6,200 products exported to the EU. Such is the benefit of the scheme that DTI’s Perlada sees growth of exports to the EU to step up to the double-digit range this year.

“This year, we’re confident that we may see a double-digit growth of exports to the EU. It’s one of the major markets that are experiencing growth, aside from the US and Canada. The other major markets are down,” Perlada said.

Philippine exports to the EU in 2014 amounted to $6.72 billion, a growth of just 2 percent from 2013’s.

Other factors that may support growth in 2016 are the free-trade agreements (FTAs) the Philippines is moving forward on, such as the Philippines-European Free Trade Association and the Philippines-European Union FTA. But for the export sector, a clear signal of support from the government is the final approval of the PEDP. The 2014-2016 PEDP is the export-sector component of the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, the government’s primary economic and social-development program.

It outlines the export targets and market strategies seen to boost export growth within the three-year period, considering problems affecting local and international markets.

The PEDP has been finished by the Export Development Council in 2014, but has yet to be signed by President Aquino.

The delay of the said PEDP has put in the back burner the export sector’s plan to infuse an export promotion budget amounting to at least P1.8 billion.

AseanMonday A5

Monday, January 4, 2016

BusinessMirror

Thailand’s Erawan to open 15 budget hotels in PHL

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any negative factors in Bangkok in 2015 have driven Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET)-listed Erawan Group Plc. to expand its hotel business abroad and increase the number of budget hotels in a bid to reduce risks.

The company expects to open 15 hotels under the budget Hop Inn label in the Philippines, starting this year. The Hop Inn will be its flagship brand for this market.

Erawan President Kamonwan Wipulakorn said the Philippine economy was expected to continue to expand, making the company confident Hop Inn will find demand from local businessmen.

The top 4 populations in Asean are Indonesia, with 255 million; the Philippines, with 103 million; Vietnam, 92 million; and Thailand, 70 million.

GDP in the Philippines is projected to grow 6 percent to 7 percent this year, double that of Thailand, which the National Economic and Social Development Board expects to grow at 3 percent.

“Our main focus in Asean is the Philippines,” Wipulakorn said.

The Asean Economic Community is likely to produce a direct benefit for the hotel business in Thailand and increase travel across the region through the growth of low-cost airlines and airport development in member-countries, she said.

In the first nine months of 2015, 11

2B baht

The budget set by Erawan for its planned 15 new hotels for the year

Wipulakorn: “Our main focus in Asean is the Philippines.”

Hop Inns operated in Thailand, mostly in provincial areas.

Erawan set a 2-billion-baht investment budget to open 15 new hotels in 2016, seven of which are Hop Inns.

The company prefers Hop Inn to penetrate potential markets, because it requires a smaller investment budget— with Erawan expecting to break even within three years—below the 10-year average of most other hotel segments.

Each Hop Inn room costs around 700,000 baht compared with 1.7 million baht per room for other economy hotels.

Wipulakorn said the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin for five-star hotels is about 35 percent; four-star hotels is 40 percent to 45 percent; economy hotels 45 percent; and budget hotels, including Hop Inn, 50 percent to 55 percent.

The revenue contribution from Hop Inns is expected to rise to 15 percent of Erawan’s total income in the next five years, up from 5 percent last year, while revenue from five-star hotels would drop to 45 percent from 55 percent, and fourstar and economy hotels remaining unchanged at 20 percent each.

The company is optimistic its hotel business will see a 10-percent growth in revenue this year. Its revenue is projected to increase 28 percent to 5.60 billion baht for 2015.

In the third quarter of 2015, Erawan reported its revenue grew by 34 percent to 3.89 billion baht and net profit was 94 million baht, up from a net loss of 163 million in the same period the year before.

Erawan shares closed on Wednesday on the SET at 4.28 baht, down 10 satang, in trade worth 11.1 million baht. MCT

China rejects Vietnam protest over sea flight test

In this May 11, 2015, file photo, the alleged ongoing reclamation of the Subi Reef by China is seen from Pagasa Island on the Spratly Islands in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). China’s campaign of island building in the West Philippine Sea might soon quadruple the number of airstrips available to the People’s Liberation Army in the highly contested and strategically vital region. That could be bad news for other regional contenders, especially the US, the Philippines and Vietnam. AP

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hina rejected a protest from Vietnam over a flight test it has conducted on a new airstrip on a man-made island in the South China Sea, saying it is part of China’s territory.

Vietnam Foreign Ministry Spokesman Le Hai Binh said the test flight violated Vietnam’s sovereignty, breached mutual understanding and hurt the bilateral relations.

“Vietnam resolutely protests Chinese above-said action and demand that China immediately stop, not repeat similar actions,” he said in a statement.

In a response on Saturday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hua Chunying said the test flight on the newly built airstrip on the Fiery Cross Reef on the Spratly Islands was carried out to find out if the new airfield met the standards for civil aviation.

The Chinese side will not accept the unfounded accusations from the Vietnamese side.”

“Relevant activity falls completely within China’s sovereignty,” Hua said in a statement. “The Chinese side will not accept the unfounded accusations from the Vietnamese side.”

China has become more assertive in pressing its claims to the South China Sea islands, an archipelago rich in natural resources that is the focal point of rival claims by neighboring governments.

China has recently piled sand on coral reefs atop of which it built airfields, radar installations and docking facilities. As with most of its policy in the South China Sea, Beijing has remained opaque about its plans for the island airstrips.

Beijing insists its island-building works are justified and don’t constitute a threat to stability and freedom of navigation. The US and its regional allies have expressed concern that China’s robust assertion of its claims has aggravated tensions.

Although Vietnam already has an airstrip in the Spratlys, it is just long enough to accommodate slow-moving cargo and surveillance planes. China’s airstrip on the Fiery Cross Reef is long enough for bombers capable of launching cruise missiles. AP

www.businessmirror.com.ph

A6

The World BusinessMirror

Monday, January 4, 2016

briefs

HONG KONG UNSETTLED

BY STRANGE CASE OF MISSING BOOKSELLERS HONG KONG—Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers say they’ll press the government for answers after a fifth employee of a publisher specializing in books critical of China’s ruling communists went missing.

Lawmaker Albert Ho said on Sunday that the city is “shocked and appalled” by the disappearance of Lee Bo. Like the four others who disappeared late last year, he too is associated with publisher Mighty Current.

The company and its Causeway Bay Bookstore are known for gossipy titles about Chinese political scandals and other sensitive issues that are popular with visiting tourists from the mainland.

The company’s co-owner is among those missing. Acting Secretary for Security John Lee told reporters that police are “actively” investigating the case. AP

news@businessmirror.com.ph

China in cautious optimism for 2016

WHITE HOUSE SAYS MORE WORK NEEDED FOR NEW IRAN SANCTIONS HONOLULU—The White House said on Saturday it has more diplomatic and technical work to do before it will announce any sanctions in response to ballistic missile launches by Iran.

The US is considering designating a number of additional targets for sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program. Congress has been notified of those deliberations.

Some lawmakers have criticized the administration for what they describe as delayed punitive action in response to Iran’s recent missile tests.

Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, said the pact that the US and others negotiated with Iran last year to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon will not impede future sanctions. AP

MEXICO MAYOR SLAIN A DAY AFTER TAKING OFFICE MEXICO CITY—The mayor of a city south of Mexico’s capital was shot to death on Saturday, less than a day after taking office, officials said.

Gunmen opened fire on Mayor Gisela Mota at her house in the city of Temixco, said the government of Morelos state, where Temixco is located. Two presumed assailants were killed and three others detained following a pursuit, said Morelos security commissioner Jesus Alberto Capella.

He said the suspects fired on federal police and soldiers from a vehicle.

On his Twitter account, Morelos Gov. Graco Ramirez attributed Mota’s killing to organized crime, without citing a particular drug cartel or gang. Cartels seeking to control communities and towns have often targeted local officials and mayors in Mexico.

Mota’s leftist Democratic Revolution Party released a statement describing her as “a strong and brave woman who, on taking office as mayor, declared that her fight against crime would be frontal and direct.” AP

CHRIS BROWN BEING INVESTIGATED FOR ALLEGED BATTERY IN LAS VEGAS LAS VEGAS—Las Vegas police are investigating an allegation of battery against R&B singer Chris Brown.

Lt. Jeff Goodwin says authorities received a call shortly before 10:30 a.m. on Saturday about the alleged battery at the Palms Casino Resort. A police statement on Saturday evening said an altercation took place in a room at the resort when the victim went to take a picture of Brown.

Police say the victim said she was struck by Brown and that he had taken her cell phone. Detectives tried to speak with Brown at his hotel room, but the singer left before police had arrived. AP

DEATH TOLL IN INDIAN BASE ATTACK RISES TO 7 TROOPS, 4 GUNMEN

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ATHANKOT, India—The number of troops killed in an attack on an Indian air force base has risen to seven, after four soldiers succumbed to injuries sustained in the hours-long gunbattle near the border with Pakistan and another died after being wounded in an explosion Sunday, officials said. Four suspected militants were also killed in the fighting.

Air force spokeswoman Rochelle D’Silva said that combing operations to secure the Pathankot air force base were continuing late on Sunday morning. AP

A CRANE moves a shipping container in the container pool of a seaport in Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong province on October 13, 2015. China’s imports fell by an unexpectedly wide margin in September in a new sign of weakness in the world’s second-largest economy. CHINATOPIX VIA AP

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EIJING—Dongsheng village is a place of lives interrupted, of dreams deferred.

30% expected jump of cinema box-office sales

Dongsheng is one of Beijing’s largest slums, home to an estimated 100,000 people—an island of slapdash concrete homes amid shopping malls and highways in the city’s western Haidian district. Yet authorities recently announced plans to tear the neighborhood down by mid-2016 to make way for a “green space” and an office park.

Its residents, many of them lowwage laborers from the countryside, expect to spend the year mired in uncertainty, their lives uprooted amid a torrent of breakneck change.

Authorities “think if all the outsiders are gone, Beijing’s air will be cleaner and Beijing won’t have horrible traffic anymore,” said Zhu Yansen, a 61-year-old slipper-store owner from central China’s Hubei province. “I came here 20 years ago.

I’ve contributed a lot to this city. But if Beijing doesn’t welcome me, I won’t welcome Beijing either.”

For decades, China’s economy was developing at a breakneck clip, propelling the country up on a seemingly endless trajectory.

Yet for many, the last year has been one of disruption and disappointment. Economic growth slowed to its lowest rate in decades.

In the summer, a stock market rout—and a botched intervention—eroded confidence in the country’s financial markets.

Worsening pollution has raised widespread questions about whether the costs of a long-held growth-first economic model have outweighed the benefits.

“I think 2016 is going to be a testing year for the country, and for the [Communist] Party as a whole—and for [Chinese President] Xi Jinping himself as well,” said Steve Tsang, head of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham. “The economic slowdown is probably not going to be reversed, unless something that we can’t expect happens. So things will get more difficult.”

250M+ China’s army of migrant workers China, in many ways, is a much stronger and more confident place than it was years ago, when the country’s economic boom was in full swing.

Throughout 2015, Beijing pursued controversial territorial claims in the East and South China Seas with surprising vigor, even going so far as to build artificial islands on a disputed reef near the Philippines.

Authorities have launched vast new foreign policy initiatives, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank—a homegrown rival to the World Bank—and the “One Belt, One Road” project, which will establish new trade and transportation routes across Europe and Asia.

“China will always open its arms to the world,” Xi said on Thursday in a New Year’s greeting.

Yet Dongsheng residents, most of whom belong to China’s 250-million-plus army of migrant workers, are less concerned about their country’s rising international profile than about keeping their families fed.

In this district’s Shenghongda Small Goods City, a line of dilapidat-

ed wholesale shops near a massive highway, residents were divided over how to handle the demolition. Some said that they’ll take the authorities’ compensation packages and move to Hebei, an impoverished province that surrounds Beijing; others plan to hold out for better offers.

Yin Wenfang, a 29-year-old shopkeeper from Hubei province, said she recently sent her young son back to her hometown to be raised by his grandparents. “All the other buildings around us are tall and fancy, and they built a new subway station recently, so I knew that demolition was on its way,” she said. “It was just a matter of time.”

How the public will react to the disruption brought about by slower growth is a substantial concern for the Chinese government, analysts said.

“With the economic slowdown, and with jobs probably being lost, people start moving, and there’s more [the government] needs to think about in terms of social stability,” Tsang said. “And the Xi Jinping administration, up to this point, has clearly paid a huge amount of attention to maintaining social stability.”

The last year has put even wellestablished residents of the capital on edge, not least because they spent much of it living in a cloud of noxious vapor. Officials have promised action, yet a fierce bout of smog

21% wind and solar power capacity expected to rise in December has led many citizens to expect more time living with face masks, air purifiers and general respiratory discomfort.

“I do wish the smog will be much better next year,” said Zhang Yixin, 34, an employee at an English training center in Beijing and father of an 8-year-old son. “I hope next year there will be fewer days that my boy has to stay at home. … He looks much paler than I did when I was young.”

