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Thursday, March 17, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 161

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‘Tariff tweaks needed to end technical smuggling of pork’ S

By Mary Grace Padin

INSIDE

en. Cynthia A. Villar has joined groups lobbying for a significant increase in the 5-percent tariff currently imposed on imported offal as a way to address the technical smuggling of pork.

for the love of games

Sports BusinessMirror

yUsrA mArdInI (left) from syria and kenyan runner Tegla loroupe are two athletes competing in rio de Janeiro olympics not for their home countries, but for the first-ever team of refugee athletes. AP

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| Thursday, MarCh 17, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana

from syrIA To sUdAn: refUgee AThleTes TrAIn for olymPIC TeAm

FOR THE LOVE OF GAMES L

By Stephen Wilson The Associated Press

ONDON—They’ve fled war and violence in the Middle East and Africa. They’ve crossed treacherous seas in small dinghies and lived in dusty refugee camps.

They include a teenage swimmer from Syria, long-distance runners from South Sudan, and judo and taekwondo competitors from Congo, Iran and Iraq.

They are striving to achieve a common goal: To compete in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Not for their home countries, but as part of the first-ever team of refugee athletes.

A group of 43 displaced men and women, who range in age from 17 to 30 and have escaped conflicts in their homelands, are being considered for selection to the team called “Refugee Olympic Athletes.”

Prompted by the plight of millions of migrants and refugees across the world, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is creating a small team of refugees who will compete in Rio under the Olympic flag.

In what will surely be one of the emotional highlights of the opening ceremony, the team will march together into the Maracana Stadium on August 5 behind the white flag with the five Olympic rings. They will walk in just ahead of the team from Brazil, the host nation that marches last among the 206 national Olympic committees in the athletes’ parade.

The refugee athletes will live in the Olympic Village with the other teams. The IOC will supply them with team uniforms, coaches and technical officials.

The Olympic anthem will be played if any of the athletes wins a gold medal.

The plan was first announced by the IOC at the United Nations last October amid the still-continuing influx of migrants and refugees, many from Syria, into Europe. The IOC set up a $2-million fund for refugees and asked national Olympic committees to identify any displaced athletes in their countries who might be able to reach Olympic standard.

Pere Miro, the IOC’s deputy director general for relations with the Olympic movement, has been the point man in creating the team. Of the 43 athletes selected as contenders for the team, more than half are runners from central and western Africa, Miro said.

“I was touched by the personal story of each one,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press (AP). “But I also was really touched by how much sport means in their lives, not only for the 43, but for all those I met.”

IOC President Thomas Bach said he expects between

five and 10 athletes will make the team. Miro put the figure at between five and seven. The final selection will be announced by the IOC at its next executive board meeting in June.

“We want to send a message of hope to all the refugees of the world,” Bach said.

Miro said 23 of the candidates fled conflicts in Africa, including South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Mali. A handful of others left Syria, with a few from Iran and Iraq. In addition to track and field, some of the athletes compete in swimming, judo, taekwondo and shooting.

The IOC has already publicly identified three athletes under consideration: 17-year-old Syrian swimmer Yusra

Mardini, female Iranian taekwondo athlete Raheleh Asemani and male judoka Popole Misenga of Congo.

Mardini is training in Germany, Asemani in Belgium and Misenga in Brazil.

Mardini and her older sister, Sarah, were on an inflatable boat with other refugees making the perilous trip from Turkey to Greece a few months ago when their small dinghy started taking on water in the Aegean Sea. Most of the refugees on the overcrowded boat couldn’t swim. So the sisters and three others who were also good swimmers jumped into the water. For three hours, they clung onto ropes hanging from the side and helped guide the boat to the Greek island of Lesbos.

The Mardini sisters eventually made it to Germany,

where a local charity put them in touch with the Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 swimming club in Berlin, based near their refugee center. They have been training at the pool, which was built for the 1936 Olympics, and Yusra—a butterfly specialist—was selected as a possible member of the Olympic team.

Asemani left Iran in 2012 for reasons she has not disclosed and arrived in Belgium, where she works for the postal service and trains with Belgium’s national taekwondo team. Fighting under the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) flag at the European Olympic qualifying tournament in Istanbul, she clinched a spot for the Rio Games. It’s possible she could compete for Belgium if she is granted citizenship.

“It has been such a hard journey. I was lost,” Asemani said on the WTF web site. “Many times in my head I thought it would not happen because of politics, visa problems, lack of money and I couldn’t travel to [many] ranking events.... Rio is a dream for me. Hope has carried me to the Olympics. Now I will give all I have to win.”

Misenga and Yolande Mabika fled Congo three years ago and sought asylum in Brazil during the 2013 World Judo Championships in Rio. They have been training with the Brazilian judo federation.

“I’ve seen too much war, too much death,” Misenga told The Guardian newspaper. “I want to stay clean so I can do my sport. I represent everyone. I’ll get a medal for all refugees.”

The largest number of potential Olympic athletes was drawn from the Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) from the border with South Sudan, a five-year-old country that has been wracked by civil war since 2013.

Tens of thousands have died and at least 2 million people have been displaced from their homes.

The sprawling Kakuma camp houses about 180,000 refugees, mainly from South Sudan, but also from Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Eritrea and Uganda.

“I was touched in seeing how the people live in this camp,” said Miro, who traveled to Kakuma in January. “It’s in the middle of nowhere. They have nothing to do. The main activity that keeps them motivated and alive is sport.”

Tegla Loroupe, the former Kenyan world recordholder in the women’s marathon, went to the Kakuma camp to hold tryouts and identify the most talented runners. Twenty-three were selected and transferred to Loroupe’s training center near Nairobi.

Speaking to the AP by telephone on Tuesday from the center, Loroupe said the athletes include an 800-meter runner, a marathoner and several 5,000- and 10,000-meter athletes. She said she expects eight to qualify for the Olympics and will accompany them to Rio for the occasion.

“This is something special,” Loroupe said. “Everyone can be a refugee, now they have this incredible opportunity to stand out. They want to be ambassadors.”

Miro said he doubts any of the refugee athletes will win medals in Rio, though that is not really the main point. The powerful symbolism of the refugees’ mere presence at the games is what counts the most.

“They will raise attention around the world,” Miro said. “We hope the world will get the message. We can show that sport and the Olympic principles are something to believe in.”

SPORTS

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BlACks PlAyIng men’s hooPs, fooTBAll lAg BehInd In degrees

By Errin Haines Whack

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The Associated Press

HILADELPHIA—Young black men playing basketball and football for the country’s top college teams are graduating at lower rates than black male students at the same schools—despite having financial and academic support that removes common hurdles preventing many undergraduates from earning a degree, a new report has found.

While 58 percent of black male undergraduates at the 65 schools in the Power 5 conferences got degrees within six years, 54 percent of black male studentathletes at the same schools graduated, according to an analysis of the 2014-2015 academic year by University of Pennsylvania researcher Shaun Harper.

Harper said the graduation gap represents a wide, systemic issue worse than isolated scandals seen on individual campuses.

“It happens just about everywhere,” said Harper, director of Penn’s Center for Race and Equity in Education.

“Generations of young black men, and their parents and

families, are repeatedly duped by a system that lies to them about what their life chances are and what their athletic outcomes are likely to be.”

Just as the attention of the sports world shifts to March Madness, the home page for the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s (NCAA) web site features data on how few student-athletes are drafted to play professional sports, promoting its efforts to educate college players. The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments begin this week.

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida also published a study this week on graduation rates for black men’s basketball players at NCAA Tournament schools. The 68 teams this year had a graduation rate for black athletes of 75 percent, compared with 69 percent for the teams last year. The same schools had graduation rates of 93 percent for white men each year, the study said.

Richard Lapchick, the institute’s director, told the Associated Press (AP) that problems with K-to-12 education are part of the disparity between black and white athletes.

“In urban areas...the ability for a student to be fully

prepared for college by the time of their senior year of high school is seriously compromised,” Lapchick said. “It’s not just an answer of the colleges. It’s how we look at American education in general.”

Lapchick’s report notes 11 teams in the 2016 men’s field have graduation rates of 100 percent: Butler, Holy Cross, Duke, Middle Tennessee, Dayton, Iowa, Kansas, Notre Dame, Texas, Villanova and Weber State.

According to estimated data from the NCAA, only 1.2 percent of college men’s basketball players are drafted by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and only 1.6 percent of college football players are drafted by the National Football League (NFL).

“Although there is a great deal of interest in basketball this time of year, we think it is important to remind fans of what our mission is—to provide student-athletes educational opportunities that will last a lifetime,” Bob Williams, NCAA senior vice president of communications, said in a statement to the AP. The NCAA also said graduation rates rose 13 percentage points in football and 15 percentage points in basketball for black student-athletes at all Division I

programs between 1995 and 2005.

A recent NCAA report on graduation data shows the graduation rate for black male players at all Division I basketball programs was 72 percent for the class that started in 2008. For football, the rate was 69 percent. On its web site, the NCAA says graduation rates are higher than ever, and 15 percent of student-athletes say they wouldn’t be in college without sports.

But the numbers don’t hold up when looking at the NCAA’s main revenue-generating sports at elite programs.

“When coaches are looking for the best athletic talent, that’s what they’re looking for,” Harper said. “They’re not really concerned with academic talent.”

Harry Swayne, who played football at Rutgers University for four years before a 14-year NFL career from 1987 to 2001, said he saw the shift in mentality from the idea of college as a path to education to a pipeline to a professional sports career.

“Statistically, more than likely, they won’t make it,” Swayne said. “We don’t want to talk them out of their dreams; we just want to give them some reality, too. We want to introduce them to some other possibilities for

when football is over, because it is coming to an end sooner than they think and sooner than they’re ready for.”

Harper said the solution is less likely to come from colleges than parents whose children are being recruited.

He encouraged families to ask coaches about their overall student-athlete experience before committing to schools.

“Sometimes, young men get so excited about the prospect of playing for a particular place and coach,” Harper said. “We’re going to have to see more student activism, where black players say, ‘You’re going to graduate me, or I’m not going to play for you.’”

ROTA, SPAIN OFFERS AFFORDABLE GETAWAY Becuase of you, ex-ambassador

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EAR God, when You take our beloved, Antonio CabangonChua into Your Kingdom, look into every soul he helped on earth, because even if we weep with sorrow, we also rejoice because he is now in the comfort of the angels, blessed Saints and most especially, with Your everlasting presence with him.

We believe that he will continue to pray for us. While on earth, he outstandingly showed love, mercy, compassion and service to so many people, especially the less fortunate. For more than three decades, he untiringly supported the Catholic Mass Media Award to recognize men and women in the field of evangelization and faith-building. Because of you, ex-ambassador, many benefitted from Your endless generosity. In Jesus name, we pray that you rest in peace. Amen.

A TRIBUTE TO EX-AMBASSADOR ANTONIO CABANGON-CHUA

BY LOUIE M. LACSON, HFL Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

Life BusinessMirror

In this file photo, University of Alabama »students receive their diplomas during the morning commencement ceremony for spring and summer graduates at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. While 58 percent of black male undergraduates at the 65 schools in the Power 5 conferences got degrees within six years, 54 percent of black male student-athletes at the same schools graduated, according to a study. AP

REELING: THE PURE AND CHASTE HERO: ‘MABINING MANDIRIGMA’ D3

Thursday, March 17, 2016

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TOURISM Promotions Board Chief Operating Officer Domingo Ramon C. Enerio III and Philippine Travel Agencies Association Inc. President Maria Michelle Victoria

PHILIPPINE Airlines President Jaime Bautista (right) and Vice President for Marketing Ria Domingo

ROTA’S Castle of the Moon is one of the town’s major historical structures and a sought-after landmark by visitors to this part of Spain.

PHILIPPINE Airlines Loyalty Program AVP Mayette Casanova and VP for Ancillary Business Kevin Hartigan-Go

IN Rota, a local man takes an afternoon stroll past some of the town’s shops.

TWO beagles wrap up on a beach run with their humans, and make their way home on the boardwalk in the town’s park.

A WOMAN and her dog enjoy a brisk walk on one of Rota’s beaches.

Rota, Spain offers affordable getaway STORY AND PHOTOS BY MYSCHA THERIAULT Tribune News Service

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PON embarking on a lengthy European adventure, my husband and I decided to start our trip in the south of Spain.

Milder winter temperatures entered into our decision, as did the appealing countryside and historical landmarks prevalent throughout the region.

Our first stop? The small city of Rota.

With a mix of Spanish and Islamic heritage

‘Bleisure’ trips are better than nothing, right?

IT’S an enjoyable trend with a clunky name. “Bleisure”—the practice of blending business trips with vacation—will be hot in 2016.

As more companies send employees on the road this year, more business travelers will book a few extra days at the beginning or end of trips, just for fun. Most likely to take a bleisure break? Employees ages 18 to 44 who take spouses, children or friends along on trips that combine business with pleasure.

The number of international business trips should rise 7 percent this year, with domestic business trips up 2 percent, according to the Global Business Travel Association.

Of course, the dark side of this trend is that fewer of us are taking even the puny average of 16 paid vacation days workers get. And those who do take vacation time tend to check in with work anyway, further blurring the line between time at work and time off. TNS

apparent in the architecture, a temperate climate and affordable cost of living, the destination has provided a pleasant and gentle entry into a life of full-time travel. One thing vacationers will find obvious upon arrival is the casual nature of the locals.

Real people live here. Individuals with an unforced friendliness walk the streets in accessible fashion choices, such as leggings, ankle boots, jean jackets and ponchos. It’s also clearly a dog-friendly town, where the pets are as unpretentious as the people.

Rather than a prevalence of perfectly groomed, pedigreed pooches, you’ll see everything from mixedbreed rescue pups and mischievous Labradors, to greyhounds and boxers, with the occasional barking beagle thrown in for good measure.

All of these things combine to produce an end result of old-world charm with plenty of workingclass authenticity. The fact that many of the most enjoyable things to do in Rota are available at no cost only adds to the value of the visit.

■ Sights: For a sense of the city’s heritage, make your way to the historical district.

It is easily walkable from most spots and boasts of a castle, baroque-style churches, the old publicmarket building and more.

These spots are all free to visit, along with the boardwalk trail in the local park and the municipal beaches that allow off-leash canine play and impromptu soccer practice by area youngsters.

There’s also a bricked promenade used frequently by locals for biking, jogging and fitness walks.

■ Sipping: In general, cafés are quite affordable in Rota. Inexpensive tapas abound, and half-sized orders

are listed on many a menu along with their reduced price. One of the most affordable places to sit and relax in is the outdoor patio restaurant in the plaza, just outside the Castle of the Moon.

They offer €2 pours of local wine that come with a free plate of olives. For my husband and I, that resulted in a painless €4 bar tab and a comfortable place to rest after exploring the castle and a nearby church. Throwing down a fiver meant we were able to leave a generous 25 percent tip and didn’t have to wait around for change when we were ready to leave.

Similarly, the sangria shack on the beach near the marina sells €15 pitchers of this internationally known beverage that are large enough for both of us to have several glasses each. This same establishment also includes two free shots of honey rum with every pitcher you order.

■ Accommodations: Even the higher-end hotels are extremely inexpensive in Rota. In fact, the nicest place in town is a four-star establishment on the beach priced at less than €100 per night. My husband and I opted for the Hotel Caribe.

A three-star venue about a block and a half from the water, it goes for €50 per night for a double room.

There are decent hostels in town, as well, for slightly less, but for only a few euros more, we scored access to a pool and complimentary breakfast for two each day.

■ Trekhound.com founder Myscha Theriault has sold her home, all her furniture and most of her other belongings to travel the world full time with her husband. You can follow her adventures on Twitter via @MyschaTheriault.

US Embassy’s Devin Rambo and Edwin John Giray

TRAVEL TOUR EXPO 2016 BIGGEST FAIR YET THOUSANDS trooped to the SMX Convention Center in Mall of Asia, Pasay City, to avail themselves of great travel deals and offers at the biggest, most-anticipated travel fair in the country—the 23rd Travel Tour Expo (TTE) 2016. Organized by the Philippine Travel Agencies Association Inc. (PTAA) and supported

by Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), the TTE 2016 showcased various international and local tour packages from 334 exhibitors from different sectors, such as airlines, resorts, hotels, domestic-tour operators, national tourism organizations, travel agencies and other stakeholders.

