BusinessMirror January 30, 2016

BusinessMirror

OUT NOW To order, e-mail us at bmturningpoints@businessmirror.com.ph or call 893-1662, 814-0134 to 36

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

Saturday, January 30, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 114

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

PHASEOUT PLAN TO ADDRESS TRAFFIC WOES, BOOST AUTO MARKET

DTI backs proposal to scrap old vehicles

INSIDE

T

ALDEN RICHARDS AND THE THEORY OF BEING NICE

B C N. P

HE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is pushing for the scrapping of old vehicles as a way to address the worsening traffic situation in the country and complement the government’s new Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) Program.

370,000

Estimated number of brand-new vehicles expected to be sold in the country this year

Trade Assistant Secretary Rafaelita M. Aldaba said the CARS program, which aims to boost auto manufacturing in the country, needs to be supported by initiatives that will further boost the domestic market for new vehicles, while improving C  A

D+

TROUBLE DOWN UNDER

PASASALAMAT25 DWIZ 882 on Friday honored its ServIZ awardees at its office in Pasig City. The ServIZ Awards gives recognition and appreciation to the people

SPORTS

A8

who gave their unwavering support to the company’s mission in delivering timely, accurate and truthful news to the Filipino people. In photo are (from left) Josephine Reyes, president and CEO of Aliw Broadcasting Corp.; Alex Santos, DWIZ 882 news director; Rey Sousa, representing Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian; lawyer Nesrin Cali, representing Chairman Andy Bautista of the Commission on Elections; Prof. Ramon Casiple; Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, AFP spokesman; Francisco Ashley Asadillo, representing Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV; Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Charles Jose; Party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna; Police Supt. Feleteo A. Gonzalgo, representing Police Director Generoso Cerbo; lawyer Romulo Macalintal; lawyer Joy Rojas II of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office; Florencio Galang, representing lawyer Darlene Berberabe of Pag-IBIG Fund; Dr. Ish Pargas of PhilHealth; Social Security System Assistant Vice President Susie Bugante; Gus Leonardo of Pro-Friends; Maricar Bautista of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.; D. Adrian Cabangon, vice president-general manager, Aliw Broadcasting Corp.; and Ely Aligora, DWIZ 882 program director. NONOY LACZA

CASH IN CIRCULATION UP 8.3% IN DECEMBER TO P8.3TRILLIONBSP The continued expansion of domestic liquidity during the month indicates that money supply remains adequate to support economic growth.”—BSP

T

B B C

HE amount of cash circulating in the local economy, referred to as M3, increased by another 8.3 percent last December to P8.3 trillion, a level that is enough to support continued economic growth, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The M3 growth last December was slower than November’s 9.4 percent, despite the broadly steady bank lending during the period.

A growing cash supply in an economy is beneficial for a growing economy, as it fuels productive sectors in the economy to increase the nation’s capacity to grow.

However, a considerably slow cash-supply growth may be bad for a nation, especially if the banking system does not provide enough financing to keep productive activities going.

Despite the slowdown, the BSP maintained that money supply remains ample to support the needs of the growing economy going forward. “The continued expansion of domestic liquidity during the month indicates that money supply remains adequate to support economic growth.”

The continued expansion of domestic liquidity during the month was attributed by the central bank to the sustained demand for credit.

In a separate report, the BSP said the level of outstanding loans of banks went up by 13.1 percent last December, slightly down from the 13.9-percent revised growth last November.

The slower expansion of loans was attributed mainly to production activities—which comprised more than 80 percent of the banks’ aggregate loan portfolio.

Loans for production activities grew by 13.3 percent last December, from the 14.4-percent revised value last November.

C  A

Emperor Akihito honors Japanese war dead in Philippines During this war, fierce battles W between Japan and the United ITH a mournful bow, Emperor Akihito paid his respects on Friday at a hilltop war memorial near Manila to the largest number of Japanese invasion troops that died outside their homeland in World War II. Clad in black and accompanied by Empress Michiko, they each laid a bouquet of white flowers and silently prayed near a marble cenotaph in the Japanese memorial garden along Lake Caliraya in Laguna province, southeast of the Philippine capital.

Some of the 170 relatives of Japanese soldiers who witnessed the somber rites wept quietly. Akihito did not speak at the ceremony. In his only public remarks related to Japan’s wartime aggression, he said at a state banquet hosted by President Aquino on Wednesday that Japan should never forget the massive loss of lives in the war more than 70 years ago.

“During this war, fierce battles between Japan and the United States took place on Philippine soil, resulting in the loss of many

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 47.8230

States took place on Philippine soil, resulting in the loss of many Filipino lives, and leaving many Filipinos injured…. We Japanese must never forget.”—Akihito

Filipino lives, and leaving many Filipinos injured,” said Akihito, adding it was something “we Japanese must never forget.” Akihito has repeatedly expressed regret for the damage caused by the war, but has never offered a straightforward apology. The furthest he has gone is to express “deep” remorse in an address last year marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.

Akihito’s visit to the Philippines this week is the latest in a series of foreign trips seen as an attempt to

show his commitment to peace and remorse for World War II, when Japanese forces invaded Asian nations in a brutal conflict Japan fought in the name of his father, Hirohito.

While he has been jeered on previous foreign visits, Akihito was welcomed with full state honors in the Philippines, which now depends on Japan as a leading trading partner, provider of development aid and a major ally, as Manila confronts an assertive Beijing in contested territories in the South China Sea. AP

n JAPAN 0.4025 n UK 68.6595 n HK 6.1370 n CHINA 7.2730 n SINGAPORE 33.4965 n AUSTRALIA 33.9074 n EU 52.3184 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.7528

Source: BSP (29 January 2016 )

A2 Saturday, January 30, 2016

BMReports BusinessMirror

Peso ends week on strong note B B C

T

HE local currency ended the week with a strong rebound in its value against the dollar, data from the Philippine Dealing System showed.

This came about as market players put on “stark risk on sentiments” due to positive developments in the local and international scene.

The peso ended the week at 47.65 to a dollar on Friday, appreciating from the 47.73 to a dollar on Thursday. The total traded volume during the day reached $520.1 million, slightly lower than the previous $551.7 million. The local currency flirted with the P48-to-a-dollar level on Tuesday as

market participants recognized the volatility of oil prices in international markets.

However, the peso started to appreciate in anticipation of the fourth quarter GDP numbers of the country on Thursday.

“The peso began to rally on Thursday on the back of the surprise fourth quarter GDP print, besting market consensus. This forced dealers to close long US dollar positions while foreign players returning to the PSEi [Philip-

pine Stock Exchange index] also helped boost the local unit,” Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Research Officer Nicholas Antonio Mapa said.

Data from the United States also caused the dollar to retreat overnight, according to Mapa, as economic data printed on the downside.

The risk on sentiment on the peso was pushed further as the Bank of Japan surprised markets by easing monetary stimulus further, BPI said.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

CASH IN CIRCULATION UP 8.3% IN DECEMBER TO P8.3TRILLIONBSP C  A

The expansion in production loans was driven primarily by increased lending to the supply; wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; financial and insurance activities; and information and communication sectors.

Bucking the expansion trend, however, was administrative and support-services activities and other community, social and personal activities, which declined by 5.5 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively.

Loans for household consumption, meanwhile, expanded by 14.2 percent last December, from 13.3 percent last November. This, according to the central bank, is due to the increase in credit-card loans, as well as sustained expansion in motor-vehicle loans and salary-based general-purpose loans.

The BSP vowed, going forward, to continue to monitor monetary conditions to ensure that liquidity dynamics remain in line with maintaining price and financial stability.

In separate research reports, Jun Trinidad of Citi Research and economists at Nomura Global Economics said the country is set to sustain its growth momentum for 2016 despite the expected global volatility during the period.

Trinidad said they are upgrading their growth outlook for the Philippines to 5.4 percent, from 5.1 percent, to be propelled by the better economic performance in the fourth quarter of 2015.

He said the first half of 2016 will see a more robust growth, fueled by election spending, although a slowdown will likely happen in the second semester. Global economic conditions and market volatility will also drag the growth of the country in the second half of 2016.

The Japan-based Nomura Global Economics, meanwhile, said 2016 growth will be driven by the continued healthy domestic demand, election spending and more fiscal support from further progress on the implementation of infrastructure projects, which should also crowd in private investment and foreign direct investments.

Nomura reiterated its forecast for the country at a growth of 6.5 percent for 2016.

In their news briefing in Makati City on Thursday, Standard Chartered also expressed renewed optimism for the country The Philippine Statistics Authority announced on Thursday that the country grew by 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, putting the full-year average growth rate at 5.8 percent.

In his bulletin on the country’s economic performance, Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran said the country’s growth was among the fastest in the region. “Despite the ongoing volatilities in the international financial markets, moderating economic growth in China and continuing decline in international trade, the bottomline—that is GDP growth rate—remains robust.”

DTI backs proposal to scrap old vehicles C  A

the traffic situation. And scrapping old vehicles will serve both.

“If we have a program for scrapping, like in other countries where they support those who would surrender their vehicles, that would be a demand-stimulating factor,” Aldaba said at the sideline of the DTI and the US-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Business Council’s “Auto Supply Chain Readiness” Seminar on Friday.

Aldaba clarified, however, that such program would depend on whether the private sector would be willing to invest in junk and metal-scrapping facilities in the country.

A study would also have to be made first to identify how many vehicles needs to be junked for exceeding a certain vehicle-age threshold. But she is certain this would complement the CARS Program to achieve the DTI’s goal of intensifying domestic vehicle manufacturing without contributing to the worsening congestion in city.

“Isa ’yan sa mga talagang pinag-aaralan [that’s one option that we are really considering],” Aldaba said.

A phaseout system for old vehicles is a proposal that the DTI has been pushing to stakeholders since the manufacturing road map was bared in 2013. The Land Transportation Office had said that of the 3.1 million vehicles registered by the agency, 1.7 million were more than a decade old.

