Businessmirror april 17, 2017

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Power struggle: Solar, wind challenge coal as more affordable energy source

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

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Monday, April 17, 2017 Vol. 12 No. 186

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By Cai U. Ordinario

@cuo_bm

he government would spend as much as P652.9 billion for new infrastructure projects next year to attain the economic targets of the Duterte administration under the Philippine Development Plan.

Documents obtained by the BusinessMirror showed that the amount allocated for the projects identified in the Public Investment Program (PIP)

Trump’s policies won’t harm call centers in PHL–PEZA

By Catherine N. Pillas @c_pillas29

usiness-process outsourcing (BPO) firms in the Philippines will not be affected by US President Donald J. Trump’s protectionist stance, according to the chief of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza).

Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza said American businesses moved to reassure their BPO providers in the Philippines during a recent investment mission wherein she sought the US Chamber of Commerce’s sentiment on the industry’s future. “I asked some US investors who are familiar with the policies of Trump, conveying to them the fear of our BPOs. The US government will not press for ITBPM [information technology-businessprocess management] to cut down on offshore operations to minimize job displacement of Americans,” Plaza said.

“BPOs will not be affected because the ‘America First’ policy will mostly affect the manufacturing capability, and not services,” she added.

Plaza said John Goyer, senior director for Asia of the US Chamber of Commerce, made this statement during a meeting.

According to Plaza, American businesses are more concerned about their manufacturing operations in countries that enjoy a huge trade surplus with the US. She said Washington will most likely target these operations to increase the availability of jobs in the US. American firms account for 70 percent outsourced work to the Philippines. Per subsector, the IT and health-care services rely mostly on the US. The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines made an assurance that it’s “business as usual” for the BPOs in the country, maintaining that only economic factors have thus far dictated developments in their sector.

“Right now in terms of direct impact, we’ve not really seen material impact in the way our clients are interacting with us,” Benedict Hernandez, chairman of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines, told reporters in a news briefing last month.

PESO exchange rates n US 49.6700

and the Three-year Rolling Infrastructure Program (TRIP) accounts for 17 percent of the P3.84-trillion budget ceiling set for next year.

business news source of the year

Falling inflation, retail sales bolster Fed’s go-slow approach

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₧3.84T The budget ceiling of the government for 2018

The government is still in the process of finalizing the list of projects to be included in the PIP and the TRIP. However, the government earlier said it intends to spend at least P1 trillion a year on infrastructure projects.

“Tier 2 [are] high-priority proposals, implementation-ready and compliant to the PIP and TRIP guidelines,” a separate document stated.

See “Budget,” A2

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Govt caps budget for new infra projects at ₧652.9B

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Part One

ITH much enthusiasm, climate and environmental advocates see the ratification of the Paris Agreement by the Philippine Senate both as a challenge and opportunity to shift from dirty fossil fuel to clean renewable energy (RE).

Although ambitious, reducing the country’s greenhousegas emission by 70 percent between 2020 and 2030 will be a tough nut to crack, as it struggles to sustain growth currently pegged at 6.8 percent last year.

This goal is yet clearly a “conditional” commitment largely dependent on the support the Philippines will get from the international community.

Last year the Climate Change Commission (CCC) said RE presents the biggest opportunity for local investment as the country plans to veer away from coal.

An environmental advocate, Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez vowed to expedite the granting of environmental compliance certificates (ECCs) for RE projects while thoroughly reviewing ECCs for potentially destructive and environmentally unsound development projects—particularly mining and coal.

Continued on A2

This file photo shows the Panay Energy Development Corp.’s 150-megawatt “clean coal” power plant the firm switched on last year. The power plant is considered the largest single-generation unit in the Visayas. Nonie Reyes

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@jonlmayuga

he economic case for a Federal Reserve (the Fed) interestrate increase in June just became a little less solid.

Inflation took a surprising step back in March at the same time retail sales dropped for a second month, according to a pair of US government reports last Friday. Labor Department data showed the consumer-price index fell a larger-than-forecast 0.3 percent, while a measure excluding food and energy fell by the most since 1982.

While the pullback at retailers underscores a weak first quarter for consumer spending that economists had already penciled in, the inflation data are what surprised them, given recent signs that businesses had been able to regain

pricing power. A further cooling of price pressures and modest household demand would raise questions about whether the economy could withstand a midyear move by the Fed to lift borrowing costs.

“Both reports would be arguments in a case that a dove would make for why the Fed needs to be more patient,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities Llc. “It’s a relatively soft consumer performance in the first quarter, and you couple that with a pretty abrupt halt in the gradual uptrend in inflation. If I were a dovish policy-maker, I’d say ‘what’s the harm in holding off a little bit and seeing how all this plays out’.”

See “Inflation,” A2

Climate tax eyed to cut greenhouse gas

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

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@joveemarie

ays before the celebration of Earth Day on April 22, the vice chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations on Sunday called on the leadership of the 17th Congress to help reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) footprint by passing a law imposing a “climate tax” on carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Nacionalista Party Rep. Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte Jr. of Camarines Sur said the Philippines should follow Singapore, which is set to become the first Southeast Asian country to implement decisive measures against climate change by charging S$10 to S$20 per ton of emission of CO2 and five other GHGs starting in 2019.

The lawmaker, citing reports, said Singapore Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said revenues from the tax would help fund

Villafuerte: “The bill’s purpose is two-pronged: It is a revenuegenerating measure and, at the same time, a tool to help protect and preserve the environment.”

industr y measures to reduce GHG emissions.

“We can follow Singapore’s lead while, at the same time, ensuring that our version of the carbon tax, or what I like to call ‘climate tax’, won’t raise production costs to levels that would imperil our global competitiveness,” he said.

Villafuerte is the author of House Bill (HB) 4939, or the Piso Para sa Kalikasan Act. The bill seeks to impose a cli-

mate or carbon tax on electricity— equivalent to P1 per 1 kilogram of CO2 emission—on the monthly electricity bills of residential or household consumers.

The measure said consumers will be exempted from paying this proposed climate tax if their monthly consumption does not exceed 60 kilowatt-hours (kWh) each or if the electricity they consume comes from renewable- energy (RE) sources. Villafuerte said the country needs this climate tax to ensure that Philippine communities most vulnerable to climate change are equipped to fend off its disastrous effects.

He said the bill’s purpose is twopronged: “It is a revenue-generating measure and, at the same time, a tool to help protect and preserve the environment.”

The lawmaker said Congress has more reason to act on HB 4939 now that the government has officially acceded to the Paris Agreement.

Villafuerte said the Philippines is now preparing to join other countries across the globe in celebrating Earth Day on April 22, which was made more significant this year with the timely signing by President Duterte of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, as well as the Senate’s concurrence with this landmark accord.

Meanwhile, the proposed “climate” or carbon tax is the first of its kind in the Philippines, and is meant to help the country meet its commitment under the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the United Nations to undertake measures that would reduce GHG emissions by 70 percent.

He said the Philippines is “ground zero for climate disaster” and has been classified by the World Bank as one of the countries most vulnerable to natural disasters caused by climate change.

See “Climate tax,” A2

n japan 0.4532 n UK 62.0577 n HK 6.3917 n CHINA 7.2087 n singapore 35.3951 n australia 37.2326 n EU 52.6651 n SAUDI arabia 13.2457

Source: BSP (12 April 2017 )

BMReports BusinessMirror

A2 Monday, April 17, 2017

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Power struggle: Solar, wind challenge coal as more affordable energy source Continued from A1

Among the renewables, climate and environmental advocates are betting on solar and wind over coal in competing for huge investments pouring the power sector’s way.

Citing the “Boom and Bust 2017—Tracking the Global Coal Plant Pipeline” report, Greenpeace Philippines Climate and Energy Campaigner Reuben Muni said it is just a matter of time when investment starts shifting to the more economically viable clean, RE options, dropping coal in the process.

Muni said ditching coal will eventually reverse the trend in favor of solar, wind or other RE sources.

Laying blame

WHILE admittedly one of the cheapest and reliable source of energy today, coal is being blamed by climate and environmental advocates for causing not only air, soil and water pollution that u n d e r m i n e s hu m a n h e a l t h and environment but for being the biggest contributor to global GHG emissions that trigger climatechange disasters.

The Philippines is not oblivious to climate change-triggered disasters. In 2013 the strongest typhoon ever to make landfall in history devastated Central Philippines, leaving a trail of death and destruction. Climate-change effects, such as longer wet season and longer dry seasons, also cause enormous damage to food production areas that undermine the country’s food-production ca-

Inflation. . .

Continued from A1

That would make the June meeting more of a toss-up for a rate increase. As of Thursday, federal funds futures showed about a 57-percent chance that policy-makers would raise their target rate for overnight bank lending. Financial markets in the US were closed for Good Friday and the Easter holiday.

pacity, including fisheries.

While the Philippines is not one of the so-called big polluters, climate and environmental advocates said the Philippines should step back and cease from following the development track of developed countries only to make the turn-around later on.

Instead, they said the Philippines can take a more sustainable development path by shifting from its use of dirty coal to more environment-friendly sources of energy, such as solar, wind, geothermal, possibly, ocean current, biomass or biogas—without compromising the integrity of its already fragile environment.

He explained the equivalent figure could even be higher because coal’s volatility causes price to go up.

Market forces

INVESTMENT in coal in the Philippines, as well as other energy sources, can only be estimated based on power-generating capacity power plants.

For coal investment, the rough estimate can be based on those being constructed and those that are already existing, according to Muni. The country’s current installed power-generation capacity is 18,765 megawatts (MW). With a 45-percent share, coal investment in the Philippines is pegged at $8.54 billion.

This is a conservative estimate, as the Department of Energy figure accounts only for the powergenerating capacity that goes to the main power grid.

“A lot of these things are on a specific timeline,” Muni said. “One MW of coal is equivalent to $1 million three years ago. But today, this may no longer be true.”

MUNI said coal is like other goods that are subject to market forces at work—economic, politics—like oil and gas, coal price also change.

“In the past, during the [Fidel V.] Ramos and Cory [Aquino] administration, our power was based on three big sources— hydro, geothermal and oil diesel,” he said. In 2015 around 45 percent of the country’s energy supply comes from coal, 23 percent of the country’s energy supply comes from natural gas, 13 percent from geothermal, 11 percent from hydro and 7 percent from coal.

At some point, oil became the biggest source of energy in the mid-1990s because of the Persian Gulf War and Middle East Crisis—when price of oil was very volatile.

“During the last year of the Cor y administration and the start of the Ramos administration, we only have the Calaca power plant—the first- ever coal plant in the Philippines,” Muni explained. “Then came Pagbilao, Masinloc and Sual. The entry of coal as a power source started to boom.”

At that time, coal was the cheapest and most accessible source of energy, with the Philippines having the Semirara coal mine, and neighboring countries, such as Indonesia, China and Australia, possibly supplying the

Retail sales were down 0.2 percent last month, after a 0.3-percent drop in February that had previously been reported as a gain, Commerce Department data showed. Six of 13 major retail categories registered lower March receipts. At auto dealers, purchases fell 1.2 percent, after a 1.5-percent slide a month earlier.

Low prices may have also played a role in restraining total sales as the retail figures aren’t adjusted to account for changes in inflation.

To be sure, two more months of economic data will be available before the Fed’s June 13 and 14 meeting. Spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, has room to pick up on the heels of steady hiring, healthier household balance sheets and more optimistic consumers. Income-tax refunds, which had been delayed earlier this year, may also provide a spark in the months ahead.

“The retail sales data are not

Huge investment

Philippines with adequate coal.

Coal dependence

THE Philippines is currently heavily dependent on coal.

According to the DOE, coal has the highest contribution to the country’s current power-generation mix pegged at 44.5 percent as of 2015.

The local demand for coal is not limited to power generation.

In 2015 the cement industry utilized 15.22 percent of the country’s coal supply while 5 percent went to other industries, such as alcohol, sinter, rubber boots, paper and chemical manufacturing, fertilizer production and smelting processes, according to the DOE. This factor makes coal as having the biggest share in terms of investment in the country’s energy sector.

Industries, Muni said, are into coal use for economic reasons, which means the country’s dependence on coal could be worse. The DOE, he said, only counts those that feed the power grid.

Even oil companies, such as the Petron Oil Refinery in Limay, Bataan, he said has a coal plant with 140-MW capacity.

While it powers its oil-refinery facility, Petron is also providing the power grid with the excess power it produces from its own coal-fired power plant, he said.

Coal rise

THE country’ dependence on coal became more pronounced in the last 15 years. According to the DOE, since 2002, from a historical yearly average of 1.5 million metric ton adjusted for price changes which, as we have often noted, causes considerable misinterpretation of the underlying health of consumers,” Richard Moody, chief economist at Regions Financial Corp., said in a note after the report. “Ongoing improvement in labor-market conditions, rising household net worth and notably higher consumer confidence leave us with a much more constructive view of US consumers than does the first quarter retail-

(MMT), local coal production grew tremendously.

Muni said the country started to shift from oil—then the dominant source of energy—to coal during the Cory and Ramos administration. The shift, he said, was because of economic reasons.

“During the Persian Gulf war, oil became very volatile,” he explained.

“With the Philippines having its own coal resources, investment in power shifted to coal.”

But the Philippines, he said, only has low-grade coal, which means it has to import coal.

Around 70 percent of the country’s coal requirement are imported. Of that, around 90 percent comes from Indonesia, with the remaining 10 percent coming from Australia and China, making Philippines heavily dependent on Indonesia’s coal industry.

In the last 13 years, local production of coal grew almost four folds, with production peaking up to 8.17 MMT in 2015, according to the DOE. Muni said it was during this period that the country saw more coal-fired power-plant projects being approved and constructed to meet the increasing demand for energy.

The shift to coal as a source of energy was attributed to the highly volatile price of oil in the world market and the failure of the DOE to promote RE sources to investors in the power sector.

At that time, Muni admits that RE is not yet economically feasible and the technology not so much available in the Philippines.

Climate tax. . .

Continued from A1

“Abrupt climate change is not only imminent; it is here. It is consequently necessary to make a significant contribution to the global effort to stabilize GHG concentrations in the atmosphere,” he added.

He said the country must “adopt aggressive measures” to address the crisis in GHG emissions, of which CO2 is one of the most dangerous.

Villafuerte said CO2 emissions from electricity and heat production have doubled in the Philippines from 25.83 percent of total fuel combustion in 1972 to 49.74 percent in 2013.

Under HB 4739, collections from the proposed climate tax shall be used exclusively for programs that: assist communities in adapting to climate change and managing/reducing disaster risks; improve the resiliency of critical infrastructure; protect environmental quality and wildlife; meet international commitments made by the Philippines to assist with climate-change adaptation and disaster risk reduction and management; and other programs and/or commitments related to the foregoing purposes and necessary to attain the objectives of this act.

Villafuerte said a swift congressional approval of HB 4739 will send a loud and clear signal to the global community of the country’s strong commitment to international climate policy and the Congress’s affirmation of the people’s right to a balanced and healthy ecology, as well as the State’s paramount duty to safeguard such right for the present and future generations. He recalled that the Philippines and other countries most vulnerable to climate change have sought $100 billion in additional funding from global financial institutions to help protect themselves from the destructive effects of global warming, such as droughts, rising sea levels, devastating storms and other extreme weather events.

Budget. . .

Continued from A1

To be continued

sales data.”

The decline in the consumer price index (CPI) was the first in 13 months and was also broad, reflecting cheaper goods, such as motor vehicles and gasoline, as well as a drop in the costs of services, including mobile-phone communications.

The core CPI, which excludes energy and food, fell 0.1 percent.

Services prices also declined 0.1 percent, the most since 2010.

Overall housing costs rose just 0.1 percent, the smallest advance in a year. The cost of lodging away from home dropped 2.4 percent, the most since October 2013, while the prices of mobile-phone service slumped a record 7 percent. Combined with a 0.7-percent slide in the cost of goods, the most in 13 months, the results underscore the broad decline.

Bloomberg News

Hog raisers. . .

Continued from A16

Data from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) showed that per-capita consumption of pork in the Philippines in 2017 would reach 14.2 kg, slightly lower than the 14.26 kg recorded last year.

However, OECD data also showed that the country’s pork meat requirement this year will reach 1.889 million metric tons (MMT), slightly higher than the 1.87 MMT recorded last year.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the country’s sow inventory as of July 1, 2016, reached 1.68 million heads, 2.58 percent higher than the 2015 record of 1.64 million heads.

The bulk of the country’s sow inventory, or 64.23 percent, were in backyard farms. Commercial farms accounted for the rest of the sow inventory in July 2016.

Last year hog production reached 2.23 MMT, 5.23 percent higher than the 2.12 MMT produced in 2015. The total hog produced last year was valued at P116.292 billion.

“Tier 2 submissions will include proposals to realign resources between program/activity/projects, and proposals for scaling up of activities in terms of policy change not previously approved, such as scope, beneficiaries, design or implementation schedule,” it added.

The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) recently revived the TRIP, which is a modified version of the Comprehensive and Integrated Infrastructure Program (CIIP), the consolidated list of all infrastructure programs of the government.

Initially, the Neda estimated that the TRIP will cost the government some P7.89 trillion between 2018 and 2020. Data obtained by the BusinessMirror from the Neda showed that the projects included in the TRIP will cover 5,215 projects costing less than a billion pesos to over P2.5 billion each.

The bulk, or 4,889 projects, cost less than a P1 billion and would cost P311.02 billion, or 3.94 percent of the total amount. Projects costing P1 billion to P2.5 billion covering 149 projects worth P226.8 billion accounts for 2.87 percent.

While there were 177 projects worth more than P2.5 billion, these cost P7.35 trillion, or 93.18 percent of the entire TRIP. In 2018 alone the Neda data showed some 2,822 projects will be financed under the TRIP. These will amount to P1.097 trillion, which would be in line with the government’s target annual spending for infrastructure projects.

The Duterte administration is aiming to spend a total of P8.2 trillion between 2017 and 2022 to usher in what Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno terms as the “golden age of infrastructure” in the Philippines.

The projects for 2018 are divided according to Tier 1 and Tier 2.

Tier 1 projects are those that need to have continuous funding in the next three years while Tier 2 are “new” projects. The Neda said 348 Tier 1 projects would cost P805.64 billion, while Tier 2 projects would need a budget of P291.08 billion.

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The Nation BusinessMirror

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Monday, April 17, 2017 A3

SC rules in favor of Singaporean Alliance investors

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HE Supreme Court (SC) has given a green light into a complaint made by Singaporean investors against their Filipino counterparts in the Philippines, as the Tribunal introduced a new jurisprudence pertaining to cases that involve intracorporate dispute.

This, after it ruled in the case of A lliance International Inc. ( A l l i a n c e), a t u n a - c a n n i n g company, that is embroiled in a management conflict following the acquisition of Strong Oak Inc. of the company’s 430.286 million shares, worth P563.675 million.