Some Beijing residents have found room for optimism. Although the Chinese economy has taken a recent beating—exports and imports have fallen, and manufacturing has slumped—a handful of bright spots remain. In 2016, experts expect the country’s cinema box-office sales to jump 30 percent, and policymakers say wind and solar power capacity will rise by 21 percent.

“Chinese people can’t afford to be too hopeless,” said Fan Xin, 39, an assistant at an insurance company in Beijing. “We need to be vigilant, but optimism is a blessing in bad times.” Los Angeles Times/TNS

Somali militants use Trump’s video clip to recruit followers

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OGADISHU, Somalia—AlQaida’s East African affiliate has released a recruitment video targeting American blacks and Muslims that includes a clip of presidential candidate Donald Trump calling for Muslims to be banned from entering the United States.

The 51-minute video by the Somalia based al-Shabab militant group presents the US as a country of institutionalized racism against blacks that also persecutes Muslims. The video presents radical Islam as the solution.

The clip of Trump on the campaign trail consists of his infamous proposal for the “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” to protect the country.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had earlier claimed that the Islamic State group, another extrem-

ist organization, was using such quotes to recruit followers, prompting Trump to call her a “liar.”

The quotes from Trump are bracketed by a recorded speech from Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the most prominent Englishlanguage recruiters for al-Qaida who was killed by a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011, warning that the US would turn against its Muslims.

The video was released on Twitter on Friday, according to the SITE Intel monitoring group and tells the story of several Americans from Minnesota that joined al-Shabab and were killed in the fighting in Somalia, holding them up as examples to be followed.

Using footage from recent racial conflicts in the US as well as historic quotes from Malcolm X, the video lays out the argument that blacks and

Muslims will always face discrimination in the US and should join jihadi movements to fight back.

Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, said he won’t comment on any particular presidential candidate’s remarks, but the administration has long warned that terrorist organizations will take advantage of any notion that the US is at war with Islam.

Rhodes said he would hope that American send a message that rejects the notion that the US and Islam are at war, and instead emphasize the contributions of Muslim-Americans.

“We’re at war with terrorists. We’re not at war with Islam,” Rhodes said.

“The terrorists want us to act like we’re at war with Islam. That’s how they recruit people. That’s how they stir up grievances. To defeat terror-

ists, we need to kill terrorists on the battlefield, but we also need to defeat this narrative that allows them to recruit people.”

Al-Shabab is fighting the internationally backed Somali government. It was pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011 with the help of African Union troops.

The militants have still carried out numerous guerrilla attacks in Somalia and the countries contributing troops, including Kenya, Djibouti and Uganda.

Trump, who is leading in polls in the race to be the Republican candidate in next year’s presidential election, has been rebuked by both Democratic and Republican candidates for their parties’ nomination, for his proposed ban on Muslims in early December.

Clinton’s campaign declined to comment on the video. AP

IN this file photo, an armed member of the militant group al-Shabab attends a rally in support of the merger of the Somali militant group al-Shabab with al-Qaida, on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia. AP

BusinessMirror

World The

A7 | Monday, January 4, 2016 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

SMOKE rises as Iranian protesters set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Sunday. Protesters, upset over the execution of a Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia, set fires to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. MOHAMMADREZA NADIMI/ISNA VIA AP

AFTER CLERIC EXECUTION

Iranian protesters damage Saudi Embassy in Tehran

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EHRAN, Iran—Protesters in Iran, angered by the execution

by Saudi Arabia of a prominent Shiite cleric, broke into the Saudi Embassy in Tehran early on Sunday, setting fires and throwing papers from the roof, Iranian media reported.

157

Executions carried out in Saudi Arabia in 2015

The semiofficial Isna news agency said the country’s top police official, Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, rushed to the scene and the police worked to disperse the crowd outraged by the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Shiite leaders in Iran and other countries across the Middle East swiftly condemned Riyadh and warned of sectarian backlash.

Saudi Arabia’s execution on Saturday of 47 prisoners, which also included al-Qaeda detainees, threatened to further enflame Sunni-Shiite tensions in a regional struggle playing out between the Sunni kingdom and its foe Iran, a predominantly Shiite nation.

While Saudi Arabia insisted the executions were part of a justified war on terrorism, Iranian politicians warned that the Saudi monarchy would pay a heavy price for the death of al-Nimr.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Iran’s envoy to the kingdom to protest the critical Iranian reaction to the sheikh’s execution, saying it represented “blatant interference” in its internal affairs.

In Tehran the crowd gathered outside the Saudi Embassy and chanted anti-Saudi slogans. Some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy, setting off a fire in part of the building, Sajedinia told the

semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

“Some of them entered the embassy. Currently, individuals who entered the embassy have been transferred out [of the building].

However, a large crowd is still there in front of the embassy,” Sajedinia told Isna early on Sunday.

Some of the protesters broke into the embassy and threw papers off the roof, and the police worked to disperse the crowd, Sajedinia told Isna. He later told Tasnim that the police had removed the protesters from the building and arrested some of them. He said the situation outside the embassy “had been defused.”

Al-Nimr’s execution promises to open a rancorous new chapter in the ongoing Sunni-Shiite power struggle playing out across the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia and Iran as the primary antagonists. The two regional powers already back opposing sides in civil wars in Yemen and in Syria.

Saudi Arabia was also a vocal critic of the recent Iranian agreement with world powers that ends international economic sanctions in exchange for limits on the Iranian nuclear program.

The cleric’s execution could also complicate Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq. The Saudi Embassy in Baghdad reopened for the first time in nearly 25 years on Friday. Already on Saturday there were public calls for Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to shut the embassy down again.

Al-Abadi tweeted on Saturday night that he was “shocked and saddened” by al-Nimr’s execution, adding that, “peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does not last.”

Hundreds of al-Nimr’s supporters also protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighboring Bahrain where the police fired tear gas and bird shot, and as far away as northern India.

The sheikh’s brother, Mohammed

11

Number of months when executions occurred after Saudi issued a sweeping counterterrorism law

al-Nimr, said in a telephone interview that Saudi authorities told the family they had already buried the body, but didn’t tell them at which cemetery.

The family had hoped to bury his body in his hometown.

His funeral would likely have attracted thousands of supporters, including large numbers of protesters.

Instead the family planned to hold prayers and accept condolences at the mosque in a village near al-Qatif, where the sheikh used to pray.

A spokesman said in a statement that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was “deeply dismayed” over the Saudi Arabia executions, including that of Al-Nimr.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry said the cleric’s execution “strengthens our existing concerns about the growing tensions and the deepening rifts in the region.”

State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement that the US is “particularly concerned” that alNimr’s execution risked “exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced.”

He said the US is calling on Saudi Arabia to ensure fair judicial proceedings and permit peaceful expression of dissent while working with all community leaders to defuse tensions after the executions.

Al-Nimr’s death comes 11 months after Saudi Arabia issued a sweeping counterterrorism law after Arab Spring protests shook the region in 2011 and toppled several longtime autocrats. The law codified that the kingdom could prosecute as a terrorist anyone who demands reform, exposes corruption or otherwise engages in dissent or violence against the government.

The convictions of those executed on Saturday were issued by Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court, established in 2008 to try terrorism cases.

The executed al-Qaeda detainees were convicted of launching a spate of attacks against foreigners and

security forces a decade ago.

To counter Arab Spring rumblings that threatened to spill into eastern Saudi Arabia, the kingdom sent troops in 2011 to crush Shiite protests demanding more political powers from the Sunni-led, fraternal monarchy of Bahrain. More security forces were also deployed that year to contain protests in Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich east, where al-Nimr rallied youth who felt disenfranchised and persecuted.

A Saudi lawyer in the eastern region told The Associated Press that three other Shiite political detainees were also executed from among the 47. The lawyer spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Saudi Arabia says all those executed were convicted of acts of terrorism. AlNimr and the three others mentioned had been charged in connection with violence that led to the deaths of several protesters and police officers.

Saudi Arabia’s top cleric Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh defended the executions as in line with Islamic Shariah law. He described the executions as a “mercy to the prisoners” because it would save them from committing more evil acts and prevent chaos.

Islamic scholars around the world hold vastly different views on the application of the death penalty in Shariah law. Saudi Arabia’s judiciary adheres to one of the strictest interpretations, a Sunni Muslim ideology referred to as Wahhabism.

Saudi Arabia carries out most executions through beheading and sometimes in public and has drawn comparisons to extremist groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group—which also carry out public beheadings and claim to be implementing Shariah.

It strongly rejects the comparisons and points out that it has a judicial appeals process with executions ultimately aimed at combating crime.

The Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah issued a statement calling al-Nimr’s execution an “assassination” and an “ugly crime.” The group added that those who carry the “moral and direct responsibility for this crime are the United States and its allies who give direct protection to the Saudi regime.”

In a news conference on Saturday, Saudi Interior Ministry Spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said the executions were carried out inside prisons and not in public, as is sometimes the case. AP

France disputes over revoking citizenship of terrorists FRANCE’S President François Hollande (right) shakes hands with a foreign legionnaire as he visits the security measures at the Champs Elysees in Paris on December 31, 2015. Hollande has told the nation that the terrorist threat is still at its “highest level.”

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ARIS—The push by France’s Socialist government to revoke the citizenship of convicted terrorists with dual nationality after the Paris attacks has turned into a harsh political dispute, with the far right applauding the move while some on the left express indignation at what they call a divisive measure.

French President François Hollande submitted the proposal three days after the November 13 attacks in Paris that left 130 dead, in a shift toward a hard line on security. The idea appears to have strong support in French public opinion. Several polls over the past week suggest that 80 percent to 90 percent of the French are in favor of the measure.

Under current French law, citizenship revocation can only be applied to people who have been naturalized, not if they are French-born, and the procedure is rarely implemented.

The new rules would extend it to all dual nationals, but cannot be applied to people who are only French citizens, as France’s obligations under international law prevent it from leaving a person stateless.

Opponents of the measure consider it would create two classes of citizens—dual nationals who could lose their citizenship and others who cannot—in opposition to the principle of equality set out in France’s Constitution.

French authorities have not said how many of those arrested over the Paris attacks are dual nationals.

Prominent Socialist Party figures, including former Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, have publicly expressed their disapproval, but Hollande has stuck to his guns.

“France must take the good decisions beyond traditional party divisions,” the president said in his New Year’s Eve speech.

While the left is divided, Hollande is getting unusual support from the right.

The far-right National Front has claimed it is at the origin of the idea.

“Terrorists don’t deserve French citizenship, because French citizenship is an honor,” Vice President of the party Florian Philippot told France Info radio.

Members of the conservative opposition, including former President Nicolas Sarkozy, have also largely supported the proposal—while also calling for

AP/MICHEL EULER

more security measures.

The government says the new measure would apply to a very small number of people.

The issue remains highly sensitive in France as some have compared it to the revocation of citizenship of Jews and members of the French Resistance during World War II, when the government led

by Philippe Petain collaborated with German authorities.

The Vichy regime revoked the citizenship of more than 15,000 naturalized and 500 French-born people—including General Charles de Gaulle.

“It’s dangerous because you start wanting to revoke the citizenship of some people, then take a step further,” Socialist Sen. Samia Ghali said.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls defended the action this week. “This is a strong symbolic act that punishes those who excluded themselves from the national community. Nothing less, nothing more,” he said in a written statement.

France first adopted the revocation of citizenship in 1848 for those who refused to accept the abolition of slavery, Valls recalled.

The constitutional change, to be debated in Parliament in February, requires a three-fifths majority vote from lawmakers.

About 50 human-rights and anti-racist organizations and unions have launched a petition to reject the measure.

Some human-rights defenders consider the proposal implicitly targets France’s Muslim community, the largest in Western Europe—including many French-born with Moroccan, Tunisian or Algerian origins who have both citizenships.

The Paris attacks, which left 130 dead and hundreds wounded, were carried out in the name of the Islamic State group largely by French and Belgian extremists.

Some of them were of Moroccan descent.

The possibility of revoking the citizenship of all dual nationals—not only the naturalized ones—already exists in Britain, Canada and the Netherlands.

In the US, a person can have his naturalization revoked for being a member of the Communist party, another totalitarian party or a terrorist organization within five years of his or her naturalization. The measure does not apply to natural-born US citizens. AP

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A STREET vendor walks past a giant Greek flag which reads “Greece, I love you, I will never sell you out” outside the Greek Parliament during a 24-hour nationwide general strike in Athens last November 12. AP/PETROS GIANNAKOURIS

GREEK Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras speaks with the media after a meeting of euro zone heads of state at the European Union Council building in Brussels on July 13, 2015. AP/GEERT VANDEN WIJNGAERT

AFTER A DAUNTING 2015

EU faces year of li

A CHILD is helped to cross from Serbia to Hungary through the barbed wire fence near Roszke, southern Hungary, on August 27, 2015. AP/DARKO BANDIC

BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron pauses before speaking during a final media conference after an EU summit in Brussels on June 26, 2015. AP/VIRGINIA MAYO

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual end of year news conference in Moscow, Russia. Putin says that Russia’s economy is showing signs of stabilization despite plummeting oil prices. AP/ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO

CAMERON (right) speaks with Tsipras during a meeting on the sidelines of an European Union (EU) summit in Brussels last December 17. EU heads of state met to discuss, among other issues, the current migration crisis and terrorism. STEPHANIE LECOCQ, POOL PHOTO VIA AP

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RUSSELS—If the year that was turned out to be daunting, 2016 is shaping up as the European Union’s (EU) year of living dangerously.

