BusinessMirror March 09, 2018

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A broader look at today’s business n Friday, March 9, 2018 Vol. 13 No. 149

Govt set to launch ‘JJJ’ to complement ‘BBB’ ‘JJJ’ T

By Cai U. Ordinario

Marketers urged to produce gutsy ads

@cuo_bm

o make sure the Duterte administration’s flagship projects under the “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) program will not be derailed due to manpower constraints, Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar said the government is embarking on a massive hiring program—especially for technical people—that will be called “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” (JJJ).

The “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” program that will start in May to enable the government to hire technical personnel, including 3,000 engineers

“We’re still working with the DOF [Department of Finance], we’re working with other agencies, the BBB team, in order to undertake Continued on A2

Continued on A12

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

A

LAMENTILLO: “We are also expecting the whole BBB program for this year to create 2 million jobs.”

@alyasjah

total of 2 million jobs will be generated by the Duterte administration’s infrastructure program—the “Build, Build, Build” (BBB)—this year, as the government moves to align its flagship campaign with the country’s employment-generation drive.

In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Anna Mae Y. Lamentillo, chairman of the Build, Build, Build program, said the government’s target is to employ 2 million people in different positions this year for the all-out implementation

of the infrastructure program.

Dubbed as the second phase of the BBB, the government intends to create more employment opportunities for the people with its “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” (JJJ).

“In the DPWH [Department of Public Works and Highways] alone, we already generated around 150,000 to 175,000 jobs.

Continued on A12

Con-com eyes academic qualifications for senators @BNicolasBM

I

S

U BIC B AY FR EEPORT— A nselmo R amos, one of the world’s most-awarded advertising creative directors today, told industry practitioners here at the Ad Summit Pilipinas 2018 to trust their intuition or gut feel in creating outstanding advertising campaigns.

Ramos, who is the creative wiz behind some of the most famous ad campaigns, like “Proud Whopper” for Burger King, “Pass the Heinz” for Heinz, and “Real Beauty Sketches” for Dove, was the keynote speaker at the opening of the country’s biggest advertising convention at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center on Thursday.

“Listen to your gut. Always start with your brand’s values, and then say it in the most compelling, gutsy

INFRA BINGE TO CREATE 2 MILLION JOBS THIS YEAR

f the members of President Duterte’s consultative committee (Con-com) would have their way, only Filipinos with at least a baccalaureate degree or its equivalent will be allowed to run for senator under the federal government.

In Thursday’s en banc executive session, the Con-com members also agreed that senators should be elected per region.

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Lawyer Susan Ubalde-Ordinario, chairman of Thursday’s executive session, said the agreement on the change in educational requirement was already as “good as passed,” although the committee is still to vote formally on Monday in its en banc session.

Under Section III, Article VI on the Legislative Department of the 1987 Constitution, no person shall be a senator unless he is a natural-born citizen of the See “Con-com,” A12

Stricter DOLE rules force nearly 1,000 contractors out of business

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

A

Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar (center) and BusinessMirror Publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon (right) sign a memorandum of agreement for Mission:PHL, the BusinessMirror’s Envoys & Expats Recognition Awards. Witnessing the MOA signing is D. Edgard A. Cabangon, chairman of the Aliw Media Group that includes the BusinessMirror, Philippines Graphic, Pilipino Mirror, DWIZ and CNN Philippines. The first of its kind in the country, Mission:PHL will be launched this March 22 at the City Garden Grand Hotel Makati. It shall give due recognition to embassies, consulates and aid agencies, as well as economic and cultural offices that have contributed to the country’s economic growth, social progress, peace, security and stability. Alysa Salen

PESO exchange rates n US 52.0290

lmost a year after the government implemented stricter rules on contractualization, close to 1,000 contractors are no longer operating because they failed to register with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Based on the latest report of the DOLE’s Bureau of Working Conditions (BWC), the number of contractors

registered with the DOLE is down to 4,623, from 5,581 in 2014.

Of the 4,623, around 3,200 of thirdparty service providers were able to register with the DOLE before its Department Order (DO) 174 took effect on April 4, 2017. Since DO 174 is not retroactive, these companies, which registered from January 2015 to April 3, 2017, will still enjoy the provisions of DO 18-A, including the three-year validity of their registration.

Continued on A2

n japan 0.4906 n UK 72.3567 n HK 6.6397 n CHINA 8.2317 n singapore 39.6019 n australia 40.7127 n EU 64.5888 n SAUDI arabia 13.8736

Source: BSP (8 March 2018 )

BMReports BusinessMirror

A2 Friday, March 9, 2018

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Govt set to launch ‘JJJ’ to complement ‘BBB’ Continued from A1

matching with jobs. We are already looking for people. We are recruiting and we are aggressive in recruitment. We will have the ‘Jobs, Jobs, Jobs’ program for matching,” Villar said at the BusinessMirror Coffee Club Forum on Thursday.

Villar revealed that the JJJ will cover Filipino professionals in the country and abroad, and recognized that the government would be competing with private employers— including salary-wise—to get the required number of skilled people to improve the implementing agencies’ absorptive capacity.

“The cost of labor will go up… but many will be coming back from overseas. Before, I was in housing [sector], and our engineers were

going abroad. Most of them are still abroad. But, if the salary here would be competitive, even if not as high, they will come back. That will become the dynamic,” he added.

Anna Mae Y. Lamentillo, chairman of the BBB program, said the JJJ will be officially launched in May. The program will be undertaken by the DPWH with the DOF and other key agencies.

Villar noted the JJJ program is important, as it would address recruitment problems like where the Filipinos abroad, especially the engineers, would apply should they decide to participate in the BBB. Being able to attract returning OFWs augurs well for the quality of BBB projects, Villar said, noting

that major infrastructure undertakings abroad, particularly those in the Middle East, were mainly done by Filipinos.

“We have millions of workers who want to come back any time, and this will create jobs for them, actually.”

In the DPWH alone, Villar said they will be hiring 3,000 more engineers to implement the BBB. The agency is adding seven more lawyers in each regional office. There were only two lawyers per DPWH office and only 10,000 engineers in the agency nationwide.

With additional personnel, Villar said the DPWH aims to improve its absorptive capacity. However, he said the obligations rate of the agency shot up to 92 percent in

2017, despite having its largest budget in its history.

The DPWH, Villar added, is targeting to hit an obligations rate of at least 90 percent for 2018. However, Villar said the overall goal is to keep improving in terms of absorptive capacity and put a stop to underspending.

W h i l e t he go v e r n me nt i s opening its doors to more workers for the BBB, Villar said the Duterte administration is strict when it comes to project implementation, specifically the deliverables of contractors.

The government, he disclosed, is now in the process of blacklisting around five to 10 contractors per region that are underperforming, or have failed to deliver on the proj-

ects that were awarded to them.

He said these contractors are given a month to fix their existing contracts by catching up with their deliverables.

If they fail, the DPWH will automatically blacklist them, which is in accordance with the directives of the President.

“We want to see the projects finished immediately. We give them time to catch up with slippages. If there’s no viable reason for them, we have to cancel the projects. We have no choice, we have to award it to others who can do the job,” Villar said.

On Wednesday the National Economic and Development Authority Undersecretary for Planning and Policy Rosemarie G.

Edillon told the BusinessMirror that there are at least nine projects that will start in the second half of the year that can create more jobs for Filipinos.

However, Ed i l lon sa id t he Neda still needs to crunch the numbers before giving an estimate of how many jobs these projects will create.

Nonetheless, the earlier estimate of creating over a million jobs annually remains true for the administration.

In an interview, former Labor Undersecretary Rene Ofreneo said the BBB could help create more employment moving forward. He said the growth in public construction jobs may be due to faster release of funds for projects.

Stricter DOLE rules force nearly 1,000 contractors out of business Continued from A1

According to data from the DOLE, only 1,358 contractors have managed to comply with the requirements of DO 174 as of March. Their registration is valid for only two years.

Philippine Association of Legitimate Service Contractors (Palscon) National President Rhoda Caliwara attributed the decline in the number of registered contractors with the more costly requirements of DO 174.

She said many of the third-party service providers could no longer afford the registration fee, which has been raised to P100,000, from P25,000, and the required capitalization, which has been increased to P5 million, from P3 million.

“The others were no longer able to renew their registration after being found to have committed [labor] violations when inspected [by the DOLE],” Caliwara told the BusinessMirror in a phone interview.

She said some of their 250 membercompanies were among those that were unable to register.

Aside from higher fees, DO 174 also

contained the list of prohibited forms of contractualization as part of the DOLE’s attempts to further weed out fly-bynight contractors.

“We implemented [DO 174] to ensure only legitimate contractors will be able to operate,” Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said.

Fewer hired While the decline in the number of operating contractors pales in comparison to the 11,000 that went out of business after DO 18-A was implemented in 2014, DO 174 was able to cut the number of workers hired during the period of its enforcement.

According to the preliminary report of the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE), the number of job placements nationwide at the Philippine Employment Service Offices (Peso) last year declined to 1.8 million, from 2 million in 2016.

No such trend was recorded in 2014 despite the implementation of DO 18-A. In fact, job placements in Pesos during the said year increased to 1.6 million, from 1.3 million in 2013.

Pesos are the job facilitating arm of local government units.

In Manila, Peso Officer in Charge Eileen C. Galang said the number of applicants they were able to place declined last year due to the DOLE’s stricter contractualization rules, as 80 percent of their participating employers are manpower agencies.

From 2,875 applicants in 2016, she said the number of their jobseekers hired through PESOs dropped to 2,469.

Galang said some participating manpower agencies were simply unable to renew their registration with the DOLE, while other became more selective in hiring applicants.

“In the past, once they interview a candidate, that candidate is already hired. Now, they implement additional steps like requiring candidates to go through another interview or take another exam or assessment at their office,” she said.

Galang added their client contractors are now “more picky ” in hiring applicants, since the DOLE now requires them to regularize their contractual employees.

“One employer used to hire 200 [workers] on a six-month basis. Now, employers would hire only about 100, but these workers have security of tenure, so it would actually be good for them in the long run,” Galang said.

The senior labor employment officer in Manila, however, admitted that some manpower agencies will approach the Peso for project-based work, which is still allowed by law.

‘Lucrative business’ L abor exper t and former DOLE Undersecretary Rene E. Ofreneo, however, cautioned against immediately attributing the changes in the labor force to the DOLE’s campaign against contractualization and DO 174.

He pointed out contractors generally only act as intermediary between employers and workers, thus usually have minimal impact on the number of employed workers.

“It doesn’t mean that if a contractor no longer operates, the principal which used to employ its services will no longer hire workers. It could do so through direct hiring,” Ofreneo said.

He added additional studies should still be conducted before the impact of DO 174 on the country’s workforce could be fully determined.

Based on the latest Integrated Survey on Labor and Employment (ISLE) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the number of “non-regular” workers in the country in 2016 fell by 8 percent to 1.1 million, from 1.3 million in 2014.

Non-regular workers is the collective term used by the PSA for casual workers, contractual/project-based workers, seasonal workers, probationary workers and apprentices.

The PSA is expected to come out with a new ISLE report, which is conducted every two years, on 2019.

Despite cutting down the number of registered contractors, organized labor are unsatisfied with DO 174, since its still allows contractualization.

Labor coalition Nagkaisa and militant labor Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) said the policy did not address the plight of the millions of contractual workers nationwide, who still suffer from inadequate, if not nonexistent basic labor and safety standards.

“DO 174, however, is no different from previous orders, which allow contractualization and give wide latitude to capitalists to subcontract and replace regular employees with contractual workers,” Nagkaisa Spokesman and Partido Manggagawa Chairman Renato Magtubo said in a previous statement.

Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), an affiliate group of Nagkaisa, said the DO 174 also failed to significantly cut down the number of licensed contractors.

“We do not call it successful. It should only be around 1,500. The big number of labor contractors suggests that labor contracting remains a lucrative business,” ALU-TUCP Spokesman Alan Tanjusay said.

Labor Undersecretary Joel B. Maglunsod said the DOLE is still in the process of reviewing the implementation of DO 174 to determine how they could improve its provisions.

“We would like to know why workers have the impression that nothing has changed even when we have already implemented DO 174,” Maglunsod said.

While Nagkaisa and KMU commended the current administration of the DOLE for the regularization of over 75,000 contractual workers, they said this will be for naught if contractualization is still the norm.

Concerns over new EO Nagkaisa and the KMU are now pushing for the signing of a new executive order (EO), which will ban contractualization except for occupations to be determined by the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council.

Caliwara, however, expressed concern over the new EO, which she said may reduce the competitiveness of local businesses.

“This will limit the flexibility for businesses and may cause them to downscale their operations...in some cases, this may even cause them to relocate their business in other countries or encourage them to pursue automation,” Caliwara said.

Instead of issuing an EO, Palscon urged the DOLE to address the issues on its campaign against contractualization, particularly its quota of contractual workers, which should be regularized by its labor inspectors.

Caliwara said the DOLE should see to it that the reports of its labor inspectors on contractual workers would be accurate and would consider the inputs of management and workers.

Last year the DOLE was only able to regularize 75,413 of its 180,000 target contractual workers. For 2018 it is targeting to regularize 300,000 contractual workers.

President Duterte is expected to decide on the appeal of labor groups about the new EO on contractualization during his next meeting with them later this month.

Maglunsod assured the government will consider the position of all stakeholders before it decides on the EO and other future policies on contractualization. But he noted they will not hesitate to impose additional restriction for contractualization if necessary.

The Nation BusinessMirror

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Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Friday, March 9, 2018 A3

House panel finds probable cause to impeach CJ Sereno

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

A

@joveemarie

fter 18 hearings, the House Committee on Justice on Thursday found probable cause to impeach Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno.

