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Friday, April 8, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 181

INFRA, ENVIRONMENT, AGRI PROJECTS INCLUDED IN PIPELINE

PHL asks World Bank to fund $871-M projects

By Cai U. Ordinario

T

INSIDE

he Philippine government is seeking another close to a billion dollars worth of loans from the World Bank to finance key projects.

Suzuki Ciaz: city from A To Z

Data obtained from the World Bank showed there are seven Philippine projects in the pipeline. But the bank will only finance five of these projects, which are worth $870.65 million. The Washington-based lender will only act as fund manager for the two projects.

The Philippines is seeking $300 million each for the Philippines’s Development Policy Loan (DPL) IV and the Phase 1 of the Metro Manila Flood Management project.

The fourth tranche of the DPLs will Continued on A2

Development Policy Loans largely fund policy reforms, often through rapidly disbursed budgetary support

E1-E2

MASTERS FAVORITE

Sports

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| Friday, april 8, 2016

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao | Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana

JORDAN SPIETH blows on his ball on the ninth hole during the par-3 competition at the Masters on Wednesday. AP JASON DAY celebrates with his son Dash after putting on the ninth hole during the par-3 competition at the Masters on Wednesday. AP

MASTERS FAVORITE As the 28-year-old Jason Day prepares to tee off in the Masters for the sixth time on Thursday, he’s ranked No. 1 in the world and coming off his first major championship, one of the favorites along with defending champion Jordan Spieth and four-time major winner Rory McIlroy.

A

By Paul Newberry The Associated Press

UGUSTA, Georgia—Jason Day was lurking just outside Augusta National Golf Club, wondering if he wanted to go in.

The game just wasn’t fun anymore.

Even though he was set to play in his first Masters in 2011, Day thought it might be time to do something else.

“Golf is a very, very frustrating game,” Day recalled.

Whether he was really serious about quitting, no one will ever really know. Certainly, it’s not a consideration these days.

As the 28-year-old Aussie prepares to tee off in the Masters for the sixth time on Thursday, he’s ranked No. 1 in the world and coming off his first major championship, one of the favorites along with defending champion Jordan Spieth and four-time major winner Rory McIlroy.

“I feel comfortable around this course,” Day said. “I know it sets up well for me. It’s a golf course where I can compete and play well and win.”

Working against Day: the last top-ranked player to win at Augusta was Tiger Woods in 2002.

Indeed, this might be the most wide-open Masters since the pre-Tiger days.

Spieth captured the first two majors of 2015 and nearly won the other two. McIlroy is missing only the Masters from a career Grand Slam. Day and 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott are both two-time winners on the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour this year. Two other Masters champs, Bubba Watson and Charl Schwartzel, also have victories in 2016. So does rising Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama, and let’s not forget Phil Mickelson, a three-time Masters

winner and hardly ready to fade away at age 45.

“There’s a lot of guys who have a lot of success here that really brought some strong finishes and motivation and some momentum into this week,” said Spieth, who tied for second in his Masters debut in 2014 before cruising to victory with an 18-under score a year ago.

“I know that the people who are down maybe a few— three, four, five shots after the first couple of rounds— are capable of making up a lot of ground here.”

Coming off one of the greatest years in golf history, Spieth isn’t even rated the favorite.

That would be Day. “He can be the favorite,” Spieth said with a shrug.

“We’ll go ahead and just do our thing.”

Day hardly felt like the man to beat before the Masters five years ago.

In fact, he had totally lost his love for the game.

“You have to perform, because if you don’t perform, then you’re off the tour,” Day said. “Then you start stressing about, ‘OK, is there enough money up to get my card for next year.’ And then you start losing a little bit of confidence. Then you start getting frustrated out there, and then you don’t practice because you’re frustrated with how you’re playing, and it’s a downward spiral from there.”

Right before the Masters, it almost came to a head during a meeting with his wife, his agent and his sports psychologist.

“I’m like, ‘I just do not like the game right now. I’m just having a very, very hard time picking up the golf club to even just enjoy myself out there,’” Day said. “But we came to the conclusion of just going and saying, ‘This might be my last Masters ever playing, I may as well enjoy it.’

“So,” he added, with a smile, “I went out there and finished second.”

So much for finding another line of work. Day followed up with a third-place showing in 2013. Now, having romped to victory at last year’s PGA Championship, he’s rounded out golf’s new Big Three with McIlroy and Spieth.

McIlroy, who looked to be in a league of his own just two summers ago, is now chasing the others.

That, of course, is a bit annoying for the 26-year-old from Northern Ireland.

“I’d be lying if I said those two guys having success doesn’t motivate me,” McIlroy said. “I don’t want to be left behind. I want to be part of that conversation. I’m clinging on at the moment. A few wins will change that.”

He’s not lacking for confidence at Augusta National, a place where he took a four-stroke lead to the final round in 2011 only to throw it all away with a closing 80. He’s finished in the top 10 the last two years but hasn’t really been a serious contender, leaving the Masters as the only major absent from his résumé.

“This is one I wish I had caught earlier,” McIlroy, showing the impatience of youth. “You would think that this is a golf course that I can definitely win on. I know that. I just haven’t quite been able to get myself over the hurdle.”

Only five players have captured the modern version of the Grand Slam.

McIlroy is eager to join the exclusive club—the sooner, the better.

“I feel like I’ve got everything I need to become a Masters champion,” he said. “But I think each and every year that passes that I don’t, it will become increasingly more difficult.

So there’s no time like the present to get it done.”

UGUSTA, Georgia—Esteban Toledo is hardly the first pro golfer willing to do just about anything to get inside the ropes at the Masters.

What sets him apart is what he was willing to do once he got there.

The 53-year-old from Mexico, who never qualified during any of his 21 years playing on the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour, is working as a caddie this week, carrying clubs for his longtime buddy, 1988 Masters champion Sandy Lyle.

“A dream come true for me,” Toledo said on Wednesday, after working the front nine with Lyle, his last practice round before the real thing begins. “You walk through the gates, and you get a feel for the honor, the prestige. Walking these fairways, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

Toledo made $3.7 million over his career on the PGA Tour, and with that money came his fair share of chances to book a tee time at the Masters. Never happened. Standing under the old oak tree outside the clubhouse at Augusta, he rattles off tournaments where a shot here or there might have punched his ticket.

“I lost to Tiger at the Buick Open, lost to him at the BellSouth in Atlanta, got beat by Brad Faxon in New York. David Toms beat me in Williamsburg, Virginia,” Toledo said.

At some point, not too long ago, he realized he’d have to find a different path inside the ropes.

Every player needs a caddie.

Last year Toledo asked another friend, Ben Crenshaw, if he could don the white overalls that all Augusta National loopers wear, and help Crenshaw around the course. But it was Crenshaw’s final Masters, and he wanted to close things out with his longtime caddie—Carl Jackson, who worked with Gentle Ben for 39 Masters, including victories in 1984 and 1995.

That’s when Lyle stepped in.

“He always made it clear to me, he said, ‘I want to caddie for you sometime at the Masters,’” Lyle said. “I love his enthusiasm.

It’s just nice, sometimes, to make somebody’s dream come true.”

Lyle’s wife, Jolande, called Toledo shortly after Toledo notched his fourth career Champions Tour victory, in February at the Allianz Championship.

“He got off the phone and called me right away. He said ‘Guess what happened!” said Toledo’s wife, Colleen.

To be sure, this is not glamour work.

There are bunkers to rake, greens to read, wind to gauge and distances to measure. Toledo is getting a bit of a break because Lyle, 58, has ditched his professional’s bag for a lightweight model with a stand.

“No different,” Toledo says of the intensity of cadding vs. playing. “I think I’m enjoying this even more, helping Sandy.”

Lyle said his new caddie is not just along for the ride.

“We’re making lots of decisions out there together,” Lyle said. “He’s giving it 100 percent, and I’m going to have to play 100 percent, as well.”

As the years pass and the course is subtly tweaked and rebooted to become longer and tougher, the ex-champions—the Tom Watsons, Ian Woosnams, Larry Mizes and Lyles of the world—come to grips with the reality that making the cut is their most realistic goal.

Lyle made it in 2013 and 2014, and Toledo said helping him get to the weekend again “is my top goal, right now.

It would make this week even better. It’ll make more history.”

He’s well aware of the history and tradition of this place. To get a chance to feel it, to take part of it, is a chance he never thought he’d get.

“Even though I’ve won tournaments and made some money, this is the No. 1 event I’ve ever played,” Toledo said.

Played?

“This week, I feel like I’m a player, also,” he said. “I finally made it inside the ropes.

This is the top of the line.” AP

sports

Esteban Toledo bags himself a »weekCADDIE of Masters fun. AP

AUTO SHOW Carmakers display hot vehicle models at the 12th annual Manila International Auto Show that opened on Thursday at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. ROY DOMINGO C1

Offshore accounts are for more than laundering, hiding bribes O ffshore accounts conjure images of bad behavior by the rich and shady; and for good reason: They have been used to dodge taxes, fund organized crime and facilitate corruption.

But many people use offshore accounts for more than just hiding br ibes and laundering money.

Really.

And offshore accounts can be financial tools for more than just the ultra-wealthy, too.

Regular people use them to simplify transac-

PESO exchange rates n US 46.2570

tions w ith relatives overseas, or to keep money in places where they travel often—or for more distasteful reasons, like to hide money from a soon-to-be ex-spouse.

These accounts and trusts, and the shell companies sometimes set up to control them, have come under scrutiny this week, after a massive leak of confidential documents from a Panamanian law firm has shown how some of the world’s richest people hide assets to avoid paying taxes.

See “Offshore,” A2

‘Feng shui’ eyed to purge ‘curse’ at Manila airport

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It’s not the megarich, you see other people who were otherwise middle class.”

—Matthews

M

By Recto Mercene

anila International Airport Authority (Miaa) General Manager Jose Angel A. Honrado attributed to bad luck the series of mishaps that plagued the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (Naia 3) in the past 12 years, including a six-hour brownout that struck the gateway last Saturday.

The resulting outcry from passtengers literally left in the dark was so bad, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said the Naia might get back its title as the “Worst Airport in the World.”

Subsequent investigations showed that faulty batteries—which needed replacement as early as eight months ago—were unable to provide the necessary juice to run the standby generators.

Airport officials believe the series of mishaps at the Naia 3 started when the ceiling collapsed shortly before the airport opened in 2004.

After that incident, three people attempted to commit suicide at the Naia 3 on separate occasions, one of whom succeeded. The first attempt involved a woman who hanged herself with her belt attached to the staircase. She was saved by good Samaritans who came to her rescue.

Of the two other passengers who jumped from the third floor, one died instantly, while the other survived, suffering internal injuries. In the wake of these incidents, some airport employees had suggested to redesign the gateway using the right feng shui.

Terminal 3 Manager Octavio F. Lina said he was asked by airport operations personnel if he believes in the ancient Chinese art of geomancy. If so, he said the employees suggested to him to consult an expert so that the run of bad luck at the Naia 3 would end.

Lina said two years ago, a security guard died inside the terminal when his head hit a brick wall, after his motorcycle slid and threw him to the ground.

“Of all the places in Manila, why do these people choose the airport in which to commit suicide,” Lina recalled former airport manager Alfonso Cusi asking him.

Lina said a feng shui expert might be able to divine what is wrong with the building’s design and exorcise the terminal of “evil spirits.” He added they might also tap some local shaman just to make sure they cover all the bases.

The superstitious among airport officials pointed out that when the Naia 3 was built, a whole village and a church across the street were demolished and the “desecration” needs to be rectified.

Feng shui, according to Wikipedia, is a philosophical system of harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment. Historically, feng shui was widely used to orient buildings—often spiritually significant structures such as tombs, but also dwellings and other structures— in an auspicious manner.

Some people say “folk remedies and superstitions have been incorporated into feng shui’s eclectic mix.”

“There’s nothing wrong if feng shui would be able to help remove the curse,” Lina said, adding he would ask for Honrado’s approval.

n japan 0.4215 n UK 65.3288 n HK 5.9642 n CHINA 7.1363 n singapore 34.3433 n australia 35.1461 n EU 52.7237 n SAUDI arabia 12.3382

Source: BSP (7 April 2016 )

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PHL asks World Bank to fund $871-M projects Continued from A1

help finance efforts to improve doing business in the country and update the national household targeting system, which is the database used for the conditionalcash transfer.

DPL IV will also finance efforts to ensure the collection of higher excise tax from the “sin” tax reform, particularly the efforts to curb smuggling. It will also digitize incometax filing and the use of electronic forms to improve tax administration.

The Phase 1 of the Metro Manila Flood Management project, meanwhile, aims to reduce the risk of flooding in the Greater Metro Manila Area, which has seen rapid growth and development in the past decade.

The project’s components include the initiatives to modernize pumping stations, estimated to cost $362.6 million; minimize solid waste in waterways worth $75 million; and resettle informal settlers, which is estimated to cost $45 million. Project management and coordination will cost

Offshore. . .