Opening the event were PTAA President Maria Michelle Victoria and TPB COO Domingo Ramon Enerio III. Joining them were Sen. Sonny Angara, with wife Tootsie, and Philippine Airlines President Jaime Bautista with VP for Marketing Ria Domingo, VP for Ancillary Business Kevin Hartigan-Go and SVP for Commercial Group David Lim; Citibank Consumer Business Manager Bea Tan with Credit Payment Products Director David Stoughton; and Saudia Philippines and Japan Manager Abdulrahman Alabdulwahab.

“We would like to congratulate PTAA for successfully organizing the biggest travel fair in the country. The 2016 TTE is truly commendable, as it brought together the various players in the travel and tourism industry, and in helping sustain the remarkable growth of Philippine tourism. For 2015, we breached the 5 million international-tourist arrivals. This would not have been possible without the continuous help and cooperation from each and every stakeholder,” Enerio says.

LIFE

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HEALTH&FITNESS

Villar called on the Tariff Commission to side with the local hog sector in its bid to have the offal tariff raised to 35 percent.

The senator, during a Senate hearing on the smuggling of meat, said the disparity in the tariff rates for offals and pork serves as a loophole that smugglers are taking advantage of in misdeclaring their shipments.

Some importers, according to hog raisers, are misdeclaring their shipments as offal instead of pork.

“There’s something wrong with our tariffs because it is encouraging technical smuggling,” Villar said.

She added that to plug this loophole, it is advisable to adjust the tariff on offal to balance it with the 35-percent tariff imposed on pork.

According to Samahang In-

5% and 35% Tariffs imposed on offals and pork, respectively, with the disparity seen enticing traders to misdeclare their shipments dustriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) President Rosendo So, the Swine Development Council in 2012 filed a petition to increase the tariff on offal.

It was not approved, however, as the low offal tariff was needed to maintain the country’s quantitative restriction (QR) on rice under World Trade Organization Continued on A2

San Miguel rally ‘puzzling’

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an Miguel Corp. is the Philippine stock benchmark’s best performer this year, handing investors a 55-percent gain that no analyst predicted.

The miss comes because the 126-year-old beer, oil and infrastructure conglomerate is no longer covered by stock analysts. As the Philippines’s biggest diversified company, earnings became harder to predict. Coverage dwindled, then halted altogether.

Under President Ramon S. Ang, San Miguel has become the coun-

try’s most acquisitive company, widening the scope for future deals.

Just as the company is becoming more complicated, the lack of analysts makes it harder for investors to evaluate the shares because they are left to dig out financial data themselves and have no consensus estimates for comparison.

“San Miguel has become very complex and unpredictable in terms of the direction of its expansion and asset sales,” said James Lago, research head at PCCI Continued on A2

GODSPEED ‘AMBA’ Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua was laid to his final resting place at the San Felipe Neri Catholic Cemetery on Wednesday. A funeral Mass at the San Felipe Neri Parish Church preceded the interment. NONIE REYES

Chinese premier strikes mild tone on regional disputes We hope that countries from C both inside and outside the

region can do more to benefit regional stability and not the opposite.

Otherwise, no one benefits.”—Li PESO exchange rates n US 46.7320

hina sees no contradiction between its insistence on safeguarding territory it claims and its desire for peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, Premier Li Keqiang said on Wednesday.

Striking a moderate tone, Li also said China was comfortable with a continued US presence in the

region, despite its past characterization of Washington, Australia and others as unwelcome interlopers. China can “engage in cooperation with them in the Asia Pacific and manage well our differences,” he said.

Li’s remarks at a news conference following the close of China’s annual legislative session were more

circumspect than those last week

by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who sternly warned that Beijing would not permit other nations to infringe on its sovereign rights in the strategic South China Sea. Wang also rejected accusations that China was militarizing the area by building man-made islands and topping them with airstrips,

turning the accusation back on the United States.

While Li did not address any disputes directly, he reaffirmed China’s desire for a calm regional environment and good neighborly relations, saying differences could be handled through diplomatic means.

Continued on A12

n japan 0.4129 n UK 66.1398 n HK 6.0220 n CHINA 7.1763 n singapore 33.8613 n australia 34.8481 n EU 51.9146 n SAUDI arabia 12.4655

Source: BSP (16 March 2016 )

BMReports BusinessMirror

A2 Thursday, March 17, 2016

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Exporters to get ‘comprehensive’ support

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By Catherine N. Pillas

he Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2015-2017 aims to raise the competitiveness of exports tagged as “underachievers” and “laggards,” then capitalize on key and emerging sectors, through a comprehensive package of support, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said on Wednesday.

In coming up with the plan, the DTI acknowledged that the country’s export performance has been left behind by its Asean neighbors in the past years, said Senen M. Perlada, director of the DTI Export Marketing Bureau (EMB) and executive director of the Public-Private Export Development Council.

“Because of our vulnerabilities, our export performance has been less robust than that of our Asean neighbors. This is best evidenced by the speed by which Vietnam has outpaced the Philippines. In 2006 Vietnam’s

$95B

Forecast total export receipts this year under PEDP 2015-2017 exports was just three-fourths of the Philippines’s. Seven years later, our exports are only half of Vietnam’s. In 2013 Philippine exports are only 28 percent of Thailand’s. The gap could be

wider if these Asean-5 [Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand] could maintain their current performance,” Perlada noted during the forum on the Regionalization of the 2015-2017 held on Wednesday.

The DTI-EMB director bared the trade-mapping strategy employed in the PEDP 2015-2017, which will serve as a guide for export development. In terms of goods, the new PEDP has identified 57 Philippine goods under the heading champions, underachievers, lag gards and achievers under adversity.

The EDC has tagged products whose demand are growing faster than the global average and which the Philippines has increased its market share in as champions. The underachievers are those that are experiencing growing global demand, but which the country has gradually lost its market share.

The laggard category includes products whose demand has been growing at a slower pace than world trade, and which the Philippines has conceded market share.

The achievers in adversity are products whose world demand grew and in which the Philippines outperformed exporters of other countries.

Products in the laggard category took the lion’s share of the total merchandise exports at 46 percent. It

covered 15 of the 57 industry clusters plotted by the EDC. Seventeen industry clusters fell under the champions category representing 28 percent of the total value of merchandise shipments; the underachievers 4 percent of goods exports and 11 industry clusters, and the achievers under adversity products 22 percent of the total goods exports value and 14 industry clusters.

Examples of champion products include the processed food and beverages and coconut oil.

Dessicated coconut, automotive electronic products fall under the underachiever category. Examples of laggard products are garments, footwear and semiconductors, while examples of achievers under adversity products include chemicals, fresh or processed fish, and medical instrumentation.

“We want our laggards to be achievers, then for our achievers to be champions,” Perlada stressed.

The same scheme applies to services exports under the PEDP 2015-2017: The estimated $22-billion Information technology and business-process management has been tagged as straddling the champion and achiever categories.

Computer-information services has also been identified under the achiever category. Examples

of underachieving service sectors are royalty and licenses, travelrelated services and construction.

With this classification, Perlada said the need for a “comprehensive support package” for key and emerging sectors must be implemented.

According to the PEDP, the key sectors are those that have a contribution to total exports of more than $1 billion and have a significant multiplier effect, among other criteria. Emerging sectors are those that meet the two previous criteria, and which the Philippines is competitive in.

Perlada said under the comprehensive-support package, a global value-chain analysis would be made per sector, as well as an increase in trade and investment promotion, training and capacity building.

The EDC has set an “stretched” growth target of 8 percent to 9 percent for total exports this year, or $95 billion, compared to the estimated $86 billion in estimated export receipts in 2015.

For 2017, goods exports are seen to grow at a rate ranging from 6.7 percent to 10 percent, while services growth rate will likely fall between 9.9 percent to 12 percent. This will mean total export growth can fall between 7.7 percent to 10.6 percent in 2017. The new PEDP was signed

by President Aquino in February.

Cyber-heist banker faces closed-door Senate probe

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he Philippine banker involved in an $81-million cyber heist will be questioned in a closeddoor Senate hearing on Thursday, as the government expands its probe into how the funds were laundered through the country’s casinos.

The Philippine antimoney-laundering agency said Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Branch Manager Maia Santos Deguito allowed the money to be withdrawn on February 5 and 9 despite requests from Bangladesh—the owner of the funds —to stop the transfers. The banker declined to answer questions at Tuesday’s five-hour Senate hearing and opted for a tell all in a closeddoor executive session. (Related Story on B4) Deguito “is a key player here because if you don’t have the cooperation of the branch manager, this could not have been done,” Sen. Sergio R. Osmeña III, vice chairman of the country’s Blue Ribbon Committee, which investigates major issues, told reporters on Wednesday. “We have barely scratched the surface in this investigation.”

The missing funds, about the

average daily amount overseas Filipino workers send home in remittances, has rattled authorities from the Philippines, Bangladesh to Sri Lanka. Bangladesh Central Bank Governor Atiur Rahman submitted his resignation on Tuesday, as tensions escalate with the finance minister over the stolen funds.

In broadening the probe to the casinos, Thomas Arasi, president and COO at Bloomberry Resorts Corp., is expected to be questioned at the hearing on Thursday. Silverio Benny Tan, corporate secretary at Bloomberry, said at the hearing on Tuesday his casino received funds from a local remittance company.

Cristino Naguiat, head of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., which manages local casinos, will also attend the hearing, Osmeña said.

“We’re looking for electronic trail and the casinos may be able to tell us,” the senator said. “I want to know where the money went and in whose account it was credited.”

The crime of money laundering is punishable by a maximum jail term of 14 years in the Philippines.

Bloomberg News

Maia S. Deguito, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) branch manager, takes her oath before testifying at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee probe on the $81 million stolen funds from Bangladesh. The money was transmitted online to four private accounts at a branch of the RCBC on March 15. In a related development, Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman told reporters he was ready to quit after hackers managed to divert $101 million from the country’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.ROY DOMINGO

San Miguel rally ‘puzzling’…

SecuritiesBrokersCorp.,whostopped attending San Miguel’s quarterly briefings and just downloads its presentations and financial statements from its web site.

Among the more than 200 companies traded in Asia with annual revenue of more than $15 billion, San Miguel is the only one that isn’t covered by analysts. Nor does the company, scheduled to report fourth-quarter profit on March 17, offer guidance on its results.

Stock valuations

With or without analyst reports to guide them, investors may puzzle at the extent of San Miguel’s rally this year. The stock was already expensive at more than 100 times earnings at the end of 2015, before the 55-percent rally. Now, they’re at 169 times last year’s earnings, almost eight times the index average and more than double the next most- expensive stock on the Philippine Stock Exchange Index.

San Miguel didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The company posted a P2.48billion ($53 million) loss in the September quarter, its biggest quarterly deficit since 2013, after reporting net income of P6.33 billion in the previous three months and P2.32 billion the quarter before that.

The moves into energy and an increase in dollar-denominated debt has also raised the company’s sensitivity to exchange rate fluctuations. Profit fell by more than half to P6.17 billion for the first nine months of 2015, as a weaker peso quadrupled foreign exchange losses to P10.3 billion.

Every peso decrease in the US dollar-exchange rate has a P5.2-billion effect on San Miguel’s pretax profit, primarily because dollar-denominated debt accounts for nearly half of its 855.8 billion pesos in liabilities, according to the company. The peso fell more than 5 percent in 2015.

The earnings volatility hasn’t pre-

Continued from a1

vented shares from surging this year amid expectations the declining price of crude will boost profit at the company’s oil refining operations. Petron Corp., San Miguel’s listed oil refiner, is the second-best performer this year on the Philippine benchmark.

Revenue jump

While diversification has wiped out analyst coverage, it has been good for revenue. Sales surged by more than five times 2007 levels to P782.4 billion in 2014, or more than 5 percent of the Philippines’s GDP. Still, the company’s debt levels have surged and the stock slumped 66 percent in the five years through 2015, while the nation’s benchmark equities index climbed 65 percent.

Investors in San Miguel’s debt are also without help from ratings.

The company’s credit is not rated by any of the more than 30 agencies tracked by Bloomberg.

Some investors prefer to get ex-

posure to San Miguel by buying preferred shares, which pay a set rate, while eschewing common stock.

“We don’t buy the common shares for our alpha or growth funds because there are better alternatives,” said Robert Ramos, chief investment officer at Union Bank of the Philippines, with about $844 million in assets under management. “The preferred shares is a different story, and investors find it attractive because of its high dividend yield.”

The company said on March 11 it is selling P30 billion of preferred shares that may be redeemed in five to 10 years, with yields set at as much as 6.5793 percent. Last September it raised P33.5 billion from a similar fundraising.

Raising funds

Ang said in February that San Miguel plans to sell retail bonds and preferred shares and cut its dollardenominated debt to tap the Philippines’s growing wealth and shield

its earnings from a weaker peso.

Total debt averaged about 7.5 times earnings over the five quarters ended last September 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

San Miguel and funds controlled by its president own more than 80 percent of outstanding shares, increasing the risk for investors outside the company itself, as it leaves fewer shares available when an investor wants to buy or sell.Ang said in a 2011 interview that he may buy back shares, taking the company private, as disclosure requirements of the exchange have sometimes hampered acquisition plans. “From Ramon Ang’s point of view, he has a vision; that the company can’t just be in the beer business and that it had to put its cash to work,” said Bede Lovell Gomez, First Metro Investment Corp. vice president and head of its Investment Advisory and Trust Group.

“To analysts, the company seems to have lost focus.” Bloomberg News

‘Tariff tweaks needed to end technical smuggling of pork’ Continued from A1

(WTO) concessions. So said Sinag filed another petition in 2014, when offal was no longer included in the conditions set by the WTO to extend Manila’s QR on rice. No action was taken on the new petition up to this time.

Based on the data presented by Sinag during the hearing, there is a discrepancy in the data recorded by the United Nations Comtrade, as compared to those from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).

In 2013 UN Comtrade data showed that 107,804.40 metric tons (MT) of belly and pork cuts entered the country, while BAI data only showed 68,267.12 MT. In terms of offals, the UN ComTrade gathered that only 64,216.01 MT entered the country in 2013. This is lower than the 94,933.04 MT reported to the BAI in the same year.

UN data also revealed that 24,894.23 MT of fats were shipped to the Philippines during the period, lower than the 36,226.61 MT declared to the BAI in 2013.

Villar said this is evidence that some importers of pork cou ld be m i sdec l a r i ng t hei r sh ipments a s of fa l s or fats.

“In 2014 Sinag filed another petition. And as of yesterday [Monday], no action was taken,” said Jayson Cainglet, executive director of Sinag.

Sinag earlier said smuggling has caused the farm-gate price of pork to decline. This has caused hog raisers to incur losses and some backyard raisers to lose their source of livelihood, Cainglet said. “Since December, the farm-gate [prices] backyard raisers have fallen. The farm-gate price is down because of smuggled pork. Even commercial farms are losing money.”

Current farm-gate price of backyard raisers range from P80 to P85 per kilo.

Commercial growers’ prices are from P90 to P95 per kilo. Sinag said this is barely above cost of production, particularly for backyard raisers. The livestock industry has already lost almost 100,000 workers due to smuggling since 2010, Sinag said.

Customs Commissioner Alberto D. Lina informed the senator and representatives of the meat industry that documents for shipments of meat with 5 percent-to-10 percent tariffs are being processed by the Office of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), itself.

Lina also recommended that importers should waive their rights under the bank secrecy law to facilitate better inspection. He said this should be included in the implementing rules and regulations of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, as well as the law that identifies agricuture smuggling as economic sabotage.

Agriculture Undersecretar y Jose C. Reano, for his part, said a cold-chain inspection area should be provided so no meat shipments with questionable documents can go out of the BOC without proper inspection.

