Issuu

successful listing Megaworld Corp. lists P12 billion worth of Series B fixed-rate bonds at 5.3535 percent per annum due 2024, up from the initial offer size of only P8 billion. Present during the listing ceremony are ( from left) Chinabank Capital Corp. Managing Director Vergilio Chua, BDO Unionbank Senior Executive Vice President Walter Wassmer, BDO Capital President Eduardo Francisco, Megaworld Corp. Business Development and Leasing Senior Vice President Jericho Go, Megaworld Corp. Commercial Division Senior Vice President Kevin L. Tan, Megaworld Corp. COO Lourdes T. Gutierrez-Alfonso, Megaworld Corp. Executive Director Kingson U. Sian, Megaworld Corp. Senior Vice President Treasurer Francisco Canuto, PDS Group President and CEO Cesar Crisol and PDEx President and COO Antonio Nakpil. Story on B1. ALYSA SALEN

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Wednesday, March 29, 2017 Vol. 12 No. 168

Govt considering repeal or revision of Lemon law

By Catherine N. Pillas

@c_pillas29

he Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is reviewing the Philippine Lemon law, noting observations that the three-year-old law has proven to be either inutile or redundant to existing fair-trade laws.

Trade Undersecretary for the Consumer Protection Group Teodoro C. Pascua said the result of the DTI review will be submitted to Congress when sessions resume in May for possible legislative action. “We’re trying to study the Lemon

law, because current fair-trade laws answer to all the issues already,” Pascua said. He added the law does not appear to be a popular legal recourse for disgruntled buyers of new vehicles. “Since the law’s enactment in

PASCUA: “The process only becomes sort of a duplication, and, to a degree, takes longer to resolve, because it requires at least four or five test repairs.”

2013, we’ve only received about six or seven cases from that time, the point that I think needs evaluation eventually, and I’ve told the Fair Trade Enforcement Bureau and the Consumer Protection Advocacy Bureau about this,” he said, while declining to make a recommendation—whether it See “Lemon law,” A2

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You know it when you see it Teddy Locsin Jr.

free fire

friend of a friend of mine, a health freak like her, said her friend was a water fanatic who drank eight tall glasses of water every morning and every chance she got. She collapsed from the loss of electrolytes. I have kin so strict in their diet that, by the start of old age, their bodies were fit to live indefinitely because their arteries were clear of plaque, but they were drooling because their brains had shrunk from malnutrition. Continued on A10

MILLERS DENY TECHNICAL BM Reports SMUGGLING OF WHEAT Reserve, incoming projects ease PHL power worries IMPORTS TO DODGE VAT By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

roups of local flour and feed millers denied the report that some food-grade wheat imports last year were allegedly misdeclared as feed wheat to avoid paying higher tax duties. The Philippine Association of Flour Millers Inc. (Pafmil) said the claim of Philippine Maize Federation Inc. (PhilMaize) that some flour millers were using feed wheat for flour was “ridiculous”, and the insinuation of technical smuggling done by wheat importers was “baseless”. “While the report did not mention Pafmil, the association takes these accusations seriously and feels the need to respond as the industry to which it belongs has been put to question,” Pafmil Executive Director Ric Pinca told the BusinessM irror. Pinca said his group sees no economic sense for any flour miller to even consider declaring its milling wheat imports as feed wheat to supposedly avoid payment of the 12-percent value-added tax (VAT ) after sales. “Flour millers pay an output VAT

for every bag of flour sold in the market. If the miller did not pay an input VAT [by declaring his wheat import as VAT-free feed wheat], then the company cannot claim any input VAT, and will have to pay 12-percent VAT on a higher-value finished flour product from which no input VAT can be deducted,” Pinca said. Earlier PhilMaize President Roger V. Navarro urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) to investigate the importation of feed wheat last year, as they received reports showing misdeclaration of imports. Navarro claimed that not all of the feed wheat imported last year went to feed millers. Based on PhilMaize’s estimate, some 300,000 metric tons (MT) of imported feed wheat out of the 1.6 million MT imported last year were really for flour milling, Navarro added. “In our estimate, there’s a big entry of feed wheat, which seems suspicious. To avoid paying the 12-percent VAT for subsequent flour sales, food-grade wheat was declared as feed wheat,” Navarro told reporters in a recent interview. See “Millers,” A2

PESO exchange rates n US 50.1770

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

Conclusion

URING summer months a household’s electricity consumption goes up by around 20 percent, according to the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco). Given this, a typical household with a monthly consumption of 200 kilowatt-hours (kWh) would likely increase its consumption to 240 kWh. Using the March power rates recently released by Meralco, this translates to a bill increase of around P460, from around P1,930 to an estimated P2,390. The figures could still go up, as temperature is expected to rise in April and May. On top of this, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved a monthly P0.22-per-kWh upward-rate adjustments to be included in the March, April and May generation charge, a major component of an electric bill. Meralco needs to recover the amount for sourcing its power requirements from other power suppliers that use liquid fuel during the 20day shutdown of the Malampaya natural-gas facility. Meralco, the country’s largest

This March 2 photo shows the Pililla wind farm, which has 27 windmills—or wind turbines—in total. The farm generates electricity that can power 66,000 Metro Manila households consuming an average of 200 kilowatts per hour to 300 kWh. According to the Manila Electric Co., a typical household with a monthly consumption of 200 kWh would likely increase its consumption to 240 kWh during the summer months. NONIE REYES

power-distribution utility firm, has laid down its plans for the summer. The utility firm services 6 million customers in its franchise area. “We are trying to work on more Interim Power Supply Agreements [Ipsa],” Meralco President

Oscar S. Reyes said in an interview. “We can’t reveal yet with whom we are negotiating with until details are finalized.” Reyes said Meralco is looking at sourcing 150 megawatts to 200 MW from one power firm and another 100 MW from another

company to supply the utility firm’s partial requirements for the summer months until June and July. “It’s for summer. Hopefully, we can secure approvals at the soonest time possible,” Reyes said. Continued on A2

n japan 0.4535 n UK 63.0223 n HK 6.4602 n CHINA 7.2967 n singapore 36.0156 n australia 38.2098 n EU 54.5223 n SAUDI arabia 13.3813

Source: BSP (28 March 2017 )

BMReports BusinessMirror

A2 Wednesday, March 29, 2017

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Reserve, incoming projects ease PHL power worries Continued from A1

Additional capacity

TO ensure continuous and reliable electricity for Meralco customers, the company needs to source additional peaking capacity through bilateral power-supply contracts. These agreements, if approved by the ERC on time, will mitigate its exposure to the Wholesale Electricity Sport Market (WESM) during the summer months. Based on the power situation outlook for 2017 and succeeding years, Meralco foresees a peaking capacity deficit in its portfolio, especially for the summer months. Based on the utility firm’s distribution development plan for 20152020, Meralco’s aggregate capacity requirement is forecasted to grow by a compounded average growth rate (CAGR) of 3.7 percent. Meraco said the need to secure more power deals is meant to address significant peaking capacity deficit, as well as possible occur-

Millers. . .

Continued from A1

“The government should really investigate this, [especially since] the consumption of feeds by the livestock and poultry sectors is not increasing,” Navarro added. Pinca also said feed wheat does not meet the quality standards required by the local bakery industry that demands quality flour for its bread products. “Considering the highly competitive flour market, no Pafmil member would risk losing the bakery market that has taken the milling industry almost seven decades to develop,” he said. “Flour-milling business requires its wheat grains to be of consistent protein level, gluten content, moisture, granulation and other quality indicators that feed wheat does not meet. Thus, feed wheat is declared by the exporting country as such due to the product’s failure to meet milling wheat export-quality standards,” Pinca said. Pafmil is comprised of seven member mills: Liberty Flour Mills, RFM Corp.,

Performance. . . the allegations against him, saying he didn’t want to “preempt discussions”. Despite the raging issues against their COO, a TPB employee who requested anonymity said, “The show must go on. We’re still working.” An attached agency of the DOT tasked with marketing Philippine destinations to foreign and local travelers, the TPB issued a news statement for the first time on Monday, since Montano took over as COO. It said the agency was hosting a familiarization trip for some 50 select tour operators and travel agents from the United Kingdom starting this week, in cooperation with the DOT office in London and flag car-

rences of scheduled maintenance shutdowns and forced outage of power plants. The company said it is also working on to extend its Ipsas with Strategic Power Development Corp. (SPDC), Panay Power Corp. (PPC) and Toledo Power Co. (TPC). In particular, Meralco will extend its IPSA with PPC and TPC for one year from February 26 this year to February 25, 2018. Meralco also plans to source 45 MW from PPC’s 72-MW bunker-oil plant in Iloilo and 28 MW from TPC’s 40-MW bunkeroil-fired plant in Toledo, Cebu. “Aside from San Roque/Angat, the other Ipsas mentioned are good for one year and will help cover summer loads,” said Meralco Head for Utility Economics Lawrence Fernandez in an interview, adding that Meralco also has a one-year extension of its Ipsa with Bauang 1590. “So, we still have three Ipsas that are available.” And when needed, Meralo could always activate its Interruptible

Wellington Flour Mills, General Milling Corp., Universal Robina Corp., Philippine Flour Mills and Pilmico Foods Corp., according to Pinca. The Philippine Association Feed Millers Inc. (Pafmi) also denied the claim of PhilMaize of technical smuggling, saying they are not aware of such incident last year, especially within their group. “Feed wheat is always of lesser quality, hence it is used only for feed rations. We are not aware if this is used otherwise, since we do not know how companies, who import these, make use of their importations,” Pafmi President Estefania de Vera said in a text message to the BusinessMirror. Citing data from the Bureau of Customs, Pinca said the Philippines imported a total of 2.6 MMT of milling wheat in 2016, 4 percent higher than the 2.5-MMT recorded volume in 2015. Currently, milling-wheat imports are exempt from tariffs, but are subject to a 12-percent VAT on the subsequent flour sales, payable at the time the wheat was imported, according to a Global Agricultural Information Network (Gain) report. Both feed-wheat imports and wheatflour imports are subject to a 7-percent

Continued from A12

rier Philippine Airlines (PAL). The group is composed of travel agents ranging from large consolidators, online travel agencies and dive specialists, to luxury leisure boutique agencies, all of whom arrived on Monday via PAL’s direct flight from London. On the group’s itinerary is a visit to Intramuros, a business-to-business meeting and welcome dinner to meet local tour operators and travel agents, then on to individual itineraries to Boracay, Cebu, Bohol, Puerto Princesa and El Nido, as well as to Dumaguete and Puerto Galera for divers. Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo and Montano are expected to meet with the visitors during

Load Program (ILP), which works by calling on business customers with loads of at least 1 MW to run their own generator sets, if needed, instead of drawing power from the grid. With the ILP, power supply from the grid that will not be consumed by participating customers will be available for use by other customers within the franchise area. Through this, the aggregate demand for power from the system will be reduced to a more manageable level, helping ensure the availability of supply. Meralco’s ILP had helped avoid power outages in some incidents of yellow- and red-alert notices issued in the past years.

ON the part of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), which operates and maintains the country’s transmission system, it remains prepared and vigilant of possible scenarios from thin supply to line tripping incidents.

The grid operator, according to an e-mail reply sent to BusinessMirror, regularly conducts maintenance of all its equipment before the peak months, which usually occur during summer. It is also closely coordinating with power plants to effectively schedule their planned maintenance shutdowns. There is also a contingency plan for the summer season being implemented annually, which covers the analysis of power situation, analysis of credible contingency on critical transmission facilities, power quality and review of emergency procedures, as well as readiness of system operation-related facilities. This is to ensure that the grid is prepared for worst-case incidents, such as reduced generation capability, low voltages during peak demand, high voltages during offpeak, congestion in load centers, yellow- and red-alert state and other critical system con ditions. Moreover, NGCP is closely cooperating with the DOE and the

duty. The Gain report also noted that feed-wheat imports are exempted from the 12-percent VAT. Milling and feedwheat imports from signatories to the Asean-Australia-New Zealand free-trade agreement are duty-free. “Milling wheat imports over the past several years have remained in the range of 2.1 MMT to 2.3 MMT per year, but are expected to increase as additional capacity becomes operational,” the report read. “The increase in imports has come from feed wheat, which reached around 2.5 MMT in calendar year 2016, according to industry data,” it added. Earlier, Navarro told the BusinessMirror that the decline in the farm-gate price of corn was caused by the massive importation of feed wheat, an alternative to yellow corn, used in manufacturing animal feeds. The importation of feed wheat has displaced the space for yellow corn in the warehouses of livestock stakeholders, Navarro added. “The government must intervene or else we will issue a request compelling the livestock sector to calibrate their importation in a way that will not

affect our local producers,” Navarro said in a separate interview. Data obtained by the BusinessMirror from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) showed that feed wheat purchased abroad last year increased by more than half, or by 71.17 percent, to 1.591 MMT from 929,871.20 MT recorded imported volume in 2015. More than a third, or around 36.75 percent, of the total imported feed wheat last year by the Philippines came from Ukraine. Feed wheat purchased from Ukraine reached 585,041.26 MT, more than two-thirds, or 70.22 percent, higher than the 343,697.77-MT recorded volume in 2015, according to BPI data. However, data from the attached agency of the DA showed that the country’s purchases of wheat grain and wheat flour abroad declined in 2016. The Philippines imported 2.093 MMT of wheat grain last year, 14.50 percent lower than the 2.448 MT imported volume in 2015, according to BPI data. Meanwhile, the country’s purchase of wheat flour abroad last year declined by a third, or by 33.94 percent, to 86,635.75 MT compared to the 2015 imported volume of 131,149.17 MT.