The sale has resulted in the dilution of the stake of the company’s Singaporeans shareholders to 14 percent, from 34 percent.

The SC’s First Division has particularly decided on the consolidated petition filed by Alliance, led by its president, Jonathan Dee, and that of its minority shareholders, led by Harvest All Investment Ltd. (Harvest All).

In its 12-page decision written

by Associate Justice Estela PerlasBernabe, the SC’s First Division denied the petition of Alliance and partly granted the plea of Harvest All, as it ruled that an intracorporate controversy may involve a subject matter that is

either capable or incapable of monetary estimation.

The case stemmed from Alliance’s board resolution, dated May 29, 2015, providing for an indefinite postponement for the conduct of its annual stockholders’ meeting (ASM) pending complete subscription to its stock rights offering (SRO) consisting of shares with a total value of P1 billion.

Alliance’s bylaws state that its ASM should be held every June 15.

Harvest All, in opposing the postponement of the ASM, filed a complaint before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Pasig City involving intracorporate controversy against Alliance. It argued that the subscription to the new shares, through SRO, cannot be made a condition to the exercise of the current stockholders of their right to vote in the 2015 ASM. Hence, they sought the nullification of the May 29, 2015, board resolution.

The clerk of court of the RTC in Pasig City assessed Harvest All with filing fees amounting to P8,860, which it paid accordingly.

However, the Branch 159 of the RTC in Pasig dismissed the complaint of Harvest All, as it ruled in favor with the Alliance’s argument that Harvest All failed to pay correct filing fees. Alliance believed the Court has no jurisdiction over the case, because Har vest A ll should have paid P20 million as docket fee, based on the worth of SRO, which is valued at P1 billion.

Harvest All brought the case before the Court of Appeals (CA), which ordered the reinstatement of the case. It directed the RTC in Pasig to conduct proceedings, but only after the proper legal fees were paid. The appellate court agreed with the RTC that the basis for the docket fees should be P1 billion.

Both the RTC in Pasig and the CA, in deciding the case, relied on the pronouncement made by the SC in the case of Lu v. Lu Ym, which denotes that “an intracorporate controversy always involves a property in litigation, the value of which is always the basis for computing the applicable filing fees.”

However, the SC, in its latest ruling, clarified that said pronouncement is just an obiter dictum, or a mere opinion, and does not bind the courts in deciding similar cases. “...depending on the nature of the principal, an intracorporate controversy may

involve a subject matter that is either capable or incapable of pecuniary estimation,” the SC said in its ruling in the case of Alliance and Harvest All. It f u r t h e r d e c l a r e d t h a t the present case is “a precise illustration as to how an intracorporate controversy may be classified as an action whose subject matter is incapable of pecuniary estimation.”

The High Court pointed out the case does not involve recovery of sum of money, because the main purpose of the complaint of Harvest All is to have Alliance hold its 2015 ASM on the date set in the corporation’s bylaws, so that its voting interest with the corporation would somehow be preserved.

The ruling also mentioned the amendment made by the Court to the schedule of legal fees to be collected in various commercial cases, which it has passed on October 5, 2016. Said amendment states that applicable legal fees shall depend on the nature of the action.

In lieu with this, the Court directed that Harvest All should be made to pay legal fees in accordance with the new schedule of legal fees.

It also directed the RTC in Pasig to conduct regular proceedings of the case, after it has determined whether the payment of Harvest All of P8,860 in filing fees is a sufficient compliance with the amended schedule of legal fees.

Joel R. San Juan

Duterte renews vow to fight corruption, abuses in govt

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OH A, Qatar—President Duterte renewed on Sunday, April 16, his commitment to fight corruption, criminality and illegal drugs when he met overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) here in Qatar.

The President, who won overwhelmingly among OFWs, run on a platform of eliminating abuses in government, illegal drugs and criminality.

“Ang sabi ko noong kampanya, I will give you a respite, makapaghinga lang naman tayo ng six years, wawalain ko ang corruption and I am starting it,” he told OFWs gathered at Lusail Sports Arena here in Doha, Qatar.

In fact, he said he fired some members of his government who were involved in corruption.

And to protect OFWs who are returning home, especially during holidays, the President said he prohibited the opening of suitcases and balikbayan boxes at the airports.

He also encouraged Filipinos to be assertive of their rights whenever they encounter abusive and corrupt officials.

At the same time, Duterte said he will go after large companies that do not pay correct taxes.

Some of them, he said, tried to contribute to his campaign when he was running for president but he turned them down.

The President also reported about the developments at home, telling OFWs that the economy is doing well.

There is better trade relations with China and that Philippine products can now enter that country without much restrictions.

China has also offered to build major infrastructures in the Philippines following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Japan, another Asian economic giant, also pledged to help the Philippines, he said.

Duterte has been in a threecountry tour in the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar.

His trip is aimed at advancing the welfare of OFWs and enhancing trade, as well as cultural relations with those countries. PNA

Economy

A4 Monday, April 17, 2017 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

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PIDS study warns against revival of ‘Love Bus’

By Cai U. Ordinario @cuo_bm

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he Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) urged the government not to revive publicly owned bus lines, such as the “Love Bus”, to solve the problematic bus system in Metro Manila.

In a paper, PIDS President Gilberto M. Llanto and consultant Hope A. Gerochi also thumbed down the consolidation of privatebus operations to ease traffic on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue.

Instead, Llanto and Gerochi recommended the adoption of Bogota’s TransMilenio, which champions the competition for the market policy that is projected to help improve bus operations along Edsa.

“Consolidation under the current competition in the market framework where buses directly compete on the road offers limited gains because of the structure and organization of the bus market and the inability to address certain market failures,” the authors said.

“Given these limitations, shifting the competition framework from direct competition to ‘competition for the market’ via competitive tendering offers a viable alternative,” they added.

The competition for market is a

mechanism used to select the optimum number of formal bus transport operators that will serve the market. Under the system, the government controls certain aspects of bus services, such as design of the bus network, quality standards and frequency, among others.

The report from the state-run think tank noted that this will help “address the market failures that are inherent in liberalized urban bus markets.”

The PIDS researchers also said the government has the perfect means to adopt a competition for market scheme in its planned BusRapid-Transit (BRT) lines, including the one planned on Edsa.

“To be effective and to encourage the application of this new framework also to non-BRT corridors, complementary reforms have to be implemented in parallel and these would include improving the capacity of regulatory agencies, institutions [rules of the game], procurement, contract monitor-

FILE PHOTO

ing and traffic management,” the authors said.

However, if this new scheme will be adopted by the government, the authors said there is a need to amend the Public Service Act. Llanto and Gerochi said the antiquated law does not reflect the new development in transportation systems and regulatory frameworks.

The authors said they sup-

port the proposed amendments of the law that removes certain industries from the list of public utilities.

“If passed into law, the amendments to the Public Service Act will remove certain industries performing a public service from the list of public utilities, which in effect, will address the constitutional restriction on foreign equity participation in public utilities,”

Llanto and Gerochi said.

As far back as the 1970s, the government tried to solve the poor bus operation system in Metro Manila.

In 1974, by virtue of Presidential Decree 492, the government created the Metro Manila Transit Corp. (MMTC) to operate a publicly owned bus line later known as the “Love Bus”.

However, in the first four years

of its operation, the company accumulated a deficit of over P140 million. At that time was equivalent to acquiring 4,800 jeepneys with seating capacity of about 75,000 or double the seats provided by MMTC’s fleet.

The company also suffered from absenteeism and a sharp decline in the number of buses in operation between 1983 and 1987. The MMTC eventually stopped operations in the 1990s.

The study stated that, while the Japan International Cooperation Agency estimated that Metro Manila traffic costs P2.4 billion a day, the congestion costs on Edsa is also staggering.

The authors, citing another PIDS study published in 2015, said the annual social cost of congestion on Edsa is P5.5 billion.

This includes foregone wages of passengers who come to work late and high bus operating costs in plying the congested thoroughfare.

Despite this, around 12,595 buses operate within Metro Manila and from neighboring provinces to Metro Manila. Of the total number of franchised bus units in Metro Manila, some 3,711 operate the Manila-Edsa route, while 1, 632 franchised bus units ply the non-Edsa routes.

However, the 2015 PIDS study noted that bus occupancy rate within Edsa was as low as 52 percent. This means the buses plying Edsa run half-empty most of the time.

‘Law needed to fulfill Duterte vow Produce globally competitive Filipinos, to create department for OFWs’ policy experts say

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

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resident Duterte’s promise to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs)—a main source of the country’s foreign reserves— to create a new government department solely for OFW concerns needs a law passed by Congress.

To be fulfilled, the Senate and the House of Representatives must fast-track passage of an enabling law, the process of which—from filing the bill, referral for committee hearings, plenary deliberations and bicameral approval—is likely to take four months.

“Yes, a law is needed,” Senate

President Aquilino L. Pimentel III told the BusinessMirror on Sunday.

But even if the President were to certify it as urgent legislation, realistically, the earliest it could be passed would be August, according to Senate Majority Leader Vicente C. Sotto III, assuming the Palaceendorsed bill is filed right after Congress resumes regular sessions on May 2, when lawmakers reconvene from their Holy Week break.

“Malabo June, too soon. Perhaps August,” Sotto said in a text message at the weekend.

The submission of the OFW Department bill envisioned by Duterte is also likely to coincide with marathon public hearings and

overtime plenary deliberations to facilitate approval of next year’s proposed national budget, along with other pending pet bills being pushed for enactment by administration and opposition lawmakers.

Speaking before Filipinos in Bahrain, Duterte pledged to work for early passage of a law creating a department of OFW “within a few months”, even as he earlier admitted he has no hold on Congress.

“By the way, for overseas workers, in a few months you will have a department on OFW only,” the President said, confirming he had also instructed Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III to cut down processing of documents

for OFW deployment.

Duterte added: “Sinabi ko kay Bebot [Bello] ’yun…siguro i-reduce na namin ang inyong [processing] from six weeks to three weeks.

You can use the online service at kayo doon kung gusto maghanap ng trabaho, you just direct kung ano, at ilista na ninyo diyan at mamili kayo, then you apply online.

Ganyan lang.”

The President said he expects the new OFW department to help facilitate the process for recruiting OFWs. He added the move to shift online is also envisioned to reduce risks that OFWs will be victimized by illegal recruiters “because only legitimate jobs can be seen online”.

NGCP assures post-earthquake grid stability, extends assistance to gencos

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rid operator Nationa l Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) assured its customers of a stable Luzon grid as it extends assistance to power plants affected by the earthquakes on April 8.

NGCP will be providing support to First NatGas, which operates the San Gabriel CombinedCycle Power Plant (CCPP). The company reported damage to its equipment in San Lorenzo Units 50 and 60, San Gabriel Unit 70, Avion Switchyard, and Santa Rita Switchyard. Among the affected high-voltage components are circuit breakers, disconnect switches, and current and combined current/voltage transformers.

“NGCP will be looking to prov ide any on-hand equipment as needed by San Gabriel CCPP. NGCP is also ready to extend all forms of assistance to other generation companies in order to speed up the restoration, energization and eventual synchronization of their power plants back to the Luzon grid,” NGCP stated.

D ue to t he forced out age

FILE PHOTO

of earthquake-affected power plants, yellow and red alerts were raised by NGCP due to insufficient operating power.

“NGCP’s facilities within the vicinity of Batangas are all stable and ready to transmit power. The assistance to the generation companies will expedite the normalization of the power situation,”

NGCP confirmed.

A fter an extensive inspection in Batangas and nearby areas, NGCP declared its lines and facilities as cleared of damage and awaiting energization pending the return of affected power plants. The foot patrols and aerial inspections were conducted despite t he nu merous a f ter -

shocks experienced following the 5.6-magnitude and 6-magnitude earthquakes with an epicenter in Mabini, Batangas.

NGCP is a Filipino-led, privately owned company in charge of operating, maintaining and developing the country’s power grid, led by majority shareholders Henry Sy Jr. and Robert Coyiuto Jr.

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s we brace for this era’s Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIRe), the Philippines must rethink certain regulations on employment and modernize social-security systems to enable a generation of globally competitive talent, policy experts in a discussion said.

Dr. Vicente Paqueo and Dr. Aniceto Orbeta Jr., research fellows of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, stressed that this candid continuation of the first to third industrial revolution would be a combination of digital, physical and biological upheavals.

As the phenomenon cited will “fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to one another,” the Philippines, an emerging economy, is, likewise, at risk of its inescapable impact.

In their special study “Unlocking the Filipino People’s Potential in the Next Six Years and Beyond”, a series of researches commissioned by Philippinebased think tank Stratbase ADR Institute, Paqueo and Orbeta said policy-makers should prioritize revving up areas of employment, human development and social security.

This way, Manila will be able “to achieve rapid and inclusive economic growth that will drastically reduce poverty and allow disadvantaged people to enjoy the benefits of economic and technological progress.”

The experts said it’s now time to adapt with radical advances in science and technology, which are siding more on the innovation of efficient labor-saving technologies.

T he phe nome non me a n s workers will frequently move from one job to another, thus, the need to be highly trainable

the same way economies would also need to be more flexible.

Dindo Manhit, president of Stratbase ADRi commented that unlike its Asian neighbors, the Philippines has adopted a less competitive regulatory environment. In the past months labor unions and their political allies have clamored for an increase in the legal minimum wage (LMW), and that the same LMWs are applied to all regions.

“Huge increases in LMWs could make the employment of workers less attractive and labor-intensive enterprises less competitive,” Manhit explained.

Meanwhile, there are also demands to end all forms of contractualization. Ironically, Paqueo and Orbeta said, “This could have unintended consequences, including an increased unemploy ment rate, reduce transition rate from temporary to permanent employment, and reduced efficiency in the use of human resources.”

To dodge negative impacts, what needs to be reconsidered is the replacement of job tenure with income security concepts and wage subsidies. To sustain this, there must be a mechanism to effectively assist the poor and near-poor so they may survive difficult transitions and even thrive under FIRe. In perspective, Paqueo and Orbeta said both government and the citizens should “critically vet controversial policy ideas to avoid unintended consequences that are detrimental to the poor and vulnerable groups.” Through this and the emphasis of the three core issues, the experts appeased that we can survive globalization in the next six years and beyond.

The Regions BusinessMirror

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Policy row among President’s men leaves imported rice to rot in Cebu

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By Charles R. Pepito | Correspondent

ONTAINER vans with at least 1 million bags of imported rice have been left stacked at the Cebu International Port since early March 2017 because of an ongoing toplevel controversy within the Duterte administration over the country’s national riceimportation policy.

Seemingly left to rot at the Port of Cebu, the rice came mostly from Vietnam and formed part of an allocation of 10,000 metric tons (MT) obtained by Pilmico Foods Corp. under the 2016 Minimum Access Volume (MAV) of the National Food Authority (NFA).

Documents at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in Cebu showed only a shipment that arrived on February

21, 2017 containing 10,000 bags was released.

The processing of the shipment that left Hanoi, Vietnam, onboard MV SITC Fujian was finished on February 28, 2017. This is the importation deadline specified by import permit number MAV-20160433 signed by NFA Administrator Jason Laureano Aquino.

The shipment of rice arrived at

the Port of Cebu on board MV SITC Fujian on January 21, 2017. The National Plant Quarantine Services Division Station 16 in Cebu certified the consignees complied with the preinspection requirements on February 28, 2017.

The processing of subsequent shipments that arrived later could not meet the February 28 deadline when a policy disagreement on rice importations erupted at the national level.

The policy battle involved the clashing stands of the NFA Council (NFAC) that advocated importations using private traders while NFA Administrator Jason Aquino prefer red gover nment-togovernment transactions.

A former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) mutineer, Maj. Jason Aquino became familiar with rice importation procedures during his stint at the BOC during the time of Deputy Commissioner Jesse Dellosa, who was a retired AFP chief of staff. However, Aquino left the bureau when Dellosa linked him to the so-called “tara system” at the bureau.

Before his stint at the customs Tbureau, Aquino was named by former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano as an emissary sent by former Political Affairs Secretary Ronald Llamas.

Aquino refused to implement an NFAC order that extended importation to March 31, 2017. The extension could have prevented the situation of the Pilmico importations.

Based on the NFA March 31, 2017 report, the 2016 MAV rice importations brought in a total of 692,340 MT nationwide with 99 percent already covered by the payment of advance customs duty through the Land Bank of the Philippines.

NFA records showed 92.38 percent of the MAV allocation already arrived through various ports in the Philippines covered by 728 import permits signed by the NFA administrator. Some 92,209.35 MT had been arriving at the Cebu port from January to March 2017.

Apparently, the NFA empowered Aquino to approve the import permits up to March 31, 2017. But while Aquino signed the import permits, the processing of the shipments that arrived like the shipments consigned to Pilmico were stopped.

The row escalated to the dismissal of Malacañang Undersecretary Maia Halmen Valdez when President Duterte believed accusations of corruption against her. NFA records showed that only Aquino approved the import permits.

Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Monday, April 17, 2017 A5

Thousands join activities marking 75th anniversary of Bataan Death March

By Catherine Joy L. Maglalang Correspondent

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APAS, Tarlac—At least 3,000 participants joined the three-day event commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Bataan Death March, from kilometer zero in Mariveles, Bataan, to the national shrine here.

Dr. Mina T. Gabor, president of Automobile Association of the Philippines (AAP) Travel, said war veterans, their families and friends; sociocivic groups; government employees; military personnel such as the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Army, and Philippine Coast Guard; AAP members, volunteers, and others joined the march to immortalize the sacrifice of the freedom fighters.

Now collectively known as the Mariveles-San Fernando-Capas Freedom Trail, it is the biggest Death March commemorative activity, which seeks to promote freedom, world peace and international goodwill. The former tourism secretary said the march is the country’s national auto club’s way of promoting domestic tourism through motoring by visiting historic spots to help Filipinos learn from the lessons of the past.

Michael Quitorio, the assistant operations manager of the AAP, said the 160-kilometer running and biking events were both started from kilometer zero in Mariveles, Bataan, to the Capas National Shrine in this municipality, while the 10 kilometer-marching event started from the Death March Memorial Shrine to the Capas National Shrine.

The lightning of torch took place during the “freedom run,” the first event of the memorial, on April 9, the first day of

the Mariveles-San Fernando-Capas Freedom Trail 2017 program; “Padyak para sa Kagitingan”, also known as the “freedom ride,” started on the second day of the activity, both were the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO)-sanctioned events; and the final event, “freedom march,” took place on April 11, the third and last day of the activity. The passing of torch was led on Tuesday by former President Fidel V. Ramos, who attended the event as the guest of honor and speaker. He was joined by retired Lt. Gen. Ernesto Carolina, the administrator of PVAO; Capas Mayor Reynaldo Catacutan; and Cong. Leopoldo Bataoil of the Second District of Pangasinan, the chairman of the Committee on Veterans Affairs and Welfare.

