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Monday, February 20, 2017 Vol. 12 No. 131

PHL shuns big mines for ‘green’ business $22B T By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

he government is keen on attracting foreign investors who will set up businesses that would put a premium on protecting the environment and creating jobs, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The potential mining investments that the country would lose due to the mines closure

1Bataan. Go PPPs PPP Lead Alberto C. Agra

s it true that all barangays in the province of Bataan have adopted their own public-private partnership (PPP) framework? Is it true that the provincial government of Bataan (PGB) has seven PPP projects in the pipeline? Is it true that PPP contributes to the 1Bataan thrust of the PGB? The answer to all these questions is a resounding yes! This would not be possible without the active participation of all stakeholders in the province, all driven by a common purpose and all accountable to one another. Allow this columnist to congratulate the PGB, under the leadership of its dynamic and innovative leader, Gov. Albert S. Garcia, for setting such a standard of excellence in governance.

See “Big mines,” A2

Continued on A15

BMReports

‘Manpering’? yes, it’s here and happening Our earthly existence

ear Lord, deepen our conviction that our earthly existence is not the only life we live. Beyond the dark threshold and the pangs of death, there is a fuller life for those who live according to the demands of God’s law. The eternal life in which we believe and to which we are called gives value and meaning to the way we die. Not all share this faith, yet we continue to believe that we are destined for eternal life in God’s Kingdom. amen! Word & Life, fr. SaL Putzu, SdB, Shared By Ma. LuiSa M. LacSon, hfL Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

Life

‘Breaking hearts’ legally costly for many Filipinos

AND THEN SOME: AMAziNg grAcE AND THE pOwEr Of AlOE d4

BusinessMirror

Monday, February 20, 2017

“Manpering”? Yes, it’s here and happening ❶

tota PuLchra MISS CHARLIZE

@misscharlize

ITH the grooming rituals of the metrosexual having gone mainstream, “manpering” makes a bid for the attention of the urban male. “Typically, pampering is synonymous to the spa/salon experience primarily enjoyed by women. But we feel that the young modern urban man also deserves to spoil himself, given the stresses he goes through day in and out,” said Chad Africa, sales and marketing manager, and business partner for The Urban Barber, a new player in the barbershop landscape. The Urban Barber customized a “complete manpering (man+pampering) experience” suited for the modern urbanite by offering precisely cut and perfectly styled haircuts (A Cut-Above, P350, or Bro Buzz services, P300), a list of complementary services like shave (Baby Butt Smooth, P400), beard sculpting (Touch My BEARDy, P400), basic color (Back-to-Black/Brown, P1,000 to P1,400) and facial cleansing treatments (BroTox Facial, P650); The manpering experience is complemented by an after-cut rinse, a facial and upper body massage and a free cup of coffee or a bottle of beer to cap it off. These are perks inclusive in every service offered by The Urban Barber, which is located at the second floor of CKB Center, Tomas Morato corner Scout Rallos in Quezon City. “Given the busy lifestyle of our market, the end-to-end services provided by The Urban Barber allows them to walk into our

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shop, get the manpering they need, walk out and proceed to the next thing on their agenda, whether it be a date, a meeting, a night out with friends or time with the family,” Africa offers. Africa’s business partner is Darrel So, who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the store. They met in culinary school, and what started as a plan to put up a business in the food industry evolved to what now is called The Urban Barber. In addition to their mutual interest in men’s proper grooming and belief that if a guy looks good, he feels good, it was the opportunity to introduce a new barbershop concept, and to cater to an unserved market that drove them to open The Urban Barber. “We feel that a lot of the established and newly opened barbershops out there cater to a more mature market, or they seem to promote a very formal lifestyle that not everyone may aspire for. We understand that young urbanites are uncomplicated and unpretentious, and they appreciate the value of being true to who they are. The Urban Barber celebrates this. We offer a welcoming environment where you can just be yourself, and get the complete manpering experience every young urbanite deserves,” Africa explains. There are three things that differentiate their barbershop from their competition, according to Africa. First, the design and vibe of The Urban Barber. Inspired by modern industrial urban design, the space is reminiscent of loft apartments you’ll see in the posh meatpacking district of New York City, or in hipster-central Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The use of metal, concrete, wood and repurposed furniture adds to the appeal, while the cool graffiti murals by local artists Gori and Hilo Bautista accentuate the store with bursts of bright colors. The music has also been carefully curated to reflect the dynamic lifestyle of today’s young urbanites. Second is the selection of retail products.“We’re proud to offer a retail collection curated from our favorite local clothing, accessory and men’s grooming

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By Joel R. San Juan

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❻ provide exceptional personalized service, thus elevating the barbershop experience of our market,” Africa said. With The Urban Barber’s successful foray in the Quezon City area, future shops are in the offing. “We try to anticipate what our clients need. Given the dynamic lifestyle of the market we’re trying to serve, we’re certain to introduce new services and products at The Urban Barber in the coming months,” Africa said. “With the reception being very good in Quezon City, we would like to take this success to other areas in the metro. There’s certainly an underserved market in the south and central Manila, and the appreciation for the type of services we provide is growing.”

Boho style for inspiration-seekers

❷ the urban Warrior shampoo and conditioner

❸ the urban Warrior hair wax

❹ MotorIno vinyl players ❺ huevo handcrafted leather ❻ paragon Manila bracelets

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InspIratIonseekers LucIen, Leona and charlene PHOTOS BY SHEILA CATILO

the audreycropped pants with embroidered trim and L’Indochine’s tassel necklace.

❶ the urban Barber cutting Floor

< The Urban Barber encourages clients to book their appointments by texting 0917-8239975 or 0908-8629857.

❷ MarIe in the emma-wrap skirt, Bayla sporting the emma tank Dress ❸ LucIen wears

@jrsanjuan1573

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brands. These are superior products we handpicked so our clients can look and feel good,” Africa said. The products include The Urban Warrior line of shampoos and conditioners, and hair waxes which they formulated themselves. The Urban Barber also carries Huevo Handcrafted Leather, The Tokwa co. Shirts, Proppy Socks, Paragon Manila bracelets, Satchi (makers of Motorino Vinyl Players, The Eighth Watches and Zen Bamboo Speakers), all of these set in a “super cool” environment that reflects the exciting vibe of the urban culture. Their third edge is their commitment to provide exceptional service and the best customer experience. “Our barbers consistently give precise and perfectly styled haircuts given their extensive local and international experience. They are dedicated to their craft, with a shared passion for quality and creativity. Our commitment is to

❶

fter the successful launch of the My Little Globetrotters collection in May 2016, inspiration-seekers Charlene Carlos and Leona Panutat (C&L) thought of collaborating again with Little Luli founder Lucien Lao Villaluz, this time for a stylish collection for moms and kids at L’Indochine. “With all the wonderful raw materials we see during our trips, we thought it would be fun to tie up with Little Luli on a special collection that not only caters to children but adults as well,” C&L said. “this special collaboration was borne out of my admiration to Char and Leona and their amazing brand,” said Lucien, whose visits to the store brought back memories of her travels to the places where they found these one-of-a-kind pieces. they later met in one of their workshops, and began their inspired collaboration. their fashion partnership brings together L’Indochine’s ethnic/boho style and Little Luli’s subdued classic cuts and prints set in neutral tones. “We thought of different ways on how to marry those two looks by using gorgeous ethnic trimmings and details,” said Lucien, “and later designing a mommy-andkid pair.” for the collection, “we wanted to create chic easy pieces that have a fun boho spin. Clothes that can be dressed up or down, that are polished but playful as well. We love our trims and embellishments. All the ribbons used are embroidered and our tassels are handmade!” C&L said. Incorporating Little Luli’s philosophy, “we created these pieces with comfort and versatility in mind. We wanted to make clothes that can be easily worn and be paired with L’Indochine’s existing pieces,” Lucien said. the look is relaxed, but still chic and fresh, with the L’Indochine touch bringing fun in each piece colorful trims and tassels from thailand to add that ethnic feel. the Little Luli X the Inspiration Seekers collection is available at L’Indochine at SM Aura Premier.

Life

❹ MarIe and Bayla in their Jacinta Denim Dresses.

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Le Tour de Filipinas in Bicol Great Britain’s Daniel Whitehouse (yellow jersey) lead the bunch over the hills connecting Albay and Camarines Sur through Tiwi and Sagnay towns in Sunday’s Stage Three of the eighth edition of the Le Tour de Filipinas. It marks the first time in decades that a Philippine cycling race pedaled through the seaside route overlooking the picturesque Lagonog Gulf. Story on C3. NONOY LACZA

will you meet with trump?

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inside

2016 ejap JOURNALISM awards

Part One

T costs to say “Good-bye to ‘Forever.’” That is true for some married couples in the country who are in the process of securing annulment of their marriage or legal separation. Liza, for instance, was married for almost seven years

before she finally decided to leave her husband in 2012 and eventually filed an annulment petition. “It was because of his psychological incapacity to handle responsibilities of a husband,” she told the BusinessMirror. “It took me a while to realize it since, as a wife, I tried to understand his shortcomings. But, I guess it was just too grave that I decided I couldn’t take it and Continued on A2

BusinessMirror

honda

| Monday, February 20, 2017

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

BOC: Excise tax on cars to dampen investments, squeeze jobs

Cr-z:

Fabulous

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

WILL YOU MEET fusion IN this file photo, President Barack Obama hosts the University of Connecticut Huskies men’s and women’s basketball teams, both NCAA champions, to the White House in Washington, on June 9, 2014.

A trip to the White House, with the ceremonial awarding of a jersey to the president, has long been an affirmation for champion teams. But ire over the election of President Donald J. Trump has spurred activism by athletes, coaches and officials perhaps not seen since the civilrights movement and the war in Vietnam.

trUmP

WITH TRUMP? S

By Jere Longman New York Times

TORRS, Connecticut—When Connecticut won its 11th NCAA women’s basketball title last spring—its fourth in a row—President Barack Obama joked that he would keep a room with a cot waiting for Coach Geno Auriemma on the Huskies’ regular visit to the White House. “He does seem to spend an awful lot of time here,” Obama said. A trip to the White House, with the ceremonial awarding of a jersey to the president, has long been an affirmation for champion teams. But ire over the election of President Donald J. Trump has spurred activism by athletes, coaches and officials perhaps not seen since the civil-rights movement and the war in Vietnam. Breanna Stewart, the former UConn star who helped lead her team to the last four national titles, joined a protest at Los Angeles International Airport against Trump’s temporary ban on visitors from seven predominantly Muslim nations, a policy since rebuffed in federal court. Six members of the New England Patriots, who recently won their fifth Super Bowl, have said they

will skip the team’s White House trip, which has not yet been scheduled. And now Auriemma is being asked a question he hadn’t faced since his teams began winning titles in 1995, during the first term of the Clinton administration: Would any or all of the Huskies decline to meet the president should they win a 12th championship in April? “The fact that in all the 11 championships I’ve never been asked this question says something about where we are” as a country, Auriemma said. “Forget the answer. The fact that I’ve never been asked means there’s something going on that isn’t normal.” UConn has won 100 consecutive games since 2014. And while the Huskies are not a lock to win a 12th title, they are favored again to cut down the nets in triumph at the Final Four in Dallas. Now coaches, current players and the team’s former stars are wrestling with the issue of whether UConn should visit the White House in celebration. The Huskies’ players are amateurs, some still teenagers, not professionals with agents, union protection and multimilliondollar contracts. They have kept up with the political situation, and the responses by other athletes, through social media and classroom discussions. Their own reactions were nuanced and considered. Even before Trump was elected, UConn players jokingly told one another, “We’re not going if he wins,” sophomore forward Napheesa Collier said. “Now that it’s actually happened, if we win, I don’t know what everyone’s going to do.” Stewart and Maya Moore, another former UConn star, said they expected that whatever decision the team made, it would be done collectively. Gabby Williams, a junior forward, agreed. “That’s just what we’ve built here,” Williams, the team’s most complete player, said. “We don’t have guys that do their own thing. Whatever we do, it’ll be a unified decision.”

If some players did not want to attend a White House celebration, Collier said, “I really don’t know what I would do in that position; I guess we have to get there first.” Auriemma, who will turn 63 during the NCAA tournament, said the dilemma for him was reconciling respect for the office of the presidency with the possibility that some players might object to meeting Trump, feeling unwelcome at the White House because of the president’s statements and positions on women, minorities, immigrants and Muslims. “If we’re fortunate enough to win it, and your players walk in and go, ‘Listen, I’m not going,’ we’ve never had to deal with that before,” Auriemma said. “What are you going to do as a coach?” he continued. “It’s not like I can look it up and go, ‘What did other people do?’ We’re in a world that very few of us could have conceived five years ago.” What would he do? “I don’t know,” he said. “That’s a good question.” There is no pressing need for an answer now, he understands, no need to cross a point of no return. The national championship game is not until April 2, and there is no guarantee that UConn will be playing or winning. “I’m not crossing the Rubicon,” Auriemma said. “That’s Caesar. Once your army crosses that river, you are an enemy of the state.” Auriemma is no supporter of Trump. He made that clear last summer in Rio de Janeiro while coaching the US women’s team to a second consecutive Olympic gold medal under him and sixth in a row overall. Asked whether dominance by the United States was good for women’s basketball, he told reporters, “We live in that Trumpian era where it’s OK to be sexist and degrade people that are good, just because they’re the opposite sex.” He later expressed shock that Trump had been elected president.

Sports

No NCAA bracket for Trump, but how good were Obama’s? By Victor Mather

New York Times HEN March comes around this year, and you pull out five bucks to enter the office pool you never seem to win, there will be a little less help available than usual. After eight years of President Barack Obama gamely filling out an NCAA Tournament bracket, President Donald J. Trump has declined to make picks this year. The president “respectfully declined”, ESPN said in a statement. Andy Katz of ESPN basketball told The Washington Post that “the bracket idea worked because President Obama follows basketball and is passionate about the sport”.

Trump has not shown the same passion about basketball, though he did tweet about Bobby Knight in the closing days of the campaign. When the leader of the free world speaks, or writes, or tweets, people listen. Was listening to the picks of Obama a smart move or not? We could look at his raw record over the years—last year, he correctly picked 40 of 63—but that does not reveal too much about his prescience. The key to winning an NCAA pool is figuring out which teams will pull off an upset or two. So how did Obama do at picking upsets? In the first round, extremely well; later on, not so much. In the eight years that he filled out a bracket as

president, Obama picked the lower seed in the first round 52 times. Though these teams were nearly always underdogs, sometimes significantly so, his picks were a sterling 28-24.ß Almost every year he nailed an 11, 12 or 13 seed that knocked off a more heralded opponent: Cornell, Siena, Harvard, Hawaii. Vanderbilt had consecutive disappointments in 2011 and 2012, losing to No. 13 Murray State and No. 12 Richmond. Obama predicted both. If you followed the president’s picks, you probably regularly got off to a good start in your pool. But then it may have gone sour. Of 47 teams in later rounds that Obama picked to outplay their seed, only 13 did so. Admittedly, picks in later rounds are harder

to get right, since those teams must win several times. But, in many cases, Obama’s later round upset picks were relatively safe ones that should often have been correct: 3s over 2s in the Sweet 16, 2s over 1s in the regional final. They mostly did not work out. His worst upset pick was probably second-seeded Missouri to make the Final Four in 2012. That would have required four wins, no more than one of them an upset. Missouri got zero, losing to No. 15 Norfolk State in the first game. He also got carried away with Michigan State in 2014, picking the team, seeded fourth in its region, to win it all. It did win its round of 16 game, but got no further. Most pools provide a lot of points for picking the

tournament winner. Obama fell down a bit there, too. His only correct champion was North Carolina in 2009, his first year of picking. That may not have been a winning pool, though. North Carolina was the secondranked team in the country, selected by quite a few bracketologists, and Obama was uncharacteristically poor with first-round upsets that year, going 1-4. His favorite selection was Kansas, whom he picked to win the national title three times. The Jayhawks never did win during his presidency. Perhaps, he was impressed by their national title in 2008, which was also a big year for him. The NCAA Tournament is a notoriously unpredictable event. You’re on your own this year, and maybe that is for the best.

@joveemarie

he Bureau of Customs (BOC) has warned that the proposal to impose excise tax on automobiles will discourage the inflow of investments in

PESO exchange rates n US 49.9250

the auto industry. In a position paper submitted to the House Committee on Ways and Means, the BOC said the imposition of excise taxes on cars would also adversely affect employment and job opportunity in the industry. “This may ultimately translate,

in the long run, to lower investment in the auto industry and job squeeze,” the bureau said. “[The proposal also] runs counter to the intent of the government to revitalize and further advance the industry’s growth,” it added. The proposal increasing excise

taxes on vehicles is one of the revenue-offsetting measures under the Department of Finance (DOF)-sponsored Comprehensive Tax Reform Package, which seeks to lower the personal income tax rates. The BOC is an attached agency of the DOF.

According to the bureau, the auto industry is a major contributor to the country’s economic growth, since it accounts for 12 percent of the industrial sector output and 4 percent of the total GDP during the previous administration. Continued on A2

n japan 0.4409 n UK 62.3463 n HK 6.4345 n CHINA 7.2841 n singapore 35.2453 n australia 38.4023 n EU 53.2999 n SAUDI arabia 13.3158

Source: BSP (17 February 2017 )

BMReports BusinessMirror

A2 Monday, February 20, 2017

‘Breaking hearts’ legally costly for many Filipinos Continued from A1

hence, I left him,” she narrated. She added that she filed an annulment after realizing that there was no longer a chance for them to reconcile. However, she was not able to file the annulment petition right away because the process was so tedious, aside from being costly.

Fees

LAWYER Marjorie de Castro, who is handling several annulment cases, agreed that seeking an annulment of marriage is physically and mentally exhausting. It also takes a long period of time and would eat up a lot of resources of the petitioner, a person who makes a formal application to a court for a writ, judicial action in a lawsuit. “The first step, of course, is to consult a lawyer if a married person is thinking of having his or her marriage annulled,” de Castro said. De Castro noted that some lawyers would charge their client per hour, while others would prefer a package. The package includes attorney’s fees, appearance fees and other legal fees. “It depends on the lawyer or the law firm how much they would charge,” the lawyer said. “Some would charge the petitioner at least P150,000, others would ask for P200,000 to P500,00.”

Big mines. . . Continued from A1

Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez made the pronouncement after she was criticized by the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) for “killing” the mining industry. “We want investments that will help us, like investments in our biodiversity, which will pay our people well. We welcome investments in area development where they can make money, but they are helping everybody else improve also,” Lopez said. Businessmen criticized the DENR chief after she shuttered large-scale mines and canceled 75 mineral production sharing agreements (MPSAs). Lopez said the move was made to protect the country’s watersheds or sources of freshwater. The COMP said this sends the “wrong signal” to businessmen and cause the country to lose $22 billion in potential investments in mining

Psychological assessment

WELL-K NOWN family law yer Lorna Kapunan said some psychologists would charge as much as P120,000, which include examination and court appearance. On the other hand, Kapunan said single practitioner lawyers would charge at least P100,000 package fee for annulment, while those with law firms usually charge per hour of appearance. After consultation, de Castro said she would ask her client to come up with a detailed narration of his or married life and the circumstances that pushed him to seek dissolution of the marriage. “Nire-require ko ’yung client to submit a detailed narration para madaling ma-determine ’yung mga points that needed clarification,” she said. Once the detailed narration is submitted, de Castro said she would refer the petition to a psychologist for assessment. The psychologist would interview the petitioner, as well as the respondent, to establish whether the ground of psychological incapacity exists. The findings of the psychologist would form part of the evidence of the petitioner.

mons to answer, based on Supreme Court AM 02-11-10 or the “Rule on Declaration of Absolute Nullity of Void Marriages and Annulment of Voidable Marriages.” If the respondent fails to file an answer, the court shall not declare him or her in default. The court then will order the public prosecutor to investigate whether collusion exists between the parties. Within one month, the public prosecutor is required to submit a report to the court stating whether the parties are in collusion. If the public prosecutor finds that collusion exists, the court will set the report for hearing and, if convinced that the parties are in collusion, the petition will be dismissed. However, if the public prosecutor reports that no collusion exists, the court shall set the case for pre-trial. The court may require a social worker to conduct a case study and submit the corresponding report at least three days before the pretrial.

Pretrial

Court proceedings

ONCE the petition is filed before the court, the respondent will be given 15 days from service of sum-

AT the pretrial, the court would determine whether the parties are willing to enter into agreements, their respective claims disputed factual and legal issues, as well as all the evidence to be presented, including the expert opinion, if any.

projects that can spur economic activities and provide jobs. The group’s concern was shared by members of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who warned that some investors are “now worried about putting their money in [local] business ventures, as they might lose their investments overnight.” Lopez, however, said foreign investors should not be worried, especially if their operations would not cause environmental degradation. “If they invest and rape the country, I prefer that they go away,” she said in a statement. Lopez vowed to turn abandoned and closed mines into ecotourism sites and help communities get out of poverty within 18 months, citing several successful projects she started back when she was with the ABS-CBN network’s corporate social responsibility arm—ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc. Citing studies, she said 82 percent of the net revenue of mining companies goes to the investor, of which 95 percent goes out of local

economy. This, despite the fact that mining activities leave “massive and long-lasting damage” to the environment and communities. The DENR, Lopez said, would tap miners affected by the mines closure and suspension orders as partners in the implementation of the Enhanced-National Greening Program (E-NGP). She said the department has identified 29 priority areas where area development will be implemented, which will include the use of NGP funds, mining company’s final mine closure and rehabilitation fund and social development management programs (SDMP). She said an administrative order is currently being drafted by the DENR’s legal affairs unit, headed by Undersecretary Maria Paz Luna, to allow the use of SDMPs beyond their host communities to promote development on a wider scale in mining towns and provinces. Lopez said she is open to the idea of establishing more forest plantations under the E-NGP and integrate ecotourism in forest man-

At the pretrial, the court may also refer the issues to a mediator who shall assist the parties in reaching an agreement on matters not prohibited by law. The mediator is mandated to come up with report within one month from referral. Afterwhich, a trial may ensue if no agreement is reached by the parties. De Castro said the entire process of annulling a marriage may go beyond one year depending on many factors, such as the availability of the judge, parties, the counsels and other unforeseen events.

