BusinessMirror February 8, 2016

MEDIA PARTNER OF THE YEAR

UNITED NATIONS

2015 ENVIRONMENTAL MEDIA AWARD LEADERSHIP AWARD 2008

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

www.businessmirror.com.ph

n

Monday, February 8, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 123

‘Transfer of meat regulation to FDA disruptive, ill-timed’

T

B M G P

HE “hasty” transfer of the regulatory functions of the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) over meat products to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could disrupt the trade of processed meat in the country, according to local meat processors.

In a memorandum circular, NMIS Executive Director Minda S. Manantan said the official transfer of the regulation of processed meat products to the FDA under the Department of Health (DOH)

INSIDE

STILL NO. 1 Sports

B E P

Panthers for the title, and when the game is over, an offseason filled with the mundane business of contract negotiations, scouting combines and training camps will draw as much or more interest than all the other US sports.

Conclusion: The NFL, despite all its problems, is essentially made of Teflon.

“You look at all the things that have happened over the course of five to 10 years that would appear to have thrown bad light over the NFL,” said Dennis Deninger, who teaches a class at Syracuse called The Super Bowl and Society. “And each time, the NFL has recovered and moved forward.”

It’s not to say there aren’t issues, and that the league isn’t trying to “get better,” as Commissioner Roger Goodell emphasized in the opening of his annual Super Bowl news conference on Friday.

“To me, player safety is always going to be No. 1, no matter what else happens,” said John Mara, a co-owner of the New York Giants.

The NFL has attempted to make its game safer, but the authenticity of the effort has been questioned by people both inside and out of the sport. In an Associated Press survey released last weekend, only 47 of 100 players from across the league answered “Yes” when asked if they felt NFL teams, coaches and team doctors had players’ best interest in mind when it came to their health.

Meanwhile, as the much-hyped movie Concussion, illustrated, the NFL has a credibility gap when it comes to showing it really is trying to mitigate head injuries. The NFL’s own study showed a 58-percent increase in concussions in 2015 over the previous year—a result the league suggested could have come about because of better reporting.

“The game’s in a good state, but I just don’t know with head injuries,” said Jake Plummer, the Broncos quarterback who retired suddenly in 2007, after 10 seasons in the league, which allowed him to get out while he was still relatively healthy.

“Any smart culture eventually stops playing sports that will possibly leave you debilitated,” Plummer said. “So, the

S “M ,” A

question is, when’s that going to click, or will it ever click?”

That discussion will play out over years, maybe decades. Meanwhile, the NFL has more pressing matters at hand: n Player discipline, most vividly illustrated by Goodell’s four-game suspension of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for his role in Deflategate. The suspension was overturned by a judge who said Goodell overreached— not an uncommon thought about a leader who has struggled to find balance in handing out punishment in a number of areas. One of those areas, domestic violence, was back in the news on Thursday, when allegations surfaced that quarterback Johnny Manziel hit his former girlfriend. n Fantasy football: Authorities in several states have questioned the legality of fantasy football “daily” games—games that last less than a full season—saying they are akin to gambling. Fantasy football is considered a major growth area for the NFL, one that could be severely curtailed. n Officiating and quality of play: Though there were many examples of poor refereework and just as many poorly played games this season, Goodell brushed it off, instead touting a record number of contests decided by eight points or less. n Los Angeles: The league still has to decide if the Chargers or Raiders will join the Rams in L.A., though just getting back into the country’s second-largest market can only boost the value of future TV/media deals.

“These owners look at their Wall Street buddies who have $40-billion to $50-billion businesses and they’re like, ‘We’re only a $12-billion business,’” said former Packers executive Andrew Brandt, who now teaches and also reports on the business of the NFL. “I think the way they look at their world is so different from the average fan.”

The average fan does not stay away from football despite the steady drumbeat of bad news.

Super Bowl week opened with news about late Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler, who was revealed to have suffered from CTE, a brain disease associated with head trauma

that has been discovered during autopsies of dozens of football players.

Goodell insists the NFL is working on making the game safer. In response to the season’s violent outbursts by Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr., Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict and others, he suggested a

BMReports

IN this file photo, New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. (13) and Carolina Panthers’ Josh Norman (24) grapple during the first half of their National Football League (NFL) game. In response to the season’s violent outbursts by Beckham, Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict and others, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suggested a rule might be passed that would call for an automatic ejection if a player receives two personal fouls in a game. AP

rule that would call for an automatic ejection if a player receives two personal fouls in a game.

It was a small tidbit of news, the debate over which will generate headlines as big as those for any baseball game in July or an Olympic medal in August.

“That’s what you have to look at—the NFL

and the Super Bowl as an entertainment product, and a whole lot of people who really do love that entertainment product,” Deninger said. “There’s enough good publicity and entertainment value in the product to more than offset all the bad publicity they get from the other places.”

BM GRAPHICS: ED DAVAD

STILL NO. 1 The Associated Press

the functions of the NMIS to ensure that the transition will not harm the trade of processed meat.

“It is Pampi ’s belief that the accelerated transfer [of the NMIS

ONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana

DESPITE TROUBLES APLENTY, NFL AND SUPER BOWL POPULAR AS EVER ANDSUPER

AN FRANCISCO—The headlines hit in a persistent stream this season, and the onslaught only grew steadier as the Super Bowl approached.

Concussions scrambling the brains of current and former players.

Fantasy football under siege.

Poor officiating. Ugly football.

A commissioner still not fully trusted by the players and public to handle it all.

And yet, with the 50th edition of the National Football League’s (NFL) title-game extravaganza on tap on Sunday, the league has never looked in better shape.

The values of TV contracts are still rising.

The league is bringing at least one, and probably two, teams to Los Angeles and getting new stadiums in Minnesota and Atlanta.

More than 110 million people are expected to tune in to watch the Broncos play the

—Buencamino

C1 | M

BusinessMirror

S

will be on July 1 this year.

By then, Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (Pampi) Executive Director Francisco J. Buencamino said the FDA should ensure that it is ready to take on

It is Pampi’s belief that the accelerated transfer [of the NMIS mandate to the FDA] will slow down movements within the processed meat industry.”

FAVRE LEADS FINALISTS B H F The Associated Press

S

AN FRANCISCO—Brett Favre and the late Ken Stabler, a pair of kindredspirit quarterbacks who each won a Super Bowl, were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Also voted in for the class of 2016, a day before the Super Bowl, were modern-day players Kevin Greene, Marvin Harrison and Orlando Pace, Coach Tony Dungy, contributor Ed DeBartolo Jr., and senior selection Dick Stanfel.

The freewheeling Favre, as expected, was a first-ballot entry, a reward for a long and distinguished career, mostly with the Green Bay Packers, that included three consecutive National Football League (NFL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards from 1995 to 1997 and a championship in the 1997 Super Bowl.

Stabler, a left-hander nicknamed “Snake” for his ability to slither past defenders, goes into the Hall as a senior selection about six

months after dying of colon cancer at age 69— and just days after researchers said his brain showed widespread signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

CTE is a disease linked to repeated brain trauma and associated with symptoms such as memory loss, depression and progressive dementia. It has been found in the brains of dozens of former football players, including one of last year’s Hall inductees, Junior Seau, who committed suicide in 2012 at 43. Stabler was the 1974 league MVP and helped the Oakland Raiders win the 1977 Super Bowl. He was represented at Saturday’s announcement by two of his grandsons.

Favre played for 20 seasons, eventually retiring—after famously vacillating about whether to walk away from the game—as the NFL’s career leader with 6,300 completions, 10,169 attempts, 71,838 yards and 508 TDs. He never met a pass he was afraid to throw, no matter how ill-advised it might have seemed, and wound up with a record 336 interceptions, the trade-off for his high-risk, high-reward, entertaining style.

Before Green Bay, he briefly was a member of the Atlanta Falcons. Afterward, he had short stints with the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings.

Greene was a linebacker and defensive end who accumulated 160 sacks while harassing quarterbacks for four teams across 15 seasons.

Harrison, Peyton Manning’s top receiver while with the Indianapolis Colts from 1996 to 2008, holds the record for most catches in a season: 143 in 2002. At the time of his retirement, Harrison ranked second only to Hall of Famer Jerry Rice in NFL history with 1,102 catches and most consecutive games with a catch (190).

Pace, like Favre in his first year of Hall eligibility, was an imposing left tackle who blocked for the winners of three consecutive NFL MVP awards during his 13-year career, the first dozen with the Rams.

Green Bay Packers quarterback BrettFORMER Favre leads the finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. AP

SPORTS

C1

U.S. FACES RESISTANCE FOR TOUGH SANCTIONS ON N. KOREA

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

SUPREME COURT: PPP ‘LIFEGIVER’ OR ‘DEALENDER’ PPP Lead

T

HE Supreme Court (SC), again, has demonstrated its role and power over public-private partnerships (PPPs).

The SC can declare contractual terms valid or invalid; find selection procedures flawed or proper; determine presence or absence of legal requirements; ascertain compliance or violation of the public’s rights; and resolve whether PPP laws and guidelines are constitutional or otherwise. n Breathes life into PPPs. Just two weeks ago, the SC, in the case of Osmeña v. DOTC, affirmed the award, under buildoperate-transfer (BOT) law, to GMR-Megawide for the MactanCebu International Airport (MCIA). The SC held that the concerns on conflict of interest, financial health and track record of the proponent were adequately addressed by the government.

In 2012 the privatization of the Angat Hydro-Electric Power Plant by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) to a 100-percent foreign corporation was held to be proper. Power generation is not considered a public-utility operation which would limit participation of foreign investors.

C  A

WHY PPP? THE 7 MAIN VALUE DRIVERS

‘Nonelitist’ electoral system breeding nuisance candidates B M R M

PERSPECTIVE

Alberto C. Agra

E4

T

First of three parts

HE idiot box brought tears to vendor Emilou Velayo’s eyes: she chuckled in laughter.

Telev ision, a unit on top of valleys of rice at her stall, has kept Velayo company as buyers at a

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 47.7530

market in Cavite pass by.

These past few months the small grainy screen has been the home of faces of presidential candidates, alongside catchy taglines and upbeat campaign jingles.

“I’ve already memorized what all these candidates are saying,” Velayo said in Filipino. “They are like actors

as election nears,” she added, and waved away a boy poking his finger into the heap of white grains.

Velayo’s insight raises a good question. If celebrities like Kris Aquino, Maine Mendoza or Pia Wurtzbach were to run for president, would they garner votes from the public?

IMPLEMENT CHANGE POLICY

ENCOURAGE INNOVATION

SERVE THE PEOPLE

PROVIDE BETTER VALUE-FORMONEY

ACCELERATE DELIVERY OF SERVICES

SOLVE RESOURCE SCARCITY

SPREADING RISKS

AUTHOR: ALBERTO C. AGRA

BM GRAPHICS: JOB RUZGAL

C  A

n JAPAN 0.4092 n UK 69.6716 n HK 6.1331 n CHINA 7.2743 n SINGAPORE 34.2119 n AUSTRALIA 34.4862 n EU 53.5359 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.7375

Source: BSP (5 February 2016 )

A2 Monday, February 8, 2016

BMReports BusinessMirror

‘Nonelitist’ electoral system breeding nuisance candidates C  A

“Ay, si Kris na ’yan syempre. Basta may libre kaming commercial,” Jae Legaspi, eatery owner, said, chuckling as he shooed flies away from the viand laid out inside a glass counter at his carinderia. But Pia’s also a good choice, Legaspi said in Filipino. “Para lahat ng tao confident at beautiful. May puso pa.”

In the Philippines where popularity levels decide the fate of aspiring government officials, it’s a no-brainer that a celebrity running for office would have the upper hand at polling precincts.

This phenomenon of celebrities promising public service hit its stride after the Marcos dictatorship politicized not only the military but also the business sector. And, as the saying goes, there’s no business like show business.

Appearance

POLITICAL Analyst Prospero de Vera noted that people in the media began to have political statures, especially when citizens see their faces splashed regularly on television screens and on other medium of advertising.

This regularity of exposure, de Vera said, has led the masses to judge candidates based only on how they appear.

“O ayan, si Yaya Dub,” he said as example citing the screen name of actor Mendoza. “Si Yaya Dub patakbuhin mo yan mananalo ’yan.”

Mendoza is the other half of the highly popular on-screen duo “AlDub.” They were so popular their sold-out charity concert on October 24 last year had over 41 million tweets for the #ALDubEBTamangPanahon hashtag, surpassing the 35.6 million Tweets sent during the Brazil versus Germany World Cup semi-final on July 8, 2014.

While Mendoza is not running for any public office, there were other celebrities who did so and won: Vilma Santos, Roderick Paulate and Ramon Revilla Jr. Hence, their victory at the polls further thinned the fine line between politics and show business in the Philippines. Their assumption to public office further emboldened other celebrities to seek public approval not only from endorsement of commercial products and services.

Celebrities who filed for candidacy for this year’s

elections totaled to 23. Those running for senatorial positions include Alma Moreno, Edu Manzano and Isko Moreno.

In medias res

THE explosion of media and new media platforms further contributed to the popularity of celebritypoliticians. For one, the multifaceted web of social media has made it easier for candidates to reach their audience. As of 2014, there are nearly 37 million Filipinos who have Facebook accounts who access the platform at an average of three hours a day.

“So when the power of the media became a dominant factor in elections, it tipped the scales,” de Vera said. “Kaya nakapasok sina Erap, sina Noli de Castro. Mga creatures ng media ’yan eh. [That was how ex-President Joseph Estrada and former Vice President Noli de Castro were able to enter the political realm. They are creatures of media.]”

He added that once the people have realized that someone with no intensive college education, let alone a diploma, could run the country, then everyone had a mind-set that they could be government leaders, too. De Vera was referring to Estrada who failed to pursue his studies at the Ateneo de Manila University.

Nuisance

NEW media has also emboldened ordinary citizens to try their hand in politics. Some of them, however, are considered nuisance candidates.

“Siguro mas okay pa minsan ’yung mga kung anu-ano ang ginagawa sa TV noon, ’yung sinasabi na alien sila,” Legaspi said. “Baka mas may magawa pa sila. Baka hindi pa magnanakaw. [Maybe people who performed odd things on TV, who they say are aliens, are better. Maybe they can do more and won’t steal people’s money.]”

