Businessmirror december 23, 2016

WATERY KINSHIP A Japanese Coast Guard crew member and his family pose with Filipino Lt. Cmdr. Geronimo Tuvilla (right) beside the newly commissioned BRP Malabrigo during ceremonies at the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Headquarters in Manila on Thursday. The PCG ship is the second of 10 multirole response vessels to be built by the Japan Marine United Corp. Yokohama shipyard as part of the Maritime Safety Capability Improvement Project with Japan. AP/AARON FAVILA

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Friday, December 23, 2016 Vol. 12 No. 72

Duterte inks biggest annual budget of PHL

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By David Cagahastian @davecaga & Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

he P3.35-trillion national budget for 2017, which is aimed at boosting the country’s economic growth through bigger spending on infrastructure, was signed by President Duterte on Thursday.

inside

₧3.35T The budget of the government for 2017

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said the P3.35trillion allocation, the biggest annual budget of the government yet, will promote the growth of the economy and encourage investments into the Philippines.

Continued on A2

ford’s 12 Ds of Christmas

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shorthanded but still lethal

Sports

STEPHEN CURRY auctions shoes to benefit Oakland fire victims. AP

BusinessMirror

CURRY CHIPS IN

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AKLAND, California—Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry is auctioning off two special pairs of shoes to raise money for victims of the Oakland warehouse fire.

KCBS reported that Curry teamed up with a local artist and had two distinctive pairs designed.

As of Wednesday afternoon on eBay, Curry’s shoes had received more than 150 bids

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| Friday, deCember 23, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana

and were at a combined $20,000 on the auction site.

Curry wore the pair of white sneakers with the words “Oakland Strong” printed on them during a recent game against the New York Knicks. Warriors officials say he wore the other, more colorful shoes with the words “Ghost Ship” on them, during practice.

Both shoes have the initials of all 36 victims printed on them.

The fire broke out on December 2 during a dance party at the Ghost Ship warehouse. AP

Cavs adjusting with Smith out for extended period C

LEVELAND—The Cavaliers won’t be at full strength for weeks—maybe longer. Still, Coach Tryonn Lue won’t tolerate any drop-off in the NBA champions.

“There are no excuses,” he said on Wednesday night before the Cavs hosted Milwaukee.

With starting guard JR Smith sidelined indefinitely with a broken right thumb and Kevin Love missing at least one more game with a bruised knee, Lue will be forced to change his rotations, find some scoring and a defensive stopper.

“We’re going to miss JR,” Lue said, “his effort on defense, his tough shot making. But it’s no excuses for us. It’s

KYRIE IRVING (left) has 31 points and a career-high 13 assists, while LeBron James scores 29 as the Cavaliers snare their second game in 24 hours over the young Bucks. AP

SHORTHANDED BUT STILL LETHAL The National Basketball Association champions were not at full strength, as Kevin Love didn’t dress for the second straight game with a bruised left knee, and JR Smith sat out after breaking his right thumb on Tuesday at Milwaukee.

NBA RESULTS Cleveland 113, Milwaukee 102 Memphis 98, Detroit 86 Minnesota 92, Atlanta 84 Oklahoma City 121, New Orleans 110 Washington 107, Chicago 97 Houston 125, Phoenix 111 Sacramento 94, Utah 93 Dallas 96, Portland 95

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By Tom Withers The Associated Press

LEVELAND—Kyrie Irving didn’t get tired of seeing the Milwaukee Bucks on consecutive days in December.

In fact, he wouldn’t mind playing them a few more times in late April, May or June when it really matters.

“I hope,” he said.

Irving had 31 points and a career-high 13 assists, while LeBron James scored 29 as the Cleveland Cavaliers won their second game in 24 hours over the young Bucks, 113-102, on Wednesday despite being without two starters.

The National Basketball Association champions were not at full strength, as Kevin Love didn’t dress for the second straight game with a bruised left knee, and JR Smith sat out after breaking his right thumb on Tuesday at Milwaukee. Smith needs surgery, and the Cavs won’t have a timetable on his return until after the operation.

They were barely missed as Cleveland’s two biggest stars more than made up for the absences and the Cavs won for the eighth time in nine games.

After his big performance on Wednesday night, Irving was asked if he sees the Bucks as a contender, a team Cleveland could meet in the playoffs.

Milwaukee beat the Cavs, 118-101, on November 29.

“I hope, man. It would be great, four games against them,” Irving said. “I’m fired up to go against them every time now, for real. Ever since they kicked our [butts] in Milwaukee it’s been personal and it’s going to continue to be personal.”

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 28 points and Jabari Parker 27 for the Bucks, who took the Cavs to overtime at home on Tuesday but fell behind by 21 in the fourth quarter this time and couldn’t come back.

“They’re the champs,” Milwaukee Coach Jason Kidd said.

“They showed that again tonight. They never panic. They’ve seen everything. For a young team like ourselves, we’re going through that. Hopefully, we can learn from our mistakes.”

Tristan Thompson added 15 rebounds for Cleveland.

Cavs Coach Tyronn Lue wanted to rest Irving and James, who played a respective 47 and 45 minutes in Tuesday’s overtime win at Milwaukee.

“He came to me and asked me how I felt. I said great,” James said. “He gave me a little look and I said, ‘I feel great,’ and uh, that was it.”

Like Irving, James sees the Bucks as a team to watch in the future, and a possible challenger to the Cavs in the

East. Maybe not this season, but at some point.

“The next several years they could be really, really good,” James said. “For me, I’m ready for whatever matchup. It doesn’t matter if it’s this year, or if it’s several years, I’m going to be ready for it.”

Irving scored 14 in the third quarter, capping the period with a three-point play to put Cleveland ahead by 15.

James made three threepointers in a span of 1:11 in the second to give Cleveland a 51-35 lead, but Lue, perhaps concerned about overworking his superstar, replaced him with Richard Jefferson.

James had an incredulous look as he ran off the floor and seemed to wonder why Lue would pull

him, while on such a shooting tear.

“He was mad,” Lue said.

“I wished he would’ve changed his mind,” James said. “I had made three straight threes. I don’t know. It’s cool, though. We won.”

In New Orleans Russell Westbrook had 42 points and 10 rebounds to lead Oklahoma City, 121-110, over New Orleans.

Alex Abrines scored nine of his 18 points during a pivotal 11-0 run early in the fourth quarter. The surge gave the Thunder a 100-87 lead with 9:18 left, and the Pelicans never got within eight after that.

Enes Kanter finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds.

Anthony Davis had 34 points and 15 rebounds for New Orleans. Jrue Holiday added 23 points and 10 assists and Terrence Jones scored 21 for the Pelicans.

John Wall had 23 points and nine assists as Washington rallied past Chicago, 107-97, for its third road victory of the season.

Trey Burke and Marcus Thornton came off the Washington bench to spark a decisive fourthquarter burst. Chicago closed to 97-93 with less than three minutes left, but Bradley Beal, Marcin Gortat and Wall followed with baskets to seal it.

Beal finished with 21 points, while Gortat had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Burke scored 10.

Jimmy Butler led a balanced Bulls offense with 20 points, while Dwyane Wade added 19 and Rajon Rondo had 10 assists.

next man up and we’ve got to be ready to play. We’ve got to do it by committee. I think our guys are ready to step up to the challenge.”

Smith got hurt late in the second quarter on Tuesday night against the Bucks and didn’t return after halftime as the Cavs won, 114-108, in overtime. X-rays taken after the game in Milwaukee were inconclusive, but further tests in Cleveland revealed the fracture.

The Cavs aren’t putting a timeline or know how long Smith will be sidelined. Typically, injuries like Smith’s require at least one month of recovery time, but the severity of the break is not known and his return date won’t be determined until after the operation.

Smith’s surgery has not been scheduled, Lue said.

Smith’s injury is the latest and most serious medical setback for the Cavs, who are 20-6 going into Wednesday’s home game against the Bucks. Love, who is having an All-Star season, missed Tuesday’s game and is not expected back until Friday, when the Cavs host Brooklyn. Reserve center Chris “Birdman” Andersen suffered a season-ending knee injury last week in practice.

With Smith out, Lue will have to balance not overworking stars LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.

James played 47 minutes and Irving 45 on Tuesday, but Lue said both would play in the second game of the back-to-back. The Cavs plan to trim James’s minutes in January and February, but for now the 31-year-old is not asking to sit out. He’s averaging 37.3 minutes per game, but Lue isn’t worried the Cavs are overworking the superstar.

“He knows his body better than anyone,” Lue said.

“He’s been doing this for a long time and he said he feels great and on nights he doesn’t feel great, he won’t play. He wants around 38 or 39 minutes a night and then he said in January or February we’ll tailor him down. As of right now, that’s the plan.”

Cleveland has some current roster issues with Andersen and Mo Williams (knee surgery) taking up two spots. Cavs General Manager David Griffin has been in the market to find a backup point guard—Iman Shumpert and James have been getting some of those minutes— and could now be forced to find another wing player.

Lue, though, said Griffin remains focused on a backcourt addition.

“We’re a good team, still,” Lue said. “We’re 20-6.

So no excuses. Until we get a chance to get something done and I know Griff will, he always does, he always comes through so. I told Griff to take his time. We are 20-6 and we don’t want to just settle for any point guard. We want to make sure we have the right piece that can help us win a championship. With Griff at the helm, I know he’ll get something done. He always pulls out something magical.”

Smith has become a huge fan favorite in Cleveland.

He had a major role in the Cavs beating Golden State in last season’s NBA Finals, dropping two big threepointers in Game Seven, and then became something of a cult figure when he showed up shirtless to the team’s celebratory downtown parade.

He held out of training camp for a new contract and the Cavs eventually signed him to a four-year, $57-million deal.

Smith has had a bumpy start this season, missing five games with an ankle problem and hyperextended knee.

He’s averaging 8.6 points, but has been slowly emerging from a shooting slump. AP

Sports

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FLIGHT FOR JOY This December 22 photo shows passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 waiting for their respective flight to places where they will celebrate Christmas Day. Airport authorities are expecting more passengers to flock to airports as December 25 nears. NONIE REYES

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NEDA TO FINISH CRAFTING ECON BLUEPRINT IN JAN

By Cai U. Ordinario

@cuo_bm

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he National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said it would be able to complete and submit a new economic blueprint to the President by the end of January 2017.

Documents obtained from the Neda showed the 20172022 Philippine Development Plan (PDP) will also be submitted to the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) next year.

“The PDP is employing strategies based on the three main pillars of the long-term vision. These are malasakit, or solidarity, and enhancing the social fabric; pagbabago, or real transformation, that reduces inequality; and kaunlaran, or increasing potential growth, and sustaining it,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia earlier said.

Documents indicated that the PDP of the Duterte administration will be divided according to six thematic parts and 22 chapters.

Continued on A2

Japan OKs record defense spending amid China tensions

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apan’s Cabinet approved a record defense budget of just over ¥5 trillion ($42.5 billion) for the year starting April, as tensions with China simmer over disputed islands in the East China Sea. The figure marks the fifth straight rise in annual military spending—a trend that started after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in late-2012.

Separately, an extra spending package approved for the current financial year included ¥171 million for defense, with the focus on ballistic missile defense as fears grow over North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities.

Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said last month that, while the government didn’t have a concrete plan to introduce a US missile-defense shield, it was considering the option. Deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in the country could hurt ties with Russia and China, which

have both opposed its planned introduction in South Korea.

Here are the main points of the two spending packages, which must be now passed by parliament: ■ Defense budget for year starting April rises 1.4 percent to ¥5.1 trillion.

■ New submarine model with improved sensor capability to be developed at a cost of ¥72.8 billion; Japan to expand its fleet to 22 submarines from 16.

■ Japan to budget for a further six Lockheed-Martin F-35 fighter aircraft at a cost of ¥88 billion; F-35 squadron to be established at Misawa, northern Japan.

■ ¥14.7-billion budgeted for procurement of new ship-based ballistic-missile interceptors, known as SM-3 Block II A. ■ Defense allocation in third extra budget for current fiscal year to be ¥171 billion, of which ¥33 billion will be spent on

n japan 0.4253 n UK 61.8052 n HK 6.4396 n CHINA 7.2003 n singapore 34.6030 n australia 36.2284 n EU 52.1483 n SAUDI arabia 13.3294

See “Japan,” A2

Source: BSP (22 December 2016 )

A2 Friday, December 23, 2016

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Duterte inks biggest annual budget of PHL Continued from A1

The 2017 national budget will provide the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) with P454.7 billion and the Department of Transportation (DoTr) with P53.3 billion, increasing their department budgets by 18.3 percent and 25 percent compared to 2016 allocations, respectively.

The increases in the budgets of the DPWH and the DoTr come with the more than P850-billion allotment for the construction of road networks in cities and provinces, school buildings, hospitals, transport infrastructure and many other public works, the DBM said in a statement.

The President said one of his campaign promises will be fulfilled with the increase in the budget of the National Irrigation Authority, which will have a P38.4-billion allocation for 2017.

“It has been a long time that farmers had been paying for water for irrigation. I’ve been wondering all these years why they have to pay for the water. That’s one of my election promises, that I’ll do away with this thing,” Duterte said in his speech at the

signing of the 2017 budget in Malacañang.

“The Department of Agriculture [DA] will be given P45.2 billion for market research and development, credit support services, construction of the farm-to-market roads and more micro enterprises will be supported by the Department of Trade and Industry’s establishment of Negosyo Centers,” he added.

Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the 2017 budget will also allow the government to provide better and free social services, such as education, housing and health services.

With P544.1 billion, the highest allocation out of all executive departments, the Department of Education (DepEd) will provide and maintain basic education facilities, create teaching and nonteaching positions, as well as develop and provide learning resources to more than 20 million Filipino students in the country.

Some P58.72 billion will be allocated for state universities and colleges (SUCs), from which will come the funding for tuition to be given to deserving students, as earlier announced by the government.

The DSWD’s budget will amount to P128.3 billion, a significant portion of which is allocated for the Conditional Cash Transfer Program and monthly rice subsidy for impoverished households.

The Department of Health (DOH) is given a sizable allocation of P96.3 billion to provide the marginalized sector with new and modernized health facilities and expanded health services.

The internal revenue allotment for local government units (LGUs) will amount to P486.9 billion in 2017, while the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will have a budget of P148.7 billion.

To improve peace and order in the country, the Department of National Defense’s (DND) allocation amounted to P137.2 billion for territorial defense, the Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program and security and stability services.

For meaningful change

Following the signing of the 2017 General Appropriations Act (GAA), the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations on Thursday said the Duterte

administration’s first national budget will reach all Filipinos.

In a statement, National Unity Party (NUP) Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles of Davao City, chairman of the panel, said the 2017 national budget concretizes Duterte’s commitment in bringing “meaningful change” to the country.

“The national budget spells out in very clear terms the policy of the Duterte administration and that is to take care of the poor and marginalized sectors of society, with 40 percent going to social services,” Nograles said.

“This budget is also meant to grow our economy even more and accelerate economic activities, particularly in the countryside and rural areas, with nearly 30 percent spending on economic services next year 2017,” he added.

According to the lawmaker, it will also further boost the administration’s efforts to fight drug addiction, criminality and terrorism.

The budget, Nograles said, fully supports the President’s all-out war against drugs, crime and terrorism by fully supporting

Malampaya shutdown to hike power cost–DOE Continued from A12

companies and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). During the shutdown, Meralco would have to source power from other sources, such as power supply agreements (PSAs) and source from WESM. The gas plants would still run, albeit on liquid fuel, which is more expensive than gas. In the past, instances of shifting to liquid fuel have always been higher than the cost of Malampaya gas.

Cusi said Meralco’s price-simulation factors in possible adjustment in WESM prices and the generation cost of natural gas plants due to change in liquid

fuel. The DOE chief, however, assured electricity consumers that the shutdown of the Malampaya gas facility “should pose no substantial impact to supply of electricity”. During the shutdown, which is scheduled from January 28 to Febr uar y 16, there wou ld be a projected electric-supply deficit of about 700 megawatts (MW). “My directive was clear—the Malampaya maintenance activities should pose no substantial impact to supply of electricity by using all available resources and remedies, because power is a basic necessity for our countrymen,” he said.

He added that plans and alternative modes should be in place and ready

before the actual shutdown. “We have to ensure that the program works for Malampaya is within the prescribed schedule given to the DOE. Historically, SPEx [Shell Philippines Exploration Corp.] completed its maintenance period on time. It is expected that it will do the same this time,” Cusi said.

He said preparatory activities among industry stakeholders have started. These activities are meant to protect consumers from the adverse impact of the shutdown on the supply and price of electricity.

In a meeting with industry participants on December 15, the DOE was apprised by SPEx of the preparatory works for the Malampaya services

maintenance shutdown (SMS).

According to SPEx, the maintenance activities will cover the repair of the subsea facilities, upgrades on the platform and maintenance on the onshore plant. On the power situation outlook, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) was tasked to simulate the possible power-supply scenarios, while the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) will conduct a simulation on the WESM prices during the Malampaya SMS. “The simulations will be submitted to the DOE for review and evaluation, so that we will be able to accurately respond to any unwarranted power market behavior,” Cusi said.

the needs of policemen and soldiers, while providing funds for the establishment of drug-rehabilitation centers.

The 2017 budget is higher by 11.6 percent than the current year’s budget of P3.002 trillion. As a percentage of GDP, the 2017 budget represents 20.4 percent compared to this year’s 20.1 percent.

Total revenue next year is expected to reach P2.48 trillion, or around 10 percent more than the government’s target collection this year. It is equivalent to 15.6 percent of the GDP. The national government budget deficit next year is expected at 3 percent of GDP, or P478.1 billion. This funding shortfall is funded through borrowings, which could reach P631.3 billion in 2017.

GDP is expected to grow by 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent next year through sustained expansion of the services and industry sectors and the expected recovery of the agriculture sector.

By department and special purpose allocations, the top 10 are DepEd, DPWH, DILG, DND, DSWD, DOH, SUCs, DOTr, DA and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

NEDA TO FINISH CRAFTING ECON BLUEPRINT IN JAN Continued from A1

The proposed thematic parts will focus on aspects of the data obtained from “AmBisyon 2040” such as enhancing the social fabric, or malasakit; reducing inequality in economic development opportunities, or pagbabago; and increasing potential growth, or kaunlaran.

The other thematic parts will focus on creating an enabling and supportive economic environment; foundations for inclusive and sustainable development; and how to move forward.

The first thematic part will be an introduction which will contain an overview of the current socioeconomic conditions in the country. These are among the major differences compared to previous PDPs, which had fewer chapters and no thematic parts.

“It will, thus, focus on regional development, infrastructure, agriculture development and culture, all strategies consistent with the long-term vision, the administration’s 10 point socioeconomic agenda and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” Pernia said.

The PDP 2017-2022 will be anchored on the President’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda, which aims to lay down a solid foundation for inclusive growth, a high-trust society a nd a g lob a l ly comp e t it ive knowledge economy. The PDP will serve as “the backbone or bond” that will hold all government agencies together in working toward achieving the Duterte administration’s goals.

The Duterte administration’s PDP will also be anchored on AmBisyon Natin 2040, which is the government’s 25-year vision for the Filipino people.

“AmBisyon Natin 2040” summarizes the goals and aspirations of Filipinos for the country over 25 years, or a generation from now, such that by 2040 Filipinos will “live in a prosperous, predominantly middle-class society, where no one is poor.” It is meant to be an anchor for development planning across at least four administrations, beginning with the Duterte administration.

Japan. . .

Continued from A1

upgrading ballistic missile defense. This includes an improved version of PAC-3 ground-based interceptors and research into future missile-defense systems Japan is also increasing the budget for its coast guard, as China steps up its presence around East China Sea islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

Coast guard budget for next year will rise by 12 percent to ¥211 billion, of which about ¥48 billion is to be allocated for new ships, including one capable of carrying a helicopter. Personnel numbers will be increased by 118 to 13,744.

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Group seeks investigation of CRS contractualization

By Marvyn N. Benaning Correspondent

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PARTY-LIST group is seeking a Legislative inquiry into the award of Phase 2 of the computerization project of the civil registry system (CRS) to the US company Unisys.

House Resolution 592, filed

by Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate of Bayan Muna, has won the support of 1,229 contractuals at the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Zarate, who sought the investigation of the P1.59-billion, 12-year contract, said the transaction was flawed from the very start since it was granted to a lone bidder that had been sharply criticized by the Commission on Audit (COA) in its reports in 2005 and 2015.

The original contract was also extended twice, according` to Zarate, under strange circumstances, with the PSA invoking approvals by an unnamed “ higher authority.”

In a letter to Zarate, the Association of Contractual Employees of Statistics (ACES) said now there are currently 1,229 service contractors in the PSA who are tied to a “no work, no pay” policy with no benefits.

They asked Zarate to initiate another investigation into the contractualization policy being pursued by the PSA and implemented by Unisys.

ACES also opposed the privatization of CRS, which would mean that Unisys will manage and control all the contractuals.

“Sa kasalukuyan po, kaming mga service contractor ay napipintong mailipat sa Unisys [system provider], ganun din ang 100 percent na pag-opereyt ng CRS sa kasunduang proyektong ITP-2 ng PSA at Unisys, na ang ibubunga po ay walang kasiguraduhan sa empleyo, sapagka’t dadaan pa po kami sa masusing ebalwasyon sa loob ng limang buwan [Currently, we service contractors are poised to be transferred to Unisys along with the 100 percent operation of the CRS under the project ITP-2 of Unisys and the PSA. This does not guarantee our being employed, as we would be evaluated in five months],” ACES said.

The contractual employees said the PSA has been coaxing them to support the new contract won by Unisys, a US company based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, which had already offered only 1,170 positions, meaning 59 of the contractuals would immediately be dismissed, Zarate said.

“This again demonstrates the evil of contractualization. Like the questionable contract entered by the PSA and Unisys, this also merits an investigation, which we

hope that the House leadership will schedule soon when Congress resumes its session,” Zarate said.

“Pinapangakuan kami na di umano ay magiging regular kami sa loob ng 12 taon, dadaan kami sa limang buwan na probasyon para sa masusing ebalwasyon batay sa kanilang nais.

Ang 12 taon ay pinahaba lamang ng kontrata at porma din ng kontraktwalisasyon at malinaw na hindi nito katumbas ang pagiging regular. Nanatiling walang katiyakan ang mga empleyado sa pagpasok ng Unisys sa CRS [Unisys promised us that we will become regular for 12 years after undergoing a five-month evaluation based on their needs. The 12 years refers to the extended deal and is but another form of contractualization and is clearly not equivalent to our being regular employees. There will be no job security for us when Unisys completes its control over CRS],” the letter added.

AC E S members h ave been working with the CRS for many years in processing civil documents, like birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates and others.

“Karamihan po sa amin ay dito na tumanda, binuhos ang lakas paggawa at marami pang sakripisyo. Halimbawa na lamang nang pagpasok ng kahit may bagyo at mga holidays na hindi naman doble pasahod ang natatanggap. Kami’y nababahala sa matagal ng serbisyo namin,tulad na lamang ng pinagdaanan ng mga empleyado noong na-merge ang dating NSO sa PSA halimbawa, pag-demote sa mga regular at casual bilang kontraktwal. Kapag Unisys na ang aming empleyo ay mawawalan ng saysay ang dekada, at mahabang taon ng aming serbisyo sa PSA at sa dating NSO [Many of us have grown old in the service, spending their labor and sacrificing their time even during holidays and typhoons without getting double the pay. We fear that what happened to us in the past will happen again, as when the National Statistics Office and the PSA were merged and many of us who were regulars and casuals were demoted to contractuals. Once the Unisys takes over, our long service with the PSA and NSO would be rendered worthless],” ACES argued. “ We be l ie ve t h at t he collection and processing of civil documents should not be controlled by a foreign company, like Unisys, since it would lead to higher fees and charges for the processing of the same documents that many people need.

These are basic documents that government should control and manage. Basic government services should not be privatized,” the group added.

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Friday, December 23, 2016 A3

SBMA foils attempt to smuggle P8-billion sugar from Thailand

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HE Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has prevented the smuggling of sugar imported from Thailand worth some P8 billion.

In a statement, SBMA said the shipment of some 200,000 metric tons of refined white sugar from Thailand was scheduled to arrive on Friday, December 23, at the Subic Bay Freeport.

SBMA Chairman Martin Diño has directed Trade Facilitation and Compliance Department Officer in Charge Robert Bana to recall the certificate of eligibility and admission permit issued in favor of Subic Bay Free Trade Center Inc.,

an SBMA locator and importer of the prime commodity.

“Let me emphasize that I have zero tolerance for any form of smuggling during my watch here at SBMA. Don’t mess with me. This is more than what a local sugar refinery can produce in 1 milling season,” Diño said of the 200,000 metric tons of refined white sugar from Thailand by a locator that has no capability to store the commodity.

Diño said under the prevailing

landed price of P2,000 per sack, the shipment of some 4 million sacks would easily be worth P8 billion in the domestic market.

He dismissed the claim of the importer that the sugar is meant for transhipment, pointing out that smuggling syndicates had operated with impunity in previous years, thus depriving the government of much-needed resources for economic and social development.

Diño, the former chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), said he would go after smugglers operating in the free port.

“Smuggling is pure and simple economic sabotage. The Duterte administration needs all the revenues it can raise to fund an aggressive infrastructure development program

and more efficient delivery of vital social services, especially education and health, to the disadvantaged sectors of the population,” he said.

He w a r ne d u n s c r u p u l ou s SBMA personnel that he would not hesitate to dismiss them if found to have participated in shenanigans at the free port. Dino said he has already ordered an investigation to get to the bottom of the smuggling attempt and to file the corresponding charges against all those responsible for the illicit operation.

“President Duterte is determined to stamp out not only the drug menace and criminality but also the scourge of corruption. We need the full support of everyone in bringing about real change in Philippine society in the years ahead,” he added. Catherine Joy Maglalang

Withholding of benefits prompts CDC union to OK strike

By Ashley Manabat Correspondent

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LARK FREEPORT—The Association of Concerned Clark Development Corp. (CDC) Employees, or ACCES, has voted to go on strike during the union’s general assembly in this free port.

A union member confirmed the impending strike, saying “it could happen anytime now.”

The union is appealing to the CDC management to honor the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) it signed with workers.

ACCES President Paul Mamangun said the CDC has “taken away all the benefits [granted us under the CBA]” forcing them hold a strike.

However, CDC Communications Manager Noel G. Tulabut said, “ACCES officers have been told many times over that CDC’s hands, as a

government corporation, are tied by certain prohibitions imposed by new laws and rules against [the grant of] new economic benefits.”