“Also, the 12-digit harmonized system code of the US will be used and included in the permit to import. To be sure that no illegal release is done, the Department of Agriculture [DA] will secure the inward foreign manifest directly from the shipping lines, which will be compared with the BOC and DA sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance,” Reano said.

BMReports BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Thursday, March 17, 2016 A3

SC ruling on Grace Poe puzzles even lawyers

T

By Joel R. San Juan

HE Supreme Court’s (SC) recent decision allowing Sen. Grace Poe to run for president in the coming elections despite questions on her citizenship and residency has puzzled even lawyers.

The majority decision approved by nine justices, which reversed the Commission on Elections’s (Comelec) rulings canceling the certificate of candidacy (COC) of Poe over material misrepresentation on her citizenship and residency eligibilities, has also drawn flaks from prominent law experts, both in practice and in the academe.

Far Eastern University Institute of Law Dean Melencio Sta. Maria, University of the Philippines law professor and election lawyer Edgardo Carlo Vistan II and litigation lawyer Raymond Fortun, all said that, while

they respect the outcome of the case in the SC, they do not necessarily agree with the ruling.

In an online commentary, Sta. Maria described the SC decision as “disturbing” because he did not think the Comelec abused it discretion when it decided in December last year to cancel Poe’s COC in the May presidential polls due to material misrepresentation on her citizenship and residency qualifications.

Poe, a foundling from Iloilo, was adopted by celebrity couple Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces.

She later migrated to the United States to study and have a family.

She became a US citizen in 2001, and obtained dual citizenship, five years later, in 2006. She renounced her US citizenship in October 2010, right before accepting appointment in the government.

In its ruling written by Associate Justice Jose Perez, the SC said Poe is presumed to be a natural-born Filipino based on circumstantial evidence and statistical probability.

The SC majority agreed with the Solicitor General’s assertion that Poe is probably natural-born based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showing that more than 99 percent of babies born in the 1960s and 1970s, both in Iloilo and the entire Philippines, were natural-born.

The SC also said Poe is probably natural-born because she was found at a Catholic church in Iloilo and possesses “typical Filipino features, such as height, flat nasal bridge, straight black hair, almondshaped eyes and an oval face.”

But Sta. Maria disagreed with the pronouncement of the SC in

The textual constitutional requirements cannot be subjected to the vicissitudes of moral argumentation.”–Sta. Maria

its decision favoring Poe. “The issue on presidential qualification demands an exacting resolution based on solid grounds—not on possibilities, more-than-ampleprobabilities, disputable presumptions, statistical certainty, extraneous international law and, yes, even biological physical features of the candidates,” he said.

Sta. Maria said it does not mean the Philippines will not belong to the “civilized members of the community of nations”— as the SC decision said—just because it does not automatically considers foundlings to be natural-born citizens.

“Unquestionably, we are all for the paramount interest of children, including foundlings. It is just that the textual constitutional

requirements cannot be subjected to the vicissitudes of moral argumentation,” Sta. Maria added.

Sta. Maria said the public should not stop criticizing SC ruling if they think these are wrong.

For his part, Raymond Fortun said the SC decision seemed to have elevated foundlings as a “super class of citizens.”

“One of the cornerstone principles of our country’s Rules of Evidence is ‘he who alleges has the burden of proving it,’” Fortun said on his social-media account.

“Did we just throw this out the window? Did we just create a super class of citizens composed of foundlings, who are not subject to the basic Rules on Evidence? Just asking,” he added.

UP Law’s Vistan, meanwhile,

said the Court should not rely solely on the “good faith” argument in deciding in favor of Senator Poe because that will leave the real issues on eligibility hanging.

In its ruling, the SC said Poe cannot be considered to have committed material misrepresentation because her declaration in her 2012 COC for senator that put her residency until 2016 under the required 10 years was an honest mistake done in good faith.

“By good faith argument, I mean [it is] that view where it is said that Senator Poe may not have met the qualifications, but she believed in good faith that she is qualified. So, she committed no material misrepresentation and her certificate of candidacy should not be canceled. If this is the approach that would be adopted, the question of Senator Poe’s eligibility may still be questioned later on,” Vistan said in a television interview.

Vistan also stressed the impor tance of sett ling the Poe cases with finality before the May 9 elections.

Survey: Filipinos most emotional in Asia

By Cai U. Ordinario

F

ilipinos are the most emotional people in Asia, according to Gallup Inc.’s 2016 Global Emotions Report.

The Gallup survey, which covered 140 countries, had the Philippines in the company of Latin American countries Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala as the most emotional worldwide.

“Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and the Philippines top the list of the most emotional countries in the world in 2015. On average, nearly six in 10 [or 59 percent of] residents in each of these countries reported experiencing positive or negative emotions the previous day,” Gallup said.

The Philippines is also the only Asian country on the list of most emotional countries worldwide.

Also on the list of most emotional are Nicaragua, Honduras, Peru and Bolivia, with 58 percent of the population saying they experienced positive or negative emotions the previous day. Costa Rica, Uruguay and Colombia followed, with 57 percent of the population being emotional.

Meanwhile, the least emotional country in the world is Belarus, where only 37 percent of its population said they had a positive or negative emotion the previous day.

“Countries with ties to Russia and the former Soviet Union largely dominate the list of countries at the other end of the spectrum, where fewer than four in 10 residents reported experiencing any of these feelings,” Gallup said.

To come up with the data, Gallup interviewed adults in 140 countries. It asked the interviewees five positive and negative experience questions each.

Countries that exhibited the most positive experiences were Paraguay, with 84 percent of its residents saying they were “happy;” Guatemala, Honduras, Uzbekistan and Ecuador 83 percent; El Salvador and Indonesia 82 percent; and Costa Rica, Uruguay, Colombia and Switzerland 81 percent.

“That so many people report positive emotions in Latin America, at least, partly reflects the cultural tendency in the region to focus on the positives in life. In fact, the single variable that predicts results on both the Positive and Negative Experience Indexes is the country of origin, suggesting cultural bias exists in how people answer these questions,” Gallup said. The country with the lowest positive experiences globally is Syria, where only 36 percent of residents

59%

Percentage of respondents in the Philippines who reported experiencing positive or negative emotions the previous day had positive experiences.

The list also includes Turkey and Nepal with 51 percent; Georgia, Serbia and Iraq 54 percent; Yemen, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine 55 percent.

Gallup said the data reflected the civil war in Syria and the ongoing internal and external conflict in countries like Ukraine, Iraq, Yemen and Turkey.

The earthquake in Nepal, Gallup said, continued to affect the positive experiences of its residents.

“Personal freedom and the presence of social networks are also highly predictive of scores on the Positive Experience Index, the latter of which helps to explain why people from poor countries in Latin America still seem to live such positive lives,” Gallup added.

Meanwhile, the Negative Experience Index showed that Iraq and Iran had the most negative experiences, based on the results of the survey.

Iraq had a Negative Experience Index score of 58 percent. It topped the index four times—in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015—and was consistently in the top 5 since 2008.

Iran, which had a negative index score of 50 percent, was No. 1 in 2012 and has made at least the top 15 countries in the years Gallup has conducted surveys there.

“The continued presence of Iraq and Iran at the top of the list is not that surprising, given how strongly related negative scores are to people’s perceptions about their living standards and health problems,” Gallup said.

“In fact, people in most of the countries with the highest negative scores in 2015 were contending with some disruption—economic or otherwise.

Almost all countries at the top of the list in 2014 are at the top of the list again in 2015,” it added.

Gallup said the report is based on results of surveys in 2015. These surveys were conducted via telephone and face-to-face interviews with approximately 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, conducted throughout 2015 in 140 countries. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error ranged from ±2.1 percentage points to ±5.6 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

infrastructure seminar

Arun Kumar (from left), assistant secretary for commerce and director general of the US Commercial Service; Catherine Jennifer Gonzales, undersecretary for procurement and administration; and Public-Private Partnership Center Executive Director Andre Palacios enjoy a light moment during the “Japan-US Joint Seminar on Infrastructure” for Philippine government entities and private companies. The seminar sought to share visions, policies and best practices with foreign government-procurement officials and local prime contractors in infrastructure development. NONIE REYES

PHL faces stiffer competition in IT-BPM

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he Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on Tuesday said that the Philippines will be facing stiffer competition in the information technology and business-process management (ITBPM) field with the entry of more players in the call-center space.

DTI’s Export Markeking Bureau director Senen M. Perlada said that even with the robust growth of the local IT-BPM sector in the past few years, the Philippines should brace for this emerging scenario.

“In the Philippines voice is still over 60 percent of the IT-BPM industry. Kung ganon pa rin ang profile ng IT-BPM, doon papasok ang competition,” he said. “That’s why the higher-value sectors, such as software, health-information management and knowledge-process outsourcing, should be promoted.”

Perlada pointed out that Vietnam, Turkey, Egypt and Canada will be competing more closely with the Philippines in the voice space of the IT-BPM as language

services diversify.

The saturation of the sector is not seen in the short term, but industry gaps, such as lack of available talent, should be addressed, the DTI official added.

In a previous interview, Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (Ibpap) officials said that out of 100 applicants for a position in the industry, only 10 are hired.

The IT-BPM has been tagged by the Export Development Council in the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2015 to 2017 as a “champion” and “achiever in adversity” sector.

Champion sectors are those considered by the DTI as those whose demand is growing faster than average and which Philippines has an increased market share.

An “achiever in adversity” sector is one whose global demand grew and which the Philippines is outperforming other countries in terms of export performance.

Perlada noted that while higher value sectors, such as game development and health-information management sectors have been growing, the growth rate of the call-center space is still more significant.

Ibpap, the industry’s representative association, is expected to come up with a road map this year that will chart its growth trajectory and targets from 2016 to 2022. The industry is still eyeing a $25-billion revenue haul this year.

Jose Mari Mercado, Ibpap head, told reporters that, while revenues for 2015 has yet to come in, the industry forecast of $22 billion for the year is attainable. “If we hit the $22-billion guidance for 2015, the industry is on track to hit the $25-billion goal for 2016, because that’s just a 14-percent increase. We have been posting that kind of growth in recent years,” Mercado said.

Ranked second to overseas Filipino workers’ remittances in

contribution to the GDP, the ITBPM sector’s revenues surged to $18.9 billion in 2014, from $8.9 billion in 2010.

In terms of work-force growth, the sector boasts of 1.07 million employees in 2014, from 520,000 employees in 2010.

Since 2010, the IT-BPM sector has been growing at an average of 21.8 percent, according to the ITBPM 2011 to 2016 road map. For 2015 the industry sees employment at 1.2 million, while revenues are expected to hit $22 billion.

The Ibpap is expected to update its projections with a new road map—The IT-BPM Roadmap 2016-2022—which will contain the growth assumptions and strategies, as well as the industry’s employment predictions. The road map will also outline the required interventions to scale up Filipino business-process outsourcing services up the value chain, as well as the needed government support to sustain the industry’s growth. Catherine N. Pillas

Farewell, Amba

Our hearts ache with sadness as we bring you to your final resting place

Asean

BusinessMirror Editor: Max V. de Leon • Thursday, March 17, 2016 A5

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Asean challenges Asean-EU Perspective

HENRY J. SCHUMACHER

T

here can be no doubt that the recent US-Asean Special Leaders’ Summit in California was a historic event. During the meeting with European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström in Chiang Mai two week ago, the EU-Asean Business Council representatives strongly suggested that such an EU-Asean Leaders Summit should also be planned pretty soon.

Asean was founded in 1967 (and will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year during the Asean chairmanship by the Philippines) by five of its current 10 members: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, which were later joined by Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia. At that time, Southeast Asia was the world’s bloodiest battlefield, with not only the Vietnam War raging but also insurrections and risks of wars between countries. With the establishment of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) at the end of 2015, the group has had a highly successful journey.

This is all the more remarkable given the fact that no region in the world contains such religious, political and economic diversity, as well as diverse colonial histories. The stability among the 10 members, however, must not be taken for granted. There are various social, environmental, economic, political and ideological areas of threats within countries, and potential areas of conflict between countries. The really grave threat would be if Asean becomes a proxy battleground between the US and China. The second and potentially most explosive issue is the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea. It is an immensely complex issue not only for the Asia-Pacific region but also for the world. Territorial disputes are especially acute between China and four Asean states: Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

With China highly dependent on supplies of vital resources, notably energy, minerals and food, any disruption in the South China Sea, particularly the geopolitically critical Malacca Strait, threatens the lifeline to China’s 1.3 billion people. Just as there is no unanimous view among Asean member- states on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, there is no unanimous view about the South China Sea. Visionary statesmanship will be required from all key actors: China, the US, and the 10 member-states of Asean.

Additionally, each of the 10 Asean members has challenges to overcome to bolster and sustain economic growth at a time when the global economy is weak and competition is intensifying.

The story of Asean’s future prospects needs a little perspective. There are 10 member-nations spread across Southeast Asia that have a wide variety of government styles. At the last count, there were three constitutional monarchies, three republics, two communist states, one constitutional sultanate and a former military junta in Asean. The people in Asean practice several religions and speak over 70 languages and dialects.

Today, Asean is an oasis of growth in a changing and difficult world economic environment. Businesses and investors alike are seeking to ride on wide growth prospects and definitely give Asean some serious thought.

To prosper in Asean, we need to understand and appreciate its diversity, and capitalize on this strength. But it is also important to understand that Asean integration raises the bar of challenges of competition between the member-countries.

Singapore wireless battle heats up as entrant taps Goldman, DBS

C

ompetition is heating up in Singapore’s S$11-billion ($8billion) telecommunications market, threatening to increase funding costs for potential new entrants.

MyRepublic Ltd., a local Internet service provider backed by French billionaire Xavier Niel and Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Group, enlisted Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and DBS Group Holdings Ltd. to help raise S$250 million to support its bid for the new fourth mobile-phone license, CEO Malcolm Rodrigues said. Consistel, a regional wireless software provider, will “absolutely join” the fray and plans to invest as much as S$1.3 billion, Chairman Masoud Bassiri said. It plans a mix of debt and equity funding.

Incumbents Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., Starhub Ltd. and M1 Ltd. are spicing up their offerings in the past week to defend market share before the license auction this year that will shake up what is already the world’s most-saturated market.

While Rodrigues denies the city is engaged in a “price war,” potential creditors will have to gauge that risk.

“This could be a candidate for a high-yield telco issuer in the Singapore dollar bond market,” said Terence Lin, assistant director of bonds and portfolio management in Singapore at consultancy iFAST Corp. “Current incumbents are high investment grade due to their parentage and the stability of the sector’s revenues. The new entrant

$8B

The telecommunications market in Singapore

doesn’t have such strong parentage, so fund-raising will be significantly more costly.”

Bidding for the mobile spectrum, starting at the S$35-million reserve price, will begin in the third quarter and an award is due in April 2017.

MyRepublic plans to offer an unlimited mobile-data plan at S$80 a month and a 2-gigabyte plan at S$8 a month, it said on March 9. SingTel responded by offering to double subscribers’ data for an extra S$5.90 a month.

“We don’t believe there’s a price war,” Rodrigues said in an interview.

“What they’re doing is adding to the monthly bill. This doesn’t change our business plan.”

SingTel said its promotion was linked to customer feedback, faster devices and an upgraded network.

“Customers are telling us that their data allowances aren’t sufficient, especially when they upgrade to new phones,” Yuen Kuan Moon, SingTel’s chief executive officer of consumer, Singapore, said in a statement. “So we are merely trying to meet their needs— pure and simple.”

Higher costs

Any new entrant will face risingborrowing costs in the city. Singapore’s benchmark three-month swap offer rate reached 1.76 percent on January 13, the highest since October 2008, according to bank association data.

While the rate has retreated to 1.18 percent, it’s still double the average in the past three years.

“We are looking at a mixture of debt and equity and we have bankers and investment advisers looking at all the options,” Consistel’s Bassiri said in a Tuesday interview, declining to name the banks. “We are in the process of completing both sides of it, and it looks like we are on the right track.”

