Businessmirror july 04, 2016

“Never gonna give EU up, never gonna let EU down.”—Sign at the celebritypeppered 3-kilometer “March for Europe,” as tens of thousands of European Union (EU) supporters sang, danced and marched their way down the streets of London on Saturday to protest the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the EU. AP

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“Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”—Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic Night became a landmark testament to the Nazis’ crimes. Wiesel has died at age 87, it was announced on Saturday by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. AP

“Israel is coming back to Africa; Africa is coming back to Israel. It’s happening in a big way.”—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to African ambassadors at the launch of the Israeli parliament’s caucus for Israel-Africa relations. He heads to Africa this week, where Israel has found much-needed partners in the battle against Islamic militants and allies in countering the rising Palestinian influence at the United Nations. AP

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n

Monday, July 4, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 268

No VAT hike sans review of exemptions–Angara

T

By Butch Fernandez

@butchfBM

he head honcho at the Senate Ways and Means Committee is proposing for a more thorough review of the exemptions from the value-added tax (VAT) prior to tackling the proposed hike in VAT rate from 12 percent to 15 percent.

See “VAT,” A2

We should take note that the country’s 12-percent VAT is already the highest rate in the region.”

—Angara

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INSIDE

mindanao’s fashion inauguration

Digital technology and the new agriculture

P25.00 nationwide | 5 sections 36 pages | 7 days a week

PPP is ‘bayanihan’ PPP Lead

I

Alberto C. Agra

s bayanihan relevant to public-private partnerships (PPPs)? Are the objectives of bayanihan and PPPs the same?

For PPPs to succeed, what in the spirit and practice of bayanihan can be used? What can we learn from examples of bayanihan?

Who is the bayan (country) and bayani (hero) in PPPs? Typical images of bayanihan show neighbors carrying a nipa (thatched roof) hut, a chain of people passing on buckets of water to douse a fire, or passengers pushing a jeepney out of a flooded street.

Bayanihan “Filipinizes” and localizes PPP. It is a Filipino word that means “cooperative undertaking” and “collective participation.” Bayanihan encapsulates PPP in two respects, i.e., as bayanihan and bayani-han. Both depict a story, a journey and a purpose, and demonstrate participative leadership.

Continued on A14

PPP as ‘bayanihan’ life

d1

djokovic’s 30-match slam streak ends at wimby

By Psyche Roxas-Mendoza

@PsycheRoxas Exclusive to the BusinessMirror

T sports

c1

First of three parts

his 70-ish grandmother and retired school teacher attests that farmers, like his late father, could tell the weather by observing nature.

The lack of stars, a moon enveloped by a cloud in the night sky, the blooming of the fire tree—any one of these could mean rain or drought, or a perfect planting day. Until the

PESO exchange rates n US 47.0070

A selfie for every pest is just one of the latest smart technologies available to the modern-day Pinoy farmer. earth’s climate changed.

“Now, it’s difficult to correctly discern when it is time to plant,” Felicidad Antes said.

Antes, who resides in Sorsogon province in the Bicol region, said the signs can mislead one these days.

Before, when it rained heavily after

a long, hot summer, you can take it to mean that summer is over, and that it was time to prepare the land for planting. “ Now, it ’s not a lways t he case. And a mistake can cost you P3,000, the amount one pays

Citizen

Private Sector Regulator

Government

Author: Alberto C. Agra

bm Graphics: Job Ruzgal

Continued on A2

n japan 0.4553 n UK 62.5945 n HK 6.0584 n CHINA 7.0708 n singapore 34.9027 n australia 35.0202 n EU 52.2107 n SAUDI arabia 12.5389

Source: BSP (1 July 2016 )

A2 Monday, July 4, 2016

VAT. . .

Continued from A1

“As a first step, the review of VAT exemptions should first be undertaken,” rather than increasing the rate right away to 15 percent, Sen. Juan Edgardo M. Angara said.

Angara clarified he is “not referring to exemptions for seniors and PWDs [persons with disability], but some sectors may not be carrying the load equally throughout society.” The senator, however, did not specify which of these are, insisting only a thoroughgoing review, would draw out the gaps in implementation, particularly the ways by which the exemptions are being abused by underserving sectors.

“Now is the time to do that thorough review before taking the big step from 12 percent to 15 percent [in tax-rate hike],” Angara stressed in a text message to the BusinessM irror over the weekend.

Earlier, the solon said that, while he supports opening the proposed VAT rate increase by President Duterte and his economic planners, “we should take note that the country’s 12-percent VAT is already the highest rate in the region.”

The VAT in China stands at 17 percent, the same rate imposed on Pakistani consumers. The VAT rate in Thailand is only 7 percent, and only 5 percent in Taiwan, but India deemed it proper to set it at 13.5 percent.

Angara proposed the review-before-deliberation proposal well ahead of the deliberations on VAT exemptions and identifying the transactions that should no longer be exempted from the sales tax.

“Some of the 22 items, transactions and sectors covered by VAT exemption are:

BMReports BusinessMirror

1) Sale or importation of agriculture and marine food products in their original state; livestock and poultry generally used as, or yielding or producing food for human consumption; and breeding stock and genetic material for such; 2) Sale or importation of fertilizers; seeds or seedlings or fingerlings; feeds for fish, prawn, livestock or poultry; 3) Importation of personal household effects of Philippine residents returning from abroad; and nonresident citizens resettling in the Philippines, provided such are exempt from customs duties under the Tariff and Customs Code; 4) importation of professional instruments and implements; wearing apparel and domestic animals; and personal household effects belonging to persons coming to settle in the Philippines: for their own use—not for sale, barter or exchange; 5) Educational services rendered by private educational institutions duly accredited by the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority; 6) Export sales by persons who are not VAT-registered; 7) Lease of residential unit with monthly rental not exceeding P12,800; 8) Sale, importation, printing of publication of books and any newspaper, magazine review or bulletin, which appears at regular intervals with fixed prices for subscription and sale that is not devoted principally to the publication of paid advertisements; 9) Services rendered by regional or area headquarters of multinational corporations, which act as supervisor, communications or coordinating centers for their affiliates, subsidiaries or branches in Asia Pacific, and do not derive income from the Philippines.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Digital technology and the new agriculture Continued from A1

rural workers for tilling a 1-hectare farm lot in our place,” Antes said.

Precision agriculture

Dr. Vicky Espaldon, from the School of Environmental Science and Management, University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), said the use of “precision” agriculture can address the farmers’ problems resulting from climate change.

“Precision agriculture is a stateof-the-art agriculture. It uses computational, crop modeling, remote sensing and GIS sensors—put together to provide farmers and agriculturists exact information regarding requirements for the cultivation of crops,” she said.

Espaldon is the program leader of Project Sarai, or Smarter A pproac hes to R e i nv igorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines.

Sarai is a research program of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). “It is an attempt to really make science and technology work for agriculture,” Espaldon said.

Now on its third year, Sarai star ted in October 2013 under the DOST, with monitoring of all Sarai projects conducted by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, and Aquatic and Nat u ra l R esou rces R esea rc h and Development.

Sarai’s main implementor is the UPLB—College of Agriculture, College of Arts and Sciences,

College of Engineering and Agricultural Technology, and the School of Environmental Science and Management.

It was the UPLB that presented the Sarai project to the DOST, which agreed to fund it for P150 million for a period of three years.

Espaldon said Sarai uses cropmodeling and remote-sensing techniques to help farmers in determining planting dates, given projected climate forecasts.

“We, in Sarai, want to use remote-sensing images to monitor crop health, or if there are typhoons or drought, we can use smart technology to quickly assess the damage.

This is important, because early damage assessment will let us determine faster how much, in terms of pesos, is the damage worth. It will determine faster the resources needed to rehabilitate the damaged areas,” she said.

Espaldon further explained: “For example, if the entire province is declared a calamity area because of f lood, hindi naman buong probinsiya talaga ay sinira ng baha [it is not accurate to say that the entire province was damaged by flooding]. So, if you use remote sensing as monitoring system, you will be able to better allocate the limited resources of the province or region, and for that matter, the entire Department of Agriculture.”

Not only is Sarai able to help predict weather conditions for the farmer, it also has many

projects in the pipeline. These are projects on the lookout for investors that can mass produce their unique products.

Pest selfie

According to Espaldon, Sarai has developed a “smarter pest identification” technique.

This is a software, a mobile app that uses a smartphone. A farmer can take a picture of the pest he discovered in his farm, and the application will identify the pest and the potential control and management strategies, depending on the level of infestation.

The more that farmers use it, the more the app will become intelligent. For example, a farmer takes a picture of an insect or a worm and Sarai scientists discover it is not on their database.

“We have a technical panel that is spread all over the country, where one of them may be able to identify and give the mode for controlling it,” Espaldon said.

Now, if it happens that it’s the first time this pest has been discovered, then Sarai scientists will move toward the site and examine the newly discovered pest.

Still, Espaldon added, the key for this technology to work is farmers’ participation. It is the farmer who is on the ground, and is in the best position to provide firsthand data.

“What the farmer must do is alert the municipal agriculture officer [MAO] in his area, kung kaya niya kumuha ng picture [if the farmer

can take the picture himself], he can upload it in his smartphone or mobile app. But if he has no smartphone, he can go to the MAO,” Espaldon said.

Sarai training program to date is directed toward MAOs, who will be the receiver of farmers’ inquiries for Sarai all over the country.

“The current practice is such that, the farmer goes to the MAO. But before the MAO can visit the pest-infested farm lot of the farmer, he has to request for a travel order, purchase order and other documents. He’d be lucky if he has sufficient gasoline. So, it’s normal practice that the MAO cannot visit the farmer at once.

Eh kung peste nga [If what the farmer fears is a pest turns out to be a real pest], naubos na ’yung pananim, wala [the crops would have been destroyed] before the MAO could gather information about the pest,” Espaldon said.

She added that the usual practice of farmers is to just go directly to a store and ask for pest poison.

So, the pest is never detected accurately. It even has the possibility of spreading further before it can be addressed.

Nowadays, our Computer Science people have the capacity to create a variety of apps that are useful for farmers in the field, Espaldon said, adding that Sarai also has a range of entomologists who will be able to transmit their wealth of knowledge into something that the farmers will find very useful.

To be continued

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Monday, July 4, 2016

A3

Tugade’s ‘progressive transport agenda’ too expensive for jeepney drivers–group

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

W

hile the government is pushing for the moderniza tion of the transportation sector according to its own plans, an organization of public-utility jeepney operators and drivers is calling on the administration to consider its “progressive transport agenda.”

In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) President George F. San Mateo said his group will soon submit a sevenpage agenda to Transport Secretary Arthur P. Tugade in response to his call for the phaseout of decades-old jeepneys.

San Mateo said the agenda will focus on the following points: “government loans, emission testing, infrastructure development and quality standardization of publicutility vehicles.”

“We are not against modernization of jeepneys. But we are opposing the mandatory replacements of current jeepneys to the supposedly new imported e-jeeps [electric jeepneys] or even new Euro 4-type jeeps, which is very costly and expensive,” he told the BusinessMirror. Such vehicles, according to current market prices, range from P1 million to P1.5 million. As an alternative to this, he said 15-year-old jeepneys may be overhauled through the replacement of chassis and engines.

Instead of e-jeepneys, San

Community Optimized Managed Electric Transport jeepneys parked in SM North, Quezon City. Photo taken from the web site of CNN Philippines

Mateo suggested the construction of spacious emission-testing areas at terminals, enforcing stricter antibelching rules and regular emission tests.

The government, he added, must certify the qualified jeepneys free of charge, and set fair prices for jeepney parts and maintenance services, as this would help monitor the quality of the products.

“There are many substandard parts, such as the lights, which malfunction over slight bumps even they are newly purchased.

Thus, their suppliers and manufacturers should be the ones held accountable to pay the fine of P5,000,” San Mateo said.

Deeper holes and insufficient,

easily clogged drainages on the roads, he said, would only break the e-jeepneys, such as the Community Optimized Managed Electric Transport, which has smaller wheels and lower platforms.

“Electronic jeeps cannot be used for commercial use in the country, as these could not adapt to the flood-prone cities of Metro Manila. It has been proven many times that e-jeeps cannot steep roads and high-level floods. Second, there are no infrastructure for their maintenance and charging,” San Mateo said.

Former Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya drafted the jeepney-modernization program to ensure the safety

of commuters and help mitigate the impact of climate change through e-jeeps, which feature a reloadable card payment system, global positioning system navigation device, Internet and closedcircuit television camera.

The former transport chief had planned to start phasing out the jeepneys next year until all have been replaced by more hightechnology and environmentally friendly vehicles, which lessen air pollution.

At present, the program remains a mere proposal.

Tugade had said he will be releasing rules on the modernization program as consultations with the stakeholders’ progress.

“In the first 100 days, we will issue and implement cer tain rules regarding the phaseout. I will not be remiss in my responsi-

bilities and talk to stakeholders,” he told the BusinessMirror in a June 22 interview.

Data from the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines showed that 500 e-jeeps began operating in 2014 from 250 in 2013.

Last year 1,000 units were set to be deployed for the third phase of modernizing jeeps for 2016 to 2018, when e-jeeps will be integrated with local automotive industry. The last phase regional will focus on technological advancement and market size up.

The government aims to have 69,145 e-jeeps by 2017.

At present, Makati, Quezon and Tacloban cities, where universities Ateneo de Manila, University of the Philippines, De La Salle, and some subdivisions and government offices, largely use e-jeeps.

With a report from Kathryn Jose

Electronic jeeps cannot be used for commercial use in the country, as these could not adapt to the flood-prone cities of Metro Manila.”—San Mateo

DOT chief to seek DENR’s help to clean up Boracay Island

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

Special to the BusinessMirror

T

HE Department of Tourism (DOT) will be working closely with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to help clean up Boracay Island and clamp down on overbuilding of hotels and resorts.

This was the promise of new Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo as reports reached her of water pollution in some areas of Boracay Island, as well as complaints of overbuilding on the island.

In a news briefing on Friday with select reporters, Teo said: “I will have to coordinate with the DENR on this and with different agencies concerned to keep the island sustainable.”

In May 2015 Filipino and Japanese scientists warned of the “unsafe” water quality in the eastern portion of Boracay, world famous for its 4-kilometer powdery white-sand beach.

Analyzing satellite images from 1988 to 2011, a study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency said coral cover in Boracay also declined by about 71 percent. “The highest decrease in coral cover recorded over the 23-year period was between 2008 and 2011, as tourist arrivals rose by 38.4 percent,” the study indicated.

The study blamed this on unmonitored snorkeling and diving activities in coral-rich areas. The study also said “uncontrolled commercial development of the 1,000 -hectare island since the 1990s continues to threaten the island ’s environment.”

Tourist arrivals in Boracay in 2015 reached 1.56 million, up 6.12 percent from the 1.47 million visitor arrivals in 2014.

To help the industry improve and increase visitor arrivals, Teo is appealing for unity among tourism stakeholders.

“It [the sector] was divided before,” she acknowledged to the BusinessMirror. “What is important is to reach out

to them. I have to meet with them, and talk with them so they can help me improve the sector. We have to help each other. We have to be united.”

Shortly after the passage of the Tourism Act of 2009, the Tourism Congress of the Philippines was formed and its board and officers were elected, which included Teo as secretary. The new Tourism Undersecretary for Tourism Regulation Coordination and Resource Generation Alma Rita Jimenez was elected then as vice president for Luzon.

However, some industry stakeholders questioned the nonparticipation of some tourism associations in the elections and filed a lawsuit against the DOT, which had issued the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Tourism Act. The IRR, they claimed, had redefined the Tourism Congress’s membership. An amendment to the IRR was thereafter issued by the DOT in 2011. The new DOT chief assured that the present tourism attachés will remain at their posts.

“Most of them would stay on their posts, except for three vacancies. We have to immediately fill them from our pool of qualified tourism officers,” Teo said.

She added that the tourism attachés “will be given quotas [on visitor arrivals]. ‘You have to perform.’ They will be the ones who will be bringing in tourists to the country.”

