Businessmirror july 16, 2016

“All of France is under the threat of Islamic terrorists.”—President François Hollande, after a truck mowed through revelers in Nice on Bastille Day, killing at least 84 people. AP

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2015 environmental Media Award leadership award 2008

“I did not expect it, and I wasn’t going to sit around expecting it. I was going to carry on with my life, because we’re in the second season here of a really offbeat show.”—“Better Call Saul” star Bob Odenkirk, who was walking his dog when he found out he was up for leading actor in a drama series. AP

“The national economy has achieved moderate but steady and sound development, which has laid down a solid foundation for achieving the annual economic-development target.”—National Bureau of Statistics Spokesman Sheng Laiyun, at a news briefing. AP

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Saturday, July 16, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 280

P25.00 nationwide | 3 sections 16 pages | 7 days a week

SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT to carry MORE WEIGHT

MANILA NEEDS HELP OF INTL COMMUNITY IN ENFORCING RULING

Lopez wants airtight mining-audit criteria

INSIDE

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on the cusp of history

sports

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

he mining-audit criteria now being finalized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will not just be about the technical aspects of mining operations, something big miners are confident of hurdling. See “Lopez,” A2

By Rene Acosta & Butch Fernandez @reneacostaBM

@butchfBM

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30%

he country can enforce the maritime ruling with the help of the international community, but with contingencies, legal and security experts said on Friday.

“China will ignore the ruling, but it will be enforced by world naval powers by asserting freedom of navigation and overflights in the South China Sea,” Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio said at a forum held at the University of the Philippines.

Carpio said the country can also enforce the maritime decision by seeking damages against Beijing over the maritime destruction that it has caused in its development of reefs in the West Philippine Sea, as declared by the arbitral tribunal.

“We can demand for reparation. There are many ways in enforcing the ruling, but we need the world’s help. We will not resort to might,” he added during the forum, which was sponsored by the Albert del Rosario Institute.

Solicitor General Jose C. Calida said the Duterte administration is working on its best option in dealing with the decision, one of which is to negotiate with Beijing, but which experts, who also attended the event, said should be guided by the rule of law.

Calida hailed Albert F. del Rosario and Carpio as “patriots” of the case, adding he would look for the biggest rock in the West Philippine Sea, and name it after the former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the second-biggest rock after Carpio.

While Carpio acquiesced with the administration’s plan to negotiate with Beijing, he said the ruling of the United Nations body, which invoked adherence to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) should always be the guiding light.

He said the government cannot even enter into a joint venture in the use and exploration of areas declared by the tribunal as part of the country’s waters, since this is strictly prohibited, being against the Constitution.

The percentage of mining firms in the country that secured ISO 14001 certification as of June 30

A8

See “Manila,” A2

Psalm: Disposition of remaining NPC assets done in 3 yrs

LIVING THE WORD Dear Lord, we are trying to figure out how have we used all the gifts and opportunities You have generously given us. Do we realize the destructive consequences of “leaving the Father’s house” and squandering Your gifts? How can we make up for our misbehavior in the past? Help us to ponder on this, “Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. All these are from God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ; God was reconciling the world to Himself to Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation (2 Corinthian 5:17-19). We give our mind, heart and soul to You, O Lord, as we receive Your abundant grace. Amen!

Word & Life, Fr. Sal Putzu, SDB and Luisa M. Lacson, HFL

THE police investigate the scene after a truck plowed through Bastille Day revelers in the French resort city of Nice, France, on Thursday. France was ravaged by its third attack in two years, when a large white truck mowed through revelers gathered for Bastille Day fireworks in Nice, killing dozens of people as it bore down on the crowd for more than a mile along the Riviera City’s famed seaside promenade. AP

World leaders react with horror to attack

W

orld leaders are expressing dismay, sadness and solidarity with France over the attack carried out by a man who drove truck into crowds of people celebrating France’s national day in Nice, killing at least 84 people.

United States

President Barack Obama condemned what he said “appears to be a horrific terrorist attack” in Nice. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and other loved ones of those killed.”

PESO exchange rates n US 47.0990

Noting that the attack occurred on Bastille Day, Obama praised “the extraordinary resilience and democratic values that have made France an inspiration to the entire world.”

Secretary of State John Kerry called it a “horrendous attack in Nice.... I was proud to stand alongside French leaders earlier today at Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, and the US will continue to stand firmly with the French people during this time of tragedy.”

Both presidential candidates also condemned the attacks, with Republican

Donald Trump declaring “this is war” and Democrat Hillary Clinton vowing “we will not be intimidated.”

Clinton said that “every American stands in strong solidarity with the people of France, and we say with one voice: ‘We will not be intimidated. We will never allow terrorists to undermine the egalitarian and democratic values that underpin our very way of life.”’

Trump, who postponed plans to announce his vice-presidential pick because of the attacks, said “this is war.

See “World leaders,” A2

By Lenie Lectura

T

@llectura

he Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.

(PSALM) said it would “do its best” to dispose of the remaining assets of the National Power Corp. (NPC) in three years.

PSALM Officer in Charge Lourdes S. Alzona said the agency is aware of the finance department’s intention to privatize the remaining power assets.

“If that’s the direction, then we will do our best,” Alzona said in a text message.

The secretary of the Department of Finance (DOF)

acts as the chairman of the PSALM Board. While PSALM has its own board of directors and set of corporate officers, it reports to the Department of Finance.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III recently said there is a need “to speed up their disposal of assets.”

Alzona said there are five power assets that have yet to be privatized. “The remaining plants include Agus, so that may have to be in the program. Malaya and IPP [independent power producer] plants, like CBK, Casecnan and Mindanao coal, as well.”

n japan 0.4472 n UK 62.8630 n HK 6.0745 n CHINA 7.0413 n singapore 35.1040 n australia 35.9271 n EU 52.3835 n SAUDI arabia 12.5594

See “Psalm,” A2

Source: BSP (15 July 2016 )

BMReports BusinessMirror

A2 Saturday, July 16, 2016

Lopez. . .

Continued from A1

For the new DENR chief, the impact on people and the environment will get more weight.

“We will suspend all mining operations that lead to suffering and destroy the environment. The audit will not just be technical, it will [also be] social and environmental,” Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez said in a text message.

Lopez already ordered a moratorium on the approval of new mining projects, aside from the mining audit to evaluate the performance of all mining operations, including extraction of nonmetallic minerals, quarry and small-scale mining.

Asked if the mining audit criteria would also lead to the imposition of higher fines, she said: “I honestly don’t know if that’s in my area of decision. [I] will find out.”

The DENR’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) will release the criteria that will be used to rate the performance of mining companies in operating their mines.

The criteria, MGB Director Leo L. Jasareno said, are not “new” and have been in the rules ever since. It would be in accordance with the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, Executive Order (EO) 79 and DENR Administrative Order 201507, which requires mining companies to secure an International Organization for

Manila. . .

Continued from A1

“We can award concessions [to Chinese state-owned companies], we pay them in cask, in kind, but there is no joint development,” Carpio said.

Involve other nations

Amid the possibilities, Murray Hiebert, senior adviser and deputy director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Southeast Asia Program, said the Duterte administration “must have contingencies.”

“You have to do something,” he said. “We don’t know what China is going to do. There are a lot of options for China.”

These options for Beijing include further intensifying its activities in the South China Sea, declaring air-defense identification zone (Adiz) and even developing the Scarborough Shoal, which the UN body declared as part of the country’s territorial waters.

One of the actions that the government could take, he said, is to modernize the military, which has a “weak Air Force, a weak Navy,” to be able to contain possible scenarios.

It should also have the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United States fully implemented the soonest, so it would hasten the modernization of the Armed Forces, beef up its readiness and start the development and construction of bases.

In the area of diplomacy, Hiebert said the government should mobilize for international support in the enforcement of the maritime ruling by working with the Asean, whose several members, while hailing the decision, stopped short of coming out with statements on its implementation.

Direct diplomatic efforts with China may also work, he said.

Standardization (ISO) 14001 certification.

“They [audit criteria] are not new. They have just been there as part of the rules.

They are just being included as part of the audit criteria,” Jasareno said.

Lopez, Jasareno added, wants the audit to be airtight and mining companies penalized based on the soon-to-be released criteria.

One of such criteria that would warrant possible stoppage of operation is the ISO 14001. It sets out the criteria for an Environmental Management System (EMS). It maps out a framework, which a company or organization can follow to minimize impact to the environment, comply with applicable laws, regulations and other environment-oriented requirements, and continually improve their operation.

Failure to comply with the requirement could lead to the suspension of the company’s environmental compliance certificate (ECC) and nonissuance of ore transport and/or mineral export permit.

Only about 30 percent of the more than 40 mining companies operating in the Philippines have secured ISO 14001 certification as of June 30, the deadline set by the order signed last year by Lopez’s predecessor, Ramon J.P. Paje.

“We are now coming up with a criteria in the conduct of the new mining audit.

There will be a rating system, wherein mining companies would be evaluated based on their performance,”Jasareno said.

He said: “We want to see whether a specific violation would warrant suspension of operations.”

Jasareno added that the various complaints filed against mining companies would also be considered in the conduct of the mining audit.

The DENR-MGB central office receives copies of various complaints filed against mining companies at the city, provincial and regional level of the MGB. The MGB’s field offices are authorized to take appropriate measures based on their assessment on the ground, but Jasareno said the DENR-MGB will now conduct ground validation of the complaints, as well.

Meanwhile, Jasareno said that, as part of the previous mining audit under EO 79, the MGB had already caused the cancellation of 12 idle mining contracts and the suspension of 12 nickel mines for various violations of the mining law since 2012.

He said more than half of the 40 operating large-scale mines are frequent violators, but none of them were considered as “serious violations.”

The companies violating the conditions of their contract, majority of which were also slapped with equivalent amount of penalty depending on the discretion of who conducted the review, were suspended for a period ranging from one to three months.

Jasareno said the violations were mostly “minor” that warranted mere “slap in the wrist.” The most serious offense committed under the ongoing performance evaluation under EO 79, he said, was in 2014 in the province of Zambales, wherein all four nickel mines were issued suspension orders.

Two of the mines, which were issued

a temporary lifting order for substantial compliance of the conditions set by the MGB, were issued a preventive suspension order on July 7 on account of the Supreme Court writ of Kalikasan issued on June 21, and EO 1 issued by the provincial government of Zambales on July 1. The orders, in effect, stopped all mining operations in the province.

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) had earlier challenged the DENR and the MGB to release the result of the first review mandated by EO 79.

Sought for his reaction, Jasareno said 12 nonperforming mining contracts have been canceled by the DENR as a result of the ongoing review. This, he said, is in line with the “use it, or lose it” policy under the Aquino administration and Paje.

