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Friday, June 30, 2017 Vol. 12 No. 260

RWM allowed to resume casino business–Pagcor

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By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

ith a more improved safety and security systems, Resorts World Manila (RWM) can now resume its casino operations after the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

(Pagcor) announced on Thursday the lifting of the suspension order issued earlier this month.

₧434M The monthly revenue losses by the government as a result of Pagcor’s suspension of RWM casino operations

The country’s gaming regulator suspended RWM’s license on June 9, pending an investigation into a fatal June 2 attack by a lone gunman who also killed himself after the rampage.

“A f ter ca ref u l scr ut iny a nd deliberations, Pagcor has lifted the Continued on A2

Shipping giant’s terminals slowly recovering

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INVESTMENTS, TAX REFORMS HIGHLIGHT DUTERTE’S FIRST YEAR

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By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM, Catherine N. Pillas @c_pillas29 & Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

he government secured investment commitments, including so-called submarket loans worth at least $46 billion, in the inaugural year of President Duterte, the bulk of it coming from the country’s new-found ally China, and longtime trade and investment partner Japan.

The funds will go a long way in securing the outcome of an ambitious multilayer infrastructure buildup program that the Department of Finance (DOF) initially estimated will require mobilizing more or less P2.2 trillion over a six-year stretch.

Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said the commitments aggregated $46 billion, including a hefty $24-billion package from China and the $9-billion combined investment and development aid package from Japan.

“Those numbers were being studied, explored and committed on presidential trips, including the official development assistance [ODA]” component, he clarified through a text message.

Continued on B4

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keeping heads together Elementary students of Bagong Diwa Elementary School in Pandacan, Manila, cover their heads with books as part of the nationwide simultaneous earthquake drill on Thursday. ROY DOMINGO

GDP growth seen breaching 6% this year on higher infra spending

By Catherine N. Pillas

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@c_pillas29

hile the transition to the Duterte administration has been smooth, the Philippines is expected to grow at a tempered pace this year and next year, London-based information and analytics provider IHS Markit said.

Asia-Pacific chief economist Rajiv Biswas, in a commentary released on Thursday, said the Philippine economy will grow

The Philippine government’s debtto-GDP ratio declined to a new record low of 34.6 percent in 2016, helped by the rapid pace of GDP growth and prudent fiscal management.”—Biswas 6.4 percent this year and by 6.3 percent in 2018.

The projected GDP growth for this year is lower than the Duterte administration’s target of 6.5

PESO exchange rates n US 50.4370

percent to 7.5 percent.

Biswas said his assessment is based on a number of factors, including the “sound fiscal policy See “GDP,” A2

OPENHAGEN, Denmark—Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk, one of the global companies hardest-hit by a malicious software that froze computers around the globe, said on Thursday that most of its terminals are now operational, though some remain crippled.

The Copenhagen-based company said some terminals are “operating slower than usual or with limited functionality”.

Problems have been reported across the shippers’ global business, from Mobile, Alabama, to Mumbai in India.

The shipping company is one of a number of major corporations and government agencies—from logistics firm FedEx to Ukraine’s banking system—to have been hit by the software epidemic. Maersk, as the shipper is known, says it’s able to accept bookings again via the INNTRA booking platform but that its logistics division, Damco, “has limited access to certain systems”.

Maersk says it can’t be specific about how many sites were affected or when business will get to normal. It also said it had deliberately shut down “a number of IT [informationtechnology] systems” that also had an impact on e-mail systems. As companies and governments gauged the cost of the attack, experts were trying to shed light on who launched it and why.

The attack has the telltale signs of ransomware, which scrambles a computer’s data until a payment is made. But some analysts believe this attack was less aimed at gathering money than at sending a message to Ukraine, where it seems to have originated, and its allies. That hunch was buttressed by the way the malware appears to have been seeded using a rogue update to a piece of Ukrainian accounting software—suggesting an attacker focused on Ukrainian targets.

And it comes on the anniversary of the assassination of a senior Ukrainian military intelligence officer and a day before a national holiday celebrating a new constitution signed after the breakup of the Soviet Union. AP

n japan 0.4492 n UK 65.2050 n HK 6.4635 n CHINA 7.4175 n singapore 36.4957 n australia 38.5339 n EU 57.3973 n SAUDI arabia 13.4495

Source: BSP (29 June 2017 )

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A2 Friday, June 30, 2017

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RWM allowed to resume casino business–Pagcor Continued from A1

suspension order against Travellers International Hotel Group, Inc. (TIHGI), under the business name RWM to operate gaming activities,” a Pagcor statement said.

Pagcor added the lifting of the suspension order on RWM takes effect on Thursday (June 29), following TIHGI’s compliance with

Poor countries. . . possible results of climate change to world’s food security and the actions that could mitigate these effects.

“In adopting the goa ls of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the international community took responsibility for building a sustainable future,” the document read.

“But meeting the goals of eradicating hunger and poverty by 2030, while addressing the threat of climate change, will require a profound transformation of food and agriculture systems worldwide,” it added.

The document noted that unless action is taken now to make agriculture more sustainable, productive and resilient, the impacts of climate change will seriously compromise food production in regions that are highly food-insecure.

“Delaying the transformation of the agriculture sector will force poorer countries to fight poverty, hunger and more severe climate change at the same time,” it added.

Citing the results of the The Fifth As-

the required security and safety improvements. The security improvements include the hiring of a new security agency and experts to assess and improve safety and security systems; increasing the number of x-ray machines and metal detectors; doubled up deployment of guards with firearms; ongoing review and improvement of safety and security

protocols for various emergency scenarios; mandated additional safety and security seminars for employees; hiring of professional structural engineers to assess its casino building to ensure structural integrity; and obtaining the required Fire Safety Inspection Certificate.

The state-run gaming agency also said that aside from RWM’s

Continued from A12

sessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the FAO said “in the medium term—up to around 2030—positive and negative projection of impacts on crop yields seem to counterbalance each other at the global level.”

However, the IPCC noted that after such period, the balance of effects becomes increasingly negative, with most of the developing countries suffering the brunt of climate change.

“Developing countries seem to be particularly at risk of declining yields as a result of climate change. Indeed, for the developing countries, most projections for crop yield impacts are negative, and the share and severity of negative outcomes increases further in the future,” the FAO said.

“In comparison, projections for developed countries show a much larger share of potential positive changes,” it added.

The FAO noted that lower agricultural productivity caused by climate change could result in global food supply shortage leading to major increases in food prices. The FAO add-

compliance with security and safety improvements, it lifted the suspension order in consideration of TIHGI’s 6,000 casino work force, whose livelihood has been affected.

Pagcor said the government has been losing an average of P14 million per day, or P434 million a month, as a result of the suspension order. “Pagcor, however, would like to maintain its position that

ed that small farmers in developing countries would be the most at risk, as they are the least resilient food producers in the world.

“The areas most affected would be those with already high rates of hunger and poverty. Among the most vulnerable will be those who depend on agriculture for their livelihood and income, particularly smallholder producers in developing countries,” the FAO said.

“Most of the world ’s poor and hungry are rural people who earn a meager living either directly from agriculture or from activities which depend on it. In 2010 some 900 million of the estimated 1.2 billion extremely poor lived in rural areas, and about 750 million of them worked in agriculture, mostly as smallholder farmers,” it added.