Foreign tourism expenditures in the Philippines reached P307 billion in 2015, accounting for a 8.2-percent share to total exports, or double from a 4.3-percent share, according to the latest Philippine Tourism Satellite Accounts released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Foreign tourist arrivals was third among the countr y’s biggest “exports” in 2015, representing an 8.2-percent share of total exports of goods and ser vices.

Tourism took third place as driver of GDP growth in 2015, after the trade industry and real estate. According to

Uncontrolled commercial development of the 1,000-hectare island since the 1990s continues to threaten the island’s environment.”—Teo

the same PSA report, tourism industr ies employed about 5 mil lion people, w ith the

passenger Transpor t sector accounting for 36 percent of tota l employ ment, fol lowed

by the Accommodation and Food Beverage sector at 35 percent. The DOT is target-

ing 10 million foreign visitor arrivals and 56.1 million in domestic tourists for 2016.

BMReports BusinessMirror

A4 Monday, July 4, 2016

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Belmonte seeks to enact PPP bill, include casinos in Amla coverage

O

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

utgoing Speaker Feliciano R. Belmonte Jr. has recently filed bills institutionalizing public-private partnership (PPP) schemes, and designating casino operators as covered entities under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (Amla).

In House Bill (HB) 163, or the proposed Public-Private Partnership Act, Belmonte said his proposal seeks to strengthen the PPP, as well as to recognize the indispensable role of the private sector as the main engine for national growth and development.

“The proposed amendments aim to encourage private-sector participation in public infrastructure projects. It also aims to further strengthen the basic legal framework in undertaking PPP projects in the Philippines,” Belmonte said.

The PPP refers to a contractual arrangement between the implementing agency and the project proponent for the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance, or any combination thereof, of an infrastructure facility, in which the project proponent bears significant risk, management responsibility, or both.

Under the bill, PPP projects may be undertaken through any of the following: build and transfer; buildlease-and-transfer; build-own-andoperate; build-operate-and-transfer; build-transfer-and-operate; contract-add-and-operate; developoperate-and-transfer; joint venture; operations and maintenance contract; rehabilitate-operate-andtransfer; and supply-and-operate.

It allows implementing agencies, in accordance with their respective charters, to undertake PPP projects with any project proponent, in accordance with the provisions of the proposed measure.

Belmonte’s proposal provides for incentives for PPP projects in excess of P1 billion.

Lawmakers failed to pass the PPP Act during the 16th Congress.

Casinos in Amla

In HB 11, Belmonte wants to amend Amla to address the growing concerns over money laundering.

Republic Act (RA) 10365, the most recent amendment to the Amla, sought to address the country’s legal framework on antimoney laundering by making it fully compliant with the international standards set up by the Financial

Action Task Force (FATF).

It had previously included the Philippines on its monitoring list of vulnerable jurisdictions, or those with “strategic” or “serious deficiencies” in their antimoney laundering, and combating the financing of terrorism regimes.

“While the country was able to respond and enact legislation that removed the Philippines from the monitoring list, the FATF has directed the Philippines to work on the inclusion of the casino sector in the AML coverage,” Belmonte said.

He added that the significance of including the casino sector under the coverage of the Amla is underscored by Bangladesh Bank heist, wherein $81 million was stolen from the bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Belmonte’s proposal seeks to address this deficiency and introduce the necessary amendments to discourage the use of the casinos as avenues of illicit activity.

The bill mandates casinos to report covered and suspicious transactions to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC); provides for stricter customer identification requirements and record-keeping systems; and prohibits casinos from engaging in any transaction involving the conversion of money from one form to another without being used for gaming.

The measure said casino operators should establish and record the identity of their customers engaging in a single or an aggregate transaction in excess of P200,000.

Government pay

Belmonte has also filed a bill seeking to make the salary adjustment of government workers permanent.

The 16th Congress failed to pass the proposed salary-standardization law (SSL) of 2015.

Former President Benigno S. Aquino III signed an executive order to give the first tranche of salary increases under RA 10717, or the 2016 General Appropriations Act, which provides a budget of P57.9 billion.

The bicameral conference between the two chambers of Con-

Casino dealers work on their respective games during a media tour of the new Solaire Casino, one of the country’s biggest casinos at suburban Pasay City, south of Manila. Bullit Marquez/AP

gress was deadlocked after the Senate panel, led by Sen. Antonio V. Trillanes IV, insisted on including a provision that would index the pension of military retirees to the salary increases provided in SSL. The House panel objected due to lack of funding. The Senate proposal would cost taxpayers an additional P18 billion in the first year of SSL’s implementation.

Under the refiled bill, the SSL will be implemented in four tranches: n January 1, 2016 —The compensation adjustment will be in the form of the first tranche salary increase and a midyear bonus. n January 1, 2017—The compensation adjustment will consist of the second tranche salary increase, the midyear bonus and a 50-percent implementation of the enhancedperformance-based bonus. n January 1, 2018 —The compensation adjustment will include the third tranche salary increase, mid-year bonus and the enhanced performance-based bonus. n January 1, 2019 —The full implementation of the SSL will be composed of the final tranche sal-

While the country was able to respond and enact legislation that removed the Philippines from the monitoring list, the FATF has directed the Philippines to work on the inclusion of the casino sector in the AML coverage.”—Belmonte ary increase, the midyear bonus and the enhanced performance-based bonus.

Other bills

Belmonte also filed HB 12, establishing the Filipino identification system. The ID system will provide official identification of all Filipino citizens through the issuance of the Filipino ID card.

It will gradually concert and consolidate all existing governmentinitiated identification systems into one integrated and efficient system.

T he outgoing Speaker also pushed for a measure establishing the coconut farmers’ and industry trust fund.

The so-called coco-levy funds were taxes exacted from coconut farmers mandated by Presidential Decree (PD) 755 in 1975. These taxes were supposedly for the construction of projects designed for the benefits of coconut farmers, but were instead used to buy a large percentage of the bank now known as United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB).

The bill seeks to create a trust

fund that will manage the coconutlevy assets. It also seeks to establish a Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund, which will consist of the trust principal and the trust income.

It added that no portion of the fund will accrue to the general fund of the national government.

The trust fund will also be used exclusively for the benefit of coconut farmers and farm workers as provided for under the proposed Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan.

Under the bill, coconut-levy assets would refer to any property that has been acquired or funded by the coconut-levy funds, including: n The shares of stock in UCPB determined to be owned by the government; n The Coconut Industry Investment Fund Oil Mills Group; n The CIFF Holding Cos.; and n The converted San Miguel Corp.

Series 1 preferred shares.

The outgoing House Speaker also filed bills creating the Commission on Immigration, and prohibiting the establishment of political dynasties.

Drilon wants to review Constitution via Con-con

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

S

enate President Franklin M. Drilon has filed a resolution calling for a constitutional convention, or Con-con, to review the 1987 Constitution.

“There is a need to reexamine the Constitution to determine if it is still attuned or responsive to the demands of present-day realities,” Drilon said in a statement.

Drilon said the Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 1 calls for a convention, whose members shall be elected by January of next year, to propose amendments to, or revision of, the 29-year-old Constitution.

The common good would be best served if the review of, and proposals to amend or revise, the Constitution would be made through and by a constitutional convention.”—Drilon

Drilon said that in order to maintain the nonpartisan nature of the process, Section 3 of RBH 1 provides that “No person who is a member of the Congress of the Republic of the Philippines at the time of the

adoption of this Resolution shall be qualified as a candidate for election as Delegate to the Convention.”

He said the same section also prohibits candidates in the May 2016 elections to qualify as a candidate

for election as delegate to the convention. “Neither shall any person who filed his/her certificate of candidacy in the election of May 9, 2016, shall be qualified as a candidate for election as Delegate to the Convention,” the resolution read.

Drilon said that, pursuant to Article XVII, Section 3 of the Constitution, “Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of all its members, call a constitutional convention to propose amendments to, or a revision of, the Constitution.”

“The common good would be best served if the review of, and proposals to amend or revise, the Constitution would be made through and by a constitutional convention, whose

delegates are to be elected by the people for such purpose,” Drilon said.

“It is, therefore, more prudent to have the Constitution reviewed for possible amendments or revision by a constitutional convention whose delegates shall be elected on the last Monday of January 2017,” he added.

Drilon said the Senate and the House of Representatives have to vote separately on the resolution.

According to the resolution, the delegate to the convention will be elected on the last Monday of January 2017, in accordance with the provisions of existing elections laws, rules and regulations.

They will be elected by administrative region based on the number

of legislative districts in such region, the resolution said.

The candidates for delegate to the convention will have the same qualifications as those required of the members of the House of Representatives. The resolution also bans candidates to represent or allow them to be represented as being a candidate of any political party or any organization, Drilon said.

Any person holding a public office or position, elective or appointive, including members of the armed forces and officers and employees of corporations or enterprises owned and/or controlled by the government, will be considered resigned upon the filing of his or her certificate of candidacy.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

AseanMonday BusinessMirror

Monday, July 4, 2016 A5

Thailand, Japan share rare mutual affection

T

hailand is smitten by Japan: Sushi restaurants fill the malls, Issey Miyake’s luxury “Bao Bao” bags are all the rage and Thai tourists are flocking to Japan in record numbers to visit a country many view as a role model.

“I love Japan. They really put their heart into whatever they do,” says Aunyawee Sahachalermphat, 26, who has traveled to Japan more than a dozen times since studying there five years ago and owns at least 10 Comme des Garcons shirts, another popular brand that sounds French but is actually Japanese.

Like many Thais, she loves Japanese food and admires the quality of its products and its advanced, orderly economy that retains a respect for tradition. “We look up to them,” she says.

Japan, too, has a soft spot for Thailand, although it doesn’t loom nearly as large in the public mind.

It’s seen more as a warm, easygoing tourist spot—a welcome break from Japan’s often onerous social codes —and a vital production and export hub for more than 4,500 Japanese companies, including behemoths, such as Toyota, Honda and Canon.

All this has resulted in a mutual affection between these two nations that’s rare in Asia, where historical, political and territorial tensions of-

4,500

The number of Japanese companies that made Thailand their production hub in Asia ten complicate ties.

Typical of many in her generation, Aunyawee traces her positive feelings to watching Japanese cartoons such as Doraemon and Sailor Moon as a child. As an adult, she instinctively trusts anything “Made in Japan” and admires the courteous, subdued manners of many Japanese—widespread sentiments among Thais.

Economic and bureaucratic changes have helped foster these ties. Three years ago, Japan waived visas for Thais for up to 15 days, prompting tourist numbers to surge to nearly 800,000 last year, up fivefold from 2011.

As Thai incomes have grown and

budget carriers, such as AirAsia, have intensified competition, trips to Japan have become more affordable. Likewise, Japanese tourists can now fly from Tokyo to Bangkok for about the same price as to Okinawa, in southern Japan.

There seems to be a cultural affinity between these two peoples— a gentleness, an aversion to conflict and an emphasis on proper etiquette —that creates a sense of familiarity and safety.

Yet, there are still enough intriguing differences to make the other culture appealing in a nonthreatening way.

Buddhism, for example, has influenced both countries, although in Thailand it plays a more overt role and it is epitomized by brilliantly colored temples and monks in orange robes, while in Japan it takes on a more subdued form. Both countries have royal families, although the Thai king holds greater sway over society than the emperor does in Japan.

“There’s a kindred feeling” with Thais, more so than with other Asians, said Mariko Uehara, an English instructor from Chigasaki, southwest of Tokyo, who recently visited Thailand for a second time since 2012. “We have something in common that makes us feel secure.”

Some 1.38 million Japanese tourists came to Thailand last year, a similar level to previous years. Japan and Thailand aren’t encumbered by historical baggage that has strained ties with their respective neighbors.

Tokyo’s ties with China and South

Korea are tainted by territorial disputes and lingering resentment over Japan’s aggression before and during World War II. After briefly resisting Japanese troops, Thailand formally became an ally of Tokyo during most of the war and served as a supply base and so suffered less. Japan’s infamous “Death Railway” in western Thailand was built by British, US and Australian prisoners of war and thousands of other Asians.

Japan’s rosy image here has been partly shaped by popular books, TV dramas and movies.

Khu Kam, a novel that has been made into movies many times—titled Sunset on the Chaophraya in English—depicts a wartime romance between a Japanese naval officer and a Thai woman in the resistance.

He manages to win her over before being killed.

Japanese food, once considered a delicacy in Thailand, has become more affordable and popular, as more than 2,300 Japanese restaurants have opened up across the country, tripling since 2008.

Now a top reason Thais want to go to Japan is to eat authentic Japanese food—in Japan.

Chaitee Tandhanskul, a 29-yearold manager in his family’s chemical business, says he makes bookings at restaurants in Japan weeks ahead of time, and bases his itinerary around those reservations. “I’ve traveled many times to Japan just for the culinary experience,” he said.

Japan is more popular than

previous favorites Hong Kong or Singapore because “it’s much more exotic” and less “robotic,” said Chaitee, who also roams the country taking pictures.

Taking their cues from Thai fashion magazines and web sites that highlight the latest Japanese styles, Thai women line up in Tokyo to buy Issey Miyake’s “Bao Bao” brand bags, which can cost several hundred dollars and have become a staple of Bangkok’s fashion elite. Shiseido cosmetics, Kenzo shoes and Casio G-Shock watches are also hot.

Many Thais also like Japan, because it is safe and they believe they won’t get cheated by shopkeepers or taxi drivers, said Kavi Chongkittavorn, a senior fellow at Chulalongkorn University’s Institute of Security and International Studies.

The two countries’ economies have become increasingly intertwined. Thailand’s importance to Japanese manufacturers was made plain when severe flooding here in 2011 swamped many factories and suppliers, disrupting markets as far away as Chicago and London, Japanese Ambassador Shiro Sadoshima said in an interview.

“We need to think in terms of being in the same boat as they are —that whatever Thailand is doing well is good for Japan, too,” said Sadoshima, who was surprised to find a big “Ippudo” restaurant in Bangkok serving ramen noodles native to his home island of Kyushu.

“It’s bigger and grander than the main shop in Japan,” he said.

Japan’s official development aid to Thailand shows up prominently in places like the “Thai-Japanese Bridge” sign—with national flags —on a flyover at a major Bangkok intersection. Assistance from Tokyo helped build 14 of the 21 bridges across the Chao Phraya River that runs through the capital. Officials from the two countries are doing feasibility studies on three high-speed railway lines that would cross the country, the ambassador said.

Bangkok has a large Japanese community, many of whom live clustered in an area that resembles parts of Tokyo, with Japanese eateries and yakitori shops lining side streets and Thai hostesses calling out in Japanese. There are at least a couple streets of go-go bars devoted to Japanese customers.

Each country offers something appealingly different to the other.

The very discipline and proper etiquette that Thais admire about Japanese culture can become an enormous burden to some Japanese who find Thailand’s easygoing, accepting ways a welcome refuge.

Kazue Takenaga moved with her three children to Bangkok two years ago to escape the growing educational and social pressures facing her family, especially her 11-year-old daughter. Her husband had car parts factories in Thailand, so she decided to move here and enroll her children in an international school, because the country and environment seemed more accepting and diverse than Japan, and yet also familiar. AP

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Queen opens Edinburgh parliament as Scots seek E.U. guarantee

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DINBURGH, Scotland—Queen Elizabeth II has reopened Scotland’s devolved Parliament in a ceremony overshadowed by constitutional tensions following the British vote to leave the European Union (EU).

The queen told lawmakers in Edinburgh’s newly convened Parliament they lived in “a time of hope and optimism” that required leaders who could “stay calm and collected.”

She made no direct reference on Saturday to the United Kingdom-

wide vote on June 23 to end EU membership, a result opposed by the governing Scottish National Party and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Scotland recorded the strongest pro-EU vote of any UK region with 62-percent backing membership.