As far as the violations of operating mines are concerned, most involve housekeeping, failure to put up appropriate signage and maintaining the cleanliness of the mining facility.

“If there were serious offense, it would have warranted indefinite suspension or closure,” Jasareno said.

He said the nickel mines were suspended for “exceeding the TSS or total suspended solid” of wastewater discharged by the companies. This led to the discoloration of water bodies, such as rivers or coastal waters, in Zambales.

“Exceeding suspended solid of discharge by mining companies from water impoundment to water bodies, under the ECC, you are penalized,” he said. “Depending on excess [TSS limit], there is corresponding penalty.”

The Arbitral Tribunal declared as illegal China’s occupation and development of the seven reefs, both inside and outside the country’s maritime waters, while taking to task the Chinese government for the destruction of marine environment.

Lawrence Martin, one of the country’s counsels in the case who was also at the forum, said the UN body practically threw out China’s contentions, basically because Beijing is also a signatory of the Unclos.

He said the tribunal’s ruling is binding, final and executory, contrary to China’s claims that the “award” will not bind it.

Former Australian National Security Adviser Andrew Shearer, who was also in the same forum, said China is using its military might to shape Southeast Asia, by fragmenting the region then force its place by coercing weaker states.

He said if the Duterte administration negotiates with China, it should do so within the ambit of rule of law.

Former National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said Beijing could undertake more challenging options, like developing Scarborough shoal and enforcing an Adiz. “We cannot expect results in 48 hours; but what is important is we have the papers. There is no nine-dash line,” he also said.

Philippine Sea falling under its exclusive economic zone,”after the UN’s Permanent Court of Arbitration had ruled China’s actions in the area were in violation of international law.

Pimentel pointed out that the decision of the Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague clearly “validated the Philippine claim of jurisdiction over certain shoals, reefs and outcrops.”

The new Senate leader asked China, as well as other states, “to respect such reasonable and objective ruling, which determined that China’s historical claims to 90 percent of the area, also known as the South China Sea, had no legal justification.” According to him, Filipinos have a reason to be “euphoric” over the ruling, which also affirmed that all of the land on the Spratly Islands chain are rocks, not islands.

“We ensure that the exercise of our sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea would bring more development and progress to our country and people,” said Pimentel, who is expected to formally assume the Senate presidency soon as the 17th Congress convenes session on July 25.

He also assured that the Philippines would continue to “respect the right and freedom of innocent passage and navigation of all vessels and airplanes in and over the area,” adding that this is “pursuant to all treaty obligations sanctioned by the United Nations, as well as all binding bilateral agreements with other nations.”

Meanwhile, the tribunal’s rejection of China’s claim to most of the South China Sea has exposed a problem with President Xi Jinping’s “neighborhood diplomacy.”

It hasn’t been very neighborly.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration on Tuesday determined that China’s island-building and other efforts to assert control over the disputed waters had “aggravated” tensions, “inflicted irreparable harm” to the environment and “violated” Philippine sovereign rights. It found China had laid claim to large swaths of the

waterway, where it had no historic rights and infringed on the Philippines’s ability to fish.

The ruling, which resulted from a Philippine complaint, showed the shortcomings of Xi’s effort to break from the “hide and bide” diplomacy of predecessors since Deng Xiaoping and proactively expand ties with China’s neighbors. In the West Philippine Sea, at least, the decision has made it harder for China to argue it intends to treat adjacent states “as friends and partners, to make them feel safe and to help them develop,” as Xi pledged when announcing his “neighborhood diplomacy” in October 2013.

“This is the counterproductive outcome that Beijing has triggered by turning away from Deng’s foreign-policy blueprint,” said Ashley Townshend, a visiting fellow at Fudan University’s Asia-Pacific Center in Shanghai, who studies regional-security issues. “The legal ruling is another front in terms of the region’s push back.”

There’s much at stake for China in its attempts to improve relationships on its periphery, as it seeks a greater role in global affairs. The countries of the Asia-Pacific region, many of them direct neighbors, are key focuses of Xi regional initiatives, such as the “One Belt, One Road”infrastructure and trade plan and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

While many neighboring states have signed up to those efforts, some are wary about China’s intentions. The country’s attempts to keep the 10-member Asean from taking a unified stand on South China Sea disputes have begun to backfire.

An Asean meeting in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming ended in chaos last month after Malaysia released—and then retracted—a joint statement expressing “serious concerns” over developments in the sea.

While ministers agreed on the unusually direct language, the communique was withdrawn after China lobbied Lao PDR, holder of the rotating Asean chair.

Progress for Pinoys

Affirmation of the country’s sovereign rights by the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal is expected to bring progress to the Filipino people, even as President Duterte’s government must continue to affirm“power of control”over its territories in the West Philippine Sea, incoming Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said on Friday.

In a statement, Pimentel prodded the Duterte administration to do so, saying “the Philippines must now peacefully assert its power of control over areas in the West

Psalm. . .

Continued from A1

The PSALM official was referring to the 850-megawatt (MW) Sucat Thermal Power Plant, the 200-MW Mindanao Coal-Fired Thermal Power, the 982-MW Agus-Pulangi hydropower complex, the 40-MW “security capacity” of the Unified Leyte Geothermal Power Plant (ULGPP), and the bulk capacity of the ULGPP itself.

Alzona said PSALM is in constant consultation with the DOF and the Department of Energy, (DOE) on policy directions. The ULGPP is in the Visayas. The PSALM Board still needs to determine if the 40-MW security capacity would be bundled to the remaining 160 MW of ULGPP’s bulk capacity that is yet to be privatized.

PSALM is also looking at a negotiated sale of the bulk capacity of ULGPP after only one bidder—the Unified Leyte Geothermal Energy Inc. (ULGEI), a subsidiary of Lopez-led Energy Development Corp.—participated in the bidding.

On Mindanao coal, PSALM also awaits the go ahead of the DOE. The power-plant supplies about a fifth of Mindanao’s power requirements.

The 982-MW Agus-Pulangi hydropower complex, meanwhile, provides more than half of Mindano’s current electricity capacity.

World leaders. . .

If you look at it, this is war coming from all different parts. And frankly, it’s war and we’re dealing with people without uniforms.”

European Union

European Council President Donald Tusk expressed consternation that France was attacked on its national day and said the world stands united with the French people.

“It is a tragic paradox that the victims of the attack people celebrating liberty, quality and fraternity. We will stand united with the families of victims, the French people and the government in the fight against violence and hatred,” Tusk said at a meeting of Asian and European leaders in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.

China

Premier Li Keqiang said, “We strongly condemn terrorism of all forms. We express our condolences to the victims and we will fight all kinds of terrorism.”

Belgium

Foreign Minister Didier Reynders expressed dismay that France was once again the target of an apparent terrorist attack.

“We condemn such an attack, maybe a terrorist attack, but such an attack in France again,” he said.

India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned what he ca l led a mindless attack.

“I am appalled by the horrific attack in Nice. I strongly condemn such mindless acts of violence.

My thoughts are with the families of deceased.

“I hope the injured recover soon.

India shares the pain and stands firmly with our French sisters and brothers in this hour of immense sadness,” Modi said.

Pakistan

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the government and people of Pakistan were deeply saddened by the attack.

In a statement on Friday, he said, “Our hearts and prayers are with the victims of the attack and their families.”

“Being the frontline state in the war against terror, Pakistan itself has suffered immensely and has seen a series of tragedies,” he said.

Turkey

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu: “We strongly condemn and damn the terrible terror attack that occurred in the French city of Nice. We deeply share the pain of the French people. Turkey is in full solidarity with France in the fight against terrorism. We will continue our struggle against these baseless [people] with determination. First and foremost, terrorism is the rape of humanity and universal values.”

Australia

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said three Australians suffered minor injuries while fleeing the scene.

“It has shocked France, it has rocked it to its core,” Bishop told reporters in the Western Australia capital of Perth. “This should have been a time of great national pride and celebration.”

Bishop condemned the violence, saying it was a reminder that “no country is immune from terrorist attacks.” “We support our friends and partners in France and we join with others around the world in hoping that this will be the end of this type of horrific incident that is targeted at unarmed civilians,” she said.

Kuwait

The ruler of oil-rich Kuwait has condemned the attack in Nice, France, saying it “runs counter to all religious teachings and humanitarian values.”

The state-run Kuwait News Agency said the ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, sent a cable of condolence to French President François Hollande over the assault.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Continued from A1

Sheikh Sabah said Kuwait “supports all measures France might take to protect its security against the terrorist acts.” The Kuwaiti Embassy in Paris also urged its citizens in France to be careful while checking to make sure none of its citizens were wounded.

Tiny Kuwait faced an Islamic State (IS) group suicide attack last year during Ramadan at a Shiite mosque which killed at least 27 people and wounded 227.

United Arab Emirates

The seven sheikhdoms of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) condemned the “heinous terrorist crime” that struck Nice.

In a statement on Friday on the state-run WAM news agency, Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan pledged to stand with the people of France after the assault.

Sheikh Abdullah also stressed the attack “makes it imperative for everyone to work together decisively and without hesitation to counter terrorism in all its forms.”

The UAE is part of the US-led coalition targeting the IS group and hosts American and Western military personnel involved in the fight. While its neighbors have been struck by extremis attacks, the UAE’s capital of Abu Dhabi and its commercial hub of Dubai have escaped the violence.

Qatar

Tiny gas-rich Qatar has condemned the “heinous” attack in Nice, France.

A statement on Friday from the peninsular nation’s Foreign Ministry said the assault “is contrary to all human, ethical values and religions.” It said it stood in solidarity with France after the attack.

Qatar, on the Arabian Peninsula, hosts a major American military base home to US Central Command and has not faced any militant attack, like neighboring Saudi Arabia.

That US base is involved in the battle against the IS group.

Japan

Japan expressed “strong shock and anger” following the truck attack in Nice.

Japanese Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan also aims to strengthen its counterterrorism measurements to ensure safety of Japan.

Suga said the government will work together with public sectors to work on “border control, strengthening security at the important locations and relevant targets, trust building and furthering interaction with the communities of foreigners [in Japan].”

South Africa

President Jacob Zuma said in a statement released by the Foreign Ministry that South Africa “stands firmly with the international community in condemning all forms of terrorism and stands in solidarity with the government of the Republic of France, as they mourn the death of their citizens.”

“South Africa shares in the grief of the French people and wishes the injured survivors a speedy recovery. Terrorism, in any form and from whichever quarter, cannot be condoned.”

Spain

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said he called his counterparts in France to express his condolences.

“We are very sorry and very much with the French people and the French government,” he said at a meeting of Asian and European leaders in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.

