Businessmirror april 18, 2016

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Monday, April 18, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 191

‘Slow Internet hinders e-commerce migration’

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By Catherine N. Pillas

@c_pillas29

he Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said more investments in the country’s telecommunications infrastructure is needed to fast-track the migration of 100,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to e-commerce.

players, and to younger players of any race, that they could be a grandmaster too someday,” said Frank Brady, past president of the Marshall Chess Club in New York, one of the oldest clubs in the country.

Overall, Ashley said his experiences in the chess world have been good, with only a few moments in which his race became an issue.

He recalled one incident when he was playing at a club and an older player came by and asked his opponent why he was letting Ashley beat him, using a slur to describe him.

“It hurt. I was angry,” Ashley recalled. “Then he and I played eventually, two tournament games, and I beat him both times.”

That’s what makes chess great, he said.

“Your moves do the talking.” AP

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By Jerome Pugmire

The Associated Press

ONACO—Standing in the way of a ninth Monte Carlo Masters title for Rafael Nadal is Frenchman Gael Monfils, an opponent the Spaniard has beaten every time they’ve met on clay and who has a dismal 5-18 record in finals.

Nadal has waited two years to win a Masters title, and four years to get his Monte Carlo crown back, so losing on Sunday would be a particularly bitter blow.

Nadal beat Andy Murray, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, on Saturday to earn a shot at a record-equaling 28th Masters title— with Novak Djokovic—and a 68th overall.

“It’s been a very important week for me,” Nadal said.

“I increased the speed of the ball and played a little bit more inside the court, because Andy had control of the point too many times in the first set.”

Monfils has lost the only two Masters finals he has played—both in Paris—the last of which was in 2010.

“I expect an enormous match, a huge match. I need to try to have him play badly, or walk all over him,” said Monfils, who has lost 11 of 13 career matches against Nadal. “To beat him, I need to take many risks, and I need to have some luck.”

At least, Monfils will be fresh, having eased past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-1, 6-3, in an all-French semifinal, breaking Tsonga’s serve six times in less than half the time Nadal spent turning the table on Murray.

The last French player to win here was Cedric Pioline in 2000—who was also the last French finalist—and Monfils is even more of an outsider, considering he is 0-4 against Nadal on clay.

The 29-year-olds first played each other 11 years ago, and that was also at Monte Carlo—with Nadal beating Monfils in the second round—and their last meeting on clay was a quarterfinal win for Nadal in Barcelona in 2011.

For Murray, meanwhile, it was a missed opportunity to become the first British player in the final in 56 years, and to beat Nadal for only the second time on clay— having routed him 6-3, 6-2 in the Madrid Masters final last year.

Archbishop Fulton J. sheen, children And pArents ,shAred by luisA M. lAcson, hlF Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

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EAR Lord, the youth has higher aspirations than adults generally suspect. The young people today have a spirit of sacrifice and a readiness for surrender, which is just untapped. The youth is sick and tired of a milk and water liberalism, which calls for no self-denial. But the elders fail to awaken that latent spirit. Why teenagers rebel can be attributed to many factors: parental influence, social connections, social media’s immense contribution, personal interpretations of the outside world and many more. Let deep spirituality and prayerful attitude mold the character of teenagers with God’s mercy and inspiration. Amen.

Life

Bulk Water

and then some:

a royal bathing experience D4

BusinessMirror

Monday, April 18, 2016

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Irrigation

Badass beauty queens GAL GADOT

hy is everyone into water? What government agencies can pursue public-private partnerships (PPPs) in water? Who are the end-users and payors of water-related PPP projects? Why choose PPP instead of procurement of water projects?

What makes water attractive to investors?

The Spectrum

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badass beauty queens Why teenagers rebel

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Alberto C. Agra

7 Water PPP Projects:

EW YORK—Maurice Ashley was 14 when he saw a high-school friend playing chess and challenged him to a match. He lost badly, but it sparked a love affair that started him playing nearly nonstop ever since.

There were the countless hours competing against the hustlers in city parks, and the serious players at chess clubs in Manhattan. There were the years spent against increasingly tougher competition in college, and ultimately against the best of the best at tournaments around the country and abroad.

All that playing has led the 50-year-old Ashley to some trailblazing accomplishments—the first African-American to be designated as a chess grandmaster, and last Wednesday, the first AfricanAmerican to be inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis. He received his honor as the US Chess Championship got underway, with Ashley taking on commentating duties.

When he got the call in January that he was being

NO WILLIAMS, NO PROBLEM

RISBANE, Australia—Even without Serena and Venus Williams, the United States was too strong for Australia in their Fed Cup playoff, clinching a spot in the elite eight-nation World Group next year with wins in the first three singles matches.

Coco Vandeweghe filled in for Madison Keys in the opening reverse singles match on Sunday and came from a set and a break down to beat Australian No. 1 Sam Stosur, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, to give the Americans an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the bestof-five playoff on temporary indoor clay court at Pat Rafter Arena.

Vandeweghe saved two break points in the last game before closing with a service winner.

For the second time in as many matches, former US Open champion and French Open finalist Stosur melted down after winning the first set.

Surprise pick Christina McHale beat Stosur, 3-6, 6-1, 7-5, on Saturday to give the United States a 2-0 lead, after Madison Keys opened with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Daria Gavrilova, who was making her Fed Cup debut for Australia.

Vandeweghe was unsettled in the first set on Sunday, dropping serve twice, but picked up rhythm, as the match progressed and exploited the tension evident in the must-win situation for Stosur.

The US traveled to Australia without its leading three singles players, with the Williams sisters and Sloane Stephens skipping the playoff and leaving No. 25-ranked Keys as the highestranked player on the team.

In Lucerne two-time defending champion Czech Republic was held 1-1 by Switzerland after threatening to dominate the opening singles rubbers in their Fed Cup semifinal.

After 33rd-ranked Barbora Strycova routed No. 17 Timea Bacsinszky, 6-0, 6-2, on Saturday, Karolina Pliskova led 129th-ranked Viktorija Golubic by one set and a break up in the second set.

Golubic, making her Fed Cup singles debut in the absence of 10th-ranked teammate Belinda Bencic, fought back for an unlikely 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win. AP

Rafael Nadal beat Andy Murray, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, on Saturday to earn a shot at a record-equaling 28th Masters title—with Novak Djokovic—and a 68th overall.

inducted, for his contributions as a player, coach and commentator, Ashley said tears came to his eyes.

“For me to hear that I’m being inducted for everything I’ve given to the game, that I’ve done to promote the game, that I’ve done to help young people play, and for the inspiration I’ve been, has just been absolutely incredible,” Ashley told The Associated Press in an interview at, where else, at Chess Forum, an all-things-chess shop in Manhattan.

Born in Jamaica, Ashley came to the tough Brownsville section of Brooklyn with two siblings when he was 12, reuniting with the mother who had left her children a decade earlier to carve out a better life, working as a nanny and later in a string of office clerk jobs.

Ashley got serious about chess during his high school years and continued at New York’s City College. From the start, he had one goal.

“I was transported to this world and I wanted to be one of the grandmasters and that’s all I knew,” he said.

sports

PPP Lead

Continued on A14

The process of becoming a grandmaster is done under the auspices of the World Chess Federation, known by its French acronym FIDE, and involves earning overall points and performing particularly well in chess tournaments.

At the time Ashley became a grandmaster, in 1999, he said there were about 500 or so players with the title. Currently, there are just over 1,500 grandmasters. They come from all over the world, but Ashley is still the only black American to reach that status.

Ashley, who makes a living from the game as a player, coach and author, said he wants to see more African-American players reach the highest levels.

“It takes a lot of ground seeding to get players on that path,” he said.

Some of that seeding involves the work Ashley doe s with schoolchildren, including at an afterschool program in Ferguson, Missouri.

“Ashley is a great inspiration to younger black

‘YOUR MOvES DO tHE tALkINg’

See “Internet,” A2

MAURICE ASHLEY is chess’s first African-American »grandmaster to enter Hall of Fame. AP

BusinessMirror

| Monday, april 18, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana

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RAFAEL NADAL has waited two years to win a Masters title, and four years to get his Monte Carlo crown back, so losing on Sunday would be a particularly bitter blow. AP

Trade Supervising Undersecretary for the E-commerce Office (ECO) Prudencio M. Reyes said the oft-cited complaint of slow and expensive Internet is the main factor behind the slow growth

The truth about election spending

CHASING NO. 9

Sports

chasing no. 9

With 7 options, water is the next big thing in PPPs

Number of Philippine SMEs that are online

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INSIDE

“I missed some shots, but you have to take chances against the best players,” Murray said. “If you don’t do that, you’re going to lose anyway.”

Murray dominated on his serve—and pressured Nadal’s—throughout the first set, using his drop shot effectively. But Nadal broke Murray to start the second set on his way to a third win against Murray in a semifinal here.

The Spaniard found his serving range in the deciding set, twice holding at love and, eventually, clinching victory on his fifth match point.

After eight straight titles, Nadal lost the final here to Djokovic in 2013. He has not won a tournament since Hamburg last August, while his last final was in January, losing to Djokovic in Doha.

Some tension showed as he served for the match— with a full 10 minutes between his first match point and his successful fifth.

He got the win when Murray’s forehand swipe hit the net. Nadal improved to 17-6 in career meetings against Murray and 7-1 on clay.

Murray lost to Nadal in the semifinals here in 2009 and 2011, when the Spaniard was the undisputed world’s best on clay. But Nadal has since proven vulnerable, and the nine-time French Open champion relinquished his Roland Garros title last year.

Murray broke to lead 4-2 in the first set, and a superb drop shot gave him set point, which he clinched when Nadal netted a forehand.

The major turning point came when Nadal broke for 4-3 after Murray missed an easy smash at the net, allowing Nadal to pass him down the line.

Nadal then saved two break points in the next game to lead, 5-3, as the players thrilled the crowd with some spectacular rallies.

After Nadal served out the second set, during which Murray got only 39 percent of his first serves in, the Spaniard broke him again at the start of the deciding set with an exquisite drop shot. Nadal stopped playing momentarily after dirt got in his eye.

“I didn’t want to stop when Andy was serving because [it] is not fair,” Nadal said. “But every time it was bothering me more, and more and I was losing little bit of the vision, so I had to go to the chair and put some water [in my eye].”

Trailing 3-1, Murray’s composure wilted in the sunshine as he remonstrated several times with the chair umpire.

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HALLE BERRY

LYNDA CARTER

totA pulchrA MISS CHARLIZE

@misscharlize

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e’ve upheld this image of the beauty queen as timid and demure, but there will always be an extraordinary few who breaks the stereotype. Some former pageant goddesses can serve as role models for the current Miss Universe, our own Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, who has inidcated her desire to be a Bond Girl after her reign. These women have ruled—or are conquering— Hollywood at various times, essaying roles that are daring, formidable and badass.

As April becomes an unofficial beauty-pageant month, specifically Binibining Pilipinas, let’s pay tribute to queens who have gone beyond the pageant stage and made great strides on the silver screen.

DANIELA BIANCHI She won Miss Photogenic and was the favorite to win Miss Universe 1960, but only emerged in second place to Linda Bement of the US. That triumph led to a role as Tatiana Romanova, a corporal in the Soviet Army Intelligence, deployed to the Soviet Embassy in Istanbul to “work” as a cipher clerk in From Russia with Love (1963). She played opposite Sean Connery as James Bond. (There was no Filipina rep in Miss Universe 1960. However, the semifinalist from Colombia, Stella Márquez, became the first Miss International the same year and founded the Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc. afterward.)

Claudine Auger played Domino in Thunderball (1965). As Claudine Oger, she won Miss France Monde and first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest.

(We did not compete in the Miss World till the 1960s.)

HALLE BERRY Representing Ohio, Halle was first runner-up at Miss USA 1986 to Christy Fichtner of Texas.

She went on to compete at Miss World, emerging fifth runner-up. She won an Oscar for Best Actress in 2002 for Monster’s Ball (2001) while filming Die Another Day (2002) opposite Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. Halle played Giacinta “Jinx” Johnson, a National Security Agency agent. Her cool factor was amplified when she appeared in a series of X-Men movies as Storm, the tribal princess/ mutant superhero who has the ability to control the weather and can fly. (Halle’s Pinay batchmate at Miss World was Sherry Rose Byrne, one of the 15 semifinalists and that year’s Asia’s Queen of Beauty.)

MICHELLE YEOH Another beauty queen-turnedBond Girl, she played Wai Lin, a martial-arts expert/ spy for the Chinese People’s External Security Force with the rank of colonel, in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).

Michelle’s portrayal is consistently regarded as one of the best Bond Girls ever. But as the honorable warrior Shu Lien in the Academy Award–winning Chineselanguage martial-arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, she is deemed by cineastes as greatest action heroine of all time.

Michelle was Miss Malaysia, Queen of the Pacific and a Miss World candidate in 1983. Her batch mate included....

MAGGIE CHEUNG I love her in 2046. She won the 57th Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award for Clean (2004) and also had acclaimed roles in Centre Stage, Chinese Box and In the Mood for Love. Opposite Jet Li (Nameless) and Tony Leung (Broken Sword) in Hero, Maggie held her own against these Chinese superstars as Flying Snow, a skilled assassin and swordsman.

Maggie represented Hong Kong and was one of the semifinalists at Miss World 1983 held in London, the crown won by hometown girl Sarah-Jane Hutt. Her

Hydropower

MICHELLE YEOH

and Michelle’s Pinay competitor was Marilou Sadiua.

PRIYANKA CHOPRA She was Miss World 2000 representing India. (Our bet was Katherine Annwen de Guzman.) Now she’s one of TV’s ruling action heroines in the leading role of an fBI agent in the suspense-thriller Quantico on ABC. No Bollywood actress has accomplished such a feat. She’s currently playing the badass villain in the movie adaptation of Baywatch, which previously starred….

SHAWN WEATHERLY She played Jill Riley, the most experienced of the female lifeguards, in the first season of the cult TV show from 1989 to 1990. When she won Miss Universe in 1980, her third runner-up was the beloved Maria Rosario “Chat” Silayan.

DENISE QUIÑONES The Miss Universe 2001 from Puerto Rico appeared as Andrea Rojas in Season 5 of Smallville. She helped the young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) as the metahuman vigilante known as the Angel of vengeance, a mysterious warrior woman who defends Metropolis while hunting for her mother’s murderer.

(Her Pinay competitor was Zorayda Ruth Andam.)

