BusinessMirror January 11, 2016

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SIZZLING START

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Peza Director Genera l Lilia B. de Lima said the decline of exports from com companies in economic zones was due to the PNP’s deci decision to expand its controlled chemicals list and tighten its monitoring procedures.

“Exports [from the Peza] are down by .5 percent as of Octo October. If it were not for the port congestion and also the chemi chemicals concerns, the figure could have been better,” de Lima said in a news conference.

Peza Spokesman Elmer H. San Pascual said the expan expansion of the PNP’s regulated

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Additional substances added by the PNP to its list of regulated chemicals chemicals list resulted in the near-shutdown of export-oriented manufacturing enterprises, and slowed production.

“The chemicals that are being imported by Peza locators are used in manufacturing, C  A

ROCKY ROAD Off-road vehicles traverse the rocky Botolan River in Barangay Cabatuan, Botolan, Zambales. Remnants of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption, lahar fields attract the more adventurous tourists. ROY DOMINGO

WESM price cap at ₧32/kWh is permanent–tripartite panel B L L

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HE Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) tripartite committee has made permanent the P32-per-kilowatt-hour (kWh) price ceiling on power traded at the spot market to continue to shield consumers from any sudden price spike down the line.

“In the tripartite meeting of the ERC [Energy Regulatory Commis-

sion], DOE[Department of Energy] and PEMC [Philippine Electricity Market Corp.], we resolved to peg the ceiling at P32. We issued a resolution on this last December,” ERC Chairman Jose Vicente B. Salazar said in a text message on Sunday.

PEMC President Melinda L .

Ocampo said, separately, “there will be a continuing effort” to review the price cap. “It’s already permanent, but there is a colatilla

that there will be a review, depending on the situation,” she said the previous Friday.

The original WESM ceiling price of P62 per kWh was reduced to only P32 in December 2013, following recordhigh-prices recorded by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

Since then, the implementation of the P32-per-kWh price cap was extended five times.

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PHL to dip into contingency fund to join China-led bank B D C  B C

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

Expansion of PNP-regulated chemicals list dampens exports

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IN FINAL STATE OF UNION, OBAMA AIMS TO DEFINE HIS PRESIDENCY

SPORTS

Monday, January 11, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 95

HE expansion of the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) list of regulated chemical substances was a major factor behind the anemic performance of exports last year, officials of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) said.

INSIDE

PERSPECTIVE

A broader look at today’s business

HE Philippines will use President Aquino’s contingency fund to pay its way through the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), that monetary and finance executives forecast would help push the country’s infrastructure development.

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said on Sunday the Philippines’s initial contribution to join the AIIB can be funded through the President’s contingency fund under the General Appropriations Act. Com mu n ic at ion s S e c ret a r y H e r m i n i o B . C o l o m a Jr. r e layed to the BM Abad ’s plan on how the Philippines would go about paying for

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 47.0700

its subscription.

“If the payment is in installment, which is likely going to be the case, for 2016 we can draw the funds from the contingency fund,” Coloma said, quoting Abad. “The succeeding payments can then be appropriated in the regular General Appropriations Act.” Abad ’s statement was in response to a question on whether the

President will push for a supplemental budget to fund the Philippines’s initial contribution to the AIIB. The total capital stock of the AIIB is $100 billion, 20 percent of which is paid-in. The indicative paid-in capital of the Philippines is $196 million— which is payable in five years, or $39 million per annum.

BMReports

GOVT TO RECOGNIZE LOCAL HEALERS AS SAFE B M R M

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First of three parts

RECLUSE behind towering skyscrapers and a bustling city, Tata Omeng practices his craft discreetly. Inside a bungalow is a room strewn with dried leaves hang like laundry, filling the room with the woody smell of herbs.

The Negros Occidental native moved to Manila after a storm hit their small town. The 87-year-old prefers to be called only by his alias, and scorns the sight of technology.

“Hindi iyan natural. Kaya nagkakasakit ang mga tao dahil sa hindi makamundong bagay.

Kaya ako, natural lang na panggagamotangginagawako,” he said.

Tata Omeng considers himself an albularyo, a local healer

still practicing his profession in the age of modern technology, with his capabilities believed to have been obtained from the spiritual or supernatural. Albularyo have been performing their healing rituals centuries before the Spaniards first docked C  A

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n JAPAN 0.4003 n UK 68.8305 n HK 6.0703 n CHINA 7.1395 n SINGAPORE 32.8564 n AUSTRALIA 33.0525 n EU 51.4899 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.5403

Source: BSP (8 January 2016 )

BMReports A2 Monday, January 11, 2016

BusinessMirror

Govt to recognize local healers as safe C  A

in the Philippine Islands in the 16th century. Some consider them analogous to the babaylans.

“The etymology would be herbularyo although may disputes pa diyan kung kalian ba nagsimula iyong term na albularyo. Ang hinala ko, noong dumating iyong mga Kastila kasi ‘herb,’” Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC) Director General Dr. Isidro Sia said.

Another term for local medicine people would be hilot, roughly translated as massage therapist, who may also be self-taught chiropractor or midwife, depending on their preferred healing methods.

Francisca Rodriguez Solmerano has been the local hilot in her community in Cavite for more than five decades. Her house is situated in the midst of shanties in Imus, not too far from the heart of the city. Unlike Tata Omeng, she is comfortable with revealing her identity.

She tends to her patients in a small receiving area in her house.

She specializes in treating everyday fever and colds, sprains, and treating children who have encountered the nuno, mischievous dwarf-like creatures in Philippine folklore who play tricks on people, among others.

Last August the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) launched a program that aims to provide recognition to the country’s

Meat processors. . .

More than half of the shipments were hot dogs or franks, accounting for 2,229.22 MT of the total processed-meat exports during the period. This was followed by corned beef with 261.40-MT share in the total shipments.

Exports of assorted processed products, such as longganisa, tocino, ham, bacon, meat loaf, sausage and luncheon meat, all amounted to 1,879.65 MT. The top buyer of locally processed-meat products during the period was the United Arab Emirates, which accounted for 1,596.36 MT of the exports, followed by Saudi Arabia

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with 1,336.70 MT and Qatar with 831.38 MT. Buencamino said only about 7 percent of the country’s total processed-meat production— which currently stands at 800,000 MT—goes to exports.

However, he said as exports expand in 2016—in midst of the Asean integration and efforts from the government—the local production of processed meat is also expected to grow.

The Pampi also sees the election period to have a positive effect on the local production.

“Our production volumes will be increasing

NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING EXTREME NORTHERN LUZON EASTERLIES AFFECTING EASTERN SECTION OF THE COUNTRY (JANUARY 10, 5:00 AM)

as exports expand. We also forecast that processed meats will be stronger for 2016 mainly because of the pump-priming on food consumption that the campaign period of the elections will generate,” Buencamino said.

Meanwhile, local ham sales in December 2015 were projected to have reached the target of 1 million kilos (1,000 MT), according to Buencamino.

“Although market size is estimated at 9 to 10 million kilos, pre-Christmas deliveries already stood at 53 percent of that estimate. Ham sales will continue beyond the new year as resellers introduce promos to clean up their left-over inventories,” he said.

local healers. The program is set to be implemented this year.

PITAHC will be in charge of reviewing the modalities and overlooking the process of screening hilots that are up for registration.

At present, the organization is rounding up people to form a committee to establish the guidelines for recognition.

Sia emphasized that recognition is different from certification, as the latter may require a license and a series of examinations. He said that what they are aiming for is to keep the cultural color of traditional Filipino medicine intact, as well as guarantee the public that hilot practices are safe.

“Iyon atin kasing kultura gusto ng may papel, kaya mayroon. Parang ito ay patunay na si so and so ay kinikilala bilang katutubong manghihilot, na siya ay tanggap ng kanyang komunidad, na ginagawa niya ang kanyang paghihilom na ligtas,” he said.

Nenita Cruz, who grew up in the province of Quezon, but settled in Pasay after graduating from college, said that, despite being in the age of technological advancements, she still firmly believes that there is a need for local healers.

“Madami ng mga gamot ngayon na nakakagaling ng kung anu-ano, ’di ba?

Pero mayroon talagang ibang bagay na hindi mo sa doktor ikukunsulta, lalo na sa amin sa probinsya noon,” the sales clerk said.

In Philippine provinces and secluded towns where hospitals are inaccessible, local healers

like the albularyo and hilot still thrive. Aside from being recheable, the treatment is also inexpensive without the requirement of complex apparatus.

Tata Omeng, for one, does not ask his patrons to pay for his service. He only asks them for food donations and their prayers for his safety and longevity.

“Biyaya ang manggamot. Ito ay pamana pa ng lolo ko sa tatay ko, at ng mga lolo niya sa kanya. Hindi masagana ang buhay ng taong maramot, lalo na sa pagtulong ng iba,” he said.

His belief coincides with what PITACH director general said about hilot practitioners: Those who are “gifted” with the power of healing are the ones who practice as open service to the community. The recognition will also serve as a regulation to avoid those healers who charge a lot for their service. “’Iyong affordable gusto din natin i-emphasize ngayon kasi madami ng mga grupo, hindi ko sasabihin kung ano, na sumusingil nang mahal. O kaya mga practices nila or services nila mahal,” Sia said.

Recognizing local healers is also a way to determine the reliability of indigenous healing practitioners. Earlier this year in La Union, two fake healers were arrested for bribing a patient to bury her gold earrings to cure her insomnia. Sensing something was wrong, the patient returned for her jewelry and found the ground dug up. The two were arrested in Pangasinan.

Expansion of PNP-regulated chemicals list dampens exports C  A

mostly by firms in the semiconductor and electronics sector,” San Pascual said.

“It’s a big issue for [the Peza]. So many companies have threatened to shut down their operations if [the

government] does not resolve the issue. These are large companies that employ thousands,” he added.

Last June the PNP added 41 substances, including common household chemicals and those used by the electronics and semiconductor manufacturers, to its list of regulated chemicals.

The PNP said the move was in keeping with the directive of Presidential Decree (PD) 1866, as amended by PD 516.

Historically, only three chemicals used for making explosives were regulated: nitrates, nitric acid and chlorates. However, industry sources said the amendment of PD 1866 created a loophole which allowed the PNP to expand the list of controlled substances.

PD 1866 was intended to regulate the illegal or unlawful possession, manufacture, dealing, acquisition or disposition of firearms, ammunition or explosives, or instruments used in the manufacture of firearms, ammunition or explosives.

The Bureau of Customs immediately enforced the PNP directive, causing businesses to raise a howl of protest as this delayed the delivery of much-needed raw materials. The materials were not released until the requisite permits and licenses were acquired by importers.

It did not help that the PNP was short in manpower, resulting in delays in processing the needed permits, according to businessmen.

A source from the chemicals industry said the additional permits, licenses and escort fees would cost a minimum of P2 million a year. Escort fees are given to PNP officials who transport the chemicals from the origin to factories.

Even as the PNP has declared a moratorium on requiring permits and licenses for the additional chemicals starting December 9 until February 9, the Peza said it has already

caused locators to incur losses.

“The production of manufacturers slowed down, and electronics and semiconductor firms have been complaining that they have incurred significant losses,” San Pascual said.

He urged the PNP and the national government to immediately resolve the matter to boost the country’s export figures.

“We’re willing to comply as long as the restrictions are reasonable,” San Pascual said.

A source from the chemicals industry said local businessmen want specific parameters such as the specification of the volume and the concentration of chemicals that are considered hazardous.

“What industries want is a set criterion, not an open list. The provision we have now is very general. Also, no matter how small the volume, an escort would have to transport the regulated chemical,” the source said.

Among the chemicals that the PNP continues to regulate are black powder, composition four, delay compound, dinitrotoluene, emulsion matrix, M201 fuse, nitrocellulose, nitroglycerine, phosphorus, picric acid, propellant charges, slurry blast agent, slurry powder, sulfur powder and tetryl.

T he Ex port Marketing Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Trade and Industry estimates that both merchandise and services exports in 2015 declined by as much as 4 percent. EMB Director Senen M. Perlada said total export receipts last year amounted to $81.5 billion.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that export sales in October 2015 went down by 10.8 percent to $5.14 billion, from $4.59 billion a year ago.

The PSA attributed the decline to lower outward shipments of seven major commodities.

BMReports BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, January 11, 2016 A3

China’s stabilizing consumer prices Senate to adopt House version leave more room for rate adjustment of DICT bill to expedite approval

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HINA’S consumer inflation remains muted at about half the government’s target for 2015, leaving policy-makers more room to add to their record stimulus to help boost flagging growth.

The consumer price index rose 1.6 percent last December from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Saturday. That rise, which matched economist forecasts, followed a gain of 1.5 percent last November. The producer price index fell 5.9 percent for the fifth straight month, extending declines to a record 46 months. Economists had projected a 5.8-percent decline.

“The CPI remains considerably below the government’s target of 3 percent for 2015 and is set to stay low heading into 2016,” Tom Orlik, an economist at Bloomberg Intelligence in Beijing, wrote in a note.

“That provides motive and opportunity for further easing.” Fresh signs of further economic weaknesses are an unwelcome signal for policy-

1.6%

China’s December inflation

makers as the nation’s stock selloff and the depreciation of the yuan roil global financial markets. While the nation’s top leaders have vowed to support the real-estate market and reduce overcapacity this year, a protracted slowdown will make those tasks difficult to achieve.

Food prices helped drive the CPI gain, climbing 2.7 percent from a year earlier, while nonfood prices rose 1.1 percent. Prices of consumer goods gained 1.5 percent and those for services advanced 2.1 percent, NBS said.

Manufacturing weakness

THE outlook for growth, already at the slowest pace in a quarter century, has been dimmed by falling shares

and slowing exports, which declined 6.8 percent last November from a year earlier. The official purchasing managers’ index signaled weakness for a fifth straight month last December, keeping the manufacturing gauge near a three-year low.

China’s main stock benchmark, the Shanghai Composite Index, tumbled 10 percent in the first week of trading this year. The yuan fell to a five-year low this week.

To help lower borrowing costs, Orlik estimates the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will cut interest rates twice this year for a total reduction of half a percentage point.

Other economists said after the inflation data they expect the PBOC to cut the required reserve ratio for major banks, which sets the share of deposits locked away at the central bank. Policy-makers last cut the ratio in October, reducing it to 17.5 percent, while also lowering the oneyear lending rate, their main policy tool, to a record 4.35 percent.

WTO’s ‘Nairobi package’ seen benefiting farmers, small firms C  A

He said these oppositions are focused on what is called preference erosion and the protection of nascent industries in some countries.

Preference erosion, Manzano said, refers to the loss or reduction of the benefits from the preferential treatment received by countries from the nations they trade and have agreements with.

When a country receives preferential treatment, its goods and services are slapped zero tariff.

But under the Doha Round, all countries will see tariffs for all commodities and services decline.

The traditional stance of countries is to protect burgeoning or still underdeveloped industries.

Manzano said countries like India tend to be protective of the automotive industry.

The Philippines has also been able to keep its tariff on rice despite agreeing to reduce it significantly. This is because the country sought the extension of its quantitative restriction (QR). The QR protects Filipino farmers by keeping imports more expensive than locally produced rice.

While skeptics have rendered the Doha Round of talks dead, especially after the December 2015

meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, Manzano said the world cannot allow this to happen.

Manzano added that allowing the Doha Round to fail means eliminating the WTO. This, he said, can be “dangerous” because the world could revert to the “gunboat diplomacy” of the 1930s where influential countries use trade as an instrument for foreign policy. “The WTO is important because it provides rules. If there are no rules, then China can do whatever it wants, the US can do whatever it wants. [They] can use trade as a projection of their foreign policy. The WTO assures us that trade is different,” Manzano said.