Also present during the three-day activity were Tarlac Gov. Susan Yap-Sulit; Miguel Angelo Villa-Real, vice president for Corporate communications and Marketing Services Department of the Philippine Veterans Bank; Col. Ralph Liebhaber, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States ambassador to the Philippine Veteran Events; Mariveles Mayor Ace Jello Concepcion; and Brig. Gen. Restituto Aguilar, the chief of the Veterans Memorial and Historical Division of PVAO. Villa-Real said the torch came all the way from kilometer zero in Mariveles, Bataan, and was brought by runners, 160 kilometers, through Pilar, Germosa, San Fernando City, the old train station, and finally, Capas.

He said he is a grandson of a World War II-veteran, Capt. Andres Clemente, who became a Department of Education undersecretary, who was a teacher by profession, but was called into the war in 1941. He said the names of two of his great-grand uncles, whose names were confirmed written in the Wall of Heroes Memorial.

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Agriculture/Commodities

Monday, April 17, 2017 • Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

PHL sugar output to hit 2.25 MMT–report

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

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@jearcalas

hilippine sugar production for the current marketing year (MY) ending on November 30 could go up to 2.25 million metric tons (MMT), from 2.135 MMT recorded a year ago, according to a Global Agriculture Information Network (Gain) report.

The Gain report, which was published recently by the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in Manila, said the hike in output would be due to favorable weather and the slight expansion in sugarcane areas.

“Post forecasts MY 2016/2017 raw sugar output to reach 2.25 MMT as experts foresee a return to traditional production levels with a return to more normal weather conditions after a period of prolonged drought,” the report read.

Citing data from the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), the report noted sugarcane production area in crop year (CY) 2016-2017 increased to 419,000 hectares from 412,000 hectares

File photo

in the previous CY. This is expected to result in more cane production, which could reach 23.5 MMT, slightly higher than the 23.25 MMT milled in the previous crop year, according to the report.

The sugar-production forecast of the FAS in Manila is based on the US MY for sugar, which starts on December 1. The CY for sugar, in the Philippines starts on September 1.

The FAS projection is consistent with the SRA’s production forecast for the current CY, which would end on August 31.

For MY 2017/2018, the report noted Philippine sugar production would increase slightly to 2.3 MMT. “Industr y contacts report increasing difficulty in

finding farm labor to harvest the cane, which may affect the actual amount of cane harvested.”

The report also noted that domestic consumption of cane sugar in MY 2016/2017 would increase to 2.2 MMT, or 2.8 percent higher than the recorded consumption volume of 2.14 MMT in previous market year, according to report.

“Consumption of cane sugar should rise to 2.2 MMT in MY 2016/2017, if anticipated restrictions on the importation of high fructose corn syrup [HFCS] are implemented, or if prices of domestic sugar drop to lower levels,” the report read.

“The Philippine Department of Agriculture and beverage manufacturers have agreed on a phasein period for the new HFCS guidelines for the release of imported HFCS in to the market,” it added.

Due to expansion of the food processing beverage manufacturing sector, demand for sugar and/or sugar substitutes is anticipated to increase. FAS projected Philippine sugar imports in MY 2016/2017 would settle at around 100,000 metric tons (MT), 56.5 percent lower than the 230,000 MT imported in MY 2015/2016.

“MY 2016/2017 sugar imports are expected to decrease significantly to about 100,000 MT due to increased production and an ample domestic supply of sugar due to slow withdrawal,” the report read.

NPA rebels burn P4-million Lawmaker pushes for passage of measure farm equipment in Davao creating water-resources management agency

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AVAO CITY—Communist insurgents have torched some P4 million worth of farm equipment at a pineapple plantation owned by Del Monte Philippines, less than a week after government negotiators and the National Democratic Front (NDF) agreed on an interim joint cease-fire agreement.

Police reports said the incident occurred at Barangay Gumalang in the Baguio District around 10:15 p.m. on April 9, or only four days after the government peace panel was able to secure a deal on an interim cease-fire with the NDF during the fourth round of their talks in The Netherlands.

The interim cease-fire, technically, has yet to take effect, given its guidelines and ground rules are still to be approved by the two sides.

According to the report by Police Senior Insp. Merlito Tubog of the Davao City Police, some 30 members of the New People’s Army (NPA), led by Rolando Sagcaan (a.k.a. Ka Lando) and Roberto Rosete (a.k.a.

Kumander Bobby), burned two tractor-type boom harvesters worth some P4 million at the Del Monte plantation and ran off with an Armscor shotgun worth P20,000 issued to the security guard on duty at the time of the attack.

“The government should rethink their peace efforts if it will work or just wage an all-out war, which apparently is the only language the NPAs understand,” a frustrated businessman said.

The incident at the Del Monte plantation is only the latest in the series of attacks perpetrated by the NPA on Mindanao’s pineapple and banana plantations.

Such attacks have intensified over the past few weeks even while backchannel talks to get the peace negotiations restarted were being held between the government panel and the NDF. President Duterte had called off the peace talks on February 4 after many government soldiers died in attacks perpetrated by the NPA, which continued to ignore a cease-fire that was then ongoing between the government and the communist group.

Agrarian-reform beneficiaries (ARBs) based in Mindanao have expressed alarm over the heightened series of attacks by NPA rebels on banana and pineapple plantations, saying these could jeopardize the country’s dollar earnings from its top fruit exports and place at risk its standing as one of the world’s biggest banana exporters.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show the Philippines produced 9.1 million metric tons (MMT) of bananas in 2015. The cavendish variety, a top export, accounts for half or 4.57 MMT of the total production.

Philippine fresh bananas are exported to South Korea, Iran, Hong Kong, Singapore, Russia, New Zealand, San Diego in the US, Japan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, China, Mongolia, Ukraine, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and niche markets in Europe.

NPA rebels have resorted to burning equipment and facilities in fruit plantations in Mindanao to force companies to pay them “revolutionary taxes”.

President Duterte had earlier hesitated in resuming talks with the communists, saying they should first stop with their extortion activities, release all captives and resist from claiming any territory.

Eduardo Maningo, a spokesman for the Mindanao ARBs, has called on the government to step up its efforts to protect farmworkers and agribusinesses vulnerable to NPA attacks.

“The safety of our families and our livelihood are threatened. If the government fails to address this problem, businesses can leave and we will lose our jobs,” Maningo said.

“Our industry is already hampered with problems. We have low productivity because of pests, diseases, drought and flooding but the insurgency is most alarming. We are scared for our lives,” he added.

Communist insurgents, Maningo said, have focused their attacks on Mindanao’s fruit farm businesses, to paralyze their operations by burning or destroying equipment if their owners refuse to pay “revolutionary taxes”. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz @joveemarie

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he chairman of the House Committee on Ecology is pushing for the passage of a measure creating the Department of Water Resources and Services.

PDP-Laban Rep. Estrellita B. Suansing of Nueva Ecija said she filed House Bill (HB) 4995 after the World Resources Institute warned that the Philippines is vulnerable to a “severe water shortage” because of rapid population growth and the effects of climate change.

“A study by the World Water Organization showed that water supply in the country is diminishing,” Suansing said.

The bill, pending before the House Committee on Government Reorganization, seeks to set the policy for the preservation of water resources in the country, regulate its supply, and devise ways for its safety, protection and preservation.

The measure also seeks to rationalize the management of water resources and sanitation through the creation of the Department of Water Resources and Services.

“It shall set the policy for the preservation of water resources in the country, regulate its supply to ensure optimal use and devise ways and means for the long-term safety, protection and preservation of the important natural resource,” the bill read.

Agritourism?

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hat is agritourism?

T he word “agritourism” is a mash-up of both “agriculture” and “tourism”.

Fundamentally, agritourism involves an agriculturally based operation or activity that draws visitors to a farm, ranch or any natural site, like pineapple plantations, orchid farms and bee farms, for outdoor recreational activities, education, shopping or even lodging.

Many people are now looking to escape the hustle and bustle of city life to get back to nature, resulting in agridestinations gaining popularity among tourists. Besides, amid various food scanda ls, many people have a growing interest in tasting naturally cultivated foodstuffs and finding out more about food production from farmers and processors.

Agritourism is relatively high on the agenda of the Department of Tourism (DOT). In the meantime, the DOT has accredited 14 additional agritourism destination, bringing the total number

Henry J. Schumacher of destinations to 28, since 2011.

To be honest, I was not convinced that tourists would be interested in spending time on a farm. But, sur prisingly, I have changed my mind.

I mentioned in one of my earlier columns that some three years ago, my friend Arnel Bacer from Camarines Norte and I bought 8,000 coffee trees from Nestlé, which were intercropped with coconut trees in the hilly area of the farm. I added there are now two fish ponds for tilapia, extended rice and vegetables areas, and a resort-type development.

In mid-April I spent one week on the farm and did things I was

The envisioned agency will ma nage sa nit at ion a nd sewerage services, as well as the construction, maintenance and mon itor i ng of water -re l ated infrastructure.

Under Suansing’s proposal, the agency will also manage, control and protect water resources for domestic purposes, sanitation, irrigation, hydropower, fisheries, aquaculture, flood control and recreation.

The lawmaker wants to transfer these agencies or corporate entities to the department: National Water Resources Board and Laguna Lake Development Authority, both currently under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; and Local

not expected to do. While watching the activities on the farm and inspecting the development of the coffee trees, I covered almost virgin grounds by hiking on the surrounding mountains, visiting waterfalls and caves and walking down rivers as there were no trails. After four to six hours of up and downhill trekking, it was nice to return to the farm, swim in the pool, grill some food and enjoy wine or beer.

I am now fully convinced that farming and tourism create synergies, where the natural beauty of the region, its cultural richness and vibrant communities can blend with farm activities, especially when a variety of farm products are grown, and the emphasis is on biointensive farming and biodiversity.

However, a few prerequisites need to be borne in mind when venturing into agritourism: n Farm-to-market roads are needed so tourists can get to the farms and appreciate the beauty of nature and immerse in farming activities (this needs

Water Utilities Administration, National Irrigation Administration and Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission, all currently under the Office of the President.

According to Suansing, the water shortage will be aggravated by the “fragmented and overlapping” functions of water agencies in the country.

“The lack of a holistic program for water-resources management creates a perennial problem that seriously affects the lives of our citizens in terms of health, sanitation, food security and livelihood, which are indispensable for social and economic development,” Suansing said.

The proposed agency will have an initial budget of P100 million.

to be discussed with the local government units or LGUs); n Tour guides are needed— without the group of young people guiding me, finding routes to take and walking around with bolos (knives) to cut the way through nature, I would not have made it; and a minimum of English is needed so tour guides and tourists can communicate; n Destruction of natural resources needs to be stopped —while trekking through the mountains, I saw trees being cut for charcoal production; I am talking about hard wood, and I am referring to substantial quantities of charcoal that are leaving the mountains on a daily basis; denudation of the mountains follows and leads to mudslides and landslides (this needs to be addressed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in cooperation with LGUs).

Jointly with the government, we will try to make the Bacer Farm one of the must-see agritourism destinations in the Philippines.

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, April 17, 2017 A7

Artist’s Perspective of The Stiles Enterprise Plaza Drop-Off

THE STILES ENTERPRISE PLAZA IS ALVEO LAND’S

EMERGING BUSINESS ADDRESS IN MAKATI

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ITH Circuit Makati becoming the new lifestyle entertainment hub of the financial capital, a fitting office tower would have to impress with the same modernity in function, design and construction. Alveo Land contributes to Ayala Land’s P125B citywide revitalization of Makati with The Stiles Enterprise Plaza, the first office condominium in Circuit Makati, one of Ayala Land’s most exciting flagship projects.

As a redevelopment of the old Sta. Ana Racetrack, Circuit Makati will be the cutting-edge lifestyle and entertainment district envisioned to serve as a catalyst for next wave urban renewal in the Philippines’ leading business and lifestyle capital.

Representing P39B of Ayala Land’s ambitious city redevelopment, Circuit Makati is set to be the future premier location for celebrating cultural and civic gatherings, world-class entertainment and events, and stylish retail experiences. It will bring together Ayala Land’s various product lines for commercial spaces, leasable offices, leisure accommodations, with its upscale residential addresses and saleable office products spearheaded by Alveo Land. All of this will be integrated within a 21-hectare property that will soon be characterized by a truly large-scale, mixed-use community that will allow live-workplay in equal measures.

The Stiles Enterprise Plaza is a two-tower, office for sale project located in the midst of exciting retail, entertainment, sports and creative experiences. At 29 storeys high for its West tower, this grade-A office introduces a new level in enlivened workspaces to match the vibrancy of its location. Retail establishments on the ground level will be linked to the upcoming Ayala Malls Circuit. Right above it will be the new Circuit Performing Arts Theater for

both local and international shows, performing acts and productions.

Circuit Lane, on the other hand, provides a retail riverwalk experience down to the Globe Circuit Events Grounds, which has been hosting international-sized outdoor concerts and festivals since its establishment in 2013. A hotel, multipurpose theater, and Alveo Land’s residential developments Solstice and Callisto will also be strategically located within the area.

Especially for the workforce of burgeoning enterprises, The Stiles Enterprise Plaza provides windows of opportunity that open to a world of new insights and inspiration. In fact, these businesses will find The Stiles’ open and less constricting environment ideal for encouraging innovative thinking. “The Stiles is characterized by fluid workspaces that match the needs of various organizations who thrive within convergent and collaborative work dynamics. Offering spatial freedom in a high-powered environment, The Stiles offers contemporary offices masterplanned to provide spaces for ownership, positioning possibilities for investment within reach and making it Makati City’s emerging business address,” says Jennylle S. Tupaz, President of Alveo Land.

The Stiles Enterprise Plaza’s West Tower features 283 office units ranging in size from 79 sq.m.

to 180 sq.m. A designer lobby welcomes visitors from the drop off point. Aside from retail shops, the ground floor will hold a Business Center with multi-purpose conference rooms, a board room and lounge. On the 10th floor will be retail units surrounding a landscaped outdoor amenity deck, while eight floors of parking will be available for occupants and guests.

As a LEED-certified building, The Stiles will also adhere to the environmental standards set out by the US Green Building Council. From water efficiency to waste management, from indoor air quality to the sustainability of materials used, LEED certification for an office like The Stiles ultimately results in a healthier environment and an overall energized workforce.

Foreign and local investors looking for prime office space ideal even for regional operations, will especially find this as an exceptional opportunity. Says Tupaz, “Makati is the business address synonymous to prestige and power. The Stiles Enterprise Plaza in Circuit Makati is a new and exciting workspace, so there is no better time to invest in an office of this scale, and of this quality.”

The Stiles Enterprise Plaza is located along Hippodromo Street corner Theater Drive in Circuit Makati, Brgy. Carmona, Makati City. The project will be turned over by the first quarter of 2020.

For more information, visit Alveo Land's showrooms located at the G/F Greenbelt 3, Ayala Center and along Riverfront Drive, Circuit Makati in Makati City.

Ayala Land is the Philippines’ leading developer of sustainable estates offering a diverse mix of properties such as residential, retail, office, hotels, and leisure developments, that support local economic growth and nation-building.

Alveo Land is a residential brand of Ayala Land, the Philippines’ leading developer of sustainable estates offering a diverse mix of quality residential and commercial developments that support local economic growth.

Artist’s Perspective of The Stiles Enterprise Plaza West Tower Building Facade

Artist’s Perspective of the Circuit Makati Main Entryway

Artist’s Perspective of The Stiles Enterprise Plaza Corner Unit

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The World BusinessMirror

Monday, April 17, 2017 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

www.businessmirror.com.ph

US urges China to open trade after sparing manipulator tag

IN this February 23, 2015, photo, container ships wait to be unloaded at the Port of Los Angeles. The US trade deficit declined sharply in February 2017, as imports from China fell by a record amount and American exports rose for a third straight month. The deficit fell to $43.6 billion in February, 9.6 percent below January’s deficit of $48.2 billion, the Commerce Department reported on March 4. AP/Nick Ut

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he US stopped short of branding China a currency manipulator, but urged the world’s secondlargest economy to let the yuan rise with market forces and embrace more trade.

Hacking group claims NSA infiltrated Mideast banking

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or the past few months, an elite hacking group calling itself the Shadow Brokers has sporadically leaked sensitive data from the National Security Agency (NSA).

Last Friday, just when its leaks had appeared to slow, the group released what appears to be its most damaging leak so far: a trove of highly classified hacking tools used to break into various Microsoft systems, along with what it said was evidence that the NSA had infiltrated the backbone of the Middle East’s banking infrastructure.

The timing of the leaks coincides with the United States’s recent shift in policy in Syria, which has escalated the conflict with the Syrian government’s main backer, Russia.

The Shadow Brokers wrote in broken English in an online post, which cited the US missile attack on a Syrian air base among other reasons for the leak, that after a hiatus, it had returned to leaking because it was upset that President Donald J. Trump was abandoning “the peoples who getting you elected”.

Among the leaks last Friday was an extensive list of PowerPoint and Excel

documents that, if authentic, indicate that the NSA has successfully infiltrated EastNets, a company based in Dubai that helps to manage transactions in the international bank messaging system called Swift.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) is used by about 11,000 banks to transfer money from one country to another.

The vast majority of those banks rely on Swift service bureaus, like EastNets, the largest bureau in the Middle East, to handle their transactions.

The latest leaks suggest that, by hacking EastNets, the NSA may have successfully hacked, or at minimum targeted, computers inside some of the biggest banks in the Middle East, including banks in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; Kuwait; Qatar; Syria; Yemen; and the Palestinian territories. Among the leaked documents was a now-patched NSA road map to hacking Swift’s back-end infrastructure—a road map that could be used by cybercriminals in the future.

New York Times News Service

No major trading partner is manipulating its currency for an unfair trade advantage, according to the first foreign-currency report released by the Treasury Department under President Donald J. Trump last Friday. It kept China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Germany and Switzerland on its foreign-exchange monitoring list.

“China currently has an extremely large and persistent bilateral trade surplus with the United States, which underscores the need for further opening of the Chinese economy to American goods and services,” as well as quicker reforms to boost household consumption, according to the Treasury report.

Trump declared on Wednesday that he’ll back away from a campaign promise to name China a currency manipulator, a move that would have created friction between the world’s largest economies as they try to boost trade cooperation and address North Korea’s nuclear threat.

Trump, in a Wall Street Journal interview, said China hasn’t manipulated the yuan for months, while accusing nations that he didn’t identify of devaluing their currencies and saying the dollar is getting too strong.

The report contains an implicit threat that unless China gives US exporters greater market access and further rebalances the economy, the US could act to rectify the trade imbalance, according to Eswar Prasad,

$347B

The volume of China’s goods-trade surplus with the US, the largest of major US trading partners last year former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division and author of Gaining Currency: The Rise of the Renminbi.