LYNDA CARTER Representing Arizona, she was crowned Miss World America 1972 and competed in Miss World, ending in the semifinals with our own Evangeline Reyes. As the iconic star of the TV series Wonder Woman from 1975 to 1979, Lynda was the most high-profile beauty contestant alumnae from any pageant until....

your best travel buddies is this pair of flats

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oldable ballet flats, Yosi Samra (instagram.com/yosisamra.ph) can effortlessly take you from city pavements to the wild outdoors with its quality craftsmanship and runway-inspired details. The New York-based brand has created pairs that are small enough to fit into your favorite handbag during a fun night out or in your luggage for a much-awaited trip.

What Yosi Samra flats lack in size, they more than make up for in a variety of styles and an unmatched level of comfort. Pairs come in every imaginable

combination of the most supple leathers, satins, patents and suedes. a few standout pieces feature bold prints, rich tones and classic neutrals.

The brand makes chic and versatile looks available year-round with its everyday line complemented by new collections released every season and for special seasons (think weddings). Whether it’s a fun night out with friends or a trip to your favorite vacation spot, these flats take you to places—near and far—in style.

life

GAL GADOT As the big screen’s first Wonder Woman, she handily won Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Before winning this coveted role, Gal kicked ass in the Fast & Furious series as Gisele, a weapons expert and a former Mossad agent. In real life, she trained as an enlisted soldier of the Israel Defense Forces before winning Miss Israel in 2004. She competed in the Miss Universe with our own Maricar Balagtas. Next year Gal will have her own stand-alone Wonder Woman movie, just fitting for the most unforgettable and badass heroine of all time. n

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the science of collecting cute

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f you’re a normal person, you would likely feel giddy at the sight of cute stuff. Whether it’s a baby, a puppy, or a toy, there’s something about cute things that make us want to hold and squeeze and stare at it for hours. This obsession with cuteness can result in a mild mania that urges one to collect cute objects (often just to stare at them for hours).

This sometimes results in feelings of guilt. Why am I spending time and money on this? But don’t fret, there is a scientific explanation for your predilection.

Yes, it’s natural—an evolutionary advantage

that predisposes us to protect our young. Konrad Lorenz, an Austrian biologist and ethologist, came up with the term “kinderschema”, which refers to the group of traits that we consider as cute and adorable.

Cuteness is based on the basic characteristics of a baby: large eyes, button nose, chubby cheeks, etc.

It stimulates a region in our midbrains, called the mesocorticolimbic system, which is connected to our motivational processes. What we feel for cute stuff also motivates us to care for it.

In short, we care for cute things because it helps

us care for our young and make sure the human race survives. In short, this caring is not a waste of time.

This care and craving for cute things causes some people to collect—a craving being satisfied by a number of online stores, like peppermanila.com, which is dedicated to kawaii (Japanese for cute or the quality of being cute). To satisfy the craving for cute, these collectors go online to find great deals and a wide array of choices. Targeting young online shoppers with a penchant for kawaii but with little time to browse through brick-and-mortar stores,

online stores give them the freedom (and time) to look at what’s available, buy on the spot, and have the loot delivered to their doorstep.

The items sold and collected range from notebooks and stationery containing kawaii designs, to elegant leatherette-bound journals, to novelty items, like minitape measures and stuffed toy keychains. Anything cute and quirky is fair game.

And, yes, these shoppers understand that their passion for cute, aside from being a fun and fulfilling hobby, is just natural.

technology changes BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, April 18, 2016 E 1

Technology changes, good ManageMenT doesn’T

By Psyche Roxas Mendoza

By Zachary First

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n Moore’s Law, Gordon Moore declared that the power of silicon chips would double every 18 months. Contrast that with Peter Drucker’s much more sober statement about the art of managing people:

The Toyota Production System works for relationships, too

By Ed Batista

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HE innovations of t he toyota Production System (tPS) are well-documented in management literature and business school curricula everywhere. these concepts are usually discussed in the context of industrial operations, but they can also be applied to interpersonal issues. the tPS term “ jidoka” means “aut o m at i o n w it h a hu m a n touch.” R ather than ignoring problems and plowing ahead, toyota assembly lines are designed to stop themselves, so that higher-order thinking can be applied to address problems before production resumes.

Here’s how toyota describes the sequence of events: n A machine detects a problem

and communicates it. n A situation deviates from the normal workflow. n the line is stopped. n Manager/supervisor removes the cause of the problem. n Improvements are incorporated into the standard workflow. n Good products can be p ro du c e d . this requires an organization’s willingness to stop production— repeatedly—and trust that these interruptions will ultimately result not only in better products, but also in more efficient and profitable operations.

While we have to change the terminology a bit, this concept can be applied to almost any inter personal interaction, from a one-on-one conversation to a large meeting. Here’s how this interpersonal jidoka works:

n People are trained to sense and respond to communication problems, both conceptual and emotional. n A communication problem disrupts the normal workflow of an interaction. n Anyone involved in the process is empowered to stop the forward progress toward its current goal (such as an agenda item). n Everyone involved is invited to talk about the communication problem. n Improvements in communication (at both the one-on-one and group levels) are identified and implemented. n Better interactions can be had.Just as in industrial operations, this process requires an organization’s w il ling ness to tolerate interruptions and trust that the result will be a better

product and improved efficiency. this is easy to grasp conceptually and often very difficult to put into practice. Here are three ways to apply these ideas: n Establish norms that help the group acknowledge and regulate emotion. n Make it acceptable for anyone to pause the conversation in order to assess how it’s going. n Recognize that these interventions work most effectively in a feedback-rich culture.

W hen we habitually fail to interrupt dysfunctional interactions to address underlying communication problems, we collude in the perpetuation of bad meetings and organizational theater.

Ed Batista is an executive coach and an instructor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Work-life balance is easier when managers know how to assess performance

By Scott Behson

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ot long ago, a manager asked me to name the most important work-life benefit for employees. I answered that the most essential benefit isn’t a benefit at all. of course, child care, flexible scheduling and family leave policies are important, but the best thing managers can do to support working parents (and all employees) is to get better at one of their most basic functions: performance appraisals. this means doing the hard work of actually evaluating performance,

“We are not going to breed a new race of supermen. We will have to run our organizations with people as they are.”together they capture the difference between technological progress, which in certain periods occurs exponentially, and the “progress” we make in changing human nature—which is no progress at all.

Because human nature doesn’t change, the fundamental art and science of managing humans doesn’t change either. this doesn’t mean that managers today should do exactly the same things that they did 100 years ago. When the purposes, processes and technologies of work change, we need to alter how we manage. But these changes should be to management’s tactics, not its basic function.

Managerial effectiveness has always been based on management engaging in the three tasks that Drucker identified as uniquely its own: focusing the organization on its specific purpose; making work both productive and suitable for human beings; and taking responsibility for the organization’s social impacts.

If these are the tasks, then here are the action items: n Direct all of the organization’s work toward making strength productive and weakness irrelevant. on the organization’s behalf, this means holding every measure of effort—time, talent or treasure— accountable for the results it must produce in order to justify its expenditure. on the worker’s behalf, this means placing people according to their strengths and governing

them in ways that embrace their unique identities. n Ask if every product, service, program and policy in your organization serves your purpose. No matter the type of organization, the purpose is always social: Businesses exist to create customers, nonprofits to change lives and governments to effectively express the “common will and the common vision,” as Drucker put it. on a regular basis, put everything your organization does on trial for its life according to this standard. n Ensure that organizational problems do not become social problems. And seek to turn social problems into organizational opportunities. Every organization depends for its existence on the world beyond its walls. When organizational problems spill over into the outside world, the organization almost always suffers.

When management stops chasing silver bullets and instead, embraces its essential tasks, it will eventually be faced with some profound questions: When an organization’s mission becomes outmoded, what should it do? Amid the rise of machine intelligence, where is the value in human work? these are more than just questions of profit or productivity. they are questions of community, morality and the meaning of human life. Which is exactly why they belong to management, the consummate social function.

By Michael Schrage

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human organizations now stalk today’s globally networked cyborganziations: Would 360-degree performance reviews lead to new insights and efficiencies? How should smart machines be programmed—or trained? are there new networks, such as the Internets of things, or novel data sets managers should access to assure ongoing performance improvement?

Organizations managing smart robots and high-per formance machine learning ensembles must monitor correlations between algorithmic efficiencies and customer value. the challenge will be deciding how much those correlations are defined and determined by human leaders as opposed to artificially intelligence support systems.

“We simply don’t have good computational theories for social norms and behaviors,” observes Jerry Kaplan, a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur and author of Humans Need Not Apply. that makes it difficult for smart people and smarter machines to productively coexist and collaborate. But there should be no doubt that people running the business are going to use machine-generated data and predictive analytics to make the machines that generated them even better and smarter. the most provocative question going forward is whether tomorrow’s organizations get better results and more value from performance reviews of their best people or their best machines.

Monday morning

not chair or face time. W hen managers do so, they free employees to arrange their work lives so that they can be the most ef fective. Sur pr ise, sur pr ise: W hen you focus on measuring face time, you get…face time.

When you focus on performance, you get superior performance.

Refocusing your evaluation efforts in this way doesn’t require the complete overhaul of your company’s performance-management system. It involves relatively small actions that many managers can make on their own. n Define performance in terms

© 2013 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. (Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate)

of customer satisfaction, core activities or project completion. n Regularly hold goal-setting and feedback sessions with employees, and make goal attainment the core of performance evaluation. n Understand which aspects of employees’ jobs lend themselves to flexible work and which need to be performed at set times in the office. n Allow more flexibility in how, when and where work gets done, while ensuring that enough time is spent at the office to promote communication, collaboration and innovation. n Gradually allow more freedom

and flexibility to well-performing employees. n Recognize that we can maintain and increase performance standards in professional environments, even as we let go of exactly how work gets done.

A fitness wristband can track how long you sit in your desk chair.

It takes a leader to understand how work really gets done, and by whom.

Scott Behson is a professor of management at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the author of the Working Dad’s Survival Guide: How to Succeed at Work and at Home.

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Zachary First is executive director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University.

How to Give a Robot a Job Review mart, quasi-autonomous robots and machines are replacing humans in workplaces all over the world. they learn fast, work hard and complain less. Intelligent technologies are increasingly delivering greater value for less money. But “better than human” comes with its own managerial challenges. What happens when these algorithmic ensembles underperform? Who retrains “machine learning” underachievers? When sophisticated robots— Fidelity robo-advisers, Uber autonomous cars— behave in ways that make customers nervous, how do they get the feedback essential to improvement? Who—or what—is accountable?

Brilliant, hardworking machines will require job reviews just as humans do.

Executives who can’t get their robots to do a better job may lose their own. Empowering smart machines to—pun intended—live up to their potential may well become the essential new 21st-century leadership skill.

Increasingly, robots and machine learning systems will be held to the same key performance indicators that govern human accountability and effectiveness. If the automated chatbot isn’t boosting the contact center’s customersatisfaction rating, reprogramming or retraining is required. Should the manager look to the company’s best customer-care representatives to fix the problem or should he look to the technologists? Should robo-advisers be working more closely with their human counterparts? the same leadership, managerial and motivational questions that haunt smart

Michael Schrage is a research fellow at the Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His latest book is the Innovator’s Hypothesis.

Like the poor in the Philippines, they are on the bottom rung of the electionspending ladder. While television outfits can command almost a million pesos for a prime-time 30-second ad placement, the men who post countless stickers of smiling candidates under an El Niño sun are each paid a belowminimum-wage rate of P300 for a daylong work.

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First of three parts

EAN, dark, of average height and with an easy smile, the not-yet-40, close-in security of a government official chose to have the interview at a restaurant close to his place of work.

He used to be a militant activistcommunity organizer. He is used to not giving his real name, the same

PESO exchange rates n US 46.2560

₧300

The amount a politician’s operations staff receives a day for posting campaign stickers, posters and tarpaulins

way that he was going to use “Nick” as his nom de guerre in this special report on election spending.

“Maselan ang pag-uusapan natin.

Mabuti na ang ganito [We will talk about delicate matters. It’s better this way],” he smiled.

Nick began by saying there are many like him—once activists who left the movement to look for a paying job.

Distribution Nonrevenue water septage Sewerage Author: Alberto C. Agra

bm Graphics: Job Ruzgal

Continued on A2

n japan 0.4228 n UK 65.4661 n HK 5.9639 n CHINA 7.1344 n singapore 33.9344 n australia 35.5616 n EU 52.1166 n SAUDI arabia 12.3386

Source: BSP (15 April 2016 )

A2 Monday, April 18, 2016

BMReports BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The truth about election spending Continued from A1

“Ang hirap ng panahon, ang hirap kumilos.

Kailangang tulungan ang pamilya. At dahil organizing ang alam ko, dito ako napunta sa local politics [Times are hard, making it difficult to stay an activist. My family needs me. And because organizing is what I know best, I found myself working in local politics].”

Nick became active in local politics from 2004 to 2012. His first time out was as an organizing staff of a provincial congressman and later, a provincial mayor. Years later, he became part of a team of “operators” in one of the cities of Metro Manila.

Nick explained there were two kinds of election expenses. One was above-the-line, which covered advertisements aired on television and radio or printed in the various newspapers, tabloid and magazines. This kind of expense was openly declared.

The other kind pertained to belowthe-line activities, the kind that led to the “strengthening of the party machinery” of an incumbent or opposition party.

Costly, yet dirt cheap

NICK said machinery-building doesn’t come cheap.

Internet. . .

Continued from A1

of e-commerce as a platform.

“The infrastructure is one of the ‘I’s’ we outlined in our road map. We really need to come up with more affordable and faster Internet,” Reyes told BusinessMirror in an interview. Culled from the Apec’s “Digital Prosperity Checklist,” the e-commerce road map crafted by DTI-ECO outlines key recommendations dubbed as “six I’s”: infrastructure, investment, innovation, intellectual capital, information flows and integration.

On infrastructure, one problem cited by experts is the coverage of the telecommunications sector under The Commonwealth Act (CA) 146, or the Public Service Act of 1936.

It classifies the sector as a public service.

As such, foreign players are covered by the 60-40 cap on ownership.

Also, the Public Telecommunications Policy Act, or Republic Act 7925, defined the Internet as a “value-added service” and not a “basic service.”

As such, it remains deregulated, leaving telcos to determine Internet speed and the rates.

