Businessmirror december 27, 2016

WET CHRISTMAS People go on their daily business despite intermittent rains brought about by Typhoon Nina (international code name Nock-ten), a day after Christmas in Parañaque City. Nina slammed into the eastern Philippines on Christmas Day, spoiling the biggest holiday in Asia’s largest Catholic nation, where a governor offered roast pig to entice villagers to abandon family celebrations for emergency shelters. AP/Bullit Marquez

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Business groups expect govt to address stringent economic rules, infra program

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HILE proposals for easing economic restrictions and the ambitious infrastructure program are seen as positive stimuli by local business chambers, Philippine businesses are expecting concrete steps from the government to address pressing problems that have hounded the Aquino administration.

Two Philippine business organizations have assessed the new administration’s economic proposals in the past six months as “welcome changes,” but insist on a sharper focus on these amid the continued campaign against drugs.

“On the lifting of economic restrictions imposed by the Constitution, we have to get the ball rolling and welcome the recently signed executive order to create a consultative body that will review the Constitution,” said Perry Pe, president of the Management Association of the Philippines.

Former President Benigno S.

Aquino III came under fire for refusing to support the resolution of both houses of Congress.

The major amendment sought by the business groups is the insertion of the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law” in certain economic provisions in the Constitution related to foreign ownership of land and businesses.

The House of Representatives did not act on the resolution.

This stands in sharp contrast with the vocal intent of President Duterte to ease restrictions on ownership by foreign businessmen See “Business,” A2

Barcelon: “In 2017 our economic activities will be determined by this push in infrastructure. The seaports, airports, roads, isama mo na iyong power—kung wala iyan, hirap tayo mag push up ng ibang economic activities.”

Energy stakeholders upbeat on Duterte

By Lenie Lectura

T

CHRISTMAS AT THE AIRPORT Holiday travelers find themselves stranded at the Ninoy

Aquino International Airport, as airline companies implement flight changes and cancellations duet to Typhoon Nina, which made landfall on Christmas Day over Bato, Catanduanes. Nina is expected to exit the Philippine area of responsibility on Wednesday. NONIE REYES

PESO exchange rates n US 49.9750

HE Duterte administration’s campaign “Change is Coming” has, indeed, brought change in a positive way, as claimed by stakeholders in the energy sector.

Six months after President Duterte was sworn into office as the 16th President of the Philippines, a former energy secretary noted that competition has improved for the better.

“Yes, competition has flourished, had attracted and is continuing to attract more investors

and players,” said Francisco Viray, who is also the concurrent president and CEO of Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp., when asked to provide insights of the changes he has noticed as the year 2016 ends.

“Prices are relatively lower compared to previous years. Sufficiency of supply is assured up to 2020 in all grids,” Viray added.

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) noted that innovation and technological transformations, increased productivity, international quality product and service offer-

ings, and resilient brick-and-mortar business remain high on the business agenda of the company and its subsidiaries.

“The new administration’s indicative openness to unsolicited offers for major projects is very encouraging,” Meralco Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said.

Meralco’s power-generating arm, MeralcoPowerGen (MGen), is involved in a number of power projects. With partners, MGen is schedule to commission by middle of 2019 a 455-megawatt (MW) coal plant in Mauban, Quezon. It is also

finalizing all development works to enable to achieve financial close and commence construction of a 300-MW coal plant in Subic, Zambales. Construction of the first 600-MW coal plant in Atimonan, Quezon, is targeted by 2020, while the second 600 MW by early-2021.

There is also a 700-MW coal plant in Calaca, Batangas, being eyed.

A former energy undersecretary and now the CEO of GE Philippines said the country is “in good shape” in terms of power-generating capacity.

See “Energy,” A2

n japan 0.4251 n UK 61.40430 n HK 6.4380 n CHINA 7.1968 n singapore 34.4441 n australia 36.0270 n EU 52.1539 n SAUDI arabia 13.3267

Source: BSP (23 December 2016 )

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A2 Tuesday, December 27, 2016

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DENR veers away from ‘antipeople, anti-environment’ policies of Aquino administration–green group

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

LTHOUGH bypassed by the Commission on Appointments (CA), Environment Secretarydesignate Regina Paz L. Lopez continues to enjoy the support of environmental groups.

Lopez’s anticoal and antimining stance, they said, is of utmost importance to ensure the sustainable management of the country’s environment and natural resources.

No less than President Duterte, who claimed to have reappointed Lopez because of her incorruptibility, doubted that Lopez will ever get the confirmation.

Lopez, however, maintained that under her watch, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’s (DENR) policy will be leaning favorably on the protection of the environment and ensuring that the exploitation of the natural resources will not cause suffering, but rather benefit the people in the communities.

Green groups believe that the government needs to back Lopez, if we are to take the low-carbon development path and fulfill the country’s various international commitments.

Not all, however, are excited with Lopez’s campaign. Other environmental groups have found Lopez’s action to be wanting, while doubting the Duterte administration’s sincerity in protecting the country’s environment and natural resources.

“As climate activists, 350.org recognizes the progressive outcomes of Gina Lopez’s tenure as environment secretary. We believe that in such a short span of time, decisions done under her watch on issues such as mining and coal are examples of what can be done if the government would lead in advancing sustainability,” Chuck Baclagon of 350.org Asia said.

“However, we feel that Lopez alone is not enough, as we need a government that puts people and the planet over profit. The current direction of the Department of Energy [DOE], which favors nuclear and coal, threatens the gains of DENR’s pro-environment positions,” he said.

350.org urged the DOE and the

Energy…

DENR to “stand with the people” in pursuing an energy-policy direction that seeks to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

“This is the best indicator of a country’s seriousness in dealing with the climate crisis,” he said.

According to Baclagon, such requires halting all new fossil-fuel development now.

“Should the construction of all coal plants in the pipeline push through, the Philippines would be locked into 20 to 40 years of coal dependence,” he said.

Red Constantino, executive director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, said: “President Duterte could not have done better in appointing Gina Lopez as environment secretary. She embodies the promise of this administration, with her bold, decisive, inclusive leadership. She has done far more in six months compared to what her predecessor accomplished in six years.”

Constantino said fighting for development and the environment together is massively difficult, but Lopez does it naturally with vision to boot.

“It is not only the Digong government that needs her voice. Our climate needs the fearless voice of Gina Lopez, as well. We applaud Secretary Lopez, along with [Finance] Secretary [Carlos] Dominguez and [Science] Secretary [Ernesto] Pernia, for championing together the ratification of the Paris Agreement and its goal to keep global warming below 1.5°C in Malacañang and Marrakech. We are hopeful that come next year she will work more cohesively with the Department of Finance, National Economic and Development Authority and even Department of Energy to bring about a more resilient, job-creating modern economy powered by clean energy and green investments,” he said.

continued from A1

“This year we saw new power capacity coming online and more projects getting sanctioned for development. From a supply security standpoint, it is very encouraging to note the positive signals being sent by the market to power developers,” Jose Victor Emmanuel de Dios said.

Power supply in Mindanao, for instance, is seen to almost double with 1,000 mW more of additional capacity that would come from power producers, such as Alsons Power, SMC Power, FDC Misamis Corp. and Aboitiz Power Corp. This new capacity adds to Mindanao’s installed capacity of 2,414 mW as of 2015, of which 2,044 mW are considered dependable.

More power projects are also lined up in Luzon and the Visayas, as well.

Latest data from the DOE incidate that by 2020 the committed projects in Luzon could reach 4,101.375 mW for Luzon, 1,687.94 mW for Mindanao, and 471.58 mW for the Visayas.