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According to the bill the government shall prioritize the effective coordination and implementation of its national and local information communications technology (ICT) and ICT-enabled services, programs, projects and other related initiatives and revitalize all relevant governmental institutions to achieve a streamlined and efficient structure that is responsive and attuned to national goals and objectives.

The department shall be headed by a secretary to be appointed by the President, subject to the confirmation of the Commission on Appointments. The President shall also appoint four undersecretaries and four assistant secretaries.

The DICT shall: Formulate, recommend and implement national policies and guidelines in the ICT sector that will promote wider use and development of ICT, and its applications, such as e-commerce, in coordination with the Department

of Trade and Industry; represent and negotiate for Philippine interests on matters pertaining to ICT in international bodies.

The agency should also ensure the protection of an integrated government information and communications infrastructure development program that will coordinate all relevant government entities, taking into consideration the inventory of existing and projected manpower, plans, programs, proposals, software and hardware, and the installed systems and programs; and administer and enforce all laws, standards, rules and regulations governing ICT. There shall be an e-government fund to be appropriated annually under the General Appropriations Act, to be administered by the DICT, specifically to fund cross-agency government ICT projects, which shall be used to support and cofinance projects that enable the government to expand its ability to conduct activities electronically, and

provide frontline services through the development and implementation of innovative uses of the Internet or other emerging technologies.

The fund shall not be used to cover personal services expenditures.

On the transfer of agencies and personnel, the bill provides that the following agencies shall hereby be abolished, and their powers and functions, applicable funds and appropriations, records, equipment, property, and personnel transferred to the DICT: All operating units currently existing in the Commission on Information and Communications Technology; National Computer Center; and Telecommunications Office.

The National Telecommunications Commission and the Philippine Postal Corp. shall hereby be attached to the DICT for policy and program coordination, and shall continue to operate and function in accordance with the charters, laws or orders creating them, insofar as they are not inconsistent with the Act.

WESM price cap at P32/kWh is permanent–tripartite panel C  A

A secondary price cap of P6.245 per kWh is also being implemented as a price mitigating measure so consumers are protected from steep WESM prices when supply is tight in the spot market.

Both price caps have already been made permanent, Salazar said.

The secondary price cap is imposed once an average threshold of P9 per kWh threshold

is reached over a 168-hour period.

The caps were computed based on historical prices, with allowance for three intervals hitting high-market clearing prices.

Ocampo said a review of the price caps would be conducted “if they are no longer sufficient.”

“Since the primary price cap could not fully capture incidents of sustained clearing of high spot prices, a secondary price cap mechanism was put in place by the ERC as a preemptive measure to help limit recurring occasions of

high prices in the WESM,” PEMC said.

“The PEMC is resolved to fully realize the objectives of the Epira in promoting transparency in electricity pricing and provide a level playing field to all electric power industry participants.

“With the robust enforcement and compliance framework present in the spot market, we assure everyone that competition thrives in the market where all players are encouraged to abide with the WESM rules,” Ocampo said.

BMReports BusinessMirror

A4 Monday, January 11, 2016

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DTI bats for creation of NQI to harmonize quality strategies T B C N. P  J M N.  C

O raise the competitiveness of Philippine products, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is pushing for the establishment of the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) that will harmonize the country’s strategies on standards, testing, certification and quality accreditation.

DTI Chief Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. said the need to put emphasis on the quality of locally made products has become urgent as the country pursues numerous bilateral and regional free-trade agreements (FTAs).

“We will continue to craft a bill for a National Quality Infrastructure. We are not sure what will happen to the bill in this Congress, but it’s never too late to plant the seed.

With our FTAs, with Asean and with tariffs at zero for many products, the competition now will focus on quality, so it’s important that we start pushing for a National Quality Infrastructure,” Cristobal said.

The DTI official said that, under his leadership, the consumer-protection thrust of the department will be augmented by an emphasis on quality, and, thus, the push for the creation of the NQI. The NQI has been identified in the government’s Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, and the DTI and the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) have been crafting since 2014 a draft bill to institutionalize the NQI framework. The measure, however, has yet to find a sponsor in the 16th Congress.

For its part, the leadership of the House of Representatives said it will

90%

MANILA FAME, the country’s premier design and lifestyle event, showcases craftmanship, design innovation, eco-sustainability and artisanship in Philippine products. Filipino designers from different parts of the country showcase their talent in displaying their craftsmanship in the event. NONIE REYES

Percentage of small and medium businesses among all commercial enterprises operating in the Philippines study the DTI’s proposal.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., in a text message, said the House Committee on Trade and Industry, headed by Nacionalista Party Rep. Mark Villar of Las Piñas, and House Committee on Ways and Means, headed by Liberal Party (LP) Rep. Romero Quimbo of Marikina City,

can sponsor the trade agency’s proposal should the DTI and the NCC manage to finish the draft.

“Any member or two of the two committees can sponsor the bill that promotes healthy competition,” he said.

Villar, meanwhile, said it is high time the government intensified efforts to raise awareness with regard to the quality of local products, saying that the NQI can be used as a springboard toward global competitiveness.

“In light of the Asean integration, and in view of studies made comparing local products with those of the other Asean countries’ I support this move to bolster the quality of our products,” Villar said.

However, the lawmaker said that further studies should be made on the viability of the proposed NQI, and how it can affect small and medium enterprises, which comprise more than 90 percent of the business enterprises operating in the Philippines.

House Committee on Trade and Industry Vice Chairman and LP Rep. Anthony del Rosario of Davao del Norte said he is willing to sponsor a bill that seeks to improve the quality of Philippine-made products.

“Too early to say, since I have not read it [proposal]. However, if it will improve the quality of Philippine products, then I am very much interested to sponsor that bill,” del Rosario said.

NCC Chairman Guillermo M. Luz, for his part, said the present form is still a draft.

Cristobal said that, even with the uncertainty of the NQI to be passed in the 16th Congress, the DTI will still push for this cause.

Export Marketing Bureau Director Senen M. Perlada, in a previous interview, said they have requested P600 million to fund the implementation of the NQI. The budget will be spread across the different agencies tasked to implement the framework, which include the Department of Science and Technology and the Bureau of Product Standards (BPS).

Standards harmonization and quality compliance is a mandate of

the DTI’s BPS. BPS Director in Charge Claire C. Cabochan has emphasized the need to put Philippine National Standards on a par with international standards.

Differing product standards between and among countries can serve as technical barriers to trade, as cited in the World Trade Organization’s “Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement,” among whose signatories include the Philippines.

According to a presentation made by lawyer Cabochan at the recently held National Export Congress, the NQI, once established, should serve as a unified system to facilitate trade flows, and not just for consumer protection.

PHL to dip into contingency fund to join China-led bank C  A 

According to Abad, the contingency fund in the P3.002-trillion national budget is only P4 billion, although the President may be able to augment any item in the general appropriations law for the Executive branch from savings in other items within that branch to replenish the contingency fund, if needed.

Since the Philippines would have only subscribed to less than 1 percent of the outstanding capital stock of the AIIB, it would not be able to elect a member of the board of director to the 12-seat board. But since every member is entitled to a member of the board of governors, which elect the members of the board, the country may form a bloc with other developing countries to elect their representative to the board.

After months of indecision whether the Philippines should be one of the signatories to the new international financial institution, the Aquino administration made a decision to sign with the AIIB at the end of 2015.

The Department of Finance (DOF) has earlier announced that before 2015 ended, or last December 30, the country has signed the articles of agreement of the AIIB.

Ratification

WITH the Philippines’s latest international commitment to join the

AIIB comes the concomitant obligation to advance a paid-in capital.

This translates to roughly P1.83 billion, starting from the Philippines’s submission of its instrument of ratification.

The deadline for submission of the instrument of ratification is until December.

Because the AIIB is considered by the Philippines as a treaty, it would have to be concurred in by at least two-thirds of all the members of the Senate to be ratified and binding upon the Philippines.

Under the Articles of Agreement that formed the AIIB, the deadline for the submission of the documents of ratification shall be on December 31, 2016. The Philippines would have to already put in its initial paid-in capital of about 20 percent of its total subscription to AIIB. Last December 31 the Philippines beat the deadline for signing with the AIIB as the 57th and last founding member. By doing so, the Philippines has signified its intention to join the treaty and subscribe to $979.1 million worth of shares of stocks in the AIIB, or roughly 1 percent of the total outstanding capital stock of the bank.

Bridge

STAKEHOLDERS from the government, banks and business in the country have expressed their support on the Philippines’s decision to join the AIIB.

$196M

Amount the Philippines must pay as indicative paid-in capital for entry into the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank The AIIB is a multilateral development bank that aims to fund infrastructure projects in the AsiaPacific region.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has welcomed the decision of the government. BSP Deputy Governor for the Monetary Stability Sector Diwa C. Guinigundo told the BusinessMirror that being a signatory to the AIIB further liberalizes the choices of infrastructure investors on their funding requirements—thus, providing them with greater ease to implement the projects more quickly.

“While we have sufficient domestic liquidity and credit, current banking regulations do not allow banks to be unduly exposed to single or a few borrowers,” Guinigundo said in an interview. “The resources that will be made available through the AIIB could be a potential source of additional funding for infrastructures.”

Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran agrees with Guinigundo, telling

the BusinessMirror the AIIB will give more options available for the country in terms of infrastructure design and financing.

“The Philippines stands to gain from signing on as a founding member. We can look forward to deepening our country’s technical expertise in infrastructure as we expand bankable projects,” Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima earlier said, immediately prior to the Philippines’s signing of the treaty. “Further, as the AIIB has no restriction on the procurement of goods and services from any country, we may foresee market expansion for infrastructure-related industries, widening job and business-growth opportunities.”

The Asian Development Bank, the AIIB’s Japan-led counterpart, estimates that the Philippines needs $127.12 billion in infrastructurefinancing needs from 2010 to 2020, or an annual investment of $11.56 billion. For 2016, the government intends to spend an equivalent of 5 percent of the GDP on infrastructure, or about P836 billion.

Welcome

PRIVATE banks also welcomed the newest development in infrastructure financing for the country, saying that the AIIB membership of the Philippines will “open the floodgates” for funds to be used for infrastructure projects in the Philippines.

Bankers Association of the Philippines President and RCBC President

Lorenzo Tan told the BusinessMirror he is optimistic the country, which has been criticized for its poor infrastructure, will greatly benefit from membership to the initiative.

“Membership will certainly open the floodgates to funds that will finance our infrastructure needs,” Tan said in an interview. “There are bigticket items in transportation, public works, energy and telecommunications that will benefit immensely from an additional source of funds.”

Tan added that when the economy reaps the benefit of good infrastructure in the long run, it will also spell out positive news for banks in the country.

“While we have pending territorial disputes with China, our [government] has the wisdom to recognize the great advantage of joining AIIB,” International Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Francis Chua earlier said in a statement. “This means we have more loans not only for public but private projects, as well. This means not only more job opportunities in infrastructure but also prestigious banking jobs in AIIB for our world-class [Filipino] professionals,” Chua added.

Criticisms

WHILE there seems to be no problem in funding for the infrastructure needs of the country, the government has largely been criticized, too, for not being able to spend funds available on hand for these types of projects that the country needs.

HSBC, in its most recent report on 2016 economic prospects, said the level of spending and investment remains a concern for the country, despite resilience in its growth and monetary policies.

“We have said for some time that the Philippines has the unique problem of not spending its funds quickly enough—and the government looks set to miss the targeted 2-percent budget deficit in both 2015 and 2016,” HSBC said.

“We are all very much aware of the decrepit state of our infrastructure, and it’s a total shame that we were not able to make the best of the fiscal space we have attained nor the low interest-rate environment,” Bank of the Philippine Islands research officer Nicholas Antonio Mapa told the BusinessMirror.

“As we speak, the low interestrate environment is fading and the opportunity to make use of the immense political capital will be gone in a short six months,” he added.

The national government incurred yet another surplus in its budget implementation last November, the DOF reported just last week—indicating that the administration has not yet resolved gridlocks in disbursement.

The finance department bared that the national government’s budget balance in November 2015 was at a surplus of P6.1 billion, reversing the fiscal deficit in 27 billion in the previous month.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

AseanMonday BusinessMirror

New focus on Asean tourists

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HAILAND is being urged to pay more attention to Association of Southeast Asian Nations tourists this year to reduce risks from a possible recession in China, its biggest tourist market.

The European market, especially Russia, is expected to improve significantly this year, while new markets, such as the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, should be tapped, Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said.

“We expect Asean tourist arrivals of 7 million this year, close to the number of Chinese tourists,” she said. “The Asean tourist market has a lot of potential to grow due to the growth of the middle class in this region.”

But Kobkarn said even if China did enter recession, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand would not decline significantly.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand said Chinese tourist arrivals were close to 8 million last year and were projected to reach 7.9 million this year.

China recently released poor economic data, reflecting that its economy is likely to face a recession soon, and its stock market has fallen sharply this week.

“Diversifying the tourist base is

good for Thailand, and when one market has a problem, another may be good, so the overall impact will be minimized,” Kobkarn added.

She said when Russia faced its recession and the rouble was weak in the past two years, Thai tourism was able to offset the sharp fall in Russian tourists with a big rise in Chinese.

“Thailand remains an attractive tourist destination because travel expenses here remain affordable,” Kobkarn said.

“We should have various tourism products to suit different tourist groups.”

The Tourism and Sports Ministry’s official figures for 2015 showed that tourism revenue totalled 2.23 trillion baht, exceeding the target of 2.2 trillion, while 1.44 trillion came from foreign tourists.

International tourist arrivals were 29.88 million, slightly beating the projection of 28.8 million, while there are 139 million domestic trips were taken, generating revenue of 790 billion baht.

Kobkarn said the tourism sector enjoyed a strong recovery last year despite the economic slowdown, and its momentum was expected to continue this year.

Bangkok Post/TNS

Monday, January 11, 2016 A5

Apisak: There’s no need to panic B W C

C

Bangkok Post, Thailand/TNS

HINA’S economic slowdown poses a serious threat to Thai exports, but government efforts to push public investment and domestic consumption will cushion the country against heightening global economic uncertainty, Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong said.

The government is monitoring external factors, including China’s cooling economy, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the direction of the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate, as they are global risk factors, Apisak said, adding that if the global economy faced a hurdle, it would take a toll on the Thai economy, particularly outbound shipments.

“The government will provide full assistance to hard-hit people and low-income earners,” he said.

Apisak added that the country would feel less of an effect from global economic headwinds

3.5%

From 3.7 due mainly to the sharper growth slowdown of China and other Asian economies since the internal fundamentals were solid.

“Impacts on the financial and capital markets are normal. When a large economy has a problem, it has a

ripple effect on small countries. It’s impact is global, not just on Thailand,” Apisak said.

He added: “There’s no need to panic.” The world’s second-largest economy is the biggest destination for Thai exports, accounting for 15 percent to 16 percent of last year’s total.

China is also a large trade partner with Thailand’s trade counterparts in the Asean.

The Bank of Thailand recently cut its 2016 economic growth forecast to 3.5 percent, from 3.7 percent due mainly to the sharper growth slowdown of China and other Asian economies.

The central bank also projects exports will record flat growth.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said Thailand’s strong economic fundamentals would be able to withstand volatility from China.

“Don’t worry about the impact, as the government has already taken care of the issue, but we don’t speak about it,” he said.