“Magastos at mas ma-detalye ang gastusan sa komunidad para malatag mo ng matatag ang makinarya ng kandidato o partido mula barangay hanggang munisipyo o siyudad. Maraming tao ang kailangan [Strengthening the election machinery from the barangay level to the municipality or city level can be costly and requires nitty-gritty expenses].”

The pay per person at the barangay level is also dirt cheap.

While television outfits can command almost a million pesos for a prime-time 30-second ad placement, many of the men and women at the bottom-rung of the election spending ladder earn below-minimum wage rates per day.

In one city, young men whose job is to post campaign stickers, posters and tarpaulins are paid an average of P200 a day to P300 a day for their efforts, when the minimum wage is already at P481 per day.

As late as 2007, Nick said the basic salary of an operations head was only P10,000 to P15,000, with free food, cell-phone load, gas allowance (if you had a motorcycle) and daily allowance (which can range from P500 to P1,000).

“May add-ons naman yan pag may mitingde-avance: kailangan [kasi] ng dyip, pagkain [There are additional expenses if there are

These laws practically provide the government and the private sector a narrow elbow room to speed up Internet service in the Philippines.

Currently, the provision of Internet service in the country is dominated by only two players. “The two telco players own and control most of the existing Internet infrastructure.

As such, the dominant telcos also dictate access to and the cost and quality of Internet and broadband service in the Philippines, both fixed and mobile,” according to a policy brief from the Joint Foreign Chambers.

The dominance of the telco giants, combined with regulatory hurdles, discourage foreign Investments in telecommunications infrastructure in the Philippines, according to experts.

The Philippines lags behind other Asean countries in terms of Internet speed at 3.6 megabits per seconds (Mbps). Singapore’s internet speed is at 61 mbps, outpacing even the 22.3 Mbps in the US and Japan’s 41.7 Mbps.

The DTI said speeding up the Internet is key to leveling the playing field for MSMEs and to help them go head to head with larger enterprises.

“Our target is for MSMEs to go global. We want the domestic market to be integrated to the global market through e-commerce,” Reyes

town or barangay meetings, things like food and use of a jeepney, all the works].”

The total take home pay of an operations head, including add-ons, can reach P15,000 a month on average. “If the candidate is generous, the head of operations can earn P30,000 a month—all in,” Nick said.

The staff of the operations head receive P3,000 to P5,000 plus meal allowance, transportation allowance and cell-phone load a month. Whatever he saves from his allowances, he can add to his earnings so that we can take home, at the most, P10,000 a month.

Operations expenses

“LAHAT ng gastos sa operations ang may hawak operations,” Nick said. “Pero per activity basis ang baba ng pondo. [Money for operations expenses is released on a peractivity basis].”

The operations plan is run by phases: campaign, election proper, counting of votes and after the counting of votes, according to him.

He added that they are given money as the need requires it.

“I am in charge of election materials.

Sa akin ang ‘Operation Dikit [OD].’ Kinuha namin ’yung tawag doon sa OD noon nga

aktibista pa kami [I oversee the preparation of materials to be posted on walls (OD). We took the name of this task from the OD we used to do when we were still activists.”

Nick said he gives a costing of an OD activity and shows it to the operations head.

Thereafter, he is given his budget and they proceed. He says his budget per OD activity is small.

“Walang masyadong cash kasi food is supplied and transportation is provided. Ang magastos lang ay ’yung liquid sosa na hinahalo sa gawgaw na ginagawang pandikit sa OD. [Not much cash is spent. Our budget is used up by liquid sosa. We mix it with starch for a stickier paste.]” Nick said they wear gloves “so your hands don’t get scorched.”

He added that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has banned paper stickers using home-made paste. “But we do our operations at night when no one can see and catch us. In the morning, who is going to say the paper posters came from us.

Mahirap ’yan mahuli ng batas o ng Comelec [It’s hard to apply the law or Comelec bans to this activity].”

In house

If your candidate is an incumbent, then you derive your income from the local govern-

said. The e-commerce road map is targeting to migrate 100,000 MSMEs to e-commerce in four years. According to Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. Smart’s SME enterprise arm, only 1 percent of the estimated SMEs in the country, or only 10,000 small businesses, are online. According to the road map, the Philippines has the fastest-growing Internet population in the world, growing by more than fivefold in the past five years.

“We have to capitalize on that kind of magnitude of growth to be competitive. Within Asean alone, I think we have one of the biggest populations of Internet users,” Reyes said, adding that around 60 million of the country’s estimated 100 million population are Internet users. According to the road map, Asia Pacific led e-commerce sales globally in 2015, taking a share of 33.4 percent of total retail online sales, compared North America’s 31.7 percent and Western Europe’s 24.6 percent.

The country’s pace in growing its e-commerce sales will depend largely on how the country rolls out the six I’s. Reyes said the road map’s major goal is to raise the share of online MSMEs to 25 percent of GDP by 2020, from the estimated 10 percent in 2015.

ment. You are employed by the elected official you work for, Nick said, adding that he sees nothing wrong with that because they are qualified and really do work. The gray area happens once election starts.

Nic k e x pl a i ned t h at t he c it y or municipal political structure functions in in a way that promotes public service. There are different departments serving different sectors—youth, senior citizens, d isabled lesbian gay, bi se x u a l , t r a n sge nde r, t r ad it ion a l organizations, etc.

We in operations divide ourselves and sit in these formations for the purpose of constituency-building, according to him.

“Trabaho po namin ’yan—constituency building—sa incumbent. Pag paparating na ang eleksyon, nako-convert po ’yan, nagiging machinery siya. Halimbawa, pag tumakbo na ’yung kandidato ng partido, kami ’yung magiging mass-OD team. Kami din ’yung papasok sa bahay-bahay para tumukoy ng mga taong maaasahan sa eleksyon, [Constituency-building is our job. Once elections draw near, this set-up becomes the machinery of the incumbent. If you are with the opposition, you do the same but, of course, it is more difficult because you lack the resources the incumbent has.]” To be continued

lady tams stun lady archers, force knockout showdown

F

By Lance Agcaoili

AR Eastern University (FEU) summoned all its strength when it mattered most and upset De La Salle in a nail-biting five-setter, 15-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-21, 1614, to force a rubber match for the second championship slot in Season 78 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) women’s volleyball action on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Swept in the double-round eliminations by the Lady Spikers, the Lady Tamaraws worked their way from two sets down with sheer hard work and determination in the last three sets to send De La Salle reeling and losing its twice-to-beat advantage in the Final Four.

The knockout match is set at 4 p.m. also on Wednesday in the same venue—after Adamson University tries to complete its own upset of National University, which the Soaring Falcons beat in their own Final Four duel, 23-25, 25-17, 25-21, 25-22, earlier on Sunday.

Bernadeth Pons topped all scorers with 22 points on 20 spikes, one block and one ace, while Chin Basas chipped in 17 hits she highlighted with 15 attacks with 15 digs.

Graduating Team Captain Remy Palma, who looked unstoppable with her cor-

ner spikes in the fifth set, and Gyzelle Sy delivered 18 points and Sy 53 excellent sets, respectively.

“Sinabi ko sa mga bata na ibang usapan na itong Final Four kasi mas napaghandaan na namin ‘yung pwedeng mangyari.

And luckily nakuha namin ‘yung fifth set,” FEU Head Shaq de los Santos said.

“Ipinakita ng mga players namin na gusto talaga nila manalo.”

De La Salle struggled in three sets against FEU in the first round of eliminations, 2927, 25-23, 25-20, and labored even more in the second round, 25-14, 25-9, 22-25, 19-25, 15-7.

Kim Kianna Dy had 20 hits in leading De La Salle, which wanted to finish off its Final Four assignment immediately and head to the finals where archrival and defending two-time champion Ateneo lies in waiting. The Lady Eagles disposed of a young University of the Philippines side, 25-12, 25-13, 25-16, in the other half of the semifinals on Saturday.

Ara Galang and Cyd Demecillo were also very much in the contest and contributed 14 points apiece, while Majoy Baron and Mika Reyes added 13 and 10 points, respectively.

Setter Kim Fajardo had a season-high 77 excellent sets.

VP hopeful graces Rotary Club’s DisCon 2016

By David Cagahastian @davecaga & Butch Fernandez @butchBM

T

he government should focus on skills training rather than merely providing academic education to help graduates land jobs immediately, the administration’s vice-presidential candidate said at the District Conference 2016 (DisCon 2016) of the Rotary International District 3830 on Saturday.

Liberal Party vice-presidential candidate Leni Robredo outlined the administration’s platform for education at the vice-presidential forum component of the annual DisCon 2016, which focuses on training the youth with the necessary skills to land jobs and increase expenditures to improve the quality of education in the country.

Education is one of the advocacies of the Rotary Club, a service organization which seeks to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards and advance goodwill and peace around the world.

Robredo was the “last woman standing” at the vice-presidential forum component of the annual DisCon 2016, as two

other vice-presidential candidates who confirmed their attendance canceled at the last minute.

Forum moderator Conrad Banal, radio show host of the top-rating “Karambola” program of DWIZ, said Sens. Francis Escudero and Alan Peter Cayetano, who canceled their attendance, made excuses of “being tired,” or “having no time.”

Robredo thanked the Rotary International District 3830 for allowing her to hog the limelight at the DisCon 2016, and noted that she, too, is a Rotarian because she is a member of the Rotary Club of Naga, which her father helped establish.

The DisCon 2016 is the biggest annual gathering of about 1,000 Rotarians, where all 91 Rotary Clubs based in Makati, Parañaque, Muntinlupa, Taguig, Pateros, Las Piñas and Palawan province converged.

Robredo said she would be ready to work with whoever would win the presidency in the May 9 elections, in case she wins.

The members of District 3830, led by Gov. Jose A.R. Bengzon, welcomed Robredo’s advocacies, especially in education, and thanked her for her dedication to service in the communities as a public service lawyer before her entry into politics.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

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Monday, April 18, 2016

A3

BSP backs proposals to plug ‘gaps’ in PHL’s antimoney-laundering law

T

he Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) vowed over the weekend to make money laundering a high-risk activity going forward, as it prepares countermeasures that strengthen the country’s defenses against illicit money transactions and for adoption by the legislative.

Deputy BSP Governor for the Supervision and Examination Sector Nestor Espenilla Jr. said the central bank supports plugging the gaps in the existing legal framework that allows illicitly obtained money to enter and exit the country with relative ease.

“The proposed measures will

make the financial system much less attractive to illegal money flows by making transactions more visible to financial regulators, which will greatly increase the probability of detection. Together with stiffer sanctions, ML [money-laundering] activities will become a much riskier proposition,” Espenilla said.

Espenilla added that aside from the inclusion of the casinos as covered entities under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (Amla) and the proposed lifting of the bank secrecy provisions, the BSP has other proposals in mind as additional safeguards against unmitigated money-laundering schemes.

“We are also proposing strengthening the legal basis to more closely supervise the operations of money service businesses, like remittance companies and money changers,” Espenilla said.

Earlier, the BSP issued a separate memorandum ordering banks to take “extra caution” and “vigilance” in their transactions with foreign-exchange dealers, money changers and remittance agents following allegations of cross-border money laundering involving one of the local lenders.

This developed in the wake of

a Senate probe on the $81-million cross-border hijacking of Bangladeshi central bank funds linking the Philippine Remittance Co. (Philrem) to the scandal.

“We are also recommending an increase in imposable monetary penalties for Amla violations,” Espenilla added. At the Senate hearing, Espenilla proposed elevated monetary penalties totaling P30,000 a day for each financial transaction exposed as illicit, a figure dismissed outright by legislators as way too small for the large commercial banks and financial institutions that help launder money obtained elsewhere by financial hooligans.

“The BSP supports the inclusion of casinos among the covered persons under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, as amended.

This will make the coverage of Amla more comprehensive so as

to include all highly exposed sectors,” Espenilla reiterated.

“We also see the need for some relaxation of deposit secrecy laws to enable the BSP to effectively check compliance of covered persons with Amla, as amended, and its implementing rules and regulations,” he quickly added.

As for the local banks, Espenilla said the industry continue to report strong balance sheet numbers as validated by third-party assessors.

“The outlook for the Philippine banking system is positive

on account of the country’s improved macroeconomic environment, characterized by strong economic growth, low inflation, strong balance of payments position and healthy fiscal position,” Espenilla said. “The system capped 2015 with improved asset quality, strong capitalization and continuous growth in loans and deposits. International rating agencies, like Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, give the banking system very positive reviews,” he added. Bianca Cuaresma

We also see the need for some relaxation of deposit secrecy laws to enable the BSP to effectively check compliance of covered persons with Amla.” —Espenilla

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A4 Monday, April 18, 2016

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Ayala Corp. remains keen on making cars to boost manufacturing sector’s revival

T

By VG Cabuag

@villygc

housands of workers go in and out of Ayala Corp.’s factory lines in Laguna, building mostly modules for the electronics component of a car. The factory lines, owned by its unit Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI), are akin to China’s massive assembly lines, but on a smaller scale.

The country’s oldest conglomerate, however, wants to manufacture more than just the electronic components of a vehicle. Ayala wants to build an entire car locally, using most of the components designed at home to revive the country’s struggling manufacturing sector.

The company appears to be a step closer to making that dream a reality after it announced that

it has forged a deal with Austria’s KTM AG to manufacture an initial 20,000 units of motorcycles in the Philippines. A chunk of the products will be exported to China and, later, to the rest of the 10 membercountries of Asean.

Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, the company’s chairman, believes there is a “massive” shift in investment happening in the world

of vehicle manufacturing as electronic components have become an integral part of cars.

“All the manufacturing plants that exist in the world push toward electronics. And not many institutions have that capability,” Ayala said.

IMI has the capability since it has several factories in Europe, North America and China.

“There will always be a market for vehicles globally but, even if that market is not growing at a massively fast pace, the shift taking place in manufacturing will be massive. And that shift needs new homes. The centers of gravity of manufacturing all over the world, those will have to either adjust or they will have to go to new places,” he said.

The company is placing itself at a “sweet spot” so it could woo away some of the manufacturing jobs that are usually given to China.

To do that, the company would first go into manufacturing KTM motorcycles, a brand geared to the middle-income segment of the market, and a relative unknown in some parts of Asia.

Arthur Tan, IMI president and

20,000

Units of KTM motorcycles that will be manufactured

by Ayala in the Philippines chief executive officer, said the deal with KTM only forms part of a “much deeper relationship” between the two firms.