The cliffhanger to keep Greece from bankruptcy and in the euro currency during high summer was chilling enough, even before nations, like Hungary, ramped up their rhetoric over the inf lux of migrants and razor wire border fences were spun out over hundreds of miles, further highlighting the increasing weakness of the EU to speak with one voice.

Still, 2015 mainly involved minor countries with limited economic and political clout punching—and shouting—well above their weight.

The year 2016, however, will center on a juggernaut like Britain and an increasingly assertive Poland, both of which could become much more than a thorn in the EU’s side. An economic recovery that keeps stalling on cooling relations with Moscow doesn’t help. And none of that takes into account the looming possibility of another terror attack that could further damage the soul of the continent.

“The past year was full of unexpected plots and turns and the New Year will be no different,” Prof. Hendrik Vos of Ghent University said. Where even to start? Well, British Prime Minister David Cameron made that easy by setting a February summit of government leaders to find a deal on how to revamp the EU so that Britain could remain a member, and a more committed one at that.

“Uncertainty about the future

1M

Number of refugees mostly from war-torn Middle East who have arrived in EU

of the UK in the European Union is a destabilizing factor,” EU Council President Donald Tusk said ahead of the year-end EU summit. Many differences remain within the realm of compromise, but British insistence to make it harder for EU citizens living and working in Britain to get social and welfare benefits remains a fundamental dispute in a bloc that strives for equality among all.

Talk is that a referendum on whether to stay in the EU could come as soon as next summer, well ahead of the end-of-2017 deadline, and the result could become the EU’s defining moment of the year.

“I certainly don’t exclude that the British will decide to leave the EU,” Vos said. And some, high up in the meeting rooms of the EU institutions, fear that could be the tipping point that starts the bloc unraveling for good.

The EU has been on a slide after

the major expansion into Eastern Europe in 2004 with treaty rejections, financial crises and internal dissent. And after helping new eastern members raise living standards and confidence, it is now getting a backlash of criticism from nations like Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.

EU relations with Poland have taken a dip since a new conservative and nationalist government took office last November and started stressing Polish interests at the cost of the common EU good. As a symbol, Prime Minister Beata Szydlo removed EU flags as a backdrop to weekly government news conferences, saying they will be held only against the backdrop of the “most beautiful white-and-red” Polish flags.

The European Commission, for its part, has started criticizing Poland much like it has Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has consolidated power by weakening the judiciary, the media and other institutions.

Germany’s EU commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, told Wednesday’s edition of the Bild daily that an increase in populist governments within the EU worries him. “For the first time, I see a serious danger that the EU could disintegrate.”

When it comes to the refugee crisis, unity was even harder to come by with many eastern nations flat-out refusing to take in a share of refugees who have flocked to wealthy heartland nations like Germany. The 2015 figure of people fleeing conflict or poverty who have arrived in the EU by sea this year hit the 1-million mark, and after the traditional winter lull, the challenge will be to keep the number much lower next year.

€86B Bailout amount to Greece

The role of German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be key again.

She will try to galvanize the EU into a united response and to get others to share the refugee burden that already created massive political pressure at home to stem the influx.

Merkel still hopes other EU nations will get the message and things will click into place. “We must now learn how to deal with a completely new phenomenon,” she said. “And I trust that, with goodwill, this will then happen slowly and step by step,” she said.

And it’s unlikely the economy will be of much help in shoring things up. Even if Europe enjoys a modest economic recovery in 2016, it will only be with the help of very low oil prices and massive monetary stimulus by t he Eu ropea n Cent ra l Ba n k .

The EU executive commission in Brussels forecasts growth of 1.8 percent in 2016.

Unemploy ment shou ld fa l l modestly to 10.6 percent from 11.0 percent this year, but massive disparities between nations like Germany with low jobless rates, and Greece and Spain with painfully high ones are expected to persist.

After a year in which its woes almost pushed it out of the shared euro currency, Greece faces more economic and political struggles in 2016. The government must push through painful reforms

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Health care-repeal vote to open political year in Congress

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iving dangerously

A S H I N G T O N — I t ’s been like a long-delayed New Year’s resolution for Republicans. But 2016 will finally be the year when they put legislation on President Barack Obama’s desk repealing his healthcare reform law.

The bill undoing the president ’s sig n at u re leg i sl at ive achievement will be the first order of business when the House reconvenes this coming week, marking a sharply partisan start on Capitol Hill to a congressional year in which legislating may take a back seat to politics.

There are few areas of potential compromise between Obama and the Republican majority in the House and Senate in this election year, but plenty of opportunities for scoring political points during the presidential campaign season. Three senators—Ted Cruz of Texas, Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky—are seeking the Republican presidential nomination. Obama will veto the health care law-repeal bill, which also would cut money for women’s health provider Planned Parenthood. The measure already has passed the Senate under special rules protecting it from Democratic obstruction. But that’s the point for Republicans, who intend to schedule a veto override vote for January 22, when antiabortion activists hold their annual march in Washington to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in 1973 that legalized abortion nationwide.

Despite dozens of past votes to repeal the health law in full or in part, Republicans never before have succeeded in sending a full repeal bill to the White House.

They insist that doing so will fulfill promises to their constituents while highlighting the clear choice facing voters in the November presidential election.

Every Republican candidate has pledged to undo the health law. The Democrats running for president would keep it in place or extend it.

“You’re going to see us put a bill on the President’s desk going after Obamacare and Planned Parenthood so we’ll finally get a bill on his desk to veto,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told conservative radio talk show host Bill Bennett over the holidays. “Then you’re going to see the House Republican Conference, working with our senators, coming out with a bold agenda that we’re

going to lay out for the country, to say how we would do things very differently,” Ryan said. In the Senate, which reconvenes on January 11, a week later than the House, early action will include a vote on a proposal by Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who is running for president, for an “audit” of the Federal Reserve. Democrats are likely to block it. But, like the health-repeal bill in the House, the vote will answer conservative demands in an election year.

Also expected early in the Senate’s year is legislation dealing with Syrian refugees, following House passage of a bill clamping down on the refugee program.

Conservatives were angry when the year ended without the bill advancing. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell promised a vote, though without specifying whether it would be the House bill or something else.

The House Benghazi committee will continue its investigation of the attacks that killed four Americans in Libya in 2012, with an interview of former Central Intelligence Agency Director David Petraeus on January 6. That comes amid new Democratic accusations of political motives aimed at Hillary Clinton after the committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for president.

Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, was secretary of state at the time of the Benghazi attacks.

The bold agenda promised by Ryan after succeeding Rep. John Boehner as speaker last fall will begin to take shape at a HouseSenate Republican retreat this month in Baltimore. Thus, far, Ryan has pledged efforts to overhaul the tax system and offer a Republican alternative to the health overhaul. In the Senate McConnell’s primary focus is protecting the handful of vulnerable Republican senators whose seats are at risk as Democrats fight to regain the Senate majority they lost a year ago. That means weighing the political risks and benefits of every potential vote to endangered incumbents in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.

That could determine whether McConnell allows criminal justice overhaul legislation—the one issue cited by Obama and lawmakers of both parties as ripe for compromise—to come to the floor. AP

Italy confirms higher cancer, death rates from mob dumping

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MIGRANTS, whose boat stalled at sea while crossing from Turkey to Greece, swim to approach a shore of the island of Lesbos, Greece, on September 20, 2015. AP/PETROS GIANNAKOURIS

1.8% EU forecast growth in 2016

to keep getting additional payouts from its €86-billion bailout

agreed to at a crucial summit last July. With only a three-seat majority in parliament, left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faces a struggle to pass potentially unpopular legislation raising taxes on farmers and putting the pension system on a more sustainable basis through benefit cuts or contribution increases.

The bigger question is whet her t he cou nt r y ’s l atest bailout has any chance to r ight

t h e g o v e r n m e n t ’s f i n a n c e s w it hout forg ive ness of pa r t of Greece’s debt bu rden, t he big gest in t he euro zone at, accord ing to Greek pred ict ions, 187.8 percent in 2016. Some economists say that amount of debt is too big to be brought dow n to more tolerable levels.

Adding to the unpredictabilit y of t he yea r, Spa in, t he EU ’s f ifth big gest economy, entered t he New Yea r w it h a pol it ica l

st a lemate fol low ing inconc lusive elect ions a nd wa s heading for u ncer t a int y t hat cou ld a f fect t he EU too. In a sense, though, the EU has dealt with a relentless crisis atmosphere for much of the past decade, and by now knows about ever y trick of the political trade to sur vive.

“Look at it from a distance, and the EU is always tougher, hangs together tighter, than people think,” Vos said. AP

OME—An Italian parliament-mandated health survey has confirmed higherthan-normal incidents of death and cancer among residents in and around Naples, thanks to decades of toxic waste dumping by the local Camorra mob.

The report by the National Institute of Health said it was “critical” to address the rates of babies in the provinces of Naples and Caserta, who are being hospitalized in the first year of life for “excessive” instances of tumors, especially brain tumors.

The report, which updated an initial one in 2014, blamed the higher-than-usual rates on “ascertained or suspected exposure to a combination of environmental contaminants that can be emitted or released from illegal hazardous waste dump sites and/or the uncontrolled burning of both urban and hazardous waste.” Residents have long complained about adverse health effects from the dumping, which has poisoned the underground wells that irrigate the farmland which provides vegetables for much of Italy’s center and south. Over the years, police have sequestered dozens of fields

because their irrigation wells contained high levels of lead, arsenic and the industrial solvent tetrachloride.

Authorities say the contamination is due to the Camorra’s multibillion-dollar racket in disposing of toxic waste, mainly from industries in Italy’s wealthy north that ask no questions about where the garbage goes as long as it’s taken off their hands—for a fraction of the cost of legal disposal.

In recent years Camorra turncoats have revealed how the mafia racket works, directing police to specific sites where toxic garbage was dumped.

In 2014 parliament passed a law mandating the National Institute of Health, a public institution under the Health Ministry, to report on the rates of death, hospitalization and cancer in the 55 municipalities in the so-called Land of Fires.

The new report, released on December 30 with little fanfare, confirmed what residents have long known, an area priest, the Rev. Maurizio Patriciello, wrote on Saturday in Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference which has long advocated on behalf of the area’s residents. AP

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

A10 Monday, January 4, 2016

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Reliving a Christmas tradition in Bicol

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N many rural areas in the Philippines, the birth of Jesus Christ is reenacted during Christmastime, which invariably involves dancing and singing. It goes by different names in various provinces, but is practiced more widely in the Bicol region as “Pastores” as an annual musical event.

BIKOL Pastores dancers

PASTORES Bikol

One of the country’s century-old Christmas traditions, Pastores Bikol depicts the shepherds’s jubilation on the birth of the Christ Child. It features musical groups interpreting “Pastores A Belen [Shepherds to Bethlehem],” a Spanish song composed by national hero Dr. Jose Rizal while on exile in Dapitan.

It is performed by gaily dressed young boys and girls in colorfully decorated hats and arches, and accompanied by musicians, usually

guitarists and light percussionists.

Introduced by Spanish priests in the late 1800s, Pastores has spread throughout the region and has become a regular part of the Yuletide season in the region. Albay, one of Bicolandia’s important centers of history and culture, has become the home of the Pastores, as it is widely practiced here.

It is interesting to note that there are variations in the Pastores Bikol across the region because of its var-

ied cultural influences, indigenous traditions and ethnolinguistic differences. In some renditions, carols sung in the vernacular are integrated, thus, providing a fusion of Spanish and Bicol motifs.

The late National Artist Ramon Obusan, founder of the famed Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group and a native of Camarines Norte, put choreography to the song to portray the Bicol folk’s jovial nature.

In the 1970s Legazpi City-based

radio station People’s Broadcasting Network (PBN- DZGB) revived the tradition by launching a contest among students and youths. Its role has become pivotal because it has made a dying tradition a household tune once more by saturating the airwaves with the Christmas melody.

It is then common to see Pastores dancers serenading households and establishments in town centers during the Yuletide, in place of the usual caroling.

A DIFFERENT BREED OF SPORTS

IS ENTERTAINMENT, TOO

FLOW boarding is a simulation of water surfing.