Sturgeon, in the crowd listening to the queen, earlier appealed to British Prime Minister David Cameron to provide guarantees of permanent residency to 173,000 people from other EU nations living in Scotland. AP

Trump, Gingrich Australians could wait until as running mates? next week for election result

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ANBERRA, Australia—Australians could be forced to wait until the end of next week to find out who is in charge of their government after a knife-edge national election raised the prospect of a hung parliament, the prime minister said on Sunday.

The gamble by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to call a rare early election may have failed, with his conservative Liberal Party-led coalition on track to lose a swathe of seats in the House of Representatives—and potentially control of the country.

Turnbull said he was pinning his hopes of maintaining a majority government on mail-in and early ballots that traditionally favor the conservatives.

“I remain quietly confident that a majority coalition government will be returned at this election when the counting is completed,” Turnbull told reporters.

“While the count will take a number of days, probably until the end of next week, I can promise all Australians that we will dedicate our efforts to ensuring that the state of new parliament is resolved without division or rancor,” he added.

The government was concerned that any perception of instability while the count was resolved could harm Australia’s triple-A credit rating, he said.

Parties need to hold at least 76 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives to form a government.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten did not speculate on a Labor victory, but celebrated the strong swing to his party just three years after it was convincingly dumped from power in the last election.

“What I’m very sure of is that while we don’t know who the winner was, there’s clearly one loser: Malcolm Turnbull’s agenda for Australia and his efforts to cut Medicare,” Shorten said on Sunday, referring to Australia’s universal health-care system.

Given the close result, just two possibilities remain: Turnbull’s coalition will win by the slimmest of margins, or there will be a hung parliament.

Shorten and Turnbull said they had both contacted the five independent lawyers who could be called on to support a minority government.

Turnbull called the early election— dubbed a “double dissolution” because both the House and the Senate are dissolved—in a bid to break a legislative deadlock over a bill that would have created a construction industry watchdog. But the result of the election may bring further deadlock: If neither party earns a majority of seats in the House, both Labor and the coalition will be forced to try to forge alliances with independent lawmakers to form a minority government.

Hung parliaments are extremely rare in Australia, with only two since 1940. The most recent was in 2010, when then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s ruling Labor Party was forced to secure an alliance with the minor Greens party and three independent lawmakers to form a fragile minority government.

Three years later, the coalition swept to power after winning 90 seats.

Turnbull on Sunday did not directly say whether he considered calling new elections an option to resolve any deadlock.

“We are committed to ensuring that the parliament, as elected, will work effectively and constructively for the Australian people,” Turnbull said. AP

ASHINGTON—Donald Trump and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich couldn’t be more alike. And they couldn’t be more different.

Each has been described as larger than life. And no one would accuse either one of not having a healthy ego.

With Trump reportedly considering Gingrich, among others, as his running mate, the similarities between the two are considerable.

Neither would be considered a disciplined campaigner: Trump has given the Republican Party fits by refusing to stick to a script and speaking his mind—even when it involves denigrating Mexican immigrants, women or his fellow Republicans.

Gingrich is not much more organized: his 2012 presidential candidacy bid collapsed under a series of problems, including his failure to qualify for the primary ballot in Virginia, where he lives.

And he has a tendency to “just say a lot of things that are going through that big brain of his,” Republican strategist John Feehery said. “He’s also not someone who sticks to a script and that can be a little problematic when running for president.”

Among Gingrich’s less well-received ideas: having schoolchildren serve as janitors, and building a colony on the moon: “I think grandiose thoughts,” Gingrich said at a 2012 presidential debate.

Both also have complicated personal lives. Between the two of them, they’ve had six wives, three each. Democrats would likely “have a field day” with their domestic lives, Feehery said. But while multiple marriages were once considered unacceptable in politics, it’s not been much of a political impediment for either.

Both have considerable egos, even for public figures. Trump once masqueraded as his own publicist to brag about himself to newspaper reporters, the Washington Post reported.

Gingrich, during his presidential campaign, bragged that “because I am much like Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, I’m such an unconventional political figure that you really need to design a unique campaign that fits the way I operate.”

Both have also spent much of their careers in front of cameras and can show deftness in dealing with the news media. Trump has spent very little on his campaign, but gets free exposure by being combative and unpredictable. Gingrich, who unabashedly admonished the moderator for asking about one of his marriages during a debate, won the South Carolina primary largely on the strength of his commanding debate performances, reviving his 2012 campaign.

Trump has spent most of his life in business. Gingrich has spent most of his life in politics and history and considers himself a thinker, said Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia.

“Where Trump often seems to be making up his answers, Gingrich gives it a great deal of thought,” Bullock said. He suggested Gingrich could play a key role for the campaign: After Trump excites the crowd, Gingrich could talk to the press “and answer the serious questions,” he said.

“Trump sees himself as building a new Republican party, pushing aside traditional Republicans,” Bullock said. “Gingrich was doing the same kind of thing in the House.” Gingrich was elected to leadership in 1989, promising a brand of politics that was more activist, more outreach, more aggressive.”

One of Gingrich’s chief draws for Trump is that congressional experience. Trump has no elected experience, but Gingrich was the political strategist who authored the “Contract with America,” a 10-point conservative legislative agenda that led Republicans to power in the House of Representatives in 1994 for the first time in four decades. TNS

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II (left) shakes hands with Scotland’s First Minister and Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon, as she attends the opening of the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Saturday. Jane Barlow/PA via AP

Clinton could be hurt by e-mail controversy

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ASHINGTON—No matter how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation into the handling of sensitive information on Hillary Clinton’s personal computer server ends, it is likely to hurt her campaign for president.

If the former secretary of state is indicted, she will face further questions about her honesty and, perhaps, even calls for her to step aside.

If she isn’t indicted, critics will accuse the Obama administration of letting her escape charges merely because they want her to win the election.

Clinton was interviewed by the FBI on Saturday for three-and-ahalf hours at its headquarters in Washington, according to her campaign, suggesting that the inquiry is nearing its end.

“Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her e-mail arrangements while she was secretary,” Clinton campaign Spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement. “She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion.”

However it is concluded, events this week indicated anew that Clinton is likely to emerge scarred. A new controversy over the Obama administration’s handling of the case and Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s refusal to assign it to a special prosecutor far removed from the White House was a reminder that critics would always say that political favoritism toward Clinton tainted any decision to clear her.

Under pressure after she met privately with Clinton’s husband this week at his invitation, Lynch announced on Friday that she expects to accept the recommendation of investigators and prosecutors at the FBI and the Justice Department, as well as FBI Director James Comey, a Republican, in the case.

“I fully expect to accept their rec-

2,079

The number of e-mails that Hillary Clinton sent or received that contained classified materials, according to a State Department review of e-mails Clinton turned over

ommendations,” she said.

She added that she still plans to review the case, which was begun by the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division after classified information was found in some of Clinton’s e-mails last year.

Don Smaltz, a lawyer appointed as an independent counsel to investigate former President Bill Clinton’s secretary of agriculture, Mike Espy, in the 1990s, said Lynch should have appointed a special prosecutor last year.

“I think she would have a more thorough investigation,” he said.

“The public could have more confidence in whatever the outcome is.”

At least 2,079 e-mails that Clinton sent or received contained classified material, according to a State Department review of e-mails Clinton turned over after she left the department. Most were at the confidential level, which is the lowest level of classification, but a few were at the top-secret level.

None of Clinton’s e-mails was marked as classified during her time as secretary, State Department offi-

In this March 12, 2012, photo, then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton checks her mobile phone after her address to the Security Council at United Nations headquarters. AP/Richard Drew

cials say, but intelligence officials say some material was clearly classified at the time.

Clinton initially said she did not send or receive any classified information—a denial she later adjusted, saying that none was marked as classified at the time.

Last October 44 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Lynch demanding she name a special prosecutor. “A special counsel must be appointed to preserve the integrity of this investigation and any subsequent prosecution and ensure that there is no bias or undue influence from the White House,” the lawmakers wrote.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest has repeatedly said Obama has not and will not be involved in any decision relating to the case.

“He believes that this matter should be handled without regard to politics,” Earnest said on Friday.

“And he believes this investigation should be conducted based on facts, not based on the political affiliation or the political standing of anybody who may be involved in it.”

After Watergate, Congress passed a law allowing for the appointment of an independent counsel to create a check on the president and top appointees. But lawmakers let the statute expire after Kenneth Starr’s investigation of Bill Clinton led to the president’s impeachment and trial.

The law required the attorney general to appoint an independent counsel—chosen by a panel of judges—when there was substantial

evidence of a crime by any of 49 federal officials. Without the law, Lynch is allowed, but not required, to appoint a special prosecutor.

Peter Zeidenberg, a former federal prosecutor who handled cases against public officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, said attorneys general investigate and prosecute government officials all the time. “There is no requirement for attorneys general to recuse themselves,” he said.

Legal experts say independent counsels or special prosecutors have, at times, abused their own power or made their cases political.

Katy Harriger, a professor at Wake Forest University who has studied special prosecutors, said administrations can face criticism no matter which route they take. “It’s kind of damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” she said.

A report by the State Department inspector general determined that her e-mail arrangement violated State Department rules, that she did not seek permission for the setup and that her was shut down at least once because of fears it had been hacked.

Clinton did not hand over all her work e-mails, despite being asked to do so repeatedly. She said she is unable to access e-mails she sent or received in her first two months as secretary of state, because they were not yet being captured on her server.

And in recent weeks, several new batches of e-mails have come to light that she did not turn over. TNS

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Monday, July 4, 2016

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May cements lead as Tory race for new UK premier takes shape

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NITED KINGDOM Home Secretary Theresa May, the front-runner in the race to lead the Conservative party and be the next prime minister, moved closer to her goal as lawmakers lined up behind her.

Britain’s Home Secretary Theresa May launches her leadership bid for Britain’s ruling Conservative Party in London on June 30. The battle to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron as Conservative Party leader has drawn strong contenders, with the winner set to become prime minister and play a vital role in shaping Britain’s relationship with the European Union after last week’s Brexit vote. AP/Matt Dunham

Whoever wins the leadership race will face some of the most difficult decisions for any UK leader since World War II. Nine days after Britain voted to leave the European Union (EU), in a shocking break with a half-century of postwar alignment, the country remains in a state of political limbo, with the main opposition Labour Party also engulfed by a crisis. Those opposed to leaving the EU took to the streets of London on Saturday.

May had the backing of 102 fellow Tory lawmakers by Saturday evening, 16 more than she did the day before, according to a tally on the Conservative Home blog. Less clear is the battle for second place.

Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb and Justice Secretary Michael Gove each have 21 lawmakers. Energy Minister and prominent Brexiteer Andrea Leadsom also has 21, and perhaps, more important—the momentum.

“May has built up quite a lead and it is difficult to imagine her throwing it away or there being anyone else in the contest who is likely to create a surprise,” Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said in a phone interview.

The candidates will take to the airwaves on Sunday to promote their campaigns. May and Crabb will appear on ITV Television’s Peston on Sunday, while Leadsom and Gove are due on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

While May has said there shouldn’t be a coronation, it’s also possible that a prime minister could be elected in the next two weeks should the leading candidates decide to unite around her after the initial rounds of voting. Many of the party’s 330 members of Parliament have yet to commit themselves publicly.

May has said the best way forward was through a competitive process. “There needs to be a proper contest with a leader elected by the whole party with a proper mandate—and no coronation brought about by back-room deals,” she said, after David Cameron announced he was quitting.

Attempts to reverse the referendum result gathered pace on Saturday, with organizers of the London march estimating that as many as 50,000 people took part in the rally.

“I decided to come to London, because I wanted to stand up in solidarity for something this important,” said Megan Ciotti, a 42-year-old from Oxfordshire who took the morning train to London with her 2-year-old son to attend the anti-Brexit march. “We should be able to say we made a mistake and make it right.”

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also reiterated that her government is looking into legal grounds for holding a new vote. “If there is a way to stay in the EU, I am determined to pursue it,” she said in an interview with Greece’s To Ethnos newspaper.

Starting on Tuesday, lawmakers will vote in secret ballots to whittle the list down to just two. Then, the party’s approximately 150,000-strong nationwide membership will make the final choice in a postal ballot, with the result expected by September 9.

May, who is also the bookmakers’ favorite, is seen as a steady hand.

She’s ruled out any prospect of going back on Britain’s vote to leave the EU, opening her leadership bid on Thursday by declaring that “Brexit means Brexit.”

“She is tough, hardworking and principled,” said conservative Alex Chalk, a member of Parliament from Gloucestershire. Endorsing May in a posting on his Facebook page, he wrote: “With complex negotiations to come and difficult judgments to make, she is the strong leader our country needs.”

Leadsom could win backing from as many as 30 Boris Johnson supporters as soon as next week, the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday, without saying where they got the information. Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, who backed Brexit, is supporting Leadsom, according to the Conservative Home web site.

Leadsom, an ex-financier who has worked for Barclays Plc. and Invesco Perpetual, played a prominent role in the “Leave” campaign.

Should she make it to the shortlist along with May, Britain would be guaranteed its first female prime minister since Margaret Thatcher.

“I genuinely believe that our future is better off outside of the EU,” Leadsom said in an interview with LBC radio after announcing her bid. “It’s a massive chance to strengthen our economy and sort out the issues around free movement.”

The next prime minister must be a Leave supporter, Leadsom told the Telegraph. “It’s very difficult for somebody who doesn’t agree with this, who is reluctantly following the wishes of the people,” she said.

Labour’s weekend was also full of post-Brexit maneuvers. Its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is clinging to his post after losing a vote of no confidence among lawmakers and suffering a mass walkout by his frontbench team.

Corbyn is blamed by many in the party for fighting a lackluster campaign to stay in the EU. He’s so far resisted pressure from senior officials to step down, but may face a formal leadership challenge in the coming days—most likely from his former business spokesman, Angela Eagle. Bloomberg News

Germany offers young Britons citizenship

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ice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel suggested that Germany could offer citizenship to young Britons, saying they shouldn’t be punished by the majority that voted to leave the European Union (EU) in the United Kingdom referendum.

“They wanted to stay in Europe,

because they know the world is changing” and the UK can’t go it alone, Gabriel said in a speech to a Social Democratic Party conference in Berlin on Saturday. “So it’s a good sign that young people in Britain are smarter than their strange political elite.”

In the 18-to-24 age bracket, more

than 70 percent voted “Remain” in the June 23 Brexit referendum, according to YouGov polling, while 52 percent of the country as a whole voted to leave the EU. That split should inspire the Social Democrats to expand their long-standing push for Germany to ease the granting of dual citi-

zenship, Gabriel said.

“Let us also offer it to young Britons who live in Germany, France or Italy, so they can stay EU citizens in this country,” said Gabriel, who heads the SPD, the junior partner in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition.

Bloomberg News

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Muslim women campaign to end instant divorce in India

Indian Muslim woman Shagufta Sayyd (right) sits along with her mother Shama as they listen to Khawtoon Shiekh, an activist of Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, or the Indian Muslim Women’s Movement, at their office in Mumbai, India. Shagufta is among the Indian Muslim women who are campaigning against an Islamic legal practice that allows men to divorce their wives by simply saying “I divorce you” three times. The so-called instant divorce has already been banned in more than 20 Muslim countries, including neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh. AP/Rafiq Maqbool

M Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (third from left) prays in front of photographs of Tuesday’s blast victims at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul on Saturday. Tuesday’s gunfire and suicide-bombing attack at Ataturk Airport killed dozens and wounded over 200. Turkish authorities have banned distribution of images relating to the Ataturk airport attack within Turkey. Kayhan Ozer, Presidential Press Service, Pool via AP

Erdogan: Assad a ‘more advanced terrorist’ than IS

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STANBUL—Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared on Saturday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was a “more advanced terrorist” than the Islamic State (IS) group, despite the deadly attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport that Turkish officials blame on IS.

Speaking in the town of Kilis near the border with Syria, Erdogan said the Syrian leader was responsible for the deaths of some 600,000 of his own citizens and was the root cause of the war in Syria.