Estonia

Prime Minister Taavi Roivs condemned “a terrible attack on innocent people celebrating their national day. Today we all stand together with the French people.” AP

news@businessmirror.com.ph

briefs

D.O.T. TO REVIVE TOURISM COORDINATING COUNCIL The Department of Tourism (DOT) is set to revive the Tourism Coordinating Council (TCC) to address urgent issues in the Philippine tourism industry.

Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo said the TCC will be composed of officials of at least nine government agencies and headed by herself.

The TCC will be tasked to ensure the smooth implementation of the government’s tourism program, especially with an increased concern for tourism security and insufficient infrastructure, among other concerns.

“We cannot sweep these issues under the rug. It is the mandate of the Tourism Coordinating Council to resolve such issues,” Teo said.

Teo, a longtime industry player herself, acknowledged that the TCC has not convened for one-and-a-half years despite concerns, such as kidnapping of foreigners, poor access roads and lack of direct flights to tourist destinations.

She said Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa has already assured police visibility at tourist areas and augmentation of the tourist police units.

Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade, likewise, guaranteed improvements of airport facilities all over the country, she added.

On the other hand, Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar has also promised to improve and build more “airport-to-paradise roads” in the country’s tourist destinations.

Traffic congestion; destruction of historical sites; massive number of street people and “colorum” tour guides; and taxi services were also raised during a recent open forum between Teo’s team and tourist industry leaders. PNA

duterte okays proposal to host miss universe pageant in PHILIPPINES Weeks after Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo announced her proposal to host the forthcoming Miss Universe pageant in the Philippines, President Duterte has given her the go signal to carry it out. ”The President agreed that sponsoring the event would be a tourism marketing coup, with Philippines’s Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach at the helm,” Teo said. Teo said Wurtzbach is due to return to the country and call on Duterte, even as she assured that commercial sponsors have offered to put up part of the franchise money.

“Sponsoring Miss Universe is our focus right now, with the plan and sources of funding in tow. We are ready to seize the moment,” she said.

Teo earlier said the hosting of Miss Universe would have a greater impact to the country’s tourism promotion efforts.

“Once Pia announces that Miss Universe is going to happen here, people abroad will start looking at the map and see where the Philippines is. And, we’re saying, we’d love to have you in the Philippines,” she added.

Teo earlier said segments of the monthlong beauty pageant will be in various tourist sites in Palawan, Boracay and Cebu, which topped the World’s Best Islands 2016 awards by the Travel & Leisure magazine. PNA

Economy BusinessMirror

Federal form of govt to boost PHL’s bid for inclusive economic growth

B

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

esides bringing peace in wartorn Mindanao, the incoming leadership of the House of Representatives on Friday said a federal system of government may help the Philippines attain inclusive economic growth.

Incoming Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez of Davao del Norte said the federal form of government will help reduce poverty in urban-population centers and the countryside.

“Federalism will allow the autonomous regions to realize their full economic potentials as selfgoverning units that are directly answerable to their respective constituents. The key word is ‘divergence,’” he said.

“As for fear that poor regions, like Samar and Leyte, may suffer from federalism, we will assure the people that we have already devised a plan wherein such provinces shall be grouped with better-performing provinces in order to help them strive and attain a better-performing region,” Alvarez added.

“Hence, each autonomous unit will be allowed to bloom with respect to, among other areas, the economy, culture and religion,” he said.

In the Philippines’s current

Federalism will allow the autonomous regions to realize their full economic potentials as self-governing units that are directly answerable to their respective constituents.

The key word is ‘divergence.’”

—Alvarez

S

presidential form of government, all funds are centralized in the National Capital Region, and provinces need to remit their income in the National Treasury, while federalism means autonomy in the government rules per provinces with independent taxation and economic system.

Under the federal form of government, provinces will no longer remit their income to the National Treasury but they are required to give a percentage of their income to the national government. A new Constitution is also needed if federalism will push through.

Alvarez, who filed concurrent Resolution 1 calling for the creation of a constitutional convention (Con-con) to effect the shift to federalism, said he hopes that

by December this year a law may

already be passed to convene the Con-con.

He said that, under his proposal, no member of the House of Representatives and the Philippine Senate shall run or be appointed as a Con-con delegate.

Alvarez said if a delegate is previously holding public office, he or she shall be considered resigned once he or she files his or her certificate or candidacy or upon appointment to the Con-con.

The delegates will also be prohibited from representing any political party or group, or whatever group of any nature.

“All delegates shall render a full disclosure of their financial and business interests, and notify the Con-con and Congress of a potential conflict of interest that may arise from the discharge of their duties

as delegates to the convention,” Alvarez said.

All delegates will enjoy parliamentary immunity conferred by existing laws to congressmen, and they will not receive salary, except for per diems, each time they attend a Con-con session, the lawmaker added.

Alvarez said once a federal system of government is in place, there would be no need for a Bangsamoro basic law, because Muslim Mindanao will already have its own autonomous region coexisting with other autonomous regions.

Under the Constitution, amendments to the 1987 Charter could be introduced either of these three modes: through a duly-elected Concon, Congress convening itself into a constituent assembly or a people’s initiative.

Diokno: DBCC to propose ₧3.35-T 2017 national budget

By Joann Santiago Philippines News Agency

T

he interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) is set to recommend to President Duterte a P3.35-trillion national budget for 2017, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said on Thursday.

Diokno said the proposed national budget for next year was 11.6 percent higher than this year’s P3.001-trillion budget, and would support the current administration’s programs focused on infrastructure, human resources, agriculture and rural development, and to help lagging regions.

Next year’s proposed budget accounts for 20.4 percent of GDP, up from the 20.1-percent share on GDP of this year’s national budget.

Funds for the construction of schools buildings were proposed to increase by 44 percent to P118 billion, while the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) was suggested to be allocated P54.9 billion, to cover 4,402,253 households.

Allocation for senior citizens under the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Filipino Citizens was proposed to amount to P17.9 billion, for about

2,809,542 beneficiaries.

Health-insurance premium payment allocation for indigent families was proposed to increase by 15 percent to P50 billion.

Diokno said they would implement a two-tier budgeting approach to be called 2TBA starting next year.

The first tier will focus on discussion and deliberation of ongoing projects and programs, while Tier 2 will concentrate on new and expanding proposals. Diokno added that national budget starting next year would be strictly compliant with the High Court’s decision on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

He also clarified that the P80-million allotment for each member of the House of Representatives is “only hypothetical and should not be legally considered pork barrel,” since budget for the programs they propose would be released to implementing agencies.

“It must be remembered that legislators are representatives of their constituents and are, thus, in the best position to determine the needs of their people. It is but expected that for legislators to properly do their job, they must ensure that funding for the needs of their constituents is included in the budget they will pass,” he added.

Taguiwalo probes P6.3-B ‘unliquidated’ CCT money

ocial Welfare and Development Secretary Judy M.Taguiwalo said on Friday her transition team will look into the P6.3 billion in unliquidated funds for the Conditional Cash-Transfer (CCT) Program of the Aquino administration in 2015. In a news statement released to Palace reporters,Taguiwalo cited a recent audit by the Commission on Audit (COA) indicating some P6.3 billion in unliquidated funds for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) administered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“Although the COA report indicated that the amounts remained either idle or unliquidated with the Land Bank [of the Philippines] and its conduits, and other government agencies,

Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon • Saturday, July 16, 2016 A3

the department is alarmed by the magnitude of the amounts involved, because they are equal to more than 10 percent of the budget of the DSWD,”she said.

Among the comments the COA made was that there were recurring deficiencies in the implementation of the 4Ps, resulting in delayed delivery of assistance to rightful beneficiaries or unnecessary holding of idle funds by Land Bank and its conduits. Payments to qualified beneficiaries suffered delays by 12 to 15 months due to delayed processing and release of checks or absence of partnerconduits, among others, it said.

Taguiwalo said the transition team of the DSWD will use the COA audit as leads in their review of the Duterte administration’s own CCT Program. According to the Department of Budget and

Management (DBM), the CCT Program will be retained for 2017, and some P54 billion will be allocated for it from the P3.35-trillion proposed national budget for next year.

Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said, however, that the government will be more efficient in administering the P54 billion to ensure that the cash doleout would achieve its goals of stimulating the economy and lifting the poorest Filipino families by giving them subsidies and incentives to keep their children in school.

One of the policies, which Diokno is looking into for the more efficient use of the funds, is to allow the local governments to determine the beneficiaries of the cash doleout, instead of centralizing this task with the DSWD. David Cagahastian

Men of steel

A team of construction workers braves the rain and the sun to complete the steel frame of a multilevel structure at the Bonifacio Global City. This snapshot gives us a glimpse of the long-running construction boom in the area. Gil Roy Domingo

White taxicabs go on 2-day trial run at Naia

By Recto Mercene @rectomercene

N

ewly installed Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) General Manager Eddie V. Monreal has allowed public or white taxicabs to join airport-accredited vehicles for a two-day trial run.

The aim is to increase the number of taxi-service vehicles at the premier airport, which has a backlog of about 2,500 vehicles per day.

These white taxis would be officially allowed to operate at the four Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) terminals on Monday, Monreal said. The Naia has about 5,000 accredited vehicles, including yellow taxis, limousine, coupon taxi and premium buses service, to help transport the 97,000 passengers a month who arrive at the Naia.

However, only 1,600 of the accredited vehicles are available on a daily basis. Monreal was told that “rolling stocks,” the term for cars, trucks, buses or rail business, has about 10- percent to 20-percent downtime for servicing and repairs, including the regular visit to the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board and Land Transportation Office for renewal of franchise drivers’ licenses.

The white or public taxis, including Grab, are being allowed at the Naia to solve the perennial lack of transport. He vowed to streamline the taxi and limousine service at the Naia in the coming days. In this connection, Monreal said the Naia has come up with a three-pronged

agenda to making the country’s premier airport live up to its name.

“We are ready to take steps to make the Ninoy Aquino International Airport into an airport that Filipinos can be truly proud of,” said Monreal, former Cathay Pacific station manager at the Naia.

Saying “change is coming,” Monreal said projects in revitalizing the Naia would revolve around service, safety and security, and decongestion of the four airport terminals.

“These three ultimately redound to public convenience, which must be the airport’s primary concern,” adding that, “the Naia, just like any business, should aim to satisfy its customers who, in this case, are the passengers.” “The Naia does not have enough accredited taxis and vehiclesfor-hire to take thousands of domestic and international passengers arriving daily,” Monreal said, noting that the previous Miaa management was on the right track when it introduced accredited buses and allowed GrabCar services at the Naia.

“We are still ironing out details, particularly in terms of ensuring passenger safety, before going full blast [in] allowing white taxis to pick up passengers from the Naia terminals starting July 18,” he said.