The yield on SingTel’s 3.25 percent 2025 US currency notes dropped almost two basis points to 2.97 percent as of 10 a.m. in Singapore on Wednesday, Bloomberg-compiled data show.

Starhub’s 3.08 percent 2022 localcurrency note yield fell two basis points to near an eight-month low of 3.19 percent. Both securities yielded more than 3.5 percent in September.

Asian dollar junk bonds yield 7.9 percent on average in a JPMorgan Chase & Co. index.

MyRepublic is seeking S$150 million from private equity firms and S$100 million of loans with a sixto seven-year maturity, Rodrigues said. Goldman and DBS have helped

secure two-thirds of the equity financing and the balance is expected

by May, he said. Since its start-up in 2011, MyRepublic has raised S$23 millionfrom Brunei Darussalam’s DST group in March 2015 and S$30 million from Sinar Mas and Niel in July 2014. Goldman and DBS declined to comment on the financing, their spokesmen said.

Market dominance

“Private equity funds may be attracted by the stable cash- generating nature of the telecom business,” said Anthea Lai, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “For a four-player market to be sustainable, the new entrant has to focus on a niche customer segment rather than disrupting the overall market by aggressive price cuts.”

SingTel generated S$7.3 billion of its revenue at home in the year ended March 31, 2015, and controls half of the cell-phone market despite having lost its monopoly in 1997. Starhub has a 27-percent share and M1 the rest, according to Maybank Kim Eng Securities. Singapore’s mobile-phone penetration rate was 148 percent in 2015, compared with 93 percent a decade earlier, according to Infocomm Development Authority. Its residents are ranked as the most-active users of social media in the Asia Pacific.

New promotions make it harder for entrants to disrupt the market, BNP Paribas SA said.

“This is a strong demonstration of the incumbents’ willingness to raise the barriers for operators looking to enter,” Wei Shi Wu, a Singaporebased analyst at the bank wrote in a March 14 note. “This could shrink the addressable market.” Bloomberg News

Myanmar’s next revolution needs to go beyond politics

I

n Myanmar’s fraught transition to civilian rule, two of the biggest political questions have been answered. The military permitted free elections, but it still won’t allow the leader of the victorious opposition, Aung San Suu Kyi, to become president. Now, with Suu Kyi’s childhood friend and political ally newly elected to that office, the new government needs to turn its focus to the economy.

Myanmar’s economy is growing at near 8.5 percent, while foreign investment has taken off from virtually nothing in 2010 to a reported $8.1 billion in the last fiscal year.

But the benefits of growth have yet to be widely felt. Corruption and cronyism are deep-rooted. Opaque state-owned and military-linked companies continue to dominate key sectors.

So far, Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy has been vague about its economic priorities and plans.

That has to change. Expectations for the new government are running wild. While fundamental issues await attention, from uncertainty over land rights to the plunder of natural resources by the military and ethnic rebel groups, it will be important to notch a few quick wins before tackling them.

A lot can be done simply by lifting the government’s still-heavy hand on the economy. Farmers are constrained in what they can grow and when, for example, while banks are limited in how much they can lend to them. The government should start planning to privatize much of

the extensive state sector, even if government-owned oil and gas giants remain off-limits for now.

Government spending will be bound to a budget passed by the previous Parliament. But the new government can merge ministries and shift money around to areas where it can have a more immediate impact—focusing more on preventative health care, for instance, and on primary-school education rather than on universities. Given its location, young population and low wages, Myanmar is perfectly positioned to develop a low-cost export industry. If it wants to create a more productive and modern work force, however, it will have to keep kids in school longer and provide better skills training for those who have already left.

The new leadership can help itself by welcoming investment and expertise from wherever it comes.

In the government, Suu Kyi has said she’s open to retaining the best administrators from the previous regime, and she’d be smart to tap the talented and growing pool of returned Burmese expatriates for their expertise. In the private sector, foreign banks can help improve efficiency at their smaller Burmese counterparts, freeing up capital for small and medium-sized businesses.

Suu Kyi should also think seriously about asking the US to lift remaining sanctions on Myanmar, clearing the way for hesitant US players to join the Japanese, Korean, Thai and Singaporean companies already in the market. Bloomberg News

HUMAN-TRAFFICKING TRIAL

Prisoners are escorted by Thai correction officers from a bus to the Criminal Court on their arrival at the Criminal Court in Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday. Prosecutors in Thailand have called their first witnesses in a major human-trafficking trial with 92 defendants, including a senior army officer, implicated in smuggling, kidnappings and the deaths of dozens of people. The case came to light after more than 30 bodies were discovered last year in shallow graves in southern Thailand, exposing networks that trafficked Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar and held them for ransom in jungle camps. AP

Indonesia palm oil shipments seen at 1-year low on weak China demand

P

alm-oil exports from Indonesia probably fell for a second month in February after demand from China weakened and as the world’s largest palm grower used more of the commodity in biodiesel.

Shipments fell 7.1 percent to 1.95 million metric tons (MMT) from 2.1 million tons (MT) in January, according to the median of nine estimates from analysts, refiners and plantation executives compiled by Bloomberg. That would be the lowest since February 2015, according to data from the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, also known as Gapki.

Palm oil, which bucked a commodities rout last year, is set to reach the highest since 2012 as the strongest El Niño in almost two

1.95 MMT Estimated palm-oil exports of Indonesia in February, down 7.1 percent from the previous month decades ravages production and squeezes inventories, according to Godrej International Ltd.’s Dorab Mistry. Better-than-expected world energy demand for palm oil with the Indonesian biodiesel program “now functioning well” will boost prices to more than 3,000 ringgit ($728)

a ton, he said last week.

Futures retreated 0.7 percent to 2,594 ringgit on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives on Wednesday, paring gains to 4.4 percent this year. Prices rallied to a 21-month high of 2,648 ringgit last month.

Biodiesel demand

“WE started the year with high stockpiles, and now biodiesel will help to gradually curb supply,” said Fadhil Hasan, executive director of the palm association. “The program is running quite well with demand seen relatively stable at around 200,000 kiloliters per month, reducing supply for exports.”

W h i le a n econom ic slowdown in China has weakened de-

mand, Indonesia will rely more on buyers such as India, the European Union and Pakistan for exports, Fadhil said. Shipments may drop to about 24 MT this year from 26.4 MT in 2015 as domestic biodiesel demand increases, Fadhil said at an industry conference in Kuala Lumpur last week. Production in Indonesia probably totaled 2.04 MT in February and inventories 2.2 MT, the survey showed.

That compares with Gapki’s January output estimate of 2.99 MT, which included crude palm and kernel oils, and reserves of 4.36 MT. January’s data was the first time the association released production and inventory figures. It will publish February data this month. Bloomberg News

A6

Business

Thursday, March 17, 2016 | Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Indian journalists see more threats, attacks with Modi as PM

N

The W

EW DELHI—A newscast on whether India had become intolerant of dissent quickly spiraled into something darker after a guest on the program referred to a pamphlet that called the Hindu goddess Durga a sex worker.

Though the host did not make the remarks, she was accused of disparaging the deity and was bombarded with more than 2,500 threatening calls.

“Some called and said they would douse me with acid,” Kerala journalist Sindhu Sooryakumar said.

Six members of a militant group linked with India’s Hindu nationalist ruling party have been arrested.

Sooryakumar is one of a growing number of Indian journalists who say they are increasingly facing a backlash for producing work that raises questions or criticisms of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government or his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The crackdowns are happening as journalists try to cover a nationwide debate on how Indian patriotism should be defined—as Hindu or multicultural, devout or secular—and whether dissent should be tolerated.

Members of Modi’s government have offered hard-line views on the issue, equating criticism of the government with criticism of the country. Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani said last month that “the nation can never tolerate an insult to Mother India,” while Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted that anyone shouting anti-India slogans “will not be tolerated or spared.”

Last week one of India’s bestrecognized TV anchors, Barkha Dutt, filed a police report after allegedly receiving “anonymous abusive death threats.” She had been reporting along with the rest of the capital’s media on a university student’s arrest for allegedly making anti-India statements.

The student criticized the 2013 secret hanging—under a previous government—of a Kashmiri separatist convicted of an attack on Parliament.

Dutt told a conference organized by a women’s group that, following her reports, she received calls threatening “rape, sexual abuse and even shooting me.”

During that same student’s court hearing on sedition charges last month, lawyers beat reporters and damaged cameras and recording equipment while demanding they not cover public protests against the student’s arrest. Journalists from several broadcasters, newspapers and wire services were attacked, including an Associated Press photographer whose hand was bruised and camera lens broken. The attacks “have heightened concerns about the state of press freedom in India,” a statement from the international Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said.

On Friday Finance Minister Arun Jaitley issued the first government comments condemning the violence surrounding the hearing, saying “it was a terrible exception, what happened. Normally people in a public place find media as their natural ally. The whole idea of getting the media dragged into contemporaneous controversy and then attacking it physically is absolutely unacceptable anywhere.”

Journalists have never been entirely safe in India—11 have been killed since 2010, according to the CPJ. Most were working outside major cities, often covering smalltown corruption, when they were killed. The fact that journalists in major cities like New Delhi are now being hounded is relatively novel, after years during which they operated largely without fear of retribution thanks in part to the nation’s educated, urban elite and the foreign media bearing noisy witness. AP

Challenges from Taiwan, Korea could push China’s nationalism

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EIJING—The economy dominated the Chinese legislature’s annual session, but other challenges cropped up too, including the potential for new instability on the Korean Peninsula, unrest in Hong Kong, the election of an independence-leaning government on the self-ruling island of Taiwan and tensions in the South China Sea.

Such issues could prompt President Xi Jinping to shore up his support by turning up nationalist rhetoric — one of the ruling Communist Party’s traditional strategies for building legitimacy.

A look at some of them:

Hong Kong headache

THE Occupy Central street protests in 2014 sought to expand democracy but ended without a clear resolution—and a distrust of authority has lingered in Hong Kong. A Lunar New Year street riot last month shocked many in the city, while the disappearance of five people linked to a publishing house specializing in politically sensitive books has raised fears that Beijing is tightening its hold on the southern financial hub.

Elections this year for the 70-seat Legislative Council could result in deadlock, while unpopular Chief Executive C.Y. Leung appears to be Beijing’s only option to run for a second term in 2017.

Premier Li Keqiang said on Wednesday that China won’t be changing its basic policy of allowing Hong Kong to maintain a substantial degree of autonomy, and expressed faith in the city’s government and citizens to manage their problems while Beijing maintains a watchful eye.

Taiwan turns away

BEIJING was helpless to watch the pro-Chinese Nationalist Party go down to ignominious defeat in Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections in January. The result was a huge win for the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, whose leader Tsai Ing-wen is set be be inaugurated as the island’s first female president in May, backed by her party’s first majority in the legislature.

During the eight-year rule of Nationalist President Ma Ying-jeou, Beijing had hoped to use economic inducements to bring the island closer to its goal of eventual political unification, but the policy seems instead to have generated resentment among young voters.

Li has avoided mentioning Taiwan’s elections, but said on Wednesday China would stick to its core policies of opposing the island’s independence and insisting that Tsai agree that Taiwan and mainland China are part of a single Chinese nation.

Korean conundrum

AFTER working to repair ties with its communist neighbor, Beijing was angered by Pyongyang’s purported hydrogen bomb test in early January and a subsequent satellite launch that was seen as

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang waves as he leaves a news conference after the closing session of the annual National People’s Congress held in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Wednesday. AP

a test of banned missile technology. Though initially unwilling to take tougher action that might destabilize Kim Jung Un’s regime, China hardened its attitude in mid-February and agreed with the US on tough new UN sanctions to punish Pyongyang for violating earlier resolutions.

In a phone conversation on Tuesday with his Japanese counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang Yi reaffirmed China’s commitment to fully implement UN sanctions against Pyongyang and called for new talks with North Korea on nuclear disarmament.

South Sea estrangement

TENSIONS have been building for years in the South China Sea as China’s increasingly robust moves to assert its maritime claims in the strategically vital region prompted angry exchanges with other claim-

ants, especially Vietnam and the Philippines. Frictions have risen further when China added more than 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of land to its holdings by expanding existing islands or creating entirely new ones by piling sand atop coral reefs. The addition of airstrips and military infrastructure has Washington and others worried that China is attempting to assert total dominance over the region’s waters and airspace.

Foreign Minister Wang last week warned that China won’t permit other nations to infringe on what it considers its sovereign rights in the area.

Next up: Nationalism?

THE need to burnish his own image, deter rivals and divert attention from slower growth could prompt Xi to intensify Chinese nationalism through the use of

jingoistic rhetoric and by taking a hard line with the US and others, US analysts Robert D. Blackwill and Kurt M. Campbell wrote in a recent report. “Economic growth and nationalism have for decades been the two founts of legitimacy for the Communist Party, and as the former wanes, Xi will likely rely increasingly on the latter,” the two wrote.

Nationalism has proven effective before in mobilizing support, as in the 1990s when the party def lected criticism over the bloody suppression of the 1989 prodemocracy movement by stirring pride in China’s achievements and resentment against its rivals, especially the US. But such a strategy can also spin out of control, as with recurring violent anti-Japanese protests that have forced the government to quickly reassert control. AP

Singapore says it arrested 4 Danes, once again, take top linked to Middle East conflicts spot in world happiness report S

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OPENHAGEN, Denmark— Denmark, perhaps better known for its fictional, suicide-agonizing prince Hamlet and fierce marauding Vikings than being a nation of the happiest people, has just won that very accolade. Again.

Even US Democratic frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have singled out the small Scandinavian country as an example of a happy, well-oiled society. On Wednesday the United Nations made it official: It found Danes to be the happiest people on Earth, in a study of 156 countries.

Knud Christensen, a 39-yearold social worker, knows one reason why his compatriots are laidback—they feel secure in a country with few natural disasters, little corruption and a near absence of drastic events.

“We have no worries,” Christensen said, smiling as he stood on a Copenhagen street near the capital’s City Hall. “And if we do worry, it’s about the weather. Will it rain today, or remain gray or will it be cold?”

The Scandinavian nation of 5.6 million has held the happing crew twice before since the world body started measuring happiness around the world in 2012,

which is based on a variety of factors: People’s health and access to medical care, family relations, job security and social factors, including political freedom and degree of government corruption.

Egalitarian Denmark, where women hold 43 percent of top jobs in the public sector, is known for its extensive and generous cradleto-grave welfare.

Few complain about the high taxes as in return they benefit from a health-care system where everybody has free access to a general practitioner and hospitals.

Taxes also pay for schools and universities, and students are given monthly grants for up to seven years. Many feel confident that if they lose their jobs or fall ill, the state will support them.

Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University, one of those behind the report, says that happiness and well-being should be on every nation’s agenda.

“Human well-being should be nurtured through a holistic approach that combines economic, social and environmental objectives,” he said in a statement before the World Happiness Report 2016 was to be officially presented in Rome on Wednesday.

The Roman Catholic Church has

welcomed the study, declaring that happiness is “linked to the common good, which makes it central to Catholic social teaching,” according to Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, one of Pope Francis’ key advisers at the Vatican.

Kaare Christensen, a university professor in demography and epidemiology in Odense, where fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen was born, says it doesn’t take much to satisfy Danes.

“They are happy with what they get. Danes have no great expectations about what they do or what happens to them,” she said Christian Bjoernskov, an economy professor at the University of Aarhus, Denmark’s second- largest city, believes feelings self-assurance and self-determination have a lot to do with it.

“Danes feel confident in one another...when we stand together we can succeed,” he says. “And they also have a strong belief they can decide their own lives.”

After Denmark, the next happiest nations last year were Switzerland, Iceland and Norway, followed by Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden. The US was 13th, two spots higher than the previous year. AP

INGAPORE—Singapore’s government announced on Wednesday that it has arrested four citizens accused of links to armed conflict in Yemen and to a Kurdish militia group fighting against the Islamic State (IS) group.

It said the four men were arrested in separate cases under the country’s Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without charge. Two have since been released with restrictions on their movements and speech, the Ministry of Home Affairs said. The arrests came as Singapore authorities have urged citizens to be more vigilant in dealing with the threat of terrorism.