Voting 38-2, members of the justice committee voted that there is probable cause in the impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Larry Gadon against Sereno.

The impeachment complaint filed

by Gadon contains four grounds including corruption, culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust and other high crimes.

The complaint also alleged 27 acts constituting the offenses charged against the Chief Justice.

Rep. Reynaldo V. Umali of the Second District of Oriental Mindoro, committee chairman, said his panel will approve on March 14 the committee report and the articles of impeachment.

The committee has created a technical working group to prepare the committee report and the articles of impeachment that will be headed by five vice chairmen of the justice panel. The committee report and the articles of impeachment are also expected to be submitted to the plenary on March 14.

“ T hroughout t he probable cause hearings, this committee has gathered sufficient evidence to provide us with the ammunition to prosecute this case toward victory,” Umali said.

With this, Umali added, his panel recorded “another milestone” for the first conduct of a full cycle of impeachment proceedings from filing and referral, to determination of form, substance, and grounds, and the determination of probable cause. “[All members of the Judiciary] must be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity and independence,” he said.

“Failure to live up to the foregoing standard impairs the ability of the Chief Justice to dispense justice. In fact, as the highest magistrate of the land, she must be held to a much higher, if not highest standard,” Umali added.

Meanwhile, the justice committee also approved the declassification of information on the results

of Sereno’s psychiatric evaluation, which she got a score of four with five as the lowest.

Gadon said Sereno got a 4 out of 5 grade in her exam, saying “an applicant to any position in the Judiciary with a grade of 4 is unfit for the job.”

Umali also said the psychological evaluation of Sereno could be used as evidence before the Senate impeachment court.

“We should declassify it so we could use it probably as part of evidence,” Umali said.

Last Tuesday the leadership of the House of Representatives said it will wait first for the Supreme Court ruling on the removal petition against Sereno through quo warranto petition before the plenary voting on the articles of impeachment.

Merciless

PARTY-LIST Rep. Tom S. Villarin of Akbayan, meanwhile, described the move of the justice committee to impeach Sereno as “merciless coup de grace.”

“It was a merciless coup de grace

against CJ Sereno on international women’s day at that. But, despite this outcome, she remains steadfast in defining this fight as that for truth and independence of the Judiciary. Her fight is not lost upon us, as this move will create a backlash against the Duterte administration for bringing to trial a Chief Justice who stood up against a bloody war on drugs, violations of the rule of law and misogyny,” he said.

“With her impending impeachment trial in the Senate, the public will now know how the administration used power to crucify those who stand for truth. It will be a monumental meltdown of the House when trial begins as no impeachable offenses have been committed by CJ Sereno, only lapses in character despised by other justices and demonized by this administration,” Villarin added.

For its part, the Makabayan bloc of the lower chamber said there is no probable cause to impeach Sereno.

The bloc added that after several months of hearing, Gadon’s im-

Throughout the probable cause hearings, this committee has gathered sufficient evidence to provide us with the ammunition to prosecute this case toward victory.”­

—Umali

peachment complaint has proven nothing that rises to the level of impeachable offense.

“Contrary to the position taken by the majority members of the Committee on Justice, the Gadon impeachment complaint failed to show probable cause that CJ Sereno committed any impeachable offense,” the Makabayan said in a news statement.

“In fact, the grounds for impeachment were not even deliberated upon. The committee went straight to voting whether or not there was probable cause, without enumerating the grounds for impeachment,” it added.

Members of the bloc include representatives from the party-lists Bayan Muna, Act Teachers, Kabataan, Gabriela and Anakpawis.

The group also said the voting proceeding was highly irregular.

“The members of the committee voted as to the existence of probable cause without knowing or informing the public, especially the respondent CJ Sereno, as to which ground for impeachment such probable cause exists. This move is unprecedented; even during the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and former Chief Justice [Renato C.] Corona, the committee enumerated the grounds for impeachment for which the committee found probable cause prior to taking a vote, since not all of the grounds alleged in the impeachment complaint satisfied the probable cause standard in these past cases,” it said.

“It is unfortunate that, instead of substantiating the allegations in the impeachment complaint, the committee proceedings became a platform to expose the internal bickering and personal issues of the members of a coequal branch of government. Exposing these to the public only resulted in putting more questions to the integrity and independence of the Judiciary—which, to many people is in fact illusory,” it added.

According to the Makabayan bloc, the proceedings, likewise, became a venue for fishing expedition.

“At the beginning of the proceedings, complainant had been admonished quite frequently to present evidence that are not hearsay and are material to the allegations. But, despite such order from the committee, the complainant failed to produce evidence sufficient to hurdle the probable cause standard,” it said.

“Toward the end of the committee proceedings, it becomes apparent that complainant himself does not believe in his impeachment complaint. Complainant even called for the CJ to resign instead, and threatened court employees with graft cases. Complainant just last week said he preferred that CJ Sereno be ousted through quo warranto process. These pronouncements betray complainant’s belief as to the weakness and baselessness of the impeachment case that he filed,” the bloc said.

Economy

A4 Friday, March 9, 2018 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

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Wanted: More skilled workers ahead of ‘BBB’ implementation

T

By Samuel P. Medenilla

@sam_medenilla

he Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) aims to find more skilled workers for the construction sector in the coming months to sustain local employment growth.

In a text message, Dominique Tutay DOLE Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) director, said the government seeks to maximize millions of employment opportunities expected to be generated by the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) program if it could address the labor shortage in the construction industry.

“The challenge for us is to build

more skills to be absorbed by the construction subsector and for skilled returning OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] to take on and fill in the tens of thousands job vacancies in the country,” Tutay said.

In the latest Labor Force Survey (LFS) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), employment grew to 94.7 percent from 93.4 percent.

The bulk of the additional jobs were

from the industry sector, particularly in the construction subsector.

“Net employment in industry sector is mainly driven by net employment increments in construction [434,000],” Tutay said.

The BLE estimates the country will need over a million workers in the construction sector, as the Duterte administration starts with its BBB infrastructure program in the coming months.

This growth maybe hampered if the country is unable to meet this demand, Tutay added.

She said they are now coordinating with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) to raise the number of its trainees in the field of construction.

Last month Tesda announced it is targeting to train 100,000 construction workers for the BBB. Currently, Tutay said, Tesda may

be unable to generate enough graduates from its technical and vocational and skills training (TVET) for the construction industry due to its low number of interested trainees.

“There are some trainees, who will not be able to avail [themselves] of the training even if it is free since they will have no money for transportation and food. That is why we advised Tesda to consider providing

a training allowance,” Tutay said.

She added they also urged Tesda to coordinate with the private sector to significantly help reduce the training period for its trainees before they could go to work.

“The problem is that even if the trainees go through Tesda, the training that they get is very basic from what companies are looking for,” Tutay stated.

The challenge for us is to build more skills to be absorbed by the construction subsector and for skilled returning OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] to take on and fill in the tens of thousands job vacancies in the country.”—Tutay

She said even if trainees complete the Tesda training, which usually lasts for three months, they would still be required to go through additional training by their employers.

The labor official said this will no longer be necessary once the skills of the trainees will finally match with the requirements of employers.

“In order for their education and training to adopt to the needs of industry, the DepEd [Department of Education], CHED [Commission on Higher Education] and Tesda need to coordinate in the industry and company level,” Tutay added.

She also earlier said they are now considering tapping some of the thousands of OFWs to help address the shortage in the construction industry.

The National Economic and Development Authority said the BBB will generate a million jobs for this year alone.

Norway, Switzerland see improved economic ties with PHL after FTA N

orway and Switzerland expect a boost in the economic relations with the Philippines after the Senate ratified the country’s freetrade agreement (FTA) with the European Free Trade Association (Efta).

Norwegian Ambassador Erik Førner and Swiss Ambassador Andrea Reichlin both welcomed this development from the Philippines.

Norway and Switzerland, along with Liechtenstein and Iceland, are member-states of Efta.

“This agreement is beneficial to both parties and will encourage and stimulate cross-border trade,” Førner said in a news statement issued on Thursday.

He said once the Philippines-Efta FTA enters into force, Norway would enhance trade in goods and services with the Asian country, as well as in areas of fisheries, seafaring, maritime transport, energy and financial services.

After the Senate’s ratification of the FTA on Monday, Swiss envoy Reichlin met with Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III on Tuesday, wherein she highlighted the benefits of having the free-trade deal.

“FTAs provide entrepreneurial incentives, as well as the highest political commitment to move forward in the best interest of respective citizens and in managing global commerce,” Reichlin said.

“FTAs achieve better results for our respective workplaces, our consumers and for the improvement of living standards than restrictive international collaboration,” the Swiss ambassador said.

In previous statements, the Department of Trade and Industry targets to double trade with the economic bloc two years after the implementation of the Philippines-Efta FTA. The four member-states only account for 1 percent of the country’s total trade.

The FTA will be in effect three months after the ratification of the Philippines and at least one of Efta states. Only Iceland has yet to ratify the freetrade deal.

The Philippines is Efta’s second country in Asean that it has an FTA with after Singapore.

It also has ongoing negotiations for an FTA in the region with Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, while talks with Thailand are currently on hold. PNA

Summer eyewear sale

A lady sidewalk vendor presents her summer eyewear collection to a customer in Quiapo, Manila. The onset of the dry season is expected to hike the demand for similar personal items for summer fun and play. NONIE REYES

Tesda enrolls 192,654 new TVET scholars

T

he Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) reported that a total of 192,654 enrollees were enlisted as new scholars during the two-day National Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Enrollment and Jobs Bridging conducted nationwide on February 27 and 28.

Tesda records showed that Region 3 reported the most number of enrollees with 27,248 registrants, followed by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, 22,324; Region 11, 18,732; Region 5, 18,575; Region 6, 17,812; Region 4A, 14,739; Region 10, 12,434; Region 12, 10,602; NCR, 10,553; Region 9, 10,146; Region 4B, 9,153; Region 7, 7,146; Cordillera Autonomous Region, 4,029; Caraga, 3,159; Region 8, 2,589; Region 2, 2,475; and, last, Region 1 with 938 registrants.

The top 5 in-demand courses for students were Driving NC II, Computer Systems Servicing NC II, Bread and Pastry Production NC II, Cookery NC II, and Dressmaking NC II. Tesda Director General Guiling A. Mamondiong said he is elated over the success of the enrolment program during the two-day event, which saw 2,906 job applicants hired “on the spot” among the 7,932 who applied for more than 80,000 jobs available.

To address ‘’job mismatch,’’ Mamondiong has encouraged the public to take up courses being offered by Tesda to learn new skills to increase their chances of landing a job.

“These days it’s not enough that you go to school. You need to have skills to avoid job mismatch, so that you can get a good job,” Mamondiong said.

The program aims to step up the advocacy of Tesda to promote and offer the programs of the agency here and abroad, and offer assistance to TVET graduates in search of employment.

The two-day activity was supported by local government units, regional offices of the Department of Labor and Employment, and Public Employment Service Offices.

Other groups that joined the event were various Tesda vocational institutions, Jollibee Corp., Toyota Motors Philippines, Ace Hardware and SM Supermarket.

Tesda used online facilities, such as Facebook Livestreaming, to promote the various programs of the agency. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Lawmaker pushes inventory of tourist island-destinations

S

en. Nancy S. Binay on Thursday proposed an inventory of all island destinations in the country to ensure they are ready to accept a big number of tourists before encouraging the latter to visit them.

In a news forum at the Senate, Binay said that, since tourism plans are already devolved to local government units, the national government should be ready to help them craft the needed plans or provide the needed facilities and infrastructure.

“Na-devolve na sa local government unit ang tourism plan. Meron ba silang development plan?

Kung wala, baka pwedeng pumasok ang national agency. Kung kulang din ’yung waste-water treatment facility, baka pwede ring tulungan sila ng national government [The tourism plan has already devolved to the local government unit. Do they have a development plan? If they don’t have any, the national agency can help them. And if they lack waste-water treatment facilities, perhaps the national government could assist them],” she said.

The senator made the proposal amid plans by the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the De-

partment of the Interior and Local Government to temporarily close Boracay to tourists to fix its worsening environmental woes.

In the meantime, the DOT will ask tourists to go to other destinations, such as Siargao, Camiguin, and Palawan.

“Kaya nga medyo kinukwestyon ko rin ang ginagawa ng DOT. Sinasabi na isasara ang Boracay, tapos ine-encourage nila na pumunta sa ibang isla. So baka naman lumilipat lang tayo ng problema. Baka ’yung ibang island, wala rin silang kakayahan to accept a big number of tourists, like Panglao na may problema rin sa STP [sewage-treatment plant]. El Nido parang meron na ring problema [That’s why I’m questioning what the DOT is doing. It is proposing the closure of Boracay but at the same time, it is encouraging tourists to go to other islands. So maybe we’re only diverting the problem. Maybe the other islands have no capacity to accept a big number of tourists, like Panglao, which has a problem with its STP. I think, El Nido, also has a problem],” Binay said.

She added she would file a resolution seeking the inventory of island destinations next week. PNA

Na-devolve na sa local government unit ang tourism plan. Meron ba silang development plan?

Kung wala, baka pwedeng pumasok ang national agency.

Kung kulang din ’yung waste-water treatment facility, baka pwede ring tulungan sila ng national government [The tourism plan has already devolved to the local government unit. Do they have a development plan? If they don’t have any, the national agency can help them.

And if they lack waste water treatment facilities, perhaps the national government could assist them].”—Binay

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

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Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Friday, March 9, 2018

A5

Farm-gate price of palay breaches ₧20/kg

T

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

he average farm-gate price of unmilled rice rose for the eighth straight week and breached P20 per kilogram for the first time in nearly three years, according to the latest data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In its weekly price monitoring report, the PSA said the average farm-gate price of palay as of the fourth week of February rose by 0.50 percent to P20.03 per kg, from the previous week’s quotation of P19.93 per kg.