B V V

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HE last time I was this fat was when I was 10 years old, days when I could get along just fine playing slide alone at the playground because nobody wanted to play with a “fat boy” like me. I was too fat, I couldn’t catch up with my childhood friends when we played tag, so that I would stand there panting: “Time first! Time first!” Worse, I was too fat, I would often either get bruises from a bad fall or accidentally bang my shin on the slide’s iron. There was even a time I slid real hard— “Woooo-hoooo!”—that my butt hurt from too much friction, only to realize later when I touched it that I had a gaping slit on the rear of my short.

With the waterslide concept integrated to most swim-pool play facilities then yet alien to me, I thought that if only I could invent a waterslide, fat boys who want to play slide would never get a slit on the rear ever again.

COLORFUL flow boards are ready for action.

Twelve years later, I stumbled upon Flow House Manila, the firstever flow-boarding facility in the Philippines, and I realized that there’s more to an inclined plane with a robust gush of water than the thrill of a wet and slick descent.

For flow boarding is, well, a “board sport,” which means it makes fat people avoid slit shorts not by preventing friction, but by working out the physicals—and, eventually, makes you lose weight—because flow boarding involves just about every part of your bod.

In a flow house, there’s a flow rider, a trampoline-ish inclined plane with a pool of water, which, blowing 60° at 40 kilometers per hour, is strong enough to make you levitate on your board on the water one moment, and send you tumbling violently to the other pole on a wipeout the very next. When flowboarding, one can either plank (body boarding) supinely or stand

(standup boarding) on the board. It’s in every inch a simulation of water surfing, except that the ride is different in that you exert the pressure on your surf board against the front, while you lean back on a flow board (which is also thinner and lighter), against the force of the water.

If you’ve got enough of a boring beer bong back-dropped with lousy singing and dancing, FlowHouse Manila is also the place-to-be for ambient eating and drinking, as it also integrated a bar-slash-restaurant devoid of tropical songstresses, but with the flow boarders flipping and bucking as amusements.

Having opened only in April last year, Flow House Manila has also formed a precocious ensemble of national representatives to international flow-boarding competitions abroad, most recently in Thailand.

Flow House Manila is in Seasons Molino, Molino Boulevard corner Masaito Drive, Bacoor, Cavite.

WHEN flow boarding, you can plank or stand on the board.

Later on, the Department of Tourism-Region 5, the Albay provincial government and the Legazpi City government joined the efforts to preserve the tradition, thus, making it a much sought-after event come Yuletide.

In 2012 the festivity opened a category for elementary students, which is called the Bulilit Pastores, to inculcate the cultural value of the Christmas tradition among children.

This year’s Pastores Bikol was launched at the Peñaranda Park in

Legazpi City, in conjunction with Albay’s monthlong Karangahan Green Christmas Festival, which also features a food fair of popular homegrown restaurants, environmental practices, and a host of cultural and entertainment activities.

Bicolanos are optimistic that with the people’s participation and renewed enthusiasm, this meaningful age-old Christmas celebration will be passed on to the succeeding generations.

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Monday, January 4, 2016 A11

COME AGAIN TO CAM NORTE

MACULABO Island in Paracale

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COLASI Falls in Mercedes

B B L. S

ITH the resounding success of the Visit Philippines Year 2015 which is about to conclude, the Department of Tourism will launch another program to reward and entice tourists to visit the country again in its yearlong campaign. In keeping with this national trend, the comely province of Camarines Norte recently rolled off its local campaign “Come Again to Cam Norte” to lure travelers back into its loving arms.

Bicol’s northern frontier, however, has a series of getaways that will make you come back again and again, with or without the enticing slogans.

Calaguas Islands

THIS not-so-secret iconic getaway hugged the limelight when it was named the top Tourism Gem in an online poll of Isla Lipana & Co. Located two hours from the mainland, the heart of the Calaguas archipelago is Tinaga Island which is reputed for its mile-long powdery sand and crystalline water. Its back-to-the-basics allure of roughing it out under the stars is its main come-on. For a dash of comfort, there is Waling Waling Resort, which offers comfy tropical lodging. If you’re tempted to call it the “next Boracay,” locals

would rather like to hear you say it was Boracay of 30 years ago.

Beach-bumming and island-hopping

WITH a long Pacific coastline, CamNorte is punctuated with fine beaches—San Jose Beach (Talisay), Pulang Daga (Paracale), Cayucyucan (Mercedes), Mangcamagong (Basud) and Calalanay (Panganiban).

San Jose, adjacent to Bagasbas, is also an alternative surfing spot.

Sunsets in Pulang Daga are kaleidoscopic, Cayucyucan is child-friendly with its shallow waters, while Mangcamagong has the mountain ranges as a dramatic backdrop.

Maculabo and Quinamanokan are powdery islands just a few minutes away from mainland.

Half an hour away from Mercedes town is Siete Pecados consisting of

Huma Island Resort & Spa at the World Travel Mart 2015

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UYERS from the UK, Germany, France, Russia, Switzerland and more were in attendance in one of the travel industry’s most important events of the year. Huma Island Resort & Spa was among this year’s delegates under the Philippine Department of Tourism, targeting the elite adventurous traveler.

A cocktail reception was hosted by Huma Island Resort & Spa in cooperation with premium Lebanese wine Chateau Musar, which is also served at the resort.

Baron Travel’s Marilen Sandejas Yaptangco and Intas Travel, Fina Joven were one of the many World Travel Mart participants that were treated to a taste of the resort’s Middle-Eastern vibe and world renowned Filipino hospitality.

Huma Island Resort and Spa boasts its uninterrupted view of the ocean in their water villas with private, ample dining options serving the freshest catch of the day, colorful marine life, mysterious sunken wrecks of Japanese warships and planes, which are considered to be one of the best diving spots in the Philippines.

Travelers are treated with exclusivity

which starts with an hour and 20 minutes private seaplane ride from Manila Bay for an adventure getaway to recharge, feel more connected with nature, escape from the hustle and bustle of city life and discover a whole new world waiting for them to explore.

About Huma Island Resort & Spa

HUMA Island Resort & Spa is a new holiday destination for the elite traveler. It is a sanctuary It is a sanctuary for discoveries. With approximately 15 kilometers perimeter, Huma Island Resort & Spa has 81 spacious thatched roof high-ceiling villas and a vibrant plush interior rousing Middle Eastern vibe.

Huma Island Resort & Spa is owned and operated by a Kuwaiti Co., United International Hotels Group W.l.l. with international operations in Maldives, Oman, Hungary, Malta, the Philippines and Kuwait. UIHG WLL is part of ITHC group of companies (www.ithc.com.kw), owned by Dr. Hamad Al-Tuwaijri, a prominent and successful business figure in Kuwait.

CADIG Cave in Labo

KITEBOARDING in Bagasbas CHITO VECINA

the islands of Quinapaguian, Canton, Canimog, Apuao Grande, Apuao Pequeña, Caringo and Malasugui.

Apuao Grande is the most popular because of its powdery sand, Canton boasts of caves believed by many to be enchanted, while Caringo is known for its marine sanctuary where corals are largely untouched.

Agile beach lovers can paddle around the islands aboard a kayak which the Mercedes tourism office rents out. Back at Baybay Beach in the mainland, you can ride the waves aboard a kayak where moderate waves and shallow waters have made it a “kayak-surfing capital,” where newbies can test their paddling skills.

has become a playground for international kiteboarders because of the abundant Pacific wind. Ideal months for kite surfing are from November to March.

Lessons on both water sports can be had at rock-bottom rates.

Surfing and kiteboarding in Bagasbas Beach

LOCATED in Daet, this is a top destination for surfing greenhorns because of its sandy bottom and consistent waves whole year-round. It is recognized as the 62nd spot in the world’s surfing circuit and the first in the Philippines to be included in the said circuit.

You can level up and go kiteboarding, which combines surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding and wakeboarding with flying a kite. Bagasbas

Waterfalls trekking

THE mountainous terrain has gifted Cam Norte with enchanting cascades with tall drops. Nature lovers can enjoy adventure-filled hikes to the 70-foot-tall Colasi waterfalls in Mercedes; Nacali Falls in San Lorenzo Ruiz; San Felipe Twin Falls in Basud. In Labo; three waterfalls standout—Malatap and Binuang—which are just a few hundred meters away from the highway, while Maligaya Falls may be reached after an 8-kilometer trek. Mananap Falls in San Vicente is ideal because of its short hike, refreshing sights and cool waters.

Caving

TUCKED somewhere in the bosom of Mount Cadigin Labo town, Cadig Cave is a showpiece for adventure 101 or those who want to get initiated to spelunking. Composed of several dark compartments of stalactites and stalagmites, this cave

offers moderate difficulty in trekking and exploration, but never short on thrilling experiences you would want to do again.

Also within the town are the caves of Mambuaya and Pintong Gubat, which can heighten your craving for spelunking with their rich speleological properties.

Heritage spots

A MUST-SEE in Daetis is the First Rizal Monument, a white-stone obelisk which was unveiled on December 30, 1898. Situated at a riverine park, it holds the distinction of being the fi rst monument built in the honor of the national hero.

A few steps away is a memorial pedestal honoring the martyrs of the 1898 Daet Revolt against Spanish colonizers. Across the park is the Daet Heritage Center, the former municipal hall, which serves as the town’s museum and sociocivic center.

The Bulawan Museum at the Provincial Capitol Complex showcases Cam Norte’s noble heroes, archaeological finds, a portrait by prized Filipino artist Fernando Amorsolo, among others.

Considered a living museum is the Pabico Mansion, a 98-year-old

ancestral house, which is a mute witness to Cam Norte’s glorious bygone era. It takes pride in original features such as lattices, barandillas, murals, frescos, capiz windows and upright piano are well-preserved.

Bicol’s 400-year-old religious heritage is best represented by the Nuestra Senora de Candelaria Church in Paracale, founded by Franciscan missionaries in 1581 and became a parish in 1611. Other historic churches are Saint John the Baptist in Daet; the Saint Peter the Apostle in Vinzons; and Capalonga Church, home of the Black Nazarene whose devotees often come from the affluent “Chinoy” entrepreneurs.

Bite a spice of life

BICOL dishes comprise a tasty regional cuisine, with its distinctive use of chili pepper and gata (coconut milk). Laing, tinuktok (ground shrimp or crab wrapped in gabi leaves in gata), and kinunot (manta ray cooked in coconut milk), sinantol (ground santol meat with gata) are just a few of the must-try dishes.

Quaint local restaurants are Catherine’s at Lighthouse Resort, Central Plaza, and Golden Palace for Chinese cuisine, King Fisher for seafood, and Kay Sarap and Pratesi for the Filipino all-time favorites. Chef Mama, a gourmet resto, is known for Pinoy and fusion food such as Bicolinspired pizzas and pastas.

Souvenir shopping

PINEAPPLE and abaca are major products in the province, so items made from these fibers, such as bags, wallets and pineapple derivatives, are sold in the markets.

Best buys are Bicol’s signature pili nuts and dried seafoods. Pilipinya Pie, a fusion of pineapple and pili, is a must-taste. Angko, a specialty of Vinzons town, is a delectable sticky rice ball filled with peanuts and sweetener.

NEW FLY WITH ME ANIMAL RANGE OF TOYS AND LONELY PLANET ACTIVITY BAGS UNVEILED AS PART OF WIDER FAMILY OFFERING

Emirates launches new toys for young travelers

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O delight its young passengers, Emirates has released its newest range of toys, the Fly with Me Animals for infants and toddlers and especially designed Fly with Me Lonely Planet activity bags for those aged between 6 and 12. The new toys are now available onboard.

Emirates’s Fly with Me Animals is a new take on its signature kid’s products, replacing the popular Fly with Me Monsters. The toys are designed for infants and children up to 8 years old and are meant to be both entertaining and educational.

Each character represents a specific region and will help children learn more about its habitat.

The first four animals to make their debut onboard are: Lewis the Lion from Africa, Peek U the Panda from China, Enrico the Monkey from Latin America, and Leila the Camel from the Middle East. Four new Fly with Me Animals will be introduced every six months.

The animals will be featured across three product lines: the Travel Buddy, which comes with a plastic toggle allowing the

toy to be hung in the car, on a pram or in the cot; the Carry Buddy, a dual-purpose toy and blanket; as well as the Magnetic Sketcher for young ones to express themselves creatively.

The Fly With Me magazine onboard has also been revamped to feature the animals. The activity-filled publication is produced exclusively for Emirates’s young flyers.

“Over 4 million children travel with us each year, which makes young travelers among our most important customers. We know how challenging it can be for parents to keep their children occupied and happy on flights.

We’ve ensured that every aspect of the travel experience is catered for, from toys and kids’ entertainment to special meals onboard, and even family check-in areas. We are committed to ensuring a smooth travel experience for families,” said Adel Al Redha, Emirates executive vice president and chief operations officer.

In addition to the Fly with Me Animals, Emirates has partnered with Lonely

Planet to create activity bags containing travel content tailored for children.

The Fly with Me Lonely Planet products come in four variations—two specially designed Kid’s Retro-Style Rucksacks, and two Kid’s Cool Bags. These products will be refreshed every 12 months.