The issue of scrapping old vehicle models is nothing new in the auto industry: In 2014 the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) proposed the early implementation of the Euro4 standards in automobile fuels. To complement this measure, the DENR pushed the scrapping of older, high-polluting vehicles, whose engines are not compatible with the “greener” Euro 4.

The environment agency, likewise, urged the Department of Transportation and Communications to phase out public-utility vehicles 15 years old and above.

Such proposals have yet to be implemented.

Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers in the Philippines Inc. President Rommel Gutierrez earlier said the proposal to scrap old vehicles was probably criticized by the driving public as an “antipoor” measure.

But, based on data presented by Aldaba during the seminar, about 36 percent of Philippine households will be capable of buying vehicles by 2017, up from 26 percent of the population in 2013.

Those in the monthly income range of P43,000.00 to P1.1 million are the potential buyers of brand-new vehicles.

For 2016, Aldaba expects the auto industry to reach a production level of 100,000 units, up by 25 percent from 2015’s estimated production level of 80,000 units.

Toyota Motors Philippines Corp., the market leader in the country, estimates total sales to increase from the 323,000 units sold in 2015, to as much as 370,000 units this year.

Shopping

A BusinessMirror Special Feature

Saturday, January 30, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph A3

CALVIN KLEIN PLATINUM FALL jacket and pleated pants. A graphic neoprene sweatshirt with flashes of grey, cobalt, powdered chalk and black paired with a cuffed track pant.

Accessories. Unforeseen, juxtaposed elements. For her, exaggerated front-zip boots in varying

THE key to the Calvin Klein platinum line will be modern silhouettes in innovative fabrics and forward-thinking, distinctive color palettes.

I

NTRODUCING the Fall 2015 men’s and women’s collection of Calvin Klein Platinum; where hyper modernists celebrate spirited independence and uninhibited fashion playfulness.

David Sims photographed the Fall 2015 advertising campaign in Southhampton, New York; and it features actor, singer- songwriter and model Gabriel- Kane Day-Lewise alongside model Grace Hartzel.

This represents the first major advertising campaign for Mr. DayLewis, who is the son of actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Isabelle Adjani.

Silhouettes. Dramatic proportions and extreme opposites.

Contradicting shapes are used in harmony, cut into volumetric

BLACK heather/ platinum felted merino top; black extrafine stretch merino top; grey snakeskin skirt; chalk croc embossed Jolene shoulder bag; and, chalk stretch Axelia boots.

squares and triangles, either worn away from the body or sculpted to it, and lengths range from maxi to mini. Amplified, exposed zippers are applied for a tough, punk attitude. Layered styling creates a new sense of sculptural freedom. Twisted, futuristic elegance.

Fabrics. Unexpected combinations. Architectural, geometric shapes are cut in soft, luxe materials like double face cashmere, alpaca, shearling and a spacer scuba knit.

Textile surfaces are reworked embossed alligator and printed python leather bonded to jersey; reversible teddy shearling; and distorted, woven alpacas bonded to felt. Seaming is precise with high contrast outlines or embroidered stitching, counterbalanced with raw hems.

Optical prints and jacquards create linear, graphic interruptions, while seductive patterns add contrast. Patchwork and appliqué are applied to unique art tees, sweatshirts and soft blouses, putting these rare, distinguished pieces in a class of their own.

Palette. Grounded by calcified whites, powdered chalks and blushes, with contrasting tones of grey. Black, deep oxblood, forest and ink add depth to the line, while cobalt and viridian create a playful allure. Print makes a seductive appearance in an overblown and fragmented python. A disrupted block square and rectangle motif runs throughout the line creating a graphic, retro feel.

Key Looks. For women, a sculpted jersey dress is layered over a luxe printed python skirt and finished with an embossed alligator moto vest. Proportional tops are key, whether in a disrupted geometric motif on a laser cut silhouette in powdered chalk or a long asymmetric shirt in black. For men, a shearling bomber jacket with exposed zippers in calcified white is contrasted with a black tech

heights with an architectural block heel, cut in nude, white and black stretch goat skin or python. Box square and rectangular portfolio bags with exaggerated chains are rebellious and sexy—in white and black embossed alligator or pebble

grain leather and python. Circular inspired stainless finish jewelry is refined, elegant and sculptural in cuffs, earrings and a statement choker. For him, retro boots are clean, neat and precise in matte black, navy and grey pebble skin or

python. Bags are soft and slouchy, amplified with shiny, nickel zippers like the one-shoulder strap backpack and travel duffle in bonded pebble nappa.

Calvin Klein Platinum is located at L1, SM Aura Premier.

A4

BusinessMirror

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Additional SBRCG may be constituted where the number of registered overseas voters is more than forty thousand (40,000).

Sec. 3. Qualifications of members/substitutes of the S B R C G . – No person shall be appointed as the chairperson or member of the SBRCG, unless such person:

Republic of the Philippines C O M M IS S IO N O N E L E C T IO N S Manila R U L E S O N T H E C O N S T IT U T IO N C O M P O S IT IO N , A P P O IN T M E N T S O F S P E C IA L B O A R D O F E L E C T IO N IN S P E C T O R S , S P E C IA L B A L L O T R E C E P T IO N A N D C U S T O D Y G R O U P S P E C IA L B O A R D O F C A N V A S S E R S A N D O T H E R M A T T E R S R E L A T E D T H E R E T O IN T H E C O N D U C T O F V O T IN G , C O U N T IN G A N D C A N V A S S IN G O F V O T E S U N D E R R E P U B L IC A C T N O 9 1 8 9 , O T H E R W IS E K N O W N A S “ T H E O V E R S E A S A B S E N T E E V O T IN G A C T O F 2 0 0 3 ” A S A M E N D E D B Y R E P U B L IC A C T N O . 1 0 5 9 0 F O R P U R P O S E S O F T H E M A Y 9 , 2 0 1 6 N A T IO N A L A N D L O C A L E L E C T IO N S .

,

, ,

Bautista, J.A.D. Lim, C.R.S. Parreñ o, A.A. Guia, L.T.F. Lim, A.D.L Guanzon, M.R.A.V Abas, S.M.

a) Chairman Commissioner Commissioner Commissioner Commisioner Commisioner Commisioner

Promulgated: January 27, 2016

x----------------------------------------x

R E S O L U T IO N

N O . 1 0 0 4 5

Pursuant to the authority vested in it by the Constitution, Batas Pambansa Blg. 881 (Omnibus Election Code), Republic Act No. 9189 (The Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003) as amended by Republic Act No. 10590, Republic Act No. 9365 and other election laws, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) hereby promulgates, the following rules on the constitution, composition appointment of Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI), Special Ballot Reception and Custody Group (SBRCG), Special Board of Canvassers (SBOC) and other matters related thereto in the conduct of voting counting and canvassing of votes under Republic Act No. 9189, otherwise known as “ the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003” as amended by Republic Act No. 10590 for purposes of the May 9, 2016 National and Local Elections.

A R T IC L E I D E F IN IT IO N O F T E R M S Section 1. Definition of terms. – As used in this General Instructions, the following terms shall refer to: a.

Commission – the Commission on Elections;

b.

Department of Foreign Affairs-overseas Voting Secretarial (DFA-OVS) – SECRETARIAL BASED AT T E Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) home office tasked to assist the Office for Overseas Voting (OFOV) under the Commission, and to direct, coordinate and oversee the participation of the DFA in the implementation of the Overseas Voting Act of 2003, as amended;

c.

d.

e.

f.

g.

h.

i.

j.

k.

l.

National Registry of Overseas Voters (NROV) – the consolidated list prepared, approved and maintained by the Commission. This list contains the names of overseas voters, including those registered under Republic Act No. 8189 who have applied to be certified as overseas voters, have been approved by the Resident Election Registration Board, indicating the Post where the overseas voter is registered; Office for Overseas Voting (OFOV) – office of the Commission tasked to oversee and supervise the effective implementation of the Overseas Voting Act of 2003 as amended; Overseas Voter - a citizen of the Philippines who is qualified to register and vote under the Overseas Voting Act of 2 3, as amended, not otherwise disqualified by law, who is abroad on the day of the elections; Overseas Voting – the process by which qualified citizens of the Philippines abroad exercise on the day of the elections; Overseas Voting Election Returns – a document showing the date of elections, the country in which it is held, the number of overseas voters qualified to vote, the number of overseas voters who actually voted, and the votes obtained by each candidate in an overseas voting precinct; Overseas Voting Precinct – groupings of overseas voters in a given country or post designated for purposes of voting and counting; Personal Voting – a mode of voting where the voters personally appear to cast their votes at the Posts or such other voting areas designated by the Commission; Postal Voting a mode of voting where mailing packets, containing the official ballots and other election paraphernalia, are sent to the voters through the mail or are personally delivered to or picked-up by the voters at the Post or such other voting areas designated by the Commission; whereupon the voters either mail or personally deliver their accomplished ballots to the Post; Posts – Philippine embassies, consulates, foreign service establishments and other Philippine government agencies maintaining offices abroad, e.g., the Philippine Overseas Labot Offices (POLO), having jurisdiction over the places where the overseas voters reside. For purposes of overseas voting, Posts shall also mean to include the Manila Economic & cultural Offices (MECOs) in Taiwan; Representative of the Commission – officials and employees of the foreign service corps, including Filipino contractual or project term personnel that the embassies, consulates and other foreign service establishments have hired locally at the host country and deputized by the Commission pursuant to the Overseas Voting Act of 2003 as amended;

m. Special Ballot Reception and Custody Group (SBRCG) – group deputized by the Commission to receive and take custody of all accountable and non-accountable election forms, supplies and paraphernalia sent by the OFOV for transmittal to the voters, SBEIs and Special Boards of Canvassers (SBOC); n.

o.