New chapter

LIZA described her annulment process as “very tedious”. “From going back to how everything has started, to writing and reliving each moment, is both an emotional and mental challenge to go through,” she told the BusinessMirror. “It was not easy to go back and think about the past and the good and bad memories I’ve once shared with my ex-husband. Also, it was not easy sharing your intimate and private moments with other people, especially as you go through the process of talking with psychiatrist and during the court hearing.” Liza said she considered the process as one of the toughest challenges she has so far faced. To be continued agement in partnership with the private sector and communities.

MICC review

A multistakeholder team formed by the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) to review existing mining operations that were ordered closed and suspended by the DENR is set to convene on February 20, according to the Department of Finance (DOF). Under MICC Resolution 6 approved last week, the review will be done with local government units (LGUs) and will be based on the guidelines and parameters indicated in the specific mining contracts. According to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, who cochairs the MICC with the DENR, the multistakeholder team is essentially a technical working group that will review the operations of the mine sites affected by the order issued by Lopez. “The technical working group will undertake the reviews. That was part of the board resolution, so they’re going to implement it on Monday,” Dominguez said. Earlier, the MICC affirmed the primacy of both procedural and substantive due process in the final resolution of the DENR’s series of actions on existing MPSAs. “Substantive due process means that there are valid grounds in law to support the cancellation. Procedural due process means the procedure for cancellation as provided for in the contract or under relevant laws was followed,” Finance Undersecretary Bayani H. Agabin said. Apart from shutting dow n mines, Lopez also announced the cancellation of 75 MPSAs. Mining firms were given show-cause orders to explain why their contracts should not be canceled. Of the 75 MPSA’s issued showcause orders, 27 mining companies are in Luzon, 11 in the Visayas and 37 in Mindanao. “Each case is different because they are individual contracts and I’m not sure if all the contracts have the same terms. And as the Solicitor General said during our meeting, the law between the parties is the contract,” Dominguez said. With Rea Cu

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Groups to fete Pinoy innovation S

EVERAL groups will fete innovators as it leads in the celebration of the Philippine Innovation Week from February 20 to 24. Several organizations, such as the Benito and Catalina Yap Foundation (BCYF), have organized their own activities to promote and develop the culture of innovation in the country. To kick off the celebration, the BCYF will hold on Februar y 20 the first annual awarding ceremony of the group’s Innovation Awards at the K alayaan Hall, Malacañang Palace. BCYF Chairman Antonio Yap said the awards are aimed to encourage Filipinos to create innovative solutions to the country’s problems. Yap has emphasized that innovation is the key to achieve significant change in Philippines. The BIA, hence, is a good start as we search for people who inspire innovation in agri-business, government services and small, medium business, he said. State think tank Philippine In-

stitute for Development Studies (PIDS) has said that innovation improves firm competitiveness, enables access to global markets, expands job opportunities and introduces new industries to the economy. “Although the Philippines has recorded a high-growth path in the past years, many analysts contend that the country could achieve more if it can improve its innovation capacity, which, inarguably, remains wanting,” the PIDS said in a statement. Yap said they chose government services, education, small medium enterprise and agri-business because they have seen successful efforts by innovators in these sectors. The finalists in the BIA are OneLab of the Department of Science and Technology, e-commerce platform oneStore, Bote Central, KKK Enterprise, Sunlight Foods Corp., Trophy Farms, Governor Jayvee Tyron Uy of the Compostela Valley and the Department of Science and Technology Mimaropa Region 4B. Rizal Raoul Reyes

BOC: Excise tax on cars to dampen investments, squeeze jobs Continued from a1

“Its long- and mid-term plans and program are based on the existing regulations, including the current excise-tax structure. Hence, any tax increase will have shortterm negative impact on auto sales and revenues as a result of the unfavorable pass-through effects on consumer purchasing power,” the bureau added. Under House Bill 4774, 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 VAT. The bill said if the net manufacturer’s price/importer’s selling price is P600,000, the excise tax will be 4 percent. If the net manufacturer’s price/ importer’s selling price is P600,000 to P1.1 million, the excise tax will be P24,000 plus 40 percent of the value in excess of P600,000. If the net manufacturer’s price/ importer’s selling price is P1.1 million to P2.1 million, the excise tax will be P224,000 plus 100 percent of the value in excess of P1.1 million. If the net manufacturer’s price/ importer’s selling price is P2.1 million, the excise tax will be P1,224,000 plus 200 percent of the value in excess of P2.1 million. The bill also amends the definition of an automobile to mean: “Any four or more wheeled motor vehicle regardless of seating capacity, which is propelled by gasoline, diesel, or any other automotive power except purely powered by electricity. Provided, that for purposes of this Act, buses, trucks, cargo vans, jeeps/jeepneys/jeepney substitutes, single cab, chassis, and special-purpose vehicles shall not be considered as automobiles.” Meanwhile, in a position paper submitted to the lower chamber, Ford Philippines Assistant Vice President Josephine Gonzalez said the significant increase in tax rates proposed by the measure will be disruptive to the industry, translating to a substantial increase in vehicle retail prices and the natural contraction of the automobile market. “This may, in turn, result in a reduction of excise-tax collections, negating the intent of the HB 4774,” she said. She also said a gradual or a phased-in approach in the implementation of the rate increases is needed, providing the industry

and the market a reasonable time to plan out and adjust to the regulatory change. “We have observed that other sectors covered by the tax reform measures have been granted a phased-in approach in the implementation of the decrease or increase in taxes. We request that a similar approach be also applied to the auto industry,” Gonzalez said. “A phased-in approach that introduces tax increases in a gradual manner over a reasonable period will facilitate a smooth transition to the new structure, avoiding the potentially disastrous spikes and dips in consumer demand,” she added. According to Gonzalez, the auto industry, due to the nature of its business structure, requires a longer planning cycle. “A phased-in approach over a number of years will provide the carmakers time to adjust their business plans and minimize the disruption of the tax rate increases,” she said.

Dream killer

House Deputy Minority Leader and Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr. said higher excise taxes on lowpriced automobiles “could dampen the hopes and dreams of many Filipinos to own a car”. “Assuming Congress decides to eventually approve the additional excise taxes, we may have to stagger or space out its application, particularly on cars priced up to P1.1 million, to make it easier on the pockets of low- and middle-income families,” Campos said. “For instance, with respect to cars priced up to P600,000, instead of the entire extra two percent excise tax slapped right away, it might be better to have the initial one percent kick in on the first year, and the other one percent on the second year,” he added. The lawmaker, citing the AmBisyon Natin 2040 survey of the National Economic and Development Authority, said 62 percent of Filipinos want to own a car, in a country where 47 percent of households are carless, 37 percent have one car and 16 percent have more than one car. Campos said the effect of higher excise taxes on the lowest and second lowest-priced cars should be deferred a year after households have reaped the full benefits of the individual income tax cuts that are also provided for in HB 4774.

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Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Monday, February 20, 2017 A3

No disruption of Senate work if de Lima arrested–Pimentel

By Butch Fernandez

@butchfBM

ENATE work will not be disrupted even if beleaguered Duterte administration foe Sen. Leila M. de Lima were arrested for alleged links to big-time illegal-drugs transactions at the National Bilibid Prison when she was still the secretary of justice.

Senate President Aquilino L. Pimentel III made the assurance over the weekend, even as he expressed hope those tasked to arrest de Lima will respect the Senate proceedings and coordinate accordingly. Pimentel pointed out that de Lima presides over only one committee, and her tasks as chairman of the Committee on Electoral Reforms “can very well be assumed, with her consent, by the committee vice chairman”. But Pimentel, citing the legal process, does not see de Lima being arrested any time soon. “Under the Constitution, the court must make a determination first on whether [the charges against de Lima] merit [the] issuance of warrant,” he said. Under the Senate rules, he added, an arrested lawmaker will be marked absent and cannot vote in absentia. Pimentel noted that de Lima was being linked to the illegaldrugs trade inside the New Bilibid Prison. “So, that depends on

Legislator: Include plunder on list of heinous crimes

‘P

LUNDER can kill, thus, it should be included in the list of crimes punishable by death.” This was the statement made by United Nationalist Alliance Rep. Gus S. Tambunting of Parañaque City when asked on his opinion regarding the death penalty. Tambunting said taking at least P50 million intended for the benefit of the Filipino people should be made an offense punishable by death. “’Pag kinuha mo iyong bahagi ng proyekto na dapat mapunta sa mga proyektong pang-imprastraktura, pangkalusugan, pangkabuhayan or emergency aid ay para mo na ring pinapatay ang mga kawawang kababayan natin dahil sila dapat ang benepisyaryo ng mga ganyang programa. Pinapatay mo ang iyong kapwa-Pilipino,” Tambunting said. “We are shortchanging the people of the services that they should be getting. As public servants, we have an obligation to the people to serve them, protect their interest and make sure that the government expenditure should go where it was intended to go to in the first place. The money should not end up in someone’s pocket for his or her personal benefit.” Tambunting added that as lawmakers, and in order to set an example, Congress should be willing to put on the chopping block corrupt public officials guilty of plunder, whether appointed or elected, in all branches and instrumentalities of the government. He dared fellow congressmen into including plunder in the list punishable by death in the pending death-penalty bill, saying: “If our consciences are clear, then we have nothing to worry about. This would also fit well with the administration’s thrust to battle graft and corruption in the government,” Tambunting said.

Death-penalty bill draws line between rich and poor

THE House majority has clearly drawn the line between rich and poor offenders, with moneyed defendants likely to receive mere prison terms, if at all they get convicted, while destitute ones are bound to draw the death sentence, Deputy Minority Leader Lito Atienza said on Sunday. “Death for the poor, lavish lives in prison for the rich. This is apparently what our colleagues in the majority want,” Atienza, a crusader against capital punishment, said. Atienza was responding to the House majority’s last-minute decision to abandon mandatory executions, in favor of giving trial judges the leeway to hand out either the lighter sentence of reclusion perpetua, or the heavier punishment of death, to those found guilty of heinous crimes. Reclusion perpetua means 30 years in prison, with the convict becoming eligible for possible conditional early release after serving just half of the term, or after 15 to 20 years. “The death penalty is a travesty. Only indigent citizens inadequately represented at trial will receive it. Wealthy defendants who are able to retain the best criminal defense lawyers will always escape conviction, or get the lesser punishment,” Atienza said. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

Lopez asked to shut down Bataan coal plant By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

NVIRONMENTAL groups are asking the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to shut down a coal-fired power plant in Bataan whose operation caused ash fall that threaten the health and well-being of communities in Limay, Bataan. The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) earlier staged a picket in front of the DENR main office in Quezon City last week, challenging Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez’s stance against destructive development projects. In particular, they chided the DENR chief’s inaction regarding a coal-fired power plant in Barangay Lamao in Limay, Bataan, which left the residents of the communities with different health complications owing to bottom ash from coal-plant operation. Lopez vowed to address the issue but Ian Rivera, national coordinator of PMCJ, said one month after allegedly issuing a notice of violation to its operator, no corrective action has been undertaken. “I don’t think this issue is being taken seriously,” he said. The Environmental Management Bureau’s Central Luzon office sent a notice of violation on December 28, 2016, and the Office of the DENR secretary sent a similar notice on January 6 this year.

how well Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II, et al. were able to link Senator de Lima to the prison drug trade,” he said. At the same time, Pimentel ruled out suggestions that the Senate take custody of de Lima instead. “No, the Senate cannot [take her into custody],” he said. “But it’s ultimately up to the Court to determine that issue.”

Hold-departure order

Aguirre said he will ask the prosecutors to file an ap-

plication for the issuance of a hold-departure order (HDO) against de Lima who is facing three counts of drug charges before the Regional Trial Court in Muntinlupa City in connection with her alleged involvement in the proliferation of illegal drugs at the New Bilibid Prison. De Lima was charged for alleged violation of Section 5 (sale and trading of illegal drugs) in relation to Section 3 (jj); Section 26 (b) and Section 28 (criminal liability of government officials and employees) of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Aguirre said no arrest warrant has been issued against de Lima since the case will be raffled off at the RTC on Monday afternoon yet. “Kung halimbawang magkaroon ng warrant of arrest, then we will ask the Court to issue an HDO,” Aguirre said. An HDO bars an accused from leaving the country pending the hearing of his or her case in court. Aguirre added the warrants could be released on Monday if the judge who will handle the cases determines that there is probable cause to proceed with the arraignment. With PNA

Economy BusinessMirror

A4 Monday, February 20, 2017 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

PHL jumps 12 notches in economic freedom index

AN elevated view shows the shipping containers stacked at International Container Terminal Services Inc.’s port in Manila. The Heritage Foundation cited the country’s strong export performance as one of the major factors behind the improvement in the Philippines’s ranking in the latest economic freedom index. Nana Buxani/Bloomberg

By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

mprovements in the country’s fiscal stability, government spending and monetary stability pushed the Philippines’s so-called economic freedom up 12 notches to 58th, according to an international think tank.

In its latest annual global survey, US-based think tank Heritage Foundation said the Philippines’s economic freedom improved from 70th in 2016 to 58th out of 186 countries in the 2017 edition. The country’s economic freedom score advanced to 65.6, a 2.5-point increase from its 2016 Index of Economic Freedom (IEF) score. The score is higher than the world average of

60.9 and the Asia-Pacific region average of 60.4. Economic freedom, as measured by the Heritage Foundation, is based on 12 factors grouped in four categories—rule of law, government size, regulatory efficiency and open markets. “The Philippines has achieved notable economic expansion, driven by the economy’s strong export

performance and inflows of remittances,” the think tank said. The research institution also noted that the “the government continues to pursue legislative reforms to enhance the overall entrepreneurial environment and develop a stronger private sector that is needed to generate broaderbased job growth”. The Philippines falls in the “moderately free” territory with its latest score. This moderately free category, according to Heritage Foundation, provides institutional environments in which individuals and private enterprises benefit from at least a moderate degree of economic freedom in the pursuit of greater competitiveness, growth and prosperity. Both Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. and Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III welcomed the results of the latest survey of Heritage Foundation.

“The BSP’s firm commitment to maintain price stability and promote a sound and inclusive financial sector and the positive results we have achieved, thus far, have contributed to the big improvement of the Philippines’s IEF ranking,” Tetangco said. “The benign inflation environment has enabled the economy to further accelerate in 2016, a remarkable feat given the uncertainty and volatility in the global scene. With the BSP’s relentless efforts to pursue proactive reforms to improve governance and risk management in banks, the Philippine banking system remains a pillar of strength that will support the rapid pace of growth of the economy,” he added. Meanwhile, Dominguez said the significant jump in the country’s ranking “validates” the effectiveness of government reforms to advance the economy.

DOE, Peza ink MOU to cut power cost in ecozones By Lenie Lectura @llectura

he Department of Energy (DOE) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) aimed at reducing the power cost in ecozones to attract more investors. Representatives from the two government agencies signed the MOU for the accelerated development of regional economic zones, or ecozones, with the assurance of a reliable and reasonably priced supply of electricity, the DOE said.

“The MOU is an initiative consistent with the long-term economic vision of President Duterte known as ‘Ambisyon 2040’ and complements his 10-point socioeconomic agenda. “Energy policies will be developed to facilitate the reduction of the cost of doing business in the country, including the ecozones,” Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said. Cusi also stressed the importance of policies that would streamline processes for securing permits for energy projects to ensure the stable and reliable supply of energy in ecozones.

CUSI: “Energy policies will be developed to facilitate the reduction of the cost of doing business in the country, including the ecozones.”

“Energy-efficiency programs, like the adoption of the Energy Management Systems [ISO 50001], will be given importance to help the locator companies to

be more efficient in their use of energy resources. This will result in lower power costs to sustain the companies’ competitiveness, while also encouraging the establishment of more energy-efficient ecozones in the country,” Cusi said. “With the MOU in place, the country can expect the flow of critical investment, which in the long run creates more job opportunities and spur rural development,” he added. The MOU was signed by Ene r g y Und e r s e c re t a r y B e n ito Ranque and Peza Director General Charito Plaza.

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Local, foreign airlines use Clark for strategic expansion

LARK FREEPORT—Local and foreign airline companies have started to use Clark International Airport (CRK) to boost their strategic expansion, according to a foreign investor in this free port. Mark Williams, chief executive officer of Global Gateway Development Cor p. (GGDC), said the simultaneous expansion of airline companies at Clark is a clear indication of robust growth and strong demand in Central and Northern Luzon. Officials of Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) are holding talks with more airlines to connect the premier airport north of Manila to different parts of the country, Asia and even North America. CIAC President Alexander Caug uiran sa id t he a ir por t operator is currently in talks with air carriers on possible air connection between Clark and North America. He said CRK has a huge market potential consisting of travelers coming from Northern Luzon, Cagayan Valley Region, Central Luzon and the northern part of Metro Manila or Camanava area (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela). Together, these areas have a combined population of 24.2 million. “Clark ought to be the most logical and practical airport of choice of the people from the northern and central parts of Luzon,” Cauguiran was quoted as saying. CIAC’s master development plan includes developing a new passenger terminal with an 8-million-passenger capacity. The Duterte administration plans to construct another terminal by 2019 or before President Duterte steps down from office. Studies point to the strong growth in the number of passengers in Clark, with the increase in flights at CRK. In its report, CIAC seeks to maximize in the next two to three years the existing terminal with a capacity of 4.2 million passengers annually.

officials said the move from Metro Manila was a good business decision. PAL Senior Vice President for Operations Ismael Gozon said “there are 24 million Filipinos that can be served here by neighboring provinces in Central and Northern Luzon, and that’s a big catchment basin for everybody.” PAL is also set to start mounting flights from Clark to Davao and Puerto Prinsesa and Busuanga in Palawan.

PAL at Clark

Williams expressed optimism that as more flights land in CKR, Clark will solidify its position as the next growth area in the country. He said GGDC’s huge investment in Clark Gateway City is timely for new locators in the Freeport area. “Clark Gateway Cit y, the 177-hectare development of GGDC is in the midst of riding on the crest of economic progress,” he said. Williams said the multibillion-peso project is envisioned to provide support for various industries, such as aviation t h at ne ed s aeropa rk s, a nd bu si ness - process out sou rcing complete with mixed-use infrastructure.

The goal of decongesting Metro Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) is on track to being achieved with more airlines mounting flights from the Clark International Airport, according to Philippine Airlines (PAL) executives. Clark now hosts international and domestic flights of PAL, including daily flights to Caticlan, Cebu, Davao, and daily international flights to Incheon, South Korea. The flag carrier is also set to launch its Clark-Palawan routes to Puerto Princesa and Busuanga on March 26. PAL announced last year it would be shifting some operations to Clark and, recently,

AirAsia returns

Philippines AirAsia, the local unit of Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia, is also set to resume flights from Clark International Airport in Pampanga to Kalibo, Aklan. “We are thrilled to provide the much-needed connectivity at affordable fares for travelers from Central and Northern Luzon,” Philippines AirAsia CEO Capt. Dexter Comendador said. AirAsia is the first airline to launch commercial flights seven years ago, before transferring its hub to the Naia. Cauguiran said AirASia expressed “intention to come back here. They’re talking long term. It’s not just Airasia Philippines that they referred to us; they included Airasia Berhad, the Malaysia-based unit that’s bigger.” More flights also means good business for CKR, which was designed to accommodate 4 million passengers but only sees about a million a year. More flights to and from Clark will not only decongest Metro Manila’s Naia, but will also help prop up the local economy. Cauguiran said more flights to Clark will boost economic activities, including transportation, food and other businesses down the line. Cebu Pacific also has flights to and from Clark. Airport authorities say less traffic, comfort and a better passenger experience form part of the lure of Clark airport for those from Northern and Central Luzon and even people from Metro Manila.

Clark Gateway City

Gap between rich and poor in PHL widening—report By Cai U. Ordinario @cuo_bm

he gap between the rich and the poor in the Philippines may have been wider in the past 25 years, according to a Washingtonbased think tank. In a study, Brookings Institution’s Laurence Chandy and Brina Seidel created alternative Gini coefficients for 134 countries, including the Philippines, and saw an average of a 9-percentage-point increase in inequality worldwide. In the Philippines the country’s Gini coefficient—a measure of in-

equality—shot up to as high as 0.6, or 60 percent, from the current estimate of just over 0.4, or 40 percent, when the researchers assigned it alternative Ginis. “We interpret our revised Ginis as a plausible upper bound of the true value in each country and year,” the authors said. “On average, our adjustment pushes the Ginis up by 9 percentage points. This raises the average within-country Gini from 39 percent to 48 percent,” they added. A Gini coefficient ranges from 0 to 1, with 0 indicating perfect income equality among families,

while a value of 1 indicates absolute income inequality. The researchers came up with their alternative Ginis because they found that the full income of the richest citizens are not covered in surveys. This has an impact on the gap between the rich and the poor in the country. They found that between 20 percent and 40 percent of the difference between national accounts and surveys could be explained by the missing rich. To address the missing data of the top 1 percent, they attributed half of the missing income between surveys and national accounts to missing top incomes.