Continued from A1

It is impossible to say how many accounts are for legitimate purposes rather than illicit ones, according to Mark Matthews, an attorney and former IRS deputy commissioner. “My sense is there is a vast majority of people who have legal reasons,” he said.

An offshore account is simply a financial account or trust held somewhere outside of that person’s home country. Americans can hold them overseas and many foreigners hold them in the US. They can be set up by companies or individuals.

Regulators, particularly the US, have cracked down on them in recent

P10 million. The project will also receive a $7.4-million Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant to help the Department of Environment and Natural Resources regulate and monitor the water quality in the Manila Bay catchment area.

The total project cost is $500 million.

However, only $300 million will be sourced from the World Bank through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The rest of the financing will be covered by the GEF grant and the counterpart funding of $192.6 million from the national government.

Apart from these projects, also included in the pipeline are agriculture projects, particularly the $130-million Harvest project and the $100-million Inclusive Partnerships for Agricultural Competitiveness.

The Harvest project, or the Harnessing Agribusiness Opportunities through Robust and Vibrant Entrepreneurship Supportive of Peaceful Transformation Project, aims to boost agribusiness in the Bangsamoro area.

years. An exact measure of how many offshore accounts exist and who they are held by is tricky because of their nature: many are specifically designed to offer account holders anonymity.

Here are a few common reasons an individual who isn’t among the world’s superrich might hold an offshore account:

Family

Immigrants often maintain accounts in their home country to make things simpler to manage when back home or to help care for relatives who stay behind. Financial ties can last for generations through inheritances.

“It’s not the mega-rich, you see other people who were otherwise middle class,” Matthews said.

There can be confusing or tricky situ-

The project will create a lending facility for farmers through the Land Bank of the Philippines. The total project cost is $320 million, with the World Bank shouldering $130 million of the amount and the rest through non-World Bank sources.

The Inclusive Partnerships for Agricultural Competitiveness project aims to improve access to markets and enhance the competitiveness of smallholder farmers in the targeted agrarian-reform community (ARC) clusters.

This will be done through various subcomponents, such as training to enhance the knowledge and capability of farmer organizations in the ARC clusters; subdivision of collective Certificates of Land Ownership Awards; and the construction of rural infrastructure.

Rural infrastructure will include drinking-water supply schemes and multipurpose buildings, farm-to-market roads and bridges, and communal small-scale irrigation facilities that will be built in cooperation with local government units.

The total project cost is $231.72 mil-

ations, of course. Matthews said these can come up if a family business is maintained in a home country or if there are family secrets. Matthews tells of a case where a woman never told her husband of an account established years before by her father because he didn’t “want her to marry that American.”

“I wish I could sell the movie rights, the stories of these families are amazing,” Matthews said.

The US has made several efforts to force and encourage citizens to reveal their offshore holdings, including a voluntary disclosure program that started in 2009 that has brought more than 54,000 disclosures and $8 billion in taxes.

Convenience

There are an estimated 8 million Amer-

lion, with the World Bank shouldering $100 million and the rest from non-World Bank sources. The World Bank also included in its pipeline infrastructure projects the Metro Manila BRT Line 1 Project worth $40.65 million and the Access to Sustainable Energy Project worth $23.24 million.

The Metro Manila BRT project aims to improve transportation in the megacity.

The project involves the construction of BRT stations and terminals, bus depots, segregated busways, sidewalks and pedestrian crossings, among others.

The total project cost for the BRT is $109.41 million. Only $40.65 million will be shouldered by the World Bank, $23.95 million will be obtained from the Climate Investment Funds and $44.81 million will be provided by the national government as counterpart funding.

The Access to Sustainable Energy Project aims to increase household access to solarpowered electricity within select electric cooperative service areas.

This will entail, among others, the rural

icans living abroad. That means there are that many people who might want easy access to local banks to deposit their paycheck, pay bills or get cash.

“There seems to be the presumption that if you have an account in a foreign country you are trying to hide money from the government,”said Jane Bruno, whose Florida-based tax consulting and preparation business specializes in helping Americans living overseas.

The easy access abroad can create some thorny problems at home, though. Bruno said efforts to crack down on wrongdoers holding offshore accounts have made it daunting for people living overseas who try to follow the law. Unlike most other countries, the US taxes its citizens on all income, regardless of where it is

electrification via solar home systems of an estimated 40,500 households within the coverage areas of the participating electric cooperatives.

The project will receive funding from the Global Partnership on Output-based Aid worth $3 million and Free-standing Single Purpose Trust Fund worth $20.24 million.

The last project in the pipeline is the Second Philippines Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Support Project, which aims to increase transparency in the extractives sector.

The funding of $1.5 million will be used to finalize and disseminate the third Philippine EITI Report by December 2016 and the fourth Philippine EITI Report by December 2017. It also aims to make the Philippines compliant with EITI standards this year and institutionalize EITI in the country through legislation.

The project’s funding will not be obtained from the World Bank but from the Extractives Global Programmatic Support. The bank only acts as fund manager.

earned or where they live. That can make for some anxiety-producing tax paperwork.

“There is a lot of angst around the whole thing and there is a lot of fear about what the IRS can do,” Bruno said.

Asset protection

Some people move assets offshore to protect them from a future lawsuit, divorce or other attack by a third party.

Barry Engel, an attorney specializing in asset protection, said some people feel they are a target because of their wealth or their profession, or maybe they have seen a friend ensnared in costly disputes or other problems.

In many cases, assets in an offshore trust cannot be touched in a legal dispute. And as long as the money is re-

ported to the IRS, the whole arrangement can be aboveboard.

People outside the US may also put money in offshore accounts if they feel the political or financial climate in their own country isn’t stable. And while the US is outspoken about its fight against offshore abuses, it has become a popular place for many global companies and wealthy to park their money, thanks to laws in some states that make it easy and cheap to establish businesses and accounts, and do so anonymously.

Business

Small business owners, especially Internet-based ones, can have customers all around the world, and they may have little or no operations in the country where the owners live. AP

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DOT launches halal marketing strategy to boost visitor arrivals

Friday, April 8, 2016 A3

PHL VOWS TO RAMP UP SPENDING TO COUNTER GLOBAL ECONOMIC SLUMP We are a small country in an open economy but we have some degree of freedom, and that is your government spending.”

—Esguerra

T

Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. (from left) leads the hoisting of the Madrid Fusión Manila 2016 sail to mark the opening of the 2016 edition of the event, assisted by Secretary of State for International Cooperation of Spain Jesus Garcia; Lourdes Plana, Foro de Debate; Tourism Promotions Board COO Domingo Enerio III; Spanish Ambassador to the Philippines, Luis Calvo. photo courtesy DOT

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

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Special to the BusinessMirror

HE Department of Tourism (DOT) launched a new marketing strategy aimed at attracting more Islamic visitors to the Philippines by offering halal cuisine through certified hotels and restaurants.

In a ceremony on the sidelines of the Madrid Fusión Manila (MFM) 2016, the DOT and the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos on Thursday awarded halal certificates to 16 hotels and resorts in Metro Manila, Cebu and parts of Mindanao.

The establishments are Berjaya Hotel Makati and Marriott Hotel (Metro Manila); Costabella Beach Resort and Crimson Resort and Spa (Cebu); Marco Polo Davao, Pearl Farm Beach Resort, Southern Philippines Medical Center, Villa Margarita, Zabadani Inc., Banana Beach Resort, Al Sultan, FB Hotel, and Tinhat Boutique Hotel and Restaurant (Davao); Family Country Inn and Hotel, Green Leaf Hotel and Hotel San Marco (Socssksargen).

“Halal” foods are those permitted to be eaten by Muslims, as these had been prepared in adherence to the Islamic Sharia law. For poultry and animals, it means a slaughtering process which involves draining the blood through a clean slit to the throat while an imam offers a prayer.

Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr. told reporters he would be happy to get “only 1 percent” of the $50-billion halal market in Southeast Asia, as “it is twice the income [tourism receipts] we have now,” or $500 million (P23 billion). The Southeast Asian halal market is roughly 25 percent of the $200-billion global halal market.

But he stressed that “halal-consciousness does not include just food; it is raising our awareness in all these hotels, e.g., ‘Where is the Koran? Where is the marker that points to Mecca?’ We take it for granted, but these hotels do not.

If you enter a room at Dusit Thani, you will see a Koran, you will see a marker, and in many cases, they will lend you a prayer mat if you need it.”

The Philippines is currently ranked No. 46 on the list of halal-friendly travel destinations of CrescentRating, which is the leading global authority on halalfriendly travel.

During the launch of the DOT’s halal tourism program, CrescentRating CEO Fazal Bahardeen said: “I am absolutely certain the word is already out there that the Philippines has been doing this welcome movement [halal-certification

$50B

Size of the halal market in Southeast Asia

program]. It is definitely going to reflect in your arrivals sooner or later.” Foreign visitor arrivals are projected to reach 6.7 million in 2016.

The DOT intends to have the 16 halalcertified hospitality establishments and resorts rated by CrecentRating to push global awareness of such establishments in the Philippines.

The DOT’s halal-certification program was launched in the last quarter of 2015 and attracted about 43 applications from various hospitality establishments nationwide.

In a separate press briefing, Tourism Assistant Secretary Arturo Boncato Jr. said he projects a 10-percent to 13-percent increase in visitor arrivals from the Middle East, from the 600,000 arrivals in 2015. But he clarified that not all of those arrivals from the Middle East, are Muslims. “Some will also come from Turkey; parts of Asean, like Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore; and India and Israel, because the dietary needs of Israel, for instance, is kosher. When they know it is halal, they take it, too. So we hope for a more than 10-percent increase in arrivals from those markets.”

The second edition of the Madrid Fusión Manila is ongoing at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, and has attracted some 1,500 participants to the international gastronomy congress and over 1,000 food-and-beverage (F&B) establishments participating in the trade exhibit.

“Madrid Fusión is the event where the world goes to learn the future of food,” Jimenez said at the opening ceremony of MFM 2016, indicating the same is bound to happen for the Philippines for the Manila edition. He added that “we have found a most powerful platform to showcase Filipino culinary artistry for the second time, building an image for Manila and the Philippines as the place to learn about the past and the future of

food.... Imagine an event that not only attracts people to travel but also build an awareness for a place and the experience it offers.”

The MFM 2016 is organized by the DOT and its marketing arm, the Tourism Promotions Board, and Spain’s Foro de Debate and Arum. This year’s theme, “The Manila Galleon: East Meets West,” celebrates the 450th anniversary of the Galleon Trade that linked Asia with the Western World.

Jesus Gracia, Secretary of State for International Cooperation of Spain, who arrived in Manila precisely to participate at the opening ceremony of what has been dubbed as the largest gastronomy event in Asia, said “it is an honor for the government of Spain to be part of

this second edition of the Madrid Fusión Manila. This 2016 event will be a bigger success,” adding that it was an occasion “to celebrate Philippine-Spanish friendship.”

This year’s roster of chefs come from Asia, the Americas and Europe, and are sharing their culinary expertise during the threeday international gastronomy congress. The MFM 2016 also features a trade exhibition, showcasing F&B companies, gourmet products, ingredients, new technologies and services in the food industry.

The MFM 2016 is the highlight of the monthlong Flavors of the Philippines festival participated in by select restaurants, bars and food trucks nationwide.

he Philippines, heading into an election next month, pledged to boost state spending to help shield the economy from the fallout of a global slowdown.

Gover n ment e x pend it u re w i l l suppor t a n economy that’s still expected to expand as much as 7.8 percent this year, Economic Planning Secretary Emmanuel Esguerra, who took office in February, said in an interview in Manila on Wednesday.

“We are a small country in an open economy but we have some degree of freedom, and that is your government spending,” he said. “That is being ramped up. Sure, the global environment is not great, but you have your domestic sources of growth.”

China’s slowdown is reverberating with the Asian Development Bank last week, saying that growth in the region’s emerging economies will slide to a 15-year low this year, as exports slump. Outgoing Philippine President Aquino, who’s overseen the economy’s best period of growth since the 1970s, is increasing spending to a record this year, as he boosts outlays on roads and airports.

Peso gains

The weaker outlook in China and other major economies in Asia and in Europe pose risks to Philippine growth, Esguerra said in the interview at his office. Low inflation will help support consumer spending, and the peso will probably remain stable for the rest of the year, he said.

The peso has gained more than 2 percent this year, trading as high as 46.177 per dollar on Wednesday. Philippine stocks rose more than 3 percent this year, among the best performers in Asia.

The government in February cut its economic growth target for this year to 6.8 percent to 7.8 percent, compared with a previous goal of as much as 8 percent.

The economy expanded 5.8 percent in 2015, the slowest pace in four years.

While the government is not yet seeing overseas Filipino workers lose jobs because of the slump in oil prices, officials are monitoring the situation and are preparing a contingency plan, Esguerra said. Bloomberg News

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Manila, Monaco forge bilateral framework deal for cooperation T

By David Cagahastian

he reigning monarch of Monaco, His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, has reiterated his country’s support for a multibilliondollar international fund that can be tapped for projects aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change.

In his toast remarks in Malacañang on Thursday, the visiting head of state said the establishment of the climate-change fund committed by the international community during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Paris last year is an “imperative.”