Initially, he said, Ayala will import all the necessary components of a motorcycle and assemble the bikes in its Philippine Economic Zone Authority-accredited facility in Laguna operated by IMI. “KTM is not just looking for a cheapest way to build and sell a product in the market. What they’re looking for is a strategic partner to help revolutionize the next-generation motorcycle that will come out of their network. So the partnership here is not just on manufacturing, although that’s where we’re starting,” Tan said.

The deal also involves codevelopment of next-generation motorcycle models.

“And so we’re going to be involved in the electronics sector, the display technology, the ability for adding more safety features inside the motorcycle itself,” he said.

Ayala Corp. initially will spend some P500 million for the factory line and another $2 million to setup a venture with KTM. The conglomerate will own 65 percent of the venture.

“We will export 70 percent of our initial production to China, while the remaining 30 percent will be sold domestically,” Tan said.

Paolo Borromeo, Ayala Corp.’s strategy and development group head, said the long-term goal is to produce at least 10 percent of the 250,000 motorcycle units produced

by KTM in the world annually.

However, Ayala Corp. said it does not want to produce only motorbikes. Officials admitted when the company announced its dealership with Germany’s Volkswagen AG last year, it involved the same terms as today’s KTM deal—first, a dealership and later, the manufacture of the entire car.

The deal fizzled out after the Volkswagen emissions scandal. The German car company had admitted to cheating emission tests in the US. “Why we chose the motorcycle is because we already tried to do the automotive side with our partnership with Volkswagen. Because of externalities we’re not able to move on with that. The reason is not because of Ayala Corp. but because of our partners and because of government policies,” Lim said.

However, Ayala said it has not given up on its dream to manufacture a car locally. He said 40 percent of IMI’s business is in the automotive sector—mainly in Volkswagen cars—as it supplies several of the vehicle’s electronics components, such as cameras and sensors.

Apart from Volkswagen, Ayala also has car dealerships under Honda and Isuzu.

“The motorcycle, this is a new component [of the IMI business],” Ayala said.

“If you take a car today, not necessarily Volkswagen, chances are many of those components come from IMI. We see this evolving. I do not see why we cannot evolve,” he added.

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AseanMonday BusinessMirror

Editor: Max V. de Leon • Monday, April 18, 2016 A5

Myanmar vows to free political prisoners

Y

ANGON, Myanmar—Myanmar’s new president on Sunday pledged to continue efforts to release remaining political prisoners, as part of the sweeping democratic changes his government envisions after a half-century of military control.

President Htin Kyaw is leading the country’s first freely elected government, after more than 50 years of direct or indirect military domination.

Opponents of the old junta were commonly arrested and jailed for years for their political views.

One of the first acts of the new civilian administration that took power at the end of March was to set free more than 100 political prisoners and detainees awaiting trial just before the New Year holiday began.

It isn’t clear exactly how many political detainees remain in custody. More than 1,000 were released under the previous quasicivilian government as it moved the country toward openness and democracy.

“In the New Year, in order to give satisfaction

to the majority of the people, we will continue to try to release political prisoners, political activists and students facing trials related to politics,” Htin Kyaw said in a nationally televised address to mark the start of the Buddhist new year.

“We also have to try to avoid such arrests in the future,” he said. Htin Kyaw is a confidante of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the country’s most famous former political prisoner.

Her National League for Democracy won an overwhelming victory in last November’s general election, but she is barred from the presidency by a clause in the military-written constitution. After the election, she was given the especially created post of “state counselor,” which is akin to that of prime minister. AP

A BUDDHIST monk walks past, while activists on a truck, who were released with Myanmar president’s amnesty from Insein Prison, greet their colleagues and family members on a road on Sunday in Yangon, Myanmar.

President Htin Kyaw pardoned dozens of prisoners around the country on Sunday, according to the 2008 constitution, to mark Myanmar New Year. AP

BusinessMirror

World The

A6 | Monday, April 18, 2016 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

AN Afghan National Army soldier (left) shouts against the Taliban, after firing a rocket toward Taliban positions, on the outskirts of Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, on Saturday. Officials said Afghan forces repelled a Taliban assault on the northern city of Kunduz, which the insurgents had briefly seized last year. AP/NAJIM RAHIM

Kuwait oil workers hold mass walkout to protest cutbacks

K

UWAIT CITY—Oil workers in Kuwait went on strike on Sunday to protest proposed government cutbacks, as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries nation grapples with a prolonged slump in crude prices.

Thousands of workers gathered for demonstrations at the start of the local workweek in the town of Ahmadi, where the state-run Kuwait Oil Co. has its headquarters, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Kuwait City.

Protesters held signs reading “Stop meddling with the rights of the oil sector workers!” and “We will not allow you to take away our rights,” witnesses said.

Oil worker unions approved the strike last week after failing to reach common ground with Kuwait’s Oil Ministry.

The Kuwait Petroleum Corp., which is the parent company of the Kuwait Oil Co. and other related firms, said it has implemented an emergency plan to cope with the strike.

Sheikh Talal Al Khalid Al Sabah, the spokesman for Kuwait’s oil sector, said some retirees and contrac-

tors were being recalled to provide additional manpower.

Kuwait is able to meet “the most prominent global market demands” and has sufficient stockpiles to serve local needs, he said in a statement carried by the official Kuwait News Agency.

Adel al-Fadhel, spokesman for the Kuwait Oil Co. Workers’ Union, said workers opted to picket after government officials failed to meet the unions’ demands to keep workers’ salaries and benefits untouched from government cutbacks.

“The government rejected our proposals and is adamant on decreasing employee salaries. This is not acceptable,” he said.

The strike comes as representatives of major oil-producing nations gather in nearby Qatar to discuss plans to freeze oil output in an attempt to shore up prices. The drop from over $100 a barrel in 2014 to around $40 now is straining budgets of large producers such as Kuwait. AP

U.N. report: Afghan civilian deaths down, but more wounded

K

ABUL, Afghanistan—The United Nations said on Sunday that 600 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan’s war in the first quarter of this year, a marked decline from the same period last year, but said the number of wounded civilians has risen.

The latest figures released by the UN mission show that 1,343 people were wounded during the first three months of 2016. Compared to the same period in 2015, civilian deaths are down by 13 percent, but the number of wounded has risen by 11 percent.

The highest number of casualties resulted from civilians being harmed during ground fighting, the UN report said, adding that intensified fighting

600

Afghan civilians killed in the first quarter of 2016

in populated areas caused a nearly 30-percent increase in child casualties and a 5-percent increase in casualties among women.

“Even if a conflict intensifies, it does not have to be matched by corresponding civilian suffering provided parties

take their international humanitarian law and human-rights obligations seriously,” Nicholas Haysom, the UN envoy to Afghanistan, said in a statement.

“Failure to respect humanitarian obligations will result in more suffering in a nation that has suffered enough,” he added.

The UN said 60 percent of casualties were caused by “actions by anti-government elements,” apparently referring to the Taliban. The insurgents have denied previous allegations of targeting civilians or putting them in danger.

The report said 19 percent of casualties were caused by pro-government forces, while 16 percent could not be attributed to a specific party. AP

Iran vows to defend Muslim nations against terrorism, Israel

T

EHRAN, Iran—Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday vowed to defend Muslim countries against terrorism and Israel while insisting that its neighbors should not feel threatened.

Speaking during a National Army Day parade, in which Iranian forces displayed sophisticated air-defense systems recently acquired from Russia, Rouhani praised Tehran’s role in helping the Syrian and Iraqi governments roll back the Islamic State group.

“If tomorrow your capitals face danger from terrorism or Zionism, the power that will give you a positive answer is the

Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said. But he added that Iran would only help if Muslim countries asked it to, and said its military power was purely for defensive and deterrent purposes.

“The power of our armed forces is not against our southern, northern, eastern and western neighbors,” he said.

He appeared to be referring to Gulf Arab states, which have long viewed Iran as seeking to dominate the region. Saudi Arabia and Iran are longtime rivals that back opposite sides in the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars.

During the parade, the army displayed Russian-made S-300 air-defense

missiles delivered earlier this month.

In 2010 Russia froze a deal to supply the sophisticated systems to Iran, linking the decision to United Nations sanctions. President Vladimir Putin lifted the suspension last year following Iran’s deal with six world powers that curbed its nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions.

The United States and Israel have expressed concern over the missile systems, fearing they could upset the regional balance of military power.

Iran also displayed tanks, light submarines, short-range missiles and other weapons. AP

Syria opposition rejects idea for Assad to keep limited role T HE main Syrian opposition group rejected an idea floated during United Nationschaired peace talks that called for President Bashar al-Assad to remain in office for an interim period with limited powers and three deputies chosen from among his opponents.

The idea was put forward during a meeting on Friday in Geneva between the opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) and a UN team, led by its special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, according to the Saudi-backed group.

“There was no proposal, they were trying to see what the HNC will accept,” Chief Spokesman Salem al-Muslet said on Saturday by telephone. The opposition won’t abandon its position of refusing to allow the Syrian leader or close associates who have been involved in killing Syrian citizens to remain during a transitional phase, al-Muslet said. “There is no way Assad will stay in power, no

way the Syrians will accept that.”

Jessy Chahine, a spokesman for de Mistura, declined to comment on the confidential discussions.

De Mistura will make a statement about the matter on Monday, Chahine said by phone.

“No one raised this issue with us and it is off the agenda,” Ali Daghman, a spokesman for the Syrian Mission to the UN in Geneva, said in a phone interview. Syria has dismissed opposition calls for the 50-year-old Assad to leave the office he’s held since 2000, describing that as a “red line.”

The Assad proposal was first reported by Al Jazeera television, which said it was based on ideas from experts. De Mistura hasn’t publicly suggested any plans for Assad’s future, which remains the toughest issue to overcome in the peace talks.

The UN-sponsored negotiations are intended to lead to an interim power-sharing administration and culminate in elections in 2017 under a

A FENCE stands outside Congress, where lawmakers debate whether to impeach Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia, Brazil, on Saturday. AP/FELIPE DANA

new constitution.

The five-year Syrian conflict, which has killed 250,000 people and forced millions from their homes,

has sparked Europe’s biggest migrant crisis since World War II and given territory to Islamic State fighters from which to plot their deadly at-

tacks in Paris and Brussels.

The UN resumed what it called “crucially urgent” peace talks this week in Geneva, overshadowed by a renewed upsurge in violence, particularly around rebel-held Aleppo, once Syria’s most populous city.

The opposition says at least 30,000 people have fled the area for the Turkish border.

The US, which, together with Russia, brokered a partial cease-fire seven weeks ago, has urged the Kremlin to use its influence on Assad to stop the Russian-backed offensive on Aleppo. Russia is continuing to back the Syrian leader after its air campaign that started last September succeeded in bolstering him.

Russia said earlier this week it was observing the truce and any military actions were in response to terrorist groups, including the alQaeda-linked Nusra Front, which it said was amassing fighters south of Aleppo. The cease-fire doesn’t apply to Islamic State or Nusra.

A senior Russian lawmaker rejected the US pressure on Moscow to halt the Aleppo offensive.

“Let them first work out where Nusra and their clients are, and then they can ask us,” Alexei Pushkov, the head of the foreign affairs committee of the lower house of parliament, said on his Twitter account.

Both Army of Islam and Ahrar asSham, rebel groups that signed up the truce, have had links with Nusra.

Ahrar as-Sham warned that that the Geneva talks—which it has supported without participating directly—are producing “extremely negative results for the revolution and Syrian people,” according to a statement on its Twitter account.

Assad’s forces backed by Russia and Iran are breaking the truce to achieve “strategic goals” while making “political advances” at the talks, the group said, accusing the HNC negotiators of failing to secure an end to the siege of rebel-held areas and the release of detainees. Bloomberg News

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Monday, April 18, 2016 | Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

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Ecuador quake kills 41, death toll rising Q

UITO, Ecuador—The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along the country’s Pacific coast, killing at least 41 people and causing damage in the capital and other major cities that were hundreds of kilometers away from the epicenter.

The death toll was expected to rise on Sunday as rescuers reached the sparsely populated area of fishing ports and tourist beaches where the7.8-magnitude quake was centered. “We’re trying to do the most we can but there’s almost nothing we can do,” said Gabriel Alcivar, mayor of Pedernales, a town of 40,000 near the quake’s epicenter. He pleaded for authorities to send earth-moving machines and emergency rescue workers as dozens of buildings in the town were flattened, trapping residents among the rubble.

He said looting broke out amid the chaos, but authorities were too busy trying to save lives to assert order.

“This wasn’t just a house that collapsed, it was an entire town,” he said. Vice President Jorge Glas said in a televised address late Saturday there were initial reports of 41 dead in the cities of Manta, Portoviejo and Guayaquil—all several hundred kilometers from where the quake struck shortly after nightfall.

President Rafael Correa signed a decree declaring a national emergency, he said on Twitter. Correa, who was rushing home from Rome after attending a Vatican conference, urged on Ecuadoreans to stay strong while authorities handle the disaster. He hoped to be back in the country by Sunday afternoon.

The quake was the strongest to hit Ecuador since 1979, Glas said.

On social media, photos circulated of homes reduced to rubble, a

7.8 Magnitude of the killer quake that flattened buildings and shook Ecuador’s central coast on Saturday

shopping center’s roof torn apart, supermarket shelves shaking violently and a collapsed highway overpass that crushed a car. In Manta the airport was closed after the control tower collapsed, injuring an air-traffic control worker and a security guard.

In the capital Quito, hundreds of kilometers away, people fled into the streets in fear as the quake shook their buildings. It knocked out electricity in several neighborhoods and six homes collapsed but after a few hours power was being restored, Quito’s Mayor Mauricio Rodas said.

“I’m in a state of panic,” said Zoila Villena, one of many Quito residents who congregated in the streets. “My building moved a lot and things fell to the floor. Lots of neighbors were screaming and kids crying.” More than 10,000 security forces were being mobilized

The world’s strongest earthquakes since 1900

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7.8-magnitude earthquake shook Ecuador’s central coast on Saturday. The country’s vice president called it the strongest to hit the country in decades.