Each bag features different content to encourage a sense of adventure in young travelers. These include foldout world maps, travel journals, plastic drink bottles, cards with world facts and various educational books exclusive to Emirates.

Families can look forward to even more enhancements by the end of the year.

This includes a new range of kid’s greeting cards to celebrate special occasions onboard, and refreshed photo cards for cabin crew to capture special moments with an instant Polaroid camera.

Meal times onboard have also been given extra attention. The special meals offered to children aged between 2 and 12 will be served on newly designed meal trays featuring the iconic Emirates cabin crew and pilots.

Children traveling on Emirates will be kept occupied with its award-winning inflight entertainment system, ice Digital Widescreen, which features over 25 dedicated kids TV channels and over 40 classic Disney movies. They will be given specially designed smaller headphones that are comfortable and colorful with great sound quality.

On the ground, Emirates continues its exceptional family offering including a dedicated family check-in area in Dubai and priority boarding for families across all airports. In Emirates lounges across the network, the Fly with Me Animals will also be featured in two other unique product lines. The Cuddle Buddy, a soft comfort blanket for infants, and Fly with Me Animal Tin Cases with magnets and activity sheets for toddlers. Unique Fly with Me Lonely Planet cases will also be given out to older children. These toys and activity kits are in addition to the dedicated kids play area which feature arcade-quality games and playstation terminals in both First Class and Business Class lounges in Dubai.

A12

Science Monday BusinessMirror

Monday, January 4, 2016

Experts: GMOs could help solve food security in Cameroon

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AOU N DE , C a meroon— Cameroon is on the path to introduce genetically mod if ied organisms (GMOs).

This would be overseen by the Cameroon Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the National Biosafety Committee, if the Cameroon Cotton Corp. successfully implements a three-year test in the cultivation of cotton.

The introduction of GMOs is seen by many as a measure to improve Cameroon’s agricultural yields and guarantee food security, despite health risks as some have argued. “[GMO] will help Cameroon solve many problems, which researchers of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have not been able to solve using conventional selection and cross breeding. It will definitely guarantee food security and safety,” Dr. David Akuroh Mbah, chief research officer at the Cameroon Academy of Sciences, told Inter Press Service (IPS).

He says though Cameroon hasn’t begun using genetic engineering to modify food crops and livestock, “there are a good number of them which will be modified to increase yield. Some health problems will equally be solved. A lot of drugs and pharmaceutical products are produced by genetically modification of organisms, either plants or animals.”

According to Mbah, insulin, which is required almost on a daily basis by a good proportion of the Cameroon population, is now produced by use of bacteria and animals. “If it is done in Cameroon, it would be cheaper,” he said.

To explain his point, Mbah cites examples such as the African swine fever, bird-flu and a toxic element in cassava tubers which, he says, can all be eliminated through genetic modification.

“When we introduce this technology, we would be able to introduce genes that will eliminate the toxins in cassava, which is currently being consumed heavily by a majority of Cameroonians.

Genetic modification has been developed to eliminate the spread of bird-flu virus among humans, while increasing the production of chickens. GMO chickens are more resistant to the virus. A technique has also been discovered to make pigs immune to the African swine fever virus, but this is only done out of Cameroon for now,” he said.

T he countr y held its f irst national forum on GMOs from September 8 to 10, 2015, bringing together biotechnologists, academics, government officials, businessmen and experts from research institutions to brainstorm and pave the way for an effective introduction of use of bioengineering in the country’s agro sector.

Emmanuel Mbonde, the country’s minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, said that participants’ contributions to the forum will later on enable the government to take needed measures to guarantee the security of its economic, social, cultural and environmental space and to make prudent decisions in the face of challenges of modern biotechnology.

A 2014 report by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications shows Cameroon is among seven African countries (which include Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Egypt) engaged in test cultivation of GMOs. Mbah said besides the forum, Cameroon had already adopted a law in 2003 to control modern biotechnology, genetic engineering or DNA technology and cloning. “Now that the text of the application for the law has been signed, a National Biosafety Committee has been set up to guide the Ministry of Environment,

Nature Protection and Sustainable Development on what ty pe of biotechnolog y to author ize o r p r o h i b it .” T he Cameroon Academy of Sc ience a nd t he National Biosafety Committee would examine applications of private companies vying to use GMOs in Cameroon’s agriculture and livestock sectors.

Cameroon is currently testing the use of GMOs on cotton in three localities in the northern part of the country. The first phase of the testing was carried out in 2012, unannounced to the public.

According to Celestin Klassou, a researcher at Cameroon Cotton Development Corp., cotton produced during the first phase was resistant to pest and disease, and produced higher yields.

“There is a gene which is genetically engineered into the cotton.

It is an experimental stage being carried out by the Cameroon Cotton Development Corp. in accordance with the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Cameroon law,” Mbah said.

He noted that the same procedure would be used to improve agricultural production, adding that “people who are protesting against this system have insufficient information. We would not import GMOs from abroad. We will develop them here. However, there is a law which obliges traders to label products in shops so that citizens can choose freely between GMOs and natural products.”

Mbah also told IPS that GMOs would be introduced widely in Cameroon if the three-year-long second phase, which is ongoing in three localities in the northern region, is successful. The cotton corporation also produces edible cotton oil for commercialization.

Prof. Vincent Titanji, a Cameroonian biotechnologist and vice chancellor of the Cameroon Christian University Institute, reaffirms that the benefits of GMOs are greater than any negative effects they might have in the future.

“Remember that fire was discovered. It is both useful and harmful.

ICTs [information and communication technologies] are the same.

I have been in the domain of bioengineering for over 30 years and none of the predicted effects have materialized. It was predicted that weeds will invade the entire ecosystems of countries like Brazil, the US, South Africa and China, which produce GMOs massively. Even the toxic substances predicted have not materialized,” Titanji said.

The bio-technician urges Cameroonians to embrace the technology and master it, in order to be able to make the best out of it, and to effectively and efficiently handle any effects which may come up in future.

He says GMOs have been used on crops like maize, soya beans, sorghum, rice and cotton, and that the trials on cotton in the north of Cameroon have proven to be better yielding and resistant to pest.

“One or two negative effects, such as a possible allergy, should not scare people away from biotechnology,” Titanji said Samson Tetang, coordinator of a Cameroon-based non-governmental organization, Sustainable Society International, said GMOs are needed for the development of agriculture and livestock. He, however, insists there must be a mechanism for bio-surveillance put in place to follow the risks.

“Food shortage can be fought through the use of GMOs, but serious health hazards could be registered if no one monitors the plants and animals,” he said.

Marcel Moukend, an agro-engineer in charge of a National Support Program for Maize producers at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development told IPS that the introduction of GMOs in Cameroon is not an emergency solution to food crisis. IPS

www.businessmirror.com.ph

SC’s precautionary principle on GMO is unfounded–group

NON-BT eggplant with worms (left) and Bt eggplant without worms were harvested at the field trail site in Santa Maria, Bulacan, in 2010. LYN RESURRECCION

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IOTECHNOLOGY students from the University of the Philippines (UP) added their voices to the rising dissent to the recent Supreme Court (SC) ruling against Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) eggplant and appealed to the Court to “reconsider” its decision and “reflect on probable overwhelming consequences” of the ruling to the affected sectors.

The UP League of Agricultural Biotechnology Students (UP LABS) said in a statement that it is “deeply saddened” over the recent SC ruling against Bt talong (eggplant).

Farmers from the Philippines belonging to the Asian Farmers Network earlier said the SC ruling would cause the collapse of the corn industry in the country, affecting the economy and the lives of millions of farmers dependent on the industry. The Philippine Maize Federation Inc., likewise, said the SC decision to ban the field testing, commercialization and importation of GM crops could hurt the farm sector and the country’s bid for food self-sufficiency.

The UP LABS said the precautionary principle cited by the SC in its ruling was “unfounded ” because it was grounded on a misnomer that only naturally produced food are safe, while those manipulated by man “are assumed to be dangerous.”

The precautionary principle was based on a ruling in the 2010 Procedure for Environmental Cases of the Philippine Supreme Court that was invoked by the petitioners, including Greenpeace, against Bt eggplant and other GM products.

The principle states that if there is uncertainty in assessing the cause-and-effect relationship between human activities and the environment, actions shall be taken by the court considering the following factors: 1) threats to human life or health; 2) inequity to present or future generations; and 3) prejudice to the environment without legal consideration of the environmental rights of those affected.

“We believe that invoking the precautionary principle is danger-

ous as basis on the merits of this scientific case. Because on scientific cases, let us always put in mind the reason we conduct research. Risks are the reason there are regulations in the first place, and strict and proper regulations are there so any perceived risk is precluded,” the students’ statement said.

“We are firmly convinced that the precautionary principle isn’t in favor of any scientific advances that are being pushed in our country, since we all know that everything we do involves risks and the only way to know that something is safe is through tests and studies,” they added.

The students promoting biotechnology education in the country expressed its “appeal to the Supreme Court to reconsider their promulgated decision and reflect on probable overwhelming consequences for the affected sectors.”

They said: “We pray to the highly respected justices of our land… that they will understand and appreciate the life works of our scientists on proving the safety of GMOs [genetically modified organisms] through field trials.

We stand firm that our scientists, researchers and regulators are conducting the field trials in good faith. We salute our scientists for investing their time and efforts in advancing Philippine agriculture through modern biotechnology, and we pray that these may not be put to waste.”

At the same time, the biotech students said they were “greatly dismayed” on the SC’s nullification of the Department of Agriculture Administrative Order (DA-AO) 08, Series of 2002, or the Biosafety Policy on Genetically

Modified Crops in the country.

“The expanded decision of the SC will bring major setbacks against the stakeholders and industry in the agriculture sector,” they said.

DA AO 08-2002 is the policy on the importation and release into the environment of plants and plant products derived from the use of modern biotechnology.

This policy gives additional mandate to the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) on issuing permits to promote the safe and responsible use of biotechnology, and recognizes the policy of the state on acknowledging the potentials of modern biotechnology to improve the quality of life of the Filipino people.

“We believe that the biosafety regulation policy, through DA-AO 08-2002, is a workable yet highly monitored protocol for processing products of modern biotechnology,” the group said.

It added that in its 13 years of implementation of approval of the Bt corn in the Philippines, “no reported environmental and health problems were perceived from the consumption and production of Bt corn.”

“This was because before approval, strict food and environmental safety tests were conducted.

Also, the history of safe use of Bacillus thuringiensis can be traced back to the 1920s. This product has also been accepted by organic farmers for over 50 years.”

The students said the nullification of DA-AO 08 and subsequent halting of the application, commercialization and importation of GM crops until a new AO is promulgated “may decelerate agricultural development in the country.”

They said it may also affect research, discourage students and slowdown the corn industry in the country. They said, “This will also impede the continuing researches on other modern biotechnology projects [e.g. Golden Rice, virusresistant and delayed-ripening papaya and Bt cotton], consequently, these may cause the delay and loss of thesis and research grants for our fellow students, interns, researchers and scientists.”

With lesser opportunities in the Philippines, “the graduates may seek greener pastures in other countries,” and the youth might be discouraged to pursue a degree in specialized sciences because of the

lack of institutional support, appreciation and incentives.

They said more than 415,000 corn farmers, poultry and livestock growers, feed millers, will be greatly affected. “The P90-billion-worth corn industry may suffer major losses on their income. We may no longer be self-sufficient in corn production because of the decision.”

UP LABS said three developing countries have started developing the GM crop almost at the same time. India and the Philippines, which were expected to commercialize the product first, have been stopped due to rulings of the Executive and Judiciary branches of their respective governments.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, has already approved and has been consuming Bt eggplant since 2014.

“No incidence of harmful effects to the environment and humans were reported” since then, UP LABS said.

“Now, Bangladeshis benefits from the 70-percent to 90-percent reduction in insecticide use, consequently increasing the net income of their farmers—the true purpose of developing Bt crops,” the students said.

Respondents to the SC petition by anti-GMO groups are UP Los Baños (UPLB), UPLB Foundation Inc., DA-BPI, DA-Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environment Management Bureau, International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, among others.

The UP LABS statement was also supported by the Biology Majors Alliance of the Philippines, UP College of Agriculture Student Council, UP College of Science Student Council, UP School of Statistics Student Council, Rizal Technological University (RTU) College of Arts and Sciences Student Council, UP Agricultural Society, UPLB Chemical Society, UPLB Genetics Society, UP Pabvlvm Scientia Sodalitas, UPLB Department of Science and Technology Scholars’ Society, UP Beta Kappa Fraternity, UP Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Society, UP Physician-Scientists Association, RTU Organization of Biotechnology Students, Our Lady of Fatima University-Quezon City League of Biology Enthusiasts, and RTU Interactive Psychology Students Association. Lyn Resurreccion

DOST to lead Natl Time Consciousness Week

‘T

IME is a resource that is very important but often overlooked.” Science Secretary Mario G. Montejo made this statement as the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) once again will lead the whole nation in observance of the National Time Consciousness Week (NTCW) from January 4 to 8. The campaign enjoins all Filipinos to synchronize their watches with the official Philippine Standard Time

(PST) provided by the DOST’s Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.

