BusinessMirror December 25, 2015

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A broader look at today’s business Thursday 18, 2014 Vol. No. 40 Friday, December 25,102015 Vol. 11 No. 78

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Sweetened drinks to duck excise tax T

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

he proposal to impose a P10 excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages also appears headed for the trash bin in the current Congress due to lack of time, just like other key reform measures.

INSIDE

The MMFF: This business and madness of filmfests

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Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said on Thursday the chances of the bill hurdling the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 16th Congress are getting dimmer.

“Pag-uusapan namin ng Senate [We

will discuss it with the Senate]. Kung ’di nila kaya [if they can’t do it], we won’t push it due to limited time available,” Belmonte said in a text message.

House Bill 3365, which seeks to add a P10 levy to sugar-sweetened

beverages, is currently awaiting plenary deliberations. Under the law, all tax-related bills must be passed first by the lower chamber before they can be approved by the Senate.

Congress went on a Christmas break on December 19, and is scheduled to resume session on January 18, 2016. The third and last regular session of the 16th Congress is expected to be cut short, as the two chambers will take a break again on February 6, 2016, for the national and local elections in May. Also considered as “dead” measures are Resolution of Both Houses 1, or the Economic Charter Change; Rationalization of Fiscal Incentives, Incomes and See “Excise tax,” A2

Suzuki Celerio GL 1.0L MT: thrifty treat

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AMERICANS FIND MORE REASONS TO SPEND BIG

Shoppers walk in front of a holiday display in San Francisco. A lack of must-have items, big discounts on winter clothes and pricey toys are defining this year’s holiday season. AP

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onfidence ended the year on a brighter note, as low prices put US consumers in the holiday spirit.

The University of Michigan said on Wednesday that its final sentiment index for the month climbed to 92.6, the highest since July, from 91.3 in November. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a reading of 92, after December’s preliminary figure of 91.8.

Cheap gasoline prices and a labor market that’s added millions of Americans to payrolls have buttressed sentiment this year, while demand picked up enough to help convince the Federal Reserve that the economy could withstand higher interest rates. The conversion of job growth into bigger wage gains will be needed in the months ahead to further boost confidence and spending, which accounts for almost 70 percent of the economy.

“The latest gain was largely due to lower inflation, which bolstered real incomes and brightened buying plans for household durables,” Richard Curtin, director of the Michigan survey, said in a statement.

“Given the continued weakness in the global economy and the strong dollar, consumers can be expected to become even more demanding of price discounts in the year ahead.”

Estimates for the Michigan survey in the Bloomberg survey of 56 economists ranged from 90 to 93.4. Wednesday’s consumer-sentiment figure almost reached the 92.9 average for this year, which is the highest since 2004.

Current conditions

motoring

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P-NOY visitsNonavictimsPresident Aquino arrives at Morente Elementary School in Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro, to inspect and lead the distribution of relief goods to the victims of Typhoon Nona (international code name Melor) after visiting Catarman, Northern Samar. Also in photo is Oriental Mindoro Gov. Alfonso Umali Jr. (third from left). A total of 17,209 families, or 67,508 persons, were displaced by the typhoon. Robert Viñas/Exequiel Supera/Malacañang Photo Bureau

The sentiment survey’s current conditions index, which measures Americans’ assessment of their personal finances, rose to 108.1 in December, the highest since June, from 104.3 last month. The measure of expectations six months from now decreased to 82.7 from 82.9.

Americans anticipated an inflation rate of 2.6 percent in the next year, down from 2.7 percent in November. They expect prices also to rise 2.6 percent over the next five to 10 years, the same as the previous month.

Continued on A2

MRT Line 3 commuters to see ‘improved service’ by Q1 2016

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

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OMMUTERS riding the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 will experience “significantly improved service level” starting in the first quarter of 2016, after the transportation department awarded on Thursday the contract to rehabilitate and maintain the line to a Filipino-South

Korean joint venture (JV).

The P3.81-billion contract—bagged by the JV of Busan Transportation Corp., Edison Development Construction, Tramat Mercantile Inc., TMI Corp. Inc. and Castan Corp. through a negotiated scheme—covers the general maintenance requirements of the train line for three years. It also requires the concessionaire to refurbish the

PESO exchange rates n US 47.2980

16-year-old trains of the railway line.

“The long contract period will allow the new service provider to procure the necessary spare parts needed to increase the number of operating trains, especially during peak hours,” the transport department said in a statement on Thursday.

The transport agency resorted to the negotiated scheme after two failed auctions

last year. To recall, the agency launched the bidding for the contract in early September last year, but no private company wanted to take the risk of maintaining a system so degraded, it has been tagged by railway experts as a “danger” to the riding public.

In the hopes that companies would be enticed to vie for the much-needed project, the department decided to sweeten the

terms of the deal. But, despite the relaxing of rules and the improvement in cost, railwayupkeep services companies still decided to evade a “potential risk”.

The risk, industry observers said, is obvious: The train system itself is already dilapidated. Hence, “maintaining” it, in the literal sense, would mean risking the lives Continued on A2

n japan 0.3907 n UK 70.1193 n HK 6.1013 n CHINA 7.3004 n singapore 33.6809 n australia 34.2293 n EU 51.8055 n SAUDI arabia 12.6087

Source: BSP (23 December 2015)

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News

BusinessMirror

Friday, December 25, 2015

No more target downgrade for 2015 electronics export

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By Catherine N. Pillas

he semiconductor and electronics industry, the Philippines’s largest export sector, is sticking to its prediction of a flattish growth in shipments at the close of 2015, as sluggish global demand continues to dampen growth prospects.

“We maintain a 0-percent to 4-percent growth range in 2015,” Dan Lachica, president of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc., said in a text message.

The original forecast for 2015 was a growth of 5 percent to 7 percent, which was downgraded subsequently to 3 percent to 5 percent, and later to 0 percent to 4 percent.

The diminished expectations,

Lachica earlier said, was due to the slowdown of the global economy, with China as the main culprit.

China is offsetting the growth in other top export markets, specifically the US, Canada and the European Union. China has a 16.3-percent share in the Philippines’s overall merchandise exports, making it the country’s third-largest export market.

Last year the electronics sector ended 2014 with an 11-percent growth, with shipments bagging total receipts of $ 24.2 billion, beyond its initial target of 8 percent to 10 percent.

The electronics industry takes up 52.1 percent of total export revenues, according to the Philippine

Statistics Authority (PSA) data in October.

Lachica deferred to make predictions for 2016, but said targets will be announced in January.

Even with the downgraded prospects, the electronics industry has been the saving grace of the country’s export sector this year. From January to October, total merchandise export receipts only posted a growth in March. In the first 10 months of the year, the value of outbound goods was at $48.7 billion, down 6.2 percent from the same period last year.

The most significant drop was recorded in September, when export receipts plunged by 15.5 percent, according to the PSA.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Excise tax. . .

Continued from A1

Corporate Tax-Rates Reduction; Freedom of Information; and AntiDynasty. Before the measure seeking to adjust the levels of taxable income was junked by the Palace, the leadership of the 16th Congress is pushing the imposition of excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages to offset revenues that will be lost from adjusting income taxes.

But lawmakers maintained that the bill is a health measure more than anything else.

The chairman of House Committee on Ways and Means, Liberal Party Rep. Romero Quimbo of Marikina, has said the excise tax of P10 on sugar-sweetened beverages per liter of volume capacity is aimed at primarily developing a healthier population. It will also provide additional revenues of about P34.5 billion for the government.

Earlier, the Department of Health (DOH) has also backed the excise-tax proposal, saying that the reduction in the consumption of sweet products would lessen the diabetes cases and other related

diseases in the country.

The DOH said about 44 Filipinos die of diabetes every day, and this may be attributed to the high consumption of sweet drinks, such as soft drinks.

Opposition

However, in their letter to the House of Representatives, sugar-industry leaders said that, while there remains no local findings pointing to sugar as the cause of diabetes and obesity among Filipinos, proponents of the measure should instead determine the link between rice to the health issues they raised against sugar.

