Businessmirror december 26, 2017

Thousands spend Christmas in shelters after Vinta onslaught Z

AMBOANGA—Thousands of villagers in the southern Philippines spent their Christmas morning in emergency shelters on Monday as the region dealt with the aftermath of one of the deadliest storms to hit the country this year.

Tropical Storm Vinta (international code name Temblin) unleashed landslides and flash floods that left more than 120 people dead and 160 missing, mostly in the hard-hit provinces of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur and on the Zamboanga Peninsula. It strengthened into a typhoon before blowing out of the country last Sunday and into the South China Sea. “We’re really sad that we have this news, especially because our countrymen were looking to celebrate Christmas,” Marina Marasigan of the government’s disaster-response agency told a televised news conference. Intense rainfall in the mountains most likely

In this video grab taken on Christmas eve, people stand in an area damaged by Tropical Storm Vinta (international code name Temblin) in Lanao del Norte. Thousands of villagers in the southern Philippines spent their Christmas morning in emergency shelters on Monday as the region dealt with the aftermath of one of the deadliest storms to hit the country this year. AP

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caused landslides that blocked rainwater, Marasigan said. When the naturally formed dams broke from the pressure, torrents of rainwater smashed into the villages below.

Mayor Bong Edding of Sibuco town blamed logging operations in the mountains for a flash food that swept away houses with more than 30 residents. Five bodies have been recovered so far in the village, and a search and rescue operation is continuing.

A large number of dead and missing was also reported in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur provinces, where floodwaters from a mountain washed away several riverside houses.

Marasigan asked the public to heed storm warnings and evacuation orders to avoid casualties.

Thousands of villagers fled to emergency shelters and more than 500 passengers remained stranded in airports and seaports after the coast guard prohibited ferries from venturing out in the rough seas and several flights were canceled as the storm raged last Saturday. The typhoonwas packing maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 145 kph.

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Tuesday, December 26, 2017 Vol. 13 No. 76

DA’s Piñol sticks to PHL rice self-sufficiency goal

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he year 2017 could have proven itself as one of the memorable years for the agriculture sector in the early years of the Duterte administration.

Continued on A2

Fiestamall sells quality Pinoy products via ‘Go Lokal!’

THE ENTREPRENEUR

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HE performance of our country’s economy in the third quarter, which exceeded expectations, effectively confirmed the sustainability of strong growth this year, which is unusual for a post election year. GDP grew by 6.9 percent in the July-toSeptember quarter, which drove growth in the first nine months of 2017 to 6.7 percent, already above the lower end of the full-year target range of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent.

The impressive performance, which also strengthened the Philippines’s position as one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia, prompted the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) to project the same, if not better, result in the fourth quarter.

Continued on A6

Another wild ride for the PSE in 2017

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@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

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See “Fiestamall,” A2

Manny B. Villar

By VG Cabuag

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

UALITY Filipino products are now being sold at the Duty Free Fiestamall, previously a haven of imported and luxury brands.

This developed as the government-owned Duty Free Philippines Corp. (DFPC), in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), last week launched “Go Lokal!,” a retail-concept store showcasing quality products created by Filipino micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

In a news statement, Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo, speaking during the launch of the

A very positive note

@jearcalas

PIÑOL: “I cannot judge myself.

It will be all up to the Filipino people to judge my performance or the performance of my department. But I think the best gauge in judging the performance of my department would be inthesufficiencyof basic commodities for the Filipino people.”

White Christmas A family poses for group snapshot at a mall that provides an almost realistic sense of a white Christmas background. The Christmas holidays have given groups and families the opportunity for bonding at various sprawling malls across the country. NONIE REYES

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A year that tested the farm sector’s strength and resiliency on various issues

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

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T was another wild roller-coaster ride for the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) this year.

At the start of the year, many thought that main index may not recover from its low, as the Duterte administration was placed under pressure by the international community due to its campaign against drugs. As a result, the main index sunk as low as 6,861.31 points.

But, as the months went by, the PSEi managed to close at its historic highs 12 times, reaching as high as 8,523.07 points. It is now hovering at 8,300 points.

BDO-Nomura Securities, an online brokerage firm, said the benchmark may breach the 9,000-point level next year and possibly hit the 10,000 milestone by 2019, as corporate earnings continued to drive growth.

BDO-Nomura Securities Research

Head Dante Tinga Jr. said the 30-company PSEi may settle at around 8,300 at the end of this year and grow by 13.9 percent to 9,100 in 2018. This will further grow by 13 percent to about 10,280 by 2019.

Tinga said growth next year will be driven mainly by rising earnings per share led by the property, banking and industrial sectors, although conglomerates will be bearish on the consumer and telecommunication sectors.

“There is no bubble in the property sector, and sales continue to be strong,” he said. “Tax reform and accelerated infrastructure spending should provide long-term tailwinds to the sector. Concerns on residential oversupply have eased. Real estate remains a direct proxy for the Philippine economy.”

Also, the start of the year saw the change of guards after Hans B. Sicat announced his intent to step down as

n japan 0.4431 n UK 67.1947 n HK 6.4202 n CHINA 7.6219 n singapore 37.3690 n australia 38.6544 n EU 59.6255 n SAUDI arabia 13.3851

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Source: BSP (22 December 2017 )

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A2 Tuesday, December 26, 2017

DA’s Piñol sticks to PHL rice self-sufficiency goal Continued from A1

For one, the Department of Agriculture (DA) is still on its quest to achieve rice self-sufficiency for the Filipinos. And this year might be one of the closest years that the country could achieve that feat, based on government estimates.

But more than this decadelong goal of sufficient staple production, 2017 tested the strength of the country’s farm sector on various issues.

The year 2017 stripped the Philippines of its decades-long claim of being one the few bird flu-free nations not only in Asia, but also in the world.

The government’s food-safety regulations and standards, likewise, were put into test, when some meat imports from Latin America were discovered to contain Salmonella.

And more recently, the Philippines’s struggle to establish a mechanism at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to protect and safeguard small-scale farmers from harmful import surges.

But for Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol, there’s only one test to gauge on how he and his department fared well with these issues: sufficient and affordable food supply.

Piñol maintains, however, it is not for him to judge on how he performed as agriculture chief this year.

“I cannot judge myself. It will be all up to the Filipino to judge my performance or the performance of my department,” he said in an interview with reporters on December 19.

“But I think the best gauge in judging the performance of my department would be in the sufficiency of basic commodities for the Filipino,” he added.

And for this aspect—of food sufficiency—Piñol is apologetic. “I’m sorry that this is not being felt by Filipino consumers because inspite our efforts to produce more, since the food-supply chain is ‘anomalous,’ we could not still bring down

PSE. . .

Continued from A1

president and CEO of the PSE after six years in the position.

In May the PSE board elected Ramon S. Monzon, who also owns the Miss Earth beauty pageant, as its new president, replacing Sicat, who served the bourse for about a decade.

the prices of food. And something has really got to be done to address this.”

And, perhaps, this performance matrix could be traced back to President Duterte’s promise when he assumed office: to provide affordable food for the Filipino people.

Biggest challenge

v iabilit y because the poultr y industry really suffered due to the protocols we implemented,” Piñol said in September.

To date, Philippine government officials are hoping and counting time on whether the country would be declared as a bird flu-free nation come March of next year.

Last man standing

The agriculture chief said the confirmation of the presence avian influenza (AI) in the country was the biggest challenge of his department to date.

“It was [the biggest challenge] but, at the same time, we also showed that with cooperation and support of local government units, any challenge or trial could be dealt with effectively,” Piñol said.

“And I think we have shown that in the first hit of bird flu. And learning our lessons, we showed it in the second hit—we handled it properly and the sector was not affected,” he added.

T h is yea r t he Ph i l ippines recorded four incidents of bird flu: one in Pampanga, and three in Nueva Ecija.

The confirmation of AI in the country put the whole poultry industry in a roller-coaster ride: Farm-gate prices sunk below P15 per kilogram; exports of poultry products were suspended; and a widespread panic among Filipino consumers on whether it was safe to eat fried chicken.

The outbreak of AI in the country also put into test the government’s more than a decad-old “ bible” against bird flu— the AI Protection Program: Manual of Procedures (AIPP). The AI incidents in Central Luzon have queued a number of proposed revisions for the AIPP come next year.

Some of the proposals include the removal of a 1-kilometer control area and 7-kilometer quarantine area in order not to hamper the flow of poultry products in the country.

“We are amending our AI protocol because the measures we imposed really had an adverse impact on poultry growers. We are considering their economic

And just before 2017 ended, the Philippines proved a point against both developed and developing countries: Don’t look down on us.

The Philippine delegation to the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC11) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, stood firm of its decision to veto any new agreement on agriculture without the passage of a special safeguard mechanism (SSM) for developing and leastdeveloped countries.

T h rou g hout t he fou r - d ay MC11, the Philippine delegation did not give in to the requests of developing countries just to come up at a middle ground during the agriculture negotiations.

After a grueling exchange of points of view and positions, the agriculture negotiations at MC11 ended in a deadlock, with the Philippines not giving up on its hope for a SSM. In a news statement issued on December 12, the Philippines said that it is “deeply regretful and disappointed” that there was no draft decision on SSM, despite the priority accorded to it under the Nairobi Declaration of 2015.

At the same time, the Philippines stood firm on its decision to reject any substantive decision on agriculture sans the SSM. “The Philippines reiterates that it could not join any consensus for adopting any draft substantive decision in the absence of a solution on SSM or through an improved SSG [special safeguard]. There simply is no sufficient political basis for us to do so,” the statement read.

