Businessmirror february 14, 2017

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Wanted: Filipino

game changers

By Rizal Raoul Reyes @rizreyes

Part Two

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Amid | Dreamstime.com

OR E t h a n a hundred years ago, water and coffee changed because of one thing: a bottle. The modern bottled water borrows the idea from Hiram Ricker, whose family founded the town of Poland Springs, Maine, from water, literature revealed. The bottled coffee bought off shelves and from a local café is traced by an Economist article to Scottish company Paterson & Sons in Glasgow in 1876. These are innovations that not only brought life into town, in the case of the Ricker family, but created an industry and altered consumption patterns worldwide. For Crispin Muyrong Jr. of Sunlight Foods Corp., innovation in water management not only grew the family business, but also ensured the supply of a water-sensitive resource: ube (purple yam). For Vie Reyes of Bote Central Inc., innovation in how coffee is roasted helps farmers see their income grow. Both companies are finalists in the Benita and Catalino Yap Foundation (BCYF) Innovation Awards (BIA). Continued on A2

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Tuesday, February 14, 2017 Vol. 12 No. 125

Senate wants inflationary backlash of tax bill muted

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By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM & Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

he Senate will not pass the Duterte administration’s tax-reform package until it is sure the “inflationary backlash” of the tax bill will be contained through mitigation measures. “The Senate is in the middle of thoroughly discussing the amended proposed tax reforms,” Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian, chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee, said on Monday, noting that the Senate is

particularly concerned about the inflationary effects, as admitted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Department of Finance (DOF). Gatchalian said the subsequent price hikes will affect the public, so

By Joel R. San Juan

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@jrsanjuan1573

HE Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed the partial summary judgment issued by the Sandiganbayan ordering the forfeiture in favor of the government of the so-called Malacañang Jewelry Collection, one of three collections confiscated from former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos in 1986. In a 21-page decision penned by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno, the SC’s First Division denied

the petition for certiorari filed by Mrs. Marcos and her daughter Irene Marcos-Araneta seeking the reversal of the Sandiganbayan’s decision issued on January 13, 2014. The antigraft court, in the said ruling, held that the jewelry collection, which is assessed to be worth from $110,055 to $153,089, was part of the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth. The Malacañang collection is composed of smaller, less-expensive pieces that the Marcoses left behind when they “fled” during the 1986

PESO exchange rates n US 49.9170

$153,089 The estimated value of the so-called Malacañang Jewelry Collection seized from the Marcoses

Edsa People Power Revolution. In upholding the Sandiganbayan ruling, the SC said “the forfeiture was justified and that the

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GATCHALIAN: “We also want to see concrete mechanisms to mitigate inflation.”

“this should be validated carefully”. “We also want to see concrete mechanisms to mitigate inflation,” Gatchalian told the BusinessMirror. Asked if the Senate is on track to pass revenue-raising bills before Congress adjourns session for Holy Week Continued on A2

SC affirms forfeiture of Marcos jewelry stash

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Malacañang Collection was subject to forfeiture.” It noted that the legitimate income of the Marcoses had been pegged at $304,372.43 from the period 1966-1986. “We reiterate what we have already stated initially in Republic v. Sandiganbayan, and subsequently in Marcos v. Republic: that ‘whenever any public officer or employee has acquired during his incumbency an amount of property which is manifestly out of proportion to his salary See “SC,” A2

Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza

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any consumers, for their naive knowledge of products, fall victims to the unfair business practices of unscrupulous traders and manufacturers who sell unsafe products that threaten the welfare of the general public. With their power of choice driven by the influence of advertising, many consumers do not only get less value for the money they spend on substandard products, but are exposed to health and safety risks, as well. Continued on A11

CHA-CHA DEBATES MOVE TO PLENARY E

fforts to remove the economic restrictions in the 1987 Charter have progressed in the House of Representatives after the Committee on Constitutional Amendments on Monday endorsed for plenary deliberations the resolution calling on Congress to constitute itself into a constituent assembly (Con-ass). However, PDP-Laban Rep.

Roger G. Mercado of Southern Leyte, the panel chairman, said debates on the measure will not begin until May. “I believe it will be discussed after recess, [which will start] on March 18, [because in our remaining days before the break] we will be busy discussing the death-penalty bill. But it is our hope that Congress will give Continued on A12

n japan 0.4394 n UK 62.3114 n HK 6.4346 n CHINA 7.2580 n singapore 35.1157 n australia 38.3313 n EU 53.0618 n SAUDI arabia 13.3105

Source: BSP (13 February 2017 )

A2 Tuesday, February 14, 2017

BMReports BusinessMirror

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Wanted: Filipino game changers

Senate wants inflationary backlash of tax bill muted

“As far the award is concerned, we are focusing on government services, education, small and medium enterprise and agri-business,” BCYF Chairman Antonio S. Yap. “What we are trying to recognize are all ‘successful attempts’ in the last five years who have attempted to do things a little better.”

recess in mid-March, he made it clear that lawmakers still have to double check administration officials’ figures. No impact on auto industry The DOF, meanwhile, assured the car industry that it will not be adversely affected by the proposed hike in the excise taxes on automobiles. During the third hearing of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III and Finance Undersecretary Karl Chua said most cars “will still be affordable” under the tax-reform package, while the more expensive ones will be charged higher excise taxes to “ensure progressivity” of the proposed tax system. “More expensive cars will be charged higher excise taxes to ensure progressivity. When taken as part of the package, most cars will still be affordable,” the finance secretary said. According to Dominguez, the government’s proposal to raise excise taxes on automobiles would help ease the worsening traffic problem in Metro Manila. He noted that cars are now “very cheap” and higher taxes will temper sales growth. “For every 1-percent increase in somebody’s income, there is 1.5-percent increase in car demand. For ever y 1.2-percent [increase] in car costs, demand will fall also by so much. So it’s a moving thing. So for the car manufacturers, their main concern is that if the tax is added, or the tax is increased, sales will tend to go down. However, we are saying also that because incomes are going to go up, I think that should offset the chances that sales will go down since there is price elasticity through demand,” he said. “The sale of the car is not only determined by the price, the sale is dependent on the financing. If the financing cost is low, you know if it’s only P8,000 down and let’s say P7,000 a month—that is what they will look at; it’s not the total price. And since interest rates are low, as well as the economy is growing, car sales have exploded,” Dominguez added. The proposal increasing excise taxes on vehicles is one of revenue-offsetting measures under the Duterte administration’s comprehensive tax-reform program, which seeks to lower the personal income tax rates. Chua said the proposed excisetax hike will not necessarily decrease demand, nor cripple the automotive industry. “There are also some concerns that this reform might affect the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy [CARS]. In our

Continued from A1

Central bottle

Reyes, CEO of Bote Central, said they developed the Rearden Roaster coffee-roasting machine to help coffee farmers improve their income. The Rearden Roaster is a 2-kilo batch roaster machine capable of roasting different kinds of beans from moisture levels of the coffee bean between 11 percent and 18 percent. “It can come out with a consistent quality whether they are small or big,” she explained. Reyes said she and her husband Carlos Basilio said it is time for coffee farmers to get a bigger share and roasting will play an important role. “Roasting is part of the processing supply that transform the green beans to roasted coffee,” she said. “It [roasting] is the most important thing in the value chain of coffee.” Reyes lamented that the technology is not available to a significant number of coffee farmers in the country. “Our plan is to produce more coffee-roasting machines all over the country and all over the world, because we believe coffee farmers have the same plight all over the world,” Reyes said. “They are the most exploited and earn the least.”

Shining water

BIA finalist Sunlight Foods Corp.

SC. . .

Continued from A1

as such public officer or employee and to his other lawful income and the income from legitimately acquired property, said property shall be presumed prima facie to have been unlawfully acquired,” the SC said. “Petitioners failed to satisfactorily show that the prop-

has introduced several innovations on its business operations that have contributed to sustainability of the company, according to documents provided by the firm. Developed and implemented in 2009, the Marikina City-based first launched its first of several energy programs in the field of energy conservation via water. Muyrong said they are accomplishing this through the use of a 1.1-kilowatt evaporative air cooler instead of four units of 2 horsepower conventional Freonoperated air-conditioning unit for cooling a 100-square-meter processing area. He said this led to a drop in their power consumption by P418.74 daily, or P120,597 on an annual basis. “In terms of ecological value, our company has contributed to the reduction of carbon-dioxide emissions to the atmosphere by 12,792 kilograms per year,” Muyrong said. Competitiveness of the company went higher as the program has contributed in the reduction of the company’s overhead cost, according to him. At the same time, its social sustainability rose because the company uses savings to fund corporate social-responsibility projects for purple-yam farmers. Muyrong said Sunlight shared its best practices to entrepreneurs through fora conducted by government agencies, local government units, business organizations and academe. Under the same program, Muyrong said Sunlight also installed an aluminum lid cover on the steam jacketed kettle that is being used in cooking fruit preserves. This, according to him, resulted in a 3-percent savings that was equivalent to a P0.80-per-kg reduction in the production cost. Muyrong said

the program has been cascaded to the different units of the company and also shared to concerned government agencies, business sector and schools. One of the best practices they shared is the conservation of water resources. According to Muyrong, they were able to reduce 18 liters per kilo output down to 3 liters per kilo output. To save on water consumption, Sunlight installed automatic faucets in handwashing facility that produced a 70-percent drop of water usage in handwashing operation. Sunlight reported a savings of P339,900 on water consumption for 2010 for a 580,000-kg product produced at P45 per cubic meter cost of water. It provided the company financial stability, and at the same time, allowed them to fund corporate social-responsibility projects to the stakeholders.

erties were lawfully acquired; hence, the prima facie presumption that they were unlawfully acquired prevails,” it added. The Court also did not give credence to the claim of the Marcoses that they were deprived of due process since there has been no trial or hearing for them to prove that the jewelry collection was legally acquired. “They allege that they were denied due process by not being

given any opportunity to prove their lawful acquisition of the Malacañang Collection. They allege that they were denied due process by not being given any opportunity to prove their lawful acquisition of the Malacañang Collection. This allegation cannot be given credence for being utterly baseless,” it declared. The Malacañang Collection is kept in the vaults of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, along with

Solid cuts

MUYRONG revealed Sunlight also embarked on a campaign focusing in the use of efficient use of raw materials. This included the installation of a system to monitor ube peeling. The initiative yielded a positive result as there was a marked improvement in recovery of raw ube from 55 percent to 71 percent. He shared that production of raw ube became more efficient when the company used a standardized 1.2inch product. The company’s green agenda gave a positive result when it was able to reduce solid waste to 15 percent. In the green procurement area, Sunlight was cited by consumer goods manufacturing giant Unilever Corp. as a sustainable supplier for raw materials, such as banana, coconut, jackfruit and ube.

From one crop in 2014, Sunlight’s contract was expanded to three in 2015. “We credit our green procurement practices for our growth,” Muyrong said. On a bigger scale, Sunlight’s green practice boosted its ecological value resulting in 6 million kg of carbon dioxide dispatched into the atmosphere in 2015. According to Muyrong, Sunlight’s goals are “aligned to the national goal, as well as international commitment, the 2030 sustainable agenda and the country’s contribution in addressing the climatechange reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to about 70 percent in 2030. Net total carbon emission of Sunlight was 6,367,533.54, documents provided by Muyrong said. The social value produced 135 sustainable employment opportunities to marginalized farmers. Furthermore, the job program eliminated the middlemen, thus enhancing the government’s social program of inclusive growth and generation. He pointed out Sunlight also had a 100-percent conversion of scrap materials into cash with a financial value of P62,683. The additional income allowed Sunlight to fund important projects of the company in enhancing its productivity and quality and compliance to Occupational Safety and Health efforts as rewards to top achievers in quality, productivity and health and safety during the regular monthly personnel performance recognition day. Furthermore, Sunlight’s human relations got a boost as it conducted monthly birthday celebrations, summer outings and others. To be concluded

t he Roumel iotes a nd Hawa i i collections. The 60-piece Roumeliotes Collection was seized from Demetriou Roumeliotes, a Greek national, at the Manila International Airport as he was about to leave the country in March 1986. The Hawaii collection, meanwhile, comprises jewelry found in the family’s luggage when they arrived at the Honolulu International Airport on February 25, 1986.

Continued from A1

calculation we do not see such concern happening,” he said. Earlier, the Department of Trade and Industry has asked the DOF to go slow on the auto industry, whose manufacturing operations in the country are currently being revived by the trade department through its CARS Program. Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp., the two participants in the government’s CARS, are banking on the fiscal support from the program, to increase production and help make the country a vehiclemanufacturing hub. These prospects, however, have been clouded by the sudden proposal of the new administration to increase excise taxes on vehicles. The two carmakers have already invested significantly in new facilities and equipment in complying with the CARS requirements.

Reconsider

Maria Fe Agudo of the Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors asked lawmakers to reconsider parts of the proposal concerning the tax bracket on automobiles. “The proposed progression in the increase in the rates of excise tax on automobiles is heavy, the motor vehicle industry will not be able to bear the resulting burden having to pass or share this to consumers and, therefore, suffer from market loss due to corresponding progressive increases in the prices this may, in turn, restrict inclusive access to transport and mobility,” Agudo told lawmakers. She said the excise tax on vehicles will decrease cars sales and may result in economic losses to the industry and related businesses. “[The proposal has also] shortterm negative impact to employment and job opportunity arising from drop in consumer demand and impair a short-term industry projection and derail industry program,” she said. To mitigate such risks, Agudo asked the lower chamber and the DOF to increase the number of tiers from four to seven tiers involving the proposed third and fourth brackets, which “will be the hard-hit brackets”. She also asked the DOF and the House to lower the schedule of rates and the tax ceiling under the proposed tax-reform package. “[They should also] provide down time, to give us six months relief in the effectivity and implementation of the new income tax for the industry to adjust from the impact of the new excise tax,” he said. Under the bill, there shall be levied, assessed and collected an ad valorem tax on automobiles based on the manufacturer’s or importer’s selling price, net of excise and value-added tax.

