Businessmirror august 17, 2016

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Wednesday, August 17, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 312

‘Poverty in countryside won’t deter federalism’

By David Cagahastian

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finding your bliss at the heart of edsa E1 | Wednesday, August 17, 2016 • Editor: Tet Andolong

oakridge beginS Major exPanSion

a coMbined unit at Victoria Sports tower Station 2

indoor basketball court at Victoria Sports

Finding your bliSS

Victoria Sports tower Station 2

at the heart oF edSa T

event venue, and Oakridge Horizons, a 400-seater grand ballroom for formal functions.

In recent years, Oakridge Business Park has evolved into one of the Queen City’s favorite foodie destinations with a carefully curated lineup of dining establishments, such as the first branch of Ramen Yushoken in Cebu; the popular homegrown cake shop of 10 Dove Street and 10 Dove Confectionery; Cebu’s famous Big Tom’s Charbroiled Burger; the all-time favorite Pancake House; L’Artisan, which offers French and Mediterranean cuisine; and the coffee connoisseur’s favorite Starbucks.

Its retail strip also carries upscale lifestyle brands, such as Rustan’s Supermarket, Piandré Salon’s first branch in Cebu, Dreamtown Fun and Learning Center, Calayan Medical Group Cebu, Epic Performance and Fitness, Regenestem Cebu and Baobao Babies.

It is no wonder that Oakridge Business Park has become the destination of choice for discerning Cebuanos. Its self-contained master plan is a rare oasis of intimacy and privacy. The Park’s sprawling, open-air ambiance and thoughtfully planned spaces offer a perfectly balanced resort-like setting that is ideal for quality time with family and friends.

Oakridge Business Park is at 880 A.S. Fortuna Street, Mandaue City, Cebu.

ITaLPInas aIms bIggEr roLE

In PromoTIng sUsTaInabLE dEsIgn

ELL any Metro Manila resident that Edsa is his or her road to a relaxed and progressive metropolitan lifestyle, and get ready to see utter disbelief in his or her eyes.

The infamy of Edsa is really one for the books. The roughly 23.8-kilometer stretch of congested highway and the daily traffic madness it carries is a fact known by every Filipino, even in shores as far as the United States. In fact, this unforgiving state of Metro Manila traffic even earned a place in President Duterte’s very first State of the Nation Address.

While Edsa was initially intended to be a groundbreaking road structure that would elevate and further industrialize Metro Manila, these days Edsa is not viewed in a bright light. While it is popularly associated with the historic People Power Revolution of the 1980s, unfortunately, the vivid images of bumper-to-bumper traffic have become more prevalent these days.

Passing through six capital regions and having 600,000 to 1 million vehicles on it daily, it’s not a stretch to say that the majority of Filipinos are unwillingly patrons of the highway. But, despite all this, it isn’t impossible to once again find the beauty and joy that Edsa can give. With a little ingenuity and an open mind, Edsa can go from being a source of woe to a place of wonder.

Location is everything

calm abode is essential for any commuter looking for respite, whether for a few minutes to breathe or an entire night of peace. Finding your own haven on Edsa means that you’re no longer at the mercy of traffic or crowded cafés; it means that you can sit back and relax the way you want to.

Though at first glance an Edsa address might not seem like the most relaxing idea, picture the ease that comes with being neighbors to some of the country’s largest companies and most sought-after recreational places. Better yet, an Edsa address proves the most successful, as you’re right in the midst of industry leaders and within a few blocks from Metro Manila’s major commuting routes.

Find your Edsa haven, and you’ve hit gold.

Pass time with exercise

NoBoDy can blame a commuter for putting exercise on the backburner after a long day of work and hours spent waiting for time to pass. But instead of killing time just sitting around, why not while away those hours to get fit?

Nowadays, new developments along Edsa have put an importance on health centers that cater to the many hour-sensitive needs

italPinaS chairman and chief executive romolo Valentino nati a SaMPle three-bedroom unit at Victoria Sports tower

of Edsa frequenters. If you’ve got a gym membership going to waste near your office or near your house that you don’t have time to utilize, consider joining a fitness center on Edsa instead. That way you’re not killing time, you’re maximizing it.

Unwind and find your passion

EvEN the most optimistic person can get bogged out after a battle in the streets.

Luckily, it’s not hard to find a variety of leisure centers and exciting dining concepts that are repositioning Edsa as the hottest place to see and experience the newest in food and fitness.

Ever wished to try out ballroom dancing? Craving for a mouthwatering dish to satisfy your appetite and even impress the most discerning of foodies? you’ll find worldclass facilities in Edsa where all of your passions can be satiated. By doing so, you’ve effectively transformed Edsa into your place of selfdiscovery and expression where your passions can thrive.

Turn Edsa into your progressive mecca

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By Rizal Raoul Reyes @@brownindio

ISTED developer Italpinas’s advocacy of green and sustainable architecture got a boost when it was cited the Leadership in Sustainability Design Award by the Philippine Green Building Council (PGBC) for its pioneering Primavera Residences project in Uptown Cagayan de Oro. To sweeten its accomplishment, the company will represent the country at the coming World Green Building Council Asia-Pacific Regional Network Leadership Awards for the same category. By its award, the company said it will play a more active role in promoting awareness of the importance of sustainable architecture.

The Cagayan de Oro-based developer’s flagship development was recognized for its two eco-friendly strategies: the use of passive green energy, involving an inner courtyard, a cross-ventilation layout and shaded façades; and the use of renewable energy by harnessing solar energy from rooftop photovoltaic panels, to provide electricity to common areas and to afford its residents savings of 20 percent to 32 percent in air-conditioning costs.

The project also embodies principles of biomimicry, an architectural philosophy that is inspired by nature.

Planned by multiawarded green architect Romolo Valentino Nati of Italy, the Primavera Residences emphasis on design and sustainability will be replicated in all developments of Italpinas. The company’s follow-up offering is Primavera City, also in uptown Cagayan de Oro. Nati, who is also the chairman and chief executive of Italpinas, explained they are motivated by the positive response of the market of its design-driven approach and focus on sustainability. He added the PGBC award also serves as an inspiration to Italpinas to further push green architecture in the country. Italpinas reported a hefty 142.9-percent increase in net income in 2015, from sales of Primavera Residences units. The company recorded net sales of P216 million for the two-tower condo, a robust 62-percent increase year-on-year, as of the end of fiscal year 2015. Eighty-two percent of the 328 units in both towers have already been sold, with only six remaining in the first.

Moreover, Italpinas also reported a return of equity of 22 percent, also as of the end of fiscal year 2015.

Following its initial success in Mindanao, Italpinas revealed that it will expand outside of Metro Manila and pursue development projects in Cagayan de Oro, Batangas, Mindoro and Negros, as well.

property

AS another transformative move by nation-building developer New San Jose Builders Inc. (NSJBI), The victoria Sports Tower Station 2—known for its strategic location and flexiblesized units—is soon to be joined by another iconic NSJB property: the much-anticipated victoria Sports.

Together, these two properties can help any highway patron rediscover the joy of Edsa.

Touted as the world’s largest covered sports club in a residential condominium, victoria Sports offers a plethora of traditional exercises, trendy new fitness classes, multiple courts, olympic-sized pools, bowling alleys, spas and restaurants of various cuisines.

By being part of the victoria Sports Tower community—and eventually shifting your active lifestyle to full gear courtesy of the soon-to-rise victoria Sports—Edsa’s image can be reimagined efficiently. Who knows, Edsa can soon be your highway to a place of progress, relaxation and excitement?

The amount of IRA received by LGUs in 2015, which makes the locally sourced revenues amount to only 23 percent of the total revenues of local governments in the said year, according to the BLGF

According to the tax experts interviewed by the BusinessMirror, the tax administration in a federal system could stay the same even if the shift to a federal system of government is effected since the bulk of the tax collection, See “Poverty,” A2

Federalism seen to offer uncertain future for mining, power sectors

oakridge realty ceo edmun liu (center); oakridge realty coo anne liu; oakridge realty board director alfred go; rider levett bucknall President, corazon ballard; archiglobal inc. President arch.

Michael torres; asec development and construction corp. deputy area Manager arch. emmanuel Mutya and members of the oakridge realty executive team.

E1

rio olympics medal tally IN the middle of the traffic chaos, a

1 United States 2 Great Britain 3 China 4 Russia 5 Italy 6 Germany 7 France 8 Japan 9 Australia 10 South Korea 11 Netherlands 12 Hungary 13 Spain 14 New Zealand 15 Kazakhstan 16 Brazil 17 North Korea 18 Kenya 19 Canada 20 Colombia 21 Cuba 22 Poland 22 Switzerland 54 Philippines

G 26 16 15 11 8 8 7 7 6 6 6 5 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0

S 23 17 14 12 9 6 9 4 7 3 2 3 0 6 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1

B 26 8 17 12 6 6 8 16 9 5 3 4 2 0 5 4 2 0 9 0 3 2 2 0

T 75 41 46 35 23 20 24 27 22 14 11 12 5 8 10 9 7 5 13 4 6 5 5 1

This October 29, 2005, photo shows miners clearing the entrance of a tunnel from debris in a collapsed gold mine in Mount Diwata in Compostela Valley province, southern Philippines, as they help in the recovery effort of blast victims. Advocates have said the mining industry has not helped provinces climb out of the shackles of poverty. AP

By Lenie Lectura @llectura & Dennis D. Estopace @DennisEstopace

A

Conclusion

dvocates said mineral extraction has not been kind to the provinces that host the business. In a statement on Tuesday, Bantay Kita (BK) said mining does not contribute $866,335,600 to government coffers.

BK, a coalition of organizations pushing for trans-

PESO exchange rates n US 46.5350

CHINA LAUNCHES FIRST QUANTUM SATELLITE

₧389.86B

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AKRIDGE Realty Development Corp. (ORDC) recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for another new development in Oakridge Business Park, the company’s flagship high-end office and retail hub in Mandaue City.

An expansion of its Oakridge I.T. Center, this new development comprises two 12-story PEZA-registered buildings and a lifestyle atrium. The first phase will be for completion by 2017, while the second phase will begin immediately thereafter. These structures will add more than 30,000 square meter of premium work and retail leasable spaces to Oakridge‘s growing commercial-property inventory.

The Oakridge expansion aims to reinforce the company’s commitment to create a well-balanced work-play environment for its business-process outsourcing and office clients, as it prepares to bring in more retail brands, irresistible dining choices and exciting entertainment and wellness facilities once completed. As Oakridge Business Park gets bigger and better, it carries with it the Oakridge Realty signature of world-class quality, exclusivity and unceasing innovation.

Oakridge Business Park currently houses Oakridge IT Center 1, the first site of Teletech in Cebu since 2006, Block Eighty Eight, the Oakridge Pavilion, Cebu’s only air-conditioned tent

@davecaga @joveemarie

he Philippines may shift to a federal system of government even if there is limited economic activity in the countryside, but the resulting autonomous regions would still have to be dependent on internal revenue allotment (IRA) from the prospective federal government.

INSIDE

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& Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

P25.00 nationwide | 5 sections 32 pages | 7 days a week

parency and accountability in the extractive industry, claims that large-scale miners paid a mere P5.4 billion to the government, or 0.003 percent of total government revenues, in 2013.

“This is contrary to claims that the sector contributes P40 billion to state coffers,” the group said in the statement, citing the 2015 Country Report of the Philippine Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) as source of data.

In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, a Long March-2D rocket carrying the world’s first quantum satellite lifts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwestern China’s Gansu Province, early Tuesday. AP

B

EIJING—China’s launch of the first quantum satellite on Tuesday will push forward efforts to develop the ability to send communications that can’t be penetrated by hackers, experts said.

The satellite launched into space from the Jiuquan launch base in northwestern China’s Gobi desert will allow Chinese researchers to transmit test messages between Beijing and northwestern China, as well as other locations around the world.

If the tests are successful, China will take a major step toward building a worldwide network that can send messages that can’t be wiretapped or cracked through conventional methods.

“It moves the challenge for an eavesdropper to a different domain,”said Alexander Ling, principal investigator at the Centre for Quantum Technologies in Singapore.

“Lots of people around the world think having secure communications at a quantum level is important. The Europeans, the Americans had the lead, but now the Chinese are showing the way forward.”

Quantum communications use subatomic particles to securely communicate between two points. A hacker trying to crack the message changes its form in a way that would alert the sender and cause the message to be altered or deleted.

Researchers around the world have successfully sent quantum messages by land. But a true satellite-based network would make it possible to send quickly encrypted messages in an instant around the world and open the door to other possible uses of the technology.

Cyber security has been a major focus in recent years for China, which has pushed regulations aimed at limiting technology imported from the US in the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations of widespread surveillance by the US through the use of American hardware.

China has, in turn, been repeatedly accused by the US of hacking

into computer systems to steal commercial secrets and information that could harm American national security. China has rejected claims that it runs a statesponsored hacking program and says it is among the leading victims of cybercrime.

Quantum messaging could become a major defense against hackers and have applications ranging from military and government communications to online shopping.

The biggest challenge, Ling said, is being able to orient the satellite with pinpoint accuracy to a location on Earth where it can send and receive data without being affected by any disturbances in Earth’s atmosphere. The results of China’s tests will be closely watched by other research teams, he said.

“It’s very difficult to point the satellite accurately,” Ling said.

“You’re trying to send a beam of light from a satellite that’s 500 kilometers [310 miles] above you.”

Hoi Fung Chau, a professor and quantum communications researcher at Hong Kong University, said it was too soon to say if the tests will succeed, but added that he expected quantum messages by satellite to become the global standard eventually.

“The theory is already there, the technology is almost there,” he said. “It’s just a matter of time.”

The launch is a major triumph for China, which has spent years researching quantum technology and developing the satellite and other uses for it. China has previously announced the construction of a quantum link between Beijing and Shanghai that would be used by government agencies and banks.