At the said UN convention, the Philippines, with the strong support of France, had pushed for a general commitment from the international community to limit the increase in global temperature to only 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.

Among the other commitments made is the climate-change fund amounting to at least $100 billion a year by 2020, which can be tapped by developing countries that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, for local and regional projects aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change.

“Funding climate change is an imperative objective for our planet.

We have of course, addressed this at the COP 21 meeting in Paris and I thank you for your leadership also in this respect, and in contributing to reaching the final agreement and your country suffers more than anybody else, I think, from the dramatic effects of climate change due to various episodes of extreme weather events,” Prince Albert II said.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima earlier said this $100-billion annual contribution committed by industrialized countries is a pittance compared to the estimated $90 trillion in infrastructure needed to help countries adapt to climate change

and mitigate its effects.

Numerous scientific theories suggest that efforts to limit the increase in global temperature are critical to the very existence of human life, since an increase of about 4oC in global temperature would already make a big part of the Earth inhabitable.

President Aquino thanked Prince Albert II for his country’s support to the Philippines’s initiatives, on behalf of other developing countries, for greater cooperation in mitigating the impact of climate change.

“Many of you may know that His Serene Highness is a strong champion for environmental protection and sustainable development. Despite the relatively small size of our nations, we have been advocates of climate-risk mitigation. Both the Philippines and Monaco were actively involved in negotiations in crafting the Paris Agreement,” Mr. Aquino said.

He also thanked Monaco for being “one of the most generous states” in aiding the Philippines’s relief efforts in the aftermath of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) in late-2013.

The Philippines and Monaco were actively involved in negotiations in crafting the Paris Agreement.”—President Aquino

Prince Albert II of Monaco walks ahead of President Aquino during arrival honors at Malacañan Palace on Thursday.

“The people of Monaco have always come through for our people in times of need, and perhaps there is no greater example than during the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. While your state may not be the largest in the world, you still committed several hundred thousands of euros to help those affected; you have helped prevent epidemics and rebuild infrastructure, and I speak on behalf of

the Filipino people when I say: We will never forget your kindness,” Mr. Aquino said.

To further strengthen bilateral relations between the Philippines and Monaco, which are celebrating their 10th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year, the two countries signed a bilateral framework agreement for cooperation.

Foreign Secretary Jose Rene Al-

AP

mendras and Monaco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Gilles Tonelli signed the Philippines-Monaco Framework Agreement for Cooperation, which will be the basis for future cooperation between the two countries in various areas, such as economic, scientific, humanitarian and disaster-risk reduction, and management programs and environmental protection.

‘Maintain infrastructure spending at 5 percent of GDP’ ₧5.73T T

By Catherine N. Pillas

he next administration should maintain public spending on infrastructure at 5 percent of GDP to improve the country's logicstics sector and fasttrack economic development, according to proponents of the National Logistics Plan.

Dr. Enrico L. Basilio, chief of party for the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Advancing Philippine Competitiveness (Compete) Project, said the next administration should not deviate the from the current administration’s goal for public infrastructure.

“We estimate public-infrastructure investments to be at P5.73 trillion. Since 2010, we’ve already increased spending from 2 percent

Amount spent by the Aquino administration for public infractructure

of the national income to 5 percent,” Basilio said.

In particular, P706 billion should be allocated for the development and paving of local roads, as the Department of Public Works and Highways has estimated that only 30 percent of the country’s total roads are paved.

Basilio said the paving of local roads falls under the jurisdiction of the local government unit (LGU) and relies on the LGU’s internal revenue allotment.

The USAID is in partnership

with the Department of Trade and Industry’s Supply Chain and Logistics Management division to develop the logistics road map, the draft of which was presented to the public on Thursday.

“We are looking now on the integration and cross-cutting issues of the DTI’s various industry road maps like logistics, e-commerce and quality infrastructure,” Ceferino S. Rodolfo, trade undersecretary for Industry Development and Trade Policy, said.

These cross-cutting issues are challenges faced by the three broad sectors that make up the Department of Trade and Industry’s comprehensive framework for industrial development—manufacturing, services, and agribusiness, mining and fishery.

The National Logistics plan aims

to address the gaps in supply-chain integration for goods and services by identifying the challenges faced in land, maritime and aviation transportation. The plan details key recommendations in regulation, institutional capacity, policies and infrastructure.

According to the draft plan, a “clear constraint” holding back the growth of passenger and cargo volume traffic is the capacity of Philippine airports. Most major and secondary airports are working over its installed capacity and there is a slow rollout of new airport projects.

On maritime issues, authors of the plan said the expansion and modernization of international ports must be continued and that the private sector must be encouraged to participate in the develop-

ment of domestic ports in Cebu, Iloilo, Davao and Zamboanga.

According to Trade Assistant Secretary for Industry Development Rafaelita Aldaba, the agency has already identified Logistics and Infrastructure as a priority sector under its recently released Comprehensive National Industrial Strategy (CNIS). The CNIS is considered the main blueprint for the country’s industrial development.

“There is a need to align the logistics sector with the CNIS as this is an enabler for the entire economy. In the CNIS, we’ve identified infrastructure and logistics as one of the big five industries being prioritized for development to drive investments and job creation,” Aldaba said.

Moreover, the country’s “dis-

jointed” logistics sector has widely affected local industries’ ability to participate in global value chains and regional production network since multinational companies expect speed and efficiency in transportation of goods and services throughout the supply chain.

“The more advanced global value chains are characterized by fast and high-frequency transactions usually in machinery industries rather than slow less coordinated transactions usually found in garments and food processing where we are now. If we are to achieve our goal to be an auto or an electrical machinery hub, logistics is crucial,” Aldaba said.

The DTI and the USAID hopes to finalize the National Logistics Plan covering 2016-2022 by September.

‘GDP to grow faster this year on higher consumer spending’

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leisure sector development

UGEN, a world-class master-planned private island community that is set to reinvigorate the landscape of the Bicol region, was unveiled on Thursday by Budji Layug (from left), principal designer; Andrew Sparrow, UGEN director of Development; Royal Pineda, principal architect; and Katsumasa Aikawa, CEO of Enveron Realty. NONIE REYES

anagement officials of companies belonging to the Makati Business Club (MBC) are optimistic that GDP will grow faster this year on higher consumer spending, according to a survey.

According to the MBC’s first semester Executive Outlook Survey, 52 percent of senior business executives expect GDP to be higher than the 5.8 percent posted last year.

MBC Executive Director Peter V. Per fecto said this ex pectation is based on more robust domestic consumption.

“Although our survey results cannot specifically address the reason [for the outlook], GDP growth in the past few years has been fueled by domestic consumption and this is where the positive sentiments on the economy may be coming from," Perfecto said.

“Businesses respond to demand which drives them to expand pro-

duction and employ additional resources [including creating new jobs],” he added.

In January First Metro Investment Corp.-University of Asia and the Pacific (FMIC-UA&P) Capital Markets Research said a 10-percent increase in domestic demand for goods and services would result in a GDP growth of 6.5 percent for 2016.

FMIC-UA&P Capital Markets Research’s Vic Abola said that historically, domestic demand has been a major driver of the economy for a number of years despite facing headwinds in the global economy.

In 2013—also an election year— domestic demand grew 10.4 percent.

Abola credited this to demand created in the wake of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan), particularly in the last quarter of the year.

In 2014 and 2015 domestic demand

posted grew by 4.7 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively.

Abola forecasted that consumption spending will post “strong” growth this year at 6.8 percent, while government spending is expected to increase by 10 percent. Both demand drivers are seen to pick up at their fastest pace in three years.

The increase in consumption spending in 2013, 2014 and 2015 were at 5.7 percent, 5.6 percent, and 6.2 percent, respectively. Government spending, meanwhile, posted a growth of 7.7 percent in 2013; 0.8 percent in 2014; and 8 percent in 2015.

Meanwhile, MBC also included in its first semester survey the wish list of priorities for the next administration; 57.75 percent of the respondents included infrastructure as an issue in their list, followed by corruption (40.85 percent), and peace and order (32.39 percent). Catherine N. Pillas

AseanFriday BusinessMirror

Editor: Max V. de Leon • Friday, April 8, 2016 A5

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Asean’s ‘original sin’ fears masked by market rally

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n Southeast Asia original sin hasn’t gone away. Even as the region’s currencies rally, stock markets rise and foreign investors return, a legacy of debt remains one of the biggest threats to economic stability.

Governments and companies in Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries in the region have continued to add to borrowing this year after selling the most amount of dollar bonds in three years in 2015, increasing risks if the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) again lifts interest rates, the dollar rallies and local currencies tank.

The recent rebound in emerging-market sentiment may simply be masking the threat of “original sin”—a term coined by economists Barry Eichengreen and Ricardo Hausmann after the region’s 1997-1998 meltdown and used to describe the difficulties faced by developing countries that run up overseas borrowing.

Emerging markets for now are benefiting from reduced expectations of US interest-rate increases, and further monetary easing in Japan and Europe. The danger is that developing nations, including those in Southeast Asia, are forgoing the current period of stability to address underlying vulnerabilities, such as from dollar debt.

“The sweet spot for Southeast Asian economies now is very short term,” Santitarn Sathirathai, head of Southeast Asia and India eco-

The sweet spot for Southeast Asian economies now is very short term.”

—Credit Suisse Group AG nomics and strategy at Credit Suisse Group AG, said at a conference in Hong Kong on Wednesday. “If the Fed hikes more aggressively than expected, some of these economies will still be vulnerable.”

Governments and businesses in the Asean have raised $10 billion from dollar bond sales so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with the $37 billion issued for the whole of last year. Dollar borrowing this year was led by Indonesia at $4 billion, the Philippines at $2 billion and Malaysia at $1.75 billion.

The risk of original sin is most acute in Malaysia. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last year

$10B

Total dollar-bond sales made by governments and businesses in Asean so far this year

estimated Malaysia’s corporate debt at about 70 percent of GDP, compared with 20 percent in Indonesia. Household debt in Malaysia was the highest in the region, at more than 89 percent of GDP, compared with 16 percent in Indonesia, according to a report from Nomura Holdings Inc. The country’s contingency buffers aren’t as strong as those of its peers. According to estimates from Société Générale SA, only two major emerging-market economies have foreign-exchange reserves below the IMF’s recommended range: Malaysia and South Africa.

Malaysia’s reserves fell 18 percent last year to $95.3 billion, and have only rebounded modestly this year.

Political uncertainty

Malaysia is also in the middle of an unprecedented political crisis, with Prime Minister Najib Razak facing widespread calls to resign amid a corruption scandal. Adding to the uncertainty are plans by central bank Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz to step down this month after 16 years at the helm.

To be sure, Southeast Asian governments have come a long

way since the Asian financial crisis, building up reserves, freeing up currencies and strengthening government balance sheets. Together, that means the region is in much better condition to fend off any new storm, according to Eichengreen.

“Southeast Asian countries have made a lot of progress in reducing foreign-currency debt relative to GDP since the mid-1990s,” he said in e-mailed comments.

For now, the region is benefiting from a sharp reversal in emergingmarket sentiment compared with the start of the year when capital was

fleeing amid tumbling oil prices, a slowdown in China and concerns about the effect of another Fed interest-rate increase.

Take Indonesia: About $5 billion of net inflows have made their way back into the nation’s sovereign bonds and $300 million into the stock market so far this year, according to an estimate from OverseaChinese Banking Corp. (OCBC).

Much of the returns are being driven by a weaker dollar as investors bet the Fed will raise rates at a slower pace than previously expected.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs Group

Inc. said last week that Asia Pacific markets are underpricing the probability of further Fed rate increases.

When these happen, there’s a clear potential for a “reversal of recent foreign inflows to equity and credit markets,” the analysts wrote in a report.

Any change in the outlook for the Fed’s interest-rate tightening cycle may trigger a sudden depreciation in the region’s currencies as the dollar rallies.

“That could present a tricky situation for a region that is seeing capital inflows anew again,” according to OCBC. Bloomberg News

Suu Kyi’s plans for Myanmar remain vague five months after vote

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ung San Suu Kyi seems in no rush to reveal her plans for governing Myanmar.

Five months after her National League for Democracy (NLD) party swept historic elections, two months after her lawmakers took control of parliament and a week after her proxy was sworn in as president, the former political prisoner has yet to provide a clear strategy for how her party will run the country.

The NLD needs to make clear what it plans to to achieve in its first 100 days and beyond and just who will be setting economic policy, said Romain Caillaud, senior director in global risk and investigations at FTI Consulting in Singapore, which provides risk analysis on investing in Myanmar.

“Will key economic decisions also be made by her, or will she delegate ministers and key parliamentarians the necessary authority to define and implement decisions?” he said. “Will there be advisers, local and foreign involved in shaping policies? Will wider public consultations be undertaken prior to reforms being adopted? These questions remain unanswered.”

Suu Kyi’s government will be tasked with everything from luring more foreign investment, to ending long-running ethnic insurgencies and halting human-rights abuses, as Myanmar moves beyond half a century of outright and indirect military rule. At the same time, the government will have to manage soaring voter expectations, allay investor concerns about its inexperience, and placate a still powerful military that is

guaranteed 25 percent of the seats in parliament and has a controlling stake in many of Myanmar’s most important economic enterprises.