Here is a list of some of the world’s strongest earthquakes since 1900 sourced from the US Geological Survey:

n May 22, 1960: A 9.5-magnitude earthquake in southern Chile and ensuing tsunami kill at

least 1,716 people.

n March 28, 1964: A 9.2-magnitude quake in Prince William Sound, Alaska, kills 131

people, including 128 from a tsunami. n December 26, 2004: A A 9.1-magnitude quake in Indonesia triggers an Indian Ocean tsunami, killing 230,000 people in a dozen countries. n March 11, 2011: A 9-magnitude quake off the northeast coast of Japan triggers a tsunami, killing more than 18,000 people. n November 4, 1952: A 9-magnitude quake in Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East causes damage but no reported deaths despite setting off 9.1-meter (30-foot) waves in Hawaii. n Febeuary 27, 2010: An 8.8-magnitude quake shakes Chile, generating a tsunami and killing 524 people. n January 31, 1906: An 8.8-magnitude quake off the coast of Ecuador generates a tsunami that kills at least 500 people. n Febuary 4, 1965: An 8.7-magnitude quake strikes Alaska’s Rat Islands, causing an 11-meter (35-foot) -high tsunami. n March 28, 2005: An 8.6-magnitude quake in northern Sumatra in Indonesia kills about 1,300 people. n August 15, 1950: An 8.6-magnitude earthquake in Tibet kills at least 780 people. n April 11, 2012: An A 8.6-magnitude quake off the west coast of northern Sumatra in Indonesia triggers tsunami warnings in more than two dozen nations. n March 9, 1957: An 8.6-magnitude quake strikes the Andreanof Islands in Alaska triggers a 16-meter (52-foot) -high tsunami. n September 12, 2007: An 8.5-magnitude quake near Sumatra in Indonesia kills at least 25 people. n February 1, 1938: An 8.5-magnitude quake in Banda Sea, Indonesia, generates a small tsunami. n February 3, 1923: An 8.5-magnitude quake in Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East triggers a tsunami. n November 11, 1922: An 8.5-magnitude quake along the Chile-Argentina border triggers a tsunami that causes damage along Chile’s coast. n October 13, 1963: An 8.5-magnitude quake in the Kuril Islands triggers a tsunami. n September 16, 2015: An 8.3-magnitude earthquake in Illapel, Chile, killing 14 people. n December 12, 1979: An 8.2-magnitude earthquake near the Ecuadorean port city of Tumaco. It triggered a tsunami.

Recent major earthquakes:

n April 25, 2015: A 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal, killing more than 8,000 people. n March 2, 2016: A 7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes in the Indian Ocean, 800 kilometers

(500 miles) southwest of Sumatra in Indonesia. Tsunami warnings were briefly issued for Indonesia and Australia. n April 16, 2016: A 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Ecuador’s central coast near the town of Muisne. AP

to provide assistance, but Glas said accessing the disaster zone was difficult due to landslides. Among those killed was the driver of a car crushed by an overpass that buckled in Guayaquil, the country’s most populous city. The city’s international airport was also briefly closed. Hydroelectric dams and oil pipelines in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countriesmember-nation were shut down as a precautionary measure, but so far, hadn’t reported any damage.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said hazardous tsunami waves were possible for some coasts. While the government hadn’t issued a tsunami alert, towns near the epicenter were evacuated as a precautionary measure. Glas later said it was safe for coastal residents to return to their homes. An emergency situation was declared in six of Ecuador’s 24 provinces, while sports events and concerts were canceled until further notice nationwide.

“It’s very important that Ecuadoreans remain calm during this emergency,” Glas said from Ecuador’s national crisis room.

The United States Geological Survey originally put the quake at a magnitude of 7.4 then raised it to 7.8. It had a depth of 19 kilometers (12 miles). At least 36 aftershocks followed, one as strong as 6 on the Richter scale, and authorities urged residents to brace for even stronger ones in the coming hours and days. The quake comes on the heels of two deadly earthquakes across the Pacific, in the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands.

A 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck on Thursday near Kumamoto, followed by a 7.3-magnitude earthquake just 28 hours later. The quakes have killed 41 people and injured about 1,500, flattened houses and triggered major landslides. Thousands of rescue workers searched a debrisstrewn village in southern Japan for about a half-dozen missing people on Sunday, as US military aircraft rushed to join the relief mission. AP

A hotel barely stands after an earthquake in the town of Manta, Ecuador, on Saturday. A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake shook Ecuador’s central coast on Saturday, killing at least 41 people and spreading panic hundreds of kilometers away, as it collapsed homes and buckled a major overpass. AP/Patricio Ramos

Mexico’s defense secretary apologizes for torture incident

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EXICO CITY—Mexico’s defense secretary formally apologized to the country on Saturday for a videorecorded incident of torture involving two soldiers and a federal police officer.

Gen. Sa lvador C ien f uegos Zepeda addressed a sea of greenuniformed soldiers in a televised address that illustrated just how damaging the graphic torture video has been for the institution.

“In the name of all who make up this great institution, I offer a sincere apology to all of society offended by this unacceptable event,” Cienfuegos said. He urged soldiers and citizens to come forward to report other abuses.

Torture by police and armed forces has long been criticized as a far too common technique for extracting information or confessions from suspects. But the video of a young woman having a rifle muzzle pressed to her head by a female military police officer and having a plastic bag placed over her head by a female federal police officer has stirred outrage.

The incident occurred on February 5, 2015, in Ajuchitlan del Progreso in the southern state of Guerrero. The state has seen a massive deployment of soldiers and federal police to battle the drug cartels.

Cienfuegos said such acts “not only denigrate us as soldiers, but also betray the confidence that this

institution has earned day by day.”

“Let it be clear: We must not, nor can we confront illegality with more illegality,” he said.

In the past, the military has assumed a much more defensive position when confronting allegations of abuse. The widely circulated video made that impossible.

“Unfortunately, they only give these apologies when they have no choice, when there is no alternative because the images are irrefutably captured in a video,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.

The usual reaction is to deny and even cover up incidents, he said.

“The lesson that these soldiers and officers take away is not to take photographs much less leave evidence like a video.”

Since former President Felipe Calderon stepped up the country’s battle with drug cartels in December 2006, the military has assumed a more active role in internal security and that has continued under his successor, President Enrique Peña Nieto. In some areas soldiers took over policing duties as corrupt local police forces were disarmed and disbanded.

International and domestic human-rights organizations have been highly critical of this role and the abuses they say it brought.

In February Mexico’s Navy announced that it was investigating several marines for allegedly torturing and sexually abusing

six female suspects in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz in 2012.

Mexico National Human Rights Commission had recommended the investigation. In October 2015 it was announced that the United Nations Committee Against Torture found Mexican soldiers had tortured four men with beatings, asphyxiation and electric shocks in the northern state of Baja California in 2009.

That same month, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein recommended that the government set “a time frame for the withdrawal of the military from public security functions.” In December 2014 the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture published a report that concluded that “torture is generalized in Mexico. It occurs especially from the moment when a person is detained until he or she is brought before a judge, and is used as punishment and as a means of investigation.”

On Thursday two federal security officials told The Associated Press that the suspect in the video has been in prison for more than a year on weapons charges.

One of the sources, who both requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak about the case, said the federal police officer in the video had been identified and was being held at a federal police installation. She had not been charged. AP

Thousands search for missing in Japan’s deadly earthquakes

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SO, Japan—Thousands of rescue workers searched a debris-strewn village in southern Japan for about a half-dozen missing people on Sunday, as the Japanese government said United States military aircraft would join the relief mission for communities devastated by two powerful earthquakes that killed 41 people.

The search is concentrated in Minamiaso, which means South Aso, a village in a mountainous area southwest of 1,592-meter (5,223-foot) Mount Aso, the largest active volcano in Japan.

Landslides from the second earthquake on early Saturday morning have blocked roads and destroyed bridges, making it difficult to access the area east of Kumamoto, a city of 740,000 on the southwestern island of Kyushu.

In Tokyo Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the Defense Ministry is working with the US military to start aid flights.

“We are extremely grateful, and we would like to coordinate quickly and have the emergency relief be transported in as soon as possible,” he said.

Overnight rainfall did not appear to cause any more landslides, as had been feared, and the skies had cleared by morning.

About 80,000 homes in Kumamoto prefecture still didn’t have electricity on Sunday, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said. Japanese media reported earlier that an estimated 400,000 households were without running water.

More than 1,000 buildings were damaged in the two earthquakes, including at least 90 completely destroyed.

Authorities have confirmed 32 deaths from Saturday’s 7.3-magnitude earthquake, and nine from a 6.5 -magnitude quake in the same area on Thursday night. About 1,500 people were injured in the quakes, said Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese government’s top spokesman. AP

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

A10 Monday, April 18, 2016

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Tacloban is alive and kicking!

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By Leony R. Garcia

acloban City was celebrating Sangyaw Festival, while the provincial government of Leyte was celebrating Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival of Festivals when I came in June last year.

It was my first time to travel to the city that was highly devastated

by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan), the strongest typhoon in the world, which took place in November 2013. Together with select Manila representatives, I felt privileged to be invited by the local government and the Department of Tourism-Region 8, headed by Regional Director Karen Tiopes, to witness how the province rose from the wide destruction caused

by Yolanda.

Sangyaw Festival was organized

by Rep. Imelda Romualdez Marcos of Leyte in the 1980s, but it was replaced by the Pintados-Kasadyawan after the 1986.

For years, the original Sangyaw was replaced by the Kasadyawan, organized by the Petilla family, until 2007, when the congressman’s cousin, incumbent Mayor Alfred Romualdez, chose to restore the Sangyaw. But last year, both families agreed to use the fiestas to spur unity rather than division.

At least 12 contingents from different towns in Leyte and Samar joined the Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival of Festivals on its grand parade in major thoroughfares of Tacloban and later on performed their cultural dances before a gathering of some 50,000 people at the Leyte Sports Complex.

It was a historical moment for Tacloban, as the two political clans meet and greet at the Sports Complex. Gov. Mic Petilla welcomed Rep. Martin Romualdez onstage, where he was also greeted by Palo, Leyte, Mayor Remedios Matin Petilla and then-Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla.

Later in the evening, on June 29, the city government held its Sangyaw Festival’s “Parade of Lights” with its colorful LED creations. Mr. and Mrs. Alfred and Kring-Kring Gonzales-Romualdez (Tacloban mayor and councilor, respectively), joined the parade, together with the business sector, non-governmental organizations, and various schools and organizations.

I didn’t have pre-Yolanda experience in Tacloban and based on local and international news and the social media during the onslaught of Yolanda, the city, along with the rest of Eastern Visayas provinces, was

badly damaged. Roaming around the city, I noticed that except for some abandoned houses and buildings, there was hardly no trace of the monstrous nightmare.

Resiliency and the unsinkable Filipino spirit

Our first stop in Tacloban City after an hour of travel by air from Manila is the Calle Z Café on Zaragoza Street, some 10 minutes’ drive from the busy airport. As they say, the best bulalo in Tacloban is served in Calle Z. And it was true! Aside from bulalo, we feasted on bangus sisig and crispy tenga (fried pork ears).

“We were the first restaurant to reopen after Yolanda. We were lucky to be aided by the MMDA [Metropolitan Manila Development Authority]. Then, MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino and his team were looking for a restaurant for late lunch, after a day’s clearing operation,” said Ludette Virtucio Ruiz, proprietess of the popular local restaurant.

“We opened on November 22, 2013. After the storm passed, employees were flocking back to our restaurant. They wanted to work; they wanted to help,” Ruiz said.

“We opened the café, because so many aid workers and volunteers didn’t have a decent meal to eat and a place to relax. The restaurant also became a place for reunions; a place for family and friends to catch up and gather news,” she added.

At that time, Ruiz said, money has no value, because there was practically nothing to buy. “So we learn to barter things in order to survive. Most important, we learn to value our loved ones and friends,” Ruiz recalled.

With increasing customers, Ruiz said she had to scour the local markets to as far as Ormoc for ingredients; the prices were terribly high because of inflation. The prices of consumer goods and construction materials skyrocketed in the aftermath of Yolanda. But even then, the people of Tacloban endured.

Incidentally, my meeting with Ruiz in Tacloban is a reunion of sorts. Earlier in April 2015, we met in Samar for the launch of Summer sa Samar/Spark Summer project, the tourism-awareness project of Gov. Sharee Ann Tan, promoting the provinces of Paranas, Marabut

and Basey as major tourism destinations of Eastern Samar.

Finding Chew Love

Our group also visited a new restaurant which is fast becoming a family hangout in Tacloban— Chew Love—owned by Coke Young-Go, a physical-therapy graduate, who decided to go on restaurant business after the Yolanda incident. Chew Love is a former silog-carwash place which the Go family bought after a short hiatus in Davao due to Yolanda.

“I wanted to own a restaurant, a place where family and friends meet and have a good time,” she quipped.

“The decorations, the fixtures and the interior design were all done by me. I’m a frustrated interior designer!” she said.

And it paid off definitely. When we came, the restaurant is celebrating its first anniversary with the soft opening of an annex structure, which reminded me of actress-singer Jolina Magdangal’s Memory Lane Restaurant in Tagaytay.

Coke said most of Chew Love’s specialties came from their ancestors, which were passed on from generations to generations, but are named and served creatively—Be Kare-ful With My Heart (KareKare), Cheeky Feeling (Boneless Chicken Barbecue), Steak to One (Beef Burger Pattie with Rice) and Love at Pork Sight (Pork Liempo), Crazy Pork You, Beef My Lady and Mud-ly in Love, to name a few.

For our drinks, we tried its house specialty, Gingerly Yours, which is a lemonade infused with ginger, Mexican turnips, carrots and chayote; and the Green Mind, also a lemonade, this time infused with cool cucumber flavors.

Of course, we didn’t hesitate to taste the Gold Digger, Chew Love’s version of the Pinoy halo-halo, which uses shaved ice infused with flavor before icing. The gold is the mango bits at the bottom.

Seafood and Ribs Warehouse

We also tried Palo’s newest warehouse-themed Seafood and Ribs restaurant in Candahug, which opened in February 2015. Food preparation is paluto, where seafood and meat items are offered raw. Situated by the front door, you choose the items and dictate how you want the food prepared to the staff and it is served to your table sizzling-hot. For our group, a dinner buffet was prepared and we find the ribs, its specialty, comparable, even better than some restos in Manila.

We also had lunch at Imelda’s Buffet, another new food business which opened after Yolanda, while Tacloban’s popular seafood restaurant, Ocho Grill, hosted our last lunch for our five-day stay in Leyte. It seemed local people are willing to invest in the food business. Same with lodging places, in our case we stayed at the newly renovated Tacloban Plaza

Hotel, near the downtown area.

