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Monday, June 13, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 247

San Miguel betting big on conflict-torn ARMM

By Lenie Lectura

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@llectura

an Miguel Corp. (SMC) bared plans over the weekend to put up a power plant, develop a port and invest in bulk-water facilities in five predominantly Muslim provinces.

573,446 The number of households in the entire Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

The conglomerate said it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Autonomous Continued on A2

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INSIDE

Filipinization and the flag as amulet against bad luck

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Undreading unsolicited proposals in PPPs PPP Lead Alberto C. Agra

D

o Philippine laws and regulations allow unsolicited proposals (UPs) in publicprivate partnerships (PPPs)?

What are the advantages of UPs? Are there competition, accountability and transparency in UPs? What are the basic differences between solicited and UP procedures?

Continued on A14

Unsolicited Proposals

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Study by Proponent

Award by Government

Proposal by Proponent

Right to match by Proponent

Acceptance by Government

Counteroffer by Challengers

Negotiations between the Parties

Invitation to Challengers

Style has a uniform

President Aquino led on Sunday morning the nationwide celebration of the 118th Independence Day at the Rizal Park in Manila, his last as leader of the country. He was given military honors, highlighted by a 21-gun salute, upon his arrival in front of the monument of Dr. Jose P. Rizal at the Rizal Park, as the Philippine flag was being raised.

By Fil V. Elefante

life

d1

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@elefantefil

First of three parts

HE Philippines commemorated Independence Day on June 12. Every Filipino knows the basic tale. However, memory is fickle. Not all of us remember the Philippine history lessons we received in school. And

PESO exchange rates n US 45.9170

other historical facts are taught only to Filipinos who aspire to get a degree in history.

Filipinos recognize June 12 as the country’s Independence Day, because of a decisive move taken by the late President Diosdado P. Macapagal.

On May 12, 1962, Macapagal issued Proclamation 28, declaring

June 12 as the official date of Philippine independence.

Current history textbooks explain that Macapagal decided on the date of June 12, because it was the day when Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the First Philippine Republic, officially declared the country’s independence from Spain.

Author: Alberto C. Agra

bm Graphics: Job Ruzgal

Continued on A2

n japan 0.4288 n UK 66.4006 n HK 5.9164 n CHINA 6.9878 n singapore 33.9497 n australia 34.1026 n EU 51.9689 n SAUDI arabia 12.2478

Source: BSP (10 June 2016 )

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A2 Monday, June 13, 2016

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Filipinization and the flag as amulet against bad luck Continued from A1

That’s the basic tale. But things were not that simple. There was more to what prodded Macapagal to drop July 4 as Philippine Independence Day. It was known as the Filipinization Movement.

The Filipinization Movement

ACCORDING to the book Legacies of World War II in South and East Asia that was edited by David Koh Wee Hock, there were prominent Filipinos who were getting tired of being viewed as America’s lackey in Asia.

“The dominant narrative of modern Philippine history reflected here, as it was in the school textbooks of that period [late 1940s and the 1950s], where the Philippines is pictured unabashedly as the light of freedom in Asia, a bridge between East and West, America’s outpost of democracy, and so forth.”

Barely eight years after the United States government granted independence to the Philippine Third Repubic in July 4, 1946, on February 5, 1954, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Leon Maria Guerrero delivered a speech titled “Asia for Asians.”

According to Koh Wee Hock’s book, Guerrero called for a “fundamental reorientation of Philippine foreign policy toward Asia.”

“This implied a loosening somewhat of the special ties with the United States,” the book said.

Unfortunately for Guerrero, his speech also rekindled the memory of Imperial Japan’s slogan promoting the Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere “Asia for Asians.”

“Guerrero’s early career as a diplomat in the 1943 Second Philippine Republic was dug up and he was accused of resurrecting a slogan of the Dark Age of the Japanese Occupation,” the book added. “President Ramon Magsaysay, after consultation with his American advisers, came down hard on Guerrero.” Among those who joined in slamming Guerrero was Diosdado Macapagal, who was, at that time, still a member of the House of Representatives.

Fortunately for Guerrero, one of his supporters was then-Vice President Carlos P. Garcia. Garcia, who assumed the presidency upon the death of Magsaysay in a plane crash,“would take up Guerrero’s initiatives in the latter part of the decade.”

And then Macapagal came into

the picture once again.

M acapagal, upon becoming president, “would change his stance dramatically, flirting with Sukarno’s vision of a united Maphilindo [Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia] and proclaiming the Malayan roots of Filipino civilization and the need to belong to Asia rather than to the United States.”

This charged political atmosphere was one of the factors that influenced Macapagal to drop July 4 as the country’s independence day and adopt Aguinaldo’s date for declaring Philippine independence. It was both a move to assert the country’s Asian identity and a step away from the label of being a lackey of the US. However, the Maphilindo initiative did not come to pass, but it did serve as inspiration for the rise of a new grouping of nations in Southeast Asia. Today that group is known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

“Flag Days”

AS our country evolved, so did our ways of commemorating Philippine independence. The most recent addition to the country’s practice of celebrating Independence Day is now known as “Flag Days,” which begins every May 28 until the eve of June 12.

This was initiated by President Fidel V. Ramos as part of the events leading to the celebration of the country’s first centennial of Philippine independence.

It was on May 23, 1994, when Ramos issued Executive Order 179 “stretching National Flag Day into an extended period, from May 28 to June 12, culminating on the celebration of Indepedence Day,” an article on the Official Gazette said. “All Filipinos are encouraged to display the Philippine flag in all offices, agencies and instruments of government, business establishments, schools and private homes throughout this period.”

Flag Days, in turn, is based on a historical event.

It was on May 28, 1898, when the flag of the First Philippine Republic was first unfurled. The event was the Battle of Alapan in Imus Cavite.

It was adopted as the Philippine flag after its official presentation to the public on June 12, 1898.

However, upon the defeat of the First Philippine Republic, the US took control of the country.

The display of the national flag was banned.

However, the ban on displaying the Philippine flag was lifted in 1919.

“Until 1940, Flag Day was observed in October, the date the Philippine Legislature had restored the flag,” the Official Gazette said. “From 1941 to 1964, Flag Day was commemorated on the date the national flag was unfurled in Kawit: June 12.”

In 1965 Macapagal altered this practice when he issued Proclamation 374 moving National Flag Day to May 28. Twenty-nine years later, Ramos would introduce the latest change in how Filipinos observe the run up to Independence Day. The change initiated by Ramos is still being observed today.

Lucky charm

ASIDE from being the national flag, the country’s banner can also be seen as the nation’s symbolic amulet or lucky charm.

According to John Ray Ramos, a heritage conservation advocate and history instructor from the Far Eastern University, the symbols within the flag were also the same symbols used by soldiers of the Philippine Revolution for their lucky charms or anting-anting.

Prof. Xiao Chua from the history department of De La Salle University agreed with Ramos.

“The sun can be viewed as the symbol for bathala or god,” Xiao said. “That is a symbol used in the anting-anting.

Amulets either included a triangle or were made in the form of a triangular medallion. The triangle is supposed to stand for the god’s mountain.”

“These symbols of the sun and the mountain were found in amulets used during the time of the revolution,” Ramos added.

Ramos explained that from this point of view, it can be said the national flag can also serve as the country’s national amulet or lucky charm.

“Symbolic letters were etched on each point of the triangle to provide mystical protection,” Xiao said. “The belief was that anyone who wore such an amulet was able to safeguard his soul from harm. This was then carried over in the national flag, but the letters were transformed into stars, which represented the main island groups of the Philippines—Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.”

The sun

HOWEVER, the sun in the flag may also stand for something else.

“Most Filipinos are no longer aware

of this, but it can also be said the sun in the national flag may also stand for Sol de Mayo, which was used as the South American symbol for liberty,” Xiao added. “ There were some prominent Filipinos, known as Ilustrados, who were aware of how this symbol was sued in South America at that time,” Xiao said. “However, it would be wrong to say they copied it because we already had a history of using the sun as a symbol. What essentially happened was that these two symbols merged.”

Ramos added that the sun was already displayed in early versions of the flag of the Katipunan, the organization that was later led by Andres Bonifacio that initiated the revolution against Spain.

“It was supposed to be a sun with the stylized ancient letter ‘K’ emblazoned within it,” Ramos said. “The ancient ‘K’ was for kalayaan or freedom. But it was not really a sun.”

Xiao agreed.

“Actually, it was not a sun but a glowing letter ‘K’,” Xiao explained.

“Documents from Spain dating back from the Philippine Revolution were recently obtained from the Archivo General Militar de Madrid, ” Xiao added.

“These documents explained that this was not the Sun of Liberty. Based on the recently discovered Katipunan documents, this symbol actually stood for the Light of Liberty.”

Though Xiao acknowledged that the term Light of Liberty was now generally accepted among historians, however, there were still some who still view that the symbol stood for the sun.

“But for Andres Bonifacio’s Katipunan, it was simply the Light of Liberty,” Xiao said.

Xiao, citing a letter written by Mariano Ponce, said that, aside from being viewed as the South American symbol of Sol de Mayo, it was pointed out that the sun was also a symbol of progress, as well as a depiction that Filipinos belonged to the Oriental family.

According to Ponce, in a letter he sent to a friend, there were still those who clung to the South American symbol of Sol del Mayo. For Ponce, he believed that the sun was a symbol of progress, as well as showing that Filipinos belonged to the Oriental family.

The stars

XIAO explained that the stars in the flag originally stood for Luzon, Panay

and Mindanao.

“The stars depicted the three big islands, which certain writers said where the places where the fight against Spain took place,” Xiao said.

“It has to be noted that Panay already played an important role in the revolution. Panay was where the Philippine flag was first unfurled in the Visayas.”

“Then Mariano Ponce wrote a letter to his Japanese friend,” Xiao added. “Ponce explained that the three stars represented the three major island groups in the Philippines: Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

This explanation was later adopted and is still in use today.”

Changing the current flag

ACCORDING to Ramos, the historical record clearly showed that there was no need to alter the national flag in order to include a specific symbol for Muslim Mindanao.

Ramos said there was no justification to change the present flag’s design. Xiao agreed with this point of view.

“Because Mindanao is also depicted as one of the stars in the flag, this means that Filipinos in Mindanao, who practice the Muslim faith, are included in our national banner,” Xiao pointed out.

“The star is not just about an island group in the Philippines. It represents the people living within that island group.”

“Any attempt to change to the current flag is redundant,” Xiao added, “Because they are already included.”

As for the suggestion to add a ninth ray to the sun to symbolize the Muslim Filipinos fight for freedom, Xiao explained that there was a very specific reason there were only eight rays in the flag.

“The eight rays of the sun stand for the eight provinces that the Spanish colonial government put under martial law,” Xiao said. “These were the provinces of Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Manila, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Tarlac.

The rays are not simply about eight provinces that fought against Spain.

The revolution was not confined in those eight provinces.”

“It’s a misconception to say that the sun’s rays in the flag stood only for the provinces that fought against Spain,” Ramos added. “It’s really a misconception. The rays simply depict the eight provinces that took the brunt of Spanish reprisals when the Spanish colonial government declared martial law upon the onset of the Philippine Revolution.”

To be continued

San Miguel betting big on conflict-torn ARMM Continued from A1

Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to help develop some of the country’s poorest provinces through investments in emploment-generating industries ranging from energy to ports and bulk water facilities.

The noncontiguous ARMM includes Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. It is an Autonomous region in the Philippines and the only region that has its own government.

The MOU, signed by SMC President and COO Ramon S. Ang and Gov. Mujiv Hataman allows SMC to build power plants in yet to be identified areas of the region as part of the diversified conglomerate’s commitment to provide long-term solutions to Mindanao’s critical lack of reliable power.

Over the next two years, SMC committed to build power-generating plants that will serve the entire ARMM region, with estimated 573,446 households.

At present, only 30 percent of households in the region have electricity. Brownouts or short-duration power outages, particularly during the summer months, are prevalent.

“San Miguel has shown great vision by choosing to invest in ARMM. Over the next few years, we’re going to see what can be achieved when the private and the public sector work together with the best interests of the local communities at heart,” Hataman said.

Ang said ARMM represents one of the most underpenetrated markets in the Philippines, “but is a region ripe for investment offering huge potential growth.”

S M C ’s i n v e s t m e n t i n |ARMM is in line with its strategy to locate facilities and production centers outside urban centers, creating strong “second-tier cities,” generating jobs and rebalancing the national economy by income and growth dispersal.

Instability, lack of infrastructure and lack of a stable

power supply has made investors wary of the ARMM as investment destination. But Ang hoped SMC’s vote of confidence in the conflict-prone region would create much-needed jobs, entrepreneur opportunities, provide a major economic boost to the region and ease or deescalate perceived investment risks common among long-haul investors.

Last month Ang said some $4.2 billion would be set aside for five power plants in Luzon and Mindanao with a total capacity of 2,100 megawatts (MW).

Three of the new power plants will be within industrial estates in Mindanao that SMC plans to build. Each power plant is estimated to produce 300 MW. The proposed industrial sites will each have it own power plant generating more or less 300 MW. Should there be a need for additional capacity, Ang said SMC vowed to build more.

He pegged the cost of the power project at $2 million per MW. Ang gave confirmation the project cost for all three Mindanao power plants could reach $1.8 billion.

“It is our intent to put up industrial estates in Mindanao to create more jobs. This will also attract local and foreign investors to relocate in those areas because power rates would be cheap,” Ang said.