Regular maintenance

their trip to Intramuros, the B2B networking session and welcome dinner. In the news statement, Montano said the fam trip “serves to bolster the drive among these foreign travel agents as key partners to increase their confidence to sell more effectively the Philippine various tourist destinations to their clientele back home”. He stressed that “the United Kingdom remains the highest source of tourism arrivals to the Philippine from Europe.” Visitor arrivals from the UK reached 173,299 in 2016, up 12.1 percent from 2015. According to Gerard Panga, Tourism Attaché for Northern and Southern Europe, more British travelers “are visiting the Philippines through the direct and convenient PAL daily flight service from London’s Hearthrow Airport to Manila”.

Shelter gap. . . Continued from A12

The bill also proposes the creation of a commission that shall conduct a feasibility study of relocating most of the government agencies outside of Metro Manila. The commission will be placed under the Office of the President.

Terminologies Benitez also refiled a joint resolution standardizing the definitions of housing terminologies. According to the lawmaker, the lack of standard definitions of terminologies has slowed down the government and the private sectors’ housing programs. The lawmaker said that joint resolution provides a standard definition to 379 housing terms. He added that the standard definitions were agreed upon by at least 15 agencies and organizations involved in the National Housing Summit conducted last year. “The Committee on Housing and Urban Development of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlement of the Senate recognize the imperative of formally ordaining and publishing a glossary of significant housing terminologies, standardizing the respective definitions of significant housing terms that will serve as a benchmark, for the guidance of the

Lemon law. . . Continued from A1

would be a repeal or mere amendment—pending the review of the law. Pascua said they will communicate the results of their review to Congress to encourage action on the law. He noted that the procedures for consumer redress in the Lemon law only prolongs the process to deliver consumer relief.

Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM). “We are in continuous coordination with PSALM for the availability of the Malaya plant and adequacy of its fuel. We are also in close coordination with PSALM on Kalayaan water reservoir elevation,” NGCP said.

Best example

THE Department of Energy (DOE), for its part, has required 140 government entities to submit their electricity consumption from 2015 to 2016 to assess usage. “We are closely monitoring their energy consumption so that we can provide strategies to help them become more energy-efficient in their daily operations,” the energy chief said. The agency has enlisted government agencies with available power-generating units that can be enrolled for the ILP. “About 100 government buildings have operational gensets and these total to 85

US travel. . .

megawatts of power-supply capacity,” Cusi said. Other energy-efficiency measures that the DOE enjoins government agencies to adhere to include setting the thermostat of air conditioners to no lower than 25°C; replacing air-conditioning units with inverter-type and switching fluorescent lamps with light-emitting diode (LED) lights. Aside from requesting government institutions, the DOE asked nearly 70 malls nationwide to set their cooling system’s temperature to 25°C as a way to temper their huge buildings’ demand for electricity. “We, the government, have to be the best examples to our people in managing our energy consumption,” Cusi emphasized. So far, the generation, distribution and transmission segments of the power sector seem prepared for the summer. However, only time can tell if their preparation is good enough to thwart incidents of power outage.

Continued from A12

So for Dow’s organization and the industry it represents, what looked like the beginning of a beautiful friendship became in just two months something bordering on adversarial. Even America’s closest ally and next-door neighbor is wavering on sending its kids across the border for a field trip. The new visa rules may have been the last straw for the USTA. Last week, Dow’s group issued an almost plaintive statement: “Mr. President, please tell the world that while we’re closed to terror, we’re open for business. Imbalanced communication is especially susceptible to being ‘lost in translation’—so let’s work together to inform our friends and neighbors, who could benefit from reassurance, not just who is no longer welcome here, but who remains invited.” For the Trump administration, the message on travel has so far been

clear: An “America First” policy is likely to mean greater travel restrictions and entry barriers, plus the possibility of a physical wall on the border with Mexico. And a trade group once excited to see a golf-resort owner in the White House has instead begun to feel trepidation about his potential impact on a massive sector of the US economy. “Yes, you are correct that you have detected a change in the tone,” Dow, a former Marriott International Inc. executive, said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg. “Travel is a very fragile thing, and perception is a factor.” The association is hopeful that, despite the inauspicious beginning, Trump cabinet officials such as billionaire financier Wilbur Ross, the Commerce Secretary, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp., will help protect the travel economy. “ Bloomberg News

Kadamay ‘occupation’

legislature and for adherence by the key shelter agencies, other appropriate agencies of the government, and other housing and urban development stakeholders in order to finally clear the air of confusion,” Benitez said. Meanwhile, the housing committee has already endorsed for plenary approval a measure establishing a local government resettlement program that will implement an on-site, in-city or nearcity strategy for squatters. “Government programs before were focused on the relocation of informal settlers to areas outside Metro Manila where they have no access to livelihood and other basic services. The scenario is that the ISFs [informal-settler families] are pushed to go back to informal settlements in the urban centers again because of their need to find a source of income for their family’s daily needs,” he added. Under the bill, socialized housing and resettlement projects shall be near areas where employment opportunities are accessible to the extent feasible. It also said the government agencies dealing with the provision of skills and livelihood training, development of livelihood programs and grant of livelihood, namely, the departments of Labor and Employment, Social Welfare and Development and Science and Technology; the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority; and Philippine Trade and Training Center shall give priority to the beneficiaries of the program.

Benitez also said members of the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) cannot occupy the government housing units in Bulacan for free. The lawmaker has filed a resolution for a House probe on the recent takeover of government housing units in Bulacan by at least 1,000 homeless families. He said these incidents in Pandi and San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, underscore the need for government to treat the worsening housing crisis with utmost urgency. Benitez said 5,000 individuals or 1,000 families are currently occupying housing units in different areas, namely, the San Jose Heights, Villa Elise, Pandi Residences 3, Pandi Village 2 and Padre Pio. “The said takeover of the housing units should be an opportunity for Congress to look into the current resettlement programs of the government as it is incumbent upon the Philippine Congress to oversee the implementation of laws in order to identify possible and necessary programs and policy interventions that will lead toward the realization of the original objectives of the enacted policies,” he said. On March 8 a group of urban-poor families belonging to the group marched to the government housing sites in the Bulcacan to occupy the vacant housing units developed by the National Housing Authority.

“ The process only becomes sort of a duplication, and to a degree, takes longer to resolve because it requires at least four or five test repairs. In existing laws, there are only three routes: Replace, repair or refund. Why go through a long process?” Pascua pointed out. The Philippine Lemon law, or R A 10642, signed into law in 2014, was designed to protect buyers of brand-new vehicles through a specific redress mecha-

nism on top of the warranty given by car manufacturers. The law provides that the consumer, upon finding a defect on a brand-new vehicle, can notify the motor-vehicle dealer, distributor or manufacturer, and is entitled to four repair attempts. The Lemon law period covers the 12 months from the date of original delivery of the vehicle to the consumer, or up to 20,000 kilometers of operation, after such delivery, whichever comes first.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

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Marcos asks PET to act on protest vs Robredo By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

ORMER Sen. Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has asked the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to act on his election protest “in the midst of a well-funded and concerted destabilization plot against President Duterte”. In a 25-page comment-opposition to the motion for reconsideration filed by Vice President Maria Leonor G. Rodredo on the PET’s resolution finding his protest to be sufficient in form and in substance, Marcos, through his lawyer George Edwin Garcia, asked the PET to proceed with his case by setting it for preliminary conference and ordering the retrieval of ballot boxes, so his case can finally move forward. Garcia said it has been nine months since Marcos filed his election protest, and the tribunal has yet to schedule the preliminary conference. In those nine months, he pointed out, destabilization efforts against the present administration have been continuously waged. “In those nine months, several plots on destabilizing the government have surfaced, which are contrary to

public interest. There is clearly a wellfunded concerted effort to undermine the Duterte administration,” he said. Garcia said, “Robredo cannot have it both ways. She cannot keep claiming that she won the elections fair and square and yet, behind everyone’s back, she keeps finding ways to stop the truth from coming out. The evidence of Marcos is probably the same evidence that Robredo has by now. If this is the case, one cannot help but wonder why she does not want the proceeding to move forward.” In arguing against Robredo’s claim that his protest should be dismissed because Marcos failed to allege the sufficiency of his evidence on election fraud, Garcia said the issue of sufficiency in form and in substance had been settled by the PET not just once, but twice. Since the sufficiency in form and substance had already been settled twice, Garcia said public interest dictates that the tribunal should now set the case for preliminary conference to give way to the reception of evidence, the reopening of the ballot boxes and the manual recount, judicial revision, technical examination and forensic investigation of the paper ballots or the ballot images, or both, and other paraphernalia used in the elections.

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Wednesday, March 29, 2017 A3

Govt blinks, defers eviction of relocation sites invaders

By Marvyn N. Benaning | Correspondent

HE government has deferred its plan to evict nearly 6,000 families that invaded and occupied houses meant for soldiers and policemen in government relocation sites in Pandi, Bulacan, starting March 8. The National Housing Authority (NHA), which had taken out newspaper advertisements to announce that it was against chaos and the illegal occupation of the houses, ultimately agreed not to use force to make the invaders leave. In a meeting with the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and the seven-member Makabayan Bloc at

the House of Representatives, NHA officials agreed to freeze its eviction notice and, instead, look for ways to accommodate the 6,000 families. As this developed, hundreds of members of the Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR) on Tuesday mounted a “Mercy Mission Caravan to Urban Poor of #OccupyPabahay” in Pandi, Bulacan.

PCPR organizers said the caravan will deliver food and provisions to the urban-poor families in the relocation sites. K adamay maintained that, while there is no more eviction, the urban-poor group is still committed to fighting for free and mass housing. With regard to the housing sites for military and police personnel and illegal settlers, the NHA said it would seriously look into the reasons for the low occupancy rate of the finished sites. The NHA also agreed to hold consultations with uniformed personnel, as well as inventory the other resettlement sites, to find out why families did not relocate while others did. “Kung hindi dahil sa pagoccupy ng mga maralita, hindi mabubuksan ang usapin ng matinding krisis sa pabahay. Hindi rin mapipilitan ang gobyerno na harapin ang sar ili niyang mga kakulangan,” Kadamay National Chairman Gloria Arellano said.

TV network scores at CA

HE Third Division of the Court of Appeals (CA) denied for lack of merit the petition filed by 31 former GMA Network Inc. (GMA) workers, and affirmed the National Labor Relation Commission’s (NLRC) decision that junked the petitioners’ illegal dismissal complaint against GMA. In the decision written by Associate Justice Rosmari D. Carandang, the CA sustained the NLRC ruling saying that the petitioners were not regular employees of GMA and there was “no illegal dismissal to speak of”. The petition stemmed from the complaint filed against GMA by 33 workers for regularization, which was later on converted to an illegal dismissal case. Two of the complainants entered into a compromise agreement with GMA, while the case proceeded with respect to the remaining 31 complainants.

