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Monday, April 23, 2018 Vol. 13 No. 191

‘US-China trade war to slow Asean’s economic progress’

T

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

he Association of Southeast Asian Nations will not take the brewing trade conflict between the United States and China sitting down, as the regional bloc will urge the two economies to shun protectionism in favor of free trade at its 32nd summit this week.

Leaders of Southeast Asian nations are wary of the damage a trade war between the world’s largest economies might cause, and

The amount of trade between the Asean and China in 2015

they know they need to address the issue soon as time is not on their side.

The US and China are going at

it economically, threatening to raise tariffs on one product after the other.

Myrene C. Bedaño, regional relations and arrangements division chief of the Department of Trade and Industry-Bureau of International Trade Relations, said the upcoming Asean meeting in Singapore will surely have the looming trade war as one of its agenda.

Continued on A2

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10 what ifs

$345.74 billion

@alyasjah

2016 ejap journalism awards

Alberto C. Agra

ead

L AlbertoPPP C. Agra

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ne way of highlighting the importance and relevance of public-private partnerships (PPPs) is to imagine scenarios.

Here are 10 what ifs and what if nots.

So, what if…

1. There is no PPP. Then the government will implement, fund, construct, design and operate projects on its own. While government agencies can collaborate with each other, the benefits of having the private sector as partner will be absent. The private sector, under this scenario, would not have the contractual opportunity to introduce its technology, apply its management systems and utilize its resources.

Continued on A15

HOUSE UNIFIES MEASURES Shift to federalism won’t cost too much–Tayao TO REGULATE, PROMOTE COMPETITION AMONG TNVS A

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

NOGRALES: “Without specific law, regulation has certain limits. That’s why we need to pass a specific law to define and protect the rights of all parties involved.”

W

ith Grab becoming the dominant player in the ride-hailing industry, there is a pressing need to prevent a “virtual monopoly” and encourage new players to create a healthy competition among transportation network companies (TNCs).

That’s why lawmakers believe it is high time, more than ever, to pass measures that promote competition and provide the necessary regulation for all transportation network vehicle services (TNVS).

Recently, the country’s No. 1 TNC has been hounded by allegations of hidden and high charges following the shutdown of its rival, Uber Philippines. This came after Grab decided to merge its operations with Uber.

Party-list Rep. Jericho B. Nograles of PBA said the growing ride-sharing industry should be regulated for the safety of the riding public.

“Right now, all TNVS players are being regulated by the LTFRB [Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board] based on nonspecific laws. Without specific law, regulation has certain limits.

That’s why we need to pass a specific

law to define and protect the rights of all parties involved,” Nograles said.

For his part, Party-list Rep. Rodel M. Batocabe of Ako Bicol said regulating these TNVS should require a congressional franchise. “I have already urged them in a previous hearing to get a franchise [before] the controversy involving Uber and Grab erupted,” he said.

“But until now they have not initiated any effort to file. As it is, we cannot file for a franchise without cooperation. In the meantime, our bill regulating the TNVS has become “Mona Lisa” in the House Committee on Transportation. If there is franchise requirement for them, regulators can monitor them properly, and grey areas in their operation will be properly defined and delineated,” Batocabe added.

See “House,” A2

PESO exchange rates n US 52.0650

@BNicolasBM

member of the consultative committee (Concom) tasked to review the 1987 Constitution expressed doubts that the additional cost of shifting to a federal system of government would amount to as much as P72 billion a year.

Con-com member Edmund S. Tayao, chairman of the Subcommittee on Creation and Structure of the States and Subnational Governments, also questioned the basis of the study on the cost of federalism conducted by state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (Pids).

According to Rosario G. Manasan, senior research fellow at the Pids, the amount would cover the additional bureaucratic costs—salaries of governors, vice governors, regional legislators, increase in the number of federal level Senate and their additional staff. These figures were revealed by Manasan during a Senate hearing on Charter change.

“Where did those [Pids] numbers come from? That’s why we are back to the drawing board, because up to a certain extent, we are really expecting that the study would help us and not dissuade us from moving forward,” he told reporters in a news briefing.

In a separate interview with the BusinessM irror, Tayao also clarified that the shift to federalism would entail only a “reconfiguration” of the existing structure of government.

“The basis of the figure is what I’m questioning because, more than the figure, it was assumed that a third layer would be added without changing the top,” he said. [But the number of people from] the top will be reduced because the personnel there will go down

rosy year expected BDO Chairman Teresita Sy-Coson and BDO President Nestor Tan share a light moment during the bank’s annual stockholders’ meeting in a Makati City hotel last Friday. Tan said at a news briefing before the stockholders’ meeting that BDO Unibank sees its net profit this year hitting a record-high P31 billion, higher than last year’s figure by 10.3 percent, driven by sustained lending expansion and the steady growth of fee-based income. NONIE REYES to the regions. So where is the additional there?”

Asked if the shift to a federal government would require additional staff, Tayao said the committee is still crunching the numbers.

“Yes, but we still don’t know how many because there might be a possibility that there won’t be a need for a significant number of additional staff,” he said.

Tayao noted there is a proposal to first form a regional commission, which will be headed by a provincial governor, before it graduates into a “federated region.” While the shift to federalism would require funds, Tayao said the cost won’t be as much as P72 billion a year.

See “Federalism,” A2

n japan 0.4849 n UK 73.3752 n HK 6.6343 n CHINA 8.2959 n singapore 39.7019 n australia 40.2358 n EU 64.2899 n SAUDI arabia 13.8837

Source: BSP (20 April 2018 )

BMReports BusinessMirror

A2 Monday, April 23, 2018

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‘US-China trade war to slow Asean’s economic progress’ Continued from A1

“It is highly likely that this will be touched upon by the leaders, as the issue [involves] geopolitical dynamics [that] is actually already challenging the global economy,” Bedaño told the BusinessMirror.

She said the trade conflict between the US and China can halt the Asean’s momentum in establishing a formidable economic community.

The two economies are politically and economically important to the regional bloc.

For one, China is the Asean’s largest trading partner. The AseanChina Free Trade Area is the largest of its kind in the world and accounted for a combined market of 1.94 billion people and a GDP of about $9.5 trillion in 2011.

Most of the Asean’s exports to China are electrical equipment, computers and machinery, lubricants and petroleum products, organic chemicals, fats and oils, and rubber.

As the regional bloc’s largest trading partner, trade between the Asean and China amounted to $345.74 billion in 2015, or 15.2 percent of

House. . .

Continued from A1

“Mona Lisa” refers to a particular line in this Nat King Cole song that goes: “Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep / They just lie there and they die there.”

Rep. Edgar Mary S. Sarmiento of the First District of Samar also raised the need for Congress to finally come up with a law that would provide for a special regulatory framework for TNCs and become part of the mainstream public-transport system.

Sarmiento said the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the LTFRB are only carrying out their mandate in launching a crackdown against TNVS drivers who failed to secure a franchise, but by doing so, they might be denying the public a more secure and more comfortable mode of alternative public transport.

Citing a 2015 study of Japan International Cooperation Agency, LTFRB Chairman Atty. Martin B. Delgra III told Congress that there are about 21.5 million daily ridership in Metro Manila, 70 percent of that are taking public transportation of all types—from rail, bus, UV Express and public-utility jeepneys.

Insofar as the numbers that the LTFRB got from TNVS, Delgra said they are looking at a daily riders of 115,000 each or 300,000 rides per day. “You relate that to the 70 percent of 21.5 million daily ridership as of 2015, which will only constitute

Asean’s total trade that year.

The US is the Asean’s fourthlargest trading partner. In 2015 trade between the two was valued at $212.34 billion, or 9.4 percent of the Asean’s total trade.

Most of the Asean’s exports to the United States are electrical equipment, computers and machinery, knit apparel, woven apparel and rubber. The Asean, for its part, imports aircraft, mineral fuel and oil, and optic and medical instruments from the US. With this, Bedaño said Asean leaders will certainly keep an eye on the looming trade war between the two countries. She also said they will most likely urge the United States and China to take it easy on enforcing new tariffs and to respect and abide by international trading rules.

“I’m pretty sure that not only the Philippines is keeping a keen eye on the complex trade issue between the countries, especially that they are two of the most important trading partners of Asean. Asean will most likely encourage that existing issues be resolved within the ambit 1.5 or 1.6 percent,” Delgra said.

Earlier, Bryan Cu of Grab Philippines told lawmakers that Grab serves about 152,000 people daily. He said 180,000 are trying to get a ride daily, called “booking.”

Meanwhile, before its closure, Uber Philippines was serving 1 million to 1.2 million riders every month. However, Party-list Rep. Ariel B. Casilao of Anakpawis said these TNVS do not need another bureaucratic process that will add to their situation.

“We will oppose such move. Drivers and small operators do not need another bureaucratic process that will add to their already burdened situation,” he said. Instead, Casilao said the government should simplify the process for these ride-sharing vehicles.

“Simplify the process, institute a genuine pro-people, pro-drivers, pro-small operators public mass-transportation program. Aside from the process, a legislative franchise can be a political tool in repressing further organized criticism among the ranks of progressive organizations of small drivers and operators that will consistently expose and oppose anti-drivers, anti-small operators and anti-people programs of the administration,” Casilao added.

Refund

Regulating TNVS in the country has been a hot topic after the riding public reported Grab’s higher fares since it became the dominant player and following the revelation that Grab has been

of established institutions of the multilateral trading system in the World Trade Organization [WTO],” Bedaño said.

“Why is Asean observing and monitoring on this development?

They are not just Asean’s trading partners but also political allies,” she added.

Bedaño said Asean leaders need to address the economic tiff between the US and China as this might result to complications in the regional bloc’s economic drive.

The Asean is currently trying to iron out a trade deal with six countries, including China, known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Aside from this, some Asean member-states are looking at the opportunity of forging free-trade agreements (FTA) with the US, including the Philippines. “Economicwise, lower exports volume, higher cost of doing trade and decrease in employment may become the negative repercussions [of a trade war],” Bedaño said.

“This can disrupt the momentum of Asean as a region and individual Asean member-states may be hindered progress. As an inclusive and export-oriented region, Asean relies heavily on linkages and global value chain for their long-term and sustained growth,” she added.

Ta l ks of a trade war were sparked when US President Donald J. Trump enforced stiffer levies on steel and aluminum products in a move that further solidified his protectionist stance. He approved the imposition of higher tariffs on steel at 25 percent and aluminum at 10 percent in the face of left and right opposition from his Republican partymates and Washington’s trading partners.

The policy is anticipated to take a toll on global trade, as the US is the world’s largest importer of steel. In 2016 it accounted for about 8 percent of steel imported globally, with the volume it imported at least 15 percent higher than that of Germany and South Korea, second- and third-largest steel importers, respectively.

This was retaliated by China on

the onset of April by announcing the additional tariffs it plans to slap on 106 US products. The tariffs, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce, are aimed at targeting up to $50 billion worth of United States products annually.

Aside from this, the Asian superpower also filed a case at the WTO against the US for the additional duties on steel and aluminum products. It argued the levies violated the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 1994 and of the Agreement on Safeguards.

Aside from the trade conflict, Asean leaders will also discuss the progress and prospects for the RCEP, which the regional bloc, along with other negotiating-countries, are keen on concluding this year, according to Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez. The RCEP is the Asean-led trade deal with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

Positioned as the counterpart of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the RCEP is aimed at consolidating Asean’s bilateral FTA with the other six negotiating states. In 2016 RCEP

economies combined for a population of 3.53 billion people, GDP of $23.8 trillion and GDP per capita of $6,759.

In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Lopez said Asean economic ministers will sit down during the summit to talk about the future of the RCEP. Talks on the proposed agreement are seen to face difficulty this year, with one of its negotiatingstates engaged in a trade conflict with another superpower.

Lopez said, however, that the regional bloc is confident it can finalize a working deal before Singapore ends its hosting of the summit.

He also said RCEP negotiations are now headed for the “tougher” portions of the trade deal, such as the sensitive list and trade in services, which means talks are gaining headway the past months.

The 32nd Asean Summit will gather the regional bloc’s top leaders in Singapore from April 25 to April 28. This year the meet will focus on the resiliency and innovation of Asean member-states, as the world faces yet another period of political and economic challenges.

“illegally charging” its customers P2 per minute of travel time. Nograles said Grab cannot use their drivers as a shield in their obligation to return the illegally collected fares and should charge this refund from their own pocket.

Nograles said the decision to collect the illegal P2 per minute extra fee was made by the Grab management and not by its drivers.

He estimates that Grab owes their riders some P3.24 billion in illegally collected fares after its admission that it has been charging P2 per minute on travel time from its riders since June 2017.

“I am appealing to Grab and the LTFRB to refund the estimated P3.2 billion in illegally collected fares. Since the drivers are unaware of this malicious act, Grab should charge this refund from their own pocket,” Nograles said.

Nograles also dismissed Grab’s insistence that TNVS fares can be set by TNCs like Grab because this has been overruled by LTFRB when it issued specific fare rates, including it calculations.

“As cited by Grab, per DOTr 2015-11, the TNVS fares can be set by the TNCs subject to oversight of the LTFRB. That oversight was exercised by the LTFRB through the approved rates of December 2016, which Grab faithfully followed until they unilaterally added P2 per minute fare in June 2017 without the consent of the LTFRB,” Nograles said.

“Furthermore, in 1994, specifically the case of KMULC vs. Garcia and LTFRB, the Supreme Court ruled that the LTFRB cannot delegate its power to determine rates, and therefore, Grab’s actions

are deceitful and malicious,” he added.

Meanwhile, Rep. Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte Jr. of Camarines Sur is pressing the LTFRB to crack the whip on the operator of the ride-hailing service Grab amid mounting complaints from customers about exorbitant fares and the nasty practice of the company’s driver-partners of canceling rides or refusing bookings by passengers.

With barely a week after Grab emerged as the sole ride-hailing service in the country, Villafuerte said its virtual monopoly quickly reared its ugly head in the form of these anticompetition practices of abrupt ride cancellations and prohibitive fare price surges.

“The LTFRB, for sure, has heard about the mounting complaints of Grab’s customers ever since it completely took over the ride-hailing service in the country after Uber ceased its operations here. We cannot allow Grab to continue allowing its abusive driver-partners to operate, or to overcharge passengers just because we are left with no choice but to tolerate Grab’s virtual monopoly that has led to a fast-deteriorating quality of service,” Villafuerte said.

He added he was also informed by Grab customers that the company had taken out its link in its app that allow them to contact Grab’s support via e-mail to complain about drivers who abruptly cancel bookings.

“I was told that these drivers cancel bookings without even the courtesy of informing them about the cancellation. Many of them have complained that they were made to wait for a long

time by drivers, only to have their rides cancelled.

This is highly unprofessional behavior that Grab should not tolerate,” Villafuerte said.

The lawmaker also renewed his call for the LTFRB to speed up the processing of the applications of three other transport network operators to encourage competition and force Grab to improve its service.

According to reports, four new TNCs—Lag Go, Owto, Hype and Pira—have applied for accreditation before the LTFRB. So far, only the accreditation of Hype Transport Systems has been approved by the LTFRB. Another potential TNC, HirNa, is also exploring the possibility of joining the ride-hailing industry.

“Up to now, the LTFRB has not yet acted on the rest of the applications. Its practice of taking its own sweet time in accomplishing what should have been urgent tasks is another reason why the power and authority over ride-hailing services should be removed from this office and transferred to its mother agency, the DOTr,” Villafuerte said.

The lawmaker said revamping the existing regulations for TNVS attached to TNCs like Grab and transferring control over these providers from LTFRB to the DOTr would make the government more responsive to the needs of the riding public.

Villafuerte said the LTFRB has been coming up with ill-conceived guidelines for TNVS because of its misguided interpretation on the role of these service providers.

For one, the LTFRB treats TNVS as common carriers like taxicabs and passenger buses when the nature of the service they provide clearly shows that they are not, Villafuerte said.

To provide a permanent solution to this issue, he said Congress should swiftly tackle and approve his proposal of coming up with a separate regulatory framework for TNVS and TNCs like Grab.

Villafuerte, in filing House Bill (HB) 6467, said it is the DOTr, and not the LTFRB, that should have authority over TNCs and TNVS, because the vehicles used in these point-to-point transport services are “private carriers” and not common or public carriers that fall under LTFRB supervision.

Antonio (Party-list, Agbiag) and Sarmiento, respectively.

Rep. Cesar V. Sarmiento of the Lone District of Catanduanes, transportation committee chairman and head of the TWG, said the pending bills simply seek to legalize or formalize the existing situation by allowing the operation of TNCs and TNVS subject to the regulation of the LTFRB. “Despite the benefits the TNCs offer, the government still needs to regulate them to ensure the roadworthiness of the vehicles, the qualifications of their drivers, the reasonability of their prices, the protection of passengers and the payment of fees and taxes. All of these must be ensured in the context of solving the traffic crisis and considering the interest of all Filipino commuters, not just the TNCs and TNVS users,” Sarmiento said.

For his part, Castelo said the regulation of TNCs is necessary to prevent unfair or predatory practices by unscrupulous transportation network service providers and to protect public safety and welfare while recognizing that a strong, viable, private sector transport industry has a role in efforts to improve transportation mobility.

Nograles said his bill seeks to recognize TNCs and prescribe requirements, guidelines and standards for their operation. “The regulation of TNCs is intended to ensure the promotion of safety and welfare of the commuting public, and at the same time maximize innovations in technology and the advantages that TNCs can offer in helping alleviate the suffering of commuters and promote the country’s transportation industry,” said Nograles.

Panganiban said that, with the anarchy in the transportation industry, Congress has to exercise its franchise-giving powers.“Considering Department Order 2015-11 that created TNC and TNVS, which specifically provided that while TNVS applicants are being accredited by the TNC, the LTFRB is further directed to accede to the TNCs while waiting for guidance from the legislature regulation of the new industry and promulgation of guidelines for their accreditation,” Panganiban said.

Batocabe, whose HB 4891 is also authored by Reps. Alfredo Garbin Jr. and Christopher Co, said the bill’s intention is to ensure that regulation is not a hindrance but continues to be the safety net that the public can rely on for their protection in the interest of transportation development and public service.

“The bill defines the nature of TNCs and TNVS. They must be responsible for the service they provide and be held liable for any breach on the contract of carriage. The bill also provides standards in the accreditation of transportationnetwork service providers and ensures the qualification of their drivers. It also requires them to issue electronic receipts for passenger safety and taxation purposes,” Batocabe said.

Costs of trade war

Pending bills

Currently, the House Committee on Transportation’s technical working group is harmonizing four bills and four resolutions seeking to regulate the operation of TNCs and TNVS in the country for public safety and welfare, reliability and convenience.

The TWG is consolidating HBs 4085, 4669, 4891, 6009 and House Resolutions 403, 573, 1140 and 1151 authored by Reps. Joseph Sto. Niño Bernos (Lone District, Abra), Winnie Castelo (2nd District, Quezon City), Batocabe, Nograles, Benjamin Agarao, Jr. (Fourth District, Laguna), Jose Panganiban Jr. (Party-list, ANAC- IP), Michelle

Federalism. . .

Continued from A1

“The additional cost is not a factor if you consider what to expect out of it, especially on revenue generation because, right now, the ones that generate revenue is only the center, even if the periphery is very much a part of the whole economic system,” he said.

Con-com is now intensively deliberating on the formation of “federated regions.” The committee has decided to use this term instead

of “states” to refer to the constitutional units.

The committee invited economic managers and government officials to their en banc session next week. Con-com members will consult the economic managers and seek their expert opinion.