Fueled by bizarre platforms and political agenda, these “fruitcake” candidates brought color to the somewhat dull procedural prerequisites to run for public office during the filing of certificate of candidacy (COC) in October last year.

The 2016 elections has set the record for the largest number of aspiring Philippine presidents in history with 130 individuals submitting their COCs in the five-day filing period. A total of 19 were

looking out to be vice president and 172 were aspiring to be senators. As of December 2015, 205 of the 321 people vying for higher level positions were declared nuisance candidates by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

De Vera said the Philippine Constitution allows anyone with the proper requirements to file for presidency. The most critical part, however, is that the Comelec expedite the vetting of those who file for candidacy and determine the serious contenders for the presidency, he explained.

Section 69 of the Election Code specifies that the Comelec may “motu proprio [Latin for: on his own impulse] or upon verified petition” remove from the list candidates who mock the election process or confuse the voters.

“If they don’t do that, the candidates, especially the nuisance candidates will make a mockery out of our democracy,” de Vera said. “We bring the bar too low. What we want are candidates who are qualified, who knows the problems of the country.”

According to him, this means candidates “went around the country, asked around the problems and they have a solution.” “They took the time and effort to really organize support around the country, and then run [for public office].”

The October filing of COCs introduced aspiring leaders to the country described by some as “quirky.”

Archangel Lucifer, for example, rattled the Internet when he said that a“divine intervention”had pushed him to run for presidency. A certain Arturo Pacheco Reyes, meanwhile, declared that he wanted to legalize the four seasons, in sync with winter, spring, summer, and fall in America, to get rid of the dry and rainy season in the country.

Dennis C. Coronacion of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) said despite the equality Philippine democracy provides, “like all things, it has its downsides, as well.”

“The good thing about our system is not elitist.

The likes of Erap, Lito Lapid, these are products of an open democratic system. Hindi elitist,” Coronacion said. But there’s a downside. “The downside can be seen in the nuisance candidates.” The system is being abused, according to Coronacion, chairman of the UST Department of Political Science.

Meat regulation. . . mandate to FDA] will slow down movements within the processed meat industry,” B ue nc a m i no told t he B      M. “There are lots of things that the FDA should know, especially on the marketing side. [The FDA] should learn more about the marketability of a product. It’s okay to make sure that a product is safe, but it should not kill the industry,” he added.

Buencamino also said the processed meat sector was “baffled” when the FDA and the NMIS released a joint circular, which indicated the attached agency of the DOH will become responsible for the safety of processed meat products starting July 1.

“The implementing rules and regulations [IRR] of the [Food Safety Act of 2013] speaks of February 2017; the DOH and the DA [Department of Agriculture] want the transfer to happen in July 2016,” Buencamino said.

“We have written to the secretaries of the DA and the DOH to clarify the rationale of accelerating the transfer, as both departments have admitted to their inability to undertake it at this time,” he added.

Republic Act (RA) 10611, or the Food Safety Act of 2013, provided that the FDA will become responsible for the assurance of safety of processed meat and pre-packaged food products, whether locally produced or imported.

RA 10611 further indicated that the transfer and absorption of functions, duties and responsibilities from the NMIS to the FDA should be in accordance with the approved and finalized transition plan of the Food Security Regulation Coordinating Board (FSRCB) and should be implemented with 24 months from the effectivity of the IRR. Dr. Clarita M. Sangcal, head of the NMIS Accreditation and Regulation Division and chairman of the transition team, said the transfer of the functions of her agency to FDA is already “overdue.” “The IRR of the Food Safety Act

www.businessmirror.com.ph

C  A

states that the transfer should be done two years from the approval of the Act. The IRR was issued in 2013. It’s already 2016,” Sangcal said.

The Food Safety Unit of the Center for Food Regulation and Research of the FDA said the two agencies have just recently finalized their transition plan.

According to Sangcal, NMIS functions that will be transferred to the FDA are the issuance of license to operate to meat- processing plants; handling of consumer complaints; issuance of certificate of product registration; and the implementation of meat-safety quality-assurance program on processed meat.

The regulation of raw and frozen meat used as raw materials for processed food will remain with the NMIS. Sangcal, however, said the FDA is still in the process of hiring more personnel to improve its technical capacity to regulate processed meat.

Timothy Mendoza of the FDA Center for Food Regulation and Research Food Safety Unit said the agency has been preparing for the electronization of the system for application of licensing of establishments and e-registration of food products since last year. “[This is] to improve efficiency; reduce red tape; increase the focus from pre-marketing activities to postmarketing surveillance; and strengthening the existing capacity of the FDA laboratory,” Mendoza said. “The processed meat industry can look forward to improved efficiency, better service and clearer regulations through the efforts of both the NMIS and the FDA,” he added.

Meanwhile, Sangcal said the NMIS and the FDA will conduct public consultations all over the country from February to March, to clarify and address all concerns regarding the delineation of the duties and responsibilities between the two agencies.

BMReports BusinessMirror

A4 Monday, February 8, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph

‘Missing’ children of the land: Young Filipinos leave farms to work abroad

T

B C U. O

HE stench of manure, mudfilled paddies and back-breaking work are what most children of Filipino farmers, like Richard Visto, associate with farming.

Visto worked on their farm in Catanduanes province at an early age. For years, he and his parents tilled the land that will never belong to them. Their life revolved around the changing seasons and the storms that threatened to wipe out their crops.

Farming was the be all and end all of their existence. While it sustained Visto and his family, it never gave them a decent life. And Visto knew he could never live like his parents forever.

Visto was fortunate enough to obtain a scholarship and he used his education as his ticket out of farming. He left Catanduanes and found work in Manila. But, conditions were not ideal, forcing him to find greener pastures abroad.

Visto is one of 10 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who sought a better life in a foreign land. He currently works as a welder for an oil and gas refinery and petrochemical firm in the deserts of Saudi Arabia.

“This June I will mark my third year in Saudi Arabia. My earnings are not enough that is why I decided to go abroad,” Visto told the BusinessMirror in an e-mail.

Working abroad and earning dollars would allow him to save a little. Despite this, Visto said he is no longer keen on going back to farming should he decide to come home for good.

“We now live in a modern era. If you go back to farming, you will be left behind,” Visto said.

Children of Filipino farmers could not be faulted for their apparent aversion to farming. For one, data obtained from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the average real daily wage of farmworkers was pegged at only P122.01, or $2.77, in 2011.

Male farmworkers earn higher at P123.57, or $2.81 per day, while women earned an average of P115.54, or $2.63 a day. The daily pay of farmworkers in the Philippines is even lower than some of the favorite drinks of Filipinos sold in coffee shops.

This is why farmers continue to be regarded as among the poorest of Filipinos. The nationwide average poverty-incidence rate among farmers was pegged at 38.3 percent in 2012, higher than the 25.2-percent national average.

Among the regions, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao registered the highest povertyincidence rate among farmers at 58 percent. In Catanduanes poverty incidence among farmers was at 33.8 percent in 2012. This was higher than the 29.1 percent recorded in 2009.

These figures could be baffling to casual observers as the Philippines remains a predominantly agricultural country. While agriculture’s share in the country’s GDP has dwindled to just 10 percent in recent years, it still accounts for 30 percent of the labor force.

‘Government neglect’

ECONOMISTS said the government’s neglect of agriculture is the major culprit behind the difficulties currently confronting farmers. They said millions of farmers remain mired in poverty due to the government’s underinvestment in agriculture.

Also, economists said the government’s “wrong” priorities made it more difficult for farmers to become competitive. For one, Philippine Institute for Development Studies research fellow Roehlano Briones said the national government has focused too much of its resources on planting rice, the country’s staple.

Many blame this on the national government’s initiative of attaining rice self-sufficiency. In 2007 former National Economic and Development Authority National Planning and Policy Staff Director Dennis Arroyo said encouraging farmers to just plant rice is tantamount to “trapping farmers in poverty.”

Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) Chairman Arsenio M. Balisacan, one of the country’s foremost rural economists, said the

FARMWORKERS harvest rice from a field in Nueva Ejica province. EDWIN TUYAY/BLOOMBERG

Aquino administration “erred” when it prioritized rice production.

“Our self-sufficiency paradigm might have to be revisited. In some cases, it has been very costly,” said Balisacan, a former Economic Planning secretary.

“As we have seen in some cases, it has been very costly. For example, in the case of rice in 2013-2014, when domestic prices shot up as global prices were declining, our poverty incidence rose rather than declined, even as the economy grew faster,” he added.

The government’s underinvestment in agriculture has also uncompetitive practices in the sector to flourish. In a 2011 study, Harvests and Hardships: Analyzing Overseas Migration and Philippine Rural Development, middlemen were found to have earned more than farmers.

The study, authored by Ma. Cristina Carmina Gregorio and Jeremaiah Opiniano, said middlemen can earn anywhere from 66 percent to as much as 267 percent of farm-gate prices, depending on the commodity.

₧122.01 Daily wage of farmworkers in the Philippines in 2011

Ateneo de Manila University Eagle Watch senior fellow Alvin Ang attributed this to the problems with the structure of markets in provinces and municipalities.

“More often than not, [the problem] really is the market structure in rural areas, where it is heavily dominated by middlemen. Only a few farmers can really earn [from their produce],” Ang said.

Due to the unattractiveness of agriculture as a possible investment destination, Ang said children of farmers who work abroad do not reinvest in the sector. More often than not, OFWs go into selling fast-moving goods and services such as consumer goods and construction materials.

China puts coal-production capacity on chopping block due to lower demand

C

HINA plans to chop coalproduction capacity as part of efforts by President Xi Jinping’s government to cut industrial overcapacity and use cleaner energy sources amid sliding demand for the fuel.

The world’s largest coal consumer aims to eliminate as much as 500 million metric tons (MMT) of annual output in three to five years, the State Council said in a statement on Friday. The country also plans to consolidate an additional 500 million tons a year of capacity among fewer miners, ramp up financial support for some coal companies and encourage mergers, according to the guidelines. All coal companies should be able to produce least 3 million tons a year, it said.

The 500-million-ton target could erase almost 9 percent of

China’s capacity. Including projects under development, the country can produce 5.7 billion tons, the Economic Daily reported last month, citing Jiang Zhimin, a vice chairman of the China Coal Industry Association. Only 3.9 billion of that is in operation, according to the association’s estimates.

“The document does set some aggressive targets, which highlights the determination of the central government to ease oversupply,” said Deng Shun, an analyst with ICIS China, by phone from Guangzhou. “There will still be some tug-of-war between the central and local governments on when and how those targets can be achieved.”

Economic shift

COAL demand has slid as China’s

economy slows and the government seeks to curb pollution in the world’s biggest producer of carbon emissions. China will also suspend approvals of new coal mines for the next three years, according to the statement from the State Council, the country’s highest administrative body.

“By 2020 the overcapacity issue should be improved,” said Helen Lau, analyst at Argonaut Securities (Asia) Ltd. in Hong Kong.

Shares of Chinese coal-mining companies, such as China Shenhua Energy Co., surged last month after Premier Li Keqiang urged support for the industry and said production should be cut and costs reduced. The government plans to set up a fund to help coal miners and steelmakers cut workers and dispose of bad

assets, Li said during a meeting in Shanxi, according to a China Central Television report on January 7. The nation’s coal imports fell the most on record to the lowest in four years last year amid weak domestic demand.

The plan comes a day after similar scheme for the country’s steel industry was unveiled. The world’s biggest producer will close between 100 MMT and 150 MMT of annual crude steel capacity by 2020, according to an outline published on the state council’s web site on Thursday.

The steel industr y cuts— amounting to 13 percent of capacity at most—fall short what’s required, according to analysts from Capital Economics Ltd., Macquarie Group Ltd. and Argonaut Securities. Bloomberg News

Lack of safety nets

THE farmers’ lack of education and their inability to access social services have also made it difficult for their children to appreciate farming.

Visto said the possibility of not having savings or a nest egg after years of tilling the land was also a major factor behind his decision to go abroad.

While farmers can become members of the Social Security System (SSS), SSS Vice President for Public Affairs Marissu G. Bugante said many of them fail to pay their contributions. As of December 2015, Bugante said 525,058 farmers are listed as either self-employed or employed members of the SSS. However, only 90,261 farmers are currently paying their contributions.

She said the invariable income of farmers, which are almost always dependent on good weather, makes it difficult for them to pay their contributions regularly. Compounding the problem, Bugante said, is the farmers’ inability to inform SSS and keep track of their contributions.

Bugante said this is unfortunate as the SSS can provide loans to farm-

ers to help them buy inputs and assist them with their medical needs.

To address the needs of farmers, Bugante said the SSS has introduced various programs, including the AlkanSSSya program, where the SSS partners with various associations to collect daily, instead of monthly, SSS contributions from members.

She added that the AlkanSSSya program can be tapped by farmers’ associations to enable farmers to submit contributions and have access to SSS benefits. Bugante said the SSS has also has partnerships with local government units and the Department of Agriculture for the partial or full subsidy of farmer’s contributions.

“We are still studying ways on how we can best provide protection to the farmers,” she added.

Despite these efforts, Visto said he would rather work abroad where every dollar earned is equivalent to around P47. He has four children who are all in primary school, so going home in the near future is still out of the question.

One thing is certain though, Visto is never going back to farming.

Peza corners big-ticket investments in electronics manufacturing last year

P

ROJECTS in electronics manufacturing comprised the bulk of the investment pledges committed to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) in 2015.

T he investment-promotion agency garnered 17 projects costing more than P1 billion, Peza Director General Lilia B. de Lima said in an interview. Peza said the 17 projects have total investment commitments amounting to P77.4 billion, of which P51.13 billion will go to electronics manufacturing.

The biggest investment, or P25.15 billion, was committed by a DutchAmerican electronics manufacturer.

De Lima said the second-biggest investment pledge worth P15.7 billion came from a Dutch exporter.

The country’s electronics manufacturing sector also attracted investors from Japan, South Korea,

₧77.4B Investment pledges made to Peza in 2015

and the US. Last year investments obtained by Peza grew by 5.5 percent to P295 billion.

As of November, direct employment from these investments rose by 8.49 percent to 1.25 million jobs.

