Businessmirror june 20, 2016

“We promised to liberate Fallujah, and it has returned to the embrace of the nation.”—Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, after Iraqi special forces swept into the city, recapturing most of it from the Islamic State group. AP

media partner of the year

United nations

2015 environmental Media Award leadership award 2008

“The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something that’s contrary to their conscience. Of course, I wouldn’t do that.”—House Speaker Paul Ryan, advising Republican lawmakers to follow their own consciences in deciding whether to support Donald Trump, the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee. Ryan has given Trump a tepid endorsement. AP

“It gives a measure of hope to clean athletes that there are consequences not only for athletes who dope, but for countries which do not engage seriously in the fight against doping.”—US Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun, after Russia’s track-and-field athletes were banned from the Rio Olympics for systematic doping that allegedly operated “from the top down.” AP

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

www.businessmirror.com.ph

n

Monday, June 20, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 254

Aquino urged to sign ‘Big One’ insurance EO A By VG Cabuag

@villygc

pparently, the desire of the government to provide mandatory insurance coverage to every household from the muchfeared the “Big One” has died down, along with the hype over preparations needed for a catastrophic earthquake. With just a few days left in his term, President Aquino is yet to sign the executive order (EO) jointly prepared by the Insurance Commission (IC) and the Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (Pira), and endorsed by the De-

INSIDE

nba finals: winner takes all in game 7

partment of Finance months back. “We have completed all the technical work and, in fact, this was already with the secretary of finance more than three or four months ago and was sent to the President,” IC Commissioner Emmanuel F. Dooc

We still have more than two weeks before the end of his term, and anytime he can sign it.”—Dooc told the BusinessMirror. The proposed EO allows the private sector to take part in the risk of rebuilding should a big earthquake or flood threaten the economic contributions of any of the big cities in the Philippines. “Last December we were called to a meeting with the Office of the Executive Secretary and why the President should sign the draft EO, See “Big One,” A2

BMReports

K to 12 Whither Philippine education? sports

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

The PHL PPP Center

What it is, what it is not and what it ought to be PPP Lead

W

Alberto C. Agra

hat is the anatomy of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center of the Philippines? What is its mandate? How critical is its role in development? What types of PPP modalities is it advancing? Is it an implementing agency? Who has control over its actions?

To date: (1) PPP Center is a public, not a private, office. Like the Department of Finance and the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), the PPP Center is a public office. It performs a sovereign or public function. Per Executive Order (EO) 8, Series of 2010, the PPP Center shall assist government agencies in pursuing PPP programs and infrastructure and development projects. Its functions are specialized and highly technical. As a public office, although only created by executive fiat, it serves and is accountable to the public. Continued on A14

c2

PPP Center, Today

shane lowry on top at U.S. Open

Public Office

Advisory Body

An employee of Parañaque National High School prepares an engine that will be used to teach automotive mechanic skills for students enrolled in the K to 12 Program, which extends the basic-education cycle to include two additional years at the secondary level. NONIE REYES By Max de Leon & Dennis D. Estopace @angmaxde

sports

c1

A

@DennisEstopace

First of three parts

LLEN S. Quimpo is more at home in another house. But, instead of mature lawmakers, the former chairman of the House Committee on Education is rubbing elbows with millennials as president of Northwestern Visayan Colleges, a private tertiary-educational institution.

PESO exchange rates n US 46.3510

The three-term representative has also been at home with the roll out of the “Enhanced Basic Education Act,” a law known for rolling out the K to 12 Program. According to Quimpo, on a national scale, private schools are more ready with the full implementation of Republic Act (RA) 10533. “Ang public school kasi, kahit na basic infrastructure, the buildings, hindi pa kumpleto,” he told the BusinessMirror. Indeed, Quimpo is echoing an Asian

Competition Centralized Agency

BOT Law-Focused Entity

Attached Agency

Author: Alberto C. Agra

bm Graphics: Job Ruzgal

Continued on A2

n japan 0.4446 n UK 65.8370 n HK 5.9741 n CHINA 7.0317 n singapore 34.3799 n australia 34.1097 n EU 52.0475 n SAUDI arabia 12.3636

Source: BSP (17 June 2016 )

BMReports BusinessMirror

A2 Monday, June 20, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph

K to 12

Whither Philippine education? Continued from A1

Development Bank (ADB) data four years ago that forecast some 10,000 classrooms in existing private junior high schools (JHSs) likely to be available for the senior hig- school (SHS) program this school year (SY). This year is a crucial point in RA 10533, which extends the basic education cycle to include two additional years at the secondary level. A report by the Commission on Higher Education (ChEd) last year said the SHS will be rolled out nationwide beginning with Grade 11 this year, followed by Grade 12 in 2017. According to the ADB report cited by the Philippine Institute on Development Studies (Pids), the rollout of the SHS would see a scarcity in the supply of classrooms even in private schools by about 9,000. “Meanwhile, if the Department of Education [DepEd] were to provide the places needed to accommodate all the students who are projected to enter public SHSs, it has to build close to 27,000 new classrooms by SY [school year] 2016-2017 and an additional 23,812 classrooms by SY 2017-2018,” Pids Senior Research Fellow Rosario G. Manasan wrote in her report. The addition of two years in the secondary high school, however, was just one of the plans when Quimpo was with other lawmakers still working out what

Big One. . .

₧17,005

The subsidy per student of provincial schools, like Northwestern Visayan Colleges, to help in transitioning to the K to12 Program formally implemented in school year 2016 to 2017 is now known as the K to 12 Program.

Options

ACCORDING to Quimpo, lawmakers had two options prior to RA 10533, one of which was adding the additional years in tertiary education. Nonetheless, he admits the push for the adding two years was strong. “Kasi ang demand ng international [market] talagang kulang tayo ng two years,” Quimpo said, who added he prefers the current SHS. He explained this preference is also due to the fact that 85 percent of the country’s schools are privately owned. “Saka walang mandate yung gobyerno to provide scholarship sa college,” Quimpo said. “Kung mayroon man kokonti lang, between 10 percent to 15 percent.”

Continued from A1

which the IC and Pira prepared,” Dooc said. But since that meeting in December 2015, the proposed catastrophe insurance pool—which will make mandatory the insurance coverage for households and micro-, smalland medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) throughout the country against earthquakes, floods and typhoons—remains pending before the Office of the President. Dooc said in the clarificatory meeting in Malacañang last December, the Palace’s legal depart-

ment did not see anything wrong with the draft EO proposed by the IC and the industry, and endorsed by Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima, himself. Before the elections, Purisima even sent a follow-up letter addressed to President Aquino, which letter was returned so that Dooc would be able to affix his initials on it. “So I thought that would be it. But up to now, we have not received any advice from them. But we still have more than two weeks before the end of his term, and anytime he

He said he prefers the SHS because the government is mandated to provide financial support to the education sector. “Meron na tayong constitution na free elementary and high school so pag dinagdagan mo yung high school ng two years free pa rin,” Quimpo said. “Although gagastos pa rin ang parents ng baon, transportation, among others, at least ’yung tuition nila may mando.”

Subsidy

QUIMPO said the subsidy given to students is more or less rational. Quimpo added that in urban areas, like in Manila, is between P21,000 and P23,000 per student a year. That, however, is P9,000 less than what parents want, because the actual cost of a subsidy should be around P32,000 per student. He said for provincial schools, like in Northwestern Visayas Colleges (NVC), the subsidy is around P17,005 per student. “That works for us because, for us in NVC, our cost per student is only around P10,000,” Quimpo said. “So with the P17,005, we can afford to give everything for free: entrance fee, miscellaneous, pati tuition. Iniisip ko nga pati libro [be given for free].” He explained the subsidy is secured by private schools through the DepEd’s Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (Gastpe) program, which is enshrined

can sign it. There are some sectors, even from abroad, who are really interested to see it signed because we really need that,” Dooc said.

Catastrophe insurance pool

In 2014 Pira came up with a proposal to come up with a catastrophe insurance pool, which will cover all households and MSMEs against big natural and man-made disasters not normally covered by fire insurance policies, such as earthquakes and floods. Under the proposed catastrophe insurance pool, a pool of insurers will underwrite the mandatory policies according to their correspond-

as RA 6728 and amended as RA 8545.

Contracting

THE educational service contracting (ESC) scheme is a program provided for by RA 8545, or the “Expanded” Gastpe. Its main objective is to decongest public secondary schools by “contracting” the excess capacities of private high schools through the provision of subsidies for students who, otherwise, would have gone to the public high schools, according to a briefer by the DepEd. According to the DepEd, the ESC was identified as a strategy in the 1987 to 1992 Philippine Development Plan, in providing equitable access to education. From just P5 million in 1986, the ESC budget amounted to 3.61 billion in 2011 and 2012. The program could be regarded as the first public-private partnership in the country’s education sector. According to Quimpo, the subsidy is given to a student who reaches Grade 7, amounting to P7,005. The same amount is given when a student reaches Grade 8. A yearly P6,500 subsidy is given to a student who reaches Grade 9 and Grade 10. At Grade 11, the student subsidy hits P7,005.However, Quimpo said this amount is the limit the government can subsidize even if the tuition is P30,000 or more. With support from Michea David and Cyril Razon.

ing subscriptions to the pool, which will represent their respective exposures to the risks undertaken. The premium payment can be included in the real-property tax or business-permit fees, with the local government units serving as collecting agents for insurers. The EO will serve as the enabling law, while the IC will issue the corresponding implementing guidelines. It is necessary for the catastrophe insurance to be mandatory for all households and MSMEs to be able to spread the risk of loss among the most number of insured as possible, as it is the nature of insurance to spread the risk among as many

To be continued

Poverty. . .

Lopez said he plans to provide incentives to enterprises that will adopt the IB model. “When we say we will prioritize [inclusive businesses], we mean all possible help, although we have to review what kind of incentives will be provided to them.” “We have to find out if the grant of fiscal incentives will make a difference or if it’s relevant,” he added. Enterprises that adopt the IB model incorporate poor communities in their core business and are not mere beneficiaries—similar to how corporate social responsibility projects work today. Poor communities are also targeted as new markets for goods and services under the IB model. IB models are directly within a company’s value chain, or it can be a single business model of a small company. The Board of Investments (BOI) and the Asian Development to create a framework for the IB model in the Philippines. The BOI has already piloted an IB accreditation system. The IB model, the BOI said, will be rolled out in the housing, agribusiness, and tourism sectors in the pilot stage. Earlier, Cristobal said a separate accreditation and registration process for the IB enterprises could be set up, but he assured that the government will not burden the private sector with more rules. “We’re studying it carefully and that it’s really going to be useful and not add more burden the company,” he added. The IB model is currently in the 2014 Investment Priority Plan (IPP) of the BOI not as a specific economic activity eligible for incentives but as a general “economic strategy.” Among the existing IB models identified by the BOI and the ADB are the Ayala’s Manila Water’s “Tubig Para sa Barangay” program, which effectively lowered the price of water from P150 per cubic meter to P7 per cubic meter for 1.6 million low-income residents of Manila. Kennemer Foods’ Cacao Growership Program has also been noted by the two agencies as a successful IB model, as they’ve enlisted smallholder farmers to supply cacao beams under growership agreements.

stakeholders as possible to make sure that those who will suffer losses can be compensated from the premiums paid by the stakeholders concerned at the lowest possible expense to every stakeholder. The mandatory coverage is also required to make the catastrophe insurance pool sustainable to answer for a possible huge amount of claims, which will result from a big catastrophe.

Top 4 in the world

Continued from A16

The mandatory insurance coverage is deemed as an imperative measure by worldwide insurance market services company Lloyd’s,

which made a study that ranked Metro Manila as No. 4 in the world in terms of having the most assets at risk of being lost without insurance coverage. In the recently released Lloyd’s City Risk Index, Metro Manila is estimated to have an average annual GDP of $201.08 billion, and more than half of this amount, or $101.09 billion, is at risk of being lost without any form of insurance coverage. This puts Metro Manila at the top 4 in the world in terms of having the most amount of assets at risk, next to Taipei (first), Tokyo (second) and Seoul (third).

‘Trade-off’

Per h aps, t he proposed EO remained pending since a “tradeoff” has not been offered by the proponents of the mandatory insurance coverage, the same demand made by some members of Congress when Pira was lobbying for the lowering of taxes on nonlifeinsurance products, which could have lowered premium payments of policyholders. Apparently, the government is wary of a mandatory requirement for households to buy insurance coverage. But the mandatory nature of the proposed insurance coverage against earthquakes, floods and typhoons is needed to lower the premiums to be paid and help the catastrophe insurance pool achieve the critical mass to make it sustainable in the face of possible huge claims from a big calamity affecting a large number of the population. Asean Insurance Council Chairman Michael Rellosa, a past chairman of the Pira, said the industry’s proposals, such as the lowering of taxes on nonlife-insurance products and the mandatory insurance coverage of households against earthquakes and floods, are beneficial not only to the consumers but also to the government. The benefit that will accrue to the government is in the form of the shifting of the responsibilities of rebuilding communities to the private sector. “Actually, the trade-off, like here in the Philippines, which is a disaster-prone country with typhoons like [Supertyphoon] Yolanda, where do the people go? To the government, right? Can you imagine if more people can buy insurance? There is less pressure to the government. That’s the trade-off,” Rellosa said. “The government is actually relieved of its responsibilities because the risk, the responsibility, is transferred to the private sector,” he said.

BMReports BusinessMirror

A4 Monday, June 20, 2016

news.businessmirror@gmail.com

5 candidates ‘shortlisted’ for Naia’s top post

T

By Recto Mercene

@rectomercene

he incoming general manager of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) has a particularly special job that he or she has to immediately address—the air congestion that has stymied the growth of the local air carriers and contributed to the image of the country’s premier airport as one of the worst in the world. This is a difficult riddle that will probably be presented soon to Lionair owner Jack Poe, who is among those on the short list of possible Naia appointees under the incoming administration of President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte. Jack and his brother Archie Poe are the owners of Lionair Inc., a charter airline company operating out of the general aviation (GenAV) area near the Manila Domestic Airport in Pasay City. Lionair owns a Cessna Citation 500, a small-sized business jet ideal for short-runway, provincial airport operations. It was reported that Duterte is a frequent user of Poe’s Cessna 500 and other aircraft in its fleet because Poe is a longtime friend of former Naia Manager Alfonso G. Cusi. Cusi, former Philippine Ports Authority headman, was appointed by Duterte as secretary of the Department of Energy. Lionair also operates the IAI Westwind I and II aircraft. This is an Israel-built business jet that became a cornerstone of the Israeli aircraft-manufacturing industry and remained in production for 20 years. The company is also the dealer of Robinson R44 helicopters in the Philippines. The famous chopper brand is the same kind that former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo bought from Lionair and eventually sold to the National Police (PNP) under questionable circumstances.

$1,800 The amount of losses incurred by PAL for every 30-minute delay in Naia flights

Next on the list of candidates is former Cathay Pacific Station Manager Ed Monreal. After his retirement, Monreal lent his 30-year expertise in aviation and became Naia consultant. Monreal is reportedly a protégé of Arthur Tugade, former president and CEO of the Clark Development Corp.(CDC), who left the post to campaign for Duterte. Tugade was a schoolmate of Duterte in San Beda and has been named secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications. Also on the list of nominees are Davao Airport Manager Agnes Udang, who was reassigned to the Aerodrome Development and Management Office last September by Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Director General William K. Hotchkiss III. She was replaced by Efren Nagrama, former manager of Laoag Area Control Center. Also being mentioned is Davao City law yer Pau A ngeles and Mactan-Cebu International Air-

QUIRINO MEMORIAL Japanese and Philippine representatives unveil the memorial to Elpidio Quirino, former president of the Philippines, at Hibiya Park in Tokyo on Saturday. Quirino granted pardon to 105 Japanese war criminals, who were detained in Muntinlupa prison, although he lost his own wife and three children during World War II. Quirino is the sixth president of the Philippines from 1948 to 1953. AP

port’s Nigel Paul C. Villarete. The Naia congestion had caused considerable losses among the local air carriers, especially legacy Philippine Airlines (PAL). PAL President Jaime Bautista, when interviewed last year during the inaugural flight to New Zealand, said the carrier “is losing around $1,800 [around P84,000] for every 30-minute delay in its flights due to the runway congestion at the Naia.” “Many times we fly around Metro Manila for additional 20 to 30 minutes—we did an estimate of how much it costs us for a minute of delay because of congestion, it is around $60 [around P2,800] every minute on average,” Bautista said. The amount covers jet fuel, maintenance and additional labor expenses. “Because we pay our pilots and cabin

Monsada to present ‘wish list’ to next DOE secretary By Lenie Lectura & Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @llectura

I

@joveemarie

ncoming Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi is set to get a briefing on the agency’s proposed priority programs this week, according to current Energy chief Zenaida Y. Monsada. “We will give him an overview, but he will be the one to choose what he would like to focus on,” Monsada said. Cusi is the choice of Presidentelect Rodrigo R. Duterte as energy secretary. He is a former Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) general manager and served as chief of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines during the Arroyo administration. On May 21 Cusi reportedly said that he would “strive to do my best to help the Duterte administration achieve electrification of the entire country, ensure reliable, steady and affordable power supply and work toward greater energy self-sufficiency as part of its agenda of sustained economic growth, social progress and political stability in the next six years.” He added that he was “humbled” by his appointment to head the DOE, while adding that he would try his best to “ensure reliable, steady and affordable power supply” in the Philippines. “Our priority is to provide electricity to far-flung areas in the country,” Cusi told the BusinessMirror. “Reliable, steady and affordable electricity supply will be also prioritized by the Duterte administra-

Our priority is to provide electricity to far-flung areas in the country.”—Cusi

tion during its six years in office,” he added. Monsada said among her ‘wish list’ for Cusi is to make permanent the appointment of Myleen Capongcol as undersecretary of the DOE. “She will be a great asset to the department.” She said she will also ask Cusi to retain all the staff at the Office of the Secretary. “As much as possible, I would like him to retain the 20 or so people working there because most of them are coterminus.” Monsada said she would also request Cusi to continue the implementation of various policies laid down by her office. “Hopefully, all policies that we have started and are still planning to would favor the incoming secretary so that there will be continuity.” After June 30, Monsada added that she would be “happy to help if Cusi” asked to. Earlier, Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. (ACRI) CEO Tomas Alcantara gave his unsolicited advice to Cusi. He said Cusi must “learn fast” to keep up with the many “complicated” issues in the oil and power sectors. “He has to do a lot of reading. It is a critical agency so he has to move fast. He has to learn fast,” Alcantara said. Though he lacks the expertise in dealing with energy-related issues, Alcantara said Cusi is willing to learn the nitty-gritty details of a

highly competitive and complicated industry. “When I called him up to congratulate him, he told me that he will work hard.” Alcantara and Cusi have worked together during the latter’s stint at the PPA. “I have worked with him. When he was with the PPA, I was the vice chairman of its executive committee,” Alcantara said. On Duterte’s choices for his Cabinet, Alcantara said he has “mixed feelings” because “some are not as disturbing as others.”’ Alcantara did not elaborate on his statement and also refused to give Duterte any unsolicited advice on energy-related issues. “We have to wait for the completion of Cabinet appointments and his state of the nation address because those will define what he will do,” he said. Duterte will become the first president from Mindanao, a region where the Alcantara Group is a major power player. “Duterte is a Mindanaoan. It’s logical that more attention would be given to Mindanao. So many people are riding on that logic. People are taking a second look at the prospects in Mindanao,” Alcantara said. By 2019, ACRI-affiliated power facilities will have around 588 megawatts of generating capacity, approximately 25 percent of Mindanao’s projected peak-power demand for that year.

crew a basic pay and productivity pay based on flying hours. So that’s additional cost,” Bautista explained. The same amount of losses are incurred by Cebu Pacific (CEB) for each of its flight. But the total amount could be more than that of PAL because CEB has more domestic flights than all the other local carriers combined. CEB has a share of 50 percent to 70 percent in the number of delayed flights, according to a Naia executive, who requested not to be named because he is not in a position to reveal this data. However, CEB’s 5J summary of on-time performances and delays shows an average delay of 40 minutes, a standard deviation of 32.82 minutes. AirAsia Zest spent the same

amount of losses for delayed flights. But because it has the least number of flights in the Philippines, it also had the least accumulated financial damages, according to the Naia. Because of the congestion, the Philippines was forced to deny the entry of two foreign carriers, Oman Airways and Jet Airways of India, for regular flights out of the Naia. The BusinessMirror reported that the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) had to inform Oman Air and Jet Air that the gateway to the region’s fastest-growing economy was already “up to its ears in aircraft.” “We are denying foreign airlines, such as Oman and Jet Airways. It’s not that the market is becoming less vibrant.