The Philippines emphasized that the approval of SSM is vital for its farm sector as the present SSG proves to be inefficient and ineffective to protect its small-scale

Monzon told reporters his main order of the day was to take the process for the PSE to merge with the Philippine Dealing System (PDS), the owner of the trading floor for the fixed-income exchange. It was during the time of Sicat when the relationship of the PSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was frayed after the agency thumbed down its proposal to acquire PDS Holdings, which, in turn, owns the

Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. or Pdex, operator of the fixed-income exchange.

“The larger fear here is that the PSE does not appear to fully appreciate the central importance of the fixed-income market in financial intermediation and does not have a concrete plan on how to develop and manage such a market going forward,” the SEC said in its decision last year.

framers from import surges and price depressions.

It explained that the country’s current trigger price for corn is 5 cents per kilogram (kg), but the import price for the last three years average 31 cents. Another example, it noted, is that the trigger price for pork imports is pegged at $36 per kg compared to $1.65 per kg average price in the past three years.

Pinol disclosed that the United States and India have vetoed already some proposals during the agriculture talks even before the Philippines could have blocked anything.

A negative opinion from any WTO member-country is enough to block any new deal because members of the multilateral trading body decide as a whole on a consensus basis.

Back to basics

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Fiestamall. . .

Continued from A1

retail concept store, applauded the DFPC and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for spearheading the promotion of Filipino culture and industry. “As a government agency, we have a responsibility to promote the best from our local entrepreneurs, and the biggest help we can extend to our MSMEs is by showcasing the talent and skills of the Filipino,” she said. “In this manner, we continue to show the world that Philippine-made products are of high quality, yet reasonably priced.”

DFPC is a government-owned and -controlled corporation (GOCC) under the Department of Touristm (DOT). DFPC COO Vicente Pelagio A. Angala underscored the role of Go Lokal! in making Filipino products known in the international market, as well as in helping local start-ups and small businesses.

“This partnership will help us realize our vision of showcasing the Filipino culture to the world, and contributing in the government’s effort to revitalize the country’s heart [sic],” he added.

Go Lokal! also helps the DFPC stay true to its objective of being the ultimate top-of-mind destination for pasalubong shopping for both local and foreign visitors, Angala said.

The Go Lokal! store features products crafted by artisans across the country, ranging from snacks made from local ingredients, to home décor, toys, work-study essentials, such as backpacks, journals, desk organizers made from indigenous materials, to clothing and local textilebased fashion accessories like shawls, stylish purses and shoes.

“To the men and women who have been involved in this project, and to our local entrepreneurs who will get to showcase their products, may this day mark the beginning of a very successful venture— one that the DOT will support,” Teo said.

The opening of Go Lokal! was

also attended by DTI Undersecretary for Management Services Rowel S. Barba, DTI Undersecretary for Trade and Investments Promotion Nora K. Terrado and DFPC Deputy General Manager for Operations Bernardine R. Belmonte.

The DFPC was established through Executive Order 46, which was signed on September 4, 1986. This granted the then-Ministry of Tourism, through the former Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA), the exclusive authority to establish and operate a duty- and taxfree merchandising system in the Philippines, for the purpose of augmenting the service facilities for tourists, and to generate foreign exchange and revenue for the government.

Under the Tourism Act of 2009, the DFPC was reorganized, and mandated that 50 percent of its net income accrue to the DOT for tourism-related projects. Of this amount, 70 percent is remitted to the Tourism Investment and Enterprise Zone Authority, formerly the PTA, a GOCC under the DOT, as well.

In 2016 DFPC recorded a net income of P164.21 million, down 16.8 percent from P197.27 in 2015. Audited financial figures for any period in 2017 have not been made available by the corporation.

Aside from the Fiestamall in Parañaque City, other DFPC stores are at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport terminals in Pasay City; the Mactan International Airport Arrival and Departure Outlets, and Cebu Waterfront Hotel in Cebu; the Davao International Airport Arrival and Visitors Center Outlets in Davao City; the Laoag International Airport in Ilocos Norte; the Newport Mall in Resorts World, Pasay City; the Kalibo International Airport Departure and Arrival Area in Aklan; the Clark International Airport Pre -departure and Arrival Area in Pampanga; the Iloilo International Airport; the Market Mall Store in Palawan; the Laguindingan International Airport in Cagayan de Oro City; and the Bacolod-Silay International Airport in Negros Occidental.

And as 2017 closes its curtains, the agriculture department continues the show what Duterte wants to provide next year: a foodsecure nation. “Again, as I have said, guided by the directive of the President, we will focus on what the Filipino people need,” Piñol said.

For example, Piñol added, the DA will now begin to implement its dairy program next year that seeks to boost the local milk production to meet at least 10 percent of the total annual requirement by the end of Duterte’s term.

Furthermore, Piñol emphasized that the DA will rollout programs that would seek to boost local production to meet the increasing domestic demand for commodities, such as coffee and onion, next year.

“Sabi ng Presidente, aba teka muna [The President said, wait] why don’t you focus first on the Philippine market? Why don’t you produce enough for the Philippine market and the excess will be the one that we will sell for export,” Piñol said. “Outside of the traditional export products like our bananas, pineapples, mango and coconut, the focus of the DA is really to satisfy the local requirements of the country,” he added.

An interisland ferry sank off northeastern Quezon province last Thursday after being lashed by fierce winds and big waves, leaving at least five people dead.

More than 250 passengers and crewmen were rescued.

Earlier in the week, another tropical storm left more than 50 people dead and 31 others missing, mostly due to landslides, and damaged more than 10,000

houses in the central Philippines.

Among the areas battered by the latest storm was Marawi City, a lakeside city in Lanao del Sur that is still recovering from a five-month siege by pro-Islamic State group extremists that left more than 1,000 people dead and displaced its entire population of about 200,000 people. It was the latest disaster to hit the Philippines, which is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year, making the archipelago that lies on the Pacific typhoon belt one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries. AP

In November, however, the PSE has secured the nod from the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) to acquire PDS Holdings, leaving the SEC the single stumbling block for the deal to proceed.

The PCC’s approval, however, focused on the so-called efficiencies when the the equities and fixed-income exchanges are owned by a single entity.

The SEC’s approval, on the other hand, will focus, among others, on the PSE’s request for exemptive relief on the 20-percent industry-ownership limit and, in this case, the stock brokers.

“I always like to put myself out on a limb. I’d like to think it will happen before the end of the year. I hope it will happen before the end of the year,” Monzon said. He added the PSE already filed a registration statement with the SEC for its stock rights offering of 11.5 million shares, aimed at diluting the combined ownership of brokers to pull it down to 20 percent, from the current 23 percent.

“The stock-rights offering will not be open to the stockbrokers so that there will be a forced dilution of the stockbrokers,” he said. “In our computation, with the 11.5 million shares that we will be offering, we believe that the final ownership of the brokers of the PSE will be a little less than 20 percent.”

“Since we filed a registration statement with the SEC... so there can be no doubt about the compliance plan. So, hopefully, it just involves a little more dialogue, a little more explanation and, if we are successful in doing that, before the end of the year, hopefully we can get the relief from the SEC,” Monzon

said.

He addedthe PSE also talked with the PSE’s other major shareholders— the Government Service Insurance System, PLDT Inc. and San Miguel Retirement—not to participatein the rights offer so that it could argue better with brokers on the necessity of diluting their shares.

“They sit on our board, and when we are discussing this stock rights offer, we have made request to them if they could waive their preemptive rights so that when we tell the brokers that you [other owners] cannot subscribe to this, we can tell the brokers,” he said.

He estimated that it will take the SEC about a month to six weeks to review the PSE’s registration statement and the PSE and its underwriters are planning to start the book-building process

by January and is looking at listing the new shares by February.

Aside from acquiring PDS, the PSE also busied itself on maintaining good governance among listed firms.

In July the PSE decided to start delisting procedures against Calata Corp., after it found that the firm violated its disclosure rules by 29 times during November 29, 2016, through June 20, 2017. The PSE also found 26 violations of Section 13.2 of the PSE Disclosure Rules from October 6, 2016, to March 16, 2017, and April 26, 2017, to May 2, 2017.

Calata Corp.’s principal shareholder and Chairman Joseph Calata sold large chunks of his stake in the company, resulting in his ownership of just a minority interest, but failed to disclose this to the PSE. He then blamed his staff for literally

filing away the disclosure at the Cabinet, instead of filing it with the PSE. As a result, the PSE has added a new criteria for its approval of the listing of initial public offering (IPO) of a company as it ups its ante on governance to avoid a repeat of delisting firms due to violations of rules.

“Recently, the PSE has added a qualitative criteria for approval of IPO listing. We call that suitability. Suitability means aside from reviewing the financials of the company, we look at the people behind the company,” Monzon said. “We do our background check on the stockholders, on the officers. So we apply the suitability rule now. Hopefully a Calata Corp. will not happen again,” he said.

Monzon was referring to the Calata Corp. that underwent a bitter process of being kicked out at the PSE. “Before this, Calata issue became a problem for the PSE...when you apply for listing with the PSE, you have a checklist of requirements. You comply with those requirements. If you are able to complete the checklist, you are listed.

As long as the SEC has approved the registration,” Monzon said.

Calata was known as one of the youngest leader of a listed company when he took his agricultural company public in 2012. A few months after its listing at the PSE, however, Calata Corp. was subject of an insider trading and price-manipulation investigation by both the PSE and the SEC. The SEC filed a complaint with the Department of Justice against several individuals alleged to have participated in the trading of the firm’s shares with the aim to push up the stock price.