Aside from pigging out, we also paid our respect to General Mac Arthur in the famous MacArthur Landing Memorial National Park, which commemorates the historic landing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Leyte Gulf at the start of the campaign to recapture and liberate the Philippines from Japanese Occupation in October 1944.

After which we had our eyes ogling on the treasure collection by the Marcos family at the Santo Niño Shrine. Despite its decrepit condition, the shrine still boasts of the power that was and the wealth of the past administration, which, to my rough calculation, is more than enough to rebuild the lives of Yolanda victims, who, at the time of our visit, were relocated in some outskirts of the city.

The promise to return made sooner

I was more than happy to be back in Tacloban in October 2015, this time to witness the opening of the 900th store of the country’s wellloved fast-food chain, Jollibee, in Palo, Leyte.

Some attendees can’t help but be teary eyed, as they remember the deadly experience they had during the devastating typhoon. According to them, Jollibee was the first to set up a mobile kitchen in November 2013 and did on-site preparation and distribution of hot congee offered for free to the local population. No wonder that as early as 4 a.m. on opening day, the people of Palo have already lined up for Jollibee’s opening at 6 a.m.

Jollibee Palo is the company’s 10th store in Leyte and 112th in the Visayas region. I’m glad to be part of the Manila media covering this project, because Jollibee and its agency, Strategic Works Inc., won a Gold Anvil in the PR tools category in March this year.

“Jollibee 900th store” project celebrated the fast-food chain’s milestone store opening and the exemplary resilience, optimism and hope of the townspeople after the tragedy of Typhoon Yolanda.

Truly in less than two years, Tacloban is alive and kicking. For the Taclobanons, life goes on and tourism is picking up. New businesses, hotels and restaurants are mushrooming; flights are fully booked, as guests and passengers crowd the Daniel Z. Romualdez airport.

Needless to say, I enjoyed the tour of the city and food tripping around, the warmth of its people and the provincial, yet modern, life of Tacloban.

“Tacloban and the province of Leyte recovered very quickly. In two years, the majority of all foreign aid workers and international aid groups in Tacloban are gone. In any given place, the time to recover from a major calamity is usually five years; here in Tacloban, it took only two years for almost everything to go back to normal,” my newfound friend Ludette said.

Tourism&Entertainment FAITH-BASED TOURISM BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Dr. Mina T. Gabor

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THE bm traveler

lobal trends and lifestyle have always influenced travel. Thomas Cook launched the first package tours in the late-19th century. This was mainly to visit the great historical sites, landmarks and monuments.

After World War II, people looked for vacations, holiday breaks and incentive travels. Then the travelers became younger and looked for more adventure trips, sports, physical and fitness centers. It is now more about caring, mental and relaxing. People want to stay forever young, so there are more spas, wellness and meditation centers, farm visits and healthy foods.

The next great cycle that is fast

gaining ground and one that is most sustainable is spiritual, religious or faith-based tourism. And the most influential promoter of faith-based tourism is Pope Francis when he recently encouraged everyone to go on pilgrimages.

Religious/spiritual or faith-based tourism is travel to religious sites to experience religious forms or to learn and admire their related arts, architec-

ture, food and other traditions.

And like some other tourism products, the different countries or tourism groups are still debating on what should be the appropriate name.

Should it be religious tourism, spiritual or faith-based tourism? I tend to favor faith-based tourism, as more and more travelers are interested to experience and learn about other faiths other than their own religions.

Religious or faith-based tourism is one of the earliest forms of tourism.

Since the dawn of humanity, human beings have traveled to holy sites.

In some cases, these holy sites have become not only centers of religion, but of the economy and culture of the area. Look at Jerusalem, Rome and Mecca, they continue to attract every year millions of visitors.

Religious or faith-based tourism has expanded in recent times to include a much larger segment of the market. Sometimes, pilgrimage may include travel to other cultural sites, or leisure travel may include travel to holy sites.

According to Pew Research Center, religious tourism comprises many facets of the travel industry: pilgrimages, missionary travel, leisure (fellowship) vacations, faith-based cruising, crusades, conventions and rallies, retreats, monastery visits and gueststays, faith-based camps and religious tourist attractions.

The United Nations World Tourism Organizations (UNWTO) declared faith-based tourism has remained strong and growing steadily, despite economic ups and downs.

Religious travelers tend to be more committed travelers, saving and plan-

ning to visit religious sites of their choice, in spite of known upheavals or disasters.

Faith-based tourism is big business. According to the UNWTO, an estimated 300 million to 330 million pilgrims visit the world’s key religious sites every year. Religious travel is estimated at a value of $18 billion every year. In the US alone some 25 percent of the traveling public is interested in faith-based tourism.

Imtiaz Muqbil, executive director of Travel Impact Newswire, said another reason religious tourism is booming—prayer in its purest form is a search for safety and sanctuary from the unpredictable vagaries of life, such as disease, fires, floods, financial or political crises. When all else fails, people turn to greater power, they believe can save them from these perils.

Faith-based travelers travel for various reasons: to fulfill a religious obligation, to visit within their lifetime some of the world’s holy sites or for a particular cause.

Faith-based tourism can be found almost anywhere, it is important for the local government and its populace to consider developing their local faith-based tourism. This type of tourism can provide a steady flow of income to the local community. Most faith-based travelers travel in groups.

What are some of the challenges in the development of faith-based tourism: n To put religious tourism in the service of the community, especially the poor. Religious tourism must not be about money, but to serve the needs of the poor, as Pope Francis observed during his three-country

Monday, April 18, 2016 A11

visit to South America. n To gain media exposure of declared pilgrimage sites in order to spread the benefits of religious or spiritual tourism. n To encourage the sharing of expertise among the more developed pilgrimage or holy site with the leastdeveloped sites in handling visitortraffic control, waste disposal, food and other amenities, and services. n To create awareness of the many benefits and business opportunities related to religious or spiritual travels like outlets for halal or kosher food, faith-based music, religious books, souvenir items, spiritual or faith-based centers in local communities, etc. n To train more qualified guides to handle spiritual and religious tours.

On a recent trip to Portugal, this writer was invited to speak on faithbased tourism on the occasion of the IV International Workshop on Religious Tourism. Some 500 delegates from around the world exchanged ideas and experiences that strengthened my belief that the next big thing in tourism is faith-based tourism.

This writer would like to thank Secretary of State for Tourism Ana Mendes Godinho; Mayor of Ourem Paulo Fonseca; Centro of Portugal Tourism Pedro Machado; Fatima Shrine rector Fr. Carlos Cabencinhas; and President of Aciso, Francisco Vieira for inviting me to this conference.

Also, my gratitude to Ambassador Philippe J. Lhuillier and Consul General Bing Gallaga for all arrangements and support extended to me and my colleague, Ermavil Galvez, while in Portugal. Thank you, too, to Fernando Paquim, the coordinator of the

conference.

Our host in Fatima was Alexandre Marto Pereira, whose family owns Fatima Hotel and most of the other hotels beside the Fatima Shrine. He was also the chairman of the conference. The hotel service, especially the food, was exceptional. One special gift I received was olive oil in can. Alexandre’s family owned a factory that extracts oil from olives that has been converted into a cooperative. In view of the limited land for olive production, most olive trees are found in the backyards of Portuguese homes. During harvest time, owners take off from work to bring the olives to the factory.

The cooperative retains 10 percent of the extracted oil and the rest is given back to the owners of the trees. Food for thought.

Our best wishes to the Portuguese people on the occasion of the forthcoming centenary of the Fatima apparition starting May 2017.

Mabuhay!

Dr. Mina T. Gabor was the founder and president of the Center for International Trade Exhibitions and Missions Inc. of the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Secretary of the Department of Tourism from 1996 to 1998. She continues to work on her passion of promoting the Philippines through trade and tourism as the president of the International School of Sustainable Tourism, as founder and president of the Philippine Small and Medium Business Development Foundation Inc., and the president of the Automobile Association of the Philippines Travel Agency. For any feedback or assistance in developing your faith-based tourism, contact this writer at minagabor2010@gmail.com.

Science Monday BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, April 18, 2016

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

Mysterious Venus and its volcanoes Story & photo by Stephanie Tumampos | Special to the BusinessMirror

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sbtumampos_BM

any scientists have long been puzzled if Venus, our closest neighboring planet, has been geologically active. Planetary scientists have long been researching and using data from the Magellan spacecraft, the Venus radar mapper, to simulate and create models to create theories and, hopefully, confirm that Venus is one of the few places in the solar system, the other one to be the moon of Jupiter, Io, to have experienced volcanism.

Filipino scientist Dr. Gerald Galgana, a Balik Scientist and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Lunar and Planetary Institute at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) in Houston, Texas, in the United States, has long been doing research on Venus and its volcanoes.

“I have been doing research on Venus using data from the Magellan spacecraft in the 1990s,” Galgana said in an interview with the BusinessMirror. He might be the only Filipino doing research on crustal and volcano deformation using numerical models on Venus.

Venus, Earth’s evil twin

Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, even if it is the second planet closest to the sun. Compared to Mercury and even Earth, Venus has a very dense atmosphere. Ninety-six percent is made up of carbon dioxide and the rest is a mixture of nitrogen and sulphuric acid, therefore, attributing to the runaway greenhouse effect.

“The atmosphere in Venus is really thick,” Galgana said. It is very dense and heavy. The surface temperature is at 460 degrees Celsius which could vary to 470° C. “It could actually melt lead,” Galgana added.

An inhospitable planet, with the high temperature and almost the same size and similar mass as that of the Earth, it has been hailed as our planet’s “evil twin.”

A consensus among planetary scientists point out that Venus is a one-plate planet. Compared to Earth, Venus has no plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is a theory by scientists where several plates compose the lithosphere, Earth’s outer shell and glide over the mantle. The movements of these plates cause earthquakes on Earth. But for Venus being a one-plate planet, its earthquake is produced through

1,000,000 Estimated number of volcanoes on Venus volcanic eruptions. Scientists of today believe that the volcanoes in Venus have covered the planet in a cataclysmic amount of lava some 500 million years ago.

Galgana said, “There was a massive surfacing that happened and many scientists think that the surface of Venus is actually very young compared to other planets.”

In the talk he gave at the National Institute of Geological Sciences (NIGS) Lecture Series at University of the Philippines Diliman, Galgana highlighted that Venus is a very important place to study volcanoes.

“Venus is actually a laboratory to look at volcanism at a very large scale,” he said.

Venus volcanology

Through the data and pictures obtained from the Magellan spacecraft, scientists were given an eye to the Venusian surface.

“With the near global map of Venus, we are able to see various landforms. They were able to see the surface,” Galgana said. He added, “There are a lot of volcanoes distributed along the surface of Venus.”

To date, no one has counted them yet, but the total number might be even over 1,000,000.

Venus has shield volcanoes, both large and small. Shield volcanoes are made up of entirely fluid magma flows which resemble a warrior’s shield. There are also volcanoes on Venus called “pancake domes.”

From the word itself, it looks like a pancake on a bird’s eyeview and are widely scattered on Venus. Another

Dr. Gerald Galgana, postdoctoral research fellow at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas, and a Balik Scientist from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, explains the volcanology of Venus at a lecture organized by the National Institute of Geological Sciences of UP Diliman.

feature of the Venusian surface is the presence of radial dikes or novae when it forms a network. There are overlapping radial dike systems on Venus, according to Galgana.

They are influenced by the magmatic pressure, modified by topography, gravitational stresses and regional tectonic stresses.

“There are about 163 giant radial giant swarms that are found in Venus. Their radius is about 42,000 kilometers,” Galgana said.

Most of these dikes have settled uplifts or are flat and some are depressed in the middle.

Galgana also added that there are two main causes of radial dike formation: the tensile stresses and mant le upwel l ing which meant the rising of the mantle of Venus. Also, there are hot spots where these are fixed locations, an intrinsic property inside Venus that just readily flows out magma continuously.

The magma that is erupted on Venus is mostly basaltic. Galgana explained that the materials that come out of the Venusian volcanoes have low silica content. “It flows readily because of less viscosity and not explosive. In short, does not have pyroclastic flows.”

Researchers, through the European Space Agency’s Venus Express spacecraft, found out that Venus was not just geologically active but might be actively resurfacing through the solidified lava flows spewed by its volcanoes projected

to be about 250,000 years or less.

Through geological terms, it is active at present, according to a paper by Suzanne Smrekar and her colleagues published in the scientific journal Science.

Earth’s volcanoes vs Venus’s volcanoes

There are many types of volcanoes on Earth. According the Dr. Mario Aurelio, a geologist and the director of NIGS, in many parts of the Earth where there are a number of active volcanoes, like Indonesia, New Zealand, Alaska and Japan, “the magma that comes out in volcanoes is mainly due to subducting plates that goes in another plate and creates partial melting due to high-pressure temperature conditions. Magma is then formed because of melting.

It is different from the source of magma in Venus.”

However, Earth has also volcanoes that produce magma by hot spots, such as the same one in Venus. “We have the ones in Hawaii where until now just steadily flows out hot magma”.

“The Galapagos and Iceland volcanoes are a different story, too,” Aurelio added. “The Galapagos volcanoes are along the East Pacific rise-rift area where the plates are moving away from each other, hence, magma flows out.”

With all these volcanoes, Aurelio pointed out that we cannot really compare the processes in Earth

and Venus. This is because of the limited data that we have on Venus compared to that on Earth.

“Perhaps now, I think it is not that appropriate to compare Earth and Venus because the number of data we have on Earth is more significant than we have on Venus.”

Mostly, all we have on Venus are numerical models and are yet to be verified soon.

Aurelio also mentioned that according to Galgana, there are still debates on Venus’s plate.

There are two schools of thought.

“There are people who believe that Venus has plate tectonics and those who believe that Venus is a one-plate planet.”

Future Venus exploration and foresight

The current research has mainly focused on the universe beyond our solar system. Stephen Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner announced on April 12 that a mission to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, is already in the pipeline with the initial funding of $1.10 billion.

A long starshot mission is on the way, but perhaps, for planetary scientists like Galgana, he only hopes of Nasa and other stakeholders to fund another spacecraft to Venus.

“I want a new spacecraft to orbit Venus and obtain more data, to see if what we think is right or maybe we can modify it,” Galgana said. He added that the more data

you have, the more improvement the models will have. When asked why it is important to understand Venus, he highlighted that it is the only planet that has volcanoes in the solar system and the nearest laboratory we have for volcanoes.