Economy

A4 Wednesday, March 29, 2017 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

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Alvarez: Dump automatic grant of franchise to winning proponents of public-utility projects By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

he leader of the House of Representatives is pushing for a measure that will require private proponents seeking to build, operate and maintain public utilities to secure first a franchise from Congress. House Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez said he is pushing for the passage House Bill (HB) 5270, which seeks to amend Republic Act (RA) 6957, as amended by RA 7718, otherwise known as “An Act Authorizing the Financing, Construction, Operation and Maintenance of Infrastructure Projects by the Private Sector”. Currently, under Section 5 of RA 6957, as amended, automati-

cally grants the winning project proponent a franchise to “operate and maintain the facility, including the collection of tolls, fees, rentals and charges”. Alvarez, however, criticized the existing arrangement, which, he said, has been suspected of serving private interests instead of that of the general public. The bill removes the automatic grant of franchise and requires a

RA 6957 The law that automatically grants the winning project proponent a franchise to “operate and maintain the facility, including the collection of tolls, fees, rentals and charges”

project proponent to first secure a legislative franchise for public utilities from Congress for it to qualify as a bidder and in order to operate and maintain such facilities, including the collection of fees. In the case of a build-operateand-transfer arrangement, the bill provides that the contract shall be awarded to the proponent, who, after having satisfied the minimum requirements, has submitted the

bid that is most advantageous to the government and provides the most favorable terms for the project. But the bill added that when a Filipino contractor submits an equally advantageous bid, with exactly the same price and technical specifications as those of a foreign contractor, the former shall be given preference. It also provides that all existing operators must obtain such franchise for public utilities from Congress within one year from the time the proposed law takes effect. Otherwise, the franchises they presently hold shall expire and cease to have any legal effect. The legislative franchises for public utilities shall be subject to amendment, alteration or repeal by Congress, when the common good requires it. The bill also limits the term of such franchises to 25 years, subject to a renewal. A lvarez filed the bill after

questioning several projects being implemented by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme. He earlier warned the DOTr not to push through with the intended bidding for the development, operations and maintenance of five unbundled airport projects, namely, Bacolod-Silay, Davao, Iloilo, Laguindingan and New Bohol (Panglao) under the PPP scheme. He said these PPP deals look disadvantageous to the government, as winning bidders will operate the airports for 35 years, when most of these have already been built using government funds and need only improvements. According to Alvarez, in similar airport projects in the past, when winning bidders had to start from zero, the National Economic Development Authority determined that 25 years would be enough for recovery of investments with profit.

BFAR eyes cap on tuna-sardine catch By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

he Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said it is mulling over the implementation of a catch-volume cap for fishermen as part of the government’s bid to make sardines production sustainable. “One of the potential measure being considered is having the total allowable catch per group. There would be an allocation for larger fishing companies, as well as [a corresponding allocation] for the small-scale fisherfolk,” BFAR Capture Fisheries Technology Division Chief Rafael Ramiscal said in a news briefing for the Sagip Sardinas Campaign in Quezon City on Tuesday. The catch allocation system (CAS) is one of the options being considered to be included in the National Management Framework Plan (NMFP) for the sardines industry, Ramiscal said. He added that the share or percentage allocation among small-scale and large-scale fishermen has not been finalized yet, which will be up for deliberations during the nationwide consultations with various sardine industry stakeholders. “The management usually give privilege to small-scale fishermen, but we also have to consider the commercial ones as they are the large-scale players. The final sharing allocation will be finalized and formulated through the consultation,” Ramiscal told the BusinessMirror in a separate interview on the sidelines of the event. “Because we might be giving bigger allocation to small-scale fishermen, but they are not capable of filling up their allocated volume, then that would only [end up as] wastage,” he added. Ramiscal said another option being considered pursuant to the proposed CAS is the adoption of a “transferrable quota”, which allows fishermen to transfer their catch allocation to others. “Meaning if a certain fisherman cannot maximize his given volume cap then he could give it to commercial fishermen in exchange for a certain fee or subsidy,” Ramiscal said. “These are the options we are looking into, but as I have said, there’s no final option yet. We are making sure that our policies would be transparent and participatory so we want all the stakeholders of the sardines industry involved in finalizing our policies,” he added. Bfar formed a multisector technical working group (TWG) to focus on the crafting of the sardine industry’s NMFP. Dr. Jose Ingles, member of the Sardine Industry’s NMFP-TWG and consultant of Environmental Defense Fund, said imposing a CAS among fishermen would empower them and give more freedom in planning their catch. “There will be freedom on when [and where] on they [would] want to catch sardines. For example, the small-scale ones, instead of catching small-sized fish during the start of fishing season, they would catch around October before the fishing season closes, where the sizes of the catch are big and of higher price despite limited quantity,”

Ingles said. He said that, if the government will pursue the implementation of CAS for sardines, it must take into consideration the business prospects of both the sardine and tuna industries. “The government and the stakeholders must answer what is their priority: having a stable price for sardines or having more production of tuna for exports? This is already being deliberated under the NMFP. What is the ideal combination: Is it having more sardines production or more tuna production for exports,” Ingles said. Oceana Philippines Senior Marine Scientist Jimely Flores said the adoption of NMFP for the sardines Industry would not only result in a sustainable sardines production, but also a sustainable marine aquatic resources for other fish species like tuna. “In order for us to maintain our production of tuna, we must take care our sardines industry, because sardine serves as a primary food for tuna and other species of fish,” Flores said. The NMFP for sardines industry would serve as the country’s road map in attaining a sustainable sardines production, Ramiscal said. The NMFP-TWG convened last week to review the status of the sardines in the country, particularly in view of scientific basis and understanding, he said. During the meeting, Ramiscal said TWG members agreed on several initiatives, including having good science basis for the NMFP, crafting realistic policy, having efficient governance and sufficient budget for the implementation of NMFP. He said they are set to start the consultation with the various sardine industry stakeholders, including the small-scale fisherfolk, consumers, local government units, traders, processors and non-governmental organizations. Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority and Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Fisheries and Bfar National Director Eduardo Gongona said that over the last five years the sardine industry yielded an average volume of 355,000 metric tons, generating an average value of P10.45 billion. Gongona said, based on BFAR’s Fisherfolk Registration System, there are over 800,00 fisherfolk engaging in sardines fishing, which is nearly half of the total 1.7 million registered fishermen across the country. “These numbers mean a lot to your government, which, under the Duterte administration and with the guidance of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol, has committed to provide safe, available and affordable food for its people,” Gongona said. “Sardines are among, if not the most, accessible source of protein, considering that the fish can be bought at an average price of only P50 to P90 per kilo. It has become a staple part of our diet and culture, with Filipinos having an average consumption of 2.6 grams per day or 0.9 kilograms a year,” he added. Gongona said they are eyeing to launch the NMFP for sardines industry during the third week of October in time for the Fish Conservation Week.

briefs major boost for dti’s ‘go loKal!’

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will be partnering with more retail developers for its “Go Lokal!” concept in a bid to boost the market reach of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said the agency has partnered with SM Kultura and Robinsons Malls to establish more Go Lokal! retail pop-up stores, and raise the brand visibility of Filipino products for free. The DTI opened the first Go Lokal! retail space last week in partnership with Robinsons Malls in Robinsons Manila in a “prime and high-foot traffic area”, where the selected MSMEs can showcase their products in the area for a year before a new batch of vendors will be chosen. Go Lokal! is a public-private collaboration that serves as an avenue for incubation, marketing and branding for the best of local MSME products, including the next generation One Town One Product offerings. Another Go Lokal! pop-up store will open in April and will run throughout the year at SM Kultura at SM Makati. According to an earlier agreement between Lopez and Robinsons department stores, 10 percent of the net income generated by the Go Lokal! stores will go to social causes and projects, including governmentled drug-rehabilitation initiatives. Catherine N. Pillas

u.s. reaffirms aid commitment to mindanao devt

Summer boom A group of hardy construction workers rushes to complete a 30-story condominium-type structure along JW Diokno

Boulevard in Pasay City before the summer season ends. Construction in the Philippines is a year-round activity and reaches its peak during the summer months. ROY DOMINGO

Manila-Hainan flights eyed under China-led Belt and Road Initiative By Jelly F. Musico

Philippines News Agency

AINAN, China—The tourism sectors of Hainan, China’s famous tropical province, and the Philippines are seen to benefit under economic integration strategy Belt and Road Initiative. Chen Yibo, deputy director general of Hainan Provincial Tourism Development Commission, said the Belt and Road initiative could propel a plan to open direct flights between Manila and Hainan. “There is a great possibility that direct flights between Manila and Hainan will materialize soon,” Chen told the Philippine News Agency when asked if the Belt and Road Initiative would also spur tourist arrivals between Hainan and the Philippines. The Belt and Road Initiative, which calls for massive investment infrastructure, trade and cultural exchanges, was lengthily discussed during the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2017 held from March 23 to 27 in Boao, Hainan. Chen said tourism is one sector that will benefit from the Belt and Road, also known as One Belt, One Road, which was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, to integrate the economic develop-

ment not only in Asia, but also part of Europe, Middle East and Africa. “The infrastructures to be built in the countries under this initiative will boost the tourism industry,” Chen told the 15 journalists from South Asia and Southeast Asia who covered the Boao Forum for Asia and visited some famous tourist destinations of Hainan. Chen said representatives from concerned travel groups and airlines are now discussing a proposal to open direct flight between Hainan and the Philippines. Like the Philippines, Hainan is famous for its tropical climate, white beaches and clean and sound ecological environment that made the province one of the best places for international conferences like Boao Forum for Asia. Chen said that, while the province achieved an impressive 62 million tourist arrivals in 2016, only 750,600 of them were foreigners. He said direct flights, including the recently opened Hainan-Phnom Penh and Hainan-Singapore, as well as future foreign direct flights, would improve the number of the province’s visitors from other countries. Hainan province, according to Chen, is also known for its medical tourism, maritime tourism and countryside tourism highlighted by

agriculture villages development aimed at improving the lives of the farmers. Sanya, located in the southernmost of Hainan, remains the province’s top favorite destination primarily due to its well-managed tourism industry and breathtaking tourist spots. Sanya Tourism Development Commissioner Kaizhong Ye said the Sanya City government has placed massive investments to provide better services, particularly security for the tourists, as well as environment protection. Ye said Sanya is called “Hawaii of China” due to its picturesque scenery, beach and hot-spring resorts, world’s biggest duty free shopping mall and vast forested land including the famous 15,000 square kilometer Yalong Bay Tropical Rainforest Park. Sanya received 16 million tourists in 2016, but only 438,083 of them came from other countries, including the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries which delivered a total of 39,700 tourists. Sanya Vice Mayor Dai Yuming said opening up more direct flights, including Hainan-Manila route, will improve the tourist arrivals not only in Sanya but the whole Hainan province.

The US government has pledged continuous support anew to developmental projects in Mindanao. In a news statement released on Tuesday the US government reaffirmed its commitment to aid the Philippines to develop Mindanao, saying it has pledged more than P3.5 billion for “dozens of projects” in Mindanao over the next few years, including the roll-on, rolloff nautical highway. The route, said to open on April 30, will connect the cities of Davao and General Santos to Bitung in the Sulawesi Island of Indonesia. This will contribute in reducing export costs for businesses operating in Mindanao, the embassy said. US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Y. Kim visited Davao recently and met with President Duterte, touching on areas for strengthened cooperation, such as counterterrorism, child protection, piracy and economic development in Mindanao. Catherine N. Pillas

armm clears p32-million fisheries-based investment in tawi-tawi COTABATO CITY—Another multimillion-peso company has earned the green light to operate in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), a venture which is expected to improve the region’s economy and provide employment opportunities to the people of Tawi-Tawi. On Monday the Regional Board of Investment (RBOI) in the ARMM has approved the application for registration of Abing Seafoods and Cold Storage (ASCS). In a news statement released on Tuesday lawyer Ishak Mastura, RBOI-ARMM chairman, said the firm, which is based in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, will engage in a P32-million marineresource business. Mastura said the approval of the project is a strategic initiative of the ARMM government to strengthen the growth of the fishery industry in Tawi-Tawi and, most important, help small-scale fishermen sell their catch at reasonable prices. “This is also a good way to promote sustainable marine resources and support to local fisherfolk for conserving the marine environment,” he said. Mastura said the ASCS is into “responsible and rational buy and sale venture” of various commercially important fishery resources in Tawi-Tawi for local and international markets. PNA

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Attorney general: Sanctuary cities are risking federal money W

ASHINGTON— Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday warned so-called sanctuary cities they could lose federal money for refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities, and suggested the government would come after grants that have already been awarded if they don’t comply. Sessions said the Justice Department would require cities seeking some of $4.1 billion available in grant money to verify that they are in compliance with a section of federal law that allows information sharing with immigration officials. His statements in the White House briefing room brought to mind tough talk from President Donald J. Trump’s campaign and came just three days after the administration’s crushing health-care defeat. But Sessions also acknowledged he was reiterating a similar policy adopted by the Obama administration last year. “I urge the nation’s states and cities to carefully consider the harm they are doing to their citizens by refusing to enforce our immigration laws,” Sessions said.