The industry leaders also aired fears that the new tax will trigger an increase in prices of soft drinks and carbonated drinks, and will result in the “contraction of the market of refined sugar” and could result in the reduction of purchases of refined sugar. They said that sugar planters will be placed in an adverse position of absorbing the tax.

MRT Line 3 commuters to see ‘improved service’ by Q1 2016. . . of daily commuters coming from the northern and southern corridors of Metro Manila.

Currently, several different companies are maintaining the line, each focusing on a specific disciplines.

The subcontractors were engaged directly under a multi-disciplinary approach to increase the efficiency of work per component until the long-term maintenance provider is procured.

Under the multidiscipline approach, the management of the MRT 3 has been able to increase the number of operating coaches during peak hours to 45 as of the beginning of August. But once the new maintenance provider comes in on January 5, it will start managing all of the maintenance components of the MRT. Today, the rail line’s average daily ridership is already over 560,000, and its highest single-day passenger

count is 620,000.

The government aims to augment the capacity of the railway system by adding new train cars. The prototype for the new coaches arrived last month, but delivery of the actual cars is scheduled for next year.

Once the 48 new train cars come in, MRT 3’s trips per hour will increase from 20 to 24, which will translate to a 60-percent rise in the number of passengers per hour per direction.

This means that there will be 37,824 passengers who can avail themselves of the rail service every hour heading toward one direction.

Currently, only about 23,640 people ride an MRT service per way every hour. But that number still depends on how many trains are running that day.

The second new light rail vehicle for the MRT 3 arrived late Wednesday at the Manila International Container Terminal. “After it is

processed by the Bureau of Customs and transported to the MRT 3 depot, tests on the different components will be conducted until February. These include testing the German-made traction motors from Voith and brake systems from Knorr-Bremse, and the overall performance of the vehicle to ensure that it is safe, reliable and at par with international standards,” the statement read.

Two more train cars are expected to be delivered over the next two months.

“MRT 3 passengers can expect one new running train by the end of the first quarter of 2016. Delivery of the light rail vehicles will be at four per month by March, and is scheduled to be completed with the 48th unit in January 2017,” it added.

Aside from adding new coaches to the current MRT fleet, the government is also rolling out P9.7 billion worth

of projects to improve the train line.

The state also wants to buy out the corporate owner of the line.

But several private groups are proposing a different scheme to modernize the train system, which has been under fire for years now for its mediocre services.

The group of businessman Robert John L. Sobrepeña is proposing to do a “quick-fix” solution to make the train system safe for public transport.

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

Under the proposal, a single point

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

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

The group of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan, which earlier entered into a partnership agreement with the corporate owner of the MRT, intends to spend $524 million to overhaul the line.

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

Continued from A1

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

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

The P4.64-billion proposal, submitted in February with Filipino partner Comm Builders and Technology Phils. Corp., calls for the complete overhaul of the 73-light rail vehicles of the MRT, the replacement of the rails, the upgrading of the line’s ancillary system, the upgrade of the track circuit and signaling systems, the modernization of the conveyance system, and a three-year maintenance contract.

Americans find more reasons to spend big Continued from A1

The reading for the projected longterm increase is the second-lowest in data going back to 1979.

There have been only three surveys in the past half century in which more consumers mentioned the availability of price discounts for durable goods, such as autos and appliances, according to the report.

Consumers were more inclined to purchase these items than at any point in the past decade.

Expectations for income gains adjusted for inflation were the strongest since 2002.

Consumer comfort

Wednesday’s figures mesh with the weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, which showed household attitudes were stabilizing after readings softened in mid-October. Almost one-in-four Americans said in December that the economy is getting better, helping give expectations a boost for a second month.

Lower fuel costs may continue to support households’ finances in the months to come, with the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline reaching $2 on December 21, near a five-year low.

Cheaper gasoline would help Americans’ get more use out of their paychecks, which have shown only nascent gains in income.

Those modest advances may accelerate should the labor market continue to improve. Some 2.3 million people have been added to payrolls this year, while at 5 percent, the unemployment rate is at a more than sevenyear low. Bloomberg News

Now in the Philippines BusinessMirror

Turning Points: Global Agenda 2016 is a year-end package of opinion pieces and features, photos and cartoons covering events and trends in 2015 that will influence 2016 and beyond.

A4 Friday, December 25, 2015 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Mercy Christmas!

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HRISTMAS is the celebration of the nativity or the birth of Jesus Christ, which, to many, provides the pretext for conspicuous consumption, extended celebrations and an orgy of gift-giving.

We have hollowed out the meaning of Christmas so completely that, for most of us, the newborn child has become an afterthought—not so much rejected as ignored.

We can make this Christmas not just different but meaningful.

We can do this if we pause for a minute during our joyful holidays and think of a way—just one solitary way—to thank Jesus for all the blessings we have in life. Indeed, we have heard the phrase “count your blessings” before. But how many of us actually do it? Do we pause to feel grateful when something good happens? If not, then today is the best time to start. And the best way to make this Christmas different is to go back to the “reason” for the “season”—Jesus. So let’s not take Christ out of Christmas.

How about the “meaningful” part of the equation? How do we make this particular celebration of the nativity of Christ more meaningful? Pope Francis has declared an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. Fortunately, this Holy Year of Mercy began on December 8, 2015, the feast of the Immaculate Conception and the 50th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council. It will close on November 20, 2016, the Feast of Christ the King. This year’s motto is “Merciful Like the Father.”

So, there’s the key: We can make this Yuletide season more meaningful by becoming more merciful. There is no virtue like mercy. And part of being merciful is sharing our blessings with the needy. The pope said it was important to help the suffering without disparaging them. And we must be cheerful when we give. That’s the best way to share our blessings.

In declaring the coming year as the Year of Mercy, Francis also reminded Christians to go into the world to share God’s mercy. But we need not go far and wide to do our part. There are people in our own neighborhood who need our help—the homeless, the elderly and the sick, to name a few.

We may not know how to respond in a way that might be helpful when we are overwhelmed by so many things, by countless problems.

But if we all understand that each of us can play an important role to make the world a better place in our own special way, we would soon stop sitting on the fence, waiting for others to do the work slated for us to do. That’s how we can help change the world for the better, one small act of mercy at a time, starting this Christmas.

Let’s resolve to share our blessings with others by being more benevolent. One small act of kindness may mean a sea of difference to its recipient.

A blessed Christmas to one and all.

Next year James Jimenez

spox

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et the people decide.

As rallying slogans go, “let the people decide” is undoubtedly a good one. At the root of this slogan, however, is the belief that candidates, whose certificates of candidacy have been questioned for some infirmity or other, should simply be allowed to run regardless of the possibility that they may, in fact, be disqualified. This is tantamount to an extreme form of democracy, where established rules are ignored so that the people can, by the ballot, effectively amend the rules on the fly.

Apart from putting the cart before the horse, this theory is problematic in that it advocates the creation of a double standard, it introduces instability into our system of rules, and it brings us to the brink of what might turn out to be a dictatorship.

Double standard

The most obvious objection to “let the people decide” is that, adhering to that logic, we would have 130 candidates for president in 2016. When I brought this up, I was breezily told that “let the people decide” would only apply to certain frontrunners in the presidential race. Sadly, I failed to point out that there could be no clearer example of a double standard being created.

Apparently, for the proponents of this slogan, there is nothing objection-

able about treating some candidacies as nuisances and others as sacred. While I have absolutely no doubt that Wi-Fi guy would love for that to happen, I’m afraid the rest of us need to strenuously object.

Instability

Apart from creating an environment where the rules can be selectively applied, “let the people decide” also creates a situation where rules can be changed simply because enough noise can be generated against them.

When we are in the middle of a crowd of people, chanting about wanting change, it is very easy to be swept up by the apparent logic of rules being directly subject to the “will of the people.” Gain a little perspective, however, and you realize first, that the crowd you are a part of might not even constitute a majority of

the people. Any change made in response to the call of your minority, therefore, would be imposed on a vastly greater number of people who might not even agree. If, for some reason, you were not part of the minority agitating for change, wouldn’t you find that oppressive?

This is the reason rule changes have to go through the legislative process or, as the Constitution prescribes, a rulesbased people’s initiative. Unfortunately, ignoring election rules so that we can “let the people decide” does not fall under either of these safeguards.