He did not commit a target date of completion and start of commercial operations of the three power plants. Each of the estate, however, would take about three years to construct, according to Ang. The other two power plants scheduled for construction would be in Luzon. These are the 600-MW coal-fired plant in Pagbilao, Quezon, under Central Luzon Premiere Power Corp. and another 600-MW coal-fired plant under Mariveles Power Generation Corp. in Bataan.

SMC has already signed a power-supply agreement with the Manila Electric Co. or Meralco who committed to buy the two Luzon plants’ output.

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El Niño, new govt compel more Pinoys to save money

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By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

he number of Filipinos who actually own a savings account in a bank somewhere and those other Filipinos who plan to have one at some point forward increased under the latest survey on consumer confidence conducted each quarter by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The survey’s demographic detail has, likewise, changed, as the incidence of saving among poor households increased even as the same deteriorated among the middle-class and well-off families.

This developed even as consumer sentiment soured somewhat during the period, the consumer barometer having marginally declined to minus 6.4 percent in the April-toJune period from minus 5.7 percent a quarter earlier.

The negative sign indicates the predominance of pessimists among consumers over their optimist counterparts that, in this case, increased slightly while remaining narrow.

In the survey, the BSP said the percentage of households with savings in the April-to-June quarter increased to 33.2 percent, from 32.7

percent a quarter earlier.

According to respondents, they save money for the following reasons: emergencies, retirement, health and hospitalization, education, and business capital and investment.

Broken down into sectors, households with savings increased among the low-income group, but decreased for both the middle- and high-income groups.

Across geographical distribution, meanwhile, data from the BSP also show that the increase in savings was most notable in areas outside the National Capital Region.

The act of saving is essentially a defensive move undertaken in this case by Filipinos who took a careful look at the weather disruptions presented by the ongoing El Nino

and the untested macroeconomic grasp of the incoming administration under President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte.

The BSP survey also shows that about one-third of surveyed savers still shy away from putting their money in banks.

About two-thirds, or 65.9 percent, of household savers had bankdeposit accounts, which is where they keep their money. Forty-seven percent, meanwhile, kept their savings at home; while another 26.4 percent put their money in cooperatives, so-called paluwagan schemes, in credit or loan associations and in such other investment tools as insurance.

This saving behavior was reflected rather clearly in the BSP’s quarterly consumer expectations survey (CES). The survey results showed a decline in optimism to minus 6.4 percent from minus 5.7 percent reported a quarter earlier.

Despite the dip, the BSP said the decline was “marginal” and the overall outlook was “broadly steady”.

The current quarter consumer confidence, while remaining negative, was the second-highest reading since the nationwide survey started in 2007, the BSP said, “This indicates that the pessimists continued to outnumber the optimists, but the margin, while increasing slightly, remained narrow,” it added.

Bsp-b.i.s. Research Conference on financial inclusion and central banks

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he Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) jointly hosted the Research Conference on Financial Inclusion and Central Banks in Mactan, Cebu, this week.

The high-level conference brought together senior central bankers, leading academics and other experts to discuss key policy issues on financial inclusion. This is the first event the BIS cohosted with the BSP that is focused on financial inclusion.

BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. (second from left) said, “Financial inclusion has gained prominence as a global policy agenda as it complements other policy initiatives on reducing poverty, addressing inequality, and promoting financial stability and integrity.”

BIS Chief Representative of Office for Asia and the Pacific Dr. Eli Remolona (third from left) said the BIS, as the global standard-setting body, would want to align reforms with inclusion.

Also at the conference were Bank of Thailand Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob (left), who said financial inclusion is transformative—central banks themselves can participate in making the financial systems more beneficial to the majority of citizens.

Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Yaga Venugopal Reddy (right) said financial literacy is relevant for financial inclusion, and also for the broader objective of nurturing an educated public.

AseanMonday BusinessMirror

A4 Monday, June 13, 2016 • Editor: Max V. de Leon

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Vietnam seeks to curtail petroleum exports

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O CHI MINH CITY—The Ministry of Industry and Trade wants petroleum products from the Dung Quãt Oil Refinery consumed domestically and not exported.

It has instructed the Bình Son Oil Refinery Co. (BSR), which operates Viêt Nam’s sole refinery, to give priority to selling Dung Quãt’s products in the domestic market to limit the country’s dependence on fuel imports.

It instructed the company to negotiate with oil companies to sell the products and increase the refinery’s capacity to boost its competitiveness.

The ministry promised to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to address tax and other financial issues to help the refinery strengthen its competitiveness.

It plans to allow the company to

export only when domestic demand is down and its safe-storage limit is exceeded.

In the past BSR has complained that the tax rate it had to pay was much higher than the rates under Vietnam’s free-trade agreements with Association with Southeast Asian Nations members and South Korea.

This made its products more expensive than imports, it said.

The Ministry of Finance has written to relevant agencies and the Quang Ngãi Province People’s Committee, telling them to seek the Government’s approval for amending the tax rates. PNA/VNS

Thai court affirms prison term for Red Shirt leader

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ANGKOK—Thailand’s Court of Appeals on Friday affirmed a two-year prison sentence for a prominent antigovernment activist convicted of defaming the country’s prime minister in 2009.

The lawyer for Jatuporn Prompan said he was granted release on bail of 200,000 baht ($5,680) pending a further appeal to the Supreme Court.

Lawyer Winyat Chatmontree said Jatuporn is not allowed to leave the country without court permission.

Jatuporn is a leader of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, also known as the Red Shirts, which supports former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a military coup in 2006. It opposes the current ruling junta and advocates voting against a draft constitution in an upcoming referendum.

The group also has plans to monitor the referendum for fraud. Some officials have suggested that such monitoring will not be allowed. The

authorities have placed tight restrictions on public campaigning over the vote, which mostly handicaps opponents of the draft charter who charge it is undemocratic.

Jatuporn was found guilty on two counts of defaming then-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva by saying he had ordered soldiers to kill protesters and interfered with a petition for a royal pardon for Thaksin, who was convicted of corruption in 2008 but avoided prison by fleeing the country.

Jatuporn earlier this month lost another defamation case over other remarks he made about Abhisit.

The Supreme Court gave him a sixmonth prison sentence, suspended for two years and a 50,000-baht ($1,400) fine.

There has been a sometimesviolent struggle for political power between supporters and opponents of Thaksin since he was ousted from power. Many legal cases against both sides remain unresolved. AP

briefs

DuPont opens Asean office in Singapore

SINGAPORE—DuPont is opening its Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) headquarters in Singapore. Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont announced the opening in a statement on Thursday. SVP and Chief Science and Technology Officer Douglas Muzyka and Singapore Economic Development Board Managing Director Yeoh Keat Chuan opened the office and technology center. DuPont says it is an increasingly important economic region for the company. The 118,000-square-foot headquarters will house the administrative offices of DuPont businesses in agriculture and nutrition, bio-based industrials and advanced materials, as well as nutrition and health laboratories. Muzyka says putting business leaders with scientists and engineers in the same location will allow the company to “deliver solutions” faster for the region and the world. AP

Authorities ban fireworks, sky lanterns citing safety concerns BANGKOK—Thai military authorities on Saturday introduced strict controls over the production and use of the festive floating lanterns and homemade gunpowder rockets, which are launched during celebrations in Thailand, citing concerns over potential danger they pose to civil aviation. According to the Thai public journal, the Royal Thai Government Gazette, all launches of homemade festive rockets and paper lanterns with burning torches inside will now have to be coordinated with the local authorities. Thai laws come into force after being published in the Royal Gazette. In 2015, during the celebrations of the Loy Krathong holiday, 74 flights bound for Thailand’s northern provinces were canceled due to the launches of the flying lanterns, while 30 more were redirected to other airports. PNA/Sputnik

Cambodia’s rubber exports down in Q1 PHNOM PENH—Cambodia exported 28,953 tons of dry rubber in the first quarter of 2016, down 8 percent from 31, 476 tons over the same period last year, according to figures the Ministry of Commerce released on Saturday. The Southeast Asian country earned a total revenue of $31 million from dry rubber exports during the January-March period this year, down 26 percent from $42 million over the same period last year, the data revealed. A ton of the best quality rubber goes for about $1,543 on the international market this week, down 19 percent from $1,920 at this time last year. Cambodian rubber has been sold to Malaysia, Vietnam, China, South Korea and some European countries. According to an agricultural ministry report, by the end of 2015, Cambodia has planted rubber trees on the area of about 389, 000 hectares in which some 111,232 hectares are old enough to be yielded. PNA/Xinhua

NEW PORT A worker mops the floor at the newly built terminal of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Indonesia, on June 12. The new terminal, which is called “Terminal 3 Ultimate,” is scheduled to open this month. AP

IEA sees Asean members as buyers in global gas trade

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HE next five years will bring a reshaping of the global gas trade, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said June 8 in its 2016 Medium-Term Gas Market Report.

“New liquefied natural gas [LNG] supplies are coming on line just as demand growth in some major markets weakens, resulting in major shifts in global gas-trade patterns. A weak outlook for Japan and Korea—the world’s top 2 LNG buyers—means that new supplies will need to find other markets. China, India and Association of Southeast Asian Nations [Asean] countries will emerge as key buyers,” said the report published on IEA web site on June 8.

“We see massive quantities of LNG exports coming on line, while, despite lower gas prices, demand continues to soften in traditional markets,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said.

These contradictory trends will both impact trade and keep spot gas prices under pressure.

Birol added that the combined factors of cheaper coal and continued strong renewables growth were blocking gas from expanding more rapidly in the power sector.

The annual IEA report, which gives a detailed analysis and five-year projections of natural-gas demand, supply and trade developments, sees global demand rising by 1.5 percent per year by the end of the forecast period, compared with 2 percent projected in last year’s outlook.

Slower primary energy demand growth and the decline in the energy intensity of the world economy are lessening demand growth for all fossil fuels, including gas.

Modest growth

AS demand growth for coal and oil also weakens, the share of gas in the energy mix is still expected to increase—albeit modestly—by 2021.

While gas demand is projected to remain weak, global LNG exports will increase substantially. Between 2015 and 2021, liquefaction capacity

will increase by 45 percent, mostly from the United States and Australia.

New projects in both countries have commenced ramping up production.

Several others are at an advanced stage of development.

By 2021, Australia will rival Qatar as the world’s largest LNG exporter and the US will not be far behind.

Fundamental developments point to oversupply in the market over the forecast horizon of this report, which should keep spot gas prices across the globe under pressure: “unwanted” LNG supplies will look for a home in Europe, due to the flexibility of its gas system and welldeveloped spot markets.

As a result, intense competition will develop among producers to retain or gain access to European customers.

“We are at the start of a new chapter in European gas markets,” Birol said. Ample LNG supplies will also affect markets outside Europe.

Weaker-than-expected demand in Asia is leaving several large LNG

buyers in the region over-contracted.

This should help accelerate a transition towards more flexible contractual structures.

Moreover, with oil markets expected to rebalance before gas markets do, renewed pressure to move towards hub pricing and reduce oil exposure in long-term contracts will likely reemerge before the end of the decade, the report said.

Birol warned that today’s oversupply could foreshadow a number of supply-side challenges and security risks down the road, noting that a growing level of LNG export capacity had gone offline during the past five years due to technical and security issues, and that such problems could get worse with low oil and gas prices.

As producers slash investments to refocus on cost reductions and budget savings, he said that such efforts may be too late for global gas markets to rebalance during this decade, but could sow the seeds for tighter markets into the next decade. TNS

Papua New Guinea university bans student protests after violent clash

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YDNEY—The University of Papua New Guinea has obtained a court order banning student protesters from further demonstrations, following a violent scuffle with police, as officials on Thursday tried to piece together what happened during a clash, which left scores of students wounded.

The injunction from the National Court restricts the students involved in Wednesday’s confrontation from boycotting classes and barricading or locking classrooms in protest.

The court order was issued after police fired gunshots to quell a student protest in the South Pacific nation’s capital, Port Moresby. The students have been demanding for weeks that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill resign because of alleged corruption and mismanagement.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the situation in Port Moresby remained volatile on Thursday, and that Australia had offered Papua New Guinea help to stem further unrest.

“We are calling for calm. Obviously, lawful and peaceful protests should be allowed,” Bishop told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. “The police response should at all times be proportionate.”

The government denied initial reports students had been killed in the scuffle, but acknowledged several people had been injured.

The exact number of protesters who were hurt was unclear. O’Neill said 5 people had been injured; the country’s police commissioner, citing information from local hospitals, said 23 were hurt, five

A 34-year-old Esther Was bleeds from a head wound suffered during a student protest on June 8 in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Police fired gunshots to quell the protest demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, the government said. AP

critically; and Amnesty International said 38 people were injured, four critically.

Both sides blamed each other. O’Neill said he

was told a small group of students became violent, threw rocks at police and “provoked a response that came in the form of tear gas and warning shots.”

Protesters said they had done nothing to prompt aggression from police and accused the officers of firing directly at students.

“The shooting of students peacefully protesting is reminiscent of the worst excesses of repressive regimes in the region,” Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International’s director for South East Asia and the Pacific, said in a statement. “Papua New Guinea’s authorities must establish a prompt, impartial and independent investigation to determine who is responsible for the unnecessary and excessive use of force.”

O’Neill said an investigation was underway, though it was unclear who would be in charge of the inquiry.

