Businessmirror april 18, 2017

AntiCorruption: voluntary necessity or explicit choice?

By Henry J. Schumacher

A Nuvolanevicata | Dreamstime.com

lthough corporate social responsibility (CSR) seems to have become a buzzword in recent years, business has always been concerned about society and the environment.

Their relationship is, ultimately, symbiotic: neither can or will a company thrive in a failing society, nor can a society prosper without a successful expanding economy. Integrity, business ethics and anticorruption form part of cornerstones on which »continued on A2 modern business is built.

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Tuesday, April 18, 2017 Vol. 12 No. 187

Bosses worry about bills requiring hiring of PWDs 1% to 5% A proposed law requiring companies to hire persons with disabilities (PWDs) looms as a debilitating problem for certain industries, especially business-process outsourcing (BPO) and manufacturing, according to the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop).

House Bills (HBs) 1916, 2396, 4865 and 5058, now in the House Committee on Social Services, require that a particular percentage of a firm’s work force be filled by PWDs, with stiff penalties awaiting those that will violate.

HBs 1916 and 2396 direct specific government agencies and private corporations engaged in social development to reserve 5 percent of their casual, emergency and contractual work force to the disabled.

HB 4865 requires at least 2 per-

The percentage of a firm’s work force that should be filled

by PWDs under the bills filed in the House

cent of all positions in a private corporation and government office be dedicated to PWDs if the company employs more than 1,000 workers.

If the employee count is more than 100 but less than 1,000, the company is required to reserve just 1 percent to PWDs. See “PWDs,” A12

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A social volcano waiting to erupt

the entrepreneur Manny Villar

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here is no question that the Philippines has a serious, maybe even critical, housing problem: a huge backlog estimated at more than 5 million to 6 million units—and with demand continuing to outpace production, the problem will only get worse if not addressed immediately.

The response, if it is to be effective, should be appropriate with the magnitude and urgency of the problem. Unfortunately, the problem has not received the right solution and attention it needs.

Continued on A10

B.I.R.: LUCIO TAN HAS NO BMReports PENDING P30-BILLION Power struggle: Solar, wind challenge TAX-EVASION CASE coal as more affordable energy source T

By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

he Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Monday said there is no pending taxevasion case against Lucio C. Tan Sr., contrary to President Duterte’s allegation in Qatar over the weekend that the business tycoon has P30 billion in unpaid taxes.

Internal Revenue Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay told financial reporters he is not aware of any pending case against Tan. But, he added, “Give me a few days and I’ll look at the records and talk to the BIR assessment people, and probably I can come out with a definite answer [in line with the President’s statement].”

“As far as I know, we have not developed a case regarding those that the President mentioned, but if there is a case, then we will do our job,” Dulay said.

Tan has been consistent ly included in Forbes’s list of the world’s richest billionaires. For this year, he was ranked 501st, with $3.7 billion. His LT Group has interests in various industries, including tobacco, spirits, banking and property development.

Dulay said if other big companies are found among those businesses not paying correct taxes, then the BIR will do its job and build tax-evasion cases against them.

“R ight now, we do not see any big company not pay ing taxes. But, like I said, if we do

see some or if we receive reports, then we will look into it. It is all a matter of evidence and reviewing records,” he added.

The BIR commissioner encouraged delinquent taxpayers to avail themselves of the bureau’s compromise program, which does not only enable them to pay their duties and taxes, but also help fund the government’s various projects.

“I think they are listening, I have a lot of interviews encouraging taxpayers to avail themselves of the BIR’s compromise program.

This is for the country, and settling their taxes will be good for them also, because one of these days they will need a tax clearance, and if they have an existing case, they will not be given a tax clearance. They will not be able to continue their business operations,” he said.

In the same event in Qatar, Duterte also brought up the alleged P1.56-billion tax deficiency of Golden Donuts Inc. of the Prieto family, which surfaced three years ago.

“We are still looking at the parameters of the settlement, because it is not a closed case. I gave instructions to the legal [department] to take a look again at that Dunkin’ Donuts issue, and they are working on it. I plan to sit down with Deputy Commissioner Jesus Clint O. Aranas, who is on top of that case, so we can look at the status of this investigation,” he added.

PESO exchange rates n US 49.5300

A 35-hectare solar farm at the San Carlos ecozone is projected to generate 22 megawatts of electricity using sunlight.

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

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Part Two

IKE gold and other minerals, the Philippines is rich in coal.

According to the Department of Energy (DOE), the country’s in situ coal reserves as of December 2015 amount to 470 million metric tons (MT), or 19.7 percent, of the country’s total coal-resource potential of 2.39 billion MT. The country’s energy-source mix, however, is slowly shifting to renewable energy (RE),

with more and more companies venturing into RE-related development projects. According to Greenpeace Philippines climate and energy campaigner Reuben Muni, what is needed is the required boost from the DOE, which should be facilitated by the ongoing energy-mix policy review, which specifically aims to veer the Philippines away from coal addiction.

The coal industry is booming in the Philippines because of increased interest brought about by the huge demand for cheap,

NONIE REYES

reliable energy source, according to Muni.

Underexplored areas

THE DOE reported that there are 30 coal-operating contracts in the development and production phase; 48 coal-operating contracts in the exploration phase; and 83 small-scale coal-mining operators as of July 2016.

The Coal and Nuclear Minerals Division (CNMD) is also continuously scouting for underexplored coal areas.

In May 2014 15 prospective

coal areas in Mindanao and five companies submitted nine applications for seven of these areas.

These areas are in the provinces of Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga Sibugay.

On May 18 that year all seven coaloperating contracts were awarded to companies after complying with the technical, legal and financial requirements of the DOE. “It is but very timely to invest in coal facilities, as the price of oil continues to rise, with coal Continued on A2

n japan 0.4553 n UK 62.0958 n HK 6.3715 n CHINA 7.1934 n singapore 35.4444 n australia 37.5289 n EU 52.6108 n SAUDI arabia 13.2073

Source: BSP (17 April 2017 )

BMReports BusinessMirror

A2 Tuesday, April 18, 2017

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

being still the cheapest option with abundant supply worldwide,” according to the DOE, as posted in its official web site about coal and its investment opportunities.

The key investment opportunities in the coal sector for private companies include the setting up of coal-preparation plants to upgrade the quality of Philippine coal and making these acceptable to current coal users. Other investment opportunities involve the expansion of production volumes of higher-rank Philippine coals, which can be used without upgrading and/or blending with high-quality imported coal.

Other investment opportunities include the introduction of clean-coal technologies (i.e., circulating fluidized bed combustion) to ensure utilization of Philippine coals with minimal adverse effects on the environment, and the putting up of mine-mouth power plants designed to utilize the abundant low-rank coals that have no alternative markets.

‘Clean coal’

REGARDED as the dirtiest of all fossil-fuel source of energy, advocates for coal as fuel are losing the climate and energy discourse. Hence, so-called clean coal and clean-coal technology have been introduced to attract more investment.

Higher-rank coals are now an option for prospective investors.

Purportedly, it can be used by current users without the need for any coal preparation or blending with imported coals.

According to the DOE, high-rank coals exist. The agency pointed to the coal deposits being mined by the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) with its Taiwanese partner in Malangas in Zamboanga Sibugay, by the Ibalong Resources and Development Corp. in Southern Cebu and by the Rock Energy International Corp. on Batan Island.

The DOE said the coal deposits in Catanduanes Island have been contracted out to Monte Oro Resources and Energy Inc. for coal exploration, while the coal areas in General Nakar, Quezon, are wait-

ing to be contracted. According to the DOE, “there are also two other coal fields of good quality”: the Integrated Little Baguio (ILB) and Lalat mines. The ILB mine is covered by the PNOC’s coal-operating contract. On the other hand, the Lalat area will be developed through a joint venture between PNOC and Filsystems Inc., the DOE said.

According to the DOE, it is the downstream coal sector, particularly the utilization of coal for power generation, and cementmanufacturing companies that can introduce clean-coal technologies in existing and future power and cement plants to minimize adverse effects of coal on the environment and still be competitive, are definitely welcome.

No such thing

There is also what the DOE describes as clean-coal technology.

Coal washing or preparation— a wet method of cleaning low-rank coal by separating coal from the wastes using specific gravity differences—reduces ash and sulfur

contents of coal and increases its heating value.

There are other technologies, such as circulating fluidized bed combustion technology, flue gas desulfurizer and setting up minemouth power plants.

However, Muni said there is no such thing as clean coal or clean-coal technology because “coal is coal”.

Early in February last year, Greenpeace warned that deaths due to stroke, heart and other cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory illnesses because of air pollution may go up from the current 960 annual premature deaths to 2,410 deaths per year, with the construction and operation of more coalfired power plants in the country.

A report, titled “Coal: A Public Health Crisis”, was released by Greenpeace along with environmental and public-health interest groups to warn the government and the public about the health impacts of existing coal-fired power plants and the plan to construct more in the future.

The report that cited diseases

and deaths attributed to coal use in the Philippines said coal-fired power plants expose people to toxic pollution, resulting in hundreds of premature deaths every year.

Sunrise industry

SOLAR, wind and, possibly, ocean current are ready to give coal its biggest challenge as energy source.

In fact, RE may soon become the next sunrise industry in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

Setting aside the impact of climate change or the climate-change scenario, looking from a purely economic point of view, Muni said there will come a time that the Philippines will be forced to shift to renewables.

“Coal resources are already depleted,” he said. The technology itself,” Muni added. “The price of RE technology is dropping.”

Unlike RE like solar, wind and ocean current, the potential energy supply that can be generated is limitless, he added.

The No. 1 country in terms of wind- and solar-power generation

today is China, according to Muni, citing again the “Boom and Bust 2017—Tracking the Global Coal Plant Pipeline” report.

This year 47 new coal plants that were scheduled for construction in China were canceled. When you talk about China, the average power-generating capacity of coalfired power plants is around 500 megawatts (MW), according to Muni. That means a 48-percent drop in preconstruction activities and a 62-percent diminution in construction stats, he added.

“From a global point of view, the trend is clear,” Muni said. “There are regions in the world that the shift is apparent, like Southeast Asia. Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines are among them. [But] China is leading the way.”

According to the Greenpeace official, it was the Europeans that earlier led the march to RE, with Germany as top dog. “[But] Asia is now making the shift,” Muni said. “China and India are leading the shift from fossil fuel to renewables.” To be continued

AntiCorruption: voluntary necessity or explicit choice?

Continued from A1

The increasing globalization (hopefully with Trump as US president) of the world economy has led to significant changes in supply and value chains and in the division of labor. Doing business and manufacturing goods have become more complex, as enterprises wishing to do international

business have to comply with more and more legal and ethical standards (the Philippines just added data privacy rules that will affect every organization). As a result, CSR has become a kind of voluntary necessity rather than an explicit choice. As Gawad Kalinga founder Tony Meloto said recently: “Mere charity is not working.” In order to succeed

globally, businesses have to respond to certain expectations and align their strategies and operations to universal values.

These expectations and values become especially evident when tragic incidents prove weak standards, like the collapse of the garment factory in Bangladesh or the fire in the plant in Valenzuela, where many workers lost

their lives. Manufacturers came under fire for their supply-chain responsibility. Public pressure prompted companies to improve attention to safety requirements and labor/human-rights issues.

Beyond human-rights issues, the public’s attention has also been drawn to questions of environmental sustainability. Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez has

this high on her agenda. Many local and foreign businesses have responded to these concerns (already before the arrival of Lopez at the environment department).

It is against this background that many international initiatives and guidelines have been established. These guidelines include the UN Global Compact, the Organisation for Economic

Cooperation and Development Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (MNE) and the International Labor Organization’s MNE Declaration. The latter is the world’s most comprehensive government-backed multilateral agreement on business ethics.

All of the measures above are often seen as only providing recommendations. Critics say these initiatives are not meaningful if they have no basis in law and formal enforcement. However, this understanding of voluntary CSR reflects the common misconception that poor business conduct has no consequence for the offending company. Not adhering to responsible business practices cannot be tolerated and will have a negative effect on the reputation of a company.

This is why the Integrity Initiative Inc. basically highlights the following principles that have to be adhered to by companies signing the Integrity Pledge: ■ Long-term sustainability over short-term greed ■ I respect the labor laws ■ I pay fair taxes ■ I respect the environment ■ I don’t smuggle ■ I don’t bribe.

Anti-corruption/ethical business behavior is being monitored internationally by various organizations. The Integrity Initiative has partnered with an international organization called EthiXbase, given the fact that EthiXbase connects to a global community of over 45,000 members. We are adding services to the activities of the Integrity Initiative, thanks to EthiXbase. Let me outline a few: ■ Access to a “Third Party Due Diligence Platform, powered by EthiXbase”; ■ Instant Due Diligence— Screening against Sanctions and Enforcements Databases; ■ Predictive Risk Indicator— feature based on an algorithm that aggregates from industry risk, country risk and media risk sources; ■ Ethical Alliance Daily News.

I will report in more detail about these services in future columns.

Anticorruption‚ voluntary necessity or explicit choice? Have I convinced you to join the Integrity Initiative and sign the Integrity Pledge? If yes, send me an e-mail (Schumacher@integrityinitiative.com) and I will send you the pledge for signature.

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Marcos asks SC to lower bond for poll protest

Wanted: Elected Metro Manila chief

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By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

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OR MER Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday asked the Supreme Court (SC) to lower the P66-million bond it earlier required for his election protest against Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo.

It can be recalled that the SC, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), ordered Marcos to deposit the amount needed for the resolution of the protest.

In the same order, the PET also ordered Robredo to also pay a cash deposit of P15.43 million for her counterprotest against Marcos.

Robredo was required to pay P8 million for the first tranche, also on April 16 and P7.43 million on July 14.

Under Section 33 (b) of the PET rules, a protestant is required to make a cash deposit to the Tribunal the amount of P500 per contested precinct, “if they require the bringing of the contested ballot boxes and election documents to the Tribunal”.

In his protest, Marcos contested the results in a total of 132,446 precincts in 39,221 clustered precincts covering 27 provinces and cities.

“Based on the foregoing, the cash deposit for protestant is P500 for each of the 132,446 precincts, which amounts to P66,223,000,” the PET order read.

Since Marcos already initially deposited P200,000 upon filing of his protest, he now only needs to pay the remaining P66,023,000 in two tranches—P36,023,000 on April 16 and P30 million on July 14.

In his appeal, Marcos, through lawyer Vic Rodriguez, asked the PET to defer the order for payment of the deposit pending resolution of their plea to set the case for preliminary conference.

