BusinessMirror March 7, 2015

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Poverty worsened in H1 2014 Neda bats for removal H of QR to cut rice prices

filipino wins designer of the year at maison&Objet Thanking God

UR God and our all, the deepest level of worship is praising You inspite of pain. Thanking God during the trials, trusting Him when we are tempted to lose hope, and loving Him even more when He seems so distant and far away. At our lowest, God is our hope. At our darkest, God is our light. At our weakest, God is our strength.

At our saddest, God is our comforter. At our death, He will be our Judge. Amen.

YETTA CRUZ AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

Life

MAKING KIDS THEIR OWN ENVIRONMENTAL HERO »D3

BusinessMirror

NERI&HU’S Camper Showroom and Office SHEN ZHONGHAI

Saturday, March 7, 2015

By Cai Ordinario

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NERI&HU’S Design Republic Design Commune PEDRO PEGENAUTE

Filipino wins Designer of the Year at Maison&Objet Asia 2015 LYNDON NERI and Rossana Hu ANDREW ROWAT

B S J

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AISON&OBJET (M&O) Asia returns to Singapore for its second edition from March 10 to 13, and will feature an expanded selection of the best of high-end decoration and home fashion by prestigious brands and designers in interior design and home decoration.

As a springboard to publics and further collaborations, M&O Asia, like its Parisian counterpart, presents the Designer of the Year, Rising Asian Talents, and the Interior Design & Lifestyle Summit.

The Designer of the Year for M&O Asia 2015 is Neri&Hu, a design concern founded in 2004 by Lyndon Neri, who hails from the Philippines, and Rossana Hu. But who are they and what have they accomplished?

Neri&Hu Design and Research Office is an interdisciplinary international architectural design practice based in Shanghai, China, which provides architectural, interior, master planning, graphic and product-design services.

Their projects include the London Bow Street Hotel, Caylabene Bay Resort in the Philippines, and the Waterhouse Boutique Hotel in South Bund in Shanghai, as well as interiors for restaurants, retail spaces and private homes, extending to the realm of product design of tableware, furniture and décor objects for brands, including BD Barcelona Design, Classicon, Gandia Blasco, JIA, LEMA, Meritalia, MOOOI, Parachilna, Stellar Works, and Neri&Hu, elevating all these to the dignity of art.

Lyndon Neri has a master of architecture degree from Harvard University and a bachelor of architecture degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Neri was an associate for Michael Graves & Associates in Princeton for over 10 years, the director for its projects in Asia, and an architect who has worked in various New York firms. Who is Michael Graves? Perhaps a study on postmodern architecture should be forthcoming.

Meanwhile, Rossana Hu has a master of architecture and urban planning from Princeton University, and a bachelor of arts in architecture and

music from the University of California at Berkeley.

Hu also worked for Michael Graves & Associates but also includes Ralph Lerner in Princeton; Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in New York; and The Architects Collaborative in San Francisco. Who is Skidmore, Owings and Merrill? Perhaps a study on the modern international style will inform us.

The announcement of Neri&Hu as Designer of the Year for M&O Asia 2015 will come as no surprise following the firm’s recent plums which include Wallpaper Designer of the Year 2014, and its induction

into the US Interior Design Hall of Fame in 2013. The practice was the 2011 INSIDE Festival Overall Winner, won the AR Award for Emerging Architecture in 2010

by Architectural Review, and was selected as one of the Design Vanguards in 2009 by Architectural Record.

This year the Interior Design & Lifestyle Summit, a series of conferences within M&O Asia that analyzes market trends, will have the great pleasure to welcome Neri and Hu as a keynote speakers. Their conference will take place on Tuesday.

The Interior Design & Lifestyle Summit will analyze

key market trends and discover the most innovative projects through lectures and workshops led by major personalities in their fields. From interior design to retail, the conference is a unique opportunity to understand and decipher home-related trends and topics that include the best of interior design, reviews of the industry’s newest developments and orientations by forecasting agencies, innovative concept stores, panel discussions and dialogues between manufacturers and designers, and—of course—the keynote speech, where Neri&Hu will share their vision, speak about their inspirations and expound on latest projects.

Also highlighting M&O Asia 2015 will be the section Rising Asian Talents, where a segment of the floor will feature six very promising young designers who have been selected and given the opportunity to present their works. Rising Asian Talents will exhibit the constructs of Abie Abdillah of Indonesia, Monica Tsang of Hong Kong, Outofstock of Singapore, Poetic Lab of Taiwan, Wonmin Park of South Korea, and Zhang Zhoujie of China. Said Philippe Brocart, managing director of Maison&Objet: “We are committed to being a unique platform that brings together a wide offering of brands together with a large diversity of visitors. These visitors range from retailers to buyers, from interior designers to architects, and from property developers to hotel and restaurant owners.

In 2014 we had more than 13,700 visitors, with Asian visitors making up 51 percent. As for the total number of brands in 2014, we had 272 altogether, with 30 percent of them from Asia. We are working toward increasing both the number of exhibiting brands, as well as visitors to the show.”

M&O Asia 2015 will be held from March 10 to 13 at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center.

The trade show is organized by Safi, an organization that also manages M&O Paris, M&O Americas, Paris Design Week, and M&O Mag, a decoration and design news magazine. Safi is a subsidiary of Ateliers d’Art de France and Reed Expositions France.

M&O Asia is part of Singapore Design Week, a festival that celebrates the very best in design.

For more information on M&O Asia, visit www. maison-objet.com/en/asia. ■

life

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netanyahu’s iran speech The World

igh food prices and the lingering effects of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) caused the country’s poverty incidence to go up in the first six months of 2014, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

The Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (Apis), which was released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Friday, showed that poverty incidence among Filipinos in January to June 2014 rose to 25.8

percent, from 24.6 percent posted in the first semester of 2013.

PSA data also showed that subsistence incidence, or the proportion of Filipinos who live in extreme poverty, remained at 10.5 percent.

Among Filipino families, the PSA said poverty incidence rose to 20 percent in January to June 2014, from 18.8 percent in the same period in 2013. “ The subsistence incidence among Filipino families, or the proportion of Filipino families in extreme poverty, was estimated at 7.6 percent during the first semester of 2014. In the same period in 2013, the proportion of families in extreme poverty was recorded at 7.5 percent,” the PSA said.

While per-capita income grew on the back of a 6-percent hike in gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first half of 2014, government data showed it was not enough to keep pace with the rise in food prices Continued on A2

BusinessMirror

B3-2 Saturday, March 7, 2015

Netanyahu’s Iran speech gains tacit support in Saudi Arabia

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UBAI, United Arab Emirates— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fiery speech this week before the US Congress, in which he argued against an emerging nuclear deal with Iran, has received tacit support from an unlikely quarter—Saudi Arabia.

The oil-rich Sunni kingdom views Shiite Iran as a regional rival that is perhaps even more menacing than Israel. That was clear in a string of columns this week published in Saudi state-linked media, which is widely seen as reflecting official views and mainstream thought in the kingdom, and which voiced skepticism of President Barack obama’s efforts to broker a landmark nuclear agreement with Tehran. “who could believe that Netanyahu today has taken a better stand than obama with regard to the Iranian nuclear file?” columnist Ahmed al-Faraj wrote, saying he was quoting a recent remark by Sen. Richard Durbin (Democrat-Illinois).

The opinion piece in the Saudiowned Al-Jazirah newspaper on Monday, a day before the speech, reflects sentiment shared among some in the Gulf. on Thursday US Secretary of State John Kerry was in the Saudi

capital to ease Gulf concerns about the negotiations with Iran, which are aimed at reaching a framework agreement this month and a final deal later this year.

Kerry is meeting with the foreign ministers of the Sunni-ruled Gulf states and the new Saudi monarch King Salman.

Like Israel, Saudi Arabia has long viewed Iran as an expansionist power that seeks to dominate the region through local proxies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip and Shiite militias in Iraq.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting a proxy war in Syria, with the kingdom arming the rebels seeking to topple Iranian-backed President Bashar al-Assad.

In a column published in Asharq al-Awsat, a daily owned by King Salman’s family, Abdulrahman alRashed wrote “Iran’s fingerprints are everywhere.”

u.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (left) meets with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud at Diriya Farm, Saudi Arabia, on thursday. Kerry planned to meet with Arab Gulf state allies in riyadh on thursday before sitting down with the foreign ministers of France, Britain, and Germany in Paris on Saturday to share the state of the Iran nuclear negotiations. AP/evAn vucci

“Iran is currently in an offensive state, the likes of which we have not seen in modern history,” he wrote.

Netanyahu said as much to Congress, telling lawmakers that Iran is “gobbling up” nations in its “march of conquest, subjugation and terror.”

Saudi Arabia is part of the US-led coalition striking the Islamic State (IS) group, awkwardly putting it on the same side as Iran, which is battling the extremists through its allied Shiite militias in Iraq and by

supporting Bashar al-Assad.

The kingdom, like the US, has refused to coordinate its efforts with Tehran.

Netanyahu’s argument that “when it comes to Iran and IS, the enemy of your enemy is your enemy,” resonates in Riyadh, where the royal family is concerned about a possible US-Iranian rapprochement.

Despite the alignment of interests, Saudis still view Israel as an illegitimate occupier of Arab and

Muslim lands, and any kind of open alliance is out of the question.

An editorial in al-Medina newspaper ridiculed Netanyahu’s insistence that he had traveled to washington out of concern for Israel’s security and not to boost his prospects ahead of elections later this month.

The editorial said it was ironic that he spoke of Israel’s need for security despite “hundreds of [Israeli] massacres against Palestinians and Arabs over more than six decades.” AP Actor Harrison Ford arrives for the premiere of his film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in tokyo in this June 5, 2008, photo. AP/Shizuo KAmbAyAShi

Good news Knifed US envoy to Seoul in pain as officials investigate Ford’s real-life bravado equals on coffee: It’s good for S Han Solo, Indiana Jones your heart

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ow you can enjoy your third daily cup of coffee and feel healthy while you do it: According to a new study, it may be good for your heart.

Researchers found that people who drink between three and five cups of coffee a day are likely to have less coronary artery calcium (CAC), than those who drink no coffee at all.

They also found a correlation between people who drink between one and three cups of coffee a day and a reduced prevalence of CAC, according to a paper published Monday in the journal Heart.

But try not to over do it: Drinking more than five cups of coffee a day was associated with a higher levels of CAC, the authors report.

Calcium in the coronary artery isn’t always a problem, but at high enough levels it can be an early sign of coronary heart disease. Coronary heart disease occurs when plaque builds up in the coronary arteries, reducing the flow of blood to the heart.

The data in the study come from 28,138 men and women from the cities of Seoul and Suwon in South Korea who underwent a comprehensive health screening between March 2011 and April 2013.

As part of that screening they had CT scans that measured the amount of calcium in their arteries.

They were also asked to fill out a 103-item food frequency questionnaire. The researchers note that participants were not asked to differentiate between regular and decaffeinated coffee, but they say that decaf has not widely caught on yet in South Korea. The prevalence of detectable CAC was 13.4 percent among the entire study group, and the average amount of coffee consumed was 1.8 cups a day. Los Angeles Times/TNS

EoUL, South Korea—The US ambassador to South Korea struggled with pain as he recovered on Friday from a knife attack, while police searched the offices of the anti-US activist who they say slashed the envoy while screaming demands for Korean reunification.

The attack on Thursday on Mark Lippert, which prompted rival North Korea to gloat about “knife slashes of justice,” left deep gashes and damaged tendons and nerves.

It also raised questions about security in a city normally seen as ultra-safe, despite regular threats of war from Pyongyang. while an extreme example, the attack is the latest act of political violence in a deeply divided country where some protesters portray their causes as matters of life and death.

Lippert, 42, was recovering well but still complaining of pain in the wound on his left wrist and a finger where doctors repaired nerve damage, Severance Hospital official Yoon Do-Heum said in televised briefing.

Doctors will remove the 80 stitches on Lippert’s face on Monday or

SoutH Korean conservative activists stage a rally for a speedy recovery of uS Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert in Seoul, South Korea, on thursday. Lippert was attacked by a man wielding a razor and screaming that the rival Koreas should be unified, South Korean police and media said on thursday. AP/yonhAP, hong hAe-in

Tuesday and expect him to be out of the hospital by Tuesday or wednesday. Hospital officials say he may experience sensory problems in his left hand for several months.

Police, meanwhile, searched the offices of the suspect, Kim Ki-jong, 55, for documents and computer files

as they investigated how the attack was planned and whether others were involved. Police plan to soon request a warrant for Kim’s formal arrest, and potential charges include attempted murder, assaulting a foreign envoy, obstruction and violating a controversial South Korean law that

bars praise or assistance of North Korea, Jongno district police chief Yun Myung-sung told reporters.

Police are investigating Kim’s past travels to North Korea—seven times between 1999 and 2007—during a previous era of inter-Korean cooperation, when Seoul was ruled by a liberal government.

Kim attempted to build a memorial altar for former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il after his death in December 2011, police said.

Kim, who has a long history of anti-US protests, said he acted alone in the attack on Lippert. He told police it was meant as a protest of annual US-South Korean military drills that started on Monday—exercises that the North has long maintained are preparations for an invasion.

Kim said the drills, which Seoul and washington say are purely defensive, ruined efforts for reconciliation between the Koreas, according to police officials. while most South Koreans look at the US presence favorably, America infuriates some leftists because of its role in Korea’s turbulent modern history. AP

Dwarf planet Ceres gets ready for the spotlight

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oS ANGELES—The mysterious dwarf planet Ceres is ready for its close-up. Located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Ceres is the largest unexplored space rock in the inner solar system.

But that distinction ends Friday, when National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa) on Dawn spacecraft arrives after nearly an eight-year journey, which included a stopover at the asteroid Vesta.

