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Monday, May 22, 2017 Vol. 12 No. 221

‘Credit upgrade possible with OK of tax-reform bill’

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By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

egislative leaders beat the gong of optimism last Friday that the $292-billion economy should soon receive another credit upgrade following earnest assurances the multibillion-peso Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Program would muster Congress basically intact and on time.

₧162B

The projected hike in revenues from the implementation of tax reforms Majority Leader and PDP-Laban Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas of Ilocos Norte said the House of Representatives engaged the various credit-rating agencies in a series of meetings that allowed Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service & Fitch Ratings to observe how the taxreform package actually transited at the lower chamber. See “Credit upgrade,” A2

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PPP conversations #4 with the NHA PPP Lead Alberto C. Agra

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he socialized-housing gap cannot be plugged by the National Housing Authority (NHA) alone. Support from the private sector, among other stakeholders, must be harnessed. Under the innovative and participatory leadership of NHA General Manager Marcelino “Jun” Escalada Jr., public-private partnerships (PPPs) will be aggressively promoted.

The NHA will soon adopt its PPP Guidelines and organize a conference to sound off invitations for projects. The NHA recently signed a memorandum of understanding for a possible PPP for informal-settler families in Metro Manila. Escalada shares his thoughts on PPP. Continued on A15

PACIFIC MINISTERS COMMIT BM Reports TO MOVE AHEAD WITH TPP Bird flu to increase foreign demand for African lovebirds H ANOI, Vietnam—The Pacific Rim trade ministers meeting in Vietnam committed last Sunday to move ahead with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact after the United States pulled out. New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay said the remaining 11 TPP countries are open to others joining, provided they accept the trade agreement’s high standards on labor and environmental protection. He said the door remains open to the US, even after President Donald J. Trump withdrew from the pact in January, saying he prefers bilateral free-trade deals. “It’s clear that each country is having to consider both economic values and strategic importance of this agreement, but in the end there are a lot of unity among all of the countries and a great desire to work together to come up with an agreement among 11 that not only delivers for all of our economies and the people of our countries, it’s also open to others countries in the world to join if they can meet the high standards in the TPP agreement,” McClay told reporters. Since the US withdrawal, Japan and New Zealand have been spearheading efforts to revive the deal. In its current form, the TPP requires US participation before it can go into effect. That means the remaining countries would need to change the rules for any deal to go ahead, and it would be significantly smaller without the involvement of the world’s

largest economy. The 11 countries represent roughly 13.5 percent of the global economy, according to the World Bank. In a statement, the trade ministers said they agreed to launch a process to assess options to bring the agreement into force “expeditiously, including how to facilitate membership for the original signatories”. The ministers have tasked their trade officials to present the assessment to their leaders when they meet for an annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam in November, which will also include Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. They also underlined their vision for the TPP to expand to include other economies, saying these efforts would address concerns about protectionism, contribute to maintaining open markets, strengthening the rules-based international trading system, increasing world trade and raising living standards. Vietnam and Malaysia had been expected to be beneficiaries from the original TPP with greater access to US markets and investments. The TPP was championed by former President Barack Obama and was seen as a counterbalance to China’s growing influence in the region. On Monday, the China-led 16-member Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will meet in Hanoi to further their discussions on a separate deal seen as an alternative to TPP. It is expected to be finalized by the end of this year. AP

PESO exchange rates n US 49.8340

Alladin S. Diega Correspondent

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Part One

HILE possible shortage on chickenmeat production first comes to mind whenever an outbreak of avian influenza is detected, the effect is also felt by a little known but equally lucrative industry—breeding of African lovebirds. Owing to its tropical climate, the Philippines is an ideal breeding ground for the world’s smallest parrot, locally known as African lovebird, belonging to the genus Agapornis. Unfortunately, the country, being in Asia, is also susceptible to bird flu that is now wrecking havoc in Asia. Being a parrot, the intelligence and playfulness of its bigger talking cousins is also evident to the African lovebird, traits that make it different from the more popularly known lovebird in the country but of different family, the parakeet. While a parakeet can fetch between P300 and P500 a pair, a single African lovebird can cost from P500 up to P100,000, depending on the mutation or color and pattern of the feathers. Continued on A2

Lovebirds on display in a pet shop in Las Piñas City sells for P500 a pair. Owing to its tropical climate, the Philippines is an ideal breeding ground for lovebirds. NONIE REYES

n japan 0.4471 n UK 64.5001 n HK 6.4043 n CHINA 7.23700 n singapore 35.7900 n australia 36.9569 n EU 55.3407 n SAUDI arabia 13.2894

Source: BSP (19 May 2017 )

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Bird flu to increase foreign demand for African lovebirds Continued from A1

The country’s acknowledged top breeder, known as the Badilla brothers, is currently breeding the newest mutation with an asking price from foreign buyers of P400,000 per bird.

Price spike

EARLY this year the Department of Agriculture (DA) has declared a temporary ban on all poultry products, except from three countries and recently, has intensified its monitoring of the spread of the avian influenza virus after it reached the US. This could exert pressure on global poultry supply, resulting in stiffer competition and a price spike of processed goods. The ban also covers other avian species, including parrots, for fear of contamination. A few years ago the DA’s Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) had to destroy

Credit upgrade. . . Fariñas said Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez even sent House Committee on Appropriations Chairman and National Unity Party Rep. Karlo Nograles of Davao to meet with the creditrating agencies whose mission heads came away, convinced that the lower chamber will allow the TRAIN program to pass quickly. “This will increase our chances for a credit upgrade. Under the leadership of Speaker Alvarez, we will pass this because we [Senate and House] have good bicameral relations,” Fariñas said. For his part, Nograles said the credit-rating agencies believe legislating the tax-reform bill into law will help create the fiscal space necessary for the government to underwrite the various programs seen further accelerating the country’s growth.

hundreds of African lovebirds, originating from the Netherlands. Although the European country was unaffected at that time, the airplane transporting it made a stopover in Thailand, a known avian-infested country. According to the DA, the agency is working hard to maintain the bird-flu free status of the country. And the the spread of bird flu is pushing the demand for African lovebirds bred in the Philippines. “Concern over the spread of bird flu has led to several countries placing an order for this year for 1 million birds,” said Rogelio L. Sicat Jr., an African lovebird breeder from Cainta, Rizal. “But the Philippines has a difficulty in complying because the birds tend not to mate during the summer season.” Usually the breeding season is from June up to December, the colder months, Sicat said adding that the demand has already improved the

Continued from A1

“In our meetings with Fitch ratings, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s rating agencies, they indicated they are monitoring the progress of the tax-reform bill pending in Congress,” he said in a text message to the BusinessM irror. That program will enable the government to generate net incremental revenues topping P162 billion on its maiden year of implementation alone, even though adjustments to the personal income tax, estate and donor taxes, scaled back value-added tax exemptions and higher excise levy on cars and oil products will initially erode revenue intake. “In particular, increased revenues for the government will help us spend for more infrastructure projects that will translate to higher economic growth for the nation.

prices of several mutations. THE African lovebird is a small stocky parrot mostly between 5.1 inches and 6.7 inches, with a large bill and a tail that is either round or square. Their average life span is between 10 and 12 years, with some living longer. There are nine known species, with the eight originating from Africa and the remaining from Madagascar. Four of these are white-eye-ringed species: Masked or personata, Fischer, Lilian and the blacked-cheek. The latter species have white marking around their eyes, earning them the name “eye-ring”. Others, such as Rosy-faced or Peach-faced lovebirds, have none. The more popular in the market today that command higher prices are the Fischer and Masked, followed by the Rosy-faced.

In t he w i ld , t he com mon colors of these birds are dominated by green with red beaks with few specks of yellow around their neck area. Captive and selective breeding started in Europe and the US a hundred years earlier have produced diverse shades of blue and violet; the red beaks have mutated into white and orange. It is from these stocks that the breeding pairs in the Philippines have originated, bought by bird enthusiasts, such as Badilla. In many cases, specific color mutations are characteristics to a specie, for instance, the noneyering Rosy-checked known to be more colorful than the other species; and foreign breeders, equipped with more advanced technology and genetic capabilities, were quick to transfer these colors into eyerings, such as Fischer and personata. In the process, certain patterns and color placement in the birds’

Credit-rating agencies take all of this into account when rating the country and will obviously be a big factor in upgrading our credit ratings,” he added. According to Nograles, his meetings with credit-rating agencies “all happened within the first quarter of this year.” Earlier, Moody’s Investor Service and Standard & Poor’s both rate the Philippines above the minimum investment grade at “Baa2” and “BBB”, respectively. Moody’s previously acknowledged the government’s 10-point economic agenda, including the tax-reforms measures, should help boost the sovereign’s credit standing. Fitch Ratings has proven the only creditrating agency to assign the Philippines a triple B minus or “BBB-“ classification albeit with a “stable” outlook. Nacionalista Party Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte​ of Camarines Sur, vice chairman

of the House Committee on Appropriations, said the first tax package endorsed by the Department of Finance (DOF) will help the new administration accomplish its primary objective of high and inclusive growth as provided for under President Duterte’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda.​ Villafuerte said House Bill (HB) 5636, which consolidated the DOF-backed HB 4774 with 54 other tax-related bills, is designed to cut income-tax rates for the benefit of lowincome workers and, at the same time, help raise money for the government’s massive expenditure program to lift ​6 ​million Filipinos out of poverty and transform the Philippines into an upper middle-income country by 2022. The lawmaker also said HB 5636 would help​keep on track Duterte’s ​vision to eradicate extreme poverty in one generation, or by 2040 and make​​ the Philippines a high-income or advanced economy by that time.

Mutations, species

feathers also occurred. Euwing, for instance, have v-pattern in their backs, and come with different colors, from green to violet and blue. Current trading price for euwing fischer is P28,000 to 35,000 per bird. ANOTHER mutation is the yellowfeathered, a mutation of soft-yellow feathers in the neck and, depending on the colors of the mate or breeding partners, can produce birds with yellow feathers in their whole bodies. Parent birds mated with albino—pure white birds that lost their feather color pigments with red eyes—can produce yellow birds with red wine-colored eyes. The yellow-feathered, known in the country as parblue, has a current buying price of P5,000 to P7,000 from traders, an improvement from last year’s P2,500 to

P3,700. Five years ago the buying price for yellow-faced mutation was as high as P45,000. Because the mutation is dominant, the breeder only needs one from the pair to be yellow-faced to produce the desired color, although in most cases, the pair can still produce nonyellow-faced, known as split or throwback. According to Sicat, three years ago, foreign and local breeders have produced large number of yellowfaced that helped in the drop of its selling price to P3,000, but this year, because of the avian flu and summer heat, coupled with the breeders not producing enough number of yellow-faced birds, its buying price has been improving, Sicat added. There is also the matter of pied, the inheritable mottled or map-like markings in the feathers, which further improves the selling price of any given mutation. To be continued

Meanwhile, House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman and PDP-Laban Rep. Dakila E. Carlo Cua of Quirino is expected to sponsor the tax-reform package on Monday (today). Lawmakers are also expected to submit to the leadership on Monday the proposed amendments to the DOF-backed tax bill. The tax-reform package seeks to lower personal income-tax rates, expand the valueadded tax (VAT) base, adjust excise taxes on petroleum and automobiles, imposing excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages and ease the rates of estate and donor’s taxes. The leadership of the lower chamber has already expressed confidence that tax package will be passed before its adjournment sine die on May 31. The bill has provisions on e-receipts issuance and transmission, fuel marking, point-of-sale machines linkage to the BIR and linkage between BIR government agencies/bureaus/

offices. It also has provisions for a 20-percent final income tax on Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, as well as on lotto winnings. Under the measure, not more than 40 percent of the incremental revenue generated from the petroleum-excise tax was earmarked for social benefit programs and the granting of fuel vouchers to qualified transport franchise holders. For the same period, the remaining incremental revenue was set aside for infrastructure, health, education and social-protection expenditures. Likewise, 85 percent of excise-tax revenue from sugar-sweetened beverages was allocated for priority programs and the balance were to fund the welfare and benefits of sugar planters/farmers. The revenue loss to lower personal income tax may reach P140.1 billion, while the revenue gain is expected at P187.7 billion for full-year implementation.