Is a citizen of the Philippines residing abroad;

c)

Is from the staff of the Posts;

d)

as ever been convicted of any election offense or of any other crime punishable by more than six (6) months of imprisonment, or has no pending case filed against him for any election offense; and

e)

Special Board of Canvassers (SBOC) – body deputized by the Commission to conduct the voting and/ or counting of votes; Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI) – body deputized by the Commission to conduct the voting and/ or counting of votes.

A R T IC L E II S P E C IA L B A L L O T R E C E P T IO N A N D

C U S T O D Y G R O U P

Sec. 2. Special Ballot Reception and Custody Group (SBRCG); constitution. –The Commission, through the Commissioner-in-charge of OFOV, shall upon recommendation of the DFA-OVS, constitute in every Post, starting February 1, 2016 up to February 14, 2016, an SBRCG, which shall be composed of three (3) members.

In case of temporary vacancy in the SBRCG, the provision in Section 13 of these rules shall apply.

Sec. 4. Disqualification. – No relative within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any member of the SBRCG or to any of the candidates for President, Vice President, and Senators or t he candidate’s spouse shall be appointed as member of the SBRCG. Sec. 5. Notice of disqualification. – Any member of the SBRCG who is disqualified shall, within five ( ) days from knowledge of such disqualification, notify the ead of the Post in writing. The latter, shall in turn, notify the OFOV of the appointment of the replacement.

Sec. 6. Functions of the SBRCG. – The SBRCG shall perform the following duties and functions:

b)

c)

Receive from the Commission through the OFOV, all accountable and non-accountable election forms, supplies and paraphernalia to be used in voting, counting and canvassing; Verify the quantity and Ballot IDs of all ballots, other election paraphernalia received, in the presence of the Head of the Post or his/ her authorized representative, watchers of political parties and representatives of the Filipino community, if available, Notify the OFOV within twenty-four (24) hours after verification, of the receipt of accountable and non-accountable forms, the condition thereof and discrepancy, if any, the quantity and serial numbers of the accountable forms;

d)

Store in a secure place all forms and supplies; and

e)

Perform such other duties and functions as provided under these rules or as many be mandated by the Commission.

A R T IC L E III S P E C IA L B O A R D S O F E L E C T IO N

IN S P E C T O R S

Sec. 7. Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI); constitution and appointment. – The Commission, through the OFOV, shall, upon recommendation of the DFA-OVS, constitute in every Post, starting February 1, 2016 up to February 14, 2016, at least one (1) SBEI, which shall be composed of three (3) members, for purposes of voting and/ or counting.

The SBEI shall be composed of a Chairperson and two (2) Members who shall be public officers posted abroad and deputized by the Commission, one of whom shall be designated as Poll Clerk and the other as Third Member.

For automated elections, at least one (1) member of the SBEI shall be an information technology-capable person duly certified by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

5

Dhaka, Peoples Republic of Bangladesh

6

Dili, Timor-Leste

7

d)

Perform such other functions as may herein after be prescribed by the Commission.

Sec. 11. Proceedings of the SBEI. – The meeting of the SBEI shall be public and held in the polling place designated by the Commission. The SBEI shall act through its Chairperson and shall decide, without delay, by a majority vote, any questions which may arise in the performance of its duties.

Sec. 12. Notice of disqualification. – On or before April , 2 1 , any member of the SBEI who is disqualified for any of the above reasons shall notify the Head of the Post in writing.

The latter, shall in turn, appoint a replacement from the pool of substitutes and immediately notify the OFOV of such appointment.

A R T IC L E IV C O M M O N P R O V IS IO N S

Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Peoples Republic of Bangladesh Timor-Leste Socialist Republic of Vietnam Maldives Sri Lanka

8

Islamabad, Pakistan

Pakistan Republic of Indonesia (Jakarta)

9

Jakarta, Republic of Indonesia

Republic of Indonesia (Manado)

10

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Malaysia India Bhutan

11

New Delhi, India

Nepal

12

Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia

Kingdom of Cambodia

13

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Solomon Islands

14

Seoul, Republic of Korea

Republic of Korea

15

Singapore, Republic of Singapore

Republic of Singapore

16

Tokyo, Japan

Osaka

17

Vientiane, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic

Lao Peoples Democratic Republic

Papua New Guinea Kiribati

Japan

New Zealand

Sec. 13. Temporary vacancies in the SBEI/SBRCG. – If at the time of the meeting of the SBEI/ SBRCG, any member is absent or the position remains vacant, the members present shall call upon any substitute taken from the pool of substitutes, to perform the duties of the absent member. If the substitute cannot be found, the Head of the Post shall appoint any available official or employee of the Foreign Service corps or non-partisan registered voter not otherwise disqualified to temporarily fill said vacancy until the absent member appears or the vacancy is filled.

Cook Islands 18

Wellington, New Zealand

Fiji Samoa Tonga

19

Yangon, Union of Myanmar

Union of Myanmar Turkey

20

Ankara, Turkey

Azerbaijan Georgia Greece

The fact of substitution shall be entered in Part V of the Minutes of Voting (OVF No. 11).

For this purpose, the Posts shall constitutes a pool of substitutes for the SBEI/ SBRCG which will likewise be deputized by the Commission.

21

Athens, Greece

Cyprus Macedonia

22

Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany

Federal Republic of Germany Switzerland

Sec. 14. Oath of members of the SBEI/SBRCG. – The members of the SBEI/ SBRCG shall, before assuming their office, take an oath before an officer authorized to administer oath, in the absence thereof, before any other member of the SBEI/ SBRCG present or, in case no other member is present, before any overseas voter. The accomplished Oaths of SBEI/ SBRCG shall be submitted to the SBRCG. Sec. 15. Support Staff. – For automated elections, during rest days and declared holidays in the host countries where the turn-out of voters at the polling place is expected to be heavy, each SBEI shall be assisted by three (3) support staff who shall be designated not later than March 31, 2016 by the Head of the Post from among the personnel of the Post or government agencies maintaining offices abroad or in their absence or nonavailability, from among the members of the Filipino Community.

The support staff shall perform the following duties and functions: a)

For manual elections, each SBEI for voting shall handle not more than four thousand (4,000) voters, Additional SBEIs for counting may be constituted to handle the manual counting of at least five hundred ( ) ballots.

For automated elections, each SBEI shall handle not more than ten thousand (10,000) voters which is equivalent to ten (10) precincts. Each precinct shall consist of not more than one thousand (1,000) voters. The SBEI may be assisted by a support staff as provided under Sec. 1 hereof.

In manual elections, conduct the voting and/ or counting of votes in personal voting, and the counting of votes in postal voting in countries where the same has been authorized by the Commission.

Print the election returns and transmit the election results; Maintain order within the polling place and its premises, to keep access thereto open and unobstructed, and to enforce obedience to its lawful orders.

If any person refuses to obey its lawful order, or conducts himself in a disorderly manner in its presence or within its hearing and thereby interrupts or disturbs its proceeding, the SBEI may call upon the security force of the Post, if any, or its deputized peace officer to take such person in to custody until the adjournment of the meeting; Provided, that such order shall not be executed as to prevent the person from voting; and

Is able to speak and write English or Filipino.

In case of shortage of qualified staff from the Post, citizens of the Philippines who are qualified to register or vote under the Overseas Voting Act of 2003, as amended, and of known probity and competence, may be appointed as members of the SBRCG, provided that the chairperson shall be a staff of the Post. The Head of Post shall issue the appointment of the Chairperson/ Poll Clerk/ Members/ Substitutes of the SBRCG.

a)

c)

Is of good moral character and irreproachable reputation;

b)

.

b)

www.businessmirror.com.ph

b)

23

Berne, Switzerland

Belgium 24

Brussels, Belgium

Luxembourg Hungary Bulgaria Romania

25

Budapest, Hungary

Yugoslavia Republic of Serbia

26

Holy See, Vatican City State

27

Lisbon, Portugal

Vatican City Sate (Holy See) Portugal United Kingdom of Great Britain

28

London, United Kingdom of Great Britain

Assist the SBEI in the planning organizing, setting-up and supervising the “ Voters’ Assistance Center” at the voting center; Assist voters in locating their polling places/ precinct assignments;

Geneva Liechtenstein

Greenland Ireland Spain

29

Madrid, Spain

Andorra Morocco Russian Federation

c)

Assist in the crowd control/ management at the entrance of polling places; and

Afghanistan

d)

Perform such other functions as may be directed by the SBEI.

Tajikistan

Support staff must not be related within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any member of the same SBEI where they will be assigned or to any of the candidates for President, Vice-President and Senators.

Kyrgyzstan Armenia 30

Moscow, Russian Federation

Belarus Turkmenistan* Uzbekistan* Ukraine Norway

Sec. 16. VCM Technical Support personnel. – For automated elections, the Head of Post shall designated, not later than March 31, 2016, at least (1) technical support personnel. The technical support personnel shall:

Denmark Finland 31

Oslo, Norway

Iceland Sweden

a) The Head of Post shall issue the Appointments of the Chairperson/ Poll Clerk/ Member/ Substitutes of the SBEI/ SBRCG (OVF No.5).

b)

Sec. 8. Qualifications of members of the SBEI. – No person shall be appointed as chairperson or member of the SBEI, whether regular or substitute, unless he or she:

c)

Address and monitor the activities of the VCM; Report to the National Technical Support Center on possible contingencies that may arise before, during and after the election period; Perform such other functions as may be directed by the Commission, through the Head of Post.

Republic of France 32

Paris, Republic of France

Monaco

33

Prague, Czech Republic

Czech Republic Italy Milan

34

Rome, Italy

Albania Malta

a) b)

c)

Is a good moral character and irreproachable reputation; as never been convicted of any election offense or any other crime punishable by more than six (6) months of imprisonment, or has no pending case filed against him for any election offense; and Is able to speak and write English or Pilipino.