And second, with perspective, you might begin to wonder about the people standing next to you, waving their placards and pumping their fists in the air.

How informed are they? For that matter, how informed are you?

Given this, consider how a policy of “let the people decide” can very easily be used by any special-interest group to reshape existing rules to suit their needs of the moment. Rules exist to give stability to any system, such that outcomes can be predicted with reasonable certainty. Obey the rules, get the results you want; disobey and you have a problem. “Let the people decide,” on the other hand, says “disobey and if you can get enough people out on the streets, the rules can be changed for you.”

On the brink

WE need that sort of instability like we need a hole in the head, so it is critically important we acknowledge that both the creation of double standards and the fostering of instability in the rules are essentially predicated on the existence

of an individual or a group of individuals for whom the double standards are being created, and who stand to gain the most from being able to short-circuit existing rules. I suppose we could assume that such charisma will always be used for good. Prudence, however, dictates that we shouldn’t. What happens then, when this cavalier attitude to rules installs someone who isn’t Gandhi?

Not a very cheerful thought, is it? My apologies. This is Christmas day, after all. So, let me make amends by sharing a Christmas story with you.

Next year

AN elf was sitting at his workstation on Christmas eve, looking very sad, spinning a little red and green top despondently. Santa comes and sits next to him. “What’s wrong,” the jolly old man asked.

The elf, taken by surprise—it was Christmas eve after all, and shouldn’t the boss be out delivering stuff?—stammers “N-n-nothing, S-s-santa,” and immediately looks away, afraid that his tears would show.

“Hohoho,” Santa softly chuckled, not unkindly. He picked up the red and green top lying suddenly forgotten on the bench.

“Let me guess. You wanted to give this to someone and just now found out they were on the naughty list.” The elf nodded.

“Don’t worry,” Santa said gently, pressing the top into the elf ’s hand and closing his worker’s little fingers over it firmly. “This is a well-made top, so hang on to it. There’s always next year.”

James Arthur B. Jimenez is director of the Commission on Elections’s Education and Information Department.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Black earth

Friday, December 25, 2015 A5

‘Ave Maria’: The perfect prayer, the perfect song (with no apologies to the theologians) Teddy Locsin Jr.

Free fire

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Y the middle of next year we shall have elected a new government of a disintegrating state. The inferior quality of our electoral choices does not augur well for reasons of state.

Heavy language, no? Yes but true. Learn to think heavy because the light stuff is just that, light, thin and shallow.

Some of the candidates are not as bad as the others, but almost all are useless for any useful purpose of state. They are unfit to run a state from the top or even as a cog inside the machinery of state. These wheels have no teeth, meaning no talent or desire to serve a state with any degree of relevant competence or plain integrity. Unable to get a grip on each other, they cannot turn the wheels of justice or provide those near universal social services that mark a true state, like the German Iron Chancellor Bismarck created (he invented welfare, including free and compulsory education), along with the best army in the world.

The last—armed forces—is the key component of a state. The last years of this administration has seen the most dogged persistence applied, and greatest ingenuity summoned in breaking up the state and giving a portion of it to a surrogate of Malaysia, a country we can defeat with one hand tied behind us.

I point this out because we Filipinos need a state. Otherwise, we shall be powerless against the enemies of our race, which is to say anyone who knows they can take us on separately, because we are not organized as a real state to fight them together.

Our last real leader was Fidel V. Ramos, who was up for any challenge of state. I say all this because Tom Snyder has written a book called Black Earth. It explains that the extermination of the Jews, along with other inferior races in German eyes, was facilitated by the prior destruction of the states that had protected

them before their countries were conquered by Germany. In these countries, where some vestige of state remained, the extermination was much less than in countries where the state had completely disintegrated. Thus, Hungary, itself a facist state, could offer some protection to the Jews, who were regarded with equal parts disdain and respect for their cultural and economic contributions to Hungary.

The first serious Filipino attempt at a state organization failed when the first independent Filipino government served as the puppet of the Japanese state. What saved us from extinction at the hands of the racist and genocidal Japanese—old men of that time tell me—was the absence of significant resistance by Filipinos.

I remember the old man Albano telling me that it took just one small contingent of Japanese soldiers to keep a tight grip on all of Northern Luzon.

Weakness was our salvation. We could be spared to be docile slaves. But now we are faced by threats to our existence as a nation from overpopulated powers that see our country only as potential empty space. And they will have a local law to justify our extermination: the reproductive-health (RH) law, which is premised on the assumption that those who cannot contribute to the Philippine economy are, technically, not human. A good example is autistic children and, yet, parents of autistic children were rabidly for the RH law.

I do not know what can be done to finally get us a real state, except perhaps to pray or emigrate.

Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

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hrist or His birth has always been the central theme of Christmas. Christ’s name prefixes the term of the celebration.

Mary is almost not a principal image of the Yuletide season

There is a prayer that marks Mary as a major character in the epic story of redemption. It is a fascinating, strange and mysterious tale of a young woman who accepts the message from a nonhuman. The myths of the world are replete with accounts of divine beings sent by the gods to relay orders or seal contracts with human beings with conditions or effects beyond the imagination of mortals. With Zeus Niobe was turned into stone. In the affair with Danae, the great Greek god became a golden shower. Except for the fact of being an archangel, Gabriel arrived without tricks and special effects.

It was not the form of the message that was enthralling but the message, and the message of Gabriel was one that shook the earth and changed the course of human history.

A 15th-century painting by Fra Angelico depicts the Annunciation.

Mary is shown seated on a low wide stool, her dress draped magnificently around her feet. Her face though in repose looks a bit sad and curious. Gabriel is in front of Mary. The archangel’s knee is bent because he has placed his other leg on an elevation. Gabriel, thus, looks like he is about to kneel. His eyes are on level with the gaze of Mary. Both of them have their arms positioned the same way; one hand over the other and held close to the breast. Was it at this point when the messenger uttered the word “Hail,” with the “Hail” in the greetings not uttered as a loud salute but more as a whisper, an entreaty, a kind of “excuse me,

Lady but...” If so, this must be the reason the face of Mary is oriented away from the front, from the public space, timid to accept what turned out to be the most difficult task given a woman, as if sublimating what she has heard. There is no fear at all on the face of Mary during the Annunciation, the beginning of the Christmas story. We see a woman deep in thought.

What did Mary say to the acclamation that she is the most blessed of women? Could anyone take that label seriously?

Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

The divine has ceased at this point because the women are now talking.

It is said that something inside Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, leapt or moved.

The wombs have spoken and the men are not part of this discourse.

A woman has uttered how Mary has become the blessed of them all. The announcement is not threatening because a kinswoman has said so.

As our prayers are sung, I turn back to two musical versions of Ave Maria that further reinterpret the prayer: one is by Schubert and the other by Bach/Gounod. The latter, as with many prayers, end with Amen.

Through the veil of ancient languages, the word has come to mean “so be it.” In the former, the Schubert Ave Maria, I find the wellspring of the efficacy of prayers—the repetition of wishes, the humbling of oneself.

Schubert has “ora pro nobis,” the request that the Mother of God prays for us, sung three times.

To the Mother of God, we also ask in Schubert version, that she not only pray for us sinners but that she may not forget us when we are in our hour of death. This is, by far, the most imperative part of the prayer, that we turn to the Mother to take care of us when we draw our last breath. Children bury their parents or, if we want to articulate the metaphors, sons bury their mothers.