Dawn has already beamed back images of Ceres from its approach.

Five things to know about Ceres:

The discovery

CERES was spotted on New Year’s Day in 1801 by Italian monk and astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi who was

searching for a star. It was the first object discovered in the asteroid belt, a zone littered with rocky debris left over from the formation of the sun and planets four-and-a-half billion years ago.

The name

PIAzzI named the object “Ceres Ferdinandea” after the Roman goddess of harvest and in honor of King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Sicily. other astronomers shortened it to Ceres. The word cereal also has its origins in Ceres. The chemical element cerium, discovered in 1803, was named after Ceres.

The identity crisis

Located about 250 million miles from

the sun, Ceres was deemed a comet when it was first discovered. Then it was promoted to a planet and later downgraded to an asteroid. Since 2006, it has been classified as a dwarf planet like Pluto, the one-time ninth planet.

Dwarf planets are spherical in shape like planets, but they share the same celestial neighborhood with other similar-sized objects.

The bright spots

CERES—with a diameter of about 1,000 kilometers—is thought to have a rocky core surrounded by an icy mantle. Long ago it might have harbored an underground ocean.

As Dawn approached Ceres, it spotted a pair of puzzling bright spots inside a crater. Scientists think the

shiny dots may be exposed ice or salt.

The mission

LAUNCHED in 2007 and powered by ion propulsion engines, Dawn will make the first close-ups of a dwarf planet. It will study Ceres for 16 months from varying altitudes, getting as close as 378 kilometers above Ceres’s surface, or the distance of the International Space Station above Earth. The spacecraft will take sharper images of the mysterious spots and use its instruments to confirm whether Ceres’s surface is still active and spewing plumes of water vapor. This summer, another Nasa spacecraft dubbed New Horizons will make the first visit to the dwarf planet Pluto. AP

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oS ANGELES—Harrison Ford is as much the daredevil in real life as Han Solo, Indiana Jones or the other larger-than-life characters he’s played on the screen. while his fictional adventures in Star Wars and as bold archaeologist Jones have thrilled audiences, the star has run into real-life danger—and sometimes pain— while indulging in his love of aviation, fast driving and the unpredictability of filmmaking. on Thursday the actor’s vintage plane crash-landed on a golf course in Los Angeles shortly after taking off from a nearby airport. Ford, 72, who had reported engine failure to air-traffic controllers, suffered moderate injuries and was taken by ambulance to a hospital.

Beyond joy-riding in the skies, Ford also employs his skills as a pilot, acquired in his mid-50s, to help in search-andrescue efforts.

Here are a few of his closer brushes, some more dramatic than others, as well as heroic moments: n The scar on his face that lends him a rakish look was earned, he’s said, in “a mundane way.” In 1964 he was speeding to a job at a department store in orange County, California, when his car veered off the road and into a telephone pole as

German factory orders down more than expected in January

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ERLIN—German factory orders, a key indicator for Europe’s biggest economy, dropped much further than expected in January—led by a big drop in demand from other euro-zone countries. The Federal Statistical office said on Thursday orders were down 3.9 percent compared with the previous month.

Economists had forecast a 1-percent decline. The fall was led by a 9-percent drop

world

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oil firm pays confidential sum World Companies BusinessMirror

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo• corp@businessmirror.com.ph

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performance overseeing the safety and design of the instruments. In a letter on Wednesday 10 members of Congress asked the FDA to answer nearly a dozen questions about oversight of duodenoscopes, including when the agency first learned about problems with infections.

“It appears that if a superior cleaning procedure cannot be developed, the best solution will be to develop a new device,” states the letter, signed by six Democrats and four Republicans in the House of Representatives.

An FDA spokesman said that the agency informed Olympus last March that the company must submit an application for its redesigned device, which the company filed last October. That application is still pending because the FDA asked the company for additional information.

In an online posting, the FDA said it does not plan to withdraw Olympus’s TJFQ180V duodenoscope, because it could cause a shortage of devices used in about 500,000 procedures per year.

The agency also noted that FDA has received reports of infections with similar devices made by two other manufacturers, Pentax Medical and Fujifilm.

The FDA says it is trying to determine what more can be done to reduce infections and plans a meeting of outside advisers for later this year. A date for that meeting has not yet been set.

The FDA said last month that the duodenoscope’s complex design, intended to improve usability, also makes the device extremely difficult to clean.

Bodily fluids and other particles can stay in the device’s crevices even after cleaning and disinfection.

Cleaning instructions issued by manufacturers of the devices may not adequately disinfect the devices, according to the FDA. Nevertheless, the agency recommends hospitals follow the instructions and also consult cleaning guidelines issued by several medical societies in 2011.

Olympus Corp. of the Americas said in a statement the company “continuously strives to improve our products for safe and effective use. This includes changes to device design.”

The company is a unit of Japan’s Olympus Corp. AP

ASHINGTON — The manufacturer of a medical instrument at the center of a recent “superbug” outbreak in Los Angeles did not receive federal clearance to sell an updated version of the device, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said.

The FDA confirmed that Olympus Corp. did not seek agency clearance for the redesign of its specialized endoscope, which it began selling in 2010. FDA clearance is required for all substantive updates to medical devices sold in the US. Despite the lack of clearance, the FDA said physicians should continue using the device because it is not clear that a federal review would have prevented the recent infections in patients.

Olympus said in a statement that it determined in 2010 that it did not need to submit its changes for FDA review. The company has since filed an application that is now pending at the FDA. The company’s hard-to-clean device is believed to be responsible for infections in seven people — two of whom died — who contracted an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria after undergoing endoscopic procedures at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center between October and January.

Two Olympus devices used at the University of California-Los Angeles Hospital were found to have “embedded” infections even though they had been cleaned according to manufacturer’s instructions.

The specialized device, known as a duodenoscope, is a flexible fiber-optic tube that is inserted down the throat into the stomach and small intestine to drain fluids.

Infections of the “superbug” carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, have been reported at hospitals around the country, and some have been linked to the type of endoscope used at UCLA. On Wednesday Cedars-Sinai Medical Center reported that four patients at its hospital had also been infected with the “superbug,” possibly transmitted through the same Olympus device. The Los Angeles hospital launched its own investigation after learning of the UCLA outbreak two weeks ago.

Revelations about the lack approval for Olympus’s device came as lawmakers in Congress questioned the FDA’s

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IMA, Peru—Tribal communities that sued Occidental Petroleum over contamination in Peru’s northern Amazon have reached an out-of-court settlement in which the US-based oil company will pay them an undisclosed sum.

The amount is confidential, under a settlement that was reached in 2013 in Los Angeles federal court but not announced until Thursday. The money is to fund community development projects.

The case was the first of its kind involving oil drilling in South America to advance in US courts, said lawyer Marco Simons of EarthRights International, that represented the plaintiffs.

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Five Ac hu a r commu nit ies, along with the environmental group Amazon Watch, sued Occidental in 2007, alleging that the company spilled oil and dumped toxic byproducts in their territory over three decades ending in 2001, causing premature deaths, birth defects and other health problems.

Simons sa id t he pol lut ion caused “death, generalized contamination and destruction of the

Achuar way of life.” The Achuar are traditional hunters and gatherers whose diet depends highly on river fish.

Amazon Watch says a report it issued in 2007 found elevated levels of lead and cadmium in Achuar children’s blood.

The case was initially dismissed in 2008, with the lower-court judge ruling it should be heard in Peru instead. The plaintiffs successfully appealed, however, and the US Supreme Court let the Ninth Circuit Court’s decision stand.

An Achuar leader, Adolfina Garcia, told reporters on Thursday that the group could not have received a fair trial in Peru.

“We don’t have any faith in Peru. There is a lot of corruption,” Garcia said.

Occidental, which was headquartered in California but moved to Texas, confirmed the settlement in a brief e-mailed statement but

Ringling Bros. eliminating elephant acts

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did not answer questions including whether it acknowledged responsibility for environmental damage.

The contamination occurred in the Corrientes River basin near Ecuador in a lot spanning more than 1 million acres (400,000 hectares) of virgin rainforest where Occidental drilled more than 150 wells after signing a 1971 contract with Peru’s government, according to EarthRights International.

In 2001 Occidental turned over the operation to Argentina’s Pluspetrol, which in 2012 and 2013 were fined a total of $17 million for contaminating the region.

Peru’s government declared an emergency in 2013 over the contamination but local Achuar communities complain that the government has done nothing to clean up the contamination.

They have mounted protests in recent weeks, occupying Pluspetrol facilities. AP

PEACE MURAL

US stocks edge higher; Pharmacyclics jumps on bid to buy AbbVie

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Can Etsy keep its folksy brand and make shareholders money?

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the face of Wall Street pressure for financial returns.

“It’s going to be a tall order for a management team in the future to be true to its core company values while also delivering shareholder value,” Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said on Thursday. “When companies go public they’re held accountable for quarterly goals that shareholders want and it’s very, very difficult to stay true to core values.”

An Etsy spokesman declined to comment citing the company’s quiet period ahead of the IPO. But the cash infusion that an IPO brings could juice Etsy’s growth. And some Etsy sellers welcome the added awareness an IPO would bring.

“I am excited about the additional attention the site will be receiving,” said Michael Webb, 41, a Colorado artist who sells his art through Etsy and other sites and galleries.

Others are playing wait-and-see.

Holly Marshmueller, 32, has sold her line of new mom and baby products, like handmade changing pads and car seat covers, on Etsy since 2011.

She said she understands that an IPO will help Etsy grow, but expects it will bring some changes to the site. When she heard about the expected IPO, she signed up for Shopify to host a shopping cart on her own site so she can sell her goods outside of Etsy.

“I was a little nervous and I wanted to protect my brand,” said the Portland, Oregon, resident.

But she added that she has no plans to close her Etsy shop.

“I’m positively curious about how things are going to go,” she said. Etsy Inc. plans to list its shares on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “ETSY.” AP

EW YORK—If craft seller Etsy goes public later this year it will be a test of how well the company can balance an explicit social mission with shareholder expectations for making money.

Founded in 2005, Brooklynbased Etsy sells everything from a $110,000 antique desk from the 1800s to a $20 handmade antler pendant, and everything in between.

In 10 years it has grown from a scrappy start-up offering craftsmen a way to sell necklaces and needlepoint online to a marketplace of 54 million members that generated $1.93 billion in sales in 2014. And on Wednesday Etsy filed for an initial public offering (IPO) of stock valued at up to $100 million. The company is more than a folksy, funky brand. It’s a B Corp., which is a for-profit company with a stated social mission certified by a nonprofit organization called B Lab. In its prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchage Commission, Etsy says its mission is to build a “human, authentic and communitycentric global and local marketplace,” and cites any loss of its B Corp. status as a risk factor to its brand.

There are only about 1,000 such B-Corporations worldwide, including Warby Parker, Patagonia and Ben & Jerry’s. But none of them are public companies on their own (Ben & Jerry’s is owned by Unilever). If Etsy does go public, it will be the first test of how well certified B Corps can work on Wall Street.

Analysts agree it makes sense for Etsy’s growth to go public or seek a buyer, but some say it is difficult for companies to maintain their entrepreneurial or social spirit in

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Oil firm pays confidential sum to settle pollution case in Peru

Maker of device in ‘superbug’ outbreak lacked FDA clearance

OLK CITY, Florida—The family that owns the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will phase out the show’s iconic elephants from its performances by 2018 but they will not say just what it was that triggered the decision.

Executives from Feld Entertainment, Ringling’s parent company, said the decision to end the circus’s century-old tradition of showcasing elephants was difficult and debated at length. Elephants have often been featured on Ringling’s posters over the decades.

“It was a decision 145 years in the making,” said Juliette Feld, who now helps run the circus company with her sisters and father, Feld Enterprises Inc. President Kenneth Feld.

Within two hours of the announcement, animal-rights groups took credit for the decision, saying that the pressure put on the circus ultimately led to Feld’s decision.

Kenneth Feld denied that.

“We’re not reacting to our critics; we’re creating the greatest resource for the preservation of the Asian elephant,” he said as he described plans to retire the company’s 13 performing elephants by 2018.

They will join 29 other pachyderms at the company’s 200-acre (81-hectare) Center for Elephant Conservation in central Florida.

But Feld acknowledged that because so many cities and counties have passed “anti-circus” and “anti-elephant” ordinances, it is difficult to organize the tours of three traveling circuses visiting 115 cities throughout the year. Fighting legislation in each jurisdiction is

expensive, he said.

“All of the resources used to fight these things can be put toward the elephants,” Feld said.

Los Angeles prohibited the use of bull-hooks by elephant trainers and handlers last April. Oakland, California, did, likewise, last December, banning the devices used to keep elephants in control. Last month the city of Asheville, North Carolina, banned wild or exotic animals from performing in the municipally-owned, 7,600-seat US Cellular Center.

The circus will continue to use other animals—this year it added a Mongolian troupe of camel stunt riders to its Circus Xtreme show. It will likely showcase more motorsports, daredevils and feats of humans’ physical capabilities. Ringling’s popular Canada-based competitor, Cirque du Soleil, features human acts and does not use wild animals.

Feld owns the largest herd of Asian elephants in North America.

It costs about $65,000 yearly to care for each elephant, and Kenneth Feld said the company would have to build new structures to house the retiring elephants at the center, located in between Orlando and Tampa on a rural, ranchlike property.

Kenneth Feld said initially the center will be open only to researchers, scientists and others studying the Asian elephant.

Eventually, he “hopes it expands to something the public will be able to see.”

The center’s youngest elephant is Mike, who will be 2 in August, and the oldest is Mysore, who is 69.

One elephant, 6-year-old Barack,

was conceived by artificial insemination. Since the center opened in 1995, 26 elephants have been born there.

Ringling’s elephants have been at the center of lawsuits and ongoing complaints from animal-rights activists.