Monreal said drivers of regular taxis must strictly adhere to rules that the Miaa will impose.

To further address passenger service, the Department of Transportation and Communications has inked an agreement with airline firms to make sure that the Naia comfort rooms are kept clean and well-maintained.

“Employees must also always be courteous to passengers and serve them with a smile,” he pointed out.

For safety and security, the Miaa plans to add more personnel, particularly from the Airport Police Department, in all the security-screening checkpoints at the Naia terminals and reduce queuing of passengers.

He revealed there are only 700 security-screening officers from the Office for Transportation Security assigned in the four terminals to handle thousands of people, saying, “that is really not enough, so we have to augment their number to facilitate security checks on departing passengers.”

He said the installation of a closed-circuit television system, involving high-resolution cameras covering all areas at the Naia, will also be prioritized to ensure that there are no security blind spots.

The reactivation of the airport security center, a central desk connecting all agencies designed to provide immediate response to passenger complaints and concerns, is also in the works.

Monreal assured that the Miaa, with the help of the different airline companies, Civil Aviation Board and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, is coming up with a system that would greatly minimize flight delays, which usually cause crowding at the terminals.

He encouraged public feedback to identify areas where the Naia needs improvement and urged the media to help out in eliminating illegal activities and other malpractices at the airport.

A4 Saturday, July 16, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Who will blink first?

I

T has been an interesting few days in the aftermath of the arbitration decision in favor of the Philippines.

Some are banging the drums of war under the slogan, “Be bold and mighty, forces will come to your aid”—a quote from Canadian clergyman and writer Basil King. “Bold” is usually not a term used to describe Canada.

The United States has undertaken what it is calling “quiet diplomacy”, which, if it was any quieter, would probably put the Chinese government to sleep. We would hope that this is not like the “leading from behind” strategy that turned the “Arab Spring” into a geopolitical disaster of monumental proportions.

Others are complaining that the response from the administration of President Duterte was “tepid”, to use their word.

Recently, one phrase that has cropped up frequently is “measured response”.

German Prime Minister Angela Merkel used those words to describe what the German government reaction was to the “Brexit” vote. Indonesia called on China to use a “measured response,” after Indonesian gunboats shot at Chinese fishing vessels poaching in their waters. That seems to be a phrase governments use when they are trying to avoid saying or doing anything stupid.

The one common thought that has been echoed many times in the past few days is that “all parties should respect and comply with the ruling.”

This is all well and good, because the decision by the arbitration panel is just about useless in practical terms, unless the regional and global community gets onboard with something more than a prolonged “measured response”. It is like winning the game by default, because the other team forfeits the game.

Of course, that is what China sort of did in this case.

However, we know why China “defaulted.” Its arguments were false and unauthentic, and it could not agree to abide by the decision of the court if it presented evidence to support its claims.

Nonetheless, the Philippines has a problem. While Indonesia may be confiscating Chinese fishing boats, that did not stop them from requesting another $300-million loan from the Chinese Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to help fund the railroad that the Chinese are building for them. Indonesia announced their request the day after the panel’s ruling.

The European Union (EU) would want to help the Philippines, but it has some internal problems with arbitration panel rulings. EU members Slovenia and Croatia have a maritime dispute, too. Croatia pulled out of an arbitration process in 2015 at the same court that ruled on the South China Sea case.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations wants to issue a firm statement backing the Philippines, but it also has some internal disagreements. While other nations’ diplomacy is “measured” or “quiet”, China has been using “checkbook diplomacy” for some time in the region, and apparently it is working.

So now all the parties sit around looking at each other, waiting to see who blinks first. Didn’t we use to play the same game in elementary school?

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What is moving the PSE? John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

T

he Philippine Stock Exchange Composite Index (PSEi) is up about 25 percent since the election of President Duterte.

No, it is not a happy coincidence and yes, there is a correlation. But if you were a supporter of “candidate Duterte”, don’t get all excited just yet.

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people,” or so said American icon Eleanor Roosevelt.

For me, talking politics is the intellectual equivalent of too much syrup on your pancakes. With each bite, it gets more unpleasant. But having a couple of degrees on the subject, allow me to make the Duterte-PSEi political connection.

As I have said publicly many times, Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II sought the highest office with,

perhaps, the best résumé possible.

But here is a caution to the “young ones”. You are not hired for a job based on your bio-data. You are hired because of how you do during the interview, and Roxas did not pass.

For an applicant, “What can you do for the company?” is the most important question. During his “interview”, Rodrigo Duterte asked voters to look past his style and know that he understood what their greatest concerns for the Philippines were.

As the job interviewer asks, “Why

did you leave your last job?”, even being fired might make you a better candidate for the current position.

The Duterte presidential campaign tapped into something I have spoken of countless times; historical perspective, particularly in regard to the drug and crime problem. The Philippines is not yet a “narco-state” but was—not too long ago—a “gambling state”. Personalities with names like “Bong” and “Mommy Rose” controlled gambling in their areas by controlling the police and politicians. A sitting president was ultimately taken down as a result of the pervasive influence of illegal gambling.

While the transportation problem in the Metro areas around the country is nothing new and has been building for decades, the peoples’ patience finally gave out. The same thing happened in the late-1980s with the power problem. The “best efforts” of the government was no longer an excuse, and the people welcomed the special emergency powers given to Fidel Ramos.

The stock market had a great run higher during the term of former

President Aquino. However, from the low in 2009, the PSEi was already in an upward trajectory when he took office, having already gained 50 percent. But the market peaked in 2013, almost as prediction of the “pork barrel” scam that followed.

Further, economic growth went down. The final 2014 PSEi rally, peaking in early 2015, was almost entirely wiped out—on a monthly basis—as the 2016 election season got into full swing. Investors feared more “politics as usual.”

The “trust” ratings for both President Aquino in 2010 and President Duterte today are similar with the beginning of a new term of office.

People want to be optimistic about the future. The PSEi will continue to rise, breaking its historic high and farther, if and until that optimism in the new administration fades. For now, “Buy the PSE. Buy the Philippines.”

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

Japan’s chance to resist a turn to the right

A

By Noah Smith | Bloomberg View

fter a landslide victory in Japan’s election on July 10, the Liberal Democratic Party now has a supermajority in both the upper and lower houses of the Diet. Essentially, there is no longer any effective political opposition in Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has more power than any leader in decades—even more than his famous grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, who served as prime minister in the 1950s. Most important, his twin supermajorities give him the ability to get constitutional reforms through the legislature and put them to a popular referendum, where they need only a simple majority to pass.

The country, therefore, stands at a crossroads; the choices Abe makes have the potential to refashion Japan’s institutions. Essentially, Abe faces a binary choice between making Japan a more liberal country or a more illiberal one.

Around the world, liberalism is in retreat. Buffeted by economic stagnation, recession, controversial immigration and shifts in the geopolitical order, countries from China to those in Europe are slowly opting for fewer personal freedoms, less tolerance of minorities and greater government control over the economy.

But Japan often bucks international trends and goes its own way.

It refrained from embracing freemarket orthodoxy in the 1980s, refused to open itself to mass immigration along the lines of European countries and, in the past few years, stuck to unconventional monetary easing after other developed countries backed off. So there’s a chance that Japan will again take the road less traveled, and move toward greater freedom even as other

countries do the opposite.

Unlike many analysts—and many of Japan’s own people—I view the argument over remilitarization as a distraction. If the notorious Article 9 of Japan’s constitution is revised, the Japanese military will simply change its name from “selfdefense forces” to “army.” There will be no repeat of imperial expansion or World War II. Whatever increased assertiveness Japan would gain could be used for liberal purposes—defending weaker allies against encroachment by an expansionist China or a bellicose North Korea— rather than for illiberal ones.

A more important question, in both the economic and social realms, will be the role of women.

Japan has only small numbers of racial and religious minorities, so the main group that stands to lose from Japanese illiberalism is the female half of the country. If Japan is to have an economic and social underclass, it will be women.

Yet, it is precisely on the gender issue that Abe has shown his strongest inclinations toward liberalism.

He has relentlessly pushed companies to hire more women, with both rhetoric and real policy. He has expanded government day care and preferentially awarded government contracts to companies that promote women. Under Abe’s watch, Japan’s women have entered the work force in record numbers, so that the norm of stay-at-home moms and single breadwinners now is mostly a thing of the past. The new emphasis on company profitability—thanks, in part, to Abe’s new corporate governance code—will also pressure Japanese industry to make better use of female employees—an instance where economic and social liberalism go hand in hand.

When I travel to Japan these days, I see a palpable, generational change in Japan’s gender roles, similar to what the US experienced in the 1980s and 1990s. The prime minister is obviously not solely responsible for this shift, but he might be the single most important promoter of women’s rights in postwar Japan.

Unfortunately, many of Abe’s backers and friends have the exact opposite instincts on this issue. Nippon Kaigi, a traditionalist organization that counts Abe and many of his Cabinet members and allies as members, seeks to revise the constitution to emphasize traditional family values. Japanese conservatives also generally favor a return to regimented corporate culture, including lifetime employment, a policy that wouldn’t just damage the Japanese push for higher productivity, but would increase the gap between men and women.

But the danger to liberal values goes far beyond gender issues. Nippon Kaigi and Abe’s other conservative allies also want to remove much of the liberal language from the constitution, eliminating guarantees of individual rights in favor of injunctions for the people to follow the government’s commands.

These revisions would weaken Japan’s status as a democracy, and make it a standard bearer of the new global trend toward illiberalism.

So Abe faces an epochal choice.

By resisting his many illiberal allies and pushing Japan against the global tide, he can follow the historical examples of past elite liberal reformers like the revolutionary Sakamoto Ryoma, who helped write Japan’s first modern constitution in the 1800s, or Abe’s predecessor Junichiro Koizumi, who bucked his own party to partially liberalize the economy.

Abe can continue to drive for women’s equality, he can nudge corporations toward efficient modern business practices, and he can make sure that the language of individual rights is protected in any constitutional revision.

There is a third option, of course.

Abe could choose to do relatively little, letting his mandate expire without major revisions of the status quo. That would be wasting a once-in-a-century opportunity. Instead, Abe should use his power to push Japan toward becoming a freer and more equal society—a beacon to other countries in Asia, and a counterpoint to the troubling backsliders of the West.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Line: An IPO worth its $8.6 billion

PCNE 3: The Filipino experience of mercy Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

SERVANT LEADER

Leonid Bershidsky

BLOOMBERG VIEW

L

ine, the Japan-based instant messaging company that went public on Thursday with a big jump in its share price that put its value at about $8.6 billion, may be the only of its peers that makes sense as a stand-alone company with a ticker symbol and a market cap. Even though mobile messaging is a huge phenomenon, most of the money is still being made by mobile operators that offer outdated text messages. Line has tried every possible gimmick, and though it’s unprofitable, it has solid revenue.