“While China now meets only one of the three criteria for currency manipulation listed in the report, the text makes clear that China’s large bilateral trade surplus with the US is by itself enough to warrant careful scrutiny of China’s trade and currency practices,” said Prasad, a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

The Treasury report said for a decade China engaged in one-way, largescale interventions to hold down the currency, and then only allowed it to strengthen gradually—a practice that imposed “significant and long-lasting hardship on American workers and companies.”

While China has been intervening to prevent a depreciation of the yuan, its selling of foreign-currency reserves

abated early this year, Treasury said.

Now, China needs to show that its lack of intervention in the currency markets “to resist appreciation” over the past three years is a “durable” policy by allowing the yuan to strengthen “once appreciation pressures resume”, the Treasury said.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t immediately respond to an email last Saturday seeking comment on the report.

Foreign reserves

Treasury avoiding the manipulator label reflects that China’s currentaccount surplus as a share of output is much reduced, and currency intervention now supports yuan strength, according to Bloomberg Intelligence economists Tom Orlik and Justin Jimenez. China has burned through almost $1 trillion of its foreign reserves, or about a quarter of the total stockpile, since mid-2014 to help support the currency.

“After much hoopla, and with a few extra bells and whistles, the Treasury’s position is completely unchanged,” Orlik and Jimenez wrote in a report.

“Treasury does have some choice words for China, accusing it of causing ‘long-lasting hardship’ to American workers. And there’s what looks like a change in the criteria, opening the possibility that China’s outsize trade surplus alone will be enough to keep it on the watch list.”

Like the last report by the Obama administration last October, China met only one of the three criteria— for having a large trade deficit—that’s used by the Treasury as a threshold for manipulation. China’s $347-billion goods-trade surplus with the US was the largest of major trading partners last year, according to the report.

Taiwan also met one condition, while the other four met two.

The Treasury said Germany has a “responsibility” to help balance global demand and trade flows. Europe’s biggest economy should use fiscal policy to encourage strong domestic demand, which would put “upward pressure” on the euro.

Switzerland “could increase reliance on policy rates in order to limit the need for foreign-exchange interventions, which should be made more transparent.”

In Asia, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea were urged to keep interventions to a minimum, and aspire to have flexible and transparent exchangerate policies.

“The United States cannot and will not bear the burden of an international trading system that unfairly disadvantages our exports and unfairly advantages the exports of our trading partners through artificially distorted exchange rates,” the report stated.

“Treasury is committed to aggressively and vigilantly monitoring and combating unfair currency practices.”

The department is required by law to report to Congress twice a year on whether America’s major trading partners are gaming their currencies.

The report is the government’s formal channel to impose the manipulator designation, leading to a year of negotiations for a solution and penalties if the practice continues.

The US hasn’t branded any country a manipulator since 1994. A senior Bank of Korea official said South Korean foreign-exchange authorities maintain their stance that the exchange rate is to be determined by the market as the report emphasized fair competition. The official asked not to be identified because the central bank hasn’t issued a statement the report.

A spokesman for Taiwan’s presidential office referred a request for comment to the central bank. An official at the monetary authority, who asked not to be identified, said last Saturday that the central bank is in continued contact with the US and has good communication channels with Washington.

The Treasury left the criteria for manipulation unchanged at having a trade surplus with the US above $20 billion; having a current-account surplus amounting to more than 3 percent of gross domestic product; repeated currency depreciating by buying foreign assets equivalent to 2 percent of output over the year.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has said that the issue of “currency misalignment”—which could also include unintentional devaluations— will be addressed in a study of trade abuses by nations that run large surpluses with the US, which is due to be ready in June. Bloomberg News

Trump’s policies and jibes suggest WH chief strategist Bannon’s star is fading

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resident Donald J. Trump’s message this week to his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, was hard to misunderstand: I’m president and you’re not.

Trump’s policy decisions this week sharply departed from Bannon’s nationalist, “America First” ideology, and the president’s cutting remarks to the press downplaying Bannon’s role in the White House led to questions about the adviser’s future in the administration.

Trump last Wednesday touted an expansion of North Atlantic Treaty Organization at a news conference where Bannon, a skeptic of the alliance, sat in the front row.

The same day, Trump told the Wall Street Journal he wouldn’t declare China a currency manipulator—breaking a major campaign promise—backed the US Export-Import Bank and continued low interest rates, and said he might keep

Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen in her job after her term expires next year.

Those moves, and Trump’s cruisemissile strike on Syria last week, appear to conflict with the populist ideals of his chief strategist. That they came a week after infighting spilled into public between Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a centrist whose influence with Trump is growing, intensified speculation in Washington that Bannon’s role may be diminished or that he may even be on his way out of the White House.

Blame on Bannon This article is based on interviews with 10 White House officials, Trump advisers and other Republican strategists, almost all of whom insisted on anonymity to speak candidly. Bannon didn’t respond to a request for comment.

For weeks, people close to Trump have

blamed Bannon for the chaos and distractions that have marred the administration’s early days, and have expressed concern about his influence over the administration’s agenda.

Aides and Trump himself reportedly bristled at magazine covers and late-night comedians who depicted Bannon as the president’s puppeteer.

At the same time, Gary Cohn, the president’s top economic adviser, along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross have sought greater influence and a reordering of priorities within the White House.

One lobbyist said Ross recently told him to disregard Bannon’s anti-trade rhetoric.

Kushner quarrel Still, Bannon’s place in the inner circle would likely have been secure had it not been for his dustup with Kushner.

Trump values family above all else, those close to him say, and Bannon’s fighting with Kushner could have created an irreconcilable d0.ivide.

One senior administration official said it’s widely understood that the last two standing in the White House at the end of the day will be Kushner and Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump—making any spat with either of them particularly treacherous.

Another senior White House official said Bannon and Kushner met last week to resolve their differences at the urging of Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

One longtime friend of Trump’s said he had never seen Trump criticize an employee publicly like he did Bannon this week.

Trump told the New York Post that “I’m my own strategist,” and said he had told Bannon and his adversaries, whom he didn’t name, “to straighten it out or I will.”

In the Journal interview, Trump described Bannon as “a guy who works for me.”

Bannon’s allies argue that there were sound reasons for Trump’s policy swings, but he has had an especially bad recent stretch, beginning with his removal from the principals committee of the National Security Council on April 4—the first official sign of Trump’s discontent.

In a rare move, Trump left Bannon and the rest of his senior staff behind in Washington on Thursday as he headed off for a long weekend with his family at his Palm Beach estate.

Inner circle Since August, Bannon has been an entrenched figure in Trump’s inner circle, wielding influence over every decision. A Harvard Business School-educated, exGoldman Sachs Group Inc. investment banker and ex-movie producer, Bannon

opposes the forces of globalization and envisions a new political order hinged on working-class populism.

He has influenced almost all executive orders Trump has signed so far, and has found purchase with the president on plans to vastly scale back the US regulatory regime and the government’s bureaucracy, said Tim Miller, a partner at Definers Public Affairs and a former Jeb Bush aide.

Trump’s energy is with the Bannon wing of his party, Miller said.

“Eventually he’s going to have to return to the policies and tactics that appeal to his core supporters. Dance with the one who brung ya,” Miller said.

While Trump’s policies may eventually shift back in line with Bannon’s world view, it’s unclear whether Bannon himself will still be advising him, said two people familiar with the president’s thinking.

Bloomberg News

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Monday, April 17, 2017

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Is US retail at a historic tipping point?

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EW YORK—Along the cobblestone streets of SoHo, Chanel handbags and Arc’teryx jackets are displayed in shops like museum pieces, harking back to the height of the neighborhood’s trendiness. But rents there are softening, and the number of vacant storefronts is rising.

Today some of the most soughtafter real estate by retailers is not in SoHo, but 5 miles away in Red Hook, a gritty Brooklyn enclave with a shipbuilding past.

E-commerce merchants are vying to lease part of a brick warehouse, spanning 11 acres, that would allow them to deliver goods the same day they’re ordered online.

The profound reordering of New York’s shopping scene reflects a broad restructuring in the US retail industry.

E-commerce players, led by industry giant Amazon, have made it so easy and fast for people to shop online that traditional retailers, shackled by fading real estate and a culture of selling in stores, are struggling to compete. This shift has been building gradually for years.

But economists, retail workers and real-estate investors say it appears that it has sped up in recent months.

Between 2010 and 2014, e-commerce grew by an average of $30 billion annually. Over the past three years, average annual growth has increased to $40 billion.

“That is the tipping point, right there,” said Barbara Denham, a senior economist at Reis, a real-estate data and analytics firm. “It’s like the Doppler effect. The change is coming at you so fast, it feels like it is accelerating.”

This transformation is hollowing out suburban shopping malls, bankrupting longtime brands and leading to staggering job losses.

About 89,000 workers in general merchandise stores have been laid off since October. That is more than all of the people employed in the US coal industry, which President Donald J. Trump championed during the campaign as a prime example of the workers who have been left behind in the economic recovery.

The job losses in retail could have unexpected social and political consequences, as huge numbers of low-wage retail employees become economically unhinged,

$30B

The amount of e-commerce growth annually between 2010 and 2014 just as manufacturing workers did in recent decades. About 1 out of every 10 Americans works in retail.

“There is a sea change happening in the retail industry,” said Mark Cohen, a former executive at Sears who runs the retail studies program at Columbia Business School.

“And that is bringing a sea change in employment.”

Store closures, meanwhile, are on pace this year to eclipse the number of stores that closed in the depths of the Great Recession of 2008. Back then Americans, mired in foreclosures and investment losses, pulled back from buying stuff.

The current torrent of closures comes as consumer confidence is strong and unemployment is low, suggesting that a permanent restructuring is underway, rather than a dip in the normal business cycle. In short, traditional retail may never recover.

The reordering should come as no surprise to anyone who has enjoyed the instant gratification of receiving that book or garden hose within 24 hours of ordering it. Or to anyone who has encountered the tired-looking mannequins and haggard sales associates at many department stores.

Modern-day retail is becoming unrecognizable from the glory era of the department store in the years after World War II. In that period, newly built highways shuttling people to and from the suburbs eventually gave rise to shopping malls— big, convenient, climate-controlled monuments to consumerism with lots of parking.

Workers hang a sign to advertise space outside a retail store in Trenton, New Jersey, on April 12. For all the attention and urgency that online shopping attracts, the vast majority of purchases are still made in person, in places like Kmart, before a checkout counter, purse or wallet in hand. John Taggart/The New York Times

Over time, malls grew to be the size of indoor cities. Minnesota’s Mall of America opened in 1992 with a footprint so large that it could fit nine Yankee Stadiums inside.

Now, many of these once celebrated malls are emptying out or being turned into trampoline parks and community colleges.

“The retail industry built too much space,” said Bruce Batkin, chief executive of Terra Capital Partners, a commercial real-estate lender.

Last week Batkin got a call from a landlord looking to refinance his shopping center with a 10-year loan.

Batkin passed on the deal because it was too difficult to predict what might happen to occupancy in the property 10 years from now.

“Things are changing so fast in retail that a year needs to be measured in dog years,” he said.

Still, there are many investors who are not giving up on the notion that online retail and traditional stores can coexist and even thrive together.

Retailers have hoped that their traditional stores, by offering catchy displays and top-notice service, can lure shoppers from their

screens. Some of the best evidence that brick-and-mortar retail is still viable may be Amazon’s experimentation with operating physical stores of its own.

In reality, however, some workers say that they will often spend time helping out a customer on the shop floor, only to have that person leave the store and order a product online.

That often hits salespeople in the wallet: Many are paid on commission, but only on sales they complete in person in the store.

At Bloomingdale’s, employees who are members of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union are arguing that the company should improve how sales staff are compensated for helping facilitate e-commerce business—like helping customers pick up goods in the store that were ordered online.

“You want an in-store experience that will make customers want to come into the store,” the union president, Stuart Appelbaum, said.

“That requires highly motivated employees.”

A Bloomingdale’s spokeswoman said the company is negotiating with the union over a new contract

in “good faith” and was taking steps to invest in its work force.

The retail industry has always had its ups and downs. Workers frequently hop from one store to another, as styles and brands fall out of fashion.

But even to many experienced retail workers, who are used to losing their jobs based on the seasons, this downturn feels different.

Hilda Awuor, 27, lost her job at the Saks Fifth Avenue store in lower Manhattan last month. After bouncing between jobs in different clothing stores, she said she is done with retail and is trying to find a different career entirely.

“I really like helping customers create a new style,” said Awuor, who was paid $16 an hour. “But there is no job security anymore.”

Some economists say this is how the market is supposed to work. After the recession, retail hiring was a big driver of the recovery. But now that the economy is stronger, retail workers theoretically should be pushed out into potentially higher-paying jobs that offer more chances to create wealth.

“This is creative destruction at its best,” said Mark Zandi, chief

economist at Moody’s Analytics.

“We are downsizing a part of the economy that is uncompetitive.

While painful for those in the middle of it, this is how we grow and wealth is created.”

But Cohen, of Columbia University, said the upending of an entire industry would not be so tidy. Warehouses like the one in Red Hook typically employ a few hundred people, according to Sitex Group, a private equity firm that is expected to close on the property in a few weeks.

While these distribution centers could replace some of the work lost in stores, they likely won’t make up the entire difference. That is because many of the operations are automated and require different skills and sensibilities than selling jeans.

“There is a rolling crisis that has emerged in the last couple of years as store closings are being announced,” Cohen said. “People are losing their jobs and have no other place to go.

“Theoretically, this is the marketplace rationalizing itself, but in the interim how do people survive?”

New York Times News Service

‘Chicken in Chief’: Protesters around US demand release of Trump’s tax returns

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ALM BEACH, Florida—In a Tax Day groundswell of calls for President Donald J. Trump to release his tax returns, hundreds of protesters marched to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago getaway on Saturday in Florida, and thousands more gathered in Washington and other cities across the country.

On a waterfront patch facing Trump’s resort, where he is spending the weekend, demonstrators chanted “Pay! Your! Taxes!” and held signs calling him “Chicken in Chief”—the chicken being a symbol at the rallies of how Trump was “scared” to follow decades of presidential practice in releasing the returns.

“This is the closest we have come to making sure he sees us and hears us,” said Debbie Wehking, 66, a school principal from Miami. “He needs to show us his tax returns so that we can tell who’s influencing his decisions, who he owes money to, who he’s doing business with— really so we can figure out whether he needs to be impeached.”

Trump avoided the protest, taking

a more circuitous route in his motorcade as he returned from a morning outing to his golf club in West Palm Beach. But while the president was spared the sight of chanting, signwaving crowds, the demonstrations were heard around the country, in some cases snaking past properties bearing the Trump name.

In Washington several thousand people who had gathered at the foot of the Capitol—many holding replicas of chickens with golden pompadours—marched through the streets, passing the Trump International Hotel near the White House.

“70% want to see your taxes— that’s bigly!” one sign read. It was a reference to the lopsided majorities that polls show want the president to release his returns, as presidents have done for the past 40 years, though they are not required to.

Another said, “My taxes pay for your golf.”

The White House has said Trump cannot release his tax returns because he is under audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). But the

tax returns of presidents and vice presidents are automatically audited every year, a circumstance that has not prevented every other president since Richard M. Nixon from making public at least a portion of his tax records. Government transparency groups and Democrats have said that Trump has a particular duty to make the returns public, given the potential conflicts presented by his vast business holdings and his push to rewrite the tax code.

One government ethics group has sued the president, arguing that his hotel profits violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which prohibits federal officials from receiving “any present, emolument, office or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince or foreign state”.

“How can we determine his conflicts of interest or stop him from receiving payments from foreign governments if he won’t show us the names of the people and corporations that he is in active partnership with all over the world?” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, Democrat-Maryland, who

appeared at the Washington rally.

Kris Gillespie of New York, who traveled to Washington with his wife and two children to attend the march, said the family made the trip in part to help the couple’s 12-yearold son, James, cope with the stress he has felt since Trump’s election.

“We thought maybe if we bring him to something like this, it could help him process what he’s feeling,” said Gillespie, whose wife, Julie Underwood, traveled to Washington for the Women’s March the day after Trump was inaugurated. The tax rally had been billed as among the largest demonstrations since that march, though the crowds on Saturday were far smaller. Another protest, called the March for Science, will be held next weekend.

The tax protests unfolded a day after the White House announced that it would end the practice of releasing White House visitor logs, reversing a move toward greater transparency begun under President Barack Obama.

“Why does he want to hide his

taxes, that’s what I want to know,” said Martha Marquez, 53, a graduate-school professor who attended the Palm Beach march holding a sign that said “Show Me Yours and I’ll Show You Mine.” “He promised transparency; remember ‘Drain the swamp?’”

Wehking, the Miami principal, who traveled in January to Washington for the Women’s March, held a sign that read “We Care! Show Us Your Taxes!” It was a reference to remarks by Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, who said in January that Trump would not release his tax returns because the public was not concerned with them.

Jim Gnehm, 72, of Jupiter, Florida, said, “He works for us—he represents the country, and there’s just no excuse for him breaking the precedent that presidents have followed for the last 40 some-odd years.”

Intermingled among the protesters were a handful of ardent supporters of the president, who came with their own signs praising him and wishing him well.

“I think he’s doing a great job, and I couldn’t care less about his tax returns,” said Valeria Bianco, 59, a business consultant from Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida, who had a sign wishing the first family a happy Easter.

“People should stop worrying about what he’s hiding and focus on what he’s doing now to keep us safe, the brave and valiant message he sent to Assad, the jobs that he’s bringing back.”

In Berkeley, California, the police arrested at least 13 people at a proTrump “Free Speech” rally that devolved into violence as the president’s supporters and counterprotesters clashed. The rally had been organized by a group called the Liberty Revival Alliance, and drew support from the Oath Keepers, a far-right group of former and current military members, as well as biker groups.

Video of the protests, which circulated widely on social media, showed repeated skirmishes between Trump supporters and protesters.

New York Times News Service

A10 Monday, April 17, 2017

The World BusinessMirror

Over 100 killed in Syria’s coordinated evacuation

This frame grab from a video provided by the Thiqa News Agency shows a gunman passing by the buses that were damaged in a blast at the al-Rashideen area, a rebel-controlled district outside Aleppo city, Syria, on April. At least 100 people were killed in an explosion that hit near by buses carrying evacuees from two towns besieged by rebels nearby. Thiqa News via AP

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EIRUT—A stalled population transfer resumed on Saturday after a deadly explosion killed at least 100, including children, government supporters and opposition fighters, at an evacuation point— adding new urgency to the widely criticized operation.

The blast ripped through a bus depot in the al-Rashideen area, where thousands of government loyalists evacuated the day before they waited restlessly for hours, as opposition fighters guarded the area while negotiators bickered over the completion of the transfer deal. Only meters away, hundreds of evacuees from prorebel areas also loitered in a walled-off parking lot, guarded by government troops.

Footage from the scene showed bodies, including those of fighters, lying alongside buses, some of which were charred and others gutted from the blast. Personal belongings could be seen dangling out of the windows.

Fires raged from a number of vehicles as rescuers struggled to put them out.