Lawful steps

THE message is a furtherance of Trump’s campaign promise to “defund” sanctuary cities by taking away their federal funding. But legal precedent suggests that would be difficult. The Obama administration issued the same warning last year, telling cities they risked losing grant money in 2017 if they didn’t comply with the law. Sessions did not detail what specific factors would trigger the government to deny or strip a city of money, only that it would take “all lawful steps to claw-back” funds already awarded to cities deemed to be out of compliance. At stake are grants that go toward an array of programs, including victim services, body cameras for police, tools to cut rape kit-testing backlogs and police involvement in community events. In fiscal year 2016, the Office of Justice Programs made nearly 3,000 grants totaling $3.9 billion to cities, counties, states and other local governments.

No definition

PHILADELPHIA, which has designated itself as a “sanctuary city”, received $57.5 million in Justice Department grants in fiscal year 2016—mostly to cover police expenses for the Democratic National Convention, which was held in the city. Although there is no official definition of what makes a locality a “sanctuary”, the Trump administration has begun to publish weekly reports of local jurisdictions that aren’t cooperating with federal efforts to find and deport immigrants in the country illegally, as part of executive order Trump signed in January. The White House last week listed more than 200 cases of immigrants released from custody before federal agents could intervene. Sessions on Monday pointed to two cases in which immigrants who had been released by local law enforcement went on to commit violent crimes. Refusing to honor such immigration detainer requests would not put a city in violation of the statute Sessions cited, which deals, instead, with law enforcement sharing of information about someone’s immigration status.

Worst nightmare

MEANWHILE, municipal leaders nationwide vowed to defy any crackdown. “We are going to become this administration’s worst nightmare,” said New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who was among officials gathered in New York for a small conference that attracted officials from cities, including San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York. Mark-Viverito and others promised to block federal immigration agents from accessing certain private areas on city property, to restrict their access to schools and school records and to offer legal services to immigrants in the country illegally. California Senate leader Kevin de León called Sessions’s message, “nothing short of blackmail.... Their gun-to-the-head method to force resistant cities and counties to participate in Trump’s inhumane and counterproductive mass deportation is unconstitutional and will fail.” APw

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Nuclear-arms ban talks begin at UN, but US, others boycott

NITED NATIONS—UN talks aimed at banning nuclear weapons began on Monday, but the United States, Russia, China and other nuclear-armed nations are sitting out a discussion they see as impractical.

Supporters of the potential pact say it’s time to push harder toward eliminating atomic weapons that nations have been doing through the nearly 50-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). With international tensions rising while public awareness of the nuclear threat has waned, “the need for progress on nuclear disarmament has rarely been as urgent as it is today,” UN Undersecretary-General for Disarmament Kim Won-soo said as the talks opened. More than 100 countries voted for a UN General Assembly resolution last year to start discussions, with nations including Austria, Brazil and Ireland leading the effort. But the US and several other nuclear powers say a ban won’t work, and the world should instead stick with a more gradual approach. “As a mom, as a daughter, there

85% The percentage of US nuclear arsenal reduced under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, according to US Ambassador Nikki Haley

is nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear weapons. But we have to be realistic,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley said, as she and colleagues from Britain, France and about 20 other nations, not all of them nuclear states, gathered on Monday outside the General Assembly

hall to show opposition to the talks starting inside. Haley argued that a treaty would end up disarming nations “trying to keep peace and safety”, while “bad actors” wouldn’t sign on or comply. “North Korea would be the one cheering, and all of us and the people we represent would be the ones at risk,” she said. North Korea carried out two nuclear tests last year and has continued to test ballistic missiles as recently as this month, in violation of UN resolutions. The North has said its nuclear efforts are meant as a deterrent against what it sees as US hostility. North Korea’s UN Mission didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry on Monday about the disarmament talks.

Total elimination

OPPONENTS of the ban plan say gradual disarmament has made a difference. The US has reduced its nuclear arsenal by 85 percent under the NPT, Haley said; Britain has cut its nuclear forces by over 50 percent since the height of the Cold War, accord ing to A mbassador Matthew Rycroft. Still, “our countries continue to rely on nuclear deterrence for security and stability,” French Deput y A mbassador A le x is Lamek said.

C h i nese a nd Ru ssi a n rep re s e nt at ive s d id n’t joi n t he boycotters’ news conference, but the two countries had said previously that they wouldn’t participate in the talks. Japan, which during World War II experienced the only atomic bomb strikes in history, did take part in opening remarks on Monday. Saying that North Korea’s actions challenge the nonproliferation approach, Japanese representative Nobushige Takamizawa said it was “crucial to have a realistic perspective as to how nuclear disarmament measures can contribute effectively to addressing actual security concerns.” The negotiations aim to create “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”. Backers hope a document will be inked by July. Any treaty would bind only nations that ratified it. But, despite the opposition from key nuclear players, supporters of the proposed ban feel it could help create a new international norm of rejecting atomic arms. “It’s very difficult to eliminate a weapon that you haven’t prohibited first,” said Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, an advocacy group. AP

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ACLU fights vs warrantless searches of drug database

A LT L A K E C I T Y—T he American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Utah state officials are arguing that a judge’s recommendation to allow the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to do warrantless searches of a prescription drug database violates people’s privacy rights, the ACLU said on Monday. Safeguards are needed for a database that contains records of prescriptions for medication like the antianxiety drug Xanax and the sleep aid Ambien, as well as prescription painkillers, the ACLU said in a statement. The DEA counters that access is an important tool in the early stages of the agency’s investigations. The ACLU filed its objection last Friday to a recommendation earlier this month from US Magistrate Judge Dustin Pead. He said the DEA should have access to a database already in government hands. “ACLU’s arguments are akin to a criminal defendant suggesting that the federal government must seek a warrant to obtain a defendant’s records from local police,” Pead wrote on March 13. ACLU attorneys called that parallel off target in its reply. “A better analogy would be to the contents of students’ private e-mails stored on a state universit y’s ser vers; though such files are held by a government entity, surely that fact alone does not divest them of protection under the Fourth

Found while cycling Boston’s streets: A new spirituality

OSTON—Bicycling through Boston’s twisting, trafficclogged streets may seem more about self-preser vation than spiritual enlightenment. For the Rev. Laura Everett, her daily 6-mile commute is a way of connecting to her adopted city, its residents, and her sense of community and vulnerability. Instead of hopping on the subway and popping up in another part of town, Everett said, bicycling has exposed her to the warp and weft of Boston’s neighborhoods and the people who animate them. It’s also led her to a new sense of spirituality and inspired her to turn her experiences into a new book, Holy Spokes: The Search for Urban Spirituality on Two Wheels. “Part of the regularity of a daily commute is what I think forms it to be a spiritual discipline,” said Everett, 38. “That commitment to the same route time and time again, starting to see the same people, seeing the same neighborhoods, seeing the trees change from budding to bursting—that is where I started noticing this is really having an effect not just on how I move through the city, but on my soul,” she said.

Ghost bikes

ALONG the way, Everett, executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, stumbled on an impromptu congregation—a tribe of fellow bicyclists who share the joys and terrors of Boston’s byzantine streets. She has married bicycle couples and officiated at an annual “blessing of the bicycles” in which bicyclists gather to pray for fellow cyclists who have died and let Everett and others anoint their bikes with a mix of holy oil and chain lube. Everett’s most poignant contribution may be her participation in “ghost bike” ceremonies. Ghost bikes refer to the practice of painting a bicycle and its tires solid white and locking it near where a bicyclist has died, often after being struck by a car or truck.

Amendment,” they wrote in a cour t filing.

Wrongly charged

UTAH state officials also objected to Pead’s recommendation in a separate court filing, pointing to ACLU’s reasoning. US District Judge David Nuffer will decide whether to accept the recommendations. More than 40 states keep similar databases, but Utah recently passed a law requiring investigators to get a warrant before they search it. Utah is among the minority of states that have that requirement. The measure was passed after two firefighters said they were wrongly charged with prescription-drug fraud after a wide-ranging search of the database. They were charged after police investigating ambulance drug thefts ran hundreds of names through the system on a hunch that it might be an inside job. The two men were not linked to the thefts, but their relatively high number of prescriptions raised suspicion and prosecutors filed fraud charges. The case was later dropped, but still put their careers and personal lives at risk, they said. The Utah firefighters union and a state gay-rights group joined the ACLU in the lawsuit. The firefighters’ union said it is sympathetic to the need to curb a nationwide problem with prescription drug abuse, but that police shouldn’t have unfettered access. AP

Trump creates office to bring business ideas to government

In this March 21 photo, the Rev. Laura Everett, executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, rides her bike to a meeting of clergy in Cambridge, Massachusets. Everett says commuting by bike after her car died has connected her to the city, its neighborhoods and residents. AP

“Bicyclists have the experience of knowing our own vulnerability, and knowing that in some ways our safety is dependent on the actions of others,” she said.

Urban spirituality

K EN C arlson, head of t he Somerville Bicycle Advisory Committee, first met Everett at a ghost bike ceremony for Cambridge bicyclist Marcia Deihl, who died in 2015 after being struck by a dump truck. “I was rea lly touched and impressed w ith Laura and her deep sense of empathy, sy mpathy and connection to the

bic yc le communit y,” he said. Bicycling raises another spiritual challenge, Everett said: anger. “What does it mean to absorb other people’s anger? What do you do with your own anger? How do you live in a system that’s unjust,” she said. “Those roads aren’t fair”. One goal of her book was to ponder what she calls “an intentionally urban spirituality.” “W hat if what is transcendent and what is heavenly is less like the Green Mountains of Vermont and more like Blue Hill Avenue?” she said, referring to a busy Boston thoroughfare.

Daily basis

BECC A Wolfson, e xecutive director of the Boston Cyclists Union, sees the connection between cycling and spirituality. “You’re thinking about your mortality on a daily basis and where you are going and how you are going to get there,” she said. Everett didn’t always see herself as a bicyclist. A lthough she rode for fun growing up in suburban New Jersey, it wasn’t until she moved to Boston and her car broke down on Interstate 93 that she turned to bicycling.

Members of her Bible study group helped her fix up a bike and taught her how to ride from her home in the city’s Forest Hills neighborhood to her office near the Statehouse. Everett said she is also interested in the concerns of “invisible bicyclists”—those who rely on bikes, often in poorer and working class neighborhoods, not to look hip but because they have no other options. “The guy who’s retrofitted his bike to carry all the tin cans he’s picking up,” she said. “Isn’t he a bicyclist, too?” AP

ASHINGTON—President Donald J. Trump is establishing a new White House office run by his son-inlaw that will seek to overhaul government functions using ideas from the business sector. Trump announced the White House Office of American Innovation in a memo on Monday. “The office will focus on implementing policies and scaling proven private-sector models to spur job creation and innovation,” he wrote. The innovation office will be led by Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump’s husband, and will report directly to the president. White House Spokesman Sean Spicer said early priorities for the office will be modernizing technology in the federal government and overhauling the Department of Veterans Affairs. In the memo, Trump said the office will make recommendations to the president “on policies and plans that improve government operations and services, improve the quality of life for Americans now and in the future, and spur job creation.” Among those working on the effort are National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn; Dina Powell, senior counselor to the president for economic initiatives and deputy national security adviser; Chris Liddell, assistant to the president for strategic initiatives; and Reed Cordish, assistant to the president for intragovernmental and technology initiatives. All have extensive business experience. Trump is announcing the new office at a low point in his young administration, days after the Republican bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, imploded in the House, revealing deep divides within the GOP and fraying tensions at the White House. This effort has been developing since shor tly after the inauguration, said a senior administration official, who requested anonymity to discuss details about the office. The group has been meeting since then and started talking to CEOs from various sectors about ways to make changes to federal programs. Areas its personnel hope to tackle include overhauling the Department of Veterans Affairs, improving work force development and targeting opioid addiction. AP

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Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Ripples from US nuclear-plant closings overwhelm small towns O AK HARBOR, Ohio—Living in the shadows of the DavisBesse nuclear-power plant’s cooling tower, which soars above Lake Erie in Ohio like an oversized lighthouse, brings with it some give and take.

On the plus side, it generates tax money that once paid for a high-school swimming pool and auditorium. Then there are the stockpiles of radiation pills and emergency drills for students in case of a disaster. For the small, mostly rural towns that are home to 61 US nuclear plants that produce onefifth of the nation’s electricity,

each one has been like the golden goose supplying high-paying jobs and money for roads, the police and libraries. But those same places and their residents are bracing for what may come next due to the soaring costs of running aging reactors that have speeded up the closings of a handful of sites and are threatening at least a

dozen more. That’s because once the power stops f lowing, so does the money. Towns that already have seen nuclear plants shuttered are now dealing with higher property taxes, cuts in services and less school funding—a new reality that may linger for decades.