“I’ve already met w ith the Bank of Thailand governor and the finance minister. Regarding concerns over a currency war, the central bank has already taken appropriate measures commensurate with the economy.”

The government is steering t he countr y towa rd a publ ic investment- and domestic consumption-dr iven model amid the murky global economy, relying less on exports than in the past.

In a related development, Somkid said the government was creating new engines for developing the grassroots economy.

He set a policy for two stateowned banks—the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, and the Government Savings Bank—to play a role in encouraging start-ups of farmrelated small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as they will be a game changer in the agricultural sector in terms of adding product value and innovation.

Agricultural SME operators will eventually become mentors of farmers, Somkid said.

He said to support SMEs in the farming sector, the government would establish the SME Startup Thailand Fund to groom future generations.

T he cou nt r y c a n not leave 30 million people to share only 10 percent of GDP, as Thailand cannot develop further if their quality of life does not improve, Somkid said.

A6 news@businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion •

POPE LAYS OUT CASE FOR MERCY IN BOOK V

RECYCLING TRASH CANS

Hundreds of panda-shaped recycling trash cans are displayed on a plaza in Shanghai, China. Officials unveiled 800 of the bins at two locations in Shanghai, which will later be placed throughout the city to encourage residents to donate old and unwanted clothing. CHINATOPIX VIA AP

Workers feel the sting of slowing China econ

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HENZHEN, China—Jack Shao watched as his young coworker climbed on to the roof of their four-story factory and threatened to jump.

The worker sat on a small, decorative arch atop the pink tile building, his beige jacket stark against the blue sky. Below him, thousands of workers were gathered for a labor protest. Minutes before, they had been shouting, “Give us back our wages!”

Now, they were imploring the man to step back.

It was late afternoon on December 18, and management at the G. Credit factory in Shenzhen, a huge city in Guangdong province, China’s manufacturing heartland, had just informed its 2,600 employees that they wouldn’t receive their monthly wages on time. The six-year-old company assembled smartphones and other products for Huawei, Samsung, Motorola, and other prominent companies—and now, apparently, it couldn’t afford to pay its workers.

Shao, 35, was overcome with anxiety. In 2010, when he was working at a factory in the nearby city of Dongguan, he witnessed a huge labor protest, which dispersed only after police fired live rounds into the air. But he’d never seen a suicide.

“I knew him by his face, but don’t remember his name. He worked on a production line,” Shao said. “He stayed up there for five or 10 minutes. Then he came down.”

China’s once red-hot growth is cooling, and G. Credit’s financial woes—and subsequent worker protests—underscore the slowdown’s tremendous human costs.

Scores of factories in manufacturing centers, such as Shenzhen—a city of 10 million that is often called “the world’s factory floor”—have

closed in recent months.

Mobile-phone manufacturers have ranked among the hardest hit, squeezed by rising competition and falling demand. About 13 major electronics manufacturers in Shenzhen failed in 2015, according to the Shanghai-based financial newspaper National Business Daily.

Experts say that China’s labor rights laws are seldom well-enforced, and that factory closings can be messy, unpredictable, and sometimes violent.

“We’ve seen no indication that things are getting any better,” said Geoffrey Crothall, a Hong Kongbased spokesman for the nonprofit China Labor Bulletin. “In Guangdong in particular, we’ve seen over the past two or three months in particular an increase in the number of labor protests, strikes, and labor unrest in general. As factories continue to close down, the manufacturing sector continues to contract, all these issues which have remained dormant and unresolved for decades on end are now coming to a head.”

Even Apple has felt shock waves from the downturn. On Wednesday, the Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei reported that the electronics giant might cut back iPhone orders amid a slump in demand. According to the Wall Street Journal, provincial Chinese authorities have given its primary supplier, Foxconn Technology Group, $12 million in subsidies to minimize layoffs.

The causes of China’s downturn are wide-ranging and complex. Beijing’s leaders are struggling to shift

10M

The population of Shenzhen, called “the world’s factory floor” economic power from state planners to consumers, and the country’s realestate sector is burdened by massive over-investment.

“China grew faster and for longer than any other country in recorded history—they were already in uncharted territory,” said Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Some slowdown was inevitable.”

Yet, the downturn’s speed and intensity have caught many observers off guard.

On Monday investors seized on a downbeat report—the Caixin Purchasing Managers’ Index—as an indication that the manufacturing sector might be slowing faster than government statistics have shown.

That day, China’s benchmark Shanghai composite index fell 6.9 percent to 3,296.66, its lowest level in nearly three months, after triggering a “circuit-breaker” that shut down trading for the day. On Thursday, it plunged another 7 percent, causing the suspension of trading again.

On Thursday night, Shao, wearing a crisp white shirt and blue windbreaker, sat in a McDonald’s reminiscing over his long and turbulent history in Shenzhen.

Since 2008, when he left his hometown in the far-away eastern province of Jiangxi, he has worked

as a “production coordinator,” acting as an intermediary between a factory’s suppliers and assembly lines.

For years, he worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day, running constantly between his computer and the factory’s assembly lines. One of his employers produced plastic Winnie the Pooh key chains; another made transformers for laptop charging cords.

When Shao joined G. Credit in 2013, he considered it his lucky break. He earned about $500 per month and had full weekends off, which he would spend in Dongguan with his wife and 5-year-old son. He would cook them dishes from their hometown—spicy stir-fried pork, braised fish with chili peppers—and accompany them on long walks in the park.

“Life was really good—even my relationship with my colleagues was good,” he said.

Then in mid-December, things took a turn for the worse. G. Credit Chairman Liu Chaoqiang called a few dozen high-ranking employees together, Shao among them, and warned them of impending difficulties. The factory was deeply in debt.

He tried to raise their spirits by showing them a clip from a Chinese wartime drama. Shao remembered one line best: “It’s not that we weren’t brave,” one character said. “It’s that we ran out of bullets.”

Things came to a head on December 18, when G. Credit sent an e-mail to employees notifying them that their paychecks were delayed. Workers gathered outside the factory, demanding arrears. Police arrived; Shao’s colleague climbed up, then down from the ledge; and a local government representative promised that the workers would be paid. The protest dispersed about 5:20 p.m., and on Monday, many employees returned to work.

Yet tensions continued to simmer, and erupted into at least three additional protests in following days. Los Angeles Times/TNS

ATICAN CITY—Pope Francis lays out his case for emphasizing the merciful face of the Catholic Church in his first book as pontiff, saying God never tires of forgiving and actually prefers the sinners who repent over self-righteous moralizers who don’t.

The Name of God Is Mercy, a 100-page conversation with Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli, is being published this week in 86 countries to help kick-start Francis’s Holy Year of Mercy. A copy was provided in advance to The Associated Press on Sunday.

In the book, Francis condemns what he calls the “scholars of law”—the doctrinaire-minded rigorists who throughout the history of the church have challenged Jesus’ message of unconditional love and mercy for even the most wretched of sinners. He says often these self-righteous Christians are hypocrites themselves, using the law to hide their own “deep wounds.”

“These are men who live attached to the letter of the law but who neglect love; men who only know how to close doors and draw boundaries,” Francis is quoted as saying.

Francis has rankled many conservatives with his frequent dismissals of theological and legalistic arguments stressing doctrine over his more pastoral message of welcome and mercy for society’s most marginal. The clash in approaches has been particularly evident in recent church debates over marriage and divorce.

“We must avoid the attitude of someone who judges and condemns from the lofty heights of his own certainty, looking for the splinter in his brother’s eye while remaining unaware of the beam in his own,” Francis says. “Let us always remember that God rejoices more when one sinner returns to the fold than when 99 righteous people have no need of repentance.”

The Vatican is officially launching the book on Tuesday with a high-level panel discussion featuring Francis’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Life Is Beautiful actor Roberto Benigni, signaling the importance Francis places on getting the message out.

In the book, Francis insists that his now-infamous “Who am I to judge” comment about gays was merely a repetition of the church’s teaching on homosexuality. Francis won praise from gays with the comment, uttered during his first press conference in 2013. But many conservatives have criticized the remark as vague and incomplete since church teaching also holds that gay acts are “intrinsically disordered.”

Francis says the church has long held that gays should be treated with dignity and respect and seen as individuals. And he goes to some length throughout the text to cite scripture and previous popes to make clear that his radical agenda is fully rooted in the church’s basic teachings.

“People should not be defined only by their sexual tendencies: Let us not forget that God loves all his creatures and we are destined to receive his infinite love,” he says. “I prefer that homosexuals come to confession, that they

stay close to the Lord, and that we pray all together. You can advise them to pray, show goodwill, show them the way, and accompany them along it.”

Francis has made clear from the start of his pontificate that his would be a papacy focused on mercy, and he called a jubilee year to emphasize it.

Throughout the book, Francis refers repeatedly to his own ministry to prostitutes and prisoners in Argentina, showing how his own personal encounters with society’s outcasts have shaped his view about the faith and formed the bedrock of his papacy.

As a confessor, Francis is quoted as saying, “I have always tried to find a crack, just a tiny opening so that I can pry open that door and grant forgiveness and mercy.”

But Francis’s opening isn’t a free-for-all: He says of course prisons can’t throw their doors open and let violent criminals out onto the streets. But he says once a debt is paid, prisoners must be reintegrated back into society and welcomed. And he distinguishes between ordinary and even repeat sinners and those who are corrupt, saying corruption is a condition, a state of life and often a hypocritical one incompatible with Christianity.

“The corrupt man often doesn’t realize his own condition, much as a person with bad breath doesn’t know they have it,” he says.

Some conservatives have balked at Francis’s mercy-over-morals priorities, saying it has sent confusing messages to the faithful especially after two previous popes spent so much time stressing doctrine. Even some cardinals have called on Francis to make clear-cut policy statements on certain hot-button issues, especially on the divisive question of whether divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion.

Church teaching holds that, if these Catholics are living in sin, they cannot receive the sacraments.

Francis launched a two-year study on the issue and other matters related to Catholic family life, and is expected to weigh in this year with a document on whether any accommodation can be found.

In the book, Francis doesn’t commit himself one way or the other, but he indicated that his ultimate decision may draw on a personal experience.

Francis recounts that one of his nieces wanted to marry a man who had children from a previous marriage but hadn’t yet obtained an annulment, a church decree that his first marriage was null.

The couple got married in a civil ceremony and went on to have three children. Francis recalls that every Sunday when they went to Mass the man went to confession and told the priest that he knew he couldn’t be absolved from the sin of adultery, but he asked for a blessing.

“This is a religiously mature man,” Francis says.

Progressives, led by the German bishops, have said such religiously mature Catholics should be allowed to participate fully in the life of the church, including receiving the sacraments. AP

French economic minister’s 2016 priority: Attract private investment

S

AN FRANCISCO—France’s economy minister wants global investors to know that the country known for handcrafted cheeses, wine and luxury apparel—all of which take time to make—is ready to speed up in order to embrace technology’s startup culture.

Socialist Emmanuel Macron told The Associated Press in an interview on Friday that his top priority in 2016 is to attract private investment to the country’s fledgling

yet growing tech industry.

To do so, he’s emphasizing to investors and technology executives in the United States that his country has relaxed some of its famously stringent workplace protections and will do more so that companies can restructure or lay off workers in order to be more nimble and competitive.

“We have to provide more visibility, more certainty to the investors and reduce the cost of failure,” he said, speaking be-

fore a reception at the French Consul General’s home near San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district.

Macron, 38, is an unabashed admirer of tech innovation and competitiveness, making him a controversial figure within a party where opponents fear he is pushing the country toward an Americanstyle model that doesn’t do enough to protect workers.

In July, for example, the French

government approved an economic reform bill championed by Macron.

Among other things, the law allows stores to open 12 times a year on Sunday instead of five and lets stores expand evening hours. France’s 35-hour workweek law was unaffected.

But he said on Friday that French workers shouldn’t worry that the country will turn into the US, overnight or ever. France is not the US, nor does it want to be, he said.

“At the same time, what we have to do in France is to adapt the country to globalization and we have to accelerate, because everything is about speed,” Macron said.

Macron has spent the past two days at the annual gadget extravaganza known as the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He noted there were nearly 200 French start-ups at the show, the most of any European country, he said. AP

FRENCH Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron waves as he leaves after a visit to a shopping center on the first day of the winter sales in Paris, on January 6. The five-week 2016 winter sales started everywhere across France and ends on February 16. AP/CHRISTOPHE ENA

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Powerful US bomber flies over S. Korea as standoff deepens 10 km OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea— A powerful US B-52 bomber flew low over South Korea on Sunday, a clear show of force from the United States as a Cold War-style standoff deepened between its ally Seoul and North Korea following Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test.

North Korea will read the flyover of a bomber capable of delivering nuclear weapons—seen by an Associated Press photographer at Osan Air Base near Seoul—as a threat.

Any hint of America’s nuclear power enrages Pyongyang, which links its own pursuit of atomic weapons to what it sees as past nuclear-backed moves by the US to topple its authoritarian government.

The B-52 was joined by South Korean F-15 and US F-16 fighters and returned to its base in Guam after the flight, the US military said.

“This was a demonstration of the ironclad US commitment to our allies in South Korea, in Japan and to the defense of the American homeland,” Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., commander US Pacific Command, said in a statement. “North Korea’s nuclear test is a blatant violation of its international obligations.”

The B-52 flight follows a victory tour by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to celebrate the country’s widely disputed claim of a hydrogen bomb test. Kim is seeking to rally pride in an explosion viewed with outrage by much of the world and to boost his domestic political goals.

There was no immediate reaction from North Korea’s state media to the B-52 flyover, which also happened after North Korea’s third

nuclear test in 2013.

Kim’s first public comments about last week’s test came in a visit to the country’s military headquarters, where he called the explosion “a self-defensive step” meant to protect the region “from the danger of nuclear war caused by the US-led imperialists,” according to a dispatch on Sunday from state-run Korean Central News Agency.

“It is the legitimate right of a sovereign state and a fair action that nobody can criticize,” Kim was reported as saying during his tour of the People’s Armed Forces Ministry.

The tone of Kim’s comments, which sought to glorify him and justify the test, is typical of state media propaganda.

But they also provide insight into North Korea’s long-running argument that it is the presence of tens of thousands of US troops in South Korea and Japan, and a “hostile” US policy that seeks to topple the government in Pyongyang, that make North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons absolutely necessary.

During his tour, Kim posed for photos with leading military officials in front of statues of the two members of his family who led the country previously—Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung.

He also sought to link the purported

The distance broadcasts from the South’s loudspeakers can travel at daytime

success of the nuclear test to a ruling Workers’ Party convention in May, the party’s first since 1980.

He’s expected to use the congress to announce major state policies and shake up the country’s political elite to further consolidate his power.

World powers are looking for ways to punish the North over a nuclear test that, even if not of a hydrogen bomb, still likely pushes Pyongyang closer to its goal of a nuclear-armed missile that can reach the US mainland. Many outside governments and experts question whether the blast was in fact a powerful hydrogen test.

In the wake of the test on Wednesday, the two Koreas have settled into the kind of Cold War-era standoff that has defined their relationship over the past seven decades. Since Friday, South Korea has been blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda from huge speakers along the border, and the North is reportedly using speakers of its own in an attempt to keep its soldiers from hearing the South Korean messages.

A top North Korean ruling party official’s recent warning that the South’s broadcasts have pushed the Korean Peninsula “toward the brink of war” is typical of Pyongyang’s over-the-top rhetoric. But it is also indicative of the real fury that the broadcasts, which criticize the country’s revered dictatorship, cause in the North.