South China Sea. . . China occupies 20 outposts in the Paracels, roughly the same distance from Chinese and Vietnamese shores, including the main base on Woody Island, which is also the administrative center for the South China Sea. According to the think tank, China has undertaken substantial land reclamation in the last few years to link Woody with its small neighbor Rocky Island, expand two sheltered harbors, an air base and four larger hangers. CSIS said in early last year, China deployed HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles and they still appear to be deployed on Woody. China also testfired antiship cruise missiles from Woody in the middle of the last year, CSIS reported. The island deve-lopment has been used as a blueprint for building the largest military facilities in the Spratlys, on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs. Four other islands have been equipped with smaller harbors,

Continued from A12

and a fifth is under construction at Drummond Island. Five of the islands contain helipads, with Duncan Island housing a full helicopter base, CSIS said. The presence of a cement plant on North Island suggests construction will continue in the Paracels, it said.

Scientists explore sea

Dozens of scientists from the US, China, European and other countries in Hong Kong boarded the American drilling research ship Joides Resolution—dubbed the “floating laboratory”—to collect sediments in the seafloor and explore the formation of the South China Sea. The two expeditions over two months each will study the Earth’s crust by drilling at a depth of up to 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) in the northern edge of the South China Sea. China joined similar expeditions in 1999 and 2014. AP

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Natl Police declares all-out war againt illegal gambling By Perfecto T. Raymundo | Philippines News Agency

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HE National Police declared an all-out war against illegal gambling on Monday. Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa, National Police chief, expressed confidence that illegal gambling can be stopped in six months. In a news conference in Camp Rafael Crame, Quezon City, dela Rosa said that, if all government agencies and the public would cooperate with one another, the operation of all forms of illegal gambling in the country can be stopped. “The National Police will continue to hit hard on all forms of illegal-gambling activities in line with Executive Order [EO] 13 issued by President Duterte,” dela Rosa said. EO 13 directs the National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and other law-enforcement agencies to intensify the national campaign against illegal gambling in coordination with the departments of Justice, the Interior and Local Government, and Information and Communications Technology. It also directs these law-enforcement agencies to coordinate and promptly act on requests of gambling regulatory authorities to investigate and put a stop to illegal-gambling activities in their respective jurisdictions. “This new mandate of the National Police involves a wider range of anti-illegal-gambling efforts to enforce Presidential Decree (PD) 1602, prescribing stiffer penalties on illegal gambling; and Republic Act 9287,

the law increasing the penalties for illegal-numbers games and amending certain provisions of PD 1602,” dela Rosa said. Anticipating the full implementation of EO 13 upon its publication last week, dela Rosa said, “The Directorate for Operations is now preparing certain adjustments in our own campaign plan against illegal gambling that will now cover illegal online-gambling activities as defined under this executive order.” The National Police Directorate for Operations has already alerted all regional command to conduct one-time, big-time operations against illegal gambling in their respective areas and work to attain the distinction of being an illegal gambling-free region. “I am glad to note that the PCSO [Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office] has successfully established the government-operated Small Town Lottery in different parts of the country as an effective way to keep illegal-gambling operators out of business,” dela Rosa said. The bottom line is the national advocacy to rid the country of all forms of illegal-gambling activities that contribute to moral decay and provide an economic support system that sustains other forms of illegal activity. “Furthermore, based on our own experience, illegal-gambling activities, if left unchecked, breeds corruption and may mutate into other forms of organized crime, including drug-trafficking, illegal vices, money-laundering and kidnapping,” dela Rosa said.

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Tuesday, February 14, 2017 A3

ARMM official assails dumping of errant policemen in Mindanao

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By Ayunan Gunting | Special to the BusinessMirror

E it in peace and order or culture or justice, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will always stand up for its integrity.

Take the dumping of errant policemen in the ARMM, which is deemed an insult and a social injustice. In a privileged speech, Assemblyman Abol Alam Padate, of the region’s Legislative Assembly, said the reassignment of undesirable policemen to the region and other parts of Mindanao is a “sheer insult that should not be taken sitting down”. He quoted the report of a provincial newspaper that said four policemen tagged in the narcotics trade were sent to the ARMM. The story reported that since October 2016, 34 rogue policemen have been deployed to the ARMM, or the Cordilleras in Luzon. This was President Duterte’s punishment for cops whom he described as

“errant and scalawags”. One of the President’s reasons was that provinces, such as Basilan, lacked policemen because police stations are targets of bombing. Padate said he and ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman separately urged the National Police chief, Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa, to reconsider this action. He then quoted the 1987 Constitution’s mandate of respecting the autonomous regions of Muslim Mindanao and the Cordilleras for human development and empowering the people for social justice. However, the transfer of rogue cops to the ARMM violates this principle. “Will shady police officers empower us with an environment for social justice? Is the National Police an organization that

will help us build a framework for social justice? On the contrary, it promotes the idea that we deserve less. It reinforces the propaganda of radical groups that the government is our enemy then, and our government is still our enemy now.” Padate added, “This maltreatment of the ARMM and the Bangsomoro should stop.” Meanwhile, Party-List Rep. Sitti Djalia Turabin-Hataman of Anak Mindanao pointed out the mistake in the identification of the origins of the indigenous fabrics worn by some of the Miss Universe candidates. The most glaring error, Hataman said, “was the attribution of the tenun, which was produced by the Yakans of Basilan, not Zamboanga as earlier mentioned. The tenun is worn by the women in Basilan on special occasions.” “Being a traditional art advocate, I hope it was presented as a part of the Yakan heritage, not just a piece of cloth. If people understood the value and the story behind every piece [of clothing], not just of the Yakan tenun, but of all the fabrics presented there, it would have made the contestants really proud to have worn them,” she said.

Economy

A4 Tuesday, February 14, 2017 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

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COMP affirms vow to responsible Palawan SPUG plants get mining, rehab of mined-out areas major boost from NPC

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

aking the cue from President Duterte and affirming a commitment to responsible mining, the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) on Monday vowed to rehabilitate mined-out areas in compliance with existing mining laws.

In a news statement, COMP believes that responsible mining is vital to national development and fully supports Duterte’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda. COMP issued the statement a day after Duterte expressed support behind Env ironment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez’s controversial closure and suspension orders, which affected 28 of the 41 operating largescale metallic mines. Protests over Lopez’s “arbitrary closure and suspension orders” was raised by COMP prompting Duterte to call for a review by the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC).

“We assure the President that COMP members in Caraga and [other members] nationwide are committed to rehabilitate minedout areas to comply with existing mining laws,” COMP Chairman Art Disini said. However, Disini clarified that the areas being cited by Lopez are active mining areas. “These already have comprehensive mine-rehabilitation programs, including mechanisms for funding. We assure that after utilizing the minerals, these areas will be converted into lands productive for the communities even long after the mines are gone,” Disini said.

Compliance

Years before closure, mining companies set up a so-called final mine-rehabilitation decomissioning fund deposited in governmentaccredited banks to be utilized in the mine’s rehabilitation as determined by careful studies and ap-

Representing mining industry’s big players, COMP said its members are ISO 14001 certified with a seal of excellence in environmental management recognized nationwide.

Fund

proved by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), local government units and the all the affected communities and stakeholders. COMP also remains confident its member-companies will be given the opportunity to address their alleged violations raised during the audit review. “The President and the Mining Industry Coordinating Council, cochaired by Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, vowed to follow due process in the audit review,” Disini said. COMP, however, still reiterated its demand to the full disclosure of the full audit results.

FOI

During a Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-COMP joint stakeholders forum last Friday, COMP President Philip Romualdez also expressed optimism for the minerals industry under the Duterte administration, citing the President’s adherence to the rule of law. Invoking Duterte’s Freedom of Information (FOI) Executive Order, COMP had asked the DENR and the Mines and Geosciences Bu-

reau (MGB) for the mine-audit reports of the affected mines, which includes 23 operating mines that are up for closure and five other mines that are up for suspension. On Friday last week Lopez said she had already signed 12 of the 23 closure and suspension orders and the rest will be signed this week. She said the orders will be sent individually to the concerned mining companies. According to Disini, mining firms identified for closure or suspension have yet to receive their orders from the DENR. Meanwhile, COMP is set to file its opposition to Lopez’s appointment to the top DENR post. COMP earlier claimed that Lopez’s “bias” against mining became obvious after announcing the closure order on February 2 during a news conference. The group said Lopez’s closure and suspension orders denied the mining companies due process, as they were not informed of the audit findings and recommendations, thus denying them the privilege of instituting corrective measures as mandated under the mining and environmental laws.

We assure the President that COMP members in Caraga and [other COMP members] nationwide are committed to rehabilitate minedout areas to comply with existing mining laws.”—Disini

Possible log-ban order sends chills to wood producers

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nvironment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez said she is waiting for President Duterte’s marching orders on the possible declaration of a total log ban “with no exceptions” that would possibly include forest plantations. Asked about Duterte’s marching orders, Lopez said in a text message, “None yet. But there will be no cutting of trees in natural forests and protected areas. That is clear.” L o p e z , ho w e v e r, tol d t he BusinessMirror that she has no problem with logging “if it is done with the prescribed way,” adding that the wood industry should not “take off more than we can produce.” “There has to be designated areas [for logging],” she said. Lopez, an environmental advocate, continues to enjoy Palace support on the issue of mine closures and suspension orders, even as the Chief Executive assured mining companies affected by the closure of “due process”. Duter te’s d irect ive du r ing the Climate Change Commission and Advisory Board en banc meeting in Malacañang forming a tripartite convergence committee to study current logging policy “with no exception” is sending chilling effects on the local wood industry. The directive came after parts of Mindanao, particularly Surigao del Norte, went under floodwaters after days of heavy rains in January. Experts blame mining and logging for degradation of the forests that led to the severe flooding. Ag r icu lture Secretar y Emmanuel F. Piñol, in one of his Facebook posts, quoted Duterte as giving Lopez full authority to implement the total log ban. The tripartite committee composed of the departments of Envi-

Sky dancers National Grid Corp. of the Philippines linemen perform routine maintenance work on overhead high-voltage power cables along the South Super Highway near Quirino Avenue in Manila. ALYSA SALEN

ronment and Natural Resources, Agriculture and Local Government (DILG) was supposed to meet on February 6. Imposing a total log ban that would prohibit cutting of trees, including in areas covered by special permits from the government, as well as private forest plantations, would yet again land a serious, possibly fatal blow to the country’s $5.03-billion wood industry. T he private sector can access public lands and establish plantation forest through Integ rated Forest Management Agreement (Ifma) and Socialized Industrial Forest Management Agreement (Sifma). There are around 140 Ifmas cover ing 1,005,000 hectares; 1,529 Sifma covering around 32,000 hectares. T he gover n me nt a l so h a s a total of 1,884 CommunityBased Forest Ma nagement Agreements with various non-

gover nment a l orga ni zat ions, people’s organizations and community-based groups covering 1,615,000 hectares. Maila Vasquez, executive director of the Philippine Wood Producers Association Inc. (PWPA) said the local wood industry is still reeling from Aquino administration’s total log-ban policy, which bans harvesting of trees from natural and residual forests, with the signing of Executive Order (EO) 23 in 2011. Vasquez expressed hope that the Duterte administration will consult various stakeholders, particularly the local wood industry, before issuing a national logging policy that will deter the industry’s growth. “Imposing a total log ban, including private plantations, will definitely hurt the industr y,” she said. “We are not sure whether the government is planning to ban cutting in commercial tree planta-

tions. But definitely, it will affect not only owners of commercial tree plantations but tree-farmers, as well,” she said. Vasquez said the local wood industry is already importing more than half of the supply from other countries. Prohibiting commercial tree plantations to cut trees, she said, would make the country totally dependent on imported wood. To meet the local demand for wood, the Forest Management Bureau (FMB) said at least 60,000 hectares of mature forest plantations. This also requires a forest expansion of 300,000 annually. “If the government will ban logging even in tree-plantations, the local wood industry will be severely affected,” she said. Vasquez said the PWPA has been batting for a business-friendly policy environment for the local wood industry to flourish through the establishments of more commercial tree plantations. PWPA is the national asso-

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

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he National Power Corp. (Napocor) will energize eight new Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) power plants that will supply electricity to around 6,000 households in Palawan. In a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed with the local government units of Palawan, the Napocor will provide the generating sets, fuel and manpower for the new SPUG plants, while the local government will put up the power houses and plant site. “The MOA is the realization of the commitment we made during the formulation of a village electrification convergence action plan for the province held in 2016,” Napocor President Ma. Gladys Cruz-Sta. Rita said. The said convergence action plan was an avenue for the stakeholders, like the Department of Energy, Napocor, Palawan Electric Cooperative (Paleco), National Electrification Administration, Busuanga Island Electric Cooperative and the Provin-

cial Government of Palawan (PGP), to talk and agree on the roles of each in enhancing the power supply of the province. The eight new SPUGs are in Barangays Tara, Coron; Paly, Beton, Casian in Taytay; Concepcion, Agutaya; Nangalao, Linapacan; and Bancalaan 1 and 2 in Balabac. Sta. Rita said the SPUGs will help boost tourism and local livelihood in the said areas. The signing of the MOA was included in the state firm’s consultation and workshop on planning and forecasting for missionary electrification in Palawan, which aims to engage all its stakeholders in the province in dynamic discussions on improving the power supply in the province. Meanwhile, Napocor said its Power Engineering Services is already in the preconstruction stage in connecting the municipalities of Taytay and El Nido to the Palawan backbone transmission. This is after the corporation has successfully switched on the Puerto Princesa to Roxas transmission line project last year.