Singapore is a multiethnic nation, and its leaders have repeatedly warned against t he d a ngers of rel ig iou s extremism, saying it could permanently tear the small city-state’s ethnic fabric.

The ministry said two of the men, Mohammad Razif Yahya and Amiruddin Sawir, have been held without trial since last August for “voluntarily taking up arms and participating in the armed sectarian conflict in Yemen.”

It said both men underwent

religious studies in Yemen and fired weapons, such as AK-47 rifles, in fighting the Houthis. “By taking up arms in Yemen, they have demonstrated a readiness to use violence to pursue their religious cause. As such, they are assessed to pose a security threat to Singapore,” the ministry said in a statement.

It said two other men, Mohamed Mohideen Mohamed Jais and Wang Yuandongyi, were released this month under orders that ban overseas travel, public statements and joining any organization without approval. It did not say when the two were arrested.

Jais performed armed sentry duties in Yemen but did not open fire, the ministry said.

Wang had intended to join a Kurdish militia group fighting the IS group and left Singapore in January for Syria, but was caught in a transiting country, it said. “Even though his motivation was not ideologically driven, the fact remains that he intended to engage in an armed conflict overseas,” it added. In February Singapore deported four Indonesians allegedly on their way to Syria to join the IS group. AP

World

sMirror Donald Trump: Is he the perfect Florida Man?

news@businessmirror.com.ph | Thursday, March 17, 2016

briefs

Major oil producers to talk output freeze in Qatar in April

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates— Qatar’s energy minister says members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and other key oil producers will meet next month to discuss a freeze in oil output levels.

Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada said in a statement on Wednesday that the meeting will take place in the Qatari capital of Doha on April 17. Energy ministers from Russia and Opec members Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela pledged to cap their output levels if others do the same, in an effort to bolster oil prices during a meeting in Doha last month. Other major producers have since said they would support the initiative. AP

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AMPA, Florida—Donald Trump drew thousands to his rallies around the Sunshine State, basking in their adoration, his face glowing like a Florida orange as he anticipated victory.

“Florida loves Trump, and I love Florida, so I think I’m going to win Florida,” he repeated.

Trump did win Florida on Tuesday, claiming victory with the bravado of someone who survived a particularly hellish South Florida commute. The only actual Floridian in the race—Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American born in South Florida who earned all his degrees from Florida universities—failed to make his case, and Trump had already squashed the hopes of the GOP’s other Florida candidates like so many palmetto bugs.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush, who was supposed to have this thing locked up before the Southern primaries, flamed out shortly after he finally tried to find Trump’s jugular by labeling him “the chaos candidate.” Ben Carson, who lives in a West Palm Beach mansion, finally quit, too, and endorsed Trump.

Somehow, it’s Trump who captured Republican hearts in what some consider America’s strangest state. Trump made his name in New York City, displaying “New York values” with a brash, fast-talking, larger-than-life persona. But really, when you think about it, Donald Trump is the quintessential Florida Man. “He embodies the Florida dream: the idea of a better life,” says historian Gary Mormino.

All the things people fantasize about in the frigid north—a beachfront mansion and endless riches to spend on endless rounds of golf—Trump has it and more, right here in Florida. And he doesn’t just live the Florida lifestyle—he’s a Sunshine State soulmate.

“Trump is more casual, more flippant, less buttoned up, just like Floridians,” says Paul George, a history professor at Miami-Dade College. But what about Rubio, the actual Floridian who dropped out of the race after Tuesday night’s crushing loss? Rubio seems youthful and has a vision for America, but “comes off as restrained,” George says, “much more buttoned up, which is ironic, since he’s from Florida.” Like each winter’s snowbirds and two-thirds of state residents, Trump is from outside Florida. But he plays and does business here. In 2010 he launched a multilevel marketing company that sold vitamins to an adoring crowd of thousands in Miami. Earlier this month, after 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney declared that “a business genius he is not,” Trump summoned the media to his Trump National Golf Course in Jupiter.

“He’s an empire builder, and Floridians, especially South Floridians, are empire builders,” George says. “Or they dream of building an empire.” While his Trump Tower penthouse in New York imitates the Palace of Versailles, his most famous home has been Mar-a-Lago. In 1985 he paid $10 million for the 58-bedroom Mediterranean revival mansion with a 20-acre oceanfront estate straddling Palm Beach Island.

Trump and his third wife, Slovenian model Melania Knauss, held their wedding reception at Mar-a-Lago, which Trump had turned into a high-end club, much to the consternation of his traditional Palm Beach neighbors. “Trump’s Palm Beach Club Roils the Old Social Order”was the headline on the Wall Street Journal story.

That’s another Florida Man attribute: roiling the social order. Trump’s been doing it for years.

Mormino, a professor emeritus at the University of South Florida-Saint Petersburg, points out Trump bought into Palm Beach when national ads by the tourism bureau proclaimed: “Florida. The rules are different here.”

That could almost be Trump’s campaign slogan, no?

Take his four corporate bankruptcies: No big deal in Florida, which trails only California in bankruptcy filings. Or his marriages: 7 percent of Florida’s men have married three or more times, like Trump. The national average is 5 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. Or the fact he has made and lost fortunes in real estate. Floridians still gamble on slices of sunshine, despite the last housing bust.

“Trump’s got the Florida values and Florida lifestyle down,” George says.

Trump’s brand was nicked by a failed condo project in Tampa, but that, too, was classic Florida. Trump boasted in 2005 the 52-story Trump Tower Tampa would be “a signature landmark property so spectacular that it will redefine both Tampa’s skyline and the market’s expectations of luxurious condominium living.”

Two years later, Trump sued for $1 million in unpaid licensing fees, the developer went bankrupt, and buyers who put 20 percent down on a tower that was never built were out tens of thousands of dollars. AP

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Police operations continue after deadly Belgian raid

A taxi pedals his bicycle, decorated with Cuban and US flags, as he transports a woman holding a sleeping girl near the Capitolio in Havana, Cuba, on March 15. President Barack Obama will travel to Cuba on March 20. AP

Obama abolishes last major restrictions on US travel to Cuba

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ASHINGTON—President Barack Obama sent an unmistakable message to Americans on Tuesday ahead of his historic trip to Havana: Cuba is open for business.

Punching fresh holes in the generations-old US embargo, Obama’s administration removed the last meaningful restrictions on travel, putting a Cuba vacation within reach for millions of Americans over the coming years. The sweeping changes also clear a path for Cuban athletes to one day play Major League Baseball (MLB) and other professional sports.

Although tourism is still technically off-limits, the ban becomes essentially unenforceable, with Americans permitted to travel on their own with no prior permission.

White House officials said there would be “no shortage” of opportunities for Americans to fill the loosely defined requirement that they engage with locals in a bid to further US-Cuban understanding.

“The travel ban is on life support here, because for all intents and purposes, anybody can go,” Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who supports Obama’s approach, said in an interview. “All these barriers are coming down.”

The White House announced the package of changes five days

before Obama will embark on the first presidential trip to the communist country in nearly 90 years.

The more lenient rules, like the trip itself, aim to further the rapprochement that Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro began more than two years ago.

Among the changes unveiled on Tuesday: n The US eliminated a ban on Cuban access to the international banking system; n Cuba announced that the first direct mail in a half-century would fly from the US to Cuba starting on Wednesday; n Cuban citizens can start to earn salaries in the US in most circumstances without immigrating; n Cuban citizens can open US bank accounts and use them to send remittances back home.

The US is also poised to ease security restrictions for ships coming from Cuba bound for American ports, US officials told The Associated Press, a step that would ease the way for both ferry service between Florida and Cuba, and US cruise ships docking in Havana.

Obama’s administration has approved both ferries and cruises over the last year, but neither service has started. The officials weren’t authorized to discuss the details publicly ahead of the formal announcement. Yet, it was unclear whether Cuba would respond by easing its own barriers on US travel and commerce, including a requirement that US companies operating in Cuba hire workers through a state-run agency, a key US sticking point. The Castro government has moved slowly enough to raise questions about whether significant trade will resume before Obama leaves office.

“These unilateral actions will further prop up a communist regime in Cuba that has a long record of brutal human-rights abuses,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, Republican-California. The wave of changes unveiled on Tuesday marked some of the most significant shifts since Obama and Castro restored relations.

Embassies have reopened, US companies can now manufacture in Cuba and commercial flights are to begin within months. US hotel chains, including Starwood and Marriott, are expected to soon get US approval to manage hotels in Cuba—all signs of a functioning economic relationship that seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said the policy is driven by the belief that more direct

interaction with Americans will eventually lead to greater freedom for Cubans.

“When they’re engaged with the American people, they have greater access to information, they have greater access to different resources, different points of view,” Rhodes said. Yet, the US trade embargo that Congress enacted after Cuba’s 1959 revolution remains in place. Obama will use his trip to Cuba to renew his call for Congress to lift the embargo, though nearterm prospects are bleak.

Cuban-Americans who oppose the rapprochement say Obama has flagrantly ignored the sanctions and rewarded a government with a troubling human-rights record. But Obama has claimed near-limitless leverage to implement the embargo in a way that essentially renders it void. Matthew Borman of the US Commerce Department said the embargo merely requires all commerce to be licensed by the US; it doesn’t limit how generously those licenses are granted.

“From that perspective, that’s how we implement the embargo,” Borman said. Allowing Cubans to earn US salaries clears one major hurdle for Cuban baseball players to start filling US dugouts. MLB is negotiating with both the US and Cuba to create a legal means for Cubans to play without abandoning their country, eliminating the need for some of the world’s highest-priciest baseball talent to use human traffickers to get to the major leagues. AP

Cambodian student to appeal jail sentence for Facebook comment

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HNOM PENH, Cambodia— A Cambodian student plans to appeal the 18-month jail sentence he received for making a reference on his Facebook page to a “color revolution” in the country, his lawyer said on Wednesday, a punishment a human-rights group described as “beyond outrageous.”

Kong Raiya, a student at Khemarak University in Phnom Penh, was sentenced by the Phnom Penh municipal court on Tuesday on charges of incitement to commit a felony.

He was arrested for posting a comment on Facebook in which he asked if anyone would “dare to make a color revolution with me?”

The term refers to peaceful antigovernment protests and movements in recent years, including in countries from the former Soviet bloc. Defense lawyer Sam Sokong said he was preparing documents to submit an appeal next week.

“Marching someone off to pr i son for 18 mont h s for a Facebook post is beyond outrageous,” Phil Robertson of New York-based Human Rights Watch said in an e-mailed statement.

“Clearly, the Cambodian government wants to convey the lesson of a Big Brother police state that we’re watching you at all times, and unless you stay quiet, we can and will pull you away.”

Incitement to commit a felony is punishable by a prison term ranging from six months to two years.

Kong Raiya has already served seven months in jail since his arrest on August 21, a month after Prime Minister Hun Sen called on the military to eradicate any group or people who want to topple his government through a “color revolution.” Exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy expressed regret that the student was jailed for exercising his right to freedom of expression.

“Kong Raiya was unjustly sentenced today to 18 months in prison only for suggesting a ‘color revolution’ meaning a democratic and peaceful change for Cambodia,”

Sam Rainsy said on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

“Kong Raiya’s prosecution is actually a message of threat and intimidation from ruling Cambodian People’s Party to the millions of Cambodian youths who share his ideas,” he said.

Opposition groups and activists have criticized Hun Sen, one of the longest-serving leaders in the world, for using government machinery to suppress dissent.

“The courts in Cambodia are just like that,” Kong Raiya said before being taken away in a prison van after his sentencing. “They are unjust not only to me, but for all Cambodians.” AP

BRUSSELS—Police operations continued overnight in Belgium as investigators hunted for possible accomplices of a gunman killed in a raid linked to the November 13 attacks in Paris. Three Belgian and one French officer were hurt in the operation on Tuesday, after authorities said investigators came under fire and stormed a house, killing a suspect armed with an assault rifle. Authorities were trying to determine if other suspects remained at large. The antiterror raid in the Forest neighborhood was linked to the November gun and suicidebombing attacks on a stadium, cafés and a concert hall in Paris that left 130 people dead. AP

U.N. says Qatar emir pardons, frees poet imprisoned since ‘13

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates— The United Nations says Qatar’s emir has pardoned and freed a poet imprisoned since 2013 over verses he wrote that apparently offended the government of the country’s former ruler. The UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights told The Associated Press on Wednesday it has confirmed Muhammad ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami’s release through civil-society groups working with his family. It said he received a royal pardon from Qatar’s ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. AP

Macedonian President Ivanov: Greece not helping with migrants

SKOPJE, Macedonia—Macedonia’s president says neighboring Greece is not being cooperative on the immigration crisis following a large influx of refugees into his country on Monday. Gjorge Ivanov convened a meeting of the National Security Council late Tuesday, and afterward told the press that Greece should stop allowing migrants to reach the boundary between the two nations. About 14,000 people are stuck in a muddy tent city at the Idomeni crossing, on the Greek side of the border, hoping that Macedonia will allow them through on their journey to Europe’s prosperous heartland. AP

Dozens jailed in Turkey antiterror operations

Istanbul—Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency says at least 47 suspects have been detained in operations across the country following a deadly suicide bombing in Ankara. In Istanbul police backed by helicopters arrested at least 20 people suspected of having links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. The agency says that Istanbul’s antiterrorism directorate said there were lawyers among those detained.

Wednesday’s raids come after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would “redefine” terrorism, and terrorists so that legal action can be expanded against anyone supporting terrorism, including legislators, academics and journalists. AP

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Thursday, March 17, 2016 | Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

The World BusinessMirror

Li pledges more reform, says debt under control

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EIJING—Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged on Wednesday to press ahead with an overhaul of the state-dominated economy and financial markets despite slowing growth, saying the country’s rising debt levels are under control.

Li’s comments at a news conference were the latest installment in a high-level campaign to reassure jittery global markets about the health of the world’s secondlargest economy, following stock market and currency turmoil. Li, the country’s top economic official, expressed confidence Beijing can carry out plans to shrink bloated steel and coal industries while still meeting its economic growth target of 6.5 percent to 7 percent. He promised to make it

easier to set up private businesses and said financial markets will be made more market-oriented to support growth. “We will continue to pursue market-oriented reform,” Li said at the event held following the closing of the annual session of China’s ceremonial legislature.

The premier acknowledged concerns about rising debts and potential bad loans at banks, but said debt levels and manageable due to large reserves at financial institutions and a high savings rate. AP

news@businessmirror.com.ph

North Korea sentences US tourist to 15 years in prison

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YONGYANG, North Korea— North Korea’s highest court sentenced an American tourist to 15 years in prison with hard labor on Wednesday for subversion.

Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia undergraduate, was convicted and sentenced in a one-hour trial in North Korea’s Supreme Court. He was charged with subversion under Article 60 of North Korea’s Criminal Code. The court held that he had committed a crime “pursuant to the US government’s hostile policy toward [the North], in a bid to impair the unity of its people after entering it as a tourist.”

North Korea regularly accuses Washington and Seoul of sending spies to overthrow its government to enable the US-backed South Korean government to take control of the Korean Peninsula.

Tensions are particularly high following North Korea’s recent nuclear test and rocket launch, and massive joint military exercises now under way between the US and South Korea that the North sees as a dress rehearsal for invasion.

Before the trial, the 21-year-old from Wyoming, Ohio, said he had tried to steal a propaganda banner as a trophy for an acquaintance, who wanted to hang it in her church.

That would be grounds in North Korea for a subversion charge.

Trials for foreigners facing similar charges in North Korea are generally short and punishments severe. Warmbier was arrested as he tried to leave the country in early January. He was in North Korea with a New Year’s tour group.

US tourism to North Korea is legal. Arrests of tourists are rare but the US State Department strongly advises against it.

Further complicating matters, Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang acts as a go-between in consular issues when US citizens run afoul of North Korean authorities.

North Korea announced Warmbier’s arrest in late January, saying he committed an antistate crime with “the tacit connivance of the US government and under its manipulation.” It remains unclear how

the US government was allegedly connected to Warmbier’s actions.