In 2014 Feld Entertainment won $25.2 million in settlements from a number of animal-rights groups, including the Humane Society of the US, ending a 14-year legal battle over unproven allegations that Ringling circus employees mistreated elephants.

The initial lawsuit was filed in 2000 by a former Ringling barn helper who was later found to have been paid at least $190,000 by the animal-rights groups that helped bring the lawsuit. The judge called him “essentially a paid plaintiff” who lacked credibility and standing to sue. The judge rejected the abuse claims following a 2009 trial.

Kenneth Feld testified during that trial about elephants’ importance to the show.

“The symbol of the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ is the elephant, and that’s what we’ve been known for throughout the world for more than a hundred years.”

Feld noted that when his father bought the circus in 1967, there was still a human sideshow featuring acts such as the bearded lady and other human oddities. His father did away with that, he said.

“We’re always changing and we’re always learning,” he said.

Roughly 30 million people attend one of Feld’s 5,000 live entertainment shows every year. AP

EW YORK—The stock market closed slightly higher on Thursday as gains for utilities and financial stocks were largely offset by losses in energy and materials companies.

Kroger jumped after reporting better-thanexpected earnings that were boosted in part by lower fuel costs. Joy Global, a manufacturer of mining equipment, fell sharply after it said that the worldwide plunge in commodity prices was hurting its business.

Investors got some positive news on the global economy early in the day as the European Central Bank (ECB) upgraded its growth forecast for the euro zone this year to 1.5 percent from 1 percent.

ECB President Mario Draghi also said that the bank’s planned €1-trillion ($1.1-trillion) stimulus program will start on March 9.

Even though gains for stocks have slowed this week, major indexes remain close to record levels after a strong surge in February.

Despite steady gains in recent years, stocks remain attractive because interest rates are still close to historic lows, while company earnings are inching higher, said Scott Keifer, a global investment specialist at JPMorgan Private Bank.

“Fundamentally, things are still good,” he said. “We think this is an environment of global growth that’s good, but not great.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 2.51 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,101.04. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 38.82 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,135.72. The Nasdaq composite climbed 15.67 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,982.81.

On Thursday health-care stocks got a boost from some merger news. The sector was one of the hottest for acquisitions last year, and that trend that looks set to continue in 2015.

Pharmacyclics jumped after AbbVie said it would acquire the company for about $21 billion. It’s AbbVie’s first attempt at a major deal since walking away from a $55-billion takeover of Shire last fall.

Pharmacyclics rose $23.74, or 10.3 percent, to $254.22, while AbbVie’s stock fell $3.41, or 5.7 percent, to $56.86.

Investors also got some news on hiring.

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since May, though the pace of applications remains at a level consistent with steady hiring, the Labor Department said.

The government will publish its monthly jobs report on Friday. Economists expect it to show that the US added 240,000 jobs in February, after adding 257,000 jobs in January.

Investors will also be watching for signs of wage growth. In January average hourly wage rose 12 cents to $24.75, a jump of 0.5 percent, the sharpest since 2008.

Further signs of strength in the labor market may prompt investors to bring forward their expectations for the timing of the Federal Reserve’s first rate increase in almost a decade.

Currently, investors expect the Fed to raise rates

by October, at the latest.

In individual stock trading, Kroger jumped $4.66, or 6.7 percent, to $74.31, after it reported better results than analysts were expecting. AP

world companies

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shots fired! roach vs mayweather Sr. Sports S, M , 

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

FREDDIE ROACH (right), in this file photo training with Manny Pacquiao, takes a jab on Floyd Mayweather Sr. (inset) as the two camps prepare for the mega fight on May 2. MTC

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PACQUIAO TRAINER ROACH USES FIGHTING WORDS ABOUT MAYWEATHER

SHOTS FIRED! T

B L P Los Angeles Times

RAINER Freddie Roach knows how to press mental buttons.

When asked recently what his fighter Manny Pacquiao’s major advantage over the unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. is in their coming May 2 superfight, Roach heated up a simmering rivalry by saying it was the presence of Mayweather’s father, Floyd Sr., as lead trainer.

“I love that matchup,” Roach, a recently named trainer of the year by the Boxing Writers Association of America for the seventh time, said of his battle with the elder Mayweather over a winning fight strategy.

“I’ve watched [Mayweather Sr.] in the corner.

He stutters, has trouble staying calm, and can’t get words out.”

Then, inflaming the always volatile Mayweather family rivalry, Roach tossed in a Molotov cocktail, saying Mayweather Jr. was better trained by his uncle, Roger Mayweather, Floyd Sr.’s brother.

“Roger was the better fighter, and he’s the better trainer,” Roach said. “I’m happy Floyd Sr. is the trainer, not Roger. I’d be more worried with Roger than Floyd Sr. “When I had Oscar [de la Hoya fight Mayweather Jr.], Roger made some good adjustments during the fight and he had a good game plan, too. Roger is someone to compete with. Not Floyd Sr.” Roach, with only one fight to prepare de la Hoya in 2007, sought to have the aging fighter rely on a jab de la Hoya abandoned midway through the fight and ended up losing by split decision.

Now, Roach has another shot at Mayweather Jr. (47-0) with a more powerful and equally conditioned fighter.

“Floyd is a self-made fighter, there’s no question

he knows how to fight, but, yes, I think I have the fighter to beat him,” Roach said. “Floyd Jr., in watching him, often makes the same moves over and over.

“Don’t get me wrong, they’re good moves— Mayweather knows how to survive—but I think he’s predictable. And once we really start working on the fight, I believe we can hit him.

“Manny doesn’t have the same jab as Oscar, but Manny can jab in this fight, and I believe he’ll be able to get to Floyd.”

Roach said in reviewing video it’s understandable why Mayweather Jr. has evaded further damage after receiving the heaviest blows from foes such as Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto and Marcos Maidana.

“Anything more than a two-punch combination is hard to get through, because Floyd will hit you back. You don’t want to stay in the pocket too long,” Roach said.

What will happen on May 2?

Roach predicts victory by Pacquiao, of course, anything ranging from convincing to a decision.

“If Floyd loses that fight and Manny fights the perfect fight, I don’t think Floyd will want the rematch,” Roach said. “It’s the end of his career.

“He’s so crazy about that zero. For Manny, that’s not the end of the world.”

Pacquiao has already heard such confident talk from Roach, so thankful for the detailed lessons to come that he pushed Roach to keep his commitment to train China’s Zou Shiming in his Saturday flyweight world title shot in Macao on HBO2.

Pacquiao came to Hollywood earlier than planned this last week, spending time with conditioning coach Justin Fortune in Roach’s absence and then phoning Roach on Wednesday to sing him “Happy Birthday,” for the trainer’s 55th.

“My day is complete,” Roach said.

HOLMES OPENS 4SHOT LEAD AT BLUE MONSTER DOUG FERGUSON The Associated Press

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J.B. HOLMES hits on the second fairway as he grabs the lead of the Cadillac Championship golf.

ORAL, Florida—J.B. Holmes never liked the old Blue Monster at Doral because he thought it was too easy for a World Golf Championship (WGC).

He said this with a straight face on Thursday, after a 10-under 62 that tied the tournament record at the Cadillac Championship gave him a four-shot lead, and left the rest of this world-class field to wonder just how he managed. “I was able to hit the shots where I envisioned and hit good shots, and today the putter was on,” Holmes said. “Put that combination together, you do everything pretty good, you’re going to shoot a good score.”

He made it sound as easy as it looked. Except that Trump National Doral wasn’t all that easy for everyone else.

Rory McIlroy again felt tentative with his swing and shot 40 on his opening nine holes before

finishing without a par on his last six holes—an eagle, three birdies and two bogeys that allowed him to salvage a 73. The world’s No. 1 player has shot 73-74-73 in his three rounds in Florida this year.

Phil Mickelson shot 74 and failed to make a birdie for the first time in 186 rounds on the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour, dating to the final day at Olympic Club in the 2012 US Open.

“Ten under? You’re joking,” Shane Lowry said after a hard-fought 71.

Ryan Moore was hanging with him until he hit his tee shot into the water on the par-5 18th hole and made double bogey. He still had a 66.

“It was a very fair test of golf,” Moore said. “I mean, it’s difficult, but you can make some birdies.”

Dustin Johnson ran off four birdies in a five-hole stretch on the back nine and was at 68, along with Alexander Levy of France and Rickie Fowler, who thought his round was solid. “To shoot 68 in some tough conditions on a tough golf course and be six back, wouldn’t really expect that,” Fowler said.

Henrik Stenson, making his American debut, had six birdies and joined Phoenix Open winner Brooks Koepka at 69. The group at 70 included Adam Scott, who used a conventional putter for the first time in just over four years.

Holmes last played at Doral in 2010, missing time with injuries, not the least of which was surgery to remove a piece of his skull in 2011. Gil Hanse renovated the Blue Monster to make it more sensational with so much water hugging the fairways and greens. That was never an issue for Holmes. He finished his round with an 8-foot par putt, which he said was the closest he came to bogey all day. “By about 5 feet,” he said.

The start was nothing short of deal. Holmes twoputted for birdie on the par-5 10th, holed a 35-foot birdie putt on the 11th, and then smashed a drive downwind on the 603-yard 12th hole. He hit 6-iron thinking he might be able to clear the bunker, and it turned out better than he imagined, a foot away from the hole for an eagle.

sports

Students paint a peace mural during an interfaith rally to call for unity and peace in southern Philippines on Friday at a park in Quezon City. Peace advocates are calling on the government and the Muslims to sit together to call for the passage of the Bangsamoro basic law, which was postponed indefinitely, following the killing of 44 Special Action Force elite police commandos in what officials say was an accidental clash with Muslim rebels. AP/Bullit Marquez

Thai court sentences 15 Red Shirts to jail for 2009 rioting

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P25.00 nationwide | 6 sections 28 pages | 7 days a week

More Filipinos pushed into poverty by supertyphoon Yolanda, higher food prices

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Tuesday, November 2014 10 No. Saturday, March 7,18, 2015 Vol.Vol. 10 No. 14940

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ANGKOK — A Thai court has sentenced 15 members of the Red Shirt political movement to four years in prison for inciting rioting that disrupted an important regional conference in 2009, a lawyer said.

The sentencing by a court in Pattaya on Thursday was the latest blow against supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a military coup in 2006 after being accused of corruption and

PESO exchange rates n US 44.1590

disrespect for the king.

Those sentenced included two of the group’s more senior leaders, Worachai Hema, a former pro-Thaksin lawmaker, and Arisman Pongruangrong, a popular former pop singer-turnedfirebrand, their lawyer Karom Polpornklang said on Friday. Two of the 15 were absent for the sentencing, and the others were held after an initial denial of bail.

See “Red Shirts,” A2

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he Philippines should consider the removal of the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice to bring down the price of the staple, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said on Friday.

Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said making rice cheaper would help temper inflation, which picked up in the first half of 2014 due to higher food prices. The increase in food prices was cited by the government as a significant factor behind the rise in the country’s poverty incidence.

“While we definitely need to support the agriculture sector in general, we should also maximize the gains from trade and globalization,” said Balisacan, who is also director general of the Neda.

“The private sector should be allowed to take the driver’s seat, while government simply facilitates the access to both the import and export markets,” he added.

The Neda said rice prices grew by nearly 12 percent in the first semester of 2014 from 1.7 percent in the same period in 2013 due to tight supply caused by lower harvests and less imports.

“At a time when the world price of rice was declining, the domestic price of rice was skyrocketing,” Balisacan said.

Neda noted that rice is a staple food for low-income and vulnerable families, usually accounting for 20 percent of their budget.

“Higher food prices resulted in a huge increase in poverty thresholds,” said Balisacan.

The Philippines was allowed by the World Trade Organization to extend the QR on rice until 2017.

BALISACAN: “While we definitely need to support the agriculture sector in general, we should also maximize the gains from trade and globalization.”

The QR enabled Manila to limit the entry of cheap-rice imports into the country.

The government said it sought the extension of the QR to protect rice farmers.

The tariffication of the country’s rice QR has also been recommended by state-owned think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (Pids).

The removal of the QR, the Pids said, will increase rice imports tenfold, but bring down rice prices significantly.

Aside from revisiting the QR policy, Balisacan also stressed the need to update the government’s budget for poverty-reduction programs.

“The government’s socialdevelopment programs, particularly the Conditional Cash Transfer, provided through the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program, may have provided additional support to temper the rise in poverty, but could have contributed more toward reducing poverty had the value of the grants increased with inflation,” he said.

“It is also important to ensure the timely disbursement of the budget to maximize the impact of programs and projects,” Balisacan added.

Cai U. Ordinario, with a report from PNA

Forex reserves hit $81.34B in Feb. TETANGCO: “The increase in reserves was due mainly to the national government’s net foreign-currency deposits, and the Bangko Sentral’s foreign-exchange operations and income from investments abroad.”

By Bianca Cuaresma

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he country’s front-line foreign currency reserves against potential external-sector imbalances aggregated $81.34 billion in February, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Friday.

This compared with reserves amounting only to $80.72 billion the previous month and marked the third time in a series that the stock of foreign-currency reserves had gone up.

“The increase in reserves was due mainly to the national government’s net foreign-currency deposits, and the Bangko Sentral’s foreign-exchange operations and income from investments abroad,” BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said in a statement.

In particular, the February gross international reserves (GIR) was higher than the $80.72 billion reported in January and also from the $80.54 billion reported in February See “Forex,” A2

n japan 0.3676 n UK 67.2939 n HK 5.6948 n CHINA 7.0472 n singapore 32.2140 n australia 34.5505 n EU 48.6985 n SAUDI arabia 11.7754 Source: BSP (6 March 2015)

News

BusinessMirror

Saturday, March 7, 2015

A2

Forex. . .

Continued from A1

last year. The GIR is a pool of assets the central bank maintains to underwrite maturing external obligations.