Other mutations

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Western Visayas arrivals seen hitting 5.5M in 2017

Native crafts from Region 6 that are currently being featured at the showroom of the Department of Tourism building in Makati City By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

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@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

HE Department of Tourism (DOT) is projecting visitor arrivals in Western Visayas to reach 5.5 million in 2017, or an increase of about 5.8 percent from last year’s 5.2 million arrivals. Lawyer Helen Catalbas, DOT regional director for Region 6 (Western Visayas), told the BusinessMirror the increase in visitor arrivals can be attributed to the continuing influx of tourists to the resort island of Boracay. The cumulative increase for 2017 is an apparent slowdown, however, from the 2016 arrivals that grew by almost 8.3 percent from 4.8 million in 2015. But Catalbas said, “This year’s increase of around 300,000 is already quite huge for a region that has a room capacity of almost 28,000. Each year, the increase in visitor arrivals is between 300,000 and 400,000.” Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo said Western Visayas offers a diverse array of attractions that would pique the interest of foreign or local tourists. “Western Visayas is popular for Boracay; but that’s not all. Region 6 has so much to offer for all types of visitors. They have batchoy and the sweetest mangoes [in Iloilo and Guimaras] for those into food trips, and there’s the Ati-Atihan [Aklan] for those who are seeking exotic festivities,” she said in a news statement. Capiz is known as the seafood capital of the world, while Antique is home to the rafflesia, the biggest and stinkiest flower in the world. Negros Occidental is famous for the Masskara festival, and hosts a number of heritage homes. The region is currently featured at the showroom of the DOT building in Makati City, and shows the destinations, native crafts and farm produce from all its provinces. “Region 6 has a teeming tourism product portfolio that includes nature-based tourism, ecotourism, sun and beach, diving and marine sports and cruise and nautical. It is also a showcase of culture and heritage, pilgrimage, leisure and entertainment, MICE [meetings incentives conventions and exhibitions], education, culinary, and farm tourism,” Teo said. The tour packages being offered onsite include the Iloilo heritage and mystery tours, island adventure and escapade tours of Guimaras, Capiz, Antique, Aklan and Negros, as well as back-to-back trips with the island-towns of Carles, AjuyConcepcion and the Gigantes group of islands. Tour packages consist of land and

TEO: “Western Visayas is popular for Boracay; but that’s not all. Region 6 has so much to offer for all types of visitors. They have batchoy and the sweetest mangoes [in Iloilo and Guimaras] for those into food trips, and there’s the Ati-Atihan [Aklan] for those who are seeking exotic festivities.”

sea tourist transports, entrance fees, accredited tour guides and typical Ilonggo meals and snacks. Tourism Undersecretary Alma Rita Jimenez explained that with cross-selling of tourist destinations, localities become partners in tourism development by “sharing and exchanging” visitors. For her part, Catalbas also revealed that Western Visayas is a major contributor to the country’s tourist arrivals, noting that it is the only region with two international airports (Kalibo and Iloilo) and three domestic airports (Caticlan in Aklan, Roxas in Capiz and San Jose de Buenavista in Antique). Negros Occidental has the Bacolod-Silay International Airport. As a featured guest during the opening of the Western Visayas exhibit, fashion designer Nono Palmos presented his Island Dreams, a show centering on his advocacy for the preservation and development of hablon, an indigenous textile which originated in his Miag-ao hometown in Iloilo in the mid-1800s. Hablon, which is handwoven from abaca, pineapple and polyester fibers with cotton strands, has been treasured as an heirloom fabric and exported to other countries. In 2016 Aklan contributed the largest chunk of visitor arrivals in the region, leading all provinces with 1.9 million arrivals. This was followed by the provinces of Negros Occidental with 1.65 million; Iloilo with 1.25 million; Capiz with 190,276; Guimaras with 107,214; and Antique with 63,613. Western Visayas generated almost P115 billion in visitor receipts last year, up 21 percent from P95 billion in 2015. Aklan also accounted for the largest amount of visitor receipts in 2016 at P53 billion; followed by Negros Occidental at P32 billion; Iloilo at P23 billion; Capiz at P3.52 billion; Guimaras at P1.98 billion; and Antique at P1.27 billion.

Department of Tourism

Monday, May 22, 2017 A3

DUTERTE CREATES CLUSTER TO SPEED UP INFRA PROJECTS By Elijah Felice E. Rosales @alyasjah

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n a bid to streamline projects under the “Build, Build, Build” scheme, President Duterte has created a separate Cabinet cluster mandated to enhance the delivery of public infrastructure. Duterte, through Executive Order (EO) 24, approved the formation of the infrastructure cluster in the Cabinet clusters system. The group is to be headed by the secretary of public works and highways and is to be assisted by the National Economic and Development Authority. The cluster is instructed to ensure public infrastructure projects are rolled out efficiently and transparently, “focusing on both the management of assets and the shift to service-oriented approaches that enable stakeholders to become coproducers of services”. It is also responsible for the development and maintenance of quality and reliability of public infrastructure and public investment efficiency. It is assigned to strengthen implementation

capacity and budget execution of government agencies involved in infrastructure-building. Secretaries of various departments comprise the infrastructure cluster, including the secretaries of interior and local government, budget and management, transportation, finance, information and communications technology and trade and industry, among others. Under Duterte, the government is dead set on completing big-ticket public infrastructure, such as the North Luzon Expressway Harbor Link, Luzon Spine Expressway, Philippine National Railway North and South Rails and the Metro Manila Subway. It intends to achieve this dream by increasing the country’s infrastructure-to-GDP ratio to 7.4 percent, which would amount to as much as P8 trillion to P9 trillion by the end of Duterte’s term in 2022. The administration has allocated P3.6 trillion for its public infrastructure over the next three years, most of which were allocated for transportation projects in Metro Manila and other major cities.

A4 Monday, May 22, 2017 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

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MCIAA board approves proposal for a second runway By Charles R. Pepito | Correspondent

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HE Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) board has approved the proposal of Rep. Raul Del Mar of the Cebu City North District to start the construction of the airport’s second runway.

The MCIAA board passed last Thursday a resolution approving the proposal during its regular meeting held at the Cebu Ports Authority (CPA) Boardroom. The approved proposal also includes the utilization of the proceeds of the premium payment received from the GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC), the present operator of the MCIA Terminal. The GMCAC joint-venture corporation won the bidding for the construction of the MCIA new passenger terminal building (PTB) and the operations and management of the two PTBs, through a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme. The premium payment of P14.4 billion had been persistently under public discussion, due to the position of the national government that it belongs to the National Treasury, while del Mar insisted it should remain with the MCIA A for the use of MCIA’s construc-

tion of a second runway. Del Mar has been consistently lobbying in Congress for the fund’s retention in the MCIAA and had filed resolutions for this retention adopted by the House Committee on Transportation, and repeatedly made representations for this purpose with then-Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya at every opportunity. Finally, in November 2015 the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), now the Department of Transportation (DOTr), and the Department of Finance finally agreed the subject premium payment shall accrue to and become part of the income of MCIAA, thus retaining the whole amount in MCIAA. However, existing laws required the MCIAA pay income taxes on this income (around P4.2 billion) to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and dividends to the National Treasury (P4.9 billion). Thus, the amount of P4.9 billion remains free and ready for appropriation. This is what del Mar explained to the MCIA A board—to earmark this P4.9 billion plus P2 billion of the MCIA A’s retained earnings and such additional amount as may be necessary for the airport’s second runway construction, and to start right away the project-development process leading to its eventual construction. The MCIAA board fully agreed with him and passed the resolution unanimously on mass motion. “Del Mar thanks the members of the MCIA A board for sharing our concerns that the construction of the airport’s second runway as soon as possible is vital lest we lose our competitive advantage in the Visayas and Mindanao areas to new international airports now undergoing construction,” del Mar’s statement read.

Obituary

Constante C. Roldan November 24, 1922 – May 18, 2017 Atty. Constante “Tante” C. Roldan, personnel manager of the Manila Times during the era of Chino Roces, passed away on May 18, 2017, at the age of 94 after a lingering illness. He is survived by his children Herick, Bobby, Daphne, Marlon, Maryan, Ronnie, Danny, Sammy and Cherry; sisters Elizabeth Aldana, Caridad Thelmo and Juliet Roldan; daughters-in-law; grandchildren; great-grandchildren; and friends and relatives. A celebration of his life will be held at 8 p.m. on Monday, May 22, 2017, at The Citadel UCCP, 199 Katipunan (across Blue Ridge), Quezon City, where his body lies in state. Relatives, friends and those who knew him are welcome to share their memories of Attorney Roldan. Necrological services will be held at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, May 23, 2017, at The Citadel. Committal at the grave follows at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina.

RECYCLED GARDEN

Young Nonie waters the choy plants he planted on a recycled Styrofoam box beside his parked bicycles. The hybrid seed was bred by East West Seed Philippines. LEONARDO PERANTE II

‘Pick red’ farm group in ARMM gets coffee purchase order from URC By Manuel T. Cayon Mindanao Bureau Chief

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AVAO CITY—A coffee growers’ cooperative known for the “pick red” or “pick ripe” harvest policy got a surprise purchase order from one of the country’s big food-processing corporations. The Kandayok Agrarian Reform Community’s (ARC) People’s Alliance for Progress Multipurpose Cooperative (PAPMPC) reported to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao about the purchase order placed by Universal Robina Corp., for 10 tons of its Robusta coffee produce. The Department of Agrarian Reform-ARMM said the growers’ leader, Kumalah “Coffee Princess” Elardo, informed the agency about the transaction for 10,000 kilograms, or 10 metric tons, of Robusta coffee bean “red pick”. The growers’ cooperative, an agrarian-reform beneficiaries’ organization, is based in Panamao, Sulu.

Kumalah told DAR-ARMM officials that “prior to the placement of the order, Universal Robina’s research group carefully examined the harvest from her group to make sure the Robusta coffee the company would buy is of high quality.” The cooperative produces the Sulu Royal Coffee ordered by URC. The bulk order is 70 percent of the cooperative’s accumulated harvest over four months, Kumalah said. The PAPMPC also produces the Kahawa Sug Royal Coffee, also made from Robusta coffee beans, and the Kahawa Kubing Royal Coffee, a roasted civet coffee. “These products have received recognition from the internat ion a l m a rket , es pec i a l ly i n Southeast Asian countries,” the DAR-ARMM said. The Sulu Royal Coffee has similarly achieved many successes and recognition in the past, and was ascribed to the cooperative’s observance of “pick red” or “picked ripe” policy in harvesting.

The growing coffee industry in Panamao, Sulu, has provided an opportunity for residents to be productive and to keep them away from the influence of the terror group operating in the island province. “In the past, the farmers relied on horses for transport. Now, they have motorcycles. Their houses are also now made of concrete,” Kumalah said. Kumalah said many workers and members of the cooperative “have left their previous lives carrying arms and are now focused on producing high-quality coffee. Each member of the household in Kandayok ARC is now involved in coffee production.” PAPMPC and the Kandayok ARC in Sulu are recipients of DARARMM’s Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity and Economic Support Services, or ARCCESS, project. The community received commonservice facilities, agri-enterprise development and rural infrastructure from the regional government through that project.

Millions of mangroves seedlings to be planted in Bulacan, Pampanga, Cavite By Catherine Joy L. Maglalang Correspondent

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ALOLOS, Bulacan—At least 2 mi l l ion mangrove propagules will be planted simultaneously in January next year, the mayor of the city of Malolos told the BusinessMirror in an interview. Christian Natividad, the mayor of the city and the chairman of Alyansa ng mga Baybay Bayan sa Lalawigan ng Bulacan at Pampanga (ABBLBP), said they are dreaming of creating a “great wall of mangroves” that can be seen by a Diwata-1. He said millions of mangrove will be planted to promote environmental protection and conservation, specifically for fisheries. The scope of the planting project includes the coastline of the province of Pam-

panga traversing the coastline of Bulacan and going to and passing through even as far as Cavite. Natividad said they will do it on the first month of 2018 because they will call that an environmental revolution, reminiscent of the revolutionary government of the first republic of the Philippines. “We will call that an environmental revolution the same way the revolutionary government of the first republic of the Philippines was called. Mula Pampanga hanggang Maynila so iyong coast line ng Pampanga traversing the coast line of Bulacan and going to and passing through even maybe as far as Cavite, iyon po ang pangarap natin diyan,” Natividad said. The chairman of the ABBLBP also said to encourage the communities in mangrove planting they talked with the non-governmental organi-

zations (NGOs) for them to buy the propagules for P1 each that will serve as a livelihood or extra income to his constituents. The mayor said it will be maintained by the locality and by the communities concerned. He said it will be the beneficiaries’ obligation to sustain the mangroves. “We cannot afford to put our foot in every inch of the way so we have to delegate the obligation and responsibilities over the mangroves that will be planted,” Natividad said. Meanwhile, Estrellita Mendoza, the agriculturist of Malolos, said international NGOs, such as the Feed Foundation, will work hand in hand with the local government unit (LGU) of the city of Malolos to successfully make the project happen. She said they will also coordinate with the LGUs of the municipality of Paombong and Hagonoy town.

PHILIPPINES AUSTRALIA

FRIENDSHIP DAY 22 MAY 2017 A BusinessMirror Special Feature

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, May 22, 2017

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CELEBRATE

WHAT’S

GREAT

PHILIPPINES–AUSTRALIA

FRIENDSHIP DAY

FRIENDS FOR EDUCATION Ambassador Gorely joins volunteers for Brigada Eswela in Manila and Cotabato during the Friendship Day weekend. “I am pleased to witness the Filipino spirit of bayanihan in action,” said the Ambassador. Australia is the second largest ODA provider to education in the Philippines.

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HE Australian Embassy and the Australia Global Alumni in the Philippines marked the first official Philippines–Australia Friendship Day with an outdoor festival on Saturday, 20 May at the Bonifacio High Street Amphitheater. “This is a celebration of the longstanding and close friendship between our two countries,” said Australian Ambassador Amanda Gorely, “We have strong peopleto-people links nurtured through educational and cultural exchanges. So I am very pleased that Australia Global Alumni are leading the celebration of the first PhilippinesAustralia Friendship Day.” Inspired by Australia’s lively outdoor lifestyle, the festival featured a free film screening and concert, a food and fashion fair, kid’s games and a traditional Aussie sausage sizzle. There was an outdoor film screening of the award-winning Australian family film Paper Planes, followed by a fun paper plane making competition. Australian sax duo Half Sound with Erick Calilan and Tusa Montes, Indie Alternative band Oh! Flamingo and Filipino rock icons Razorback performed to wrap up the event. Festivalgoers also enjoyed a free shuttle service around Bonifacio High Street on Star 8 solar jeepneys. These green public utility vehicles feature innovative Australian technology that modernises the classic Filipino jeep. “I thank our Filipino friends and

my fellow Australians for their warm support of last year’s celebration of 70 years of diplomatic relations,” Ambassador Gorely said. “One of the outcomes of that was a Presidential Proclamation declaring 22 May of each year as Philippines–Australia Friendship Day so we can celebrate what’s great between our two countries,” she added. The Philippines is one of Australia’s longest-standing bilateral relationships. While formal relations commenced with the opening of Australia’s first Consulate-General in Manila on 22 May 1946, links between the two countries date back to the 1800s, driven by trade and migration. Lasting ties were forged in the heat of battle when 4,000 Australian service personnel fought alongside Filipino and allied forces for the liberation of the Philippines in WWII. The Ambassador launched an online campaign to inspire people across the Philippines to join the celebration by sharing their stories of friendship using the official hashtag #AUPhWeAreMates and #FilAussieDay. For more information about the first Philippines–Australia Friendship Day celebration, visit www.philippines.embassy.gov.au, like Australia in the Philippines on Facebook and follow @AusAmbPH on Twitter.