Warmbier had been staying at the Yanggakdo International Hotel. It is common for sections of tourist hotels to be reserved for North Korean staff and offlimits to foreigners.

In a tearful statement made before his trial, Warmbier told a gathering of reporters in Pyongyang he tried to take the banner as a trophy for the mother of a friend, who said she wanted to put it up in her church.

He said he was offered a used car worth $10,000 if he could get a banner and was also told that if he was detained and didn’t return, $200,000 would be paid to his mother in the form of a charitable donation.

Warmbier said he accepted the offer because his family was “suffering from very severe financial difficulties.” Warmbier also said he had been encouraged by the university’s “Z Society,” which he said he was trying to join. The magazine of the university’s alumni association describes the Z Society as a “semisecret ring society” founded in 1892 that conducts philanthropy, puts on honorary dinners and grants academic awards.

In previous cases, people who have been detained in North Korea and made a public confession often recant those statements after their release. In the past, North Korea has held out until senior US officials or statesmen came to personally bail out detainees, all the way up to former President Bill Clinton, whose visit in 2009 secured the freedom of American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling.

In November 2014 US spy chief James Clapper went to Pyongyang to bring home Matthew Miller, who had ripped up his visa when entering the country, and Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, who had been incarcerated since November 2012. Jeffrey Fowle, another US tourist from Ohio detained for six months at about the same time as Miller, was released just before that and sent home on a US government plane. AP

This February 7 photo shows the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand.

The Fox and Franz Josef glaciers have been melting at such a rapid rate that it has become too dangerous for tourists to hike onto them from the valley floor, ending a tradition that dates back a century. AP

Cuba bares 1st case of Zika Rapid melt of New Zealand glaciers ends hikes onto them transmitted on the island

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RANZ JOSEF GLACIER, New Zealand—New Zealand is renowned for its wondrous scenery, and among the country’s top tourist attractions are two glaciers that are both stunning and unusual because they snake down from the mountains to a temperate rain forest, making them easy for people to walk up to and view.

But the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers have been melting at such a rapid rate that it has become too dangerous for tourists to hike onto them from the valley floor, ending a tradition that dates back a century. With continuing warm weather this year, there are no signs of a turnaround, and scientists say it is another example of how global warming is impacting the environment.

Tourism in New Zealand is booming and nearly 1 million people last year flocked to get a glimpse of the glaciers and the spectacular valleys they’ve carved. But the only way to set foot on them now is to get flown onto them by helicopter.

Tour operators offer flights and guided glacier walks, although logistics limit this to 80,000 tourists per year, half the number that once hiked up from the valley floor. Up to another 150,000 people each year take scenic flights that land briefly at the top of the glaciers.

Flying in the Unesco World Heritage area comes with its own risks, highlighted last November when a

sightseeing helicopter crashed onto the Fox Glacier, killing all seven aboard. Sitting near the base of the Franz Josef Glacier, Wayne Costello, a district operations manager for the Department of Conservation, said that when he arrived eight years ago, the rock he was perched on would have been buried under tons of ice. Instead, the glacier now comes to an end a half-mile (800 meters) further up the valley.

“Like a loaf of bread shrinking in its tin, it’s gone down a lot, as well,” Costello said. “So it’s wasted away in terms of its thickness, and that’s led to quite a rapid melt.”

Because of that melt, the valley walls that were once braced by the glaciers have been left exposed and vulnerable to rock falls, making hiking up too dangerous. Tour operators stopped taking guided hikes onto the Franz Josef in 2012 and the nearby Fox in 2014.

A 2014 paper published in the journal Global and Planetary Change concluded the two glaciers have each melted by 3 kilometers in length since the 1800s, making them about 20 percent shorter. The glaciers have recently been melting at a faster pace than ever previously recorded, the authors said.

Heather Purdie, a scientist at the University of Canterbury and lead author of the paper, said climate change is the driving factor. “We know that glaciers around the world, including the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers,

are responding to that warmer temperature and they’re retreating,” she said. Small changes in temperature and snowfall tend to be magnified in the two glaciers and their retreat has been interrupted by advances that can last years, she said.

Costello and tour operators are hoping to see another advance soon. But there’s no sign of that: February was the second-hottest month ever recorded in New Zealand. The hot weather has even created a new type of tourist attraction over the other side of the mountains. Purdie said the glaciers there are also rapidly retreating, resulting in tourists taking boat rides on the lakes to see some of the massive icebergs that have begun to shear away.

A helicopter trip onto the Fox Glacier reveals deep crevasses in the translucent blue ice and stunning ice caves through which guides take crampon-wearing tourists. A guide retells the indigenous Maori legend which would have it that the Franz Josef Glacier began as a stream of tears left by a young woman whose lover was killed by an avalanche.

The glaciers are formed by prevailing westerly winds dumping snow in a high-altitude basin. It compacts into ice and is pushed down the valleys much like toothpaste being squeezed from a tube.

The glaciers slide and roll down the mountain at a rate of 13 feet each

day, picking up rocks and debris along the way. “It’s the uniqueness, the rawness of the environment,” that draws tourists from Australia, North America, Europe and, increasingly, China, said Rob Jewell, chairman of the Glacier Country Tourism Group. It’s also a region which is subject to rapid changes in the weather. At the time of November’s helicopter crash—which killed four tourists from Britain and two from Australia, as well as the New Zealand pilot—some observers said the weather and visibility were marginal for safe flying. Jewell said he didn’t want to comment until an investigation by authorities was complete.

He said the crash hasn’t affected tourist numbers, which have been stronger than ever this year.

At the base of the Franz Josef, Dutch tourist Dieuwke Derkse said she was overwhelmed by the beauty of the glacier and the purity of the environment. She said she believed global warming was responsible for its retreat and felt a little guilty even visiting New Zealand because of the fossil fuels burned by the plane ride there. But she said the glacier also helped inspire her to live in a more environmentally conscious way. “It makes me a little bit sad because you see how fast everything is going,” she said. “The river is going very fast, but the snow and glacier is going backward.” AP

H

AVANA—Cuban officials announced on Tuesday n ig ht t h at t he y h ave detected the first case of the Zika virus transmitted inside the country, ending Cuba’s status as one of the last nations in the hemisphere without domestic cases of the disease that has been linked to birth defects.

State media said a 21-year-old Havana woman, who had not traveled outside Cuba, was diagnosed with the virus after su f fer ing head ac hes, fat ig ue and other symptoms. On Monday her blood tested positive for Zika. She remains hospitalized.

Cuba had previously reported a handful of cases of the disease in people who had traveled to countries with outbreaks of the mosquito-borne virus, particularly Venezuela, and appeared to have contracted it there. Cuba has close ties to Venezuela, a fellow socialist country that sends hundreds of millions of dollars a year in subsidized oil in exchange for Cuban medical assistance that sees many thousands of people travel between the two countries annually.

Zika is being investigated as a possible agent in cases of microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with unusually small heads and brain damage, and also in cases of Guillain-Barre, a rare condition that sometimes results in temporary paralysis. Cuba has thrown more than 9,000 soldiers,

police and university students into an effort to fumigate for mosquitoes, wipe out the standing water where they breed and prevent a Zika epidemic. President Raul Castro has called on the nation to battle lax fumigation and trash collection, turning the Zika fight into a test of the communist government’s once-legendary ability to marshal the entire country behind efforts ranging from civil defense to bigger sugar harvests to disease prevention. In recent days the streets of Havana have been crisscrossed by teams of green-clad soldiers fumigating houses with mosquito-killing fog. Residents of the capital say fumigators no longer accept excuses of allergies or requests to spray some other day, as frequently happened in the past.

Still, neighborhoods, like Central Havana, where the patient in Tuesday’s case lives, are filled with decaying buildings, piles of uncollected trash and pools of standing water. The Zika announcement comes at a moment of intense international attention on Cuba: President Barack Obama arrives on Sunday as the first sitting US president to visit in nearly 90 years. The Obama administration on Tuesday announced that it was carving a series of broad new exceptions into the US trade embargo on Cuba, removing limits on individual travel that experts predicted would lead to a boom in US visitors. AP

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The World BusinessMirror

Thursday, March 17, 2016

A9

Mexicans using social media to shame bad behavior in public

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EXICO CITY—Mexicans are increasingly taking to social media to post videos of bad civic behavior, led by two social-media “heroes” who wield comedy and confrontation to expose lazy cops, litterers, threatening bodyguards and arrogant drivers. Arturo Hernandez, who heads a band of volunteer YouTube celebrities known as the “Super Civicos,” uses humor to shame violators in Mexico’s sprawling capital, where street vendors and delivery vans block streets and cars drive in bicycle lanes with little fear of punishment. He once stripped down and bathed in a pothole as big as a bathtub to highlight shoddy street repairs.

Another time he traveled the subway dressed as a caveman to reflect the lack of manners.

Arne Aus den Ruthen, meanwhile, is a local official who confronts violators using the Periscope app to make live broadcasts as he tells people to pick up their trash or move their cars. He holds the title of “city manager” of the capital’s Miguel Hidalgo borough, a paid position inspired by US city governments to have a gadfly to prod lazy authorities into doing their jobs.

While the two use different tactics in a city as violent and chaotic as Mexico City, it often ends in confrontation. Hernandez has been beaten several times and Aus den Ruthen was punched, had his cell phone stolen and was almost kidnapped recently by bodyguards who worked for an influential radio station owner.

He h ad c a l led tow t r uc k s after noticing the bodyguards were parking their cars on the sidewalks outside their boss’ house. The bodyguards put their boss on the phone, and he can be heard shouting a stream of obscenities at Aus den Ruthen that could be translated roughly (and charitably) as “eat it.”

Mexico City residents usually give the moniker “Lord” or “Lady” to people seen acting badly in such videos. In this case, the businessman became known as “Lord Eat It.” “This kind of activism is necessary, especially because it is the kind of thing that average people can also do,” said Juan Pablo Guzman, a financial administration student. In recent weeks, citizens have used the two men’s platforms to post videos of the bodyguards for the owner of a Ferrari beating another motorist in broad daylight during a traffic incident and, of a woman threatening to run over a man with her sport-utility vehicle (SUV) after she tried to avoid paying damages for hitting his car.

One of Aus den Ruthen’s highest profile confrontations became known as the “Lady Garbage” incident. He confronted a mother who refused to pick up a bag of garbage she had tossed onto the street, arguing she was on her way to drop her son off at school. Aus den Ruthen is seen demanding she pick the bag up. In response, she shouts, shakes her hand in his face and threatens to kick him in the testicles. She was pilloried on the Internet, but later filed

a complaint with Mexico City’s human-rights commission. The rights commission says there have been six complaints that Aus den Ruthen’s broadcasts violate a person’s right to privacy, their reputation and their right to due process.

In Mexico citizens can videotape authorities, but it’s not clear if authorities can film and broadcast the behavior of private citizens.

Guzman doesn’t buy the rights argument. “The video wouldn’t have gone viral if the woman had said, ‘OK,’ picked up the garbage bag and apologized. But she chose to adopt that attitude.”

Others disagree. “Publishing supposed transgressions in real time doesn’t allow for due process, it doesn’t give the accused person a chance to defend themselves,” Francisco Porras, a political scientist at the Instituto Mora, wrote in a public debate forum.

The Mexico City legislative assembly is now working on rules to determine how—or whether—officials can record private citizens.

The shaming movement has also taken hold in Colombia, where there is growing use of the Twitter hashtag #ustednosabequiensoyyo—literally “You don’t know who you’re messing with.”

About a year ago, a YouTube user posted a video of a young man fighting with Colombian police and trying to intimidate them with that phrase, claiming to be related to a former president. More videos have followed, and the hashtag has become an avenue for Colombians to denounce such behavior in their class-conscious country.

Mexico’s version of the phenomenon owes a nod to its northern neighbor. Aus den Ruthen’s title is “city manager” in English.

His boss, Miguel Hidalgo borough president Xochitl Galvez, said his job title was consciously imported from the United States. “In the US, the mayor is often practically parttime, because the city functions so well,” Galvez said. “But those are countries where the law is respected...unfortunately here, there is no respect for the law.”

Super Civicos was born after Hernandez came back to Mexico City in 2006 after a 10-year stint working in Miami as an MTV host.

He was shocked by how people in his home city just “did whatever they wanted, parked wherever, in front of handicapped ramps.”

Since then, he and his team have dressed up as Roman centurions to block people from driving on bike lanes and as bullfighters to flag down bicyclists riding on sidewalks. On a recent day in front of a private university, the bearded Hernandez dressed up in a slinky dress and began “selling” the cars double-parked in front of the college gates.

As he splayed himself over the vehicles, his partner called out on a bullhorn: “Here is the lovely Arturia, and here is the first car we’re going to be selling today.” Drivers mostly looked up, surprised, and quickly drove off. One luxury SUV backed up the street to flee the embarrassment.

“The thing is to fight the comedy with comedy,” Hernandez said. AP

In this October 6, 2014, file photo, a taxi passes in front of the fabled Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. Young, privately owned and ambitious, Anbang Insurance Group stands out in China’s staid, state-dominated insurance industry. AP

Chinese insurer has global ambitions in Starwood bid

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EIJING—Young, privately owned and ambitious, Anbang Insurance Group stands out in China’s staid, state-dominated insurance industry.

Founded just 12 years ago, Anbang made a splash in the United States in 2014 with its $2 billion purchase of New York City’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Since then, it has plowed more billions into acquiring insurers in Belgium, the Netherlands, Iowa and South Korea. Last week it agreed to pay $6.5 billion for Strategic Hotels & Resorts, an American hotel chain.

On Monday it went after even bigger game, launching a surprise $14-billion bid with partners for the Starwood hotel chain.

Anbang makes no secret of its global ambitions. It aims to become one of the “top 10 comprehensive financial groups in the world,” its web site says.

That is a break with a Chinese industry in which bigger, older companies have stuck to their home market. But it ref lects the growing space for innovation as regulators loosen controls in hopes of making Chinese financial industries more competitive and productive.

T he dr iv ing force credited with propelling Anbang’s rise is chairman Wu Xiaohui, who news reports say got his start in the rental car business before founding Anbang in 2004.

He rarely talks to reporters or makes public appearances. Anbang started with a single outlet in Beijing. Its biggest shareholder, at 20 percent, was state-owned

$14B Bid by Anbang Insurance Group for the Starwood hotel chain

car maker Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp. The following year, a state-owned oil company, Sinopec, bought a 20 percent share.

Since then, the company says it has expanded to more than 3,000 branches with 30,000 employees worldwide serving 35 million clients. It has diversified into life insurance, banking, asset management, leasing and brokerage services. Its global expansion coincides with encouragement from the ruling Communist Party for Chinese companies to “go abroad” to diversify away from dependence on a slowing domestic economy.

The Chinese business press has compared Wu to Warren Buffett for following the legendary American investor’s approach of using the cash flow from insurance operations to buy other businesses. But rumors also have swirled about whether Wu’s success is built at least partly on family ties or help from influential figures on Anbang’s board.

A ccord i ng to t he C h i nese

Advisor to Syria peace talks: Women should be at table

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NI T ED NAT IONS —A n activist, who is on the board of women advising the United Nations special envoy for Syria on peace talks, said on Tuesday that women should be at the table actively taking part in negotiations.

Mouna Ghanem, one of 12 members of the Syrian Women’s Advisory Board that advises Staffan de Mistura, said at a news conference at the UN that the board is a reflection of the UN’s commitment to women. But she said more women should be at negotiating tables in

Syria and across the Middle East taking part in peace talks and formulating the future of their countries. “We are not only aspiring for participation, we are aspiring to be decision-makers and we have a long way to go,” she said.

Ghanem, a physician, was among several Middle Eastern women in leadership roles who spoke critically of peace efforts in the region. She acknowledged there are women from some opposition groups taking part in the Syria talks, but said they are not in the leadership. A message on Tues-

day to de Mistura’s office in Geneva after hours seeking comment was not immediately returned.