Any career public officer posted abroad duly deputized by the Commission, as the case may be, shall act as the chairperson. In the absence of the government officers, the two (2) other members shall be citizens of the Philippines who are qualified to register or vote under the Overseas Voting Act of 2003, as amended, and deputized by the Commission.

Sec. 9. Disqualification – No person shall serve as the chairperson or member of the SBEI if such person or such person’s spouse is related within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any member of the same SBEI or to any of the candidates for President, Vice President and/ or Senator or candidate’s spouse.

For this purpose, the OFOV shall furnish the Post, through the DFA-OVS, the list of candidates for President, Vice President and/ or Senator, not later than January 30, 2016, so that the members of the SBEIs will be able to know whether they are qualified or not to accept their appointments.

A R T IC L E V S P E C IA L B O A R D O F C A N V A S S E R S 35

Sec. 17. Special Board of Canvassers; constitution and appointment. – The Commission, through the OFOV, shall.

From February 1, 2016 to February 14, 2016, constitute in the following Posts, one (1) Special Board of Canvassers (SBOC) to canvass and/ pr consolidate the Overseas Election Returns (ERs) containing to results from countries and territories under their consular jurisdictions, and to prepare the corresponding Overseas Certificate of Canvass (COC) as follows Post/SBOC 1 2

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunie Darussalam Bangkok, Kingdom of Thailand

For automated elections, conduct the voting in the polling place and administer the electronic counting of votes, including the testing and sealing of the Vote Counting Machine (VCM);

Country/Territory/Post under urisdiction

36

Poland

37

Warsaw, Poland

Kingdom of Thailand 38

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi) Dubai

Guangzhou

Yemen

Shanghai

Gabon

X aimen

Ghana

Chongqing

Guinea Abuja, Federal Republic of Nigeria

Macau Taipei – MECO

Liberia

Senegal Sierra Leone Togo

Hong Kong SAR Australia Sydney New Caledonia Vanuatu

Guinea-Bissau

Sao Tome and Principe

39

Taichung MECO

Canberra, Australia

Latvia Lithuania

Kaohsiung MECO

4

Austria Croatia (Local Name: Hrvatska) Slovakia (Slovak Republic)

Estonia

Mongolia Hong Kong, SAR Peoples Republic of China

Kingdom of the Netherlands

Slovenia

Kazakhstan

3

Vienna, Austria

Brunie Darussalam

Peoples Republic of China (Beijing)

Sec. 10. Powers and functions of the SBEI. – The SBEI shall have the following powers and functions: a)

San Marino The Hague, Kingdom of the Netherlands

40

Amman, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

41

Beirut, Republic of Lebanon

Republic of Lebanon

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph Djibouti 42

Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt

Eritrea Ethiopia Sudan

43

Doha, State of Qatar

State of Qatar

44

Kuwait, Sate of Kuwait

State of Kuwait

45

Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain

Kingdom of Bahrain

46

Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

Sultanate of Oman Kenya Burundi Comoros

maintaining office abroad as Vice Chairperson, and another government officer as Member – Secretary. In the absence of other government officer, a citizen of the Philippines qualified to register or vote under the Overseas Voting Act of 2003 as amended and deputized by the Commission, may be appointed as Member-Secretary. In the absence of other government officer, a citizen of the Philippines qualified to register or vote under the Overseas Voting Act of 2003 as emended and deputized by the Commission, may be appointed as MemberSecretary.

Sec. 18. Qualification of members of the SBOC. – No person shall be appointed as member of the SBOC, unless said member:

Congo

a)

Democratic Republic of Congo

b)

Madagascar Malawi

Sec. 19 Disqualifications. – The following are disqualified from serving as members of the SBOC:

47

Nairobi, Kenya

a)

Somalia

Mozambique Namibia Swaziland

Sec. 20. Powers and function of the Board. –The SBOC shall have full authority to keep order within the canvassing room or hall including its premises and enforce obedience to its lawful orders. If any person refuses to obey any lawful orders of the SBOC or conducts himself in such disorderly manner as to disturb or interrupt its proceedings, the SBOC may, by a majority vote, order in writing any peace officer/ guard of the embassy or consulate to take such person into custody until adjournment of the meeting. In the absence of any peace officer/ guard, any other competent and able person deputized by the SBOC in writing, shall execute such order. Such fact shall be noted in the Minutes of the proceedings.

Zambia

For automated elections, the SBOC shall;

Zimbabwe Kingdom of Saudi

a)

Canvass/ consolidate the electronic results;

Jeddah

b)

Generate and print COC and SOV;

c)

Load the results in the CCS;

d)

Transmit immediately after the completion of the canvas, a copy of all the COC and the SOVP/ SSOV to the OFOV, through the DFA-OVS, via facsimile or other electronic mail facilities of the Philippines embassies/ consulates;

e)

Furnish the accredited major political parties and accredited citizens arms, through the OFOV, with copies via facsimile, or any other means of transmission equally safe, secure and reliable;

Al Khobar Iran (Islamic Republic Of) Israel Brazil Colombia Guyana Netherlands Antilles Suriname

f)

Argentina Buenos Aires, Argentina Uruguay Mexico Belize Costa Rica Dominican Republic Mexico, Mexico

g)

Deliver or transmit, through its Chairperson, the COCs together with the SOVPs, SSOVs and the election returns intended for the Congress and the Commission. Watchers of candidates, political parties and other interested parties may accompany the delivery or witness the transmission; and Perform such other functions as may be directed by the Commission.

El Salvador

For manual elections, the SBOC shall:

Guatemala

a)

Canvas the ERs submitted by the SBEI;

b)

Accomplish the Statement of Votes by Precinct (SOVP) and the Summary of Statement of Votes (SSOV);

Honduras Nicaragua Panama Republic of Cuba

c)

Venezuela Canada (Ottawa) 55

Ottawa, Canada

Toronto Vancouver

d)

Chile 56

Santiago, Chile

Ecuador Peru United States of America (DC)

e)

Chicago Honolulu Los Angeles

f)

New York San Francisco American Samoa French Polynesia Anguilla Aruba Bahamas Barbados 57

Washington, United States of America

Bermuda British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Curacao Haiti Jamaica Puerto Rico Saba Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Maarten St Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands Virgin Islands (U.S) Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands

58

Agana, Guam

Mark in the project of precincts the corresponding envelopes intended for the precinct;

d)

Place inside the ballot box, the envelopes containing the ERs/COCs, and close the same with security seal; and

Those who have a pending case filed against them for any election offense.

Lesotho

54

c)

c)

Botswana

53

The precinct number of the envelope containing the memory cards;

Sec. 24. Support Staff and Tabulators. – For manual elections, SBDC with less than twelve (12) ERs to canvass shall be assisted by one (1) Support Staff only.

Angola

Brasilia, Brazil

3)

Those who have been convicted of any election offense or of any other crime punishable by more than six (6) months of imprisonment; or,

South Africa

52

Condition and the serial number of corresponding paper seal of the envelope; and

b)

Western Sahara

Tel-Aviv, Israel

2)

Forward to the Board, the ballot boxes containing the ERs/COCs and one copy of the project of precincts as marked.

Niger

51

Date and time of receipt;

Any of the candidates for President, VicePresident and Senator; or

Tunisia

Tehran, Iran

Those who are related within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to:

1)

2)

Morocco

50

Log the following:

United Republic of Tanzania

Mali

Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

b)

Any member of the same SBOC;

Mauritania

49

Receive from the SBEIs, the envelopes containing the main and back-up memory cards of the VCM and the envelopes containing the printed copies of the ERs instead for the SBOC.

1)

Chad

Pretoria, South Africa

a)

Uganda

Algeria*

48

Sec. 23. Duties and Responsibilities of the Reception and Custody Group (RCG). – The RCG shall:

Is a good moral character and irreproachable reputation; and Is able to speak and write English or Filipino.

Rwanda Seychelles

or to any member of the Board or to any candidate whose votes will be canvassed by the Board.

Guam Marshall Islands Micronesia Republic of Palau

The members of the SBOC shall be appointed by the Commissioner-in-charge of the OFOV and shall be composed of the highest ranking career officer of the post as Chairperson, a senior career officer from any of the government agencies

g)

Prepare eight (8) copies, upon completion of the canvass, the COC for President, Vice-President, Senators and Party-List representatives (OVF No. 21); Transmit immediately after the completion of the canvass , a copy of the COC and the SOVP/ SSOV, through the DFA- OVS, via facsimile or other electronic mail facilitates of the Philippine embassies/ consulates; Furnish the accredited major political parties and accredited citizens arms, through the OFOV, with copies via facsimile, or any other means of transmission equally safe, secure and reliable; Deliver or transmit, thorough its Chairperson, the COCs together with SOVPs, SSOVs and the election returns intended for the Congress and the Commission. Watchers of candidates, political parties and other interested parties may accompany the delivery or witness the transmission; and Perform such other duties as may be required by the Commission.

Sec. 21 Consolidation and Canvassing Systems (CCS) Operator. For automated elections the SBOC shall be assisted by an information technology-capable person authorized to operate the CCS, hereinafter referred to as the CCS operator. The CCS operator shall be deputized by the Commission, from among the personnel of the Post or other agencies and instrumentalities of the government, including government- owned and controlled corporations maintaining offices abroad.

The CCS operator shall be designated by the Head of Post and shall be considered as member of the SBOC but he cannot participate in the deliberation of the SBOC, expect on technical matters.

The CCS Operator shall be designated by the Head of Post and shall be considered as member of the SBOC but he cannot participate in the deliberation of the SBOC, except on technical matters.

The CCS Operator shall not be related within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any member of the Board or to any candidate whose votes will be canvassed by the Board.

Sec. 22. Reception and Custody Group. – For automated elections, the SBOC may constitute a Reception and Custody Group (RCG) for the reception and safekeeping of the main and back- up memory cards, and of the hard copies of ERs. The RCG shall be composed of not more than two (2) members who are government appointive officials. They shall be designated by the concerned Chairperson of the Board and shall receive honoraria equivalent to that of the members of the Board.