In our plea that someone be there when we die, we look to Mary. The mother nurtures us from birth to grave. I can almost hear Samuel Beckett’s Pozzo groan about how “They give birth astride of a grave.” Only mothers who have suffered to give birth to us have the might to see us through when we leave the life that has been given us. In the place of our mothers, the Mother of them all, the young woman who received a visitor declaring her to be the Mother of

God when the world was pining but in doubt, would also see that Son suffer and die. It is in that turn of face that Mary, not yet Christ, shows us the meaning of Christmas from the view of humankind Schubert ends his song not with “Amen” but, to our fortune, with the most sublime of interruptions, “Ave Maria.” We call Mary again. We stop her once more. We visit Mary again and, whatever imperfect and human tasks she was doing at the time of Gabriel’s visit, she must have stopped. We hold fast to that silence in Mary’s little world then which became the silence of the universe, as well. She is the only woman who can save us from eternal damnation, from death that is the most imperfect of pauses into something that is without end.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

The tax that can make China’s cities safer The science behind a chocolate funk Adam Minter

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BLOOMBERG VIEW

he mountain of mud and construction debris that collapsed in Shenzhen, China, over the weekend started piling up years ago. But despite complaints and warnings from residents in the area, nobody—neither the city, nor the company responsible for managing the site, nor the contractors who dumped debris there —stopped or diverted the waste to somewhere safer. Fast-growing Shenzhen, a gleaming metropolis of more than 10 million people, was too busy growing to worry about an impending disaster that’s left dozens of people missing or dead.

The Shenzhen landslide is only the latest in a long line of man-made tragedies that have struck Chinese cities in recent years, including an explosion at a hazardous materials warehouse in Tianjin in August and fatal floods that overwhelmed new sewer infrastructure in Beijing in 2012, not to mention a national air-pollution epidemic that shows no sign of abating. Each of these disasters is unique in its own way. But, collectively, they and other incidents highlight a long-term failure on the part of the Chinese government to plan and build cities that are safe for their residents. Instead, the emphasis has been on growing as much and as fast as possible.

Top officials aren’t blind to the problem. On Sunday, the day of the Shenzhen disaster, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders were gathered for what state media billed as China’s first high-level urban-planning conference since 1978. What the country really needs, though, aren’t better rules or more extensive blueprints. First and foremost, leaders need to change the perverse incentives that drive rampant overdevelopment.

Of these, the most critical is that China’s local governments have almost

no authority to levy taxes. As a result, they depend upon the sale of land for as much as 35 percent of their operating revenues. For Chinese officials, who are promoted or demoted in part on the basis of just how much growth they’ve managed to gin up, this creates an irresistible urge to seize and develop land. Meanwhile, developers—fueled by cheap government loans—are more than happy to keep building. China’s estimated 50 million empty apartments are just one obvious consequence of this breakneck development.

Another is the rash of disasters, like the one that occurred in Shenzhen. If city officials were more concerned with “livability” than generating revenue, government and private industry might have figured out some safer and more productive destination for all that dirt.

(Only 5 percent of China’s construction debris is recycled, for instance, compared to over 95 percent in many industrialized countries.) One way to have an immediate impact would be to give local governments the right to raise new revenues, starting with a property tax.

China already taxes property transactions. But a recurrent property tax would accomplish goals that a one-time

levy simply can’t. First, speculators who currently face no carrying costs for leaving apartments and whole buildings empty would have much more incentive to rent them out. That, in turn, should help dissuade them from overbuilding.

Second, being able to count on steady, long-term revenues would help wean local governments off their dependence on land sales. According to a March study by the International Monetary Fund, a well-designed tax could more than make up for the revenues from such transactions.

Third, a property tax would ensure that property owners have a direct stake in the infrastructure and other development projects being built in their neighborhoods and cities. Presumably, those stakeholders would be more vocal and forceful in opposing unsafe projects.

A tax won’t solve all of the problems that plague China’s urban planning, of course. Even when the government has good rules on the books, developers and officials collude to evade them. Xi’s government has made some progress in combating corruption, but not nearly enough to prevent such practices. The Shenzhen landslide, for example, appears to have been caused by some combination of incompetence, lack of enforcement and—in all likelihood— the kinds of low-level corruption that pervade Chinese urban life. Fixing these problems will require further attacks on corruption, better enforcement of regulations and professionalization across China’s bureaucracy.

Still, as the toll from China’s urban disasters accumulates, it’s past time to reassess the price of building unlivable cities. In recent years China has attempted two property-tax pilot projects. Efforts to expand them nationally have been repeatedly delayed for fear that they might sap a weakening economy. After Shenzhen, China should reconsider the cost of not implementing them.

By Faye Flam | Bloomberg View

I

t’s been a horrible week for Mast Brothers Chocolate, and therein lies a scientific mystery.

Just days ago, serious foodies were buying the stuff for $10 a bar. Then, a series of posts on a blog called Dallasfood.org suggested the chocolate was not as authentic as the Brooklyn-based company claimed, and suddenly the food press was calling the product “crappy,” “bitter” and “chalky.” One scathing review in the Guardian suggested that one of the bars carried “that sweaty gym sock sourness” associated with funky cheese.

If the chocolate really tastes that terrible, why is it only obvious now?

Start with the science of taste.

Thanks to genetic differences, you and your friends don’t taste the same thing when you eat the same food. That’s especially true of foods such as broccoli and kale, which contain compounds some people can’t taste at all and others find unbearably bitter.

Beyond that, the experience of food is powerfully shaped by the sense of smell. And the human sense of smell is notoriously unreliable and quirky because it’s in the process of evolutionary degeneration.

In the 1990s scientists discovered that humans have 1,000 olfactory genes—each one coding for a different smell receptor.

Molecules wafting through the air trigger millions of possible combinations of these receptors, just as millions of songs could be played on a 1,000-note keyboard.

However, about half the receptors don’t work because the genes

have mutated to the point of dysfunction. We don’t rely on scent the same way our mammalian ancestors did—or as much as mice, dogs and many other mammals still do. What makes our situation so interesting is that in each of us, a different half of the receptors are broken. So we each live alone in a unique odor universe.

Not that there’s no common experience, especially when survival is at stake. Humans still rely on scent to signal that it’s not a good idea to eat, say, rotting fish.

Since there’s redundancy built into the system, bad fish stinks to most people, but it stinks differently.

Which takes us back to Mast Chocolate. The vagaries of human taste and smell can explain why it’s not for everyone, but not how the consensus went suddenly from gourmet treat to sweaty gym socks.

To investigate, I contacted the world’s most famous institution devoted to the science of smell and taste: the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.

It sent me to a psychology professor who had recently been a visiting scientist there—Debra Zellner, of Montclair State University.

She said she was not surprised by the way people could turn against the taste of something as complex as chocolate.

Scientists have done numerous experiments, she said, to show that expectations can change the experience of eating and drinking. She cited a sneaky one conducted by a group of researchers at Cornell University, who offered restaurant diners a free glass of wine. The wine was all the same, but some people were told it was made in California,

others that it was made in a winery in North Dakota.

The people who thought it was a California wine reported that it was delicious. Those who thought it came from North Dakota not only disliked the wine, they reported not liking the meal as much as the people who got the “California” vintage.

In another telling example, chefs from a fancy restaurant concocted a frozen dish involving salmon. One group of experimental subjects was told it was smoked salmon ice cream and another group that it was frozen salmon mousse. People enjoyed the salmon mousse. Not the ice cream. In scientific lingo, they had a different “hedonic response.”

In one of Zellner’s experiments, she asked people to sniff different samples of cheese.

Those who were told it was cheese thought it smelled okay.

Others, told they were sniffing various body odors, perceived them as stinky.

According to recent news reports, the Mast Brothers are defending the authenticity of their product and denying accusations that they cut corners on what chocolate makers refer to as a “bean-to-bar” process.

What might be a lot more damaging are the subjective accusations about the taste. Journalists describing the chocolate mostly reported their personal opinions as fact. If they conducted taste tests, they didn’t appear to do them blind.

That wouldn’t be fair, but that hardly matters to readers. Once someone plants the association between a brand of chocolate and sweaty gym socks, it’s hard to enjoy it the same way again.

News

BusinessMirror

A6 Friday, December 25, 2015

news@businessmirror.com.ph

₧6.3B allotted next year for reforestation project

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

HE government will spend next year around P6.3 billion for the National Greening Program (NGP), the Aquino administration’s flagship reforestation program.

Of the total, P3.84 billion will be spent for site maintenance and protection of previous year’s planting activities and site preparation and mobilization. Around P2.48 billion are to be spent for seedling production and planting activities in new areas.

Of the P6.3 billion, P159 million was set aside for local government

units (LGUs) deemed to have passed the requirements of “good financial housekeeping,” documents from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said.

Next year’s NGP budget is lower by more than P800 million from its P7.2-billion budget for 2015.