“This was lower from its previous week’s markup of 1.53 percent,” the PSA said in the report published on February 8. “Relative to the previous year’s price of P18.47 per kg, it was higher by 8.45 percent.”

From February 21 to 27, the PSA said the highest average farm-gate price of paddy was recorded in Davao del Sur at P25 per kg. The lowest was recorded in

Agusan del Sur at P15 per kg.

According to data from the PSA, the last time the farm-gate price of paddy breached P20 per kg was in 2015, when the Philippines was hit by El Niño. That year, rice output declined by 4.31 percent to 18.14 million metric tons, from 18.96 MMT recorded in 2014.

Data from the PSA also showed the retail price of well-milled rice during the period rose to an eight-week high of P43.24 per kg. The price was 0.32 percent higher than the P43.10 per kg recorded last week and 3.87 percent more than the previous year’s P41.63 per kg.

“At the wholesale trade, the average

Artificial insemination can help improve goat breed–BAR

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technology widely used for cattle and swine can also help goat raisers improve the breed of their herd and double their income, according to the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR).

The BAR, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), said goat raisers could improve their herd’s breed through natural breeding by using artificial insemination (AI).

“AI is one of the best technologies being used today as an alternative to natural breeding. It is used to fast-track the dissemination of genetic materials from quality breeders to improve the blood composition of farm animals,” the BAR said in a statement. “Although AI is more widely used for cattle and swine, it has promise for goat breeding.”

The BAR said goat raisers do not adopt AI due to unavailability of processed semen; lack of trained inseminators; and absence of a viable industry to support the commercialization of the technology.

“To address these constraints, the Cagayan Valley Small Ruminants Research Center (CVSRRC) of the Isabela State University implemented a project in 2012, titled ‘Commercialization and Institutionalization of Artificial Insemination for Goats Delivery System in Cagayan Valley,’” it said.

“Funded by the BAR, this initiative is headed by Dr. Jonathan Nayga of the CVSRRC with the main hope of upgrading local stocks that would make the technology accessible to target clients.

Specifically, the project aims to increase

the production of processed goat semen intended for AI and to train more technicians who will facilitate the delivery of insemination services to intended clients,” the BAR added.

The attached agency of the DA said more than 240 backyard raisers in 21 municipalities of Cagayan Valley have improved their stocks without even purchasing a breeder buck, six months after the implementation of the CVSRRC. The BAR added that the CVSRRC has trained a total of 67 AI service providers in Cagayan Valley and have conducted 1,211 inseminations to date.

“For this project, the ISU-AI Goat Semen Processing Laboratory was tapped for semen processing. Part of the project activities was the purchase of breeder bucks of pure breed to increase the production of processed frozen semen,” the BAR said.

“As part of the commercialization initiative, the laboratory at ISU is selling frozen semen of Boer, Anglo-Nubian and Toggenburg breeds to private raisers and commercial farms. Much of these genetic materials have already reached parts of Northern Luzon and even Central Visayas,” it added.

The BAR said the technicians are continuously providing insemination services to qualified does in the region.

“With this development, increase in goat population can be attained through AI provided that the goat raisers’ management also includes following protocols and standards on proper feeding and health management,” the agency said. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

Fruit mania grips speculators in China

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n just four hours this week, Chinese speculators traded as many apples as the country consumes in three months.

That’s about 60 billion of the Fuji variety, enough to keep the doctor away for a very, very long time.

In an extraordinary bout of trading on Tuesday, investors on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange bought and sold about 964,000 futures contracts. At 10 metric tons apiece and a price of about 7,200 yuan ($1,138) a ton, that’s almost $11 billion worth of apples.

Even in the febrile world of China’s commodity markets, where everything from steel to eggs change hands with an intensity that makes the world’s more established exchanges look docile, the explosion in apple volumes stands out. Each contract was held on average an estimated 16 minutes, compared with about 50 hours for the average crude-oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The world’s first apple futures started trading last December as a means for farmers to hedge output of the most popular fruit in the world’s biggest grower. After initial enthusiasm, volumes trailed off before picking up again in February, after

the end of the Lunar New Year.

Nobody answered calls to the press office of the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, and a spokesman for the bourse didn’t respond to a Wechat message.

Almost 545,000 apple contracts traded on Wednesday.

Wild fluctuations

“The contract is attracting lots of funds that are playing on uncertainties around the physical delivery of the apples,” said Gao Bin, an analyst at Shanghai SHZQ Futures Co. “Spot prices fluctuate wildly because fresh fruit are perishable and hard to preserve. We are also talking about the world’s biggest producing nation, which doesn’t have sufficient data about output.” Trading in commodities across the nation’s three main exchanges has exploded in recent years, with regulators repeatedly stepping in to quell fears of a bubble during particularly wild bouts of activity. Shortly after the launch of the apples contract, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said it would strengthen supervision of the futures and firmly fight against market manipulation. Bloomberg News

price of well-milled rice at P40.47 per kg posted an uptick of 0.35 percent from a week ago,” the PSA said.

“The rate was lower compared to the 0.90-percent increase in the previous week. Meanwhile, it recorded a 5.04-percent markup from previous year’s price of P38.53 per kg,” it added.

The retail price of regular-milled rice

also remained above the P39-per-kg price, posting an eight-week high quotation of P39.38, PSA data showed.

“At the retail trade, the average price of regular-milled rice at P39.38 per kg rose by 0.18 percent during the week, lower than the 0.46-percent markup recorded in the previous week. Relative to a yearago price of P37.10 per kg, it picked up

by 6.15 percent,” the PSA said.

At the wholesale level, the price of regular-milled rice pegged at P36.93 per kg inched up by 0.08 percent, from the previous week’s P36.90 per kg.

“It was lower than the 0.82-percent gain in the previous week,” the PSA said.

“Compared to the previous year’s level, it went up by 6.52 percent.”

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Friday, March 9, 2018

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Lyn Ressureccion | www.businessmirror.com.ph

‘Chosun’: N. Korea offers to halt ICBM program

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orth Korea has promised to halt the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), but said the pledge was dependent on “US attitude,” South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported on Thursday.

During their meeting with Kim Jong Un this week, South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s special envoys persuaded the North Korean leader to suspend and gradually discard its missile program, as well as release three United States citizens detained in the country, the paper said, citing multiple South Korean government sources.

Chosun, without citing anyone, said that conditions for pausing North Korea’s ICBM program include the establishment of US diplomatic relations and suspension of Washington’s deployment of strategic military assets in South Korea.

P yong yang has not yet confir med South Korean specia l envoy ’s accou nt t hat K im is w il ling to g ive up its nuclear weapons if the safet y of his reg ime is g uaranteed.

Moon on Wednesday tried to tamp down expectations for his planned summit with Kim Jong Un next month, even as US President Donald J. Trump said he’s open to talks.

Moon’s envoys are traveling to Washington on Thursday morning to brief the Trump administration on their talks in Pyongyang.

The US and North Korea have been at loggerheads since the Korean War ended without a peace treaty almost 65 years ago, and Kim’s government has repeatedly said nuclear weapons were necessary to deter any US-led military action.

Over the years, Kim’s father and grandfather have raised the prospect of abandoning its nuclearweapons program if the US gave up its hostile policies.

Kim’s currency reserves shrink

K im ’s e nt hu s i a s m for t a l k s on Nor t h K orea’s nuc lea r pro g ra m coi nc ides w it h a sh a r p d rop i n h i s n at ion’s fore ig n c u r renc y reser ves.

Sanctions that hur t Nor th Korea’s economy by l imit ing ex por ts in 2017 w il l this year drain its cash hoard enough to cr imp impor ts of essentia l products, according to analysts in South Korea.

A n add it ion a l r i sk for t he reg ime in P yong yang is a spi ke i n i n f l at ion , t he K orea I n st i t ut e for I nt e r n at io n a l E c o nom ic Pol ic y, ba sed i n Se jong sout h of Seou l, sa id in a repor t l a st mont h.

The view of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, is seen from the viewing deck of Namsan Tower or N. Seoul Tower in Seoul, South Korea. Bloomberg

Another research group in Sejong, the Korea Development Institute, warned of an economic downturn in North Korea.

The isolated nation has a history of dangling the prospect of a negotiated settlement on its nuclear arsenal, and then walking away after getting concessions.

This time Kim has agreed to

meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in for talks in the border village of Panmunjom, and Trump has signaled he’s open to discussions.

“If estimates on North Korea’s foreign-currency reserves are accurate, imports will drop in 2018 and lead to a decline in activity at private markets and in industrial

North Korea’s economy probably contracted 2 percent last year as economic sanctions took effect.”

—Kim Byung-yeon

production from the second half,” wrote Choi Jang-ho, a researcher at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.

“The disruption to imports of raw materials and crude oil will mean changes are inevitable for Kim Jong Un’s industrial policies.”

North Korea’s exports to China—its biggest trading partner— plunged 37 percent in 2017 while imports edged up by 4 percent, leaving a goods trade deficit of $1.7 billion, data compiled by South Korean agencies show.

Choi estimates that North Korea’s foreign currency reserves are only about $4 billion to $5 billion, compared with the South’s $395 billion.

W hile measures of P yongyang’s reserves are sketchy, its dollar holdings could dry up by around October if international sanctions continue, Kang Seokho, the chairman of South Korea’s parliamentary intelligence committee, said last month.

The relative stability of North Korea’s won and prices for goods at markets in the nation could change this year, according to Choi. Up until now, a flow of dollars held by the private sector flowed into the markets, he wrote.

North Korea is reported to offer halt to ICBM program.

Kim Byung-yeon, an economics professor at Seoul National University and author of Unveiling the North Korean Economy, estimates that foreign currencies held by North Korean authorities could be anywhere from $3 billion to $7 billion. He expects the holdings to be somewhere in the middle of the range.

“North Korea’s economy probably contracted 2 percent last year as economic sanctions took effect,” Kim said. “The drop in foreignexchange reserves will continue this year, although not as much as in 2017 as imports may decline along with exports.”

“Nor th Korean author ities may have been able to control prices for a short term, but they can’t do that forever, and prices of products affected by sanctions will start to move upward,” said Lim Kang-taeg, a researcher at another think tank, the Korea Institute for National Unification.

“Concerns over a military strike by the US and the pressure from economic sanctions are likely to be behind North Korea’s change of attitude.” Bloomberg News

UK, Saudi target £65B Japan’s econ faces headwinds after topping Q4 forecasts of mutual investment A

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he United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia agreed a goal of £65 billion ($90 billion) of mutual trade and investment in the coming years, with Prime Minister Theresa May’s office calling it a “vote of confidence” in the economy before Britain leaves the European Union.

The target was set at a meeting between May and Crow n Prince Mohammed bin Salman in London on Wednesday, the prime minister’s office said in an e-mailed statement.

The prince also met Queen Elizabeth II as he embarked on a three-day visit aimed at burnishing his overseas credentials as a leader in waiting. He will also travel on to meet President Donald J. Trump in Washington.

The prince, who announced plans for a rapid economic overhaul and oversaw a crackdown on corruption since his appointment in June, won praise from the British prime minister for his reform program, known as Vision 2030, in particular allowing women to drive and attend sporting events.

The program is “an ambitious blueprint for internal reform that aims to create a thriving economy and a vibrant society—conditions that we agree are essential to the kingdom’s long-term stability and success,” a spokesman for May said in the statement.

Aramco plan

M emor andums of Unde r standing for 14 trade deals are due to be signed during the visit, but British officials don’t expect a decision on who will host the initial public offering of state oil company Aramco.

London has been vying with New York for the listing, but an announcement is not imminent,

according to a person familiar with plans for the visit.

Britain is Saudi Arabia’s secondbiggest supplier of defense equipment and London-based based BAE Systems has been waiting for a follow-on order for the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet after the controversial Al-Yamamah sale of 72 of the warplanes in 2006.

A deal would boost UK industry as Britain tightens its own defense spending.

But the crown prince’s visit has also attracted protests against Britain’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia, as well as the ongoing war in neighboring Yemen. The Saudi military heads a coalition that’s been struggling for almost three years to regain control of Yemen from rebel fighters with ties to Iran. The conflict has created what United Nations officials have described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The UK shouldn’t be blinded by the charm offensive surrounding Prince Mohammed, the opposition Labour Party’s foreign affairs spokesman, Emily Thornberry, said on Wednesday in a Bloomberg TV interview.

He has questions to answer about Saudi involvement in the civil war in Yemen, funding for fighters in Syria and human rights at home, she said.

May raised concerns over the humanitarian situation in Yemen, and both leaders “agreed on the importance of full and unfettered humanitarian and commercial access, including through the ports, and that a political solution was ultimately the only way to end the conflict and humanitarian suffering,” according to the statement.

They also agreed to work together “to counter Iran’s destabilizing regional activity,” May’s office said. Bloomberg News

fter a run of smooth sailing, Japan faces choppier economic waters, including a stronger currency and the risk of a global trade war.

Japan’s economy grew a betterthan-expected 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter, but is now likely entering a soft patch, economists say, with a chance that the longest run of expansion in nearly three decades could end in the first quarter.

This would hurt the Bank of Japan, which has been making some progress toward 2-percent inf lation. “I think it’s likely we are going to see some deceleration in the pace of economic expansion,” said Takashi Shiono, an economist at Credit Suisse Group. “ Wa ges a ren’t r i si ng much, and that makes it unlikely households will step up spending. A strong yen is posing risks for cor porate profits and could cool sentiment among

companies and consumers.”