The members of the RCG shall not be related, within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to each other

e)

For SBOC with twelve (12) or more ERs to canvass shall be assisted by one (1) Support Staff and two (2) Tabulators. The Support Staff shall receive and record the ERs and forward the same to the SBOC for canvas. The Tabulators shall compute the subtotal of the SOVP. Sec. 25. Notice of disqualification. – Any member of the SBOC who is disqualified for any reason shall, upon appointment, notify the Head of the Post, in writing, who shall, in turn submit a replacement to the Commission, through the Commissioner-in-charge of the OFOV, for appointment.

For t his purpose, the OFOV shall furnish the Post, through the DFA-OVS, the list of candidates for President, VicePresident, and Senator for the May 9, 2016 National and Local Elections so that the members of the Board will be able to know whether they are qualified or not to accept their appointments.

Sec. 26. Supervision and control. The Commission shall exercise direct supervision and control over the Board and may motu proprio relieve, at any time for cause, any member thereof and designate the corresponding substitute or replacement.

Sec. 27. Replacement of chairperson and member of the SBOC. – In case of non-availability, absence, disqualification due to relationship, or incapacity for any cause of the Chairperson, the replacement shall come from among any other ranking official from the Post or form any of the government agencies maintaining a post abroad, of good standing, not otherwise disqualified under the law.

With respect to the other member of the SBOC, the replacement shall be from the qualified personnel of the foreign service corps or from members of the Filipino community at the Posts. For this purpose, all replacements shall be appointed by the Commissioner-in-charge of the OFOV. Sec. 28. Notice of meetings of the SBOC. – Not later than May 4, 2016, Philippine time, the Chairperson of the SBOC shall issue a written notice (OVF No. 11-C) to the other members of the SBOC, and, through the OFOV, issue a similar notice to each candidate, political party or coalition of political parties fielding candidates for President, Vice-President, Senator and political parties, organizations or coalitions thereof participating under the party-list system of representation. The notice shall include the date, time and place of the canvassing, which shall be held in the Philippine Embassy/Consulate, unless otherwise ordered by the Commission.

If notice is given in open session, such act shall be recorded in the Minutes of the proceedings. Notice of the canvassing shall also be posted in three (3) conspicuous places in the building where the canvass shall be held as well as in the websites of the Commissions, the DFA and of the Post concerned.

The OFOV may, whenever practicable, use other means of disseminating such notice which may include but not limited to the tri-media.

Saturday, January 30, 2016

May 9, 216, until the COC shall have been personally submitted to the Commission, no member or substitute member of the different SBOCs shall be transferred, assigned or detailed outside of official station nor shall leave said station without prior authority of the Commissioner-in-charge of the OFOV. Sec. 34. Feigned illness. – Any member of the SBOC feigning illness in order to be substituted from the start until the completion of the canvass shall be liable for an election offense.

Sec. 35. Incapacity of a regular member of the SBOC. – In case of sickness or serious injury of a regular member of the SBOC, the member concerned shall submit to the other members of the SBOC a medical certificate attesting to his incapacity. Said medical certificate shall be recorded in and form part of the Minutes of the SBOC. Upon submission of the medical certificate, a substitute shall be appointed likewise in accordance with Se. 27 hereof.

Sec. 36. Quorum. – Majority of all members of the SBOC shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and a majority vote of all the members thereof shall be necessary to render a decision.

Sec. 37. Issues that may be raised during the consolidation and canvass. – Issues affecting the composition of proceedings of the SBOCs may be initiated by filing a verified petition before the SBOC or directly with the Commission.

If the petition is filed directly with the SBOC, its decision may be appealed to the Commission within three (3) days from issuance thereof, However, if commenced directly with the Commission, the verified petition shall be filed immediately when the SBOC begins to act illegally, or at the time of the appointment of the member of the SBOC whose capacity to sit as such is objected to.

There shall be no pre-proclamation cases on issues/ controversies relating to the generation/printing transmission, receipt and custody and appreciation of ERs or the COCs. Sec. 38. Prohibition against political activity.

- No member of the SBEI/SBRCG/SBOC and their support staff. Including the VCM technical support personnel and CCS Operators, shall engage in any partisan political activity or take part in the elections except to vote and discharge their duties as members of the electoral boards. They may also discharge their regular duties and functions including rendering assistance in accordance with usual protocol or courtesies normally extended to visiting officials on official business.

Sec. 39. Voting privilege of members of the SBEI/ SBRCG/SBOC. – Government employees posted abroad, who will perform election duties as members of the SBEI/SBRCG/ SBOC, shall be allowed to vote in their respective posts provided they are registered as voters either in t he Philippines or as overseas voters.

Sec. 40. Supervision by Head of Posts. - All foreign service personnel and representative of attached agencies duly deputized by the Commission shall be under the direct supervision of the Heads of Posts insofar as the One Country Team Approach is concerned.

Sec. 41. Applicability of other election laws. – The pertinent provisions of the Omnibus Election Code, as amended and other election law, which are not in conflict with the provisions of the Overseas Voting Act of 2003, as amended, shall remain in full force, and shall have suppletory application of these Rules.

Sec. 42. Enforcement and administration by the Commission. – The Commission, for the purpose of ensuring honest, orderly, peaceful, and free elections abroad, shall have exclusive charge of the enforcement, administration and implementation of the Overseas Voting Act of 2003.

Sec. 43. Dissemination. – The Education and Information department shall cause the publication of this Resolution in two (2) daily newspaper of general circulation in the Philippines and to furnish the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Transportation and Communications, Philippine Postal Corporation, Philippine Overseas Employment administration, Overseas Worker’s Welfare Administration, Commission on Overseas Filipinos, the Foreign Service Institute, the Social security System and other government agencies concerned with the welfare of Filipinos overseas.

Sec. 44. Effectivity. - These Rules shall take effect seven (7) days after publication in two (2) newspapers of general circulation in the Philippines.

SO ORDERED.

Sec. 29. Preliminary to canvassing. – Not later than May 8, 2016, Philippine time, the members of the SBOC shall meet to: a)

Acquaint themselves with each other;

b)

Familiarize themselves with their respective duties and responsibilities during the canvassing;

c)

Ensure that all the required canvassing forms and supplies are complete; and

d)

Discuss operational and procedural matters to ensure that they are able to fulfill their duties and responsibilities in accordance with these general instructions and other guidelines set by the Commission.

Sec. 30. Convening of the SBOC. – The SBOC shall meet at 7:00 o’clock in the evening of May9, 2016, Philippine time, at the designated building/place in the Philippine Embassy/ Consulate or other foreign services establishments authorized by the Commission, to receive. It shall meet continuously from day to day until the canvass is completed, and may adjourn only for the purpose of awaiting other election eturns. However, as the need arises, the SBOC may declare a recess.

Sec. 31. Minutes of the SBOC; distribution – The Member-Secretary shall prepare the Minutes of canvassing (OVF No. 11-B) of the SBOC in three (3) copies by recording therein the proceedings, other incidents or a matters relevant to the canvass.

Copies of the Minutes of canvassing shall be distributed as follows: a)

One copy of the Chairperson of the SBOC

b)

One copy for the Law Department of the Commission;

c)

One copy for the Special Ballot Reception and Custody Group (SBRCG).

Sec. 32. Temporary absence of a regular member of the SBOC. – On case a regular member of the SBOC is temporarily absent, the members present shall first verify whether notice has been served on the absent member.

In case no such notice was sent, one shall be immediately served on the absent member. If the latter cannot be located or his whereabouts are unknown, he shall be submitted in accordance with Sec. 25 hereof. These facts shall be recorded in the Minutes of the SBOC. As soon as the absent member appears, the substitute member shall relinquish his seat to the regular member.

Sec. 33. Prohibition against transfer leaving official station. – During the period beginning election day,

A5

000033300

J. ANDRES D. BAUTISTA Chairperson

CHRISTIAN ROBERT S. LIM Commissioner

AL A. PARREÑO Commissioner

LUIE TITO F. GUIA Commissioner

ARTHUR D. LIM Commissioner

MA. ROWENA AMELIA V. GUAZON Commissioner

SHERIFF M. ABAS Commissioner

A6 Saturday, January 30, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Counting the economic growth

S

OVIET Union dictator Joseph Stalin reportedly said, “The people who cast the votes decide nothing.

The people who count the votes decide everything.”

The same is true for economic data.

We believe that the economic numbers that are provided to us by the government are simple and straightforward. The government says the economy grew by 5.8 percent in 2015 from 2014, and we assume that means the total value of economic production was 5.8 percent higher this year than last.

Unfortunately, that is not the way it works. The real world is much more complicated.

Suppose you are holding a $20 note and a P100 bill. How much monetary value do you have to exchange for goods and services? Try explaining to the manager at the Jollibee restaurant that you have enough “money” to buy a bucket of Chicken Joy. The Philippine government says the economic growth for 2015 was 5.8 percent, but it depends on how the economic “votes” are counted. The GDP can be calculated several ways; total value of production, total value of expenditures, and total income of employees and companies. Not as simple as counting the number of beers San Miguel Corp. produces each year, is it?

For example, if production goes higher, GDP goes up. But also if prices go higher, GDP also rises. There must also be a constant benchmark of measurement to compare countries.

The World Bank measures GDP in US dollars “converted from domestic currencies using single year official exchange rates.” For growth, the “annual percentage growth rate of GDP at market prices based on constant local currency. Aggregates are based on constant 2005 US dollars.”

Based on dollar value of the Philippine GDP, the growth rate between 2014 and 2015 was 5.8 percent. 2014 GDP was $284,777,093,019 and 2015 came in at $301,294,164,414—a 5.8-percent increase.

