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Monday, April 4, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 177

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Govt declares failed bidding for ₧30-B light-rail vehicle deal

T

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

he exercise to solicit public participation to supply the government 120 light-rail vehicles (LRVs) worth P30 billion for the oldest overhead train system in Asia has been declared a failure.

According to Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya, none in government is to blame for the failure, and pointed to the increased

INSIDE

bb. Pilipinas 2016: the dazzling dozen

demand for train coaches in Japan, borne of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, as directly responsible for the program’s untimely demise.

PPP nonstarters and deal-breakers: The six-way test

“There was a failed bid. The sentiment is that there’s a surge in the demand on rolling stocks because of the Tokyo Olympics,” he said.

The bid-submission deadline was set for February 23. “None submitted any bid,” Abaya said.

Under the loan signed with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), only Japanese companies are allowed to submit bids for the multibillion-peso contract.

“So we’re consulting with Jica on the options to take in terms of procurement,” he said.

Abaya noted, however, that the procurement of the rolling stock is

PPP Lead Alberto C. Agra

W

hy the shift from a cautionary stance to an aggressive position?

How come there were only 12 public-private partnership (PPP) projects awarded in the past five years, and why the hurry to grant five to seven more in the last few months? What are the drawbacks and threats of rushing the selection of the privatesector proponent (PSP) without addressing all antecedent issues? Why do we have delayed or failed biddings?

See “Govt,” A2

BMReports

The Marcos Chronicles life

Continued on A14

d1

6-way Viability Test

L-O-T S-E-E facebook.com/The-Philippine-Childrens-Medical-Center

By Psyche Roxas-Mendoza Special to the BusinessMirror

A

First of three parts

t the entrance of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center building (formerly the Lungsod ng Kabataan) in Diliman, Quezon City, two old bronze markers—each plastered to a sidewall— carry messages for the Filipino people:

“Lungsod ng Kabataan was inaugurated on April 29, 1980, with Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, as honored guest.

Conceived by President Ferdinand E. Marcos as a commitment of the ‘New Society’ to our children, our future, as he proclaimed 1979

PESO exchange rates n US 45.9890

and hence after as a ‘decade of the child’ made real by the First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos on April 29, 1979. This Lungsod ng Kabataan is an offering of the Fillipino people to its future—our children.”

“We dedicate this Lungsod ng Kabataan to the Filipino child, our future. Let this be a manifestation and a symbol of the Filipino people’s love for country and future, our children.”

“Here we offer a love that gives, a love that serves, a love for life, a love for God in glory for country and people.”

“Our love and care begin now. For the child is today and tomorrow.”

—Sgd. Imelda Romualdez-Marcos Continued on A2

From Cory to Noynoy: Much of the programs and projects of the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos survived the strongman’s ouster 30 years ago. Not all laws and presidential decrees created in the years of martial rule were repealed; not all Marcos-created agencies were essentially abolished.

1

L egally Justifiable

2

O rganizational Preparedness

3

T echnically Feasible

4

S ocially Sustainable

5 ₧-$ 6

E conomically Viable

Transparency

E nvironmentally Compliant

Author: Alberto C. Agra

n japan 0.4087 n UK 66.0770 n HK 5.9292 n CHINA 7.1312 n singapore 34.1215 n australia 35.2460 n EU 52.3539 n SAUDI arabia 12.2650

bm Graphics: Job Ruzgal

Source: BSP (1 April 2016 )

A2 Monday, April 4, 2016

BMReports BusinessMirror

The Marcos Chronicles

The markers, now rusty and hard-to-read in some parts, have long been taken for granted by its resident doctors. Hard-up parents desperate to seek treatment for their sick children, likewise, do not notice them.

Almost nine months after the 1986 Edsa February Revolution, the Lungsod ng Kabataan was renamed the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) on the strength of Malacañang Memorandum 4, issued by President Corazon Aquino.

Poor children

THE Lungsod ng Kabataan was once an attached agency of the Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS), the super-ministry identified with former First Lady Imelda Marcos. As PCMC, the children’s hospital was, henceforth, administratively attached to the Department of Health.

But the hospital’s original charter, mandate and functions were retained.

Created by Presidential Decree (PD) 1631 on August 10, 1979, and later amended by Executive Order (EO) 893 on April 23, 1983, the Lungsod ng Kabataan/ PCMC had a number of functions, ranging from treatment to research on child maladies. Its mandate included the extension of “pediatric services to the general public, to help prevent, relieve or alleviate the afflictions and maladies of children and youth, especially the poor and less fortunate in life, without regard to race, creed, color or political belief.”

Thirty years later, the preference-for-poor-children mandate of

Dr. Julius A. Lecciones, executive director of PCMC and current country coordinator of My Child Matters Philippines

the PCMC served as an effective rallying call in successfully warding off attempts of the Aquino administration to privatize the children’s hospital.

Dr. Julius A. Lecciones, executive director of PCMC and current country coordinator of My Child Matters Philippines, said: “We opposed privatization. Private investors will, of course, seek profit. What will happen to the poor? Right now, our mandate is very, very clear. This hospital is especially created to give state-ofthe-art care to the most difficult clinical cases in children, with priority to poor families. That is why 60 percent of our beds are reserved for the poor or our service patients. We do not like privatization, because we believe that a private firm that comes in will not do it for altruistic reasons. First, they will reduce the number of service patients. That is for sure.”

Beyond politics

LECCIONES made it clear that

politics should not get in the way of treating poor children.

“I subscribe to this saying: ‘Let the children be the first to benefit from humankind’s successes and the last to suffer from humankind’s failures,’” Lecciones said. “I want support beyond politics. Let the children be the unifying spirit.

Palagi kong sinasabi ’yan [I always say that].”

He added that in their campaign against privatization, the PCMC sought help across political parties. These included, among others, Sen. Bam Aquino, Sen. TG Guingona, and other elected and appointed officials aligned w ith the Aquino administration; Bayan Muna and Gabriela from militant party-list groups; and even from former First Lady Imelda Marcos.

“We picked up Imelda’s ideas for the beautification of the Lungsod ng Kabataan—pocket gardens, trees, an environment for the total healing of the child—and included these in our visualization of the hospital,” Lecciones said.

He added: “She told me, ‘Dr. Lecciones, huwag mo tanggalin ’yung markers [Do not remove the markers]. They are part of our history, whether negative or positive.”

Shelter

ON December 17, 1986, the revolutionary government of the late President Corazon C. Aquino formally abolished the MHS through EO 90.

But it reta ined much of t he Marcos administration’s shelter program through the MHS attached agencies that are now under the administration

Continued from a1 of the Cor y gover nmentc re ate d Hou s i n g a nd Ur b a n Development Coord inat ing Counci l (HUDCC).

These attached agencies included the National Housing Authority, National Home Mortgage Fi n a nce Cor p., Hu m a n Settlements Regulatory Commission (renamed Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board), Home Financing Corp. (renamed Home Insurance and Guaranty Corp.) and the Pag-Ibig Fund (Home Development and Mutual Fund).

From 1978 to February 1986, t he MHS —u nder t he d i rec t guidance of First Lady Imelda Marcos—was “charged with the task of formulating a National Shelter Program, which defines the housing objectives and targets of the national government.”

In like manner, the HUDCC was under the direct supervision of the Office of the President by virtue of EO 90. And like its predecessor, the MHS, the HUDCC serves as the highest policy-making body for housing.

As stated in its mandate, it coordinates the activities of the key housing agencies to ensure the accomplishment of the Government Shelter Program. The HUDCC was further strengthened through EO 357 on May 25, 1989, and EO 20 on May 28, 2001.

Both EOs helped confer to the HUDCC the power to exercise overall administrative supervision over key housing agencies that were originally attached agencies of the MHS under PD 1396. To be continued

Next: Part II Imelda’s Lasting Impression

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Govt. . .

Continued from A1

not a requirement before Light Rail Manila Corp. starts the construction of the Cavite Extension of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1.

“They don’t need those rolling stock up to a certain point. That is not a prerequisite to construction,” he said.

The transport chief added that the government still has time to execute a rebidding, even with little time left before President Aquino and his band of brothers leave in June.

“It’s challenging because of that demand. I don’t think they will not participate, [although] there are some eyeing it,” he said, referring to the Japanese companies that earlier expressed interest in the project.

“We can still have a rebidding.”

Marubeni Corp. and Sumitomo Corp. initially expressed interest to participate in the proposed procurement of brand new light rail cars.

When procured, the 120 LRVs will be configured in 30 fourcar train sets to allow the line to accommodate up to 750,000 passengers daily.

The winning bidder will cover the technical design of the coaches, the procurement of materials required for manufacturing the LRVs, and ensure compliance with technical specifications through testing.

The supplier will have three years to complete the delivery of the new LRVs. The winning bidder will be required to submit a project management plan, design and development plan, as well as an inspection, testing and commissioning plan, in order for the trains to run smoothly.

These new cars are needed to complement the construction of the new train stations in Cavite.

Targeted for completion in

about four years after the delivery of right-of-way issues, the 11.7-kilometer Cavite Extension project will connect the system immediately south of the Baclaran Station and run in a generally southerly direction to Niyog, Cavite.

It w ill consist of elevated guideways throughout the majority of the alignment, except for the guideway section at Zapote, which will be at grade.

Eight new stations will be provided with three intermodal facilities across Pasay City, Parañaque City, Las Piñas City and Cavite. The new stations are Aseana, MIA, Asia World, Ninoy Aquino, Dr. Santos, Las Piñas, Zapote and Niyog. The intermodal facilities shall be at Dr. Santos, Zapote and Niyog.

The commercial speed of the Cavite Extension will be 60 kilometers per hour. The horizontal alignment is designed for a train speed of 80 km per hour for the mainline track; 60 km per hour through stations; and 30 km per hour for secondary and depot tracks.

The new stations will be accessible to and from nearby community facilities, such as shops, schools, stadium, park, etc, and located to suit passenger flow routes from residential areas. Pedestrian access to all new stations will be direct, safe and easy. Details, such as lighting to distinguish access points, pedestrian cross striping and curb cuts for handicapped access, will be provided.

The private company holds the concession for the operations, maintenance, and the extension of the train line. It signed the agreement with the government in October 2014. The company will operate and maintain the oldest train system in the Philippines for 32 years.

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Monday, April 4, 2016

A3

Firms have a hard time finding skilled call-center agents, technicians–PSA

F

By Cai U. Ordinario

ilipino firms are having difficulties hiring competent and skilled technical and professional personnel and call-center agents, according to the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

reasons vacancies were hard to fill, philippines: january 2013 to june 2014

REASON

Number

PERCENT

TOtal

21,667

100.0

1. Lack of needed competency/skill

6,479

29.9

2. No/few applicants applied for the job

5,639

26.0

3. Lack of years of experience

3,638

16.8

4. Expect high salary

2,872

13.3

1,245

5.8

6. Location or work schedule problem

621

2.9

7. Competition with overseas jobs

442

2.0

8. Others

730

3.4

5. Lack of professional license/Tesda Skills Certification

Philippine Statistics Authority 2013/2014 ISLE

The PSA’s hard-to-fill occupations data showed there were also few applicants who applied in certain positions, applicants lack experience and many expected high salaries.

“Other reasons cited were lack of professional license, location or work schedule, and competition with overseas jobs,” the PSA said. Data showed there is a demand for 18,160 technical and commercial sales representatives and some 16,083 call-center agents.

Local establishments also found it difficult to hire some 4,144 systems analysts and designers; 3,702 accounting and bookkeeping clerks; and 3,355 college, university and highereducation teaching professionals. “Job openings which were difficult to fill constituted 17.5 percent of the total. This means that for every six vacancies only one was hard to fill,” the PSA explained.

Data showed that there were 753,092 vacancies in 15,986 establishments that had job openings in the January 2013-toJune 2014 period. Of the total number of vacancies, 131,471 job openings were considered hard-to-fill, while 621,621 were “easy-to-fill” positions in the January 2013-to-June 2014 period.

The PSA the said majority, or 98,721, of the hard-to-fill jobs were only in three major occupation groups—professionals, with 38,214 job openings; technicians and associate professionals, 32,285; and clerks, 28,222. Among professional vacancies, the top 2 were systems analysts and designers, and college, university and higher-education teaching professionals.

The top job openings among technicians and associate professionals, most vacancies were in technical and commercial sales representatives; administrative secretaries and related associate professionals, 1,154; and safety, health and quality inspectors, 1,051 vacancies.

Among clerks, there were only three kinds of job openings.

Apart from call-center agents and accounting and bookkeeping clerks, local firms also found it “too difficult” to hire receptionists and information clerks, with 2,765 vacancies.

Data were obtained from the Integrated Survey on Labor and Employment, a nationwide sample survey covering 8,399 establishments with 20 or more workers. The PSA said the reference period covered the months from January 2013 to June 2014.

BMReports BusinessMirror

A4 Monday, April 4, 2016

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Lawmaker urges Malacañang to sign ₧150,000 tax-free ‘balikbayan’ box law

S

By Butch Fernandez

enate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto is pleading with Malacañang to act fast and sign into law a long-approved SenateHouse bill raising to P150,000 the tax-exemption ceiling for imported items sent home by overseas Filipinos through balikbayan boxes.

Recto, in airing the appeal over the weekend, said once President Aquino signs the bill into law, Fili-

Malaysia, Japan should enhance Look East Policy 2.0

T

OKYO—Malaysia and Japan should strengthen bilateral ties under the Look East Policy or LEP 2.0, said Perlis Raja Muda Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail.

According to him, Malaysia and Japan were like “two old friends” who had one thing in common, namely, a “young spirit” when both countries agreed to review the LEP since Malaysia launched it in 1982.

“After the visit of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak to Japan in May 2015, the two sides have found many areas that can be enhanced,” he said.

He said this in his keynote address before more than 3,000 people at the Josai International University (JIU) matriculation ceremony for academic year 2016 in its second campus in Togane, Chiba Prefecture, here yesterday.

Also present was Perlis Raja Puan Muda Tuanku Hajah Lailatul Shahreen Akashah Khalil, who is also Yayasan Tuanku Fauziah (YTF) chairman.

Upon arrival, the royal couple were welcomed by JIU Chancellor Dr. Noriko Mizuta and its president Prof. Hakuo Yanagisawa.

They were especially invited

by JIU in conjunction with the admission of five YTF-sponsored students attending the Women Leadership program at the university for one year.

The students are Khuzaimah Ramli Lahman, 25; Nurul Najwa Halim, 23; Lim Xin shi, 25; Nor Salihah Zaini, 24; and Nurul Afizan Yaakob, 24.

Also accompanying the delegation were YTF trustees Tan Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen and Datuk M. Rajasekaran; special advisor to the Higher Education Minister Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Kamarudin Hussin and Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) acting vice chancellor Datuk Prof Dr. Zul Azhar Zahid Jamal.

Tuanku Syed Faizuddin said Japanese universities and their counterparts in Malaysia could empower students and faculty exchange programs besides recognizing the transfer of credits between institutions to improve the exchange programs.

“I would like to propose a scholarship or financial aid fund for Japanese students to study in Malaysia. Maybe start with a travel or scientific grant to study critical subjects that can contribute to Malaysian society.

“This is aimed to stimulate academic and scientific exploration that support the development of knowledge-based skills,” he said.

PNA/Bernama

pinos abroad could send home gifts and other goodies tax-free, provided the value of items shipped through

balikbayan boxes do not exceed P150,000.

“This law will benefit family members of overseas Filipinos because our OFWs can send more gifts and goods tax-free if they do not exceed the P150,000 ceiling,” Recto said.

The senator, who authored the bigger balikbayan box tax-free benefit, said the higher exemption ceiling is embodied in the final version of the new Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) that the Senate and the House of Representatives passed in January.

Recto was informed that Malacañang was just awaiting transmission by Congress leaders of the enrolled bill earlier approved by both

chambers so Mr. Aquino could sign it into law soonest.

“Now is the perfect time to sign this bill into law. This is what our overseas Filipino workers [OFWs] have been waiting for,” Recto said in an e-mail to Senate reporters.

The Senate President Pro Tempore began pushing for the passage of the remedial legislation under Senate Bill 2913 last August, after OFWs denounced the Aquino administration’s decision to open balikbayan boxes passing through airports.

Bureau of Customs officials, in opening the balikbayan boxes, explained they were simply enforcing an old law that slapped taxes on imported items in balikbayan

boxes exceeding P10,000.

Recto said the P150,000 increased tax-exemption ceiling for balikbayan items is found under “Section 800” of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act that Sen. Edgardo Angara endorsed for adoption as chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The provision, however, provides that overseas Filipinos can send home P150,000 worth of tax-free goodies in balikbayan boxes only three times a year.

The Recto bill further provides stiffer penalties for Customs and other government officials found opening balikbayan boxes, or asking for money from OFWs bringing the boxes home through the airport.