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Tuesday, April 18, 2017 A3

Back to the salt mines A family arrives at a bus station in Cubao, Quezon City, on Easter Sunday after spending the Lenten season in their province. Metro Manila residents again experienced heavy traffic and other forms of inconvenience as those who went to the provinces returned. PNA

First Albay Congressional Cup sets new record

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EGAZPI CITY—A total of 161 basketball teams involving 1,930 players and some 320 coaches are now enthusiastically competing in the ongoing First Albay Congressional Cup, sponsored

by PDP-Laban Rep. Joey S. Salceda of Albay, setting a national record by itself in terms of overwhelming participation.

To manage the tournament, Salceda’s Albay Second Congressional District Office here has enlisted the help of at least 52 referees, and activated a 78-member secretariat.

Launched earlier this month, the sporting event has four categories—Interbarangay with ju-

niors and seniors divisions, inter local government, intercommercial and open category. Daily games are played in their respective separate venues to the delight of local basketball fans and visitors alike.

“You spell it as UNITY,” noted Salceda, taking pride of the popular public response to his call for the “promotion of sports, healthy lifestyle, sportsmanship, bonding of communities and engaging and training community members, especially the youth, in worthwhile activ ities.” He said the tournament will “help in benchmarking and promoting discipline, prevention of dysfunctional activities, and for both lo-

cals and visitors alike, especially tourists, to enjoy summer.”

The sports competition runs until May 31. It was launched on April 1 with a grand parade from the Daraga Covered Court to the Bicol University Grounds in Legazpi City. Salceda and local government officials led the parade, participated in by teams and visitors.

Salceda said the competition will surely spur a more active sports program in Albay’s second district with the participation of the entire province. Sports promotion is among his priority programs. Cash prizes and trophies await the winners, while medals will be awarded to victorious team members. PNA

PARTY-LIST congressman is pushing for an elected governor of Metro Manila.

“It is about time that we have a full-time working Metropolitan Manila government, headed by a governor, who is elected by the people,” Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza of Buhay said in filing House Bill 4758, or An Act Creating the Metropolitan Manila Government that is meant to replace the current Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), which is headed by a chairman appointed by the President and serves as a coordinating body with the elected mayors of the 16 cities and one town in the metropolis.

“The Metro Manila Commission was meant to be an experiment in 1973 and was headed by then-First Lady Imelda R. Marcos.

She was effective, because she was Mrs. Marcos and everybody listened and followed. But as we have seen after 44 years, the MMDA has not been responsive to and effective in addressing the pressing concerns of the residents of Metro Manila. There should now be a permanent body, considering all the changes the country has undergone and the experiences we have had,” Atienza added.

Atienza pointed out that megacities, like New York and Tokyo, have governors who are elected by the people.

“Dapat ang chairman ng MMDA ay elected, kagaya ng governors sa New York and Tokyo. These are megacities that used to have traffic problems like ours, which they were able to manage effectively with a governor elected by the people, answerable and accountable to the people. The MMDA’s present structure of having an appointed chairman is failing for lack of accountability.

We cannot expect duly elected local government officials to follow the

lead of an MMDA chairman, who is merely a presidential appointee.

An elected governor would be more sensitive to what needs to be done and how to work with the mayors,” Atienza said.

Atienza, a former mayor of Manila, cited his own experience managing the capital city for nine years, pointing out the need for a master plan for development, instead of the palliative measures being implemented to address the metropolis’s long-festering problems, such as traffic congestion, flooding, peace and order, and garbage.

“The traffic situation has continued to worsen, and all the MMDA can come up with are hare-brained schemes, like imposing a ‘congestion fee’ on motorists passing Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. Until now we continue to experience flooding in the Metropolis, even with light rains. Ang problema sa basura ay hindi pa din tuluyang nasosolusyonan. This is exactly why we need to have an elected governor to implement a master plan for development to address all these concerns and who will be held accountable to the people,” Atienza added.

In Atienza’s bill, the Metro Manila government shall be composed of a governor, vice governor and the Metro Manila Council (MMC).

The governor, vice governor and members of the MMC shall be elected by the people at large within Metro Manila, embracing the cities of Caloocan, Manila, Mandaluyong, Makati, Pasay, Pasig, Quezon, Muntinlupa, Las Piñas, Malabon, Marikina, Navotas, Parañaque, San Juan, Taguig and Valenzuela, and the town of Pateros, provided that members of the MMC shall be elected from each of the congressional districts within Metro Manila. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

Airport customs execs turn over seized submachine guns to Natl Police chief DAR’s Mariano wants total distribution of land to farmers

By Recto L. Mercene @rectomercene

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

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ANILA International Airport customs officials on Monday turned over four seized Kriss Vector submachine guns which arrived in August 2015 from the US without documentation, to the National Police chief, Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa.

The customs officials turn over the seized weapons when dela Rosa went to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) at about 3 a.m. to welcome President Duterte, who returned from a weeklong visit to the Middle East.

The high-powered firearms and two receiver assemblies for the Kriss Vector submachineguns arrived onboard Eva Air under Airway Bill 695-4816-3765 and consigned to the National Police.

The hot items were placed under alert status for having been brought in without an import permit.

In a letter sent to the Bureau of Customs, dated October 22, 2015, National Police’s Firearms and Explosive Office Chief Supt.

@jonlmayuga

A

Elmo Francis Sarona said that an application for authority to import was filed by Stone of David Tactical Equipment Company (Sodtec).

But the airport authorities said the application was returned by the National Police higher headquarters in view of the company’s disqualification from a bidding process. “ The application for the authority to import by Sodtec is not yet approved, as there is still no compliance by the company on the additional documents required by the

National Police,” Customs Collector Ed Macabeo said.

Macabeo recommended that a warrant of seizure and detention be issued against the shipment for violation of Section 101 and Section 2530 of the Tariff And Customs Code.

During the turnover, dela Rosa said: “We encourage everybody to fight criminality, drugs and corruption and support the campaign of President Duterte and continue the mission [to eradicate crimes] whatever it takes.”

Manila International Airport

Authority (MIAA) officials said dela Rosa waited at the airport’s Dignitaries Lounge for the turnover of the submachineguns at the customs house.

He was observed animatedly watching on television a show called the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featuring a Filipino fighter against a foreigner.

At around 7:15 a.m., dela Rosa proceeded to the Naia customs house to join the flagraising ceremony and to receive the firearms from customs officials.

GRARIAN Reform Secretary Rafael V. Mariano is urging the peace panels in the ongoing talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front to consider placing all agricultural lands, including those already “exempted” under the coverage of the agrarian-reform program.

In a statement, Mariano also batted for land transfer so that landless farmers will have land to cultivate and boost agricultural productivity, totally junking the stock distribution option and other nonland transfer schemes.

Mariano issued the statement as he welcomed the recent agreement that set “free distribution of land” as the guiding principle in the implementation of the genuine agrarian reform.

The free distribution of land is just one of the five proposals that Mariano had presented for inclusion in the Comprehensive Agreement on Socioeconomic Reforms (Caser).

In a position paper on Caser,

the Department of Agriculture had presented to the two panels, Mariano stressed that “actual use” of the land should be made the basis for agrarian-reform coverage, “not its classification”. He explained that there are lands, which may not be classified as agricultural, but are already tilled and developed by farmers.

The agreement, he said, “must cover the remaining unacquired public and private agricultural lands, which approximately total to more or less 6 million hectares and distribute them for free to the farmers.”

“The exemptions and exclusions provided by the CARP [Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program] should be removed. Those lands previously exempted or excluded from CARP coverage must also be reviewed, and if the lands remain agricultural in use, they should be placed under the coverage of the agrarian-reform program,” Mariano said.

Mariano also emphasized the need for farmer-beneficiaries to have “full control of the land and of the agricultural production.”

Army to Reds: Fulfill promise to release 2 abducted soldiers in Sultan Kudarat

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AVAO CITY—The Army’s 10th Infantry “Agila” Division has urged the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), to make good their promise to release two soldiers that communist guerrillas seized in Sultan Kudarat province in February.

“We denounce the CPP-NPA for its double-faced lie in not releasing

the two soldiers of the 39th Infantry Battalion they abducted at the height of the unilateral cease-fire on February 2,” said Capt. Rhyan Batchar, chief information officer of 10th ID. The soldiers held by the communist rebels are Sgt. Solaiman Calucop and Pfc. Samuel Garay.

Batchar said there is no more hindrance to the release of the soldiers.

In a statement issued on April 7 in Noordwijkaan Zee, the Netherlands, the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political arm of the CPP, accused the Armed Forces of refusing to suspend military operations to pave the way for the release of abducted soldiers in Mindanao, including Calucop and Garay.

The government and NDF peace

panels agreed the day before to undertake measures for the safe and immediate release of abducted soldiers in Mindanao.

The communist rebels said the soldiers abducted in Sultan Kudarat will be released on Easter Sunday, while the soldiers snatched in Bukidnon and Caraga region will be freed after Easter Sunday.

But contrary to the claim of the

NDF, Bachar said the 10th ID and the 39th IB suspended their military operations against the NPA rebels responsible for the abduction of Calucop and Garay.

“We demand that the NPA immediately release our soldiers without any condition, as this is the only way to rectify the treacherous and insincere act of abducting our soldiers while the unilateral

cease-fires were still in effect,” Batchar said.

In an interview last week, the Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen. Eduardo Año, said there was no need for a suspension of military operations (Somo), noting that the NPA already released two abducted government troops in Davao Oriental in March even if there was no Somo in the area. PNA

Economy

A4 Tuesday, April 18, 2017 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

PHL hosts nuclear energy meeting

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

T

he Philippines is hosting this week ’s 7th Nuclear Energy Cooperation and Sub-Sector Network (NEC-SSN) Meeting, in which the Philippines hopes to gain insights amid plans to pursue nuclear energy.

Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi described as “very timely” the Philippines’s hosting of the three-day meeting, from April 17 to 19, as his office is now undertaking various studies and capacity-building activities aimed to determine the nation’s position on nuclear energy.

“The seminar will focus on securing radioactive sources, a grave concern relative to risks to people and the environment,” Cusi said.

The actual meeting of Asean member-states (AMS) that are part of the SSN will take place this Wednesday.

Starting the three-day activity of the NEC-SSN is the seminar on security of radioactive sources organized by the Asean Center of Energy (ACE), in partnership with the Integrated Support Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security (ISCN) of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA).

Energy Undersecretar y Donato D. Marcos said the Philippines has always viewed nuclear energy as a long-term option for power generation that will provide supply security, stability and reliability.

“Should this be the path that the country will take, nuclear further diversifies our existing generation mix comprised of coal, natural gas, geothermal, hydropower, oil, wind, biomass and solar,” he said, adding that nuclear energy will be in support to the thrust of the Philippine government, which is the realization of the Philippine Development Plan’s (PDP) drive for industrialization and urbanization. “ I a m opt i m ist ic t h at t he objectives of this seminar will be achieved with your utmost support. Our participation here today indicates that we value regional and international cooperation on nuclear and rad ioact ive mater ia ls secur it y.

And the most effective way for us to learn is to hear out from the experiences of our fellow member-states and from the experts,” Marcos said.

BusinessMirror

For Filipinos, poor Internet connection a more bothersome issue than poverty, corruption

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By Cai U. Ordinario

@cuo_bm

ad Internet connection is a more pressing problem in the country compared to poverty and corruption, according to a study released by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).

In a discussion paper, PIDS Research Information Department Director Sheila Siar, Senior Research Fellow Jose Ramon Albert, and President Gilberto Llanto said this concern may have stemmed from the dependence of the country on the services sector, particularly the business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

The other “pressing problems” that made up the top five were agriculture and food security as well as energy provision and price.

“This [bad internet connection] is a big concern because the Philippines’s services sector owes much of its stellar performance to improvements in ICT, which was instrumental to the robust growth of the information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) industry,” the authors said.

“Poor quality service provided by Philippine telecommunication firms will create a significant hindrance to the continuous growth of the IT-BPM industry and of the services sector as a whole,” it added. The study stated that telephone services in the Philippines, in US dollars purchasing power parity cost $36.15 per month, which is the highest in the Asean.

Mobile cellular services and fixed broadband services are priced at $22.24 (second highest) and $51.59 per month (third highest), respectively, based on data from the International Telecommunication Union.

Despite the high costs, the Philippines’s average connection speed was only at 2.8 Megabits per second (Mbps) for the third quarter of 2015.

This is significantly lower than the global average connection speed of 5.1 Mbps and the second slowest in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Price, nevertheless, does not translate to quality service. Despite the high cost, Internet speed in the Philippines

is among the slowest in the Asia-Pacific region,” the study stated.

Meanwhile, the least pressing problems are gender parity; nontariff measures/barriers (NTBs); public participation; trade, investment and regulatory coherence; territorial/ maritime dispute; and customs.

Gender parity and NTBs were tied in last place with only eight respondents each, saying these are among the top five pressing problems in the Philippines.

The authors said this could reflect the impression that these problems have been addressed, particularly in terms of gender parity, since the country is considered among the best places to live for a woman.

This could also mean that respondents believe these problems can be handled better from a regional, rather than local, perspective.

“These reflect the respondents’ perception that these items are not so much of a concern for the country,” the study stated.

Meanwhile in terms of the Asean as a whole, the top five pressing problems are climate change and natural disasters; territorial/maritime dispute; trade, investment and regulatory coherence; income disparity and social inequality; agriculture and food security; and corruption.

Data showed that income disparity and social inequality and agriculture and food security were tied in fourth place, since 140 respondents each considered them among the top five pressing problems for the Asean as a whole.

In terms of least pressing problems for the whole region, these were energy provision and price; health services; and affordable Internet connection.

The list also includes land and water use and access as well as quality

Neda pushes for road map to fulfill intl commitments under Agenda ’30

By Cai U. Ordinario @cuo_bm

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he National Economic and Development Aut hor it y (Neda) is pushing for the creation of a sustainable development road map to ensure the coun-

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try meet its international commitments under Agenda 2030.

In a news statement on Monday, Neda Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Rosemarie G. Edillon said the roadmap will also help the Duterte administration track its progress in reaching its own targets set under the Philippine Development Plan (PDP).

T he PDP has incorporated the Zero to 10 Agenda of the President, as well as the pillars of AmBisyon Natin 2040, the long-term vision and road map of the Philippines. It has also been aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “ The government aims to bring development planning to the next level by considering the interplay of economy, society and environment,” Edillon said.

The road map, she added, will enable the country to maximize the current economic momentum to push its development further toward enabling Filipinos to attain a matatag, maginhawa at panatag na buhay.