Last November exports dipped by 0.35 percent to $40.37 billion from $40.51 billion recorded in the same 11-month period in 2014.

De Lima said exports may still improve as three economic zones have yet to submit their report to Peza.

Catherine N. Pillas

news@businessmirror.com.ph

AseanMonday BusinessMirror

Monday, February 8, 2016 A5

Firebrand monks still a powerful force in Myanmar despite setback

D

ARKSKINNED and bearded men jump a young woman after she prays at a Buddhist shrine. They push her to the ground and rape her. Then they cut off her ear and slit her throat.

A lurid video recently posted online by a firebrand monk in Myanmar purports to reenact the woman’s death at the hands of Muslim assailants. Her killing in 2012 set off widespread violence between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims in the Southeast Asian nation.

Tens of thousands of people viewed the video until Facebook blocked it on February 1, a sign of the continuing reach of Myanmar’s Buddhist extremists even as the country moves toward civilian rule after five decades of military dominance.

A new report by US researchers finds that a divisive religious group known as Ma Ba Tha, which counts the hardline monk Wirathu among its senior members, is likely to remain a force for some time to come in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Ma Ba Tha's anti-Muslim prejudices resonate in the broader Burmese society, according to the report.

The conflict and security research group C4ADS spent several months studying hate speech in Myanmar. It focused on Ma Ba Tha, or the Organization for the Protection of Race and Religion, scrutinizing the socialmedia accounts of the group’s leading monks and followers.

“We find a decentralized, but still highly organized, group that operates with unrivaled freedom,” the report says. It cites the group’s activist rallies, legislative campaigns, powerful media network and pressure directed at judges and police to influence legal cases.

The report concludes that the incoming government led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, or NLD, is unlikely to confront Ma Ba Tha, despite the religious group’s support for a rival promilitary party that was trounced in November elections. The new NLDled parliament convened this week.

“While the [election] defeat is embarrassing to an organization whose key leaders had openly advocated against the NLD, it may prove to have little material impact over the long run,” the report says.

Experts say the NLD’s victory was driven by support for Suu Kyi and a desire for civilian rule. But the party did not field a single Muslim among its 1,151 election candidates —a sign of the political sensitivities surrounding religion.

Also, there is popular support for Ma Ba Tha’s campaign to deny rights to stateless Rohingya Muslims, who have been targeted in the

IN this September 21, 2015, file photo, Nationalist Buddhist monk Wirathu (center), a member of the religious group Ma Ba Tha, marches in Mandalay, the second-largest city in Myanmar. AP

religious violence and live in apartheid-like conditions in western Myanmar, according to the report.

Ma Ba Tha denies spreading hate speech. “We are not telling anyone to hate Muslims or kill them or anything like that. We are just trying to protect our own race and religion and showing love to our country,” central committee member Ashin Parmoukkha told the Associated Press in Yangon, Myanmar’s main city.

Yet, even the group’s more moderate leaders have espoused an ultra-nationalist outlook in which Muslims, who account for about 5

percent to 10 percent of Myanmar’s 52 million people, pose an existential threat to the Buddhist majority.

Ma Ba Tha’s vice chairman, the renowned monk Sitagu Sayadaw, organized a peace conference last month with participants from more than 50 countries. He told a visiting US delegation in 2014 that Buddhist countries “are living in constant daily fear of falling under the sword of the Islamic extremists.”

The ability of Ma Ba Tha leaders to simplify Buddhist teachings has added to the group’s popular appeal. It has a nationwide network of offices,

oversees newspapers, broadcasts TV sermons and does charitable work.

Wirathu, the monk who posted the video, is Ma Ba Tha’s most provocative voice. He served several years in jail for inciting deadly anti-Muslim riots in 2003. In January 2015, he called a United Nations special envoy on human rights a “whore” and a “bitch” after she criticized a bill restricting interfaith marriage and religious conversions in Myanmar.

It was among four race and religion bills championed by Ma Ba Tha and signed into law last year despite opposition from the NLD party.

The video posted in late January on his Facebook page, which has 131,000 followers, was intended as a teaser for a longer video portraying the May 2012 killing of 27-year-old Ma Thida Htwe in western Rakhine State. A court sentenced to death two Muslim men for robbing, raping and killing the woman. A third man was charged; state media reported that he hanged himself in custody.

T he wom a n’s k i l l i ng t r iggered the first in several bouts of Buddhist-Muslim violence that has left more than 200 dead and 140,000 homeless.

Wirathu, 47, defended the video in an interview with the Myanmar Times newspaper, saying he wanted to show the incoming NLD government that it "needs to prioritize protecting the race and religion of the country.”

Facebook took down the video after complaints from activists, including Myanmar scholar Maung Zarni, who said its portrayal of Muslim men as blood-thirsty and its use of Buddhist symbolism were clearly intended to resonate with Burmese racists.

The NLD and government officials have also criticized the video, but Maung Zarni contended that authorities have “incubated” Ma Ba Tha and allow it to act with impunity.

Tina Mufford, East Asia analyst for the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, said the group has grown rapidly in the past two years and she expected its “warped” anti-Muslim messaging would continue.

“The elections may be over, but Ma Ba Tha’s inner workings are still in place,” she said. AP

The World BusinessMirror

A6 Monday, February 8, 2016

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • news@businessmirror.com.ph

EL SALVADOR ARRESTS 4 EX-SOLDIERS

IN MASSACRE OF JESUITS S

AN SALVADOR, El Salvador—Salvadoran police have arrested four former soldiers wanted in Spain for the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests during the Central American country’s brutal civil war, officials said on Saturday.

Five of the priests were Spanish and their killings sparked international outrage.

Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren later called on the military officers still fugitive in the case to turn themselves in to authorities.

“There are people who have hidden; we don’t know if they have left the country, but my recommendation is that they turn themselves in to justice,” he said. “We need to know the truth about what happened in the past, but we also need justice, as well as pardon.”

In a Twitter post on Saturday, El Salvador’s national police said the four ex-soldiers were arrested at the behest of Interpol in an operation that began on Friday night.

They were identified as Col. Guillermo Alfredo Benavides Moreno and soldiers Antonio Ramiro Avalos Vargas, Angel Perez Vasquez and Tomas Zarpate Castillo.

It’s now up to El Salvador’s Supreme Court to rule on the extraditions.

Lawyer Lisandro Quintanilla, who represents 13 of the military suspects indicted by Spanish judge Eloy Velasco, called the arrests of the four “arbitrary” and said authorities have 72 hours to present them to a Supreme Court judge.

Salvadoran police said an operation was continuing to locate and arrest the remaining suspects.

6

Number of Jesuit priests murdered in 1989 in El Salvador

The arrests in El Salvador came soon after a judge in North Carolina cleared the way for a former Salvadoran colonel to be extradited to face charges in Spain in the case.

Federal Magistrate Judge Kimberly Swank ordered that US Marshals take custody of Inocente Orlando Montano Morales so he can be turned over to Spain, pending final approval by State Department.

The step is largely seen as a formality because lawyers for the diplomatic agency already reviewed the case before turning it over to federal prosecutors.

The unusual extradition fight began in 2011 when the Spanish judge issued an indictment charging Montano with the murder counts. Nineteen others were charged by Spain, with most still living in El Salvador.

THIS July 1989 file photo shows (from left) Col. Rene Emilio Ponce, then head of the Salvadoran Armed Forces joint chiefs of staff; Rafael Humberto Larios, then El Salvador’s defense minister; Col. Inocente Orlando Montano, then public safety vice minister; and Col. Juan Orlando Zepeda, then defense vice minister, in an undisclosed location in El Salvador. On February 2 seven former soldiers put out a statement saying they are victims of political persecution and that they filed with the Supreme Court a writ of habeas corpus to avoid being captured and extradited to Spain. Ponce died in El Salvador on May 2, 2011. LA PRENSA GRAFICA VIA AP

Montano, 73, has denied involvement in the killings.

Court documents said that early on the morning of November 16, 1989, members of the Salvadoran military killed the six priests, their housekeeper and her daughter at a university in the country’s capital.

The priests had been calling for discussions to end the fighting, with one of them serving as an intermediary between the government and a leftist group.

The killings helped erode US support for El Salvador’s right-wing Salvadoran government.

An amnesty that followed the 1992 peace agreement ending El Salvador’s conflict hindered prosecutions. While two officers served short sentences in El Salvador, Montano and other high-level officials were never charged by authorities there in the priests’ killings.

NEW YEAR’S FIREWORKS A LITTLE QUIETER IN CHINESE CAPITAL

B

EIJING—Much of China’s population can expect sub-standard sleep after the country starts ringing in the Year of the Monkey.

The rat-a-tat snaps of firecrackers, whistling rockets and mortar-like fireworks with possibly enough gunpowder to down a small aircraft will make sure of that.

But whisper it quietly: The skies this year might not be as spectacular, nor the streets so loud.

In Beijing, fireworks sales are down by a half this year after already falling a third in 2015. The central city of Zhengzhou is one of five provincial capitals outlawing firecrackers altogether. Shanghai is also banning them in the city center but, in a nod to marriage customs, handing out free electronic ones to newlyweds.

Whether it’s due to expanding municipal restrictions, pollution concerns, a sagging economy or simply fading interest in a country that prides itself on having invented gunpowder, there’s a growing sense, at least among Chinese urbanites, that setting firecrackers just isn’t the essential tradition it used to be.

Wang Liwei, a 74-year-old resident of east Beijing, said he’s heard plenty of public announcements warning about the effect of fireworks on public safety and pollution. In Beijing, where residents often deal with winter smog, the government has blanketed the streets with bold-typed signs urging moderation while the subway system has rolled out posters showing a teddy bear hiding behind a gas mask, a string of firecrackers dangling from a paw.

“Everyone around me has seen on TV or heard the radio the last few years so we know what it does to pollution,” Wang said. “My children and grandchildren don’t shoot as many as we used to, and that’s not a problem.

IN this February 5 photo, fireworks selected by a customer are placed in front of a store ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year in Beijing.

Much of China’s population can expect substandard sleep after the country starts ringing in the Year of the Monkey. AP ANDY WONG

Why do you have to go crazy with it?”

But he said he opposed any official ban like what the city had during the 1990s—which many residents flouted anyway.

“You still have to shoot a few and show the tradition to the kids,” he added. “It just wouldn’t have any New Year flavor otherwise.”

Nine years after Beijing lifted a decadelong ban, residents now seem to be voluntarily cutting back on firecrackers. Television stations have aired reports that fireworks stalls scattered around the city are offering 50-percent discounts if not closing early this year. With a few days left before the New Year, merchants at the historic Tianyi market in west Beijing grumbled about sales that were down

by at least a third this year, with most blaming the poor economy rather than changing habits.

“I definitely think it’s because of the economy,” said Teng Qi, a 27-yearold from Zhejiang Province who ran a shop in the basement floor. “It is very disappointing. We’re now just blindly getting by.”

Believed to ward off evil spirits and misfortune, firecrackers have long been purchased for events ranging from weddings and funerals. But for many Chinese, particularly of an older generation, the acrid smell alone is enough to recall joyful memories of the Spring Festival and all its trappings, from the roundtable family feasts to the cash-stuffed red envelopes doled out by grandparents.

For police, though, it’s something of a nightmare. There were over 15,000 fires related to fireworks during the 2015 New Year period, down 11 percent from a year prior, according to the public security ministry.

Last week Beijing police began sending notices via text messages and issued pleas on social media.

“Please set as few firecrackers as possible during the Spring Festival Period, minimize air pollution and help keep the capital’s skies blue!” said one such post by the police security bureau on Wednesday with a statement that detailed how many injuries Beijingers sustained in 2015.

Authorities in the capital appear set on the policy of allowing 24-hour fireworks on New Years Eve and New

Years Day and 18-hour windows every day for the following two weeks.

But bursts of firework-related mayhem in recent years have prompted officials and media commentators to call for tighter restrictions.

One such episode came in 2011 when revelers accidentally scorched a forest in Zhejiang, a five-star hotel in Shenyang and a 1,000-year-old Buddhist temple housing holy scriptures in Fujian—all in the span of three days. And in perhaps the best-known instance, employees at Central China Television in 2009 burned down a newly completed tower adjacent to their Beijing headquarters, one of the capital’s iconic developments.

But even if the densely populated cities were quieting down to the relief of authorities, many said the countryside won’t be giving up their fireworks for a long time yet.

“Where I’m from, firecrackers are a must for all the big occasions,” Chen Tang, a 28-year-old restaurant worker in Beijing, said one day before he was due to take a train home to rural Anhui Province. “Weddings, funerals, even when someone buys something big, like a television.”

Yet, others shrugged off what they thought was a slightly fading tradition.

Hunched over his lunch at his stall, Deng Zhi, a 53-year-old Tianyi merchant, said he associated firecrackers with his childhood in west Beijing, just a few blocks away. But that was a different time, he said.

“When I was little, of course, I loved to set off firecrackers at New Year, but it’s not a big deal that we don’t use them so much now,” he said.

He pointed his chopsticks at a pork belly dish. “ When I was little, I also loved being able to eat fatty meat at New Year,” he said. “Now I can eat this every day if I want. Times change.” AP

“This is an important step in terms of justice, but we still are not talking about the intellectual authors” of the killings, said Andreu Oliva, rector of the Central American University “Jose Simeon Canas.” “It is a failure for Salvadoran justice and society that justice is only being sought in Spain.” AP

Australia’s Turnbull yet to be convinced of GST lift benefit

A

USTRALIAN Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he’s yet to be convinced of the benefits of increasing the goods and services tax unless it boosts economic growth and employment.

The government, which is expected to hold an election in the second half of the year, is looking at an overhaul of the taxation system, including a potential increase in the GST to 15 percent from 10 percent.

“Whatever policies we take as part of our tax-reform package will be ones that we are satisfied will deliver the growth and jobs outcome that we want,” the Liberal Party leader told the ABC Insiders program on Sunday.

An increase in the GST by itself would be negative because the question remains what you do with the proceeds, Turnbull said. He said he wants taxes as a percentage of Australia’s GDP to come down.

Turnbull referred to the argument that says the extra A$30 billion ($21.2 billion) in revenue generated by a higher GST could be used to reduce personal income taxes once people on low incomes and on welfare have been compensated.