North Korea considers the South Korean broadcasts tantamount to an act of war. When Seoul Korea briefly resumed propaganda broadcasts in

Sean Penn interview led to most-wanted drug lord

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EXICO CITY—The recapture of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman took a surprise, Hollywood twist when a Mexican official said security forces located the whereabouts of the world’s most-wanted trafficker, thanks to a secret interview with US actor Sean Penn.

Penn’s interview with Guzman, who has twice escaped from Mexican maximum-security prisons, appeared late Saturday on the web site of Rolling Stone magazine. It was purportedly held at an undisclosed hideout in Mexico in late 2015, several months before Guzman’s recapture on Friday in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, after six months on the run.

In the interview, Guzman defends his work at the head of the world’s biggest drug-trafficking organization. When asked if he is to blame for high addiction rates, he responds: “No, that is false, because the day I don’t exist, it’s not going to decrease in any way at all. Drug trafficking? That’s false.”

In the article, Penn describes the elaborate security measures he took ahead of the clandestine meeting. But apparently they were not enough.

A Mexican federal law-enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to comment on the issue, told The Associated Press it was the Penn interview that led authorities to Guzman in a rural part of Durango state last October.

Authorities decided not to open fire on Guzman at the time because he was with two women and child. He was able to escape, but they were able to later track him to a house in Los Mochis, where Mexican marines nabbed him after a shootout that left five people dead.

The official said the meeting between

Penn and Guzman was held in Tamazula, a community in Durango state that neighbors Sinaloa, home of Guzman’s drug cartel.

On Friday Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez said that Guzman’s contact with actors and producers for a possible biopic helped give law enforcement a new lead on tracking and capturing the world’s most notorious drug kingpin.

In the Rolling Stone article, Penn wrote that Guzman was interested in having a movie filmed on his life. He said Guzman wanted Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, who facilitated the meeting between the men, involved in the project.

“He was interested in seeing the story of his life told on film, but would entrust its telling only to Kate,” wrote Penn, who appears in a photo posted with the interview shaking hands with Guzman, whose face is uncovered.

There was no immediate response from Penn’s representatives to the Mexican official’s comments.

Earlier on Saturday, a federal lawenforcement official said that Mexico is willing to extradite Guzman to the United States, a sharp reversal from the official position after his last capture in 2014.

“Mexico is ready. There are plans to cooperate with the US,” said the Mexican official, who spoke on condition anonymity, because he wasn’t authorized to comment.

But he cautioned that there could be a lengthy wait before US prosecutors can get their hands on Guzman, the mostwanted trafficker who was recaptured on Friday after six months on the run: “You have to go through the judicial process, and the defense has its elements too.”

Top officials in the party of President Enrique Peña Nieto also floated the idea

of extradition, which they had flatly ruled out before Guzman’s embarrassing escape from Mexico’s top maximum-security prison last July 11—his second from a Mexican prison.

But even if Mexican officials agree, Guzman’s attorney Juan Pablo Badillo told the Milenio newspaper that the defense already has filed six motions to challenge extradition requests.

“They can challenge the judge, challenge the probable cause, challenge the procedure,” said Juan Masini, former US Department of Justice attaché at the US Embassy in Mexico. “That’s why it can take a long time. They won’t challenge everything at once...they can drip, drip, milk it that way.”

Following his capture, the head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel was brought to Mexico City’s airport, frog-marched to a helicopter before news media, and flown back to the same prison he’d fled.

There were immediately calls for his quick extradition, just as there were after the February 2014 capture of Guzman, who faces drug-trafficking charges in several US states. At the time, Mexico’s government insisted it could handle the man who had already broken out of one maximumsecurity prison, saying he must pay his debt to Mexican society first.

Then-Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said the extradition would happen only after he finished his sentence in Mexico in “300 or 400 years.”

Then Guzman escaped on July 11 under the noses of guards and prison officials at Mexico’s most secure lockup, slipping out an elaborate tunnel that showed the depth of the country’s corruption while thoroughly embarrassing Peña Nieto’s administration. AP

Monday, January 11, 2016

A7

A US Air Force B-52 bomber flies over Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, on Sunday. AP/AHN YOUNG-JOON

August after an 11-year break, Seoul says the two Koreas exchanged artillery fire.

South Korean troops, near about 10 sites where loudspeakers started blaring propaganda Friday, were on the highest alert, but have not detected any unusual movement from North Korea along the border, said an official from Seoul’s Defense Ministry, who refused to be named, citing office rules.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said Seoul had deployed missiles, artillery and other weapons systems near the border to swiftly deal with any possible North Korean provocation. The ministry would not confirm the report, nor another by Yonhap that said North Korea had started its own broadcasts likely meant to keep its soldiers from hearing the South Korean messages.

Officials say broadcasts from the South’s loudspeakers can travel about 10 kilometers during the day

and 24 km at night. That reaches many of the huge force of North Korean soldiers stationed near the border, as well as residents in border towns such as Kaesong, where the Koreas jointly operate an industrial park that has been a valuable cash source for the impoverished North.

While the South’s broadcasts also include news and pop music, much of the programming challenges North Korea’s government more directly.

“We hope that our fellow Koreans in the North will be able to live in a society that doesn’t invade individual lives as soon as possible,” a female presenter said in parts of the broadcast that officials revealed to South Korean media. “Countries run by dictatorships even try to control human instincts.”

Marathon talks by the Koreas in August eased anger and stopped the broadcasts, which Seoul started after blaming North Korean land

mines for maiming two soldiers. It might be more difficult to do so now.

Seoul can’t stand down easily, some analysts say, and it’s highly unlikely that the North will express regret for its nuclear test, which is a source of intense national pride.

Responding to the North’s bomb test, US Secretary of State John Kerry urged China, the North’s only major ally and biggest aid provider, to end “business as usual” with North Korea.

Diplomats at a UN Security Council emergency session pledged to swiftly pursue new sanctions. For current sanctions and any new penalties to work, better cooperation and stronger implementation from China is seen as key.

It may take weeks or longer to confirm or refute the North’s claim that it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, which would mark a major and unanticipated advance for its still-limited nuclear arsenal. AP

The W

Business

A8 Monday, January 11, 2016 | Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

N. Korea defiance challenges moral a P

YONGYANG, North Korea— When North Korea claimed triumphantly that it had tested its first hydrogen bomb last week, it was roundly and predictably condemned by the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and India, countries estimated to possess a combined total of more than 15,000 nuclear warheads.

15,000 combined total warheads of nucleararmed countries

Nonnuclear powers condemned the test, too, including Japan, the country that was on the receiving end of the only atomic bomb attack in history—the US bombing that ended World War II in the Pacific in 1945.

But while most of the world, East and West, agrees that no one wants North Korea to be an effectively functioning nuclear power, a question that can’t be escaped lurks behind the condemnation: How much right do nations have to tell other nations what to do? Moreover, how much of a right do nuclear powers, which have no intention of giving up their own arsenals, have to demand others to give up theirs?

North Korea, of course, says none.

In a show of defiance and nationalist pride that is so characteristic of the North, masses of North Koreans filled Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square on Friday, which happened to also be leader Kim Jong Un’s birthday, to celebrate their military’s new crown jewel. Fireworks and dancing parties were held after the rally.

“This hydrogen bomb test represents the higher stage of development of our nuclear arms,” Pak Pong-ju, North Korea’s premier, told the crowd, which officials said was 100,000-strong. “It will go down in history as a perfect success and now the DPRK is proud to be ranked among nuclear states possessing hydrogen bombs. The Korean people can demonstrate the stamina of a dignified nation with the strongest nuclear deterrent.” The North’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). With its latest test, which may or may not have been of an H-bomb—outside expert opinion remains divided—it is treading further down a dangerous, but well-worn, path. As has been the case with every nation that went nuclear, possession of such weapons is seen by the North’s regime as a strategic necessity. That’s why decades of pleading with and punishing the North simply haven’t worked.

Developing a credible nuclear force is in the long run cheaper for Pyongyang and far more likely to be successful than building and maintaining the massive and highly sophisticated conventional forces that would be needed to deter the US. Though mega weapons, like the H-bomb, have become largely irrelevant to superpower military planners, who now have the technology to conduct precision attacks that are far more effective and less likely to generate universal condemnation, it’s the kind of threat that still works for Pyongyang. Its self-defense claim is also hardly extraordinary. It has been used by all of the nuclear powers.

After dropping its first nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US went on to develop its arsenal of nuclear-doomsday devices because of what it saw as the threat of Soviet aggression. The Soviets made the same claim, but about the US. Some European allies, not

wanting to be too dependent on the US, followed Washington’s lead.

The Chinese, worried about both Washington and Moscow, got one of their own. India got the bomb because of Pakistan, and Pakistan because of India. And Israel is believed to have nuclear weapons because of its neighbors.

None has given up their nuclear arsenals. The recent nuclear deal between the US and Iran may have made a dent in Pyongyang’s thinking, but two countries that did start down that path and failed—Iraq and Libya—appear to still weigh much more heavily.

“The Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq and the Gadhafi regime in Libya could not escape the fate of destruction after being deprived of their foundations for nuclear development and giving up nuclear programs of their own accord, yielding to the pressure of the US and the West keen on their regime changes,” the Korean Central News Agency said in an editorial on Friday.

If, as North Korea claims, it is trying to defend itself against a nuclear-armed adversary bent on regime change and with which it is actually at war—the 1950 to 1953 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty—why should its claim to have a right to possess nuclear weapons be treated any differently from other nuclear powers?

For the nuclear haves, that’s not even worth considering—North Korea is too irresponsible, too unpredictable and too untrustworthy for it to be a valid question.

“There is no need to argue about why North Korea can’t have nuclear arsenal while other countries have already become nuclear powers,” said Shi Yinhong, one of China’s best-known international relations scholars at Renmin University and a sometime government adviser. “All the nuclear powers, such as the US, China, France, the UK and Russia, are responsible major countries in this field.”

“Of course, decades of antagonism between the US and North Korea helped the North Korean leader to make up his mind to go nuclear, but it is not the main reason,” Shi added. “The main reason for the North to go nuclear is the need of the North Korean regime to hold on to its autocratic power.”

China, however, also conducted its first tests under an autocrat, Mao Zedong. Like North Korea, India is also deeply proud of its nuclear program and sensitive to any criticism of it, particularly when it comes from other nuclear powers, and the US, along with most of the world, has accepted India as a de facto nuclear-weapons state.

But unlike North Korea, that was in large part because a nuclear India served the interests of at least some of the status quo.

“To put it crudely, it’s about China,” said Rahul Bedi, a prominent New Delhi-based writer on defense issues. As China’s power has grown in recent years, the West has sought allies to balance out Beijing’s ever-growing influence.

India, with its growing economy, regional influence and democratic government, was pretty much the only choice. “The world and the Western world, in particular, needs a frontline state, in a sense, to challenge the Chinese.” AP

A SOUTH Korean family member reads messages on ribbons hanging on a wire fence wishing for the reunification of the two Koreas at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, near the border with North Korea, South Korea, on Saturday. AP/AHN YOUNG-JOON

A SOUTH Korean army soldier passes by a TV news program showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s New Year speech at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on January 1. Kim said in an annual New Year speech that he’s ready for war if provoked by “invasive” outsiders, but stayed away from past threats centering on the country’s nuclear weapons and long-range missile ambitions. The letters read: “North Korea’s metal factories.”

AP/AHN YOUNG-JOON

SOUTH Korean army soldiers remove camouflage from the loudspeakers near the border area between South Korea and North Korea in Yeoncheon, South Korea, on Friday. South Korea responded to North Korea’s nuclear test with broadcasts of anti-Pyongyang propaganda across the rival’s tense border on Friday, believed to be the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. LIM TAE-HOON/NEWSIS VIA AP

SOUTH Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, near the border with North Korea, South Korea, on Friday. AP/AHN YOUNG-JOON

NORTH Korean military personnel clap hands in a rally at the Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang on Friday, after North Korea said on Wednesday it had conducted a hydrogen-bomb test. The banner reads: “We passionately celebrate the historic national event that is the success of the first hydrogen-bomb test.” AP/JON CHOL JIN

A SOUTH Korean university student wearing a mask depicting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un participates in a rally against North Korea’s announcement that it had tested a hydrogen bomb in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday. North Korea’s declaration that it had tested a hydrogen bomb for the first time was greeted with widespread condemnation—but also skepticism—as world powers vowed on Wednesday to punish the impoverished and defiant nation with new international sanctions. The banners read: “We denounce North Korea’s nuclear test.” AP/AHN YOUNG-JOON

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authority of nuclear club

news@businessmirror.com.ph | Monday, January 11, 2016

A9

Syrian govt to allow aid to starving Madaya people

THIS undated photo posted on the Local Revolutionary Council in Madaya shows a starving boy in Madaya, Syria. The Syrian government has agreed to allow humanitarian assistance into three beleaguered villages following reports of malnutrition in the area, a United Nations official said on Thursday. LOCAL REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL IN MADAYA VIA AP

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SOUTH Korean War veterans salute during a rally against North Korea in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday. South Korea responds to North Korea’s nuclear-bomb test by cranking up blasts of harsh propaganda from giant green speakers aimed across the world’s most dangerous border. The placards read “Anti-North Korea loudspeaker?

Leaflets? Kim Jong Un is smiling!” and “An eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, nuclear for nuclear.” AP/AHN YOUNG-JOON.

OME—The Syrian government says it will allow humanitarian aid into the besieged rebel-held town of Madaya, according to the United Nations, following reports and horrific pictures of residents starving to death. Aid is expected to reach the area by Monday, but for some it is too little and too late.

The plight of Madaya’s citizens only came to the world’s attention when residents somehow managed to get video out to Britain’s independent television network, ITV. The images of skeletal children and babies rocked the world’s conscience. The report said many were reduced to eating dirt and grass. Some, it said, had eaten cats and dogs.

“The people of Syria are on their knees. The economy has collapsed, essential infrastructure, like water and power networks, are hanging by a thread and, on top of that, a very cold winter is bearing down,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. “Twelve million people inside Syria are in dire need for help.” The UN and ICRC were granted access, but the operation isn’t expected to happen before Sunday or Monday.

The ICRC in Syria said details are still being sorted out. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it expected food convoys to make it to the area by Monday.

The ICRC said its priority, with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, is to bring assistance to 500,000 people living in besieged or difficult to reach areas, such as Madaya, Zabadani, Foua and Kefraya.

“Almost 42,000 people remaining in Madaya are at risk of further hunger and starvation. The UN has received credible reports of people dying from starvation and being killed while trying to leave.

On January 5, a 53-year-old man reportedly died of starvation while his family of five continues to suffer from severe malnutrition,” a UN statement said on Thursday.

The UN said it had government permission to access Kefraya and Foah in the north of the country besieged by rebel forces, while Madaya and Zabadani are besieged by government forces.

Up to 4.5 million people in Syria live in hard-to-reach areas, including nearly 400,000 people in 15 besieged locations who do not have access to the life-saving aid they urgently need.

Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) called the noose around Madaya “a total stranglehold siege.”

It said, “Around 20,000 residents of the town are facing life-threatening deprivation of the basics for survival, and 23 patients in the health center supported by MSF have died of starvation since December 1. MSF welcomes reports that the Syrian government will allow food supplies into the area, but urges that an immediate lifesaving delivery of medicine across the siege line should also be a priority, and calls for sick patients to be allowed urgent medical evacu-

23

patients in Madaya have died of starvation

ation to safe places of treatment.”