S he said the road map, including the proposed institutional arrangements, will be presented

to the Neda Board.

The Neda has recently convened the heads of its regional offices and technical staff to formulate a sustainable development road map for the Philippines that streamlines both national and regional development plans (RDPs).

In the workshop, participants looked into the details of the SDGs and compared the goals, targets and indicators with those of the 20172022 PDP and the RDPs. Participants also noted the need to ensure that the monitoring and evaluation system for the international commitments and the national and regional plans will be efficient.

They agreed to carefully study and recommend appropriate institutional arrangements to ensure continuity and sustainability of initiatives, considering that the 2030 Agenda and AmBisyon Natin 2040 span more than one political administration.

On October 24, 2016, President Duterte directed the Neda through Memorandum Circular No. 12, Series of 2016, to formulate the country’s medium-term development plan based on the Zero to 10 Socioeconomic Agenda, the AmBisyon Natin 2040, and the 2030 Agenda.

education which were tied in fourth to the last place. Completing the top five least pressing problems for the Asean as a whole is unemployment.

“While internet connection and energy provision and price were not a concern for the respondents as far as Asean is concerned, these items were among the top five pressing problems for the Philippines, reflecting the survey respondents’ perception that they are more of domestic rather than regional issues,” the study stated.

“The low level of concern for the other problems may be indicative of views that measures are already being made to solve them, and thus, they are no longer pressing problems for Asean,” it added.

The study also showed that while there are differences on what are considered more pressing problems for the Philippines and Asean as a whole, Filipinos recognize the Asean and are moderately aware of its role in the country and its neighbors.

Filipinos recognize that the Asean has mechanisms by which member-states can discuss issues and concerns that are common in the region, and resolve some of these in the process. However, the authors lamented that information about the Asean and its activities remains lacking, particularly those disseminated to the public through mass media.

The authors noted that in their focus group discussions (FGDs) with young Filipinos or those aged 15 to 30 years old, did not feel they

This [bad Internet connection] is a big concern because the Philippines’s services sector owes much of its stellar performance to improvements in ICT, which was instrumental to the robust growth of the IT-BPM industry. Poor quality service provided by Philippine telecommunication firms will create a significant hindrance to the continuous growth of the IT-BPM industry and of the services sector as a whole.”—PIDS were part of the Asean. They also said they were not aware of the Asean Secretariat.

“Asean has to provide a strong leadership role in integrating its member-states, which individually are also confronted by a host of development issues and challenges,” the study stated. “As Asean’s coordinating body for the implementation of its projects and activities, the Asean Secretariat also needs to strengthen its capability so it can provide more effective technical support in meeting the association’s goals and aspirations,” it added.

The study was carried out through the conduct of a purposive survey (online and paper based) as well as

of focus group discussions (FGDs) with select target groups.

The data was based on the a survey of 289 respondents and the conduct of three focus group discussions in Butuan City with the youth sector; Cebu for the business sector; and in Quezon City for a mixed group composed of representatives from government, academe, business, and civil society organization nongovernment organizations (CSO/NGO).

The biggest group of survey respondents was from government, followed by those from the academe, CSO/NGO, business, and others.

“Others” comprised students, staff of international organizations and media personnel.

briefs DOTr: Never too late for transparency The transportation department has decided to invite its critics as observers in the bidding procedures for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3’s different supplyprocurement requirements.

Department of Transportation (DOTr) Undersecretary Cesar B. Chavez said the decision was made “in the interest of transparency”, citing the procurement law.

He sent separate letters to Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption Founding Chairman Dante Jimenez and Bayan Muna Secretary-General Renato Reyes Jr. Chavez is asking them to submit the names of their representatives to the bids and awards committee (BAC).

“They have volunteer lawyers who understand procurement,” Chavez said in a text message. “It’s basically for transparency.”

The two groups are known critics of the lack of development at the MRT 3.

Chavez, during his stint as the chairman of the BAC committed of the Light Rail Transit Authority, invited the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines as an observer during its meetings.

“With this, I just expanded the participation of nongovernmental organizations,” he said. Lorenz S. Marasigan

qatar to pour $1-b sovereign investment fund in mindanao

President Duterte’s visit to the Middle East has also bagged a $1-billion sovereign investment fund from Qatar, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said on Monday.

In a text message, Lopez said Qatar and the Philippines signed on Sunday morning the Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement (Ippa) to facilitate the $1-billion investment of the Qatari government in the country.

The trade chief mentioned that the investments will be for developmental projects in Mindanao, particularly in areas of agriculture and infrastructure.

The Ippa will also identify other investment opportunities here.

“Basically, [it] provides internationally recognized investor rights and safeguards. Qatar investors will be [treated] fairly and will not be disadvantaged,” Lopez added.

The Ippa with $1-billion investments from Qatar is on top of the $925-million investment prospects signed during the Middle East visit of Duterte last week. PNA

sss supports passage of holistic tax-reform package The Social Security System (SSS) has expressed its support for the holistic and timely passage of the tax-reform proposal of the Department of Finance (DOF), which mainly aims for a simpler, fairer and more efficient tax system in the country that will benefit largely the poor and middle-income earners.

“We, at SSS, fully support the passage of the first package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program [CTRP] of President Rodrigo Duterte under the leadership of Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III,” Social Security Commission Chairman Amado D. Valdez said in a news statement. The DOF said some 4.66 million taxpayers, or more than double the current figure of 1.8 million, will no longer pay their personal income tax under the government’s highly progressive CTRP. “We are in the same path with Secretary Dominguez’s aim to bring more money into the people’s pocket. With this, taxpayers will have an extra room in their budget to save up for their future and ensure that they will have enough when they leave the work force. We hope that the package be passed into law in time with the schedule targeted by the DOF,” Valdez said.

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Tuesday, April 18, 2017

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PHL rice output likely grew 12.8% in Q1

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

he country’s rice production in the first quarter may have expanded by 12.8 percent to 4.44 million metric tons (MMT), from 3.93 MMT recorded a year ago.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) made this forecast in its latest report, titled “Updates on January-March 2017 Palay and Corn Forecasts”. The figure is consistent with the projection it made in February.

“Palay production for January-March 2017 may reach 4.44 MMT, 2.1 percent below the January 2017 round forecast of 4.53 MMT, but 12.8 percent higher than the previous year’s output of 3.93 MMT,” the report read.

The projected palay production in the first quarter of the year is higher than the actual first quarter output of 4.36 MMT recorded in 2015.

In the January round of its survey, titled “Rice and Corn Situation Outlook”, the PSA said the probable increase in first quarter rice output is due to the expansion in harvest area. The availability of irrigation water and the use of highyielding rice varieties would also boost production.

“Probable increments in production are foreseen in all regions, except Calabarzon,” the report read.

In its latest report, the PSA said some areas recorded lower harvests due to unfavorable weather and pest infestation.

“The probable decrease in palay production may be attributed to lower yield

as a result of infestation of rats, rice black bug, plant hoppers and stemborer in Iloilo, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato, Leyte, Cavite, Negros Oriental, Guimaras, Misamis Occidental and Sarangani,” the report read.

“The continuous and heavy rainfall and strong winds that were experienced during the vegetative and reproductive stages of the crop in Capiz, South Cotabato, Leyte, Compostela Valley, Aurora, Aklan, Surigao Norte and Negros Oriental may cause production of these provinces to go down,” it added.

The PSA noted that continuous and heavy rainfall and strong winds affected the vegetative and reproductive stages of the crop and resulted in the decline in the rice production of Capiz, South Cotabato, Leyte, Compostela Valley, Bohol, Aurora, Aklan and Negros Oriental.

The PSA said harvest area in the January-to-March period may contract to 1.15 million hectares, from 1.16 million hectares, or by 0.9 percent. Also, yield per hectare may decline to 3.85 metric tons (MT), from 3.92 MT. “Probable decreases in area and yield may be due to floods in Davao, North Cotabato, Negros Occidental, Misamis Occidental and Bukidnon. The adverse effects of Typhoon Nina in December

‘Use of high-yielding GM varieties will allow farmers to export corn’

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he government should promote the use of higher-yielding genetically modified (GM) seed varieties to boost corn output and enable farmers to export, according to an executive of Monsanto Philippines Inc. (MPI).

MPI Countr y Commercia l Lead Rachelle Lomibao said expanding the use of modern technology will help the government achieve its goal of exporting corn in the near future.

“If you just increase the yield average per hectare then you don’t have to increase the number of hectares to be planted with corn. You just increase productivity per hectare and that’s not impossible,” Lomibao told the BusinessMirror on the sidelines of the company’s media launch of a new hybrid corn seed variety on Monday.

However, the MPI executive said the use of hybrid-corn seed varieties alone is not enough to turn the Philippines’s dream of exporting the crop into a reality.

“It’s not just about the seeds; it has to be accompanied by a lot of factors: fertilization, right agronomic practices, right management of water and right management of diseases and pests,” Lomibao said.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) earlier said the Philippines will achieve a “historic feat” this year by exporting corn due to a surplus in output.

However, Lomibao said she doesn’t see this happening this year.

“We may not be able to export this year due to the gap between the supply and demand,” she said.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the countr y’s self-sufficiency ratio on corn declined to 91.35 percent in 2015, from 93.12 percent recorded in 2014.

On Monday MPI rolled out Dekalb 6999S, a hybrid corn seed variety, which has a potential yield of 13.6

13.6 MT

The potential yield per hectare of Dekalb 6999S, a hybrid corn-seed variety launched by Monsanto

metric tons per hectare (MT/ha), more than triple than the country’s average yield of 4 MT/ha.

“Based on our trials it has a potential yield of as much as 13.6 MT/ha.

This variety can be used both for wet and dry seasons,” MPI Marketing Lead Pam Valenzuela told reporters in a news briefing on Monday.

“This variety is what we need to reduce the gap between what is currently being produced and the demand,” Valenzuela added.

Dekalb 6999S contains Genuity, a Monsanto trait technology that makes the crop resistant to pests, such as corn borer, earworm and cutworm, according to MPI. MPI also said its latest product is protected against weeds due to its Round Up Ready component.

When asked if the MPI’s latest seed variety could withstand extreme weather condition such as drought, Lomibao said, “it will thrive.”

“Dekalb has been known to have a germplasm that is really resilient against drought. Our previous variety the Dekalb 6919 survived when planted during the last time we had El Niño,” she said.

“The germplasm, which is droughttolerant used in 6919, is the same with that of Dekalb 6999S. We are confident that with Dekalb 6999s farmers can still be accorded with an optimum yield through our hybrid [seeds],” she added.

Lomibao also disclosed that there are several hybrid corn seed varieties currently in the pipeline. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

2016 in Catanduanes and Quezon, and heavy rains caused by tropical depression Auring early January this year in Bohol, Surigao del Norte, Cebu and Agusan del Sur,” the report read.

The PSA noted that about 566,270 hectares of the updated standing crop have been harvested.

As of March 1, about 93.1 percent, or almost 855,790 hectares, of the farmers’ planting intentions for the April-to-June period have materialized.

“Of the 1.43-million-hectare standing palay crop, 19.8 percent were at vegetative stage; 47.0 percent at reproductive stage; and 33.2 percent at maturing stage,” the report read.

The PSA’s palay production forecast in the first quarter is 7.25 percent higher, or about 300,000 MT, higher than the 4.14 MMT projected by the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Citing data from the Philippine Rice Satellite Monitoring (Prism), Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said palay output in the first quarter increased by 5.34 percent to 4.14 MMT, from the 3.93 MMT, a year go.

Piñol said the increase in production could be attributed to good weather and the use of high-yielding hybrid rice seeds.

The PSA, the government’s major statistical agency, is set to release the actual rice output next month.

The PSA maintained its original corn

File photo

production forecast of 2.38 MMT for the first quarter. The figure is 24 percent higher than the 1.92 MMT recorded in the same period last year.

The PSA also said that as of March 1, around 289,740 hectares, or 73.9 percent, of the planting intentions for the April-to-June harvests have been materialized.

Earlier, Piñol said agriculture production in the first three months of the year could grow

by 2 percent, as favorable weather encouraged farmers to plant more crops.

Piñol said the crops subsector would still be the main driver of the farm sector’s growth during the January-to-March period, particularly rice and corn.

The DA is eyeing to hike palay production to 18.57 MMT this year. The figure is 5.33 percent higher than last year’s output of 17.63 MMT.

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The World BusinessMirror

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

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

Pence: North Korea ‘era U of strategic patience is over’

United staff will no longer take seats of boarded passengers

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ANMUNJOM, South Korea— Viewing his adversaries in the distance, US Vice President Mike Pence traveled to the tense zone dividing North and South Korea and warned Pyongyang that after years of testing the US and South Korea with its nuclear ambitions, “the era of strategic patience is over”.

Pence made an unannounced visit to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) at the start of his 10-day trip to Asia in a US show of force that allowed the vice president to gaze at North Korean soldiers from afar and stare directly across a border marked by razor wire.

As the brown bomber jacketclad vice president was briefed near the military demarcation line, two North Korean soldiers watched from a short distance away, one taking multiple photographs of the American visitor.

Pence told reporters near the DMZ that President Donald J. Trump was hopeful that China would use its “extraordinary levers” to pressure the North to abandon its weapons program, a day after the North’s failed missile launch. But Pence expressed impatience with the unwillingness of the regime to move toward ridding itself of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

Pointing to the quarter-centur y since North Korea first obtained nuclear weapons, the vice president said a period of patience had followed.

“But the era of strategic patience is over,” Pence declared.

“President Trump has made it clear that the patience of the United States and our allies in this region has run out, and we want to see change. We want to see North Korea abandon its reckless path of the development of nuclear weapons, and also its continual use and testing of ballistic missiles is unacceptable.”

The vice president visited a military installation near the DMZ, Camp Bonifas, for a briefing with military leaders. He also met with American troops stationed at the joint US-South Korean military camp, which is just outside the 4.02-kilometer-wide DMZ. Under rainfall, Pence later stood a few meters from the military demarcation line outside Freedom House, gazing at the North Korean soldiers across the

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The number of nuclear tests North Korean has conducted border. Meanwhile Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, speaking to a parliamentary session on Monday, said: “Needless to say, diplomatic effort is important to maintain peace. But dialogue for the sake of having dialogue is meaningless.”

“We need to apply pressure on North Korea so they seriously respond to a dialogue” with the inter nationa l communit y, he said, urging China and Russia to play more constructive roles on the issue.

Pence’s visit, full of Cold War symbolism, came amid increasing tensions and heated rhetoric on the Korean Peninsula. While the North did not conduct a nuclear test, the specter of a potential test and an escalated US response has trailed Pence as he undertakes his Asian tour.