[The reason] is due to the [limited] infrastructure,” a senior industry official told the BusinessMirror. Alternate plans to reroute the requests to other airports in the country were ruled out because eight alternate airports have no night-flying capabilities. The CAB imposed what its officials described as a temporary moratorium on foreign f lights from countries whose investing and enterprising communities wish to participate in the country’s upbeat future. “The CAB has declared a temporary moratorium on the issuance of permits for foreign airlines to fly to Manila due to the limited capacity of Naia, which is the country’s premier airport and gateway,” the official said.

PLDT overhauls overseas business

T

OKYO, Japan—The largest telco operator in the Philippines is overhauling its business model for the overseas market, as it continues to strive to survive and succeed in its so-called digital pivot. The turn toward the digital space—deemed as the social equalizer—has reached the Japanese soil, as PLDT Inc. unveiled its newly launched business model for the over 10 million Filipinos overseas. It started here in Japan, wherein Filipinos residing in the East Asian country may now avail themselves of the company’s data bundles. Tapping Japanese telco NTT Docomo as its mobile virtual network enabler, PLDT Global Corp. started to market its data service—called Smart World—in Japan on Saturday during a Filipino festivity at the Hibiya Park in Chiyoda, Tokyo. With the agreement, Smart Communications Inc. was able to ride on the network infrastructure of the Japanese telco giant, which owns a minority stake in the listed Filipino carrier. “We want to pivot our business, which is largely legacy, and bring it to the new age of digital, which is largely driven by content, applications and new lifestyles,” PLDT Global President Alex O. Caeg said in a briefing with reporters flown here. He admitted that the shift will not go on very smoothly, as the telco will also have to hurdle government regulations and cooperate with content providers. Nevertheless, Caeg

$50M Estimated earnings that PDLT hopes to realize this year from its overseas operations

said this path is the only way to go if his company wants to thrive. “It is not an easy journey. We have to work with content providers and pass regulations. To improve our earnings, we have to do the shift,” he said. In launching its first data service abroad, the company is aiming to capture a large portion of the roughly 240,000 Filipinos residing in Japan. What makes Smart World different from local data offers is that the product is bundled with voice and text credits, which may be used by consumers to connect with their loved ones in the Philippines. “Japan is a very mature digital market with a highly regulated environment,” PLDT Japan General Manager John Gregory Y. Palanca explained. “We came here because all the pieces fit: we have a very good partner, we have higher-earning Filipino consumers, who are heavy consumers of digital services. Smart World allows subscribers to choose from four monthly base plans of 10GB, 7GB, 5GB, or 3GB. Prices start at ¥4,200, excluding consumption tax.

The service also offers a free Philippine mobile number subscription, which allows family members and friends in the Philippines to call and text Filipinos in Japan at Philippine rates. It is also bundled with a free remittance transaction of up to ¥100,000 once a month, free calls and text messages to the Philippines and free calls to other international destinations. This, according to Caeg, is only the beginning of a new age in the company’s international operations. Soon, other countries that it operates in will also see their business models shifting. “We have always been catering to the needs and wants of the overseas Filipino. Very soon, we will be launching data services in other countries,” he said. This, he said, should translate to higher earnings of a little over $50 million by year-end. There are about 10 million Filipinos scattered all over the world. The company is present in three continents at present, and is aiming to launch services in the Middle East. At home, PLDT is in the middle of a three-year network upgrade that would allow the company to provide better Internet services to its subscribers. It is spending roughly P47 billion through 2016, and is expected to continue increasing its capital in the next few years to keep up with the demands of Filipino digital consumers. Lorenz S. Marasigan

AseanMonday BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, June 20, 2016 A5

Najib wins by-elections to boost party grip

M

alaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s coalition won a pair of by-elections on Saturday with bigger majorities, helping him solidify his grip on power.

Voters in Sungai Besar in Selangor state and Kuala Kangsar in the northern Perak region opted to keep ruling party lawmakers in the seats, with wider majorities than the 2013 federal election, according to the Election Commission (EC). The polls came after a helicopter crash last month killed incumbents from Najib’s United Malays National Organization (UMNO). The vote was the first test of public support for Najib on peninsular Malaysia after a year of political turmoil over funding scandals. The size of the wins suggests Najib retains support within the broader Barisan Nasional coalition led by UMNO.

Lower turnout

Still, turnout in the semi-urban constituencies was between 71 percent and 74 percent for the two seats, lower than the EC’s forecast of 75 percent and shy of levels above 80 percent recorded in 2013. That was due to voters living in other cities and outside Malaysia who didn’t return to cast a ballot, official news agency Bernama said, citing EC Chairman Mohd Hashim Abdullah. Former leader Mahathir Mohamad has recently lost traction in his bid to convince party officials that Najib is a liability and will cost

them a reign unbroken since 1957. Most UMNO divisional chiefs back the premier, even amid concerns about slowing growth and its impact on ethnic Malays, the cornerstone of the party. “Najib desperately needs these wins,” said Ahmad Martadha Mohamed, dean of the college of law, government and international studies at Universiti Utara Malaysia. “It will validate his position that, despite all the problems he’s facing, they are able to win. Otherwise, his status will be in the balance, especially as president of UMNO.”

Sarawak win

Barisan Nasional (BN) also secured a bigger majority in recent elections in Malaysia’s biggest state of Sarawak, but the vote across the South China Sea on Borneo Island was dominated by local issues. Voters on the peninsula are more attuned to the turmoil surrounding the premier. Najib, 62, has battled graft accusations since July, and denies wrongdoing. He was cleared by the attorney general this year over revelations that $681 million appeared in his accounts before the 2013 election. The money

was a donation from the Saudi royal family and most was later returned, the government said. The premier has also been embroiled in probes into the finances of troubled state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). “Now, with these two huge majority wins, “and BN’s landslide 72 out of 82 seat Sarawak election win last month, the people have shown their confidence for and trust in BN,” Najib said early Sunday in a statement. “They rejected Tun Mahathir’s lies, they rejected his unworkable coalition of former enemies, and they rejected the incoherent opposition.” Ministers in Najib’s Cabinet made daily trips to the two constituencies before election day, shaking hands and at times handing out bags of rice and other aid to the poor. They sought to counter an opposition focusing on questions about Najib’s credibility. In a Twitter post on Friday, Najib told voters not to be taken in by what he called the opposition’s games.

‘Better access’

“I support the opposition more than BN, but you have to also think about who has better access to the government, who can get more things done and who can improve your life,” said Mei, an ethnic Chinese fruit seller in Sekinchan town in Sungai Besar who would give only a partial name. “You have to look out for your own interests, and not what the prime minister did or didn’t do.” A divided opposition made it easier for BN coalition to win,

Indonesia lets migrants ashore after week on stranded boat

Indonesian officials load food supplies onto a boat carrying Tamil migrants that have been stranded on the beach in Lhoknga, Aceh province, Indonesia. AP

I

ndonesia allowed a group of Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka to come ashore in Aceh province on Saturday, after confining them to their stranded boat for a week, but is insisting they’ll be towed out to sea once the vessel is repaired. Rights groups have criticized Indonesia’s treatment of the 44 men, women and children, and the Aceh provincial government’s plan to abandon them in international waters. The migrants were being sheltered in tents after being allowed off their boat on Saturday during rough weather. Ahmad Samadan, chief of the local immigration office, said authorities still plan to tow the migrants into international waters once further repairs to the vessel are completed. “They are being sheltered ashore,” he said. “We still have our initial plan of towing them back to sea.” The group was trying to reach the Australian territory of Christ-

44 The number of migrants from Sri Lanka allowed ashore by Indonesia

mas Island when their boat’s engine malfunctioned off the coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island. They had been at sea for about a month after leaving from India in the Indianflagged boat. Amnesty International has said the minority Tamils may have been fleeing persecution in Sri Lanka. Officials from the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations’s refugee agency,

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugess (UNHCR), have been denied access to the migrants. Earlier in the week police fired a warning shot when six women tried to leave the beached vessel. Some of the migrants appealed for a new boat, saying theirs was in bad condition. “Please help us, this ship is not good. We are going to die with this boat,” Fakky Sharen, a 34-yearold migrant traveling with his wife and 18-month-old son, said on Saturday during an exchange with lawmaker Nasir Djamil, who visited the group. A 22-year-old woman who identified herself as Artika said she was very afraid because of the boat’s condition and wanted to be assisted by the UNHCR. Indonesia last year opened its doors to stateless Muslim Rohingya boat people fleeing persecution in Myanmar, but officials have said the current situation is different because the migrants are trying to

NAJIB

They rejected Tun Mahathir’s lies, they rejected his unworkable coalition of former enemies, and they rejected the incoherent opposition.” —Najib and the presence of multiple candidates assisted it. Two opposition groups ran against UMNO for both seats, while an independent candidate turned Kuala Kangsar into a four-cornered battle. UMNO won Sungai Besar in 2013 in a straight fight, and Kuala Kangsar in a three-way race, both by narrow margins.

Religious issues

UMNO held Sungai Besar by 9,191

votes, compared with a 399 vote majority in 2013. In Kuala Kangsar its candidate—the widow of the parliamentarian who died in the helicopter crash—had 6,969 more votes than her nearest rival even though her Islamic mourning period meant she couldn’t campaign in public. Racial and religious issues are coming to the fore of Malaysian politics, including the past two weeks of campaigning. UMNO, in power

since independence, won the 2013 ballot by its slimmest-ever result as Chinese and Indian electors deserted Najib’s coalition. Since then, Najib has wooed the Malay majority. He’s reached out to the opposition Parti Islam seMalaysia and proposed they work to promote Islam’s doctrines. PAS, which is pushing for the Islamic penal code to be implemented in a state it controls, also competed on Saturday. Under PAS’s hudud laws, adulterers and apostates could face death by stoning, while those found guilty of theft could have their hands amputated. About 68 percent of voters in Kuala Kangsar are Malay, 24 percent are Chinese, and Indians and other ethnicities make up the rest, according to the Bernama news agency. In Sungai Besar Malays make up about 67 percent of voters, while 31 percent are Chinese and the rest minority groups. “The infighting within the opposition dampened the mood,” said Ibrahim Suffian, an analyst at the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research in Kuala Lumpur. “A lot of young voters, the outstation voters just didn’t come back to vote, there is a lot of disillusionment,” he said. “Many Chinese are not happy with the way the opposition has been going. BN has used the infighting to their advantage, and Najib is on much firmer ground than he was just after the general elections in 2013 even with the 1MDB issues,” Ibrahim said. Bloomberg News

A6

The World

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • Monday, June 20, 2016

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

First Brexit survey since MP Cox’s killing

‘Remain’ leads in poll

T

he campaign to keep the United Kingdom in the European Union (EU) led in the first opinion poll fully conducted since Thursday’s slaying of politician Jo Cox.

Staying in the bloc won 45-percent support in the Survation telephone poll of 1,001 adults on Friday and Saturday for the Mail on Sunday, according to the Press Association. Leaving was endorsed by 42 percent. The poll marked a reversal of positions from Survation’s previous survey which was released just before pro-EU Labour Party lawmaker Cox was murdered as she met constituents in her electoral district in northern England. Her killing led to the suspension of campaigning, which had turned increasingly rancorous ahead of the June 23 referendum. Polls had shown mounting support for withdrawal from the EU in the week before her death. A survey by YouGov Plc. for the Sunday Times, a third of which was conducted before the attack, showed “Remain” on 44 percent and “Leave” on 43 percent. The pollster said it doubted the rise in backing for the EU was tied to the death of Cox and suggested it may relate more to concerns about what Brexit, or exit from EU, would mean for the economy. A more muted public debate resumed on Saturday night with Prime Minister David Cameron writing in the Sunday Telegraph that there would be “no turning back” from quitting the EU and that doing so would trigger a “probable recession.” “If you’re not sure, don’t take the risk of leaving,” he said. “If you don’t know, don’t go.” Speaking to the same newspaper, pro-Brexit Justice Secretary Michael Gove said that rather than suffering a recession, the UK would thrive outside of the EU and urged the public to “vote for hope.” On Sunday morning Gove and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will

45%

The percentage of people who support the UK stay in the European Union based on a poll

appear on the BBC’s “Andrew Marr” program before Cameron films a special edition of the channel’s “Question Time” that evening. Thomas Mair, 52, who lives in Cox’s northern England electoral district, was charged with her murder on Saturday. Following the attack, politicians have sought to promote unity and Parliament will be recalled on Monday to pay tribute to Cox.

IMF revives recession warning

On Friday the International Monetary Fund (IMF) weighed in once more with its thoughts on Britain’s referendum, warning the UK could slide into a recession if it quits the EU. In a 64-page document, the Washington-based fund said that the size of the hit would depend on a multitude of factors, though its overall assessment is that the UK “would likely be worse off economically in the long run.” The IMF also warned of a potential credit squeeze if liquidity markets dry up, which could stymie spending and investment. The Bank of England (BOE) has moved to preempt this with additional auctions to make funds available to banks before and after the vote. The IMF delayed publication of

the report by a day after campaigning in the referendum was halted, following the fatal shooting of Cox on Thursday. Speaking on Friday, Managing Director Christine Lagarde said her thoughts were with Cox’s family and friends.

‘Adverse’ scenario

In its report, the IMF presented forecasts for “limited” and “adverse” Brexit scenarios. In the worse situation, it sees growth slowing sharply this year and the economy shrinking 0.8 percent in 2017. The impact would see the economy 5.6 percent smaller by 2019 compared with a baseline forecast, while unemployment would rise above 6 percent and the deficit would be wider. IMF officials said a permanent hit to output would probably mean deeper austerity. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has said an emergency budget would be required within two months of a Brexit to fill a hole in the public finances. “While recognizing that this choice is for UK voters to make and that their decisions will reflect both economic and noneconomic factors, directors agreed that the net economic effects of leaving the EU would likely be negative and substantial,” the organization said. The intervention is not the first from the IMF, which has issued several warnings on the potential impact of Brexit. Lagarde has also defended the organization’s stance, saying that officials are “just doing our job” in presenting their analysis. The BOE and the Treasury have also issued referendum-related forecasts, and all have been criticized by the pro-Brexit lobby for scaremongering. “Leave” campaigners have also accused the IMF of a poor track record for failing to predict past events such as the 2008 financial crisis.