Not forever

IN Wisconsin the tiny town of Carlton saw the source of roughly 70 percent of its yearly budget disappear when the Kewaunee nuclear-power plant closed four years ago. That resulted in the first town tax in its history. “Financially, we benefited, but now we’re going to pay the price for the next 40 years,” said David Hardtke, the town chairman. When operations ceased at the Crystal River Nuclear Plant along Florida’s Gulf Coast, “it was like

something going through and wiping out a third of your county,” Citrus County Administrator Randy Oliver said. To make up the difference, property tax rates went up by 31 percent and 100 county workers were let go—so many that Oliver worries there won’t be enough to evacuate residents and clear roads if a major tropical storm hits. W hile the nation’s f leet of nuclear-power plants wasn’t designed to last forever, closures are happening earlier than expected because repair costs are astronomical and it’s harder to compete with cheaper natural gas-fired plants and renewableenergy sources. The former head of the nuclear industry’s trade group said last year economic pressures have put 15 to 20 plants at risk of a premature shutdown.

State of limbo

FIRSTENERGY Corp. will decide by next year whether to close or sell its plant in Pennsylvania and two in Ohio, including Davis-Besse, unless the states c h a nge reg u l at ion s to m a ke them more competitive. The uncertainty around Davis-Besse and a plan to lower its value caused the local school board to shelve plans to build a new elementary building for the district, which stands to lose $8 million a year without the plant. New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., owner of the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, announced plans late last year to close in 2018, even though it has a license to keep operating another 14 years. How much the losses will add up to isn’t clear yet, said Dennis Palgen, a township supervisor

where the plant has operated since 1971. “We’re just in a state of limbo right now,” he said, adding that plans to buy a new fire truck are on hold. The plant and its 600 workers have been good neighbors, he said, buying backpacks for school children and emergency generators for the township. “The list goes on and on,” Palgen said. In some cases, utilities are paying communities and schools during the first few years to help ease the sudden loss of their largest employer and taxpayer. But what makes recovering tough is that almost all nuclear plants are in out-of-t he-way places that have become heavily reliant on them. And they e mplo y s p e c i a l i z e d w or k e r s who are quick to leave for stilloperating locations. AP

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BOC: Local SMEs matched with Chinese counterparts for business cooperation

By Roderick L. Abad | Contributor

ORE and more Filipino and Chinese enterprises showed interest to jointly explore business opportunities on the back of the improving ties between Manila and Beijing, as around 230 of them agreed to reach and sign an agreement during Bank of China’s (BOC) SME Cross-Border Trade and Investment Conference held at the Manila Hotel on March 18.

The attendees comprised at least 77 percent of over 350 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the Philippines and 320 from China that participated in the matchmaking event. This formed part of BOC’s service to allow small- scale Philippine companies to interconnect with their Chinese counterparts and enjoin them in the global value chain. “Our partnership with the Philippines aims to open opportunities for local businesses and bridge markets across the globe,” said Deng Jun, country head of BOC Philippines. “By

promoting trade, we hope to accelerate growth for both our countries.” With the positive turnout of the conclave attended by a great number of representatives from both sides, it indicated a bullish expectation for trade cooperation between the two Asian countries, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said. He also noted the attendance as a vote of confidence for friendship of the two allied nations. Meanwhile, President Duterte, in his taped video to the forum, lauded the organizers of the event for giv-

ing the SMEs the right platform to forge agreements as far as business is concerned. Among Duterte’s major platforms during his presidential campaign was to promote small-scale businesses in the country to become the future big companies in the Philippines. This is in line with his commitment to solve poverty and address inequality, thus bringing prosperity to all Filipinos. Sharing the same thoughts with the Chief Executive was Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, who said the business-matching initiative “certainly bodes well for the micro, small and medium enterprises [MSMEs], as it provides them with the right business environment to grow and develop.” He said MSMEs serve as the backbone of the economy, as they account for 99.6 percent of all enterprises operating in the country, contributing about 70 percent of employment and 35 percent of gross value-added products and services into the economy. “This is the reason we in [DTI] the Department of Trade and Industry put great emphasis on generating and promoting more MSME empowerment, very much aligned with the direction of President Duterte,” he said. Given the support of their Chinese counterparts, he said local MSMEs will be able to seize opportunities in the current global market.

This business-matching initiative, he said, showed how far the Philippines’s and China’s relationship has broadened with prior commitments now showing tangible results. “This forum is really a huge milestone and a great improvement,” Lopez said. “This activity signals the exciting times we live in. It indicates that our two countries are committed to reopening and renewing their strong ties of friendship.” The recent gathering was the 29th leg of the conference conducted globally, with participation of SMEs involved in food processing, building materials, furniture, agriculture, fisheries, e-commerce and information technology, construction equipment, textile and garments, iron and steel, tourism and real estate. For the last 28 editions of the matchmaking process, BOC has so far achieved an average success rate of “20 percent”. In January 2017 alone the bank gathered 350 Filipino firms and 332 Chinese companies together, created 640 potential matches and conducted 69 video conferences. Rather than using traditional methods of attracting investments, the BOC employs either a “one-onone” or “one-to-more” ways of negotiation and connection. The six-step process includes establishing a database, customer matching, remote online matchmaking, one-to-one meeting, onsite survey and banking service. The efforts of BOC fall under the forged Strategic Cooperation Agreement with the DTI, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries, and the International Chamber of Commerce, Philippines, as witnessed by Duterte during his visit to China on October 21, 2016.

DTI-EMB exhorts exporters to join biz-matching facility

VICTORINO Soriano, chief of the Export Marketing Bureau’s Knowledge Processing Division, briefs the participants to the Regional Interactive Platform for Philippine Exporters (RIPPLES) Plus Capacity Building Seminar on “Standards Certification: Food Safety Management System”, held on March 20 and 21 at the Penthouse of the DTI International Building in Makati City on the bureau’s free online and real-time businessmatching facility.

HE Department of Trade and Industry-Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB) urged Philippine exporters to register at the bureau's free online and real-time business-matching facility to avail themselves of the opportunity to serve the requirements of foreign buyers. Speaking at the Regional Interactive Platform for Philippine Exporters (RIPPLES) Plus Capacity Building Seminar on “Standards Certification: Food Safety Management System”, held on March 20 and 21 at the Penthouse of the DTI International Building in Makati City, Victorino Soriano, chief of the DTI-EMB’s Knowledge Processing Division, called on registered exporters to update their accounts, particularly the products and services they offer. This way, they will have better chances of being matched and doing business with foreign buyers, he said. He also advised the companies that have not yet registered to register at businessmatching.dti.gov.ph to take advantage of the benefits the system offers. The business-matching facility

is one of the major components of Tradeline Philippines, the DTIEMB’s online business-intelligence platform that aims to deliver timely and relevant information and assistance to existing and potential exporters to enhance their capabilities and competitiveness as suppliers of quality goods and services to global markets. Accessible via tradelinephilippines.dti.gov.ph, it is also positioned as the DTI-EMB’s main information and communications technology (ICT) tool in providing its stakeholders with an integrated export-information system that will provide market and product information, supplier and buyer databases, and other trade-related information to its valued stakeholders through the Web. The system’s other major component is the interactive trade statistics report. Public users can view export and import statistics based on the 2004 Philippine Standard Commodity Classification. The site provides data on Philippine exports to and imports from the world based on 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 digits with accompanying graphs.

FILIPINO WOMEN IN GLOBAL BUSINESS

Malu Unson of Sterling Gifts Inc. By Abigael Mei Yaokana Office of the Director, DTI-EMB

TERLING Gifts Inc. is a world-class manufacturer of jewelries and gift items exported to Europe, the US, Hong Kong and Japan. The former President of the Confederation of Philippine Jewelers Malu Unson established the company in 1996. With seasoned jewelry specialist designing its collections, the company has been trusted by its clients for the quality of its service and exceptional designs. “We develop, design and work with clients closely to ensure the items we make are of the finest quality,” she said. Aside from manufacturing, the company also supplies jewelry to private labels and corporate items. To ensure exclusivity, the company strictly observes the confidentiality of its clients and designs. Even a seasoned jeweler like Unson and her company experienced some bumps along the road. She recalled when toward the end of term of then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, “I was the president of the Confederation of Philippine Jewelers. We had a contract with an American fair organizer. When the time came that we had to pay for the booth rentals, we found out the funds allocated for us had been returned to the Department of Budget and Management.” When she told the organizer the funds were no longer available, the latter warned her they would blacklist all of the participating companies, as well as the Philippines, in their trade fairs. “We could not afford to have our company names, nor that of our country, tarnished,” she said. Upon consulting with the organizers, they were given one booth, so that the fair exhibitors listing could stay. Hence, they were able to participate with 12 companies involved in the exhibitions. Unson credits the support of the government, particularly the DTI’s Export Marketing Bureau and the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions, for the contributions they made to the jewelry industry. “They gave us concrete help in terms of consultations, and exposure in local and international exhibits and trade missions. Their culture of helping out businesspeople is commendable,” she said. Unson believes empowering highly skilled employees will not only contribute to the company’ssuccess, but to the economic growth of the country, as well. In fact, their com-

pany is committed to support the country’s export sector. In line with her company’s mission and vision, she had trained craftsmen are now working overseas. “We don’t just train them in craftsmanship, but their way of thinking, as well,” she said. Unson, who admitted being very strict with her employees, said, “At the end of the day, they realize they profit from getting good working habits and attitude”. Some of her employees who work abroad often give her feedback that what Sterling Gifts required of them in terms of work procedures and quality are the same requirements asked of them by their employers abroad. They also follow the Hermes method, where a work is given to one worker from start to finish so they have ownership of the finished product. Unson believes that running a business is not always easy, and points out that coping with challenges is a necessity. “I never consider my being a woman any different from a man running a company; the problems and solutions are the same,” she said, adding that having an understanding and supportive family contributes greatly to their company's success.

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Global Gateway Clark answer to Metro Manila’s congestion

LARK FREEPORT—A modern city now on the rise here is touted to be the country’s next world-class economic hub outside Metro Manila. Michael Russell, president of Global Gateway Development Corp. (GGDC), said the ultra-modern city is the solution to some of Metro Manila’s economic problems, like overpopulation, traffic and airport congestion. During the Balitaan media forum organized by the Capampangan in Media Inc. (Cami) in cooperation with the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and the Social Security System (SSS) at the Bale Balita (House of News) here on Friday, Russell said the 177-hectare business center called the Global Gateway Logistics City (GGLC) is now the top-priority location for some of the biggest local and international companies scrambling for prime spots in a fully masterplanned property at par with Metro Manila’s Bonifacio Global City. Russell said GGLC is completely livable, disaster-ready and designed to accommodate multinational corporations, like airline companies, business-process outsourcing (BPO) firms, health-care industries and transportation facilities essential to a modern day city. One of the earliest locators in GGLC is the Medical City Clark Hospital, bringing the best of the country’s health-care services to the Central Luzon region. Nearby is the new 3-hectare campus of the University of the Philippines-Clark which will accommodate more scholars. This free port, which boasts of world-class infrastructure, such as an international airport, is just an hours drive from Metro Manila through the North Luzon Expressway. Philippine Airlines , the country’s flag carrier, has started to expand its operation at the Clark International Airport flying passengers to more local and international destinations. Ashley Manabat

5 crewmen killed in Zambo boat explosion By Rene Acosta

@reneacostaBM

IVE crewmen were killed after an explosion rocked their boat and set it on fire while it was docked on Monday night in a pier in Zamboanga City. Lt. Cmdr. Alvin Dagalea, commander of the Coast Guard Station in Zamboanga, said the bodies of the crewmen of ML Satellite were recovered on Tuesday morning by Coast Guard personnel. Four others were injured, while three others escaped unscathed. Dagalea said the Satellite was refueling while docked at the Bengo Wharf in Zamboanga City when it was hit by an explosion before it caught ablaze past 8 p.m. The motor launch was carrying no passengers at the time of the explosion. Its 12 crewmen were onboard. Dagalea said authorities were still investigating the incident. Meanwhile, Laurencio Tiro, chief engineer of the Supershuttle Roro 9 tugboat, was rescued on Monday night in Basilan from the hands of the Abu Sayyaf Group. Tiro was “rescued and recovered” along the shorelines of Sitio Sasa, Barangay Basakan, Hadji Mohammad Ajul, Basilan at around 10:30 p.m. by members of the Army’s 4th Special Forces Battalion under Lt. Col. Andrew Bacala and the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team.

Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Wednesday, March 29, 2017 A9

Japan donates $6 million to support children’s education in Mindanao

APAN has given $6.2 million (P312.17 million) to the United Nations children’s agency Unicef to support peace-building and education efforts for conflict-affected children in Mindanao, including children disengaged from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) armed forces. The program is broadly aligned with the country’s peace process under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro led by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

JAPAN’S Ambassador to the Philippines Kazuhide Ishikawa and Unicef Philippines Rep. Lotta Sylwander shake hands after the signing of the Exchange of Notes between the government of Japan and Unicef held at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Manila. Joining them are Acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Director for Donor Coordination and Partnership Arvin Chua.

PRA, One Architecture facilitate global-resilience grant for Tacloban By Elmer V. Recuerdo Correspondent

ACLOBAN CITY—The Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) and award-winning One Architecture and Urbanism joined efforts to firm up a coastalprotection strategy that won a grant for Tacloban City in the highly competitive Global Resilience Water Window Challenge organized by the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP). The $150,000 prize, which now becomes the seed grant, will be used to construct three pilot projects involving shoreline pond and mangrove restoration in selected sites here. PRA General Manager Janilo Rubiato said GRP received over 400 proposals from different parts of the world in the Global Resilience Water Window Challenge, where the one it crafted with One Architecture, entitled “One Resilient Team: Tacloban”, was among the 12 chosen for funding. Edilberto de Jesus, PRA board director, said the proposal followed the Dutch “building with nature approach”. “It is a way of providing coastal defense, not only by building hard structures like dikes or embankment, but also by using new trends in coastal resilience, which is following the build with nature strategy,” de Jesus said. “So you get environmentally sound projects that will help coastal protection, such as mangrove growth or beach forests”. “This is the strategy that countries that have experienced this kind of weather disturbances are using,” de Jesus said of the project’s capabil-

ity to defend populated areas from storm surges similar to that brought by Supertyphoon Yolanda. Immediately after Yolanda struck and devastated this part of the country, PRA requested the Netherlands government for access to its Dutch Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) facility. The Dutch government responded by sending the DRR team to conduct a scoping mission in July 2014. The Dutch government then sent a consortium of engineering and water experts to develop a comprehensive master plan for coastal-protection strategy of Tacloban City and Palo. After months of study, stakeholder consultation and transfer of knowledge, the master plan, which followed the Dutch “building with nature” approach, was finalized in May 2016. Considering the social and economic welfare of the stakeholders, the master plan recommended a multilevel safety approach—the first level is prevention by minimizing probability of flooding by hard and soft engineering interventions; the second level is spatial planning to minimize damage and casualties; and last, emergency management involving public awareness and early warning systems. The second- and third-level components were adopted in the Tacloban City’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan and are now being implemented. For the first level, among the strategies recommended in the master plan is mangrove restoration. To implement this, PRA collaborated with One Architecture and Urbanism, an award-winning Amsterdamand New York-based design and plan-

ning firm. PRA and One Architecture crafted” a proposal entitled “One Resilient Team: Tacloban” to implement a nonstructural component of the Coastal Defense Strategy. “In crafting the proposal, we conducted conversations with local government units so they could advise us on the potential areas of the project,” de Jesus told the BusinessMirror. One Resilient Team: Tacloban joined the Global Resilience Water Window Challenge, a competitive process aiming to promote water resilience by developing and testing novel solutions in local setting. The Water Window Challenge is a central component of GRP, a new model that seeks to solve today’s complex and interrelated resilience challenges by better aligning humanitarian and development planning. Out of the more than 400 proposals received by the Water Window Challenge, One Resilient Team: Tacloban was among the 12 challenge winners that received a seed grant of $150,000 for the construction of three pilot projects. Rubiato said the program is being developed in consideration of ecological success, and social and economic impact. He said the seed grant will be used to construct three pilot projects involving shoreline pond and mangrove restoration on selected sites in Tacloban City. Mangrove reforesting will restore sections of natural coastline. The implementation of the program will involve series of trainings and will be executed by local participants in coordination with local organizations and the city government of Tacloban.

Development in San Simon worries Nlex Corp.

L A R K FR EEPORT—T he unhampered development along San Simon Town’s industrial zone area can now be seen slowly creeping into the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex) with the vast tract of wetlands disappearing into dusty expanse. This development is now the subject of a closer study by engineers of Nlex Corp., formerly Manila North Tollways Corp., as the elevated filling could cause floodwaters to inundate the expressway,

which is a vital road network, especially this coming rainy season. Nlex Corp. President and CEO Rod Franco said they are also planning to write a letter to Gov. Lilia Pineda of Pampanga to bring the government’s attention into the matter. During the sidelines of the Nlex San Fernando interchange naming rights ceremony at the Widus Hotel and Casino here on Monday, Franco disclosed that Nlex engineers are now closely

looking into this development and will make their recommendations soon. “I will share this with the technical people, because they are now studying this, in coordination with the Department of Public Works and Highways,” Franco said when asked on what measures they have taken on the matter. “In fact, we are also looking into widening the bridge in San Simon because of the numerous activities in the area,” he added. Ashley Manabat

Conflict affects multiple aspects of children’s development, including survival, gender equity, poverty reduction and access to education. Children living in fragile or conflict-affected countries are more than twice as likely to be malnourished, three times as likely to miss primary school and almost twice as likely to die before age 5 compared to children in developing countries. The social and economic indicators in conflict-affected Mindanao, especially in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao continue to be significantly lower than the rest of the country. While the Philippines has been enjoying several years of rapid economic growth, the situation of children in Mindanao remains alarming, with some of the indicators at the level comparable to least developed countries, such as Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic. For example, only one out of every 10 students in ARMM who begin elementary education will graduate from secondary school. “We are very happy to begin a close partnership with the government of Japan. Japan has been a staunch supporter of the peace process and the economic and social development of

conflict-affected Mindanao. We are one in our belief that children can only grow and develop to their full potential if they live in a peaceful society without armed conflict,” Unicef Philippines Rep. Lotta Sylwander said. The program aims to deliver quality enhancement and expansion of basic social services through basic education, early learning and social reintegration of conflict-affected children and youth. It will also support children who have been disengaged from the MILF’s armed forces through social protection, psychosocial support, life-skills training and other learning opportunities. “We believe that education is surely the key for the peace and development in the long run, this project will serve as the foundation for their future through utilizing the expertise of Unicef. I sincerely believe that these projects will greatly contribute to the social and economic development of the Philippines. At the same time, these projects will mark another milestone in strengthening the friendship between the peoples of Japan and the Philippines, as well as the strategic partnership between our two countries,” said Kazuhide Ishikawa, ambassador of Japan to the Philippines.

A10 Wednesday, March 29, 2017 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Central America pays the price for fiscal failure

entral Americans have good reason to flee to the US in ever greater numbers. Record-setting homicide rates and lack of economic opportunity plague much of the region. A main cause of these and other ills is the failure of governments to provide for the health, education and welfare of their citizens. El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras—the countries that accounted last year for most apprehensions at the US southern border—are poor. Even so, they could make far better use of the resources they do have. For this to happen, they need to reform their approach to taxes and public spending. Saddled with some of the world’s highest rates of poverty and inequality, these countries gather relatively little in tax. In 2015 Guatemala’s revenues equaled about 12 percent of GDP well below the Latin American average of 23 percent (to say nothing of developed countries’ 34 percent). Guatemala’s spending on health, education and social security was, therefore, also among the world’s lowest, at about 8 percent of GDP. Even poor countries can be doing much better than this. A smarter approach to collecting revenue could raise more money for essential public services without unduly burdening workers or producers. A recent United Nations report highlights the opportunities. Central America relies on personal income taxes for a tiny proportion of revenues. Top marginal rates are low (7 percent in Guatemala), and they kick in only at high levels of income. Exemptions, deductions and assorted loopholes narrow still further the base to which these meager rates apply. And what little is raised comes almost exclusively from the rich. The top decile of households accounts for nearly 100 percent of personal income tax in Guatemala and Honduras; the middle classes aren’t even in the picture. The sound fiscal principle that most people should make a contribution to the cost of good public services is absent. Meanwhile, spending taxes raise most of the revenue—but they’re plagued by evasion. In 2015 this cost El Salvador about a billion dollars of revenue, roughly 3 percent of GDP. Moreover, if consumption taxes aren’t well-targeted—and they usually aren’t—they can hit the poor hardest and negate the benefits of small but promising programs of cash transfers. A 2016 study estimated that seen as a whole, El Salvador’s system of taxes and public spending actually increased the number of people in poverty. Broadening the income-tax base and cracking down on evasion could raise substantially more revenue for education and other vital public services. Greater transparency would boost taxpayers’ confidence and their willingness to pay into the system. Higher cash transfers, more precisely targeted at the poorest, would get more bang for the antipoverty buck. Right now, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are, in effect, outsourcing the uplift of their poorest by exporting undocumented immigrants. In 2015 each took in remittances equal to more than 10 percent of GDP—a strategy that may be crimped by the US immigration crackdown. The willingness of the US and other aid donors to continue helping countries that refuse to help themselves is not limitless. Central America’s governments need to get their fiscal houses in order.

You know it when you see it Teddy Locsin Jr.

Free fire Continued from A1

lthough I cannot define what is that, like pornography, we know moderation by experience. Pornography defies definition. Indeed, Justice Potter Stewart admitted that he could not define pornography—but he knew it when he saw it; adding, according to my law professor Laurence Tribe, that Stewart said he saw it once sailing off the coast of Algiers. Moderation is somewhere indefinably between the satisfaction of a craving and the start of

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ne of President Donald J. Trump’s rare strengths has been his ability to project competence. The Dow Jones stock index is up an astonishing 2,200 points since his election, in part because investors believed Trump could deliver tax reform and infrastructure spending.

T. Anthony C. Cabangon Jun B. Vallecera

While I cannot precisely identify the stage where that is at, you and I know when we have reached it. Go one step beyond, and we cannot stop. This happens in all walks of life whenever we overkill in talk or action. Once you get it right—once

Trump’s triumph of incompetence

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achieving it. After that, you should stop. Anything more starts to be immoderate.

The key, I am sorry to repeat a cliché, is moderation. Although I cannot define what is that, like pornography, we know moderation by experience. Pornography defies definition. Indeed, Justice Potter Stewart admitted that he could not define pornography—but he knew it when he saw it.

Think again! The Trump administration is increasingly showing itself to be breathtakingly incompetent, and that’s the real lesson of the collapse of the GOP health-care bill. The administration proved unable to organize its way out of a paper bag: After seven years of Republicans’ publicly loathing Obamacare, their repealreplace bill failed after 18 days. Politics sometimes rewards braggarts, and Trump is a worldclass boaster. He promised a healthcare plan that would be “unbelievable”, “beautiful”, “terrific”, “less expensive and much better”, “insurance for everybody”. But he’s abysmal at delivering—because the basic truth is that he’s an effective politician who’s utterly incompetent at governing. It’s sometimes said that politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Trump campaigns in braggadocio and governs in bombast. Whatever one thinks of Trump’s merits, this competence gap raises profound questions about our national direction. If the administration can’t repeal Obamacare—or manage friendly relations with allies like Mexico or Australia—how

will it possibly accomplish something complicated like tax reform? Failure and weakness also build on themselves, and the health-care debacle will make it more difficult for Trump to get his way with Congress on other issues. As people recognize that the emperor is wearing no clothes, that perception of weakness will spiral. One of the underlying problems is Trump’s penchant for personnel choices that are bafflingly bad or ethically challenged or both. Mike Flynn was perhaps the bestknown example. But consider Sebastian Gorka, a counterterrorism adviser to the president. Gorka, who is of Hungarian origin, founded an extremist right-wing party in Hungary in 2007, and The Forward has published articles claiming that Gorka had ties to the anti-Semitic Hungarian right and is a sworn member of a Nazi-allied group in Hungary called Vitezi Rend. Members of the organization use a lowercase “v” as a middle initial, and The Forward noted that Gorka has presented his name as Sebastian L.v. Gorka. Gorka’s background might have

Of all the national politicians I’ve met over the decades, Trump may be the one least interested in government or policy; he’s absorbed simply with himself. And what we’re seeing more clearly now is that he has crafted an administration in his own image: vain, narcissistic and dangerous. become a problem when he immigrated to the US, for the State Department manual says that Vitezi Rend members “are presumed to be inadmissible”. Karl Pfeifer, an Austrian journalist who has long specialized in Hungarian affairs, told me that Gorka unquestionably had worked with racists and anti-Semites in Hungary. Gorka and the White House did not respond to my inquiries. But Gorka told The Tablet web site that he had never been a member of Vitezi Rend and used the “v” initial only to honor his father. He has robust defenders, who say he has never shown a hint of racism or anti-Semitism. As Ana Navarro, a GOP strategist, tweeted: “Donald Trump attracts some of the shadiest, darkest, weirdest people around him.” In fairness, Trump has also appointed plenty of solid people: Jim Mattis, Elaine Chao, H.R. McMaster, Dina Powell, Gary Cohn, Steven Mnuchin and more. And Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, is a first-rate lawyer. Yet, Trump’s record of appointments overall suggests a lack of interest in expertise. I’m not sure that this is “the worst Cabinet in American history”, as a Washington Post opinion writer put it, but it might be a contender. The last two energy secretaries were renowned

you get your point across, do not twist the knife. My most rewarding experience in Congress was when I was made to realize that I had talked so much that I put my foot in my mouth. I had my colleague in the ropes, I was beating him senseless, and I could feel the majority swinging to my side of the argument. And then I went too far, saying, “And what lousy law school did you go to?” To which my colleague answered, slyly, “I just went to _______; my parents were too poor to send me to a better school.” The school he named, in fact, is a good school. But the members swung against me. I gave up the podium knowing I had shot myself in the foot where my mouth had descended and lost the argument.

scientists, one with a Nobel Prize, while Trump appointed Rick Perry —who once couldn’t remember the department’s name. Trump appointed his bankruptcy lawyer, David Friedman, to be ambassador to Israel. He chose Jason Greenblatt, another of his lawyers, to negotiate Mideast peace. He picked Omarosa Manigault, who starred with him on The Apprentice and has a record of inflating her résumé, to be assistant to the president. The director of Oval Office operations is Keith Schiller, a former Trump bodyguard best known for whacking a protester. And the Trump team installed as a minder in the Labor Department a former campaign worker who graduated from high school in 2015, according to ProPublica. So see the failure of the Republican health-care bill through a larger prism: The measure collapsed not just because it was a dreadful bill (a tax cut for the wealthy financed by dropping health coverage for the needy). It also failed as a prime example of the Trump administration’s competence gap. Democrats may feel reassured, because ineptitude may impede some of Trump’s worst initiatives. But even if Trump is unable to build, he may be able to destroy: I fear that his health-care “plan” now is to suffocate Obamacare by failing to enforce the insurance mandate, and then claim that its spasms are inevitable. Of all the national politicians I’ve met over the decades, Trump may be the one least interested in government or policy; he’s absorbed simply with himself. And what we’re seeing more clearly now is that he has crafted an administration in his own image: vain, narcissistic and dangerous.

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The classic ‘flying geese’ model of development is crashing? Michael Makabenta Alunan

on the contrary

or over 150 years development strategies the world over have been following what Japanese scholar Kaname Akamatsu has coined in the 1930s as the “Flying Geese” model of growth, which gained popularity in the 1960s but seems no longer applicable. Game then was “follow the leader”. The path to success then was simply to follow the lead goose in a flock or the leader of the times. So when England started the industrial revolution, Germany and the US followed the same lead to industrialize. The whole of Europe tried to industrialize. In fact, European nations were considered then the “industrialized countries” or the First World. The Second World were the socialist countries led by the Soviet Union, also trying to industrialize. All undeveloped or unindustrialized countries in Asia, Africa and South America were categorized as Third World. However, Japan, with its industrializing capacity starting in the Meiji era, although ruined during World War II, industrialized easily with its hardworking ethics by following the US and Germany. Every country thereafter simply followed the leader. Following Japan were the newly industrializing countries (NICs), namely, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong. By 2000s, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Turkey became emerging economies, with Indonesia and the Philippines tagging along. The leader can no longer lead? Meanwhile, world leader America, with its dismal 1-percent growth rate, wasteful consumption and unhealthy ways can no longer be the model to follow, says Professor Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, in his prognosis before the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Sachs is an economist and author of best-selling books The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth (2008), The Price of Civilization (2011) and recently The Age of Sustainable Development (2015). He says the fastgrowth model has reached a limit and even America cannot go on growing by only 1 percent with all the followers growing much faster. A new kind of direction is therefore imperative. Although an American, Sachs believes America has ceased to be a model for ecological reasons. A car for every American and big houses for every family are no longer feasible. This translates to inefficient energy usage and poor space management, resulting in traffic congestion, emissions and high carbon footprint, massive extraction of natural resources, etc. America’s unhealthy diet and lifestyles also produced obesity, cancer and cardiovascular problems. If we blindly follow America, we may end up like lemmings massively racing unknowingly to the edge of a cliff and plunging to our deaths. Technology ushers democracy, harmony. The technological revolution accelerating at a fast clip is triggering radical change and democratizing societies as ordinary people gain access to knowledge and technology. Decades back, only wealthy families could afford costly 20-volume encyclopedias, but today one can access the same for free at the click of a mouse. The ready access to information increases the chances of backward countries to catch up if they can motivate and innovate enough to make breakthroughs in specific technologies. Thus, everybody can potentially be a “lead goose”, at the same time, be a follower to others. This can be likened to the metaphorical harmony

The technological revolution is triggering radical change and democratizing societies, as ordinary people gain access to knowledge and technology. Decades back, only wealthy families could afford costly 20-volume encyclopedias, but today one can access the same for free at the click of a mouse. in an orchestra, where each player takes the lead in his respective instrument, while following others to achieve harmony. Invest massively where they count most. To meet future challenges, we need large-scale investments that count like smart infrastructure, low-carbon energy, high skills and education, health services, agriculture and other aspects of human capital like research, development and extension. All of these require massive savings, partly done forcibly through taxation. Also invest in huge high-end power systems to power infrastructure and industries. This includes high-end nuclear energy, that’s emission-free and recycles radioactive wastes back to energy, hydrogen fuel, etc. Light renewables like solar and windmills are fine just for lowcarbon footprint, health reasons, but not as base-load owing to their costly and low inefficient energy flux densities. Invest also in broadband as the Internet of Things will soon dominate every activity, including the dematerialization of physical things (i.e., physical shops shifting to e-commerce, physical books to e-books, etc.) Pursue the China nexus. Even production is now being dematerialized and outsourced, thus China, which has an industrial overcapacity is doing it right by exporting this capacity under its One Belt One Road Initiative (New Silk Road) through its Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and involvement in massive infrastructure projects all over the world, some as initiatives of the BRICS Coalition (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), now followed by 65 countries that are expected to join a summit in Beijing on May 14 and 15 to be attended also by President Donald J. Trump. BRICS will build massive power systems, highways and railways (Maglevs) connecting Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. China must not be taken as a threat, the way Obama geared up for war with his pivot to Asia, that led to our Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement and China’s encroachment in our waters, and excluded China in his Trans-Pacific Partnership. Better lock in China to its win-win development agenda, which is a digression from the neoliberal free market of winners and losers in a dog-eat-dog zero sum outcome in the globalization game. Thus, it is worth watching President Trump’s moves for doing the opposite of Obama. Instead of engaging in war-directed skirmishes with traditional foes Russia and China, Trump wants to talk peace and apply his “Art of the (Business) Deal,” which may turn out good for all with “world peace”, a favorite expression of the Miss Universe beauty pageant, which he once owned.

E-mail: mikealunan@yahoo.com

Wednesday, March 29, 2017 A11

Access to Insurance Initiative Atty. Dennis B. Funa

INSURANCE FORUM

he Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) was launched in October 2009 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the annual meeting of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). It is also known today as the implementing arm of IAIS on inclusive insurance. It was founded as a partnership between various stakeholders, such as international development agencies, donors and the IAIS. These stakeholders are the IAIS; the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP); the Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) or the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development; FinMark Trust; International Labor Organization (ILO); and the United Nations Capital Development Fund. The Microinsurance Network is also instrumental in the organization of A2ii. The Initiative has pronounced its

mission “to inspire and support supervisors to promote inclusive and responsible insurance, thereby reducing vulnerability”. Its focus is on the promotion of “inclusive insurance”. The Initiative was created in response to demand for learning and guidance on access to insurance from policy-makers and regulators. To trace its roots, the Microinsurance Network had several working groups, one of which was the Regulation, Supervision and Policy (RSP) Working Group. Subsequently, or in

2006, the IAIS and the RSP Working Group formed the IAIS-Microinsurance Network Joint Working Group on Microinsurance “in order to exchange knowledge on how regulation and supervision impact microinsurance market development”. In 2009 some members of the Joint Working Group agreed to establish the Access to Insurance Initiative. The goal of the Initiative is to enhance broad-based, demandoriented and sustainable access to insurance for low-income customers. It seeks “to strengthen the capacity of policy-makers, regulators and supervisors seeking to advance inclusive insurance markets by promoting sound, effective and proportionate regulation and supervision based on globally accepted insurance standards.” While the Initiative has a special focus on microinsurance, it supports the overall enabling environment for insurance market development. According to A2ii, as of November 2016, there are already 18 countries (in Asia, they include Cambodia, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Taiwan and the Philippines; currently under devel-

The Great Firewall is a trade barrier Adam Minter

BLOOMBERG

he San Francisco-based photo-sharing site Pinterest would seem to rank low on the list of potential threats to China. Beloved by fashion designers, photographers, cooks and hobbyists, the seven-year-old web site is a global hub for the sharing of images, trends and ideas on topics ranging from living-room design to what to cook at your Saturday barbecue. Unfortunately, Pinterest Inc.’s innocuousness couldn’t save it from the same fate as other foreign Internet companies in China, including Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc. (formerly known as Google). Earlier this month the Chinese government blocked Chinese Internet users from accessing the site. And that should make Pinterest of interest to the Trump administration, as well as China. Pinterest’s troubles aren’t unique. Last year China excluded thousands of US web sites from China, including eight of the 25 most-trafficked global sites. Yet, so far at least, there’s been hardly a word of protest out of Washington against these systematic denials of market access. Similar restrictions against US automakers, say, would almost certainly have prompted complaints to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The costs imposed by this policy are adding up. In 2015 the global value of international data flows came to $2.8 trillion, exceeding the global flow of merchandise for the first time. The US economy has benefited more than most from that trade. In 2014 the US exported nearly $400 billion in digital services, accounting for more than half of all US services exports and generating a $159-billion trade surplus in the sector. Though it’s impossible to calculate what Facebook, Google and Twitter Inc. might’ve earned in China’s booming Internet sector had they been allowed to compete, there’s little question that they would have added measurably to that surplus. For example, the New York Times Co., a tiny digital business compared to Facebook, claims to have lost at least $3 million due to the blocking

of its web site in 2012. The Chinese government is doubtless aware of the opportunities that online protectionism creates for domestic companies. In June 2009 China blocked Twitter; two months later, Sina Corp. launched a wildly successful knock-off microblog, Weibo, that has thrived for years in the absence of foreign competition. Likewise, when Google announced in May 2010 that it was contemplating the total shutdown of its Chinese offices, the stock of Baidu Inc.—its leading Chinese competitor and a keen observer and imitator of Google’s business—rallied 16.6 percent in a single day, while smaller rivals enjoyed similar bumps. Meanwhile, local Chinese versions of Pinterest have flooded China’s market since 2012 with middling success. If the recent ban holds, at least one of those companies may enjoy a highly lucrative opportunity to become “China’s Pinterest”. Pinterest’s options, on the other hand, are limited. The Chinese government is notoriously opaque about why it blocks sites, and there are no formal procedures for appeal. (Mark Zuckerberg’s years-long lobbying effort to push Facebook back into China might qualify as the informal process.) That’s not just unfair. It’s also a likely violation of China’s treaty obligations under the WTO, which requires transparency, due process and non-discrimination in government decisions affecting companies.

opment are Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Mongolia) with a microinsurance regulatory framework, as compared to only six countries in 2009, and 23 countries are in the process of developing their framework. The highest decision-making body of the A2ii is the Governing Council, which approves the Initiative’s strategy and provides highlevel oversight of all its activities. An IAIS representative chairs the Governing Council. Currently (2017), the IAIS has six representatives in the Governing Council. GIZ, as the host, has one representative. Each charter sponsor (ILO, BMZ, CGAP and FinMark Trust) has one representative each. It has an Executive Committee that provides guidance for its day-to-day activities, while the Secretariat provides day-to-day management. Today, the Secretariat of A2ii is hosted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH or GIZ in Germany. Atty. Dennis B. Funa is the current Insurance Commissioner. Atty. Funa was appointed by President Rodrigo R. Duterte as the new Insurance Commissioner in December 2016. E-mail: dennisfuna@ yahoo.com.