The initiative aims to create a culture of discipline among Filipinos by allowing a shift from the so-called Filipino-time attitude to one characterized by punctuality to show respect to the value of time and to other people. “Other than its social and economic value, time is something that can unite

us Filipinos,” Montejo said. To promote the use of the PST and help ac h ieve t h is c u lt u re of punctuality by synching watches, clocks and even bundy clocks in offices, the DOST’s campaign, called “Juan Time,” was launched in September 2011.

The campaign helped push for the enactment of the Republic Act 10535, or the Philippine Standard Time Act of 2013, which requires all national and local government

offices, as well as broadcasting companies, to display PST in their time sources. Signed into law by President Aquino in May 2013, RA 10535 declared the first week of every year as National Time Consciousness Week. As a kick-off activity for the first-ever observance of the NTCW in 2014, the DOST led all government offices in the country in a simultaneous holding of their first flag ceremony for the year at exactly 8 a.m., on January 6, 2014.

Green Monday BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion | Monday, January 4, 2016 | A13

Bamboo plantations to boost supply for industries–DENR

BAMBOO plantations under a local cooperative’s intensive management in Anji, China. WWF CHINA

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B J L. M

ORE bamboo plantations will be established under the expanded coverage of the National Greening Program (NGP) to boost the supply of the important nontimber forest product to various industries, officials of the Philippines’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said last week.

Executive Order (EO) 879 promotes the use of bamboo as alternative to wood in the construction of school furniture. It mandates the use of bamboo as planting material with at least 20 percent of reforestation species annually.

While the order has not been strictly implemented because some NGP sites are not suited for

the species, bamboo, along with rattan, is part of the NGP commodity road map 2013-2016, Director Ricardo Calderon of the DENR’s Forest Management Bureau said.

Bamboo is widely used for construction and processed bamboo is used to make furniture and other handicraft products.

According to the International

Trade of Bamboo and Rattan 2012 report, the Philippines is the fifth most important exporter of bamboo products in the world. The top exporter is China.

The report said the Philippines produces and exports a significant amount of bamboo and rattan products. In 2012 the countr y’s total bamboo and rattan products reached $36 million, about 2 percent of the world exports.

The same report, however, said the export value of bamboo and rattan products from the Philippines decreased from $63.8 million in 2007 to $36.0 million in 2012, with an average annual decline of $5.6 million.

Under the NGP commodity roadmap, the target is to establish 54,000 hectares of bamboo plantations nationwide.

More areas are to be rehabilitated under the revised forestry master plan released by the DENR, which will require a hefty amount of P123 billion to increase the country’s forest cover by 3 million

hectares in the next 13 years.

Last month President Aquino signed EO 193 expanding the coverage of the NGP to cover the remaining 7.1 million hectares of open, degraded and denuded forest, consistent with the DENR’s forestry master plan 2015-2028.

Calderon, also the national coordinator of the NGP, said the implementation of the NGP commodity roadmap identifying the commodities to be planted under the program is on track.

He said the agency is now gearing up for the implementation of the expanded NGP. Meanwhile, the DENR’s Ecosystem Research and Development Bureau (ERDB) said it will embark on a research and development project for the mass production of quality planting materials of two commercially viable bamboo species using the tissue-culture technique.

Director Henr y Ador nado, chief of the DENR-ERDB, said the project aims to boost the supply of planting materials for the

massive reforestation program.

He said the tissue culture experiment for kawayan tinik (Bambusa blumeana) and giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper) will allow the agency to produce more quality bamboo planting materials.

The ERDB has recently partnered with the Philippine Army for the establishment of 3,100 hectares of bamboo plantation within Fort Magsaysay. So far, only 400 hectares have been planted, Adornado said.

He noted there is currently a shortage in supply of bamboo planting materials, thereby requiring the use of tissue-culture technique in order to support the demand.

“Other countries are doing this already. If they can do it, why can’t we do it?” Adornado said.

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has extensive research and development for various uses of bamboo that are ready for technology transfer.

Meanwhile, harvesting of bamboo within forest lands requires special permits, Calderon said.

COP21 solved a dilemma which delayed a global pact

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OME—One of the most significant aspects of the international conference on climate change, concluded in Paris last December 12, is that food security and ending hunger feature in the global agenda of the climate-change debate.

The text of the final agreement adopted by the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change recognizes “the fundamental priority of safeguarding food security and ending hunger and the special vulnerability of food systems production to the impacts of climate change.”

Indeed, of the 186 countries that presented voluntary plans to reduce emissions, around a hundred include measures related to land use and agriculture.

The approved program of measures constitutes a sector-by-sector program to be implemented by 2020, which implies there will be ongoing focus on agricultural issues and not just about energy, mitigation or transportation, which drew so much of the attention in Paris. In the next years the commitments must be implemented, which will require helping developing countries make necessary adaptations through technology transfer and capacity building.

The Green Climate Fund, mobilizing $100

billion by 2020 and provided by the industrialized countries, will be a key contributor to this process.

Contributions of additional resources to the Fund for the Least Developed Countries and the Adaptation Fund, among others, have also been announced.

The issue of future food production, long saddled with a low profile in the media, is increasingly a major concern and poses a challenge to governments. A recent World Bank report estimated that 100 million people could fall into poverty in the next 15 years due to climate change. Agricultural productivity will suffer, in turn causing higher food prices.

According to Jose Graziano da Silva, director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, “climate-change affects especially countries that have not contributed to causing the problem” and “particularly harms developing countries and the poorer classes.” The facts speak for themselves. The world’s 50 poorest countries combined, are responsible for only 1 percent of global greenhouse emissions, yet these nations are the ones most affected by climate change.

Approximately 75 percent of poor people suffering from food insecurity depend on agriculture and natural resources for their livelihoods. Under current projections, it will

be necessary to increase food production by 60 percent to feed the world’s population in 2050.

Yet, crop yields will, if current trends continue, fall by 10 percent to 20 percent in the same period, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and higher ocean temperatures will slash fishing yields by 40 percent.

One of the least-mentioned problems associated with climate change are the effects of droughts and floods, which have become a near constant reality. On top of the destruction of resources and huge losses brought by these phenomena, they also cause increases in food prices which, in turn, affects mainly the poor and most vulnerable.

Rising food prices have a direct relation to “climate migrants,” as the drop in production and income is one of the factors that triggers displacement from rural areas to cities, as well as from the poorest countries to those where there are potentially more opportunities to work and have a dignified life. For example, migration in Syria and Somalia are not driven by political conflicts or security issues alone, but also by drought and the consequent food shortages. This is why the Food and Agriculture Organization argues that we must simultaneously solve climate change and the great challenges of development and hunger.

A FILIPINO boy passes by a slogan during a rally in Manila on December 13, 2015, to criticize the agreement reached during the United Nations conference on climate change, Conference of Parties 21 in Paris. Nearly 200 nations adopted the first global pact to fight climate change, calling on the world to collectively cut and then eliminate greenhousegas pollution, but imposing no sanctions on countries that don’t. AP/AARON FAVILA

He rem i nded gat herers of bamboo in forest lands to secure the necessary permits from concerned DENR regional offices before harvest.

Besides cutting permit, gatherers are also required to secure a certificate of non-timber forest products origin (CNFPO) as specified in DENR Administrative Order 59 issued on September 30, 1993.

“Bamboo has t wo dif ferent classifications. If they are planted in private lands, they a r e c o n s i d e r e d a g r i c u lt u r a l products. But if they are planted in forest lands, they are nontimber forest products which require gatherers to secure a permit before harvest,” he said.

Securing permit for the collection and harvesting of bamboo in forest lands is specified in the Revised Forestry Administrative Order 11 issued on September 14, 1970. Applications for cutting permit may be filed through the concerned community environment and natural resource office.

A14 Monday, January 4, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Bashing Filipino beauty pageant winners

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hen you see a newspaper headline that reads, “Understanding the Philippines’ unhealthy obsession with beauty,” you can guarantee it was written by a Filipino in a foreign newspaper.

In this case, the article was published by The Straits Times in Singapore, authored by Raul Dancel.

Dancel falls back on the traditional bashing of Filipinos entering beauty contests by speaking of beauty in the eye of the Filipino as “towering height, chiseled chin, angular nose and fair skin”. In fairness to Dancel, the negative headline was more to get anti-Filipino Singaporean readers to click on the article. His article focused more on why Filipinos like beauty pageants rather than our supposed “unhealthy obsession”.

Actually, we think that some Singaporeans are just jealous of the Philippines’s international beauty-pageant success. Singapore’s Miss World entry for 2015 was born and raised in Myanmar and only become a citizen in 2007.

Comments about our own champion beauty Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach being of Filipina-German heritage are, therefore, inappropriate.

We do take objection with Dancel quoting University of the Philippines Prof. Andrew Evangelista, “an expert in queer sociology and popular culture,” saying another reason is that “we want to imagine ourselves as a nation of beautiful people.”

For Evangelista’s information, just about everyone on planet Earth, regardless of nationality or race, would like to imagine themselves as beautiful. Look no farther than the United States for an obsession with every beauty-pageant title, from Miss Garlic Festival and Miss Senior Sweetheart to Miss Pregnant.

Beauty pageants have been part of society since earliest Greece antiquity.

According to legend, a poor human goat herder—Paris—was forced to judge a beauty pageant of the goddesses Hera Aphrodite and Athena. According to the Athenian writer Apollodorus, “Hera said that if she were preferred to all women, she would give him the kingdom over all men, and Athena promised victory in war. Aphrodite offered the hand of Helen”. Paris selected Aphrodite in exchange for getting Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world.

That move eventually started the Trojan War. It is still difficult to be a beauty-pageant judge. Your decision is always wrong to someone.

It is true that as Dancel says we may “spend more on skin-whitening products than most everyone else in Asia”. However, white Americans may be obsessed with having brown skin like Filipinos. In 2014 more than 35 percent of American adults used a tanning bed, with 59 percent of college students and 17 percent of teens. Americans spent over $10 billion in tanning salons and over $5 billion on products to make their skin darker.

Dancel writes, “Three centuries of having Caucasians as masters” is the reason for our obsession for white skin. Maybe seeing Filipina beauty winners is the reason for the Americans’ obsession for browner skin.

“The grass may be greener on the other side of the hill” and skin may be more beautiful if it is whiter or browner, depending on which side of the world you live on.

2016 budget to sustain transformational programs Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

W

ith the nation going into holiday mode during Christmas week, an important development that took place during that time passed nearly unremarked—the enactment of the P3.0002-trillion national budget for 2016.

This is the last budget to be passed during the time of President Aquino, and it was made possible, he says in his December 22 speech at the signing of the 2016 General Appropriations Act, by the “meaningful cooperation between the Executive and Legislative, and with various institutions of government…,” adding that a record was set by this being the sixth consecutive year that the national budget was passed on time.

He added that at the start of his administration, they “dismantled the mechanism that made it easier to take advantage of and waste the money of the people” in the method of enactment of the national budget.

This illustrates very well the principles of good governance that have become the watchword of the Aquino government and the legacy of his administration.

Guided by the principles of daang matuwid, the budgets were delivered on time the past six years.

Wasteful spending was trimmed; budget leakages were plugged; and transparency was brought to the

budget by making information about it available online.

The 2016 national budget emphasizes social services. According to Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad, the P3-trillion 2016 national budget “will create greater inclusive growth.”

The 2016 budget at P3 trillion is double that of 2010. This is, Abad said, “not only our gift to the next administration, but our legacy to the country: A budget that is designed to serve the needs of the Filipino people.”

Abad added that because the government was able to collect “enough revenues without raising taxes,” it was possible to “spend more on social and economic services— demonstrating visible results that helped the public regain their trust in the government once more.”

The largest share of the 2016 budget—P436.5 billion—goes to the Department of Education, for the construction of almost 50,000 classrooms, procurement of 103.2 million new textbooks, and filling of almost 80,000 teaching and nonteaching positions.

T he Depar tment of Public Works and Highways will receive P400.4 billion for the “completion of all national roads and the implementation of f loodcontrol projects,” among other infrastructure projects.

Some P62.7 billion has been allocated for the expansion of the Conditional Cash-Transfer Program to assist 4.6 million household beneficiaries.

To prepare for climate change, P38.9 billion will go to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund, with some of these funds to go to “rehabilitation programs, including the Yolanda Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan.”

“Now that our term is coming to an end,” the President said, “we have given the next administration the capacity to continue, and even surpass, our efforts to continue the transformation which is taking place in our society.”

Just how much economic transformation has the daang matuwid brought about?

Last December 17 Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan revisited the country’s economic milestones for the past five years.