“It’s not a question of politics here,” he said. “At this stage I remain to be convinced, to be persuaded, that a tax mix switch of that kind would actually give us the economic benefit that you’d want in order to do such a big thing.”

A survey by Newspoll published in the Australian newspaper on February 1 showed that 54 percent of Australians oppose the GST being raised to 15 percent as part of a reform package that may also include income-tax cuts. The opposition Labor Party has said it will fight any changes to the tax, saying an increase would hurt lower-income Australians. Bloomberg News

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • Monday, February 8, 2016

A7

Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz face barrage of attacks in US Republican debate M

ANCHESTER, New Hampshire—Marco Rubio, a first-term senator on the rise in the US presidential race, faced a barrage of attacks in Saturday night’s Republican debate, with rivals vigorously challenging his readiness to be president and the depth of his expertise as they sought to salvage their own White House hopes.

Sen. Ted Cruz, fresh off his victory in the Iowa caucuses, also came under withering criticism for controversial political tactics, with one candidate disparaging him for having “Washington ethics” and being willing to test the campaign’s legal limits.

The focus on the two senators allowed Republican front-runner Donald Trump to go largely untouched in

his return to the debate stage. His grip on the Republican lead has been shaken by his second-place finish in Iowa, though the next contest on Tuesday in New Hampshire is still his to lose.

In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is facing a strong challenge from liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders.

New Hampshire’s primary could further winnow an already shrinking Republican field. Hard-fought, expensive and far-ranging, the campaign has become a fight for the future of the Republican Party, though the direction it will ultimately take remains deeply uncertain.

Rubio has sought to appeal both to mainstream Republicans and those

eager to upend the status quo. But his rivals, particularly New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, have been blistering in their criticism of what they see as his slim qualifications to serve as commander in chief.

“You have not been involved in a consequential decision where you had to be held accountable,” Christie said. “You just simply haven’t.”

Christie, as well as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, has staked his campaign on New Hampshire, pouring most of his resources into the state in recent weeks. All three played a more substantial role in this debate than in earlier contests, though each is still likely to face intense pressure to end his campaigns if he’s unable to pull off a strong finish in New Hampshire.

Gov. Christie has built his closing argument around his criticism of Rubio, and he kept up that approach on the debate stage. He accused the senator of being a candidate governed by talking points—then pounced when the senator played into his hands by repeating multiple times what appeared to be a planned response to criticisms about his qualifications.

“That’s what Washington, D.C., does,” Christie said. “The drive-by shot at the beginning with incorrect and incomplete information and then the memorized 25-second speech that is exactly what his advisers gave him.”

Rubio has sought to deflect criticism of his relative inexperience and the comparisons it draws to President Barack Obama by arguing the problem with the president isn’t that

he’s naive, but that he’s pushing an ideology that hurts the country. He made that point repeatedly throughout the debate.

Rubio wavered in defending his decision to walk away from the sweeping immigration bill he originally backed in the Senate— perhaps the legislation he’s most closely associated with—and said he wouldn’t pursue similar legislation as president.

“We can’t get that legislation passed,” Rubio said of the bill that would have provided a pathway to citizenship for millions of people in the US illegally. The senator found his footing later in the debate when outlining his call for more aggressive action to fight the Islamic State and emphasizing his

antiabortion stance.

Cruz was the victor in Iowa, triumphing over billionaire Trump by drawing heavily on the support of evangelical voters. But he’s faced criticism for messages his campaign sent to voters ahead of the caucuses saying rival Ben Carson—another favorite of religious conservatives—was dropping out and urging the retired neurosurgeon’s supporters to back him instead.

Cruz apologized for his campaign’s actions on Saturday, but not before Carson jabbed him for having “Washington ethics.”

Those ethics, he said, “say if it’s legal, you do what you do to win.”

Trump was back on the debate stage after skipping the last contest before the Iowa caucuses. AP

A8

Business

Monday, February 8, 2016 | Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Los Angeles bridge has begun coming down

L

The W

OS ANGELES—The end has begun for a downtown bridge that played a supporting role in many Hollywood chase scenes down the concrete-lined Los Angeles River. Giant jackhammers reduced 220 feet (66 meters) of the 6th Street Bridge roadway to rubble by Saturday morning and were working on bringing down three massive support columns, Mary Nemick of the city Public Works Department, said.

“We had taken down the entire top of the bridge. That’s completely gone as of 8 this morning,” she said. Crews worked through the night under floodlights to dismantle the deck, which spans the US 101 freeway and the concretelined Los Angeles River.

The bridge’s concrete bottom and sides are a Hollywood favorite; the bridge has been in countless films. Think rival gang members Danny and Leo racing in Grease or big chases in Terminator 2 and Gone in 60 Seconds.

A 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) section of the freeway was closed on Friday and a segment under the bridge covered with 2 feet (60 centimeters) of dirt to protect it from the tons of concrete that crashed down on it.

Detouring drivers on other freeways didn’t find too much of a problem, with delays ranging from about 15 minutes to 25 minutes, Laurie Wonder of the California Department of Transportation, said.

“It’s actually been better than we expected. People are heeding the detour rules and heeding our warnings to stay away from the area,” she said. If all goes well, the freeway will reopen on Sunday afternoon. Considered state-of-the-art when it was built in 1932, the bridge has been suffering from a chemical reaction that, for decades, has weakened its concrete. Eventually, the entire 3,500-foot (1,050-meter) bridge will be replaced by a new roadway that has the potential to become another Hollywood backdrop. A 2019 opening has been set after $449 million in work. Arches above the roadway of the new span are designed to resemble the intermittent arcs of a stone skipping across water. AP

Highly radioactive material found in groundwater below nuke plant 40 mi.

B

UCHANAN, New York—An apparent overflow at a nuclear power plant north of New York City spilled highly radioactive water into an underground monitoring well, but nuclear regulators said the public isn’t at risk.

Officials at the Indian Point Energ y Center in Buc ha na n, 40 miles north of Manhattan, reported on Friday that water contaminated by tritium leaked into the groundwater under the

facility. The contamination has remained contained to the site, said Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ordered the state’s environmental conservation and health departments to investigate.

IN this February 3 photo, the 6th Street Bridge that spans the Los Angeles River is seen in Los Angeles, before it is closed permanently for demolition. The landmark bridge, dating to the 1930s, is being replaced due to deterioration caused by a chemical reaction in the concrete. The $449-million project to build a replacement bridge, designed by Arch.

Michael Maltzan, is expected to be completed by 2019 at the earliest. AP/DAMIAN DOVARGANES

“Our first concern is for the health and safety of the residents close to the facility and ensuring the groundwater leak does not pose a threat,” Cuomo said on Saturday in a statement.

T he lea k occ u r red a f ter a drain overflowed during a maintenance exercise while workers were transferring water, which has high levels of radioactive contamination, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Normally, a sump pump would take the water and filter it into another treatment system, but the pump apparently was out of service, Sheehan said. After the drain overflowed, the water

North of Manhattan, where regulators found radioactive water underneath the Indian Point nuclear plant

seeped out of the building into the groundwater. It was unclear how much water spil led, but samples showed the water had a radioactivity level of more than 8 million picocuries per liter, a 65,000 -percent increase from the average at the plant, Cuomo

said. The levels are the highest regulators have seen at Indian Point, and the normal number is about 12,300 picocuries per liter, Cuomo added.

Contaminated groundwater would, likely, slowly make its way to the Hudson River, Sheehan said, but research has shown that water usually ends up in the middle of the river and is so diluted that the levels of radioactivity are nearly undetectable.

“We don’t believe there’s any concern for members of the public,” Sheehan said. “First of all, this water’s not going anywhere immediately...and, again, because of the dilution factor, you wouldn’t even be able to detect it were you to take a direct sample.”

A spokesman for Entergy Corp., the New Orleans-based company that operates Indian Point, said the overflow was “likely the cause of the elevated tritium levels.”

“Tritium in the ground is not in accordance with our standards, but I think people should keep in mind there’s no health or safety consequences,” Spokesman Jerry Nappi said. “There is no impact on drinking water on or off site.”

There has been a history of groundwater contamination at Indian Point. A federal oversight agency issued a report after about 100,000 gallons of tritium-tainted water entered the groundwater supply in 2009, and elevated levels of tritium also were found in two monitoring wells at the plant in 2014. Officials said then the contamination likely stemmed from an earlier maintenance shutdown.

An Associated Press investigation in 2009 showed threequarters of America’s 65 nuclear plant sites have leaked tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen that poses the greatest risk of causing cancer when it ends up in drinking water. AP

World

sMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph | Monday, February 8, 2016

Rescuers find life in quake rubble

T

AINAN, Taiwan—Rescuers on Sunday found signs of life within the remains of a high-rise residential building that collapsed in a powerful, shallow earthquake in southern Taiwan that killed at least 19 people, as families anxiously waited on site.

The emergency center in Tainan, the worst-hit city, said on Sunday that 171 people had been rescued from the building following the magnitude-6.4 quake that struck at dawn on Saturday.

Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te said in TV interviews from the site of the building collapse that there was an estimated 124 still trapped, many at the bottom of the wreckage. Lai said that they had been able to rescue many people by using information from residents who got out on the possible locations of those still inside.

A man in his early 30s was pulled out from the rubble on Sunday morning and able to tell rescuers his name and other information. A man in his 60s, whose son escaped and whose daughterin-law was in serious condition in a hospital, was trying to help rescuers pinpoint his grandsons.

“My 11- and 12-year-old grandsons are still inside on the ninth floor,” said the man, who only gave his surname, Huang. “I told my son not to buy an apartment here; it was suspiciously cheap.”

Beside him, another man nodded in agreement as he waited for news of his own relatives on the seventh floor.

The emergency center and the city government said that 17 of the 19 confirmed deaths were from the building collapse. They said that 171 had been rescued from the building, 90 of whom were sent to a hospital. Another 104 people were rescued from other parts of the city,

seven of whom received hospital treatment. The rescued figures were lower than the city government had reported on Saturday, and there was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.

The spectacular fall of the 17-story high-rise immediately

raised questions about its construction, and Taiwan’s interior minister said there would be an investigation. Nine other buildings in the city collapsed and five careened.

On Sunday thousands of rescuers in red, orange, yellow and black uniforms worked on different levels of the folded building that was supported by steel pillars. Rescuer Su Yu-min said they were trying to cut through walls and pillars to go down further to try to reach people trapped in the bottom part of the rubble.

“It takes a few hours to complete a search for just one household and, sometimes, it takes two hours just to go forward 30 centimeters [12 inches] when the way is blocked by a wall, he said. The quake came two days before the start of Lunar

171 Number of people rescued in Taiwan following a magnitude-6.4 quake that struck on Saturday

New Year celebrations that mark the most important family holiday in the Chinese calendar.

The operators of Taiwan’s high speed rail announced Sunday that the service would resume full operation from noon.

EMERGENCY rescuers continue to search for missing in a collapsed building from an earthquake in Tainan, Taiwan, on Sunday. Rescuers on Sunday found signs of life within the remains of the high-rise residential building that collapsed in a powerful, shallow earthquake in southern Taiwan that killed over a dozen people and injured hundreds. AP/WALLY SANTANA

The earthquake had damaged power lines near Tainan Station and caused major disruption to the system at a busy time when many people were returning home to celebrate. Following the collapse of the residential high-rise, questions surfaced about whether construction of the 1989 structure had been shoddy. Tainan’s government said the building was not listed as a dangerous structure before the quake, and the interior minister, Chen Weizen, said an investigation would examine whether the developer had cut corners.

Earthquakes frequently rattle Taiwan, but most are minor and cause little or no damage. However, a magnitude-7.6 quake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed more than 2,300 people. AP

A9

Chicago cops think 6 deaths result of ‘targeted incident’

C

HICAGO—Chicago police said they believe six family members found dead in their southwest side home were killed in a “targeted incident,” though they’re still trying to determine a possible motive. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said late Friday that it’s possible someone in the family “was involved in something that could have targeted them,” or that the killings occurred during a robbery or a domestic incident.

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office released the names of the victims— two boys, two women and two men—on Saturday. The boys were identified as Leonardo Cruz, 13, and Alexis Cruz, 10; and the women as Rosaura Martinez, 58, and Maria Herminia Martinez, 32. The men were identified as Noe Martinez Sr., 62, and Noe Martinez Jr., 32.

Their deaths were ruled homicides on Friday by the medical examiner’s office. Five were stabbed to death and the sixth died of multiple gunshot wounds, the office said.

The police found them all dead on Thursday after one of the men’s coworkers called the emergency dispatcher to report he hadn’t shown up to work for two days.

Authorities initially said it was possible one person killed the other five before taking his or her own life.

Police have added extra patrols as a precaution, though Guglielmi on Friday repeated earlier police statements that they don’t believe the general public is in danger.

There was no forced entry into the home and the house wasn’t ransacked.

“This appears certainly centered and targeted on that family, and what we’re trying to do is figure out why,” he said. Officers are exploring the backgrounds of the six victims, including talking to other family members and friends, Guglielmi said.

A relative said six people lived in the home—a couple, their son, their daughter and the daughter’s two children. “They were a normal family. Everything was fine,” the relative, Noemi Martinez, 29, said from Dallas during a phone interview in Spanish. She said her husband was a nephew and cousin of the home’s residents. Martinez said the father worked at a factory in Chicago and the mother was a housewife. They were originally from the Mexican state of Guanajuato and had lived in Chicago for about a decade, Martinez said.

“Right now, we just want to know who did this. They didn’t deserve this. We don’t understand what happened,” she said. AP

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

A10 Monday, February 8, 2016

CAGSAWA RUINS DECLARED NATIONAL CULTURAL TREASURE

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

B HOTEL QC: A CONCEPT WHOSE TIME HAS COME

F

IND a most unusual look and design for a hotel at the newly opened B Hotel Quezon City. The mid-scale businessman’s hotel at 14 Scout Rallos Street, possesses its own brand of style and gloss that one must see to appreciate.

Stark and bold

CAGSAWA Ruins Park with Mayon Volcano

C

AGSAWA Ruins in Daraga, Albay, Bicol region’s iconic image, has been recently declared by the National Museum as a national cultural treasure (NCT), the country’s highest designation for a cultural property.