But the Philippine government said 2014 growth was 6.1 percent. However, the dollar-denominated growth was less at 4.7 percent—$284 billion against $271 billion. It works the other way, too. In 2012 the government said 6.7-percent growth; the value growth was 11.6 percent. For 2011, the difference was even greater—3.7 percent from the government; 12.3 percent in actual value.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the six-year moving average of real GDP growth of 6.2 percent is the highest in 38 years. That all depends on how you count it. From 2004 through 2009, the GDP value went 84 percent higher—$91 billion to $168 billion. The GDP value from 2010 through 2015 increased by 79 percent—$168 billion to $301 billion.

All this number crunching is not important, except, perhaps, as political propaganda. The economy is much more than just the bottles of beer produced, and how much we spend for it. It is also about the peso exchange rate, inflation, and how much everyone gets from the economic pie.

The per person GDP is up 56 percent in the last six years versus 80 percent in the previous six years. That is a much more important number.

The markets: Just a fantasy John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

‘A

LONG time ago in a galaxy far, far away...., the global financial and asset markets used to trade differently, but that ended when the Evil Empire of central banks and paper speculators took over the trading.” Welcome to planet Vuca. The term “vuca” was first used by the American military to describe on the ground conditions in Afghanistan and Iraq—volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

In other words, no one really knows what is going on, or how to react to changing conditions that do not make sense in a rational universe.

It was not too long ago—although many do not remember—that things were a lot different. Stocks traded on ideas like valuation, based on revenues and profits. Commodity prices were primarily influenced by the old-fashioned concepts of producer supply and end-user demand.

Financial instruments like debt and corresponding interest rates were priced using risk and return as the determining factors.

Breaking news was considered for importance, digested as to significance, and adjusted to by examining the short- and long-term impact on the markets.

This past Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) moved 2,250 points up and down

within 30 hours to close unchanged from the prior day’s opening. Over four days, the Dow had daily price movements of 211 points, 288 points, 362 points and 173 points.

The opening price on the first day was 15,921, and the fourth-day closing price was 15,944 for a net change of 23 points, or a gain of 0.14 percent.

Remember, the Dow is composed of supposedly the largest and most stable corporations on the planet.

On Friday the Bank of Japan announced that it would change its policies to includ an NIRP, or negative interest-rate policy, but that it would not increase its version of quantitative easing. The Japanese stock index—the Nikkei 225—immediately went up 4 percent, down 4 percent and then up 4 percent in two hours.

The Japanese traders and investors must be very smart thinkers to have figured out the future impact on corporate value so quickly. But then, they changed their minds to trade as the policy change was a now corporate negative. And yet again, they decided just as quickly that it

Don’t rule out an Iowa surprise Leonid Bershidsky

BLOOMBERG VIEW

J

. ANN SELZER, who has conducted polling on the Iowa caucuses since 1988, says the contests almost always yield surprises. With each election, it increasingly becomes more difficult to reliably predict the outcome, and this year is the toughest yet.

Pollster.com lists 20 Iowa Republican caucus polls for January alone.

Nate Silver’s blog, FiveThirtyEight, bases its Iowa predictions on a weighted average of 19 polls. According to Selzer, who has done polls for Bloomberg and the Des Moines Register, the large number of surveys makes it more difficult to get reliable results: “With low incidence populations like the caucuses, I’m worried about polling fatigue.”

That’s because pretty much all the polls rely on the same base: the list of Iowa’s registered voters, one of the most extensive of any state. Iowa has about 2.5 million people who are eligible to vote, and about 2 million of those are on that list. But most people who are called by pollsters don’t want to participate. In the runup to the first-in-the-nation nominating contest, Iowans are inundated with calls from candidates’ campaigns and subjected to a barrage of

political advertising. I’ve only been here a week, and I have a headache from the drumbeat. Only the nicest people on earth can live through this and not hang up on pollsters.

As a result of this self-winnowing, many polls wind up with a sample of “likely caucus-goers” of around 600 respondents. And the outcomes end up pretty close: This year victory to Donald Trump or Ted Cruz on the Republican side, or Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders for Democrats, with most variation within the margin of error. But those predictions are subject to caution, because the final outcome depends on a key, intangible factor: The turnout on February 1 of first-time caucus-goers.

A share of this group isn’t reflected in the polling, because they are among the 500,000 Iowans who aren’t on the registered voter list, but are eligible to take part in the caucuses.

There are questions, too, about those who were identified as firsttimers and participated in the polls.

They appear to favor Sanders, if they are Democrats (many of these new voters are young people); and Trump, if they’re Republicans, Selzer says.

Even so, it is impossible to predict whether they will stick to their plans to caucus for the first time if, for example, there is a heavy snowfall.

“Unlike in other states, where it’s just a matter of voting, caucuses require a certain commitment,” says Mack Shelley, who coordinates a poll for Iowa State University.

A heavier-than-usual turnout determined the results of the Democratic caucuses in 2008, when Barack Obama handed a humiliating defeat to Hillary Clinton. That year 240,000 people turned out to pick the Democratic nominee—far more than expected, and twice as many as the Republicans managed to mobilize. In 2012, when Obama was running for reelection, only 25,000 Democrats caucused, while the number of Republicans was little changed.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad predicts that this time, 150,000 Republicans are likely to turn out, energized by Trump’s candidacy.

Other prominent Republicans made similar predictions. If they are right, Trump supporters, many of them first-time caucus-goers and a substantial number not covered by any

was a long-term positive.

The trading price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate grade crude oil closed on January 20 at $26.55, and was 27 percent higher this past Friday, nine days later. The news is that Russia and Saudi Arabia are talking about oil prices. No change in production and no change in demand, but prices went up 27 percent. But, actually, that is not the price of a barrel of crude oil. That is the price of a speculative futures contract bought and sold by people who have probably never seen a barrel of oil. The cash price for actually buying crude oil is like the price of a T-shirt in Baclaran market. There is “The Price,” and then there is the price when money is on the table.

The relation of trading prices and any connection to the real economic world is merely a coincidence in 2016.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

polls, will cut into the evangelical, conservative core of Iowa Republican voters. On the other hand, if the commitment of these political neophytes doesn’t extend to actually journeying out in the cold night and spending several hours caucusing in a classroom or barn, it will be Cruz who will get a boost.

Sanders’s ability to beat Clinton also hinges on how organized and civic-minded his young supporters turn out to be. Clearly unprepared for his runaway popularity, Sanders hasn’t run the kind of intensive, disciplined campaign that Obama conducted in Iowa in 2008.

Shelley predicts that the new voters will turn out both for Trump and for Sanders. “Anger is a good substitute for a lot of other things,” he says.

Though Selzer says pollsters are poor predictors of Iowa caucus turnouts, I, too, believe the fired-up Trump and Sanders people will show up, if only for a chance to thumb their noses at the establishment.

That, however, doesn’t mean that Trump and Sanders will triumph.

Those who support other candidates and who believe a contest between two runaway populists is bad for the country may show up even if they didn’t initially intend to caucus. A surge of voters from the center that lifts Clinton and Marco Rubio, the front-runner among mainstream Republicans, may be the biggest surprise for the pollsters this year.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

China can’t postpone the pain forever

A

Such a nasty combination of woes could easily topple many emerging economies. They can cause banks to collapse and growth to evaporate, even national insolvency. Yet, so far, China has avoided the kind of edgeof-your-seat financial meltdown Wall Street experienced in 2008, and Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea did in 1997. Indeed, there’s a good case to be made China never will. The state commands such tremendous power over everything from capital movements to the banking system that policy-makers might be able to prevent the world’s second-largest economy from flying completely off the rails.

Even if China doesn’t display the standard trappings of a financial crisis, however, that doesn’t mean it can avoid the pain of one. No matter what levers its bureaucrats may pull, the country can’t forever escape the economic consequences of its deeprooted problems.

First of all, China would have to defy decades of history to avoid being crushed by its mountain of debt.

Research firm Capital Economics analyzed 30 years of emerging-market crises and concluded that “no country has experienced an increase in its private debt-to-GDP ratio of 30 [percentage points] within the space of a decade and not experienced problems.” At best, such countries endured significant, and often protracted, slowdowns in growth. China has seen an 80-percentage point jump in that ratio over the past decade, to more than 200 percent. A reckoning seems inevitable.

And the chances of that debt bomb exploding are rising, since the government, rather than defusing it, is throwing on extra TNT. Terrified of the political fallout from a slowing economy, the central bank has been loosening money; credit growth is accelerating. Meanwhile, the stimulating effect from this renewed flood of lending appears muted, a sure sign that the new cash is being used unproductively. That means the weight of China’s debt burden will continue to increase and the inevitable damage will be even greater.

Nor does it seem possible for China to avoid a monstrous downsizing of industry. Chinese companies

Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

simply churn out too much steel, coal, cement and other stuff, no matter how many roads and railways the government builds at home and abroad. That reality is slowly sinking in. The State Council announced in late January it would speed up the elimination of steel capacity, a step analysts consider necessary to repair the sector. But the cost will be heavy. The China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute has estimated that the cuts could cause as many as 400,000 steel workers to lose their jobs. Now imagine those layoffs repeated across old-line manufacturing industries.

All of these problems will eventually show up on banks’ balance sheets. Officially, the government claims that the slowdown has barely dented the stability of Chinese banks, with nonperforming loans at a mere 1.6 percent of the total. If you believe that, I’ve got some subprime mortgages to sell you. Private estimates place the potential NPL ratio somewhere between the high single-digits and as much as 20 percent.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the banks will pancake Lehman-style.

Backed by the state, they’d almost certainly be rescued. But policymakers should prepare for sticker shock.

By one estimate, the price tag to support the banks could reach $7.7 trillion—or the equivalent of threefourths of China’s 2014 GDP. Such figures may seem outrageous, but history tells us they’re not. Indonesia’s bank bailout cost the government nearly 57 percent of the nation’s GDP, while Korea spent 31 percent. If we extrapolate from Korea’s experience—which isn’t unreasonable, since the country had adopted a similar investment-led growth model—China would end up spending some $3 trillion rebuilding its banking system.