The economy, he said, “has been growing at an annual average of 6.2 percent as of 2014 since 2010,” with every reason to be confident that this high-growth pattern will “continue and even improve throughout next year and the succeeding administrations, given the reforms and long-term investments in infrastructure and human capital.”

While growth was below target, “at 3.7 percent in 2011, due to external events that disrupted global supply chains,” these events being the “tsunami in Japan, severe flooding in Thailand, political instability in some Middle East and African countries, euro debt crisis” and others, the economy recovered in 2012, with “GDP expanding by 6.7 percent.

In 2013 Balisacan said growth was at a higher average of 7.1 percent, this, “despite the devastation brought about by the Bohol earthquake and Supertyphoon Yolanda.” Strong consumer spending and higher investments, driven by “positive business and consumer sentiment, low interest rates, low inflation and sustained inflow of remittances from Filipinos overseas,” were among the factors that boosted the economy that year.

In 2014 he ascribed economic growth to private-sector efforts, with the growth rate that year hitting 6.1 percent.

This year average growth, so far, is at 5.6 percent. This makes the Philippines, he said, “one of the fastest-growing major economies in Asia, just after India, China and Vietnam.”

This is an optimistic picture for 2016 and well into the next few years, and can be brought about as long as the reforms and good-governance policies that have brought about economic and social transformation are sustained.

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

More and better PPPs in 2016 and beyond, please!

By Alberto C. Agra

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PPP Lead

ccording to the Philippine Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center, “There are currently 12 awarded projects in the Philippine PPP pipeline, with 14 other projects in different stages of procurement, two other projects for roll out, five projects for government approval and four projects with ongoing studies.” The PPP Center hopes to double the country’s PPP output before the end of the term of President Aquino.

The 26 projects consist of four roads, three rails, two transport terminals, three water, one market, six airports, one seaport and three information-technology projects.

There are also two school buildings, one hospital (but aborted) and one prison projects. The first cluster is popularly referred to as “hard” projects, while the second, “soft”. Soft

projects, while they have a physical component, have built-in social welfare- or development-related purposes.

(1) More “hard” and “soft” projects, please. The country needs more of both types. We need more “access” or “connectivity” projects, such as roads, bridges, airports, seaports, telecommu-

nications and terminals. We also need “platform” projects, such as reclamation and land development.

We also need more classrooms, prisons, health-care facilities, socialized-housing units, agriculturerelated projects and evacuation centers. Special emphasis should also be given to climate-change mitigation and adaptation projects.

(2) More “bundled” projects, please. For cost efficiency, synergy, faster turnaround and greater impact, “bundled” projects must be prioritized. Related activities may be combined in one project rather than procuring separate proponents for each activity. The terminal-mall, multiple airport and the three-inone dike-expressway-reclamation projects are examples of hard-hard bundled projects.

Hard and soft activities can also be fused. In fact, this should be the rule. Every PPP project should have a social-development aspect. The notion that PPP is only promoted to raise revenues to address resource scarcity should be disabused and

clarified. The bottom line of PPPs is to serve and be responsive to the general welfare and the public good.

When soft components are underscored, the true purpose of PPPs becomes evident. The public sector could also expect greater social acceptability and less protesters’ risk if the true meaning of PPPs is made more prominent. So high-end types of residential PPP projects can have socialized-housing units; reclamation projects can house schools and hospitals; and land-development projects can accommodate evacuation centers.

(3) More LGU projects, please.

Rather than diluting the powers of local government units (LGUs), LGUs must be encouraged to enter into more PPP projects. Less, instead of more, bureaucratic red tape should be the norm. We must all believe that there can be no national development without the development of LGUs and vice-versa.

LGUs are duty-bound to promote the general welfare. They See “PPPs,” A15

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

The taxes on your house and lot

Miss and Mister Universe of the accountancy profession Joel L. Tan-Torres

DEBIT CREDIT

Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan

H

legally speaking

appy New Year!

As 2016 kicks off, it also marks the beginning of settling our tax obligations on our house and lot. As property owners, the Local Government Code (LGC) of the Philippines mandates the payment of real property taxes (RPTs) every year.

For pur poses of R PT, real properties include land, building, machineries, improvements and condominium units. In assessing RPT on these properties, the local assessor shall compute the assessed value by multiplying the fair market value and the assessment level of the property. The assessed value is reflected in the tax declaration of the property.

The RPT due on these properties vary depending on where they are located. Real properties in cities and municipalities within Metro Manila are subject to a maximumum 2 percent on the assessed value, while those in the provinces are liable for RPT at 1 percent. In addition to these rates, property owners are also obliged to pay 1 percent, which shall exclusively accrue to the Special Education Fund of the local government unit (LGU). In sum, if the collecting LGU is a province, the RPT due shall not exceed 2 percent of the assessed value. If the collecting LGU is a city or a municipality within Metro Manila, the RPT liability shall not exceed 3 percent of the assessed value.

Propert y ow ners have the option to settle their RPT liability either in full or in four equal installments, which is on or before the last day of every quarter. If you opt to pay in installments, you must remember the following dates as the deadlines for the quarterly payments: March 31, June 30, September 30 and December 30.

Note that failure to settle your RPT liability on these deadlines would expose you to payment of interest, amounting to 2 percent per month on the unpaid amount.

However, the LGC places a cap on the said interests only up to 36 months, or 72 percent on the unpaid RPT. If you have continually not settled your deficient RPT, the

The RPT due on properties vary depending on where they are located. Real properties in cities and municipalities within Metro Manila are subject to a maximum 2 percent on the assessed value, while those in the provinces are liable for RPT at 1 percent. In addition to these rates, property owners are also obliged to pay 1 percent, which shall exclusively accrue to the Special Education Fund of the LGU. LGU may levy your property and sell in a public auction.

Hence, in order to avoid these instances in paying interest and the risk that your property will be sold, make sure to pay your RPT on schedule.

If you, however, want to save money, you may pay your RPT due promptly or in advance. Most LGUs, if not all, grant a 20-percent discount of the annual tax due if you pay in advance, or a 10-percent discount if you pay on time. Better check with the LGU where your property is located on how and when you can avail yourself of these discounts.

For sure, these discounts are substantial amounts that you can save or spend for other purposes.

As a reminder, settle your RPT as early as now.

E-mail me at lpkapunan@kapunanlaw.com for any questions.

(Continued from last week’s column)

T

he winners in the accountancy profession in 2015 can be likened to Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach who was able to accomplish an outstanding milestone when she bested the rest of the universe in winning her crown. As written in last week’s column, there are a lot of Miss/es Universe or Mister/s Universe winners in the accountancy sector who have done much extraordinary achievements in the profession in 2015.

In the accountancy profession, major structural changes were either initiated or completed during 2015. The Certified Public Accountant (CPA) board examination syllabi and Subjects were overhauled to make these more relevant and to meet the global standards. The major change here involved the shift to meet the requirements of an outcome-based education; the new focus on effective communication; the reduction in the number of board examination subjects from seven to six; and the introduction of a new subject called Regulatory Framework for Business Transactions. These changes will take effect on the May 2016 CPA board examination.

The Bachelor of Science in Accountancy (BSA) was also the subject of a major review and recommendation for revision. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Board of Accountancy (BOA) undertook a review of the existing BSA, which was introduced way back in 2007. Finding the need to address the requirements of the current time, industry and profession, important recommendations were formulated. The CHED and BOA reported the need to have four tracks in the accountancy education. These four are the existing BSA leading to the qualification for the taking of the CPA board examinations; and three new programs that include the BS Management Accounting, BS in Accounting Information Systems and BS in Internal Audit. The new accounting academic programs are expected to be in place

by School Year 2018.

A lot of efforts were extended on these major breakthrough events.

In all of these activities, there are again a sizable number of Mister/s and Miss/es Universe of the accountancy profession doing their share

and sharing in the achievements.

Other structural reforms where discussions have started in 2015 are the strengthening of the small and medium practices (SMPs); the upward adjustment of the audit threshold; and amendment of the Accountancy Law of 2004.

With the local and global developments, the SMPs have to strengthen their organization and practices for them to remain competitive and meet the growing demands of the market and the regulators. Thus, SMPs may need to consider consolidation or merger of practices to cope better in the business environment. The BOA has been discussing how to help the SMPs in this regard.

The audit threshold in the Tax Code prescribes that enterprises with sales exceeding P600,000 in a year are required to have and independent CPA perform audit work on their business. The BOA has formulated a solution that will address this impractical and unreasonable audit threshold presently in place.

It has started discussions with the other regulators, including Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), on how this system can be rationalized to benefit all stakeholders, including the small and medium enterprises, as well as the regulators.

Finally, Republic Act 9892, or the Accountancy Law, which defines the practice and regulation of accountancy in the Philippines, is in dire need of revisions. This law was passed way back in 2004, and the developments in the past years have made it imperative to amend the accountancy law. The BOA has been receiving and compiling suggestions from the various stakeholders on the provisions, which can be incorporated in a bill that can be submitted to

An advance for South Korea and Japan, at last

J

and Park from South Koreans who think the deal is a sellout. Fueled by century-old grievances, outbursts from both sides have torpedoed previous attempts at reconciliation.

A bitter territorial dispute over small islets in the Sea of Japan lingers. And for all the ties of tourism and trade, public sentiment in both countries is negative.

To overcome those pitfalls, Japanese and Korean leaders must reemphasize to their citizens the benefits of better ties. In addition

apanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has finally said he’s sorry, and now comes the hard part: repairing his country’s relationship with South Korea.

Japan’s reluctance to fully acknowledge its colonial and wartime crimes in Korea, where it forced local women to work in military brothels, has long been a source of deep acrimony between the two countries.

With an agreement announced on Monday, Japan will provide ¥1 billion ($8.3 million) to a fund for com-

PPP. . .

Continued from A14

can do so through PPPs. Autonomous regions, provinces, cities, municipalities and even barangays can implement “hard” and “soft” projects, as well. They are in a better position to address local concerns than other agencies that are not in the frontline or immersed in local conditions.

(4) More Mindanao projects, please. Aside from the PPP for classrooms, there is no other PPP project in Mindanao awarded under the build-operate-transfer law under this administration. There should be more. The infrastructure deficit is more glaring in the south. Power, water, airport, sea-

pensating victims. Both sides say that the issue is now resolved, and they have agreed not to raise it in forums such as the United Nations.

Domestically, however, both Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye will have a lot of work to do to manage the backlash: Abe from Japan’s never-say-sorry right wing, port, land development, disaster risk reduction, peace-related, rail and transportation projects must be identified and procured under this development strategy.

(5) Interagency PPPs, please.

Rather than just securing the consent of participating agencies or requiring them to purchase or sell services offered in PPP arrangements, another option that should be developed is interagency PPPs. Under this scheme, more than one government agency implements a project and signs the contract with the proponent.

An LGU and another LGU can undertake a solid waste-management project together with the private sector rather than just paying a tipping fee. A water district and an LGU can jointly under-

Monday, January 4, 2016 A15

take a bulk water-supply project rather than just being a buyer or supplier. T he Depar tment of Transportation and Communications, National Telecommunications Commission and a city can enter into a PPP for a telecommunication tower project.

(6) More innovative PPPs, please. Aside from the “run-ofthe-mill” PPP projects, more innovative projects must be explored.

Aside from the above, there should be bulk water-hydropower-irrigation, waste-to-energy, monorail, intra-Asean, bridges, LGU-wide and smart city-related PPP projects.

(7) Greater social accountability, please. Future-proofing PPPs is not about avoiding protests and suits from civil-society organizations (CSOs). CSOs should not

remain and should not be treated as fence sitters or rubber stamps.

They must be active participants in PPPs. CSOs must constructively engage the public and private proponents. They must have knowledge about PPPs and PPP contracts. They must be allowed to audit PPP projects. They must be allowed to vote in PPP awards, not just consulted.

With these seven, the future of PPP projects and development in the country ought to be bright.

Despite the challenges, delays and six evils/Cs, there is hope.

The degree of responsiveness rests on how innovative, market-driven and responsible our government officials and institutions are and will be. We hope that the next administration,

the next Congress for their consideration. This discussion will go full blast in 2016 to come up with proposals on the amendments that can be submitted to the next Congress.

The accomplishments achieved to date in the profession can be attributed to a great extent to the effective communication and interaction between the BOA and all its constituents and stakeholders. This interaction has been facilitated by the information and communication system that was put in place by the BOA for the accountancy sector. This includes the creation of the BOA web site (boa.com.ph), Facebook account (Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy), twitter account (PRC BOA), e-mail account (boa.secretariat@gmail.com) and a notification alert or release on BOA updates that is sent on a regular basis by e-mail to the concerned parties.

Feedback on the various initiatives and issues confronting the profession are also obtained from the three Sectoral Surveys and the CPA Career Tracking Survey that can be accessed and accomplished online by the respondents. To date, thousands of respondents have taken the survey, which continue to be available for responding in the BOA web site.