Of the 23 people who died, said MSF, six were under 1 year old, five were over 60, and the other 12 were between 5 and 60. It said this shows the situation is affecting all age groups.

The last aid trucks took in medical and humanitarian supplies to the village last October, and then some people were evacuated last December, but there has been no new humanitarian access since despite repeated requests.

“Up to 4.5 million people in Syria live in hard-to-reach areas, including nearly 400,000 people in 15 besieged locations who do not have access to the life-saving aid they urgently need,” the UN statement said. “The ongoing conflict continues to hamper the humanitarian response and freedom of movement is restricted by the presence of armed actors and landmines.”

The new head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Thursday that, with record numbers of refugees and displaced people worldwide, there needs to be greater diplomatic effort to find solutions to conflicts and abuses driving people from their homes.

“The UNHCR is navigating extraordinarily difficult waters,” Filippo Grandi said at his debut news conference after taking office on January 1. “We owe it first and foremost to the forcibly displaced themselves, but we also owe it to States…States are desperately looking for solutions to situations involving refugees,” he declared, and stressed: “Even under more desperate circumstances, we have to think of solving displacement.”

Grandi said that countries which host especially large numbers of refugees, such as Lebanon, now home to over 1 million Syrians, need better help. He also highlighted resettlement, humanitarian visas and family reunification as tools which can allow refugees to find safety in other countries, “not through trafficking but by what we call legal pathways.”

Aid agencies are stretched with no respite in the streams of people leaving conflict areas and seeking assistance. WFP said on Wednesday that it has sufficient funding to provide food assistance to 526,000 vulnerable Syrian refugees in Jordan for the first five months of the current year. “This is the first time since December 2013 when we managed to receive enough funding to secure assistance over the next five months,” said Shaza Moghraby, WFP spokesman in Jordan. IPS

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

A10 Monday, January 11, 2016

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Mimaropa united for its first festival

BARAGATAN festival, Palawan

BINIRAY festival , Romblon

B C C | Contributed photos by Teddy Pelaez

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N celebration of unity and friendship of the provinces, Region 4B, collectively known as Mimaropa, recently held its first-ever provincial festival. Coinciding with Oriental Mindoro’s 65th founding anniversary, the event was an approach to showcase the region as the “destination of choice,” having abundant cultural and tourist attractions through fairs, dance competitions and a beauty pageant.

Headed by Oriental Mindoro Gov. Alfonso V. Umali Jr., the festival was also aimed to promote the products of Oriental Mindoro, Occidental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan, and to strengthen the partnership between the local government units of each province.

There were three major events in the weeklong festivity. The opening event was the Mimaropa Agriculture Tourism and Trade Fair, organized by the five participating provinces. This was followed by the Festival Queen Pageant Night that featured the out-

SANDUGO, Oriental Mindoro

standing women who represented their hometowns to vie for the most coveted crown and, last, the Dance Parade Competition wherein each city presented their culture and tradition by way of performing street dances during the festival.

Oriental Mindoro’s performers danced the “Sanduguan,” depicting the mix of the new religious and secular festivals of the towns with the old but timeless Mangyan culture.

While the Sanduguan festival showcases the relationship of the Mangyan to the Chinese traders, the Sanduguan cultural dance presents the

ORIENTAL Mindoro Gov. Alfonso V. Umali Jr.

SANDUGO, Oriental Mindoro

friendship of the Damuangs with the Mangyans and how their story came about. The dance showed the ingenuity, craftsmanship and terpsichorean prowess of Mindoreños.

Calapan staged the “Kalap,” the city’s official festival. The word kalap was originally derived from the Tagalog word meaning to “gather”.

In olden times, people gather wood as fuel to cook food and to provide warmth during the cold nights. The term was then adapted as the festival’s name to show the rich culture and history of Calapan City. The annual celebration features group performances, colorful floats and the history of Calapan.

The Occidental Mindoro’s Arawatan festival celebrates the cooperation among the town people.

PALAWAN’S history and culture through dance in Baragatan festival

Arawatan is a Mangyan term from the Hanunoo tribe which means “cooperation” or “helping each other.” Arawatan comes from the root word “awat” which means “help” or “assist.” The Mangyan practices arawatan throughout the year in every activity or endeavor. The Mangyan’s livelihood is basically agricultural and arawatan is employed by the people in their everyday lives. Arawatan, as a festival, embodies unity, communal spirit and cooperation, a happy occasion when people converge and attend activities to attain success and gain positive results.

The Baragatan Festival in Palawan is an annual event that celebrates the province’s history and culture. Barangatan is from the

BARAGAATAN festival, Palawan

Cuyuno word “bagay.” During the festival, people from various municipalities converge, bring their songs, dances and music, and present all these aspects of life through cultural presentation, trade shows, exhibitions, float parade and street dancing. It started in 1905, the same year the province was founded and its government was recognized.

During this event, the locals unite in celebrating and thanksgiving for the birth of the province and its rich natural resources.

The Balayong Festival of Puerto Princesa City commemorates the city’s founding anniversary highlighted by the balayong tree-planting, street dancing and colorful floral parade that features the Palawan cherry blossoms, from which the

festival derived its name. The term is a local Cuyuno name for the Palawan Cherry, a small- and medium-sized tree symbolic of the feminine dominance, beauty and love. A merry mixture of sociocivic, cultural, historical, and sports activities make for the event. At the “Tabuan” parade, farmers, fisherfolk, market vendors, traders and buyers showcase the city’s best products and revel in thanksgiving for the blessing and bountiful harvest. Tabuan means marketplace.

Supported by Department of Tourism, the Mimaropa festival is part of its commitment to develop the region as a travel destination for local and international tourists. According to Umali, Mimaropa is the country’s “next big thing” in tourism.

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Monday, January 11, 2016

A11

National Museum opens lumad exhibit

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B C M

N December 2015 the National Museum of Anthropology inaugurated the Lumad Mindanao exhibition to raise awareness of the significance of the Mindanao natural reserves and resources of the lumad identity. With 300 objects, mostly displayed for the first time, the Lumad Gallery showcases the material culture of 13 major lumad groups, as well as their experiences and established ties with neighboring groups, specifically Muslims and foreigners.

The highlight of the exhibit is displayed of the Ethno-linguistic map made by the National Museum. The preservation and elevation of their indigenous group’s culture are emphasized by the exhibit items that express their beliefs and practices, weaves, crafts, clothing and embroidery, traditions, artistry and the world’s view to the lumads.

“We wanted to elevate the general public’s regard of the lumads.

Even before the Spanish came, their practices and customs are already established and unique. For example, the back side of the lumad clothing is significant in their culture. It has an elaborate design because they still want to communicate with people even if their backs are turned. Not many know that

among other cultural differences,” said Ana Labrador, assistant director of the National Museum.

It took the National Museum’s Anthropology and Archaeology Division more than two years to prepare for the exhibit. Visiting lumad representatives previewed and verified the exhibit last November 21, while another group graced the opening event.

The term lumad is a Visayan term that means “born from the earth,” and they distinguish themselves as belonging to the indigenous, nonMuslim groups from Mindanao.

Located on the third floor, the Lumad Gallery is open to the public during the National Museum’s regular viewing hours from Tuesdays to Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Share the stage with Chris Botti and Sting at Resorts World Manila

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B M. S F. A Special to the BusinessMirror

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HE Philippines’s Intramuros Administration (IA) received the prestigious Premio Patrimonio de Humanidad (Heritage Award 2015) from the mayors of 15 heritage cities in Spain, in the municipality of Avila.

In an interview with Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr. on the sidelines of the World Travel Market, he said, the award “recognized the work that we had been doing to redevelop Intramuros.” The 15 heritage cities of Alcala de Henares, Avila, Baeza, Caceres, Córdoba, Cuenca, Ibiza/Eivissa, Merida, Salamanca, San Cristobal de La Laguna, Santiago de Compostela, Segovia, Tarragona, Toledo and Ubeda comprise the Grupo de Ciudades Patrimonio dela Humanidad de España (Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain).

The Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain was established in 1993 by the municipalities included in the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) to preserve and promote their cultural heritage through common initiatives. It carries out its work through three committees, which are responsible for developing the different areas: Tourism, Heritage and City, and Education and Culture.

Jimenez chairs the IA in his capacity as secretary of the Department of Tourism (DOT).

As for the Heritage Award, IA Administrator Marco Antonio Luisito Sardillo III said it was given “in recognition of IA’s efforts to restore and conserve Intramuros and promote Spanish culture, and our cooperation with Escuela Taller de Intramuros.”

He explained that Escuela Taller, which trains out-of-school youth in restoration and conservation work, started as a joint program of the governments of the Philippines and Spain, with the help of IA and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Since then, as is the Escuela Taller model, the program has been localized by incorporating into a private foundation. The Escuela remains based in Intramuros, with the mandate of providing specialized trainings, primarily for out-of-school youth in the conservation.

A branch of Escuella Taller has been established in Bohol, and is

THE Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain is composed of 15 cities whose monumental sites have been awarded the World Heritage destination by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr. (eighth-from left) is joined by the mayors of other member-cities. students have each participated in the activities related to the waterproofing of the deck in the recent summer months in the Philippines,” he added. Also, the chambers of the Revellin de Recoletos are being replastered, which he said, was a huge project.

Meanwhile, the main objective of the Escuella Taller “in working with us in Almacenes Reales, is to restore the structural equilibrium of its original walls,” he continued in his speech.

The DOT chief expressed gratitude for the award and invited the mayors of the 15 heritage cities of Spain to visit Manila. “Nothing would give us the greater honor than to have a tour bus full of mayors from Spain…. Visit a fortresss, for JIMENEZ, as chairman of the Intramuros Administration, receives the Premio Patrimonio de la example, that is a striking resemblance to Humanidad (Heritage Award) from Mayor José Luis Rivas Hernadez, mayor of Avila, Spain, and also the so many other places in Spain like Madrid concurrent president of the Group of World Heritage Cities in Spain. but is almost 10,000 miles away.”

According to a brief background us a tremendous boost in terms of helping restore the churches damaged provided by the Spanish government, encouragement, an enviable inspiration in the 2013 earthquake. the aim of the Heritage Award is to give to do better. If you could see Intramuros In his speech at Avila, where the public recognition for the work done today, you will be very surprised that the Heritage Award was handed to the in the field of conservation, restoration, city that was almost totally destroyed Philippines, Jimenez told the gathering promotion and dissemination of Spanish during World War II has—with the help of “that culture will play a very central role cultural and historical heritage.

Escuella Taller—remained in its place and in the 21st century, so that our work in The award values the best project in continues to rebuild and redevelop.”

Intramuros is more than just a restorathe field of conservation and restoration With Spain’s help, the IA has been tion. As I like to remind the administraof Spanish heritage, taking into account rebuilding the Casa Blanca Loggia, tor of Intramuros who has traveled to the criteria of project quality, its actual the Revellin de Recoletos, the choir Avila with me, the work in Intramuros implementation and adaptation to the loft of San Agustin Church and the Alis development, not just preservation. urban context and its role in social revitalmacenes Reales.

And with the help of Escuella Taller, we ization of the historic and application as “The reconstruction work at Casa are, in fact, achieving them.” a model for other groups, especially the Blanca,” Jimenez said, “has been the He added: “Those who know the FiliWorld Heritage Site. collaborative work of our carpentry and pinos well, know that the Filipinos strive Previous winners of the Heritage woodworks team under the close superin an atmosphere of encouragement.

Award include the Heritage Foundavision of their trainers. The heavy Spanish When you tell a Filipino he is doing well, tion of Castilla and Leon, the City of roof tiles over the loggia have been rehe will come back tomorrow and he will Morella, the Santa María la Real Founplaced by a lighter ceramic roof.” do even better. That is why you of the dation, The Barrie Foundation and The At the Revellin de Recoletos, “the Grupo de Ciudades Patrimonio dela Ages of Man Foundation. masonry, the painting and the carpentry Humanidad de España, you have given

ARENA ISLAND OFFERS AN EXCLUSIVE HOLIDAY GETAWAY

STING

REMIER entertainment and tourism destination Resorts World Manila (RWM), in cooperation with Hi Definition Radio Inc., continues its quest to host world-class attractions as it proudly brings you Chris Botti: Up Close and Personal featuring Sting as special guest on March 3 at the recently opened Marriott Grand Ballroom.

This exclusive and limited VIP-seating show marks the first time Chris Botti and Sting will perform in the Philippines together. For this event, RWM presents fans with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness a stellar performance by these two Grammy Award-winning artists by being one of 60 guests to sit at the exclusive “stage seats” just a breath away from the stars.

Since the release of his 2004 critically acclaimed CD When I Fall In Love, Chris Botti has become the largest-selling American instrumental artist. His success has crossed over to audiences, usually reserved for pop music, and his ongoing association with PBS has led to four No.1 jazz albums, as well as multiple Gold, Platinum and Grammy Awards. Most recently, his latest album Impressions won the Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album at the 2013 55th Grammy Awards. Performing worldwide and selling more than 4 million albums, he has found a form of creative expression that begins in jazz and expands beyond the limits of any single genre.

Grammy Award-winning musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor and philanthropist Sting was the principal songwriter, lead singer, and bassist for the new wave rock band The

PHL RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS HERITAGE AWARD FROM SPAIN

CHRIS BOTTI Police from 1977 to 1983, before launching a successful solo career. As a solo musician and a member of The Police, Sting became one of the world’s best-selling music artists. He has received 16 Grammy Awards, his first for best rock instrumental in 1984; three Brit Awards, including Best British Male in 1994 and Outstanding Contribution in 2002; a Golden Globe; an Emmy; and three Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Police in 2003. Most recently, he received a TONY nomination for his score written for the Broadway musical, The Last Ship.

“This concert has a unique value proposition,” said Martin Paz, chief integrated marketing officer of Resorts World Manila.

“Unlike other shows with VIP seating that are typically restricted to front row seats, meet-and-greets, or autograph signing sessions, we now take things to a whole new level wherein those in stage seats get to watch the concert on the stage itself and just a breath away from the artists.”

Ticket prices start at P11,000 for Bronze, P17,000 for Silver, P28,000 for Gold, P34,000 for VIP and P40,000 for SVIP. For stage seats, contact the RWM Sales team at 0917-8728012.

As the Marriott Grand Ballroom has a 3,180 seat capacity for this intimate show, which is relatively limited compared to arena concerts, tickets are expected to sell out quickly due to the unique opportunity it presents to Botti and Sting fans.

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OR anyone who’s craving to get away, Palawan is always a good idea.

Arena Island, Palawan’s bestkept secret, offers a tranquil and serene setting perfect for group, couple, or solo holiday getaway.

The 4-hectare private island is set off the coast of the municipality of Narra, three hours away from the capital, Puerto Princesa City. Arena Island has a unique blend of privacy and comfort because guests can have the island all to themselves during their stay. The visitors are given value through exclusive and personalized services of a highly trained crew, comprised of professional chefs and butlers.

The Casa and the native-themed Casita, best for a couple’s honeymoon, are the premier accommodations at Arena Island.

Group travelers, meanwhile, can relish their break with the gentle breeze in the Pavilion, which accommodates up to 15 single mattresses.

The appeal of Arena Island goes into its culinary treats, as well. Guests have the privilege to choose what will be served on their table. They can select from a wide range of home-cooked meals of fresh seafood caught around the island. Moreover, guests can choose among the Casita’s verandas, the beachfront, the tree house, the sandbar, or the canopy of trees as the backdrop of their meals.