The DENR has originally pro-

posed a P10.19-billion budget next year, but some of the budget was realigned for other programs, including solid-waste management and Manila Bay rehabilitation.

With the huge budget cut, NGPimplementing agencies, mainly the DENR, may have to reevaluate its goals and revisit strategies to achieve its target.

The NGP’s target next year is to reforest the remaining 300,000 hectares of the 1.5 million hectares reforestation target from 2010 to 2016.

Of the NGP’s over-all target of 1.5 million hectares, around 1.29 million hectares have, so far, been successfully planted with around 794 million assorted native, industrial, and fruit-bearing trees, according to the DENR’s Forest Management Bureau.

According to the DENR, the

previous year’s accomplishments exceeding the annual targets leave the government just around 2.1 million hectares for it to hit the NGP’s overall target.

The DENR has been allocated a budget of P80 million next year for the implementation of Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. The same amount has been allocated for the rehabilitation of Manila Bay. It is the first time that budgets have been allocated for solidwaste management and the rehabilitation of Manila Bay. The DENR will also receive P30 million from the Integrated Protected Areas Fund (Ipaf). Seventy-five percent of the Ipaf, the total revenues generated by various Protected Areas

Manila City put on ‘high alert’ T

HE Manila City government has placed on high alert all 896 barangays to prepare for an outbreak of fire and related incidents during the holidays.

Manila Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) Chief Johnny Yu said the move seeks to “ensure zero incidence of fire and fireworksrelated injuries” during the Christmas and New Year revelries.

According to Yu, more frequent fire cases occur on the dates of December 24, 25, 30, 31 and January 1. He added that an average of four to five fire incidents have been recorded in the whole of Metro Manila during Christmas Day and New Year’s celebrations in the past.

Yu said they expect one to two cases of fire daily in Manila during these days when fire incidents go on a spike.

He said there were 29 fire incidents recorded in the city in December last year. But for the first three weeks of this month,

the Manila Fire Bureau has already reported a total 36 fire incidents, 13 of which reached high-level alarm status.

They also counted 11 injuries and two fatalities.

Based on reports, fire incidents in the country were usually caused by overloaded power supply, faulty electrical connections and unattended candles or kerosene lamps.

Likewise, the Manila City government and the Department of Health also launched an information campaign to discourage people from using pyrotechnics in their merry-making, especially during the countdown ushering in the New Year.

City officials and law enforcers were ordered to ensure that proper implementation of the ordinances prohibiting illegal firecrackers are strictly followed in the City.

Last year a total 228 firecracker injuries recorded in Manila alone where of the victims, aged 5 to 14, came from Tondo. Joel R. San Juan

P

lowest increases in 2015.

Data showed that retail food prices peaked in February with the GRPI of the food index reaching 6.2 percent. The GRPI was at its lowest at 2 percent in August 2015. “[On a monthly basis, the] food index moved up by 0.6 percent due to higher prices in fish, vegetables, fruits and sugar,” the PSA said.

The PSA also said the GRPI was flat due to slower growths in other indices apart from food.

The GRPI of beverages and tobacco posted slower growth at 3.5 percent with that of chemicals, including animal and vegetable oils and fats at 0.7 percent. The GRPI of miscellaneous manufactured

est land, only around 6.8 million hectares are actually covered with trees, based on the 2010 Philippine Forestry Statistics report.

Launched in the last quarter of 2010, the NGP has increased the country’s forest cover to 8 million hectares, according to Environment Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje.

Because of the success of the program, President Aquino signed Executive Order 93, expanding the coverage of the NGP to cover the remaining 7.1 million hectares of open, degraded and denuded forest through massive tree-planting, consistent with the revised forestry master plan 2015-2028, which carries a hefty sum of P123 billion, to further increase the country’s forest cover by 3 million hectares in the next 13 years.

DOJ endorses bill mandating installation of monitoring devices in public transport

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People from different walks of life populate this market place in Quiapo, Manila, on the eve of Christmas Day. The Manila City government has placed on high alert all 896 barangays to prepare for an outbreak of fire and related incidents during the holidays. Nonie Reyes

October retail prices flat, govt data bares RICES of most retail goods in Metro Manila remained flat in October, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

PSA data showed that the General Retail Price Index (GRPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) went up 0.5 percent in October 2015. This resulted in a year-todate growth of 1.2 percent in 2015.

The GRPI also posted a 0.4-percent gain last month. In October 2014, the GRPI posted a growth of 2.8 percent.

PSA data showed the heavily weighted food index recorded a year-on-year growth of 2.6 percent, which is still considered one of the

under the National Integrated Protected Areas System, now becomes part of the revolving fund of the concerned PAs by virtue of the Ipaf automatic retention law.

The DENR, the lead implementing agency of the NGP, was granted a total budget of 24.8 billion to finance its operation next year, up

by P1.5 billion compared to the current year’s P23.3-billion budget.

The DENR’s budget for the decades remain below 1 percent of national budget.

The Philippines is one of 17 megadiverse countries in the world but is also in the list of the 34 hottest biodiversity hot spots because of the rapid rate of biodiversity loss as a result of massive habitat destruction.

Of the country’s 15 million hectares of land classified as for-

articles was at 1.1 percent.

Moreover, negative annual rates were noted in the indices of crude materials, inedible, except fuels at -2.8 percent and mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials, -16.8 percent.

Other indices also posted negative GRPI growths such as manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials, -0.4 percent and machinery and transport equipment, -0.6 percent.

The PSA explained that the GRPI is a statistical measure of the changes in the prices at which retailers dispose of their goods to consumers or end-users relative to a base year. Cai U. Ordinario

HE Department of Justice (DOJ) has endorsed the passage of proposed bills that mandate the installation of monitoring devices in all public-utility vehicles (PUVs) to deter crimes and ensure the safety of passengers.

A two-page legal opinion signed

by DOJ Undersecretary Zabedin Asis said it has no objection on the draft substitute bill of House Bills 1992, 3704, 3755 and 5228, introduced

by Reps. Arnulfo Go, Eric Olivarez, Mariano Velarde and Winston Castell titled “An Act Mandating the Installation of Monitoring Devices in PUVs, Providing Penalties Thereof.”

The bills require PUVs to have a closed-circuit television (CCTV) and globa l positioning system (GPS) tracker to ensure the safety of its passengers.

The proposed bills also mandate PUVs operating prior to the effectivity of this act to have CCTV and GPS installed as a requirement for renewal of their registration.

“The intention here is for the safety of passengers. The government cannot watch over its constituents 24 hours a day, however, the installation of CCTVs will at least serve as a deterrent to

those with evil motive,” the DOJ said.

The DOJ issued the legal opinion in response to the request of Velarde, chairman of the technical working group of the Committee on Transportation.

However, the DOJ issued some comments with regard to some provisions of the proposed bills such as on the definition of the PUVs and the use of CCTV footage as evidence.

In the definition of PUVs, the DOJ suggests the inclusion of the phrase “operating under a franchise or certificate of public convenience [CPC], after the enumeration of the PUVs covered under the act.

“This will delineate that only PUVs operating under a franchise or CPC are covered under this act,” the DOJ noted.

It also suggests the inclusion of a provision allowing government investigative authorities access to these CCTV footage in the conduct of their investigation.

“We understand that this particular provision only covers use of CCTV footage for evidentiary purpose. However, it’s not a secret footages have proven valuable to government agencies in investigating crimes in the past,” the DOJ pointed out. Joel R. San Juan

Cops nabbed five suspects in rescue of kidnapped trader

A

UTHORITIES said five persons in the rescue of a Chinese-Filipino businessman the suspects held for ransom were arrested in Sorsogon.

Chief Supt. Roberto Fajardo, acting director of the Philippine National Police-AntiKidnapping Group (PNP-AKG) based at Camp Crame, said several high-powered firearms were also seized during the operation.

Fajardo identified Giovani Rossano Tan as the person rescued on Tuesday at the Matnog Ferry Terminal in Matnog, Sorsogon.

He also identified the arrested suspects as Marlon Altizo, Jemmel Cinco, Rolly Falcon, Drackilou Falcon and Abigail Lapinid. Police

recovered from the suspects a baby Armalite rifle, an M-16 rifle, a KG-9 machine pistol, a .45 Kimber caliber pistol, a .45 STI Edge caliber pistol, a 9mm pistol and assorted ammunition.