An NCT is defined as “a unique cultural property found locally, possessing outstanding historical, cultural, artistic and/or scientific value, which is significant and important to the country.” It is distinct and of a higher category than a national cultural property.

The Cagsawa Ruins is what remains of the old Cagsawa community, when the near-perfect coneshaped Mayon Volcano erupted early morning on February 1, 1814. The eruption claimed over 1,200 lives, and buried under rocks, sand and ash the entire village, including an

old baroque church, where some 200 parishioners ran for safety.

Recorded accounts of the eruption said columns of rocks and stones shot high into the air, and killed fleeing residents and set residences on fire, as the volcanic debris fell down to Earth. A recorded incident indicates that the parish priest of Cagsawa ordered the ringing of the church bells to warn the local people of the eruption.

While it is widely believed that the parish church was buried under lava, post-eruption photographs in the early 1900s, showing the frame still standing, would prove otherwise. Over time, the church building collapsed and today, only the blackened church tower remains standing, which is now the centrepiece of the Cagsawa Ruins Park, Albay’s top tourist attractions with the Mayon

A romantic journey at Marco Polo Ortigas Manila

C

ELEBRATE love at Marco Polo Ortigas Manila this Valentine’s Day, and enjoy romantic getaways and delicious Valentine buffet spreads.

Surprise that special someone and spend a weekend of romance at one of the hotel’s cozy rooms, with a choice of a buffet breakfast for two at Cucina, or an intimate in-room Valentine breakfast for two. This room package starts at P5,800+ and is available from February 13 to 15. Romance is definitely in the air as Marco Polo Ortigas Manila also offers another romantic getaway stay, available on February 13 and 14. This romantic getaway includes a lavish Valentine brunch for two at Vu’s Sky Bar and Lounge all for P8,500.

Make this Valentine’s Day extra special and unforgettable by booking a Continental Club Room, inclusive of a romantic and appetizing Valentine Dinner for two at the Hotel’s VIP Continental Club Lounge. Enjoy premium amenities and special Continental Club privileges and benefits while staying at the two topmost floors of the hotel tower.

Indulge in this romantic getaway with a loved one for only P10,500+ on February 13.

Cucina, the hotel’s all-day dining restaurant at the 24th floor, invites all diners to fall in love with its luscious Valentine-themed buf-

ROMANTIC setting in the heart of Ortigas

fet spread dubbed Amor Mio. This romantic buffet spread is available from February 9 to 14. Buffet price is at P2,200 per person for lunch and P2,700 for dinner.

Looking for a more romantic setting? Celebrate romance in the sky at Vu’s Sky Bar and Lounge with de-

lectable buffet tapas amid spectacular views of Manila all for P2,600 per person, inclusive of a welcome drink. Located at the topmost floor of the hotel, Vu’s Sky Bar and Lounge is open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and dinner from 6:30 to 10 p.m. on February 14.

Volcano in the background.

“The National Museum’s declaration as such of a cultural asset is an important step toward higher level designations. National cultural treasures are priority assets for protection, preservation and promotion by the state,” Albay Gov. Joey S. Salceda said.

He said that with the declaration, the Bicol region now has three NCTs, the other two being the Nuestra Señora de la Porteria Parish Church in Daraga declared in 2007, and the St. John the Baptist Church in Tabaco City, both in Albay, declared in 2012.

The region also has two national cultural properties—Barit Bridge in Santiago, Iriga City, Camarines Sur, and the Mataas Shell Scoop, a Neolithic artifact from Cagraray Island in Bacacay, Albay.

CREDIT goes to B Hotel’s Managing Director Ryan Chan who approved the architectural and interior design proposal of multiawarded architect Edward Co Tan for the hotel.

“We wanted something different for the aesthetics of our new branch. The hotel’s distinctly rugged texture will surely be a welcome change for businessmen and the locals,” Chan said.

The main concept behind B Hotel Quezon City was based on “Brutalism,” a profound movement in architecture—a modernist style prominent from the 1950s through the 1970s. Monolithic, geometric sometimes jarring, blocky in appearance fortress-like—these mostly describe this concrete-based style of architectural design.

The Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Philippine International Convention Center, both designed by the late National Artist Leandro Locsin, are perfect examples. Essentially, brutalist architecture is a no-nonsense style—plain, no mystery, no romanticism.

At B hotel Quezon City, one will get to see walls of fair-faced concrete, cog wheels at the elevator lobby and signage made of raw, black-iron sheets with allen bolts. Modern furniture, the use of wood and glass compliments, carpets of striking colors and patterns and redpainted walls, however, add a touch of warmth and buoyancy.

The unbeaten path

NOT withstanding the hotel’s distinctive ambiance, brought about by its extraordinary interiors, the 11-story B Hotel has a lot of things going for it. Its location, for one, is very advantageous, as it brings one even closer to his favorite shopping malls, restaurants and coffee shops in Quezon City, as well as transit stations for traveling outside the city.

Local businessmen, travelling executives, and the so-

called “weekender tourists” welcome to the opening of the mid-scale hotel.

After hour convenience

B HOTEL Quezon City has a complete roster of in-house amenities: An al fresco lap pool with a stunning view of the North metro, a refined ballroom with a 200-seating capacity and the Jing Monis salon, the newest branch of the sought-after beauty stylist, can all be found on the third floor. Fitness buffs can get their workout fi x at the modern, fully equipped gym on the fifth floor.

Entering through the main entrance, one can immediately see the options for quenching one’s thirst or hunger: The Lobby Café for a taste of the hotel’s creative take on cuisines, the Pastry Corner where one can indulge in decadent sweets, or the Mezzanine Bar for unwinding with friends or associates.

The Business Center has two function rooms for privategroup meetings. Shuttle service to the airport is available, as well as car rentals. For guests with cars, parking will not be a problem, as two levels of the basement are allotted for the purpose.

Guests’ safety and well-being is assured with CCTV; every care has been taken to ensure that there are no blind spots on the property. Security personnel are top-notch, yet discreet.

Beyond the Basics

CHAN believes that a great business hotel should go beyond the basics. “We believe that focus on guest experience and satisfaction is the new business amenity.”

The measure of an outstanding hotel experience dwells not only in the appreciation of its outward beauty, but in its brand of personalized service. Chan assures the entire family that B Hotel Quezon City is dedicated to “raise the brand’s commitment-to-value to a new level.”

Spearheaded by Hotel Manager Carlo Librea, the entire staff of B Hotel Quezon City is dedicated in providing guests the ultimate living experience through sincere personal attention to their needs and expectations.

Lani Misalucha in ‘Love Catcher’ Valentine concert

T

HIS Valentine’s, a stream of timeless love songs will serenade music fans as the ”New Siren of the Strip” Lani Misalucha returns to Resorts World Manila (RWM) for back-to-back concerts.

As the first artist to grace RWM’s Newport Performing Art Theater (NPAT) in her The Nightingale Sings concert back in 2011, Lani returns to one of the grandest performing stages in the country with Love Catcher: The Nightingale’s Valentine Concert this February 14 and 15, 8 p.m.

Joining the world-class performer are jazz female trio Baihana, the award-winning Philippine Madrigal Singers, and rising singing sensation Edward Benosa.

Following a concert tour in the US back in 2002, Lani made her mark as one of the most sought-after singers both at home and abroad, even having December 4 and August 17 declared as ”Lani Misalucha Day”

by San Francisco Mayor Willie L. Brown and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, respectively. Lani also became the first Asian to headline a Main Showroom at the Las Vegas Strip and was eventually recognized as the Best Singer in the 27th Annual Best of Las Vegas in 2008, besting other iconic Las Vegas singers, as Toni Braxton, Barry Manilow and Bette Midler.

At 46, the iconic Filipina songstress continues to enamor her fans all over the world with her take on OPM, pop rock, jazz, ballad and classical music, and has embarked on major concert tours here in the country, the US and Australia, among others.

Indeed, the world-class performer has

LANI MISALUCHA seranades couples this February. come a long way from her triumphant stint at the Metro Manila Popular Music Festival and her AWIT Award win for her single “Ang Iibigin ay Ikaw,” with now 15 critically acclaimed albums to her name.

Now back at home, Lani’s upcoming performances at the NPAT promise fans her staple-soprano aria, as the Valentinethemed concert prepares another unforgettable musical set.

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Monday, February 8, 2016

A11

Flavors of love in Tagaytay

I

B J F F Photos by Normarei Villamater

T’S the time of year again when the hunt for the best dining deals takes precedence on your to-do list. There’s nothing that says “Valentine’s Day date night” like a carefully planned dinner in a restaurant that offers the ultimate in romantic indulgence.

For the old-school romantics who don’t mind a long drive in search of that special restaurant, Tagaytay is a treasure trove when it comes to dining hubs that offer sumptuous gastronomic spread with a romantic setting to boot.

But finding the perfect place to dine out might not be as easy as typing “Best Restaurants for Valentine’s Day” on your search bar. While Google is rife with dizzying options as to what fancy dining hub would earn you extra points in the romantic department, it could be a bit challenging to actually pick one, especially when every date place is seemingly superior to the last.

Hence, the best thing to do is narrow down your search by creating a checklist of factors to consider: the kind of view a restaurant provides, the vibe that it brings and, most important, the

cost of its special menu offerings.

For those who have this kind of checklist, Sisterfields in Tagaytay might just be the one. The newest concept restaurant of The Cravings Group, it takes pride in its farm-totable culinary creations with menu that is primarily dedicated to sustainable cuisines. It is conveniently inside the premises of Summit Ridge Hotel, which, we all know, offers the best viewing point of Taal lake and volcano.

Now, why does the Sisterfields fit the bill? One reason is that Chef Noel de la Rama, an acclaimed New York-based personal chef, has personally supervised the creation of the Valentine’s Day set menu, which will be served on February 13 (yes, a day before Valentine’s Day). As he puts it, the menu would portray a pairing or a “celebration of couple’s love for each

CRISPY Tawilis with Kaffir Lime Aioli

TINAPA Spring Rolls with Sweet Chili Sauce

CUPPING session with a Di Bella barista

other” through an array of entrées.

For appetizers, Chef Noel prepares Rosemary Gougeres and Mini Cheese Puffs. Soup and salad to be served are Cream of Roasted Tomato Soup with Crispy Kale, as well as Hearts of Palm Salad with Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Corn on Baby Greens, Green Goddess Dressing.

For the main course, the entrées include Surf and Turf, Braised Beef Short Ribs with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Frilled Giant Prawns with Herbed Butter, Sautéed Haricot Verts (French Beans) and Grilled Asparagus. Gracing the dessert plates are Pineapple Soufflé with a Tarragon Crème Anglaise, and Sisterfields Rocky Road Bites. Couples can savor all these without breaking out in a cold sweat once they get the bill. The Valentine fare costs P2,000, which is not a bad dining deal at all.

But it’s not just the food offerings

that convey a taste of, well, romance.

According to Marketing Communications Manager Christine Bautista, it’s going to be a Floral Valentine theme, so couples can expect a lot of floral elements that would blend well with soft lights and music, making the night extra special. After all, you could never go wrong with flowers on a date night, right? And that classic night stroll after a romantic dinner never gets old either.

Not just a table for two

HOWEVER, the restaurant will not be made exclusive for dating couples on the said date. Th is is good news to some, especially for families and barkadas who want to celebrate the love month through a food pilgrimage. But first, they would have to make early dining reservations, as the restaurant is consistently packed on special occasions,

CHARMING interior of Sisterfields

especially on Valentine’s Day. Christine says that what they’d noticed in Tagaytay, Sisterfields, in particular, does not only draws couples, but also families and groups of friends who are constantly on the lookout for a unique foodie experience. To be able to cater to such clientele, the restaurant anchored its concept on three important tenets: farm-to-fork, which underscores the organic selection of fruits and vegetables in Tagaytay;

pasture-to-plate, which serves the best of Batangas beef and Tagaytay’s tawilis; and crop-to-cup, which gives coffee lovers a taste of Di Bella coffee.

“It’s a good challenge for me to create a menu for Sisterfields. Besides the steady availability of sources, quality ingredients and the dishes’ final outcome are highly important for me. As much as possible, we want to serve only the best in terms of taste and quality,” Chef Noel added.

A12

Science Monday BusinessMirror

Monday, February 8, 2016

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

Agham reiterates call to protect Magna Carta for scientists

A

THE awardees of the Newton Agham Research and Chevening Scholarships, together with UK Ambassador to the Philippines Asif Ahmad (seventh from left) and Science Secretary Mario G. Montejo (fifth from left) Makati City. STEPHANIE TUMAMPOS

₧270M for Newton Agham recipients B M S | Special to the BusinessMirror

‘I

F I have one message to the business community here [the Philippines], it is this: Stop just replicating and franchising foreign discoveries; invest in research.”

This was the message of British Ambassador to the Philippines A sif A hmad that highl ights t he impor tance of research in science and technology to the development of a country.

Ahmad gave the message at the recent announcement of the recipients of the Newton Agham (Science) Programme. Ahmad recognizes the growing research industry in the country but says “it could grow a lot more.” He said the challenges are not about the talents, because the Philippines has a huge talent pool.

To harness such talents, the British government, together with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), awarded over £4 million (approximately P274 million) worth of grants to the recipients of the Newton Agham (Science) Programme. Now on its second year, the program promotes economic development and social welfare of partnercountries, recognizing that science, technology and innovation capability are essential to drive

31

institutional and individual recipients sustainable growth and develop technologies to benefit the society’s most vulnerable. During the announcement at the British ambassador’s residence on Wednesday, Ahmad said: “It’s not just the UK providing the funding and the partners, it’s the Philippine government matching our funding and linking research, universities, institutes…[to] identify programs, identify people, and get people to travel and do their work in the UK.” “These grants demonstrate the collaboration between science and innovation-funding agencies, and

the new links made between the UK and Philippine researchers.

We look forward to the innovations that emerge from these partnerships, and the application of expert knowledge to improve the lives of people in the Philippines,” he added. From the Newton Fund launched in April 2014, the program is now rebranded to Newton Agham (Science) Programme to highlight the growing collaboration between the two countries in science, research and innovation. It was also announced that the program will be extended to 2021. From the current £75 million per year, the fund will be doubled to £150 million per year by 2021.