Pan Jianwei, chief scientist on the satellite project, was quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency as saying the launch proved China was no longer a follower in information technology (IT), but “one of the leaders guiding future IT achievements.” AP

Continued on A2

n japan 0.4597 n UK 59.9417 n HK 6.0003 n CHINA 7.0114 n singapore 34.6629 n australia 35.7017 n EU 52.0494 n SAUDI arabia 12.4097

Source: BSP (16 August 2016 )

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A2 Wednesday, August 17, 2016

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Federalism seen to offer uncertain future for mining, power sectors Continued from A1

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (CoMP) has stated in a recent statement that the poorest provinces in the Philippines do not host mining operations.

“This does not, however, counter the fact that those hosting mining remain to have poverty incidence above the national average of 26.3 percent,” BK said.

Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) 2015 First Semester Poverty Statistics, BK said mining provinces that have high poverty incidence are Compostela Valley, with 36.8 percent; Agusan del Norte, 39.6 percent; Agusan del Sur, 54.8 percent; Surigao del Norte, 39.6 percent; Surigao del Sur, 41.6 percent; Leyte, 46.7 percent; Eastern Samar, 50 percent; Camarines Norte, 44 percent; and Zamboanga del Norte, 56 percent.

All of these provinces play host to mining firms. Some have hosted mining operations for many decades.

Shallow indicator

CORDILLERA Administrative Region, which the CoMP claims to have a low

Poverty. . .

Continued from A1

which comes from income taxes is collected by the federal government in most countries which have adopted the federal system.

Terence Conrad Bello, a lawyer and immediate past president of the Tax Management Association of the Philippines, said the federal tax administration in the United States is similar to the current tax system in the Philippines, which could possibly not be changed when the shift to a federal system is effected.

Bello clarified, however, that the tax administration would still be up to the prospective framers of the new Constitution, whether it be Congress sitting as a constituent assembly or a body elected to a constitutional convention.

poverty incidence while playing host to large-scale miners Philex Mining and Lepanto Consolidated Mining, is in no way dependent on the mining sector, according to the BK. Citing figures from the PSA Regional Accounts data, mining and quarrying activities only contributed 3 percent of regional GDP compared to agriculture’s 11 percent in 2013, the BK said. The mining sector’s contribution on average is low at 5 percent from 2010 to 2014. Mining and quarrying is second to the lowest contributor to the region’s industry sector, BK added.

The mining industry has a significant contribution to national and local development, according to the CoMP. The group cited Bataraza in Palawan, Claver in Surigao del Norte and Siocon in Zamboanga del Norte as examples of fourth-class municipalities that were transformed into first-class municipalities after the entry of mining.

However, BK said the country’s classification of municipalities is a shallow indicator of people’s wellbeing or progress as it merely measures income of the municipality.

Bataraza still posted a poverty incidence rate (PIR) of 30.6 percent in 2012, Claver at 41.4 percent and Siocion at 49.2 percent, BK said, citing the 2012 PSA municipal and city level poverty estimates.

According to BK, the mining industry should give the government a higher share as payment for the finite minerals they extract, beyond shaping up and complying with environmental laws.

More contribution

IN 2013 large-scale mining companies only paid 1.21 percent of their estimated sales of P73.4 billion as a unique payment for the minerals on top of the regular taxes, which all businesses in the country pay.

The BK coalition estimates foregone revenues at P4.5 billion in the form of tax incentives granted to seven firms that year.

The sector has generated less than 1 percent of total employment for the past decade, BK said, citing data from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

“This is due in part to the sector’s highly mechanized nature and the absence of a labor-intensive processing industry in the Philippines,” BK added.

“The bulk of the country’s minerals are exported as raw, with no value added, to China and Japan.”

Next step

SOME pundits see federalism “as the next logical step after devolution.”

“In the Philippines advocates of federalism believe that the structure of the federal system would respond to the geographical obstacle and differences caused by cultural diversity on governance because it allows fragmentation, while, at the same time, promoting national interest,” academicians Alex B. Brillantes Jr. and Donna Moscare said in a 2002 conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “It is also claimed that the federal structure will accelerate the country’s development.”

Pundits also believe that power becomes decentralized to the states, giving officials a wide berth in organizing their respective economies.

One of the sectors that could be further reorganized is in power generation, distribution and transmission.

“I’m not sure what kind of tax system will be proposed in a Philippine federal system, but if you will take a look at federal systems, the US federal government for example collects US internal revenue taxes, while the state governments collect local taxes [e.g., sales tax],” Bello told the BusinessMirror.

“This is actually similar to what we have now: the Bureau of Internal Revenue collects national internal- revenue taxes, while the local government units [LGUs] collect local business taxes and real-property taxes,” he said.

locally sourced income.

It is, thus, imperative for the prospective regions to collect more locally sourced income to be able to fund the operations of the government in a federal system of government, which adds another layer of bureaucracy.

In a recent interview with political analyst Prospero de Vera, the shift to a federal system of government would entail an extra layer of bureaucracy, regardless of how the federal system would be set up, because there would necessarily be a chief executive in the resulting regions.

There would, thus, be higher operating expenses for the government as a result of the extra layer of bureaucracy, requiring the resulting regions to exert more effort to raise local revenues not only to fund the operating expenses of the autonomous region but also to

fund capital outlay to invite more investors to come in.

More reliance on IRA

While the shift to a federal system of government may not require an overhaul of the tax-administration system, it could make the prospective regions more dependent on the internal-revenue allotment (IRA) if they cannot increase their

Local revenues last year

The Department of Finance, through the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF), had long been urging local governments to raise more revenues, particularly through real-property taxes and other business taxes, to lessen their dependence on the IRA. According to the latest figures from the BLGF, total revenue collection of cities throughout the country in 2015, including those in the National Capital Region (NCR), amounted to only P118.99 billion.

Most of this amount collected still came from cities in the NCR, which accounted for P72.13 billion, or 60.6 percent of the total local revenues collected throughout the Philippines.

For example, some states may opt to build more coal-fired power plants, while others may invest in renewable energy. Revenue-sharing from these investments and businesses could also be redefined.

Currently, the government refers to the Local Government Code (LGC) in cases of revenue sharing.

The LGC has hiked the financial resources available to local government units (LGUs) by broadening each LGU’s taxing powers. Also, the LGC provides them with a specific share from the national wealth exploited in their area, e.g., mining, fishery and forestry charges, and increasing their share from the national taxes, i.e., internal-revenue allotments (IRA), from a previously low of 11 percent to as much as 40 percent, according to Brillantes and Moscare. “The Code also increases the elbowroom of local governments to generate revenues from local fees and charges.”

According to the Alyansa Tigil Mina, another advocate for better regulation of the extractive sector, the mining law states that mineral taxes only apply to companies operating in mineral reservations.

The IRA received by local governments in 2015 amounted to P389.86 billion, which makes the locally sourced revenues amount to only 23 percent of the total revenues of local governments in the said year, while the rest was due to their share in the IRA. Latest figures from the BLGF also indicated that in 2014, locally sourced revenues only accounted for less than 1 percent of the GDP, or only 0.97 percent of GDP.

Cha-cha not needed

A lawmaker has said there’s no need to change the 1987 Constitution and transform the country’s form of government into a federal system to give more power to the LGUs. Liberal Party Rep. Edcel C. Lagman of Albay said updating the Local Government Code of 1991 will make local governments more

“There are only four provinces that are been identified as mineral reservations [but] mining is present in 13 provinces,” the group said.

Still waiting

PLAYERS in the power industry, for their part, remain mum on the effects of federalism.

Since they are running a highly lucrative business, sources said they are just being careful when sharing their insights, particularly on a sensitive issue, such as the change in the form of government.

“It’s hard to say at this point since we know very little about the type of federalism that will be adopted,” Joseph C. Nocos, Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. vice president for business development, said in a text message. “I would be happy to give a more detailed reaction once we get more information.”

Aboitiz Power Corp. President Antonio Moraza said the company has yet to provide a comment on this.

Personally, Moraza said, he is “not familiar with federalism.” Though “offhand, I don’t’ think it will have any direct impact.”

independent. “We don’t have to transform ourselves to a federal system to give more power to the local government. We could amend the local government code to make them more autonomous,” Lagman said in a TV interview.

“The prejudicial question and ultimately the final question is this federal system will address our problem in terms of corruption, criminality and drug menace?”

Lagman added.

In the Philippines’s current form of government, all funds are centralized in NCR and provinces need to remit their income in the National Treasury, while the federalism means autonomy in government rules on per-province basis with independent taxation and economic system.

Under the federal form of government, provinces will no longer remit its income to the National Treasury, but they are required to give a percentage of their income to the national government. A new Constitution is also needed if federalism will push through.

Same problems for LGUs

In the same TV interview, Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez, for his part, said several amendments to the Local Government Code have been done, but the problems of LGUs are still the same.

“For me, these problems [on uneven development and poverty] will be addressed if we change our system to federalism,” he added.

“I am also really convinced that a federal form of government will be the permanent, lasting solution to poverty, will be the permanent, lasting solution to insurgency,” Alvarez said.

In a separate statement, Alvarez has said a shift to the federal form of government would bring a longlasting solution to the centuries-old problem of poverty, because growth of the regions had been stifled under the unitary form of government that colonizers, like Spain and America, imposed on the country primarily for better control.

He said by shifting to a federal form of government, these regions or states can now manage their own economy, manage their own natural resources and create opportunities for their people.

Alvarez added that the government structural change is necessary to end intergenerational conflict through a firm and last peace and to make economic growth and expand opportunities for all Filipinos.

“Through adoption of a federal form of government, the division of national and state powers will be clearly delineated,” he said.

Under a federal system, Alvarez added that states will have more freedom to craft and implement specific and tailor-fit economic policies appropriate to their situation.

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Wednesday, August 17, 2016

A3

Robredo wants tax breaks for socialized housing developers to erase backlog

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By Cai U. Ordinario

@cuo_bm

o encourage more privatesector players to go into socialized housing, Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo on Tuesday renewed calls to grant tax exemptions to property developers.

Based on preliminary figures obtained by the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), Robredo said the housing backlog currently stands at 5.7 million.

To wipe out this backlog, Robredo said the government, together with the private sector, must build 2,602 homes per day in the next six years.

“Let me state the obvious. The problem we are faced with is urgent, huge and difficult. The housing crisis is a ticking time bomb.

The only way we can solve it is together,” Robredo said in a speech at the Housing Solutions Congress held in Pasay City.

The initial estimate of the

2,602

The number of homes that should be constructed per day for the next six years to wipe out backlog housing backlog, Robredo said, includes some 2.2 million informal-settler families (ISFs). This is higher than the 1.5 million estimated by the National Housing Authority in 2011.

Apart from tax breaks for private companies, Robredo also plans to impose “stiffer penalties

for squatting syndicates.”

She said this will contribute to efforts in relocating ISFs. Robredo noted that many ISFs prefer to go back to being squatters because livelihood opportunities are scarce in relocation areas.

The HUDCC intends to focus on on-site in-city relocations to address the problem of squatting and deter people from resorting to it all their lives, according to the Vice President.

Under Republic Act 7279, or the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992, professional squatters or members of squatting syndicates face jail time or a fine.

Violators face a penalty of six years imprisonment or not less than P60,000, but not more than P100,000, or both, at the discretion of the court.

“We will not relocate families if the homes waiting for them are not total solutions to shelter needs. That means there will be no demolitions. You may also be interested in our plan to aim for stiffer penalties to squatting syndicates,” Robredo said.

“Together, we will build a strong nation through happier homes,” she added.

T hese ef for t s a re pa r t of

Duterte’s economic plan hailed

Marcelo Co, president of Anvil Business Club (ABC), flanked by ABC Chairman Eduardo Cobankiat (left) and ABC Chairman Emeritus George Siy, fields questions on Tuesday during the Anvil 2016 prebusiness summit news briefing at Kamuning Bakery in Quezon City. ROY DOMINGO

By Jasper Emmanuel Arcalas

A

@arteliterary

group of young Filipino-Chinese businessmen on Wednesday hailed President Duterte’s economic programs, saying these could lead to inclusive growth and development.

“The business programs he [Mr. Duterte] brought up are very positive for the country’s inclusive growth,” George Siy, Anvil Business Club Inc. (ABC) chairman emeritus, told reporters in a press conference.

Siy said Mr. Duterte should continue focusing on the neglected economic priorities, such as the country’s transportation sector.

“Before, the focus is on opening major airports, but now, the President wants to improve all airports and ports in the country,” he said, citing the present status of the Cagayan de Oro Airport, which he said suffers from poor electricity and management.

Siy also said it is good that the President wants to utilize the roll-on, roll-off (Roro) transportation method as it will help ease the shipment of goods.

“The Roro will decrease the expense of transporting goods by as much as 50 percent,” he said.

Marcelo Co, ABC chairman, said the administration’s campaign against drug is a positive note for businessmen, because it will give them assurance of peace and security for their businesses.

“What struck me most is his peace and order thrust,” Co said. “As a businessman, what will you do with your earnings or even a high GDP growth, if you are afraid to go out because of criminality and such?”

Co said President Duterte is different from previous presidents because of his decisiveness and practicality in his economic plans.

“He’s very practical in terms of economic development, which would mean an improvement in the lives of the people. He launches 911 [emergency service]; he wants to fix the telecommunication industry. These things are what we need,” he said.

For ABC Chairman Eduardo Cobankiat, the government's programs for the agriculture sector would result in an “inclusive economic growth.”

Siy and Cobankiat said Mr. Duterte is gaining the confidence of businessmen in the country because of

his sincerity in his proposed platforms.

“He’s very bold in his pronouncements and people are willing to support him. And his actions are very fast.

That’s why a lot of businessmen want to do business now in the country because they see the President’s sincerity,” Siy said.

“He wants to solve the crime and corruption. It’s music to the business people. If this gets solved, then tourism will boom, investors will come in, then these will create jobs,” Cobankiat said.

As part of the group’s silver anniversary celebration this year, they will be organizing the Anvil Summit 2016, with the theme “Giants Level Up! Extending Your Boundaries,” to express their support to the Duterte administration.

“This business summit is an invitation to foreign businessmen to invest in the country. This is a way to showcase that the Philippines has good economic growth,” Siy said.

“The summit is meant to inspire the youth and promote entrepreneurship among them, in line with the administration’s thrust for business development,”Co said.

“This is the best way to celebrate our 25th anniversary.”

ABC's biennial event, which started in 2013, will be held on September 9 at Marriott Hotel Manila, where prominent people from various industries will share their success stories, Cobankiat said.

“Two of the four invited speakers really came from poverty. Galing sa wala. Everyone will surely learn from them,” he said.

Tech entrepreneur and inventor Dado Banatao, who “became part of a computer club with Steve Jobs and who made over half-a-billion-dollar fortune by inventing PC chip sets,” will be the event's keynote speaker. Jojo Concepcion, CEO of Concepcion Carrier; Engr. Edgar Saavedra, president of Megawide Construction Corp. and Jon Ramon Aboitiz, chairman of Aboitiz Equity Ventures, will also serve as speakers in the Anvil Summit 2016.

The ABC is an organization of young Chinese-Filipino businessmen and professionals, aged 21 to 50, “committed to propagate positive values in promoting a healthy economy, progressive society and pursuing excellence in our respective fields of endeavor, for the economic and social progress of our country.”

In this file photo, residents of Estero Tripa de Gallina in Pasay City voluntarily demolish their houses in compliance with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s (MMDA) 3-meter-off-the-creek rule. The MMDA removed squatters near the creek to ease flooding in the metropolis. NONIE REYES

Robredo’s plan to pursue a comprehensive and integrated approach to solving the housing crisis.

She again stressed the need for “sufficient information” to jumpstart a housing program that will benefit millions of homeless Filipinos.

Even the 5.7 million housing

backlog, she said, needs to be recalculated based on updated data.

The estimate is only based on data gathered by the HUDCC in 2015 from local-shelter plans of local government units.

Once the numbers are established, only then can the government identify a suitable housing

program model that will meet the needs of homeless Filipinos, according to Robredo.

“We need an inventory of all government properties available for housing.

We will need the cooperation of all local government units for this,” she said.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

AseanWednesday BusinessMirror

Editor: Max V. de Leon • Wednesday, August 17, 2016 A5

Honda Motor Co. sees 20% industry-wide sales jump on Indonesian tax amnesty

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ndonesia’s tax amnesty could boost industry-wide car sales in the country by a fifth as people spend their newly declared wealth on big-ticket items, according to the local unit of Honda Motor Co. “The car ownership ratio in Indonesia is relatively low and there’s enough room for producers to sell more,” Jonfis Fandy, head of sales and marketing at PT Honda Prospect Motor, said in an interview on Friday at the Gaikindo Indonesia International Motor Show. “If the tax-amnesty program proves to be a success, we could see an increase

of as much as 20 percent next year,” he said, as people crowded around the latest models at the annual expo in Jakarta.

Indonesia’s central bank estimates the reprieve, which runs through March 2017, could lure as much as 560 trillion rupiah ($43 billion) of undeclared income back to the country from overseas. If the

amnesty lives up to those projections, it will lift economic growth and enable the government to continue with an ambitious infrastructure program. With a population of 256 million, Indonesia is Honda’s third-biggest overseas market after the United States and China.

Japan-based Honda, which is No. 2 in the Indonesian car market behind Toyota Motor Corp., posted 35-percent sales growth in the first half, official data show, compared with 1.2-percent expansion for the industry as a whole. Some of Honda’s fastest expansion is occurring in outlying areas of the archipelago, such as Sulawesi in eastern Indonesia, Fandy said. If the 20-percent growth estimate comes to pass in 2017, that would be the sharpest growth since 2012.

Total car sales will rise to 1.05 million units in 2016, from 1.01 million last year, Yohannes Nangoi, chairman of Indonesia’s automotive industry association, known as Gaikindo, told reporters on August 11.

PT Astra International, which manufactures and distributes Toyota cars in Indonesia, recorded a 4.1-percent expansion in sales in the first half, Gaikindo figures show. Toyota controls 33 percent of the market, with Honda at 21 percent.

Astra International shares rose 0.6 percent as of 11:30 a.m. in Jakarta after being up as much as 1.3 percent earlier. Honda Motor fell 0.4 percent in Tokyo, swinging from a 1-percent gain.

“The comeback of the Indonesian market is extremely good for Japanese automakers” struggling with a

shrinking home market, said Koji Endo, a Tokyo-based analyst at SBI Securities Co. “Honda may benefit the most as it has a big share in the motorcycle market there and people tend to step up to vehicles of the same brand.”

Southeast Asia’s largest economy beat estimates to expand 5.18 percent in the second quarter, from 4.92 percent in the previous three months. Bank Indonesia is forecasting full-year growth of 5.4 percent, including an estimated 0.3-percentage point increase from the amnesty.

Too early

While the tax reprieve could boost automotive sales, it’s too early to tell how successful it will be and if Honda’s projection is achievable, said Isnaputra Iskandar, an analyst

at PT Maybank Kim Eng Securities in Jakarta. Iskandar raised Astra International to a buy this month, citing the improving economy and a recent rule reducing the minimum level for hire-purchase deposits for vehicle purchases. Honda’s Indonesian unit isn’t listed.

Honda sold 109,662 cars in Indonesia in the first half and is targeting 180,000 for the full year, said Fandy, who oversaw an almost quadrupling of sales in the 10 years through 2015.

The company has the capacity to produce 200,000 cars a year at its manufacturing plant in Karawang, east of Jakarta, and has the flexibility to increase that to 240,000, he said.

“Indonesia is among the few countries in the world with a bright future for the automotive industry,” Fandy said. Bloomberg News

Thai billionaire’s F&N Bomb attacks in Thailand ‘could cost 33 billion baht’ seeks deals in race T with Coke, Pepsi

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raser & Neave Ltd., the drinks-maker controlled by Thailand’s richest man Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, is searching for acquisitions to bolster its market share in Southeast Asia after its war chest grew to nearly S$1 billion ($745 million) with sales of beer assets.

A potential target is Vietnam Dairy Products JSC, also known as Vinamilk, according to Lee Meng Tat, F&N’s CEO for nonalcoholic beverages. Vietnam’s largest milk producer is an example of what F&N wants in an acquisition: a company with market presence, well-known brands, and a strong distribution network, he said.

“The ideal situation is of course to acquire,” said Lee, referring to F&N’s efforts to expand in Southeast Asia, where he said the company is a “distant third” to US soft drinks giants PepsiCo Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. “That would give us a much faster way into the market.”

Singapore-based F&N has S$971.8 million of cash and cash equivalents as of end-June, after selling its stake in Myanmar Brewery Ltd. last August, three years after it divested its share of Asia Pacific Breweries. In Southeast Asia, home to nearly 600 million people and among Asia’s fastest growing economies, the company also plans to build its presence from scratch in some markets if acquisition opportunities do not work out.

Vinamilk, Vietnam’s biggest company by market value, gained as much as 1.2 percent in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday, heading for a fresh record high. F&N fell as much as 1 percent in Singapore trading.

Vinamilk had surged to a record last week after index compiler MSCI Inc. said it would add the stock to its gauge of frontier markets, extending gains after the government scrapped the foreign ownership limits for the company. The shares have jumped 32 percent so far this year, compared with the local benchmark index’s 14-percent gain.

If more shares in Vinamilk become “available and it makes financial sense, we will always look at it,” Lee said. “That has always been our position.”

Vinamilk is not on a list of 120 companies that government investment arm State Capital Investment Corp. plans to divest this year, news web site Nhip Cau Dau Tu reported earlier this year, without saying where it got the information. F&N is Vinamilk’s secondbiggest shareholder with a 11-percent stake, after the Vietnam government’s 45 percent.

Bottled water

F&N’s main brands include the 100Plus isotonic drink and Ice Mountain bottled water, and it also distributes beverages produced by companies under its Thai owner, such as Oishi Group Pcl.’s green tea drink and Thai Beverage Pcl.’s Chang beer. F&N is among the top 3 soft-drinks players in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, according to Euromonitor International, but isn’t ranked among the top 5 in Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, where the company is examining ways to grow.

Charoen has laid out a strategy of expanding across Southeast Asia after his companies completed the S$10.5-billion acquisition of F&N in February 2013.

The Thai billionaire has set a target of making the food and beverage businesses of F&N and his other companies, including Thai Beverage, Sermsuk Pcl. and Oishi, among the top 3 brands in Southeast Asia by 2020.

Still, F&N is wary of overpaying for acquisitions, Lee said. “There is a line we can’t cross because if we do that, we’re actually destroying value,” he said. “If you have to take a long time to justify the returns, you might as well use the money to build the business.”

Bloomberg News

he spate of arson and bomb attacks in the seven southern provinces last week may have cost as much as 33.4 billion baht in economic losses, according to an estimation by Anusorn Tamajai, dean of Rangsit University’s Faculty of Economics.

Anusorn said revenue from the tourism sector, the country’s economic backbone, will shrink by 33.4 billion baht in the remaining third quarter as a result of the attacks.

He said he expects the attacks also to cause shockwaves in Thai financial markets, as investors become nervous that consumer confidence will take a knock, while foreign investors may sell their blue-chip stocks in the hotel, tourism, retail and other businesses based in the South.

Anusorn added that the attacks in the seven southern provinces have resulted in 50-percent cancellations of hotel bookings.

But Anusorn remains confident in the economy’s fundamentals and that Thailand should be able to maintain its economic growth forecast of between 3.2 percent and 3.5 percent this year, as the situation returns to normal and the country’s tourism sector picks up once the immediate impact has passed.

Thanawat Polwichai, director of the Centre for Economic and Business Forcasting of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, gave a more modest estimate for the damage caused by the attacks, saying it is unlikely to run into tens of billions of baht. Thanawat said his estimate was based on inquiries made with the chambers of commerce in the seven provinces affected by the attacks.

The chambers did not regard last week’s attacks as an “extremely violent sabotage,” Thanawat said. He added the chambers believe the damage may be limited, given the current low tourism season.

“From my discussions with them, as

Thai rescue workers attend to an injured man after a small bomb exploded in Hua Hin on August 12. Bloomberg

long as there is no repeat of such attacks, the chambers are not too worried,” Thanawat said, adding they will meet to formally discuss and assess the losses.

Thanawat said the attacks will only affect tourism visits and consumption in the short term, provided there are no repeat attacks soon.

A steady recovery in the tourism industry is expected in the fourth quarter, which is the high season in Thailand.

He said the chambers believe the attacks were neither a terrorist act nor linked to the insurgency in the deep South. But Krisada Tansakul, president of the Thai Hotels Association’s Southern Chapter, insisted no signs of waning consumer confidence have come to light as a result of the attacks and that no hotel booking cancellations by foreign guests have been reported.

There were only a few worried Thai guests who had canceled their bookings

following the incidents, Krisada said.

Some initial reports said the bomb blasts, which killed four people and injured 35, were the work of disgruntled political parties who were bitter about the referendum result in which most Thais supported the military regime’s draft constitution.

More recent theories point towards a link with the southern violence.

The police have detained two men for questioning over the attacks. TNS

Jokowi wows to develop ‘every inch’ of Indonesian archipelago

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resident Joko Widodo vowed on Tuesday to develop all of Indonesia’s frontier areas, including the Natuna Islands close to where it is embroiled in a dispute with China.

“We will develop areas, such as Entikong, Natuna and Atambua, so that the world sees Indonesia as a great nation that pays attention on every inch of its land,” Widodo said in his annual Independence Day speech in Jakarta. His speech also focused on deregulation, social inequality and poverty eradication, as well as the threat of terrorism.

Indonesia’s navy has been involved in several altercations with Chinese fishing boats and coast guard vessels off the gasrich Natuna Islands in recent months.

Beijing claims the waters around the islands as part of its traditional fishing grounds. While Indonesia is not a claimant in the broader disputes China has with several other nations over its South China Sea claims, Widodo has sought to underscore Indonesian sovereignty in the area. On Wednesday the navy will sink

Three measures

JOKOWI

71 impounded foreign vessels there in a show of force.

Widodo, commonly known as Jokowi, said in his speech on Tuesday that Indonesia was committed to the peaceful resolu-

tion of international conflicts, including in the South China Sea. “Indonesia has to be actively involved in promoting the resolution on South China Sea spat through negotiation and peaceful measures,” he said.

China’s claims to more than 80 percent of the South China Sea were dented in July by an international tribunal that ruled it had no historic rights to the resources within the waters and that its actions there were aggravating tensions. China has rejected the ruling.

Jokowi has said he wants to transform Indonesia, a string of more than 17,000 islands that would stretch almost from New York to London, into a maritime power and has in the past laid out a plan to develop the fishing industry, improve port infrastructure and bolster sea defenses.

“In the year of development acceleration, the government is focusing on three breakthrough measures to eradicate poverty, unemployment and social inequality,” he said in his speech. “Those three measures are: One, expediting infrastructure development. Second, preparing productive capacity and human resources. Three, deregulation and debureaucratization.”

Bloomberg News

The W

Business

A6 Wednesday, August 17, 2016 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

US Army chief visits China amid missile system tensions

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EIJING—The US Army chief of staff was visiting China on Tuesday amid tensions over American ally South Korea’s decision to deploy a powerful missile defense system and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Gen. Mark A. Milley was due to meet on Tuesday with his Chinese counterpart and other senior People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leaders to discuss issues of concern and “identify ways to deepen

practical cooperation in areas of mutual interest while also constructively managing differences,” the Army said in a news release.

Milley will also visit the PLA’s Academy of Military Science to exchange

views with faculty and students.

China has stridently objected to a decision to base the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad, system south of the South Korean capital Seoul, believing its X-Band radar is intended to track missiles inside China. The US says the system is intended to destroy potential North Korean missiles.

Chinese state media have published daily attacks against the US and South Korea, and China has canceled events involving South Korean entertainers. China also appears to be withholding support at the United Nations for condemnations of North Korea’s missile programs.

Milley’s visit also comes amid frictions following an international

arbitration panel ’s ruling last month that invalidated China’s claim to virtually the entire South China Sea. China angrily rejected the verdict and has vowed to continue developing man-made islands that the US says have exacerbated tensions in the strategically crucial region.

Highlighting the issue, the interior minister of Taiwan, one of the six governments to claim territory in the South China Sea, planned to travel to Taiping Island where it maintains a garrison.

The visit is “aimed at understanding climate-change issues, as well as underscoring Taiwan’s sovereignty,” the official Central News Agency quoted Taiwanese officials

as saying. Tensions have also spiked in recent days between China and Japan over a chain of uninhabited islands controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing. Japan last week called in the Chinese ambassador to protest over a large increase in the number of Chinese coast guard and fishing ships operating in waters surrounding the islands, called the Senkakus by Japan and Diaoyu by China.

Following his Beijing meetings, Milley will travel to South Korea to meet with US Army troops and hold discussions with Korean military leaders on the Thaad deployment and other issues. He will then travel on to another key US ally and Chinese rival, Japan. AP

Rampaging South Sudan soldiers raped foreigners, killed journalist

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AIROBI, Kenya—The soldier pointed his AK-47 at the female aid worker and gave her a choice.

“Either you have sex with me, or we make every man here rape you and then we shoot you in the head,”she remembers him saying.

She didn’t really have a choice. By the end of the evening, she had been raped by 15 South Sudanese soldiers.

On July 11 South Sudanese troops, fresh from winning a battle in the capital, Juba, over opposition forces, went on a nearly four-hour rampage through a residential compound popular with foreigners, in one of the worst targeted attacks on aid workers in South Sudan’s three-year civil war. They shot dead a local journalist while forcing the foreigners to watch, raped several foreign women, singled out Americans, beat and robbed people and carried out mock executions, several witnesses told The Associated Press.

For hours throughout the assault, the UN peacekeeping force stationed less than a mile away refused to respond to desperate calls for help. Neither did embassies, including the US Embassy.

The Associated Press (AP) interviewed by phone eight survivors, both male and female, including three who said they were raped. The other five said they were beaten; one was shot. Most insisted on anonymity for their safety or to protect their organizations still operating in South Sudan.

Raw detail

THE accounts highlight, in raw detail, the failure of the UN peacekeeping force to uphold its core mandate of protecting civilians, notably those just a few minutes’ drive away. The AP previously reported that UN peacekeepers in Juba did not stop the rapes of local women by soldiers outside the UN’s main camp last month.

The attack on the Terrain hotel complex shows the hostility toward foreigners and aid workers by troops under the command of South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, who has been fighting supporters of rebel leader Riek Machar since civil war erupted in December 2013.

Both sides have been accused of abuses.

The UN recently passed a US-sponsored resolution to send more peacekeeping troops to protect civilians.

Army Spokesman Lul Ruai did not deny the attack at the Terrain but said it was premature to conclude the army was responsible. “Everyone is armed, and everyone has access to uniforms and we have people from other organized forces, but it was definitely done by people of South Sudan and by armed people of Juba,” he said.

Chill Monday

A report on the incident compiled by the Terrain’s owner at Ruai’s request, seen by the AP, alleges the rapes of at least five women, torture, mock executions, beatings and looting. An unknown number of South Sudanese women were also assaulted.

The attack came just as people in Juba were thinking the worst was over.

Three days earlier, gunfire had erupted outside the presidential compound between armed supporters of the two sides in South Sudan’s civil war, at the time pushed together under an uneasy

peace deal. The violence quickly spread across the city.

Throughout the weekend, bullets whizzed through the Terrain compound, a sprawling complex with a pool, squash court and a bar patronized by expats and South Sudanese elites. It is also in the shadow of the UN’s largest camp in Juba.

By Monday, the government had nearly defeated the forces under Machar, who fled the city. As both sides prepared to call for a cease-fire, some residents of the Terrain started to relax.

“Monday was relatively chill,” one survivor said.

Soldiers arrive

WHAT was thought to be celebratory gunfire was heard. And then the soldiers arrived.

A Terrain staffer from Uganda said he saw between 80 and 100 men pour into the compound after breaking open the gate with gunshots and tire irons. The Terrain’s security guards were armed only with shotguns and were vastly outnumbered.

The soldiers then went to door to door, taking money, phones, laptops and car keys.

“They were very excited, very drunk, under the influence of something, almost a mad state, walking around shooting off rounds inside the rooms,” one American said.

One man wore a blue police uniform, but the rest wore camouflage, the American said. Many had shoulder patches with the face of a tiger, the insignia worn by the president’s personal guard.

For about an hour, soldiers beat the American with belts and the butts of their guns and accused him of hiding rebels.

They fired bullets at his feet and close to his head. Eventually, one soldier who appeared to be in charge told him to leave the compound. Soldiers at the gate looked at his US passport and handed it back, with instructions.

“You tell your embassy how we treated you,”they said. He made his way to the nearby UN compound and appealed for help.

Meanwhile, soldiers were breaking into a two-story apartment block in the Terrain which had been deemed a safe house because of a heavy metal door guarding the apartments upstairs.

Warned by a Kenyan staffer, more than 20 people inside, most of them foreigners, tried to hide. About 10 squeezed into a single bathroom.

The building shook as soldiers shot at the metal door and pried metal bars off windows for more than an hour, residents said. Once inside, the soldiers started ransacking the rooms and assaulting people they found.

Some of the soldiers were violent as they sexually assaulted women, said the woman who said she was raped by 15 men. Others, who looked to be just 15 or 16 years old, looked scared and were coerced into the act.

“One in particular, he was calling you, ‘Sweetie, we should run away and get married.’ It was like he was on a first date,” the woman said. “He didn’t see that what he was doing was a bad thing.”

Sexual assault

AFTER about an hour and a half, the soldiers broke into the bathroom.

They shot through the door, said Jesse

16

In this January 19 file photo, displaced people walk next to a razor wire fence at the United Nations base in the capital Juba, South Sudan. AP

The number of Terrain staff rescued on July 11 after a nearly four-hour rampage by South Sudanese troops Bunch, an American contractor who was hit in the leg.

“We kill you! We kill you!” the soldiers shouted, according to a Western woman in the bathroom. “They would shoot up at the ceiling and say, ‘Do you want to die?’ and we had to answer ‘No!’“ The soldiers then pulled people out one by one. One woman said she was sexually assaulted by multiple men. Another Western woman said soldiers beat her with fists and threatened her with their guns when she tried to resist. She said five men raped her.

During the attack on the Terrain, several survivors told the AP that soldiers specifically asked if they were American.

“One of them, as soon as he said he was American, he was hit with a rifle butt,” a woman said.

Hating America

WHEN the soldiers came across John Gatluak, they knew he was local. The South Sudanese journalist worked for Internews, a media-development organization funded by United States Agency for International Development.

He had taken refuge at the Terrain after being briefly detained a few days earlier. The tribal scars on his forehead

made it obvious he was Nuer, the same as opposition leader, Riek Machar.

Upon seeing him, the soldiers pushed him to the floor and beat him, according to the same woman who saw the American beaten.

Later in the attack, and after Kiir’s side declared a cease-fire at 6 p.m., the soldiers forced the foreigners to stand in a semicircle, said Gian Libot, a Philippines citizen who spent much of the attack under a bed until he was discovered.

One soldier ranted against foreigners.

“He definitely had pronounced hatred against America,” Libot said, recalling the soldier’s words:“You messed up this country. You’re helping the rebels. The people in the UN, they’re helping the rebels.”

John Gatluak

DURING the tirade, a soldier hit a man suspected of being American with a rifle butt. At one point, the soldier threatened to kill all the foreigners assembled. “We’re gonna show the world an example,” Libot remembered him saying.

Then Gatluak was hauled in front of the group. One soldier shouted “Nuer,” and another soldier shot him twice in the head. He shot the dying Gatluak four more times while he lay on the ground.

“All it took was a declaration that he was different, and they shot him mercilessly,” Libot said.

The shooting seemed to be a turning point for those assembled outside, Libot said. Looting and threats continued, but beatings started to draw to a close.

Other soldiers continued to assault men and women inside the apartment block.

From the start of the attack, those inside the Terrain compound sent messages pleading for help by text and Facebook messages and e-mails.

“All of us were contacting whoever we could contact. The UN, the US embassy, contacting the specific battalions in the UN, contacting specific departments,” the woman raped by 15 men said.

Urging help

A member of the UN’s Joint Operations Center in Juba first received word of the attack at 3:37 p.m., minutes after the breach of the compound, according to an internal timeline compiled by a member of the operations center and seen by the AP. Eight minutes later another message was sent to a different member of the operations center from a person inside Terrain, saying that people were hiding there. At 4:22 p.m. that member received another message urging help.

Five minutes after that, the UN mission’s Department of Safety and Security and its military command wing were alerted. At 4:33 p.m. a Quick Reaction Force, meant to intervene in emergencies, was informed. One minute later, the timeline notes the last contact on Monday from someone trapped inside Terrain.

For the next hour and a half the timeline is blank. At 6:52 p.m., shortly before sunset, the timeline states that “DSS would not send a team.”

Too long

ABOUT 20 minutes later, a Quick Reaction Force of Ethiopians from the multinational UN mission was tasked to intervene, coordinating with South Sudan’s Army Chief of Staff Paul Malong, who was also sending soldiers. But the Ethiopian battalion stood down, according to the timeline.

Malong’s troops eventually abandoned their intervention, too, because it took too long for the Quick Reaction Force to act. The American who was released early in the assault and made it to the UN base said he also alerted the UN staff.

At around dusk, a UN worker he knew requested three different battalions to send a Quick Reaction Force.

“Everyone refused to go [to] Ethiopia, China, and Nepal. All refused to go,” he said. Eventually, South Sudanese security forces entered the Terrain and rescued all but three Western women and around 16 Terrain staff. AP

Trump’s view of US mirrors Obama’s

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A SHINGTON—Donald Trump says that as president he would end “our current strategy of nationbuilding and regime change” because they don’t work. His dislike for nation-building is shared by many, including none other than the target of his criticism, President Barack Obama.

In fact, it was Obama’s predecessor, Republican George W. Bush, who committed the US to largescale nation-building projects in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama discarded that strategy while trying to keep enough US influence there to prevent those two countries from crumbling. Obama’s approach may not have worked, but it’s not Bushlike “nation-building.”

And while the Republican presidential nominee argued against nation-building in a foreign policy speech on Monday, he advocated for something even more grandiose: seizing Iraq’s oil wealth in the aftermath of the US invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein.

“I have long said that we should have kept the oil in Iraq,” he said in Youngstown, Ohio. “I said, ‘Keep the oil. Keep the oil. Keep the oil.

Don’t let somebody else get it.’” It would have required US troops to protect the oil, he said, but the benefit would have been clear today.

“If we had controlled the oil like I said we should, we could have prevented the rise of ISIS [Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in Iraq, both by cutting off a major source of funding and through the presence of US forces necessary to safeguard the oil and vital infrastructure products necessary for us to have the oil.”

Rather than nation-building, this would have been nation-grabbing, making Iraq a de-facto American colony. In the final months of his administration, Bush negotiated an agreement with the Iraqi government that called for all US troops to leave the country by December 2011.

Obama stuck to that schedule, believing that the Iraqis needed to stand on their own, while the US turned its attention to other pressing needs at home and abroad, what he called “nation-building at home.” Obama, supported by his first secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, saw Bush’s nationbuilding effort as a proven failure.

Iraqi politics, however, never overcame sectarian divisions, undermining the Iraqi army and leaving an easy target for IS. Trump is right that the IS capitalized on the political and security vacuum in Iraq in 2014, but it’s not clear that a long-term US military occupation to hold and exploit Iraqi’s oil resources would have led to a more stable outcome.

Trump says he would have used money from the sale of Iraqi oil to pay for the care of wounded soldiers and the families of those Americans killed in the war.

“This proposal by its very nature would have left soldiers in place of our assets,” he said. “We would have had soldiers there guarding this valuable supply of oil. In the old days, when we won a war, to the victor belonged the spoils.”

After major military victories, the 240-year-old United States has tended to pour money and aid back into countries it has fought to help re-establish governments and services. It was, in fact, a kind of nation-building approach. The US still has troops in Germany and Japan, with the permission of those nations, but it never confiscated their natural resources.

In his speech, Trump said as president he would discard nationbuilding. In its place would be what he called a new approach, which he described simply as halting the spread of “radical Islam.” AP

World

sMirror

Colorado voters to consider suicide drugs for terminally ill

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ENVER—Colorado voters this fall will decide whether terminally ill people should be allowed to receive prescriptions for drugs to end their own lives.

The “Medical Aid in Dying” measure was certified on Monday as having enough petition signatures to make ballots this fall.

Five other states have some law allowing the terminally ill to end their lives. Oregon passed the first right-to-die law in 1998, followed by Washington, Vermont and, last year, California. Montana’s state Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that doctors could use a patient’s request for life-ending medication as a defense against any criminal charges.

Colorado’s version would require two physicians to agree that a person is terminally ill and has six months or less to live, is at least 18, and is mentally competent.

Similar measures have twice failed in the Colorado Legislature. Lawmakers from both parties said the law could facilitate suicide in cases where a diagnosis may be wrong.

The suicide measure becomes the third citizen petition to make Colorado ballots. Voters will also decide a universal health-care measure and a higher minimum wage.

The secretary of state is reviewing petitions for several more ballot measures, including a higher tobacco tax, a plan to replace presidential caucuses with presidential preference primaries, and two measures to change regulations on oil and gas drilling. Another pending measure would make it harder to put a ballot measure to voters, requiring more geographic diversity in the 98,000 or so signatures to put a proposal before voters.

Supporters of Colorado’s suicide measure had raised about $4.4 million

by August 1, according to state filings.

Opponents, including the Colorado Catholic Conference, had not reported any fundraising by August 1. AP

www.businessmirror.com.ph | Wednesday, August 17, 2016

UN chief says he’d like a woman to be next secretary-general

U

NITED NATIONS—Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he would personally like to see a woman lead the United Nations for the first time since it was established more than 70 years ago.

As he nears the end of his second five-year term on December 31, Ban said “it’s high time now” for a female secretary-general after eight men at the helm of the world organization.

There are currently 11 candidates vying to succeed Ban—six men and five women.

But he stressed that the decision is not up to him—it’s up to the 15-member Security Council which must recommend a candidate to the 193-member General Assembly for its approval.

The UN chief was asked about the possibility of a female secretary-general during a trip to California last week.

Sitting onstage in Los Angeles last Wednesday with US Rep. Ed Royce, a California Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ban stressed that women comprise half the world’s population and should be empowered and “given equal opportunities.”

“We have many distinguished and eminent women leaders in national governments or other organizations or even business communities, political communities, and cultural and every aspect of our life,” he said a day later in an Associated Press (AP) interview. “There’s no reason why not in the United Nations.”

Without giving any names, he said, there are “many distinguished, motivated women leaders

who can really change this world, who can actively engage with the other leaders of the world.”

“So that’s my humble suggestion, but that’s up to member states,” Ban said in the AP interview last Thursday during a visit to the home of 99-year-old Libba Patterson in Novato where he spent his first days in the United States as an 18-yearold student from South Korea.

He praised the General Assembly for holding the first-ever public hearings for all the candidates seeking to succeed him.

By tradition, the job of secretarygeneral has rotated among regions of the world. Officials from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Western Europe have all held the world’s top diplomatic post. East European nations, including Russia, argue that they have never had a secretarygeneral and it is their turn. A group of 56 nations are campaigning for the first female UN chief.

The Security Council has held two informal polls in which 12 candidates participated, and in each the highest-ranked woman was in third place, a disappointment to many. Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, a former UN refugee chief, topped both polls.

In the first “straw” poll Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, who heads the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, came in third but in

Obama urges Democrats to campaign for Clinton

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HILMARK, Massachusetts— Adding a touch of politics to his vacation, President Barack Obama on Monday urged Democrats to campaign aggressively for the next 80 days to elect presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, saying “if we do not do our jobs, then it’s still possible for her to lose.”

“When I say do our jobs, what I mean is we are going to have to continue to be engaged, we are going to continue to have to write checks, we are going to continue to have to make phone calls and rally people behind her candidacy,” Obama said.

He also urged the Democratic donors at a Clinton fund-raiser to help counter an “unrelenting negative campaign” against the former secretary of state “that has made a dent in the opinion of people even who are inclined to vote for her.”

Clinton’s standing among voters has suffered from perceptions that she is dishonest, along with her use of a private e-mail server when she ran the State Department and the appearance of conflicts of interest between the department when she was in charge and her family foundation.

“We have to be aggressive in our campaign for 80 days, and that’s not a lot,” Obama said. “But when you think about the stakes, there’s nothing more important” than electing Clinton to continue the economic and other progress he described under his leadership.

Democrats Hank Goldberg and his wife, Carol Brown Goldberg,

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hosted the event at their home in Chilmark, the same town where the president is renting a vacation home. About 60 Obama and Clinton supporters paid between $10,000 and $33,400 to attend the event that was held in a tent on the sprawling property. Servers wore white aprons that said, “Thank You, President Obama.”

The proceeds will benefit Clinton’s campaign, the Democratic National Committee and state parties across the country.

Obama pointedly did not mention Donald Trump, Clinton’s Republican opponent, by name and said he’s tired of talking about the New York businessman he earlier this month dismissed as “unfit to serve.”

“I don’t have to make the case against her opponent because every time he talks he makes the case against his own candidacy,” Obama said.

The president said his wife, Michelle, is “very strict” about him actually being on vacation when he goes on vacation. But, he said, “she gave me special dispensation for this evening because she understands, just as all of you understand, how important this is.”

Obama is expected to campaign aggressively for Clinton in the fall run-up to the November 8 elections.

Clinton did not join Obama at the fundraiser. Earlier on Monday, she made her first campaign appearance with Vice President Joe Biden in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, a state both she and Trump are competing to win. AP

In this photo taken on August 11, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sits during an interview in Novato, California. During the interview, he said he would personally like to see a woman become the next secretary-general of the United Nations for the first time since it was established more than 70 years ago. AP

the second she dropped to fifth. In the second poll Argentina’s Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra, who was Ban’s former chief of staff, moved up to third. Former Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic, who placed last in the first poll, dropped out of the race.

The three other women candidates are New Zealand’s former Prime Minister Helen Clark, who heads the UN Development Program; Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica, the UN official who played a key role in shaping last December’s historic agreement to fight climate change; and former Moldovan Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman,

The Security Council has scheduled another “straw” poll on Aug. 29 and at least one, and possibly two, are expected to be held in September.

There is no deadline for nominations and two women mentioned as long-shot late entries are German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Kristalina Georgieva, another Bulgarian who is the European Commission’s budget chief and a former top World Bank official.

Ban spoke of the qualities he thinks are important for “any secretary-general, he or she.”

The prospective secretary-general should have “a clear vision for the world of the future” and “strong

integrity and commitment” to make progress toward peace and promote development and human rights, he said, and the ability to tackle seemingly intractable issues through inclusive dialogue and with flexibility.

His successor should also have “strong compassionate and visionary leadership” and be able to articulate the importance of human dignity for vulnerable groups including women and girls, the disabled and “people in homosexual orientations and minority groups,” Ban said.

“If not the United Nations, who will take care of those people?” he asked. AP

By many measures, Milwaukee remains toughest city for blacks I

N the country’s long history of racial strife, a few cities have become flashpoints: Los Angeles; Chicago; Ferguson; Missouri; and Baltimore.

But by many measures, there is no tougher place to be black in America than Milwaukee, where in recent days the shooting death of a black man by a black police officer has led to violent protests, riots that destroyed businesses and gunfire.

The city of 600,000 along Lake Michigan is also the country’s most segregated metropolitan area, surpassing larger, deeply divided Midwestern cities, such as Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit, a 2012 Manhattan Institute analysis of census data found.

The overwhelming majority of the black residents who make up 40 percent of Milwaukee’s population are concentrated on its north side—where the rioting and Saturday’s shooting occurred—and away from the breweries and festivals that draw tourists to the waterfront.

People living on the north side are far more likely to live in poverty, to be incarcerated or to be out of work than those in the city overall or the metro area, according to a University of WisconsinMilwaukee report. Wisconsin also has the highest rate of black unemployment of any state, and it leads the country in the number of black men behind bars, with

20 The percentage of black unemployment rate in 2014 in Wisconsin, according to a 2015 study by the Economic Policy Institute

one out of eight in prison or jail as of the 2010 census, another study found.

Small-town mentality

IT is a reality that most people don’t see or hear about, in part, because Milwaukee’s size often excludes it from nationwide rankings or news accounts of bigcity problems. Some community leaders also have preferred not to publicize the issues, said state Sen. Lena Taylor, who still lives on the same north side block where she grew up.

“We’ve always been known as a city with a small-town mentality,” Taylor said. “We’re a destination.

We don’t want people to be afraid to come to Milwaukee.”

There’s also a misconception among outsiders about

Wisconsin, she said.

“They don’t also think we have black people.”

The state is investigating the fatal shooting of Sylville Smith, whom Milwaukee police say was shot after he turned toward an officer with a gun in his hand.

Police say the 23-year-old was fleeing after a traffic stop.

The police Chief Edward Flynn has blamed protesters from outside of Milwaukee for much of the unrest, saying protests and prayer vigils had been peaceful Sunday until a group from Chicago showed up.

Decades of racial tension

BUT the protests of recent days follow decades of racial tension, particularly between the black community and the police.

Cecil Brewer, 67, lives near the gas station rioters burned on Saturday night. He’s lived in Milwaukee for the last 14 or 15 years, and said black people have a target on them. He’s constantly afraid an officer will pull him over.

“It’s a form of racism that if you haven’t lived it, you can’t understand it,” he said. “People look at me because of the color of my skin. It’s messed up.”

Many of Milwaukee’s black families came to the area after World War II to work in the city’s factories, where good-paying jobs were plentiful.

Then came the fight for civil

rights. After a 1967 riot turned deadly, a white priest, the Rev. James Groppi, led 200 nights of marches to push for fair-housing laws. Joining him on some of those marches was the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a civil-rights leader who participated in similar marches across the country.

Classic box car

THE story of struggle in Milwaukee’s black community is similar to what has happened in other cities across the US, Jackson said on Monday. The factories closed or moved jobs to the suburbs or overseas. A lack of transportation made it tougher for people to find work, and poverty led to violence and other problems, Jackson said.

“This is another classic box car on the train of urban neglect,” he said of Milwaukee. “You have a jobs desert. People have no place to work.”

According to a 2015 study by the Economic Policy Institute, Wisconsin’s black unemployment rate was nearly 20 percent in 2014.

The numbers are even bleaker in Milwaukee’s north side. A study of what’s considered the most disadvantaged zip code found that just over a third of men ages 20 to 64 living there were employed, compared with 78 percent in the greater metro area. AP

A8 Wednesday, August 17, 2016

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Melting glaciers pose threat beyond water scarcity: floods

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ASTORURI GLACIER, Peru—The tropical glaciers of South America are dying from soot and rising temperatures, threatening water supplies to communities that have depended on them for centuries. But experts say the slow process measured in inches of glacial retreat per year also can lead to a sudden, dramatic tragedy.

The melting of glaciers, like Peru’s Pastoruri, has put cities like Huaraz, located downslope from the glacier about 55 kilometers away, at risk from what scientists call a “glof ”—glacial lake outburst flood.

A glof occurs when the weak walls of a mountain valley collapse under the weight of meltwater from a glacier. Recent examples include the rapid draining in 2013 of a lake at Chile’s Ventisquero glacier in the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, six years after another, nearby lake essentially disappeared there.

Those sites are in remote, sparsely populated Patagonia. But if the glacial Palcacocha lake collapsed, it could cause a damaging flood, experts in Peru say, sort of like a smaller, modern cousin of the ancient glof that is thought to have carved the English Channel.

“As glaciers disappear around the world, there is less water available for use for hydroelectric power, as a renewable resource for agriculture, for human consumption,” said Benjamin Orlove, a professor of international and public affairs at Colombia University in New York.

“The glacier retreat also brings many disasters. Entire slopes are destabilized, creating landslides that travel many miles and have destroyed entire towns.”

Benjamin Morales Arnao, the head of Peru’s National Institute for Glacier Research, said that, while the country’s glaciers “are a source of life, due to their water resources and biodiversity...these glaciers are also a source of glacial catastrophes.”

The problem is that glacial lakes are often fragile structures, created when rocks and rubble carried by a glacier form a moraine that dams up its water outflow. The dam can also be created by chunks of a glacier’s own ice. These inherently unstable structures can collapse quickly, especially in a place like Peru, which is prone to frequent, violent earthquakes.

At a conference last week on the glacier retreat in Peru, Morales Arnao said Huaraz, a city of about 100,000 people, is particularly at risk from the glacial Palcacocha lake, just 20 kilometers up the mountain above the city, and called for resources to mitigate the risk.

In the past, dams, spillways and other waterworks have helped in other places.

Massive glofs have occurred regularly in sparsely populated parts of Iceland and other nations.

100,000 The estimated number of people in the city of Huaraz who, a scientist said, are particularly at risk from the glacial Palcacocha lake

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, a regional intergovernmental research center serving the eight countries of the Himalayas, said in Nepal—whose proximity to the highest and largest meltwater sources in the world makes it particularly vulnerable—“little attention was paid to the phenomenon until the sudden outburst of the Dig Tsho,” a relatively small meltwater lake in the Mount Everest National Park.

On August 4, 1985, the lake’s moraine dam collapsed, and all its water drained into a downstream valley in four hours, causing losses as far as 50 kilometers to 60 km downstream.

Scientists later determined that “a large ice and rock avalanche had cascaded into the lake, creating a wave that spilled over the moraine and caused it to collapse,” the center’s report said. “It discharged an estimated 6 to 10 million cubic meters [as much as 2.6 billion gallons] of water into the valley below.”

Dig g ing stone- or cementlined channels through glacial d a ms is one solut ion to t he threat. Many moraine dams collapse because meltwater erodes them by seepage or overtopping them. Stopping global warming that is increasingly causing glaciers to melt is another.

Experts at the International Forum on Glaciers and Mountain Ecosystems held in Huaraz last week concluded that the world is going to have to plan on melting glaciers, at least for the time being. “ T he processes of c l imate change and glacial melting are irreversible,” the forum said in its conclusions. “We have to carry out actions to adapt, and mitigate the risks.”

“The long-term solution is for the world to shift to different energy sources, sources that are renewable, sources that do not emit gases that cause climate change,” Orlove said.

“In the short term, we have to find adaptations, like installing early warning systems for disasters in the most sensitive areas.” AP

IN this August 12 photo, a group of tourists walk in front of the Pastoruri glacier in a tour called “The Route of Climate Change” in Huaraz, Peru. The melting of glaciers, like the Pastoruri, has put cities, like Huaraz, located downslope from the glacier about 55 kilometers away, at risk from what scientists call a “glof,” or glacial lake outburst flood. A glof occurs when the weak walls of a mountain valley collapse under the weight of meltwater from a glacier. AP

Shallow quake in Peru kills at least 4, including US tourist

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IM A , Per u—A sh a l low, 5.4-magnitude earthquake shook southern Peru’s picturesque Colca Valley, killing at least four people, including a US tourist, and injuring 52 as it toppled adobe homes, authorities said on Monday.

The quake hit at 9:58 p.m. local time on Sunday near the town of

Chivay, which is north of the city of Arequipa, with an epicenter just 6 miles (10 kilometers) deep, the US Geological Survey said.

A 65-year-old US man died at the Eco Inn Valle del Colca in Yanque, close to Chivay, when part of the hotel’s ceiling collapsed on him, local Gov. Cipriano Llasa said.

“His body is inside the hotel be-

cause the highways are blocked and the prosecutor has not arrived,” Llasa told The Associated Press (AP) by phone. The AP called the hotel repeatedly but the phone went unanswered.

The victim’s identity could not immediately be confirmed.

The walls and roofs of dozens of adobe homes in Yanque collapsed in the quake, Llasa said. “A lot of irri-

gation canals are destroyed, too.”

He said the only way to evacuate the injured was by helicopter.

Yanque is an hour’s drive from a famed condor-watching outlook that is popular with foreign tourists.

Peru’s last major earthquake, of 7.9 magnitude, hit on August 15, 2007, and killed nearly 600 people in the coastal city of Pisco. AP

Advisers charged in tribe’s marijuana resort enter pleas

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LANDREAU, South Dakota—Two consultants who helped a native American tribe plan the nation’s first marijuana resort entered opposing pleas on Monday to drug offenses, with the attorney for the man who pleaded not guilty arguing outside of court that South Dakota’s top prosecutor is proceeding under a “legal fiction.”

Jonathan Hunt, who oversaw the first crop for the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy count in the city of Flandreau, which is adjacent to the tribe’s reservation where the ambitious “adult playground” never took off. Eric Hagen, the CEO of the Colorado-based consulting firm Monarch America, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to possess, possession and attempt to possess more than 10 pounds of marijuana.

The charges were filed on August 3, eight months after tribal leaders destroyed the marijuana crop,

fearing a federal raid, and walking away from the headline-grabbing scheme that they estimated would have yielded up to $2 million in monthly profits.

Hagen’s attorney, Mike Butler, spoke publicly for the first time on Monday, blasting Atty. Gen. Marty Jackley for charging his client because he “couldn’t go after the tribe.”

“I am yet unaware of any evidence, any evidence, that my client possessed even a gram of marijuana,” Butler said outside the courtroom. “...The marijuana belonged to the Santee Sioux Tribe. They paid for it. They had legal ownership of it at all times. Mr. Hagen never had possession, actual or constructive, of the marijuana alleged in this case.”

Butler said he will call tribal officials to testify in court.

Hunt and his attorney declined to comment to The Associated Press on Monday. Hunt is to be sentenced on December 19, though

the date could change depending on Hagen’s case. The prosecution recommended probation.

The tribe’s attorney, Seth Pearman, said tribal officials are not commenting on the cases at the moment. No tribal officials are charged.

Adult playground

COURT documents say Hunt ordered 55 different strains of marijuana seeds from a company in the Netherlands that were put in CD cases and sewn into shirts and shipped to the tribe’s office in August 2015.

Authorities say Hunt and others planted about 30 strains in September and October at the greenhouse on the reservation.

Authorities allege that Hagen conspired to possess, possessed and attempted to possess the marijuana plants that were being grown at the greenhouse.

The Santee Sioux began to explore growing marijuana after the Justice Department outlined a new policy in 2014, clearing the

way for Indian tribes to grow and sell marijuana under the same conditions as some states that have legalized pot. When tribal leaders initially touted their plan to open the resort, Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe President Anthony Reider said they wanted it to be “an adult playground.”

The ambitious plans included a smoking lounge with a nightclub, bar and food service and, eventually, an outdoor music venue. Tribal officials planned to use the money for community services and to provide income to tribal members.

But weeks after the growing operation took off, the crop was burned in batches—about 600 plants in all—after federal officials signaled a potential raid.

Jackley warned against the idea from the outset, saying changes in tribal law to permit the operation wouldn’t protect non-tribal members. Hunt is not a member of any recognized tribe in the US. AP

North Carolina asks Supreme Court to keep voter ID requirements for now

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ALEIGH, North Carolina— North Carolina officials asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to keep a voter identification requirement and 10 days of early voting for the November election, even after a lower appeals court ruled these changes illegally restricted voting by blacks.

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory said his lawyers and those for other officials, including some hired by GOP legislative leaders who championed the 2013 law, asked the court to delay enforcement of last month’s ruling by the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals.

The delay would occur while attorneys draft an appeal for the justices to con-

sider the inherent issues in the case more deeply. The ruling struck down the photo ID mandate and returned early voting to 17 days.

The attorneys wrote that altering the voter laws would create voter confusion weeks before the election in North Carolina, a presidential battleground state with races for governor and US Senate also on the ballot. The voter ID requirement already was used in this year’s primary elections.

“North Carolina should not be forced to scramble mere months before the general election to rejigger settled election plans at the Fourth Circuit’s command,” the state’s at-

torneys wrote to Chief Justice John Roberts. Roberts receives such appeals for North Carolina matters.

Black voters

A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit already refused to delay their July 29 ruling, which found the Republican-led General Assembly enacted the law with intentional discrimination in mind. The court ruled the changes targeted black voters more likely to support Democrats.

McCrory has said the ruling is factually wrong and maligned the state, adding that requiring photo ID makes common sense and protects the integ-

rity of elections at a time when people must show IDs all the time.

“The Fourth Circuit’s ruling is just plain wrong and we cannot allow it to stand,” McCrory said in a release.

The appeals judges pointed out attorneys defending the law provided no evidence of anyone charged with committing in-person voter fraud.

The legislature received racial data before the law passed about usage of the practices that were ultimately offered, according to the Fourth Circuit ruling that overturned a trial court decision.

The new provisions “target African- Americans with almost surgical precision,” said the Fourth Circuit rul-

ing, which also struck down provisions eliminating same-day registration during the early voting period and the counting of election day ballots cast by a person outside of their home precinct.

The state’s attorneys said on Monday black voter turnout increased in 2014, the first year some of the changes took place. Voter ID also allows people having trouble obtaining a qualified form of ID to vote by providing other information.

“Neither the state nor its residents should be forced to suffer the additional indignity of being prohibited from carrying out the general election under laws that have so far

proven to expand minority access to the franchise,” the lawyers wrote.

Outside the court

GROUPS who sued to overturn the law and their allies have said it’s time Republicans quit fighting in court— they’ve spend millions of dollars in outside legal fees—and ensure counties have enough money to meet the expected high turnout at their polls.

Not participating in the Supreme Court request is Atty. Gen. Roy Cooper, a Democrat challenging McCrory in November. He said his office would no longer defend the voter ID law after the 4th Circuit decision. AP

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Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Wednesday, August 17, 2016 A9

Coconut industry holds 1st Cocolink 2016 in Davao

By Ma. Melvin Joves | Product Officer, Coconut Sector

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Food and Agri-Marine Division, DTI-EMB

IGHLIGHTING the theme “Bridging Industries,” Cocolink 2016 debuted in Davao City on July 27 and 28 via the First International Coconut Conference (ICC).

More than 500 guests participated in the event, mostly coconut processors, exporters, traders, consolidators and farmer cooperatives from all over the country.

Cocolink is an international conference led by the Davao Region Coconut Industry Cluster Inc. (DRCICI), a group of coconut producers in Davao formed jointly by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), under the Davao Industry Cluster Capacity Enhancement Project (DICCEP) in 2007. Coconut cluster is one of the successful clusters under this project. It is supported by the ACDI-VOCA, an economic development organization supported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that fosters broad-based economic growth.

DRCICI President Reynaldo Go said the First Cocolink 2016 was able to gather coconut-industry stakeholders to help address the local challenges and global opportunities through cooperation among industry players and enablers, which include local and global partners in the value chain. The event linked together industry players by shar-

ing best practices from production to marketing, he said.

Among the topics discussed were the state of the coconut industry; the Philippine Coconut Industry Situationer; coconut technologies and production; coconut-based farming systems and income diversification; Doing Business in Free-Trade Areas (DBFTA); and the Coconut Industry Development Initiatives and Sustainability Programs.

New and innovative coconut products were showcased during the conference, with pet products made of coco coir creating interests among foreign buyers from Dubai and the US. Products, like coconut cooking oil, coco sugar, coco jam, virgin coconut oil, coco cream, coco milk, coco water and other products made of coconut, were among those featured in the event.

As a parallel event, the DTI’s Export Marketing Bureau (EMB) conducted business-to-business (B2B) meetings with buyers from Japan, Korea, Dubai and the US. A total of 74 Philippine producers and exporters of coconut food products and non-food products, mostly coming from Luzon and Mindanao, participated in the business meetings. DTI-EMB was able

SPEAKERS at the Doing Business in Free-Trade Areas information session during Cocolink 2016 in Davao Cesar Galvez (center), vice president for Operations of Franklin Baker; and Yvonne CV Agustin (left), executive director of the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines, join Rose Marie Castillo (from left), head of the EMB Food and Agri-Marine Division; Georgina Verdeflor of the EMB’s Market Innovation Division; and Leonisa Selga of the EMB’s Food and Agri-Marine Division after the session held on July 28 at the SMX Lanang Plenary Hall. Lorri lobarbio

to profile more than 70 new and existing coconut-producing companies under its National Exporters Profiling Program (NEPP).

A networking dinner reception sponsored by the DRCICI, where buyers had the chance to meet Mindanao- and Manila-based suppliers and exporters, was held at the Waterfront Insular Hotel on July 28. Guests and buyers feasted on local fruits, like durian, mango-

steen and marang, while enjoying a cultural presentation featuring ethnic Muslim dances.

EMB Director Senen M. Perlada said, “It has taken us this long time to be able to do the First International Coconut Conference. I hope this will not be the last, because precisely, this initiative can be the beginning of what we have to do in order to get the coconut industry together.”

Go said his group is now preparing for Cocolink 2017 and looks forward to receiving the same support from the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) and the DTI. He said next year’s event will be bigger and teeming with international buyers from as far as Europe and the US. He said the campaign will be more intensive, especially in areas considered as nontraditional markets of coco-

nut products.

“Cocolink will be the premier coconut event in this side of the globe, attracting buyers from all over the world,” he said.

This year’s Cocolink was also supported by various government agencies in Region 11, such as the PCA, the DTI and the Department of Tourism. It also got assistance from the Foreign Trade Service Corps and the Department of Agriculture.

DTI-EMB conducts DBFTA session during 1st Intl Coconut Conference in Davao

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HE First International Coconut Conference (ICC) held in Davao City on July 27 and 28 provided a venue for the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Export Marketing Bureau (EMB) to hold a seminar on its major program, called Doing Business in Free-Trade Areas (DBFTA) to more than 500 coconutindustry representatives.

The seminar sought to motivate coconut producers to export more products to destinations where the Philippines has free-trade agreements (FTA) in order to maximize the benefits and privileges these agreements offer.

The DBFTA is one of the EMB’s major programs where information on trade negotiations and agreements are discussed and explained.

The Davao session highlighted the benefits offered by European Union Generalized System of Preferences Plus (EU-GSP+), a preferential tariff scheme granted by the EU to developing countries that meet very stringent application requirements. The Philippines, currently the only country in the Asean to be accepted in the scheme, applied for the scheme two years ago and was accepted formally into the EU-GSP+ program on December 18, 2014.

EMB Director Senen M. Perlada said Philippine producers can now export more than 6,000 products to any of the EU’s 28 membercountries at zero tariffs using the GSP+. Products that may have duty-free access include coconut and marine products, processed fruit, prepared food, animal and vegetable fats and oils, textiles, garments, headwear, footwear, furniture, umbrellas and chemicals.

Perlada quoted former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, “The winning corporations will be able to find success or their success will be judged by their international market share.” He added there is no need for the Philippines to isolate its economy to the rest of the world because “the world is just too big to ignore even as

SENEN M. PERLADA (center), director of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB), greets Reynaldo Go, chairman of Cocolink 2016 and Davao Region Coconut Industry Cluster Inc. (DRCICI), during the Cocolink 2016 Conference in Davao City held on July 27 and 28 at the Plenary Hall of SMX Lanang. Joining them are Rose Marie Castillo (left), EMB chief for Food and Agri-Marine Products, and DTI Davao del Sur Director Delia Ayano (right). LIZA SELGA

a market or as a competitor.”

Yvonne CV Agustin, executive Director of the United Coconut Associations of the Phippines (Ucap), said there are enormous prospects in Europe for coconut water. The Philippines exported more than 29 million liters of coconut water last year, a big leap from 100,000 liters exported 10 years ago.

Agustin said demand for coconut beverage or coconut water remains very high because consumer preference tends to favor simple beverages with all-natural ingredients, free from preservatives or additives and gluten, as compared to others which have a long list of components. She said consumers look for health benefits, such as organically produced, low in calories, fat, sodium and sugar, but containing electrolytes.

Agustin said the beverage sector will continue to derive things from health positioning, which has always been the selling point of coconut water and the very reason it gained acceptance from consumers worldwide.

“Despite carrying a price tag of around $1 per liter, coconut water remains the beverage to beat in the export market, with flavored coconut water [chocolate, coffee, pineapple and omega-infused] slowly penetrating nontraditional

markets,” she said.

On another note, greater demand is also seen for virgin coconut oil (VCO) products.

In a presentation, Cesar Galvez, VP for Operations of Franklin Baker (FB), said VCO is the fastest-growing coconut export product. He said that, based on global trends, there is increased demand for certified processed-coconut food products.

He emphasized the need to develop ethnic cuisines and cultures by way of SOLE food: sustainable, organized, local and ethical products.

Galvez said FB has started working directly with small coconut farmers through certification programs, like organic certification and fair trade. With this endeavor, he said FB ensures the premiums they put on the nuts go directly to farmers.

PCA leads 30th Coconut Week celebration Aug. 18-21

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HE Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) will lead the country’s 30th Coconut Week Celebration to coincide with the Third International Coconut Festival on August 18 to 21 at the SM Megamall.

With the theme “Coco Farm Productivity, Answer to Poverty,” the event aims to converge industry stakeholders to explore opportunities and address the challenges through cooperation among industry players and enablers.

The celebration is a venue to showcase technologies and best practices that would promote coconut productivity and increase material base for the production of value-added export products, such as coconut

water, activated carbon, coco coir and coconut oil.

Celebrity endorsers, including Ryzza Mae Dizon and Chef Boy Logro, will showcase cooking demonstrations using coconut. Food and coconut-wine tasting will also be a highlight, among other activities.

Seminars on various topics, like market access and global market trends, including training on virgin-coconut oil for Asean members, are part of the four-day event. Cocoweek is celebrated every August as mandated by Proclamation 142, Series 1987, signed by the late President Corazon C. Aquino in 1987.

It also serves as a tribute to the coconut as the “Tree of Life.” Ma. Melvin Joves

This is part of the company’s recognition of farmers as the backbone of their business.

“That means, we recognize the need for payback; to return to the farmers what is due to them,” he said.

The session included a lecture on “Product Breakthroughs and New Applications of Virgin Coconut Oil in Nontraditional Markets” given by Dr. Tony Mix, chairman of Natures Clinic. Dr. Mix is a naturopathic practitioner and a VCO advocate. Dr. Mix said VCO contains lauric acid and another fatty ingredient called capric acid. Capric and lauric acids enhance the ability of the pancreas to secrete insulin, he said.

Dr. Mix said, “This is great news for many diabetics dependent on daily insulin injections, as coconut oil can help cut down, if not eliminate, their reliance on insulin.”

Dr. Mix has a clinic in Quezon City.

A presentation was also made by a foreign buyer from Japan, Takeshi Minadani, an executive of Coconut Japan, who gave information about the current demand of Japan on coconut-food products. Minadani

said Japan needs around $140 million to $190 million worth of coconut oil annually. There is also demand for coconut sugar, coconut water and extravirgin coconut oil. Japan currently buys coconut products from Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Minadani said Japan is also an important market for coconutshell charcoal and activated carbon (AC) used to remove pollutants, contaminants and other impurities from water, air and food, such as beverages and pharmaceuticals.

Other major markets for coconut-shell products are Korea and Taiwan.

At present, aside from its FTA with the nine member-states of Asean, the Philippines is also a signatory to Asean’s FTA with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

The country also has a bilateral agreement with Japan and recently signed an FTA with the European Free Trade Association, composed of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. This agreement is still undergoing ratification. Ma. Melvin Joves

upcoming events Compiled by Louise Kaye G. Mendoza DTI-EMB Knowledge Processing Division

AUGUST 18

Event: Doing Business in Free-Trade Areas (DBFTA) for Catapulting Businesses for the Global Market

Attended by Josephine Sabas, Ingrid Javalera and AD Agnes Legaspi Venue: Cagayan de Oro City

AUGUST 24

Time: 1:30-4 p.m.

Event: Philippine Export Competitiveness Program • Overview of EMB Services and Export Procedures • Doing Business in Free Trade Areas (DBFTA) • Export Pricing and Costing Venue: Penthouse, DTI International Building, 375 Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue,

Makati City

A10 Wednesday, August 17, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

The final push for immigration reform

A

Donald Trump victory in November would presumably scuttle hope of soon fixing America’s broken immigration system. But Hillary Clinton has vowed to push for comprehensive reform in the first 100 days of her administration, should she prevail. It’s not too early to start planning.

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who is likely to be the next Democratic leader in the Senate, has predicted that immigration reform will pass in 2017.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican, has promised to revive the comprehensive reform that passed the Senate in 2013. With Republican leaders once again eager to put the issue behind them, could Congress finally break the logjam next year? This, of course, is the same logic that predicted comprehensive reform would follow in the wake of Mitt Romney’s 2012 defeat. Immigration restrictionists in the House turned that logic upside down. The only legislation to make it out of the House in 2013 made a mockery of reform, explicitly rejecting the bipartisan measures passed by the Senate.

The US cannot afford to miss its next opportunity. America’s unrepaired immigration system entails high costs not only for families caught in the stalled gears, but for myriad businesses and the economy as a whole. Technology companies, in particular, are on a crusade to increase the number of H-1B visas for highly skilled workers and to create a special visa for entrepreneurs. Likewise, activists have sought to curtail abuses of the current system. Neither group can be content with the flawed status quo.

The agriculture industry may be in an even tighter bind. In 2010 the year Arizona adopted its landmark law cracking down on immigrants, labor shortages cost American farms $300 million, according to the American Farm Bureau. While there is no cap on H-2A agricultural visas, the process of obtaining temporary foreign workers under the program is costly, cumbersome and subject to manipulation by recruiting agents who, sometimes, cheat the workers they place in jobs. Like the system for high-tech visas, the one for manual farm labor serves neither employers nor workers well. An effective, market-based alternative would not only aid American agriculture but probably reduce the flow of illegal immigration, by making legal employment the preferable option.

It’s impossible to support an innovative American economy without supporting an overhaul of the nation’s antiquated and dysfunctional immigration laws. With each day of political stasis, the costs to the American economy rise. The 2013 Senate bill stood to increase GDP by 3.3 percent after 10 years, or about $700 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

There is no shortage of ideas on how to fix the system. The basics of any political compromise will include new enforcement mechanisms, including mandatory use by employers of the E-Verify system, which checks work applicants against a federal database to determine eligibility; a path to legalization or citizenship for longtime resident undocumented immigrants; and an overhaul of key visa classifications, including those for tech workers and farmworkers, to make sure American industries can operate at peak productivity.

The problems have festered too long. A final push, powerful enough to overcome political obstacles, must begin in November. Bloomberg View

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Cashing on convenience Susie G. Bugante

All About Social Security

M

odern technology has afforded society countless means on how to do things the easier way, so that we can save time, money and effort in performing our tasks, whether in our personal or professional lives. A stellar example is the use of cards in our payment systems, which minimizes the need to carry large amounts of cash in our wallets and greatly enhances our capability to make purchases to address our needs and even satisfy our wants.

As part of its continuous pursuit to provide easier and convenient options for members, the Social Security System (SSS) has partnered with two major banks for the electronic disbursement of SSS salary-loan proceeds to borrowers through the use of cash cards.

This initiative marks another welcome development for members, given that the salary-loan program is one of the most popular and sought-after SSS services, with billions of loan funds disbursed to thousands of borrowers every year. In fact, for the first half of

this year, SSS already disbursed a total of P16.17 billion in salary loans to nearly 585,000 borrowers.

The loanable amount ranges from P1,000 up to P32,000, depending on the number and amount of contributions paid by the borrower at the time of application.

Under the salary loan releases through the bank program, the SSS has started the issuance of the Citi Prepaid Card from Citibank Philippines and the Quick Card from the Union Bank of the Philippines (UBP).

The Citi Prepaid Card and Quick Card present convenient alternatives

to the traditional method of releasing salary-loan funds in the form of checks sent through mail—a process that can take as long as three weeks given the time it requires to print, mail and clear the check. Members would also have to physically go to the bank to deposit or encash the check just to be able to use their salary-loan funds. Mailed checks also carry the risk of possible loss, theft or misdelivery.

In contrast, SSS cash cards from Citibank and UBP are immediately issued to members on the same day as their salary-loan application. Moreover, borrowers will only need to wait for three to five working days from the date of loan application for their salary-loan proceeds to be credited to their accounts.

The use of the SSS salary-loan cash cards is similar to the functionalities offered by debit and automated teller machine (ATM) cards. This means members can conveniently withdraw their loan funds at affiliated ATMs locally and overseas at any time of the day. They can also use their cash card for overthe-counter and online purchases at accredited merchants.

Members would also be happy to know that these SSS cash cards from Citibank and UBP are issued at no

cost to the borrower. The partner bank will only charge a replacement fee if the card gets lost or damaged.

Interested members can apply for the Citi Prepaid Cash Card at SSS branches in Diliman, MakatiGil Puyat, Alabang, Bacoor, Manila, Caloocan, Makati-Ayala, Pasig-Shaw, Cebu, Davao and at the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency in Mandaluyong City. Meanwhile, the UBP Quick Card is currently offered in SSS Diliman, Makati-Gil Puyat, Pasig-Shaw, Caloocan, Makati-Ayala, Mandaluyong and Manila.

At present, more than 45,000 members have already experienced the benefits offered by using the salary-loan cash card, and the SSS has disbursed over P865 million so far through the Citi Prepaid Card and UBP Quick Card.

Salary-loan application forms are available in any SSS branch and are downloadable from the SSS. For more details on SSS programs, members can drop by the nearest SSS branch, visit the SSS web site (www.sss.gov.ph), or contact the SSS call center at 920-6446 to 55, which accepts calls from 7 a.m. on Monday all the way to 7 a.m. on Saturday.

Susie G. Bugante is the vice president for public affairs and special events of the SSS. Send comments about this column to susiebugante.bmirror@gmail.com.

Go slow on fishing, yes, but build ‘fish factories’ Michael Makabenta Alunan

on the contrary

F

ishing is an age-old food-gathering activity of our cavemen ancestors that is totally dependent on the bounties of nature, but is increasingly no longer enough to feed an increasing population, thus, there must be an urgent drive to go back to Research Development and Extension (RD&E) to produce fish in “factories,” a revolutionary paradigm shift from traditional fish catching.

Don’t teach fishing, it’s now destructive? An age-old adage goes “giving someone a piece of fish will only last him a day, so teach him how to fish to last him a lifetime.” Although this proverb remains true in principle, literally it no longer holds true in reality today.

Average fish catch has been declining steadily, despite the fact we are an archipelago having among the biggest territorial waters and the world’s largest marine biodiversity.

A study by the Fisheries Center of the University of British Columbia of Canada said that, while Philippine population increased by 5.4 percent from 1990 to 1977, fishery production grew by only 1.8 percent a year. Subsequently, 119,000 fishers in 1900 enjoyed fish catch of 4

tons each, but by 1977, the 501,000 fishers caught an average of only 1.4 tons each.

In 1995, while total fish catch continued to increase, fish catch for small fishermen declined, as big fish operators caught the bulk with their better fishing gears. But by 1996, even commercial fishers started feeling the pinch of declining catch, it added. The reasons: illegal fishing and massive fishing owing to rising demand from ever rising population, thus causing tremendous pressures on fishery resources.

Fisherfolk sinking fast in poverty. This dismal trend continued in the last administration, despite bigger funds for agriculture, and the doubling of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources’s (BFAR)

budget from about P3 billion to over P6 billion a year.

In 2011 overall fishery volume production dropped by 3.6 percent to 4.97 million tons, from 5.16 million tons in 2010. This slid down further in 2012 to 4.82 million tons and stagnated in succeeding years, according to the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics (BAS).

As a result, our fisherfolk continue to sink deeper in poverty. As early as 2003, poverty incidence among fisherfolk was already at 35 percent, slightly better than farmers at 37 percent, but by 2009 fisherfolk surpassed farmers’s poverty rate of 36.7 percent by hitting 41.4 percent, the National Statistical Coordination Board says. Poverty among the urban poor is even better at only 12.8 percent, compared to fisherfolk and farmers, from whose ranks come the massive influx of rural-to-urban migrants.

Overkill response to overfishing? But what has been the government’s knee-jerk reaction to declining fish catch is “conservationism,” which was adopted hook, line and sinker by the BFAR, as it shifted toward total regulation and enforcement as manifested by the “Bantay Dagat” and “Anticyanide Fishing” programs, and got worst a few years back when it started conducting military training for fisherfolk by military and police officers,

and bought arms and patrol boats to protect fishery resources.

Regulation is fine, but when you make an opposite pendulum swing by abandoning RD&E, the results are disastrous in fish production. The BFAR even pushed for the passage of the more stringent amended Fishery Code throught Republic Act 10654, which lapsed into law on February 27, 2015, even without President Benigno S. Aquino III’s signature, in accordance allegedly with Article VI, Section 27 (1) of the Constitution.

Fish operators, led by the Alliance of Philippine Fishing Federation Inc. (APFFI), decried the law as too onerous. For one, it requires all commercial vessels to install monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) gadgets costing over P240,000 each, plus monthly subscription of P20,000.

Second is the designation of “fishery protocols” to board these vessels and allegedly paid by the fish operators.

Third are the numerous violations such as “fishing without permits,” “unauthorized fishing,” “fishing beyond national jurisdiction,” etc., with the onerous varying penalties equivalent to two to five times the value of catch caught, or whichever is higher, against penalties based on vessel tonnage capacity, namely, P2 million to P9 million for small-scale commercial fishers, P10 See “Alunan,” A11

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Insurance investments in real estate

Gearing up for e-Philippines Arrenz Joseph B. Magnabihon

Atty. Dennis B. Funa

INSURANCE FORUM

I

nsurance companies, both life and nonlife, may invest in real estate intended to be its main place of business or to serve as its branch offices. The limitation is that its value should not exceed 20 percent of its net worth (Section 206 [b] [1]). For nonlife companies, a specific provision (Section 210 [a]) provides that the lot and building where the company conducts its business shall not exceed 20 percent of the net worth of such company.

Life companies may, likewise, invest

in housing projects, provided the aggregate book value in such projects must not exceed 25 percent of the total admitted assets (Section 208 [a]). Life companies may also invest in real estate, which produces income. Thus, in real properties improved or developed for investment purposes (Section 208 [b]). The limitation in this kind of investment is that the cost of each real property, including the estimated cost of development, together with the book value of all its other real properties, shall not exceed 25 percent of its admitted assets (Section 208 [b]).

Investments in housing projects and real properties producing income do not apply to nonlife companies. Note that when so allowed for life companies, there are no restrictions on investments in real properties located outside the Philippines. The Insurance Code is silent on investments in real properties outside the Philippines. Generally, investments by insurance companies in real-estate have been small. The little interest in real-estate investment seems to be also present in other jurisdictions.

In the United States the acquisition of real estate is the most restricted area of investment. Originally, investment in real estate was limited to ownership of home and branch offices. The New York Insurance Code was amended in 1922 to allow life-insurance companies to invest in housing projects. The California Code was amended in 1940 to allow insurance companies to invest in housing projects within the state. In 1942 the state of Virginia allowed the acquisition of real estate, which could be leased for the production of income.

Today real estate in the US continues to be “stringently regulated.” As cited

by Henebry and Diamond: “There are three states that limit real-estate holdings to no more than 5 percent of admitted assets and only three states

Alunan. . .

continued from A10

million to P15 million for medium scale, to as high as P25 million to P45 million for large-scale vessels 750 tons or heavier.

APFFI was reported as saying it has never encountered such surge in penalties from the current P10,000 per violation to five times the value of fish catch plus the confiscation of fishing gear and vessel. Moreover, upon conviction, the top 3 officials can be imprisoned for six months plus additional penalties twice the earlier fines. Indeed, the old penalties are outdated, but whether the new penalties are too much, or whether they only invite bribery to skirt penalties, the law needs to be reviewed.