Alumni

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VER 50 years, 2.5 million international students have been attracted to Australia and its world-class educational institutions. These international students, including from the Philippines, make up Australia’s global alumni community A number of prominent Australiaeducated Filipinos have made significant contributions in their field. This include economist and Colombo Plan scholar Dr Cielito Habito, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, entrepreneurs Hans Sy Jr of the SM Group and Chef Antonio Escalante of the Antonio’s Group of restaurants, and celebrity host Georgina Wilson.

FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop meets with Australia Global Alumni in Davao City, Philippines 17 March 2017.

The Australia Global Alumni play an important role in nurturing the strong relationship between countries like Australia and the

Philippines. The Australian Embassy in Manila will be celebrating some of the high-flying alumni though the 2017 Australian Alumni Excel-

lence Awards. Nominations for these awards are open until 23 June 2017. Details are available here: www.australiaawardsphilippines.org/alumni

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AseanMonday

Monday, May 22, 2017 • Editor: Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

Asean defense heads vow to beef up cooperation against terrorism

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OP military officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) vowed to work together to fight terrorism, which poses threat to peace and security in the region.

In a statement last Sunday, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Public Affairs Office chief Col. Edgard Arevalo said the military chiefs from the regional bloc signed the joint statement aimed at enhancing joint military exercises, humanitarian assistance and disaster-relief capacities. The move also seeks to beef up efforts to formalize the Asean Chiefs of Defense Forces Informal Meeting (ACDFIM), which was first agreed upon by all defense chiefs during the 12th ACDFIM held in Malaysia in 2015, to become a mechanism to combat the prevalence of violent ideologies and create a coordinated response to nontraditional threats like disasters. AFP chief Gen. Eduardo Año, who also sits as the 2017 ACDFIM chairman, spearheaded the call for the enhancement of cooperation and collaboration among the Asean Armed Forces for a more secure and stable region. “The threats of terrorism, particularly the spread of ISIS-inspired extremism; maritime security concerns, and onslaught of disasters and calamities became the focus of

the meeting and these inspired the mutual agreement to forge stronger partnerships,” Arevalo said. During the meeting’s plenary session, Año emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the regional bloc as a whole in order to strengthen its economic leverage and potential. “Asean has become a rising global economic force due to its strategic location and economic activity. It has abundant resources, a more integrated market and a large combined GDP from its members,” Año said. “By providing security to our respective nations, we create a better environment for growth and prosperity. And through purposive security cooperation, we actually help to secure and sustain our region’s economic gains,” he added. “We all know that a secure Asean is a progressive Asean.” The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia have an existing trilateral agreement to fight transborder crimes, terrorism, piracy and other terror activities in the Sulu-SulawesiCelebes Sea. Año described such move as a

Cambodians rally ahead of polls as US notes threats

Woman whose Bali saga gripped nation going home

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HNOM PENH, Cambodia—Cambodia’s main opposition party believes it has momentum on its side in next month’s local elections, which will gauge the support for Prime Minister Hun Sen ahead of national polls next year. The US State Department called on the government to avoid threats and political intimidation as the two-week campaigning for the June 4 communal elections started last Saturday with tens of thousands of supporters of Hun Sen’s ruling party and the main opposition party flood the streets of the capital. Hun Sen has ruled for three decades, and he has warned of civil war if voters do not support his ruling Cambodian People’s Party. In the last communal elections in 2012, his party received 60 percent of the vote compared to the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party’s 30.6 percent. But the opposition now says it has a better chance of winning after it nearly upset the ruling party in general elections in 2013, triggering its boycott of the legislature that ended with the opposition returning to parliament after it struck a deal with the longtime ruler. A State Department spokesman for East Asia, Alicia Edwards, said in Washington that the US was urging the Cambodian government to “guarantee a political space free from threats or intimidation” and respect freedom of expression for all its citizens. Cambodia’s defense minister has reportedly warned that the army will “smash the teeth” of anyone protesting a win by the ruling party. Speaking to supporters, opposition leader Kem Sokha said his party would win the local and general elections but he appealed to party members to be patient. AP

TRUMP DIGS In this April 12 photo, Balinese men decorate a Hindu temple near the site that will be developed into a six-star resort managed

by Trump Organization, in Beraban, Bali, Indonesia. Plans for a Trump hotel-golf course overlooking a sacred Hindu temple that juts into the Indian Ocean are being reshaped by locals, who welcome new investment in the popular Indonesian resort island but are also determined to preserve their unique traditions. AP

way to “negate the threats and show that strong military cooperation is important in aligning our security requirements and initiatives”. The AFP chief also introduced the Development Support and Security Plan “Kapayapaan”, as the Philippine military’s approach to achieve na-

tional well-being through interplay of good governance, security and development. “With this intensified holistic approach, we have made a lot of headway in our fight against terrorism. Efforts with the help of local leaders and the populace have significantly

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YDNEY—She has riveted Australia for more than a decade, the everyday Aussie beach girl who somehow sparked diplomatic rows, furious protests and a media bonanza on a par with America’s O.J. Simpson trial. She is so notorious Down Under that she needs no last name: She’s just Schapelle. Next week, after an exhaustively chronicled stint in a Balinese prison for smuggling marijuana to the Indonesian island, Schapelle Corby is expected to return to Australia. Her homecoming marks the climax of a tale that divided, and in many ways defined, Australia, where the obsession with the woman the nation once protectively dubbed “Our Schapelle” has not faded, even if belief in her innocence has. Not since the notorious case of Lindy Chamberlain—whose baby daughter was killed by a dingo during an Outback camping trip—has a legal saga so mesmerized the country. But exactly why Corby’s plight achieved such prominence can be, at first glance, a bit puzzling. She wasn’t famous before her arrest and she was hardly the first Aussie to be busted for drugs while traveling abroad. As The Australian newspaper once put it: “Corby is an ordinary suburban Australian woman who worked in a takeaway shop, saved up for a holiday in Bali, and somehow galvanized an entire nation.”

Cultural upheaval

FUELING the fixation was everything from the unprecedented media coverage of her trial, to the made-for-TV courtroom theatrics, to the empathy ordinary Australians felt for a woman they viewed as one of their own. Her case also coincided with an era of cultural upheaval, tapping into a surge of nationalism and fear heightened by bombings in Bali that killed 88 Australians just two years before Corby’s arrest. Anthony Lambert, who spent years studying Australia’s response

crippled the operations of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria-linked terrorist groups,” Año said. All 10 military chiefs of the Asean member-countries attended the event, which is scheduled to be held in Singapore next year. Priam F. Nepomuceno/PNA

Even her choice of vacation destination was relatable. Given Australia’s isolation, overseas travel can be prohibitively expensive. Bali, just a two-and-a-half-hour flight from the northern Australian city of Darwin, is the exception. For decades, it has been a favorite vacation spot for Australians, many of whom view it as an extension of their own country.

Hardly beloved

IN this August 3, 2005, file photo, convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby stands behind the bars at court’s prison before her appeal trial in Denpasar’s court, Bali, Indonesia. AP

to the case, once described Corby as “the daughter who is Australia”. And in some ways, she still is. “She functioned as a representation of what being Australian meant,” says Lambert, a senior lecturer in cultural studies at Macquarie University. “In the beginning, [there was] that initial surge of emotion and kind of racist vitriol that was about the nation much more than it was about the actual case.... She still represents a relatively young, feminine version of being Australian and white Australian-ness, caught up in trouble.” The saga began in 2004, when a 27-year-old Corby set out from her home on Australia’s picturesque Gold Coast for a vacation in Bali. When she arrived, Indonesian customs agents found more than 4 kilograms of marijuana inside her boogie board bag. Corby insisted the drugs had been planted by corrupt baggage handlers; Balinese officials insisted she was lying. She was convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Her sentence was eventually reduced and, in 2014, after nine years behind bars, she was released

on parole. She was not permitted to leave Bali until her sentence expires on May 27.

Prohibitively expensive

IN the beginning, polls showed the vast majority of Australians believed Corby had been set up. Proving her innocence became a national cause, sparking “Free Schapelle” T-shirts and “Boycott Bali” banners. Her face took the place of celebrities on magazine covers. She even became an Australian slang phrase: to be “Schapelled” means to get a raw deal. Many Australians saw themselves in Corby, Lambert says. With her Gold Coast upbringing, she was the quintessential surfer girl—easily identifiable in a beach-loving country where more than 80 percent of the population lives within 50 kilometers of the coast. She also embodied the classic image of an Aussie “battler”, a humble, working-class hero. Her father was a retired coal miner, her mother owned a fish-and-chips shop. She was a highschool dropout who later dropped out of beauty therapy school when her father got cancer, and worked in her family’s shop.

CORBY was hardly beloved by all. Some dubbed her a bogan, the Australian equivalent of, well, white trash. Still, whether you viewed her with pride or pity, you were invested in her plight, says Lauren Rosewarne, a social scientist at the University of Melbourne. “There’s some people who looked at Schapelle and thought, ‘That could be me,’” Rosewarne says. “Versus others who looked down on her as a bogan, as a sort of blight on the kind of Australians that we’re ashamed of. And therefore, there’s a schadenfreude element of wanting to see her get justice.” “Whether you’re supportive of Schapelle or dismissive of her, you’ve got a story that—excuse the cliche—captivates the nation.” Then there was the irresistible drama of her legal battle. The stakes were grave—she was facing a possible sentence of death by firing squad. Australians, whose own country generally prohibits cameras in the courtroom, were transfixed by the trial footage beamed in from Bali: Schapelle collapsing in court. Schapelle’s mother screaming, “You judges will never sleep!” Schapelle’s sister yelling at reporters outside the courthouse, shrieking with rage: “This verdict is UNJUST!” It felt like something out of a movie. And in a way, it was. In 1989 Nicole Kidman starred in a popular Australian miniseries called Bangkok Hilton, playing a woman who is tricked into carrying drugs from Thailand to Australia. The movie wormed its way into the Australian psyche and bolstered the sentiment that Corby was innocent, Rosewarne says. AP

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Apec trade ministers seek deeper coordination

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ANOI—Trade ministers from the 21 Pacific Rim countries gathered during a major trade meeting last Saturday in Hanoi to discuss future plans for regional trade cooperation amid growing fears of protectionism, as well as changes in politics, economies and technology. As one of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) most prominent ministerial gatherings, the 23rd Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT23) kicked off in the presence of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuân Phúc. In his opening remarks, PM Phúc highlighted Apec’s three decades of growth and endorsed its important role as the economic driver and growth engine of the Asia-Pacific region and the world. With a combined population of over 2.8 billion people, about 40 percent of the world population, Apec membereconomies have significantly expanded and account for roughly 60 percent of the world GDP and 49 percent of global trade. Of note, the average regional tariff has been reduced from 17 percent since its inception in 1989 to 5.5 percent in 2016, as incomes and living standards have been improved for a large proportion of the region’s population. “These outcomes have provided testament to the efforts of the region for trade liberalization, trade and investment facilitation, as well as shared regional stability, development and prosperity,” PM Phúc said. He also raised concerns over multiple evolutions in politics, economies and technology, especially the fourth industrial revolution and the emergence of the digital economy, which have brought substantial economic, cultural and social changes. Apec is aiming for a truly connected Asia Pacific, in terms of its people, infrastructure, technology and information, in order to expand economic growth, trade and investment and oversee comprehensive institutional reform in each member-country. PM Phúc called on the regional member-economies to step up economic and technical cooperation, experience and information sharing during the process of policy-making and implementation of cooperation programs. “However, cooperation plans and their fine goals might still fail to turn into reality when we lack trust, political determination and coordination to safeguard a peaceful environment, ensure security and safety for investment and the flows of goods in the region,” he noted.

Vietnam’s active participation

VIETNAM officially joined Apec in 1998. Since then, Apec has played an increasingly important role in the country’s economic development. Apec member-economies have contributed about 78 percent of the total foreign direct investment inflows to Vietnam, 75 percent of total merchandise trade and 79 percent of the total number of tourists to the country. Additionally, 13 Apec members have become Vietnam’s strategic and comprehensive partners. “With its strong determination and efforts to deepen reform and international integration, Vietnam has made significant contributions to Apec’s cooperation,” PM Phúc said. In the first day of the meeting, ministers exchanged and discussed ongoing initiatives related to sustainable, inclusive and innovative growth in Apec, especially initiatives in promoting competitiveness of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises. Vietnam has provided updates on the progress of the Action Agenda on promoting economic, financial and social inclusion in the Apec region, as well as progress on the Apec framework for developing human resources in the digital age. Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Roberto Azevedo reported progress by WTO in preparation for the 11th WTO ministerial meeting in Argentina at the end of this year. The meeting highlighted WTO’s recent achievements in promoting free trade, including endorsement of Bali and Nairobi outcomes, the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the Protocol amending the Agreement on TradeRelated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. VNS/PNA

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Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • Monday, May 22, 2017 A7

U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced a nearly $110-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia

Saudis welcome Trump’s rebuff of Obama views

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IYADH, Saudi Arabia—With trumpets blaring, cannons booming and fighter jets streaking overhead trailed by red, white and blue contrails, President Donald J. Trump arrived in the scorching heat of the Arabian desert last Saturday, hoping to realign the politics and diplomacy of the Middle East by forcefully reasserting US support for Sunni Muslim countries and Israel against Iran’s Shiite-led government. The start of Trump’s first trip abroad since becoming president— coming amid the scandals and chaos engulfing his administration—was intended to be a blunt rejection of President Barack Obama’s vision for the region. Obama sought a reconciliation with Iran and negotiated a deal intended to keep Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. The day proved to be almost everything a besieged White House could have wanted. After weeks of stormy politics and out-of-control news cycles, the president stayed rigorously on script and restrained himself on Twitter. His staff boasted about the business deals being signed, and the visual images beamed to Americans back home showed a president seemingly in command of a world stage. The Saudis treated him like royalty, with red carpets, lavish meals and American flags flying everywhere. They repeatedly used the word “historic” to describe his visit, gave him a medal, projected a multistory image of his face on the side of the palatial Ritz-Carlton hotel where he was staying, and treated him to a colorful dance display in which his staff joined in with scores of white-robed Saudis and even the president swayed back and forth. As Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia, Iranians reelected President Hassan Rouhani, who sealed the nuclear deal. Officials of both countries used the president’s visit to press Iran to halt support for terrorism and to stop interfering in the affairs of its neighbors. “We are closely coordinating our efforts in terms of how to counter Iran’s extremism and its export of extremism,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said at a joint news conference in Riyadh with Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister. Al-Jubeir praised Trump for renewing ties between the two countries, and pointed to the “extremely, extremely productive and historic visit”. For Trump, the warm embrace by the Saudi monarchy was a welcome break from the cascade of bad news in Washington. Even as Air