The policemen also seized a two-way radio, assorted mobile phones and a pair of license plate numbers.

In his report to PNP Director General Ricardo Marquez on Thursday, Fajardo said the suspects were arrested while they were onboard a Mitsubishi Adventure with plate number ABD-6572.

Tan was snatched by the suspects on December 10 at the Tarlac Sentra Piggery Farm in Tarlac City. The incident was re-

ported by the Tarlac PNP to the PNP-AKG. Before Tan’s rescue, a White Mitsubishi Adventure with plate number ABD-6572 used by the suspects was sighted via closed-circuit television.

Fajardo said the police traced the vehicle and was tracked traveling to the provinces of Samar and Agusan del Norte, and then going back to Samar and Manila via Matnog.

Meanwhile, another kidnap victim, Michelle Ng, was released by her captors on December 23 after her family paid ransom.

Ng was kidnapped on December 17 at Barangay Doña Imelda, Quezon City.

Fajardo said follow-up operations resulted in the arrest of a certain Maribel Bucala. Rene Acosta

Police stop operations versus communist guerrillas T

HE Philippine National Police (PNP) announced on Thursday that operations against the New People’s Army (NPA) have been temporarily suspended in deference to the country’s observance of Christmas and the New Year.

However, unlike the Armed Forces, the period for the cessation of operations ordered by PNP Chief Director General Ricardo Marquez against the rebels is shorter.

The military has earlier ordered a suspension in its offen-

sive military operations against the NPA, starting from December 23 up to January 3, also in the spirit of the Christmas season.

On Wednesday the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) accused communist guerillas of attacking government troops in Surigao del Sur. The AFP claims the attack was the first reported violation of the rebels of the ceasefire issued by the Communist Party of the Philippines, which began on December 23 and will run up to January 23.

PNP Spokesman Chief Supt.

Wilben Mayor said the suspension of offensive police operations (SOPO) against the NPA took effect on December 23 and it will be observed by policemen until January 1.

“As part of the yearly tradition, the SOPO is observed and respected by all units and personnel of the PNP,” Mayor said. He added that the police are ordered to refrain from initiating offensive police operations against the NPA. However, the SOPO does not cover normal law-enforcement

operations, including the serving of warrants of arrest, Mayor explained.

Despite the ceasefire, Mayor said Marquez ordered all policemen to be still on guard against possible attacks by the rebels.

“Recognizing the inherent right to self-defense, all units still remain on-guard and maintain a high state of operational readiness to respond to any hostile actions,” Marquez said.

“So as not to jeopardize the spirit of the Presidential Direc-

tive, however, all police units must exercise caution and restraint in the conduct of movements and activities which may be viewed as provocative acts against the NPA,” Marquez added.

The PNP chief also ordered that extra precautionary and preemptive measures must be strictly observed in order to prevent rebel attacks on vital installations and police stations, like the incident at Barangay New Eden, Pangantucan, Bukidnon on December 12, wherein person-

nel from Pangantucan Municipal Police Station were ambushed.

“The PNP will still continue to conduct active defensive measures, such as security patrols to protect all PNP camps, stations, vital installations and civilian communities; route security; and strengthening of defensive positions,” Mayor said.

Previously, PNP units also conducted gun-muzzle taping in line with the intensified efforts of the PNP against illegal discharge of firearms this holiday season by its personnel. Rene Acosta

Sports BusinessMirror

NOWITZKI

By Eddie Sefko

The Dallas Morning News

N

EW YORK—Dirk Nowitzki was running through the laundry list of things working against him ever becoming the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) sixth-best scorer.

“Way back when I was a skinny 20-yearold, bad haircut, bad earring, not the most confident guy,” he said, before stopping, clearly thinking about the enormity of having only five players ahead of him on the all-time scoring list.

“Sounds pretty good, huh?” he said. ‘It’s a dream come true.”

And the way he passed Shaquille O’Neal on Wednesday couldn’t have been more fitting. He nailed a midrange jumper early in the second quarter against Brooklyn, took congratulatory hugs from teammates and coaches, then, a couple hours later,

slipped to the basket for the winning layup in a 119-118 overtime victory that the Mavericks needed a lot more than Nowitzki needed any milestone.

Along the way, the Mavericks needed a lot of help from a guy who’s only 23,607 points behind Nowitzki on the scoring list.

JJ Barea had a career-best 32 points, including several key three-pointers, paying big dividends for Coach Rick Carlisle starting him in place of the injured Deron Williams.

“I think the coach threw me in there early to give us a little energy early and I got in a rhythm and was able to help my team out big time,” Barea said. “I wanted to get to 30 [points in a game] before I finished my career.”

Nowitzki started fast with six points in the first six minutes. Early in the second quarter, he got the ball on the left wing and wasted no time, pulling up and nailing an 18-footer for the record.

A7

| Friday, December 25, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

MILESTONE The Mavericks lost a 16-point lead, then had to overcome an 11-point deficit in the second half.

Charlie Villanueva and Barea made big plays late in the fourth quarter and Barea converted a three-point play with 12.4 seconds left to put the Mavericks up 108-105. But Thaddeus Young, who had a major night for the Nets, responded with a triple to force overtime.

There were eight lead changes in overtime. Wesley Matthews and Barea were peppering away from 3-point range. But when Brook Lopez scored in the paint, the Nets were up 118-117.

DIRK NOWITZKI moves Nowitzki did what into sixth place on superstars do. He scoring list, as the slid into the defense Mavericks outlast the and got loose for Nets in overtime. AP a layup when Joe Johnson lapsed defensively.

“You can live a full life of NBA

»

basketball and only see a feat like this once in your life,” Carlisle said. “You’re talking about a generational great player.

He totally redefined a position. You run out of accolades.

“This franchise has been extremely lucky. He’s been loyal to Mark [Cuban] and the fans and the organization. This is the most special individual I’ve ever come across in NBA basketball. I’m honored just to come to work with him every day.”

What made it more special to Nowitzki was the win. They had been embarrassed in Toronto on Tuesday night, although their reserves saved face late in the game. Carlisle had called out the heavy lifters for not showing enough grit.

Barea and Nowitzki made sure that didn’t become a trend as both made sure the Mavericks will have a much merrier Christmas.

BATTLE OF THE GIANTS

Christmas Day PBA Cup duels G R LOBALPORT and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel take on lower-seeded opponents, as the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup takes centerstage on Christmas Day at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Armed with a twice-to-beat advantage, GlobalPort squares off with Barako Bull at 4:15 p.m.

Ginebra meets sister team Star at 7 p.m. in an interesting tussle, where Kings Head Coach Tim Cone battles his former club.

The Batang Pier and the Kings are brandishing twiceto-beat advantages.

Cone is wary about facing Star, the franchise he led to a grand slam in the 2013-2014 season.

“Those [Hotshots] players obviously know how to play in the playoffs. They know how to get themselves ready for the playoffs,” said Cone, whose wards needed a strong push in the elimination round to bag the incentive.

“Of all the teams out there, I think they are the toughest, because they are veterans, and they know how to play and they can put a couple of really good games together,” he added.

The Star won just four games in 11 outings under rookie mentor Jason Webb. But the Hotshots remain deadly with two-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) James Yap, Marc Pingris, Peter June Simon, Mark Barroca and Rafi Reavis leading the charge.

That’s why Cone wants Kings, led by a vastly improved Greg Slaughter, to treat the game like a knockout duel.

“We both wanna go out there and win. I love Purefoods [Star’s former name] guys dearly but at this point there’s no love lost between us,” Cone said. “A bad team can have a good night.”

The seven-foot Greg Slaughter has flourished under Cone, as the former Ateneo center is averaging leaguebests 23.5 points and 15 rebounds per game.

Webb, on the other hand, believes Ginebra has started to grasp Cone’s system as shown by how the Kings won their last three games in the elimination.

