Businessmirror december 09, 2016

“Chinese consumers deserve to know that Qiaodan Sports and its products have no connection to me. Nothing is more important than protecting your own name, and today’s decision shows the importance of that principle.”—Former NBA Star Michael Jordan, after China’s highest court ruled in his favor at the culmination of a years-long case over use of the Chinese rendering of his globally known name and trademark. AP

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“The government had a pretty good track record of fighting HIV-AIDS, but basically they are fighting the last war. They are still focusing on female sex workers and their clients when actually the epidemic has changed, but the government’s approach is not changing and it needs to or else this will really get out of control.”—Phelim Kine, Human Rights Watch (HRW) deputy director for Asia. HRW says the Philippines is facing one of the fastest-growing epidemics of HIV in the Asia Pacific, fueled by government policies that restrict intervention, including access to condoms by men who have sex with men. AP

“I hosted SNL when it was a good show, but it’s not a good show anymore.

First of all, nothing to do with me, there’s nothing funny about it. The skits are terrible. I like Alec, but his imitation of me is really mean-spirited and not very good.... It’s very biased, and I don’t like it.”—Donald J. Trump, the chief critic-elect of Saturday Night Live, bashing the show and impersonator Alec Baldwin again, after Baldwin and Kate McKinnon appeared in a skit about his Twitter habit. AP

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Friday, December 9, 2016 Vol. 12 No. 58

Draft EO nixes blanket ban on land conversion–Pernia

By Cai U. Ordinario

T

@cuo_bm

he Duterte administration will no longer go for a total ban on land conversion due to its economic consequences, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Neda Director General Ernesto M. Pernia said in an interview that the revised executive order (EO) on land conversion no longer prescribes a total ban.

inside

2017 Lexus IS 350: Silver spoon inspired

Pernia said the new draft EO will be resubmitted to the economic team for evaluation. But, he said, the economic managers will stand by their reservations on a blanket ban.

“We will stand pat on our reservations about the possible effect on infrastructure, on housing, on the possible negative effect and also economic activities that will require some space that may be near agricultural areas,” he said.

The proposed moratorium on land conversion was initiated by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to boost the country’s bid for food security.

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HERITAGE CONSERVATIONISTS PUSH MORE GREEN SPACES IN MANILA REDEV’T PLAN

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

584,425 H The number of informal-settler families in Metro Manila

2016 ejap JOURNALISM awards

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

ERITAGE conservationists are urging the City of Manila and businessman Enrique K. Razon to keep public open spaces and expand the parks in the city to create a healthy balance between the environment, the residents’ well-being and economic development.

In a statement issued by the Heritage Conservation Society (HCS) sent to the BusinessMirror, the group said that, while it welcomed plans to redevelop the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex (RMSC), these proposals “must note its adaptive reuse, including keeping all the public open spaces, especially the football and baseball fields. Commercial activities can be built into the facility without diminishing open spaces, where people can engage in sports, participate in events and concerts, and enjoy themselves.”

It stressed that building high-rise buildings and malls in the Harrison district, in particular, “will only aggravate the See “Heritage,” A2

See “Draft EO,” A12

WAR ON DRUGS

motoring

e1

Encouraging the youths to fight for their dreams

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency officials destroy P3.1 million worth of chemicals and laboratory equipment seized in President Duterte’s ongoing efforts to stop the drug trade on Thursday, in Valenzuela City.

The chemicals and equipment, intended for the production of methamphetamine hydrochloride, locally known as shabu, were seized by various agencies in raids and ordered by the court for destruction.

AP/Bullit Marquez

motoring

e2-E3

Volkswagen receives landmark 14 awards

motoring

Palace, Congress leaders forge consensus on Charter change

By Butch Fernandez

M e2

@butchfBM

alacañang has reached a “consensus” with Senate and House leaders to convene Congress as a constituent assembly (Con-ass) to tinker with the 1987 Constitution, and draft key amendments likely to lead to a shift to a federal form of government and relax economic provisions restricting entry of foreign investors.

“I think, the consensus is there is a

PESO exchange rates n US 49.7000

DRILON: “If it is a constituent assembly as a mode, Congress should vote separately. That’s the consensus.”

need, after 30 years, to review the Constitution,” Sen. Franklin M. Drilon told reporters, after presiding over a Senate

hearing on pending Charter-change proposals. “Some quarters are saying we should review its provisions; others are saying we should review the form of government; and others are on the economic provision.”

Asked about the preferred mode for tinkering with the so-called Cory Constitution, which was ratified after former President Corazon C. Aquino took power in 1986, Drilon said the emerging consensus favors a Conass where senators and congressmen Continued on A2

n japan 0.4370 n UK 62.7661 n HK 6.4080 n CHINA 7.2322 n singapore 35.0518 n australia 37.1657 n EU 53.4921 n SAUDI arabia 13.2554

Source: BSP (8 December 2016 )

A2 Friday, December 9, 2016

BMReports BusinessMirror

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Palace, Congress leaders forge consensus on Charter change Continued from A1

will do the task, instead of electing delegates to a Constitutional Convention (Con-con). “Yes,” Drilon said. “If it is a Con-ass as a mode, the Congress should vote separately. That’s the consensus.”

He recalled that President Duterte, during the last National Security Council meeting in Malacañang, “also agreed with the proposition that Congress should vote separately.”

At the Senate hearing of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea, when asked about the Palace position on the Charter-change (Cha-cha) issue, said the Duterte adminstration fully supports the proposal. “[On] the first query: is there a need to revise/amend the Constitution? We answer that the Office of the President finds the need for a revision of the Constitution in the light of his [Duterte] public statements on the desirability of adopting a federal form of government, among others,” Medialdea told senators.

As to what parts of the Constitution should be amended or revised, the Palace official said:

Heritage. . .

Continued from A1

traffic and the stress on public infrastructure, from water and power, to sewage and drainage, in the area.”

The group also cited climate experts’ warnings that Metro Manila is now “a heat island due to limited green and open spaces resulting to more floods, and now small cyclones, which happened just a few months ago. This illustrates the importance of preserving what little we have left of the city’s open spaces.”

On November 23 Manila Mayor

“We would like to invite the attention of the committee that the President issued the other day an executive order creating the committee for consultative study of the Constitution.”

Basically, he added, “it is a consultative committee to review the 1987 Constitution to be composed of 25 selected individuals whose names will be later on submitted.”

Medialdea also affirmed the Palace preferred position on the question of crafting the amendments either through elected Concon or by Congress itself convening as Con-ass. “The President has posited during that NSC meeting that it be done through a Constitutional Commission.”

The Palace official clarified the President’s preferred mode of doing it “should be a Con-ass citing efficiency, cost and credibility of results and to the matter of voting.

“We confirm that during that NSC meeting, he [Duterte] believes that both Houses should vote separately, but we would require further legal study to determine the intent of the framers of the Constitution,” he added. “Those are the positions of the Office of the President on the matter.”

He informed Drilon that the

Joseph E. Estrada announced plans to partner with the Razon Group to develop RSMC into a commercial center anchored on a mall. Razon is chairman of the International Container Terminal Services Inc. and Bloomberry Resorts Corp., which owns Solaire Resort and Casino.

“As one of the last surviving prewar structures, the RMSC remains an important landmark not only for the City of Manila, but for the thousands of athletes who have called it home for many generations. It deserves to be preserved as a sports facility and heritage landmark, dedicated to the people of Manila,” the HCS said.

Meanwhile, Senate probers, after confirming thousands of cases of extrajudicial killings (EJK) under the Duterte administration, admitted they failed to find proof the so-called EJK cases involving drug suspects were committed as part of a State-sponsored policy.

A 100-page report submitted

by Sen. Richard J. Gordon, after presiding over a joint inquiry of the Committees on Justice and Human Rights and on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, said the Senate investigation “showed there is no evidence that there is a State-sponsored policy to commit killings in the eradication of illegal drugs.”

After conducting six public hearings, Gordon suggested it is time for the government to move in and conduct a “vigorous investigation” and immediately render a report, saying the “absence of clear and quick action to resolve such killings has resulted in an apathetic, passive and indifferent citizenry who blame the government for such inaction.”

At the same time, he noted, the police, who are in charge of crime prevention and law enforcement, “seem to be in total disregard of the need to continuously improve the solution rate for killings.”

“Many killings with impunity through the years up to the present have not been resolved by the police, leaving our people feeling unprotected, insecure, fearful and cynical about the ability of the police to protect and serve them.

There is an urgent need to undertake reforms in law enforcement and strengthen the criminal justice system to fortify the rule of law,” Gordon’s report added.

The report also cleared Duterte, stating that evidence presented to the Committee “failed to prove the existence of the Davao Death Squad, much less provide a direct link to Duterte, then Davao City mayor.”

But while the Senate probers failed to prove that Duterte authorized recent and rampant killings, Gordon said they found it necessary to advise the President that, “while he has the country’s best interest at heart when he waged the war against illegal drugs and criminality, Duterte should seek to epitomize a man of the law, and be an exemplary role model.”

“The President needs to be mindful of his role as head of State and be careful with his words, avoid inappropriate statements, lest they be construed as policies of the State. There may also be accusations of tolerance hurled against him because of the overwhelming support he gives to the police, manifested by his colorful language against drug pushers, may be perceived as a condonation of the violations of human rights

and due process that the police are committing, in the guise of putting an end to the drug menace,” said Gordon, also a former city mayor.

Gordon warned that the immutable and universal principles that respect human rights must be instituted in law enforcement.

“Thus, the police and other lawenforcement officers, through Project Tokhang, or any similar program, must be admonished and refrained from urging “surrenderees” to sign “voluntary surrender certificates” in violation of their Constitutional rights, particularly the rights of the accused.”

The Gordon report was, likewise, emphatic that in order to effectively put an end to the killings with impunity, “people must be part of the process of change; the people themselves should be empowered to help transform their respective areas into drugfree neighborhoods where their families may safely reside.” It also pressed the need for key measures, such as amendments to existing laws, creation of new laws, a more effective reporting system to ensure fast action on investigations so that crime investigation and deterrence will be more effective.

It added that the sports complex “ is one of the few open spaces left in Manila that is a consistent venue for community building and youth development.

Its preservation, in fact, would provide Manila residents access to affordable sports facilities and public open spaces, which suppor ts President Duter te’s fight against drugs. Encouraging young people to devote time to sports—and providing them the space for it—is a step toward a drug-free Manila.”

The plan to set up another mall in Manila has been met with a lot of criticism from its residents, conservationists, history experts

and netizens who want the city government to protect and conserve the 82-year-old structure, instead. A petition has been making the rounds of the Internet to save the edifice, designed by Architect Juan Arellano.

Under Republic Act 10066, or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009, structures older than 50 years old cannot be demolished.

Any modifications on such structures have to follow strict guidelines set by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.

In a news statement issued on Wednesday, the Razon Group said it had been been offering to redevelop and revitalize the RMSC

“through a preservation and urban-renewal project.” Recognizing the importance of the RMSC in the country’s sports history, the group added that it “plans to maintain, as well as fortify the [structure’s] façade.”

The HCS agrees with the preservation of the façade as a necessary first step. “However, keeping just the façade is not true conservation, given that most of the prewar elements are intact.

The entire space has a flow that needs to be respected, and this is where adaptive reuse will help in upgrades from the original intent, that is, assigning an up-to-date use in the original space.”

The group stressed that “redesigning the Harrison District to generate fresh investment anchored around a revitalized RMSC and expanded park spaces in that area, will create a more balanced environment and progressive economy for the people of the city.”

HCS also agreed that the City of Manila should pursue a path of redevelopment. “But it should also keep in mind that other public values of a healthy environment and the preservation of our culture and history should go hand in hand with economic development.”

In its path to redevelopment, it said, “Manila needs open and green spaces, not more concrete slabs.”

President has signed an executive order, to be released Thursday, creating a 25-member panel to study the Cha-cha issues, adding that the panel was given a six-month time frame to submit its findings.

“As to the mode the Office of the President [OP] has expressed its preference for Con-ass,” Medialdea told senators, prompting Drilon to ask, “What, then, was left to be studied by that study group?”

The Palace official replied the study group was tasked to focus on “the particular provisions which are to be amended [and] among those involves the change to federal form of the government.”

He told Drilon that Duterte’s EO also gave “specific instruction that names should be already given to the OP as to who would compose this particular committee...so there will be nominations from different sectors of society.”

Senate probe

Economy

A4 Friday, December 9, 2016 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

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House measures unify CIS regulations

T

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

O eliminate existing differences in regulatory and tax treatment for more uniform levels of protection to investors, leaders of the House of Representatives are pushing for bills seeking to establish a single and comprehensive regulatory framework for all forms of Collective Investment Schemes (CIS).

House Committee on Economic Affairs Chairman Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Arthur Yap of Bohol said House Bill 69 filed by PDPLaban Rep. Joey S. Salceda of Albay, Committee on Ways and Means vice chairman, and House Bill 2510 filed

by Liberal Party Rep. Dakila Cua of Quirino, Committee on Ways and Means chairman, aim to balance the interests of the investors, by incorporating mechanisms that would safeguard the public interest, as well as recognize the interests of the other parties involved in the CIS industry.

“This proposed measure will prevent regulatory arbitrage, which is unfavorable to the growth of the industry and result in uneven levels of protection to the investing public,” Yap said.

For their part, Salceda and Cua said the passage of this measure will provide more investment opportunities for the middle- to lowincome individuals in CIS, giving them access to the capital markets, reap the benefits thereof, including diversification and better returns for investments.

Respite

A stall keeper takes a brief respite from selling his merchandise consisting mostly of miniature Santa Claus figurines and other Christmas decoration along Dapitan Street in Manila. Retailers of Yuletide décors say they have marked down the shelf prices of their seasonal products two weeks before Christmas Day. ALYSA SALEN

With this measure, Salceda said investments will double within six years, or reach at least P3 trillion.

“Establishing a comprehensive regulatory and tax framework for all CIS products will eventually lead to a more competitive environment for the CIS industry and provide enhanced and uniform levels of protections to the

investing public,” he said.

A collective investment scheme as defined under the bill is any arrangement whereby funds are solicited from the investing public for purpose of investing, reinvesting and/or trading in securities or other assets.

The measure also seeks to promote investor protection by apply-

ing high governance standards in the establishment, management and operation of collective investment schemes and the registration and sale of CIS securities.

Currently, a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Korea and Singapore, have adopted a single law to regulate all types of col-

lective investment schemes.

In the Philippines, various laws govern investment companies (mutual funds), unit investment trust funds (UITFs) and separate account funds (the units of which are sold as part of variable unit linked insurance products).

Yap, meanwhile, has created technical working group to consider the measures.

“Once passed, it will promote investor protection by ensuring high governance standards in the registration, management, operation and sale of CIS securities, which is now roughly around P1.6 trillion. Broken down to P750 billion in UITF, including assets under management, around P280 billion in mutual funds and P414 billion in collected premiums for variable life. These investments have yearly increments in the total amount of P200 billion,” he added.

Meanwhile, Salceda reminded the industry players that “these funds have social costs. They were earned by the working families, some have to go abroad and suffer the social consequences of undergoing actual separation from their families, some even lead to more painful separation of couples. Treat these funds sacred.”

Ched exec urges Duterte to clarify directive on Licuanan’s ‘termination’

By David Cagahastian

I

@davecaga

T appears President Duterte’s directive against Commission on Higher Education (CHED)

Chairman Patricia Licuanan not to attend anymore Cabinet meetings is not yet definitive enough for her to leave her post voluntarily.

In a news conference in Ma-

lacañang, CHED Executive Director Julito Vitriolo said CHED officials are still in a “wait-andsee” situation on what Duterte means exactly when he directed

Licuanan not to attend any more Cabinet meetings.

“Right now, it’s a wait-and-see situation really, because we have to get a definitive action also from higher authorities on the situation,” Vitriolo said.

“I think this will need some kind of definitive action because the previous events make it difficult for our chairman to function in the sense that she used to be a part of the Cabinet, and now she cannot become a Cabinet member,” he added.

Vitriolo said it would be better for the CHED that Licuanan’s status be clarified at the soonest, although, he said, the CHED recognizes the power of control of the President even over the CHED commissioners.

Vitriolo admitted that as a law yer, he believes that Duterte’s directive to ban Licuanan from attending Cabinet meetings is “practically terminating that relationship.”

“We all know [and] even a firstyear student of law would know that under the doctrine of qualified political agency, a Cabinet secretary or Cabinet member is the alter ego of the President, and that means the acts of the alter ego is presumptively the acts of the President unless disapproved or reprobated,” Vitriolo said.

“This proposed measure will prevent regulator y arbitrage, which is unfavorable to the growth of the industry and result in uneven levels of protection to the investing public,” Yap said.

But unlike Maria Leonor G. Robredo, who resigned her Cabinet post after being banned from Cabinet meetings, Licuanan refused to resign, invoking that she has a fixed term of office, which will run up to 2018, after being appointed to her second four-year term before former President Benigno S. Aquino III stepped down.

Vitriolo said she is “intelligent enough to discern the situation,”

and whether it calls for her to voluntarily step down.

Malacañang officials, however, have been more blunt in saying that Licuanan’s continued stay in office was upon the mere tolerance of Duterte, on account of his gentlemanly habit.

Palace Spokesman Ernesto C. Abella cited a memorandum in August for all government officials to tender their courtesy resignation to allow the President a free hand in his campaign against corruption in the government.

“But when I checked with the Office of the Executive Secretary, apparently, there was no letter submitted from the commissioner [Licuanan],” Abella said in a news conference earlier this week.

Cabinet Secretary Leoncio B. Evasco, Jr., who relayed the directive to Licuanan for her not to attend Cabinet meetings anymore, said the directive was due to “irreconcilable differences” between Duterte and Licuanan.

Comelec on Duterte ‘illegal’ campaign contributions: No complaint, no probe

By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

T

HE Commission on Elections (Comelec) is not inclined to conduct a motu proprio investigation into reports that President Duterte received illegal campaign contributions based on the Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (Soce) submitted to the poll body.

Comelec Chairman Andres D. Bautista said the poll body cannot just evaluate the Soce of Duterte or any other candidate without any complaint or else it will be accused of being partial toward specific candidates or political parties.

“It would be tricky if the Comelec is the one who will actually assess the Soce of a particular candidate. We may be accused of being partial.

The Comelec has to maintain impartiality,” Bautista said.

He pointed out that the Comelec cannot evaluate each and every Soce submitted to them, since there are 44,871 candidates that ran in the May 2016 polls.

Under the law, each candidate

and political party shall file in duplicate with the Comelec the full, true and itemized Soce in connection with the election.

Bautista, however, noted that he is not discounting the possibility of scrutinizing a candidate’s Soce but only in cases where there are blatant violations.

“We are not saying we won’t.

What we are saying is that, for those that are blatant cases, we have the power to do it. But we are very careful in using it,” Bautista explained.

The Comelec’s Omnibus Rules on Campaign Finance provides that the poll body’s Campaign Finance Office is mandated to audit all Soces; determine compliance by the candidates, parties, contributors and election contractors; and initiate cases for violations of rules on Election Contributions and Expenditures, among others.

Bautista said the poll body would welcome any case that may be filed by concerned parties regarding supposed violations of a specific candidate or party.

“We will act once there is

a complaint filed to us, like, for example, the one from the report of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ). If there is a legitimate complaint, we are duty bound to look into it,” Bautista said.

He said the Comelec is even prepared to make available all Soces of candidates to anyone interested to get copies, including posting them in their web site.

Bautista’s made the statement in reaction to the PCIJ report claiming that the P375-million campaign fund raised by Duterte camp came mainly from big businessmen.

Among the millionpeso donors of Duterte are companies that do business with the government or engage in utilities, mining and the exploitation of natural resources, which are considered as prohibited contributions.

Such violation carries a penalty of one- to six-year imprisonment, removal of right of suffrage and become disqualified to hold public office; as well as be disqualified from holding the office, wherein he has been elected.

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Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Friday, December 9, 2016 A5

Jan-Oct meat imports hit 509,380.12 MT

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

T

@jearcalas

he country’s meat imports from January to October expanded 6.39 percent to 509,380.12 metric tons (MT), from 478,771.32 MT a year ago, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).

Data from the BAI obtained by the BusinessMirror showed that the bulk of meat imports during the period, or 42.6 percent, were pork.

Pork imports from January to October grew 7.47 percent to 216,993.62 MT, from 201,913.82 MT recorded in the same period last year.

BAI data showed that lamb imports posted the highest increase among all meat products during the period. The country’s lamb purchases rose 15.04 percent to 601.94 MT, from 523.23 MT a year ago.

According to BAI data, chicken and beef imports also recorded year-on-year increases. Purchases of chicken from abroad rose by 12.48

percent to 183,837.63 MT, while beef imports went up by 3.67 percent to 74,756.94 MT. In contrast, the BAI said buffalo-, turkey- and duck-meat imports declined in the January-toOctober period.

Duck-meat imports recorded the biggest drop at 41.3 percent. Shipments of duck meat reached 153.73 MT, from the 261.88 MT recorded a year ago.

Meat imports in the Januaryto-October period was the highest since 2010, BAI figures showed. In 2010 meat imports in the 10-month period reached 329,906.74 MT; 408,741.67 MT in 2011; 346,912.8

Bloomberg

MT in 2012; 388,135.06 MT in 2013; and 452,194.533 MT in 2014.

Purchases of imported meat this year also surpassed the total meat imports from 2009 to 2013, according to BAI data.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said these figures were “alarm-

ing enough” to warrant amendments in the rules for issuing import permits.

“The increase in meat imports is one of the reasons the Department of Agriculture [DA] is reviewing the sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances [SPS-ICs],”

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol told the BusinessMirror.

“We don’t even know how much pork or chicken we really need to fill up local demand, or if we need more than the minimum access volume [MAV],” Piñol added.

While meat importation has

become a source of livelihood for some stakeholders in the agriculture sector, the DA chief said this should not reach a point where the imports could hurt local meat producers.

In late November the DA released Memorandum Circular (MC) 5, which authorized the review of the validity of all SPS-ICs to curb smuggling.

Piñol issued MC 5 after he received reports that there was a “huge” discrepancy between the data of the BAI and the United Nations on the volume of imported meat in the country.

Local traders are allowed by the government to import meat products under the MAV scheme of the World Trade Organization.

However, Jesus C. Cham, president of the Meat Importers and Traders Association, said the increase in meat imports does not mean that there is smuggling.

“Definitely no smuggling because these are all captured in the system, meaning all [meat imports] passed quarantine and were inspected,” Cham told the BusinessMirror.

He said the growth in meat imports could be attributed to the growing demand in the local market.

‘Farming communities hit by typhoons need urgent relief’ BFAR nabs commercial fishing boat

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

M

embers of the Makabayan Bloc in the House of Representatives have filed a resolution asking the Duterte administration to provide “urgent relief” for farming communities in the Eastern Visayas, which has been affected by typhoons.

In House Resolution (HR) 613 filed

by Party-list Reps. Carlos Isagani Zarate of Bayan Muna, Ariel Casilao of AnakPawis, Emmi de Jesus and Arlene Brosas of Gabriela, Antonio Tinio and France Castro of ACT Teachers, and

Sarah Jane Elago of Kabataan urged President Duterte to help typhoon victims in the Eastern Visayas.

In their resolution, the lawmakers said Eastern Visayas was heavily battered by Supertyphoon Yolanda on November 8, 2013, especially the agricultural sector that serves as the major source of livelihood of farmers in the region. “Among the provinces in the region, Leyte was hardest-hit as indicated by the majority of the damaged houses: 381,810 houses of 492,856 houses in the region; 5,402 of 5,902 dead; 441,588 of 1,006,718 affected; and 3,109 of 3,613 evacuees,” they said, citing the report of the National Disaster Risk Reduction

and Management Council.

Less than a year after Yolanda hit the region, the lawmakers added that Typhoon Glenda struck Eastern Visayas on July 13, 2014, and that Samar island was worst-hit among the provinces in the region. On December 5 Typhoon Ruby hit Eastern Visayas and affected all the provinces in the region.

“Within a month, Typhoon Seniang again ravaged the region as the worst hit, as nearly half, or 1,450 of the 3,523 total, houses damaged were from the region, with Leyte at 1,209 houses; also, of the total 602,627 affected persons in the country, 262,069 were from Eastern Visayas; 32 of 66 dead

were also from the region,” they added.

The solons said these consecutive typhoons from November 2013 to December 2014, which battered the region, not only affected their houses or dwellings, but their sources of livelihood, as well.

The lawmakers, citing the Samahan han Gudti nga Parag-uma ha Sinirangan Bisayas (Sagupa-SB or Alliance of Peasants in Eastern Visayas) and People Surge, said Eastern Visayas sustained damages amounting to P25.875 billion. Losses in the agriculture sector reached P22.1 billion; fisheries P353.5 million; houses P3.15 billion; and public property P247.8 million.

Colorado plans crackdown on home pot growers

D

ENVER—Hoping to preserve its marijuana law under the next president, Colorado is planning a slate of legislation designed to crack down on pot that is grown legally but then sold on the black market.

The goal is to cut down on complaints that Colorado’s liberal allowances for growing pot without a license has created a thriving network of illegal growers. Colorado allows medical pot patients to grow up to 99 plants, far beyond other marijuana states, and it also allows recreational users to group their allotted six plants into massive co-ops, entire greenhouses of pot that aren’t tracked or taxed.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper says the state’s generous pot allowances make it almost impossible for cops to tell legitimate growers from black-market fronts, and he is calling for several new laws to crack down.

Proposals include a ban on group recreational pot grows and new paperwork requirements for people who grow medical pot. With uncertainty looming about how the next president will approach marijuana, Colorado regulators say it’s time to ramp up efforts to crush the black market and show the feds that Colorado isn’t letting weed seep into other states.

“We do need to clean up this system and make sure we’re beyond reproach for how well we’re regulating marijuana,” said Andrew Freedman, the governor’s marijuana coordinator.

Colorado has been sued by two neighboring states, Nebraska and Oklahoma, for allegedly not keeping marijuana within its own borders. That lawsuit was dismissed by the US Supreme Court, but neighboring states continue to gripe that Colorado’s friendly reminders at

Bloomberg

airports and interstate highways aren’t sufficient to keep marijuana out of their states.

Freedman points to six large criminal raids in the last two years as evidence that black-market pot dealers are exploiting the state. The most recent case happened this fall, when federal agents and local law enforcement simultaneously raided a dozen homes in southeast Colorado, seizing 22,400 pounds of marijuana. Investigators say that weed was intended to be taken out of state.

“We’re hearing from federal officials, ‘Hey listen, this is a concern,’” Freedman said.

The governor’s plans, outlined to lawmakers in advance of the 2017 legislative session, include a statewide 12-plant limit in private homes,

which is still more generous than other marijuana states, such as California (six plants) and Washington (four plants before having to register with the state). Some of Colorado’s largest jurisdictions, including Denver and Colorado Springs, already have those 12-plant limits through local ordinances. So it’s not clear how many people would be affected by the new limit.

The governor also wants lawmakers to ban collective recreational grows and to require caregivers to keep track of their plants and where they go.

But Colorado has tried cracking down on marijuana caregivers before, with limited success. Colorado’s pot laws are in the state constitution, so residents literally have constitutional rights to high plant counts and to designate others to grow plants for them.

Hickenlooper’s plans are already running into sharp criticism from marijuana activists, who say Colorado is simply trying to boost taxes by making it increasingly hard to grow pot instead of buying it from the store.

“They’re trying to do the best they can to drive everyone into the taxed model,” said Jason Warf, head of the Southern Colorado Cannabis Council, which represents pot retailers, patients and caregivers who grow pot for sick people.

Some limits on caregivers have already been approved. Starting in January, caregivers will need to register with the state, a reaction to lawenforcement complaints that they have no way of knowing whether a pot grower is actually growing for legitimate patients. AP

operating in municipal waters

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he Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar) said it apprehended on Wednesday a 76-gross ton commercial fishing boat operating within the municipal waters of Governor Generoso in Davao Oriental.

Law enforcers from Bfar Region 11 and the Philippine Coast Guard spotted FB Zanrei 7.54 nautical miles off Barangay Surop in Governor Generoso. The fishing boat was manned by the 36 crew onboard.

“The heightened patrols and strengthened monitoring of our seas reflect the government’s strong commitment to curtail illegal fishing in our waters,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said in a statement.

Piñol said the Department of Agriculture (DA) prioritizes the “relentless” campaign for the enforcement of fisheries law against illegal and unsustainable fishing practices.

Republic Act 10654, otherwise known as the amended Philippine Fisheries Code, prohibits com-

mercial fishing vessels to operate within the 15-kilometer area from the shoreline in municipal waters.

The fishing boat was brought to a port in Tibanban, also part of Governor Generoso, for temporary docking. Bfar-11 has already issued a notice of violation to the boat’s owner while preparation of legal documents is ongoing for the filing of an administrative case.

Violators are penalized with a fine of P100,000 for medium-scale commercial fishing and confiscation of catch and gears.

Meanwhile, in an effort to prevent and eliminate illegal fishing in the municipal waters, the DA, through the Bfar, is piloting the search for the most outstanding coastal municipality. The program, Malinis at Masaganang Karagatan (MMK), scores conservation and protection of marine environments through community participation.

The Bfar said MMK will culminate with the awarding of winners before the year ends.

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Syrian forces advance despite rebel cease-fire offer

briefs

China trade in November rebounds from slump

BEIJING—China’s exports grew in November for the first time in nine months, while imports also rose in a sign global and domestic demand are recovering.

Exports rose 0.1 percent to $19.7 billion, an improvement over October’s 7.3-percent contraction, customs data showed on Thursday. Imports rose 6.7 percent to $15.2 billion, up from the previous month’s 1.4-percent decline.

The trade slump has added to pressure on communist leaders to prop up weak economic growth and avoid politically dangerous job losses.

Growth in the world’s second-largest economy held steady at 6.7 percent over a year earlier in the quarter ending in September, shored up by twin booms in credit and real-estate sales. Forecasters expect growth to weaken, as regulators tighten lending controls and try to cool housing costs.

China’s global trade surplus was $44.6 billion, while its surplus with the United States was $23.1 billion, a figure that might help to fuel pressure for trade controls under US President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods. AP

South Korea’s parliament sets up presidential impeachment vote

SEOUL, South Korea—South Korea’s opposition-controlled parliament has formally introduced an impeachment motion on President Park Geun-hye. This sets the stage for a likely impeachment vote on Friday.

A parliamentary official reported the motion to a plenary session on Thursday.

A vote on impeachment must then be held within 72 hours. Friday is the final day of the current parliamentary regular session.

Political observers say the opposition has enough ruling party-dissenters to pass Park’s impeachment. If impeached, the country’s Constitutional Court will have up to 180 days to determine whether to formally unseat Park or restore her presidential powers. The prime minister will rule while the court decides. Prosecutors say Park let a corrupt confidante manipulate government affairs and extort businesses. AP

Renzi quits; search on for new leader to guide Italy to vote

ROME—Italian Premier Matteo Renzi resigned on Wednesday evening, his self-inflicted penalty for staking his job on constitutional changes voters resoundingly rejected earlier in the week. He will stay in a caretaker’s role at the request of Italy’s president until a new government can be formed.

Renzi had first offered his resignation on Monday, shortly after voters rejected the constitutional reforms his center-left government had championed.

President Sergio Mattarella, Italy’s head of state, told him to stay in office until Parliament completed approval of the 2017 national budget. A few hours after the budget was passed on Wednesday, Renzi returned to the Quirinal presidential palace. This time, Mattarella accepted the resignation of the man who in February 2014 became Italy’s youngest premier at age 39.

A presidential palace official, Ugo Zampetti, told reporters that Mattarella would begin consultations on Thursday with the heads of Parliament’s two chambers, as well as with former President Giorgio Napolitano. AP

Pakistan opens probe into deadly plane crash that killed 47

ABBOTABAD, Pakistan—A Pakistani aviation spokesman says authorities have opened a probe into the plane crash in the country’s northwest the previous day that killed all 47 passengers and crew.

Pervez George, the spokesman for Civil Aviation Authority, says experts are in the hillside village of Saddha Batolni in the district of Abbottabad, where the small twin-propeller aircraft crashed and burst into flames. The military is using three helicopters to transport the remains of the victims from a hospital in the northwestern city of Abbottabad to the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday. The plane was travelling from the scenic mountain resort of Chitral to Islamabad when it developed a fault and went down on Wednesday.

Pakistan International Airlines has confirmed that all 42 passengers and five crew members were killed in the crash. AP

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Robots manufacture robots inside Yasukawa Electric Corp.’s Robot Village. Bloomberg News

Japan cuts Q3 growth estimate as business spending drops

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apan unexpectedly cut its reading of third-quarter economic growth to an annualized 1.3 percent, from a preliminary estimate of 2.2-percent expansion. The revision was driven by drops in business spending and in private inventories.

Meanwhile, the gover nment’s projection for the overa l l size of the economy rose, thanks to changes in the way GDP is ca lcu lated.

Key points

The median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg sur vey was for an annua lized 2.3 -percent e x pa nsion. Measured quar ter on quar ter, GDP rose 0.3 percent in the three months through September (preliminar y fig ure was +0.5 percent; economists’ forecast +0.5 percent). Business spending fel l 0.4 percent (preliminar y figure 0 percent; econom ists’ fore cast +0.2 percent). T he va lue of nom i n a l GDP i n F Y 2015 was rev ised to ¥532.2 t r i l l ion (f rom ¥50 0.6 t r i l l ion), using t he new ca lc u l at ion.

1.3% The percentage of Japan’s third-quarter economic growth, down from its 2.2-percent estimate Big picture

T h e ne w m e t ho d o l o g y w i l l bring Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a bit closer to his goal of expanding GDP to ¥600 trillion, but it won’t fix the problems in Japan’s economy, which has swung between modest growth and contraction in recent quarters. Domest ic con su mpt ion and wage growth remain tepid.

Exports, though, are showing signs of a recover y, and these comp a n ie s s hou ld re ce i v e a boost from the yen’s decline following President-elect Donald J. Trump’s win last month.

Economist takeaways

“GDP growth wasn’t quite as strong last quarter as initially repor ted, but t his was more than offset by upward revisions to previous quarters,” Marcel Thieliant, senior Japan economist at Capital Economics, said after the data. “Spare capacity is narrowing, and we still expect the Bank of Japan to remain on hold for the foreseeable future.”

“Corporate confidence and animal spirits have weakened, making businesses cautious about spending,” said Hiroaki Muto, chief economist at Tokai Tokyo Research Center in Tokyo. “Even with the yen weakening recently, there are still political uncertainties in the US and Europe, deterring companies from making investments. And Japan’s potential growth remains low.”

“The GDP revisions and the new methods don’t change the basic profile of Japan’s economy.

Basically, Japan’s economy is in a gradual recovery since Abenomics kicked in,” said Yuichi Kodama, chief economist at Meiji Yasuda

Life Insurance Co. in Tokyo.

The economy will likely continue to recover moderately toward the next year due to a rebound in exports and production, and the government’s economic stimulus measures may provide underlying support, Kodama said.

“However, the recovery may lack strength as Weak wage growth limits a recovery in consumer spending and companies remain cautious about increasing spending.”

The details

Private inventories subtracted 0.3 percentage points from GDP (preliminary reading -0.1 percent).

Private consumption rose 0.3 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter (preliminary reading +0.1 percent). Net exports, or shipments less imports, added 0.3 percentage point to GDP (preliminary reading +0.5 percent).

The GDP deflator fell 0.2 percent from a year earlier (preliminary reading -0.1 percent). The government has changed the base year for GDP data to 2011 from 2005.

Under the new methodology, which reflects the latest international guidelines, R&D costs are treated as capital formation, rather than as intermediate inputs that are used up during the production of other goods and services.

Bloomberg News

EIRU T— Sy r i a’s gover nment ignored a rebel ceasefire proposal for Aleppo on Wednesday as its forces captured new neighborhoods around the city center and squeezed some 200,000 tired and frightened civilians into a shattered and rapidly shrinking opposition enclave.

Facing a punishing and brutal defeat, rebel factions proposed a five-day cease-fire for the eastern parts of the city to evacuate the wounded and civilians wishing to flee.

“The artillery shelling is nonstop,” a resident told The Associated Press by messaging service.

He asked to conceal his name out of fear for his safety.

“The humanitarian situation is really tough. There are corpses on the streets.... There is very little food. Bread is distributed every two or three days, six pieces per family. That’s small, not enough for breakfast,” he said.

Government officials had not directly addressed the rebel proposal by the evening.

“The decision to liberate all of Syria has been taken, and that includes Aleppo,” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told the state newspaper al-Watan.

Brig. Gen. Zeid al-Saleh told state TV that rebels must leave Aleppo or face death.

The Syrian government and its ally Russia have rejected previous cease-fires for the war-torn city, keeping up the military offensive that has forced rebel retreats and displaced at least 30,000 civilians in the past 11 days, according to UN figures.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met on Wednesday in Hamburg, Germany, but did not release any statements.

The rebels made no offer to pull out of Aleppo, though their proposal promised to negotiate the fate of the city when the humanitarian crisis eases. A rebel spokesman said al-Qaeda-linked g roup Fat a h a l- Sh a m Front , which has a limited presence among the fighters, will abide by the proposal.

Government forces and regional militias fighting alongside them, meanwhile, captured new ground in Aleppo’s old city and its Bab al-Nairab district, home to one of the city’s main water stations, according to monitoring groups and state media.

The rebels continued their shel ling of the wester n government-held districts of the city. Syria’s state news agency reported that 12 people were killed by mortar and rocket fire landing in western Aleppo. AP

Trump’s pick of EPA foe to lead agency may spark Senate fight

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resident-elect Donald J. Trump’s selection of a chief opponent of the Obama administration’s climate agenda and a staunch oil industry ally to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prompted vows to battle the nomination.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt—who sued the EPA to overturn some of President Barack Obama’s signature initiatives—is Trump’s pick to lead the agency, according to people familiar with the decision. It is a major victory for oil, gas and coal companies that have complained about a heavy hand at the agency. Pruitt relishes his role as its chief antagonist; an official bio on the 48-year-old Republican’s web site proclaims him “a leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.”

“I greatly appreciate the leadership Attorney General Pruitt has shown in suing to stop the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and look forward to watching him dismantle it piece by piece as EPA administrator,” said Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana.

The EPA has played a pivotal rule in carrying

out key parts of Obama’s agenda, especially fighting climate change.

Pruitt has pushed back, battling a suite of the agency’s rules in court, including a regulation slashing greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants, a waterpollution measure and the agency’s conclusion that carbon dioxide is a pollutant endangering public health and welfare.

Obamacare suit

He also filed the first lawsuit challenging the implementation of Obama’s health-care law.

Several senators immediately said they would oppose his nomination, including Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, who called Pruitt “unsuitable to lead the EPA” because of his history “carrying water for Big Oil.” “The EPA is our cop on the beat, protecting the American people and our environment from harmful pollution, hazardous waste and the impacts of climate change,” Markey said in an e-mailed statement. “He has dedicated years of his career to rolling back the bedrock laws

and rules that protect our water and our air.”

Although Cabinet nominations can no longer be filibustered in the Senate—and candidates can be confirmed by a simple majority vote—Republicans will hold only a slim majority in the chamber next year.

Pruitt’s nomination would be considered by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, set to be headed by Republican John Barrasso of Wyoming.

Confirmation hearings

Environmental groups were already laying the groundwork for the confirmation hearings on Wednesday, urging their supporters to lobby the Senate to reject Pruitt. “That’s a tough fight. We know that,” said Seth Gladstone, a spokesman for the Washington-based Food and Water Watch. “We will appeal to senators’ sense of moral obligation to protect the earth and human health.” Sen. Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, signaled Pruitt faces a tough battle. “We are totally mobilizing on this one,” Schatz told reporters in Washington,

adding that he expects “it will be extremely difficult” for Pruitt to be confirmed.

Messages left with Pruitt’s office weren’t returned. If confirmed, Pruitt will be able to rework or rescind scores of environmental regulations officially—or simply ease off on their enforcement.

“This is about the worst thing he could be doing for the environment and the American people,” said billionaire hedge-fund manager and climate activist Tom Steyer in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. Trump “continues to appoint people who are seriously unfit and unprepared for the jobs they need to do.”

The fate of Obama’s carbon rules was already uncertain under the Trump administration. The US Supreme Court already halted the Clean Power Plan that aims to slash greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants, pending a decision by the D.C. Circuit on the rule’s legality.

Trump frequently criticized the rule on the campaign trail, promising to rip it and other “job-killing” regulations up once in office.

Clean power

Pruitt joined 26 other attorneys general in suing to block the Clean Power Plan. Pruitt has characterized that measure, the hallmark of Obama’s climate agenda, as an affront to states’ rights and violation of the Constitution.

“The Clean Power Plan is an unlawful attempt to expand federal bureaucrats’ authority over states’ energy economies in order to shutter coal-fired power plants and eventually other sources of fossil-fuel generated electricity,” Pruitt said in a statement last year.

In 2015 Pruitt also secured an injunction blocking EPA’s “Waters of the US” rule, which expands the scope of the Clean Water Act. Oklahoma is one of 18 states challenging that regulation in court.

He also signed on to a case trying to overturn the EPA’s endangerment finding, which provided the legal underpinning for later regulation of carbon dioxide. And he has been critical of US biofuel mandates, describing current policy as “unworkable” .

Bloomberg News

news@businessmirror.com.ph

AseanFriday BusinessMirror

Editor: Max V. de Leon • Friday, December 9, 2016 A9

Aid groups descend on Indonesia quake zone

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EUREUDU, Indonesia—Humanitarian organizations descended on Indonesia’s Aceh province on Thursday, as the government in Jakarta promised tons of emergency aid and officials raced to assess the full extent of damage from an earthquake that killed more than 100 people.

Search efforts involving volunteers and nearly 1,500 rescue personnel were concentrated on the hard-hit town of Meureudu in Pidie Jaya district near the epicenter of the 6.5-quake magnitude that hit before dawn on Wednesday. Humanitarianassessment teams were fanning out to other areas of the district.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency Spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the death toll had risen to 102 and warned it could increase.

Search teams were using devices that detect mobile phone signals with a 100-meter radius to help guide their efforts as they scoured the rubble, he said. Aceh’s disaster-mitigation agency said more than 600 people were injured.

Thousands of people are homeless or afraid to return to their homes.

Aceh officials said more than 8,000

people spent Wednesday night in shelters in Pidie Jaya district alone.

Killer quakes occur regularly in the region, where many live with the terrifying memory of a giant December 26, 2004, earthquake that struck off Sumatra. The 9.1magnitude quake triggered a devastating tsunami that killed more than 100,000 Acehnese.

The Indonesian government said its urgent aid would be flown out of Jakarta early Thursday afternoon and will include 10 generators, tents, folding beds, baby supplies and body bags.

The military is setting up an emergency field hospital and sending two dozen doctors, and the Health Ministry is deploying a medical team and sending medicines. The Red Cross sent aid such as water trucks on Wednesday and humanitarian group

In this image grabbed from video, rescuers use excavators to search for victims in the rubble of collapsed buildings following an earthquake in Pidie, Aceh province, Indonesia, on December 8. Humanitarian organizations descended on Indonesia’s Aceh province on Thursday, as the government in Jakarta promised tons of emergency aid and officials raced to assess the full extent of damage from an earthquake that killed more than 100 people. AP

CARE is leading an assessment team of four international aid groups to avoid duplication of efforts.

“Every aid and civil-society organization is piling into the area with as many boxes of rice, instant noodles, blankets and other aid as they can shift,” said Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, which has an assessment team in northern Aceh.

It will take at least two more days before there’s a fuller picture of how

many people are displaced and the relief effort required, he said.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was centered about 19 kilometers southeast of Sigli, a town near the northern tip of Sumatra, at a depth of 17 kilometers. The agency had initially placed the epicenter undersea. It did not generate a tsunami. As of 9 a.m. on Thursday, some 36 aftershocks had rattled the area.

The world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia is prone to earthquakes

due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. The 2004 quake and tsunami killed a total of 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Aceh.

John Ebel, professor of earth and environmental sciences at Boston College, said there is a risk that even weak aftershocks could cause further damage to buildings, particularly because modern building codes aren’t consistently enforced in Indonesia.

Scores of rescuers were crawling over a market in Meureudu, the hardhit town, where many shop houses collapsed.

One shop owner, Hajj Yusri Abdullah, didn’t hold out much hope of finding survivors. He said nearly two dozen bodies were pulled from the market debris the day before. They included a group of eight made up of a newlywed couple and family members holding an ornate celebration known as Antar Dara Baro.

Siti Rukiah, a mother of four, was among the many people who took refuge for the night in local mosques.

She and about 100 other people from Pante Raja, a seaside village, fled to Nur Abdullah Mosque located on higher ground in a nearby hamlet.

She said the quake felt so powerful she had to grab onto a table to keep from falling down. She was sure a tsunami was coming.

“I’m really scared about a tsunami,” said Rukiah, whose brother and neighbors died in the 2004 disaster.

She said she didn’t want to return home “not only because my house is damaged, but I am still afraid an aftershock could cause a tsunami.”

The national disaster agency said nearly 600 buildings were severely damaged or destroyed in the districts of Pidie Jaya, Pidie and Bireun. Most were shop houses or dwellings but mosques, a hospital, boarding schools and a shopping center also sustained damage.

Roads also cracked and power poles toppled over. AP

A10 Friday, December 9, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Philippine stocks in US dollars?

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ack in the days before the consolidation of the Makati Stock Exchange and the Manila Stock Exchange, traders were transacting profitable trades by using price arbitrage between the two exchanges. As issues were traded on both markets, often there were times that the price for the same stock was different on both exchanges.

Most of the time, the price differential was minimal. However, there were times that a person could buy on one market and simultaneously sell on the other for a profit. That is a form of arbitrage trading.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has announced that it has finalized the rules to allow listing and trading of issues in both Philippine peso and the US dollar.

This is not a new idea. In 2002 the idea was finalized and apparently started trading in 2003. The trading and settlement with dollar denominations was intended to be strictly for offshore issues listed on foreign exchanges, such as in the US, Canada, Hong Kong and the UK. The volume and results of that program are unknown, as all information on the success or failure has disappeared or was never widely available.

Having stock-market issues trade in two different currencies is fairly widespread, particularly in Asia including the Toronto Stock Exchange. In its appraisal of dual-currency trading, the Toronto exchange acknowledged and, to a certain extent, encouraged investors to arbitrage dual listed, as this would bring trading transactions to the Canadian exchange.

The purpose is threefold; to make it easier—and cheaper—for foreigners to invest in the Philippine market; to virtually eliminate foreign-currency risk for foreign investors; and to allow locally listed companies easier access to foreign investors.

But before you get too excited, understand that DDS will only apply to local companies when they issue a new set of securities either common or preferred shares. For example, food conglomerate Del Monte Pacific Ltd. intends to issue up to $360 million in US-dollar denominated preferred shares early next year.

The trading, pricing and settlement details of the DDS are that the dollar price will be determined by the previous day’s closing price on the Philippine Dealing System. Any currency rate changes today will not take effect until tomorrow.

There is nothing inherently flawed with dual-currency trading.

However, as the Del Monte Pacific proposed offering shows, the beneficiaries will be local companies, foreign investors and the stock exchange in that order. Local retail investors will not necessarily benefit.

Investors buy preferred shares for the longer term and foreigners want a higher dividend rate to make up for currency exchange rate for five yeas of holding, for example. Companies will benefit from being able to pay a lower rate. Foreign investors will benefit from evading the exchange-rate risk and the stock exchange will benefit for a potentially greater amount of trading transaction fees.

Maybe some time in the future, the PSE will study and implement changes that will directly add to the profitability of the stock market for local retail investors—you know who those are; the little guys not part of the “Old Boy’s Club”. “Short Selling”, a structural trading system to provide “Stop Orders” and “Limit Orders”, as well as an options market to hedge positions are all what is really needed.

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Because the Filipino deserves nothing less James Jimenez

spox

A

funny thing happened in Maputo, Mozambique. On Tuesday I was presenting the Commission on Elections’s (Comelec) experience in running the 2016 national and local elections, to an audience consisting of election management bodies from all over the world, when I casually dropped the fact that the Philippines had a population larger than a hundred million, of which more than 54 million were registered voters.

Up until that point, I had the attention of about a quarter of the audience. Understand that these were seasoned conference-goers—people for whom these international symposia have long since lost its novelty.

As such, all of them clearly already had what I call the “conference ear” —the ability to listen with half an ear, while carrying on a conversation with the delegates at the same table.

But when I shared just how big the Philippine population was, a change came over the hall and I could tell that I had their full attention. Almost to a delegate, they started listening more closely to what I had to say, curious about how we pulled it off.

I say “almost” because, with more than 800 million eligible voters, the delegate who used to chair the Indian election commission didn’t seem particularly impressed by a voting

population of 54 million.

In any case, from that point on, the Philippine experience didn’t seem to run out of details to stun many in the audience. The fact that Philippine synchronized elections involved more than 18,000 positions up for elections in a single day was just one of the many surprises that amazed these election professionals.

I won’t belabor the point any further —you know the experience I’m talking about; you lived through it. Suffice it to say that my recounting of the many challenges we faced, and how we overcame them, became one of the highlights of the Conference.

Not because of any skill of mine, by the way, but simply because of the sheer scope of the experience.

We—the Philippines as whole, as much as the Comelec—were particularly applauded for the steps we’ve

Nice talking with me

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alking to yourself may seem a little shameful. If you’ve ever been overheard berating yourself for a foolish mistake or practicing a tricky speech ahead of time you’ll have felt the social injunction against communing with yourself in words. In the well-known saying, talking to yourself is the first sign of madness.

But there’s no need for embarrassment. Talking to ourselves, whether out loud or silently in our heads, is a valuable tool for thought. Far from being a sign of insanity, self-talk allows us to plan what we are going to do, manage our activities, regulate our emotions and even create a narrative of our experience.

Take a trip to any preschool and watch a small child playing with her toys. You are very likely to hear her talking to herself: offering herself directions and giving voice to her frustrations. Psychologists refer to this as private speech: language that is spoken out loud, but directed at the self. We do a lot of it when we are young—perhaps one reason for our shyness about continuing with it as adults.

As children, according to the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, we

use private speech to regulate our actions in the same way that we use public speech to control the behavior of others. (“I’m hungry, can you bring me something to eat?” versus “I’m hungry, I should get myself something to eat.”) As we grow older, we don’t abandon this system—we internalize it.

Imagine being able to tune in to the thoughts of the person next to you: in the office, on the bus, walking in the park. Much of what you would overhear would take the form of language. “Pick up some coffee.”

“Remember to phone the plumber.”

Many people say they have a little voice up there, guiding them, helping them to think through problems and sometimes chastising them for their mistakes.

Psychological experiments have shown that this so-called inner speech can improve our performance on tasks ranging from judging what other people are thinking to sorting images into categories. The distancing effect of our words can give us a valuable perspective on our actions.

One recent study suggested that self-talk is most effective when we address ourselves in the second person: as “you”, rather than “I”.

taken in the areas of improving the accessibility of elections for persons with disabilities, and for protecting the rights of minorities—the indigenous peoples.

Fast forward to that night and the International Electoral Awards of 2016, organized by the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS), together with The Mozambique Electoral Commission.

The Comelec received awards recognizing Outstanding Achievement in Accessibility and Minority Participation in Elections.

As an aside, the main award for Accessibility went to the electoral commission of Palestine for their work in ensuring elections in their war-torn country, and no electoral management body could have deserved it more.

Ranged against the caliber of nominees also being considered for the award, I was literally overjoyed when I heard that the Election Management Award was being given to the Comelec, over the National Electoral Institute of Mexico and the Electoral Commission of South Africa. The award recognizes the successful management of elections, seen through a secure, transparent and smooth running of elections.

Now, if that award had me dancing the jig, the next one—the highest award of the night—just blew me away. The Comelec also received the award for Electoral Commission of the Year! For the record, in honoring the winning electoral-management

body, the Awards Committee took into account the diversity of country-specific challenges, as well as its duties and organizational structure.

Wow, right? I mean. Just wow.

The Comelec has never done its job for any purpose other than to ensure that the Filipinos get the best elections—and election experience—possible. We’ve always striven to deliver credible elections, contrary opinions notwithstanding, for the sake of credible elections.

International recognition could not have been further from the minds of the Comelec, from the Commissioners down to the electoral worker hauling election supplies and paraphernalia through floods, landslides and various other threats to life and limb.

And to receive that recognition now has been a truly humbling experience—one that will resonate throughout the organization and inspire us to even greater heights.

Needless to say, these awards belong to everyone in the Comelec.

It is hard-won recognition for all the hard work we dedicate to the service of the Filipino nation, and it puts paid to all the heartache we survive whenever we’re accused of failing our mandate.

Most of all, these awards belong to the nation, as well. Because truly, the Filipino deserves nothing less.

With new neuroscientific techniques, we can even explore what’s happening in the brain when inner speech is going on. Mental dialogues draw on some of the same neural systems that underpin the conversations we have out loud and might explain the more unusual experience of “hearing voices” (or auditory hallucinations). We know that inner speech comes in different forms and speaks in different tongues, that it has an accent and emotional tone, and that its special properties mean it can unfold more quickly than speech said aloud.

I said we internalize the private speech we use as children— but we never entirely put away the out-loud version. If you want proof, turn on the sports channel.

You’re bound to see an athlete or two gearing himself up with a tart phrase or scolding herself after a bad shot. Andy Murray attributed his 2012 US Open victory to a pep talk he gave himself in front of a changing-room mirror.

Gymnastics star Laurie Hernandez was caught on camera telling herself “I got this” before a key event in Rio. The athletes are doing it for good reason: Self-talk has been

shown to bring benefits in sports as diverse as badminton, darts and wrestling.

Those of us who lack the talent of a Hernandez or a Murray are also likely to talk to ourselves aloud, particularly when the task is difficult and the conditions are stressful. Researchers have observed high levels of private speech when adults are immersed in attention-demanding tasks like data entry — although, poignantly, many participants deny having talked to themselves when quizzed afterward.

That social pressure not to think out loud is very real.

Conducting a dialogue with ourselves—asking questions of the self and providing answers—seems to be a particularly good way of solving problems and working through ideas.

The to-and-fro between different points of view means our thoughts can end up in expected places, just like a regular dialogue can, and might turn out to be one of the keys to human creativity.

Both kinds of self-talk—the silent and the vocal—seem to bring a range of benefits to our thinking. Those words to the self, spoken silently or aloud, are so much more than idle chatter. TNS

James Arthur B. Jimenez is director of the Commission on Elections’s Education and Information Department.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Friday, December 9, 2016 A11

Caritas Manila holds 1st celebrity preloved luxury sale Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

SERVANT LEADER

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his holiday season the spirituality of giving is very much alive as celebrities and their friends shared their blessings on the first Caritas Manila’s “Celebrity and Friends Preloved Luxury Brands Sale” on December 13 to 14 at Glorietta 5 Atrium, Ayala Center, Makati City.

All items, such as designer clothes, shoes, accessories and bags, and toys owned by various celebrities and their friends, will be sold at up to 80-percent off during the bazaar. Among the celebrity donors are Kris Aquino, Anne Curtis-Smith, Vice Ganda, Sarah Geronimo, Toni Gonzaga-Soriano, Iza Calzado, Derek Ramsay, Ruffa Gutierrez, Julia Montes, Dra. Vicki Belo, Hayden Kho, Scarlet Snow Belo, Cristalle Belo-Pitt, Bang Pineda, Tim Yap, Katrina Ponce Enrile, Team Kramer (Doug, Cheska, Kendra, Scarlett and Gavin), Bamboo, Sam YG, Teacher Georcelle of the G-Force, Denise Laurel, JC Intal and Fashion Pulis, and Michael Sy Lim. During the event, Youth Servant Leadership and Education Program (YSLEP) scholars, Gawad Kalinga Tatalon Choir and La Salle Green Hills’s Kundirana, the most renowned high-school singing group in the Philippines, will render special performances and sing Christmas carols.

Caritas Manila Chairman and the Archbishop of Manila Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle aims to make this celebrity charity sale an annual event to celebrate the spirit of Christmas by sharing God’s #LoveInAbundance to the poor.

Proceeds of the bazaar, including the entrance fee of P250 per person, will go to Caritas Manila’s

YSLEP, which aims to provide quality education for the poor.

YSLEP is the flagship program of Caritas Manila, which extends financial assistance to poor, but deserving, youth, and trains and hones the youth not only for academic excellence, but also to become servant leaders and good members of the community.

There are currently more than 5,000 youth nationwide under Caritas YSLEP. With over 4 million outof-school children and youth in the Philippines, YSLEP aims to reach out to this vulnerable sector, especially in the poorest areas of the Visayas and Mindanao.

Caritas Manila is the Archdiocese of Manila’s lead social services and development ministry. Apart from YSLEP, Caritas Manila runs diverse projects that help the poor fulfill their human potential, such as the All is Well Health Program, Restorative Justice Ministry, Caritas Damayan and social-entrepreneurship programs Caritas Margins and Segunda Mana.

To know more about Caritas Manila, visit www. caritasmanila.org.ph. For your donations, please call our DonorCare lines 563-9311, 564-0205, 0999-7943455, 0905-4285001 and 0929-8343857.

Make it a habit to listen to Radio Veritas 846 in the AM band, or through live streaming at www.veritas846.ph. For comments, e-mail veritas846pr@ gmail.com.

Europe’s still dithering over Greece

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his week the European Union’s (EU) finance ministers granted some new debt relief to Greece. The new “short-term” measures are better than nothing— but they’re less than a convincing solution to a problem that has dragged on far too long.

The deal, sketched out and agreed to in principle earlier this year, should help the Greek government convince voters to keep accepting much-needed domestic reform.

That’s good. It isn’t enough, though, to put the country’s debts and budget plans on a sustainable footing.

That’s why the International Monetary Fund, whose support will be necessary to achieve that larger goal, isn’t yet onboard. After years of muddling through, the issue still isn’t resolved.

In the approach to the latest talks, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin acknowledged that “Greece has made huge efforts.

This is the first Greek government in a long time that has implemented its commitments.” He said it was vital that Europe respond by recognizing its obligation to help ease the country’s debt burden, both as a reward and to encourage further improvements in the business climate.

All true. Greece can’t be accused of doing nothing to help itself. The banking system has stabilized after three bouts of recapitalization, and deposits are returning, albeit slowly.

The economy is growing modestly.

The country posted a primary budget surplus for the first 10 months of this year. State asset sales are proceeding slowly but surely.

These efforts justify extending the repayment schedule and swapping some floating-rate debt to fixed payments at the current low rates, as announced. But the expected reduction in Greece’s debts relative to its economic output by 20 percentage points through 2060 is far too timid—while the idea that Greece can achieve an annual primary budget surplus of 3.5 percent of output throughout the coming decade is a fantasy.

The austerity designed to put Greece back on track—including smaller pensions, civil-service redundancies, other cuts to public spending and higher taxes—has already inflicted real hardship.

Unemployment stands at more than 23 percent. New strikes and other protests are planned. The last thing the EU needs is worsening conflict in Greece to add to the turmoil in Italy.

In their own interests, the creditor governments need to be more decisive. As long as Greece’s debt overhang remains unresolved, the country will be shut out of international capital markets, blighting its prospects and adding to the burden it puts on EU governments. Allowing Greece to remain a supplicant and a political embarrassment to other governments creates a potential source of new instability.

It’s widely acknowledged that the country’s debts, even after this week’s measures, will not be paid back in full. Facing up to this now, with sufficient relief to make the debt position sustainable, would help the rest of the union as much as it would help Greece. Bloomberg View

Because the Philippine movie industry should be one Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

I

take a pause from straight column-writing today to give way to a statement of support from the Executive Committee on Cinema of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

We are all in Naga as I write this part of my column. The Committee on Cinema has been here in this old, quaint city to meet for the last time this year. Some of the members are bidding good-bye as this is their last term, while some are staying but with new members next year when they meet.

As we evaluated the programs that we endorsed and executed, we started talking about the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF). In

particular, we discussed the change that has taken place: the films that are slated to be shown do not carry the usual names. Every year the MMFF has always blazed through the season with films starred in by actors noted for making films raking in millions at the box office. It appears that the majority of the entries this year have no known actors.

We do not know what will the effect be of a film festival that, as

‘Coopetition’ for victory Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

THE PATRIOT

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ne of the fiercest rivalries in Philippine collegiate basketball is between Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University (DLSU). Kudos to DLSU Men’s Basketball team for winning the Season 79 University Athletic Association of the Philippines championship. In US collegiate football, the oldest rivalry is between Harvard and Yale. The second oldest is between Army (West Point) and Navy (Annapolis). This December 10, these two teams from the military academies will meet for the 119th time where the running record stands at 60-49-7 in favor of Navy.

One of the principles of war taught in military academies is to know the enemy. One has to know the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy so you know what to avoid, where to strike and what to exploit. When you know the enemy, you can achieve victory with minimal effort. Military forces achieve victory by using different kinds of strategy and tactics while observing rules of engagement.

Rules of engagement are observed not only in the military arena but also in sports and in the business field. In the field of sports, there are guidelines of sportsmanship for competitors, while in the corporate world, there is business etiquette observed by competing businesses.

In the political arena, are interactions or engagements with members of the other political party governed by rules akin to sportsmanship or business etiquette?

“Coopetition” is a word coined from the combination of “competition” and “cooperation”. In the mid-

2000s, coopetition was used in highspeed car races (e.g., Daytona and Talladega), where several competing, but cooperating, drivers took turns in alternately and systematically doing aerodynamic driving and drifting at various phases of a race without sacrificing victory at the end. In the motoring world, the cars Subaru BRZ and the Toyota 86 look strikingly similar inasmuch as these cars’ manufacturers cooperated and shared research and development costs to come up with a sports car, which Subaru and Toyota then marketed and sold separately as their own respective cars.

In sports as in business, coopetition allowed the sharing of resources, but at the same time, preserved the value of winning over the competition.

Amid all the competing forces in our democracy, can there be coopetition in Philippine politics?

I admire the clearly audacious, but calculated, style of leadership of our President Duterte. He gets things done, fast and decisively. Some of his

some people say, has taken in films that would make people think. Perhaps, that is an exaggeration. Perhaps, there are films that do make people laugh and smile and yet cause them to ponder ideas, as well.

Right now, we do not have any clear ideas—just conjectures—about what these films will teach us. What the members of the committee came up with is a statement of support for an institution that embraces all kinds of human interaction, and of a technological form that fuses all art forms.

Hereunder follows the manifesto, for lack of a better term, crafted by the Cinema Committee: The Cinema Committee of the NCCA supports the move of the MMFF Executive Committee and the selection of a new breed of films for the MMFF. We enjoin all government and non-governmental cultural agencies and organizations, including exhibitors, mass media and the educational sector, to support the MMFF and make

it a success. We hope that all eight films should be accorded their 10day run nationwide as they do not have the same promotional and marketing machineries as previous MMFF films.

The success of the MMFF this year will not be a matter of the success of “indie” or “mainstream” films but of one Philippine cinema. The triumph of this historic move by the MMFF will enlarge Philippine cinema in general and will benefit audiences, producers, artists and workers alike not just this year, but in the long run.

It will help expose audiences to new styles, genres and perspectives in film. It will encourage producers to be bolder in the kinds of films that they produce. It will help enable artists and film workers to widen their social discourses and subject matters and take part in a greater variety of film production.

Tangkilikin natin ang pelikulang Pilipino! Mabuhay!

actions, albeit risky, often politically incorrect, and unpopular at times, taken as a whole, bring us closer to what we all aspire for—a better country. On the other hand, I equally admire the hands-on, grassroots and interactive style of leadership of Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo.

She personally touches base with her constituents (those with housing concerns while in Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council), empathetically understands what needs to be done, and serenely says the right words at the right time. With her recent resignation from the Cabinet, Robredo may now be considered as an “enemy” or an opponent of the Duterte administration, just like Sen. Leila M. de Lima. A review of recent administrations reveal that the highest ranking and the second highest ranking officials in the Philippines have come from rival political parties: Benigno S. Aquino III (LP) and Jejomar C. Binay (PDP-Laban), 2010-2016; Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (Lakas) and Noli de Castro (Ind), 2004-2010; Joseph E. Estrada (NPC) and MacapagalArroyo (Lakas), 1998-2001; Fidel V. Ramos (Lakas) and Estrada (NPC), 1992-1998; and Corazon C. Aquino (Laban) and Salvador H. Laurel (Unido), 1986-1992. Can our country be victorious when the president and the vice president are at odds with each other? Members of the Liberal Party and allies of Aquino III, who have been elected to government positions in the Duterte administration, have been receiving a lot of heat and unfavorable attention from the media and supporters of Duterte. The so-called Yellow Army, closely associated with P-Noy, has been consistently up against the

Marcos loyalists, one of the stronger political supporters of the President.

Battle lines have been drawn. “Enemies” have been identified. Who will emerge victorious?

In sports, he who crosses the finish line first claims victory. In business, the company with greater profits claims victory. But in politics, what does victory entail? For Duterte and Robredo and the rest of our leaders, there is no better battle to be won and no sweeter victory to achieve than having a better Philippines at the end of their respective terms. Victory, for me, can be achieved through coopetition—having opposing politicians cooperate toward the common objective of improving the lives of every Filipino while observing the political equivalent of sportsmanship and business etiquette. In the words of Chinese military strategist and author of the Art of War, Sun Tzu, “the greatest victory is that which requires no battle.”

Coopetition in running a government may seem difficult due to the inherent distrust and competitive spirit among politicians. While there is as much competitive spirit in business, I have seen the value of coopetition in the aviation industry when competing airlines enter into alliances. As much as I yearn to see the 14-game winning streak of Navy over Army in collegiate football end this Saturday (Sunday morning Manila time), I hope to see the continuous bombardment between rival politicians cease. Most of my colleagues said one or the other or both is a pipe dream. I say, nothing is impossible. Go Army! Beat Navy!

Sulong Pilipinas!

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.

For questions and comments, e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

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www.businessmirror.com.ph

Friday, December 9, 2016

PHL eyes ₧378.89-B Chinese loan for infrastructure projects Draft EO. . .

Continued from A1

However, Pernia said the economic team, which also includes Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno and Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, opposed the ban. The position paper against the moratorium was also signed by Vice President and former Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council Chairman (HUDCC) Maria Leonor G. Robredo.

The Cabinet members said a total land ban will have negative economic impact and prevent the government from addressing the housing problem.

“The two-year land-use conversion ban can have adverse impacts on revitalizing the agriculture sector, wiping out the housing backlog, accelerating infrastructure development and expanding other economic activities,” the position paper read.

Earlier, if the ban is implemented,

Pernia said this will limit the ability of the government to carry out the relocation of informal-settler families (ISFs) and delay Right-of-Way Acquisition for infrastructure projects.

Pernia said there is also a need to address the 5.5 million housing backlog.

Data from the HUDCC stated this includes 1.4 million ISFs. Earlier, real-estate developers warned the government that the country’s housing backlog could easily balloon to 6.5 million units by 2020, from the current 5.5 million units, if the moratorium on the conversion of agricultural lands being pushed by the DAR is implemented.

Chamber of Real Estate and Builders’ Association President Charlie V. Gorayeb said the DAR-proposed moratorium will delay the rollout of housing developments by at least four years.

HUDCC data showed that of this number, around 584,425, or 28 percent of ISFs, are in Metro Manila, while 221,284 are in Region 4-A, or Calabarzon. Some 117,670 ISFs are in Region 3 or Central Luzon.

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By Cai U. Ordinario

@cuo_bm

he government is seeking to finance P378.89 billion worth of projects through Chinese loans, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

The Neda told the BusinessMirror that 15 projects are being proposed for funding under China’s official development assistance (ODA).

The list includes transportation, irrigation and water-supply facilities development, fish-port development and energy cooperation projects.

Apart from the loans, the Philippines has also submitted a list of 23 projects under China’s feasibility study support scheme.

“This was made following the Mofcom [Ministry of Commerce] and NDRC [National Development and Reform Commission] missions to the Philippines in November and President Rodrigo Duterte’s state

visit to China in October,” the Neda said. Together with the Department of Finance, the Neda said the list of projects was submitted to NDRC and Mofcom in a letter dated November 29.

The letter was sent following the Mofcom and NDRC missions to the Philippines in November and Duterte’s state visit to China in October.

“The list will be updated upon review and approval by the Investment Coordination Committee [ICC] and the Neda Board and through ensuing bilateral/multilateral agreements between the Philippine and Chinese governments,” the Neda said.

In an interview, Neda Director

General and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said the government remains confident it will have sufficient projects in the pipeline to boost infrastructure spending.

The national government aims to spend as much as P8.2 trillion to P9 trillion between 2017 and 2022. In 2017 the government will be spending P850 billion. Pernia said once these projects go through the ICC process and are approved by the Neda Board, these projects can easily be bidded out, awarded and implemented.

“Most of them are still undergoing feasibility study, but these are big projects. So if they are able to approve that by next year, all of it, that’s a lot,” Pernia said.

Earlier, in a memorandum issued last week, the Neda and the DOF said government agencies will now own the documents which should be undertaken by Chinese firms that are not blacklisted by any multilateral development agency or any international institution.

It also stated that Chinese firms undertaking these preinvestment

studies will automatically be barred from undertaking the projects they studied. The memo also stated that Chinese government funding can only be secured for investment phases of projects.

These will be subject to the agreement between DOF and the Chinese government through the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Philippines.

Pernia earlier said the ICC-Cabinet committe (Cabcom) will be assigned to screen Chinese companies wanting to undertake publicly funded projects. This is already included in a draft executive order awaiting the President’s signature.

Screening companies undertaking government projects is not part of the current functions of the ICCCabcom. It is only tasked to evaluate publicly funded projects that cost P5 billion and up.

Pernia said the Chinese government will also create or assign its own group to act as the first level of screening for Chinese companies wanting to participate in Philippine projects.