Meanwhile, closed seasons were declared without understanding fish behavior, like tuna, which has no nationality and swims across oceans.

So, instead of fighting government, many of our deep-sea operators have registered their catch in Indonesia, Papa New Guinea and other islandnations in Micronesia.

Revive Research and Techno Transfers. Dr. Pilar F. Fontelar, PhD, the only fishery scientist probably left in the country as many of her kind have been pirated or joined research institutions abroad, argues that “no amount of regulation will increase fish catch to match demand.”

Speaking before a seminar on Wednesday organized by the Foodlink Advocacy Cooperative at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P), Fontelar stressed that “we

that place no limits on holdings. Some states, in regulating real-estate investment, split limits along types of holdings. For example, New York limits real-estate holdings for the purpose of investment income to 12.5 percent and holdings for the company’s own office space to 10 percent of admitted assets.”

In China insurance companies were only allowed to invest in real estate for “self-use” until October 2009 when the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) allowed domestic real-estate investment. Subsequent deregulation allowed insurance companies to invest up to 30 percent of their total assets in real estate, and up to 15 percent of their total assets in overseas investment. It is expected that by 2019, overseas realestate investment of Chinese insurance companies will reach $73 billion. The Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York was acquired by Anbang Insurance for $1.95 billion. The Tower Place in London was purchased by Ping An for $520 million.

In July 2013 the Lloyd’s of London building was also acquired by Ping An for $416 million. The10 Upper Bank Street in London was acquired by China Life Insurance for $1.33 billion in June 2014. London has become a favorite city for Chinese investors with $2.8 billion in Chinese capital spent in 2013 alone.

Notwithstanding these high-profile acquisitions, overseas investments still remain low. In August 2014 the total assets of China’s insurance industry stood at 9.5 trillion renminbi ($1.55 trillion).

In theory, therefore, up to $220 billion can be invested overseas in property or other assets.

In Europe M&G, the investment arm of insurer Prudential Plc., has invested £18 billion worth of real estate globally.

Dennis B. Funa is currently the deputy insurance commissioner for Legal Services of the Insurance Commission. E-mail: dennisfuna@yahoo.com.

need not reinvent the wheel, let us instead adopt developed technologies abroad and transfer them to suit local conditions.”

Fontelar presented Israel’s technological breakthroughs in aquaculture, producing even cold-climate fish, like salmon, in fish factories in the middle of a desert. She said Israel’s system was allegedly voted unanimously in the United Nations 146 vs. zero as the technology that could feed the world. Having worked with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources for 40 years, including 10 years of intermittent intensive fishery studies abroad, she has developed the expertise, network and access to the latest technologies. She was part of a team that introduced tilapia in the country three decades ago, developed tilapia sex reversal and crafted programs that made tilapia a top fish species in the market.

“From being a top contender in fishery research decades back, we are now lagging far behind. Local tilapia output averages only about five to eight pieces per square or cubic meter of water, but Israel can produce as many as 240 pieces or more,” Fontelar revealed.

Our ancestors learned how to fish thousands of years ago, but we must not continue teaching our children the same old fishing method—hook and line—because the modern way now is credit line to fund technologies that are products of human creativity. Through technology resulting in high productivity, we can attain real peace, so fish be with you.

E-mail: mikealunan@yahoo.com

Wednesday, August 17, 2016 A11

Driving Momentum

H

aving received his marching order from the President, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Rodolfo A. Salalima can now busy himself further with crafting a national broadband plan.

This is not the first national information-technology plan of the country, as we already have several iterations of it, such as the 2007 National Broadband Network awarded to ZTE and the 2011 five-year Digital Roadmap of the Commission on Information Communications Technologies.

However, this plan will be the first one to be handled by the newly created DICT. If implemented correctly, the first national broadband network

could finally help the Philippines get on the right track in terms of connectivity and e-governance.

The idea of e-governance is the provision of public service by capitalizing on available information and communications technology (ICT), paving the way for online government transactions. With regard to e-governance, the DICT need not reinvent the wheel, as there are plenty of countries that they could

mirror. Take the case of Estonia, the once Soviet Republic has successfully transitioned from a technology deprived nation to the most advanced digital society in the world that has basically written the book on e-governance. Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Estonia found itself in a technological backwater where less than half of its population had a telephone and their only connection to the outside world was through a telephone line that lay hidden in a garden. Left as a literal “blank slate,” Estonia rid itself of Soviet legacy systems and implemented a flat-income tax system, free-trade policies and hassle-free business registration process that spurred the rise of local technopreneurs. Eventually, these individuals gave the world its “Skype”, “Hotmail”, and “KaZaa”. When Finland offered its 1970s analogue telephone system for free, the country declined and decided to build its own. In addition, it took the Estonian government less

So long to India’s monetary rock star

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By Mihir Sharma | BloombergView

aghuram Rajan, who last week delivered his final monetary-policy statement as India’s central banker, was, to the irritation of many in New Delhi, generally considered a bit of a “rock star.” Partly that was because he was unusually visible for a central banker; partly because under him the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) came across as an island of competence in a country plagued with inept and uncommunicative policy-makers. But personality aside, and despite some stumbles, it’s clear that Rajan will leave office next month with his record largely vindicated.

Perhaps most consequential was his hawkish approach to inflation.

For months now, as India’s notoriously sticky consumer price inflation stayed low—helped along by slumping oil prices—Rajan has been the object of sharp criticism for refusing to cut interest rates. Some of the criticism from ruling-party lawmakers was quite intensely personal, and was allowed by party leaders to continue unchecked for a long time.

Eventually—and unfortunately for India’s credibility—Rajan chose to leave the job before he was sacked.

Yet the latest figures for India’s consumer price index appear to justify Rajan’s caution. The inflation rate crept upward to almost 6.1 percent year-on-year in July, just above the RBI’s target—and well above the official target of 5 percent for March 2017. That was a two-year high.

And there are plenty of additional

obstacles to contend with. For example, New Delhi decided last month to raise government employees’ salaries. Their basic pay will increase 250 percent, putting large amounts of extra cash into the hands of 4.7 million current employees, as well as 5.3 million pensioners. All previous such pay increases have had a sizeable effect on demand—and on inflation.

Then there’s the new goods and services tax. The GST, in the long run, will have a positive impact on inflation—it will end the double payment of taxes—but, in the short run, it might substantially raise taxes on certain services, which would push the consumer inflation rate higher too.

In other words, if the RBI is going to hit its 5-percent target for next March, Rajan simply couldn’t afford to be any less hawkish on interest rates. And he wasn’t: He addressed

RAJAN

suggestions that, by not cutting rates further, he was “behind the curve” by sharply telling reporters that the criticism was “without economic basis,” and that inflation simply wasn’t that low.

Rajan showed similar determination in taking on the banking sector—particularly the lazy state-controlled banks that are still dominant in India—for failing to pass on previous rate cuts to borrowers. He accused them of finding one disingenuous excuse after another, and promised that among his last acts as governor would be regulatory changes to crack down on the practice. That’s a very good call—and it would be a fitting end to Rajan’s tenure, given that much of it has focused on trying to make state-owned banks more transparent and responsive.

than a decade to provide all of its schools with access to the Internet while giving out free Wi-Fi in selected public grounds. By 2007, the country conducted the world’s first national election with online voting. At present, most government transactions, such as payment of tax, business registration, land registration, access to medical records, social-welfare benefits and even court procedures can be conducted online through the government-initiated “e-Estonia”.

Perhaps, an “e-Philippines” is still far down the road but development of a national broadband plan that is poised to facilitate better ICT infrastructure is indeed a welcome progress. The administration can learn a lot from the experience of Estonia, as they traverse the road to a fully ICTintegrated government and society.

Arrenz Joseph B. Magnabihon serves as the Market Research Specialist at the Nordic Business Council of the Philippines. For comments and inquiries, e-mail: arrenz.magnabihon@nbcp.com.ph.

Realistically, then, the outgoing governor has left his critics very little to complain about. He has, in some ways, made things easier for his successor. His laser-like focus on consumer price inflation to the exclusion of other goals has meant the rate-setting part of the governor’s job is no longer as complex as it was; in March, the RBI signed an agreement with the government to set a formal inflation target. Rajan also wasn’t particularly hawkish in his final monetary policy statement, compassionately leaving his successor some room to maneuver. He refused to commit the RBI to keeping rates unchanged, even though he feared inflation might creep up again.

Much will now depend on who Prime Minister Narendra Modi chooses to take over at the RBI. Many fear that he’ll choose someone more likely to listen to pleas from the finance ministry in New Delhi to ignore the inflation target and cut rates in an effort to stimulate an investment recovery, potentially undoing much of what Rajan has accomplished. In any event, Rajan’s successor will not have sole control over lending rates, as he has; from October, a new six-member monetary-policy committee will take over that task. Rajan will be the RBI’s last rock star.

UK energy security is about more than just China

By Mark Gilbert BloombergView

T

he British government is debating whether to proceed with building an £18-billion ($24-billion) nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point in southwest England. A data visualization released by the United Kingdom Office for National Statistics this week shows just how dramatically the nation’s energysupply picture has changed in recent years—and how crucial new sources of domestic power are.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s administration last month announced it was delaying a final decision on Hinkley, saying it needed to “consider carefully all the component parts” of the project, which will be led by Electricite de France SA and includes China General Nuclear Power Corp.

The government says a decision will come in the early autumn.

The fallout from the choice will be both economic and political. Canceling the plan risks angering China at a time when Britain needs all the post-Brexit trading friends it can muster. Going ahead with the project means locking in energy costs that may look ridiculously expensive if engineering advances combine with power-storage technology to slash electricity prices from renewable energy sources.

The government has guaranteed a subsidized price of £92.50

per megawatt-hour for 35 years for Hinkley, more than double the current wholesale price. That’s quite a gamble to be taking on the future of energy costs when Elon Musk is trying to change the world and urging us all to “fight the propaganda of the fossil-fuel industry, which is unrelenting and enormous.”

The political angle of the delay is incredibly sensitive. Nick Timothy, now one of the prime minister’s joint chiefs of staff, warned last year that involvement by China in nuclear projects might allow it to “shut down Britain’s energy production at will.” The deferment comes even as the relationship between China and the UK “is at a crucial historical juncture,” Chinese Ambassador Liu

Xiaoming wrote in the Financial Times last week. “Mutual trust should be treasured even more.

I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British government will continue to support Hinkley Point.”

The new reactor is designed to meet about 7 percent of the UK’s energy needs for more than half a century, coming online in a bit less than a decade. It’s clearly needed: After years of energy independence, the UK now faces a similar situation to that of its European peers because of a sustained decline in North Sea oil and gas production. It now depends on imports to meet almost 50 percent of its energy needs: The ONS says that more than a third of Britain’s imports were in

the form of crude oil with another third as natural gas (more than half of each coming from Norway).

Petroleum products and coal make up almost all of the balance.

Nuclear isn’t the only source of power being introduced as the UK, along with many other countries, weans itself off dirty coal-fired stations. The contribution from renewable sources of energy to meeting the UK’s needs has more than doubled this decade; the bad news is, it’s still in single digits.

There’s more of that on the way.

Offshore wind farms are becoming more efficient, and the combination of shallow coastal waters and expertise gained from building oil rigs in the North Sea gives the UK a unique advantage; it already has more capacity in offshore wind than the rest of the world combined. Tidal power projects, which also seek to take advantage of UK island geography to generate power, could also become world leaders.

But as the ONS charts show, the UK is a long way from being selfsufficient in power generation.

The decision about whether to give Hinkley the go-ahead has as much to do with whether the government is willing to rely increasingly on imports from other countries to meet its needs as it does about fears that China might plant electronic Trojan horses in power station equipment that could turn out Britain’s lights.

BusinessMirror

Federal Philippines P rising? resident Duterte, in his first State of the Nation Address (Sona); Senate President Aquilino L. Pimentel III, in his inaugural speech; and Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez, in his acceptance speech, made reference to a federal form of government to boost the Philippines’s bid for inclusive economic growth. Alvarez outlined that “Federalism will allow the autonomous regions to realize their full potentials as self-governing units that are directly answerable to their respective constituents.”

We are aware that there are several “models” of federal states, such as Canada, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, Malaysia and many more; and that there are forms of parliamentary systems with strong “presidents,” like France (Mr. Duterte referred to that in his Sona, too).

There is no doubt that much more information is needed on the various forms of federalism, and what federalism will do to the way business is done, interaction with government is done on a national and local level, and how federalism will affect the attractiveness of the Philippines as a destination for foreign investment.

It is in this context that the BusinessMirror, the leading business paper in the country; and the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), being the bridge between European business and Philippine business—in both directions— since 1978, have partnered to start the dialogue/discussion/ information process on federalism/on “models” of federalism/on best practices and on “bad” practices, with the aim that there will be better understanding where we are heading, what timeframe is realistic, and to what extent business will have to adjust.

Federalism/Presidential Parliamentary System/ Decentralization: What Will It Do to Business 23 August 2016 | 8:30 a.m.-12 nn | Marriott Manila

PROGRAM 7:30-9:00 a.m. Registration & Breakfast 9:00-9:10 a.m. Welcome and Opening Remarks BusinessMirror/ECCP 9:10-9:30 a.m. Keynote Address Rep. Pantaleon D. Alvarez Speaker of the House of Representatives 9:30-9:45 a.m. Case Study—Federal Republic of Germany Benedikt Seemann Head

Konrad Adenauer Foundation 9:45-10:00 a.m. Case Study—Canada Julian Payne

President Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Laurent Le Godec 10:00-10:15 a.m. Case Study—France Deputy Head of Mission Embassy of France to the

Philippines 10:15-10:30 a.m. The Philippine Scenario Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr.

Former Senate President 10:30-10:45 a.m. The Philippine Scenario Rep. Alfredo B. Benitez House of Representatives 10:30-11:30 a.m. Panel Discussion/Open Forum Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. For inquiries/registration, contact Julie Coronado at 845-1324 or e-mail Julie.coronado@eccp.com