Science Secretary Mario G. Montejo expressed his full support to the Newton Agham Programme, saying, “This partnership with the UK government, through the Newton Agham initiative, will help us further build our country’s S&Tbased Innovation Ecosystem… another milestone in our continuous pursuit for a technology self-reliant Philippines.”

Awardees

IN addition to the first year’s seven institutional and 18 individual grants, for the second year the program will support six three-year research collaborations on the surveillance, diagnostics and characterization of infectious diseases, including malaria, dengue and multidrugresistant tuberculosis.

The UK’s Medical Research Council will provide around £2.27 million for these projects, plus £1.45 million from the DOST’s Philippine Council for Health Research and Development of the Department. Included in this UKPhilippines Joint Health Research is Emmanuel S. Baja, PhD, from the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila, with his research “HIV GET [Gaming, Engaging and Testing] Project” at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

He said the research aims to “use gaming to help increase the uptake of HIV testing.” It is through “serious gaming” that they aim to get into the culture of their target population, he said.

Baja told the BusinessMirror that this will initially be available to health facilities for free to monitor if it will encourage people, particularly the youth, to have themselves tested and not be hindered by the stigma associated with the disease. Awardees Cecilia C. Carlos, PhD, from the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine, is set to complete the research topic “See and Sequence—Genomic Surveillance and High-Risk Pathogenic Clones Within the Philippines,” at Welcome Trust Sanger Institution; Ricky B. Nellas, PhD, UP Diliman, “Structure Elucidation and Characterization of the Venus Kinase Receptors of a Philippine Isolate of Schistosoma japonicum,” at Imperial College London; R au l V. D est u r a , M D, U P Manila National Institutes of

Understanding where the moon came from

T

HE moon may be the closest object to Earth in space, but scientists are still struggling to understand how it got there.

Most planetary researchers think the moon was created as the result of a collision between the Earth and a long-hypothesized protoplanet called Theia about 100 million years after the birth of the solar system.

But whether that impact was a glancing blow or a full, head-on crash is still up for debate.

This week researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, provided new evidence in the journal Science that the collision was head-on, and so powerful that materials from both bodies mixed completely before settling into the Earth-moon system we know today.

To come to that conclusion, the researchers analyzed seven lunar rocks collected by the Apollo 12, 15 and 17 missions, as well as six volcanic rocks that include material from Earth’s mantle. Specifically, they wanted to see if the ratio of oxygen isotopes in lunar rocks was the same as that in the terrestrial rocks. More than 99.9 percent of Earth’s oxygen is O-16, which means each atom has eight protons and eight

neutrons, but there are also small amounts of the heavier isotopes O-17 and O-18 in our planet’s oxygen mix.“Every rock in the solar system we’ve ever found has a unique fingerprint of oxygen isotopes,” said Edward Young, a geochemist at UCLA and the first author on the study. And yet, his analysis shows that the moon and Earth have the exact same oxygen isotope profile.

The only way to explain this finding is if Earth and the moon are made of the exact same material. And herein lies the challenge.

The easiest way for computer modelers to explain the physics of the Earth-moon system, such as how fast our planet spins on its axis and how fast the moon orbits Earth, is to have Theia giving Earth a glancing blow strong enough for both bodies to become molten. In this scenario, most of the Theia material mixes with the Earth’s, but a small portion of it forms the moon.

If that’s the case, the moon and Earth should have a different chemical fingerprint. Although scientists expect Theia and Earth to have a similar oxygen isotope ratio, they would not expect it to be identical, Young said.

“Even if the proto-Earth and Theia were very

similar, they couldn’t possibly be this similar,” he said. Back in 2012 two groups of scientists presented computer models that show an alternative story of Earth-moon formation. In their simulations, the two bodies collide headon, allowing for extensive mixing between Earth and Theia. Those models have since been dismissed as “too special,” said Sarah T. Stewart of the University of California, Davis, who was a coauthor on one of those studies.

“The odds of getting one of these perfectly mixing impacts is so low that it is probably not the best solution,” she said.

But Young thinks the team was on the right track. “The collision must have been very energetic for everything to melt together,” he said. Stewart, who was not involved in the new study, said the work by Young and his colleagues provides the best measurement yet of the oxygen isotope ratio in the two bodies, and provides a challenge to her and her colleagues.

“We have a very big science problem of how did our neighbor form,” she said. “The geochemists have told us the answer, but the physicists have not been able to get us there.” Los Angeles Times/TNS

A FULL moon rises over an avenue at the town of Alexandroupolis, northeastern Greece, on January 24. AP/THANASSIS STAVRAKIS

Health, “Triple-D Targets: The UK-Philippines Dengue Diagnostic and Dr ug Targets Re search Consortium,” University of Bristol; Fe Esperanza C.J. Espino, PhD, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, “Ensure: Enhanced Surveillance for Control and Elimination of Malaria in the Philippines,” London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; and Charles Y. Yu, PhD, De La Salle Health Sciences Institute, “Impact Assessment of Diagnostic Tools for Multidrug-Resistant and Drug-Sensitive Tuberculosis in the Philippines,” Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

Meanwhile, Angelo Aquino, Charlie Lavilla Jr., Gene Fe Palencia and Shieldon Nino Uy will complete a three-year PhD program on different areas of expertise.

For the Leaders in Innovation fellowship, 15 Filipino scientists and business-development specialists will be attending a 10-day training program in the UK this month. They are Abundio Balgos, Proceso Fernandez Jr., Lilia Fernando, Michael Gragasin, Maria Leonora Guico, Mary Beth Manungas, Cecilia Nelia MarambaLazarte, PhD, Joey Ocon, Giannina Paola Santos, Giovanni Tapang, Nestor Michael Tiglao, Ravelina Velasco, Nelia Elisa Florendo, Rosemarie Garcia and Girlie Millo.

Krista Danielle Yu from the De La Salle University will go to University of Derby for two months to work on climate-change-resilient supply-chain network.

GHAM Party-List President Angelo B. Palmones reiterated his appeal to lawmakers to protect the Magna Carta for scientists, researchers and other science workers.

“We appeal to our lawmakers to uphold the provisions of Republic Act [RA] 8439, or the Magna Carta for Science and Technology Workers, in government. To repeal the RA under the proposed Salary Standardization Act of 2015 is contrary to the past and present efforts of government to develop and maintain an adequate number of scientists and researchers in the country,” Palmones said.

He added that under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), a program called the Balik Scientists Program is being supported and implemented to lure back the country’s science and technology (S&T) researchers serving in foreign countries.

A few years back, the Philippines is very much behind in the number of scientists per million of population. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization recommended standard is 305 per million of population; the Philippines has only 185 per million of population.

“W hile other countries are strengthening their S&T manpower, the proposed repeal of R A 8439 could discourage some of our science workers and lose them again to other countries.

We strongly felt the impact of losing some of our good weather specialists and researchers for better opportunities abroad,” Palmones added.

It can be recalled that Agham initiated one of the programs implemented in 2011 to address the lack of meteorolo g ists in the countr y. Dubbed Project Comet, or the Consortium for Meteorolog y Education and Training, the program offered BS Meteorolog y course.

The first of its kind in Asia, the pioneering program was a collaborative undertaking of the DOST and its agencies Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration and Science Education Institute, together with the Commission on Higher Education, Bicol University, Central Luzon State University, Mariano Marcos State University, Visayas State University and Agham Inc. The program’s 16 scholars graduated in March 2014, and are now employed in both government and private institutions. “We should continue to motivate and encourage our science workers and young science graduates [through measures including] the Magna Carta Act,” Palmones said.

Green Monday BusinessMirror

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

AS SMOG PRECAUTION IN CHINA’S CITIES

Lunar New Year fireworks banned

Monday, February 8 , 2016 A13

Working from home may wreck the planet N

EXT time your boss tries to convince you of the benefits of working from home, spare a thought for how that could contribute to wrecking the planet.

MONKEY toys are on display with other Lunar New Year decorations for sale at a store in Beijing.

Chinese will celebrate the Lunar New Year today, this year which marks the Year of Monkey on the Chinese zodiac. AP/ANDY WONG

S

HANGHAI and several other Chinese cities have banned the popular custom of lighting fireworks on the Lunar New Year to cut down on smoke and help improve the air quality over the weeklong holiday.

Police in Shanghai will mete out fines of as much as 500 yuan ($76) to people caught setting off firecrackers or pyrotechnics in the central metropolitan area, the gover nment said. More than 300,000 people will volunteer to help enforce the fireworks ban, the authorities said on Friday.

Nanjing and Hangzhou, capitals of neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, respectively, also imposed bans inside urban areas. While Beijing authorities haven’t imposed a prohibition, they said they will do so if air pollution triggers warnings, according to the Beijing Times.

Persistent pollution problem

THE steps show an increasing willingness by local government officials to tackle a persistent pollution problem that have made grumblings about Chinese air quality commonplace. During winter months smog accumulates, as people burn more coal for heating and doesn’t disperse because of weaker winds.

Smoke from fireworks can dramatically worsen air quality and the smell of gunpowder can linger throughout the extended holiday.

Smog levels tend to jump on Chinese New Year’s Eve, when people traditionally light off the largest number of fireworks.

US Embassy data showed that Beijing’s PM 2.5 particulate pollution, considered the most harmful to human health, surged 15fold in six hours that evening last year.

The Chinese capital sounded two red pollution warnings this winter, the first time since it introduced an emergency air-pollution response system in 2013, prompting measures such as school closures and factory production limits. Shanghai also took similar action after its worst bout of heavy pollution in two years.

On Friday Shanghai warned children and the elderly to stay indoors as its air quality deteriorated ahead of the holiday, which began on February 7. Concentrations of PM 2.5 were 156.8 micrograms per cubic meter as of 2 p.m., the city’s Environmental Monitoring Center said on its web site. The World Health Organization cautions against daily exposure of more than 25.

1 billion tons of coal capacity on chopping block

MEANWHILE, China plans to chop as much as 17 percent its coal-production capacity as part of efforts by President Xi Jinping’s government to cut industrial overcapacity and use cleaner energy sources amid sliding demand for the fuel. The world’s largest coal

consumer aims to eliminate as much as 1 billion metric tons of output capacity in three to five years, with half of the cuts coming through mine closures and the other half through company consolidations, the State Council said in a statement on Friday.

The country also plans to ramp up financial support for some coal companies and encourage mergers, according to the guidelines.

All coal companies should be able to produce at least 3 million tons a year, it said.

The cuts could total as much as 17 percent of China’s total capacity. Including projects under development, the country can produce 5.7 billion tons, the Economic Daily reported last month, citing Jiang Zhimin, vice chairman of the China Coal Industry Association. Only 3.9 billion of that is in operation, according to the association’s estimates.

“The document does set some aggressive targets, which highlights the determination of the central government to ease oversupply,” Deng Shun, an analyst with ICIS China, said by phone from Guangzhou. “There will still be some tugof-war between the central and local governments on when and how those targets can be achieved.”

More businesses than ever are asking employees to work remotely in a bid to cut rental costs for office space and take advantage of the growth of superfast broadband, teleconferencing and smart phones. But working from your kitchen can actually increase the carbondioxide emissions that cause globa l wa r m ing , since t hose who stay home usually turn up the thermostat.

Home energy consumption increases 20 percent when people work where they live, according to a study by BT Group Plc., the UK’s biggest broadband provider. “ The general view is home working is always a good thing, but it’s never as simple as it appears,” said Paul Swift, a consultant for Carbon Trust, a London-based research group that advises companies on sustainability. “You can have a very efficient building in a city where people are walking or using public transport. If employees working

20%

increase in home energy consumption

from home are switching on the heating across the entire house, it will be a negative.”

Swift and his team confirmed that working at home during the winter can quickly lead to an increase in emissions. A single hour of extra heating for most households cancels out the emissions saved by avoiding a commute, the Carbon Trust concluded in a 2014 report.

O n ly t hose home workers who live far from the office or who would, other wise, drive to work contribute to an overall reduction in pollution.

Employees whose daily car commute is at least 8 miles, who take a bus for 14 miles or travel at least 32 miles by train can cut emissions, the report said.

Those who walk or take public transport would increase their emissions by working from home.

Vodafone Libertel BV, a mobile phone provider, has acknowledged similar findings. Home working increases energy and heating use, offsetting the carbon savings from less commuting and smaller office space, according to its latest Environmental Profit and Loss Account.

More people than ever are working from home, and advocates say the practice can cut pollution.

About 3.7 million employees in the US do so for half their time on the job or more, double the level of 2005, according to the consultant Global Workplace Analytics.

That may contribute a reduction of 51 million metric tons of carbon emissions a year, the equivalent of taking all of New York’s commuters off the road, according to the research group that works to help businesses and communities understand the advantages of working from home.

“Barring a national disaster, we see the growth of half-time-plus telework staying at about 5 percent to 7 percent for the next few years,” said Kate Lister, president of Global

Workplace Analytics. “The bigger growth will be among less frequent telecommuters. There we predict growth of 10 percent a year for the next few years.”

There isn’t much data on global trends. A poll of more than 18,600 people in 26 countries published by Ipsos in 2012 named India, Indonesia and Mexico as the top countries for telecommuting, followed

by South Africa, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Ten percent to 35 percent of the world’s work force worked remotely at least once or twice per week, the report found.

Of course, companies have a role to play, too, by ensuring their offices are as efficient as possible, using smart buildings controls and other green technologies. The US Department of Energy’s Better Buildings project intends to double American productivity by 2030 by improving energy efficiency. Last week it unveiled two new programs to collect more data on the way buildings work.

A mong env ironmenta lists, there’s some suspicion that companies have their own finances in mind when they push employees out of the office.

“Companies are interested in reducing office space for financial reasons,” Swift of the Carbon Trust said. “The environmental side is not the highest priority.”

Bloomberg News

Economic shift

COAL demand has slid as China’s economy slows and the government seeks to curb pollution in the world’s biggest producer of carbon emissions. China will also suspend approvals of new coal mines for the next three years, according to the statement from the State Council, the country’s highest administrative body.