Quantifying losses

In the long run, much of the economic impact would depend on what could be negotiated after a vote to leave, the IMF said. There would be direct negative effects from reduced trade access, as the country would be unlikely to quickly establish agreements with other countries. Brexit could also bring

Gordon and Jean Leadbeater, the parents of Labour Member of Parliament Jo Cox, look at floral tributes left in honor of their daughter in Birstall, West Yorkshire, on Saturday. Danny Lawson/PA via AP

losses in productivity, which would be magnified if Brexit were accompanied by restrictions on migration. Uncertainty during the transition could delay investment and hiring, and some firms may relocate if their business depends on access to the single market, according to the fund. It sees finance and manufacturing as the most vulnerable. “Exit from the single market would almost certainly reduce market access of UK-based financial firms—both domestic and foreign—to the EU, subject them to regulatory uncertainty for some

time, and force them to reexamine business models,” the IMF said. There’s also the potential for a vicious circle where households hold off buying durable goods and property, resulting in weaker demand, which, in turn, pushes up unemployment and further reduces consumption, the IMF said. The paper estimated that sterling could plunge as much as 15 percent, which would push up inflation to 4 percent—double the BOE’s target. IMF officials also discussed more fundamental economic issues for the UK, including

low productivity growth, the record current-account deficit and high levels of household debt. The BOE has said it would face a tradeoff between containing inflation and boosting output in the event of a vote to leave. It warned on Thursday that the potential impacts of a UK exit from the EU extend beyond Britain, with spillover effects to the global economy. The IMF also highlighted external risks, and said other EU economies are most vulnerable, especially Ireland, Cyprus, Malta, the Netherlands and Belgium. Bloomberg News

Southwest braces for heat wave; temps reaching 120°F From Silicon Valley to NY:

Saudi prince making pitch

P

HOENIX—In 120-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, some airplanes might not take off. Power grids strain as the outside air keeps transmission lines from cooling. And for desert dwellers, a cold bottle of water and some shade can mean the difference between life and death. Parts of the US Southwest, long accustomed to triple-digit temperatures, are preparing for a heat wave. In Phoenix, the high for Saturday was 111°F. But meteorologists believe the next two days could be record-breaking. Officials are warning residents the mercury may rise to 120°F on Sunday and Monday, approaching the city’s record of 122°F. “If we are going to 115 [degrees F] or 120 [degrees F], people need to realize they are really in a life-threatening situation if they don’t wet themselves down and drink water,” said Kevin Kalkbrenner, Phoenix’s director of homeland security and emergency management. Excessive heat contributed to 84 deaths in the state last year, officials said in Maricopa County, the state’s largest. Officials already confirmed this year’s first heat-related death—an elderly woman who died from heat exposure in her backyard in early June. Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, is warning residents to watch for signs of heat illness: thirst, red skin, cramping, exhaustion and a lack of sweat. The agency is telling local officials to prepare for an influx of heat-related illnesses. The Phoenix parks department is posting extra rangers at hiking trails

A

A man sprays water on an elephant to cool him off in Islamabad, Pakistan. Many cities in Pakistan are facing heat-wave conditions with temperatures reaching 45 degrees Celsius in Dadu and other places. AP/B.K. Bangash warning visitors of the dangers and asking them to be off the trails by noon. Arizona’s power companies are prepping extra maintenance crews and securing extra power to keep the coolair blowing, said Jacob Tetlow, general manager of operations with Arizona Public Service Co. Airlines will be monitoring temperatures as excessive heat can throw off performance calculations preventing planes from taking off, said Polly Tracey, spokesman for American Airlines. Tracey said they might have to have to delay flights until the heat lets up, but officials will have to wait and see before making any decisions. Arizona’s hottest day on record was in 1990 when temperatures hit 122°, said Nancy Selover, state climatologist. Airlines grounded all the flights out of

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, she said. Selover said the heat impacts everything from the expansion of the metal tracks along the Valley Metro Rail— though they’re designed to handle it— to cotton crops thirsting for more water, to increasing evaporation on the state’s lakes and reservoirs. But the quick jump from moderate to scorching temperatures may have the biggest impact on people, she said. At Redeemed Outreach Center in downtown Phoenix, volunteers pass out cool water for anyone who walks by, many of whom are homeless. “We’re a church so it’s what God called us to do,” said pastor Jerry Savocchio, whose church is one of 50 cooling stations in Maricopa County. Nearby, Arizona’s largest homeless

shelter is working to amass 300,000 water bottles to pass out to the homeless over the summer, said J. David Smith, spokesman for Central Arizona Shelter Services. “Our clients are out most of the day, if they are not staying with us regularly they can be out 24 hours a day,” Smith said. But people aren’t the only ones affected by the heat. Pets walking outside in the daytime can face surface temperatures of 150°F to 170°F. “If it’s too hot to walk in your bare feet it’s too hot to make your dog walk on it,” said Melissa Gable, spokesman for Maricopa County Animal Care and Control. Gable advised pet owners to bring pets inside if possible, and to make sure pets have shade and a supply of cool water that won’t tip over. AP

fter a week in Washington, Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince is heading west to meet with technology executives in Silicon Valley and then to New York to pitch his nation’s new economic plan to Wall Street investors. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman wants to discuss how Saudi Arabia can benefit from innovations spawned in California and then talk with New York investors about opportunities, including with the state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco), according to Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. The kingdom plans an initial public offering of the world’s largest oil company, known as Saudi Aramco, which the prince expects to be valued at more than $2 trillion. The prince, who’s the son of King Salman, is leading Saudi Arabia’s biggestever economic shakeup, moving to cut subsidies and diversify the economy away from oil by generating an extra $100 billion in nonoil revenue by 2020. In Washington he discussed economic and business issues with Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, National Economic Council Director Jeff Zients, US Chamber of Commerce officials and executives from US companies. He also discussed sensitive defense and foreign-policy issues with President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ash Carter, and visited the Central Intelligence Agency to meet with Director John Brennan. In the Oval Office on Friday, Prince Mohammed and Obama discussed conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen, as well as

Iran’s “destabilizing” activities in the region, the White House said in a statement. “I would describe the meetings as very, very positive,” al-Jubeir told reporters at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. The aim was to “exchange views and ideas on issues of the day on challenges that our two countries face in the region and the world,” he said. On the kingdom’s economic plans, “people in the US were very pleased with it and very supportive of it—the scope of it and breadth of it—and look forward to working with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the implementation of it,” al-Jubeir said. The visit comes at a sensitive time in a US-Saudi relationship that Obama described as “complicated” in an interview published in March by The Atlantic magazine. The prince arrived two days after the killing of 49 people at an Orlando dance club by an American who proclaimed support for Islamic terrorist groups and had traveled twice to Saudi Arabia. And it takes place amid continuing demands that classified portions of a September 11 report be made public and criticism among political leaders that the kingdom doesn’t do enough to stop extremism. Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said in a speech on June 13 that it’s time for “the Saudis, the Qataris and the Kuwaitis and others to stop their citizens from funding extremist organizations” and “stop supporting radical schools and mosques around the world.” Bloomberg News

The World BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Tension persists between Trump and GOP leaders $14M D

onald Trump complained on Saturday about tepid support for him from top Republicans, an extraordinary public display of the acute tension in the party’s top ranks a month before its national convention. Trump told supporters at a Las Vegas rally that he believed it would be illegal for delegates at the Republican convention in Cleveland to nominate anyone but him for president, as some of his critics within the party have suggested they should. “Who are they going to pick?” Trump asked. “I beat everybody.… And we’re going to beat Hillary, and it would be helpful if the Republicans could help us a little bit.” Trump’s comments came as top Republicans worry—some in public—that his recent inflammatory remarks about Latinos and Muslims could endanger the party’s prospects not only for the presidency, but also for Congress and other races in the November election. Among other things, Trump has said an Indiana-born federal judge’s Mexican ancestry should disqualify

him from presiding over a fraud suit against Trump University, and suggested that a Muslim judge would also be unable to treat him fairly in court. After a gunman shot and killed 49 people and wounded dozens of others at a gay nightclub last weekend in Orlando, Trump broadly accused American Muslims, without evidence, of not telling authorities about terrorist plots. Trump’s stop in Las Vegas came after several days of raising money for his campaign and the Republican National Committee in Georgia, Texas and Nevada. He was to raise more money on Saturday afternoon in Arizona at the onetime home of Barry Goldwater, the late staunch conservative senator whose 1964 Republican bid for the White House ended in a landslide defeat.

Trump’s failure to raise money aggressively, compared with traditional major-party presidential nominees, has been a source of growing frustration for many Republicans. On Saturday he blamed the party for not helping him. “Right now, I’m raising a lot of money for the Republican Party, and a lot of beneficiaries, and I like doing it—but we have to have help,” Trump told the crowd in Las Vegas. “You know, life is like a two-way street, right? It’s a two-way street. So that’s it. Otherwise, I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. I’ll just keep funding my own campaign.” But hopefully, he added, “I can continue to go the way we’re going.” Trump said he wants the party to unite. “But if for any reason they get a little bit like they don’t want to help out as much, then I’ll fund my own campaign,” he said. The New York businessman has long boasted of “self funding” his campaign, saying that he—unlike his rivals—would not be beholden to donors. But the most recent finance reports show that Trump accepted $14 million in campaign contributions through the end of April. And his campaign can repay the $43 million in loans that it has reported receiving from Trump. Most of Trump’s donations during the primaries came from small

The amount of campaign contributions Trump accepted through the end of April

contributors, many through purchases of hats and other merchandise. But much of the money he is raising now with the party comes in large checks from Wall Street bankers and other wealthy donors. Trump showed no sign of moderating his rhetoric to accommodate his critics, including fellow Republicans, who question his temperament. He mocked Karl Rove, a Republican political consultant who was a top aide to President George W. Bush, and conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer for casting doubts on his candidacy from the outset. He called President Barack Obama “pathetic,” said Secretary of State John F. Kerry was “an idiot” and described Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, as “weak.” “You think she’s a president?” Trump asked. “Take a look at her.” Los Angeles Times/TNS

Dalai Lama welcomed in Little Saigon

Monday, June 20, 2016

A7

Zika reaches Puerto Rico

T

he Zika virus has gained a startling foothold in Puerto Rico based on the number of blood donations that have tested positive for the disease, federal health officials said on Friday. Since blood-donation centers in the US territory began testing the blood supply for Zika in early April, the number of positive results has spiked, leaders from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a news conference. Last week marked the biggest gain. So far, 68 blood units out of 12,777, collected since April, have shown an active infection, said Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director. But in just the last week, 1.1 percent of all blood collected during that week showed signs of live Zika. That’s up from 0.7 percent two weeks ago. Local health officials in Puerto Rico and the CDC have said if the virus follows the pattern of other mosquito-borne outbreaks in the territory, such as chikungunya, up to 25 percent of the island’s population will get infected with Zika this year. That’s a frightening forecast for pregnant residents or pregnant travelers to the island. The CDC has advised pregnant women or those who want to get pregnant not to travel to any of those countries. On Thursday the CDC confirmed that since the start of the year, three babies with Zika-related birth defects have been born to US women who got the virus while traveling. Three other pregnant US women lost their pregnancies because of Zika infection, the agency also said. In all of those cases the women had traveled to regions in the midst of an outbreak. The agency now monitors the pregnancies of at least 300 women in the US and Puerto Rico, who have been exposed to Zika. Frieden said blood donations are the best real-time indicator of how the virus is spreading. Because of the rise in infections, “thousands of pregnant women” could be infected with Zika, which could lead to “dozens or 100s” of babies born with microcephaly or other horrible birth defects, he said. Zika, which is spread by mosquitoes, causes microcephaly, a condition which causes the skull of a fetus to collapse around its underdeveloped brain. The virus can also cause severe

sight and hearing problems, as well as miscarriages and still-births. An infection is usually stealth, with most people showing no symptoms. A new nucleic acid test developed by a Roche Molecular Systems Inc., California drug company, is being used by blood-collection centers in Puerto Rico to detect the virus. This test picks up live infection rather than antibodies from a previous infection. Any Zika-positive blood is discarded, the CDC said. While there haven’t been any cases of local transmission in the continental US, the blood-donor issue is already being considered. The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center in Houston is using the Roche test. Texas is one of three states the CDC has said is most likely to see local transmission of the virus first, since Zika is already present in neighboring Mexico. Out of about 9,000 blood donations at Gulf Coast Regional so far, none have tested positive for Zika, Frieden said. All of this raises the question of how other states across the nation are screening blood for Zika, since only five states, Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming have reported no travel-related cases of the disease. So far, there have been 755 travel related cases across the nation. Georgia has had 20. For now, US blood donation centers are relying on potential donors to disclose during screening whether they’ve had possible Zika exposure, said Frieden and Dr. Matthew Kuehnert, director of the Office of Blood, Organ and Other Tissue Safety at the CDC. Donation centers have been excluding people who’ve traveled to Zika-affected areas or who have had sex with someone who has traveled to such a region, Kuehnert said. The list of countries with active infections is ever growing and now includes virtually every country in South America, Central America and the Caribbean. Should a case of local transmission arise in the mainland US, state and local blood donation centers have a “comprehensive plan” to address the nation’s blood supply, Kuehnert said, though he did not elaborate on the plan. “We don’t think there’s a risk to the blood supply,” Frieden said, but what’s happening Puerto Rico does “provide a window,” into how quickly the virus spreads. TNS

‘Coverage may spur new mass murderers seeking limelight’

A

The Dalai Lama delivers a sermon during the opening of Chua Dieu Ngu Buddhist temple in Westminster, California, on Saturday. More than 10,000 people from the Little Saigon area of Orange County are expected to welcome the Dalai Lama over the weekend, after their head monk traveled to India to deliver a personal invitation to His Holiness. Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/TNS

W

ESTMINSTER, California—In the heat of the morning, his words stirred their passions and their tears—as well as their desire to Facebook the moment. As the Dalai Lama stepped onstage on Saturday, a sea of hands whipped out smartphones, cameras and tablets to capture the scene in Little Saigon. Vietnamese-language media broadcast the event live. Camera operators confronted police, refusing to budge when authorities tried to clear a fire lane. Snap. Snap. Click. Spectators, in search of the best angle, shouted at one another to move aside. “Uncle, I’m asking again. I can’t see when you’re blocking the view,” one youngster said to an elder who kept taking selfies with his wife to send back to Saigon. The 14th Dalai Lama, exiled from Tibet, remains a hero to generations of Vietnamese Americans. And an estimated 6,000plus turned out for his first appearance on

their turf—the largest Vietnamese district outside their cultural homeland. “I can’t believe how modest he is,” said Long Bui, a junior from Marina High School in Huntington Beach. His voice rose in excitement as he stood inside the soaring Chua Dieu Ngu Buddhist temple in Westminster. Its abbot, Thich Vien Ly, had traveled to India to meet with the Dalai Lama last year, inviting him to Little Saigon to help christen the temple when it officially opens on Sunday. Outside, worshipers lined up as early as 3 a.m. Admission was free, and security had trouble controlling the eager crowd. Bui arrived with his mother but went off on his own to chase a closer spot. “I just want to experience it in real time,” he said, observing: “Wow. It’s like an electronics village in here. Looks like everyone prefers to watch him on their screens rather than staring straight ahead.” When the Dalai Lama opened his sermon, a calm came over his audience. “We

are the same human beings—mentally, emotionally, physically,” he said, sprinkling advice in English and Tibetan, urging listeners to be kind and compassionate “starting today.” He stopped his address to allow a man with a walker and a child in a wheelchair to come forward, blessing them. Tuy Suong Nguyen held back a sob, saying she was grateful to be a part of the audience, even if the guest of honor spoke for twice as long as scheduled. “I read his books but I understand better in person,” said the woman whose family runs Linh’s Pharmacy in Westminster. “What he says soaks into my soul.” Uyen Thy Nguyen, who owns Corner View Bakery on Bolsa Avenue, Little Saigon’s main street, said she felt lucky, tapped to bake for His Holiness. “This is my offering. In this life, it’s not easy to have an opportunity to make something for him.” Nguyen and her pastry team created a towering lotus cake, enough for 500 portions to share with guests invited to lunch

with the Dalai Lama. After his address, Nguyen said, she would return to her shop to finish a temple-shaped, mocha masterpiece for Sunday—complete with ornate gates—that would serve 700. “Little Saigon streets are empty today because everyone’s here,” Nguyen said. “I would not ever miss this,” said Garden Grove resident Phuong Dung. She touched a rosary on her wrist, which she said was a gift from the Dalai Lama after she and her husband helped to organize two of his earlier visits to Southern California. “We feel so blessed that he is here. How can we forget this day?” she said. The Dalai Lama, she said, believes people should “be kind whenever possible, knowing it is always possible. “That allows us to find peace—and when we find peace, we find ourselves.” Then she moved aside as a group of monks strolled by, pausing for spectators wanting to take pictures. Los Angeles Times/TNS

mong the most chilling details to emerge in the Orlando, Florida, massacre is that the killer paused during his three-hour rampage at the Pulse nightclub to search Facebook for news about it. “Pulse Orlando” and “shooting,” Omar Mateen typed into his smartphone, investigators found. His real-time search is a striking data point in what has become a pattern in mass shootings: Killers deeply attuned to their media coverage and, in some cases, engineering it. The 2007 Virginia Tech shooter interrupted his killing spree to mail a videotape to NBC to claim credit and explain his motives. The 2014 Isla Vista shooter posted a manifesto on YouTube. Others have discussed their plans in online forums. Media outlets have long taken the position that they simply report the news. But experts who study mass violence say they are also part of the story, because the intense coverage that such tragedies receive can inspire new shooters. The perpetrators of these attacks are often disillusioned young men who inhabit the same publicity-obsessed culture as everybody else. Killing offers the prospect of becoming a household name. “This seems like a way to achieve some recognition and respect they lack in their daily lives,” said Dewey Cornell, a forensic clinical psychologist at the University of Virginia. “We live in a world where people are really conscious of their social standing and audience,” he said. Across the world, mass shooters have left suicide notes and manifestos describing how they were inspired by the 1999 killings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, one of the first school massacres in the age of around-the-clock cable news coverage.

Sherry Towers, a researcher at Arizona State University, has conducted one of the few studies looking at connections between shootings. She spent most of her career studying how social behavior spreads diseases, such as influenza and Ebola. But in 2014, after noticing three shootings within about 10 days on various college campuses, she began wondering whether mass violence was also contagious. So she built a statistical model to analyze databases of hundreds of shootings. The study found that shootings that occurred in schools or ones in which at least four people died—the sorts of incidents that receive widespread media coverage—occurred in clusters. That suggested to researchers the kind of copycat effect that has been well-documented for suicides. After the shootings, the risk of more shootings rose significantly and remained elevated for an average of 13 days, according to the analysis published last year in the journal Plos One. However, the research found no increased risk after shootings, in which at least three people were hit but not necessarily killed, incidents that are so common they usually receive only local news coverage. “When there was likely to be national or international media coverage, those were the ones where we found contagion,” Towers said. Still, she said the phenomenon has its limits, noting that mass shootings remain rare in Canada even though most people there live close to the US border and are exposed to the same news coverage. The difference, she suggested, could be that Canadians have less access to firearms. Much more research is needed to dissect the various factors that may be at work, she said. Los Angeles Times/TNS

A8

Monday, June 20, 2016

The World BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Man accused of receiving girl as gift

F

Fire and rescue vehicles are parked at the entrance of Antwerp Central train station in Antwerp, Belgium, on Saturday. The police and the bomb squad unit responded to a suspect package in the Antwerp station, while the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said homes and car ports were searched in 16 municipalities, mostly in and around Brussels in an antiterror sweep. AP/Virginia Mayo

Belgium charges 3 men with terror-related crimes

B

RUSSELS—Belgian authorities charged three men with terrorrelated crimes after two days of raids and the detention of 40 people in a major investigation, which they said required “immediate intervention” because they feared a new attack was close.