GlobalPort, meanwhile, could not take Barako Bull for granted. The Energy of Head Coach Koy Banal are also laden with veterans, led by Mick Pennisi, JC Intal, Chico Lanete, Josh Urbiztondo and Willy Wilson, who has been giving his team a big lift lately on offense. Joel Orellana

By Joel Orellana

EIGNING Most Valuable Player (MVP) June Mar Fajardo and Ginebra San Miguel center Greg Slaughter are headed toward a gigantic clash for the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference award.

Fajardo and Slaughter are separated by a mere 0.3 statistical point (SP) as they finished 1-2 after the elimination round of the AllFilipino conference.

The six-foot-10 Fajardo topped the SPs category after the 11-game elimination round, garnering 45.6 SPs as he led the Beermen to an outright semifinal berth.

Fajardo, eyeing to become the first player in league history to win the MVP trophy for three straight seasons, averaged 23.1 points and 14.4 rebounds to tow his team to a 9-2 win-loss record for the No.2 seed in the semifinals.

But lurking behind him is Slaughter, who is enjoying his best conference so far under Head Coach Tim Cone.

The former Ateneo slotman is averaging league-highs 23.5 points and 15 rebounds per game, also career-highs for Slaughter, for 45.3 SPs. Fajardo also averaged 1.4 blocks per contest.

If Ginebra excels in the two-phase quarterfinal round,

Ray Roquero raymundo.roquero@yahoo.com

THE SCORECARD

How to ease a hangover ‘T HIS is the time of year when all sorts of advice is writing about hangovers.”

This line sums up the first words uttered to me by Mike Royko by way of the first collection of his column, “Sez Who? Sez Me,” that I ever laid my eyes on.

After suffering a hundred bouts with terrible hangovers, I thought I finally found someone who understood the morningafter affliction of young sports writers who extended the night’s basketball coverage into some beer joints till closing time.

The more I was encouraged when, scanning the book’s introduction, I caught a line by

Studs Turkel, another outstanding American writer of their generation, who wrote that Royko “may be, pound for pound, the best all-around columnist on the premises. In the country, that is.”

Royko’s definition of a hangover is sobering enough, and leaves little doubt about what you did the previous night. “It is nature’s way of telling you that you got drunk.”

There is no way to completely avoid a hangover, he said, except for abstinence or moderation. But in this generation of excess, when virtually every drink on earth is on the supermarket shelf, who would want to be different? Maybe

Slaughter and Fajardo will face off in the best-of-seven semifinal series.

Sean Anthony, NLEX’s hardworking forward, ran third with 37.4 SPs built around 20.4 points and 11.4 rebounds averages, while GlobalPort’s Stanley Pringle was No.4 with 37.3 SPs. Pringle, last year’s top rookie, has been churning in 21.3 points, 7.5 boards and 4.5 assist a night.

Rounding up the top 5 was one-time MVP Asi Taulava of the Road Warriors. Taulava, the oldest player in the league at 42, collected 35.9 SPs as he averaged 19.7 points and 12.1 rebounds.

Making the top 10 were Barako Bull’s Willy Wilson (35.6 SPs), Vic Manuel (33.7) of Alaska, Talk ’N Text’s Jayson Castro (33.0), Batang Pier’s Terrence Romeo (32.9) and Arwind Santos (32.55) of the Beermen.

The 35-year-old Wilson is a surprise entry. The former De La Salle forward is known in the league as a role player and defensive specialist. But Wilson, along with RR Garcia and JC Intal, is one of the reasons the Energy got past the elimination round.

The six-foot-two forward is also averaging personal-highs of 17.7 points and 12 rebounds per contest.

In the race for the Rookie of the Year, the Tropang Texters’ Troy Rosario led the way with 28 SPs, while top pick Moala

if you’re training for your last boxing bout like Manny Pacquiao, or plotting the last gasp of your last political campaign. Like some presidential bets I know, trying to ignite their near-basement ratings in opinion polls although they have been campaigning for that office for years.

But in this season, when the air is filled by Christmas carols, and poisoned by blatantly out-ofseason political ads, can anyone help it?

Anyone can drink like a fish, but, of course, I am totally in agreement with the great columnist that there are “certain rules, that, if followed, will ease the discomfort.”

I have developed my own views, but let’s listen to my senior first.

First is to “stick with the same drink you started with.”

If you started the evening drinking champagne, beer and frozen daiquiris, “stick with the champagne, beer and frozen daiquiris the rest of the evening.”

It looked good, but the second even sounded better. “Be careful what you eat, particularly later into the night,” he wrote.

Tautuaa was at second spot with 23.5.

Rain or Shine’s Maverick Ahanmisi, the third overall pick, was third with 21.5 SPs, followed by the Elite’s Art de la Cruz Jr. (19.7), Meralco’s Chris Newsome (19.6) and Bryan Guinto (19.6) of Mahindra.

NBA RESULTS Cleveland 91, New York 84 Sacramento 108, Indiana 106 Orlando 104, Houston 101 Washington 100, Memphis 91 Boston 102, Charlotte 89 Dallas 119, Brooklyn 118, OT San Antonio 108, Minnesota 83 New Orleans 115, Portland 89 Milwaukee 113, Philadelphia 100 Atlanta 107, Detroit 100 Denver 104, Phoenix 96 Golden State 103, Utah 85 Oklahoma City 120, LA Lakers 85

SAN MIGUEL BEER’S June Mar Fajardo (left) and Ginebra San Miguel’s Greg Slaughter are fighting it out for the Best Player of the Conference honors.

“Especially avoid eating napkins, paper plates and pizza boards.”

Even if one followed these rules, one will still have a hangover. “So the question is,” wrote Royko, “how to get through it with a minimum of agony.”

A hangover is part physical, marked usually by a “throbbing pain in the head, behind the eyes, back of the neck and in the stomach,” he wrote. “You might also have pain in the arms, legs, knees, elbows, chin and elsewhere, depending upon how much leaping, careening, flailing and falling you did.”

“Moaning helps. It doesn’t ease the pain, but it lets you know that someone cares, even if it is only you. Moaning also lets you know that you are still alive,” he wrote.

A hangover’s discomfort is part psychological, he asserted.

“When you awaken, you will be filled with a deep sense of shame, guilt, disgust, embarrassment, humiliation and self-loathing....

This is perfectly normal, understandable and deserved.”

Your thoughts should only be about the pleasant things

before you blacked out: how you walked into a party, said hello to everyone and shook hands.

Block out your blackest memory: about how you wrapped your arms around the toilet, or slept a bit in the bathroom while a line outside the toilet began to grow long.

Now from my bag of remedies I share some on easing a hangover.

My theory is alcohol, whether it is beer, champagne, scotch, vodka, brandy, cognac, or tequila, dehydrates, and deprives your body of the essential fluids to function normally. It is dehydration that induces the painful throbbing, or the feeling of fainting, of not being able to get up and walk steadily on your two legs.

The trick is this. Drink plenty of water to wash down the alcohol, and if you have the budget, buy a 1.5-liter energy drink (like Gatorade, Powerade) and consume half a bottle, because it will replenish quickly your depleted body fluids, including potassium for the heart, and its sodium content will keep the fluids longer in your bloodstream.

Filch a banana in your ref before you go to bed. It will ease the pain in your stomach when you wake up.

Get at least eight hours of sleep.

If you feel like grabbing a meal when you wake up, get food that’s not oily and acidic. Either will leave you feeling more sick. And eat only sparingly.

Don’t get up and try to exercise.

Exercise, contrary to some conventional wisdom, will only exacerbate your condition. You might even get a coronary. Rest is your best friend at this time.

To ease your headache, or distract your mind from the throbbing, try to dredge up some funny memories. Try to laugh at your own funny moments, or those of your friends. One of those immortal moments happened to me in the toilet. A sign hung above the urinal: “Everybody can piss on the floor. Be a hero. Piss in the ceiling!”

If you are the type who loves to drop anything in your stomach after 12 midnight, this column is not for you.

You might probably know more than I do.

Sports BusinessMirror

A8 | F

riday, December 25, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

BRAZIL’S Jose Aldo (right) and South Korea’s Chansung Jung battle during their featherweight championship bout in Rio de Janeiro in August. AP

COURTING LATINO FANS

By Greg Beacham

L

The Associated Press

OS ANGELES—In the cage under the disco ball at Hollywood’s Florentine Gardens, a featherweight from Minnesota nicknamed “Sexy Mexy” puts an arm triangle choke on his opponent, thrilling several hundred fans who paid about $10 to get in.

On television, this mixed-martial-arts (MMA) action reaches about 40 million homes with all the professional polish of a Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) telecast. But a Combate Americas show is accompanied by something unusual in the MMA world: Spanish-language cage announcements and broadcast commentary, some of it from a former professional wrestler.

Latino sports fans are the primary reason pro boxing still exists in the US, according to no less of an authority than boxing promoter Bob Arum. No current MMA company is making a bigger effort to convert those Latino fans than Combate Americas, the brainchild of UFC co-creator Campbell McLaren.

Once little more than a reality show with big dreams, Combate Americas will grow next year with six events and an array of prominent corporate partnerships. McLaren believes the Latino market is ready to embrace his growing sport.

“Hispanic fans may have heard of the UFC, but they might not know what it is,” McLaren said. “No one has brought along this audience.

No one has said, ‘We welcome you, whether you know about this sport or not.’ We present an environment where the announcers very purposely explain what’s going on. They’re not talking down to the audience. They don’t assume you know something.”

Combate Americas was founded four years ago, but the Florentine Gardens fights were its third real event. McLaren has focused largely on the promotion’s reality program on the network NBC Universo, enticing Latino viewers into an unfamiliar world with behind-thescenes stories and training.

That’s all changing in 2016: Combate Americas plans to put on a show every other month and has hired staff, selected venues and bolstered its roster.

While Spanish-language skills and Latino roots aren’t a requirement, they sure help. The company is willing to sign fighters with only one Latino grandparent and a level of fluency—or lack thereof—that makes its television producers chuckle, but language skills are nearly as valuable as jiu-jitsu skills to McLaren.

“This is a Hispanic-based fight organization,” McLaren said. “It was formed to give new Hispanic fighters an opportunity.

That doesn’t mean only Hispanic fighters,

TIGER WOODS is duly impressed with today’s young stars. AP

WONDERS OF MATCH PLAY

By Doug Ferguson The Associated Press

T

HE biggest blowout in the Match Play Championship was Tiger Woods winning every hole on the front nine and closing out Stephen Ames, 9 and 8, at La Costa in 2006. This was two days after Ames, the No. 64 seed, jokingly said anything can happen in match play, “especially where he’s hitting the ball.”

Mathematically, it could have been worse.

Much worse.

Consider what happened to Phil Mickelson in the Presidents Cup this year. He did not know about the one-ball condition and used a different model on the par-five seventh hole in a fourballs match. The penalty is a one-hole adjustment, and because Jason Day won the hole (Mickelson mistakenly was not allowed to finish the hole), the International team went from all square to 2 up.

That led to two questions: What other rules and conditions allow for a “hole adjustment?” And what would be the earliest an 18-hole match could end?

Kathryn Belanger, the assistant manager of rules communications for the US Golf

Association (USGA), provided the answer. It’s a long shot. Odds are it will never happen.

But follow along, because it is possible.

A player carries a nonconforming club (Rule 4-1). He changes the weight of his driver after teeing off, but he does not make a stroke with the club after the adjustment (Rule 4-2). He starts his round with 15 clubs (Rule 4-4a). He has two caddies (Rule 6-4). He violates the one-ball condition on the opening two holes (Appendix I, Part C, Item 1c). He has a parent as a caddie when they are not allowed (Appendix I, Part C, Item 2). He takes an unauthorized ride in a cart on both holes (Appendix I, Part C, Item 8).

If all of these violations are discovered on the second hole, each would carry a twohole adjustment to the state of the match.

That’s 14 holes. Assuming the player also loses the first two holes, he now is 16 down with 16 to play.

His opponent could win the 18-hole match on the third hole by a score of 17 and 15.

Maybe Ames got off easy.

SPIETH’S MULLIGAN

IF he could take one mulligan this year, Jordan Spieth knows exactly where it would

be—the final round at Saint Andrews.

Trying to become the first player to capture the third leg of the modern Grand Slam, he was tied for the lead at the British Open until he missed an eight-foot par putt on the 17th hole and failed to birdie the 18th. Spieth missed a playoff by one shot.

But that’s not where he’d take the mulligan.

“My first putt on No. 8,” Spieth said.

He had a long birdie putt on the par-3 hole that he ran so far by the cup that it stopped just off the green. He took three putts from there for a double bogey.

“I made a mistake, and it cost me at least a shot,” Spieth said. “The wind was sideways and it was into the rain and I was thinking it would be slow. I’d left it short all week and I didn’t want to leave that one short. And, obviously, I didn’t.”

Spieth figures if he had two-putted for par, the 50-foot birdie putt on the 16th “becomes the one that won the tournament.”

That’s a lot of conjecture. Then again, there are no mulligans in the majors.

“You can say maybe the putt on 17,” Spieth said. “But everyone missed that putt—it’s not an easy one. And everyone says the wedge on 18.”

He came up just short of the 18th green

instead of making sure he at least had a 25-foot look at birdie, as Zach Johnson did before him.

Still, No. 8 gnaws at him.

“That was an easy fix,” he said.

MAKING THE CUT

TIGER WOODS is duly impressed with today’s young stars, with Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth winning two majors in successive years and Jason Day picking up his first major at the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Championship and getting to No. 1 in the world.

Only one aspect perplexes him—too many weekends off.

Spieth already has missed the cut 12 times in his three full seasons on the PGA Tour. McIlroy has missed the cut eight times in the last three years. Rickie Fowler has missed the cut 11 times in the last two years.

“In today’s game, you don’t have to make cuts,” Woods said in his Time magazine interview earlier this month.

“And I see these guys miss so many cuts when they’re that good.... It doesn’t compute, because I haven’t done it. I think I’ve missed only 15 cuts in my career.”

Woods has missed the cut 16 times, including six in the last two years.

but we’re very focused on it. I think the UFC obviously has a great feeder system set up that’s very important to their organization, but I’m looking in places the UFC isn’t.”

From the Mexican border to the Hispanicdominated suburbs of Chicago, Combate Americas looks for prospects like Ricardo Palacios, who chose MMA over boxing as a way to lose weight back home in McAllen, Texas.

“I would see a lot of Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, [Jean-Claude] van Damme, Steven Seagal, even the Power Rangers,” said Palacios, who won a split decision in his Hollywood bout. “MMA can grow like boxing with Latinos. It’s a new opportunity for many people out there.

“Boxing is a big Hispanic thing where I’m from, but now MMA is evolving and getting bigger, especially in south Texas. I want to open up this sport for Latinos.”

Palacios appeared on the reality show, which includes appearances by stars of Latino music and film. When Combate Americas began staging fights, it hired Mexican wrestlers as color commentators.

“We celebrate the luchadores, the lucha world,” McLaren said. “In Mexico, that is part of the culture. They bring a sense of drama, of theater to it.... All wrestling fans are welcome here.”

Other aspects of the Combate Americas experience are a bit unusual in MMA. Its title sponsor is Aspira a Mas, the Hispanicfocused division of health-insurance giant IHC Group. The company has no qualms about the possible incongruity of using a violent sport to persuade Latinos to sign up for health coverage—another reminder that boxing is a mainstream endeavor in Spanishspeaking North America.

“Hispanics are very linked to boxing, and [MMA] is a very good avenue, a parallel to boxing,” said Javier Tejeda-Vera, Aspira a Mas vice president. “This sport is growing just like the Hispanic population. It’s growing and multiplying. A big number of these fighters here are Hispanic. The draw is fantastic. What we want as a company is to be a part of a growing sport.”

Campbell trademarked the UFC’s distinctive Octagon cage during its earliest days, but also was criticized for emphasizing the bloody, dangerous spectacle of MMA. More than 21 years after the UFC’s first show, Campbell doesn’t apologize for taking unusual routes to success in his former and current ventures.

“Now, the phones are ringing,” McLaren said. “People are showing up and saying, ‘We want to be a part of this.’ It gets easier to find fighters. The sponsors know about us. We’ve had a really good year, and we’re set up to really capitalize on that momentum.”