Thousands. . .

Continued from A1

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Tuesday, December 26, 2017 A3

Duterte’s son quits Davao City vice-mayor post over shabu and Palace pictorial issues

By Manuel T. Cayon

D

@awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY—The son of President Duterte has resigned his vicemayoralty post here on Christmas Day, shortly after he presided over the special session of the City Council on Christmas Day to declare a state of calamity in the city.

Paolo Z. Duterte read a one-page note at the lower podium and in halting statement said he was resigning as vice mayor “effective today, December 25.”

The resignation, the younger Duterte said, was meant to “protect my honor and that of my children.”

Paolo cited a string of incidents that led him to decide to resign, like the grilling in the Senate over his alleged role in the smuggling attempt of a P64-billion shabu shipment at the Bureau of Customs, and his quarrel with his daughter apparently over the latter’s posting of her predebut photographs inside the Malacañan Palace.

Paolo said these “recent unfortunate incidents in my life” have been closely tied to his first marriage that ended in separation.

The President’s critics have been trying to center on Paolo to pin down his father, and issues included the son’s alleged illegal-drug use in the past.

Paolo Duterte immediately left the City Council building, tailed by his sister, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, who appeared at the City Council to earlier express her gratitude for granting her request to declare a state of calamity in the city over the flood that inundated parts of the city late last week.

Mayor Duterte-Carpio said it was also unfortunate that she could not intervene in the decision, saying his brother’s decision was beyond her line of work.

She said Councilor Bernard Al-ag, who acts as the majority leader, would replace her brother in case of a finality in the resignation of her brother.

The City Council convened for a special session on Monday to tackle her request to declare a state of calamity in the city after 25 riverside and low-lying barangays were flooded last Friday triggered

by Typhoon Vinta.

Some 18,603 families were affected, she added.

Last Saturday the New City Commercial Center (NCCC) shopping mall went up in smoke and killed 37 call-center agents and took firefighters more a day to contain the fire.

The NCCC shopping mall is the most frequented shopping mall by middle- and lower-income families south of downtown.

In a related development, Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) last Sunday to launch an investigation into the fire that gutted the NCCC Mall where at least 37 people perished.

Aguirre ordered Justice Undersecretary Raymund L. Mecate to communicate with NBI Director Dante A. Gierran to probe the fire that gutted down the shopping mall.

The order was given for the NBI to determine the presence of any criminal liability which led to the fire and the loss of lives.

The NBI was also ordered to file the necessary charges against any parties deemed to be responsible.

“We want the NBI to be involved with its own probe. Their findings will enable us to make those responsible fully accountable before our courts via the criminal cases that will be filed. By punishing those responsible, we can set an example to others so that, hopefully, there will be no repetition of these tragedies,” Aguirre said in a news statement.

Aguirre also called on the public to pray for the victims “in this moment of grief.”

“Foremost, we offer our solemn condolences to the families of those persons who lost their lives in this very unfortunate incident.

The loss of lives and the resulting damage caused underscore the

20 dead as bus collides with van in La Union

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AGUIO, Philippines—A passenger bus collided with a van carrying pilgrims to Christmas Mass at a church in the northern Philippines on Monday, leaving 20 people dead and more than two dozen injured, police said.

Police Chief Supt. Romulo Sapitula said all those killed in the pre-dawn collision in La Union province’s Agoo town were in the smaller van, locally known as jeepneys. Another 10 van passengers, along with the driver and 17 other occupants of the bus, were injured.

The van’s engine was ripped off due to the impact of the crash.

The van passengers were bound for Our Lady of Manaoag, a Roman Catholic Church in northern Pangasinan province that has long been popular among pilgrims and Catholics praying for the sick and impoverished, police said.

Rickety passenger buses and jeepneys, lack of safety signs, poor law enforcements and reckless driving have been blamed for many road tragedies in the Philippines. AP

need to determine if someone is at fault and should be held criminally liable,” Aguirre added.

“It is for this reason that I have ordered the NBI last night to conduct a probe to determine the criminal culpability of those responsible. For now, I re-

spectfully request everyone to continue praying for all those affected by this tragedy,” he added.

The fire broke out past 9 a.m. last Saturday at the third floor of the NCCC Mall.

The fire incident occurred while Davao City is still

reeling from the damage brought by the onslaught of Vinta.

Mayor Duterte-Carpio, who earlier visited the site and met with the families, said the city government would extend assistance to the families. With PNA

The World

A4 Tuesday, December 26, 2017 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

BusinessMirror

Jerusalem violence, downpour put damper on Bethlehem Christmas

By Jalal Hassan & Imad Isseid | The Associated Press

B

ETHLEHEM, West Bank—It was a subdued Christmas Eve in the traditional birthplace of Jesus last Sunday, with spirits dampened by cold, rainy weather and recent violence sparked by President Donald J. Trump’s recognition of nearby Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Crowds were thinner than previous years as visitors, especially Arab Christians living in Israel and the West Bank, appeared to be deterred by clashes that have broken out in recent weeks between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces. Although there was no violence last Sunday, Palestinian officials scaled back the celebrations in protest.

Claire Degout, a tourist from France, said she would not allow Trump’s pronouncement, which has infuriated the Palestinians and drawn widespread international opposition, affect her decision to celebrate Christmas in the Holy Land.

“The decision of one man cannot affect all the Holy Land,” she said.

“Jerusalem belongs to everybody, you know, and it will be always like that, whatever Trump says.”

Trump abandoned decades of American policy on December 6 by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and saying he would move the US Embassy to the holy city.

Trump said the move merely recognizes the fact that Jerusalem already serves as Israel’s capital and that he was not prejudging negotiations on the city’s final borders. But Palestinians, who seek Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as their capital, saw the declaration as unfairly siding with Israel. Last Thursday the UN General Assembly

The decision of one man cannot affect all the Holy Land.

Jerusalem belongs to everybody, you know, and it will be always like that, whatever Trump says.”

—Degout voted overwhelmingly to reject Trump’s decision. The Old City, in east Jerusalem, is home to sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites.

The announcement triggered weeks of unrest in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including near-daily clashes in Bethlehem, which lies just south of Jerusalem.

By midafternoon, hundreds of people had gathered in Manger Square near the city’s main Christmas for celebrations, greeted by bagpipe-playing young Palestinian marching bands and scout troops.

Accompanying the decorations was a large banner protesting Trump’s

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa arrives to the Church of the Nativity, built atop the site where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born, on Christmas Eve, in the West Bank City of Bethlehem last Sunday. AP

Jerusalem declaration.

But after nightfall, the crowds had thinned as rain fell and temperatures dipped to about 9 degrees celcius (49 degrees Farenheit). Just a few dozen people milled about Manger Square, while others took shelter in the Church and other nearby buildings.

Bethlehem’s mayor, A nton Salman, said celebrations were toned down because of anger over Trump’s decision.

“We decided to limit the Christmas celebrations to the religious rituals as an expression of rejection and anger and sympathy with the victims who fell in the recent protests,” he said.

Next to the square was a poster that read “Manger Square appeal” and “#handsoffjerusalem.”

“We want to show the people that we are people who deserve life, deserve our freedom, deserve our independence, deserve Jerusalem

as our capital,” he said.

Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the apostolic administrator of Jerusalem, the top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land, crossed through an Israeli military checkpoint to enter Bethlehem from Jerusalem. His black limousine was escorted by a group of men on motorcycles, some of them wearing red Santa hats.

Pizzaballa, who last week rejected the US decision, tried to steer clear of politics. He waved to the crowd, shook hands and hugged well-wishers.

“Now it’s time to enjoy,” he said.

“We as Christians will enjoy, despite all the difficulties we have. Merry Christmas.”

But in his homily during midnight Mass, Pizzaballa prayed for the peace of Jerusalem and appealed to politicians “to have courage” to make bold decisions that respect all peoples.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Muslim, was among those in attendance.

“There is no peace if someone is excluded. Jerusalem should include, not exclude,” Pizzaballa said. “The mother, Jerusalem is our mother, loves all her children. If one is missing, the mother cannot be in peace.”

“We need vision,” he added. “And despite the many disappointments of the past and of the present days, with determination, do not abandon having a vision, but on the contrary, even more than before, let yourself be provoked by the cry of the poor and the afflicted.”

James Thorburn, a visitor from London, said it was important to enjoy the holiday and show solidarity with Bethlehem’s residents.

“I know that a lot of people did cancel,” he said. “I felt I should come to support the Palestinians.”

Putin foe clears first step in bid for Russian presidency

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OSCOW—Hundreds of supporters of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny nominated him for president last Sunday, allowing Navalny to file the endorsement papers required for his candidacy and putting pressure on the Kremlin to allow him to run.

Navalny, the most formidable foe President Vladimir Putin has faced during 18 years in power, is prohibited from seeking political office because of a criminal conviction that is largely viewed as retribution. However, he could enter the race, if he gets special dispensation or the conviction is thrown out.

About 800 Navalny supporters assembled in a giant tent for the formal endorsement meeting held in Moscow’s snow-covered Silver Forest. His allies said multiple meeting venues refused to host the gathering.

Ivan Zhdanov, who chaired the meeting, joked that the riverside event ended up being convened at a place where the address is “Silver Forest, Beach Number 3.”

“Has everyone got their swimming trunks?”

Zhdanov asked the participants.

Election authorities observed the endorsement process. Navalny and his legal advisers submitted the nomination papers with the Russian Election Commission last Sunday evening.