Staycey Yalo, a journalism student at the university, said she and the other protesters encountered a line of police officers blocking them when they tried to march to Parliament. The police demanded they hand over the student president.

When the protesters said no, an argument broke out, she said.

“They threw tear gas and amidst the smoke, they started shooting directly at the students,” Yalo told The Associated Press by telephone. “That’s when we all ran.”

Police in vehicles began chasing after the protesters, with officers firing from their cars at fleeing students, Yalo said. AP

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UK homebuilders join ‘Remain’ camp

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ritain’s biggest property firms, including Barratt Developments Plc. and Canary Wharf Group Plc., are the latest to take a stand on UK membership in the European Union (EU) less than two weeks before a vote, saying a decision to leave would hinder development projects and raise the cost to build new homes.

In an open letter released on Saturday, executives from 17 UK companies said the “considerable uncertainty” of a vote to leave the EU would harm investment in the country, making it harder for firms to raise funds to build.

Tensions have heightened as campaigners from both sides have grown more vocal less than two weeks before Britons cast their votes on June 23 on whether to remain in the EU. The campaign to leave took a 10-percentagepoint lead in a poll published late on Friday.

“Investment will suffer as confidence in the economy wavers,” in the event of a decision to leave the bloc, the letter said. “That is the last thing Britain’s developers and house builders need.”

The number of UK companies whose executives favor the UK to remain in the European Union

sending the pound to its lowest level since April. Prime Minister David Cameron has said leaving the 28-nation bloc would cause untold economic damage, while opponents, led by former London Mayor Boris Johnson, focus on the promise of reducing immigration. Foreign support for the UK remaining in the EU on Saturday came from the German news magazine Der Spiegel, which published an appeal to the British people to reject Brexit, with the words “Please don’t go!” across a Union Jack as the front cover.

In the magazine, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said if the UK opted to leave it would not be able to enjoy the benefits of the EU’s single market and that it would “have to follow the rules of a club which it just left.”

US Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, said: “There’s a host of reasons why I think this is profoundly in the economic and security interests of both the UK, Europe and the world, for the UK to remain in.” He said any US-UK trade agreement would be negotiated after the US wraps up current talks with the EU.

Investor anxiety

Supplies disrupted

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Polls showing the “Leave” campaign leading “Remain” have fueled the anxiety of investors,

The house builders, in their letter, warned of disruptions to the supply chain, risking the production

and import of materials like bricks, which would drive up costs, they said. First-time home buyers would be particularly affected.

“Gover n ment suppor t h a s brought much-needed stability to the housing market,” said Ste phen Stone, c h ief e xec utive officer of Crest Nicholson Holdings Plc. “A ny thing which under mines it—including Brexit—would not be welcomed and could force us to revisit our investment decisions.”

Separately on Saturday, the London-based Times reported that Morgan Stanley has drawn up plans to relocate more than 1,000 employees from London to continenta l Europe if the countr y votes to leave. The Telegraph reported that James Dyson, chairman and founder of Dyson Ltd., said the UK has more to gain being outside the EU. Also according to the Telegraph, a group of Nobel laureates warned that Brexit campaigners are jeopardizing Britain’s leadership position in scientific research.

The opinion survey of 2,000 people by ORB for the Independent newspaper found 55 percent in favor of a Brexit, up 4 points since a previous poll in April, with 45 percent for “Remain,” down 4 points. It’s the biggest “Leave” lead recorded by ORB in polls for the newspaper.

‘Negative’ global economic impact

Lew warned that the global economy would be damaged if the UK votes to leave the European Union on June 23.

“I only see negative economic outcomes if the vote goes the other way.”

Lew added his voice to a chorus of leaders from within the EU about the risks of pulling out of the European union. Financial markets have been whipsawed in recent days as investors grapple with the possibility of a British exit from the European Union.

Sterling fell for a second week in a row as opinion polls suggested the vote is too close to call; the latest Opinium poll conducted for the Observer newspaper and released on Saturday had 44 percent of respondents wanting to remain in the EU and 42 percent wanting to leave. Groups, from homebuilders to Cornish pasty makers, have weighed in on what Brexit may mean to their businesses.

Lew repeated President Barack Obama’s assertion that the UK would have to wait for the US to strike a trade deal with the EU before getting one of its own should voters opt out of the union. “That wouldn’t be good for the UK,” Lew said. It’s “profoundly in the economic and security interests of both the UK, Europe and the world,

for the UK to remain in,” the Treasury secretary said in the interview, which was taped on Friday. But “it’s obviously a decision for the voters of the UK to make,” he added.

‘Sustained growth’

Lew was more upbeat about the prospects for the US economy, in spite of the weaker-than-expected jobs report for May. “We’re still in a stable and sustained period of growth,” he said, cautioning against reading too much into one month’s numbers.

A number of Federal Reserve officials have sounded the same note about a report that contrasted with other, less downbeat readings on the economy.

The Labor Department said on June 3 that employers added 38,000 workers to payrolls in May, the fewest since September 2010.

The increase was below the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg survey and followed average monthly gains of 229,000 last year.

To back up his optimism on the economy, Lew pointed to strong consumer demand for cars and other durable goods, and an improving housing market.

Consumer spending climbed in April by the most in almost seven years, as purchases of durable goods jumped 2.2 percent, the Commerce Department reported on May 31. Bloomberg News

Air France pilots join train, garbage strikes

A man throws a rubbish bag onto a pile of garbage, as French striking CGT labor union garbage collectors block access to the Paris waste-treatment center in Ivry Sur Seine, near Paris, France, on Friday. The Paris mayor is promising to clear all city streets of garbage after 12 days of strikes, and further clouded France’s image as it hosts the European Championship soccer tournament. AP/Kamil Zihnioglu

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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II smiles with Prince Philip (right); Prince William (center); his son Prince George (front); Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, holding Princess Charlotte (center, left); The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cambridge (left) on the balcony during the Trooping the Colour parade at Buckingham Palace, in London, on Saturday. AP/Tim Ireland

Queen Elizabeth II, family mark 90th birthday

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ONDON—Queen Elizabeth II and her family marked her official 90th birthday on Saturday with a parade, a colorful military ceremony and an appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony.

It was a day for continuity, patriotism and pride. Flag-waving throngs crowded into the spacious Mall in front of the palace to honor the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

Prince William and his wife Kate’s daughter, Princess Charlotte, age 1, delighted the crowd by making her first appearance on the balcony, standing alongside the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, who turned 95 on Friday.

The queen, wearing a lime green outfit visible from the far points of the crowded Mall, traveled by horse-drawn carriage, sometimes waving to the throng.

“She looked lovely,” said Joanne

Forster, who along with her husband had scheduled a week’s visit from Northamptonshire so she could come to the birthday parade.

“She’s our queen and she makes us very proud. We love her. She’s done her job, 100 percent, for the Commonwealth, for the British people. She just goes on and on and on. I don’t think she’ll ever retire.”

The goodwill and excitement were palpable as the queen’s carriage approached the palace, her imminent arrival announced by a military band on horseback. The parade route in the heart of ceremonial London was lined with people as far as the eye could see.

Prince Charles, heir to the throne, and his son Prince William rode down the Mall on horseback along with Princess Anne, the queen’s daughter, a skilled equestrian. The splendid Trooping the Color parade, which featured more

than 1,500 soldiers and officers, also included a fly-by of historic World War II aircraft and modern fighter planes.

The rip-roaring aerial display was a main draw for William Ross, an Army veteran. But he wanted to pay his respects to the queen, as well.

“I was a soldier for the queen for 22 years,” said Ross, 71. “I think she’s done a very good job. She’s had lots of trial and tribulations. She’s like a battleship. She just sails on.”

The crowd cheered as the queen emerged on the balcony, scene of many national celebrations in the past. William and his wife Kate were joined by Charlotte—in Kate’s arms—and toddler Prince George, nearly 3, who stood on his own.

“I love everything about England,” said Alicia Farrugia, who was waving a large “God Save the Queen” banner above her head.

“I love the history, the rule of law. My grandfather used to bring me here as a child, starting when I was 3 years old. I followed it through with my own children.

Today I’ve come on my own. I just feel I have to be here. It’s history in the making. It’s so good for the country. It’s something deep in my heart.”

The birthday festivities continue on Sunday with a gigantic luncheon in front of the palace. The palace has invited roughly 10,000 people who work at charities supported by the queen to the openair festivities.

Street parties will also be held in many towns and cities throughout Britain and in other Commonwealth countries.

The queen’s real birthday is in April. The official birthday is timed in hope of fair weather—a custom that began in the 18th century. AP

ARIS—About a quarter of Air France pilots are striking to demand better working conditions—the latest challenge to travelers and France’s image as it hosts Europe’s biggest sporting event. Weeks of strikes and demonstrations over the country’s labor reforms and other industrial disputes have led to panic at the pumps, violent protests in the streets and, most recently, garbage rotting in the gutters. It’s a litany of headaches, which some Parisians fear will scare away visitors.

“I’m telling you, France has become a very ugly country,” Francoise Cuip, 60, told a reporter in Paris’s well-heeled 16th district.

“It’s my country, but that’s the way it is.”

French leaders had hoped to put the disruption behind them, as the country turned its attention to the European Championship soccer tournament, which is expected to draw over 2 million visitors, but unions are planning to keep up the airline and trash strikes through on Tuesday.

Up to a fifth of f lights are canceled on Saturday, Air France said, both domestic and international. Among those affected were f lights carr y ing spectators to cities holding matches.

French train drivers have also been

on strike for days; France’s SNCF rail company was disrupted in the southeast, with cancellations possible.

In Paris the rail link between the capital and Charles de Gaulle Airport was disrupted, with few trains running along the usually busy route.

Meanwhile, garbage was piling up uncollected because of a continuing strike and blockages by collectors. On the streets of the capital, there was exasperation at the drumbeat of disruption.

“When it’s not the trains, when it’s not the metro, it’s the trash,” said Catherine Jacob, 48, who was walking past an overflowing garbage bin near Paris’s Trocardero.

“In terms of hygiene, it’s not good for the tourists, it’s not good for the residents. Tomorrow we’ll have rats in the street.”

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Twitter that the city was “mobilizing all means, public and private” to clear the garbage.

The strikes are occurring for different reasons, but the labor unrest is tapping into nationwide discontent, as the government tries to change laws regulating working hours and layoffs. The influential CGT union, which is driving much of the action, may meet with the government over the weekend. AP

The World BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Spurred by hard times

Egypt faces labor unrest, showdown

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AHALLA EL-KOBRA, Egypt—Labor activist Kamal al-Fayoumi has lost none of his swagger since being fired from the sprawling Egyptian textile plant, where he worked for three decades and was known as an agitator.

Striding through a gritty industrial town in the Nile Delta, he proudly points to workers’ clubs, cooperative grocery stores, cinemas, a pool and a hospital— all of which have seen better days—and brushes off threats from management and the police.

“Our forefathers built this place, it’s in our blood,” he said, looking on the Misr Spinning and Weaving Co., Egypt’s largest factory. “We shouldn’t be afraid, they should fear us!”

Hard times in Eg y pt have spurred an increase in labor unrest, even as President AbdelFattah el-Sissi’s government has largely succeeded in quashing political demonstrations over the past two years. Rising prices, low wages and delays in salaries and bonuses have workers vowing

more strikes and protests, even at the risk of a violent crackdown.

Since last month, workers have held sit-ins at Alexandria’s port and even in Cairo, flouting a 2013 ban on protests decreed after the military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

Thousands protested at a total of 493 actions in the first four months of 2016, a 25-percent increase from the same period a year ago, according to Democracy Meter, an Egyptian non-governmental organization (NGO) that tracks and verifies protests using multiple sources.

“Labor tried to give el-Sissi a chance. But you can’t take away peoples’ rights and fail to fix poverty simultaneously,” said Mohamed Adel, the director of the group. He said the actions range from work

stoppages to peaceful marches and pickets. Security forces have waged a relentless crackdown on dissent since Morsi’s ouster, arresting thousands of his Islamist supporters, as well as prominent liberal and secular activists.

But while authorities banned a march on International Workers Day last month, organized by independent trade unions, they have not targeted labor activists with mass arrests, perhaps fearing a backlash.

Fo r m e r P r e s i d e nt H o s n i Mubarak kept a tight lid on labor unrest during most of his 30 years in power, permitting only statecontrolled unions in a tradition dating back to the days of socialist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. But the independent unions began holding protests in the twilight years of Mubarak’s reign, and workers assumed a major role in the 2011 uprising that ended it.

Since then, organized labor has been under intense scrutiny.

Earlier this year, an Italian doctoral student who had been writing his thesis about independent unions was found tortured to death. Giulio Regeni disappeared on the January 25 anniversary of the revolt, when security forces were out in force in central Cairo.

The police have denied any involvement, but Italy withdrew its ambassador, saying Egypt was not fully cooperating with the investigation.

A draft law is in the works that would further delegitimize independent organizing, and a lawsuit filed by the official state union, expected to be decided later this summer, seeks to criminalize nonofficial trade unions. The government has also renewed efforts to shut down NGOs that receive foreign funding, which could affect unions with links to international labor movements.

At the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) annual conference in Geneva this week, Egyptian Labor Minister Mohamed Saafan gave a speech that made no mention of independent unions, focusing instead on state sovereignty and the fight against poverty.

The head of the state union, Mohamed Wahballah, who was also present, described terrorism as the main obstacle to development, according to Egypt’s official news agency, Mena.