Once signed into law by President Aquino, the penalty imposed for offenders could range from six- to 12-year jail terms for any government worker at the ports found opening balikbayan boxes, or demanding money from returning OFWs, plus stiffer fine, from P50,000 to P1 million for convicted offenders.

“Kung dati, isang taon lang ang minimum jail time kapag nangotong o nagnakaw ka sa mga balikbayan boxes ng OFWs, ngayon minimum of six years na at maximum of 12 years,” Recto said.

“Siguro naman, wala nang mangangahas na magsamantala sa mga kababayan natin na nagdadala ng pasalubong,” Recto added.

Fort Magsaysay beefs up security for Balikatan war exercises

F

ORT MAGSAYSAY, Nueva Ecija—Authorities have tightened security measures in this camp as hundreds of American and Filipino soldiers arrived here for the annual 32nd joint Balikatan war exercises.

Army Capt. Rozelle Ticar, spokesperson of the 7th Infantry (Kaugnay) Division based in this military camp, said that they are ready to receive American soldiers for the war exercises amid security concerns, with measures already laid out inside the camp as part of the routine.

“Everything is much under control and preventive measures were laid out,” Ticar said, adding that series of planning and coordination were conducted as per instruction of commanding general Maj. Gen. Angelito de Leon.

Last year four American soldiers lost their belongings to thieves who gained entry inside the camp.

Army Staff Sergeants Scotty Wilson and Dwayne Massey and Lieutenants Patrick Tierney and Thomas Dunne lost their belongings consisting of army boots, wallet containing $2,000, undetermined amount of pesos and other personal belongings.

They were part of the 700-soldier contingent who plunged into the war exercises inside this military camp along with 900 Filipino soldiers.

A report said that unidentified suspects gained entry in the unlocked building by boring through a hole beneath a perimeter fence and carted away the belongings.

However, the said belongings were recovered.

“I am assuring that the said theft incident will not happen anymore.

Our soldiers stepped up for all pre-

IN this May 10, 2014, file photo, Filipino soldiers fire their weapons at a mock target during a live-fire exercise with their US counterparts at a joint US-Philippines military exercise dubbed Balikatan 2014, at the Philippine Army training camp at Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija . AP

ventive measures for the activity,” he said. This camp was one of five areas identified on March 18 by the US and Philippine governments that will be utilized by American troops under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which they signed in April 2014, as political tensions rose between the Philippines and China due to disputes in the West Philippine Sea. Aside from Fort Magsaysay, the deal also allows rotating US military presence at the Antonio Bautista Air

Base, Basa Air Base in Pampanga, Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro and the Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base in Cebu.

Ticar said the main organizers of this year’s war games have been informed of the calendar of activities for the four-day war games.

Last year part of the exercises were a community outreach in nearby areas where Filipino and US troops performed medical and dental operations, haircuts, feeding program, circumcision and

distribution of Bibles.

It also marked the first time three modern attack helicopters of the US forces showcased their air-assault capabilities in the first known mock air assault inside the sprawling military reservation.

These involved Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters and Black Hawk aircraft.

Chinook helicopters are twinengine, heavy-lift military aircraft used for troop movements, artillery placement and battlefield resupply

because of its wide loading ramp at the rear of the fuselage and three external-cargo hooks.

The advanced, multismission helicopter contains a fully integrated digital cockpit management system and cargo-handling capabilities.

The said helicopters were also used in some other countries, like the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan, Italy, Greece and Spain. PNA

Medical malpractice fund surplus in Wisconsin reaches $783 million

A

$1.2-billion state-run fund that pays large medical malpractice awards has a surplus of $783 million, $406 million more than recommended, according to a state audit last month.

The large size of the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund illustrates how hard it is for injured patients to win cases against doctors in the state, attorneys say.

“There are fewer and fewer people every year recovering compensation and getting into the fund money,” said Mike End, a medical malpractice attorney in Milwaukee and former president of the Wisconsin Association for Justice, a trial lawyers group.

The Wisconsin Medical Society, which represents doctors, says the fund provides stability and must be large enough to cover unexpected claims.

“It’s there to cover not only the

cases in the pipeline but the ones that are not even known yet,” said Mark Grapentine, a medical society lobbyist.

Doctors, hospitals and some other health-care providers are required to pay into the fund, which covers malpractice awards of more than $1 million. Doctors must carry their own malpractice insurance up to that amount.

Wisconsin is one of at least 13 states with such funds.

After the fund’s value grew considerably in recent years, largely because of investment income, regulators started reducing doctors’ annual fees beginning in 2013-2014.

In 2014-2015, doctors paid $1,311 to $8,653, depending on their type of practice.

Despite the reduced fees, the fund’s surplus last September was $783 million, $406.4 million more

than the upper end of the range recommended last year by regulators, of $86.4 million to $376.6 million, according to the Legislative Audit Bureau report last month.

The audit recommended that the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, which administers the fund, develop a plan to bring the surplus into the target range.

Ted Nickel, insurance commissioner, said the fees will be reduced again by 30 percent in 2016-2017.

End said the fund’s total assets, which were $1.2 billion in June, are $345 million greater than the $855 million the fund has paid in 672 claims since it was created in 1975.

“That just blows me away,” End said. Attorneys say injured patients in Wisconsin have a hard time getting compensation because of restrictions on who can sue, caps on damages and the fund. Wisconsin

ranked 49th among states in malpractice payments per capita from 2004 to 2014, according to the National Practitioner Data Bank.

Parents in Wisconsin can’t sue if their adult children die from a medical error, and adult children can’t sue if their parents die in the same way—a prohibition found in few, if any, other states, attorneys say.

In other wrongful death cases, damages are capped at $500,000 for a child and $350,000 for an adult.

In other medical malpractice cases, noneconomic damages, such as for pain and suffering, are capped at $750,000. Economic damages aren’t limited.

The cap on total damages for UWMadison doctors is $250,000.

The fund gives doctors and insurers less incentive to settle cases because they don’t risk losing multimillion-dollar awards, End said.

But Grapentine said the fund keeps malpractice liability predictable by protecting against uncertainties.

One uncertainty cited in the audit: a Milwaukee County judge’s refusal in 2014 to apply the $750,000 cap for a woman who won $16.5 million in noneconomic damages from a jury. She lost all four limbs from an immune system reaction to an undetected infection. An appeal is pending.

The board of governors that oversees the fund “have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that there are enough assets in the fund to cover those admittedly unquantifiable potential liabilities down the road,” Grapentine said.

“There should be more decreases in the annual fees,” he said. “But you can’t make it up in one year, nor should you try to.” TNS

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AseanMonday BusinessMirror

Monday, April 4, 2016 A5

Thailand’s consumer prices continue dip

C

onsumer prices fell for a 15th straight month in March, but officials predict a reversal this month with more expensive farm items and oil.

The Commerce Ministry said on Friday that consumer prices, based on 450 products and services, fell by 0.46 percent year-on-year in March, easing slightly from a 0.50percent drop in February and 0.53 percent in January.

The decline was mainly because of lower costs for power

bills and cooking gas.

On a monthly basis, however, prices edged up 0.21 percent from February, after the previous month’s 0.15-percent rise, which had been the first increase since last November.

The month-on-month higher prices were largely attributed to a rise in cigarette prices spurred

by a new excise tax.

The Cabinet agreed to the cigarette excise tax on February 9. The higher tax will add an estimated 12 billion baht in revenue this fiscal year and 15 billion baht annually in subsequent years.

Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, was 0.75 percent on an annual basis in March and 0.01 percent on a monthly basis.

In the first three months of the year, consumer prices fell by 0.50 percent from the same period a year earlier. Core inflation was 0.67 percent for the three months.

Somkiat Triratpan, director of the Commerce Ministry’s Office of Trade Policy and Strategy, said the

headline inflation rate, measured by consumer prices, is moving upward, and is expected to become positive from April onward, with oil and farm-product prices the key drivers.

The ministry has forecast 2016 inflation in a range of zero to 1 percent based on expected economic growth of 2.8 percent to 3.8 percent, assuming Dubai crude oil prices of $30 to $40 per barrel and foreign exchange of 36 to 38 baht to the US dollar. Commerce officials are scheduled to review their inflation policy in May. “We expect the government’s stimulus measures, including a tax deduction of up to 15,000 baht for dining

expenses, may affect inflation,” he said. “But the extent of the impact will depend on people’s spending during that period.”

The tax measure is meant to entice people to spend money locally during the long public holiday, instead of traveling abroad. It also aims to spark consumer spending during the Thai new year amid a languid economic recovery.

Individual taxpayers who dine at restaurants that issue tax invoices from April 9 to 17 will be entitled to a 15,000-baht deduction from taxable income.

Thanavath Phonvichai, vice president for research at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said

that as core inflation edges up, the rate of increase remains relatively low, reflecting a Thai economy with signs of only a mild recovery.

“Core inflation in the first quarter was 0.67 percent, compared with 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2015, clearly demonstrating the economic recovery remains fragile and the government's economic stimulus measures have yet to fully drive the economy," Thanavath said.

He urged the government to come up with fiscal measures in the second quarter to speed up spending on infrastructure-development projects and tackle the impact of drought conditions. TNS

Index growth shows improving economy–Indonesia stock exchange

J

AK ARTA—The composite share price index (IHSG) has been growing showing an improving domestic economy, the Director of Development of the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI), Nicky Hogan said here.

“The capital market is an indicator of the economy. When the capital market is improving, it is usually a

positive sign for the economy and the real sector, and the other way round,” he said on the sidelines of a Shariah capital-market festival event on Saturday.

The improving real sector, especia l ly automot ive and proper t y, cou ld a lso be seen from indicators in the financial markets, especially the capital

market, he said.

The characteristic of a capital market, especially the share market, historically precedes the real sector, he explained.

Based on BEI data, the IHSG from early this year to April has risen 5.45 percent to 4,843.18. “ T he rate of the IHSG [Indonesian index] is one of the

highest in the world. It is only a little below that of Thailand, which is up 8.75 percent,” he said.

Bank Indonesia’s policy to lower its reference rate to 6.75 percent has been greeted positively by capital-market players, especially in the automotive and property sector, because it is closely tied

Banpu puts focus on renewables S

E T- l isted B a npu Plc. plans to expand renewable-power capacity to about 20 percent of expected generating capacity of 4,300 megawatts by 2025, chief executive Somr udee Cha imongkol said.

The company now has total generating capacity of 1,800 MW. Asean’s leading coal miner will spend about $5 billion in investment until 2025.

“Renewable power will have investment of $2 billion, while $3 billion will go to mainstream electricity generation such as gas-fired and coal-fired power plants,” Somrudee said.

Funding will come from project finance of 75 percent SOMRUDEE TNS and equity of 25 percent.

Banpu is preparing to raise funds of 12.9 billion baht through a rights offering of shares and issuance of warrants.

Proceeds will be used to pay down debt, giving the company room to secure additional funding at a later stage for new growth, Somrudee said.

Banpu entered the renewable-energy business seriously last year as part of a strategy to alleviate the impact of the downturn of commodities, including coal.

It plans to expand its earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization from power from 30 percent to 40 percent of revenue.

Banpu has focused mainly on coal mining with huge reserves of millions of tons of coal in Indonesia, China and Australia.

It is continuing to look for viable reserves overseas. It has operated and invested in coal-fired power in Thailand and Laos, and combined heat and power projects in China through its joint venture.

Apart from a plan to invest in solar power in Japan, Banpu sees opportunities in hydropower, biogas, wind farms and biomass in Thailand, China and Japan.

“Renewable power is a key business that the company will focus on, so our major task is looking at chances to invest or acquire assets to expand our power-business portfolio in the countries where potential is high,” Somrudee said.

Banpu plans to increase its generating capacity to 2,400 MW over the next five years (2016 to 2020) and in 2025 it will reach its target of 4,300 MW. Under its five-year investment plan, this year it will spend $400 million on power business, including the Hongsa Lignite power project in Laos, solar power in Japan and coal power in China.

Expansion of coal mines in Indonesia requires $124 million.

Most of its investment this year will be for the Hongsa project in Laos.

Banpu expects to sell 46.1 million tons of coal this year, with 28.5 million tons coming from Indonesia, 13.6 tons from Australia and 4 million tons from China.

Last year the company had sales of 45.4 million tons of coal.

In 2016 the company expects the coal price to stand at $50 a ton, down from $55.52 last year.

Banpu shares closed on Friday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 16.80 baht, up 10 satang, in trade worth 73.82 billion. TNS

with the credit-interest reduction, Nicky Hogan said. “ T he re du c t io n of c re d it interest will increase the demand in the property and automotive sector and, in turn, boost the performance of issuers in the sector,” he said.

The reduction of credit interest would also cut the corporate-cost

burden, although the central banks’ policy could possibly also pose a challenge for companies in the banking sector.

“The credit-interest reduction w i l l pose a new cha l lenge, because it will affect income from interest, and it means banks must conduct breakthroughs,” he said.

PNA/ANTARA News

BusinessMirror

World The

A6 | Monday, April 4, 2016 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Police officers monitor, as members of AntiRacism Network mount a counterdemonstration, near the ferry docks in Dover, England on Saturday, April 2. The group are protesting against far-right groups who are marching nearby, protesting against the arrival of immigrants. Steve Parsons / PA via AP

Austria claims much of the credit for EU migrant deal

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IENNA—Just weeks ago, thousands of migrants a day were streaming into northern Europe. Now the influx has been dramatically crimped and Austria is claiming much of the credit.

The small country at the heart of Europe traditionally is associated with schnitzel, Mozart and The Sound of Music. More recently, it has also gained a reputation for a hard-nosed migration stance, which has shaped Europe’s response to the biggest migrant arrivals since World War II. Austria’s decision to shut down its border—the main transit route into the heart of Europe for most refugees—initially caused consternation among many in Europe. But senior Austrian politicians assert the decision helped forge last month’s agreement between the European Union (EU) and Turkey that commits Ankara to start taking back migrants who pay smugglers to make dangerous sea crossings to the Greek islands.

“I believe that we played a significant role in...finding a solution for the migration crisis,” Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz told The Associated Press (AP) ahead of the first expected migrant returns from Greece to Turkey on Monday.

The premise behind the deal is that Europe will send back to Turkey anyone from any country who doesn’t qualify for asylum, or has tried to evade a rigorous asylum-application process. For every person

sent back, EU countries would take in one person confirmed to have made a legitimate asylum request.

Austria—and other eastern European nations—argue that their decision to close their borders leading from Greece through the Balkans and into prosperous northern Europe enabled the deal with Turkey to happen by creating new facts on the ground.

Those facts include having over 50,000 migrants pile up in Greece, as borders further north closed and boatloads of people still poured across its vast Aegean Sea border daily from Turkey.

The Austrian decision meant there would be no more “waving through” of migrants as they sought to get to Austria, Sweden or Germany, which alone accepted more than 1 million refugees last year. As the Balkan route shut down, the sufferings of migrants trapped in makeshift camps in northern Greece, notably around the border village of Idomeni, laid bare the scale of the human misery and increased pressure within the EU to act.

“The right measures were taken on the European level [only] after Austria’s outcry,” Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann told reporters.

Others see a more nuanced picture.

Anton Pelinka, a politics professor at Eotvoes Lorant University in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, says it was Hungary that played a big role in the EU’s new approach.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was arguably the first to reject German-led attempts to allow the migrants free passage through Europe with his migrant quotas and his razor-wire border fences.

“Hungary was in fact the initiator of what then consequently was put into force in the Balkans,” he said.

Still, Austria’s decision to impose daily caps on those seeking asylum at its southeastern border as of February 19 sent ripples of alarm through countries along the migrant route, from Slovenia to Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia.

Austrian and Balkan route police chiefs on February 18 called for the migrant flow “to be reduced to the greatest possible extent.” A day later, Austria imposed caps both on the number of asylum-seekers it would accept daily and overall for the whole year. Five days later on February 24, foreign and interior ministers from Austria and its southern neighbors made it formal—tightening border controls and announcing that a complete shutdown of the route was looming.

The move was initially met by harsh criticism. The EU said Austria’s clampdown on asylum-seekers contravened international law. Greece

recalled its ambassador to Vienna and UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon said the border restrictions “are not in line with international law or with common human decency.”

But the mood has changed.

While declining to comment on Austria’s role in the migrant debate, EU migration spokesman Tove Ernst echoed the language coming out of Vienna, saying all members “must commit to ending the ‘wavethrough’ approach to those who indicate an interest in applying for asylum elsewhere.”

The move to shut the Balkans route was drastic—but it worked.

Figures provided on Friday to the AP show the number of new refugee arrivals registered by German police dropped from an average of over 2,000 daily at the start of the year, to several hundred from the middle of February. Currently, about 100 people are being recorded each day.

Kurz suggested other EU nations had just been waiting for an opening to fall in line.

“The fact that our path was the right one revealed itself after only a few weeks,” he said, asserting that all 28 EU nations endorsed an end to the unfettered migration shortly after Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia also shut their borders.