Tr ump w rote on Sunday on Twitter that China was working w ith the US on “the Nor th Korea problem.” His national secur it y adv iser, Herber t R ay mond McMaster, said the US wou ld rely on its a l lies, as wel l as Chinese leadership, to resolve the issues w ith Nor th Korea.

McMaster cited Trump’s recent decision to order missile strikes in Syria after a chemical attack blamed on the Assad government, as a sign that the President “is clearly comfortable making tough decisions”. But at the same time, McMaster said on This Week on ABC that “it’s time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a

United States Vice President Mike Pence arrives at Observation Post Ouellette in the Demilitarized Zone, near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, South Korea, on April 17. AP/Lee Jin-man

military option, to try to resolve this peacefully”.

Pence told reporters that the North Korean people and military “should not mistake the resolve of the US to stand with our allies,” calling the alliance “iron-clad”.

He said the US and its allies would deal with the situation “through peaceable means, or ultimately, by whatever means are necessary”.

After a two-month policy review, the Trump administration settled on a policy dubbed “maximum pressure and engagement”, US officials said on Friday. The administration’s immediate emphasis, they said, was to be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of Beijing.

The officials weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the results of the policy review and requested anonymity.

Pence sought to explain the policy in meetings with South Korea Acting President Hwang Kyoahn and other top officials in Seoul at the start of the trip, which will also include stops in Japan, Indonesia and Australia.

He will aim to reassure allies in South Korea and Japan that the US will take appropriate steps to defend them against North Korean aggression.

T he concerns were exacerbated after a North Korean missile exploded during launch on Sunday, US and South Korean officials said. The high-profile failure came as the North tried to showcase its nuclear and missile capabilities around the birth anniversary of the North’s late founder, and as a US aircraft carrier neared the Korean Peninsula.

The Trump administration is hoping China will help rein in North Korea in exchange for other considerations. Last week Trump said he would not declare China a currency manipulator, pulling back from a campaign promise, as he looked for help from Beijing, which is the North’s dominant trade partner.

“Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!” Trump tweeted on Sunday.

A long w ith the deploy ment of the US aircraft car r ier and other vessels into waters off t he Korean Peninsu la, t housands of US and South Korean troops, tanks and other weaponr y were deployed last month in their big gest joint militar y exercises. T hat led Nor th Korea to issue rout i ne t h reat s of attacks on its r iva ls if they show sig ns of ag gression.

T he W h ite Hou se fore ig n policy adv iser traveling w ith Pence told reporters the ty pe of missile that North Korea tried to fire on Sunday was mediumra nge, a nd t h at it e x ploded about four to five seconds after it was launched.

The North regularly launches short-range missiles, but is also developing mid-range and longrange missiles meant to target US troops in Asia and, eventually, the US mainland.

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, including two last year. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time. AP

nited Airlines, which is reviewing its policies after the violent removal of a passenger from a flight last week, says it will no longer allow employees to take the place of civilian passengers who have already boarded overbooked flights.

“We issued an updated policy to make sure crews traveling on our aircraft are booked at least 60 minutes prior to departure,” a spokesman, Maggie Schmerin, wrote in an e-mail on Sunday. “This is one of our initial steps in a review of our policies.”

Schmerin confirmed the validity of a memo dated April 14, which was published by TMZ, that ordered the new policy. She said the change was meant to ensure that episodes like what happened last week “never happen again”.

She also emphasized a previously announced change that law enforcement officials would no longer be asked to remove passengers who do not pose immediate security threats.

United is reviewing the circumstances that led to the forcible removal of Dr. David Dao, of Kentucky, by Chicago aviation police officers on April 9. The company said it would share the findings of its review and any proposed

reforms by the end of the month.

During the removal, which grew into an embarrassing international episode, Dao had two of his teeth knocked out, suffered a broken nose and a concussion and may require surgery, his lawyer said. His treatment caused a backlash that lasted for most of the week and spanned continents, as United, its stock price plunging, struggled to come up with a response.

After several days of uproar, the company’s chief executive, Oscar Munoz, apologized on Good Morning America.

“This can never—will never— happen again on a United Airlines flight,” he said. “That’s my premise, and that’s my promise.”

But his apology failed to stem the tide, as lawmakers called for an investigation. The episode also set off criticism over the state of the airline industry, in which fees and discomfort seem to rise in equal measure each year.

“The airlines are seemingly forever coming up with new and innovative ways to coddle an increasingly small group, while treating the majority of fliers with greater and greater contempt,” author Helaine Olen wrote in an opinion article for The New York Times on Tuesday. New York Times News Service

German prexy to French voters: Resist appeals of EU skeptics

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erman President FrankWalter Steinmeier said French voters should resist the appeal of anti-European Union politicians as far-right leader Marine Le Pen is among the candidates who may be qualified for the runoff after April 23’s first round of the presidential election.

Steinmeier, the former foreign minister who took over as president last month, defended the EU as a stable force in an interview published this weekend with Funke Mediengruppe, whose newspapers include Berliner Morgenpost.

Le Pen, the 48-year-old antiimmigration candidate, has seen her lead erode ahead of the April 23 vote, while Jean-Luc Melenchon, a far-left candidate who has expressed only conditional support of the EU, has surged to make it a four-way race.

“I can only call on the French: don’t listen to the siren songs of those promising you a great French future after getting rid of things that today too make up France— being a guarantor of stability and pillar of the EU,” he said in an interview with Funke Mediengruppe in response to a question about Le Pen. “The EU might be difficult, but the union is a win for us all, including France.”

‘Monetary sovereignty’

Le Pen said she would seek to

recover a “monetary sovereignty” if elected president. She says France should return to the franc and use it with its neighbors for trading a shared European currency pegged on a basket of national currencies.

She vows to renegotiate France’s EU membership for a much looser arrangement, including the end of the Schengen agreement on open borders. If she failed to win changes in France’s EU relationship, she has said she would recommend a referendum on leaving the union.

Support in first-round voting for the two leading candidates slipped 0.5 percent, to 23.5 percent for Le Pen and 22.5 percent for centrist Emmanuel Macron, with 19 percent for Melenchon in the Ifop poll on Thursday. National Front leader Le Pen was at 26.5 percent in mid-March.

Steinmeier also said Germany must “urgently” deal with integrating refugees fleeing war, and unrest in nations like Syria and Afghanistan. The arrival in Germany of more than a million migrants in 2015 and 2016 stoked support for anti-immigration party Alternative for Deutschland at the expense of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s The Christian Democratic Union of Germany , with polls indicating the far-right party would gain 9 percent in national elections on September 24. Bloomberg News

Erdogan claims victory in Turkey referendum on presidential powers

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STANBUL—President Recep Tay yip Erdogan of Turkey on Sunday claimed victor y by a narrow margin in a referendum that grants sweeping powers to his office, in a watershed moment that the countr y’s opposition fears may cement his one-man rule.

With just under 99 percent of ballots counted, “Yes” had 51.33 percent of votes cast, and “No” had 48.67 percent, according to the state-run news agency, Anadolu.

“The constitutional change has been approved by the Turkish people,” an adviser to Erdogan, Ilnur Cevik, said in a phone call.

But the country’s election commission has yet to announce official results, and Turkey’s main opposition party said it would demand a recount of about 37 percent

of ballot boxes, containing around 2.5 million votes.

The constitutional change, if it stands, will allow the winner of the 2019 presidential election to assume full control of the government, ending the current parliamentary political system.

The ramifications, however, would be immediate. The “Yes” vote in the referendum would be a validation of the current leadership style of Erdogan, who has been acting as a de facto head of government since his election in 2014 despite having no constitutional right to wield such power.

The Office of the President was meant to be an impartial role that lacks full executive authority.

The result would tighten Erdogan’s grip on the country, which is one of the leading external actors

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes statements in Istanbul on Sunday.

Erdogan declared victory in the historic referendum that will grant sweeping powers to the presidency, hailing the result as a “historic decision”. AP/Lefteris Pitarakis

in the Syrian civil war, a major way station along the migration routes to Europe and a crucial Middle Eastern partner of the United States and Russia.

The referendum was conducted in an atmosphere of fear, with the campaign characterized by prolonged intimidation of opposition members, several of whom were shot at or beaten while on the stump by persons unknown.

T he opposition questioned the legitimacy of the referendum after the election board made a last-minute decision to increase the burden needed to prove allegations of ballot-box stuffing. At least one instance of alleged voter fraud appeared to be captured on camera.

“We are receiving thousands of complaints on election fraud,” said Erdal Aksünger, deputy head of the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP. “We are evaluating them one by one.”

Since a failed coup last summer,

Turkey has been under a state of emergency, a situation that allowed the government to fire about 130,000 people suspected of being connected to the failed putsch, and to arrest about 45,000.

The new system will, among other changes: n Abolish the post of prime minister and transfer executive power to the president. n Allow the newly empowered president to issue decrees and appoint many of the judges and officials responsible for scrutinizing his decisions. n Limit the president to two five-year terms, but give the option of running for a third term if Parliament truncates the second one by calling for early elections. n Allow the president to order disciplinary inquiries into any

of Turkey’s 3.5 million civil servants, according to an analysis by the head of the Turkish Bar Association.

Members of the opposition are concerned that the new system will threaten the separation of powers on which liberal democracies have traditionally depended.

“It represents a remarkable ag grandizement of Erdogan’s personal power, and quite possibly, a death blow to vital checks and balances in the countr y,” said professor Howard Eissenstat, a Turkey expert at the Project on Middle East Democracy, a Washington think tank. “Judicial independence was already shockingly weak before the referendum; the new system makes that worse.”

New York Times News Service

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

The World BusinessMirror

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

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Singapore home sales surge to highest in almost 4 years

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ing a p ore ho me s a l e s surged to the highest monthly total for nearly four years in March, a month in which the government rolled back some property curbs in March following a three-year slide in prices.

Developers sold 1,780 units in March, the most in a month since June 2013, and more than double the 843 sold in the same period last year, according to data released on Monday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. A total of 1,527 units were offered, almost three times the 550 in February.

The largest sales came from Grandeur Park Residences in the city’s east, which sold 484 units of the 720 put up for sale, and Park Place Residences at PLQ, which

sold all 217 units it placed on the market last month.

T he gover nment moved in March to relax a raft of measures to cool home prices—steps it began implementing in 2009, with some of the strictest restrictions being imposed in 2013.

Home prices fell 3 percent last year and have dropped for 14 straight quarters, the longest slide since the data were first published in 1975.

An index tracking private residential prices fell 0.5 percent in the three months ended March from the previous quarter, according to preliminary data from the authority. Home values have dropped 11.7 percent from their 2013 peak. Bloomberg News

Brexit ‘alarm bells’ set to ring as chemical makers see disorder

A worker assembles an aluminum platform outside a construction site at the Central Business District of Beijing.

China’s economic growth ticked higher to 6.9 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to the latest figures. AP/Andy Wong

Anti-Brexit placards shown with the Big Ben at the background. Bloomberg

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hemical companies are preparing for a potentially disruptive Brexit as the United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union (EU) threatens an integrated market underpinning more than €40 billion ($42 billion) a year in two-way trade.

Marco Mensink, director general of the European Chemical Industry Council representing manufacturers, such as BASF SE, Akzo Nobel NV and Dupont Co., said the UK and its EU partners are starting two years of talks on Britain’s departure with widely differing positions.

That’s a particular risk for the chemicals industry because of the intensity of its cross-Channel shipments, he said.

“We are going to ring many, many alarm bells during the Brexit negotiations,” Mensink said in an interview in Brussels.

“Things risk veering off course. There seems to be a disconnect in communication between both sides.”

The industry will serve as a barometer of the economic damage that could be inflicted on Europe if the UK tumbles out of the 28-nation bloc without an agreement, highlighting the risks that Prime Minister Theresa May and her EU counterparts will contend with when discussions start in May, as scheduled.

BASF CEO Kurt Bock told shareholders that Brexit was a key uncertainty and warned that it would affect “our competitiveness, as well as that of our customers in our home market of Europe.”

Regulatory hurdles Brexit poses so many regulatory challenges that a business-friendly transitional arrangement will be needed for the period between the UK’s departure in 2019 and the entry into force of any accord on the country’s future relationship with the EU, Mensink said.

“The real question is: will there be political will for a transitional agreement?” he said. “Settling the Brexit questions affecting chemicals will be like unscrambling an omelet back into eggs. We urge policy-makers to find solutions.”

For clues to the complexity of separating the UK from the rest of the EU chemicals market, take an everyday consumer good like soap.

One popular detergent sold in UK supermarkets is made from chemicals that cross the Channel several times during the manufacturing and distribution processes, according to Mensink, who said the raw material is produced in France, reworked in the UK, shipped to Germany and returned for packaging to Britain.

The finished product is then distributed throughout the EU. A UK exit from the single market without any transitional arrangement would

increase taxes paid on goods and disrupt the flow of materials between the EU and Britain, boosting costs for manufacturers and end users. In addition to consumer chemicals, the top product groups for both sides include petrochemicals and plastics.

“If they don’t organize this, we go back to a situation where trucks are waiting in front of a border,” Mensink said.

A further threat to chemical businesses comes from tariffs. Under the World Trade Organization regime, they would average around 3 percent to 4 percent for commerce between the UK and the rest of the EU were no transitional deal and no subsequent free-trade accord to be reached.

Because many chemicals in manufactured goods cross the Channel more than once during the production process, the ultimate tariff burden would often be higher, said Mensink. In some cases, the extra costs for companies could lead to a halt in trade, he said.

“One tariff is a difference in profitability, two times the tariff is no profitability and three, four, five times the tariff means you won’t ship it,” Mensink said.

Medium priority As part of a Brexit negotiating strategy designating various industries as high, medium and low priority, the UK government has placed chemicals in the middle category, behind banking and ahead of steel, The Times reported in February, citing a leaked memo.

More than 40 percent of Britain’s chemicals are sold in other EU countries, according to the European industry group, which is also known as Cefic.

UK chemical exports to the rest of the EU in 2015 totaled €19.8 billion, almost on a par with British imports from the bloc’s other members valued at €23.5 billion, according to Cefic.

Beyond customs red tape and duties, the chemicals industry is concerned about Brexit’s impact on the ability of personnel to move freely between the UK and other EU nations and on the uniform enforcement of safety standards set under a landmark 2006 European law, according to Mensink.

The prickly political question is the extent to which the British government would be subject to the agency’s rulings while no longer having a say in preparing them. “We’ll need a tool where the UK complies with European Chemicals Agency decisions,” Mensink said.