The document highlighted the progams and actions that nations could adopt and implement to mitigate the effects of climate change in their respective agriculture sectors. Some of these include the adoption of the use of nitrogen-efficient and heat-tolerant crop varieties, zero-tillage and integrated soil-fertility management.

“Farmers can further enhance their resilience through diversification of

the lifting of the suspension order does not absolve TIHGI’s officers and personnel of any criminal liability, which is to be determined by government investigating bodies,” the statement added.

Earlier this month Jessie Javier Carlos, a lone gunman, stormed the RWM casino in a botched robbery, setting gaming tables alight, which killed scores of people who mostly

farm activities and sources of income.

This can reduce the impact of climate shocks on income and provide households with a broader range of options when managing future risks,” the FAO said.

The FAO also urged nations to minimize “trade-disrupting” measures to facilitate smoother and better flow of trade among countries, especially for the developing ones.

“Trade could play a stabilizing role for potentially lower productivity and higher price volatility by making available supplies from food surplus areas to food deficit regions. Trade could, therefore, assume the role as an adaptation mechanism to climate change and, important, become a contributor to food security in countries adversely affected by climate change,” the FAO said.

“Trade restrictions, such as tariff and nontariff barriers, which limit the response of global agricultural production to changes in demand and supply under climate change, should be minimized. Climate change underscores the need to help developing countries deal with food and energy price increases, as well as volatility in food supplies,” it added.

GDP. . .

suffocated in thick smoke.

RWM voluntarily suspended its casino operations, giving Pagcor time to make objective and sound decisions in accordance with the law.

Earlier Pagcor Chairman and CEO Andrea D. Domingo said RWM must allow Pagcor management to inspect the premises and view related videos, otherwise, RWM risks losing its license.

Continued from A1

environment” built over the years by former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. “The ability of the Duterte administration to deliver such large increases in infrastructure spending has been helped by the tremendous progress made by successive Philippine governments since 2004 in the task of implementing fiscal consolidation,” he said.

“The Philippine government’s debt-to-GDP ratio declined to a new record low of 34.6 percent in 2016, helped by the rapid pace of GDP growth and prudent fiscal management,” Biswas added.

The sound fiscal management, coupled with rapid economic growth for over two decades, has given the Duterte administration enough fiscal space to increase infrastructure spending, he said.

Biswas added that his evaluation is also anchored on the government’s drive to hike infrastructure spending to 7.4 percent of GDP by 2022, from the current 5.4 percent.

Plans to improve the tax system’s efficiency will also contribute to the Philippines’s growth story, he said.

Biswas, however, added the turbulent law and order situation and high crime rates in major cities and the ongoing insurgency in Mindanao will pose a challenge to the Duterte administration’s efforts to hit its economic goals. In the medium term, the economist said President Duterte may also be faced with the challenge of lowering poverty incidence despite adopting the inclusive growth mantra of the previous administration.

Economy BusinessMirror

A4 Friday, June 30, 2017 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

Duterte appoints Favila, Abacan, retains Medalla in Monetary Board

By Rea Cu

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@ReaCuBM

resident Duterte has retained the appointment of former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Felipe M. Medalla as member of the Monetary Board, and has also appointed two new members, namely, Peter B. Favila and Antonio S. Abacan Jr. Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said Medalla, Favila and Abacan will serve a fixed term of six years each, as provided under the New Central Bank Act, or Republic Act (RA) 7653.

Abacan and Favila replaced Armando L. Suratos, who is a former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) deputy governor and former Development Bank of the Philippines Chairman Alfredo C. Antonio, who are scheduled to step down this year.

The powers and function of the BSP are exercised by its Monetary Board, which has seven members appointed by the President of the Philippines.

The newly announced appointments complete the membership of the board, which includes Dominguez, Juan D. de Zuniga Jr. and Valentin A. Araneta and its would-be chairman, incoming BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr., who will assume office on July 3.

Medalla, who first served in the Monetary Board in 2011, was the director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority from July 1998 to January 2001. He also served as director of the Philippine National Oil Exploration Corp. and as independent director of the Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.

Favila returns after three years to the Monetary Board, where he earlier served as its member from 2008 to 2014. Besides serving as former Department of Trade and Industry chief from 2005 to 2010, Favila was once president of the Allied Banking Corp. and president and CEO of the Philippine National Bank. He also served as a consultant to the BSP and CDC Holdings Inc. and was chairmanpresident of the Philippine Stock Exchange from 2001 to 2005.

Abacan was the former president of Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) from 1993 to April 2006, and of the Philippine Savings Bank and Unibancard Corp. from 1988 to 1991. He is currently the group vice chairman of the Metrobank Group.

He is also a senior adviser at the First Metro Investment Corp., Federal Land and Toyota Manila Bay Corp.; and chairman of the board of Toyota Financial Services (Phils) Inc. Under RA 7653, the Monetary Board is in charge of issuing rules and regulations it considers necessary for the effective discharge of the responsibilities and exercise of the powers vested upon it and the BSP. “The rules and regulations issued shall be reported to the President and Congress within 15 days from the date of their issuance; [and it is tasked to] direct the management, operations and administration of the BSP, reorganize its personnel, and issue such rules and regulations as it may deem necessary or convenient for this purpose. The legal units of the BSP shall be under the exclusive supervision and control of the Monetary Board.”

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PSALM seeks ERC approval for true-up rates adjustment

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By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

ower rates in Luzon may go down by P0.556 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) should the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approve the adjustment in the fuel and foreign exchange costs of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM).

Electricity rates in Mindanao may also go down by P0.834 per kWh, but rates in the Visayas may increase by P1.067 per kWh. The seventh application for the true-up adjustments of fuel and purchased power costs and foreign-exchange related costs filed by PSALM before the ERC covers the one year period between January and December 2016.

PSALM seeks to implement the refund for Luzon and Mindanao and the recovery for the Visayas in one year.

“It is most respectfully prayed to this Honorable Commission that consistent with ERC Resolution 19 Series of 2009 as amended, adopting the Rules for the Automatic Recovery of Monthly Fuel and Purchased Power Costs and Foreign Exchange-Related Costs by the National Power Corp., and Section 4 [e], Rule 3 of

the implementing Rules and Regulations of Epira [Electric Power Industry Reform Act], the following total TAFPPC per grid and corresponding True-up Adjustment rates with one-year refund period for the Luzon and Mindanao grids and one-year recovery period for the Visayas grid covering the test period from January 2016 to December 2016 be approved,” PSALM’s application read.

PSALM explained that such application for true-up adjustments is being sought to allow it to recover or refund the difference between the actual allowable costs incurred for a certain period and actual revenues generated.

For the fuel and purchased power cost, the application covers the costs incurred and revenues generated by PSALM from the

Malaya Thermal Power Plant in Luzon; Unified Leyte Plants in the Visayas; Power Barge 104 and Southern Philippines Power Corp.’s 55-megawatt plant in Mindanao.

For foreign-exchange related costs, these are computed based on the differ-

ence between the principal debt payments made during the test period converted into Philippine peso using the actual exchange rate as of payment date and using the ERC-approved base foreign exchange of P44.0494 to a dollar.