The BOA has developed an information-technology (IT) system that will help in the tracking of documents that the regulator handles in the course of its regular work and special projects. This IT system is also geared to process the many information that the BOA receives and requires to come out with inputs to aid the BOA in its decision-making and work-management functions.

To assist the BOA in its varied activities, many volunteers have joined the Expanding Horizons bandwagon to contribute their ideas and efforts in the many activities and events in the profession. A special project team has been organized with the composition coming from the volunteers and the interns of BOA. Plans for the creation of a technical and secretariat office have been done and submitted to the concerned government office for its consideration.

It is also noteworthy to know that in 2015 a total of 7,630 CPAs joined the growing roster of professionals. These new CPAs passed the three licensure examinations given by the BOA last year. Feedback from the industry and profession indicates that even this number of new CPAs are inadequate to meet the large market demand for accountants here and abroad.

Despite the limited resources of the BOA, a lot of milestones have been achieved. Thanks to the contribution of the many un-

to their economic and cultural relations, closer coordination can help on everything from improving disaster relief to leveraging their foreign aid. Better military and intelligence relations can help counter North Korea’s bursts of belligerence and its steadily developing arsenal. And a more united front can help both countries provide a counterbalance to the rise of China.

The US, meanwhile, must perform a diplomatic balancing act in getting its two most important Asian at all levels, will pick up where previous presidents, secretaries, administrators, governors and mayors have left off.

And my last New Year’s wish is a fervent hope that the drive for “ inclusiveness” should include an admission of a state of

named and selfless individuals and organizations, the projects and activities under the Expanding Horizons initiative of the BOA on behalf of the accountancy profession have been planted and have borne fruits already. These Mister/s and Miss/es Universe of the accountancy profession are truly deserving of the gratitude and appreciation of the entire profession.

On the part of the BOA, we would like to initiate something to acknowledge the fine efforts of our beloved supporters and contributors.

To the followers of this column, the BOA Facebook and web site, we would like to hear from you as to your choice of the accountant (CPA or otherwise) who has done most in the various accountancy sectors or profession in 2015…our Miss/ es and Mister/s Universe winners.

This accountant need not be a luminary but can be one who did extraordinary achievements in 2015 in the various accounting fields of government, commerce and industry, public practice, academe (both for teachers and students) and international.

This search will be an unofficial one without any formal board of judges involved, complex criterion and rules, and formal awarding ceremonies.

Instead, it will just involve you, as the social netizens of the accounting Facebook and web site, sharing your choice of the outstanding accountant whom you feel deserve a recognition in the BOA Facebook and web site.

For your choice/s, you can post in the BOA Facebook at Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy your choice of the outstanding accountant with a photo and short description.

Alternatively, you can e-mail the same information to boa.secretariat.com.

By mid-January 2016, we will post on the BOA Facebook the choices whom we feel are the “most outstanding” accountants based on the feedback from our accounting netizens.

We like to end a very successful and event-filled year for the accountancy profession by extending our warmest appreciation and congratulations for all your efforts leading to a job well done. May our 2016 be as memorable and uplifting as in the past year, where a great number of accountants joined together for the good of the profession.

Joel L. Tan-Torres is the chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy.

He is a Certified Public Accountant who placed No. 1 in the May 1979 CPA board examinations.

He is concurrently a tax partner of Reyes Tacandong & Co., CPAs. He was the former commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

allies to make nice. It can encourage and discourage as appropriate. And it can create opportunities for the two nations to work together more closely. One thing it shouldn’t try to do is mediate, which could increase the risks of misunderstanding.

Neither an apology nor its acceptance can erase history. But they are often a prerequisite for a shared future, and that’s what Japan and South Korea need to focus on. Bloomberg View “exclusiveness” and a genuine belief that no one has a monopoly of good intentions and ideas.

PPP Learn No. 6 The PPP Core

The real purpose of PPP is shown in this triangle:

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A16 Monday, January 4, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Belmonte commits to make final days of 16th Congress productive E

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

VEN with just nine session days left in the 16th Congress, the leadership of the House of Representatives assured the public that it would still be able to pass seven critical measures.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said that despite the expected shift in the lawmakers’ focus on the May elections, the leadership would make an effort to pass the proposed Bangsamoro basic law (BBL); the bill strengthening Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program, the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA); amendments to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) charter; the creation of the Coco Levy Trust Fund, the bill creating the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT); and the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) of 2015. “[The lower chamber] would maximize its remaining workdays to deal with important business [before they take a break for the May 2016 elections],” Belmonte said. “We will never renege on our constitutional mandate to promote good governance and protect the national interest and our people’s welfare, despite the time constraint now faced by the 16th Congress.”

The 16th Congress went on a Christmas break last December 19, and is expected to resume on January 19.

The third and last regular session of the 16th Congress is expected to be cut short, as the two chambers will take a break again from February 6 to May 22 for the 2016 national and local elections.

Now or never for BBL

Despite the limited time, Belmonte has expressed confidence that the Palace-backed BBL will be passed into law before the 16th Congress ends.

The measure is currently pending second-reading approval at the House and awaiting plenary deliberations at the Senate.

The BBL aims to create the new Bangsamoro juridical entity replacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Besides the issue of material time, Centrist Democratic Party

7 and 9

House vows to pass seven bills in the last nine session days.

Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro, the chairman of the House Ad Hoc Committee on the BBL, earlier hinted at the death of the peace measure, as the lower house is facing serious absenteeism problem.

However, Belmonte has expressed optimism that the lower chamber can pass the proposed BBL despite the expected continued quorum problem.

Strengthening the PPP

The House Committee on Appropriations has recently endorsed for plenary approval a measure institutionalizing and strengthening the PPP Program.

Liberal Party Rep. Isidro T. Ungab of Davao City said the substitute bill seeks to recognize the indispensable role of the private sector as the main engine for national growth and development, and create an enabling environment for PPP. The measure also seeks to provide the most appropriate incentives to mobilize private resources for the purpose of design, construction, operation, financing and maintenance of infrastructure projects and services normally financed and undertaken by the government, Ungab said.

The bill said that, among other incentives, PPP projects in excess of P1 billion shall be entitled to incentives as provided by the Omnibus Investment Code, upon prior endorsement of the PPP Center and registration by the project proponent with the Board of Investments.

To achieve the goals of this act, the measure said the PPP Center created under Executive Order 8, series of 2010, is hereby institutionalized.

The session hall of the House of Representatives is now being readied for the final nine session days of the 16th Congress. NONIE REYES

It is also hereby authorized to adopt its current organizational structure, absorb its existing employees and upgrade its human-resource component, as may be necessary.

Also, a joint congressional oversight committee is hereby created to oversee the implementation of this act.

CMTA to end smuggling

The proposed CMTA, which primarily aims to address smuggling, is now awaiting third and final reading at the Senate. The lower chamber already approved it on third and final reading in October 2015.

Belmonte said the CMTA bill is among the priority measures of the House in the 16th Congress, as it is expected to address smuggling in the country.

“Smuggling is one of the country’s major economic problems, causing huge revenue losses to the government because of the illegal entry of imported goods and services in the local market,” he said.

The measure aims to modernize customs and tariff administration through full automation of operations and, thus, reduce the opportunities for corruption and technical

smuggling; and enact an enabling domestic legislation to make the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines compliant with the revised Kyoto Convention.

SSL of 2015

Majority Leader and Liberal Party Rep. Neptali M. Gonzales II of Mandaluyong City said the proposed SSL of 2015 will be approved this month. The lower chamber ealier failed to ratify the SSL, after the Senate reconsidered it on third reading last December.

Sen. Vicente C. Sotto III had called for the SSL to be reconsidered, after Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile proposed some amendments to the bill.

Meanwhile, the House version of the SSL seeks to strengthen the link between pay and performance through an enhanced performancebased bonus system; temper the cost of benefit while maximizing the benefits of employees; and allow higher take-home pay, especially for government personnel belonging to the lower-salary grades.

The measure will result in a weighted average increase of 45 percent in the compensation of all sal-

ary grades and raise compensation of government personnel to at least 70 percent of the private-sector rate.

BSP charter amendments

Belmonte, meanwhile, asked the Senate to pass its version of the bill amending The New Central Bank Act, as the lower chamber already approved it on third and final reading.

Belmonte, principal author of House Bill 5875, said 23 years since the Central Bank Act was enacted, the economic milieu in the country has changed; globalization has increased the integration of financial markets; and the scope of operations of financial institutions has evolved.

“In light of this realities and developments, there is undoubtedly a need to respond to contemporary challenges by amending RA [Republic Act] 7653, so the BSP remains effective in its conduct of monetary policy and supervision of entities within the financial system,” Belmonte said.

Information and communications

Also awaiting bicameral committee deliberations is the bill creating the DICT, which is also among the prior-

PHL banks on manufacturing to boost growth. . . wages and the kind of employment will run from unskilled, semiskilled, all the way to high-skilled labor,” Balisacan said.

“So the quality of employment will tend to improve as you open up more opportunities for investment, and so what we’re saying is that the source of growth must have to move increasingly from overdependence on consumption to investment and trade,” he added. Fortunately for the Philippines, the country’s manufacturing industry has been growing faster in recent years. Its growth has even outpaced that of the Services sector, which has been the main economic driver of the Philippine economy in the past two decades.

The Aquino administration credits the improvement in the growth of the Manufacturing sector to its efforts to address the country’s “development constraints”.

Balisacan said these constraints, have been identified by various researches of local think tanks and multilateral agencies as the country’s poor infrastructure, inefficient regulatory systems, and graft and corrup-

tion. These constraints tend to discourage both foreign and domestic investors from betting on the Philippines.

The National Economic and Development Authority director general said the performance of the Aquino administration in addressing these constraints has been recognized through the country’s improvements in various third-party scorecards.

Balisacan said these scorecards include competitiveness indices, which rank the country’s performance in terms of quality of infrastructure, regulatory reform, and efforts to curb graft and corruption.

The country ranked at 95th out of 144 countries globally for infrastructure quality, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015.

The government has revived the national Public-Private Partnership Program and taken steps to boost its effectiveness.

The improved state of the country’s competitiveness, Balisacan said, is making the Philippines attractive to investors looking for

business-friendly economies that will allow them to manufacture high-quality products at a competitive cost.

In terms of regulatory environment, particularly on ease of doing business, which is measured by the World Bank, the country intends to improve the country’s performance by reaching the upper third of the rankings.

Currently, the Philippines is ranked 95th out of 189 economies included in the 2015 Doing Business Survey of the Washingtonbased lender. Compared to its five Asean counterparts—Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia—the Philippines still has the second-lowest ranking in the index. Indonesia, which was ranked 114th out of 189 economies, had the lowest ranking among the five Asean peers.

In terms of corruption, the National Competitiveness Council said the country is becoming less corrupt, according to the latest results of the Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International.

The Philippines ranked 85th out of 175

countries in Germany-based watchdog Transparency International’s CPI for 2014, up from 94th in 2013, and 105th in 2012.

“We have addressed many of the fundamental problems, we’re continuing to improve on them and these achievements, the gains, infrastructure. I think the next administration will begin at a much better starting point than in 2010,” Balisacan said.

However, Balisacan said much work needs to be done, given as the Philippines has yet to resolve a number of other development constraints. The Asian Development Bank noted that the country’s remaining challenges include addressing right-of-way issues, tapping capital markets, designing infrastructure master plans, and completing legal and regulatory frameworks. Balisacan urged policy-makers to focus on enhancing and designing domestic policies that could mitigate the negative impact of external, as well as domestic, shocks, such as El Niño.

He reiterated his call for the need to tap new markets, diversify export products, and

ity measures of the 16th Congress.

The DICT that shall be the primary government entity to plan, promote and help develop the ICT sector, and ensure reliable and costefficient communications facilities and other multimedia infrastructure and services in the country.

Coco-levy trust fund

Party-list Rep. Sharon S. Garin of AAMBIS-Owa said the long wait may be over for the thousands of poor coconut farmers and their families fighting for their right to the coco-levy funds, as the lower chamber already approved the bill calling for the establishment of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Act. The bill seeks to establish a Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund, which shall consist of the trust principal and the trust income. It added that no portion of the fund shall accrue to the general fund of the national government. The measure also said the trust fund shall be used exclusively for the ultimate benefit of coconut farmers and farm workers, as embodied in the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plant prepared pursuant to this act.

Continued from A1

invest in research and development to create product innovations that can boost the export sector’s competitiveness.

“I keep saying that 10 years ago, if you look at the composition of exports, we are so dependent on just two things—semiconductors and electronics. Almost 70 percent of our exports then were from these two, and the destinations for those exports were Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the US. When either one of these two countries sneezed, ang laki ng impact sa atin,” Balisacan said.

“What happened in the last five years, while total exports were growing, except for this year, the other subsectors of industry are actually growing, from metals to chemicals to furniture, to agribusiness,” he added.

But with so much to do, it will take more than the effort of one or two administrations to realize the potential of the Philippines’s manufacturing sector. Until that time, Filipinos consumption and penchant for shopping will continue to help keep the country’s economy afloat.