Among those invited to attend the en banc session were secretaries and undersecretaries from the departments of Budget and Management, Finance, the Interior and Local Government and the National Economic and Development Authority, as well as Cabinet Secretary Leoncio B. Evasco Jr. and Pids President Celia M. Reyes.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The Nation BusinessMirror

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Monday, April 23, 2018 A3

HEADS SEEN TO ROLL AS D.I.L.G. O.I.C. EDUARDO M. AÑO ORDERED THE FILING OF ADMINISTRATIVE CASES VS. PERPETRATORS OF A.S.A. CORRUPTION SCHEME

Año orders DILG probe on SAF allowance-corruption scheme

I

NTERIOR Officer In Charge Eduardo M. Año issued a directive to Director General Oscar D. Albayalde to conduct its own investigation on the anomaly involving the P58.849million daily additional substance allowance (ASA) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF).

Año also ordered the filing of administrative cases at the National Police Commission (Napolcom) for removal from the PNP of those behind the scheme.

The probe was the first marching order of the DILG chief to newly installed PNP chief Albayalde.

Año specifically told Albayalde to “get [to] the bottom of the SAF allowance mess and file charges [against those who are involved].”

When asked why Año ordered Albayalde to investigate ASA corruption when the Office of the Ombudsman and the Senate will conduct their respective probe on the controversy, DILG Assistant Secretary Jonathan E. Malaya said even “cases [were] filed in the OMB [or even the Senate will do its own investigation on the controversy, it] does not divest [the] PNP/DILG with [its] authority to conduct its own probe.” “[The] PNP can always investigate its own people regardless of whether cases are pending in the OMB,” Malaya told the BusinessMirror in a text message.

What Albayalde will look into was the P30 daily ASA of each 4,000 SAF troopers for January 2016 to January 2017 that were not released to them.

The ASA was separate from the regular allowances policemen get from the PNP. Año reportedly told Albayalde to “give outright priority in finding out how SAF officials were allegedly able to withhold and deprive SAF troopers of their daily subsistence allowance for several months since [January] 2016 [to January 2017].”

“This should be his first priority and will serve as litmus test on how he will carry out the internal cleansing program within the police organization,” the DILG chief was quoted as saying by Malaya.

Malaya, DILG assistant secretary for Capacity Development, Public Affairs and Communications, however, made it clear that Año’s order to Albayalde “doesn’t mean [the DILG chief doesn’t] trust the OMB or the Senate.”

“Conducting [its] own [PNP’s] investigation into the conduct of your own people is simply due diligence and common sense,” he explained.

“Moreover, the purpose of the PNP investigation is to determine the facts of the case, file admin[istrative] cases to hold those responsible or accountable, ensure that SAF troopers receive their allowances immediately and apply corrective measures to ensure this won’t happen again.”

Malaya further explained “the objective of the OMB case is to file criminal cases in the Sandiganbayan.” “[Meanwhile,] the objective of the Senate investigation is in aid of legislation,” he said. “Each body has different objectives and the DILG/ PNP cannot renege on its responsibility or its mandate otherwise [we] will be criticized [as] dragging our feet or whitewashing this entire mess.”

Malaya said Año is confident that Albayalde will dig into the controversy deeper to give justice to the SAF members because he himself was once a SAF official. “[Albayalde was] a former SAF commando and official so he knows the struggles of SAF and how they look forward to receiving additional benefits from the PNP,” he added.

Año pointed out that “the PNP should conduct its own fact-finding investigation to ensure that the SAF allowance mess is an isolated case and to craft appropriate policies that will prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.”Nelson S. Badilla

Cayetano to US, European critics: Respect is 2-way lane

F

OREIGN Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano reminded American and European critics of President Duterte respect is a two-way street.

In a statement issued on April 22, Cayetano said: “We do not need others who think they know better than us Filipinos to tell us what to do.”

“As a sovereign nation, the Philippines deserves the same kind of respect we have been extending to our friends in the international community,” the chief of the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Cayetano issued the statement after Duterte received flak for the statements he issued on the case of Sister Patricia Fox. Fox, 71 and reportedly a longtime resident of the Philippines, was detained by the Bureau of Immigration on the orders of Duterte. The Commander in Chief admitted he did order an investigation into Fox. “While we note that the United States and other entities such as the European Parliament have their own reporting mechanisms, the Philippines has its own internal processes and mechanisms to ensure that the human rights of all our people are protected and respected,” Cayetano said in a statement, issued five days after the release of Fox on April 17.

“We would like to emphasize that our vigorous campaign against criminality, most especially against the illegal-drug trade, seeks to promote the welfare and protect the human rights of all Filipinos— to save lives, to preserve families, to protect communities and stop the country from sliding into a narco-state,” Cayetano said.

“We assure the international community that in the conduct of our campaign, we will remain guided by the rule of law embodied in our Constitution, which also enshrines the country’s long-standing tradition of upholding human rights,” he added. Recto Mercene

Economy

A4 Monday, April 23, 2018 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Industries post slower earnings growth in Q4

T

By Cai U. Ordinario

uted to growth were manufacturing with 9.5 percent; transportation and communication, 7.7 percent; real estate, 6.4 percent.

Industries that posted a growth of below 5 percent were finance with 4.3 percent; trade, 4.3 percent; mining and quarrying, 4.2 percent; and private services, 3.7 percent.

PSA data also showed that with this, Total Compensation per Employee Index grew by 4.1 percent.

This growth was led by manufacturing with 7.2 percent, transportation and communication with 4.9 percent and trade with 4 percent.

Meanwhile, electricity and water declined by 3.3 percent.

Apart from the PSA, the QEI data was obtained from agencies such as the Sugar Regulatory Administration; Forest Management Bureau and Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

Data was also obtained from the National Power Corp.; Manila Electric Co.; Manila Water Co. Inc. and Maynilad Water Services Inc. The sectoral indices are computed based on data from the Quarterly Survey of Philippine Business and Industry and reports from various administrative and regulatory agencies with 1978 as base year.

@cuo_bm

he expansion of the gross revenues of local industries slowed to 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Based on the data from the Quarterly Economic Indices (QEI), the PSA said the Total Gross Revenue Index (TGRI) slowed from 9.4 percent in the same period in 2016.

The total employment index (TEI) and total compensation index (TCI) also posted slower growth at 1.6 percent and 5.8 percent in the fourth quarter of the year, respectively. The TEI was at 1.9 percent and TCI at 6.5 percent in the last quarter of 2016.

“The QEI is a compilation of quarterly indices on production, gross revenue, employment, compensation, production per worker, compensation per employee and average earnings,” the PSA said.

Real estate posted the fastest growth in the TGRI at 11 percent followed by private services with

10.6 percent and finance with 10.2 percent.

The other industries that posted above 5-percent TGRI growth were trade at 9.5 percent; manufacturing, 7.7 percent; and transportation and communication at 5.1 percent.

In terms of the TEI, real estate also posted the fastest growth at 2.9 percent followed by transportation and communication with 2.6 percent; manufacturing with 2.2 percent; and electricity and water with 1.6 percent.

Industries that posted higher TEI growth but less than 1 percent were mining and quarrying with 0.7 percent; private services, 0.7 percent; finance, 0.5 percent; and trade, 0.2 percent.

For TCI, industries that contrib-

Construction workers install steel bars to reinforce the foundation of a condominium building being built in Pasay City. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the real-estate sector recorded the fastest growth in gross revenues in the fourth quarter of 2017. ROY DOMINGO

Guidelines for firms operating in key biodiversity areas launched

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

A

N organization of international nature conservancy groups recently unveiled a road map for businesses operating in key biodiversity areas (KBAs) which represent some of the most biologically significant places on the planet.

The report titled, “Guidelines on Business and KBAs: Managing Risk to Biodiversity” launched on April 17 in Gland, Switzerland, outlined steps that businesses can take to actively safeguard biodiversity and avoid contributing to its loss.

TheGuidelinesonBusinessandKBAs launched by the KBA Partnership recommends businesses of all sizes and across all sectors to adopt 15 guidelines to better manage their direct, indirect and cumulative impacts on places deemed critical for the conservation of species and ecosystems worldwide, known as KBAs, says a statement released by the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUNC), one of the organizations comprising the KBA Partnership.

TheKBAismadeupof12oftheworld’s leading international nature conservation organizations. In addition to IUCN and Birdlife International, this includes Amphibian Survival Alliance, Conservation International, Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, Global Environment Facility, Global Wildlife Conservation, NatureServe, Rainforest Trust, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Wildlife Conservation Society and WWF. The KBA Partnership aims to enhance global conservation efforts by systematically mapping internationally important sites and ensuring that scarce resources are directed to the most important places for nature.

The impact of this vital conservation work will be enhanced by promoting targeted investment in conservation action at priority sites.

The report addresses issues such as avoidance of impacts, limits to biodiversity offsets, as well as financial guarantees and corporate reporting.

It guides businesses in managing the potential losses and other risks associated with their negative impact on biodiversity, including potential impacts on access to financing and increased company exposure to negative press.

“These new guidelines will help businesses protect the most important natural places on our planet, and so preserve the natural resources they so strongly depend on,” says Inger Andersen, IUCN director general. “By managing their impacts on nature, businesses deliver positive conservation results, helping address the escalating crisis of biodiversity loss.”

The report and associated web site

aim to help businesses demonstrate good environmental practice and compliance with voluntary sustainability standards or certification schemes. It also explains how companies operating in KBAs can make a positive contribution to biodiversity by investing in conservation actions and sharing relevant information about the KBAs, including data collected in Environmental Impact Assessments, baseline studies and monitoring activities, with the KBA Partners. Its aim is to assist governments in authorization decisions related to business operations.

“It is our hope that companies and governments will embed these guidelines into their environmental policies, voluntary sustainable standards, financial safeguards and regulations,” says Patricia Zurtita, CEO of Birdlife International. “But we also need other actors—local communities and policymakers, civil society and scientists —to hold business accountable and ensure that the unique biodiversity that defines Key Biodiversity Areas is safeguarded for all.”

Following the adoption in 2016 of a global standard for the identification of KBAs, the KBA Partnership was created to map, monitor and conserve the areas. More than 15,000 KBAs have been identified so far, many of which currently support commercial activities, such as farming, fisheries, forestry, and mining. Although the global KBA network does not yet cover all geographical regions or species groups, the KBA Partnership is working to fill these gaps.

“For the first time the conservation community has come together to use standard criteria to identify the most important sites for conservation of species and habitats on the planet,” said Dr. Andrew Plumptre, head of the Key Biodiversity Areas Secretariat. “Ideally, businesses and governments should avoid any harmful activities at these sites. However, if developments are to go ahead, then this report provides crucial advice on how to minimize negative impacts on the species and habitats for which KBAs are important.”

“The Tiffany & Co. Foundation is proud to support IUCN in this important effort to protect some of the world’s most biologically rich and diverse places,” said Anisa Kamadoli Costa, chairman and president of The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, which funded the project. “These guidelines provide an important road map for businesses committed to advancing the long-term preservation and stewardship of the Earth’s natural resources, which all of society depends on.”

TheGuidelinesonBusinessandKBAs builds on input provided at an end user consultation workshop held in Gland, Switzerland, on July 4 and 5, 2016, and

during a public consultation from December 2, 2016 to March 17, 2017.

The Philippines, one of the 17 megabiodiverse countries in the world but is alsofacedwiththechallengeofprotecting and conserving its threatened terrestrial andmarineecosystemsbecauseofhabitat loss triggered by the unbridled development facilitated by the government.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) through its Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) is promoting biodiversity-friendly business enterprises and is mainstreaming biodiversity conservation in businesses sustainability.

Recently, environmental advocates belonging to the Bayay Sibuyanon Inc. and the Climate Reality Project launched a petition to stop a road project that will pass through the Mount Guiting-Guiting Natural Park on Sibuyan Island, which is being referred to as the Galapagos Island of the Philippines because of the richness of its animal and plant biodiversity. The Galapagos Island in Ecuador was visited by Charles Darwin who was inspired by the island’s rich biodiversity and came up with the Theory of Evolution.

One of the many threatened KBAs in the Philippines, Mount Guiting-Guiting, has a dense forest cover, which will be impacted by the 3.8-kilometer concrete road called the MagdiwangSan Fernando Cross Country Road.

The P95-million funding of the road project is included in the General Appropriations Act of 2018.

Rodne Galicha, country manager of the Climate Reality Project-Philippines and a leader of Bayay Sibuyanon said while the proponents may argue on its trade and economic benefits, the road project will traverse Mount Guiting-Guiting Natural Park, a Protected Area by virtue of Presidential Proclamation 746 signed by former President Fidel V. Ramos in 1996.

Opponents of the road project believe it will eventually lead to business activities threatening the Sibuyan’s fragile island ecosystem. Sought for reaction, Galicha said ultimately, ecosystem integrity needs to be “sensitively considered.”

“Conservationcobenefitsmayberelevantinafast-changingsocietiesresponding to the needs of growing population.

However, it is more important to give strict protection zones proper breathing space for other species to survive and thrive. There has been imbalance since the beginning of industrial revolution and regeneration of ecosystems has been very slow,” he added.

“Corporate conservation interventions must not be mistaken as mere social responsibility; carbon and environmental deficits offsets but also accountability and moral responsibilities,” he said.

Meralco named preferred bidder for Ghana’s ECG

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

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he Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) moves an inch closer to operate and manage the Electricity Company of Ghana Ltd. (ECG) following official announcement

by Ghana’s Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) that the Philippines’s largest power distribution firm is the preferred bidder.

“Following an international competitive procurement process, the evaluation of the proposals received for the Management of, Operation of, and Investment in the Electricity Distribution Business of the Electricity Company of Ghana [ECG] has been completed. The Meralco consortium was determined to have the highest combined technical and financial score and

and Recommendation of the Concession Agreement and Parliamentary Ratification of the Concession Agreement would be finished by then.

MiDA opened both proposals in the presence of the representatives of the bidders on March 26. The decision on the preferred bidder took place on April 19.

Both participated in the bid for equity ownership and management of the concession company to take over ECG, which supplies 80 percent of the population of Ghana through 3 million accounts.

The auction is meant to address the root causes of unavailable and unreliable power supply in the west coast of Africa. The lack of power supply continues to plague the country’s power sector and slows economic growth.

has, therefore, been designated as the Preferred Bidder,” MiDA said.

Meralco bested BXC Company Ghana Ltd. Negotiations are expected to commence soon in a bid to finalize all the agreements related to the implementation of the ECG PSP (Private Sector Participation) Transaction, MiDA added.

“We will undergo negotiation process,” said Meralco Legal Head William Pamintuan when sought for comment.

“MiDA wishes to assure Ghanaians that it will continue to adhere to, and uphold high standards of integrity and transparency throughout the process,” MiDA said.

MiDA expects to conclude negotiations with Meralco on or before September 6.

Likewise, Cabinet Review

The gig economy and you Part Two

A

S mentioned in Part One, the gig economy is an environment in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements.

Today, let’s check whether there is a gig economy in the Philippines. The questions is: A re t h e re g i g s i n t h e Philippines?

OF course! This is a major group already and will continue to grow fast.

The young and digitally adept Philippine freelance market encompasses around 2 percent of the population and is expected to grow further, according to a new study by PayPal—and that could translate into 1.5 million to 2 million Filipinos in freelancing.

The Philippines, with its large number of creatives (web and graphic designers, game developers, animation artists, etc.), information technology and tech people, would seem like an ideal setting for the gig economy to flourish. And flourishing it is, according to the recently released Global Freelancer Insights Report by United Statesbased payment firm PayPal. PayPal also noted that the Philippines has one of the highest freelancers per capita of the

creative philippines

By Henry Schumacher 22 countries surveyed, at around 2 percent of the population. The country’s young demographics also plays a part in this, with around 75 percent of freelancers 24 to 39 years old, according to the report.

Flexible working hours and the ability to be their own boss are the main draws, according to the report.

Facilitating the trend is the growing number of digital tools freelancers need to bill and receive money for their work.

Remember that success was once defined as being able to stay at a company for a long time and move up the corporate ladder. The goal was to reach the top, accumulate wealth and retire to a life of ease.

Today, consulting or freelancing for five businesses at the same time is a badge of honor. It shows how valuable an individual is. Working at home or in cafés, starting businesses with teams of consultants and freelancers you’ve met only online, and even launching business

ventures that eventually may fail, all indicate “initiative,” “creativity,” and “adaptability,” which are very desirable traits in today’s workplace.

Who are these people? They are artists and designers; writers, editors and translators, animators, videographers, and sound professionals; programmers, and Q&A experts; providers of office services and career advice. These people are our friends, and our kids. And in 10 years it is going to be everyone.

What’s needed and used are marketplaces—platforms specifically designed to bring freelancers and clients together. These online platforms must embrace the gig economy as a primary engine of business activity and growth. The platforms are a place to feature the most experienced, professional and creative talent. This is where they conduct business, where a sense of community reinforces the culture and values of the gig economy, and where success is rewarded with good reviews that encourage more business.

Slowly but surely, these platforms create a bridge between traditional enterprises and this emerging economy. Perhaps more important, as the global economy continues to be disrupted by technology and other massive change, the gig economy will itself become an engine of economic and social transformation, here and in the rest of the world.

Comments are more than welcome —

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Monday, April 23, 2018

PHL sugar output down 11.3%

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

hilippine raw-sugar output in the current crop year (CY) has reached 1.584 million metric tons (MMT) as of April 1, 11.3 percent lower than the 1.786 MMT recorded a year ago, the latest data from the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) showed.

domestic consumption. The figure is 4.37 percent lower than the 1.146 MMT recorded during the same period last year.

The government-owned and -controlled corporation attached to the Department of Agriculture estimated local sugar demand for the current CY, which will end on August 31, at 2.17 MMT. Refined sugar production during the period expanded by 5.04 percent to 601,077.5 MT, from 572,234.05 MT recorded during the week ending April 2, 2017.

Demand for refined sugar for the current CY was pegged at 631,341.85 MT, 23.53 percent higher than last year’s 511,072.55 MT. The volume of sugarcane milled during the week ending April 1 reached 18.274 MMT, 7.88 percent lower than the 19.838 MMT recorded last year.

Milling recovery rate in the current CY to date was pegged at 1.75 Lkg per MT, 3.85 percent lower than the previous year’s 1.82 Lkg per MT. The SRA estimated that total sugar output in CY 2017-2018 would reach 2.27 MMT. A Global Agricultural Information Network (Gain) report prepared by the Foreign Agricultural Service of the United States Department of Agriculture in Manila disclosed that Philippine raw-sugar output would post flat growth in marketing year (MY) 2018-2019.

The report also noted that the demand for sugar would remain unchanged due to the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law, which slapped higher taxes on the sweetener.

The Gain report revealed that the country’s sugar production

would settle at 2.3 MMT in MY 2018-2019, which would begin on December 1. Sugar consumption would still be at 2.25 MMT, the report noted, as sugar-sweetened beverages become more expensive.

For MY 2017-2018, the Gain report projected that total raw-sugar output would decline by 8 percent to 2.3 MMT, from a record-high of 2.5 MMT posted in MY 2016-2017.

“The drop in sugar production is mostly attributed to unfavorable weather conditions, particularly during the vegetative or growth stage in many sugarcane-producing provinces, which should affect sugar content and weight of cane,” the report read.

The report noted that about 80 percent of total sugar produced in the Philippines is consumed locally, while the remaining volume is exported.

Preliminary data released by the SRA showed that raw-sugar production from September 1, 2017 to April 1 amounted to 31.869 million 50-kilogram bags (Lkg), from 35.75 million Lkg posted in the previous crop year.