With the alternative Ginis, the researchers said five new countries joined the pool of countries with the highest inequality—Nigeria, Mexico, Indonesia, Georgia and Guatemala. The US (0.41) and China (0.40) report very similar levels of inequality, when we adjust for missing top incomes the US appears considerably more unequal than its rival (0.51 versus 0.44) “The possibility that inequality is, on average, much higher than reported is cause for alarm. But is inequality within the average country worsening? This is a complicated question to answer, as there are many ways to average Gini coefficients across coun-

tries,” the researchers said. In 2015 the country’s Gini coefficient was estimated at 0.4439, or 44.39 percent. This figure is slightly lower than the 2012 ratio of 0.4605, or 46.05 percent, which may indicate some improvement in the income distribution among families. The PSA said the average annual family income of Filipino families was approximately P267,000 in 2015 and the average annual family expenditure for the same year was P215,000. This results in an annual savings of P52,000 in a year, on average. Adjusting for the inflation for the two reference years using the 2006

prices, the average annual family income in 2015 would be valued at P189,000, while the average annual family expenditure would be valued at P152,000. From 2012 to 2015, average annual family income in all deciles increased, the average ranged from P86,000 for the first income decile (lowest 10 percent) to P786,000 for the 10th income decile (highest 10 percent) in 2015. The average annual family income of the 10th decile in 2015 was about nine times that of the first decile, while it was 10 times that of the first decile in 2012.

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

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Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Monday, February 20, 2017

DA to DSWD: Review cash-transfer program By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

he Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) should evaluate the cash-transfer program it is implementing to find out whether it has fulfilled its goal of uplifting the lives of poor Filipinos.

A g r icu lture Secretar y Emmanuel F. Piñol said the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) must be reviewed, as it has become a “catalyst” for the displacement of Filipino rice farmers. Citing farmers’ complaints in Palawan and other provinces, Piñol said more farmers have decided to leave the agriculture sector and have opted to just depend on the 4Ps. “This is a problem that I have been confronted with in almost all of the rice- and corn-production areas where the Biyaheng Bukid forum was held in the past. The refusal of the 4Ps beneficiaries to undertake hard farm work because they have monthly financial support from the government could be viewed two ways,” he said in a statement over the weekend. “First, it could be an indication of the emancipation of farmworkers from the hard work which offers oppressive wages. Second, it could be a danger sign of a growing mentality of mendicancy on the part of poor families who receive monthly allowances and now an additional amount for their rice allowance,” Piñol added. The 4Ps, a conditional-cash transfer (CCT) program, extends a health grant amounting to P500 monthly year-round and an education grant of P300 per child for 10 months each year to each par-

ticipating household. To receive these cash grants, pregnant women must avail themselves of prenatal and postnatal care, and be attended during childbirth by a trained professional. Parents or guardians must attend the family-development sessions, which include topics on responsible parenting, health and nutrition. Children aged 0 to 5 must also receive regular preventive health checkups and vaccines; those aged 6 to 14 must receive deworming pills twice a year; and children between 3 and 18 must enroll in school, and maintain an attendance of at least 85 percent of class days every month. “As early as when I was governor of North Cotabato, I already saw these danger signs on the 4Ps. Families who line up in front of the Land Bank of the Philippines to withdraw their cash doleouts from the automated teller machince would later be seen in fast-food restaurants and department stores buying cell-phone load,” Piñol said. “The program has also offered an avenue for corruption, especially in many poor areas in Mindanao where the beneficiaries’ ATM cards are controlled by local officials who get a commission from poor families for providing cash advances,” he added.

File photo

To discourage farmers from abandoning their lands, Piñol said he has ordered the expansion of the government’s mechanization program to make farming more efficient. Dr. Rene E. Ofreneo, former labor undersecretary and dean of the University of the Philippines (UP) School of Labor and Industrial Relations, earlier told the the BusinessMirror that the cash dole-outs being given by the government are driving farmers out of the agriculture sector, as they

choose to be dependent on the 4Ps rather than engage in costly farming with low returns. “The money they get from 4Ps is higher than what they earn in actual farming. Most of the farmers, especially the individual ones, don’t take into account their cost of labor in the total cost of production, and if you add it to their inputs, they would even incur more loss,” Ofreneo said. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed the total number of employed people

in the agriculture sector declined by 2.89 percent to 10.985 million in 2016, from 11.312 million recorded in 2015. Of the figure, 9.719 million workers are in the agriculture, forestry and hunting subsector, while the remaining 1.266 million are in the fisheries subsector, according to PSA data. Government data also showed that workers in the agriculture sec tor m ade up t he secondlargest segment, accounting for 26.9 percent of the estimated

40.8 million employed persons in 2016. Instead of giving cash to farmers the government should just distribute planting materials to farmer-beneficiaries under the 4Ps, according to Arze Glipo, executive director of the Integrated Rural Development Foundation, a non-governmental organization. “Farming is not profitable anymore due to expensive planting materials from the seeds, fertilizer and even the labor,” Glipo told the BusinessMirror.

Govt eyes expansion of rice plantations in Tawi-Tawi Consultation for hiking

he Department of Agriculture (DA) said it is keen on developing 6,000 hectares of new rice farms in Tawi-Tawi in its bid to increase the rice output of the province and deter smuggling. “During a meeting with Tawi-tawi Gov. Rashidin Matba, I was given assurances the province is aiming for rice self-sufficiency and targets to develop 6,000 hectares of new rice farmlands to feed a population of about 100,000,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said in a statement released over the weekend.

At present, the province has less than 200 hectares of rice farms, most of which are located in Bongao, Languyan and Mapun, according to Piñol. He added that consumers in TawiTawi rely on “cheap” smuggled rice, as the province’s annual rice output is not enough to meet their requirement. “The low price resulted in the province relying mainly on smuggled rice, instead of developing its rice industry,” Piñol said. “Smuggled rice believed to come from Vietnam were shipped through Malaysia and brought to the provinces

of Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Basilan and even Zamboanga Peninsula,” he added. Citing Matba, Piñol said smuggled rice in the province is being sold at P30 per kilogram, lower than the average price of commercial rice. Piñol said solar-powered irrigation projects will be established in the identified rice-production areas because the province does not have enough water sources to irrigate rice farms. Earlier, the DA chief said rice farms irrigated by solar-powered irrigation systems could produce as much as 8 metric tons per hectare.

The DA also pledged to distribute five 100-horsepower large tractors and other farm inputs, including fertilizers and seeds, to farmers in Tawi-Tawi before the next planting season. “The new rice-production areas, when fully developed and productive, are expected to produce more than enough for the province where people have cassava as their second staple food,” Piñol said. “Tawi-Tawi hopes to reverse its fortune, from a net importer of smuggled rice to an exporter of high-quality rice to neighboring Malaysia,” he added. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

Deere raises profit forecast as construction boosts order book

eere & Co., the world’s biggest maker of farm machinery, raised its 2017 profit outlook, drawing confidence from signs of increased demand in the construction and forestry industries, as well as agriculture. Sales of the company’s signature green-and-yellow agriculture and turf equipment will rise about 3 percent in the fiscal year through October, Deere forecast last Friday as it published better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter earnings. The Moline, Illinois-based company said there are signs the worst may be over following a years-long industry slump. For Deere’s smaller construction and forestry segment, the picture is brighter still, with sales seen climbing about 7 percent. CFO Rajesh Kalathur told analysts on a conference call that construction and forestry orders were up by more than a third in the first 13 weeks of the current quarter from a year ago in the US and Canada. Deere also cited increased activity in oil and gas. “Really what we saw in the quarter was a very, very strong order book,” Tony

Huegel, a Deere spokesman, said last Friday in a conference call with analysts. “That’s what’s driving that confidence.” Net income will be about $1.5 billion in the year through October, Deere said, exceeding both its own previous forecast and the average estimate among analysts of $1.4 billion. It also sees net sales increasing by about 4 percent for the year, from 1 percent previously. The shares erased some of their earlier gains, when they traded at a record high, and were up 0.2 percent to $109.42 in New York. North American tractor inventories through December, while at a record seasonally, have declined 13 percent since April, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Amid those kinds of positive signals, Deere’s shares have rallied over the last several months. That may be one reason why Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., once Deere’s second-biggest shareholder, disclosed earlier this week that it sold its entire stake during the fourth quarter. “It’s early, but we are starting to piece together evidence” of a recovery, said

Farm tractors from Deere & Co. Bloomberg

Mircea Dobre, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee. “Investors are starting to realize that” equipment demand may be showing signs of improving, he said. Deere previously planned to cut costs by $500 million by the end of 2018 and said last Friday that it remains confident of hitting that target. There have been other savings in recent years, including the elimination of thousands of jobs. Deere has remained in the black while

competitors, such as Caterpillar Inc., have suffered losses over the period. Still, market conditions remain tough. Deere expects full-year agricultural sales in the US and Canada to drop by 5 percent to 10 percent due to “weakness” in the livestock and crop sectors. The US Department of Agriculture earlier this month forecast American farmer incomes will fall for a fourth year to their lowest since the financial crisis. Bloomberg News

C. Visayas mango output held in Cebu

ocal government officials in Cebu met in Dohera Hotel in Mandaue City last month to discuss the rehabilitation of the mango industry in the Central Visayas region. Mango is one of the export winners of the region and has a comparative advantage with other high-value crops. It is abundant in Cebu, which is known as the mango capital of Central Visayas. Wilberto Castillo, chief of the Department of Agriculture’s Integrated Laboratory Division and Regional Mango Coordinator, said the Mango Productivity Enhancement Project aims to revisit the mango industry, which has been left out for years. Rehabilitating mango trees in the region, he said, would increase the production of Central Visayas and revive the mango industry. Castillo said a 20-year-old mango tree, if managed properly, would yield around 500 kilograms of fruit. Because mango-bearing trees in the region have been neglected, he said, production has declined drastically in recent years. The mango processors, Castillo said, were not able to meet the needed volume requirement for export due to the lack of fresh mangoes for processing. Some processors are considering to source out raw materials from neighboring Asean countries, like Vietnam and Thailand. Castillo also noted that about 73 percent of mangoes produced in the region are from backyard plantations, or those smaller than 3 hectares. The Philippines ranks ninth in terms of production, with India ranking first based on 2014 data. In terms of mango exports, the Philippines is second to Mexico. Philippine mango is being exported to 48 countries, including Hong Kong and Japan—the top two buyers of the produce. Other major buyers of Philippine mango are the US, Singapore, Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand, Canada, the Netherlands, South Korea and Middle East. Mangoes destined to foreign markets are being exported under the Philippine Super Mango brand. Charles R. Pepito

A6 Monday, February 20, 2017

AseanMonday BusinessMirror

Finding poison in N. Korea attack may be hardest part

Medical staff carry a metallic bed that is used for transporting dead bodies out of the forensic department at Kuala Lumpur Hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last Sunday. Speculation that the estranged half brother of the North Korean leader was killed by two young female agents at the busy Kuala Lumpur airport last week left even the most seasoned toxicology sleuths shaking their heads. AP Photo/Alexandra Radu

UALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—A paranoid dictator’s estranged brother. Two young female assassins. A crowded international airport. And a mysterious poison that kills within hours.

It’s the perfect recipe for a thrilling cloak-and-dagger spy novel. Except some—or possibly even all—of this tale could be true in the apparent assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the older half brother of reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. And just like similar intriguing cases from the past, the public is hanging on to every detail because there’s just something about murder by poison that captivates. “A gun announces its mischief; poison can sneak in with a sip of champagne,” said Robert Thompson, a pop-culture expert at Syracuse University. “The question isn’t why we are fascinated with this latest story, it’s why wouldn’t we be?” Still, speculation that Kim Jong

Nam was killed by two young female “agents” at the busy Kuala Lumpur airport last week left even the most seasoned toxicology sleuths shaking their heads. Add in that the portly sibling was apparently sprayed in the face with a substance so potent it killed him before he could reach the hospital, and you’ve got a scene straight out of a James Bond movie. Four people, including the two women—one Indonesian and the other traveling on a Vietnamese passport—have been detained. The Indonesian told authorities she thought she was participating in a comedy show prank. Conspiracy theories and speculation abound as the police scramble to unravel what really happened to Kim Jong

Nam, aged 45 or 46, the son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and a mistress. After falling out of favor with the family, the son lived for years in exile and was about to catch a flight to Macau when the attack took place. He sought help at the airport clinic after suddenly falling ill and died en route to the hospital. An autopsy has been performed, but the results have not been released. If a chemical agent really was to blame, finding it may be the hardest part of all. Tissue and fluid samples may need to be sent abroad for analysis at a facility with greater capabilities, such as in Japan or at the FBI’s crime lab, if Malaysian experts cannot pinpoint the cause of death. “The more unusual, the more potent, the more volatile a poison is, the less likely it is to be detected,” said Olif Drummer, a toxicologist at Australia’s Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine who has spent 40 years in the field. Experts routinely tasked with finding answers in poisoning cases say the events at Kuala Lumpur’s budget airline terminal are bizarre, but not impossible. They wonder: What substance could have been used to kill the victim so quickly without sickening the women who apparently deployed it, along with anyone else nearby? Difficult, they say, but doable. “It’s not an agent that could be cooked up in a hotel room. It’s going to take a lot of knowledge regarding the chemical in order to facilitate an attack like this,” said Bruce Goldberger, a leading toxicologist who heads the forensic medicine division at the University of Florida. He said a nerve gas or ricin, a deadly substance found in castor beans, could be possible. A strong opioid compound could also have been used, though that would likely have incapacitated the victim immediately. “It would have to be cleverly designed in order to be applied in this fashion without hurting anyone else,” Goldberger said. History is filled with poisoners. From jilted lovers seeking revenge to greedy spouses looking to collect

on life insurance policies. Arsenic, cyanide and strychnine are often the toxins of choice used in murders, but political hits are usually a much more complicated business. Take the Cold War case of Bulgarian defector and journalist Georgi Markov. He was jabbed in the leg with an umbrella in 1978 at a bus stop in London. He died three days later, and a pellet of highly toxic ricin was found under his skin— shot there by a device concealed inside the umbrella. No one was ever arrested, but Bulgarian secret police were suspected with help from the Soviet KGB. The Kremlin has been implicated in a number of high-profile cases, including Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who fled to the United Kingdom and was lethally poisoned by radioactive polonium-210 in 2006. In a report published last year, a British judge wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably approved the assassination carried out by the country’s security service. And just this month, another loud Putin critic, Vladimir Kara-Murza, fell into a coma and was diagnosed with “acute intoxication by an unidentified substance”. The Russian nearly died from a similar unexplained poisoning two years ago. Though the dramatic cases linked to espionage tend to make headlines, many other killings are overlooked entirely. “To me, murder by poison is the easiest thing to get away with,” said John Trestrail, a forensic toxicologist who has examined more than 1,000 poisoning crimes. “If all those people in the cemetery who have been poisoned could raise their hands, we’d probably be shocked.” While murder using toxins is far less common than stabbings and shootings, he said his research shows that poisoners often strike more than once. “These people get away with it time and time again until somebody says, ‘Well, hell, she’s had four husbands and they all died suddenly,’” Trestrail said. “Then the exhumations come and: Bingo!” AP

Singapore’s growth masks dull outlook for economy

ingapore’s government has a message for anyone expecting great things following Friday’s surprise growth bounce: don’t hold your breath. The city-state’s economy will st i l l on ly e x pa nd bet ween 1 percent and 3 percent this year, policy-makers said after fourthquarter growth burst in at an annualized 12.3 percent—the fastest pace in more than five years. They had estimated a 9.1 percent reading, largely thanks to a surge in manufacturing fueled by semiconductor exports tied to China’s supply chain. “We expect the rebound in electronics and in particular semiconductors to carry on into 2017,” Loh Khum Yean, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, told reporters. On the other hand, “the picture for the rest of manufacturing and also across the services sector is a bit mixed.” This year’s growth will be “broadly similar” to that of 2016, when the economy expanded 2 percent from the previous year, he said. The outlook is certainly patchy. The services sector, which accounts for t wo-thirds of the economy, expanded 8.4 percent on an annualized basis. Construction, hampered by long-standing property curbs, was up a mere 0.8 percent. Loh said the retail sector, which grew just 0.6 percent in 2016, remains hindered by online rivalry and slower-than-expected wage growth. Domestic demand also remains weak, with private consumption falling 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the first decline

since the 2008-2009 financial crisis. “The GDP data has again confirmed that the underlying economy is slowing rapidly,” said Vaninder Singh, a strategist at Natwest Markets in Singapore.

Electric shock

Brian Tan, an economist with Nomura Holdings Inc in Singapore, said the robust fourth-quarter should be understood in the context of a better-than-expected performance of Asian countries during the period. It’s stronger domestic demand that’s needed to put the local economy on a higher gear, he said. “The drivers have been similar as in other economies,” Tan said. “The electronics pickup has lifted all boats and Singapore is no exception.’’ Much of Singapore’s semiconductor output is shipped to China, where it ends up as part of electronics products sold across the world. It’s a gloomier picture in the city-state’s marine and offshore sector, which “is not expected to do well this year”, said Yong Yik Wei, director of the MTI’s Economics Division. “The oversupply situation in the offshore rig market is still quite severe, and oil prices are still low compared with oil’s historical level,” Yong said. “So we don’t see new orders picking up there quickly.” A comparison with neighboring economies isn’t flattering. Singapore’s year-on-year growth is still below that of Indonesia’s and Malaysia’s, according to Krystal Tan, an economist with Capital Economics Ltd. in the city-state. She described the quarterly GDP reading as “very volatile”. Bloomberg News

Vietnam shrugs off the loss of TPP Family, friends describe ‘nice girl’ embroiled in Kim case

ecause of its export-driven economy, Vietnam probably would have benefited from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade treaty more than any other nation. Now that President Donald J. Trump has withdrawn the US from the deal, Vietnam is turning to its Asian neighbors. The end of the treaty “will push us to expand in other markets”, says Nguyen Duc Kien, deputy head of the National Assembly economic committee. “We have a lot of potential to increase exports” to markets in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and to some “countries where we have bilateral trade agreements, such as Japan.” The US is by far the largest customer for the apparel, electronics, furniture and shoes that Vietnam makes and will probably remain so for some time. In five years Vietnam doubled the value of its exports to the US, to $38.5 billion in 2016. The TPP would have dramatically lowered or eliminated the tariffs the US imposes on Vietnamese goods. Long before Trump withdrew from the treaty, the Vietnamese were cultivating other ties. “Vietnam is more active than other countries in forging trade deals, and that allows it to diversify its risk,” says Eugenia Victorino, an economist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in Singapore. Vietnam has nine free-trade agreements (FTAs), including deals with India, South Korea,

Australia and New Zealand. Seven more are being negotiated. “We are not so concerned about TPP ending,” says Nguyen Van Tuan, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association. “We will look at ways to boost exports to the EU.” Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc hopes to revive the TPP. If the trade pact continues to exist in some form, the government can use the agreement’s terms to modernize the economy, says Tran Viet Thai, deputy director general of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam in Hanoi, where the country’s foreign service officers are trained. “TPP is not only about market access. It is also a driving force for reform, from legal to labor to transparency and anticorruption,” he says. Australia is interested in resurrecting some version of the partnership with Vietnam and other Asian countries. The more FTAs that Vietnam signs, the less it will have to rely on China and its Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership for the benefits of international commerce. “With the US withdrawing from the TPP, there is a vacuum, and China wants to fill it,” Thai says. “But to lead, there has to be give-and-take, and at this moment, China doesn’t want to give,” he says, referring to China’s reluctance to open its markets. “No one wants to give when populism and anti-freetrade sentiments are on the rise.” Bloomberg News

AKARTA, Indonesia—Family and former neighbors of the Indonesian woman suspected of involvement in the audacious killing of the North Korean leader’s half brother in Malaysia are stunned by the arrest of the young mother who they say was a polite and quiet “nice girl”. Siti Aisyah, 25, is one of three people arrested so far by Malaysian police for possible involvement in the apparent assassination of Kim Jong Nam. Between 2008 and 2011 she and her then-husband lived in a modest dwelling with flaking red paint in a narrow alley of the densely populated Tambora neighborhood in western Jakarta. Her former father-in-law Tjia Liang Kiong, who lives in a nearby middle-class neighborhood and last saw Aisyah on January 28, described her as a “very kind, polite and respectful person”. “I was shocked to hear that she was arrested for murdering someone,” he said. “I don’t believe that she would commit such a crime or what the media says—that she is an intelligence agent.” The three suspects—Aisyah, a woman carrying a Vietnamese passport and a man said to be Aisyah’s Malaysian boyfriend—were arrested separately on Wednesday and Thursday. The women were identified using surveillance videos from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where Kim Jong Nam suddenly fell

Workers assemble clothing at a home used also as a garment factory where Siti Aisyah, the Indonesian woman suspected in the killing of the North Korean leader’s half brother in Malaysia, used to live under a different owner in Tambora neighborhood in Jakarta, Indonesia, last Friday. Aisyah left Indonesia and moved to Malaysia with her husband in 2011 to seek a better life after their garment business collapsed and they eventually got divorced about a year later. The factory is now running under different ownership. AP Photo/Dita Alangkara

ill last Monday morning. Malaysian officials said he died on the way to a hospital after telling medical workers at the airport that he had been sprayed with a chemical. Multiple South Korean media reports, citing unidentified sources, said two women believed to be North Korean agents killed him with some kind of poison before fleeing in a taxi. News of Aisyah’s arrest has captivated Indonesia’s scandal-and-mystery loving media, with some outlets characterizing her as a spy. “Oh my God, how can I believe it,” said Aminah, a housewife

who is one of Aisyah ’s former Tambora neighbors. “She’s very nice with all the people here, she’s so naÏve. How she can kill a great man? No way, it’s impossible,” said Aminah, who uses one name. Aisyah’s mother, Benah, said by telephone that the family comes from a humble village background and has no ability to help her. “Since we heard that from the television, I could not sleep and eat. Same as her father, he just prays and reads the holy Koran. He even does not want to speak,” Benah said. “As villagers, we could only pray.”