The scenes were the last in the unyielding bloodshed Syrians are living through. Earlier this month, at least 89 people were killed in a chemical attack as children foaming at the mouth and adults gasping for last breath were also caught on camera.

The bloody mayhem that followed the Saturday attack only deepened the resentment of the transfer criticized as population engineering. It also reflected the chaos surrounding negotiations between the warring parties.

The United Nations did not oversee the transfer deal of the villages of Foua and Kfraya, besieged by the

rebels, and Madaya and Zabadani, encircled by the government.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but progovernment media and the opposition exchanged accusations, each pointing to foreign interference or conspiracies undermining the deal.

State TV al-Ikhbariya said the attack was the result of a car bomb carrying food aid to be delivered to the evacuees in the rebel-held area—ostensibly crisps for the children—and accused rebel groups of carrying it out. A TV broadcaster from the area said: “There can be no life with the terrorist groups.”

“I know nothing of my family. I can’t find them,” said a woman who appeared on al-Ikhbariya, weeping outside the state hospital in Aleppo where the wounded were transported.

Ahrar al-Sham, the rebel group that negotiated the deal, denounced the “cowardly” attack, saying a number of opposition fighters as well as government supporters were killed in the attack. The group said the attack only serves to deflect the attention from government “crimes”, and said it was ready to cooperate with an international probe to determine who did it.

Yasser Abdelatif, a media official for Ahrar al-Sham, said about 30 rebel gunmen were killed in the

5,000

The number of people in evacuation buses that were hit by the explosion blast. He accused the government or extremist rebel groups of orchestrating the attack to discredit the opposition.

The Syrian Civil Defense in Aleppo province, also known as the White Helmets, said their volunteers pulled at least 100 bodies from the site of the explosion.

White Helmets member Ibrahim Alhaj said the 100 fatalities documented by the rescuers included many children and women, as well as fighters.

Syrian state media said at least 39 were killed, including children.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 43, adding that it would likely rise because of the extensive damage.

A Facebook page belonging to the pro-government Foua and Kfraya villages said all those in three buses were killed or are still missing while a rebel official said at least 30 opposition fighters who were guarding the evacuees were killed in the blast.

According to Abdul Hakim Baghdadi, an interlocutor who helped the government negotiate the evacuations, 140 were killed in the attack.

He added it was not clear how many rebels were killed because they were evacuated to their areas.

Hours after the explosion, the transfer resumed—as dozens of buses, starting with the wounded, left to their respective destinations.

Before midnight on Saturday, 100 of some 120 buses from both sides had already arrived.

The explosion hit the al-Rashi-

deen area, a rebel-controlled district outside Aleppo city where evacuation buses carrying nearly 5,000 people from the northern rebel-besieged villages of Foua and Kfraya were stuck.

Residents from the two villages had been evacuated on Friday, along with more than 2,000 from Madaya, an opposition-held town outside of Damascus besieged by government forces. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack on Saturday in a statement from his spokesman Stephane Dujarric, and called on all parties “to ensure the safety and security of those waiting to be evacuated.”

“Those responsible for today’s attack must be brought to justice,” the statement added.

The coordinated evacuations delivered war-weary fighters and residents from two years of siege and hunger, but moved Syria closer to a division of its national population by loyalty and sect.

Madaya and Zabadani, once summer resorts to Damascus, have been shattered under the cruelty of a government siege. The two towns rebelled against Damascus’s authority in 2011 when demonstrations swept through the country demanding the end of President Bashar Assad’s rule.

Residents were reduced to hunting rodents and eating tree leaves.

Photos of children gaunt with hunger shocked the world and gave new urgency to UN relief operations in Syria. Foua and Kfraya, besieged by the rebels, lived under a steady hail of rockets and mortars. They were supplied with food and medical supplies through military airdrops.

Critics say the string of evacuations, which could see some 30,000 people moved across battle lines over the next 60 days, amounts to forced displacement along political and sectarian lines.

The explosion came as frustration was already mounting over the stalling evacuation process. AP

Pope denounces corruption, injustices that ‘crucify’ dignity

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ATICAN CITY—Pope Francis on Saturday denounced how migrants, the poor and marginalized see their “human dignity crucified” every day through injustice and corruption, and urged the faithful in an Easter Vigil message to keep hope alive for a better future.

Francis presided over the solemn latenight ceremony in Saint Peter’s Basilica at a time of heightened security fears following a spate of Islamic-inspired attacks and tensions over Europe’s migrant influx.

Security was particularly tight, part of the heavier-than-usual safety measures that have been deployed around the world for Holy Week activities, particularly

following the twin Palm Sunday attacks on Coptic churches in Egypt that killed at least 45 people.

Holding a single candle, Francis processed down the basilica’s center aisle, symbolizing the darkness that fell after Jesus crucifixion on Good Friday. When Francis reached the altar, the basilica’s floodlights turned on, symbolizing the light of Christ’s resurrection.

In his homily, Francis recalled the biblical scene of two women approaching Jesus tomb, and said their desolation over his death can be seen every day in the faces of women whose children have been victims of poverty, exploitation and injustice.

“We can also see the faces of those

who are greeted with contempt because they are immigrants, deprived of country, house and family,” he said.

Others are victims of paralyzed bureaucracies and corruption “that strips them of their rights and shatters their dreams”, the pope said, echoing two themes he has emphasized in his fouryear papacy: caring for migrants and denouncing corruption.

“In their grief, these two women reflect the faces of all those who, walking the streets of our cities, behold human dignity crucified.” But rather than remain resigned to such a fate, Francis urged the faithful to have hope, as symbolized by Christ’s resurrection.

He called for Catholics to “break down all the walls that keep us locked in our sterile pessimism, in our carefully constructed ivory towers that isolate us from life, in our compulsive need for security and in boundless ambition that can make us compromise the dignity of others.”

Saturday’s late-night service included the baptism of 11 people, including two children and one woman from China.

It came just hours after Francis presided over the evocative torch-lit Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum, where he repeatedly denounced the “shame” of the blood spilled by innocent children, women and migrants in the world’s conflicts, shipwrecks and other tragedies. AP

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N. Korea’s missile launch fails

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EOUL, South Korea—North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Sunday morning from near its submarine base in Sinpo on its east coast, but the launch was the latest in a series of failures just after liftoff, according to US and South Korean military officials.

The timing was a deep embarrassment for the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, because the missile appeared to have been launched to show off his daring as a fleet of US warships approached his country to deter provocations.

Cmdr. Dave Benham, a spokesman for the US Pacific Command, said the military had “detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean missile launch at 11:21 a.m.

Hawaii time April 15.”

The missile blew up almost immediately, and the type of missile involved was still being assessed, he said.

Over the past three years, a covert war over the missile program has broken out between North Korea and the US. As the North’s skills grew, then-President Barack Obama ordered a surge in strikes against the missile launches, The New York Times reported last month, including through electronic-warfare techniques.

It is unclear how successful the program has been, because it is almost impossible to tell whether any individual launch failed because of sabotage, faulty engineering or bad luck. But the North’s launch-failure rate has been extraordinarily high since Obama first accelerated the program.

In an unusually worded statement that left hanging the question of whether the US played a role in the latest launch’s failure, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said: “The President and his military team are aware of North Korea’s most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The President has no further comment.”

Vice President Mike Pence, en route to Seoul, South Korea, for the start of a 10-day trip through Asia, was briefed aboard Air Force Two on the failed missile launch.

Pence was in contact with President Donald J. Trump about the launch, aides to the vice president told reporters traveling with him as he flew over the Bering Sea. Pence was expected to arrive in Seoul at 3:30 p.m. local time.

Hours before the unsuccessful test, three types of intercontinental ballistic missiles rolled through Pyongyang, the North’s capital, in an annual parade as the country tried to demonstrate that its military reach was expanding at a time of heightened tensions with the US. During the parade, Kim watched from a platform surrounded by elderly military officers as long columns of goose-stepping soldiers marched through a large plaza, accompanied by tanks, missiles and rocket tubes.

Saturday was the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the country’s founder, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather and the man the younger Kim tries to emulate, in looks and action. Kim Il Sung’s birthday, called the Day of the Sun, is the North’s most important holiday and a key moment for scoring propaganda points.

The US, China and other regional powers had feared that North Korea might mark the occasion by conducting its sixth nuclear test or by launching an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The US sent a naval strike group to the coast of the Korean Peninsula in a show of force that has become a first, wary showdown between Kim and Trump.

But no seismic tremor emanated Saturday morning from the North’s nuclear test site, where recent satellite photographs have shown what appeared to be preparations for an underground detonation.

Instead, Kim seemed to have celebrated his grandfather’s birthday with a military parade meant to demonstrate his missile capabilities.

He is acutely aware that the threat that he could soon possess—a missile that could strike the continental US—is Washington’s biggest concern, and both the number and the variety of missiles he showed on Saturday seemed to be sending the message that a preemptive strike against his facilities would be fruitless.

To military analysts scrutinizing North Korea’s broadcast of the parade, the most noteworthy element seemed to be three types of long-range ballistic missiles, one of them apparently new.

While the North has repeatedly claimed that it can strike the US with a nuclear warhead, it has never flight-tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of crossing the Pacific.

In addition, some analysts doubt that the country has mastered the skills to build a warhead that can survive reentry from space, or one small enough to mount on a longrange missile.

They said the intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), that had been displayed in recent North Korean military parades might have been mock-ups of systems still under development.

In a New Year’s Day speech, however, Kim claimed his country was in the “final stage” of preparations for its first ICBM test. Trump responded with a Twitter message saying that the launching would never be permitted to happen.

One missile showed off on Saturday was the KN-08, which the North first displayed in a 2012 parade and is widely believed to have been its first attempt at an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Making their parade debut on launcher trucks with huge wheels were very large missiles encased in tubes or canisters. Analysts said the tubes appeared to have been designed for two other kinds of longrange ballistic missiles. There were multiple examples of each tube; it was impossible to see what was in them, but analysts said it was likely that they contained missiles that were either completed or under development.

Militaries use such canisters to “cold launch” missiles, ejecting them high into the air before their fuel ignites. If North Korea perfected that technology, it would help the nation better protect its mobile missiles from environmental damage while being driven around and from fiery exhaust during launch. The method can also make missiles harder to detect once fired.

“They’re not just showing off missiles that are hard to build,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a North Korea specialist at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, in California. “They’re showing off all the associated technologies you need for credible deployments.”

Kim Dong-yub, a missile expert at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul, said one kind of tube appeared to be for the KN-14, a modified version of the KN-08 that was first displayed in a parade in 2015, during which the North claimed that its missiles were tipped with nuclear warheads.

The other tube design was new to the analysts. “Given the size, it looks like it contains a new ballistic missile with a range of at least 6,000 kilometers, or 3,700 miles, making it potentially an intercontinental threat,” said Shin In-kyun, a military expert who runs the Korea Defense Network, a civic group specializing in military affairs. “Officials in the region will scramble to figure out whether this is a new solid-fuel, long-range ballistic missile the North was believed to be developing.”

Almost all of the North’s other ballistic missiles use liquid fuel, which can take hours to load from tanker trucks. Like bottle rockets or Roman candles, solid-fuel missiles carry their own combustible supplies, making them easier to transport and fire. New York Times News Service

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On Asia trip, Pence seen to fill details on NK policy tack

Myanmar warns of cyclone attack

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ANGON—The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology of Myanmar issued an orange alert last Saturday, warning that a small cyclone is forming in the south east of Bay of Bengal and likely to enter the country’s Rakhine state.

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A SHINGTON—President Donald J. Trump has called North Korea a “problem” country and said it will be dealt with through a broad set of options, though they’re vague for now.

It may be up to his vice president, Mike Pence, to fill in the details during a visit to Asia.

His travels to the region, including stops in South Korea and Japan beginning Sunday, come amid indications that North Korea is potentially preparing its sixth nuclear test in a decade or a significant missile launch, such as its first flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Hours before Pence left, North Korea showed off its ICBMs in a military display at the annual parade in the capital that celebrates the birthday of the North’s founding ruler, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un. Trump, who has proved to be unpredictable on foreign policy, has responded to the recent concerns over North Korea with a swagger that suggests a new, tougher stance.

Asked about North Korea this past week, he told reporters: “North Korea is a problem. The problem will be taken care of.”

He has repeatedly said that if China, North Korea’s dominant trading partner, isn’t willing to do more to squeeze the North, the US might take the matter into its own hands.

Trump has sent an aircraft carrier to the waters off the Korean Peninsula. US military officials have said the US doesn’t intend to use force in response to either a nuclear test or a missile launch by the North. Kim’s No. 2 official accused Trump of “creating a war situation” and said the North “will respond to an all-out war with an all-out war and a nuclear war with our style of a nuclear attack”.

After a two-month policy review, the Trump administration has settled on a policy toward the North that relies on “maximum pressure and engagement”, US officials said last Friday. The administration’s immediate emphasis, the officials said, will be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of Beijing.

The officials weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the results of the policy review and requested anonymity. Pence will try to explain the policy in meetings with leaders in South Korea and Japan at the start of a 10-day tour that will include stops in Indonesia and Australia.

Part of his mission will be to reassure allies in South Korea and Japan that the US will defend them against North Korean aggression without acting in a way that might tip the region into open conflict.

“The message, I think, is going to be about vigilance and deterrence,” said Victor Cha, the Korea chairman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He said Pence will try to balance reassurance with a willingness to respond if North Korea acts. “The United States wants to project a more muscular image when it comes to the policy so some unpredictability serves that cause.”

Kim has pointed to nuclear weapons as the foundation of his national defense strategy and has openly sought a nuclear weapon that could strike the continental United States.

Analysts have said commercial satellite images from recent weeks indicate increased activity around the nuclear test site in northern North Korea.

The US last week acted unilaterally in ordering a cruise missile strike on Syria and has sent what Trump called an “armada” to the waters off the Korean Peninsula. Thousands of US and South Korean troops, tanks and other weaponry were also deployed last month in their biggestever joint military exercises, which prompted North Korea to issue routine threats of attacks on its rival if they show signs of aggression. AP

Editor: Max V. de Leon • Monday, April 17, 2017 A11

Daw Ye Ye Nyein, director of the department, told Xinhua at noon that the small cyclone will be stronger within 24 hours and move to North-North East direction. It is located at the area about 240 miles west-southwest of the Coco Island, about 380 miles southwest of Pathein and about 435 miles southwest of Thandwe and about

In this April 7 photo, people eat noodles at a street-food shop during their lunch on Thonglor road in Bangkok, Thailand. Officials see street food as an illegal nuisance and have warned hawkers in Thonglor to clear out by April 17. AP

Crackdown in Bangkok dislodges Thai’s signature-noodles vendors

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ANGKOK—Efforts by authorities in military-ruled Thailand to impose order on the chaotic capital city have a fresh target: cheap and tasty pad thai.

The latest crackdown by Bangkok city officials is going after the vendors whose carts sell everything from Thailand’s signature noodles, to spicy tom yum goong soup, have become institutions on the capital’s hot and humid sidewalks. The stalls with their metal folding tables and rickety plastic stools serve as a gastronomic go-to for budget-conscious locals and adventurous tourists alike.

“Street food is a big part of daily life,” said Nont Nontiskul, 29, a stockbroker who has lived in the city’s trendy Thonglor area for more than a decade. “Even people who eat at pricy restaurants every day can’t avoid street food. It’s faster, tastes better and costs less than half the price.”

Officials see street food as an illegal nuisance and have warned hawkers in Thonglor to clear out by Monday. They’ve said the evictions soon will expand to other neighborhoods. Officials have been emboldened by the military junta that has ruled the country since a 2014 coup and has stressed the need to clean up Thai society, whether it is corrupt politicians or crowded footpaths.

That has led to sometimes hamfisted crackdowns on everything, from street markets to beach umbrellas to overpriced lottery tickets.

Observers say the poor, many of whom were supporters of the ousted government and its populist policies, have borne the brunt of many

of the junta-backed campaigns and that the clean sidewalk effort will hit the vendors and their working-class customers hardest.

Thai crackdowns on corruption, prostitution, pollution, road safety and what-have-you—even those by the junta—are notoriously ephemeral, but officials are talking tough.

Boontham Huiprasert, a Bangkok district chief tasked with clearing out the sidewalks under his jurisdiction, said street-food vendors are being evicted to fight traffic congestion and the accumulations of garbage.

About 90 Thonglor vendors and their carts will have to leave by Monday, after which the crackdowns will expand to neighboring streets, Boontham said. Violators could be fined up to 2,000 baht ($57).

“Just don’t sell on the sidewalks,” Boontham said. “People who sell stuff on the sidewalks, they don’t pay rent. There are so many out there now, so we have to organize society.”

In fact, the food sellers say they do pay rent in the form of small monthly under-the-table payments to city officials. It’s an open secret that Bangkok’s sprawling shadow economy is made possible by payoffs to powerful figures, often with ties to the police or the military.

Boontham said he was unaware of any payoffs and that it was not official practice.

Suchin Wannasutr has been selling khao kha moo—stewed pork leg—for 40 baht ($1.15) a plate on Thonglor’s sidewalks for more than 20 years. The 47-year-old said he

has been diligent about keeping up his monthly payoffs of 1,000 baht ($28.60), which is the same sum neighboring vendors say they have been charged. He is now preparing to open a real restaurant, about 1.5 kilometers (a mile) away from his sidewalk spot. He will share the rent of 35,000 baht ($1,000) a month with three fellow street vendors.

“I have to stay in the area because I have regular customers here,” Suchin said. “I’m doing whatever I can just to send my kid through school. Once she graduates, I will move out of Bangkok. It’s tough here.”

Critics say the government needs to do more to help vendors and to help preserve some the unique chaos that gives Bangkok its soul, which is rapidly being lost to government regulations and redevelopment for condos, shopping malls and office towers.

If the campaign against street food sticks, tourists will no longer stumble upon fried worms, grilled pork intestines or the legendarily smelly fruit durian. And it’s unlikely the hip bars and fancy restaurants will be handing out food in plastic bags sealed tight with a knotted rubber band.

“I feel like I am losing my job and I have no idea what to do next,” said 39-year-old Ubolwattana Mingkwan, who sells coffee for 30 baht (85 cents) a cup. “I can’t afford to pay Thonglor’s rent prices.”

“I’ve asked city officials for help and understanding,” she said. “All they say now is ‘No, no, no.’ They said they’ve already received their orders.” AP

450 miles southwest of Kyaukphyu.

Due to the storm, heavy rainfall is expected in some parts of Bago, Yangon and Ayeyawady regions.

Heavy rain with thunder is also expected in other regions and states.

The depression can create huge wave with surface wind of 40 miles per hour and heavy rain along the seacoast and offshore. PNA/Xinhua

DILG assures Asean summit events in Bohol on schedule

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HE Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) last Saturday assured the scheduled activities for the Asean summit in Bohol will push through as scheduled.