During the reference period, the country’s total raw-sugar demand reached 1.333 MMT, 8.44 percent higher than the 1.229 MMT recorded a year ago. Of the total raw-sugar demand, 82.22 percent, or 1.096 MMT, was for

Americans told to toss romaine lettuce over E. coli fears

DA to scrap ‘corruption prone’ farm subsidies program

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HOENI X—United States health officials last Friday told consumers to throw away any store-bought romaine lettuce they have in their kitchens and warned restaurants not to serve it amid an E. coli outbreak that has sickened more than 50 people in several states.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expanded its warning about tainted romaine from Arizona, saying information from new illnesses led it to caution against eating any forms of the lettuce that may have come from the city of Yuma. Officials have not found the origin of the contaminated vegetables.

Previously, CDC officials had only warned against chopped romaine by itself or as part of salads and salad mixes. But they are now extending the risk to heads or hearts of romaine lettuce.

People at an Alaska correctional facility recently reported feeling ill after eating from whole heads of romaine lettuce. They were traced to lettuce harvested in the Yuma region, according to the CDC. So far, the outbreak has infected 53 people in 16 states. At least 31 have been hospitalized, including five with kidney failure. No deaths have been reported.

Symptoms of E. coli infection include diarrhea, severe stomach cramps and vomiting. The CDC’s updated advisory said consumers nationwide should not buy or eat romaine lettuce from a grocery store or restaurant unless they can get confirmation it did not come from Yuma. People also should toss any romaine they already have at home unless it’s known it didn’t come from the area, the agency said.

Restaurants and retailers were warned not to serve or sell romaine lettuce from Yuma. AP

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he Department of Agriculture (DA) will establish an “accessible” financing scheme for farmers and fishermen instead of giving them subsidies to curtail corruption and fast-track project implementation.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol made the pronouncement after President Duterte gave his nod to the DA’s proposal to forego its subsidies program “which has been marked with issues of corruption and slow implementation over the years.”

“The DA will start shifting its agriculture and fisheries support program from the corruptionprone subsidies to a more efficient and easily accessible low-interest financing program starting next year,” Piñol said in his official Facebook page on April 22.

“This move follows the approval

by President Duterte of my recommendation that the DA should start abandoning its seeds, fertilizer and farm machinery and equipment subsidies program which has been marked with issues of corruption and slow implementation over the years,” he added.

Piñol cited the infamous fertilizer-fund scam as one of the “most prominent” examples of “anomalies” of the DA’s farm subsidies program.

“The most prominent of these subsidy anomalies was the fertilizer scam where under the pretext of buying fertilizers for farmers billions of pesos were released to the different congressional districts and local government units, including those in Metro Manila,” he said.

Piñol added the DA’s subsidies program “is vulnerable to interference by local political leaders who more often than not would make sure that seeds, fertilizers and equipment are given to their political supporters while their political

Photo shows a farmer using a hand tractor to till his rice field at the foot of Mount Arayat in Pampanga. Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said over the weekend that the government would abolish its farm subsidies program and put in place a scheme that would allow farmers to access cheap credit to defray their production costs. NONIE REYES

enemies are left with nothing.”

“Seeds, fertilizers, equipment and machinery given out as subsidies by the government often end up being sold by the beneficiaries because they do not have a stake in the grants,” Piñol said.

“The yearly grants and subsidies to support farmers and fishermen bleed the government dry with billions of pesos allocated every year which could not be recovered anymore,” he added.

Piñol said a “low-interest, easy access” financing program could eliminate corruption in the agency and ensure the improvement of the country’s agriculture sector.

“It will reduce political interference and corruption in the bidding and procurement process. It will instil in the farmers and fishermen and loan beneficiaries the sense of ownership, thus reducing the risk of the seeds, fertilizers and equipment from being sold,” he added.

“It will allow the government to

recover whatever it allocates for the loaning program every year thus saving billions of pesos which could be pumped back into the program,” Piñol said.

Piñol also added the agency’s “easy access” financing program which is given through the Agriculture Credit Policy and Council (ACPC) “would give the beneficiaries the sense of pride because they will no longer have to line up and beg for support from the government during planting season.”

“I firmly believe that the subsidy program is not sustainable because subsidies are mainly the result of political decisions,” he said. “The Easy Access Financing Program, on the other hand, levels the playing field.”

The agriculture chief added that initial reports from the ACPC showed that two of its newest financing programs have posted a 96-percent nationwide repayment average.

“The initial reports of success of the Easy Access Financing Program of ACPC through the Program for Unified Lending in Agriculture [Punla] and the Production Loan Easy Access [PLEA] with repayment rates of 100 percent by vegetable farmers of Cordillera and 96 percent nationwide convince me that Easy Access Financing is the way to go,” Piñol said.

The ACPC has recently opened a new credit portfolio, titled “Farm Machinery and Equipment Loaning Program,” which allows farmers associations and cooperatives “to borrow huge amounts without collateral for the purchase of tractors, harvesters, ice plants and cold storage at a 2-percent interest rate per year, payable in eight years,” according to Piñol. He said a committee would be formed and convened to study and draft the policies and guidelines for the agency’s policy shift from subsidy to easy access financing. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

A5

DAR turns over postharvest facilities to corn farmers

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

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armers belonging to five different organizations in the town of Libungan, North Cotabato province have received corn postharvest facilities worth P1.59 million, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said.

Implemented through the Mindanao Sustainable Agrarian and Agriculture Development Project (MinSA AD), a foreign-assisted project under the DAR, the provision of the postharvest facilities will benefit 250 corn farmers responsible behind the cultivation of 2,030 hectares in the area.

In a statement, Eduardo Suaybaguio, MinSA AD project manager, identified the five peoples’ organizations (POs) as Palao Farmers’ Association, Kitubod Farmers’ Association, Kiloyao MRDPCFAD Consortium Cabpangi MRDP-CFAD Consortium, and Sinapangan Farmers’ Association.

Each of the four farmer groups received one unit corn sheller amounting to P120,000, while the Palao Farmers’ Association, as the lead PO, received the one unit corn mill, one unit corn sheller, one unit weighing scale, and one unit moisture tester with a combined amount of P1,110, 000 million under the corn production, processing and marketing subproject of DARMinSA AD. “POs should manage the project well to generate more income and to buy additional units of corn shellers and other equipment to cater more farmers in their respective areas and adjacent barangays,” Suaybaguio said.

Strengthening of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries is among the priorities of the Duterte administration.

Libungan Municipal Mayor Christopher Cuan said the project is a big help to the farmers and to the communities who depend on corn farming as a source of income and livelihood.

He said the local government unit of Libungan implements projects that support that corresponds to the need of the community such as farm-to-market roads to provide better and greater accessibility especially in the delivery of agricultural services and ecotourism.

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

A6 Monday, April 23, 2018 • Editor: Jun B. Vallecera

DBM adopts stringent measures to ensure sound fiscal discipline

Govt borrowings hit ₧156.526B in Feb

By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

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he national government reported total gross borrowings of P156.526 billion for January to February 2018, with loans from offshore entities outpacing those from local lenders, data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.

The BTr said total borrowings during the two-month period declined 8.6 percent compared to the P171.358 billion made during the same period in 2017.

Broken down, gross borrowings from foreign agencies amounted to P130.317 billion, which saw an increase of 8 percent from P120.606 billion for the same period in 2017.

Domestic gross borrowings reached P26.212 billion, down 48.3 percent from P50.752 billion recorded during the twomonth period last year.

For February the government’s total gross borrowings reached P108.870 billion, down 17.6 percent from P132.231

billion in February 2017.

Month-on-month, the government’s gross borrowings for February was 128.4 percent higher than the P47.659 billion recorded in January.

Of the total, external gross borrowings for February reached P110.339 billion.

Bulk of the borrowings from offshore institutions came from global bonds exchange, which accounted for P102.682 billion for the month of February, while the government paid around P10.332 billion for maturing Treasury Bills, which comprised most of the domestic borrowings for the same month.

The Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) said last year the financing mix should continue to favor domestic borrowings in the years ahead.

The borrowing program is projected to follow the 80:20 mix from 2019 to 2022.

For this year the DBCC made a slight adjustment to the borrowing mix as the government is projected to borrow 74-percent locally and 26 percent from foreign entities.

By Ashley Manabat

C

@ashleymanabat

LARK FREEPORT—The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has adopted stringent measures to ensure sound fund utilization among national government agencies.

Rolando Toledo, DBM Fiscal Planning and Reforms bureau director, told Central Luzon stakeholders during the recent Philippine Economic Briefing here that in the last two years, the validity of appropriation has been cut to just one year, which compelled agencies to work better by planning and preparing their

Exercise prudence in dealings involving cryptocurrencies—IC

procurement activities so they could fully obligate their funds within the year.

“Previously, spending agencies have the tendency to be complacent doing planning and procurement during the execution phase so their budget will be available in the succeeding year. This resulted in carry overs in the next fis-

Case clippings

By Justice S J Ranada Jr. FAMILY HOME—requisites for exemption from execution A family home is exempt from execution. Residence in the family home must be actual. The law explicitly mandates that the occupancy of the family home, either by the owner thereof, or by any of its beneficiaries must be actual. This occupancy must be real, or actually existing, as opposed to something merely possible, or that which is merely presumptive or constructive. However, the claim for exemption must be set up and proved.

Salazar v. Felias 05 Feb. 2018

GR 213972 Reyes, J

BLOOMBERG

T

he Insurance Commission (IC) has cautioned the public and all its regulated entities against dealings involving cryptocurrencies on the back of the risks they entail.

Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa said cryptocurrencies are neither issued nor guaranteed by any government and that their value is purely dependent on market demand and supply, which make cryptocurrencies highly speculative and not suitable for investment.

“While recognizing the value of technological advancement on the use of cryptocurrencies, the IC, likewise, recognizes the corresponding risks involved in the use of cryptocurrencies. Thus, the public is being cautioned to act prudently in the acquisition, possession, and trading of cryptocurrencies,” Funa said.

A formal regulatory approach on virtual currency was adopted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in February 2017. Under the BSP regulation, any entity that offers services or engages in activities that provide facility for the conversion or exchange of fiat currency to virtual currencies or vice versa are required to register with the BSP as remittance and transfer companies.

“The apparent increase in the demand for cryptocurrencies and its popularity in terms of usage as a medium for payment and remittances worldwide make cryptocurrencies prone to being used for facilitating illegal activities, such as scams, money laundering and terrorism financing,” Funa added.

Notwithstanding this regulation, the BSP does not, in any way, endorse virtual currencies as legal tender, store of value or an investment vehicle, according to the IC. Earlier, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned that Internetbased Bitcoin and cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes are running rampant. The SEC warned the public against investing in 14 new cryptocurrency schemes run by unregistered entities.

“Individuals with dealings on cryptocurrencies are highly encouraged to educate themselves on the matter and be updated on the various rules and regulations issued by different government agencies, such as the BSP and the SEC,” Funa said. Rea Cu

www.businessmirror.com.ph

cal year, and it has been so significant that it affects the programming of expenditures as well as cash management,” Toledo explained.

With this, Toledo enjoined agencies to conduct early procurement activities short of award to ensure that project implementation will be timely and also managing and responding to possible procurement difficulties such as failed bidding.

He said another measure adopted is the early release of allotment and cash allocation, as well as the reduction of the validity of government issued checks to three months from the previous six months.

“This new arrangement should facilitate faster budget execution and enable agencies to plan and manage their cash requirements better, according to their implementation deadlines and procurement schedules,” he added.

Toledo said that in 2019, the government is set to implement cash-based appropriation system in order to discipline agencies in proposing budgets that is reflective of their capacities and which can be fully implemented within the fiscal year.

“With this mechanism, agencies will be more accountable to their spending proposals and it will enhance performance and appropriations monitoring in terms of actual goods and services delivered for the fiscal year,” he noted.

With these reforms, Toledo assured the public that ever y peso collected through the tax system will not be put to waste but will be put to productive investment to achieve the goal of boosting economic growth to 7 percent to 8 percent over the medium term and cutting poverty incidence to 14 percent by 2022 from 21.6 percent in 2015.

Perspectives

Drivers of digitalization: Business as usual is not an option

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o date, alternative investment managers have invested in technology to reduce costs by automating their routine manual operations. Digitization has the potential to enhance this process to create joined-up businesses that go from being product-centric to client-centric, while delivering strong operating leverage. The implied step change will occur as future asset growth will most likely come from organic means instead of market rises, as in the recent past.

From process automation to business transformation a. Current state of play

Hedge fund managers have long embraced technology in many functional areas.

For example, “dashboard” systems are now common in compliance management, in response to the tsunami of regulation on both sides of the Atlantic in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. New rules on know your customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) have given rise to a new industry—“RegTech”— that provides a raft of end-to-end solutions in the compliance space.

Similarly, with front-office research, hedge fund managers have been accessing information from a wide variety of sources and doing extensive data crunching to support their investment process. Mifid II, for example, is changing the market for research.

In the middle and back offices too, portfolio accounting, risk management and fund administration systems have been used widely. Systems that support investor relations have also become common. The smaller managers have outsourced most of these activities to third party fund administrators, while

the rest have been building dedicated, in-house capability.

For their part, until the start of this decade, private equity managers have been less inclined to big technology spending for two related reasons. First, their deals are highly bespoke, each with a unique complex structure. Second, private equity is a highly relationship-based business that relies on personal networks for deal flows far more than hedge funds.

However, as the decade has progressed, regulatory reporting requirements under the Dodd Frank Act in the US and the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive in Europe have turned the spotlight on technology infrastructure in private equity houses too.

This has been further reinforced by ever more stringent due diligence now undertaken by end-clients who place operational excellence high on their checklist. In fact, they now employ armies of advisors to find out why they should not invest with a particular manager. The burden of proof has shifted.

The precise nature and extent of the adoption of technology systems in hedge funds and private equity currently is a matter of detail. The substantive point is that most of them are stand-alone or, at any rate, have limited connectivity because of the differences in the chronological age of the systems. Even in a critical area like client reporting, extensive reliance on Excel spreadsheets is not uncommon.

Up until today, investment in technology aimed to industrialize the business to make it more scalable via a twin-track approach. On the one hand, there has been rising automation of the routine processes in front, middle and back offices in order to achieve cost-effective growth. Novel approaches such

as cloud computing, data warehousing and “software-as-a-service” have been going mainstream. On the other hand, core activities in the front and middle offices continue to work along the traditional craft line, being skills intensive and knowledge based.

The key aim behind technology spending has been to create a scalable business model by industrializing the routine labor-intensive activities or outsourcing them. Hedge funds are ahead of their private equity peers in this respect.

In the past, with business growth there often becoming a rising cost:income ratio—in a chain reaction. Growth created jobs, which created bureaucracy, which created complexity, which created diseconomies of scale. Technology has helped to reverse this trait, which has long been associated with all craft-based businesses.

b. Facing the future

The next step is to create more joinedup businesses as they scale, where revenue rises much faster than costs. This has been made possible by the latest advances in the 60-year evolution of information technology. In the 1960s the arrival of semiconductor-based microprocessors created digital data for the purpose of model building, complex calculations or general storage.

In the 1970s this evolved into mainframe computers, capable of processing ever-larger batches of data in one location. In the 1980s this spread to distributed data processing via remotely connected mini computers. This decade also saw the arrival of personal computers.

In the 1990s the evolution continued to encompass mobile phones.

With the rise of the Internet, the 2000s witnessed the proliferation of smart phones, permitting immediacy,

connectivity and ubiquity. Since then, thanks to Moore’s Law, which states that the processing power of computers doubles every two years, the global economy has mushroomed into the largest digital network imaginable. The rise of quantum computing, which harnesses the power of atoms and molecules, instead of silicon chips, may well render Moore’s Law obsolete.

The latest phase of digital evolution is now encompassing revolutionar y technologies like blockchain, machine learning and robotic process automation.

Speed, connectivity, insights, transparency and disintermediation are their hallmarks. Indeed, they also constitute the third phase in the evolution of the alternative investment industry. They are reshaping business models in finance.

Retail banks have taken the lead; alternative investment managers have taken note. The winds of change are evident.

The article “Drivers of digitalization: Business as usual is not an option” by Anthony Cowell, Tom Brown, Al Fichera, Jim Suglia, Ravi Beegun, Brian Clavin, Bonn Liu, Claire Griffin, Jonathan Cohen, Andrew Schofield, Richard Scott-Hopkins, Gordon Rajamohan and Kevin Lloyd, KPMG International, and Amin Rajan, CREATEResearch, was taken from KPMG’s publication entitled Alternative investments 3.0. © 2018 R.G. Manabat & Co., a Philippine partnership and a member-firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved. Printed in the Philippines For more information on KPMG in the Philippines, you may visit www.kpmg. com.ph.

The World BusinessMirror

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Europe and Mexico update trade pact, in signal to US

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ASHINGTON—The European Union (EU) and Mexico last Saturday announced a major update to their free-trade pact signed nearly two decades ago, a development that will allow almost all goods—including agricultural products—to move between Europe and Mexico duty-free.

The deal, which has yet to be formally signed, is expected to increase trade in dairy, pork, services, digital goods and medicines between the economies.

It will also give Mexico greater access to an advanced consumer market, as negotiations with the Trump administration over the modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) still appear to be on uncertain ground.

And it sends a message to President Donald J. Trump that some of the United States’s closest trading partners are moving ahead with deals of their own— potentially leaving US exporters on the losing end in foreign markets.

In its announcement, Mexico said the agreement would help modernize its commercial relationship. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, said in a statement that “trade can and should be a win-win process, and today’s agreement shows just that.”

He added, “With this agreement, Mexico joins Canada, Japan and Singapore in the growing list of partners willing to work with the EU in defending open, fair and rules-based trade.”

The European Union and Mexico said they had reached an agreement in principle on the most important elements of the agreement, with some technical details yet to be resolved. They are aiming to finalize it by year’s end, after which it must be ratified by the European Parliament and Mexican senate.

The original trade pact, signed in 1997, was relatively narrow, mainly eliminating tariffs on cars and machinery. The deal came into force in 2000 and was the first free-trade pact between Europe and a Latin American country.

Since then, the EU has added 13 members, and the Internet has dramatically changed global business. In May 2016, the countries started negotiations to update the pact.

The revised deal adds in a variety of new rules governing agricultural goods, telecommunications, digital trade, intellectual property, climate change, anticorruption measures, finance and energy. The deal is particularly notable for giving Mexico access to another wealthy market similar to the US. The EU is Mexico’s second-biggest export market after the United States.

Yet it is a distant second to the US, where roughly 80 percent of Mexican exports go.

Trump has called those close economic ties into question by starting an ambitious renegotiation of Nafta.

Nafta negotiators say they may be close to finalizing a deal in the coming weeks. But much uncertainty remains, as the US, Mexico and Canada continue to advocate for vastly different measures.

Fredrik Erixon, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy, a Brussels-based research organization, said Trump’s aggressive posture on trade had pushed Mexico toward negotiations with Europe.

“The EU has, for at least 10 years, been knocking on the door of Mexico to upgrade the trade agreement, and it is only very recently that they have come along,” he said. “It’s perfectly obvious that what has prompted them to change their minds is Donald Trump.”

Both Europe and Mexico have actively been pushing forward with new trade deals amid a global resurgence of skepticism about the benefits of free trade.

Mexico remains part of the TransPacific Partnership, a multicountry trade deal that Trump criticized and withdrew from on his fourth day in office. The remaining members, including Canada, Japan, Australia and Chile, signed a deal without the US in March.

Mexico is also negotiating with Argentina and Brazil, and has sought out potential alternatives to purchases of United States grain and meat if Nafta were to fall apart.

The EU now has close ties with both of America’s Nafta partners, after a new pact with Canada went into force last September. New York Times News Service

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • Monday, April 23, 2018 A7

IMF communiqué: Trade, debt seen as threats to global growth

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HE global growth outlook faces rising threats from trade tensions and mounting debt despite a strengthening and “increasingly broad-based” expansion at the moment, according to a statement from world finance ministers and central bankers.