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Aisyah probably had been manipulated. He told reporters he believed she was not aware that she was participating in a murder. “From the information we have received and also what was circulating in the media, what has happened in Kuala Lumpur is Kim Jong Nam and Aisyah were victims. Aisyah was a victim of some sort of manipulation or fraud,” Kalla said. I n d o n e s i a n I m m i g r a t i o n Spokesman Agung Sampurno said Aisyah had traveled to countries besides Malaysia since 2014 but he did not elaborate. Aisyah, according to Kiong, had only completed junior high school and moved to Malaysia with her husband in 2011 to seek a better life after the garment-making shop they ran from their home went out of business. The couple left their nearly 2-year-old son in Jakarta, who has been raised by Kiong and his wife since then. Malaysia, which is approaching developed-nation income levels, is a magnet for millions of Indonesians, who typically find work there as bar hostesses, maids and construction and plantation workers. A year after leaving Indonesia, Aisyah returned to Jakarta and told Kiong she wanted a divorce from his son because he’d changed and the marriage had become unhappy. Kiong said his son gave a different account: Aisyah was having an affair with a Malaysian man. AP

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

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Monday, February 20, 2017

Pence offers ‘unwavering’ Nato pledge, leaves open questions M

UNICH—America’s commitment to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) is “unwavering”, US Vice President Mike Pence said on Saturday, reassuring allies about the direction the Trump administration might take, but leaving open questions about where Washington saw its relationship with the European Union and other international organizations.

German Chancellor A ngela Merkel called for strengthening a range of multilateral bodies—the EU, Nato and the United Nations— and lauded the benefits of “a free, independent press.” In his first foreign trip as vice president, Pence sought immediately to address concerns raised by President Donald J. Trump’s earlier comments questioning whether the Nato was “obsolete”. Pence told the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering

of diplomats and defense officials: “I bring you this assurance: The United States of America strongly supports Nato and will be unwavering in our commitment to our trans-Atlantic alliance.” “Your struggles are our struggles. Your success is our success,” Pence said. “And ultimately, we walk into the future together.” Merkel, speaking before Pence, told him and other leaders that “acting together strengthens everyone.” Her address came amid concerns

among allies about the Trump administration’s approach to international affairs and fears that the US may have little interest in working in international forums. “Will we be able to continue working well together, or will we all fall back into our individual roles?” Merkel asked. “Let’s make the world better together and then things will get better for every single one of us.” Trump has praised Britain’s decision to leave the 28-nation EU. And a leading contender to be the next US ambassador to the EU, Ted Malloch, has said Washington is “somewhat critical and suspicious” of the bloc and would prefer to work with countries bilaterally. Pence did not mention the EU in his speech, something picked up on by French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who wrote on Twitter: “In Munich, Vice President Pence renews America’s commitment to the Atlantic alliance. But not a word on the EU.” Pence did say, however, that the US was on a path of “friendship with Europe and a strong North Atlantic alliance.”

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel also indicated skepticism about Pence’s pledges, saying that he agreed Europe needed to work with the US on the basis of common va lues. But in a barely veiled reference to Trump, he said “both countries must define their interests, and our foreign policies should not be driven by ideology.” “Ideologies lead to hostile concepts that might not be able to be overcome,” said Gabriel, who is chairman of the Social Democratic Party, Merkel’s junior coalition partner. Going ahead, he said Europeans “should hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.” In pledging the Trump administration’s support for Nato, Pence said the US expected all countries to live up to commitments to spend at least 2 percent of GDP spending into defense. “Europe’s defense requires your commtitment as much as ours,” he said. Merkel reiterated that Germany is committed to the 2-percent goal, though Germany currently only contributes about 1.3 percent. “We will do everything we can in

order to fulfill this commitment,” she said. “But let me add, however, that I believe while Nato is very much in the European interest, it’s also in the American interest—it’s a very strong alliance where we are united together.” Gabriel suggested that development aid and humanitarian moves—such as in Germany’s decision to take in nearly 900,000 refugees last year—should also be part of the consideration when looking at defense spending. Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told The Associated Press, however, that both things were necessary. “We need a comprehensive approach and, of course, development aid and funding for refugees is also very important,” he said. “But there’s no contradiction between being focused on development aid and security—actually the only way we can create development is to preserve the peace. We need security to be able to facilitate economic development.” Merkel, who met with Pence o ne - o n - o ne fol lo w i n g t he i r speeches, ack nowledged that

Greeks turn to black market as bailout showdown looms

THENS, Greece—During seven years of a grinding economic crisis, Dimitri Tsamopoulos has lost at least half the clients from his once bustling tax consultancy. But in the past few months, business has jumped, not because the Greek economy is finally recovering but because it is falling even deeper into the abyss. With the Greek government pushing through more tax increases to comply with austerity requirements, more than 21,000 self-employed workers and small firms have shut down in the past two months, with many seeking help from accountants like Tsamopoulos to close their books. Yet, many are not actually closing their businesses. “Most of these people will keep working,” Tsamopoulos said, arching an eyebrow from behind his desk as clients waited in a smoky room outside. “But now, they’ll do it on the black market. They’re saying they need a way to survive.” Greece is the crisis that never quite goes away for the European Union, and with another tense negotiation with creditors scheduled for this coming week, the country is struggling to recover from the longest downturn in the euro zone. The budget-slashing policies and reform medicine required by creditors have done little to revive growth, leaving Greece even more dependent on the three international bailouts the country has received since 2010. Few problems are more ingrained, or harder to combat, than the shadow economy, which appears to be growing again as new austerity measures compel once law-abiding Greeks to go off the books. Greece’s black market is estimated at 20 percent to 25 percent of the GDP, as more people have stopped reporting their income to avoid paying taxes that, by some estimates, have risen to 70 percent of an individual’s gross income.

Considered uncollectable

AS of last month, unpaid taxes in Greece had soared to €95 billion, up from €76 billion two years ago. Most of that is considered uncollectable. “The heart of the matter for an ever-rising

number of citizens and businesses is that they simply do not have the financial resources anymore to meet their rising tax obligations,” said Jens Bastian, an economist and a member of a team of EU specialists that helped supervise the country’s earlier bailouts. Short on alternatives, he said, “many are falling back into the gray economy.” Shutting down this gray economy is a priority for Greece’s creditors, even as the two sides are bracing for another showdown, with Athens and its creditors arguing over the latest bailout, worth €86 billion. Greece is aiming to strike a deal with creditors by Tuesday, when European finance ministers meet in Brussels to assess if Athens has done enough in overhauling the economy—and combating tax evasion—to unlock bailout funds. Blended into that equation is a standoff between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European countries over how much more austerity to require of Greece. The IMF wants European creditors to further reduce Greece’s mountainous debt, now at 180 percent of economic output, warning that it will spiral out of control otherwise.

Black hole

THE EU is juggling different crises, including the rise of political populism and the withdrawal of Britain from the bloc, so the possibility of another Greek monetary crisis is alarming. The country risks defaulting on its debts by July, reviving concerns about its place in the euro zone. Businesses and individuals, meanwhile, are struggling to cope in an economy that suffered a devastating shock in 2015, when Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras imposed capital controls and brought Greece to the brink of exiting the euro. Despite a mild recovery, the economy shrank again in the fourth quarter, leaving many Greeks scornful of promises of growth by Tsipras, whose popularity has slumped. An essential piece of Greece’s recovery plan has been to collect more taxes from a population that has long engaged in tax evasion. An

Europeans couldn’t fight global issues, like Islamic extremist terrorism, alone. “We need the military power of the United States,” she said. She renewed a call for Islamic religious authorities to speak “clear words on the demarcation of peaceful Islam and terrorism in the name of Islam.” US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told the security conference that Trump is working on a “streamlined” version of his executive order banning travel from seven predominantly Muslim nations to iron out the difficulties that landed his first order in the courts. Kelly said next time Trump will “make sure that there’s no one caught in the system of moving from overseas to our airports” during the travel ban. The nations affected by the original ban were Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Kelly mentioned “seven nations” again on Saturday, leading to speculation they will all be included in Trump’s next executive order on immigration. AP

Trump’s plan to hike defense spending faces major hurdles

Periklis Ladas (left), at his safety equipment and fireprevention systems shop in Piraeus, Greece, on February 15. Austerity taxes imposed upon Greece have prompted even more people to join the country’s always-problematic shadow economy. Eirini Vourloumis/The New York Times

independent tax authority was created and auditors were hired, helping to pull in about €5 billion more in revenue than expected last year. But businesses and individuals say they have less to give for taxes that keep rising, and a growing incentive to avoid paying. Unemployment remains about 23 percent, and for some people the shadow economy is a lifeline. Others see it as a way to prevent a government they don’t trust from putting their money into a black hole, which is the national debt.

Yiannis said he had also registered a company in Bulgaria, where the business tax rate is 10 percent, so that he could keep issuing receipts for freelance work. Tens of thousands of Greeks have been registering companies in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Luxembourg and other low-tax countries to avoid paying the higher tax bills at home—which means less revenue for Greece’s coffers and creates unfair competition for tax-paying entrepreneurs who could potentially play a bigger role in the revival of Greece’s economy.

Black market

Sapping revenue

ELECTRICIANS, plumbers, hairdressers, journalists, computer consultants and a variety of other self-employed workers have all taken the plunge. On a recent afternoon, Yiannis, a young television production designer, stood in line in a government office to deregister as a consultant. Had he not, he said, his take-home pay this year would amount to just 30 percent of earnings. “It’s like they force you to become illegal,” said Yiannis, who, like many people, refused to give his full name for fear of attracting tax authorities. “Of course, I’m going to work on the black market. I need to make ends meet.”

PERIKLIS Ladas, 28, opened a small company in 2014 to sell and install safety equipment and fire prevention systems. Despite the crisis, business at the firm, Knox, grew briskly. Soon, though, Ladas faced competition from shadow economy operators who offered clients cheaper prices. When he bid on a contract to fireproof a new building, another firm offered to work off the books for half his rate. Ladas won the job because he provided insurance that the competitor could not. But he had to lower his price, sapping revenue that he wanted to reinvest in the business. More income was lost when clients bought his equipment

and hired off-the-book electricians for the installation. “We’re trying to be responsible,” said Ladas, who wants to build a future in Greece rather than leave, as his friends have done. “But it’s hard to compete against others who don’t pay the same tax as you.”

Eaten away

THE revenue that he does earn is steadily being eaten away. When he opened, he kept around 60 percent of his profit, after taxes. Today, his take is about 30 percent, after tax increases approved by the Greek government to meet budget-cutting and revenue targets imposed by creditors. “Those who play by the rules are the ones getting punished,” Ladas said. Even electricians, in a profession rife with shadow economy workers, complain about the competition. In a brightly lit office in central Athens, members of the national electricians union huddled around a table one evening to discuss their plight. “We’re fighting against people who don’t pay taxes,” said Emmanouil Kafkalas, the general secretary, adding that at least half of electricians worked in the shadow economy. “We’re losing work because they can charge less.” AP

ASHINGTON—Republicans control Congress so President Donald J. Trump’s pledge to boost the Pentagon budget by tens of billions of dollars should be a sure bet. It’s not. Trump faces skeptical Democrats whose support he’ll need and resistance from fiscal conservatives opposed to repealing a 2011 law that set firm limits on military and domestic spending. Unless the president figures out a way to mollify the disparate camps, he’ll have a tough time delivering on a signature campaign promise to rescue the armed forces from a festering financial crisis. Senior US commanders have flatly warned that the spending caps set by the Budget Control Act are squeezing the armed forces so hard that the number of ready-to-fight units is dwindling. That means beating powers, such as Russia or China, is tougher than it used to be as aging equipment stacks up, waiting to be repaired and troops don’t get enough training. Gen. Daniel Allyn, the Army’s vice chief of staff, startled many lawmakers when he testified recently that just three of the service’s 58 active-duty and reserve brigade combat teams are ready to fight at a moment’s notice. Allyn and other four-star officers pleaded during separate hearings in the House and Senate for the spending limits to be repealed, clearing the way for the bigger budgets they say are needed to stop the military’s readiness for combat from decaying further. “We need to act now before it’s too late,” said Gen. Stephen Wilson, the Air Force’s vice chief of staff. The average age of Air Force aircraft is 27 years, according to Wilson, who added that more than half of the service’s inventory would qualify for antique vehicle license plates in Virginia. On top of that, the Air Force is short 1,500 pilots and 3,400 aircraft maintainers, he said. The Navy and Marine Corps are experiencing the same turbulence. Trump, speaking at a White House news conference on Thursday, said he’s ordered a plan for a “massive rebuilding” of the armed forces. He didn’t disclose how much he expected his blueprint to cost. National security hawks in Congress have suggested a defense budget of $700 billion in 2018—more than at any point during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The total, which includes $60 billion for overseas combat operations, is $91 billion over the mandatory spending cap. AP

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A8 Monday, February 20, 2017

Study finds underage, fearful women in Vegas sex trafficking

AS VEGAS—A yearlong academic study of sex trafficking in Las Vegas is providing a glimpse into a shadowy world beneath the neon glow, where underage girls, threatened by pimps, solicit for business in casinos, on streets and online. Of 190 identified sex-trafficking victims in 2014, Arizona State University (ASU) researchers found two-thirds were under 18 years old, one in five was brought to southern Nevada from somewhere else and more than half were never reported as missing. “These are kids that nobody even cares enough about to report missing,” said Laura Meltzer, a Las Vegas police officer involved in the report’s roll-out. “As a mom, that breaks my heart.” A victim advocate in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Elynne Greene, called them “throwaway kids”. She said many are products of the foster care system. The average underage victim in the study was 16. The youngest was 12. About one in three victims was recruited by a boyfriend-turned“violent, fear-based” abuser, with more than half reporting being forced through physical assault involving a gun, knife, razor or cord.

Misperception

THE average trafficker was 29 years old, and 80 percent of them had criminal histories. Most came from outside Nevada, and most of those were from California. Some said they were told their families would be targeted if they didn’t cooperate. “They are violently forced into this,” said Dominique Roe-Sepow-

Joggers in bras, panties, briefs raise money for sick children

HILADELPHIA—Some joggers weren’t joking when they said they were going out for a “brief run”. In briefs, boxers, bras and bloomers, they ran three-quarters of a mile in a Valentine’s Day-related charity event benefiting sick children. Saturday’s annual Cupid’s Undie Run featured 1,000 people in their underwear and little else, except for maybe some body-painted hearts, angels and Cupid’s arrows on their chests. Participants, some of whom shaved hearts into their chest hair, ran through the streets near the city’s sports stadiums. Previous years’ events have taken place despite snow, but weather for this year’s was sunny with temperatures approaching 70 degrees, prompting runners in their scanty panties to chirp, “Sun’s out! Buns out!” Sisters Melissa Tamimi, in gray panties and a matching sports bra, and Sofia Tamimi, in black panties and a gray lacy bra, had no problem mentioning their unmentionables. “I’m about as comfortable as you could be running in underwear,” Melissa Tamimi said. Similar events took place in other cities, including St. Louis, Miami, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Money was raised for the Children’s Tumor Foundation to help research neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors in the nervous system. The incurable disorder can cause physical deformities, blindness, deafness and chronic pain, usually in adolescents. Runner Jeff Eckert, who’s 30 years old, said he was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, also called NF, when he was five. He said he was participating in the Undie Run wearing Superman boxer shorts to help raise money and awareness. Philadelphia race director Dan Frenia, whose wife and 12-year-old son have been diagnosed with NF, said this year’s race raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and the national events have raised about $20 million over the last few years. He said he hoped to grow the Philadelphia event from 1,000 people to 3,000 or more and spread the word about NF so a cure can be found. “This is our passion in life,” he said. “This isn’t just a one-day event for us.” AP

itz, director of the ASU Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research, which conducted the study of a sex trade that’s been made part of a “Sin City” image and reinforced by a misperception that prostitution is legal in Las Vegas. While brothels are legal in rural counties, prostitution is illegal in Clark and Washoe counties, home to Nevada’s largest cities, Las Vegas and Reno. And while sex trafficking has drawn increasing attention in recent years from local, state and federal elected officials, it has been hard to measure and difficult to stop. The report aims to provide data for police, prosecutors, parents and the public about who sex traffickers are and how they recruit, sell and keep victims, Roe-Sepowitz said.

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Food truck rules outnumber patrons in Hong Kong SAR

New tools

THE report also pointed to difficulties prosecuting accused sex traffickers. Only 34 of the 159 cases studied, or a little more than one in five, resulted in convictions. “It’s a fight that will never be easy,” said Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, whose office offers victim advocates and a prosecutor who specializes in sextrafficking cases. “As prosecutors, we need witnesses to come to court to be able to prosecute cases. Often, they’re young, unwilling, uncooperative and fearful.” Roe-Sepowitz called the report a snapshot, but she said the ASU School of Social Work planned updates based on reports of prostitution arrests from 2015 and 2016. “We really have to find new tools for law enforcement to work to get that trafficker off the streets, or he’ll find someone else to traffic in five minutes,” she said. AP

Southern California rain eases; north facing renewed storm

OS ANGELES—A huge Pacific storm that parked itself over Southern California and unloaded, ravaging roads, opening sinkholes and leading to the deaths of at least three people, eased off Saturday. But it was only a temporary reprieve as new storms took aim farther north. The National Weather Service predicted drying weather through Sunday followed by the return of wet weather in the region. But while flashflood watches for Southern California were canceled, Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area were facing a weekend return of heavy rain and winds that lashed them earlier in the week before the storm moves out. Authorities said the San Joaquin River is reaching flood stage, and they are warning residents in Manteca to be ready to evacuate in case it reaches dangerous levels. “Stronger southerly winds and widespread flooding will be likely as an atmospheric river (of moisture) takes aim somewhere along the central California Coast,” a weather statement warned. The approaching rain could cause more problems in the far north, where damage to spillways of the Lake Oroville dam forced the evacuation of 188,000 people last weekend.

Fallout

THE California Department of Water Resources, however, said on Saturday night that the level of Lake Oroville continues to fall despite the stormy weather, and the amount of water flowing down the spillway continues to be cut. The amount of water flowing down the spillway has been reduced to 55,000 cubic feet per second, the department said. Earlier this week outflows were at nearly 100,000 cubic feet per second. Meanwhile, authorities up and down the state were dealing with the fallout, including overflowing creeks, mudslide threats in foothill areas denuded by previous fires, road collapses and hundreds of toppled trees in neighborhoods. AP

Pineapple Canteen, a food truck at Salisbury Garden in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, on February 8. Food trucks are a part of the government’s plan to attract more tourism, but stringent regulations and unusual locations are bogging down business. Lam Yik Fei/The New York Times

By Michael Forsythe | New York Times News Service

ONG KONG—For the 23rd year running, Hong Kong is, in the opinion of the conservative Heritage Foundation, the freest economy in the world. With low taxes, an efficient government and private businesses running the city buses and its spotless subways, this place is a libertarian dream come true. So the story goes. Many people who live in Hong Kong beg to differ. This has long been a city of tycoons, with a few families holding sway over the supermarkets, drugstores and real estate market, limiting competition and keeping prices high. And in the past few weeks, four words have further shaken the story line that this former British colony is a free-market nirvana: “Food Truck Pilot Scheme”. Hong Kong, a culinary paradise that is arguably the dim sum capital of the world, was, until this month, sorely lacking in something that other financial capitals, like New York and London, have in spades: food trucks. Something had to be done to close the yawning food truck gap. Enter the Hong Kong government, keen to draw in more tourists. After more than a year of preparation, and even cook-offs to pick the lucky few, the food trucks are finally here. Eight for a city of 7.2 million. There are plans for eight more.

Innovative idea

THE trucks are sights to behold. Gleaming and new, they are brightly and imaginatively painted, with names like Ma Ma’s Dumplings and Mein by Maureen. One is emblazoned with a panda that bears a striking resemblance to Po of Kung Fu Panda fame. And the food—in the opinion of this hearty eater—is fabulous. The Shanghai barbecue pork bun from the Book Brothers truck melts

in your mouth. The “five-colored dumplings” at Ma Ma’s are delicious—an authentic taste of northern China. Just one ingredient seems to be missing: customers. Food trucks in most cities are mobile. They can move from place to place. They are, after all, trucks. In New York, one might hit the lunch crowd in Midtown, then head uptown to Columbia University to catch hungry students in late afternoon. In Hong Kong, the government agency that devised the Food Truck Pilot Scheme had a new, bold and innovative idea: stationary food trucks that don’t park on the street. A spokesman for the city’s Tourism Commission explained why in an email: “Since the urban area of Hong Kong is already saturated with traffic, it would not be desirable from the traffic management and road safety angles to allow food trucks to park and operate on public roads. Moreover, as many locations in Hong Kong have already got a number of food establishments, it would thus be desirable to introduce food trucks away from those areas.”

Guidelines

IT’S all explained in a raft of guidelines. There are seven annexes in all, including licensing requirements (Annex D), special government-loan programs (Annex B) and fixed venues (Annex F). Then there is Annex C— “Mandatory Requirements for a Food Truck”—that lists in painstaking detail what each truck must

have. Some examples: The kitchen floor space must be at least 65 square feet. Each truck must have a potable water tank with a capacity of about 32 gallons, and a wastewater tank at least one and a half times that size. The sink must be at least a foot and a half in length. And so on. To meet all of those regulations, Hong Kong food trucks must be custom vehicles, bearing little resemblance to the decades-old trucks that congregate near the National Mall in Washington, the capital of a country that has only the 17th freest economy in the world. All these rules and regulations have Liu Chun-ho, the owner of Ma Ma’s Dumpling, very worried. To meet the stringent requirements, he paid about HK$1 million ($129,000) for his new Isuzu truck.

Fees

ON a sunny afternoon recently, Liu’s truck was attracting a trickle of customers in a square near the Wong Tai Sin Temple, one of eight places where food trucks can operate, with the venue maximum set at two food trucks (see maps in Annex G). The trucks must pay a monthly service fee to park. At Wong Tai Sin, it is HK$17,000 a month or 15 percent of the gross revenue, whichever is higher (Annex E). Liu illustrates his challenge in units of dumplings. He needs to sell 200 bowls a day, at HK$40 each, just to cover his fixed costs, he said. He is barely making that now and fears business will plummet once summer comes with the monsoon rains and pounding semitropical sun that will keep customers away from the treeless, concrete square. “The government needs to loosen up,” said Liu, 43. He has been to Thailand and Japan, and in those places, “you can set up shop anywhere, on the roads, on the streets,” he said.

Entrepreneurship

THE result is that small-business entrepreneurs, the mainstays of food trucks in other countries, find it forbidding to enter the market in Hong Kong. One truck is owned by a US company with a fleet of trucks in California, another by the heiress to a local noodle chain, which also won the rights to operate one of the next eight food trucks set to go into operation. Despite these problems, Hong Kong’s government has rolled out

the program with great fanfare. There has been an endless stream of news releases, and the city has hired a public relations firm to drum up interest. Liu had just finished giving an interview to two reporters from the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship People’s Daily newspaper. There’s even a phone app, Hong Kong Food Truck, that shows which trucks are at which of the eight designated locations.

Hopes

LIU hopes, perhaps against hope, that he’ll be able to make more money at a venue his truck will occupy in the future—a patch of landfill jutting out into Victoria Harbor called Golden Bauhinia Square. To get there, pedestrians must take a zigzag of narrow paths through a giant construction project. The square, whose main attraction is a golden statue of a bauhinia flower, an emblem of the city, is also frequented by buses filled with tourists from mainland China. There, on a weekday afternoon, four employees of Book Brothers waited for customers to buy their delicious barbecue pork sandwiches, which come with a Hong Kong flag planted in the bun. Over a 15-minute stretch, they had one sale. One woman from mainland China balked at the price, HK$38 ($4.90), for the small sandwich, saying she thought that was the price for three. That’s a problem, said Chen Qiuling, one of the workers, who said two-thirds of their customers were from China. The workers at Book Brothers hope that their next location, closer to the city’s central business district, will be busier. And if they can’t sell their pork buns, they could always try something else, right? After all, that’s what capitalism is all about. Not so fast. Please refer to Answer No. 8 of the government’s “Frequently Asked Questions: Application of the Food Truck Pilot Scheme (Pilot Scheme).” “No alteration of the signature dish proposed by the applicant in the application form will be allowed after the submission of Application and throughout the Scheme,” it declares. “If the operator wishes to change dishes other than the signature dish, he should obtain prior written approval from the Venues and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.”

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Turkey detains dozens after car bomb attack

STANBUL—Turkish officials say 26 people have been detained following a car-bomb attack, which killed two people in the southeast of the country. The car bomb exploded on Friday near the lodgings of judges and prosecutors in the mainly Kurdish town of Viransehir in Sanliurfa province, bordering Syria. Footage from the scene showed a heavily damaged building and wrecked cars. In a news conference at the town’s courthouse on Saturday, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the explosion killed the 11-year-old son of a court clerk and a 27-year-old neighborhood guard. Eleven people remain hospitalized, including the public prosecutor’s wife, the minister stated. Two are in critical condition. The governor’s office announced on Saturday that 26 people who have been detained include the owner of the van, which was loaded with explosives and parked near the government housing. Gov. Gungor Azim Tuna told state-run Anadolu news agency that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, is responsible. US Vice President Mike Pence met with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in Germany and expressed his condolences for the attack. “The vice president reiterated the United States’s commitment to Turkey as a strategic partner and Nato [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] ally,” a White House statement said. Turkey has been hit by a series of violent attacks since the summer of 2015, which were blamed on the Islamic State group or Kurdish militants. More than 550 people have been killed in these attacks. The PKK has targeted security personnel and state buildings with car bombs since a cease-fire collapsed in 2015. Turkey and its Western allies consider the group a terrorist organization. According to the nonprofit International Crisis Group, at least 2,571 people have been killed in armed clashes since, including civilians, state security force members, Kurdish militants and youth of unknown affiliations. AP

Senators want materials saved for Russia probe

ASHINGTON—The Senate intelligence committee has sent formal requests to more than a dozen organizations, agencies and individuals, asking them to preserve all materials related to a probe the panel is conducting on Russian interference in the 2016 election and related issues, a congressional aide said on Saturday. The committee chairman, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and its vice chairman, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., sent letters out on Friday—the same day committee members received a classified briefing from Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey. Committee members declined to comment on what was discussed after the more than hour-long briefing. The aide was not authorized to discuss the issue and spoke only on condition of anonymity. On Thursday Senate Democrats wrote the White House and lawenforcement agencies seeking assurances that they were preserving all materials related to contacts individuals associated with President Donald J. Trump had with Russians. Those letters asked for confirmation that the White House, FBI and Justice Department had instructed their employees to preserve all materials related to any contacts Trump’s administration, campaign, transition team—or anyone acting on their behalf—have had with Russian government officials or its associates. The letter to the White House counsel said the executive branch and Congress have been investigating Russia’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election. As a part of these investigations, there have been ongoing inquiries into communications or contacts between the Trump campaign or Trump transition team and associates or officials of the Russian government, including communications involving ousted national security adviser Mike Flynn. AP

Monday, February 20, 2017

For $200,000, a possibility to whisper in Trump’s ear

Iraqi forces launch attack to take western Mosul from Islamic State

AGHDAD—Iraqi forces have launched the push for Mosul’s militant-held western half just over four months after the operation to retake the city from the Islamic State group officially began. The fight for Iraq’s second-largest city—roughly split by the Tigris River into an eastern and a western section—has seen periods of swift territorial gains, as well as weeks of grueling urban combat with high civilian and military casualties. Iraqi and US-led coalition officials say they expect the fight for the west to be more difficult as it is denser, with narrower streets and home to more civilians.

The operation so far

Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, the so-called winter White House, in Palm Beach, Florida, on February 5. The president’s weekends here have created an arena for potential political influence rarely seen in American history, a sort of Washington steakhouse on steroids where members and their guests enjoy a perhaps unparalleled level of access. Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

est-connected. On any given weekend, you might catch President Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law and top Mideast dealmaker, Jared Kushner, by the beachside soft-serve icecream machine, or his reclusive chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, on the dining patio. If you are lucky, the president himself could stop by your table for a quick chat. But you will have to pay $200,000 for the privilege—and the few available spots are going fast. Virtually overnight, Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s members-only Palm Beach, Florida, club, has been transformed into the part-time capital of US government, a winter White House where Trump has entertained a foreign head of state, health-care industry executives and other presidential guests. But Trump’s gatherings at Mara-Lago—he arrived there Friday afternoon, his third weekend visit in a row—have also created an arena for potential political influence rarely seen in US history: a kind of Washington steakhouse on steroids, situated in a sunny playground of the rich and powerful, where members and their guests enjoy a level of access that could elude even the bestconnected of lobbyists. Membership lists reviewed by The New York Times show that the club’s nearly 500 paying members include dozens of real-estate developers, Wall Street financiers, energy executives and others whose businesses could be affected by Trump’s policies. At least three club members are under consideration for an ambassadorship. Most of the 500 have had memberships predating Trump’s presidential campaign, and there are a limited number of memberships still available.

Members

WILLIAM I. Koch, who oversees a major mining and fuels company, belongs to Mar-a-Lago, as does billionaire trader Thomas Peterffy, who spent more than $8 million on political ads in 2012 warning of creeping socialism in the United States.

Another member is George Norcross, an insurance executive and the South Jersey Democratic Party boss, whose friendship with Trump dates to the president’s Atlantic City years, when Norcross held insurance contracts with Trump’s casinos, and Trump wrangled with the state’s Democratic leaders over tax treatment of the properties. Yet, another member is Janet Weiner, part owner and CFO of the Rockstar energydrink company, which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying federal officials to avoid tighter regulations on its products. Bruce Toll, a real-estate executive who cofounded Toll Brothers, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, and who is still active in the industry, owns a home nearby and frequently sees Trump at Mara-Lago, he said. While they did not discuss any of Toll’s specific projects, he said, the two would occasionally discuss national issues, such as Trump’s plans to increase spending on highways and other infrastructure projects. “Maybe you ought to do this or that,” Toll said of the kind of advice that Trump got from club members.

Unfair

TRUMP’S son Eric, in an interview on Friday, rejected suggestions that his family was offering access to his father and profiting from it. First, he said, only 20 to 40 new members are admitted per year, and second, the wealthy business executives who frequent the club, among others, have many ways to commu-

nicate with the federal government if they want to. “It assumes the worst of us and everyone, and that is unfair,” Eric Trump said. Hope Hicks, a White House spokesman, said the president had no conflicts of interest, a reference to the fact that federal law exempts him from provisions prohibiting federal employees from taking actions that could benefit themselves financially. “But regardless, he has not and will not be discussing policy with club members,” she said in a written statement. Mar-a-Lago, she added, is “one of the most successful private clubs in the world,” and it “was intended to be the Southern White House, and the president looks forward to hosting many world leaders at this remarkable property.”

Administration priority

KOCH—the estranged brother of his better-known siblings, Charles G. and David H.—owns a home in Palm Beach and hosted a fund-raiser for Trump during the campaign. His company, Oxbow Carbon, is among the world’s largest sellers of petroleum coke, an oil byproduct and would be a significant beneficiary of the Keystone XL pipeline, construction of which is a Trump administration priority. Brad Goldstein, a spokesman for William Koch, said he did not know whether the two men had ever discussed policy matters. “If I did know,” Goldstein added, “the answer would be that I decline to comment.” Historically, of course, US presidents have often been rich men with mansions, who sometimes conducted the people’s business in weekend haunts of the wealthy: the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, for example, or the Kennedy family home in Hyannisport, Massachusetts.

‘The gang’

PRESIDENT Dwight D. Eisenhower joined the elite Augusta National Golf Club before he was elected, frequently hanging out there with a group of affluent businessmen who became known as “the gang,” which included top executives from CocaCola and an oil company, an investment banker and a lawyer-financierlobbyist. But Trump’s weekend White House appears to be unprecedented in US history, as it is the first one with customers paying a company owned by the president, several historians said. “Mar-a-Lago represents a com-

mercialization of the presidency that has few if any precedents in American history,” said Jon Meacham, a presidential historian and Andrew Jackson biographer. “Presidents have always spent time with the affluent,” he added. “But a club where people pay you as president to spend time in his company is new. It is kind of amazing.”

Increasing cash flow

CHRISTOPHER Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax Media and a longtime donor to and a friend of the president, said Trump had always conducted what amounted to informal focus groups on a variety of topics, but that face time with him since the election had become restricted to family and old friends. “It’s a myth to think that anybody could just join the club and go speak to the president,” Ruddy said, adding that the Secret Service has instituted a de facto rope line around the president’s table in recent weeks, which several other club members confirmed. But the weekly gatherings at Mar-a-Lago have drawn some scrutiny from Democrats in the Senate, who called for Trump to release a list of all of the members. “Your winter White House will provide an audience with you for those who can afford it, not to mention an increasing cash flow into your family-run organization,” Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Tom Udall, D-N.M., wrote in a letter sent to Trump this month. “Instead of draining the swamp, it appears you’re bringing Washington right to the swamps at Mar-a-Lago.”

Brief interlude

ONE longtime member is Richard LeFrak, a fellow New York developer and one of Trump’s closest friends, who, in turn, has recruited some of his own friends to join. Jeff Greene, a Senate candidate in Florida in 2010, said he had joined at the urging of LeFrak. But Mar-a-Lago, where Trump’s old New York circle blurs easily into his presidency, is a place where the president of the US might seek guidance on a major government project the way another New Yorker might ask around for a good orthopedist. When LeFrak paid a visit to Trump at Mar-a-Lago last weekend, he appeared a little startled when Trump, in a brief interlude during the conversation, told him that the Department of Homeland Security was quoting a price of more than $20 billion for the proposed border wall with Mexico. New York Times News Service

IN the days after Iraqi forces announced the start of the Mosul operation, Iraq’s special forces quickly retook a handful of largely empty villages along the city’s east that brought them to Mosul’s edge in nearly November. Once inside the city, the tempo of operations changed dramatically, with barrages of car bombs inflicting heavy military and civilian casualties. Iraqi forces repeatedly advanced too quickly into Mosul’s eastern neighborhoods by day, only to face punishing counterattacks by night. However, as Iraqi forces closed in on the Tigris River, they began to see swifter progress. Iraqi and coalition officials claim this was due to new tactics and better coordination between the disparate forces fighting in Mosul, but Iraqi troops on the ground say IS defenses simply began to thin, allowing them to secure swifter gains.

The players

AS in the fight for Mosul’s east, Iraq’s special forces are expected to take the lead in the battle for the west. The USled coalition will continue to closely back Iraqi forces with both air strikes and raids into IS-held territory aimed at taking out key leaders and sowing unease in IS-held neighborhoods. There are now some 6,000 US troops in Iraq and last month was the first time the Pentagon confirmed that US forces are working inside Mosul. This is a sharp contrast to how the military engagement was originally cast more than two years ago. When the US-led coalition began the fight against IS in Iraq, Pentagon officials insisted there were no “American boots on the ground.” Since then, US forces have steadily built up in Iraq and moved closer to front-line fighting. Iraq’s militarized federal police, US-trained rapid response units and the Iraqi army will also participate. Iraq’s government-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Units—mostly Shiite militias—have held the western edge of Mosul’s outskirts and have pledged to participate if their help is needed. In the past, Iraq’s prime minister has sought to limit the involvements of PMU fighters in majority Sunni urban areas due to reports of abuses of civilians from humanrights organizations.

The terrain

IRAQI and coalition officials say the biggest difference in the fight for Mosul’s west will be the terrain: The western half of the city is home to some of Mosul’s oldest neighborhoods with narrow streets that Iraqi forces won’t be able to drive armored cars down. Even Iraq’s special forces— some of the most competent fighters in Iraq’s military—have so far largely fought the Mosul battle from inside their vehicles, rather than moving house to house on foot, in an effort to limit military casualties.

Southern Front

IRAQI forces are expected to push into western Mosul from the south near the city’s international airport. Originally, Iraqi forces planned to push in from the city’s south as the fight for the east was unfolding, but as they became bogged down in eastern Mosul, the southern front was put on hold. Iraq’s militarized federal police retook the village of Hamam al-Alil last November and since then the front has barely moved as some units were dispatched to eastern Mosul to help with the fight there. AP

A10 Monday, February 20, 2017

The World

Order that incarcerated Japanese-Americans is 75

AN FRANCISCO—Satsuki Ina was born behind barbed wire in a prison camp during World War II, the daughter of US citizens forced from their home without due process and locked up for years following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Roughly 120,000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans were sent to desolate camps that dotted the West because the government claimed they might plot against the US. Thousands were elderly, disabled, children or infants too young to know the meaning of treason. Two-thirds were citizens. And now as survivors commemorate the 75th anniversary of the executive order that authorized their incarceration, they’re also speaking out to make sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Muslims, Latinos or other groups. They’re alarmed by recent executive orders from President Donald J. Trump that limit travel and singleout immigrants.

Desperate families

IN January Trump banned travelers from seven majority Muslim nations from entering the US, saying he wanted to thwart potential attackers from slipping into the country. A federal court halted the ban. Trump said at a news conference on Thursday that he would issue a replacement order this week. “We know what it sounds like. We know what the mood of the country can be. We know a president who is

going to see people in a way that could victimize us,” said Ina, a 72-year-old psychotherapist who lives in Oakland, California. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, to protect against espionage and sabotage. Notices appeared ordering people of Japanese descent to report to civil stations for transport. Desperate families sold off belongings for cheap and packed what they could. The luckier ones had white friends who agreed to care for houses, farms and businesses in their absence. “Others who couldn’t pay their mortgage, couldn’t pay their bills, they lost everything. So they had to pretty much start from scratch,” said Rosalyn Tonai, 56, executive director of the National Japanese American Historical Society in San Francisco.

Flippant attitude

TONAI was shocked to learn in middle school that the US government had incarcerated her mother, aunts and grandparents. Her family hadn’t talked about it. Her mother, a teenager at the time, said she didn’t remember details. Her organization, the Japanese American Citizens League and others oppose the use of the word “internment”. They say the government used euphemisms such as “internment,” ‘‘evacuation” and “non-alien” to hide the fact that US citizens were incarcerated and the Constitution violated. AP

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Paris protesters decry police abuse; some clash with police

ARIS—Paris police sprayed tear gas at bottle-throwing demonstrators on the margins of a rally on Saturday meant to support a young black man who was allegedly raped with a police baton and other victims of police abuse. Two police officers were injured and 13 people were arrested in the clashes, which involved about 150 of the thousands of mostly peaceful antiracism demonstrators. The skirmishes marked the latest in a string of protests around the alleged rape that have degenerated into violence. Police had installed a security perimeter around Paris’ Place de la Republique for the rally. Far-right

presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, meanwhile, urged the government to ban the protest out of respect for police. Demonstrators carried banners reading “Justice for Theo”, the name of the 22-year-old alleged rape victim. The protesters argue that Theo is just one example of many young minority men unfairly targeted by French police in ID checks

and sometimes abused. One officer has been charged with rape in the case, and three others with aggravated assault. All deny intentional wrongdoing.

Skin color

FORMER French national soccer star Lillian Thuram was among the Paris marchers Saturday calling for justice. “Living in the public space is not the same, depending on the color of your skin,” he said. “We’re in 2017. This is a real shame.” Theo, whose last name has not been released, was hospitalized for two weeks after the reported attack in his hometown of Aulnay-sous-Bois northeast of Paris.. After an apparent video of the attack circulated online, angry youth torched cars and clashed with police for several days in suburbs around Paris. The violence was reminiscent

of riots in 2005 that exposed France’s longrunning problems between youths in public housing projects with high immigrant populations and police. Demonstrator Hamid Djudi, 57, expressed frustration on Saturday that successive French governments have failed to prevent abuse and discrimination. “In the 1980s, we were protesting racism. I was 20 years old in the ‘80s. I used to face (police) controls four times a day,” he said. “History repeats itself. My own children are facing the same troubles.” “One of them is an engineer, the other is a doctor, and my daughter is at the Institute of Political Studies. And they are controlled by police every time they go out of our building,” he lamented. “This is not normal. That’s why I decided to come here. To protest for my children.” AP

Kenny Sutter runs a combine in his soybean field during harvest at Sutter Family Farms near Pleasantville, Iowa, on October 14, 2015. Kraft Heinz acknowledged on February 17 that it had made a $143-billion bid for Unilever, but the two companies’ corporate cultures could not be more diametrically opposed: Unilever spent the last seven years working to reduce its carbon footprint; Kraft Heinz is known for ruthless cost cutting. Ryan Donnell/The New York Times

Why the Kraft Heinz $143-billion bid for Unilever could make an odd match By David Gelles

New York Times News Service

ALK about an odd couple. Kraft Heinz acknowledged on Friday that it had made a $143-billion bid for Unilever, but the two companies’ corporate cultures could not be more diametrically opposed: n Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch maker of Dove Soap and Lipton tea, has spent the last seven years working to reduce its carbon footprint, use more sustainable materials and promote global health. Kraft Heinz, a recently assembled conglomerate selling its namesake macaroni and ketchup, is known for ruthless cost cutting, huge layoffs and relentless penny pinching. n Unilever is led by Paul Polman, a sustainability evangelist who considered joining the priesthood before becoming an executive. Kraft Heinz is controlled by 3G Capital, a Brazilian private-equity firm that has partnered with Warren Buffett to go on a deal-making rampage. n Unilever stopped issuing shortterm guidance, encouraged its shareholders to take the long view and has taken pains to preserve the quirky cultures of acquired companies like Ben & Jerry’s.

Business proposition

KRAFT Heinz and its backers have stopped at nothing to increase their clout, swallowing ever larger targets. 3G’s partners also control the world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, which last year took over its nearest rival, SABMiller. “They are radically different

cultures,” said Mindy Lubber, CEO of Ceres, which promotes responsible business practices. “Unilever is the most transparent and open company there is about sustainability being part of their mission. They see it being part of their business proposition.” Kraft Heinz, by contrast, is among the companies least committed to sustainability, Lubber said. “Kraft Heinz doesn’t even release a sustainability report, which in the year 2017 is shocking for a multinational company,” she said. According to a 2015 study by Ceres that evaluated how big food companies managed water risk, Unilever was the most responsible steward of water needs. Kraft Heinz was among the worst performers. None of this is lost on either company.

Olive branch of sorts

IN its statement acknowledging the offer, Kraft Heinz extended an olive branch of sorts to Unilever, saying it wanted “to create a leading consumer goods company with a mission of longterm growth and sustainable living.” The last two words of that statement are the essential ones. Unilever calls its overarching corporate strategy the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. The goal is to cut the company’s environmental impact in half by 2020 from 2008 levels, improve the health of 1 billion people and double revenue. Unilever struck the predictably disinterested posture of any company surprised by a takeover offer. “Unilever rejected the proposal as it sees no merit, either financial or strategic, for Unilever’s shareholders,” the company said in a statement.

“Unilever does not see the basis for any further discussions.” That may buy Unilever some time, but 3G is nothing if not determined. Anheuser-Busch InBev, another 3G creation, pursued SABMiller for a year before finally sealing the deal, raising its price and shedding assets along the way. SABMiller finally relented. That deal, which closed only late last year, offers perhaps the closest analog to Kraft Heinz’s $143-billion offer for Unilever. During the negotiations, the specter of 3G’s famous cost cutting hung over the deal. And already, Anheuser-Busch is reducing head count in South Africa.

A thing or two

OF course, if the deal gets made, there is a chance that the two companies could learn from each other. Perhaps the financial wizards at 3G would bring some additional discipline to Unilever, which some analysts worry has been insufficiently focused on bottom line results. And perhaps Unilever could teach its new owners a thing or two about an idealistic corporate culture, ambitious sustainability goals and promoting consumer health. Perhaps. Both sides are aware of the vastly different corporate cultures, and that could emerge as a sticking point in the negotiations. But shareholders, even those committed to social and environmental responsibility, won’t ignore a truly generous premium. “The culture there is strong, the leadership is strong and the board is strong,” Cramer said. “But if the shareholders say, ‘This is in our interest,’ the culture doesn’t necessarily matter.”

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The Regions BusinessMirror

Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Monday, February 20, 2017 A11

₧40-M shipyard to rise in Buenavista, Bohol

By Charles R. Pepito | Correspondent

ESIDENTS of Buenavista town in Bohol and nearby towns better learn welding now.

BUCKETS OF LOVE San Mateo, Isabela, Mayor Crispina Agcaoili and husband Vice Mayor Roberto Agcaoili distribute buckets of goodies to two elderly recipients of “Bahay Mo, Ayusin Ko” program of the local government unit, while Councilor August Gamboa entertains the rest of other recipients of “Alay Mula sa Puso”early last week at the Livelihood Training Center in town. LEONARDO PERANTE II

MILF ends use of children as combatants

AMP DARAPANAN, Sultan Kudarat—The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on February 18 released children associated with the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) and Bangsamoro Islamic Women’s Auxiliary Brigade (Biwab), ending the recruitment and use of children within their ranks. It is part of a series of ceremonies that will eventually disengage around 1,858 children who were formally or informally associated with the armed wing of the MILF. The United Nations, through its children’s agency the United Nations International Children’s Fund (Unicef ), facilitated this process in line with the UN-MILF Action Plan on addressing the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict in Mindanao. The UN-MILF Action Plan, signed in 2009 and extended in 2013, signifies the commitment of the MILF to end the recruitment and use of children within their ranks. The progress achieved to date is the result of the commitment and action by the MILF at the highest levels, as well as by front and base commanders. The systematic sensitization, awareness raising and training initiatives for the BIAF and communities living in core MILF base command areas were essential prerequisites to achieve a level of understanding and acceptance on the issue of recruitment and use of children. “Children affected by armed conflict are some of the most vulnerable children in the world. We need not look far, right here in the Philippines,

children are affected by armed conflict in different ways. They can be recruited, as soldiers and engaged in direct combat, or as aides with seriously harmful consequences threatening their life and well-being. Let children be children—let them play, go to school and live healthy and happy,” Unicef Philippines Rep. Lotta Sylwander said. Fatimah (not her real name), 16, was forced to leave her home because of conflict. She helped out her community by washing the dishes, cooking and cleaning. “I don’t like it when people fight because children like me get caught in the middle. We get scared when we have to flee. I hope that war will stop so that our communities can live in peace and quiet,” she said. The release of children associated with MILF allows them to receive appropriate support from the government and development partners to enjoy all their rights to health, education and protection. The MILF is also bound to institute safeguards through its command structure to regularly monitor and screen troops to prevent children from associating or reassociating. “The release of children from the MILF is only the beginning of the next phase of their youth. The next step is to ensure that these children receive support. The work to build a lasting peace involves everyone, including the government, the NGO [non-governmental organization] community, private sector, local leaders, elders, parents and the children themselves,” Sylwander added.

DOLE stops illegal recruitment agency in Central Visayas

HE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is closely monitoring four other recruitment agencies believed to be engaged in illegal activities in Central Visayas. This, after DOLE-7, together with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG-7) operatives, successfully entrapped an agency in Lapu-Lapu City for violating laws. Three personnel of Feljobs Manpower Services on ML Quezon Street, Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City, were arrested in an operation on February 15. Feljobs, whose license as a private recruitment and placement agency expired in 2014, reportedly continued with its recruitment activities constituting illegal recruitment. “In October 2016 we started monitoring the activities of Feljobs after we discovered it continued hiring workers. Some of its recruitment advertisements were even published on a local newspaper,” DOLE-7 Director Exequiel Sarcauga said. Two months later Sarcauga said, the office received a report via e-mail regarding Feljob’s illegal activities, such as exaction of P850 per applicant as payment for an identification card and the pre-employment medical examination. Roy Buena fe, head of t he DOLE’s Mediation Arbitration and Legal Service Unit, that took the lead in closely monitoring the establishment, said after paying, applicants were only told to wait, leaving most of them uncertain whether they would eventually

land a job or not. “The office sent a pseudo applicant to Feljobs Manpower Services. We found out the agency’s recruitment activities were going on. On February 5, 2017, Feljops posted another recruitment advertisement published on an online job web site,” Sarcauga said. The DOLE on February 8 immediately coordinated with CIDG-7 Director Supt. Royina Marzan Garma. On February 13 the DOLE, represented by Buenafe and three laborlaw compliance officers, was joined by the CIDG-7 operatives for a final briefing on the entrapment. Three Feljobs personnel—one, a recruitment officer—were arrested during the entrapment after receiving marked money. All documents and arrested personnel are now in custody of CIDG-7 for inquest proceedings. “On our end, we also conducted a compliance visit to the establishment after the entrapment as part of the DOLE’s visitorial power. We sent Cecil Alicando and Engineers Primo N. Guarin and Rustico Levi. M Custorio to conduct an assessment,” Sarcauga said. Results of the assessment showed Fit2Job Manning and Staffing Services Corp., a Department Order (DO 18-A) registrant, is at the same time operating under the name of Feljobs Manpower Services. However, Feljobs is also using its license to operate as a private recruitment and placement authority (prpa) in its operation of business. “The applicants of Feljobs were

NGCP seeks TRO extension vs former Tuguegarao mayor By Lenie Lectura @llectura

HE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) is contemplating on seeking an extension of the 72-hour temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by a court against a former mayor of Tuguegarao City. A 72-hour TRO filed by NGCP was issued to Deltra Multi Corp., represented by its president Delfin Ting, for excessive excavation of the lot where Structure Nos. 39 and 40 of the

Tuguegarao-Magapit 69kV transmission line stand. Ting excavated the land to develop his property, which put the transmission facilities in a very vulnerable position, the NGCP said. Despite the inherent dangers an excavation of that nature would present to the transmission facilities, Deltra Multi Corp. continued to develop the property, leaving structures 39 and 40 standing precariously on an unreinforced spot of soil 40 feet high. The NGCP immediately requested

This, after Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado (Bohol, Second District) met with the top executive of a company planning to establish a shipyard in Buenavista town. The company executive, Aumentado and Buenavista Mayor Ronald Lowell Tirol have discussed possibilities and scouted around the district for the ideal location until the former settled for Buenavista. The executive and the company he represented were not named by the two public officials. The company executive’s decision to build a shipyard in Buenavista means jobs for local residents, Aumentado said. The shipyard, he said, is expected to attract other investors to the town. On top of skilled welders, the shipyard will also need workers for parallel industries and businesses, like food service, for the workers. He vowed to continue looking for similar opportunities for his constituents to increase their employment opportunities. Aumentado earlier announced Buenavista and Inabanga towns stand to have their ports improved this year. He said a new and bigger P50-million port will be built in Barnagay Uog, Inabanga town. This will replace the existing one located behind the public market in Barangay Tungod. The seawater off Uog is deeper. He said this augurs well for larger pump boats and motorized bancas, which will henceforth make regular trips to Cebu and back. Many residents and storeowners buy provisions and stocks from Cebu rather than go on land trips to the capital Tagbilaran City. Aumentado, however, vowed to secure additional funds for this port as this is a new construction, not just an improvement. Also in the General Appropriations Act is P40 million for the improvement of the Buenavista fishport. Of the three congressional districts in Bohol, the Second District has the most islands and islets. This means islanders travel a lot by sea to buy from the mainland or from Cebu, or to bring patients to hospitals. Aumentado said the improved ports will also improve traveling conditions for the islanders and their cargoes.

the TRO to access the property of Ting, who refused the grid operator entry to conduct much-needed inspection and line maintenance. “Our facilities should not be put in vulnerable situations. The development in the lot of Mr. Ting is clearly a violation of transmission line Right-of-Way clearances. By putting Structure Nos. 39 and 40 at risk, Mr. Ting is also jeopardizing the Tuguegarao-Magapit 69kV line serving major parts of CAGELCO I and entire CAGELCO II franchise areas, which are Ca-

gayan and Apayao provinces,” the NGCP said. The NGCP intends to request for the extension of the TRO to 20 days to conduct vegetation clearing of the growing bamboo grove that might obstruct the transmission line within the property of Ting. The NGCP said Ting would not give them access until NGCP pays rental for the temporary ROW easement and additional payment for the ROW of a new transmission line project, the TuguegaraoMagapit 230kV line.

made to provide their names and other personal information in a personal data sheet using the letterhead, Feljobs Manpower Services. The same applicants were later on referred to Fit2Job for posting or deployment,” he said. Fit2Job, Feljobs’s branch office, is in Mandaue City. Under the DOLE’s assessment, Feljobs was found to have engaged itself in canvassing, enlisting, utilizing, hiring and procuring workers and referral, contract servicing, promising and advertising for local employment for profit to more or less than 500 individuals with an expired PRPA license.

Apart from illegal recruitment and illegal exaction of money from applicants, other violations noted included the following, namely, no proof of remittance on SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG contributions and no payroll, daily-time record and pay slips specifically for the period of January to December 2016. “We are now currently working on the issuance of a permanent closure order against Feljobs Manpower Services. The office shall also conduct another investigation relative to the establishments which have engaged with Feljobs,” Sarcauga said. Charles R. Pepito

Green Monday BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, February 20, 2017

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

Solar power lights up historic Suluan Island

By Elmer V. Recuerdo | Correspondent

ULUAN ISLAND, Eastern Samar—This easternmost island in the country may have been the first victim of a climate-induced disaster, but it recently made a strong statement to protect Mother Earth by adapting a low-carbon lifestyle.

Since Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) first made landfall on this island over three years ago, residents have been slowly moving away from diesel generators to using solar-powered home systems to light up their homes and run a few appliances. The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), in partnership with the UK-based charity Christian Aid and the local women’s organization Sulong Suluan, distributed the 47 Niwa solar home systems, which each came with three 300-lumen LED lamps, a 9-inch table fan, a solar panel and a battery. “Solar energy is a better alternative because it does not cause pollution and you do not pay extra to use it,” said Anecito Loyola, a barangay councilor and one of ICSC’s two “solar scholars” on the island. Solar scholars are Yolanda sur vivors trained by ICSC to become their barangays’ solar energy pack technicians and disaster responders. “We need this so that my children can study better at night,” said Antonio Garado Jr., a fisherman and father of five. Until last

Off the press: New book on coping with climate

book, titled Learning and Coping with Change: Case Stories of Climate Change Adaptation in Southeast Asia, is now off the press. Published by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca), the book features 13 case stories that are useful to policy- and decision-makers and other stakeholders. Although there is no “one size fits all ” adaptation, there are similarities in approaches, methodologies, and processes involved in identifying and implementing CCA goals and strategies as documented in the case stories. The book may also be downloaded for free from http://bit. ly/2km8cfI. This pioneering work is the outcome of the First Regional Knowledge Sharing Writeshop on Climate Change Adaptation in Inclusive and Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development that brought together scientists and researchers from Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as international agencies working on agriculture and climate change. Searca, currently headed by Dr. Gil C. Saguiguit Jr., convened the writeshop in partnership with the Oscar M. Lopez Center for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management Foundation Inc., led by Dr. Rodel D. Lasco, who is the coordinating lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

₧9,490

The total cost of each solar kit

week, his family had to make do with a lone solar bulb that was given by a charity group two years ago. Garado said his average daily income of P200 cannot afford him to connect to the diesel generator set of his neighbor, who charges P5 per bulb for a three-hour service. “With this solar home system I can decide how long we will use the lights,” he said. For 82-year-old grandmother Nieves Caspe, hav ing a solar home system provides a better sense of security since she lives alone in her house. “I was reluctant to get [the solar house system] at first because I don’t know how to use it. But my daughter has been helping me with it,” she said. “It feels safer when the house is brighter.” Arturo Tahup, project coord inator of ICSC ’s R E - Charge Pilipinas, said Suluan Island was chosen for the project not

The 47 beneficiaries who receive the solar home system from the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) in partnership with Urban Poor Associates and Christian Aid in Suluan Island early this month. AC Dimatatac/ICSC

The children of Antonio Garrado Jr., one of the beneficiaries of the solar home system, can now make use of better lighting while studying. AC Dimatatac/ICSC

only because it is an off-grid community, but also due to its high “solar literacy”. It is common to see houses with solar panels and satellite dishes on the roof, and working T Vs and

portable DVD players inside. “You will notice how badly the people here need electricity. They buy spare parts in Tacloban and assemble their own solar home system that fits their domestic

needs,” he said. Tahup noted the active involvement of the barangay council, solar scholars and the grassroots organization Sulong Suluan to help them decide to bring the project to the island. During the initial consultations, residents agreed to pay P13 a day, or P91 a week, over the next two years to pay for the kit’s total cost of P9,490 to be collected by Sulong Suluan. The fee is lower than the P15 charged by generator owners for three lights over three hours of charging. Tahup said the money would go to a solidarity fund to cover operational costs, including an honorarium for the collectors and transportation fare in depositing the money in Guiuan. It will also fund the training of more solar scholars and the setting up of a community project called the Solar Sari-Sari

Store, which would be managed by Sulong Suluan. “If you really want to send a message that communities are taking the journey toward lowcarbon resilience, it is good to make a statement in Suluan,” he said. “Suluan is not yet connected to the grid and the opportunity to start low-carbon resilience is high.” Tahup said they first came to Suluan in 2015 to install solar streetlights as a replacement to the generator-run lights that were toppled down by Yolanda. Suluan played an important role in shaping Philippine history. The trail of destruction left by Yolanda in November 2013 remains evident, with more crownless coconut standing than those that survived. The island is said to be the first site of anchorage of the Spanish armada led by explorer Ferdinand Magellan on March 17, 1521, after 98 days of crossing the Pacific Ocean. Magellan then proceeded to Suluan’s neighboring island of Homonhon, and later in Limasawa, where the first Catholic Mass in the country was said to have been held on March 31 of the same year. Suluan also played an important role in the successful campaign of US forces, led by General Douglas McArthur during the World War II. Before Mac Arthur landed on the shores of Leyte on October 20, 1944, and launched the biggest naval battle in histor y, a team of American soldiers was sent to Suluan to neutralize a group of Japanese soldiers. This successful campaign in Suluan secured and prepared the arrival of the general ’s so-called liberation forces.

Mongolia nationalizes mine, prompts warning on investors

LA ANBA ATAR, Mongolia—Mongolian lawmakers have told the government to revoke a private company’s purchase of a stake in a major copper mine, a move the president warned could scare away investors at a time when the economy is already struggling. The move highlights the political sensitivity of Mongolia’s copper, gold and other mineral wealth, the source of more than 90 percent of the North Asian countr y’s export revenues. Legislators approved a resolution last Friday calling on Prime Minister Jargaltulgyn Erdenebat to revoke a Mongolian investor’s $400-million purchase of a Russian state company’s 49 - percent st a ke in Erdenet Mining Corp. They want the government, which owns the rest of Erdenet, to take full control. Complaints that too little of Mongol i a’s abu nd a nt m inera l wea lt h ma kes its way to t he poor major it y have long complicated t he role played by foreig n m ining compa nies. Wea k globa l dema nd for Mongol i a’s minerals drag ged dow n growth to a 1.6 - percent cont ract ion in t he l atest qu a r ter, add ing to t hose pressu res. Mo n g o l i a’s n at i o n a l d e b t stands at about $23 billion, or twice the annual economic output, and a $580-million payment to foreign bondholders is due on March 21. Mongolian leaders are deciding whether to pursue a potential emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund. Last week ’s vote followed a change of government in June

elections and a parliamentary inquiry that concluded the real buyer was a Mongolian bank that violated lending rules by hiding how much money it put up. It was the first time parliament has called for the government to take over a company since the end of Soviet-style communist rule in the early 1990s, when Mongolia sold off state assets. Approval of the Erdenet sale was announced on June 28 by then-Prime Minister Chimediin Saikhanbileg. But the next day, his Democratic Party lost control of parliament to the rival Mongol i a n People’s Pa r t y in national elections. It was unclear whether Erdenebat was obliged to act on parliament’s demand, but President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, a Democratic Party member, warned the vote might hurt the economy. “ The resolution could drive away foreign investors and entrepreneurs” and “ further isolate Mongolia”, Elbegdorj said in a statement. Still, Elbegdorj said authorities should root out the “ hidden and illegal business operations” of Erdenet. Earlier, global miner Rio Tinto Ltd. delayed development of a gold-and-copper mine, Oyu Tolgoi, due to disagreements over revenue sharing and the foreign role in mining. After that dispute was settled, Rio Tinto announced May it was ready to go ahead with a $5.3-billion expansion. Saikhanbileg showed Mongolia was “ back to business”. Erdenet, Mongolian for “treasure”, operates a mining comp l e x a b o u t 24 0 k i l o m e t e r s

northwest of the capital, Ulan Bator. Until last year’s sale, it was one of Russia’s biggest assets in Mongolia. Controversy over the sale was fueled by complaints a Mongolian bank, Trade Development Bank Llc. (TDB), was the real buyer and violated lending rules by financing the acquisition. T he p u rc h a s e w a s l e d b y a 2 8 -y e a r - old l aw y e r, Ts o o j Purevtuvshin, owner of Mongolian Copper Cor p. Purevtuvshin, also known by the nickname Tush, said MCC bought Erdenet using financing from a group of investors. However, a report by parliament concluded the money came from TDB, which put up $354 million, and a bank owned by a TDB shareholder, which put up $55 million. That violated rules that should have limited TDB to lending about $70 million, according to Jargalsaikhan Dambadarjaa, an economist and journalist. Parliament a lso found the central bank lent money to a company in Purevtuvshin’s investment group without official approval. The central bank governor at the time was a former TDB board member. Purevtuvshin denied violating financial rules and said only about $75 million came from TDB. “ We st rong ly re jec t t hese findings and action by parliament,” he said in a phone inter v iew. T DB C h a i r m a n a nd CEO Orkhon Onon also denied wrongdoing. In a written statement, he said his bank ’s role was limited to “partial financing” and investment advice. AP

Manila Water senior leadership team and management committee members offer a toast during the lighting ceremony for the company’s pilot waste-to-energy (WTE) project. Joining Manila Water Chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala (center) are (from left) Manila Water officers CFO Juan Luis Oreta; Rodell Garcia, chief information officer; Janine Carreon, Corporate Human Resources Group director; Esmeralda Quines, East Zone Business Operations Group director; COO Ferdinand de la Cruz; Abelardo Basilio, Strategic Asset Management Group director; Geodino Carpio, Corporate Operations Group director; President and CEO Gerardo Ablaza Jr.; and Thomas Mattison, Corporate Project Management Group director.

Manila Water tests first waste-to-energy project

anila Water Chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala led the lighting ceremony for the company’s pilot waste-to-energy (WTE) project recently at the South Septage Treatment Plant (SpTP) in Taguig City. He was joined by Manila Water President and CEO Gerardo Ablaza Jr., and members of the Senior Leadership Team and Mancom. The pilot WTE project is considered as the first ever undertaken by Manila Water and the first WTE facility in the country that utilizes septage, or waste materials removed from septic tanks, as a feed source. Septage sludge collected in the South SpTP, as by-product of treating used water at the plant, is converted to biogas through the anaerobic-digestion process and the biogas produced is then converted to electricity. Manila Water Corporate Operations Group Director Geodino V. Carpio said the project is a demonstration of the company’s “Operations Zero” agenda, an aspiration denoting zero-cost operations. “We are always excited when we find

ways to reduce expense in terms of power consumption and volume of biosolids that we need to haul to the province,” Carpio said. “Coming up with this project took a number of years of research, testing and feasibility calculations. On full scale, after this pilot, this facility will produce surplus power greater than what this plant requires to operate. Various models are now being evaluated on how we can scale up and commercialize this system,” Carpio added. The pilot WTE project is a concrete testament to Manila Water’s commitment to integrate innovation in its operations as a way to promote efficiency and to continuously elevate the company as a world-class water and used-water services provider. Once the WTE system operates full scale, it can fulfill more than 100 percent of the power requirements of the South Septage Treatment Plant, reducing greenhouse-gas emissions of the facility by 267 tons of carbon dioxide in a year and translating to up to P17-million annual savings for the company on power expenses.

Biodiversity Monday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Monday, Febuary 20, 2017 A13

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

Log ban in PHL: Total or selective

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

ast week President Duterte ordered the creation of a tripartite committee to study the current log-ban policy and called an intensified campaign against illegal logging.

T h e c o m m it t e e t h a t w i l l study the tota l log-ban polic y is composed of the departments of Env ironment and Natura l Resources (DENR), Agriculture (DA), and of the Inter ior and Loca l Gover nment (DILG). Environment advocates had long been calling for a total log ban, which would prohibit the cutting or harvesting of trees to prevent disasters caused by climate change-triggered extreme weather events, such as typhoons, floods and landslides, sea-level rise, tsunamis or storm surges. T he cont i nue d c ut t i ng of trees, whether lega l or il lega l, they said, shou ld be stopped to let degraded forests recover f rom decades of abuse. T his w ay, t he y s a id , t he cou nt r y wou ld have stronger defense against natura l ca lamities. Against the backdrop of climate change’s worst impacts, considering the country’s vulnerability to extreme weather events, and the countr y’s international commitments, specifically to reduce carbon emissions under the Paris Agreement signed in December last year, logban advocates said expanding the country’s forest will boost the carbon-absorption capacity, and will pave the way for sustainable growth and development. On February 14 Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez vowed to intensify the campaign against illegal logging to protect watersheds for the present and future generation. Duterte’s pronouncement and Lopez’s uncompromising stance have chilling effects—that the total log ban would lead to the cancellation of various production agreements entered into by the DENR with various partners. Lopez, an environment advocate, insists that communities are suffering because of mining, a highly extractive venture, a nd log g i ng wh ic h t h reaten the countr y’s f unctiona l watersheds, our source of water, seriously compromising water security. However, critics are asking whether total log ban as the right formula.

Reforestation

From 2010 to 2016, under the Aquino administration, the government spent over P30 billion to implement a massive reforestation program called the National Greening Program (NGP). The previous administration claimed its successful implementation, earning international recognition for the Philippines in reversing the trend of environmental degradation in the country’s forest. The program, former Environment Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje claimed, had exceeded targets and allowed country’s forest cover to grow by 1.5 million hectares, putting the country in a better position in sustaining massive reforestation program with the continuous production of planting materials. It was also credited for creating “green jobs” through various NGP partnerships with the private sector, local government units (LGUs), academe and the community through the Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) program. Also, the NGP was designed not only as a climate-change mitigation and adaptation strategy. It is also an anti-poverty and food security program. Tree species planted under the NGP include mangroves; fuel wood, to supply the country’s fuel wood requirement; as well as wood to feed the country’s wood industry for raw materials, on top of assorted fruit-bearing trees and cash-crops like cocoa, coffee and rubber.

Selective log ban

Created by Executive Order (EO) 26, the NGP has a twinpolic y declaration in EO 23, which imposed a total log ban on natural and residual forest. However, the policy also allows selective logging, through special permits issued by the DENR, in certain areas. It also allows tree-cutting or harvesting of timber in plantation forests established through various public-private partnerships under various production-

A forest ranger watches over pine-tree forest in Baguio City. Mau Victa

shar ing ag reements, such as Community Based Forest Management Agreements (CBFMAs), Integrated Forest Management Agreements (Ifmas) and Socialized Industrial Forest Management Agreements (Sifmas). The DENR, through the Forest Management Bureau (FMB), also encourages backyard tree farming to boost the supply of the wood industry with quality wood for both upstream and downstream industry, including furniture making. Nonetheless, the DENR said that the enforcement of EO 23 had positive impacts, with the number of illegal logging hot spots going down from 197 in 2010 to just 27 in December 2015. A resurgence of illegal logging, however, were observed in the Sierra Madre Mountain Range, particularly in Quezon and Rizal provinces, including Isabela and forested areas in Mindanao. Lopez herself said she is open to the idea of establishing more pl a nt at ion forests to ensu re the sustainable local supply of wood—one way to stop illegal logging in natural and residual forests—adding that logging should be done only in designated areas.

Wood is life

The Philippine Wood Producers Association (PWPA) said there is more to reforestation than enhancing the country’s protection against climate change-triggered extreme weather events. PWPA Executive Director Maila R. Vasquez said forest, where trees—basically wood—all come from, is a renewable resource. It is better to manage the forest and use wood to support the life of the $5.03-billion wood industry. PWPA is the national association 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. “ Wood is the most ‘g reen’ product. W hen you cut trees, and use wood, you actually help not only the industr y, but the people who depend on the industr y. Even sma l l tree-far mers depend on tree-farming for income,” she said. The life of the industry, she said, depends on sustainable supply of raw materials. With the current policy banning the cutting of trees from natural and residual forest, the industr y is a lready impor ting more than ha lf of its annua l wood-supply requirement from other countr ies, Vasquez said. She said a total log ban will definitely hurt the industry more and may not be able to survive if it will become completely dependent on imported wood. “A total log ban prohibiting cutting of trees in plantation forests will really hurt the industry. Right now, the industry is already importing more than half of the industry’s demand for roundwood,” Vasquez said.

Supply and demand

Currently, the wood industry vastly gets its local supply from forest plantations, where specific species of trees are planted on a massive scale for timber and wood supply. The private sector and individuals may venture in plantation forests using private lands, as well as public lands, once given access by the government. According to the DENR’s FMB, there are around 140 Ifmas covering 1,005,000 hectares; 1,529 Sifmas covering around 32,000

hectares; and 1,884 CBFMAs covering 1,615,000 hectares. These, however, do not necessarily produce the desired volume of timber. It takes around 60,000 mature forest a year to cover the wood industry’s wood-supply needs, including exports currently estimated at 5.3 million cubic meters of wood. But Vasquez said in an earlier inter v iew that to ensure the sustainable supply of wood that would cover the country’s ex por t requirements, around 500,000 hectares of mature forest is needed annually. The country’s current woodproduction capacity is 1 million cubic meter; 4.3 million cubic meter of wood are imported. Vasquez said there are a lot of potential investors who are willing and able to venture into plantation forest. However, she said the gover nment needed to ensure a business-friendly policy environment and guarantee the investments would be safeguarded, and the contracts with the private sector are honored. The only way to gain the trust and confidence of potential investors is for the government to put in place measures that will make plantation forests economically viable and safe from policy changes every time a new administration takes over, she said.

Sustainable forest management

Tom Valdez, president of the Soc iet y of Fi l ipino Foresters Inc., a n orga ni zat ion of more t h a n 9,0 0 0 forest r y e x per ts and professiona ls, both in publ ic a nd pr ivate sector, sa id tot a l log ba n w i l l not solve t he problem of i l lega l log g ing. “The solution to illegal logging is not the total log ban. Poverty is prevalent in upland areas. And the government cannot possibly guard the country’s vast forest,” Valdez, a forestry expert, said. He sa id e ven “se lec t ive logg i ng ” u nder EO 23 f a i led to add ress i l lega l log g ing. He s a id t he solut ion i s su st a i nable forest m a n a gement. “The government should allow investment in forestry, particularly in open areas. Leave the natural forest alone. Preserve the protected areas and conserve what can be conserved—the buffer zones of protected areas,” he said. Buffer zones are multi-use of areas wherein government regulation for the use of natural resources is imperative. According to Valdez, forest growth should go beyond the

allowable cut to ensure forest expansion.

Fighting climate change

According to PW PA , there are two ways to combat climate change. One is by reducing carbondioxide emission, and another by enhancing carbon-absorption capacity by expanding forest and using wood. The cutting of trees, Vasquez said, does not necessarily mean the carbon sink is reduced. “Since forest is renewable, all you have to do is replace the trees. The carbon in the trees that you cut are still intact.” PWPA said 1 ton of wood can store 1 ton of carbon. Valdez said since forest is a carbon sink, continuously expanding the countr y’s forest means we are on the right track in fighting climate change. He said studies show that the average carbon footprint of every Filipino is 900 kilograms. “To offset that, every Filipino will have to plant and nurture at least 100 trees,” he said. Wood, itself, is carbon sink. Hence, cutting trees and using the wood for building, construction and furniture, also help in increasing the country’s carbonabsorption capacity, he said. “When you plant, it absorbs carbon dioxide. When you cut, you stock carbon dioxide. Then you replant again,” he explained. He said there is also a proper way to cut trees so as not to kill the tree. “Don’t cut beyond the increment… We should practice sustainable yield cutting. We should not cut lower than 30 centimeters in diameter. The mother trees should be left to provide seeds. In one hectare, set aside a portion and leave the mother trees to ensure continuous planting,” he said partly in Filipino. I n m a n a g i ng pl a nt at ion s, Va ldez sa id planning is a lso important. “Planting should be by rotation. If you have reached t he com merc i a l volu me, t he rotation shou ld be 15 years. It means har vest shou ld be done annua l ly, and planting is a lso annua l ly. T he volume of carbon dioxide is 50 percent of the dr y weight of the wood,” he said par t ly in Filipino, explaining how much carbon can be stored in ever y tree t hat is cut dow n and preser ved by building houses and fur niture. After all, wood is a renewable resource. Unless burned or destroyed, planting trees and using wood can be the ultimate solution to climate change.

Visayas Tree-Seed Center to boost massive reforestation program

he government has built a tree-seed center (TSC) in Minglanilla, within the 123-hectare Cebu Experimental Forest (CEF), to boost the germplasm for superior quality trees to ensure the sustainable supply of quality planting materials until 2028. The TSC within the CEF is the first in the Visayas. A similar TSC was established in Bislig, Surigao del Sur, an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said. In a statement, Executive Director Dr. Henry A. Adornado of the Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (ERDB) said the Visayas TSC, which will act as germplasm for quality-planting materials, is capable of supplying tree seedlings for the entire Visayas. A germplasm is a source of breeding materials. It may be of wild species or a preselected breeding line. It can have genetic characteristics desired for a planting material’s mass production. The TSC in the Visayas will be a storage for such germplasm base. The Visayas TSC will certify the quality of seeds to be distributed to other regions and

will test the seed samples for government, nongovernmental organizations, and private enterprises and plantations. The development of seed-material registry and certification systems should upgrade the seed quality of tree species. The availability of a variety of tree species will be enhanced as the TSC will do seed exchange, according to Dr. Alicia L. Lustica, who heads the ERDB research center in Cebu. The CEF is in the century-old first reforestation projec t—the Osmena Reforestation Project, which was established in January 1916. It was a 2,710-hectare forestreserve area that was ran in earlier times by the Vatican, known as the Friar Land Estate. The high rate of mortality, poor growth and survival affect the overall forestation program of both the government and the private tree-farming industry. The TSC is part of the forest nursery modernization program, in line with the Enhanced National Greening Program (E-NGP), which aims to mass-produce quality, disease-free seeds.

123 ha The area of the Cebu Experimental Forest where the tree-seed center is located

It has a laboratory that may be used to test the germination of seeds. The Visayas TSC is just waiting for an occupancy permit to start operation. Through TSC, the ERDB will enhance existing government facilities—seed bank and laboratory. ERDB will establish orchards and document seed collections i n e a c h re g i o n . E R D B w i l l i m p rove seed collection, procurement, storage, testing, disposition, seed exchange and marketing systems. It will update the forest tree-seed calendar. Based on

ERDB records, as of June 2015, Central Visayas alone had seed collection and supply of 1.222 million. Seed requirements will increase as Executive Order 193 mandated the extension of the NGP up to 2028. This envisions a wood and agroforestry product self-sufficiency set at an annual production target of 750,000 hectares of timber, 60,000 hectares of coffee and 300,000 hectares of fuelwood. The wood and papers products produced are estimated to be worth $900 million yearly. Partners that may use Visayas TSC’s seed production are DENR-ERDB’s own provincial, city or municipal environment and natural resources offices (Enro), state universities and colleges, community and people’s groups and private, industrial tree plantations. The TSC has a seeder area where seeds are sown into containers, and are watered through misting for growth. Germinants are turned into seedlings in the growing area. In the harderning area, sunlight allows for drying of the seedlings for sturdiness. ERDB has been conducting research in

CEF since June 1986. It involves bamboo, rattan, dipterocarps (hardwood and tropical trees), narra, endemic tree species, neem, tiger grass, flowers and honey production. It is also a site for training Enro researchers on cave ecotourism and forest conservation. Despite being considered a national heritage and a protected and forest-reservation area, the CEF is faced with threats of illegal logging. “Our forest is still threatened by illegal tree cutting and charcoal extraction. Informal settlement, farming, wildlife hunting, sand, gravel and black-stone extraction and bamboo harvest are also threats. We need valuable community partners to fight the threats,” Adornado said. The top 10 tree species in the CEF are teak, gmelina, lumbang, lanutan, narra, antsoan dilau, Genguet pine, banaba and auri. The CEF site is a biodiversity-rich area. It is home to faunal species as kokok (Philippine coucal), alimokon (white eared browndove), tamsi (sunbird), maya (munia), tikling (moorhen), pugo

(buttonquail), manatad (common emerald dove), toktor (barber), punay, siloy (Cebu black sharma), ngiwng (grass owl), sayaw (swift), kikik (koel), gitgit (swallow), tagmaya (bulbul) and uwak (crow). “Very native wildlife community in CEF depends on unique plants, caves, rivers and creeks.” The CEF has two caves out of seven found in the Osmeña Reforestation Project. ERDB received a mandate to put up forest TSCs under E-NGP. It now also has a TCP in Los Baños, Laguna. ERDB is further building TSCs in Loakan, Baguio City; Pagbilao, Quezon; and Tagum City, Davao del Norte. “Seeds collected from the established seed sources—seed-production areas and individual plus trees (IPTs)—nationwide will be submitted to forest TSC for processing and certification before it will be distributed to different stakeholders,” said ERDB. IPTs are materials in breeding and are selected and crossed with each other as part of producing superior tree breeds. Jonathan L. Mayuga

A14 Monday, February 20, 2017 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Time to lift the financial curtain

ne of the problems that plagued the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) over many years was the lack of companies becoming publicly listed on the stock market. While that situation has improved in recent years, there are still many household-name firms that are still in private hands. And these are large corporations that are significant enough in the local economy that should have some public ownership. The PSE has made a valiant effort to increase initial public offerings both through encouragement and qualifying the advantages of being listed on the PSE. The stock exchange has worked with the Securities and Exchange Commission to make it easier with a more streamlined process. Yet, the products and services of firms that we use everyday are not part of our stock market. While no one wishes to speak of it, one major reason that these companies are not publicly owned is because of the rigorous transparency that is required to be a listed corporation. The moment private owners begin even to think of going public, they must also begin thinking like a public company. That means full, thorough and totally honest financial transactions and records. With the auditing requirements that go with being listed, no longer can there be one set of books for the taxing authorities and one set of “real” books for the owners. One important reason that so many large firms are publicly listed is that foreign lenders and investors have more confidence in the financial reality of listed firms that must have continuing audited statements. No accounting firm is going to put their seal of approval on the records of a public company the way they might for a privately held corporation. The relationship that a private individual or company has with the “financial truth” is between them, their god and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. However, a public company is held to a different standard. The act of corruption perpetrated by public officials is only the start. It is keeping the ill-gotten or undisclosed funds secret that is the heart of the matter. The annual Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, commonly known as SALN, is submitted under oath. But realistically no person or government agency verifies the SALN until a potential fraud comes to light. Wouldn’t it be interesting if a candidate and elected official’s SALN was subject to an independent audit? We would not question the truthfulness of a candidate’s sworn statement any more than we would question the truthfulness of a company’s financial report. However, there would be great comfort in reading that “we have audited in accordance with Philippine Standards on Auditing, the consolidated financial statement of elected/appointed official Juan de la Cruz for the year ended December 31, 2016. In our opinion, the financial statement presents fairly in all material respects, the true and accurate financial position”. Both the face and quality of the Philippine government would be changed forever.

February in the Philippines Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

alentine’s Day is over, but for the Filipinos, the celebrations continue. The country has colorful traditions, especially during the summer months. Every province has its own specialty, its own patron and its own reason for celebration. What is consistent, though, is the fact that these festivals are carried out as a gesture of gratitude.

The Filipinos are prayerful and religious. In the same way that we seek divine help with almost everything, we also take the time to say prayers of thanks for answered prayers. For healing, good harvest, divine guidance, material blessings, protection and many more. We Filipinos must take part in the cultural celebrations to familiarize ourselves with the local traditions and to spend more celebratory moments with our fellowmen. Here are a few of the events that are still coming up in the second half of the month.

People have started to flock to Baguio City not only to enjoy the cool weather but to take part in the celebration of the Panagbenga. From the beginning of February up until the 26th, one can witness flower parades, street dancing, band competitions and other events that celebrate nature, the arts and the local culture. In Las Piñas City, this February means the celebration of the 42nd International Bamboo Organ Festival. This year it is happening from the 16th to the 22nd of the

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participating in the street parades. Of course, we will not forget the special celebration happening on the 25th of February, the commemoration of the Edsa People Power Revolution. The current administration has expressed its intention of holding “a simple and quiet” commemoration of its 31st anniversary. The peaceful revolution happened in 1986 when the Marcos dictatorship ended and former President Corazon Aquino rose to power. It is remembered yearly as a historical moment that brought democracy back to our land. This year the theme for the celebration is “A Day of Reflection: Celebration People Power for Nation Building”. nnn The public is invited to a special celebration of the poetry written by the beloved mystic Rumi. Special guests include Lourd de Veyra, Tweet Sering, Nerisa del Carmen Guevara, Carlomar Daoana, Rem Tanauan and Marjorie Evasco. The event will be on March 12 at 5 p.m. For more details, e-mail rumipoetrynight@ gmail.com or send a message to 0915-197-4773.

Something about missions and Michaels

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month. Drop by the Youth Center of Saint Joseph’s Parish, where you can find the popular Bamboo Organ of Las Piñas City. There will be visiting musicians, as well as local ones who will be performing in a series of concerts. It would be wonderful to bring the whole family to enjoy the sacred music. Filipinos are creative and many of us love the arts. We have actually devoted the whole month to celebrate the arts. February is National Arts Month, and this year the theme is “Malikhain, Mapagbago, Filipino”. There are various programs, activities and events happening all over the country, all in celebration of the artistic talents and skills of the Filipino. Visit www.ncca.gov.ph for more details about these programs. On the 23rd of February, colorful things are happening in Makati City, specifically in Glorietta 4, in celebration of Caracol Festival. It has been dubbed as the “Mardi Gras of Makati”. To celebrate our love and gratitude to nature this time, there will be parades dedicated to Mother Earth. Students wearing nature-inspired costumes will be

or us to find out who we can be and should be, our mission in life, so to speak, we must first know our strengths (mind and body) as well as our passion (soul and spirit). In her workbook The Path, Laurie Beth Jones wrote some suggestions as to how we can develop our own mission statement. If corporations have mission statements, so should we as individuals. The book The Path offers the reader a menu of action verbs, such as motivate, inspire, recognize, educate, plan, etc. and another menu of industries, groups, or causes, such as education, media, finance, politics, law, animal care, etc. The reader will then choose an activity or activities and an industry based on his own strength and passion. Jones said the selected combination should be something that we are good at and, more important, passionate about. Jones said that “if your mission holds no personal passion, it is not your path.” After reading The Path, I discovered that my preferred action verbs were to reform, organize and lead. Applying the principles in Jones’s book, I should be doing these activities in life and fulfill my mission in life to be true to myself. In one of his earlier hit songs, American pop singer Bruno Mars said: “I wanna be a billionaire so freaking bad, buy all the things I never had, uh, I wanna be on the

cover of Forbes magazine, smiling next to Oprah and the queen”. He wants to buy this, have this and do this. The mission of that person in the Bruno Mars’s song is a state of having fame and fortune. However, in Jones’s book, a mission is never about a state or a target but a mission is more of an activity or a series of activities in a particular industry. In recent history, we have witnessed the greatness of some successful people who simply pursued and focused their energies on activities they passionately love the most. And there must be something about the name Michael. Aside from arguably the best player who has ever played the game of basketball Michael Jordan, we have seen the successes of Michael Phelps, Mi-

chael Jackson and Michael Kors, to name a few. Having earned the most medals in Olympic swimming, Phelps began swimming at the age of 7. Called the “King of Pop”, Jackson made his professional debut at age 6 as a member of the Jackson 5. Kors’s affinity for fashion started when he supposedly redesigned his mother’s wedding dress for her second marriage when Kors was 5 years old. The first skater in the Winter Olympics to come from Southeast Asia was a certain Filipino named Michael Martinez, who began skating at age 9. One thing in common from these successful Michaels is that they started very early in doing whatever activity they were most passionate about. They might not have formulated a mission statement as prescribed by Jones, but they surely followed one, albeit unconsciously. But one successful Michael closest to my heart is one veterinarian who, just like Phelps, Jackson, Kors and Martinez, started following his mission in life at a very young age. Doctor Michael, or Mike to his family and friends, displayed a very keen interest on animals as he took care of dogs, chickens, birds, fishes more than just pets. While in grade school, Mike already professed to his parents and siblings that he wanted to become a veterinarian. However, his father discouraged him from doing so. Growing up in a military family (father and brothers were in the armed service) and exposed to military traditions, as he spent most of his childhood summer vacations in camps, Mike

went against the wishes of his father to join the Navy. Mike’s father even chastised Mike when he took up veterinary medicine instead of the “regular” medicine. In those days, one can hardly imagine a son defying a father, a military father at that. Despite this, Mike followed his dream, pursued his passion and has become one of the most sought-after doctors, speakers and authorities in animal surgery. After more than 10 years in extensive veterinary practice in Seattle, Washington, Mike has recently been designated as the Ryan Hospital director and chief medical officer of the prestigious University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, ranked fifth among all veterinary schools worldwide. I have to say that my youngest brother, Dr. Michael Sandy Bueno Mison, has achieved all of these things by just being true to his heart and to himself. That famous jingle in the Gatorade commercial of Michael Jordan comes to mind every time I realize the accomplishments of my brother Mike. Remember the lyrics of “Be Like Mike”? “Sometimes I dream that he is me. You’ve got to see that’s how I dream to be. I dream I move, I dream I groove. Like Mike. If I could Be Like Mike…” Former US President Abraham Lincoln once said, “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.” In life, when we do what we like, but not necessarily be “Like Mike”, we become the best that we can be.

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The qualities of a truly educated man

1Bataan. Go PPPs By Alberto Agra

PPP Lead

Razzel Ann Vergara

DEBIT CREDIT

hat really constitutes education? How can we tell whether a person is educated? Is being educated purely a function of one’s ability to memorize or exhibit grammatical prowess? Are there certain books that you have to read? Does it mean graduating with highest honors in a very reputable institution? Or does it mean being prepared to join the work force? Do you need to have an advanced degree in order to be considered welleducated? These are some of the recurrent questions in intellectual scheme. When you hear the word “educated”, you can surely give your own different definition, like academic, intellectual, literate or knowledgeable. But being educated does not necessarily mean having abundant general or specialized knowledge. It does not only mean having an undergraduate or advanced degree. As Ramsay MacDonald said: “The educated man is a man w ith cer tain subt le spir itua l qualities, which make him calm in adversity, happy when alone, just in his dealings, rational and sane in the fullest meaning of that word in all the affairs of his life.” If we ponder on with this definition, we can see that education is not only about the accumulation of knowledge, whether professional or vocational, but matters of behavior or values. The acquisition of knowledge is valuable for it makes us virtuous and happy. But we should not use our knowledge merely for material success in life. Then what are the qualities needed to be remarked as a truly educated man? Let us elaborate on MacDonald’s definition. An educated person remains calm in adversity. He is self-aware. He knows how to perceive and manage his own internal states of emotions. He has the ability to face and control unpleasant situations instead of being controlled by them. He remains calm even when mistreated by other people who dislike him. He has the ability to conceptualize and solve problems from multiple perspectives. He knows how to resolve conflicts with other persons. He has the flexibility to admit when he is wrong. He has the capacity to endure and persevere. He is not easily defeated by misfortune or failure. He knows how to withstand discomfort in the short term in order to achieve his goals. An educated person stays happy even if alone. He is happy and joyful. He has a cheerful disposition most of the time and is willing to share his joy with others. He considers open-mindedness to be a virtue. He values being open to new ideas and opinions and entertain them. He can control his pleasures. An educated person has ethical values and integrity. He is just in all his dealings. He has the ability and the discipline to do what is right. He is committed to the systematic pursuit of truth. He has the ability to discern truth from error. He does not become arrogant and corrupt by his success and glory. An educated person is rational and reasonable. He has the ability to reason analytically and critically. He has the ability to think clearly and independently and has good judgment. He k nows how to acqu i re knowledge and skills and make productive use of it. He is innovative and adaptable to changes. He is devoted to a set of principles. He defends his beliefs and if proved to be inconvenient, he is able to

“The educated man is a man with certain subtle spiritual qualities, which make him calm in adversity, happy when alone, just in his dealings, rational and sane in the fullest meaning of that word in all the affairs of his life.” If we ponder on with this definition, we can see that education is not only about the accumulation of knowledge, whether professional or vocational, but matters of behavior or values. The acquisition of knowledge is valuable for it makes us virtuous and happy. But we should not use our knowledge merely for material success in life. ,debate confidently and calmly. He does not blindly accept what he is being told and knows how to make his own decisions. He is not self-centered. He has equal esteem for everyone, without regard to gender, race, religion, country of origin and so on. He has the ability to see connections among disciplines, ideas and cultures. He understands human nature and able to maintain and improve relationships. He knows how to cooperate and collaborate effectively with others to get their trust and respect. An educated person is also a persuasive leader. He has developed a personal philosophy that will allow him to be happy. He has the discipline to constantly improve and the ability to pursue lifelong learning. Summing up, an educated person is someone who has been educated in a holistic manner: spiritually, morally, physically and intellectually. A person possessing these qualities is admirable, but I was wondering if this can be adopted by the present world. Unfortunately, many of us would abandon this rational argument. But if we were better educated, we would know that an educated person has a commitment to the rational process of finding truth, and a commitment to self-examination and articulation of truth. Last, we would understand our responsibility in helping to remedy the shortcomings of this society. We have an obligation to make this world a better place than when we found it. Razzel Ann Vergara is involved in accounting for construction projects and taxation of Vinhar Construction and Marketing. She is a Certified Public Accountant. This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to boa. secretariat.@gmail.com

Continued from A1

nd governance is not without a goal. PGB’s mission and vision set the why—“Excellent public service toward a better quality of life for all.” In order to have better, not just good, quality of life for all, not just for some, all must be part of the team. 1Bataan is that team.

1Bataan is more than a battle cry, slogan or logo. It is a way of life of an organized collective. A testament to this is the adoption and implementation of a common developmental strategy from the provincial level, city and municipal levels, even at the barangay level. Bataan province, Balanga City, 10 of the 11 component municipalities and all the 237 barangays

within the province, have embraced public-private partnership (PPP) as a program, so that the whole of Bataan, not just its parts, by 2020, will be the “preferred location for eco-industrial investments leading to the highest Human Development Index in the Philippines.” Provincial Ordinance 02, Series of 2013, titled “Integrated PublicPrivate Partnership Code of the Provincial Government of Bataan”,

Monday, February 20, 2017 A15

Bataan province, Balanga City, 10 of the 11 component municipalities and all the 237 barangays within the province, have embraced PPP as a program so that the whole of Bataan, not just its parts, by 2020, will be the “preferred location for eco-industrial investments leading to the highest Human Development Index in the Philippines.” enacted during the time of former governor Tet Garcia, is the enabling or “parent” framework that made this happen. This is surely a first in Philippine history, even in the world, this columnist believes, where PPP is formally advocated down to the basic units of the bureaucracy. Also noteworthy is the fact that this province-led approach is in sync with the thrust of the Department of the Interior and Local Government. Under Memorandum Circular

120-2016, barangay-level PPPs are encouraged as a means to respond to the needs of the people. Being responsive is exemplified in the seven PPP projects of the PGB, all of which are joint ventures with the private sector. The two awarded projects are Bataan Government Center and Central Business Hub and Development, Operation and Maintenance of the Bataan Terminal Complex. In various stages of the competitive process are five projects, namely, establishment of dialysis centers in the district hospitals of Bataan; lease and development of the former Bataan Thermal Power Plant; establishment of engineered Sanitary Landfill; establishment, operation, management and maintenance of the Mariveles Hospital; and the next-generation transport-ferry system. The challenge has been posed. We hope that all provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays will follow suit. Let PPP be a truly bottom-up initiative. Go 1Bataan. Go 1Philippines.

property of only one spouse). Under Article 96 of the Family Code, the administration and enjoyment of the Absolute Community shall belong to both spouses jointly, but in case of disagreement the husband’s decision shall prevail. If the wife objects to the husband’s decision, she has to go to court. The perceived unfairness of this regime makes it an undesirable choice of property regime—hence, future couples opt to choose in their prenuptial agreement the conjugal partnership property. The spouses retain the ownership, possession, administration and enjoyment of their exclusive properties, unlike in the Absolute Community of Property Regime where both spouses jointly administer even the exclusive property of the other spouse. The Family Code (Article 110) enumerates what is deemed exclusive property: 1) That which is brought to the marriage as his or her own; 2) That which each acquires during the marriage by gratuitous title; 3) That which is acquired by right of redemption, by barter or by exchange with property belonging to only one of the spouse; and 4) That which is purchased with exclusive money of the wife or of the husband. Under Article 110 of the Family Code, property donated or left by will to the spouses, jointly and with designation of determinate shares, shall pertain to the donespouse as his or her own exclusive property. In the absence of designation, the donated property shall be owned and shared alike. Thus, if for example the parents give property to only their daughter (whether before or during the marriage), that donated property belongs only to the daughter (not her husband)—but the fruits of the donated property (e.g., rental income) belong to both the wife and husband. Property bought on installments paid partly from exclusive funds of either or both spouses belongs to the buyer or buyers if full ownership was vested before the marriage and to the conjugal partnership if such ownership was vested during the marriage. In either case, any amount advanced by the partnership or by either or both spouses shall be reimbursed by the owner or owners upon liquidation of the partnership (Article 118, Family Code). Because of the differences between the Absolute Community of Property and Conjugal System of Property Regimes, it is important that future couples decide before marriage on what property regime they desire. A prenuptial agreement is always desired to preempt quarrels over properties or inheri-

tance. A minor who is old enough to get married (18 and above) can enter into a prenuptial agreement, but this is valid only if the parents/ guardians consent and are made parties to the prenuptial agreement. Once a prenuptial agreement is executed, it cannot be modified except if the modification is done prior to the marriage. Postmarriage modification of such settlement can take place only where: (a) the absolute community or conjugal partnership was dissolved and liquidated upon a decree of legal separation; (b) the spouses who were legally separated reconciled and agreed to revive their former property regime; (c) judicial separation of property had been had on the ground that a spouse abandons the other without just cause or fails to comply with his obligations to the family; (d) there was judicial separation of property under Article 135; (e) the spouses jointly filed a petition for the voluntary dissolution of their absolute community or conjugal partnership of gains. Parents who want to make sure that their sons or daughters are marrying for love (and not because the other party is looking at the future spouse’s inheritance or wealth), have resorted to prenuptial agreements. To some, this takes the romance out of marriage and makes it appear “transactional”. While the relational impact of the proposal and execution of a prenup is arguable, no one can deny the practical use and economic security it provides to the spouses involved. As they say, marriages are made in heaven, but bitter separations and relationships gone sour happen here on Earth. Prenuptial agreements aside, it is a good time (this month of Valentines) to be reminded that marriage is a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman with the basic objective of establishing a conjugal and family life (Article 1, Family Code). The unique element of permanency of union signifies a continuing, developing and lifelong relationship between the parties. Toward this end, the parties must fully understand and accept the implications and consequences of being permanently united in marriage. And the maintenance of this relationship demands from the parties, among others, determination to succeed in their marriage. Indeed, marriage is not about money or properties, it is about heartfelt understanding, acceptance, cooperation and support for each other—fortunately or unfortunately “until death do we part!”

Prenuptial agreements Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan

legally speaking

ack in the old days, prenuptial agreements were almost unheard of in the Philippines. Perhaps, our aversion to this concept stems from our culture of modesty and false pride in that we tend to bloat our sense of self, yet, at the same time, we also take pride in being generous and hospitable to a fault. However, we are quick to realize now that even matters of the heart hold value—monetary value. In the Philippines, being a Catholic country and, in fact, the only remaining country (outside the Vatican) that does not allow divorce, marriage is placed on a pedestal that to “taint” it with practicality and to an extent, deal with marriage as if a merger of assets of sorts, trumps the Filipino’s grandiose and, at times, unreasonable perceptions of love and of what it means to become partners for life. Somehow, for some people, the idea of having to execute a “prenup”, as it is colloquially known, is an insult and a show of distrust by a loved one. In recent years, however, we have been audience to a number of painful, meant-for-the-circus and pocket-draining divorces between and among celebrities and private individuals, mostly in the United States, which underscores the importance and the real social value of a prenuptial agreement. As a consequence, we have become more open to the discussion of the subject of prenup, and have in fact adapted the trend quite smoothly. From the very word itself, a prenup must be executed prior to the marriage. No prenup may be entered into by the parties after the marriage and, thus, any and all modifications in the settlement of the property relations of the spouses may only be made with court approval. A prenuptial agreement is basically a contract between the future spouses, which governs and determines the rights and obligations of the parties relative to all properties, including future properties to be acquired, brought by each party into the marriage. Since a prenup is a contract, it follows that the requisites for the validity of contracts should also obtain. Prenuptial agreements must be entered into voluntarily. They should be in writing. They can be set aside for lack of consent, fraud, coercion, mistake, undue influence or bad faith. In order to be effective against third persons, they must be notarized and recorded in the proper registries of properties for the protection of creditors and

in the local civil registry, where the marriage is contracted. The future spouses may choose that their marriage be governed by the regime of absolute community of property, conjugal partnership of gains, complete separation of property, or any other regime, as long as agreed to and validly entered into by them. Under the Family Code of the Philippines (which became effective in August 1988), unless a valid prenuptial agreement has been executed by the parties, the parties shall be governed by the regime of absolute community of property. The community property shall consist of all the property owned by the spouses at the time of the celebration of the marriage or acquired thereafter, with a few exceptions, such as property acquired during the marriage by gratuitous title (i.e., inheritance), property for exclusive and personal use of the party, and property acquired before the marriage by either spouse who has legitimate descendants by a former marriage, including the fruits, as well as the income, if any, of such property. Prior to the Family Code, the Old Civil Code provided that in the absence of any prenuptial agreement, the regime of property is the conjugal system of gains— the husband and wife place in a common fund only the proceeds, products and income from their separate properties and those acquired by either or both spouses through their efforts or by chance. The spouses retain the ownership, possession, administration and enjoyment of their exclusive properties (paraphernal properties for the wife/husband’s capital). The prenuptial agreement, to avoid any confusion or legal battle in the future over inheritance, must explicitly state what regime of property the future spouses want. It must be understood that in a system of Absolute Community, all the properties owned by the spouses (past, present and future) belong to Absolute Community and is shared equally by husband and wife (even if it is inherited

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DOT pushes for ‘fair’ travel advisories By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

E fair—this was the message of Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo to other governments issuing travel advisories at the recent World Tourism Forum (WTF) Ministerial Meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. In a news statement, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said Teo made the call on behalf of countries like the Philippines that rely on tourism for billions of dollars in income. Speaking at the Istanbul International Convention Center, the DOT chief stressed the need for tourism leaders to band together to compel the ministries of foreign affairs and embassies to be more realistic and considerate in issuing travel warnings. “I call on the [Tourism] ministers here to have a collective stand on travel advisories, most especially for small island destinations. This is necessary in order to influence the Ministries of Foreign Affairs to rethink the issuance of such notices so we can safeguard the local people who are dependent on tourism,” she stressed. The economies of small island destinations suffer when “unneces-

7,884 The number of visitors from Turkey who arrived in the Philippines in 2016

sary or exaggerated” travel notices are issued by foreign governments, Teo added. Some foreign governments continue to tag certain Philippine destinations, such as Mindanao, for instance, for being unsafe places for their respective citizens in which to travel. While there is one region in the southern island that may be a magnet for terrorism and kidnapping activities, this is not true for the rest of the provinces of Mindanao, which, unfortunately, also

bear the brunt of these blanket travel advisories. Prior to her speech, Teo met with Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister Nabi Avci, who committed to support her call. “If such incidences [of unfair travel advisories] occur, we will stand together with messages of support. This would be our best response to terrorism,” Avci said. The governments of the Philippines and Turkey also signed a memorandum of understanding on tourism cooperation that will foster better tourism relations between the two countries. Teo, likewise, sat down with the executives of Turkish Airlines to explore the possibility of establishing new air routes to the Philippines. At present, the carrier flies daily between Istanbul and Manila, and has a code-sharing agreement with Philippine Airlines. She also met with the largest tourism and travel operators in Turkey to make a pitch for the Philippines. In 2016 there were 7,884 visitor arrivals in the Philippines from Turkey, up 30.83 percent from the 2015 figure, according to data from the DOT. In contrast, there were some 4,000 visitor arrivals in Turkey from the Philippines, a slight dip from 4,296 arrivals in 2015, according to government tourism statistics from Turkey. Turkey hosts annua l ly the WTF Global Meeting, and it was during the ministerial meeting on February 17, where Teo urged

delegates to be proactive in the face of growing demands on the global tourism industry. She cited the need to explore and promote new destinations, especially those that have barely been visited; the urgency to improve the travel connectivity to rural and local destinations, service centers, and gateways and hubs; and the importance of a

harmonious working relationship between the government and the private sector in formulating tourism policies and programs. T he DO T sa id t here were some 3,000 delegates and 10,000 guests in this year’s WTF Global Meeting. First established in 2015 under the auspices of the president of Turkey, the WTF is an Istanbul-based organization

that fosters exchanges between governments, the private sector and the media to help develop the global tourism industry. According to its web site, WTF also holds regional meetings three times a year in different cities around the world. The next summits will take place in Qatar, Jordan, India, Russia, Vietnam and the United States.

NEW DLSU CAMPUS IN BONIFACIO GLOBAL CITY Officials of De La Salle University (DLSU) lead the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the university’s new campus in Bonifacio Global City last Saturday. Present are (from left) President Br. Raymundo Suplido, FSC; donor family member Consul General Tony Rufino; Louie Galvez, DLSU Rufino Campus Project head; and Net Group CEO Carlos Rufino; and Ernest Rufino, donor family member. The DLSU Rufino Campus is a seven-story green building with 17 classrooms, an auditorium, a moot court and a library. ALYSA SALEN

Report estimates cost of conflict, violence in PHL at P3.05 trillion By Cai U. Ordinario

@cuo_bm

Iolence and conflict in the Philippines had cost victims P3.05 trillion in economic losses, lost productivity and medical expenses, according to the Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). Based on constant purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2015, the IEP said in the 2016 edition of its report, titled Economic Value of Peace, that the cost of violence in the Philippines reached nearly $60.98 billion, or $615 per Filipino. This meant that as a percentage of GDP, violence and conflict accounted for 8.4 percent, enough to rank the Philippines 69th out of 163 countries worldwide.

“When conflict is not averted, the consequences can be catastrophic. Violence in its many forms has been estimated to cost the world economy $13.6 trillion,” United Nations Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said in a speech last Friday. “We invest a tiny fraction of that in prevention—even though studies indicate that every $1 devoted to prevention can yield as much as $59 in return,” Feltman added. The IEP ranked countries according to the share of violence and conflict costs to GDP. Among the Asean 5, the Philippines had the highest ranking at 69th, while Indonesia had the lowest ranking at 163rd. But in terms of the estimated cost of violence and conflict, Thailand garnered the highest ranking at 78th. The lowest cost of violence and conflict was recorded in Singapore. “The biggest increase in the economic impact of violence was in Cambodia, which saw a 130-percent rise due to increasing military and internal security spending,” the report read. “It has also increased 107 percent in the Philippines, driven by increasing military spending, internal security spending and rise in the economic impact of terrorism,” it added. The 2016 version of IEP’s economic impact of violence report includes 16 variables across three domains. These variables include military expenditure, internal security expenditure, United Nations peacekeeping, peacebuilding, homicide, violent and sexual assault, fear of crime and incarceration. Also included are battle deaths, terrorism, indirect costs of conflict, small arms imports and population displacement. The study computed the variables’ direct costs to the victim, the perpetrator and the government, such as the cost of policing, as well as indirect costs that accrue after the violent event—such as economic losses, physical and physiological trauma to the victim, as well as lost productivity. It also took into account the multiplier effect, which represents the effects of direct costs, such as additional economic benefits that would come from investment in business development or education instead of containing or dealing with violence. The IEP is a think tank dedicated to shifting the world’s focus to peace as a positive, achievable and tangible measure of human well-being and progress. It develops new conceptual frameworks to define peacefulness; providing metrics for measuring peace; and uncovering the relationships between business, peace and prosperity, as well as promoting a better understanding of the cultural, economic and political factors that create peace.