Foreign investment

She inherits one of Asia’s fastestgrowing economies, which is set to expand more than 8 percent this year fueled by foreign direct investment that reached a record of almost $9 billion in the fiscal year ended in March. That’s more than a twentyfold increase since military rulers began opening the economy less than a decade ago. Even with that progress, Myanmar remains among the poorest countries in Southeast Asia, where less than a third of the population has access to the electricity grid.

Rather than laying out a vision for developing the country, Suu Kyi, 70, spent much of the transition trying to persuade the army to consent to changing a constitutional rule that bars her from becoming president.

When that failed, she nominated her former classmate and longtime confidant Htin Kyaw, though she has said she would rule above him. Party executive Nyan Win said last week that policy priorities would be announced “after the transfer of power,” but on Monday another executive Win Htein said he couldn’t comment on what those priorities would be.

China talks

One area where Suu Kyi has been quick to act was engaging China, Myanmar’s largest trading partner, which accounted for more than half of Myanmar’s total trade in 2014,

SUU KYI

meeting on Tuesday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The $3.6-billion Myitsone dam project that aims to provides power to southwest China, became a symbol of the country’s growing economic influence and sparked protests from local residents. The outgoing government froze the project, and Wang said on Tuesday after the talks with Suu Kyi that the two sides would to work to resolve “all existing problems” through negotiations.

The NLD’s first act after being sworn into power, was to craft a new role of “state councilor” for Suu Kyi that would give her formal power to advise the government.

New role

Opposed by the army, the position allows Suu Kyi to “manage and instruct both executive and legislative

bodies” without needing to amend the constitution, said Than Soe Naing, a political analyst in Yangon. He said it was a way of using the “existing clauses from the constitution for national reconciliation.”

Earlier this week less than five days after she was sworn in as minister for foreign affairs, the president’s office, energy and education came the abrupt announcement that Suu Kyi would give up the latter two. No reason was given.

All of this highlights Suu Kyi’s top-down approach, with all decisions coming from her, said Gregory Poling, a Southeast Asia specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Causing confusion

“That concentration of power has resulted in a great deal of confusion during the transition, with NLD officials alternately unable to discuss the party’s plans or contradicting each other when they do,” Poling said.

Given the former military regime’s history of blocking the NLD from taking power, the NLD’s secrecy is understandable, said Yangon political analyst Sithu Aung Myint, who believes the party will be more transparent now that it’s finally in control.

“The NLD took great caution in announcing and forming the government, as they were worried about the uncertainty,” he said. “This transition is the first in 50 years.”

Army chief Min Aung Hlaing has made it clear that he believes the military, which retains veto power over changes to the constitution,

as well as control of the defense, interior and border affairs ministries, still has has an important role to play.

Honeymoon period

In a speech marking Armed Forces Day on March 27, he said the military will continue to play its constitutional part in “building a multiparty democratic nation” during the transition, but he added, the military also “has to contribute to stability and development tasks of the government.”

Suu Kyi and her party may enjoy a longer honeymoon period than most new governments, but even “democracy icons” will eventually have to show results, Poling said.

“Ultimately, the ability to deliver economic growth, development, and public goods will be what really matters,” he said. “If in six months or a year it becomes apparent that the NLD government is not experienced or adaptable enough to deliver, it will face critics both domestic and foreign.”

Bloomberg News

The World BusinessMirror

A6 Friday, April 8, 2016

Impeachment of Brazil’s Rousseff recommended

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Diabetes rises to 422 million in last 25 years, W.H.O. says

Indian teenagers eat and drink outside a street-food stall, in New Delhi, India, on March 9. India’s health minister says the number of obese teenagers in the country has nearly doubled over the last five years, with economic growth fueling lifestyle changes, including a fondness for fast food. AP/Manish Swarup

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Opposition deputies show posters that read in Portuguese “Impeachment Now” and an inflatable doll in the likeness of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in prison garb, during the presentation that analyzes the impeachment process against Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, in Brasilia, Brazil, on Wednesday. AP/Eraldo Peres

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IO DE JANEIRO—The special investigator for a congressional commission recommended on Wednesday that the impeachment process against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff move forward, saying there is evidence she violated fiscal laws.

Rousseff is accused of manipulating budget accounts to allow her administration to boost spending to shore up votes ahead of her 2014 reelection campaign. She has vehemently denied committing any crime and says prior presidents made use of similar accounting techniques.

She calls the impeachment effort an attempted coup.

The investigator for a lower house commission weighing her impeachment said there were grounds to advance with proceedings against Rousseff, who, besides impeachment, is battling low poll numbers, a shrinking economy and an outbreak of the Zika virus, all as the country gears up to host the Olympic Games in August.

“The facts show serious indications of unconstitutionality, illegality and fiscal irresponsibility,” Jovair Arantes said in a nearly 130-page report.

Arantes’s conclusion had been

widely anticipated as he is a close ally of House Speaker Eduardo Cunha, a nemesis of Rousseff who has been the driving force behind the impeachment process.

The commission is scheduled to vote on whether to adopt his recommendation early next week, but even if the panel voted against it, the impeachment process would be subject to a vote in the entire Lower House of Deputies. That vote is expected later this month. If two-thirds of the 513 legislators vote for impeachment, the proceedings move forward with a trial in the Senate.

Arantes defended his recommendation at a rowdy committee session.

“Some will call me a hero and others a villain or a putchist. These labels don’t worry me,” Arantes wrote. “My main worry was to carry out an impartial job, with an easy conscience.”

Despite the recommendation, Rousseff’s chances of surviving looked slightly better on Wednesday after the Progressive Party announced it would remain in Rousseff’s governing coalition at least through the vote in the Lower House.

The development came following last week’s announcement that the country’s biggest party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, would leave the coalition. That was a major blow, but it didn’t spark the pullout of other smaller parties that many political observers had expected.

Analysts say securing the support of those parties will be key to Rousseff’s bid to fend off impeachment.

On Tuesday Rousseff said she would delay announcing any Cabinet reshuffle until after the Lower House votes, prompting some critics to accuse her of using the posts as bargaining chips to secure parties’ votes against impeachment.

Impeachment committee member Paulo Maluf, a Progressive Party legislator from Sao Paulo, told the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo that “the government is involved in a process of buying and selling that is detestable.”

Maluf himself has been convicted of money laundering in France and cannot leave Brazil because he is on an Interpol wanted list. And more than half of the other members of the impeachment commission face corruption or other charges.

Additionally, the three top officials in line to succeed Rousseff if she is impeached have been impli-

300

Number of votes needed out of 513 House legislators to move forward with the impeachment cated in a corruption scheme.

Vice President Michel Temer, the first in line to succeed Rousseff, said he was “extremely shocked” by a decision by a Supreme Court justice requiring the opening of impeachment proceedings against him.

“It hurt me professionally and morally,” Temer was quoted as saying by G1, the internet portal of the Globo television network.

Cunha, the house speaker, dismissed Tuesday’s decision on Temer as “absurd” and said he would appeal it to the full court. But a report in Folha de S. Paulo on Wednesday suggested the speaker would comply with Justice Marco Aurelio Mello’s decision and had taken steps to opening impeachment proceedings against Temer.

Cunha himself is facing moneylaundering charges in connection with the sprawling investigation into bribery to win contracts at the state-run oil giant Petrobras and he could be stripped of his House seat over allegations he lied to a congressional committee. AP

E N E VA — E x c e s s i v e weight, obesity, aging and population growth drove a nearly four-fold increase in worldwide cases of diabetes over the last quarter-century, affecting 422 million people in 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Wednesday.

In a new report on diabetes, the UN health agency called for stepped-up measures to reduce risk factors for diabetes and improve treatment and care that has ballooned in recent years, alongside an increase in obesity rates.

WHO said 8.5 percent of the world population had diabetes two years ago, up from 108 million, or 4.7 percent, in 1980.

On Wednesday, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said: “We need to rethink our daily lives: to eat healthily, be physically active and avoid excessive weight gain.”

The Geneva-based agency blamed growing consumption of food and beverages high in sugar.

Diabetes increased around the world but affects lower- and middle-income people more often than wealthier populations. The rates rose most in Africa, the Middle East and Asia—with the “Eastern Mediterranean” region more than doubling its prevalence to 13.7 percent of the population, the only world region with a double-digit percentage.

Diabetes is a chronic condition in which the body either does not make enough insulin to break down the sugar in foods or uses insulin inefficiently. It can cause early death

or serious complications, like blindness, stroke, kidney disease or heart disease.

In the “Global Report on Diabetes” released on Wednesday, WHO says diabetes caused 1.5 million deaths in 2012, and another 2.2 million deaths were caused by higher-than-optimal blood glucose levels, by increasing the risks of cardiovascular and other diseases.

The report does not distinguish between Type 1 diabetes, which involves deficient insulin production in the body and requires daily insulin injections for survival, and Type 2, in which the body uses insulin ineffectively and is more often associated with obesity and relatively sedentary lifestyles.

The increase has coincided with growing rates of obesity: In Western countries like the United States and Britain, two-thirds of people are now overweight or obese.

The WHO report stopped short of any drastic new recommendations, suggesting for example that countries build political support and allocate resources for diabetes prevention, and “prioritize actions to prevent people becoming overweight and obese.”

The report said WHO is updating its guidelines on fat and carbohydrate intake, but said adults can reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes through regular, adequate physical activity and “healthy diets that include sufficient consumption of dietary fiber, and replacing saturated fatty acids with polyunsaturated fatty acids.” AP

Sanders, Cruz claim Wisconsin victories, ignore delegate math T ed Cruz and Bernie Sanders reveled on Tuesday in hard-fought victories in the Wisconsin primary, but both men confront an implacable challenge ahead: math.

What Cruz and Sanders are attempting is exceedingly difficult this far into in a presidential contest—translating momentum from individual contests into race-altering movement among delegates.

Hillary Clinton lost to Sanders on Tuesday but retains an expansive delegate lead over the Vermont senator. Her margin over him can be diminished enough to deny her the nomination only by a series of swamping defeats in the remaining contests, which would upend the way the race has comported itself so far.

Donald Trump’s loss to the Texas senator had a bigger effect because Trump’s path to the nomination already was narrower than Clinton’s. That, plus the evidence from Wisconsin that Trump continues to struggle to expand his portion

of the electorate, increased the chance that the summer Republican convention will open without any candidate having seized the 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination.

The result could be a historic clash over the party’s direction and its standard-bearer, played out inside the convention hall and on the streets of Cleveland.

As politicians do, the winners on Tuesday glossed over the difficulties ahead as the race now careens into New York, where a titanic primary is set for April 19.

At present both Trump and Clinton hold big leads in the state, where Trump and Sanders were born and where Clinton lives and served as senator.

But the challenges were evident in what the winners said and didn’t say.

Cruz skipped over the rest of the primary season entirely in a victory speech in which he effectively declared himself the nominee.

“Either before Cleveland or at the convention in Cleveland, together we will win

a majority of the delegates, and together we will beat Hillary Clinton in November,” he said at a lively rally in Milwaukee.

The latter option—“at the convention in Cleveland”—remains Cruz’s best shot.

Even a complete collapse by Trump in his home state and subsequent primaries would not necessarily give Cruz the preconvention delegates he needs for the nomination. He would need to win almost all the remaining delegates to achieve that.

Sanders, talking to thousands of supporters in Laramie, Wyoming, boasted of the momentum his campaign has developed over the last few months. But he offered no answer to how he would defeat Clinton by the margins necessary to finish ahead of her in the delegate count.

Democrats allocate their delegates proportionally to each candidate’s vote, so the losing candidate still collects some.

That means a challenger can shrink a leader’s margin, but it’s all but impossible to leapfrog over a front-runner.

Wisconsin provided a wincing example: 86 Democratic delegates were at stake in the voting, not counting the state’s 10 Democratic elected officials and party leaders who as so-called superdelegates automatically get slots.

Sanders’s big victory stood to net him only about a dozen more delegates than Clinton. The former secretary of state began the night about 250 pledged delegates ahead of him, not counting her 400-plus advantage among the super-delegates.

Sanders’s only answer on Tuesday was that he was relying on changing the minds of superdelegates who already have committed to Clinton. He did not explain why they would abandon her if he ends up winning fewer pledged delegates than she does.

“If you ignore what you hear on corporate media, the facts are pretty clear: We have a path toward victory, a path toward the White House,” he said. That path exists, but it requires some extraordinarily uphill climbs.

While the dynamics facing Cruz and Sanders are similar, the specifics differ.

Cruz benefited on Tuesday from an accumulation of factors. Some were unique to Wisconsin, such as a GOP electorate fiercely loyal to the state’s governor, Scott Walker, who endorsed the Texan. Others stemmed from a difficult stretch for Trump: He refused to denounce racists, said that women who seek illegal abortions should be criminally punished, then immediately flip-flopped, reengaged over and over with protesters and insulted Cruz’s wife.