“Risks are broadly balanced in the near term, but remain skewed to the downside beyond the next several quarters,” according to a communiqué by the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) main advisory committee, released last Saturday in Washington. “Rising financial vulnerabilities, increasing trade and

geopolitical tensions and historically high global debt threaten global growth prospects.”

The concerns reflect what the IMF flagged in its updated World Economic Outlook.

The fund left its forecasts for global growth at 3.9 percent for this year and next, while warning that threats

Risks are broadly balanced in the near term, but remain skewed to the downside beyond the next several quarters.”

—IMF communiqué

INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde accompanied by Lesetja Kganyagothey, International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) chairman and South Africa’s Reserve Bank Governor, attend the IMFC conference during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings, in Washington, on April 21. AP/JOSE LUIS MAGANA

over trade could derail the strongest upswing since 2011. It also cautioned about the record-high $164 trillion in world debt.

The language in the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) statement represents a ratcheting-up of pessimism since the group’s last semiannual meeting last October, and goes further in some re-

spects than a Group of 20 statement issued in March, just as President Donald J. Trump ramped up trade threats against China.

The communiqué also raises the idea that “demographic headwinds and subdued productivity growth may reduce the potential for higher and more inclusive growth going forward.”

In another change, the IMFC implicitly endorsed the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate increases, saying that “monetary accommodation should continue where inflation remains weak and be gradually withdrawn where inflation looks set to return to central bank targets.”

The previous IMFC statement in October said “monetary policy should remain accommodative, where inflation is still below target and output gaps are negative.”

The latest statement reiterates previous language that countries “will refrain from competitive devaluations, and will not target our exchange rates for competitive purposes.” The IMFC, the main advisory panel for the IMF, is composed of ministers and central bank governors from about two-dozen countries, including the United States and China. Policy-makers are gathered in Washington for spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago, who currently serves as the IMFC chairman, and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde will discuss the committee’s stance at a news briefing in Washington on Saturday.

Bloomberg News

Macron may be Europe’s best tool to avert Trump’s trade threat

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RANCE’S Emmanuel Macron lands in Washington on Monday with a mission to take the edge off Donald J. Trump’s “America First” foreign policy, for Europe at least.

As Macron arrives for the first state visit of Trump’s presidency, the United States leader is threatening to upend the global trading system with tariffs on China, maybe Europe, too, and to ditch the Iran nuclear accord, a key plank of western policy for containing military tensions in the Middle East.

The French president has had more success in striking up a rapport with Trump than most global leaders, but his record of securing policy concessions is patchy all the same.

While Macron pointed to this month’s missile strikes against Syria as a victory for French diplomacy, he failed to keep the US in the Paris climate accord, and his aides last week played down expectations that he might persuade Trump to change course on other issues.

“This visit will promote the narrative that the two men have a good relationship, but it may not make much of a difference,” said Jeremy Shapiro, research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London. “A personal relationship is great, but Trump doesn’t remember it once you’ve left the room.”

State dinner

ON the first night, the two leaders will have dinner with their wives at George Washington’s Virginia estate in Mount Vernon, overlooking the Potomac River, and Macron will offer his host a symbolic gift. On a January visit to Beijing, he gave President Xi Jinping a horse from the French Republican Guard.

Tuesday night is the state dinner at the White House where Brigitte Macron may wear a Louis Vuitton gown, her designer of choice. The rest of the guest list has been closely guarded so far, though LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault may make the cut as the only French business leader to have shaken Trump’s hand.

On the final day of his trip Macron will address a joint session of Congress—in English—and meet students at the George Washington University.

“He has been one of the few Europeans who has pulled off the trick of building a close and strong working relationship with President Trump while also not shying away from criticism,” said Jeff Rathke, deputy director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “We’ll probably see some of that.”

Doing business

MACRON’S chance to turn the bonhomie into policy substance comes during extended talks on Tuesday.

French officials say they’ve been briefed by their W hite House counterparts that Trump still hasn’t decided whether he’ll stick with the Iran deal. The agreement was the signature foreign-policy achievement of Barack Obama’s presidency and perhaps the most intense US diplomatic push since the aftermath of World War I. The president has been a longstanding critic of the accord. He wants more action to stop Iran’s developing its ballistic missile program and expanding its influence in the Middle East—issues that aren’t covered in the current agreement.

Macron plans to offer additional commitments from European nations to guarantee that the deal will keep Iran in check.

“The French president will have prepared a few ‘fixes’ to the Iran deal, climate accord and trade issues to deliver Trump something he thinks is a win,” said Brett Bruen, a former State Department official under Obama. “Macron has mastered the art of the deal when it comes to Trump—forget about the substance, focus on his feelings, furnishing him with flattery and a touch of French flair.”

Trump’s experience sending his forces into combat alongside their French allies this month may strengthen Macron’s chances of making progress on other issues, analysts said. Bloomberg News

A8 Monday, April 23, 2018

The World BusinessMirror

Ortega OK for talks as deadly Nicaragua’s protests rage on

AN anti-government protester holds up the Spanish sign: “Nicaragua free” at the Jean Paul Jennie round-about where protesters pulled down a statue that is emblematic of the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in Managua on April 21. AP/Alfredo Zuniga

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ANAGUA, Nicaragua— Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said last Saturday that his government is willing to enter into talks over social security reforms that have sparked four days of protests and clashes in which, rights monitors say, at least 25 people have died. A journalist covering the unrest was also killed.

In a nationally televised address, his first public appearance since the demonstrations began last Wednesday, Ortega said he is open to negotiations so that there is “no more terror for Nicaraguan families.”

But he said the dialogue would be just with business leaders and not with other sectors of society.

He also seemed to try to justify what has been a heavy-handed response by the government and allied groups, accusing demonstrators, most of them university students, of being manipulated by unspecified “minority” political interests and of being infiltrated by gangsters.

“What is happening in our country has no name. The kids do not even know the party that is manipulating

them....Gang members are being brought into the kids’ protests and are criminalizing the protests.

That is why they are put at risk,” Ortega said.

Those remarks appeared to fan the flames, as soon afterward thousands of people spilled back into the streets in seven cities including the capital, Managua, after tensions had calmed somewhat last Friday night.

“We are in the streets asking for Ortega and his wife to go. This has already gone beyond the social security issue. Here there have been dead, wounded, and he does not even apologize for his killings or the savage repression against the people,” said Mauri Hernandez, one

of thousands of demonstrators at a central rotunda.

Last Friday night vice president, first lady and government Spokesman Rosario Murillo said nine people had been confirmed dead in the clashes, though the human-rights group Cenidh said last Saturday it had counted at least 25 deaths nationwide. Minutes later, news emerged that journalist Angel Gahona of the news show Meridiano was killed while covering unrest in the southeastern city of Bluefields.

The Associated Press viewed video from when he was broadcasting live on Facebook via cell phone showing damage to an ATM at the entrance to city hall as riot police advance up a darkened street.

A gunshot is heard, the phone falls and a several voices scream his name.

A separate video of the incident circulating on social media, taken from behind Gahona, shows him approaching the ATM. After the shot,

he slumps to the ground with blood streaming from his head. Someone presses a piece of cloth to try to staunch the bleeding.

Another Bluefields reporter, Ileana Lacayo, said he died en route to the hospital.

A prominent business chamber issued a statement conditioning its talks with Ortega on an end to repression, the freeing of detained protesters and respect for freedom of expression as the authorities have kept off the air one private news channel that is covering the protests.

“We cannot go into a dialogue if these minimal conditions are not met,” it said.

There were more clashes at the Polytechnical University of Nicaragua, one of the strongest bastions of the protesters.

“We stand firm. They will not wear us out. Here we will give our all until the government understands that it will not continue to do whatever it pleases,” Lombardo Ruiz Picado, a leader of the student protesters, told AP by phone from inside the school.

In the morning, army troops were deployed to Esteli, a city north of Managua that has been a main flashpoint of the demonstrations, to help police repel protesters.

State-affiliated media showed images of armed soldiers patrolling the city center and said they were safeguarding strategic concerns after fires at several public buildings.

The Roman Catholic Conference of Bishops in Nicaragua condemned repression against protesters and urged the government to listen to them and drop the social security reforms.

“A unilateral decision always brings with it social instability. Rectifying decisions is a sign of humanity, listening is the path of reason, seeking peace at all cost is wisdom,” the conference said in a statement.

The reforms, issued by decree, increase income and payroll taxes and make changes to pensions to try to shore up Nicaragua’s troubled social security system. AP

A unilateral decision always brings with it social instability.

Rectifying decisions is a sign of humanity, listening is the path of reason, seeking peace at all cost is wisdom.”

—Bishops’ statement

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Chemical-weapons inspectors collect samples from Syria site

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EIRUT—Chemical-weapons inspectors collected samples from Syria’s Douma last Saturday, two weeks after a suspected gas attack there followed by retaliatory strikes by Western powers on the Syrian government’s chemical facilities.

The site visit, confirmed by the Organization of the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), would allow the agency to proceed with an independent investigation to determine what chemicals, if any, were used in the April 7 attack that medical workers said killed more than 40 people.

Douma was the final target of the government’s sweeping campaign to seize back control of the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus from rebels after seven years of revolt. Militants gave up the town days after the alleged attack.

The United States, France and Britain blamed the President Bashar al-Assad’s government for the attack, and struck suspected Syrian chemical-weapons facilities one week later.

The Syrian government and its ally Russia denied responsibility for the attack.

OPCW inspectors arrived in Damascus just hours before the April 15 strikes but were delayed from visiting the site until last Saturday, leading Western officials and Syrian activists to accuse Russia and the Syrian government of staging a cover-up.

“I won’t find any hope in my heart until the Assad regime is held accountable and eradicated from government in Syria,” said Bilal Abou Salah, a Douma media activist who left the town after the government takeover.

He added he feared Russian and Syrian government personnel destroyed potential evidence in the two weeks since the alleged attack.

The OPCW said in a statement that it visited “one of the sites” in Douma to collect samples for analysis at agency-designated laboratories, adding it would “consider future steps including another possible visit to Douma.”

It added the mission would draft a report based on the findings, “as well other information and materials collected by the team.”

The OPCW mission is not mandated to apportion blame for the attack.

A UN security team had scouted Douma last Tuesday to see if it was safe for weapons inspectors to visit.

The team came under small arms and explosives fire, leading the agency to delay its mission.

Journalists visiting Douma the previous day, escorted by government minders, experienced no security issues.

Russian ministry Spokesman Maria Zakharova said the delays to the OPCW team were “unacceptable,” in a statement last Saturday.

Douma is just minutes away from Damascus, where the OPCW team is based.

Images emerging from Douma in the hours after the attack showed lifeless bodies collapsed in crowded rooms, some with foam around their noses and mouths.

Abou Salah entered one of the buildings affected by the alleged gas attack the following day and took footage of a yellow cylinder with a gas valve on the top floor. He said it had crashed through the roof and showed a gash in the ceiling where it purportedly came through.

His assertions could not be independently verified. But the cylinder looked like others identified by the international NGO Human Rights Watch at other locations of chlorine gas attacks attributed to the government in 2016. AP

World’s oldest person dies in Japan at 117

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OKYO—The world’s oldest person, a 117-year-old Japanese woman, has died.

Nabi Tajima died of old age in a hospital last Saturday evening in the town of Kikai in southern Japan, town official Susumu Yoshiyuki confirmed. She had been hospitalized since January.

Tajima, born on August 4, 1900, was the last known person born in the 19th century. She raised seven sons and two daughters and reportedly had more than 160 descendants, including great-great-great grandchildren. Her town of Kikai is a small island of about 7,000 people halfway between Okinawa and Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands.

She became the world’s oldest person seven months ago after the death in September of Violet Brown in Jamaica, also at the age of 117. Video shown on Japanese television showed Tajima moving her hands to the beat of music played on traditional Japanese instruments at a ceremony to mark the achievement. The US-based Gerontology Research Group says that another Japanese woman, Chiyo Miyako, is now the world’s oldest person in its records. Miyako lives south of Tokyo in Kanagawa prefecture, and is due to turn 117 in 10 days.

Guinness World Records certified 112-year-old Masazo Nonaka of northern Japan as the world’s oldest man earlier this month, and was planning to recognize Tajima as the world’s oldest person. AP

Laughter, tears as former first lady Barbara Bush is remembered at funeral service

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OUSTON—Barbara Bush was remembered as the “first lady of the Greatest Generation” during a funeral last Saturday attended by four former US presidents and hundreds of other people who filled a Houston church with laughter as much as tears, with many recalling her quick wit and devotion to family.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush joked that his mother called her style of raising him and his siblings “’a benevolent dictatorship’—but honestly, it wasn’t always benevolent.”

She was widely admired for her plainspoken style during her husband George H.W. Bush’s presidency and was known as “The Enforcer” in her highpowered family.

Jeb Bush said he could feel her presence last Saturday inside the nation’s largest Episcopal church and that she would likely have given him advice: “Jeb, keep it short. Don’t drag this out,” he said to chuckles. He met her expectations with a speech lasting about seven minutes.

He choked up at one point while addressing the roughly 1,500 people seated inside Saint Martin’s Episcopal Church,

where his parents regularly worshipped, when saying his mother—known for her self-deprecating remarks about her wrinkles and white-gray hair—was “beautiful” until the very end.

His father, a prolific writer of love letters to his wife, laughed when his son read a letter from their wedding anniversary in 1994. It began: “Will you marry me?

Oops! I forgot we did that, 49 years ago.”

But when his son continued reading, about how his father grew happier each year spent with his wife, his father closed his eyes and cried. Jeb Bush later hugged his father and kissed him on the cheek.

Presidential historian Jon Meacham, who wrote a 2015 biography on the former president, recalled during his eulogy Barbara Bush’s devotion to her husband of 73 years, noting he was the “only boy she ever kissed.” Theirs was the longest marriage of any presidential couple.

Meacham said Barbara Bush was also known for bringing awareness to AIDS patients and for her work promoting literacy, which her husband subtly honored last Saturday by wearing socks printed with blue, red and yellow books.

“Barbara Bush was the first lady of the Greatest Generation,” Meacham said,

Former President George H.W. Bush (on wheelchair) and George W. Bush, followed by former first lady Laura Bush follow as pallbearers carry the casket of former first lady Barbara Bush after a funeral service at Saint Martin’s Episcopal Church last Saturday in Houston. AP/Evan Vucci a nod to the generation that fought in World War II. The couple’s family, including their five children, 17 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, played prominent roles in the service. Granddaughters offered readings, some of their voices shaky with emotion, while their eight grandsons were pallbearers.

The Bush family was seated in front of the church. Nearby, two other former presidents—Bill Clinton and Barack Obama—along with their wives and current first lady Melania Trump were seated in the same pew.

A eulogy was also given by Barbara Bush’s longtime friend, Susan Baker, wife of former Secretary of State

James A. Baker III. She said Bush—the wife of the nation’s 41st president and mother of the 43rd—was “the secret sauce of this extraordinary family.”

As the funeral ended, George H.W. Bush was pushed in his wheelchair by another son, former President George W. Bush, as they followed the casket out of the church’s cavernous sanctuary, which had been adorned with sprays of yellow garden roses, yellow snap dragons and antique hydrangeas.

They stopped along the way to shake hands as mourners sang “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” which Barbara Bush had requested as the final song.

She died last Tuesday, with her husband by her side, at their home in Houston. She was 92.

Barbara Bush was buried last Saturday afternoon at her husband’s presidential library at Texas A&M University in College Station, about 161 kilometers northwest of Houston. The burial site is in a gated plot surrounded by trees and near a creek where the couple’s 3-yearold daughter Robin is buried. She died of leukemia in 1953.

“It was a very brief but poignant and

beautiful ending to a very moving and incredible day. It would have been exactly what Barbara Bush wanted,” family Spokesman Jim McGrath said.

Hundreds of people lined both sides of the street near the campus as the funeral procession passed on a gray, cloudy day. Flags were flown at half-staff.

Other guests at the invitation-only funeral included former Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly and professional golfer Phil Mickelson, along with Karl Rove and other former White House staff members.

Melania Trump said in a statement it was an honor to give her respects to a “fearless” first lady, adding: “Today the world paid tribute to a woman of indisputable character and grace.”

President Donald J. Trump didn’t attend to avoid security disruptions, according to the White House, but he released a statement saying his thoughts were with the family.

Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, also didn’t attend because he was traveling overseas and she was recovering from surgery, according to the Carter Center. AP

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Monday, April 23, 2018 A9

Will Kim pivot to economy with ‘new strategy’?

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during a meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, in Pyongyang, North Korea, on April 20. North Korea announced on April 21 that it has suspended nuclear and long-range missile tests and plans to close its nuclear-test site ahead of a new round of negotiations with South Korea and the United States. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP

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EOUL, South Korea—For as long as Kim Jong Un has been North Korea’s leader, he has called for the simultaneous pursuit of nuclear weapons and economic growth with the aim of making the nation a “great socialist nuclear power.”

Last Saturday, however, Kim abruptly announced he was retiring his signature policy, known as byungjin, or “parallel advance.”

The strategy has been at the center of his government’s propaganda and is enshrined in the charter of the governing Workers’ Party. But Kim said it was now time to adopt a “new strategic line” and focus the nation’s resources on rebuilding its economy.

As for nuclear weapons, he essentially declared that mission accomplished, saying North Korea no longer needed to test long-range missiles or atomic bombs and would close its only known nuclear-test site.

The byungjin policy, he said, already had achieved a “great victory”—an arsenal capable of deterring the nation’s enemies.

Kim’s pivot from nuclear testing and toward the economy came just days before a scheduled meeting with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and weeks before his planned summit meeting with President Donald J. Trump.

Despite lingering doubts about his nation’s ability to strike the continental United States with a nuclear weapon, Kim appeared to be making clear he intends to enter ne-

gotiations with Washington the way the Soviets did decades ago, as an established nuclear power.

The big question is whether he will relinquish his nuclear weapons.

South Korean policy-makers argue that Kim is signaling a willingness to dismantle his nuclear arsenal for the right incentives, including economic aid, a peace treaty and other security guarantees from Washington—measures he needs to rebuild the North’s economy.

“He is seeking the kind of rapid economic growth seen in China,” said Lee Jong-seok, a former unification minister of South Korea.

“The North Korea he envisions is different from his father’s North Korea.”

Lee also noted: “We have looked only on the nuclear side of Kim Jong Un’s rule, trying hard not to look at the other side. He is ready to bargain away nuclear weapons for the sake of economic development. If he were content with just feeding his people three meals a day, he would not give up his nuclear weapons.”

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior North Korea expert at the Sejong Institute, a research think tank in South Korea,

Trump hits Opec, calling oil prices ‘artificially’ high

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OUSTON—As domestic gasoline prices surged to their highest level in three years, President Donald J. Trump railed against the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) oil cartel last Friday, declaring that the group was unjustifiably manipulating supplies for selfish gain.

“Looks like Opec is at it again,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!”

The Opec makes an easy scapegoat for American politicians. It has been a target of derision by United States leaders since the Arab oil embargo of 1973 caused long lines at the pump and badly damaged the economy.

But Opec doesn’t have the same influence it once did, given soaring production in the US, Canada and a few other countries.

Now it is just one factor in lifting prices, which are being affected by everything from geopolitics to the growing demand for gasoline and diesel fuel.

Trump could have been referring to Opec’s cutback in exports to increase prices.

Saudi Arabia and other oil producers in the region have also made an alliance of convenience with Russia, a non-Opec member heavily dependent on oil revenues to finance its government. Together, they have restrained production since 2016, reducing global stockpiles.