Outdoor endorsement gatherings also took place in 19 other cities, from Vladivostok to Saint Petersburg.

In Moscow the process was delayed because the printer being used to generate the paperwork stopped working in the cold woods.

While Navalny’s staff tried to fix the machine, several hundred people gathered on a central Moscow square to demonstrate support for his nomination.

Biologist Svetlana Sorokina, 41, said it was

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia attend his supporters’ meeting that nominated him for the presidential election race in Moscow, Russia, last Sunday. Nevertheless, the 41-year-old anticorruption crusader has run a yearlong grassroots campaign and staged waves of rallies to push the Kremlin to let him run. AP

important to show the Kremlin “there are many people like us.”

Nearby, police officers warned the crowd through loudspeakers they were breaking the law and threatened to disperse the rally. Sorokina said she was “a little bit scared.”

“I understand the danger. But I got prepared.

I told my parents,” she said. “They expect me to call and say everything is OK.” For Tatyana Komendant, 65, whether Navalny would make a good president or not was

secondary. What mattered was getting the Kremlin to allow an open race in which anyone interested who met the eligibility requirements would be allowed to run, she said.

“Any alternative is good. It would be better if Putin was to be replaced by anyone,” Komendant said.

Russian law requires candidates to submit endorsements from just 500 people before they may start collecting the 1 million signatures needed to appear on the ballot. Putin’s repre-

sentatives are expected to file his nomination papers on Tuesday.

Election officials were expected to accept Navalny’s paperwork, but it’s highly unlikely they will allow him to proceed to the signaturegathering stage.

Polling agencies show Putin all but certain to win the March election. Polls show him with an 80-percent approval rating among Russian citizens. But Navalny has managed to galvanize some of the vast country’s sleepiest regions with a yearlong grassroots campaign.

“We have seen for ourselves this year that overwhelming support for authorities simply isn’t there,” Navalny said during an American-style campaign speech at the nomination meeting, where he was flanked by his wife and children.

He reiterated he was confident he would win the presidential election if he were allowed to run. He called on his supporters to boycott the vote, if election authorities refuse to register him.

A lawyer by training, Navalny came to public prominence in 2009, when he began publishing investigations of corruption at Russia’s biggest state-controlled companies. He spearheaded massive anti-government protests in 2011-2012 in reaction to wide-spread fraud during the parliamentary election.

Navalny came under pressure from authorities as he gained popularity. He faced countless detentions and jailings for staging protests and spent months under house arrest while being investigated for fraud. He was convicted on two sets of unrelated fraud charges. His brother was sent to prison in what was seen as political revenge.

He ran in Moscow’s 2013 mayoral election and received nearly 30 percent of the vote. AP

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Latest North Korea sanctions unlikely to hurt Kim’s regime

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he United Nation’s latest sanctions on North Korea are more likely to hurt ordinary people in the isolated nation than slow Kim Jong Un’s push to United States with nuclear weapons.

The UN Security Council unanimously approved new steps last Friday targeting North Korea’s economy following last month’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. The new restrictions are meant to slash imports of refined petroleum products, such as diesel and kerosene, by almost 90 percent from January, further restrict shipping and impose a 24-month deadline for expatriate North Korean workers to be sent home.

“The likeliest impact on the deeper cuts in petroleum products will be on sectors nonessential to the survival of the regime,” Paul Musgrave, assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, said by e-mail.

“That means that the incidence of these cuts will fall hardest on ordinary North Koreans.”

President Donald J. Trump’s administration has spent much of 2017 urging other nations to ratchet up the pressure on Pyongyang, with much of that work focused on China, its biggest trading partner. Previous rounds of sanctions have failed to stop Kim from advancing his nuclear program and analysts said the latest resolution is unlikely to bring a resolution any closer.

North Korea last Sunday described the move as an “act of war” and vowed to take revenge on the US and other security council members. China’s imports from the country in dollar terms are down almost 27 percent during the first 11 months of the year, while exports have gained 12 percent, customs figures showed last Saturday.

While the regime in Pyongyang is likely to keep fuel supplies for its own use, the general population continues to struggle in an economy only a fraction the size of South Korea. The sanctions may create further resentment in the country against the Trump administration, according to Hong Kang Chel, a former North Korean border guard who defected in 2013.

“Cutting oil supplies will only make North Koreans rage against the US because they now have to work more by hand on farms, while officials will keep driving cars using smuggled petroleum,” Hong said.

“North Korean workers sent overseas have brought back home the ideas and cultures of capitalism they witnessed, but now Trump is leading the way for blocking that route.”

The new resolution caps deliveries of petroleum products to the equivalent of 500,000 barrels per year starting January 1. In September the council demanded imports to be cut to the equivalent of 2 million barrels from 4.5 million. It also limits crude imports at current levels of about 4 million barrels annually, which the United States has said China provides via the DandongSinuiju pipeline.

The UN resolution said North Korea is selling coal and other prohibited items “through deceptive maritime practices” and is getting fuel via ship-to-ship transfers, which are used in the petroleum industry to move liquids from one tanker to another at sea, avoiding onshore infrastructure.

North Korea has been utilizing these methods more frequently, using boats from nation’s including China, according to Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper, citing US, Japanese and South Korean officials it didn’t name. The US Treasury Department last month identified North Korea’s Korea Kumbyol Trading Co. as a firm that has attempted ship-to-ship transfers, possibly of oil. To help stop the practice, the UN measure says that countries can seize, inspect or impound any vessel in their ports if there are grounds to believe the ship is being used to transport banned items.

Zhao Tong, a fellow at the CarnegieTsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, said the sanctions only grant authority for member states to seize ships in its own territorial waters—making it impossible for the US to inspect suspicious vessels within Russian or Chinese areas. Bloomberg News

The World BusinessMirror

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Sugarcane production falls to 27-year low in Guyana

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EORGETOWN, Guyana— Sugar output in Guyana is expected to fall by nearly a quarter from last year, as the Caribbean trade bloc’s largest sugar-producing nation struggles with a decline in demand from the European Union.

State-run Guyana Sugar Corp., known as Guysuco, said last Sunday the nearly 140,000 metric tons produced in 2017 is the lowest in 27 years.

The decline comes as Guysuco struggles with a debt load of more than $500 million and prepares to permanently shutter three of its six industry facilities and fire about 4,000 of its 15,000-member work force by December 31.

Guysuco, which was run by Bookers Corp. in the United Kingdom before it was nationalized in 1976, said most of its sugarcane plants have already been harvested and production won’t climb significantly higher during the last week of the year.

Sugar was once the country’s largest source of foreign exchange, with an average of around 300,000 tons produced yearly up to the early 1990s.

But the crop has been in steady decline over the last decade due to crippling labor strikes, manpower shortages, unseasonal weather and the massive decline in demand of the European Union.

The company said it will sell about 60,000 tons of sugar to the bloc next year, down from 170,000 tons five years ago.

Earlier this year, Europe eliminated its system of sugar production quotas and minimum pricing, opening up the sugar beet market and reducing dependency on raw cane sugar from Guyana and other Caribbean countries.

Sugar output in Guyana last hit a low of 129,000 tons in 1990, largely due to weeks of labor strikes. AP

Iraq plans new Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline

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AGHDAD—Iraq last Sunday invited companies to submit statements of interest in building a new pipeline from the northern city of Kirkuk to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

The new 350-kilometer (220mile) pipeline will carry up to 1 million barrels a day, the state-run Oil Projects Company said. A 305-kilometer (190-mile) gas pipeline to feed pumping stations, tanks and other service installations will be included in the project, it said.

The new line will be built alongside an existing 1.6 million barrelper-day pipeline, which runs through restive Sunni areas and has been idle since it was badly damaged by militant attacks in 2014. Iraqi forces drove the Islamic State group from the area earlier this year, but the militants are expected to continue to launch insurgent-style attacks.

Interested companies have until January 24 to submit applications for prequalification before receiving the final tender documents. Authorities did not provide a timeline for the project, which will be offered under a build-own-operate-transfer scheme.

At least 25 percent of the project will be owned by Iraqi entities.

Iraqi forces seized the disputed city of Kirkuk from Kurdish forces in October. The Kurds, who had taken control of Kirkuk and other disputed areas when the Islamic State swept into Iraq three years ago, exported oil through their own pipeline to Turkey.

The fields around Kirkuk currently produce around 140,000 barrels a day, all of which goes to refineries, Oil Ministry Spokesman Assem Jihad said last Sunday. AP

Tuesday, December 26, 2017 A5

PBOC official argues a Detroit-like bankruptcy may benefit China

A

CHINESE central bank official said China should allow local governments to go bankrupt to help rein in regional authorities’ excessive borrowing.

CHRISTMAS IS BIG BUSINESS

A shop worker arranges Christmas trees at the Kriti Creations store in New Delhi on December 20.

Christmas is becoming a big business in India but, as far as far-right groups have gained traction, the holiday has now found itself caught in the crosshairs. REBECCA CONWAY/NEW YORK TIMES

Mexico spends big on ads to tame the news media

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EXICO CITY—Running a newspaper, radio station or television outlet in Mexico usually means relying on a single, powerful client that spends exorbitant sums on advertising with a simple warning: “I do not pay you to criticize me.”

That client is the government of Mexico.

President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration has spent hundreds of millions of dollars a year in government money on advertising, creating what many Mexican media owners, executives and journalists call a presidential branding juggernaut capable of suppressing investigative articles, directing front pages and intimidating newsrooms that challenge it.