A visit on Arena Island will not be completely amazing without trying the water adventures, such as snorkeling, diving and kayaking. The guests will have the chance to witness and get close to the 30-hectare aquatic paradise home to a marine life and resources.

Aside from providing exclusive ser-

ARENA Island beachfront

CASITA rooms for honeymooners vices and fun activities, Arena Island has also been practicing eco-conservation and sustainability in its operations to promote ecotourism. It strengthened its efforts by taking part in the Zero Carbon Resorts (ZCR) project under the European Union Switch-Asia Program and

initiated by GrAT-Center for Appropriate Technology and its partners Asia Society for Special Improvement and Sustainable Transformation, Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, Philippine Green Building Council and Plataforma Solar de Almería Centro de Investiga-

ciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas, the largest European center for research, development and testing of concentrating solar technologies.

The ZCR project aims to enable smalland medium-sized enterprises in Palawan and other parts of the country to switch from using fossil fuels to utilizing renewable sources of energy.

With that, Arena Island encourages its guests to participate in the conservation practices by switching off the light during day time to save energy. The island has been using solar panel units for lighting purposes even before it opened its doors to guests.

Arena Island is also known to be a breeding ground for pawikans, the Philippines’s native sea turtles. Thus, Arena Island continues to espouse the protection and conservation of the precious creatures through its advocacy program, Pugad Pawikan Pilipinas, which seeks to preserve endangered species of sea turtles. Custodians of Arena Island take care of the hatchlings and release them back to sea after a month.

Guests can partake in the releasing process and sponsor-related costs to ensure the protection and health of the gentle creatures before they go back to the sea.

“We, at Arena Island, strongly believe that we have responsibility to the environment and we have to continue with our efforts to make the island more sustainable for the years to come,” said Roland Rodriquez, a native of Cuyo, Palawan, and the island’s proprietor and protector.

With its right mix of privacy, personalized service and commitment to the environment, the secluded Arena Island is perfectly made for travel enthusiasts.

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Science Monday BusinessMirror

Monday, January 11, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph

THE Earth at night, a composite nighttime image of the world during the Anthropocene. CRAIG MAYHEW AND ROBERT SIMMON, NASA GSFC/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

FIVE SIGNS EARTH IS IN A MANMADE EPOCH

Welcome to the Anthropocene

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ORE than two dozen scientists have spent at least six years debating if humanity’s wear-and-tear on the planet qualifies as a new geological epoch that deserves its own name.

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scientists debated for 6 years on new geological epoch

The origins of coal date back to the Carboniferous Period 350 million years ago. Dinosaurs roamed the Earth until a meteor brought an end to their Cretaceous Period 66 million years ago.

Civilization grew up in the Holocene, which started only 11,700 years ago. Now, these researchers argue, human industry and population has created the Anthropocene, or human epoch.

Essentially, they argue, over the last 75 years or so we’ve installed a new operating system for our 4.5 billion-year-old planet. That’s the subject of the authors’ new comprehensive assessment in the journal Science.

“Human activity is leaving a pervasive and persistent signature on Earth,” the authors declare in the introduction.

Human-wrought change is detectable everywhere people live, and most places we don’t. What’s inadvertently shocking about the paper is that it assembles in one place the effects of population growth, industrial resource use, fossil-fuel burning and agriculture.

It’s not meant to read like an indictment—it’s a research article, after all—and yet the evidence of global change caused by humans speaks for itself. Here are the most striking examples:

1

Filling world with waste.

Humans have invented more new kinds of minera ls—“potter y, glass, br icks and copper alloys,” to name a few—than the Earth has seen since ox ygen-producing bacteria evolved 2.4 billion years ago.

New chemicals line our landfills, mines, rivers and cities. Industry produces about 300 million tons of plastic every year, according to the research paper, or about the same mass as all 7.3 billion humans put together.

Tiny bits of plastic, synthetic fiber, and the “virtually ubiquitous” microbeads found in cosmetics have coated the surface of the Earth in organic polymers. Geology doesn’t really discriminate between polymers that come from living things and from factories. Toss a soda bottle cap into mud, and it may fossilize over time the way ancient leaves or organisms do.

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A scorched Earth. More than

half the Earth’s surface has been transformed into settlements and cities, agricultural land, mines, waste dumps, baseball diamonds and the beyond.

Mineral mining moves three times more sediment every year than all the world’s rivers. Change “is increasingly extending into the oceans,” the authors write, both directly, as trawlers rip up sea-floor

4.5 billion years, the age of Earth

ecosystems, and indirectly, where agricultural run-off produces oxygen-poor “dead zones.”

3

The long tail of nuclear bomb tests. Thermonuclear weapon

tests—hydrogen bombs— produced radioactive fallout between the early 1950s and early 1960s that may serve as a geological time-marker in sediment and ice for any geologists conducting fieldwork a million years hence.

Bomb blasts produce new radioactive particles. The spike in carbon-14, a radioactive carbon isotope, between 1954 and 1964 might provide a suitable peg, or possibly even better, plutonium, which may stick around in sediment and ice for 100,000 years before decaying to uranium and then lead.

4

Speeding up Earth’s chemical conveyor belt. Carbon dioxide

(CO2) is famously entering the atmosphere about 100 times faster than it did when the planet emerged from the most recent ice age, about 12,000 years ago. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is 35 percent higher than its peak for the last 800,000 years. Sea levels are higher than they’ve been in 115,000 years, and the rise is accelerating. A century of synthetic-fertilizer production has disrupted the Earth’s nitrogen cycle more dramatically than any event in 2.5 billion years.

5

Get ready for the sixth mass extinction. Life on Earth has

survived five major extinctions over the last half-billion years,

and many smaller die-offs.

“Current trends of habitat loss and overexploitation, if maintained, would push Earth into the sixth mass extinction event”— meaning more than 75 percent of species gone within several centuries—“a process that is probably already under way.”

Hav ing sifted through the published evidence, the Anthropocene Working Group faces a no less daunting task, which is to choose how best to define the human epoch. When did it start?

Which of these developments best characterize it?

Several possibilities present themselves, each with pluses and minuses. To formally name a new epoch the geology community usually requires specific reference point somewhere in the world, in rock. They call it a “golden spike.”

That’s tricky in the case of the Anthropocene, because the changes likeliest to stand the test of time aren’t rock yet—they’re in goopy sedimentary muck or ice.

A likely definition, which the group may propose to an official geology body late this summer, centers on what they call the “Great Acceleration,” the period after World War II, when human population, technology and resource use all took off, when nuclear-test fallout settled out, and when industrial plastics started to become commonplace.

“Defining when to begin the Anthropocene is controversial as a lot rides on it,” said Simon Lewis of the University College of London, who cowrote a paper in Nature in March that pegs the beginning of the Anthropocene to 1610, the onset of colonialism. “Any definition will inform the stories that we tell about human development.”

Whether or when geologists formally embrace the Anthropocene remains to be seen. Perhaps naming the world after humans’ collective impact will lead nations to more “pervasive and persistent”—and productive—correctives to all the rough news. Bloomberg News

Long scrape marks in ground linked to dinosaur-mating ritual

THIS undated photo in January 2016 shows Dr. Martin Lockley (right) and coauthor Ken Cart beside two large Cretaceous-age scrapes from western Colorado that are the first physicalreported evidence that large theropod dinosaurs engaged in courtship behavior.

MARTIN LOCKLEY VIA AP

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EW YORK—Scientists say they’ve discovered evidence of a frenzied mating ritual by dinosaurs: long grooves in the ground etched by the pawing of clawed feet.

Such behavior is seen nowadays in some birds, and the discovery suggests that two-legged, meateating dinosaurs called theropods did it about 100 million years ago, the researchers said.

Martin Lockley of the University of Colorado Denver said the dinosaurs, probably males, apparently gathered in groups and “went crazy scraping” with their clawed, three-toed feet to attract mates.

The beasts were built roughly like smaller versions of a T. Rex. Footprints near the grooves suggest a variety of body lengths, up to about 4 meters from snout to tip of the tail. The grooves they carved are up to 6 feet long.

The ritual would have been entertaining to watch, Lockley said in

an interview. “These animals would have been really frenzied.”

Lockley, an emeritus professor of geology, is an author of a paper on the discovery released on Thursday by the journal Scientific Reports. The grooves were found at four sites in Colorado.

Dinosaur expert Thomas Holtz Jr. of the University of Maryland, who didn’t participate in the work, said it’s reasonable to think that theropods created the grooves. But was it for mating?

Holtz said he wasn’t convinced that the new paper had sufficiently ruled out other explanations.

But he added that there’s no particular evidence for rejecting the mating idea.

“Whatever behavior is being recorded here, it is an expression of the fact that dinosaurs—like all animals did more than hunt and attack and devour and fight and all that limited set of behaviors that popular culture often portrays,” Holtz wrote in an e-mail. AP

Green Monday BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Monday, January 11, 2016 A13

Water everywhere but too much or too little

WATER is at the core of sustainable development and it is crucial in climate-change adaptation and mitigation strategies. AMANTHA PERERA/IPS

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OME— “Water is at the core of the Lima-Paris Action Agenda (LPA A), but it is true that for a long time water and oceans issues have been marginalized in climate conferences, considering that 90 percent of natural catastrophes are linked to water and 40 percent of global population will face water scarcity from now to 2050,” said Marie-Ségolène Royal, French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, during the news conference at the launch of the #ClimateIsWater initiative at Conference of Parties (COP)21.

“It is through water that it is possible to measure climate change impacts,” she said.

On December 2, “Resilience Day,” the international water community gathered in Paris’s Le Bourget for the launch of the #ClimateIsWater initiative. A series of events and a news conference took place with the aim of increasing visibility and raising awareness on how water is key to addressing climate change.

T he initiative brought to get her severa l orga ni zat ions representing civil society and stakeholders. Sustainable water management is fundamental for addressing climate change.

“Actors across all sectors should contribute to climate-change adaptation and mitigation strategies integrating water into future climate architecture.” In order to meet this goal, financing is a crucial aspect, declared Torgny Holmgren of the Stockholm International Water Institute (Siwi) during the news conference.

Water is at the base of all forms of life on earth, and its existence on the planet created the preconditions for the origin of life and the billion years of evolution.

Through the history of humanity many civilizations flourished depending on a water source.

Mesopotamia (land between the rivers in ancient Greek), and known as the “cradle of civilization,” depended on the Tigris and Euphrates. Ancient Egypt developed on the Nile, the Chinese empire prospered along the Yellow and Yangzi basins, and developed a complex administrative machine based on water management for agricultural irrigation.

It is possible to say that human development is water-driven, and this crucial resource is vital to economic and social prosperity.

Today in many countries, water is a common good, underlining the importance of its universal access.

On the other hand, especially in western countries, water is often taken for granted. But without being able to either control its abundance as in floods and bursting sea levels and extreme weather or its scarcity with drought and desertification, water can be catastrophic.

In 2015, the World Economic Forum ranked water as the highest risk affecting global society.

According to World Water Council (WWC), 1 in 8 people lives without safe drinking water, and 2 people in 5 do not have adequate sanitation globally.

Moreover, nearly 3.5 million deaths from water related diseases are registered every year. Unfortunately, the most affected people live in the global south. In addition to these shocking facts, directly linked to our so-called water crisis, there

are very strong connections between water and some of the core areas of sustainable development, such as agriculture and food security, demography and urbanization, as well as climate and the environment. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), agricultural irrigation accounts for 70 percent of global water withdrawals, an impressive ratio considering demographers’ preoccupations for population growth projections. Indeed, food demand is expected to increase by 60 percent and energy by 100 percent by 2050.

Water is inextricably connected to energy. It is necessary not only for hydropower, but also for cooling power plants, for oil and gas hydraulic fracturing or fracking, and for biofuels. Some 1.3 billion people, mainly in Africa, have no access to electricity. New urban development from 2010 to 2030 is expected to equal what was built in all of human history.

This will increase water withdrawa ls f rom municipa lities, implying issues of access, infrastructure, sanitation and safety from extreme water hazards.

Surprisingly, in spite of all the above evidence, for a long time water has not been at the top of global agenda. It is not highlighted in climate issues, even though “the effects of climate change will be felt mainly in the water cycle,” said Benedito Braga, president of WWC, during the media conference. Water management has a great potential for both climate-change adaptation and mitigation, he said.

According to WWC estimates, there have already been $2.5 trillion economic losses from disasters—70 percent related to floods and droughts—so far this century. And other key issues such as migration and infrastructure damage are connected to climate disasters related to water.

Even though water is not specifically mentioned in the final Paris agreement, it is possible the international water community is gaining momentum.

At the seventh World Water Council held in Daegu and Gyeongbuk last April, South Korea was a notable participant. This council also brought water into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include a goal completely dedicated to water.

SDG 6 aims at ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. SDG 6 covers the entire water cycle, including the management of water, wastewater and ecosystem resources, and have strong linkages to all of the other SDGs. In fact, its realization would mean a huge step towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.

There is further evidence that civil society plays a crucial role in mainstreaming water in the Global Agenda. In fact, the LPAA that brought water at the centre of discussions in Paris, involves national governments, cities, regions and other sub national entities, international organizations, civil society, indigenous peoples, women, youth, academic institutions, as well as businesses. And over 300 organisations signed Paris pact on water and adaptation to climate change in river basins at COP21. IPS

THE United States side of Niagara Falls in New York has begun to thaw after the recent “polar vortex” that affected millions in the US and Canada. AP/NICK LO VERDE

Weather whiplash in weird winter

W

ASHINGTON—Get ready for weather whiplash as powerful climatic forces elbow each other for starring roles in a weird winter show.

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or so degrees below normal, Europe may have to get used to this temperature

The spine-chilling polar vortex is taking center stage in Europe and bringing persistent cold to much of North America—except in Hollywood, where soggy El Niño won’t give up the spotlight.

El Niño delivered a balmy Christmas Eve to the eastern US and shattered national records with a warm, wet and wild December, but meteorologists say the situation is about to change.

“The biggest thing is this whiplash,” said University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado. “It’s going to be a shock for people.”

The center of the cold blast starts this weekend in the US in the upper Midwest, and then moves to the Hudson Bay area next week, while in Europe it starts in the east and north and then spreads, Furtado said. Europe may have to get used to temperatures 20 or so degrees below normal.

“Temperature will be dominated by the impact of the polar vortex,” said Judah Cohen, seasonal forecast chief for the private Atmospheric and Environmental Research company outside Boston. It will feel similar to 2013

and 2014, he said. Americans became painfully familiar with the polar vortex during those winters.

This time, America’s winter temperatures will depend on when the wet and warm El Niño pushes itself back to prominence, Furtado said.

“We have all of these large and unusual events happening all at the same time and I don’t think it has ever happened before,” said Rutgers University climate scientist Jennifer Francis.

For a winter this dramatic, it may help to consult the program:

The cast

THE star is El Niño, a veteran of this stage for a few decades now.

This natural warming of the central tropical Pacific occurs every two to seven years or so, and changes weather worldwide, especially in the Americas and Asia.

It is closely associated with heavy rain in California, and general warming. It has less effect in Europe because that’s further away. With its flipside, La Niña, it is known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, and it lasts about a year.

Playing off against El Niño is the Arctic Oscillation (AO), and its index measures differences in atmospheric pressure between the Arctic and mid-latitudes.

When the AO is positive in the winter, polar air stays trapped up north and the weather is relatively mild further south. When the AO is negative, the cold Arctic air escapes and plunges into lower latitudes, treating the United States and Europe to the polar vortex—a swirling air mass that carries spine-chilling temperatures.