“Prices are high,” said Rob West, an analyst at Redburn, a London research firm.

Noting that Trump may have a point, he added, “I do see some artificiality in the prices we see today.”

Opec and non-Opec producers gathered

last Friday in the Saudi city of Jiddah in an effort to continue the policy even as the price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, has climbed above $70.

Not long ago, as prices plummeted from more than $100 a barrel in 2014 to below $30 in early-2016, inventories were so high that tankers were needed to hold excess supplies.

Now, even as US oil production continues to grow, worldwide inventories are declining, increasing the pressure on prices. The International Energy Agency reported that global oil supply eased by 120,000 barrels a day in March.

The price of crude is the major reason US drivers are paying more at the pump as the summer driving season approaches. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline last Friday was $2.75 a gallon, according to AAA, up 19 cents over the last month and 33 cents from a year ago. It is the highest level since the summer of 2015.

The increase has been particularly noticeable over the past week, with prices in some states rising more than a penny a gallon every day.

Americans consume roughly 400 million gallons of gasoline a day, so the 33-cent increase over the past year means roughly $132 million less every day in consumer pockets.

Working-class Americans, who usually drive older, less fuel-efficient cars and spend a higher percentage of their income on fuel, are disproportionately affected.

“This hurts the pocketbooks of typical Trump voters in swing states who live paycheck to paycheck,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service. New York Times News Service

said Kim’s announcement would further raise “his people’s expectation for economic improvement.”

But North Korea has long said that its nuclear weapons are not bargaining chips, and Kim himself has called them “a treasured sword of justice” and “a powerful deterrent firmly safeguarding” his people’s “rights to existence.”

Lee Sung-yoon, a Korea expert at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, called Kim’s decision just a replay of an old North Korean tactic—trying to confuse enemies with dramatic gestures in an attempt to win concessions, without ever intending to give up nuclear weapons.

“History repeats itself as farce,” he said, adding: “Kim Jong Un’s ploys are unoriginal and rather lazy.”

US officials say they have been repeatedly cheated by the North in previous talks on denuclearization.

A deal in 1994 eventually collapsed when the United States accused the North of secretly enriching uranium. Another deal in 2005 fell apart in a dispute over how to verify a nuclear freeze. In 2012, the North launched a long-range rocket after agreeing to a moratorium on missile testing.

Kim’s decision to make the economy the nation’s priority and suspend nuclear tests was unanimously adopted at a Workers’ Party meeting last Friday. He also pledged to neither use nor proliferate nuclear weapons unless faced with a nuclear threat.

Washington, Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo welcomed the move, although they cautioned that the suspension of tests was just one step toward denuclearization.

The announcement made no mention of further steps.

Kim did pledge to create an “international environment favorable for the socialist economic construction.” Analysts said that would give him political cover for negotiating reductions in his arsenal.

“This reads more like an arms-control offer from a nuclear nation than an isolated regime coerced into disarmament,” said Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Washingtonbased Federation of American Scientists.

“It is a carefully circumscribed statement.

It describes a partial cap of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs but not disarmament. Even under these restrictions, North Korea could continue to expand its capabilities significantly.”

But Mount said that a suspension of testing is important because “by most technical or military standards, North Korea has not completed an advanced nuclear arsenal.”

“It would be a significant accomplishment to halt their progress while we negotiate steps to roll back these programs,” he added. New York Times News Service

Thousands sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Britain’s queen

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ONDON—The audience at Royal Albert Hall got a rare treat last Saturday—the chance to sing “Happy Birthday” to the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

Queen Elizabeth II, with her eldest son Prince Charles at her side, waved to the crowd as they celebrated her 92nd birthday in song.

Charles got an enthusiastic response when he introduced her as: “Your majesty, mummy.”

The queen took center stage after a varied pop concert featuring British singers Sting, Tom Jones and Jamie Cullum along with Australian star Kylie Minogue, long a fan favorite here.

Shaggy and Craig David also performed, and the festivities took a long stroll down memory lane, with audio from a speech Elizabeth made on her 21st birthday and video from her Golden Jubilee, when roughly 1 million people gathered outside Buckingham Palace to honor her.

She was flanked in the royal box by Charles, heir to the throne, and Prince William, next in the line of succession.

Prince Harry and fiancée Meghan Markle also attended, generating a roar of applause when they took their seats. The couple will wed on May 19 at Windsor Castle.

Prince William’s wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, did not attend. She is expecting the couple’s third child.

The queen’s husband, Prince Philip, was also missing. He is recovering from hipreplacement surgery. AP

A10

The Regions

Monday, April 23, 2018 • Editor: Dennis D. Estopace

BusinessMirror

LGBT group warns of more sex workers after Boracay closure

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ORACAY Island—The Iloilo Pride Team (IPT), an alliance of LGBT community in Iloilo warns of a possible increase of sex workers all over the country because of the imminent closure of this resort island.

Irish Inoceto of the IPT said lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals (LGBT) work in the entertainment and leisure industr y in Boracay. Some of them are fire dancers, entertainers and massage therapists, among others.

“Before the closure was announced, a LGBT working in Boracay earns a minimum of P800 per night, she said. “When the Boracay closure was announced, [each] now earns [between] P250 to P400 [only] each night.”

According to Inoceto, “members of the LGBT also deserve help from the government.”

“Even [in] the profiling being conducted by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, they only [ask] for ‘male’ or ‘female’ in the form and LGBT is not included,” she said.

Inoceto also planned to meet up with different LGBT community in the region to conduct dialogue in the pending Gender Identity and Expression Equality bill. Jun N. Aguirre

City of Pines orders use of reusable containers

By Suzanne June G. Perante Correspondent

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AG U I O C I T Y— I n l i n e with the national government’s drive toward clean and green environment in the countr y, t he implementation of the Plastic and StyrofoamFree Baguio Ordinance has already been observed gradually by local residents of this city shortly before its May 2018 full implementation.

City Ordinance 35 Series of 2017 strictly bans the use of plastic bags, polystyrene foams for

goods including food items. As an alternative, the ordinance recommends the use of paper bags and reusable containers in packaging items. It, likewise, encourages people to bring their own containers and eco-bags whenever they go shopping.

The city government keeps reminding business owners, retailers, traders and vendors in the market including other major business establishments in the city like government institutions and schools to observe the rules and regulations imposed by the ordinance.

However, the public have mix notions regarding the city order. Many are confused as to what is actually allowed or not.

According to a food vendor who refused to be named, the plastic ban is wel l and good for the environment since this will lessen the increasing waste in the city.

“While we still use plastics bags for the heavier goods, we are now gradually using paper bags for lighter goods,” said Led Mariano, a fruit vendor. “Sometimes, the customers are already the ones br ing ing their ow n

eco-bags especially those who purchase a lot.”

Some people, however, are opposing the idea.

“Sometimes, other customers still demand for plastic bags even if our boss keep reminding them that it is already prohibited and that they should bring their own containers or eco-bags instead,” added Imelda Sa nc hez, a ba ker y a nd m i n i grocery vendor.

The said ordinance took 10 years in the making after the initial Bayong Ordinance passed in 2007.

It was later amended into the present Plastic and Styrofoam-Free Baguio Ordinance.

It can be noted that in the Philippines, various cities and municipalities have already implemented the banning of plastics. Los Baños, Laguna, Bauang in La Union and San Mateo in Isabela were just some of the municipalities who initially implemented plastic ban. Initiated by the Isabela Green Ladies Organization, the town in Isabela pioneered the “Walang Plastikan!” to minimize, if not totally, eradicate the widespread use of plastic bags.

Plastic is a lightweight, versatile and cheap, made of nonbiodegradable materials which generally take millions of years to decompose.

The Philippines alone has a very high consumption of plastic bags ranking third among the worst polluters according to a 2017 report by environmental group Greenpeace.

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Help to ease ‘Boracay effect,’ Arroyo asks Filipino-Chinese

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lawmaker has called on the Filipino-Chinese community to help in the efforts of the government to avert the illeffects of the closure of Boracay this week.

This was expressed by former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the Mid-Term Regional Members’ Association Conference of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII). Arroyo said the FilipinoChinese community should do their part in making sure the country keeps the momentum in inviting more Chinese tourists to the country despite the Boracay closure.

“I would want those Chinese tourists who know only Boracay to be able to go to other parts of the Philippines rather than go to Bali [in Indonesia] or Phuket [in Thailand],” she was quoted in a statement as saying. “You, the Filipino Chinese members of the Federation, in your own areas, I hope you would be able to bring them to other areas that are unknown to China, so we don’t lose them to Phuket and to Bali.”

With 1 million Chinese tourists who came to the country last year, Arroyo said she does not want the country to suffer the same way as Thailand did when a tsunami hit Phuket in 2004.

“I mentioned about 1 million Chinese tourists suddenly coming …and so many of them go to Boracay. And now Boracay will be closed for a few months,” Arroyo said.

“When the tsunami [hit] Phuket, [w]e benefited because those honeymooners went to Boracay and other parts of the Philippines.”

Boracay attracts about 2 million tourists every year.

She added that the country’s strength lies in the services sector.

Filipinos have the innate traits of being friendly and hospitable, according to the former president.

With the help of the FFCCCII members, and the still many equally beautiful tourist spots around the country, more Chinese tourists will come to the Philippines, Arroyo said.

Earlier, Rep. Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte Jr. of the Second District of Camarines Sur urged the Department of Tourism (DOT) to undertake an aggressive marketing campaign to sell the other prime tourist spots of the country.

Villafuerte said the DOT must do this now as one of the country’s main attractions—Boracay Island—has been ordered closed

by President Duterte.

He added the DOT, the local government units and the private sector should work together on

new marketing strategies to sell the Philippines as Asia’s premier tourist destination by developing its potentials as an ecotourism and adventure sports hub.

According to the lawmaker, given the right tools, the DOT would not find it difficult to sustain the Philippines’s growing number of foreign tourist arrivals even with the closure of Boracay Island. Villafuerte said this is so given the acknowledgement the country received as among Asia’s booming tourist locations.

“The Philippines was reported in the article with a 10.96-percent growth in 2017 tourist numbers, or 6.6 million, with over 675,000 coming from Europe, 7.3 percent higher compared to the previous year,” he said.

Other violators

Rep. Robert Ace S. Barbers of the Second District of Surigao del Norte has asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to check other tourist destinations where business establishments may have been violating environmental laws similar to what happened in Boracay.

“I’m sure this is not just happening in Boracay, but this may also be the case in other tourist destinations,” Barbers said. “The cleanup should start now for the sake of our people living in those areas.”

Earlier, Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu announced that 51 establishments were served notices for closure for violating the Clean Water Act of 2004 after these were found to have no wastewater treatment facilities and are dumping sewage into the sea.

Under the law, establishments and households are mandated to dispose of their septic waste through a treatment facility.

Cimatu said while 50 percent to 60 percent of all establishments in Boracay appeared to be compliant with the requirement, “all the rest direct their pipes to the canals, which drains to the sea.”

Barbers said local officials should make sure that all business establishments in their areas will not cause environmental problems.

Data from the Aklan Provincial Tourism Office showed that from January to October 2017 alone, Boracay Island was visited by 1.669 million tourists and generated P46.526 billion in tourism receipts.

Fo r e i g n e r s a n d F i l i p i no s who live abroad accounted for P31.769 bi l l ion of t he tou r ism-related revenue, while domestic tourists spent P14.757 billion. Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

Campaign vs single-use plastic straws gains support in Palawan

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UERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan—The campaign against single-use plastic straws in Palawan under the “Skip-the-Straw” (StS) project has gained additional support last Saturday after eight restaurant establishments agreed to stop offering plastic straws to customers.

The signing of the agreement was led by the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) and the JCI Puerto Princesa Peacock Inc. (JCIPPPI or Peacock Jaycees) at SM City Puerto Princesa.

“Our goal in the chapter is to protect our marine life, especially the sea turtles that think of them as food. We wish to encourage restaurant establishments, eateries, and even hotels, to help clean the oceans by no longer offering single-use plastic straws to their clients,” Peacock Jaycees President Zahren Vila Magrata said.

The MOA was signed by the PCSD with Hibiscus Garden Inn, Campsite by Kusina ni Tito Ernie’s, Tatang’s Boneless Lechon, Coco Garden Café, Crenzo’s Canteen

and Catering Services, Sabie Bakes Café, Divine Sweets Café and Bakery and Ancient Dynasty Kitchen.

Jessaids Daquer, former president of the organization, said the eight establishments that signed the agreement bring the number of restaurants, which agreed to skip using plastic straws, to 26.

“We have brought the campaign outside of Palawan to Mindanao under the Life Below Water and the Clean Water for Community projects of the JCI region and national offices, where local chapters are now encouraging restaurant owners not to use plastic straws and instead bring their own mugs or tumblers,” she said.

Daquer said the StS was initiated in Palawan under a partnership project with PCSD under her term as president of the Peacock Jaycees.

PCSD’s Adelina Villena said the collaboration with the Peacock Jaycees is “very important” in the pursuit of reducing plastic pollution in the ocean.

“Of course, this is really very

important to us,” she said. “We are thankful for the social responsibility of our partners, which addresses the future of our sea turtles. We have been fighting against the destruction of our environment in Palawan, and these plastic straws do not only affect our sea turtles but other marine wildlife, as well.”

For her part, Siobe Yu of the Ancient Dynasty Kitchen, said her goal to use less plastic has pushed her to regularly ask servers to skip straws in her drinks.

“The goal of the Skip-the-Straw is very admirable, which is to protect the environment. I think for our business, it is good to join and implement this to protect the sea turtles and other marine wildlife,” she said. The MOA signing was done in celebration of the JCI Week, a weeklong activity simultaneously adopted by all chapters of JCI Philippines.

This year the festivities ran from April 15 to 21 chaired by Peacock Jaycees Executive Vice President Mabelle Castro. PNA

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Baguio economy flourishing —city exec

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AGUIO CITY—The planning and development office of Baguio says the city is on the right track and is economically growing, as shown by indicators of progress in 2017 compared with 2016.

Evelyn Cayat, City Planning and Development Officer, reported last Friday that the city’s total exports grew by 75.2 percent to $2.9 billion in 2017 from 2016, based on the latest data from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

The figure, Cayat noted, is the combined export receipts of the Baguio City Economic Zone (BCEZ), the 247-hectare John Hay Tourism Special Economic Zone and the SM Baguio Cyberzone.

Cayat said the largest contributor to the economic zone exports were radio, television and communications equipment, which accounted for 64.8 percent; followed by fabricated metal products, except machinery and electrical, which registered 28.6 percent; and call centers, 6.2 percent.

The BCEZ is host to Texas Instruments, a manufacturer of microchips for gadgets, and the MOOG Controls, which manufactures bolts and parts for airplanes.

It also houses garment companies with operations in the city.

With the growing demand for products manufactured by BCEZbased companies, employment there rose by 6 percent, from 13,802 workers in 2016 to 14,622 in 2017.

Trade and industry in Baguio have also shown progress, as the number of business establishments in the city increased by 2.58 percent to 19,590.

Cayat said 47.3 percent of these are engaged in retail trade; 22.9 percent in real estate, boarding houses, apartments and transient houses; 13.4 percent in services; 6 percent are in food business like restaurants, cafes, cafeteria, ice-cream shops, refreshments, eatery, canteen, fastfood and coffee shops; while 10.4 percent are into wholesale business, aggregates, amusement and others.

Cayat said Baguio’s total registered work force from various industries and businesses operating in the city is pegged at 58,743.

She noted what used to be the city’s tag as the Summer Capital of the Philippines is evolving, and it is now one of the country’s weekend destinations. She said tourism in the city flourished considerably, as tourist arrivals again surpassed the 1-million mark in 2017. She said 1.5 million tourists visited Baguio in 2017, registering a 17.5-percent increase from the 1.29 million tourist arrivals in 2016.

Noting that the number of banks it hosts determines a place’s economic health, Cayat cited data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas saying that four more banks have been added to the 82 banks operating in Baguio in 2016.

“This means that our banking system remains sound and stable,” she said. Cayat further explained that peace and order is a component of a robust economy.

“We congratulate the Baguio City Police Office for providing a peaceful environment in the city, placing Baguio in the top 10 safest cities in Southeast Asia,” she said.

Numbeo, a global online database of living conditions in cities around the world, ranked Baguio City as the sixth on its list of Safest Cities in Southeast Asia in 2018, with a safety index of 58.38.

Baguio’s chief cop, Senior Supt.

Ramil Saculles, said the city’s economy is doing good because its peace and order situation is stable.

“We are optimistic that the economic performance of Baguio will continue to expand with both challenges and opportunities brought about by technological innovations, Asean integration and changes in the world market,” Cayat added. PNA

Monday, April 23, 2018 A11

Cebu to benefit from 3 big-ticket infra projects

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HE Department of Finance (DOF) has pointed out that Cebu stands to benefit from at least three big-ticket infrastructure projects under the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) program in step with the DOF’s goal of boosting this province’s status as a major growth driver of the national economy.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said the strong support of the Philippines’s friends in the region in the form of official development assistance (ODA) comprising of grants and soft loans has

allowed the government to pursue “hybrid” public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects faster and at lower costs.

“These infrastructure investments are being made with the

expectation that Cebu will continue playing a strong role as one of the reliable growth drivers of the national economy,” Dominguez said in a speech read for him

by DOF Undersecretary Bayani H. Agabin at a conference in Cebu.

The finance chief explained that in Cebu, the construction of the New Cebu International Container Port, which is expected to be completed by 2020, is being supported by Korean ODA. Meanwhile, two other big-ticket projects in the area, which are up for submission to the Investment Coordination Committee, are the 24.5-kilometer Cebu-to-Bohol Link Bridge ​and the 5.5-kilometer CebuNegros Link Bridge.

Dominguez said that, aside from the generous ODA provided by the country’s allies in the region, the

government can also count on the fiscal space created by the Philippines’s investment-grade ratings and robust revenue flows from the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) to support massive investments in infrastructure.

The second CTRP package that aims to reduce corporate income taxes while reforming the investment-incentives system is expected to be passed by Congress this year.

Another program expected to further drive the Philippines economic growth in the immediate term and make it more inclusive is the BBB program, comprising not only the three multibillion-peso projects for Cebu but also the 72 other flagship projects that will develop growth corridors in other parts of the country and sharpen the economy’s competitiveness.

“Complemented by an extensive road-building program undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways, this infrastructure program will bring all areas of the archipelago into the growth mainstream,” he added.

The BBB program will provide the stimulus to expand the country’s GDP by 7 percent or better, which will enable the government to reduce poverty incidence to only 14 percent by 2022, the finance chief said.

“Twenty-three of the flagship infrastructure projects have passed the approvals process and are ready for execution,” Dominguez said. “We expect the rest of the projects to clear the approvals process this year, and we aspire to complete the majority of these projects before President Duterte’s term ends in 2022.” Rea Cu

Military claims two NPAs slain in separate clashes

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LAKE VIEW

This undated photo provides a bird’s-eye view of the Labangan Lake in Zamboanga del Sur. The Pulacan Falls of Labangan is one of major six tourist attractions noted by the local government of Zamboanga del Sur. NONIE REYES

WO reported members of the New People’s Army (NPA) were killed while another one was captured as government troops clashed with rebels in Davao del Sur and Cagayan over the weekend, the military reported.

Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command Spokesman Major Ezra Balagtey said a composited team from the Army’s 2nd Scout Ranger Battalion and 39th Infantry Battalion clashed with rebels at Sitio Bayongon, Barangay Astorga, Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur last Saturday.

During the firefight, a rebel was killed and his body was recovered by the operating troops. A woman, also a reported member of the NPA, was captured. She was identified as Jessa Lumana.

Lumana was brought to a hospital in Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur for medical checkup before she was turned over to the police.