“Bohol might as well be considered a well-fortified and most secure place in the country right now,” Interior Officer in Charge Catalino Cuy said in a statement. Cuy gave the assurance despite the attack that killed three soldiers, a cop and at least six of the armed men in clashes that started last Tuesday.

He quoted Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto’s statement that the situation in Inabanga town was “contained and did not affect the rest of Bohol or the rest of the country”.

The firefight happened after alleged Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG)

members onboard three speedboats were spotted along a river in Sitio Ilaya, Barangay Napo in Inabanga town last Monday morning.

Three soldiers and a policeman died in a firefight while six alleged ASG members, including a Muammar Askali, alias Abu Rami, were also killed. Askali was suspected as one of the leaders of the ASG. The Asean activities in Bohol will take place at the Hennan Resort in Panglao on April 19 and 20.

Cuy said about 4,000 personnel from the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, emergency response units and various agencies will be deployed during the Asean summit meetings, which are expected to draw around 200 delegates. PNA

Indonesia sentences woman to 30 months on drug charge

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ALI, Indonesia—An Indonesian court sentenced a New Zealand woman on Thursday to two-and-a-half years in jail for possessing methamphetamine.

Myra Lynne Williams, 28, was arrested last August when customs and narcotics agency officers confiscated 0.43 grams of crystal methamphetamine upon her arrival at Bali’s airport from Melbourne.

A three-member panel of judges at the Denpasar District Court found Williams guilty of possessing and using a category one drug.

According the indictment, it was Williams’s erratic behavior by refusing to queue up and even babbling while waiting for her passport to be stamped that drew attention

from immigration officials, who contacted narcotics and customs officers. When the custom officers asked her to stand up from her seat, they found a plastic bag containing the methamphetamine.

Williams’ lawyer Poppy Eunike said they accepted the verdict. State prosecutors had been seeking a three-year sentence.

Indonesia has very strict drug laws and convicted traffickers are often executed by firing squad. More than 150 people are on death row, mostly for drug crimes and about a third of them are foreigners.

Eighteen people convicted of drug-related offenses have been executed under the current administration of President Joko Widodo. AP

Myanmar: UN probe of rights abuses unwanted

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ANGON, Myanmar—A top Myanmar official said last Tuesday a United Nations agency’s resolution to have an international mission probe alleged human-rights abuses by government security forces in troubled Rakhine state is unwanted and unconstructive.

National Security Adviser Thaung Tun said in a briefing to foreign diplomats and representatives of UN agencies that the UN Human Rights Council’s recent decision failed to recognize Myanmar’s efforts to deal with the situation and address its root causes.

Soldiers and police launched aggressive counterinsurgency operations in Rakhine last October after shadowy insurgents killed nine border guards. Government forces were accused of perpetrating rape, torture and other abuses against residents

of the Muslim Rohingya minority during their sweeps.

The Rohingya have faced widespread discrimination in Buddhistdominated Myanmar, which led to deadly intercommunal violence in 2012 that forced more than 100,000 Rohingya from their homes into squalid displacement camps, where many still remain.

Rights group said the recent army crackdown included the burning down of more than 1,000 homes, according to high-resolution satellite images, and the killing of an unknown number of civilians, perhaps in the hundreds.

More than 70,000 Rohingya villagers fled across the border to Bangladesh and another 20,000 were internally displaced.

The situation has led advocates for the Rohingya to accuse the government of ethnic cleansing.

Thaung Tun said the government has disassociated from the UN agency’s decision because it did not take into consideration Myanmar’s efforts “to stabilize the situation and address root causes”, adding that the country “needs help, not obstacles”.

“We look forward to the understanding and constructive support of the international community in our endeavor to build peace, justice and development for all in Rakhine,” he said.

Myanmar’s government has appointed several teams to look into Rakhine’s problems, but rights groups say they are not credible because their members are not independent.

Thaung Tun, however, said the government’s efforts were adequate.

“Where there is clear evidence of wrongdoing, we will take firm action in accordance with the law,” he said. AP

NEW YEAR Cambodian Buddhist followers burn incense sticks from candlelight during

Khmer New Year celebrations at Unaloam pagoda in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on April 15.

Cambodians gathered to celebrate their New Year celebrations, which are taking place through the weekend. AP

Green Monday BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, April 17, 2017

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

Road map gives sharks, rays conservation a boost Story & photos by Jonathan L. Mayuga

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@jonlmayuga

eople who crave for exotic food find sharks and rays as special treats. The meat of these rare fish species are discreetly sold in the market, unlike the ordinary fish caught in the ocean.

Dead rays about to be hauled off by fishermen in Jagna, Bohol, in March.

all issues on shark conservation by filling gaps and harmonizing existing policies.

The right legal framework and government support will ensure implementation of laws leading to the success of the conservation efforts on sharks. By 2020, the national government should recognize the importance of sharks as a valuable marine resource, whereby shark conservation is mainstreamed into the national agenda, and by 2030 government entities are equipped with scientific bases and local knowledge to make informed policies and programs that safeguard the conservation of sharks in the Philippines while upholding social equitability.

Juvenile hammerhead shark, a protected species, and blue spotted stingrays at the Dapa Market in Surigao del Norte on January 27.

Photos courtesy of Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines

Sharks and rays are feared because of their sheer size and appearance. This, however, does not stop fishers from targeting these species because of the demand for meat and, lately, body parts, which are believed to have high medicinal properties.

Cooked in v inegar, loca l ly called paksiw, the demand is especially high for baby sharks. Rays are especially cooked with coconut milk, or gata, and turned into kinunot or ginataang page.

Protected but targeted

U n l i k e i n ot he r c ou nt r i e s where population of sharks and rays are declining because of bycatch or accidental catching, these species have a huge market in the Philippines.

Even the so-called gentle giant—the whale shark, or locally called butanding—is sometimes targeted. “Here in the Philippines sharks and rays are targeted for their meat and body parts. In other countries, for example, sharks are targeted for their fins,” said Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Biodiversity Management Bureau (DENR-BMB).

Lim said sharks and rays meat are trad itiona l ly cooked and served as exotic dish, hence, making it doubly hard for concerned authorities to enforce the ban on catching specific shark and ray species covered by local and international laws.

Certain species of fish are covered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), of which the Philippines is a member. The Philippines is also a member of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), which covers sharks and rays, they being migratory marine wildlife.

Last October the Philippines will host the CMS meeting, which will give the country the opportunity to set the tone for the protection of sharks and rays.

In particular, the Philippines will push for the listing of butanding, under Appendix I of CITES, to ensure their complete protection.

Thresher, silky sharks and mobula rays

The Philippines was among the parties that voted to protect certain species of sharks and rays on October 4, 2016. The vote was 108-29 for thresher sharks, 111-30 for silky shark and 11020 for mobula rays, putting the

200

The estimated species of sharks and rays in the country, but only about 20 percent of them have legal protection under local and international laws

marine species in the Appendix II of CITES. Under the amended Philippine Fisheries Code of 2015, listing on CITES means automatic national protection. The ban on silky sharks took effect on January 2; the ban on mobula ray took effect on April 4, while that on thresher sharks will take effect on October 4.

AA Yaptinchay of the Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines, a nonprofit, nonstock organization that aims to support the conservation and protection of marine wildlife species and their habitats, said hunting of sharks and rays is relentless in some provinces. He said they are still being targeted, and their illegal trade appears to be on the rise.

Yaptinchay noted that in February, authorities caught a couple with 2 tons of manta rays about to be sold to a big-time buyer.

He also cited reports that for centuries, fishing sharks and rays has become a way of life in some communities, as source of “exotic” dishes.

“Lately, because of the demand for internal organs, the commercial value of sharks and rays went up, thus, making them targets of fishers,” Yaptinchay said.

The internal organs of these species are believed to cure certain ailments, besides allegedly being aphrodisiacs. Shark’s fin is a special delicacy, besides being a popular bar chow among Filipinos, which also boost for their demand.

There is a strong resistance in communities because of poor social preparation in the implementation of the ban on catching rays. This only shows that poor law enforcement, Yaptinchay said, remains a big problem in the Philippines.

He blamed the government, particularly the Bureau of Fisher ies a nd Aqu at ic Resou rces (BFAR) for failing to conduct information campaign about the

Changing the behavior Members of the Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources-Fisheries Law Enforcement Team recently inspect illegally caught black tip sharks fin and tiger sharks, an endangered species. Philippine Coast Guard photo

ban on catching sharks and rays.

Road map for sharks, rays conservation

T he Ma r i ne W i ld l i fe Watc h of the Philippines, along with Save Philippine Seas, Greenpeace Southeast Asia and other conservation advocates and environmental groups under Save Sharks Network Philippines, has crafted the 2020 Conservation Roadmap for Sharks and Rays in the Philippines.

Bringing an interdisciplinary, multistakeholder group together, the road map workshop held on February 21 and 22 in Cebu City is expected to play a significant role in strengthening the conservation of the Philippines’s shark species, and ensuring that the road map is supported by commitments and enforceable legislation.

There an estimated more than 200 species of sharks and rays in the country, making the Philippines one of the most important areas on the planet in shark and ray biodiversity.

Yaptinchay said only about 20 percent of the 200 species have legal protection under local and international laws.

Valuable role

Sharks and rays play a valuable role to the marine ecosystem.

Many shark species are apex predators that keep prey populations healthy. The presence of thresher sharks and whale sharks in the Philippines also draws thousands of local and international tourists, supporting local livelihoods, according to Yaptinchay.

“Sharks are important to the Philippines not only in providing sustenance but also the livelihoods they provide through tourism,”

said Anna Oposa, executive director of Save Philippine Seas.

“But there is risk that we could lose them if no management is put in place to conserve them,” she added.

Inadequate protection

Minimal regulations and policies are in place to ensure the sustainable use and management of sharks and rays. Their byproducts and derivatives are used for shark ’s fin soup, fishballs, beauty products and local delicacies, such as kinunot.

Shark ’s fins and ray gill plates are also exported to neighboring countries. “There are local ordinances that prohibit the catching, killing and selling of sharks, but we still lack a national strategy to protect them,” said Vince Cinches, oceans campaigner of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

“The 2020 Conservation Roadmap for Sharks and Rays will create a national strategy for the Philippines to ensure that we will thrive for every Filipino to enjoy in the future,” he said.

Not all sharks can be fished, as some species have very low productivity that they could not recover from any form of exploitation to their population.

“The trick is to be able to ensure that threatened species are protected, while those that can be utilized are done so sustainably,” he added.

Four pillars

The sharks and rays conservation road map calls for concerted efforts in the areas of research, community engagement, communication and governance— aptly described as the road map’s “ four pillars”.

Under the road map’s target, by 2020 scientific and knowledge-based policies should be developed, adopted and implemented at inter nationa l, national and local levels, and by 2030 scientific research and local knowledge should be the standards for pursuing and/or updating shark-conservation policies.

A most challenging task identified in the road map is mobilization and unifying stakeholders for a common goal.

It is targeted that by 2020, stakeholders that are dependent on shark fisheries have been identified, and mechanisms are established for their transition to sustainable fisheries or alternative livelihoods.

By 2030, stakeholders and local government units are expected to be proactive partners in ensuring that shark fisheries are at sustainable levels and, where necessary, the dependence on shark fisheries is minimized through equitable alternative economic opportunities.

Recog ni zing t hat init iat ive s to i nc re a s e aw a re ne s s have been limited to a small percentage of social-media users, the road map hopes that by 2020, all stakeholders can make informed decisions visà-vis sustainable use of sharks and mitigation of threats.

By 2030, shark conser vation should be mainstreamed at all stakeholder levels, such that it becomes integral to stakeholder agenda, such as awareness and conser vation values being i ncor porated i nto educ at ion systems, and biodiversity conservation in local development.

Yaptinchay said the government should take the lead to address

According to Cinches, breaking the habit is not easy. T here are communities that are heavily dependent on fishing sharks and rays, like in the tow n of Jag na, Bohol, and some tow ns in the Bicol reg ion.

But these should be addressed by all stakeholders by following a blueprint or road map on sharks and rays conservation.

“There is really a need to change our behavior toward sharks,” he said, including eating sharks, or using their byproducts, such as medicine and food supplement.

The objective of the road map for sharks and rays conservation is to conserve the species outside those already protected or covered by local and international laws, Cinches said.

He said there are local initiatives that adopted a model for sharks and rays conservation, such as Cebu, which can be replicated. All sharks and rays, whether covered by local or international laws—or not at all—are protected by local legislation.

According to Cinches, sharks are different from other marine species. Because of biological constraint, they can be easily driven to extinction.

“Sexual maturity of sharks takes a long time. Mating and reproduction also take time, making their reproductive capacity very limited. They easily succumb to external pressures, making them highly vulnerable,” he said.

Their population is hard or difficult to recover. “Under the road map, we identified shark species, about 200, including those to be identified in the future, which should be covered by protection and conservation measures,” he said.

“We are conserving sharks, basically to maintain their ecological function and for the people to sustainably benefit from sharks and rays for the long haul,” he said.

Biodiversity Monday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Monday, April 17, 2017 A13

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

Projects on preserving ecosystems’ integrity kick off formally

By Eirene C. Zaragoza

DOST-PCAARRD S&T Media Service

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wo projects on the protection of the integrity of the ecosystem funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOSTPCAARRD) kicked off recently.

Implemented under the Emerging Interdisciplinary Research (EIDR) Program, the projects aim to develop a detailed map of Mount Makiling Forest Reserve and provide recommendations for the sustainable management of Laguna de Bay. The first project—titled Forest Canopy Observation, Positioning and lnvestigation (Forest Canopi) Program: Developing Forest Canopy Science in the Philippines— aims to focus on detailed mapping and characterization; develop a forest canopy network; explore the flora and fauna of the forest canopy; and investigate the monerans and fungi at Mount Makiling Forest Reserve.

A forest canopy-observation network to be built under the project will result in the first scientific exploration of forest canopy in the Philippines. Dr. Nathaniel

C. Bantayan of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) leads the project.

On the other hand, the project 10 Years after the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of Laguna de Bay: Towards a Sustainable Future, aims to integrate knowledge from different disciplines and to come up with a comprehensive assessment of the current state of Laguna de Bay and its surrounding environments as a basis of recommendations for its sustainable management.

Dr. Victoria O. Espaldon of UPLB leads the project.

Under PCA ARRD’s strategic research and development banner program, the projects involve the exploration and assessment of the selected ecosystems to enhance resilience and adaptation of agriculture, fisheries and natural resources sector, through the promotion of science and technology-based management and policy decisions.

The projects’ implementation commenced with an inception meeting held at the PCAARRD headquarters recently. Matters pertaining to expected accomplishments, budgetary requirements and other administrative concerns were discussed during the meeting.

Trump faces showdown with G-7 over climate stance next month

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rift between US President Donald J. Trump and the rest of the Group-ofSeven (G-7) over his hard-line climate-change stance looks set to widen next month when leaders meet in Italy.

Energy ministers from Canada, France, Germany and others members of the G-7 took the unusual step of declining to issue a joint statement after a meeting in Rome last Monday, saying the US wasn’t ready to endorse language upholding the Paris Agreement.

The move gives Trump’s administration time to determine whether to follow through on his campaign pledge to abandon the landmark climate agreement, brokered in 2015 by more than 190 nations.

It also indicates that other nations are unwilling to drop climate change from the G-7 agenda, setting up a potential showdown for when Trump attends his first summit with other world leaders in Taormina, Sicily, on May 26 and 27.

“The leaders’ summit is the deadline,” said Alden Meyer, who has followed international climate talks for two decades as director of policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “If President Trump walks into that meeting saying he still doesn’t have a position, I think that would be the end of the line for the other countries.”

The shift toward a potential confrontation comes as world leaders have been largely silent as Trump, who has called global warming a hoax, has issued sweeping orders to gut environmental regulations.

The president plans to determine next month whether to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement.

Instead of publicly confronting Trump, Germany and others have tried to use international pressure at G-7 and G-20 meetings to convince his Cabinet members to work with the rest of the world to fight climate change. G-7 nations hold significant leverage. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom are among America’s most important economic and military allies.

Statement scrapped

As host of this year’s G-7 meetings, Italy pushed to include language supporting the Paris accord in a joint statement drafted for this week’s meeting of energy ministers. Past communiqués have included similar language, but US Energy Secretary Rick Perry objected, saying Trump had not made up his mind, according to a G-7 negotiator.

Rather than rewriting the statement to appease the US, the other nations scrapped it altogether. In its place, Italy issued a statement of its own. It singled out the US, saying America was “reviewing many of its policies and reserves its position on this issue”. All other G-7 members, the statement showed, remain committed to the Paris accord.

“On Paris, it was impossible to sign a joint declaration because United States were not ready to take a clear position,” said Tiziana D’Angelo, a spokesman for Italy’s minister of economic development.

G-7 leverage

In his own statement issued after the meeting, Perry said it was important for nations to continue developing fossil fuel generation— including coal—as well as clean energy. He made no direct mention of the Paris accord.

“I discussed with my fellow Ministers that the Trump administration believes that economic growth and the environment can successfully go hand-in-hand,” Perry said in the statement.

Walking away from the Paris accord could isolate the US on multiple fronts, John Kirton, director of the University of Toronto’s G-8 Research Group, said in an interview.

“Trump needs them to stand against Russia, China, ISIS [Islamic State in Iraq and Sysia]—you name it,” Kirton said. “Time is on the side of the G-7.”

Adding and removing passages from communiqués are part and parcel of international diplomacy.

It would be unprecedented, however, if the US ultimately refuses to sign onto a joint statement backed by all other members. Bloomberg News

What is a biodiversity hero?

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By Lilay Castillo & Monai Saguin

hero is an individual who is admired for extraordinary achievements, courage, or noble qualities. When asked who their heroes are, many people in the Philippines think of Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio and Apolinario Mabini.

Every country has heroes they look up to—King Naresuan the Great of Thailand, Lim Bo Seng of Singapore, Gen. Aung San of Myanmar, King Chao Anouvong of Lao PDR, Gen. Raden Sudirman of Indonesia, Oknha Son Kuy of Cambodia, Awang Alak Betatar of Brunei Darussalam, Tunku Abdul Rahman of Malaysia and the Trung sisters of Vietnam.

Some of these heroes are admired for fighting for their countries’ independence, some are known for helping institute reforms that change the lives of people for the better and some played key roles in nation-building.

In t he biod iversit y a rena, there are men and women who are devoting their time to curb biodiversity loss and help bring biodiversity closer to everyone.

The BusinessMirror asked people from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) member-states to share their views on what a biodiversity hero is. Below are parts of their views: n Biod iversit y heroes a nd heroines are people of all ages, from all walks of life, who work tirelessly to protect the environment and all its creatures because of their unf linching love for Mother Earth. They are committed to the conservation of nature by bringing about awareness through their actions—thus giving our planet a voice. These actions are intertw ined w ith their daily lives, and can be as simple as saying “no” to using plastic straws and bottles, starting a from grassroots campaign in their community to protect their forests to leading a national movement against coal mining.