The result was that voter groups that have buttressed Trump all along the primary season wavered. Those who lack a college degree—a consistent Trump vote—went for the Texas senator over the New Yorker, according to exit polling of voters casting ballots on Tuesday.

Trump regularly wins independent voters in open primaries like Wisconsin’s; on Tuesday independent voters were split, and Cruz buried him among Republicans.

One of Trump’s signature issues was waved off by voters: the percentage saying immigration was an important issue was in the single digits, and by almost two-toone, voters favored a path to legalization for those in the country illegally, rather than the deportation Trump favors.

Still, it was clear that many Republicans were less entranced with Cruz than repelled by Trump. Among those who cast ballots in the Republican primary, about three in five said that they would be “concerned” or “scared” if Trump were elected president. Only two in five said they were “excited” or “optimistic” about Trump as president.

Republican voters had concerns about Cruz as well, with about two in five saying they were concerned or scared about his presidency. Even though Cruz won the primary, only about one in eight Republican voters said they were “excited” about the prospect of him as president. Los Angeles Times/TNS

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Friday, April 8, 2016

A7

Xi surviving revelations in offshore tax havens

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EIJING—For graft-busting Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, the Panama Papers revelations that show his brother-in-law and relatives of two other members of the party’s elite inner circle owned offshore companies, often referred to as tax havens, might have been highly damaging.

Instead, Xi will likely emerge unscathed as a result of his personal hold on political power, controls over free speech and the media, and a sense both among the public and potential rivals that all leading families are tainted to some degree, analysts say.

With the latest reports still just days old, however, lingering impacts can’t be ruled out entirely. Damage to Xi’s reputation might show up in unexpected difficulties in putting in place a new team when he assumes a second five-year term as leader of the ruling Communist Party next year and for setting in place a succession plan for 2022.

Challenges to his leadership of a bevy of offices and committees, or to his sweeping anticorruption campaign, might also be signs of weakness.

The latest report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) says Xi’s brotherin-law Deng Jiagui purchased one offshore company through Panamabased law firm Mossack Fonseca in 2004 and two more in 2009.

All three had been dissolved or become dormant by the time Xi became party leader in 2012, the ICIJ says citing a stash of 11.5 million leaked Mossack Fonseca documents—dubbed the Panama Papers—that discuss cases involving politicians, celebrities and business people from around the world.

No fear

Analysts say the revelations shed little new light on the Xi family’s financial doings, further limiting their impact. Xi’s case is also helped by the fact that he has shown no fear in taking on high-profile targets in his anti-corruption campaign and has been seen in past as reining in

his family’s illicit activities by having them sell off their interests and by telling provincial leaders personally that they did not act in his name, they say.

“I would have suspected that many of those who follow elite politics already believe that Xi’s extended family is like many—if not most—elite families in that some of them have managed to cash in on China’s economic boom. I think, however, he still gets credit for cracking down on high-level corruption,” said Georgia State University political scientist Andrew Wedeman, who has extensively researched corruption in China.

The investigation does, however, provide new information about how members of the Chinese elite use international law firms and shell companies registered overseas in ways that could facilitate the concealment and protection of fortunes whose provenance may be unknown.

Not illegal

The other two current Politburo Standing Committee members named in the ICIJ report are Zhang Gaoli, whose son-in-law was named as a shareholder of three companies incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, and Liu Yunshan, whose daughter-in-law was the director and shareholder of a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in 2009.

Having such accounts is not illegal, and no specific functions, asset amounts or allegations of wrongdoing were made in any of the cases.

Like Xi, none have responded directly to the reports.

While the leaked documents also revealed hidden dealings by politicians in Western-style democra-

China’s President Xi Jinping arrives for the opening session of the annual National People’s Congress in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People in this March 5 photo. AP/Ng Han Guan

cies, Xi is shielded from the kinds of scrutiny his Western counterparts must contend with.

Along with its muzzled press, China permits its national legislature to meet in full session just once a year and then only to debate and approve proposals sent them by the government.

Nor does China permit public protests of the type that confronted Iceland’s leader Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson before he stepped aside on Tuesday amid outrage over revelations he had used a shell company to shelter large sums while Iceland’s economy was in crisis.

While the personal lives and finances of Chinese leaders are strictly off-limits to Chinese media, international outlets have frequently sought to plumb the truth of perceptions that the country’s opaque politics and booming economic growth provide a rich environment for corruption.

Previous reports, particularly one by Bloomberg News in 2012, have not implicated Xi, his wife or their daughter and have had no discernable impact on his political fortunes.

Panama Papers name big China political families

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EIJING—The Panama Papers document leak reported by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) names family members of eight present or past members of China’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, including the brother-in-law of president and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping and a distant relative of the founder of the communist state, Mao Zedong.

The family members mentioned were listed as owners or shareholders in companies registered offshore that are sometimes known as tax shelters, although no impropriety was implied.

Here’s a look at some of the families involved: n Xi Jinping, president and Communist Party leader. The ICIJ reports state that Deng Jiagui, the husband of President Xi Jinping’s older sister Qi Qiaoqiao, used Panamabased law firm Mossack Fonseca to open one offshore company in 2004 and another two in 2009.

ICIJ said it was unclear why Deng opened the firms, which were given the fanciful names of Supreme Victory Enterprises Ltd., Best Effect Enterprises Ltd. and Wealth Ming International Ltd. All three companies had been dissolved or become dormant by the time Xi took over as party leader in 2012. n Liu Yunshan, Politburo Standing Committee member. The reports say the daughter-inlaw of the Politburo Standing Committee’s fifth-ranking member of Liu Yunshan was the director and shareholder in a company called Ultra Time Investments Ltd. incorporated with Mossack Fonseca’s help in the

British Virgin Islands in 2009.

Liu, at the time, was head of party propaganda and a member of the Politburo, one rung below the Standing Committee. n Zhang Gaoli, Politburo Standing Committee member. A son-in-law of Zhang Gaoli, the seventh and lowest-ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committee, was listed as a shareholder in Zennon Capital Management, Sino Reliance Networks Corp. and Glory Top Investments Ltd. All three companies were incorporated through Mossack Fonseca in the British Virgin Islands, one of the most popular offshore tax havens.

The reports did not say when the incorporations took place. Zhang’s last formal positions prior to joining the Politburo Standing Committee had been as the top official in the fast-growing northern port city of Tianjin and in the eastern province of Shandong. n Li Peng, former premier. Li Xiaolin, a prominent figure in the state-power sector and the only daughter of former premier Li Peng, is reported to have used the law firm to acquire Cofic Investments, along with her husband. ICIJ said the company was incorporated in 1994 and cited internal e-mails saying it was funded with commissions from the import European industrial equipment into China. Ownership was obscured by the use of bearer certificates that list no names.

Li Xiaolin retired as CEO of China Power International Development last year in what was seen by some as part of Xi’s moves to uproot leaders’ children from highly visible positions in the state sector. n Zeng Qinghong, former vice president. Con-

sidered the consummate Chinese political insider, former Vice President Zeng Qinghong was linked to a company named China Cultural Exchange Association Ltd. that was registered by his brother Zeng Qinghuai in Samoa in 2006 using Mossack Fonseca’s services.

Zeng Qinghong was still in office at the time. n Hu Yaobang, former Communist Party secretary general. Hu Dehua, a son of revered former secretary general Hu Yaobang was listed as shareholder, director and beneficial owner of Fortalent International Holdings Ltd. The company was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in 2003, 14 years after his father’s death.

The elder Hu was considered a leading reformist and his political demotion and sudden passing in 1989 helped spark that year’s massive student-led prodemocracy protests centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. n Mao Zedong, People’s Republic of China founder. The reports say Chen Dongsheng, a grandson-in-law of the founder of the communist state Mao Zedong, incorporated a company called Keen Best International Ltd. in the British Virgin Islands in 2011, and was its sole director and shareholder. Chen also heads a life-insurance company and an art auction house.

Mao led the People’s Republic of China from its founding in 1949 until his death in 1976. During most of that time, he waged unrelenting war on international capitalism and led China into increasing isolation from the international financial system and global society in general. AP

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Members of the Communist Party of China’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee They do show, however, that Xi’s extended family accumulated investments and stakes in companies worth millions of dollars at a time when he was rising in the party and government.

‘Red aristocracy’

As the children of famed communist revolutionary Xi Zhongxun, he and his siblings enjoy privileged status as members of what is sometimes called China’s “red aristocracy,” with unique access to circles of power and inside information that can be leveraged for personal gain.

China’s censors have blocked, deleted or heavily edited all reports about the ICIJ reports to

prevent any mention of Xi, or the relatives of seven other current or former members of the party’s allpowerful Politburo Standing Committee reported to have owned overseas tax havens.

On Tuesday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei described the reports as “groundless” and said he would refuse to comment on them further.

Even that brief exchange was struck from the transcript of Tuesday’s briefing posted on the ministry’s web site.

Behind the party’s habitual secrecy and reflexive desire to control, lies the recognition that corruption remains a volatile issue.

Antigraft sentiments were a driver behind student-led prodemocracy protests in 1989 and since then, more than a half-a-dozen serving or retired members of the party’s elite inner circle have been brought down over corruption allegations However, the perception that all leading families are corrupt to some degree also acts as a form of “MAD [mutually assured destruction] deterrence,” said Steve Tsang, senior

fellow at the University of Nottingham’s China Policy Institute. Criticism, if it comes, is more likely to emerge from “outside the top echelon of the leadership in China,” Tsang said.

Chinese officials are also sheltered by public-disclosure rules that require only that they declare their assets internally. The public in most cases never knows what is in such declarations, nor how carefully they are audited. Calls for changes have fallen on deaf ears or, in some cases, met with reprisals.

Wealth among members of the legislature, the National People’s Congress, is even easier to hide, one reason why the body is known as the richest parliament in the world.

Despite the political obstacles, some Chinese continue to complain about the public’s inability to supervise and push for greater transparency in their leaders’ financial dealings.

“If well implemented, asset declaration should be a good way to fight corruption and ensure the integrity of public officials,” the official newspaper Ningbo Daily said in a March 31 article. AP

Money-laundering case puts light on ex-Argentine president

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UENOS AIRES, Argentina— A businessman with close ties to former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez refused to testify on Wednesday in a money-laundering probe being closely watched as a test of the new administration’s promise to crack down on corruption.

Lazaro Baez was escorted by police into a Buenos Aires court.

However, he refused to testify and instead handed a letter to Judge Sebastian Casanello, the official Argentine news agency Telam said.

A top court official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed to The Associated Press (AP) that Baez refused to answer questions and said the suspect would be returned to custody until his legal situation could be sorted out.

It wasn’t immediately clear what would happen next. Argentine judges have wide leeway to hold suspects during an investigation, particularly if they are deemed a flight risk.

A message left at Casanello’s office was not returned. The person who answered the phone at the law firm representing Baez declined comment.

Baez was initially scheduled to testify on Thursday, but his appearance was moved up after his sur-

prise arrest on Tuesday night.

Baez received large public works contracts during the administrations of Fernandez and her late husband and predecessor as president, Nestor Kirchner. Baez is accused of embezzling and laundering about $5 million. He denies any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors starting to look into Baez after a 2013 journalistic investigation said he was Kirchner’s figurehead in an elaborate scheme.

The news report charged that Baez used companies to launder money for the former presidents. Recent images aired on local TV showed one of Baez’s sons and others counting wads of cash at a company being investigated.

For many Argentines, the allegations surrounding Baez underscore the kind of endemic corruption that has long plagued the South American nation. Argentina ranked 107 out of 167 on Transparency International’s annual corruption index last year, worse than other Latin American countries with long histories of graft, such as Mexico, Brazil and Bolivia.

Fernandez, whose second term ended last December, has long been dogged by allegations related to Baez.

Her family owns several top hotels in the southern province of Santa Cruz. According to local news reports, the hotels are often empty and thus incapable of generating the kind of income they report.

Prosecutors have said they are looking into the financial transactions at Kirchner family hotels.

Fernandez has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged. However, most observers think that a thorough investigation could never have happened while she was in power.

The current president, Mauricio Macri, a conservative who campaigned on promises to root out corruption, has been careful in comments about Fernandez. When asked about her by the AP during an interview last month, Macri noted she had not been charged with anything but said he would not stand in the way of any investigation related to her.

Diego Maria Olmedo, a criminal lawyer, said so far Macri’s administration has taken a hand-off approach.

“In general, governments tend to keep federal judges at their side,” Olmedo said. “This government is apparently letting them work” without interference. AP

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Belgium PM rejects notion it is Europe’s weak security link

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RUSSELS—Belgium’s prime minister acknowledged on Wednesday that the country has made mistakes in combating violent extremism but rejected the notion that it has become Europe’s weakest link in efforts to eradicate the threat.

“In the fight against terrorism, in all countries in the world and in Europe, there have been successes and there have been failures,” Prime Minister Charles Michel said.

Belgium has succeeded in preventing many attacks, he said, and in 2015 alone successfully prosecuted scores of people on terrorism-related charges.

“If we were weak, then we would not have been able to convict 100 persons,” he said.