The data further show that some 17,145.415 mW of indicative capacity is listed to come in by 2021 to 2022 across the three grids, with the bulk, or 11,607.505 mW, to be located in Luzon.

In the Visayas and Mindanao there are around 3,027.97 mW and 2,509.94 mW of indicative capacity.

With abundant capacity, this could translate in lower electricity prices.

According to the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), operator of the Wholesale Electricity

Spot Market (WESM), prices at the electricity spot market have been on a downtrend this year owing to the continued stability of power supply and lower demand caused by the cooler temperature.

There is also adequate capacity from old and new power generators, particularly from renewable-energy (RE) projects.

In fact, the effective settlement spot prices (ESSPs) on the WESM in November plunged to P2.27 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), the lowest since January 2011.

ESSPs refer to the average prices paid by wholesale customers for energy purchased from the spot market.

PEMC President Melinda Ocampo said the decrease in WESM prices was driven by higher energy volume offers in the market and colder temperature. Such a sharp decline in the market prices is welcome as long as wholesale customers, like distribution utilities, pass on the historically low market prices to their end-users.

“You can see that there is a lot of available capacity. Plus, RE also has a big impact in lowering prices, because of the must dispatch and priority dispatch,” Ocampo said.

She said this trend would continue in the early part of 2017, mainly on account of a cooler temperature in January and February, which normally results in lower demand.

The WESM is a centralized venue for buyers and sellers to trade electricity as a commodity where its

Rodne Galicha of the Climate Reality Project said one of the best performing government agencies is the DENR.

“In fact, in just five months, the DENR delivered beyond what was promised by President Duterte.

Here is an advocate-turned-government executive who opened wide the doors of the much criticized office to the masses,” he said.

Galicha said that, while passionate on the cause of the people she frequently visited before she assumed office, Lopez was able to articulate that her allegiance is to her mandate, the Constitution, general welfare and, above all, social justice.

However, Galicha said it is not only opening wide the doors of the DENR that needs to be done. He said the agency goes down to the masses—face to face in communities where it is most needed. With so much housekeeping and cleaning-up to be done within its ranks, which is a bigger challenge, the sustained engagement with civil society is a must in the spirit of participatory governance and transparency.

“I believe that those DENR officials who erred have been investigated and held accountable. It is understandable that five months is not enough to adjust in a very bureaucratic and controversial institution.

However, having new and passionate people around her is very helpful.

“From the issues of climate change, mining to waste and coalfired power plants, we hope to see more of her actions on reclamation and biodiversity conservation.

“We strongly recommend that the Biodiversity Management Bureau’s [BMB] power and budget shall be prioritized equally as other DENR’s line agencies,” Galicha said.

“We have seen BMB’s efforts to conserve, protect and rehabilitate our life-giving ecosystems, but its initiatives and programs have been suppressed by institutional limitations. Five years and six months more, there is more to done at the DENR. Five years and six months more, there is more to be done at the DENR,” Galicha added.

Other groups, however, are slowly losing faith in Lopez.

Fernando Hicap of the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya said for the last few months, the DENR has put several large-scale mining companies to its curtain call

through the appointment of the staunch antimining advocate.

He said that, while Lopez’s appointment partially spared the fragile marine environment from rampant destructive mining, like offshore and magnetite mining, not every single mining firm has complied with the protocol due to lack of genuine policy that will stop and prohibit destructive and wanton mining operations.

“No amount of good deeds and pronouncements could prohibit greedy mining firms if the existing mining law, the Mining Act of 1995, which opened the floodgates for mining companies to plunder our resources, is still operational,” said Hicap, Pamalakaya’s national coordinator.

Hicap said the DENR should replace the existing mining law into a pro-environment and pro-people mining act, which will regulate unrestrained mining activities for the conservation of the environment and, most of all, will promote a selfreliant economy and boost domestic industrialization.

While Lopez’s sincerity to preserve the environment is indisputable, Pamalakaya said it seems the new administration is only focused on mining activities as the main culprit behind environmental degradation and destruction.

“While the DENR is busy pinpointing large-scale mining firms, big developers, on the other hand, are on a killing spree converting coastal communities, fishing waters and other marine resources into mere private-business hubs, like ecotourism, beach resorts, commercial and industrial districts,” Hicap said.

These, Hicap added, displace fishermen, farmers and urban-poor families from their shelters. Worse, it also resulted to ecological imbalances and disturbances.

“The DENR should also look into the environmental effects of widespread reclamation, conversion and privatization of fishing waters and coastal areas. The fisherfolk, farmers and coastal settlers are the user-manager of marine environment, ejecting them from their only recourse means depriving them of their economic, social and political rights as a citizen, and letting the environment destroyed at the hands of the few profit-driven plunderers and developers,” Hicap said.

Meanwhile, Hicap said the DENR’s order to dismantle large fish

prices are based on actual use (demand) and availability (supply).

Meanwhile, Alsons Executive Vice President Tirso Santillan said business has never been this good for the company.

“Our own business is on track.

Our expansion plan has been on track for the last few years. We’ve done very well. All our plants are duly contracted. We think this is the right approach. Before you build, you should be fully contracted. Others build first and contract later, that’s expensive,” Santillan said.

AboitizPower President Antonio Moraza said power firms are aggressive in investing into more power projects as they see demand picking up in the years to come. “I think the drafters of the Epira [Electric Power Industry Reform Act] should be very proud. Power plants of all sizes and types are being built by the private sector where power sufficiency is positive and prices coming down.”

Just recently, the DOE has cleared 16 power projects with nearly 2,500 mW in capacity for grid impact studies (GIS).

Eleven projects are seen to generate 1,877.9 mW of power. The GIS for these 11 projects were cleared by the agency in October.

The remaining five power projects, with a total installed capacity of 566.7 MW, received the green light from the DOE to proceed following the approval of their GIS.

A clearance for the conduct of a GIS is necessary for a power company before it can proceed with the construction of its power project. It is necessary in determining if the electricity

to be generated by the power project can be absorbed by the grid.

Among the planned power projects include the 600-mW coal-fired thermal power plant of SMC Global Power Holdings Inc. in Sariaya, Quezon; the 344-mW subcritical coalfired power plant of Masinloc Power Partners Ltd. in Masinloc, Zambales; and the 64-mW Power Barge 103 of Phinma Energy Corp. in Lapu-lapu City, Cebu.

As of November 2016, the DOE issued GIS clearance to the 4.5-mW Sawaga River mini-hydro power plant; the 6.2-mW Katipunan River mini-hydro power plant; the 500MW LNG-fired power barge; the 24mW biogas power plant; and the 32mW SPC Power Barge 104.

On the policy side, the DOE is working on a comprehensive and responsive energy mix policy to support and sustain the growing economy, while also guiding energy developers on the business environment.

In the power sector, for instance, Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi mentioned about having to classify power plants into baseload (running on 24/7 basis), midmerit (running on long hours but not 24/7) and peaking (with easy start-up and can be used during peak hours). In this regard, power developers can compete with one another accordingly and can picture the situation in each of the main grid for the kinds of investment needed.

According to Cusi, the Philippine energy sector offers a number of investment opportunities, especially that incentives, sound policy mechanism and regulatory framework are in place.

pens in Laguna de Bay has yet to materialize.

“Its attached agency, the Laguna Lake Development Authority [LLDA], seems has its own regime for not complying with its mother department’s order of making the 90,000-hectare brackish lake back in the hands of small fishermen again,” Hicap said.