Perhaps Beijing’s mandarins believe that by keeping growth aloft some of these problems will solve themselves. More likely, delaying hard choices will make the hit to future growth more damaging and the costs larger. Call China’s problems whatever you wish, but in the end, a crisis by any other name still smells pretty bad.

How better data can cure cancer

V

‘The Eucharist is what makes the Church’

B M S | Bloomberg View

LL of the pieces are in place for a financial crisis in China.

The currency is weakening and, if left to the market, would likely plunge further. Capital outflows have hit record levels. Reserves are in retreat. A dramatic sell-off on Shanghai’s stock market has wiped out all the gains from 2015’s bull run.

The leadership, usually lauded for its sagacity, has at times seemed befuddled about what to do.

ICE President Joe Biden’s yearlong push to cure cancer by marshaling the resources of the federal government will no doubt involve every kind of cancer study and devote much effort to bringing new investment—public and private—to the work. In one critical corner of cancer research, however, a lot of progress could be made with little new spending, if Biden would help clear a few obstacles.

This is the effort to learn more about which of the so-called variant genes in human DNA cause cancers to start growing. Knowing this, medical scientists could better tell who is at risk and how to prevent and treat the disease. Today, researchers know only a fraction of those variant genes because they lack access to crucial genetic data.

Biden could help them get the information they need.

Oncologists typically gather data from just a small share of their patients, and usually only about the tumors themselves, which in turn offer only a small share of the genetic information scientists could use. By sequencing more of the genetic code (or even the entire ge-

nome) of more people with cancer, doctors could get a clearer view of the variant genes involved.

Insurance companies, which typically only cover the genetic sequencing of tumors, would have to pay for gathering this additional data. But if Medicare paid for more genetic testing, private insurers would undoubtedly follow.

The next challenge is to make it easier for researchers to gather that data. The main hurdle here is a 2002 federal rule that prevents patients’ medical data being released without their consent, or unless certain conditions are met. The idea was and is to protect patients’ privacy. An update to the rule could make clear that hospitals and doctors’ offices are legally able to share patients’ genetic data with researchers.

Patient privacy would still be a concern, of course, so expanding access to the genetic data would need to be paired with steps to better shield people from having that data used against them. Stricter penalties for data breaches would help, though no system is airtight. And the categories of prohibited genetic discrimination would have to be expanded.

Bloomberg View

Saturday, January 30, 2016 A7

SERVANT LEADER

J

ANUARY 24 to 31, 2016, marks the observance of the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) in Cebu.

With the theme, “Christ in you, our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27),” the week-long Eucharistic Congress is intended to strengthen the faith of the people and to promote awareness of the central place of the Eucharist in the life and mission of the Catholic Church. It is also believed to be a pause for commitment and a pause for prayer.

As Pope Francis said in his letter addressed to the participants in the plenary of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congress: “The 51st International Eucharistic Congress offers the opportunity to experience and comprehend the Eucharist as a transformative encounter with the Lord in His word and in His sacrifice of love, so that all may have life, and live in abundance (cf. John 10:10).

It is a propitious occasion to rediscover the faith as a source of Grace that brings joy and hope in personal, familial and social life.”

The Philippines is blessed to be chosen to be the venue of the 51st International Eucharistic Congress, because it could help strengthen the faith of the people and the devotion to the Eucharistic in our country. It is a reminder that it is important for all of us to join the Eucharist to commemorate the life, crucifixion, death

and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This is also the time when we nurture our soul; we grow our relationship with God, because we always need His love and mercy that comes to us through the bread and the wine that is changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ by the words of Jesus himself and the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we are receiving Jesus every time we receive the Holy Eucharist. It is Christ’s continuing and lasting presence in the community of faith. The great mission of the Congress is to make people who are mostly poor, understand the Eucharist. This year’s IEC is also a dialogue with the poor.

According to a new report from Oxfam International, a global organization working to right the wrongs of poverty, hunger and injustice, the world’s 62-richest billionaires have as much wealth as the bottom half of the world’s

population. And two thirds or 700 million of the world’s poor live in Asia, according to the report from Asian Development Bank, while in the Philippines, according to the data from the National Statistical Coordination Board, more than one-quarter (25.8 percent) of the population fell below the poverty line in the first semester of 2014.

They are poor not because our country lack natural and material resources but because of the oppressive and unjust social, economic and political structures that keep the poor and marginalized away from enjoying the rich natural wealth of their lands—all rooted from selfishness and greed.

Pope Francis once said, that the Eucharist is not just a weekly way of celebrating our faith, but should radically affect our relationship with others, especially with those most in need.

All the hungers of the world, physical and spiritual, become the concern of a community that celebrates the Last Supper of the Lord, just as they became Jesus’ concern during His life and ministry. As the Ordinary General Assembly of Bishops in 2005 declared, “Christians need help in seeing the faith implications of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist and his presence in their brothers and sisters, especially in the poor and those on the periphery of society. Love for the poor and those on the periphery of society was not simply the subject of Jesus’ preaching; it gave meaning to His entire life.”

As Catholics, we are called to give ourselves generously to our brothers and sisters, just like Jesus Christ who gave himself to all on the Cross. And since receiving the Eucharist means receiving Jesus Christ, we become like Him, we become a part of Him, so we have to be ready and willing to do what He did.

In this modern world, where society is becoming uninterested to the values of the Gospel and where people are led away from the teachings of the Church, this year’s International Eucharistic Congress is a great avenue for the Filipinos and to all the people around the world to experience and understand the Eucharist as a transforming encounter with the Lord in His word and in His life-giving sacrifice of himself.

Let us all reflect, pray and celebrate the Eucharist during and even after IEC. Let us continually accept Jesus Christ every time we participate in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist to find inner strength and power that we need to win against temptation and establish a stronger relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ who brings joy and hope in our personal, familial and social life. As one liturgical song would put it, “Let us be bread, blessed by the Lord, broken and shared, life for the world.”

To know more about the programs of Caritas Manila, visit www.caritas.org.ph. For donations, call 563-9311. For inquiries, call 563-9308 or 563-9298.

Make it a habit to listen to Radio Veritas 846 in the AM band, or through live streaming at www.veritas846. ph. For comments, e-mail veritas846pr@gmail.com.

Confusion about the financial crisis won’t die

O

B B R | Bloomberg View

NCE more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.

Having slogged through several years of research on the many and complex causes of the financial crisis, I take it personally when people try to rewrite history and ignore what actually drove the events that led to the collapse.

That is our charge today, in response to the rather perplexing claim that the Federal Reserve (the Fed) caused the crisis—not because former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan irresponsibly kept rates low for too long, but rather because the Fed raised them.

This is the proposition offered in a New York Times op-ed by David Beckworth of the Mercatus Center and Ramesh Ponnuru of the American Enterprise Institute and a Bloomberg View columnist.

Before we delve into details, a preface: We have spent a good deal of time explaining how and why complex things are easy to misunderstand. There is rarely if ever a single factor that drives complex systems such as the economy or markets; the real world isn’t that neat and simple. As philosopher David Hume once explained, causation is a much more nuanced thing; correlation can be confusing. There also is the issue of some folks who feel compelled to misrepresent what caused the crisis, as it helps rationalize their own cognitive dissonance.

We and others have discussed this in the context of the movie The Big Short.

That is the leaping-off point for Beckworth and Ponnuru article.

To make the claim as the authors do that “The bursting of the housing bubble was the primary cause of a financial crisis” is to confuse cause and effect, to ignore a wealth of other welldocumented factors,and to marry a straw-man argument with an oversimplified explanation for what happened.

Just as the collapse of Lehman Brothers didn’t cause the crisis, neither did the bursting of the housing bubble. Both of these events were the result of many factors in a complex chain. These two events were the result of the crisis, not its main cause.

Instead, the argument Beckworth and Ponnuru make is “that the Fed caused the crisis by tightening monetary policy in 2008.” They also say that the “housing bust started in early 2006, more than two years before the economic crisis.” Both of these assertions are incorrect, for the seeds of the bust were planted long before. What’s

more, the Fed didn’t tighten in 2008; it cut rates seven times.

Housing operates on a lag, and up cycles end with volume declining first, followed by prices a year or so later (our Masters in Business conversation this coming weekend with residential real-estate expert Jonathan Miller discusses this exact issue). Volume peaked in 2005, but prices kept rising, peaking in 2006. It’s as if no one told the housing zombie it was dead, and its own momentum—and buyer psychology —kept on chugging. Volume topped in 2005, followed by prices in 2006, at which time the whole sector started declining.

But if you want to track where the housing bust began, you need to look at the relationship of home prices to other important metrics. My favorite is median home price to income, as it tells you what buyers can actually afford. We can also look at costs of rent versus costs of ownership, or the market value of all of the homes in the country relative to GDP. All of these metrics tell us exactly how realistic prices are, meaning can the buyers actually afford them.

As you can see from the chart below, the ratio of home prices to income began to tick up in the early 2000s. By 2002, it was approaching its 1980s highs. It was a standard deviation away from the norm by 2004, and it reached at two and a half times the norm in 2005.

Housing, as a few of us observed long before the financial crisis bloomed, was a debacle about to happen.

The housing boom drove employment in construction, mortgage brokerage, home furnishings and durable goods. We even had a bull market in real-estate agents. People pulled cash out of their homes at furious rates to fund renovations at first, then bigscreen televisions, automobiles and vacations. The broader way to understand this is that wages were stagnant, inflation was starting to rise and rather than accept a drop in living standards, people used home equity to maintain consumption.

This is more complex, multifaceted and nuanced than the notion that Fed rate increases tanked the economy.

Also note that inflation, which the authors dismiss, was showing unsettling signs of picking up. And there were data points that were positively frightening, particularly in commodities. Oil had risen from $20 a barrel in 2002 to more than $75 in 2006 and was on its way to more than $140; milk was more than $6 a gallon, and beef prices were skyrocketing. The dollar had declined almost 42 percent from 2001 to 2008, making every commodity quoted in dollars pricey.