Most important, biodiversit y heroes and heroines have the innate capacity to inspire others to sacrifice what they can to do the same.—Kitsie Torres, DVM, project development officer, Centre for Sustainability Philippines n A biodiversit y hero is a person who has dedicated his or her life to nature, providing inspiration for the community and providing significant contribution to biodiversity-conservation efforts. A biodiversity hero spreads awareness about the values of biodiversity and the sustainable preservation of natural heritage.—Sulviah Darmuh, forest extension, Lorentz National Park, Indonesia

Biodiversity simply means variability among living organisms. However, it has a greater def i n it ion, a nd it shou ld be viewed in the wider context of environmental stability. A biodiversity hero is someone who truly understands its definition.

Understand ing its def inition means knowing its significance to humanity and the planet. Recognizing biodiversity’s importance means taking actions to help conserve and protect biodiversity. A biodiversity hero could be a scientist, a professional, or a simple individual who has proven his utmost dedication for conservation. A biodiversity

tobias

Asuncion

Krismurniati

torres

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narciso

Darmuh

hero is someone who believes in collaborative efforts in creating a positive impact for biodiversity. Biodiversity conservation must be the greatest concern of all as it is being threatened due to habitat loss and degradation, overexploitation and unsustainable use, invasive alien species, pollution and climate change.

Thus, our planet needs a hero who will transform everyone to become champions for biodiversity.

—Adriane B. Tobias, forester, ambassador for SGD#15—Life on Land, 2030 Youth Force in the Philippines

fiery passion to love every living thing on earth. —Patrick Angelo Narciso, BS Geology student, University of the Philippines, scholar, Hyundai New Thinkers Circuit

for Biodiversity (ACB), a biodiversity hero may be a local government leader who has successfully adopted and implemented a biodiversity action plan; a conservation worker who has implemented significant conservation initiatives to bring together the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples, local communities and modern science, or a media practitioner or publisher who helps bridge the communication gap between biodiversity experts and the general public.

A biodiversity hero may also be a biodiversity advocate whose conservation project has resulted in positive change in communities; a youth leader who is engaging fellow youth in performing simple but significant conservation activities; a park manager or worker who has dedicated his or her life to protecting a heritage park or a protected area; or a company CEO who is actively implementing a business and biodiversity initiative and transforming the way his or her company manages and invests in nature.

The Asean Biodiversity Heroes recog n it ion prog ra m i s supported by the Philippines’s Department of Foreign Affairs, the European Union, through the Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Protected Areas in Asean project, and the Hari Foundation Inc. The ACB serves as awards secretariat.

To k no w mo r e a b o ut t h e A s e a n B i o d i v e r s it y H e r o e s , v isit heroes.aseanbiodiversit y. org or ht t ps: //w w w.facebook . com/ASEA NBiodiversity/. Share your thoughts on biodiversity heroism by sending an e-mail to heroes@aseanbiodiversity.org.

n Biodiversity heroes are people who dedicate their lives to preserving biodiversity with all of their heart and soul. Sometimes they are not aware that they are heroes because they only think of the best that they can give to preser ve biodiversity.—Elisabeth Devi Krismurniati, Coordinator, Elephant Training Center, Way Kambas National Park, Indonesia

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A biodiversity hero is someone who will be looked to by others because of his or her actions and advocacy, and from there will ignite the interest of people to respond to the global call to protect and conser ve nature.

This person aims to comply with the role of us, humans, to be the stewards of nature through his or her work in his or her field.

Moreover, this individual fulfills the responsibility of sharing the consciousness that we should all be involved in biodiversity conservation. He or she is a reason of enkindling more actions until we see the world lighted up by n

n A biodiversity hero can be an environmental activist who closely follows what is happening with biodiversity. He or she raises concerns when lives are affected by the changes in biodiversity. A biodiversity hero helps find new strategies to conserve biodiversity.—Lihuy Hok, law student, Royal University of Law and Economics, exchange participant, AIESEC Global Volunteer Program n A biodiversity hero is someone who is passionate about taking care of the animals and adoring nature. —Aiko Isabel S. Asuncion, Incoming Grade 4 student, Morning Star Montessori School Inc.

Heroic acts for biodiversity

On August 8 Asean will introduce 10 Asean Biodiversity Heroes—outstanding individuals f rom t he 10 A sean memberstates who have contr ibuted sig n i f ic a nt ly to biod iversit y conservation and advocacy efforts in their respective countries and the region. The heroes will be the faces of biodiversity conservation in the Asean region—individuals that people can identify with and will inspire others to take action for biodiversity in their own spheres of inf luence. This will be one of the commemorative activities for the 50th anniversary of Asean.

According to the Asean Centre

A14 Monday, April 17, 2017 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

This would not happen in PHL

T

he biggest story of this past Holy Week was not about the United States using its biggest nonnuclear bomb in Afghanistan. It was not North Korea threatening to attack South Korea if provoked by the US. The “Big Story” did not have anything to do with religion. It was about a 69-year-old man beaten and removed from an airplane for refusing to “volunteer” to give up his seat when the airline needed that seat to transport its own crew to another city.

On April 9—Palm Sunday—Dr. David Dao was forcibly removed from United Airlines Flight 3411 by Chicago airport police, suffering multiple injuries and a concussion. After asking for volunteers to make room for another flight crew to board in order to get to the destination city, the airline randomly selected “volunteers” to take another flight. Dao refused and the police were called, because he was being “uncooperative” and “belligerent”.

Adding insult to injury—literally—United Airlines did not remove Dao’s luggage from the flight when he was forcibly removed.

Of course, when everyone is carrying a smartphone camera and ready for action, multiple videos were almost immediately uploaded to the Internet, virtually sparking a global outrage. Although apparently born in Vietnam, social and mainstream media in China considered this a racial issue against all Asians, which tells much about the modern world and new alliances.

Almost 500 million Chinese reacted to the story on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging web site. Dao’s past—a convicted felon who traded prescription drugs for secret sex with a patient—added another twist to the story in this age of online information.

Another interesting piece of information is that it was not actually a United Airlines flight. While United will bear the public-relations nightmare and legal obligation arising from this incident, it actually occurred on another company’s airplane crewed by the staff of a smaller carrier, Republic Airways, operating under the United Airlines banner.

The arrogance and disrespect of the ordinary citizen manifested in this event is, in part, the result of the unholy alliance between business cartels and government. What the airline did—forcing a passenger to “volunteer” to give up a paid-for seat is legal.

The US Department of Transportation said in a statement: “It is legal for airlines to [involuntarily] bump passengers from an oversold flight when there are not enough volunteers, it is the airline’s responsibility to determine its own fair boarding priorities”. Oddly enough, this incident would not have happened in the “backward, oligarch-controlled” nation of the Philippines.

The Air Passenger Bill of Rights passed into law in 2012 allows airlines to overbook and ask for volunteers to be moved to another flight if necessary. However, the airline must increase the compensation for that inconvenience until enough volunteers come forward. This is known as the “auction system”.

Of course, this is an isolated incident, and that is why it is globally front-page news. But it is another “nail in the coffin” of the trust and confidence of the people in government. We are supposed to be protected by the law from the sort of abuse that Dao experienced. United Airlines failed, because the government failed.

The importance of preparation Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

A

S I write this, there have been several earthquakes in different parts of the country, with many of these movements affecting the city of Batangas. People have come out with messages that we should not focus our attention on this fearful scenario, because it accumulates a collective energy of anxiety and apprehension.

While I believe that it is more important to focus on the positive, I also think every Filipino must prepare for the possibility of a strong earthquake. We must know what to do, where to go and inform ourselves about how we, including our loved ones, can stay safe in the event of a big quake.

The Red Cross offers some advice, including the earthquake SOP “Drop. Cover. Hold on”. Teach it to your household members, includ-

ing children. As far as doorways are concerned, these cannot offer certain protection, so it is better to look for sturdy furniture, like a big table, and hide there until the shaking stops.

Before it happens, though, it is imperative that everyone gets his or her grab bag ready, or an Emergency Preparedness Kit. Each household needs to create its own household evacuation plan, and include there a plan on how to

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bed, stay there, curl up, hold on and protect your head until the earthquake stops. Stay inside the house or building, and come out only when you are sure that it is safe to do so. If you are going outside, use the stairs and not the elevators. If you smell gas, go out and stay as far away as possible from the source. But before you head out, make sure there is no debris that could fall on you.

If you happen to be outside when an earthquake strikes, find an open space where you could drop to the ground until it stops. Stay away from buildings, wires and electric cables, trees and posts. If you are inside a vehicle, find a clear space and pull over.

Avoid bridges, flyovers and electrical wires. Stay in the vehicle and wear your seat belt. You can start driving carefully once the tremors are over, but avoid bridges and flyovers that may have been damaged during the quake. If a cable or wire falls on your vehicle, just wait for assistance and do not attempt to go out. If you are near mountains, hills, or unstable slopes, watch out for falling debris or landslides.

On China, Trump realizes trade and security mix

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evacuate pets. I could discuss these items further in future columns.

Your local community, according to the Red Cross, needs to have a risk and response plan. What does one need to do before, during and after an earthquake? How could victims be rescued? These, among other information, should be in that community plan. Find out if your community has one, and secure a copy for your home. As far as evacuation is concerned, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority listed down these evacuation centers in case of a strong Manila earthquake: https:// philnews.ph/2015/05/20/mmda-listsof-evacuation-centers-in-case-of-72-magnitude-manila-earthquake/#.

WOdUfVuTMlc.facebook If you find yourself inside your home or a building during a tremor, avoid moving around too much. A lot of people who sustain injuries are those who keep moving around while the shaking is happening.

Heavy objects could fall on you, or you could sustain fractures or injuries to the torso. Protect your head and upper body. If you are in

T

he news media have been quick to note US President Donald J. Trump’s embrace of bombing in Syria and the need for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) as reversals of the foreign policy he advocated on the stump. But he’s made another flip in the past week that’s just as consequential, and possibly more important for his future foreign policy. By asking China to “solve the North Korean problem” in exchange for an improved trade deal, Trump has embraced linkage.

Broadly, linkage is the idea that economic policy and geopolitical strategy can be used in tandem, with trade-offs between the two realms.

This idea wasn’t on Trump’s radar before the election, especially not with respect to China.

Candidate Trump famously took a hard line on China and trade, while simultaneously signaling that he didn’t much care about China’s geostrategic expansion and conflict with other Pacific powers, including the US. Now that he’s president, Trump is realizing that he can’t soft-pedal global security to the extent his rhetoric suggested he might. That explains his turn toward the Nato, which he trashed on the campaign trail.

Probably the generals around Trump are subtly emphasizing this point. After all, these are men whose whole careers have been devoted to the goal of global security. The con-

cern about North Korea—and the implicit subordination of economic interest to security—has the whiff of the generals’ preoccupations.

The Syria episode also carried lessons related to North Korea. The first, learned before the US bombing, was that dictators like Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will take advantage of what they perceive as weakness, with little concern for the consequences to Trump. The US president surely understood that the deployment of chemical weapons had something to do with his administration’s message that the US no longer sought Assad’s ouster.

In that sense, Assad’s use of chemical weapons was a slap in Trump’s face—and that is surely part of his rapid swing from indifference to retaliation.

Then, after the bombing, Trump also learned that foreign policy hawks from both the Democratic

and Republican parties will support him if he takes bold action against a notorious bad actor.

The generals won’t have let it escape Trump’s notice that North Korea has been unusually aggressive in testing and firing missiles since his election. Part of this is that Kim Jong Un just wants to be noticed by the new administration. But part is that is he and his advisers are trying to see how much they can get away with during the tenure of a president who ran on a platform of disengaging from the defense of US allies in the Pacific.

Unlike Syria, Trump can’t just bomb North Korea—not without the risk of provoking retaliation on South Korea. Even a conventional North Korean attack on Seoul could kill hundreds of thousands in that densely populated city. A nuclear attack could do much worse.

That has led Trump to look for leverage against North Korea—and that, in turn, has led him to China.

Trump can’t credibly threaten Chinese militarily. And that’s why, presumably, he’s trying to bribe China instead.

The only obvious way to bribe China is by offering something China might want and that Trump has threatened not to provide, namely a good trade deal. Voilà, linkage.

This form of linkage is unlikely to work this time, however, for at least two reasons.

One is that China’s ability to “solve” North Korea is limited. Yes, China has huge influence through economic ties and subsidies. But China also needs North Korea as a

buffer between itself and US ally South Korea—and North Korea knows that.

The consequence is that there’s no easy way to rein in the Kim regime without toppling it. And that’s an outcome China really doesn’t want.

The US similarly has less leverage than one might think over its dependent allies. That’s something Trump will discover in the Middle East, assuming he tries to press Israel to make real concessions to the Palestinians. The other reason linkage likely won’t work for North Korea is that Trump hasn’t credibly given China enough incentive. A “better” trade deal is only a meaningful prize compared to some baseline.

Yet it’s far from clear that there will even be a trade deal with China, and the absence of such a deal doesn’t pose a serious problem for China unless the US starts putting tariffs on Chinese products.

Any such tariffs—for example, an antidumping tariff on steel—are going to be challenged by China before the World Trade Organization.

The long delays of such a challenge will be costly to China, to be sure. But China has almost certainly already figured the risks and costs of such a tariff into its pricing strategy.

What’s more, Trump’s own actions have already removed some of the US’s bargaining power. At one time, the Americans might have tempted China with the offer of membership in a regional trade deal, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which intentionally excluded the Chinese. But Trump killed the TPP in his first week in office.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

President Carter, am I a Christian?

Fast-forward Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

THE PATRIOT

Nicholas Kristof

new york times

C

hristians celebrated Easter on Sunday. But wait—do we really think Jesus literally rose from the dead?

I asked questions like that in a Christmas Day column, interviewing the Rev. Tim Keller, a prominent evangelical pastor.

In this, the second of an occasional series, I decided to quiz former President Jimmy Carter. He’s a longtime Sunday schoolteacher and born-again evangelical but of a more liberal bent than Keller. Here’s our e-mail conversation, edited for clarity.

How literally do you take the Bible, including miracles like the Resurrection?

Having a scientific background, I do not believe in a six-day creation of the world that occurred in 4004 B.C., stars falling on the earth, that kind of thing. I accept the overall message of the Bible as true, and also accept miracles described in the New Testament, including the virgin birth and the Resurrection.

With Easter approaching, let me push you on the Resurrection.

If you heard a report today from the Middle East of a man brought back to life after an execution, I doubt you’d believe it even if there were eyewitnesses. So why believe ancient accounts written years after the events?

I would be skeptical of a report like you describe. My belief in the resurrection of Jesus comes from my Christian faith, and not from any need for scientific proof. I derive a great personal benefit from the totality of this belief, which comes naturally to me.

What about someone like me whose faith is in the Sermon on the Mount, who aspires to follow Jesus’ teachings, but is skeptical that he was born of a virgin, walked on water, multiplied loaves and fishes or had a physical resurrection? Am I a Christian, President Carter?

I do not judge whether someone else is a Christian. Jesus said, “Judge not...” I try to apply the teachings of Jesus in my own life, often without success.

How can I reconcile my admiration for the message of Jesus, all about inclusion, with a church history that is often about exclusion?

As Saint Paul said to the Galatians in 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” In His day, Jesus broke down walls of separation and superiority among people. Those (mostly men) who practice superiority and exclusion contradict my interpretations of the life and teachings of Jesus, which exemplified peace, love, compassion, humility, forgiveness and sacrificial love.

Do you sometimes struggle with doubts about faith?

Yes, but eventually I decide what I believe, as an integral part of my existence and a guide for my life. This is based on what I consider to be the perfect life and example of Jesus.

I think of you as an evangelical, but evangelicalism implies belief in inerrancy of Scripture.

Do you share that, and if so, how do you account for contradictions within the Gospels?

I look on the contradictions among the Gospel writers as a sign of authenticity, based on their different life experiences, contacts with Jesus and each other. If the earlier authors of the Bible had been creating an artificial document, they would have eliminated disparities. I try to absorb the essence and meaning of the teachings of Jesus Christ, primarily as explained in the letters written by Paul to the early churches.

When there are apparent discrepancies, I make a decision on what to believe, respecting the equal status and rights of all people.

One of my problems with evangelicalism is that it normally argues that one can be saved only through a personal relationship with Jesus, which seems to consign Gandhi to hell. Do you believe that?

I do not feel qualified to make a judgment. I am inclined to give him (or others) the benefit of any doubt.

Do you pray daily, and if so, do you believe in the efficacy of prayer in a miracle kind of way, or in a psychologically-thishelps-me-deal-with-the-world kind of way?

I pray often during each day, and believe in the efficacy of prayer in both ways. In my weekly Bible lessons, I teach that our Creator God is available at any moment to any of us, for guidance, solace, forgiveness or to meet our other needs. My general attitude is of thanksgiving and joy.

Skeptics have noted that when prayers are “answered”, there is usually an alternative explanation. But an amputee can pray for a new leg, and a new leg never grows back. Isn’t that a reason to believe that prayer helps internally, but doesn’t access miracles?

It is usually impossible to convince skeptics. For me, prayer helps internally, as a private conversation with my creator, who knows everything and can do anything.

If I were an amputee, my prayer would be to help me make the best of my condition, to be a good follower of the perfect example set

by Jesus Christ and to be thankful for life, freedom and opportunities to be a blessing to others. We are monitoring the status of cancer in my liver and brain, and my prayers are similar to this.

D

uring one Philippine Airlines leadership seminar, our speaker, Tita Datu Puangco, said unity is the heart of leadership. She said unity starts with personal integration, which is one’s “ability to enhance personal awareness, get grounded, process struggles and resolve dilemmas”. I agree that unity has to start within us. Our heart might want to do one thing, but the mind does another. Our tongues spread goodness, but our actions show hatred.

Grounded persons who have control of their private worlds, so to speak, display so much confidence in how and why they do things.

Especially for leaders whose conduct can greatly affect those within their spheres of influence, their hearts and minds must be united, their words and actions must be one.

Similar to what author Gordon MacDonald said in his book Ordering Your Private World, Ms. Puangco narrated in that seminar that leaders simply have to stay grounded in the belief that there is one Supreme Being who allows things to happen, like it or not. Ms. Puangco arrived a bit late for that seminar, as she was stuck in traffic, which she knew she had no control over. As she felt hopeless and anxious then, she narrated to us that she simply prayed and remembered that God is always in control. In one

By Frank Bruni

I

F you’re any student of politics, you saw Steve Bannon on the cover of Time magazine in early February— “The Great Manipulator”, it called him— and knew to start the countdown then.

Dead strategist walking.

He’d crossed the line that a politician’s advisers mustn’t, to a place and prominence where only the most foolish of them tread. Or at best, he’d failed to prevent the media from tugging him there.

He was fine so long as he was a whisperer. On the campaign trail and on the Potomac, you can whisper all you want.