Despite vowing to regulate government publicity, Peña Nieto has spent more money on media advertising than any president in Mexico’s history—nearly $2 billion in the past five years, according to government data compiled by Fundar, a transparency group. It found that his administration spent more than twice the generous media budget Mexican lawmakers allotted it for 2016 alone.

And that is just the federal money.

Leaders from all parties marshal hundreds of millions of dollars in state money for advertising each year, money they dole out to favored news outlets, Fundar calculated. According to the executives and editors involved in the negotiations, government press secretaries openly demand positive coverage from news organizations before signing an advertising contract.

The result is a media landscape across Mexico in which federal and state officials routinely dictate the news, telling outlets what they should—and should not—report, according to dozens of interviews with executives, editors and reporters. Hard-hitting stories are often softened, squashed or put off indefinitely, if they get reported at all.

Two-thirds of Mexican journalists admit to censoring themselves.

“If a professional reporter wants to cover the dirty elements of what is happening in the country today, neither the government nor private companies will give them a penny,” said Enrique Krauze, a historian who edits Letras Libres, a Mexican magazine that receives government money. “This is one of the biggest

flaws in Mexican democracy.”

Peña Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, also known as the PRI, pioneered this system during its 70 years in power. Former President José López Portillo explicitly laid out the government’s expectations decades ago—he was even quoted as saying that he did not pay the media to attack him—and the practice continued when the opposition claimed the presidency in 2000, then again in 2006.

But the government’s influence over the media goes well beyond the advertising spigot, with officials sometimes resorting to outright bribery. In Chihuahua, the former governor spent more than $50 million on publicity, officials say, in a state saddled with huge public debts. Yet, that was just the official figure.

Prosecutors have also collected signed receipts for bribes to local journalists—payoffs so common that some reporters were even listed as government contractors, documents show. With so much government money circling around, entire news web sites sprang up with a single purpose, prosecutors contend: to support the former governor’s agenda.

“The relation between the media and power is one of the gravest problems in Mexico,” said Javier Corral, the new governor of Chihuahua. “There is collusion, an arrangement, in terms of how the public resources are managed to reward or punish the media. It’s carrot and stick: ‘Behave well, and I’ll give you lots of money and advertising. Act bad and I’ll get rid of it.’”

Pick up a newspaper, tune into a radio station or flip on the television in Mexico and you are greeted with a barrage of government advertising.

In some papers, nearly every other page is claimed by an ad promoting one government agency or another. At times, as much airtime is dedicated to venerating the government’s work as it is to covering the news.

The extraordinary spending comes at a time when the Mexican government is cutting budgets across the board, including for health, education and social services. The federal government spent as much on advertising last year, about $500 million, as it did to support students in its main scholarship program for public universities.

New York Times News Service

A case like the bankruptcy of Detroit would convince investors that the central government is really determined to dispel beliefs of an implicit guarantee for regional authorities, Xu Zhong, head of research bureau at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), wrote in an article in the China Business News on Monday. Just a couple of days ago, China’s finance ministry pledged to break the “illusion” that Beijing would bail out local governments’ hidden debt.

Their calls for limiting local borrowings are in line with central government’s financial policy for 2018.

President Xi Jinping said earlier this month that a priority for next year is to “effectively” control leverage and prevent major risks. China’s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan in October urged to guard against local government financing

vehicles (LGFV) and other means being used “to disguise debts” and argued for fiscal reforms.

Concerns among investors about a lack of support for local funding units have led to a slump in the issuance of local governments’ debts.

Local government financing vehicles have sold 1.7 trillion yuan ($259 billion) worth of bonds in onshore and offshore market this year, a 23-percent drop from 2016’s level, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Fitch Ratings said in September the first bond defaults

by Chinese LGFV are becoming more likely.

Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said last Saturday that addressing “hidden debts” of local governments and state-owned companies’ debts are key to prevention of systemic financial risks, the China Securities Journal reported. Bloomberg News

Pandoro is italy’s Christmas miracle

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ERONA, Italy—Elena Galeotto, a longtime employee of Melegatti, Italy’s original producer of traditional pandoro Christmas cakes, scooped this season’s final mound of dough from the conveyor belt, rounded it and dropped it into a deep, starshaped cast.

“That’s the last one,” Galeotto said. “I hope it’s not the...last one.”

That there are still any loaves on the factory floor at all—or, for that matter, laborers—has made for what the Italian press has christened a “Christmas miracle.” Amid tough economic times and the bankruptcy of other iconic Italian brands, most recently hat maker Borsalino, the Melegatti saga is being greeted as a fable.

In the months before Christmas, workers were striking for their unpaid wages. The heirs of the company founder, Domenico Melegatti, who patented the “golden bread” in 1894, seemed to be running the place into the ground and feuding so bitterly that workers compared them to fair Verona’s Montagues and Capulets.

With production halted, Motta, Alemagna and other Milanese heavies started cornering the Christmas cake market with candied-fruitfilled Panettone cakes.

Then, salvation came, as is so often the case in Christmas stories, in the form of a Maltese hedge fund.

It invested millions of euros for an 11th-hour production of 1,575,000 cakes. The committed employees, working without pay, took to the Internet and started a social-media campaign that would make Tiny Tim proud.

“Eat a pandoro, save a job,” Melegatti supporters wrote, using SaveMelegatti and WeAreMelegatti hashtags to urge their fellow Italians to buy a cake that for them was as good as gold.

The apparently organic marketing campaign worked better than a corporate idea in 2015, which had resulted in a backlash for encouraging customers to “love thy neighbor as you would love thyself. As long as he or she is hot and of the opposite sex.” This time, pandoro lovers around the country responded with patriotic zeal, making a run on the traditional blue cardboard gift boxes and staving off layoffs. Labor activ-

ists, politicians and others jumped on the bandwagon.

Cécile Kyenge, a former government minister, wrote in support of the workers on Twitter, calling the situation a “Christmas fable with a happy ending.”

Luca Quagini, a management consultant that the hedge fund has brought in to run the company in its crisis period, struck a more cautionary tone. “So this Christmas miracle is a miracle, but it’s peanuts,” he said.

Sitting near what he called the “situation room,” littered with binders and suited consultants and a devoured pandoro, Quagini explained that Monday’s final batch of 5,000 cakes was intended to make sure Veronese customers were not left out in the national buying spree. As for November’s 1.5 million cakes, he said they had helped Melagatti maintain presence on the Italian market, which was crucial because of the spike in demand.

But supermarkets, he said, were playing the role of Scrooge.

They had already counted Melegatti out when they made their Christmas plans, and to move inventory as the holiday approached cut the cost of competitors’ cakes, which in the past have sometimes been sold for less than a loaf of bread. Because of the strict parameters of their court-approved restructuring plan to repay about €30 million in debt to workers and suppliers, Melagatti had less pricing flexibility.

And Easter looms. Production of the dove-shaped cakes, known as colombas, will need to start in days if they are going to hit the sweet spot of the Easter market.

“Let’s hope there will be Easter,” Galeotto said. “From what we hear, there will be.”

On October 14, 1894, Domenico Melegatti patented his recipe and pandoro, as it is now universally known in Italy, was born. Depending on whom you ask, pandoro goes back to ancient Rome or the Middle Ages or the doge of Venice’s Palace. Melegatti built an empire off the cake, and it conquered Italy, though it never quite went global.

Efforts to crack the United States market, said Matteo Peraro, 36, a union representative

and, since 2004, one of Melegatti’s master bakers, hit a snag when the cake’s powdered sugar set off alarm bells during the anthrax scare.

Earlier this week, as the last batch of pandoro dough rose in a heated room, Francesca Massalongo, a local Verona tour guide, pointed out to a group of US tourists the stately Melegatti palace, which once housed the historic bakery but now plays host to a shoe store.

“Can you see what’s that,” she said, pointing at one of the two stone cakes standing gargoyle-like atop the building. “It’s a pandoro.

Believe me, it’s very strange to find a Christmas cake on the top of a historical building.”

Around Verona, there were hardly any blue Melegatti boxes in the storefronts. Instead, Bauli, the crosstown rival with recognizable pink pandoro boxes, sponsored the Christmas trees in the city’s famous piazzas.

And at Dolce Locanda, the bakery of celebrated chef Giancarlo Perbellini, the sophisticated staff sneezed at the mass-produced cakes. Their cakes used Belgian butter, glistened yellow from the finest eggs and were hand mixed.

They also cost at least three times as much.

“It’s artisanal,” said Moreno Pelligrini, who put birthday candles for a diner’s birthday in pieces of Perbellini pandoros at one of the chef ’s associated restaurants, Locanda 4 Cuochi.

The workers of Melegatti had enough problems without worrying about foodie snobbery. As a machine poured 610 kilos of pale pandoro batter from an enormous aluminum bowl, Peraro, the union representative, said, “It’s a shame we can only make so few.”

He started working here to pay for college, then stayed on to support his family. He spoke with a sense of awe about the days when the factory floor had more than 1,000 workers, and a constant flow of cakes marched on the conveyor belts. But as he explained how the different machines and robots work today, he hinted at a much more systemic threat to the hundreds of endangered Melegatti workers.

“There weren’t these machines,” he said. New York Times News Service

A6 Tuesday, December 26, 2017 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

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editorial

Peace beyond Christmas

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E are glad President Duterte ordered the military to cease from conducting offensives against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) during the Christmas period in observance of the traditional holiday cease-fire with the CPP-NPA. The President announced the suspension of military operations (Somo) from December 24 to January 2, 2018. The government’s declaration of a unilateral cease-fire will allow not only the soldiers and the rebels but also the civilians in areas of conflict to peacefully celebrate the Christmas season.