We used to get our professors from Syria. They served our kingdom. Unfortunately, they, too, brought destruction to their own country.” —King Salman Force One took off from a Maryland air base last Friday afternoon, headlines revealed new details about the swiftly expanding investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s advisers. Questions about those headlines followed Trump across the globe, a reminder of the political troubles dogging him back home. But the president at least initially resisted the temptation to deviate from his diplomatic script to address reports that he had referred to James Comey, the former FBI director, as “a nut job” during meetings with Russian officials in the Oval Office. At his news conference, Tillerson said he did not have “any information or knowledge” about an unnamed White House official reported by The Washington Post to be a person of interest to investigators in the Russia case. Throughout his first day as the United States’s top overseas ambassador, Trump posed for pictures, shook hands with his hosts and avoided his domestic turmoil. Trump announced a nearly $110billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, as evidence of a renewed US commitment to the security of the Persian Gulf region. The package includes precision weaponry that Obama had held up over concerns that it would be used to kill civilians in the war in neighboring Yemen, as well as an anti-missile system. A forum bringing together US

President Donald J. Trump wears the Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s highest civilian honor, at the Royal Court Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 20. With him is first lady Melania Trump, who traveled with her hair uncovered, in the tradition of previous American first ladies. King Salman is at right. Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

and Saudi corporate executives on Saturday also produced a series of multibillion-dollar deals. Among them: Lockheed Martin signed a $6-billion letter of intent to assemble 150 Black Hawk helicopters in Saudi Arabia, and General Electric announced projects it valued at $15 billion. Critics said the last thing the region needed was more arms. “In the powder keg that is the Middle East, this sale may simply light a fuse that sends the region, and us, deeper down the rabbit hole of perpetual military conflict,” Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat-Connecticut, wrote on HuffPost. Trump himself had little to say publicly last Saturday, calling his first stop of his trip “a tremendous day” that would bring “hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs”. During two days in Saudi Arabia, the president is set to meet with dozens of leaders from the Persian Gulf and the wider Muslim world, as he seeks to shape a new Middle East coalition. His current embrace of the Gulf nations differs sharply with some of his previous remarks. In 2014, before becoming a candidate for the White House, Trump wrote on Twitter: “Tell Saudi Arabia and others that we want [demand!] free oil

for the next 10 years or we will not protect their private Boeing 747s. Pay up!” Last Sunday Trump was scheduled to deliver a speech that White House aides described as a call to Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Muslim world to unite against extremism. One senior White House official said the president hoped to “reset” both the global fight against Islamic terrorism and his own reputation for intolerance of Muslims, which was fueled by his campaign call for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”. After taking office, Trump signed an executive order to temporarily block visitors from some predominantly Muslim countries, but courts have blocked it pending a legal review. Trump’s royal hosts, whose country was not among those covered by the travel ban, have chosen to ignore that history in the interests of working with a US president who seems to share their goals and will not lecture them about repression of women or minority Shiites in Saudi Arabia, or its brutal conduct of the war in Yemen. “Traditional Arab allies welcome the US back because they believe it is largely on their terms: a US that is clearly anti-Iran and anti-political Islam, a US that de-emphasizes po-

litical reform and human rights, a US that is in business mode and a White House that seems more accessible than in the past eight years,” said Emile Hokayem, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. But Hokayem said Arab leaders might be in for a surprise over the long run. “There is a lot of projection and wishfulness in the Gulf view of Trump’s America,” he said. “There is plenty of inflated expectations.” Tamara Cofman Wittes, a former State Department official who worked on the Middle East under Obama, said Trump’s goal of aligning with the Sunni states fundamentally conflicted with his desire for closer relations with Russia, which has sided with Iran in bolstering the government in Syria’s civil war. Allowing President Bashar alAssad to remain in power in Syria under Iran’s thumb is precisely the outcome the Sunni states and Israel oppose, noted Wittes, who is now at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Trump is the only sitting president to make Saudi Arabia the first stop on his inaugural, nine-day trip overseas. The president and his wife, Melania, emerged from Air Force One against a stark desert backdrop last Saturday morning and were greeted on a long red carpet by King Salman, who was leaning on a cane, and other

members of the Saudi royal family. Melania Trump stood near her husband with her hair uncovered, as is common for visiting American first ladies. The country’s tradition is for Saudi women to cover their heads in public. (In 2015, Donald Trump criticized Michelle Obama on Twitter for not wearing a headscarf during an official visit here. Hillary Clinton and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany also did not cover their hair during trips to the country.) Salman greeted Trump at the airport, a gesture he did not extend to Obama. Later, he bestowed the Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal, the nation’s highest honor, on the new president, draping the gold medal and chain around Trump’s neck. Previous recipients of the award include Barack Obama, President George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia. A television microphone picked up the king’s remarks to Trump. “Syria, too, used to be one of the most advanced countries,” the king said. “We used to get our professors from Syria. They served our kingdom. Unfortunately, they, too, brought destruction to their own country.” “You could destroy a country in mere seconds,” the king told the President, “but it takes a lot of effort”. New York Times News Service

House panel investigation turns to Trump campaign worker with links to Russia

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ichael Caputo, who served as a communications adviser to the Trump campaign, has been asked by the House committee investigating Russian election meddling to submit to a voluntary interview and to provide any documents he may have that are related to the inquiry. The House Intelligence Committee, which is examining possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, made its request in a letter on May 9. Caputo, who lives near Buffalo, New York, and spent six months on

the Trump team, worked in Russia during the 1990s and came to know Kremlin officials. He also did work in the early 2000s for Gazprom Media, a Russian conglomerate that supported President Vladimir Putin. Caputo has strongly denied that there was any collusion between him or anyone else on the campaign and Russian officials. He has also accused the committee of smearing him. A Democratic member of the panel, Rep. Jackie Speier of California, raised Caputo’s name during the March 20 hearing, where James Comey, then the Federal Bureau of

Investigation director, testified on Russia’s interference in the election. She noted Caputo’s work for Gazprom, and the fact that he met his second wife, who is Ukrainian, while working in 2007 on a parliamentary election in Kiev. Caputo is the latest in a string of Trump campaign officials who have been approached by the committee. He is a protégé of Roger Stone, one of President Donald J. Trump’s longest-serving advisers and one of the people who has been a focus of investigators’ interest. Stone has also denied having any contact with

Russian officials. The panel’s letter asked Caputo to “produce documents and other materials to the committee and participate in a voluntary transcribed interview at the committee’s offices”, according to a copy obtained by The New York Times. It asked for “any documents, records, electronically stored information including e-mail, communication, recordings, data and tangible things” that could “reasonably lead to the discovery of any facts within the investigation’s publicly announced parameters”.

The committee said it wanted to discuss with Caputo a number of topics, “including Russian cyberactivities directed against the 2016 US election, potential links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns, the US government’s response to these Russian active measures, and related leaks of classified information”. Caputo has denounced the allegations for months on social media, and said he tried to contact Speier the day after she mentioned him and his wife in the hearing. In a written response to the com-

mittee, Caputo, who said he plans to comply with its request, said, “At no time during this period did I have any contact with Russian government officials or employees.” He said he did not discuss Russia with anyone else on the campaign, including Trump, during his employment from November 2015 to June 2016. “The only time the president and I talked about Russia was in 2013, when he simply asked me in passing what it was like to live there in the context of a dinner conversation,” he wrote. New York Times News Service

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‘To Trump, rights issues often a barrier to trade’

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IYADH, Saudi Arabia—Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson had some advice on Saturday for Iran’s newly reelected president. The Trump administration, he said, hopes Tehran “restores the rights of Iranians to freedom of speech, to freedom of organization, so that Iranians can live the life that they deserve”.

As he offered his observation at a news conference, Tillerson stood next to the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, who represents a government that does not guarantee free speech or many other rights. When Tillerson turned to leave, a reporter asked if he had anything to say about human rights in Saudi Arabia. The secretary departed without answering. President Donald J. Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia underscored the calculation he and his foreign-policy advisers have made when it comes to questions of human rights around the world. Trump and his team made clear they are willing to publicly overlook

repression in places like Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, whose leaders are meeting here this weekend—as long as they are allies in matters the president considers more important, namely, security and economics. To the president and his advisers, human-rights concerns can be an impediment to the flow of commerce between countries and a barrier to beneficial partnerships for the US. In their view, trade equals jobs and prosperity, and concern about human rights too often backfires, getting in the way of efforts by the US government to increase all three. As they see it, the big mistake that President Barack Obama made was to publicly shame countries rather than to first build working relationships based on common interests. Only then, they say, can a president privately raise human-rights concerns. Aides point to Trump’s success in persuading Egypt’s president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, to release a US aid worker. Tillerson outlined the approach during a speech this month to State Department employees that distinguished between US values and US interests. “If we condition too heavily that others must adopt this value that we’ve come to over a long history of our own, it really creates obstacles to our ability to advance our national security interests, our economic interests,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that we don’t advocate for and aspire to freedom, human dignity and the treatment of people the world over. We do,” he added. “But that doesn’t mean that’s the case in every situation.” In Iran’s case, pushing on human rights is an easy decision, since the Trump administration sees little cost. Iran has emerged as one of the top 2 or 3 foreign adversaries of the new president, and he is not seeking economic or security ties with Tehran that could be jeopardized. In Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, Trump sees an economic partner and the anchor of a Sunni Arab alliance to counter Iranian influence in the region. He announced $110 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia on Saturday, as well as billions of dollars’ worth of business deals. But the Saudi human-rights record is no better than Iran’s. By some measures, it is worse. Iran just completed an election for president, albeit a flawed one, for an office subordinate to the theocratic supreme leader. Saudi Arabia is ruled by an absolute monarchy that does not meaningfully share power or even allow women to drive. The latest human-rights report produced by Tillerson’s own department mentions Saudi Arabia’s “restrictions on universal rights, such as freedom of expression, including on the Internet, and the freedoms of assembly, association, movement and religion,” as well as the country’s “pervasive gender discrimination”. Raif Badawi, a writer, has been in prison since 2012 after starting a blog called Free Saudi Liberals Network. Freedom House, an advocacy group based in Washington, ranks Saudi Arabia among the 11 least-free nations in the world, giving the country a score of 10 out of 100 on its freedom index, below Iran’s 17. Some of the other countries whose leaders will meet with Trump on Sunday also have less-than-sterling human-rights records, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. Michael J. Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House, said, “We are very glad that Secretary Tillerson called out Iran for its egregious failures to respect free speech and free association.” He added: “We should be holding all countries in the region to account for such violations, including his hosts. Both Saudi Arabia and Iran are among the world’s most oppressive regimes when it comes to fundamental freedoms.” Trump is hardly the first president to view human rights through a selective lens. Obama and President George W. Bush often spoke of the importance of encouraging other governments to guarantee basic rights but played down that message when it might have conflicted with other interests. Obama, for instance, negotiated an agreement with Iran to limit its nuclear program and reopened diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than a half-century without making human rights an impediment to a deal. Trump, however, has shown a seeming affinity for strongmen like Sissi, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Vladimir Putin of Russia. In an interview during the campaign last year, he indicated that he would not presume to tell them what to do at home. “I don’t know that we have a right to lecture,” he said. “Just look about what’s happening with our country.” New York Times News Service

Brazil’s president assails accuser amid graft scandal

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IO DE JANEIRO—President Michel Temer of Brazil last Saturday attacked the billionaire whose secret recording of a conversation between the two men has fueled a corruption scandal leading to widespread calls for Temer’s resignation. In a brief but combative television address to the nation, Temer leveled explosive charges against his accuser of insider trading and manipulation of the audiotapes. Temer contended that Joesley Batista, 44, an heir to the JBS global beef empire, profited immensely from currency and stock trades in the days before the recording was made public. The president insisted he would not quit despite facing an uproar over their taped discussion about obstructing graft inquiries. “He committed the perfect crime,” Temer, 76, said of Batista, accusing him of lucrative trades in futures markets after negotiating a plea deal with investigators. The president also called Batista a “criminal”, claiming he had fled to New York. Reports about Batista’s negotiations with investigators, and the resulting fears about renewed political turmoil, sent shock waves through Brazil’s financial markets in recent days, and the uncertainty gripping the country created a potential windfall for some investors. The aggressive positioning by Temer, who called Batista a “notorious exaggerating windbag”, raised the stakes in the political impasse engulfing Brazil. Calls for the president to resign have intensified since Brazil’s prosecutor general said Temer was facing an investigation into claims he received millions of dollars in illicit payments and sought to obstruct an anticorruption drive. New York Times News Service

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Monday, May 22, 2017 A11

Canada prepared for talks to rework Nafta

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anada is prepared for the start of talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and is confident it will get a successful outcome, according to Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.