UFCC warns on proliferation of fake construction materials

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he United Filipino Consumers Council (UFCC) has warned against the potential damage in case of a strong earthquake, owing to the reported proliferation of substandard construction materials. Unless stopped, Rodolfo Javellana, president of UFCC, said in a news statement issued over the weekend that the use of substandard construction materials would lead to disaster. Javellana issued the statement expressing fear of “unimaginable havoc” similar to what Surigao City experienced after 6.7-magnitude earthquake shook the area around 10:03 p.m. last Friday. The earthquake left six people dead, with more than 100 others injured. The earthquake tore down buildings and houses, and cause severe damage to the airport in Surigao del Norte province. According to Javellana, importers who smuggle into the country substandard steel bars and evade product inspection in complicity with concerned public officials should be held responsible for violation of the National Building Code, or Republic Act 6541. “W hile science cannot stop quakes, there are ways to minimize the damage to properties and [loss of] lives through the strict prohibition on the use of substandard building materials,” he said. The building code states that

structures should be able to withstand intensity-9 earthquakes. UFCC said the proliferation of substandard or even fake building materials has been a long-standing controversy because of the unchecked smuggling of steel products into the country. In a letter on January 31 Javellana called on Rep. Ferjenel G. Biron of the Fourth District of Iloilo of the Committee on Trade and Commerce of the House of Representatives, to conduct an investigation on the importation of 20,000 metric tons of steel bars worth P500 million from China. The imported steel bars came through the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority port recently, he said. “In the interest and protection of Filipino consumers against uncertified and possible substandard/hazardous construction materials, may we humbly request your trade and commerce committee to conduct an urgent inquiry or investigation on the matter?” the letter read. The group expressed fear that the country is becoming a dumping ground of “noncompliant” and substandard building materials. According to the group, tax evasion and duties due to the illegal entry of the substandard steel products is only one aspect of the problem, adding that threat of damage to structures and loss of lives is a much bigger problem. Jonathan L. Mayuga

ciation of corporations, partnerships and individuals involved in forest management; logging; forest-plantation development; manufacture of lumber, veneer and plywood, pulp and paper, and other wood products, as well as in trading, shipping and sales of these products. She said the only way for the wood industry to survive and grow is by continuously planting more trees for commercial and industrial use in private. The DENR is currently implementing a nationwide reforestation program called EnhancedNational Greening Program (ENGP) in partnership with various sectors. Various programs of the DENR is anchored on forest protection and expansion through Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) program. She said the issue of deforestation should not be an emotional issue, saying the establishment

of commercial tree plantations is not the problem, but the solution to deforestation. “Wood is renewable. If you cut wood, you can always plant to replace the trees. It is renewable. What we need is to plant more trees,” she said. The use of wood, she said, is, in fact, environment and climate friendly, because wood is a carbon sink, unless burned or destroyed, she said using wood for construction and other purpose, such as making furniture, preserves carbon sink, thus preventing greenhouse gas emission into the atmosphere. Even now that the local wood industry is allowed to operate and cut trees from commercial tree-plantations, the Philippines is already importing more than half of the required wood supply. She stressed that the local wood industry rely on legal wood grown in commercial-tree plantations. Jonathan L. Mayuga

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Tuesday, February 14, 2017

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PHL bans poultry imports from 2 countries Farm-gate price of paddy rice up 3.32%–PSA report

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

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@jearcalas

he government said it has temporarily suspended the issuance of import permits for poultry meat and other poultry products from Kuwait and the Czech Republic, where a lethal strain of the bird-flu virus has been detected. In two separate memorandum orders published over the weekend, the Department of Agriculture (DA) ordered the temporary ban on the importation of poultry meat and poultry products—including dayold chicks and semen—from Kuwait and the Czech Republic. The DA made the decision after the two countries reported outbreaks of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus in some of their poultry farms to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) last month. “These is a need to prevent the entry of HPAI virus to protect the health of the local poultry population,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said in Memorandum Orders 5 and 6. Kuwait Public Authority for Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resources-Animal Health Department (PAAAFR-AHD) reported to the OIE on January 23 that there

was an outbreak of H5N8 HPAI in Sulaibiyah, Al Jahrah, Kuwait, affecting a backyard holding for ducks, geese and pheasants. The report was confirmed by both Kuwait’s Central Veterinary and Research Laboratory and OIE’s Reference Laboratory in the United Kingdom. This is the first time that the H5N8 HPAI virus strain was detected and recorded in Kuwait, according to the notification report of PAAAFR-AHD to the OIE. PAAAFR-AHD added the outbreak has resulted in the deaths of 144 birds. Meanwhile, the Czech Republic reported to the OIE the outbreak of the same avian influenza virus strain in Jihomoravsky, Stredocesky, and Jihocesky, which affected laying hens, geese, ducks, guinea fowls, turkey, ostriches and pigeons in backyard farms. This report was confirmed by the

National Veterinary Laboratory in Prague. With the ban in place, the Philippine government has suspended the processing, evaluation of the application, and issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance of domestic and wild birds and poultry products from Kuwait and the Czech Republic. The DA warned that it will confiscate all shipments of the banned commodities originating from the two above-mentioned countries. The ban does not cover heat-treated products. “Frozen poultr y meat with slaughter/process date of 21 days prior to the HPAI outbreaks are allowed to enter the country subject to veterinary quarantine rules and regulations,” Piñol said. The Philippines does not consider Kuwait and the Czech Republic as major sources of imported poultry meat. The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged all countries to intensify their measures against the spread of HPAI virus, as nearly 40 countries have reported outbreaks in their respective poultry sectors. “The rapidly expanding geographical distribution of these outbreaks and the number of virus strains currently cocirculating have put WHO on high alert. For example, the H5N6 virus causing severe outbreaks in Asia is a new strain created by gene-swapping among four different viruses,” WHO Director General Margaret

Chan said during the 140th Session of the WHO Executive Board last month. “The latest epidemic, which began in late-September 2016, started earlier than usual, and since December has shown a sudden and steep increase in cases. In the most recent two clusters, the WHO could not rule out limited human-to-human transmission, though no sustained transmission has been detected to date,” Chan added. She called on governments to follow the International Health Regulations and to report human cases promptly. Earlier, Meat Importers and Traders Association President Jesus C. Cham told the BusinessMirror the price of mechanically deboned meat in the international market rose by at least 40 percent due to tightness in supply caused by the bird-flu outbreak in some European countries. Last month the government imposed a temporary ban on the importation of poultry meat, day-old chicks, eggs and semen from some areas in England, France, Poland and the Netherlands due to the outbreaks of the H5N8 HPAI virus. Currently the Philippines is one of the few countries in Southeast Asia that remains free from the dreaded avian influenza virus. The virus, which resurfaced in Asia in 2003, crippled poultry industries in neighboring countries, such as Vietnam.

he average farm-gate price of paddy rice in the fourth week of January reached P18.08 per kilogram, 3.32 percent higher than the P17.50/kg recorded a year ago, according to the latest report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The PSA report showed that this is the first time since the second week of October last year that the average farm-gate price of palay breached the P18/kg mark. “During the period in review, the average price of palay at P18.08/kg went up by 0.58 percent from P17.97/kg in the previous week” the PSA weekly report, titled Updates on Palay, Rice and Corn Prices, read. On an annual basis, the average price of regular-milled rice in the fourth week of January also went up, according to the PSA. “The average wholesale price of regular-milled rice at P34.53/kg during the week rose by 0.15 percent compared to previous week’s level of P34.48/kg. Similarly, its price inched up by 1.47 percent compared to the same week in January 2016,” the report read. “This week’s average retail price

of regular-milled rice at P37.07/kg was lower by 0.12 percent from previous week’s level. Its price, however, was higher by 0.87 percent compared to previous year’s level,” it added. Price hikes were also seen in the average price of well-milled rice in both the wholesale and retail levels on a weekly and annual basis. The average wholesale price of well-milled rice increased to P38.29/kg, from the P38.22/kg recorded in the third week of January. The figure is also 1.68 percent higher than last year’s P37.66/kg. According to the same PSA report, the average farm-gate price of yellow corn rose to a 17-week high in the fourth week of January. During the period, yellow corn averaged P11.33/kg, slightly higher than the P11.31/kg recorded last week. The figure, however, is 3.12 percent lower than the P11.70/kg posted in the same period last year. “ T he ave r a ge [f a r m - g ate] price of white-corn grain retained its previous week’s level of P11.24/kg. Compared to the same week in January 2016, it declined by 11.52 percent,” the PSA said. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

DA allocates ₧10M to develop Tawi-Tawi’s cassava industry

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ONGAO, Tawi-Tawi—The Department of Agriculture (DA) said it will allocate P10 million to develop the cassava industry of this province. Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol on Monday made the announcement, as he visited the public market of this municipality and checked the farm and marine products being sold by farmers and fisherfolk. Piñol, in his interaction with local farmers, was informed that they manually grate the cassava used to make a delicacy locally known as pangi, sold in markets here. “We have the money. We will fund it [cassava industry],” Piñol said. Bongao Mayor Jimuel Que, who accompanied Piñol to the market, said there is huge supply of cassava since vast tracks of land in this province are planted to such crop. The DA chief said the P10-million fund will be used to purchase tractors and graters, as well as planting materials, to boost the local cassava production. Piñol arrived here on Monday and distributed P3.28 million worth of livelihood-support projects to local farmers and fisherfolks. Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic

Resources Director Eduardo Gongona accompanied the DA chief in his visit to this province. They also held a dialogue with the local fisherfolk and farmers to determine their other needs. While in Tawi-Tawi, Piñol led the distribution of P3.28 million worth of livelihood-support projects to fishermen in Bongao and Turtle islands. Gongona accompanied Piñol in his visit to Bongao. The livelihood-support projects distributed by Piñol included 40 units of 20-footer fiberglass reinforced plastic motorized boats; 40 sets of gill nets; and 20 units of rain harvesters. The 40 units of motorized boats cost P1.4 million; gill nets, P280,000; and rain harvesters, P1.6 million. PNA

Sharif eyes Pakistan ‘vote bank’ with bid to revive farming

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ith just a year left before Pakistan’s general elections, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is wooing an industry that accounts for about half of the nation’s labor force. Sharif intervened in January to reinstate an eight-month-old fertilizer subsidy in a bid to reverse a drop in Pakistan’s farming output. The biggest beneficiaries for the largess will be his home state of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populated with the largest tracks of farmland in a country where agriculture makes up about a fifth of the economy. “With the election ahead, government is giving all forms of subsidies, fertilizer prices have come down and that’s a big kicker,” Atif Kaludi, chief financial officer at Engro Fertilizers Ltd., said in a phone interview. Pakistan’s four major crops: cotton, rice, sugarcane and

wheat “were in losses last year, they will be making money now. There is going to be a significant improvement from last year.” Sharif, who has also pledged to end power shortages that had been crippling factories, is now focusing on agriculture after output declined for the first time in more than a decade. More than half of Pakistan’s population of about 200 million live in rural areas dominated by large landowners who often influence voters, and mostly rely on farm income for a living. The government ended the fertilizer subsidy after the National Food Security and Research Ministry said the 28 billion rupees ($267 million) allocated had run out on January 10. Five days later Sharif ordered it to be extended. “Agriculture is the backbone of our economy and farmers must be

facilitated to achieve bumper crops for accelerated GDP growth,” Sharif said in a statement at the time. Sharif’s spokesman, Musadiq Malik, didn’t respond to calls seeking further comment. Price caps for fertilizers follow Sharif’s move to provide incentives for the sector last June, when the government cut a sales tax on tractors by half to 5 percent. That came after agricultural output fell 0.2 percent in year ended June, the first decline since since 2001, according to finance ministry data, with cotton production falling by 29 percent. “If we get back to our normal output of cotton this year, which is very likely, we will make a lot of improvement,” Pakistan Central Bank Governor Ashraf Mahmood Wathra said in an interview last November. The nation expects an

economic growth rate of 5.7 percent in the year ending June, the fastest pace in a decade.

Cash in

Companies are waiting to cash in. Nationwide sales of urea fertilizer rose 32 percent to 3.62 million tons in six months ended December after the subsidy was introduced last July, according to Karachi-based brokerage Arif Habib Ltd. “The government took some time, but now the realization is there, politically, if you look at it, the major vote bank is coming from agriculture sector,” said Mohammad Shahid Hussain, chief executive officer at Al-Ghazi Tractors Ltd. The tax cut for tractors is set to boost sales with Al-Ghazi Tractors aiming for a 15-percent increase this year, Hussain said. Millat

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Tractors Ltd., the nation’s largest, expects its sales to cross 30,000 in year ending June compared with about 21,000 last year, CEO Syed Muhammad Irfan Aqueel said in a phone interview. Tractor sales in the country rose to 5,390 units in January, the highest since December 2013, according

to data released last Friday by the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association. Shares in Al-Ghazi Tractors advanced 4 percent to 610 rupees at 9:39 a.m. in Karachi on Monday, snapping a five-day losing streak. Millat Tractors rose 2 percent. Bloomberg News

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Tuesday, February 14, 2017

India’s oil demand plunges most in 14 years amid cash ban

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ndia’s monthly oil demand fell the most since May 2003 as the government’s crackdown on high-value currency notes continued to reverberate through the country’s $2-trillion economy. Fuel consumption fell 4.5 percent to 15.5 million tons in January, from 16.2 million tons a year ago, the Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell said last Friday. Diesel use, which accounts for about 40 percent of total fuel demand in India, dropped 7.8 percent to 5.8 million tons, the biggest decline since September 2016. Gasoline consumption fell the most since June. Expansion in the world’s fastest-growing major economy is under pressure after Prime Minister Narendra Modi last November withdrew high-value currency notes in a country where almost all consumer payments are in cash. Growth in GDP may slow to 6.5 percent in the year through March, from 7.9 percent the previous year, according to an Economic Survey presented by the finance minister’s advisers. “This decline in demand is due to demonetization,” according to Tushar Tarun Bansal, director at Ivy Global Energy. “I would expect this decline to be a one off and dissipate from February. This should result in a slower demand growth for diesel in the first quarter in 2017.” India imports more than 80 percent of its crude requirement and the International Energy Agency expects it to be the fastest-growing consumer through 2040. In most areas people are spending the same amount on fuel that they did before the money crackdown, although some rural areas and small businesses are still affected, according to Bansal. Petcoke consumption fell for the first time in more than a year, declining about 9.9 percent to 1.95 million tons. Gasoline consumption fell 0.6 percent to 1.8 million tons. Liquefied petroleum gas use expanded 16.4 percent to 2 million tons, while jet-fuel demand increased 17.8 percent to 627,000 tons. Bloomberg News

The World BusinessMirror

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

With Trump-Abe bromance, Japan delegates trade issue to deputies

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.S. President Donald J. Trump spoke of his chemistry with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over a two-day visit that featured hugs, hand-holding and five hours on the golf course. On trade, an issue that has c au s e d p r i o r t e n s i o n s , A b e sought to distance the topic from his burgeoning friendship with Trump—and assign it to Vice President Mike Pence. At Japan’s behest, the leaders put Pence and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, who is also finance minister, in charge of a new economic dialogue that will focus on three themes: monetary policy, cooperative projects and trade. “There’s a possibility he may be easier to work with,” Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief economist at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. in Tokyo, said of Pence. “He will be under instructions from Trump, so we shouldn’t raise our expectations too high, but he’s probably more logical.” The arrangement is a sign of progress for Abe on a trip in which he aimed to build a personal rapport with Trump and win his backing for an alliance that guarantees Japan’s security against threats from North Korea and China. W hile Tr ump has a tendenc y to h it out at f r iend s a nd foes alike—and large points of fr ict ion rema in—for a few d ays at least he demonstrated a g reater apprec i at ion for A mer ica’s big gest a l ly in t he reg ion. Trump has publicly chided Japan, on both the campaign trail and in office, for its trade

81% The percentage of agricultural products on which Japan agreed to abolish tariffs under TransPacific Partnership

and currency policies, and what he said was an insufficient contribution to the cost of housing US troops in the countr y. A missile test by North Korea last Sunday provided an opportunity for Abe and Trump to show unity against its provocations.