“By 2020, the overcapacity issue should be improved,” said Helen Lau, analyst at Argonaut Securities (Asia) Ltd. in Hong Kong. Shares of Chinese coal-mining companies, such as China Shenhua Energy Co., surged last month after Premier Li Keqiang urged support for the industry and said production should be cut and costs reduced.

The government plans to set up a fund to help coal miners and steelmakers cut workers and dispose of bad assets, Li said during a meeting in Shanxi, according to a China Central Television report on January 7. The nation’s coal imports fell the most on record to the lowest in four years last year amid weak domestic demand.

The plan comes a day after similar scheme for the country’s steel industry was unveiled. The world’s biggest producer will close between 100 million metric tons and 150 MMT of annual crude steel capacity by 2020, according to an outline published on the State Council’s web site on Thursday. The steelindustry cuts—amounting to 13 percent of capacity at most—fall short what’s required, according to analysts from Capital Economics Ltd., Macquarie Group Ltd. and Argonaut Securities. Bloomberg News

WWF-PHILIPPINES welcomes its new National Ambassador Iza Calzado (center).

Iza Calzado is WWF-PHL female natl ambassador

E

N V IRONMENTA L solut io n s - p r o v i d e r Wo r l d Wide Fund for Nature (W WF-Philippines) announced t he ap p oi nt me nt of it s l at est nationa l ambassador— multiawarded actress and T V persona l it y Iza C a l zado.

Calzado joins the growing family of celebrities who are helping spread WWF’s solutions on climate change, conservation, resource protection and environmental education. WWF-Philippines President Joel Palma believes Calzado is a natural choice.

“Iza embodies the empowered Filipina who leads an active, healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

Plus, she’s actively involved in raising environmental awareness.” The actress is excited to become part of the organization and hopes to share WWF solutions—plus her own unique lessons—to raise public awareness on ecological issues.

“It’s time for us to give extra attention to environmental solutions and how we can turn the tide if we work together, today,” Calzado said.

W WF-Philippines celebrates its 20th year this 2016. Among it s we l l - k now n proje c t s a re Earth Hour, the world ’s largest e nv i ron me nt a l m a ss action; the conservation of iconic species, like the whale sharks of Donso; plus a vigorous env ironmental education drive, which has reached over 700,000 c hi ld ren across t he countr y.

“We’re really excited to work with Iza. We believe she’ll be a great WWF ambassador in reaching our goals and touching the hearts of people,” shared longtime

W W F-Phi l ippines Nationa l Ambassadors Marc Nelson and Rovilson Ferdnandez. Calzado joins, besides Nelson and Fernandez, Climate Solutions Steward Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski, Marine Conservation Steward Luis Manzano, Forest Conservation Steward Piolo Pascual, and Environmental Education Stewards Carmina Villaroel and Zoren Legaspi with their children, Mavy and Cassy. W WF hopes that, by engaging celebrit y-advocates, more Filipinos will embrace the organization’s solutions.

A14 Monday, February 8, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Sell China the stock exchange

T

ODAY marks the beginning of a new year based on the cycles of the moon. The Lunar New Year is more popularly known as Chinese New Year, although the Vietnamese, Mongolians, Koreans and Tibetans all take strong exception to the term “Chinese” for their favorite holiday.

Of course, those other countries must also reluctantly acknowledge that it was from Chinese tradition that they gained their use of the lunar calendar.

In the West “Chinese New Year” is an opportunity to participate in the festivities like the dragon/lion dancing.

This holiday may also represent the love-hate relationship the rest of the world has with China. The world celebrates the Chinese New Year, but no one actually uses the lunar calendar to mark events. In the geopolitical and “geoeconomical” world, everyone wants to engage and do business with China, but it seems that no one really likes it.

We wrote this past Saturday, “As US President Barack Obama said ‘TPP allows America—and not countries like China—to write the rules of the road in the 21st century.’” That pretty well and clearly expresses the “them versus us” mentality. Yet, China just announced five new vice presidents for its $100-billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

The former chief secretary to the United Kingdom Treasury was named corporate secretary. The new chief investment officer served 30 years with the Indian Administrative Services. The chairman of the Korea Development Bank will serve as chief risk officer. The new vice president of policy and strategy is currently vice president of development finance at the World Bank.The AIIB’s new chief administration officer served in senior positions in the Indonesian government for 20 years.

It’s only business.

While the US has accused China of currency manipulation, hacking secret government computers and trying to take over Southeast Asia, China, through the privately owned Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group, is buying the Chicago Stock Exchange (CSX).

Though you may have never heard of the CSX, it was founded in 1882 and handles only about 0.5 percent of US stock trading. However, because of the way that all US stock markets are electronically interconnected, the Casin Group has intimate access to the markets. Further, US stock-market rules require that trades be routed to whichever exchange has the best price for a stock at a given moment.

Conceivably, large orders on the thinly traded CSX could move prices down in a way that would force trades from the other stock markets to the CSX. Heavy CSX selling on a particular issue like Facebook, for example, could potentially cause a price crash on all the other stock markets.

US regulators are confident that a Chinese corporation would not do something like that any more than they would produce poisonous dog food, make infant formula adulterated with melamine, or sell rotten meat to Beijing McDonald’s restaurants.

Here in the Philippines, we are skeptical about Chinese government intentions. In the US “it’s only business,” since China is buying US property, not stealing it.

PCSO opens branch in Romblon Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

T

HE Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office carries on with its mission of extending its services and products nationwide by opening a branch office on Romblon island last Thursday (February 4).

With other PCSO employees and officials, I traveled to the province and met with Gov. Eduardo Firmalo and his daughter Trina Firmalo, and turned over ambulances to eight municipalities of the province through outright donation.

T he ambu l ance recipients were Concepcion, through Mayor Lemuel Cipriano; Ferrol, through Mayor Jovencio Mayor; Banton, through Mayor Jory Faderanga; San Andres, through Mayor Fernald Rovillos; Santa Fe, through Mayor Asher Visca; Looc, through Mayor Leila Arboleda; San Jose, through Mayor Ronnie Samson; and San Fernando, through Mayor Salem Tansingco.

Romblon Provincial Hospital chief Dr. Benedict Anatalio coordinated our visit and showed us around the new buildings of the hospital complex in Odiongan town, which were inaugurated by

President Aquino on his visit to the province on January 9, 2015.

The hospital’s main building houses the new PCSO branch office and a PCSO warehouse for medicines and other supplies, both of which we inaugurated and blessed

by Fr. Jose Falogme Jr. at a soft opening on the same day.

This is the agency’s 52nd branch, from an initial 25 in 2010, the start of the Aquino administration.

Anatalio showed us a room in one of the new hospital buildings that will house a CT scan machine to be given to them by the Department of Health.

He also mentioned the islandprovince’s need for an oxygen generator, citing the time they were unable to receive supplies of oxygen for five days during Typhoon Nona in December 2015.

Firmalo pointed out that Rom-

The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office carries on with its mission of extending its services and products nationwide by opening a branch office in Romblon.

PCSO is proud to be of service to the people of Romblon and the entire country, as it continues to perform its mandate of delivering medical-related assistance in line with President Aquino’s policy on universal health care for all Filipinos. blon is a beautiful vacation paradise, a scenic spot off the beaten path, with miles of pristine white-sand beaches. Among the tourist spots we visited were the Aglicay Beach Resort, Looc Fish Sanctuary and its bamboo hut in the middle of the cove, and the marble souvenir shops in Odiongan pier.

Among the provincial projects being developed, the governor said, are a provincial convention center, already constructed, and a livestock ranch that has breeding stock of pigs from the Department of Agriculture, cattle from Masbate, sheep and ostriches.

The methane gas generated by

the pigs is captured and used as fuel for cooking.

Another project that the governor and Provincial Board Member Felix Ylagan are proud of is the ongoing construction on the island of a branch of the Philippine Science High School. The school opens in June. It has boarding facilities because it is intended to accommodate students from all over the Mimaropa region.

Romblon is also a cultural heritage spot, and the place where one of the earliest textiles in Southeast Asia has been found.

As a physician, the governor advocates a healthy lifestyle and makes sure that plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits are served at every meal that he offers his guests.

The good food, fresh air and quiet make Romblon ideal for retirees and those who want a peaceful lifestyle near the sea.

The PCSO is proud to be of service to the people of Romblon and the entire country, as it continues to perform its mandate of delivering medical-related assistance in line with the President’s policy on universal health care for all Filipinos. nnn

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

Supreme Court: PPP ‘life-giver’ or ‘deal-ender’

By Alberto Agra

PPP LEAD Continued from A1 n Ends PPPs. The SC, on the other hand, can put an end to the life of a PPP-awarded contract. In 2002 the SC said the Public Estates Authority cannot t r a n s f e r, u nd e r a j o i nt vent ure, to a pr ivate cor po rat ion any k ind of a l ienable land of the public domain or submerged areas.

In another landmark decision concerning the airport terminal, Agan v. Piatco (2004), the SC ruled against material deviations—giving the proponent more benefits and the government absorbing more risks and obligations than what was subjected to bidding.

n Molding PPPs. In several instances, the SC defined the requirements of PPPs. The SC, in the PSALM case, affirmed the policy that ordinary citizens can question awarded PPP contracts, since bidding is of transcendental importance.

The breadth of authority of the government’s Bids and Awards Committee was also explained in the MCIA case. The government is granted broad discretion, as a rule, in choosing among the bidders who can offer the most advantageous terms and that courts will not interfere.

The SC also upheld the contractua l prov ision, which a llows the increase in user fees,

The Supreme Court (SC) can put an end to the life of a PPP-awarded contract.

In 2002 the SC said the Public Estates Authority cannot transfer, under a joint venture, to a private corporation any kind of alienable land of the public domain or submerged areas.

In another landmark decision concerning the airport terminal, Agan v. Piatco (2004), the SC ruled against material deviations—giving the proponent more benefits and the government absorbing more risks and obligations than what was subjected to bidding. since this is permitted under the BOT law.

On right to information, the SC

directed PSALM to allow requesting private citizens access to the documents relating to the company profile of the winning bidder.

On the completion of an already-commenced process, the SC, in SM Land v. BCDA (2014), ruled against respondent when it aborted an unsolicited proposal process undertaken under existing regulations.

For local governments, the cases of GSIS v. Province of Tarlac (2003) and Land Bank of the Philippines v.

Cacayuran (2013) are instructive.

The SC ruled that when there is a perfected contract executed by the former governor, the succeeding governor cannot revoke the same without the consent of the other party.

In the other case, the SC asserted that the 1991 Local Government Code requires the enactment of an ordinance approving all the terms of an agreement.

The SC can, thus, determine the fate of PPPs. It can sustain, define, mold, breathe life, or write finis to PPPs.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Understanding small claims cases and how it works for you

The Filipino professional accountant and the corruption environment Conchita L. Manabat

DEBIT CREDIT

Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan

I

LEGALLY SPEAKING

N view of congested court dockets and the slow pace in our justice system, the Supreme Court (SC) created Small Claims Courts back in 2008. At present time, almost eight years after it was first introduced in the Philippines, most of our courts are still clogged with dockets, but as suggested by the reports of the SC, the Small Claims has been a huge success in, at least, disposing of monetary claims involving small amounts, and just this February 1, the SC increased the jurisdictional amount of small claims from an amount not exceeding P100,000 to an amount not exceeding P200,000, thereby guaranteeing wider coverage and better access to the courts by the underprivileged.

So what are exactly small claims?

Small-claims cases are cases that are purely civil in nature, where the claim or relief prayed for by the plaintiff is solely for payment or reimbursement of sum of money not exceeding P200,000. Its purpose is to provide a simplified and inexpensive procedure for collection of sum of money. Claims may arise out of money owed from a contract of lease, loan, services, sale or mortgage; it also covers liquidated damages arising from contracts and the enforcement of a barangay amicable settlement or an arbitration award involving a money claim.

The advantage of employing small-claims case is that it is expeditious, inexpensive and simplified. It is the effective method to get a legal order of payment against people who owe you money.

It is inexpensive because a party can appear in his own behalf, in fact, there is no need for a lawyer in small-claims cases because the hearing is conducted in an informal manner.

It is expeditious because a hearing shall proceed within not more than 30 days from the filing of the statement of claim by the petitioner and hearing shall be terminated in the same day, after such hearing, a decision must be made within 24 hours. Also, the decision is final, executory and unappelable.

It is simplified because all the forms concerning small-claims cases are provided for by the court.

In small-claims cases, the plaintiff would simply accomplish pre-

Small claims are cases that are purely civil in nature, where the relief prayed for by the plaintiff is solely for payment or reimbursement of sum of money not exceeding P200,000. Its purpose is to provide a simplified and inexpensive procedure for collection of sum of money.

Claims may arise out of money owed from a contract of lease, loan, services, sale or mortgage; it also covers liquidated damages arising from contracts and the enforcement of a barangay amicable settlement or an arbitration award involving a money claim. drafted forms, thus, eliminating the need for the filing of pleadings.

Although under the Rules of Procedure for Small Claims Cases, the appearance of a lawyer at the hearing is not allowed, however, it is still best to consult a lawyer, especially in the preparation of all the necessary supporting documents and the statement of claim in order to increase the likelihood of a successful collection, because once the case is submitted for a decision, the judge would then base his decision only on the evidence submitted along with the statement of claims.

“A distinguishing mark of the accountancy profession is its acceptance of the responsibility to act in the public interest. The IESBA Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (the Code) provides ethical requirements and guidance to help professional accountants to meet this responsibility.”

—International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA)

A

RECENT report from the global antigraft watchdog Transparency International disclosed that the 2015 Philippine score in the Corruption Perceptions Index registered at 35 out of a possible 100, placing the country to rank 95 among 168 countries. It was also noted that the country’s score is “based on expert opinions of public-sector corruption,” and is lower than 2014 score of 38. The region’s average score stands at 43/100. Regionally, New Zealand topped it at 88, followed by Singapore’s 85 ( from Rappler’s report).

The report is alarming, considering the encouraging development that the country is one of the best-performing economies in the region. One can only ask, with the slide in the Corruption Perceptions Index from 38 to 35 against the region’s average of 43 amid the improving economy, are the transactions in the country increasingly laced with graft and corruption? This brings to fore another query, where are the professional accountants (PAs)?

The first question may be challenged since the report is on perception and not necessarily on actual corruption incidents as documented.