40

The number of people detained

Across Belgium parties were held on Saturday to watch live broadcasts of the country’s soccer team playing Ireland at the Eu ropea n C h a mpion sh ips i n

neighboring France and some media said such events could have been the targets. Belgium won 3-0 and no major incidents were reported during the game. Prime Minister Charles Michel said the nation would remain “extremely vigilant, hour by hour,” but that the terror level across the nation would remain at the second-highest level, meaning a threat of an attack “ is possible and likely.” Belgium has been living under such a threat level since the November attacks in Paris, some of whose perpetrators were either

Belgian nationals or had lived in Brussels. On March 22 attacks on the Brussels subway and air port killed 32. “It will be the case in the coming hours that we will take additional and adapted measures,” said Michel after a meeting of the nation’s security council. He refused to elaborate on the nature of the threat. The federal prosecutor’s office said on Saturday that homes and car ports were searched in 16 municipalities, mostly in and around Brussels. There were no major incidents during the raids and that no arms or explosives were found. At first, 40 people were taken in Friday night and early Saturday for interrogation, of which 12 were held. Late Saturday three Belgian nationals were charged “as perpetrator or co-perpetrator, for having attempted to commit a terrorist murder and for participation in the activities of a terrorist group,” a statement said. The nine others were let go. The government remained on guard after Saturday’s actions.

“It is not over. We remain under terror alert 3, it means that something is still up,” Interior Minister Jan Jambon said. “Last night we had a very successful action.” The prosecutor’s statement said “the results of the investigation necessitated an immediate intervention,” indicating a violent attack was likely planned in the near future. The federal prosecutor’s office did not link the raids to the March 22 attacks, even though an eighth suspect was arrested as part of the investigation of those attacks late on Friday. The Belgian man, identified as Youssef E.A., was charged with “participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to terrorist murders.” At the same time, four top ministers, including Michel, Jambon and Justice Minister Koen Geens, received special protection, following unspecified threats. “We learned about that late on Saturday that this close protection would happen. They say there are good reasons for that,” Geens said. AP

Egypt’s Morsi sentenced to 25 yrs; 2 Al-Jazeera men get death

C

AIRO—An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced six people, including two AlJazeera employees, to death for allegedly passing documents related to national security to Qatar and the Doha-based TV network during the rule of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Morsi, the top defendant, and two of his aides were sentenced to 25 years in prison for membership in the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group, but were acquitted of espionage, a capital offense. Morsi and his secretary, Amin el-Sirafy, each received an additional 15-year sentence for leaking official documents. ElSirafy’s daughter, Karima, was also sentenced to 15 years on the same charge. Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected leader, was ousted by the military in July 2013 and has already been sentenced to death in another case. That death sentence and another two—life and 20 years in prison—are under appeal. The Brotherhood was banned

and declared a terrorist organization after his ouster. Khalid Radwan, a producer at a Brotherhood-linked TV channel, received a 15-year prison sentence. A l l of Sat u rd ay ’s verd ic t s can be appealed. Of the case’s 11 defendants, seven, including Morsi, are in custody. Amnesty International called for the death sentences to be immediately thrown out and for the “ ludicrous charges against the journalists to be dropped.” The two Al-Jazeera employees—identified by the judge as news producer Alaa Omar Mohammed and news editor Ibrahim Mohammed Hilal—were sentenced to death in absentia, along with Asmaa al-Khateib, who worked for Rasd, a media network widely suspected of links to Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Jazeera condemned the verdicts, saying they were part of a “ruthless” campaign against freedom of expression, and called on the international community to show solidarity with the journalists.

“ This sentence is only one of many politicized sentences that target Al Jazeera and its employees,” the network ’s Acting Director Mostefa Souag said in a statement. “ They are illogical convictions and legally baseless. Al Jazeera strongly denounces targeting its jour na lists and stands by the other journalists who have also been sentenced.” A news story that appeared earlier on the Al-Jazeera English web site identified Hilal as a former director of news at AlJazeera’s Arabic channel and said Alaa Omar Mohammed was an Al-Jazeera employee until last year. The network ’s statement confirmed Hilal ’s status, but only said Mohammed was “identified by the prosecution as an Al-Jazeera journalist.” The three other defendants sentenced to death on Saturday are documentary producer Ahmed Afify, EgyptAir cabin crew member Mohammed Keilany and academic Ahmed Ismail. Judge Mohammed Shirin Fahmy rec-

ommended the death sentence for the six last month. Under standard procedure in cases of capital punishment, his recommendation went to the office of Egypt’s Grand Mufti, the nation’s top Muslim theological authority, for endorsement. Fahmy quoted the Mufti’s office as saying the six had sought to harm the country when they passed to a foreign nation details of the army’s deployment as well as reports prepared by intelligence agencies. “They are more dangerous than spies, because spies are usually foreigners, but these are, regrettably, Egyptians who betrayed the trust,” the judge said. “No ideology can ever justify the betrayal of one’s country.” Egypt’s relations with Qatar have been fraught with tension since the ouster of Morsi, who enjoyed the support of the tiny but wealthy Gulf state. Cairo also maintains that Al-Jazeera’s news coverage of Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East is biased in favor of militant Islamic groups. AP

EA STERV ILLE, Philadelphia—Authorities have been searching the home of a Pennsylvania man accused of sexually assaulting a teenager whose parents, the police say, gave her to him when she was 14 because he helped them financially. She was one of a dozen girls living in the residence. Officials in Bucks County acting on a tip on Thursday found 51-yearold Lee Kaplan at his Feasterville home, along with 12 girls ranging in age from six months to 18 years. One girl, now 18, told the police that she and Kaplan have a 3-year-old and a six-month-old. Kaplan faces charges, including statutory sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor and aggravated indecent assault. On Saturday the police and dogs scoured the home’s backyard for evidence. Lt. Ted Krimmel of the Lower Southampton police department said authorities waited until dawn so they would be able to search the property in daylight. “We have a search warrant for the entire property,” he said. “There are dogs searching for evidence.” District Y. David Heckler said the parents of the girl Kaplan is accused of assaulting told the police they were going to lose their farm until Kaplan “came out of the blue and saved them from financial ruin.” Neighbor Jen Betz of Feasterville said she called the authorities because she was concerned about the girls she saw outside the home, which she said had boarded windows and high weeds. “They’re so sad and fearful every time I see them. That’s what made me call,” she said. “I’ve been telling my husband for years ‘Something isn’t right, something isn’t right.’” Krimmel said officials are trying to verify who the parents of the other children found at the home are. The teenager’s parents told the police the other nine girls in the house were their children, but no birth certificates or Social Security cards could be located to confirm that, he said. When the police entered the home on Thursday, “all the children were running around,” Krimmel said. “Some were hiding. They were well-behaved, but scared.” Authorities allege in an affidavit that the girl’s father Daniel Stoltzfus told an officer he

Officials on Thursday found the home of 51-year-old Lee Kaplan in Feasterville, Philadephia, along with 12 girls, from six months to 18 years. Kaplan was charged with aggravated indecent assault. Lower Southampton Police Department via AP

gave his 14-year-old daughter to Kaplan after researching the legality of such an action online. Stoltzfus is charged with conspiracy of statutory sexual assault and children endangerment. His wife Savilla Stoltzfus is charged with endangering the welfare of a child. All three were being held in lieu of $1-million bail. Court documents don’t list attorneys who could respond to the charges. WPVI-TV reported that the Stoltzfuses 19-year-old son, John, told the station at the house on Friday night that his folks are “good parents.” Heckler said the children apparently did not attend school and it was unclear if they had ever been to a doctor, but they didn’t appear to be in bad health and showed no visible signs of trauma. Another neighbor, Bob Greenfield, said Kaplan seemed “weird” and he now wishes that he also had called authorities. “ You knew something was wrong,” he said. “It makes you feel bad. If I had said something a while ago, they would have come earlier.” T h e Ph i l a d e l p h i a I n q u i re r repor ted that the Stoltzf uses were born into the Amish faith, but renounced it amid a long fight w ith communit y elders, according to a federa l lawsuit they filed in 2009 against their for mer c hu rc h. T he l awsu it, which was dismissed later that year, said they operated a meta lwork i ng bu si ness on t hei r pro p e r t y. H e c k l e r s a i d t h e c h i l d re n a re no w t o ge t he r i n prot e c t i v e c u s t o d y. AP

Iraqi troops seize Fallujah hospital, clear mines

B

AGHDAD—Iraqi forces gained control of the main hospital in Fallujah on Saturday and were clearing mines after driving the Islamic State (IS) group from most of the city, one of its last remaining strongholds in the Anbar province west of Baghdad, a military official said. Fighting was still under way in parts of the city, where US and Iraqi warplanes targeted snipers and other IS positions, Brig. Gen. Haider al-Obeidi told The Associated Press. Troops had cautiously advanced toward the hospital, fearing that the militants would use patients as human shields, but when they stormed the facility they found no patients inside, he said, adding that the Iraqi flag has been raised over the building. The troops later captured the Dubbat neighborhood and are now pushing into the northern neighborhood of Golan and several small areas, he said. Iraqi special forces swept into Fallujah on Friday, recapturing most of the city after weeks of fighting on its outskirts. Al-Obeidi said on Friday that Iraqi troops controlled 80 percent of the city, with IS fighters concentrated in four districts on its northern edge. Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to fall to the extremist group in January 2014, and was the last major IS foothold in the sprawling Anbar province, the heartland of the country’s Sunni minority. The group still controls Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, in the north. Iraqi troops have been advancing under the cover of airstrikes by the US-led coalition and Iraq’s air force. The operation inside the city of Fallujah was being conducted by the Iraqi army, regional and federal police forces, as well as special anti-terrorism units. Shiite militias, known as the Popular Mobilization Force,

remained outside Fallujah and have not taken part in the recent battles. Aid groups estimated that 50,000 civilians were trapped inside Fallujah when the assault began several weeks ago, and that 30,000 to 42,000 of those have fled since then. The majority have been staying in camps near the city. As government forces swept in on Friday, thousands of residents fled the city, some swimming across the Euphrates river to reach safety. On Friday evening, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi spoke on national TV from the joint command center, congratulating the troops on their victories. “We promised to liberate Fallujah, and it has returned to the embrace of the nation,” he said. The conflict in Iraq has forced more than 3.3 million people to flee their homes. Iraq is also hosting up to 300,000 refugees who have fled the civil war in neighboring Syria. Most are living in camps or informal settlements. In the central province of Salahuddin, where IS suffered a major defeat last year when it lost former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, government forces pushed north of the province toward IS territory, said Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul. Rasoul said the fighting is concentrated north of the oil refinery of Beiji, Iraq’s largest. The refinery has not been working since IS seized much of northern and western Iraq in 2014, declaring a caliphate. Despite being under attack on several fronts in Iraq and Syria, the extremists carried out a suicide truck bomb attack near the office of a Kurdish group in northern Iraq. The blast killed at least one person, according to Shallal Abdoul, the mayor of the northern town of Tuz Khormato. AP

The World BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, June 20, 2016

A9

How Chinese is Shanghai’s Disneyland?

B

efore Shanghai Disneyland threw open its gates to the masses on June 16, Chairman Bob Iger declared the $5.5-billion park would have a “distinctly Chinese” feel. “We didn’t build Disneyland in China, we built China’s Disneyland,” he said ahead of the big day. So, besides the signage and announcements in Mandarin, just how much of a Chinese experience does Shanghai Disneyland offer its visitors?

First impressions

Walking through the gates, under the watchful eyes of the Mickey Mouse clock, my first impression was that I could be at Disneyland in California, Tokyo or Hong Kong. Mickey, Donald Duck, Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh dutifully greeted the v isitors and posed for snapshots. Beaut if u l ly l a nd scaped

$5.5B The value of Shanghai Disneyland

g rou nd s a nd a f irst gl impse of t he big gest- ever Mag ic K ingdom c a s t le y e l le d “ D i s ne y.” T here w a s not h i ng to m a ke me ra ise an eyebrow and t hin k “A h, a n A si a n t w ist.”

The rides

Seven of the 15 rides I counted on the map are new to any Disney

although the themes are strictly Disney-by-numbers. The deathdefying Tarzan spectacle is performed by a Chinese acrobatic troupe, executed almost without wires. The Lion King musicale, performed in Mandarin for the first time, features the Monkey K ing and characters dressed in Chinese opera garb to appeal to an Asian audience.

The food Shanghai Disneyland Bloomberg News

park. With a statistic like that, you may think it the perfect excuse to shoehorn in some China themes. Alas, there are none. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride stands out as a marvel of special-effects engineering, while the Shanghai-exclusive ride Tron, a thrilling motorcyclebased trip through a dark, digital world, is based on the 1982 film starring Jeff Bridges that is virtually unknown in China. Disney’s only animated film

based on a Chinese story Mulan, which tells the tale of a Chinese warrior woman, got neither its own ride or stage show. The character appears as a statue and there’s a nice Mulan float in the parade, but a dramatic ride would have definitely added to the park’s China identity.

The shows

Chinese elements are definitely more preva lent in the shows,

The park boasts of a Chinese tea house rest au ra nt, beaut ifully built in a traditional style. Some of the dishes I tasted there were spot-on recreations of traditional Chinese dishes, such as the Shanghai-area specialties hongshao pork belly and “eight treasures-duck ” rice. Elsewhere, a Mickey Mouseshaped pizza topped with Peking duck bridged the US-China gap, and standard Western fare— corn dogs, fried chicken and barbecue ribs—were widely available. Sadly, many of the Chinese offerings, fried noodles and the like, at other venues around the

park just weren’t very good.

Shopping

Like any Disney park there are shops everywhere, selling all kinds of Disney-branded goods, from Mickey Mouse ears to Jack Sparrow plastic swords. Most appeared to be merchandise you could pick up at any store, but there were a few Shanghai surprises, like Mickey and Minnie dressed in traditional red wedding gowns. So how Chinese is Shanghai Disneyland? In the end, the most Chinese thing about the park is the visitors themselves. After intensive market studies, the resort was built to give consumers what they wanted. This might tell you more about people’s tastes and desires than the preconceptions people have of their traditional culture. If that’s the case, the Chinese dream President Xi Jinping is promoting may point to a future less about dancing dragons and firecrackers and more about leisure-time and spending money. Bloomberg News

A year after marriage ruling

LGBT rights struggles continue

N

EW YORK— On a Friday evening a lmost a year ago, the W hite House was awash in rainbow-colored lights, celebrating the momentous Supreme Court ruling that led to nationw ide lega lization of same-sex mar r iage. Across the countr y, gays and lesbians embraced and par tied and, in some cases, scrambled to arrange can’t-wait-another-d ay weddings. “Love Wins!” was the catchphrase of the moment. Since that ruling last June 26, same-sex marriage has been widely accepted as the law of the land, with only small pockets of defiance. Yet, it has not been a year for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)-rights activists to bask in triumph, as starkly underscored by the June 12 attack that left 49 patrons and staff dead at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. “We’re still living with this random violence that can strike at any time,” said Ken Darling, owner of a gay bar in Minneapolis. “We had the White House lit up with colors, the Supreme Court finally acknowledges our right to marry and, at the same time, this kind of stuff can happen.” In the aftermath of the attack, some conservative leaders have expressed a new degree of empathy for LGBT Americans—raising the question of whether the massacre could change the political equation on LGBT rights the way the Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing of 1963 and other acts of violence against blacks helped change the course of the civil-rights movement. Thus far, however, there’s been no rush by Republican politicians to back a pending LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination bill in Congress or to enact state-level versions of that bill in the many states—including Florida—that lack such protections. Even before the Orlando attack, LGBT gains were being challenged by many social conservatives who had opposed same-sex marriage. They have asserted that religious freedom is threatened by various legal advances for LGBT people, and they are trying to prevent transgender people from accessing public bathrooms and locker rooms on the basis of their gender identity. Indeed, the Love Wins! slogan of a year ago has a blunt successor: “We Just Need To Pee.” LGBT-rights groups are playing both defense and offense, city-

by-city and state by state. They’re working to persuade more jurisdictions to broaden nondiscrimination protections, while fending off lawsuits and legislation by their opponents that threaten to weaken such protections. “There’s no question that momentum is on our side for equality,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “But there’s no question our opponents are working harder than they ever have before to roll back our rights where they can.” A mong g roups engaged in multiple lawsuits is the Arizonabased Alliance Defending Freedom. Earlier this year it lost a bid to overturn a $13,000 fine against an upstate New York couple who, citing their religious beliefs, did not want two lesbians married at their wedding venue. Kristen Waggoner, the alliance’s senior vice president of legal advocacy, said such cases reflect “ bullying tactics” by gayrights supporters. “The Supreme Court decision has sharply increased the polarization of our culture,” she said. “It’s not just about marriage. It’s about silencing any dissent, and basically ridding our culture and marketplace of those who disagree.” In hindsight, the spread of same-sex marriage came relatively swiftly after Massachusetts became the first state to legalize it in 2004. By the time the Supreme Court ruled, gay marriages were taking place in 37 states as a result of lower court orders, referendums or legislative action. Since last June, however, the pace of gay-rights advances has been sporadic. There are still 28 states that don’t cover gays and lesbians in their statewide nondiscrimination laws. In state legislatures, about 200 bills were introduced this year that would have curtailed LGBT rights in some way, according to the Human R ights Campa ig n. Most were shelved, defeated or vetoed, but a few have created a furor after being enacted. North Carolina’s legislature passed a law limiting protections for LGBT people and requiring transgender people to use public bathrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate. A Mississippi law allows certain government employees and businesspeople to cite their religious beliefs as grounds for denying some services to LGBT people. AP

Hong Kong shopping Bloomberg News

HK’s retail gloom revealed in stocks F

or a measure of just how tough Hong Kong retailers have it, look at Sa Sa International Holdings Ltd. Shares of the city’s biggest cosmetics seller are down 70 percent from a 2013 peak and seven of 12 analysts tracked by Bloomberg are advising investors to dump the stock. Sa Sa warned last month that profit fell by more than 50 percent in the year ending March. It’s a far cry from the postfinancial crisis boom years, when Sa Sa rallied more than 1,600 percent as Hong Kong and Macau shop-owners profited from an inf lux of Chinese tourists. Since then, those shoppers have curtailed spending or started going elsewhere, and retail sales in Hong Kong have declined for 17 straight months. A gauge of consumer goods stocks, including Sa Sa, is down 31 percent since the start of 2014, almost twice the broader market’s decline. “ T he golden age for Hong Kong’s tourism and retailers is over,” said Arthur Kwong, Hong Kong-based head of Asia Pacific equities at BNP Paribas Investment Partners, which oversees $582 billion globally. “We are not a big fan of this sector. Investors

were really overestimating when the industry was trading at high multiples.” At its peak, Sa Sa was valued at 24 times estimated earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s dropped to a multiple of 17, compared with 21 on a gauge of global retailers. Sa Sa declined to comment, citing the company’s black-out period in the run up to its earnings announcement on June 23. The stock gained 1.1 percent in Hong Kong on Friday. The retail industry, one of the key pillars propping up the Hong Kong economy, has been hit hard by China’s slowdown and a campaign against corruption since 2012 that wrecked businesses for shops selling luxury goods. Hong Kong’s economy unexpectedly contracted 0.4 percent in the first three months of the year compared to the prior quarter— the steepest drop since 2011, official data show. Sa Sa’s same-store sales for Hong Kong and Macau fell 17.6 percent from a year ago in the three months through March. Other retailers fared little better in the quarter, which includes the peak shopping period for

Chinese visitors over the Lunar New Year holidays: the city’s takings slid 12.5 percent. Arrivals from the mainland will fall 3.2 percent in 2016, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Rent seeking

Another victim of the malaise is Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Ltd., the world’s largest publicly traded jewelry chain. The stock has tumbled 65 percent from its initial public offering price in 2011, while the company reported a 46 percent drop in full-year profit on June 8. Reductions in rents may lend some support to struggling retailers. Emperor Watch and Jewellery Ltd.’s rents fell as much as 41 percent over the last nine months, including cuts in June, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Chow Tai Fook, which said this month, it may close as many as eight shops outside mainland China this year, is pursuing a 20-wpercent to 30-percent rent reduction to offset its falling profit, it said. While Sa Sa’s shares have rebounded 35 percent since falling to their lowest level since 2009 in January, further gains are limited as the outlook continues to deteriorate, said Dickie Wong,

executive director of research at Kingston Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong. Fast-growing Chinese ecommerce peers are a threat to conventional shop operators, such as Sa Sa, which derives only 5.1 percent of revenues from Internet sales, he said. “The shares may have neared a bottom but I don’t see much upside,” Wong said. “We’ve already seen the peak for revenues and share prices and the best era we’ve had will never come back.” The yuan’s decline is reducing Chinese shoppers’ appetite to come to Hong Kong, where goods are priced in a greenback-pegged currency. Among large Hong Kong retailers, Sa Sa has the highest exposure to Chinese shoppers, who account for 71 percent of sales. The Hong Kong dollar has climbed 7.4 percent versus the yuan in the past three years, compared with a loss of more than 9 percent for the euro and declines of more than 17 percent for currencies in Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia. “Hong Kong is expensive for not just Chinese tourists, but visitors from Europe and elsewhere,” BNP’s Kwong said. “The easy times won’t come back. Hong Kong’s retail industry needs to find a new way out.” Bloomberg News

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

A10 Monday, June 20, 2016

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Davao City: A tourist destination on its own

D’Bone Collector Museum

I

DAVAO city hall

Story & photos by Henrylito D. Tacio

n the 1970s, Davao City became known as the “killing fields” of the Philippines, earning the moniker as the country’s Nicaragua. As a result, the rest of the country shunned this once-bustling and promising city. But it changed after the 1988 elections. The then-newly elected mayor, Rodrigo R. Duterte, did an impossible task—that of restoring peace and order of a city that was divided by religion and ideological belief.

“I hold it as an article of faith in the government that there can never be development and progress in any city or province in the country, unless there is stability, unless there is peace and order,” Duterte, who will become the 16th president come June 30, said when he was still the city mayor. From being tagged as “Murder City,” Davao City became “one of the most livable cities in the Asia” (both sobriquets were bestowed by the defunct Asiaweek magazine). Indeed, Davao City has gone a long, long way. Today, the city is one of the country’s top tourist destinations. Most recent visitors who come here describe Davao as a land of exotic beauty and rich culture. “Davao is probably the least exposed of the country’s urban areas, and the most appealing,” contends Gregory C. Ira, a Filipino-American friend who visited the city together with his family. “It’s a great holiday hideaway, what with its lush greenery and exotic wild flora and fauna

that contribute to its picturesque view,” he adds. The de-facto capital of Mindanao, Davao is one of the largest cities in the world with a total land area of 224,000 hectares. Its boundaries encompass commercial areas, as well as beaches, mountains and forests. Approximately, it is 7.8 times the size of Cebu and three times that of the entire Metro Manila. Situated beside Davao Gulf, the city is dominated by the country’s highest peak, the 2,954-meter-high Mount Apo. The dormant volcano is home to tribes, such as Bagobo, Manobo, Mandaya and B’laan, and its fertile rolling foothills are teeming with exotic fruits, like durian, marang, mangosteen, rambutan and pomelos, as well as the country’s second flower icon, the walingwaling. If you want to see waling-waling up close, then go to the Malagos Garden Resort in Calinan. Other species of orchids abound, but the resort is more noted for its amazing bird show every Sunday. The show

Pangil of Crocodile Park

strikes a serious environment note to the audience: save the birds before they’re gone forever. One bird that needs to be saved from extinction is the Philippine Eagle, the country’s bird icon. There are several of them at the Philippine Eagle Center, just 2 kilometers away from the Malagos Garden Resort. Don’t fail to marvel at “Pag-asa,” the very first tropical eagle bred in captivity and hatched scientifically. If crocodile is your thing, visit Davao Crocodile Park in Maa. This 5.4-hectare mini zoo houses several of the two species of crocodiles found in the Philippines. It is here where you can find the country’s second-largest known crocodile— at 18 feet—which is aptly named “Pangil” (Tagalog for “fang”). It also houses wild cats, python, turtles, monitor lizard, monkeys and various kinds of birds. Far from the center of the city is Eden Nature Park and Resort in Toril. This 80-hectare cool mountain resort is a testament to how man’s ingenuity and concern for the environment can create a paradise on earth. At 2,650 feet above sea level, it offers breathtaking views of Davao City and the Davao Gulf. Now, let’s do the tour in the heart of the city. Start at the city hall in San Pedro Street. A few distant walk is the legislative building, whose façade has the famous freedom statue designed by the

EXOTIC fruits

KINILAW na tuna

Man-made lake at People’s Park

talented Kublai Millan. Adjacent to the statue is the historic San Pedro Cathedral (built in 1847, during the Spanish period, under the leadership of Don Jose Uyanguren, the Spanish conquistador of Davao). Not far from the Catholic cathedral is the D’Bone Collector Museum (shades of one of those Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C.) in Barangay Bucana. You will be mesmerized to see a 41-foot or 12.4-meter-long sperm whale (which has the largest species of toothed whale). Bones and skeletons of snakes, tarsier, marine turtles, various fish species, different sizes of the mouths of sharks,

and birds abound. From there, take a taxi and tell the driver to bring you to People’s Park (yes, its Davao’s counterpart of Manhattan’s Central Park) in Legazpi Street. It’s a place where people gather around, stroll and cross bridges, watch man-made waterfalls, or sit under the beautiful trees. Davao comes alive with the celebration of “Kadayawan sa Dabaw” every third week of August, coinciding with the harvest of fruits, flowers and agricultural products. Major thoroughfares are set ablaze with dancing and cheers with the indak-indak

sa kadalanan (street dancing), a spectacle of performers in ethnicinspired garments dancing to the beat of tribal music, and the Floral Float Parade, which features floral and agricultural bounties. Now, let’s talk about the food. There are plenty of them and visitors have several choices. First of all, try eating the controversial durian, which smells like hell but tastes like heaven. If you hate the smell, then you better drink durian coffee at Java Jive in Quirino Street. Chicken aficionados can go to Dusk ‘Til Dawn Restaurant and order its most flavorful chicken wings. Enjoy a Filipino dinner al fresco up a hill at Dencio’s Hilltop. Ranchero offers the best baby back ribs in the city. Yes, you can have fresh tuna kinilaw in most restaurants in the city. Before leaving Davao, don’t forget to visit the Aldevinco Shopping Center in C.M. Recto Street, right across the Marco Polo Hotel. There are pearl inlaid chests, brass cannons, gongs, batik shirts, wraparound skirts, native cloth and bags. You can always find a little something to bring back home instead of the usual T-shirt. “It is a city by appearance but a village by heart. It is a city by appearance, but a home by heart.” That is how columnist Rene Lizada describes Davao. In a way, it is! Madayaw, Davao!

Celebrating cuisine, culture and craft

B

eyond the majestic perfectconed Mayon Volcano, which towers over Albay, it also takes pride in its mouth-watering spicy Bicolano cuisine, checkered history and culture and age-old craft. This triumvirate forms part of its rich heritage, which provides a consummate travel experience to visitors to the province. This June, Albay celebrates the charm of its cuisine, culture and craft in a monthlong merry-making in three various municipal festivals. On June 10 the revelry began as the quaint town of Camalig showcased its culinary tradition in the Pinangat Festival. The festivities’ main events included a street parade depicting the harvest and cooking process of the pinangat, a balsa race at the scenic Sumlang Lake, and puto lanson cooking contest, and an abaca-making contest that were held from June 17 to 19. The town’s culinary pride, pinangat is a traditional regional dish made up of shredded gabi leaves, red ginger, tiny shrimps (balaw) or a slice of salted fish or pork and crushed pepper. Wrapped in gabi

leaves, tied in bundles and cooked in coconut milk, pinangat is a staple in the dining table of most Bicolanos. Camalig is regarded as Albay’s heritage town because of the gentry’s ancestral houses, the most notable of which is the Nuyda House. In the heart of the town is the postcardpretty Spanish-era Saint John Church the Baptist, which serves as repository of relics excavated from archaeological sites at Hoyop-Hoyopan Cave. The town has been drawing tourists with its newest attractions— Sumlang Lake, a 9-hectare manmade lagoon where visitors can cruise aboard a bamboo raft; and the Quitinday Green Hills Formation Reserve, whose contour is akin to the famed Chocolate Hills. On June 15 the Pulang-Angui Festival was held in Polangui and brought back the local legend that traced the town’s beginnings. The festivity relived the legend of Angui, the beautiful maiden dressed in red from head to foot who was said to possess all the best qualities of a woman. She was pursued by suitors even when she had already surreally transported into the world of myths.

The highlight of the festivity is the crimson-red street-dance presentation depicting the life and times of Pulang Angui on June 24. The fest draws to a close with the patronal fiesta of Saints Peter and Paul on June 29. The town is also home to the hilltop Lake Danao, where the sinarapan, the world’s smallest fish can be caught. The popular craft of cutlery took center stage in the Tabak Festival in Tabaco City on June 15. Referred to as the country’s “cutlery capital”, Tabaco is a major producer of quality scissors, knives and bolos crafted by its skilled blacksmiths. The locus of the celebration is on June 23 with the Tabak Street Dance and Exhibition, which retraces the origin of the popular cutlery craft. The festival concludes with the patronal fiesta of Saint John the Baptist on June 24. Tabaco’s heritage gems are the 1879 Saint John, Church which was declared by the National Museum as a National Cultural Treasure; the Smith and Bell ancestral house; the Simborio mortuary chapel at the public cemetery; and the National Museum Regional Branch.

Tabak Festival of Tabaco City

Sumlang Lake John Michael Magdasoc

Saint John Church in Tabaco City

Excavated artifacts at the Camalig convent

Pinangat from Camalig, Albay

from Lake Danao, Polangui

Cutlery products from Tabaco

Polangui’s Pulang Anggi Festival

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Monday, June 20, 2016

A11

A tale of tea and skyscrapers

S

Story & photos by Lily C. Fen

omewhere between the soothing highlands of Pahang, Malaysia, and the megalopolis of Kuala Lumpur, I caught glimpses of a country that was moving quickly forward, but, at times, seeking refuge in its greenery.

Merdeka Square’s vast green lawn, where Malaysian independence was announced in 1957.

Petronas Towers is a must-see when passing through KL. So there I was, staring up at this glorious urban creation. At first, I kept thinking: what for? Just another man-made construction of steel and glass rising up to the skies. It was not as if I had not seen my share of modern-day skyscraping grandeur in different parts of the world. But we had to go. It was the image of the city and the country, after all. Next to their spicy sambal and South East Asian flora (think frangipani blossoms or all things coconut), these towers were practically synonymous with the definition of Malaysia. By the time I found myself staring at this monstrosity of a building, I finally had a sense of why that was. She was something quite grand, glittering like a million diamonds against the velvet black of the cityscape’s evening. But getting around this capital was sweaty work. With humidity at

its height, a salty film of moisture clung to me at all hours of the day. Jumping from one shaded block to the next became a traveling game, as I searched the city for pockets of history. Several districts in the capital worth visiting were: busy Chinatown and its good eats, Merdeka Square and its colonial architecture, KL Birdpark for a bit of green, and the Islamic Arts Museum to get better acquainted with the country’s Muslim heritage through ornate artefacts. My visit to Merdeka Square, where Malaysian independence was declared in 1957 had me looking at a vast green lawn, once used as a cricket pitch and the historical Sultan Abdul Samad building. The colonial structure looked almost out of place amidst the city’s wide boulevards and soaring skyscrapers. With its distinct coppery cupolas, it looked like a mirage shimmering within the feverish city. Sprawling shopping malls, such

A view of the Petronas Towers shimmering against the dark cityscape of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

An endless sea of emerald views at Bharat Tea Estate

as Pavilion KL, Suria KLCC just beneath Petronas Towers, or NU Sentral, to name a few, dot the city, much like other well-to-do South East Asian hubs. KL is also the place to get a glimpse of the city’s skyline in the evenings: highly recommended atop a roof deck, if you want to get to enjoy the city. But KL was getting too hot for me, and I needed a break from the shopping and all these steel constructions. I embarked on a four-to-five hour bus ride from the capital to Pahang’s mountainous region, known collectively as Cameron Highlands. Taking a motorbike through this area was a welcome respite from the sweltering conditions in KL. The towns of Brinchang, Tanah Rata, Kampung Raja and Ringlet were where I found sprawling tea plantations, honeybee farms, strawberry fields and a far cooler climate. The establishments where we ordered strawberry juice or milkshakes served us tall glasses of the

stuff dripping in ruby red goodness. Each glass was packed with so much flavor I could hardly believe it. Any knowledge I had accumulated from restaurants or supermarkets in the past immediately paled in comparison when it came to the quality of this fruit in the highlands. This was the stuff that mountain gods probably drank for pleasure. The ubiquitous dish called roti at hole-in-the-wall Restoran Sri Brinchang was, likewise, unforgettable. It was also the only place I ever got my hands on strawberry roti. I ordered it with a hot mug of teh tarik (which means “pulled tea”), a drink which had become my favorite. You can even pick your own harvest at Raaju’s Hill Strawberry Farm. While there, be sure to try their muffins and milkshakes. The latter came with a generous helping of thick vanilla cream. Made with preservative-free fruit concentrate straight from their produce, it was one of the heavenliest gastronomic

experiences my tongue had ever come across. In addition to the cool breezes of the mountains and all the berries you can get your hands on, expect to be greeted by stunning views of vast tea plantations at the Bharat Tea Estate and BOH Tea Plantation. The views available to visitors at Cameron Bharat Tea Plantation are nothing short of spectacular. There are no guided tours, but there is a small café where you can order different versions of what they cultivate here. It is also a viewpoint from where you can sip your brew and look at endless rolling hills of tea bushes glowing emerald in the afternoon light. Alternatively, take a walk down one of the meandering paths: visitors can walk through the estate and find themselves surrounded by the soothing company of tea bushes, streams and dirt paths. Tanah Rata is also home to grand Boh Sungei Palas Tea Estate.

This is where I saw locals with heavy bags on their backs. They were busy shearing and picking away at the leaves for the next batch to be put through the drying process. There is a spacious café at the estate that overlooks its magnificent views. You can help yourself to tea and scones (or other similar treats) while ogling the beauty at Boh. There is also a fifteen-minute tour that takes visitors through the teamaking process, making one’s visit and appreciation of tea fuller and more complete. I suggest also making your way to Ee Feng Gu Honey Bee Farm to see how the bees are housed and how they keep busy. There is also a gift shop where they sell royal jelly and other honey-related products. Malaysia’s Selangor and Pahang were places full of heady contrasts: from the serene hills of Cameron Highlands, to the concrete jungle so quickly rising in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

Langham hospitality group opens The Langham, Haikou in China Interline partnership

H

ong Kong-based Langham Hospitality Group reaches another milestone with the opening of The Langham, Haikou on May 28. Set in the capital of Hainan, China, The Langham, Haikou takes its place as the eighth hotel in China for the global hotel-management company, and the 20th globally, joining other Langham Hotels and Resorts in key cities, such as London, New York, Chicago, Shanghai and Sydney. A new landmark of elegant and classic luxury in the city skyline, The Langham is strategically located in the Guomao district which is in the heart of the city. “We are delighted to introduce The Langham Hotel to the rapidly growing city of Haikou,” says Robert Warman, chief executive of the Langham Hospitality Group. “Together with the developer, Hainan Xinruidu Industry Investment, we are committed to creating a luxury hotel experience and sophisticated lifestyle destination that will be the centre piece of this exciting new urban development.” Designed by US-based architects SRSS, guests may expect classic detailing, generous spaces and tasteful interiors at The Langham. Occupying the high levels of the landmark building, guests can enjoy breath-taking views over the city or South China Sea in rooms, suites and restaurants. The hotel offers 249 rooms and suites over 14 floors, which are perfectly suited for business and leisure travellers. All features especially commissioned art pieces, plush textiles and are elegantly styled with a palette of creams and gold to create havens of warmth and refinement. Each room is equipped with the

Langham signature Blissful bed, motorized drapes and separate large-format rain showers. Guests of the Club Lounge may also enjoy an extra level of personalized service and privileges, including breakfast, afternoon tea, evening cocktails and the use of the boardroom. For guests who require the ultimate in luxury accommodation, The Chairman Suite (356 square meters) features two bedrooms with unobstructed views of the South China Sea, with separate sitting, dining and cooking areas allow for private entertainment, as well as an oversized jacuzzi in the main ensuite bathroom. Erich Kaiserseder, general manager of The Langham, Haikou said, “Our mission is to be recognized as the top luxury hotel in Hainan, as I sincerely believe we have the best hotel and colleagues to achieve that goal. I’m excited and proud to head an experienced, passionate and talented team, as we get ready to welcome our first guests with the finest service befitting the Langham brand.” Catering to diverse appetites, The Langham Haikou invites guests to experience a range of international cuisines and dining options. Inspired by the studios and workshops of the Renaissance masters, the all-day dining restaurant Atelier features a truly interactive open kitchen, smoke house and an oyster and champagne bar. With soaring floor to ceiling windows flooding the dining room with natural light, guest can enjoy the company of chefs in the same space, delivering tailor made delicacies. As the namesake restaurant of the group’s Michelin-starred Chinese

restaurant in Hong Kong—T’ang Court offers authentic Cantonese and Hainanese culinary dishes. Beyond the elegant dining hall itself, the glassenclosed wine cellar and private dining rooms provide the perfect venues for intimate gatherings. Taking full advantage of the sixth floor English style garden, Star Bar & Restaurant is a stylish destination for a casual drink or barbecue dinner. Featuring a unique al-fresco dining setting, the barbecue grill and open bar offer a beautiful, tranquil setting for a romantic dinner. A lively playlist combined with superb city views make it the perfect place to socialize and relax in the capital city. Centrally located on the first floor, the Palm Court is the setting for the signature Langham Afternoon Tea with Wedgwood. Celebrating an elegant tradition that began at The Langham, London in 1865, the afternoon tea comprises a selection of premium teas served with tempting delicacies including English scones topped with delicate cream and rose petal preserves. With tasteful touches of Art Deco motifs, the lobby bar Liquary is a welcoming retreat of classic elegance, as well as an excellent place for guests to enjoy pre-and postdinner drinks, evening cocktails and cigars. Created as a means of assisting with the education of guests as to the origins, history and traditions of liquor, the Liquary also serves as a library and lounge, where patrons can enjoy their favourite beverage, as well as reading and learning about, it at the same time. The hotel’s exceptionally well appointed and naturally lit meeting spac-

es and venues are the ideal choice for special events. There is a variety of multifunctional spaces, covering over 1,564 square meters, including one grand ballroom and three multifunction rooms, spacious ballroom foyer, VIP room and Bridal Suite. The dedicated events butlers are always on hand to ensure that event organizer will enjoy the event with his guests stress and worry free. The group’s signature award-winning Chuan Spa offers therapies based on the principles of traditional Chinese medicine using the five elemental forces of wood, fire, earth, metal and water. The spacious spa includes five private treatment rooms, featuring steam room and jacuzzi, a foot-massage treatment room, making it an unrivalled retreat for those in need of pampering. Other recreational facilities include a fitness centre with the latest workout equipment and an outdoor swimming pool, a calming retreat to relax in the sunlight or exercise with a leisurely swim. The Langham, Haikou is part of an integrated complex comprising of a hotel and commercial offices. It is a 30-minute drive to Haikou Meilan International Airport and Railway Station. Adjacent to centuries-old volcanic clusters, tropical wildlife parks and nature reserves, the hotel is an icon of classic design and modern hospitality. As the capital city of Hainan Province, Haikou is enjoying rapid economic development, and as a tropical locale, the city is establishing itself as one of China’s top tourist destinations. As the growing economic, financial and tourism hub of Hainan Province, Haikou also presents outstanding opportunities for the hospitality industry.

to offer one-stop flights from the Philippines to Fiji

F

iji Airways and Jetstar announced the launch of an interline partnership to provide seamless, single ticket air travel from the Philippines to Fiji, and onwards in the South Pacific for the first time. The new commercial agreement between the Fijian flag carrier and the Jetstar Group of branded airlines, including Jetstar Airways, Jetstar Asia, Jetstar Japan and Jetstar Pacific, will connect Fiji Airways’ newly launched Singapore to Nadi route, with more than 21 destinations on Jetstar’s network from Singapore, including the Philippines. Fiji Airways commenced twiceweekly direct flights to Singapore on April 5, creating the first ever direct flights between Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Andre Viljoen, Fiji Airways managing director and CEO said, “We’re excited to expand our reach in Asia through this partnership with Jetstar to connect more destinations in the region to our extensive South Pacific network. “This interline agreement will offer a seamless travel experience from 21 cities in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia and Myanmar, to Fiji, via Singapore. It also opens new travel possibilities for the growing number of South Pacific travelers looking to explore

Asia,” Viljoen added. While the agreement covers all 73 destinations served by the Jetstar Group, including Jetstar Airways in Australia, the immediate takeup will be for Jetstar destinations from Singapore. Chief Executive Barathan Pasupathi of Singapore-based Jetstar Asia said, “Our services and networks out of Singapore deliver very attractive itineraries for global carriers to offer their customers. “More importantly, such interline and codeshare partnerships with full-service carriers are testament to our product and delivery of an equivalent level of service on board our flights,” Pasupathi concluded. The Jetstar-Fiji Airways interline agreement builds on Jetstar’s growing base of 46 established interline partners that include Qantas, Air France-KLM, British Airways, United and China Eastern, just to name a few. Jetstar currently also have existing codeshare agreements with Qantas, Japan Airlines, American Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, Finnair, LATAM and Emirates. Fiji Airways and Jetstar customers will be able to book flights and check-through baggage when purchasing tickets from Fiji Airways’ sales channels, including its web site, online travel sites, sales offices and reservation centers.

Green Monday BusinessMirror

BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, June 20, 2016

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

CCC: Failure to reduce disaster risks is social sin By Butch D. Enerio Correspondent

C

Alaysia Carr spins around as she dances under a fountain-like spray of water coming from a fire hydrant, as neighborhood children cool off from high temperatures in Flint, Michigan. Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP

Earth breaks heat record again

W

ASHINGTON—Earth sizzled to its 13th straight month of record heat in May, but it wasn’t quite as much of an overthe-top scorcher as previous months, federal scientists say.

13 The number of months when Earth’s record heat averages 60.17 degrees Fahrenheit

Record May heat, from Alaska to India and especially in the oceans, put the global average temperature at 60.17 degrees Fahrenheit (15.65 degrees Celsius), according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOA A). That’s 1.57 degrees (0.87°C) above the 20thcentury average, NOA A said. There’s still a good chance that June will break records, even as El Niño, one of two main reasons for record heat, dissipates, scientists say. In the US, Southwest temperatures are forecast to dance near 120°F later this week into next week.

NOAA’s July through September forecast is for hotter-thanaverage temperatures in the entire United States, except a tiny circle of southeastern Texas. “We’re in a new neighborhood now as far as global temperature,” said Deke Arndt, NOAA’s climate monitoring chief. “We’ve kind of left the previous decade behind.” But it’s not quite as broiling as it has been. May only broke the record—set in 2015—by .04 degrees. It’s the first time since November that a month wasn’t a full degree Celsius (1.8° F) hotter than the 20th-century average. March and February this year were 2.2°F above normal. “It is slightly off from the kind of unprecedented large global temperatures we’ve seen in the last five to seven months,” Arndt says. Arndt, like nearly every major climate scientist, says the recordwarm temperatures are due to a strong El Niño placed on top of man-made global warming from heat-trapping gases that come from the burning of fossil fuels.

To see climate-change impact

The El Niño has just dissipated and forecasters expect its cooler flip side, La Niña, to kick in soon, which should keep global temperatures a bit lower than they’ve been, but still warmer than 20th-century average, Arndt said But that may not be quite enough to keep 2016 from being the third straight record-hot year, Arndt says. That’s because, so far, 2016 is averaging 55.5°F (13.06°C), which beats the previous January to May record set last year by 0.43 degrees. Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona, just came back from India and its record-breaking heat wave in time for potential record-breaking heat in parts of Arizona. “Thirteen months of consecutive record-breaking heat is really unprecedented, and it’s yet another visceral glimpse of what is yet to come as the planet warms up even a lot more,” Overpeck said in an email. “No doubt about it, the planet is warming fast and we’re feeling the impacts.” AP

After fatal alligator attack, theme parks review policies

Kerry tours Arctic Circle L N

Y-ALESUND, Norway—US Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Thursday visited Norway’s extreme north, viewing areas where climate change has melted ice and opened new sea lanes. Trailed by staff and journalists in small Zodiac-type inflatable boats, Kerry and Norway’s foreign minister motored in an Arctic scientific vessel from a research station in Ny-Alesund, the world’s northernmost civilian settlement. The short cruise took Kerry and his delegation across the iceberg strewn Kongsifjorden (King’s Bay Fjord), where puffins and other Arctic birds skirted the waters, to the Blomstrand Glacier. The glacier has receded significantly in the past 25 years to 30 years, with summer temperatures that can now be 8 degrees and 11 degrees higher than they once were, according to Jan-Gunnar Winther, the director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, who guided Kerry and Foreign Minister Borge Brende. “It’s stunning,” Kerry told reporters from aboard the vessel, as it idled in front of the massive ice wall. “This is the center of change within the center of change.” As America’s top diplomat, Kerry has made the health of oceans and combating the effects of climate change a priority, and he will host an international conference on oceans in September, the third

UNITED STATES Secretary of State John Kerry (left) and Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende tour the Blomstrand Glacier on Thursday in Ny-Alesund, Norway. Kerry is visiting Norway’s extreme north to view areas impacted by climate change with melting ice and the opening of new sea lanes. AP/Evan Vucci

such event he has organized since taking office in 2013. “We’re not on the pace we need to be” to reverse the effects of climate change, Kerry said. He called for renewed efforts to move away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. “Even where there is awareness, the steps that people are taking are not big enough, fast enough,” Kerry said. “So, we have a huge distance to travel.” Kerry was a champion of the global-change agreement reached last December in Paris that seeks to hold the temperature change to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), although he said, ideally, the world would agree to less than 2°C.

AGAYAN DE ORO CITY— Failure to come up with measures to reduce disaster risks is tantamount to social injustice. This was a reminder the Climate Change Commission (CCC) gave to local government units (LGUs) recently. CCC said such failure deprives the poorest and most vulnerable sectors the much-needed protection against the adverse effects of climate change. “Nonaction on climate and disaster risks is a social sin, an injustice to the poor and most vulnerable,” CCC Vice Chairman and Secretary Emmanuel de Guzman told the local executives who attended the recent two-day Communities for Resilience (Core) Convergence Forum in this city. The forum brought together LGUs around the Bauayan-Malungon, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Tagoloan River Basins. Its aim was to increase the capacities of local communities on reducing disaster risk and adapting to climate change. Of the 1,700 LGUs, 777 of them are along the 18 river basins in the entire country, where communities need to be protected and avail themselves of the government’s program for disasterrisks mitigation, CCC said. De Guzman said the sad reality is that sectors mired in poverty, such as farmers, fisherfolk and informal settlers living in danger areas, have a higher chance of experiencing the ill effects of climate change due to increased exposure and vulnerability. He s a id added t h at L GUs should avail themselves or access the People’s Survival Fund of about P2 billion that the government has allocated to fund the various priority projects in line with climate-change adaptation. De Guzman pointed out that poor risk governance, weak livelihood and sorry state of ecosystem are the three main factors that put a community at risk in times of severe weather disturbances.

They also have limited safety nets or insurance mechanisms to help them cope with climate change-related shocks, like failed harvests linked to weather patterns and loss or damage linked to weather extremes, he said. In the 2015 United Nations report on disaster-risk reduction, the Philippines ranked sixth among the 10 countries worldwide hardest hit by natural disasters, sustaining $1.9 billion in economic damage and affecting an estimated 3.338 million people. De Guzman explained that poverty breeds disaster vulnerability. Those who have less in life risk life most, thus, as disasters become more prevalent, the higher is the right of the poor to social protection, and the higher is the duty of the government to reduce their disaster vulnerability and liberate them from the vicious cycle of poverty and risk. He said it is for this reason that the CCC is pushing for clim ate r isk- sensit ive n at ion a l and local development policies, plans and programs so that the underlying risk factors are addressed and disaster risks are reduced effectively. The CCC is facilitating a whole of government approach—the convergence and integration of the efforts of all sectors and stakeholders—to build the resilience of local communities. “The impact of nature’s forces on vulnerable communities must be reduced to prevent, not only disasters, but more of poverty, that the adaptation actions from the national [level] down to the local level offer cost-effective approaches to minimize the negative results of natural hazards and extreme weather conditions,” de Guzman said. The CCC said that the most effective way for a country to reduce climate-related risks in the medium term is through factoring risk reduction into development planning, land use and building, and environmental management which are all part of the capacities for risk governance.

“If we move more rapidly to the various other clean energies that already exist, we hope to be able to meet what we need to preserve a level of temperature increase that’s supportable, survivable,” he said. “We’ll get there hopefully.” After the visit to Norway’s portion of the Arctic Circle, Kerry planned to see icecaps in Greenland, after a stop in Copenhagen. Both trips were intended to highlight his concern about climate change and oceans ahead of the September conference. The ice-lossdriven opening of the Arctic Ocean has led to competition among several nations for its resources and access to newly available sea lanes for commercial maritime trade. AP

AKE BUENA VISTA, Florida—It’s an unwritten rule for Florida residents: Keep your kids away f r o m p o n d s a n d l a k e s, b e c a u s e alligators are everywhere. But after a gator killed a 2-year-old Nebraska boy at a Walt Disney World resort, attention soon turned to tourists. In a state with an estimated 1 million alligators, how should theme parks and other attractions warn visitors, and did Disney do enough? Disney beaches remained closed on Thursday after the death of Lane Graves, and the company said it has decided to add alligator warning signs, which it previously did not have around park waters. Jacquee Wahler, vice president of Walt Disney World Resort, said in a statement that the resort was also “conducting a swift and thorough review of all of our processes and protocols.” Local law enforcement and state wildlife officials publicly praised the company for spotting and removing nuisance gators from park waters. Disney ’s wildlife -management system has ensured “that their guests are not unduly exposed to the wildlife in this area,” Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said during the search for the child. Yet, Kadie Whalen, who lives in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, saw no evidence of that system when she visited Disney World with her family four years ago. Whalen said her three young children and niece were playing on a resort beach at the water’s edge with buckets and shovels provided by Disney workers, when the beady eyes of a 7-foot gator appeared in a lake just a few feet away. She screamed and everyone scattered. No one was hurt, but after her

experience, this week’s fatal alligator attack did not surprise her. “We knew that Disney was aware that this was a problem, and yet they encourage people to be there,” Whalen said on Thursday in a telephone interview. The dead child’s parents, Matt and Melissa Graves, who live in a suburban area of Omaha, have not spoken publicly, so it’s unclear whether they knew anything about the gator threat in Florida. A statement released through a family friend thanked local authorities for their tireless work. An autopsy showed that the boy died from drowning and traumatic injuries, according to the Orlando m e d i c a l e x a m i n e r. M o s t Fl o r i d a residents know to keep kids and pets away from water, not to feed gators and to be especially vigilant at dusk, dawn and during the June-throughJuly nesting season, when the reptiles are most active. State wildlife officials say they receive nearly 16,000 alligatorrelated complaints a year. Last year they removed more than 7,500 gators deemed to be a nuisance. D epending on the size of an alligator, the state may send out a trapper, as happened after the gator grabbed the boy at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, across Seven Seas Lagoon from the Magic Kingdom, one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. Five gators were removed from the lake following the boy’s disappearance, and trappers continued looking for gators after his body was found on Wednesday. While Disney had posted “no swimming” signs at the lake where the boy died, it did not have alligator warning signs, which are common

around golf courses, ponds and public parks all over Florida. That has raised questions about whether the company did enough to convey the potential danger to visitors. “They presumably know, since they have caught four or five alligators in this area, that the area has dangers that far and away exceed the danger of drowning,” said Miami-based defense attorney Scott Leeds. “So this issue of posting a sign warning of swimming or no swimming doesn’t adequately warn patrons of the known danger.” Responding to questions from The Associated Press, Disney said it has a policy of relocating alligators that are considered a potential threat. Animals less than 4-feet long are taken to conservation areas. Larger gators are removed by state-licensed trappers, the company said. Whalen said that’s what happened in 2012, after the gator appeared in the water near her kids at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, which is on a different lake than the one where the boy was killed. As shocked tourists looked on, she said, trappers caught the animal and carried it away, writhing, across a pool and courtyard area outside the hotel. Disney workers threatened to confiscate the phones and cameras of anyone who tried to photograph or videotape the spectacle, she added. Whalen said she complained to the front desk and wrote a letter to Disney, but never heard back. She was also chided by Florida residents who questioned why she’d ever let her kids get near the water, even at Disney. “It never crossed our minds at Disney World that we would have to worry about a predator eating our children,”she said.“We don’t have alligators in Pennsylvania.” AP

Science Monday

Monday, June 20, 2016 A13

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

Similar to AIDS, climate change

Antibiotic resistance needs global response

Unregulated sales of antibiotics are contributing to growing resistance. Adil Siddiqi/IPS

U

NITED NATIONS—Addressing antibiotic resistance will require a global political response similar to the way the world has reacted to climate change or HIV/AIDS, Sweden’s Minister of Public Health Gabriel Wikstrom, told Inter Press Service (IPS) recently. “[These problems] began with a small group of experts discussing and trying to warn the rest of us and it was not until it was politically addressed that it really became an issue that was solvable.” “Of course [with antibiotic resistance] we have many technical issues still to solve, and medical issues as well, but it’s foremost a political issue,” Wikstrom said. Antibiotics have helped extend the average person’s life by 20 years, yet, by failing to use them with care, we have already begun to render them useless. Heads of state and government will discuss the pressing issue of the decreasing effectiveness of antibiotics at a high-level meeting scheduled to take place at the UN in September. Earlier this week experts and political leaders from the health, agricultural and economic sectors spoke at the UN and the Yale Club of New York about what needs to happen at the September summit. “What is clear is that all countries around the world need to stop treating antibiotics as if they are sweets,” Lord Jim O’Neill, chairman of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), told IPS. “It’s true in humans, and it’s true in agriculture.” Incorrect use of antibiotics in both humans and farm animals is contributing in the rapid increase in bugs, which are resistant to the drugs we currently have. A study led by O’Neill has found that if the problem is not addressed, an additional 10 million people will die every year by the year 2050. The fact that no new antibiotics have been found since the 1980s makes these new drug-resistant infections even more worrying, says Sally Davies, the United Kingdom’s chief medical officer. “We’ve essentially got a dry pipeline of no new drugs coming through,” Davies told journalists at a press briefing here last week. Already 700,000 people die every year from drug-resistant infections, a low estimate, according to the report. One of the diseases which is most linked to drug-resistance is tuberculosis (TB). According to the World Health Organization (WHO) an estimated 480,000 people developed multidrug-resistant TB in 2014. Aaron Motsoaledi, minister of Health of South Africa and chairman of the Stop TB Partnership, told journalists that the only drugs available to address multidrug-resistant TB are extremely toxic, and that even after long courses of these drugs, there is only a 50-percent cure rate. A dd ressi ng d r ug-resi st a nt TB requires both investment in new drugs and investment in health-care systems in developing countries, Motsoaledi said. “It is a market and moral failure, at the same time, for most

20

The number of years that antibiotics have helped extend the life of a person

pharmaceutical companies not to be investing in finding effective cures for this world leading cause of death from infectious diseases,” he said. Motsoaledi added that AMR is not the only emerging global problem putting additional strain on healthy systems in developing countries and their ability to address infectious diseases. “It’s not only AMR that might come…it’s also climate change, we’re not sure what it’s going to bring, [and] we’re encroaching on the habitats of other organisms in the animal kingdom,” Motsoaledi said in a possible reference to Ebola. St re n g t he ne d he a lt h - c a re systems can help address AMR by prevent ing infect ions, through measures such as immunization, hygiene. Training more doctors and nurse will also lead to the more appropriate use of antibiotics. However, Davies emphasized that appropr iate use does not necessarily mean reduced use overall. “We must not forget that at this time more people die because they didn’t get access to the appropriate antibiotic than because of resistance, so it is also a development issue.” Taking less than the full course of antibiotics can also lead to resistance. In her book, The Drugs Don’t Work, Davies describes how bacteria become resistant to drugs when a person doesn’t take antibiotics for long enough. If the drugs are not given enough opportunity to fully kill the bacteria it may survive, while also learning how to resist future treatment with the same drug. This is why it is important that antibiotics are only taken exactly as prescribed by a trained medical professional.

Inappropriate agricultural uses need regulation

Addressing AMR requires the health and agricultural sectors to work together, said Wikstrom. However, around the world, lack of regulation in the agricultural sector has seen antibiotics abused as growth hormones or as prophylaxis. “All too often, around the world, antibiotics are used for growth promotion in animals,” Davies said. Resistance to one powerful antibiotic, Colistin, which has been used in the agricultural sector, has recently reached the United States, after beginning in China. Despite the importance of such drugs there are no global agreements around their use in agriculture, something which may potentially change at the UN meeting in September. IPS

Student-delegates in the Asean Plus Three Junior Science Odyssey show off their artistic skills in designing their shirts to raise awareness and advocacy on climate change and the rain forest held at the University of the Philippines Los Baños from June 13 to 18.

On climate change, rain forest: Asean youth take the challenge Story & photo by Stephanie Tumampos

C

sbtumampos_BM

limate change affects people of all ages and races. It affects all living things in the world. Actually, threats of elimination of many living species have been evident, making international organizations to initiate mitigation and adaptation strategies. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), together with the Asian countries of Japan, China and South Korea, and Sweden, took students to a higher level of understanding and critical thinking to help save the rain forest from the effects of climate change through the fifth Asean Plus Three Junior Science Odyssey (APT-JSO). It was organized and held last week by the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) and the Asean Plus Three Center for the Gifted in Science (ACGS). Participated by 13 year old to 15 year old students in groups of three from the participating countries, the annual event aims to encourage and challenge gifted students to excel in the fields of science and technology (S&T) and to hone them to be future scientists and engineers. The event, which took place at the University of the Philippines Los Baños in Laguna, has climate change as its theme, focusing on the rain forest as, the university is nestled in the protected rain forest of Mount Makiling. “It is a very nice theme [Climate Change and the Rainforest] to hold it in a protected forest area,” said Dr. Josette Biyo, director of DOST-SEI. “The forestry takes an important role in climate change.”

Climate change and rain-forest challenge

“Climate change is an issue that

is cross-sectoral in the Asean region. Meaning, it’s not only a concern of the S&T sector, but we also deal with energy, environment and agricultural sector,” said Alexander Lim, head of the Science and Technology Division of the Asean Economic Community Department of the Asean Secretariat. He added that, the role of the youth is very crucial, since the effects of this phenomenon are going to be the problems of their future. “We are preparing them to find practical solutions on how we mitigate the effects of climate change and prepare for disaster and the like,” Lim said. The APT-JSO held activities, including field work, laboratory-skills assessment and project pitching. T here was a lso a poster presentation, where groups of students from different countries showed how they can help in saving the rain forest and knowing its importance in climate change, such as carbon stock and agroforestry. “The goal is to be ready for the negative impact of climate change,” Lim told the BusinessMir ror in an inter v iew. He added: “There are many initiatives that would assist all Asean member-states in becoming resilient to climate change, providing them to use other options: clean energy, and appropriate agriculture practices that could mitigate greenhouse emission.”

Youths’ response

While painting their advocacies on shirts, Donlaya Chuchan, 14, from Thailand expressed her enthusiasm in joining the event and told the BusinessMirror that she envisions the youth to cooperate in this concern on climate change. “We need to protect [the environment] and help,” she said, adding that sharing her knowledge to different cultures would elevate the importance of her advocacy. “[We have] to plant more trees and everyone should help the world [in mitigating climate change].” Participant Aime Lamoste from the Philippines told the BusinessMirror that she wants to be an ecologist, and feels the need to raise this awareness to her peers as early as now. “I think my role in saving the rain forest is to share my knowledge to others to conserve resources that come from the rain forests,” Lamoste said. Sweden’s delegate coach Patrik Lundqvist said this kind of activity, besides honing the skills of the students, can give more opportunities and network to the Asean Plus Three community. “We think it is important to participate, because we feel that the topic of the conference is important for the whole world. We also think that our students should meet the best of the best to compete, and that networking between the countries is very important,” he told the BusinessMirror. A lthough Sweden does not have any rain forests, Lundqvist said this activity challenges his team to research into rain forests. His students proposed agroforestry as an effective mitigation strategy to uphold the theme of the event. “Agroforestry, where you mix forest and agriculture, has great benefits against climate change, for the rain forest and for the rest of the biodiversity it has,” he said.

Looking forward

With 22 years of experience, the chairman of ACGS, Prof. Sang Chun

Lee, said, “This event is very important because they’ll make a good solution to many problems of today at a very young age.” “This is also a very good opportunity to meet students and teachers and create a network and team of gifted students in the region,” he told the BusinessMirror. Sang said scholarships are also in the way through the ACGS to encourage students, “to stay in the area of science and technology.” The competition paves the way for students to hone their scientific skills and encourage them to take the scientific path in order to help make solutions in the pressing problems of society. Although there is no monetary prize for the winners, the top 3 teams participating in the APT-JSO will receive medals and trophies. Also for the first time, the winner will represent the Asean region in the world science competitions in the United States and Europe. Biyo said the aim of the DOSTSEI is that “through these activities, we encourage students that have high marks on science and math aptitude tests to take Stem-related courses in college.” Stem stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Biyo noted that less than 20 percent of high-school graduates choose to take Stem courses in universities. “Our country will not grow if we would lack scientists,” she said. The results of the competition will also be presented to an international board meeting, where senior officials of the Asean community will look into the recommendations. Lim told the BusinessMirror: “If possible, they [Asean] could provide support for follow-up activities since we are now very active in promoting talent mobility, providing scholarship, training and internship not only for the teachers but also for the young students, so we’ll see what will come out of the recommendation of this event.” The next host of the APT-JSO would be Vietnam.

A14 Monday, June 20, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

The 2016 Olympics: More govt absurdity

I

t does not take a genius to figure out that the world is a mess. Even one reading of a daily newspaper and you know clearly that the globe is completely covered in economic, political and humanitarian disasters. Is the human race cursed or maybe just unlucky? There has to be some explanation for all this chaos. In 1896 the modern Olympic Games were reborn in Athens, Greece, with 241 athletes from 14 countries. At the London 2012 games, 204 countries sent 10,568 of their athletes to compete. Granted, putting on an event of this nature is not an easy task as it is complex to get all the pieces to come together. But then again, governments have a long time to prepare. Tokyo, Japan, knows it will be hosting the 2022 Olympics and there have been 26 Summer Olympics, including in 1896. In spite of massive global interest, corporations fighting to be sponsors, huge media budgets for broadcasting and travelers from around the world joining the festivities, most have been financial disasters. The Athens games of 1896 was supposed to cost $74,000 and that ballooned to $448,000. The 1976 games of Montreal, Canada, were historic for the first perfect “10” score given to gymnast Nadia Comaneci. The games were budgeted at $110 million, but construction overruns created a total $922-million deficit and a debt that was not paid off until 2006. The 2004 games were held once again in Greece and lost a record $14 billion. This was equal to 6 percent of the country’s total GDP and has been cited as a contributor to the subsequent Greek government-debt crisis. Countries that hope to benefit from future tourism and business activity are disappointed. Philip Porter, an economist at the University of South Florida who has studied the impact of sporting events, says: “The bottom-line is, every time we’ve looked—dozens of scholars, dozens of times—we find no real change in economic activity.” In less than two months, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will host the 2016 Olympics. The World Health Organization says it is fine to go in spite of the Zika virus outbreak. But 150 doctors and scientists wrote an open letter calling for the Olympics to be postponed or moved. Rio beaches and the lagoon that will be used for the water-sports events have tested positive for drug-resistant “super bacteria,” according to two new studies. Last week the acting governor of Rio de Janeiro declared a state of financial disaster saying, “The financial crisis has brought difficulties and could cause the total collapse of public security, health care, education, urban mobility and environmental management” during the Games. Government did not take humans out of the Stone Age but just might put us back there.

Since 2005

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business ✝ Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Founder

Publisher Editor in Chief Managing Editor Associate Editor News Editor City & Assignments Editor Senior Editors

T. Anthony C. Cabangon Jun B. Vallecera Max V. de Leon Jennifer A. Ng Dionisio L. Pelayo Vittorio V. Vitug Lorenzo M. Lomibao Jr., Gerard S. Ramos Lyn B. Resurreccion, Efleda P. Campos

Online Editor Social Media Editor

Ruben M. Cruz Jr. Angel R. Calso

Creative Director Chief Photographer

Eduardo A. Davad Nonilon G. Reyes

Chairman of the Board & Ombudsman President VP-Finance VP-Corporate Affairs VP Advertising Sales Advertising Sales Manager Group Circulation Manager

Judge Pedro T. Santiago (Ret.) Benjamin V. Ramos Adebelo D. Gasmin Frederick M. Alegre Marvin Nisperos Estigoy Aldwin Maralit Tolosa Dante S. Castro

PCSO delivers ambulances to the north Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

O

N June 16 the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) donated eight ambulances to towns and hospitals in northern Philippines under the auspices of the agency’s Ambulance Donation Program.

I, and other PCSO officials traveled to Candon, Ilocos Sur, where we met with Ilocos Sur Rep. Eric D. Singson and other local government officials, as well as hospital administrators. We turned over brand-new ambulances to the municipalities of Banna and Currimao, Ilocos Norte; Santa Cruz, Sugpon, Santa Catalina and Santa, Ilocos Sur; Balaoan District Hospital, La Union; and City of Candon Hospital Ilocos Sur. The ambulance turnover ceremony was held at the Candon City Hall, which is also where the PCSO Ilocos Sur branch is located. The 44th branch of the agency when it was formally opened on May 18, 2015, provides our kababayans in that province easier access to PCSO services and products. On that occasion last year, we also granted two ambulances to the municipalities of Salcedo and

By Alberto Agra

Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 3rd floor of Dominga Building III 2113 Chino Roces Avenue corner De La Rosa Street, Makati City, Philippines. Tel. Nos. (Editorial) 817-9467; 813-0725. Fax line: 813-7025. (Advertising Sales) 893-2019; 817-1351, 817-2807. (Circulation) 893-1662; 814-0134 to 36. E-mail: news@businessmirror.com.ph.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

regional offices n DXQR -93dot5 HOME RADIO CAGAYAN DE ORO E-MAIL ADDRESS: homecdo@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Archbishop Hayes corner Velez Street, Cagayan de Oro City CONTACT NOs.: (088) 227-2104/ 857-9350/ 0922-811-3997 n DYQC -106dot7 HOME RADIO CEBU E-MAIL ADDRESS: homecebu@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Ground Floor, Fortune Life Building, Jones Avenue, Cebu City CONTACT NOs.: (032) 253-2973/ 234-4252/ 416-1067/ 0922-811-3994 n DWQT -89dot3 HOME RADIO DAGUPAN E-MAIL ADDRESS: homeradiodagupan@ yahoo.com ADDRESS: 4th Floor, Orchids Hotel Building,

Rizal Street, Dagupan City CONTACT NOs.: (075) 522-8209/ 515-4663/ 0922-811-4001 n DXQM – 98dot7 HOME RADIO DAVAO E-MAIL ADDRESS: home98dot7@gmail.com ADDRESS: 4D 3rd Floor, ATU Plaza, Duterte Street, Davao City CONTACT NOs.: (082) 222-2337/ 221-7537/ 0922-811-3996 n DXQS -98dot3 HOME RADIO GENERAL SANTOS E-MAIL ADDRESS: homegensan@yahoo.com ADDRESS: 2nd Floor, Penamante Clinic Tiongson Street, General Santos City CONTACT NO.: 0922-811-3998 n DYQN -89dot5 HOME RADIO ILOILO E-MAIL ADDRESS: homeiloilo@yahoo.com

ADDRESS: 3rd Floor, Eternal Plans Building, Ortiz Street, Iloilo City CONTACT NOs.: (033) 337-2698/ 508-8102/ 0922-811-3995 n DWQA -92dot3 HOME RADIO LEGAZPI E-MAIL ADDRESS: homeradiolegazpi@ yahoo.com ADDRESS: 4th Floor, Fortune Building, Rizal Street, Brgy. Pigcale, Legazpi City CONTACT NOs.: (052) 480-4858/ 820-6880/ 0922-811-3992 n DWQJ -95dot1 HOME RADIO NAGA E-MAIL ADDRESS: homenaga@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Eternal Garden Compound, Balatas Road, Naga City CONTACT NOs.: (054) 473-3818/ 811-2951/ 0922-811-3993

Printed by brown madonna Press, Inc.–San Valley Drive KM-15, South Superhighway, Parañaque, Metro Manila

Donation Program, which provides brand-new mbulances every five years to requesting parties. Ambulances are a great help to communities, especially during times of calamities, something we’ve been told by LGU officials around the country, who said PCSO ambulances have been instrumental in saving the lives of many during medical emergencies and natural disasters. n n n Yesterday, June 19, was the 155th birth anniversary of our National Hero Jose P. Rizal. Why is he still a role model up to now? Was it because he was a Renaissance man, skilled and tal-

ented in many ways? He was a man of science—a trained ophthalmologist, and also dabbled in anthropology, linguistics, economics, architecture and other disciplines. He was a sportsman—he knew fencing, pistol shooting and martial arts, and practiced gymnastics to stay fit. He was a man of arts and letters. Today his works Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo are still considered the great Filipino novels, not so much for artistic or literary merit, but for the fact that they helped bring about the Philippine revolution and, much later, independence from colonial powers. Above all, he was a man who dedicated himself to a noble cause, and made it his life’s work. In his words: “It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone wasted on the field without becoming a part of any edifice.” That sense of devotion to an ideal makes him worthy of emulation. May we, like Rizal, find for our own lives that ideal endeavor that will inspire us to do our best for the good of others and of country. n n n Atty. Rojas is vice chairman and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

The PHL PPP Center. . .

BusinessMirror is published daily by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror

HOM

Quirino, Ilocos Sur. The PCSO Ambulance Donation Program provides ambulances to local government units (LGUs) and institutions on either a 60-40 cost-sharing scheme, or outright donation, depending on certain criteria. One of the agency’s goals is to eventually provide every city and municipality with an ambulance for the emergency needs of residents, especially those in areas far from hospitals or health centers. Apart from LGUs, other entities that may request for PCSO ambulances are public hospitals, charitable institutions and associations, and state colleges and universities. It is the PCSO games, including the popular Lotto, that fund all the programs of our 81-year-old agency, including the Ambulance

The PCSO Ambulance Donation Program provides ambulances to LGUs and institutions on either a 60-40 cost-sharing scheme or outright donation, depending on certain criteria. One of the agency’s goals is to eventually provide every city and municipality with an ambulance for the emergency needs of residents, especially those in areas far from hospitals or health centers.

PPP Lead Continued from A1 (2) PPP Center is an advisory body, not an implementing agency. Like its precursor, the buildo p e r at e - a nd - t r a n s fe r ( B O T ) Center, the PPP Center is not an implementing agency. It does not select the private proponent, award PPP contracts and implement PPP projects. It advises, renders assistance, recommends and monitors. In addition, it handles public funds by managing the Project Development and Monitoring Facility. (3) PPP Center is a centralized, not a decentralized, agency.

In countries like Brunei Darussalam, Singapore and Vietnam, based on the 2014 paper PPP Units and Programs in Asia and the Pacific published by the UN ESCAP, PPP monitoring and implementation are integrated in departments or ministries. Here, we have a centralized PPP unit. There is no horizontally decentralization at the national level. However, at the local level, local government units (LGUs) are free to form their own PPP units based on their PPP ordinances. (4) PPP Center is an attached, not an independent, agency. Under EO 8, the PPP Center is under the Neda. Formerly, it was attached to the Department

Under EO 8, the PPP Center shall cover all PPP projects including variants under the Build-Operate-andTransfer Law, joint ventures and other modalities. But in actuality, it only assisted in BOT Law projects. The PPP Center’s definition of PPP is confined to the BOT Law and its website only mentions the 12 awarded projects under said law. Joint venture projects are not part of its database. of Trade and Industry. Being an attached agency, the Neda has no control and supervision over the PPP Center. Attachment, as defined under administrative law, does not vest upon the Neda the power to substitute or reverse policies and decisions of,

to administer the day-to-day operations of, and to dictate upon the PPP Center. (5) PPP Center’s mandate is broad, but its definition of PPP is limited. Under EO 8, the PPP Center shall cover all PPP projects, including variants under the BOT Law, joint ventures and other modalities. But in actuality, it only assisted in BOT law projects. The PPP Center’s definition of PPP is confined to the BOT law and its web site only mentions the 12 awarded projects under said law. Joint-venture (JVs) projects are not part of its database. Public perception is, the PPP Center is focused on BOT law variants, the Neda on JV projects by state corporations and LGUs, because of the absence of any statutory restriction, are relatively free to pursue non-BOT law arrangements. If this is the PPP Center today, what could or should it ought to be?

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Opinion

Of laws and Filipinos

Notes on accreditation of CPAs

BusinessMirror

Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan

E

legally speaking

arly this year, outgoing President Aquino vetoed a Congress-approved measure that declared a P2,000 acrossthe-board increase in the Social Security System monthly pension. Attempts were made at the lower House to resurrect this by overriding the presidential veto with at least two-thirds vote of both houses. Unfortunately, it did not end well when the members of the lower house miserably failed to act on a resolution to override before Congress adjourned sine die. Just a few days are left before this present Congress comes to an end. It is almost inevitable that this bill will no longer see the light of day, at least in this 16th Congress. Those, especially the senior citizens, who have been lobbying for the passage of the bill will just have to wait a little longer, or not. Moving forward, let us look at some of the laws passed within the year, and see how it will affect our lives. n Republic Act 10844 (Department of Information and Communications Technology Act of 2015), approved on May 23, 2016. This law created the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT), which powers and functions include the establishment of free Internet service that can be accessed in government offices and public areas using the most cost-effective telecommunications technology. It abolishes and transfers to the DICT the powers and functions of all operating units of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) dealing with communications. With this law, we are optimistic that the most perennial problem of slow Internet speed will be resolved. The Philippines was dubbed as the country with the second-slowest average download speed among 22 countries in Asia. Based on the survey by an Internet metrics provider, the Philippines was second to war-torn Afghanistan in Internet speed. And yet, we have to pay Internet fees considered to be among the most expensive in Asia. Aside from the problematic Internet connection, another unresolved issue in this country is that of poor transportation, which every common Filipino has to endure on a daily basis. With the creation of the DICT, we are hopeful—since the communication aspect of the DOTC has been downloaded to the DICT—the former can now concentrate and focus all its efforts on improving the transportation system in the country. n Republic Act 10816 (Farm Tourism Development Act of 2016), approved on May 16, 2016. This law introduces farm tourism, which aims to provide additional income for farmers, farmworkers and fisherfolk. Farm tourism is the practice of attracting visitors and tourists to farm areas for production, educational and recreational purposes. It involves any agricultural—or fishery—based operation or activity that brings to a farm, called as farm tourism camp, visitors, tourists, farmers and fisherfolk who want to be educated and trained on farming and its related activities. It also provides a venue for outdoor recreation and accessible family outings. Farm-tourism operators and practitioners may, likewise, avail themselves of incentives under existing laws. With this, farmers, farmworkers and fisherfolk need not solely depend on the sales of their products but can market to tourists, both local and foreign, their farms. Besides, the Philippines, aside from having world-class beaches, is an agricultural country with vast farm lands. We might, as well, use this to our advantage, since there are urban dwellers who are ready and willing to pay just to experience and get involved in farm activities, as well as to enjoy and learn rural lifestyle.

n Republic Act 10771 (Philippine Green Jobs Act of 2016), approved on April 29, 2016. Under this Act, business enterprises are encouraged to train and certify workers for jobs in a range of industries that produce goods and render services for the benefit of the environment, conserve natural resources for the future generation, and ensure the sustainable development of the country and its transition into a green economy. In recognition of the participation of individuals and business enterprises in jobs creation, the government is giving certain incentives, which include (a) special deduction from the taxable income equivalent to 50 percent of the total expenses for skills training and research-development expenses, which is over and above the allowable ordinary and necessary business deductions for said expenses under the Tax Code; and (b) tax- and duty-free importation of capital equipment. This may be the Philippines’s additional contribution to help in the solution of the global problem of climate change. It is, likewise, a welcome reward to Filipinos who have been trying to contribute in saving Mother Earth. n Republic Act 10754 (An Act Expanding The Benefits And Privileges Of Persons With Disability (PWD), approved on March 23, 2016. In its continuous effort to provide assistance to PWDs, additional benefits and privileges are given to them, including a discount of at least 20 percent and exemption from the value-added tax (VAT), if applicable, on the sale of goods and services for their exclusive use and enjoyment or availment. The discount and exemption from VAT covers, among others: (1) the fees and charges relative to the utilization of all services in hotels and similar lodging establishments, restaurants and recreation centers; (2) on admission fees charged by theaters, cinema houses, concert halls, circuses, carnivals and other similar places of culture, leisure and amusement; (3) on the purchase of medicines in all drugstores; (4) on medical and dental services, including diagnostic and laboratory fees, and professional fees of attending doctors in all government facilities and all private hospitals and medical facilities, in accordance with applicable rules and regulations; (5) on fare for domestic air and sea travel; (6) on actual fare for land transportation travel, such as, but not limited to, public-utility buses or jeepneys, taxis, Asian utility vehicles, shuttle services and public railways, including Light Rail Transit, Metro Rail Transit and Philippine National Railways; and (6) on funeral and burial services for the death of a PWD. With the additional benefits and privileges, the government hopes to assist the PWDs to make life easier, despite their respective conditions. The aforementioned laws, if implemented properly, are sure to benefit not only the affected individuals, but the whole country, as well. I hope the 17th Congress will pass equally important and revolutionary laws that will help uplift the living conditions of the Filipinos, both in the urban and rural sectors of the society.

For comments, you may e-mail me at lpkapunan@kapunanlaw.com.

Concordio S. Quisaot

DEBIT CREDIT First of two parts

T

he Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) in the Philippines still undergo an accreditation process with the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy (PRBA), even after they secure their professional license, before they can practice public accountancy. The accountancy law, or Republic Act 9298, mandates this additional procedure for those CPAs in public accountancy presumably due to the very important role that these CPAs perform that affects the public interest. The practice of public accountancy, as defined in the accountancy law, are the following: n The audit or verification of financial transactions and accounting records; n The preparation, signing, or certification for clients of reports of audit, balance sheet, and other financial, accounting and related schedules, exhibits, statements or reports that are to be used by stockholders or for publication or for credit purposes, or to be filed with a court or government agency, or to be used for any other purpose; n The design, installation, re-

view and revision of accounting systems and controls; or the preparation and/or review of income-tax returns when related to accounting and auditing procedures; n The representation of clients before government agencies on tax and other matters related to accounting; and n The rendering of professional assistance in matters relating to accounting procedures, and the recording and presentation of financial facts or data. The law specifically requires a certificate of accreditation from the Board of Accountancy for all

Monday, June 20, 2016 A15

those who will be engaged in the practice of public accountancy, whether as individual practitioner, firms or partnership, including the partners and staff members thereof. The certificate of accreditation shall be issued only upon showing, in accordance with rules and regulations, that such registrant has acquired a minimum of three years meaningful experience in any of the areas of public practice, including taxation. The Certificate of Accreditation is subject to renewal every three years. Partnership engaged in the practice of public accountancy may be carried on in the form of a general partnership or a limited liability partnership organized in accordance with Philippines laws. The Securities and Exchange Commission shall not register any corporation organized for the practice of public accountancy. Accreditation process in the practice of public accountancy by the PRBA is intended to protect the public from fly-by-night and other unfit practitioners, thus mitigating the incidence of malpractice in the profession. As a requirement, the applicant for accreditation must be able to show, among others, that he or she: n is a registered individual, firm or partnership name allowed in accordance with Philippine laws; n has functional office with

complete business and postal address, telephone and/or facsimile numbers, e-mail address, web site of principal office, including branch(es), suboffices, if any; n practices good governance and internal quality review processes to ensure compliance with the professional, ethical and technical standards required of the practice of public accountancy; n has good moral character of all CPA practitioners in the firm or the individual, and that each had not been found guilty by a competent court or any tribunal of a case involving moral turpitude; and n has complied with the Continuing Professional Development requirements. I will discuss in my column next week the procedures for applying and getting the Certificate of Accreditation. Hon. Concordio Quisaot is a member of the Board of Accountancy, tasked with the oversight in the accreditation of CPAs. He has a consulting and auditing practice in Cebu, and has electric cooperatives among his clients 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.

A-listers flock to Putin’s private Davos By Leonid Bershidsky Bloomberg View

T

wo years ago, President Vladimir Putin decided to wait out Western attempts to isolate Russia economically and politically. This year’s Saint Petersburg Economic Forum—an annual event informally known as Russia’s Davos— showed that his patience is gradually paying off, but business as usual still isn’t within reach. The lineup at the forum was much more impressive than in 2014, when Western leaders and top chief executives stayed away because Russia was toxic in the aftermath of the Crimea annexation, or last year, soon after the Minsk peace accord suspended the fighting in eastern Ukraine. This year the US State Department again warned US companies against attending the gathering because of “clear risks, both economic and reputational, associated with toplevel engagement with a government that is flouting the most fundamental principles of international rule of law by intervening militarily in a neighboring country.” Yet, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson showed up. So did foreign leaders: United Nations Secretary General Ban Kimoon, European Commission (EC) President Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy, former President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The presence of the leaders of occupied Crimea and Putin’s wealthy friends, who are under international sanctions, didn’t deter these foreign dignataries from attending and giving Putin’s ego a boost. At times, one could even think that their positions were close to Putin’s on certain economic matters. Juncker, for example, said on Thursday: For the European Union and Russia, the prize, one day, could be great: a vast region governed by the rule of law, trading freely and working together on common projects. In his Friday keynote speech, Putin appeared to echo the grand vision: The “greater Eurasia” project is definitely open for Europe, too, and I am sure such interaction can be mutually profitable. The EU, despite all the well-known problems in our relationship, remains a key trading and economic partner for Russia. Reality, of course, is more co-

Although Putin said on Friday that 40 countries had expressed a desire to form free-trade zones with the Eurasian Union, the bloc is not a success—at least for now. Last year, its first in the current form, trade volumes within it declined. Kazakhstan’s trade with Russia, for example, dropped more than a quarter. The post-Soviet nations that comprise the union all faced sharp economic slowdowns due to lower commodity prices, and their economic integration isn’t a big help. Besides, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan don’t trade much among themselves—the bloc remains Russia-centric. mon plicated. Juncker made it clear that Russia would remain subject to sanctions until the Minsk deal is fully implemented and that the Crimea annexation was illegitimate. Renzi took care to confirm this in his speech, too. On Friday the EU reinforced the message by extending Crimearelated sanctions for another year (harsher eastern Ukraine-related ones probably will be extended for a shorter period). Besides, Juncker and Putin are clearly talking about different versions of a EU-Russia free-trade arrangement. To the EC president, the cooperation must proceed on Europe’s terms, such as the rule of law as it is understood in the EU. Putin, for his part, wants a deal on his terms: He’s pushing his Eurasian Union, which also includes four other post-Soviet countries, as a party to any trade

negotiations. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who also appeared at the forum, has proposed that the Eurasian Union start preliminary technical talks with the EU on pulling down trade barriers, and Putin has talked to Juncker about this. Although Putin said on Friday that 40 countries had expressed a desire to form free-trade zones with the Eurasian Union, the bloc is not a success—at least for now. Last year, its first in the current form, trade volumes within it declined. Kazakhstan’s trade with Russia, for example, dropped more than a quarter. The post-Soviet nations that comprise the union all faced sharp economic slowdowns due to lower commodity prices, and their economic integration isn’t a big help. Besides, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan don’t trade much among themselves— the bloc remains Russia-centric. It may not make sense for the EU to get too deep into trade talks with a shaky entity that, for now, mostly represents Putin’s attempt to recreate the Soviet Union in some form. The Eurasian Union won’t necessarily survive the removal from power of Putin or even Nazarbayev, and the multitude of technical issues that would have to be resolved for an interbloc trade deal may not be worth hammering out if Putin’s union falls apart in the next 15 years. The resolve to maintain the Ukraine-related financial sanctions may be weakening in Europe—that’s why figures such as Juncker and Renzi are willing to talk to Putin on his home turf, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to work with him on his terms. Putin, meanwhile, makes no secret of wanting just that. “We don’t hold a grudge,” he told Europeans, reiterating a phrase he used at the same forum a year ago: “Russia did not initiate today’s discord, problems and the introduction of sanctions.” “Putin called on Western politicians to follow the lead of their businesses which want to develop relations with Russia,” tweeted Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee. “That’s what will happen at the end: The dam of sanctions will burst.” Some top European executives—such as Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe—are openly opposed to the sanctions regime, and voiced that position in Saint

Petersburg. Yet, Pushkov’s vision is overoptimistic. The way Putin frames a return to cooperation remains unpalatable to Europeans. In the Q&A session after the speech, Putin blamed Ukraine for the slow implementation of the Minsk agreement and accused the US of driving a wedge between Europe and Russia. He is not budging from any of the positions he took two years ago, and Europe will not reward this recalcitrance with major concessions, at least not soon. Putin did his best to sound confident about the state of the Russian economy: Growth will pick up, Russia has kept its international reserves, inflation is lower and capital flight has dwindled. Armed with recent economic proposals from his liberal advisers, he talked of cutting Russia’s nonoil budget deficit by 50 percent within five years, creating more jobs in small and medium businesses and making law-enforcement agencies weaken their grip on private business. These ideas and promises, however, have been voiced many times before, without much of an effect on Russia’s abysmal business climate. As the forum unfolded, the Health Ministry banned the UK’s Reckitt Benckiser from selling Durex condoms, the most popular brand in Russia, because of a bureaucratic problem with certification. No wonder that, as in the previous two years, no major Western investments or joint projects with Russian companies have been announced at the forum. The high-profile participants, such as Ti l lerson or A libaba founder Jack Ma, watched, listened and talked but apparently didn’t make deals. It’s heartening that top Western executives and politicians are not giving up on Russia, but it’s also clear that Putin views their willingness to attend his forum as a sign of weakness. It’s not clear what the visitors gained by visiting Saint Petersburg; they may have merely contributed to Putin’s already bloated sense of his own importance. The Russian regime is not thawing, and there’s no retreat from its geopolitical assertiveness or its dogged economic statism. If the Western visitors expected to see something different in Saint Petersburg, they were naïve. If they didn’t, they were no more than glorified tourists.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A16 Monday, June 20, 2016

SM Prime urges govt to fix IRR of REIT law S By VG Cabuag

@villygc

M Prime Holdings Inc. and Megaworld Corp. said they will await the review of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the real-estate investment trust (REIT) law before considering the investment option again.

The two big property developers said they are interested in REIT, but the government must first remove the stringent measures or at least follow the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9856, or the REIT Act of 2009. “Well, we wanted something that is very clear that we can really benefit, not only our company, but also the public. It cannot be a one-sided type of implementation. But I believe that is one area that the country can benefit a lot from also,” said Hans Sy, SM Prime president. “The IRR is not the law. The law is really what we would like to follow,” he added. The REIT law was enacted in 2009 to promote the development of the capital market, broaden the participation of the public in the ownership of real estate in the Philippines, and tap the capital market for infrastructure projects.

Look at the success of Singapore. We believe we can replicate that.”—Sy However, its IRR was crafted by the Aquino economic team. RA 9856 was designed to recycle realestate assets by placing it in another REIT company, where the public can invest by purchasing shares. The shares of the REIT company can also be traded at the Philippine Stock Exchange. Property developers lost interest in REITs, as the Aquino administration remained adamant about slapping a

12-percent value-added tax on the transfer of asset into the REIT company and imposing a 30-percent income-tax rate. REIT owners are also required to sell to the public a majority stake, or at least 67 percent, in three years from the initial 40 percent upon listing. “The 30 percent we’re okay with that, the 40 percent we’re okay. But 70 percent is huge, you’ll become the minority,” Sy said. If the government is able to fix the IRR, Sy said he is “very confident” that the country will be able to attract foreign investments in the REITs. “Look at the success of Singapore. We believe we can replicate that,” he said. Kingson Sian, executive director of Megaworld, said they may also look at the REITs if there will be changes in the IRR. “Based on pronouncement that [the Duterte administration] will look into it, it is a good sign. Because if they can get the [IRR] amended in a form that is acceptable to issuers and fund managers, investors, that’s going to unleash a lot of capital. Then you redeploy on construction and a lot of project, which has a multiplier effect,” Sian said. Instead of putting its money in time deposit accounts, Sian said Megaworld may use the REITs to do more projects. “That is especially good for people like us that already have the land. We can go for development,” he said.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

NEXT DTI CHIEF WANTS TO CUT POVERTY VIA INCLUSIVE BUSINESSES By Catherine N. Pillas

T

@c_pillas29

he incoming chief of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said he is keen on encouraging the growth of more “inclusive” businesses (IBs) to create more jobs, produce cheaper goods and cut poverty. Incoming DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said he intends to continue the Aquino administration’s thrust of supporting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), particularly those that have adopted the IB model. According to the World Bank, inclusive businesses are those that provide goods, services and livelihood on a “commercially viable basis to people at the base of the pyramid by making them part of the value chain of companies’ core businesses as suppliers, distributors, retailers or consumers.” “The focus of the incoming President is uplifting the poor and their quality of life through entrepreneurship. The priorities would be programs that help MSMEs,” Lopez told reporters in a chance interview, following the Philippine Retailers’ Association’s 2016 Outstanding Filipino Retailers and Shopping Centers Awards held last week. “We would accelerate further the rollout of Negosyo Centers, shared service facilities [SSFs], and the training to go along with operating these,” he added. Lopez said he and current DTI chief Adrian S. Cristobal Jr., had informal discussions about

The focus of the incoming President is uplifting the poor and their quality of life through entrepreneurship.” —Lopez

the transition to the new leadership and outlined the programs that the new government will continue in the next six years. The incoming DTI head said there is an ongoing review of the agency’s programs to determine, which will be prioritized and will be put on hold. However, Lopez declined to cite specifics. Lopez, executive director of non-governmental organization Go Negosyo, said he sees the potential of the IB model championed by Cristobal in creating more jobs and encouraging entrepreneurship. “We talked about inclusive business—orienting how big business can help small ones through strengthening forward [stores] or backward [suppliers] linkages, and putting them into the value chain,” he said. See “Poverty,” A2