He also told the BusinessMirror that Venus is important for studies in climate change.

“We have to study Venus and what caused the runaway greenhouse gases in it,” he said. “The greenhouse effect they have could happen to us because of the extreme carbon-dioxide concentration that we are producing and how it will affect Earth in the next years to come.”

For the organizer of the NIGS lecture series, Dr. Alan Fernandez said lectures like these are important and needs to be discussed by students and even the public. “The lecture is rarely discussed in the Philippines. His [Galgana’s] topic in modeling and volcanoes can be of use to many researchers and students, especially on the volcano hazards in the Philippines and even in other places.”

“To be able to listen to Galgana and his research is a rare opportunity,” Aurelio also added. He also cited that it opens doors to many questions about the Earth and its neighbors. He asked, “Can we see the processes in Venus soon? Are they the same with Earth?”

These are questions that will be answered in due time.

‘New Horizons’ Kuiper Belt journey begins with Pluto

O

R L A NDO, F lor id a— National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa) New Horizons spacecraft is far from done making waves in cosmic discoveries. Up next: Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 2014 MU69, a billion miles beyond Pluto.

But to understand where New Horizons is going next, it’s important to know why Pluto was selected for a flyby mission by Nasa.

In 1992 the first object of the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto was found using a University of Hawaii telescope, confirming there are bodies beyond the eight planets in orbit within the solar system.

This discovery boosted the unexplored territory of the Kuiper Belt to the top of the space exploration to-do list, said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal

investigator. Stern spoke at the Aerospace Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Earth and Space conference in Orlando this week, discussing the spacecraft’s next mission and data still to come from the Pluto flyby last July.

The new mission is on target for a January 1, 2019, flyby of Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69, but that is one of many, Stern said.

New Horizons spacecraft could visit 20 different Kuiper Belt Objects. The spacecraft is currently healthy and has enough power for 20 years, he added.

On Wednesday while Stern was speaking at the ASCE conference, which was hosted by Missouri University of Science and Technology, the final proposal for the KBO mission was being

submitted, he said. Not exploring the massive Kuiper Belt would be like leaving out the Pacific Ocean on a map of Earth, Stern said. According to Nasa, KBOs are what remain of the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. “[These] objects that have essentially been left untouched since the solar system formed,” said Daniel Batcheldor, head of the Physics and Space Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne.

While Pluto is the best known KBO, it’s on the edge of the belt that runs around the planets in our solar system beyond Neptune. Think of KBOs as possible planets, small moons and comets, but in the thousands.Focusing in on the comets, University of Central Florida professor of physics Dan Britt was selected

for New Horizons’s science team to study the geology and structure of the 4-billion-year-old undisturbed frozen objects during the spacecraft’s next mission.

“It’s really, in planetary science, one of the great frontiers and it’s not like this doesn’t interact with Earth and us as humans,” Britt said of the Kuiper Belt.

Every now and again, one of the comets from the Kuiper Belt gets loose and whacks planet Earth, he explained. If the scientific bonanza of discoveries on Pluto was illuminating, the next phase of New Horizons’s journey into the Kuiper Belt will shed even more light on the mysterious frozen world.

Batcheldor says that KBO 2014 MU69, being much farther beyond Pluto, will be a better representative of the Kuiper Belt. TNS

This composite of enhanced color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon was taken by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s New Horizons spacecraft as it passed through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. Nasa/JHUAPL/SwRl

Green Monday BusinessMirror

Monday, April 18, 2016 A13

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

Mount Hamiguitan gets Asean biodiversity mark ​Story & photo by Manuel T. Cayon​| Mindanao Bureau Chief

M

awimailbox

OUNT HAMIGUITAN, Davao Oriental—Environment and tourism officers in Davao Oriental on Thursday declared Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary as an Asean Heritage Parks (AHP), its second international environmental distinction, to drum up a series and packages of ecotourism activities and researches into the habitat.

The launching ​c ame two years after the environmental ministers ​o f the 10 member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

(Asean) ​a ccepted the nomination of Mount Hamiguitan as an AHP and, finally, approved​its inclusion in the 15th Informal Asean Ministerial

The entrance to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and Asean Heritage Parks-listed​Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary in San Isidro town, Davao Oriental.

Meeting on the Environment in Lao People’s Democratic Republic. ​D avao Oriental announced that it was a double honor for the mountain to bring two international distinctions within one year, when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) granted on June 23, 2014, ​t hat it be included on its World Heritage List.

The AHP nomination was approved in October 2014. ​R ol a ndo Inc iong , spokesm a n of the Asean Centre for Biodiversity, said Mount Hamiguitan is the eighth heritage site in the Philippines and among 37 in Southeast Asia.​ Ruel Colong, protected area superintendent of the Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary,

said tourism, environment and local government authorities were already completing the compliance of seven requirements to open up adventure, climb and trekking to t​ he 1,637-meter above sea level mountain that straddles the municipalities of Governor Generoso and San Isidro to its south, and Mati City to its east.

But San Isidro Mayor Justina Yu already warned to limit the entrance to mountain trekking to only one “to avoid the forest fire that hit Mount Apo.” Dolores Valdesco, Davao Oriental provincial environment and natural resources officer, said the three local governments have tapped local communities for livelihood opportunities, including the appointment of residents to serve in the Bantay Gubat, or forest guards.

“San Isidro town, for instance, has approved the regular monthly payment of services of members of the Bantay Gubat to those residing in the town,” she added.

The Mandaya tribal communities

around the mountain were also grantwed their Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title to protect their communities from private incursions. Dr. Florfe M. Acma, head of the biodiversity unit of the Center of Biodiversity Research and Extension in Mindanao of Central Mindanao University, said Mount Hamiguitan “contains a list of flora and fauna ​u nique from those found in the four other biodiverse mountains in Mindanao.” She said its taxonomy researches have brought them also to Mount Malindang in Misamis Occidental and Mount Apo Natural Park in Davao, both included earlier in the AHP list, and in Mount Kitanglad in Bukidnon and Mount Musuan in Musuan, Bukidnon.

The other AHPs in the Philippines are Mounts Iglit-Baco National Park, Mount Kitanglad Range Natural Park, Mount Makiling Forest Reser ve, Mount Malindang Range Natural Park, Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park and Mounts Timpoong-Hibok-Hibok Natural Monument.

A14 Monday, April 18, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Protect your money offshore

Y

ou probably never thought about offshore companies and holding a bank account in another country, until the Panama Papers exposé hit the news. In almost every article about this event, somewhere near the end is a statement like, “However, there are legitimate reasons for having an offshore company.”

After that statement, though, there should probably be one of those “winkwink” icons that people use in text messages and on the social media. That is because we “all know” that the only reason to keep money outside of your own country is to avoid paying taxes if you are a crook, or, most often, a dirty politician.

Yet, if you are a person of wealth—and we are not talking billions here— keeping some money offshore and in another currency makes perfect sense, and might logically be a financial-survival technique.

Obviously, if your business involves buying and selling goods or services overseas, you absolutely need to keep funds in other currencies. Many companies source raw materials from Japan, for example, and the value of the Philippine peso has gone down against the yen by about 15 percent in the last 12 months. Certainly, you could have opened a foreign-currency deposit account (FCDA) at a local bank in yen, but having that money instantly available and without paying bank-transfer charges would make more sense.

But also, there are some currencies for which you cannot open a local FCDA. Had you converted some of your Philippine pesos to Mexican pesos, the twoyear exchange-rate profit would now be 25 percent.

That is not to say that holding funds in foreign currencies is always profitable. The Philippine peso has appreciated against the Australian dollar, Thai baht and other regional currencies in the last year or two. But the euro is 10 percent more expensive now.

If you have an ongoing need for a particular foreign currency either for business or pleasure trips, it may make more sense to keep some funds in that currency regardless of the potential to appreciate or depreciation against the peso. Every time you change currency, either physically or through electronic means, you pay a very high cost. Major local banks charge about 2-percent buy/sell spread for the US dollar. For the Thai bath, it is 16 percent. The Hong Kong dollar carries an 8-percent spread.

An easy and inexpensive way to keep some funds in US dollar is through an online-payment service, like PayPal, and now there are many other alternatives to PayPal. Your America-based relative can deposit dollars into your account without a charge. While you do not earn on idle funds, that money can be transferred into any bank account you hold anywhere, also without charge.

Apple Corp. holds $180 billion outside the US, most in foreign currency and only 1.6 percent of it is in “tax haven” countries. Protecting your financial interests is neither illegal nor unpatriotic. Part of that protection can mean money in foreign currency held outside the Philippines.

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PCSO issues rationalized dialysis-assistance guidelines Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

T

he Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) recently coordinated with the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

(Philhealth) to rationalize both agencies’ dialysis assistance for chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients.

Both the PCSO and PhilHealth offer assistance to individuals for their medical- and health care-related needs, among them hospitalization and various forms of treatment, such as dialysis.

The agencies created a technical working group, composed of personnel from both agencies that studied the forms of dialysis assistance both agencies provide, clarified each other’s roles in providing assistance and, together, developed a new policy.

The PCSO’s revamped guidelines on hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) provide faster and easier access to assistance through an enrollment program. Under this system, patients undergo a onetime interview at the beginning of the application process and, thereafter, need only to submit documentary requirements for the succeeding months.

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Rizal Street, Dagupan City CONTACT NOs.: (075) 522-8209/ 515-4663/ 0922-811-4001 n DXQM – 98dot7 HOME RADIO DAVAO E-MAIL ADDRESS: home98dot7@gmail.com ADDRESS: 4D 3rd Floor, ATU Plaza, Duterte Street, Davao City CONTACT NOs.: (082) 222-2337/ 221-7537/ 0922-811-3996 n DXQS -98dot3 HOME RADIO GENERAL SANTOS E-MAIL ADDRESS: homegensan@yahoo.com ADDRESS: 2nd Floor, Penamante Clinic Tiongson Street, General Santos City CONTACT NO.: 0922-811-3998 n DYQN -89dot5 HOME RADIO ILOILO E-MAIL ADDRESS: homeiloilo@yahoo.com

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CKD is a spectrum of conditions related to the progressive decline of renal function and its correlated abnormalities. The most common causes of CKD among Filipinos are uncontrolled hypertensive disease and diabetes mellitus, the so-called lifestyle diseases.

According to the National Nutrition and Health Survey, conducted by the Food and Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology, the prevalence of CKD is increasing among the population: in 2003 it was 2.6 percent; in 2008 it had risen to an alarming 9.4 percent, or about one in 10 Filipinos.

In fact, assistance for HD and PD is in the top the most frequently requested from the PCSO’s Imap.

In 2014, 22,722 beneficiaries were allocated P466 million for their dialysis treatments, while in 2015

there were 15,516 beneficiaries who received P310.9 million.

For Filipinos with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), HD is commonly prescribed twice per week, as against three times per week in developed countries. Many ESRD patients also receive erythropoietin injections as a maintenance treatment for anemia. Because only a trained medical professional may administer the drug, the injections are usually timed to coincide with the dialysis procedures.

With PhilHealth providing assistance for procedures, the PCSO stepped in to assist with regard to these injections, as well as with the bag of solutions for PD patients, who may need from three to four bags a day.

It is important to undergo a lifestyle change in order to prevent CKD, as well as get regular health checkups. While anyone can get CKD, whether young or old, those who are more at risk are the elderly, those with diabetes and high blood pressure, and with a family history of CKD. The PCSO is committed not only to providing treatment for dialysis and other illnesses, but also to promoting a healthy lifestyle among all Filipinos.

Atty. Rojas is vice chairman and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

With 7 options, water is the next big thing in PPPs

BusinessMirror is published daily by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror

HOM

The PCSO’s role is to provide support under its Individual Medical Assistance Program (Imap), which augments the resources of patients.

PhilHealth members may approach the PCSO after their PhilHealth benefits have been used.

For PhilHealth members, a maximum assistance for HD of P84,000 for medicines (such as epoietin) shall be applied at P14,000 every other month. For PD, those being assisted under PhilHealth’s Z package will receive the same amount and number of claims; those under the case rate scheme may receive P120,000 for dialysis solutions, at P20,000 per case every other month.

Non-PhilHealth members may avail themselves of the existing case rates: for HD P120,000 per year, at P20,000 every other month for the procedure; and for PD P210,000 per year, at P35,000 every other month for the solutions.

The PCSO’s revamped guidelines on hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis provide faster and easier access to assistance through an enrollment program. Under this system, patients undergo a onetime interview at the beginning of the application process and, thereafter, need only to submit documentary requirements for the succeeding months.

PPP Lead Continued from A1 Yes, water is the next big thing. In fact, water is already the “flavor” of government PPP projects, at all levels. To date, close to 20 water-related PPP projects have been awarded by government agencies, water districts and local government units.

Responding to the needs of the communities is the plain reason why government undertakes PPP projects on water. PPPs are meant to address infrastructure and deficits. We need water. Water is a basic human right, which all stakeholders must provide. Build- or rehabilitateoperate-and-transfer schemes, joint ventures, concessions, management and service contracts, leases

and divestments are the available modalities.

Water PPPs come in various forms. There are seven options in the water PPP spectrum: (1) Bulk water supply taps this resource from a source, and funnels the water to a distribution system. The recentlyawarded project of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) shall draw water from the Angat River and then supply water to water districts in Bulacan. The municipality of Tiwi, Albay, has also awarded a water-supply contract.

The Zamboanga, Davao, Tagum and Iloilo water districts have entered into similar arrangements.

(2) Irrigation is the artificial provision of water to agricultural land

to assist in the growing of crops. The National Irrigation Authority can undertake this kind of PPP. (3) Hydropower provides for renewable energy where power is generated from water. The Quezon province and the municipality of San Luis, Aurora, have partnered with the private sector for hydropower and mini-hydropower, respectively.

(4) Water distribution is the most common water PPP project. Under such system, water is distributed to end-users, such as households, buildings, factories and companies.

In Metro Manila, MWSS, in 1997, awarded two concessions, one with Manila Water for the East Zone and the other one to Maynilad for the West Zone. Outside Metro Manila, facilities of water districts are rehabilitated and more efficient operations and management systems are installed by the private sector. The Lingayen, Lemery, San Carlos, Tarlac, Daraga, San Pedro and Camiling water districts have ventured into this PPP. More such projects are in the offing.