Gold, special drawing rights, foreign investments and foreign-exchange reser ves comprise the countr y’s foreign-currency buffer.

A higher level of reserves means that the country is in a better position to repay its obligations and serves as a stronger buffer against imbalances brought by external developments.

The central bank said the February GIR level was enough to cover 10.4 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and income.

It was also equivalent to 8.6 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and six times based on residual maturity.

The BSP also said the GIR could have been higher for the month if this was not partially offset by revaluation adjustments on the BSP’s gold holdings from the decrease in the price of gold in the international market, as well as by the payments made by the national government for its maturing foreignexchange obligations.

The gold holdings of the BSP dipped from $8.05 billion in January this year, down to only $7.63 billion in February 2015. Likewise, the February value of the BSP’s gold holdings was lower than the $8.33-billion level reported the same month the previous year.

Such reserves were highest in January 2013, when this aggregated $85.27 billion. Its value ebbed and flowed the past many months and had dipped from $80.87 billion in September last year to only $78.67 billion by December, for example.

Since then, the GIR has steadily climbed to $79.54 billion in January, then on to $80.72 billion the following February.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Poverty worsened in H1 2014 Continued from A1

and the cost of other basic necessities.

“During the first semester of 2014, a family of five needed at least P6,125 on the average every month to meet the family’s basic food needs and at least P8,778 on the average every month to meet both basic food and nonfood needs,” the PSA said.

The PSA said these figures indicate increases of about 9.5 percent in food threshold and 9.4 percent in poverty threshold.

Per-capita income, however, rose by only 6.4 percent in the first semester of 2014.

Among the bottom 30 percent of income-earners, the Neda said per- capita income increased by about 7.3 percent in the same period in the previous year. The fastest growth rate was observed among those in the fifth income decile, at 8.5 percent.

In the first semester of 2014, the PSA said incomes of poor families were short by 27 percent of the poverty threshold. This means that on

the average, an additional monthly income of P2,370 is needed by a poor family with five members in order to move out of poverty in the first semester of 2014.

Higher food prices caused the country’s inflation rate to hover near the higher end of the inflation target in the first half of 2014. The consumer price index for food went up to 6.5 percent and 2.7 percent for the nonfood items in the same period.

Due to high inflation, government data showed that 10

Continued from A8

or 3.5 million. Cebu ranked second with a total of 697,696 inbound visitors, or 14.43 percent, of the total air traffic in 2014. “In a span of 12 years, visitor arrivals in Cebu grew by 308 percent from 170,982 visitors in 2002. From 2010 to 2014, visitors disembarking in Cebu recorded an annual growth of 10.12 percent,” the DOT said in its report.

The Kalibo airport, likewise, showed an annual growth of some 46.9 percent from 2010 to 2014. Visitors arriving via Kalibo airport reached 411,113 last year. Arrivals via Clark accounted for almost 3 percent of total visitors by air, or 141,566 visitors, in 2014.

In terms of arrivals by sea, 12,219 went through Manila; followed by 11,989 in Palawan; 11,934 in Batangas; 10,229 in Davao; and 6,449 in Cebu.

The DOT said most of these visitors who arrived by sea were on cruise ships.

In terms of top visitor markets, South Korea remained the leading source of tourists, accounting for 24.32 percent of total inbound traffic. However, at 1.18 million arrivals in 2014, this was relatively unchanged from the

arrivals in 2013.

Previous interviews with DOT officials said Koreans are now going to destinations like Hawaii and Guam, which offer more competitive tourist rates. Second top visitor market was the United States, accounting for almost 15 percent of market share at 722,750 arrivals, a growth of 7.14 percent.

In third place was Japan, at 463,744 visitors, representing 9.6 percent of total visitor volume.

The market grew by almost 7 percent in 2014.

China arrivals declined by 7.4 percent to 394,951 last year, owing to the travel advisory by the Beijing government warning its citizens not to come to the Philippines for safety reasons.

The travel advisory was issued last September, which immediately pulled down Chinese arrivals by 50 percent in October, compared to October 2013.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Chinese Ambassador to Manila Zhao Jianhua said Chinese citizens were encouraged to come to the Philippines despite the travel advisory.

He insisted that the travel advisory “is just an advice, not an order. So we are encouraging our Chinese to come to the Philippines.”

MARCH 7, 2015 | SATURDAY

TODAY’S WEATHER

out of the 17 regions experienced double-digit increases in poverty thresholds.

The highest was observed in Region 8 with 14.2 percent, possibly due to the lingering effects of Supertyphoon Yolanda. This was followed by the National Capital Region with 13.5 percent. The PSA said the Apis did not include sample households from Batanes and Leyte.

To be comparable, the PSA did not include the poverty statistics of the two provinces in the 2013 poverty estimates.

MAR 8 SUNDAY

The travel advisory has kept Chinese tour groups away from the Philippines, forcing Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific to cancel their charter services to China.

The DOT pointed out that, despite the lower arrivals, China remained the fourth-largest source market for tourists, accounting for 8.2 percent.

In fifth place was Australia with 224,784 arrivals, representing a 4.65-percent market share, and growing by 5.5 percent from its 2013 volume.

Other top markets were Singapore with 179,099 arrivals (up by 2.32 percent from 2013); Canada 143,899 (up 9.53 percent); Taiwan 142,973 (up 2.8 percent); Malaysia 139,245 (up 27.24 percent), the United Kingdom 133,665 (up 8.9 percent); Hong Kong 114,100 (down 9.5 percent); and Germany 72,801 arrivals (up 2.61 percent).

The DOT reported that Korean visitors spent the most at P61.02 billion during their stay in the Philippines, accounting for 33 percent of all tourism receipts, followed by the US at P41.43 billion, Australia P13.94 billion, Japan P10.7 billion and Canada P8.5 billion.

Average daily expenditures of foreign visitors in 2014 rose by 7.11 percent to P4,592.12.

MAR 9 MONDAY

METRO MANILA

21 – 32°C

20 – 32°C

TUGUEGARAO

20 – 33°C

20 – 33°C

MAR 10 TUESDAY

“The accused were found guilty on multiple charges, including causing unrest, leading more than 10 people to do or threaten to do an act of violence, and trespassing,” Karom told the Associated Press. “We are hoping to bail them out as soon as we can.”

The disrupted meeting was a summit of leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, some of whom were evacuated by helicopter after the Red Shirt mob broke into the hotel hosting the conference. The protesters, numbering about 2,000, were demanding that then-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva call new elections because they felt he came to office illegitimately after two prime ministers they supported were forced from office under questionable circumstances.

Thaksin and his allies have won every national election since 2001. His sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, was forced from the prime minister’s job last year by a controversial court ruling just before another military coup toppled the government.

Thaksin’s supporters believe the country’s traditional establishment—led by royalists and the military—fears his popularity and is attempting to reduce his influence.

Their suspicions are fueled by a pattern of court rulings that have condemned Thaksin’s supporters, while leaving his opponents mostly untouched. Thaksin opponents who occupied the prime minister’s office for three months in 2008 and took over Bangkok’s two airports for a week have mostly not faced justice.

The current junta and the interim government it installed, assisted by allies in state agencies and the judiciary, have taken a series of measures meant to reduce the power of Thaksin’s political machine.

A constitution that is being drafted is expected to strengthen the permanent bureaucracy—which is associated with the royalist establishment—at the expense of political parties. AP

MAR 8 3-DAY SUNDAY EXTENDED FORECAST

MAR 9 MONDAY

MAR 10 TUESDAY

20 – 31°C

METRO CEBU

24 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

24 – 32°C

19 – 32°C

TACLOBAN

23 – 31°C

23 – 31°C

23 – 31°C

20 – 29°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO

22 – 31°C

23 – 31°C

23 – 31°C

24 – 33°C

24 – 33°C

24 – 34°C

24 – 34°C

24 – 34°C

24 – 33°C

WEAK NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING EXTREME NORTHERN LUZON (AS OF MARCH 6, 5:00 PM)

Northeast Monsoon locally known as “Amihan”.

It affects the eastern portions of the country. It is cold and dry; characterized by widespread cloudiness with rain showers.

LAOAG

LAOAG CITY 21 – 30°C

SBMA/CLARK 22 – 33°C METRO MANILA 21 – 32°C

TAGAYTAY CITY 19 – 29°C

21 – 30°C

20 – 30°C

BAGUIO

14 – 25°C

13 – 25°C

13 – 24°C

METRO DAVAO

SBMA/ CLARK

22 – 33°C

21 – 33°C

21 – 32°C

ZAMBOANGA

TUGUEGARAO CITY 19 – 33°C

BAGUIO CITY 14 – 24°C

TAGAYTAY

20 – 30°C

20 – 30°C

LEGAZPI ILOILO/ BACOLOD 23 – 30°C METRO CEBU 24 – 31°C

TACLOBAN CITY 23 – 30°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 22 – 31°C

ZAMBOANGA CITY 23 – 33°C

24 – 31°C

24 – 31°C

23 – 30°C

SUNSET

MOONSET

MOONRISE

6:10 AM

6:05 PM

6:52 AM

7:18 PM

HALF MOON FULL MOON

24 – 31°C

23 – 31°C

23 – 30°C

ILOILO/ BACOLOD

24 – 31°C

24 – 31°C

24 – 31°C

MAR 14

CELEBES SEA

5:43 AM

0.10 METER 2:05 AM 1:48 AM Partly cloudy to at times cloudy with rain showers and/or thunderstorms Partly cloudy to at times cloudy with rainshowers

Partly cloudy skies Cloudy to at times cloudy with rain showers and/or thunderstorms

Weekday hourly updates: 6:00 AM on Balitaan, 7:00 AM & 8:00 AM on Good Morning Boss!, 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM on News@1, 3:00 PM, 4:30 PM, and 6:00 PM on News@6

www.panahon.tv

SABAH

LOW TIDEMANILA HIGH TIDE SOUTH HARBOR

MAR 6

PUERTO PRINCESA

Watch PANAHON.TV everyday at 5:00 AM on PTV (Channel 4).

METRO DAVAO 24 – 32°C

SUNRISE 19 – 30°C

LEGAZPI CITY 24 – 30°C

PHILIPPINE AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (PAR)

Continued from A1

DOT misses visitor targets anew on lower Chinese, Korean arrivals

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 24 – 31°C

Red Shirts. . .

@PanahonTV

11:38 PM

0.77 METER

The Nation BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Saturday, March 7, 2015

A3

‘Tingting behind drive to discredit ’13 polls’

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By Joel San Juan

ORMER Tarlac Gov. Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco, an aunt of President Aquino, was accused on Friday as the mastermind in the campaign to discredit the 2013 national and local elections.

In an affidavit filed before the Commission on Elections, Cojuangco’s former executive assistant, Worthy Acosta said his former emplyer was the one who conceptualized scenario to show there was massive fraud in the last elections by stealing and tampering the ballots sourced from Baguio City.

In his affidavit, Acosta said Cojuangco “was ably assisted by former Lakas Rep. Glenn Chong of Biliran in the efforts to show that there was poll fraud that attended the last elections.”

“I, Tingting, Glenn and the others started making propaganda materials such as Powerpoint presentations, leaflets and video clips exposing election fraud in the automated elections,” Acosta said in his affidavit.

“The intention of this propaganda is to convince the public to rally behind our cause and against the automated election system. The goal in view is to mobilize supporters and sow dissatisfaction toward the present administration using

the issue of massive election fraud,” he added.

The propaganda materials include the video recording showing an anonymous person detailing supposed fraud in the automated elections and powerpoint presentation showing tampered ballots and other questionable documents that would support the 60-30-10 pattern of election rigging, among others.

Baguio operation

ACOSTA said she was instructed by Cojuangco, upon the suggestion of Chong, to go to Baguio City sometime in June 2013 for the purpose of retrieving ballots that were supposedly enough to prove election fraud.

He said Cojuangco already made arrangments with former Lakas Rep. Bernie Vergara of Baguio, who he said was eager to prove election fraud after only placing third in the May 2013 elections.

Acosta said that, after meeting with Vergara, their group went to the warehouse with people from the City

Treasurer’s Office who were tasked to safeguard the ballot boxes.

“I put the ballots inside my backpack, closed the ballot box and carefully placed the packaging tape back around it. I carried it back to the corner, where it was stacked,” Acosta said.

With the ballots in their possesion, Acosta said Chong instructed him to tamper the ballots and make it look like Vergara was defrauded and show that his true number of votes were not reflected in the Election Return of the ballot box concerned.

It was also during their nationwide campaign in different schools and universities on election fraud that the propaganda materials were allegedly used by Cojuangco and her allies.

Several meetings, according to Acosta, were also held in Cojuangco’s home on Acacia Street, Dasmarinas Village, Makati City, where different personalities were present and various issues aside from election fraud were discussed.

Gloria allies

AMONG those who allegedly attended the meetings were alies of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, namely, Norberto Gonzales, retired Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, former congressman Amado Bagatsing, Greco Belgica, Christian Señeres, Samson Alcantara, Jarius Bondoc, Chit Pedrosa, Bel Cunanan and Toti Casiño.

“It was very evident from discussions with Tingting, as well as her actions, that she despises her

nephew, President Aquino,” Acosta said in his affidavit.

“As such, Tingting holds interest in any issue that reflects negatively on the present administration, especially the President, and not just in the 2013 elections,” he added.

Later on, Acosta said he learned that the personalities meeting at Cojuangco’s residence were part of the so-calledd National Transformation Council (NTC), which is spearheading calls for Aquino to step down from office.

Acosta said he left the camp of Cojuangco in June 2014 after he was accused by the latter of malversation.

Eventually, he approached then Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes, upon the suggestion of Liberal Party Rep. Rogelio Espina of Biliran, to offer his testimonies in exchange of security against the threats of Chong and Cojuangco.