“I can stand criticism from here and there, particularly when it comes from those who, after a few weeks, agree to what we suggested,” he said. AP

The right measures were taken on the European level [only] after Austria’s outcry.”—Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann

Newark airport flight limits eased; could spur lower fares

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EWARK, N.J.—The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced on Friday it’s easing limits on the number of hourly flights at Newark Liberty International Airport, and the airport’s operator said that should lead to greater competition and lower airfares.

The limits at Newark Liberty, which serves the New York City region and is one of the busiest airports in the nation,

were put in place in 2008 to reduce congestion and delays. They restricted flight operations during peak times to 81 per hour.

The FAA said arrival and departure delays have decreased significantly since then. It also said the number of scheduled flights has been well below the limits and Newark’s runways can handle more flights.

For example, on-time arrivals increased by 11 percent since 2007, and

mean arrival and departure delays were down by about 33 percent, the FAA said.

Delays greater than an hour were down 37 percent for arrivals and 38 percent for departures. However, the past year has had much better weather, leading to fewer delays across the nation.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty and the region’s other main transit hubs, said lifting the restrictions could

lead to lower airfares for passengers.

“This action will help travelers by increasing competition and choices at Newark Liberty by allowing more flights by different airlines, thereby helping to reduce airfares,” it said in a statement.

The easing of flight restrictions will also address an issue that is the subject of a US Department of Justice lawsuit filed last November against Newark’s dominant carrier, United Airlines. AP

Mormon leader urges tolerance no matter the political views

Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs during the opening session of the two-day Mormon church conference on Saturday in Salt Lake City. Mormon leaders are set to deliver guidance to their worldwide membership in a series of speeches this weekend during the religion’s semiannual conference in Salt Lake City. AP

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ALT LAKE CITY—Mormon leaders called on members to practice tolerance despite political differences, providing the faith’s US members guidance at a church conference amid a presidential campaign marked by harsh rhetoric and bickering.

The faith’s leaders also reiterated the belief that the religion is the only true church, and that its leaders are prophets speaking for the Lord. They implored members to be more thoughtful and sensitive toward children from all backgrounds, many of whom don’t come from “picture-perfect” families.

In a nod to the religion’s international footprint, five of 11 men announced as new members of a second-tier leadership council are from countries outside the United States: Guatemala, Argentina, Italy, Australia and New Zealand. More than half of the 15.6 million members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints live outside the US. Church President Thomas S. Monson, 88, gave a speech during the Saturday evening session. He is considered the religion’s prophet.

The comments on politics came from Kevin R. Duncan, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy. He said people should be wary of resenting others because they belong to another religion, hold opposing political views or even root for a different sports team.

“Let us all remember that God looketh not upon the color of the jersey or the political party,” Duncan said. “In the competitions of life, if we win, let us win with grace.

If we lose, let us lose with grace.”

Mormon leaders don’t endorse candidates or parties, but they sometimes weigh in on what they consider crucial moral issues.

This presidential cycle, the church has defended religious liberty after Republican front-runner Donald Trump suggested banning Muslims from entering the US. It also renewed calls for an end to culture wars where people stake out extreme positions.

Henry B. Eyring, a longtime member of a top church leadership council called the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, urged members to listen carefully to speeches from Mormon leaders so they can feel closer to the Lord. “This is the only true church,” he said.

Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve urged members to embrace all the children of the faith—no matter their family situation. He said the religion has hundreds of thousands of children who live with only one parent or whose parents aren’t Mormon.

He said the religion will continue to advocate for families led by married men and women who belong to the faith, but said children are welcome from any situation.

“While a child’s earthly situation may not be ideal, a child’s spiritual DNA is perfect because one’s true identity is as a son or daughter of God,” Anderson said.

Anderson didn’t mention children of gay parents. The church came under fire last November when it announced new rules banning baptisms for children living with a gay or lesbian parent.

Those children are still welcome to attend church services. Church leaders have said the rules were intended to prevent children from being caught in a tug-of-war between teachings at home and church.

More than 100,000 Mormons are expected to attend five conference sessions over two days, with millions more watching live broadcasts from their homes. AP

The World BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Netherlands slated to hold referendum on EU-Ukraine deal

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HE HAGUE, the Netherlands— Dutch voters are going to the polls on Wednesday—but the topic is Ukraine, not their own country.

When Ukrainians rose up against their government in February 2014, the trigger for their anger was thenPresident Viktor Yanukovych’s refusal to sign an agreement fostering closer links between his country and the 28-nation European Union (EU).

After Yanukovych was toppled, his replacement, Petro Poroshenko, moved ahead and signed the Association Agreement with the EU, a broad free trade deal that—supporters say—also seeks to tackle corruption and improve human rights in the troubled former Soviet republic.

Now, long-simmering anti-EU sentiment in the Netherlands threatens the deal, much of which is already in force. In a non-binding “advisory referendum” on Wednesday, the Dutch can vote for or against Dutch ratification of the deal with Ukraine.

While the Ukraine agreement is nominally the target, the referendum is seen by many as an opportunity to protest the EU’s expansion and what they consider its undemocratic decision-making processes.

“We, of course, couldn’t care less about Ukraine,” history professor Arjan van Dixhoorn, one of the leaders of the euro-skeptical Citizens’ Committee EU that pushed for the referendum, told the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

His organization really wants a referendum on whether the Dutch should leave the EU—just like the vote Britain is holding on June 23—but there is no way to force such a referendum under Dutch law. The Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, but support has long been mixed in this country of 17 million, which in 2005 voted against the bloc’s proposed constitution.

Under a 2015 law that created advisory referendums, the Dutch result is valid only if Wednesday’s turnout is over 30 percent. If a majority votes against the deal, the government can pass a new law effectively withdrawing its ratification, or it can advise parliament to uphold the ratification.

EU Commission President JeanClaude Juncker said the stakes are high, telling news web site NRC.nl that a “No” vote “would open the door to a great continental crisis.”

In recent weeks, Ukrainian leaders have visited the Netherlands and Dutch lawmakers have flown to Kiev in an effort to swing the vote in favor of the association agreement. Poroshenko, meeting with Dutch parliamentarians, called the agreement “a real road map for the internal transformation” of Ukraine.

Dutch supporters of the deal agree, saying it pushes Ukraine toward economic reforms and helps fight corruption, improve human rights and better protect minorities in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has accused Russia of feeding anti-Ukrainian sentiment ahead of Wednesday’s vote, a claim that Russian officials reject.

“I would like to refute those who are trying to see Moscow’s influence in this referendum,” Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’ envoy to the EU, told the Izvestia daily. “Apart from the fact that we never interfere in things like this, it is not going to change anything for Russia politically.

Terms of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement have been in temporary implementation since January 1. The damage has been done.”

Opponents portray the association agreement as a sign of unwanted EU expansionism, and some argue it will not benefit most Ukrainians.

Lawmaker Harry van Bommel of the Dutch Socialist Party says its free trade provisions will only serve to enrich large multinationals and Ukrainian oligarchs.

“Those who put the interests of ordinary Ukrainians first should vote against this neo-liberal free-trade treaty,” he wrote.

Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher told reporters in The Hague on Friday he would be voting in favor of the agreement, which the government insists does not open the door to EU membership for Ukraine.

“It ensures stability—a stable neighbor on the edge of Europe,” he said. “It also ensures more and easier trade.” AP

Britain plans moves to bolster faltering local steel industry

BANNERS supporting local steel workers are seen outside the Tata steel plant in Port Talbot, Wales, on March 30. The United Kingdom authorities say they will look at all viable options to keep the British steel industry at the heart of its manufacturing base after Tata Steel announced it may sell its UK assets. The sale could put thousands of jobs at risk. ANDREW MATTHEWS/PA VIA AP

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ONDON—The British government said public-sector construction projects will be encouraged to use UK-made steel, a move designed to shore up an industry in crisis.

The government said on Sunday that the new rules will “create a level-playing field” and help British steelmakers compete with international rivals.

The steel industry in Britain, as in many developed economies, has been hit hard by cheap Chinese imports, which have depressed prices.

The British crisis became acute in March when India’s Tata Steel announced plans to sell its lossmaking UK plants, which employ

almost 20,000 people. A sale or restructuring would likely involve heavy job losses, and some analysts say it may be hard to find a buyer for Tata’s British operations, which are losing £1 million ($1.4 million) a day.

Others have said Tata may have little interest in finding a new buyer for British plants that would become rivals to its operations elsewhere.

The government is expanding a requirement, introduced last year,

that public bodies consider issues, such as sourcing, carbon footprint and health and safety, as well as cost, when choosing a steel supplier. It previously applied to central government contracts but will now extend to local government, the National Health Service and other public bodies.

Cabinet Office Minister Matt Hancock said that “from operating theatres to new buildings, public sector buyers will need to consider social and economic benefits, alongside value for money.”

The opposition Labor Party said the move was welcome, but overdue. Opposition politicians and unions accuse the government of failing to stand up to China, and are urging the United Kingdom and European Union to impose anti dumping duties on imported steel.

On Friday, China imposed its own antidumping duties on steel from the European Union, Japan and South Korea. AP

Monday, April 4, 2016

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Airlines still offering waivers for travel to Belgian capital

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RAVELERS who booked trips through Brussels have options while the airport in the Belgian capital works to resume operations after last month’s bombings.

Brussels Airport said it plans to partially reopen on Sunday, but the limited number of flights by Brussels Airlines following a 12-day shutdown is meant to be largely symbolic. The airport plans to be back up to 20 percent of capacity by Monday.

In the meantime, passengers whose flights on US airlines are canceled can get a full refund. The airlines are also allowing passengers to rebook without paying the usual ticket-change fee, but the terms differ by carrier.

Customers who want to rebook or request a refund should call the airline, rather than do it themselves online, in order to avoid surprise charges or fare changes.

Once the airport reopens, it will take time for flights to build back up. British Airways says it won’t fly to Brussels until on Tuesday at the soonest.

The good news is that April is a slower travel time than the peak summer months, and there are seats available to many other European destinations. Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Co., said on Saturday he hopes full service can be restored by the end of June or the beginning of July, in time for the summer vacation season.

Here are the latest Brussels policies for several major airlines: n Delta suggests customers reroute to or through Paris, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf or Luxembourg.

Passengers with Brussels tickets through April 18 can rebook with no penalty—although the fare could be higher—if they begin their rescheduled travel by April 30. Or they can cancel their reservation and apply the ticket’s value toward a new ticket for one year, according to Delta’s web site, although they could incur change fees and higher fares.

On Saturday, the airline said it was suspending service between Atlanta and Brussels until March 2017 due to continuing uncertainty around the reopening of the airport and weakening demand. But it said it

planned to resume service between New York’s John F. Kennedy airport and Brussels once it gets clearance to do so. n United said it would waive change fees and any difference in fare for passengers who reschedule a Brussels flight through April 30 if the new trip follows the same route or goes to or from London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf or Luxembourg. For trips after April 30 and within a year of the ticket’s purchase, United says it will waive change fees, but the fare could increase. n American has canceled its Brussels flights through April 15. It is waiving change fees for Brussels trips that were bought before March 29 and scheduled to fly through April 22 on American, British Airways or Iberia. Passengers can rebook to or through several other European cities—London’s two main airports, Paris’ two main airports, Amsterdam, Rotterdam; Frankfurt, Dusseldorf; and Liege Bierset, Belgium—with no change fee. In some cases, American says it will waive any change in fare, as long as the passenger flies in the same class of seat covered by the original ticket. n Air France said that passengers who bought tickets to Brussels before March 23 for travel through April 18 can get a refund or rebook their trip through April 18. Rebooked travel must be completed no later than April 30. n British Airways passengers booked for Brussels flights through April 9 can claim a refund, rebook a later date at no extra charge, or pick another destination. The airline says it will operate flights to and from Liege, Belgium, through Monday. n Lufthansa has canceled flights to and from Brussels until at least Wednesday and is offering passengers flights from Munich and Frankfurt to Liege, instead. It has a shuttle service between Frankfurt and Brussels. Passengers whose Brussels flights on Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Germanwings or Eurowings have not been canceled can rebook in the same class for travel before October 31. AP

Puerto Rico fiscal crisis could impact disabled workers’ fund

Beirut’s racetrack, once a chic hot spot, falls on hard times

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell speaks to a group of Puerto Rican children during a visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Friday. Jewell warned that the island’s protected natural resources could be targeted for private development in a troubling new push to lift the US territory out of a dire economic crisis. AP/DANICA COTO

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IN this March 24 photo, handlers prepare horses during an early training session at the horse racetrack in Beirut, Lebanon. The dirt racetrack in the heart of the capital is set inside a pine-forest reserve walled off from the city’s concrete warrens. AP/HASSAN AMMAR

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EIRUT—Beirut’s famous racetrack, which once entertained Middle Eastern royalty, has fallen on hard times, and the fight over its future is revealing competing visions for public space in the Lebanese capital.

Set inside a pine forest reserve in the heart of Beirut and walled off from the city’s concrete warrens, the Beirut Hippodrome used to hold 20-horse races that drew thousands of spectators, including the late Saudi King Faisal and Iran’s Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Now, only four to five horses run at a time, to a thinning crowd of loyal fans and inveterate gamblers.

“The prizes are too low to attract new horse owners,” said Lebanese Tour-

ism Minister Michel Pharaon, himself a horse owner and a leading member of the private association that manages the track.

Gambling revenues are down, he said, squeezing the track’s bottom line.

The racetrack opened in 1916 and by the 1950s, it had become part of the architectural fabric of the young Lebanese republic. But it suffered greatly during the country’s 15-year civil war and never recovered its former glory.

The hippodrome sits on a prized piece of real estate belonging to the city, and the mayor thinks it is time to open it to the public.

“I want this to be Beirut Central Park,” said Beirut Mayor Bilal Hamad, describ-

ing his plan for horse riding facilities, a golf course, and an “ecology village.”

Critics say his vision is too narrow.

“A golf course is something which is extremely elitist and is ecologically unsustainable,” said Mona Fawaz, an urban planning professor at the American University of Beirut.

Inside the grandstands, the debate draws little concern.

Bilal Shafwan, a 47-year-old taxi driver who has been coming to the races for 35 years, said he believes some of the city politicians are still getting some money out of the track.

“If they couldn’t steal from the racetrack, they would have closed it long ago,” he said. AP

AN JUAN, Puerto Rico—Management employees at Puerto Rico’s disabled-workers fund warned on Saturday that its $445-million investment in the financially-strapped Government Development Bank (GDB) would be at risk if the bank is declared insolvent and pushed into receivership.

State Insurance Fund Management Employees Federation President Juan Osorio Flores called on its board of directors to safeguard funding to pay injured workers. He said these payments would be affected because a receiver would take possession of bank’s assets and be responsible for establishing priorities over which debts to pay. The SIF bought short- and medium-term notes that provided cash for the government to operate.

“The resources we have were given to the government and now there is not much money. We have to save these investments or the next to go into bankruptcy will be the SIF,” Osorio Flores said.

GDB President Melba Acosta said on Friday that the bank has liquidity of about $700 million and faces a $423 million bond payment next month.

She denied reports that the institution would be closed and employees fired, but said the GDB is in talks with creditors about restructuring its debt and is considering other measures, like a temporary debt-payment moratorium.

Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla announced last June that Puerto Rico’s near $70-billion debt is not payable, but the commonwealth has, so far, only reached a deal with creditors of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, which has about $9 billion in outstanding debt.

Congress is expected to consider legislation this month, granting the commonwealth some bankruptcy powers, while submitting it to the authority of a fiscal oversight board.

The US Supreme Court is reviewing federal court decisions that found a local bankruptcy law enacted by Puerto Rico unconstitutional. AP

A8

The W

Business Argentine experts question official report on Mexico students missing since 2014

Monday, April 4, 2016

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IN this March 29 photo, people gather at a holding center for newly displaced persons in Mahkmour, Iraq. Fighting between Iraqi forces and militants affiliated with the Islamic State group close to Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, has displaced over 2,000 people in the past week. AP/CENGIZ YAR

In Iraq war, hundreds more are displaced by Islamic State group

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AKHMOUR, Iraq—Fighting between Iraqi forces and militants affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group close to Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, has displaced over 2,000 people in the past week.

On one recent night, around 100 people arrived on the outskirts of the town of Makhmour, in Iraq’s semiautonomous northern Kurdish region, having fled violence.

The journey ended in a longawaited reunion for some families torn apart by war. Sheikh Matar Kurdi al-Bijari had left his home in the town of al-Zab, south of Mosul, for the city of Kirkuk in 2014, but was forced to leave his wife, daughter and son behind. When they fled to Makhmour in late March, al-Bijari traveled to meet them.

“Today is a very happy day for me because I am finally reunited with my wife and my kids. I hadn’t seen them for a year and a month,” he said, after tearfully hugging his family. Until the beginning of 2015, civilians could move easily between Kirkuk and IS-held areas, but more recently the front lines have become almost impassable.

Al-Bijari said that his tribesmen were being targeted by IS fighters, and that those with family members in the Iraqi army or with Kurdish forces, known as the peshmerga, were singled out.