He said local chapters of Pamalakaya in Binangonan and Angono, both in Rizal province, which are located within the periphery of Laguna de Bay, claimed that the abolition of fish pens was only ningas cogon and media projection.

“A report from a fisherman in Binangonan said LLDA officials once postured to abolish an individually owned lone fish pen when a mainstream media outlet requested coverage of a fishpen demolition. Up to now, however, no report from the LLDA has ever been made on the status of fishpen dismantling.

“Thousands of hectares of Laguna de Bay are still occupied by enclosed fish pens owned by large-scale fishing firms and individuals. The fish pen invasion in Laguna de Bay narrows the fishing zone of municipal fishermen that used to be communal and open fishing grounds before. It also damages the Laguna de Bay through its chemical-based pellet-feeds used to culture fish,” Hicap said.

The DENR also failed to prevent reclamation activities in some parts of the lake, Hicap added.

Citing data from LLDA, since 2012, 151.64 hectares of Laguna Lake have been reclaimed with some areas used as landfill combinations of toxic industrial, domestic and bio-hazard waste. Big portions of the reclaimed areas are in Taguig, while some are scattered in other parts of the provinces of Laguna and in Rizal, like Taytay, Angono and Binangonan. Some of the reclamation projects are supported by local governments. DENR’s initiatives to protect the environment will just turn into a mere lip service if existing anti-environmental policies and programs remain intact. Only by transforming those lip services into concrete environmental policies can the DENR really advance its mandate in protecting the environment for the benefit of the Filipino people.

Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan-PNE, said the group had high hopes that the new administration will veer away from

Business…

what he described as “antipeople and anti-environment policies and programs” of the previous Aquino administation.

“Given his positive record as a mayor in supporting lumad struggle in Mindanao and in banning mining and chemical pesticide aerial spraying in Davao City, Kalikasan and other environmental organizations formed Eco-Challenge for Change Coalition outlining the major ecological demands and actions it wants to see from the Duterte administration,” Bautista said.

While he said the first 100 days of the new administration was off to a good start, almost half year into his term, the issue of human-rights violations escalates not only to Duterte’s war campaign on drugs, but had also victimized environmental activists.

“We recorded at least seven environmentalists as victims of extrajudicial killings. Most of them are anti-mining and land-defenders activists. Militarization continues in rural areas, especially in areas affected by mining, agricultural plantations and commercial logging. On December 12 seven peasants who were defending their lands were shot and wounded by security guards of Lapanday Food Corp. [LFC]. LFC is a multibillion-peso agricultural plantation company,” Bautista lamented.

He said erring companies supposedly suspended by the DENR continue to operate.

Bautista said the Laguna de Bay is still occupied by private corporations and individuals.

Worse, Bautista said the Duterte administration promoted and approved the expansion of palm-oil plantation in Mindanao and the establishment of new coal power plants nationwide.

Meanwhile, reclamation of coastal and lakeshore still is the order of the day under Duterte.

“No significant change. If there are, it is just for show. Pang-gulat at pambulag lamang. The people remain wanting. In the first few months of 2017, we will know truly what kind of government we have under President Duterte. Is it for the people, like what he promised us? Does the new administration really hate oligarchs, or is it run by oligarchs?” he said.

continued from A1

of certain assets.

The Department of Finance’s comprehensive tax-reform package should, likewise, be pursued by the present Congress, Pe added.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) is taking a more cautious approach in assessing the administration’s economic direction in the past six months.

“There hasn’t been too much accomplishment since the administration has been concentrated on the drug issues in the first six months. What has helped the economic outlook has been the President’s traveling to Japan and Singapore to drum up more investments and more trade relationship with Asia and Asean,” George T. Barcelon, president of PCCI, said in a telephone interview.

Duterte and his economic team have been making the rounds in Asia since September, embarking on state visits to neighboring Asian countries while shunning the Philippines’s oldest Western ally, the United States.

The most telling of this Asian pivot is the massive Philippine delegation, composed of government and private-sector members, to China, where Chinese counterparts also gathered in record numbers to meet with Filipino businessmen. That visit yielded $25 billion in combined credit facilities and investment pledges.

The pivot is further underlined by the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) pursuit of the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (Rcep) freetrade agreement, which focuses on members of the Asean and their bilateral trading partners.

The top 2 trading partners of the Philippines, Japan and the US, are not in the Rcep and, instead, are members of the Rcep’s counterbalance trade agreement, the TransPacific Partnership Agreement.

On domestic matters, the President’s state visits, Barcelon said, should also boost the government’s “Golden Age of Infrastructure” program, or the “Build, Build, Build” proposal that aims to spend P8 trillion in infrastructure over the next five-and-a-half years.

“We’re very confident—especially on the infrastructure spending—that will differentiate the kind of environment we’ll have next year,” Pe said.

“In 2017 our economic activities will be determined by this push in infrastructure. The seaports, airports, roads, isama mo na iyong power—kung wala iyan, hirap tayo mag push up ng ibang economic activities,” Barcelon said.

Catherine Elizamarie N. Pillas

The World BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • Tuesday, December 27, 2016 A3

For Japan’s Abe, diplomacy is set to Trump economics in 2017

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hinzo Abe’s trip to Pearl Harbor later Monday, the first by a sitting Japanese prime minister in decades, presages a year filled with diplomatic and security challenges that are likely to keep economic reforms well down his list of priorities.

As 2017 begins, Abe faces an international landscape fraught with uncertainty after US voters elected Donald J. Trump, who has questioned the security framework that has defined Asia since World War II. That poses a risk for Japan, which relies on US military power to deter threats from North Korea’s nuclear program and China’s assertiveness over disputed territory.

The increased focus on geopolitics offers another reason to delay reforms long-promised under Abenomics, even as Abe enjoys high approval ratings and a recovering economy. Abe in the past has shown little inclination to spend political capital on painful changes, and next year promises more tinkering than

overhauls on the economy.

“At least, in the first half of 2017, foreign policy is going to be the priority,” said Tobias Harris, vice president at Teneo Intelligence in Washington. “Step one is figuring out just where exactly the US-Japan relationship is.”

In an annual year-end speech last week in Tokyo—one he has used in the past to outline economic plans—Abe spent more than half an hour of the 55-minute address discussing his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He barely mentioned the economy.

‘Could be messier’

Like leaders around the world, Abe is left waiting and wondering as

Trump, who has already roiled USChina relations over Taiwan, previews his foreign policy on Twitter.

Abe described Trump as “a leader we can trust" after a 90-minute meeting in November. But Japan will need clarity after Trump suggested the country may have to develop its own nuclear weapons, Harris said. A second priority will be determining if the Trump administration will stick to the Obama White House’s position on the dispute between Tokyo and Beijing over islands in the East China Sea. “The East China Sea, I think, could be messier than it’s been in a few years, particularly in light of the broader shifts in US China policy,” Harris said.

Even before taking office, Trump has thrown a wrench in Abe’s plans.

Trump promised to withdraw the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, a deal that Abe has championed at home.

Abe’s party—pushed TPP legislation through parliament earlier this month in an attempt to convince the US Congress to do the same.

“The trade relationship between Japan and the US could get significantly worse,” said Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist at Credit

Suisse Securities in Tokyo. He said the relationship could depend on whether or not Abe follows the new US administration’s diplomatic postures toward Russia and China.

Stability at home

After a year in which populist rage erupted around the world, Japanese policy-makers are cautious. At home, Abe’s main goal for 2017 will be maintaining stability, said Tomohiko Taniguchi, a special adviser and speech writer for the prime minister.

“Japan is entering tumultuous waters internationally,” he said, citing the economic slowdown in China and political turmoil in Europe as other potential risks.

In the session starting in January, the Diet will likely pass a bill legislating equal pay for permanent and temporary workers doing the same jobs, according to Taniguchi, but the more liberalized labor market touted by economists and businesses as a key reform remains a distant goal.

“The hire-and-fire culture is not going to be with us for many years to come,” he said.

The spring will also see debate over the possible abdication of the

emperor, electoral district reform and the implementation of an unpopular bill that will legalize casino development. All of these will eat into parliament’s time and leave Abe with less political capital for structural reforms.

Jun Okumura, a former trade ministry official and now a visiting scholar at Meiji Institute of Global Affairs, doesn’t expect any bold moves on economic policy next year.

“Japan is in a comfortable place,” Okumura said. “It’s in the Indian summer of postwar history. Abe doesn’t have to hit a home run.”

International voice

With negligible immigration, Japan stands out as a democracy where policy makers are not fighting angry populism. That leaves Abe, long seen as a nationalist and traditionalist, among a dwindling number of voices for the existing liberal international order.

“Japan is running as a frontrunner in the arena of globalization and internationalization,” said Taniguchi, the adviser. “Abe feels responsible in standing tall and staying firm in advocating the value of a liberal international trading regime and rules-based order.”

The East China Sea, I think, could be messier than it’s been in a few years, particularly in light of the broader shifts in US China policy.”

—Harris

It’s an unfamiliar position for a country that has typically followed the US lead on foreign policy, and an unexpected shift for Abe, who during his first stint as Japan’s prime minister governed more in the narrow style of a leader of an ideological faction.

Yet it’s consistent with Abe’s actions more recently, Harris said.

“To a certain extent I think Abe’s tried to do that for the last several years. He’s certainly tried to be that voice in Asia itself,” he said.

Bloomberg News

A4 Tuesday, December 27, 2016

The World

Changes coming to White House Press Room: Who, where, when and how

BusinessMirror

Russia not ruling out terror attack in Black Sea jet crash

Spicer

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ith the naming of Sean Spicer as White House press secretary, Donald J. Trump has selected a Republican Party insider and communications veteran.

But that doesn’t mean it will be business as usual for the press corps that covers the next administration.

Trump’s unconventional, sometimes hostile, relationship with the news media and his penchant for communicating through unfiltered Twitter posts threaten to upend a decades-old Washington tradition that relies almost entirely on protocol. The result, reporters and editors say, could be a loss of transparency that would hinder the press’s role as a conduit for information to the people.

But Trump’s advisers, and even some former White House press secretaries, say that some of the conventions of White House coverage are outdated and due for a face-lift.

In a radio interview this month, Reince Priebus, the incoming White House chief of staff, suggested that traditions including the daily televised press briefings and seating assignments could change.

“I think it’s time to revisit a lot of these things that have been done in the White House, and I can assure you that change is going to happen, even on things that might seem boring like this topic,” he told the radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Spicer, in an interview with Fox News on Thursday night, said the new regime wanted to be “innovative, entrepreneurial” about its media operations. While he said he believed there would be daily briefings, he suggested the format could change, perhaps by adding new elements, eliminating some television coverage and bringing “more people into the process.”

All this has stirred concern among journalists who say seemingly small changes to the system could lead to the diminishing of other traditions.

“Beg inning to sug gest the daily briefings shouldn’t happen every day in the format that they are, I think, begins to establish a slippery slope,” said Scott Wilson, the national editor for The Washington Post, who was a White

House correspondent during the Obama presidenc y. “ T here is value in having a formal setting where the administration’s position is stated and can be referred to and can be archived.”

Since his election, Trump has shown few reservations about ignoring the norms of presidential media coverage. He has defied convention by refusing to allow journalists to travel with him on his plane—including on his flight to the White House for his first meeting with President Barack Obama.

In a highly publicized incident in mid-November, he left Trump Tower for dinner with his family without telling the reporters assigned to cover his whereabouts, sending the reporters scrambling for information. And while Trump has granted some interviews, including with The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, he also has not held a news conference since late July, preferring instead to use Twitter as his megaphone.

The protocols that underpin the relationship between the news media and the president might seem arcane to many Americans. But press advocates say these traditions, even in the age of Twitter, ensure fundamental tenets of democracy: Historical record and access to information.

“The American people deserve to have someone stand up and be accountable for the work of the president and the White House every day,” said Mike McCurry, who served as press secretary for President Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s.

“I think, any White House needs to explain its position and reasoning in more than 140 characters.”

Many journalists also said that the new administration should retain the protective pool—a group of journalists that travels with the president whenever he goes outside the White House, and through which he can communicate with the public during an emergency or crisis.

“We’re not asking to be at his dinner table with him,” said Jeff Mason, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, which coordinates the pool.

“We just want to be nearby in case something happens.” NYTNS

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Russian rescue workers carry a body from the wreckage of the crashed plane, at a pier just outside Sochi, Russia on Sunday. Russian ships, helicopters and drones are searching for bodies after a plane carrying 92 people crashed into the Black Sea. The plane was taking the Alexandrov Ensemble, a military choir, to perform at Russia’s air base in Syria when it went down shortly after takeoff. AP

By Vladimir Isachenkov & Veronika Silchenko | The Associated Press

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OCHI, Russia—Backed by ships, helicopters and drones, Russian rescue teams searched on Sunday for victims after a Russian plane carrying 92 people to Syria crashed into the Black Sea shortly after takeoff. Investigators said they were looking into every possible cause for the crash, including a terror attack.

All 84 passengers and eight crew members on the Russian military’s Tu-154 plane are believed to have died when it crashed two minutes after taking off at 5:25 a.m. in good weather from the southern Russian city of Sochi. The passengers included dozens of singers in Russia’s world-famous military choir.

More than 3,000 rescue workers on 32 ships—including over 100 divers flown in from across Russia— were searching the crash site at sea and along the shore, the Defense Ministry said. Helicopters, drones and submersibles were being used to help spot bodies and debris. Powerful spotlights were brought in so the operation could continue all night.

Emergenc y crews found fragments of the plane about 1.5 kilometers ashore. By Sunday evening, rescue teams had recovered 11 bodies and Transport Minister

Maxim Sokolov said fragments of other bodies were also found.

A s k e d i f a t e r r o r at t a c k was a possibility, Sokolov said investigators were looking into ever y possible reason for the crash. Severa l ex per ts noted factors that suggested a terror attack, such as the crew’s failure to report any malfunction and the fact that plane debris was scattered over a wide area.

The plane was taking the Defense Ministry’s choir, the Alexandrov Ensemble, to perform at a New Year’s concert at Hemeimeem air base in Syria’s coastal province of Latakia. Those on board also included nine Russian journalists and a Russian doctor famous for her work in war zones.

Russian President V ladimir P ut i n went on te le v i sion to declare on Monday a nationwide

92 The total number of passengers and crew onboard the ill-fated Tu-154 Russian plane

day of mourning.

“We will conduct a thorough investigation into the reasons and will do everything to support the victims’ families,” Putin said.

The Black Sea search area— which covered over 10 sq km (about 4 square miles)—was made more difficult by under water currents that carried debris and body fragments into the open sea. Sokolov said the plane’s flight recorders did not have radio beacons, so locating them on the seabed was going to be challenging.

The Tu-154 is a Soviet-built three-engine airliner designed in the late-1960s. More than 1,000 have been built, and they have been used extensively in Russia and worldwide.