Ruling on Smartmatic alarms poll watchdog

ELECTION watchdog Citizens for Clean and Credible Elections (C3E) onThursday expressed alarm over the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec)-Bids and Awards Committee to disqualify Smartmatic -Total Information Management and Indra Sistemas S.A. in the bidding for the P2.5 billion contract for the lease of Election Management System (EMS) and Precinct-Based Optical Mark Reader (OMR), which include the acquisition of additional 23,000 voting machines.

In a statement, C3E warned against the Comelec’s failure to iden-

tify the more compelling and solid grounds to exclude Smartmatic-TIM from the bidding.

Smartmatic was disqualified by the Comelec BAC for having submitted a bid with no indication of a price or at least a zero on several items.

But the C3E coconvenor Alain Pascua said Smartmatic-TIM should have been disqualified much earlier for other glaring violations.

“Glaring is the hairline ground for which Smartmatic was disqualified even on the face of its blatant violations and more compelling grounds of ineligibility,” Pascua said.

Pascua noted than a complaint seeking to blacklist Smartmatic from participating in any biddding process in the Comelec was filed on the ground that it lacks legal capacity to participate in the bidding, owing to its infirm documentation filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

It states in the SEC registration that the primary purpose of the Joint Venture between Smartmatic and TIM was to provide automated election services for the 2010 national elections, which essentially invalidates them from participating outside the 2010 elections.

Nicanor Elman, also of C3E, also lamented how Smartmatic managed to get past numerous issues on electoral fraud, digital lines faulty transmission and flawed documents.

“People have now begun asking whether there would even be an election in 2016 at all. And with all that is happening, we cannot fault them for thinking that way,” Elman said.

Bandits kidnap two teachers

Former gunnery man recognizes photos of sunken Japanese battleship

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SHIZUHIKO HARAGUCHI, 93, a former crew member of the Japanese battleship Musashi that sank during World War II, speaks about a wreckage discovery of the Musashi on the seabed in the waters off the Philippines, at his home in Minamishimabara in Nagasaki Prefecture, southern Japan. Haraguchi said on Thursday he recognized photos of wreckage discovered this week off the Philippines by a team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The scale model seen in the background is of another Japanese battleship Nagato. AP

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BU Sayyaf bandits kidnapped on Thursday two public-school teachers who were on their way to work in Zamboanga Sibugay, police said.

Insp. Dahlan Samuddin, acting information officer of the Western Mindanao police command, identified the victims as Reynadit Bagonoc Silvano, 34, and Russel Bagonoc, 22, both of Barangay Moalboal, Talusan, Zamboanga Sibugay.

The victims were both teachers at Barangay Tuburan Elementary School, Tuburan, Talusan. Samuddin said the two victims were snatched at around 3 p.m. on Thursday while they were on their way to the Tuburan school aboard a blue Honda XRM motorcycle.

He identified the suspects as brothers Naim Sabdani, Mansul Sabdani and Amadan Sabdani, all of barangay Moalboal, and three Abu Sayyaf bandits, one of them identified as Edimar Isnain.

Samuddin said the suspects blocked the path of the victims’ motorcycle, dragged the two teachers and fled toward a still undetermined direction aboard a motorized pump boat.

“Responding elements of Talusan

Municipal Police Station, upon arrival at the area recovered the motorcycle of the victims, which was left near Moalboal Elementary School, more or less 100 meters from the coastal area,” he said.

“The suspects’ motorcycles were also recovered near the basketball court of the barangay hall, more or less 200 meters from the place where the victim’s motorcycle was recovered,” Samuddin added.

He said that during the investigation, it was established that the area, where the Sabdanis left their motorcycle was adjacent to the house of their sister identified as Kapdul Hadjiula, who was invited by policemen for questioning.

The woman confessed that it was her three brothers and the three others from Sulu who abducted the victims.

She also reportedly admitted that the three companions of her three brothers were members of the Abu Sayyaf operating in Sulu and Basilan.

Another witness identified as Pedrico Lumingcos, who lived near the area where the kidnaping occurred, saw the incident and confirmed the identities of the suspects. Rene Acosta

PDEA INTENSIFIES ANTI-MARIJUANA DRIVE THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Friday reported that the number of marijuana cultivation sites that were destroyed nationwide has notably increased in 2014. Pdea said that a total of 506 marijuana plantations were destroyed in 2014, resulting in the destruction of P397.04 million worth of marijuana plants and sources, and the arrest of five drug personalities. The 2014 figure compares favorably with 451 plantations destroyed in 2013, an increase of 12.2 percent.

“From 2010 to 2014, a total of 1,481 marijuana plantation sites, mostly found in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), were eradicated by PDEA and other law-enforcement agencies,” PDEA Director General Undersecretary Arturo G. Cacdac Jr. said. PNA

WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN 2016 ELECTIONS SEN. Pia Cayetano pushed on Friday for the fielding of more women candidates by political parties in the 2016 elections to help increase the voice of women in governance and policy-making in the country.

Cayetano, chairman of the Senate Committee on Women, Gender and Family Relations, made the call ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8 and the filing of certificates of candidacies this October for the 2016 elections.

“Despite all the gains that women have achieved in society, they continue to be grossly underrepresented in the realm of politics. There are only six women out of 24 members in the Senate, or 25 percent, and 79 out of 289 members in the House of Representatives, or 27 percent,” she said.

“At the local level, women’s representation is even lower. They occupy 22 percent of gubernatorial posts; 18 percent of vice gubernatorial posts; 18 percent of provincial board seats; 21 percent of mayoralty posts; 20 percent of city councils;” and 20 percent of municipal councils. On the average, only one in five elected local executives is a woman,” she added. PNA

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OKYO—A former crew member on a Japanese battleship that sank during World War II said on Thursday he recognized photos of wreckage discovered this week off the Philippines by a team, led

by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen.

Shizuhiko Haraguchi served as a gunnery officer on the Musashi, one of the largest battleships in history, when it was being fitted in Japan before it departed for the Pacific in 1943.

He said he recognized underwater photos taken by Allen’s team of a large gun turret and a catapult system used to launch planes.

“I recognized that main turret, which I was assigned to,” Haraguchi, 93, said in a telephone interview from his home in Nagasaki in southern Japan, where the ship was built, fitted and tested. “I felt very nostalgic when I saw that.”

The Musashi had nine 46-centimeter (18-inch) guns, which were each 20 meters (66 feet) long, he said.

Haraguchi said other details released by Allen convinced him that the wreckage was that of the Musashi.

He said a round base shown in a photo of the bow was where a chrysanthemum decoration used to be, an Imperial seal that only battleships were allowed to carry.

Allen said his team found the battleship at a depth of 1 kilometer (3,280 feet) in the Sibuyan Sea using an autonomous underwater vehicle following more than eight years of study.

Allen called the Musashi an “engineering marvel” and said he was honored to have found a key ship in naval history.

Historians and military experts praised the apparent discovery of the legendary battleship after 70 years, saying it would help promote interest in World War II studies. A group supporting navy veterans said survivors would want to hold a memorial service at the site.

Haraguchi left the ship just

before its departure because he was transferred to an aviation unit in eastern Japan.

The discovery on Sunday of the battleship comes as the world this year marks the 70th anniversary of the war’s end.

The Musashi, commissioned in 1942, sank in October 1944 in the Sibuyan Sea during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, losing about half of its 2,400 crew members. Only a few hundred eventually returned home alive. The ship was hit repeatedly by torpedoes and bombs dropped by planes from Allied aircraft carriers.

The naval battle, considered the largest of World War II, crippled the Imperial fleet, cut off Japanese oil supplies and allowed the US invasion of the Japanese-held Philippines.

“The discovery of the Musashi was really a nice surprise,” Haraguchi said. “It was as if the spirits of her crew members who sank with her were telling us to remember them for the 70th anniversary.” AP

Drilon seeks P4-million fine for treason

By Jelly F. Musico Philippines News Agency

S

ENATE President Franklin M. Drilon has filed a bill proposing to penalize a person who commits treason with a maximum amount of P4 million instead of P20,000 under the 85-year-old Revised Penal Code.

In Senate Bill 2680, Drilon seeks to adjust the threshold amounts used in determining the criminal liability for various crimes and the amount of imposable fines under the Revised Penal Code, which was enacted in 1930.

Drilon, a lawyer and former justice secretary, said it is high time that the Revised Penal Code, considered the bedrock of the Philippine criminal justice system, be amended to today’s values “to make it more reflective of the present political, socioeconomic and cultural settings.”

“Eighty years had inevitably dulled the edge of a once sharp measure. The penalties and fines for various crimes under the Revised Penal Code are no longer commensurate to the crime committed,” Drilon said.

He said that if the penal law were not amended now, it runs the risk of violating the constitutional prohibition against cruel and excessive punishment, particularly for crimes involving amounts which by today’s standards are already petty.

“The P200 our elders had in their pockets back in the 1930s surely had higher value than the P200 in our wallets today,” Drilon explained.

“Even the Supreme Court, in Lito Corpuz vs People of the Philippines, turned the spotlight on the perceived injustice brought about by the range of penalties that the courts continue to impose on crimes committed today, based on the amount of damage measured by the value of money 80 years ago,” Drilon said.

“This proposed measure aims to restore the proportionality of the crime to the punishment by revising the amounts set in the various provisions of the Revised Penal Code to their present values,” he added.

Under the present law, a person found guilty of swindling or estafa would face imprisonment ranging from four years and two months up to 12 years, even if the amount involved is only P12,000 to P22,000. For the same amount, a thief would be jailed for up to eight years.

The Drilon bill will, likewise, increase the fines for various crimes to deter criminality in the country.

“The deterring effect of the imposable fines under the current criminal code has diminished through the years due to various factors such as inflation,” Drilon added.

“If we are to curb criminality, we need to enforce tougher but fair, just and reasonable penalties and monetary fines.

These can only be done by amending the Revised Penal Code, which, since its enactment in 1930 remains virtually unchanged with only piecemeal amendments incorporated through the years,” Drilon also said. If Senate Bill 2680 becomes a law, the P5 fine imposed by the present Revised Penal Code will be increased to P1,000, while the P22,000 maximum fine will be increased to P4.4 million.

For conspiracy and proposal to commit coup d’état, rebellion or insurrection, the maximum imposable fine will be increased to P1.6 million from P8,000; for maltreatment of prisoners, it will be P100,000 instead of P500; for unlawful arrest, it will become P100,000 from P500; for indirect assault, the maximum imposable fine will be P100,000 from P500; and for falsification by private individuals and use of falsified documents, it will be P1 million from P5,000.

“In undertaking these changes to an archaic law, we intend to craft a sound, fair and effective policy against criminality that reflects a proper balance among the established goals of criminal justice,” Drilon said. With Recto Mercene

Economy

A4 Saturday, March 7, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

K to 12 program seen to cost govt over P30 billion a year until 2020

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By Cai U. Ordinario

he government must spend over P30 billion a year until 2020 to meet the public classroom and staffing needs under the K to 12 Program, according to a study released by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).

billion over the SY 2018 [to] 2020 period,” Manasan said.

“Allowing HEIs [higher education institutions] to offer the SHS program, at least in the interim, is a win-win solution,” she added.

Allowing higher education institutions to offer the SHS will enable the Department of Education (DepEd) to construct classrooms on a staggered basis.

The author also stated that it would prevent private HEIs from retrenching faculty members who will have no students in the 2016 to 2019 period.

She also said the current HEI faculty has the teaching expertise to lecture on higher-level subjects required in the new SHS curriculum.

Manasan added that this will ensure that the resources of state universities and colleges are put to optimum use instead of being underutilized.

“Note that the K to 12 law allows HEI faculty to teach in the SHS program even if they have not passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers,” she said.

Manasan said if the DepEd does not adopt these recommendations, it needs the additional funds to build another 27,000 classrooms in 2016 to 2017, and 23,812 for 2017 to 2018.

This is despite having around 10,000 classrooms in private junior high schools to be available for the SHS program in SY 2016-2017.

Despite this, the K to 12 Program will still cause a shortfall of 9,000 classrooms.

The study also stated the DepEd has to hire close to 46,000 new teachers in 2016 and some 38,700 more for the SHS program in SY 2017 to 2018.

“In SY 2017-2018, these numbers would have increased to 1.5 million

places in public and private HEIs, equivalent to 37,433 classrooms,” the study stated.

Manasan said, however, the DepEd can get some reprieve in terms of spending at least for additional classrooms. She said public and private HEIs can provide 21,600 classrooms in SY 2016 to 2017 for use of the SHS program.

If all the available places in HEIs were made available to the SHS program, the total classroom requirement for the SHS program in public schools would drop by 57 percent to 11,572 in SY 2016-2017 from 26,955 with pure DepEd provision.

Manasan said if only 50 percent of the available places in HEIs are made available for the SHS program in the public sector, then the total classroom requirement in public SHS would drop by 35 percent to 17,454 in SY 2016 to 2017.

In a policy note, titled “K to 12 reform: Implications of adding Grades 11 and 12 on the higher education subsector,” PIDS senior research fellow Rosario G. Manasan said the government must add some 23,812 classrooms and 38,708 teachers for

school year (SY) 2017 to 2018 period.

“The budgetary support needed for the SHS [senior high school]program is estimated to be equal to P27 billion in SY 2015-2016, P37 billion in SY 2016-2017, P28 billion in SY 2017-2018, and an average of P33

BI affirms citizenship of PCCI official

LTFRB lowers taxi flag-down rate from P40 to P30

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HE Bureau of Immigration (BI) has issued a resolution affirming the Filipino citizenship of business executive and Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) board member Joseph Sy. Sy’s deportation was earlier sought by a group of“concerned citizens of Zambales” led by Nestor Cas for allegedly falsifying public documents and simulated his birth so he could pass himself off as a Filipino qualified to control firms that are into mining, a partly nationalized industry where foreigners are not allowed to hold a controlling ownership.