A soldier identified as Cpl. Kenneth James Balicot was also wounded during the firefight.

Balagtey said soldiers who were on pursuit operations captured several hours later a wounded rebel, who died while being administered with emergency medical aid.

Military officials later identified him as Julito Pueblas alias Taghoy, leader of the Sentro de Grabidad of the NPA’s Guerilla Front 51 that reportedly

operates in Davao del Sur and in Toril, Davao City.

“Taghoy, who was severely injured, was rescued by the pursuing troops at around 5 p.m. of the same day during the pursuit operations,” Balagtey said.

“The troops exerted all efforts to administer first aid and save the groaning and severely wounded NPA leader while evacuating him to a helicopter landing point. Unfortunately, alias Taghoy expired while in transit,” Balagtey added.

Pueblas and his group, the military claimed, were responsible for the ambush of policemen who responded to a crime in March 2017 and the ambush of an ambulance in March 2014, both in Managa, Bansalan, Davao del Sur. Pueblas and his group were encountered by soldiers at Barangay Goma in Digos City early this month, wherein troops recovered firearms and landmines.

In Cagayan province, elements of the 17th Infantry Battalion also clashed with about 30 rebels at Sitio Tallat, Barangay Masi in the municipality of Rizal.

No one from both sides was wounded during the 45-minute firefight, which began at around 6:30 a.m. last Saturday, although Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command Spokesman Lt. Col. Isagani Nato said that the soldiers recovered a firearm and improvised bombs. Rene Acosta

DOLE gets support pledges for young workers in Central Luzon

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ITY OF SAN FERNANDO— Some 30,000 pledges to support the working youth under the Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES) were garnered by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

This was culled from the SPES pledges submitted by the different Public Employment Service Offices (Peso) in Central Luzon, the Philip-

pine Information Agency said.

“As early as January, our Pesos have facilitated the screening, matching and selection process of SPES aspirants in close coordination with their respective local government units [LGUs] and participating firms from the private sector,” DOLE Regional Director Ma. Zenaida Angara-Campita said.

“To date, the final listing of

All Baguio govt facilities to use energy-friendly tech

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AGUIO CITY—Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan has signed a city ordinance requiring all government offices and facilities in the city to use energy-conservation technologies like light-emitting diodes (LED) light bulbs and renewable-energy (RE) systems to save on energy, power bills and for a clean environment.

City Information Office Chief Aileen Refuerzo said Domogan signed City Ordinance 43 series of 2018 on April 19.

The ordinance mandates government facilities, such as office buildings, schools, hospitals, barangay halls, day-care centers, health cen-

ters, covered courts, streetlights, overpasses, parks and treatment plants, to use energy-saving technologies like LED light bulbs and RE like solar, wind, hydro and geothermal.

The ordinance aims to reduce energy consumption and lower the expenses of the city.

The City Accounting Office said the city government’s electric bill for 2015 cost P71.149 million in public funds. The city’s officials said this could be reduced if modern saving technologies like LED would be adopted. They noted that LED, for instance, consumes only 15 percent of traditional facilities. PNA

qualified beneficiaries is now being prepared and would be subjected to final orientation and briefing for the eventual start of their employment in the coming weeks,” she added.

Under SPES, participating students and out-of-school youths will be working for around 20 days to 28 working days.

They will be receiving salaries

based on the prevailing minimum and applicable LGU wage rates in the region.

“For this year’s SPES implementation, the DOLE regional office has allocated P111, 434,738.93 representing government’s share for the student’s salary. The remaining 60-percent share will be shouldered by participating private companies and national govern-

ment agencies, while participating LGUs’ approved-share will be based on their corresponding classification,” Campita explained.

Around 445 employers comprising of 301 private firms, 129 LGUs, three national government agencies, five non-governmental organizations, two state universities and colleges and five private schools are participating this year. Ashley Manabat

24.61-km bypass road seen to add businesses in Bulacan

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AN RAFAEL, Bulacan—Local government officials foresee increased business activities and more job opportunities in Bulacan as soon as the Phase 2 of the Plaridel Bypass Road project is completed this year.

Guiguinto Mayor Ambrocio Cruz, who is also the president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines-Bulacan, told the Philippine News Agency that the opening of the road project (Phase 1) has prompted investors to procure lands along the road, giving rise to business establishments and job opportunities to residents in the areas.

“Economic developments and business opportunities were created in the secluded and sleepy villages in the towns of Balagtas, Guiguinto, Plaridel, Bustos and even Pandi, bringing economic wonders to these areas,” Cruz said.

The completion of Phase 1 of the road project saw the mushrooming of business establishments along the road that passes through the towns of Balagtas, Guiguinto, Plaridel and Bustos.

The road project was first opened to motorists in March 2012 with the completion of its Contract Package 1 Phase 1 from Balagtas town to Plaridel.

The following year in 2013, the road extending to Bustos town was opened to motorists.

Bustos Mayor Arnel Mendoza and Pandi Mayor Celestino Marques agreed with the observations of Cruz, saying there is not only faster travel

time for motorists coming from the North Luzon Expressway but business opportunities sprouted in their towns, which have generated job opportunities to their constituents.

On the other hand, Rep. Lorna C. Silverio of the Third District of Bulacan pointed out that the road project has already cut the travel time from Balagtas town to the third district by more than one hour and investors have already started pouring into the district.

“Anytime this year, the Phase 2 road project will be opened to motorists up to the Maharlika Highway in San Rafael town,” Silverio said.

She also said that an extension of the bypass road to San Ildefonso and San Miguel towns was already included in the 2018 budget and has been bid out.

“The road project benefitted landowners by dramatically pushing up the prices of their lands that once upon a time was hardly noticed by

investors due to its inaccessibility [from] major road networks,” the lady legislator said.

She added that a government center was also established in San Rafael town because of the developments brought about by the road project.

The completion of the 24.61-kilometer Plaridel Bypass Road is funded by the Philippine government and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. PNA

Green Monday BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, April 23, 2018

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

Study: Global warming is mixing up nature’s intricate dinner time

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ASHINGTON—Global warming is screwing up nature’s intricately timed dinner hour, often making hungry critters and those on the menu show up at much different times, a new study shows.

Timing is everything in nature.

Bees have to be around and flowers have to bloom at the same time for pollination to work, and hawks need to migrate at the same time as their prey. In many cases, global warming is interfering with that timing, scientists said.

A first-of-its-kind global mega analysis on the biological timing of 88 species that rely on another life form shows that on average, species are moving out of sync by about six days a decade, although some pairs are actually moving closer together.

W h i le ot her st ud ies h ave looked at individual pairs of species and how warming temperatures have changed their migration, breeding and other timing, the study in last Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences gives the first global look at a worsening timing problem. These changes in species timing are considerably greater than they were before the 1980s, the study said.

“There isn’t really any clear

indication that it is going to slow down or stop in the near future,” said study lead author Heather Kharouba, an ecologist at the University of Ottawa.

For example in the Netherlands, the Eurasian sparrow hawk has been late for dinner because its prey, the blue tit, has—over 16 years—arrived almost six days earlier than the hawk.

It’s most noticeable and crucial in Washington state’s Lake Washington, where over the past 25 years, plant plankton are now blooming 34 days earlier than the zooplankton that eat them.

T hat’s cr ucia l because that’s messing with the bottom of the food chain, Kharouba said.

A blue tit flies among dried plants covered with hoarfrost near the Belarus village of Dukora, some 40 kilometers southeast of Minsk, on February 26. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences gives the first global look at a worsening timing problem.

AP/Sergei Grits

In Greenland, the plants are showing up almost three days earlier than the caribou, so more of the baby caribou are dying “because there wasn’t enough food,” Kharouba said.

With warmer temperatures, most species moved their habits earlier, but interdependent species didn’t always move at the same rate. It’s the relative speed

It demonstrates that many species interactions from around the world are in a state of rapid flux.”—Primack

of changes in timing that’s key, Kharouba said. Because of the small number of species involved in small areas over different studies, Kharouba’s team could not find a statistically significant link between temperature and changes in how species sync together. But what she saw, she said, “is consistent with climate change.”

Scientists not involved in the study praised the work.

“It demonstrates that many species interactions from around the world are in a state of rapid flux,” Boston University biology professor Richard Primack said in an e-mail. “Prior to this study, studies of changing species interactions focused on one place or one group of species.” AP

Big firms told to reduce plastics use ahead of Earth Day

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ore than 1 million people, ahead of this year’s Earth Day (April 22), are demanding that the world’s largest corporations reduce their production of single-use plastic.

Around the globe, more than 1 million individuals have signed petitions, taken to stores and restaurants and posted photos of ridiculous packaging on social media to call out corporations like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestlé, Unilever, Procter and Gamble, McDonald’s and Starbucks for their massive single-use plastic footpr ints, Greenpeace said in its news release sent to the BusinessMirror.

Greenpeace, as part of the #BreakFreeFromPlastic movement, is urging individuals worldwide to contribute to an additional “Million Acts of Blue”: escalating actions that push local businesses, corporations, restaurants and retailers to reduce their reliance on single-use plastics.

Ahead of Earth Day, artists have also created massive works of beach art throughout Europe calling attention to the issue of ocean plastic pollution.

“We are reaching a tipping point on single-use plastics, and it is time for any corporation that cares about a healthy planet to go beyond recycling alone. Throwaway plastics continue to pour into our oceans, our waterways and our communities at an alarming rate,” said Graham Forbes, a Plastics Campaigner at Greenpeace USA. “ This Earth Day, it is time to confront the reality that we cannot simply recycle our way out of this mess. We must address the corporate addiction to single-use plastics and move in a better direction.”

Gre e np e ace a nd ac t iv i s t s around the world have taken action throughout the month of April to reject the single-use plastics that corporations sell consumers.

Activities included:

Participants of the workshop on waste segregation and musical instruments using recyclable materials at the ECOlta Fair organized by Greenpeace, in cooperation with HUB:Make Lab on Escolta Street, a historic street in capital city Manila. Jimmy Domingo/Greenpeace n In the US Greenpeace activists deployed two signs near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco that read “Break Free From Plastic” and “Stop Corporate Plastic Pollution,” featuring logos of seven companies with massive plastic footprints.

Greenpeace USA is also bringing its hot-air balloon with a Break Free From Plastic message to the world’s largest environmental festival in Texas. n In Russia activists installed three billboards outside a supermarket location for the country’s largest retailer, X5 Retail Group, calling on the company to act on single-use plastic bags. n In the Philippines Greenpeace partnered with a local artist collective HUB: Make Lab to stage the ECOlta Fair and Plastic-Free party on historic Escolta, Manila, which engaged individuals, who aim to live free from plastic or reduce their waste. n In South Africa, Senegal, Cameroon and Kenya Greenpeace Africa is working with volunteers to conduct beach and town cleanups and brand audits to identify the companies responsible for

plastic pollution. n In Spain, as part of a movement called #DesnudalaFruta, local groups are visiting retailers to demand solutions and educate consumers on the amount of plastic packaging with their products. n In Mexico a group of activists collected and photographed packaging from seven of the world ’s largest companies. In Veracruz plastic artist Francisco Javier Calvillo made a sand sculpture of a giant turtle with a message for corporations. “ The solution is to turn off the plastics tap and decisively end the nonessential, single-use applications of the material,” said Von Hernandez, Greenpeace Global Coordinator for Break Free From Plastic.

“Increasing public revulsion over single-use plastics should be seen by policy-makers and regulators as a sign that citizens want better protection from their leaders against the continuing onslaughts of an industry committed to pursuing bigger profit margins at the expense of a planet already drowning in plastic,” he added.

Earth Day has become an opportunity for many corporations to greenwash around recycling efforts and continue churning out throwaway plastic.

This Earth Day, Greenpeace said it is looking to shift the n a r r at ive a rou nd si ng le - u se plastics from one of individual responsibility toward corporations reducing their production of throwaway plastic packaging.

A study revealed that 91 percent of the world’s plastics have not been recycled. It is the equivalent of one truckload of plastic enters our oceans every minute, Greenpeace said.

It added that plastic pollution can choke or entangle marine life, including seabirds, turtles and whales. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that ocean plastics are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of sea creatures each year.

The international #BreakFreeFromPlastic movement is comprised of more than 1,100 groups, including Greenpeace, pushing for corporations to reduce and eventually phase out single-use plastic production.

Turning rice straws into packaging materials avoids environmental hazards

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ice leaves a voluminous amount of straws when harvested. Burning seems to be the easiest way to get rid of them, but this causes air pollution and risks to human health.

There’s good news. Rice straws, considered by farmers as waste, have the potential to become packaging materials for packing rice and other food commodities.

A research project will study the straws alone and in combination with other biodegradable raw materials to develop an eco-friendly process of converting them into packaging materials.

The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOSTPC A A R R D) h a s recent ly ap proved the implementation of the project “Development of Green Packaging Technology Using Ecofriendly Materials for Rice and other Commodities.” Iloilo Science and Technology University (ISaTU), in La Paz, Iloilo City, will implement the project.

In an inception meeting at ISaTU, project leader Dr. Yvette G. Gonzales explained that raw materials available and abundant in the locality would be identified and character ized.

Potential raw materials will be

converted into packaging papers. The project intends to develop packaging materials for specialty rice and food commodities following an environmentfriendly process protocol.

The process protocol is expected to be cost-effective and will result in longer preservation of rice products, reduced use of hazardous chemicals to avoid food contamination and reduced carbon emissions.

A series of tests and evaluation will be conducted until the packaging materials become strong, durable, moisture-resistant and affordable.

ISaTU plans to partner with Zarraga Integrated Diversified Organic Far mers A ssociation for some of the activ ities of the project.

Those who will benefit from the outputs of this project include farmers growing organic/specialty rice and consumers.

ISaTU researchers and inventors intend to file for patent on the process and product as soon as they are fully developed.

With this project, PCAARRD is looking forward to further provide solutions to waste-management problems in rice farms, through innovative products and processes that are eco-friendly, as well.

S&T Media Services

Australia’s least likely tourist spot: A test site for atom bombs

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ARALINGA, Australia—Maralinga, a barren stretch of land in South Australia’s remote western desert, is the country’s only former nuclear test site open to tourists. And Robin Matthews is Australia’s only nuclear tour guide.

Visitors to Maralinga, a deser ted military installation the size of Manhattan, who expect to find their tour guide dressed in a yellow jumpsuit and ventilator mask, are bound to be disappointed.

Instead, Matthews, 65, can be found wearing a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes and a cigarette hanging from chapped lips. His skin, deeply tanned, is covered with a narrative of faded tattoos inked long before they were fashionable.

“Yes, there is still radiation here,” Matthews said as he drove a minibus to the sites where the Australian and British governments dropped seven bombs between 1956 and 1963, which dotted the earth with huge craters and poisoned scores of indigenous people and their descendants.

Back then, the government placed hundreds of human guinea pigs—wearing only shorts and long socks—in the front areas of the test zones. The effects of large doses of radiation were devastating.

Nowadays, after a multimillion-dollar cleanup, radiation poses little danger to visitors, Matthews said, unless they choose to “eat mouthfuls of dust.”

Maralinga, which means “thunder” in the extinct Aboriginal language Garik, is an unlikely tourist destination.

It is hot and arid, and at 700 miles west of Adelaide it is difficult to reach.

When tours started in 2016, the village was accessible by only two flights a week from Ceduna, the closest “large” city, which itself has a population of fewer than 3,000 people.

But the Maralinga Tjarutja people hope to increase the number of visitors to the site this year. The Maralinga Tjarutja Administration, which operates the site, is increasing the number of regular flights to the village, increasing the length of the tour to three days and working with the South Australian government on a business plan to lure more visitors, said Sharon Yendall, the group’s general manager.

Don Richards, who served at Maralinga as a clerk in the Australian air force from 1963 to 1965, was one of the 1,000 tourists who have visited the site.

“I learned more in that tour than I really learned in the two years I was out

there,” he said. “It was a pretty interesting place to be—a fairly motley crew lived at Maralinga once.”

Today, just four people live full time in Maralinga village, a veritable ghost town.

Amid the old buildings are new lodgings built for tourists, complete with hot water and Wi-fi.

In the 1950s and 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, 35,000 military personnel lived here. There was a permanent airstrip, then the longest in the Southern Hemisphere, plus roads, a swimming pool, accommodation and railway access.

The first nuclear test was conducted in September 1956, two months before the Melbourne Olympics. That blast—as powerful as the bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan—was the first of seven atomic bombs set off here.

But it was the so-called minor tests that were the most harrowing. Carried out in secret, the tests examined how toxic substances, including uranium and plutonium 239, would react when burned or blown up.

To ensure tourists’ safety in the area, a zone was cleaned up by radiation scientists at the cost of more than AU$100 million, about $77 million.

Around one area tourists can visit are 22 major pits, each at least 50 feet deep and cased in reinforced concrete to prevent dangerous radiation from seeping out.

The site looks like a recently tilled garden bed, stretching out for hundreds of yards, in a near perfect circle. Dotting the red desert earth are shards of twisted metal.

Besides a few feral camels loping nearby, it is still and silent.

But on October 4, 1956, a “nuclear land mine” was detonated here, tearing a crater 140 feet wide and 70 feet deep into the earth.

The resulting atomic reaction took only a fraction of a second, but its effects on one indigenous family would last decades.

In early-1957 Edie Millpuddie and her family were traversing the Great Victoria Desert plains.

“The Millpuddies needed shelter for the night, and they came across this enormous hole where the ground was still warm,” Mathews said. “They drank rainwater from the bottom and lit a fire. All the rabbits in the area seemed disoriented; they were easy pickings for dinner before the family went to sleep in the crater.”

New York Times News Service

Biodiversity Monday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Monday, April 23, 2018 A13

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

Championing biodiversity in Southeast Asia

‘B

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

iodiversity is an environmental concern that knows no boundaries.” Thus said Theresa Mundita S. Lim, the former director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), at her inaugural speech as the new executive director of the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB).

T he mild-mannered officia l blazed the trail in biodiversit y c o n s e r v at io n i n t he DE N R BMB, which is pr imar i ly re sponsible for the management of the Philippines’s env ironment and natura l resources.

Having served the DENR for almost three decades, she is now on her much-challenging role, taking her advocacy to greater heights at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as the new head of ACB, which is being hosted by the Philippines and based in Los Baños, Laguna.

ACB turnover

At the ACB turnover and oathtaking ceremonies at ACB headquarters in Los Baños on April 17, Atty. Roberto V. Oliva, the outgoing ACB executive director, in his final speech said: “The threats to biodiversity continue. We cannot rest. We have made significant steps in combatting biodiversity loss. Let us keep moving forward and seize the moment.”

“It is hard for me to do justice to all that he has achieved during his term,” remarked Giovanni Serritella, attaché manager for Environment and Climate Change of the Delegation of the European Union to the Philippines, during the ceremony.

“Mr. Oliva leaves a huge legacy behind, a legacy of an Asean Centre for Biodiversity that transformed over the years. From a project into an agency and, under his leadership, into a sustainable institution,” Serritella continued.

Representing Dato Sri Azizan bin Ahmad, Dr. Megat Sany, Malaysia’s secretary-general of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Asean Senior Officials on the Environment chairman and chairman of the ACB Governing Board, expressed his gratitude to Oliva and welcomed the new executive director.

“Simply, the fate of Asean biodiversity rests in your hands. We look up to your directions of putting the Centre at venues on which it will rise up against challenges and put to work solutions for the myriad of environmental problems that beset us. On behalf of the 10 Asean member-states, we commit our support to your leadership as the new ACB executive director,” Megat said.