(5) Management and service contracts under the Government Procurement Reform Act with the private sector can be entered into for non-revenue water (NRW) reduction. NRW refers to water produced and supplied, but is “lost,” before it reaches the customers.

(6) Septage management can include desludging of septic tanks, septage treatment, and proper disposal or reuse of treated effluent and residual biosolids. Typically, these are procurement contracts entered into by water districts with contractors and providers, where public funds are used. Under a PPP, private funds, resources and expertise can be tapped.

(7) Provision for sewerage is the infrastructure that conveys sewage or wastewater or excrement. Sewerage is an integral component of the MWSS concession.

The government shall choose from this menu. These projects can be undertaken singly or separately, or jointly like in a “bundled” or multi-use project.

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Opinion

To lease or not to lease?

The global economy is stronger than you think

BusinessMirror

Filbert Tsai

DEBIT CREDIT Conclusion

T

he example below will illustrate the new rules under International Accounting Standards (IAS) 17 on the accounting treatment of leases.

Assume that Company A obtains a five-year lease for P10,000 per year with annual increment on P1,000. The incremental borrowing rate for the lease is 6.04 percent, which gives a present value of P50,000 for the leased asset. Under IFRS 16, P50,000 will be recognized as a right of use asset and a lease obligation on the first day of the lease (or zero impact on balance sheet) in which under IAS 17, nothing will be recognized on the first day.

Under IAS 17, the lease would then be recognized using the straight-line method over five years (assuming that years is the rational basis for straight-line allocation) amounting to P12,000 each year. The following table summarizes the accounting impact of this approach:

Year

1

2

3

4

5

Total

Lease Payment 10,000 11,000 12,000 13,000 14,000 60,000

Straight-line Expense 12,000 12,000 12,000 12,000 12,000 60,000

Asset (Liability) (2,000) (1,000) – 1,000 2,000 –

In contrast, adopting the new lease standard will require the recognition of the right of use asset and the lease obligation on day 1 with the right of use asset amortized over the term of the lease (or asset life if shorter) using straight-line method and the lease obligation amortized using the effective interest rate over the settlement period. Continuing on the above example, the table below summarizes the accounting implication of this requirement:

Right Net amount Asset of Use Interest Lease Total in balance Year Amort. Asset Amort. Payment Liability Amort. sheet 0 50,000 50,000 1 10,000 40,000 3,020 10,000 43,020 13,020 (3,020) 2 10,000 30,000 2,599 11,000 34,619 12,599 (4,619) 3 10,000 20,000 2,091 12,000 24,710 12,091 (4,710) 4 10,000 10,000 1,493 13,000 13,203 11,493 (3,203) 5 10,000 - 797 14,000 - 10,797 Total 50,000 10,000 60,000 60,000 As can be seen in the table above, total expense recognized over the lease term will be the same (i.e., P60,000) but the expense recognition profile is radically changed.

Under the new lease standard, the straight-line lease expense is now split between the asset amortization expense and financing expense which results to different amount of lease expense being recognized.

The chart below is helpful in understanding the impact of the new lease standard on a company’s profit or loss statement:

As seen in the lease expense profile graph above, the lease expense under IAS 17 represents a straight-line lease expense which remains equal throughout the lease term while adopting the requirement of IFRS 16 will result to a declining amount of lease expense due mainly to the impact of the lease obligation amortization using the effective interest rate method.

Effectively, the straight-line lease expense is still recognized under IFRS 16 through the asset amortization model as can be seen in the graph above. This approach is consistent with the current accounting treatment of finance leases (or capital leases) in which expense is recognized through depreciation and interest.

As these are new financial statement captions, it is good to know that the right of use asset is considered nonmonetary asset, while the lease obligation is considered a monetary liability for foreign-exchange denominated transaction purposes. So if there are leases denominated in foreign-currency, additional complexity should be considered since the expense profile could materially swing due to the revaluation of the lease obligation at period-end. The new lease standard can be a game changer for some industries and could have potential significant impact on balance sheet and income statement, but for most of the companies, this new requirement will not be really relevant due to the low-value nature of the leased assets.

Filbert Tsai is a Filipino financial accounting advisory services executive in the UK with specialization in transaction accounting in the power and utilities sector. He had provided accounting advice to a significant number of government and financial institutions investing or providing financing structures in the renewables sector in Europe and in developing countries. This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@gmail.com.

Paul Donovan

I

n financial markets there is an adage: “You can’t trust Chinese data.” This is unfair to China—not because Chinese data is reliable, but because economic data from other countries is also unreliable. Data in the US and in Europe is being revised more often than in the past, and the revisions are generally larger than they were in the past.

What particularly matters for investors is that there is a bias to data revisions. Since 2010, inflation and growth numbers have usually been revised higher than originally reported. Indeed, the revisions are even more significant than that. In recent years, data that was originally reported as weaker than expected has been revised to data that is stronger than originally expected. The revision process is reversing the way in which data should surprise investors.

The problem is that financial

markets generally react to the initial data release, not to the revisions.

This means that the world view of financial markets is founded on data that was weaker than reality.

Economists and policy-makers, however, use revised data and are therefore looking at a world that has been showing evidence of stronger growth.

When investors consider the future, their starting point is the prevailing market price—but that market price is built on fundamental foundations that are wrong. When

Monday, April 18, 2016 A15

economists consider the future, their starting point is economic data—but the latest, revised data, which is more optimistic.

One area where this split is obvious is the issue of disinflation and deflation. It is often suggested that the US is on the brink of some kind of deflation episode. This idea seems to have originated in the performance of US inflation data between 2012 and 2014. There was an extraordinary period where the initial data release for inflation was nearly always lower than expected.

Prices consistently surprised on the downside, fostering the idea of economists being wrong in their US inflation forecasts.

In fact, it turns out that economists were not wrong in forecasting US inflation at all. Economists were right and the data was wrong. The revisions to US inflation data were consistently positive, and the reality was that inflation figures initially reported as being below expectations were actually back in line with expectations. The US deflation scare was built on dodgy data.

Bad supervision or no supervision

By Matt Levine | Bloomberg View

Stamford Harbor

A

while back, there was some insider trading at SAC Capital.

One result of that insider trading was that SAC’s boss, Steven A. Cohen (the “SAC” in SAC), was “prohibited from supervising funds that manage outside money until 2018 in order to settle charges for failing to supervise” the insider trading. SAC shut down as a hedge fund and was reborn as Point72 Asset Management, a family office running Cohen’s money, named after (sort of) its address in Stamford.

But there is a loophole: Cohen has formed a firm called Stamford Harbor Capital that employs top executives from his family office, and which plans to run private funds that will initially invest in illiquid and nonpublic securities, according to a regulatory filing this month. Cohen, 59, indirectly owns the firm, which will keep as much as 50 percent of client profits, but he won’t have any supervisory role.

“Steve Cohen owns the entity, but consistent with his January agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission he will not supervise the activities of anyone working on its behalf,” said Jonathan Gasthalter, a Stamford Harbor spokesman.

Isn’t that...isn’t that exactly what got him in trouble in the first place? The charges against Cohen boiled down to claims that he hired portfolio managers, set high profitability expectations for them, and then failed to supervise them when they insider traded. The upshot is not quite, as I had thought, that he was banned from managing outside money for a few years. He is still allowed to own a firm that manages outside money, that hires portfolio managers picked by him and pays him a portion of their profits—as long as he doesn’t supervise them at all. He didn’t supervise his old fund carefully enough, so now regulators will require him to supervise his new fund even less.

It’s a not-pie-eating contest where the prize is even less pie. Securities regulation is bonkers. I hope they pronounce it “Stamford ‘Arbor Capital,” and abbreviate it SAC. Elsewhere in hedge funds, the New York City Employees Retirement System voted to stop investing in hedge funds. (“Let them sell their summer homes and jets, and return those fees to their investors,” said Public Advocate Letitia James.)

Investors pulled more than $1 billionfrom Tudor Investment Corp.

And Cliff Asness has a new paper onfactor timing.

Argentina

Argentina reached settlements with its main holdouts in its 15-year debt restructuring battle at the end of February, got a key court approval on Wednesday, and is out raising new bonds to pay off the holdouts, cure its current default, and return

to the international capital markets.

That should all be done by the end of this month. So call it two months between reaching a tentative agreement with the holdouts and returning to complete normalcy. One might expect Argentina to just, you know, not do anything weird in those two months. After you pay the holdouts and fix the default and get out from US court supervision and successfully raise new money, sure, do all the weird stuff you want. You’re a sovereign nation, I won’t stop you.

But just keep the weirdness in check until you’re fully in the clear.

Argentina evidently disagrees.

We’ve talked about its almost immediate disavowal of some of the holdout settlements (including one that it had previously filed with the court as evidence of its good faith), and about its decision to change the way it will calculate payments on the GDP warrants issued in its restructuring. Now Argentina is in the middle of a road show for its new bonds, which seems to be going great. “If you haven’t done it, you might as well call your broker because the demand is awesome,” says Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay, helpfully. But along with the book-talking, Prat-Gay has a new weird idea: Argentina is also looking to protect itself against future holdout creditors, he said. The country is exploring how it might institute rules that would limit investors’ ability to litigate on bonds they didn’t hold during or prior to a default, he said at the Atlantic Council.

The comment echoes the so-called Champerty defense, originally an English common law doctrine that forbids the purchase of a claim for the purpose of filing a lawsuit Delightful name, but bad idea! It means that regular old investors— banks, pension funds, retirees—who own bonds that default will not have any “vulture” funds to sell to, and will have no recourse other than (1) taking whatever Argentina offers or (2) conducting a decades-long litigation themselves. The average retiree is not set up for (2), which means he will be stuck with (1)—so Argentina’s offer can be very low indeed. Vulture funds are an important safety valve for regular investors: They are willing to pay those investors at the time of default for bonds that may be worthless, and then put in the time and

The charges against Cohen boiled down to claims that he hired portfolio managers, set high profitability expectations for them, and then failed to supervise them when they insider traded. The upshot is not quite, as I had thought, that he was banned from managing outside money for a few years. effort and risk to make them worth something. If they can’t do that, then the bonds—in the hands of the regular investors—will remain worthless.

More important, though: Notice how we’re talking about Argentina’s next default? When you are selling new bonds, you should probably talk as little as possible about your plans for default. You want your buyers to be thinking happy, confident thoughts. (Argentina, again, disagrees, and cheerily notes in the prospectus that “from time to time, the Republic carries out debt-restructuring transactions.”) You certainly don’t want to tell them that the next default will be even more painful than the last one. The last one was world-historically painful!

Meanwhile, in less-sovereign debt, the other day I mentioned that some law students may have found a solution to Puerto Rico’s debt problems. Here it is; it relies on provisions in the Puerto Rico Civil Code to force creditors to come to the table, negotiate in good faith, and obtain equal benefits for all creditors. It’s sort of an effort to construct a bankruptcy regime out of some vague equitable statements in existing law. I like it!

Elsewhere here is a report on the “Origins of the Puerto Rico Fiscal Crisis.”

Market regulation

One basic thing that I think about US securities regulation is that it is too focused on protecting retail investors from information asymmetries. It seems to me that there is a mind-set at the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that markets should be “fair” in the sense that any casual day-trader or retiree can compete on a level playing field with massive professional investment funds.

The specific content of that fairness is up for debate, but as a philosophical matter it seems to be what regulators believe. I think it is kind of silly: It is impossible to achieve (the professionals do it as a job), it is bad for market efficiency (sophistication should be rewarded), and all my money is with the massive professionals and I want them to have advantages over the little guy (who is probably a bigger guy than I am anyway).

This week Robin Wigglesworth interviewed Rick Ketchum, who is retiring as the head of Finra, about bond market regulation, and it is a particularly clear and

Investors and economists have split views of the world. Investors worry about growth and fret whether inflation will go up. Economists see relatively strong growth performance and laugh at the idea of a global deflation threat. The economists are right (of course), but that does not mean that markets are going to accept that in a hurry.

This split is now also evident in the US Federal Reserve and other central banks. Those policy-makers who think markets are important are generally inclined to be cautious about tightening policy, or in favor of easing. Those policy-makers who view their job as managing the real world economy are more inclined to tighten policy now. It is a battle between economists living in the real world, and markets living in a more pessimistic illusion.

Paul Donovan’s latest book The Truth About Inflation was published by Routledge in April 2015. Visit www.ubs.com/pauldonovan for more research. Paul’s commentaries in the UBS series of documentaries on Nobel Laureates in economics is available at www.ubs.com/nobel.

strange statement of that retailfocused philosophy.

“I think there is a variety of stuff now that suggests things are going to change.... Our parents probably didn’t hold any fixed income, and if they did it would just be a couple of municipal bonds,” he says. “But the market has changed, retail investors are involved directly, and they are not being well served by it.”

That is not even really true, by the way: Retail investors are increasingly involved indirectly, through increasing ownership of bonds by mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, who are presumably sophisticated in their bond-market dealings. But what does Ketchum’s view mean for regulation? One thing he mentions is mandatory reporting of markups on bonds: There is a long history of bond traders charging investors whatever price they can get away with for bonds, because the investors were presumed to be able to take care of themselves. Now that is changing—even when the investors are still sophisticated hedge funds.

Or there is this: Another area on which Finra is keen to shed some sunlight is the potential for conflicts of interest between bond trading desks and analysts. While there has been a lot of progress in erecting firewalls on the equity side, the financial industry’s self-regulatory body is now focusing more on the bond industry.

For example, Finra is concerned that analysts can be leaned on by their trading colleagues to push out research to retail investors to help their trading positions.

Again, there is a long history of customer cynicism about sell-side research. Most fixed-income customers are sophisticated enough not to buy bonds from a bank just because that bank’s analyst says they’re a good buy—just like most customers are sophisticated enough not to buy bonds (or cars, or anything) from a salesman just because the salesman says they’re a good buy. But if the goal of securities regulation is to protect the least sophisticated investors, then more rules might be required.

Elsewhere in level playing fields, here’s an insider trading case against a former analyst at MSD Capital who allegedly used buyout news that he got through his job to trade short-dated out-of-the-money call options in his mother’s brokerage account. Don’t, as I often tell you, do that. “’Insider traders should have learned by now that trying to hide their illegal activity in a relative’s account ultimately won’t work,’ said Jina L. Choi, director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office,” but they really should have learned the thing about the shortdated out-of-the-money call options.

I remind them about it constantly.

To be continued