In a news statement, the PCCI said the resolution was approved by BI Chairman Siegfred Mison and Commissioners Gilberto Repizo and Abdullah Mangotara on Februuary 26. The commissioners affirmed a similar conclusion by the members of the Board of Special Inquiry of the BI after evaluation of evidence.

The commissioners held that Sy did not merely rely on the presumption of the validity of his birth certificate but also submitted other documents to substantially establish his Philippine citizenship. Joel R. San Juan

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

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ARES for taxi services around the Philippines will be P10 lower starting on Monday after the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) ordered the reduction on Friday due to the prevailing decline in oil prices in the world market.

LTFRB Chairman Winston M. Ginez said the flag-down rates for taxis will be lowered to P30 from P40, but charges for every succeeding 300 meters will remain at P3.50. Ginez said the LTFRB office decided to reduce the fares for taxi services based on the petition filed by Rep. Manuel M. Iway of Negros Oriental on December 17. The lawmaker used to sit on the board of the agency.

Oppositions were raised during the public hearings conducted in January, Ginez said, but said the LTFRB decided to grant the temporary relief to commuters on the account of the continuous decline of fuel pump prices.

“While this board as a regulatory agency, has in mind the interest and concerns of public land transport operators, we need to be more

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p1t allotted for airport, train infra improvement–dotc exec

A senator has asked government agencies not to overlook the current user experience of the public in airports and train stations, even as they are focused on the long-term programs to improve the country’s transportation infrastructure.

Sen. Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV made this statement at a Senate committee hearing attended by Department of Transportation and Communications officials, led by Undersecretary Rene Limcaoco, who revealed that almost P1 trillion worth of infrastructure projects that will improve the country’s rail, airport and mass-transit systems are already in the pipeline.

“While we need to ensure on the progress of these development projects to make sure that we reach these timelines, it is also important to look at the current experiences of our passengers and commuters in our airports and trains,” said Aquino, referring to the long queues in airports and commuter-train stations. Recto Mercene

philhealth members can now check accuracy of data through m.i.f.

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

(PhilHealth) said on Friday that its members may now check on the accuracy of their member data records through a newly launched facility in the corporation’s web site.

PhilHealth President and CEO Alexander A. Padilla said checking of data records can be done through the member inquiry facility (MIF) found on the homepage of www.philhealth.gov. ph. which was launched as part of PhilHealth’s 20th anniversary celebration last month.

MAKATI EXTENDS ASSISTANCE TO PAROLA, TONDO FIRE VICTIMS

GoNegosyo Summit Founding trustee of GoNegosyo Joey A.Concepcion (left) delivers his welcome message to the thousands of participants of the Seventh GoNegosyo Filipina Entreprenuership Summit on Friday at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. PNA

mindful of our primary mandate of serving the interest of the riding public,” he said.

The official explained that his office “considered reports and economic analysis of various government agencies,” before deciding to grant Iway’s petition.

Local oil companies have been implementing rollbacks in fuel prices due to the substantial decrease of pump prices in the world market.

In the first few months of 2015,

the cost for a liter of gasoline has declined by P3.90, while for diesel, P3.75, and for LPG, P3.07.

“Taking into proper account and consideration of the recommendation of these government agencies, the confluence of circumstances and incidents that transpired in local and world economy or market, and the rights of public land transport operators vis-à-vis the interest of the public in general, the board is now constrained to issue

this order,” Ginez said.

In the event that prices of oil increase to a level that transport operators are prejudiced, the LTFRB, Ginez said, will not, likewise, hesitate to review and study the order.

Taxi operators and drivers violating the order will be penalized under the Joint Administrative Order No. 2014-01 or the Revised Schedule of Fines and Penalties for Violations of Laws, Rules and Regulations governing Land Transportation.

The city government of Makati on Friday donated some 5,000 relief packs and provided free medical services, medicines and safe drinking water to fire victims at the Parola compound in Tondo, Manila.

Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin S. Binay, together with former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, led the distribution of relief goods to the families affected by two successive fires that struck the compound on Monday and Tuesday. “We feel for the families who have lost their homes and possessions. Right now, they need all the help they can get to cope with their difficult situation, including food, safe drinking water and medical services,” Binay said. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Albay’s Green Economy Private sector lists initiatives earns Hollande’s respect to help SMEs in Asia Pacific

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lbay’s Green Economy Program, which has enabled the Bicol province to make significant economic gains over the last eight years despite its constant battering by natural calamities brought about by climate change, has earned the attention and respect of French President François Hollande during his recent February 26 and 27 state visit.

Hollande’s state visit and inspection of Ground Zero of Supertyphoon Yolanda in Tacloban City was aimed to drum up support for world action on climate change ahead of France’s hosting of the 21st Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 21) in Paris in December this year.

The French embassy invited Albay Gov. Joey Salceda to present his climate change-based Albay Green Economy Program at a state dinner tendered by President Aquino in Malacañang for Hollande and his delegation.

Albay’s Green Economy is a pioneering program on sustainable economic development and poverty alleviation anchored on environment protection and enhancement. Salceda made a presentation of the program, along with his province’s much acclaimed climate-change adaptation (CCA) and disaster-risk reduction (DRR) strategies.

Salceda summarized Albay’s Green Economy gains as follows: Zero casualty during disasters; increased forest cover by 88 percent in seven years; increased mangrove areas from 700 hectares to 2,400 hectares; hiked rice production from 147,291 metric tons in 2008 to 200,088 metric tons in 2013; despite weather disturbances, contributed 250 megawatts of geothermal power to national power grid; investments in environment; enhanced ecotourism, which hiked foreign tourists inflow from 8,700 in 2006 to 339,000 in 2013.

As Bicol Regional Development Council (RDC) chairman and applying the green economic principle, Salceda has transformed the region into the fastestgrowing region in 2013 with a 9.4-percent growth, higher than the 7.4-percent national average growth rate. Albay Green Economy has also earned praises from 2008 Oscar Best Actress Marion Cotillard, now a leading climate-change adaptation campaigner, who was with President Hollande’s delegation.

Salceda’s presentation was a “very passionate, beautiful speech that inspired us to make a stand...green economy is a solution to climate change, that is not only possible but imperative,” the French actress, who is now a high-profile climate-change adaptation campaigner, said. PNA

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AGAYTAY CITY—The private sector has identified 12 initiatives that could be included in the Cebu Action Plan (CAP) to help small businesses, a private-sector representative to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Business Advisory Council (Abac) said.

At a news conference at the Summit Ridge Hotel here on Thursday, Dr. Caesar Parrenas said these initiatives include the creation of a credit information system, the use of movable collaterals, and fixing trade and supply-chain financing.

Parrenas, who is a member of Abac, said one of the problems of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Asia-Pacific region, especially the medium enterprises, is that many of them do not have real-estate collaterals.

In many cases, if an enterprise does not have any real-estate collateral, it cannot get loans from banks, he said. The Abac, he said, is collating experiences from countries that have successfully initiated legal reforms that allow the use of movables as collaterals, which are very important to SMEs. But doing this is not simple, he said, adding that when policy-makers make laws, they need to create a whole operational infrastructure that would allow the use of movables

as collaterals. A searchable collateral registry must also be set up, as what Australia did for its small and medium businesses, he said.

Parrenas explained that under this setup, borrowers can register their collaterals in the Internet and lenders could check them online.

The system must be consistent, he said, adding that even in advanced economies like Japan, they have a system called “perfection system” to address issues when a company goes bankrupt.

“We are looking at the best practices that are already there and share these experiences with Asians, especially with the developing Asian economies which have expressed their interest in initiating reforms,” he said. Citing an example, he said Vietnam is carrying out reforms in this area and the Abac is providing advice. Aside from the private sector, experts from multilateral institutions, such as the International Finance Corp., have been working on these issues for many years.

Another issue that is important to SMEs is trade and supply-chain financing, Parrenas said, pointing out that there are two sets of issues in this area: regulatory issues that raise the cost and limit the availability of trade financing for SMEs, and innovations coming into the market. PNA

Wire check Linemen from the Manila Electric Co. conducts improvement and safety work on household electrical connections this week following reports that fires that broke out in some parts of Metro Manila are caused by faulty electrical wiring. Nonie Reyes

Opinion BusinessMirror

A6 Saturday, March 7, 2015

editorial

Slow down the buses

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oo often we are greeted with a news story about yet another bus accident causing injuries and loss of life. The latest occurred as 20 passengers were injured after a bus fell into a ravine in Tuba, Benguet province. In this case, it appears that the bus was “run off the road” by a speeding truck.

The Philippines has gained the reputation as a place where “rolling coffins” are allowed to operate with near impunity. We are not unique in this regard. But there is really little excuse for this to be a decades-old situation where public transportation can be so dangerous.

The Study on Speed Control of PUBs of the UP National Center for Transportation Studies (NCTS) shows that the accident rate for buses is six times greater than for cars, and five times as much for jeepney, taxi, or shuttle services.

Usually, these accidents are the result of either mechanical failure or driver negligence. The blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the bus companies. Recently, due to public outrage, government agencies have been be more aggressive in fining and suspending some bus operators from doing business. But it is not enough.

The penalties are nothing more than a financial slap on the wrist, and business goes back to normal quickly until the next accident happens.

Since 2010 it is reported that there have been nearly 11,000 bus accidents and many could have been avoided.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has the difficult task of monitoring and policing the bus companies, while, at the same time, keeping the transportation system going. But there must be ways found and implemented to reduce the carnage.

As part of a pilot program to be implemented in a few months, the LTFRB will require bus operators to install a Global Positioning System (GPS) devices on their buses. This is the recommendation of the NCTS as a viable way to discover habitual speed violators and to be able to take an appropriate response.

According to the LTFRB, an in-vehicle GPS device and communication system will continuously send speed and location data to a control center. A bus will be tagged as speeding when the in-vehicle GPS device exceeds the imposed speed limit. Bus passengers will also be able to monitor real-time speed of the bus through an on-screen display system installed in the bus.

What seems to be missing from the plan is how much and how often the bus companies are going to be penalized for their erring drivers.

The implementation will cost millions of pesos, which the bus companies and the government can afford. But it is so embarrassing to the Philippines that something as basic and simple as proper bus-driver responsibility has allowed to go unattended for so long and must be solved in this manner.

Is the stock market a good investment?

John Mangun

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OUTSIDE THE BOX

ne idea that financial-literacy gurus have absolutely gotten right is that you have an obligation to teach your children about investing. The days of making money, having a comfortable bank-account balance and waiting for your golden years are long gone.

Cash is no longer king; it is the court jester. If you are middle aged, you needed to increase your net worth every year of your productive life by 10 percent just to stay a little ahead of the game. Since 1958 the inflation rate in the Philippines has averaged 8.84 percent through 2014. While the rate has been falling substantially in the last few years, the return on investment by holding cash is still poor, with no expectations that “money” is going to be any more valuable than it is today.

However, there is a cultural bias in the Philippines against sensible investing. Filipinos have a problem accepting risk without the expectation of an unrealistic reward. While the stock market attracts very few Filipinos, pyramid scams and multilevel marketing do well here.

While deep inside most people

probably know that the pyramid scams are “too good to be true,” the large potential reward that they are promised cloud their judgment as to the risks. While we dismiss this as merely greed, it is more of wanting to hit the jackpot just one time to secure the future.

However, when it comes to the stock market, most would say that they avoid investing because it is too risky.

Some cultures want to take risks, and this can be found in the fact that risking and losing does not carry any stigma. The US is a good example of that. Business icons, like real-estate mogul Donald Trump, talk constantly about their failures and their subsequent rise from the ashes. Even Warren Buffett, whom most people think never lost any money, wrote extensively about his

bad investment decisions.

The one quality that the Filipino does have is the entrepreneurial spirit. There always seems to be a newspaper or magazine profile of that man or woman who started with an idea, worked hard and became wealthy. The risks of the business owner seem comfortable and manageable. But the risks of passive investing seem too much too handle.

The percentage of Filipinos investing in the stock market has changed very little in the last 20 years, despite the stock-market index having gone up nearly 1,000 percent.

We look at the recent list of 11 Filipino dollar billionaires with wonder and perhaps envy, perhaps not realizing that all but one holds that great wealth because of the stock market. Henry Sy may have a few billion dollars in cash and in the bank—or not—but the bulk of his wealth and that of the others is their ownership of their publicly listed companies. And that necessitates talking risks.

For example, Sy moved from an estimated net worth of $9.1 billion in 2012 to $14.2 billion in 2014, or about 60 percent higher. SM Investments Corp. share price is about 80 percent higher.

Yet, these “billionaires” are not investing in the stock market. They are investing in their own “entrepreneurial” companies.

Time for Japan to cut off Sharp William Pesek

BLOOMBERG VIEW

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ORRY, but can anyone provide a good reason why Sharp should still be in business?

As Japan Inc. icons go, the beleaguered tech giant counts as borderline royalty. Founded in 1912, the year Emperor Meiji, whose reforms transformed Japan from feudal state to capitalist power, died, Sharp was among the core engines of the nation’s global ambitions.

In 1964 Japanese reveled in Sharp’s introduction of the first transistor calculator just in time for the Tokyo Olympics—the nation’s post-World War II return to the global stage. In 1997 the Osaka-based star gave the world the first commercial camera phone, inspiring Steve Jobs in California.

Now, it’s hard to figure out a business in which Sharp can really excel. In 2012, when the company should’ve been celebrating its 100th anniversary, executives were releasing the company’s worst financial results ever (nearly $5 billion of losses). Despite a slew of cosmetic tweaks since then—raising equity from the public, selling off stakes in businesses and, in June 2013, naming a new president, Kozo Takahashi—the bleeding has not

stopped. Sharp is forecasting a $251million loss in the 12 months ending March, as its Aquos TVs struggle to compete against China, Korea and Japanese rivals like Sony.

Display panels show little promise given this voracious competition. Sharp says it’s banking on selling smartphone panels to China’s handset makers. Yet, mainland suppliers can make high-quality ones at lower prices. On Thursday the company denied reports it’s selling off its loss-making solar-panel business.

That begs the question why not. As I say, why is Sharp still with us? Banks bailed out the company in 2012, only to lose $8 billion over the next two years.

In a more conventional market economy, the company would’ve gone bust by

now—or at least been acquired. “Sharp’s core business is as bad as it could get,” analyst Atul Goyal of Jefferies Group told Bloomberg News.

Sooner or later, Japan has got to get serious about letting zombie companies like Sharp die. That would be terrible news for its 50,000 workers—and a political headache for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is already struggling to halt declines in Japanese wages. But Sharp’s woes epitomize much of what’s still wrong with Japanese business culture. It might be worth more as a sacrificial lamb than as a perpetually struggling enterprise.

Since its heyday, Sharp has overexpanded, lost track of core competencies and grown complacent, thanks to ready support from banks. While executives get most of the blame, Tokyo deserves some, too. In 2009 the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, or Meti, helped set up the Innovation Network Corp. of Japan (INCJ) to boost the nation’s entrepreneurial capital and competitiveness. Instead, the partly taxpayer-funded entity largely became a bailout mechanism for failed projects.

INCJ conjured up Japan Display out of assets from other prominent names— Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi—and then steered lots of the iPhone business to the new company. That took food right off Sharp’s plate. The company suddenly faced yet another competitor, one with ready cash from INCJ’s investment and

Yet, if you told me that you had an extra P25,000 or P50,000 each month to invest, I would not recommend the stock market. Go buy a house and lot—not a condominium.

The greatest advantage the stock market holds for an individual investor is the liquidity. But no matter how high the market may go in the next five years, you are only holding a piece of paper the value of which is subject to market-price fluctuations. A house has both intrinsic and practical value, unlike shares.

In the last 20 years the cost of building a house has increased only slightly less than the increase of the Philippine Stock Exchange index.

That is why I have always recommended, make paper-money profits in stocks and then go buy something tangible and long lasting. What you lose in liquidity you make up in reduced risk.

The stock market is a great shortterm investment, and that is the way you should think about it. Even if you buy and hold for 10 years or more, you should always be taking profits out.

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.

a 2014 initial public offering.

Sharp has remained alive mostly because of the cozy web of cross-shareholdings that bind the company and its creditors. The company’s management declared this week that it was considering “drastic reform,” including cutting executive pay by as much as 20 percent (a tired Japan Inc. maneuver that makes great headlines, but changes nothing).

In fact, the strategy looks to be a familiar one—hitting up the bankers again.

Takahashi is reportedly chatting with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial. Options may include a debtfor-equity swap. (On Friday the Nikkei reported that Sharp is also angling for $250 million from Japan Industrial Solutions, a turnaround fund partly held by Japan’s megabanks.) Sharp has some serious leverage; its bankers are stuck with more than $3 billion of Sharp debt. Takahashi’s opening line to his financiers could be: If you cut us off, you’ll get hurt, too.

Where have we heard this before?

Tokyo has found itself in this same predicament countless times over the last two decades. Continuing to prop up complacent companies takes the onus off executives to create new products and wealth that generate jobs and higher incomes. It deadens the creative destruction that chastens stagnant industries—like Japanese tech—and makes way for innovative and new ones. It’s time to break this cycle. Sharp is a great place to start.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

FDA should do its job; 16M US kids are inhaling dangerous substances

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Evangelii Gaudium

By Sarah Milov | Tribune News Service

Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

SERVANT LEADER

N 2014 the Oxford English Dictionary’s (OED) word of the year was “vape.” The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should take a hint from the OED and write its own definition of e-cigarettes—a definition that will treat them as a tobacco product.

Congress created the FDA in 1906 amid concern over the quality and purity of America’s food and drug supply, which was awash in toxic dyes and preservatives, and shaped by the outrageous claims of the era’s “patent medicines.” The agency’s creation reflected a belief that consumers could not, on their own, always make determinations about product safety, reliability and health.

In short, the FDA was made to regulate products just like e-cigarettes.

E-cigarettes have created a market that abounds in unproven health claims; a market in which more than 16 million children can legally buy e-cigs and administer unspecified amounts of nicotine to themselves; a market in which the accidental ingestion of liquid nicotine has caused a huge uptick in the number of cases reported to local poison-control centers—including the death of a toddler in upstate New York two months ago.

And it is a market that is booming. Last year analysts at Wells Fargo estimated the overall value of the ecigarette market at $2.5 billion and predicted growth to $10 billion annually by 2017.

Market growth can be attributed, in part, to aggressive marketing, and in part to high adoption rates among high-school students attracted to the variety of e-cig flavors, including cotton candy, gummy bear and root beer float. The FDA is the only agency that can regulate—not ban—this nicotinefueled juggernaut. The FDA should prohibit sales and marketing to kids, make sure that health claims made by e-cig companies are true, and require companies to add ingredient lists to e-cig juice.

This “juice”—a misleadingly benign euphemism for a flavored nicotine solution—is heated through a battery-powered cylinder, which can look like a cigarette, a pen or a kazoo.

The devices vaporize a flavored nicotine solution that users then inhale and exhale. Users inhale this flavored vapor and not combusted tobacco, which means e-cigs are safer relative to cigarettes. But, then again, cigarettes are, in the words of historian Robert Proctor, the deadliest invention in

human history, killing 6 million people per year. And herein lies the potential virtue of the e-cigarette: It could be a powerful tool for saving millions of lives if smokers switched from puffing to vaping to, ideally, nothing. As a cessation tool, e-cigarettes could have the same relationship to cigarettes as methadone does to heroin.

The problem is that the safety and health claims of e-cigarettes have not been proven. Particularly, in the online vaping community, anecdotes abound testifying to the e-cig’s utility in helping folks kick the habit. But in the words of Mitch Zeller, head of the FDA’s Tobacco Products Division, “FDA can’t make regulatory policy on the basis of anecdotal evidence.”

Preliminary evidence from a major longitudinal cohort study should give regulators pause. Initial findings from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health indicate high levels of “dual use” of tobacco products, meaning that smokers frequently use both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes.

These findings are consistent with other studies that have found that, contrary to being cessation aids, ecigarettes may actually make it harder for smokers to quit.

Nevertheless, e-cigarettes are frequently advertised as proven tools of public health. Researchers at the University of California-San Francisco found that 95 percent of e-cig web sites made “explicit or implicit health-related claims,” and 64 percent made claims directly-related to smoking cessation.

This is false advertising. Nicotine is addictive and it is a poison—two facts that the FDA should make explicit by requiring warning labels on e-cigarette devices and vials of e-juices. Dermal contact with even small quantities of liquid nicotine can cause dizziness, vomiting and seizures. Ingestion can be deadly. A world in which a dangerous product is marketed and sold as a healthy one is exactly what the FDA exists to prevent.

E-cigarettes are not snake oil. But gummy bear, cotton candy and sour apple shouldn’t make them go down any easier.

What Egypt needs now

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gypt’s top court has forced a delay in elections for parliament—a governing body the country has been going without for almost three years. Sadly, that tells the story of what’s happened to the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Under President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Egypt has proved as repressive and arbitrary as it was under the former dictator. Since 2013, when Mohamed Morsi—Egypt’s first freely elected president—was removed in a military coup, old-regime courts have either acquitted Mubarak and his henchmen or dropped most charges made against them after the revolution. Meanwhile, in mass trials, the same courts have sentenced the leaders and supporters of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood to death, though some of those sentences have since been overturned.

El-Sisi appears to believe his hardline strategy is working, and that all he needs to do to keep Egyptians happy is to shore up the economy.

But unless he can also usher in at least a measure of democratic government, he may end up with no more support than Mubarak had at the end of his rule.

In the past year-and-a-half, Gulf monarchies have provided some $23 billion in subsidies to float El-Sisi’s regime. And unlike Morsi, he has reduced budgetbusting fuel subsidies and begun to implement other economic reforms that Egypt desperately needs. This year, after four years

of flatlining, Egypt’s economy is expected to grow by 3.8 percent.

Yet, the country’s recovery remains fragile. Falling oil prices have made the Gulf nations less eager to hand out billions more in aid. Egypt needs some $60 billion in foreign direct investment over the next four years, but other investors won’t necessarily be drawn to a nation with an arbitrary rule of law, a regulatory environment rigged to benefit companies owned by the military, a perpetual Islamist insurgency, and no legislature to check the president’s powers.

Nor can El-Sisi count on his own people to wait forever—for jobs or for democracy. The Egyptians who have twice gone into the street to topple their leaders won’t accept decades more of emergency rule under a thinly veiled military dictatorship, on grounds of fighting terrorism.

When parliamentary elections finally are held, El-Sisi will need to ensure they produce more than a rubber-stamp legislature. Islamist and liberal parties who commit to the democratic process must be allowed to compete and represent their constituencies. If he is tempted to follow advice to the contrary from his oil-rich authoritarian friends in Saudi Arabia and Russia, he should recall that Egypt lacks their resources and that Mubarak’s dictatorship was overthrown when gross domestic product was expanding at an average annual rate of 6 percent. A mild economic recovery alone won’t make ElSisi secure or Egypt stable. Bloomberg

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Reasons for a renewed missionary impulse

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PIRIT-filled evangelizers are evangelizers who pray and work. Mystical notions without a solid social and missionary outreach are of no help to evangelization, nor are dissertations or social or pastoral practices, which lack a spirituality which can change hearts. These unilateral and incomplete proposals only reach a few groups and prove incapable of radiating beyond them because they curtail the Gospel What is needed is the ability to cultivate an interior space which can give a Christian meaning to commitment and activity. Without prolonged moments of adoration, of prayerful encounter with the word, of sincere conversation with the Lord, our work easily becomes meaningless; we lose energy as a result of weariness and difficulties, and our fervor dies out.

The Church urgently needs the deep breath of prayer and, to my great joy, groups devoted to prayer and intercession, the prayerful reading of God’s word and the perpetual adoration of the Eucharist are growing at every level of ecclesial life.

Even so, “we must reject the temptation to offer a privatized and individualistic spirituality which ill accords with the demands of charity, to say nothing of the implications of the incarnation.” There is always the risk that some moments of prayer can become an excuse for not offering one’s life in mission; a privatized lifestyle can lead Christians to take refuge in some false forms of spirituality.

We do well to keep in mind the early Christians and our many brothers and sisters throughout history who were filled with joy, unflagging courage and zeal in proclaiming the Gospel. Some people nowadays console themselves by saying that things are not as easy as they used to be, yet we know that the Roman Empire was not conducive to the Gospel message, the struggle for justice, or the defense of human dignity.

Every period of history is marked by the presence of human weakness, self-absorption, complacency and

selfishness, to say nothing of the concupiscence which preys upon us all. These things are ever present under one guise or another; they are due to our human limits rather than particular situations.

Let us not say, then, that things are harder today; they are simply different. But let us learn also from the saints who have gone before us, who confronted the difficulties of their own day. So, I propose that we pause to rediscover some of the reasons which can help us to imitate them today.

Personal encounter with the saving love of Jesus

THE primary reason for evangelizing is the love of Jesus which we have received, the experience of salvation which urges us to ever greater love of Him. What kind of love would not feel the need to speak of the beloved, to point Him out, to make Him known? If we do not feel an intense desire to share this love, we need to pray insistently that He will once more touch our hearts. We need to implore His grace daily, asking Him to open our cold hearts and shake up our lukewarm and superficial existence. Standing before Him with open hearts, letting Him look at us, we see that gaze of love which Nathaniel glimpsed on the day when Jesus said to him: “I saw you under the fig tree” (John 1:48).

How good it is to stand before a crucifix, or on our knees before the Blessed Sacrament, and simply to be in His presence! How much good it does us when He once more touches our lives and impels us to share His

Saturday, March 7, 2015

new life! What then happens is that “we speak of what we have seen and heard” (1 John 1:3).

The best incentive for sharing the Gospel comes from contemplating it with love, lingering over its pages and reading it with the heart. If we approach it in this way, its beauty will amaze and constantly excite us.

But if this is to come about, we need to recover a contemplative spirit which can help us to realize ever anew that we have been entrusted with a treasure which makes us more human and helps us to lead a new life. There is nothing more precious which we can give to others.

Jesus’ whole life, His way of dealing with the poor, His actions, His integrity, His simple daily acts of generosity, and, finally, His complete self-giving, is precious and reveals the mystery of His divine life. Whenever we encounter this anew, we become convinced that it is exactly what others need, even though they may not recognize it: “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23). Sometimes we lose our enthusiasm for mission, because we forget that the Gospel responds to our deepest needs, since we were created for what the Gospel offers us: Friendship with Jesus and love of our brothers and sisters. If we succeed in expressing adequately and with beauty the essential content of the Gospel, surely, this message will speak to the deepest yearnings of people’s hearts: “The missionary is convinced that, through the working of the Spirit, there already exists in individuals and peoples an expectation, even if an unconscious one, of knowing the truth about God, about man, and about how we are to be set free from sin and death. The missionary’s enthusiasm in proclaiming Christ comes from the conviction that He is responding to that expectation.”

Enthusiasm for evangelization is based on this conviction. We have a treasure of life and love which cannot deceive, and a message which cannot mislead or disappoint. It penetrates to the depths of our hearts, sustaining and ennobling us. It is a truth which is never out of date because it reaches that part of us which nothing else can reach.

Our infinite sadness can only be cured by an infinite love.

But this conviction has to be sustained by our own constantly

Making a mockery of the Constitution Cecilio T. Arillo

database

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HE peace negotiators of the Executive branch, some misguided members of Congress (Senate and House) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) appeared to have conspired to make a mockery of our Constitution, when they filed and pushed for the approval of the Bangsamoro basic law (BBL), or House Bill (HB) 4994, now awaiting deliberation in Congress.

This is so, because Congress under the Constitution does not have any power and authority whatsoever to create the Bangsamoro, an entirely new political entity, that is vastly different from that of the constitutionally ordained Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and in the Cordilleras (Article X of the Constitution).

According to Section 5, Article XIII of the proposed BBL, the ARMM shall be deemed abolished after the ratification of the BBL. The powers and functions of the ARMM are set forth in seven sections of the Constitution: Sections 1, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 21. These sections are written by the Filipino people on the pages of the Constitution, and cannot simply be erased or obliterated by Congress in favor of BBL. Former House Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia said in an article published by BizNews Asia that none can point a single article, section or

paragraph for the past 80 years out of three constitutions (the 1935, the 1973 and the present 1987 Constitutions) that had been repealed or abolished by legislation.

The BBL sought to distinguish and differentiate itself from the autonomous regions and other local government units identified and recognized under Article X of the Constitution.

Unless amended or revised by the sovereign will of the people, the Constitution must remain an inviolate, ageless and timeless document, Garcia pointed out.

Section 1 of Article VI of the proposed BBL, provides that: “The relationship between the central government and the Bangsamoro government shall be asymmetric.”

Asymmetric in layman’s language means lacking symmetry, or “having parts or aspects that are not equal or equivalent.”

So, the BBL could be interpreted as more superior than the central or

national government of the Republic of the Philippines.

“To establish an asymmetrical political relationship of Bangsamoro with the central government founded on the principles of ‘subsidiarity’ and ‘parity of system’ is an oxymoron,” Philippine Constitution Association said in the position paper recently submitted to the Senate Committee on Local Governments, chaired by Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. There’s no doubt that the BBL is flawed and cluttered with unconstitutional experimental features to replace the failed ARMM, Philconsa said. Other significant issues raised

by Philconsa are the right to selfdetermination, form of government, territorial domain, foreign affairs, internal and external security, and sources of government funds.

Driving home its point, Philconsa cited the North Cotabato case, where the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that “the people’s right to self-determination should not, however, be understood as extending to a unilateral right of secession.”

“A distinction should be made between the right of internal and external self-determination. A right to self-determination, in this case, takes the form of the assertion of a right to unilateral secession,” Philconsa quoted the SC decision.

According to the Philconsa, the SC ultimately held that the population has no right to secession, since it is not under colonial rule or foreign domination, nor is it deprived of the freedom to make political

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renewed experience of savoring Christ’s friendship and His message.

It is impossible to persevere in a fervent evangelization, unless we are convinced from personal experience that it is not the same thing to have known Jesus as not to have known Him; not the same thing to walk with Him as to walk blindly; not the same thing to hear His word as not to know it; and not the same thing to contemplate Him, to worship Him, to find our peace in Him, as not to. It is not the same thing to try to build the world with His Gospel as to try to do so by our own lights.

We know well that with Jesus, life becomes richer, and that with Him it is easier to find meaning in everything. This is why we evangelize.

A true missionary, who never ceases to be a disciple, knows that Jesus walks with him, speaks to him, breathes with him, works with him. He senses Jesus alive with him in the midst of the missionary enterprise. Unless we see Him present at the heart of our missionary commitment, our enthusiasm soon wanes, and we are no longer sure of what it is that we are handing on; we lack vigor and passion. A person who is not convinced, enthusiastic, certain and in love will convince nobody.

In union with Jesus, we seek what He seeks, and we love what He loves. In the end, what we are seeking is the glory of the Father; we live and act “for the praise of His glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:6). If we wish to commit ourselves fully and perseveringly, we need to leave behind every other motivation. This is our definitive, deepest and greatest motivation, the ultimate reason and meaning behind all we do: the glory of the Father which Jesus sought at every moment of His life. As the Son, He rejoices eternally to be “close to the Father’s heart” (John 1:18).

If we are missionaries, it is primarily because Jesus told us that “by this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit” (John 15:8). Beyond all our own preferences and interests, our knowledge and motivations, we evangelize for the greater glory of the Father who loves us.

To be continued For comments, e-mail caritas_manila@yahoo.com. For donations to Caritas Manila, call 563-9311. For inquiries, call 563-9308 or 563-9298.

Fax: 563-9306.

choices and pursue economic, social and cultural developments.

“Thet preamble of BBL confuses the Bangsamoro as either a subsidiary or equal to the central government,” Philconsa said.

Philconsa described the BBL as a product of “overcooked politics” with a national and international aftermath, “spiced with unreasoned objectives” leading to “a dysfunctional and unsustainable political system.”

“HB 4994 was fashioned as the magical legal instrument, which ironically overlooks or bypasses the constitutional and legal requisites to establish a new and singular political entity not provided in the Constitution,” Philconsa said.

The question is: Who authorized Prof. Mirriam Coronel Ferrer and Secretary Teresita Deles to negotiate with people considered as enemies of the State who produced and filed a highly questionable proposed law in Congress, knowing that the Constitution would be violated?

Another question is: Why are foreign governments allowed to interfere with purely domestic problem in clear violation of the Constitution?

Section 7, Article II of the Constitution mandates that: “The State shall pursue an independent foreign policy. In its relations with other states, the paramount consideration shall be national sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interest and the right to self-determination.”

To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio. arillo@gmail.com

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

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lucio co’s R.E. plant starts operation in nueva ecija

By Lenie Lectura

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an Jose City I (SJC-1) Power Corp., a renewable- energy (RE) firm controlled by supermarket chain owner Lucio Co, has started commercial operations of its 12-megawatt (MW) biomass facility in Nueva Ecija.

According to an official of the Department of Energy (DOE), inauguration of the power facility took place on Friday.

“We will inaugurate the first phase of San Jose’s 12MW biomass plant [Friday].

Yes, officially, the commercial operation is set [for Friday],” DOE Director for Renewable Energy Management Bureau Mario Marasigan said.

The company earlier said the power facility will be expanded by another 12 MW by 2016, although Marasigan also said the second phase of the project could happen within the year.

“It’s expected within this year.

That’s another 12 MW. It can still be expanded,” the DOE official quickly added.

The first 12-MW facility costs P1 billion. The second phase was likely to cost more or less the same, according to company Chief Operating Officer Edgardo Alfonso.

“Phase 2 is about P1 billion also. We want to utilize the excess rice husks [that are abundant] in San Jose,” he said last year.

SJC-I Power’s biomass project is considered the first project of its size and kind to use 100-percent rice husks to generate electricity. Further, Alfonso said, the project is expected to avoid the burning of about 74,000 tons of sub-bituminous coal or the emission of 40,000 tons of carbon dioxide, thus contributing in the global effort to mitigate the green house effect of harmful gasses.

Government urges businessmen to invest in Northern Mindanao

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he government asked businessmen to consider investing in Northern Mindanao’s agriculture and logistics sectors.

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Assistant Secretary Ceferino S. Rodolfo made the pitch during a recent forum where updates on the Asean Economic Community and the country’s “European Strategy” were discussed.

“Opportunities abound for growth and investment in fields such as agriculture, food processing, servicerelated industries and trade infrastructure services,” Rodolfo said in a statement.

He said the Philippines has already created open market access for industries and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through tariff-free trading across the borders of Asean and for more than 6,000 products for export to Europe. Rodolfo said Northern Mindanao “is at the cusp of a breakthrough in reaping the benefits of international trade.” Rodolfo said a major element in preparing Region 10 for increased international trade is ensuring the efficiency of the region’s logistics network.

The DTI revealed that the Mindanao International Container Terminal Services Inc. (MICT) in Cagayan de Oro has plans to expand both its berth length and container yard to help ease port

congestion in Metro Manila. MICT has a capacity of 270,000 20-foot container vans.

“Other major ports outside of Metro Manila will be the gateway of our local SMEs and industries to their foreign markets, while at the national level, the continuing initiatives to ease port congestion will improve country productivity and allow us to deftly adapt to dynamic global market needs,” Rodolfo said.

“Advancing logistics is one of the key factors to maximize the benefits of international trade. A predictable and secure logistics network will help us realize the gains from regional economic integration,” he added.

The DTI said it has also been working with other international organizations to identify specific interventions to assist the local SMEs in building capacity for production, packaging and promotion.

Rodolfo said the government is helping businessmen in Northern Mindanao via its Shared Service Facility project. Recently, the department partnered with the Hineleban Foundation Inc. to acquire postharvest and processing equipment for their famous coffee produce.

Northern Mindanao is composed of nine cities and five provinces, and is considered as the largest regional economy in the island of Mindanao.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

DOT misses visitor targets anew on lower Chinese, Korean arrivals

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

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Special to the BusinessMirror

HE Department of Tourism (DOT) confirmed that it missed its 6.8-million visitor arrivals target in 2014, primarily due to a decrease in Chinese and Korean tourists.

This, even as the Chinese embassy in Manila said on Wednesday Chinese citizens were encouraged to visit to the Philippines.

Speaking to the BusinessMirror after attending the recent roundtable with editors and reporters of the ALC Media Group, Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. said visitor arrivals reached 4.8 million last year. This was lower by 3.25 percent from the 2013 arrivals.

But he was quick to underscore that tourism receipts reached P215 billion, exceeding the DOT’s P163-billion target for the year. He said visitor receipts was the more important figure, rather than arrivals, because “tourism is a business, and creates employment.”

Jimenez was optimistic that the arrivals figure will turn up this year, with more activities, events and promotions happening for Visit the Philippines Year 2015. Under the National Tourism Develop-

ment Plan (NTDP) from 2011-2016, the DOT is targeting visitor arrivals of 8.22 million and tourism receipts at P199 billion for 2015.

This is the fourth year the DOT missed its visitor-arrivals target after the massive brand campaign “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” launched in 2011 broke historic records, with arrivals hitting 3.92 million that year. Since then tourist arrivals have leveled off, with visitors discouraged by the natural calamities, political discords, and inadequate infrastructure in many tourist destinations in the country.

Jimenez said the DOT is pressing its overseas promotions to attract more visitors from Europe, as they are longer-staying tourists, and thus spend more in the destinations they visit.

Even though the Philippines has only one direct flight connection with Europe via Philippine Airlines’s Manila-London route, Jimenez said there

were other international carriers that could still bring Europeans to the Philippines, albeit with a stopover in their home airports.

Latest data from the DOT showed close to 99 percent of tourists in the country, or 4.77 million, arrived by air, while arrivals by sea accounted for 1.25 percent or 60,183 visitors.

Manila remained the main entry point for visitors flying in, representing 72.5 percent of total, Continued on A2

FELLOWSHIP NIGHT Josephine Reyes (right), president of Aliw Broadcasting Corp., receives a token of appreciation on behalf of Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, Nine Media Corp. chairman and ALC Group of Companies chairman emeritus, who hosted the fellowship night of the Federation of International Cable TV and Telecommunications Association of the Philippines (Fictap), from Estrellita Juliano-Tamano (second from left), Fictap national chairman, and Ceciilia Dy, Fictap vice chairman for Luzon. The event was held at the Maynila Ballroom of the Manila Hotel. ROY DOMINGO

Harrison Ford survives crash-landing on golf course

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OS ANGELES—Harrison Ford crash-landed his vintage plane Thursday after losing engine power, suffering serious but not life-threatening injuries as he used his extensive piloting experience to skillfully bring down the plane on a golf course and avoid nearby homes.

It was the latest and most serious in a series of crashes and close calls for the 72-year-old action-adventure A-lister, who, like his Star Wars alter ego Han Solo, has a taste for aerial thrills. He was helped by golfers who saw the plane come down about a quarter-mile short of the runway at Santa Monica Municipal Airport and taken to a hospital conscious and breathing.

Ford’s publicist Ina Treciokas said in a statement that Ford had no other choice but to make an emergency landing. She said his injuries “are not life threatening, and he is expected to make a full recovery.”

Ford was about a half-mile west of the airport and flying at 3,000 feet (914 meters) when he told air-traffic controllers that his engine failed, interim Santa Monica City Manager Elaine Polachek said in an e-mail to city officials.

Ford’s plane “apparently hit a tree on the way down,” and in addition to a cut forehead, Ford may have broken his leg, the e-mail said.

The plane, a yellow 1942 Ryan Aeronautical ST3KR with stars on its wings, was upright and mostly intact after the crash. No one on the ground was hurt.

“I would say that this is an absolutely beautifully executed —what we would call—a forced or emergency landing, by

an unbelievably well-trained pilot,” said Christian Fry of the Santa Monica Airport Association.

The airport’s single runway sits amid residential neighborhoods in the city of more than 90,000 on the Pacific Ocean. City leaders and many residents advocate closing the airport, citing noise and safety concerns. Other airplanes taking off or landing there have crashed into homes, and in September 2013 four people died when their small jet veered into a hangar and caught fire.

Ford, who keeps his plane at the airport, took off at 2 p.m. (2200 GMT). About 20 minutes later, he told the tower he had engine failure and was making an immediate return, according to a recording posted by the web site LiveATC.net.

He came down on a fairway of Penmar golf course.

“Immediately you could see the engine started to sputter and just cut out, and he banked sharply to the left,” said Jeff Kuprycz, who was golfing when he saw the plane taking off. “He ended up crashing around the eighth hole.”

Kuprycz estimated the plane was about 200 feet (61 meters) overhead when it plunged to the ground.

“There was no explosion or anything. It just sounded like a car hitting the ground or a tree or something. Like that one little bang, and that was it,” Kuprycz said.

Charlie Thomson, a flight instructor at the airport who saw Ford take off, said engine failure like Ford’s does not make the plane harder to maneuver. “It just means you have to go down,” he said. AP