Michel appeared before a group of largely foreign journalists to deliver what he called the “key message” that following the widespread disruption caused by the March 22 suicide bombings at Brussels Airport and in the capital’s subway, “today we return to normal life in Brussels and Belgium.”

Thirty-two people died in the attacks, which were claimed by the Islamic State group. Three bombers were also killed.

The bombings, and missed signals in Belgium’s investigations of many of those responsible for the November 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130, laid bare numerous failings by Belgian law enforcement and security services.

Michel said Belgian officials have been drawing the proper lessons, and that the priority will be improved informationsharing so suspects already known to authorities don’t have the chance to mount attacks.

Belgium must show the world “it can improve what was a failure and has learned its lesson,” Michel said.

Belgian investigators took more than four months to find and arrest key Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam.

“Some said you need so many months, it is too many,” Michel said.

But he noted it took nearly 10 years for the US to track down and kill Osama bin Laden following the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., that killed nearly 3,000. AP

Counteroffensive launched in south of city of Aleppo

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The World

EIRUT—The Syrian army and its allies have launched a counteroffensive to recapture a village south of the city of Aleppo that was overrun by al-Qaeda-allied militant a few days earlier, activists said on Wednesday.

The development came as Syria’s alQaeda branch, known as the Nusra Front, confirmed on Wednesday the death of Abu Firas al-Souri, a senior figure in the group, in a US air strike in the northern province of Idlib on Sunday.

Syrian activist groups said the push near Aleppo, which started late on Tuesday night, is aimed at retaking the village of Tel al-Ais, which overlooks the DamascusAleppo highway. The village was captured on Monday by rebels allied with al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front.

The fighting outside Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city, has been the worst since a partial cease-fire agreement came into effect in late February and has threatened to completely derail the agreement, which greatly reduced overall violence in Syria. The fighting pits Syrian government forces and allied Lebanese Hezbollah militiamen against militants, including the Nusra Front. The al-Qaeda branch is excluded from the truce along with its rival the Islamic State group.

Meanwhile, the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant websites said the Nusra Front posted on social media Wednesday a statement in which it accused the US of “blatantly” helping the Syrian government with the airstrike that killed Abu Firas al-Souri in the northern province of Idlib. The al-Qaeda branch announced that a “group from the best of the mujahideen,” including Abu Firas, was killed in an air strike by the “Crusader-Arab coalition” led by the United States that targeted a training camp that was about to “graduate a class of mujahideen.”

Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said on Monday that the US carried out an air strike late Sunday on a senior al-Qaeda “operational meeting” in northwest Syria that resulted in “several enemy killed.” AP

138,000 people displaced in new Darfur fighting

Displaced people walk next to a razor-wire fence at the United Nations base in the capital Juba, South Sudan, in January. AP/Jason Patinkin

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NITED NATIONS—An escalation in fighting in Darfur has forced 138,000 people to flee their homes since midJanuary, and there is no end in sight to the 13-year conflict in Sudan’s vast western region, the UN peacekeeping chief said on Wednesday.

Herve Ladsous painted a grim picture to the UN Security Council of the upsurge in fighting in Darfur’s Jebel Marra area between Sudanese government forces and rebels loyal to the Sudan Liberation Army’s founder Abdul Wahid Elnur. The government has blocked access to the joint UNAfrican Union peacekeeping force known as United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (Unamid) and humanitarian organizations, so the number of casualties is unknown, he said.

The Security Council briefing follows a report from UN experts monitoring sanctions against Sudan dated mid-December that has been circulated to council members but not released because of Russian objections to some recommendations.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said armed groups in Darfur are capitalizing on gold mined in the region to illicitly raise funds.

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Number of years that Sudan has been in turmoil

Darfur, which is the size of Spain, has been in turmoil since 2003, when ethnic Africans rebeled, accusing the Arab-dominated Sudanese government of discrimination.

Khartoum is accused of retaliating by arming local nomadic Arab tribes known as the janjaweed and unleashing them on civilian populations—a charge the government denies. The UN says at least 300,000 people have died in the conflict and 2.6 million have fled their homes.

Ladsous, the undersecretarygeneral for peacekeeping, said the

security situation in other parts of Darfur remains “fragile” with persistent conflicts between local tribes over land, water and other resources.

He said the political process remains “polarized” and urged the government and Abdul Wahid to immediately stop fighting in Jebel Marra and start peace negotiations without conditions.

“The pursuit of political objectives through military means over the past decade has only contributed to the prolonged suffering of the civilian population,” Ladsous said.

Despite the “volatile security environment,” Ladsous said a referendum is scheduled to take place from April 11 to 13 on whether Darfur should become a single region or retain the current division into five sub-regions. He cited a controversy over the criteria for voter eligibility and concerns about what some call “the unsuitable timing.”

Sudan’s UN Ambassador Omar Dahab Fadl reiterated the government’s call for “an exit strategy” for Unamid and called Elnur’s forces “criminals.” He said the government has documented evidence that the rebel leader and his movement have threatened to kill citizens in Jebel Marra if they refuse “to pay the ransom imposed on them under duress.”

The panel of experts said it “is certain” that another rebel group— the Abbaka Rezeigat Militiamen of North Darfur—control the Jebel Amir artisanal gold mines, one of the largest sites in Darfur. It said it is “almost certain” that at least 400

mines are being exploited by the rebel group.

The panel said it is also certain that a substantial part of the gold taken from the mines is collected in Darfur and flown to Sudan’s capital Khartoum for illegal export to the United Arab Emirates.

The experts said they are “almost certain” the Abbaka rebels have the potential to earn $54 million annually from levies on prospectors and businesses, direct mining of gold and its illegal export. They said they are certain that “an entity” controlled by janjaweed leader Musa Hilal gets “a substantial revenue stream from illicit levies on gold mining in Jebel Amir.”

“The panel is almost certain that other armed groups, who impose illegal levies on prospectors, also control most artisanal mines of Darfur,” the report said.

An analysis of trade data by the panel found that around 48,000 kilograms (105,821 pounds) of Darfur gold was potentially smuggled from Sudan to UAE from 2010 to 2014. It said this equates to an additional income of $123 million to armed groups in Darfur.

In other sanctions violations, the panel said it found small arms in Darfur manufactured after 2005, which violate a UN arms embargo.

They also obtained evidence clearly showing that the Sudanese Air Force possesses cluster munitions, and that government forces in Darfur possess Typhoon armored personnel carriers, also in violation of the arms embargo, the report said. AP

Student-activist hacked, shot to death in Bangladesh

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EW DELHI—Three motorcycle-riding assailants hacked and shot a student to death as he was walking with a friend in the capital of Bangladesh, the police said on Thursday.

The killing on Wednesday night follows a string of similar attacks last year, when at least five secular bloggers and publishers were killed allegedly by the radical Islamists.

The police suspect 28-year-old Nazimuddin Samad was targeted for his outspoken atheism in the Muslim majority country, and for supporting a 2013 movement to demand capital punishment for war crimes involving the country’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971, according to Dhaka Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Nurul Amin. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

The assailants, who had been riding a single motorcycle, escaped after the assault while shouting, “Allahu Akbar,” or “Allah is great.”

Friends and fellow students of Samad rallied on Thursday on the ground of the state-run Jagannath University, where Samad was studying law and had attended class the evening of the attack.

“This is very sad for us. We are

trying whatever we can do to support the family during such difficult time,” university proctor Nur Mohammad said.

A supporter of the ruling Awami League party of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Samad took part in the movement that successfully pushed authorities to create a wider scope for prosecution for the suspected war criminals. AP

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Businesses opposing laws targeting LGBT people

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ASHINGTON—As more Republican-led states consider laws targeting the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, the nation’s business sector is providing some of the most vigorous opposition, creating an uneasy tension between GOP conservatives and a historically loyal support base for the party.

The situation reached a head this week in North Carolina, where House Bill (HB) 2, which critics say will limit legal protections for LGBT individuals, was recently signed into law by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

In response, PayPal ditched plans for a new $3.6-million operations center in Charlotte that would have employed 400 people.

In Mississippi Republican Gov. Phil Bryant on Tuesday signed HB 1532 into law, which allows religious groups, businesses and individuals to deny services to the LGBT community.

On Wednesday Executives from eight large companies, including GE, the Dow Chemical Co., PepsiCo, Hyatt Hotels Corp. and Whole Foods Market, signed on to an open letter calling for Bryant and state lawmakers to repeal the measure.

“The business community, by and large, has consistently communicated to lawmakers at every level that such laws are bad for our employees and bad for business,” reads the letter, which was written on stationery from the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights organization.

Similar corporate angst is building in Missouri for Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 39, a broad religious-exemption measure that critics say would allow sweeping discrimination against married same-sex couples. If voted out of the Legislature, it would go before state voters as a ballot measure.

Companies—such as Dow, Google, AT and T and Monsanto—and the Saint Louis and Kansas City chambers of commerce have opposed the measure. The Kansas City Sports Commission has warned that the bill would keep Missouri from being considered for major sporting events, which would cost the state millions.

State Sen. Bob Onder, a Saint Charles, Missouri, Republican who’s the bill’s sponsor, said recently that the predictions of economic ruin for Missouri if the “religious freedom” amendment were approved were overblown.

“We look at states that have a lot of aggressive gay-rights laws, like Illinois, and they are some of our economic basket cases,” Onder said. “I really think that these businesses should leave well enough alone and let Missouri voters decide whether to protect religious freedom.”

But Rose Saxe, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT and HIV Project, said that “with both the Mississippi bill and the Missouri bill, the backlash is growing.”

Robert Reeg, president of MasterCard Technologies in O’Fallon, Missouri, personally wrote Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon earlier this month to applaud the Democratic governor’s opposition to the measure.

“MasterCard condemns any legislation that has the potential to allow for discrimination in any form,” Reeg wrote. “Diversity is built into the fabric of our company, and inclusion is what propels us to leverage our technology and expertise to benefit people of all demographics and sexual orientations.”

In an e-mail response to questions from McClatchy, Reeg said the proposal could affect corporate decisions.

“While MasterCard is not looking at new locations at this time, we would definitely factor in legislation like Missouri Senate Joint Resolution 39 or comparable laws in other states in making a decision,” he wrote. The activity highlights a continued shift from corporate America’s historic reluctance to wade into controversial social issues.

Deena Fidas, who directs the workplace equality program at Human Rights Campaign, said the new corporate activism grew out of years of slow progress in getting the business community to realize that attacks on LGBT civil rights were “tantamount to attacks on an open, viable business environment.”

“Therefore these are not just out-there social issues,” Fidas said. They represent laws and “court cases that have a material impact on businesses.”

In addition to being the right thing to do, Fidas said, promoting workplace equality and tolerance helps companies recruit and retain employees, which helps boost their economic competitiveness.

In South Dakota Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard vetoed a bill last month that would have forced transgender students to use bathrooms according to their sexes at birth rather than their chosen gender identities. TNS

Pope seen rebuking E.U. heads in visit to migrants in Greece

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BusinessMirror

World The

A9 | Friday, April 8, 2016 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

U.S. Ambassador to Jordan Alice Wells meets with Syrian refugee Ahmad al-Abboud (top, right) and his family at the International Airport of Amman, Jordan, on Wednesday on their way to be resettled in the US. AP/Raad Adayleh

Syrians arrive in US under surge-resettlement program

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MMAN, Jordan—The first Syrian family to be resettled in the United States under a speeded-up “surge operation” for refugees left Jordan on Wednesday and arrived in Kansas City, Missouri, to start a new life.

Ahmad al-Abboud, who is being resettled with his wife and five children, said he is thankful to Jordan, where he has lived for three years after fleeing Syria’s civil war. But the 45-year-old from Homs, Syria, said he was ready to build a better life in the US. “I’m happy. America is the coun-

try of freedom and democracy, there are job opportunities, there is good education, and we are looking forward to having a good life over there,” al-Abboud said.

They have been living in Mafraq, north of Amman. Al-Abboud was unable to find work, and the family was surviving on food coupons.

“I am ready to integrate in the US and start a new life,” he told The Associated Press in Amman’s airport before the family boarded a flight to Kansas City.

Al-Abboud said he wanted to learn English and find a job to support his family.

A spokesman for the social services organization helping resettle the family said they arrived in Kansas City late Wednesday night.

Since October, 1,000 Syrian refugees have moved to the US from Jordan. President Barack Obama has set a target of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees by September 30.

A resettlement center opened in Amman in February to help meet that goal, and about 600 people are interviewed every day at the center.

The temporary processing center will run until April 28, said US

10,000 Refugees from Syria who are set to be resettled in the US

Ambassador Alice Wells, who was at the airport to see the al-Abboud family depart.

Gina Kassem, the regional refugee coordinator at the US Embassy in Amman, said that while the target of 10,000 applies to Syrian refugees living around the world, most would be resettled from Jordan.

“The 10,000 [figure] is a floor and not a ceiling, and it is possible to increase the number,” Kassem told reporters.

While the resettlement process usually takes 18 months to 24

months, the surge operation will reduce the time to three months, Kassem said.