“When you start a discussion you start with saying, ‘well we’re the first client’,” Champagne said in an interview last Sunday on the sidelines of a meeting of Asia-Pacific trade ministers in Hanoi, Vietnam. The agreement, negotiated more than two decades ago, “has been amended about 11 times, so we said we’re happy to sit at the table”. New US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has kicked off the process for a rework of the three-way agreement with Canada and Mexico, issuing a 90-day notice to Congress. During his election campaign, President Donald J. Trump called the deal a “disaster” that cost millions of US jobs and hollowed out the manufacturing sector. A few weeks ago, he was weighing whether to pull out of the agreement entirely. Champagne said some parts of the deal could be modernized, citing e-commerce, but he wouldn’t be drawn on whether Canada had any red lines for the discussions. “We are very prepared, and we are taking that very seriously, but we’ll put things on the table when it comes to the time to negotiate,” he said. “I am confident, if history has been guiding us, that if we succeeded 11

20 The estimated number of years past when North American Free Trade Agreement was negotiated

times, we are likely to succeed again.” Champagne said he had a “good first meeting”, with Lighthizer in Vietnam during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum gathering. “Whatever discussions you have start from the premise of a very fruitful relationship,” he said. Champagne also met last Sunday with the 11 remaining members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade deal that Trump withdrew the US from in one of his first acts as president. The TPP would have knitted together 40 percent

Blake Hurst (center), a corn and soybean farmer and president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, jokes with his brothers Brooks Hurst (left) and Kevin Hurst on his farm in Westboro, Missouri. US President Donald J. Trump has vowed to redo the North American Free Trade Agreement, but it has widened access to Mexican and Canadian markets, boosting US farm exports and benefiting many farmers. Many farmers worry that Trump’s policies will jeopardize their exports just as they face weaker crop and livestock prices. AP/Nati Harnik

of the global economy. Some nations are pushing to continue with the TPP despite the loss of the US, arguing that too much effort went into negotiating it, and there are benefits

for remaining countries, though others have been less committed. In Hanoi, there was a sideline meeting last Sunday of TPP member-nations, and ministers agreed to start a process to put it into force,

according to a joint statement. They will ask senior trade officials to arrange how to take the pact forward and report back by the Apec leaders’ summit in November in Vietnam. “Canada’s always been clear: we

will look at whatever options would be to the net benefit of Canadians and Canadian workers,” Champagne said. “This is very much now at the stage of looking at options.” Bloomberg News

Iran’s Rouhani to seek unity after election South Korean leader

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resident Hassan Rouhani promised to reach across Iran’s ideological and social divides after his successful campaign for reelection was dominated by arguments over deepening inequality. The 68-year-old moderate cleric won a resounding victory in Friday’s presidential poll, as voters endorsed his efforts to steer the nation out of isolation through its landmark nuclear deal with world powers. Yet, in the weeks leading up to the ballot, debate had grown increasingly bitter as his conservative rivals castigated Rouhani for presiding over what they called an elitist administration that had failed to deliver real gains for ordinary Iranians. “I need the help of every single person in Iran, even those who opposed me and my policies,” Rouhani said last Saturday in a televised address hours after sealing victory. “I am extending my hand to all Iranians, all factions and all social groups,” he said, also citing the nation’s conservative-dominated security forces for praise. The result strengthens Rouhani’s domestic mandate to integrate Iran with the global economy. But the extent of his success will depend on the cooperation of the Iran’s conservative establishment, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He was widely seen as supporting Rouhani’s chief rival, fellow cleric Ebrahim Raisi, during the campaign. It will also depend on actions taken by US President Donald J. Trump, who arrived last Saturday in Saudi Arabia for talks expected to focus on ways to contain the Islamic Republic’s regional influence. Speaking alongside his Saudi counterpart in Riyadh on Saturday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he hoped Rouhani would use his mandate to enforce broad change. The US wants him to “begin the process of dismantling Iran’s network of terrorism” and put an end to ballistic missile testing, Tillerson said.

companies have been eager to do business with Iran, fear of running afoul of remaining US sanctions has put a damper on investment. Monthly inflation has been tamed to less than 8 percent from above 40 percent, and the International Monetary Fund expects Iran’s economy to grow 3.3 percent this year after contracting by 6.8 percent in 2013. Rouhani’s hewed to fiscal prudence, promoted banking reform and engaged with foreign companies in an effort to revitalize an economy isolated from much of the world during a decade of sanctions.

A supporter of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani holds his poster and flashes a victory sign while celebrating Rouhani’s victory in presidential election, in Tehran, Iran, on May 20. Tens of thousands of supporters of President Hassan Rouhani have poured into the streets of Tehran as night falls to celebrate the incumbent’s reelection. AP/Ebrahim Noroozi

“We also hope that he restores the rights of Iranians, the freedom of speech, the freedom of organization, so that Iranians can live the life that they deserve.” In Iran, security policy is dominated by conservative institutions overseen by Khamenei. Rouhani secured 57 percent of ballots cast in a first round of voting, Interior Minister Rahmani Fazli said at a news conference in Tehran. Raisi, a hardliner, took 38.5 percent. More than 41 million of 56 million eligible voters cast ballots. Shortly after final results were released, Khamenei had also urged Iranians to show unity following the “intensity of the days and weeks” leading up to the vote. European Union foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini, a key figure in negotiating the 2015 nuclear accord, congratulated Rouhani on “a strong mandate” that would help fulfill the agreement. Germany’s defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, welcomed what she called a “positive sign”. Rouhani “will aim to influence the trajectory of both domestic and foreign policy toward moderation and greater opening with international powers,” said Ellie Geranmayeh,

senior policy fellow at the European Council of Foreign Relations. “His renewed term promises tougher economic reforms inside the country to boost the confidence of foreign companies looking to invest in Iran.”

Bitter campaign

Preelection polls showed that Rouhani, 68, enjoying widespread backing in urban centers, where Iranians supported his efforts to deliver more social freedoms and trade a pared-back nuclear program for an easing of crippling economic sanctions. A large procession of Rouhani supporters last Saturday night filled one side of Tehran’s main thoroughfare, chanting and singing songs. Raisi was popular among the working class and rural poor who rely on state support and benefited less from the nuclear pact. A Raisi win would have been viewed as swinging Iran back to a hardline conservatism hostile to the West. Many had seen a tight race as Rouhani, first elected in 2013, brought his mixed record before the Iranian people. The lifting of some sanctions has brought billions of dollars of frozen funds into the country, but while

Mideast conflicts

Still, a combination of lower oil prices, reduced state subsidies and the Central Bank of Iran’s tight monetary policy have conspired to keep poorer Iranians from feeling any difference in their standard of living. Unemployment under Rouhani has edged up from 10 percent to 12.7 percent over the past four years, according to official figures. Rouhani’s record on loosening restrictions on cultural and social activities has also been spotty, as he tests how far he can push boundaries zealously guarded by hardline conservatives. While Tehran and other cities have seen a revival in the arts and cafe life, concerts were banned in Mashad, Iran’s second-largest and holiest city, after a prayer leader demanded they stop. In his televised address, Rouhani told Iranians they had “said no to those who wanted to take Iran backward or cease its current course”. To the international community, he said that while the people wanted “engagement with the world away from extremism and violence”, they weren’t “prepared to live with threats and sanctions”. Iran has become more enmeshed in conflicts throughout the Middle East in a widening confrontation with Saudi Arabia, as the region’s Shiite and Sunni heavyweights vie for influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. Bloomberg News

Moon names key aides

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outh Korean President Moon Jae-in turned to a long-time public official for the post of finance chief as he named key advisers and Cabinet posts last Sunday. The newly elected leader nominated Ajou University President Kim Dong-yeon as finance minister and deputy prime minister. Kim, a former vice finance minister and chief at the office for government policy coordination, is an economics expert who is well respected in political circles, academia and industry, the presidential office said in a statement. Kim will take a leading role in Moon’s Cabinet as it seeks to move the nation forward following the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye. The finance chief will have to tackle challenges, including rising household debt, youth unemployment and weak consumption. He also faces risks related to North Korea, US trade protectionism and the prospect of further interestrate increases by the Federal Reserve. Moon appointed Korea University professor Jang Hasung for the new position of chief of staff for policy. Jang, who has done extensive research on inequality and corporate governance, is expected to work on policies to reform familyrun conglomerates known as chaebol, according to the statement.

Female minister

The president named Kang Kyung-wha as foreign minister. She is a policy adviser at the UN, the Blue House said in the statement. If appointed, Kang will be the first female chief in the

ministry’s almost 70-year history, as Moon seeks to fulfill a campaign pledge to seek gender equality in his cabinet appointments. For the role of national security adviser, Moon nominated former Ambassador to Geneva Chung Eui-yong. Chung will use his diplomatic skills to tackle issues including North Korea’s nuclear development, the US missile shield recently deployed on Korean soil, and free-trade agreements, Moon said at a news briefing. Moon said that Kim, who grew up in the country’s poorest area and rose through the ranks of the country’s senior economic posts, is a person who can sympathize with people’s woes. South Korea’s household debt jumped almost 12 percent to 1,344 trillion won ($1.2 trillion) last year, while the jobless rate for people aged 15 to 29 exceeded 11 percent in April. To boost the economy, Moon has pledged to implement a 10 trillion-won extra budget—a plan that must be upheld by the national fiscal law and approved by parliament. Kim wrote in a local newspaper column last month that a solution is needed to solve the high youth jobless rate, such as by making the wage system more flexible and reducing regulations that limit growth of new industries. Previous finance ministers have occasionally placed implicit pressure on the central bank to lower interest rates and boost the economy. Yet, with the Fed tightening its policy and Korean household debt rising, most economists don’t expect the next finance chief to exert such pressure. Bloomberg News

Green Monday BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, May 22, 2017

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

38M pieces of trash found on Pacific island

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ELLINGTON, New Zealand—When researchers traveled to a tiny, uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they were astonished to find an estimated 38 million pieces of trash washed up on the beaches. Almost all of the garbage they found on Henderson Island was made from plastic. There were toy soldiers, dominos, toothbrushes and hundreds of hardhats of every shape, size and color. The researchers say the density of trash was the highest recorded anywhere in the world, despite Henderson Island’s extreme remoteness. The island is about halfway between New Zealand and Chile and is recognized as a UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization world heritage site. Jennifer Lavers, a research scientist at Australia’s University of Tasmania, was lead author of the report, which was published last Tuesday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Lavers said Henderson Island is at the edge of a vortex of ocean currents known as the South Pacific gyre, which tends to capture and hold floating trash. “The quantity of plastic there is truly alarming,” Lavers told The Associated Press. “It’s both beautiful and terrifying.” She said she sometimes found

herself getting mesmerized by the variety and colors of the plastic that litters the island before the tragedy of it would sink in again. Lavers and six others stayed on the island for three-and-a-half months in 2015 while conducting the study. They found the trash weighed an estimated 17.6 tons and that more than two-thirds of it was buried in shallow sediment on the beaches. Lavers said she noticed green toy soldiers that looked identical to those her brother played with as a child in the early 1980s, as well as red motels from the Monopoly board game. She said the most common items they found were cigarette lighters and toothbrushes. One of the strangest was a baby pacifier. She said they found a sea turtle that had died after getting caught in an abandoned fishing net and a crab that was living in a cosmetics container. By clearing a part of a beach of trash and then watching new pieces accumulate, Lavers said they were able to estimate that more than 13,000 pieces of trash

In this 2015 photo provided by Jennifer Lavers, a crab uses as shelter a piece of plastic debris on the beach on Henderson Island. Jennifer Lavers via AP

wash up every day on the island, which is about 10 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide. Henderson Island is part of the Pitcairn Islands group, a British dependency. It is so remote that Lavers said she missed her own wedding after the boat coming to collect the group was delayed.

Luck ily, she said, the g uests were stil l in Tahiti, in French Poly nesia, when she showed up three days late, and she still got married. Lavers said she is so appalled by the amount of plastic in the oceans that she has taken to using a bamboo iPhone case and toothbrush.

“We need to drastically ret h i n k ou r re l at ion sh ip w it h plastic,” she said. “It’s something that’s designed to last forever, but is often only used for a few f leeting moments and then tossed away.” Melissa Bowen, an oceanographer at the University of Auck-

land in New Zealand who was not involved in the study, said winds and currents in the gyre cause the buildup of plastic items on places like Henderson Island. “As we get more and more of these types of studies, it is bringing home the reality of plastic in the oceans,” Bowen said. AP

World lags on clean-energy goals V

IENNA, Austria—It may be the 21st century but more than 3 billion people still use fire for cooking and heating. Of those, 1 billion people have no access to electricity despite a global effort launched at the 2011 Vienna Energy Forum to bring electricity to everyone on the planet. “We are not on track to meet our goal of universal access [to electricity] by 2030, which is also the Sustainable Development Goal for energy [SDG 7],” said Rachel Kyte, CEO for Sustainable Energy for All and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General. “We must all go further, faster—together,” Kyte told more than 1,500 delegates and government ministers at the 2017 version of the biannual Vienna Energy Forum last week, organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Unido). Kyte reminded everyone that the 2015 SDG 7 was a unanimous promise to bring decarbonized, decentralized energy to everyone, and that this would transform the world bringing “clean air, new jobs, war m schools, clean buses, pumped water and better yields of nutritious food ”. Moreover, to prevent catastrophic climate change, the world committed to net zero carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions by 2050 under the 2015 Paris Agreement, she said. “Why are we not moving more quickly?” At the current pace, in 2030 there will still be one person in 10 without electricity, according to the Global Tracking Framework 2017 report. Most of those people will be in Africa. In Chad, Niger, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo only one person in 10 cur rent ly has access to electricity. But this is falling as populations increase, said Elisa Portale, an energ y economist at the World Bank who presented