It is most respectfully prayed to this Honorable Commission that consistent with ERC Resolution No. 19 Series of 2009m as amended, adopting the Rules for the Automatic Recovery of Monthly Fuel and Purchased Power Costs and Foreign Exchange-Related Costs by the National Power Corp., and Section 4 [e], Rule 3 of the implementing Rules and Regulations of Epira [Electric Power Industry Reform Act], the following total TAFPPC per grid and corresponding true-up adjustment rates with one-year refund period for the Luzon and Mindanao grids and one-year recovery period for the Visayas grid covering the test period January 2016 to December 2016 be approved.”—PSALM

Skyway Stage 3 project 28.7% complete, operational in 3 years

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Group work

A group of workers from the Department of Public Works and Highways take advantage of the fair weather, amid the rainy season to rush the maintenance work of one of the major roads leading to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Nonoy Lacza

PSA cites role of nonfinancial corporations in GDP growth

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ompanies engaged in the production of various market goods account for over half of the Philippine economy in 2016, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The PSA said nonfinancial corporations are composed of firms that process foods and other commodities. This also includes manufacturing, mining and firms engaged in construction, such as those in cement production.

Based on GDP in current prices, nonfinancial corporations made up 50.7 percent of the 8.7-percent growth last year. GDP in current prices calculates GDP data based on prevailing costs.

“This report came from the Consolidated Accounts and Income and Outlay Accounts compiled by the PSA annually. The Consolidated Accounts present a summary of transactions and relationships among the various flows of the economy at current prices,” the PSA said.

This was followed by households, including nonprofit institutions serving households (NPISH) at 34.7 percent; financial corporations at 7.9 percent; and general government at 6.6 percent.

In terms of savings, total savings in 2016 was recorded at P3.9 trillion. This is higher by 7.5 percent as compared with 2015.

Savings, the PSA explained, was derived as total income (receipts) less total use of income (disbursements) and can be represented for each institutional sector.

The highest share was also accounted for by nonfinancial corporations at 56.9 percent.

Meanwhile, based on the data, the country’s net national disposable income amounted to P16.2 trillion in 2016, an increase of 8.4 percent from 2015.

This was accounted for by household final consumption expenditure and government final consumption expenditure, which reached P10.7 trillion and P1.6 trillion, respectively.

The consolidated accounts included four accounts of the economy which dwell on production, consumption, income, gross accumulation and economic transactions with the rest of the world.

The income and outlay accounts are compiled for the four institutional sectors, namely, nonfinancial corporations, financial corporations, general government and households, including NPISH. In 2016 PSA data showed that the economy grew 6.9 percent using constant GDP terms. Constant GDP is based on price calculations in the value for a particular base year. The National Economic and Development Authority attributed the country’s economic growth to the government’s construction spending in the fourth quarter.

Private consumption, meanwhile, slowed to 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter 2016, from 6.5 percent in the same period in 2015. But its full-year growth remained robust at 6.9 percent, higher than 6.3 percent in 2015. Cai U. Ordinario

aving been delayed for two years from the original target completion target of January 2018 due to the slow delivery of right of way (ROW), the third portion of the Metro Manila Skyway is now about a third complete, data from the Public-Private Partnership Center showed.

As of June, the Skyway Stage 3, which costs a whopping P37.43 billion, is only 28.7 percent complete.

It is expected to be commercially operational in three years’ time.

Construction of the 14.82-kilometer facility started in 2014, but the contractor Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp., a San Miguel Corp.backed company, encountered roadblocks in terms of ROW delivery.

It also had to go through a still un-

settled legal issue. San Miguel filed a criminal complaint for qualified theft against Indonesian businessman Shadik Wahono, a partner in the Citra Group.

Projected to open in 2020, the multi-billion project is divided into two phases which consists of Buendia to Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard, and Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard to Bonifacio Avenue in Balintawak.

Upon completion, the skyway will give accessibility, mobility, and connectivity in the metropolis through eight strategically-located interchanges: Buendia, President Quirino Avenue, Plaza Dilao and Nagtahan, Aurora Boulevard, E. Rodriguez Avenue, Quezon Avenue, Sgt. Rivera and Balintawak, having a total of 14 Toll Plazas. Charlotte Furigay

‘Start-up companies fuel growth of PHL’s collaborative economy’

By Cai U. Ordinario

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@cuo_bm

tart-up companies are driving the growth of collaborative economy in the country, according to the Philippine Institute for Development Statistics (PIDS).

The collaborative economy is an economic model that allows people to access certain goods and services without ownership, which augurs well for the needs of start-up firms.

Unfortunately, due to its novelty, state-owned PIDS said the social and economic impacts of the collaborative economy still cannot be measured.

“The Philippine government should, instead, reimagine its regulation mechanisms, making sure that the industries emerging from the collaborative economy are ‘daylighted and brought into legitimized transactional world’,” PIDS said in its latest Economic Issue of the Day. PIDS warned that if the Philippines fails to legitimize these transactions in the collaborative economy, operators will be forced to go underground.

This will lead to tax evasion,

which is one of the issues in the collaborative economy. The collaborative economy, which lack paper trails, makes it difficult for government to track their taxes.

Another issue is the employment the collaborative economy creates. Some workers’ services are not exclusive to one particular intermediary and makes it problematic to track.

Further, there are issues regarding the quality of service they provide, as well as the lack of accountability of service providers. “[The] collaborative economy is here to stay. As such, the Philippine government must analyze the policy environment on collaborative economy around the world to assess its social and economic impacts. The end goal, of course, is to lay down a set of clear and evidence-based policies and framework to maximize the fruits of this emerging economy for the benefit of the Filipino people,” PIDS said.

The collaborative economy, worldwide, is composed of four sectors—accommodation, transportation, online labor markets and finance.

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SUSTAINABLEEnvironment A BusinessMirror Special Feature

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Friday, June 30, 2017 A9

The future we want ‘W

By Leony R. Garcia

e can be the first generation that ends poverty and the last one that can take steps to avoid the worst effects of climate change”—Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General from 2007 to 2016, once said.

For many years, the international community has been looking for answers on how to create economic grow th in a socially just and environmentally safe way. On September 18, 2015, the United Nations ’s General A ssembly finally adopted the 2030 A gend a , an agreement of all 193 member states which includes 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 sub goals. It has been in effect since Januar y 1, 2016 and ser ves as a kind of instr uction manual for a better world.

In br ief, the goals are No pover ty, zero hunger, good health and well-being , quality education, gender equality, clean water and adequate sanitation, afford able and clean energ y, decent work and economic grow th, promotion of industr y and infrastr ucture, reduced income inequality among countr ies, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, providing action against climate change, protection of mar ine life, sus tainability of land resources,

keeping of peace and forg ing strong institutions, and maintenance of close global collaboration for the attainment of these goals.

With this agreement , the inter national community achieved something great: a plan for all people in all countr ies, aiming to create sus tainable development including all of its social, ecolo g ical an economic aspects.

People, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership The

A g e n d a —Tra n s fo r m i n g

our world: the 2030 Agend a fo r S u s t a i n a b l e D e v e l o p m e n t— n a m e s f i v e d i m e n sions that need to be equally a d d re s s e d : t h e p e o p l e , t h e p l a n e t , p ro s p e r i t y a n d p e a c e and a global partnership (the f i v e Ps ) . T h e u l t i m a t e v i sion of the 2030 Agenda is a h e a l t hy m a n k i n d , l i v i n g i n a peaceful, fair society and a s o u n d e nv i ro n m e n t— e v e r y w h e re i n t h e w o r l d . Fo r t h e g o a l s t o b e re a c h e d , e v e r y o n e needs to do their part: gove r n m e n t s , t h e p r i v a t e s e c t o r, civil society and people, like you and me.

T he Philippines has incorporated in the cur r rent national development plan the attainment of five pr ior ity targets under the SDGs, the National Economic and Development Author ity (Ned a) said.

Among the 17 SDGs, the Philippines prioritizes goals such as pover ty reduction and social inclusion, environmental sustainability, climate change and disaster risk management, accountable, responsive and par ticipator y governance, fair and stable order based on international rule of law, and peace and security, according to Neda deputy direc-

tor general Rosemarie Edillon.

Many pr ivate cor porations and individuals in the Philippines has taken the lead towards this global cause. Globe Telecom, for one, has initiated Project 1 Phone (P1P) electronic waste rec ycling initiative which promotes proper disposal of broken and dis carded electr ical and electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets, computers, pr inters, among others and works on close collaboration with pr ivate cor porations on the adoption of the project .

With some projects which the company has star ted in 2003, Globe has moved beyond regulator y compliance and has created a culture of environmental activism in the entire value chain of the business.

Globe Br idg ing Communities, the company ’s cor porate social responsibility (CSR) pro gram to gether with its institutional par tners continue to work hand-in-hand in crafting the design of environmental advocac y pro grams such as the Cordillera C hallenge, Lifeboats and Lifelines, Ear th Hour and Ear th Day celebration, and Forest Building activities in Taguig , B en-

guet , B a t a n g a s , C e b u , B o h o l , Davao and L aguna. T hrough such volunteerism effor ts, Globe employees and stakeholders are also given an oppor tunity to have a first hand experience in protecting the environment.

Meanwhile, in the contex t of the Inter national Year of Sustainable Tour ism for Development 2017, the Philippines recently hosted the 6th United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNW TO) Inter national Conference on Tour ism Statistics with some 700 foreign and local delegates from over 60 countr ies tackling polic y initiatives on developing measurement and benchmarks for sustainable tour ism.

T he conference , held from J une 21 to 23, gathere d M inisters , S tat ist ic al C hie fs , Polic y ex p er t s and stat ist ic i ans de dic ate d to s u stain a ble development , env ironment and to ur ism h a s als o p ut the s p o tli g ht on the P hilip pines a s a s afe co untr y w i th to ur ism dest in at ions th at are s u staina ble s uch a s P uer to Pr inces a in Pal awan, Ta gay tay, B alesin I sl and in Q uez on Prov ince , among o thers .

NestlÉ Philippines joins Globe Telecom’s Project 1 Phone

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s part of its environmental sustainability program, Nestle’ Philippines has joined Globe Telecom’s Project 1 Phone (P1P) electronic waste recycling initiative which promotes proper disposal of broken and discarded electrical and electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets, computers, printers, among others.

Nestle and Globe signed a Memorandum of Agreement recently in response to the P1P campaign spearheaded by Globe Business among its corporate clients to encourage donations of individual and company e-waste.

Initially, Nestle agreed to distribute the Globe e-waste bins to each of its 20 sites across the

Philippines which include corporate offices factories, distribution centers, sales and service offices.

Globe Business Vice President Dion Asencio said that the main inspiration of the project is to find ways to do business beyond the usual operations. “We normally look at partnerships with other companies from a connectivity standpoint, what services we can provide from a technology point of view like how to bring the digital transformation into their organization. This is really different because this initiative stems from looking at what our purpose is --- which is making it possible for our enterprise customers to

go beyond business by being involved in corporate sustainability activities.”

“We want to improve the community where we operate. Managing waste - both solid waste and electronic waste - is a big concern for the company. I believe that this partnership with Globe is another big step towards our goal of creating a greener environment for the people,” said Nestle’ Philippines Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs.

P1P, the flagship conservation initiative of Globe, focuses on responsible e-waste recycling and recovery to ensure that harmful materials do not end up in landfills.

It also aims to promote sustainability by engaging various stakeholders, customers, partner corporations and the public to donate their e-waste for the conservation and protection of the environment. So far, from the 79,968.2 Kg of e-waste gathered when it was first launched in 2014, the amount increased to 124,572.19 Kg the following year. In 2016, through concerned individuals and 10 corporate partners, Globe has hauled a whopping 141,833.69 kilograms, which exceeds the year-end target of 120,000 kilograms.

All proceeds from recycling these electronic waste go to Globe Telecom´s

advocacy to bring 21st-century learning to students and teachers by building ICT classrooms nationwide and providing proper training through its Global Filipino Schools program.

In photo are (from left) Globe Business Vice President for Enterprise Sales Dion Asencio, Globe Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications Yoly Crisanto, Nestle’ Philippines Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs Ernie Mascenon and Nestle’ Philippines Technical Director Peter Winter sign the Memorandum of Agreement for Globe Telecom and Nestle’ Philippines’ Project 1 Phone partnership.

A10 Friday, June 30, 2017 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

The economic sweet spot is coming

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ou have probably been at a fine-dining restaurant and saw something particular noted on the menu. Perhaps for a main course, and most likely for their special dessert, it says: “This selection will take 20 minutes to prepare”.

Sometimes, maybe even often, you have to wait for something to “cook” to get the best outcome. That is why there are no five-star fast-food joints.

The Philippine economy has done well in the last decade in spite of internal and external conditions that could have derailed our economic growth. But after decades of economic stress and sometimes failure, we are all impatient for that time when we can look to the future with economic confidence and without hesitation.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released, this past April, its 2017 World Economic Outlook Database. This is presumably the best of the best when it comes to longer-range forecasts. It is true that the favorable outlooks for the major developed economies have often been off the mark. It is difficult to predict an economy when a nation’s central bank is manipulating everything, from interest rates to the amount of money in circulation. But for nations like the Philippines, they have a good track record.

Official government economic numbers are biased in that there are many ways to measure economic performance, and the method that makes a political administration look best is the one that is used.

The IMF does not have that problem.

Maybe the best is to measure “GDP based on purchasing-powerparity per-capita GDP in current international dollar”. That is a long way of saying “How much economic growth per person in terms of what we can buy”. Valuing it in international dollars also takes into account the appreciation/deprecation of the Philippine peso.

For the years 2004 through 2010, the average annual increase was 5.66 percent. This moved higher during 2010 to 2016 to 5.88 percent.

But the estimated average annual growth for the seven years, 2016 through 2022, is 6.95 percent.

While the politicians will take credit for this, the increasing economic growth has to do with the economic “sweet spot”. The sweet spot of growth is defined as the point when the size of the middle class is directly proportional to the rate of economic growth.

Hitting the sweet-spot level accelerates growth which, in turn, adds more people to the middle class.

The Philippines will reach that level in 2019, the same time as Vietnam will. Part of the reason is the median—same number above and below the middle—of age demographics. The age median in the US is 38 years. In Japan, it is 47. Interestingly, Thailand is at 37. But the Philippines’s median age today is 24. That will move beneficially higher between now and 2022 as more young Filipinos mature to an age that makes them more productive members of the economy.

By 2018 on a per-capita basis in Philippine pesos at current value, the IMF estimates growth at 8.27 percent. The Philippines had to wait 20 years—not 20 minutes—but finally, dessert is going to be served.

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Schrödinger’s barangay James Jimenez

spox

C

ontrary to the unfortunate interpretation adopted by some quarters, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is not urging postponement of the 2017 Barangay and Sanggunian Kabataan Elections (BSKE). Rather, the Comelec is seeking the earliest possible resolution to the question of whether the elections will be allowed, by Congress, to proceed as scheduled or not.

The Comelec has consistently adopted a neutral stance in the debate on whether the BSKE should be postponed. This reflects the institution’s role as enforcer of election laws—if an election is scheduled, it will be held; if Congress decides, as several bills currently pending in the House would have it do, to change the schedule, then the Comelec will comply.

However, speaking of the 2017 BSKE specifically, the inescapable

fact is that the Comelec is already on a trajectory that will lead to significant expenditures. It behooves the institution, therefore, to seek clarification from Congress on whether it ought to continue along this path and incur significant expenses or if it should abandon its preparations so that no money is spent for naught. This too, is consistent with the mandate of all government institutions to be faithful stewards of public treasure.

Some have helpfully offered what seems, at first glance, to be a middle way: Delay your preparations, they say. Slow it down. But what initially seems to be a reasonable compromise may no longer appear to be so ideal upon closer inspection.

To put it simply, delaying preparations while not correspondingly pushing back the date when those preparations are supposed to come to fruition only decreases the time for preparation. In other words, what you would have been able to do in four months, for instance, you will now have to do in three or two. This sort of cramming exacts a toll on the quality of the preparations and, ultimately, on the quality of the outcome you were preparing for.

How about a concrete example?

If the start of ballot printing is delayed, then there will be less time to complete the printing of the more than 77 million ballots that’s going to be needed. There will also be less time for quality control of those ballots, as well as for their packing and shipping. The whole thing becomes a rush job,

The President versus ‘fake news’, again

O

By Bret Stephens | New York Times

f those from whom little is expected, much is forgiven. And of those from whom much is expected, little is forgiven.

Such are the standards by which Donald J. Trump’s deliberate assaults on the news media need to be understood and feared.

I write this following Trump’s latest tirades against the Fourth Estate, including an early morning tweet on Tuesday denouncing “Fake News CNN” for having been “caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories”. That was followed 17 minutes later by a larger eruption, in which the president named NBC, CBS, ABC, The Washington Post and The New York Times as “all fake news!”

And in case the message didn’t penetrate, the deputy news secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, denounced the “constant barrage of fake news” from CNN and touted a video in which conservative provocateur James O’Keefe secretly filmed a CNN producer (responsible for health stories), suggesting that the network’s Russia coverage was ratings-driven.

“Whether it’s accurate or not, I don’t know,” Sanders added about the video, lest there be any doubt about the White House’s standards for accuracy.

CNN’s sin is to have published a story, based on anonymous sourcing, which alleged that New York financier and Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci had ties to a Russian investment fund supposedly under investigation by the Senate.

The story failed to undergo CNN’s usual vetting procedures and was later retracted. For good measure, the three journalists behind the story resigned, and the network apologized to Scaramucci, who was gracious in accepting it.

As for this White House, graciousness becomes it about as well as napalm becomes an igloo. And the president must have been relieved to have something to do with his thumbs other than twiddle them, as Mitch McConnell struggled to get a Republican majority for the Senate’s health bill.

Yet before dismissing Trump’s rants as evidence of his mental state, it’s worth taking them seriously as proof of political acumen.

On Monday Gallup released its latest annual survey on confidence in institutions: It found that confidence in the presidency had fallen since last summer to 32 percent, from 36 percent.

That may be bad news for Trump, but it compares well against the 24-percent confidence level in TV news and 27 percent in newspapers (although both are a bit up over a year ago). Among Republicans, just 14 percent of respondents had confidence in TV news, and just

12 percent in newspapers, but 60 percent had confidence in the presidency.

If nothing else, Trump has the bully’s cunning to pick on a target more unpopular than he is. And like a bully, he knows that his mark suffers the additional weakness of being susceptible to moral reproach.

Institutions with a conscience have a tendency to be weak. They set standards to which they are bound to fall short, and publicly hold themselves to account.

Preserving—even cultivating— a capacity for shame, they are easily shamed. The shameless, having none, are only too glad to participate in the shaming.

That’s why it was a mistake of CNN to let the three journalists—veteran reporter Thomas Frank and editors Lex Haris and Eric Lichtblau—responsible for the Scaramucci story go. The political success of Trump’s assault on the news depends on his conflation of mistakes with dishonesty, of fallibility with fakery.

Assuming no dishonesties were involved in CNN’s actions, cashiering the journalists does less to uphold the network’s reputation for probity than it does to advance Trump’s work. No news organization is going to pass an infallibility test, and advancing a perception that we should pass such a test merely sets us up for diminishing public regard. Journalistic honesty is better measured through corrections than dismissals.

and rush jobs are notoriously prone to errors and wastage. And so the question becomes: Why run this risk at all when legislators can say that the elections will absolutely push through just as easily as they can say that it definitely will not?

Think of all of this as a sealed box that only Congress can open.

Some believe that the box contains the promise of a renewed mandate for Barangay officials; the guarantee of a fresh opportunity for Filipinos to choose the leaders of their community. In that box as well, they say, rests the potential of a reformed Sangguniang Kabataan system. And, most impressively, that box supposedly contains a jewel—the first concrete antidynasty provision of law since the Constitution promised it more than 30 years ago. On the other hand, there are those who say that the box is Pandora’s, containing untold evils. And both sides can be pretty convincing.

But since the box is sealed, we don’t really know, do we? And so, like everyone else, we await Congress’s decision with bated breath.

That’s a lesson that bears repeating now, as the White House’s media-vilification strategy comes to resemble a war on truth itself. I’ve noted elsewhere that Trump’s notion of truth is whatever he can get away with, at any given moment, for any given purpose.

No serious news organization can stand for it, which is why this president and the news would be destined for an adversarial relationship even if their ideological leanings were more in sync. Call it the clash of epistemologies—truth as a construct of facts versus truth as a collection of wants and wishes. And never the twain shall meet.

In the meantime, the news media ought to take care not to underestimate the threat it faces from this White House. We have set ourselves up as guardians of truth, a hard job in any circumstance, made additionally difficult by our inevitable errors in judgment and reporting, by an earnestness often mistaken for arrogance, and by our conviction that we are owed answers to whatever questions we wish to ask.

On the other side is a president who believes in none of this; who commands a following that believes in none of it; and who knows the power of holding the media accountable to its stringent standards and holding himself accountable only to his own.

How do you shame the shameless? You can’t. But you can at least deny him the right to shame you.

Something to consider over at CNN.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Friday, June 30, 2017 A11

Put down the iPhone At my morning cafés and appreciate its genius

T

en years after the introduction of Apple Inc.’s iPhone, and the broader category of smartphones, it’s worth stepping back to see what we have learned. As with most major technological innovations, it’s brought a number of collateral surprises about the rest of our world.

First, we’ve learned that, even in this age of bits and bytes, materials innovation still matters. The iPhone is behind the scenes a triumph of mining science, with a wide variety of raw materials and about 34 billion kilograms (75 billion pounds) of mined rock as an input to date, as discussed by Brian Merchant in his new and excellent book The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone. A single iPhone has behind it the production of 34 kilos of gold ore, with 20.5 grams (0.72 ounces) of cyanide used to extract the most valuable parts of the gold.

Especially impressive as a material is the smooth touch screen, and the user’s ability to make things happen by sliding, swiping, zooming and pinching it—the “multitouch” function. That advance relied upon particular materials, as the screen is chemically strengthened, made scrape-resistant and embedded with sensitive sensors. Multitouch wasn’t new, but Apple understood how to build it into a highly useful product.

I am notoriously bad with gadgets, and even my microwave oven confuses me. But I, more or less, figured out all the essential operations of an iPhone the very first day I got it. Without an instruction manual. Wasn’t it bold of Apple to sell it that way?

The iPhone also shows that China is a major innovator and has been for some time. Don’t be fooled by the common take that the US did all the creative design and concept work, and the factories of southern China simply perform assembly and lay on the finishing touches. The iPhone is possible only because China brought speed and scale to the production process in an unprecedented way. One of its innovations was building a technological and labor-market ecosystem where so many talented and hardworking engineers can be hired so quickly. If you don’t think that’s a major and novel accomplishment, try doing it in some other country.

For me, the most depressing lesson of the iPhone is that most people don’t care about the quality of their cultural inputs as much as I used to think. They do, however, care greatly about sharing culture with their friends (and strangers), and they value the convenience of consuming their culture, arguably to the point of addiction.

A few decades ago, who would

have thought that the world’s major technological innovation would lower the average sound quality of the music people listen to? Yet, that has been the result of smartphones, and plenty of listeners don’t even use earbuds. People don’t seem to mind the quality, because their phones make listening to music much more convenient. You can also share music more easily with friends, say by building a Spotify list or putting a song on your Facebook page.

How about watching a movie on a small (or, some would say, tiny) iPhone screen? A whole generation seems to think that’s fine, or maybe preferable. And to think I used to complain that even a large television couldn’t do justice to the works of such magisterial directors as Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky and Francis Ford Coppola. That now sounds like the rantings of an out of touch, bitter old man.

And so many people read not only best sellers but also literary classics on their iPhone screens, perhaps while riding the subway. No matter how you use your iPhone, waiting around just isn’t that bad any more.

The day the iPhone came out, June 29, 2007, I boasted to my wife that it would be one of the most important cultural events of our lifetimes, maybe the most important. I compared my purchase of one, which I wanted to justify, to going to see a Don Giovanni premiere in 1787. Perhaps I was right in my broader assessment, but I hadn’t realized that so many users would opt for a rather extreme bundle of convenience, sharing abilities and product quality degradations.

Finally, names can be deceiving.

The iPhone isn’t fundamentally a phone, even though Steve Jobs himself thought that phone service was the killer app for the product.

Instead, it’s an all-purpose communications device, music player, recorder, camera, map, adviser, software distributor and datingenabler rolled into one. When Siri gets better it will be a companion too. As iPhones and other smartphones became more widespread, the number of phone calls I received declined. No other device has done more to make the phone less necessary. I’ll get your text or e-mail right away.

Maybe that’s what I like about it most of all.

The Muggle problem

By Ross Douthat New York Times

T

Tito Genova Valiente

By Tyler Cowen | Bloomberg View

his week we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Potter novel, and the beginning— in Britain, at least; the first volume’s publication in America came a little later—of a cultural juggernaut that defined a generation’s experience with books.

It is a timely anniversary, since if you believe what you read on social media, the Potterverse has never been more relevant. As Western politics has become more extreme and a generation raised on Hogwarts more politically engaged, the Potter novels have been embraced ever more fervently as political allegories and moral manuals for our times.

As I write this, The Telegraph of London has just informed its readers that a poll reveals that Jeremy Corbyn belongs in Gryffindor, while Theresa May should be in Slytherin—respectively, the bravest and most sinister of houses on the Hogwarts campus. Hillary Clinton has just given a speech praising the Potter novels for instilling progressive values in the young. Meanwhile, the social-media celebrations of 20 years of Potter have temporarily crowded out the endless

liberal memes comparing Trump and his court to Voldemort and his Death Eater lackeys.

Writing for The Spectator recently, Lara Prendergast offered a good survey of the proliferation of Potterpolitics, from anti-Trump organizers invoking “Dumbledore’s Army” to J.K. Rowling’s Twitter interventions (“Voldemort was nowhere near as bad,” she wrote of Trump’s proposed Muslim ban) to Hermione Granger’s—sorry, Emma Watson’s—role as a roving ambassador for millennial feminism.

Prendergast also offered a harsh assessment of the trend: “If you have ever wondered why young people are often so childish in their politics, why they want to divide the world between tolerant progressives and wicked reactionaries, it helps to understand” that they think they’re living in a Potter novel.

Admittedly, if you think that the world really is divided between tolerant progressives and wicked reactionaries, you won’t find this assessment all that damning.

But I’m not sure that sort of Manichaean vision is actually the most important political teaching in the Potter novels. Because if you take the Potterverse seriously as an allegory for ours, the

annotations

‘H

ere are the bickerings of the inconsequential,/the chatterings of the ridiculous,/the iterations of the meaningless…”

Conrad Aiken is describing a time in one’s heart and imagination, a season spaced, but he might as well be describing the mornings at a café.

Each day, I share mornings with other people who love to fix their day with something bitter, with just a bit of sweetness for comfort.

There are three cafés I frequent: two are branches of a store noted for hamburgers and the other a café built, it seems, for quiet beginning of day.

There is not much expectation from the first two cafés. They are what you may call a fast-food enterprise. The actions there are brisk. No feelings are to be administered in the course of the delivery of services. You order and the coffee comes quick. But in life as in cafés, there are always exceptions. Just like in research and field observations, one can only describe the pattern that one needs to make the conclusion if one is able to spot the wayward, the deviant, the unexpected.

Indeed, and all this depends on one’s sense of levity for the day, in these two cafés, the exceptions are exceptional. The said two branches

have managers with different temperament. One is led by an efficient individual, so efficient he appears to keep to himself. This has an impact on his crew who are sufficient in their rigor. During one of the mornings, I had the luck to take out a P1,000 bill way before I could charm my way through a tired labor force. My Lord has given me sharp ears and I soon heard the words: Tell him, we do not have change for big amount.

I would have confronted him but a smile flashed across that young management face. What to call this morning, duplicitous?

There is no requirement for modifiers in the second café. The place is too noisy for words to be able to form in the ether. The managers in this café are chattering and shouting; the staff, aside from the loudest greetings for the day, scream at each other. The atmosphere is one of a factory. The guards are also multitasking. They

clean the table and call the attention of the crew, I can appreciate initiative but in this country, the security provided by guards has created a new genre of performances. Guards have become PR boys, doormen and even janitors.

The third café is one that I call a gift from the gods, if there are divinities tasked to make our daybreaks good. A wide wall of glass partitions the café from the street outside and the people that, for some reason, can ruin our day. The place seems meant for persons who are sophisticated enough to think that their day can be destroyed by the ill manners of other individuals.

Sartre inhabits this third café in the reverse. If the great philosopher introduced us to the reality of no exits, this café lives by the assurance that there are no entrances for rude people. But, exceptions, my dear, can be elementary.

One morning, a woman talked of mighty investments so loudly you

Catholic Church distributes donations to evacuation centers in Iligan

Through the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Iligan, we have distributed 40 pieces of water filters, 360 pieces of underwears and two boxes of assorted medicines.

The Archdiocese of Manila, through the Caritas Damayan Program of Caritas Manila, is committed to continue supporting the affected families in the evacuation centers.

Based from our team that is currently in the area, aside from food and clothing, the evacuees also need hygiene kits, towels, pillows,

blankets, folding beds and kitchenware, to ease the living condition of families in the camp sites. They also appeal for coloring, writing and art materials to help improve and ease the psychosocial conditions of the children traumatized by the firefight in Marawi City.

For its part, Caritas Manila, as the social services and development ministry of the Archdiocese of Manila, will send another P500,000 for purchase of rice, food and water. Earlier, we have sent

P500,000 and 100 cavans of rice as initial help to the residents affected by the crisis in Marawi City.

In this regard, we at Caritas Manila continue to appeal for cash as well as in-kind donations. Donations can be made online via http:// ushare.unionbankph.com/caritas/ or by bank deposit: n Banco de Oro — Sav ings Account No.: 5600-45905 n Bank of t he Phi l ippine Islands—Savings Account No.: 3063-5357-01 n Metrobank—Savings Account No.: 175-3-17506954-3

For dollar accounts: n Bank of the Philippine Islands —Savings Account No. 30640033-55 n Swift Code—BOPIPHMM n Philippine National Bank —Savings Account No. 10-856660002-5 n Swift Code—PNBMPHMM Donations can also be made via Cebuana Lhuillier (free of charge)

most noteworthy divide isn’t between the good multicultural wizards and the bad racist ones. It’s between all the wizards, good and bad, and everybody else—the Muggles.

For the six readers who have never read the Potter books but who have stuck with the column thus far nonetheless: Muggles are nonmagical folks, the billions of regular everyday human beings who live and work in blissful ignorance that the wizarding world exists. The only exception comes when one of them marries a wizard or has the genetic luck to give birth to a magic-capable child, in which case they get to watch their offspring ascend to one of the wizarding academies while they experience its raptures and revelations secondhand.

The proper treatment of Muggles, meanwhile, is the great controversy within the wizarding world, where the good guys want them protected, left alone and sometimes studied, while the bad guys want to see them subjugated or enslaved (and all the Muggle-born “mudbloods” purged from the wizarding ranks).

All of this plays as an allegory for racism, up to a point…but only up to a point, because what’s notable is that nobody actually wants to see the mass of

Muggles (as opposed to their occasional wizardish offspring) integrated into the wizarding society. Indeed, according to the rules of Rowling’s universe, that seems to be impossible. You’re either born with magic or you aren’t, and if you aren’t there’s really not any obvious place for you in Hogwarts or any other wizarding establishment.

So even from the perspective of the enlightened, progressive wizarding faction, then, Muggles are basically just a vast surplus population that occasionally produces the new blood that wizarding needs to avoid becoming just a society of snobbish old-money inbred Draco Malfoys. And if that were to change, if any old Muggle could suddenly be trained in magic, the whole thrill of Harry Potter’s acceptance at Hogwarts would lose its narrative frisson, its admission-to-theinner-circle thrill.

Which makes the thrill of becoming a magical initiate in the Potterverse remarkably similar to the thrill of being chosen by the modern meritocracy, plucked from the ordinary ranks of life and ushered into gothic halls and exclusive classrooms, where you will be sorted—though not by a magic hat, admittedly—according to your talents and your just deserts.

I am stealing this magic-and-meritocracy parallel from the pseudonymous blogger Spotted Toad, who wrote a fine post discussing how much the Potter novels and movies trade upon the powerful loyalty that their readers feel, or feel that they should feel, toward their teachers and their schools. But not just any school—not some suburban John Hughes-style high school or generic Podunk U. No, it’s loyalty to a selective school, with an antique pedigree but a modern claim to excellence, an exclusive admissions process but a pleasingly multicultural student body. A school where everybody knows that they belong, because they can do the necessary magic and ordinary Muggles can’t.

Thus the Potterverse, as Toad writes, is about “the legitimacy of authority that comes from schools”—Ivy League schools, elite schools, US News & World Report top 100 schools. And because “contemporary liberalism is the ideology of imperial academia, funneled through media and nonprofits and governmental agencies but responsible ultimately only to itself,” a story about a wizarding academy is the perfect fantasy story for the liberal meritocracy to tell about itself.

Especially because (unlike reality) it

Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

SERVANT LEADER

R

adio Veritas 846 and Caritas Manila lead the distribution of goods to the evacuation centers in Iligan City for residents of Marawi City fleeing the violence in the area.

could jot down the numbers as she rattled them off. At another table, a young girl was complaining about promotions to a companion who kept busy with her tiny salad. The other tables remained sacred, occupied they were by faces staring into the horizon. These are my coffeemates.

We pay for the pause, the meditation rising from the bitter, the sweet drink, the pretentious air even.

In the first two cafés, the music is vociferous, and the decibel threatens to be violent.

One morning, with a mist or “smog” outside, and just the right amount of dreariness in the sky visible from my chair, a rare music came soft and slow. It was an old Tango music. “Lejos de ti”. “Far away from you.” It says, “You have left me but your love stays inside me...”

I stared at my coffee, perfect with the toast and old melody, and I know there is God.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.

or dropped off at Caritas Manila, 2002 Jesus Street, Pandacan, Manila, or at Radio Veritas in West Avenue corner Edsa, Quezon City. For proper acknowledgment of your donations, kindly fax copy of deposit slip to (+632) 563-9306 or e-mail a scanned copy to caritas_manila@yahoo.com. Please indicate your name and complete address.

Caritas Damayan is one of the programs of Caritas Manila.

Through its Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Program, Caritas Manila has put in place a disaster-management program that allows for quick- response relief operation and effective crisis intervention.

writes the Muggles, the genuinely ordinary people, out of its political clashes and good-versus-evil conflicts. In the Potter novels the selective school is conterminous with wizarding society as a whole (allowing for some elves and goblins to do maintenance and keep the books), and thus, the threats to that world’s liberal integrity all come from within the academy’s walls, from Slytherin House and its arrogant aristocrats, who must be constantly confronted in the halls and classrooms of the beloved school itself. Voldemort, the dark lord, has Muggle blood, but he isn’t trying to rally an army of nonmagic-wielders to seize Hogwarts’s towers; he’s trying to remake meritocratic—er, magical—institutions in his own dark image. And so the battle for Harvard—er, Hogwarts— is the battle for the world.

Which is basically the premise of a great deal of youthful liberal activism these days—that once the last remnants of Slytherin are eradicated from the leafy quads of Yale or Middlebury, once Draco Malfoy’s frat or final club is closed and the last Death Eater sympathizers purged from the faculty, then the battle of ideas will have been finally and fully won.

To know more about Caritas Manila, visit www. caritasmanila.org.ph. For your donations, call our DonorCare lines 563-9311, 564-0205, 09997943455, 0905-4285001 and 0929-8343857. Make it a habit to listen to Radio Veritas 846 in the AM band, or through live streaming at www.veritas846.ph. For comments, e-mail veritas846pr@ gmail.com.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Friday, June 30, 2017

DOT gets Japanese cruise line interested in visiting PHL again

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

J

APAN Cruise Line Inc. (JCL) will be sending another group of Japanese tourists to several destinations in the Philippines in 2018, via its 700-passenger ship, the Pacific Venus.

“We are happy to announce that we will be deploying the Pacific Venus to the Philippines next year,” said Kenji Yoneda, senior managing director of JCL, in a meeting with Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo. “We hope to receive the usual support for the safe and enjoyable stay of our passengers,” he added.

The meeting took place in Osaka on the sidelines of the Philippine Business Mission (PBM) events in Japan from June 26 to 29, according to a statement from the Department of Tourism (DOT).

JCL is one of the midsize cruise lines in Japan, and specializes in the elderly or senior citizens market. The cruise line brought its passengers to Puerto Princesa and Manila in November 2015 and to Bohol, Boracay, Manila and the Hundred Islands in November 2016. It is the only cruise line that has brought predominantly

105

The projected international cruise calls to the Philippines this year Japanese passengers to the Philippines.

Teo thanked JCL for these cruise visits, and said, “We are confident that with JCL resuming its operations in the Philippines, visitor arrivals from Japan will notably increase to enable this source market to inevitably rise from its present top fourth rank.”

Under the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) of 2016-2022, the DOT is targeting to

increase visitor arrivals from Japan to some 1.37 million in 2022, from its goal of 618,436 arrivals in 2017. In the first four months of 2017, there were 211,123 visitor arrivals from Japan, up 15 percent from the same period last year.

The target for Japanese arrivals in 2022, accounts for 11.4 percent of the 12 million foreign visitor arrivals target in the last year of the Duterte administration.

Cruise tourism is one of the nine product portfolios identified in the NTDP aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the Philippines as a tourist destination in the Asia-Pacific region. The DOT also completed last year, its National Cruise Tourism Strategy and is participating in the Asean Cruise Brand, both of which will launch local and multicountry initiatives to boost cruise tourism arrivals in the Philippines and the region.

The DOT aims to increase port calls in the country to 402, with 456,164 passengers by 2022. The target markets for cruise passengers are China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia, according to the NTDP. The Philippines has received regular port calls from midsized cruise vessels of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd. (RCCL) and Star Cruises, as well as smaller expedition cruises from other international cruise companies, such as JCL. This October, RCCL’s Celebrity Cruises will make a

port call in Manila via its luxury passenger ship Celebrity Millennium, as part of the company’s 12-nights China and the Philippines cruise itinerary departing Shanghai and finally arriving in Hong Kong.

Data from the DOT show international cruise calls to the Philippines grew by some 28 percent to 72 port calls in 2016, from 56 calls in 2014. The DOT projects 105 port calls this year, with an estimated 122,000 cruise passengers, largely due to the 15-week cruise call of Star Cruises’s Superstar Virgo to Manila and Laoag from March 19 to May 29.

“I am confident that more international cruise operators will find our country lucrative as we go about implementing key measures, such as the development of port and shore-side infrastructure, facilitation of business entry and offering more exciting shore excursions, among others,” Teo stressed.

The DOT’s cruise-tourism strategy identified the “Turquoise Triangle”, which links the popular tourist destinations of Manila, Boracay in Aklan and Puerto Princesa in Palawan; and the “North Triangle” (Currimao/SalomagueCagayan-Batanes) as major destinations for cruise ships.

The NTDP also calls for the improvement of ports in Romblon, Coron, El Nido, Bohol, Leyte and Iloilo, and the upgrade of ferry services between Cebu and Bohol, Batangas-Mindoro and Misamis Oriental-Camiguin.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

‘POOR COUNTRIES MUST HAVE ACCESS TO NEW FARM TECHNOLOGY’

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

T

@jearcalas

he Philippines w ill urge members of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to help countries considered vulnerable to climate change achieve food security by giving them access to advanced farm technology.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol will make the appeal before the 194 membercountries of the FAO during its 40th conference in Rome, Italy, slated from July 3 to 9.

“In the country statement, which I will deliver during the conference, the Philippines will emphasize the importance of a concerted effort among nations to ensure food security amid the challenges of climate change,” Piñol said in a Facebook post on June 29.

“The Philippines will also call for greater cooperation among the advanced food-producing countries and the emerging food-production areas, like the Philippines, in the areas of technology transfer and sharing of best practices,” he added.

Days before the weeklong conference, the chief of the Department of Agriculture shared an excerpt of the statement that he will deliver during the meeting.

“The responsibility of feeding the growing population of the world must be a shared mission of all countries of the world and the old practice of keeping in exclusivity advanced technologies in food production must be abandoned,” said Piñol, who will chair the supreme governing body of the FAO. This is the first time that

750M The number of extremely poor people who worked in agriculture, according to FAO’s 2010 data

the Philippines will spearhead the biennial FAO Conference.

Piñol said he will also share the innovations being undertaken by the Philippines to address the negative effects of climate change to the country’s agriculture sector. “ T he Ph i l ip pi nes w i l l also share its innovations in disaster and climate-change preparedness, including the establishment of food storage and depots in identified high-risk areas, which could be marooned during major disasters,” he said.

“The program to repopulate the inland bodies of water to ease the pressure on the fishing grounds of the Philippines will also be shared during the conference,” Piñol added.

Piñol will attend the FAO conference together with Sen. Cynthia A. Villar and Rep. Jose T. Panganiban Jr., chairmen of the congressional committees on agriculture and food.

The FAO conference this year will review the current state of food and agriculture, with a focus on the ill effects of climate change on agriculture and food security.

One of the main documents that will be tackled during the conference, titled “The State of Food and Agriculture: Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security”, outlined the See “Poor countries,” A2

Duterte shutters GOCC to plug mounting losses

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

P

@alyasjah

resident Duterte has ordered the abolition of the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor), a government-owned and -controlled corporation (GOCC), after operating at a loss for the last five years.

Under Memorandum Order 13, Duterte has ended the operation of the 39-year-old Quedancor, saying the GOCC has exceeded the allowable outstanding guarantee under its charter.

T he re m a i n i n g a s s e t s of Quedancor will be liquidated to settle the outstanding liabilities of the corporation following applicable laws, rules and regulations. A technical-working group, composed of the departments of Agriculture, Finance and Budget and Management, including the Land Bank of the Philippines, will carry out the liquidation.

Affected officials and personnel will be compensated for their loss of job. This is aside from the retirement and separation benefits they will receive under existing laws.

Those in service for 20 years and below will receive their basic monthly pay multiplied by the number of years in service; for 20 years and one day up to 30 years will receive their basic monthly pay mul-

Memorandum Order 13 The directive to abolish Quedancor issued by the President tiplied by 1.25 percent multiplied by the number of years in service; and for 30 years and above will receive their basic monthly pay multiplied by 1.5 percent multiplied by the number of years in service.

Funding for the compensation will be sourced from the corporate funds of Quedancor. The budget department is also tasked to ensure there are sufficient funds for the compensation.

According to Duterte, Quedancor did not operate effectively compared to the Philippine ExportImport Agency, the Small Business Corp. and the Agricultural Guarantee Fund Pool.

Quedancor was created in 1978 pursuant to the Letter of Instruction 704, Series of 1978, issued by former President Ferdinand E. Marcos. It was mandated to establish a sustainable guarantee system toward improving access to credit in the agriculture sector and accelerating productivity and the flow of investments and credit resources.

ALLIES Foreign Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano (left) speaks as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi listens during a joint news conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing on Thursday. China’s foreign minister told his Philippine counterpart on Thursday that Beijing is ready to provide more aid to the Southeast Asian country, as ties between the former antagonists continue to improve. AP/Mark