Dr. Vong Sok, assistant director for the Environment Division of Asean Socio-Cultural Community, Asean Secretariat, also extended his congratulations to Lim. “We firmly believe in your capability, given your previous experience and familiarity with the issue of nature conservation and biodiversity in Asean and global fora. We are confident that you can carry the torch with your passion and commitment.”

To for m a l ly t u r nover t he ACB’s leadership, Oliva handed a symbolic key to Lim. It was fol lowed by t he oat h-t a k i ng ceremony officiated by Megat.

lakes and seas,” he said.

‘Mass extinction’

Incoming Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim (left) receives the symbolic key from the center’s outgoing leader Atty. Roberto V. Oliva during the recent turnover leadership ceremonies at the ACB headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna. ACB photo

The ceremonies were attended

by Philippine and Asean officials and ACB’s local and foreign partners.

Building on ACB’s gains

In her inaugural speech, Lim paid tribute to the former ACB directors, particularly the late Rodrigo Fuentes, the first ACB head, “for planting the seeds that paved the way for the growth of ACB.” “[Former] ACB Directors Rodrigo Fuentes and Oliva have set the standards. As such, I will build on the gains of our two leaders, introduce innovations and endeavor to steer ACB to greater heights,” she said.

“Biodiversity is an environmental concern that knows no boundaries. What happens to the biodiversity in the Philippines, or in Malaysia, or in Thailand, or in any Asean member-state, would affect the entire Asean region and the world, as Asean is home to 18 percent of the world’s known species,” she added. “Our national conservation strategies are not enough to arrest the serious threat of biodiversity loss in Southeast Asia.”

The ACB will be the Asean’s tool in leveraging human, financial, intellectual and material resources to forge a concerted regional effort on biodiversity conservation, she said.

‘10-Point Thrusts’

I n he r s p e e c h , L i m b a re d he r “ 10 - Po i nt T h r u s t s ” a s A C B e x e c ut i v e d i re c t or.

She said there is a need to revisit ACB’s long- and short-term plans to ensure that they are meeting the needs of Asean member-states, and to ensure that the benefits from biodiversity will be better felt in the region and by its people.

ACB will also work with the development sector and link with like-minded development organizations and individuals in the region to leverage resources and avoid duplication of efforts.

The ACB, she said, will help the Asean member-states in consolidating their efforts to achieve the Asean Community Vision 2025 and the Asean Integration.

“As part of the Asean Vision and Integration processes, ACB will strive to make biodiversity considerations relevant in Asean discussions and policyand decision-making on trade, commerce, health, food and agriculture, tourism, transport, energy, climate change, poverty reduction, infrastructure, and even on peace and security.

“If we are able to do this, we can contribute significantly to achieving the Asean Vision and Integration, thus further unifying and strengthening the efforts of Asean member-states in conserving the region’s biodiversity for the benefit of Asean,” she noted.

She said the ACB would endeavor to create more meaningful private-sector partnerships by

The oath-taking of Lim as new ACB executive director was officiated

by Dr. Megat Sany (right).

engaging the business community and demonstrating that biodiversity is good for business.

She added the center would also reach out to the youth and education sectors.

“We will study the feasibility of creating centers of excellence in biodiversity education, including a scholarship program for youth champions in Asean,” she said.

Under her watch, Lim said the ACB would take the lead in a strong advocacy to push and facilitate the interface of science and policy.

“While science provides answers to questions about the world and how it works, scientific knowledge and their practical applications are, unfortunately, difficult to explain. We need to provide a venue for scientists and policymakers to understand each other and, eventually, work together,” she said. According to her, ACB will closely work with the host country, the Philippines, to further strengthen its capacity to conserve the country’s biodiversity.

She said she will promote transparency in governance to ensure that all resources poured in by the Asean member-states and ACB partners are well accounted for.

Passing the torch

On April 16 Lim stepped down as director of the BMB, a position she held for more than 14 years, and passed on torch to the BMB’s Assistant Director Crisanta Marlene Rodriguez.

Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, in his speech during the simple turnover ceremony at the DENR-BMB office, praised his outgoing official, noting her significant accomplishments and congratulating her “for ably leading the conservation battle for many years.

“You surmounted great challenges, including difficult bosses and colleagues, too, especially from FMB [Forest Management Bureau] and MGB [Mines and Geosciences Bureau]. The Asean Center for Biodiversity is very

lucky to have your services next,” Cimatu said.

As for the new DENR-BMB chief, who started her career in the DENR as a forester only in 2005, Cimatu vowed to give his full support.

“I assure you of my full support.

I am sure that the BMB will again be in capable hands, given your boundless energy and innovative mind. You have arrived just at the right time,” he said.

Accomplishments

Cimatu noted Lim holds the record of ser ving the longest time as chief of agency, having “sur v ived ” nine env ironment secretaries before him.

“She is certainly not among the threatened or endangered species,” Cimatu said jokingly.

He noted Lim was instrumental in increasing the budgetary allocation for biodiversity conservation from the national government to as much as 70 percent in the last six years.

“She spearheaded the development of policy frameworks on key conservation measures, such as biodiversity-friendly business enterprises, the National Ecotourism Strategy, the Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan and the expanded Nipas [National Integrated Protected Areas System] bill,” Cimatu said.

Moreover, Cimatu added the official established close linkages with academe, such as the University of the Philippines Institute of Biology, the UP-Marine Science Institute and the Siliman University, to address biodiversityresearch needs.

“She ma inta ined e xcel lent working relationships with other government agencies, NGOs [nongover n ment a l orga n i z ations], the private sector, the press and communities in the implementation of agency programs and projects,” he said. Lim is the current chairman of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice of

The threats to biodiversity continue. We cannot rest.

We have made significant steps in combatting biodiversity loss. Let us keep moving forward and seize the moment.”—Oliva

the international Convention on Biological Diversity.

She negotiated and provided inputs to several treaties—such as the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Treaty for Marine Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction.

Lim may have bid farewell to the BMB and the DENR with her early retirement, but not with a heavy heart because her passion and advocacy for biodiversity continues as ACB executive director, taking over from its retired chief Roberto V. Oliva starting on April 17.

Welcome development

Environmental advocates welcomed Lim’s designation to ACB. Joel Palma, president and CEO of the World Wide Fund for Nature-Philippines said she has been a steadfast ally for biodiversity conservation at the DENR. “Her new role at the regional level would provide greater influence to put forward the conservation agenda of the Asean scale,” Palma said in a statement sent to the BusinessMirror via e-mail on April 17.

Vince Cinches, ocean campaigner of Greenpeace Southeast AsiaPhilippines, commended Lim for her role as BMB director. He said Greenpeace expects her to take on her new role at the ACB. “We would like to commend [Director Lim] for her role as BMB director. They [Lim and BMB officials and staff] were able to pursue its mandate in saving the country’s remaining biodiversity. We are also expecting the same from her side as she assumes a new role at ACB,” Cinches added.

He noted Lim’s stint at the BMB was a good training ground for her as she goes into a more regional role and scope.

“The region’s biodiversity is already suffering from illegal trade, deforestation, pollution and overfishing, among others. We are expecting her to take the lead in partnering with key offices and actors in making sure that our biodiversity is sustained,” he said.

AA Yaptinchay of the Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines (MWWP) said: “Dr. Lim’s work has always been dedicated to biodiversity conservation. Her departure from BMB [and transfer] to ACB is a welcome change, without so much ‘change,’ as the issues remain the same, although her scope now will be at the regional level.”

He said MWWP fully supports Lim’s move and looks forward to supporting and working with her in the future.

For his part, Gregg Yan, a noted environmentalist and the founder of Best Alternatives, said: “Who is better to champion the conservation and sustainable management of the Asean’s flora and fauna than Dr. Lim?” “Her passion and drive, coupled with her strong local and global ties, can turn the tide in the war to save our region’s forests, rivers,

Yan noted Lim’s designation is timely, noting that a global study released in 2016 revealed how the population of vertebrates like mammals, birds, reptiles and fish plummeted by 58 percent between 1970 and 2012.

“This is exactly like a mass-extinction event. Consider that some of the most critically endangered animals are found in the Asean.

The Philippines alone hosts the world’s most endangered buffalo, crocodile, eagle, the tamaraw, Philippine crocodile and haring ibon [Philippine eagle],” Yan said.

According to Yan, with Lim at the helm of ACB, he hopes that the people who live with and depend most on wildlife—rangers, indigenous communities, kampong (indigenous people’s villages in Southeast Asia), barangays and local government units—will get the boost they need to form a strong frontline against extinction.

DENR’s vet

Lim, 54, a veterinarian, is one of a very few women who excelled in her career in the DENR, a world dominated by men.

She completed her degree in Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1988 and worked as veterinarian at the Veterinary Services and Consultancy Center.

Her private practice was shortlived when she joined the DENR in December 1989, and became part of the Pawikan Conservation Program from 1989 to 1990.

Along with other DENR employees, Lim was stationed on the Turtle Islands in Tawi-Tawi province, doing research, fieldwork and developing policies for the conservation of endangered marine turtles.

For three years, from 1990 to 1993, she was the veterinarian of the Wildlife Rescue Center of the DENR-BMB, which was then known as the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB).

Lim was subsequently designated as its officer in charge until 1999. In August 1999 she was named assistant director of the DENR-PAWB until she was appointed as its director in 2003.

ACB is response to biodiversity loss

In response to the challenge of biodiversity loss, the Asean established ACB in 2005.

It is an intergovernmental organization that facilitates cooperation and coordination among the 10 Asean member-states and with regional and international organizations on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of such natural treasures.

ACB traces its beginnings in 1998 when the Asean established the Asean Regional Centre for Biodiversity (ARCBC) Project with funding support from the European Union (EU), according to the ACB’s web site.

The project was implemented with two key objectives: intensify biodiversity conservation and promote institutional networking among Asean countries, and between the group and the EU partner organizations.

The ARCBC Project was viewed as a productive flagship project. It led the environmental ministers of the Asean to see the need to create an institution that would sustain the gains of the ARCBC Project.

Thus, the ACB was created.

T he AC B i mple me nt s t he Asean Heritage Park Programme, which aims to recognize and help strengthen the protection and conservation of protected areas in Southeast Asia.

A14 Monday, April 23, 2018 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Let the foreigners protest in PHL?

T

he detention of Australian nun Sister Patricia Fox was a massive blunder on the part of the government and served little purpose but to rally anti-Duterte forces. At least, that is how it appears on the surface.

The justification for this was “Operations Order SBM-2015-025” issued by the Bureau of Immigration on July 3, 2015, signed by then Commissioner Siegfred B. Mison and approved by then-Secretary of Justice Leila M. de Lima.

The order reads in part “Section 1. Foreign tourists in the Philippines are enjoined to observe the limitation on the exercise of their political rights during their stay in the Philippines. Foreign tourists are prohibited from engaging in any political activity as defined by law and jurisprudence, such as, but not limited to, joining, supporting, contributing or involving themselves in whatever manner in any rally, assembly or gathering, whether for or against the government.”

The intent to limit the involvement of foreigners in the legal political rights afforded to Philippine citizens is clear: “Whereas, foreign tourists in the Philippines are not entitled to all the rights and privileges granted to the citizens of the Philippines, specifically the exercise of political right which are inherently exclusive to Filipino citizens.”

In response to actions that Sister Fox had taken in the past, Unyon ng mga Manggagawa ng Agrikultura Secretary-General John Milton Lozande Sr. confirmed Fox’s claim, saying the nun was in Davao as a member of an international fact-finding mission. Lozande is quoted as saying, “Sister Pat has also publicly stated that she spoke in front of the striking workers to give them moral and spiritual support.”

Does that “mortal and spiritual support” qualify as “political activity” and “joining, supporting, contributing or involving themselves in whatever manner in any rally, assembly or gathering, whether for or against the government”? That is up to the courts to decide.

However, there are those that are saying the Philippine government has an obligation under international law—specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights—to allow foreigners to express their opinions even through public protest.

To assume this covenant—agreed to by the Philippine government—in terms of political rights and freedoms would apply to noncitizens of a nation is far beyond logic. Further, if noncitizens have the same political rights as citizens, then national sovereignty becomes a joke. And if foreigners are to enjoy the same political rights as citizens, then why shouldn’t they also enjoy the same economic rights?

If the concept behind prohibiting foreigners from engaging in Philippine political activity including “protests” as supposedly in the case of Sister Fox, then her supporters would certainly have no problem with Chinese national tourists rallying in support of the government advocating joint exploration of the West Philippine Sea. Americans would have been welcome to march beside the late President Corazon Aquino on her way to the Senate in support of keeping the US military bases. Perhaps, soon we will see Japanese ultra-nationalists protesting the Philippine comfort woman statue on Roxas Boulevard. After all, according to some, it would be their constitutional and human right.

The legal rights and obligations of citizens and noncitizens must be clearly defined and separated. Perhaps, though, there might be a way to satisfy all sides on this issue and also make a little money.

SBM-2015-025 specifically says “foreign tourists.” Maybe there could be a “Protestors Visa.” For a fee of, say, $5,000, any foreigner can come to the Philippines and protest for or against the government and its policies or anything else Filipino for 30 days.

Help the HAPLOS Community Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

H

APLOS is the community formed in 1993 by families of persons with hemophilia and some medical practitioners.

It exists because there is a need for a community that can extend support to persons with hemophilia and their families. The organization was registered in 1994 as a nonprofit corporation.

And this year, HAPLOS is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

The group is also the National Member Organization (NMO) for the Philippines to the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH). Presidential Proclamation 1478 (Series 2008) declared April 17 as World Hemophilia Day, and the month of April as the National Hemophilia Awareness Month.

For its 25th year celebration, HAPLOS is carrying the theme: Sharing knowledge makes us stronger. As

an anniversary initiative, it is also launching its intensified Hemophilia Awareness and Advocacy Program, and is including in its campaign not only hemophilia but also other inherited bleeding disorders.

Over the last years, HAPLOS conducted hemophilia education and care programs with the help of its medical counterpart. For the next years, HAPLOS is planning to continue its work to help persons with

Justice for PAL’s flight attendants!

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hemophilia live a life that is close to normal. This is possible as long as the person gets medical treatment for bleeds, gets access to adequate education and awareness about treatment and care for hemophiliacs, and continues to belong in a supportive environment. It is HAPLOS’ vision to see persons with hemophilia have better quality of life and to empower them to care for one another and even serve others.

Hemophilia, as you may already know, is a rare, congenital bleeding disorder that affected individuals will have to manage for life. The condition is due to a defective or deficient clotting factor that prevents an affected individual from forming a strong and stable blood clot. It affects mostly the male population.

In the Philippines less than 1,500 Filipinos have been identified with hemophilia. Sometimes, there might be serious or life-threatening bleeds, like bleeding within the head, usually resulting from injury; or bleeding into the throat, which

Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan

legally speaking

O

N June 15, 1998, Philippine Airlines (PAL) retrenched 5,000 of its employees, including more than 1,400 of its cabin crew personnel, to take effect on July 15, 1998. PAL adopted the retrenchment scheme allegedly to cut costs and mitigate huge financial losses as a result of a downturn in the airline industry brought about by the Asian financial crisis. During said period, PAL claims to have incurred P90 billion in liabilities, while its assets stood at P85 billion.

In implementing the retrenchment scheme, PAL adopted its socalled Plan 14 whereby PALs fleet of aircraft would be reduced from 54 to 14, thus requiring the services of only 654 cabin crew personnel. PAL admits that the retrenchment is wholly premised upon such reduction in fleet, and to the strike staged by PAL pilots since this action also translated into a reduction of flights. PAL claims that the scheme resulted in savings xxx amounting to approximately P24 million per month savings that would greatly alleviate PALs financial crisis.

Prior to the full implementation of the assailed retrenchment program the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (Fasap) and PAL conducted a series of consultations and meetings and explored all possibilities of cushioning the impact of the impending reduction in cabin crew

personnel. However, the parties failed to agree on how the scheme would be implemented. Thus, PAL unilaterally resolved to utilize the criteria set forth in Section 112 of the PAL-Fasap Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in retrenching cabin crew personnel: that is, that retrenchment shall be based on the individual employees efficiency rating and seniority.

PAL determined the cabin crew personnel efficiency ratings through an evaluation of the individual cabin crew members overall performance for the year 1997 alone. Their respective performance during previous years, i.e., the whole duration of service with PAL of each cabin crew personnel, was not considered. The factors taken into account on whether the cabin crew member would be retrenched, demoted or retained were: 1) the existence of excess sick leaves; 2) the crew members being

physically overweight; 3) seniority; and 4) previous suspensions or warnings imposed.

While consultations between Fasap and PAL were ongoing, the latter began implementing its retrenchment program by initially terminating the services of 140 probationary cabin attendants only to rehire them in April 1998. Moreover, their employment was made permanent and regular.

On July 15, 1998, however, PAL carried out the retrenchment of its more than 1,400 cabin crew personnel.

On June 22, 1998 Fasap filed a Complaint against PAL for unfair labor practice, illegal retrenchment with claims for reinstatement and payment of salaries, allowances and backwages of affected Fasap members, actual, moral and exemplary damages with a prayer to enjoin the retrenchment program then being implemented. Other complaints were filed by individual Fasap members.

No less than the Supreme Court (SC) affirmed the illegality of the retrenchment not only once but three times in a row in its July 22, 2008 decision, October 2, 2009 resolution, and September 7, 2011 resolution.

The Third Division of the SC in its July 22, 2008 Decision resolved to GRANT the petition for review on certiorari filed by Fasap finding PAL Guilty of Illegal Dismissal, ordering PAL to reinstate the cabin crew personnel without loss of seniority rights and other privileges, and to pay them full back wages, inclusive of allowances and other monetary benefits computed from the time of

may result from infection, injury, dental injections, or surgery; and major loss of blood.

HAPLOS’ 25th year celebration and its campaign for awareness include an appeal for compassion.

Persons with hemophilia and their families need adequate government support and, likewise, support from the community. An affected individual and his/her family suffer from the beginning of life, and will have to contend with the condition until the end of life. Therefore, there is great need for an accessible and effective treatment not only for those with hemophilia, but also for individuals who have other forms of bleeding disorders.

HAPLOS exists for hemophilia.

For questions, call Hemophilia Philippines (HAPLOS Community) Foundation Inc. at 632-2398518, 09178-HAPLOS, 0933-8671419 or e-mail them at haplosfoundation@ yahoo.com You can also visit the web site at www.hemophiliaphilippines.org To be continued.

their separation up to the time of their actual reinstatement. Where reinstatement is no longer feasible because the positions previously held no longer exist, PAL shall pay back wages plus, in lieu of reinstatement, separation pay equal to one month pay for every year of service and ordering PAL to pay attorney’s fees equivalent to 10 percent of the total monetary award.

The SC ruled that it was grave error to have simply assumed that PAL was in serious financial distress without requiring the presentation of competent proofs. Further, PAL was found to have implemented the retrenchment program in an arbitrary manner and in evident bad faith when “Plan 14” was abandoned. No satisfactory explanation was given as to the change of plan despite the fact that thousands of employees who had long been working for PAL had lost their jobs only for some to be recalled but assigned to lower positions or worse considered as new hires. The SC further disclosed that PAL did not use fair and reasonable criteria in ascertaining who would be retrenched. PAL only assessed the 1997 overall performance, virtually doing away with the concepts of seniority, past efficiency and loyalty.

The quitclaims were, likewise, nullified as the consent of the retrenched employees was vitiated by fraud or mistake. Volition was clouded by the retrenchment program. No Unfair Labor Practice was found to have been committed.

PAL filed a motion for reconsideration, which was denied by the See “Kapunan,” A15

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Barbara Bush: Fake pearls, real heart

W

10 what ifs

By Maureen Dowd | New York Times News Service

ASHINGTON—Barbara Bush was an expert at throwing shade, even before the term existed.