“He is a more advanced terrorist than a terrorist from the PYD or the YPG,” Erdogan said. “He is a more advanced terrorist than Daesh.” Erdogan was referring to Syrian Kurdish militia, which Ankara accuses of being a terror organization because of their affiliation with Turkey’s Kurdish rebels, and to the IS group by its Arabic name.

Three militants armed with assault rifles and suicide bombs attacked one of the world’s busiest airports on Tuesday night, killing at least 44 people. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Turkish officials say they believe it was the work of IS.

600K The number of Syrian citizens whose death Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said was the responsibility of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

Turkish authorities have detained at least 24 people in raids in several Istanbul neighborhoods over possible connections to the attack. Seventeen other people were detained in the province of Gaziantep, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Erdogan paid an unannounced visit to the airport on Saturday, saying a prayer in front of a memo-

rial set up for the victims, which features the pictures of airport employees killed in the rampage.

He later flew to Kilis, where the number of Syrian refugees is higher than the local Turkish population. IS militants have also attacked the town with cross-border rocket fire, killing 21 people there since January.

Erdogan said countries he did not name were supporting the Syrian Kurdish militia and the IS in a bid to prevent democracy in Syria and for their “dirty calculations” in the region. He also announced that his government would allow Syrian refugees in Turkey to take on Turkish citizenship.

Turkey has been accused of long turning a blind eye to jihadi fighters who crossed into Syria from Turkish territory in the hope that they would hasten Assad’s downfall. Turkey has also been accused of not doing enough to fight IS, despite allowing the US-led coalition to use a key air base to conduct air strikes against jihadists.

Turkey denies the accusations but such statements from Erdogan help reinforce beliefs that fighting IS is not a priority for Ankara despite the extremist groups’ attacks on Turkish territory.

Earlier, the Istanbul governor’s office said 52 people were still in the hospital—20 of them in intensive care—four d ays after the devastating air port attack. It said 184 air port victims had been discharged from

hospitals so far, including 13 people released on Saturday.

Prosecutors have established the identity of two of the three airport attackers—giving their names as Rakim Bulgarov and Vadim Osmanov—and were trying to identify the third, Anadolu said. Other media reports have given different versions of Osmanov’s name.

Investigators’ attentions have reportedly focused on whether a Chechen extremist known to be a top lieutenant in the Islamic State group masterminded the attack.

US R e p. M ic h ae l Mc C au l , chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, told CNN that Akhmed Chatayev directed the attack. The Central Intelligence Agency and White House declined to comment on McCaul’s assertion and officials said the investigation into the airport bombings is still ongoing.

McCaul could not be reached for further comment.

Turkish officials also were not able to confirm Chatayev’s possible role in the deadly attack. The Sabah newspaper, which is close to the Turkish government, said police had launched a manhunt for him.

The IS group, which has used the porous border with Turkey to establish itself in neighboring Syria and Iraq, has repeatedly threatened Turkey. In turn, Turkey has blamed IS for several major bombings in the past year in Ankara and Istanbul. AP

UMBA I, Ind ia—Just hours after Shagufta Sayyd was married, her new husband told her he was having a relationship with another woman. He was clear the two would have no future, the 21-year-old Sayyd said. He was only marrying her to please his mother.

“He said, ‘no, I don’t want to keep you,’” she said. “So he said, ‘divorce, divorce, divorce, three times, and that was it.”

Sayyd still insists on using her husband’s surname, until she can end the marriage officially in an Indian court. But like many other women from India’s large Sunni Muslim minority, her fate and status are governed by Muslim Personal Law that follows the tenets of the Islamic faith, as interpreted by local imams and religious schools across India.

T he so-ca l led tr iple ta laq, or instant d ivorce, has been banned in more than 20 Muslim countries, including neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh.

But in India, the practice is allowed, thanks to the countr y’s rules protecting Muslim, Christian and Hindu communities following religious law.

Most of the 170 million Muslims in India are Sunnis governed by Muslim Personal Law for family matters and disputes.

Those laws include allowing men to divorce their wives by simply uttering the word “talaq,” or divorce in Urdu, three times—and not necessarily consecutively, but at any time, and by any medium including telephone, text message or social-media post.

Some women are fed up with what they say is an archaic and patriarchal rule that too often leaves them destitute. Muslim women do not have the same right, and those left by their husbands have no claim to alimony though they can collect a small payment for three months after divorce.

Then, they’re on their own.

“They have been divorced by speed post, by sending out letters.

Some have just simply said “talaq” three times and the divorce has happened,” Noorjehan Safia Niaz, cofounder of Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, or the Indian Muslim Women’s Movement.

The movement has been fighting for equal laws for Muslim women for six years.

“There are cases where women don’t even know that they’ve been divorced,” Niaz said. “The children are without any support. So, it has become very convenient for Muslim men to just say talaq thrice and it is just so easy for him to get the woman out of his life.”

Legal experts say the practice is unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court has been pushing for uniformity in laws. In 1985 the top court ruled and ordered a man to pay alimony to his elderly wife, after verbally divorcing and abandoning her.

The Indian government in office at the time, however, managed to overturn the verdict retroactively by passing a law to protect Muslim divorce law. Many suspect the government was under pressure from Muslim leaders to stay out of their business or lose their electoral support.

The move frustrated women’s rights activists. India had long since banned dowry payments from a girl’s parents to the family of a groom before marriage, though many still practice the ancient Hindu tradition openly, they note. And, more recently, India threw out Hindu laws that barred women from inheriting property from their fathers.

W hat makes the instant divorce laws so difficult, some say, is the fact that they are not codified and so are open to interpretation and adjustment.

One Supreme Court law yer called the practice “barbaric.”

“This is a kind of an ISIS-like rule prevailing in India,” the advocate, Monika Arora, said, referring to the militant Islamic State that controls much of Syria and Iraq. “No progressive country can tolerate this.”

Earlier this month the women’s movement collected more than 50,000 signatures, calling for a nationwide ban on instant divorces. That petition was being added as evidence in an appeal filed to the Supreme Court to ban instant divorces. T he court has asked the central government for its opinion before scheduling a hearing. AP

Elie Wiesel, Auschwitz survivor and author, dies, 87

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Elie Wiesel is photographed in his office in New York on September 12, 2012. Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor, has died. AP/Bebeto Matthews

lie Wiesel, whose acclaimed books chronicled his tortured memories of human cruelty in the Nazi concentration camps that killed his parents and younger sister, has died. He was 87.

He died on Saturday at his home in New York, according to Simmy Allen, a spokesman for Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial organization in Jerusalem.

For more than five decades, Wiesel played a central role in efforts to remember, mourn and learn from the near-extermination of European Jews in World War II, admonishing the world about humans’ capacity for unconscionable cruelty.

“Elie Wiesel was one of the great moral

voices of our time, and in many ways, the conscience of the world,” President Barack Obama said in a statement. “He raised his voice, not just against anti-Semitism, but against hatred, bigotry and intolerance in all its forms. ”

Witness and scholar

Night, Wiesel’s 1960 autobiographical novel, established him as a leading witness and scholar of the Holocaust, selling an estimated 10 million copies in 30 languages. The book’s teenage protagonist, based on Wiesel’s own ex p e r i e n ce s, i s s h o c ke d to w i t n e s s the depths of depravity as he endures

the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. It’s enough to make him question the God he grew up studying and worshiping.

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed,” Wiesel’s character says of his first night at Birkenau, the reception center for Auschwitz.

It was upon arriving at Birkenau, in 1944, that Wiesel last saw his mother and witnessed babies being sent to their deaths in a crematorium. By the end of that first night, Wiesel’s character in Night is forever transformed: “The

student of the Talmud, the child that I was, had been consumed in the flames.

There remained only a shape that looked like me.”

More than 40 other books followed Night, including the semi-autobiographical novels Dawn and Day, which filled out a trilogy based on his life experience.

Nobel Prize

In 1986 the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Wiesel the Nobel Peace Prize, calling him “one of the most important spiritual leaders and guides in an age when violence, repression and racism continue to characterize the world.”

The Romanian-born Wiesel found asylum in France after the war and discovered that his two older sisters had also survived. He became a journalist in France and Israel, then moved to New York in the 1950s and worked for the Jewish Daily Forward, a Yiddish-language newspaper. He became a US citizen in 1963.

He had been a professor at Boston University since 1976 and also held faculty positions at City University of New York and Yale University. From 1980 to 1986 he served as founding chairman of the US Holocaust Memorial Council, which in 1993 opened the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Bloomberg News

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Monday, July 4, 2016

A9

Bangladeshi forces stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka’s Gulshan area, where heavily armed militants held dozens of people hostage on Saturday morning, rescuing some captives—including foreigners—at the end of an hours-long standoff. AP

Dhaka gunmen: We came here to kill the non-Muslims

D

HAKA, Bangladesh—The welldressed young men entered the trendy restaurant armed with guns, crude bombs and blades.

When the 10-hour siege was over, 28 people were dead—including at least one American—and Bangladesh’s attempts to underplay the threat posed

by Islamist radicals lay in tatters.

The hostage crisis and ensuing commando raid on a popular Dhaka eatery that ended early on Saturday made it clear that Bangladesh has become a key battleground for militants inspired by the likes of Islamic State (IS), which claimed responsibility for the attack.

Army commandos rescued at least 13 people after the standoff.

One Bangladeshi witness said the attackers told him: “You people don’t have to be afraid; we came here to kill the non-Muslims.”

Most of the v ictims at the Holey A r tisan Ba ker y in the upscale Gulshan neighborhood were foreig ners, a lthough the rest au ra nt w a s pac ked w it h both ex patr iates and Bangladeshis eating dinner during the R amadan holy month.

Among those killed were nine Japanese, seven Italians, two Bangladeshis and an Indian. One of the Bangladeshis was also an American citizen. Two police officers were fatally shot by assailants at the start of the raid on Friday night. Six assailants were killed in a gun battle with Bangladeshi security forces that began several hours later, prompting questions over the speed of the government response.

One attacker was in government custody. A statement by IS on Friday night said the attack targeted citizens of “crusader” nations.

The Amaq News Agency, which is affiliated with the militant group, on Saturday released pho-

28 The number of people who died in the armed siege on June 28

tos of the purported assailants, whom it described as Bangladeshis. The five men were shown smiling in front of an IS flag and said to have been armed with “knives, cleavers, assault rifles and hand grenades.”

A na lysts said it was not immediately clear whether IS had directed the attack. Over the last year, IS and its r iva l, a lQaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, claim to have car r ied out more than t wo dozen targeted k il lings in Bangladesh, most ly of foreig ners, secu lar w r iters and relig ious minor ities.

B a n g l a d e s h ’s go v e r n me nt has been shar ply criticized for do w npl ay i n g t he a s s a s s i n a tions, blaming them on rival Islamist political parties and making thousands of arrests t h at of f ic i a l s ac k nowle d ge d were unconnected to the crimes.

Prime Minister Sheik Hasina

Wajed, in a televised address late on Saturday, urged her fellow Bangladeshis to have faith in the government, and declared two days of national mourning.

“We don’t want terrorism in Bangladesh,” Hasina said. Referring to the killers, she said, “I don’t understand their beliefs—what type of Muslims they are.”

The State Department confirmed that a US citizen was among those killed and said it “supports Prime Minister Hasina in her commitment to combat violent extremism in Bangladesh.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dispatched a task force to Bangladesh to assist in the investigation. Japanese authorities have reportedly been concerned about the investigation into the killing of a Japanese citizen in Bangladesh in late 2015, which remains unsolved.

Witnesses told news agencies that the armed men stormed into the restaurant and fired weapons into the air before going after individual patrons. The restaurant’s Argentine chef told a television station that he fled through a back door and escaped by jumping off the roof of the building.

R esident s i n t he Gu l sh a n neighborhood, wh ic h houses diplomatic missions, hotels and upscale apartments along rutted, dimly lit streets, reported hearing explosions. A Bangladeshi military official, Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury, said militants “used sharp weapons” to kill the 20 hostages soon after they entered.

A restaurant worker, identified only as Alam, told The Dhaka Tribune that he hid in a back office after the attack began. When the gunmen found him and several other employees, including a Japanese man, they directed the Bangladeshis to the main dining area but kept the Japanese man captive.

Moments later, the w itness said he heard a g unshot. Many of the other v ictims were repor ted ly k i l led executionst yle. T he hostages were g iven a test, according to the father

of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued onSaturday mor ning along w ith his family.

“The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Koran,” Rezaul Karim told the Associated Press, describing what his son, Hasnat, had witnessed inside the restaurant. “Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night.”

The others, he said, “were tortured.”

More than 10 hours passed between the start of the raid and when Bangladesh’s rapid-reaction army commandos entered the building.

“There was total pandemonium.

Law enforcement had no clue what was going on,” said one security analyst with knowledge of the situation, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

The use of knives and cleavers mirrored the sharp instruments used to hack to death dozens of individuals in targeted killings over the past two years. But this was by far the most complex attack Islamist militants had carried out in Bangladesh.

A country of 160 million people, mainly Muslims, Bangladesh until recent years was held up as an example of economic development, having raised standards of living and improved public health, thanks to a large garment-manufacturing industry and international aid.

But a prolonged political crisis has seen Hasina’s government clamp down on rival parties, including Islamists, imprisoning many top leaders and executing others for crimes related to the country’s 1971 war of liberation from Pakistan. The US and United Nations have described the special tribunal leading to the convictions as deeply flawed.

Analysts say the clampdown has helped encourage domestic extremists who are inspired by the brazen attacks of Islamic State.

“Dhaka pre-Holey and postHoley are going to be two different cities,” the security analyst said.

“There has to be a realization that we are a high-threat environment now.” Los Angeles Times/TNS

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

A10 Monday, July 4, 2016

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Accessible Tourism For All ity. The President’s commitment to eradicate this nuisance in our society is most welcome by the tourism industry. In addition, let me share the wish list of the tourism sector:

Clean and refreshing ambiance

Dr. Mina T. Gabor

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THE bm traveler

ecently, I was invited to a media forum in Rembrandt Hotel and someone asked me what I thought about the current set­up, where people had to go to Davao to meet up with President Rodrigo R. Duterte. My answer was “Great! Very good for Davao!” A friend from Davao who owns a restaurant had to fly in ingredients and kitchen materials from Manila, as one night they almost ran out of food.

For me, there is a more serious aspect to this new political scenario.

I am hoping that our local government officials would be inspired by these developments and realize that, if they do well in governance, they, too, stand a chance to become

president one day. Do as President Duterte did! It is not only good for tourism, but for other business opportunities, as well. Davao is the new hot spot for meetings, conferences and leisure trips. The No. 1 enemy of tourism is lawlessness and criminal-

Most tourists enjoy walking when visiting new destinations. They want to see architectural designs, explore the heritage and holy sites, visit parks, go shopping, visit music lounges and others. How can one enjoy these activities when all you can see are garbage; vandalized walls and signages; unsanitary street-food hawkers; uninformed policemen and taxi drivers in key tourism sites; sidewalks with unkempt and dying plants; and dirt from esteros that are left to pile up?

Where are the pedestrian lanes?

Greener Philippines

We have a penchant for cutting trees when widening roads and highways. I have just visited three Asean countries at the height of the heat wave that hit the region, and I observed that temperatures there were not as bad as it was in our country. It is simply because there were trees that shaded the different places we visited. In Indonesia and Malaysia, when they needed to build another lane of a highway, they protected the tree lines by expanding the road on the other side.They also regularly prune the trees and remove the dead branches to create a beautiful form.. In the case of Vietnam, they did the same thing and reserved the new lane for just the motorcycles and the bicycles; something that we can also do. When Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway was opened up, my friends and I were very happy traveling in that area, because it was so green with rolling hills. It made you feel like you were somewhere else. Lately, though, people have been given permission to

develop these areas, and they are cutting down the trees to make way for residential and commercial establishments. Even in construction, we don’t take into account the preservation of our green environment. In some countries there are laws or regulations that within a certain radius of the highways, the land is still owned by the government and, therefore, the greeneries are preserved.

​Safer and efficient airport

Many of the airports abroad now are conducive to transiting; areas where people can rest and sleep while waiting for their flights. They also bring nature into the airport while keeping the needed efficiency of their services, so you feel good going around. The greenery does not bother you, but enhances your stay in the airport. Our airports look pathetic compared to our neighbors. The variety of things one can buy inside the airport are limited, maybe because there is not enough space. The toilet facilities can be further improved. And yes, please keep our airports pothole­free.

In a recent trip to Malaysia, as the plane was taxiing, I dozed off. It must have been a while when suddenly I was awakened by the jarring movement of the airplane. I thought we had arrived in Malaysia, but my travel companion said we were still in Manila and had been stuck for two hours. When we landed in Malaysia, the pilot apologized for the delay and clarified it was not due to the aircraft’s technical difficulties, but because a wheel had gotten stuck in a pothole. You could hear the incredulous laughter of the passengers. I hope this can be fixed, once and for all. At the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1, the arrival procedure is not person with disability-­friendly, as they are required to go down the stairs to pick

up their ride. Why can’t they have their rides upstairs at the main arrival area?

Healthier and visitor­-friendly community

Who would like to go to a place that is fraught with diseases, where one can get sick from unhealthy and unsanitary conditions? A healthy community can attract tourists. When you get to a place, there are certain things that a visitor is expected to do: buy souvenirs; maybe go to a spa or the hairdresser; visit the tourist info center; take a tour; or change foreign currency. The information on these activities should be readily available.

There has to be sufficient accommodations; not necessarily hotels, but also homestays wherein people are trained to be visitor-ready andfriendly while keeping their traditions and cultural practices.

Sufficient tour guides and new tour packages

Tour guiding is no longer just for city tours. Tour guiding now has specialized applications for eco­ tourism, nature tourism, farm tourism, heritage and historical sites, faith­-based tourism and others. Guiding is no longer an adhoc sideline, but has become a career with specializations. We need to develop guides by tourism product, by site and by language. Our language courses should include guiding techniques. For packages, it’s another area of specialization. We need more tour agencies that specialize in a particular type of tour package designed for certain places.

Even the educational institutions teaching tourism must emphasize the need for students to know more about the Philippines and the areas where they come from. There must be pride of origin.

Seamless travel

If you are a visitor, it is so hard to

go from one place to another in the Philippines. In effect, we are not able to maximize the revenue and investment opportunities that tourism could bring in certain areas, especially those not served by the big airlines. There must be provisions for smaller air and sea facilities. In Maldives they have taxi boats. I remember when I was the secretary of tourism, we did the Tourism Highway project where we traced the markers from Kilometer zero in Luneta Park all the way to Mindanao. This highway, at one time, was referred to as the Philippine­-Japan Friendship Highway, also the Maharlika Highway, and later dubbed as the Tourism Highway. What did we find out?

That it is workable, but the support system for tourism was not present. I am just wondering what is the status of the Philippine Tourism Highway study that was ready for implementation? If this can be developed, there is so much potential for inclusive growth where rest areas can be provided, and food outlets and accommodations can established for people traversing the highway by car.

If we are able to see the implementation of the above, then we can say we are in sync with the theme of the 2016 World Tourism Organization: which is “Accessible Tourism for All.” Dr. Gabor was the former tourism secretary, former trade undersecretary, current president of the International School of Sustainable Tourism, and part of the board of trustees of De La Salle UniversityCollege of St. Benilde.

Reminder: Those who have not yet registered for the Fourth Farm Tourism Conference, to be held in Tagaytay City from July 14 to 16, kindly contact Project Director Regine Ranada at rranada. isstphilippines@gmail.com.

Parañaque City coffee-table book: A modern work of art ASHA and The Manila Hotel form partnership for Crystal glass ornaments of Parañaque luxury hospitality training

By Excel V. Dyquiangco

F

amed author Tom Clancy once said, “Books and movies are different art forms with different rules.” And because of that, they never translate exactly. While Parañaque is touted to be a Mega City by the Bay with an enclave of picturesque traditions, paintings and glass arts, the book Parañaque: From a Pueblo to a Mega City by the Bay is an art form with a unique set of rules in itself, one that offers a different side to this city down South of Metro Manila.

Written and researched over two years by veteran author Melandrew T. Velasco and his Media Touchstone Ventures Inc. (MTVI) book team, the coffee-table book promises a delightful read to those who are looking for a diverse kind of adventure.

The author is the family biographer of former President Fidel V. Ramos. He has also penned biographies of illustrious men and women in the country and has published books for the Ramos Peace and Development Foundation. This book on Parañaque City is his third venture into coffee table books for local government units following earlier books, namely: Pasay: A Royal Kingdom’s Evolution to a Travel City published in December 2013 and Nueva Ecija: New Era of Peace and Progress in March 2015.

Plus this book shows you some of the natural and hidden gems, the wonders and the mysteries and the surprises that await guests, visitors and local tourists.

“Because of this phenomenal growth and development, the inspiring story of Parañaque City is something that should be celebrated by everyone, native Parañaqueños, local and inter-

national residents who find time to stop here to live, invest, shop, pray, dine, travel and enjoy what this city offers,” Mayor Edwin Olivarez said.

The colors of the Sunduan Festival

One of the sterling qualities of the book is a mixture of green and yellow colors that symbolize Parañaque’s warmth toward its people. The Sunduan Festival, for instance, has evolved into a lively celebration that showcases street dancing, parades and competitions with a marching band in tow, connotes a splash of colors and magical hues. Eventually, the festival inspired the Parañaque Livelihood Resources Management Office, the city’s skills and training center, to fashion the Sunduan Dolls, ornamental dolls dressed with the local fibers piña and jusi, including the miniature embroidery style that go into the Barong Tagalog and the Maria Clara costumes.

Much like the festival itself, the figures are a colorful array of designs, styles and flowing creativity especially, with its golden shades and splatters.

What makes the Sunduan dolls unique and creative, though, is that their faces are designed so distinctively from one another that no two dolls are alike. As part of its limited edition, the faces of Parañaque Mayor Edwin L. Olivarez and his wife Janet are woven into the mold. The Sunduan dolls are meticulously crafted that one doll gets finished in 33 days. They cost around P800 to P1,000 per doll, depending on the type, and are also displayed in trade fairs.

The VAP features

Aside from the Sunduan Festival, the book also showcases the best in painters, sculptors and mixed-visual artists. The Visual

Artists of Parañaque (VAP), a group of young and dynamic, energetic and preppy visual artists, whose penchant for the arts, designs and styles is reflected also in their lifestyles, seeks to encourage and motivate other artists from Parañaque to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions through the medium of acrylic, paint and a slew of others. Founded by Janddie Castillo, known as “Master of the Splash Art” due to his art styles using splashes, splatters and swiping strokes, and cofounded by his father Nelson Castillo, the “Father of Philippine Miniature Paintings” because of his unique style in using miniatures as canvass, VAP has grown to more than 35 members, each representing a unique take and cinematic ambiance to visuals, paintings and sculptures.

Among VAP artists include Maricris Salazar-Castillo, John Clark Castillo, Nante Carandang, Hayden Sison, Paul Salazar, Leoda Salazar, Precy de Guzman-Brady, Jinggoy Salcedo, Myra Molina, Marivel Mari-Galang, Joy Jacinto, Chris Pizarro, Manny Gamboa and Chicco Ramos. VAP has held exhibits in SM BF Parañaque and Alabang Country Club and is bent on making Parañaque artists a household name.

Moreover, Parañaque is also home to other artists, such as sculptor Rey Paz Contreras, who makes use of repurposed materials and other environmental elements that influenced the art and sculpture scene in the country; painter Ferdinand Doctolero, a media visual artist whose works depict life’s dynamism; and multiawarded abstractionist Raul Isidro, whose techniques and interpretation of nature and the vibrancy of his childhood produces textured paintings that show simplicity and sophistication at the same time.

Aside from colors and hues, Parañaque: From a Pueblo to a Mega City by the Bay prides itself with structures by showcasing products that are made of glass. From crystal-clear ornaments to dazzling centerpieces to an array of mind-altering arrangements, these creations that include home décors, such as wall frames, centerpieces, candle holders, napkin rings and holders, glass plaques, trophies and medals and even fashion accessories, such as necklaces, earrings, bracelets and pendants, souvenirs and gift items for birthdays, parties and celebrations, are a fitting tribute to every home. One of the city’s most-prized and flamboyant possessions is the glass art version of the Sunduan Festival.

With arts and culture definitely thriving in Parañaque, Parañaque: From a Pueblo to a Mega City by the Bay is a milestone that allows you to experience beauty at your fingertips, absolutely a work of art.

“Through long months of research, interviews and collective thoughts, Mr. Velasco and our team have learned so much about the city’s history and culture, especially Paranaque which transformed gracefully from a quaint little town to a sprawling environ of infrastructures and developments,” MTVI Creative Manager Michelle Cabrera-Manuel said.

“We are just too happy to have come out with a legacy coffee-table book that can be considered a work of art by itself that invariably captures the heart and soul, the rhythm and pulse of Parañaque City,” Michelle Manuel added.

Olivarez aptly describes the landmark book as “a fitting celebration of our rich history and heroic past, cultural heritage and traditions, our religiosity and dynamism as a people and as a city.”

Gerald Catacutan (from left), The Manila Hotel (MH) front office manager; Cristoph Kuch, MH food and beverage director; Gerhard Doll, MH resident manager; Judith Imperial, executive director, The Cravings Group; Atty. Joey Lina, MH president; Dr. Enrique Y. Yap Jr., MH EVP; and Dr. Au Caday, MH HR director

L

eading hospitality school Asian School of Hospitality (ASHA) has formed a partnership with historic five-star hotel The Manila Hotel for a series of luxury training programs as part of its continuous staff development plan.

These specialized trainings were conducted by renowned international trainer Josephine Ive, director and principal trainer of Magnums Butlers International (MBI), the longest-running butler school in the world known as a provider of highly professional luxury hospitality training for private and hotel butlers, and super yacht stewards and stewardesses.

Through the Cravings Group’s ASHA, Ive recently held a one-day Introductory Course on 7-Star Butler Service, a highly detailed and personal approach to providing excellent guest service, which was held at the Rigodon Hall of The Manila Hotel. The extensive five-day training was well-attended by executives from some of the country’s premier resorts and hotels, which included key executives and staff from The Manila Hotel.

“Josephine Ive is well-traveled and she teaches at top luxury hotels worldwide, so she is an expert at international standards.

Her insight and experience are very important in making our people understand what luxury is,” said Gerhard Doll, resident manager of The Manila Hotel. Ive has been in the hospitality industry for decades and developed the 7-star Butler Service Training herself. She also holds the distinction of being the United Kingdom’s first female butler and has provided excellent butler

service to the British Royal Family and British High Court judges.

“What we learned from Josephine is twofold. One part is to develop our staff and give them a platform to grow. The second part is raising the bar in terms of service and giving our guests the luxury experience,” Doll said. “What we want to see coming out of this luxury learning expedition is to go into the real meaning of luxury.”

“When the staff delivers the laundry to the guest’s room for instance, she won’t just put it in a basket, but also put a little ‘thank you’ note. It’s the emotional part, the personalization and the little things we want to apply when dealing with our guests,” Doll added.

Doll and his team are also looking at specialized trainings that will cater to different staff levels.

“Going forward, we will be looking at more customized trainings, perhaps, for supervisors or it could be a Train-the-Trainer or Ambassador Program, a butlers-only refresher or a second-level butler training.

We’re hoping to roll out the next one very soon,” Doll said. “Training has to be done well and you have to choose the right trainer. We are very privileged and happy about the partnership with ASHA for this great program.”

Ive will be back in Manila to conduct her five-day Butler Service training program from September 5 to 9 open to all hospitality professionals. Reservations can be made through asha.edu.ph or fb.com/ ashaschool.

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Monday, July 4, 2016

A11

Knocking on heaven’s door A panoramic view of the famed West Philippine Sea sunset

At Thunderbird Poro Point, Matisse artworks map the walls, arched ceilings and parapets to define the gods and goddesses and the art of the ancient times.

Perched on a cliff, the atmosphere at Thunderbird is pervaded with the same romantic calm of the sea.

By Vernon Velasco | Photos by Thunder Bird Resorts & Casinos

Even in a room with the view, you wake up in one of the resort’s 25 premier rooms, convincing yourself that you’re, at least, nestled somewhere earthly.

The divinity of the place is one that spells forever, and whose serenity and tranquility translate to some form of an aphrodisiac.

T

here is an elaborate house of cards perched on a cliff facing the sea, where a panoramic view of the sunset makes you wax poetic verses and dream that one day you could touch the ochre sun. But if you’re, otherwise, on the other side of the threshold and see this landmark from the vantage point of that sun, you might as well long to go to the place the way you might long to reach the sky, wondering if God is somewhere up there.

Because even from afar, the cosmic clump of white-washed domes looks like an abode of the heavenly, the imaginary kind you see floating

in the clouds and dissolves to a mist.

It commands the same profound sense of wonder as the Parthenon, except that, while modern albeit

it is inclined to be ancient and august. The place that is hogged by the teal West Philippine Sea and is collectively called the Thunderbird Resorts, found on the Peninsula of Poro Point in La Union and reminiscent of elsewhere in Greece: Santorini on Aegean Sea. I was recently at Thunderbird Poro Point on business and I was told that the vision was to really make the destination the Santorini of Asia. But Santorini or not, Thunderbird exudes its own charm and one might get at once convinced that it is the missing piece of heaven on the face of the Earth.

This, especially when, even in the inner sanctum of a room with the view, you wake up in one of the resort’s 25 premier rooms with the morning sun on your face, as well as a lot of coming to your senses that you’re at least nestled somewhere earthly. Here, there’s a constant sense that God has a room number, maybe just upstairs, or elsewhere in the property, but one

could be sure that He’s sleeping in a room not too far away.

Everywhere, Matisse artworks map the walls, arched ceilings and parapets to define the gods and goddesses, and the art of the ancient times, ones that suggest how they became gods by making love.

It is romantic, if only because the divinity of the place is one that spells forever and whose sincerity and tranquility translate to some form of an aphrodisiac.

At night, when everything is not as much candlelit as moonlit and even when the resort is abuzz with all manners of merry-making, what with all the cabanas that punctuate the shoreline and the Mediterranean-Asian-themed Olives and Ouzo restaurants, the atmosphere is pervaded with the same romantic calm of the sea.

And there, for the briefest of moments, when everything sticks out and rolls toward the sky, and you overlook the vastness and the divinity of it all, you are the lord of all creations.

Shaping a sustainable future in a farm

By Jonalyn Fulo Fortuno

Photos by Pauline Estrada Dycoco

W

hen Aleli Pansacola first embraced community service and natural healing as two of her advocacies in the mid-1980s, little did she know that her noble undertakings will be aligned with future trends in sustainable agriculture, as well as farm and wellness tourism industry.

As an active member of various environmental and sociocivic groups, Pansacola began to develop an interest on sustainable living, because she believes that this could alleviate the economic plight of communities. It was her visits into provinces that initiated her to natural healing, a form of alternative medicine that harnesses the therapeutic properties of herbs and other earthbased remedies. This traditional practice taught her the art of using natural medicines in the hope that she could impart such knowledge to communities that have no access to modern medicines and health-care facilities.

Soon enough, Pansacola started conducting workshops for hilot (touch therapy) and herbal medicine. She taught the community residents how to create herbal gardens and the numerous benefits culled from herbs. When asked by farmers if there’s income out of planting herbs, that’s when she realized that the endeavor should be selfsustaining, too.

At that time, Pansacola was already a member of Philippine Institute for Al-

DAILA Founder Aleli V. Pansacola ternative Futures (PIAF), an organization which strongly promotes the creation of community-based enterprise through alternative development strategies.

As head of PIAF’s Herbal Group, she conducted extensive research on herbal technologies and the various benefits of essential oils. Her research eventually pointed her to the potential economic benefits of herbal industry, thus, inspiring her to start a business in 1986, called Daila Herbal Community Enterprises (DHCE).

DHCE is really intended to provide livelihood opportunities to the locals.

From the start, Pansacola did so by asking the community residents to cultivate herbal plants she would need to manufacture her soap line. Soon enough, the herbal gardens became her main source for raw materials.

Running up a business was no easy feat for Pansacola. She also went through trying times that almost made her give up. “It was a struggle, really,

in all aspects. I started at a time when modern technology was still far from our reach and I didn’t have enough fund for the business,” she recalls. But with hardwork, patience and determination, her business eventually flourished.

From single proprietorship in 1987, DHCE was incorporated in 1991 and went into manufacturing environment and health-friendly natural herbal products, such as soaps, laundry granules, and personal- and household-care products. Its banner product Victoria Herbal Laundry Granules even won several international awards, as well as recognitions from Switzerland, Morocco, Bulgaria and Asia.

Bamboo House is built using native materials, such as cogon and bamboo.

A tribute to nature

These incredible accomplishments have only fueled Pansacola’s desire to develop more business opportunities to the communities. Her latest venture Daila Farmer’s Agricultural Resources and Management Services (Daila FARMS) is set up to carry out the advocacies, which DHCE is anchored on, espousing holistic approach to living and sustainability movement.

Located along San Francisco Highway in Tagaytay, the 2-hectare farm is a tribute to Mother Nature, as its facilities are designed and built with green materials. Likewise, it is geared toward the promotion of environmental preservation as indicated by the various activities and workshops that it will soon offer to those who are interested on eco-conscious way of living.

The first phase of Daila FARMS is launched on June 16.

The first phase of Daila FARMS features six uniquely designed areas: Ugnayan, a kiosk made of mud, which will be the venue for farmers to network and sell their health-friendly community products; Bamboo House, a seminar hall that can house 30 to 50 people, with an adjacent café that will serve farmto-table dishes once it becomes fully operational; Ulog (Ifugao huts), which offers affordable accommodations for guests; Dap-ay, an activity center designed for activities, such as bonfires, full-moon meditation, drumming circles, and empowering rituals and art-

The Ugnayan area features kiosks made of mud ists’ expressions; Campsite, which is an ideal site to enjoy a night with nature; and Ruben’s Garden, which utilizes a practical farming system to cultivate its veggies, such as kale, quinoa, jalapeno, scotch bonnet, harlequin carrots and blue corn.

As Daila FARMS is in part grounded on community service, Aleli says they also plan to conduct workshops on practical farming technologies so that the farmers would be able to develop practical farming solutions and do away with synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilizers. That way, not only would

they harvest all-natural produce but also lessen the harmful environmental impact caused by conventional farming system.

“As a whole, Daila FARMS has become a grounding place, to reconnect to the earth, to enjoy health, peace and happiness, and learn how the creative process is a blend of faith in possibilities and sincere work on whatever available resources,” Aleli shares.

At present, Daila FARMS offers a weekend market, where locals can get to buy organic fresh produce, artisanal goods and other local products sold by the farmers.

Green Monday BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, July 4, 2016

BusinessMirror

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

Smart backs SarBay Fest environmental campaign

Smart leads the coastal cleanup at the Gumasa beach two days after the nonstop partying during the Sarangani Bay Festival.

Chile’s Navy ship Aquiles moves alongside the Hurd Peninsula, seen from Livingston Islands, part of the South Shetland Islands archipelago, in Antarctica on January 25, 2015.

Antarctica’s ozone hole is finally starting to heal, a new study finds. AP/Natacha Pisarenko

Decades after Montreal Protocol

Hole in ozone layer starting to heal

F

or the first time in 30 years, the gaping hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica is showing signs of healing.

Every year since it was discovered in 1985, scientists have watched the hole grow bigger from one Antarctic spring to the next, eventually covering 10.9 million square miles in 2015.

Now researchers are noting an encouraging trend. Though the hole still exists and reached a record size last year, it is forming at a slower rate, according to a report published on Thursday in the journal Science.

Thanks to human actions to curb the use of ozone-destroying chloroflourocarbons (CFCs), the hole has started growing later in the spring, the study’s authors said, and they can foresee a time, around the middle of the century, when it’s gone.

“We are starting to see signs of improvement over Antarctica,” said Paul Newman, an atmospheric scientist at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland who monitors the hole but was not involved in the study.

Earth wears the ozone layer like a thick blanket. The invisible gas blocks the majority of the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation. Without that shield, life as we know it would not be possible. The ozone layer sits in the stratosphere, a region of the atmosphere that begins about 10 miles above the ground— higher than planes can f ly—

10.9 million mi

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The size of the hole in the ozone layer above the Antarctica in 2015 and extends an additional 20 miles above that. The hole in the ozone layer comes and goes over the course of each year. The conditions for creating it begin in late August, and it reaches its maximum size in October.

Scientists tracking the state of the hole have typically focused on its size at that latter point.

The new study takes a closer look at what happens earlier in the spring, when the hole begins to develop.

The stratosphere above Antarctica is a particularly dangerous place for ozone to be when winter gives way to spring, said study leader Susan Solomon, an atmospheric chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Antarctica is really the coldest place on Earth,” Solomon said.

The extremely cold temperatures cause thin, wispy clouds to form high in the stratosphere, creating a perfect place for the byproducts of CFCs—hydrochloric acid and chlorine nitrate—to touch down.

When they react on the surface of these clouds, they release chlo-

rine gas. Then the Sun, which has just returned to the South Pole, provides energy that splits the gas into two single chlorine atoms.

These atoms steal oxygen from the ozone and break it down.

“Spring is the Goldilocks time,” Solomon said. “There’s enough sunlight to drive the chemistry, and you have cold enough temperatures” for the clouds to keep CFC byproducts in the mix. The longer the process continues, the more ozone is destroyed.

By October, the ozone layer “has been punched out of existence,” Newman said.

Even before the hole was discovered in the 1980s, scientists had realized that man-made CFCs could be damaging to the atmosphere.

CFCs are nontoxic and nonexplosive chemicals that work very well as refrigerants, propellants and solvents. As a result, they were widely used in air-conditioning systems, cans of hair spray and a variety of other consumer and industrial products.

That changed with the signing of the Montreal Protocol in 1987.

The international treaty called on countries to phase out the use of most CFCs by 1996.

The ban went into effect at the start of 1989, but scientists didn’t see any immediate reduction in the concentration of CFCs in the stratosphere. The stability of these chemicals—once touted as one of their biggest benefits— meant they could remain in the atmosphere for 50 to 100 years.

Ozone is measured by sensors attached to large balloons that are released into the air. They rise at a speed of roughly 11 mph, taking measurements as they go

and transmitting data back to a ground station. They can travel about 22 miles up before bursting and drifting back to earth.

Satellites provide additional information on ozone-layer thickness by recording the UV light that is reflected off of it.

Solomon and her colleagues examined data going back to 1970 to see whether ozone levels had improved in the early part of the hole-forming season.

Although they didn’t see that much difference from one October to the next, they could see that between 2000 and 2014, ozone levels during September had improved. The progress was in line with predictions made by computer models designed to simulate the impact of CFC reductions. Then came 2015. The size of the ozone hole in October broke a record, even though levels of CFC byproducts in the atmosphere were still falling.

“Could it be that the volcanoes are holding back the ozone from recovering?” Solomon said.

When the researchers considered the effects of the sulfur particles sent into the atmosphere by volcanoes—particularly Calbuco in southern Chile, which erupted in April 2015—they could see that the answer was yes. In fact, the Calbuco eruption increased the size of the ozone hole in September by 2.7 million square miles.

Without the volcano, the researchers said the hole would have continued to heal.

“We took action, and here we are 30 years later,” Solomon said, “seeing that that action has produced the positive result that we hoped for.” Los Angeles Times/TNS

Smart, Spectrum, Conrado-Ladislawa-Alcantara Foundation Inc. and SarBay volunteers release 100,000 bangus (milkfish) fingerlings into the Sarangani Bay during the Sarangani Bay Festival as part of the #ILoveCleanSarBay campaign.

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U M A S A , G l a n — P L D T ’s m o b i l e subsidiary Smart Communications (Smart), together with the provincial government of Sarangani, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Sarangani Province Empowerment and Community Transformation Forum Inc. (Spectrum), supported the Sarangani Bay Festival, an annual event that aims to promote environmental awareness and protection of the 230-kilometer stretch of shoreline that is home to diverse marine life.

S m a r t l e d t h e # I Lo ve C l e a n S a r B ay multi-par t campaign to help push the festival’s advocac y.

Swim-bike-run for the environment

The biggest part of the #ILoveCleanSarBay campaign was the third Swim-Run-Bike for the Environment. The challenging triathlon course was designed to showcase the beautiful waters, lush hills and immaculate sandy beaches of Sarangani.

“As a triathlete, you get to connect with Mother Nature because you swim in the open sea, you bike and run where you can appreciate nature,” said Esteban Co Jr., organizer from Body Kinetix.

The course started with an 8-kilometer swim, 30-km semi-uphill bike race and 8-km run on the beautiful white sands of Sarangani Bay (SarBay).

Jonard Saim from Polomolok, South Cotabato, a member of the Philippine National Triathlon Team, said the course was the second-hardest course nationwide.

“This is one of the hardest courses in the Philippines, because the current is strong,” Saim said in Filipino.

Saim finished first for the overall male category. Noemi Galeos won first place for the overall female category.

Rodmark Bustamante finished first for the male 24-year-old and below category, while Geoffrey Dionisio bagged the gold for the Male 25- to 34-year-old category.

Vincent Fulgueras and Michael Enriquez both took the first place for the male 35 to 40-year-old and the male 45-year-old

category, respectively. While the team of Annika Gregorio, Junrey Navara and Larry Guillermo took the win for the Standard Distance-Relay.

The Swim-Bike-Run Competition by Smart is one of the most shared, viewed and liked posts of SarBay in social media.

Mangrove rehabilitation

Spectrum was able to collect hundreds of bakawan, or mangroves, with the help of Smart’s #ILoveCleanSarBay campaign.

Sarbay citizens who bought mangrove got a chance to win Smart T-shirts, board shorts and other Smart summer gear. The DENR and Spectrum personnel also pledged to plant all the mangrove they had sold.

Release of ‘bangus’ fingerlings

During the same day, Smart also helped restock the local bangus (milkfish) population in the Sarangani Bay by releasing 10,000 bangus fingerlings into the bay with the help of SarBay citizens. The bangus fingerlings were donated by the Alcantara Foundation.

The Alcantara Foundation’s mother company is one of the biggest producers of quality bangus fingerling in the country.

Coastal cleanup

Smart also organized a coastal cleanup at the end of the SarBay fest week as an integral part of the #ILoveCleanSarBay campaign.

Smart gave away limited-edition SarBay T-shirts or prepaid load to those who were able to collect 10 kilos of trash.

Apart from awareness campaigns, treeplanting and cleanup drives, Smart has also been advancing the institutionalization of sound environmental practices in the industry, and empowering communities to play an active role in environment protection and conservation.

Smart is the first company in the Philippines to make use of eco-friendly materials, like stone paper for its outdoor advertising, and is one of the key proponents of the Marikina Watershed Initiative that aims to reforest and rehabilitate Metro Manila’s flood-water catch basin.

Paris takes Global Earth Hour Capital 2016 title

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L A N D, S w i t z e r l a n d — Paris is this year’s Globa l Ear th Hour Capita l.

World Wide Fund for Nature (W WF) Earth Hour City Challenge recognizes the “City of Light” as a role model for climate action and awards Paris for its ambitious vision and successful engagement with business, civil society and other cities on its journey toward sustainability.

Paris hosted last year’s historic

global climate summit and has shown strong climate leadership, creating a model for other city governments to replicate.

In addition to setting up an effective centra lized Climate Agency, ensuring clean vehicles, extending public transportation and developing waste-to-fuel conversion, Paris has also incorporated a regular review process to ensure that the city is on track to meet its sustainability goals, as well as the current and future needs of its citizens.

“As the world works to bring t he Pa r is c l imate ag reement into action, the City of Light is leading by example,” said Marco Lambertini, director general of W WF International. “Winning WWF’s Earth Hour City Challenge reflects Paris’s commitment to inspire global action to reduce

emissions and build environmental sustainability through green urban development.”

Selected from a short-list of 18 national finalists, Paris impressed the international jury w it h it s i n nov at ive ac t ion s, long-term vision and willingness to collaborate and share knowledge capital with cities around the globe.

WWF’s Earth Hour City Challenge 2016 saw participation from 125 cities representing 21 countries. Cities were evaluated on their level of ambition and innovation in developing climatesmart solutions that advance sustainable development under local circumstances.

Nationa l w inners included Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Boulder, USA; Chiangrai, Thailand; Edmonton, Canada; Hue City,

Vietnam; Jakarta, Indonesia; Lappeenranta, Finland; Montería, Colombia; Murcia, Spain; Petaling Jaya, Malaysia; Quito, Ecuador; Rajkot, India; Santa Rosa, Philippines; Shenzhen, China; City of Singapore, Singapore; Tshwane, South Africa and Umeå, Sweden.

Paris now joins the ranks of previous global Earth Hour City Challenge winners such as Vancouver, Cape Town and Seoul, all of whom have shown extraordinar y leadership in developing innovative solutions for tackling climate change and reducing the ecological footprint of urban lifest yles. “Paris, as a member of Iclei [International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives], is a global forerunner in sustainability. The city’s ambitious, long-term, holistic

Earth Hour in Paris

vision, supported by concrete climate actions and ambitious targets set the bar high for the Earth Hour City Challenge this year. Paris has demonstrated its commitment to inspire, collaborate and exchange knowledge with cities around the world, taking this to new heights as the host of the COP21 last year,”

said Gino Van Begin, secretarygeneral of Iclei.

WWF works closely with IcleiLocal Governments for Sustainability to mobilize cities to participate in the Earth Hour City Challenge. Iclei provides the use of its carbon Climate Registry as the reporting platform for the initiative.

Science Monday

Monday, July 4, 2016 A13

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

Brunei tops intl science lab tilt; PHL hauls 17 medals

Brunei Darussalam’s Team A, composed of Teo Siang Jun, Mohammad Ariff Zikry Mohammad Haziq and Haji Ahmad Nizam Noor Manina, tops the recently concluded Asean Plus Three Junior Science Odyssey, breaking the Philippines’s four-year winning streak in the international science tilt. UPLB

Spacecraft ‘Juno’ nears Jupiter

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OS ANGELES—Jupiter takes center stage with the arrival this week of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) spacecraft built to peek through its thick, swirling clouds and map the planet from the inside out.

The solar-powered Juno spacecraft is on the final leg of a fiveyear, 2.8-billion-kilometer voyage to the biggest planet in the solar system. Juno promises to send back the best close-up views, as it circles the planet for a year.

Jupiter is a gas giant made up mostly of hydrogen and helium, unlike rocky Earth and its neighbor Mars. The fifth planet from the Sun likely formed first, and it could hold clues to how the solar system developed. A look at the $1.1-billion mission:

The arrival

Bagging the overall second and third places are teams from the Philippines, represented by the Philippine Science High School (PSHS) Central Visayas and Cagayan Valley Campuses. Philippines Team A, composed of Jose Benjamin de la Cruz, Mark Ely Namoro and Hannah Keren Duque of PSHS-Cagayan Valley Campus, is second overall champion. Philippines Team D, composed of Francis Jether Siao, Joseph Karl Salva Jr. and Sean Dominic Abella, from PSHS-Central Visayas Campus, is third.

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OS BAÑOS, Laguna—Brunei Darussalam topped the Asean Plus Three Junior Science Odyssey (APTJSO), cutting short the four-year streak of consistent top winner, the Philippines. The Brunei Team A is composed of Teo Siang Jun, Mohammad Ariff Zikry Mohammad Haziq, and Haji Ahmad Nizam Noor Manina.

Bagging the overall second and third places were two teams from the Philippines, represented by the Philippine Science High School Central Visayas and Cagayan Valley Campuses. Philippines Team A, composed of Jose Benjamin de la Cruz, Mark Ely Namoro and Hannah Keren Duque of PSHS-Cagayan Valley Campus, landed second overall champion.

Coming third is Philippines Team D, comprised of Francis Jether Siao, Joseph Karl Salva Jr. and Sean Dominic Abella, from PSHSCentral Visayas Campus.

The APTJSO is an annual educational competition in the field of science and technology (S&T) for young gifted students who are 13 to 15 years old within the Asean Plus Three region, which is composed of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations member-states, and China, Chinese Taipei, South Korea and Sweden The competition is designed to carry on the overall goal of the competition to develop the gifts and talents of young individuals in the S&T fields and to nurture future scientists and engineers within the APT region. Component contests of the competition are project pitching, laboratory skills assessment and poster presentation.

The Philippines dominated this year’s competition held at the University of the Philippines Los Baños in terms of medal haul, as it snatched 15 medals from the different component contests. Chinese Taipei scoured nine medals, while Brunei got seven medals.

In the laboratory skills assessment, a competition that tested adeptness in conducting experiments, Brunei got the gold medal, followed by the Philippines and Chinese Taipei. In the project pitching category, where the students gave proposals on how to mitigate the effects of the climate change in the rainforest, Team Apitong got the highest award. The team is composed of Jose Benjamin de la Cruz of the Philippines,

Dong Rui of China, Chalernphon Neugleuthai of LaosPDR, Nguyen Phuong An of Vietnam, Alexandra Parr thena Papadopoulos of Sweden, Sieng Sunhan of Cambodia and Ismail Muhd Adiib of Brunei.

They were followed by Group Anahaw, composed of Aisyoul Khorni Muhammad Hazim of Malaysia, Tran Minh Huyen of Vietnam, Pawarisa Sittichai of Thailand, Sithiktiya Chey of Cambodia, Chen MengFu of Chinese Taipei and Francis Jether Siao of the Philippines. Group Almaciga obtained the third place. The team is composed of Baek Ji Hun of South Korea, Bajan Dionela Jitka Quinagoran of the Philippines, Ko Wei Ting of Chinese Taipei, Moe Hnin Oo of Myanmar, Mahammad Amin Abidah Syahmina of Brunei and Somavattey Im of Cambodia.

China netted the poster presentation, followed by Indonesia and Korea.

Science Undersecretary Dr. Rowena Cristina Guevara, for S&T services, congratulated the winning teams, prodding them to use their knowledge, learning and experience from the APTJSO to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and contribute to society. “ The energy, determination and enthusiasm you have showed in this competition is a good fuel for the measures you want to take in taking on climate change by the horn,” she said at the awarding ceremony.

University of the Philippines Los Baños Chancellor Dr. Fernando Sanchez Jr., on the other hand, reminded the participants of the big issue of climate change, as well as their roles in solving the problem.

“Climate change is no longer something theoretical that may happen in the future, but a serious issue whose devastating effects we have clearly observed and experienced.

It is also now an issue which many of our scientific minds are now trying to find solutions to,” he said.

DOST-Science Education Institute Director Dr. Josette Biyo, meanwhile, was elated with the medal haul of the Philippines.

“You have made your mark not just as gifted individuals but as citizens of the planet. Your ideas have been heard and we hope that this activity has urged you to become disciples of science,” she said. S&T Media Service

As Juno approaches Jupiter late on Monday, it will fire its main rocket engine to slow down and slip into orbit around the planet. This carefully orchestrated move, a l l preprogrammed, is critical because Juno will zip past Jupiter if it fails to brake.

The engine burn—lasting about a half hour—is designed to put Juno on a path that loops over Jupiter’s poles.

Since it takes 48 minutes for radio signals from Jupiter to reach Earth, mission controllers at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California won’t be able to intervene if something goes awry. They’ll w at c h for b e e p s f rom Ju no that’ll signal whether the engine burn is going as planned. “Everything’s riding on it,” Juno chief scientist Scott Bolton said on Thursday during a news briefing.

The mission

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A researcher of Industrial Technology Development Institute in action

The cost of the mission to Jupiter

ments to map Jupiter’s interior and study its turbulent atmosphere. A lso stowed aboard are three mini figures of Jupiter, Juno and Galileo designed by the Lego Group. The Italian Space Agenc y donated a plaque inscribed with Galileo’s writings.

Previous trips to Jupiter have relied on nuclear power because of the distance from the Sun. Juno is the first spacecraft to venture this far out on solar power. Juno, about the size of a sport-utility vehicles, has three tractor-trailer-size solar wings that extend outward like blades from a windmill. The solar panels are designed to face the Sun during most of the mission.

After its launch on August 5, 2011, Juno took a roundabout jour ney to Jupiter, sw ing ing around the inner solar system and using Earth as a gravity boost to the outer solar system.

The pictures

The Hubble Space Telescope and other spacecraft have returned stunning pictures of Jupiter, including a new photo released on Thursday of its northern lights.

But scientists said the best views are yet to come. Juno will get in closer and will provide the most detailed look at the planet’s polar regions, clouds and auroras.

The camera onboard—the JunoCam—has been snapping pictures of Earth, Jupiter and its moons along the way. But the camera and other instruments were turned off this week to avoid any interference during the critical arrival. So there won’t be images at the nail-biting moment when Juno enters orbit around Jupiter.

The public can also vote on where to point the camera. Nasa has said pictures from the mission won’t be publicly released until at least late August.

Spacecr aft have visited Jupiter since the 1970s, but there are still plenty of questions left unanswered. How much water does the planet have? Is there a dense core? Why is its signature Great Red Spot—a hurricane-like storm that has been raging for centuries—shrinking?

During the mission, Juno will peer through Jupiter’s dense clouds, f lying within 5,000 km, closer than any other spacec ra f t. T he goa l “ i s lea r n i ng about the recipe for how solar systems are made,” said Bolton, who’s from the Southwest Research Institute in Texas.

Earlier visitors included the Voyagers and Pioneers, Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini and most recently, New Horizons, which reached Pluto last year. Most were quick flybys en route to other destinations. Only Galileo—named for the Italian astronomer who discovered Jupiter’s large moons— orbited the massive planet and even released a probe.

Once Juno wraps up its work, it will deliberately dive into Jupiter’s atmosphere and burn up.

The fiery finale—expected in 2018—ensures that the spacecraft doesn’t accidentally crash into Jupiter’s moons, particularly the icy moon Europa, a prime target for future missions.

The spacecraft

Unsolved mysteries

Named after the cloud-piercing wife of the Roman god Jupiter, Juno carries nine instru-

DOST-ITDI celebrates 115th year he Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI), a multidisciplinary research and development institution (RDI) under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) celebrated its 115 years on July 1, with the theme “Noon, Ngayon, Bukas”.

From its humble beginnings in 1901, it has grown into a globally competitive institution providing research and development (R&D) and technical services to micro, small and medium scale (MSMEs) industries, government, private sector and academe.

$1.1B

“It gives me honor to lead a highly motivated and innovative institution like ITDI. Since its founding in 1901, it continues to thrive and has been ably pushing forward science and technology to where it is now.

It is because we believe in our resources’ capability— our employees, scientists, technical experts backed up with state-ofthe-art facilities that enable us to strengthen and sustain our business and services,” ITDI Director Dr. Maria Patricia V. Azanza said.

Besides developing technologies (e.g.,

The finish

This composite image provided by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) on Thursday illustrates auroras on the planet Jupiter. This view was produced by Nasa using a photograph made by the Hubble Space Telescope in spring 2014, and ultraviolet observations of the auroras in 2016. Nasa/ESA/Hubble via AP

A one-fifth scale model size of Nasa’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft is displayed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on Friday. The spacecraft is on the final leg of a five-year, 1.8-billion-mile voyage to the biggest planet in the solar system. It’s expected to reach Jupiter and go into orbit around the planet today. AP/Richard Vogel

beamed back by robotic explorers since the 1970s. Most visits were brief and only one spacecraft spent time circling the planet. So there’s still lots to learn about the biggest planet in the solar system and its four main moons.

Nasa is headed to Jupiter again for what’s promised to be the best views and most extensive exploration yet. Named for the king of the Roman gods, Jupiter is one of five planets visible with the naked eye. It’s so massive that it could hold everything else in the solar system, minus the sun.

A look at what’s still unknown about Jupiter:

Water

Like the Sun, Jupiter is 11 times wider than Earth and 300 times heavier. Juno will hunt for water in Jupiter’s atmosphere, which may help explain how Earth got its water. Previous spacecraft found only a trace amount in Jupiter’s atmosphere, but scientists think they didn’t look deep enough.

Juno carries an instrument that can pierce through thick clouds to measure the water content.

the late 1880s, the spot shrank to its smallest observed size in 2014—the shape of a circle about 16,495-km across.

Juno will study how deep into the atmosphere the Great Red Spot extends in an effort to understand what may happen next to Jupiter’s trademark.

Auroras

Earth’s dazzling southern and northern lights are dim compared to Jupiter’s auroras, the brightest in the solar system. Earth’s polar lights are triggered by solar storms, which occur when a cloud of gas from the sun slams into the planet’s magnetic field.

Jupiter’s powerful auroras are sparked by the planet’s own rotation. Jupiter is the fastest spinning planet in the solar system, taking just 10 hours to complete a rotation. As Jupiter spins, it drags its magnetic field around with it. Juno will observe the light show and learn about the driving forces behind it.

Polar regions

Swirling storms. Dusty rings.

Glowing polar lights.

Glimpses of Jupiter have been

A world of swirling clouds and colorful stripes, Jupiter’s most prominent feature is the Great Red Spot, a fierce storm in the atmosphere larger than Earth that has lasted for centuries.

In recent years, the spot has been mysteriously shrinking. Once an oval about 41,036-km wide in

The first peek of Jupiter’s poles came in 1974, when Pioneer 11 flew by en route to Saturn. Juno will get a more detailed look by passing over Jupiter’s polar regions. During the next year, the spacecraft will circle Jupiter 37 times from pole to pole—a path that will cover the whole planet.

At its closest approach, Juno will skim within 5,000 km of Jupiter’s cloud tops. AP

food product prototypes from local resources, emergency/relief foods, “tryk ni Juan”), ITDI has also established a number of laboratory testing facilities that now cater to the various needs of its clientele, giving results that are reliable and conforming to industry and international standards. These are being managed by experts in the field.

Among these facilities are the biological testing laboratories (doing bioassay or tests); metrology in chemistry (MiC, e.g., analysis of trace metals); nano technology lab for material science; packaging lab, for packaging design and development; advanced device and materials testing laboratory

doing failure analysis; national metrology lab for measurements and calibration, a lab accredited by the Federal Republic of Germany, Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle to perform calibrations in the field of mass, temperature, pressure and electricity; And the newly established DOST-ITDI Food Innovation Center (FIC) Main that develops various food products from local resources using DOST-developed food-processing machines and provides product-development services through training to local food processors nationwide.

Now at 115, it can be said steering the wheels to ITDI’s successes are its employees,

whose different fields of expertise make for a powerful and creative tool in developing, and producing relevant and useful technologies for every Juan. Through the years, ITDI has become one of DOST’s critical partners in achieving improved productivity for our local industries. As Science Secretary Mario Montejo has said, “we were able to make Filipino technology work.”

On July 1 the celebration focused on the launching of “Tryk ni Juan,” a field-testing ac tivity, where abaca fiber-reinforced composite tric ycle driver ’s roofs were distributed to 15 beneficiaries of ITDI’s partner tricycle owners and drivers association.

Great Red Spot

A14 Monday, July 4, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

PHL elections: No more cheating

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o one expects elections to be free from errors and completely honest. Even the “Food Standards” of the Philippine Food and Drug Administration acknowledges that the ice you buy at the supermarket can legally contain up to a certain quantity of “fecal coliform bacteria.”

Don’t panic: The presence of fecal coliforms in water may not be directly harmful, and does not necessarily indicate the presence of feces. But you probably would not want that listed in the ingredients of your bottled water.

Neither do we want to be prewarned that the election results are not 100-percent accurate, even if we know that it won’t be.

However, the most serious situation that citizens around the globe may be facing is deliberate manipulation and falsification of election results by the establishment. No one is going to give you much of an argument if you claim that an outgoing Philippine administration has improperly used government resources to influence an election in the furtherance of “continuity.”

As Joseph Stalin said, “The people who count the votes decide everything,” not the voters. But we would like to believe that there are enough trustworthy people in government to provide the highest amount of safeguards available to ensure an honest election. That may be too much to ask. The battle between the political establishment and voters who want a change from that establishment is becoming more serious.

The political elite has no intention of going quietly and gently into the night away from power.

Austria just held a presidential election, and the incumbent could not run due to term limits. Austria has a runoff process, and the winner of the first round was Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party of Austria, considered right-wing radicals by the establishment. His opponent, Alexander Van der Bellen is a member of the Austrian Greens party, which is a surrogate for the two traditional ruling parties that lost badly in the first-round election.

The winning margin in the final runoff election was tiny, with Van der Bellen having 31,000 more votes out 4,279,170 cast. Never mind that some voter precincts had 146-percent turnout of registered voters. It gets worse.

Hofer was winning with 52 percent, until the absentee mail-in ballots were counted, thus, giving Van der Bellen the 31,000-vote winning margin.

Hofer contested the results to Austria’s Constitutional Court, which decided that the outcome was so fraudulent that the entire voting process must be done again. They found 78,000 fraudulent and fake ballots, more than double the winning margin.

We hope that President Duterte will focus some attention on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to help guarantee its political independence in the future. We hope that the Comelec will do much more to bring increased confidence to the Philippine election process. We do not want to be like Austria.

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More for charity: Six years in PCSO Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

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ore for charity.”

This was the commitment that I and my fellow directors of the board made when we joined the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) in 2010. We sought to make the PCSO an agency that provides more medicaland health-related assistance to more recipients nationwide in line with President Benigno S. Aquino III’s policy on universal health care for all Filipinos.

Back then, for instance, the agency provided about P4 million a day for individual medical-assistance requests through its head office in Quezon City and 25 branch offices. Today the PCSO distributes around P18.5 million a day for charity through 53 branches nationwide.

Over the past six years, we implemented financial reforms, including reduction of costs and increase in savings; and internal reforms, such as the development of a rationalization plan to streamline the work force, and hire competent and qualified personnel.

We also sorted out the various agency programs. The agency’s flagship program is the Individual Medical Assistance Program (Imap), which gives financial assistance to individuals for medical and health care. Its counterpart for institutions, such as orphanages, shelters, homes for the elderly and the like, is the Institutional

Partners (IP) Program.

The At Source And Processing (ASAP) Program supports the Imap. Through this program, patients can submit requests for assistance at PCSO desks at partnerhospitals, removing the need for patients to line up at a PCSO office.

Under its Ambulance Donation Program, the PCSO donates brand-new ambulances to local government units (LGUs), government hospitals, charitable institutions, other government agencies, and state colleges and universities; they can request for a new ambulance every five years.

The PCSO also helps in times of natural disasters, crises and other emergencies of national character through its Calamity Assistance Program, which automatica l ly g ives financia l assistance for victims who are being treated at gover nment hospitals; and donates equipment, relief goods and other materials to

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Continued from A1 Bayanihan, as a tradition and practice, demonstrates togetherness and we-ness for a purpose. One person cannot transfer a shanty, put out a house fire or push a vehicle. He or she must work with others. Every mover acts like a partner having a stake or particular role.

Each party is motivated by a common vision and moved by shared values. They must trust the other, follow certain rules, assume certain risks, complete the task and reap the benefits from the activity. Achieving a noble purpose is at the heart of bayanihan.

These are also at the core of PPPs. The “true north” of PPP is the bayan, i.e., the country, the people, the general welfare. The shanty is the “load” or the project being lifted by the four stakeholders—public proponent, private proponent, civil-society organizations and regulatory agencies.

Under a PPP, there is collective responsibility and strength that will bring about the shift from status quo to real change, and better quality of life—or the movement of the shanty, buckets of water and jeepney from point A to point B. The bayan is ours to shape and

The PCSO family has achieved much more over the years, but what matters to all of us is that we were able to accomplish our mandate of compassionate and selfless charity, lending a helping hand to our fellow Filipinos in need. disaster-stricken LGUs upon request.

For health maintenance, especially in remote areas, the PCSO’s Medicine Donation Program provides significant help to barangays nationwide by providing them with supplies of basic medicines, while the Medical and Dental Mission Program checks patients’ health through the conduct of free medical-dental missions upon request.

To help upgrade the capabilities of government hospitals, the PCSO’s Medical Equipment Donation Program donates medical equipment, such as x-ray machines and CT scan machines, upon the recommendation of the Department of Health.

Other sig nif icant achievements over the past six years are the establishment of TahanTahanan, a halfway home for pediatric cancer patients undergoing treatment at East Avenue Medical Center; and a partnership with The Medical City for a livertransplant program and with the National Kidney Institute for a kidney-transplant program.

Having the two types of transplant surgeries performed in the

Borrowing from the inaugural speech of President Duterte but making the responsibility a collective one, “[We are] here because [we] love [our] country, and [we] love the people of the Philippines.” protect. Our lives must become better. All stakeholders must work together, journey together on the path laid out, learn together, innovate together, act as stewards together, trust each other, so that the general welfare, our own welfare, will be “future-proofed”

by PPPs, and other developmental engagements and partnership strategies. Bayan-ihan underlines the purpose.

Bayani-han, on the other hand, emphasizes the load-bearers. We are partners. We carry each other’s load. We are all responsible.

country lowers the cost of the procedure: in the case of liver transplants, from P3 million to P4 million, or more for surgeries conducted abroad, to P1 million for the surgery in the country conducted by Filipino doctors.

To make its services and products more accessible, the PCSO has opened 28 more branches since 2012, for a total of 53 branches from Cagayan Valley to Cotabato. The agency’s goal is to open a branch in every province where it is feasible and safe.

T he PCSO continua l ly up grades itself in terms of operations and infrastructure. In 2014 we broke ground at PCSO-San Marcelino, Manila, for the PCSO Corporate Center headquarters building; and in 2015we received ISO 9 0 01:20 0 8 cer t i f ic at ion of gaming and related support processes, and began computerization of systems through the Computerized Accounting System and Human Resource Information System.

The PCSO family has achieved much more over the years, but what matters to all of us is that we were able to accomplish our mandate of compassionate and selfless charity, lending a helping hand to our fellow Filipinos in need.

In the fulfillment of our duty is our honor, and I am thankful for the privilege to serve my kababayan and our nation. n n n Atty. Rojas is vice chairman and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

We are all accountable. We all lead and follow. We all carry the burden. But we must also gain.

In a PPP and bayanihan, we must, therefore, co-own, co-operate, cofund, co-design, co-evaluate, codevelop, co-communicate, co-sell, co-support and co-think.

We are the heroes (bayani) in our country (bayan). We are all heroes serving the interest of other heroes. We should not sit idly by and watch from the sidelines. We are all summoned to practice heroic leadership. Lifting from Lowney, “We are all leaders, and we are all leading all the time.” The challenge is to do it well and with magis, “self-awareness, ingenuity, love and heroism.”

Borrowing from the inaugural speech of President Duterte but making the responsibility a collective one, “[We are] here because [we] love [our] country, and [we] love the people of the Philippines.”

This is bayanihan.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, July 4, 2016 A15

New outlook for outdoors No referendum is an island Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan

T

legally speaking

he outdoor-advertising industry, which is a P5 billionto-P6 billion industry, is one of the prime movers of the country’s economy. It has allowed the small and medium entrepreneurs to reach their target consumers and succeed in a highly competitive business environment through reasonably priced advertising media.

In the last elections, we saw how political candidates utilized the power of outdoor media to disseminate their propagandas.

It cannot be denied that the outdoor-adver tising industr y is a legitimate industry. It promotes the growth of small- and medium-scale enterprises, and provides them with the means to be competitive with largescale enterprises. It contributes to the national economy through at least 10,000 jobs and revenue taxes, and its proliferation is indicative of positive and sound economic activity.

Indubitably, outdoor advertising deserves the constitutional and statutory protection accorded other legitimate industries, alongside the promotion of the general welfare. There are existing laws and issuances that circumscribe the engagement in the industry, such as Chapter 20 of the National Building Code (Presidential Decree 1096) and its detailed implementing and additional rules and regulations; the Philippine Electrical Code; the Code of Ethics for Advertising and Promotions; and the Philippine Highway Act of 1953 (Republic Act 917).

However, the current laws in place have been given different interpretations by government agencies and local government units (LGUs), which led to a confusion among outdoor advertisers.

Also, the present laws are slowly being rendered obsolete by the developments in technology. For instance, we have no laws that regulate how bright an LED billboard should be.

A more important question, as well, is how big should a billboard be? The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and the LGUs do not seem to agree on the size.

It is interesting to note that this question was answered by the Supreme Court in the case of Diocese of Bacolod v. Comelec (GR 205725, January 21, 2015). The high court said a bigger-size material enhances efficiency in com-

Certainly, larger segments of the public may tend to be more convinced of the point made by authoritative figures when they make the effort to emphasize their messages. munication. A larger tarpaulin allows larger fonts, which make it easier to view its messages from greater distances.

Furthermore, a larger tarpaulin makes it easier for passengers inside moving vehicles to read its content. Compared with the pedestrians, the passengers inside moving vehicles have lesser time to view the content of a tarpaulin.

The larger the fonts and images, the greater the probability that it will catch their attention and, thus, the greater the possibility that they will understand its message.

Second, the size of the tarpaulin may underscore the importance of the message to the reader. From an ordinary person’s perspective, those who post their messages in larger fonts care more about their message than those who carry their messages in smaller media.

The effectivity of communication sometimes relies on the emphasis put by the speakers and on the credibility of the speakers themselves. Certainly, larger segments of the public may tend to be more convinced of the point made by authoritative figures when they make the effort to emphasize their messages.

Considering a vacuum in the present laws affecting outdoor advertising, it is, therefore, of critical immediacy that more effective, precise and comprehensive laws be legislated as violations and avoidance of present restrictions are rampant due to confusions brought about by outdated provisions of the existing laws and conflicting issuances of government agencies and LGUs on the matter.

Paul Donovan

T

he British referendum decision to end the country’s European Union (EU) membership may seem an isolated event. Something for the United Kingdom to worry about, certainly. Something for the EU to muse over. But not, necessarily, something that Asia should be concerned about.

This attitude is a mistake, in my view. The UK referendum matters because it signals trends that will shape the world economy. These trends are important for Asia and Asian investors.

Leaving aside the details of EU membership, the referendum result marks a victory for “antipolitics.” This is the politics of being against something rather than for something.

Antipolitics suggests “if only we get rid of this one thing, all our troubles will be over.” In the case of the UK referendum, the antipolitics focused on immigration. Antipolitics is very common in the wake of a period of economic weakness.

Best practices for CPAs

A

By Judge Pedro T. Santiago (Ret.) Part One

O

nly when he passed away did I see and realize the “long shadow” cast by our beloved Amb. Antonio L. Cabangon Chua. That shadow was formed by the many thousands of people he had helped and whose lives he had touched. They came days and nights to pay their last respect and bid him Godspeed in his final journey from this life into the next.

When I saw those outpouring of feelings for him, I recalled what I told him then: “Marami kang maiiwang kayamanan sa mga anak mo, pero hindi mo maipapamana ang iyong pakikisama.” Pakikisama is something you must do personally. No one can do it for you.

I met Amba, as he is fondly called, in January 1983, when I was transferred as a judge of the Court of First Instance of Bataan to the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City.

It was not long before we became close. He was not difficult to like.

You can feel his sincerity and humility. Besides, we had something

in common. Both of us are taong lupa borne from our early poverty and religious activities, having no one to turn to but God. On weekends, I would accompany him visit his business and talk to his people.

Many times we would end up past midnight and, at times, up to the wee hours, then we would find our way to Manaoag. He would tell me that God gave alike the rich and the poor 24 hours a day. It is how you spend your time and you will see the footprints of the owner in all successful endeavors.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s life for Amba was a little easy. He could easily laugh, play golf and tarry for

It was not all for money in his business. He loved the media. He said it has great potential to help the people and the country. Though at first he lost a lot, he never gave up. He signed up the services of some of the most prestigious writers. Among them was Nick Joaquin, a National Artist. idle talks with his friends. But as time goes by, his business keeps expanding and diversifying. He asked: “Judge, bakit kung kailan tayo tumatanda at saka dumarating ang maraming pagkakataon?” I replied that, when he was young and had to prove himself yet who would give and offer an opportunity?

But it was not all for money in his business. He loved the media.

He said it has great potential to help the people and the country.

Though at first he lost a lot, he never gave up. He signed up the

Paul Donovan’s latest book The Truth About Inflation was published by Routledge in April 2015.

Visit w w w.ubs.com/pauldonovan for more research. Paul’s commentaries in the UBS series of documentaries on Nobel Laureates in economics is available at www.ubs.com/nobel.

with this increased number, it will only result in less than 10 minutes per day of learning from CPAs. Though there are costs and effort that will result when CPAs comply with the accreditation and CPD requirements, these are just a small price to pay for ensuring the quality, credibility and integrity of the accounting professional. In no small means, with the past and recent initiatives of BOA on these areas, we have a better accounting profession that is better able to meet the expectations and demands of the public and the stakeholders.

the accountancy law and the BOA resolutions, all of these CPAs have to file applications of accreditation and submit pertinent documents as requirements to be accredited for a period covering three years.

The CPAs in public practice and in education have been required to do the accreditation process for several years already. The CPAs in commerce and industry, or in particular, those preparing the financial statements of business entities, have recently been required to undergo accreditation early in 2016.

This accreditation exercise is one

services of some of the most prestigious writers. Among them was Nick Joaquin, a National Artist.

His brother, Ike Joaquin, also a publisher, was heard to say, “Ano ba ang naipakain ni Tony [Amba] sa aking kapatid at sa kanya sumama at hindi sa akin?”

Amba said he paid a costly tuition in the media. Now he left many publications, radio stations over the archipelago and, lately, he acquired the TV station CNN Philippines.

Years before I retired in 1999, he offered me to join his companies. We became closer. Every Friday after the superXcom meetings, we would end our day at Quiapo Church. Many years before we met, I in the 1950s and he in the 1960s were already going to Quiapo Church every Friday. We had supplications then to Jesus, the Black Nazarene.

It was in those short moments when we rode together on our way to Quiapo that he became very human. He would often recall many times in tears how he and his mother were so much impov-

erished. That he had to dive in the Pasig River to catch fish for viand.

How their rich Chinese relatives treated them shabbily. That he also longed for his father, who he hardly knew, and he tried to look for him, though in vain.

He would complain now and then, after the superXcon meetings, that he was very tired. I would tell him, you should be because you did all the talking. You should also listen to your people. They get paid well but they are afraid to talk even if they might have something good to say for fear of being scolded. You are the loser.

But Amba did not just talk, he said many “gems of thoughts.”

Some I collected. He would say that nothing is new (unaware that this is in the bible), all you have to do is copy and improve. That if you draw water from a water pump, you have to put in a little water. Otherwise, even if you keep on pumping, you will just get air. It is much like talking to a person from whom you want a favor. If you just talk and talk, you will wind up with an empty talk.

That, if you are in business, you can’t wait for a good weather, you have to go against the current.

If you go with the current, the profit is small. Much like when you fly a kite, you have to run against the wind.

I witnessed how he became richer and richer, erecting buildings after buildings, business after business. But his time became shorter and shorter, his temper became shorter, then came worries after worries. One time his wife Bennie told me, “Judge, bakit hindi ninyo tanungin and inyong kaibigan.

Bakit hindi siya huminto? Matanda na siya at mayaman na. ’Yan ba ay ka ‘sak….’ o ‘yab….’?

So I told Amba what his wife said. He just smiled. I knew what it meant. Often, he would tell me he had to strive because of poverty.

That even as a Chua, the Chinese did not accept him because he did not speak Chinese, and the Filipinos did not also accept him wholeheartedly because he is a Chua. He did not want to remain a maverick. He wanted a pedigree of his own. To be continued

DEBIT CREDIT

s professional accountants, we should be complying with the hallmarks of our profession—the accreditation and continuing professional development (CPD). These two requisites for maintaining our Certified Public Accountant’s (CPA) license have been neglected by quite a number of our colleagues in the profession.

Accreditation is a process of certain CPAs registering with the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy (BOA) before they can practice or work as accountants.

To date, CPAs in three sectors are required to be accredited with the BOA. These CPAs are the ones in public practice (whether doing practice as a sole practitioner, partner of an auditing firm or partnership and the CPA staff of these practitioners) in education; and in commerce and industry.

Pursuant to the provisions of

(52 percent to 48 percent), regional votes were dramatically divided.

Most areas of the country voted with around 60 percent in favor of one outcome or the other.

Polarized politics may be a result of modern media. With more people getting information through social networks and online, people are more likely to only hear one side of the argument. That is what their social networks are increasingly likely to communicate. This becomes a self-reinforcing news flow, and creates polarized politics.

For investors, polarized politics is a very negative development. Polarized politics increases the risk of extreme alternatives being offered.

The margin of victory for one side or the other may be narrow (as with the UK referendum) but the differences between the two polar views are very divergent.

If the markets price in the wrong outcome then the cost to investors will be very high (because the difference between the economic

consequences of what is priced and what happens is so huge). The US presidential election is another example of this.

Finally, the future of path of global trade is challenged by the UK exit from the EU. Successive UK governments have been strong supporters of free trade. That support was amplified by the UK’s membership of the EU. The UK’s support for the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was instrumental in bringing about EU support for the WTO, and with the EU supporting the WTO, the prospect of free trade became a lot more realistic.

With the UK outside the EU, the emphasis of the EU could change.

Free trade is already under threat in the US, and it is unlikely that the EU will be a champion for free trade in the absence of the UK. What happened in the UK referendum should not just be seen as causing change in the world economy.

The UK referendum has been what economists call a “signaling effect.”

way by which the BOA, as a regulator, is able to monitor the quality, competence and whereabouts of the CPAs who are responsible for key functions that will affect the general public.

One of the requirements for accreditation is the submission of proof that the CPA has completed the mandated number of CPD units.

CPAs must be able to complete 60 hours or units of CPD over a threeyear period. There are various ways of garnering CPD units, including attending seminars conducted by duly BOA-accredited CPD providers, completing advanced academic courses or degrees and other selfdirected learning activities.

The 60 hours of CPD units currently required translates to 3.29 minutes of learning per day for the CPA. This is just equivalent to the time when we drink our breakfast coffee each morning. That is why it is a wonder why some of our fellow CPAs find it difficult or even are unable to allot time for the muchneeded learning to be updated on the many developments in our craft.

The BOA will gradually increase the number of CPD unit requirements from the present number of 60 hours to 120 hours by 2019. Even

Joel L. Tan-Torres

Paean to Ambassador ALC BusinessMirror Chairman of the Board and Ombudsman

Similar forces are visible in the United States and in Europe. Antipolitics may also become important in Asia, given the current Asian economic slowdown.

Asia has also been a target of antipolitics in the past (think of US trade policies in the 1990s). The lack of tolerance inherent in antipolitics is damaging to trend growth, in Asia and globally.

The second global feature of the UK referendum is polarized politics. Before the vote, it was very common to hear people say “I don’t know anyone who is voting Remain” or “I don’t know anyone who is voting exit.” These statements were very likely to be true.

Although the final result was close

What happened in the UK referendum should not just be seen as causing change in the world economy. The UK referendum has been what economists call a “signaling effect.”

Chairman Joel L. Tan-Torres is the chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy.

He is a Certified Public Accountant who placed No. 1 in the May 1979 CPA Board Examinations. He is concurrently a tax partner of Reyes Tacandong & Co., CPAs. He was the former commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue from 2009 to 2010. 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