The plane that crashed on Sunday was built in 1983, and underwent factory checkups and maintenance in 2014 and this year, according to the Defense Ministry.

Magomed Tolboyev, a decorated

Russian test pilot, said it was clear that all on board had died in the crash.

“There is no chance to survive in such situation,” he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Before Sokolov spoke to reporters in Sochi, senior Russian lawmakers had ruled out a terror attack, arguing that the military plane was under reliable protection. Security is particularly tight in Sochi, the Black Sea city that hosted the 2014 Winter Games and is regularly visited by Putin, who often receives foreign leaders at his residence there. But some experts said the crew’s failure to report a malfunction pointed at a possible terror attack. “ Po s s i b l e m a l f u n c t io n s ... certainly wouldn’t have prevented the crew from reporting them,” Vitaly Andreyev, a former senior Russian air traffic controller, told RIA Novosti.

Va d i m L u k a s h e v i c h , a n independent aviation expert, told Dozhd TV that the crew’s failure to communicate an equipment failure and the large area over which the plane’s fragments were scattered raises the possibility of an attack.

Alexander Gusak, a former chief of a SWAT team at the main domestic security agency, the FSB, told Dozhd that Russian airports are still vulnerable to terror threats despite security cordons.

“It’s possible to penetrate them.

It’s a matter of skills,” he said.

Russian planes have been brought down previously by terror attacks.

In October 2015 a Russian plane carrying mostly Russian tourists back from vacation in Egypt was brought down by a bomb over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people aboard. Officials said the explosive device was planted in the plane’s luggage compartment. The local affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

In August 2004, two Russian planes were blow n up in the skies over Russia on the same day by suicide bombers, killing 89 people. A Chechen warlord claimed responsibility.

In the last year the Russian military has repeatedly flown Russian singers and artists to perform at Hemeimeem, the main hub for the Russian air campaign in Syria.

The passenger list released by the Defense Ministry included 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, including its leader, Valery Khalilov. The ensemble is the official choir of the Russian military and also includes a band and a dance company. The choir sang “Get Lucky” at the opening of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, becoming an online sensation.

Humbled Netanyahu places hopes in Trump

J

ERUSALEM—The Israeli government’s furious reaction to the UN Security Council’s adoption of a resolution opposing Jewish settlements in occupied territory underscores its fundamental and bitter dispute with the international community about the future of the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that there is nothing wrong with his controversial policy of building Jewish towns in occupied areas that the Palestinians, with overwhelming world support, claim for their state. But Friday’s UN rebuke was a stark reminder that the rest of the world considers it a crime.

The embattled leader is now placing his hopes in the incoming administration of Donald J. Trump, which is shaping up as the first major player to embrace Israel’s nationalist right and its West Bank settlements.

In a series of statements, Netanyahu has criticized the Obama ad-

ministration for letting Resolution 2334 pass on Friday by abstaining, using unprecedented language that has turned a policy disagreement into a personal vendetta.

“From the information that we have, we have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday.

In turning his anger toward Israel’s closest and most important ally, Netanyahu has underplayed the embarrassment that all 14 other nations on the Security Council voted in favor of the measure. Those votes came from countries that Netanyahu loves to boast of cultivating relations with, including Russia and China and nations across the developing world.

“This is the same prime minister who told us dozens of states are on board with us,” former Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Channel 2 TV on Saturday. “I looked for Russia,

China, England, France. Where are all the friends that were meant to stand with us?”

The resolution marked a sharp international rebuke of Israeli settlement policies in the West Bank and east Jerusalem—territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed by the Palestinians as parts of a future independent state.

Some 600,000 Israelis now live in the two areas, complicating any partition of the land between Israel and a future Palestine.

Netanyahu routinely dismisses international criticism of the settlements, saying that the dispute with the Palestinians goes back to long before the 1967 war.

He also notes that when Israel dismantled its Gaza settlements in 2005, Hamas militants responded by firing rockets and subsequently seizing control of the territory from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (second from right) arrives for a weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Christmas Day. AP

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

The World BusinessMirror

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

A5

Putin-Abe summit brings big Japan-Russia economic projects T

OKYO—Japan and Russia are stepping up cooperation as Russian President Vladimir Putin pursues opportunities in fastgrowing Asian markets for his country’s vast Far East. Many of the dozens of deals finalized during his visit to Japan this week involve the energy sector, and most are projects linked to some of both countries’ largest corporations.

He re a re d e t a i l s of s ome expanding areas of JapaneseRussian cooperation:

Nuclear energy

The Japanese government and Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corp. agreed on cooperation in helping with the cleanup at from the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi

Nuclear Power Plant, including radioactive waste management and possible decommissioning.

The two sides already have been discussing working together on uranium exploration and mining; design, construction and operation of light-water reactors; waste processing and management; nuclear safety, including radiation

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) walks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe upon Putin’s arrival to attend a working lunch in Tokyo, Japan, last December. The leaders of Russia and Japan move to Tokyo on Friday to wrap up a two-day summit on an economic cooperation agreement and a protracted territorial dispute that has prevented their countries from signing a peace treaty to end World War II. AP

protection and environmental control; research and application of radioisotopes and radiation; other areas based on additional written agreements between the parties, Rosatom says.

Oil and gas exploration

Russia enjoys a trade surplus with Japan, thanks to exports of oil and

natural gas. In addition to oil and natural-gas projects already underway in Sakhalin and Eastern Siberia, the two countries agreed on cooperation in exploration and development and on expanding joint work on wind and coal co-generation projects. Rosneft said a consortium of Japanese companies, including Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National

Corp., has agreed to jointly pursue exploration, development and production of oil and gas in the Sea of Japan off Russia’s coast. The Kyodo News Service reported major Japanese trading houses also plan to invest in a $40-billion natural-gas field project on the Gydan Peninsula near the Arctic Ocean, working with Russia’s Novatek.

Fund and Japan Bank for International Cooperation agreed to set up a Russia-Japan Investment Fund to identify projects that would promote economic, trade and investment cooperation. Each side agreed to invest $500 million in the fund, which is intended to operate independently in joint projects to be launched beginning next year.

Chemicals

Disputed islands

Russia’s Rosneft and Japan’s Marubeni Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. agreed to study the feasibility of building a gas-chemical facility in Russia’s Far East that would be built using advanced Japanese technologies and supported by Japanese financing.

Logistics

Japan’s Toshiba Corp. plans to work with Russia in installing sorting equipment to be used by the Russian Post as it automates centers handling parcels.

Investment

The Russian Direct Investment

The two governments agreed to consider ways to cooperate in jointly developing islands claimed by both countries in a territorial dispute left over from World War II that is preventing the two sides from signing a peace treaty. Possibilities include modernizing the fisheries industry and expanding tourism in the region, north of Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido. But the dispute itself is an obstacle, and it’s unclear if the two sides can find a way to finesse a disagreement over what laws would prevail in such projects, which would be on islands long controlled

by Russia. AP

A6

Tuesday, December 27, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Christmas come what may

T

HE Philippines has not only been known as a country that has the longest Christmas season. We Filipinos have also been known to celebrate Christmas no matter how difficult the circumstances.

Even during terrible losses caused by typhoons and other natural calamities that hit the country during the “ber” months—typhoons like Yolanda, Sendong and Pablo, and the Bohol earthquake that caused huge swathes of devastation and misery in the Philippines during Christmas seasons past— the Filipino Christmas spirit remained unsinkable.

Companies and individuals skipped lavish Christmas parties and instead helped in relief efforts to console and alleviate the plight of calamity victims.

But even in shelters, amid utterly grim scenarios, we saw the victims themselves sharing meager meals with each other, if not just a laugh, wishing each other a merry Christmas just the same.

Indeed, we know how to truly celebrate Christmas when it counts, with much-needed empathy, charity and resilient joy and optimism.

Even as this is being written (on Christmas Eve) you can probably find some form of meaningful Christmas celebration among the thousands of Filipinos stranded in major ports in Bicol because of Typhoon Nina (international code name Nock-ten), or among the hundreds who were evacuated from their homes along the slopes of Mount Mayon and are now having their Christmases in temporary shelters.

What they say about a crisis is true. It is like a magnifying glass that enlarges your understanding of your helplessness and helps you see clearly your need for God. Filipinos being veterans of every kind of adversity know this only too well.

And the world can learn a thing or two from them, especially at this time when we are said to be witnessing the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, with unprecedented numbers forced to flee their homes because of war, conflict, persecution and natural disasters.

The UN Refugee Agency said 24 people on average are displaced per minute and more than 65 million have been displaced, with many of them struggling to survive in desperate conditions that expose them to physical and emotional risks.

We Filipinos understand their plight. Thousands, if not millions, of our brothers and sisters across our regions have been through such similar tragedies and fates, and have risen from them.

We join the entire nation in praying for the peace that Christmas brings, in praying that all those who have lost homes or loved ones or both will be comforted in their grief, not only in our country but all over the world; that all the victims of various wars and conflicts will be spared from further misery.

Indeed, it is amid the most terrible tragedies that we realize the things that should matter most in the celebration of Christmas: family and friends getting together, people giving and sharing their very selves, the love that survives after everything has been taken away.

The late Bishop Oscar Romero, whom many consider a saint in Latin America, especially in the country of his birth, El Salvador, once wrote this about Christmas: “No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God—for them, there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, Godwith-us. Without poverty of spirit, there can be no abundance of God.” It is easy to lose the significance of Jesus’ birth when we have everything we need and want. Such bounty blocks the truth of the biblical text—the birth stories of Jesus in Luke and Matthew that are often read to us in the Christmas Masses.

We forget that Jesus was born amid the dung of an animal’s stall. That eventually, He would be crucified between two thieves. His place was, is and will always be with those who have the least, who do not belong, who are rejected and regarded as weak, those for whom there is no room in society.

Then, as now, Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, for the least, the lost, the last.

Since 2005

Stock market 2016: What happened?!?

John Mangun

W

OUTSIDE THE BOX

ATER is a remarkable substance in that it can exist as a solid, liquid, or gas. Money is the same. The global financial crisis beginning in 2008 caused money to “freeze”. Capital stopped moving as lending, investment and spending came to a halt.

The US Federal Reserve (the Fed) reduced interest rates from over 5 percent to near zero in an attempt to make money so “cheap” that it would start flowing again, thereby increasing economic growth.

This was intended to be a temporary measure. The financial markets accepted this manipulation of interest rates in the belief that the Fed would eventually allow the normal interaction of supply and demand—which applies to capital also—to return.

In its December 18, 2013, statement, the Fed said, “The Committee also reaffirmed its expectation that

Subic surges forward

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the current exceptionally low target range for the federal funds rate of 0 to 1/4 percent will be appropriate at least as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6-1/2 percent.”

That is clear and simple—zero rates until unemployment falls below 6.5 percent. The Fed had said exactly the same thing in December 2012, and all through 2013, the unemployment figure was continuously dropping from 7.8 percent toward 6.5 percent.

Anticipating that the Fed would follow its own guidance, the financial markets raised the interest rate on 10-year US government bonds

S

ABOUT TOWN

UBIC Bay Freeport, the former American naval base facing the South China Sea, is poised to enhance its position as a vital hub of foreign investments in Central Luzon and as a viable alternative to the Port of Manila with a cluster of infrastructure projects up for implementation.

With Chairman Martin Diño at the helm, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) wants to jump-start these projects and collaborate with the management of another converted former American air base, Clark in Pampanga, to stimulate trade and commerce and propel socioeconomic development in northern Philippines.

The biggest of the planned projects is a 100-kilometer multimodal elevated expressway and railway from Subic Port to the Port of Manila. The total cost of this project is a whopping P100 billion, but in the context of Metro Manila’s horrible traffic congestion that leads to billions in business losses on a daily basis, it’s going to be well worth it. This expresssway-cum-railway project will not only decongest heavy traffic in Metro Manila, but also boost container volume at Subic, thus, enhancing SBMA’s goal of making the free port the “Gateway to Asia and the Pacific.”

Complementing this big-ticket

project is the construction of a 17km bypass road and widening of Tipo Road into a four-lane highway.

The bypass road would link the port terminals directly to the SubicClark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) and would be for the exclusive use of container trucks going in and out of Subic Port. A widened Tipo Road would greatly facilitate travel between Subic and SCTEx. Yet, another road project is the 25-km bypass road from Tipo in Subic to Castillejos, Zambales and Redondo Peninsula that will open up a 3,000-hectare new industrial park to be called Subic Smart City, envisioned as an enclave of high-tech corporations and a hub for scientific research and innovation.

SBMA also wants to increase Subic Port’s handling capacity by as much as 600,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit containers) in New Container Terminals 3 and 4, bringing its total handling capacity to 1.2 million TEUs, in line with the Asean integration.

from 1.67 percent to 3.03 percent in 2013. The Philippine stock market composite index went from 6,000 to 7,000 and then back to 6,000.

For January 2014, the unemployment rate was 6.6 percent and had fallen to 6.3 percent by April. But the Fed did not raise rates and the bond market priced rates went back down from 3 percent to 1.6 percent.

In 2014 the local stock market went from 6,000 to 8,000.

The Fed’s 2015 statements once again emphasized “full” employment and 2-percent inflation to trigger a rate increase, with economists predicting two to three rate increases in 2016 to put the rate near 1.5 percent. Unemployment for 2016 was consistently back to near pre-crisis levels. US government bond interest rates began rising in July from 1.48 percent to 2.53 percent anticipating those two or three rate increases from the Fed. The local stock market fell from 8,000 to the current 6,500.

Global capital moved back into the US dollar and also into bonds.

The recent Fed increase placed rates far from 1.5 percent at 0.75 percent.

The local stock market was not

going down in anticipation of a Fed rate increase. It has been reacting in real-time to the bond markets. The interest rate on Philippine government 10-year bonds—as price by the markets—bottomed out also in July at 3.2 percent and is now at 5 percent.

While I wrote recently that I expect the Fed to genuinely raise rates at least two times in 2017, the global and local bond markets have already priced in those rate increases. But anything can happen with the Fed. However, the financial markets are demanding higher interest rates regardless of what the Fed does. Here is the bottom line for the local stock market.

There is further strong downside potential for local stock prices.

Nonetheless, at some point, Philippine bond yields will top out probably around 6 percent coinciding with stocks bottom out. In 2016 stock prices fell as capital moved into bonds.

The modernization of the Subic Bay International Airport will allow it to handle all types of cargo as an intermodal (airport-seaport) logistics hub and also as a hub for cruise destinations, junket trips and VIP jet services.

SBMA will also partner with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority to build a Subic-to-Clark railway to ensure the free flow of goods for the benefit of locators along this corridor.

The total cost of the planned Subic projects is $2.8 billion (P140 billion), a small investment compared with the P3-billion daily loss from hellish traffic on Metro Manila roads.

Within the free port, the new roads would decongest traffic along the Olongapo City Road, provide easy access for the transport of goods for export from Clark, and open up two new industrial parks in Subic.

Doubling the free port’s container and bulk-cargo capacity could generate up to P30 billion a year in revenues, up from the current P19 billion annual contribution to the national economy.

Subic as a gateway could also generate an estimated P13.5 billion in foreign direct investments.

A number of Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean investors are seeking to expand their business operations in Subic. As of last month, at least eight big investments were already up for implementation or awaiting confirmation by the new SBMA board.

erations in March next year because Congress will not extend its original 25-year franchise issued in 1992.

According to the fake news, Congress had refused to renew the telecommunications company’s 1992 franchise for another 25 years because it failed to offer at least 30 percent of its shares of stock to the public as required under the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of 1995 law and its own legislative franchise.

Smart believes this is either a case of the concerned sources deliberately misinforming the public or being illinformed about the issue.

Smart, after all, is owned by a publicly listed firm, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT).

When PLDT reports to the public about its financial status, Smart’s profits and revenues are consolidated with those of PLDT, its parent firm.

The truth is that the Committee on Legislative Franchises of the House of Representatives agreed in November that Smart had already complied with the public-ownership provision under its franchise because its parent firm PLDT is already a listed company at the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The deliberate disinformation campaign, Smart believes, has a hidden and sinister agenda behind it.

It appears, according to Smart, the goal of those spreading the canard is to create panic, and pull down the value of PLDT stock. Or it could be an act of desperation to goad Smart subscribers into transferring to other telecom providers and, thus, bring down the telco along with the Philippine economy. To be continued

Disinformation

DON’T believe news reports that Smart Communications will stop op-

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

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

Sports BusinessMirror

Tuesday, December 27, 2016 A7

STORY OF THE YEAR In a year that seemed to be more about what we lost than the winners on the field, the Cubs provided a feel-good moment that warmed at least the north side of Chicago well into the city’s notoriously brutal winter.

By Jay Cohen

The Associated Press

C

HICAGO—Everything changed for the Chicago Cubs on a rainy November night. A century-plus worth of heartache washed away by a wave of pure joy.

There were hugs, cheers and tears—and bottles and bottles of booze, sprayed everywhere from Cleveland to the shadow of Wrigley Field.

Lovable losers, no more. The story of so many lifetimes is The Associated Press’s (AP) Sports Story of the Year.

“The burden has been lifted,” Manager Joe Maddon said.

The Cubs’ first World Series title since 1908 is the runaway winner for top sports story of 2016, collecting 48 of 59 first-place votes and 549 points in balloting by AP members and editors.

The death of Muhammad Ali after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease was second with 427 points, and LeBron James leading the Cleveland Cavaliers

to the franchise’s first National Basketball Association title took third with 425 points.

In a year that seemed to be more about what we lost (Ali, Arnold Palmer, Gordie Howe, Pat Summitt, Jose Fernandez and the plane crash that killed most of the Brazilian club soccer team Chapecoense) than the winners on the field, the Cubs provided a feelgood moment that warmed at least the north side of Chicago well into the city’s notoriously brutal winter. They drew huge ratings throughout the playoffs, with much of the country tuning in to see if it finally was the year.

It was.

“I think a lot of casual fans were initially drawn to the Cubs in the postseason because of the 108-year drought and the curse narrative,” President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein said. “But when they tuned in, they saw a talented team full of young, exciting players who are also team-first, high-character people.”

The Cubs’ first World Series title since 1908 is the runaway winner for top sports story of 2016, collecting 48 of 59 firstplace votes and 549 points in balloting by The Associated Press members and editors. AP As baseball stories go, the 2016 Cubs had it all. One last stand for David Ross, a retiring catcher who became a key figure in Chicago’s clubhouse. Loads of bright young stars, with Kris Bryant turning in a Most Valuable Player performance. An eccentric personality in Maddon, who cemented his status as one of the game’s best managers.

There was history, for the franchise and its front office, with Epstein helping

end two of baseball’s biggest droughts.

That would have been enough to make it one of the top sports stories of any year, but an epic finish only added to the luster of the franchise’s third championship. The Cubs dropped three of the first four games in the World Series against the Indians, and then rallied to force Game Seven in Cleveland.

After Chicago blew a 6-3 lead in the

finale, outfielder Jason Heyward got his teammates together during a short rain delay before the top of the 10th.

The Cubs caught their breath, and then finished off the famed Billy Goat Curse with an 8-7 victory that will live on in the bars of Wrigleyville for many years to come.

“The players-only meeting during the rain delay was emblematic of this team,” Epstein said. “Instead of

lamenting the blown lead or pointing fingers, the players rallied around one another and picked each other up.”

Ali was mourned all over the world after his death in June at age 74.

President Barack Obama called his wife, Lonnie, to express his condolences, and a public memorial in the boxer’s hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, drew an eclectic mix of celebrities, athletes and politicians.

“He was a tremendous bolt of lightning, created by Mother Nature out of thin air, a fantastic combination of power and beauty,” comedian Billy Crystal said. James called Ali “the first icon,” and announced in November he planned to donate $2.5 million to support a museum exhibit honoring the former heavyweight champion. He also is producing a documentary on Ali for HBO. It was quite a year for James, who powered Cleveland to its own comeback from a 3-1 deficit against Golden State for the city’s first major professional sports championship since 1964. He tried to cheer the Indians to a second title for Cleveland, but they fell just short.

A day after Game Seven, a hungover and hungry crew of Epstein, General Manager Jed Hoyer and a couple friends were back at Wrigley Field when they decided to get something to eat. The main dish was fitting.

“We enjoyed some warm goat and cold beer,” Epstein said. “It was a nice way to celebrate and flush the whole curse narrative once and for all.”

A8 Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Sports BusinessMirror

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

IRVING PLAYS SANTA

By Tom Withers

The Associated Press

C

LEVELAND—With another clutch shot, Kyrie Irving took the Warriors on a trip down memory lane.

Irving dropped a short, turnaround jumper over Klay Thompson with 3.4 seconds left as the Cleveland Cavaliers rallied just the way they did in June’s Finals to defeat Golden State, 109-108, on Sunday in a marquee Christmas matchup that more than lived up to the hype.

Down by 14 early in the fourth quarter, the Cavs chipped away and then put the ball in the hands of Irving, whose step-back threepointer over Stephen Curry on June 19 helped seal Game Seven and gave Cleveland its first major pro sports championship since 1964.

This time Irving went deep in the lane before spinning and making his shot over Thompson, one of the league’s best defenders.

“The kid is special,” LeBron James said of his teammate. “It was never in doubt.”

Golden State had one last chance but Kevin Durant, who led all scorers with 36 points in his first game in the league’s hottest rivalry, lost his balance coming off a screen and couldn’t get off a shot as time expired.

Durant felt he was fouled by Richard Jefferson.

“I was trying to make a move,” he said. “I didn’t fall on my own.”

James scored 31 points with a season-high 13 rebounds, Irving added 25 points and Kevin Love 20 for the Cavs, who were down 3-1

The Cleveland Cavaliers rallied just the way they did in June’s Finals to defeat Golden State, 109-108, in a marquee Christmas matchup that more than lived up to the hype.

in the Finals before storming back to stun a Warriors team that won 73 games during the regular season, but came up one victory short of winning their second straight title.

Thompson added 24, Draymond Green 16 and Curry 15—on 4-of-11 shooting—for the Warriors, who had their winning streak stopped at seven and fell to 9-1 against Eastern Conference teams.

The biggest present under the tree for basketball fans this holiday was filled with drama, intensity and more than a few moments that sparked reminders of last season’s brilliant Finals.

Irving drained a three from the wing that looked a lot like the one he made on June 19, but his bucket over Thompson had a higher degree of difficulty.

“That’s a really hard shot,” Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said. “I thought Klay played tremendous defense. You don’t do anything different.”

The teams will meet again January 16 and then not again unless they make it back to the Finals—a “three-quel” that would be the first in league history.

If there was any doubt that this game

meant more than the other 81 to both squads and fan bases, Green took care of that in the opening minutes.

After being called for his second personal foul, Green stormed off the floor, cursing with every step on his way to the bench. Green, whose suspension from Game Five of the Finals helped swing the series to Cleveland, was slapped with a technical and several of his teammates came over to calm him down before things got worse.

Also on Christmas Day in the National Basketball Association (NBA), it was Boston 119, New York 114; San Antonio 119, Chicago 100; Oklahoma City 112, Minnesota 100; and LA Lakers 111, LA Clippers 102.

In New York Isaiah Thomas scored 27 points and Marcus Smart made a tiebreaking three-pointer with 47 seconds left after Boston blew a late lead but held on to beat New York.

The Knicks wiped out a late nine-point deficit with an out-of-nowhere 11-2 run in a little more than a minute, but Smart answered with his shot and Avery Bradley and Al Horford also made big defensive plays.

Jae Crowder and Kelly Olynyk each had 16 points to help the Celtics win for the fifth

THIS time, Kyrie Irving—shown here beating Stephen Curry for the rebound—goes deep in the lane before spinning and making his shot over Klay Thompson, one of the league’s best defenders. AP

time in six games. Carmelo Anthony scored 29 points and Derrick Rose had 25 for the Knicks.

They fell to 22-29 in their NBA-record 51 Christmas appearances.

VOTING BEGINS

VOTING started on Sunday for the NBA All-Star Game and will continue through January 16.

There are many ways to participate.

Fans can go to NBA.com/vote and cast a ballot once every 24 hours or do the same through the NBA app on their smartphones.

Those on Twitter and Facebook can vote by listing a player’s name with the hashtag #NBAVOTE, or by searching for “NBA Vote AllStar” on Google and filling out a voting card.

James and Dwyane Wade are in line to be picked for the 13th time. Kobe Bryant’s run as an 18-time All-Star ended with his retirement after last season, and Chris Bosh’s streak of 11 consecutive selections will be halted while he continues dealing with issues related to blood clots that have kept him off the floor this season.

Starters will be announced on January 19. Reserves will be revealed on January 26.

The All-Star Game is on February 19 in New Orleans.

DECIDED EARLY

DETROIT hasn’t played many down-to-thewire games this season. Out of the Pistons’ first 32 contests, 24 have been decided by at least 10 points.

And that’s a good thing for the Pistons.

They’re 13-11 in those games—and 1-7 in games decided by nine points or less.

Selection process for malaysia begins

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HE selection process for members of Team Philippines to next year’s Malaysia Southeast Asian Games may not have started in earnest but officials of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) are bent at sending the best athletes to avoid another dismal showing in the biennial regional games.

The PSC, led by Chairman William Ramirez, has convened the SEA Games Task Force before the holiday break and is expected to buckle down to the onerous task of screening each and every member of the delegation for the August 19 to 31 Games.

“We have settled the requirements [criteria] for these athletes because the public wants us to send only the deserving ones,” Ramirez told the BusinessMirror. Medalists in the Singapore 2015 Sea Games, Ramirez said, are guaranteed of slots to Malaysia—although their previous

performances will still play a major role on their inclusion to the team.

The non-Singapore Sea Games medalists but won medals in other regional or global competitions will also be prioritize by the task force, which has as members PSC Commissioners Charles Maxey, Ramon Fernandez, Celia Kiram and Arnold Agustin, and Executive Director Carlo Abarquez and Philippine Sports Institute National Training Director Marc Velasco.

Tom Carrasco heads the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) side of the task force.

The task force will initially send to the Malaysia Sea Games Organizing Committee the Philippine entry by numbers, which could be 600 to 650 athletes. But Ramirez stressed the number would be drastically cut after a deep evaluation of the athletes’ credentials.

“We would like to see a Team Philippines composed of athletes who are all potential to win medals, especially gold,” Ramirez said.

After emerging as overall champion of the 2005 Games, which the country hosted, Philippine participation in the next five Games has spiraled downward. In the Singapore 2015 edition, the country finished sixth with 29 gold, 36 silver and 66 bronze medals.

A total of 405 gold medals are at stake 38 sports in the Malaysia Sea Games program.

Athletics has the most number of gold medals to be contested with 46, followed by swimming with 40, gymnastics with 30, cycling and pencak silat with 20 each and taekwondo with 16.

Water skiing and ice skating are being introduced as regular sports and are offering 11 and eight gold medals, respectively. Ramon Rafael Bonilla

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

SPORTS WITHOUT BORDERS DANIEL “DC” CORMIER (center), with the author and Paul Samson.

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Daniel ‘DC’ Cormier

AN JOSE, California—It is Tuesday, December 20, 10 a.m., and I’m at the Lute Training Academy here in San Jose.

Part of my trip here to the US was to interview UFC light-heavyweight champion Daniel “DC” Cormier. Lute is Portuguese for fight.

I’m waiting for DC and he enters the gym for a 10 a.m. wrestling class, where he teaches 20 to 30 kids. Now they weren’t supposed to have a class but DC insisted on having one due to the intense training to prepare these kids for the Tulsa wrestling nationals, called The World of Wrestling, next month in Oklahoma.

It is the oldest and most prestigious junior wrestling tournament in the world.

Forty states will be represented by 2,000 wrestlers aged 4 to 16.

That is what Cormier is training these kids for. He’s tough on them because he wants them to succeed. His 5-year-old son Daniel “Dan Dan” Jr., falls and cries after his knee gets

“pinched” after his training partner takes him down and Cormier yells, “Get up! Get up!”— clearly to say to Dan Dan, “Suck it up, you’re not going to get any special treatment.”

No special treatment for Dan Dan even if his father is the best light heavyweight in the world and the third-best pound-for-pound fighter in all of mixed martial arts (MMA).

He pushes these kids day in and day out and today, they’ll have to come back to the gym later in the evening for more training.

DC was very accommodating and I made sure to ask the four best questions I can ask that he can effortlessly answer.

First question I asked was when he got started with wrestling and MMA. DC said he started wrestling at a young age. According to Cormier he started getting into MMA after the Olympics in 2008 in Beijing. Playing video games wasn’t enough for him so he started to get into fighting, which he thinks is the best

decision he’s ever made.

My second question was how his injury is and he said it’s getting better and he’s getting PRP treatment for it. So part of the treatment is to attach or reattach the ligament to the bone. Professional athletes, like future National Basketball Association Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant, have undergone the procedure to expedite the process of healing.

Third question: His thoughts on MMA fighters organizing themselves into a labor union to protect themselves from unscrupulous promoters and managers. DC said he doesn’t know about it enough to form an opinion and that the problem, sometimes, is people speak out about an issue they don’t know much about.

My last question for the champ was on his preparation for his upcoming fight against Anthony “Rumble” Johnson and, quoting DC, he said his “striking and stand up have to be on point,” which indicates that Cormier doesn’t expect the fight to turn into a jiujitsu or wrestling match.

So far there has been nothing but mutual respect between Cormier and Johnson.