When Congressman Dan Rostenkowski gave the first lady a shampoo for white hair made in his Illinois district, she tried it on her dog Millie.

“When I shampooed her with it, she became a brown and slightly yellow-haired dog,” she wrote in her memoir. “At this writing, Danny is under fire, accused of financial wrongdoing. We certainly wish him well.”

She took her revenge, chilled, on Nancy Reagan, who never invited the Bushes to the White House residence for dinner in the eight years H.W. was vice president and who instructed Barbara Bush to stay away from wearing “Nancy red” while she was the second lady. Writing about Nancy and Raisa Gorbachev competing at a wives’ lunch, Bush said she wasn’t sure of Raisa’s age: “I don’t know how old, but I think the paper said 53 or 55. That’s funny, for we really don’t know if Nancy Reagan is 65 or 67, and she won’t tell.”

She could be caustic, practicing radical candor. She told reporters at Kennebunkport once when I was there that she did not want W. to run for governor of Texas while his father was president. But when he dived into politics, she turned over one of the most valuable documents in fund-raising history: the Bush family Christmas card list.

Even before the reality TV star her husband labeled an “ass” got in the race, Barbara Bush nailed the anti-elitist mood. In 2013 she acknowledged, in essence, that W. had worn out the family’s welcome.

(The senior Bushes were privately distraught that W. let Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and the neocons hijack his presidency.)

“There are other people out there that are very qualified,” she said, “and we’ve had enough Bushes.”

But when Jeb jumped in anyhow, she dutifully went on the trail at 90 to try to buoy his lame effort — even though the “ass” tweeted that Jeb “desperately needed mommy to help him.”

She was the ungainly, insecure daughter of an austere, beautiful mother who put her down. From the time she and Poppy met, when she was 16 and he was 17, she loved him wildly. She went into a depression when he was “head spook,” as he called it, at the CIA, and she was less involved in his world.

Once at Kennebunkport, when President Bush told reporters that he didn’t want to play golf with his wife because her game “stunk,” I could see her wince. She said she was happy when he was no longer president, surrounded by a coterie of male advisers, because “I am the only one who will play at 6 a.m. with 10 minutes’ notice.”

She never lost the torch. Once when we were at Kennebunkport, my fit friend Rita Beamish, the White House reporter for the Associated Press, taught the president the proper way to do sit-ups.

When word got back to Bar, she was not amused.

Certainly, Poppy cherished his “Silver Fox.” He once wrote me a long parody of my columns about W. as a “Boy King,” in which he cast himself as “the Old King” and Bar as the

Kapunan. . .

continued from A14

Supreme Court on October 2, 2009.

Acting on respondents’ motion for reconsideration, the Supreme Court issued a Resolution on October 2, 2009, the dispositive portion of which reads: “WHEREFORE, for lack of merit, the Motion for Reconsideration [of PAL] is hereby DENIED with FINALITY. The assailed decision dated July 22, 2008, is AFFIRMED with MODIFICATION in that the award of attor-

Once at Kennebunkport, when President Bush told reporters that he didn’t want to play golf with his wife because her game “stunk,” I could see her wince. She said she was happy when he was no longer president, surrounded by a coterie of male advisers, because “I am the only one who will play at 6 a.m. with 10 minutes’ notice!”

By Alberto Agra

PPP Lead Continued from A1

2

. There is no single PPP law. Actually, this is the case.

We have PPP laws and regulations, national and local, and special guidelines issued by government agencies pertaining to different PPP modalities and arrangements. This promotes decentralization among agencies at the same level (vertical) and at lower levels (horizontal). However, several policies could lead to confusion.

3. The government has all the money. Even if it has the funds, the government may need a partner for its projects. There are other value drivers for engaging the private sector, i.e., need to spread or share risk with, capacity to innovate and ability to accelerate service delivery.

4. There is no competitive

process. This could render the whole selection process, even the PPP contract, illegal. Competition, either through bidding or challenge, is an indispensable ingredient to the integrity of the process and accountability of the parties.

5. There are no interested PSPs. Obviously, there will be

Monday, April 23, 2018 A15

no PPP for that project. This may happen if the private sector proponent (PSP) sees the project as not feasible, has other priorities, has no track record or financial resources and feels that partnering with the government is too risky, among other reasons.

6. There are no lawyers and consultants. Maybe, there will no PPPs (wink!). Legal, technical and financial expertise, from both sides, is required. The preparation of contracts, studies and terms of reference necessitate their engagement.

7. The general public is not aware of PPP. Yes, they are not.

Popular awareness must be programmed, as this could lead to broad support. Ignorance of this strategy, non-consultation with stakeholders and non-familiarity with projects and their benefits at all levels of society may lead to opposition and high incidence of protester’s risk.

8. The government changes its mind after award. This is the greatest fear of the private sectorsuccessor risk. Changes in interpre-

tations, policies and laws, and unilateral amendments and cancellation of PPP contracts may discourage private sector participation and jack up the number of suits against the act (i.e., contract) and the actors.

9. There is corruption. This evil in PPPs could lead to rescission of contracts and criminal and civil liability of responsible officers, both in the public and private sectors, and disinterest from would-be investors.

10. Unsolicited proposals are not permitted. Fortunately, this is allowed under PPP laws, ordinances, regulations and guidelines, as this procedure requires competition and transparency. The government cannot and should not claim that it has the monopoly over good ideas. Under this approach, the PSP, not the government, is the originator of the concept and prepares the study.

Understanding these 10 what ifs, hopefully, will lead all to trust and take a chance with government. Let us not be fence-sitters.

Marie sees Chester’s high energy level during walks as contagious.

I feel the same way too; I am energized whenever I see my dogs excited during our walks together. According to Cesar, energy is the primary channel of communication for dogs.

While walking, Chester’s enthusiasm gives my sister the energy to tackle the challenges of a working mother raising four children in the US. Ione Marie now works as the Manager of Parish Business Services and supports the parishes and schools in the Diocese with their financial records and internal controls. She remains to be a very devout Catholic, together with her husband Tom. Ione Marie always allots enough time to walk Chester, in the same way she allots time to walk with God by thanking Him in everything.

Like how we should walk our dogs using Cesar’s tips, God also appears to be in front in our walk with Him through priests and pastors to the extent that we see these pious persons as our pack leaders. But for Ione Marie, she walks beside Chester and not behind him. Quoting Saint Patrick— “Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,” Ione reminded me that God is present from all angles.

And, unlike how we should walk our dogs, God does not use a short dog leash to have more control over us. He gifted us with free will such that we have a choice whether or not to follow Him. Both Cesar and Ione Marie advise

dog owners to allot enough time to walk our dogs. In our walk with God, there is no such time limit. My pastors Niels and Gary always tell me to talk to God about anything and everything at home, at work, while exercising, while driving, while doing the most mundane activity every day. In the Bible, Colossians 3:17 tells us, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him”. Bestselling author Charles Stanley says, “We can be tired, weary and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that He injects into our bodies energy, power and strength.”

Over time, I have been receiving positive energy from spending time with Him in the same way I hope my dogs, Blue, Bucky and Bonggo (no, plus Bailey) appreciate the energy they get from spending time with me. The unquantifiable energy we give and receive by walking our dogs should be enough to quench our thirst in life. My dogs always seem contented whenever we walk together. In our walk with Him, we should feel the same. In the Bible, Hebrews 13:5 tells us, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

A dog will leave us only in death and is truly man’s best friend. But for God, even in death, He will never abandon us and, in truth, He is more than a best friend.

“straight-talking Queen” and “Queen Barbara, his own bride of 56 years.”

Her hair had turned prematurely white when her 3-year-old daughter Robin died of leukemia, and she stopped coloring it in 1970, when a rinse called Fabulous Fawn began dripping in the heat, turning her neck brown. During her husband’s 1980 run for the White House, her sister-in-law told her the family was asking, “What are we going to do about Bar?” “They discussed how to make me look snappier—color my hair, change my style of dressing and, I suspect, get me to lose some weight,” she wrote in her memoir. “I know it was meant to be helpful, but I wept quietly alone until George told me that was absolutely crazy.”

In a moment that still makes me cringe, comedian Sinbad turned to Barbara Bush on the dais at a White House Correspondents Dinner and said she looked like a grandmother, compared with her boyish husband.

She didn’t flinch. The Silver Fox outfoxed them all by creating an appealing, authentic persona, dubbed “Greenwich granite” by Peggy Noonan. The patrician in the fake pearls wore $29 shoes that pinched at her husband’s inauguration. She made a point, after the deafening silence of the Reagan years on AIDS, to go hug babies with AIDS. After the Bushes left the White House, I occasionally sent books to the champion of literacy. Some she loved—Girl With a Pearl Earring and The Dressmaker of Khair Khana—and some she wasn’t so sure about.

“A very belated thank you for the strangest book I have ever read, M Train,” she wrote in 2016 on a notecard engraved with W.’s paintings of her two dogs. “Interesting lady is Patti Smith!”

She added, “This is a strange year, and very little surprises me anymore!”

Bush was always “lovely” to me, to use one of her favorite words. I wrote a piece in The New York Times about my mom when she died in 2005. I got an e-mail from Bush, who did not have such a nurturing mother: “Maureen, we loved the words about your lovely mother. She was certainly not only fine, but a great beauty. You should be comforted that you look exactly like her and will when you are 100. Lucky girl to have had her.

Sincerely, Barbara Bush.”

Bush had a bourbon just before she died. So did my mom, with a morphine chaser.

Bar knew 10 ways to throw shade, but she knew 100 ways to shine light.

aking stock of the global economy as finance ministers and central-bank governors gathered in Washington for its spring meetings, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) found reason for concern. “[R]isks beyond the next several quarters clearly lean to the downside,” it reports.

Well, that’s hardly unusual—the IMF exists to be concerned. Rarely, though, has it had better grounds.

To be sure, much of the world economy has done pretty well lately, with the United States leading the way. The IMF’s World Economic Outlook projects global

growth of roughly 4 percent this year and next, and US growth of 2.9 percent and 2.7 percent—better than previously forecast. This good news is misleading, though, because it disguises mounting risks to growth and stability. And dangers freshly made in America are high on the list.

The world economy is coming to the end of a catch-up phase. After a prolonged recovery from the crisis of 2008, the current uptick in growth brings many economies closer to full capacity—when growth must decline to a slower and more sustainable long-term pace. With this

point fast approaching, monetary policy remains very loose in the US, Europe and elsewhere. That’s the first big risk: Shifting back to interest rates consistent with full employment will put stress on economies grown accustomed to cheap money. The United States has compounded this macroeconomic problem by delivering fiscal stimulus the country didn’t need. President Donald J. Trump joined with Republicans in Congress to enact a tax-reform law and a budget that, taken together, will worsen an already bad fiscal position. Ten years after the crash, US government debt still stands

at almost 110 percent of GDP. Far from expecting this ratio to decline over the coming years, the IMF projects it to rise further —to 117 percent by 2023. By then it would be about the same as Italy’s debt ratio and almost three times Germany’s.

Such heavy fiscal pressure helps growth in the short term but greatly complicates the Federal Reserve’s job, adding to the risk that interest rates will rise faster than expected. The hazards arising from the effort to normalize monetary policy would be bad enough by themselves. This fiscal piling on makes matters so much worse. Bloomberg View

ney’s fees and expenses of litigation is reduced to P2,000,000. The case is hereby REMANDED to the labor arbiter solely for the purpose of computing the exact amount of the award pursuant to the guidelines herein stated. No further pleadings will be entertained.”

On November 3, 2009, PAL asked for leave of court to file an MR of the October 2, 2009, Resolution and second MR of the July 22, 2008, Decision. The Supreme Court (Second Division) resolved to deny with finality PAL’s second MR of its July 22, 2008, Decision:

“To conclude, the rights and privileges that PAL unlawfully withheld from its employees have been in dispute for a decade and a half. Many of these employees have since then moved on, but the arbitrariness and illegality of PAL’s actions have yet to be rectified. This case has dragged on for so long, and we are now more than duty-bound to finally put an end to the illegality that took place; otherwise, the illegally retrenched employees can rightfully claim that this Court has denied them justice.”

Despite the finality of the Supreme Court Resolution, PAL’s new

counsel, Atty. Estelito Mendoza wrote dour exparte letters dated September 13, 16, 20 and 22, 2011, addressed to the Clerk of Court of the Supreme Court.

Interestingly, through the letters of Atty. Estelito Mendoza the September 7, 2011, Resolution of the Second Division was effectively recalled on March 13, 2012, by invoking the Internal Rules of the Supreme Court. The recall of the said Resolution was brought about by the alleged jurisdictional conflict in the raffling of the case. The Honorable Court highlighted the importance of

referring the case to the remaining members who actually participated in the deliberations of the September 7, 2011, Resolution, particularly Justice Lucas Bersamin and Justice Diosdado Peralta, being the ones who intimately know the facts and merits of the case. Thus, the Honorable Court proceeded to void all of its previous rulings and rendered a new one, 21 years later, which reversed each and every decision it rendered in the past.

What baffles the mind is the unbelievable adherence of the Honorable Supreme Court to its internal

rules, allowing itself to be subjugated in the shackles of mere technicalities, and choosing to condone the justice that is its foremost duty to endow to whom it is rightfully due. It elected to set to naught all proceedings conducted over the past 20 years, the resources exhausted especially by the employees who battled through for their rights, and killed their hopes of finally breathing in legal victory.

Fasap has not given up. After 20 years of suffering, it will continue to fight the good fight. And with us entering as legal counsel, Fasap will eventually win.

Walking your dog Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

THE PATRIOT

S

elf-taught dog behaviorist Cesar Millan, the popular “Dog Whisperer,” says that, while dogs can associate words with specific objects or actions, our energy often tells them what to do. Dogs understand the human emotion through the energy we convey. By the tone of our voice, regardless of the words we say, dogs will know whether we are angry, excited or happy.

In terms of hierarchal needs, according to Cesar’s Fulfillment Formula, dogs need exercise, discipline and affection, in that order. Exercise is good for the body, discipline is good for the mind and affection is good for the heart. Cesar says that exercise is needed to fulfill our dog’s physical instinct, thereby creating trust, which is the most important in any dog-master relationship. This formula strives not to make dogs trust, respect and love their masters but, rather, to make their masters trustworthy, respectable and loveable. Cesar also has some tips about walking our dogs. First, we must walk in front of them, so they can see us as the pack leader. Second, we must use a short dog leash to have more control.

Third, we must allot enough time, ideally not less than 30 minutes, to walk our dogs. After all, just as fish need to swim, dogs need to walk.

My sister Ione Marie Mison-Voor

developed and reinforced her love for dogs as she spent her teenage days in the United States. Names of her previous dogs include Audit (she is an accountant by profession) and Jollibee (her half-American children love Chickenjoy). Last New Year’s Eve, I appreciated how she took the time to accompany me to check on my dogs since they were “home alone” over the holiday break. Pressed for time since we still had to do some last-minute food shopping, Ione Marie insisted that we walk them. I can vividly remember that sunny afternoon where I can only surmise that my dogs, Blue, Bucky and Bonggo appreciated that walk together with my sister.

Ione Marie considers walking her mutt Chester as her best form of exercise and, at the same time, therapeutic, as it cleanses her mind and allows her body to connect to her soul. She says, “Walking with someone is even better.” Ione

Trump stress-tests the world economy

T

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A16 Monday, April 23, 2018

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Only 6 of 110 Boracay establishments have fire-safety permits, DILG says

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

B

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

ORACAY ISLAND, Malay, Aklan—Task Force Boracay has formed teams to make thorough inspections of each establishment on the island if they possess the necessary documents and papers that allow them to operate their business.

This developed as the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) found “only six out of the 110 establishments that they have surveyed or inspected [here on Boracay]...have Fire Safety Inspection Certificates [FSIC]—and the remaining 104 do not have any FSIC,” said Interior Assistant Secretary for Plans and Programs Epimaco V. Densing III in a news briefing here last week.

He stressed that before a business establishment is issued a Mayor’s Permit, the BFP first has to issue an FSIC. “So, how come [these establishments] got a permit to operate?” he asked. In the last two years alone, several fires have hit retail establishments and a posh resort on the island.

Foreign tourists continue to throng Boracay Island despite its impending closure on April 26 to give way for a government-led rehabilitation effort. Foreign visitors in the popular beach destination accounted for 1 million of the 6.6 million total tourist arrivals in the country in 2017. MA.Stella Arnaldo Members of the inspection team, aside from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the BFP are the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and local government units (LGUs). “We’re already forming teams.... so that we can one-by-one inspect each establishment, no exemptions, [to see] whether they have the necessary environmental clearance certificates [ECC], whether they have the complete permits issued by the local government, whether they have a fire safety inspection certificate and.... facilities, specifically the waste-water treatment.”

The DILG official made this disclosure after questions were raised about prominent property developers, such as DMCI Homes Inc. and five-star resorts like Shangri-La Resorts and Spa occupying forested areas. During the Senate hearing on Boracay issues on March 2, the DENR’s provincial unit revealed that DMCI’s Alta Vista property in Barangay Yapak, has been sitting on forestland. (See “DENR chief wants to keep Boracay open,” in the BusinessMirror, March 3, 2018.)

He also said only a portion of D’Mall, a popular retail area, would be demolished for standing on a wetland. “A portion of D’Mall is in the wetland. That portion, definitely will have to be recovered by the government.”

Densing also revealed to the BusinessMirror over the weekend, more changes in the general guidelines governing the closure of the island. He said the designated swimming area for locals starting April 26, is now “an area across Willy’s [Beach Resort],” along Station 1. The earlier designated swimming area was Angol Point but stakeholders had pointed out during last week’s workshop conference with Task Force Boracay members that there were coral reefs in the area, and would be difficult to reach in case of accidents and an ambulance is needed.

He also said there would be “no floating structures up to 3 kilometers from the shoreline,” instead of the previously announced 15 kms. He added that the only entry-exit points will be the Caticlan and Cagban jetty ports.

Earlier, Tourism Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Frederick M. Alegre said the final guidelines for the closure of Boracay, will be released today (Monday). President Duterte ordered Boracay closed for six months starting April 26 to make way for its rehabilitation.

During the news conference, Alegre announced that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) “will now be the lead agency in the civil works that will be done on the main road. Effective on April 26, the DPWH will start to work on the road widening all the way from the jetty Port and that is about 3 to 4 kilometers.”

He added that the DPWH has also offered “to take over the Tieza’s [Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority] pipe-laying projects, which is good because now there is a single agency that’s taking the lead for that, while Tieza.... has started work on the discharge water drain line to Bulabog.”

The drainage pipe to Bulabog was constructed to allow rainwater to flow out into the sea. But it was discovered that several establishments had illegally connected to it and were discharging refuse and septic waste through it, causing the high levels of E. coli contamination of Bulabog Beach.

In a belated response, meanwhile, DMCI Homes said it “built Alta Vista de Boracay faithfully complying with all procedural and environmental measures set forth by local and national government agencies that are necessary for the sustainable development and protection of Boracay Island. These include an Environmental Compliance Certificate 0607-0802-224-602 issued by the DENR-Environmental Management Bureau on August 2, 2007.”

The property developer added that the project “was also issued a preliminary local and locational clearance by the Municipality of Malay, Aklan and development permit by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board.”

DMCI Homes said it has replied to the show cause order issued by the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources “by submitting pertinent copies of its permits. Also, a copy of the transfer certificate of title duly registered to it was furnished to the said office.”

During the Senate hearing here in March, it was also revealed that over 170 establishments were issued permits to operate by the municipal office despite lacking valid ECCs, while D’Mall, Seven Seas Resort on Puka Beach and Kingfisher Hotel are built on wetlands. The government intends to recover at least three of the five missing wetlands here by August.