So it isn’t really appropriate to dismiss the Fed’s concerns about inflation out of hand. This isn’t a minor oversight or omission in Beckworth and Ponnuru’s argument, but a fundamental error.

Other analytical errors also compromise their argument. Was the housing decline caused by the “uncertainty about the value of bonds backed by subprime mortgages” as the authors say? If you believe that, you must ignore the simple fact these mortgages were going into default in record numbers, dragging down the values of those bonds. In many cases, those bonds ended up being worth pennies on the dollar.

The “uncertainty” argument here reflects, as it does in so many other cases, a basic misunderstanding of mathematics. We know the data set of possible outcomes for those bonds—it ranges from zero to full face value, including all of the increments in between. That isn’t properly defined as “uncertainty”; it is merely an unknown. There is a huge difference between the two.

Another analytical error can be found in the sentence: “According to Gary Gorton, an economist at Yale, roughly

6 percent of banking assets were tied to subprime mortgages in 2007.”

This is analogous to an oncologist telling a patient that a malignant tumor is less than 6 percent of body mass.

The defaulting subprime securities were indeed malignant, and they metastasized throughout the financial system. The subprime cancer almost killed Bear Stearns before it was bailed out and it bankrupted Lehman Brothers. The financial disease quickly spread to American International Group, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Countrywide, Bank of America, Wachovia, Washington Mutual and Morgan Stanley. The only major banks that escaped relatively unscathed were Wells Fargo (which acquired Wachovia) and JPMorgan Chase (which acquired Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual).

The Fed—among many other players in this sordid affair—bears some responsibility for the crisis. But its biggest error, aside from refusing to rein in reckless mortgage lenders, was something different than what Beckworth and Ponnuru describe. Its error was taking rates too low and leaving them there for too long in the early and mid-2000s. Combatting inflation is half of the Fed’s dual mandate (the other is maximizing employment).

To blame the central bank for raising rates to ward-off inflation is to fundamentally misunderstand the Fed’s role, the importance of price stability and the basic rules of causation-todata theory.

As long as pundits persist in explaining the financial crisis through the lens of ideology, the harder it will be to implement the measures needed to prevent the next one.

IOC set to honor refugees in Rio

A

THENS, Greece—A group of refugee athletes will march together in the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in a symbol of hope for the world’s migrants, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said on Thursday.

On a three-day visit to Greece, Bach also said a refugee would carry the torch during the Greek leg of the flame relay and that the route would include a stop at an Athens refugee camp. The flame lighting ceremony at Ancient Olympia will take place on April 21.

“We want to turn the attention of the world to the fate and the problems of the 60 million refugees in our world and their suffering,” Bach said.

He visited the refugee camp in Athens, played soccer with a group of young men, and met potential candidates who could compete for the first time as refugee athletes at the Rio Games.

“They have no hope, no flag to march behind and no anthem,” Bach said. “We have invited them to participate, and these athletes will march behind the Olympic flag” at the August 5 opening ceremony.

Bach said he expected between five and 10 refugee athletes to qualify for the Olympics. He said he spoke to two potential Olympic competitors in Athens, who could compete in shooting events and karate.

The IOC has already pledged $2 million to help refugees, and is asking authorities in refugee camps to identify any top-level international athletes.

The IOC said in December that three potential Olympic athletes had been identified so far from among the wave of refugees and migrants.

Greece has been hard hit by the migration crisis that escalated dramatically in 2015 when more than 850,000 traveled in dinghies and mostly unsafe boats from Turkey to the Greek islands. AP

B J P

The Associated Press

M

ELBOURNE, Australia—The “Happy Slam” got off to a somber start when allegations of match-fixing in tennis overshadowed the opening day of play at the Australian Open.

Hours before the tournament started, the

Sports BusinessMirror

A8

| SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana

THE No. 1-ranked team of Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza have captured the Australian Open doubles title, beating the Czech pair of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, 7-6 (1), 6-3, on Friday, to extend their winning streak to 36 matches on the way to a third Grand Slam title together. AP

TROUBLE DOWN UNDER BBC and BuzzFeed reported that 16 players, all ranked in the top 50 at some stage and including at least one Grand Slam champion, had played in matches that had been flagged with tennis authorities because of suspicious betting patterns.

The reports also alleged tennis regulators hadn’t acted against those players, including some who were set to play at the first major tournament of the season.

It triggered news and reaction around the world, prompting the tennis hierarchy to stage an urgent news conference to refute the allegations.

Suspicion of corruption in parts of the broader game lingers, but the focus at the Australian Open has returned to the tennis court as the tournament comes to a close.

“The match-fixing claims have created headlines, true, but we as an organization have

been pleased with how the entire sport has responded,” Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley told the Associated Press. “It has been decisive and united.”

Being the start of the season and in Australia, the tournament usually has a laid-back vibe, and some players have dubbed it the “Happy Slam” for the atmosphere and hospitality.

Tiley said crowd numbers and viewership showed the tournament hadn’t been overshadowed by the match-fixing reports.

“The best answer I can give to that is through the numbers,” Tiley said. “We are on track for a record crowd and our other exposure numbers across multiple platforms are also very strong.”

Leading tennis officials have said there was no new evidence in the reports published on day one of the Australian

Open. Top players, including Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, all responded to questions about the topic after their opening matches.

All said there was no problem at the top level, but agreed the sport needed to react swiftly if it was a serious issue.

Just as the first wave of allegations was receding, a second wave crashed into the second week when a New York Times report cast doubt over a mixed doubles match at the tournament.

“It has been hard on the Australian Open, no question about it,” Association of Tennis Professionals Chairman Chris Kermode noted this week as he announced the independent review of the operations of the sport’s Tennis Integrity Unit. “We need to address the perception, public confidence. We don’t have

anything to hide at all.”

Tennis Integrity Board and Wimbledon Chairman Philip Brook said while he didn’t think there was any new evidence of corruption, he acknowledged the reports had “changed the environment.”

Federer, who lost to Djokovic on Thursday in the semifinals, said after his opening-round victory that if any new claims of match-fixing were true, it would be “super serious.” But he said he’d heard “old names being dropped.”

“It’s like who? What? It’s like thrown around, it’s so easy to do that. I would love to hear names.

Then at least it’s concrete stuff,” Federer said last week. “Was it a player? Was it support team?

Who was it? Was it before? Was it a doubles player, was it singles player? Which slam? It’s so all over the place. It’s nonsense to answer something that is pure speculation.”

PATIENCE, DETERMINATION, HEART PUSH LADY BLAZERS TO NCAA TITLE B L A

C

OLLEGE of Saint Benilde wielded its version of patience at its highest form in completing a Cinderella finish and into the record books of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) volleyball.

The Lady Blazers took it one game at a time, working their way up as the bottom-seeded team in the stepladder semifinals before dismantling San Sebastian College’s erstwhile cloak of invincibility in four matches in the championship round.

“Falling to No. 4 [semifinals] helped us because my girls learned from it, and they became stronger every game.

In the finals, they wee at their best,” Lady Blazers Head Coach Macky Carino said. “We did it one game at a time.”

Saint Benilde and San Sebastian engaged in an epic showdown for the women’s volleyball crown. The Lady Stags swept the eliminations and were privileged to win twice to regain the crown. The Lady Blazers, on the other hand, had to beat the Recto-based team

THE women’s volleyball championship is now etched not only in College of Saint Benilde’s history.

NONOY LACZA

thrice to win. They did.

On Thursday, before a rabid crowd at The Arena in San Juan, Saint Benilde clinched its first NCAA volleyball crown, 22, 25-23, 22-25, 25-22, a hard-earned championshipclincher that capped a series that was played tight from end to end.

“Our main motivation was to beat all the teams that defeated us during the eliminations,” Carino said.

Beat their tormentors the Lady Blazers—

Overseas training for triathletes

T

HE Triathlon Association of the Philippines (TRAP) sent two sets of athletes for high-performance training in Thailand and Portugal, through the full support of the Philippine Sports Commission and endorsement of the Philippine Olympic Committee.

Currently attending Asian Triathlon Confederation (ASTC) Talent Identification Camp in Rayong, Thailand, under Coach Peter Clifford are Batang Pinoy triathlon and duathlon champions Brent Valelo (2015), Yuan Chionbian (2014) and Una Sibayan (2015). Accompanying the athletes is Coach Kevin Eijansantos, Nicole’s elder brother.

“The Rayong Camp’s objective is to pinpoint athletes from developing countries who have real potential so that Asia can be more competitive in world triathlon,”TRAP President Tom Carrasco said.

The other group training at the Desmor HP Camp in Rio Maior, Portugal, under Coach Sergio Santos are 23rd Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Nikko Huelgas, women’s silver medalist Kim Mangrobang and coach Edward Macalalad.

“We like the progress of the athletes who have gone to Desmor and we want this to continue until 2020 in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics,” Carrasco said. “On the short term, we would like to achieve a top 5 finish at the Asian Triathlon Championships in Japan in April.”

who went 6-3 won-lost in the eliminations— did. Those three losses came at the hands of University of Perpetual Help, dethroned champion Arellano University and San Sebastian. One by one they fell to the inspired Lady Blazers.

In the finals, the Lady Stags looked prime to dance their way to the championship. But they faced a team that had the bigger heart and hungrier for the crown. San Sebastian could only halt Saint Benilde’s run in the third game, 25-22, 25-19, 26-28, 25-23.

“We did not expect to become the champions. I’m just really happy for my girls that they made their promise to bring the first championship [indoor volleyball] for the school. This means so much to us,” Carino said.

NBA RESULTS Indiana 111, Atlanta 92 Denver 117, Washington 113 New Orleans 114, Sacramento 105 Memphis 103, Milwaukee 83 Toronto 103, New York 93 Chicago 114, LA Lakers 91