After all, Christmas is a time for peace.

After the declaration of the holiday truce on Tuesday, December 19, there was an encounter between the NPA and Army soldiers last Saturday morning in Baleno town in Masbate that led to the death of an unidentified rebel.

Before this incident, three encounters between NPA rebels and government forces were reported to have taken place in Baleno during the first two weeks of December.

We truly hope both sides would cease all hostilities in observance of Christmas, as a goodwill gesture. This can also be a good start for promoting the resumption of peace talks next year.

We know President Duterte already signed Proclamation 360, terminating peace talks with the NPA, but proclamations can be undone. It is not too late to follow up on the goodwill of his unilateral cease-fire declaration and work toward the resumption of formal peace negotiations by the first quarter of 2018.

Conflicts only make our people suffer. We have seen the extent of the shootings, the killings, the bombings, the civilian casualties (antiseptically called collateral damage) during conflicts between the government and rebel forces.

How can we not support a cease-fire or join calls for the resumption of peace talks? It does not even have to be a formal declaration. A more permanent cease-fire and/or the resumption of peace negotiations can be just an informal agreement between the government and the NPA to suspend all aggressive actions against each other for the time being.

It could be similar to the cease-fire agreement forged between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 2005, when then Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon both simply declared a stop to all fighting.

Again, not only the combatants but also innocents and civilians are harmed in any kind of fighting. This is the immutable consequence of any armed conflict.

Whatever the good intentions of both sides are, no matter how just the NPA or the government thinks its cause is—the reality is that civilians have been hurt and killed in their skirmishes.

The reality is most actors in any war have historically shown little regard for civilian deaths, which is why Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general of the United Nations, once called on the world community to advance a “new, human-centered approach to conflict, which places the security needs of ordinary people above the interests of regimes or state powers.”

There have been dire consequences for the civilian population, even those who were not killed or injured in the conflicts between the NPA and the government. They suffered deep psychological trauma, dislocation, loss of home and property.

The destruction of civil infrastructure and resulting damage to the economy have effects that can last for generations and may even cause further deaths indirectly. We have seen this in war-torn Marawi. We have seen this in the Zamboanga siege in 2013.

Regard for the sanctity and dignity of life is an issue of national character.

We Filipinos are said to be a peace-loving people.

Each death caused by conflicts between the government and the Reds, as well as those caused by the Muslim insurgencies, whether it is the death of a civilian or combatant, is a tragedy that must never be regarded as an acceptable cost of war.

We as a nation have a collective, moral and humanitarian duty to call for a more lasting cease-fire, for lasting peace.

Since 2005

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A very positive note Manny B. Villar

THE Entrepreneur Continued from A1

T

he third-quarter performance also paved the way for a flurry of positive developments for the economy. Last month, S&P Global Ratings raised its GDP growth forecast for the Philippines to 6.6 percent for this year, or a notch above the lower end of the government target, from 6.4 percent, which was below the official goal.

The ratings firm cited strong domestic consumption and higher electronics exports as the main factors that will boost GDP growth. Other ratings agencies and investment banks made similar upward adjustments in their full-year forecasts following the release of the thirdquarter results.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the country continues to enjoy investor confidence, which should boost growth prospects. According to its World Economic Outlook, the IMF expects GDP to grow by 6.6 percent this year.

The bright outlook is supported by strong macroeconomic fundamentals and policy buffers, including a low level of public debt and a high level of international reserves.

The government’s ongoing efforts

on tax reforms would also support growth over the medium term.

Two surveys conducted recently by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) found optimism among both consumers and the business sector.

Based on the BSP’s consumer-confidence survey, consumer outlook was broadly steady for the fourth quarter of 2017, with the overall confidence index (CI) at 9.5 percent, just slightly lower than the 10.2 percent posted in the third quarter.

This means that optimists continue to outnumber pessimists.

Respondents indicated that their continued positive sentiment during the current quarter was on account of additional family income and higher salary, and availability of more jobs leading to an increase in the number of employed family members.

In a separate survey conducted

The Crash of 2017 John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

F

OR the global financial markets, December and the Christmas season is usually a time of quiet reflection on the past year’s trading and preparation for the coming New Year. Considering that 2017 was a year of continuing political chaos and 2018 will be the beginning of economic chaos, it is fitting that the Bitcoin price crashed.

On December 17 Bitcoin—as quoted on the largest cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex—reached its historic high at $19,891 and, on December 22, posted a daily low of $10,718, registering a 46-percent drop. Pity the poor souls who bought near the high, anticipating a quick Christmas bonus.

Whether this is the beginning of the end or merely a correction in a bull market is speculation. Nonetheless, the 1,287,653 newly created cryptocurrency and technical analysis experts will be glad to share their wisdom with you on social media.

The key Bitcoin price level is $15,000, as this is the current resistance area, and I am inclined to believe that $15,000 will be taken out. Further, I expect that the price will move near to $17,000. At that point, we will see either a break higher that will move Bitcoin to well above $20,000, or a technical headand-shoulders pattern will form and then target below $10,000.

The other option is “Game Over”, and the price will continue lower to $8,000.

Before you accuse me of being a “coward” for not making a firm

from October 2 to November 20 with 1,473 respondents, the BSP said businesses, particularly exporters, turned more optimistic in the fourth quarter as a result of the moderate and gradual weakening of the peso against the dollar.

The overall business confidence index of the Business Expectation Survey rose to 43.3 percent in the fourth quarter from 37.9 percent in the preceding quarter.

BSP Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo said the overall business CI of the Business Expectation Survey improved to 43.3 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter’s 37.9 percent. It was the highest since the third quarter of last year, when the overall business CI stood at 45.4 percent.

The latest positive news for the economy was the decision by Fitch Ratings on December 11 to upgrade the Philippines’s long-term credit rating from “BBB-“ to “BBB” with a stable outlook.

The improved credit rating of the Philippines will enhance the government’s access to financing and potentially present more favorable terms and conditions for future loans.

Among the key ratings drivers cited by Fitch were the economy’s consistent growth performance and inflows of foreign direct investments (FDI), as well as the country’s robust fiscal position.

The ratings agency praised the government’s fiscal policies that are geared to boost infrastructure spending and liability management.

The tax-reform initiative, in

particular, will generate revenues for the government to finance its expenditure priorities while also supporting the projected decline of the government debt as a percentage of GDP. Inflows of FDI continue to improve. In September 2017 alone, net FDI inflows reached $754 million, about 61.8 percent higher than the $466 million posted in the same month last year.

This brought total net FDI inflows for the first nine months to $5.8 billion, a bit lower than the $5.9 billion registered a year ago.

Remittances from overseas Filipino workers continue to support their families and the domestic economy. For the first nine months of 2017, remittances coursed through banks stood at $20.8 billion, up 3.8 percent, from $20.02 billion in the same period last year.

All of these results take root from President Duterte’s initiatives on the major issues he faced at the beginning of his term: foreign policy, drug problem, peace and order problem, the communist insurgency and the Muslim secessionist movement.

Investors see a more stable country now because the President really hit the ground running.

All told, and while we wait for the official report on the economy for the whole year, I am confident that we will end 2017 on a very positive note. So far, so good.

price prediction, crystal-ball gazing the markets is an exercise for “experts.” not investors. When driving to an intersection, you see another car traveling on the road crossing your path. Do you make a prediction that car is going to stop at the red light and you then drive on without a care? Of course not. You consider what your action will be if the car properly stops and also if the car ignores the red light.

I am in the business of figuring out what the possible scenarios are and then building a strategy to utilize and make money—or not lose money—no matter which situation plays out. No, I have not bought any of the cryptocurrencies and, yes, I am a complete fool for not taking advantage of the mania. But I have a rule I try to follow. I avoid putting my money into something where the price movement depends almost entirely on “The Greater Fool” theory.

The reality of Bitcoin is that—in the words of Morgan Stanley—“If nobody accepts the technology for payment, then the value would be zero.” Of the 500 largest eCommerce web sites, only three accept Bitcoin for payment.

If Bitcoin is a currency, then

there should be an interest rate for lending and borrowing, as there is for every other currency. But that goes back to the first idea because you only want to borrow money to buy something.

There is no question that there is an important future for cryptocurrencies. However, in spite of all the excitement, Bitcoin is still a small pimple on the face of the global “money” market. Bitcoin’s average daily trading volume for the last 30 days is $3 billion against the $5.4 trillion average daily volume in the foreign-exchange market. Less than $300-million global purchases are made daily with Bitcoin versus $17 billion per day with a Visa card.

Whatever happens with the Bitcoin price in the weeks to come, December 2017 will be remembered for the Bitcoin crash. And time will tell whether this created the opportunity of a lifetime or when cryptocurrencies went into the intensive care unit.

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

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

Sports BusinessMirror

Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

A7

ANOTHER STEP FORWARD M

ADRID—Barcelona has almost ended Real Madrid’s defense of its Spanish league title, and there’s still half a season to go.

Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez left Madrid staring at a 14-point deficit after leading Barcelona to a 3-0 win at the Santiago Bernabeu last Saturday.

Madrid has a game in hand, but the gap already looks too big as La Liga approaches its midway point.

“It is a loss that hurts,” Madrid Coach Zinedine Zidane said. “It is a very, very difficult match for us. But this is not over. It might look like it, but we can never give up.”

Barcelona increased its lead to nine points over second-place Atletico Madrid, which lost at Espanyol last Friday. Valencia’s 1-0 loss to Villarreal at home last Saturday left it 11 points back.