The militants have been moving these families ever deeper into

3.3M People displaced across Iraq

their territory, making it harder to escape. Once those fleeing war arrive in peshmerga-controlled areas, they are first vetted. The peshmerga troops have been keeping new arrivals in two fenced-off soccer courts on the outer edge of Makhmour while they carry out security screening, including checking mobile phones for messages.

Lt. Col Mahdi Younis, a peshmerga officer, said his forces need to ensure there are no IS sympathizers among the displaced civilians.

He said that once the checks have been carried out, the new arrivals are moved to a nearby camp. This camp, located in an abandoned youth and sports center, is now home to 2,000 people.

The UN estimates that there are 3.3 million internally displaced people across Iraq. The country has witnessed a surge in violence as government forces battle to contain the

IS group, which swept across Iraq in 2014 and still holds large swaths of territory in the north and west of the country.

The recent arrivals to Makhmour described a harrowing nighttime journey, after families made use of some bad weather and a lull in fighting to escape. Many of them left all their belongings behind or threw them away by the roadside when they could no longer carry them. A few people were separated from their relatives on the way, and appeared in shock at the suddenness of their flight.

Many were clearly relieved to have left IS territory behind. Men who had just arrived were lighting their first cigarettes with visible impatience. Dakhr Abu Jasim, a 28-year-old who had been in Makhmour for several days, said the first thing he did after arriving here was to get a shave. Under IS’s strict interpretation of Islam, smoking is not allowed and men must let their beards grow.

By last Thursday, the rain had stopped and a strong sun was beating down on the families crowded in the soccer courts. Except for a few cabins, there was no cover.

“We struggled a lot. We are very tired. This kid was barely walking yesterday. I was pushing him to walk. And this morning he couldn’t walk anymore,” said Isra Badran, a 22-year-old mother of three, pointing toward her 5-yearold son, Ali. He stood close to her, looking dazed.

“We moved at night. It was muddy and raining and there were airplanes in the sky. And that’s

the time when the IS are hiding.

We took the opportunity and got out of there. We walked the whole night. We arrived here at 7:30 in the morning,” said Uday Saddam Ahmed, a 16-year-old boy, talking to The Associated Press through the chain-link fence on the soccer court. He said that the peshmerga forces had treated him well, giving him food and water.

The families may feel safe at last, but their future is uncertain. It is not clear where they will go once the local Kurdish authorities have carried out their security checks.

Nonresident Arabs have been barred from entering the Iraqi Kurdish region over security concerns, and so many of the new arrivals may find themselves unable to leave UN camps or even the soccer courts. Hassan Sabawi, a member of Nineveh’s provincial council, said on Monday that the Kurdish regional government was planning to build a new, larger camp outside the nearby town of Dibaga.

Chloe Coves, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency in Iraq, says her organization would only support the building of a new camp if they received assurances from Kurdish authorities that it would not be used as a detention center.

She said it would be better for displaced families to be moved to the town of Makhmour, where hundreds of houses are standing empty.

In a twist of fate, many of the Arab residents of Makhmour fled when the front line passed through the city in 2014, and have not been allowed to return since. They, too, have been displaced by war. AP

EXICO CITY—Argentine forensic experts who have studied a dump in southern Mexico where government officials claim the bodies of 43 missing students were burned said on Saturday that results from a new investigation of the site are incomplete and inconclusive.

The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team released a statement saying the latest investigation by a team of experts “neither confirms nor denies” the official version of what happened to the students from the Rural Normal School at Ayotzinapa.

The Argentines were called in shortly after the teachers’ college students disappeared in Iguala in Guerrero state on September 26, 2014. An investigation by Mexico’s government concluded they were killed by a local drug gang after being confused with members of a rival group. They were purportedly taken by corrupt local police and handed over to the gang, which incinerated their bodies at a dump in the nearby town of Cocula and threw the remains into a river.

The Argentines—who were brought in at the request of the students’ families and worked with government investigators— studied the dump and said first in January 2015 and later in a full report released in February 2016 that the evidence did not support the official version of events.

In September 2015 another team of independent experts sent by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), released a report that dismantled the government’s investigation.

T he repor t e x pl a ined how state and federal police, as well as the military, were monitoring the students’ movements before they were attacked. But no one intervened when Iguala and Cocula police attacked, killing six people and participating in the disappearance of the 43.

The case drew international condemnation and the government’s perceived mishandling of it dogged the administration of President

Enrique Peña Nieto.

Attorney General Arely Gomez responded by ordering a new investigation by yet another team of experts. They began working in February. On Friday a representative of the new team said it had found evidence of a large fire at the Cocula dump. Ricardo Damian Torres also said the remains of at least 17 burned bodies were found in the dump, but he didn’t specify when the bodies were incinerated.

Torres said tests would be conducted in the coming weeks to determine whether it would have been possible to burn all 43 students at the dump.

“There is sufficient evidence, including physically observable, to affirm that there was a controlled fire event of great dimensions in the place called the Cocula dump,” he said, speaking for the six-member fire-expert team.

Later the same day, the IACHR’s team of experts released a statement saying that by holding the news conference, Mexico’s attorney general’s office had broken their agreement to seek consensus on how this latest investigation would be handled.

The statement said Torres had alluded to information that had not been analyzed by the IACHR experts and was not even a consensus among the fire experts.

Then on Saturday, the Argentine experts released a statement listing what they said were the shortcomings of the new investigation.

The statement said investigators didn’t specify when the fire took place—if it coincided with the disappearance of the students—or if the 17 bodies belong to any of the missing students. It asked the new team to provide more information as to how it reached its findings.

The Argentines said their own investigators found evidence of multiple fires at the site but from the years before 2014. They also found the charred bodies of at least 19 people, but the dump was a known gang body-disposal site and they could not determine when the remains were put there. AP

Airplane debris in Mauritius to be examined by MH370 investigators

S

YDNEY—A piece of debris found on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius will be examined by investigators to see if it came from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Australian officials said on Sunday.

The discovery comes less than two weeks after officials confirmed that two pieces of debris found along the coast of Mozambique were almost certainly from the aircraft that vanished on March 8, 2014, with 239 people onboard during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. “The Malaysian government is working with officials from Mauritius to seek to take custody of the debris and arrange for its examination,” Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said in a statement. “This debris is an item of interest, however until the debris has been examined by experts, it is not possible to ascertain its origin.”

Chester did not release any details on when the piece of debris was found or who found it. He also did not say what the piece looked like or where it would be examined. The two pieces of debris found in Mozambique were flown to Australia and examined by a team of investigators from Australia, Malaysia and Boeing. Australia is leading the search for the missing Boeing 777 in a desolate stretch of the Indian Ocean far off the country’s west coast, about 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) east of Mozambique and around 4,000 km (2,500 miles) east of Mauritius. Authorities had predicted that any debris from the plane that isn’t on the ocean floor would eventually be carried by currents to the east coast of Africa.

Last year a wing flap from the plane washed ashore on the island of Reunion, not far from Mauritius. AP

Los Angeles father charged with killing son for being gay

L

OS ANGELES—A Los Angeles man charged with fatally shooting his 29-year-old son for being gay had repeatedly threatened to kill him over his sexual orientation, prosecutors say.

Amir Issa, 29, was found shot to death just outside the family home on Tuesday. While the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office charged father Shehada Issa, 69, on Friday with murder as a hate crime in the son’s death, investigators on Saturday still were trying to determine responsibility for a second killing at the home discovered by police at the same time, that of Amir’s mother, police spokesman

Officer Mike Lopez said. The mother, 68-year-old Rabihah Issa, had been stabbed repeatedly, coroner’s Lt. David Smith said.

Shehada Issa told the police he shot his son Amir in self-defense after he discovered his wife’s body in their house. Prosecutors gave a different motive for the son’s killing, however. “The murder was committed because of the victim’s sexual orientation and because of the defendant’s perception of that status and the victims’ association with a person and a group of that status,” prosecutors said in a statement. They did not elaborate. The police had no details on Saturday

on any of the alleged threats the father had made against his gay son. The police arrested Issa at the scene on Tuesday, after he made statements incriminating himself in the death of his son, Lopez said.

“He claimed the son was armed with a knife, and there was no knife to be found. It was a horrible family tragedy,” Detective John Doerbecker told the Los Angeles Daily News. Authorities said the father used a shotgun to shoot his son in the abdomen and face, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Neighbors told the newspaper the young man had a troubled history and was involved in several

incidents that led to police being called to the house. Francisco Gonzalez Jr. said the elder Issa once told him: “Drugs can mess up your life.

My son had a great life, and then he did drugs and it all went away.”

Joel Muñoz said Shehada Issa had complained to him about what he described as his son’s problems with drugs and mental illness. “He was a good guy. The son was a bad guy,” Muñoz said. “I’m so sorry for the old man.”Sgt. Greg Bruce told the Times the young man had been using the back of the house as an apartment, but his parents were seeking to sell the house and evict their son. AP

IN this March 29 photo, residents look to the scene of a shooting where a man was found shot to death and a woman fatally stabbed in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles man charged with fatally shooting his 29-year-old son for being gay had repeatedly threatened to kill him over his sexual orientation, prosecutors say. DAVID CRANE/LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS VIA AP

World

sMirror

Miami fugitive on run for 20 years found in Nicaragua

M

IAMI—A fugitive from Miami who has been on the run for almost 20 years is back in federal custody after he was arrested in Nicaragua.

Robert Allen Lopez, 49, was arrested on November 14, 2015, and deported to Miami on Saturday by a team of deputy US Marshals. According to Barry Golden, who is a spokesman for the Marshals Service, Lopez was deported because he crossed into Nicaragua by foot and was in the country illegally.

In December of 1995 Lopez pleaded guilty to federal Medicare fraud charges. Lopez established fake companies that filed false Medicare claims totaling more than $4.3 million on behalf of patients for services that were unnecessary or never provided.

Lopez was released on bail on the condition that he would not leave the area without permission. In 1997 he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of failure to appear for sentencing.

Lopez eluded capture in Mexico in 2000. After his son was found wandering the streets of Cancun, Mexico, and taken into custody, a person claiming to be the 10-year old’s uncle came to visit. Mexican police identified that person as Lopez after obtaining his fingerprints from a cup. When Lopez fled the country, he took his two children with him but left his wife behind. Miami Dade Police later charged Lopez with interference with the custody of a child. Lopez’s son returned to the United States in March of 2000 and returned to his mother. Marshals said the other child, a girl, was recovered before the boy.

Golden said the capture of Lopez was due to the efforts of the State Department, Department of Health and Human Services (who handled the original Medicare fraud investigation) and the Marshals Service. Lopez was originally arrested in Nicaragua by the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The arrest of Robert Allen Lopez demonstrates the commitment of the US. Marshals and our federal, state and local partners to pursue those wanted on an international level,” said US Marshal Amos Rojas Jr. in a statement. AP

news@businessmirror.com.ph | Monday, April 4, 2016

A9

From limos to junk, quirky museums tell Beijing’s history

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EIJING—Stuffed into a tiny room off an alleyway are items that Wang Jinming readily admits were put out with the garbage: Paper string, a needle holder, a metal pancake maker built for thrusting into a fire.

“These objects all look quite old and shabby,” he said. “But they record real history.”

Wang’s Beijing Old Items Exhibition in the hear t of old Beijing is one of dozens of pr ivate museums, which dot the capita l ’s backstreets and its sub urbs. T heir col lections feature the grand and mundane—from items sa lvaged from the garbage to a limousine in which Mao Zedong once rode.

Entering these private museums is to peel off a largely forgotten layer of Beijing’s recent history.

While state-run museums seek mainly to legitimize the ruling Communist Party through its own highly selective interpretation of history, the capital’s private museums are born from their founders’ hobbies and obsessions, along with a sense of duty to keep alive a little bit of history others might dismiss as trivial.

“If you throw it on the street, people would say ‘What’s this?’ and maybe think it’s useless and throw it away,” said Wang, gesturing around the room packed with hundreds of household items and street objects dating from the 1900s to the 1970s. “But we think it’s culture.”

Wang delights in telling visitors to guess what the objects are in their hands. They might include a popsicle holder used by street vendors or a bucket-shaped iron heated by charcoal. All form part of the collection that Wang and two cofounders began in the 1980s after asking foreign visitors why they were so interested in buying old everyday items.

“They said, ‘To collect.’ Now if you go to someone’s home you probably can’t find such things,” Wang said. Picking up a doughnut-shaped metal bell, Wang explained that before Beijing had many hospitals, itinerant doctors used to roam the streets. “When you heard this sound, the doctor was walking in the street, available, ringing the bell,” he said.

Liu Chen, 27, first visited the museum after reading about it on social media and has returned several times with friends.

“It’s not like big state-owned museums. You don’t need to buy a ticket to enter some sort of grand hall and stroll through different chambers,” he said. “Here many of the old objects displayed might have been the kind of things used

by Mr. Wang himself when he was a kid, so you can feel his enthusiasm, which is the key thing that distinguishes it from other museums.”

As China grows richer, wealthy citizens, banks and private businesses have invested in Chinese art and started museums to display their wealth or patriotism. Others, such as Luo Wenyou, opened their collections after their pastimes evolved into callings.

In 1998, when he a l ready owned about 70 old cars, Lou took part in an 800-kilometer (500mile) rally from the northeastern

In this March 27 photo, Red Flag car models, collected by Luo Wenyou, are displayed at his private museum in Huairou district of Beijing. As China grows richer, wealthy citizens, banks and private businesses have invested in Chinese art and started museums to display their wealth or patriotism. Others, such as Lou, opened their collections after their pastimes evolved into callings. In 1998, when he already owned about 70 old cars, Lou took part in an 800-kilometer rally from the northeastern city of Dalian to Beijing, his iconic Red Flag sedan the only Chinese car in the event. AP

city of Dalian to Beijing, his iconic Red Flag sedan the only Chinese car in the event. Having learned about vintage car associations and museums outside China, and inspired by shouts of “long live Red Flag” as he pulled up to Tiananmen Square, Lou decided he was honor-bound to preserve the legacy of China’s early motoring history. “I had a karting track, a transport company and a garage.

After the rally I sold them off cheaply in order to immediately start a vintage car association and later found the museum, to fill the gap,” Lou said. “I felt this was my personal duty.” His museum opened in 2009 and he now boasts more than 200 vintage-Chinese and foreign cars.

Some of Lou’s cars have stories from China’s recent history. They include a car Mao refused to ride in until the brand’s Romanized

These objects all look quite old and shabby, but they record real history.”—Wang

name on the hood was replaced with Chinese characters and a car found in an overgrown patch of grass that had been assigned to former President Liu Shaoqi.

The latter vehicle still had broken windows from when Shaoqi was pursued by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution after falling out of favor with Mao. Wenyou lives at the site with his wife so he can open up outside normal hours for visitors traveling from afar. “Even if just one person comes we will open, even though the entrance fee won’t cover the electricity,” he said.

Private collections like Lou’s offer a welcome alternative to state museums, which seek to draw the visitor into a narrative about the greatness of China and the necessity of the Communist Party’s leadership, said Philip Tinari, director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.

“You don’t really find publicly supported pockets of weirdness,” Tinari said. Ma Weidu opened China’s first private museum in 1996, filling it with antiques bought cheaply in the late 1970s

and 1980s from Beijing residents eager for cash to buy refrigerators, TVs and washing machines.

“I could buy 10 average pieces of art for 65 yuan [$10],” Lou said.

In those early days, his most valuable acquisition was a bowl made in an imperial kiln during the reign of the Qing dynasty Emperor Qianlong about 250 years ago, Lou said. Purchased for just 6 yuan (less than $1) at the time, it could be worth as much as 600,000 yuan ($92,000) if sold today, he said.

Ma’s Guanf u Museum now has three branches across China w ith t wo more opening this year. Ma himself has become a T V persona lit y, hosting programs teaching antique hunters how to d i scer n bet ween rea l treasures and fa kes. Ever keen to attract more visitors, Ma, a cat lover, recently named 20 felines as assistant curators. “A lot of people who come to the museum...are more interested in cats than culture,” Ma said. “But some may come here because of the cats and, in doing so, learn something about antiques.” AP

Thousands turn out as Washington state opens 520 bridge S

E AT T LE —T housa nd s of people turned out on Saturday for festivities celebrating the opening of the new State Route 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington—so many that the state Department of Transportation (DOT) declared the event “at capacity” and halted buses that had been expected to shuttle additional people to the structure.

Gov. Jay Inslee cut an orange ribbon on Saturday at the middle of the 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometer)-long span to commemorate the completion of work, more than 12,000 people participated in a 10K fun run, and a representative of Guinness World Records presented a certificate designating it the world’s longest floating bridge—at 7,708 feet (2,349.4 meters), it’s about 130 feet (39.6 meters) longer than the old one.