The instant-messaging industry started as a “build it, and they will come” engineering lark. The top 10 messaging apps have a combined 4.5 billion active users (some are shared). Yet, it’s safe to say that not a single one is a moneymaker. Many are part of big corporations (Facebook owns WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger; Tencent owns QQ and WeChat; Microsoft owns Skype; the Japanese mobile commerce group Rakuten owns Viber), and the parent companies don’t break out their financial results, which is usually a sign that there’s not much to brag about. The stand-alone companies, such as Snapchat, don’t release financials, either. One of the leaders, Telegram, with about 100 million monthly users, is a nonprofit.

Last year Juniper Research predicted that the size of the mobilemessaging market would decline to $112.9 billion in 2019, from $113.5 billion in 2014—and that almost all the money would be made by telecom operators.

Juniper research

This prediction covers all the revenue of Internet messengers (IM)— advertising revenue, income from the sale of stickers (the emoji-like pictures or animations that users can send) and whatever else. It may not come true. Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg, for example, promised in 2014 to wait until its messenger services reach 1 billion users before trying to monetize them (WhatsApp did so this year, Facebook Messenger is still short of the target). Now, it’s selling the messaging platforms to businesses as tools for communicating with clients, and that may create a sizable revenue stream, because having chat bots answer common questions could help businesses lower costs. Facebook has successfully monetized its basic offering, and it may figure out how to make corporate activity on the messengers more “organic”—the term company executives use to mean “natural” and “unobtrusive for ordinary users.” No one can predict how lucrative that will turn out to be, however.

Facebook can afford such gambles. Snapchat, which rejected Facebook’s advances, took until last year to make a first, tiny revenue, even as it burned through cash. This year, it projects $300 million in revenue from various forms of advertising —a big number but still a tiny share of mobile operators’ SMS revenue, given the billions of messages its users send.

Line and its Asian rivals haven’t wasted any time trying to monetize.

Mary Meeker, an analyst at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, provided

this introduction timeline in her 2016 report.

KPCB

Line has something US-based messengers don’t: 8.4 million people a month who pay for stickers and 1.6 million paying players of Linebranded games that are only available to the owners of Line accounts.

It has also experimented with taxi services, mobile commerce, payments and grocery deliveries. Although these services make up a small share of its revenue—about 6 percent, according to the initial public offering (IPO) prospectus, games, stickers and advertising bring in the rest—the share has grown from 1.7 percent in 2013.

Line, however, hasn’t done much to allow companies to use it to work with customers, the way Facebook does, but because its Chinese and Korean competitors are already in that territory, Line is likely to follow soon.

Sure, Line is losing money, but it has a solid revenue stream: almost $1.1 billion last year. US-based services are nowhere close to such numbers, though they started out around the same time and their technology is no more advanced than Line’s.

Analysts and investors may worry about Line’s sluggish userbase growth and the limited appeal of paid stickers beyond a few Asian markets—but at least this company has made the effort to build a business, not just a useful service. It has had the courage to experiment and sometimes fail, and it has increased revenue by a factor of 19 since 2012. That’s why it can proudly go public, and that’s why it’s trading significantly higher than the offering price.

If you’re going to build a free service to replace a paid one, as the messengers’ creators have done, it’s useful to try to work out a replacement business model. The tech revolution has disrupted a number of industries in this way—from media to money transfers—but it has mostly failed to create working monetization models. The few that work well are mostly advertisingbased, and that’s a shaky foundation, as print media have discovered in the last 15 years. Line deserves to be a public company with a real market cap, rather than a “unicorn” with an inflated one based on a few investors’ highly publicized bets, because it has been built as a business and has taken care to build up a number of revenue streams. That’s a more remarkable achievement than huge user growth based on technology that doesn’t differ much across the industry.

Saturday, July 16, 2016 A5

T

he Catholic faithful has gathered for the Third Philippine Conference on New Evangelization (PCNE 3) beginning on July 15 at the University of Santo Tomas (UST).

In celebration of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, declared

by His Holiness Pope Francis and as part of the preparation for the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines, the Archdiocese of Manila holds PCNE 3 with focus on God’s abundant mercy as experienced by the Filipinos.

This year’s PCNE carries the theme “Awa, Unawa, Gawa: The Filipino Experience of Mercy,” which aims to further explore the appreciation of mercy, the primary

attribute of God. As explained in the PCNE web site, awa (mercy) is an experience of the heart, closer to the gut and more visceral. Unawa (understanding) is knowing the person behind the walls of isolation and exclusion. Gawa (action) is fascinatingly rooted in awa and expressed more specifically in kawang-gawa (charitable action).

Without gawa, our claims for mercy would be reduced to gawa-gawa lamang (mere rhetoric). Awa-unawagawa gives a three-dimensional

experience and understanding of mercy and the Filipino culture.

The 24th Chapter of Saint Luke, which is often called the Gospel of Mercy, is the heart of the three-day conference on faith. As we, Filipinos, are witness to the never-ending mercy and compassion—habag at malasakit—around us, PCNE 3 aims to gaze and contemplate even more attentively on the unwavering mercy of God in our lives.

The event also intends to remind the faithful that, as we are touched by the Lord’s compassion every day, we also have to be compassionate toward others and live merciful like the Father. As His Holiness Pope Francis said in his Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Misericordiae Vultus, “Mercy: the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.”

The first PCNE, with the theme “God makes all things new—Revelation 21:5,” was held also in UST in October 2013. PCNE 1 focused on

Needs of US investors and clients matter Jemain Tinio Diaz de Rivera

Forward Moving

T

he United States is the primary client of the Philippines for the information-technology and business-process management (IT-BPM) industry. The Philippines offers IT-BPM services/solutions to allow businesses in the US to concentrate on their core business. Today there are many countries that would like to duplicate the success of the Philippines.

Many organizations are turning to the Philippine IT-BPM industry, which employs over a million fulltime employees enabling companies from the US, Canada, Australia and other countries to reduce costs while still retaining the ability to compete effectively in the global marketplace.

The Philippine IT-BPM industry must continue to improve efficiencies and reduce costs helping client companies focus on their core business, as the Philippine IT-BPM companies take care of the day-today activities, such as human resources, accounting, research, health care and other services that are required to meet the US organization’s changing needs.

IT-BPM services can either be

done in-house, though a separate division within the company, or through outside companies who specialize in that function. IT-BPM centers handle animation, game development, contact center, health care, HR, finance, software development and customer-services issues.

IT-BPM began when large companies found it was more cost-effective to locate their contact centers outside the US, where labor and office space costs are less. It helps if the area has a strong telecommunications network and Internet connectivity.

As standards of living in the US increased, a lot of companies moved contact-center operations to the Philippines. Workers were paid not as high as in the US, and they spoke English.

A few years back, recession in the US lowered cost in doing business in their own country, which may reverse the trend, according to a few industry investors from the US and Canada with whom I met with recently.

Today there is a much smaller wage difference between IT-BPM workers in the US and emerging markets. Contact-center workers in the US only make 15 percent more than those in India.

Because workers in the US are familiar with American culture, they have a better chance of receiving greater satisfaction from customers.

Despite this, companies would like to locate their IT-BPM centers outside the US because it allows them to be flexible in responding to changing needs, and will only pay for the time employees actually spend on the phone.

A company that wants to expand to foreign markets must link up with a contact center staffed with employees who speak the target market’s language.

Companies often have spikes in their business. Retailers’ sales spike during the holiday season. Some companies experience a decline in sales or demand for their services during harsh winter months. It’s difficult to train, hire and then lay off workers for those few months

rekindling the ardor of evangelization and renewal of faith experience in the local and Asian context. The second PCNE was held in January 2015 during the visit of His Holiness Pope Francis in the Philippines. The theme of PCNE II was “Blessed are you…Matthew 5:1-12,” which was intended to reflect on the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 and the radical revolution it demands. It also addressed the challenges posed by PCNE 1.

PCNE 3, which would run until Sunday, has a lot of activities stored for the participants, such as personal reflection and inspirational talks and presentations, aimed at mining the richness of God’s mercy and the trinkets of our Filipino culture.

To know more about Caritas Manila, visit www. caritasmanila.org.ph. For your donations, please call our DonorCare lines 563-9311, 564-0205, 0999-7943455, 0905-4285001 and 0929-8343857.

Make it a habit to listen to Radio Veritas 846 in the AM band, or through live streaming at www.veritas846.ph. For comments, e-mail veritas846pr@ gmail.com.

when demand is higher. A company that outsources its IT-BPM services, contracts out those risks.

When telecommunications infrastructure becomes worn, unreliable, or outdated due to innovation, maintaining and replacing it is costly.

However, an outdated system can reduce competitiveness. Outsourcing the contact center allows the company to focus on innovation in its goods and services.

On the other hand, a company would prefer to keep its IT-BPM centers in-house or within its country for control. This is critical for a company whose competitive advantage is customer service. The center is the interface with the customer, and the brand promise of customer service must be topnotch. A company that is known for being innovative must also be careful to have its IT-BPM center reflect that image.

The Philippines has been successful in providing IT-BPM services for companies from the US because they understood and could empathize with them and their clients. With this overall view and comprehension of the needs of their client, the Philippines will continue to not only satisfy but also build a better and stronger industry.

If they lose sight of this, they may very well lose their advantage.

A6 Saturday, July 16, 2016 • Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo

The Nation BusinessMirror

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DOJ set to resolve kidnapping, other charges vs rights advocates J

By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

USTICE Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II on Friday assured 15 human-rights advocates that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will soon resolve their appeal to dismiss the criminal case filed against them for the alleged kidnapping and serious illegal detention of 700 tribesmen at the Haran Evacuation Center in Davao City.

Earlier, the Regional Trial Court in Davao City issued an arrest warrant against accused Rev. Jurie Jaime, Bayan Southern Mindanao Region (SMR) Secretary-General Sheena Duazo, Karapatan SMR SecretaryGeneral Hanimay Suazo, Ryan Laniba, Tony Salubre, Jimboy Maciano, Gabriela Davao Secretary-General Mary Ann Sapar, Jaja Encosio, Pedro Arnado, Pasaka SMR Chairman Kerlan Fanagel, Sis. Stella Matutina, Sis. Restita Miles, Isidro Andao, Kharlo Manano and Save Our Schools

Network Spokesman Rius Valle.

Their arrest became possible, after the DOJ, during the incumbency of then-acting Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas, reversed and set aside the recommendation of the Davao City Prosecutor’s Office to dismiss the case for lack of probable cause.

Lawyer Manuel Quibod, who represents the so-called Haran 15, said the defense panel has filed a motion for reconsideration (MR) before the DOJ, seeking to

reinstate the finding of the prosecutor’s office.

The filing of the MR has stalled the implementation of the arrest warrant issued against the humanrights advocates.

The court, however, said the arrest warrants will be implemented

by August 1.

“Secretary Aguirre promised to resolve [the motion for reconsideration] at the earliest possible time,” Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate of Bayan Muna told reporters after meeting Aguirre at the DOJ on Friday.

Several other accused showed up during the meeting to seek the dismissal of the case filed against them.

But if there is still no action on their MR by end of July, Quibod said the defense panel will ask for the extension of suspension of the implementation of the arrest warrant without opposition from the DOJ. Prior to their arrest, the humanrights advocates claimed that they have been assisting the tribesmen who sought refuge at Haran and helping them deal with their difficult situation while advocating for their return to their communities for years already.

BETTER PISTOL?

National Police Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa, is about to inspect a Girsan 9mm pistol that Neri S. Dionisio of P.B. Dionisio, the oldest gunstore in the country, is handing to him at the 24th Defense and Sporting Arms Show that is ongoing in a mall in Mandaluyong City. The Girsan has been touted in several gun magazine reviews as better than a pistol that is widely used by law-enforcement agencies. NONOY LACZA

Smartmatic hit for seeking media ban on AES case Salceda shares lessons on resiliency,

F

ORMER Sen. Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday assailed Smartmatic for seeking to exclude members of the media from its “clarificatory presentation” of the automated-election system (AES) before Manila Prosecutor’s Office.

This developed after Smartmatic personnel, instead of filing their rejoinder to the complaint filed against them, filed a manifestation and motion to hold a clarificatory presentation to explain the AES and the other technical aspects of the case without the presence of any other party, including the media.

Law yer Adrian Aumentado, counsel of former Party-list Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz of Abakada, political advisor of Marcos, said it is highly irregular why Smartmatic would want to ban the media from attending the clarificatory presentation of the AES when the case filed is all about transparency.

“To exclude the media from the clarificatory presentation is tantamount to denying the public’s right to know the processes used in their election. We are for transparency, and that is what this case is all about; and we just find it highly unusual that the media would be excluded from such presentation, when it is after all a clarificatory

hearing,” Aumentado pointed out.

During the hearing, the panel of prosecutors also expressed surprise by such move. When a member of the Smartmatic team said they were merely concerned about the logistical and practical requirements if members of the media were around, the panel said such would not be a problem, since they can always arrange for a place for everyone, including the media, to be accommodated.

Aumentado also expressed surprise that Smartmatic would be the one to initiate a clarificatory presentation, when the initiative should be coming from the panel of prosecutors. He also asked to be given a period to file their opposition and/or manifestation to the motion.

The panel, however, said the move would give them a chance to clarify certain technical aspects of the case without prejudice to whatever motion the former senator’s counsels may file on the matter. They then set the clarificatory presentation to July 21 at 1:30 p.m.

Dela Cruz had filed charges for violation of Section 4(a) of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, or Republic Act (RA) 10175, against Smartmatic personnel Marlon Gar-

MARCOS

cia, a citizen of Venezuela and head of the company’s Technical Support Team; Elie Moreno, a citizen of Israel and AES project director; Mauricio Herrera, a Panamanian; and Neil Banigued, a member of the Technical Support Team; and Commission on Elections (Comelec) information technology experts, led by Rouie Peñalba, Nelson Herrera and Frances Mae Gonzalez, for their act of “intentionally altering computer data, without right and altering and interfering with the functioning of a computer and computer network by inputting, deleting and altering computer data and program, without right or authority.”

Dela Cruz said their act of changing the script of the transparency server on the night of the elections at the height of the transmission of votes without authority constitutes a clear violation of the said law.

Dela Cruz had earlier also accused the respondents of misleading the prosecutors when they claimed in their respective counteraffidavits that the change they made in the system in the transparency server cannot be considered illegal access, because the latter is not part of the AES. “By so doing, respondents are attempting to mislead this honorable office through technical illustrations irrelevant to the present controversy,” dela Cruz said. He said such contradicts their earlier admission that “the AES is made up of several components, namely, the election management system, the voting counting machine, the consolidating and canvassing system and the transparency server.”

Dela Cruz added that respondent also “deliberately omitted” the fact that RA 8436, as amended, or the law authorizing Comelec to use the AES had expanded the definition of the system to include the “transmission of election results and other electoral processes.”

The respondents are also charged with a separate case for the violation of the automated-election law before the Comelec over the script change. The case is also undergoing preliminary investigation.

Mario Nery, former Red Cross chairman, 83

F

ORMER Red Cross Chairman Mario Nery, died on July 12, at the age of 83.

His remains lie in state at the Mount Carmel Church, Broadway Avenue, New Manila, Quezon City.

Nery was a member of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Board of Governors from 1990 and served as PRC chairman from 1996 to 1997.

“My deepest condolences to the family of Governor Mario Nery. He was a good personal friend. I call him Yoda, because he is a man of vision who initiated a lot of good things for the Philippine Red Cross during his term as chairman,” PRC Chairman Richard Gordon said.

During his stint in the PRC, Nery was one of the outstanding members of the Board of Governors, and has actively involved

himself in committee and board meetings. His dedication and unwavering support to the PRC has earned him several awards from the organization, including the Diploma of Service award, Aurora Aragon Quezon Medal, Testimonial Plaque, Silver Humanitarian Service Cross and the Gold Humanitarian Service Cross on April 14, 2016, during the 31st Biennial National Convention.

A highlight of his career in the Red Cross was when he was elected as vice president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and governing board member of the IFRC from 1998 to 2001. He was the first and only Filipino elected to the vice presidency of the IFRC. Aside from the PRC, Nery has

spent a great deal of time in the service of others, particularly the poor, through the Rotary International.

He has involved himself in cooperatives, securing low-cost housing, livelihood projects and microlending so that the beneficiaries can have a quality of life befitting human beings.

He has received the highest award, called the Service Above Self Award, given by Rotary International’s Board of Rotarians in recognition of his efforts toward uplifting the lives of the poor. He served as president of the Rotary Club of Cagayan de Oro in 1974 and New Manila Heights in 1988.

Nery became district governor in 1993 and became chairman of the Philippine College of Rotary Gov-

ernors, an association of all past and present Rotary governors, in 1994.

Nery retired as senior vice president of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) after 39 years of service, only to be hired again as SMC management consultant for five more years.

He completed graduate studies and management courses in local and foreign management schools, including Ateneo de Manila, Asian Institute of Management, International Management Institute in Switzerland and the Wharton School in the University of Pennsylvania.

Nery is survived by his wife Isidra Salcedo Nery and their six children and 16 grandchildren.

His c rem at ion w i l l be on Saturday, after the 8 a.m. Mass.

inclusive growth in international meet

By Johnny C. Nuñez Philippines News Agency

L

EGAZPI CITY—Liberal Party Rep. Joey S. Salceda of Albay, a pioneer in disaster resiliency in local governments, has shared pointers and lessons learned by his province on disaster resilience and inclusive economic growth, as well as urbanization, at the recent 2016 International Conference on Urban Development: Accelerating Resilience and Inclusive Growth, organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Salceda, who was Albay governor for three terms, before winning his new congressional seat, was the plenary speaker at the conference’s “Taking up the Challenge of Urbanization” session.

He related his experiences on how his province and its cities and towns built up their resiliency to and coped with climate change-caused calamities. They are now on their way toward rapid urbanization under Albay’s Green Economy Program.

Dav id Grossman, USA ID Strengthening Urban Resilience for Growth with Equity (SURGE) project chief, said the conference was participated in by more than 1,200 experts, business leaders, change makers in the government, representatives from donor agencies, professional- and civil-society organizations, and students of urban development who engaged “mayors of Philippine cities and representatives from international sister cities and leaders from the US, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, India and Mexico.”

Grossman said the event, held in partnership with World Bank, United Nations (UN)-Habitat, the National Competitiveness Council and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), is the countr y’s biggest international conference on urban development geared toward addressing the urbanization challenges of emerging secondary cities.

The world conference, he added,

will enable newly elected government officials to “build linkages with industries and resource networks that can support their plans for their respective cities.”

For Salceda’s novel and creative strategies in climate-change adaptation (CCA) and disaster-risk reduction (DRR), the UN has declared Albay as its global model in CCA and DRR, and Salceda himself as UN Senior Global Champion for CCA-DRR. Albay has also earned many international and national recognitions. Its pioneering disaster-resiliency strategy was featured during the recent 2016 World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, where the Philippines was presented as sole global model for DRR-CCA. Another Salceda brainchild, the Albay Green Economy Program, is founded on the principle of resiliency. He sums up Albay’s gains under the program as follows: Zero casualty during disasters over time; increased forest cover by 88 percent in seven years; increase in mangrove areas from 700 hectares to 2,400 hectares; increase in rice production—despite weather disturbances—from 147,291 metric tons in 2008 to 200,088 MT in 2013, through proper use of water resources; contributed 250 megawatts of geothermal energy, with 650-MW potential; investments in environment; and enhanced ecotourism, which increased foreign tourists inflow from 8,700 in 2006 to 339,000 in 2013.

As Bicol Regional Development Council chairman, he applied the green-economy principle and transformed his region as the country’s fastest-growing area in 2013 at 9.4-percent growth rate as against the 7.4-percent national average growth.

Sa lceda a lso ser ved as cochairman for Southeast Asia and the Developing Countries of the Green Climate Fund of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, during which the fund completed the prerequisites for its operationalization and raised some $10.3 billion in initial resources to fund projects of developing countries.

Sports BusinessMirror

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SPORTS PLUS

Cortes, Pague win in Agusan net leg

FRANKIE UP FRONT F

rankie Miñoza proved he still has what it takes to contend, firing a seven-under 63 to force a threeway tie for the lead with an equally surging Miguel Tabuena and steady Guido van der Valk in an action-packed third round of the International Container Terminal Services Inc. Negros Occidental Classic headed for an explosive finish at the Negros Occidental Golf and Country Club in Bacolod City on Friday.

Miñoza, who missed the cut in his last Philippine Golf Tour stint at Eagle Ridge last month, flashed superb iron play and putting and hit eight birdies in benign conditions, including four straight from No. 4, as the veteran campaigner sizzled with a 30-33 to rally from way behind to gain a crack at the crown in a long while.

Van der Valk, out to redeem himself from a loss in a three-man playoff at Binitin last week won

by Tony Lascuña, missed seizing the solo lead with a bogey on No. 15, but the veteran Dutch shotmaker still stayed on track for a breakthrough victory with a four-under 66.

Tabuena, back in the local hunt after a two-month stint abroad, negated a two-bogey

MULTIPLE leg winners Brent Sigmond Cortes, Jose Maria Pague and Mary Aubrey Calma won two titles each in the recent Cabadbaran City leg in Agusan del Norte of the nationwide Cebuana Lhuillier Age Group Tennis Championship Series.

Cortes, a native of Tubod, Lanao del Norte, beat Surigao’s Rupert Ohrelle Tortal, 6-1, 6-1, in the boys’ 12-under finals and repeated over the same opponent, 6-0, 6-1, to annex the 14-under title.

Pague defeated John Renest Sonsona, 6-2, 6-1, to hoist the boys’ 16-under trophy and Cagayan de Oro’s Matt Steve Palasam, 6-0, 6-1, to snatch the 18-under crown.

Cagayan de Oro’s Calma beat Zamboanga del Norte’s Sydney Ezra Enriquez, 6-4, 7-5, in the girls’ 16-under finals, and Gennifer Lysandra Pagente, 6-1, 6-1, in the 18-under championship of the leg hosted by the Cabadbaran City Tennis Club and, backed by Dunlop Sports as official ball.

Enriquez did not go home empty-handed.

She beat 12-under champion Kristin Guia Bandolis, 6-1, 6-1, for the 14-under tiara.

Guam triumphs, grabs finals berth

GUAM overpowered the host, the Philippines, 8-1, to clinch the remaining finals ticket in the 2016 Asia Pacific Senior League Baseball Tournament at Clark International Sports Complex at The Villages in Pampanga on Friday.

The Guam batters unloaded seven runs in the last two innings to set the tone for their third victory in four outings and earn the right to face waiting Australia (4-0) in Saturday’s championship match against Australia.

The Philippines, represented by Illam, finished the eliminations with a 1-3 record, behind dethroned champions Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), which wound up with 2-2, following a 23-1 demolition of hapless Indonesia (0-4) in Friday’s other game.

Illam will try to end the tournament on a good note also today, when it plays CNMI for third spot.

“We’ll do our best to win this last match,” Illam Coach Egay de los Reyes said.

Fr. Martin Cup on at Arellano U gym

THREE games will usher in the 14th Fr. Martin Division 2 Cup basketball tournament today at the Arellano University Gym in Legarda, Manila.

Last year’s finalist Arellano University battles Centro Escolar University (CEU)-B at 9:30 a.m., while Far Eastern University (FEU) meets CEU-A earlier at 8 a.m. San Benildo clashes with FEU at 11 a.m.

On Sunday Manila Patriotic School meets San Beda-Rizal in a junior matches at 9:30 a.m. at the Saint Placid Gymnasium of the San Beda-Manila campus in Mendiola. San BedaManila faces Makati Gospel College at 8 a.m., and Letran battles Xavier School at 11 a.m.

A total of 29 school teams are seeing action in the senior and junior divisions of the three-month tournament.

Fifteen college teams, led by defending champion Ateneo, and 14 high-school squads have confirmed their participation to chief organizer Edmundo Badolato and Commissioner Robert de la Rosa.

Saturday, July 16, 2016 A7

mishap with seven birdies, including two late feats that netted him a 65 and a crack at the second crown after romping of the Anvaya Invitational crown in February.

With the three tied for the lead at 12-under 198, two laying just a stroke behind and another a shot farther back, the final round of the P1.5-million event headed for a classic, thrilling finish on Saturday.

Joenard Rates, seeking to snap a fouryear title spell, missed joining the leaders with a bogey on the par-5 18th but the diminutive shotmaker still got into the mix with a 64 for a 199 in a tie with American Micah Shin, the other playoff loser at Binitin also raring to score his maiden win on the circuit. Shin carded a 66.

Halfway leader Clyde Mondilla, whose back-to-back 65s sparked hopes for a third victory for the Del Monte star, found the going tougher yesterday, fumbling with a double bogey and three bogeys in the first 10 holes to tumble down the leaderboard. He did come up with back-to-back birdies from No. 12, but flubbed a couple of birdie putts and limped with a 73 and slid to joint eighth at 203 with Arnold Villacencio, who also rallied with a 64.

Jay Bayron gunned down four birdies against two bogeys at the front but settled for pars at the back to turn in a twounder 68 but still remained in the hunt for the top P270,000 purse at 200, just two strokes adrift.

Orlan Sumcad

made a 67 for solo seventh at 202.

Lascuña, fancied to annex a fourth straight crown after a thrilling win last weekend, continued to struggle while trying to battle the inroads of fatigue after playing for four straight weeks, carding a 68 for a 207

By Ramon Rafael Bonilla

‘Get best players available’

T

By Joel Orellana

HE decision of the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) to add more slots for the merged Asia-Oceania zone for the 2019 Fiba World Cup would only work in the Philippines’s favor if the national team would be composed of the best players available.

Former national team Head Coach Tim Cone and Gilas Pilipinas Assistant Coach Alex Compton—with reservations—agreed the new format for qualifying tournaments for the World Cup augurs well for the country that had to contend with China and Iran for the right to represent Asia in the world.

From the previous 24 countries that qualify for the World Cup, the Fiba increased the roster to 32—seven each from Asia-Oceania zone that would already include Australia and New Zealand and Americas; five from Africa; 12 from Europe; and the host country, China.

The six windows of the qualifiers begins in September next year and ends in February of 2019. China will host the World Cup in September 2019.

“Assuming Australia gets one and New Zealand gets another, then that is five available slots left for Gilas, China, Iran, [South] Korea, then maybe Lebanon or Japan,” said Cone,

“But this is going to be tight finish with so many players in contention.”

MIñOZA is displaying »his FRANKIE vintage form.

GONZALES YIELDS IN FIRST SINGLES

RUBEN GONZALES could not get his rhythm going in Davis Cup play.

aggregate, nine shots off the joint leaders.

“I’m tired as I couldn’t hit the shots that I normally make,” said Lascuña, who rolled in a surprise 12-foot birdie putt off the fringe on the first playoff to snare the Bacolod Golf Challenge over the weekend.

although China is already assured of a spot for being the host.

“It looks like a pretty sure bet, but only if we could include our pro players,” added Cone, head coach of the Centennial Team that finished third in the Bangkok 1998 Asian Games.

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) has yet to negotiate with the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) on the composition of the next men’s national team. The PBA Board has the Gilas Pilipinas program as one of its priorities when it meets later this month.

The availability of the PBA players for the qualifiers is a major concern, because the schedule runs smack to the league’s season, which usually starts in October and ends in July the following year.

And this worries Compton a lot—although he has high hopes Gilas Head Coach Tab Baldwin has aces up his sleeves.

“I don’t think it will benefit us because, compared with the Fiba schedule, the PBA has a longer season than most leagues in the world,” Compton said. “So in that aspect, I think it is a distinct disadvantage for us in terms of making the PBA players available. I do, however, greatly believe in the ability of Coach Tab Baldwin to teach the game and build up the cadets into the best possible team they could be.”

T

EAM Philippines found itself in a 0-1 hole after Ruben Gonzales bowed to Ti Chen of Chinese Taipei, 2-6, 6-2, 2-6, 2-6, in their opening singles match of the 2016 Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group II semifinal tie on Friday at the Philippine Columbian Association clay-shell courts in Paco, Manila.

Gonzales, an International Tennis Federation France Futures 13 doubles champion, was overpowered by Ti, ranked No. 227 singles player in the world.

Chen, the most experienced player on Taiwan’s roster which missed the services of top player Lu Yen-hsun, peppered Gonzales with deadly forehands, dropping only the second set, where the Filipino staged a mighty rally.

Francis Casey Alcantara battled Liang Chi Huang in the second singles late Friday, hoping to salvage a victory

that would tie the series.

Wimbledon men’s doubles semifinalist Treat Huey partners with Jeson Patrombon in a crucial doubles match against Jui-Chen Hung and Chieh-fu Wang at 3 p.m. today.

The Taiwanese handed the Filipinos a 3-1 decision in last year’s tie held in the southern Taiwan city of Kaohsiung.

The Philippines leads Chinese Taipei, 4-3, in their Davis Cup duels, but the Taiwanese have won the last four ties. The winner will advance to the final stage of Group II.

Calabarzon hoops unfurls in Tanauan

TWENTY-THREE schools will vie in the 10th season of the United Calabarzon Collegiate League (UCCL), which opens today at the First Asia Institute of Technology and Humanities (FAITH) in Tanauan City, Batangas.

Host school FAITH guaranteed a better season that would last for two months.

Competitions will be in basketball, volleyball and football.

“We’ve improved our facilities. Our football turf is perfect now, the grass is well maintained and our basketball court has been improved, in fact, we increased its capacity. We can now handle about 3,000 [people],” UCCL Tournament Director Lito Arim told the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum earlier this week at Shakey’s Malate.

The champions of the UCCL will automatically earn slots to the Philippine Collegiate Champions League Sweet 16.

Ramon Rafael Bonilla

A

Army eyes solo lead; Petron vs Amy’s gals

R

berth, also guns for a sweep of third place against Laoag at 4 p.m.

Conference Most Valuable Player Gretchel Soltones and Janine Marciano took over in the absence of Alyssa Valdez to power the Water Defenders to a 23-25, 25-21, 25-21, 19-25, 15-11 victory over the Power Smashers, also last Wednesday.

The league will also honor the top individual performers, led by Soltones, in-between the matches.

Veterans Judy Caballejo, Wendy Semana, May Pantino, Joy Cases and Jocemer Tapic are playing solidly for Air Force, but Head Coach Jasper Jimenez wants his wards to step up even more in Game Two.

C Cola-Army goes for the solo lead as it battles Foton in an explosive three-game weekend program in the Philippine Superliga (PSL) AllFilipino Conference women’s volleyball tournament today at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

The Lady Troopers shoot for their fifth straight win in the 4 p.m. match. Petron and Amy’s Kitchen clash at 2 p.m. in the interclub tournament sponsored

by KLab Cyscorpions, Asics, Mikasa, Mueller and Senoh, with TV5 as official broadcaster.

Cignal, meanwhile, tries to stop the bleeding when it

“We have been bothered by our slow start and we are figuring out a way to get rid of that,” Jimenez said.

“We need to double our efforts in Game Two.” The Lady

SAN BEDA’S Javee Mocon drives against College of Saint Benilde’s Kendrix Belgica. NONOY LACZA

Warriors, meanwhile, will try to leave their Game One loss behind and try to force sudden death.

“We have high hopes we can bounce back,” Pocari interim Coach Rommel Abella end it. Lance Agcaoili faces Generika in the nightcap at 6.

RC Cola-Army currently shares the lead with F2 Logistics on 4-0 won-lost records. But the Lady Troopers are the more impressive team. They haven’t dropped a set and underscored their domination with a rousing 25-22, 25-23, 25-11 win over defending champion Petron on Wednesday.

“It just so happened that we’re always at the right place and at the right time. We’re just lucky,” Lady Trooper Head Coach KungFu Reyes said. “All teams are strong. All teams are talented. I think we’re winning

M

ERALCO survived the gallant stand of a revamped Phoenix squad by crawling back for a 108-103 win at the start of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup on Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Import Allen Durham had two crucial follow-ups inside the final two minutes as the Bolts spoiled the league debut of new Fuel Masters Head Coach Ariel Vanguardia.

Durham, who had stints with Air21 and Barako Bull, scored eight of Meralco’s last 13 points to lead his team to victory.

The 6-foot-5 Durham finished with 32 points, 22 rebounds and five assists in a solid all-around performance for Head Coach Norman Black, who also had four locals in double figures.

It was a tough loss for Phoenix, which came back from a double-digit deficit in the third period and took an 88-84 lead on Josh Urbiztond’s back-to-back three-pointers with 7:56 left in the game.

The Fuel Masters held a 97-95 lead before Durham led the Bolts’ strong rally highlighted a follow-up slam to give Meralco a 105-100 lead with 43 ticks left.

Veteran guard Jimmy Alapag and Jared Dillinger each had 15 points for the Bolts, while Cliff Hodge and Chris Newsome contributed 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Marcus Simmons had 21 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists for the Fuel Masters but struggled in the field on 9-of-20 shooting.

Simon Enciso had 16 markers, while Urbiztondo added 12 markers for Vanguardia, who opted not use Cyrus Baguio in the game.

Baguio was in uniform but did not play as per coach’s decision. Joel Orellana

Potts waxes hot for San Beda; cards prevail

F

Air Force seeks V-League title IR Force goes for a sweep of its titular series with Pocari Sweat for the Shakey’s V-League Season 13 Open Conference crown today at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.

Joy Casas, May Ann Pantino and Jocemer Tapic stepped up and combined in a fiery Lady Jet Spikers’ finish to snare a 17-25, 25-20, 15-25, 26-24, 15-11 decision in Game One of their best-of-three series last Wednesday, moving them a win away from their first Shakey’s V-League crown.

Air Force had two fourth-place finishes and could complete a milestone if they win in Game Two, which starts at 6 p.m.

BaliPure, which lost to Pocari Sweat in their sudden death for the second finals

Durham lifts Meralco past Fuel Masters

because we’re slowly reaching our peak.”

RC Cola-Army will be facing a Foton side that looks geared up to represent the country in the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Asian Women’s Club Championship at the Alonte Sports Center in Biñan City from September 3 to 11.

The reigning Grand Prix champions Tornadoes are coming off two-week hiatus and are itching to bounce back from an 11-25, 23-25, 14-25 loss to F2 Logistics on July 3. They have won two and lost as many so far in the tournament. Lance Agcaoili

ILIPINO-AMERICAN Davon Potts pulled off another dominating performance, as San Beda made mincemeat of College of Saint Benilde, 90-63, to stay unbeaten in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Season 92 seniors basketball action on Thursday at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.

Potts scored 12 of his teamhigh 19 points in the first half when the Red Lions jumped to a 24-10 lead and put on a clinic in the second half for a commanding 40-26 lead as they headed to the lockers.

Donald Tankoua held his ground against Clement Lentcheu and finished with 17 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks for the Red Lions, who streaked to their fourth-straight victory.

“This only shows that we got a deep team and all the players are ready to play when it’s their time to engage on the couret,” San Beda Head Coach Jamike Jarin said. “They played good defense and they are willing to find an open man.”

Robert Bolick added 11 points on four-ofsix shooting from the field for the Red Lions, while Radge Tongco finished with 11 points in only 16 minutes of action. Javee Mocon also had eight points to go with his six rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

The Red Lions continued to play without captain Dan Sara, who is nursing a fractured finger.

Lentcheu wound up with 19 points and 15 rebounds for the Blazers, who have lost all their five games this season. Yankie Haruna added 17 points for Saint Benilde.

Ramon Rafael Bonilla

Sports

CHRIS FROOME carries his bike toward the finish line after figuring in an ugly crash inside the final 2 kilometers on Thursday. AP

BusinessMirror

A8 | S

aturday, July 16, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana

ON THE CUSP OF HISTORY

T

ROON, Scotland—Phil Mickelson was 16 feet away from a place in history he wouldn’t have to share with anyone.

Fans watched from a rooftop balcony. Royal Troon members strained to see out the window from the clubhouse behind the 18th green. Jack Nicklaus usually doesn’t watch golf on TV, but he made an exception for this moment.

In 436 majors held over the last 156 years, no one had ever shot 62.

That’s still the case. By a fraction of an inch.

“I want to cry,” Mickelson said.

Mickelson pointed his putter toward the hole and was ready to step into history on Thursday in the British Open when his birdie putt turned sharply to the right at the mouth of the hole, just enough to ride the edge around the back of the cup and sit there, teasing him.

“You made a beautiful read and putt on that last hole but got absolutely stone-cold robbed,” Nicklaus said in a message on Facebook.

Mickelson plopped his hand on his forehead in disbelief. His caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, was so stunned that he fell over backward.

“It was one of the best rounds I’ve ever played...and yet, I want to shed a tear right now,” Mickelson said. “That putt on 18 was an opportunity to do something historical. I knew it, and with a foot to go I thought I had done it. I saw that ball rolling right in the center. I went to go get it. I had that surge of adrenaline that I had just shot 62, and then I had the heartbreak that I didn’t.”

No tears were necessary at Royal Troon, not after a round of 63 that was brilliant even by Lefty’s standards, and certainly not after building a three-shot lead over Patrick Reed and Martin Kaymer on an ideal day by the Irish Sea. Mickelson seized the moment with a birdie on the par-5 16th from a bunker short of the green, and a 4-iron to 15 feet for birdie on the par-3 17th to reach 8-under par. He knew no one had ever shot 62 in a major. He also knew he most likely would never get a chance like this.

“That would have been really something

special,” he said. “So to have that putt lip out, that’s going to sting for a while.”

Even with such a close call, Mickelson is in good company.

Nicklaus missed a putt just inside 3 feet for a 62 in the 1980 US Open at Baltusrol. Greg Norman had to only two-putt from 30 feet for a 62 at Turnberry in the 1986 British Open and took three putts.

Tiger Woods watched his 15-foot putt for 62 spin 270 degrees around the cup in the 2007 Professional Golfers Association Championship at Southern Hills. Nick Price’s birdie putt for a 62 in the 1986 Masters dipped in and out of the cup.

Asked why there had never been a 62 in the major, Mickelson pointed to his putt.

“There’s a curse,” he said. “Because that ball should have been in.”

It wasn’t for a lack of effort. He went with a 6-iron to play a baby cut back toward the hole, and it worked out perfectly. He brought in his caddie and told him that “I need your best read.”

Ernie Els did his part, putting out of turn to turn the stage over to Mickelson.

The pace was perfect. The putt looked perfect—until it wasn’t. By a fraction.

“I saw that ball going in and I just had a good, clear vision of what was going to happen,” he said. “What I didn’t see was what happened.”

And now, he faces a return to reality. AP

»It wasPHILoneMICKELSON: of the best rounds I’ve ever played...and yet, I want to shed a tear right now. AP

NIGHTMARE. MAYHEM.

M

By Andrew Dampf The Associated Press

ONT VENTOUX, France—Fans celebrating Bastille Day created dramas at the Tour de France, causing a crash involving race leader Chris Froome that ensured it wasn’t until hours after the 12th stage concluded that organizers decided the British rider could keep the yellow jersey.

“Mont Ventoux always throws up something different, and today was no exception,” Froome said.

“You always have to expect the unexpected at the Tour.”

The problems at cycling’s most prestigious race were overshadowed in France hours later, when a truck drove on to the sidewalk and plowed through a crowd of revelers celebrating the national day who’d gathered to watch fireworks in the French resort city of Nice. Some officials and eyewitnesses described it as a deliberate attack. The president of the Nice region said at least 60 people were killed.

Nice Regional Dresident Eric Ciotti said on France Info radio that “It’s a scene of horror.”

It was unclear immediately if tour organizers planned any changes to the race in the wake of the attack, which occurred at least a three-hour drive from the recently finished stage.

The race’s first time trial comes on Friday with

a hilly 37.5-kilometer leg from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont-D’Arc, where Froome will be looking to add to his lead in calmer circumstances.

In Thursday’s racing drama, Richie Porte crashed headfirst into a motorbike carrying a TV camera, and Froome, who was right behind his former teammate, also hit the pavement in the final kilometer on the wind-shortened climb up legendary Mont Ventoux.

“The crowd was just all on the road, and a motorbike stopped right in front of us and we had nowhere to go,” Porte said. “The next minute, I went straight over the top of the motorbike. It was just a mess.”

Last week Froome punched the face of a spectator who got too close to the race.

“I agree that you come to the race, you have a good time, but you don’t need to be running beside the riders, you don’t need to hitting riders, pushing riders,” said Porte, who was being examined for possible injuries.

“Things have got to change, and I can’t believe there weren’t barriers there.”

The wind prevented organizers from erecting the usual barriers at the end of most stages, Tour director Christian Prudhomme explained.

“We took an exceptional decision because of this exceptional situation, an incident that might have never happened before in 100 years,” Prudhomme said. “There will be an investigation to find out why the TV motorbike was blocked and the riders fell.”

After the crash, Froome threw his mangled bike aside and began running up the road. He eventually was given a small yellow race-assistance bike before his team car was finally able to provide him with a suitable substitute.

All of Froome’s main rivals crossed ahead of him, and Froome shook his head in disbelief when he finally reached the finish.

“It’s really unfortunate what happened in the last couple of kilometers,” Froome said, “but ultimately common sense has prevailed and the commissaires have come to the right decision, so I would like to thank them for that.”

As Froome ran through the crowds, he attempted to communicate with his team via radio but the crowds prevented the Team Sky car from reaching him.

“It was a nightmare,” Sky Sports Director Nicolas Portal said. “It took up to two minutes for him to get a spare bike but the pedals did not suit him.... I can’t understand how so many people were allowed there. It was mayhem.”

Before the crash, Froome dropped most of his rivals apart from Porte and Bauke Mollema.

The race jury eventually decided to give Froome and Porte the same stage time as Mollema.

Still, Froome was booed and whistled at when he put the yellow jersey back on during the podium ceremony.

Froome, who is seeking his third Tour title in four years, increased his overall lead to 47 seconds ahead of fellow British rider Adam Yates.