De Mistura held a meeting on Tuesday with opposition groups a day after restarting indirect Syrian peace talks in Geneva by meeting with envoys from President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Many observers say the peace talks offer the best chance in years to end Syria’s conflict, which has left at least 250,000 people dead and displaced millions. Tuesday’s news conference came amid the 60th session of the UN’s Commission on

the Status of Women, a two-week conference that began on Monday focusing on ways to achieve gender equality by 2013. The meeting was moderated by Hibaaq Osman, founder of Karama, a Middle East organization that aims to advance women’s political participation.

The women were introduced by women’s rights advocate Gloria Steinem, who noted that the UN passed a resolution more than 15 years ago that reaffirms the importance of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations and peace-building. AP

press, Wu is married to Zhuo Ran, a granddaughter of former supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, though the business magazine Caixin reported last year the couple had separated.

Board members have included Zhu Yunlai, the son of former Premier Zhu Rongji and a successful banker in his own right, and Yong Longtu, China’s chief negotiator in talks that led to its World Trade Organization membership, according to news reports. Last year the newspaper Southern Weekend reported Anbang’s real owner was Chen Xiaolu, the son of late Chen Yi, a member of the ruling inner circle that founded the communist government in 1949.

Chen, 68, told Caixin in a separate report he had no ownership stake in Anbang, but served as a consultant. He said he had been Wu’s business partner for 15 years but did not intervene in company operations. Chen told Caixin he recommended Wu buy US assets because China’s economy was slowing, but America’s was recovering.

Anbang’s rapid growth in a heavily regulated economy is built partly on Wu’s skill at cultivating ties with regulators, Chinese media say.

To pay for its buying spree, Anbang raised 50 billion yuan ($8 billion) from investors in 2014, taking on dozens of new shareholders.

That reduced founding investor SAIC’s stake to less than 1 percent.

It also increased its registered capital fivefold to 62 billion yuan ($9.5 billion), the biggest among Chinese insurers, even though the company doesn’t rank among the top 10 property insurers or in the top 30 in life insurance.

That, combined with buying

the Waldorf and other assets outside its core insurance business, has prompted suggestions in the Chinese press the company acts more like an investment fund for which insurance is a sideline. The lightning pace of acquisitions also has prompted Chinese financial analysts to question whether it is sound or sustainable.

In a rare public appearance last December, Wu stressed his responsibility to ordinary policyholders.

“Insurance money is ordinary people’s pensions and life insurance. It must be invested in the best companies,” Wu told a business conference, the newspaper China Business Journal reported on its web site. He said insurers must “protect small investors.”

Anbang’s global expansion has not all been smooth sailing.

L a st ye a r, A nba ng pa id a symbolic €1 for Vivat, a Dutch insurer that was part of a financial company that had been nationalized, and agreed to pump in €1.35 billion. Vivat’s Dutch CEO left, reportedly after disputes with Anbang about his role in the company.

Last year Anbang’s offer to buy South Korea’s Woori Bank in a sale analysts had valued at $2.7 billion fell through, after the government failed to attract the legally required minimum of two bidders.

Also last year Anbang withdrew from an attempt to buy Portugal’s Novo Banco SA. The Chinese suitor and the Portuguese government, which created Novo Banco out of another defunct bank, gave no reason, but the complex acquisition bore a €5 billion ($5.5 billion) price tag and the cancellation followed turmoil in Chinese financial markets. AP

Power to the people: Venezuela calls for a holiday to save energy

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ARACAS, Venezuela—President Nicolas Maduro has a new strategy to stave off a major power crisis for Venezuela: a weeklong holiday for all workers.

The extended furlough adding three days to next week’s Easter holiday was announced in the official gazette on Tuesday. It came a day after the country’s electricity minister warned that the water level at Simon Bolivar dam, the nation’s largest, has fallen to within just 10 feet of its minimum operating level.

The Guri dam, as it was known before

former President Hugo Chavez changed its name to honor Venezuela’s independence hero, and two other hydroelectric facilities downriver supply almost 70 percent of the South American country’s electricity.

Maduro’s socialist administration blames the critical situation on a drought caused by the El Niño and what it says is repeated sabotage of the electrical grid by opponents.

For months it has been urging Venezuelans to cut back on use of energy-wasting appliances and even reduced work hours for public employees. AP

A10 Thursday, March 17, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

We must teach our children how to fish

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he United Nations recently came out with an alarming report: Some 34 countries—nearly 80 percent of them in Africa—don’t have enough food for their people because of conflicts, drought and flooding. In other words, millions of people are suffering from hunger pains and starvation partly because of the madness of mankind.

War affects everybody, noncombatants included. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s Crop Prospects and Food Situation report said conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and the Central African Republic have taken a heavy toll on agricultural production, worsening the humanitarian crisis in those countries. “And the impact of these conflicts extends to neighboring countries that are hosting refugees, straining food resources in those countries,” it added.

As the world’s population is projected to grow to 9.6 billion people in 2050, from 7 billion in 2012, the problem of global hunger and starvation is expected to worsen. This is ironic, given the 2 billion people currently employed in agriculture. The ball is obviously in the hands of government leaders. It’s time they realize the pressing need to close the food gap in ways that enhance the livelihoods of farmers.

Closer to home, the latest Social Weather Stations survey shows there are millions of Filipinos experiencing hunger all over the country. Government officials may cite figures the current administration is doing well in fighting hunger for our less-privileged countrymen. But no amount of rhetoric can alter the stark reality for millions of poor Filipinos who have nothing to eat.

With the El Niño expected to last until June, the country’s food-supply problem could get worse in the short term, before it gets better. This spells bad news for millions of poor Filipinos. Worse, the agriculture sector stands to lose about P21.8 billion worth of rice and corn crops in the first semester due to El Niño.

We do not question the good intentions of our political leaders and lawmakers seeking solutions to the problem. Latest count shows eight pending measures at the House of Representatives related to school feeding programs.

Proponents stressed the need for such a law, since many of the children attending public schools come from poor households and are more vulnerable to undernourishment and malnutrition. As one proponent puts it, “these children come to school with practically no breakfast from home. They cannot be expected to absorb their lessons in school, while suffering hunger pangs.”

Laudable as these proposed measures are, they are just band-aid solutions that do not deal with the cause of the problem. Certainly, no one solution can create a sustainable food future. A menu of production- and distributionfocused strategies can certainly help close the country’s food gap. But leaders in government and the private sector need to put their act together to make the solution work.

The Philippines is an agricultural country that is rich in aquatic resources.

We have sufficient food sources to ensure that no Filipino should go hungry.

If we can teach our millions of schoolchildren how to produce their own food, nobody will go hungry in this country.

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The San Miguel-Telstra dead deal John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

M

aybe this has happened to you. You are in a meeting. It could be with a top-level corporate board or friends planning a birthday outing. Everyone is energetic with ideas flowing around the table.

Suddenly someone looks up and says, “Exactly where are we going with all this?”

I mentioned earlier there had been talk in the techie community back in January that the planned joint venture between San Miguel Corp.

(SMC) and Telstra Corp.—Australia’s largest telecommunications and media company—was going bust. Now that the deal has been officially called off comes the autopsy of how it died.

Telstra is a mature company, meaning profit growth has peaked and that is not good for shareholders. Telstra just reported for 2015 its worst profitability since 2010. The

company is going through a transition. While trying to make investments in other countries, management is all new.

The CEO took his position in February 2015 and three weeks ago a new interim Chairman was appointed who will completely take over in the coming months.

Andy Penn, the CEO, was anxious to do the Philippine deal. However, in 2001 Telstra had to write off $2 billion against a venture gone bad in China. But still a $1-billion initial investment was committed to its venture with San Miguel.

Some experts have blamed the

Philippines’s restriction on foreign ownership, but Telstra did a deal in Indonesia for 40-percent ownership.

Others said the deal fell through because Telstra wanted a guarantee that it would get its money back in full, if there were regulatory problems, and SMC would not agree to those terms.

Telstra’s desire for a guarantee is absolutely correct. You would not build to contract a house on a prime property where the title was in dispute. If the deal died because San Miguel refused Telstra’s conditions, then SMC was not serious from the beginning. No one would allow their investment to be spent without securing a proper legal basis for the new company.

The Australian newspapers are citing corruption in the Philippines as part of the problem. But the real cause might lie within the analysis BusinessMirror columnist Teddy Locsin Jr. wrote on March 9 titled “A survey: Election talk to investors.”

He wrote: “A lot of the delay and obstruction that potential investors experience comes from strong local and foreign players already in place; thus,

Telstra’s DOA”. For example, there was talk that Philippines’s “Telecoms Duopoly” would not allow retailers to sell their loading cards together with SMC/Telstra’s.

Locsin said: “A serious investor must be big enough to push his own investment if there are strong players in place. He will meet delays but no overt resistance—just delay.”

Interestingly, both Globe Telecoms and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. have foreign partners and, while Telstra would have been putting up money, San Miguel needed their technology transfers just as much or even more than the cash.

But from the beginning, the project had too much of a foreign face and that may have been the ultimate reason why Telstra felt uncomfortable venturing into the sometimes wild jungle of the Philippine business environment.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com.

Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

London could lose its euro trading if UK leaves EU

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By Mark Gilbert | Bloomberg View

ondon’s future status as the financial capital of Europe is a key factor in the debate about whether the United Kingdom should leave the European Union (EU). It would be a mistake for either side of the argument to underestimate quite how aggressively London’s competitors would attempt to wrest trading revenue away from the UK capital should the June 23 referendum vote in favor of what’s known as Brexit.

Tim Martin, the chairman of UK pub operator JD Wetherspoon, is a supporter of abandoning the EU. In a letter accompanying his company’s earnings report last week, Martin suggested an amicable divorce was likely: Clearly, if the UK decides to leave the EU, it would be in the economic and other interests of this country and our European neighbors to have friendly relations, strong business links, including free trade and, I believe, free movement of labor.

That view is very likely too optimistic. The aftermath of an anti-EU decision would be anything but friendly, not least because Germany and France, in particular, would seek to deter other countries from contemplating life outside of the Union. The world of finance would offer an irresistible opportunity for the euro core to make an example of Britain by attacking the crown jewel of the UK economy.

London has more than 40 percent of the global market for currency trading. Almost half of the world’s interest-rate swaps business takes place in the city, as does a third of European-equity trading. And although the UK has successfully challenged efforts to migrate euro-denominated trading and settlement to

euro-zone countries, that position might be hard to sustain after a Brexit—a point former Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer made forcefully earlier this month: It is already very difficult for euro members to accept that our currency is largely traded outside the currency area, beyond the control of the European Central Bank (ECB) and of euro-area institutions, such as market regulators. That can be acceptable only if, and as long as, the UK is a member of the EU, and accepts the involvement of, and cooperation with, the European regulatory agencies.

It’s not the first time political and economic differences with the rest of Europe have threatened to diminish the City’s standing. Back in 1991, the talk was all about an artificial currency called the European currency unit (ECU), the forerunner of the euro, which was starting to gain traction in fixed-income and derivatives markets.

So the Bank of England did a clever thing; It issued 2.75 billion Ecu of 10year bonds at an interest rate of 9.125 percent (yes, back in the olden days government bonds had yields close to double digits rather than below zero).

It was the biggest security available in the currency, cementing London’s

role as the center for Ecu trading and paving the way for it to be the dominant market for the euro (even though Britain wasn’t joining the common currency, much of the technical work about its introduction was done by the Bank of England prior to the ECB coming into existence). If Britain hadn’t been in the EU, though, that trick might have been a lot harder to pull off.

If Europe’s “coalition of the willing” is successful in introducing a Tobin Tax on securities trading, London may benefit, although the 10 countries still trying to introduce the levy have failed so far to reach an agreement.

But if the EU succeeds in building a capital markets union, creating a seamless cross-border arena for small- and medium-sized enterprises to raise money by selling equities and bonds, rather than relying on bank financing, then it’s hard to see how London could attract that market away from either Paris or Frankfurt.

Rather than remaining concentrated in London, Brexit may mean European trading splinters across several cities. Germany’s Deutsche Boerse is in the midst of trying to merge with London Stock Exchange Group; the combined entity would be the biggest equities exchange in Europe, so it’s not hard to envisage euro-denominated stock trading migrating to Frankfurt.

It would also have the world’s largest clearing house for swaps, which could also spur more of that business to move to Frankfurt.

The biggest manager of new corporate bonds in Europe, meantime, is HSBC, a bank that’s already flirted with moving its headquarters out of London and which has said it might

move 1,000 bankers to Paris if the EU splits. If you combine HSBC’s €35 billion of corporate bond underwriting with third-placed BNP Paribas’s €25 billion and fifth-placed Societe Generale’s €21 billion, you can just about see how almost a fifth of company fundraising could end up in France.

And if a post-crisis market for complicated derivatives ever comes into vogue, the mathematical/engineering bent of much of the top-tier talent at French investment banks may well steer that renaissance.

Bloomberg View contributor JeanMichel Paul argued last October that Luxembourg would be a surprisingly strong competitor for some City-based financial services in the event of Brexit.

Maybe, but I view Paris as the prime contender by far. Deutsche Bank’s recent woes suggest Germany regulators don’t have much appetite for hosting an expansion in investment banking in Frankfurt; and while I have a lot of banking contacts who’ve done a sojourn in Paris, I can’t think of one who’s worked in Frankfurt.

The future geography of European trading will depend mostly on the rules that are enacted after an EU divorce.

A French government that’s been at the forefront of the Europe project for decades and which saw euro trading slip through its fingers in the past quarter-century will seize this oncein-a-generation opportunity to drag euro trading away from London as aggressively as it can. By pushing for regulations that dictate euro securities have to be regulated in euro countries, France can emerge triumphant in the battle to be the dominant financial capital of a new-look Europe.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Remedies against ‘Oplan Kandado’

A self-emptying savior Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr.

Alálaong Bagá

Atty. Pierre Martin D. Reyes

Tax law for business

‘O

plan Kandado” is perhaps one of the programs of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) most feared by taxpayers. Under Oplan Kandado, a business may be suspended or temporarily closed due to noncompliance with essential value-added tax (VAT) requirements, such as the issuance of receipts, filing of returns, declaration of taxable transactions, taxpayer registration and payment of the correct amount of taxes. A significant number of business establishments have been closed under this program and, for this year, the BIR has included the strengthening of the implementation of Oplan Kandado as one of its priority programs.

Having said that, it must be emphasized that a business establishment cannot just be closed down without affording the taxpayer due process or the opportunity to refute the findings of the BIR. Revenue Memorandum Order (RMO) 3-2009, which lays down the guidelines for the implementation of Oplan Kandado, provides that a taxpayer shall receive two notices: the 48-hour notice and the five-day VAT compliance notice (VCN). If a report of a revenue officer recommending suspension or closure of a business is approved, a 48-hour notice shall be issued to the taxpayer requiring him to explain why he should not be sanctioned administratively, by suspension of his business or temporary closure of his establishment, and, criminally, for violation of the Tax Code.

The remedy of the taxpayer in this instance is to file an “explanation under oath” within 48 hours from receipt of the 48-hour notice.

Upon submission of the said explanation or the nonsubmission thereof, the BIR shall then decide whether to terminate the case or to pursue the administrative or criminal action. If the BIR decides to do the latter, the five-day VCN shall be issued to the taxpayer. The remedy of the taxpayer at this juncture is to file a “response” or “protest” within two days from receipt of the fiveday VCN. A response shall be issued by the BIR either granting the taxpayer’s protest or denying the same.

What then is the recourse of the taxpayer if his protest to the fiveday VCN is denied? The answer to this has been the subject of a recent decision of the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA). In Commissioner of Internal Revenue (CIR) v. Elric Auxiliary Services/Sacred Heart Gas Station, CTA EB 1174, March 8, the CTA ruled

that it has jurisdiction over a denial of a taxpayer’s protest to the five-day VCN. The CTA stressed that its jurisdiction is not limited to decisions of the CIR on assessments or refunds. It, likewise, has jurisdiction over decisions of the CIR on “other matters arising from the National Internal Revenue Code or other laws or part of the law administered by the BIR.” This means that upon receipt of the denial of the protest to the five-day VCN, the remedy of the taxpayer is to elevate the same to the CTA within 30 days from receipt of the denial letter.