Independent unions filed a complaint to the body, rejecting Egypt’s delegation at the conference as illegitimate and denouncing what they described as government attempts to “liquidate” them. AP

Monday, June 13, 2016

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Trump: GOP has to be ‘tough,’ ‘smart’ to win

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onald Trump traveled to two battleground states on Saturday, attacking not only Democrat Hillary Clinton, but also members of his own party.

“I’ve had more opposition from the Republican Party than I do from the Democrats,” Trump said at a rally in Tampa, Florida. “The Republican Party has to be tough and has to be smart. And if they’re not tough and smart, I’m going to win, but a lot of other people won’t.”

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, battled with members of his party’s establishment—many enraged by his inflammatory rhetoric about, among others, Mexicans, women and Muslims.

In recent days, Trump has faced backlash for his comments directed at a Latino judge overseeing fraud litigation against the defunct Trump University. Trump said the ethnicity of US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over the suit, should disqualify him from the case.

Several Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, condemned the comments as racist and some even withdrew endorsements. At a Republican retreat hosted by 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney on Saturday, Meg Whitman, chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, who ran un-

successfully for California governor in 2010, questioned Ryan’s endorsement of Trump.

Whitman said Trump is the latest in a long line of demagogues, comparing him to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, according to the Washington Post.

R om ne y s a id on Fr id ay a Trump presidency would lead to “trickle-down racism.”

“I don’t want to see a president of the United States saying things which change the character of the generations of Americans are following,” Romney said on CNN, reiterating that he will not support Trump in November.

“Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nation, and tr ick le-dow n racism, tr ick ledown bigotry, trickle-down misogyny, all these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America.”

Trump shot back on Saturday, saying Romney “choked like a dog” against President Barack Obama in 2012. As for Clinton, Trump, said a “war” is on the horizon with the former secretary of state.

“We have a war to win against a very crooked politician named Hillary Clinton, OK?” he said in Tampa. “The Republican Party really should get their act together, they have to come together. We’ve got to win.” Los Angeles Times/TNS

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The World BusinessMirror

Monday, June 13, 2016

‘The Voice’ singer Grimmie fatally shot after concert

briefs

Serbs protest demolitions for UAE-investment project

BELGRADE, Serbia—Thousands of people took part on Saturday in the latest in a series of protests in Belgrade, triggered by shady demolitions in a popular city area marked for a United Arab Emiratesfinanced real estate project. More than 5,000 people demanded that the Belgrade Mayor Sinisa Mali resign and that those behind the nighttime destruction in April of a block of houses by a group of masked men be punished.

The citizens’ protests sparked by the demolitions have become a challenge to Prime Ministerdesignate Aleksandar Vucic, who faces accusations of hardline rule despite promising to take Serbia toward integration with the European Union. Some protesters at Saturday’s rally wore balaclavas to mock the demolitions, while many blew horns and whistles. The protest banners read “Masks have fallen, when will the government?” or “Belgrade Is Our City.” AP

Twin blasts kill 12, wound dozens near Damascus

BEIRUT—Two suicide bombers struck close to the Syrian capital on Saturday, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens more in the latest attack to hit the predominantly Shiite area in recent months, state TV and an opposition activist group said.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the bombings through its Aamaq news agency, which said there were three attacks carried out by suicide bombers.

Aamaq said two attackers were wearing explosive belts, while the third was in a car. Syrian State TV said the blasts in the Sayyida Zeinab area just south of Damascus killed 12 people and wounded 55 others. The Britainbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 20 people were killed and dozens were wounded in the two explosions. AP

Lawyer: Qatar detained Dutch woman who reported rape

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—A Dutch woman who told Qatari police she had been drugged and raped in March has been in government detention ever since on unclear charges, a lawyer said on Saturday. The Dutch Embassy in Qatar confirmed the woman remained held ahead of a scheduled hearing on Monday in Doha, which will host the 2022 World Cup. The case highlights the clash between the Islamic-based legal codes governing Qatar and other Gulf nations as they try to draw in tourists expecting the protection of Western-style laws. The 22-yearold woman, on a vacation with a friend, went out for drinks at a hotel bar in the Qatari capital on March 15, lawyer Brian Lokollo said. While there, she believes someone “messed with her drink” and her memory became hazy, Lokollo said. She later awoke alone, her clothes torn and the victim of a rape, he said. AP

Italy to discourage murders of women by spurned men

ROME—An Italian minister is spearheading efforts to discourage men from murdering women who spurn or leave them. Reforms Minister Maria Elena Boschi, who also deals with equal-opportunity matters, said in an interview in Corriere della Sera newspaper on Saturday that the campaign to educate males against such violence must start first in the family but also involves schools and sports clubs. Galvanizing the campaign is the recent case of a man who strangled, then set afire a woman in Rome who broke up with him and was seeing someone else.

Boschi says helping the campaign will be an Italian lawyer who testified against an ex-beau who had disfiguring acid doused on her face. A red flag was recently draped from a window in Parliament to draw attention to such violence. AP

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The Voice Season 6 contestant Christina Grimmie performs as part of “The Voice Tour” at Cobb Energy Centre, in Atlanta on June 29, 2014. Florida authorities say The Voice star Grimmie has died after being shot at a concert venue in Orlando by a suspect who then fatally shot himself after being tackled by the singersongwriter’s brother. Robb D. Cohen/Invision/AP

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A technician at Auto Glass Now installs a new window on a car in a garage in San Francisco. Across the street from San Francisco’s main jail, business is booming at Auto Glass Now, where annoyed motorists line up daily to get broken side windows in their vehicles replaced. AP/Jeff Chiu

San Francisco officials battle epidemic of auto burglaries

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AN FRANCISCO—Across the street from San Francisco’s main jail, business is booming at Auto Glass Now, where more than a dozen motorists show up on an average day to replace windows broken by thieves.

“It’s been insane,” said Julio Lara, the shop’s manager, who says nearby competitors are busy, as well. “It’s nonstop.”

San Francisco is in the grips of an auto burglary epidemic. No other place in the country—not New York, Chicago or Los Angeles—had as many “smash-and-grabs” per capita as San Francisco did last year.

“We have an auto-burglary problem in San Francisco,” then-Police Chief Greg Suhr said last October, after a California Highway Patrol officer’s personal gun was stolen from his car. The gun was recovered, but the burglaries have grown far beyond a simple annoyance.

They are fueling a bitter political feud between the city’s police department and district attorney’s office, who blame each other for not doing enough. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee recently put some of the blame on local judges, who he said needed to get tougher on those arrested for the break-ins.

“Now is not the time for one branch of government to be pointing the finger at one another,” Presiding Judge John K. Stewart said in a statement late last month. “We should be able to work together to

remedy these problems.”

The nearly 26,500 reported burglaries have also become a flashpoint in the debate over Proposition 47, a big portion of Gov. Jerry Brown’s prison reform package that reduced some nonviolent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.

There were 19,871 reported auto burglaries in 2014, almost double from the 10,369 in 2011—and not everyone calls the police when they wake up to a burglarized vehicle.

Police say they believe many suspects are affiliated with organized gangs or are among the city’s ubiquitous homeless, but they struggle to stem a crime that afflicts tourist haunts and neighborhoods throughout the city.

Investigators say experienced burglars use homemade hammers to quickly smash auto windows and clear out the contents of a vehicle in minutes. Thieves make off with a variety of goods, including electronics, gym bags and loose change.

On nearly 60 occasions last year, guns were stolen from burglarized cars—and several of them belonged to law enforcement officials.

One of those guns belonged to a federal agent, who had his car

broken into in June 2015. The next month, a homeless man living in the country illegally and recently released from jail is alleged to have found the gun under a bench on a San Francisco pier and used it to fatally shoot Kate Steinle, 32, as she enjoyed an evening walk with her father on July 1.

Last year an Oakland muralist was also killed with a handgun stolen from a vehicle in San Francisco.

And so were a Canadian tourist in Golden Gate Park and a yoga teacher on Marin County hiking trail.

San Francisco’s police say combatting auto burglaries is a priority, but the department needs more officers. Before he resigned as chief last month, Suhr said he was hopeful 200 vacancies would be filled shortly. Suhr also created a special investigative unit, beefed up patrols throughout the city and ordered every burglarized auto dusted for fingerprints.

“Evidence has shown this increase is due in part to repeat offenders,” Suhr said in a written order last month to all officers.

The stepped-up law enforcement attention has resulted in several recent arrests and convictions of prolific burglars, including Shawn Gibson who was sentenced in February to five years and eigth months in prison, after he was convicted of breaking into 15 autos. Officials are hopeful the burglary rates will show a decline at the end of the year.

Police are making arrests in about 2 percent of the reported burglaries. The district attorney’s office says 80 percent of the arrests end in some form of punishment

for the suspect. The San Francisco police officers’ union has run radio ads blaming Proposition 47 for the spike and noting that District Attorney George Gascon helped draft the law. Gascon’s office counters that other California cities haven’t experienced the same increase in auto burglaries.

Proposition 47 is not to blame for the surge, district attorney Spokesman Max Szabo said. The measure made a theft of valuables worth less than $950 a misdemeanor. Previously, a felony could be charged for stealing goods with a value of $400.

The district attorney, the governor and other supporters of Proposition 47, which also turned some felony drug crimes into misdemeanors, say the new law provides treatment instead of incarceration for drug addicts and the mentally ill, saving the state money by reducing the prison population.

Whatever the reason for the break-ins, frustration is mounting—at community meetings and repair shop waiting rooms.

One recent Thursday, Lauren Smith was waiting at Auto Glass Now for her Lexus SUV’s rear window to be replaced—at a cost of $350 out of her own pocket The day before, someone had broken the window while Smith was shopping at a grocery store. A witness chased off the man before he could steal anything. Smith was particularly galled that the window was a new one—a replacement for one smashed outside her apartment in tony Pacific Heights a few months ago. “There should be something the police can do,” Smith said. AP

Guatemala arrests 3 ex-Cabinet members, hunts for 2 more

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UATEMALA CITY—Three senior former Guatemalan Cabinet ministers were arrested on Saturday on corruption charges and authorities said they were seeking to detain two more as part of a continuing crackdown that has already seen a former president jailed.

A ll of the former officials served under ex-President Otto Perez Molina, who faces charges of money laundering and conspiracy. He denies wrongdoing.

For mer Defense Ministers Ulises Anzuelo and Manuel Lopez

Ambrosio were arrested, as was ex-Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla.

Chief prosecutor Thelma Aldana said they were part of a group that used about $4.3 million in state funds to buy gifts, including houses, boats and a helicopter, for Perez Molina. They face charges of money laundering and conspiracy.

Perez Molina’s former Vice President Roxana Baldetti also is jailed on corruption charges, and also denies wrongdoing.

Aldana said a group of officials organized a collection each year

to buy gifts for the president on his birthday. A ldana said the money was handled by Juan Carlos Monzon, then secretary to Baldetti. Monzon has been collaborating with prosecutors investigating the case.

Interior Minister Francisco Rivas said authorities also have sought international arrest orders for former Energy Minister Erick Archila and former Communications Minister Alejandro Sinibaldi. Lopez Ambrosio and Lopez Bonilla were arrested at their homes, while Anzueto turned

himself in after learning he faced an arrest warrant.

A r r iv i ng at cou r t of f ices, Lopez Bonilla said he did not know why he’d been detained, but expressed confidence in the countr y’s judicial system.

“I believe that at the end of the day, things will be cleared up. I can’t say more than that I am proud of the work I did,” he said.

About 2,000 people gathered for a demonstration in the center of Guatemala City on Saturday to support the prosecutors and the crackdown on corruption. AP

R L A NDO, F lor id a— A gunman who shot and killed a singer who rose to fame after appearing on The Voice traveled to Orlando from another Florida city specifically to attack her and then fatally shot himself, authorities said on Saturday.

Orlando Police Chief John Mina said at a news conference that the suspect, identified as 27-year-old Kevin Loibl of Saint Petersburg, Florida, didn’t appear to know Christina Grimmie personally. Grimmie was shot to death after giving a concert in Orlando on Friday night. She died early Saturday.

“She was doing a meet-andgreet, just signing autographs and selling merchandise. This white male approached her and opened fire, striking her,” Mina said. “We believe he came here to commit this crime.”

The 22-year-old singer from New Jersey finished third during season six of NBC’s The Voice in 2014, competing on the team of Maroon 5 star Adam Levine. She began amassing a following on YouTube as a teenager, gripping online viewers with her powerful renditions of hit songs. Her videos on YouTube have garnered millions of views.

In an earlier statement, police said Grimmie had performed with the band Before You Exit at The Plaza Live in Orlando. The concert ended around 10 p.m., and Grimmie was shot as she signed autographs for fans at a merchandise table in The Plaza Live concert venue.

Grimmie’s brother, Marcus, immediately tackled the gunman, who then shot and killed himself during the struggle, police said.

They credited the singer’s brother with preventing the gunman from hurting others. Around 120 others were in The Plaza Live at the time.

“Very heroic actions by Marcus Grimmie to jump in and it definitely could have prevented further loss of life,” Mina said.

After the concert, 17-year-old Kaitlin Martin was standing with a group of other fans outside The Plaza Live, waiting for members of Before You Exit to come out, when she heard several loud “pops.” “ We t hought at f irst t hey were balloons...but then security started running all over the place yelling at people to get out because someone has a gun and someone is shooting. Everyone is just running all over the place,” said Martin, who traveled to see to the concert from Brunswick, Georgia. “It was chaos.”