The North Atlantic Oscillation is a bit player with a big influence over Europe’s weather. As with its Arctic

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people killed in winter tornadoes in the southern US in four days

cousin, the more negative its index, the colder the continent becomes.

The jet streams also are important to watch. These rivers of air heavily influence local weather everywhere, carrying storms and clearing skies around the planet.

Usually in the winter, the jet stream that affects most people in the United States and Europe moves relatively straight from west to east. But when it weakens, it can plunge south and north and even get stuck at times, creating odd extremes. Another air pattern playing a small but key role is the Madden-Julian Oscillation, which travels in the warm parts of the Indian and Pacific oceans, and may have triggered changes that “flipped the switch” last December, Furtado said.

Still other characters may be a factor in making the jet streams oscillate more wildly: A huge blob of warm water in the northern Pacific, unusually low sea ice levels in the Arctic’s Barents Kara sea area; a cool patch of water off Greenland, likely from melting ice sheets and glaciers; winter storm Frank that hit England; and of course man-made climate change.

Act one

THIS was last month. El Niño appeared in classic form, tying 1997 to 1998 for the strongest on record.

The Arctic Oscillation was very positive, trapping cold air in northern latitudes. With so many warm, wet days further south, spring flowers popped up and trees bloomed last December. “It’s not surprising we

were 70 degrees on Christmas Day,” said Mike Halpert of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

El Niño often spawns winter tornadoes in the southern US and they appeared on cue, killing 2 dozen people in just four days. The heavy rain that flooded the Mississippi River Valley isn’t usually an El Niño signature though, Cohen said.

Act two

THE switch flipped: The Arctic Oscillation and its North Atlantic sidekick went negative big time.

“When it’s a negative AO, that’s when people start mentioning the words ‘polar vortex’,” Halpert said.

This time, there’s cold air, but it’s mostly dry so far, despite El Niño, which still spawns a series of rainstorms hitting California. Meteorologists say wetter weather could bring heavy snowstorms, but that’s not likely for another week or more, although cities along the Great Lakes may get lake effect snow.

So far the east-moving moisture from El Niño is staying south of the Arctic plunge, but that may change.

For now, the AO is dominating in its fight with El Niño, especially in Europe, Cohen said. NFL players and fans will likely brave temperatures around one below zero in Minneapolis.

Act three

NO spoilers here. Will the polar vortex hold the stage for weeks or months? Will the cold AO and wet El Niño combine for whopper snowstorms? Rutgers’s Francis doesn’t think the moisture and the cold can keep avoiding each other, saying “we’re going to have major major dumps of snow. We just don’t know where.”

Furtado predicts El Niño will push aside the cold in America, but not in Europe, where it has less of an influence. Cohen is less certain about what will happen as these forces morph and interact over time. “There’s a lot going on; the weather has been crazy,” Cohen said. “Expect the unexpected.” AP

A14 Monday, January 11, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

We are being scammed

I

T is both annoying and frustrating to be angry at government so much of the time, but it is difficult not to feel that way. How often do you buy an appliance at a department store and have to return it many times because it just won’t work, and you can’t get your money back? Did you ever leave something at a package counter, and it wasn’t there when you tried to claim it later? Then the store manager blamed the person who was working the booth earlier. Have you ever walked into a shopping mall and seen a sign that said, “We will try to keep the mall open until our regular closing time.”

That is what we would have to face every day if private businesses were operated like the government.

This situation is not unique to the Aquino administration. It has been a continuing trend for too long, but it is becoming institutionalized in government as succeeding presidents take over. Elected officials and their appointed officers seem to have lost all sense of responsibility. The new word that is being used, instead, is “accountability,” but that is not accurate. Accountability may be appropriate for “taking the blame” when something goes wrong, and government does have a big problem with that.

But “responsibility” means doing the job day after day the best way possible, and that is the bigger difficulty for those in government.

We hear a lot of talk about “public service,” as if being an elected official were about the same as Mother Theresa caring for the dying in the slums of India. A senator of the Philippines, for example, has a guaranteed six-year employment contract.

The salary is P90,000 a month, but that is just the beginning. According to the 2011 Commission on Audit Report, a regular senator, meaning one who is not a Senate officer, received some P43 million per annum in total compensation, including funds for “Personal Services” and the like.

Philippine public servants do not exactly take a vow of poverty and have many other perks not available in private-sector jobs, like the international travel allowances for “fact-finding missions”.

However, our elected and appointed officials certainly deserve proper compensation, as they do have important responsibilities and duties.

All we want them to do is to take responsibility and do their jobs well.

No better example can be the transportation situation in Metro Manila, which we are sick and tired of talking about, the same way commuters are of using the system.

In this case, the Aquino administration has yet to take responsibility. But of greater seriousness, the next administration—even if led by the administration’s anointed one—will blame the previous administration. Just watch and see.

But it is not just transportation. It’s tax reform, driver’s licenses, electricity supply, and a dozen other things that we must rely on government to provide or facilitate. We, the people, are being taken advantage of, like victims of an investment scam.

World Bank bets on PHL growth of 6.4 percent Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

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RISING SUN

HE World Bank is optimistic about the Philippine economy and predicts 6.4-percent GDP growth for the country this year, boosted by, among other factors, election spending and climbing household income.

In its January 2016 Global Economic Prospects report, the World Bank also noted that higher infrastructure spending and sustained foreign investments would contribute a share toward growing the economy.

An increase in infrastructure spending would be likely given the “accelerated implementation of public-private partnership [PPP] projects.” Low commodity prices are likely to boost household spending, while foreign direct investments (FDI) are expected to likewise, be healthy.

However, t he World Ba n k pointed out that the Philippines lagged behind other countries in the region relative to FDI inf lows, because of “regulator y restrictions.”

The World Bank recommended that the Philippines strengthen its public revenue administration and broaden its tax base, much as Thailand is doing, which partly accounts for the inflows in that

country rising to precrisis levels.

The World Bank expects growth in the Philippines to ease to 6.2 percent in 2017 and 2018.

HSBC put Philippine growth at 5.7 percent this year and 5.8 percent next year.

Like the World Bank, HSBC reiterated that sustained infrastructure spending and FDI are crucial to Philippine economic growth, saying that PPPs should be accelerated, and that the government “needs to do more to attract FDI.” HSBC “sees inf rastr ucture spending as the bedrock of the Philippines’s growth outlook over the next decade.”

For its part, the government’s target growth this year is 7 percent to 8 percent, partly on the back of public spending.

Among the recent developments that will help make this target achievable is the approval of a new infrastructure project, along with two projects, by the National Economic and Develop-

We are payors of PPPs

By Alberto C. Agra

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PPP LEAD

EGARDLESS of the government strategy, whether procurement, work by administration, loan, public financing or public-private partnership (PPP), we all pay. Citizens bear the cost of development. In all possible PPP approaches, we either pay as end-users or as taxpayers.

In certain cases, we even pay twice, as consumer for availing ourselves of the service and as contributor to government coffers when it supports a PPP project.

Under any of the build-operatetransfer (BOT) law-variants, concession arrangements and joint ventures, the more popular PPP modalities, private-sector proponents (PSPs) who invest and assume most of the risks must be kept “whole”. Defined by the PPP contract, they should recover what they invest; what they pay for operations; what they obtain as loan from financial institutions, interests included; and what they

remit to government as taxes.

Thus, Manila Water and Maynilad must be able to recover costs pertaining to the acquisition and installation of new sewerage systems. The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines must be able to recoup expenses for the reconstruction of bombed or destroyed transmission towers. San Miguel Corp. and Ayala Corp. must be able to raise revenues to pay for debts incurred for the Naia Ex-

Another infrastructure project is in the works. The Neda Board will proceed with the Swiss Challenge for the North Luzon Expressway-South Luzon Expressway (Nlex-Slex) Connector Road project, which was previously approved, said approval being conditional on the proponent to agree to a lower project internal rate of return. The effect of this would be to lower the opening tariff from P100 to P87.

This is a P23.2-billion PPP project to be implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways, which involves the construction of an 8-km, four-lane toll road that will link NLEX and SLEX using the existing Philippine National Railway route.

The World Bank, HSBC and other financial bodies have pointed out, time and again, the importance of healthy public spending on infrastructure and other public projects to boost the economy.

With the on-time promulgation last month of the 2016 national budget and the timelined projects of various departments and state agencies and entities, it is clear that the government will do its part to provide the people with infrastructure and public programs that will truly serve them while, at the same time, contributing to the growth of the economy.

ment Authority, chaired by President Aquino.

First approved, according to the Neda, was the infrastructure project, one related to transport. The Manila–Quezon Avenue Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) of the Department of Transportation and Communications involves the provision of a 12.3-kilometer segregated BRT from Manila City Hall to Quezon Memorial Circle. The project is estimated to cost P4.79 billion, and is scheduled to begin operations in 2018.

The Neda also approved the Integrated Marine Environment System-Phase 2 of the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR). To cost P1.68 billion and to be implemented over four years, the project will improve the Vessel Monitoring System of the DA-BFAR, and the integration of databases, including ocean and weather data, stockassessment data, fishing-vessel registry and other records.

Also green-lighted was a Land Bank of the Philippines program— Harnessing Agribusiness Opportunities through Robust and Vibrant Entrepreneurship. It will provide credit assistance of up to P11.43 billion for agribusiness activities, and generate 21,700 jobs during its implementation period. According to the Neda, this particular project “aims to finance agribusines-related investments to help improve peace and order in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.”

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

pressway and Daang Hari-Slex Link Road, respectively.

In addition to these, depending on the tariff scheme, the PSPs are allowed to earn revenues and make profit. PSPs, unless it is a donation, will not enter into a PPP if they cannot expect or actually yield returns. This is the financial viability requirement of PPP projects.

To be financially viable, there must be a revenue stream. There must be strong and steady “waterfall of cash flows,” wherein all the mentioned items are answered for. To sustain the project and provide the service jointly promised by the parties to a PPP, sufficient funds are needed.

In PPP projects, there are two payors. We pay or government pays. But in reality, there is only one payor. All payments come from us.

For t he Na i a E x press w ay, Daang Hari-Slex Road, CaviteLaguna Expressway, and Bulacan Bulk Water projects and MetroManila water concessions, those who use the roads and consume the water, the end-users, pay.

For toll charges, we pay when we enter or exit the tollway. For water, we pay when billed for our monthly consumption.

For the School Infrastr ucture/Classroom and South Integrated Transport System, the government shall make annual payments from the general appropriations. During the life of said PPP contracts, all taxpayers will shoulder the costs of the projects. In this case, we, indirectly, pay whether we use the facilities or not.

Payments by, or participation of, government also come in another form. When government extends a subsidy, contracts a loan, provides a viability-gap funding, guarantees a project and infuses equity, all Filipinos bear the burden. A portion of ou r h a rd- e a r ne d i ncome, even without our formal consent, goes to these government undertakings.

Our support for PPP projects should also be recognized when the government grants a tax holiday, or when a city or province exempts S “PPP,” A

nnn

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Where does your loyalty lie?

Lights, camera…taxes!

Mon Abrea

Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan

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LEGALLY SPEAKING

O whom does a corporate director owe his loyalty?

Does he owe loyalty to the corporation alone? Does he also owe loyalty to the stockholders? What about the stockholder who nominated him, does he also owe loyalty to the said stockholder?

Philippine laws provide that a stockholder may nominate another stockholder to become a director of the corporation. What if another person purchases the shares of the person nominating the said director? It may be asked—is the said nominee required to make a declaration of loyalty to the new stockholder?

It appears that there is no law or jurisprudence that suggests that a person nominated as a director shall first sign a declaration of loyalty to the new stockholder. Nevertheless, there is also no provision that prohibits such requirement being included in the corporation’s bylaws, which governs the internal actions of the members of the corporation. But until then, no such act is required of a nominee for corporate director.

The Corporation Code of the Philippines, otherwise known as Batas Pambansa 68, became effective on May 1, 1980. The code has several provisions pertaining to board of directors/trustees and officers. It provides for, among others, the qualifications and disqualifications of directors, their election, their removal, vacancies and disloyalty.

The code provides the minimum qualifications of a director under the second paragraph of Section 23, which states that “[e]very director must own at least one share of the capital stock of the corporation of which he is a director, which share shall stand in his name on the books of the corporation. Any director who ceases to be the owner of at least one share of the capital stock of the corporation of which he is a director shall thereby cease to be a director. x x x” Nowhere in the abovementioned provision of the code does it state that a director be loyal to the nominating stockholder.

There is nothing in the law that requires that in the event that the nominating stockholder sells his or her shares, the nominee must first sign a Declaration of Loyalty in favor of the purchaser—it is enough that he or she owns shares in the corporation for him or her to be a director thereof.

PPP. . .

C  A

PSPs from paying real-property tax. In these instances, the general public is “deprived” of unrealized revenues. In exchange, we will or should benefit from the service the PPP project is projected to deliver.

We all bear the burden of public service and PPPs. Nothing is free.

There are capital and operations costs to all government projects.

As direct or indirect payors, we must, therefore, be vigilant. We must know where our money goes. We must constantly inquire if public funds—our funds—are being used for projects that serve the general welfare.

We must demand information about PPP projects, about the necessity and prudency of expenditures, about the margins of PSPs, about key performance indicators, and about the benefits and potential harmful effects of PPP arrangements.

We must, at the minimum, be consulted. Ideally, we should be allowed to witness the whole

Furthermore, the duty of loyalty is to the corporation as a whole, which necessarily includes all the stockholders and not just to the stockholder who nominated him or her. The code also clarified the duties and obligations of corporate directors and officer: the duties of obedience, diligence and, of course, loyalty.

A director of a corporation notably holds a position of trust, and as such, he or she owes a duty of loyalty to the corporation. The fiduciary responsibility of a director arises in favor of the corporation by reason of the fact that he or she performs such powers and functions for the benefit of the corporate entity and as such, he or she is responsible for any profit and losses that may accrue to it.

This duty of loyalty is not only owed to the corporation it serves—it also includes loyalty to all of the corporation’s shareholders, as well. A director, no matter how nominated or by whom, owes fiduciary duties to all shareholders. The specific duties and responsibilities of a director provided for in the Manual of Regulations for Banks may also be applicable to corporations in general. One of these duties and responsibilities is to “act honestly and in good faith, with loyalty and in the best interest of the institution, its stockholders, regardless of the amount of their stockholdings.”

Thus, a person is not required to sign a Declaration of Loyalty to any particular stockholder before becoming a corporate director, not even to the stockholder who nominated him or her. At the same time, nothing in our laws prohibits a corporation from including in its bylaws such kind of requirement.

And if such bylaws is approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, then it becomes binding and must be followed in the conduct of the corporation. Until then, however, there is no authority that holds such requirement being fulfilled by a nominee first.

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DEBIT CREDIT

HE controversy in the recent Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) disqualification case against Erik Matti’s Honor Thy Father put the spotlight in the film and movie industry. Are the producers of “quality film” making money? Do they get tax incentives for producing films like Heneral Luna, Honor Thy Father, and the like? I guess not.

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the highest individual income-tax rate at 32 percent, next to Vietnam with 35 percent, while Brunei Darussalam has zero tax rate on incomes; b. Singapore imposes 20-percent income-tax rate on gross income above S$320,000 (or P11.3 million), while the Philippines imposes its highest tax rate at 32 percent on gross income above P500,000. c. The Philippines has the highest corporate income tax rate (CIT) at 30 percent, while Singapore has the lowest CIT rate at 17 percent among the Asean countries; d. The Philippines has the highest indirect tax (value added tax); e. The Philippines requires relatively high withholding tax rates on dividends, interest income and royalty. This is inconsistent with the AEC Blueprint position that free flow of trade and capital requires the elimination of withholding taxes.