Amid all the uncertainties for the industry, Cefic is collecting more detailed data from companies on their supply chains. It’s also warning them against complacency.

“Very soon reality will kick in,” Mensink said. “We’re telling members to be prepared.” Bloomberg News

China’s Q1 economy grew 6.9%

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HANGHAI—China’s economic data is usually very predictable.

But occasionally there are surprises, though so small that by other countries’ standards they would barely be noticed.

The country’s economy, the world ’s second-largest behind that of the United States, grew 6.9 percent in the first quarter, led by strong expansion at factories, Chinese officials said on Monday.

The pace marked a slight acceleration in the country’s economic tempo after five consecutive quarters in which China reported growth of either 6.7 percent or 6.8 percent, a remarkable period of stability in the official data.

Most economists had predicted that China would report a 6.8-percent growth again for the first quarter. There are plenty of reasons not to take the stability, or even slight acceleration, at face value. Economists instead will parse more detailed data on trade, construction and retail spending to divine whether China—the largest single contributor to global growth in recent years—will continue to keep the world economy in gear.

Yet, based on those other data points, the Chinese economy does appear to be steaming along, even as Beijing begins trying to rein in rampant lending.

Industrial production increased 7.6 percent in March, the best performance since the end of 2014.

Investment and retail sales were also unexpectedly strong.

The trick will be to continue that growth while also trying to curb China’s dependence on debt, which has fueled much of the country’s economic activity in recent years.

Uncommonly steady growth

Official data shows that China’s economy has grown between 6.7 percent and 7.2 percent for the last 11 quarters, a stunningly long period of stability by international standards.

7.6%

The percentage of increase in industrial production in March, the best performance since 2014

By comparison, figures for growth in the United States can move by 1 or 2 full percentage points from quarter to quarter.

Now, China isn’t exactly like the rest of the world. The government directly controls its big banks, huge state-owned companies and other tools it can use to hit its growth targets.

The government spends very heavily on new roads and rail lines, and a surge in government spending in March helped push the economy along. But the government has much less control over retail spending and private investment, which should make the data more volatile.

Chinese officials themselves have said the country’s data can be unreliable, though outright fraud has not been documented at the national level. Many economists believe China uses a combination of policy and statistical sleightof-hand to achieve steady results.

By this theory, Chinese policymakers make moves to get what they want, like expanding infrastructure spending and mortgage lending during slowdowns, but they also engage in data smoothing by understating growth in good years and overstating growth in bad years.

Factories hum

Despite the dubious predictability, other figures do suggest China’s economy is expanding at a vigorous pace.

Economists had expected industrial production to maintain in March the same 6.3-percent growth it showed in January and February, and were taken by surprise by Monday’s announcement that production was up 7.6 percent.

That means China’s factories are staying busy. Exports are one reason, as the world appears to be showing more appetite for the types of things China churns out and sends abroad.

The Treasury Department’s decision in Washington last Friday not to name China as a currency manipulator, despite a campaign promise by President Donald J. Trump to do so, removes another possible threat to China’s exports.

Real estate

Real estate is a big factor in China’s growth. China’s central bank last year urged commercial banks to step up mortgage lending to support the housing market, which had been weakening in some cities.

The mortgages have produced frenzied buying over the past year.

That has helped construction but also raised worries that housing prices, already unusually high by international standards relative to local incomes, might have become an unsustainable bubble.

All this comes amid signs that China is trying to curb the lending that has driven so much of its growth in recent years. That lending kept the economy going but resulted in heavy debt that economists worry could hinder the country’s growth for years to come.

So far, the government’s modest pressure on banks to limit lending, notably through slight increases in short-term interest rates, seems to have had only a limited impact on overall bank lending, however, and very little effect on mortgage lending.

Still building homes

Chinese households put as much

as nine-tenths of their savings into real estate, more than households in many other countries.

That has continued to produce strong demand for new apartments, which, in turn, has led to a brisk pace of construction.

Credit data released last Friday showed that bank loans to households, a category in which mortgage lending plays a leading role, leaped 24.6 percent in March compared with the same month a year ago, even as other categories of lending began slowing somewhat.

T he indust r i a l product ion data suggests that China’s steel mills and other industries are still benefiting from the mortgage boom and the construction that it has financed.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday overall investment in fixed assets, including factories as well as office towers and apartment buildings, climbed 8.8 percent for the first quarter, little changed from a pace of 8.9 percent for the first two months of the year despite the central bank’s modest moves to limit credit.

Private investment quickened in March, offsetting a slight slowing in what remains very heavy investment by the government, particularly in rail lines and other infrastructure.

Earning and spending

Chinese blue-collar wages have surged as much as eightfold in the past dozen years. That has considerably eroded the country’s once-daunting advantage in labor costs compared with the West, but has also produced a broad-based surge in prosperity that has fostered a rise in consumer spending.

The government has wanted for many years to shift the economy away from its dependence on investment and toward a greater reliance on consumption, but that process has been slow.

The NBS said on Monday retail sales were up 10.9 percent in March from a year earlier, considerably stronger than economists expectations of a pace below 10 percent.

New York Times News Service

A8

The World BusinessMirror

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

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

Evacuation in Syria postponed after blast kills 80 children

B Construction workers eat lunch in front of an artist’s impression of the central business district outside a construction site in Beijing, China. Asia’s developing economies will see steady growth this year and the next, though the evolving policies of President Donald J. Trump’s administration are a major uncertainty, the Asian Development Bank said in a recent report. AP/Ng Han Guan

Mixed reactions greet Trump’s new attitudes on Russia, China

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ASHINGTON—Once soft on Russia and hard on China, President Donald J. Trump rapidly reversed course in the last weeks, concluding there’s more business to be done with Beijing than with Moscow.

Trump’s evolving views on those two world powers have brought the US back into alignment w it h for mer President Barack Obama’s pattern of “great power” politics. Though Russia critics welcomed Trump’s newly hardened tone, there’s less enthusiasm from America’s allies in Asia, who fear the US could overlook China’s more aggressive posture toward its neighbors.

It may be that Trump, the businessman-turned-world leader, is discovering China’s transactional approach to foreign relations is better suited to achieving his own goals.

Chinese leaders have sought a US relationship based on the t wo powers res pec t i ng eac h other’s spheres of inf luence and not intervening in one another’s internal affairs.

Such a balance-of-powers approach had been Russia’s traditional stance. Moscow still wants Washington out of its backyard, but Russia’s alleged campaigns to influence the US presidential election and upcoming votes in the heart of Western Europe have made it harder for American officials to take the offer seriously.

Russia’s support for Syrian

President Bashar al-Assad and Trump’s newfound commitment to m i l it a r i ly cou nter ing a ny chemical weapons attacks also is proving hard to square.

Also, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s shared tendency toward nationalist, “don’tmess-with-us” rhetoric may be putting the pair on a collision course. The sudden U-turn for Trump has been head-snapping for people around the world, despite his self-professed penchant for unpredictability and willingness to adapt to changing circumstances.

As the Republican presidential nominee, Trump praised Putin repeatedly as a strong, “very smart” leader. Trump dismissed America’s Russia hawks as “stupid people or fools” and predicted that under his leadership the Cold War foes would “work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the world”.

Trump’s gestures to Moscow even fueled perceptions that his campaign and Russia were colluding to help him get elected—a possibility the FBI is now investigating.

“Frankly, if we got along with Russia and knocked out ISIS [Islamic State in Iraq and Syria],

that would be a good thing, not a bad thing,” Trump told a radio host last October, citing his still unrealized goal to have both countries cooperate to defeat the Islamic State group.

This past week, it was the opposite message, as the US and Russia feuded about Syria.

“We’re not getting along with Russia at all”, Trump said. “We may be at an all-time low”.

Trump’s declaration came at a joint news conference with the leader of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato), an alliance established as a Cold War bulwark against the Soviet Union.

Trump had dismissed Nato as “obsolete,” but now says it is “no longer obsolete.”

As he shifts away from Russia, Trump is offering an outstretched hand to China. Trump recently hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at Trump’s Florida resort, and on Thursday hailed Xi as a “terrific person” and a “very special man.”

For years Trump said China was “eating our lunch”, and he peppered his campaign rallies with promises to label China a currency manipulator as one of his first acts. He even threatened to start a trade war, arguing that China’s trade surplus was the reason for America’s economic woes.

Trump’s growing focus on the North Korean threat, heightened by signs the North might soon conduct another nuclear test, has changed Trump’s thinking.

Now he is looking for help from China, North Korea’s dominant trade partner, and easing up on his rhetoric.

“I think China has really been working very hard ” on North Korea, he said.

Coinciding with this new assessment was Trump’s announcement that he won’t declare China a currency manipulator. It was Trump’s second major concession to Xi, after backing away from a threat to abandon America’s “One China” policy that sees Taiwan as part of China.

So what did Trump, the selfdeclared deal-maker, get in return?

“The US hasn’t gotten anything from China yet,” said Evan Medeiros, who was Obama’s top Asia adviser in the White House.

“The question becomes, if they don’t give him what he wants, what happens next?”

Trump and White House aides have pointed to Beijing’s move to restrict coal imports from North Korea as a sign it’s listening to Trump. But the restriction merely put in place UN sanctions passed last year with China’s support— before Trump took office.

A lt hou g h US a l l ies Japa n and South Korea are heartened

by Trump’s North Korea focus, his softer tack toward Beijing is causing concern.

China’s other designs for Asia include staking sovereignty to maritime territories, sometimes far from its coast, that others countries claim, as well.

Despite Trump’s argument that China is taking North Korea seriously, China remains adamantly opposed to US deployment of an advanced missile defense system in South Korea.

Tr ump, like Obama before him, insists the system’s sole purpose is to protect against the North. Beijing isn’t so sure, and doesn’t like such sophisticated radar being able to peer into Chinese territory. AP

Pope decries ‘vile’ attack on Syrians in Easter address

V

ATICAN CITY—On Christianity’s most joyful day, Pope Francis lamented the horrors generated by war and hatred, delivering an Easter Sunday message that also decried the “latest vile” attack on civilians in Syria.

Both in his impromptu homily during Mass in Saint Peter’s Square and later in his formal “Urbi et Orbi” Easter message delivered from the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica, Francis reflected on a litany of suffering in the world, including wars, oppressive regimes, human trafficking, corruption, famine and domestic violence.

He encouraged people to hold fast in their “ fearful hearts” to faith, acknowledging that many people wonder where God is amid so much evil and suffering in the world. Some 60,000 people, including multinational throngs of pilgrims and tourists,

endured tight antiterrorism security checks—and, later, a brief downpour—to hear Francis and receive his blessing.

The crowd size, cited by the Vatican security forces, was smaller in comparison to some other Easters, when about 100,000 turned out for the occasion.

After Mass, Francis toured the square in his open-topped, white popemobile and waved back to well-wishers.

In his balcony address, Francis prayed that God would sustain those working to comfort and help the civilian population in Syria, “prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death”.

He cited the explosion last Saturday that ripped through a bus depot in the Aleppo area where evacuees were awaiting transfer, killing at least 100 people. “[Last Saturday] saw the latest vile attack on fleeing refugees,” the pope said, also praying for peace

in the Holy Land, Iraq and Yemen.

Separately, in a letter he sent to the bishop of Assisi, the birthplace of Saint Francis, whose name he chose for his papacy, the pope decried the “scandalous reality of a world still marked by the divide between the endless number of indigent” and the “tiny portion of those who possess the majority of riches and presume to decide the fates of humanity”.

Francis has repeatedly championed the dignity of migrants fleeing war, persecution or poverty. On Sunday he recalled “all those forced to leave their homelands as a result of armed conflicts, terrorist attacks, famine and oppressive regimes.”

The church’s first pontiff from Latin America voiced concern over the “political and social tensions” in the world, as well as the “scourge of corruption” on his home continent. Francis also mentioned hostilities and famine plaguing

parts of Africa.

Speaking of Europe’s problems, Francis cited the continued conflict and bloodshed in Ukraine and prayed for hope for those struggling with high unemployment, especially young people.

Traditionally, the pope gives no homily during the late-morning Easter Mass, saving his reflections for the “Urbi et Orbi” message at noon.

But Francis broke with that tradition, giving an off-the-cuff homily during Mass about what he described as a nagging question for many faithful: Why are there so many tragedies and wars if Jesus has risen from the dead, a belief that Christians celebrate each Easter?

“The Church never ceases to say, faced with our defeats, our closed and fearful hearts, ‘stop, the Lord is risen.’ But if the Lord is risen, how come these things happen?”

Francis asked. AP

EIRUT—The evacuation of more than 3,000 Syrians that was scheduled to take place last Sunday from four areas as part of a population transfer has been postponed, opposition activists said, a day after a deadly blast that killed more than 120 people, many of them government supporters.

The reasons for the delay were not immediately clear. It came as shells fired by the Islamic State (IS) group on government-held parts of the eastern city of Deir el-Zour wounded two members of a Russian media delegation visiting the area, according to state-run Syrian news agency Sana.

Russia is a main backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian journalists enjoy wide access in government-held parts of the country. Russia’s Anna-News military news service, which employs the journalists, said one was wounded in the arm while the other suffered leg and stomach wounds. The news service said the two were evacuated, adding that their condition was “satisfactory”.

The United Nations is not overseeing the transfer deal, which involves residents of the pro-government villages of Foua and Kfarya and the opposition-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani.

All four have been under siege for years, their fate linked through a series of reciprocal agreements that the UN says have hindered aid deliveries. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV, earlier said 3,000 people will be evacuated from Foua and Kfarya, while 200, the vast majority of them fighters, will be evacuated from Zabadani and Madaya.

Abdurrahman and opposition activist Hussam Mahmoud, who is from Madaya, said the evacuation has been delayed. Abdurrahman said no permission was given for the evacuation to go ahead, while Mahmoud said it has been delayed for “logistical reasons”.

It was not immediately clear if the evacuees feared attacks similar to Saturday’s bombing.

Abdurrahman said Saturday’s blast—which hit an area where thousands of pro-government evacuees had been waiting for hours—killed 126. He said the dead included 109 people from Foua and Kfarya, among them 80 children and 13 women. No one has claimed the attack, but both the IS and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Fatah al-Sham Front have targeted civilians in government areas in the past.

A wounded girl, who said she lost her four siblings in the blast,

told Al-Manar TV from her hospital bed that children, who had been deprived of food for years in the two villages were approached by a man in the car who told them to come and eat potato chips.

She said once many had gathered, there was an explosion that tore some of the children to pieces.