Suarez struck in the 54th minute and Messi added a penalty 10 minutes later, after Madrid’s Dani Carvajal received a direct red for stopping a goal-bound header by Paulinho.

Messi also set up substitute Aleix Vidal to round off the commanding win in stoppage time.

Despite the standings, Barcelona Coach Ernesto Valverde and his players aren’t excluding a Madrid comeback.

“We took another step forward in the league but I don’t rule out Madrid,” Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta said.

“This is a long-distance race.”

But Barcelona is undoubtedly performing like a champion-in-waiting.

It extended its unbeaten streak to 25 matches across all competitions since losing to Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup in August, when Barcelona was reeling from the departure of Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain.

That all seemed light years away last Saturday, with Barcelona resisting an early push by the hosts before imposing its will.

The match was a contrast in tempos: Madrid wanted a frantic, up-and-down shootout, with Cristiano Ronaldo having space to roam, while Barcelona wanted to hold the ball and let Messi pick his moments.

Ronaldo beat Messi for the Ballon d’Or this month but the Portuguese failed to make a decisive impact last Saturday as Messi took his clasico record to 25 goals in 37 matches and his season-leading tally to 15 in the league.

Zidane left Spain midfielder Francisco Alarcon on the bench in a surprise move. Instead, he gave Mateo Kovacic his first league start of the season, hoping to repeat his success from the Spanish Super Cup where the Croatian was charged with man-marking Messi.

After Barcelona shook off Madrid’s early intense pressure, helped by the more physical Kovacic, the Catalan club made Madrid look clueless.

Zidane defended his choice after the stinging loss.

“I am here to take decisions...nothing is going to change what I think,” Zidane said.

Ronaldo had an early goal disallowed for offside, goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen got his foot on Ronaldo’s strike to turn it past the post, and Karim Benzema headed off the post in the 42nd.

Then Suarez scored the opener. Sergio Busquets cued Barcelona with a forward pass for Ivan Rakitic, who pushed down the middle before playing Sergi Roberto wide. The right back’s one-touch pass found Suarez arriving from the left to drill his shot under goalie Keylor Navas.

Madrid collapsed after falling behind, losing ball after ball to Barcelona.

Messi seized the moment by playing Suarez clear. After Suarez hit the post, Carvajal blatantly used his arm to stop Paulinho’s header from going in—a decision that earned him a direct red card and sent Messi to the penalty spot to fire his strike in.

Trying to spark a comeback, Zidane sent on forwards Marco Asensio and Gareth Bale, who drew a save from Ter Stegen.

But it was Messi who, despite losing his right boot to Marcelo’s tackle, reached the endline before finding Vidal to cap the win, as Barcelona won a third straight league visit at Madrid for the first time in their long rivalry.

“It’s complicated, some would say impossible, but Madrid is obliged to fight until the end,” Madrid defender Sergio Ramos said. AP

J

NO BALL ON CHRISTMAS

J WATT had a modest goal when he launched a fund-raiser to benefit victims of Hurricane Harvey in Houston.

The Texans’ three-time Defensive Player of the Year said he hoped to raise $200,000 in a video he posted on Twitter after a preseason game on August 26. It took less than two hours to reach that number.

Donations poured in from all over the world, with several professional athletes chipping in. Tom Brady gave $100,000, Chris Paul pitched in $50,000 and more than 200,000 people, including Jimmy Fallon, Ellen DeGeneres and Drake, contributed more than $37 million to Watt’s campaign.

“I cannot thank everyone enough for their support and donations from across the country and around the world,” Watt said to those who helped him raise funds for Harvey relief. “You have truly shown what is possible when everyone bands together for one common cause.”

The funds raised by Watt are being used to rebuild homes, restore child-care centers, provide food and address health needs of those who were affected most by the hurricane.

“It was incredible to see how people from all over the country, people from all over the world, people from all different backgrounds, all different communities came together to support a city and a people that were having the toughest time of their life,” Watt said.

Watt was only one of many athletes who heeded the call for help when disasters struck in 2017.

After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico shortly following Harvey’s destruction in Houston, several players stepped up.

Carlos Beltran, who retired after winning the World Series with the Houston Astros, started a fund-raiser to help victims by donating $1 million.

Several other major leaguers, including Yadier Molina and Enrique Hernandez, also joined in with their own campaigns.

Members of the defending National Basketball Association

REAL Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo (left) helps Barcelona’s Lionel Messi get back on his feet during their Spanish La Liga match at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, Spain, over the weekend. AP

ATHLETES HEED CALL FOR HELP

Lonzo Ball has a sprained left shoulder and will sit out of the Lakers’ game against Minnesota on Christmas night. The team says last Sunday an MRI revealed the sprain that Ball sustained in the second quarter against Portland last Saturday night.

He played through it and finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists. The rookie guard will be reevaluated in a week. AP

Vincent Juico @VJuico Instagram vpjp_j, vince.juico@gmail.com

SPORTS WITHOUT BORDERS

Happy Christmas!

Anna Ucheomumu (left) high fives Houston Texans defensive end JJ Watt after loading a car with relief supplies to people impacted by Hurricane Harvey in Houston on September 3. AP

champion Golden State Warriors jumped in to help after wildfires scorched the West Coast in October. Klay Thompson donated $75,000 to fire relief efforts by giving $1,000 for each point he scored during a three-game stretch. The Oakland Raiders organization gave $1 million and the Raiders, Warriors and 49ers combined on a donation of $450,000.

“I think it shows Klay’s commitment to the community and his awareness,” Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said. “I think all of our guys do such a good job of really being aware of helping other people around them. It’s a great gesture. I noticed other people are chipping in, as well.”

Other athletes showed their generosity in various ways.

Philadelphia Eagles star quarterback Carson Wentz and former teammate Jordan Matthews went to Haiti on a mission trip in May. Wentz later announced he was helping build a sports complex in that country.

“I feel that this sports complex will be an incredible way for the youth of Haiti to have more opportunities to enjoy sporting competition, to further their education, to have access to healthy meals and to enjoy being around a Christian community to help further their faith,” Wentz said.

Eagles defensive end Chris Long donated in a big way this year by playing for free. The veteran player gave his first six game checks to provide two scholarships for students in

Tanauan A softbelles capture U-18 crown T

anauan A finally realized its long-awaited dream of winning a national championship by fashioning out a dramatic come-frombehind 3-2 victory over Santa Maria (Bulacan) in the recent 2017 Cebuana LhuillierAmateur Softball Association of the Philippines U-18 Women’s

Championship in Santo Niño, Marikina City.

In a game that was only decided to the very end, Tanauan pounced on a fielding and throwing error by Santa Maria at the top of the seventh inning that resulted to two runs by Angel Bedano and Kathy Nueva, giving the Batangueñas a 3-2 lead they never relinquised.

“I was confident about winning this time. We prepared for this for a year and our motivation came from losing to Bacolod City last year,” Tanauan A Head Coach Ramil Mercado

said. Bacolod City did not send a team this year.

Mercado, a barangay chairman in Tanauan, received for the team the top incentive of P25,000. Santa Maria got P15,000, while third place Rizal went home with P10,000.

“We are very pleased with this event. We had the most number of teams ever with 27 and from the players here, we will select the members of our U-16, U-18 and U-19 national teams,” said Jean Henri Lhuillier, president and CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier.

Tanuan A’s Royavel Palma was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament sponsored by Cebuana Microloans, Cebuana Pera Padala, Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation, Cebuana Savings Bank, Cebuana Micro Inc., Le Soleil de

Charlottesville, Virginia. He then used the next 10 checks to launch a charitable initiative that encourages people to make donations to improve equal education opportunities.

Long signed a two-year, $4.5-million contract with the Eagles, including a $500,000 signing bonus and $1.5 million guaranteed. His base salary in 2017 is $1 million.

“My wife and I have been passionate about education being a gateway for upward mobility and equality,” Long said. “I think we can all agree that equity in education can help effect change that we all want to see in this country.”

Texas Rangers ace pitcher Cole Hamels and his wife, Heidi, donated their Missouri mansion estimated at $10 million and 100 acres of land to a charity that provides camps for children with special needs and chronic illnesses and their siblings.

Former National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick also dipped into his own pocket to give.

Kaepernick, who began kneeling during the national anthem last season to protest racial inequality and police brutality but now remains unsigned, donated $600,000 of his Million Dollar Pledge during 2017. Kaepernick began the pledge in October 2016 and contributed $300,000 last year.

He has spent his time away from football working on social activism while waiting for an opportunity to play again. AP

Boracay, Palm Rock, Just Jewels and One Hagdan.

Sharing the spotlight with Palma were her teammate May Langa (Best Hitter) and Santa Maria’s Alma Tauli (Best Pitcher), Giselle Villarubia (Most Runs Batted) and Leica Blanco (Best Slugger).

The other individual winners were Rizal’s Cleofe Magsayo (Most Stolen Bases) and Makati City’s Charlotte Sales (Most Home Runs).

Asaphil officials Randy Dizer and Kiko Diaz alternated presented the awards, while lawyer Rolly Rivera emceed the ceremony. The event was hosted by Marikina City Mayor Marcy Teodoro.

MERRY Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my readers.

It won’t be a not so Merry Christmas for die-hard La Sallians like me as arguably the greatest and most athletically gifted foreign student athlete to play in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) has left De La Salle University to pursue and jump-start his professional basketball career in Mexico.