However, the old saying, “there

is no smoke where there is no fire,” cannot be set aside. Are the perceptions borne out of regular or usual transactions or “isolated” significant transactions worthy of note? One can only ask more questions.

On the second query, usual or isolated significant transactions cannot escape the sharp eyes and clean ears of the PAs. PAs are expected to act in the public interest. What does it mean? In the conduct of professional work and when encountering noncompliance or suspected noncompliance to laws and regulations, it is the responsibility of the PA to have a better understanding of the same; assess the implications;

T

HE 2016 McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Celebration in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Friday night was a surreal event—a cross between a fund-raising dinner, a rally and a hockey game. Organized by the state’s Democratic establishment, its goal was to demonstrate the party’s unity despite a close contest between its two presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. It succeeded to an extent, but showed that the party may be sacrificing its future in a pragmatic quest for immediate results.

The event, named after two democratic senators—Thomas J. McIntyre, who served in the 1960s and 1970s, and current office holder Jeanne Shaheen—is the state Democratic party’s biggest traditional fund-raising gala. It started as a dinner event to support John F. Kennedy and has featured most major presidential candidates over the years. This year it was the biggest yet, with 6,000 people in attendance, according to state party Chairman Raymond Buckley.

Some of these attendees sat around dinner tables on the floor of the Verizon Arena, home of the Manchester Monarchs, an American Hockey League team.

They had paid between $250 and $1,000 per plate.

The rest, who had paid $25 to $50 for their tickets, were seated

in the stands. Clinton and Sanders fans took their seats on opposite sides of the arena, and, like any fans of opposing hockey teams, they tried to outshout each other for most of the evening. Each side was equipped with inflatable clappers; Sanders supporters had plain orange ones, but Clinton fans had gotten their hands on cooler blue and white ones that lit up from the inside with LED lamps. “Super PACs paid for these lights!” someone on the Bernie side yelled jealously when the Clinton advantage was revealed.

Clinton’s was very much the home team.

The gala was an unabashed showcase for the Democratic establishment. Former state party chairmen and elected officials took the stage one after another,

The report is alarming, considering the encouraging development that the country is one of the best-performing economies in the region.

One can only ask, with the slide in the Corruption Perceptions Index from 38 to 35 against the region’s average of 43 amid the improving economy, are the transactions in the country increasingly laced with graft and corruption?

This brings to fore another query, where are the professional accountants?

not yet occurred; and (c) To take such further action as appropriate in the public interest. *Adopted from the clean draft of Proposed Section 225 of the Code entitled Responding to NonCompliance with Laws and Regulations presented to the IESBA Board and IESBA CAG meetings in November/December 2015.

As the world becomes flat and the economies borderless driven by technology, with jurisdictional aspirations and private interests to win and to become big/dominant, laws, codes, rules and regulations, find their usefulness to put order.

How I wish all would be guided by the golden rule and all would aim to go to heaven or find his or her nirvana.

and take appropriate courses of action. Where the PA considers his or her inadequacy in undertaking these three important steps, he or she should consult with his or her immediate superior, if on hand, or consult another able coprofessional mindful of confidentiality.

The objectives of the PA may include: (a) To comply with the fundamental principles of integrity and professional behavior; (b) By alerting management or, where appropriate, those charged with governance, to seek to: (i) Enable them to rectify, remediate or mitigate the consequences of the identified or suspected noncompliance; or (ii) Deter the commission of the noncompliance where it has

Dr. Conchita L. Manabat is the president of the Development Center for Finance and a member of the Consultative Advisory Groups for the International Auditing & Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) and the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA). She founded and retired as CEO of the Deloitte firm in the country that originally carried her name, C.L. Manabat & Co. She was once the chairman of the Board of Accountancy. She can be reached at clm@clmanabat.com This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general.

These can be e-mailed to boa. secretariat.@gmail.com

African Union leaders sidestep the big issues

T

HE 26th African Union (AU) summit, which ended on Sunday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, ducked as usual the questions of bloody conflict on the continent and focused instead on withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The AU had put forth the idea of sending a 5,000-member peacekeeping force to Burundi, in response to the risk of civil war and genocide. Last year a coup d’etat there failed, crooked elections occurred in June and President Pierre Nkurunziza sought an unconstitutional third term.

Nkurunziza said peacekeepers would be resisted as invaders, so at the summit the AU backed down, dispatching instead a delegation to Burundi for talks.

Another subject for summit consideration was a plan that AU members withdraw from the ICC because of the court’s focus

Democratic Party is pushing away its future B L B | Bloomberg View

Monday, February 8, 2016 A15

never missing a chance to point out that the Democrats stood united despite any differences they might have. Yet, the establishment has made no secret of aligning with Clinton Leading state Democrats—Sen. Shaheen, Gov. Maggie Hassan and Rep. Carol Shea-Porter—all reiterated their endorsements of Clinton, saying they respected Sanders but preferred a candidate with a proven record of getting things done.

The main message was implicit in the speeches: It’s OK to support Sanders for now, but when he loses the nomination, won’t you come out to support Hillary, too?

The unity talk wasn’t all hollow. At the entrance to the arena, Clinton supporters were lined up with signs, jumping up and down in the postsnowstorm chill and chanting “Hillary.” The chanting intensified when a group of Sanders backers, wearing highly visible pins, passed by. “We like her too,” one of the Bernie people smiled disarmingly as he walked to the entrance. The Clintonites were all smiles in response.

When Sanders himself got up on the stage, he got applause from both sides of the arena when she said, “Even on our worst day, we’re 100 times better than any of the

Republicans on their best day!”

Yet, there is a deep divide running through the liberal rankand-file. The Clinton side applauded Nationa l Democratic Committee Chairman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz when she delivered her unity message.

From the Sanders side, boos were heard. The Bernie base has a grudge against the party machine: Many say it’s trying to sink their candidate, sometimes by questionable means.

In New Hampshire the Sanders crowd is less demographically uniform than the youthful crowds I saw in Iowa. Next to me on the Sanders stand, Casey Chapman, 23, and Barbara Carbonneau, 79, sat side by side, earnestly discussing the senator’s program.

Carbonneau, who said she’d been voting Democrat for half of her life, agreed with the younger woman that, as Chapman said, “Bernie is actually more pragmatic than Hillary.

He sets these lofty goals, such as a $15 minimum wage or health care for all, and everyone knows these things will be minimized, but asking for more will get us further.” Chapman, for her part, nodded when Carbonneau said she liked Sanders for being “his own

on crimes by African leaders. Its activities, according to Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, are “off course to the detriment of our sovereignty, security and dignity as Africans.” In 2012 the ICC charged Kenyatta with crimes against humanity, then dropped them two years later.

Zimbabwe’s 91-year-old president, Robert Mugabe, was succeeded a s AU c h a i r m a n by Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno, who has been in power i n t he oi l- r ic h n at ion si nce

1990. Mugabe, in his closing remarks, suggested that President Barack Obama was a puppet of whites.

The continent’s other burning issues, in particular the out-ofcontrol violence in Libya, Somalia and South Sudan, as well as the tragic, economically based migration from Africa to Europe, were scarcely addressed.

For leaders, who care about the continent, that will leave plenty to discuss at the AU’s July meeting in Rwanda. TNS

person, not dependent on other people or super PACs.” Yet, when Sanders, who spoke before Clinton, was done, Carbonneau remained while Chapman, along with dozens other young people, got up and left. At the beginning of the gala, there were visibly more Sanders people present.

Five minutes after he left the stage, the numbers became just about even, and the people remaining on the Sanders side were mainly older, diehard democrats who will vote for the party no matter what final choice it makes.

The senator’s younger backers were no longer around when Hassan and Shaheen extolled Clinton’s virtues. Nor did they linger to hear Clinton herself, who, as in Iowa, tailored her speech to the state she was in, making informed references to local causes and leaders and to her uplifting experience of coming from behind and winning New Hampshire in 2008. They only wanted Sanders’s stubbornly unchanged, unlocalized stump speech—because to them it is a message of change, the word I hear most often from these people in their teens and 20s.

Clinton’s superb political art and the loyalty of professional politicians to her deliver the opposite

message. The Democratic affiliation doesn’t mean much to a large number of Sanders backers: Like him, they are somewhat reluctant fellow travelers. The party is not their home.

By so openly declaring their allegiance to Clinton, with her bird-in-hand approach, the Democratic Party’s leaders are pushing away the people who could have been its future. What they think of as unity, those attracted to Sanders’s idealism see as another sign that the game is rigged.

I ’m not s u re a l l t he e n dorsements will help Clinton muc h. Sa nders h a s a st rong lead in the New Hampshire polls and statistician Nate Silver gives him a 99-percent chance of winning here. What they mostly do is signal to a new generation of possible supporters that they will only be welcome if they accept politics and usual and learn to settle for less.

This tends to happen to people when they grow up, but it’s not necessarily a good platform for true unity. It would have been wiser for the party hierarchy to show more impartiality, but the functionar ies and politicians ignore the opening Sanders gives them.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A16 Monday, February 8, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Easy auto registration part of CARS perks

T

B C N. P

HE streamlining of procedures for the registration of brandnew vehicles is one of the nonfiscal perks that the Board of Investments (BOI) is currently working on to entice investors to participate in the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) Program.

Removing the bureaucratic red tape in the registration of vehicles will entail the cooperation of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC), BOI Executive Director Corazon Halili-Dichosa told the BM.

“One of the important issues

we’re looking at, especially for local assemblers, is getting the certificate of payment [COP]. We’re tackling to fix it [red tape], because it affects the whole motor-vehicle market,” Halili-Dichosa said in an interview.

Dichosa added that securing the COP from the BOC is part of the

Signatures T gathered for SSS veto override now at 64

LTO’s registration process for local car assemblers and auto importers.

This requirement, however, has been considered as a hurdle, especially for local assemblers.

According to Dichosa, local assemblers are faced with a burdensome process of matching the imported-vehicle parts of their complete knockdown unit with the entire vehicle unit every time the BOC is determining if they have paid the correct taxes.

“It’s only when they’ve matched the chassis, for example, with the whole vehicle that they can get a COP from the BOC. After that, the BOC can then give it to the LTO for the car’s registration. Only when they have the LTO registration can the assembler sell the car,” Dichosa explained.

Auto importers, however, do not undergo the same process, since they bring in their vehicle units as completely built units.

A technical working group has

B J M N.  C

HE resolution overriding the presidential veto of the bill increasing Social Security System (SSS) pension by P2,000 is steadily gaining ground in the House of Representatives, Party-list Rep. Neri J. Colmenares of Bayan Muna said on Sunday.

Colmenares, the main author of the bill, said at least 64 congressmen have already signed the resolution overriding President Aquino’s veto of the P2,000 SSS pension hike since Congress adjourned last week.

“We now have an initial 64 signatures so far collated, and we are still gathering the signed resolution from the offices of many congressmen next week. By May 23, we hope to

We’re tackling to fix it [autoregistration red tape], because it affects the whole motor-vehicle market.”

–Dichosa

already been formed to streamline the procedures, and the LTO has already released new guidelines for this in 2014. A bigger change, however, is needed with the looming onset of the CARS Program, which will see an increase in vehicle production from Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors

have more than 194 signatures,” he added.

“We wish to emphasize that this is just an initial list, and many more congressmen have expressed support for the override. We expect more congressmen to sign as the days pass. We ask our senior citizens [to] go to their representatives to ask that they support the override resolution when it is filed on May 23, when Congress reconvenes,” Colmenares said.

The lawmaker added that the lower chamber abruptly ended the session last Wednesday to prevent the voting for the motion to override the controversial veto.

“By May 23, we will again present this at the plenary, and we hope that it would not be disregarded and debated upon. What is at stake here are the lives

Philippines Corp., the manufacturers that are likely to participate in the program.

The CARS Program has set a requirement of a minimum 200,000unit vehicle production over a period of six years for qualified participants. The BOI is suggesting to either do away with the COP requirement or the agency undertakes the verification process in determining the payable duties and taxes.

“Baka ’di natin kailangan ng COP per se for the local assembled cars; or kung kailangan ng COP, maybe the BOI can step in, because most of the assemblers are Motor Vehicle Development Program [MVDP] participants, and we can actually vouch whether that car is assembled in the Philippines, and if the proper tax and duties have been paid, because all importations of the MVDP participants pass through our legal system,” Dichosa said.

“We’re going to produce more

of our pensioners and everyday counts,” he said.

“Also by May 23, there would essentially be a new president, and my colleagues would not have to fear retaliation from President Aquino,” Colmenares added.

Under Article VI, Section 27 of the 1987 Constitution, Congress could pass a bill into law despite the President’s veto if two-thirds of the members of each chamber vote for its approval. At least 194 of the 291 remaining House members would have to vote to approve a vetoed measure to overturn the President’s opposition to it.

In January Mr. Aquino has informed Congress he has vetoed the enrolled House Bill 5842, which provides for a P2,000 across-the-board increase in the monthly pension of SSS pensioners and

cars locally, so ’yung transactions dadami. Gusto mapabilis ’yung proseso, baka mas mahirapan ’yung assemblers, and matatagalan mabenta ng assemblers ’yung kotse,” the BOI executive director said.

The BOI is eyeing to resolve this regulatory burden by year-end, as car assemblers gear up for expanded production and plan additional investments to meet the production requirement. “We’re targeting within the year to have a solution, either one of the two proposals suggested,” she added. The BOI will be implementing a set of nonfiscal measures to complement the fiscal perks offered in the CARS Program.

Aside from streamlining regulatory procedures, the CARS Program provides other nonfiscal suport, such as the implementation of the automated import and export documentation system, as well as demand-stimulating measures, such as easier financing terms.

adjustment of the minimum monthly pension from P1,200 to P3,200 for members who have contributed the equivalent of 10 credited years of service (CYS), and from P2,400 to P4,000, for those with at least 20 CYS. The President was worried that the stability of the SSS would be compromised if he would allow the pension hike for 2.1 million pensioners.

Earlier, Majority Leader and Liberal Party Rep. Neptali Gonzales II of Mandaluyong City said there should have been no problem in passing the bill increasing the pension hike into law, if only the Senate approved the accompanying measure that will prevent the SSS from going bankrupt as a result of the pension increase.