Anthony Lake, United Nations Children’s Fund executive director, said in a statement last Sunday that, after six years of war and carnage in Syria, “there comes a new horror that must break the heart of anyone who has one”.

“We must draw from this not only anger, but renewed determination to reach all the innocent children throughout Syria with help and comfort,” he said.

After the blast, some 60 buses carrying 2,200 people, including 400 opposition fighters, entered areas held by rebels in the northern province of Aleppo, Abdurrahman said. More than 50 buses and 20 ambulances carrying some 5,000 Foua and Kfarya residents entered the government-held city of Aleppo, Syrian state TV said, with some of them later reaching a shelter in the village of Jibreen to the south.

UN Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien said he was “horrified” by the deadly bombing, and that while the UN was not involved in the transfer, it was ready to “scale up our support to evacuees.”

He called on all parties to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and humanrights law, and to “facilitate safe and unimpeded access for the UN and its partners to bring life-saving help to those in need.”

R esident s of M ad ay a a nd Zabadani, formerly summer resorts, joined the 2011 uprising aga inst President Bashar a lAssad. Both came under government siege in the ensuing civil war. Residents of Foua and Kfraya, besieged by the rebels, have lived under a steady hail of rockets and mortars for years, but were supplied with food and medicine through military airdrops.

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

In eastern Syria, an air strike by the US-led coalition on the village of Sukkarieh near the border with Iraq killed eight civilians who had earlier fled violence in the northern province of Aleppo, according to Deir Ezzor 24, an activist collective, and Sound and Picture Organization, which documents IS violations. AP

Japan planning for refugees in event of Korean crisis

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OK YO—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday Japan’s government is drawing up contingency plans in case a crisis on the Korean Peninsula sends an influx of refugees to Japan.

Abe told a parliamentary session that the government is formulating measures including protecting foreigners, landing procedures, building and operating shelters and screening asylum-seekers.

Abe’s disclosure came in response to a question that had been occasionally asked in the past but is now more realistic than ever with North Korea’s missile capability rapidly advancing and tension with the US rising.

The government has been also working on evacuation plans for about 60,000 Japanese from South Korea in case of a crisis.

Later on Monday, key ministers of Abe’s National Security Council (NSC) met to analyze the latest development in North Korea and discuss Japanese responses, said

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who attended the meeting, without elaborating further.

On Friday the NSC members discussed how to deal with a possibility that armed North Korean soldiers pretending to be refugees may try to enter Japan, Kyodo News reported.

According to one scenario, a US military action sends a massive number of North Korean refugees to the Japanese coast in boats, but some armed soldiers hiding among them could plot terrorist activities after landing, Kyodo said.

Japan’s government is considering dispatching commercial or military aircraft and vessels to South Korea in case Japanese nationals need to be evacuated.

But critics say sending military aircraft and vessels is a sensitive issue for South Korea because of its bitter memories from the Japanese militar y ag gression and colonization in the first half of 1900s. AP

The Regions BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Tuesday, April 18, 2017 A9

Electric co-ops registered lower system losses in 2016

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By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

LECTRIC cooperatives (ECs), mostly found in the provinces, recorded significant reductions in systems losses, allowing them to become operationally efficient and be of better service to consumers.

DRYING PALAY ON THE ROAD IN ALBAY

People drying their palay along the national road of Bacacay, Albay, continue to be the No. 1 headache for motorists plying the First District of Albay. The Department of Public Works and Highways has almost completed the road-widening project, but motorists complain of residents occupying the side of the road for their personal business, while bus operators make use of the roadside as their garage. MANLY UGALDE

DOH delivers Sarangani to be launched as dive haven therapeutic food for severely malnourished kids

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T

HE Department of Health (DOH) and the United Nations children’s agency Unicef have come together to help save the lives of children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

Nutrition supplies, such as ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), are finally being delivered to priority provinces to treat up to 50,000 children who are severely malnourished. These supplies were procured through Unicef’s global supply and logistics network, ensuring high quality and good value through fair and open procurement.

“It is very important these RUTF and other nutrition-related commodities reach infants and young children who have severe acute malnutrition. We cannot afford to lose the lives of these children. We need everybody’s cooperation and support, especially from our local chief executives, to achieve our Philippine Health Agenda and Zero SAM. Let us make it happen for our children,” Health Secretary Dr. Paulyn Jean B. Rosell-Ubial said.

Malnutrition remains a significant public-health concern in the Philippines, with a staggering 3.4 million children who are stunted (short for their age) and more than 300,000 children under 5 years severely wasted (thin for their height) concentrated in Region 4B, the ARMM, the Eastern Visayas and Bicol regions. Children who have severe wasting—also known as severe acute malnutrition—are 9 to 12 times at risk of dying.

Wasting continues to be a serious child-health problem, with the Philippines being highly disaster-prone.

In the 2016 Global Nutrition Report, the Philippines was identified as one of the top 40 countries in the world with the highest prevalence of wasting, at 7.9 percent.

ARANGANI BAY, one of the country’s unheralded beautiful bays, comes to life as the Province of Sarangani and the Department of Tourism (DOT)-Region 12 hold the first Sarangani Dive Safari from April 29 to May 1.

Proclaimed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as a Protected Seascape and listed as one of the country’s Key Marine Biodiversity Areas, it covers an area of 215,950 hectares and a 226.4-kilometer coastline, covering the municipalities of Maitum, Kiamba, Maasim, Alabel, Malapatan, and Glan in Sarangani and General Santos City.

Sarangani Gov. Steve Chiongbian Solon, a licensed scuba diver, said the safari will unveil Sarangani Bay as a

diving haven in Mindanao.

He said the underwater expedition will explore other areas in the Bay, in addition to the popular Tinoto dive spot at the Lemlunay Resort in Maasim town.

Tour ism Regiona l Director Nelly Nita Dillera said diving will be a new addition to the sports and adventure-tourism products of Soccsksargen (Region 12), which covers Southern and Central Mindanao.

She said the DOT 12 and the dive operators in the region took part in the Dive Resorts Travel Fair in Manila in 2016 to promote the area to the international market.

The Bay is home to yellowfin tuna, sperm whales, pilot whales, dolphins, clown fishes, lion fishes, sergeant

CORAL gardens at the Tinoto dive site on Maasim, Sarangani DINDO PAQUIBOT

fishes, sea turtles and pomedentridae and labridae species.

Whale sharks, cheilinus undulatus (Mameng), and dugongs (sea cows), are also occasionally sighted in this body of water.

Its coral resources cover more than 2,293 ha, spread in 20 coralreef areas with about 60 important live hard coral genera, 411 reef species in 46 families. Seagrass cover is placed at 912 hectares, with 11 species in the coastal towns.

Among the dive spots to be explored are the Isla Jardin Marine Protected Area, which is considered to be in excellent condition, is the home to giant clams, the marine sanctuaries of Kamanga, Tuka, Kawas, Tambilil and Binuni and Malapatan Fish Sanctuary.

The National Electrification Administration (NEA) said 42 ECs registered a single-digit system-loss average in 2016, while 53 others stayed within the 13-percent cap set by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

The top 5 ECs in terms of low system-loss averages as of December 2016 were Misamis Oriental I Rural Electric Cooperative Inc. (Moresco-1), at 2.14 percent, followed by the Siasi Electric Cooperative Inc. (Siaselco), at 4.77 percent.

The Dinagat Island Electric Cooperative Inc. (Dielco) was third, at 5.31 percent, followed by the Iloilo III Electric Cooperative Inc. (Ileco III), at 5.95 percent; and the Bohol I Electric Cooperative Inc. (Boheco I), at 6.07 percent.

Siaselco and the Maguindanao Electric Cooperative Inc. (Magelco) showed the most dramatic improvement in 2016, as they cut back on their system losses by more than half their average the previous year, from 10.22 percent to 4.77 percent for Siaselco and 27.34 percent to 11.87 percent for Magelco.

Nine other ECs also managed to bring down their system-loss averages from double digits in 2015 to under 10 percent last year. These included the Agusan del Norte Electric Cooperative Inc. (Aneco), Aklan Electric Cooperative Inc. (Akelco), Batangas II Electric Cooperative

Inc. (Batelec-2), Quezon II Electric Cooperative Inc. (Quezelco-2), Romblon Electric Cooperative Inc. (Romelco), Nueva Vizcaya Electric Cooperative Inc. (Nuvelco), Nueva Ecija II Electric Cooperative Inc. (Neeco-2) Area 1, Surigao del Norte Electric Cooperative Inc. (Surneco) and the South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative Inc. (Socoteco-2).

By region, the ECs in Central Visayas continued to post the lowest system-loss average, at 8.48 percent, followed by those in Northern Mindanao, at 8.75 percent; Central Luzon, at 8.97 percent; the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), at 9.58 percent; and Caraga, at 9.64 percent.

In all, the NEA said it recorded a low system-loss average of 10.99 percent, down 0.13 percent from the 11.12-percent average posted in 2015.

NEA Chief Edgardo Masongsong welcomed this development, as the reduction in the system-loss of the ECs remains one of the major policy thrusts of the agency under the current administration.

“Electric cooperatives must continue to implement measures that would keep their system-loss average at the minimum to ease the burden on their consumers who are forced to shoulder it,” Masongsong said.

A low system loss often leads to lower electricity rates.

Mindanao Trust Fund closes operation with P1.4-billion aid to conflict areas

By Manuel T. Cayon Mindanao Bureau Chief

D

AVAO CITY—The Mindanao Trust Fund-Reconstruction and Development Program (MTF-RDP) would hold its closing ceremony on Tuesday, April 18, to signal the end of a decadelong financial support to development efforts in Mindanao while peace negotiations with Moro guerrillas were still being waged.

The advisory from the program announced its assistance spanned the period 2006 to March this year with assistance mainly to small infrastructure in agriculture and highways, reaching P1.4 billion.

“Formed in partnership by the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the international community, the MTF-RDP has supported the Bangsamoro peace process,” it said.

From 2006 to 2017, the program “helped improve livelihood and access to services, strengthened social cohesion and built the capacities of over 650,000 Muslims, Christians and Indigenous Peoples in over 315 conflict-affected communities”.

“The program’s P1.4-billion funding produced 573 community infrastructure, livelihood and functional literacy projects. The program also supported the institutionalization of the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA), the development arm of the MILF, into a leading partner in communitydriven development,” it said.

The MTF was a multidonor grant facility established to consolidate international development assistance for the socioeconomic recovery of conflict-affected communities in Mindanao, the program said.

“The MTF funds programs and

projects that promote economic opportunity, provide access to basic services and build social cohesion to help create stable and secure communities. The MTF also builds capacities of Bangsamoro institutions for development planning and local governance,” it added.

Inaugurated in 2006 the MTF was the longest-running trust fund programming for development in Mindanao, it said. Aside from the MILF’s BDA, the program was provided technical support from Community and Family Services International and Mindanao Land Foundation Inc. Since 2006 the European Union was the largest contributor, with P1.17 billion ($22 million) to the facility. The other contributors were Sweden, Australia, Canada, the United States, New Zealand and the World Bank Senior government officials and top-level diplomats and executives of international lending organizations would be attending. They include Secretary Jesus Dureza of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process; Mara Warwick, country director of the World Bank; Ambassador Franz Jessen of the European Union; Ambassador John Holmes of Canada; and Richard Rodgers, public and political affairs counsellor of the Australian Embassy.

Also expected to attend are Irene Santiago of the Government Implementing Panel for the Bangsamoro Peace Agreements; Architect Edward Guerra, cochairman of the Joint Normalization Committee; Dr. Abhoud Lingga, chairman of the MILF Task Force on Camps Transformation; and heads or representatives of 40 people’s organizations across seven regions in Mindanao.

A10 Tuesday, April 18, 2017 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

The curious case of Cesar Montano

I

t’s not unusual for those who help a president win an election to land plum assignments after the campaign is over. Indeed, soliciting appointments in much sought-after government posts is de rigueur in Philippine patronage politics, a sad standard practice in many areas of the bureaucracy. Sadder still that these appointments have not always been based on merit. Hence, the proliferation of close friends, classmates, fraternity brothers, fellow members of various organizations, supporters and what have you being appointed to sensitive posts.

It is also no surprise that more showbiz personalities want to work in government, whether as elected or appointed officials. Film and TV careers are not the most stable of professions. Who can begrudge actors wanting to switch careers or even question their sudden interest in public service?

We don’t see anything inherently wrong in actors joining government. We can only urge them to take their public posts seriously, to prepare as thoroughly as they could. To please not look at their government jobs as a part-time or fallback profession, albeit a lucrative one if their intentions are not so noble.

Public service is no joke, and it’s not a movie or TV show. While finishing school may not be a requirement, constant learning and improvement is, in any profession.

We have no doubt there are actors-turned-public servants who take their government posts seriously. They’ve given up showbiz, at least for the time being, choosing to devote their time and energies to their government offices, and constantly improving themselves in the practice of public service.

But there are others miserably failing at it. Cesar Montano seems to belong to this group.

After making unsuccessful tries for elective office, starting with the senatorial elections in 2007, for governor of Bohol in 2010 and as a party-list representative in 2016, Montano was appointed by President Duterte as COO of the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), despite private industry stakeholders, including former Tourism Secretary Narzalina Z. Lim, questioning his qualifications to lead such an important agency, and Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo herself saying Montano was not her personal choice as TPB COO. The TPB, formerly the Philippine Conventions and Visitors Corp., is tasked with formulating and implementing an integrated domestic and international promotions and marketing program for the Department of Tourism. Before Montano, 30-year tourism-marketing veteran Domingo Ramon Enerio III headed the TPB. Montano obviously got the post only because Duterte wanted him to, a booty for helping in his presidential campaign. But, instead of working hard to make up for his inadequacies, to prove his critics wrong and his benefactor right, Montano has done nothing but validate the controversies over his appointment.

Montano’s own officers and employees in the TPB have filed a case against him with the Presidential Action Center, at the Office of the President in Malacañang, detailing 24 alleged irregularities and indiscretions he committed. Tourismindustry stakeholders are calling for his resignation. The Senate Committee on Tourism, chaired by Sen. Ma. Lourdes Nancy Binay, will soon hold a hearing where Montano will have his own very different starring role.

Cesar R. Cruz, president of the 300-strong Philippine Tour Operators Association Inc., welcomed the Senate investigation. He said Montano should resign, because he has already lost the moral ascendancy to lead the agency. More than the alleged financial irregularities, his group was concerned about Montano’s reported “work ethic”, such as leaving meetings abruptly; the alleged inability to understand concepts and ideas raised in presentations; playing the guitar in his room while important documents are awaiting his signature, to name a few.