The UN Refugee Agency prioritizes the most vulnerable cases for resettlement, and refers them to the US to review, Kassem said.

The priority is given to high-risk groups, such as unaccompanied minors and victims of torture and gender-based violence, she said.

“We do not have exclusions or look for families with certain education background, language skills or other socioeconomic factors, and we do not cut family sizes,” she said.

Jordan hosts about 635,000 of the more than 4.7 million Syrians who have registered with the UN refugee agency after fleeing the war. The total number of Syrians in Jordan is more than 1.2 million, including those who arrived before the conflict began in 2011. AP

French law punishes Johannsson to seek approval to become Iceland’s next PM prostitutes’ clients R

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ARIS—French lawmakers on Wednesday approved a bill against prostitution and sex trafficking that bans buying sex, not selling it. Customers will face fines and be made to attend awareness classes on the harms of the sex trade.

The legislation, which passed 64-12 in the parliament’s lower house, the National Assembly, makes French law one of the toughest against sex buyers in Europe.

Prostitution in itself is legal in France—though brothels, pimping and the sale of sex by minors are illegal. The new measure does away with a 2003 law that banned passive soliciting by sex workers on the street and thus put the legal onus on prostitutes.

This new bill focuses the punishment on the client, introducing a €1,500 ($1,700) fine that would rise to €3,750 for a sex buyer’s second offense.

The convicted client will be obliged to attend classes highlighting the dangers associated with prostitution. The measure will also make it easier for foreign prostitutes—many currently illegally in France—to acquire a temporary residence permit if they enter a process to get out of the prostitution business.

Supporters of the bill argue that it will help fight trafficking networks.

“The most important aspect of

this law is to accompany prostitutes, give them identity papers because we know that 85 percent of prostitutes here are victims of trafficking,” Maud Olivier, a lawmaker with the governing Socialists and a sponsor of the legislation, told The Associated Press.

Olivier said that many of the sex workers who arrive in France have their passports confiscated by pimps.

“We will provide them with documents on the condition they commit to leave prostitution behind,” she added.

But opponents fear that cracking down will push prostitutes to hide, leaving them even more at the mercy of pimps and violent clients.

France’s parliament started debating the bill in 2013, but the final vote was delayed due to sharp divisions between the lower parliamentary chamber and the Senate.

Written by a group of lawmakers from both right and left and backed by the Socialist government, the legislation has been inspired by Sweden, which passed a similar measure in 1999. Norway and Iceland also followed the Swedish model.

Other countries, such as Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, where brothels are legal, are interested in the French experience. AP

EYKJAVIK, Iceland—Iceland’s Fisheries and Agriculture Minister Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson said on Wednesday he will seek the president’s approval to become the country’s next prime minister after the previous leader resigned because of revelations he had offshore accounts.

Johannsson said Iceland’s center-right governing coalition remains intact despite the turmoil that started on Sunday after a massive leak of documents from a Panamanian law firm showed it created offshore accounts for Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and his wife. Gunnlaugsson stepped down two days later.

Johannsson is expected to meet Presi-

dent Olafur Ragnar Grimsson on Thursday, but the opposition opposes the move and is planning to pursue a vote of no confidence in parliament.

“We will still push forward a proposal to dissolve parliament and hold earlier elections,” said Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson, a legislator with the Pirate Party, which has high popular support.

Opposition lawmakers have said Gunnlaugsson’s offshore accounts revealed a significant conflict of interest with his official duties. They now accuse the government of trying to cling to power.

Earlier Wednesday, hundreds of people staged a noisy protest in the rain outside parliament in Reykjavik—the third

consecutive day of demonstrations calling for a new government in the North Atlantic island nation.

Gunnlaugsson has denied wrongdoing. His center-right Progressive Party is in a coalition government with the Independence Party.

Arni Pall Arnason, leader of the Social Democratic Alliance, said the two parties in the governing coalition are desperately trying to hang on to power without public support.

“What I think the government parties are trying to do is to cling onto power while doing the absolute minimum of changes in order to escape the public,” he said. “The government doesn’t want to confront the issue or face the public.” AP

OME—Pope Francis, who has made migration a defining issue of his papacy, is due to visit the Greek island of Lesbos as early as next week in a trip that will serve as an implicit rebuke to European leaders over their refugees policy.

Francis will travel “soon” to the island with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos, the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Church, the patriarchate said on its web site on Wednesday.

The aim, it said, was to encourage the refugees there and inspire “the proper response to the critical refugee situation.”

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will accompany the religious leaders, according to a Greek government official who spoke on condition of anonymity, as the trip hasn’t been officially announced by the Vatican.

Fr. Federico Lombardi, the pope’s spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement that the visit was “possible,” adding decisions on the date and the destination had not yet been taken.

The visit, once confirmed, will come days after migrants to Greece started being sent back to Turkey under a European Union (EU) agreement that has been criticized by the Vatican and denounced by humanrights groups as impractical and legally suspect.

Lesbos has become a repository for migrants seeking a better life in the EU: There were 3,560 refugees on the island as of Wednesday morning with more arriving each day, according to a daily tally issued by the Greek authorities.

A Vatican official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to comment publicly said migration was clearly a theme to which the Argentine-born pope—the son of an Italian immigrant—wants to continue to draw attention.

Such a visit was a very delicate diplomatic dance, the official said, given the involvement of Greece, Turkey and the Orthodox Church.

Asked what the pope was likely to say about European leaders’ response to the crisis, the official said Francis would no doubt signal he was unhappy with it.

“Popes generally are not in the business of criticizing individual countries but everything Francis says and does in Greece will be an implicit criticism of political failure,” papal biographer Austen Ivereigh said in a telephone interview. “He wants to persuade the world to look at the issue as a humanitarian crisis rather than an immigration issue.”

Soon after his election in March 2013, Francis chose the island of Lampedusa south of Sicily—point of arrival for many migrants crossing the central Mediterranean—for his first trip outside Rome.

Francis has clashed with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump over migration, saying someone like Trump “who thinks only about building walls, wherever it is, and not of building bridges, is not Christian.”

Trump branded the pope’s comment “disgraceful.”

The Vatican has made no secret of its hostility to the EU deal to send migrants back to Turkey from Greece that came into operation on Monday. Cardinal Antonio Maria Veglio, who heads the pontifical council for migrants, said in an interview with Vatican Radio that the migrants concerned “are people, not goods.”

“It’s refusing these people the right to emigrate: they want, for example, to go to Germany and they find themselves in Turkey,” Veglio said. “And with what guarantees?”

Bloomberg News/TNS

Dutch reject EU-Ukraine deal in referendum

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HE HAGUE, the Netherlands—A clear majority of people who voted on Wednesday in a Dutch referendum rejected a far-reaching European Union (EU) free-trade deal with Ukraine, and with all votes counted it was clear that the threshold of 30-percent voter turnout would be met and the result would be valid.

The turnout was at 32.2 percent, broadcasters NOS and RTL reported after all votes were counted and reported by municipalities to national news agency ANP’s election service.

While it was long in doubt if the result would be valid, the sentiment among those in the nation of 17 million who

voted was crystal clear: According to the ANP count, 61.1 percent rejected the EUUkraine pact and 38.1 percent voted for it.

The remaining votes were blank or spoiled.

“It looks like the Dutch people said no to the European elite and no to the treaty with the Ukraine,” tweeted popular anti-Islam, anti-EU lawmaker Geert Wilders. “The beginning of the end of the EU.” As expected, the vote underscored a deep-rooted skepticism about this country’s place in Europe. The nonbinding Dutch vote came less than three months before British citizens decide in their own referendum whether to leave the EU altogether.

The Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, a trading nation that benefits

from its internal market, but paradoxically also a hotbed of Euro skepticism that rejected the bloc’s proposed constitution in a 2005 referendum.

Exactly what will happen to the agreement now remains unclear.

But in a first reaction, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said: “If the turnout is above 30 percent, with such a big victory for the ‘No’ camp, you can’t just go ahead and ratify the treaty.” However, Rutte said he would not be rushed into action, saying he wanted to discuss the result in his Cabinet, at the European Union and in the Dutch Parliament, a process that could take “days if not weeks.”

The referendum was the first in the Netherlands since the 2005 rejection of the

EU constitution and was forced by a loose coalition of Euro-skeptics that managed to gather nearly 430,000 signatures in just six weeks last year. Most often, deals like this are ratified by the governments of the 28 EU members, without any referendums.

Wilders said he hoped the vote would give hope to other nations questioning their place in Europe.

After casting his ballot at a school on the outskirts of The Hague, Wilders said the Dutch referendum could act as an incentive to British voters to reject the EU in June. “So it could be today that it is the start of the end of the European Union as we know it today and that would be very good,” he said. AP

A10 Friday, April 8, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

What do we get from the US?

T

he news cycle of the past two weeks has been filled. The presidential and national elections have had to share space with the situation of the farmers’ protest in Kidapawan, the release of the Panama Papers and the Senate hearings on money laundering.

But there is always a bigger picture that cannot be ignored. The annual joint military exercise with the US—Balikatan 2016—involving about 8,000 troops of both countries began this week. As a backdrop, both Indonesia and Vietnam seized Chinese fishing vessels, increasing regional tensions.

In 1991 then-President Cory Aquino literally marched on the street to try to convince the Philippine Senate not to end the Treaty of Friendship, Peace and Cooperation with the United States, which allowed US bases in the country. Now, the second Aquino administration, through the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca), has increased military cooperation between the two countries not seen since 1991.

Regardless of the differing opinions about the Edca, there is little likelihood that the incoming administration is going to backtrack on that agreement.

From the American point of view, as outlined in an article for The Diplomat magazine—which focuses on Asia Pacific—“The Philippines has cemented itself as a key location for America’s military presence in the region.” US Defense Secretary Ash Carter will visit the Philippines late this month, a historic first.

The question then for the incoming president is, where does the Philippines go from here?

The candidates do not want to touch this issue. The infographic of the Liberal Party platform of Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II never mentions foreign relations. Senator Grace Poe’s “20-point agenda” says only “the West Philippine Sea is ours,” without any mention of US military relations. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign, “Platforms of Governance,” also lacks any mention of the Philippine-US alliance. Vice President Jejomar C. Binay said last year that “a stronger American military presence in the Philippines and greater interoperability between our respective armed forces dramatically increase our individual and collective defense capabilities.”

It is time to be told how the next government intends to exploit this new military relationship with the US. This is not two friends promising to “watch each other’s back.” It is a business arrangement.

What if China suddenly said, “Hey, Philippines, we will drop our territorial claims, but we want our bases on ‘your’ islands. In return, your fishermen are welcome, we will share the natural resources, and here is $100 billion for the next 10 years’ rent payment.”

Think that is a ridiculous and silly possibility? Remember, in 1898 the US bought the entire country of the Philippines from Spain for $20 million.

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Election alphabet soup James Jimenez

spox

F

ilipinos love acronyms! Here are five acronyms you need to know before the elections next month. n PCVL. This is the Posted Computerized Voters List, and it refers to the list of voters that is, well, posted on the door of the polling place. This is the list you refer to when you come to vote on election day. If you’re on the list, then you get to vote; otherwise, you get to cool your jets and make a mental note to yourself to remember to register as a voter, the next time around. n BEI. That stands for the three-

member Board of Election Inspectors, composed of a chairman, a poll clerk and the imaginatively named third member. Together, these three EIs run the polling places where voting takes place on election day. For the most part, they are public-school teachers. None of them are employees of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). That’s right. When it comes right down to it, it isn’t the Comelec that actually runs those precincts, it’s the teachers.

n VCM. There’s no way you don’t

know this one: it stands for Vote Counting Machine—the successor to the PCOS, or Precinct Count Optical Scan, machine. Like the PCOS machine, there will be one VCM for every polling place, serving up to 800 voters each. Also like the PCOS machine, the VCM counts the votes on the electorate’s ballots by scanning each ballot, front and back simultaneously, and noting down the votes received by each candidate until such time as it receives the command to

VCM. There’s no way you don’t know this one: it stands for Vote Counting Machine—the successor to the PCOS, or Precinct Count Optical Scan, machine. Like the PCOS machine, there will be one VCM for every polling place, serving up to 800 voters each. Unlike the PCOS machine, however, the VCM will be issuing a voting “receipt” to each voter. The receipt will reflect the voter’s choices as indicated in his or her ballot. sum up all the votes.

Unlike the PCOS, however, the VCM will be issuing a voting “receipt” to each voter. The receipt will reflect the voter’s choices as indicated in his or her ballot. n ER. After all the votes have been counted, the VCM prints out an Election Return. This is a longer kind of “receipt” that reflects all the votes received, by all the candidates.

In other words, it will show how many votes were received by each candidate running for office, one month from tomorrow.

The electronic data, which the ER was printed from, is stored in the VCM’s memory cards. A copy of that data is electronically transmitted to the Comelec’s central computers so that it can be posted on the Internet, for everyone to see. Equally important, that data is also sent forward from the VCM to a canvassing station. n CCS. At the canvassing station, the Canvassing and Consolidation System totals up all the results generated by the VCMs in the precincts within a city or municipality. Each city or municipal canvassing station sends its electronic canvass report to a provincial canvassing station; and all provincial canvassing stations, in turn, send their canvass reports all the way up to the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).

The NBOC—which is actually nothing other than the commission en banc—gathers up all the election results reported by all the various canvassing boards and, in due time, proclaims the winners of the senatorial elections.

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

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Excerpt of ‘An assessment of the economic performance of the Aquino administration’ Joseph Anthony Lim

EAGLE WATCH

T

he Philippines was supposed to have made a significant breakthrough in economic growth and development during the administration of Benigno Aquino III from 2010 to 2015. The growth started from the GMA administration from 2002. Excluding the “uncontrollable” years (2009, a global recession year and 2010, a year split into two administrations), GMA gave an average of 5.16 percent GDP growth from 2002 to 2008, while P-Noy delivered an average of 5.93 percent growth from 2011 to 2014. This is 0.77 percent higher average growth for P-Noy.

The observed special features of the P-Noy growth showed that during the period 2012-2014, household consumption, government consumption expenditure and fixed capital formation (or gross investments) were the highest growing components in the economy. Export growth, as well as net export (export less import) growth, was highest during GMA’s period and the P-Noy period registered the lowest export (and net export) growth among the three administrations of Erap, GMA and P-Noy. Thus, the P-Noy high-growth performance depended more on growth in the domestic economy and domestic demand rather than external demand, due to a weak global environment. The initial high confidence in the Philippine economy resulted in the stronger domestic demand. The more participative role of government investment and spending in spurring domestic demand should also be noted as the Philippines became fiscally stronger. It should be noted that the P-Noy administration did not use the advantage of a strong domestic-led economy to strengthen the economic sectors, and improve their productivity and competitiveness for long-run resiliency of the Philippine economy.

Despite this, foreign and domestic investors and credit-rating agencies were raving about the Philippines’s perceived improved governance against corruption, and successful fiscal reforms and fiscal management.

This was true, especially after the passage of the sin taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. The sovereign credit-ratings upgrade and higher government expenditures had contributed to the high confidence and high economic growth, especially in private investments and private consumption. The improved fiscal strength also allowed the government to spur domestic demand growth to counter a very weak global environment for exports.

These twin policies provided the pillars of the country’s high growth in 2011 to 2015.

The higher growth most likely led to some improvement in employment. Unemployment rate fell from about 7.3 percent in January 2010 to 5.8 percent in January 2016. Underemployment, however, continues to remain high.

Notwithstanding these gains, the P-Noy administration is facing the lack of evidence and perception that the poverty situation has improved.

This is also tied to the perceived lack

of improvement in basic social services in health and education, and especially in transportation.

In April 2015 the Social Progress Index Global Survey results for 133 countries were released by Washington-based Social Progress Imperative (Flores, 2015). It showed the Philippines’s score remaining stagnant and its rank deteriorating from 56 to 64 out of 133 countries from 2014 to 2015. The Philippines scored badly in basic human needs (especially personal safety) and some health indicators such as premature deaths from noncommunicable diseases and obesity rates. It also fared badly in the ecosystem sustainability component (especially depletion of water resources) and in some human-rights issues, especially press freedom (killings of journalists).

Toward the latter stretch of the P-Noy administration, various confidence-shaking challenges came upon the daang matuwid agenda.

Among these were the Mamasapano incident in January 2015, the Supreme Court ruling in February 2015 declaring that the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) was unconstitutional, leading to a big reduction in the government’s ability to pump-prime the economy.

Likewise, the government’s governance capability is being questioned in its inability to tackle major problems, such as the continuing power crisis in Mindanao, a devastating typhoon in late 2013, as well as drastically deteriorating traffic congestion and mass-transit breakdown in Metro Manila.

Now, the biggest challenge haunting the business sector is the uncertainty concerning who the next president of the country will be. Ultimately, it is clear that the incoming president’s primary task is to bring back the economic confidence in the country and, at the same time, meet the social needs, particularly of the poor. The question is how these objectives can be fulfilled at the same time. The gains and efforts made by the current administration are in danger of being reversed by candidates perceived as corrupt or inefficient. It seems that the President’s daang matuwid, had not firmly established the institutions and mass base to improve political and economic governance in the country, which is its very goal. This may jeopardize the highgrowth path the Philippine economy had been treading.

Nato isn’t obsolete

N

either US President Barack Obama nor North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg mentioned Donald Trump after their impromptu meeting on Monday, but the Republican front-runner’s claim that the alliance is “obsolete” hung heavily in the atmosphere. So, too, did Obama’s own recent comments that many allies are “free riders” taking advantage of US military prowess.

Nato remains vital to European and global security, as Obama and Stoltenberg noted—particularly given Russian aggression in Ukraine;

Europe’s refugee crisis; the persistent threat from Islamic State; and recent terror attacks in Ankara, Brussels and Paris. But the alliance is insufficiently prepared to meet the threats to Europe that can be expected in coming years.

One symptom of this weakness is the failure of 23 of Nato’s 28 member-countries to fulfill their pledge to spend at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on their militaries.

Another is their lopsided defense budgets, which spend more than is needed on personnel and too little on drones, warships, anti-missile defenses and other

Friday, April 8, 2016 A11

Celebrating the poet as a hero: Balagtas in Bataan Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

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was with some journalists in Balanga, Bataan, on April 1.

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) invited the media to cover the event, called “Buwan ng Panitikan Ng Pilipinas” or National Literature Month, a monthlong feast around Filipino literature.

The celebration was spearheaded by the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF), with Virgilio Almario, National Artist for Literature, at its helm and the NCCA. There were events like the nationwide writing workshop and a “Balagtasan” or literary joust.

April 2 was set aside to honor Francisco Baltazar, the foremost literary poet, who was born in Bigaa, Bulacan, but resided and died in Udyong, now Orion, in Bataan.

We were up at 4 in the morning, with our breakfast scheduled at 5. We left the hotel to catch the laying of wreath and flowers at 7 a.m. before the bronze statue of Balagtas done by Julie Lluch. The ceremony, however, started late, with the heat of the day already on our backs. After the floral offering, a library was opened at the area called “Hardin ni Balagtas.”

That day, poets were honored, with Jose “Pete” Lacaba leading the

honorees as the “Dangal ni Balagtas” awardee. The poet, journalist and noted scriptwriter of many significant films spoke of the martial-law years and how the period stifled the freedom of people to talk. Despite what people say about how there is not much change after the martial-law years, Lacaba disagreed, stressing how we could speak now about the tortures and atrocities inflicted on many people during those years.

Bigaa, the birthplace of Francisco “Balagtas” Baltazar, is now known as Balagtas. Still, there are many aspects in the life of Balagtas that people have not yet known. It is significant to note that, cultural historians point to Balagtas as having inspired Rizal and other heroes.

For all the sublime presence of the statue of the poet quiet and solemn under the shade of an old tree, his remains had not yet been found.

It is said that Balagtas was buried in the Orion Church. It is also said that the bones of the author of the epic, Florante and Laura, and other awit or metrical romances and tales, are right there at the middle aisle of the old church. When and how this fact can be verified will all depend on those who will continue to commemorate this poet as a hero.

Bataan has the noble fate of having two wars waged in its territory.

There was the Second World War, where soldiers, as history recalls, held on to a piece of land for many more days, if only to halt the surrender of a nation. Then there is the more epic battle of languages, as Tagalog/ Pilipino/Filipino continues to fight for the supremacy in literature, in the process marginalizing other languages, and other literary forms.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.

Financial access for women entrepreneurs: Why we need it, how it works Boots Geotina-Garcia

Women Stepping UP

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everal studies have noted that while women-owned enterprises comprise a major part of formal small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets, these SMEs were observed to exhibit slower growth rates than businesses owned by men. The major reason? Difficulty in securing financing for their businesses. In the 2014 report of the Apec Business Advisory Council, the recommendation was made “to identify and remove barriers to women’s participation in high-growth potential sectors to support the growth of SMEs.” Further, at the recent Apec Women and the Economy Forum hosted by the Philippines in September 2015, a recommendation was made during the High-Level Policy Dialogue (HLPD) on Women and the Economy to adopt a gender lens in establishing financial support and training for businesses owned by women. Access to finance continues to remain as a major constraint faced by women entrepreneurs.

to capital; and offer products and services beneficial to women and girls, among others. The interest in gender lens investing is driven by the recognition that empowering women is a powerful catalyst for economic gain and positive social change, and that the economic prosperity of a country may be influenced by the role that women play.

The “Ilaw” program

Advocates of economic empowerment for women have proposed the concept of a “gender lens” in evaluating opportunities for investing and financing. Using a gender lens would give importance to projects that deliver greater impact to women, young and old; support women leadership; provide women access

In support of its advocacy for the economic empowerment of women, Women’s Business Council Phils.

Inc. (WomenBizPh) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) on November 11, 2014, to create a lending window called “Inclusive Lending for Aspiring Women Entrepreneurs” (Ilaw).

The objectives of Ilaw are: 1) to empower women by providing

warfighting hardware. Groups of countries should be encouraged to pool funds for major acquisitions, as 10 of the 28 members did to purchase the three C-17 transport planes now based in Hungary. This model could be used to replace the alliance’s aging fleet of AWACS early warning planes.

Organizational changes could also improve efficiency. Nato’s web site lists nearly 50 separate civilian agencies and offices; consolidate both the military and nonmilitary staffs, and the number of personnel could be trimmed by at least 20 percent, according to retired US

Adm. James Stavridis, a former Nato supreme allied commander.

Bureaucracy also hampers readiness. Last summer the supreme allied commander, US General Philip Breedlove, was given greater authority to mobilize troops without engaging in a cumbersome approval process. But he still lacks some of the powers his Cold-War predecessors had. Most immediately, he needs the authority to unilaterally deploy the alliance’s new rapid-reaction Spearhead Force.

Nato could also stand to improve its ability to counter “hybrid” warfare, such as Russia has practiced in

Using the “gender lens” in financing

financial support to women entrepreneurship; 2) to help businesses grow beyond micro credit; 3) to create jobs and build local economies; and 4) to access the network and expertise of women’s organizations. The MOU allows the DBP to access WomenBizPh members, many of whom are successful businesswomen who can provide the benefit of mentoring and advice to Ilaw borrowers.

Women entrepreneurs are given priority by the DBP Ilaw Program by simplifying the lending procedures, creating a dedicated financing window, providing flexible collateral policies and customizing the repayment schedules.

Borrowers eligible to avail themselves of the Ilaw Program may be single proprietorships with women principals, partnerships having at least one woman partner, corporations with a woman CEO or COO, and cooperatives where majority of the women are members. Enterprises must have an asset size of not more than P100 million, although startups may apply and be approved on a case-to-case basis.

Loan proceeds may be used for working capital production, financing of confirmed purchase orders and letters of credit, and fixed asset acquisition. The minimum loan amount is P300,000, and up to 90 percent of the project cost may be borrowed.

P367 million has been released, benefiting 49 qualified women-owned enterprises engaged in a wide range of businesses. These include manufacturing, general merchandise, services, agribusiness, wholesale and retail. Quoting an entrepreneur who recently availed herself of an Ilaw loan, “We are very happy that the DBP introduced this program geared toward the special needs of women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs are usually scared to apply for a loan. The DBP went to our store and office and guided us on the best options available from the bank, such as a loan and credit line. The processing was fast and we did not need too many papers to submit because the account officer guided us all the way.”

In May 2015 the Ilaw Program was the recipient of a Merit Award from the Association of Development Financing Institutions of Asia and the Pacific. Through this partnership with the DBP, WomenBizPh aims to bridge the gap in women’s access to finance and enable women to realize their entrepreneurship potentials and achieve economic empowerment.

To date, a total of P434 million has been approved under Ilaw, of which

For more information about the Ilaw Program, you may contact any of the following DBP Officers: SAVP Aurora C. Maghirang—acmaghirang@ dbp.ph; AVP Maria Ana Visitacion M. Domingo— mavmdomingo@dbp.ph; Manager Angelito B. Acupan—abacupan@dbp.ph.

Ma. Aurora “Boots” Geotina-Garcia is chairman of Women’s Business Council Philippines Inc. (admin@womenbiz.ph), and chairman of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.

Ukraine, combining military aggression with political destabilization, cyberattacks and propaganda. At the least, this calls for integrating mock cyber-operations into major training exercises, taking advantage of the new Nato Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence in Talinn, Estonia.

To address the Russian threat directly, Nato should consider making permanent the additional armored brigade that the US plans to rotate through Poland and the Baltic states.

A new air base in Eastern Europe may also be needed, as well as a facility in the region from which to operate

Nato’s fleet of Global Hawk drones.

The US needs renewed commitments from the five countries that now host its forward-deployed nuclear weapons—especially Germany, whose Bundestag voted six years ago to begin preparations to remove the arsenal.

A stronger Nato would be better able to respond to the many other challenges it faces, from carving out a safe haven in northern Syria to pushing back against Islamic State.

Nato is, as Obama said, a “linchpin” of US security, but it needs greater investment and some restructuring to do the job well.

Ilaw’s impact to date