At the current pace, there will still be one person in 10 without electricity in 2030. Bigstock

the repor t’s findings. Although renewable energy, like solar and wind, gets a great deal of press and attention, the world is failing to meet the SDG target of decarbonizing 36 percent the global energy system and will only get to 21 percent by 2030. Currently it is about 18 percent since renewables include hydropower and biomass. A few countries managed to increase their renewable share by 1 percent per year but some others, like Canada and Brazil, are actually going backwards, she said. Decarbonizing electricity is going much faster than decarbonizing energy for heating and for transportation, which is seen to be more challenging. Improvements in energy efficiency are also far behind. Investment in energy efficiency needs to increase by a factor of three to six from the current $250 billion a year in order to reach the 2030 objective, the report concluded. The biggest failure the Global Tracking Framework revealed was that the current number of people still using traditional, solid fuels

to cook increased slightly to 3.04 billion since 2011. Those fuels are responsible for deadly levels of indoor air pollution that shorten the lives of tens of millions and kill 4 million, mainly children, ever y year, according to the World Health Organization. This seems to be a low priority, and by 2030 only 72 percent of the world will be using clean cooking fuels, Portale said. In other words, 2.5 billion people—mostly in the Asia-Pacific region and Africa—will still be burning wood, charcoal or dung to cook their foods. Clean cooking is not a priority for most governments although Indonesia is doing quite well, said Vivien Foster, global lead for Energy Economics, Markets and Institutions, The World Bank. “Indoor air pollution has a bigger health impact than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined,” Foster told Inter Press Service (IPS). One reason clean cooking is a low priority is that men are largely the decision-makers in governments and at the household level, and they often are not involved in

cooking. Environmental-health issues generally get far less attention from governments, she said. “Sadly, it’s often mobile phones before toilets,” Foster said. However, the situation in India is dramatically different. Green energy—decarbonized, decentralized energy—is no longer expensive or difficult. It is also the most suitable form of energy for developing nations because both access and benefits can come very quickly, India’s Minister of Energy Piyush Goyal said. Access to clean liquid propane gas (LPG) for cooking has increased 33 percent in the last three years, or used by about 190 million homes. In the last year alone 20 million of the poorest of the poor received LPG for free, Goyal told IPS. A lthough millions have no connection to electricity, Goyal said it was his personal belief this will no longer be the case by 2019, three years before India’s 2022 target. “Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi is completely committed to universal access,” he said. “He grew up poor. He knows what it is like to not have electrical power.” India is adding 160 gigawatt (GW) of wind and solar by 2022 and it may beat that target too as the cost of solar and wind are well below coal, the country’s main source of energy. The US currently has just over 100 GW in total. One GW can power 100 million light emitting diode (LED) light bulbs used in homes. On energ y efficienc y, India is a lso closing in on a target of replacing all of its lighting with LEDs, sav ing tens of mil lions in energ y costs and reducing CO 2 emissions by as much as 80 mil lion tons annua l ly. “We are doing this even if no one else is. We have a big role to play in the fight against climate change,” Goyal said. IPS

Bigiw, or traditional dugout outrigger sailing canoes, are at the starting line in Moalboal. Gregg Yan/Oceana

‘Bigiw-Bugsay’ race revives traditional sailing in Tañon Strait

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o c e l e b r ate t h e M o n t h o f t h e Oceans, Island Buzz Philippines, a water-sports company dedicated to make Cebu the “Paddling Capital of the Philippines”, paid tribute to traditional Visayan sailing and paddling culture by organizing a “Bigiw” regatta. Held last weekend in Moalboal, the second annual “Bigiw-Bugsay” event gathered both traditional sailors and modern stand-up paddle-boarders in the biggest flotilla yet seen in Southern Cebu. Bigiw is a traditional dugout outrigger sailing canoe, which, for generations, has been used by fishers in the Tañon Strait, a 161-kilometer strip, that connects the Visayan and Bohol Seas. Bugsay means “to paddle” in Visayan. Lying between the islands of Cebu and Negros, the strait is incredibly rich in biodiversity—hosting 62 percent of the country’s coral species, plus 14 species of whales and dolphins. O ce a n a P h i l i p p i n e s, t h e l a rg e s t nonprofit group dedicated solely to marine conser vation, is working with government agencies and other stakeholders to ensure the protection and conservation of this important protected area and fishing ground. “The strait provides food and livelihood for 42 towns and municipalities, making it among our top fishing areas,” Oceana Philippines Vice President Atty. Gloria Estenzo Ramos said. “However, it is threatened by commercial fishers who illegally fish inside the Strait—despite a

ban on commercial fishing in both municipal waters and protected areas.” Ramos added that by empowering local fishers and sailors to protect their home waters, “we’ll ensure a steady supply of fish for everyone—especially artisanal fishers who fish near the coast”. Owing to new boats and outboard engines, the strait’s traditional sailing practices are fading. “We aim to keep old sailing practices alive. Instead of using noisy and polluting boats with outboard engines, we’re promoting sailing as a low-impact and low-cost means of transportation,” Island Buzz Philippines Head Buzzy Budlong said. “We hope that future events shall be graced by the fastest paddlers in Cebu and, most important, local fishermen who will show off their traditional paddling and sailing techniques.” This year’s race was special because Oceana, Pioneer Epoxy and the local government of Moalboal gave out 50 new sails to the participants. “Our fishers are true conservation front-liners, as they can report illegal and destructive activities to authorities. By arming them not just with sails but skills and the passion to protect the Tañon Strait, we’ll keep both our fish stocks and fishers away from rough waters,” Ramos said. Oceana works closely with stakeholders, which include a wide range of public and private institutions to end illegal commercial fishing in both the Tañon Strait and across the Philippines.

Biodiversity Monday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Monday, May 22, 2017 A13

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

Buntod Reef Marine Sanctuary

Masbate’s MPA now a tourist magnet

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

stablished in 2002, the Buntod Reef Marine Sanctuary, a local marine-protected area (MPA) in Masbate City, province of Masbate, is now considered a certified “tourist magnet” and one of the top ecotourism destinations in the Bicol region.

Once in the brink of extinction because of rampant illegal and destr uctive fishing, reef fishes and other marine wildlife now thrive in this 250-hectare marine sanctuary. Buntod Reef Marine Sanctuary’s success story proves true the saying “you reap what you sow” for members of the Samahan ng Mangingisda ng PuroSinalikway (Samapusi). Tod ay Sa m apu si members are handsomely rewarded by increased fish catch, plus extra income from the booming ecotourism industry.

Tour guides, reef rangers

Members of the group, who used to torment the city’s coastal and marine environment have become protectors of the ocean and its precious resources, particularly those found within Buntod. They earn as much as P1,000 a day for their ser v ices—inc lud i ng rent a l of motor i z ed bancas, ser v ing as tour g uides or reef rangers accompany ing tou r i s t s w ho go s w i m m i n g , boating, scuba div ing or snorkeling—to ensure the safet y and secur it y of loca l and foreig n tour ists, if they are not out fishing in open seas. Members of the group also augment the city’s bantay dagat (sea guards) volunteers, patrolling municipal fishing grounds and doing coastal cleanup from time to time.

Fish sanctuary

Buntod Reef Marine Sanctuary showcases its mangrove forest—a small patch of green on a tiny island with a beach-like, natural sand-bar formation, like no other. Amazingly, the water on one side of the sand bar is warm and the water on the other side being relatively cooler. Fishing within the MPA, one of two local MPAs the group helps nurture and protect, is strictly prohibited. MPAs are usually marine key

A cottage at the Buntod Reef Marine Sanctuary

250 ha

The area covered by the Buntod Reef Marine Sanctuary

biodiversity areas, which need to be protected and conserved. Most are host to a diverse marine life, including habitat-forming species like mangroves, sea grasses and coral reefs, which are important in ensuring the sustainability of marine life. The policy is to ensure that fish are allowed to breed and for small fish to grow and replenish the province’s municipal fishing ground. Even from afar, a wide variety of fish can be seen beneath the crystal-clear waters.

MPA country

The Philippines has a total of 240 protected areas (PAs) covered by the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act. Of the 240 PAs, 70 are MPAs—32 of which are strictly or predominantly marine areas. Besides national MPAs, there are also 1,751 local MPAs nationwide as of 2015. An MPA generally refers to protected areas that includes some area of marine landscape and biodiversity. The International Union for Conservation of Nature defines an MPA as any area of the intertidal or subtidal terrain, together with its overlying water and associated flora, fauna, historical and cultural features, which has been reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment. Director T heresa Mundita S. Lim of t he Biod iversit y Ma nagement Bu reau (BMB) of t he Depa r t ment of Env i ronment and Natura l Resources (DENR) u n d e r s c o r e d t h e i m p o r t a nt role of loca l gover nment u nits

Colorful fishes like the clown fish are among the attractions for tourists who go for snorkeling.

(LGUs) in loca l stewa rd sh ips of MPA s. “The role of local government is highlighted by local stewardship of MPAs. It provides recognition that they are able to set aside a portion of their municipal waters as a sanctuary or protected area. It enhances their capacit y to become stewards of their own marine or coastal resources,” she said. According to Lim, the establishment of local MPAs compliment the national government effort to protect the country’s rich marine biodiversity. The DENR-BMB is promoting the establishment of more MPAs, but more important, to strengthen existing ones. Lim underscored the need for LGUs to recognize the interconnectivity of MPAs, adding that protection should be holistic and cover networks of MPAs.

Fish haven

The Buntod Reef Marine Sanctuary is a haven for a wide variety of fish—particularly colorful and all-important reef fish species. The area is also home to a number of ornamental fish species. A 2012 visual census, which serves as its baseline data of fish found in the area, revealed that 124 fish species could be found within the marine sanctuary. Around 27 percent of fish species found in the area are damselfish, 12 percent are rabbitfish and 6 percent are parrotfish. The area is also sprawling with a variety of seashells, crabs, giant clams and sea cucumbers.

A reef ranger shows an orange sea cucumber, which thrives within the Buntod Reef Marine Sanctuary.

Recuperating

More than 15 years ago, this was not the case, said Tito V. Velza, the focal person for the city’s Integrated Costal Resource Management Project. Speaking in Filipino, he said traces of dynamite fishing, cyanide fishing and other illegal and destructive fishing methods could still be observed in some areas within the MPA. However, he said there are also good signs that the marine ecosystem in the area is now recovering. Dynamite fishing has nearly destroyed the area and the reef fishes and other marine life were nearly driven to extinction, he said. In 2002 the local government of Masbate decided to the declare area an MPA to prevent it from further degradation. “It will take half a century, at least, for the damaged ecosystem to fully recover. But there are already signs of recovery,” he said. “What we need is for all these destructive activities to stop.”

Resistance

He said at first, there was strong resistance among fishermen because they felt they were deprived of their fishing ground. “But two or three years after establishing the ‘no-take’ zone, they came to realize the benefits of having declared the area as a local MPA,” he said. “With their income from ecotourism, they no longer do illegal fishing or catch threatened fish and other marine species,” Velza said.

Tourism boom

Ecotourism started to flourish with local and foreign tourists learning of Buntod’s beauty. An average of 1,500 tourists visit Buntod each month. The number of tourists increases during the peak season of the summer months from March to April. During this period, all the 30 members of Samapusi are busy ferrying tourists to various locations, with the Buntod Reef Marine Sanctuary as the ultimate destination. The local government of Masbate City, in partnership with various national government agencies and private-sector partners, helped provide proper training for the members of Samapusi.

Information campaign

“When we started this project, the fish catch of our fishermen have increased [after] fishing w ithin the [MPA] completely stopped,” Esperanza Carullo, Masbate City’s tourism officer told the BusinessMirror. Carullo said the weekly seminars to educate fishing communities in Masbate City finally paid off when reef fishes and other marine wildlife returned in the area. The seminars, she said, helped the fishermen understand the importance of maintaining a healthy marine ecosystem declaring the Buntod Reef Marine Sanctuary strictly “no-take” zone. “Before, they [fishermen] are the ones doing illegal fishing. Now, they are protecting the area because they came to realize its benefits,” she said.

She said as the members of the Samapusi learned the value of maintaining a healthy ecosystem, so do the people in the coastal communities.

Big help

“ There is no more illegal fishing here,” Samapusi President Romeo C. Soria said. The restricted area of the marine sanctuary, the 51-hectare core zone, is strictly a no-take zone. However, he said even in the 182-hectare buffer zone, fishing is strictly prohibited. “It’s a big help to us fishermen. The project, particularly snorkeling and scuba-diving activities, attract foreign visitors,” he said Various activities of the group, he said, help protect the entire marine protected “The fish within the marine sanctuary is for viewing only,” he said. Besides the fish, the group also protect giant clams and sea cucumber, which their group help nurture. “We also do stock enhancement. Whenever we apprehend fishermen who har vest giant clams, we put them back within the [MPA]. There are also friendly sharks in these area. They are har mless. We have plent y of them, but they are young and small,” he said. “Since we protected the marine sanctuary 24/7, fishes are able to breed. We now have lots of fish,” he said. Tourists mesmerized by the beauty of the place could not agree more. After all, its not called fish sanctuary for nothing.

EU supports biodiversity conservation in Asean R

eaffirming its commitment to promote biodiversity conservation and sustainable development globally, the European Union (EU) is supporting the Asean Biodiversity Heroes, a program designed to recognize outstanding individuals from the Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam who have contributed significantly to biodiversity conservation and advocacy efforts in their respective countries. The Asean Biodiversity Heroes will be the faces of biodiversity conservation in the Asean region—individuals that people can identify with and will inspire others to take action for biodiversity.

The award is also supported by the Asean Secretariat, the Philippines’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Hari Foundation Inc. (HFI), the corporate social responsibility arm of Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (Hari). The Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) serves as awards secretariat. “The European Union is proud to support the Asean Biodiversity Heroes. As a major development partner of Asean countries, the EU is always keen to extend its hand of cooperation to the Asean region so we can work together to ensure that Asean’s rich biological diversity is conserved and sustainably managed,” EU Ambassador to the Philippines Franz Jessen said. He added that, “The implementation of the Heroes project

in 2017 is a particularly important milestone, as it marks the 40th anniversar y of cooperation between Asean and the EU.” The EU and Asean will celebrate 40 years of partnership with a number of events and activities throughout the year.

EU’s support to the Heroes program falls under the Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Protected Areas in Asean (BCAMP), a five-year mission (2017-2022) that aims to improve the management of protected areas in the Asean, develop and mobilize knowledge and scientific basis for biodiversity conservation, and mainstream biodiversity into the education system and to strengthen the regional capacities. The project is facilitated by the ACB in partnership w ith the Asean Secretariat. With total funding of €10 million, the project will be implemented at the subnational level, with supporting actions from the national and regional levels, in line with

the global objective of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. “We at ACB appreciate the crucial support provided by the European Union to the Asean Biod iversit y Heroes prog ram and BCAMP. EU has always been a staunch supporter of ACB and the Asean member-states in our efforts to curb biodiversity loss,” said lawyer Roberto V. Oliva, executive director of ACB. EU’s support to ACB dates back to 1999, when the European Commission (EC) provided a €9.5-million grant to establish ACB’s predecessor, the Asean Regional Centre for Biodiversity Conservation (ARCBC). The ARCBC fostered strong collaboration among the Asean memberstates, and between Asean and

European Commission (EC) partner-institutions, gradually gaining recognition in the regional and global biodiversity arena. In 2004 the EC supported the establishment of ACB with a grant of €6 million. The center was launched in 2005. “With the strong support and commitment of both Asean and the European Union, ACB has been able to enhance policy cooperation on biodiversity across the Asean region, to strengthen institutional and human capacity within Asean on regional and global biodiversity issues, to strengthen biodiversity information management, and to boost public awareness in relation to biodiversity issues and conservation needs,” Oliva said.