The idea of dragging China before the WTO to argue that Great Firewall represents a trade barrier isn’t a new idea. The European Union has contemplated such an approach since at least the late-2000s. And late last year, in a move that could lay the groundwork for a case, the Obama administration argued that China’s worsening censorship posed a “significant burden” on foreign Internet service providers. The next step, though—a formal complaint and case before the WTO—is up to the Trump administration. Such a case wouldn’t be a slam dunk. China has long cited WTO clauses that give countries room to impose measures to protect public morality and order. Even if it lost the WTO case, the Chinese government would be highly unlikely to abide by the decision in full. But the WTO recently ruled against a Chinese attempt to invoke public morality as an excuse to restrict the import and distribution of American books, magazines, films and other published material. And any Chinese attempt to ignore WTO rulings would undermine its recent posturing as a champion of free trade. A negotiated settlement —perhaps integrated into a longdelayed US-China investment treaty —that opens China to US Internet companies while acknowledging China’s right to censor selectively (not wholesale) for morality and public order, might be the best outcome for all sides.

What Trump and Ryan can learn from Mandela By Mohamed A. El-Erian Bloomberg View

N stating last Friday that Republicans are “going through the inevitable growing pains of being an opposition party to becoming a governing party”, House Speaker Paul Ryan was identifying a phenomenon that has challenged many new governments around the world—and tripped up quite a few. It constitutes a test for President Donald J. Trump, along with members of his team who have no prior publicsector experience, and the elites who lead Republican lawmakers in Congress and at the state level. Their success making the adjustment from politics to administration will have important economic, financial, institutional, political and social implications. To those of us who have been interested in political transitions around the globe, what is taking place in the US can be reminiscent of a more general phenomenon that has repeatedly played out in the developing world. In particular, it’s one that has hit hard in countries seeking to pivot away from colonial rule—especially those where

freedom fighters, invigorated by their triumph over the evil of deeply embedded discrimination, struggled and failed to deliver on their promise of social justice and more inclusive growth. South Africa’s Nelson Mandela is, in my opinion, the best modern example of a leader who understood the hardest complexities of the transition from opposition to governing. In leading his country away from many years of repressive apartheid rule, one of his first challenges was to equip his new government with the ability to govern effectively, secure early wins and sell to his citizens a vision that helped protect against unanticipated internal and external shocks. From day one, Mandela looked past the senior set of likely government appointments and quickly developed and trained a new cadre of junior technocrats. He resisted the temptation to dismantle laws and institutions until credible alternatives had been designed and discussed. He set up a “truth and reconciliation” process that provided a basis for assessing the damage incurred during long decades of repressive minority rule, and thereby contained harmful blame games. And, in one of the most remark-

able examples of leadership and vision, he urged South Africans to live under the mantra of “forgiving but not forgetting”. (In today’s verbiage, he understood the need to work with the establishment even when the stated objective was to dismantle it.) In doing all this, Mandela secured an important mix of coalitions among new and old that enabled his country to undertake an historical pivot without the violence and disruptions that crippled many other post-colonial transitions. He developed public-private partnerships to supplement meager government resources and to counter the flight of capital and talent out of the country. And he worked hard—though, as subsequent developments (including today’s crippling corruption and the incomplete corporate embrace of diversity) would prove, far from perfectly—on succession planning to ensure that the initial gains would serve as foundation for more important ones down the road. As they draw lessons from their defeat, Trump and Ryan would be well advised to take note of some of the lessons from Mandela’s remarkable government experience—and this notwithstanding

the very different circumstances of the US. For example: n Reconciliation, rather than finger pointing, needs to guide crisis management and communication. n The effort cannot be limited to just engaging the anti-establishment wing of the Republican Party that went rogue on the health-care bill. n Success will require making room for elements of the Democratic Party. n Better preparation, sequencing, communication and buy-in will be key to ensuring that other elements of the Republican legislative agenda, including tax reform, do not suffer a similar fate. Ironically, the Trump administration doesn’t have as much time as one would think, given that it has only been in office for two months. It needs to move quickly to extend the federal debt ceiling lest normal government operations be disrupted. Significant progress on tax reform, infrastructure and the budget needs to be secured before lawmakers’ attention turns to the midterm elections of 2018. It must be careful not to spook financial markets that, having given it the benefit of the doubt, have decoupled prices from fundamentals.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Shelter gap to reach 7M to 8M by 2022 sans housing plan T

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

he chairman of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development on Tuesday admitted that the country’s housing needs could balloon to 7 million to 8 million before President Duterte’s term ends in 2022.

PDP-Laban Rep. and Committee Chairman Alfredo Benitez of Negros Occidental said this could happen if the government fails to act on the current housing problems besetting the country. “Currently, we have 6 million housing needs. But this could increase [from] 7 million to 8 million if we do not act on it,” he said. Benitez earlier said he is set to

meet Duterte to tackle the country’s housing problems.

Package of measures

In the lower chamber, Benitez is pushing for a package of measures addressing the country’s housing needs. These bills include transferring government offices to the provinces; establishing an on-site, in-city

or near-city resettlement program for squatter families; and a resolution standardizing the definition of housing terminologies. In his proposed Administrative Capital City Planning Act of 2016, Benitez said the bill calls for the creation of the Administrative Capital City Planning Commission to lead the development of a comprehensive plan to relocate government agencies and establish an administrative capital city outside of Metro Manila. “There is a need to rethink and develop a master plan that will de-

congest Metro Manila. Relocation of capitals has already been done by several countries. Malaysia, for instance, built a new administrative capital to ease decongestion in Kuala Lumpur. Brazil relocated its capital to a more central location, closer to other regions and carved a new city out of wilderness in the Brazilian Highlands. South Korea is also in the process of transferring most of its government offices to a new administrative capital called Sejong City,” the lawmaker said. See “Shelter gap,” A2

There is a need to rethink and develop a master plan that will decongest Metro Manila. Relocation of capitals has already been done by several countries.”—Benitez

Martial-law victims to receive partial reparation By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

he Human Rights Victims’ Claim Board (HRVCB) has already approved the release of partial monetary reparation to 4,000 martial-law victims, remarkably speeding up its process as part of its commitment to President Duterte’s goal to expedite the delivery of compensation. In a news briefing in Malacañang on Tuesday, Presidential Spokesman Ernesto C. Abella said the claims of martial-law victims

are now being processed. “The HRVCB informed the Office of the President of their accomplishments and latest development on processing and release of the claims since their [January] meeting with Duterte.” Abella reported that the agency has submitted Board Resolution 1, Series of 2017, to the Office of the Executive Secretary, approving the preliminary list of 4,000 eligible claimants and the release of partial monetary reparation. The list is comprised of 2,661 conclusively presumed victims

and 1,339 new applicants. The distribution, meanwhile, is set to be made by the second quarter of the year, according to an earlier news statement by the HRVCB. “The processing of monetary reparation of the first 4,000 eligible claims is being done simultaneously with the evaluation and deliberation of the remaining claims,” Lina C. Sarmiento, chairman of the board, was quoted saying. On the other hand, the Department of Budget and Management has acknowledged receipt of the

letter of the HRVCB requesting for the release of P300 million from the Bureau of the Treasury intended for the partial monetary reparation. Also, a memorandum of agreement between the board and Land Bank of the Philippines is presently being reached pertaining to the use of the bank’s cash-card facility. As of present, the HRVCB has processed about 31,000 claims from a total of 75,730 applications of martial-law victims. The board is given until May 12, 2018, to fulfill its mandate.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

‘PERFORMANCE OF TPB CHIEF COULD MAKE OR BREAK PHL TOURISM’ By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

FORMER tourism official on Tuesday expressed concer n on the alleged irregularities at the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) involving its chief operating officer (COO), Cesar Montano. In a text message, Joseph “Ace” Durano, tourism secretary under the Arroyo administration, told the BusinessMirror that these goings-on at the TPB will impact on the tourism industry as a whole. “Although TPB is blessed with good and effective career personnel, how the COO performs his leadership responsibilities will determine the performance of the agency, and the performance of the agency will affect the performance of the [tourism] sector.” With looming Blue Ribbon Committee hearings, as well as an ongoing investigation by the Presidential Action Center (PACE) in Malacañang, Montano appears bent on showing everyone he is doing his job earnestly. Government sources said the embattled COO of TPB is now showing up at the office every day “and holding frequent meetings with the management.” Also, the same sources averred that “so far, he has been finishing the meetings” that he’s been attending, especially those held with the management committee. “In fairness, he didn’t abruptly leave our meeting [yesterday],” a TPB insider said. It would be recalled that one of the complaints against Montano, which was contained in a “white paper” filed at PACE by so-called concerned employees and management officers, was that he would often leave the meetings with managers and staff even when these have not yet been concluded. Aside from the PACE investigation, Sen. Nancy Binay has also filed a resolution to have the Blue Ribbon Committee inves-

tigate Montano and the issues leveled against him. (See “Tourism stakeholders urge Montano to resign” in the BusinessMirror, March 24, 2017.) However, Durano, who was congressman of the Fifth District of Cebu from 1998 to 2004, and from 2013 to 2016, did not feel the Senate was an appropriate venue to investigate the issues versus Montano. “[It was the employees and management] that filed the complaint against the COO. For practical reasons, either the DOT secretary or the Office of the President should decide on the matter, because the agency is inutile with its COO and [employees] not in good terms.” He said he was not aware of the relationship between Montano and Secretary to the Cabinet Leoncio B. Evasco Jr., who is investigating the allegations. Other tourism stakeholders have raised the possibility of a whitewash in the PACE investigation, due to the alleged friendship between Evasco and Montano. “I don’t really know enough about the dynamics [between the two officials]. Let’s just hope this will be resolved objectively and quickly,” Durano stressed. Meanwhile, the TPB Board Meeting on March 24 failed to push through due to a “lack of quorum,” BusinessMirror sources said. Incidentally, that date fell on a Friday, with TPB employees reportedly on their third day of protest against their COO, a number of them showing up at the office in black attire, as if in mourning. The board meeting has been rescheduled for April 7, sources said. A board member who declined to be identified said he “[hoped] a quorum will be reached so the board meeting will finally push through…and issues can be resolved.” The board member failed to confirm if this meant he and his other colleagues on the board would be confronting Montano about See “Performance,” A2

US travel industry fears ‘lost decade’ under Trump

ike many Washington lobby groups, the US Travel Association was quick to congratulate the new president on his victory last November. “We are encouraged that Mr. Trump’s extensive business and hospitality background … will make him a ready and receptive ear,” the trade organization said. On the Republican’s inauguration, the USTA’s chief executive officer, Roger Dow, pledged the industry as a “capable, willing partner.” But almost immediately, things started to go sideways. A steady drumbeat of news and policy proclamations seemed likely to damage America’s $250-billion travel industry and its roughly 15 million U.S. employees. Initial contacts between Trump and leaders of Australia, Germany, Mexico, and China didn’t go well, resulting in negative publicity in countries that send lots of travelers to America. Then came the majority Muslim nation travel bans, with protests and news coverage that made for a global public relations disaster. The first ban, since suspended by the courts, resulted in the detention of foreign travelers. The second, changed from the first, was frozen before it could take effect.

Trump is appealing. Meanwhile, the White House has instituted an airline cabin restriction on electronic devices for people flying from airports in eight nations. And last week, a US State Department policy was revealed that mandates extra vetting of visa applicants in nations where US-bound travelers must apply for one. This includes inspection of social media accounts for some and is likely to make it more difficult for millions of people to travel to America. The State Department took action following a March 6 order from the White House to enhance visa screening, a spokeswoman said, declining further comment. “We will keep the public informed about changes affecting travelers to the US as appropriate,” the department said in a March 26 email. The order doesn’t apply to 38 countries in the US visa-waiver program, but others are going to have to wait. The new policy covers nations with millions of business travelers and international tourists, including Brazil, Mexico, China, Argentina, Colombia, and South Africa. About 15 million annual travelers will be affected, the USTA estimated. See “US travel,” A2

READ OUT LOUD Xandra Ramos-Padilla, managing director of National Book Store, delivers her message at the launch of National Book Store’s newest campaign to promote the love for reading, dubbed “Read Out Loud Challenge”, at Glorietta in Makati City. The company said this is part of the activities celebrating National Book Store’s 75th anniversary. ROY DOMINGO