Tulabut said, “While it is everyone’s goal for better economic status, we are duty bound to uphold certain rules.”

On the threat to paralyze CDC operations, Tulabut said management is “saddened” by this threat.

“CDC’s mandate is to bring

about jobs and livelihood. Mr. [Noel] Manankil, [CDC president], has appealed to all employees that we should all continue to serve the 90,000-plus employees and 850 locators. To threaten to cause disruptions and worse, paralysis in CDC and Clark, will be a great disservice to Clark’s major stakeholders, especially to the workers and locators,” the CDC statement issued by Tulabut said.

ENJOYING THE SHOW

Senior officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) came in full force during the gala night of the 27th anniversary celebration of the region.

Standing, from left are Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., ARMM Tourism Secretary Kadil Sinolinding Jr., ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and ARMM Vice Gov. Haroun al Rashid Lucman Jr. Seated, from left, are Maguidanao Prosecutor Kookai Lao and Lanao del Sur Assemblymen Zia Alonto and Odin Sumagayan. AYUNAN GUNTING

DILG to fireworks makers: Cut injuries by half or face total ban

By Catherine Joy L. Maglalang Correspondent

C

ITY OF MALOLOS—Reduce firecracker-related injuries by half or face total ban next year.

This was the advise of Ricojudge Echiverri, assistant secretary for external and legislative affairs of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), to the fireworks stakeholders in Bulacan during a consultation meeting on Wednesday night.

Echiverri noted that fireworksrelated injuries last year have reached 900 and, if this cannot be cut by half, the DILG will do everything for the total ban on the use of firecrackers, just like what was done in Davao City by then-Mayor and now President Duterte.

T he f i rec rac ker tot a l ba n in Davao, Ec h iver r i, sa id was made for t he hea lt h and safet y

of New Yea r revelers.

“This is the first time that a province has opened such issues that could help the industry produce safer products and be globally competitive,” Echiverri said, adding that Duterte is keen on the health and safety of Filipinos, but, at the same time, is not insensitive to the thousands of Filipinos dependent on the industry.

On the other hand, Liberal Party Rep. Leopoldo Bataoil of Pangasinan, chairman of the technical working group of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Order and Safety, explained that there are now six pending bills in Congress concerning the fireworks industry and inputs from the said consultative meeting is very crucial for the future of the stakeholders.

Celso Cruz, chairman emeritus of the Philippine Manufacturers and Dealers Association Inc. (PPMDAI), noted that the chemical in-

gredients used by 90 percent of the local manufacturers were already banned in other countries for over a hundred years.

He pointed out that potassium chlorate, sulphur and aluminum are the main chemicals that traditional manufacturers use in making firecrackers.

Potassium chlorate is unstable when mixed with other chemicals and has the tendency to heat up and explode when it made contact with water.

In other countries that produces firecrackers and pyrotechnic device, Cruz said the use of potassium chlorate has already replaced with potassium perchlorate that is more stable.

However, Cruz noted that suppliers still sell potassium chlorate to fireworks manufacturers.

Lea Alapide, former PPMDAI president, said many manufacturers opted to procure potassium chlorate

This is the first time that a province has opened such issues that could help the industry produce safer products and be globally competitive.”—Echiverri

because it is much cheaper compared to the more stable chemical potassium perchlorate.

The stakeholders also noted that the 300-meter distance allowance provided by Republic Act (RA) 7183, or the firecracker law, is not applicable in the country and not a single company in the country has complied because this will require a company to have a 28-hectare land to comply with the distance requirement of the law between structures.

Cruz and Alapide noted that the law should be amended with regard

to the distance specified in the firecracker law and that this should be based on the quantity mixture being used in other countries, like Canada.

Cruz noted that a kilo of chemical mixture should be stored at least 60 meters away from residential areas, with the distance increasing as the volume of chemical mixture increases.

Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino SyAlvarado has tasked Senior Supt.

Romeo Caramat Jr., acting Bulacan police chief to strictly implement the provisions of the fircracker law.

To implement the law, Alvarado said the DILG has also released a memorandum circular on the manufacture, distribution, storage and use of firecrackers and everybody concerned should abide by it.

“Because Bulacan is the fireworks capital in the country, we are analyzing the cause of accidents and to make sure that it won’t happen again and we are instructing the provincial police to make rigid inspection of factories and stores and strictly implement all the provisions of RA 7183 and at the same time we are asking the stakeholders to police their ranks,” Alvarado added.

He also said that emergency responders together with firefighters and ambulances with paramedics will now be deployed round the clock in areas where fireworks and pyrotechnics products are being sold.

Economy

A4 Friday, December 23, 2016 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

PSA data show improved 2016 employment statistics

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By Cai U. Ordinario

@cuo_bm

he number of jobless Filipinos and those looking for decent jobs was lower this year compared to last year, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

The PSA said there are 2.4 million unemployed in 2016, lower by 200,000 than the 2.6 million reported in 2015.

In terms of the underemployed, there were 7.5 million Filipinos

looking for additional work this year, around 320,000 less than the 7.18 million posted in 2015.

“This means that the growth of our economy is becoming more inclusive as it engages more and more

2.4M The number of unemployed in 2016, which is lower by 200,000 than the 2.6 million reported in 2015

Filipinos to participate in the labor market,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said.

As a result, the unemployment and underemployment rates were lower at 5.5 percent and 18.3 percent in 2016, from 6.3 percent and

18.5 percent in 2015.

The data is based on the Annual Labor and Employment Estimates for 2016 based on the average of the four labor force survey (LFS rounds)—January, April, July and October.

The data also showed that the annual labor force participation rate was at 63.4 percent out of the 68.1 million population 15 years old and over.

The PSA said this is equivalent to about 43.2 million economically active population comprising either the employed or unemployed persons.

The total employed persons was approximately 40.8 million in 2016, higher than the 38.7

SBMA closes 43 investment deals–Escolango

By Henry Empeño

S

SUBIC Bay Metropolitan Authority Officer in Charge Administrator Randy Escolango (second from left) congratulates an official of Broadband Broadcast Services Pte. Ltd., which has committed P220 million in investments for a cable and pay television services operation in the Subic Bay Freeport.

free port; and GigaMare Inc., with $204,500 worth of additional investments for its maritime training facility here.

Escolango said dur ing the ceremony that the Subic agency had approved some P111.5 billion worth of investments in just the first nine months of this year, a proof, he said, of the continuing confidence of the investor community in the Subic Bay Freeport.

He added that with a 7-percent growth in the country’s GDP forecast for next year, and with Central Luzon contributing about 10 percent to 12 percent of the

briefs gma files bill to protect, modernize vmmc Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria M. Arroyo wants to give the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) its own juridical personality and modernize it to serve the medical needs of Filipino veterans, retired soldiers and their dependents.

Arroyo has filed House Bill 1240, which seeks to protect any sale or disposition of VMMCC and provide it greater flexibility and autonomy in its operations in order to serve its mission.

“Recognizing the invaluable sacrifices and services of our veterans and military retirees, it is only imperative that a medical facility dedicated to serve their medical needs, as well as their dependents must be provided stability, viability and ample resources to ensure that they receive quality medical and health services,” Arroyo said.

VMMC is under the control and supervision of the Department of National Defense, receiving 1 percent of the DND’s annual budget. PNA

dfa warns filipinos on online employment scams in portugal The Philippine Embassy in Lisbon once again reminds the public to be extra cautious in making transactions over the Internet with spurious companies and individuals offering employment and issuances of entry/working visas for companies in Portugal or other countries in Europe, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.

The embassy has recently noted continuing cases of Filipinos who have been victimized or have received e-mails from alleged companies or law firms in Portugal that offer jobs and/or promise to process entry/visa permits for employment through payment of fees by money transfer.

In some cases, unscrupulous individuals have misrepresented real and even reputable companies in Portugal by using information on their web sites but replacing their contact information. These individuals require payment of fees for Entry Clearance Certificates, International Overseas Employment Certificates and Affidavits of Guarantee Fund, all of which are not required by Portuguese authorities. PNA

GDP, “it cannot be denied that the Subic Bay Freeport Zone contributes significantly to national economic growth.”

It was the first time in almost six years that the SBMA again conducted a mass contract-signing ceremony for Subic-registered companies.

Rose Baldeo, president of Global Terminals & Development Inc. and chairman of the Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce, said the occasion “is a sign that the SBMA is moving forward,” a subtle reference to the recent leadership row in the agency that has reportedly stalled some investor-related business operations.

Reminding everyone that the business companies in Subic are the “lifeblood of the free port,” Baldeo expressed hope that the pending documents required by business firms “will be expedited.”

Ronnie Yambao, OIC of the SBMA Business Group, meanwhile, assured the investors that the Subic agency will provide them with “fast, flexible and friendly” service.

He added that despite subdued business forecast for 2017, the Subic Bay Freeport continues to attract foreign investors, with the latest trade delegations coming from China, Japan and Thailand in the last two months.

ernment has adopted a new unemployment definition that follows the standard set by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Under the ILO definition, the unemployed include all persons who are 15 years and over as of their last birthday and are reported as those without work and currently available for work and seeking work.

The ILO also said the unemployed include those without work and currently available for work but not seeking work because they are tired/ believed there was no work available; awaiting results of previous job application; had a temporary illness/ disability; bad weather; and waiting for rehire/job recall.

DOLE, private sector forge tie-up to boost job generation

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Correspondent

UBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) signed on Wednesday contracts for 43 business locators in this free port that have either proposed new investment projects, renewed lease agreements, or are poised to undertake expansion of their operations.

SBMA Officer in Charge (OIC) Administrator Randy Escolango signed the business agreements with representatives of the investor-companies during a mass contract-signing ceremony held at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center here.

The new contracts involved 12 ventures under the general business and investment; two for information and communications technology; 18 under the leisure sector; seven for logistics; and another two for manufacturing and maritime.

Leading the list of new companies with significant committed investments are Broadband Broadcast Services Pte. Ltd., with P220 million for a cable and pay television services venture that would employ 88 personnel; and Autokid Subic Trading Corp., which has set aside P25 million for a project that would employ 25 workers.

On the other hand, companies that have scheduled substantial investments for expansion projects next year include Subic Horizon Hotel, which has set aside P60 million for additional hotel facilities; and Royal Duty Free Shops, which allotted P50 million for the renovation of its main store in this

million recorded in 2015.

Employed persons are grouped into three major sectors—agriculture, industry and services sector.

The bulk of workers are employed in the services sector comprised more than half, or 55.6 percent, of the total employed persons.

About 19.6 percent were engaged in wholesale and retail trade or in the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles.

Workers in the agriculture sector made up the second-largest sector accounting for 26.9 percent, while those in the industry sector was at 17.5 percent.

The data on unemployment was based on new definitions. The gov-

he Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has partnered with the private sector to boost employment generation through effective job matching with the joint development of a Philippine work-force profile.

In a memorandum of understanding signed , the DOLE, together with the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries (PCCI), Servicio Filipino Inc. (SFI) Group of Cos. and Systems Technology Institute (STI), will jointly develop a standard work-force profile for the country.

Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, in a news statement released on Thursday, said the partnership will enable the DOLE to get a detailed skills and competency profile of the country’s work force that would provide current labormarket information for effective job and skills matching.

“Under the agreement, Ecop and PCCI shall collaborate and support the DOLE’s employment programs, such as JobStart, Philippine Talent Map Initiative (PTMI) and PhilJobNet,” Bello said.

Among its proposed responsibilities include information dissemination and roll-out of programs to its members, administration of programs’ activities, provision of necessary staff and technical support, and programs’ promotions, specifically the use of PhilJobNet for job matching and referrals.

SFI, on the other hand, shall provide the DOLE, Ecop and PCCI technical assistance in the administration of the Talent Map activities and train identified adminis-

trators, interviewers and coaches for the Talent Mapping. It shall also provide the three institutions with data access on the results of the Talent Map assessment.

For its part, the DOLE shall provide Ecop and PCCI with information materials for dissemination, include the two institutions in the mailing list for activities announcement, serve as the overall coordinator of all PTMI activities, and provide slots for the employee-members of two institutional partners.

Meanwhile, to ensure the efficient conduct of the PTMI across target stakeholders, STI, SFI and the DOLE will collaborate to improve the labor-market information, assist in the curriculum development, and develop a publication containing the information on 21st-century skills.

STI shall select and recommend respondents for the PTMI and provide venues for assessment, coaching and encoding of scores for its coaching sessions in the system.

It shall also coordinate the schedule for assessments and coaching sessions, provide meals during activities conducted, and assign students to use the Alpha Testing of the World of WerQ Portal and give feedback during its testing phase.

SFI, for its part, shall extend necessary support, which includes the provision of online system to be used in the skills assessment; and a team to help in the administration of tests and conduct of training for coaching sessions.

SFI shall also provide the talent score card of all respondents; analytics from the analyzed/interpreted data, and access to the World of WerQ portal for its Alpha Testing.

Global institutions fund resource, environment-management project

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

S

ustainable watershed management is getting the muchneeded boost from foreign financing institutions and donors, an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said.

DENR Undersecretary for International Affairs and Special Projects Jonas R. Leones said the DENR has high hopes on an ongoing project called Integrated National Resources and Environment Management Project (Inremp), which is expected to go full blast next year.

The project entails a total funding of $154.12 million, or P6.3 billion.

According to Leones, through the funds provided by these foreign financing institutions, the DENR will be providing support to local government units (LGUs) to boost rural infrastructure and naturalresource rehabilitation.

Inremp is one of the major projects of the DENR and is being implemented by the Forest Management Bureau (FMB).

The project was rolled out as early as 2014, but it was somehow delayed. “It will go full blast by 2017,”

said Leones, who underscored the need to protect the country’s river basins and watersheds to promote water security.

Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez has declared it a policy of the DENR to ban housing and other destructive development projects in watersheds, underscoring the importance of security of the country’s water sources.

Early this month, Lopez announced the cancellation of the environmental compliance certificate of property developer Century Communities for its Nova by Century housing project within the La Mesa Watershed.

The DENR chief also declared protected areas (PA) as “off limits” to mining to ensure the sustainable management of areas set aside from conservation and protection of the country’s rich biodiversity.

“Under the project, LGUs will have funding to improve the management of river basins and watersheds,” she said.

The Inremp project aims to address unsustainable watershed management in four priority Upper River Basins (URBs), namely, the Chico River Basin in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Northern Luzon; Wahig-Inabanga River Basin in the island of Bo-

hol, Region 7; Lake Lanao Watershed in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao; and Bukidnon River Basin in Northern Mindanao, Region 10.

The project also targets to help resource-poor communities by reducing and reversing degradation of watersheds and associated environmental services caused by forest denudation and unsustainable farming practices.

Through the porject, the DENR aims to provide incentives to local communities and LGUs to improve natural-resource management by generating sufficient and tangible economic benefits.

“It will help LGUs by providing necessary infrastructure facilities to ensure sustainable natural-resources management of river basins and watersheds,” Leones told the BusinessMirror in an interview.

The project has four components, namely, river basin and watershed management and investment, smallholder and institutional investments in conservation and URB production enhancement, river basin and watershed-management capacity and related governance mechanisms, and project management and support services.

According to Leones, funding for Inremp primarily comes from loan

obtained by the Philippines from the Asian Development Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development with minor grant components from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Climate Change Fund (CCF).

According to the Inremp project web site, the project sites are comprised of 23 watersheds extending to over 11,385.54 kilometer 2 with an estimated population of around 1.8 million. Approximately, 223,000 household beneficiaries are targeted covering nine provinces, 81 cities and municipalities, and some 1,332 barangays.

The main beneficiaries are marginal households with small landholdings. Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and other ethnic minorities constitute around 75 percent of the total beneficiaries that reside in headwaters of the river basins.

Of the aggregate project area, 63 percent are classified as forest land, while 37 percent are alienable and disposable (A and D) lands. Of the 719,985 hectares of forestland, only 312,585 hectare, or 43 percent, have forest cover, the remaining 407,400 hectare or 57 percent, are either cultivated, grasslands, shrubs, wooded grassland or built-up areas.

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Friday, December 23, 2016

A5

DA sets deadline for validation of import permits

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he Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Thursday it is giving importers of agriculture products until December 31 to have their sanitary phytosanitary (SPS) clearances or import permits revalidated.

Failure to do so would mean the cancellation of importers’ SPS clearances, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said in a statement.

“About 7,000 SPS clearances of the more than 19,000 issued by the DA in the previous administration remain unvalidated,” Piñol said.

In line with its efforts to weed out unscrupulous traders from legitimate importers, he said the agency has already processed 12,000 SPS permits after the drive to minimize technical smuggling of agricultural products took effect on November 22.

“We now have a clearer picture of the situation. Because of this campaign, we were able to weed out the fake clearances used by unscrupulous importers,” Piñol said.

He said the technical working group he created to handle the review and validation of existing import permits was overwhelmed by the volume of SPS clearances they need to validate.

“There are used and recycled SPS, as well as fake clearances,” Piñol said.

“Due to the volume, the system of inter-commerce slowed down and system error occurred, while different regulatory bodies encountered various problems,” he added.

Citing reports, Piñol said some importers were able to bring out shipments without validating their import permits.

Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations Ariel T. Cayanan said the agency will create a database of blacklisted companies after the

19,000

The number of import permits for farm commodities issued by the previous administration DA conducts the revalidation of SPS clearances.

“We have to do this to protect the interest of the government,” Cayanan said.

The DA released on November 22 Memorandum Circular (MC) 5, which authorized the review of the validity of all sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances to curb smuggling, according to Piñol.

MC 5 also ordered the creation of a group that would inspect all inbound shipments of agricultural goods and food before the BOC evaluates the tariffs for these shipments.

Piñol had assured consumers that the price and supply of holiday goods will be stable despite the more stringent trade measures his agency has implemented.

Meat processors belonging to the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (Pampi) had earlier complained about the new import rules, saying these could make processedmeat products more expensive.

Pampi Executive Director Francisco J. Buencamino earlier said importers belonging to their group have incurred losses, as their shipments have been held up in ports due to the delay in the release of new import permits.

File photo

S. Cotabato steps up efforts to contain infestation of locust, slug caterpillar

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ENERAL SANTOS CITY— The provincial government of South Cotabato has stepped up its interventions to contain the worsening locust and slug caterpillar infestation in parts of the province that already damaged around P9.1 million worth of agricultural crops.

Justina Navarrete, chief of the South Cotabato Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, on Thursday said at least 383.5 hectares of corn farmlands have been destroyed by the locusts in two barangays alone in T’boli town.

She added that the infestation

directly affected some 203 farmers in Barangays Maan and Mongocayo of T’boli.

The official said severe locust attacks were also reported in Barangays Lampari and Lamba in Banga, but they have yet to receive the official damage report from the municipal agriculture office.

“We already distributed chemicals for the massive spraying activities in some of the affected areas,” she said.

But Navarrete lamented that some farmers have refused to spray chemicals on the locusts as

they gather and sell them to local markets.

Cooked or fried locust is considered as a delicacy in some localities in the province.

“We’re continually educating and urging our farmers to prioritize the elimination of the pest as it is very destructive,” she said.

Meanwhile, the municipal government of Tupi has also reported severe infestation from slug caterpillar, which is locally known as pagi-pagi, in coconut farms in Barangay Cebuano.

Emil Sumagaysay, Tupi municipal disaster risk reduction

and management office head, sa id t hey a re st i l l assessing the damage wrought by the infestation, but noted that it already affected some 150 local farmers.

He said the barangay council of Cebuano, through Resolution 53, declared the entire area earlier this week under the state of calamity due to the infestation.

The municipal government has already sought assistance from the provincial government and various concerned agencies to help address the problem, he said. PNA

Hemp is the new tobacco as Kentucky farmers bet on weed’s cousin NFA assures enough

I

t looks like pot. It smells like pot.

But it’s hemp, marijuana’s legal cousin, and it’s taking over the Bluegrass state.

Across the rolling hills of Kentucky, which just two decades ago was the most tobacco-dependent state in the country, farmers are planting less of the crop after growing health concerns shrunk demand. Instead, they’re increasingly turning to hemp and have more than doubled sowings of the cannabis variety in 2016 to become the No. 2 producer in the US, trailing Colorado.

Unlike marijuana, hemp is a variety of cannabis that won’t get you high as it contains less than 0.3 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the former’s psychoactive ingredient. Hemp can be processed into more than 25,000 products, and main uses include rope, linens, food and personal-care products. “ The profit is promising,” said 32-year-old Giles Shell, who farms with his dad and brother on 200 acres 45 minutes south of Lexington, Kentucky.

The family next year plans to dedicate 80 acres to hemp, land that for four generations was seeded with tobacco.

“We’ve been willing as a family farm to be able to take this adventure.”

Production restrictions

For the past several decades, there were strict controls on hemp amid anti-drug sentiment, making it illegal to grow without a government permit as the plant got lumped in with marijuana. In 2014 the US farm bill authorized state agriculture departments to create industrial hemp research pilot programs, reopening production opportunities. Only 33 acres were planted in Kentucky that year. Seedings rose to 922 acres in 2015 and jumped to 2,350

ing the Second World War. In contrast, US tobacco farming started to climb in the early 1900s and topped 2 billion pounds in 1946 as cigarette consumption grew, according to the USDA. A federal quota system that supported prices ended in 2004 and national output dropped 3 percent in 2016, government data show. Kentucky remains the nation’s second-largest tobacco grower, trailing North Carolina.

Farmers are looking for alternatives as prices for other grains and commodities remain depressed and the tobacco market continues to decline, said Doris Hamilton, the industrial hemp program manager for Kentucky’s agriculture department.

Costco, Target Volunteers harvest hemp in Springfield, Colorado, in October 2013. P. Solomon Banda/AP Photo

acres in 2016, according to the state’s agriculture department.

That’s still a relatively tiny amount.

By comparison, in 2015, Kentucky farmers planted 72,900 acres with tobacco, an annual US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report shows. Hay, the state’s No. 1 crop, was seeded on 2.37 million acres.

Still, the state accounts for almost 25 percent of the 9,650 hemp acres grown nationally this year, data from the Hemp Industries Association show.

Changing national views on pot can also give hemp a boost. Voters in Washington and Colorado were the first to approve recreational use of marijuana in 2012. Now, eight US states and the District of Columbia have moved to legalize, permitting a fifth of Americans to consume weed freely in their home states. The Colorado initiative also included legislation governing the cultivation, processing and sale of in-

dustrial hemp.

Hemp’s potential is huge, said Steve Bevan, the chief executive officer of GenCanna, a Kentucky-based industrial hemp grower that is extracting oil from the plant to use in wholesale and retail products. The company plans to boost its production to 500 acres in 2017, up from 100 this year, he said.

‘More plants’

“We’re going to need more plants, and we’re going to need more acres,” Bevan said.

Kentucky’s first hemp crop was grown in 1775, and almost all of the nation’s production was grown in the Bluegrass region following the Civil War, according to the state’s agriculture department. The crop was included with federal legislation that outlawed cannabis harvesting in 1938, and output dwindled to practically nothing follow-

Total retail sales of hemp products in the US reached $573 million in 2015, according to the Hemp Industries Association. Sales by conventional retailers are growing. Products can now be found at stores such as Costco Wholesale Corp. and Target Corp. in addition to specialty retailers, said Eric Steenstra, the executive director of the industry group.

Most of the hemp products currently sold in the US are imported from other countries and growers and processors have an opportunity to gain a foothold in the market as demand rises, Steenstra said.

Farmer Shell planted his last tobacco crop in 2015. His neighbors are also trying to grow hemp, which Shell plans to buy and resell to GenCanna for processing.

“There’s a lot of growers in this area that are trying hemp, and it all starts from the flailing tobacco market,” Shell said. “Hemp is taking off.” Bloomberg News

rice for flood victims in Samar

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he National Food Authority (NFA) in Samar said it has sufficient rice inventory to meet the requirements of local government units (LGUs) and relief agencies for distribution to flood victims in the province.

Thousands of people were affected by flash floods and landslides in several municipalities in the provinces of Eastern and Northern Samar caused by incessant rains for several days now.

“We are ready to respond anytime to provide the rice requirements of various relief agencies and LGUs,” NFA officer in charge Tomas Escarez said in a statement.

Escarez noted that the agency has a standing memorandum of agreement with relief agencies, such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Office of Civil Defense and LGUs, for the supply of their rice requirements for relief operations during natural disasters, calamities and other emergencies.

Local NFA offices in Northern Samar initially released 1,000 bags of rice to the provincial government of Northern Samar for distribution to the LGUs of Catubig and Las Navas; 300 bags to Catarman and 75 bags to Rep. Ben P. Evardone.

The NFA noted that the DSWD in Region 8 has also signified its intention to purchase 2,000 bags for distribution to displaced families.

Escarez said the agency’s rice inventory in Region 8 stands at 510,509 bags, or 25,525.45 metric tons.

Escarez added that field offices in Region 8 were instructed to issue the best-quality rice to LGUs and relief agencies.

A6

Friday, December 23, 2016

Trump’s son, fearing ‘quagmire’, to stop soliciting for charity B

The W

Business

Smog grips China as exam goes on outdoors

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ASHINGTON—Eric Trump said on Wednesday he had decided to stop directly soliciting contributions for his charitable foundation, which supports causes like the fight against childhood cancer, because he recognizes that his status as the president-elect’s son means that donors could try to use him to gain access to his father.

“As unfortunate as it is, I understand the quagmire,” Trump said in an interview on Wednesday evening. “You do a good thing that backfires.”

His move followed public criticism of an online auction that the Eric Foundation had sponsored offering a chance to have coffee with his sister Ivanka.

The criticism intensified over the weekend after an invitation was drafted offering a hunting trip with Eric or his brother Donald in exchange for donations of $500,000 or $1 million to a charity that friends of Eric had created this month with his apparent consent, according to legal documents.

Ethics experts had begun to compare Eric’s charitable campaigns to efforts by the Clinton Foundation, which was a relentless target of criticism by Presidentelect Donald J. Trump during his campaign.

Trump argued that Hillar y Clinton had provided favors to donors while she served as secretary of state, an accusation she called baseless. The president-elect has also faced calls from ethics experts to separate himself from his business empire.

Associates of Eric said he had made the decision not to solicit contributions with deep regret.

He has been raising money for Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee since he was 21, helping deliver more than $15 million to the institution, which offers free care to needy children.

The fate of the foundation remains unclear, family members said. Among the options are to

shut it down or rename it, or to distance Eric in some other way from any fundraising efforts.

For Trump, 32, charitable work has long been a point of pride and, in a statement issued to The New York Times on Wednesday evening, the Trump family said curing cancer “will continue to be a lifelong mission” for him.

“Eric remains committed to raising awareness and will continue to advocate for finding a cure for childhood cancer,” it said.

Norm Eisen, a former Obama W hite House ethics lawyer, and Richard W. Painter, an ethics law yer in the administration of George W. Bush—who have been among the Trump family’s most vocal critics—both praised the move.

“I applaud it,” Eisen said on Wednesday. “I do think there has been a baptism of fire for all of the members of the Trump family, and there are some signs that they are responding appropriately to criticism.”

Added Painter: “I don’t think President Trump or the children are really used to the idea that he will be president and the public scrutiny that results. They are realizing it now.”

But Eisen and Painter said the Trump family must still resolve major outstanding conflicts involv ing t he president- elect ’s business operations—and ensure that the children of Trump who will be running his business no longer participate in any government-related meetings. Eric Trump has returned full time in recent weeks to the Trump Organization, which he intends to help run after his father enters

Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. wait for the second presidential debate between Donald J. Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at Washington University in Saint Louis on October 9. AP/John Locher

the White House. “Now they have to resolve the big issue: The father has to divorce himself from his conflict by appointing an independent trustee for his businesses,” Eisen said.

Trump recently postponed a news conference during which he was supposed to address the concerns about the businesses.

The auction for coffee with Ivanka Trump was terminated on Friday, after The Times reported that several of the highest bidders had said in interviews that they had entered the competition in hopes of using her as a way to get a message to her father on issues, such as immigration and election fraud.

In addition, Eric Trump and his brother Donald have now said they will no longer participate in the post-inauguration charitable hunting trip. Details about the charity behind the event were first reported by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit journalism outfit.

But Er ic went f u r t her on Wednesday evening, saying he realized his fundraising could cause his family problems while his father is in the White House.

“I get that people will try to use anything they can for their own interests,” Trump said. “The reality is, I’ve been raising money for sick kids far longer than” his father has been a politician.

Like children of past presidents, the Trumps are discovering the downsides and restrictions that come with having a

father in the Oval Office. But there has never been a case of personal wealth as extensive as that of the Trump family.

O n We d nesd ay e ve n i ng Er ic said he had beg un raising money for children’s il lnesses because his last name put him in a unique position to br ing in large sums. Money that the Eric Trump Foundation—which has just one employee—has raised over the past decade paid to build a new intensive care unit at St. Jude’s. T he unit, which is named for him, opened in Febr uar y 2015.

Trump has made a $20-million, 10-year commitment to St. Jude’s.

About $5 million is outstanding, money that could be raised via direct donations from hotel guests or players at family golf courses, under the proposed plan.

The Trump family, through its hotels, may still accept smaller donations sent directly to St. Jude’s, or other causes, a family member said. But it will no longer first send the money to a family-controlled charity.

The Trump Organization has not made any public statements about the fate of the Trump Foundation, a separate charity run by the president-elect, that also took outside donations and has been criticized for using money meant for charity to benefit principals of the Trump Organization.

A spokesman for the preside nt - e le c t d id not res p ond to a request for comment on Wednesday night. NYTNS

EIJING —A s t he g r imy, gray smog spreading across northern China settled on the town of Linqi, its schools received a “red alert” notice to cancel classes and protect children from the acrid haze. But Linqi No. 1 Middle School decided it would go ahead with exams it holds outside.

On the school’s small sports field, at least 400 children sat or knelt this week in front of stools used as small desks, answering questions about math, English, Chinese and physics.

It is common in China to hold exams outdoors, to deter cheating. But in this case, the students were bathed in cold, filthy air so dense that those at the back of the soccer field seemed like ghostly imprints in the air. Photographs of the smog-shrouded testing on Monday spread across the Internet in China. The pictures, taken by an irate Linqi resident, drew the attention of the media and public ire on Wednesday, after days of unusually heavy pollution fell across parts of the country’s north, including Henan province, which includes Linqi.

T he students most ly wore flimsy masks that afforded little protection against pollutants, and they quickly came to symbolize the frustration that people felt about the smog and the foot-dragging response by some officials.

A reporter from Dahe News, a Henan newspaper that first reported about the exam being held despite the pollution alert, said he had asked the principal of the Linqi school why students were made to take the test on Monday.

“All the organization had been done,” the principal, Feng Jisheng, replied, according to the reporter.

“So we went ahead with the exam.”

“At the time, the smog wasn’t bad,” Feng said, describing it as being more of an icy fog than smog.

Dahe News said that Feng had denied planning to hold exams outdoors on Tuesday, too.

Much of the attention in the latest pollution wave has focused on Beijing, which issued a rare red alert on Friday. But the pictures from Linqi drove home how much other, often ignored, towns and cities must endure. Dozens of places in China have issued red alerts, the highest-level response, which requires schools to send students home.

In Shijiazhuang, a city in the adjacent Hebei province, the pollution index for PM2.5—tiny airborne particles of soot and dirt

On the trail of Italy’s manger hoppers

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talians have been erecting Nativity scenes for a very long time: Saint Francis of Assisi is credited with setting up the very first one on Christmas Eve in 1223, in the town of Greccio, north of Rome.

So they’ve had a lot of practice, and it shows. Many Italian churches put up tableaus of the birth of Jesus Christ that are so elaborate and beautiful, and so varied in approach, that visiting a number of them has become a popular holiday social activity.

Rome, with its churches and chapels by the score, has an especially rich Nativity scene.

One of the most beloved is at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli al Campidoglio, with its life-size figures, dramatic lighting and elaborate backdrop, painted in 1820.

Scenes in a crowded Neapolitan style are common. The one at the Basilica of Santi Cosma e Damiano, which is under the care of the Interior Ministry’s Fondo Edifici di Culto, dates from the 18th century, a golden age for the craft.

They are full of wood, terra-cotta and porcelain figurines depicting not just the holy family, but also the trades and fashions of the time.

Artisans in shops along the Via San Gregorio Armeno in Naples continue the tradition today and sometimes include contemporary celebrities.

Not all of the most popular scenes are housed in churches. Giuseppe Ianni, 80, a retired street cleaner in Rome, began building a scene in a city-owned garage in 1972 and it has since grown to 275 figures.

“It’s been seen by thousands, including three saints,” said Ianni, naming Mother Teresa and two popes, Paul VI and John Paul II, who have been canonized.

Instead of the customary donation, Ianni asks visitors to give him a stone from their home countries to plaster to a wall in the scene.

They’re also “asked to pray for peace,” he said. The Nativity figures that are believed to be the oldest in existence were sculpted

by Arnolfo di Cambio for Pope Nicholas IV in 1291. They were once displayed in a replica of the Holy Grotto in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, which also houses what the faithful believe is a relic of Jesus’ manger. These days, they are in the basilica’s museum.

“The Roman Nativity scene typically reproduces the 19th-century city, with classic costumes and

neighborhoods that no longer exist, often inspired by watercolors of the time,” said Antonella Salvatori, of the Italian Friends of the Nativity Scene Association. The association’s museum has more than 3,000 scenes from around the world.

The Nativity scene in the church of Santa Barbara dei Librai exactly depicts the piazza just outside the church. Though the scene was created in 2005 by a group of parishioners and artisans, it is peopled (as most historically inspired scenes are) with a broad cast of characters from 17th-century Rome. There is a bookseller, a baker, a codfish vendor and even Caspar Van Wittel, a Dutch painter known for the views of Rome he painted from about 1670.

Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican has a Nativity scene every year, naturally, and this year’s was created by Maltese artist Manwel Grech. The scene includes a replica of a luzzu, a traditional Maltese boat. Pope Francis saw in it “the sad and tragic reality of migrants” crossing the Mediterranean from Africa in search of a better life, and said he hoped that all those who visited the scene would “rediscover its symbolic value.” NYTNS

A nativity scene being set up at Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara Coeli in Rome, on December 9. Visiting one church after another to see their elaborate Nativity scenes is a popular holiday activity in Italy. Gianni Cipriano/The New York Times

that are especially hazardous to health—hit 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter on Monday. Even then, schools in the city did not suspend classes until a belated official government notice was sent.

The World Health Organization recommends maximum daily exposure of 25 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter. Even at relatively clear times, the levels in many Chinese cities are much higher. On Wednesday the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection said that 28 cities were under red alert for heavy air pollution, but that the haze and smog would probably start to dissipate on Thursday.

The Chinese government has promised to clean up the air after public anger has swelled in recent years. And there has been progress, although each winter brings more bad spells.

This year, a resurgence of steelmaking and other heav y industr y seems to have cut into gains in reducing pollution.

Many Chinese people reacted to the melancholy images from Linqi much as they have to the smog: with a mixture of anger and mordant irony. While outdoor testing is often used to make it easier to spot students copying others, or peeking at cheat sheets, some commenters questioned the practice this time.

“On a day like that, would teachers be able to spot if students brought cheat sheets?” asked one user of Sina Weibo, a popular microblog site a bit like Twitter.

“China needs this kind of behavior, right? Because GDP is more important than ordinary folks’ health,” another commented. The Chinese government often tries to mollify public anger by suspending or firing officials, even when the rights and wrongs of a case are unclear. Feng, for e x a mple, w a s s u s p e nd e d a s principal on Wednesday. Calls to the school went unanswered Wednesday, but an official in the local education bureau confirmed Feng’s suspension.

“He didn’t follow our notice to suspend classes at school,” said the official, who gave only his surname, Zhang. “Our notice said all school activities must be suspended from noon on December 19 until the day the red alert is gone.”

Still, the students who endured the outdoor exams do not have to worry too much about the results.

The Dahe News reporter said he had asked Feng why the exams were so pressing. NYTNS

World

sMirror

Friday, December 23, 2016

A7

Saudi officials to unveil road map to balanced budget, possible surplus

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audi authorities on Thursday will steps to balance one of the highest budget deficits in the Middle East and possibly achieve a surplus in 2020, according to a senior government official with knowledge of the matter.

The plan will focus on bolstering nonoil revenue and will seek to shield middle- and lowincome earners from the impact of the planned measures, the official said on condition of anonymity. The economic council chaired by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman devised the plan, the official said.

The prince is leading the biggest economic shakeup in the kingdom’s history in a bid to reduce its reliance on oil, a task some ana lysts said w il l take years and require tough measures that could dampen economic growth. The budget deficit surged to 15 percent of GDP in 2015. “ The price of oil will be a critical factor if this target

is to be achieved in 2020,” said Monica Malik, chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. “ The manner through which reforms were undertaken in 2016 is also promising, though we do not expect this pace will likely be maintained. Refor ms w il l need to continue in the coming few years, especially on growing the nonoil revenue.”

Authorities raised fuel prices last year as part of a plan to restructure subsidies, and are considering increasing prices again in 2017, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Fuel prices

The government is looking into two scenarios for the increase in local retail fuel prices: either linking them to benchmark oil prices or to the average of gasoline and diesel fuel prices on the international market, the person said.

To help Saudis cope with subsidy cuts, the government will start a

cash-transfer program to compensate all but the wealthiest, according to two people with knowledge of the plan.

Families affected by the measures can register for cash transfers from February 1 and the payments will start in June, they said. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to release the details.

Under the pr ince’s Nationa l Transfor mation Prog ram announced this year, the gover nment wants to reduce its wage bil l, and encourage Saudi nationa ls to seek jobs in the pr ivate sector. In October it suspended bonuses and tr immed a l lowances for its employees, including a 20 -percent cut to ministers’ sa lar ies.

The International Monetary Fund expects the budget shortfall to narrow to 13 percent in 2016 before dropping below 10 percent next year, helped by a projected increase in oil prices. Bloomberg News

Trump faces mixed biz posture with China

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t seems President-elect Donald J. Trump isn’t interested in business as usual with China. Just as his intervention at Carrier Corp. in Indiana indicates that he will intervene in corporate decisions in cases where American presidents typically do not, his protocol-breaking phone call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen—the first such communication since the US recognized mainland China in 1979—indicates that he’s willing to push boundaries in his effort to reverse what he sees as the US losing power to Beijing.

His Carrier move may be in the right direction, but the Taiwan phone call is not.

Trump faces a mixed business picture with China. US multinationa ls, while increasingly harassed by Beijing, have many leading market-share positions in China, especially in high-tech and sophisticated capital goods, such as US-made microprocessors and gas turbines.

US exports to China have, over the last 10 years, actually grown faster than China’s exports to the US, but the latter’s volume of exports is so much larger that the bilateral trade deficit has risen by roughly 50 percent since 2009 and stood at $366 billion in 2015.

China is the poster child for US job killers. Recent research suggests that Chinese imports, in the 12 years following the country’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, took an estimated 2 million jobs out of US communities.

To understand the US relationship w ith China, it’s important to recognize that global macroeconomic headwinds are moving against Trump and his efforts to generate jobs for his working-class constituency.

The US has created no net new jobs for those whose highest educational level is a high-school degree (or less) since the job market bottomed out in 2010. It has, however, created 4 million jobs for people with bachelor’s degrees. Low-wage economies, like Mexico’s and China’s, absorb American technolog y and bu i ld i ndu st r i a l c apabi l it ies more easily today than ever.

2M The estimated number of jobs China took from US communities in the last 12 years

Trump may have overpromised on bringing back jobs, but he does have some tools to work with as he tries to narrow the trade gap and create a strategy for China.

He has two levels to operate on: first, directly inf luencing corporate investment and buying decisions, and second, diplomatic engagement with trading partners. The trick will be to put together enough success stories to scale up the effect on the US economy.

First, he needs to string toge t he r e nou g h C a r r ie r - t y p e deals, especially among large factory complexes that influence the wider supply chain.

The Carrier deal is interesting because it will make the firm’s suppliers think twice about moving, possibly multiply ing the job-saving effect. US companies close home factories more readily than German and Japanese corporations, and Trump can use the presidency to challenge that boardroom culture.

To do this, Trump needs to positively orchestrate more and threaten less. The companies to focus on would be those that

A Chinese woman walks past an online-shopping web site Amazon.cn promotion booth set up near a shopping mall in Beijing on November 22. AP/Andy Wong

import heavily from China, such as big retailers like Wal-Mart or branded orchestrators like Apple.

These companies can be persuaded that doing more business in America is a smart business move.

For instance, Wal-Mart plans to add $50 billion in US-made products over the next 10 years.

This isn’t a charity move on WalMart’s part, but rather a management effort to educate and train American manufacturers on the hidden costs of offshore sourcing and how to be more effective suppliers to Wal-Mart.

Trump knows how to use the bully pulpit to press this kind of thinking on all big-box retailers and major distributors. The key here would be to identify US supply chains where proximity to the American buyer is a dollars-andcents advantage, i.e., where offshore logistics are expensive or unreliable. Trump’s second level is diplomacy with trading partners, especially China. The American posture toward China since President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger opened relations in

1972 has been to bring China into the international community. The benefits have been great not just for China but also for US multinational companies—from Procter & Gamble and IBM to firms from a wide range of high-end US service industries, like publishing, design and consulting.

But the lower end of US manufacturing has borne the cost of China’s export scale. Here’s a good cause for Trump to champion: China now holds hostage multinational access to hightech and capital goods markets by requiring technology transfer to domestic Chinese manufacturers. China also seeks to force US information-technology companies to disclose their proprietary source code, which is their core competitive advantage.

Trump should focus on this Chinese gaming of market access and intellectual property, especially in those industries where American multinationals are world leaders. He could do this by insisting on reciprocity in access on a product-by-prod-

uct basis, otherwise, China loses its US access. For example, if US producers of wind turbines do not have the same market access in China as Chinese producers have in the US, the US would demand the same access or reduce its openness to China’s level.

Trump can also extend this reciprocity standard to incoming direct foreign investment from China. He has leverage in this area: The US already has operations in China, but Chinese technology companies are now just entering the US. He can also press for a bilateral treaty imposing penalties on the state if it fails to stop intellectual-property theft.

Trump will find himself limited in what he can do unilaterally. The high tariffs on Chinese exports he has threatened are self-defeating, as China will simply embargo shipments from the hundreds of US-owned factories there that feed critical components to their worldwide manufacturing operations. Most Chinese foreign direct investment in the US should be welcomed, even

promoted. There is still much that can be done in working with China, including negotiating a larger agreement with China to stabilize the value of the yuan (which is falling) and to cap the bilateral trade deficit. Trump’s interventions in US companies will barely dent this deficit.

The US- China trade imbalance is str uct ura l, based on China’s export scale, the overvalued safe-haven US dollar and the low US savings rate. Beijing understands the political problem that trade deficit-driven job losses pose for a US president and will negotiate accordingly.

It can do more to influence the trade deficit than Washington can, and Beijing will negotiate—but not if Trump continues to talk to Taiwan. This is China’s No. 1 sensitivity. In my view, the current Taiwan-US-China agreement works for the US and Taiwan.

Trump shouldn’t trade it away.

Most of all, Trump must keep his trade demands on Beijing specific and legitimate. The question is, does he have the discipline? NYTNS

A8

Friday, December 23, 2016

briefs

Alibaba back on U.S. ‘notorious markets’ list

WASHINGTON—Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is back on the US government’s annual list of “notorious markets” that sell pirated goods.

The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said on Wednesday that Alibaba’s online marketplace Taobao sells “high levels” of counterfeit goods and is slow to respond when companies complain about the knockoffs.

USTR took Alibaba off the blacklist in 2012, but several US trade groups successfully sought to get it reinstated. AP

4 in China cleared after 2 death sentence appeals

BEIJING—Four men in eastern China accused of murder and rape have been exonerated after a 16-year legal ordeal in the latest instance of Chinese courts overturning deeply flawed verdicts.

A Jiangxi province high court announced on Thursday it cleared the men accused of killing a woman in 2000, apologized and offered them an opportunity to seek compensation.

The men had been sentenced to death by a municipal court in 2003 based on dubious confessions and successfully appealed. The same lower court reheard the trial and sentenced the defendants to death again the following year, only to be overruled again by the provincial court in 2006. AP

The World BusinessMirror

Seoul probers seek to detain daughter of Pres. Park’s friend

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EOUL, South Korea— Investigators looking into the scandal surrounding impeached South Korean President Park Geunhye are seeking to detain the daughter of Park’s longtime confidante who faces criminal charges for allegedly extorting companies and manipulating state affairs.

After a request from the investigators, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it will soon order Yoora Chung, the daughter of jailed friend Choi Soon-sil, who is believed to be in Germany, to hand in her passport.

Ministr y’s Spokesman Cho June-hy uck said the passpor t wou ld be inva lidated if Chung

does not retur n it to prevent her from f leeing. A n of f ic i a l f rom t he invest igat ion tea m, led by spec i a l prosec utor Pa rk You ng-soo, ea rl ier sa id it had obt a ined a wa r ra nt to det a in C hu ng a nd had asked for help f rom Ger ma n prosec utors in f ind ing C hu ng a nd obt a ining e v id e nc e , s u c h a s f i n a nc i a l

$65M The amount Samsung gave to two nonprofit foundations Choi Soon-sil allegedly controlled and abused to expand her personal wealth

transaction and phone records.

A German prosecution official told South Korean media that Germany will cooperate with South Korean investigators.

Choi is under suspicion that she exploited her presidential ties to get Chung, an equestrian athlete, into an elite university despite questionable qualifications.

Lee Jae-yong, the scion of Samsung, South Korea’s largest business group, has apologized over the use of corporate funds to buy

Taliban attack home of Afghan lawmaker in capital, killing 8

KABUL, Afghanistan—Afghan police say gunmen have stormed the home of a lawmaker in the capital, killing eight people and leaving the parliamentarian wounded after he jumped from the roof to escape.

The Taliban claimed the attack, which began late Wednesday, saying they targeted a meeting of military officials.

Police officer Sadiq Muradi says the gunmen attacked the house of Mir Wali, a lawmaker from the restive southern Helmand province. They battled his guards for several hours, eventually killing eight people, including family members, friends and members of his security detail.

Three attackers were killed.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack. AP

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

Supporters of South Korean President Park Geun-hye shout slogans during a rally opposing her impeachment and her to step down at downtown Seoul on December 10. South Korean lawmakers impeached Park, a stunning and swift fall for the country’s first female leader. AP/Lee Jin-man

a horse for Chung, but denied that the group was seeking favors from Choi or Park’s administration.

Samsung is under suspicion that it sponsored Choi in an effort to win government backing for a controversial merger deal between two affiliates last year that allowed Lee to further promote a father-to-son transfer of leadership and corporate wealth at the group.

Lee’s father, Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, has been hospitalized since suffering a heart attack in 2014.

Sa msung is one of t he count r y ’s m aj o r c o mp a n i e s t h at gave a combined 77.4 bi l l ion won ($65 m i l l ion) to t wo nonprof it fou nd at ions C hoi a l leged ly cont rol led a nd abused to e x pa nd her persona l wea lt h.

S o u t h K o r e a ’s o p p o s i t i o n cont rol led pa rl i a ment on De ce mb e r 9 vote d to i mp e ac h Pa rk , who st ate prosec utors acc use of col lud ing w it h C hoi in e x tor t ing money a nd favors f r o m t h e c o u n t r y ’s l a r g e s t compa nies a nd a l low ing C hoi to inter fere w it h gover nment a f fa irs f rom t he shadows.

The impeachment suspended Park’s powers, and the country’s Constitutional Court has up to six months to decide whether she should permanently step down or be reinstated.

The independent team led by the special prosecutor began its investigation on Wednesday, which automatically stopped a probe by state prosecutors.

They began by raiding the offices of the National Pension Service, which supported the merger between the two Samsung affiliates despite the deal reducing the value of the fund’s stake in one of the companies by an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars.

Investigators also searched an office at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which governs the pension service.

South Korean lawmakers last month passed a law that allowed for a special prosecutor to investigate the scandal over concerns that state prosecutors’ close ties with presidential officials might inject bias into their probe. AP

Oily Hanukkah treat outlasts minister’s health campaign in Israel

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ERUSA LEM—Israel is a re finding a new campaign by t hei r c r u sad i ng hea lt h m inister ha rd to swa l low : in t he na me of proper nut r it ion, he has gone on t he wa r pat h aga inst t he nat ion’s beloved Ha nu k k a h t rad it ion of gorging on sugar-laden, deep-fried, ja m-f i l led doughnuts.

As head of a powerful ultra-Orthodox political party, the bearded and black-coated Yaakov Litzman considers himself a guardian of Jewish traditions. But in his other hat, he’s a health-conscious official on a mission to stamp out junk food and child obesity.

Litzman’s two roles have come into conflict with his high-profile call to avoid the lure of the highcalorie sufgania doughnut.

“I call on the public to avoid eating sufganiyot, which are rich in fats,” Litzman told a conference last week promoting healthy eating.

“You can find alternatives for everything nowadays and there is no need for us to fatten our children.”

As part of his health food drive, Litzman has campaigned to have sugary drinks removed from schools and taken on fastfood giant McDonald ’s—earning public praise for promoting proper nutrition.

“McDonald’s out. Not in our

A bakery employee wheels doughnuts in Bnei Brak, Israel. AP/Dan Balilty

country,” he said, in a refrain that went viral. But going after doughnuts during Hanukkah is something else entirely.

For most Israelis, eating the sufgania is as essential to celebrating Hanukkah as lighting the menorah and spinning the dreidel.

Along with the latke—a fried potato pancake—it is the delicacy most associated with the eight-day holiday that commemorates ancient miracles and a triumph over oppression. Taking a page from the playbook of the ancient Maccabees who inspired

the holiday, many are resisting Litzman’s campaign.

“You have to eat it, but in proportion. It’s yummy, it’s good, it’s the season,” said Gideon Haba, a doughnut seller in the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem. “I don’t believe he [Litzman] meant it. It’s like not lighting the candles. He just wanted to send a message.”

Yosef Lipsman, a customer buying his first doughnut of the year, said the tradition was harmless as long as you don’t go overboard.

“W hite f lour is not great for you, but it’s all a matter of how

much,” he said. “You can enjoy it once in a while.” Litzman declined a request for comment.

Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, commemorates the Jewish uprising in the second century BC against the Greek-Syrian kingdom, which tried to force its culture on Jews and desecrated the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

The holiday lasts eight days because—according to tradition— when the Jews rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem, one vial of oil, enough for one day, burned for eight days instead.

Hence the tradition of eating oily foods.

A sufgania is essentially a ball of dough deep fried in oil, packed with strawberry jelly and sprinkled with sugar. Other versions are alternatively filled with chocolate spread, cappuccino or dulce de leche.

In recent years it has become trendy for bakeries to offer embellished versions that are topped with marshmallows, crumbled cookies, pralines, popping candy and whipped cream. Some include a syringe that can inject toffee, pistachio cream and even vodka into the doughnut for an additional kick.

The upgrades have created a 100-gram doughnut that can contain as much as 500 calories.

Burger King recently jumped on the bandwagon by introducing its “SufganiKing”—a standard Whopper stuffed between two doughnuts.

At a Roladin bakery in Jerusalem, dozens of elaborate versions were laid out on display.

“Maybe they are fat...but they are good. That’s the reason why they’re good,” said Haim Newman, a customer. “My family came from a long, long tradition of baking and my father always says what his grandfather told him before: ‘If you want something good, it has to be fat.’” AP

In Turkey things could get worse before they get better

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he assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey fits into a long tradition of political violence in a country where the fallout from the Syrian war is deepening the chaos.

Turkey’s toxic combination of problems includes a Kurdish insurgency at home and state purges following a failed coup attempt in July, meaning the security situation will remain extremely tenuous for a while.

While Russia and Turkey suspect the killer of Ambassador Andrei Karlov was part of a wider conspiracy, the Turkish government has come under scrutiny for its tolerance—or sponsorship—of Islamist rebel groups in Syria in recent years that may have indirectly radicalized some young Turks.

“You have a blowback effect,” said Halil Karaveli, a Swedenbased senior fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and the Silk Road Studies Program.

He said a mix of hardline Turkish nationalism and Sunni Muslim fundamentalism had been prospering in some quarters in Turkey, creating the potential for homegrown violence.

Whatever motivated gunman Mevlut Mert Altintas, an off-duty policeman killed by the police after shooting Karlov at a photo exhibition in Ankara on Monday, has not been confirmed. He shouted religious phrases and appeared to condemn Russian bombardments of rebel-held neighborhoods of Syria’s Aleppo city—the shooting followed protests by Turks who criticized Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed the movement of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen for the assassination, while Russia has said conclusions should be left to the investigators.

Gulen is already blamed for the failed military uprising in July that led to the imposition of a state of emergency, an extension in pretrial detention, the arrest of around 38,000 people and the purging of more than 100,000 from government jobs. Turkey and Russia, which have endured difficult relations over the past year or so, described the killing as an attempt to disrupt an improving alliance that they hope will stabilize Syria and consolidate their influence there.

The political calculations on Syria come as Turkey has endured regular bombings and other attacks, shaking the government of Erdogan even as he seeks to increase the power of his post by pushing for constitutional changes. Accused of authoritarian behavior, Erdogan triumphantly rallied supporters after the coup attempt, but the Russian ambassador’s assassination embarrassed a nation gripped by some of its worst violence in decades.

The turbulence has prompted comparisons with 1970s political unrest in Turkey that led to a 1980 military coup. Then, the deadly upheaval pitted Turkish left- and right-wing groups against each other, and the military eventually intervened in the name of restoring order, a move tainted by human rights abuses by the state.

This time around, Turkey is grappling with Kurdish militant attacks, deploying troops in northern Syria to fight Kurds and the Islamic State (IS) group, and purging suspected followers of Gulen.

Turkey has also been targeted by suspected IS extremists after it gave more robust support to the US-led war against the group.

Turkey’s tradition of political violence includes the last stages of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, according to Howard Eissenstat, an associate professor of Middle East history at Saint Lawrence University in Canton, New York. AP

AseanFriday BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Max V. de Leon • Friday, December 23, 2016 A9

Petronas agrees to study 2 Iran oil fields

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alaysia’s state-owned energy company Petroliam Nasional Bhd. signed an agreement to study two oil fields in Iran, joining international companies from Russia to France that plan to help boost the Persian Gulf nation’s oil-and-gas production.

Petronas signed a memorandum of understanding to assess the South Azadegan and Cheshmeh Khosh oil fields, Gholam-Reza Manouchehri, deputy director of the National Iranian Oil Co., said at a signing ceremony in Tehran on Wednesday. In the past month, Iran has signed up Royal Dutch Shell Plc. to Russia’s Gazprom Neft PJSC and Total SA to study its oil-and-gas potential after sanctions on its economy were eased in January.

“We will be happy to work with the NIOC,” Anuar Taib, executive vice president and CEO of upstream

for Petronas, said at the ceremony.

“We have 40 years of experience in exploration and production so we think we are qualified to do the job.”

Back to Iran

The agreement marks a return to Iran for Petronas, which bought crude from Iran before international sanctions were imposed, according to Iran Oil Ministry’s news service Shana. The study of the two oil fields will take six months, and should be finished in the second quarter, Petronas said in a statement on its web site.

Iran expects Petronas to boost recovery rates at Azadegan, which holds 10 percent of Iran’s crude reserves, Manouchehri said. “The rate of recovery on the oil field is now around 5.5 percent but we are expecting a recovery of up to 20 percent,” he said. Shell two weeks ago signed an agreement to evaluate three of Iran’s largest oil-and-gas fields, including Azadegan.

Iran will be allowed to pump an additional 90,000 barrels a day under an agreement by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that takes effect on January 1. Its output was 3.67 million barrels a day in November, according to data compiled

by Bloomberg.

It is prioritizing the development of shared fields on its borders, where its output has generally fallen behind that of its neighbors due to a lack of foreign investors. The Azadegan field crosses the border into Iraq, where the deposit is called Majnoon. Iran’s output from the North Azadegan and South Azadegan developments is about 120,000 barrels per day, according to Wood Mackenzie. Bloomberg News

Bloomberg Photo

A10 Friday, December 23, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Merry Christmas in spite of it all

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T has been a difficult year. With Christmas Day this Sunday, it would be great to be filled with the sprit of the season—joy and thanksgiving for all that we have with the people around us.

Nevertheless, nations around the world, including the Philippines, are being torn by political and ideological divides that are too deep and wide to ignore even for the brief holiday period.

It is hard to remember a time in the recent past when people were so far apart.

Normally, we might be able to put our political differences away. But there is a general feeling on both sides of the abyss that decisions made by governments and political leaders are too important and too far reaching to disregard even for a few days. And that is sad.

In country after country, individuals have risen up to represent opposing ideas that seem so conflicting that there is little room for a middle ground or even a sensible discussion of what path a society should be on. It is a battle of good versus evil, or at least that is what we are being told or what we personally think.

Who is to blame for this situation? Is it the politicians’ or the peoples’ fault? Has the leadership stirred up these often ugly passions? Or have we created the leaders that reflect our sometimes crazed fanaticism?

The Christian Messiah whose birth this holiday represents and embody came with the purpose of reconciliation between the Divine and the human, and to accomplish unification among all people, ending divisions. But today the divisions seem unrelenting and impossible to bridge.

However, as the potential to descend even farther into political chaos goes stronger, we all might need to do a reality check on our agendas. American author Mark Twain once said, “Loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it”. While each of us would defend our views as being loyal to the nation and not to or against a particular government, can we say with certainty that the people are not being played by the politicians for their own gain and not ours?

Yes, 2016 was a difficult year. We at the BusinessMirror lost our founder, our mentor, and our friend with the passing of Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua. You never know when this Christmas might be a last Christmas.

Perhaps, for even a short time, we should remember the biblical passage in the book of Luke: “Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of goodwill.” All those people that we have differing views with and against are also men and women of goodwill. Each of us truly has an obligation to spread some benevolence, no matter how hard that may seem at times.

Merry Christmas, from our house to your house. Thank you for another year of allowing us to share information and views of the world we all live in. Peace and prosperity to you and your loved ones.

Since 2005

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A banner year James Jimenez

spox

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N keeping with the joy and hopefulness that this season symbolizes, let me list some of the election-management highlights of the year that is rapidly drawing to a close.

Let’s start with the #PiliPinas Debates. At the beginning of the year, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) spearheaded its first presidential and vice-presidential debate series in almost a quarter of a century—and it was a recordbreaking event!

The #PiliPinas Debates 2016 brought all presidential candidates together on the same stage to actively engage with the voters and each other. This was a rare—if not actually unprecedented—occurrence made even more special by the fact that it didn’t just happen once. All five candidates faced off with each other in the first debates. For health reasons, the late, great Sen. Miriam DefensorSantiago missed the second one, but rallied back stronger than ever for

the third and final showdown.

It was a transcendent moment in Philippine politics when the politicians showed themselves willing and eager to engage with the electorate, and the electorate responded with great gusto. The debates trended on social media worldwide—another unprecedented feat for presidential debates—with close to 2 million tweets.

These never-before-seen levels of public enthusiasm for the electoral process sent people to the polling places in droves, with the 2016 national and local elections enjoying a record voter turnout of 81 percent. Just to put that in perspective, there are countries in the world with smaller populations than the number of Filipinos who trooped to

How Republics end

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By Paul Krugman | New York Times

any people are reacting to rise of Trumpism and nativist movements in Europe by reading history—specifically, the history of the 1930s. And they are right to do so. It takes willful blindness not to see the parallels between the rise of fascism and our current political nightmare.

But the 1930s isn’t the only era with lessons to teach us. Lately, I’ve been reading a lot about the ancient world. Initially, I have to admit, I was doing it for entertainment and as a refuge from news that gets worse with each passing day. But I couldn’t help noticing the contemporary resonances of some Roman history—specifically, the tale of how the Roman Republic fell.

Here’s what I learned: republican institutions don’t protect against tyranny when powerful people start defying political norms. And tyranny, when it comes, can flourish even while maintaining a republican façade.

On the first point: Roman politics involved fierce competition among ambitious men. But for centuries that competition was constrained by some seemingly unbreakable rules.

Here’s what Adrian Goldsworthy’s In the Name of Rome says: “However important it was for an individual to win fame and add to his and his family’s reputation, this should always be subordinated to the good

of the Republic…no disappointed Roman politician sought the aid of a foreign power.”

The United States used to be like that, with prominent senators declaring that we must stop “partisan politics at the water’s edge.” But now we have a president-elect who openly asked Russia to help smear his opponent, and all indications are that the bulk of his party was and is just fine with that. (A new poll shows that Republican approval of Vladimir Putin has surged, even though—or, more likely, precisely because—it has become clear that Russian intervention played an important role in the US election.) Winning domestic political struggles is all that matters, the good of the republic be damned.

And what happens to the republic as a result? Famously, on paper the transformation of Rome from republic to empire never happened.

Officially, imperial Rome was still ruled by a Senate that just happened to defer to the emperor, whose title originally just meant “commander”, on everything that

the polls in 2016!

Apart from having the highest voter turnout in recent memory, the 2016 elections also showcased tremendous improvements in the Comelec’s proficiency in managing all aspects of automated elections —from validating the biometrics of more than 7 million people over a period of a little over a year, to printing 55.7 million ballots in just 49 days, to clocking the highest and fastest results transmission rates in the history of automated elections, at 96.4 percent.

And, of course, for the first time, winning senators and party-list organizations were proclaimed on the same day!—a mere 10 days after elections. Small wonder, then, that the 2016 elections are now deemed, based on surveys by the country’s most reputable polling firms, the most credible elections in recent history.

It is probably fitting then that the Philippines has been honored with international recognition from various quarters. The Philippines’s innovative use of social media in the #PiliPinas Debates, for instance, was cited by an international group as outdoing even the American presidential debates. The US-based Carter Center, in turn, said of the

elections: “Most electoral stakeholders seemed to feel that the automated elections of 2016 marked significant improvement over previous Philippine elections.”

And most recently, the UK-based International Center for Policy Studies (ICPS) recognized the Comelec for Outstanding Achievements in Accessibility of Elections and in Ensuring Minority Participation.

Apart from these commendations, the Comelec was also awarded the Election Management Award for the conduct of the 2016 elections. And, most prestigious of all, the ICPS chose the Comelec as the recipient of its prestigious international Electoral Commission of the Year award over 14 other electoral commissions from all over the world.

All things considered, 2016 was a banner year for everyone involved in making our Philippine elections work. For all that 2016 has been a roller-coaster ride, having the highs outnumber the lows is certainly something that the entire Comelec —myself included—will always be immensely thankful for.

Happy holidays everyone!

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

mattered. We may not go down exactly the same route—although are we even sure of that?—but the process of destroying democratic substance while preserving forms is already under way.

Consider what just happened in North Carolina. The voters made a clear choice, electing a Democratic governor. The Republican legislature didn’t openly overturn the result—not this time, anyway—but it effectively stripped the governor’s office of power, ensuring that the will of the voters wouldn’t actually matter. Combine this sort of thing with continuing efforts to disenfranchise or at least discourage voting by minority groups, and you have the potential making of a de facto oneparty state: one that maintains the fiction of democracy, but has rigged the game so that the other side can never win.

Why is this happening? I’m not asking why white working-class voters support politicians whose policies will hurt them—I’ll be coming back to that issue in future columns. My question, instead, is why one party’s politicians and officials no longer seem to care about what we used to think were essential US values. And let’s be clear: This is a Republican story, not a case of “both sides do it.”

So what’s driving this story? I don’t think it’s truly ideological.

Supposedly, free-market politicians are already discovering that crony capitalism is fine, as long as it involves the right cronies. It does have to do with class warfare—redistribution from the poor and the middle class to the wealthy is a consistent theme of all modern Republican policies. But what directly drives the attack on democracy, I’d argue, is simple careerism on the part of people who are apparatchiks within a system insulated from outside pressures by gerrymandered districts, unshakable partisan loyalty, and lots and lots of plutocratic financial support.

For such people, toeing the party line and defending the party’s rule are all that matters. And if they sometimes seem consumed with rage at anyone who challenges their actions, well, that’s how hacks always respond when called on their hackery. One thing all of this makes clear is that the sickness of US politics didn’t begin with Donald J. Trump, any more than the sickness of the Roman Republic began with Caesar. The erosion of democratic foundations has been under way for decades, and there’s no guarantee that we will ever be able to recover.

But if there is any hope of redemption, it will have to begin with a clear recognition of how bad things are. US democracy is very much on the edge.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Friday, December 23, 2016 A11

Just between you and me Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

THE PATRIOT

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t is said that servant leaders are born with integrity. For most people, integrity is learned through the inculcation of this value at home, in school, at work and in any other environment one spends the most time in. As a young Army lieutenant assigned to supervise a checkpoint, I was once instructed to turn a blind eye whenever logging trucks pass by, and in exchange, I was promised a fee much larger than my monthly salary. It was one of those “just between you and me” arrangements where no one would not know, except the one who offered the fee and me. I politely refused. In a matter of days, I was reassigned to another military detachment where trucks carrying illegally cut logs did not pass.

When I was the chairman of the Personnel Selection Board in the Bureau of Immigration (BI), there was a contractual employee who offered me an amount twice my salary as deputy commissioner in exchange for a permanent item. I was told that such arrangements were common in the bureau then. I was aghast by the audacity of the employee to make this offer without really knowing who I am and what I stand for. Of course, that just between you and me offer was flatly rejected. In a matter of days and upon my recommendation, the contract of such employee was termi-

by saying—“You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years; And get pats on the back as you pass; But your final reward will be heartache and tears; If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.” So, whatever is right or wrong by your standards will be based on how the man in the glass looks back at you.

My father (Lt. Gen. Salvador Mison; 36 years in the Army and four years in the Bureau of Customs), my uncle (NBI Director Mariano Mison; six years in the police and 39 years in NBI) and my brother (Lt. Gen. Salvador Mison Jr., 36 years and counting in the Air

Integrity is defined as doing the right thing, especially when nobody is watching. In government, it can get harder to do the right thing when the environment does not encourage you to do so. The values we individually learned and absorbed through the years will dictate what is right or wrong from our own perspective. One might see an act as right, which others see as wrong. In a 1934 poem, “Man in the Glass,” by Peter Dale Wimbrow, it narrated how powerful people may get all the accolades and praises from others, but the person who is to be pleased is that person you see in the mirror. The poem ends by saying— “You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years; And get pats on the back as you pass; But your final reward will be heartache and tears; If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.” nated on the ground of loss of trust and confidence.

Whenever foreign nationals are faced with deportation, the opportunity to become corrupt and the temptation to receive irregular compensation in the process exponentially increase. As exposed by columnist Ramon Tulfo, BI Deputy Commissioners Al Argosino and Mike Robles allegedly extorted P50 million from Fontana Resort owner Jack Lam in exchange for the release of some Chinese nationals caught working without permits/visas. In explaining his side of the story, Argosino alleged that “it was me and Robles who discovered the only living evidence against Lam that there is payoff in the BI and this payoff continues inside the BI”. Subsequent reports revealed that Argosino and Robles admitted to having received P30 million (already “returned” to the DOJ for safekeeping). Retired PNP General Calima allegedly received P18 million in exchange for the audio recordings of their conversation, and retired PNP General Wally Sombero allegedly received P2 million as the go-between. I guess these were just between you and me arrangements that went awry and exposed to the public. One thing is certain, money changed hands, very irregularly.

Integrity is defined as doing the right thing, especially when nobody is watching. In government, it can get harder to do the right thing when the environment does not encourage you to do so. The values we individually learned and absorbed through the years will dictate what is right or wrong from our own perspective. One might see an act as right, which others see as wrong. In a 1934 poem, Man in the Glass, by Peter Dale Wimbrow, it narrated how powerful people may get all the accolades and praises from others, but the person who is to be pleased is that person you see in the mirror. The poem ends

Force) took great lengths to build their respective service reputations of unquestionable integrity in public service. In a recent publication, Babes Romualdez, a columnist in a major newspaper, wrote that the Jack Lam episode is just the tip of the iceberg and hinted that, in my capacity as commissioner of the BI, I was implicated, connected, or associated with several irregularities involving foreign nationals, like Wu Hao, Wang Bo, Krishna Reddy and Cho Songdae. My reaction to this is to simply to stand my ground and remind myself that I am the son of my father Salvador, the nephew of my Uncle Mariano, and the brother of Salvador Jr. “Relying” on the reputations of my father, uncle and brother as proof of my own integrity does not mean a whole lot for others. After all, pedigree does not guarantee that the scion will be the same as his elders, in the same way, disrepute in the family line does not damn the descendant to the same notoriety. But what I can clearly say is that my own Man in the Glass is my friend. In the same poem of Dale Wimbrow, he said— “He’s the fellow to please—never mind all the rest; For he’s with you, clear to the end; And you’ve passed your most difficult, dangerous test; If the man in the glass is your friend.”

As for those allegedly involved or connected in the Jack Lam extortion or bribery case, I am sure that prior to this incident they managed to conscientiously build their own reputation in the legal profession and in public service. From the way I see it, that just between you and me arrangement was never with Jack Lam; it was between Argosino, Robles, Calima, Sombero and their respective ‘Man in the Glass’. As a lawyer, a former public servant, and an academy graduate, I know how these people are thinking and feeling right now.

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

Savoring the season Tito Genova Valiente

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t is humid where I am now. But, where other writers are, they are rhapsodizing about the nip in the air. Christmas has, indeed, the capacity to allow people some pretensions, or fantasies.

We do not have snow and frost.

The closest to being frozen is the doll my grandchild, Leona, plays with.

She calls the doll “Frozen”, and, indeed, the persona in that box looks like she has been botoxed beyond redemption. Leona is growing up into a political commentator and I like that.

Christmas is contentious, like any events related to religion. I must confess, though, that Christmas is already embedded in my genes. Christmas is malignant in me. The crèche on top of a TV console is composed of characters with foreign features.

The lead actors in the first Christmas faced situations that were historically unique to the land. Romans and Jews were all enmeshed in a colonization process where the promise of a

Messiah was a national threat, even if there was no nation in the site.

In our country, Christmas comes early and we pride ourselves in the longest Christmas. What that means only Wise Men can divine. We talk about “Ber” months and the TV newscasters, ever insipid, start the countdown. As early as September, the Yuletide tunes drown out the memories of martial rule, which took place in that month many years ago.

These are songs about sleigh bells and reindeer and chestnuts. We dream of white Christmas just like the ones we used to know, even without being aware of the deranged nostalgia in that recall.

If the memory of Christmas carols in English are misplaced enough,

think of the local Christmas songs we have. Each year, the networks come out with station IDs that are passed off as messenger of love and hope when, in fact, these songs are really advertisements in disguise.

Many Filipino children get to learn to sing the carols due in no small measure to the greatest exposure the networks can give to this commercial creation.

Our local carols are no crystal example either of warm thoughts and honeyed moral lessons. Our Christmas carols are sordid torch songs, doormat anthems to abusive relationships. One song, a favorite, in fact, because of its bittersweet melody, says it all: “kahit hindi Pasko ay magbigayan.” Does this mean we are not that generous outside Christmas?

Christmas in this country can never be celebrated in the manner of the suspension of disbelief that other cultures may embrace. There is a reality out there to contend with —bitter and sad realizations of poverty and corruption.

My friends will tell me I am ranting. I am not. I am retelling the Christmas story as it happened. It was a cold evening and a dictator supported by a foreign

force was waiting for the chance to discover where this Savior would come from. The census that he was at first wary of became an opportunity, a kind of proto-national identification, to zero in on the threat to peace. The dictator knew the Messiah would come from the House of David. What an easy target in the chill of December.

Let me not greet you “Merry Christmas”, for as in the first Christmas, there was only a bit of hope. Remember only the shepherds were sure of the baby in the Manger. The Wise Men were certain but they were much too exotic to be harbingers of good news.

The first Christmas began with a massive rule that forced people to travel back to their hometown. There was a hidden threat from Herod the strongman, and later, after the glorious birth, the killing of the innocents took place.

Perhaps, there is something to look forward to in the shifting of the year, when the Monster eats the Old and spews out the New. Under the present dispensation, violence has become more credible. Happy New Year, then, good friends, old friends.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.

Modeling spousal influence in family-planning use Cristina M. Bautista

EAGLE WATCH

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N the decade prior to the passage of the Philippine reproductive-health law in 2012, the country had seen an acrimonious debate over the use of family planning. Even with the passage of the law, public discussion remains a sensitive matter. Government data shows a strong association between family size and poverty, hence the importance of closely studying the Philippine population trends, patterns and composition. On a micro level, studying population inevitably brings up gender issues. One of the issues in this case is that Filipino men generally prefer to have more children than Filipino women.

More often than not, families— especially those belonging to the low-income groups—are not able to meet their desired family size. It has been argued by previous studies that higher fertility among the poor is often attributed to inadequate women’s education and lack of access or ineffective use of family planning among the poor. There is less attribution for gender-based influence or “relative power” on total fertility in economic studies.

Most of these studies in intrahousehold reproductive decision making assume what microeconomic theory calls a unitary household framework. Such framework comes from the traditional perspective that the welfare of the household is largely determined by a household head. Associated with Nobel laureate economist Gary Becker, the unitary

household framework has become the mainstream economic model for analyzing the family.

When it comes to the determination of factors affecting intrahousehold decisions, the availability of data often constrains a researcher to use either the perspective of only the woman or the man. Given such data availability, the unitary household framework is used to analyze research problems, like what factors determine household decisions in the allocation of resources and time use, as well as planning the composition and size of the family. There is always the presumption that family welfare is paramount to the household head.

In the 1990s, there emerged an alternative school of thought in economics that challenged the primacy of the unitary household framework.

Referred to as the collective house-

hold decision-making, this school looks at intra-household decisions as products of collective decisions of the spouses. Those who contributed to the development of this analytical framework were economists Martin Browning, Pierre-Andre Chiappori and Francois Bourguignon.

There are indications that genderbased power may, in fact, influence family-planning use in the Philippines. Some studies have found relatively high levels of spousal disagreement among Filipinos in certain aspects of family planning.

The resolution of such disagreements may reflect asymmetry in the balance of power.

Fortunately, in 2003 the Philippine National Demographic and Health Survey included for the first time a separate questionnaire for male respondents such that a subsample of the national survey consisted of at least 2,000 matched couples. This allowed the pursuit of research investigating intra-household reproductive decisions on the basis of the “bargaining power” of man and woman or put another way, the factors that affect the distribution of spousal influence or power in reproductive decisions. The advantage of using the collective model is that it is an economic theory that has the flexibility to accommodate gender-related variables.

In order to determine the relative power of the partners in the familyplanning decision, I classified the different family-planning methods, determining the factors that influence their use. The groupings were: (1) women-only methods, such as

pills, intrauterine device and injection, which can be used by the wife with or without the knowledge or consent of the husband; (2) coupleparticipation methods, such as the use of condom, rhythm and withdrawal; and (3) irreversible method (sterilization) that requires the written consent of the person and, in some cases, even the spouse.

Here are major interesting findings using some statistical tests. Financial and other types of support from extended family, like parentsin-law, tends to discourage the use of women only-based contraception, as well as sterilization. The wife’s social capital, proxied by her discussion of family planning with people other than her husband, has a positive influence on all three types of family-planning methods.

The wife’s exposure to media information on family planning tends to make her use women-based contraception over couples-based method.

In contrast, the man’s exposure to media information positively works to encourage them to use couplebased methods.

It was also seen that the more educated the wife is relative to her husband, the more likely she would use women-only based methods.

The research is an attempt to empirically model family-planning decision factors using the collective household framework, an economic perspective that incorporates the distribution of relative influence or power between spouses on intrahousehold decisions. Results can be further reviewed as it opens another avenue in population research.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

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Malampaya shutdown to hike power cost–D.O.E.

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By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

₧1/kWh

he 20-day shutdow n of t he Malampaya gas facility next year will result in an increase of about P1 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in power generation cost, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).

According to Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) submitted a price simulation, which shows a projected increase in generation charge of around P1/kWh. Generation cost is a major component of an electricity bill.

The price hike will be reflected in the March 2017 bills of customers. “There will be an increase, but what we will do is to minimize the increase to soften the burden to our consuming public,” Cusi said. The natural-gas plants fueled by Malampaya provide around 40 percent of Meralco’s supply requirements.

The rest are sourced from bilateral contracts with generation

The possible increase in power-generation cost due to the shutdown of Malampaya gas facility

Continued on A2

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Friday, December 23, 2016

BSP retains key policy rates on benign inflation

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By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

he Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Thursday kept the policy rates unchanged at its final monetary-policy meeting for the year, making use of a so-called policy space to assess the potential impact of economic developments over the horizon.

At the post-meeting news conference at the BSP offices in Manila, BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said keeping the monetary settings where they are at present should “give the BSP more time to assess evolving economic developments and calibrate its policy tools as appropriate.”

This allowed the overnight reverse repurchase (RRP) rate to remain at 3 percent, while the corresponding interest rates on the overnight lending and deposit facilities were similarly kept steady, even as

the banks’ deposit reserve ratios were left unchanged.

The BSP has kept the monetary policy settings unchanged since October 2014, with only operational changes made earlier this year to usher the transition to the interestrate corridor (IRC) mechanism.

Tetangco further said the decision was based on steady inflation dynamics and risks.

“Latest baseline forecasts indicate that average inflation would likely settle below the target range of 3 percent +/-1 percentage point

for 2016. However, inflation is seen to return gradually to a path consistent with the inflation target in 2017 to 2018 due to higher oil prices and strong domestic economic activity,” Tetangco said.

The governor, likewise, said the overall balance of risks affecting the inflation outlook remains tilted to the upside, due in part to the pending petitions for adjustments in electricity rates, as well as the impact of the government’s proposed fiscal-reform program.

The only downside risk for inflation remains the weak and uncertain economic prospects, according to Tetangco.

BSP Deputy Governor for the Monetary Stability Sector Diwa C. Guinigundo also said the monetary board made changes on the forecast inflation this year and next year, as well as for 2018.

In particular, inflation was expected to average 1.8 percent this year, unchanged from forecasts made at the November meeting.

For 2017, inflation was seen to quicken to 3.3 percent from an earlier forecast of only 3 percent. For 2018, inflation was seen to hit 3 percent,

up form the November forecast of 2.9 percent. Guinigundo said the higher forecasts boil down to four reasons including: the higher-thanexpected November 2016 inflation rate, the rising oil prices, the impact of a stronger domestic economy and the weaker exchange rate.

The BSP also maintained the 2 percent to 4 percent inflation target for 2019 and 2020 and the robust growth projection of 7 percent to 8 percent until the end of the current administration.

“After settling below the target in 2015, inflation is seen to remain near the low end of the 3 percent +/-1 percentage-point target range for 2016 and move towards the midpoint of the 3.0 percent +/-1 percentage-point target band in 2017 to 2018,” Tetangco said.

“Structural changes in inflation dynamics alongside improvements in the economy’s productive capacity have been supporting a low and stable inflation environment that is consistent with the healthy pace of economic growth,” he added.

Inflation in November averaged 2.5 percent, making the rate in the first 11 months average 1.6 percent.