A14 Monday, May 22, 2017 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Is government debt good or bad?

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uring the last few years, discussions about both national and personal debt have taken on a quality of almost religious passion. Anytime now there may be a man coming down from a mountain, speaking of a burning bush and holding stone tablets inscribed with the “Debt Commandments”.

Apparently, debt is like nuclear energy that can be used for “good or evil”. To a certain extent that is valid. Borrowing money to make more money, such as for opening a soon-to-be profitable business, does make sense. But the financial advisors say that borrowing money to buy the latest Smartphone is foolish. Actually, in one sense, there is no difference between the two ideas except that the business gives off a financial reward and the smartphone gives back a personal reward. In both cases, a person is borrowing today against future income for a particular benefit. Maybe buying that new smartphone is really patriotic, since the government is spending billions of pesos on free Wi-fi in public places, and you need that phone to access it. If the government borrows P75 billion to build an industrial park and leases it to private firms, that is “good” debt that reaps a financial reward. If that P75 billion is used to give government Wi-fi in “public hospitals, plazas and transport terminals” so that “families can now frequently contact their loved ones”, that is also “good” debt that offers a personal reward. The problem with debt is that most people and government—especially government—believe that debt is not a problem, as long as the “minimum monthly amortization payment” can be made. But here is the reality. Using the US data—which is the most reliable, if not the most available—the approximate annual GDP is $16 trillion. Assuming a 3.5-percent yearly growth, the annual increase would be $560 billion. But with an annual interest payment totaling $3 trillion, the debt holders are getting five times more than the increase in gross economic activity—$3 trillion versus $560 billion. Is your personal annual interest charges and payments on your debt less or more than your annual increase in income? Any borrowing for a personal or public project, must first include a specific purpose and a specific objective of reward. The “benefits” must fit a common sense definition and, unfortunately, government does not receive many awards for acting with common sense. Constant monitoring of the progress toward that objective must be made. The financial considerations for borrowing money must be projected, through both the term of the loan and, at least a substantial portion of the life of the project. But this fact for both corporate and government—particularly for government—borrowing must always be remembered; everyone pays for the debt. For example, whenever a person buys a product, the final product price includes the interest cost. The purchase of that product includes the interest cost paid by the seller and that is paid for by the purchaser. Government seems to think that it is borrowing money today to be paid from its income in the future. Wrong. Government is borrowing money today that will be paid from your future income. Since 2005

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

Simple ways to save money Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

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want to go back to basics today and talk about simple ways to save money. This feature is for young professionals, young couples or even teenagers who are money-conscious. Clip or share this column and share it with your loved ones who might need a little push toward the direction of frugality. Moreover, Christmas is only about half-a-year away and it will be wise to start saving up today. We’ve all come across so many tips on how to save money: create a budget, record your expenses, bring your own food to work/school, etc. Allow me to share some concrete tips that might increase the chances of actually putting aside some money on a regular basis. First of all, make savings a part of your regular expense. Every month, you pay for rent, elec-

Singing his way, not my way Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

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tricity, groceries, water and food. Treat savings the same way. Experts say that if you cannot put away at least 10 percent to 15 percent of your regular income, then it means you are living above your means. Review your expenses and really cut back on some of them. A 40-percent savings from your regular income would be a better figure

to aim for. See if you can reduce your expenses to be able to do this. Another helpful trick is to set goals: trip to Europe, down payment for a new car or a farm, your retirement fund, your Christmas money, etc. Figure out how long it would take for you to reach your savings goal, and then see how much you should be putting away on a regular basis. Money for long-term goals may be placed in an investment plan—there are plenty of options in the market. It might also help to automate savings; talk to your bank about automated transfers between bank accounts. For example, if your salary goes to Bank Account A, you can have a certain percentage transferred regularly to your Bank Account B. What you have in this second account needs to be “forgotten” so you are not tempted to spend it. On the practical side, you can spend a weekend decluttering your space and taking photos of items you don’t want anymore. Post these online and sell them via an online

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first met Plaridel “Jun” or “JB” Bohol when we were starting to learn to love the game of golf. His fraternity brother, Al Perrerras, was my immediate boss in the intelligence service. Back then, JB and I played golf before the sun is up in Camp Aguinaldo, literally hitting our first tee shot in the dark and finishing before 8:30 a.m., in time for our respective work. During our initial golfing days, I would beat him more than he would beat me. But that is not the important part of the story. Friends know JB as one tough lawyer advocate. His commanding voice and towering stature obviously create that “shock and awe” impression, both for the opposing counsel and the trial judge. Teaching law for quite some time now also complements his litigation skills. I personally know his litigation prowess inasmuch as he handled a personal case a few years back. Some people would know that, as a student, JB was the Grand Rhoan of the Lambda Rho Beta fraternity in San Beda College of Law. Some people would remember JB as the former husband of Sen. Leila M. de Lima. But what most people do not know is that JB is one heck of a singer. He sings with so much heart that everyone listening to his songs will be passionately moved by the lyrics through his own emotions.

Little did I know that JB was in a sorrowful state during our golfing days in the late 1990s. Perhaps, that was the reason I scored better than him during those days. Despite and because of his gloomy circumstances, JB sang. On the outside, his friends and I would hear him belt out the Original Pilipino Music ballads to his heart’s delight. But deep inside, I think I heard him sing a different tune. In his book Today Counts, author Harold Sala said music is the “language of the soul that God invented and understands”. In Psalm 104:33, David said, “I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.” Whenever our spirits are down, we usually engage in activities to manage our emotions. Some drink. Some do shopping. Others do a movie marathon.

In the case of JB, he sang and tried to drink his sad emotions away. To a certain extent, I have been doing the same thing lately, but not the singing part, for my voice pales in comparison with JB. Sala suggested that “music has a way of purging our emotions and expressing our hopes, fears and loves. Biblically, therefore, we should be singing to purge sadness and to express happiness within us. However, in the same vein, the Bible tells us that we should not indulge in too much drinking. In Ephesians 5:18-19, the apostle Paul said, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord”. When I first met him, JB was a solo law practitioner with a small office space in his apartment in Quezon City. He was both mother and father to his sons, Israel and Vincent Joshua. JB would spend his lonely moments singing and drinking the night away with friends, myself included, in some occasions. However, for whatever reason, when he controlled his booze intake, things got exponentially better. He eventually learned how to sing in another way by praising God and praying hard consistently. In the web site of Kabalarian, people named Plaridel supposedly have outstanding leadership abilities. Living up to his name, JB is

garage sale, then put the proceeds into your savings account. Another interesting way to save money is by doing things yourself: baking your own bread, doing your nails, making your own latte, cleaning your car, doing your laundry, fixing broken things in the house and many other do-it-yourself activities that you could learn. It’s hitting three birds with one stone: you don’t only get to save money, you also learn new skills and actually get to move around more. If you say you are unable to save money because you need to regularly send money to relatives or family, then it’s time you look at your budget and see how you can adjust your expenses so that you can keep sending cash while setting aside some money for your savings account, too. You see, saving for the rainy days is a nonnegotiable aspect of our financial life planning. The sooner you figure out how to do it effectively, the better it will be for yourself and your loved ones, too.

a leader in many respects. Plaridel “Jun” or “JB” Bohol is the lead partner of a mid-size law firm in Quezon City, became president of the Rotary Club of Marikina West in 1998, became the president of the San Beda Law Golf Club Inc. in 2005, and is the “perpetual” president and chairman of the Board of the Samar National School (SNS) Class 1976 Association Inc., which regularly holds fund-raising projects for its beloved alma mater. I read it somewhere that the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart or a crushed spirit. In the case of JB, things got way better after he learned how to sing amid all the trials in life. In the Bible, when Paul and Barnabas were thrown in prison, they sang despite the grief. In the process, the “joy of heaven drove back the gloom” and made them better persons. JB survived the challenges in life by singing the way God wanted His children to sing. In due time, JB was blessed with a “mulligan” in love. He got reconnected to his high-school classmate, Joy Soriano, whom he courted instantly and relentlessly. Now happily married to his high- school crush Joy and blessed with a son, Michael Juris, JB eventually realized that he simply cannot sing and drink his blues away. Like Paul and Barnabas, like Moses and Joshua, JB just has to sing his way. For questions and comments, please e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com.

Opinion BusinessMirror

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Get back and write your business plan

PPP conversations #4 with the NHA By Alberto Agra

PPP Lead

Filbert Tsai

DEBIT CREDIT

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tarting up a business means innovation, and defying business traditions is the way to go. This is the classic message that I have seen in a lot of articles written on start-ups. While I haven’t gone to the extent of researching the business success of these article writers, it is alarming that many are taking these types of advice with more than a grain of salt. In a recent article I read (which the author said is from The Lean Start-up) — business plans are treated as crap and business modeling tools are highly encouraged. I have received a few queries as well from wannabe start-up entrepreneurs on whether they should go ahead now with incorporating their business considering that they already got a big idea. I always ask the question — how’s the business plan looking? Sadly, eight out of 10 responded that they haven’t made one. Striking for me is how many people are aware of the word business plan, yet, they either don’t know how to do it or just simply don’t want to do it based on other people’s advice. One of the most obscure reasons that I’ve ever heard is that preparing a business plan defeats the goal of agility in business. So let me give you three bits of reason to go back to the drawing board and think about building a business plan.

Formalizing your business’s road map

A well-made business plan provides a detailed road map on how you plan to do business, your go-to market strategies and a summary of the initial financial forecast for your business. Yes, this is a tedious process and might take a bit of time — but hey, planning pays well. Many start-up entrepreneurs shifted from a fixed salaried job, and then things go crazy once they start business. There are significant changes in compensation and roles, such as variable salaries, managing administrative stuff and financial management for the business. These are things that you should have thought of when you’ve done your business plan properly — assess what you need, determine how you’ll get paid, forecast reasonable financial indicators and plan how you’ll attack the market.

Market and industry analysis

This is where many newbies to business, or even those new to managing a business, can fail. A lot of start-up entrepreneurs

are driven by their ideas and passion, but without a strategic mind-set. This probably contributes to the significant number of failing start-ups (nine out of 10). Understanding your market and industry is crucial if you want to play in the market, your nice idea matched with cheap price is a nice combination for commoditization of your bright idea. Market and industry analysis is one of the most time-consuming activity that a business must do. Time to think this through might be significant, but you don’t just attack without understanding your opponents. Take this time to invest, research and learn.

Business structure

Probably the most ignored topic in all business-planning sessions. People just assume that to be incorporated is the right way to go ahead or, for some, just go with partnership structure without understanding the risks involved in a partnership form of business. Forming your business right is the crucial step in planning your business. After deciding on your business model and objectives, make sure your business structure goes well with your business model and objective. Seek advice if you’re not sure. At the end of the day, you won’t be doing this again in a short span of time. Creating a business plan might not be as agile as simply completing a business model canvas or doing a javelin board, but being agile is not always worth the risk of failing afterwards. Learn to play things right. It’s not the number of failed start-ups that count as grit. Filbert Tsai is a Filipino accounting advisor in the UK with global and public-sector experience. His key areas of interests are start-ups and MSMEs. His blog and page, Ask the Accounting Advisor, provide relevant insight for start-ups and MSMEs in the Philippines. This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@gmail.com.

Continued from A1 What is your concept of PPP?

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PP is an arrangement that the government can adopt to hasten economic development by encouraging the private sector to help out in improving the quality of public assets and the efficiency of public services. The thrust of the current administration is to “build, build and build” infrastructure for the next six years. This opens up opportunities for the private sector to help the government boost economic growth and create more jobs. What makes PPP a viable development strategy for socialized housing? I think PPP is a viable development strategy for socialized housing. PPP will bring in private-sector capital and expertise in addressing

New York Times News Service

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iven the mess that he’s in and the martyrdom that he hallucinates, it’s only fitting that Donald J. Trump would turn toward God. He has fled the country—not a moment too soon!—for his first foreign excursion since taking office, and it’s less a conventional presidential trip than a roving seminar in world religions: Islam (Saudi Arabia is the first stop), Judaism (Israel is second) and Roman Catholicism (the Vatican is the capper). I’m especially eager for his communion with Pope Francis, an entry in the annals of odd couples that ranks somewhere just above Oscar and Felix, and below Mork and Mindy. One of them is splenetic. The other is ascetic. One sins. The other redeems. Cue the metaphors and clutch your rosary beads. They’ve a history, these two, and it’s not pretty. During the campaign, Francis denounced the notion of a wall along the Mexican border, and Trump didn’t exactly turn the other cheek. “Disgraceful!” he

shot back, confirming his willingness to make an adversary of anyone, no matter how tall the miter. But they can skip over that and look to future matters, like the reportedly imminent nomination of Callista Gingrich as America’s next ambassador to the Vatican. She’s Newt’s third wife, who was sleeping with him when he was still married to his second. Time and, it seems, annulments have washed the couple clean. The president intended his pilgrimage as a statement that the diverse peoples of the world can and should get along—and that he, Trump, had the stature and sway to point them toward peace. This was to be a moment of bold leadership. But on the heels of the worst two weeks of a ceaselessly beleaguered presidency, it looks more like a hasty retreat. Plus, there’s the continued wonder—the comedy, really—of watching a man so unabashedly profane pay such ostentatious heed to the sacred. Trump as a holy roller, spellbound by the mysteries of faith? File this in the ecclesiastical subcategory of overcompensation. Methinks he doth genuflect too much. And mepredicts a disaster. The Israel

the increasing housing need. Based on a 2016 housing-need study, the Philippines has a projected need of 6.57 million units by 2022, which represents accumulated needs for socialized, economic, low-cost and the open market.