TPP pullout

Now they must figure out a way forward on trade. Japan had the second-largest surplus with the US after China last year, with the bulk of the discrepancy coming from auto exports—a situation that Trump called “unfair” when he withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation trade pact that took many years to negotiate and was at the ratification stage.

President Donald J. Trump (second from right) sits down to dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (second from left) at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday. Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, is at left. Trump is hosting Abe and his wife for the weekend. AP/Susan Walsh

In one of his first acts as president, Trump pulled out of the TPP and called for trade deals with individual countries. By contrast, Pence was at one point in favor of TPP, a pact strongly championed by Abe. No date has been set for Pence to visit Japan and begin talks, though Aso has invited him to play golf during his stay. A Japanese Finance Ministry official said the process may eventually lead to a bilateral trade agreement. While the TPP could form the basis for talks, Trump may face difficulty if he wants to further lever open Japan’s agricultural sector. Farmers are a traditional support base for Abe’s ruling party that he has vowed to protect.

Agriculture, autos

Years of often cantankerous TPP

negotiations resulted in Japan agreeing to abolish tariffs on 81 percent of agricultural products, compared with about 97 percent in other member-countries, according to Yorizumi Watanabe, a former trade negotiator with the foreign ministry. On the other hand, tariffs would’ve been abolished on 99.9 percent of manufactured goods, in a boost for Japan’s carmakers, Watanabe added. “One of the major features of the negotiations between the US and Japan was the trade-off between Japan’s sensitive agricultural sector and the sensitive US car sector,” Watanabe, now a professor at Keio University, said of two-way talks conducted as part of the TPP process. “The asymmetry between the 81 percent and

the 99.9 percent will probably be an issue if negotiations happen under the Trump administration.” Polls have shown the Japanese public is concerned Trump’s presidency will be bad for the Japanese economy, and it remains to be seen how much that’s changed after the display of friendship between the leaders. Though Trump lavished praise on Abe and said the US was 100 percent behind Japan, he also sounded a note of caution about the relationship and vowed to create “a level playing field” for the currencies of the US, Japan and China. “We have a very, very good bond—ver y, ver y good chemistry,” Trump told reporters in Washington of Abe. “I’ll let you know if it changes, but I don’t think it will.” Bloomberg News

Heavy, wet snow once again blanketing US Northeast Trudeau visits Trump in crucial meeting, joins meet on women

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eavy, wet snow is once a g a i n bl a n ket i ng t he Northeast just days after the biggest storm of the season dumped up to 19 inches of snow on the region. Winter-storm warnings are in effect into Monday from upstate New York to Maine, where blizzard conditions and 2 feet of snow are possible. Hartford, Connecticut, could get 4 inches to 8 inches of snow; the Boston area 6 to 10; Portsmouth, New Hampshire 12 to 18; and 16 to 24 in Portland, Maine, according to the National Weather Service, which also warned of strong winds and coastal flooding. “It is a dangerous storm because of high winds, low visibility and heavy snow,” said Lenore Correia, a weather service meteorologist in Taunton, Massachusetts. “It’s a big snowstorm, but nothing we haven’t seen before either.” Schools around the region delayed or canceled classes on Monday, including in Boston. More than 1,300 flights in the US were scrapped last Sunday and more than 6,000 delayed, according to the flight-tracking web site FlightAware.com. In Bedford, Massachusetts, a small plane with five people on board aborted takeoff and slid off a runway last Sunday at Hanscom Field, about 20 miles northwest of Boston. The plane was headed to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. No one was injured. It was not immediately clear if the weather played a role. A terminal at Boston’s Logan International Airport was briefly evacuated on Sunday evening due to high levels of carbon monoxide

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A pedestrian crosses the street in front of vehicles during a snowstorm last Sunday in Waltham, Massachusetts. AP/Steven Senne

believed to be caused by a snowmelting machine. Massachusetts State Police said Terminal C was “vented” and returned to normal operations a short time later. Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker said the state Department of Transportation has more than 3,100 pieces of equipment and 700 employees treating and plowing roadways. The governor urged residents to avoid driving and instead use public transportation during the storm. “We are implementing an 11 a.m. delayed start time for all nonemergency state executive

branch employees to allow crews additional time to treat and clear roadways for tomorrow’s commute as this winter storm continues,” Baker said on Sunday night. In northern New England the storm was welcome news at ski areas, which last year faced some of the lowest snowfall totals in years. “It’s the complete opposite of last year in terms of snow,” said Rachael Wilkinson, director of marketing at Shawnee Peak in Bridgton, Maine. “It’s night and day and everyone is absolutely thrilled.” The ski area is expected to get 20 inches to 26 inches of snow by the

end of the day Monday. And in Vermont, the governor declared Monday a “Powder Day”, urging winter weather enthusiasts to take advantage of all the snow. Republican Gov. Phil Scott encouraged out-of-state skiers and snowmobilers to stay an extra day or two in Vermont and take advantage of the conditions. “And while I can’t grant official pardons out of state, I certainly hope all will be granted a ‘snow day’ pardon. Visitors can feel free to tell their boss Vermont’s Governor asked them to stay,” Scott said. AP

T TAWA, Ontario— Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Donald J. Trump will participate in a roundtable about women in the work force on Monday, an early sign of cooperation as Trudeau seeks to have good relations so Canada is not targeted in trade talks. In his first face-to-face meeting with the new US president, Trudeau will also meet with Trump to talk about trade and participate in a working lunch. A White House official and a senior Canadian government official said the two countries plan to launch a new task force called the United States Canada Council for the Advancement of Women Business Leaders-Female Entrepreneurs. The officials agreed to confirm the move only if they were not quoted by name because they were not authorized to make the information public. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter who has been an advocate for policies benefiting working women, was involved in recruiting participants and setting the agenda for the roundtable. Female executives from the US and Canada are expected to participate. Tr u d e a u ’s c l o s e c o o p e r a tion with Trump and the first daughter could ease some worries among Canadians that the US president will enact protectionist measures that could hurt the Canadian economy. It could also alleviate some fears that Trump will be as combative with Trudeau as he has been with the

leaders of Mexico and Australia. The Canadian official said Trudeau’s administration had suggested the task force, because the prime minister considers the issue of working women an important part of his agenda and economic growth plan. “It’s a smart thing if Canada proposed this,” said Nelson Wiseman, a professor at the University of Toronto. “It takes attention off of North American Free Trade Agreement. And from Trump’s point of view, it contributes to softening Trump’s image, and he’s got a problem with women.” Trudeau, 45, and Trump, 70, are polar opposites. Trudeau is a liberal who champions free trade and has welcomed 40,000 Syrian refugees. He calls himself a feminist and his Cabinet is 50 percent women. Trump has few women in his Cabinet. He has taken a protectionist stance on trade and wants to crack down on the inflow of migrants and refugees. Trump’s order to temporarily halt entry into the US by people from seven predominantly Muslim nations, which is tied up in court, might come up during his bilateral meeting with Trudeau. But Trudeau is expected to focus on common economic interests. Relations with the US are crucial as more than 75 percent of Canada’s exports go to the US, while 18 percent of US exports go to Canada. There are fears a mong C a n ad i a n s t h at t he y could be hurt as Tr ump targets Mexico in a re-negotiation of t he Nor t h A mer ica n Free Trade Agreement. AP

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

The World BusinessMirror

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

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Tensions and chaos rattle NSC

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ASHINGTON—These are chaotic and anxious days inside the National Security Council (NSC), the traditional center of management for a president’s dealings with an uncertain world. T h r e e w e e k s i n t o t h e Tr u m p administration, council staff members get up in the morning, read President Donald J. Trump’s Twitter posts and struggle to make policy to fit them. Most are kept in the dark about what Trump tells foreign leaders in his phone calls. Some staff members have turned to encrypted communications to talk with their colleagues, after hearing that Trump’s top advisers are considering an “insider threat” program that could result in monitoring cell phones and e-mails for leaks. T h e n a t i o n a l s e c u r i t y a d v i s e r, Michael T. Flynn, has hunkered down since investigators began looking into what, exac tly, he told the Russian ambassador to the United States about the lifting of sanctions imposed in the last days of the Obama administration, and whether he misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations. His sur vival in the job may hang in the balance. A l t h o u g h Tr u m p s u g g e s t e d t o repor ters aboard Air Force One last Friday that he was unaware of the latest questions swirling around Flynn’s dealings with Russia, aides said over the weekend in Florida—where Flynn accompanied the president and Japan’s p r i m e m i n i s t e r, S h i n zo A b e — t h a t Tr u m p wa s c l o s e l y m o n i to r i n g t h e reaction to Flynn’s conversations. There are transcripts of a conversation in at least one phone call, recorded by US intelligence agencies that wiretap foreign diplomats, which may determine Flynn’s future. Stephen Miller, White House senior p o l i c y a d v i s e r, w a s c i r c u m s p e c t l a s t S u n d a y a b o u t F l y n n’s f u t u r e . M iller said on NBC ’s Meet the Press that possibly misleading the vice p re s i d e nt o n co m m u n i c at i o n s w i t h Russia was “a sensitive matter.” Asked if Trump still had confidence in Flynn, M iller responded, “ That ’s a question for the president.” This account of life inside the council— offices made up of several hundred career civil servants who advise the president on counter terrorism, foreign polic y, nuclear deterrence and other issues of war and peace—is based on conversations with more than two dozen current and former council staff members and others throughout the government. All spoke on the condition that they not be quoted by name for fear of reprisals. “It’s so far a very dysfunctional NSC,” Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a telephone interview. In a telephone conversation last S u n d ay a f te r n o o n , K . T. M c Fa r l a n d, deputy national security adviser, said early meetings of the council were brisker, tighter and more decisive than in the past, but she acknowledged that career officials were on edge. “Not only is this a new administration, but it is a different par ty, and Donald J. Trump was elected by people who wanted the status quo thrown out,” s a i d M c Fa r l a n d , a v e t e r a n o f t h e Reagan administration who most recently worked for Fox News. “I think it would be a mistake if we didn’t have consternation about the changes— most of the Cabinet haven’t even been in government before.” There is always a shakedown period for any new NSC, whose staff is drawn from the State Depar tment, the Pentagon and other agencies and is largely housed opposite the White House in the Eisenhower Exec utive Office Building. President Barack Obama replaced h i s f i r s t n at i o n a l s e c u r i t y a d v i s e r, Gen. James Jones, a four-star former supreme allied commander in Europe, after concluding that the general was a bad fit for the administration. The first years of President George W. Bush’s council were defined by clashes among experienced bureaucratic infighters— D ick Cheney, D onald R umsfeld and Colin Powell among them—and by decisions that often took place outside official channels. But what is happening under the Trump White House is different, officials say, and not just because of Trump’s Twitter foreign policy. (Two officials said that at one recent meeting, there was

talk of feeding suggested Twitter posts to the president so the council’s staff would have greater influence.) Several staff members who did not want to work for Trump have returned to their regular agencies, leaving a largerthan-usual hole in the experienced bureaucracy. Many of those who remain, who see themselves as apolitical civil servants, have been disturbed by displays of overt partisanship. At an all-hands meeting about two weeks into the new administration, McFarland told the group it needed to “make America great again”, numerous staff members who were there said. New Trump appointees are carrying coffee mugs with that Trump campaign slogan into meetings with foreign counterparts, one staff member said. Ner vous staff members recently met late at night at a bar a few blocks from the White House and talked about purging their social-media accounts of any suggestion of anti-Trump sentiments. Trump’s council staff draws heavily from the militar y— often people who had ties to Flynn when he ser ved as a senior militar y intelligence officer and then as direc tor of the Defense I nte l l i g e n ce Ag e n c y b e fo re h e wa s forced out of the job. Many of the f i r s t i d e a s t h at h ave b e e n f l o ate d have involved militar y, rather than diplomatic, initiatives. Last week Defense Secretar y Jim Mattis was exploring whether the Navy could intercept and board an Iranian ship to look for contraband weapons possibly headed to Houthi fighters in Yemen. The potential interdiction seemed in keeping with recent instructions from Trump, reinforced in meetings with Mattis and Secretar y of State Rex W. Tillerson, to crack down on Iran’s suppor t of terrorism. But the ship was in international waters in the Arabian Sea, according to two officials. Mattis ultimately decided to set the operation aside, at least for now. White House officials said that was because news of the impending operation leaked, a threat to security that has helped fuel the move for the insider threat program. B ut others doubt whether there was enough basis in international law, and wondered what would happen if, in the early days of an administration that has seen one botched militar y action in Yemen, US forces were suddenly in a firefight with the Iranian navy. M c Fa r l a n d o f t e n d r a w s o n h e r television experience to make clear to officials that they need to make their points in council meetings quickly, and she signals when to wrap up, several par ticipants said. And while Obama liked policy option papers that were three to six singlespaced pages, council staff members are being told to keep papers to a single page, with lots of graphics and maps. “ Th e p re s i d e nt l i ke s m a p s,” o n e official said. Paper flow, the lifeblood of the bureaucracy, has been erratic. A senior Pentagon official saw a draft executive order on prisoner treatment only through unofficial rumors and news media leaks. He called the White House to find out if it was real and said he had concerns but was not sure if he was authorized to make suggestions. Officials said the absence of an orderly flow of council documents, ultimately the responsibility of Flynn, explained why Mattis and Mike Pompeo, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, never saw a number of Trump’s executive orders before they were issued. One order had to be amended after it was made public, to reassure Pompeo that he had a regular seat on the council. White House officials say that was a blunder, and that the process of reviewing executive orders has been straightened out by Reince Priebus, White House chief of staff. S t i l l, Fl y n n p re s e n t s a d d i t i o n a l complications beyond his conversations with the Russian ambassador. His aides say he is insecure about whether his u n f e t te re d a cce s s to Tr u m p d u r i n g the c ampaign is being sc aled back and about a shadow council created b y S t e p h e n B a n n o n , Tr u m p ’s t o p strategist, who was invited to attend meetings of the “principals committee” of the council two weeks ago. Bannon sees the United States as headed toward an inevitable confrontation with two adversaries—China and Iran. New York Times News Service

Men work at a manufacturing company in Japan. Bloomberg News

Small victory for Japan: 4th quarter of growth

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OKYO—Japan extended its yearlong streak of modest economic growth in the last three months of 2016, data showed on Monday.