He was damned the moment he was cast as a puppeteer. That means there’s a puppet in the equation, and no politician is going to accept that designation, least of all one who stamps his name in

gold on anything that stands still long enough to be stamped. Or whose debate performance included the repartee: “No puppet, no puppet. You’re the puppet.”

“I’m my own strategist,” the president told The New York Post early last week, and the message to Bannon couldn’t have been louder and clearer if it included a four-letter word.

Bannon is “a guy who works for me,” he said to The Wall Street Journal a day later, lumping the lumpy tactician together with the concierges at Trump Tower, the groundskeepers at Mar-aLoco and the makers of the meatloaf in the White House kitchen.

Donald J. Trump went so far as to suggest that he was barely acquainted with Bannon before August 2016, when Bannon joined his presidential campaign.

Wrong. Trump had been a guest on the radio show that Bannon used to host nine times. But his rewrite of history was

tional fasting and abstinence. As I was taught while growing up, fasting entails doing with less, while abstinence entails doing without.

Canon 97 of the Catholic Church requires those ages from 18 to 59 to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, while Canons 1250 to 1253 expect all Catholics over the age of 14 to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays throughout the Lenten season. I also learned during my childhood days that fasting and abstinence allow us to be reminded of what it means to suffer. And that our token suffering allows us to somehow experience and better understand the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

A few of my friends and relatives performed their Lenten obligations in exchange for a certain thing they prayed for, while others fasted simply because they grew up doing such Lenten ritual. But as I continue my studies of His Word, fasting is not just about remembering the suffering of Jesus Christ, it is more about walking in the footsteps of our Lord. Tough mission, I must say. But our Almighty God does not require perfection from us, just progression.

A University of the Philippines graduate with a degree in Economics, Kay Abella’s religious views, as found in her FB page, says, “Just

Jesus”. A few years ago, she gave up a decent-paying job conducting training seminars in the Meralco Management and Leadership Development Center Foundation Inc. While she still aspired to be Christ-like in all her deeds in the corporate world, she soon realized that there must be a better way to follow Him. So she relocated herself from Manila to Bacolod City to work for an non-governmental organization, which takes care of street children. Raised as a Catholic, she used to fast during Lent, simply because it was a ritual handed down by her parents. Today, as a Christian, she still does fasting, but not only during Lent. She says she does some fasting whenever she needs clarity and focus in life. Whenever she needs guidance in her progression toward being more Christ-like, she fasts.

In the Bible, it has been repeatedly said that whoever follows Him will never walk in darkness. So why do we fast during Lent again? Most of us Catholics fast “backward” to remind us of His suffering. I say we also need to fast “forward” and follow wherever His light leads us, just like Kay. And we can only fast “forward” faster when we truly realize that God is always in control. Keep fasting forward, Kay. For questions and comments, please e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com.

Is it time for Beijing to drop Kim Jong Un?

That war-blocking stalemate, however, may be unravelling, and sabers now rattle.

In Pyongyang last Saturday, tens of thousands of troops, with tanks and trucks brandishing long-range missiles, paraded in Kim Il Sung Square to mark his 105th birthday.

The morning after, North Korea unsuccessfully tested a missile, the latest of several launches that Kim Jong Un hopes would give him rockets to hit America.

That threat has made US President Donald J. Trump dump “strategic patience”, the long-standing tack of negotiations and concessions to make Pyongyang behave. Instead, an American strike force steams toward Korea, led by the San Diego-based carrier Carl Vinsons.

After his Florida summit with

China’s new trade restrictions seem to show real fear of US attack. But it looks like Kim isn’t paying attention,

slightly more allowance, but even so, nothing made Karl Rove’s stomach knot like the nickname—“Bush’s brain”— that a few journalists hung on him. It was both compliment and curse, and to interview him or any of Bush’s other top aides back in the day was to be pummeled with sentences that all started with the same subject, adjusted for whichever title Bush held at that point.

“The governor believes.” “The president-elect has decided.” “The president feels strongly.” Ask them for their opinion, and they’d tell you what he thought.

That was the pecking order, which was reinforced by Bush’s own nickname for Rove: “Turd Blossom.”

Rove endured as one of Bush’s two or three preeminent advisers for about a decade, and his eventual diminution was largely a function of Bush’s waning popularity in the second term of his presidency, when Rove was moved from

a corner suite in the West Wing to a windowless office across the hall.

Donald Regan, Ronald Reagan’s second chief of staff, was forced to resign after just two tumultuous years, partly because he’d lost sight of his place, infuriating the first lady. In her memoir, “My Turn”, Nancy Reagan complained that he “often acted as if he were the president”.

That behavior reflected the ease with which senior advisers “get caught up in feeling smarter and more powerful than the principal,” said one veteran Republican strategist, who added that the advisers who survive are able to reject or mask that grandiose sense of self.

Bannon is an amateur masker. While he didn’t give Time any quotes for its “manipulator” story and the photograph of him on the cover had been shot for a different reason three months earlier, he has spent plenty of time talking off the record with political reporters, too little

of it actively tamping down his legend.

He wasn’t vigilant enough about patrolling the way his allies inside and outside the administration deified him in their own murmurings to the media, which included the nugget that colleagues awed by his knowledge called him “the encyclopedia”. He didn’t grasp that you can’t be “the encyclopedia” if your president is barely a pamphlet and didn’t see the traps that would have been obvious to a Washington insider.

He didn’t grapple with who Trump really is. Trump’s allegiances are fickle.

His attention flits. His compass is popularity, not any fixed philosophy, certainly not the divisive brand of populism and nationalism that Bannon was trying to enforce. Bannon insisted on an ideology when Trump cares more about applause, and what generates it at a campaign rally isn’t what sustains it when you’re actually governing.

DIPLOMASIA

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veryone wants peace, of course, even Kim Jong Un, despite the North Korean despot’s war-baiting threats to develop missiles that can nuke Uncle Sam. Nothing tickles the fancy of founding father Kim Il Sung’s grandson than Washington, Tokyo and Seoul joining Beijing in showering aid on Pyongyang, just to keep its guns quiet.

For decades, that extortion worked, keeping the dynasty’s bankrupt, starving nation from imploding. So, the third Kim in charge north of the 38th Parallel still builds nastier and nastier weapons of mass destruction with which to wangle assistance and concessions.

Helping keep the Kim con going is the fear all around that getting tough would drive him to launch war against the south, plus atomic warheads at Seoul and Tokyo. Now, he even wants to target LA. Even if it’s not in Pyongyang’s missile sights, Beijing, too, fears conflict, and not only because of the huge economic and humanitarian cost, with hundreds of thousands of refugees sure to stream into China, and shriveling trade and investment from America, Japan and South Korea.

Beijing’s biggest dread is the North’s collapse, creating a united Korea allied with Washington and Tokyo, probably hosting US troops right at the Chinese border. To avoid

telling. Bannon needed to be erased because he was taking up too much space on the page. Politics is a tricky business, Washington is a treacherous place and Trumplandia is downright brutal. In all three realms, you have to strike the right balance of self-promotion and selfeffacement. The media’s no help: We love few archetypes better than that of the brilliant mastermind who’s the real power behind the throne. But the savviest operators find ways to resist that assignment, deflecting as much credit as they claim.

“It’s important to remember that you’re always a supporting actor, never the star,” David Axelrod, one of Barack Obama’s closest campaign and White House advisers, told me. “And depending on who the star is, it’s even more important. Trump’s self-image doesn’t really allow for costars.”

George W. Bush’s self-image had

Chinese President Xi Jinping two weeks ago, Trump tweeted that the US would solve the Kim problem with or without China’s cooperation.

Many then wondered if he would bomb North Korean nukes and arms facilities, just as he did the Syrian air base believed to have dispatched planes in the deadly April 7 poison gas attack on a rebel-held town.

With Washington willing to bomb, Beijing has taken steps to prevent and prepare for war. As the 90-warplane Vinsons nears the peninsula, the 2.3-millionstrong People’s Liberation Army has moved 150,000 men to the Chinese-Korean border.

And for the first time in memory, Beijing is squeezing Pyongyang’s coffers. The Chinese have turned back North Korean ships carrying coal —its leading export, generating 40 percent of foreign exchange—and suspended purchases till 2018.

There is also a ban on selected Chinese exports to the isolated state, and Xi reportedly agreed to curb Chinese banks servicing North Korea.

And if all that weren’t interesting enough, Russia sent the flagship of its Asian fleet in Vladivostok, the missile cruiser Varyag, on a two-month journey to several countries. While the trip seems harmless, it may also be a way to get the Varyag out on the open sea before possible hostilities in Northeast Asia restrict naval movements.

given his recent missile test, which reportedly failed.

If Pyongyang persists on its provocative path despite continued economic pressure, it may leave Beijing with two hard options to prevent American attack and Korean war and hostile reunification: ease or push Kim Jong Un out, or destroy his nukes, rockets and weapons labs.

The preferred route is to replace Kim, either by offering him retirement in China or instigating a coup against him. It’s not just Beijing thinking of autocrat change.

In recent briefings for Trump, US national security advisers included Kim’s removal among options to address the nuclear threat from Pyongyang.

That may be the least disruptive scenario to turn North Korea away from atomic armageddon, and toward peaceful relations and productive collaboration with the world, not to mention orderly reunification.

What if Kim Jong Un proves unassailable? Then, Beijing’s other option may be to eliminate or drastically degrade his nuclear weapons and facilities. Chinese bombing may still trigger war and nuclear retaliation by the North, especially if Kim thinks US bombs did the deed. But it may be less likely than American attack. And the bombing could trigger Kim’s exit.

No way China would take out Kim Jong Un or his nukes? Then pray that the man who bombed Syria’s air force for gassing one of its towns, would not do the same to nuclear faclilities aiming to threaten his own nation’s cities.

Ricardo Saludo

Steve Bannon was doomed New York Times News Service

wedding I recently attended, the pastor said God orchestrated and will orchestrate everything. In so many words, the pastor said that we will all end up having an organized “inner world” as soon as we understand that we are mere instruments. When we have full control of our inner world, we gain confidence and assurance that everything happens according to His will.

I have a number of Catholic friends who observed the Lenten season by observing the tradi-

Monday, April 17, 2017 A15

that nightmare outcome, China bankrolled the Kims and always opposed military action against them.

The game has changed

China’s tough options

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A16 Monday, April 17, 2017

New Tieza COO eyes PPPs in managing tourism assets, TEZs T

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

he Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza) is looking to partner with local government units (LGUs) and private firms to manage its assets and tourism enterprise zones (TEZs).

In a n inter v iew w it h t he BusinessMirror, newly elected Tieza Chief Operating Officer Pocholo Joselito De Dios Paragas said: “We will also explore better management of our assets and tourist facilities to maximize and revitalize their earning potentials through public-private partnerships [PPPs]. We will ensure proper coordination with the LGUs as our invaluable partners in the management of the tourism areas.”

Tieza currently owns and operates tourism assets, many of which were inherited from its predecessor, the Philippine Tourism Authority. These include the Banaue Hotel and Youth Hostel, Balicasag Island Dive Resort in Bohol, Club Intramuros Golf Course, Gardens of Malasag Ecotourism Village in Cagayan de Oro, the Rizal and Bagumbayan Light and Sound Museum in Intramuros, Zamboanga Golf Course and Beach Park and the recently built Iloilo Convention Center. It also

PARAGAS: “Tieza shall be run as a private corporation, but directly aligned with the National Tourism Development Plan.”

owns 23 properties nationwide that are not operating, 11 properties turned over to project proponents and six leased properties.

“We aim to attract tourism-related investments, such as in tourism estates and ecozones, historical-cultural heritage projects, as well as ecotourism, agritourism, and health and wellness projects in the country. The Revenue Regulations are already in place to implement the highly competitive fiscal incentives available to tourism enterprises duly registered with Tieza,” Paragas said.

The Bureau of Internal Rev-

enue’s (BIR) Revenue Regulations 7-2016, which extended fiscal incentives to TEZ locators, took effect on December 6. Tieza management earlier estimated about P7 billion in investments into the economy in 2017 with the grant of fiscal incentives to TEZs. (See “Tax perks to yield P70-B tourism investments–Tieza”, in the BusinessMirror, January 15, 2017.)

Tieza, an attached agency of the Department of Tourism, has already designated five flagship TEZs. These are San Vicente in Palawan, Rizal Park in Manila, Bucas Grande in Surigao del Sur, Mount Samat Shrine in Bataan and South Palms in Panglao, Bohol. It also approved six ordinary, private-sector-led TEZs: Ciudad de Victoria in Bulacan, Bravo Golf Resort in Dumaguete, Hijo Plantation in Davao, Queen’s Castle in Cebu, Resorts World in Parañaque and King Dome in Davao.

Paragas said he envisioned Tieza as a self-sustaining company through the establishment of tourism enterprise zones, instead of our reliance on the collection of travel tax, which we share with the Commission on Higher Education (40 percent) and the National Committee for Culture and the Arts (10 percent). Under Republic Act 9353, otherwise known as the Tourism Act of 2009, 50 percent of the travel tax collections accrue to Tieza.

He also stressed that on the management side, Tieza “shall be run as a private corporation, but directly aligned with the National Tourism Development Plan, and with key

performance indicators to show how effectively the company is achieving the business objectives”.

A business development manager, Paragas was appointed by President Duterte to the Tieza Board on March 14. He was thenelected COO by members of the Tieza Board in a meeting on April 10. He is the son-in-law of Angelito Banayo, a campaign strategist of Duterte in the last presidential election who is currently managing director and resident representative of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, the de facto Philippine embassy in Taiwan.

Paragas takes over as Tieza COO from lawyer Guiller Asido, now administrator of the Intramuros Administration. Paragas is a graduate of landscape architecture from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, with units in the Masters of business administration program of the Ateneo de Manila University. Prior to his appointment to the Tieza Board, Paragas was managing partner of Khione Inc., an ice manufacturing company; president andCEO of Yellow Brick Food Services Inc., the sole food concessionaire of the SMBelle Group’s Tagaytay Highlands Golf and Country Club; and president and CEO of Prime Sentinel Development and Construction Inc., designer and construction firm of townhouses in Cebu.

The new Tieza COO has also had stints in banking and finance, having served in various capacities at Philippine Savings Bank, Banco de Oro, Citibank and the American Insurance Group.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

HOG RAISERS WANT TO MAKE PORK MORE AFFORDABLE TO PINOYS

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

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ocal hog producers belonging to the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines (ProPork) said they are keen on expanding the country’s swine inventory by 100,000 heads this year to cut the farm gate and retail price of pork.

ProPork President Edwin G. Chen said the local hog industry needs to step up production to meet the increasing protein requirement of Filipino consumers, particularly the youth.

“Our target is gradually, every year, to meet the protein requirements of the Filipino consumers.

The average age in the Philippines now is 23 years old, meaning most of them are earning,” Chen told the BusinessM irror.

“The consumption of protein increases as people earn more. With increased purchasing power, consumers can now afford other protein sources [like pork],” he added.

Chen said he made the pronouncement to hike the country’s sow output during the 26th National Hog Convention held recently, which was attended by members of the ProPork and the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. He also disclosed that hog raisers are eyeing to increase the current swine inventory of 1.6 million heads to 2 million heads by 2020.

“We have to add sows to meet the pork requirement of the country. With the increase, the farmgate price of pork would decline, making pork meat affordable to consumers,” he said.

Citing industry stakeholders, Chen said they are closely monitoring the policies of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol, which would affect the hog sector, particularly those concerning smuggling.

“If the government creates the

2.23 MMT The volume of hogs produced by the Philippines in 2016

right environment for the private sector to invest in, say, they are controlling smuggling and the farmers are earning, then more players would invest,” he said.

Citing the case of the previous administrations, Chen said some players in the hog industry were discouraged from expanding due to “inconsistencies” in government policy on smuggling. “Our sow inventory before was already 2 million heads. However, a lot of farms closed because of the changing policies of the government in smuggling—sometimes they favor the smuggler, sometimes they favor the farmers,”he said.“If the government will provide a healthy environment, we can increase the sow inventory by 100,000 heads a year. So if the environment is good, it will only take around two to three years to hit the 2 million,” Chen said.

Aside from increasing output, Chen said hog raisers are also keen on hiking the live weight of hogs by 10 kilograms to 105 kg, from the current average of 95 kg.

Increasing the live weight of hogs would be more cost-efficient for raisers, as the cost incurred in some production inputs, such as vaccines, are only of the same price as producing a hog with a weight of 90 kg to 95 kg, he said.

To ensure these targets would be attained, Chen said the government should eliminate diseases, such as the classical swine fever or hog cholera, which could threaten the livelihood of backyard raisers who account for 60 percent of the country’s hog output.

See “Hog raisers,” A2

US job market isn’t producing better pay

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rowth in Americans’ wages has been leveling off lately, contrary to expectations that a steadily falling jobless rate will quickly lead to a sustained acceleration.

Blame it on dismal productivity and lingering, albeit diminishing, slack even with unemployment at an almost 10-year low of 4.5 percent. The government’s most recent jobs report showed the underemployment rate—the broadest gauge of joblessness because it also includes marginally attached workers and those working part time who’d prefer a full-time position—also has been falling though it’s still higher than just before the 2007-2009 recession.

Data this week were also less encouraging. The quits rate, a gauge of workers’ willingness to voluntarily leave their jobs because they’re confident of finding a better position, eased in February to 2.1 percent, matching its average since the end of 2015. Faster turnover would imply workers are able to bargain for more as labor demand exceeds supply.

Weak productivity is also behind employers’ reluctance to fatten paychecks. Because firms are hiring lots of workers and output is expanding slowly, they’re trying to protect their profits at a time when raising prices has become difficult.

Over the last five years, productivity growth has averaged 0.7 percent

a quarter, the slowest since a similar period ending in 1982. That “is certainly dampening” wage gains, Joseph LaVorgna, chief US economist for Deutsche Bank Securities, wrote in a note to clients.

Federal Reserve Chair man Janet Yellen this week called low productivity a “significant problem”, and said the reasons behind it were unclear, making it hard to predict when there’d be a pickup.

Another hurdle is that companies usually raise wages by at least the rate of inflation, which is only just starting to stir after being stubbornly low the past few years, said Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. At some businesses, organized labor groups could use a pickup in prices to negotiate bigger pay increases. Of course, faster inflation would also circle back to squeeze real takehome earnings for everyone.

Projections vary on the extent and timing of any wage-growth acceleration. Economists at Capital Economics point out that the share of small companies planning to increase worker compensation is consistent with annual growth in average hourly earnings advancing toward 3.5 percent by year-end. At Bank of America Merrill Lynch, analysts project 3 percent by early 2018. From current levels, that indicates modest further gains the rest of 2017. Bloomberg News

REAL FALLS Taking a bath on Easter Sundays have become a Filipino tradition, as these locals are shown doing in this April 16 photo at the Balagbag Falls in Real, Quezon, southern Philippines. NONIE REYes