Martin said she was unsettled knowing the suspect had watched the concert in the same audience she was in.

“This person was in the crowd with us, and while we were singing, having a great time, he was there with different intentions,” she said. Detectives were searching Loibl’s cell phone and social media accounts looking for clues as to a motive, Mina said, but they weren’t aware of any history of stalking of Grimmie by the suspect. AP

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Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

Editor: Jun B. Vallecera • Monday, June 13, 2016 A9

Perspectives

Leading practices for the provision of e-banking services O Global card brand

ne of the key risks pertaining to ebanking systems using the Internet is cyber-security risk. In recent years, a number of high-profile cyber attacks on ebanking systems have led to massive service disruptions and data leakages. With the increased frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks, many organizations are performing indepth reviews to understand the capabilities of the information-technology (IT) function with regard to mitigating cyber risks. The following six domains are the key areas that organizations should look into when addressing cyber risks.

Based on our experience, the following are some of the leading areas that you should begin to assess maturity on cyber/Internet risks:

Leadership and Governance

Clear roles and responsibilities for the three lines of defense E-banking risk management and governance should be supported by clear responsibilities and accountability from the three lines of defense.

In general, the first line of defense refers to the technology/IT department responsible for the development and maintenance of the e-banking systems. It is the responsibility of the first line of defense to ensure that the e-banking system is designed, developed and maintained according to the established policies and procedures. Any nonconformance with the established policies and procedures due to practical reasons should be escalated to obtain management approval.

The second line of defense usually refers to the risk management and compliance departments. In general, the second line of defense is responsible for monitoring the changes in risk landscape and compliance requirements, assisting in the formulation of policies and procedures, and performing periodic checks to ensure that

the established policies and procedures are duly adhered to by the first line of defense. The second line of defense should regularly evaluate the adequacy of controls, implemented by the first line of defense and enhance existing controls if necessary.

The third line of defense usually refers to the internal-audit department or similar functions that are independent of the bank’s day-to-day operations. The roles and expectations of the HKMA for the internal-audit department are clearly stipulated in SPM IC-2 Internal Audit Function issued in 2009. The third line of defense should perform regular reviews and audits from an independent point of view to ensure that the controls implemented and performed by the first and second lines of defense can effectively mitigate the risk arising from e-banking systems.

Human factors

Strong information security organization to tackle cyber risk Banks’ senior management should be responsible for defining an organization’s e-banking and cybersecurity strategy, and for ensuring roles and responsibilities are appropriately assigned.

Although cyber defense often starts with IT, it is actually a risk for the bank as a whole and should be addressed at the organization level, and not left with IT to handle alone. C-suite management should work closely with IT and other relevant security divisions to help them understand the real risk beyond technology.

In addition to senior-management oversight, training your staff on e-banking and cyber-security issues is an effective way to counter cyber threats. Raising security awareness helps to improve the weakest link in cyber security—people.

A lot of recently identified cyber attacks were initiated through penetrating the “people” layer by

using various social engineering techniques (e.g., phishing e-mails).

Information risk governance Comprehensive Policies for e-Banking With the continuous evolution of regulatory requirements pertaining to the risk management of e-banking systems, banks should regularly review and update existing policies and procedures to ensure alignment with the latest regulatory requirements and industry best practices. From experience some of the common pitfalls we have identified are: There are no established policies regarding the need to perform regular risk assessments of e-banking systems. Requirements relating to the risk assessment of e-banking services should be formally documented and the results of the risk assessment should be used to analyze and determine whether regular independent assessments should be performed across all e-banking platforms.

Policies and procedures regarding the monitoring of unusual or suspicious activities performed by e-banking users are inadequate. For example, there are no implemented controls to detect the initiation of high-risk transactions through the Internet using an Internet protocol address different from the one usually used by the customer.

Incident-response policies do not clearly state the criteria to determine whether an e-banking incident should be escalated to the local regulators, such as the HKMA, the Securities and Futures Commission or the Hong Kong Police Force.

Policies and procedures regarding system capacity planning and capacity management for e-banking systems are not formally documented.

There are inadequate policies to identify training that keeps IT staff abreast of the latest

technologies and evolving cyber attacks.

With the increased adoption of different ebanking platforms, it is good practice for banks to review their e-banking policies and procedures from time to time to ensure alignment with regulatory requirements and industry best practices.

BusinessManagementandcrisismanagement E-banking System Resilience and Contingency Plans For e-banking systems that are critical to the bank’s operations, it is important to have robust system resilience plans and contingency plans to safeguard the risk of unplanned service disruptions. The network and application infrastructure supporting the e-banking platforms should be analyzed to identify areas that are susceptible to the risk of a single point of failure. System-resilience measures such as high-availability configuration and backup devices should be implemented to safeguard the risk of a single point of failure. Disaster recovery plans should also be established to handle disastrous events such as the total failure of a data center due to power outages or other technical issues.

(To be continued) The article was taken from KPMG’s special publication entitled Internet Banking Updates E-banking Cybersecurity. © 2016 R.G. Manabat & Co., a Philippine partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.

For more information on KPMG in the Philippines, you may visit www.kpmg.com.ph.

partners with local ride-hailing firm

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iding around Metro Manila promises to be an easier and more rewarding experience for the commuting public as Visa and Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading ridehailing platform, partner to provide a host of incentives from June 10 to June 30.

To make commuting more pocket friendly, riders who book a car through Grab and pay with their Visa debit, credit and prepaid cards tied to the app will enjoy a fare subsidy of P50 for the first five rides. This amount is automatically deducted from the user’s fare, without need for any additional steps. Terms and conditions apply.

The fare discount is Visa’s way of rewarding commuters who have discovered the ease of cashless commuting. Grab and Visa’s yearlong partnership offers accessible and safe rides to commuters, made even more convenient with Visa’s hassle-free and secure payment transactions.

“Given the enormous amount of time that we spend on the road, paying for travel fares should be the last headache. Through this promotion, Visa renews its commitment to provide secure, hassle-free and convenient payment for our cardholders, as they move around town and make it even sweeter by rewarding them for using Visa cards,” said Stuart Tomlinson, Visa country manager for the Philippines and Guam.

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

A10 Monday, June 13, 2016

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

The different colors of Pahiyas Elaborately decorated door steps and windows are a common sight in Lucban during the festival.

One can’t help but stop, stare and take photos of the elaborately decorated homes.

Curious onlookers looking below at the hustle and bustle of people passing by and taking photos of the colorful houses.

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Story & photos by Joshua Berida

he large, yellow flowers; blue, red, green decorations; the makeshift mannequins; and the festive atmosphere of Pahiyas were all but images captured by the camera lens to me.

I see these photos and I could even describe them without being there.

Technology has made it so easy to replicate an experience: play a video online, listen to a sound bite, or read a story on a blog site. However, the hassle of getting stuck in traffic, the eager anticipation at the start of a parade, and the sea of smiles of local kids as they run after mascots are experiences that words and technology can only attempt to approximate.

I finally had the chance to experience Pahiyas since the festival fell on a Sunday this year. I knew getting to Quezon would be difficult, because of the popularity of the festivities.

Thankfully, my friend and I found a group of strangers online, who were willing to let us join them Yes, technology still has its perks.

In a festive mood

It was still early when we arrived, but the people were already arriving by the dozens, even at that early

Giant mascots joined the festivities.

The headdress and costumes are as colorful as the houses of the locals.

Some homeowners go the extra mile in decorating their houses.

hour. The local government closed the streets that led to the town proper so everyone had to walk.

The visitors and locals were on the cusp of excitement, and I felt the festive mood waiting to burst.

Pahiyas, celebrated on the 15th of

May annually, is a grand gesture of gratitude for a bountiful harvest.

The festival has roots that date back to the 1500s. The native Tagalogs who lived at the base of Mount Banahaw would give thanks to the anitos for the plentiful catch of fish

HARP, D.O.T. 3 hold Cook-Off Challenge

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he Hotels and Restaurants Association in Pampanga (HARP), the biggest organization of hotels, restaurants and tourism-related establishments in Pampanga, recently held the Cook-Off Challenge at SM City Clark as part of its continuing effort to promote the province as the country’s culinary capital.

Now on its third edition, the event showcased the rich historical, cultural and culinary heritage of Pampanga being one of the country’s oldest provinces.

Held in partnership with the Department of Tourism (DOT)Region 3, the Cook-Off aims to cement the standing of the Philippines as center of culinary excellence in Asia, with Pampanga as the core for culinary tourism.

Known for its culinary flair in

cooking due to the influence of Spanish cuisine, the province has been a hub for foodies in Central Luzon for centuries.

DOT Regional Director Ronald Tiotuico said Pampanga is also an emerging destination for global cuisine due to its strategic location in Central Luzon and the presence of the Clark Freeport and the Clark International Airport, a vital international gateway.

The Cook-Off Challenge, which is in line with the Flavors of the Philippines campaign of the DOT, the theme was “East Meets West” with a touch of Capampangan traditional cuisine. Each team prepared a three-course meal comprised of a hot or cold appetizer, a main course and a dessert.

Jerry Ruth Ramos and Jay Carreon, chef de partie and Sous

chef, respectively, of Royce Hotel & Casino in Clark Freeport, topped the tightly contested Professional Category, which was participated in by six leading restaurants.

Nino Emerito Pamintuan and Harrison Santos of Historic Camalig Restaurant captured second place, while Nashly D’Elia and Lalaine Laggui of RBI Steak House settled for third place.

Other participating restaurants were Widus Hotel, Café Noelle and Azzurro Hotel.

Meanwhile, Louie Anthony Jimenez and Brian Michael Fina of iLead Institute of Learning in Angeles City topped the school category.

Proceeds of the cookfest will go to the Kitchen Project of the Special Education Center of Angeles City Elementary School.

Colorfully dressed participants march in the streets of Lucban.

and the plentiful harvest of palay, fruits, and vegetables. With the arrival of the Spaniards, the establishment of the Church and the evangelization of the locals, changed the way the locals celebrated the festival. The natives brought their best produce inside the church, where the priest gave his blessings and thanked Jesus Christ. Year after year, the farmers received bountiful harvests that only intensified their devotion to Saint Isidore, their intercessor to God. As a result, more and more farmers came to seek the blessings of Saint Isidore, to a point where the church could no longer accommodate the throngs of people bringing their prized produce. The Parish, then, decided to ask the farmers to display their harvests right at their door steps, where priests carrying the images of Santa Maria Toribia and Saint Isidore could easily bless them.

I could still feel the essence of the celebration despite the commercialization of the event; the presence of Jollibee, Shakey’s and other sponsors of the modern-day festival. Devotees went to church to hear mass and sought the blessings of Saint Isidore not for the farmers’ harvest, but to their economic endeavors and well-beings as well.

During the festival, we went to as

many houses as our feet could possibly take us. We saw the simplest of designs where a mish-mash of palay and vegetables hung on the windows or plastered on the walls.

Some were elaborate; the palay, vegetables, fruits and yellow flowers that covered the façade of houses and buildings, while others depicted the façade of the nearby Lucban Church and had mannequins standing or sitting on chairs. As expected, almost of the visitors were scrambling to get a good photo of the colorful homes.

So this was what this festival feels like, I thought to myself as I wiped off beads of sweat from my face. The smoke of barbecuing longganisa, the long queues while the hot sun beating down us—were all part of the good and bad of experiencing Pahiyas.

Parading through town

Since we arrived early in the morning, we waited for hours for the climax of the festival, the colorful parade that passed by the elaborately decorated buildings. Makeshift scarecrows, children and teenagers wearing colorful clothes and a marching band all came prepared at the start of the march.

A honk, a drumbeat, and the parade was on. The giant mascots, motorcades, contest winners, dancing chil-

dren and the marching band passed by the colorful buildings and homes as a sign of thanksgiving for the blessings the community received.

It was hot. It was humid and crowded, but the colorful buildings covered in palay; blue, yellow and red flowers, and the festive mood of everyone made up for it. It was and it wasn’t what I expected of the Pahiyas festival, but I was thankful I made the journey. Now, I have my very own memory of the festivities and not just secondhand experiences on paper or screen.

How to get to Lucban for the Pahiyas festival

You don’t have to stay overnight in Lucban or anywhere in Quezon province to enjoy the festivities, eat longganisa, and take photos of the elaborately decorated houses.

Experience the festivities on a day trip from Manila, via private car or public transportation. The latter requires booking a ticket bound for Lucena, then riding a jeep to Lucban.

The travel time could take approximately five hours depending on traffic. It will be chaotic going in and out of Lucban because of the many visitors who want to participate in the festivities. I suggest going as early as possible to avoid the crowds that will come in midday.

Green Monday BusinessMirror

BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, June 13, 2016

As reefs struggle to adapt to warming

Coral-reef tourism in danger

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recent United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) report on World Heritage Sites in danger from climate change received widespread media attention, after the Australian government requested the removal of a chapter on the Great Barrier Reef.

At this Bonaire reef, the olive-green coral is alive, but the mottled-gray coral is dead. Living Oceans Foundation/IPS

However, the Great Barrier Reef is not the only coral reef at risk from climate change. The report described how coral reefs all around the world are being directly effected by warming waters and acidification associated with changes in the climate.