Output in the country, which has the world’s third-largest economy but has struggled to shake off deflation, expanded in each quarter last year, the longest uninterrupted period of growth in three years. Howe ve r, t he pace of e xpansion has been slowing, and questions about how Japan will weather a trade-skeptical Trump administration persist. What happened? Japan’s GDP increased by 1 percent in annua lized ter ms in the three months through December, t he gover nment ’s Cabinet Office said in a prel iminar y estimate. T hat was a ha ir slower t ha n forecast; econom ists had e x pected a n ex pansion of 1.1 percent. Japan, whose growth is held bac k by a shr ink ing popu lation, had not increased its output for four straight quarters since 2012-2013. The rise in the fourth quarter was weaker than in the rest of 2016, however. What has been lifting output?

11% The percentage growth of Japan in annualized terms in the three months through December 2016

Exports, mostly. It has become a familiar pattern: Global demand for Japanese cars, chemicals and other products keeps factories humming, even as domestic spending sputters. In the last three months of the year, exports surged 11 percent in annualized terms, according to Cabinet Office data. Domestic consumer spending, the biggest component of GDP, was essentially f lat. Investment by businesses was up 3.8 percent, although much of

that, too, is linked to exports as companies gear up factories to sell things abroad.

Could Trump threaten exports?

President Donald J. Trump has pulled the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade deal Japan backed. He has repeatedly complained about the United States’s large trade deficit with Japan, which he says is exacerbated by unfair Japanese trade policies. Retaliation, if it came, could choke off an important source of growth. That is a big reason Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been cultivating friendly ties w it h Tr u mp. Net sh ipment s abroad added 0.2 percentage point to Japan’s in the three months through December, while consumption in Japan was flat as minimal increases in wages constrain consumer spending. Dat a for 2016 a s a whole show t h at oversea s dem a nd now accounts for about ha lf of the expansion in GDP, leaving the economy particularly exposed to any new trade barriers from the US, which is Japa n’s big gest e x por t m a rket after China. “A risk for Japan’s economy is that too much dependence on exports could trigger criticism from the US, which is pay ing so much attention

to trade between the two nat ions,” sa id Ta k a sh i Sh iono, an economist at Credit Suisse Group AG. “Abe may have to show that the government is a l so t r y i ng to shore up t he economy by implementing even more fiscal policy.” T he pr ime minister’s t woday visit to the US, which showcased chemistr y bet ween Abe and Tr ump, may have staved off a protectionist back lash for now. Hav ing chided Japan on the campaig n trail and in office for its trade and cur renc y policies, Tr ump agreed to assign further economic dialogue bet ween the t wo nations to his v ice president. “ T his is rea l ly a n e x por tdriven recover y we’re talking about,” Izumi Devalier, chief economist at Merrill Lynch Japan Securities, said on Bloomberg television. “Pr ivate consumption has been prett y weak sti l l, and un less we get pr ivate consumption fired up, it’s hard to see grow th accelerating ver y st rongly f rom here.” Japan had the second-largest trade sur plus w ith the US after China last year, w ith the bulk coming from auto exports. Tr u m p c a l l e d t h i s “u n f a i r ” when he w ithdrew the US from the 12-nation TPP. New York Times

News Service and Bloomberg News

Republicans to kill health law, but to shore it up

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A SHINGTON—A fter denouncing t he A ffordable Care Act as an abomination for seven years, Republicans in Congress, working with the Trump administration, are urgently seeking ways to shore up health-insurance marketplaces created by the law. W hile President Donald J. Trump said as a candidate that “Obamacare is certain to collapse of its own weight,” Republicans fear such an outcome because, now that the fate of the health law is in their hands, they could be blamed by consumers and Democrats. The Republican proposals address concerns that insurers have been expressing for several years, among them what they call costly

abuse of special enrollment periods. But markets could still be undermined, insurers say, if Congress simultaneously repeals the health law’s requirement for most Americans to have coverage. That requirement, known as the individual mandate, is one of the more unpopular features of the law, signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama. But insurance companies like it because it requires people to buy their product, bringing in healthy people who pay premiums and do not use much care. A n a ly z i ng t he R e publ ic a n strategy, Joel L. Michaels, a health lawyer at the firm McDermott Will and Emery, said there was “a tension” between efforts to repeal

the health law and shore up its insurance marketplaces, where more than 10 million people obtained coverage last year. “A political agenda premised on the Affordable Care Act being unworkable could conf lict with efforts to support the ACA exchanges, even on an interim basis,” Michaels said. “How far do you go with short-term fixes, which could make the law work better in the long term? It’s a delicate political dance.” Insurers are seeking immediate governmental action because they must decide by early May what kinds of health plans they will offer on the exchanges in 2018. The proposed rule drafted by

the Trump administration and one of the bills drafted by House Republicans would make it more difficult for consumers to obtain insurance outside the annual open enrollment period. Under existing rules, people can sign up after the deadline if they experience certain “life changes.” Under anot her Republ ican proposal, it would be easier for insurers to terminate coverage for people who fail to pay their premiums. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are warming to the idea of continuing payments to insurance companies to help cover the out-of-pocket costs for people with low incomes, at least temporarily. New York Times News Service

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Tuesday, February 14, 2017

The World BusinessMirror

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

600 arrested across US in immigration raids in 1 week

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EW YORK—Federal immigration officials arrested more than 600 people across at least 11 states last week, detaining 40 people in the New York City area, law-enforcement officials said on Sunday. It remained unclear whether the actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were part of continuing operations to round up unauthorized immigrants with criminal convictions or a ramping-up of deportations by the Trump administration. President Donald J. Trump proclaimed on Twitter early Sunday: “The crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed!” But Gillian Christensen, acting press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said, “The focus of these targeted enforcement operations is consistent with the routine, targeted arrests carried out by ICE’s Fugitive Operations Teams on a daily basis.” The contradiction heightened a swelling fear among immigrants and their advocates. The New York operation was planned one week ago and was part of a national action that was planned several weeks ago, ICE said. “New York was late to the game,” said an agency official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because details about who had been detained were still being learned. The official said the arrests had not been impromptu and had been planned around indiv iduals’ routines, add ing that a f u l ler account would be available on Monday. “All these people are in violation of some sort of immigration law,” the official said, adding that some of their convictions included rape and aggravated assault. “We’re not going out to

409,849

The number of unauthorized immigrants deported under the Obama administration in 2012 Wal-Mart to check papers—we know who we are going out to seek.” At least in the New York area (including Long Island), fewer people were arrested than during an Obama administration enforcement sweep last August, when 58 people were arrested. The Obama administration was especially active in deporting unauthorized immigrants, most notably in 2012, when 409,849 people were deported. In 2015 ICE announced the arrests of more than 2,000 people nationwide in one week, targeting criminals. And the Obama administration was still sweeping up low-priority immigrants last summer. Nevertheless, Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Im m ig rat ion Coa l it ion, said last week ’s action was worrisome because it seemed to be only the beginning. “It really doesn’t matter if it’s business as usual from ICE’s perspective—at some point, we know that they will start to ramp up enforcement activity,” Choi said in an interview. He added that a January 25 executive order from the president about ensuring public safety included the bolstering of the immigration force. Trump’s executive order also

Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos is locked in a van that is stopped in the street by protesters outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Phoenix on February 8. Advocacy groups said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are rounding up people in large numbers around the country as part of stepped-up enforcement under President Donald J. Trump. Last Wednesday de Rayos showed up at the ICE building in Phoenix for a scheduled check-in with immigration officers and was swiftly deported to Mexico. Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic via AP

the DHS spokesman. “ That is completely false and an example of the many kinds of irresponsible, baseless fear-mongering we’ve been seeing.” Through a statement from his spokesman, Rosemary Boeglin, Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to reassure New York City’s immigrants last Sunday. “New Yorkers should rest assured that city officials, including the NYPD, will never ask about your immigration status, and the NYPD will never become immigration enforcement agents,” Boeglin said. New York is a sanctuary city, which means that it generally does not comply with requests by immigration authorities to hold unauthorized immigrants who have committed low-level crimes.

Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding for such cities. On Long Island, activity by ICE agents had not yet reached the level of the large-scale enforcement seen under the George W. Bush administration. In one week in 2007, 170 people were arrested in Nassau and Suffolk counties, said Pat Young, program director of the Central American Refugee Center on Long Island. “At least so far, it’s important to know that in the New York area, we haven’t had checkpoints; we haven’t had sweeps,” he said, adding that he had had to quash rumors all day about where immigration officials had conducted their activities. “They are taking place at homes.”

N. Korea claims progress on goal with missile test

Romania: 13th day of protests demand resignation of leaders

vastly expanded the group of immigrants considered priorities for deportation, including those without criminal records. When asked if the recent operations had incorporated the new priorities, a Homeland Security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because operations were continuing, said, “ The president has been clear in saying that DHS should be focused on removing individuals who pose a threat to public safety, who have been charged w it h cr im ina l of fenses, who have committed multiple immigration violations or who have been deported and reentered the country illegally.” About 160 foreig n nationals were recently arrested in six

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A woman holds up a banner that reads in Spanish: “Against Trump”, during a march demanding respect for Mexico and its migrants, in the face of perceived hostility from the administration of US President Donald J. Trump, in Mexico City, on Sunday. AP/Christian Palma

Thousands march in Mexico to demand respect, reject Trump

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EXICO CITY—About 20,000 people staged a march through Mexico’s capital last Sunday demanding respect for their country and its migrants in the face of perceived hostility from the administration of US President Donald J. Trump. Many marchers carried Mexican flags and dressed in white as a sign of unity and to signal the nonpolitical nature of the march. One of the banners read: “Gracias, Trump, for unifying Mexico!” The marchers protested Trump’s plans for a border wall and increased deportations of migrants. Trump has also pressured US corporations to provide jobs in the United States, not Mexico. Paulina Ortega carried a placard in English proclaiming: “We love Americans, we hate racism.”

“This is a march for dignity,” she said. Irene Aguilar, a university professor, said the main message of the marchers was to show the unity of Mexicans in the face of adversity. The march also featured many signs supporting Mexican migrants living in the United States. “We want to demonstrate to all of those who suffer discrimination in the United States that we are with them,” said Ana Fernanda Islas, a university student. Mexicans have called for unity in facing the challenge posed by Trump’s policies, but the march featured almost as many banners criticizing Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto as the new US leader. Smaller marches were held in other Mexican cities on Sunday. AP

EOUL, South Korea—North Korea said on Monday it had successfully tested a new nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile, claiming important progress in being able to strike its enemies with long-range missiles tipped with nuclear warheads. Confirming the missile test detected by the United States and South Korean authorities on Sunday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said it had launched an intermediaterange surface-to-surface ballistic missile named Pukguksong-2, or Polaris-2. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, inspected the test, the news agency said. “He expressed great satisfaction over the possession of another powerful nuclear attack means, which adds to the tremendous might of the country,” the news agency said, using its typically boastful tone. The UN Security Council plans to hold an urgent meeting on Monday on the missile launch at the request of the United States, Japan and South Korea. The KCNA reported that the missile, which it said could carry a nuclear warhead, used a highthrust, solid fuel-powered engine and was fired from a self-propelled missile-launching truck. That is an important stride for North Korea as it pushes ahead with its proclaimed goal of building a capability to attack the United States with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). North Korea has never test-fired an ICBM. But the successful test of the Pukguksong-2 reflected a considerable enhancement of the North’s missile

counties in the Los Angeles area, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. An additional 200 were arrested last week in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. And about 200 were arrested across Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin. At least some of the rumors circulating on social media over the weekend proved to be false, including reports of raids in Jackson Heights, Queens, and in Huntington Station on Long Island. Similarly, immigration advocates in Kansas City, Missouri, were on alert after hearing rumors that ICE agents planned to arrest people who were on their way to worship on Sunday. “Absolutely not!” said Christensen,

capabilities. The country has had a spotty record in test-launching the Musudan, which had been the North’s only known intermediaterange ballistic missile until the Pukguksong-2 was unveiled last Sunday. Its last Musudan test, last October, ended in failure. The use of a solid fuel-powered engine is also an important advance for the North. Most of its ballistic missiles rely on liquid fuel. But the use of solid fuel greatly shortens the time needed to prepare the missile for launch and increases its mobility on the road, making it harder to detect signs of an impending attack, according to military analysts. “Now our rocket industry has radically turned into high-thrust solid fuelpowered engine from liquid-fuel rocket engine and rapidly developed into a development- and creation-oriented industry, not just copying samples,” Kim was quoted as saying. On Sunday the South Korean military said the North Korean missile was launched from the northwestern town of Banghyon and flew 310 miles before landing in the sea between the North and Japan. It reached an altitude of 340 miles, the military said, adding that it believed the missile was a modified version of the North’s intermediate-range Musudan missile. The Musudan uses liquid fuel. North Korea said the new missile was based on the solid-fuel Polaris, the country’s first submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). After several failed attempts, the North said in August that it had successfully launched

the SLBM, claiming that the continental United States, as well as US military bases in the Pacific, were now within the range of its missiles, an assertion that military experts questioned. Analysts and defense officials in the region said North Korea was still years away from achieving the capability that Kim claimed. The country still does not have submarines large and advanced enough to travel long distances to attack distant targets across the Pacific without being detected, they said. But the North’s tests of SLBMs and the Pukguksong-2 demonstrated the advances the secretive country had made in its efforts to enhance the range and stealth of its missiles, South Korean military officials said. On Monday North Korea said it launched its Pukguksong-2 at a sharp angle to keep it from landing too close to Japan, indicating that it could have flown further than 310 miles if it had launched it at a normal angle. “Thanks to the development of the new strategic weapon system, our People’s Army is capable of performing its strategic duties most accurately and rapidly in any space: under waters or on the land,” the North said. Although North Korea has never fired an intercontinental ballistic missile across the Pacific, it has boasted of successfully testing crucial technologies in the past year. Last March it reported the successful ground test of a newly designed solid fuel-rocket engine. A month later, it reported a successful ground test of a new intercontinental ballistic-missile engine. New York Times News Service