Of course, the issue is not just the rates. Equally important concerns of foreign investors in the context of Asean are simplicity and predictability of tax system, bureaucracy, processing time and corruption, among others.

Aside from making it easy and convenient to pay taxes, the government must put a premium on ethical business practice and must provide incentives to promote honesty and integrity in doing business in our country. This is the most palatable solution to address tax evasion and corruption both in the government and the business sector.

Our agenda is to promote a taxfree lifestyle for entrepreneurs and businessmen who want to make a profit while being a responsible taxpayer. A tax-free lifestyle is not a lifestyle free from taxes, but from the unnecessary burden of deficiency taxes, penalties and compromises.

Here’s the summary of taxes investors, producers and contractors need to know to avoid tax problems: Films which have obtained an “A”

or “B” grading from the council pursuant to Sections 11 and 12 of Republic Act (RA) 9167 shall be entitled to the amusement tax reward. A grade “A” or “B” film shall entitle its producer to an incentive equivalent to the amusement tax imposed and collected on the graded films by cities and municipalities in Metro Manila and other highly urbanized and independent component cities in the Philippines pursuant to Sections 140 and 151 of RA 7160 at the following rates: For grade “A” films–100 percent of the amusement tax collected on such films; and, For grade “B” films–65 percent of the amusement tax collected on such films. The remaining 35 percent shall accrue to the funds of the council.

Like other industries, those in the film and movie industry must actively participate in pushing for a genuine tax reform. Tax awareness must not remain an exclusive advocacy for those who know our tax system. It must encourage everyone to understand the basic taxes we need to pay and how to comply with the regulations of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

Remember, it is more costly to pay taxes if assessed by the BIR as it is increased by the onerous penalties: 25-percent surcharge, 20-percent interest and up to P50,000 compromise penalty. Unlike in a film or show where the director can just shout “cut!”, penalties to be incurred will continue to accumulate unless you pay the right taxes and on time.

As the saying goes, “the show must go on” even if the profit is gone! This is probably the most challenging role to portray for taxpayers in the show business whether in theater, film or TV productions. The only difference is losses are real for contractors, producers and investors.

Below is a detailed summary of the taxes and mandatory contributions that a medium-sized company must pay or withhold in a given year, as well as administrative burden in paying taxes.

Comparing the Philippines to 188 other economies, we ranked 126th in the ease of paying taxes with a total tax rate (percent of profit) of 42.9 percent. Unfortunately, there’s one more local tax collected from the proprietors, lessees or operators of theaters, cinemas, concert halls and other places of amusement or entertainment at a rate of not more than 10 percent of the gross receipts from admission fees.

Like other local companies, the upcoming and much-anticipated Asean integration has caused more anxiety than excitement when talking about the impact of our tax system in doing business in the Philippines.

As a tax advocate, we have been publishing articles to educate not just the public, but more important, our legislators and tax administrators about the outdated and overly

burdensome tax rates, coupled with too much bureaucracy and costly tax compliance.

The promise of Asean Economic Community (AEC) includes a competitive economic region, an equitable economic development and a fully integrated global economy—transforming Asean into the world’s next economic powerhouse.

However, a sari-sari store owner in the Philippines who hardly understands any of these might ask, “What’s in it for me?”

If our government wants to maximize the opportunities that the Asean integration may bring, overhauling our tax system is inevitably a priority to make our country competitive in the region and more attractive to foreign investors compared with other Asean member-states. We need to ensure inclusive growth in all tax rules and regulations—empowering the 99.6-percent micro, small and medium enterprises, while disengaging the underground economy.

Among the extensive to-do lists in preparation for AEC 2015, Asean governments must outline legislative and policy reforms from the taxation standpoint. The table below shows an overview of the Asean taxation.

Here are some observations on our tax rates vis-à-vis our Asean neighbors: a. The Philippines has second to

constructively engage the government, watch over and audit PPP projects.

How Facebook makes us dumber

Mon Abrea, also known as the Tax Whiz, is a former BIR examiner and considered the most prominent advocate of genuine tax reform in the Philippines. He is the recipient of the 2015 Asia CEO Young Leader Award, The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) and the most coveted Distinguished Bedan Award in the field of Accounting and Taxation. He serves as president and chief strategy officer of the country’s first social enterprise in tax consulting, the Abrea Consulting Group, which served as the tax hub for SMEs in the Asia Pacific.

For comments, you may e-mail me at lpkapunan@kapunanlaw.com. selection process and be allowed to vote in the award of the project to a PSP. We should not be fence sitters. We are stakeholders. We should be part of policy- and decision-making.

We a re a f fe c te d b y t hese PPP projects. We pay for them.

PPP projects must be responsive to the people’s needs and to ensure this, we must hold government officials and their PSP-counter parts responsible and accountable.

So let us not sit idly by and just let things happen. Let us get up, take a stand for our rights,

PPP Learn No. 7 Waterfall of cash flows THE “waterfall of cash f lows” shows the hierarchy of revenue distribution and need for a PPP project to be viable so that the revenues of the project can be utilized for all necessary and prudent costs and to provide for a reasonable margin for the PSP. The Institute for Public-Private Partnerships based in Virginia, USA has aptly depicted this scheme in this illustration:

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HY does misinformation spread so quickly on the social media? Why doesn’t it get corrected? When the truth is so easy to find, why do people accept falsehoods?

A new study focusing on Facebook users provides strong evidence that the explanation is confirmation bias: people’s tendency to seek out information that confirms their beliefs, and to ignore contrary information.

Confirmation bias turns out to play a pivotal role in the creation of online echo chambers. This finding bears on a wide range of issues, including the current presidential campaign, the acceptance of conspiracy theories and competing positions in international disputes.

The new study, led by Michela del Vicario of Italy’s Laboratory of Computational Social Science, explores the behavior of Facebook users from 2010 to 2014. One of the study’s goals was to test a question that continues to be sharply disputed: When people are online, do they encounter opposing views, or do they create the virtual equivalent of gated communities?

Del Vicario and her coauthors explored how Facebook users spread conspiracy theories (using 32 public Web pages); science news (using 35 such pages); and “trolls,” which intentionally spread false information (using two Web pages). Their data set is massive: It covers all Facebook posts during the five-year period.

They explored which Facebook users linked to one or more of the 69 Web pages, and whether they learned about those links from their Facebook friends.

In sum, the researchers find a lot of communities of like-minded people. Even if they are baseless, conspiracy theories spread rapidly within such communities.

More generally, Facebook users tended to choose and share stories containing messages they accept, and to neglect those they reject. If a story fits with what people already believe, they are far more likely to be

interested in it and thus to spread it.

As del Vicario and her coauthors put it, “users mostly tend to select and share content according to a specific narrative and to ignore the rest.” On Facebook, the result is the formation of a lot of “homogeneous, polarized clusters.” Within those clusters, new information moves quickly among friends (often in just a few hours). The consequence is the “proliferation of biased narratives fomented by unsubstantiated rumors, mistrust and paranoia.” And while the study focuses on Facebook users, there is little doubt that something similar happens on other social media, such as Twitter—and in the real world, as well.

Striking though their findings are, del Vicario and her coauthors do not mention the important phenomenon of “group polarization,” which means that when like-minded people speak with one another, they tend to end up thinking a more extreme version of what they originally believed. Whenever people spread misinformation within homogenous clusters, they also intensify one another’s commitment to that misinformation.

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www.businessmirror.com.ph

WTO’s ‘Nairobi package’ seen benefiting farmers, small firms

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HE “Nairobi package” adopted by 164 member-countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) would boost the efforts of the Philippines to make its farm sector more competitive, an official of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said.

Allowing the Doha Round to fail means eliminating the WTO.”—Manzano Trade A ssist a nt Secret a r y Cefer ino S. Rodolfo said the Philippine government also welcomes the decision of the WTO to include trade-related issues confronting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The WTO said the centerpiece of the Nairobi package, which was adopted at the 10th Ministerial Meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya, last December, was the decision of member-countries to remove export subsidies for certain farm products.

“As a developing country, there has to be movement in [agriculture negotiations], for our exports to be at par with developed countries. It’s critical for us to have an outcome on export subsidies,” Rodolfo said.

Developing countries, such as the

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Philippines, have long been calling for the removal of export subsidies, which they say is a “trade-distorting” measure which makes it difficult for their producers to compete.

Export subsidies may come in the form of direct payments, loans, tax breaks and other financial arrangements used by countries to support their exporters.

The legally binding ministerial decision concluded last December would eliminate these subsidies and prevent governments from reverting to trade-distorting export support in the future, the WTO said in a statement.

Under the decision, developed countries have committed to remove export subsidies immediately, except for a handful of agriculture

AN elevated view shows the shipping containers stacked at International Container Terminal Services Inc.’s port in Manila. Developing countries such as the Philippines have long been calling for the removal of export subsidies, which they say is a “trade-distorting” measure which makes it difficult for their producers to compete. NANA BUXANI/BLOOMBERG

products, and developing countries will do so by 2018.

Developing countries will keep the flexibility to cover marketing and transport costs for agriculture exports until the end of 2023, and the poorest and food-importing countries would enjoy additional time to cut export subsidies.

Another feat for the Philippines, Rodolfo said, is the inclusion of MSME issues in the work program of the WTO.

According to the WTO, the Committee on Trade and Development will address the trade-related issues facing small, vulnerable economies (SVEs) and to help them integrate into the multilateral trading system.

Future of Doha Round

DESPITE the crafting of the Nairobi package, the WTO again failed to conclude the Doha Round of negotiations which started in 2001 in Doha, Qatar. For more than a decade,

member-countries have failed to come up with a worldwide package to remove trade barriers.

After the Uruguay Round which saw the establishment of the WTO in 1994, the WTO set out to create a new set of global trade negotiations under the Doha Round. The Doha Round was launched in November 2001, but has not been adopted by all members.

Several factors have made the conclusion of the Doha Round difficult.

Since the WTO is a single undertaking, University of Asia and the Pacific School of Economics Vice Dean George Manzano said any opposition from even just one country will automatically stall negotiations. This is mainly because all WTO membercountries count as one vote and also have absolute veto. “The WTO is what we call a single undertaking.

Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed upon,” Manzano said.

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Senate to adopt House version PHL MEAT PROCESSORS READY FOR ASEAN INTEGRATIONGROUP of DICT bill to expedite approval The bill creating the DICT will skip the bicameral conference T T committee. The Senate will adopt our version.”—Gonzales B M G P

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HE country’s meat processors are ready for the full realization of the Asean Economic Community, or AEC, the group representing the sector said.

The Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (Pampi) told the BUSINESSMIRROR the Philippines’s meatprocessing sector is aptly prepared for the expected growth in Asean trade this year.

“The Asean trade will flourish [in 2016], and we believe that the meat-processing sector is the one most ready for this,” Pampi Executive Director Francisco Buencamino said in an e-mail. “We have the capacity and technology acceptable to the global market.”

Buencamino added the processed-meat industry of the Philippines will be able to compete with its counterparts in other Southeast Asian countries if companies can continue to source their raw materials from AAA-certified sources, which are mostly obtained through importation.

According to Buencamino, government agencies, such as the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), will also assist stakeholders in the industry in its efforts to promote their products in the international market.“Export offensives by both the DA and the DTI will be implemented from their blueprint stages by the middle of this year,” he said.

The DA, for one, is priming up its Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (Amas) to open up new mar-

HE Senate will adopt the House of Representatives’s version of the bill creating the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to expedite the passage of the measure into law.

House Majority Leader and Liberal Party Rep. Neptali M. Gonzales II said the Senate leadership, pressed for time, has agreed to adopt the lower chamber’s version of the bill when session resumes on January 19.

“The bill creating the DICT will skip the bicameral conference committee. The Senate will adopt our version,” Gonzales said in a text message.

Gonzales added that the bill creating the DICT is one of the priority measures of the 16th Congress.

Once signed into law by President Aquino, the DICT would serve as the “primary department” that would oversee the development, as well as planning and promotion of the government’s ICT agenda, said Sen. Ralph G. Recto, one of the authors of the bill.

Recto said the DICT will also set up free Internet service that ordinary Filipinos could access in government offices and public areas “using the most cost-effective telecommunications technology.”

As envisioned by lawmakers, the DICT is also tasked to “beef up consumer-protection policies to protect consumers against lousy service, as well as ensure business users’ right to privacy.”

kets for locally processed meat in other countries, particularly in the Middle East where there are a lot of overseas Filipino workers, according to Buencamino.

Agriculture Undersecretary for Livestock Jose Reaño confirmed that the DA has such efforts to open markets for processed meat globally.

“The NMIS [National Meat Inspection Service] is initiating the accreditation of [local] processing plants to be accepted in countries importing [our] meat products. We are also active in Philippine product promotions in other countries by our agriculture attaché,” Reaño added.

Furthermore, Agriculture Undersecretary Emerson U. Palad said in a presentation during the National Export Congress last year the DA assists farmers, fishermen, poultry growers and hog raisers market their products abroad through participation in trade fairs.

He said the agency also carries out market access initiatives, such as negotiations of bilateral cooperation and free trade agreements with the European Union, Asean, Japan, China, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand

and the US, among others. However, DTI Export Marketing Bureau (EMB) Director Senen M. Perlada said there are still certain limitations that the meatprocessing industry faces due to nontariff constraints in specific countries. “[The processed meat exports] is very focused and limited for specific products and countries. We’ve made shipments of canned, corned beef to the Middle East in the past. But for countries like the US and the European Union, we have a problem. These countries have stringent sanitary and phytosanitary requirements,”Perlada said. Buencamino earlier told the BUSINESSMIRROR that the external trade of Philippine processed meat is relatively new because the country has only been accepted into the global market and cleared by the Office Internationale des Epizooties only about four or five years ago.

Data from the DA showed that the country’s outward shipment of processed meat for the period of January to September 2015 nearly doubled to 4,370.28 metric tons (MT) from 2,254.59 MT recorded in the same period last year.

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Last month the Philippine Business Groups and Joint Foreign Chambers (PBG-JFC) have asked the President to sign into law the bill creating the DICT to strengthen the country’s growing IT sector.

“This very important bill will help position the Philippines as a world leader in this growing dominant sector of the global economy. The Philippines is already a world leader in business-process management, employing some 1 million young people in well-paying jobs,” the PBG-JFC said. According to the group, e-governance can be implemented more effectively at a national level under DICT. “This will result in increased transparency, efficiency, clarity for foreign investors and a significant decrease in the administrative burden for companies, which will, in turn, encourage compliance through easier processes,” the PBG-JFC said.

Members of PBG-JFC include Alyansa Agrikultura, Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, Employers Confederation of the Philippines, Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc., Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, IT and

Business Processing Association of the Philippines, Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc., American Chamber of Commerce, Australia-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Chamber of Commerce, European Chamber of Commerce, Japanese Chamber of Commerce, Korean Chamber of Commerce and Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters Inc. Meanwhile, the House version of the measure seeks to create the DICT that shall be the primary government entity to plan, promote and help develop the ICT sector, and ensure reliable and cost-efficient communications facilities and other multimedia infrastructure and services in the country.

It also seeks to promote the utilization of information and communications technology, hereinafter referred to as ICT, as a vital tool for nation-building and economic growth that is government-enabled, private sector-led, citizen-centric and market-based.

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