One can understand Ben Mbala’s feeling of uncertainty after the UAAP board started entertaining thoughts of bringing back the seven-year-after-high-school rule. You see, Mbala finished high school in 2011, which means Ben can no longer suit up for the green and white despite having one more year of eligibility.

I have no question about the rule, though I question the timing of its reinstatement after its suspension for two seasons.

Was the rule going to be applied retroactively in Ben’s case?

This is the same UAAP board that added another year of residency for Mbala when he transferred to La Salle, despite an already existing one-year residency rule for transferees since Ben was originally from South Western University.

The UAAP board decided to suspend the rule for two years to give way to the expected deluge of high-school graduates as a result of the K to 12 program. Isn’t there a four playing years rule already in place? Why the seven years out of high-school rule when there is already a four year playing eligibility rule already? nnn I USED to not like Kobe Bryant with a passion when in all the 20 years he played for the Lakers franchise. I thought he was brash, cocky and arrogant and trying so desperately to supplant Michael Jordan as the greatest ever to play the game. I only started respecting this guy only months and weeks leading up to his season-ending injury that led to his retirement in 2016.

The Lakers franchise retired Bryant’s two jersey numbers, Nos. 8 and 24. He won three titles wearing No. 8 and two championships wearing No. 24. As much as there are Michael Jordan stories, there are also Kobe Bryant stories like when he averaged 40 points per game for a whole month despite playing with a torn labrum.

I thought his work ethic were almost bordering on insanity.

Like Jordan, he pushed himself beyond the limits of human comprehension. Any chance he’d get to pick Jordan’s brain he’d do it. If you want to be the best, you’ve got to learn from the best. There’s a wealth of basketball knowledge to learn from the greats who have gone before you. The greats who’ve paved the way for you to play the game.

In the end, all the dislike turned into respect and admiration.

Sports BusinessMirror

A8 Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

NOT EXACTLY A SIBLING RIVALRY SISTERS Marissa (right) and Hannah Brandt will be playing for different countries in the 2018 Winter Olympics. AP

By Dave Campbell

V

The Associated Press

ADNAIS HEIGHTS, Minnessota— Marissa Brandt was wrapping up her prosperous small-college hockey career, she believed, when the life-changing phone call came during her senior year.

South Korea’s fledgling national team was

building a roster for the 2018 Winter Olympics, and the host nation was inviting her to the country of her birth to try out. Two weeks later she was departing Minnesota on a journey of reconnection with the place she left when she was four-and-ahalf months old.

“I’m happy I took that leap of faith,” she said.

Three years later she is a South Korean citizen who is slowly learning the language and realizing she is a bit of a celebrity. There is another twist to

the tale, too, with an even more rewarding result: Her sister, Hannah Brandt, is playing for Team USA, giving their parents, Greg and Robin, the unexpected chance to cheer for both daughters in Pyeongchang in February.

“It would be fun to play her in the Olympics,” Marissa said. “Not awkward at all.”

The awkward part of the story actually came years ago, when kindergarten-age Marissa and Hannah were signed up for Korean culture camp.

“I absolutely did not like going,” Marissa said, “but Hannah loved it, so we kept going back. It was funny, actually. She loved the Korean food and the taekwondo, and I didn’t like anything about it.”

Hannah was old enough to know Marissa was adopted from South Korea. She just thought her sister was born at 30,000 feet somewhere above the Pacific.

“Hannah used to tell me that she wished she was born on the plane instead of Marissa,” Robin recalled, reflecting on her American-born child’s early interest in this foreign land 6,000 miles away that repelled her other daughter despite her roots.

The Brandts were two weeks away from completing Marissa’s adoption in 1993 when they were surprised to learn Robin was pregnant with Hannah. They brought Marissa home in May, and Hannah was born in November. Suddenly, there were two babies in their home in Vadnais Heights, a woodsy suburb about 10 miles north of Saint Paul.

The girls did just about everything together: dance, gymnastics, soccer, and like typical Minnesota kids, they quickly took to the ice.

“We were best friends,” Hannah said.

Figure skating was first, but Hannah found hockey more exciting, so Marissa soon followed the puck.

“Even though she’s younger than me,” Marissa said, “I look up to her in so many ways.”

They were almost always on the same team, even helping lead Hill-Murray High School in 2011 to its first girls state tournament appearance. Marissa, a smooth-skating defender, went on to Gustavus Adolphus,

an NCAA Division III school in Saint Peter, Minnesota. One grade behind her sister, Hannah, a heavily recruited forward, stayed closed to home with the powerhouse University of Minnesota program .

Sometimes the game schedules allowed one to watch the other. The Gophers won three national championships during Hannah’s career, and Marissa was in attendance each time. When they lost the 2014 title game at the end of Hannah’s sophomore season, Marissa couldn’t make it.

Hannah had missed the cut that year for the US team that went to the Sochi Olympics, a defeat off the ice that contributed to her tense wait after tryouts were done last spring to be summoned into a room for a meeting with the coaches as the training camp roster was being assembled. Marissa’s phone rang.

“I was so nervous so I needed to talk to someone. I called her before I headed in. I think woke her up,” Hannah said.

The next ring a few minutes later revealed the news that she was on the team.

“She’s worked so hard to get where she is now,” Marissa said. “I don’t know anyone else more deserving. I’m so excited to be able to share this Olympic experience and journey with her.”

The feeling is mutual, of course.

South Korea’s goalie coach, Rebecca Baker, has strong ties to Minnesota and was the one who learned of Marissa’s heritage, which made her a candidate for the roster. There are four other “imports” on the team, two each from the US and Canada. Chemistry on and off the ice has transcended the cultural and language barriers.

“They’re like my new family,” Marissa said.

Sarah Murray is the head coach of the team; her father, Andy Murray, was an NHL head coach for 10 seasons with the Los Angeles Kings and the Saint Louis Blues. She and her assistants have tirelessly helped guide their eager but raw group through a three-year development process that began for some players with a basic understanding of how to properly jump over the boards. There are only 319 registered women’s players among South Korea’s 50 million people, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation’s 2017 survey.

“Our North American-raised players have been doing a great job integrating themselves into our team,” Murray said. “We try to do as many team-building activities as our budget will allow. But I think the biggest thing that has helped them integrate is living with the Korean players.”

The South Koreans came to Minnesota for training camp and exhibition games, and the visit included a team dinner at the Brandt home preceded by a mayoral declaration and firetruck escort. It concluded with a dance party in the basement.

“Marissa has been a wonderful addition to our team,” Murray said. “She is a great player and an even better person.”

Marissa will wear the “A’’ on her jersey as an alternate captain. She’ll also carry the name Yoon Jung Park, given to her at birth. The powerhouse Americans and the South Koreans are in opposite pools, so the sister matchup will be a long shot.

“If it did I think Greg would probably root for Korea because they’re such an underdog,” Robin said. “I’d just cheer for both girls and hope they do well.”

SERENA WILLIAMS is returning to competition with an exhibition match on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. AP

Serena to play first competition since giving birth

A

BU DHABI, United Arab Emirates— Serena Williams is returning to competition with an exhibition match on Saturday in Abu Dhabi against French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.

Williams has not competed since winning the Australian Open in January while she was pregnant. She will face Latvia’s Ostapenko at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in the first year that women will be taking part,

tournament organizers announced last Sunday.

“I am delighted to be returning to the court in Abu Dhabi for the first time since the birth of my daughter in September,” the 36-year-old Williams said in a statement.

Williams has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, a record for the professional era. She is expected to compete for her 24th at the Australian Open, the first major of the year.

Williams gave birth to a girl named

Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. on September 1. She married Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian in November.

“The Mubadala World Tennis Championship has long marked the beginning of the men’s global tennis season and I am excited and honored to be making my comeback as part of the first women to participate in the event,” Williams said.

The Australian Open starts on January 15. AP

RESILIENT SWEENEY, FINALLY, MAKES OLYMPICS

L

AKE PLACID, New York—Emily Sweeney owns no clothing with the Olympic rings emblazoned on them. She’s refused to wear anything bearing that logo, instead sometimes staring at those who were and wondering if her chance would ever come.

At long last, it’s here.

Olympic gear is coming her way, and it was earned. Sweeney is one of three women on the team that USA Luge is sending to the Pyeongchang Games in February, after clinching her spot earlier this month and ending an eight-year odyssey that had more twists and turns than the ice-coated winding chutes that she slides down to make a living.

“It doesn’t feel real,” Sweeney said. “I feel exactly the same as I did before.”

Much like a luge track itself, Sweeney’s path to the Olympics has been long, cold, bumpy and treacherous. She lost a race-off for the final spot on the 2010 US Olympic team—to her sister. She missed out again when trying to make the 2014 team for the Sochi Games, doomed in part by injuries. She’s barely a year removed from surgery on a wrist that is still giving her problems.

This time, she handled every challenge.

Sweeney is ranked eighth in the current World Cup standings, won a gold medal in a sprint race in Germany earlier this season and survived a US team selection process that went down to the final weekend. Her spot was clinched in a most unceremonious fashion: It became mathematically secured on a night when she wasn’t even at the track, and instead was alone doing laundry at the Olympic Training Center that she’s called home for years.

“She’s resilient, right? She had a goal and she went for it,” said a

teary-eyed and beaming Megan Sweeney, Emily’s sister—the winner of that race-off a week before Christmas 2009 for that winter’s Olympic berth, one where she got the right to race in British Columbia while her kid sister watched from the stands. “She was so aggressive. She’s way better than I ever was.” AP

MUCH like a luge track itself, Emily Sweeney’s path to the Olympics has been long, cold, bumpy and treacherous. AP