New York Times News Service

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UCH A R EST, Romania— Protesters numbering in the tens of thousands gathered again on Sunday outside the Romanian government’s offices to demand the resignation of the East European country’s leadership. T he enor mou s c rowd s a s sembled in Victor y Square marked the 13th consecutive d ay of antigover nment demonstrations in Bucharest, the capita l. T hey later for med a huge human Romanian f lag. The protests demanding a new government and a new style of governance started last month when the center-left government passed an emergency ordinance that would have watered down laws that punish official corruption. “I’ve been coming here to show them they can’t just govern the way they like. They can’t trick us or buy us off with a few lei,” demonstrator Bogdan Bogatoniu said, referring to the Romanian currency. Thousands also protested in the cities of Cluj, Sibiu, Iasi and Timisoara. “Romanians have woken up, they can’t be fooled anymore,” said Bogatoniu, a 33-year old infomation-technology expert who came to the square with his wife and 2-month-old son. Meanwhile, about 1,000 government supporters gathered outside the presidential palace. For the eight consecutive day, they called for the resignation of President Klaus Iohannis, who condemned the emergency decree and has vocally supported the antigovernment protests. AP

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news@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Max V. de Leon • Tuesday, February 14, 2017 A9

Asean economies evading Trump’s glare

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ndia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have largely escaped US President Donald J. Trump’s glare on trade, but he may yet come looking. The US runs trade deficits with all of them, in some cases, quite big ones. Trump’s exit from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), his attacks on the trade policies of Japan, China and South Korea, and a Republican push for tax reforms that would impose a levy on US imports from all countries are contributing to concerns that a protectionist era will hurt growth. Countries that the US runs trade deficits with may be particularly vulnerable to attack. Peter Navarro, the head of Trump’s National Trade Council, and Commerce Secretary-nominee Wilbur Ross last year wrote a paper where they pinpointed America’s trade gaps as a cause for what they described as its “slow growth plunge”. “Almost every country in Asia exports somewhere between an awful lot and a lot to the United States,” said Deborah Elms, executive director of the Asian Trade Centre, a Singapore-based consultancy. “Trade deficits are a problem. At any moment there could be an angry Donald Trump in your face or a Twitter coming your way. Have other countries woken up to this problem? Perhaps not.” Here is a look at the US’s trading arrangements with its main partners in Asia, arranged according to the size of their trade surplus:

Trade deficits are a problem. At any moment there could be an angry Donald Trump in your face or a Twitter coming your way. Have other countries woken up to this problem? Perhaps not.” —Asian Trade Centre n China: Trade governed by World Trade Organization (WTO) rules China was Trump’s main target on the campaign trail. Though he’s threatened everything, from punitive tariffs to branding the country a currency manipulator, the president is yet to take any action against what is the US’s third-biggest export

Forum from 2005 Trade has flourished since then, rising to $65 billion in 2015 from $29 billion. India runs a substantial surplus, helped by exports of information-technology services, textiles and precious stones. Despite this, ties between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been warm. Modi was the fifth world leader Trump called after his inauguration, and trade issues didn’t come up, according to a readout of their conversation by the White House.

market. Perhaps, he’s mindful of President Xi Jinping’s warning that a trade war would hurt both sides. n Japan: Trade governed by WTO rules Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is Asia’s most proactive leader at attempting to ward off Trump’s threats, traveling twice to the US to meet him since his election win. He met Trump in Washington on February 10, where they agreed to begin new talks on trade and investment. Abe then joined the president in Florida for a game of golf. Trump has taken umbrage about the lack of access for US autos in Japan. Abe says the US firms aren’t trying hard enough. n Vietnam: Trade governed by WTO rules and a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (Tifa) Hanoi had been counting on the passage of the TPP to formalize trade ties with the US. The trade surplus represents about 15 percent

Suu Kyi to armed ethnic groups: Sign cease-fire

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yanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi called on all armed ethnic groups to sign a cease-fire agreement during a speech on Sunday in the same place where her father, an independence hero, signed a peace deal 70 years ago. Speaking during annual Union Day celebrations, Suu Kyi said ethnic groups can still join the movement for peace. “I want to ask those ethnic groups who haven’t signed the nationwide cease-fire to trust yourself and sign it and please participate in our 21st Century Panglong Conference,” Suu Kyi said.

Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party promised that peace would be the top priority when she came to power a year ago. But she has come under fire for ignoring the plight of the oppressed Rohingya Muslims and failing to stop atrocities against other ethnic minorities. Skirmishes, particularly in the northern zones where Kachin insurgents are fighting the army, have displaced more than 100,000 civilians since 2011 alone. With military offensives on the rise, ethnic groups have recently expressed that their hopes for Suu Kyi

leading the peace process are fading. Union Day marks the original Panglong agreement, brokered by Suu Kyi’s father, Gen. Aung San. He, along with ethnic Shan, Kachin and Chin leaders, signed the deal to grant ethnic minorities autonomy and the right to secede if they worked with the federal government to break away from Britain. But Aung San was assassinated five months after the agreement was reached and the deal fell apart. Since then, ethnic groups have accused successive, mostly military governments of failing to honor the 1947 pact. AP

of Vietnam’s economy, driven by exports of knitwear, furniture and bedding. Exports to the US more than doubled since 2010 as many Chinese factories shifted to Vietnam in search of lower wages. n South Korea: Trade governed by Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA), or Korus, since 2012 Trump called the agreement a “jobs killer” and James Kim, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in South Korea, says Seoul circumvents the deal with nontariff barriers. More than 80 percent of the trade gap with South Korea for 2016 was in the auto sector, according to the American Automotive Policy Council. South Korea’s Trade Minister Joo Hyunghwan said last week he’ll seek to explain the benefits of Korus to the Trump administration. n India: Trade governed by WTO rules, plus a Trade Policy

n Malaysia: Trade governed by WTO rules FTA negotiations started in June 2005 but were suspended in 2009, as Malaysia protested US support for Israel during the Gaza War. Malaysia then joined the TPP talks. Malaysia is focusing on trade with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Trade Minister Mustapa Mohamed said this month. n Thailand: Trade governed by WTO rules, Tifa since 2002 FTA talks started in 2004 and were suspended in 2006, ahead of a military coup in Thailand. The US trade deficit with Thailand is driven by electrical machinery and rubber. n Indonesia: Trade governed by WTO rules, Tifa since 1996 Indonesia’s trade surplus comes from exports of knitwear, rubber and shoes. The US exports aircraft, soybeans and machinery. The countries last met in April 2016 to discuss trade issues, including ways to improve Indonesia’s intellectualproperty protection, and proposals

for cooperation on issues like unregulated fishing.

n Philippines: Trade governed by WTO rules, Tifa since 1989 The Philippines may be vulnerable to a proposed “border tax” because its export mix is heavily reliant on electronic and capital goods, which can be easily replaced by US-based producers, according to Credit Suisse Group AG. President Duterte has prioritized trips around Asia to take advantage of trade and investment opportunities in the region, including with China. n Singapore: Trade governed by FTA since 2004 Singapore can attribute its trade deficit with the US to its status as a financial hub, with big banks, consultancies, law firms and accountants selling services in the city-state. Singapore Airlines Ltd. plans a $13.8billion order of wide-body airplanes from Boeing Co., which would represent about a quarter of the value of 2015’s total two-way trade. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was an avid TPP supporter, saying last year that ratifying it was a “litmus test” of US credibility in Asia.

Hong Kong Hong Kong’s immediate focus is a trade pact with Asean, with talks starting last year. Another financial hub, it has the largest deficit with the US in Asia. Sales of services by majority US-owned affiliates were $33.8 billion in 2013, according to the US Trade Representative office. n

Bloomberg News

Cambodian opposition names acting chief after leader resigns

Asean convention against trafficking in persons enters into force in March

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he Asean Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (Actip) will enter into force next month, or 30 days after the Philippines deposited its instrument of ratification on the convention. The Department of Foreign Affairs on Monday said the Philippines becomes the sixth Asean memberstate to ratify the convention after Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar. The Philippines submitted the instrument of ratification on the Convention during a call by Permanent Representative of the Philippines on Asean Ambassador Elizabeth P. Buensuceso on Asean Secretary-General Le Luong Minh on February 7. In accordance with the terms of the Actip, the Convention will enter into force on the 30th day upon the submission of the instrument of ratification of the sixth Asean member-state. Actip, which was signed by the Asean leaders at the 27th Asean Summit in November 2015, showcases the bloc’s commitment in addressing human trafficking as a regional problem and its resolve to find the most effective regional solution to combat it.

Actip

The document that showcases the Asean’s commitment in addressing human trafficking as a regional problem and its resolve to find the most effective regional solution to combat it

Actip, which is the first regionally binding instrument on trafficking in persons, aims to prevent and combat trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and ensures just and effective punishment of traffickers; protects and assists victims of trafficking in persons with full respect for their human rights; and promotes cooperation in the fight against trafficking in persons among the Asean member-states. The Asean groups together Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Minh said the implementation of Actip would serve as the legal basis

for Asean member-states when facing security challenges related to human trafficking. During her call, Buensuceso emphasized that President Duterte places high importance to the fight against trafficking in persons, which he reiterated during the launch of the Philippine Chairmanship in Davao City on January 15. Buensuceso stressed that the ratification of the Actip is included in the “dream list” of deliverables during the Philippine chairmanship of Asean this year. Once the Actip enters into force, it will be implemented together with the Asean Plan of Action against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. As trafficking in persons requires multisectoral collaboration, the relevant Asean Sectoral Bodies and Organs are currently discussing measures to coordinate crosscutting efforts in implementing the Actip and APA on both national and regional levels. The Philippines, as the lead shepherd for Trafficking in Persons within the Asean Senior Officials/ Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime process, played a leading role in the development, signing and implementation of the Actip. PNA

In this August 16, 2015, file photo, Sam Rainsy, leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, waves from a car upon his arrival at Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as hundreds of cheering supporters greeted him on his return from a trip abroad. AP

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xecutive members of Cambodia’s beleaguered opposition party on Sunday accepted the resignation of Sam Rainsy, its charismatic leader, and named his deputy, Kem Sokha, acting chief until a party congress can be held. The action came a day after Sam Rainsy, who has been in self-imposed exile since late-2015, resigned his membership in the Cambodia National Rescue Party in response to plans by the government to change election laws so that political parties could be dissolved if their leaders have criminal convictions. He explained his decision in a video call to the meeting from Paris. Sam Rainsy has stayed abroad

to avoid a two-year prison term on a defamation conviction he had believed was covered by a pardon. Several other cases against him are pending. The opposition charges that Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party use spurious legal cases to weaken their opponents, relying on politically compliant courts. Kem Sokha has also been a target, as have political and social activists. Cambodia will hold nationwide local elections this June and a general election in 2018. The opposition CNRP hopes to building on its surprisingly strong showing in the 2013 general election. Hun Sen has previously said he intends to extend

his three decades in power. “The resignation of Sam Rainsy from the party presidency and membership came after discussion with the leaders of the party, and he did so for the sake of the party, the nation and with great honor,” Kem Sokha said in a posting on his Facebook page. Sam Rainsy already had been barred by the government from returning to Cambodia, so he had not been in a position to campaign ahead of this year’s polls. However, as the party’s dominant figure, his absence could spur infighting among his colleagues, weakening the party ahead of the more crucial general election. AP

A10 Tuesday, February 14, 2017 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

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Mindanao deserves good cops, too

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n his latest reprimand of rogue police officers, President Duterte gave only two options: serve in Mindanao or quit the police force. We appreciate the President’s hands-on approach in cleaning the police force of corrupt elements to bring back people’s trust in their policemen. We need to clean the ranks of the organization first before we can talk about any kind of modernization and pay increase for the Philippine National Police (PNP). We must also increase its accountability to ensure public safety. But why is it that corrupt cops are always shipped out to Mindanao and not taken off the force? For as long as we can remember, it has been the sad practice of one administration after another to reassign erring cops from Luzon and Metro Manila to conflict-ridden areas in Mindanao, particularly Zamboanga and the ARMM, or the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, comprising the provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao. At the start of its antidrugs campaign, the PNP had sent thousands of policemen from Metro Manila to Mindanao after PNP chief Ronald M. dela Rosa claimed they were involved in the illegal-drugs trade. Last week the President said he will send the crooked cops he castigated in Malacañang to Basilan. It is unfair to these Mindanao provinces to become repositories of rogue policemen. They deserve honest and efficient cops like any other province or city in the Philippines. Besides, corrupt cops will be corrupt anywhere you assign them. They will find a way to make trouble, involve themselves in something illegal to make money, extract bribes or commit graft. Or worse, they could become the henchmen of murderous warlords. Just take a look at the 2009 Maguindanao massacre: a lot of the armed men in the Ampatuan clan’s private militia who murdered 58 people, including 32 journalists, were later found to be policemen. The ARMM officials have raised similar concerns, saying the last thing they need are the rejected policemen of other provinces, as did Senate President Aquilino L. Pimentel III. “Mindanao should be treated by the PNP with the same respect that all Filipinos deserve regardless of their faith, their culture and their economic status,” Pimentel, who hails from Cagayan de Oro, said in a press statement. “[Erring policemen] should not be recycled and sent to faraway postings as punishment. This will merely transfer the problem, not put a stop to it.” We agree with Pimentel that, instead of transferring corrupt cops, they should be swiftly prosecuted. Administrative cases must be filed against them. They should either be expelled from the force or punished according to the gravity of their offenses. But we are also cognizant that simply dismissing these “corrupt to the core” cops (as the President called them) would be a problem, too. There is nothing as dangerous as a dismissed and disgruntled corrupt policeman. Citizens have every reason to be scared of ex-policemen who have been involved in robbery, extortion, kidnapping and other crimes. They could even be more dangerous when they are no longer subjected to the discipline of police regulations. In 2010, less than two months after Duterte’s predecessor took office, a disgruntled ex-policeman took hostage a bus full of Hong Kong tourists and killed eight of them after a botched rescue operation. What is infamously known as the Quirino hostage tragedy became not only the first debacle of the presidency of Benigno S. Aquino III but also one of the nation’s biggest international embarrassments. Duterte is, perhaps, all too aware of this. This is precisely why he warned rogue cops that if they choose to leave the police force, they better not return to their crooked ways. He told them, if they opt to retire or resign, then they should behave and look for a decent job. He even said he will create a “military battalion” to track the movements of former policemen to make sure they will walk the straight and narrow path outside the police force. Keenly watching rogue policemen who will resign, retire or get fired through a military monitoring force is a good idea, but it may not be enough. Those lawmen who are found on the wrong side of the law must not only be dismissed but jailed. If you just dismiss them, they would probably just become criminals at large. No longer in uniform, but just as bad and just as dangerous. If the administration is to restore trust in the police force, the President must do more than kick out the “corrupt to the core” cops in the PNP. He must put these criminals-in-uniform behind bars.