“This is what it’s all about—seeing years of public engagement, planning, design and construction all come to fruition,” said Roger Millar, acting transportation secretary. “This grand bridge is going to serve our region well for a long, long time.” The six-lane bridge, which replaces a four-lane version built in 1963, doesn’t fully open to car traffic until later this month—April 11 for westbound traffic and April 25 for both directions. The state says it features heavier, stronger pontoons and anchors that allow

the structure to withstand stronger winds and waves; a bus and carpool lane in each direction; a 14-foot (4.2-meter)-wide bike and pedestrian path; and system to collect and treat storm water, which will improve water quality in Lake Washington. The old bridge is expected to be dismantled by the end of the year. On Saturday the masses strolled along the car-free pavement and enjoyed views of the lake and the mountains on a beautiful spring day. But it was so crowded that some complained about an hour or more for shuttles to make their way off the bridge, and the lines at the food trucks were formidable.

The state DOT communicated with frustrated bridge-goers by Twitter, sendizng messages such as “event is currently at capacity.

We’re working to move people on the bridge off and are halting inbound bus loads for at least an hour,” and, “Water is on its way to folks waiting for shuttles.... Thank you for your patience.”

The celebration also featured interactive exhibits for children focusing on science, technology, engineering and math. Festivities were scheduled to continue on Sunday, with 7,000 bicyclists joining a 20-mile (32-km) ride across the bridge and through downtown Seattle streets that will be closed to car traffic. AP

Thousands of runners fill the eastbound lanes of the new State Route 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington on Saturday, during a 10K run to kick off weekend ceremonies for the grand opening of the span, which connects the cities of Seattle and Bellevue, Washington, D.C. The structure will open to vehicular traffic later in the month. AP

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Monday, April 4, 2016

A11

Great fondness for food grows in Tagaytay Story & photos by Gretchen Filart Dublin

‘H

alf body lang ah [only],” celebrity Chef Luigi Muhlach jested, as we flicked our cameras for his portrait.

Hearty laughs filled the room, a telling prelude to what will be a night of more laughter and tasty Filipino-fusion fare.

Two for the road: Amacena Executive Chef Luigi Muhlach with One Tagaytay Place Hotel Suites President John Ross Francisco

Apart from a 40-seater space, Amacena also has a 10-seater private dining room for intimate gatherings.

It was a nippy Saturday noon in Tagaytay and all eyes were on him and Amacena, One Tagaytay Place Hotel Suites’s newest restaurant—of which he has been recently appointed as the executive chef. The redesigned 40-seater space, filled with immaculate linens, fresh mums, ornate wheat and chopped mahogany rings as placemats, exuded a tone, as earthy, sophisticated and comforting as the dinner thereafter.

Formerly known as Azalea, Amacena is a collaborative endeavor between the multiawarded chef and One Tagaytay Place Hotel Suites President John Ross Francisco, who envisioned the restaurant as a standalone venture, worthy of frequent visits even by nonstaying hotel guests.

“The notion is that, if it is hotel food, it’s the typical coffee-shop items, so [people] go out to look for more items. We are trying to take away the notion that it is just a hotel outlet. Here, you can enjoy good food; the company of friends over food,” Francisco shared.

A play on two Spanish words, amar (profound affection) and cena (supper), the Amacena concept revolves around an immense fondness for food—a fondness that grew among us, grub partakers, as we forked on 15 whopping dishes over the next two hours.

Comfort fare with delightful modern twists

According to Muhlach, Amacena’s gustatory offerings reflect his kitchen inspirations: rich flavors, good fat and crispy meat.

Spending five months of rigorous research and countless kitchen trials, Francisco and Muhlach— who trained under Marriott Hotel Manila’s culinary team—designed a menu that caters to discerning

tastes, the restaurant’s distinct edge over competitors in Tagaytay’s thriving food and beverage scene.

This extensive menu of proteinpacked comfort fare merges familiar Filipino flavors with a contemporary Western approach. Dining becomes a thrilling adventure, as one finds sprightly entrées, such as threecheese-smothered Longganisa Mac and Cheese, Kaldereta Pot Pie and Honey Bagoong Chicken Wings.

Also on the menu are Tagaytay favorites, including Crispy Beef Short Rib Kare-Kare—a bowl of US short ribs slow-cooked for 24 hours, deep fried and topped with peanut sauce; and mushroom sauce-drizzled Sizzling Bulalo Steak, a playful take on bulalo.

Other Amacena mainstays include Lechon Kawali with monggo purée, Adobo and Kesong Puti Bruschetta, and Aligui Rice. There’s also Tawilis Pizza—the first of its kind in the country­—and Crispy Pata, which Chef Luigi reconstructed into a crispy roulade.

For a sweet end note to a filling meal, be sure to order its Leche Turon with vanilla ice cream.

Launched on March 14, the restaurant promises to bring more savory surprises in the coming months. “The 15 dishes we presented [at the launch] is only half of the whole menu. Some of the items are to be released periodically. That’s one thing people can look forward to.

People tend to visit and come back in two to three months. We’re giving people a reason to keep coming back and more often than every two to three months,” Francisco added.

Chef Luigi whips up exciting dishes, which fuse local and Western flavors.

A sweet end to a fantastic meal: Amacena’s leche turon with vanilla ice cream.

Good wine and great food are in store at Amacena, One Tagaytay Place Hotel Suites’s newest restaurant.

Sizzling Bulalo Steak, a playful take on Tagaytay’s best-selling dish bulalo.

Bringing life into the hotel scene

One of the most top-rated full-service hotels in Tagaytay, One Tagaytay Place Hotel Suites features 120 opulent suites equipped with luxe

Marinated for 48 hours, Amacena’s Chicken Inasal comes with a chicharon-crusted corn on the cob and Java rice.

Smokin’ Bistek, a dish of beef strips smothered in soymansi gravy and sizzled before serving.

Amacena’s Steak Benedict uses US Striploin topped with Hollandaise sauce and served with hash brown.

desks and in-room Wi-Fi notwithstanding, there’s a well-furnished business center, as well as conference rooms for business meetings.

For bigger events, the Aurora Grand Ballroom—able to accommodate up to 200 persons—is more suitable.

Enjoying a quiet spot on the Tagaytay-Calamba Road, away from the city’s hubbub, the hotel is within

Amacena’s Honey Bagoong Wings, a platter of fried chicken wings, coated in honey bagoong sauce and served with ranch dressing.

Amacena features an interior as crisp, sophisticated and earthy as its fare.

amenities, such as snug mattresses, en-suite bathrooms, minibars, coffee and tea makers, and LCD TVs with DVDs and premium cable channels.

Big groups can choose between onebedroom and penthouse suites overlooking the city.

With corporate travelers comprising one of the hotel’s largest markets, facilities that help manage work away from home are in place. Work

Formerly known as Azalea, Amacena is One Tagaytay Place Hotel Suites’s newest restaurant.

easy reach of Tagaytay Highlands and People’s Park, both prime tourist destinations. For a panoramic view of Tagaytay City and neighboring Laguna, troop to the outdoor pool and kiddie pool.

While the hotel hosts such extensive in-house leisure facilities, Francisco shared that they offer more than just a place to stay. Beyond sating hunger, he added that creating Amacena is a step toward bringing fresh perspectives, which will excite

the palate and add more vibrance to the customary hotel experience.

“What I observed is that guests stay here all day, in the function rooms, talking about work, and it’s really food that can bring energy to them.”

With a dedicated president and chef, both learned in the art of spawning kitchen secrets that inspire a collective fondness for food, clearly Amacena is well-equipped to do that and more.

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

A10 Monday, April 4, 2016

See you in Batanes Philippines: ​A Manifold Land. ​The name “Philippines”​ begins with the Greek word for love and signifies a love for energy, as the root word, philip, means a love of horses. This can be translated as a love of energy and speed, with horsepower still our measure of energy.

The Philippines was not misnamed, whatever the nature of the prince it got its name from, the name itself is a gem fit for a jewel of a land. So writes Nick Joaquin in the book published by the Department of Tourism in 1996, titled The

TOURIST ARRIVALS Tourism is one of the world’s biggest industries. According to the report of Financial Express in February this year, by the year 2020, on projections, there would be 1.6 billion tourists worldwide, and tourism receipts would touch $2 trillion, creating one job every 2.5 seconds.

Imagine if we can tap even 2 percent of this figure, what tremendous economic benefits this will translate for our communities where most of the best tourism destinations are.

In recent years travel has seen changes in airfare costs, visa and other amenities being offered by hotels and online-service companies.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), to which the Philippines is a member, reported that overall international arrivals are up 4 percent, with 1.2 billion in 2015. ​This is the sixth consecutive year of above average growth in arrivals worldwide.

According to the UNWTO, the 4-percent growth in arrival was driven by the strong showing of Europe. The whole of Europe showed a 5 percent increase in arrivals, which surprised many of those in the industry, for a rather mature travel destination,​and in spite of perceived safety problems in certain European destinations.

The openness of countries to make access to visa easier has been on

Indian performance Rodrian Gonzales

THAI performer Rodrian Gonzales

Dr. Mina T. Gabor

B

THE bm traveler

efore I start this column, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the family of the late Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua.

On March 1 I received an e-mail from Ms. Carla Mortel-Baricaua advising me that BusinessMirror Publisher T. Anthony Cabangon and Editor ​in ​Chief Jun Vallecera were inviting me to start a Monday column that would touch on tourism and entertainment. In the past I shied away from writing columns, as I preferred to devote time to the International School of Sustainable Tourism (ISST), which we started in Subic. In the succeeding columns,​ I would like to introduce this nonstock, nonprofit school in more detail.

This year is the fifth anniversary of ISST and so I thought this may

be the right time to accept this invitation. When I look back on my past works and business involvements, they were always about marketing, selling and promoting the Philippines and its products.

I JUST LOVE THIS COUNTRY!

But do you know what the word Philippines stands for?

A general welcome

the rise. The UNWTO further reports that 18 percent of the world’s population is able to travel without visa, 15 percent could receive visas on arrival, and 6 percent were able to obtain e-visa.

CONGRATULATIONS and happy anniversary to Philippine Airlines on its 75th year. The last conversation we had with President Jimmy Bautista was that they were opening up flights to two European destinations. Hope many took advantage of the great promo offerings of PAL to certain destinations at 75-percent off of published rates.

BATANES An idyllic destination which could be likened to certain European sites with cows standing on green rolling hills. The large number of cows grazing on the hills has cut the grass short. The quaint landscape and historical churches and thunderous waves that hit the rocks are dramatic experiences. The native Ivatans are P​hilippine hospitality personified. My first trip to Batanes was with the late President Cory Aquino. I remembered buying a lot of garlic which are plentiful in Batanes and woven nito place mats which up to today are what we use daily for our table settings.

The best time to travel to Batanes is during summer. So I decided to visit Batanes again and hope the old Ivatan houses are still there, the cogon hats are still available. I am looking forward to partake their famous bukayo and fantastic varieties of fresh fish. If you wish to join the Batanes trip, call Mike Quitorio at 09054876855. I understand there are already some 30 participants signed up and the group will be in Batanes from May 5 to 8.

Mabuhay!

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Hotel Jen announces its first venture in Kuala Lumpur S hangri-La International Hotel Management Ltd. and Concorde Arch (M) Sdn. Bhd. announced the development of the first Hotel Jen in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Opening in 2019, Hotel Jen Kuala Lumpur is the second Hotel Jen project under development in Malaysia, following the signing of Hotel Jen Kota Kinabalu in Borneo in September 2015.

The announcement was made at a signing ceremony held in Hong Kong to finalize a management agreement between Concorde Arch (M) Sdn. Bhd. and Hotel Jen. Concorde Arch (M) Sdn. initially acquired the land for building the corporate office, however, the opportunity of venturing toward hospitality became apparent with the advent of millennial travelers seeking more curated lifestyle and leisure accommodation inspired by this growing target market.

The proximity of the location to numerous landmarks in Kuala Lumpur enhances the feasibility of this proposition. Judy Ng, director of Concorde Arch (M) Sdn. Bhd., said, “We are excited to be in partnership with Shangri-La International Hotel Management. This will add a new direction to our hospitality business for the group.”

Hotel Jen Kuala Lumpur is strategically located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur at the intersection of Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan P Ramlee, just 800 meters from the city’s landmark Petronas and Twin Towers and 300 meters from the KL Tower.

G

eneral Santos City is synonymous with the world’s best-tasting tuna caught off Sarangani Bay and beyond which has tickled the palate of gastronomes across the globe.

But beyond being the country’s acknowledged “Tuna Capital,” GenSan as it is fondly known, is a city of divergent cultures being a frontier land in Mindanao once upon a time.

This kaleidoscope of cultures was brought to the fore once more, as it recently marked its 77th Foundation Day as a town with the multiawarded Kalilangan Festival.

Derived from the Maguindanaoan word Kalilang, which literally means celebration, the festival is a social gathering marked by the exchange of amenities among ethnic leaders, elders and townsfolk.

With the theme “GenSan and Beyond: Connecting Cultures,” the festival brought to the fore the convergence of the lowland Christian population, the Muslim tribes and the indigenous peoples who have made GenSan their home for generations.

According to General Santos City Mayor Ronnel Rivera, the festivity is a tribute to its founding pioneers, including its early inhabitants emphasizing their shared histories, cultural heritage, tapestry of traditions, especially their decades-old harmonious coexistence.

Major events included the Asyan Pavilion Cultural Village at the City Oval that showcased the rich cultural heritage of the indigenous peoples, mostly composed of the B’laan and T’boli tribes, as well as the Moro communities.

The festival’s highlight was the Parada ng Lahi: Kadela de Amor on February 27 that reenacted the arrival of Gen. Paulino Santos, demonstrating the unity of the people as they marched together.

Capping the festivity was the Kadsagayan, or streetdance, showdown that displayed the cultural dances of the city’s migrant Christian lowlanders, the Moro communities and the indigenous peoples.

Adding spice to the celebration is a variety of sporting, entertain-

Kalilangan Festival

Parada ng Lahi Rodrian Gonzales

ment, musical, sociocivic and community-oriented events.

MSU Chancellor and Kalilangan Cochairman lawyer Abdurrahman Canacan said Kalilangan is also celebrating its 27th anniversary as the city’s main cultural festival, with the MSU as the lead organizer for the fifth year.

He enthused that this year’s festivities went beyond the usual tripeople convergence and also included Asian countries, such as India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan, which shared their way of life in the product and food fairs, and dance presentations.

Under MSU’s stewardship, Kalilangan Festival has achieved a Hall-

of-Fame status in the Best Tourism Event (Culture and Arts Category, City Level) of the Association of Tourism Officers in the Philippines, having won top honors for three straight years.

The city traces its roots to February 27, 1939, when Gen. Paulino Santos, administrator of the National Land Settlement Administration of the Commonwealth government under President Manuel Quezon, landed in the shores of Sarangani Bay. He led the relocation of 62 Christian settlers from Luzon aboard the steamship Basilan of Compañia Maritima, composed mostly of agricultural and trade graduates to cultivate the region.

After the first influx of pio-

Maguindanao dance at Kalilangan Festival

Karetela ride Rodrian Gonzales

neers, thousands more Christians from Luzon and the Visayas have subsequently moved into the area.

As the district grew, it was named Dadiangas and subsequently converted into a city on September 5, 1968. Over the years, it has grown into a first-class city and an important urban center in southern Mindanao, being the hub of business and tourism gateway of Soccsksargen, or Region 12.

Plaza Heneral Santos

The hotel will cater to both business and leisure travelers, being in close proximity to the central business district and Kuala Lumpur City Centre, as well as having easy access to some of Southeast Asia’s largest shopping malls, street markets, and wide range of restaurants and entertainment.

Greg Dogan, president and chief executive of Shangri-La, said, “The announcement of Hotel Jen Kuala Lumpur reinforces our interest and expansion in Malaysia, in the country’s capital city, where we will now increase the group’s presence with our third hotel and newest brand Hotel Jen.” Fresh, friendly and fuss-free.

That’s the genre of Hotel Jen, the new brand launched a year ago to cater to a new “Jeneration” of independently minded business and leisure travelers. The brand immediately launched the first 10 Hotel Jen properties, opening in major cities in Asia Pacific in under one year, followed by two new developments soon after Hotel Jen’s first anniversary. Shangri-La is targeting fasttrack growth of the Hotel Jen brand in key cities in Asia.

Lohar Nessman, COO of the Hotel Jen brand, said, “The opening of Hotel Jen Kuala Lumpur will strengthen the brand’s footprint in yet another key city in Asia, where the richness and diversity of business, leisure and culture in Malaysia aligns with the Hotel Jen’s brand persona of being a ‘lover of life, travel and discovery.’”

Science Monday BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, April 4, 2016

Shrimp-and-egg shells mix can clean up oil spill, study shows

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new green-reversing technology to remediate oil spills on fresh and marine waters is being explored by the Environmental and Biotechnology Division of the Department of Science and Technology’s Industrial Technology Development Institute (DOST-ITDI).