While coral reefs can adapt to gradual changes in ocean temperature, especially if they are free from other local stressors like overfishing and water pollution, it is expected that their ability to adapt is “highly likely” to be outstripped by rates of climate change in the coming decades, the report said.

Keeping half of the world ’s coral reefs would require stopping warming at just 1.2 degrees

Celsius, the report said, while preserving more than 10 percent would require limiting warning to 1.5˚ C. However, the world is already far off track for achieving such limited rates of warming, and many coral reefs are already in danger.

“We know that temperature is the main driver of bleaching and that temperature increases are primarily related to global climate change,” Director Melanie McField of the Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative at the Smithsonian Institution told Inter Press Service (IPS).

“There will be a limit where the temperature becomes so high that even the ones in the pristine areas with the right balance of fish and

clear, clean water they will also be impacted.”

Addressing local stressors, such as overfishing and water pollution, can help the reefs to adapt, but McField says this is only buying the reefs some time.

“It buys you time, that’s the way we often explain it, while those leaders in the United Nations [UN] fix the problem.”

“We’re doing all the other things, but on the climate really we’re looking to the UN, to the leaders, to the private sector, someone else has to fix that,” she said.

Many of the world’s coral reefs a re in developing cou nt r ies, which rely on them for tourism and fishing.

The world’s second-largest coral reef, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, also known as the Great Mayan Reef, borders Belize, Honduras and Guatemala.

“Tourism is now the No. 1 sector of the economy in most of the Mesoamerican reef,” McField said.

However, while many developing countries rely on coral reefs for tourism, their ability to help save them varies, Madhavi Colton, lead conservation scientist at the Coral Reef Alliance told IPS. “There are absolutely things that we are doing to reefs that we could stop doing to reefs that would absolutely help those reefs deal with climate change,” Colton said.

“Yes, coral reefs are in a lot of trouble but there are still things that we can do, we can still save coral reefs,” she said.

“Generally, the reefs that are in places where lots and lots of people live are doing worse than reefs in places where not so many people live,” Colton noted.

Colton said that marine parks, such as the Rorotan Marine Park in Honduras, have been successful in helping reefs and fish to recover.

Another notable example, she said, is the country of Palau in the Pacific.

“Their government has realized that the vast majority of their revenue comes from tourism, so they’ve established a green fee, which is a tax on every visitor who visits Palau and that money is used to protect the resources that people are coming there to visit.”

However, Colton also noted that “there are other places that the government realizes that tourism is a major part of their economy, and they’d really like to figure out how to protect the resources to support that tourism but…even if there’s a will or a desire to do something, they still have other more pressing concerns,” she said.

She noted that Jamaica is one country that has lost its coral reefs, due to a series of bad events in the 1980s, impacting dive tourism in the Caribbean country.

Protecting the reefs is also important, because they provide an important but delicate ecosystem where fish can thrive, and they also support other important ecosystems, including sea grasses and mangroves, McField said.

The sea grasses and mangroves are both powerful traps for carbon, thus, helping to regulate climate change, McField said.

“Having the reef there changes the water dynamics so it breaks the waves and it makes the lagoons nice and sheltered and those sheltered lagoons you have dense beds of sea grass and that is a big trap of carbon.”

“Shoreward from that you’ve got the coastlines that are protected by reefs tend to have mangroves and that’s the best carbon sink.”

“Per-square-meter [mangroves] are trapping more carbon than rain forest.”

The mangroves also help to protect the shoreline from erosion and also support the main fisheries, such as snappers and lobsters, said McField, whose main area of expertise is the Mesoamerican reef. Inter Press Service

Scientists find climate change’s fingerprints in French floods

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ASHINGTON—An international team of scientists has found that man-made climate change nearly doubled the likelihood of last month’s devastating French flooding. In a quick but not peerrev iewed analysis, the World Weather Attribution team of climate scientists used past rainfall data and computer simulations to look for global warming’s fingerprints in the downpours in France and Germany.

A senior climate researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, says the team’s calculations found that global warming increased the chances for the Loire River basin flooding by 90 percent and the Seine River basin by 80 percent. That’s compared to a world with no man-made climate change.

Parts of France got three months of rain in just one month, much of it in just three days. The Seine, which runs through Paris, rose to 6.1 meters above its normal height.

“It was very weird weather,” van Oldenborgh said. “It was made more likely due to climate change.”

The researchers couldn’t find a link with the German rain. The

6.1 meters The increase in the height of the Seine River above its normal height

team, which also included American, British and French scientists, coordinated by Climate Central in Princeton, New Jersey, is trying something relatively new: realtime scientifically valid studies to see if extreme weather events are natural or more likely to happen because of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuel.

The 80-percent and 90-percent increase in likelihood of heavy rain is higher than the 40-percent chance they found for the storm Desmond that hit the United Kingdom last winter, van Oldenborgh said.

Two outside scientists—Adam Sobel of Columbia University and John Walsh of the University of Alaska—say the team used scientifically sound methods. Both Sobel and Walsh were coauthors of a National Academy of Sciences report that looked at the scientific accuracy of studies that look for global warming’s fingerprints.

They looked at studies that are usually done over months and published in peer-reviewed journals.

This one was done in five days and will eventually be sent to a peer-reviewed journal. But that is not so much a worry because these are well-known and qualified scientists, Sobel said.

Walsh said the methods and conclusions “are state-of-the-art” and “the results highlight the role of human-caused climate change while the event is still fresh in the public’s minds.” AP

A woman (right) takes photos of the flooded banks of the Seine River in Paris. AP/François Mori

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

Scientists turn global warming gas into stone

A CarbFix experiment’s technical manager checks a valve at a test well at Reykjavik Energy’s Hellisheidi geothermal power plant in Iceland.

Scientists turn heat-trapping carbon dioxide into a rock. AP/Brennan Linsley

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ASHINGTON—Scientists have found a quick way—but not a cheap one—to turn heat-trapping carbon-dioxide gas into harmless rock.

Experts say the results of a twoyear, $10 -million experiment called CarbFix, conducted about one-third of a mile (540 meters) deep in the rocks of Iceland, offer new hope for an effective weapon to help fight man-made global warming. When an international team of scientists pumped a carbon dioxide and water mix into underground basalt rocks, basic chemistry took over.

The acidic mixture dissolved the rocks’ calcium magnesium and formed limestone, a perm a ne nt n at u r a l ja i l for t he heat-trapping gas, according to Juerg Matter of the University of Southampton in England. He is the lead author of a study detailing the experiment published on Thursday in the journal Science.

“It’s no longer a gas,” Matter said. “Basically, carbon dioxide is converted into stone.”

Scientists, who had done this before in the lab, thought the process could take thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years.

But after just two years, 95 percent of the gas was captured and converted, the study said.

“It’s what we hoped for...and

in some ways better,” said David Goldberg, a Columbia University geophysicist who wasn’t part of the team but praised it. “What’s going on here is a natural process being accelerated.”

One of the methods to battle climate change, in addition to reducing fossil-fuel emissions, is to capture carbon dioxide from the air or power plants.

“Carbon capture is not the silver bullet, but it can contribute significantly to reducing carbon-dioxide emissions,” Matter said.

However, carbon capture, however, can be expensive—especially the capturing part. Once the gas is grabbed from the air, storing it is another issue. It can be stored underground and is sometimes injected in depleted oil wells, but there are concerns about monitoring it and preventing it from escaping.

Injecting it into basalt and letting nature take its course can solve that problem. But at $17 per ton of carbon dioxide, it can cost a couple times more than injecting it into old wells, Matter said.

There’s basalt all over the world, in places like the Pacific Northwest, India and South America, Matter said.

But even more promising is the ocean floor, which is full of basalt and a good place to store the carbon dioxide, Goldberg said. AP

Science Monday

Monday, June 13, 2016 A13

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

Priming students for Asean science tilt

Teacher Suzette A. Palicte (center) with her students in laboratory-skills activity

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hrough the years, teaching has been considered a noble profession and one that entails dedication and self sacrifice.

For what they have selflessly offered, teachers are now accorded more opportunities, and, subsequently, more responsibilities.

Two teachers—one from Southern Mindanao Campus (SMC) and the other from the Central Luzon Campus (CLC)—of the Philippine Science High School System (PSHSS) are among the mentors whose task is to hone students for the Philippine science and technology (S&T) work force.

Particularly, these two teachers served as coaches to a couple of teams who bagged the gold in the Asean Plus Three-Junior Science Odyssey (APTJSO).

APTJSO is an annual educational event in the field of S&T for young students between 13 to 15 years who are considered as gifted in science. This event is designed to develop young students in S&T and to nurture future scientists and engineers.

From the SMC, Suzette A. Palicte armed her team to championship in several events at the 2014 APTJSO held in Thailand. Meanwhile, CLC’s Rex S. Forteza poised his team to the top during the 2012 APTJSO in Brunei Darussalam.

Childhood dream

For Palicte, becoming a teacher wasn’t her childhood dream, and she would often find herself as the teacher in her role-playing days.

For Forteza, he came from a family of teachers; his father and some cousins were teachers. He was no longer surprised to find himself playing the teacher role since he was 8.

Palicte is a product of PSHS-SMC herself and her love for talking and listening to people made her opt for teaching. As a way of giving back to her alma mater, she chose to teach at PSHS-SMC, and has been there for 10 years.

Forteza has been teaching for six years, and he chose to teach in PSHS campus because he believes that teaching in Pisay (as PSHS is popularly called) would challenge him and make him grow as a teacher. And by doing so, he believes he can make an impact in training future scientists and engineers of the country.

For them, teaching in Pisay compels them to make the lessons more challenging but enjoyable for students, given the students’ aptitude in math and the sciences.

Winning formula, areas for improvement

One of the challenges for both teachers and students in Pisay is joining international competitions in math and science, such as in APTJSO. The Philippines has been the undefeated champion in the APTJSO in the last four years. The winners came from the different campuses of PSHS in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. And it isn’t merely luck that made this happen.

The coaches attribute the winning of the Philippine team to rigorous training, PSHS curriculum, linkages with experts from higher-education institutions, and students’ discipline.

“Aside from the inherent intelligence of the students, it is also their dedication to learning that spelled out their winning streak. Even at their young age, they have tried and succeeded the tough act of balancing academics and other aspects of their life with the daily grind of training,” Forteza said.

Teachers’ training also plays a big role.

“Since most of Pisay’s faculty [members] are trained in the scientific disciplines, they can effectively relate the deep interconnections of the scientific concepts in their disciplines and can even connect them to other disciplines,” he added.

One of the biggest support in terms

of enhancing the Pisay teachers’ skills and knowledge comes from the Science Education Institute (SEI) of the Department of Science and Technology.

SEI has been consistently providing teachers with learning opportunities through its various programs and projects, such as the competence-upgrading programs, which aim to increase teachers’ content knowledge and upgrade their competence in teaching and assess their learning.

Another is the Science Teacher Academy for the Regions (STAR), a project that provides an organized scheme of innovative trainings in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. On the whole, Forteza believes that it was both the discipline and dedication of the students and teachers that enabled them to bag the prize for several consecutive years.

At CLC, during international competitions, the teachers would usually go first on a briefing. This entails knowing the event, understanding the mechanics, reviewing past results and checking the availability of needed materials (equipment, chemicals and books) to train the students.

Proceeding to the training phase, they try to first learn the materials (concepts the students have to learn) and spend time researching on it before relaying it to the students. Forteza said he rarely comes across seminars for coaching for competitions so what they do is to learn things as they move along with the preparations.

Pisay campuses may have been on top of their game in producing the country’s future scientists and engineers, but there are still plenty of room for improvement.

Palicte cited laboratory-skills training for one. Forteza, on the other hand, cited communication skills as one area which the students can hone. Communication skills can help them effectively deliver what they want to convey, especially during presentation of their researches in research fairs. CLC embarks on the challenge of improving the creativity and design thinking of the students by putting up facilities, like the Fabrication Laboratory, providing students with an avenue to try out and realize their ideas.

The APTJSO experience and the future

The APTJSO has given teachers opportunity to improve their craft. The training has compelled them to teach some ideas, concepts and skills that they don’t usually teach inside the classroom. The experience enabled them to teach the students how to merge the scientific concepts and practice through experiments.

“APTJSO served as a vehicle to develop the mentor-mentee relationship between us and the delegates, where we can have a more open line for dialogue and discussion not only for academics but into life in general,” Forteza said.

The APTJSO experience has inspired Palicte to look for more strategies on how to make her classes engaging.

“Minds-on activities coupled with handson activities give our students the confidence they need to win,” she said.

To the young people, “Innovate and be a catalyst of change,” Palicte advised.

Forteza, meanwhile, has this to say: “Never shy away from hard work if it makes you reach your dream. It is by investing your time and effort to worthwhile activities that you can find fulfillment on what you do, especially if it is your passion.”

This year’s APTJSO is set from June 12 to 18 at the University of the Philippines Los Baños with the theme “Climate Change and the Rainforest.” S&T Media Service/Geraldine Bulaon-Ducusin

Kosuke Morita, researcher of Riken (Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) who led a group that discovered element 113, speaks with a periodic table of the elements after the element was named during a press conference at the institution in Wako, northwest of Tokyo, on Thursday.

Nihonium, symbol Nh, for element 113, was discovered in Japan, and Nihon is one way to say the country’s name in Japanese. It’s the first element to be discovered in an Asian country. AP/Eugene Hoshiko

Nihonium, 3 new periodic table elements named

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EW YORK—You’ll soon see four new names on the periodic table of the elements, including three that honor Moscow, Japan and Tennessee.

The names are among four recommended on Wed nesd ay by an international scientific group. The fourth is named for a Russian scientist.

The International Union of Pure and Appl ied Chemistr y (IUPAC), which rules on chemical-element names, presented its proposal for public review. The names had been submitted by the element discoverers.

T he four elements, know n now by their numbers, completed the seventh row of the periodic table when the chemistry organization verified their discoveries last December.

Tennessee is the second US state to be recognized with an element;

California was the first. Element names can come from places, mythology, names of scientists or traits of the element. Other examples: americium, einsteinium and titanium.

Joining more familiar element names, such as hydrogen, carbon and lead are: n Moscovium—symbol Mc, for element 115, and n Tennessine—symbol Ts, for element 117.

The discover y team of the two elements is from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, and the Lawrence Livermore Na-

tional Laboratory in California.

Vanderbilt physics Prof. Joseph Hamilton, who played a role in the discoveries, proposed naming an element for Tennessee. He had hoped to use the symbol Tn, but it had been used in the past and couldn’t be reassigned to the new element. n Oganesson—symbol Og, for element 118. The name honors Russian physicist Yuri Oganessian. n Nihonium—symbol Nh, for element 113. The element was discovered in Japan, and Nihon is one way to say the country’s name in Japanese. It’s the first element to be discovered in an Asian country.

An official at a Japanese institute involved in the discovery said the name was chosen to recognize government funding for the project.

“We wanted to show our research has been supported by the Japanese people,” said Kosuke Morita, a research group director at the Riken Nishina Center for Acceleratorbased Science.

The team also hopes that pride

and faith in science will displace the lost trust of those who suffered from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, according to IUPAC web site.

“It is a pleasure to see that specific places and names [country, state, city and scientist] related to the new elements is recognized in these four names. Although these choices may, perhaps, be viewed by some as slightly selfindulgent, the names are completely in accordance with IUPAC rules,” commented Jan Reedijk, who corresponded with the various laboratories and invited the discoverers to make proposals.

“In fact, I see it as thrilling to recognize that international collaborations were at the core of these discoveries and that these new names also make the discoveries somewhat tangible.”

T he publ ic comment per iod will end on November 8. Ultimately, and after the lapse of the public review, the final recommendations will be published in the IUPAC journal Pure and Applied Chemistry. AP and IUPAC

10-km swim to save Verde Island Passage

By Aimee Lagman

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or the first time in history, six Filipino open-water swimmers gathered together in one epic swim event, dubbed as “Reef Strokes,” to save the Verde Island Passage in celebration of World Oceans’ Day on June 8 and Coral Triangle Day on June 9.

Ocean advocates and pioneers in open-water swimming include Atty. Ingemar Macarine, also known as Pinoy Aquaman; Frank Lacson, the Father of Philippine Triathlon; Betsy Medalla and Julian Valencia, the first Filipinos to swim the Robben Island Channel in Cape Town, South Africa; Moi Yamoyam, former member of the Philippine Triathlon Team; and Mikey Villanueva, an openwater enthusiast.

Each of them swam 10 kilometers to create awareness on the condition of the Verde Island Passage (VIP), which is threatened by climate change, pollution and mining.

Popularly known as “The center of the center of marine shorefish biodiversity,” VIP sits in the center of the Coral Triangle, which is the world’s epicenter of marine life, and home to 319 species and 74 kinds of hard corals.

“Coral reefs give millions of

World Wide Fund for Nature-Philippines President Joel Palma, Coach Julian Valencia, Coach Betsy Medalla, Atty. Ingemar Macarine and Pico Sands Hotel General Manager Maggie Garcia WWF-Philippines

people food and livelihoods. Reef strokes show how our collective ‘strokes’ will take us to the finish line, a world where productive oceans continue to give Filipinos with food, jobs and the very air we breathe,” World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Philippines President and CEO Joel Palma said.

For these six heroes of nature, it was no walk in the park. Despite their extensive experience, they had to swim through obstacles.

Mother Nature threw at them from rough currents, numerous bites from sea lice to jellyfish stings.

But to them, it was a small price to pay for a bigger cause.

Each of them had a mission. For Yamoyam, “To inspire and start a movement in saving the seas through swimming,” but for most of them, that is to value the ocean for the younger generation to enjoy.

According to Villanueva, “We don’t get much to discover the

islands and we are missing out.”

For Medalla: “The best way to enjoy and protect the seas is by swimming, and as a swimmer, it is natural.”

To prepare for this challenge, each swimmer had to invest in physical and mental training.

This includes two-and-a-half to three-hour sessions four times a week, and targeting 5-km and 7-km distance in the pool before hitting the sea.

Of all the sports, swimming is nonnegotiable, a skill that saves lives and can lead to saving the environment.

A few tips from the pros before considering long-distance openwater swim: “Never swim alone, and join beginner-friendly openwater races. Start with 1-km [distance] before you increase the distance,” Medalla said.

It’s never too late to start swimming. Villanueva started swimming just last year, while Macarine, who swam 20 km in eight hours, started three years ago and he will be the first Filipino to cross the English Channel in August.

Reef Strokes is organized by WWF in partnership with Hamilo Coast, Pico de Loro Beach and Country Club, Pico Sands Hotel and Cebu Pacific.

A14 Monday, June 13, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Money talks at United Nations

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he Philippines has had a long and interesting relationship with the United Nations (UN) since its founding in 1945. No one embodied that better than the man then-UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim called “Mr. United Nations”: Carlos P. Romulo.

Romulo served as president of the UN from 1949 to 1950, and was often a thorn in the neck of the high and mighty. He directly challenged the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinsky, saying, “It is the duty of the little Davids of this world to fling the pebbles of truth in the eyes of the blustering Goliaths and force them to behave!”

Unfortunately, though, the UN is not the same body that it was back then.

The current operating budget is $5.5 billion, and this does not include billions of dollars more for its many economic, social and peacekeeping programs. The UN is a big global business.

While formed as a body to promote international cooperation and a forum to help settle international disputes, the UN has become an entity of its own that operates independently of the member-nations. In reaction to statements made by President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte on the killing of journalists, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was extremely disturbed by recent remarks made by Duterte regarding extrajudicial killings.

Duterte countered by telling the UN to “shut up,” citing its failure to solve problems in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere.

While the UN has defended the freedom of the press for decades and, particularly, journalists’ protection, we cannot find a similar statement from Ban on the actual killings of Mexican reporter Marcos Hernández in January, Afghan broadcaster Haji Mohammad Zubair Khaksar in February, or Indian newspaper bureau chief Rajdev Ranjan in May. That is not to say that the UN has its own agenda. But then again, maybe it does.

On June 2 UN’s Ban added the Saudi Arabian-led coalition to an annual blacklist of states and armed groups that violate children’s rights during conflicts, saying its air strikes were behind most child deaths in the war in Yemen. On June 6 Saudi Arabia rejected that report and threatened to break relations with the UN, and cut hundreds of millions of dollars of funding to UN programs.

Later on the same day—June 6—Ban removed Saudi Arabia and its allies from the blacklist. Ban called it the “most painful and difficult decision he had to make. At the same time, I also had to consider the very real prospect that millions of other children would suffer grievously if, as was suggested to me, countries would defund many UN programs.”

President-elect Duterte owns his comments, whether we approve of them or not. But the hypocrisy of Ban and the UN sort of proves that “money talks.”

Saudi Arabia has proven that “cheap talk” will get you a scolding, while money will persuade people to do as you like.

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RISING SUN

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E are in Cebu City on Monday, along with other Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) officials and employees, to introduce the agency’s At Source Ang Processing (ASAP) Program to potential partner-hospitals in the Visayas and Mindanao.

ASAP is meant to improve the delivery of service of the PCSO’s flagship program, the Individual Medical Assistance Program (Imap), by offering easy and speedy access to the PCSO’s assistance through hospitalbased management of assistancerequest processing.

The agency’s Charity Sector, headed by Assistant General Manager Dr. Larry R. Cedro, leads the ASAP Program orientation and dialogue on Monday for participants from 23 hospitals and medical groups from Iloilo, Davao, Cebu, Capiz, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, Leyte, Bohol, Lanao del

Norte and Misamis Oriental.

ASAP was launched in April 2015 upon the signing of an agreement between the PCSO and St. Luke’s Medical Center, the PCSO’s first ASAP partner. Later that year, 13 hospitals in Metro Manila were added, and more have joined the program.

The PCSO ASAP Program makes it more convenient for the public to access the agency’s services by establishing a PCSO Desk in partner-hospitals.

The PCSO Desk is manned by a social worker of a hospital and trained by the PCSO in request evaluation and recommendation.

HOM

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Patients who require financial assistance under the PCSO Individual Medical assistance Program for their hospitalization, dialysis, medicines, and other medical- and health care-related concerns may submit their applications for assistance at the desk, instead of having to visit a PCSO office. This makes it more convenient and easier for them to submit their requests for help.

In 2015 the PCSO released P4.26 billion from the charity fund for its various projects. Around 105,000 beneficiaries were helped under Imap. Every day the agency allots around P18 million for charity, compared to the P4 million daily in

2010, when we took office under this administration.

These are huge numbers and, obviously, these are huge tasks. The PCSO, with its limited manpower and other constraints, cannot do it alone.

As they say, “no man is an island.”

We succeed by helping each other.

With the public and private sectors working together, we can maximize our efforts toward uplifting the quality of health-care services we deliver to our kababayan.

We hope we can count on the commitment of more partner-hospitals across the country to join us in this program. With continued dialogue and cooperation, I believe the ASAP Program can do even better by being implemented nationwide, especially in the Visayas and Mindanao, and in the remote and underserved areas.

This is a pioneering program, and we hope to connect with partners who share our enthusiasm and sense of mission in extending the reach of our services so that more of our kababayan may access the assistance that the PCSO can give them.

Atty. Rojas is vice chairman and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Undreading unsolicited proposals in PPPs

By Alberto Agra

PPP Lead

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In 2015 the PCSO released P4.26 billion from the charity fund for its various projects. Around 105,000 beneficiaries were helped under Imap. Every day the agency allots around P18 million for charity, compared to the P4 million daily in 2010, when we took office under this administration.

Continued from A1

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o distinguish, solicited or open-bidding procedures originate from the government, while in UPs, the project studies are prepared by the private-sector proponent (PSP). Once a UP is accepted, the PSP becomes an original proponent (OP) and no other proposal for the same project will be entertained by the government.

In open bidding, all bids are measured against the parameter set by the implementing agency (IA). In a UP, the proposal of the challengers must be better than the negotiated terms between the OP and IA. Depending on the modality, the OP has the right to match or the opportunity to outbid superior offers. If there is no challenger, the project is awarded to the OP. A premium is given the OP for taking initiative and spending for the preparation of the study with no assurance of getting the PPP contract.

Early during the term of the current administration, unsolicited proposals for national projects were frowned upon. As proof, all the 12 awarded projects were procured through the solicited route. However, as an exception, although at the tail end of the expiring term of the incumbent President, the Department of Public Works and Highways is entertaining a UP for the road connecting North Luzon and South Luzon expressways. In contrast, UPs are popular for local government units

Under the build-operate-andtransfer law, the joint-venture guidelines for state corporations and LGU PPP ordinances, UPs are expressly allowed. The Supreme Court has upheld the legality of this procedure and has declared that competition, accountability and transparency exist in UPs. Straight negotiations, absence of notice and publication, material deviations that favor one PSP and absence of real opportunity to challenge are barred.

(LGUs) and water districts.

UPs, while permitted under existing laws and regulations, are perceived to be anticompetition. This perception, arguably unwarranted, stems from the alleged undue advantage given to the OP, material deviations made postaward and inconsistencies in the periods where challengers are required to make counteroffers.

Under the build-operate-transfer law, the joint-venture guidelines for

state corporations and LGU PPP ordinances, UPs are expressly allowed.

The Supreme Court has upheld the legality of this procedure and has declared that competition, accountability and transparency exist in UPs. Straight negotiations, absence of notice and publication, material deviations that favor one PSP and absence of real opportunity to challenge are barred.

The question now is the orientation of our President-elect toward UPs—will he take on the same cautious and selective stance of the current administration or will he aggressively promote UPs. If he does the latter, his administration will surely award more than 12 PPP projects at the national level.

Contrary to what naysayers say, we might see a new airport, a subway system, monorail projects, waste-to-energy projects, among other big-ticket projects, sooner than we think if UPs are not stymied.

There is nothing to dread with UPs. There are enough safeguards in law and regulations. Even biddings are not without issues. The challenge lies in governance and following the rule of law in PPPs.

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Opinion

‘MITamorphosis’

He is Digong, period

BusinessMirror

Rence Paolo R. Pinon

Teddy Locsin Jr.

DEBIT CREDIT

Free fire

he Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT) has long been recognized as a learning institution that provides good engineering education. In fact, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has recognized seven engineering programs as Centers of Excellence.

E is President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte—or Digong, if you wanna be cheeky. After he is sworn in, he will just be President Duterte or Duterte, or Digong, if you wish, a nickname he got in childhood. Showbiz attempts to give him an endearing nickname are baduy, like PDong, and none of it has stuck. Dong means genital. Worse yet, is Tatay Digong, as if he was our natural father who’d sneaked into our parent’s bedroom when daddy was out.

T

However, it is not too well known that MIT also offers a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy (BSA) program.

The BSA in this school is considered as one of the toughest courses. The students of the said program are introduced into the Conceptual Framework, as well as the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Accounting Standards (IAS), which are continuously undergoing revisions and several amendments to cater to the needs of businesses, which are now becoming more complex.

To date, MIT is the only institution in the Philippines that runs under the quarter system of education.

In 2005 Enrique T. Yuchengco School of Business and Management (ETYSBM) was established by the board of trustees and the first batch of BSA students emerged. Consequently, MIT had been attracting around 280 BSA students every academic year.

The ETYSBM has since then been putting in place various programs that have resulted in the upgrading of the accountancy program in MIT. As a graduating BSA student of MIT, I have a lot of thoughts about my school experiences. Some of my relatives and friends are wondering why I have studied in an engineering school, though my program is directly related to business. They even asked if the quarter curriculum of Mapua is appropriate for the BSA course as evidenced by the school’s performance on the past board examinations. I will admit that there is a point in my life that I have also asked myself these same questions. But ever since I started studying in MIT, I have been constantly reminded of the catchphrase

“If you have big dreams, start here.”

This has been my refuge and it has worked all the time for me.

I have spent four years of my life growing my roots and building a strong foundation in my education in MIT. I have always believed in the potential of the school to be known in the accountancy profession. I have high hopes for our alumni (who are now Certified Public Accountants), for our co-BSA students and especially for our batch, which is planning to take the Certified Public Accountant Licensure Examination in May 2017.

Cardinals (a species of bird) are known for their bright-red color, which signifies strength, determination, desire and passion. Swami Sivananda, a Hindu spiritual teacher, once said, “The harder the struggle, the more glorious the triumph.”

And I am sure that many of us in MIT can attest to how MIT’s quarter curriculum, combined with the BSA program’s formidable structure, sharpened us to become competent young professionals and face the upcoming battles that life has to offer.

It is time to make our mark. It is time to prove our stand and rise above the horizons. It is time to become the game changers and ceaselessly strive for the “fame and glory of the M and I and T!” Rence Pinon is a graduating accounting student of Mapúa Institute of Technology in Makati City.

He has been selected as a National Delegate of the American Chamber of Business and Commerce Leadership Program in 2016.

This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@gmail.com.

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We did not elect him to be our daddy. We already have parents.

We elected him to be president;

which is a job and not a term of endearment. He’s the guy who was elected to clean up after the guy

Monday, June13, 2016 A15

who messed up, because he has promised to do better. In his case, to wipe out criminality in three to six months.

Indeed, the title of Father of the Country is reserved for the founders of republics, like George Washington, Manuel L. Quezon or Corazon C. Aquino, who refounded it.

Duterte is not our new “leader,” either—anymore than P-Noy was or GMA or Erap or FVR or Cory, for that matter. We don’t elect leaders but presidents.

We are a republic; not a tribe of naked savages; we don’t follow leaders, not even to war. He goes to war with the Armed Forces, not us. That’s what we pay them for. I myself do not obey laws, let alone

Taking back a Trump endorsement is pointless Ramesh Ponnuru

BLOOMBERG

D

onald Trump’s criticism of Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over a lawsuit charging Trump University with fraud, wasn’t an attack on judicial independence. It was an attack on the idea of justice itself.

Politicians can criticize judges, even in ignorant and demagogic ways, without posing a threat to the courts’ ability to render decisions that follow the law. US President Barack Obama was accused of undermining judicial independence, when he expressed opposition to the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United.

But Obama wasn’t threatening official reprisals against judges who make decisions with which he disagrees.

Neither is Trump. The only implicit threat he is making is that, as president, he would react to an adverse decision by Judge Curiel with more bluster. The judge has withstood worse.

It’s the specific terms of Trump’s argument that run counter to our system of justice. Trump says that his immigration proposals, including building a wall between the United

States and Mexico, will help the country as a whole, including Hispanics. Nevertheless, most Hispanics oppose Trump strongly. Hence, Curiel has a conflict of interest, which has manifested in decisions against Trump. He should, Trump has said, recuse himself or be investigated.

Trump’s law yers have won some motions and lost some in front of the judge. They have not sought a recusal, and have praised Curiel’s handling of the case. So Trump’s complaint seems neither serious, nor credible. The complaint is, however, sweeping in its implications. Curiel may, indeed, oppose Trump’s wall: Being Hispanic raises the likelihood that he does; being an Obama appointee raises it still more. The accusation that because he may disagree with Trump about politics he cannot be

an impartial judge is a large and slanderous leap from that possibility. If Trump’s argument is right, it doesn’t just call into question Hispanics’ fitness for the bench. It means that judicial decisions cannot be respected if they occur in a society that is riven by strong political disagreements—a society, such as ours.

To Trump’s defenders, what he is saying is not all that different from what Justice Sonia Sotomayor said before she joined the Supreme Court. “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” she said, an obnoxious comment that excludes her from the category of wise Latinas. But the right parallel isn’t between Trump and the liberal justice. It’s between him and the black radicals of the 1960s and 1970s, for example, who said they could not get a fair trial in our country. Trump is making a poisonous accusation, one that he will not make his lawyers follow up, to contain the public-relations damage from credible charges that his “university” was a scam. It’s extremism in defense of self-interest.

Yet, Trump’s behavior toward Curiel, appalling as it is, is not a reason for Republicans to reject him as their nominee at their convention. A

Here’s how far some justices go to defend the death penalty

By Noah Feldman Bloomberg View

A

judge shouldn’t be allowed to vote in a case involving a capital sentence, when he was formerly the prosecutor who sought the death penalty in the same case. That sounds obvious, and the Supreme Court said so on Thursday.

But three justices dissented, suggesting that the answer might not have been obvious after all. The dissents show how deeply divided the court really is over the death penalty—and how far the conservative justices are prepared to go in its defense.

The facts of the case go back to 1984, when Terence Williams, who had just turned 18, participated in the beating and murder of 56-year-old Amos Norwood in Philadelphia. The prosecutor

in Williams’s case wanted to seek the death penalty, and asked approval from Philadelphia district lawyer Ronald Castille. Castille approved in 1986, writing on the letter of request, “Approved to proceed on the death penalty.”

At the sentencing phase of the trial, the prosecutor argued that Williams had murdered Norwood for no better reason than that the stranger had offered him a ride. The randomness of the crime was used as evidence that Williams would be dangerous if he was ever allowed to go free, and the jury chose the death sentence.

In 2012 Williams filed a petition in Pennsylvania court offering new evidence. His codefendant now was willing to testify that he had told prosecutors that Williams was in a sexual relationship with Norwood, his victim.

If that was true, then the killing might

follow a leader. I just behave in a way that does not contravene laws. It is time that media stop infantilizing the news, and thereby idiotizing the public.

Showbiz is for turning off your brain; the news is for exciting the brain into thought. Do not mix them.

We made that mistake with Noynoy when media called him cute. He believed it. Let’s not make the same mistake with Digong. He wanted the job of president; he got it; now he must do it. The door is wide open if he can’t. He said so himself. No one should hold him back out of filial affection except his loved ones—and none of those are we. It is way past due that we stopped acting cute.

not have been random, as prosecutors had claimed.

A Pennsylvania trial court stayed the execution. Prosecutors asked the state supreme court to lift the stay for a procedural reason, saying defense lawyers hadn’t filed petitions on time as defined

by Pennsylvania law.

At the time, the chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was none other than Ronald Castille, who had approved the death penalty request as district attorney almost 30 years before. Williams’s lawyers asked him to recuse himself from the appeal. Castille refused.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote Thursday’s Supreme Court opinion, holding that Castille’s participation deprived Williams of due process of law. The logic was simple: for Castille to act as prosecutor and judge in the same case violated a

basic principle of fairness, namely, that “no man can be a judge in his own case.”

Having made a “critical” decision on the case, Kennedy wrote, Castille might be “psychologically wedded” to the death penalty and, therefore, might not be open-minded about the appeal.

The two dissents are noteworthy.

The first, by Chief Justice John Roberts, was joined by Justice Samuel Alito. In it, Roberts disparaged Kennedy’s opinion as resting “on proverb rather than precedent.” Roberts then argued that, under existing precedent, recusal is only required when a judge has previously decided precisely the same question. He claimed that the issue in Williams’s appeal was different than the ones raised in seeking the death penalty in the first place; the only question was whether Williams’s petition should be rejected because it wasn’t filed on time.

Roberts emphasized that judges’ recusal decisions should be presumed legitimate. He cares about the institution of the courts, and so it’s, perhaps, understandable that he was eager to defend the Pennsylvania judge.

But the opinion is, otherwise, unconvincing. In death-penalty appeals, technical issues, like timeliness, are often proxies for the underlying issue of whether the death penalty should have been applied. If prosecutors were told that Williams and his victim were lovers and, yet, told the jury that the attack was random, that would impugn the honesty of the district attorney’s office when Castille was district attorney.

What’s really going on is that Roberts and Alito don’t want capital sentences blocked on what they consider technicalities.

Justice Clarence Thomas was will-

few months ago, when it looked as if Trump might win only a plurality of the delegates, his supporters said he would still deserve the nomination.

Any other result would mean that party elites had “stolen” it from him.

It was a spurious argument. But dumping him now really would be stealing the nomination. He won a majority of delegates. What’s more, no new information has come to light bearing on his fitness for the nomination or the presidency. Well before his recent criticisms of the judge, there were reasons to think he was petty, self-indulgent, eager to exploit prejudice and electorally risky. Republican primary voters chose him anyway.

Those Republican politicians who are edging or sprinting away from their endorsements of Trump have even less reason to say they were fooled. They had been paying closer attention to Trump than most voters. They had every reason to think he would tarnish the reputations of those who endorsed him. Those who thought Trump would “pivot” to being a decent person or “tone down” his indecency deluded themselves.

Even if he quits attacking Curiel, as he promises, Trump will find other ways to demonstrate that Republicans made a bad decision. But it’s a decision they’re stuck with.

ing to say so more explicitly. His separate dissent argued that state post-conviction proceedings, common in death-penalty cases, actually should be held to a lower due-process standard than trials for guilt or innocence. “The specter of bias alone in a judicial proceeding is not a deprivation of due process,” Thomas wrote.

Thomas has the honesty to say what he thinks, namely, that the Constitutional right to due process doesn’t have full weight once a defendant has been convicted. He’s wrong, and thank goodness the other justices don’t agree.

But his opinion sheds light on his own death-penalty intransigence.

Hard cases make bad law, according to the adage. The Williams case isn’t hard. But the death penalty makes it so.

And the court’s conservatives seem prepared to make bad law to emphasize their desire to see capital defendants executed.

Social workers from Icab and DSWD are not inept and incompetent MAIL

Please e-mail your letters to the editor to oped@businessmirror. com.ph. Letters chosen for publication in this section are edited for brevity and clarity.

WE write to clarify the issues raised in a news article, entitled “Adoption of abandoned kids hindered by state ineptitude,” which was published in

the BusinessMirror on June 3.

The article cited the case of Michelle Sambalilo, whose adoption by foreign couple from the United States was allegedly hindered due to the limiting adoption process in the Philippines.

According to the article, Sambalilo was denied by the Intercountry Adoption Board (Icab), an attached agency of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), because it determined that she is already 15 years old, hence, too old to be adopted.

The article went on to say that the country’s adoption bureaucracy is so forbidding that scores of aspiring adoptive parents are left in the cold, and abandoned children are left

to grow up without parents.

It also attributed some quotes to lawyer Eric Mallonga, founder of Meritxell Children’s Home, the agency that is sheltering Sambalilo, who said government agencies frequently demand documents that are impossible to procure; and that even with the necessary paperwork, simple procedures can drag on for months. Mallonga said it’s incompetence and ineptitude on the part of many social workers.

We would like to clarify that social workers from the Icab and from the DSWD are not inept and incompetent. It is inherent in their role to demand necessary documents in order to proceed with the process, as stipulated in the law.

In this particular case, the social workers did the best they could within the bounds of law and their professional mandate. Accusing them of ineptitude and incompetence is, therefore, wrongfully directed.

May we also clarify that the child mentioned in the article was cleared for intercountry adoption on October 23, 2014, at 16 years and 8 months old and has not “just turned 15,” as stated in the article.

The age is crucial since US laws are clear that only children below 16 are eligible for adoption to the US. The Icab did not reject her outright, as claimed by Mallonga.

The child’s profile was immediately endorsed to the foreignadoption agencies in the hope of

finding an adoptive family for her.

The foreign-adoption agency of the family stated that, aside from the child not meeting the age requirement to immigrate to the US as an adopted child (US Immigration and Nationality Act, Section 101 [b] [l] [G]), in part, defines “child” as follows: The child is under the age of 16 on the filing date of the petition), the willing adoptive parents never made any move to process papers for adoption.

A copy of birth certificate is secured from the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA), a government agency. The PSA can issue a copy for the birth certificate or a certificate of no record of birth, whichever is the case.

The child was admitted at the Metrixell on December 20, 2010, when she was 12 years old. Four years had passed without obtaining a copy of the birth certificate from the PSA. For our part, our social workers will need to revisit the case and determine what went wrong along the way and why it took that long to complete the process.

Rest assured that we shall provide you with the update on the case.

We hope that this clarification will be published in your paper.

Cezario Joel C. Espejo Director, Social Marketing Service Department of Social Welfare and Development