The Japanese economy has grown for eight straight quarters as global demand for exports fueled record corporate profits and rising business investment.

One red flag in recent data: Industrial production contracted 6.6 percent in January, from a month earlier.

That was the big gest drop since March 2011, when the nation was hit by an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown.

Production is forecast to have rebounded sharply in February before falling again in March.

R e t a i l s a l e s a l s o fe l l 1. 8 p e rc e nt i n Ja nu a r y, f rom a month earlier, as Japan suffered through a particularly cold start to the year. In addition, a buildup in inventories during the fourth quarter, one reason for a bigger-than-expected revision to growth, could reverse to weigh on first-quarter results.

“Electronic-parts inventories are building up and, if you consider an upward revision of inventories from a macroeconomic perspective, it’s not a great move,” said Hiroaki Muto, chief economist at Tokai Tokyo Research Center. “So I don’t think we can be too happy.”

To be su re, econom i st s re m a i n posit ive about t he longer - ter m out look . “ There’s no change to the fact that we’re seeing fairly stable growth,” Atsushi Takeda, an economist at Itochu Cor p. in Tokyo. “In the long term the fundamentals are still firm.”

More than a slowdown in trade, an appreciation of the yen is the “real risk” to economic growth that would weigh on corporate profits and wages, Muto said.

T he yen has streng thened more United States dollar since the start of the year. Corporate profit growth had already been

slowing, rising only 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter, the lowest rate since the second quarter of 2016.

“Considering the first quarter this year, given how the yen is strengthening, it’s hard to see a continuation of the picture of manufacturers leading record profits, and we’re already seeing the beginning of a stumble in the fourth-quarter data,” said Yasunari Ueno, chief market economist at Mizuho Securities.

GDP ex panded an annua lized 1.6 percent (estimate 1.0 percent) in the fourth quarter.

That compares with a preliminary reading of 0.5 percent.

Business spending rose 1 percent (estimate 1.3 percent), from the previous quarter. The preliminary reading was 0.7 percent.

Private consumption increased 0.5 percent (estimate 0.5 percent), versus a preliminary reading of 0.5 percent. Bloomberg News

U.K. police: Russian ex-spy attacked with nerve agent

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ONDON—A Russian ex-spy and his daughter fighting for their lives in an English hospital were attacked with a nerve agent in a targeted murder attempt, British police said on Wednesday.

The case has further strained relations between Russia and Britain, which has said it will respond strongly if the Russian government is linked to the attack.

It has overtones of a 2006 fatal attack on a former Russian spy that was blamed on the Kremlin.

In that incident, a radioactive poison was used. The choice of a nerve agent in the latest case follows the use of the banned nerve agent VX to kill the estranged halfbrother of North Korea’s leader last year.

Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench in the southwestern English city of Salisbury last Sunday, triggering a police investigation led by counter terrorism detec tives. Baffled

police initially said the pair had come into contact with an unknown substance.

“Having established that a ner ve agent is the cause of the symptoms, leading us to treat this as attempted murder, I can also confirm that we believe that the two people who became unwell were targeted specifically,” Metropolitan Po l i ce co u nte r te r ro r i s m c h i e f M a r k Rowley said.

Police said the two “remain in a critical condition in intensive care after being exposed to the substance.”

Police have declined to speculate on who might be behind the attack. The Russian government has denied any involvement in the attack on Skripal, a former Russian agent who had served jail time in his homeland for spying for Britain before being freed in a spy swap.

Rowley said a police officer who treated Skripal and his daughter at the scene was in serious condition. He did

not provide the officer’s name or specifics about his condition.

Rowley didn’t say what nerve agent was suspected in the attack. Nerve agents are chemicals that disrupt the messages sent by from the nerves to the body’s organs.

They can be administered in gas or liquid form, causing symptoms including vomiting, breathlessness, paralysis and often death. Officials have not offered a prognosis for Skripal and his daughter.

Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England, said there was a low risk to the public.

Police and forensics officers continued to scour several sites in and around Salisbur y on Wednesday. Police kept residents away from an Italian restaurant and a pub in the city, and cordoned off part of a business park about 14 kilometers away, near the ancient stone monument of Stonehenge.

Detectives appealed for information

from anyone who visited either the Zizzi restaurant or the Bishop’s Mill pub in Salisbury last Sunday.

Residents saw their usually placid town, famed for its 13th-century Gothic cathedral, turned into the center of a criminal probe with Cold War echoes.

With nerves still on edge, ambulances and emergency vehicles rushed to a building beside the Zizzi restaurant, which remains cordoned off.

Witness Toni Walker said emergency ser vices escor ted t wo women from the building. Police and ambulance services declined to comment, and it wasn’t immediately clear if the incident had anything to do with the ongoing investigation.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd chaired a meeting of the government’s emergency committee, known as Cobra, to discuss the investigation, which is now in the hands of counterterrorism police. AP

www.businessmirror.com.ph | Editor: Lyn Ressureccion

The World BusinessMirror

Friday, March 9, 2018

A7

Exemptions seen as way to handle tariff for US allies W

A SHINGTON—More than 100 Republican l aw m a k e r s i mplore d President Donald J. Trump to drop plans for stiff and sweeping steel and aluminum tariffs as the White House prepared to formalize the measures on Thursday afternoon.

Officials said late on Wednesday that the plan would initially exempt Canada and Mexico and could ultimately exclude other allies.

Peter Navarro, a top White House trade adviser, said on Wednesday night that the president would hold a signing ceremony on Thursday afternoon in the Oval Office. He said the tariffs would go into effect in 15 to 30 days.

“The proclamation will have a clause that does not impose these tariffs immediately on Canada and Mexico,” Navarro said in an interview on Fox Business Network.

A permanent exclusion will hinge on those countries’ agreeing to a “great” trade deal in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, he said. “ We’re going to open t his up for our a l l ies to just see if we can work through this problem,” Nava r ro added.

Trump has said the tariffs would apply to countries across the board and that any exemptions could

open a Pandora’s box of requests for special treatment.

That has prompted stiff blowback from trading partners, Republicans and the financial markets, which sank over fears that across-theboard tariffs would trigger retaliatory action that stunts the United States’s economic growth.

It also prompted the resignation of Trump’s top economic adviser, Gary D. Cohn, who had argued against broad tariffs and said on Tuesday that he would leave the White House in the coming weeks.

On Wednesday 107 Republican members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to the president expressing concern about broad tariffs and calling for him to focus any action on unfair trading partners, like China.

“We are committed to acting with you and our trading partners on meaningful and effective action,” the letter said. “But we urge you to reconsider the idea of broad tariffs to avoid unintended negative consequences.”

The administration began talking more openly on Wednesday about exemptions for countries that satisfy certain conditions, backing away from the bazooka-like approach Trump announced last Thursday in a hastily arranged meeting with steel

and aluminum executives.

In an interview on Wednesday afternoon with Fox Business, Wilbur Ross, the secretary of commerce, said countries would be exempted if it served US national security interests.

“It’s defined to include effect on employment. It’s defined to include effect on individual industries. It’s not the conventional definition of national security,” he said.

Trump appears to be taking advantage of the vacuum created by the resignation of Cohn, who was the plan’s loudest opponent, to push the tariffs through.

Cohn, who argued that tariffs would create a global trade war, found himself overshadowed by a group of more protectionist-minded advisers who have urged the president to follow through with the get-tough pledges he made during his campaign.

T hose adv isers have been in ascendance, including Navarro, a trade skeptic who had been sidelined by Cohn.

Navarro was recently promised a promotion and made the rounds last Sunday’s talk shows to promote Trump’s trade policy.

Ross succeeded in moving up last week’s announcement, over the objections of Cohn. Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative who has

pushed trading partners to accede to the country’s demands, has become a trusted adviser to the president.

That group has a much more binary view of trade, seeing it as a zero-sum game in which the United States is losing.

The advisers have pushed the president to withdraw from trade deals like North America Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) and to carry out the type of stiff tariffs that Trump seems poised to impose on steel and aluminum imports. They see the US’s ballooning trade deficit, which hit a nine-year high on Wednesday, as evidence that more needs to be done to put the country on the winning end of global trade.

The rise of the populist faction is already fanning fears on Wall Street and among foreign officials that Trump could start and escalate a global trade war or take a more combative stance toward trading partners and international groups like the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Foreign officials viewed Cohn as a reliable ally on global economic issues and as someone who could express their views to the president.

The prospect of tariffs has set off lobbying from governments around the world, who have tried to sway the administration with offers of friendship and threats of retaliation.

On Wednesday the European Union released a list of US-made goods it would penalize if the tariffs went through.

Many companies and unions, including the United Steelworkers, have pushed for Canada to be exempted from the plan. The country is the largest source of both steel and aluminum for the United States, and many companies have operations stretching across its border.

Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, has also urged Trump to proceed cautiously, particularly with regard to allies.

“Hopefully as the administration works their way through the application of these tariffs, they’ll look at targeted tariffs against the worst violators,” said Leo Gerard, president of United Steelworkers.

But others close to the administration pushed back against the idea of exclusions. Dan DiMicco, trade adviser to Trump during his campaign and a former executive at Nucor Corp., a steel firm, said he did not see recent comments about potential exclusions to be “an indication of some massive change in an approach to a fixed tariff across the board.”

“The one thing they have committed to is having an exclusion process for certain products,” DiMicco said.

“But there’s been nothing to indicate they’re backing away and going to be granting mass exclusions for countries.”

The United States plans to impose the tariffs by utilizing a littleused legal provision that allows the president to take action to defend national security. The administration argues that imports have degraded the industrial base necessary for the United States to make tanks, weapons and other military products.

But trade lawyers say that linking Canada and Mexico’s exemptions to Nafta, as the administration is doing, could ultimately open the United States up to more legal challenges at the WTO. If Canada and Mexico could be excused from the tariffs for reasons unrelated to national security, that brings the administration’s entire rationale into question. If the WTO rules against the United States, it is unclear whether the Trump administration would listen to the ruling, or move to leave the organization.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, speaking before Navarro made his comments sounded cautious about the possibility of an exemption. “We know from experience that we need to wait and see what this president will actually do,” Trudeau said in Toronto.

New York Times News Service

Banking&Finance

A8 Friday, March 9, 2018 • Editor: Jun B. Vallecera

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

IC seeks policy reforms to drive industry growth

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By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

he Insurance Commission (IC) is eyeing a number of reforms to further strengthen the country’s insurance industry, which include increased efforts on the sale of microinsurance products and a move to go digital to adapt to changing times.

Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa told the BusinessMirror that one aspect of the insurance industry that is seen driving its growth this year is the introduction of microinsurance products.

He said the sale of micro-preneed products is something the IC is pushing to astimulate the growth of microinsurance in the country, in particular, and the preneed sector, in general.

“We are going to push for that [micropreneed], we see that it can add to the good figures of the micro industry,” Funa said.

To enhance the growth of microinsurance in the country, the IC will launch a microinsurance-awareness campaign.

FINTQnologies Corp. (Fintq), PLDT’s financial-technology arm, is currently providing 1 million free microinsurance policies to unbanked and underserved Filipinos across the 42,000 barangays nationwide, in line with the government’s thrust of promoting inclusive growth in the country.

“We all need security and protection from uncertainties. With this affordable and accessible microinsurance policies under the KasamaK A microinsurance program, this will kick-start the massive nationwide financial-literacy campaign to educate millions of unbanked and

underserved Filipinos on the importance of being financially secured and insured,” said Lito Villanueva, Fintq managing director, and founder and lead convenor of KasamaKA. The country’s insurance penetration grew to 1.64 percent in 2017, from 1.61 percent in 2016. Insurance-penetration rate is the ratio of premiums over GDP. “We welcome KasamaKA as a national digital enabler toward achieving our goals to exponentially grow the country’s insurancepenetration rate to 4 percent by 2020, from 1.7 percent in 2017. This is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country,” Funa said.

The IC earlier reported continued growth in microinsurance in September 2017, when the industry expanded by 30 percent, primarily on the basis of premium sales generated from mutual benefit associations (MBAs).

Funa said the continued growth of the microinsurance segment, as measured by premium and contributions, amounted to P5.17 billion in the first nine months of 2017, representing growth of 30.06 percent compared to P3.97 billion in the same period in 2016.

The number of individuals covered by microinsurance as of end-September last

year increased by 21.66 percent to 32.03 million, from 26.33 million in the same period in 2016.

Forty-one entities are actively engaged in providing microinsurance products as of the third quarter of 2017, comprising of 21 MBAs, 11 life-insurance companies and nine nonlife-insurance companies.

In his speech during the IC’s 69th anniversary in January, Funa said the IC continuously seeks measures on how it can develop the insurance industry in the country, be it through improved service provisions or strengthened financial capacity for nsurance providers.

“Rest assured that though we have already come a long way, we continue to seek ways of improving our services in order to ensure the continued financial strength of our licensed providers and the protection of policy and plan holders,” he added.

T he insurance commissioner also pointed out that the agency recognizes the growth in the use of the Internet, electronic devices and social-media platforms, in which it tries to adjust policies accordingly for insurance companies to be able to adapt to the changes brought about by digital technology.

“The commission is keeping tabs with that growth and adjusting our policies accordingly,” he said.

In January this year, the IC issued an amending circular to the guidelines on electronic commerce of insurance products, providing further rules on the use of mobile application for the distribution of insurance products.

Circular Letter 2018-07 was issued in support of the framework supplements of the Guidelines on Electronic Commerce of Insurance Products issued by the IC in 2014. Under the circular letter, insurance companies may use mobile applications in the distribution of their insurance products provided that the use thereof had been pre-

viously approved by the IC. The commission had also acknowledged that local insurers have some of the highest capital requirements in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and agreed to reevaluate the mandate for the industry to observe a progressively higher minimum base.

This developed as some nonlife players petitioned the IC for a reduction in minimum capital, saying the mandate has rendered some of the businesses unviable.

An amendment to the Insurance Code allowing for a reduction in the net-worth requirement is reportedly included in the IC’s planned reforms.

In a separate event, Maxicare President and CEO Christian S. Argos expressed support for the IC and its planned reforms for the entire insurance industry, including the preneed and health maintenance organization (HMOs) sector.

“We don’t want to be in the same situation as the other preneed companies before that became unsustainable, this is a key component of our membership coming in, and IC setting standards for capitalization, accreditation, valuation, financial reporting standards, will increase transparency for the industry and increase the sustainability of the program, that will also increase efficiency and decrease cost for everyone in the long run. A very positive development,” Argos told the BusinessMirror.

In February the IC said it will push for a new law to further regulate HMOs operating in the country. The agency said it is planning to submit to Congress a draft bill this year, which will further help set the guidelines for HMOs operating in the country. The proposed bill will include regulations on capitalization and how to settle disputes among stakeholders of the organization, among others.

Sun Life of Canada (Philippines) Inc. CEO and Country Head Rizalina G. Mantaring told the BusinessMirror that the IC is very open in terms of soliciting suggestions and proposals from insurance industry players.

“The IC has actually been very open to suggestions from the industry. Quite a number of reforms have been implemented over the past years. A few others would help boost the growth of the industry, such allowing ‘know-your-client’ or KYC sessions to be done via video calls,” Mantaring said.

She explained that allowing KYC measures over the video-call platform will help insurance companies reach a bigger population, as it would facilitate selling via other distribution channels, such as online and affinity marketing.

Dr. Olaf Kliesow, president and CEO of Allianz PNB Life Insurance Inc., also pointed out that barriers or restrictions on bancassurance partnerships should also be removed to enable an open architecture for the bancassurance operating environment in the country.

“Shift to a fully open architecture for the bancassurance operating environment by removing the existing requirement that the insurer and the bank should belong to the same financial conglomerate before any bancassurance partnership may be entered into. This barrier restricts new partnerships with existing banks, which do not fall under the same-financial-conglomerate definition and those that may be forged from the liberalized entry of foreign banks,” Kliesow told the BusinessMirror.

He explained that variable life insurance contributed 74 percent of total life-insurance premiums generated in 2017, most of which came from bancassurance sales.

“The opportunity loss from this existing barrier to further expand premium generation capacity from the bancassurance setup is huge,” he added.

China seen releasing BIR files P133.84-M tax-evasion complaint vs Rappler Holdings T part of $7-billion loan commitment T he Department of Finance (DOF) disclosed on Thursday that a number of loan agreements with China to finance a number of infrastructure projects under the Duterte administration will be signed this year.

DOF Assistant Secretary Maria Edita Z. Tan told financial reporters the loan agreement for the P2.7-billion Chico River irrigation project will be signed in the second or third quarter of this year.

The DOF earlier said that China has identified the entities that will pursue the Chico River irrigation project to its full completion, as well as that of the Kaliwa Dam project.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said the first batch of projects under Chinese financing include the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project in Cagayan and Kalinga provinces, as well as the New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project in Rizal province.

The governments of the Philippines and China previously agreed to a “tied-loan” funding scheme, in which China will submit candidate bidders to the government in exchange for its financial support.

Tan said the Kaliwa Dam project, as well as the Philippine National Railways (PNR) South Long Haul Project financing agreements, will be signed either in the third or fourth quarter of this year,

with both projects falling under the first basket of infrastructure projects for Chinese financing.

The Chinese government has committed $7.34 billion (P376.09 billion) in soft loans and grants to the Philippines in a bid to accelerate the country’s infrastructure buildup.

The DOF’s International Finance Group (IFG) said China’s financial aid will be for 10 big-ticket projects and assistance in the rehabilitation of war-torn Marawi City.

Based on the DOF data, the loans committed by Beijing to Manila now total $7.19 billion (P368.4 billion) for projects in the infrastructure, energy and publicsafety sectors, while grants amounted to $148.22 million.

The DOF said the amounts are estimates only and that final figures will be known once these reach the loan-processing stage.

The IFG reported to the finance chief that the assumed loan amount pledged

by China account for 85 percent of the total cost for 10 infrastructure projects.

The project cost of the Chico River Pump Irrigation System is estimated at P2.7 billion, the new centennial water source, or the Kaliwa Dam, at P10.9 billion, and the PNR South Rail, which spans Metro Manila to the province of Bicol, at P151.3 billion. Rea Cu

Case clippings

By Justice S J Ranada Jr. LAND REGISTRATION–Basis for prescription Where the petitioner for registration of land did not present any evidence showing that the subject land was expressly declared as no longer intended for public service or the development of the national wealth, or that the property has been converted into patrimonial, there is a failure to prove acquisitive prescription had began to run against the State and that petitioner has acquired title by virtue thereof; thus the petition should be denied.

Republic v. Rovency GR 190817 10 Jan. 2018 Martirez, J

he Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has filed a criminal complaint against Rappler Holdings Corp. (RHC) on Thursday at the Department of Justice (DOJ) for willful attempt to evade or defeat tax and for deliberate failure to supply correct and accurate information in its annual income-tax return (ITR) and value-added tax (VAT) returns for taxable year 2015.

The BIR said it has filed at the DOJ a criminal complaint against RHC, together with its president, Maria A. Ressa and Treasurer James

C. Bitanga, for willful attempt to evade or defeat tax for taxable year 2015, which is in violation of the National Internal Revenue Code.

RHC, the owner of Rappler Inc., allegedly purchased common shares from Rappler Inc. on various dates amounting to P19.24 million. It engages in sale and purchase of real and personal properties, including shares of capital stocks, bonds or other securities and obligations.

The BIR said RHC subsequently issued and sold Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) on

various dates to two foreign juridical entities for P181.65 million, and it used the same common shares it bought from Rappler Inc. as the underlying share of the PDRs. The BIR said the purchase of the shares and the subsequent issuance of the PDRs for profit that transmitted economic rights derived from the equity of Rappler Inc. to the PDR holders is proof that RHC is engaged in the purchase of securities and resale thereof to customers.

“As dealer in securities, RHC is subject to income tax and VAT. Rea Cu

Board responsibility for strategy

M

ore and more these days are board of directors expected to be responsible for the success or failure of their companies. They are no longer seen as superannuated observers of the efforts of management to bring about profits and fight for competitive advantage. Directors are now expected to design the strategy for the benefit of their companies Last week I was fortunate to attend an ICD (Institute of Corporate Directors) seminar, entitled “Strategy Execution Pathway (StEP).” The three speakers for the program, Atty. Teddy Kalaw, Dr. Nick Fontanilla and Engr. Dante Briones, gave the participants a mind-boggling set of lectures that directors should take heed of.

The object of StEP is to enable directors to appreciate their role in strategy design and monitoring. They are expected to know how to prepare a strategy map, and in consequence, learn how to do a scorecard in relation to the decisions they make. Moreover, strategy monitoring and accountability are expected to be reviewed at every board meeting. It is important to see how the strategy designed had contributed to the company’s performance, and if not, would there be a need to review the strategy? Strategy is necessary to govern effectively.

Kalaw’s two presentations, “Creating Champions: the Role of the Board in Strategy Design and Execution,” and “Power of the Charter: From Vision Setting to Execution,” aimed to explain the concept of governance, its core principles and current fundamental best practices in the field to inform directors that corporate governance goes beyond conformance (as it was when the concept was first introduced as a compliance norm) but is, in fact, a journey to a company’s sustainable performance. Participants learned why strategy formulation and execution must be

FINEX free enterprise Mercedes B. Suleik understood as to how their organizations must first craft their values, mission and vision (VMV), and especially, nourish their firms’ core values so as to utilize these together with their mission, to achieve a challenging vision of where it wants to be at some future date. They would have to understand the concept of competitive strategy and the foundations for its execution. Their strategy must be aligned with the firm’s vision, and all officers and employees must likewise align themselves with the strategy crafted. Finally, the board has to keep score and communicate performance progress, to the company, to its officers and employees, to the regulators, and to the public.

Fontanilla noted that nine out of 10 companies had failed the test of strategy execution, informing that only 5 percent of employees understand the company strategy, that 60 percent of organizations do not link budget to strategy, only 25 percent of managers have incentives tied to strategy and executive teams spend only one hour monthly to discuss strategy. He gave a step-by-step way to translate the strategy: first, design the strategy map, reviewing the VMV and emphasizing that a good strategy map must have the following key features: It must tell a story, it must be inclusive (for those who govern and who are governed), it is process

driven, and it is balanced and interconnected.

Well-designed strategy drives execution, and provides the following interrelated perspectives: learning and growth (enabling individuals), internal process (to satisfy customers and stakeholders)—these two are the drivers to get to the outcome—namely, meeting customers’ needs, achieving financial objectives, and, finally, its impact on the society.

At the end of his talk, Fontanilla provided the components of the scorecard, namely: (1) articulation of the components of the strategy; (2) measures to drive behavioral changes and tracking progress to achieve the objective; and (3) checking initiatives that will help close the gap between current and desired performance.

The last speaker, Briones rounded up the day’s exercise by stressing the importance of strategy execution, understanding the development of the scorecard, stating the need to prioritize strategic objectives and appreciating the role of the board in strategy execution. He told participants to ask: What are you measuring, and what are you asking from management? He guided participants on how to choose measures by asking the following questions: Does the measure focus on the envisioned strategic shift? Does the measure belong at this level? Can the measure be quantified and repeated over time? can the measurement data be reliably gathered? Can meaningful targets be established to encourage the desired behavior? And, finally, is the frequency of update meaningful?

Altogether, the seminar was a highly educational exercise that board of directors would do well to put into practice. For indeed, their positive response and actions in regard to strategy execution spells the difference between a highly successful company or one that fall by the wayside. merci.suleik@gmail.com

The Regions BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Friday, March 9, 2018

A9

DOT launches domestic-tourism drive in Mindanao

By Manuel T. Cayon

B

@awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

ONGAO, Tawi-Tawi—The Department of Tourism (DOT) has launched an aggressive local tourism blitz, aside or away from the internationally known destinations in the country.

Dubbed “Go South,” Filipino travelers are being encouraged to tap and patronize world-class dest inat ions at home across Mindanao.

“Our mantra for the campaign is ‘You only live once.’” The government tourism campaign seeks to persuade Filipino travelers, especially millennials, “to embark on a new journey of new things and new experiences.”

In this campaign were new advertisement teasers like “Go Surf

in Siargao,” “Go Rafting in CDO,” “Go Dive in Talikud, Samal and Camiguin,” “Go Dive in Dipolog,” “Go Culture in Sox,” “Go Regatta in Zamboanga” and “Go Durian in Davao.”

“The ‘Go South Philippine Islands’ would also be the banner campaign to be adapted by the Go Mindanao Bus that would have a grand launch in May,” the DOT said.

In this launch, 30 buses would trek the road from the national

capital down south in Mindanao, bringing with them foreign tourists, social-media writers, foreign and local media, and tour operators.

However, some things still have to be ironed out here, following the environmental abuse by businesses in Boracay.

During the last two weeks in Siargao, the local government and environmentalists sought the assistance of the DOT to improve their waste disposal.

They have asked for at least a sanitary landfill to ensure a clear disposal destination of the wastes as the island surfing destination has begun teeming with people.

A BusinessMirror report cited a provincial tourism office monitoring indicating that visitors have reached 129,730 by last year, 35,000 of them are foreigners.

Of the total number of foreign tourists who went to Siargao last year, the largest numbers came from Australia (2,244), a country also known for its surf spots; Germany (1,826); Spain (1,763); Can-

ada (1,706); and France (1,511).

With the number also comes the problem of waste disposal that has threatened the sustainability of many destinations, including Boracay, the country’s premier attraction among foreign tourists.

The BusinessMirror said DOT Undersecretary for Public Affairs, Communications and Special Projects Katherine S. de Castro may request the environment department to help Siargao establish its own sanitary landfill, and the public works department to assist the island with constructing the roads leading to the landfill.

She said Siargao was a good example of a community and local government leaders that sounded off “what it needs.”

Although Tawi-Tawi has not been officially given an advertisement plug for the Go South promotions, Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo lauded the proposal of the Mindanao Development Authority “to develop the Tawi-Tawi Integrated Seaport and Economic Zone.”

“We believe in the vast tourism offering of the island, including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao [ARMM], specifically Tawi-Tawi. With its beautiful beaches and its location as a natural gateway, there is vast potential for the island,” she said.

Bongao municipal Mayor Jimuel Shia Que welcomed the assistance to the developing attraction of its destinations, notably its highest peak Bud Bongao, a pilgrimage site among Muslims. Tawi-Tawi’s first mosque in Simunul Island remains the province’s most visited site, making the province the highest contributor to ARMM’s tourism receipts.

Last year it attracted 55,085 foreign and domestic visitors, who spent P965 million to boost the province’s tourism receipts that year, the ARMM said.

The province’s bountiful ocean catch was also a major reason for its attractiveness.

However, Que cautioned about the recent influx of traders and the growing complaints among local residents about the disappearing

fish supply in the market.

He said he would be gathering the traders, local businessmen and community leaders to thresh out the problem, which he ascribed to wholesale dispatching of the fish catch from the main landing area in Bongao to Zamboanga and on to Manila.

“People are concerned now that they cannot buy fish in the market as much as they used to get before,” he said.

The concern was also raised by local restaurants and accommodation owners who said visitors were often surprised why they could not offer prime delicacies anymore.

Although he could not speak for the other 10 municipalities of Tawi-Tawi, he said the trend in Bongao may be also happening there “because this is where all the fish catch landed.” Bongao’s 100,527 residents rely mainly on fishing.

“We would like to ensure the benefits of tourism would not deny our people of the bounty of our natural wealth,” he said.

Legless student from Quezon is champion in Calabarzon swimming competition

By John Bello

L

FINAL INSPECTION Secretary Raul L. Lambino (second from left), administrator and CEO of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority,

makes a final inspection at the Cagayan North International Airport (CNIA) in LaI-lo town to receive its first international commercial flight from Macau, on March 23. CNIA in Lal-lo cuts the travel time to Santa Ana to 45 minutes. Joining Lambino are (from left): Arturo Libot, special assistant on Infrastructure; Laurence Umayan, OIC Santa Ana Office; and Mike Gonzales, chief of staff, Office of the Administrator. JOSEPH MUEGO

Colloquium traces Tagum City’s history

D

AVAO CITY—Tagum City, the bustling city north of here, is tracing its history, gathering the 10 tribes that populate it, and recognizing the pioneering migrant families from as far as Luzon in a colloquium.

The city government invited representatives of 10 tribes of the indigenous peoples and Moro communities who were “culturally considered as the original settlers of Tagum,” the city information office said, as they met with representatives of the pioneering migrant families “from the islands of Luzon, Cebu, Bohol and Leyte who settled in Tagum between the 1920s and the 1940s.”

On March 1, the gathering started with three-time Palanca Gold Awardee and National Book Awardee Dr. Macario Tiu, who initially disclosed a quick historical event that talked of a certain Datu Lubama “who killed the Spanish Military Gov. Gen. Jose Pinzon in 1861 at Bincungan as a means of throwing out the encroaching Spanish forces.”

The City Historical, Cultural and

Arts Council invited Tiu to speak in the academic discourse regarding the history of the locality.

The history council also presented in the colloquium “evidences that indicate Tagum as the original name of the locality before it was converted into a municipal district over 100 years ago, or in March 1917, by virtue of Act 2711 or the Revised Administrative Code of the Philippine Islands.”

“It also informed the participants of the discourse of the intention to change the name of the river formed with the confluence of the Liboganon and Saug rivers at Barangay Pagsabangan back to Tagum River, especially because numerous documents point to the fact that it is the old name of the body of water known now as Tagum-Liboganon River,” the city information office said.

The academic discourse was dubbed “Kagikan Colloquium” and it was included in the set of activities in the celebrations leading to the 20th Araw ng Tagum, annually held on March 7. The tracing of the city

history would be “the initial step in informing Tagumenyos of the city’s true history, including those of the people who molded the place into becoming progressive and developed,” the office said.

The colloquium was participated by the Kagan, Tausug, Maranao, Iranun, Maguindanao, Mansaka, Dibabawon, Mandaya, Kalagan, and Ata-Manobo tribes who were the original settlers of Tagum. The pioneering migrant families were likewise represented.

Meanwhile, Mayor Allan L. Rellon disclosed of the installation project of the first phase of its traffic signalization expected to be operational in three months.

The traffic-light signals would be installed in seven priority junctions: Mabini Street corner Sobrecary Street; Roxas Street corner Sobrecarey Street, Sobrecarey Street corner Pioneer Avenue; Pioneer Avenue corner Osmeña Extension-Seminary Drive; Pioneer Avenue corner Quezon Street; and Pioneer Avenue corner Rizal Street. Manuel T. Cayon

| Correspondent

UCENA CIT Y—A 19-year old legless and one-armed Grade 9 student made it as a champion swimmer in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region and earned the support and admiration of the members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Quezon.

Last Monday Marco Tinamisan, a student of Talipan National High School (TNHS) in Pagbilao, Quezon, found himself seated at the raised podium of the SP Session Hall surrounded by SP members led by presiding officer and Vice Gov. Sam Nantes for a group photo.

In her privilege speech, Quezon First District SP Board Member Aileen Resplandor Buan took up the cudgel for the Quezon winning athletes, specifically mentioning Tinamisan for being a disabled champion swimmer despite the odds.

During the Southern Tagalog Calabarzon Athletic Association (STCAA) from February 12 to 15 in San Pablo City, Tinamisan bagged bronze medal in back stroke and earlier at Quezon Provincial Athletic Meet, he won silver medal in free style, breast stroke and back stroke categories.

“Dahil sa ipinakita niyang kahusayan sa paglangoy, sa kabila ng kanyang kapansanan, ay nagsisilbi siyang inspirasyon sa ating mga kabataan sa ating lalawigan para magsikap sa arena ng sports o kahit sa ibang larangan,” Buan said in her impassioned speech for the young disabled athlete.

Tinamisan, who is from Barangay Alupay, Pagbilao, Quezon, was seated at the gallery of the SP Session Hall, accompanied by Caridad Grimaldo, school principal, and several school teachers of TNHS. He piggybacked with Arjen Porta, his close friend and classmate at TNHS, when he went to be photographed with the SP members inside the session hall.

Tinamisan has carted several medals in Games for Special People sports competition sponsored

CHAMPION swimmer Marco Tinamisan with Quezon First District Board Member Aileen Resplandor Buan at the Office of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Quezon in Lucena City.

by the Department of Education (DepEd) Division of Quezon way back in 2014.

He was included among competing athletes of the DepEd—Quezon in Sped—Orthopedically Handicapped at STCAA 2014 in Lucena City.

He has been a participant of Calabarzon Team in Swimming Team OH category.

Now he is headed for the Philippine Sports Association for the Differently Abled in Manila Legless since birth, he has also only one right arm as he has only a stump at the armpit at the left side of his body.

Buan also cited the other young athletes, all STCAA winners, who she said gave honor to Quezon

province and made every Quezonian proud.

They are: Joumar Quejano, Sped Class, second and third place in athletics; Bryan Quejano, third place in swimming; Mark Lowie Puyo, first placer in relay; Ronell Quejano, second place in relay; James Andrei Lagudao, bronze in relay; Emn Yhuan Bonnes, silver in medley relay; Nicholas Ivan Radovan, silver in medley relay and gold in freestyle relay; Wilfredo Paleracio Jr., gold in long jump and silver in triple jump; Judith Mariel Cadelina, gold in futsal; Jules Ashley Veluz, silver in individual tennis and bronze in team; and Neilrose Ricci Villa, silver in individual and bronze in team for table tennis competition.

A10 Friday, March 9, 2018 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

Beneficial foreign policy independence

O

ne of the diplomatic lessons learned during the Cold War between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was that, often, it is best to play both sides against each other.

The founding fathers of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1956 were Josip Broz Tito of Socialist Yugoslavia, Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Sukarno of Indonesia, Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. The formal declaration read in part, “Peace cannot be achieved with separation, but with the aspiration toward collective security in global terms and expansion of freedom, as well as terminating the domination of one country over another.”

The first section of that long sentence is the “motherhood statement,” but the meat is found in the last phrase as a definite rebuttal to both the United States and the USSR. Yugoslavia was firmly a communist state, but had broken away from the USSR after a personal split between Tito and Joseph Stalin. Sukarno encouraged the Japanese occupation to win independence from the Netherlands.

He took aid from both the Soviet Union and China when those two countries had bad relations. Nasser’s focus was getting all the colonial powers out of the Middle East and North Africa. Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962. Nehru received financial and technical support from both power blocs in building India’s industrial base.

Yet, for all the global peace and “goodwill to man” announcements, the economic benefits enjoyed by these countries would not have been as possible, or as large had they positioned themselves firmly on one side or the other of the Cold War. It is called “playing both sides against the middle,” and it usually works at least for a while.

The Philippines joined the Non-Aligned Movement in 1993 just in time to not gain any benefits from being nonaligned. In fact, the Philippines was pulled into the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization in 1954, which eventually gave cover for the US war in Vietnam.

In his farewell speech upon leaving the US presidency, George Washington said: “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world.” Nearly 200 years later another secretary of State—Henry Kissinger—said, “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.”

That is not comforting for a small nation looking for everlasting friendship.

The foreign policy path that President Duterte has taken is scary. For a nation that has been firmly under the wing of the US eagle for a century, this move has been a bold step. However, there are benefits to the playing both sides against the middle game.

Japan has stepped up with some formidable and favorable financing schemes for the President’s infrastructure-building program. How much of this is from a lasting love for the Philippines? How much of this comes from Japan’s own desire to forge a more independent policy from the US in Asia?

Is it possible also that this is in response to the Philippine government’s overtures to China of which, Japan wants to counterbalance for more influence in Southeast Asia?

To be able to gain new beneficial alliances is a sign of a nation’s maturity and self-confidence, the latter of which the Philippines and its government has been lacking for some time. Former President Benigno S. Aquino III showed increasing confidence with the legal move against China, while not seeing the US or Southeast Asia firmly at our back. We must continue to move forward with our foreign policy independence.

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Pen to paper James Jimenez

spox

I

n the voting booth, you’re all alone. There’s no one there holding your hand, guiding your pen—no one except what’s in your head and what’s in your heart. In those two places, you have the voices of the people you listen to; the words of the writers you read, and what you remember of the life you’d been living up to that point. These are the things that will push you in one way or the other, influence your choices, and guide you in bridging the gap between the tip of your pen and the surface of the ballot paper.

Before you bring that pen down onto the paper, pause for a while, and consider.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government suggests that voters choose candidates who are matino, mahusay, maasahan; the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting says that voters ought to evaluate the candidates based on five considerations they call the 5Cs; the Rotary Club has its Apat na Tanong (Four Questions). Although these three “prescriptions” for voting wisely may vary in how they approach the issue, they all just boil down to one thing: trying to give voters tools with which they can evaluate the candidates who will soon be asking for their votes; in a word: criteria.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec), on the other hand, has always avoided prescribing criteria. As the body constitutionally charged with the conduct of elections, the Comelec obviously should remain impartial and, therefore, careful not

to tell people, no matter how indirectly, who they should be voting for.

That stand, however, as proper as it is, does leave a gaping hole in voter education. In order to plug that gap, while still avoiding the practice of prescribing criteria, I suggest reminding people—especially pre- and first-time voters—of four things they should guard against.

These four considerations are, to my mind, all anyone needs to guide them in their search for the person to vote for.

First: Don’t be lazy. Find out who’s running and for what, then find out everything you can about the candidates. Sadly, simply listening to campaign jingles and speeches of the candidates themselves doesn’t count as “finding out;” reliance on what a candidate says about himself is just a different form of laziness.

Instead, do your own research. This coming 2018 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, research could take the form of asking around about the candidates. Talk to as

Don’t be lazy. Find out who’s running and for what, then find out everything you can about the candidates. Sadly, simply listening to campaign jingles and speeches of the candidates themselves doesn’t count as “finding out;” reliance on what a candidate says about himself is just a different form of laziness. many sources as you can, listening to both the good accounts and the slanderings—by listening to people who love the candidate and those who dislike them, you get the opportunity to come up with your own evaluation of whether or not this person deserves your vote.

Second: Don’t be arrogant. Don’t dismiss anyone as being too unrefined or too unattractive or too whatever to be a leader. Leadership skill and integrity—these things are not measured by outward appearances or apparent behavior. Most of all, don’t make the mistake of writing someone off as being stupid, especially when they offer ideas that seem outlandish to you. Remember that no one knows everything—and that includes you. Give ideas, even those that strike you as nonsensical, a fair evaluation. If you still disagree, then that’s fine; what is objectionable is to dismiss an idea simply because you didn’t come up with it yourself.

Third: Don’t be selfish. While it is perfectly natural to keep an eye out for your self-interest in choosing candidates, being a member of your community means that you ought to think about the welfare of

your community, as well. Not being selfish means, therefore, that if the person who you will benefit from might not actually have the best interests of your barangay at heart, then maybe you can set your own interests aside and pick someone else.

And, finally, do not ever forget the power you will be giving to the person who gets your vote. Seeing elections as giving someone an opportunity to serve the community is a valid way of looking at things.

But, it is not the only way of understanding true importance of the right of suffrage; nor is it even the most pragmatic.

Elections involve granting power over yourself, to someone else. You feel that power in the laws that elected officials enact—laws that regulate what you can and cannot do, laws that dictate what you can and cannot afford, laws that hem you in. At the level of the barangay, that power can be felt even more acutely: the power to decide who can run a business or not, to say whether you deserve that remedy you wanted against an abusive neighbor, and in some cases, even to decide questions that ultimately affect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Yes. That is, what is at stake in elections. So, before you even get that empty ballot in your hand, you should have already asked yourself the most basic question of all: Do you think that the person you want to vote for will use the power you are giving, in a way that you will accept?

If you’ve answered that, then take a deep breath and get ready to face the consequences of the choices you’re about to make.

It’s time to put pen to paper.

Kindness and generosity in the season of Lent Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

SERVANT LEADER

‘A

nd let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

(Hebrew 10:24) In his pastoral letter, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle said that “we are called upon 0to exercise charity in our dealings with our neighbor—that is to say, to have a genuine concern for those who are needy and who suffer, and to perform concrete good works” during the season of Lent.

The Lenten season directs us in a very special way to practice the

values of kindness and generosity.

Through these values, we are able to help and support our social services to the poor, especially those who suffer during natural and humancaused calamities. As what Cardinal Tagle said, “we are called to love God, and our love for God is best expressed by the love we have for our brothers and sisters.”

“If someone who has worldly

means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him?”

(1 John 3:17).

Recognizing the value of kindness and generosity, we at Caritas Manila also found the inspirational story of Mercury Drug who had been known for their core value of “compassion.” Throughout the years, Mercury Drug had successfully launched various programs that focused on health and education.

Through Mercury Drug Foundation, they are continuously empowering and promoting our communities by engaging in various projects and programs for the deprived sectors of our society. This inspiring kindness and generosity as a way of building “community of charity” brings us to work with them in encouraging, serving and helping the marginalized poor in our country.

Caritas Manila, for its part, helps the poor and deprived sectors through its Caritas Damayan,

our Preventive Health and Disaster Management program that provides emergency and relief assistance, humanitarian aid to victims and educates disaster-prone communities by conducting pre-disasters trainings, and help in the restoration and rebuilding of communities.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, may this inspiring story of compassion encourage us to practice the value of kindness and generosity in this season of Lent.

May this story become an instrument to strengthen our faith to Almighty God.

To know more about Caritas Manila, visit or follow us on Facebook: CaritasManilaInc. For your donations, please call our DonorCare lines 5639311, 564-0205, 0999-7943455, 0905-4285001 and 0929-8343857. Make it a habit to listen to Radio Veritas 846 in the AM band, or through live streaming at www.veritas846.ph and follow its Twitter and Instragram accounts @veritasph and YouTube at veritas846.ph. For comments, e-mail veritas846pr@gmail.com.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Opinion

More steam ahead

Something about Mary

BusinessMirror

Alvin P. Ang

Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

EAGLE WATCH

O

N February 26 we were invited to serve as resource persons for the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs.

Chaired by Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian, the main purpose of the hearing was to give an update of the current economic assessment by the National Economic and Development Authority and, at the same time, review the initial impacts of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law. Gatchalian explained that the inflationary effects of the TRAIN law need to be carefully analyzed in order for the government to make a proper response if it overshoot original estimates. This is particularly of concern for the poor who are not in any way benefiting from the personal income-tax cuts but will be directly affected by the pass-through effects of additional taxes on oil, electricity and sugar-sweetened beverages.

The Department of Finance, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and other government agencies were also in the briefing. The main conclusion of the meeting was that the TRAIN has not yet affected prices substantially. It is possible that the increase in global oil prices and the depreciation of the peso had more to do with the higher than expected inflation. Furthermore, it is possible that the additional inflation was caused by perceptions and expectations.

In our column two weeks ago, we explained that our base estimate for inflation with the initial impact of the TRAIN is 3.4 percent for January. As the actual had reached 4 percent, it is plausible that the increase was due to expectations causing businesses to increase prices even before they get the new stocks. This has led to a domino effect affecting other goods and services. What has actually happened is that people were caught unaware of the actual benefits they could get and costs of the TRAIN through inflation. The rise in prices is largely a communication and coordination failure. We have warned that the news of lack of National Food Authority (NFA) rice in the market could lead to further high prices simply because of delayed local and imported procurement. It is not that the NFA is not aware of the need for buffer, but the timing is critical, as rice contributes to about 10 percent to inflation. All the good intentions of the TRAIN law are being challenge by these failures. We were not surprised that the February inflation rate breached 4 percent even with relatively lower oil prices, as the lowest rice prices increased by about P5, or about 16 percent. We accurately forecasted it to hit 4.5 percent using 2006 base year.

Dr. Dennis Mapa, Dean of the University of the Philippines School of Statistics, presented the impact of the January inflation to the poor, or bottom 30 percent. He noted the

A clearer and more basic explanation of the TRAIN must continue to the public utilizing all forms of media. The full effect of the TRAIN will take some time, possibly hitting the most from May to August when summer vacation is about to end and school opens.

The government should not wait till then to respond. It must start now. inflation of the poor is higher than the headline inflation of 4 percent.

He cited past data showing impact of inflation on the poor, it is seen to slow down poverty reduction.

Considering that 2018 is a survey year of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey, in which we draw and estimate poverty rates as well, a high inflation for the poor may impact negatively the efforts to lower poverty to below 20 percent.

His estimates also showed that the unconditional cash transfer for 10 million poor families of P200 per family per month may not be enough to cushion faster price increases.

With these information, it is critical for government not to allow more steam ahead from the TRAIN. It should work to ensure that the price of rice becomes affordable through stable and available supply. It was common agreement that tariffication of rice is a better measure than quantitative restrictions and that it should be done soonest. Also, it must utilize its communication and coordination mechanism well. A clearer and more basic explanation of the TRAIN must continue to the public utilizing all forms of media. The full effect of the TRAIN will take some time, possibly hitting the most from May to August when summer vacation is about to end and school opens.

The government should not wait till then to respond. It must start now.

D

R. Deirdre de la Cruz is an anthropologist, and she talks about Mary—the Blessed Virgin. She not only talks about Mary but also documents what people say about apparitions and miracles.

Based in the United States and connected with Michigan University in Ann Arbor, de la Cruz came one day to Naga City to talk about her research on how people perceive, interpret and articulate their understanding of Mary. The city was an appropriate site for the topic, it being a pilgrim city with the presence of the Lady of Peñafrancia, one of the few if not the regional Marian devotion in the country. There was an audience, and they were all ready to listen anything about Mary.

Religion being contentious and faith not really for debates (much as we subject our beliefs or those of others to heavy discussion), an anthropologist survives any kind of evangelization s/he does not judge.

An anthropologist listens.

Thaf afternoon, in the Madrigal Amphitheater, Bikolano believers and scholars, with some seminarians in the crowd, listened to what de la Cruz had been listening to.

She began her lecture by asking the audience any stories of apparitions or miracles that a relative had shared with them. The crowd was quite timid to share their thoughts, but you could feel that everyone

new york times Memo to: President J. Trump From: The US ambassador to Saudi Arabia (if we had one) Subject: Saudi crown prince visit

M

R. President, in advance of the visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a.k.a. MBS, I want to share some thoughts: It’s only a matter of time before King Salman turns over the reins of power to MBS, who’s already the effective ruler. MBS is not a democrat, nor is he interested in promoting democracy. He’s a modernizing autocrat. The most we can expect from him is the modernization of Saudi Arabia’s economy and religious/social structure but, given how badly the country has stagnated from years of tentative reforms, this is deeply significant.

MBS is definitely bold. I can think of no one else in the ruling family who would have put in place the profound social, religious and economic reforms that he’s dared to do—and all at once. But I can also think of no one in that family who’d have

undertaken the bullying foreign-policy initiatives, domestic power plays and excessive personalbuying sprees he’s dared to do, all at once. They are two halves of the same MBS package. Our job: help curb his bad impulses and nurture his good ones.

has a story.

That afternoon, de la Cruz went through many narratives where Mary was a central figure. She talked about the Lady of Caysasay, a tiny image far from the main church around which a quaint story is built. She brought back the controversy of the Marian apparition in Lipa. The event, which became popular because of the famous shower of roses, triggered many questions about who decides whether Mary or any saint had indeed appeared before a human being. In the case of Lipa, a designated church authority had declared that nothing supernatural took place in that convent in the 1950s. The choir of Carmelite nuns were disbanded, and it would take years before a new group of nuns settled in the area.

The belief, like all kinds of belief, persisted among believers.

The anthropologist spoke of where her interest in Marian devotions began. It was in New York some years back when a festival around the devotion to Mary was helt at Battery Park. Icons of Mary from different parts of the world were brought to the place. A fluvial procession was held on the Hudron River. The

anthropologist recalled that Filipinos were behind the grand fiesta.

The story of conversion, according to de la Cruz, begins always with the arrival of the Spanish to the county in the 16th century. The strand of narrative about the introduction of the new religion generally placed the Filipino at the receiving end. But, for this anthropologist, the story of evangelization has only begun in that century. The Filipinos have gone on to nurture a set of beliefs that, while showing a link to its European origin or to its Mexican provenance, manifests something different. The native persuasion had made its mark and therein lies the tension between two or three civilizations. The evangelists or the institutional church can seek creativity in that appropriation; the local or the inhabitants can find solace in their native exegesis, in notions of the divine and the powerful that are rooted to territories that are singular.

The supernatural, even the transcendental, can find its sources of meanings in the people that try to define them, Mary, thus, is embraced

as a metaphor, as a person with the role of mother or mediator, or as a woman so unique that she stands great and with ease together with the babaylan and the matriarchy of this land.

The lecture of de la Cruz was part of the Frank Lynch, SJ, lecture series organized by the Ateneo de Naga Institute of Bikol History and Culture and the Ateneo de Naga University Press. Lynch was a social scientist who set up the Institute of Philippine Culture in Ateneo de Manila and the Ateneo de Naga Social Survey Research Unit, which is now the Ateneo Social Science Research Center.

Lynch was one of the pioneers in the study of folk Catholicism. In her talk, de la Cruz paid tribute to this concept, from which she built her own study about Mary and the Filipino people.

De la Cruz has a book, Mother Figured: Marian Apparitions and the Making of a Filipino Universal, published by the University of Chicago Press.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.

Universities: Coping with 21st-century disruptions

the Philippines review curriculum very infrequently and lack empirical basis, whether in terms of employment or needs of industry. This has created an inefficient system producing more professionals than are needed in critical sectors of the economy. Such lack of strategic plan exacerbates persistent unemployment and underemployment.

E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com| Facebook and Twitter: @edangara

power of the religious police and clerics in daily life; importing Western-style learning systems, reopening cinemas and vowing publicly to bring Islam back to its “moderate” origins; and, most recently, lifting the law that a Saudi woman who sought a divorce, and went to live with her parents, had to return to her husband if he demanded.

He even got the clerics to green-light “expressions of love” on Valentine’s Day for the first time.

If Saudi women are empowered (which will be fully true only when the rules of “male guardianship” over them are lifted), and the kingdom becomes a more normal, connected and productive society, Saudi Islam will naturally become more moderate and inclusive. Given how Saudi Arabia sets the tone for Islam globally, this will isolate extremists and empower moderates everywhere. Again, huge.

This will take time to play out, though, and reverse the supply chain of extremist books, madrassas and clerics Saudi Arabia exported across the globe—but the whole world will be better for it.

To pull this off requires extraordinary leadership

by MBS, and an extraordinary team. Alas, here MBS has issues. For starters, he comes from the poorest wing of the ruling family; his father was only governor of Riyadh and was known for being uncorrupted.

As a result, MBS grew up with a lot of resentment and disdain for his lazy cousins, who got obscenely rich, along with the big merchants close to them.

His anticorruption campaign was meant to stem the tide of graft, but it also had elements of revenge,

and a power and money grab. And he still has 56 wealthy Saudis under house arrest.

He needs to let them all go, shut the whole thing down, create a permanent, transparent anticorruption court to handle all cases—and get this thing over with. He can’t achieve his economic reforms without global investors—and today there are a lot of foreign (and Saudi) investors asking: “If I put money into Saudi Arabia, or partner with a Saudi, can that wealth be confiscated without warning at the Ritz-Carlton?” Without rule of law there will be never be enough investments or jobs in Saudi Arabia— and without jobs the social reforms will wither and religious extremism will find fertile ground for a comeback. At the same time, we need to tell MBS: You can be an effective king, with real legitimacy, or you can buy yachts, chateaus and Leonardo da Vincis like your cousins—but you can’t do both. He has to understand he’s becoming an important figure on the world stage, and he needs to cultivate the same reputation his father has— clean, modest, conciliatory. On the management side, MBS’s team is too small and contains a couple of minister-bullies close to him who are in way over their heads and who bring out his worst instincts and offer terrible advice—some of which led to his failed overreaches in Yemen, Lebanon and Qatar.

And while MBS is a creative reformer, he has a fierce temper. Most of his ministers are afraid to challenge him or give him the candid, caring advice he needs.

These liabilities could undermine all his reforms.

So, we need to be regularly engaging with him on all these issues—with wise counsel. But Rex Tillerson is not respected in Riyadh, we have no permanent assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and no ambassador. Are you nuts? You need to appoint a James Baker or Dave Petraeus as your special envoy to the Arab Gulf who can help MBS defuse Yemen, end the feuds with neighbors and focus all his energies on building a Saudi Arabia that is thriving at home and admired by its neighbors. That’s the best bulwark against Iranian expansion. If MBS chases Iran everywhere, Tehran will sap all his strength; it will be death by a thousand cuts. We need to be in his ear regularly with someone he respects and not just leave him to “the boys’ club”—your son-inlaw or other young testosterone-fueled Sunni Arab princes in the Gulf. If you think you can just applaud his anti-Iran stance and religious reforms and all will work out fine, you’re wrong. But, if I may, President Trump, MBS is a young man, and two-thirds of Saudi Arabia is under 30. They look to America for more than just weapons. They look to us as an example.

They watch what we model—so it is more vital than ever that we continue to model the rule of law, respect for institutions, tolerance and pluralism. A special US envoy to Saudi Arabia is necessary now, but keeping America a special example is even more important. You get my point.

Please heed this message.

Your ambassador to Saudi Arabia—if you had one.

I

N January President Duterte signed Republic Act 10968, establishing the Philippine Qualifications Framework, a nationwide system of educational standards outlining specific levels of qualifications (or educational attainment) to match particular skills, competencies and knowledge (“learning outcomes”) that graduates should possess.

Philippine universities will need to navigate through and adhere to this framework. For, at present, new skill sets are required to match jobs and industry needs.

Universities must adapt to disruptions in the global economy, and, therefore, cannot afford to have stagnant, nondynamic programs.

Unfortunately, most universities in

His potential is vast. MBS is trying to forge a societal transformation in Saudi Arabia. Call it “one country, two systems.” For those who want piety, the mosque, Mecca and Islamic education, they’ll all be available and respected. But for those who want modern education and a more normal social life between men and women—and access to Western, film, music and the arts—those too will be available and respected. No more religious domination. That is huge.

Because when the Saudi ruling family—feeling the need to demonstrate greater piety after the 1979 takeover by Islamist zealots of the Grand Mosque in Mecca—took Sunni Islam down a much more puritanical path, right when Iran’s ayatollahs did the same with Shiite Islam, they changed the face and culture of Islam. And it was not for the better. The Saudis closed all cinemas, banned concerts and fun, choked off trends for women’s empowerment, and modern education and spread an anti-pluralistic, misogynist, anti-Western form of Islam far and wide that created the ideological and financial underpinnings of 9/11, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Just think of the dollars we’ve spent countering Islamic extremism since 9/11. It’s trillions. Yet we now have a Saudi leader who is not just talking about but actually lifting the ban on women driving; freeing women to go to concerts by Western and Arab rock stars, join the military and more easily start businesses, while sharply curbing the

professions like teaching, engineering and architecture.

While gaps in the education sector remain to be addressed, corporations have already created low-cost private schools to compensate for “governance gaps” at the primary education level. Education International in 2016 emphasized how these ventures create cost-effective modes of schooling but remain circumspect, as these organizations are mainly for-profit and centered on business growth and detrimental to the quality of learning.

With the integration of 10 countries into the Asean Economic Community, coupled with Filipinos’s long history of working overseas, we should start developing curriculum that will produce graduates with portable skill sets and professional knowledge comparable with international standards.

In successful higher education systems, curriculum is reviewed annually, through a participative process that involves local industries, thereby making their academic offerings fill the gaps in competencies of graduates, and ensuring higher chances of employment.

Many colleges and universities overemphasize rote learning over problem-solving and critical thinking. Graduates may be well versed in what their books say, but soon become frustrated discovering that theoretical knowledge is likely to be incompatible with its proper application.

As most information is available online, students shou ld be given more opportunity for actual practice, or “learning by doing.” Case studies, ex per iments, project-based learning and work immersions are effective learning tools.

Similar to medical internship, it is especially useful for other

Edgardo J. Angara

Memo to the President on Saudi Arabia Thomas L. Friedman

Friday, March 9, 2018 A11

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Friday, March 9, 2018

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ROQUE VOWS TO DISCLOSE FACTS ON MRT 3‘PLUNDER’

Govt told to demand refund from Dalian if...

T

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM & Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

he Duterte administration was advised to demand a P3.8-billion refund from the Chinese supplier if the 48 Dalian trains it delivered are found to be unfit for the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT 3).

Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian lamented that the 48 light rail vehicles (LRVs) supplied by CRRC Dalian Co. two years ago remain unused, even as MRT commuters are forced to bear with the daily hassle of commuting in overloaded Metro trains that suffer frequent breakdowns.

In a st atement on T hu rsd ay, Gatcha lian prodded t he

Department of Transportation (DOTr) to “take immediate action” after deciding “whether the controversial Dalian trains are suitable for use on the Metro Rail Transit 3 rail line.”

He voiced MRT daily commuters’ dismay, pointing out that “two years have passed since the Dalian trains arrived, and yet their fate

GATCHALIAN: “Two years have passed since the Dalian trains arrived, and yet their fate remains in limbo.”

remains in limbo.”

The senator suggested that the Duterte administration’s transport officials and the MRT 3 management must act fast “so that we can bring the suffering of MRT 3 commuters to an end.”

Gatchalian added that should the 48 LRVs delivered by CRRC Dalian Co. be “assessed as unworthy for use on the MRT 3 line...the DOTr should return the units and demand for a total refund.”

He asserted the MRT problem boils down to “a question of suitability.”

“If it is found that these trains aren’t right for the system,” Gatchalian suggested that the Duterte administration “needs to get our money back,” adding that “we cannot rely on trains that don’t match the specifications agreed on by the parties in the first place.”

The senator recalled that in January 2018, the DOTr and the MRT 3 management tapped the German firm TUV Rheinland to be the Independent Audit and Assessment (IAA) Consultant tasked to “evaluate and submit recommendations” on issues concerning the unused LRVs. He added that the report on their assessments are expected to be released on March 10.

According to Gatchalian, the DOTr had earlier reported that the Dalian trains weigh 49.7 metric tons (MT), exceeding the maximum allowable weight of 46.4 MT found in the contract, finding them unsafe to use on existing MRT 3 rails. The transportation

agency also cited “issues in the compatibility” of the LRVs with MRT 3’s maintenance facilities and signaling system.

Meanwhile, Presidential Spokesperson Harry L. Roque Jr. said he will be disclosing the facts on the anomalies haunting MRT 3 soon, following his revelation in a radio interview that the “Pangasinan group” earned kickbacks from the contracts entered into by officials of the then-Department of Transportation and Communication under the Aquino administration.

Asked if he could already name the members of this Pangasinan group, Roque answered: “not yet,” noting that there is still an ongoing investigation.

“It’s now in the process of investigation, and this is what I promised to do. I have some documentary evidence already. Perhaps beginning next week, I will devote one day a week in disclosing facts and details about the plunder of MRT 3,” Roque

Con-com. . .

Continued from A1

The Ad Summit Pilipinas 2018 (ASP 2018), themed “DIY Your ROI,” is finally open to redefine ROIs in the industry. Organized by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies of the Philippines, the third installment of the biggest marketing and advertising event in the country welcomed more than 2,000 delegates from across the region to Subic Bay. The three-day event aims to challenge current perspectives on the way marketing campaigns are being evaluated and explore new ways of determining brand success that goes beyond the financial aspect. ASP 2018 is running until March 10 at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center. Photo shows the ASP 2018 management committee, headed by Overall Chairman Norman Agatep (center), with Sue Nolido, Nap Carrao, Donald Lim, Tats Cruz, Golda Roldan, David Guerrero, Madonna Tarrayo, Vanne Tomada, Jake Tesoro and Edsel Tolentino.

Marketers urged to produce gutsy ads Continued from A1

way possible,” Ramos advised.

“Look everything through the client’s lenses. Be obsessed with your work,” he added.

Ramos, who is the cofounder and chief creative officer of David, a Miami-based agency recognized for its daring and innovation, is credited for winning over 195 awards from prestigious competitions like the Cannes Lions Festival.

In his talk, titled “Return on Ideas,” Ramos shared lessons on how ideas can transform brands into powerful market game changers, and how marketing campaigns can blend business objectives and creative ambitions to produce outstanding results. “It’s all about trusting your guts,” Ramos said,

as he listed down nine steps for success in the advertising world.

He counseled an ad creative to: become an ad nerd, and know everything in the industry; dream big; write one-line briefs for clients; research; know the limitations of the client’s resources; and, of course, to be daring in imagination and innovation. How gutsy can advertising get, especially when there is some political overture? According to Ramos, “If you don’t have to talk to your lawyer, [your ad] probably isn’t gutsy enough.”

However, he cautioned that daring must be within the bounds of the brand’s values. “Don’t jump into the bandwagon if your brand doesn’t agree with it,” Ramos said.

Ramos’s presentation was the first of a series of lectures to be

given by experts in the advertising field in the four-day Ad Summit being held here until Saturday.

Other speakers include YouTube creator Will Dasovich, who will speak on “Return on Influence;” Jollibee Global Brand Manager Francis Flores, who will tackle “Return on Intuition;” and Secret Code founder Mara Binudin Lecocq, whose topic is “Return on Independence.”

Ad Summit Pilipinas, which is billed as the country’s biggest advertising and marketing event, is organized by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies (4As) as a biennial festival.

This year’s event, which has the theme “DIY your ROI,” is focused on new paradigms and innovative creative solutions to effect finan-

cial, as well as social impact on the advertising industry.

Ad Summit 2018 Chairman Norman Agatep, who formally declared the opening of the summit, said that while some advertising firms are obsessed with return on investment, ad practitioners should endeavor to search for metrics other than profit.

Meanwhile, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma welcomed the delegates to the convention and spoke of how Subic survived despite the Pinatubo eruption that blanketed the area with volcanic ash in 1991 and the pullout of the American bases the following year.“We volunteered. We did it ourselves. That was our own DIY,” Eisma said, harping on the Ad Summit theme.

Infra binge to create 2 million jobs this year

“We are also expecting the whole BBB program for this year to create 2 million jobs,” Lamentillo said.

She added that the figures she cited were at the minimum, as the DPWH has yet to come up with a final data as to how many jobs it had produced last year for the infrastructure projects. Regional offices of the department are still finalizing the numbers, she said.

Lamentillo explained that “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,” which will be in full swing by May, was instituted to ensure the government’s flagship campaign is aligned with the people’s need for employment. “We want to make sure that there is no

disconnection between the availability of jobs and the infrastructure projects,” she said.

“We will also be having a jobs portal for the Build, Build, Build.

We have the transparency portal to inform the public real time what is happening with our big-ticket projects, so we should also have a portal that will include the employment needs from all our concessionaires and all our construction companies. That will serve as our jobs matching. We hope it helps our overseas Filipino workers [OFWs],” Lamentillo added.

The infrastructure program chief said the jobs portal is in-

tended to reach OFWs and make them consider the option of coming home and serving in the BBB. President Duterte himself wants OFWs, especially those in countries with notorious records of domestic abuse, to return to the country and serve as construction workers for the infrastructure projects.

In the BusinessMirror’s Coffee Club Forum on Thursday, Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar said the government is finding ways to ensure wages under the Build, Build, Build will be competitive so as to entice OFWs to join the infrastructure work force. “At some point, we will be able to be competitive, especially

with the demand for construction workers,” he said. He cited as an example the demand for welders, which he claimed to have a salary of above-minimum wage. “There is that demand for construction, especially for skilled labor. Your demand for labor increases, so as the cost. That is the scenario we will be looking at,” Villar added.

The Duterte administration is completing dozens of public infrastructure, such as the North Luzon Expressway Harbor Link, Luzon Spine Expressway, Philippine National Railway North and South Rails and the Metro Manila Subway, under the Build, Build, Build.

Philippines, and on the day of the election, is at least 35 years of age, able to read and write, a registered voter, and a resident of the Philippines for not less than two years immediately preceding the day of the election.

“Yes, we had voting on academic qualifications for senators. Of course, there is a collatilla that it will also apply to the other officials in the government,” UbaldeOrdinario said.

Two members, lawyers Reuben Canoy and Victor de la Serna, were not present during the voting on Thursday.

Asked on why they have considered the equivalence of baccalaureate degree, she noted it is because statistics say that only 10 percent of the population acquire college education.

“The solution there is, so that they won’t be disenfranchised like for example, IPs [indigenous peoples], many of them don’t go to school but that doesn’t mean that they don’t understand what they have to do in the event that they are elected to the position of regional governors, for example.

So, on the other hand, it is felt by the body that we must insist on some kind of academic qualifications to ensure that we have better quality leaders,” she said, adding that many people don’t have formal education, but they have acquired certain amount of abilities that can be converted to academic qualifications, such as cultural knowledge.

“In the government, there is such a thing as equivalency for those who want to be promoted, for example, but who have not

said in Thursday’s Palace briefing, noting that he is just giving notice to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Department of Justice before he goes public with the documents, which he started to get on Thursday.

The two whistle-blowers who were formerly directly involved in the MRT 3 operations came to him.

He noted in that radio interview that the whistle-blowers bared the division of shares: one-third of the total payment from contracts allegedly went to the Pangasinan group and another one-third to the political machinery, while only a third went to the maintenance of MRT 3.

Roque also denied that former MRT General Manager Al S. Vitangcol III was one of the whistleblowers he was referring to.

But he said with the independent information being furnished to him right now, he should go out of his way and refer Vitangcol also to the NBI.

achieved a certain level of postgraduate level of education; then they can call on their government experience to compensate for that lack of masters’ degrees, that’s equivalency,” she said.

Aside from the agreement on the change in the educational requirement for the senatorial position, it was also agreed that senators will be voted per region.

However, the committee has yet to decide on the number of senators to be voted, since they still need to determine the number of states.

“The principle of electing senators per region is good as done.

But the question is how many senators per region? There is no decision yet,” said Arthur N. Aguilar, chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic Reforms and Fiscal Administration.

“We are trying to keep the number low, so because we want to minimize the cost, we are balancing cost with the needs of representation,” Aguilar said.

The Con-com is set to vote on Monday on the political-dynasty provision. Previously, the committee voted to adopt a federal presidential form of government.

It was also agreed in consensus on Wednesday to include in the proposed revised constitution a “self-executing provision” that will regulate political dynasties, that no relative of an incumbent official up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity shall be allowed to run simultaneously and to succeed the incumbent official for positions of governor, mayor or district representative and other local officials. The Con-com has also agreed that the president and vice president will be elected as a team.

On Tuesday the committee has also agreed on a bicameral Congress.

Continued from a1

The government intends to achieve this dream by increasing the country’s infrastructure-to-GDP ratio to 7 percent, which is expected to amount to as much as P9 trillion by the end of the President’s term.

The government has, so far, allocated P3.6 trillion for its infrastructure program, most of which for transportation and connectivity projects in Metro Manila and other major urban centers. Aside from the annual budget, the BBB will also rake in 70 percent, or P84.84 billion, of the expected revenue of P121.2 billion from the new tax law.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry L. Roque Jr. said in Thursday’s

Palace briefing that the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority has announced that it would give free training to around 100,000 people for the realization of the BBB plan. “Graduates of the skills training, especially the indigenous peoples, the poor, the rebel returnees will be recruited to play a vital role in the development of infrastructure projects, such as the construction of roads, bridges and establishments. Of course we have to do this, because apparently, the BBB program has already resulted in some kind of a shortage for construction workers here in the Philippines,” he said. With Bernadette D. Nicolas