Is NHA ready for PPP? National Housing Authority (NHA) is in the process of implementing its reorganization plan. The NHA is tooling up its work force to address the challenges of the prevailing housing backlog. The NHA needs to improve its asset-management capability and maximize the utilization or disposition of its assets. As such, the PPP is the NHA’s opportunity to develop its resources. Given this scenario, I would like to believe that the NHA is ready to explore the PPP mode of procurement for its socialized housing program. What are the challenges and risks of PPPs? As in any new venture, there are always risks and challenges. I would like to present an analogy—the PPP is just like the railway and the train that would ferry the people to their destination. The railway and the train must be properly planned, equipped and maintained well to ensure that the people safely ar-

rive to their destination. The PPP, therefore, is the vehicle and infrastructure support for the NHA to accomplish its mandate in providing socialized housing. The challenge to the NHA is how it can creatively prepare for this new mode of procurement and how it can creatively allocate site risks between the government and the private sector toward a win-win solution. What is your message to the public? Heading one of the key agencies in the housing sector under the Duterte administration is a challenge for me. But true to my commitment as a public servant, I will, to my utmost ability, help steer this agency toward a more improved, effective and efficient public-service delivery. Laying down fundamental changes, developing more responsive housing programs, building a culture of quality and initiating innovations in how we do things at the NHA is my pledge and commitment.

Why there won’t be war in South China Sea Ricardo Saludo

DIPLOMASIA

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et’s call some spades. First, no one is going to war in South China Sea. Not because Chinese President Xi Jinping was kidding when he told his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte last week that, in so many words, there would be war if the Philippines implemented the ruling last July by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague voiding Beijing’s “nine-dash line” claim over most of the South China Sea.

Rather, all sides seem sensible enough to keep talking about sovereign and security interests, rather than forcibly asserting them. China doesn’t want to play bully or drive its neighbors to Uncle Sam, and they won’t spoil for a fight they can’t win. Plus: Last week’s agreements in separate talks between China and the Philippines, and between Beijing and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), augur well for negotiation, not confrontation. Manila and Beijing announced terms of reference for maritime cooperation and security, and a framework for an Asean-China Code of Conduct for disputed areas got the nod at the meeting in Guiyang, Southwest China. The conciliatory approach certainly got more out of Beijing than The Hague case, though some quarters in Manila still want to sue over Xi’s reported war threat. As for the US plan to move 60 percent of its naval assets to East

A prayer for Donald J. Trump By Frank Bruni

Monday, May 22, 2017 A15

component already is, and not only because he was just caught sharing Israeli intelligence with the Russians. He abandoned the idea of a speech at the mountain fortress of Masada after he was denied permission to land his helicopter on such an archaeologically sensitive site. When Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton went there, they were content to take the cable car to the top. He baffled Israelis with his reported insistence on keeping his visit to Yad Vashem, a cherished Holocaust memorial, to just 15 minutes. President Barack Obama devoted about an hour to it. So did Bush. And in rejecting any joint appearance at the Western Wall with Benjamin Netanyahu, an administration official specified that the wall did not belong to Israel. That’s a widely held position, but its gratuitous enunciation doesn’t make Israelis’ hearts go pitter patter. Trump has been flamboyantly chasing salvation from the moment he stepped out on the campaign trail. That’s largely why he picked Mike Pence, a darling of the religious right, as his running mate. It’s behind his recent instructions to the Internal Revenue Service to give religious groups leeway for political lobbying.

Asia, and conduct sailings to challenge Chinese island building in the Spratlys, Washington is backing off for now. It needs Beijing’s help in a far bigger security worry: North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles program, which could threaten America.

Beijing wins over Asean

Second, Beijing is getting its way in the South China Sea. It has built massive military-capable facilities on reclaimed islands in Fiery Cross and Mischief Reefs, enhancing its ability to protect vital sea-lanes—China’s most urgent objective in the South China Sea, through which four-fifths of its imported oil passes. Rival claimants are talking and doing deals with Beijing. Despite past shooting wars with China, Vietnam has maintained cordial ties, with regular top-level meetings between their leaders. As one of 29 national leaders in Beijing’s Belt and Road Forum for

On May 13, for his first commencement speech as president, he chose Liberty University, an Evangelical Christian School whose president, Jerry Falwell Jr., told the crowd, “I do not believe any president in our lifetimes has done so much that has benefited the Christian community in such a short time span as Donald Trump.” Then Trump got up and marveled at the size of the crowd he’d drawn, because his particular brand of spirituality is heavy on self-veneration. He articulated loftier thoughts, too. “In America,” he said, “we don’t worship government. We worship God.” His own relationship with the Almighty has not always taken obvious or typical forms. Although he was brought up Presbyterian, the Manhattan church that he attended, Marble Collegiate, was best known for its celebrity preacher, Norman Vincent Peale, who marketed and monetized the power of positive thinking. “Attitudes are more important than facts,” Peale asserted. Little Donald listened well. And Big Donald went on to treat the Commandments as if they weren’t etched in stone but doodled in disappearing ink.

International Cooperation a week ago, Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang said stronger cooperation in all spheres between Vietnam and China is critical to each country’s development, bringing about economic benefits and reinforcing mutual trust and friendship, the Hanoi Times reported. President Duterte has reversed his predecessor’s US-backed confrontational policy toward China. At his October state visit to Beijing, Duterte declared “separation” from his country’s longtime ally, and called for “alliance” with Beijing and Moscow. Malaysia is also swinging to China. After Washington regulators raised concerns about Kuala Lumpur’s scandal-hit IMDB state fund, adding pressure on Prime Minister Najib Razak, the embattled PM turned to Beijing. On top of property and infrastructure projects in Malaysia already under way, the two countries are eyeing ports development along the Malay Peninsula, high-speed trains from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, joint exploration by state oil companies, and a regional counterterrorism center in Johor near Singapore. So, who’s left in Asean to be nasty to Beijing? Third spade: China will be accommodating to Asean. Huh? After wooing once-contentious neighbors and with America not rocking the regional boat, at least for now, why must Beijing play Mr. Nice Giant to Asean? Because it aims to woo the world. “China’s Belt and Road Forum,”

headlined the Los Angeles Times, “lays groundwork for a new global order”. So do other Beijing-led initiatives like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Regional Cooperation Economic Program trade liberalization talks. Plus: Beijing has picked up where Washington under President Donald J. Trump left off at the Paris climate-change accord. In sum, China is angling for world stature just when America and Europe are hobbled somewhat. In this audition of sorts for a global leadership role, playing fair, sharing wealth and not throwing one’s weight around are crucial to win friends and influence nations. So, apart from giving up territory and compromising security, which no country ever does willingly, China will generally accommodate the Philippines, Asean and other parties at the negotiating tables. For Manila, the immediate objective in its bilaterals are protocols to safeguard its security and territory, and prevent Chinese encroachments—which could be covered by the maritime cooperation and security parameters agreed last week with Beijing. For Asean, the Code of Conduct is the prize for this year, so that confrontation and militarization are minimized or managed. But won’t China use this time of peace with Asean to build up its forces, so it can eventually grab the territory it wants? Yes, that’s probably Beijing’s plan. Which is why Asean should also use this time of harmony and rising prosperity to power up, join forces—and win the respect of giants.

He stiffed creditors, made a mockery of the truth and publicly boasted about his promiscuity. He never talked all that much about religion, not until the campaign. Even then, the results were interesting. He referred to the sacraments as if they were pets: “my little wine”, “my little cracker”. Instead of citing “Second Corinthians”, he said, “Two Corinthians”, so that Corinthians sounded like a matched set. Questioned about the circumstances in which he might gaze heavenward for expiation, he said he didn’t “bring God into that picture”. But my favorite of his spiritual musings came when he was asked, on the Christian Broadcasting Network, “Who is God to you?” “God is the ultimate,” he answered. “Nobody, no thing, there’s nothing like God.” The angels wept. And the evangelical voters indeed came around, a phenomenon on which we’ve lavished analysis. We’ve remarked less on the audacity of Trump’s pantomime of godliness, given his core. It illuminates perhaps his greatest gift, politically speaking, which is his readiness to strike any pose he deems

necessary, no matter how ludicrous, and his certainty that he can sell it. The past is no tether. Reality doesn’t intrude. And no arena, not even religion, is sacrosanct. He will bend it to his purposes. He will claim it as his own. One day he’s a Democrat; the next, a Republican. One day he’s having his wares made in China; the next, he’s railing against outsourcing. One day The Art of the Deal is his bible; the next, the Bible is his everything, and he’s promoting piety all over the place. Melania, too. She opened a Trump rally in Florida in February with a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, speaking of daily bread despite her aura of nightly caviar. Will her husband be forgiven his trespasses? I can’t guess about celestial judgments, but in this earthly, temporal realm, I don’t think the odds are good. Facts are turning out to be as important as attitudes. Every hour brings some fresh mortification for his administration. A special counsel is commencing work. Words like “Watergate” and “obstruction of justice” whip through the air. If I were Trump, I’d probably get out of town, too. And I’d definitely pray.

Playing Mr. Nice Giant

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

Trade, defense top Duterte’s agenda in visit to Russia

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By Catherine N. Pillas @c_pillas29 By Elijah Felice E. Rosales @alyasjah

resident Duterte is scheduled to depart for Moscow on Monday for a four-day official visit to Russia, where he is expected to discuss matters on defense and trade with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

In a recent Malacañang news briefing, Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Maria Cleofe R. Natividad said several bilateral agreements are expected to be signed during the trip, particularly on defense, security, legal assistance, trade and investment, and peaceful use of nuclear energy and culture. Aside from this, Natividad said the administration is looking into the possibility of purchasing highcaliber arms from Russia. “There is really nothing that would stop Russia from participating in the modernization program of the [Armed Forces of the Philippines],” Natividad stressed. Apart from defense, Duterte will also present trade and investment

$226M The amount of bilateral trade between the Philippines and Russia in 2016

opportunities in the Philippines under the “Build, Build, Build” scheme. Headed by trade executives, a business delegation is listed to join the Philippines-Russia Business Forum in Moscow. “The forum would be an oppor t u ne t i me to sh a re w it h Russian companies the benefits of doing business in our country and the very positive investment

climate, especially in areas of infrastructure, energy, transportation, tourism and others,” Natividad said. She said bilateral trade between the two countries amounted to only $226 million in 2016, with the Philippines exporting only $49 million worth of goods to Russia. She added Russian tourist arrivals was at around 38,000 only—a number way below compared to Southeast Asian neighbors. Pressing on the administration’s so-called independent foreign policy, Natividad described Duterte’s visit to Russia as an indication of his commitment to establish new partnerships and bolster relations with nontraditional partners. She added the trip is considered to be “landmark” by the Department of Foreign Affairs, as bilateral relations between the Philippines and Russia was dormant in the past four decades. “In spite of this almost 41 years [of diplomatic ties], our bilateral engagement is still at nascent stage in practically all areas of cooperation,” Natividad said. The President first talked with Putin and Medvedev during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum last November in Peru, where Putin extended his invitation to Duterte to come over to Russia. Like Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin supports the administration’s crackdown on illegal drugs, evident by the fact that a Russian Office of Defense Attaché will soon be opened in Manila.

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PALACE TOLD: DON’T RUSH JOINT DEALS WITH CHINA

Natividad said this is in tune with the Philippines and Russia’s commitment to combat terrorism, violent extremism, human trafficking and illegal drugs.

‘Dutertenomics’

Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said the government will make a pitch for “Dutertenomics” to Russian officials and businessmen during the President’s visit. “Our main task really is, for them to increase their awareness of the Philippines, so we’ll present business and investments, and present Dutertenomics for example,” Lopez said. He said he will be signing two memoranda of understanding on industry cooperation and trade and investment to bolster ties between Russia and the Philippines. While the Philippines-Russia Joint Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation (JCTEC) was formed during former President Benigno S. Aquino III’s term, it had its first meeting only this year. This, after the Duterte administration has expressed interest in forging ties with Russia. The JCTEC is the primary bilateral mechanism for both sides to discuss ways to enhance trade, investments and economic cooperation. Earlier, economists have questioned the wisdom of establishing cooperation with Russian Federation. They noted that investment inflows from Russia have been “paltry” and that the country’s biggest trading partner is still Asean.

ap photo

A16 Monday, May 22, 2017

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

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he Duterte administration need not rush into joint exploration arrangements with China before Beijing first acknowledges Philippines’s sovereignty over its resource -rich territories in the West Philippine Sea ( WPS), Sen. Richard J. Gordon said over the weekend. “Joint explorations should come after clarifying where we stand,” Gordon asserted in a radio interview last Sunday. The senator made the assertion amid recurring reports of Chinese intrusions in WPS, even as he suggested: “Let us go on with our lives, continue doing business with China and invite them to invest here.” Gordon stressed President Duterte’s recent efforts to “fix” relations with Beijing should not be taken to mean he “abandoned our claim”. He added that when the Philippine government gives the green light to resume all explorations within its territory, Malacañang can invoke international law and the United Nations. Gordon sounded the word of caution two days after President Duterte

dropped a bombshell, saying that in his one on one with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week in Beijing, the latter bluntly told him that if Manila pushes through with plans to drill in West Philippine Sea, “we will go to war.” He said he “does not agree with what China is doing” and prodded its officials “do something about illegal drugs brought here from Chinese sources”. At the same time, the senator prodded the Duter te administration to tap international support to step up the pressure on Beijing to sit down for talks to resolve the brewing territorial dispute with its neighbor. “We should enlist Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] to force a discussion with China,”Gordon said, amid recent remarks by the Chinese leader to Duterte about China’s readiness to go to war. “If he [Jinping] really said that, let us go to the UN,” the senator added, voicing concern the issue can be blown out of proportion and trigger a war. Gordon insisted that members of Congress must seek clarification of this issue from both the Palace and the Chinese ambassador, saying: “We are not out of defenses.”