The President was quick to dismiss the seemingly credible allegations against Montano, even as he claims to be no kunsintidor like former President Benigno S. Aquino III. He recently fired Ismael D. Sueno as interior secretary and his former campaign Spokesman Peter T. Laviña as administrator of the National Irrigation Administration for alleged corrupt activities, despite no formal complaints filed against them.

Why Duterte still supports Montano is a curious case, indeed, but it does show yet again how difficult it is for a president to effect reforms in government when his own supposedly trusted people are themselves getting in the way.

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THE Entrepreneur Continued from A1

T

he takeover of idle housing projects in Bulacan that were intended for soldiers and policemen by members of a militant group last month is an example of how serious our housing problem has become.

On March 8 an estimated 5,000 people, including members of the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), occupied about 4,000 houses in five government housing projects in the town of Pandi and in San Jose del Monte City, claiming they were tired of being neglected by the government.

Several days later, other members of Kadamay reportedly tried to occupy vacant units in Barangay Bonga Mayor in Bustos town and in Bocaue, both also in Bulacan, and in Rodriguez, Rizal. They were stopped by police and military personnel.

It is a tragedy that the need for shelter, one of the basic human

needs, is driving people to disregard the rule of law.

I’m not justifying such act, but I think, it should jolt and wake up government officials, especially those who are completely ignoring the implications and consequences (one of which was the militant group’s action) of having a huge housing backlog.

What happened in Pandi and in other towns should be a warning that the social volcano on housing is about to erupt, unless we act decisively.

But decisive action is something we still have to see. On the contrary, the private sector-led housing

I don’t see any reason we cannot push both agriculture and housing at the same time—it is a more balanced approach to development, and will benefit the whole country.

industry, which is leading the construction of homes to catch up with growing demand, is being threatened with the loss of incentives and other policy actions, including restrictions on land development.

Published reports placed annual production of more than 200,000 units against demand of as high as 800,000 units.

The threats include the delisting from the Investment Priorities Plan (IPP), under which housing developers enjoy tax holidays, tax credits and other nonfiscal incentives.

These incentives enable developers to keep housing units affordable.

Negative policy action, on the other hand, includes restrictions on land development, such as the proposed ban on the conversion of unproductive and unutilized agricultural land into residential and other nonagricultural purposes, like the development of industrial zones, which are needed in the industrialization program.

Vanilla or chocolate politics

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A social volcano waiting to erupt

John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

A

large number of the “anti-Duterte forces” are on the wrong side of history. If that statement will make your blood pressure rise, it is imperative that you immediately switch to reading another BusinessMirror section. Your health is more important than understanding what is going on in the world today.

Prior to the US presidential election last November, a conservative web site talked to a large number of self-identified supporters of Hillary Clinton. They were read a brief policy quote, and asked if they agree or disagree. If the statement was attributed to Clinton, they almost universally agreed. If attributed to Donald J. Trump, the opposite was true.

All the statements were, in fact, from Clinton.

Going one step farther, the situation was reversed by making the same survey of Trump supporters.

The results were the same. Supporters agreed with their chosen candidate no matter what the policy

was. Another group made up fictitious quotes—some even outrageous, such as requiring a certain income or education level to be allowed to vote—and the results were the same.

If you are still reading, allow me to help reduce your chances of having a stroke. A large number of the “pro-Duterte forces” are also on the wrong side of history.

Wanting to believe that we are rational beings that make decisions as focused as possible on our thinking ability, we are very wrong. If that were true, the results of the interviews/surveys that I noted above would have been entirely different.

And remember that is true for those that voted for your favorite candidate and those that did not.

Through the millions of words of discussion of government policies, not one position is changed. It is like championing whether vanilla ice cream is better than chocolate ice cream. And we know what the final word is: “Hitler ate only vanilla. So there!”

An article in the Washington Post written by Nick Miroff, titled “Protests sweeping South America show rising antigovernment anger”, sums up the current situation. “Whether leftist or right-wing, the governments of Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and even tiny French Guiana are all facing major demonstrations, abysmal approval ratings or both.

Nearly every nation in South America has been jolted by large protests or violent clashes in recent weeks”.

The conclusions that Miroff reaches—bad economics and politicians fueling “populist” discontent —are wrong. This is about those who support the faces who represent the old “New World Order” versus those who want the new “New World Order”.

Even China’s Xi Jinping represents the “new”. While in power

Promoting agriculture and developing the housing industry need not be in conflict with each other; it is not an either-or situation.

As I wrote in previous columns, what the agriculture sector needs to increase productivity is technology and not necessarily more planting area. For example, developed countries are now into hydroponics, which does not need soil to cultivate crops.

With a more controlled environment, the hydroponics system produces more crops with higher quality.

The policy threats targeting the housing industry are not only affecting the housing problem, but are also discouraging the private sector from putting in more money into housing. Don’t we need more investments for housing?

These are clearly the opposite of what should be done to address the housing problem. Luckily, the more economically minded officials of the administration appreciate the need to develop all sectors of the economy.

I don’t see any reason we cannot push both agriculture and housing at the same time—it is a more balanced approach to development, and will benefit the whole country.

For comments, e-mail mbv.secretariat@gmail. com or visit www.mannyvillar.com.ph.

for several years, it is only in the past two years that he has consolidated his authority. Xi is unique in that he really is a true Communist Party member.

Xi’s style would make the egalitarian dream of Karl Marx proud.

On his first trip outside of Beijing, he went to Guangdong. Rather than dining out, Xi and his entourage ate the regular hotel buffet. He traveled in a large van with his colleagues rather than a fleet of limousines.

In a basically free and fair universal suffrage ballot measure in Turkey over the weekend, the people voted in effect to change their form of government to a “dictatorship” with the face of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

According to an unofficial and completely unscientific poll, the supporters of both winners in the Philippine and US presidential elections prefer chocolate ice cream.

The losers prefer vanilla ice cream.

Who needs to talk about the issues?

Case closed. And no, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stockmarket information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

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Radical action needed to rid the country of grafters and plunderers Cecilio T. Arillo

database

U

nless President Duterte moves fast and takes a radical action similar to what he did in ridding the country of drug lords, pushers and users, there’s no way he can stifle graft and plunder in the multitrillion-peso energy and the mining industries.

These industries have become the favorite playing field of big-time scoundrels, from multinational and local corporations, which benefit from lopsided trade contracts that secure their capital, profits and copyrights.

To further secure their investments, many of them contributed immensely to the campaign funds of presidential candidates in the past elections. Duterte himself, at one time expressing uneasiness, has already identified some of these contributors who are not only out to maintain the status quo, but also want to get more.

The problem in running after grafters and plunderers is not only in prosecuting and hailing them to court, but also in reformulating existing national policies, such as privatization and deregulation, that reward the despoilers who abandoned their native lands and colluded with local businessmen who exploit our country and people who have no choice but to accept starvation wages in the midst of spreading toxic waste.

Worse, the government continues to give huge tax incentives to the oil, gas, coal, nickel and gold mine industries, and even allows them to tinker existing policies that will further improve their status quo, as if the willful and grossly disadvantageous 98-02 sharing of mineral resources in favor of foreign and local investors is not enough.

In mark contrast to Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez, who stood her ground against local and foreign exploiters and despoilers of the country’s natural resources by shutting 23 of the country’s 41 mines to protect watersheds and national parks, suspended another five for environmental infringements and also canceled 75 contracts for illegal mining, Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi strongly urged lawmakers to pass a law that will tap the Malampaya fund to pay for the long-standing and increasing multibillion-peso debts of the National Power Corp. (NPC).

I hope Duterte will not fire Cusi for conspicuously urging lawmakers to right a wrong by committing another mistake, as the Malampaya fund could only be used specifically for energydevelopment projects.

The stranded costs are due to NPC’s onerous “take-or-pay” provisions contracts with independent power producers (IPPs) that allowed the IPPs to charge NPC for used and unused power.

These NPC liabilities are being passed on to consumers via the collection of universal charge, an item found

in the electricity bills. Stranded debts refer to any unpaid financial obligations of NPC that have not been liquidated by the proceeds from the privatization of NPC assets.

NPC’s stranded contract costs refer to the excess of the contracted cost of electricity over the actual selling price of the contracted energy output in the market. The public is paying NPC’s stranded debts, which still amounted to P698.9 billion as of 2014 in the guise of “universal charge”. These NPC debts continue to grow despite repeated powerrate increases intended to cover it, and these rate increases were, in fact, shouldered by ordinary consumers.

The Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), or Republic Act (RA) 9136, made into a law in 2001 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, further worsened the Philippine energy landscape that actually started during the time of President Corazon C. Aquino and her successor, President Fidel V. Ramos, as it accelerated the privatization and deregulation of all power-industry sectors.

Why, then, do problems continue to beset the power industry when one of the objectives written in Epira’s declaration of policy was to provide for an orderly and transparent privatization of the assets and liabilities of NPC? For his part, Ramos convinced Congress to grant him emergency power to deal with the worsening power outages.

RA 7648, or the Electric Power Crisis Act of 1993 (Epca), authorized the Ramos administration to enter into negotiated contracts with IPPs. Subsequently, RA 7718, or the expanded build-operate-transfer law, complemented his administration’s Epca that granted the private sector a wide range of investment incentives.

Between him and Arroyo, a total of 46 IPP contracts were consummated, with NPC playing the lead role for the government’s overall power project.

Curiously, Cusi was with the Arroyo administration during that time.

Before the end of Ramos’s term, NPC rapidly went down into bankruptcy; its liabilities grew as income progressively declined, while the ratio of loans to capital expenditure exponentially increased. In terms of debt-to-equity ratio, NPC had become increasingly dependent on debts, registering from 60-40 in 1993 and 82 in 1997 and on to unprecedented levels until today, 31 years after the end of the Marcos regime.

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

100 days of horror

By Charles M. Blow New York Times News Service

W

ith Donald J. Trump’s 100th day in office fast approaching, White House staffers are reportedly trying desperately to “rebrand” the colossal failure of the first 100 days as some kind of success.

Trump’s legislative agenda has been stymied. The drip, drip, drip of negative news about connections between campaign associates and Russia—and Russia’s efforts to affect our election— continues unabated. He seems to have no real strategy for governance other than pouting and gloating. His advisers are at each other’s throats. And the public has soured on him to a historic degree. His failures so far, I suppose,

should bring resisters like me some modicum of joy, but I must confess that they don’t. Or, more precisely, if they do, that joy is outweighed by the rolling litany of daily horrors that Trump has inflicted.

The horrors are both consuming and exhausting. For me at this point they center on an erosion of equality.

This by no means downplays Trump’s incessant lying, the outrage of him draining the Treasury for his personal junkets, or his disturbing turn toward war. But somewhat below the radar, or at least with less fanfare, our access, inclusion and justice are being assailed by a man who lied on the campaign trail promising to promote them.

As a candidate, Trump blasted Jeb Bush, who while answering a question about defunding Planned Parenthood

Is there an afterlife?

Edgardo J. Angara

M

ajor religions teach that life exists after death. How that afterlife is spent—whether in eternal bliss, limbo or damnation—depends on the person’s morality during his lifetime.

Christianity focuses on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For the early Christians, Jesus Christ’s return from the dead affirmed their belief that a day of judgment will come where God grants eternal life to those among them who lived righteously. These early Christians looked forward to Jesus Christ’s “Second Coming”, as the return to paradise (heaven) for those who followed God’s teachings and the banishment to eternal suffering (hell) for those who did not.

Saint Paul, Christianity’s greatest evangelist, said the afterlife is not necessarily the physical resurrection of a person’s dead body, but something transformative and spiritual.

In his first epistle to the Corinthians, he wrote: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption….

For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”

In Judaism, the afterlife is known as Olam Ha-Ba, or, roughly, the “World to Come”. Similar to

Christianity, the Jewish Olam Ha-Ba is based on the belief that God will one day pass judgment on people’s souls, and determine those worthy of resurrection and eternal life.

While some scholars say belief in an afterlife clearly underpins Jewish dogma, very little is written in the Torah about it. Among the handful of those passages is Chapter 12 of the Book of Daniel, which says: “Your people shall be delivered, every one whose name shall be found written in the book.

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

Islam similarly teaches that when people die, their souls enter into “Akhirah”. This is a period of waiting before the Day of Reckoning, where Allah separates the “good”, who will spend eternity in “paradise”, from the “bad”, who will be thrown into the “hellfire” of unending suffering.

The 99th surah, or chapter of the Koran, teaches that in the Day of Reckoning, the Earth will have a

Tuesday, April 18, 2017 A11

“final earthquake” and “discharge its burdens”. On that day, “the people will depart separated [into categories] to be shown [the result of] their deeds. So whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it. And whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it.”

Buddhism and Hinduism also see the afterlife as a period of judgment.

In contrast from their Christian, Jewish and Islamic counterparts, these Asian religions believe in reincarnation, where a soul (atman) is continuously reborn through different physical bodies.

This cycle of birth, death and rebirth is samsara. Buddhism and Hinduism see samsara as an unending process of suffering and a perpetual state of “being disconnected” from the universe. Breaking from this cycle is to attain “nirvana”, achievable only if a soul accumulates enough good karma via good deeds done throughout many reincarnations.

The Bhagavad Gita, among Hinduism’s most sacred texts, said, “For rebirth is full of suffering, knows nothing that abides: free from it now, they attain the all-highest prize.” The Dhammapada, the most widely known collection of Gautama Buddha’s teachings, stated, “Long is the cycle of birth and death to the fool who does not know the true path.…

One road leads to wealth; another road leads to nirvana. Let the mendicant, the disciple of Buddha, learn from this and not strive for honor but seek wisdom.”

These religions’ teachings about the afterlife (“eschatology”) are

rooted in the existence of a soul— found in every person, but separate from his physical body. The soul is granted eternal rewards or unending punishment, depending on how well a person followed the teachings of his respective religion before dying.

Hence, in the eyes of these religions, death should not be feared, so long as a person lives a moral life.

This may explain why a recent Oxford University survey identified a notable relationship between a person’s religiosity and his fear of death. Analyzing 100 relevant scientific articles published between 1961 and 2014, the study found significant correlation between higher levels of religiosity and lower levels of “death anxiety”.

An interesting finding was that out of the 11 articles with data from “nonbelievers”, 10 of them strongly supported the view that, like their religious counterparts, those who didn’t believe in God were not anxious about death.

Recently, the BBC released the results of a survey among British adults, showing that 1 out of 5 selfidentified atheists believes in an afterlife. A 2014 Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture survey among American adults revealed that up to 32 percent of those who said they were nonbelievers, agnostic or had no religion, believed in life after death. It appears then that the afterlife is a fundamental human concern, shared alike by people of faiths and nonbelievers.

E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com, Facebook and Twitter: @edangara

Should investors dump the deutschemark?

Every monetary union breakup in the 20th century was preceded by dramatic capital movement; monetary-union breakups are driven by bank runs, not politicians. Money moved into the economy that investors believed to be strongest. The Austro-Hungarian breakup of the 1920s saw money move to Hungary.

The United States breakup of 1932 saw money move to New York. The Czechoslovakia breakup of 1993 saw money move to the Czech Republic.

If the euro broke apart, money would almost certainly move to Germany.

Moving cash into a strong economy seems logical. If someone in France fears France may leave the Euro in the future, and if they believe the French franc would be a weak

currency, it makes sense for them to take money out of their bank in euros while they still can. They could hold that money as physical cash, believing a euro in hand is worth more than a franc in the bank. Alternatively, they could move their money to a German bank, thinking that whether they get euros or deutschemarks in the future they would hold a stronger currency than the French franc. Thus money flows into Germany.

If after such inflows all the euros in Germany were converted into deutschemarks, they would represent claims on German goods and services (that is what money is). Claims on German output would surge but German output would be

unchanged. Put another way, German money supply would explode relative to German GDP. The imbalance would create significant inflation. It would be as if the Germans had printed huge amounts of money overnight. The Germans tried printing huge amounts of money in 1923.

It did not end well.

If Germany were unwilling to accept inflation, policy-makers would have to reduce the amount of deutschemarks in the economy.

Policy-makers did this after almost every previous monetary-union breakup. The German government might force French holders of euros in Germany to receive francs. The German government might decide to convert only a limited number of euros into deutschemarks (€10,000 per person, perhaps). Any sum above that level could be forcibly invested into bonds, or converted at a disadvantageous exchange rate. Both practices have been common after past monetary-union breakups.

A potentially popular way of reducing the number of deutschemarks after a monetary-union breakup would be to discriminate between domestic and foreign holders of cash. Domestic holders of euros might get one deutschemark for one euro, but foreigners one deutschemark for three euros, for instance. Exactly that happened

suggested that the federal government had overfunded women’s health care.

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Trump prattled to Mika Brzezinski: “The women’s health issue, which Jeb Bush so amazingly blew about four or five days ago when he said ‘no money going to women’s health issues’ or essentially that. With me, Mika, I would be the best for women, the best for women’s health issues.”

Well, last week that very same man quietly signed legislation “aimed at cutting off federal funding to Planned Parenthood and other groups that perform abortions,” according to The New York Times. As The Times explained, the bill would allow state and local governments to withhold “federal funding for family-planning services related to contraception, sexually transmit-

ted infections, fertility, pregnancy care and breast and cervical cancer screening from qualified health providers—regardless of whether they also performed abortions.”

As a candidate, Trump claimed to be a better friend to the LGBT community than Hillary Clinton, tweeting of that community “I will fight for you”, and saying during an interview on NBC’s Today show that transgender people should “use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate”. As president, his administration rescinded Obama-era protections for transgender students in public schools that allowed them to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

As a candidate, Trump disparagingly chided black voters with the question, “What the hell do you have

to lose?” and issued a “New Deal for Black America” in which he promised: “We will apply the law fairly, equally and without prejudice. There will be only one set of rules—not a two-tiered system of justice.”

As president, his Justice Department has dropped its objection to a racially discriminatory Texas voter ID law. Just last week Time reported: “A judge ruled for a second time on Monday that Texas’s strict voter ID law was intentionally crafted to discriminate against minorities, which follows another court finding evidence of racial gerrymandering in how Republican lawmakers drew the state’s election maps.” This Justice Department has also “rescinded a six-month-old Obama administration directive that sought to curtail the government’s use

Paul Donovan

I

do not believe that the euro will break apart. Monetary unions very rarely breakup—the process is economically, socially and politically traumatic. A breakup of the euro would be considerably more painful than the breakup of a fixed exchange-rate regime.

However, if the euro ceases to exist, holding Euro cash or bank deposits in Germany is unlikely to provide the safe haven some investors believe.

with German monetary reunification in 1990. Domestic holders of the ostmark received one deutchemark for every ostmark that they owned (up to a limit). Foreigners received one deutschemark for every three ostmarks that they owned.

This reduced the inflation consequences of converting ostmarks into deutschemarks.

The question for foreign investors is not how strong or weak the deutschemark would be if the euro broke apart. The question for foreign investors is what they would get in exchange for euros held in German banks. The euro is not likely to break up. Nevertheless, deutschemark cash is not a certain store of value in the event of the Euro disintegrating.

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 are available at www.ubs.com/nobel.

Paul Donovan is the managing director and deputy head of global economics of Zurich-headquartered UBS. He is responsible for formulating and presenting the UBS Investment Research global economic view, drawing on the bank’s worldwide resources. Donovan took up philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.

He holds an MSc in financial economics from the University of London. In the Philippines, his column will appear exclusively once a month in the BusinessMirror.

of private prisons,” as reported by NBC News, and “ordered a sweeping review of federal agreements with dozens of law-enforcement agencies, an examination that reflects President Trump’s emphasis on law and order and could lead to a retreat on consent decrees with troubled police departments nationwide,” as The Times reported.

The clock is being turned back.

Vulnerable populations are under relentless attack by this administration. This is a war, and that is not hyperbole or exaggeration. While folks are hoping that some Russia-related revelation will emerge from the darkness to bring this administration to a calamitous conclusion, the administration is busy rebuilding and reinforcing the architecture of oppression in plain sight.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Senate to review policy wishlist forwarded by foreign chambers

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By Butch Fernandez

@butchfBM

he Senate assured on Monday it will consider a wish list forwarded by foreign business groups for inclusion to the Duterte administration’s comprehensive tax-reform program, particularly policies that will “level the playing field” among local and foreign firms.

Sotto: “It would take a lot of review and briefings before I can say if the majority of the senators will support the proposals.”

But Majority Leader Vicente C. Sotto III clarified that senators are not likely to readily endorse their proposal to relax restrictions on foreign ownership under the Constitution. Asked about possible remedial pieces of legislation being considered to address common concerns cited in a recent survey of various foreign chambers of commerce, Sotto said this would be given due course by senators.

Sotto pointed out, however, that suggested reforms of existing rules, including lifting limits on foreign ownership, as proposed by the leaders of foreign chambers of commerce to boost the Philippine economy, have to be thoroughly reviewed.

“It would take a lot of review and briefings before I can say if the majority of the senators will support the proposals,” Sotto said. The senator also acknowledged concerns aired by leaders of foreign business groups on tax reforms being passed

by Congress, which is set to reconvene regular sessions on May 2.

Business leaders, likewise, suggested in the survey that apart from tax reforms, the Duterte administration could consider retaining fiscal incentives, among other reform measures, to attract more investors.

DUTERTE ASSURES B.I. PERSONNEL THEIR WOES WILL END SOON

In this April 7 photo, Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II (right) discusses contingency plans with Bureau of Immigration officials and personnel.

By Recto Mercene

@rectomercene

P

resident Duterte has moved to solve the crippling absenteeism at the country’s main gateway, informing Bureau of Immigration (BI) officials on Monday that he has certified as “urgent” the passage of the Immigration Act. Duterte made the promise shortly after his arrival from a three-day visit to the Middle East.

“I have certified the Immigration Act as urgent. Just wait for a while and we will attend to your problem soon,” the President said.

“Marami pa tayong problema, konting tiis lamang at bibigyan natin ng solusyon ang inyong mga problema [We still have many problems. Have patience; we will provide solutions to your problems],” Duterte told BI officials, headed by Commissioner Jaime Morente, and immigration supervisors who met him upon his return from his Middle East visit onboard Philippine Airlines Flight PR 001.

Red Mariñas, BI Port Operations Division head, said many of the immigration officers (IOs) manning the immigration counters filed vacation leave due to unpaid overtime. The temporary lack of personnel has created long queues of arriving and departing passengers in four Ninoy Aquino International

PWDs. . .

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When Fire trees bloom Parkgoers enjoy the beauty and shade provided by the rows of fire trees at Luneta Park, adding attraction to Manila’s iconic park during summer. ALySA SALEN

‘No-take zones’ in Spratly Islands, reefs pushed

e

xperts said the Philippines should take the lead in exploring ways to reinforce the South China Sea arbitration ruling by “improving both the national and regional fisheries management agenda” in Southeast Asia with other claimant-countries.

Ma. Carmel Ablan Lagman of the De La Salle University’s Center for Natural Resource and Environment Research said the agenda can include establishing trans-boundary marine parks and areas of joint protection—or “no-take zones”—a setup that can work in the 100 or so small islands and reefs in the hotly contested Spratly Islands group. The study is part of a series of special papers commissioned by think tank Stratbase ADRi (ADRi).

“Doing this will preserve the living resources they harbor, hopefully, so they will replenish adjacent

MANHIT: “But, more crucially, this national policy should be connected to a broader regional platform that respectts mutual interests and aims for sustainability.”

habitats,” she said.

Based on ecological considerations, such as the duration of pelagic larvae, surface circulation patterns, and seasonability of adults and larvae, the Spratlys is among the few remaining healthy, resourcerich areas and habitats in the West Philippine Sea and can, thus, benefit from multistate intervention.

“There are other reef areas within the region that may serve as refuge, sources or sinks of juve-

niles and larvae,” Lagman said.

For areas like Palawan reefs, for instance, which is in the jurisdiction of one state but the benefits accrue to others, agreements to share in the effort and cost to protect these reefs may be drawn. In such cases, bilateral agreements may be brokered and financing may come in the form of investing in the training of the next generation.

Other strategies that the Philippines can consider include taking advantage of other international ocean policy instruments that can encourage regional cooperation in the region, as well as developing regional-level policies targeted toward small-scale fisheries.

“The European Parliament in 2016 adopted a resolution for innovation and diversification of smallscale coastal fishing,” Lagman said.

“Small-scale fisheries are seen as a

solution, rather than a contributor, to the problem of overfishing. Similar efforts might be due among countries in the West Philippine Sea.” Dindo Manhit, president of Stratbase ADRi, said the Philippines’s unique achievement in bringing China to task in the South China Sea puts the government in a position to take a more active role in advancing its own fisheries-management policy. “But, more crucially, this national policy should be connected to a broader regional platform that respects mutual interests and aims for sustainability,” Manhit said.

Manhit announced that Stratbase ADRi will be hosting a forum on April 25 at the Tower Club with international relations experts to discuss the latest developments in South China Sea, the Benham Rise and the role of the Asean in achieving stability in the region.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Incentives in terms of gross-income deduction (equivalent to a particular percentage of wages given to PWDs) are offered to employers. In HB 5058, if private companies employ more than 100 workers, at least 1 percent of all positions must be reserved for disabled people. If the total work force is less than 100, the requirement is at least one handicapped employee must be hired. All bills, save for HB 5058, indicate stiff penalties for noncompliance, which include fines of up to P200,000, or two to six years of imprisonment.

While recognizing the aim of these bills, Ecop Acting President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr. detailed the challenges the proposed law would pose on businesses.

“There are specific sectors of industry and services where such requirements would be difficult, if not impossible, to implement, which includes: BPOs, manufacturing and construction,” the businessman said in a position paper sent to PDP-Laban Rep. Jose Antonio Sy-Alvarado of Bulacan.

“While the requirement will not have direct and immediate impact on existing corporations whose positions are filled up, the brunt will be on newly established corporations and those intending to expand their business,” he added.

Ortiz-Luis Jr. reasoned that, in the case of BPOs with employees at more than 30,000, the companies would be hard-pressed to find 300 to 600 qualified PWDs. Physical dexterity and mobility in the construction and manufacturing sectors are, likewise, considerable barriers to complying with the requirements. “We believe that imposing the requirements would not only make doing business in the Philippines more difficult but also be a disincentive to investment and business expansion,” Ortiz-Luis Jr. noted Citing macroeconomic data, the businessman further said that, with the low formal sector labor-absorption rate, the competition with able-bodied persons for these posts is

Airport terminals.

Mariñas said that, if approved, the salary grade of IOs receiving P16,000 per month will increase to P24,000 to P26,000 per month.

Mariñas added that they now have a 95-percent attendance rate in four terminals, ready to serve the local and foreign passengers, with the hope this will reach 100 percent soon.

Meanwhile, Manila International Airport Authority General Manager Ed Monreal said the PNP-Aviation Security Group personnel, including bomb-sniffing dogs, will remain and will be properly dispatched in every sensitive areas to protect passengers from terrorist threats.

Monreal was also assured by Mariñas that immigration officers’ attendance has remained at 95 percent in four terminals.

Mariñas earlier said some 140 immigration personnel were sent to the airport to augment immigration officers in processing travel documents of arriving and departing passengers, with another 341 personnel on standby at the command post ready for deployment.

“We now have two to three immigration officers on duty, especially during the peak hours, in every counter,” he said. He defended that some IOs were not able to report for work due to lack of money for transportation expenses.

just too tough. In lieu of these reforms, the employers’ association prefers an incentive scheme to be offered to enterprises hiring PWDs on a voluntary basis. “We believe that the better approach would be to encourage private firms that employ qualified disabled persons with appropriate tax and other incentives similar to those provided under HB 4865 without the requirement of compulsory employment,” the Ecop acting head said.

Sy-Alvarado, author of HB 2396 amending the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, said it is a policy of the state to protect and advance the right of every Filipino citizen regardless of age, race and ability, and this shall include providing sufficient means of employment.

“The Philippines is also one of the countries committed to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Thus, the recognition that PWDs are an important part our society,” he said. “RA 7277 of the Magna Carta for the Disabled Persons provides for qualified disabled persons to be accepted in various departments, allocating 5 percent of the total number of employees for the persons with this disabilities. But this rather limited to public agencies.”

“It is hoped that the passage of the bill into law will provide more opportunities for PWDs Filipinos, thus providing for a better future for the and their families,” Sy-Alvarado added.

ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio said the government should address the problem of lack of employment opportunities for PWDs. “The lack of employment opportunities for PWDs in our society is a real issue. Proposed legislation to address it through affirmative action will initiate discussion and should be welcomed.”

House Committee on Labor and Employment Chairman and National Unity Party Rep. Randolph Ting of Cagayan vowed to carefully study the proposal.

“As far as the [labor] committee is concerned we have not yet received any referral [from social services committee of the lower chamber]. We will study it once we receive the proposal,” he said in a text message. Catherine N. Pillas, Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz