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Monday, February 27, 2017 Vol. 12 No. 138

PHL seen to spend more for broadband network ₧200B T By Lorenz S. Marasigan

Duterte, and expects to get a reply from him soon. Salalima said the plan submitted to the President is the second option, which will require the government

The cost of investment in the second option by the government in its plan to build broadband infrastructure in the countryside

to invest as much as P200 billion to build broadband infrastructure in the countryside. The government earlier identified three options to go with the national broadband backbone.

PHL’s ‘Smart Cities’ dream: Too slow? By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

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Part One

AWARDS GALORE The 2016 Isuzu Dealer of the Year Awards was recently held at Taal Vista in Tagaytay City. Gracing the event are (from left) Shojiro Sakoda, executive vice president of Isuzu Philippines Corp. (IPC); Cenon Liwanag, parts supervisor of Isuzu Gencars Batangas; Shiela Hernandez, service admin head of Isuzu Gencars Batangas; D. Edgard A. Cabangon, president and CEO of Gencars Inc.; Jerin Guevara, assistant general manager of Isuzu Gencars Batangas; Lerma O. Nacnac, executive vice president of Gencars Inc.; William Abril, general manager of Isuzu Gencars Batangas; Sharon Tan; Hajime Koso, president of IPC; and Daisuke Inaba, vice president for sales of IPC. Isuzu Gencars Batangas won various awards, including the most prestigious one—the 2016 Dealer of the Year. Apart from bagging the top plum, Isuzu Gencars Batangas also got the following awards: 2nd Best in Parts Operation, 3rd Best in Sales Operation and 3rd Best in Service Operation. Sales Executive of the Year was Mark Anthony Hernandez of Isuzu Gencars Batangas. RUDY ESPERAS

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PESO exchange rates n US 50.2320

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Sports PPPs are more than sports PPP Lead Alberto C. Agra

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s it possible to pursue public-private partnerships (PPPs) on sports? How can this be viable? Name one example of a viable sports PPP. The Singapore Sports Hub (Hub) is one such model. This “strategic PPP” is a 25-year, close to P50-billion PPP between Sport Singapore and Sports Hub Pte. Ltd. This is touted to be one of the largest sporting infrastructure PPP projects in the world today. Continued on A15

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BMReports

E live in a world where almost everything we need is in the palm of our hands. From our consumption of food, to processing bank transactions, to ride hailing and down to social needs, the smartphone with an Internet connection has all that we need. Now, imagine if mobile phones have the capacity to solve our mobility problems, a possibility that experts say would be the case in the next decade, if technological investments were to be ramped up. The digital arena has been changing the landscape by which people are living in, and it is inevitable that the transportation industry will be disrupted by this phenomenon. While the Internet has ushered advanced economies to better traffic management, this

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HE government will likely adopt the second option in building a national broadband backbone, which entails the construction of infrastructure in the countryside with a higher price tag.

Information Secretary Rodolfo A. Salalima said the Department of Information and Communications Technology has forwarded the blueprint for the plan to President

2016 ejap JOURNALISM awards

‘SIMPLIFY TAX SCHEME FOR DISTILLED SPIRITS’ By Catherine N. Pillas

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@c_pillas29

he country’s oldest distillery, Destileria Limtuaco, asked the government to implement “simple” rules on taxing distilled spirits, as the ad valorem tax rate imposed on it under the “sin” tax law is tempering the industry’s growth. Destileria Limtuaco made this pronouncement amid the ongoing effort of the government to review the taxes imposed on alcoholic products and tobacco under Republic Act (RA) 10351, or the sin-tax reform law. Company CEO and President Olivia Limpe-Aw said that, even as the ad valorem tax starting at 15 percent has been in place since 2013, the structure can still be “simplified”. “The specific tax is okay; we’ve been used to that, but the ad valorem on the net retail price, which we’ve only seen in 2013, makes the computation difficult,” Limpe-Aw told reporters in a recent interview. R A 10351 restructured the taxation on distilled spirits based

on raw materials, including a three-tiered specific tax rates, shifting to a one-tiered scheme combination of specific and ad valorem tax. Starting 2013, an ad valorem tax rate of 15 percent of the net retail price per proof volume of the spirit, combined with the specific tax rate equal to P20 per proof volume, has been imposed. Under the specific tax, the P20-per-proof-volume levy will be replaced by a 4-percent increase in the specific tax rates annually starting 2018. This, however, was questioned by the Duterte administration, and was even regarded as being “too low”. While declining to disclose figures, Limpe-Aw said the industry’s growth has stagnated since the implementation of the tax structure, specifically the ad valorem tax based on net retail price. The industry has yet to come up with a unified proposal, but Limpe-Aw disclosed she prefers basing the tax rate on manufacturer’s price, instead of the net retail price.

n japan 0.4456 n UK 63.0512 n HK 6.4733 n CHINA 7.3081 n singapore 35.7091 n australia 38.7389 n EU 53.1706 n SAUDI arabia 13.3956

Source: BSP (24 February 2017 )

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A2 Monday, February 27, 2017

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PHL’s ‘Smart Cities’ dream: Too slow?

The digital shift is changing the way people live. But in order for us to be smart, we should innovate in three areas: product, process and structure. Being ‘Smart’ means to develop, to implement and to use digital service innovations.” —Haasis

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is not yet the case for the Philippines. In developed countries, such as Switzerland, Germany and Sweden, there exists so-called Smart Cities, wherein almost everything is connected by the Internet. There are self-driving cars, automatic garages and other automated transport processes designed to make a commute simpler. “I can’t imagine how the concept will work for the traffic in Manila. But, I think, life will change within the next 10 years— dramatically. We just have to wait and see,” Hans Dietrich Haasis said during a forum on “Urban Mobility and Its Interconnection with Transportation Networks” in Quezon City.

Smart Cities

HA ASIS defines Smart Cities as cities that are “digital, data-based and integrated” with the capacity to be productive through technology while being human-centric. These cities are resource efficient and sustainable, according to Haasis, a University of Bremen professor, with expertise in port management, business administration and transport economics. “The digital shift is changing the way people live. But in order for us to be smart, we should innovate in three areas: product, process and structure,” Haasis said. “Being ‘Smart’ means to develop, to implement and to use digital service innovations.” Such a concept, he said, is applicable to all transportation fronts: land, sea and air. “What is important is that this allows us to improve the quality of living and working by making processes more efficient through

This file photo shows workers at the Light Rail Transit depot in Pasay City performing maintenance work on the country’s urban rail system. Experts from Germany believe the use of technology will make the Philippines’s mass-transportation network more efficient. NONIE REYES

innovation,” Haasis said. Hamburg University of Technology Prof. Carlos Jahn defines digitization as the conversion of analog data into digital form. “It also means that it is a new approach to create new business models. There are many aspects around it,” he said. “It’s about connectivity, the cloud, Internet of Things, smart devices, decision support, big data and the automation of

knowledge and work.”

Ordinary citizens

ACCORDING to Jahn, “It is the use of digital technologies to change a business model to provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities—it is the process of moving to a digital business.” Jahn cited, for example, the ongoing digitization of seaports in Germany. “For instance, the port of Hamburg can

now forecast the exact arrival time of ships. It can also manage vessel traffic through a service center,” he said. He explained these can be achieved through the use of big data, which includes statistics from several entities that provide records of local weather, current, tides, locks and even traffic density. “With this data, we can have better utilization of resources, provide improved and safe flow of traffic toward seaports,

and even proactively plan the use of resources,” Jahn said. It was also applied to manage the traffic of trucks coming in and out of the port of Hamburg, which has led to several decisions that made the whole process more efficient. “Hence, digitization is a key driver to increase efficiency, as it provides numerous applications to synchronize the use of resources,” Jahn said. University of Hamburg Prof. Stefan Voss explained data can be sourced even from ordinary citizens because of the “continuous smartphone usage”. “It is one of the trends in human life today that we can use to gather information to solve certain problems such as traffic,” he said. To be continued

PHL seen to spend more for broadband network Continued from A1

The first option will cost the government P20 billion to P30 billion. The second option is where the government spends around P80 billion to P100 billion. Third option is to build a separate net-

work directly competing with the private sector. “We have existing infrastructure in the cities, so there is no need for us to duplicate that,” he said. “The second option is for government and countryside use, so hopefully he can approve it.”

The National Broadband Plan will analyze existing and planned government and private-sector deployment, and address supplyand-demand gaps by recommending policy and nonpolicy related actions. The plan will also provide detailed physical targets

and strategies to effect nationwide broadband deployment and widespread use. “We have submitted to President Duterte the blueprint with some details about a week or two ago,” he said. “We are asking him to approve the plan, so we can add

more flesh to it.” After crafting the plan, the government will pursue the construction of a National Broadband Network, which will include a mixture of several Internet connectivity, technologies, such as fixed line and mobile data, among others.

The creation of such a network started during the time of then-President Gloria MacapagalArroyo, but was shelved due to corruption issues. T he Ph i l ippi nes is one of the few countries in the region wherein the government has yet to fully engage in investing in telco infrastructure. Neighboring countries in the Asean have already started to implement national broadband plans, earmarking billions of dollars to develop a governmentowned backbone for the information superhighway. In Thailand, for example, the government has invested $114 million to improve the Internet service or availability. The fund is part of Bangkok’s economic policy. The Vietnamese government, on the other hand, owns two of the three largest telecommunications companies in Ho Chi Minh City. Malaysia has now spent a total of $4.5 billion over a 10-year period to lay fiber-optic lines to every home in the country’s urban area. Other developing and developed economies are investing billions of dollars to improve Internet access in their countries. “We can finish it in three to five years,” Salalima said. “We can complete it within the term of the President.”

DOT. . .

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When Israel Tourism Minister Yariv Levin visited the Philippines in September 2015, he met with officials of Philippine Airlines to discuss direct flights between Manila and Tel-Aviv. The Philippines was the first country the minister had visited upon his assumption into office. Sources disclosed that Philippine carriers wanted to put fifth and sixth freedom rights on the table, and while Israel agreed to this, its government was only willing to give the Philippine carriers flights three times a week. The sources explained that for direct flights between both countries to be commercial viable, the flights should be daily.

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Monday, February 27, 2017 A3

Investment pledges declined by nearly ₧1B in 2016–PSA

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By Cai U. Ordinario @cuo_bm

nvestment pledges from Filipino and foreign nationals declined by nearly P1 billion, or 0.1 percent, according to the latest data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Data from the PSA showed investment pledges through the country’s investment promotion agencies (IPAs) fell to P686 billion in 2016, from P686.9 billion in 2015. Approved Filipino investments grew only 5.7 percent, while foreign investments declined by 10.7 percent in 2016. “Out of the P686-billion investment commitments in 2016, P466.9 billion worth of pledges, or 68.1 percent, were from Filipino investors,” the PSA said. The country’s IPAs are the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bata a n, Boa rd of Investments (BOI), BOI-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BOI-ARMM), Clark Development Corp., Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza)

and Subic Bay Metropol itan Authority (SBMA). Investment pledges coursed through the BOI accounted for 64.4 percent of the total investments in the amount of P442 billion, while those from Peza reached P218.2 billion, or 31.8 percent of the total investments for 2016. Meanwhile, investments app ro v e d b y S BM A a nd C D C amounted to P9.3 billion, or 1.4 percent, and P8.1 billion, or 1.2 percent, respectively. “The rest of the IPAs had collective pledges of P8.3 billion, or 1.2 percent of the total investments,” the PSA said. In terms of industry, investment pledges in the electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply sector accounted for 31.5 percent of total foreign and Filipino pledges at P215.9 billion.

L oca l and foreig n investment pledges for real-estate activities reached P143.6 billion, or 20.9 percent, while those in manufactur ing amounted to 136.5 billion or 19.9 percent of the total. “Potential investments from 2015 to 2016, increased by 4.5 percent in real-estate activities, while investments in manufacturing declined by 20.1 percent,” the PSA said. T hese invest ments a re expected to create a total of 195,971 jobs. This was 15.9 percent higher compared to 169,075 jobs in 2015. About half, or 50.4 percent, of jobs would come from investment pledges coursed through Peza, with 98,883 expected jobs, followed by the BOI, with 67,634 jobs, or 34.5 percent. “Other IPAs would have a combined share of 15.1 percent of the total jobs expected,” the PSA said. The data was based on reports generated by a number of agencies that carry out functions relating to management and monitoring of and/or promotion for attracting foreign investments in the country. The PSA said approved foreign investments are only commitments and pledges. Actual foreign direct investments are compiled by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Trump seeks praise Vatican stakes out rights to Pope Francis’s image for reducing US debt V

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resident Donald J. Trump asked on Twitter why the media hasn’t reported that the national debt has dropped since his inauguration. One explanation, some economists said: Trump couldn’t have had anything to do with it. “Anything that has happened to the debt has been on autopilot since Obama left,” said Laurence Kotlikoff, an economics professor at Boston University. “If anything, he is taking credit for something Obama did.” The president took to Twitter on Saturday morning to say the national debt declined by $12 billion in his first month in office compared with a $200-billion increase in Barack Obama’s first month in office. The tweet followed a Fox News segment on which former presidential candidate Herman Cain made the same statement. Trump’s numbers are accurate. The national debt of $19.9 trillion did decrease $12 billion—600ths of 1 percent—from his first day in office until his 30th. It’s also true the debt fluctuates by billions of dollars each day, and the current spending and tax-revenue levels that drive those short-term variances were set by the last administration. Trump hasn’t had a chance in his first weeks to change the level of revenue collected through higher taxes or cut federal spending through a new budget. The $14.4 billion in debt held by the public, rather than as securities in government trust funds, was $94 million lower on February 21 than on January 20, when Trump was inaugurated. But the following day, the debt

level popped back up more than $1 billion due to regular changes in spending and revenue. “We applaud the president for focusing on the debt as an important metric of success and economic health, but would point out that the improvement this early in his term has to do with normal fluctuations in spending and revenues rather than new policies he has implemented,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. A W hite House spokesman wasn’t immediately available for comment. For me r P re s i d e nt B a r a c k Obama took office during the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Tax revenue was falling and the US was taking on debt to try to get the economy out of a tailspin, Kotlikoff said. Trump said this week that his team has “enormous work to do” to assemble a federal budget that will bring down deficits and deliver on priorities, such as a military buildup, public infrastructure investments, expansion of immigration enforcement and tax cuts. His administration is a lso working on a tax plan that it has said would be revealed by early March that will revamp business taxes. Trump may give further details on both in his joint address to Congress on Tuesday. While it is too soon to project Trump’s, impact on the debt, the Council on Foreign Relations expects the debt will grow under Trump, given his pledge not to cut entitlements, to increase spending on defense and infrastructure, and to cut corporate taxes. Bloomberg News

ATICAN CITY—God’s love may be free, but the Vatican says it has a copyright on the pope. Unnerved by the proliferation of papal-themed T-shirts, snow globes and tea towels around the world, the Vatican has warned it intends to “protect” the image of Pope Francis and “stop situations of illegality that may be discovered”. It also wants to protect the crossed keys emblem of the Holy See. “The secretary of state will undertake systematic surveillance aimed at monitoring the way in which the image of the Holy Father and the emblems of the Holy See are used, intervening with opportune measures when necessary,” the Vatican said in a statement. To back up this declaration, the Vatican has hired the global law firm Baker McKenzie to protect its intellectual-property (IP) rights, the Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported, without citing the source of the information. Baker McKenzie declined to comment. The threat of enforcement marks a sea change for a Church that for some 2,000 years has seen popes venerated on all manner of flags, banners and medals. But the popularity of Francis and the ease with which his image can be copied on the Internet age has spawned a flood of papal trinkets, causing the Holy See to worry that they are losing control of his image. “The pope’s image rights are no different from those of any other famous celebrity and so it’s not surprising that the Vatican is giving notice that it will protect its [intellectual-property] rights as necessary,” said Nick Kounoupias, the founder of an intellectual-property consultancy in London. “What will be interesting to see, however, is how vigorously these rights are pursued, given

Pope Francis is hugged by a worshipper during an audience granted to members of Capodarco, a social workers‘ association, at the Vatican last Saturday. AP/Gregorio Borgia

who the IP owner is.” Francis’s many travels have taken him to countries like the Philippines and Sri Lanka, where factories can quickly churn out pope hats, T-shirts and towels. Vatican officials have grown fearful the faithful will think that the Church is making money off the merchandise, experts say. Worse still, they see the conditions in which some of the items are made and worry about being associated with labor abuses. The decision reflects an evolution in the last decade as the Vatican adapted to modern markets. While in the past the Holy See might get word of improper use of the pope’s image through local church organizations around the

globe, the approach was random. “It’s not new that people were selling T-shirts of the pope, but [previously] those were probably little local vendors,” said Mark McKenna, an IP expert at the Notre Dame Law School in Indiana. What’s changed is the magnitude of what can be produced and how quickly it can be distributed through online platforms. “In a world of Etsy, you are able to do it on a bigger scale,” he said. Although the Vatican did not elaborate on how it would crack dow n, the warning seemed a preemptive move to explain why the Vatican is going after the unauthorized commercial uses of the pope’s image. There was no immediate indication that sou-

venir buyers would risk fines or legal action. It’s not as if the Church refrains from selling its own pope-themed material. On the Vatican web site, one can buy Francis medals, icons and rosary boxes. The Vatican museum boutiques offer silk ties and scarves and watches showing scenes from Michelangelo’s frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. And that may be part of the Vatican’s motivation in safeguarding Francis’s face—and warning that they will challenge the copycats. “It’s probably also the case that there is some genuine commercial motivation,” McKenna said. “They want to be sure they’re the only ones selling this stuff.” AP

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Monday, February 27, 2017 • Editor: Jennifer A. Ng

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LLDA told to revise resolution on illegal fish pens

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

group of fishermen urged the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) to amend its resolution on the demolition of illegal fish pens to spare small fish traps from its clearing operation in Laguna de Bay.

The Pambansang Lakas ng K ilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said on Sunday small fish traps, or baklad, are covered by the LLDA’s Board Resolution 518 approved on February 1. “Although the government has verbally assured us that small fish cages and baklad will be spared, we can’t stop worrying because the board resolution indicates that all enclosed structures, whether large or small, will be ejected,” Pamalakaya Chairman Fernando L. Hicap said in a statement. “Pamalakaya also fears that shanties and houses situated on top of the lake will be categorized as ‘other structures’ [under] the resolution,” Hicap added. The group said the amendment to the LLDA board resolution should specify corporateowned fish pens measuring 50 hectares and above would be removed from the lake. The LLDA board resolution was in accordance with President

Duterte’s marching orders to dismantle fish pens owned by big fishing corporations and moneyed individuals to grant small fishermen access to their traditional fishing grounds. However, Pamalakaya said it authorized not only the demolition of large fish pens and fish cages, but also small fish traps. Env i ronment Sec ret a r y Regina Paz L. Lopez has earlier made an assurance that baklads owned by small fishermen will be spared from the clearing operations. This was also affirmed by Environment Undersecretary Maria Paz G. Luna in a dialogue on February 13. Luna said the Department of Environment and Natura l Resources w il l pr ior it i ze cor porate - ow ned fish pens. LLDA resumed the demolition of illegal fish pens on January 25 and 26, off the waters of Cardona, Rizal. The fish pen demolished belonged to Christian Fishing Corp., which failed to comply with LLDA

File photo

r e q u i r e m e nt s a n d h a s b e e n de l i nque nt i n pay me nt f rom 2013 to 2016. Another operation, led by LLDA General Manager Jaime C. Medina, was conducted on February 14.

Medina, a former mayor of Pateros, said the operation is part of the plan to transform Laguna de Bay into a “vibrant economic zone”, and to give small fishermen priority over the lake’s bounty.

He said fish-pen operators have been given until March 31 to harvest their fish stocks and voluntarily demolish their structures. “Otherwise, LLDA will start to demolish these big structures on April 1.”

Agricultural training institute on Dinagat Islands receives development grant from Israel

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mbassador of Israel Effie Ben Matityau presented Wilfredo Tiu with Mashav’s development grant of P497,850 for the upgrading of Sogbohan Agri-Training Institute (Sati) on Dinagat Islands, Surigao del Norte. The development grant is a special project of Mashav, Israel’s agency for international development cooperation, with the main objective to help Mashav course graduates to further develop their existing ideas to a level

of sustainability and maturity on an economic basis. Wilfredo Tiu is a graduate of Mashav course on intensive vegetable production, which took place in Israel in 2011. Upon his return, he envisioned this special project catering to the farmers and fishermen in its location in Sogbohan Islet, Barangay Bagumbayan on Dinagat Islands and other nearby barangays. Following the earthquake in the province, food security and

capacity-building became even more important. The Mashav development grant will be used mostly to construct a greenhouse at Sati, the only agriculture-training center on the islands. It will also be used to upgrade Sati’s facilities and training capacity. Sati is envisioned to be the training and production center of high-value vegetables and other agricultural products, as well as freshwater fish, such as tilapia.

How to capture a runaway NY bull? Bring in the cowboys

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EW YORK­—Is there a cowboy in the house? They could use one in New York City, where cattle have escaped from urban slaughterhouses three times in the past 13 months on wild runs through the streets. One fugitive bull led a posse of flustered, arm-waving cops last Tuesday on a chase through Queens that was televised live from hovering news helicopters. The police ultimately cornered the bull in someone’s backyard, but the animal, hit by multiple tranquilizer darts, died shortly thereafter. Real bull-wrangling experts say the officers can be commended for trying their best, but there’s definitely a better way, if you’ve got someone on hand who knows how to twirl a lariat. They say stick with a rope, try approaching by horse or on foot and skip the tranquilizer guns, or at least fire fewer shots. “You load a horse on a trailer and you go find the bull and rope the bull and put it in the trailer,” says Parke Greeson, a cowboy from a cattle ranch in Lubbock, Texas. “It’s just like getting dressed and putting your shoes on. You just do it.” Without tranquilizers, he added. Greeson, 25, speaks from experience. He and a cowboy buddy once rushed to the rescue with lassoes when a pair of cows got loose on a Texas highway. They roped one from the back of a pickup truck. They nabbed the second one on horseback in Lubbock’s business district, where the bovine had caused pandemonium and jumped through an office window.

In this February 21, 2017, file image taken from video provided by WABC, a bull that escaped from a local slaughter house is pursued by the police in New York. The police corralled the bull in a backyard in the Queens borough of New York, after two-hour chase that continued even after the bull’s hide was studded with tranquilizer darts. WABC via AP

Unfortunately, there were no cowboys on hand this week to help New York City police capture a lively black bull that ran amok after breaking out of a halal slaughterhouse in Queens’s Jamaica neighborhood. For much of the chase, officers tried unsuccessfully to maneuver their vehicles to box in the bovine. Tranquilizer darts appeared to have little effect—until the end. “The officers were trying to do what they’re supposed to do—protect people, not cattle—but they did a lot of things wrong,” said Susie Coston, director of the Farm Sanctuary in upstate New York, which works with the city to adopt runaway or homeless animals. For one thing, she said, the officers could have backed off for a bit to

let the sedatives take effect. “They chased the bull while firing one dart after another, so the animal’s adrenaline shoots up and there’s no chance for the tranquilizer to work and calm him down,” she said. Lt. John Grimpel, an NYPD spokesman, said that while the department’s Emergency Service Unit “is highly trained in the use of tranquilizer guns”, that does not include a specific protocol for firing tranquilizer darts to contain large animals. Animal Care Centers of New York, the nonprofit that operates the city’s largest animal shelter system, doesn’t respond to emergencies, like loose cattle, according to Spokesman Katy Hansen. AP

According to data from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, there are 23,678 registered fishermen who regularly catch fish within Laguna de Bay as of 2016.

PHL to help Cambodia plant new rice varieties

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

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he Philippines has agreed to assist Cambodia, a major rice exporter, in cultivating and planting new rice-seed varieties, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said over the weekend. The DA said Cambodia is tapping the expertise of the Philippines, particularly Laguna-based International Rice Research Institute (Irri), in growing new rice-seed varieties. “Cambodian Agriculture Secretary Ty Sokhun informed Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol that his country seeks Philippine cooperation in learning new rice-growing technologies,” the DA said in a statement. The DA added that Cambodia is particularly interested in the development of new seed varieties and knowledge exchange on rice farming. According to Piñol, 70 percent of Cambodia’s rice lands are rain-fed, while only 30 percent of their farmers use hybrid rice. While most Cambodian rice farmers could only plant once a year, Cambodia remains as one of the major rice exporters in Asia, with the Philippines a major destination for its rice exports, the DA said. Agriculture Assistant Secretary Frederico Laciste Jr. said the Philippines aims to increase the annual yield per hectare of local rice farms by investing in hybrid rice propagation. “The program envisions a competitive and climate-resilient rice industry that can provide the requirement of the country at any given time,” said Laciste, who is also director of the DA’s rice and corn program. Piñol said he informed the Cambodian agriculture officials that he intends to visit their country in September to explore agricultural joint ventures and to learn more about Cambodian ricefarming technologies. The officials of Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries met with DA officials on February 20. Sokhun was accompanied by a representative from the Irri during his visit to Piñol. Also joining him were Cambodian General Directorate of Agriculture (GDA) Director General Hean Vanhan, GDA Director of Department of Rice Crops Ngiren Chhay, and Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute Director Ouk Makara. The DA said the Cambodian delegates will visit the facilities of Bureau of Plant Industry-National Seed Quality Control Services and the Philippine Rice Research Institute. They will also visit the Irri headquarters in Laguna to know more about pest management and crop management.

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Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Monday, February 27, 2017 A5

Minority leaders meet to discuss viable alternatives to large dams

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By Marvyn N. Benaning | Correspondent

O less than 50 leaders of indigenous peoples (IPs) will tackle alternatives to large dams in ancestral domains nationwide in a conference to be held in Tinglayan, Kalinga, from February 28 to March 3.

LOVELY BLOOM Miss International 2016 Kylie Verzosa waives to the crowd on her float at the Panagbenga 2017 Float Parade in Baguio City on Sunday. Panagbenga means blooming time. SUZANNE JUNE G. PERANTE

Sultans offer help to have lasting peace in Mindanao By Cha Monforte Correspondent

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number of sultans from various sultanates in Mindanao are offering their traditional leadership to help forge lasting peace in Mindanao. Apprehensive of the influence of current peace negotiators from rebel forces in effecting peace with the Moro people, the sultans said chances for a lasting peace could be achieved with the involvement of traditional Muslim leaders. They are, however, optimistic on federalism, which is being espoused by President Duterte. Sultan Kudarat Gov. and Rajah Buayan Sultan Omar Pax Mangungudatu, in a news conference at the launching of the Confederation of Royal Sultanates in Mindanao last Thursday, said 49 years had passed since the Mindanao independent movement emerged and wars kept on breaking out. Now, after about 50 years of negotiating with the government, “no substantial achievement about peace” with the

Moro people has been achieved. He cited the peace agreement in 1976 with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the 1996 Jiddah Accord and the 1996 peace agreement that he said failed to stop war in Mindanao. He said peace was elusive because the past administrations failed to tap the missing element— the involvement of traditional leaders, like the sultans, in the peace process. “They forget that we are the chieftains of the Bangsamoro people. We are the real and legitimate traditional leaders of the Bangsamoro people,” he added. Sultan Abdullah Topaan Disomimba also said traditional leaders are highly respected Muslim leaders. He added that when he was still a mayor, he solved the problem of rido (generational war between families) by using his position as sultan when his being a mayor would not suffice to do the job. “That has much implication in the peace process as there’s no ba-

rangay in our place in Lanao that is not under the influence of a sultan,” he said. Meanwhile, Mangungudatu initiated the forming of the Confederation of Royal Sultanates in Mindanao at the Davao Convention Center last Thursday. Sultanates forming the confederation were the Royal Sultanate of Rajah Buayan, Marawi Sultanate League, Royal House in General Santos, Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo and Royal Sultanate of Bangsa Kagan. Sultans have royal bloodlines from the first sultan in Mindanao, Muhammed Shariff Kabungsuwan, who first introduced Islam in the island in the 16th century. An official of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) said in Moro history, there were originally only two sultanates in Mindanao—the Sultanate of Maguindanao and the Sultanate of Sulu. “The Sultanate of Buayan, then the Sultanate of Kabuntalan followed suit. Then many sultanates emerged with little kingdoms,” the NCMF official said.

LGUs must be business-friendly to attract foreign investors–Dino By Charles R. Pepito Correspondent

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residential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino is appealing to local government units (LGUs) to be business-friendly and avoid harassing foreign investors. Dino made the appeal during the Visayas leg of the Economic Zone Summit, conducted by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza). In his speech, Dino said the third point in the Duterte administration’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda is to “increase competitiveness and improve the ease of doing business”. He said efforts to make this succeed will draw upon successful models used to attract business to progressive cities that lure foreigndirect investment. “I urged you to take note of this third point and emphasize the term ‘competitiveness’ of doing

business. This can only be realized if we have a friendly local government, a local government unit that will veer away from long queues of taxpayers transacting business, a local government unit that has no official fixers who collect 10-percent kickback in business transactions, an LGU that releases business permits in three days, without the hassle of red tape,” Dino said. Dino has invited all LGUs to help the Duterte administration establish business-friendly environment, avoid arm-twisting and harassing business locators and economic players because they are our partners for growth and development. “I assure you of my office’s full support. Please do not hesitate to come to my office whenever you have any problem with any government office or LGU, and I will show you how this administration deals with grafters,” Dino said.

Peza is conducting a series of summits across the country to prepare a nationwide economic zone map. The Economic Zone Summit was held in Mindanao last week, which was attended by 300 participants, mostly land owners, developers, investors and officials from the LGUs. The next and the last leg of the Economic Zone Summit will be in Luzon. The summit seeks to identify potential economic zones in all regions of the country. The nationw ide economic-zone map aims to provide investors various choices of locations where they can put up their investments in the country. There will be three classifications of economic zones under Peza: the existing public and private economic zones; the newly approved economic zones; and the incoming economic zones identified during the summits.

Dubbed as “2017 National Indigenous Peoples’ Community Exchange Program”, the meeting was organized by the Philippine Task Force for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights (TFIP), which unites 11 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) under Executive Director Jill Cariño, an Ibaloy and supported by the Timpuyog dagiti Mannalon ti Kalinga (TMK) and Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya (Sibat). Cariño said the indigenous peasant organization Ngibat Farmers Association will host the event. The TFIP officer said that, while large hydroelectric dams produce power for rural and urban communities, support irrigation services to farmers and serve as infrastructure for flood control, IPs have, nevertheless, been subjected to their adverse impacts. “Large dams built on ancestral lands for so-called development have put our communities in perilous conditions, displaced thousands

of indigenous peoples, destroyed our rivers and eroded our identity and culture,” Cariño said. It is high time for IP leaders and officials of the Duterte administration to know the real face of large dams, she added. Cariño cited the impacts of the Ambuklao, Binga and San Roque Dams on the Ibaloy people along the Agno River. Moreover, thousands of Dumagat and Remontado families are now being threatened by the Laiban Dam construction in Quezon and Rizal, as well as the thousands of the Tumandok in Panay about to be displaced by the Jalaur megadam project. Cariño said the Kalinga meet will highlight the history, experiences and practices of the Ngibat community in the establishment and management of their local microhydropower (MHP) energy system. The project was one of the Igorot peoples’ collective community responses to assert their customary

rights to land and water against corporate control during the height of the Chico Dam struggle in the 1970s, she disclosed. “The National IP Exchange this coming week in Kalinga will serve as a timely and relevant venue for indigenous peoples to learn from the experiences of the indigenous communities on dams and the Community-based Renewable Energy System (CBRES) experience of the Ngibat community,” Cariño added. “Instead of building dams and destroying the environment, the government should support and promote microhydro projects as an alternative to destructive and large dams,” Sibat Executive Director Vicky Lopez added. CBRES are small, decentralized energy-supply systems that are established through multistakeholder efforts with the major participation of organized communities in project development. Lopez explained that these systems, which are owned and operated by community organizations, do not only provide lighting to households, but also energy for food and crop processing and livelihood needs for rural households. Cariño stressed that through the exchange, TFIP network, along with numerous IPs’ rights advocates and organizations, hopes to promote appreciation of indigenous-knowledge systems and practices, customary natural environmental governance and ecological values related to river systems.

AseanMonday BusinessMirror

A6 Monday, February 27, 2017 • Editor: Max V. de Leon

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Australia and Indonesia agree to restore full military cooperation in Sydney meet

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ustralian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Indonesian President Joko Widodo agreed to restore full military cooperation at a meeting between the two leaders in Sydney last Sunday. Indonesia moved to suspend all military partnerships between the two countries last month, citing technical issues. Australia’s Defense Minister Marise Payne said that concerns were raised in late 2016 by an Indonesian national armed forces officer over teaching materials and remarks at an army language training facility in Australia. “President Widodo and I have agreed to the full restoration of defense cooperation, training exchanges and activities,” Turnbull said in a joint statement from the leaders. Widodo, also known as Jokowi, is on his first visit to Australia. He and Turnbull agreed to enhance maritime cooperation between the countries. “I’ve assured the president of Australia’s commitment to Indonesia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Turnbull said. Jokowi said a “robust relationship” can be established between Australia and Indonesia “when both countries have mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity, noninterference into the domestic

affairs of each other and the ability to develop a mutually beneficial partnership.” Jokowi and Turnbull are seeking to strike a balance between China— a major trading partner for both, and the US, which has for decades been the dominant military presence in Asia. While Indonesia has sought to stay neutral in disputes between its neighbors and China over the nearby South China Sea, it’s become increasingly cautious over Chinese expansion in the region. Incursions by Chinese fishing boats and its coast guard, along with public comments by senior Chinese officials about access to waters near the gas-rich Natuna Islands, prompted Jokowi to tell a Sydney newspaper last November that the islands are “our territory” and there would be “no compromise on sovereignty.”

Tariffs cut

Australia and Indonesia are in talks for a comprehensive economic

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (left) and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull pose for a photo during a meeting at Admiralty House, the official Sydney residence of Australian governor general, in Sydney on February 26. AP

partnership to cut tariffs and promote trade, which Turnbull and Jokowi said they expect to be completed by the end of the year. The two leaders announced Indonesia will lower tariffs on Australian sugar to 5 percent, while Australia will eliminate tariffs on pesticides

and herbicides coming from Indonesian suppliers. Jokowi said he discussed “key issues” on trade with Turnbull, including removal of barriers and tariffs on Indonesian products, such as paper and palm oil. “The potential for us to expand

our economic relationship is very clear,” Turnbull said. “We are both committed to concluding a highquality, bilateral free-trade agreement, the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership, by the end of this year.” Bloomberg News

AIA, Manulife said to bid for SCB’s Thai life-insurance unit

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IA Group Ltd. and Manulife Financial Corp. are among bidders for Siam Commercial Bank Pcl.’s life insurance operations in what could be the biggest-ever acquisition of a Southeast Asian insurer, people with knowledge of the matter said. Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi is partnering with Singapore’s Great Eastern Holdings Ltd. on a nonbinding offer, while Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li’s FWD Group and, separately, Prudential Plc. have also bid, according to the people. Bidders for SCB Life Assurance Pcl. are expected to be shortlisted this month, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because

the process is private. A deal could give the life-insurance business a valuation of at least $3 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said last April. Siam Commercial, Thailand’s third-largest lender, has been considering selling a stake in the operations, as well as granting access to sell insurance products through its branches, the people said at the time. Global insurers have been seeking ways to expand their reach selling products via lenders with large Asian branch networks. German’s Allianz SE announced a 15-year agreement last month to distribute products through Standard Chartered Plc.’s outlets in Asia. Sompo Holdings Inc.’s

so-called bancassurance agreement last year gives the Japanese firm access to CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. branches in Southeast Asia.

Big deal

A deal for the SCB unit—at a $3billion valuation—could be bigger than Li’s $2.1-billion acquisition of ING Groep NV insurance units in 2013 that created FWD Group, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. Li’s deal for operations in Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand is the largest insurance purchase that includes Southeast Asian assets, the data show. Any stake sale would follow $2.2 billion of investments in Thai finan-

cial firms over the past 12 months, up from $738 million during the preceding period, according to the data. Representatives for AIA, FWD, Prudential and Great Eastern declined to comment, while a representative for Manulife said the company doesn’t comment on market rumors in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg queries. Siam Commercial President Arthid Nanthawithaya declined to comment when reached on his mobile phone, while calls to Charoen’s office went unanswered. Siam Commercial in 2015 bought the remaining shares it didn’t already own in SCB Life in a deal valuing the insurer at about 77.8 billion baht ($2.2 billion). The lender has more

than 1,000 branches across the country, according to its web site. Insurer Great Eastern, controlled by Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., has a presence in Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, China and Myanmar, in addition to its biggest markets in Malaysia and Singapore, according to its 2016 results. It agreed to sell its Vietnam operations to FWD, the insurance arm of Pacific Century Group, last year, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. FWD last year also bought a 90percent stake in Singapore’s Shenton Insurance Pte. and agreed to buy Tokyo-based AIG Fuji Life Insurance Co., according to its web site. Bloomberg News

Tiger zoo to open next to Thailand’s raided Tiger Temple

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ANGKOK—A new zoo is planned in western Thailand right next to the closed Buddhist temple that ran a lucrative tiger attraction while allegedly trafficking in the endangered beasts. The new zoo should be completed in two to three months and has no affiliation with Tiger Temple, the temple’s lawyer, Saiyood Pengboonchu, said last Friday. A person answering a phone number listed for the new zoo’s holding company denied any affiliation with the zoo and hung up. Tiger Temple had operated in Kanchanaburi province for more than a decade despite concerns about trafficking and possible mistreatment of its tigers. Its 137 tigers were seized and the temple was closed for good last year after police unearthed evidence of possible involvement in trafficking tigers and their parts. Police are still investigating possible criminal charges against temple employees and monks. Phra Wisutthi Sarathera, the temple’s abbot, denied any wrongdoing and told reporters last October that he wanted to open a zoo with new tigers. While Saiyood denied any links between the temple’s zoo and the planned zoo, animal welfare groups

IN this June 2, 2016, file photo, National Parks and Wildlife officers examine the skin of a tiger at the “Tiger Temple”, in Saiyok district in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, Thailand. Less than a year after Thai police shut down a Buddhist temple that ran a lucrative tiger zoo while allegedly trafficking in the endangered beasts, a new zoo is planning to open right next door. AP

still are concerned the new zoo will be run by the same people. “Given the appalling conditions at the former Tiger Temple, which ultimately led to its closure, we’re

urging the Thai government not to activate the full zoo license needed for another tiger entertainment venue to be opened,” says World Animal Protection, a London-headquartered

animal welfare agency. A zoo license was issued in April 2016 to the then-vice president of the Tiger Temple, Supithpong Pakjarung, and the new zoo is now being built on

10 acres right next to the old temple. Thailand has over 1,000 captive tigers, but less than 4,000 remain in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund. In China the elite eat ground tiger bones as medicine, and tiger penises as an aphrodisiac. Tiger hides can sell for tens of thousands of dollars in Beijing. Thai police who raided the Tiger Temple found tiger skins and teeth and thousands of amulets made from tiger bone. They also found 60 cub carcasses stuffed in freezers and floating in formaldehyde in jars. The police also believe a slaughterhouse at a separate location was where live tigers were butchered to eventually export to China. “You’d breed the tiger, you’d raise it, you’d feed it, and then at some point, an order would come in,” says Steve Galster, founder of the antitrafficking Freeland Foundation. “You’d inject it, kill it, dismember it, put it in a body bag and sell it to the buyers for $30,000. That’s the racket that was going on.” The owners of the new zoo still need to get licenses from Thailand’s Department of National Parks to transport tigers from other zoos. Those licenses could be denied if the owners are under criminal investigation. AP

Malaysia airport safe, police say

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alaysian authorities have declared Kuala Lumpur International Airport is safe after a sweep of the terminal found no traces of the nerve agent that was used to kill Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of North Korea’s leader. The airport is “a safe place” and is free from any contamination by hazardous materials, state news agency Bernama reported Selangor state police chief Abdul Samah Mat as saying after an early-morning sweep by Malaysia’s police forensic department, a hazardous materials team from the fire and rescue department and the Atomic Energy Licensing Board. The operation was conducted between 1:45 a.m. and 3 a.m. last Sunday. Fears of contamination were triggered after a preliminary report showed that VX Nerve Agent was used in the murder of Kim Jong Nam. The toxic substance, listed as a chemical weapon under the Chemical Weapons Convention Act 2005, was found on the victim’s face and eyes, Malaysian police said last Friday. The eldest son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was murdered in the Kuala Lumpur airport on February 13. “Confirmation from the chemistry department is consistent with the autopsy findings from the Ministry of Health, suggesting it was a chemical agent that caused very serious paralysis that led to the death of the person in such a very short period of time,” Health Minister S. Subramaniam said Sunday at the airport.

Quick death

Exposure to the chemical in high doses can lead to death “very quickly”, while in low doses the side effects can last for a few days, Subramaniam said, adding that the chemical in its powdered or liquid form can vaporize into the air. Aside from a suspect who was involved in the chemical attack, there were no reports of anyone else experiencing side effects, he said. This is the first time VX Nerve Agent has been found in Malaysia, Bernama reported, citing Deputy Health Minister Hilmi Yahaya. The nerve agent is difficult to detect if brought into the country in small quantities, he said last Sunday. The police have arrested four people linked to the murder, including two women who allegedly carried out the attack, and are seeking four North Koreans whom they believe fled to Pyongyang on the day Kim Jong Nam was killed. Authorities also want to question a diplomat at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, an employee at Air Koryo, and a North Korean living in Malaysia for three years. Malaysia will issue an arrest warrant if the diplomat does not cooperate with the investigation, the police said last Saturday. Abdul Samah, the police chief leading the investigation, said authorities will allow “reasonable” time for the diplomat to come forward, before issuing a notice compelling him to do so, according to the Associated Press.

$90 prank

LAST Saturday Indonesia’s deputy ambassador to Malaysia, Andriano Erwin, said an Indonesian female suspect in custody was paid $90 to help carry out the attack involving VX Nerve Agent, in what she thought was a prank. Carrying an Indonesian passport in the name of Siti Aishah, 25, she was identified from closedcircuit television footage taken at Kuala Lumpur International Airport and was alone at the time of her arrest. “According to her, that person gave her around 400 ringgit to do this activity,” Erwin said in a video recording published by Indonesian news portal detik.com. Siti Aisyah didn’t know she was handling poison and thought the liquid given to her was baby oil, Erwin said after meeting her at a police station last Saturday, according to the New Straits Times. Bloomberg News

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The World BusinessMirror

Monday, February 27, 2017

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Trump’s deportation policy to drive up farm wages

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cross America’s orchards and crop fields, a shrinking supply of migrants has already driven pay up faster than in the broader work force. President Donald J. Trump’s immigration policy may turbocharge that trend. Wages for United States fieldworkers rose 36 percent over the past decade through the conclusion of last year’s harvest last October, compared with 27 percent among nonfarm employees, government data show. Reducing the supply of labor wouldn’t just cause pay gains to accelerate: The Trump administration’s expanded deportations for undocumented immigrants could put some growers out of business if the actions aren’t accompanied by increases in workers available through legal guest-worker programs. “You would see operations just shut down,” said Zaid Kurdieh, who employs about two dozen legal immigrants at Norwich Meadows Farm in central New York state.

“Even if you fill the gap with legal workers, the wages will jump just to get people to work,” said Kurdieh, whose 80-acre organic farm supplies a wide range of vegetables to farmers’ markets in New York and New Jersey. While policy shifts on taxes and health care are months or years from taking effect—much less having a broad influence on the world ’s largest economy— farms and their workers may provide a more real-time look at the impact of a signature Trump action. Other industries with a significant proportion of undocumented workers include construction and hospitality, with one study suggesting that unauthorized immigrants contribute about

3 percent of private-sector GDP. Trump’s immigration plan, outlined in memos last Tuesday, would add 15,000 border-enforcement agents to enforce immigration laws and expand the categories of undocumented immigrants targeted for expulsion. The administration is arguing the moves are necessary to fulfill campaign promises to restore the integrity of national borders, while critics call it a detailed blueprint for the mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants. The extent of actual deportations and the system’s capacity to handle them is unclear. Officials haven’t given targets for the number of expulsions, after more than 2.7 million during former President Barack Obama’s eight-year term. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly vowed last Thursday that there would be no “mass” deportations. While much of the US farm economy is mechanized, fresh produce and dairy remain heavily dependent on human labor. Immigrants, both legal and unauthorized, have supplied that labor for generations. American farms have already faced worker shortages from Obama’s stepped-up deportations and a decline in arrivals from Mexico, traditionally the main source of migrants.

Farm profits

About a quarter of the US farm work force, more than 300,000 people, don’t have valid immigration papers, according to a 2009 survey by the Pew Hispanic Center. Other studies suggest the number may be more than 1 million and as much as 70 percent of all workers. The sector is already struggling: The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on February 7 farm profits this year will fall for the fourth consecutive year, the first time that’s happened since the 1970s. An immigration policy focused on closing the border would shift as much as 61 percent of US fruit production to other countries and send jobs to nearby nations, such as Mexico, in part because wage costs would make US foods less competitive, according to a 2014 study commissioned by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the largest US farmer group. Cutting the total unauthorized work force by roughly half, meanwhile, would push wages for undocumented and legal guest farmworkers as much as 40 percent higher than they would have been otherwise over a 15-year period, according to a 2012 study by the USDA. Bloomberg News

Trade nominee built his biz in ways Trump now scorns

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EXICO CITY—With a panel of senators questioning him, billionaire investor Wilbur L. Ross stayed on message: If confirmed as President Donald J. Trump’s commerce secretary, he would protect American workers and tear up bad trade deals that harmed United States industry. And yet, for more than a decade, those same trade deals helped Ross amass a fortune across the globe— in countries like Mexico and China, among others. In fact, Ross has sometimes invested overseas in ways that Trump condemns. As the head of an auto-parts company, Ross shipped jobs to Mexico, taking advantage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), which he now says is unfair and must be renegotiated. That company, along with a textile firm he founded, publicly stated Mexico was central to their growth. To some of his former associates, that history clangs against the persistent message of Trump, who has called Nafta “the single worst trade deal ever approved in this country” and has excoriated US businesses for sending jobs overseas. But a spokesman for Ross described his experience as an asset, not a contradiction.

“As a private businessman, Mr. Ross made pragmatic decisions based on the rules of the road at the time, and it is precisely his knowledge of how trade deals work that will allow him to be successful in renegotiating bad deals, like Nafta,” said the spokesman, James Rockas. The Senate is scheduled to vote on Ross’s confirmation on Monday. Ross’s flexible approach to trade is characteristic of many private equity barons focused on the bottom line, his former associates say. After taking over two bankrupt US textile makers more than a decade ago, for instance, Ross paid a visit to an executive of J.C. Penney Co. The industry was in turmoil, and Ross needed advice. Fellow mill owners, largely concentrated in the US Southeast, were blaming free trade for destroying their livelihoods. Many felt that sending jobs overseas, even for survival, was tantamount to treason. But for Ross, who made his name fixing bankrupt companies across a variety of US industries, hiring workers abroad made sense, former associates say. So Ross inquired about opening a mill with hundreds of workers—not in the US, but in Vietnam. New York Times News Service

The World

A10 Monday, February 27, 2017 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

BusinessMirror

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Trump is off to a slow start on trade promises

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ASHINGTON—President Donald J. Trump keeps firing verbal broadsides at Mexico and China, but so far his new administration has not acted to keep specific campaign promises about trade policy.

Trump did not declare China a “currency manipulator” on his first day in office, as he had vowed, nor has he after his first month. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said last Thursday that his department was conducting a standard biannual review of the currency practices of China and other trading partners. Trump also has not initiated the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) with Mexico and Canada, something he promised to “immediately pursue”. “There’s definitely a huge gap between rhetoric and reality,” said Chad P. Bown, a senior fellow and specialist on trade policy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Trump made trade one of his signature issues during the campaign, excoriating what he described as failed policies that have allowed foreign countries, notably China and Mexico, to profit at Americans’ expense. And he has not changed his tune since he moved into the White House. “Take a look at Nafta, one of the worst deals ever made by any country having to do with economic development,” Trump told the cheering crowd on Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, held just outside Washington. “It’s economic undevelopment, as far as our country is concerned.” Trump has fulfilled one campaign promise on trade, signing an order to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an unsigned deal that the Obama administration negotiated with Pacific Rim nations but had not submitted to Congress for approval. But the absence of clear action on China and Mexico is striking, both

because Trump’s language remains so bellicose and because the administration has moved quickly to keep many of the other campaign promises that it made. The “Contract with the American Voter” Trump announced last October has proved in most respects an accurate guide to the first month of his presidency. Trump has nominated a conservative judge to the Supreme Court and announced a freeze on federal hiring. He has reversed some Obama-era regulations and sharply shifted the government’s policies on immigration. The White House is pressing Congress to approve a new health-care plan and overhaul the tax code. Trade policy has emerged as perhaps the most notable exception. Trump’s views on trade diverge widely from the mainstream of the Republican Party, more so than on any other issue of economic policy. And some Republicans were quick to warn Trump against protectionist measures, fearing they could damage American economic growth. “The main point I wanted to convey is that regardless of what action the incoming president takes on trade, he and his advisers should consider the effects on agriculture,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Republican-Iowa, declared last month after meeting with Robert E. Lighthizer, Trump’s choice to be chief trade negotiator. “I expect the new administration to work hard to maintain existing markets for Iowa and other farm states’ exports and open new markets as well.” Another farm-state Republican, Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, this week celebrated the 200th

Millions may lose coverage in Obamacare repeal, govs told

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San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer (left) and Tijuana, Mexico, Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum discuss the benefits of cross-border ties at a news conference at San Diego City Hall on February 6. The mayors of the largest metropolitan area on the US-Mexico border called for stronger binational ties, striking a sharp contrast with US. President Donald Trump’s calls to build a wall and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. AP/Elliot Spagat

anniversary of the publication of David Ricardo’s economic theory of comparative advantage, which shows that trade between two nations benefits both. “It’s still brilliant & beautiful,” Sasse wrote on Twitter. He suggested in a second post that parents should read Ricardo to their children. Trump said during the presidential campaign that he would declare China a currency manipulator on “day one” of his administration. He reiterated that commitment in his “Contract with the American Voter”, which said, “I will direct the secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator.” And last Thursday, Trump reiterated his long-standing view of China in an interview with Reuters. “I think they’re the grand champions at manipulation of currency,” Trump said, adding, “We’ll see what happens.” But Mnuchin had already made clear hours earlier that the administration did not intend for anything to happen, at least immediately. In a televised interview with CNBC, Mnuchin said that China’s

currency practices would be evaluated on the same schedule as those of other American trading partners. The Treasury publishes biannual reports on April 15 and October 15. “We have a process within Treasury where we go through and look at currency manipulation across the board,” he said. “We’ll go through that process. We’ll do that as we have in the past. We’re not making any judgments until we go continue that process.” Specialists in currency policy say that they see no evidence that China is suppressing the value of its currency to increase exports, as it did in previous decades. The White House and the Treasury Department did not respond to requests for comment. If the United States determines China is manipulating its currency, a step the Treasury last took in 1994, the government would seek to reach an agreement with China, but could eventually impose tariffs on Chinese imports. The administration is also moving slowly on its pledge to renegotiate

the Nafta. The White House must notify Congress 90 days before it begins renegotiation of a trade agreement. The Trump administration has not provided such notification. The Mexican government triggered its own 90-day clock at the beginning of February, but officials are happy to watch and wait. “We are not in a hurry to change anything,” the Mexican economy minister, Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal, told reporters last Thursday, noting that his counterparts in the US have yet to “define their objectives”. One reason for the stuttering start may be the paucity of administration officials. Trump has said that Wilbur Ross, his nominee for commerce secretary, will lead the renegotiation of Nafta and play a major role on trade policy. But Ross is awaiting Senate confirmation. A vote is scheduled for Monday. The Senate Finance Committee has yet to schedule a hearing on the nomination of Lighthizer, a Washington lawyer, as chief trade negotiator. New York Times News Service

Trump ‘is shocked he is not in control of the press’ as before

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A S H I N G T O N —T h e White House press secretary, Sean M. Spicer, has taken to slapping journalists who write unflattering stories with an epithet he sees as the epitome of low-road, New York Post-style gossip: “Page Six reporter”. Whether the New England-bred spokesman realizes it or not, the expression is perhaps less an insult than a reminder of an era when now President Donald J. Trump mastered the New York tabloid terrain—and his own narrative—shaping his image with a combination of on-the-record bluster and off-the-record gossip. He’s not in Manhattan anymore. This New York-iest of politicians, now an idiosyncratic, write-yourown-rules president, has stumbled into the most conventional of Washington traps: believing he can master an entrenched political press corps with far deeper connections to the permanent government of federal law enforcement and executive department officials than he has. Instead, Trump has found himself subsumed and increasingly infuriated by the leaks and criticisms he has long prided himself on vanquishing. Now, goaded by Stephen Bannon, his chief strategist, Trump has turned on the news media with escalating rhetoric, labeling major outlets as “the enemy of the American people”. His latest swipe—pulling out of Washington’s so-called nerd prom— came via Twitter last Saturday. “I will not be attending the White House

Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year,” Trump wrote. “Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!” He has made a sharp break from previous presidents—and from his own comfortable three-decade tango with the tabloids. “New York is extremely intense and competitive, but it is actually a much smaller pond than Washington, where you have many more players with access to many more sources,” said Howard Wolfson, who has split his career between New York and Washington, advising New York’s former mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, and Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. “In New York, you can create a manageable set of relationships in a smaller universe,” Wolfson said. “In Washington, that becomes a lot more complicated.” There is another fundamental difference: During his Page Six days, Trump was, by and large, trafficking in trivia. As president, he is dealing with the most serious issues of the day. They involve the nation’s safety and prosperity, and it is the role of news organizations to cover them. If Trump’s slap-and-tickle relationship with reporters had a model back then, people close to him say, it was the gregarious, unavoidable-forcomment style of Ed Koch, the threeterm New York mayor. But his mood in Washington has turned darker, and over the past week he has executed, alongside Bannon and Spicer,

what amounts to the most sustained White House campaign against the news media since Richard Nixon’s second term. “It’s like Nixonian times again,” said George Rush, a veteran New York gossip columnist, who has covered Trump for decades. “I just thought he would have a thicker skin.” Linda Stasi, who chronicled Trump’s up-and-down marriage to Marla Maples in the 1990s for two New York papers, said she could have predicted the presidential agita. “He would plant stories and he would get mad if they didn’t come out exactly as he wanted,” she recalled of earlier dealings with Trump. “It never occurred to him that he couldn’t control everything.” Now, Stasi said, “he is shocked that he is not in control of the press.” Attacking the news media, which has an abysmal approval rating among Republican voters, is sound politics in the short term. But Trump’s fury is less strategic than heartfelt. He watches cable TV at night and exhorts aides, like Spicer, and his policy adviser Stephen Miller to be tougher, according to White House aides. His anger is compounded by his belief that he should still be able to plant and steer stories. That was a lot easier to do when he was running a close-knit real-estate and branding business, with an aggressive legal team that demanded nearly everyone in his orbit sign nondisclosure agreements.

For the first time in his life, Trump is on the public payroll and subject to a tangle of laws and rules no businessman—especially one accustomed to overseeing every aspect of a relatively small family business—would tolerate. To some extent, the clash with the press was inevitable. Trump may be noisier and more confrontational than many of his predecessors, but he is being force-fed lessons all presidents eventually learn—that the iron triangle of the D.C. press corps, West Wing staff and federal bureaucracy is simply too powerful to bully. Trump’s relationship with the press during the 2016 campaign was rocky and paradoxical. He was, at times, accessible—frequently calling reporters to kibbitz, complain or make news. But as the resentments piled up, his staff, led by Corey Lewandowski, his first campaign manager, made a point of snubbing journalists it did not like, and confining reporters to a small pen at rallies. Trump quickly realized, aides said, that his attacks on the “dishonest” news media were as popular as his hits on “crooked” Hillary Clinton. The addition of Bannon to the campaign team in the summer of 2016 gave the jostling hostility a sharper edge. Last month Bannon described the Trump-media relationship as “a war” in an interview with The New York Times. “I want you to quote this,” he said. “The media here is the opposition

party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.” Things have deteriorated since then. The White House, on the defensive last week after a series of missteps and leaked stories, sought to shift to offense, targeting the news media as an enemy, in the absence of any more formidable foil in a city now firmly controlled by Republicans. Bannon, a former Goldman Sachs executive and Hollywood producer, who made a fortune from the syndication of TV shows, described the “corporatist media” as the “opposition party” in a Thursday speech. The next day, Spicer excluded selected news organizations, including The New York Times, Politico and CNN, from a closed-door version of his daily briefing. Then there was Trump’s 10-minute attack on “fake news” during his speech last Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, which was met with shouts of approval from the conservative faithful. Reporters back in New York, however, knew that the president’s call for an end to “sources”—meaning anonymous sources leaking damaging details of his campaign’s relationship with Russian officials—did not jibe with his one-time role as a no-fingerprints gossipmonger, trumpeting his business dealings and romantic life in late-night phone calls. New York Times News Service

olicies supported by Republican congressional leaders to repeal and replace Obamacare could lead millions of people to lose their health coverage, according to a presentation given to state governors meeting last Saturday in Washington. The presentation, a copy of which was obtained by the Bloomberg News, estimates that the number of people covered by Obamacare, through the individual insurance market, could be slashed by as much as 51 percent in states that chose not to expand Medicaid coverage under Obamacare and by 30 percent in those that did expand the federal-state health program for the poor. The presentation was made by consulting firms Avalere Health and McKinsey and Co.

12M

The estimated number of people who gained Medicaid coverage after Obamacare broadened eligibility for the program

“Tens of thousands who would not be able to afford their coverage and would lose their coverage,” Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington said after the closed-door meeting. “It was a pretty disturbing briefing.” Republicans have campaigned for years on a promise to repeal the 2010 health law, known as Obamacare, and Donald J. Trump’s election victory put that goal within reach. Now, though, they’re confronting the task of coming up with a replacement, mindful of the 20 million people who’ve gained health insurance under the law and the billions of dollars it sends each year to states.

Enrollment declines

IN one hypothetical example presented, a state that didn’t expand Medicaid and had 235,000 enrollees in Obamacare through the individual market would see the number of participants fall to 115,000. In a hypothetical state that did expand Medicaid coverage and had 300,000 enrollees in the individual market, the number would drop to 210,000. The expansion state could see further losses in Medicaid, where another 115,000 would probably lose eligibility, without being able to find an affordable replacement plan. The presentation also revealed that a hypothetical state that expanded Medicaid could lose 24 percent of federal dollars spent on the program over five years, requiring $6.2 billion to make up the gap. The scenario would require Congress to repeal the expansion and implement a per-person funding mechanism. A hypothetical state that didn’t expand the program could lose 6 percent in federal spending. The presentation is based on a plan by Republican leaders to eliminate incomebased subsidies under Obamacare that help people afford insurance and replace them with age-based tax credits.

Budget pressure

Republican governors in states that expanded Medicaid have been telling their congressional delegations for months that repealing the health-care law without an adequate replacement would cost their budgets and hurt hospitals. While many say they support repealing Obamacare, they’ve advised a heavy dose of caution. Republican leaders in Washington are considering ending the Medicaid expansion, as well as setting per-person caps on federal funding of the program. Bloomberg News

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The World

briefs Trump says he won’t attend WH correspondents dinner President Donald J. Trump said he won’t attend this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) Dinner on April 29, following weeks of attacks on news organizations that included calling them “the enemy of the American people.” “I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!” Trump said on Saturday on Twitter. In his first month in office, Trump has made attacks on the media a signature policy of his administration. On Friday his spokesman Sean Spicer held a briefing for reporters that excluded news organizations including the New York Times and CNN that have written stories critical of the president. That followed a Conservative Political Action Conference speech in which Trump again lashed out at what he calls “fake news.” The annual WHCA dinner—dubbed “Nerd Prom”—is a fundraising event where Washington’s journalists hobnob with politicians and celebrities. The correspondents’ association was founded in 1914 after President Woodrow Wilson threatened to do away with news conferences. The group started the annual dinner in 1921 and presidents have traditionally attended. Bloomberg News

israeli pm calls 1st visit to australia ‘wonderful’ SYDNEY—Benjamin Netanyahu has described his visit to Australia, a first for a serving Israeli prime minister, as “wonderful”. Netanyahu and his wife Sara concluded their five-day trip to Sydney on Sunday by meeting with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. “This has been a wonderful visit here. You people are amazing,” Netanyahu told Bishop before talks behind closed doors. Netanyahu joked with Bishop, who had recently arrived home from a trip to the United States and Britain, that the pair had “shared more or less the same route”. Netanyahu and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week agreed to deepen business and travel links between the two countries. AP

g.o.p.: special prosecutor needed for russia probe WASHINGTON—A Republican congressman has called for a special prosecutor to investigate whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and was in touch with President Donald J. Trump’s team during the campaign. Rep. Darrell Issa (EYE’-suh) of California says it would be improper for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to lead the investigation. Issa made the comments on Friday on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. Issa said: “You’re right that you cannot have somebody—a friend of mine, Jeff Sessions—who was on the campaign and who is an appointee. You’re going to need to use the special prosecutor’s statute and office.” AP

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Iraqi forces meet resistance from IS group in west Mosul

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OSUL, Iraq—The Iraqi advance into Mosul’s western half slowed last Saturday, as combat turned to urban warfare and Iraqi forces met stiff resistance from the Islamic State (IS) group.

Hundreds of civilians poured out of Mosul on foot following the advances, but the vast majority of 750,000 estimated to still be in the city’s west remain trapped, and describe deteriorating humanitarian and security conditions. Special forces Lt. Gen. AbdulWahab al-Saadi said his troops are “moving very slowly” and that IS fighters are responding with car bombs, snipers and dozens of armed drones. The drones have caused relatively few deaths, but have inflicted dozens of light injuries that have disrupted the pace of ground operations. Similar to the way operations inside eastern Mosul initially unfolded, in west Mosul, IS repeatedly brought Iraqi convoys to a halt on Saturday with small teams of one or two men and a handful of car bombs.

Al-Saadi said the Mamun neighborhood was particularly difficult because its streets are not organized in a grid. “The roads are random,” he said, which makes it more difficult for his men to set up roadblocks to stop car bombs, a difficulty that foreshadows obstacles Iraqi forces expect to face in the narrow alleyways of western Mosul’s historic district. But al-Saadi said he expects the pace to increase after Iraqi forces retake territory and infrastructure on Mosul’s southwestern edge— which will allow them to shorten supply lines and link up with forces in the city’s east. Along the road beside al-Saadi's base of operations, hundreds of civilians fleeing Mosul walked slowly past, many with sheep, cows and goats in tow. Nearly all of the hun-

dreds who fled on Saturday trekked more than 5 kilometers from the city’s edge to a small village serving as a screening center. Dozens of families gathered against a crude cinderblock wall at the screening center south of Mosul. Intelligence officials at the site said after documents were checked families would either be moved into nearby abandoned houses or newly erected camps for the displaced. Many of those fleeing said they were from villages outside Mosul and had been forced to march to the city more than four months ago to serve as human shields. “We’ve been through terrible times,” said Juri Fathi, a mother of six who was forced to live in a school in Mosul for three months. “I had to burn my children’s clothing just for warmth.” Fathi held her youngest child—a four-month-old boy—in her arms as she spoke. She said he was born in an abandoned home between her hometown of Hamam al-Alil and Mosul as she was being led on the forced march by IS. “I named him Mussab [or difficult],” she said, “for these tough days”. Groups of men were screened at the site against a database of IS suspects and two prisoners were

dragged past the crowd and into an abandoned building. “We brought them directly from inside Mosul,” said an Iraqi special forces soldier from inside the Humvee that delivered the detainees. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. “They were shooting at us, I saw them with my own eyes,” he said. Iraqi forces declared eastern Mosul “fully liberated” in January, after officially launching the operation to retake the city last October. A former Iraqi army lieutenant colonel and specialist in land-attack missiles, who used the nickname Abu Karim fearing for the safety of his family, spoke to The Associated Press by phone, describing a “deteriorating security and humanitarian situation” inside western Mosul. “I’m hiding in my house, and my wife lives in constant fear of Daesh raiding our home,” said Abu Karim, using the Arabic acronym for the extremist group. Abu Karim said IS fighters have been setting up checkpoints and storming homes to crack down on informants, meting out punishments for anyone carrying a mobile phone or found with an Internet connection that include flogging, jail time and fines. AP

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Making the deep blue sea green again

A young boy stands near mangroves planted near his home in the village of Entale in Sri Lanka’s northwest Puttalam District. Amantha Perera/IPS

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Pelicans float in the bay of Puerto Ayora, Galapagos, on January 7, 2009. AP/Kirsten Johnson

In hot water: Climate change harms hot spots of ocean life

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ASHINGTON—The six ocean hot spots that teem with the biggest mix of species are also getting hit hardest by global warming and industrial fishing, a new study finds.

An international team looked at more than 2,100 species of f ish, seabirds, mar ine mamma ls and even tiny plankton to ca lcu late Ear th ’s hot spots of mar ine biodiversit y. T h e s e u n d e r w at e r s u p e r zoos are in patches of ocean that are over fished and war ming fast, and these pressures hurt the lush life there, according to a study in Wednesday’s jour na l Science Advances. “In t hose hot spots, t he changes are a lready happening,” says study coauthor Andre Chiaradia, a senior scientist and penguin expert at the Phillip Island Nature Parks in Australia.

“ They are the most at risk.” Several outside marine and climate scientists praised the work, saying it showed the impor tance of protecting these areas and reducing fishing. “Biodiversity and fisheries are humanity’s legacy” that should be preserved, marine ecologist Maria Vernet of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said in an e-mail. She wasn’t part of the research. While scientists in the past have identified key areas of biodiversity, the new work is more detailed. Researchers found the liveliest ocean hot spot also happens to be where the science of evolution sprouted:

the Pacific Ocean off the central South American coast. It includes the area around the Galapagos Islands and goes back to “our good friend [Charles] Darwin. When he went there, he got amazed,” Chiaradia said.

2,100

The estimated number of species of fish, seabirds, marine mammals and tiny plankton an international team studied to calculate Earth’s marine biodiversity hot spots

Other hot spots include the southwestern Atlantic Ocean off Argentina; the western Indian Ocean off the African coast; the central western Pacific Ocean surrounding Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines; the southwestern

Pacific off Australia’s southern and eastern coast; and the Oceania region of the Pacific around the international date line. Four of the six hot spots are in the Pacific; all are either in the southern hemisphere or just north of the equator. “What makes this biodiversity? It’s the isolation,” Chiardia said. “On land, we have kangaroos and weird animals, like the platypus. And in the ocean, it’s not different.” The ocean is home to Australian sea dragons, a fish related to the seahorse that resemble mythical dragons and sometimes even have yellow and purple markings on their bodies. These hot spots also tend to be places where the ocean waters churn more, Chiardia said. Penguins, which are near the top of the food chain, are a good example of the impact of changing water temperatures and currents. Warm El Niño waters have decimated Galapagos penguins and the population of southern African penguins has dropped by about 90 percent in just 20 years, Chiardia said. AP

MS program in food security, climate change developed

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limate change is a global issue that exacerbates existing threats to food security and livelihoods. As Southeast Asia remains dependent on the climate-sensitive sectors of agriculture and forestry, it is now in an even more vulnerable position. In response to this concern, the Philippine government-hosted Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) was among 16 partners that held a workshop early this month at Kasetsart University (KU) in Bangkok to develop a quality plan and finalize the training tracks for a new Master of Science in Food Security and Climate Change (MS FSCC). The MS FSCC project is an initiative of the Searca-initiated Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources, with Searca and KU in the lead, to push the internationalization of higher-education institutions in Southeast Asia.

Dr. Poonpipope Kasemsap of KU heads the project, which is partially funded by the Erasmus + Capacity Building in Higher Education program of the European Commission (EC). Besides Searca, headed by Dr. Gil C. Saguiguit Jr., the Agricultural, Veterinary and Forestry Institute of France (IAVFFAgreenium) and Agrinatura—the European Alliance on Agricultural Knowledge for Development—are also project partners. IAVFF-Agreenium is a conglomerate that pools together t he competenc ies of a l l t he French public agricultural and veterinary research and highereducation institutions, including the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development and Montpellier SupAgro. Dr. Didier Pillot of Montpellier SupAgro and vice president of Agrinatura was instrumental in the project development and its implementation. Meanwhile, the project partners include the five UC members,

namely: KU, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universitas Gadjah Mada and Institut Pertanian Bogor in Indonesia; six other universities in Southeast Asia; and three universities in Europe. The other Southeast Asian universities are the Royal University of Agriculture and University of Battambang in Cambodia, Nilai University in Malaysia, Central Luzon State University in the Philippines, and Prince Songkla University and Chiang Mai University in Thailand. On the other hand, the European partner universities are Georg-August-University of Göttingen in Germany, Montpellier SupAgro in France and University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna in Austria. “In particular, we need to produce graduates who can very well fit the professional profile needed by various institutions i n order to st rateg ic a l ly re spond to the two-fold concern

on climate change and food security,” Searca said. Since interdisciplinary skills are needed to address food security and climate change, the key pillars of the new MS curriculum w ill be natural sciences, agricultural and engineering techniques, and social and political disciplines. As the atmosphere does not have borders, Searca and its partners believe that climate change adaptation and mitigation solutions require international solutions. Graduates of the new course will be prepared to act in different cultural, social and institutional environme nt s ac ros s cou nt r ie s a nd regions by internationalizing their studies through mobility. The MS FSCC students will, therefore, get two degrees from two universities. They will be spending at least a month at a second university, and take a summer course, possibly at a third university.

NITED NATIONS—Kids growing up in the Seychelles think of the ocean as their backyard, says Ronald Jean Jumeau, the Seychel les ambassador to the UN. “Our ocean is the first and eternal playground of our children, they don’t go to parks, they go to the ocean, they go to the beach, they go to the coral reefs and all that is just collapsing around them,” Jumeau told Inter Press Service (IPS). The tiny country off the East Coast of Africa is one of 39 UN member-states, known as small island states, or as Jumeau likes to call them: “large ocean states”. Ambassadors and delegations from these 39 countries often speak at UN headquarters in New York steadfastly, sounding the alarm about the changes to the world’s environment they are witnessing first hand. Jumeau sees these island states as sentinels or guardians of the oceans. He prefers these names to being called the canary in the gold mine because, he says: “the canaries usually end up dead”. Yet, whi le much is k now n about the threats rising oceans pose to the world’s small island states, much less is known about how these large ocean states help defend ever yone aga inst t he worst impacts of climate change by storing “ blue carbon”. “We are not emitting that much carbon dioxide but we are taking everyone else’s carbon dioxide into our oceans,” Jumeau said. Despite decades of research, the blue-carbon value of oceans and coastal regions is only beginning to be fully appreciated for its importance in the fight against climate change. “ T he re ’s pro of t h at m a n groves, seas salt marshes and sea grasses absorb more carbon [per acre] then forests, so if you’re saying then to people don’t cut trees than we should also be saying don’t cut the underwater forests,” Jumeau said. This is just one of the reasons the Seychelles has banned the clearing of mangroves. The temptation to fill in mangrove forests is high, especially for a nation with so little land, but Jumeau says there are many benefits to sustaining them. Mangroves guard against erosion and protect coral reefs. They also provide nurseries for fish. But it ’s not just coast a l forests t hat t a ke ca rbon out of t he at mosphere. Ocea ns a lso absorb c a rbon, a lt hough accord ing to Nat iona l Aeronaut ics and Space Ad ministrat ion (Nasa), t heir role is more l i ke in ha l ing a nd e x ha l ing. The Seychelles, whose total ocean territory is 3,000 times larger than its islands, is also thinking about how it can protect the oceans, so they can continue to perform this vital function. The nation plans to designate

specific navigation zones within its territories to allow other parts of the ocean a chance to recover from the strains associated with shipping. The navigation zones will “relieve the pressure on the ocean by strengthening the resilience of the oceans to absorb more carbon dioxide and ocean acidification,” Jumeau said. He ack nowledges the plan will only work if all countries do the same, but says you have to start somewhere. Fortunately, other countries are also beginning to recognize the importance of protecting the world ’s oceans. Isabella Lövin, Sweden’s deputy prime minister and climate minister, told IPS that the world is going “in the totally wrong direction” when it comes to achieving the goal of sustainable oceans and life below water. “If you look at the trends right now, you see more and more overfishing, we are seeing more and more pollution, plastic litter coming into our oceans and we’re also seeing all the stress that the ocean is under due to climate change, acidification of the water, but also the warming and sea-level rises and, all of this is putting a tremendous, tremendous pressure on our oceans,” Lövin said. Together with Fiji, Sweden is convening a major UN Ocean Conference in June this year. The conference aims to bring together not only governments, but also the private sector and nongovernmental organizations to create a more coordinated approach to sustaining oceans. It will look at the key role that oceans play in climate change, but also other issues, such as the alarming prospect that there will be more plastic in our seas than fish by 2050. “ T he re ’s 3 b i l l ion p e o pl e around the world that are primarily dependent on marine resources for their survival, and so they depend on what the ocean can produce, so it’s about food security, it’s also about livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people that depend on small scale fisheries mostly in developing countries,” Lövin said. Löv in a lso noted that r ich c ou nt r ie s ne e d t o w or k t o gether w ith developing countr ies to address these issues, because the demand for fish in r ich countr ies has put a strain on the globa l fish stocks that developing countr ies rely on. “Rich countries…have been o v e r f i s h i n g w it h i ndu s t r i a l methods for decades and now, when the European oceans are being emptied more or less, we h ave depleted ou r resou rces and then we import and we fish [over long distances in] developing countries’ waters.” “We need to make sure that fish as a resource is conserved and protected for future generations.” IPS

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Tañon Strait mgt board requires monitoring of all fishing vessels

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he Tañon Strait Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) executive committee approved the resolution to require the installation of monitoring technology in all commercial fishing vessels within the protected seascape. “We laud the move to require monitoring for all commercial fishing vessels along Tañon Strait. It is an effective tool to deter and stop illegal fishing, and its implementation is a momentous step in protecting our diverse, yet fragile, municipal waters and protected areas,” said lawyer Gloria Estenzo Ramos, vice president of Oceana Philippines. In a resolution approved as a policy on January 31, the executive committee of the Tañon Strait Protected Seascape required the installation of vessel-monitoring technology in all commercial fishing vessels that dock and transit within the protected seascape. “Due to the large size of the protected area, there is a need for mechanisms, such as vessel monitoring, to ensure that the management plan and enforcement plan are effectively carried out and restore ecological integrity

in Tañon Strait,” the resolution said. Vessel-monitoring mechanism is a means used to track and monitor the position, course and speed of the vessels at any given time for the purpose of management of fishing efforts and fisheries resources, and for traceability. The resolution emphasized that this action will strengthen enforcement measures against illegal commercial fishing, in line with the government’s all-out drive to stop illegal fishing in the country. “The Fisheries Code, as amended, requires vessel monitoring measures for all commercial fishing vessels to monitor their fishing behavior and ensure sustainable fisheries management,” the resolution said. Tañon Strait is the first protected seascape to require vessel-monitoring for all commercial fishing vessels transiting the area. It is a critical marine habitat and important

Danny Ocampo (right), Oceana campaigns manager, installs a vessel-monitoring equipment on the fishing boat of the late “Ocean Hero” Oliver Dayupay of Ayungon, Negros Oriental. Oceana is assisting the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in pilottesting vessel technologies in the Philippines. Oceana Philippines

migratory path for 14 of the 27 species of whales and dolphins in the Philippines. The protected seascape has at least 90 species of fish, 20 species of crustaceans, 26 species of mangroves, and 18,830 hectares of coral reef. It is also a rich fishing ground for artisanal or municipal fishers who live along the coastal areas within the 42 cities and municipalities in the provinces of Cebu, Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources has been testing vessel-monitoring technologies nationwide, with Oceana facilitating the pilot-testing within Tañon Dr. Al Orolfo, the regional envi-

From restaurants to reefs

Discarded oyster shells recycled O

NLAKEATHANASIO,Louisiana— If you slurp oysters from the halfshell in New Orleans, you may be doing more than satisfying a culinary craving: You could be helping to construct reefs that environmental groups hope will save a bit of Louisiana’s coastline. Since 2014, restaurants have contributed nearly 2,600 tons of shells to the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana and The Nature Conservancy, which have already used a quarter of them to construct a half-mile-long reef about 40 miles outside of New Orleans. Tiny oyster larvae like nothing better than oyster shells to cement themselves to as their permanent home. Up to 10 of the larvae, known as spat, can stick to a single shell. Left undisturbed, the reef grows up and out, providing homes for other types of marine life and slowing the waves that chew continually at Louisiana’s coast. The oysters also filter up to 25 gallons of water a day, improving water quality. For thousands of years, people have been hauling oysters out of the sea, chowing down on the ounce or so of meat inside, and then tossing the shells. Prehistoric Indians left oyster and clamshell heaps up to 600 feet long and 50 feet to 100 feet high on every US coast. These days, the shells either end up in landfills or are ground up into road material or chicken feed. Although Louisiana’s oyster fishery is the nation’s largest—producing nearly 6,600 tons in 2015 alone—until recently the state built shallow-water reefs mostly of concrete or limestone, not shells. Recycling oyster shells was inspired by programs in other states, including Texas. A 245-foot-long, more-than-20-footwide reef in south Texas’s Aransas Bay has had visible results since it was started in 2011, said Gail Sutton of the Harte Research institute at Texas A&M University. She points to Google Earth photos of a fishing pier at Goose Island State Park in 2011, showing a thin white line of easily erodible sand nearby. Photos taken in 2016 show that sea grass has grown over the sand, its roots holding the fragile land more securely, she said. Prior to the reef’s installation, “the wave action was so severe that the sea grass could not latch down and stay put,” she said. “Now we’re seeing it fill in.... It’s changing the whole side of that one cove.”

The new reef off Louisiana’s coast, completed last November, consists of about 650 tons of shells, bagged and then placed into steel-mesh boxes known as gabion baskets measuring 6 feet long, 3 feet wide and 3 feet high. The baskets, each of which holds 2 tons of shells, are laid end-to-end about 20 feet from shore, with gaps to match inlets in the marsh along the shore of Lake Athanasio— really a Gulf Coast bay on the ragged edge of Saint Bernard Parish. The top is only about a foot below the surface at high tide, so signs have been set up to alert boaters. “We’re going to measure success by its growth over time,” said Kim Reyher, executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. The remaining shells already donated and those still being added go into huge heaps on land owned by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, where they cure in the sun until they are ready to be used for future reefs. The state department doesn’t charge rent, but gets a percentage of the shells for its own programs. New Orleans’ shell-collection program has grown much faster than those in other states, thanks to a $1-million grant that covered its first three years and let the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana and The Nature Conservancy haul away shells without charging restaurants. But now that the grant has expired, restaurants are being asked to pay about half the cost: $150 per 32-gallon collection bin. Consequently, more than half of the 26 participating restaurants have dropped out—including one that provided 484 tons of shells. That restaurant might have had to pay as much as $3,000 a month to stay in the program. The coalition is applying for additional grants to keep funding the program; in the meantime, the restaurants that are sticking with it include some of the largest contributors. Overall, the 10 remaining restaurants donated more than one-third of the total received in the program’s first three years. Among them is the No. 2 shell contributor, Bourbon House, whose general manager, Steven Schnell, estimates the recycling program will cost the restaurant about $900 a month going forward. Schnell says the restaurant has provided about 334 tons of shells so far. “It takes about 700 tons to build one of these reefs,” he said. “So we’re really proud of the fact that half a reef is coming directly from this restaurant.” AP

ronment director for Negros Island Region, strongly supports the action. He said: “We envision Tañon Strait to showcase the harmonious relationship between man and nature within a marine ecosystem. The National Integrated Protected Area System law is explicit on this, thus, any economic activities must cover the essential elements of sustainable development.” He said PAMB’s adoption of the policy on the use of vessel monitoring in Tañon Strait “is a laudable move”. Arolfo added: “It integrates the use of tool, technology and law-enforcement strategy that addresses the threats posed by commercial fishing to the livelihood of marginalized fisher-

folk, and to the rich marine biodiversity in the area.” Oceana, the largest international organization focused solely on marine conservation, echoed the importance of vessel monitoring in the country’s fishing areas, such as Tañon Strait, which supports the livelihood of thousands of municipal fisherfolk and their families. “Vessel monitoring will contribute to the elimination of unfair competition brought about by commercial fishing operators illegally encroaching municipal waters,” Ramos said. Various government agencies, such as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’s Biodiversity and

Management Bureau, called out the continuous encroachment of commercial fishers, and said preferential access should be given to municipal fisherfolk who use passive or nondestructive fishing gears, such as hook and lines, fish traps and crab pots Despite its status as a protected seascape, an approved general management plan and the conduct of joint seaborne operations by government enforcement agencies, Tañon Strait still faces threats, such as overfishing, illegal intrusion of commercial fishers in municipal waters and ocean pollution from industries and households. Last year an oil spill hit the town of Moalboal in Cebu, a popular dive spot and tourist destination in Tañon Strait, which is known for its rich coral reef and diverse marine species, such as the sea turtles. However, authorities were not able to identify the perpetrators, since there were no systems in place to monitor passing vessels. “Protecting Tañon Strait is a very important task. We must work together to conserve and protect this critically important marine habitat and fishing ground. Joint policy endeavors such as this must be sustained and fully implemented to restore fisheries abundance, and ensure the protection and conservation of our fisheries and natural resources, and long-term seafood security,” Ramos said.

A14 Monday, February 27, 2017 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Still looking for closure

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family is beginning life together. The wife has a successful career as a producer in the entertainment business. The husband is a wellrespected engineer with a bright future in the aviation industry. A bouncing 3-year-old son dominates family activities. One morning on the way to the office, a brake failure caused a tragic one-car accident and the husband is killed. The luxury sportscar manufacturer is found guilty of design flaws that lead to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit settlement. But 30 years later, the wife has yet to remove her spouse’s clothes from the bedroom closet. His unopened mail still sits on a table next to the front door. Unread daily newspapers dating all the way back are stacked in the garage. Clinically speaking, the woman would probably be diagnosed as being in some early stage of psychotic mental illness, meaning that thoughts and emotions are impaired to the point of distortion of external reality. It might be that she never achieved “closure”, defined as finding answers to an ambiguous situation and a “satisfying sense of finality”. In 1991 the Philippines finally put an end to the nearly 100-year military occupation by the Americans. The New York Times reported at the time: “The decision was greeted with applause and tears in the chamber”. Legal niceties notwithstanding, until that vote by the Philippine Senate, there was no closure on the colonial phase of US/ Philippine relations. The 1947 Military Bases Agreement that allowed US bases came less than one year after independence and was hardly between two equal sovereign nations. From the 1991 Senate vote, Filipinos and the nation were able to —in the words of the current mantra—move on. You can only move on after a sense of closure. The nation is—after 31 years—still trying to move on from the events in February 1986. We do not even know what to call the event that was staged this past weekend. Was it a “celebration” of “People Power”? Was it a remembrance of the “Edsa Revolution”? Perhaps, it was simply—as in the words of one local newspaper— an “anniversary”. We are reminded never to forget the conditions that led up to February 23 to 25, 1986. We are called to remember the “Spirit of Edsa”. How could anyone possibly forget? Our politicians should have to make a donation to the Philippine Red Cross for disaster relief every time “Edsa” or “People Power” is used to support a particular political agenda. As Ambassador Teddy Locsin Jr. wrote a few days ago, “The Palace explained that Edsa rites henceforth shall be modest. And the theme will be People Power moving on. I agree 100 percent. I opposed right at the start the public government celebration of a private act of courage and conviction—albeit on a mass scale—staged against the government. Each of the people who went to Edsa expected to stand there alone against the government”. Closure on the conditions prior to the restoration of democracy on February 25, 1986, is difficult. The players on both sides of the street at Edsa are still an integral part of Philippine politics. However, we must somehow release the past while holding to its lessons. Since 2005

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Heartbreak King Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

THE PATRIOT

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eaders connect with people through the heart. Former Pepsi Cola Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi said leaders today must lead with both their hearts and their heads. And preferably, leaders must lead using their hearts first before their heads. In his book A Good Lawyer, Bobby Quitain said the heart is the seat of our decisions. And regardless of who we are in this world, we all have to make decisions. When I was the commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration, I emphasized the need for “heartwork” (trabahong may puso) to my fellow public servants. I thought to myself that our bodies might get physically weak, our minds might get cerebrally tired, but our hearts will always keep on beating no matter what. With tons of work to do in the bureau, our team was getting physically and emotionally drained after a 10.5-hour workday compounded by a two-hour daily commute to and from work. I, thus, implored my staff to work from their hearts in serving the public. Science says the most powerful organ in the human body is the brain. I say that the most critical organ is

the heart. My doctor friend once told me that people in comatose would have generally lost their physical and mental functions but they almost always stay alive because their hearts won’t easily give up. More important, every time we think positively about any situation or about ourselves, we unconsciously produce adrenaline that, in turn, allows the heart to take over the mind. Every time we mumble phrases like “Yes, I can do this” or “Yes, this is easy”, we psyche ourselves to allow the heart to take over the body. You see, our heart can actually control both our minds and bodies. But as much as it is strong, the heart can also be weak, made intentionally weak by His design. I have yet to see a person who has never been “brokenhearted” so to speak. One way or another, there will be people in our lives who will fail our expectations, not necessarily in

love but in life in general. Whenever spouses separate, at least one heart gets broken. Whenever a student gets kicked out of school, his heart and the heart of his parents are broken, too. Whenever a father breaks a promise to his children or the latter disrespect their parents, hearts are crushed, as well. There are many ways to break a heart. And yet, the heart is still beating; the heart keeps us alive. I know of one fine lady whose heart, she says, has been broken many times. Her friends say that she is just so unlucky that she could not find the right partner. Other friends say that she is so choosy that she either intimidates men or discards them as soon as she thinks that she is not the right partner. In her 30s and already considered as “overripe” in terms of marrying age, she still longs for a Prince Charming who will sweep her off her feet. She remains strong in faith. Someone famous suggested four steps to cope with, not necessarily mend, a broken heart. First, accept that you are exactly where God wants you to be, as in “predestined” according to His will. Second, trust that He will grant you His Grace so you will depend on Him like a child to a father. Third, know that there is a hidden blessing in this heartbreaking situation as His way of training. Finally, believe that this state is fleeting and shall eventually pass in His perfect time. For the time being, our heart

Trump vs press: Crazy, stupid love

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By Maureen Dowd | New York Times News Service

ASHINGTON—Much has been made of Melania Trump’s absence from the capital. But our new president’s most intense, primal, torrid relationship is in full The War of the Roses bloom here. And it is not with his beautiful, reserved wife. It’s with the press, the mirror for the First Narcissus. President Donald J. Trump thinks that the mirror is cracked and the coverage is “fake”. And many in the press, spanning the ideological spectrum, think that he is cracked and that a lot of his pronouncements are fake. Can this strange, symbiotic relationship be saved? Probably not. It is too inflamed and enmeshed, too full of passionate accusations. It’s going to end like all those plays and movies—from Othello to Endless Love—where the mutual attraction is so powerful, it’s toxic. Trump could not live without the press. It is his crack. He would be

adrift and bereft without his sparring partners, lightning rods, scapegoats and amplifiers. And while many in the press may disdain the way Trump uses them to rile up crowds and deflect from transgressions, they know they have a rare story and a tantalizing, antagonizing protagonist. As New York Times White House reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted in January: “Trump has frequently complained about my reporting,” yet, “He remains the most accessible politician I’ve ever covered.” The press is everything to Trump,

from interior décor—his Trump Tower office was plastered wall to wall with framed magazine covers reflecting his face back at him like an infinity mirror—to daily reading. For decades every morning, he had his assistant print out a sheaf of stories published about him and keep a store of videotapes for ego gratification. Once Trump became a Twitter addict, this morphed into an incestuous, vertiginous spiral, as he got upset and shot back against news reports he did not like. His campaign staff “cracked the code for tamping down his most inflammatory tweets,” Tara Palmeri reported in Politico last week, by ensuring “his personal media consumption includes a steady stream of praise. And when no such praise was to be found, staff would turn to friendly outlets to drum some up—and make sure it made its way to Trump’s desk.” Talk about fake news.

may be distraught when people fail to meet our expectations. But if we have faith in His Predestination, in His Stewardship style, in His experiential kind of Training, and in His Timing of a providential comeback, our hearts will never be broken. With faith, our hearts become solidified with more tensile strength to adapt to any kind of challenge later on in life. As to my lady friend, she patiently waits believing that God, with His Almighty Grace, will send her a genuine and heartfelt partner. So whenever we feel heartbroken, consider this proposition: Our Heartbreak King is simply telling us to come to Him. Jeremiah 29:13 tells us that, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”. In one of my favorite inspirational songs, “Lift Up Your Hands”, whose lyrics were taken from Matthew 11:28, Basil Valdez sings—“Cast your burdens upon Me, Those who are heavily laden, Come to Me, all of you who are tired of carrying heavy loads, For the yoke I will give you is easy, And My burden is light, Come to Me and I will give you rest”. Perhaps creating us with weak hearts is His way to make us run to Him in times of despair and redirecting our hearts away from the pleasure of this world. Perhaps “breaking our hearts” is His way of connecting with His flock here on Earth. After all, He is our leader and leaders connect with people through the heart.

He is the biggest story on the planet, “King Lear meets Rodney Dangerfield”, as Lloyd Grove tweeted after Trump’s recent news conference. As our new president is well aware, he’s a rainmaker and a troublemaker for the media. Financially pressed news organizations are not being shy about seizing the moment to celebrate—and cash in on—their aggressive independence. They are responding with a missionary zeal to being treated as “the opposition party” that “should keep its mouth shut”, as Trump enforcer Steve Bannon put it. The Washington Post has added a dramatic “Batman”-style motto online: “Democracy Dies in Darkness”. The New York Times bought a pricey ad for the Oscars with the tag line, “The truth is more important than ever”. The Los Angeles Times made new multilingual T-shirts declaring, “We will not shut up.” See “Dowd,” A15

Opinion BusinessMirror

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The most valuable asset of your company is missing, what’s next? Filbert Tsai

DEBIT CREDIT Part One

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oing business is getting more and more complex as we begin to realize that the profit or loss and net assets are no longer reflective of the real value of business. The argument that financial statements are not reflective of a company’s financial wellness is now getting a much bigger blow with recent publications, stating that only 20 percent of a company’s actual value is reflected in the balance sheet. This is an alarming statement that needs to be understood more by the public. Where did the remaining 80 percent go? There’s a wild speculation out in the market by various journalists and researchers pointing out that the value might be attributable to “human capital”, unrecognized brand name values, carbon efficiency, culture, or other intangibles, which are currently not capitalized under accounting standards. While the 80-percent figure seems to be finger in the air, this argument holds true when tested. Intangible assets that are internally generated, such as brand names and contact lists, are not allowed to be capitalized under current accounting standards. A general concept why this is treated this way is because the cost incurred to generate these intangible assets are not identifiable. Just imagine the trade name Jollibee. I presume that this brand cost practically nothing to Jollibee Food Corp. other than to register the brand with the Department of Trade and Industry and Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines. Yet the name itself is much more valuable than the value of the physical assets of the company. Once the business is sold to a third party, accounting standards would then allow the purchase price to be allocated to these intangible assets since the acquirer paid good money to acquire primarily the “brand name” and the “established processes” of the business rather than physical assets. The issues pertaining to the purchase price in a business transaction is a highly complex accounting and valuation exercise. The general principle is

Dowd. . .

continued from A14

Trump is constantly berating the press because the accounts of his chaotic, careering first month in the job do not sync up with the glossy, self-regarding image he has in the fun-house mirror of his head and in the reflection from his circle of sycophants. Kellyanne Conway calls him “President Action” and “President Impact” and Bannon compares him to William Jennings Bryan. (Trump would definitely want a cross of gold to match his new Oval Office drapes.) Back in the 1970s and 1980s, with a shameless talent for selfaggrandizement untethered to fact, Trump was able to turn himself into a celebrity. Like his mentor Roy Cohn, Trump learned to manipulate his coverage in the New York tabloids. He even came up with two alter egos, John Barron and John Miller, so he could masquerade as his own PR agent and spin tall tales about Madonna and Carla Bruni craving him. “Posing as John Miller, he used to ask to go on and off the record when talking about girls lusting after Donald,” recalls Sue Carswell, who dealt with both Trump and his fake spinmeister when she was at People during l’affaire Marla Maples. It doesn’t seem to have sunk in with Trump that he can’t manipulate the press as easily today. He’s the

that the valuator (usually a thirdparty expert in transaction diligence) will use specific business valuation methodologies to value the business as a whole. The purchase price would then be allocated to the identifiable net assets of the firm, with the excess allocated to separately identifiable intangible assets and goodwill. I have been curious for sometime whether the pareto split of 80-20 is valid and realistic, since it came as a surprise to me to realize that accounting books is just a slice of cake. Since my own investigation is not for academic purpose, I followed a practical approach to test whether this assertion is realistic. Rather than testing the fair value of the business, which would take so much time to construct a working business valuation model, I used the 2015 acquisition information of certain companies, which removes valuation ambiguity related to assumptions used in the business valuation. The results of my experiment will be discussed in the second part of my article. To be concluded Filbert Tsai is a Filipino accounting advisor in the UK with global and public sector experience. His key areas of interests are start-ups and MSMEs. His blog and page, Ask the Accounting Advisor, provide relevant insight for start-ups and MSMEs in the Philippines. 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.

president. When he exaggerates and makes things up now, it has global consequences and subverts American values. It is not like whispering lies about which famous women are panting for him. In his pouty speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference last Friday, he reiterated his sour denunciation of journalists as “the enemy of the people”. The man who made his flashy reputation by being an anonymous and pseudonymous source—and who still spews a constant stream of wild assertions based on anonymous sources—blustered that the press “shouldn’t be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody’s name”. The White House has been trying to shape coverage by giving passes and questions at news conferences to Breitbart and other conservative outlets, including some fringe ones. And last Friday afternoon, the White House barred several news organizations from a Sean Spicer briefing. This included The New York Times and CNN, which angered the White House by reporting on links between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence officials. This Russian-style domination of the press came only a few hours after the president told CPAC: “I love the First Amendment; nobody loves it better than me. Nobody.” Fake news. Let’s just hope he doesn’t love the First Amendment to death.

Monday, February 27, 2017 A15

Sports PPPs are more than sports By Alberto Agra

PPP Lead Continued from A1

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he nine-facility multiuse Hub, situated on a 35-hectare property, was just a national stadium prior to turnover. This PPP is a design-finance-build-operate-transfer with concession, where the concessionaire is entitled to collect end-user fees and make revenues. This facility accommodates several functions, which are not exclusive to sports. The project overview declares that “Singaporeans can play sports, attend a concert, have dinner with their families by the waterfront or visit the sports museum and library with their children over the weekend. There is something for everyone”. This project is not just about having an iconic sports structure.

“At Vision 2030, we believe that sport can help to maintain Singapore’s social integrity and economic strength.” What can we learn from the Hub? PPPs even for wealthy nations. Resource scarcity is not the only reason government collaborates with the private sector. Innovation, better value-for-money, quality service and accelerated service delivery are other reasons. Even

if a country, like Singapore, had all the resources, partnership presents opportunities and benefits. Anchor it on a vision. Sports PPPs must be part of a bigger whole and must have a bigger purpose. Like all PPPs, the partnership is not the be-all. The goal is serving a noble purpose, serving the people. Following the Singapore vision, sports can help maintain our social integrity and economic strength. Sports PPP is more than sports. Public proponents in the Philippines. Aside from the Philippine Sports Commission, there are other public proponents for sports PPPs. The Department of Public Works and Highways, local government units, government corporations and instrumentalities, like the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, Philippine Reclamation Authority and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., among others, can undertake or coundertake, or finance or cofinance sports PPPs. Sports PPPs can also be a public-public collaboration. Sports alone may not cut it. A PPP purely on sports may not

Do we need a death penalty? Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan

legally speaking

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he Committee on Justice of the House of Representative, after having conducted extensive consultations with various sectors and stakeholders during the meetings held on November 9, 15, 22, 29 and December 7, 2016, recommended House Bill (HB) 4727 in substitution of House Bills 1, 16, 513, 3237, 3239, 3240 and 3418, with Reps. Fredenil H. Castro, Pantaleon D. Alvarez, Rodolfo C. Fariñas, Rolando G. Andaya Jr., Michael John R. Duavit, Carlos O. Cojuangco, Elisa T. Kho, Raneo E. Abu, Benhur L. Salimbangon, Danilo E. Suarez, Rodel M. Batocabe, Gwendolyn F. Garcia, Rozzano Rufino B. Biazon, Robert Ace S. Barbers, Rogelio D. Pacquiao, Reynaldo V. Umali, Vicente S. E. Veloso, Henry S. Oaminal and Doy C. Leachon as authors thereof. HB 4727 will amend Republic Act (RA) 9346 (prohibiting the imposition of the death penalty in the Philippines); RA 3815 (Revised Penal Code) and other special laws. It seeks to impose the death penalty for crimes defined therein as heinous for being “grievous, odious and hateful offenses, which by reason of their inherent or manifest wickedness, viciousness, atrocity and perversity, are repugnant and outrageous to the common standards and norms of decency and morality in a just, civilized and ordered society”. These heinous crimes include: treason; qualified piracy; qualified bribery; parricide; murder; infanticide; rape; kidnapping and serious illegal detention; robbery with violence against or intimidation of person; destructive arson; sale, trading, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution and transportation of dangerous drugs and/or controlled precursors and essential chemicals; maintenance of a drug den, dive or resort; manufacture of dangerous drugs and/or controlled precursors and essential chemicals; possession of dangerous drugs; cultivation or culture of plants classified as dangerous drugs or are sources thereof; planting of evidence; carnapping. Plunder, which was not originally included in HB 4727, was belatedly added in reaction to the strong public outcry as to its noninclusion as a heinous crime. Where the guilty person is below 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the crime or is more than 70 years of age, or when upon appeal or automatic review of the case by the Supreme Court, the required the majority vote is not obtained for the imposition of the death penalty, in which cases the penalty shall be reclusion perpetua (life imprisonment). HB 4727 further provides that the death sentence shall consist in putting the person under sentence to death by hanging, through firing squad or by lethal injection. The death sentence shall be

carried out not earlier than one year or not later than 18 months after the judgment has become final and executory, without prejudice to the exercise by the president of executive clemency powers at all times. Article III, Section 19, paragraph (1) of the Constitution states that “excessive fines shall not be imposed nor cruel, degrading or inhuman punishment inflicted. Neither shall death penalty be imposed, unless, for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes, Congress hereafter provides for it”. While the fundamental law suspended the imposition of the death penalty and commuted all the death penalties imposed then to reclusion perpetua, Congress was not altogether prevented from reimposing it “for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes”. Thus, on December 13, 1993, Congress in the exercise of its legislative powers deemed fit to enact RA 7659 that imposed the death penalty on certain crimes, which it defined as “heinous for being grievous, odious and hateful offenses and which, by reason of their inherent or manifest wickedness, viciousness, atrocity and perversity are repugnant and outrageous to the common standards and norms of decency and morality in a just, civilized and ordered society.” This law was implemented for nearly 13 years with a number of convicted criminals sentenced to death, but due to strong intervention of opponents the death penalty, mainly the Church, Congress was compelled to enact RA 9346 on June 24, 2006. This law prohibited the imposition of the death penalty and commuted their sentence to either reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment. However, the alarming surge of heinous crimes in recent years has shown that reclusion perpetua, in lieu of death penalty, is not a deterrent to grave offenders. In 2015 the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported that 75 percent of the most heinous crimes are drug-related, while 65 percent of inmates in prisons are

Death penalty as a means of deterrence has long been debunked by countless studies. The consensus among criminologists is that the death penalty does not add any significant deterrent effect above that of long-term imprisonment. The same study revealed that criminologists believe that “politicians support the death penalty as a symbolic way to show that they are tough on crime”. either accused or convicted of drugrelated crimes. Belatedly, PNP-Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM) has documented 9,646 murder cases; 31,741 cases of robbery; and 10,298 rape cases in 2015. These translate to an average crime incidence of a murder every 54 minutes, a robbery every 16 minutes and a rape case every 51 minutes. Data from January to May of 2016 also showed a staggering number of crime incidents: 3,615 murder cases, 3,996 rape cases and 9,971 robbery cases. Proponents of the death penalty invariably state in their “Explanatory Notes” to their draft bills that “the reinstatement of the death penalty is appropriately necessary due to the alarming upsurge of such crimes, which has resulted not only in the loss of human lives and wanton destruction of property, but also affected the nation’s efforts toward sustainable economic development and prosperity, while, at the same time, has undermined the people’s faith in the government and the latter’s ability to maintain peace and order in the country.” Similar bills have been filed in the Senate by Sens. Panfilo M. Lacson, Sherwin T. Gatchalian, Emmanuel D. Pacquiao, Joseph Victor G. Ejercito and Vicente C. Sotto III. Sen. Leila M. de Lima in Senate Bill 368 proposes instead of the death penalty, qualified reclusion perpetua, which is imprisonment for a period 50 years with no possibility of parole and a fine of P5 million. Death penalty as a means of deterrence has long been debunked by countless studies. The consensus among criminologists is that the death penalty does not add any significant deterrent effect above that of long-term imprisonment (http:// www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/files/DeterrenceStudy2009.pdf ). The same study revealed that criminologists believe that “politicians support the death penalty as a symbolic way to show that they are tough on crime”. Furthermore, they posit that “debates about the death penalty distract politicians from focusing on ‘real’ solutions to crime”. Opponents of the death penalty aptly point out that the death penalty tends to be imposed more on the poor than those who are able to afford

reap enough revenues to make it economically feasible for private proponents. There might be not enough end-users if the project is just sports. One way of making sports PPPs doable is to use the bundling approach—mixing revenueraising with nonrevenue-raising components into one project, under one contract with one proponent. The sports plus PPP can host restaurants, tourist attractions, amusement centers, malls, pay parking, hotels, socialized-housing units and museums. Available PPP modalities. Like the Hub, we can have sports PPPs using the build-operate-transfer scheme. Other than this modality, joint ventures, long-term leases and even divestment can be adopted. Our own Hub. The Rizal Memorial Sports Complex (Complex) can be our version of the Hub. The Complex can be redeveloped, like the Singapore National Stadium, into a multiuse facility. The country could have other sports plus hubs. So, what are we waiting for? We can. We should. Now.

full-time lawyers. To quote a US Circuit Court decision, “[t]he Constitution, as interpreted by the courts, does not require that the accused even in a capital case, be represented by able or effective counsel. Consequently, accused persons who are represented by ‘not-legally-ineffective’ lawyers may be condemned to die when the same accused, if represented by effective counsel, would receive at least the clemency of a life sentence. [Riles v. McDotter, 799 F.2d 947, 955 (5th Cir. 1986) (Rubin, J., concurring)]. Being poor means being represented by a court-appointed lawyer who may lack the skill, resources and, in some cases, even the inclination to provide a competent defense. Once convicted and sentenced, many are unable to challenge their conviction and sentences in postconviction proceedings because they have no lawyer. (http://digitalcommons. law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi?article=1263&context=sjsj) see Explanatory Notes to Senate Bill 368. On the issue of wrongful conviction, the Supreme Court (SC) acknowledged in People v. Mateo, (GR 147678-87, July 2004), that there is a judicial error rate of 71.77 percent on death- penalty cases. In fact, the SC’s review of capital cases up to January 2006 revealed that four out of five death inmates have been wrongfuly sentenced by the various lower courts. Of the 1,513 cases reviewed, almost half (645) were modified from death penalty to reclusion perpetua or indeterminate sentence, close to a third (456) were transferred to the Court of Appeals, 69 were acquitted, and 37 were remanded for further proceedings. Only 270 cases (18 percent) were affirmed by the SC. (htttp://pcij.org/ blog/2006/04/17/debate-on-deathpenalty-rages-anew) Moreover, the Philippines is a signatory to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is an international treaty prohibiting executions and providing for total abolition of the death penalty. Restoring the death penalty will be a clear breach of both the covenant and the protocol. As a practicing litigation lawyer for close to four decades, I am personally against the death penalty. Reform in our criminal justice system must first be enacted to ensure that justice cannot be bought, that hoodlums in robes are dismissed and convicted, that all accused (whether rich or poor) are given equal fair, impartial and speedy trial, that the innocent are acquitted and the guilty are convicted beyond reasonable doubt. A wrongful conviction of death is irreversible error for the innocent. And last but not the least, Pope Francis in February 2016 (Reuters Report) called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty saying the Commandment “You Shall Not Kill” has absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty.

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DOT targets 32% hike in Israel tourist arrivals in PHL for 2017 By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

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@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

SRAEL is expected to be a major source of tourists in 2017 and onward, with the market posting the largest increase in visitor arrivals growth last year. In a news statement, Tourism Undersecretary TEO: “Israelis for Market Development are drawn to our Benito C. Bengzon Jr. said country mainly visitor arrivals from Israel for vacation and are projected to rise to some leisure.” 22,000 in 2017 “considering that among Israel travelers, the Philippines is gaining preference as an emerging tourism destination”. He noted that in 2016, Israeli visitor arrivals in the Philippines jumped by some 42.3 percent in 2016, the highest growth rate among the latter’s visitor markets. Bengzon returned from a trip to Israel to attend the 23rd International Mediterranean Tourism Market (IMTM) held recently at the TLV Convention Center in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. The IMTM is the largest annual professional tourism fair in the Eastern Mediterranean, regularly participated in by some 25,000 tourism and travel executives. The travel fair promotes inbound, domestic and outbound tourism, and provides an opportunity to strengthen cooperation among tourism bodies in Israel and with other countries. For her part, Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo said: “Israelis are drawn to our country mainly for vacation and leisure. At an average of 20 nights per trip, their favorite places include Manila, Cebu, Boracay, Palawan, Banaue and Puerto Galera.” She said Israeli tourists engage in various activities in the Philippines, such as diving, shopping and traveling to interesting cultural places. “They, likewise, enjoy the warmth of our people,” she stressed. In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Bengzon said the Department of Tourism (DOT) saw a large possibility of promoting more tours to the Philippines because of the deep gratitude felt by Israel toward the country, which opened its doors to Jewish refugees during World War II. “It’s such a big deal to them, how President Manuel L. Quezon saved [the Jewish refugees]. They haven’t forgotten that,” he said. Although the Jewish community in the Philippines is small, he noted that there is a Jewish Synagogue in Makati, where the local residents go to worship. The DOT official also spoke of the possibility of not just attracting Israeli visitors, but the large Jewish-American market. Many Jews had fled the oppressive rule of Adolf Hitler in Germany and other European countries and settled in the United States. Bengzon underscored the strong attraction of Boracay and Banaue to the Israelis because “they don’t have enough greenery as their country is quite small and has limited areas for planting”. One of the limits to the arrival of more Israel tourists in the Philippines is the lack of carriers offering direct flights between Tel Aviv and Manila. Air talks were held between both governments in 2013, but flight entitlements are not being used “because there’s not enough demand to make it viable”. See “DOT,” A2

DESTRUCTION OF SMUGGLED ANGLE BARS An employee of the Ecosafe Agro Products at the Manila Harbour Center uses an acetylene torch in cutting a portion of some 1,500 metric tons of steel angle bars that were seized and later auctioned off by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) due to technical smuggling, particularly misdeclaration. Industry stakeholders are keenly monitoring the destruction of the seized angle bars after concerned groups questioned the public auction conducted by the BOC, as one batch was sold at P13 per kilograms while two lots were won at a winning bid of only P2.20 per kg. Roy Domingo