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Remittances continue to show resilience Manny B. Villar

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rophets of doom were quick to predict a continuing decline of remittances following the 3-percent drop in the money sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) last October.

Cash rem itt a nces cou rsed through banks, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), amounted to $2.099 billion in October 2016, the lowest monthly remittances since the $1.997 billion posted in January 2016. The BSP explained that the contraction in October 2016 was due to foreign-exchange fluctuations, including the depreciation of the dollar, as well as other currencies, such as the pound sterling and the euro. Because of the pessimistic mindset, I think some were surprised when the BSP released its report for the following month, which showed

cash remittances surging by 18.5 percent, to reach $2.2 billion, bringing the total for the first 11 months of 2016 at $24.3 billion, a 5.2-percent growth year-on-year. Economists said the double-digit surge in remittances was an added boost to economic growth in the fourth quarter, when GDP grew by 6.6 percent, higher than the 6.3 percent posted in the same quarter in 2015. The government attributed the full-year GDP growth of 6.8 percent to higher investment and consumption (which is where remittances usually go). For many years, and despite numerous global crises, remittances

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have shown resilience. This is why the Philippine economy continues to grow, avoiding the recession that hit export-dependent countries. I believe remittances will continue to grow, for several reasons. One, the US economy is improving, which augurs well for OFWs and immigrants in the United States and their dependents in the Philippines. In the Middle East, oil-exporting countries may have been hit by the price slump last year but some are already diversifying their economies and developing other industries, like tourism and retail. Thus, many hotels, shopping malls and restaurants are rising in

The new ‘New World Order’

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While I see a continuing growth in remittances, we cannot, and should not, expect Filipinos to continue working in other countries. In the long run, they will come home. Personally, I want to see the day when Filipinos are able to make a decent living in the Philippines and no longer need to separate from their loved ones to find better jobs abroad.

OUTSIDE THE BOX

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here is one phrase that accurately describes the human condition: “You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them”.

Great thinkers have been trying to figure out how to make that dilemma work for a couple of thousand years. How do we balance individuality with society? No matter how independent and self-sufficiently prepared a person thinks he or she might be, it all falls apart when your appendix bursts. No person or society can survive alone. Yet, when you put a bunch of people together in a society, it is always a chaotic, confused and dangerous state of affairs. Put more people together and call it a nation, and the mess is compounded. Ancient Greek philosopher Plato had the idea of a perfect utopia where citizens were put into a rigid class structure of “golden”, “silver”, “bronze” and “iron” socioeconomic classes. Based on that idea, it is no wonder that the first use of “utopia”

by 16th-century British Sir Thomas More coined the term from the Greek meaning “no-place”. More’s book Utopia was a mythical island in the middle of the ocean and was probably meant as much as satire than as a blueprint for society. The word then has been replaced by the term “New World Order” to describe—in the words of former US President George H. W. Bush in 1990—as a world “where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind: peace and security, freedom and the rule of law”. But the people who are better than the rest of us—members of Plato’s “Golden Class”—have a slightly different practical application. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote: “A

The political aspects of the new “New World Order” are sort of boring. But the results to business are critical. No longer are we going to see grand schemes like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Trade deals will be bilateral and closely regional.

world government can intervene militarily in the internal affairs of any nation when it disapproves of their activities”. The first director of the World Health Organization, Canadian Brock Chisholm said, “To achieve world government, it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism, loyalty to family traditions, national patriotism and religious dogmas”. Robert Muller, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, wrote, “We must move as quickly as possible to a one-world government; a one-world religion; under a one-world leader”. You can see where this is going. It’s good to be one of Plato’s golden; not so good to be an iron. After decades of pushing this New World Order, the iron, bronze, and even some of the silver classes

the Middle East, the labor requirements of which could be easily filled up by Filipinos. Another factor behind the resilience of remittances is the resilience of the OFWs itself. Workers who encounter problems in a country usually move to other countries where the job and pay conditions are better. Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. said in a media briefing last month that the Philippine economy would remain robust this year despite global uncertainties. The bank cited continuous strong remittances as one of the factors behind the economy’s resilient growth. While I see a continuing growth in remittances, we cannot, and should not, expect Filipinos to continue working in other countries. In the long run, they will come home. Personally, I want to see the day when Filipinos are able to make a decent living in the Philippines and no longer need to separate from their loved ones to find better jobs abroad. For comments, e-mail mbv.secretariat@gmail. com or visit www.mannyvillar.com.ph.

have realized the words of early American patriot Patrick Henry may have been prophetic. “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?” Maybe that six-week paid vacation isn’t worth the government reading all your e-mails and text messages. Maybe being able to easily start your own business and keep the profits for your family is better than governments deciding who wins and loses. The political aspects of the new New World Order are sort of boring. But the results to business are critical. No longer are we going to see grand schemes like the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Trade deals will be bilateral and closely regional. The Chinese-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will not turn into a Chinese version of TPP. The peak of confidence in government has passed. Now the cycle moves to increasing confidence in private individuals making their own decisions. The Golds are not happy with the new New World Order that is coming. 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.

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Tuesday, February 14, 2017 A11

Why doesn’t the Supreme Solons urge tighter security vs transport of drugs Court lift this TRO? Cecilio T. Arillo

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Ernesto M. Hilario

ABOUT TOWN

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nconstitutional, illegal and even immoral. All that aptly describes the temporary restraining order (TRO) that the Supreme Court issued onAugust 24, 2016, stopping the Department of Health (DOH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from “granting any and all pending applications for registration and/or recertification for reproductive products and supplies, including contraceptive drugs and devices.” Why is it unconstitutional? Because it goes against the constitutional provision that the State “shall equally protect the life of the mother and the unborn from conception”. The TRO protects the unborn from conception, but wreaks havoc on the lives of mothers, especially those who are poor. Isn’t this an infringement on equal protection of the law? Last we checked, the Supreme Court (SC) is duty-bound to protect and enforce constitutional rights. Has it conveniently forgotten that its duty is first and foremost to defend the Constitution? Why is it illegal? Because it effectively blocks the full implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RH) Act of 2012 (Republic Act 10354). This law guarantees universal access to methods on contraception, fertility control, sex education and maternal care. The RH law is a milestone as it upholds women’s rights and gives them the option to practice family planning and responsible parenthood. But its full implementation has come to a grinding halt because the SC, while recognizing that this law is undoubtedly constitutional, nevertheless issued a TRO. And why is it immoral? We think it’s downright immoral as the TRO deprives women access to contraceptives that could lead to an increase in unplanned-pregnancy rates. It will also result in a sharp increase in our teen-age pregnancy rates that’s already among the worst in the world. Not only that: it will also result in maternal deaths from preventable childbirth complications, now estimated to be at 14 deaths a day. Apart from these, the TRO tends to perpetuate intergenerational poverty as poor parents will be unable to provide for their growing children in terms of education and health care. We’re really at a loss as to why the High Tribunal is taking too long to act on the petition of the DOH, Population Commission (PopCom) and various civil-society groups, for the lifting of the TRO on contraceptives. The High Tribunal acted with dispatch on other cases brought before its chambers, including those involving the burial of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani; the citizenship issue raised against Sen. Grace Poe when she ran for president in the May 2016 elections and, more recent, the issuance of the writ of amparo filed by the relatives of drug suspects killed

in Barangay Payatas, Quezon City, by police operatives. But why are the magistrates moving much too slowly on other cases, such as their TRO on the RH law? What standards do they apply when deciding on cases? If they take too long to decide on cases, isn’t that a clear example of the maxim that “justice delayed is justice denied”? We agree with the stand of the health department, former President Fidel V. R amos, House Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez and many others who beleive that the RH law should be fully implemented and that the SC should immediately lift its TRO. President Duterte, right from the get-go, has fully supported RH and responsible parenthood. In his first State of the Nation Address, he promised to implement the RH law to curb population growth and assist the poor in family planning. In fact, even as the SC continues to dilly-dally on the issue, Duterte signed last month Executive Order12, which seeks to accelerate the implementation of critical actions necessary to attain and sustain “zero unmet need for modern family planning” for all poor households by 2018. This is a bold step by the Chief Executive that appears to be gently telling the SC to hurry up and listen to the people, for a change. As the Executive branch has already done its part, we must ask: W hen w i l l the Judicia l branch follow suit? We see an opportunity for the Supreme Court to rectify the situation as the Judiciary would be invited to join the deliberations of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council. Once the judiciary is represented in a Legislative-Executive-Judicial Development Advisory Council, perhaps, they will be able to see the big picture and be apprised of what the two other branches of government are doing to push socioeconomic development programs aimed at poverty reduction and sustained economic growth. After all, the SC should go with the flow with the rest of the government apparatus in promoting the public welfare and the common good. By immediately lifting the TRO on the RH law that clearly allows for the sale and distribution of contraceptives as part of responsible parenthood and family planning, the High Tribunal will be doing its part in accelerating nation-building, rather than erecting a big barrier to it.

E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.

Ignorance is strength By Paul Krugman

New York Times News Service

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hen I travel to Asia, I’m fairly often met at the airport by someone holding a sign reading “Mr. Paul”. Why? In much of Asia, names are given family first, personal second—at home, the prime minister of Japan is referred to as Abe Shinzo. And the mistake is completely forgivable when it’s made by a taxi driver picking up a professor. It’s not so forgivable, however, if the president of the United States makes the same mistake when welcoming the leader of one of our most important economic and security partners. But there it was: Donald J. Trump referring to Abe as, yes,

Prime Minister Shinzo. Abe did not, as far as we know, respond by calling his host President Donald. Trivial? Well, it would be if it were an isolated instance. But it isn’t. What we’ve seen instead over the past three weeks is an awesome display of raw ignorance on every front. Worse, there’s no hint that either the White House or its allies in Congress see this as a problem. They appear to believe that expertise, or even basic familiarity with a subject, is for wimps; ignorance is strength. We see this on legal matters: In a widely quoted analysis, the legal expert Benjamin Wittes described the infamous executive order on refugees as “malevolence tempered

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HE House Committee on Transportation has called on maritime transportation agencies to strengthen their capacity to detect and monitor the transport of illegal drugs, chemicals and paraphernalia for drug laboratories in light of the recent raids on modern shabu factory/laboratory in Catanduanes provinces.

C h a ired by Rep. Cesa r V. Sarmiento of the Lone District of Catanduanes, the committee made the call during the recent hearing on the plans and programs for 2017 of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) maritime sector and related agencies, such as the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and the Office of Transportation Security-Maritime Division (OTS). Sarmiento expressed fears that if the modern shabu laboratory was able to exist in his home province of Catanduanes, then there is also a possibility that this might happen in other islands in the country if concerned agencies fail to improve their supervision of ports and guarding of the country’s coastal waters. Sarmiento has filed House

Resolution 585 directing the PCG, Marina, OTS, Land Transportation Office and other government agencies to intensify and coordinate their efforts to suppress the trafficking of illegal drugs within the country. The seemingly lax security protocols being implemented in ports all over the country, which is being taken advantage of by drug syndicates, is contrary to the directive of President Duterte to intensify the war against drugs, according to Sarmiento. Administrator Marcial Amaro III of Marina said that, in support of the intensified antidrug campaign in ports, they are willing to come up with a corresponding circular to make ship-owners also accountable for the goods they transport. Deputy Speaker and Rep. Gwendolyn F. Garcia of the Third District of Cebu narrated a similar incident

that happened in Cebu in 2004 wherein around 70 barrels of pseudoephedrine, a decongestant used for cold medicines, were confiscated by the PCG in coordination with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). The authorities cited the seized decongestant is also a component in the manufacture of shabu. “There are red flags that can be detected. The PCG was able to confiscate those barrels of pseudoephedrine and charges were filed. So this all-out war against illegal drugs can be done through coordinated efforts with related agencies,” Garcia said. Garcia added that the Cebu incident was a product of a joint operation of the NBI, PDEA and PCG. “Knowing fully well that the drug problem is worse than what we expected it to be, penetrating the entire fabric of our society, focus should also be directed now to the prevention of the influx of drugs and drug raw materials into our ports through proactive intelligence gathering on the part of the Coast Guard and Marina, and in coordination with the local government and concerned agencies and offices,” Garcia said. Rep. Gerald Anthony V. Gullas Jr. of the First District of Cebu proposed that canine units also be trained to sniff drug-manufacturing components, such as ephedrine, so that, even if it is legal to transport

it, the necessary surveillance and investigation can be conducted on persons transporting them. Sarmiento suggested to the Philippine National Police (PNP), PDEA and the PCG to also focus on the coastal waters as this may also be used as transport routes for illegal drugs. Rep. Rodolfo T. Albano III of the First District of Isabela recognized the enormity of the task, citing the country’s shoreline is much longer than that of the Unites States. Even the US Coast Guard, which has better equipment, has a hard time effectively securing their shoreline, according to Albano. Albano proposed that concerned agencies conduct independent studies on how to improve their services, with the corresponding budget to achieve it. He said Congress can help them in the next budget deliberations. Gullas and Albano advised the agencies not to hesitate to ask help from Congress, so that, apart from the inclusion of necessary procurement in the budget, the pertinent legislative initiatives can also be done to better equip them in performing their mandates. “If there is any law hampering the accomplishment of your duties, it is our job here in Congress to amend this so you can execute your responsibilities easier,” Albano said.