Led by Emelda A. Ongo, her five-member team has developed a mixture of chitosan (a by product of chitin from shells of shrimp, crab, or lobster) from shrimp and calcium carbonate for use as biosorbent to remove petroleum spills from water. “Largely dismissed by some as a problem that ‘will go away in time,’ what is alarming in oil spills is that the damage it causes is permanent and takes quite a while to clean up,” Ongo explained.

As is its natural characteristic, oil spills float on water and prevent sunlight from passing through then. This makes it difficult for plants and sea animals to survive. A coating of oil can kill seabirds, mammals, shellfish and other organisms.

Ongo clarified, “We now know that it affects seabirds and other mammals, because petroleum can penetrate into the structure of feathers and fur, breaking down their insulating capability. This makes them vulnerable to temperature fluctuations; most commonly die from hypothermia.”

In addition, oil that washes into coastal marshes, mangroves and other wetlands also coats rocks and sands, making the area unsuitable as plant and animal habitats. Those that sink into the mangrove environment can damage fragile underwater ecosystem, killing fishes and fish eggs, among others.

Everyday materials, new green results

Chitosan has long been used as a biopesticide. Its other uses for medical and industrial purposes have been increasingly receiving

attention in research circles. Of particular interest is its industrial use as sorbent material for oil removal in water. “There are other organic and inorganic materials which may do, as well. It is, indeed, amusing to know that our everyday shrimp and egg have found themselves on our lab tables,” Ongo said.

“Let me explain. While most have been using pure chitosan as sorbent material, we have chosen to work on chitosan, which come from shrimp shells, and calcium carbonate from eggshells. Why? Because these are waste materials that can be reused, are cheap and widely available. In addition, their biocompatibility, biodegradability and safety make for an ideal composite. Chitosan, of course, has film-forming ability while surface roughness in calcium carbonate makes them excellent sorbent materials,” Ongo said.

Cleaning up oil spills is a great challenge, she admitted. Lack of technology and expertise, as well as great financial demands of the task, including factors, such as amount and type of oil spilled, water temperature (which affects the rate of evaporation and biodegradation), and the type of shorelines and beaches, can sorely test concerned groups. But what reassured her team was that they were able to show that a 50:50 composite of chitosan and calcium carbonate in flakes and granular forms works.

“Simply, we wanted to develop a material that has a strong affinity for oils rather than water.” Combining chitosan with calcium carbonate, thus, dramatically increased the adsorption capacity of the green technology. Which then of the composite flakes and composite granules tested better?

Testing the composites using a 5,000 parts per million concentration of diesel oil and bunker fuel oil in synthetic wastewater, Ongo said it “was a relief because they showed satisfactory results.” S&T Media Service

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

PHL receives Atoms for Peace Award at nuclear summit in US

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CIENCE Secretary Mario G. Montejo, head of the Philippine Delegation at the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), accepted the Atoms for Peace Award on behalf of the Philippines at an awards luncheon of the recently held Nuclear Industry Summit (NIS) at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

Philippine Science Secretary Mario G. Montejo (seated, left) accepts the Atoms for Peace Award at the awards luncheon of the Nuclear Industry Summit, an official side event of the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit held on March 31 and April 1 in Washington, D.C.

The Atoms for Peace Award recognizes the recipient’s global leadership for the removal of all highly enriched uranium from its territory and other contributions to nuclear security.

“This award is an acknowledgment of our country’s efforts to promote nuclear security at the international level,” Montejo said.

“Nuclear security is a responsi-

bility of all states, big and small, and it begins with each country’s commitment to bolster national capacities to address safety and nonproliferation concerns.”

Some other countr ies a lso received the Atoms for Peace Awards. They are the Federal Republic of Brazil, Republic of Chile, Czech Republic, Kingdom of Denmark, Georgia, Hungary,

Republic of Korea, United Mexican States, Romania, Kingdom of Spain, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Thailand, Republic of Turkey, Ukraine and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The 2016 NIS brought together about 350 nuclear-industry executives who issued a joint statement stressing their commitment to nuclear security, safety and cooperation with governments. It is an official side event of the 2016 NSS that was hosted by US President Barack Obama on March 31 and April 1.

Both NIS and NSS were started in 2010, after Obama announced an international effort to secure vulnerable nuclear materials, break up black markets, and detect and intercept illicitly trafficked materials. The first Nuclear Security Summit was held in Washington, D.C., in 2010. It was followed by additional summits in Seoul in 2012 and The Hague in 2014.

T he 2016 NSS gat hered t he leaders of more t ha n 50 cou nt r ies to d isc uss t he st reng t hening of e x ist ing reg u l ator y orga ni zat ions a nd ot her sa fe g u a rd s in v iew of t he g row ing t h reat of nuc lea r ter ror ism.

With Montejo at the summit were Philippine Nuclear Research Institute officers OIC Office of Deputy Director Soledad Castañeda and Head of Nuclear Safeguard and Security Julieta Seguis.

At the summit, world leaders declared progress on Friday in safeguarding nuclear materials sought by terrorists and wayward nations, even as Obama acknowledged the task was far from finished. Closing out a nuclear-security summit, Obama warned of a persistent and harrowing threat: terrorists getting their hands on a nuclear bomb.

He urged fellow leaders not to be complacent about the risk of

catastrophe, saying that such an attack by the Islamic State (IS) or a similar group would “change our world.”

“I’m the first to acknowledge the great deal of work that rem a i ns,” Oba m a sa id , add i ng that the vision of nuclear disarmament he laid out at the start of his presidency may not be realized during his lifetime.

“But we’ve begun.”

Despite their ca l ls for f urt her ac t ion , t he rou g h ly 50 leaders assembled announced that this year’s gathering would be the last of this k ind. T his year deep concer ns about terror ism were the focus, as leaders grappled w ith the notion that the next Par is or Br ussels cou ld involve an attack w ith a nuclear weapon or dirty bomb.

“There is no doubt that if these madmen ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb or nuclear material, they most certainly would use it to kill as many innocent people as possible,” Obama said.

So far, no terrorists have obtained a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb, Obama said, crediting global efforts to secure nuclear material. But he said it wasn’t for lack of the terrorists trying: Al-Qaeda has sought nuclear materials, IS group has deployed chemical weapons, and extremists linked to the Brussels and Paris attacks were found to have spied on a top Belgian nuclear official.

The two-day summit held other, more positive signs of the world coming together to confront the broader nuclear threat.

The US Security Council members who brokered a sweeping nuclear deal with Iran last year held up that agreement as a model for preventing nuclear proliferation, as they gathered on the summit’s sidelines to review the deal’s implementation. PIA and AP

Chinese dams blamed for exacerbating Southeast Asian drought

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A NOI, Vietnam—A s C h i n a opened one of its six dams on the upper Mekong River last month to help parched Southeast Asian countries down river cope with a record drought, it was hailed as benevolent water diplomacy.

But to critics of hydroelectric dams built on the Mekong over the concerns of governments and activists, it was the self-serving act of a country that, along with hydropower-exporting Laos, has helped worsen the region’s water and environmental problems.

Much of Southeast Asia is suffering its worst drought in 20 or more years. Tens of millions of people in the region are affected by the low level of the Mekong, a rice-bowlsustaining river system that flows into Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Fresh water is running short for hundreds of thousands of people in Vietnam and Cambodia, and reduced water for irrigation has hurt agriculture, particularly rice growing in Thailand, where land under cultivation is being cut significantly this year.

Vietnam estimates that 400,000 hectares have been affected by saltwater intrusion, with some 166,000 hectares rendered infertile. The affected land accounts for nearly 10 percent of the country’s paddy cultivation area in the Mekong Delta, its main rice-growing region. The water level in the Tonle Sap River as it passes the royal palace in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, has fallen to a 50-year low.

Fingers are mainly pointed at the El Niño, which produces drier and hotter-than-usual weather

Thai workers repair a dried-up irrigation canal at Chai Nat province, Thailand. Much of Southeast Asia is suffering its worst drought in 20 or more years. Tens of millions of people in the region are affected by the low level of the Mekong, a rice bowl-sustaining river system that flows into Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. AP/Sakchai Lalit

globally. But environmentalists and some officials say the situation is worsened by the 10 dams on the Mekong’s mainstream built over the past two decades, at least partly because they reduce rainy-season flooding and trap sediments, making the downstream delta more vulnerable to seawater intrusion.

“I’ve lost all my investment. My family was left with nothing,” said Thach Tai, a farmer from Ngoc Bien village in the southern Vietnamese province of Tra Vinh, as he surveyed

his 2,000 square meters of dead, dry paddies. “I don’t know what to do. And there’s nothing I can do to help with my rice paddies.”

Tai said his 70-year-old father and other elderly people in the village of more than 180 families had never witnessed such drought and salination. The current El Niño is one of the strongest climate events in the past 60 years “that is not over yet,” said Kundhavi Kadiresan, assistant director general at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. It is the main factor in

the drought, but “dams along the Mekong can and certainly do cause some problems,” she said.

Vietnam says the saltwater intrusion into its southern Mekong Delta is unprecedented. In midMarch it asked China to double the amount of water discharged from its Jinghong dam in Yunnan province. China agreed and the increased water flow is expected to continue until April 10.

Pham Tuan Phan, chief executive of the Mekong River Commission, a body set up to mediate the

conflicting priorities of upstream and downstream Mekong countries, called the Chinese move a “gesture of goodwill.”

China was embarking on unprecedented water diplomacy, dec l ared T ha i l and ’s Engl ishl a ng u a ge Nat ion ne w s pap er.

China’s Foreign Ministry said the government had decided to “overcome its own difficulties to offer emergency water flows.”

The Chinese move was hailed as progress because it was the first time it had notified downstream

countries of its plans for the Mekong’s water level. But it also u nderl ined t he power C h ina holds over a shared life-sustaining resource and the Mekong environment overall.

Ma Quang Trung, a department director at Vietnam’s Agriculture Ministry, said discharges from the Jinghong dam might help reduce fresh water shortages for 575,000 Vietnamese, but are unlikely to ease the drought overall.

Vietnam is so far downstream that only a small portion of the discharged water will reach it. He blames the drought on El Niño and Mekong dams. Thailand, meanwhile, has added to regional tensions over the resource by deciding to pump large volumes of Mekong water to droughtafflicted provinces. Many more dams are planned for the Mekong, including by China and landlocked Laos, which with Chinese support sees hydropower exports becoming the mainstay of its economy, one of Asia’s least developed. As a member of the toothless river commission, Laos must consult Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia but does not need their approval.

Laos went ahead with construction of the Xayaburi dam in 2012 over the concerns of its neighbors, who first wanted an in-depth study on what they feared would be profound effects on the Mekong, one of the world’s largest inland fisheries. Existing research on dams worldwide shows they significantly diminish fishing grounds by creating barriers to breedingcycle migrations and creating river conditions that destroy habitat and food sources. AP

Green Monday BusinessMirror

Monday, April 4, 2016 A13

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

Burning issue: Is PHL prepared for forest fires?

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

nvironment authorities are eyeing to declare Mount Apo “off-limits” to mountain climbers, after it caught fire on March 26.

According to initial estimates, around 350 hectares of the forest has been razed by the fire. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) officials fear that the damage could get worse if the fire continues to spread, the damage of which is expected to leave behind an ugly scar to one of Mindanao’s most treasured sacred mountains.

Irresponsible mountain climbers who left their campfire unattended are being blamed for the fire, prompting the DENR to revisit the policy of allowing inexperienced nature trippers to join mountain climbers in their adventures.

Mount Apo, which sits at the heart of the Mount Apo Natural Park (MANP), is one of the most popular climb sites in the Philippines, it being the country’s highest peak that is thickly covered with natural forests teeming with wildlife. Even before the fire, protectors of Mount Apo have experienced a serious problem brought by tourists. Tons of garbage were left behind by climbers who irresponsibly discard their waste along the trails.

Since the fire broke out on Saturday, firefighters and volunteers from various parts of the Davao region have rushed to affected areas to help forest rangers contain the fire.

Portions of Mount Apo, however, are still on fire as of Thursday. Fire is pushing toward the Santa Cruz area in Davao del Sur. The MANP straddles Davao City, Digos City, Santa Cruz and Bansalan in the province of Davao del Sur, and Kidapawan City, Makilala and Magpet in North Cotabato.

Serious forest-protection issue

Mount Apo is a key biodiversity area. It is one of the eight Asean Heritage Parks in the Philippines, which represent “the best of the best” protected areas in Southeast Asia. The Philippines has 240 protected areas covering about 5 million hectares of terrestrial and marine areas nationwide.

While over the past five years, the government had succeeded in expanding the country’s forest cover by 1.2 million to a total of 8 million hectares as of December 2015, courtesy of the National Greening Program (NGP), some questions linger:Is the country capable of protecting its forest against human threats? More specifically, is it prepared to protect the forests against disastrous forest fires?

Temporary closure

Protected areas are being promoted for ecotourism by the DENR. On Thursday Davao DENR Regional Director Joselin Fragada called an emergency meeting among members of the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) of the MANP to discuss plans on closing Mount Apo to campers.

The emergency meeting was called upon the directive of Environment Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje, who is mulling over the option to declare the MANP off -limits to human activities, particularly mountain climbing, to prevent a repeat of the incident, and to allow Mount Apo to recover from the damage.

Paje wants to put in place measures that will make mountain climbers and campers more responsible and disciplined before being allowed to explore the country’s protected areas. “ They [mountain climbers] need to undergo training before being allowed to climb a mountain. Most of those who climb the

mountain do not know how to behave. Many are irresponsible and undisciplined,” he said Paje noted that some of the forest fires that occurred in the past were also triggered by mountain climbers or nature trippers.

This includes the fire that caught Mount Banahaw in Luzon in 2014.

Forest fires are often caused by human activities.

T he PA MB is composed of national and local government officials and representatives of various stakeholders, including private sector, academe and representatives from communitybased organizations within a protected area.

Caught unprepared

A pparently, protec tors of Mount Apo were caught unprepared. The fire that broke out from one of the camp sites quickly spread out in just a few hours, immediately affecting 100 hectares of closed canopy forest by Monday morning. As the fire broke out, rescuers focused on evacuating close to 1,000 climbers who were camped around its peak to safer grounds, according to Eduardo Ragaza, the acting protected area superintendent of the MANP. By the time all the mountain climbers were brought down to safety, the fire is already uncontrollable. With no firefighting equipment—except for bolos and pickax—firefighters and volunteers rushed to create fire lines but the thick smoke made the job difficult, even with the help of a helicopter water bucket deployed by authorities in the area.

“The smoke is too much. It is difficult to conduct even aerial surveillance to identify the affected areas and which areas we need to go first,” he said.

Manpower, equipment shortage

On Thursday Harry Camoro, Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council head of the province of Davao del Sur, said the erratic wind at the peak of Mount Apo and the brutal terrain made it difficult for firefighters to create fire lines.

With bolos and pickax, around 150 firefighters and volunteers rushed to Santa Cruz area to clear at least 10 meters of the forest, cutting and removing trees, shrubs and grass across the portion of the forest, to which the fire is spreading to.

According to Director Ricardo Calderon of the DENR’s Forest Management Bureau (FMB), there are only 2,014 forest rangers all over the country to protect the forests against various threats, including forest fires.

The country has about 15 million hectares of forest, but there is only one forest ranger to take care of 7,000 hectares of forest.

“For every forest ranger assigned to do other task would mean 7,000 hectares of forest will be left unprotected,” he said.

The DENR is in the process of hiring more forest rangers, targeting an additional 2,000 within the year as part of the five-year National Forest Protection Program which started in 2013.

Rangers as firefighters

According to Calderon, the P500-million-budgeted program started training forest rangers.

“This include forest-fire prevention,” he said. “Forest rangers were given basic training on how

DENR Strategic Communication and Initiatives Service

to deal with forest fires. What to do in case fire breaks out, where to create fire lines based on wind direction, and how to protect themselves during fires,” he said.

Communities are, likewise, informed of the dangers of forest fires, Calderon added.

Not a DENR mandate

While forest protection falls within the mandate of the DENRFMB, firefighting in forests is not within its mandate. Firefighting falls within the mandate of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), an attached agency of the Department of the Interior and Local Government. As such, Calderon said the DENR’s FMB is not allowed by law to purchase firefighting equipment.

“Only the [BFP] is allowed to purchase firefighting equipment,” he said. “Otherwise, we will have a problem with the COA [Commission on Audit],” he said.

Calderon said during his stint as regional director of the DENR for Central Luzon in 2011, he was able to facilitate the purchase of backpack water sprinklers or sprayers for the training of forest rangers in forest-fire protection. The equipment are normally used by farmers to spray pesticides in farms, including commercial and industrial-tree plantations. But the purchase, he said, is limited to a few units.

To effectively fight forest fire, forest rangers and those at the front lines, including the DENR’s partners in forest protection, the Bantay Gubat need to be equipped w ith f iref ighting equipment, such as fire swat, which is effective in extinguishing grassfires, backpack water sprinklers, and for big forest fires, a helicopter water bucket.

Not a BFP priority

Unfortunately, fighting forest fire is not among the BFP’s top

priority. The BFP, which is mandated to protect lives and properties against deadly fire, is not into buying firefighting equipment for forest fires.

“Our training and equipment are focused on dealing with structural fires [in urban and commercial areas], not for forest fires,” Senior Supt. Joselito Cortez of the BFP’s Directorate for Operation, told the BusinessMirror. He said the BFP purchases are for structural fires, such as firetrucks and fire hoses and nozzles.

The BFP, he added, do not have a unit dedicated to fighting forest fire. According to Cortez, the BFP has special rescue units, which the BFP can send out during forest fires, but he said, actual firefighting in the vast forest is not one of those areas the country’s firefighters are prepared for.

“We only coordinate with other agencies during such disasters,” he said, referring to local government units [LGUs], which is in charge of disaster risk reduction and management-plan implementation on the ground. Forest fires can last for days, months or even weeks and months as long as there are materials left to burn. This, he said, makes forest fire more dangerous to deal with, underscoring the need to focus on educating the people as a fire-prevention measure.

Deadly, destructive

Forest fires are destructive and deadly, Calderon said. “In just a few minutes, forest fires can destroy an entire forest, especially during summer and El Niño. Anybody, with no experience in fighting forest fires, can be killed by the smoke alone when trapped in a burning forest,” he said.

Forest fires, he said, are usually caused by humans—slash-andburn farming, unattended bonfires or camp fires, open burning of agricultural waste, or even a lit cigarette

butt tossed by a smoker can cause forest fires, Calderon said.

He said fires that start from the peak is expected to spread slower than those start at the foot or middle of the mountain.

“Fire spreads faster during summer because of the dry grass, leaves and branches,” he said.

“Once fire broke out, you could not stop it,” Calderon said.

He said the best thing firefighters can do is to contain the fire by creating fire lines to prevent it from spreading and affecting other areas. Prevention, according to Calderon, is the only way to keep forests safe from deadly and destructive fire.

Serious threat to biodiversity

Director Theresa Mundita Lim of the DENR’s BMB said forest fire is a serious threat to the country’s protected areas.

Citing University of the Philippines College professor Dr. Edwin Fernando’s estimates, Lim said around 70 percent of the country’s natural forests are in the country’s protected areas.

“Thus, for forest fires to hit our forests within protected areas, it must be taken very seriously.

First, forest fires in rain forests are indications of fragmentation.

Open areas allow patches to dry up and become easily ignited by heat [particularly during the hot summer months], and this can spread quickly to surrounding areas that are still regenerating,” she said.

Lim said the heat from fire and the smoke suffocates the unique plants and animals that cannot immediately move away.

“Some species are adapted to specific elevations and conditions, and are endemic to the mountains, meaning they could be wiped out and become extinct.

The opportunity to discover potential value of some of these species, say, for pharmacology or

industrial use, disappears with them,” she warned. “ We need to focus our limited resources to protect forests that have been identif ied as biodiversit y-r ich. T hen leverage this nationa l gover nment investment [for protection], to mobilize additional stakeholder and par tner suppor t for enforcement and awareness raising, as wel l as for sustainable, b io d i v e r s it y - f r i e n d l y l i v e l i hoods for communities who can help protect the forests against possible sources of fire,” she added. Lim said the Mount Apo incident should serve as an eye opener to all PAMBs nationwide.

Mount Apo is home to two nesting pairs of the critically endangered Philippine Eagle, the country’s national symbol, and is one of the 240 protected areas that needed to be protected and conserved. Supporting the decision to close all Mount Apo’s 11 mountain trails to allow the forest’s natural flora and fauna to regenerate naturally, Lim said a plan for a more sustainable, responsible tourism in the area must also be developed.

She said training for communities to be tour guides, who must also be responsible for ensuring that visitors will abide by the rules and regulations of the protected areas, must be observed.

Rehabilitating Mount Apo

Calderon said rehabilitating Mount Apo’s affected areas would take time. He noted that the forest fire might even leave an ugly scar at Mount Apo that will take years to restore. “We will need to consult experts on this to help us plan the rehabilitation,” he said.

He said the DENR-FMB will immediately make a postdamage assessment once the fire is put out, and to come up with a plan to restore the beauty of Mount Apo.

A14 Monday, April 4, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Stronger parties, weaker dynasties

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he political pundits and other experts like to characterize the Philippine political landscape as “personality-based politics” at best, or “Filipino voters are ignorant” at the very least.

Both of these statements are absolutely correct and are opposite sides of the same coin.

The Philippines has one of the weakest—if not the weakest—political party system of any participatory democracy in the world. The major and long-standing political parties like to be seen committed to a governing philosophy. The Liberal Party casts itself as being in the “center of the political spectrum.” The Nacionalista Party supposedly belongs to the “conservative wing.”

But no one—most of all the voters—has any idea of what the political parties stand for. The parties are nothing more than political organizations to provide funding and infrastructure for selected candidates. If one party is short of a candidate to run for councilor in a major city, someone is recruited and paid to stand for election. In the next election, that same candidate may be paid to run for the same position by another party.

Therefore, it is inevitable that the election centers on the personality of the person running for office, because there is nothing more that the voter can use to make a decision.

A national election highlights that, without a strong political party system, family dynasties are the result. Parties are not choosing the candidates they believe will further any agenda except winning the election.

Political dynasties become self-perpetuating not because of what they have done in effective governing but because they win elections.

If the grandfather was an effective town mayor 30 years ago, then maybe the granddaughter will be the same. But the reality is that once power rests in the hands of a single family, that power can be used to create and carry on the political dynasty. The election laws do nothing to hold back the political dynasties and may, in fact, help these to survive and thrive.

The legal limitations on term limits are completely useless. Electionspending rules favor incumbents and the wealthier, particularly in local elections. Political parties are only concerned about selecting candidates that will win to increase their political power and organizational infrastructure for the next election.

The stickers that people sometimes put in the back window of their cars should not read “Dad”, “Mom”, “Ate”, “Kuya” and “Baby” but “Congressman”, “Governor”, “Vice Mayor”, “Councilor” and “Future Barangay Capitan”.

The current political system creates the environment that leads to the election results. If you are not happy with Philippine politics, then that system needs to be changed.

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PCSO receives ISO certificate Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

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he Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) received last week the official document attesting to the agency’s certification of certain processes to ISO 9001:2008 standards.

Managing Director Arwen Loveres of certifying body TÜV Rheinland Philippines (TÜV) handed the certificate to the entire PCSO board of directors at a simple awarding ceremony held on March 30 at the PCSO head office in Mandaluyong City.

The PCSO was recommended for ISO certification on December 18, 2015, after the agency successfully hurdled the two-day secondstage audit conducted by TÜV last December 17 and 18, 2015.

Certified to international standards are the PCSO’s core processes related to the conduct and management of Lotto draws and prize claims P5,000 and higher, as well as the support processes involved.

The departments that underwent the audit were gaming and technology, information-tech-

HOM

By Alberto Agra

PPP Lead

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Continued from A1

regional offices

The latest “black eye” to the “rush PPP job” is the failed bidding of the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway-Dike Project (LLEDP), an ambitious bundled project with three components, that of reclamation, expressway and dike. This is just one of many delayed projects in the pre-June 30 pipeline of PPP projects. The LLEDP, regional airports, North-South Rail, Davao Sasa Port, LRT 2 maintenance and Department of Justice prison projects were also delayed or are facing setbacks.

Going back to the LLEDP, since last year, critical viability issues were already raised by the prequalified PSPs. The LLEDP failed

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What is the significance of the PCSO’s ISO certification? It assures the public that PCSO Lotto games are conducted according to international standards; they can be confident that whenever they play Lotto, it is a game that has undergone quality checks for its processes in line with the agency’s Quality Management System (QMS).

The PCSO underwent ISO certification to comply with two things: a law and a requirement.

Executive Order 605, Series of 2007, requires all offices of government under the Executive branch—government agencies including Government-ow ned

and controlled corporations and GFIs—to obtain ISO certification, especially those related to frontline services.

The law also enjoins state universities and colleges and the other branches of government—the legislative and the judiciary—as well as local government units to develop their “ISO Quality Management Systems and pursue certification.”

Although the law was enacted nine years ago, it was not until the Aquino administration that it was strictly implemented, especially in the case of GOCCs under the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG).

GCG set as one of the PCSO’s 2015 targets the requirement

to obtain its ISO certification for gaming processes, giving it a heavy weight of 10 percent.

The activities toward certification had begun a couple of years earlier, with certain personnel of the PCSO undergoing trainings and workshops to learn about ISO and how to develop a QMS specific to the agency.

It was a long journey for the PCSO, but we met the target on time, even garnering praise from the certifying body’s auditors for some aspects of the PCSO QMS that were particularly noteworthy, such as the agency’s ISO-related documentation.

GCG has set the PCSO another challenge this year, again putting a 10-percent weight on the certification of more processes, this time related to the agency’s charity and branch operations sector, which also provide frontline services.

Our kababayan can be assured that the PCSO is continually improving its processes for frontline and support departments to provide the Filipino people with the highest standards of service according to the agency’s mandate. n n n Atty. Rojas is vice chairman and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

PPP nonstarters and deal-breakers: The six-way test

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RISING SUN

What is the significance of the PCSO’s ISO certification? It assures the public that PCSO Lotto games are conducted according to international standards; they can be confident that whenever they play Lotto, it is a game that has undergone quality checks for its processes in line with the agency’s Quality Management System.

bidding should be evaluated and measured against the six-way test of viable PPP projects. The bar of a successful PPP has six rungs. A PPP project must be legally justifiable, technically feasible, environmentally compliant, socially sustainable, economically viable, and the parties must be organizationally prepared.

Here are major reasons why PPP projects become nonstarters or deal-breakers: (1) Legally unjustifiable. According to the Alloy Pavi Hanshin Consortium, there are critical issues which could render the project and selection process illegal and unenforceable. The consortium points out there is no presidential proclamation declaring the land

The bar of a successful PPP has six rungs. A PPP project must be legally justifiable, technically feasible, environmentally compliant, socially sustainable, economically viable, and the parties must be organizationally prepared.

subject of the reclamation alienable and disposable. It also insinuates that the Philippine Reclamation Authority and affected host local governments, contrary to their respective charters, have been relegated to being bystanders in the reclamation project.

(2) Technically unfeasible.

Team Trident underscored the complexity of the 3-in-1 project, which renders the technical aspects and solutions of the project challenging, at the least.

(3) Economically unviable. San Miguel Holdings, one of the three prequalified bidders, also lamented

that the project may not be feasible, where the costs far outweigh the benefits. Team Trident underlined the imbalance between the risks and rewards.

(4) Socially unsustainable. Under the 1991 Local Government Code, the affected sectors must be consulted prior to the implementation of a national project, which may cause harm to the environment. No such process was undertaken. Cause-oriented groups decry the absence of real benefits of the project to the poor and the potential displacement of families.

(5) Environmentally noncompliant. Environmental groups are concerned about the potential danger of flooding and environmental effects of reclamation.

(6) Organizationally unprepared. Need we say more.

Apparently, the six pre-conditions fell into deaf ears or the PPP gurus of the Administration assumed the issues were innocuous.

As it turned out, these were nonstarters and deal-breakers.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Dumping Rousseff alone won’t save Brazil

Income-tax cuts, a doable measure

By Mac Margolis Bloomberg View

W

hen Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff walked down the ramp at the presidential palace in Brasilia the other day, she might have been a national hero. “There will be struggle, there will be resistance,” a gruff-voiced leader of the homeless workers’ movement announced, turning the announcement of a new federal-housing initiative into a political rally. “This bogus coup attempt will not work.”

That was on Wednesday, but to judge by mood and the political script, it could have been 1970 again.

Back then, the military ran Brazil and left-wing dissidents rose in dissent—among them, a bespectacled Marxist rebel who went by the nom de guerre Estela before she entered politics and became the country’s 36th president.

Today Rousseff is fighting for her job as political allies abandon her governing coalition and political foes push to unseat her through impeachment, voiding her election or urging her to resign. To the besieged leader, such maneuvers are barely disguised attempts at a coup d’etat, fueled by political intolerance bordering on “Nazism,” she told a gathering of sympathetic artists and intellectuals on Thursday.

In fact, this is Brazilian democracy at work. Forty-five years after Comrade Estela was arrested and tortured by the dictatorship, Brazil is another country. It boasts a vibrant, albeit flawed, democracy in which dissenters with all manner of grievances may march without fear of being jailed. And except for a few cranky hard-liners, who recently hailed the 52nd anniversary of the military’s power grab, the armed forces have displayed no interest in running the country again.

“I feel ashamed,” Colonel Adilson Moreira reportedly wrote in an e-mail to fellow officers after announcing he was leaving his post as commander of Rousseff’s national public-security force. “Our federal administration is no longer interested in the country’s well-being, but in maintaining power at all costs.”

What Rousseff is facing is not a cabal plotting a putsch, but political whiplash, brought on mainly by economic mismanagement and partisan hauteur. It was largely on her watch that government allies turned the state-run oil company Petrobras into a cash machine for election campaigns and personal gain.

The impeachment writ weighing against her is a democratic safeguard written into the 1988 constitution, a document drafted to cleanse the country of dictatorial ways. Her ruling Workers Party knows the drill. Its lawmakers have petitioned 50 times to impeach three presidents in the last quarter century, the political columnist Jose Casado noted recently

in the newspaper O Globo.

Try as Dilma might to turn impeachment into sedition and the presidential palace into a safe house, Brazilian democracy is facing a much larger challenge: How to make the country governable again and rescue a failing economy?

Following the constitution—too often a disposable document in Latin America—is a start, but only that.

Brazil’s political class needs a thorough shaking out, and here is where all sides in the impeachment quarrel should drop their fists and rethink the impasse that has brought the country nearly to a halt.

Yet, this week offered a glimpse of how hard that will be. Rousseff’s main coalition partner, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), formally split from her government, making her eventual fall even more likely.

The Eurasia Group recently downgraded Rousseff’s likelihood of finishing her second term to 25 percent.

To fill vacated cabinet posts, Rousseff has reached out to a number of smaller parties, better known for their appetites for patronage than for their political acumen. One of her new best friends is the Progressive Party, suspected of taking $100 million in bribes in the Petrobras scandal, and five of whose sitting federal lawmakers were formally accused of corruption this week.

Brazil’s breakaway politicians don’t inspire much confidence, starting with the three men in line to succeed Rousseff, all of whom hail from the PMDB and are under suspicion of having benefitted from the Petrobras corruption scheme.

Supreme Court Justice Luis Roberto Barroso is not impressed: “My God in heaven, this is our alternative to rule?” he was overheard telling university students at a lecture in Brasilia on Thursday.

Carlos Pereira, a political scientist with a top Brazilian university, the Getulio Vargas Foundation, is more optimistic. “Brazil’s crisis could help force a new government to act by imposing reforms that the current administration has been too weak to enact,” he told me. “This has got to be a government of national salvation.”

Of course, that’s something that not even the constitution can provide.

Jeffrey Salazar

DEBIT CREDIT

E

lection fever is on, and one of the hottest issues is tax reform. The Philippines has the second-highest income-tax rate, at 32 percent, among the Asean countries, after Thailand and Vietnam. To minimize the impact of this high-tax burden, there are a number of tax-reduction measures put into place over the years. In 2008 Republic Act (RA) 9504 exempted the salaries of the minimum-wage earner from payment of income tax. Likewise, the personal and additional exemptions as deduction from the incometax base were revised, with the personal-exemption level increased to P50,000 and the amount of additional exemption adjusted from P8,000 to P25,000. The latest tax breaks in 2014 and 2015 are the tax exemption of the benefits from collective-bargaining agreement and productivity-incentive scheme of P10,000, and the increase in the exemption threshold of other employee benefits from P30,000 to P82,000, in accordance with RA 10653.

The Aquino administration has pronounced that it is open to a tax reform, which will hinder the growth of the economy.

Many Filipinos are now hoping that the next president will have

tax reform as part of the election platform.

If income-tax rate will be decreased or exemptions will be increased, it will result in additional take-home pay of employees, more

A

ccording to Time, Donald Trump’s about-face on his pledge to support the Republican nominee is causing him some heartburn in South Carolina:

The Palmetto State was one of several that required candidates to pledge their loyalty to the party’s eventual nominee in order to secure a slot on the primary ballot. Though Trump won all of the state’s delegates in the February 20 primary, antiTrump forces are plotting to contest their binding to Trump because of his reversal on the pledge on Tuesday.

Oops!

It’s too early to say whether anything will come of this particular flap, but once the Republican National Convention is gaveled into session, 1,237 delegates—a majority—with the convention chairman on their side can do pretty much anything they want. They can change the rules, unbinding the delegates. They can unseat some delegates and fill those slots with an alternate slate.

(Even before the convention begins, the Republican National Committee will hand over responsibilities to committees of delegates, who will take a first cut at any rules or credentials controversies. They can be overruled by the convention as a whole, but the convention may also choose to defer to their judgment.)

That’s always been true, but there hasn’t been any uncertainty on the Republican side since 1976, so the loyalty of the delegates to the nominee didn’t really matter. That will still almost certainly be the case if Trump sweeps the remaining states.

But otherwise, everything may be up for grabs.

Once the convention votes, there’s no one to appeal to. As long as the convention is in session, the convention is the (formal) party. Whatever

purchasing power and a more active market. Ideally, reduction in income tax will not result to decline in tax collection, but merely deferral of revenue recognition.

The tax cut given to the employees will be reverted back to the government in the form of other taxes.

If the additional take-home pay by Juan is used for purchasing more goods or services, there will be increased collections in the sales tax: percentage tax, value-added tax and income tax.

Of course, there are challenges.

The government worries that the increased tax collections will not necessarily arise due to the existence of underground market, or taxpayers resorting to schemes to evade payment of taxes. The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is already counteracting these practices with its “Oplan Kandado,” Run After Tax Evaders program and Tax Mapping activities.

To make income-tax reform doable, we must do our share by demanding the issuance of the sales receipt when we make our purchases. This may compel the seller to record the transaction

in the books. The sales receipt may also be used to protect the customers for warranty-claim purposes.

Tax reform is a consolidated effort of both the government and the public. If we do our part by engaging only with BIR-registered businesses, we will be doing our share to ensure that part of our payments in our purchase will be returned back to the government in the form of taxes.

With the efforts of our lawmakers and the incoming administration, we can have a tax reform without hindering the country’s economic growth. This will result in a win-win situation for the government, the taxpayers and the economy, as a whole.

Jeffrey Galang Salazar is connected with Tong Hsing Electronics Phils. Inc., Mold Parts Manufacturing Asia Inc. and Pamantasan ng Cabuyao.

This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to boa. secretariat.@gmail.com.

Soaring productivity is missing from the numbers

By Barry Ritholtz Boomberg View

You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.—Robert Solow

G

overnment data on Friday morning showed the United States gained 215,000 new jobs last month.

Unemployment ticked up to 5 percent from 4.9 percent, as more people returned to the labor force. Wages increased 0.3 percent month to month, and are up 2.3 percent year over year. Payrolls expanded for the 70th consecutive month, averaging 198,000 a month during that stretch. Since the Great Recession ended, 14.5 million new private-sector jobs have been added to the economy.

Those big three data points— the unemployment rate, number of new hires and wage gains—are what everyone focuses on. The one data point you don’t hear much about is productivity. Looking only at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, you might imagine that the level of productivity hasn’t improved much. This is crucial, because productivity is a big part of the economic-growth equation.

However, based on nothing more than my personal experience, and nearly everyone else I have asked about this, something quite different is hap pening—productivity is soaring. Yet, there’s nothing to be found in the official numbers. To paraphrase Solow, productivity gains are everywhere, except in

the productivity statistics.

Think for a moment about the technology you use in your personal and professional life; consider how much more you can do in a given span of time, thanks to technology; the integration of mobile wireless and information services, the Internet, software and apps and what it all allows you to accomplish each day compared with the recent past.

I wager that your personal experience overwhelmingly suggests productivity gains are everywhere despite the lack of hard data.

Analysts at the BLS looked at this in 2014. They noted in a report some rather intriguing data: employees “in the US business sector worked virtually the same number of hours in 2013 as they had in 1998—approxi-

The Republican delegate machinations begin

By Jonathan Bernstein | Bloomberg View

Monday, April 4, 2016 A15

it decides is final. Don’t expect the courts to intervene, either; courts do not interfere with the internal workings of political parties.

We don’t know whether any candidate will have a working majority at the convention. We do know, however, that because Republicans in many states separate delegate allocation from delegate selection, the actual people picked may not support the delegate they are required to vote for, at least on the first ballot. However, they are not required to support that candidate’s position in any rules or credentials fights.

That means we need to think about two sets of numbers: Delegates who are bound (or unbound but committed) to a candidate, and delegates who are loyal to a candidate. Those categories will overlap, but they’re not at all the same. We may have delegates bound to Trump but loyal to Ted Cruz, delegates bound to Cruz but loyal to no candidate, or any other combination.

Bound delegates, along with unbound but committed ones, will give

us our best estimate of the first ballot for the nomination.

But loyal delegate counts—and most delegates haven’t been chosen yet, so it’s too early to even guess what the final totals will be—are the best estimates of how the voting will go on everything else. And credentials and rules votes come before the candidate ballot.

Also, loyalty only stretches so far. Suppose Cruz is willing to win ugly, by throwing out elected Trump delegates on technicalities. It’s possible that the Texas senator may have 1,237 delegates willing to vote for him for the nomination—but also that a decisive number aren’t willing to go that far for him. Nor do delegates who were loyal to Cruz or Trump when chosen in the spring need to stay loyal at the convention in July.

Messy for sure and potentially even worse than that. Which is one more reason that Republicans should do everything they can to settle the nomination during the preconvention period.

Think for a moment about the technology you use in your personal and professional life; consider how much more you can do in a given span of time thanks to technology; the integration of mobile wireless and information services, the Internet, software and apps and what it all allows you to accomplish each day compared with the recent past. mately 194 billion labor hours... there was no growth at all in the number of hours worked over this 15-year period, despite the fact that the US population gained over 40 million people during that time, and despite the fact that there were thousands of new businesses established during that time.”

That 15-year period also saw a 42 percent increase in real output; American businesses produced $3.5 trillion more in goods and services (in real terms) in 2013 than in 1998.

As a nation, how can we have such a massive increase in output without a large increase in productivity? Technology must be part of the answer; the other part,

probably, is a measurement issue.

Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income at BlackRock, calls today’s slow productivity growth “a statistical mirage.” He further observes that “traditional economic metrics simply haven’t kept pace with fast-changing technologies geared toward greater efficiency at lower cost.”

Ot hers at Bl ac k Roc k have looked at the productivity slowdow n, ex plor ing c yclica l and structural reasons for the “missing” ga ins. Measurement error continues to be the leading culprit.

The way we capture formal productivity data hasn’t kept up with modern ways of doing business. As a result, I believe economists underestimate productivity increases. Think about it: Most of us walk around with more computing power in our pockets and hand bags than the Apollo astronauts had at their disposal on the lunar voyages. Smartphones and related technology make everyone more productive.

As US businesses and consumers continue to adopt new technologies at the fastest rate since the advent of the television, the result is ever-increasing productivity. In the app-economy, productivity gains are everywhere—except in the official data.

Let’s hope that changes soon.

The right dream for Saudi Arabia

N

o one can fault Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for lack of ambition.

The 30-year-old son of Saudi Arabia’s king has laid out plans to sell shares in the world’s largest state oil company and create the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund.

The idea is to help the country diversify its economy, he said in an interview with Bloomberg News. The fund would make investments around the world, while helping Saudi Aramco expand beyond oil and into construction, engineering and other industries. It’s a bold move, and its scale alone may help Saudis understand the magnitude of the challenge they face.

At the same time, it will take more than this to produce the kind of change the country needs. Success will require moving fast on the kinds of political and cultural reforms, which usually take decades.

A population accustomed to relying on immigrant labor and government assistance will have to work more and pay taxes. At the same time, the state will have to be more responsive to the citizens it’s now asking to start busi-

nesses and fend for themselves. It will have to provide them with better health care and an educational system that helps them succeed in a new economy.

More women will need to work (and drive to work, too). Fewer princes will be able to enjoy luxurious lifestyles at state expense. And when there is political unrest, the government will have to resist the temptation to buy off the opposition.

This is a tall order, to put it mildly.

For Saudi Arabia to become the kind of regional financial-services hub that Prince Mohammed envisions would be harder still. Ultraconservative religious leaders and much of his own family would fiercely oppose the kinds of changes needed to make their country attractive to employees of foreign companies. There’s no reason to doubt Prince Mohammed’s determination to reshape Saudi Arabia’s economy.

He has already moved surprisingly quickly to cut waste and subsidies, and is pushing for large-scale privatizations. He deserves support. But he’ll also have to show he’s ready to do what it takes to succeed, and sooner than he thinks. Bloomberg View

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A16 Monday, April 4, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ABS-CBN, GMA 7 issue dominance claims in March TV audience share

R

IVAL broadcasters GMA Network Inc. and ABS-CBN Corp. claimed on Sunday that they cornered dominancy on nationwide audience share last month.

In a statement, the television network led by the Gozon, Jimenez and Duavit families said it regained the title as the No. 1 television network in the National Urban Television Audience Measurement (Nu-

tam) in March with a 36.6-percent household audience share, beating ABS-CBN’s 36.1 percent.

Citing a Nielsen Television Survey, GMA said it once again overtook its closest competitor ABS-CBN in

Urban Luzon with 41.5 percent, 10.5 points ahead of the latter’s 31 percent. The Gozon-led broadcasting network also kept leadership in Mega Manila, where it scored 43.2 percent, which is higher than the competitor’s 28.2-percent share.

Urban Luzon accounts for 77 percent of all urban TV households in the country, while Mega Manila represents 60 percent.

On the other hand, the Lopez-led company claimed to have ended last month on a higher note, after the network ruled nationwide ratings in March with an average national

36.6%

The household audience share that GMA Network Inc. said in a statement it had in March, beating ABS-CBN Corp.’s 36.1 percent. audience share of 44 percent versus GMA’s 35 percent.

Citing a Kantar Media survey, the largest media conglomerate

in the Philippines said it kept a stronghold of the prime-time block last month, as it scored an average national audience share of 49 percent, compared to its rival’s 33 percent.

The prime-time block is the most important part of the day, when most Filipinos watch TV and advertisers put a larger chunk of their investment in to reach more consumers effectively.

ABS-CBN also fared better than its competition in other territories, such as Balance Luzon—areas in Luzon outside Mega Manila—

where it scored a national average audience share of 45 percent versus GMA’s 37 percent; in the Visayas, with 55 percent over GMA’s 26 percent; and in Mindanao, with 55 percent versus GMA’s 28 percent.

Nielsen has a nationwide urban sample size of 2,000 homes; while in Mega Manila, it increased its sample size to 1,200 homes effective this year.

Kantar Media uses a nationwide panel size of 2,610 urban and rural homes that represent 100 percent of the total Philippine TV-viewing population. Lorenz S. Marasigan

DTI may tweak CARS Program rules Middle East stocks sink with oil as Saudis pin W hile it is not keen on relaxing the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) Program rules, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said it is keen on tweaking some guidelines to entice another automaker.

Trade Secretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. told reporters that an interagency committee is already looking into when the third slot for the P27-billion CARS Program will be

opened up and the conditions that should be met by the applicant.

“There’s one slot left, and the interagency committee for CARS will have to make the assessment when it should be opened up. The guidelines may be tweaked, but as long as it’s not unfair to the first two applicants. If ever we change the procedures, it’ll be for improving the process,” Cristobal said.

Asked if the requirements will be relaxed, Cristobal said, “No they

won’t. For instance, we need a strong monitoring mechanism to ensure that these projections and investment commitments are met. This is a performance-based incentive regime.”

Toyota Motors Philippines Corp.

(TMPC) and Mitsubishi Motor Philippines Corp. (MMPC) have submitted their application for incentives under the CARS Program. The two are the only automakers that are considered to be capable of meeting the program’s requirements. The

decision on the carmakers’ application will be known by May, as per the program’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR).

Under the CARS, an applicant must produce at least 200,000 units over the course of the program and make substantial investments in making car parts that have been identified by the Board of Investments (BOI) as “strategic parts.”

Volkswagen, among the world’s largest automakers, had expressed serious interest in investing in the Philippines to join the CARS, but groused at the stiff production volume requirement. The program requires applicants to produce 33,000 units a year. As Volkswagen has no local assembly in the country and will be starting production from the ground, company officials said the “ambitious” hurdles are impossible to meet for a new entrant.

The German-car firm scrapped plans to invest some $200 million in the Philippines last year.

The third-largest car firm in the country in terms of sales, Isuzu Philippines Corp. (IPC), has also been persistent in asking the DTI for “flexibilities” to join the CARS. IPC produces only commercial vehicles, and has been adamant in pushing for the segment to be considered for the third slot. The company also is asking the government to be more flexible in terms of meeting the volume requirement.

The DTI stood its ground in enforcing the conditions, saying the program is only meant to attract “serious players” that will significantly infuse capital into manufacturing and boost employment in the sector.

To avail themselves of the production volume incentive under the CARS, auto players must first reach the threshold of 100,000 units.

The second type of incentive in the program, the fiscal incentive support, which will be given as manufacturers ramp up production of three types of parts: body-shell assembly and large plastic assemblies, for common parts and shared testing facility, and for the manufacture of strategic parts.

TMPC has already committed to produce the “large plastic parts”— center consoles, instrument panels, bumpers and door trims—which are required by the program.

For its part, MMPC has bared its detailed plan for expansion and investment following the release of the IRR—its applicant vehicle model to the CARS Program are the Mirage and Mirage G4, which will start production beginning 2017.

From 18,000 units of Adventure and L300, MMPC said it intends to increase its production volume to around 30,000 units per year starting 2017. This will entail an initial investment of P4.3 billion in MMPC’s Philippine unit, which will be allocated for a new stamping plant. Catherine N. Pillas

crude halt on others

S

audi Arabian stocks were poised for the steepest drop in seven weeks, leading declines across most Middle Eastern equities, after its deputy crown prince triggered a slump in crude prices by placing the onus of reducing oil output on other countries.

The Tadawul All Share Index decreased 2.1 percent to 6,089.35 as of 1:15 p.m. in Riyadh, nearing the 50-day mov ing average its traded above for more than a month.

Al Rajhi Bank, which has the largest weighting on the gauge, led the retreat in the first day of the exchange’s new trading hours. Dubai’s DFM General Index fell 1.6 percent, and Kuwait’s SE Price Index slipped 0.4 percent.

Brent crude, a pricing benchmark for half the world’s oil, declined to $38.67 per barrel on Friday, after Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg News that cutbacks in Saudi Arabia’s oil production must be coupled with that of other major producers, including Iran. His comments come weeks before a meeting in Doha this month to help limit output. Equities in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council are closely correlated to the price of crude, which accounts for the bulk of government revenue.

“Saudi Arabia’s plan to freeze oil output on the condition that Iran does the same suggests to the market that the meeting in Doha this month will probably go nowhere, and that has weighed on stocks,” Sanyalak Manibhandu, the Abu Dhabibased head of research at NBAD Securities Llc., said in a telephone interview. “Saudi Arabia is going to protect its market share, and they’re certainly not going to give it to Iran.”

While Iran will attend the talks, it has ruled out capping its oil output as it restores exports after sanctions were lifted in January. The commodity fell 4.4 percent last week, the biggest decline since the period ending January 15.

Saudi Aramco IPO

The plunge in oil prices has strained government finances in the kingdom, leading to cuts in spending, as well as lower domestic consumption. Al Rajhi was one of five Saudi banks to have their credit ratings down-

graded by Standard & Poor’s on Thursday. The lender fell 2.2 percent.

In a plan to diversify its economy away from oil, Saudi Arabia is seeking to sell a stake of Saudi Aramco on the stock exchange and create the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Salman said. The steps are intended to make the kingdom more reliant on income from investment rather than oil within 20 years.

“If Saudi Aramco does list, it’s going to suck liquidity from the region’s markets,” Manibhandu said. “Money managers will have to have a weighting in the company, and that will mean that they’ll need to reduce positions elsewhere.”

Abu Dhabi’s Taqa

A bu Dhabi ’s A DX General Index lost 0.7 percent, led

by Aldar Properties PJSC’s 2.6-percent retreat.

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., the government-controlled utility otherwise known as Taqa, slid 6.1 percent on almost four times the three-month average trading volume. In addition to selling assets and reducing capital expenditure, the company plans to refinance $1 billion of debt due this year as lower oil prices hurt revenue.

Qatar’s QE Index dropped 1.2 percent and Bahrain’s BB All Share Index declined 0.4 percent. Oman’s MSM 30 Index bucked the trend, rising 0.4 percent. Egypt’s EGX 30 Index gained 0.3 percent.

‘Regulatory overhang’

The TA-25 Index in Tel Aviv fell 0.1 percent. Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Corp. Ltd. led the decline, dropping 2.4 percent to 8.268 shekels, the lowest level in seven weeks on a closing basis. Citigroup last week said the regulatory reform that would save the country’s largest telecommunications operator millions of shekels remains a highly charged political issue. “There is some nervous sentiment that Bezeq’s regulatory overhang won’t dissipate as quickly as previously thought,” said Adi Babani, a Tel Aviv-based trader at Bank of Jerusalem. “Despite the more favorable tone adopted by the ministry of communications, it’s not a done deal until it’s done.” Bloomberg News