Note also that part of the dueprocess requirement is that the notices must state the factual and legal bases of the BIR’s findings.

RMO 3-2009 expressly provides that the five-day notice must state that particular provisions of the Tax Code that was violated. Further, in the above-cited case, the CTA stressed that the 48-hour notice and the five-day VCN cannot just contain the result of the surveillance, which resulted to the VAT liability.

The notices must disclose the basis of the BIR’s findings. The BIR must describe how the surveillance was conducted and explain the methods used in arriving at their estimates.

Absent these, such notices can be declared null and void.

The author is a senior associate of DuBaladad and Associates Law Offices (BDB Law), a member firm of World Tax Services.

The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported, therefore, by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at pierremartin.reyes@ bdblaw.com.ph or call 403-2001 local 311.

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ocked by those who think God will not help him, the oppressed and suffering one nonetheless calls on God to hasten and save him (Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24).

Luke’s passion narrative portrays Jesus as the innocent victim of the unwarranted hatred of people for whom He will shortly lay down His life (Luke 22:14–23:56).

Lord, hasten to help me ON the cross, the dying Jesus uttered the opening line of Psalm 22 (Mark 15:34), and several of its expressions have been borrowed in the passion accounts. The derision the psalmist endures from the onlookers is graphically described: with curled lips and wagging heads they sneer at him for relying still on God. “Let Him come to his aid if He loves him so much,” the scorners mock him. Like a pack of wild dogs, they surround him tearing at his hands and feet. His ridiculers are also rapacious thieves who divide his garments among them, casting lots for his robe. Stripped

naked, with his bones easily visible under his dried lacerated skin, he appears ready to be dumped in the pit and buried.

In his dire situation, his trust in God remains strong; his suffering does not keep him separated from Him. He asks God to rescue him from his predicament. “Do not be far off, Lord; you are my strength, come quickly to my aid!” And in all confidence, the psalmist promises to glorify God’s name and to proclaim before the assembly of the people of God the divine praises. Ending with an exclamation typical of a thanksgiving, as if his prayer has

on the contrary

P

resident Aquino’s last-ditch potshots at critics of his Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) during the recent Philippine Military Academy (PMA) graduation smacks of sour-graping and tacit lamentation and frustration for failing to achieve the coveted Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

Pushing the same thing and expecting different results is insanity, Albert Einstein says. The Mamasapano massacre changed the conditions, making BBL untenable or unacceptable.

Perhaps, it is wise to learn from the great US President Abraham Lincoln, who was besieged with a raging American civil war that cost over 600,000 Americans lives from 1861 to 1865. But this did not stop him from building the 3,000-kilometer railway project that cut travel time from east coast to west coast from six months to only six days.

The parallelism may seem incomparable, but it provides lessons on crisis management on handling

different battlefronts simultaneously, while paradoxically focusing always on one at any given time.

This metaphor of straddling the divide is what made Lincoln a great statesman, who united America over the same issue that led to the civil war—industrialization and his railway economics.

The political metaphor over BBL is anchored on two opposing beliefs.

BBL advocates earlier clamored for its urgent passage, arguing tautologically that it is because BBL was not passed earlier that the Mamasapano incident exploded.

On the contrary, there are arguments positing that BBL is more divisive than unifying, and that it

been already answered, or at least because he is convinced it will happen anyway, the psalmist publicly summons all who fear the Lord and the descendants of Jacob and Israel to give glory to the Lord.

The savior as innocent victim

Luke’s account of the passion accented Jesus’ innocent martyrdom.

He was dragged from one judgment seat to another, accused of being a revolutionary, of forbidding taxes to Caesar, of claiming to be a king, the Messiah, the Son of God. The earlier adulation of the multitude had now become rejection and hatred. Pilate thrice pronounced the innocence of Jesus. Herod, too, found Him innocent. The centurion witnessing all declared, “This man was innocent beyond doubt.” Even one of the criminals executed with Him believed in the innocence of Jesus. Still, He was condemned to death.

Whipped and mocked, defenseless under His captors, Jesus conducted Himself with dignity. Moreover the nonviolent, innocent victim continued to minister and be compassionate to others, to the grieving women of Jerusalem, and to one of those crucified with Him. The false

Money laundering: The hows and whys Ariel Nepomuceno

DECISION TIME

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he ongoing senate investigation together with the AntiMoney Laundering Council (AMLC) search for the truth behind recent events of alleged money-laundering activities in a major bank highlights the need for more awareness about the importance of proscribing and stopping money laundering.

What is money laundering? This is a systematic scheme of concealing the source, ownership and destination of money derived from criminal or illegal activities. It normally involves many processes whereby the money enters legitimate financial institutions so that a perception is created that the money is clean and lawful. Both organized and unorganized criminal rings engaged in large-scale smuggling, illegal-arms sales, prostitution, drug trafficking and even terrorism, produce huge profits and the need to legitimize the proceeds or fruits of the crime incentivizes them to engage in money laundering.

Launder trail

How is it executed? The most

common mode is done by breaking up big amounts of cash into small sums that are deposited in different stages and at different times in the banking system to hide its real source and nature.

Other financial instruments are bought with dirty money then proceeds are subsequently deposited in foreign jurisdictions, where financial policies are less stringent or are minimally regulated. Sometimes the criminal rings go to the extent of masquerading their transfer of money as compensation for services rendered or merchandise purchased. The next step is for laundering to enter the mature stage where the money finds its way into legal business enterprises, like information-technology firms, casinos, real

P-Noy’s BBL and Lincoln’s railway economics Michael Makabenta Alunan

Thursday, March 17, 2016 A11

could possibly lead to more wars as it will only empower the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Thus, the mounting opposition to the idea of granting rebels the belligerent status and the autonomy of managing huge resources and block grants, like the alleged P75 billion on the first year alone.

Once empowered with funds, what could stop the rebels from arming further and pushing possibly for an Islamic State similar to Saudi’s radical Wahhabism, which inspired Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, al-Qaeda and other radicals.

Are there guarantees to peace? Even the Peace Panel admits there are none, but insists BBL is still worth the gamble.

Critics argue, on the contrary, that because Muslim Mindanao is highly feudal and not democratized, pumping more funds will only benefit the leaders and not the masses, who still live in abject poverty with Maguindanao recording a poverty incidence of 57.8 percent and Lanao del Sur, 68.9 percent, according to the 2012 National Statistics and Coordination Board.

When Lincoln pushed for industrialization and railways, the British empire, which could not forget

losing to the 1776 American revolution, detested it as it will kill its maritime colonial trade. Railways developed the inland market of America, building cities along the way. Traditionally, civilizations were built around “ports” along coasts, thus, the word “opportunity” and other word derivatives like export, import, report, etc., all evolved from the word “port.”

The British incited the Southerners to pursue a belligerent position and rise up in arms, arguing they were different from the rest.

On the contrary, Southerners were the same as everybody. After all, America was a land of migrants or communities of Irish settlers, Italians, Anglo-Saxons, Germans, Jews, etc. This big fatal lie cost the lives of over 600,000 Americans in the civil war.

Another big lie was the propaganda that industrialization and railways will affect the slave-owning Southerners. On the contrary, Lincoln planned to build railways to also industrialize and bring development to the South.

Marauding bandits, like the Jesse James brothers who were romanticized and made into heroes of the South in legendary tales,

estate, food and beverage, product supply and energy ventures.

Countries with unstable economic and financial regimes, loose controls, low rule of law indices and great tolerance for graft and corruption, coupled with poor enforcement mechanisms to punish money crimes, are obviously the favorite destination of money launderers. A nation plagued by rampant laundering incidents puts at great risk its reputation, credibility and standing in the community of nations.

Negative consequences

The result is obvious. When the probity of a country’s financial sector is in question, it becomes a deterrent to the entry of badly needed foreign investment. Less investments would mean slow economic development.

The most badly hit would clearly be the poor and the marginalized.

Shield against laundering

The Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 enshrines the state policy of protecting and preserving the integrity of the banking and financial system. It aims to ensure that the Philippines shall not be used as a money-laundering site for the proceeds of any unlawful activity. To meet this ultimate objective,

were actually antidevelopment for robbing banks and raiding train stations. The British empire, known for creating pirates and buccaneers like Sir Francis Drake, was allegedly behind conspiracies creating Jesse James and John Wilkes Booth who assassinated Lincoln.

Amid the South’s belligerent posturing to break away, Lincoln insisted on “keeping the Union.”

Similarly, President Aquino must insist on keeping the constitution and our secular society intact and not be misled by the idea peace will happen by granting belligerent status to the MILF, which may later push for secessionism as its logical trajectory. This smacks of the divide-and-rule British SykesPicot agreement, which broke up the entire Middle East after the fall of the Ottoman empire in 1918, and prevented the Muslim world from uniting peacefully and getting them busy with turf-building rather than team-building toward development.

Lincoln disarmed the South with his antislavery propaganda, which was sincere, although most Americans were not really serious about it then being too preoccupied with survival and their respective ethnocentricity. In fact, it took over 100 years

accusation and the unjust judgment, the entire travesty brought to focus the victory of Jesus over evil and adversity. Triumphant, Jesus pardoned his executioners and extended reconciliation to the criminal at His side. Innocent, He suffered; dying, He gave others new life; rejected by the people, He was in the end vindicated

by God, to whom He offered everything in an act of self-emptying.

Alálaong bagá, faithfulness to God means to us imitation of Jesus, who said, “Whoever does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27). Our cross now to carry as a nation is the poverty of the masses and the corruption of so many, the untruth and injustice slammed on the public, the incompetence and empty promises of would-be leaders. Joining Jesus in His passion, in order to share in His victory and joy, means resisting injustice without ourselves becoming unjust, condemning lies without giving up on the truth, rejecting evil with the readiness to suffer if need be.

Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio-streaming on www.dwiz882.com.

the country commits to cooperate in transnational investigations and prosecutions of persons involved in money-laundering activities wherever committed.

Under above mentioned law, the AMLC was created to perform, among others, the functions of determining the true identity of the owner of any monetary instrument or property that may be reported or believed to be involved or related to any unlawful activity, institute forfeiture proceedings, file complaints, initiate investigations, freeze accounts and implement all such measures necessary to stop money laundering.

One does not need to discount the importance of the AMLC, and other implementing regulatory agencies’ role in carrying out a very crucial mission to stop the abuse and misuse of our country’s financial system to allow the proliferation of organized crime groups engaged in nefarious ventures that would bring us further down the pits of poverty and degradation.

Money laundering is serious business. Let us not support mobsters and criminals without us knowing it.

Knowledge about this offense is key.

For comments and suggestions, send to arielnepo.businessmirror@gmail.com

after Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968 when America became aware about racial discrimination.

Instead of getting waylaid by the tricky notion peace will happen with BBL, government must do a Lincoln and build railways all over Mindanao. For centuries, development was limited to coastal Mindanao cities, which traded solely with Manila and Cebu. Railways and feeder transport will correct this and trigger intratrade and development in the central regions, thus, wiping out insurgency. This way, even tripling budgets than those of the original BBL for political empowerment are welcome.

Just like Lincoln, we can bring real development to Mindanao, or help increase the pie, rather than squabble about the MILF’s share of the pie. Ironically, we can only democratize the fair sharing of the pie, when we focus on increasing the pie through massive production and development by involving the stakeholders themselves. Moreover, granting the MILF belligerent status will only reinforce the differences, thus, incubating the seeds for bigger conflicts where nobody wins.

E-mail: mikealunan@yahoo.com.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Thursday, March 17, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph

This time, it’s air-traffic controllers in black

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By Recto Mercene

GREAT majority of the 736strong Philippine Air Traffic Controllers Association (Patca) will report for work wearing black on Friday to dramatize their demand for the government to address their many woes.

The problems, Patca said, have demoralized the air controllers so much that many of them are now leaving for jobs abroad or are planning to leave.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) earlier reported that it needs more airtraffic controllers owing to the growth of the travel industry and the opening of new airports or the upgrading of existing ones.

“The action is meant to draw the attention of the concerned government agencies to resolve our problems as we express our demoralization and discontent,” Patca President Rudy Boctot said.

Patca’s appeal is for the Caap to stop the Commission on Audit (COA) from taking back the various salary increases, allowances and other benefits they received during the past years.

A notice of disallowance had been sent by the COA to each Patca employees.

“Once again the country’s airtraffic controllers will be wearing black attire or at least wear black arm bands when they report for work on Friday to express to the government the need to be heard and to address their plight,” Patca said.

The group said it has been on its fourth week of silent protest “to impress upon Caap management the need for a swift, mature, achievable, rational and transparent action.”

The hiring of air-traffic service and air-navigation service personnel, as well as flight inspectors, was made on job-order basis.

They were hired as “air-traffic management assistants” as all entry plantilla positions were already filled by regular air-traffic

contol and airways communicators from the defunct Air Transportation Office.

As new hires, these employees are not entitled to paid leaves of absence, burial benefits, bonuses, allowances, night differentials, overtime pay, trainings for advancement and more.

“Some of them have been on job-order hires for eight years, supposedly under a ‘no employeremployee relationship’ and paid on a piece-meal basis,” the group said in a statement. “In reality, however, these job-order assistants are actually performing the work of a regular employee holding a plantilla position and are counted as part of the shift complement.”

Patca said the nonregular hires now comprise one half of the shift complement, “and without them, the shift cannot function properly, or worse, will have to close shop.”

These highly technical employees said they have been fearful for their jobs as the COA told them to return the money they received as performance allowance and recognition award, including the Anniversary Awards of 2013 and 2014. They said the COA threatened them with suspension of their salary scales owing to absence of a Presidential approval of their positions.

“In all probability, the COA will issue similar Notices of Suspension for the years 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 if the Caap cannot obtain the

said approval,” the association said, adding that the objective is to get back six months’ worth of salaries, salary differentials that started in 2012, following the implementation of the new salary scales.

The employees said a conservative estimate of the money that must be refunded per COA order is about P1 million per technical employee, “monies which were freely offered and received in good faith and which have long been spent and consummated.”

They said their salaries are not sufficient to absorb the expected payback of as much as P10,000 per month.

Patc a me mb e rs a nd C a ap employees were promised by Caap Director General William K. Hotchkiss of new pay scales and bonuses if they were able to remove the significant safety concerns of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the lifting of the European Union ban on Philippine carriers, and the reinstatement to Category 1 by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Hotchk iss w rote President Aquino to request confirmation of the bonuses that have already been given to its employees, but the letter was forwarded to the government legal counsel, that required the Caap to comply with various requirements.

A request by the Caap for an audience with the President Aquino remains pending.

Chinese premier strikes mild tone on regional disputes Continued from A1

Although China’s commitment to upholding its sovereignty and territorial integrity is “totally unambiguous,” Li said it would also be a “powerful force” for world peace.

“We hope that countries from both inside and outside the region can do more to benefit regional stability and not the opposite,” Li said. “Otherwise, no one benefits.”

The US, Vietnam, the Philippines and others have complained that China’s islandbuilding project has raised tensions by changing the status quo in the area, where six Asian governments have overlapping claims. The South China Sea inc ludes sea lanes through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes each year, along with rich fishing grounds and potential oil and gas deposits.

Despite China’s strong objections, the US Navy says it will continue to sail and fly past the

new Chinese islands. The commander of the Pacific Air Forces, Gen. Lori Robinson, said earlier this month that Washington urged other nations to exercise their freedom to fly and sail in international airspace and waters claimed by China in the South China Sea “or risk losing it throughout the region.”

Along with contesting disputed territory in the South China Sea, China also claims a chunk of Indian territory along their border, as well as a string of uninhabited East China Sea islands held by Japan.

Asked about Beijing’s often tense relations with Tokyo, Li said that although ties have shown signs of an improvement, that is as yet “not fully established” and more concrete action is needed from Japan.

Relations between the two neighbors have been generally calm since violent anti-Japanese riots broke out in several Chinese cities in 2012 after Japan nationalized a chain of uninhabited islands claimed by China. AP