To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@ gmail.com.

Be an advocate and help change the world

self, both as chairman of the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) and as a consumer. Thus, prompting me to lead a more focused group in our campaign against illicit trade, called Fight Illicit Trade (Fight IT), which is under the umbrella of FPI. Inspired by Nobel and Pulitzer prize winner William Cuthbert Falkner’s words, “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.” I started my consumer and antismuggling advocacies as early as the old American days at Subic and Clark Air Base. To stop smuggling at Subic, Clark, and other economic zones, which was already affecting local manufacturers and traders, and to help boost the “Buy Pinoy, Buy Local” movement, which we launched with the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and

Industry Inc. (FFCCCII), we contested the validity of Executive Order (EO) 97-A and got a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court (SC) when the High Court resolved that no imported goods, regardless of quantity can be brought out of Subic, Clark, and other economic zones without paying the proper taxes and duties. Prior to the SC ruling, and by virtue of EO 97-A, anybody could buy $200 worth of goods at Subic and Clark without having to pay for its duties and taxes. These are sold to traders who, in turn, sell them in the local market, unfairly competing with legitimate local manufacturers and retailers. We also partnered with the media and government agencies in our various antismuggling and anti-illicit-trade activities. In 2013 thenPresident Benigno S. Aquino III acknowledged in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) that the government was losing over P200 billion in duties and taxes from smuggling. But even prior to Aquino’s Sona,

we were already helping the government raise revenues from duties and taxes on imported products entering the country. Among our antismuggling milestones that helped boost the government’s revenue collection was our discovery of gross undervaluation in the importation of palm olein by Matahari Trading. In 2008 Matahari declared its palm olein importations at only $0.06 per kilo, while the sequestered CIIF-Oil Mills Group, which this writer headed as president and CEO at that time, declared its similar importation of Palm olein at $1.25 per kilo. A gross undervaluation of $1.19 per kilo of Matahari’s olein importations, which was subjected to post entry audit by Bureau of Customs (BOC). On the preemptive side of our advocacies, we executed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the BOC and fielded Industry Technical Experts (ITE) to assist the latter in monitoring technically smuggled goods and those covered by mandatory product standards. As an example, we questioned the importation of 5,000 metric tons of steel rebars at the Port of Subic for its alleged non-compliance with Philippine Standard (PS) regulations. During the Senate hearing on rice smuggling in the country, where the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) virtually faced a blank wall regarding the real identity of suspected big-time rice smuggler Bangayan, I presented the documentary evidence that showed that Davidson Bangayan and David Tan, who is the alleged bigtime rice smuggler, are one and the same person. This led to the prosecution of Bangayan and my having been sued for libel by Bangayan, as well. The

by incompetence”, and noted that the order reads “as if it was not reviewed by competent counsel at all”—which is a good way to lose in court. We see it on national security matters, where the president continues to rely on a chief adviser who, suspicious closeness to the Kremlin aside, appears to get his strategic information from right-wing conspiracy theorists. We see it on education, where the hearings for Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, revealed her to be completely ignorant about even the most elementary issues. We see it on diplomacy. How hard is it to ask someone from the State Department to make sure that the White House gets foreign leaders’

names right? Too hard, apparently: Before the Abe flub, the official agenda for the state visit by Theresa May, the British prime minister, repeatedly misspelled her name. And on economics—well, there’s nobody home. The Council of Economic Advisers, which is supposed to provide technical expertise, has been demoted from Cabinet rank, but that hardly matters, since nobody has been nominated to serve. Remember all that talk about a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan? If you do, please remind the White House, which hasn’t offered even a ghost of a concrete proposal. But let me not be too hard on the Tweeter-in-chief: disdain for expertise is general in his party. For

example, the most influential Republican economists aren’t serious academics with a conservative bent, of whom there are many; they’re known hacks who literally can’t get a number right. Or consider the current GOP panic over health care. Many in the party seem shocked to learn that repealing any major part of Obamacare will cause tens of millions to lose insurance. Anyone who studied the issue could have told them years ago how the pieces of health reform fit together, and why. In fact, many of us did, repeatedly. But competent analysis wasn’t wanted. And that is, of course, the point. Competent lawyers might tell you that your Muslim ban is unconstitutional; competent scientists that

Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza

MAKE SENSE Continued from A1

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ike smuggling, illicit trade is also a global problem. And in the Philippines it has reached alarming level. Despite the existence of Philippine product standard regulations, antismuggling and anticartel laws, there are still unscrupulous traders and manufacturers that practice illicit trade with impunity.

I saw these things happening my-

libel case against me was, however, dismissed. President Duterte, who was then Davao City mayor, also identified Bangayan in the Senate hearing. The suspected big-time rice smuggler Bangayan is from Cagayan. He is not, in any way, related to the prominent and decent Bangayans of Davao. I also filed the first anticartel case in the country that was given due course by the Department of Justice (DOJ). For allegedly violating Section 11 (a) of Republic Act 8479, or the Act Deregulating the Downstream Oil Industry and for other Purposes, and Article 186 (1) of the Revised Penal Code, Party-list Rep. Arnel U. Ty and the officers of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association of the Philippines (LPGMA) were issued warrants of arrest by Pasig courts and are currently out on bail. Hearings on the case against Ty and the officers of LPGMA are ongoing. We have raised all these issues in both the bar of justice and the bar of public opinion. Through our friends in the media, we have raised the level of awareness on smuggling and illicit trade in the country. We made breakthroughs on most fronts and setbacks on a few. But generally, our efforts have helped to make life for consumers much easier. Let our voices as consumers be heard. And let us discuss the issues affecting us as consumers. After all, as what American educator, writer, political activist and advocate for simple living Scott Nearing once said, “The only way to have intelligent public opinion is to have discussion, and the moment you check discussion you destroy democracy.”

climate change is real; competent economists that tax cuts don’t pay for themselves; competent voting experts that there weren’t millions of illegal ballots; competent diplomats that the Iran deal makes sense, and Vladimir Putin is not your friend. So competence must be excluded. At this point, someone is bound to say, “If they’re so dumb, how come they won?” Part of the answer is that disdain for experts—sorry, “so-called” experts—resonates with an important part of the electorate. Bigotry wasn’t the only dark force at work in the election; so was antiintellectualism, hostility toward “elites” who claim that opinions should be based on careful study and thought.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

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Tuesday, February 14, 2017

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Airlines keep aviation fuel-tax privilege

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By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

HE Court of Appeals (CA) has stopped the government from imposing excise taxes on importations of aviation fuel for airlines’domesticoperations. In a 28-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Maria Elisa Sempio Diy, the CA’s Twelfth Division affirmed the decision of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Pasay City on February 27, 2014, favoring the petition filed by flag carrier Philippine Airlines seeking to declare null and void the certification issued by the Department of Energy (DOE) on December 20, 2002, which states that “aviation gas, fuel and oil for use in domestic operation of domestic airlines are locally available i n rea son able qu a nt it y, quality and price”. The said certification became the basis of the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue in withdrawing the tax-exemption privilege accorded to airlines on the importation of aviation fuel for use in their domestic operations starting 2003. The RTC in Pasay City did not give merit to the DOF and the DOE’s contention that it is the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA)—and not the trial court—which has jurisdiction over the issue. Likewise, the Lower Court ruled that it is the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) that has authority to issue a certification on the availability of aviation fuel locally in reasonable quality, quantity and price. In junking the appeal of the DOF and the DOE to reverse the ruling of the RTC in Pasay City, the CA held that the trial court properly exercised its jurisdiction over the case. It held that the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9282 (An Act Expanding the Jurisdiction of the CTA) do not provide that the CTA has jurisdiction to rule on or review the validity of the issuances of the DOE. “The determination of whether a specific rule or set of rules is-

sued by an administrative agency contravenes the law or the Constitution is within the jurisdiction of the regular courts,” the CA stressed. Likewise, the CA agreed with the RTC in Pasay City that the Caap—and not the DOE—is the proper authority to certify the availability of aviation fuel in reasonable quantity, quality and price. The CA explained that by virtue of RA 9497, the Caap inherited the powers and functions of the Air Transportation Office, which was earlier called the Bureau of Air Transportation. It noted that under Section 35 of the law, the powers and functions of the director general of the Caap include the authority to take charge of the technical and operational phases of civil aviation and the authority to coordinate with any research agency on matters relating to aircraft fuel. “In other words, the Caap, which is under the Department of Transportation, is the primary agency mandated to maintain the proper quality standards for everything related to civil aviation, including aircraft, equipment and supplies, as well as aviation fuel.” Furthermore, the CA ruled that there is no provision in Presidential Decree 1206 creating the DOE that gives the agency the authority to issue certification on the local availability of aviation fuel. “In sum, the Caap appears to be the proper agency vested with power and authority to issue certifications on availability of aviation fuel. On the other hand, the DOE has the power to certify on general matters of fuel supply that do not relate to civil aeronautics or aviation,” the appellate court ruled. Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Ramon M. Bato Jr. and Manuel Barrios.

In this September 14, 2014, file photo, Chinese tourists take souvenir photos with the Chinese national flag as they visit Quanfu Island, one of Paracel Islands of Sansha prefecture of southern China’s Hainan province in the South China Sea. AP

South China Sea Update: CLOSE ENCOUNTER NEAR SCARBOROUGH

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n l i k e p re v i o u s c l o s e e n c o u n t e r s between United States and Chinese military aircraft, the latest incident last week near the hotly contested Scarborough Shoal appears to be unintentional, highlighting risks in an increasingly militarized region. A Navy P-3C Orion surveillance plane was on a routine mission when a Chinese KJ-200 turboprop—which is equipped with radar mounted on top of the fuselage—crossed its nose within 1,000 feet (305 meters), causing it to make an immediate turn, Pentagon Spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said. He said both planes were in “normalradio contact.”“Clearly, we have our disagreements with China over militarization of South China Sea,” Davis said, adding, however, that interactions between ships and planes are “largely professional and safe”. The Chinese Defense Ministr y did not comment, but the Communist Party-run Global Times quoted an unidentified ministry official as saying the Chinese pilot had responded in a “legal and professional manner”. Such encounters are not unusual in an area China claims virtually in totality despite neighbors’ rival claims and the US insistence on safeguarding unimpeded navigation at sea and in the air. Twice last year US and Chinese aircraft came close, in one instance to within 50 feet (15 meters), of each other. In August 2014 a Chinese fighter jet came within 30 feet (9 meters) of a Navy P-8 Poseidon

reconnaissance plane off Hainan Island—a major military hub—and pulled a series of risky maneuvers, including rolling over it. The US and China in 2015 signed rules of behavior for safety of air-to-air encounters, but some analysts say they don’t go far enough. The location of the latest incident is significant. China seized the tiny, uninhabited shoal, which lies within the Philippines’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone, after a tense standoff with Philippine vessels in 2012. The Philippines initiated international arbitration, which last year invalidated China’s claims to most of the South China Sea. Beijing refused to recognize the ruling, and despite warming ties with Beijing, the Philippines worries whether China will build military installations on the shoal similar to what it did on seven other features farther south in the Spratlys.

Emphasis on diplomacy

China has found common ground in US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s call for diplomacy instead of military action to resolve differences over South China Sea disputes. But Chinese Foreign Wang Yi did not comment on the second part of Mattis’s statement in which he pledged more freedom of navigation operations by US warships close to Chinese-held islands that Beijing has criticized. On a visit to Australia, Wang said Beijing has attached “great importance” to Mattis’s recent state-

ment “stressing diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute over South China Sea”. “Any sober-minded politician will recognize that there cannot be conflict between China and the United States,” Wang told reporters. “Both will lose and both sides cannot afford that.” Talk about a possible military confrontation between China and the US in the South China Seas surfaced after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s comments during his Senate confirmation hearing that Washington should block China’s access to its artificial islands, although many believed he misspoke. Wang said the US should read up on World War II and South China Sea history. “It’s with the aid of the United States that the Chinese government of that day recovered the Nansha Islands in 1946 publicly and legally,” he said, using the Chinese name for Spratly Islands. Under the 1952 peace treaty, Japan renounced sovereignty over the Spratlys and the Paracels, but Vietnam and the Philippines also lay their claims to the islands.

China builds up facilities

Satellite imagery provided by the Center for International and Strategic Studies (CISS) purportedly shows an upgrade of military facilities in Chinesecontrolled Paracel Islands, which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. See “South China Sea,” A2

Cha-cha debates move to plenary Continued from a1

priority in our business when we open our session come May this year,” Mercado said in a news conference. Congress is scheduled to go on break from March 15 to May 1. Mercado said a Con-ass will only cost the government the normal operation expenses of Congress, as compared to a constitutional convention (Con-con), which will cost at least P8 billion. “A constituent assembly does not cost anything because it is still Congress that will be functioning using the same budget appropriated for its operation,” he said. Mercado, meanwhile, said all a mendments to the 1987 Constitution that will be drafted by the constitutional commission will also be presented to the public through a massive information campaign. “We will be going out to the different regions to consult directly with our people on Congress’s stand to amend the Constitution from presidential into a federal form of government,” he added. Earlier, Speaker Pantaleon

D. Alvarez said there will be active participation from different sectors in the national debate on Charter change (Chacha) throughout the country. “After the approval of final draft of the new Constitution, we should explain all the amendments to the people. However, for now, we’ll wait for the constitutional commission to do its job,” Alvarez said. According to the Speaker, free and open public debates on Cha-cha, especially on the shift to federalism, must be encouraged before Congress—acting as constituent assembly—focuses its attention on the growing consensus of adopting a federal system. Earlier, President Duterte has signed Executive Order 10, creating a committee that will review the Constitution. The committee will be composed of 25 different experts from the country. The constitutional commission will be given six months to start drafting the new Constitution before Congress convenes as Con-ass to debate and finalize the draft of the proposed new charter. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz