Businessmirror november 04, 2016

“When I think about what we now know about Donald Trump and what he’s been doing for 30 years, he sure has spent a lot of time demeaning, degrading, insulting and assaulting women.”—Hillary Clinton, who hammered her Republican rival as dangerous and divisive, highlighting, in particular, his treatment of women. AP

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“There’s somebody out there shooting police officers. We hope to find him before somebody else gets hurt.”—Sgt. Paul Parizek of the Des Moines, Iowa, police department, after two officers were shot to death in ambush-style attacks while they were sitting in their patrol cars. AP

“Just when all hope seemed lost, Davis hit that homer and you started to believe that the Cubs were still cursed. It felt like we had won, so when the Cubs won, it was like someone taking away something from Cleveland.”— Adam Daher, 27, of Lakewood, after the Cubs beat the Indians, 8-7, in Game Seven of the World Series to claim their first championship since 1908. The Indians now own the longest title drought in the majors at 68 years. AP

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Friday, November 4, 2016 Vol. 12 No. 23

Anti-US sentiment won’t drive away BPOs–Neda

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By Cai U. Ordinario & Catherine N. Pillas

@cuo_bm @c_pillas29

he country’s business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry will remain attractive to US-based firms despite the President’s antiAmerican sentiments, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

inside

$1,043

The average weekly pay of US workers in the first quarter, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics In a briefing with reporters on Thursday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Neda Director General Ernesto M. Pernia said that, even if the US elects Republican presidential candidate Continued on A2

108 years in the making

Sports BusinessMirror

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| Friday, November 4, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana

108 YEARS IN THE MAKING

Ending more than a century of flops, futility and frustration, the Chicago Cubs won their first title since 1908, outlasting the Cleveland Indians, 8-7, in 10 innings of a Game Seven thriller early Thursday.

Ben ZoBrist celebrates with his Most Valuable Player trophy. AP

For a legion of fans who waited a lifetime, fly that W: Your Chicago Cubs are World series champions. AP

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By Ronald Blum The Associated Press

LEVELAND—Kris Bryant started to smile even before he fielded the ball. And with his throw to first for the final out, the agonizing wait ‘til next year was over at last.

No more Billy Goat, no more Bartman, no more black-cat curses.

For a legion of fans who waited a lifetime, fly that W: Your Chicago Cubs are World Series champions.

Ending more than a century of flops, futility and frustration, the Cubs won their first title since 1908, outlasting the Cleveland Indians, 8-7, in 10 innings of a Game Seven thriller early Thursday.

They even had to endure an extra-inning rain delay to end the drought.

“It happened. It happened. Chicago, it happened,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said after gloving the ball for the final out. “We did it.

We’re world champions.

I tell ya, we’re world champions. I can’t believe it.”

Rizzo put that final ball in his pocket as the Cubs piled up in the middle of the diamond, David Ross got carried off the field by his teammates and Bill Murray partied in the clubhouse.

And the whole time, blue-clad fans who traveled from Wrigley Field filled

nearly the entire lower deck behind the Chicago dugout at Progressive Field, singing “Go, Cubs, Go!” in rain. They held up those white flags with the large blue “W’’ on a night many of their forebears had waited for in vain.

Lovable losers for generations, the Cubs nearly let this one get away, too. All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman blew a 6-3 lead with two outs in the eighth when Rajai Davis hit a tying, two-run homer.

But the Cubs, after tormenting their fans one more time, came right back after a 17-minute rain delay before the top of the 10th.

Series Most Valuable Player Ben Zobrist hit a run-batted in (RBI) double and Miguel Montero singled home a run to make it 8-6. Davis delivered an RBI single with two outs in the bottom half, but Mike Montgomery closed it out at 12:47 a.m., and the celebration was on.

“I think about so many millions of people giving so much love and support to this team for so many years,” said owner Tom Ricketts, whose family bought the team in 2009.

Manager Joe Maddon’s team halted the longest stretch without a title in baseball, becoming the first club to overcome a 3-1 Series deficit since the 1985 Kansas City Royals.

“This is an epic game. It’s epic. I can’t believe we were able to do it—108 years in the making,” Zobrist said. “We did it.”

“They never quit, either,” Zobrist said. “They kept coming at us.”

Cleveland was trying to win its first crown since 1948, but manager Terry Francona’s club lost the last

two games at home.

World Series favorites since spring training, Chicago led the majors with 103 wins this season.

The Cubs then ended more than a century of misery for their loyal fans—barely. Bryant, one of Chicago’s young stars, began to celebrate even before fielding a grounder by Michael Martinez to third base and throwing it across to Rizzo for the last out.

“It’s the best rain delay of all-time,” Rizzo said.

Zobrist got a Series-high 10 hits, a year after he helped the Royals win the championship. Zobrist was among the players brought to the Cubs by Theo Epstein, the baseball guru who added another crown to his collection. He also assembled the Red Sox team that broke Boston’s 86-year drought by winning in 2004.

From Curse of the Bambino to the Billy Goat Curse, he ended another jinx.

“We don’t need a plane to fly home,” Epstein said. “It’s fitting it’s got to be done with one of the best games of all time.”

Cubs outfielder Jason Heyward had called a meeting during the rain delay, talking to his teammates in the weight room.

“I just had to remind everybody who we are, what we’ve overcome to get here,” he said.

While Cubs fans hugged with delight, there was only despair for the Indians, who now have gone longer than anyone without a crown. In the Indians’ previous World Series appearance, they were a double-play grounder from winning the 1997 title before losing Game Seven in 11 innings to the Marlins.

“It’s going to hurt. It hurts because we care, but they need to walk with their head held high because they left nothing on the field,” Francona said.

Earlier this year, LeBron James and the Cavaliers ended Cleveland’s 52-year championship drought by overcoming a 3-1 deficit to beat Golden State for the National Basketball Association (NBA) title. James and teammates were in a suite, rooting hard, as the Indians absorbed the same blow as the Warriors.

After defeating San Francisco and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the

playoffs, Chicago became the first team to earn a title by winning Games Six and Seven on the road since the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates.

Dexter Fowler homered on Corey Kluber’s fourth pitch of the game, 23-year-old Javier Baez and the 39-year-old Ross—set to now retire—also went deep for the Cubs, who led 5-1 in the fifth inning and 6-3 in the eighth.

Chapman wound up with the win, and Montgomery got one out for his first save in the majors.

Bryan Shaw, who gave up a leadoff single to Kyle Schwarber in the 10th, took the loss in just the fourth Game Seven that went to extra innings.

Albert Almora Jr., pinch-running for Schwarber, alertly took second on Bryant’s long fly to center. Rizzo was intentionally walked, and Zobrist slapped an opposite-field double past a diving third baseman Jose Ramirez. Montero singled to make it a two-run lead.

Then in the bottom half, Carl Edwards Jr. struck out Mike Napoli, Ramirez grounded out, Brandon Guyer walked and Davis hit an RBI single. Montgomery took over, and helped set off a wild celebration on Chicago’s North Side.

Even a dedicated White Sox fan could appreciate the victory.

“It happened: @Cubs win World Series.

That’s change even this South Sider can believe in. Want to come to the White House before I leave?” President Barack Obama tweeted.

Twenty-one other teams had won the World Series since Cubs last were champions.

They reached the top again on the 39,466th day after Orval Overall’s three-hit shutout won the 1908 finale at Detroit in a game that took one hour and 24 minutes—this latest Game Seven lasted 4:24, not including the rain delay.

Back then, Theodore Roosevelt was president, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii were not yet states, and the first Ford Model T car was two weeks old.

The Cubs were last champions when Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance won consecutive titles in 1907-1908, until now the only ones in team history. The Cubbies had not even reached the Series since 1945.

This one was for Ernie Banks, Ferguson Jenkins, Ron Santo and Billy Williams, who never reached the postseason.

For Gabby Hartnett, Ryne Sandberg and Greg Maddux, whose October runs fell short.

For Lee Elia and the “nickle-dime people” who spent so many wind-swept afternoons in the Friendly Confines watching loss after loss.

For Bill Veeck, who planted ivy vines against Wrigley Field’s outfield walls.

For William Sianis, the Billy Goat Tavern owner said to have proclaimed when he was asked to leave Wrigley with his pet during the ‘45 Series: “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more.”

For Steve Bartman, whose life was upended when he tried to catch a foul ball as the Cubs came apart in the 2003 playoffs.

And for Harry Caray, who promised viewers after the 1991 finale that “sure as God made green apples, someday the Chicago Cubs are going to be in the World Series.”

Maddon, hired before the 2015 season, won his first Series title after establishing a loose clubhouse that featured at times Warren the pink flamingo, Simon the magician and the motto: “Try not to suck.”

“It was just an epic battle,” Zobrist said.

“Just blow for blow, everybody playing their heart out. The Indians never gave up, either, and I can’t believe we’re finally standing, after 108 years, finally able to hoist the trophy.”

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Wake up early if you want to watch the Miss Universe

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

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@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

F you want to watch the Miss Universe 2016 pageant, be prepared to wake up early.

In a press briefing, Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon Tulfo Teo said the pageant will be held at 5:30 a.m. on January 30, 2017, “as this is 7 p.m. in the US.” The Miss Universe Organization is based in New York and airs the beauty pageant as live to the American audience during primetime TV. This developed as reigning Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach announced on Thursday that the Philippines would indeed host the beauty pageant next year.

She made the announcement on behalf of the Miss Universe Organization (MUO) in a brief videotaped message from New York: “Hi Guys! I’m so excited to share with you all that yes, the Miss Universe competition is indeed happening in the Philippines and I can’t wait to show you all my beautiful country.”

Teo said the three major island regions of the country—Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao—will be well represented in the beauty pageant with visits planned by the Miss Universe candidates.

She added that Cebu and Bohol are among the confirmed venues for the ancillary events. The main beauty pageant will be held at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

The DOT chief described the holding of the Miss

Doe eyes ‘options’ to boost electricity supply, Cusi says

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CROWD FAVORITE The 4x4 vehicles in this photo were among the favorites of those who trooped to the Manila Auto Salon 2016, which opened on Thursday at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City. NONOY LACZA

₧200-B new infra projects tabled for Neda Board’s OK T

CAGI embarks on final testing

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Honda S.U.V.s galore

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he National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board is set to tackle seven key infrastructure projects, estimated to cost around P200 billion, to help decongest Metro Manila and its neighboring areas.

In a press conference in Malacañang on Thursday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Neda Director General Ernesto M. Pernia said that, apart from decongesting Metro Manila, the projects will help the Duterte administration spur development in the countryside and increase its infrastructure

PESO exchange rates n US 48.4850

investment to GDP ratio to 5.4 percent on its first year in office.

“As Secretary [Benjamin E.] Diokno would say, this Duterte administration will be a Golden Age for Infrastructure, building them 24/7,” Pernia said.

Included on the list are three agriculture projects in Cordillera and Mindanao; the 600-kilometer South Rail Line project between Manila and Sorsogon; the 9-kilometer road to connect Tutuban and Valenzuela; and a road-widening project that will improve the traffic situation between

Valenzuela and Quezon City.

Pernia said building infrastructure 24/7 will create more jobs, since every construction project will require three shifts of workers each to fast-track the implementation of these projects.

The Neda director general said under this scheme, the government can complete three projects in a year. Apart from this, Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar said this is the best way for the country to catch up with its neighbors in terms of infrastructure investments.

Continued on A2

By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

he Department of Energy (DOE) is now looking at other options to boost the country’s power supply following President Duterte’s pronouncement that no nuclear power plant would be put up during his six-year term.

“We are always looking for options available. We have been saying from the beginning that all options would be explored, with- The projected annual out any bias, because that’s increase in power demand our job,” Energy Secretary for the Philippines until 2030 Alfonso G. Cusi said. Annual electricity demand in the country is expected to rise by an average 5 percent until 2030.

As Chief Executive, Cusi said President Duterte is considered as a “master planner” and an “architect” of the country.

“There are other things he is considering. I still have to ask him about that,” Cusi added.

In August the energy secretary was quoted as saying that he is not against nuclear power. “As energy secretary, it is my duty to study all options to ensure a secure power supply for the coming generation,” he said.

Industry stakeholders earlier visited the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant to assess if the 40-year-old mothballed plant can still be revived. The facility was never used when construction was finished in 1984.

Cusi stressed the need for the country to identify base-load power sources. Coal, he said, is one. “Nuclear

5 percent

Continued on A2

n japan 0.4656 n UK 59.3699 n HK 6.2522 n CHINA 7.1639 n singapore 34.9240 n australia 37.0862 n EU 53.6147 n SAUDI arabia 12.9286

Source: BSP (2 November 2016 )

News BusinessMirror

A2 Friday, November 4, 2016

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Anti-US sentiment won’t drive away BPOs–Neda Continued from A1

Donald Trump, the BPO industry will continue to enjoy the patronage of American firms.

“BPOs will not pull out. I don’t think there will be a pullout of BPOs except if Trump [wins], but if that happens, it will happen next year. [Doing business in the country is] profitable to private-sector businesses. The US government cannot compel the private sector [to do otherwise],” Pernia said.

It can be noted that minimumwage rates in Metro Manila, where a lot of BPOs and call centers are located, ranges from P454 to P491.

This translates to around $9.46 to P10.23 a day, using a P48 to $1 exchange rate.

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, weekly wage rates in the US averaged $1,043 in the first quarter of 2016.

This translates to $149 per day for a seven-day workweek.

However, Pernia said the anti-

US statements made by President Duterte will have an impact on GDP growth. But, this will not be reflected in the economy’s performance in the third quarter.

The President first voiced out his anti-US sentiments in a news briefing prior to the Asean Annual Meeting in Lao PDR toward the end of September.

He continued to make negative statements against the US in succeeding news conferences, the most recent of which was made on Wednesday during the send-off of the Vietnamese fishermen.

Pernia projected third-quarter growth to hit 6.3 percent and fullyear growth to reach 7.3 percent.

However, Pernia said the economy may grow by 6.5 percent to 6.6 percent by the end of 2016, based on preliminary quarterly data.

“The higher end [of the growth estimate], I think, [will be driven by] infrastructure spending [which] accelerated in September,” he said.

“Agriculture, I think, would

have a better performance, [it was] negative [in the] second quarter, so it would be a smaller negative or possibly flat [in the third quarter],” Pernia added.

The Neda chief said the risks to growth include weak exports and declining investments coming from US-based firms. Pernia said he has received reports that some American firms have pulled out from the Philippines.

Nonetheless, Chinese investments are on the rise, according to Pernia. While these investments are not enough to match the amount of US investments in the country at present, the growth of Chinese investments in the Philippines are “significant.”

Data on investment pledges showed that, prior to the Duterte administration, US firms’ foreign investment pledges reached P6.68 billion in the first semester of 2016, while those from Chinese investors amounted to only P376.9 million.

US investment pledges in the first semester of 2016, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said, posted an increase of 86.6 percent, from P3.58 billion in the first semester of 2015.

Chinese investment pledges, meanwhile, contracted 30.4 percent, from the P541.3 million posted in the first semester last year.

“If China comes through with its commitments, it will have a sizable impact next year, and Japan also, something like $19 billion,” Pernia said. In his recent state visit to China, Duterte was able to secure deals with Beijing worth $19 billion.

Around $16 billion was secured through memoranda of understanding with private firms. Manila also obtained $6 billion worth of official development assistance (ODA) and a $3-billion credit line from the Bank of China.

The ODA loans and grants extended by Beijing will be used mainly for infrastructure projects,

including rural infrastructure, that will help boost agriculture growth in the next six years.

The credit line from the Bank of China, Pernia said, will be used as financing assistance for micro, small and medium enterprises.

Trade privilege

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) expressed confidence that the anti-US stance of Duterte will not cause the Philippines to lose the preferential trade privileges it enjoys under Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).

Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said his outlook on the future of USPhilippine trade relations remain sanguine, even after Duterte has expressed his intention to “separate” from the US. “If [the United States and the Philippines] are real friends and partners, they will keep the GSP, and strengthen it further,” Lopez said.

“The state of affairs between

P200-B new infra projects tabled for Neda Board’s OK Continued from A1

Villar said the country’s average infrastructure-to-GDP investment only reached 2 percent to 3 percent since the Marcos regime.

In the 21 years the late Ferdinand E. Marcos was president, the average infrastructure-to-GDP spending only reached 3.2 percent. Under the six-year terms of the late Corazon C. Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos, it averaged 2.2 percent in each administration.

The two-year Estrada administration saw infrastructure-to-GDP spending reach 2.2 percent and the nine-year Arroyo administration, 1.9 percent. The previous administration saw infrastructure-to-GDP spending average 2.9 percent.

“During the first year of President Duterte, it would become 5.4 percent, almost double—more than double the average spending under previous administrations; 5.4 percent of our GDP,” Villar said.

“We want to maintain this 5 percent, but we’re also targeting to reach as high as 7 percent, minimum 7-percent spending over the next few years. This is to catch up with our neighbors in Asia.”

Screening of Chinese firms

Meanwhile, the interagency Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) Cabinet Committee (Cabcom) has been tasked to screen Chinese companies that are eyeing to undertake publicly funded projects to make sure there will be no “unworthy or unwelcome types of companies or proposals.” Pernia said a draft executive order (EO) has been prepared for this.

Screening companies undertaking government projects is not part of the current functions of the ICC Cabcom. It is only tasked to evaluate publicly funded projects that cost at least P5 billion.

“It should be in place already soon so the Chinese can begin soon. For the next six years, we want to have that mechanism in place to guard us from

unworthy or unwelcome types of companies or proposals, like the NBN-ZTE and, also, the Northrail.

We can do it quickly because it’s just an EO constituting the ICC Cabcom, small Cabcom, which is only five to six members, as the one that screens investors,” Pernia said.

He said the Chinese government will also create or assign its own group to act as the first level of screening for Chinese companies wanting to participate in Philippine projects. The Chinese firms will be assessed based on certain qualifications, including their track record in undertaking projects and financial capability to complete a project.

The ICC Cabcom will screen Chinese companies only. Pernia said this is because the country does not have any “sour experience” with contractors of other nationalities.

“I think we will allow as long as the company is internationally reputable, with no negative records anywhere.

We’ll still screen further if a particular

company is best suited to undertake a particular project. So there are two hurdles, two screenings,” Pernia said.

The ICC consists of the secretary of finance as chairman; the Neda director general as cochairman; and the Executive secretary, the secretaries of agriculture, trade and industry, budget and management, and the governor of the central bank of the Philippines as members.

Under the current functions, the ICC evaluates the fiscal, monetary and balance-of-payments implications of major national projects, and recommends to the President the timetable of their implementation on a regular basis. This is similar to trading, such as foreign exchange.

It also advises the President on matters related to the domestic and foreignborrowings program.

The ICC also submits a status of the fiscal, monetary and balance-of-payments implications of major national projects. Cai U. Ordinario

the US and the Philippines is not complicated, it’s more of being finetuned and redefined,” he added.

A cornerstone of US-Philippine trade relations is the GSP—a 40-year-old trade preference program, under which Washington provides duty-free treatment to many imports from beneficiary developing countries and additional products for least-developed beneficiary developing countries.

Currently, the Philippines is one of the 122 beneficiary countries and territories of the GSP program enjoying this privilege.

The program eliminates duties on about 5,000 types of products exported to the US. The Philippines was the fifth biggest user of the US-GSP in 2015, exporting $1.4 billion worth of eligible goods under the scheme.

The Trade Act of 1974, which enabled the US-GSP program, sets out the criteria for designating which developing countries will be named as beneficiaries.

Doe eyes ‘options’ to boost electricity supply, Cusi says Continued from A1

can be included in the long term.” “At the moment, we have three base-load power sources. These are coal, geothermal and gas. Sometimes, hydro comes in. For nuclear, maybe it can be under the long-term plan.

We are looking at this,” he said.

The country’s power-generation mix as of end of 2015 is composed of 45-percent coal, 25-percent renewable, 23 percent natural gas and 7-percent oil. On the other hand, 2015 installed capacity mix is made up of 66-percent fossil fuels, 15 percent of which is in natural gas.

“Right now, nuclear energy is zero,” Cusi said. “We have to search for proper energy mix that would secure power supply in the future. Kailangan natin ’yung [We need] energy supply not coming from one basket, hindi lang pwede [not] from coal, gas, or from oil.

Kailangan magkaroon tayo ng [We need to have the] proper combination.”

Duterte, citing safety concerns, said it’s unlikely that the country will adopt nuclear energy during his six-year term, because of safety concerns. The President said nuclear energy remains an important option in the future, but the Philippines needs to undertake a study and put “really tight safeguards” in place.

“Not, maybe, during my presidency.... Not now, because we have to come up with safeguards, really, really tight safeguards, to assure that there will be no disasters if there is a nuclear leak or explosion,” Duterte said late Tuesday in response to a reporter’s question about his view of nuclear energy.

Proponents argue that nuclear energy would lessen the country’s dependence on dirty fossil fuels and help the economy take off. Critics, however, are concerned about safety in a country crisscrossed by seismic fault lines with a history of destructive earthquakes.

Construction of the Philippines’s first nuclear power plant began in 1977, under the late strongman former President Ferdinand Marcos in Bataan province, about 80 kilometers west of Manila. The plant was completed in 1985, but in early 1986 then-President Corazon Aquino ordered it mothballed because of safety concerns and allegations that its builder, Westinghouse Electric Corp., had bribed Marcos through a local businessman to win the contract. The plant was allegedly constructed near a fault line and a dormant volcano.

The plant cost the government more than $2 billion, considerably increasing the country’s foreign debt.

Govt. . .

Continued from A12

to the BIR the housing contractor’s CTE application and assist in the evaluation, verification and certification of documentary requirements through its authorized officers. The move to make the processing and streamlining of applications easier for taxpayers and clients is part of the Duterte administration’s initiative to cut red tape and improve the ease of doing business for Filipinos.

Under EO 1 issued by President Duterte in July, a reorganization of the Office of the President was done, with 12 agencies initiating programs to alleviate poverty and implementing housing and food-security programs placed under him.

The reduction of the country’s poverty rate from 26 percent to 17 percent is one of the many goals of the Duterte administration, and the provision of housing to marginalized Filipinos, especially in the rural areas, is within the President’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda.

Economy

BusinessMirror

Friday, November 4, 2016 A3

Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

PHL exports posted 9% growth in cargo volume from January to September

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hilippine exports posted the highest growth percentage in cargo volume, pulling up the country’s total cargo throughput higher by 9 percent in the first nine months of 2016.

Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) data showed that throughput reached 183.730 million metric tons (mmt) as compared to the 168.074 mmt registered in the same period last year.

Foreign volume posted a 12.72-percent rise in traffic anchored on the 15-percent increase in export volume, from 47.945 mmt in 2015 to 55.134 mmt for the period in review.

Similarly, import volume also posted a double-digit hike of 10.75 percent, from 55.490 mmt to 61.459 mmt for the January-toSeptember period.

“This is a great indication that Philippine exporters are gearing up to compete in the international market and would not be left out in the run-up to Christmas,” PPA General Manager Jay Daniel R. Santiago said.

“Likewise, the double-digit growth in the import volume suggests that imported Christmas cargoes have also started to come in,” he added.

“However, even with the strong performance of both sectors, our ports remain to op-

erate under optimum condition and we do not expect any slowdown in the movement at any given time,” PPA chief stressed.

Domestic volume, meanwhile, posted a modest growth of 3.87 percent to 67.139 mmt, from 64.638 mmt last year.

The increases in cargo volume were observed at the ports of Agusan, Mindoro, Bicol, Western Leyte/Biliran and Negros Oriental/Siquijor.

The North Port remains as the top performer in terms of domestic cargo volume with a share of 17.87 mmt, or 24.8 percent, of the total domestic volume and 9.73 percent of the total cargo throughput nationwide followed by Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Zamboanga.

Container traffic, on the other hand, registered a 9.36-percent increase in volume for the period in review, with 4.684 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) compared to the 4.283 million TEUs processed in the same period last year.

Foreign boxes dominated the container-

ized traffic after posting an 11.51-percent hike, with volume reaching 2.869 million TEUs as compared to the 2.573 million TEUs handled in 2015.

Meanwhile, domestic cargoes reached 1.814 million TEUs, or 6.12 percent, higher than the 1.710 million TEUs posted last year. Of the total foreign containers, import boxes totaled 1.450 million TEUs, while export boxes reached 1.419 million TEUs, increasing 13.97 percent and 9.11 percent, respectively.

As expected, the North Port ranked first in terms of volume of domestic boxes handled during the period with 906,519 TEUs, while the Manila International Container Terminal handled the bulk of the foreign containerized cargoes, with 1.602 million TEUs, followed by the Manila South Harbor, with 774,692 TEUs, and Davao, 306,203 TEUs. The Philippines also continues its rise in the cruise-tourism industry after passenger volume soared 10.7 percent to 49.619 million anchored on the 35.78-percent increase in foreign passenger volume registering 73,348, from only 54,021 foreign passengers last year.

Domestic passenger traffic, meanwhile, posted a 10.71-percent rise to 49.545 million passengers, from 44.752 million passengers last year.

Shipcalls for the period went up by 7.26 percent, or from 286,166 in 2015 to 306,949 this year. Domestic and foreign shipcalls grew by 6.99 percent and 17.67 percent, respectively. PNA

Govt draws inputs from farmers, fishermen for development plan

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

A

N official of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said farmers and fishermen will have the opportunity to submit “uncensored and unadulterated proposals” that will form part of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017 to 2022.

The proposals are among the expected outputs of a two-day rural development summit, which kicked off on Thursday at the Waterfront Insular Hotel in Quezon City. The proposals will be submitted to President Duterte, who ordered the holding of the summit as part of the crafting of the country’s five-year development plan under his administration.

Agrarian Reform Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Luis Meinrado C. Pangulayan, head of the organizing committee, said around 300 individuals from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Agriculture (DA), the DAR and various stakeholders took part in the summit.

Essentially, the summit would push the

rural sector’s agenda of developing programs and solutions to problems on food, land and environmental protection The participants will come up with a list of priorities and recommendations on food security, land-tenure improvement and environmental protection and will be submitted to the Office of the President for consideration in the drafting of the PDP 2017 to 2022 by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

“After the plenary, there will be several workshops and breakout sessions, where we expect inputs from farmers and fishermen,” Pangulayan said.

The DAR, he added, expects agrarian stakeholders to discuss the passage of Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB), which ensures the free distribution of land to landless farmers.

“On the part of the DAR, we expect clarity on the passage of the proposed genuine agrarian-reform program. Every component of program implementation under genuine agrarian-reform program, hopefully, would be taken up,” Pangulayan said.

One of the workshops, he stressed, is about tenurial security.

“Under tenurial security, it is not limited to farmers actually owning the land but they must also be provided support mechanism to continue owning and use the land productively. There will be no tenurial security if they are forced to sell or rent their land, illegally,” he said.

Under agrarian justice, the rights of farm workers and farmer-beneficiaries.

The speedy resolution of harassment suits filed by landowners will be discussed,” he added.

Last, Pangulayan said under food security, the workshop will focus on improving the lives of farmers and fishermen through support mechanism.

“We will no longer just count the number of kilometers of roads produced or bridges built or the number of seeds and fertilizers provided but will focus on how it impacted on the lives of the farmers. We expect the stakeholders to come up with uncensored, unadulterated proposals for the Philippine Development Plan. We will receive these proposals and we will submit it to the President before the end of December for integration in the Philippine Development Plan,” he said.

briefs d.o.s.t. eyes research on artificial intelligence The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) plans to include artificial intelligence (AI) on its research-and-development agenda starting 2017 to 2022, Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña said during the National Research and Development Conference.

“Now we would like to pursue new areas, not necessarily new in the global sense but as far as local research and development is concern, and that is in the field of artificial intelligence and space technology,” de la Peña says.

The National R&D Conference is a prologue to the crafting of a Harmonized National R&D Agenda (HNRDA) for science and technology, which intends to unify all R&D projects and initiatives in line with the Philippine Development Plan called “Ambisyon Natin 2040.”

In the 1980s, de la Peña wrote a scientific article on the future of technology where AI had been prominently described as the next wave of technological development in the global technological space.

However, the former University of the Philippines professor said the government then had to focus more on other priority areas of development. PNA

dPWH TO OPEN NAIAX RAMP 1 ON NOVEMBER 4

Motorists can use the ramp 1 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Expressway (NaiaX) that connects the Naia Terminal 3 at Andrews Avenue to Skyway in Parañaque City starting on November 4, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said on Thursday.

In a news statement, the department said the opening of NaiaX Ramp 1 is expected to relieve traffic congestion at Andrews Avenue.

Situated at the corner of Andrews Avenue and Sales Street of the said city, the ramp will now serve as the sole entry point of vehicles from Andrews Avenue going to Skyway.

The DPWH, however, noted that the opening of Ramp 1 will be temporary until the permanent connection to Skyway has been completed.

The existing Skyway On-Ramp at Sales Street near Villamor Air Base will be demolished by the concessionaire Vertex Tollways Devt. Inc. through their EPC contractor, D.M.Consunji Inc. PNA

The Nation BusinessMirror

A4 Friday, November 4, 2016 • Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo

Only 19, not 71, political prisoners freed–Karapatan

By Marvyn N. Benaning Correspondent

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HE secretar y-general of a human-rights group on Thursday said only 19 political prisoners, not 71, have been released in relation to the peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF).

Cristina Palabay issued the clarification in reaction to a statement made by peace adviser Jesus Dureza in a Cebu newspaper on October 31.

“Most of those released were consultants to the peace process.

NDF consultant Jaime Soledad was acquitted of the charges against him and political prisoners discharged from detention from July to October 2016 were released because of their lawyers’ defense and the campaign for their releases,” Palabay explained.

W hile Karapatan welcomed recent reports on the upcoming release of at least 50 political prisoners, Palabay stressed that all the 400 political prisoners should be released soonest.

“We shouldn’t wait for Christmas to do what is compassionate and just, especially for the elderly, sick, women and minors, and those languishing in jails for more than ten years,” she said.

Women’s rights activist Miradel Torres, 27, gave birth to her son while in detention.

Torres was arrested in 2014, while on her way to a hospital for a check-up. Torres was charged with murder.

She denied the charge and presented proof that she was allegedly attending her child’s birthday party when the killing happened.

Three members of the Alegre family, Moreta, 70; Jesus, 71 and their son Selman, were convicted of a murder case filed by a Cadiz City landowner, who allegedly got angry with them for helping organize farmers in their community.

Moreta is suffering from a hypertensive cardiovascular disease, while Jesus has bouts of hypertension. They have been detained for 11 years.

Guiller Cadano and Gerald Salonga, both 25, were fresh graduates of University of the PhilippinesPampanga (UP Pampanga) when they conducted a research study on the impact of so-called development projects on farmers in Carranglan, Nueva Ecija, in 2014.

They were arrested after military personnel allegedly found guns and explosives planted in the house of a farmer where they were staying.

They are detained although they have not been charged in court.

Pasig court suspends arrest warrant against Misuari

By Christopher Lloyd T. Caliwan | Philippines News Agency

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he Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Pasig City has suspended the arrest warrant it issued against Nur Misuari, the founding chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), in connection with the Zamboanga City siege in 2013.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II on Thursday, however, said the Departmentof Justice is still in the process of securing a copy of the court order. “[The warrant was] not lifted... proceedings were only suspended.

Thus, implementation of warrant of arrest against Misuari was suspended,” Aguirre told reporters.

Earlier, Aguirre said the suspension of the warrant against Misuari is part of the government’s efforts to pursue peace negotiations with Moro rebels as he already talked to Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process

Acquisition of Japanese-made boats to strengthen border security–Dominguez

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HE procurement of more than two dozen Japanese ships and high-speed boats— topped by two large vessels—whose acquisition was sealed during President Duterte’s just-concluded official visit to Tokyo—would significantly shore up the security and border patrol capabilities of the Coast Guard (PCG), especially in running after drug smugglers, as well as Abu Sayyaf bandits and pirates who prey on foreign and local mariners in the South, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said.

Given the porous shoreline that span 36,289 kilometers throughout the archipelago, Dominguez said the Coast Guard is in dire need of first-rate boats to better guard Philippine shores and the high seas that the country shares with its neighbors against drug traffickers and also against Abu Sayyaf bandits and other lawless groups that prey on commercial vessels.

Indonesian suppliers recently stopped their deliveries of coal to power-generation plants in the Visayas and Mindanao, following the spate of the Abu Sayyaf’s kidnappings of Indonesians who navigate tugboats and coal-laden barges bound for Mindanao.

Preliminary talks on transforming a Davao City international port terminal into a transshipment hub for cargo destined to Japan, China and other neighboring countries from a consolidation port in Indonesia have fallen through because Indonesian authorities were cool to the prospects for such shipments to pass through bandit- and pirate-infested Philippine waters.

“Our government’s acquisition of these patrol vessels and high-speed boats would give a big boost to our Coast Guard’s capabilities in securing our waters,” said Dominguez, who was the signatory, along with Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) President Shinichi Kitaoka, to a ¥16.5-billion loan covering the purchase of two 94-meter largescale patrol ships.

Equivalent to P6.8 billion, this official development assistance (ODA) loan deal signed

by Dominguez and Kitaoka was among the five agreements that were signed by Manila and Tokyo officials during Duterte’s visit to Japan.

Acquired at a concessional interest rate of be-

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tween 0.01 percent and 0.10 percent and payable in 40 years (inclusive of a 10-year grace period), this package is part of Tokyo’s continuing assistance to the Coast Guard under Phase 2 of its Maritime Safety Capability Improvement Project (MSCIP).

The signing of the ¥16.5-billion loan was witnessed by Duterte and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The PCG is getting 10 40-meter patrol boats from Japan under Phase 1 of its MSCIP. The first of these boats was delivered in August, the second one is expected to be handed over to the Coast Guard this December, and the rest are due for delivery between next year and August 2018.

Tokyo has also announced the provision of additional vessels for the PCG through a ¥600-million (about P280 million) grant for the procurement of high-speed boats and other equipment to boost the Philippines’s antiterrorism and security activities.

This additional package includes one 20-meter high-speed vessel and 14 units of 11-meter highspeed boats.

This means that inclusive of the two large patrol vessels that the Coast Guard is getting under the Jica deal signed by Dominguez and Kitaoka, the PCG is getting 27 boats under Phases 1 and 2 of the MSCIP and through an additional grant from Tokyo, to strengthen its antiterrorist, security and border patrol capabilities.

Duterte told reporters last Tuesday that dealing with the “deteriorating peace and order” on the waters between the Philippines and Malaysia will top the agenda of his meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak during his Kuala Lumpur visit next week.

Such talks, he said, will include border control, border crossing, “and, maybe, joint military and police operations.”

“There is a need for us, the three countries— Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia—to talk about this seriously and to put a stop because it has, somehow, paralyzed the trade and commerce in that area,” he said.

Duterte had discussed security matters with Indonesian President Widodo during his recent visit to Indonesia. Rea Cu with PNA

Jesus G. Dureza on the matter.

“That is part of the peace talks. I think there will be no problem with respect to the MNLF. Nag-usap na kami ni Secretary Dureza, meron na kaming gagawin doon,” Aguirre told reporters in a press briefing on September 19.

Misuari and his key commanders, Ustadz Habier Malik, Assamin Bas Arki and Assamin Hussin, were charged with rebellion and violation of Republic Act 9851, or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Cr imes

Against Humanity.

The Zamboanga City local government had filed a case against Misuari and his followers for violation of humanitarian law, which is pending at the RTC in Pasig City.

The case was initially filed before the RTC in Zamboanga but it was transferred to the RTC in Pasig upon orders of the Supreme Court owing to security considerations.

Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabel Climaco-Salazar said the case was filed to seek justice for those who died, got injured or adversely affected by the 21-day siege, which killed more than 200 civilians, soldiers and rebels.

Thus, the city government is standing firm in making Misuari and the MNLF answer for the incident.

President Duterte earlier called on the military and the police not to arrest Misuari so as not to affect his efforts to forge peace in Mindanao.

The MNLF has a standing peace pact with the government, while the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is still negotiating for a separate pact with the Duterte administration.

Of all the Moro rebel groups in the Philippines, it is only the MNLF that

is recognized by the international Muslim community, including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Duterte to meet Misuari

Duterte was set to meet Misuari in Malacañang on Thursday.

“The President has directed Secretary Jess Dureza to bring Chairman Misuari to Malacañang,” Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Martin M. Andanar said.

Andanar told reporters that Dureza met Misuari in Jolo, Sulu, on Thursday to hand over the order of the RTC in Pasig City, which suspended the arrest warrant against the MNLF leader.

Reports said Dureza and Misuari boarded a private jet from Jolo to Manila.

Andanar said the presence of Misuari at the negotiating table is important in achieving lasting peace with the Moro rebels, including the MNLF in Mindanao.

“The implication of this to the peace effort is big. It only means that there is a bigger chance for the Bangsamoro peace agreement to really push through,” Andanar said. With Joel R. San Juan

Lawin victims receive help from Singaporeans K

Narcs raid house of Cotabato mayor

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N support of the Red Cross (PRC) operations in response to Typhoon Lawin, the Singapore Red Cross (SRC) recently led the distribution of supplies for affected families in Cagayan.

SRC staff members and volunteers arrived in the country on October 27 and started their involvement in the operation by assessing the needs of the affected community and joining clearing operations.

At least 125 affected families in Roma Norte, Enrile, Cagayan, received relief supplies from the SRC. Each family received a jerry can for storing clean water, a hygiene kit and two pieces per following

items: blankets, mosquito nets, sleeping mats and tarpaulins.

Aside from assessment and relief distribution, the SRC also served hot meals to some 300 individuals who were displaced and took temporary shelter in evacuation centers.

“What the Singapore Red Cross has done is a good example of what can be accomplished when we come together in solidarity. Their involvement to act and not just to contribute and make things possible through their generostiy and commitment to our cause is examplary,” PRC Chairman Richard J. Gordon said.

ORONADAL CITY—Police antinarcotics agents raided and searched on Thursday the residence, piggery and the six luxury cars of Mayor Albert Palencia of Banga, South Cotabato.

Armed with nine search warrants for firearms and prohibited drugs, the raiding team, led by Supt.

Maximo Sebastian, chief of Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (Raidsotf), entered the compound and house of Palencia in Barangay Punong Grande, Banga, South Cotabato.

Palencia told reporters he was awakened by the noise created by the raiding team when they barged in at about 3 a.m.

“I was surprised, but they found no drugs or guns,” Palencia briefly told reporters as he was taken by the raiding team to General Santos City.

But the raiding team found four rounds of caliber .380 ammunition.

The raiding team also searched the mayor’s six cars and his piggery in nearby village. Piggery workers said they were asked where the methamphetamine, or shabu, laboratory was.

“We were told to drop face down,” the caretaker said. “There is no shabu laboratory here, what we have are swine and feeds.” A round of ammunition was found in the piggery rest house.

Palencia has been accused of being a drug and gambling lord by his political rivals but he repeatedly denied it. Last month the antidrug police unit raided the houses of two village chairs in Polomolok, South Cotabato.

He was the second mayor in Mindanao whose house was raided by antinarcotics agents. The police also raided the house of Mayor Christopher Cuan of Libungan, North Cotabato, last Saturday where guns and bullets were found. PNA

Metro Manila cemetery-goers a bit more garbage conscious this year

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco Correspondent

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ETRO Manila cemeterygoers this year are more garbage conscious than their counterparts in 2015, but just a bit.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Thursday reported that it

collected more than 1,008 tons, or 168 truckloads, of garbage after the celebration of All Saints’ Day and the commemoration of All Souls’ Day. “The volume is a little less than last year’s 183 truckloads of garbage, but we are not yet done with our collection for today, so there is a possibility that the figure might increase,” said Francis

Martinez, head of MMDA’s Metro Parkway Clearing Group (MPCG).

Martinez said that from October 24 to October 31, the agency’s sanitation workers collected 161 truckloads of garbage.

“As of November 2, we were able to collect an additional seven truckloads of garbage,” Martinez said, adding that cleanup

operations are still ongoing.

The 161 truckloads collected from October 24 to October 31, plus the seven additional truckloads of garbage on November 2, came from 23 cemeteries in the cities of Pasay, Valenzuela, San Juan, Quezon, Parañaque, Taguig, Marikina, Manila, Pasig and Mandaluyong, and the town of Pateros.

At the Manila North Cemetery, one of the biggest cemeteries in the metropolis, the MMDA collected more than 158 tons of garbage, while 161 tons from Manila South Cemetery, 94.8 tons from San Juan public cemetery and 14 tons from Manila Memorial Park, a private cemetery, were collected.

“We collected styro, papers, plastic cups, basket for flowers

and dried flowers, among others,” Martinez said.

The MMDA also said no untoward incident was reported during the occasion.

The MMDA concentrated in areas near the four major cemeteries—Manila North Cemetery, Manila South Cemetery, Loyola in Marikina and Manila Memorial Park.

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AseanFriday BusinessMirror

Thai court rejects case against UK labor activist

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hailand’s top court on Thursday dismissed a criminal defamation case against British labor activist Andy Hall that had been brought by a local fruit-canning company and the attorney general, but his suspended prison sentence in a related case still stands.

Hall faces two more civil defamation cases brought by the canning company as part of an all-out legal assault that have raised serious concerns among human-rights workers and free-speech advocates.

On Thursday the Supreme Court said it was throwing out an appeal by the attorney general and Natural Fruit Co. Ltd. against a decision by lower courts exonerating Hall.

The case relates to an interview that Hall gave to Al-Jazeera television network in Myanmar in April 2013, about his earlier criminal prosecution by Natural Fruit. The Supreme Court said the appeal has no legs to stand on because the allegedly defamatory act was committed in Myanmar, where Thai courts have no jurisdiction. It also cited flawed and unlawful interrogation process during police investigation of the case to dismiss the appeal.

“I feel very happy about the verdict as this case was an injustice to me,” Hall said after the verdict.

Hall said he will now sue the attorney general, the police, the prosecutor and Natural Fruit Co. Ltd. for unlawful prosecution and perjury.

“I do so with deep regret and not at all in anger or through any desire for personal retribution. It is necessary to launch these counter prosecutions simply because I must defend myself fully

against judicial harassment by Natural Fruit that shows no signs of abating,” he said. The case has underlined complaints by critics that Thailand’s punitive criminal defamation laws can be used to silence whistle-blowers and social critics. The law carries a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment.

Hall has been active for several years in Thailand in labor-rights advocacy, especially involving migrant workers, who lack protections both in practice and under the law.

His legal troubles are in connection with a 2013 report he researched for the Finnish consumer organization Finnwatch that alleged labor abuses at Natural Fruit Co. Ltd. facilities.

In September the Bangkok South Criminal Court found Hall guilty of criminal defamation against Natural Fruit, and sentenced him to four years in prison, reduced by one year and suspended by two years. He was also fined 150,000 baht, which he paid to secure his freedom. That sentence remains, but Hall is planning to appeal against the conviction. He also has to deal with two other pending civil defamation cases by Natural Fruit.

“The campaign of judicial harassment that has been waged against Andy Hall for almost four years now has already sadly been successful,” said Sonja Vartiala, executive director of Finnwatch.

“As many have feared, this campaign has also had a negative impact far beyond the case of Andy himself. We have heard from a number of migrant workers and activists how they are now deeply afraid to speak out on abuse workers face from Thai employers,” she said. AP

Editor: Max V. de Leon • Friday, November 4, 2016 A5

Police to lock down Indonesian capital for blasphemy protest

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ndonesian police are planning a massive show of force in the capital Jakarta on Friday to contain a much-hyped protest by Muslim hardliners against the city’s popular governor that threatens to ignite religious and racial flashpoints.

An accusation of blasphemy against Jakarta Gov. Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese and minority Christian who is an ally of the country’s president, has galvanized his political opponents in the Muslim-majority nation of 250 million and given a notorious group of hard-liners a national stage.

National Police Spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said 16,000 police will be deployed along with 2,000 soldiers and 2,000 of Jakarta’s public order officers for the protest that is expected to begin in the early afternoon following Friday prayers. Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, chief of Indonesia’s powerful military, has said it “will be in the frontline against any movement aimed at disrupting the unity and integrity of the nation.”

Indonesians are already fighting on social media over the blasphemy

106

The number of documented blasphemy convictions in Indonesia from 2004 to 2014

claim and the protest, which organizers optimistically boast will attract half-a-million people to Jakarta’s traffic-clogged streets. Police have said it might draw up to 100,000 people based on communications with Muslim groups involved in its planning. Blasphemy is a criminal offense in Indonesia and prosecutions have increased in the past decade.

Amnesty International documented

106 convictions between 2004 and 2014, with some individuals imprisoned for up to five years.

Ahok, who is seeking a second term as Jakarta governor and is a possible running mate for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in the 2019 presidential elections, is popular with Jakarta’s middle class. He is adored as a blunt speaker who doesn’t tolerate corruption and articulates a vision to make the chaotic, dysfunctional city more like clean, orderly and efficient Singapore.

But the anticorruption stance has made him enemies and the evictions of thousands of the city’s poorest people to make way for urban improvement has stoked anger and resentment and played to a stereotype of Chinese as exploiters of Indonesia’s poor Muslim masses. On the national stage, Ahok is ranged against former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose son is a candidate for Jakarta governor, a role that is a stepping-stone to national leadership. The simmering political climate has provided an opening for the Islamic Defenders Front, a vigilante group that wants to impose Shariah law, to burnish its credentials as protector of Indonesia’s majority faith at the expense of mainstream Muslim groups.

The main organizer of the protest, the Front is demanding Ahok’s arrest for blasphemy after a video

circulated online in which he joked to an audience about a passage in the Koran that could be interpreted as prohibiting Muslims from accepting non-Muslims as leaders. The governor has apologized for the comment and been questioned by police.

“Ahok was clearly desecrating the holy Koran,” said Munarman, a spokesman for the Front and a coordinator of Friday’s rally. “We will protest on the streets with people power until Ahok is arrested.”

Munarman, who like many Indonesians uses one name, denied the protest would be racially charged or that it aimed to influence the outcome of Jakarta’s election in February. “We remind the government and anybody else that we will not keep silent before this injustice, because everyone is equal before the law in this country,” he said. But the anti-Ahok movement, which has attracted moderates, as well as hard-line elements, as the city election approached, has overflowed with slurs based on race and religion.

And local media have reported an uptick in public order offenses with an anti-Chinese motivation.

The vulnerability of Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese minority remains a raw issue in the country. In the chaos that engulfed Indonesia in May 1998, amid the Asian financial crisis, mobs in Jakarta and other cities targeted Chinese businesses and individuals, killing many. AP

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Friday, November 4, 2016 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

The World BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

S. Africa’s Zuma faces calls to resign over corruption

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A plane from the Iranian private airline, Mahan Air, lands at the international airport in Sanaa, Yemen. AP/Hani Mohammed

US, Europe at odds over airline backed by Revolutionary Guard

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ASHINGTON—An Iranian airline, backed by the country’s notorious Revolutionary Guard and used to ferry weapons and fighters to support Syria’s government, has acquired rights to fly commercial routes in more than a dozen European and Asian countries in spite of US terror-related sanctions.

The agreement Iran and six other world powers signed last year ended some of the sanctions that had punished and isolated Iran for its nuclear program. But sanctions for ballistic missile research, terrorism, human rights violations and money laundering remain in place.

Mahan Air, the country’s second-largest carrier, is under terror-related sanctions. The US has accused the company of providing “transportation, funds transfers and personnel travel services” to the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Forces, f lying them and weapons to Syria to train Hezbollah militants, Syrian army troops and others.

Many countries honored the US terror sanctions and blocked Mahan Air. But weeks before the nuclear deal was signed in July 2015, the airline announced it was launching a route to Munich—its second German destination.

A wave of new routes to 15 countries followed, including France, Russia, China and Italy. France and Denmark were added in June 2016, and talks continue to add more routes in Europe.

A US Treasury official told The Associated Press that the US has been trying to get those countries to cooperate with US efforts to block the airline’s financial network, but has met

15

The number of countries added to Mahan Air’s new routes w it h st i f f resi st a nce. Wa shington doesn’t want to restrict travel to and from Iran, the official said, noting that the country’s main carrier, Iran Air, can f ly around the world since the nuclear deal was implemented in January. The official was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“By letting Mahan in, the Europeans are forgoing a critical pressure tool they have in their arsenal of nonmilitary coercive measures to pressure Iran and [Syrian President Bashar] alAssad,” said Emanuele Ottolenghi, an Iran expert at the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance at the bipartisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

But the US has no leverage to change EU laws allowing Mahan in.

All it can do is ask the countries to ban Mahan and go after companies providing services to the airline, including banks, baggage handlers and cargo and freight companies.

A spokesman for the European Union said Mahan Air is not under EU sanction and the US has no jurisdiction. In 2014 the European Commission allowed those deemed safe commercial air transport operators—including Mahan Air—to fly to, from or within the EU. The EU has also ignored US terror sanctions and last week lifted its own on Bank Saderat, which Washington accuses of transferring money to groups it considers terror organizations, such as Hezbollah’s militant wing and Hamas.

“How many dead Syrians does it take for the Europeans to think there is a threat?” said Rep. Brad Sherman, Democrat-California, who wants the EU to designate Mahan as a terrorist entity.

In May Sherman and two dozen other members of Congress wrote David O’Sullivan, the EU ambassador to the US urging the EU to “promptly end Mahan Air’s operations in Europe,” saying that doing so would “signal to European businesses that the EU will remain vigilant in acting against Iranian companies supporting terrorism and Assad’s regime.”

Mahan Air officials in Tehran declined to speak to The Associated Press. The sanctions against Mahan say the airline provided financial, material and technological support to the Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guard Corps’ special forces responsible for operations outside of Iran, including in Iraq and Syria. This year sanctions were extended to a number of entities providing services to the airline—mainly in Dubai, the Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

Mahan has denied the charges.

Its web site notes it is private and “it does not belong to any governmental or military bodies or to any political party or individuals.”

Sanctions against five commercial and cargo carriers, including Iran Air, the country’s largest commercial airline, were lifted in January following implementation of the country’s nuclear agreement.

Iran’s Revolutionar y Guard Corps (IRGC) is a vast, powerful military conglomerate, with naval, air and ground components organized in parallel to the conventional Iranian military. It is the country’s biggest economic player, with a hand in virtually every sector, from oil and gas to auto-making, telecommunications, construction, farming and beyond.

The airline’s current chairman and chief executive, Hamid Arabnejad, is a close affiliate of the IRGC and is believed to still have a close relationship with the division that spawned the Quds Force. The US sanctioned Arabnejad in 2013 for having “been instrumental in facilitating the shipment of illicit cargo to Syria on Mahan Air aircraft.”

Sanctioned foreign governments, companies or individuals are generally barred from doing business with US citizens and businesses, or with foreign entities operating in the American financial system. The restrictions are usually accompanied by asset and property freezes, as well as visa bans.

Mahan Air flies to Dubai International Airport twice daily from Tehran. The airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, declined to discuss Mahan Air, referring questions to federal authorities, who also declined comment.

The Treasury Department said plane spotters have seen Mahan Air flights land in Syria almost daily. “We’re not saying Mahan Air assists the IRGC; we’d say Mahan Air is the IRGC—and we have to give notice to our friends in Europe,” Sherman said. “This idea that we can allow Mahan Air to do whatever it wants just because there are temporary restrictions on the nuclear deal—that wasn’t the deal.” AP

OHANNESBURG—South Africa’s beleaguered president, Jacob Zuma, faces mounting calls to resign over claims he turned a blind eye to corruption and allowed a powerful family of Indian businessmen to meddle in government affairs.

A parliamentary watchdog reported on Wednesday that Zuma may have breached government rules on ethics, and a company in which his son held an interest may have committed fraud.

Members of the Gupta family, which made more than $500 billion from business dealings with the government, boasted to one government figure that they made Zuma’s son into a multimillionaire, according to testimony revealed in the report.

Zuma has so far been protected by the governing party’s national executive committee— but the damaging report may help Zuma’s enemies turn the panel against him.

If that were to happen, Zuma could be removed from office by the party before his presidential term expires in 2019.

It’s difficult to gauge how likely that may be. But the problems are piling up for Zuma: He also faces the possibility of having to deal with 783 corruption and racketeering charges, which were dropped just before he came to office as president in 2009. In April the High Court overturned that decision, and if Zuma’s appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal fails in the near future, he may face prosecution.

The report issued on Wednesday was produced by the former public protector, Thuli Madonsela, just before her term expired last month. T he public protec tor is a n i ndependent investigator established under the South African Constitution.

Her office assembled evidence of possible wrongdoing by Zuma, members of t he Gupt a fa mily, companies associated with it and with Zuma’s son, Duduzane Zuma, and the board of the state-owned electricity provider, Eskom. It stopped short of determining whether crimes had been committed, but called on Zuma to set up a judicial inquiry into his own inner circle within 30 days.

Thousands of people, many of them associated with opposition parties, demonstrated on Wednesday in Pretoria, the seat of government, calling for Zuma to step down. The report came one day after the Nelson Mandela Foundation, set up by the country’s revered former president, said Zuma had “failed the test” of national leadership, and called on the governing party to put the country in safe hands.

Jacob Zuma initially took legal action to suppress the public protector’s report, but withdrew the action on Wednesday. However he accused Madonsela of violating his

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma attends a luncheon at United Nations headquarters in New York in September. Corruption charges have lead to mounting calls for him to resign on Wednesday. Sipa USA/TNS

rights and said he may yet challenge the report in court.

The allegations of wrongdoing center on a powerful Indian-born business family, Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, who have extensive interests in mining, arms and a newspaper. The report found Zuma may have breached ethics because he knew of allegations the family improperly interfered in government affairs, including their alleged offers of a bribe to a deputy minister, but did nothing.

A spokesman for the Gupta family said its members welcomed the inquiry as a chance to clear their names. It said the report was “riddled with errors and subject to rebuttal.”

In the past, Zuma has acknowledged his friendship with the Guptas but denied any wrongdoing.

Zuma is alleged to have called a government official responsible for the government advertising budget, Themba Maseko, in late 2010 and told him: “The Gupta brothers need your help. Please help them.”

At a meeting at the Gupta family mansion north of Johannesburg later that day, the report said, Ajay Gupta told Maseko to direct government advertising to a newspaper the family was starting up. If any government ministers resisted, he reportedly said, “We will deal with them. If you have a problem with any department, we will summon ministers here.”

Later, when Maseko didn’t cooperate, Ajay Gupta threatened to “sort him out” and replace him with someone more cooperative, the report said.

D e put y Fi n a nce M i n i s t e r Mcebisi Jonas reportedly told the public protector’s investigation that Duduzane Zuma set up a meeting with the Gupta brothers at their home last year, drove him there and was present when Ajay Gupta offered Jonas the job of finance minister.

The report says Ajay Gupta offered Jonas $46 million if he cooperated with the family’s business interests, including $46,000 he could take with him immediately as cash in a bag. It said Jonas rejected the offer, and the job. Los Angeles Times/TNS

Clinton leads, Trump soft with GOP in Wisconsin, polls show

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ILWAU K EE —Despite repeated trips to Wisconsin and despite his gains in national polls, there’s little sign that Donald Trump is erasing Hillary Clinton’s edge in this battleground state, according to the final preelection survey by the Marquette Law School.

Clinton tops Trump 46 percent to 40 percent among the 1,255 likely voters polled last Wednesday through Monday.

Clinton’s six-point lead was one point smaller than her lead in Marquette’s previous poll, taken from October 6 to 9.

The new survey suggests that Trump is still suffering from a problem no GOP nominee can afford in a state where Democratic voters typically outnumber Republicans: He is

underperforming in his own party.

Only 81 percent of Republican voters are backing Trump in the new poll. That’s a bit better than the 76 percent who supported him in early October, suggesting some GOP voters are “coming home” to their nominee after a great deal of party turmoil. But it still falls short of the backing Clinton is getting from Democrats (89 percent).

That gap in partisan loyalty has dogged Trump all year, and is a principal reason he has trailed Clinton every time (13 in all) that Marquette has polled Wisconsinites about the two candidates, dating back to the summer of last year.

There is a similar pattern when it comes to each party’s ideological base: Trump is losing 15 percent of conservatives to Clinton, while

Clinton is losing just 8 percent of liberals to Trump.

On the map, these patterns help explain the softness of Trump’s vote in the heavily suburban counties north and west of Milwaukee— the GOP’s geographic base in Wisconsin. Trump hasn’t generated the level of support his party normally gets in the reddest part of the state.

The new poll suggests that trend is ongoing: Trump and Clinton were tied in a GOP-leaning region that takes in the entire Milwaukee media market except for the Democratic city of Milwaukee.

The poll also found that Trump’s failure to fully consolidate Republicans has more to do with his standing with women than men.

While 86 percent of Republican men are supporting Trump, only

76 percent of Republican women are doing so.

Marquette pollster Charles Franklin said he was struck by “just how stable people have been in their fundamental perceptions of these candidates.”

In most of Marquette’s polling since summer, Clinton’s lead has stayed within a range of 3 to 7 points. Both candidates have consistently suffered from a poor image, though Trump’s negatives have been consistently higher than Clinton’s. “ She’s pret t y con si stent ly held an advantage on most of the traits, the exception being honesty,” Frank lin said. “But empathy, [she has] a consistent advantage, and qualifications, a very substantial advantage.”

Franklin said the unpopularity of the two might be dampening the volatility of the race, making it very difficult for voters who have qualms about their own party’s candidate to move to the other party.

“I think that has stabilized the race in an odd kind of way. While people may not be that happy with their own nominee, they’re very unhappy with the prospect of the other side,” he said, adding that the state’s deep partisan polarization has also prevented large swings in the race.

Overall, a big gender gap persists, though it’s a bit smaller than it was in early October: Clinton leads by 15 among women and trails by 4 among men.

Education remains another dividing line: among non-Hispanic

whites, Clinton leads college-educated voters by 7 but trails noncollege voters by 4.

Urban voters favor Clinton by 27 points and suburban voters favor her by 10. But rural voters favor Trump by 12 (based on how voters describe their own communities).

The news that the FBI is looking at more Clinton e-mails broke as the poll was under way, so Marquette was able to compare voter preferences before the story was reported last Friday to voter preferences after the news came out.

Clinton’s lead was only slightly larger before the story came out than it was afterward. One notable change was that the share of Republicans backing Trump shot up from the low 70s to the high 1980s after the story broke. TNS

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Nissan manufacturer Bloomberg News

Nissan Brexit deal prompts other to draft ‘Dear Theresa’ requests

A

fter Prime Minister Theresa May persuaded Nissan Motor Co. to increase investment in a UK factory with a promise to keep it financially viable, other industries are pressing their own Brexit requests. Business leaders are stepping forward with wish lists for the country’s future outside the EU, ranging from tariff-free single-market access for farmers to free movement of labor for advertising agencies to research funding for pharmaceutical companies.

“Any deal that’s been done—normally that should levelize and everybody should enjoy it,” Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. CEO Andy Palmer said by phone, referring to other carmakers that have factories in the UK, including Honda, Ford and Toyota.

The government quickly reassured other automakers that they’d benefit from the same incentives it provided Nissan, though neither side has provided details. Other industry groups are ramping up their lobbying ahead of the government’s November 23 statement of its plans for the economy.

Complex talks

The breadth of the demands highlights the complexity of negotiating an EU exit that meets the needs of British companies while satisfying Brexit campaigners’ hopes for a clean break.

Business groups mostly favored staying in the EU, as did May. Now they’ve got to figure out how to leave in a way that limits economic disruptions.

For UK service industries, which account for nearly 80 percent of the economy, maintaining the country’s tradition of openness is paramount. A survey published this week by the Managing Partners’ Forum, which represents law, audit and consulting firms, found that 72 percent rated freedom of movement across borders with the EU as essential or important to their success after Brexit.

“Fully integrated professional firms operate globally so depend on the ability to move people and sell services without restriction,” forum CEO Richard Chaplin said in a statement.

Representatives of professional services firms pressed their case in a meeting on Tuesday with Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond.

Lobbying group Tech UK said in a statement on Wednesday losing access to the single market would cause “far-reaching implications not just for tech companies, but the whole services-based economy.”

Banks in the city of London want to maintain “passporting” rights, which let them sell financial services throughout the EU. Representatives of so-called fintech firms

met with government officials on Tuesday and Wednesday. The National Farmers Union urged the government to seek an agreement that lets agricultural exporters keep hiring EU workers, who do much of the work of planting vegetables and picking berries across the UK. The Northern Ireland Food and and Drink Association, in an e-mailed statement, called for maintaining a “soft” border with the Republic of Ireland to facilitate trade.

After Brexit

Whether May’s government will be able to follow through on promises to the likes of Nissan is unclear. Pledges made now won’t necessarily reflect what happens once Britain has left the EU, according to a German government official familiar with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s thinking.

“The government really can’t give them these assurances,” said Swati Dhingra, a lecturer at the London School of Economics who specializes in trade. “It’s really a case of the EU having to give this to the UK.” Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling urged the government not to favor certain industries, saying in a Bloomberg TV interview on Wednesday that “you can’t possibly segregate bits of the British economy and say that one matters today, and that one can wait for a couple of years.”

The Nissan agreement, nonetheless, sent an encouraging signal to other manufacturing industries, said Paul Everitt, CEO of aerospace lobbying organization ADS Group.

“They recognize that aerospace is a strategically important sector and they clearly are focused on ensuring that its long-term success is baked into their approach to the negotiations,” he said by phone.

After the Nissan deal, Honda said it wants to stay in the UK but can’t make any permanent decisions about the status of its plant near Swindon, England, until the terms of Brexit are clearer.

“We will decide what we do by closely monitoring the currency and tariffs,” Executive Vice President Seiji Kuraishi said in Tokyo this week. “As for now we have no intention of leaving the UK and hope to keep the business there.”

‘Love it’

Some executives in other lines of work expressed envy over the incentives to carmakers, questioning whether the government should be seen as favoring certain industries.

“I doubt whether the government would extend that to our industry,” CEO Martin Sorrell of advertising giant WPP Plc. said by phone. “Of course, we would love it if they did.” Bloomberg News

Friday, November 4, 2016

A7

Corruption scandal roils South Korean markets

I

n South Korea it’s not uncommon to see presidents making apologies for bribery scandals involving their family members and associates.

But when incumbent President Park Geun-hye hastily arranged a nationally televised briefing last week, and apologized to the nation “for causing the people humiliation and despair,” many were left agape at the sheer magnitude of a new corruption scandal.

In the October 25 apology, Park acknowledged close ties with her old friend Choi Soon-sil, who has been held in emergency detention pending an arrest warrant on suspicion of exploiting her relationship with the leader to pull government strings and accumulate an illicit fortune.

Choi, who holds no government job, is also alleged to have peddled influence over government decisions on personnel and state affairs.

“Barring the Korean War, it’s by far the biggest crisis in South Korea’s history,” Park Tae-woo, professor at the Institute of Sustainable Development of Korea University, said in an interview.

“President Park has been on the forefront of pressing North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambition, and with the deployment of [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense] missile-defense system, there’s so much Park needs to do on the national defense front,” he added. “But with this scandal, her government is not only losing its authority and support, but giving its people so much stress.”

According to data compiled by Gallup Korea, Park’s approval rating plummeted to its lowest at 17 percent in the week of October 24.

The poll provider said the number further dipped to 14 percent shortly after the apology, a big decline from 25 percent a week earlier and 34 percent four months ago.

Over the weekend, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Seoul and held a candlelight rally calling for the president to step down.

Meanwhile, the impact of the political scandal is being felt in markets, taking a toll on a wide variety of Korean assets.

$1.47B

The volume lost in South Korean equities

economy, which is already showing signs of struggle amid highprofile corporate woes, such as Samsung Electronics Co.’s smartphone recall, a strike at Hyundai Motor Co. and Hanjin Shipping Co.’s bankruptcy.

The Kospi index has fallen below 2,000 since the corruption allegations began to spiral out of control late October—though it remains in positive territory year-to-date.

Taking a chunk out of the market’s value

Last week alone Korean equities shed about 17 trillion won ($1.47 billion) worth of market cap, according to data provided by Korea Exchange. “It’s hard to gauge its economic fallout because it has just begun,” Hong Chun-uk, head of the strategy analysis team at Seoul-based Kiwoom Securities Co., said in an interview. “It’s such a shame to see the whole chaos happening when the government should be going all out to fight deflationary pressures

with strong monetary policies, under strong initiatives.”

According to Hong, South Korea is facing “very high risks” of deflation, with disappointing export figures and depressed domestic demand throughout the economy, except for the real-estate sector.

Consumption recovered in the first half of the year, but it tumbled again in the third quarter, he added.

Banking stocks have been drawn in too

Stocks of the nation’s major financials also dropped when prosecutors raided eight banks—Woori Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Korea Ltd., Shinhan Bank, Citigroup Inc., Nonghyup Bank, KEB Hana Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea and Kookmin Bank—to secure information on financial transactions of Choi.

Though there are some winners

Shares of Korea Industrial Co., an animal-feed producer that’s related to the former head of Korea’s main opposition party Moon Jae-in, have soared 112 percent since October 24. The company is said to be “Moon-themed” as one of its board members is close to the presidential hopeful for the 2017 election.

And more losers

Meanwhile, stocks related to Ban Ki-moon—such as Korea Cable TV Chung-Buk System Co.— have dropped. Ban, currently secretary-general of the United Nations, is expected to represent the ruling party in Korea’s elections next year. Korea Cable is associated with Ban’s rise and fall, as it’s headquartered in his hometown.

EG Corp, which is owned by Park’s brother, Park Ji-man, has also seen its share price sliding due to its connection to the unpopular leader.

Meanwhile, the won is waning

Market analysts also expect the heightened uncertainties to influence the South Korean won—already one of the most volatile currencies in Asia, since foreigners will pull their money out of the country as the scandal unravels.

And credit ratings are in focus

But other market watchers dismiss these pessimistic scenarios, saying the argument that it could negatively affect the country’s sovereign ratings—as suggested by a lawmaker from the main opposition party—is overblown.

“These kinds of political scandals do present short-term risks, but sovereign ratings are also based on long-term trend factors, such as fiscal strength and export figures, and South Korea seems to have decent figures for those so far,” said Ahn Jae-kyun, a Seoul-based analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp., in an interview.

On Tuesday Moody’s Investors Service affirmed the country’s Aa2 rating, citing “very high economic, institutional, and fiscal strength,” as well as budget surpluses and relatively low debt levels.

“What we must focus on right now is how to address structural issues, such as changing demographics and low productivity, rather than just a single political scandal,” Ahn said.

“Foreign investment might decrease and the leadership of the president will weaken, but those are at best indirect factors.” Bloomberg News

Korean stocks are getting hit

The so-called Choi-gate is the latest blow to the South Korean

South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s approval rating has tumbled. Bloomberg News

China’s private firms reinvent themselves as SOEs lag C

hina’s private manufacturers, scorched for years by surging wages and anemic foreign demand, are reinventing themselves. In coastal Zhejiang province’s Anji county, which produces 70 million chairs annually, chair maker Dakang Holding Co. is competing with lower cost Vietnamese rivals and facing rising costs at home.

It spent 71 million yuan ($10.5 million) on automation in 2013, shifted to making chairs for gamers, and restructured management. Now sales are surging 20 percent annually and profit margins are up almost 8 percent.

“Our order book is full through 2020,” says Vice President Yuan Guofei, 35.

Such success contrasts with China’s bloated state sector, where pledges to restructure have given way to the need to boost activity in old industries as a prop for growth. While state firms often operate in industries with limited

competition, Yuan says he’s up against about 800 chair manufacturers in Anji alone.

“These kind of restructurings are what you get when industries are exposed to genuine competition and global standards for quality,” said Andrew Polk, Beijing-based head of China research at Medley Global Advisors, which advises institutional investors.

“China’s government hasn’t done well implementing those types of measures and should be more focused on them rather than propping up struggling and outdated state-sector firms.”

State enterprises, traditionally a source of political patronage and economic power for the Communist Party, account for about 40 percent of the nation’s industrial assets and 18 percent of employment, according to Bloomberg Intelligence economists Fielding Chen and Tom Orlik. These government creations drag on growth, with their return on

assets in 2015 estimated at 2.8 percent, versus 10.6 percent for private-sector firms.

W hile the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are spared the rigor of reform, private firms must restructure or die.

Innovating to survive was a recurring theme among companies interviewed in Guangzhou last week in the vast aisles of the biennial Canton Fair, where 25,000 exhibitors and 180,000 foreign buyers hammer out export deals.

B a g m a ker R ogerl i n f rom Q u a n z hou i n coa st a l Fuji a n province creates 60 designs a year to get attention at the fair and has invested in printing machines to reduce labor and improve quality, Sales Manager Yu Jinling said.

C loc k ma ker Dannol Electronics Co. in Gu angzhou is adding features, including temperature and humidity gauges, and licensing rights, to make clocks featuring soccer teams

and Disney characters, Senior Sales Representative Fan Miaochang said. Acknowledging the problem, policy-makers vow to quicken state industry reform.

Guidelines for reducing corporate debt published last month said the government won’t bear final responsibility for company borrowing. That could erode the implicit guarantee that has long made it borrowing easier for SOEs. Economic reforms proposed in 2013 with considerable fanfare haven’t generated much pressure for change, according to Barry Naughton, who studies the Chinese economy at the University of California at San Diego.

“Fears about the growth rate have blocked effective implementation of critical reforms,” he wrote in a paper published on Thursday by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) following a conference held by the monetary authority earlier this year.

As private investment almost

halted this year, a top policy-making agency commissioned a study, which recommended one of the biggest openings of private businesses since the 1990s. Proposals include allowing private companies greater access to restricted industries, investor protections, less official meddling and involving businesses in policy-making.

The dramatic moderation of private investment is worrying because it generates triple the return of state firms’ spending, Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said in another paper published after the RBA’s conference on how structural changes in the Chinese economy affect Australia and the world. The resulting drag on productivity is the “real source of concern” associated with the rapid growth in China’s debt, Lardy said.

“We’re starting to see statesector restructuring begin, but it’s slow, lumbering and without

a clear endgame,” said Michael Every, head of financial markets research at Rabobank NA in Hong Kong. “The private sector is ahead of the game.”

Thanks to private-sector restructuring, China is keeping its share of world exports even as wage and material costs rise and low-cost competition intensifies from Cambodia to Ethiopia.

What’s needed now is statesector restructuring, said Frederic Neumann, cohead of Asian economics at HSBC Holdings Plc. in Hong Kong.

“The two are interlinked,” he said. “Private activity will not revive unless some of the privileges state firms currently enjoy are pruned. Conversely, the government will be reluctant to accelerate public-sector restructuring unless there are signs that private companies will carry growth. In the end, what matters is that China unleashes another burst of productivity growth.” Bloomberg News

A8

Friday, November 4, 2016 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

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Putin offers new pause, exits for Syrian’s besieged Aleppo

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OSCOW—The Russian president on Wednesday offered a new unilateral humanitarian pause for Syria’s war-ravaged Aleppo, urging rebels to use it to leave the city’s eastern, besieged districts.

The Syrian rebels, however, quick ly dismissed V ladimir Putin’s initiative. Later in the day, at least eight civilians were killed in presumed government or Russian air strikes on the rebel-held town of Saraqib in Idlib province, a local searchand-rescue outfit reported.

Russian President V ladimir

Putin ordered his forces to open humanitarian corridors to eastern Aleppo this Friday, along with two routes for rebels to leave the city “in order to prevent a senseless loss of life,” the Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday.

One exit leads to the Turkish border, the other to the city of Idlib, according to the ministry.

The UN and other relief organizations declined to use the corridors two weeks ago, when Russia first opened them, saying rebels and pro-government forces would not guarantee their safety.

Few rebels or civilians were seen leaving the city, either.

Chief of the Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov said he was “calling on all leaders of armed groups directly to cease hostilities and leave Aleppo with their weapons.”

Gerasimov also said the rebel offensive on the Syrian government-held districts in western A leppo, whic h was l au nc hed last week, has failed to break through the siege.

“They have no chance to break out of the city,” he added.

Rebel groups in Aleppo dismissed Russia’s latest offer, with one of the groups describing it as a media stunt for “public consumption.” Yasser al-Youssef, a spokesman for the Nour el-Din el-Zinki rebel group, said Russia “is not serious” and its latest initiatives “don’t concern us.”

He added that the Russian leader’s comments do not reflect the reality on the ground.

“We need an international commission to check the Russian lies,” al-Youssef said.

Molhem Ekaidi, deputy commander of Fastaqim group, one of the major rebel factions fighting inside Aleppo, also accused the Russians of lying. “The [Russian] shelling and crimes continue and their planes have not left the skies of Aleppo,” he said.

The two factions, Nour el-Din el-Zinki and Fastaqim, were later reported clashing among themselves inside the besieged city over

detentions, according to activists briefed on the situation.

T he B r it a i n - b a s e d Sy r i a n Obser vator y said at least one rebel was killed and 24 others wounded in the infighting that followed the arrest of several Nour el-Din el-Zinki fighters

by Fastaqim fighters.

The Syrian media activist Ahmad Primo, who maintains contacts with rebels, described the fighting as a simple dust-up.

Meanwhile, the Idlib branch of the Syrian Civil Defense said warplanes launched a dozen strikes on the town in the afternoon. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian war through local contacts, said the death toll included four children.

The Idlib province has borne the brunt of Russian and government air strikes since the two air forces relaxed their bombardment of Aleppo two weeks ago. The UN says 22 children and six teachers were killed in an air raid on a school in the village of Hass one week ago.

Also on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said other countries involved in Syrian peace negotiations have “sabotaged” the process by backing militant groups intent on toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Lavrov spoke on Wednesday at the start of a visit to Greece, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization and European Union member that has maintained close ties with Russia. He did not name any countries. Peace talks on Syria have involved US Secretary of State John Kerry and foreign ministers of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran. AP

IS leader rallies fighters in Mosul

I

RBIL, Iraq—The shadowy leader of the Islamic State (IS) group has released a new message encouraging his followers to keep up the fight for Mosul as they defend the city against a major offensive

by Iraqi government and allied forces seeking to rout the militants from their last urban stronghold in Iraq.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ’s rallying call came in a recording, more than half an hour long, released by the militant group’s al-Furqan media arm late on Wednesday. It was not clear when the recording was produced and al-Baghdadi ’s whereabouts are unknown.

Iraqi specia l forces stormed into Mosul’s eastern outskirts on Tuesday after two weeks of advances through surrounding ISheld territory. In the recording, al-Baghdadi rallies his fighters—especially in Mosul—and calls on them to obey orders while remaining resilient and steadfast.

“Oh you who seek martyrdom! Start your actions! Turn the night of the disbelievers into day,” he says, according to a translation provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, a US organization that monitors militant activity online which reported the al-Baghdadi recording first.

“Totally decimate their territories, and make their blood flow like rivers,” alBaghdadi also says.

He urges others to carry out attacks in Saudi Arabia, whose leadership IS opposes, and Turkey, which has deployed troops and artillery north of Mosul and is training Sunni Arab and Kurdish forces there.

The recording was the reclusive al-Baghdadi’s first released message to supporters

since Iraqi forces launched the decisive battle to retake Mosul, the country’s secondlargest city, from IS. In it, he attempted to h a r ness t he fee l i ngs of Sunni disenfranchisement that preceded the 2014 IS takeover of Mosul, a largely Sunni city in Shiite-majority Iraq. Using a derogatory term for Shiites, he says followers of the Muslim sect want to drive “empty Iraq of Sunnis and replace them with the worst of people.”

He calls on fighters to “respond to all attacks”, and to “target all in their media and forces, and all who belong to them.”

The audio message could not be independently verified, though the speaker’s voice and style of delivery sounded like that in previous recordings of al-Baghdadi.

The IS group is fighting to hold Mosul as Iraqi forces and allied Kurdish forces advance on the city from multiple directions w ith US-led coalition support. It is the Iraqi military’s largest offensive since the 2003 US-led invasion.

The city of more than 1 million people and surrounding territory fell to IS fighters during a surprise attack in June 2014.

Al-Baghdadi visited the city soon after the takeover, and from inside Mosul declared an Islamic caliphate that at one point covered nearly a third of Iraq and Syria.

Iraqi forces have proceeded cautiously since breaching Mosul’s eastern outskirts this week. They have yet to move into more densely populated areas that could lead to weeks, if not months, of clearing booby-trapped buildings and bloody houseto-house combat. AP

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Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Friday, November 4, 2016 A9

‘Rice self-sufficiency fell below 90% in 2015’

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

T

he country’s rice self-sufficiency level declined to 88.93 percent in 2015, forcing the Philippines to import more rice to meet domestic demand, according to a report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In its annual publication titled, Agricultural Indicators System (AIS): Food Sufficiency and Security, the PSA noted that the country’s rice self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) last year was 3.02 percentage points lower than the 91.95 percent recorded in 2014.

“The declining SSR of rice was brought about by the reduced share of domestic production to the country’s supply, while importation was increasing,” the PSA said.

SSR is the extent to which a country’s local production of commodities is adequate enough to meet the demand of the whole population, the PSA added.

An SSR lower than 100 percent means that the local production couldn’t meet the country’s requirement for a specific commodity, while an SSR greater than 100 percent indicates that domestic production is more than enough to support the domestic requirements, the PSA said.

The Philippine Development Plan of the previous administration had targeted a 100-percent rice selfsufficiency level by 2016. The Aquino administration had also wanted to wipe out rice imports by 2013.

Despite billions of pesos poured into the government’s rice self-sufficiency goal program, local rice output was unable to meet the demand of Filipinos, according to PSA data.

PSA data showed that the SSR of rice in 2011 was at 93.91 percent, 91.89 percent in 2012 and 91.95 percent in 2014. The highest rice SSR was recorded in 2013 at 96.82 percent.

In the same report, the PSA said the country’s import-dependency ratio (IDR) of rice in 2015

91.95% The country’s rice selfsufficiency level in 2014

increased to 11.07 percent, from 8.06 percent in 2014. The IDR is the extent to which the country’s supply of commodities came from imports.

Data from the PSA indicated that the 2015 figure was the highest IDR of rice since 2011.

According to the National Food Authority—the agency mandated to ensure the Philippines’s food security—the country’s daily rice consumption last year was at 31,631 metric tons (MT).

PSA data also showed that the country’s corn SSR dropped to 91.35 percent in 2015. The figure is 1.77 percentage points lower than the 93.12-percent SSR for corn in 2014.

The SSR of corn peaked in 2011 reaching 99.06 percent, the PSA said.

Corn SSR reached 98.18 percent in 2012, before it dropped to 95.57 percent in 2013.

The Philippines increased its importation of corn in 2015 as IDR for the commodity reached 8.65 percent, 1.76 percentage points higher than the 6.89 percent recorded a year ago.

The corn IDR was the lowest in 2011, when it hit 0.94 percent. The PSA said the IDR for corn expanded to 1.82 percent and 4.43 percent in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

The PSA said a high IDR implies greater dependency on imported commodities.

‘TOURIST ATTRACTION’ A store owner stacks dried fish in a market in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. According to him, most of his customers are tourists. ALYSA SALEN

Wheat tops list of PHL’s farm imports last year T he country’s agricultural imports in 2015 reached $8.332 billion, with wheat accounting for the bulk of the imports, according to the latest data from the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The import bill for farm goods last year was 1 percent lower than the $8.416 billion recorded in 2014, according to the latest WTO report titled Trade Profiles 2016.

Of the total farm imports in 2015, the Philippines paid $982 million for imported wheat, accounting for 11.78 percent of the

total import payments.

The WTO data also showed that solid residues from soyabean oil was the second most imported agricultural product in 2015 reaching $707 million, followed by other food preparations valued at $561 million.

Rice ranked fourth, with payments reaching $465 million, accounting for 5.58 percent of the total farm import bill last year.

Milk and cream (concentrated) was the fifth most imported agricultural commodity by the Philippines

in 2015, valued at $345 million.

The WTO data also showed that the Philippines’s agricultural exports receipts in 2015 declined by 33 percent to $4.038 billion, compared to $6.027 billion recorded in 2014.

Coconut (copra) or palm kernel oil remained the country’s top agricultural export in 2015. Revenues reached $1.123 billion, accounting for 27.81 percent of total export receipts.

Exports under the category “plants’ parts otherwise preserved” reached $486 million, while ba-

Christmas-tree growers: Drought not seriously hurting crop

H

A RTFOR D, Connecticut— New Engl a nd C hr ist m a stree growers say the region’s drought is having only minor effects on their crop.

The losses were confined mostly to seedlings planted in the spring, said Jim Horst, executive director of the New Hampshire-Vermont Christmas Tree Association. Unlike mature trees, those planted this year do not have established root systems, experts said.

Horst, who farms in Bennington, Vermont, says he plants 6,000 to 7,000 trees a year and normally loses 1 percent or 2 percent of them, but lost 10 percent to 15 percent this year due to dry conditions.

“That’s not catastrophic—it’s not what I want to have happened—but it’s not catastrophic,” he said.

Farmers in some parts of Connecticut lost more than half of their newly planted trees, while others were unaffected, said Kathy Kogut, executive director of the Connecticut Christmas Tree Growers Association.

But customers won’t see any difference come December in the supply of fully grown trees, which have weathered the drought, she said.

“A mature tree isn’t really affected that much,” she said. “If a tree goes through one really hot, dry summer, it still is in great shape for this harvest season. It might leach out a little color in the next season, but with a cold winter and a lot of snow, they’ll come right back.”

Jamie Jones, a sixth-generation farmer in Shelton, Connecticut, did some hand-watering this year on his

nanas exports amounted to $440 million.

Dates, figs, pineapples, avocados and vegetable saps and extracts exports receipts reached $196 million and $186 million, respectively.

The WTO data noted that the Philippines’s total exports receipts in 2015 reached $58.648 billion, while total imports was valued at $69.920 billion. Export receipts from farm products accounted for 6.89 percent while agricultural imports accounted for 11.92 percent. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

BOC vows to fight rampant smuggling of agri products

By Joel R. San Juan

T

Peter Oldark walks past a row in his crop at the Jewell Towne Vineyards on October 4 in North Hampton, New Hamphsire. The dry summer weather was ideal for growing grapes in some spots in the Northeast, but the drought in southern New England and parts of New York may have decreased the crop. AP/Jim Cole

more than 400-acre farm to save some of the young transplants.

“That is something we only have to do, I’d say once every five or 10 years, and you hope you really never have to do,” he said. “But it’s an inevitability at times.”

Experts said some extra-large trees also may have some drought-related problems, because, like people, the oldest and youngest trees are most

vulnerable to heat.

The dry weather can bring with it other problems, such as fungi and grubs and insects looking for water by burrowing into their roots, Kogut said.

“They are much more likely to die of that than a lack of water,” she said.

Officials in New Haven said they harvested a 65-foot tree from a municipal golf course for the city green after their first choice, a donated tree, was

found to be too stressed from drought.

Diane Holmes-Brandt said she’ll have to replace about half of the 12- to 18-inch transplants on her more than 30-acre farm in York County, Maine, but isn’t “freaking out about it.”

“When you’re a farmer, you go the way the weather goes,” she said. “You take your knocks when you have to, whether it’s ice storms, blizzards or droughts or too much rain.” AP

@jrsanjuan1573

he Bureau of Customs (BOC) has vowed to thoroughly investigate the rampant smuggling of agricultural products, which is tantamount to economic sabotage.

Customs Commissioner Nicanor E. Faeldon made the assurance in response to the claim of the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) that smuggling of farm goods has continued, even under the new administration.

Faeldon said he supports the call of the agricultural group to file charges against entities that smuggle farm products into the country.

Earlier, Sinag urged the BOC to file charges of economic sabotage against errant traders.

“No one has been charged of economic sabotage, that’s why the smugglers are still brave enough to continue their business,” the group said in a statement.

Sinag has tagged Sanfred Trading and Great Light Trading, which were found with smuggled red onions at the Manila International Container Port, and RPR International Trading, which was caught smuggling rice at the Port of Manila, as among those that should be “investigated thoroughly.”

Faeldon said these illegal transactions are still being investigated, and that the BOC is still gathering enough evidence to strengthen possible cases to be filed.

He said there is a need to observe Republic Act 10845, which declares large-scale agricultural smuggling as a form of economic sabotage.

“We’re looking into that law how we could apply it to apprehended smugglers. We’ll use what’s provided by the law,” Faeldon added.

Apart from smugglers, the BOC said it is also running after corrupt officials and employees. Around 18 cases involving employees of the bureau have been investigated, with 14 cases already forwarded to the Department of Justice.

A10 Friday, November 4, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

No Spam, and now no assault weapons?

J

ust a week after President Duterte had returned from his state visits to China and Japan, international news outfit Reuters reported that the United States State Department has halted planned rifle sales to the Philippines. Citing information gathered from the aides of Sen. Ben Cardin—who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—the senator opposed the sale of the rifles on the grounds of the continued reports on human-rights abuses and extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

Local news outlets picked up and published the report, as Filipinos wrapped up the long All Saints’ Day weekend. It didn’t take long before the news went viral on social-media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, where most people expressed concern and worry over the cancellation of the arms sale. This was followed by reactions from Sens. Leila M. de Lima and Panfilo M. Lacson.

The former said the possible reason for the cancellation was due to the government’s “incomprehensible and ridiculous policy shift to antiAmericanism and prototalitarian Chinese hegemony in Asia.”

Lacson, on the other hand, has assured that we should not worry about losing the chance to buy from the US, as there are “tens of other countries that manufacture better and, probably, cheaper assault rifles than the US.” He also reiterated the call to revive the Department of National Defense’s (DND) self-reliance program to enable us to produce our own ammunition and firearms.

Yet, despite assurances from Lacson of alternative sources and the ability to produce our own, some people on social media reacted negatively to the news, expressing fears that the cancellation of the sale would severely impact our national security and our law-enforcement organizations. Social-media users a week earlier also reacted negatively over reducing our dependence from the US, using the famous “Ma Ling and Spam analogy”.

In that analogy, reducing dependence is the same as substituting a can of Spam with Ma Ling, a product perceived to be inferior. But does the Philippines really stand to lose from this canceled deal in the long run?

Unbeknown to younger generations, the Philippines once produced its own rifles under the former Self-Reliance Defense Posture in the 1970s. Under license from Colt, for example, Elisco Tool Manufacturing Co. produced the M-16 assault rifle for the Armed Forces and was able in 1983, with government help, to purchase the ArmaLite brand, its facilities and machinery, and model-range lock, stock and barrel.

Although the program of self-manufacturing has ended, the Philippines still has companies—both old and new—that have the expertise and capabilities of providing the firearms government agencies require. The government needs to create and then implement a new defense industrial policy to effectively determine a public-private agenda in order not to completely depend on foreigners to supply our needs.

This new wake-up call is an opportunity and not a misfortune. It is only a matter of how we approach the situation, and what we do with it. Every situation that the nation encounters, which we can then move forward from with greater independence, is better for the future.

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Voter registration is back James Jimenez

spox

B

y now, the basics should have already been reported out.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is restarting voter registration beginning on November 7. This new registration period will run from Monday to Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., until December 30, with only two days off: December 24 and 25. Once 2017 rolls around, registration will resume in January and will continue until April 29, again with only two days off to allow the observance of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

But here’s the thing. The first “leg” of this new registration period takes place during the Christmas season.

This makes it very likely that voter registration won’t be on many people’s priority lists. Which probably means that there will only be a low to middling turnout of registrants, even—or perhaps especially—on Saturdays. The first half of the second leg probably won’t fare much better, as people will still be shaking off their holiday hangovers, which leaves March and April as the critical months. And by critical, I mean the

months where we will see the most number of registrants descending on the local Comelec offices.

The challenge before us—not just the Comelec, but all of us informed citizens—is to keep voter registration at the forefront of the public’s consciousness. Simply telling the public about voter registration isn’t enough, though. In order to effectively mobilize everyone who needs to see their voter registration, we must also be ready to answer some basic questions. So, if you’re up to it, here are the top 5

The challenge before us—not just the Comelec, but all of us informed citizens—is to keep voter registration at the forefront of the public’s consciousness.

Simply telling the public about voter registration isn’t enough, though. In order to effectively mobilize everyone who needs to see their voter registration, we must also be ready to answer some basic questions. things you need to be able to share.

1. Only file an application as a new voter if you’ve never registered as a voter before. If you have been previously registered and have just transferred residences, then all you need to do is file an application for a Transfer of Registration. Got it?

Register as a new voter only if you haven’t registered before; if you’ve changed residences, file a Transfer of Registration application.

2. Always bring a valid identification card that reflects your current address. A person’s eligibility to vote is linked to his residence. If he is a resident of a particular place, then he is eligible to vote there. If he is not a resident, then he can’t be

considered eligible. That’s why the current address on your valid ID is so important. It identifies you as a resident of the place where you are trying to register and, in effect, gives you eligibility.

3. If you’re trying to register a name change, bring proof, such as a marriage certificate. This will prove that you have, in fact, changed your name.

4. A voter who has missed two consecutive national elections will be deactivated. This can be fixed by simply filing an application for Reactivation; and, finally, 5. Tell people that their biometrics will be taken. And just in case you’ve forgotten, “biometrics” refers to a person’s fingerprints, a picture of his face and his digitally captured signature. These things are necessary to ensure that no voter is registered more than once.

That should start you off very nicely. Now, if you need more information, just go to the Comelec’s Facebook page, http://facebook.com/ comelec.ph, and follow them on Twitter, @COMELEC. James Arthur B. Jimenez is director of the Commission on Elections’s Education and Information Department.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Friday, November 4, 2016 A11

Duterte’s pivot to China: Canonizing death A game theoretic analysis Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

Joselito T. Sescon

EAGLE WATCH Part Two

L

ast week we introduced Game Theory as an objective approach in analyzing the possible shift of the Philippines’s foreign policy. Initially, we analyzed the case of both the United States and the Philippines being anti-China under a “Battle of the Sexes” (BOS) game. We generally concluded that it is strategic for the US that the Philippines stand on the international court’s decision.

We continue the analysis now considering the case that both US and the Philippines are pro-China (US pro-China stand meant letting the Philippines to chart its own independent foreign policy). Based on our outcomes table, this option lead to the US getting 1, while the Philippines gets 3, making the Philippines benefit more than the US. What benefits will the Philippines gain from a pro-China foreign-policy stance? The answers are debatable and need to be strategically analyzed from what the US and China will most likely do. China will probably make concessions, such as letting Filipinos fish in disputed areas, increase foreign direct investments (FDI) and aid to the Philippines. However, these concessions will be strategically limited, contingent upon their observation that the Philippines will have a consistent independent foreign-policy stance beyond the Duterte administration. It is to China’s interests to prove to the Filipinos that President Duterte is right. Filipinos are now allowed by Chinese coast guards to fish in Panatag Shoal. China is giving outright concessions and even announcing on how much more it will increase its foreign investments in the country through infrastructure. China can afford to gamble on these amounts, if only to win the Philippines on its side. This may lead to China’s claim on the West Philippine Sea becoming unrestricted and the Philippines has to look the other way becoming the loser in the long run.

What if the condition becomes that the US gets worse than 1 in a pro-China stance?

In the table below, the US gets a negative 1 in a pro-China stance. This will force the US to diverge to an anti-China stand.

Philippines

Anti-China Pro-China

Anti-China 3, 1 0, -2 United States

Pro-China -2, 0 1, 3 In this condition, the US is seen to slowly withdraw its assistance for the Philippines and discourage FDI in the short run. This is to pressure the Philippines by forcing an outcome of negative 2, so that it will go back to the anti-China stand.

If China’s concessions are worth more to compensate what is to be lost from the US withdrawal of assistance, then the Philippines’s gain will still be positive. If the Philippine government consistently stick to a pro-China stand, both the US and China will need to study their financial calculations on how much China can afford to upend US aid and investment withdrawal notwithstanding souring the goodwill of relations between the two traditional allies. Is it worthy of the Philippines to take this risk? Have we done our own financial and economic spreadsheet calculations? And, in the long run, can we trust China to support the Philippine interests and align it to its own interests more than how much we can trust the US over its long-run strategy of putting international pressure on China?

One possible interpretation of the new pro-China stand of the Philippines is that it is a ploy by Duterte for the US to put more stake to the Philippines. It has been stressed by this administration that the Philippines has been a traditional ally that has long been taken for granted. An ally that comfortably assuage the US based on historical precedents and the cultural closeness of the country’s population to all matters American. Too comfortably, to the point that the US did not put a stronger stake on the country’s development more than just having access to the use of its military bases. In this BOS game, this strategic ploy means that the Philippines wanted greater benefits, probably an equal 3 with the US, if it is to keep the anti-China stance. This interpretation is already known to China, and a hint of such ploy is a welcome opportunity.

Duterte’s pivot to China policy is more than just a presidential tantrum based on his personal history and opinion of US policies and interventions around the world. There are definitely more strategic issues to consider. Our use of the BOS game as framework provided a baseline, but not enough to answer the pivot. We will consider using other Game Theory frameworks, such as the “Stag-hunt” game and the conflict scenario of the “Hawk-Dove” game in our future analysis. For now, it is enough to know that there is more to what we are hearing and seeing from recent events.

D

eath walks silently and magnificently with grandeur in the film of Kristian Sendon Cordero, called Hinulid, which literally means “laid to rest.” Death is both a metaphor and a physical presence in the story. Death is the woman who appears as a seamstress seen through the door or finishing what looks like a piece that could never be completed.

In a magical scene in the same film, Death is pulled by the same woman now shrouded in black. Death is a human skeleton, with a cape of velvet and a crown made of gold.

Metaphors always require a double reading, especially if the reader is not grounded on the locale or site of the figure of speech. But Santa Muerte is the most comprehensible image in the said film by Cordero.

The “saint” walks the field and fuses his or her mystery upon all living things. With the vivid colors of Death’s accoutrement, the earth seems to come alive.

In the realm of rituals—procession is one of these rites—Santa Muerte is part of what Maurice Bloch calls “rebounding violence.” In this act, the daily life—living, the meaning of life and death, and the magical moments of rebirth in certain ceremonials—are conquered and placed under some transcendental authority.

Death, therefore, cannot be a sordid, dark figure. For us Filipinos and

the film Hinulid captures this, death is a divine, mighty figure as loving as Life itself.

The past week, from the end of October until the first three days of November, saw the country celebrating the dead. The memorial parks and cemeteries came alive, with buntings and bright lights taking over the usual solemn, quiet garden surrounded by trees. The city and town ordinances against loud music notwithstanding, gazebos where Holy Masses are held become the hub of DJs playing everything from rock-and-roll to reggae, from love songs to rap.

Where Death holds sway in places of graves and epitaphs, Life more robust and rowdy took over as we try to commemorate the dead by visiting our loved ones who have passed on. We offered candles and flowers to them, but for us there was food of all kinds. Gone was the taboo that no meat be served when one approached the dead. In fact, taboos were swiped away, as all things were given the

possibility of being held amid signs of entombment: gambling, singing, swaying to music, all acts that screamed of living.

Irreverent as it may seem, our view of Death seems really more practicable than those cultures holding Death off and distant with the most solemn of gaze.

The truth of the matter is the icon representing Death, the Santa Muerte, is made part of procession but is not allowed inside the Church.

In the film Hinulid the woman who carries the statue around assumes the persona of an elderly woman.

When three persons are found floating on the stream, a victim of “salvaging” or summary execution, and are brought to the town plaza, she tries to enter the area. The woman who is Death is seen trying to step onto the ground shared by the three

Birth, death and everything in between Siegfred Bueno Mison, Esq.

THE PATRIOT

A

s the country commemorated All Souls’ Day a few days ago, I had a chance to ponder on how life begins, how life ends and just about what everything happens in between. Stephanie Anne Montano, one of my very first goddaughters way back in 1988, gave birth last year to a healthy baby boy in California.

Baby boy Spencer’s grandparents

were my University of the East highschool classmates, Irwin and Hydee Montano. On the same day of Spencer’s birth, but in a different time zone, I witnessed and stood as a godfather in the baptism of baby girl Mia Julianna Gevero in Pasay City. Her father was a former colleague in the Bureau of Immigration.

Oddly enough, on that same day last year, August 8, 2015, one of my closest cousins, Renato Mison, was cremated after suffering a fatal heart attack while walking home from the office. He collapsed on a sidewalk pavement, ironically very near a hospital. He would have been 55 today, November 4.

Between birth and death, we experience events of celebration and thanksgiving—baptism, graduation, marriage, children, among others. We also encounter events of pain and sorrow—sickness, separation, etc. We are all on borrowed time. From the moment we were born, we knew that death will come someday.

In the past few years, I have seen and heard of people passing away, some in the most unexpected time. Take the case of my cousin Renato. The moment of death was so unexpected that his last message to his wife Susan was “ano ulam?” Another unexpected death of a dear friend occurred more than 10 years ago. Rene Jarque was West Point class

1986. Like me, he left the Army early to pursue a more financially satisfying career. During our cadet days, Rene and I frequently went on road trips in the US together and spent some late night outs in Manhattan. Girls he dated I knew and vice versa. Rene graduated as a cadet lieutenant and in the Dean’s List in US Military Academy, left the Philippine Army as a promising captain specializing in psychological warfare, and entered the private sector as an extremely hardworking manager. He died due to a massive stroke while working in a logistics company in Indonesia. He was barely 40 years old. Commemorating All Souls’ Day, Rene’s widow Grace recently posted on her Facebook account—“All I have are memories and your picture in a frame....

Your memory is my keepsake with which I will never part. God has you in His keeping... I have you in my heart!” Reports of recent extrajudicial killings exemplify how death can suddenly come to anyone, including innocent ones. Death can be preceded by a knock on the door in the middle of the night. Death can also be by way of a “hit” in broad daylight by hired guns riding in tandem. Or just like my cadet buddy Rene and favorite cousin Renato, death can come by way of medical contingencies.

Death is one certainty, which we

IC clarifies issues raised by Steel Corp. of the Philippine official MAIL

Please e-mail your letters to the editor to oped@businessmirror. com.ph. Letters chosen for publication in this section are edited for brevity and clarity.

This refers to the letter dated October 4, 2016, of Mr. Abeto A. Uy (Mr. Uy), chairman and chief executive officer of Steel Corp. of the Philippines (SCP), addressed to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte published in the November 2, 2016, issues of The Philippine Star and The Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Considering that there is a pending

petition for mandamus initiated by SCP against this commission pending before the Court of Appeals (CA) involving the two administrative cases initiated by SCP against several insurance companies, this commission is at a lost as to the reason why SCP has publicized this matter through news article and paid advertisements after the filing of the said petition.

In order to avoid any impression of prejudgment in view pending administrative cases pending before this commission and to avoid discussing a matter which is pending before the CA, this commission will not delve into the details and merits of the administrative cases filed by SCP. Instead, we wish to clarify the matters set forth below.

First, what is pending before the Insurance Commission are administrative cases seeking the suspension or revocation of licenses of the insurance companies who issued the insurance policies in favor of SCP on the ground of unfair claims settlement

as provided under Section 241 of the Insurance Code, as amended by Republic Act 10607. These cases do not seek to recover any insurance proceeds issued by the insurance companies against whom the cases were filed.

Second, while the administrative cases filed by SCP before the Insurance Commission will necessarily tackle the issue of whether the denial of the claims by the insurers were justified, a ruling in favor of SCP does not mean that it will receive the more than P1 billion insurance proceeds. Assuming that what SCP filed before the Insurance Commission is a complaint for the recovery of the insurance proceeds, the same cannot be given due course by this commission as the amount of claim involved exceeds the jurisdictional amount of P5 million that can be adjudicated by this commission.

To reiterate, the jurisdiction of the Insurance Commission as to administrative complaints filed before it involves only the determination of the issue of

whether insurance companies are guilty of unfair claim settlement, which would warrant the suspension or revocation of the licenses of such companies. The jurisdiction of the regular courts in insurance claims collection cases, on the other hand, involves the determination of the issue of whether the claimant is legally entitled to receive the proceeds of the insurance policy and the determination of the correct amount of the insurance proceeds due.

Third, the first administrative case docketed as I.C. ADM. Case 420 was filed by SCP against UCPB General Insurance Corp., Oriental Assurance Corp., PNB General Insurers Co. Inc. and Equitable Insurers Co. Inc. on October 29, 2009. Since the filing of the complaint, several pleadings were filed by the parties and several conferences were conducted by this commission.

Among the significant issues raised is on the issue whether the present case should be suspended in view of the pending rehabilitation proceeding of

SCP, which subsequently became a liquidation proceeding, pending before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Batangas City-Branch 4, docketed as Special Proceedings 06-7993.

It should be noted that a case is deemed submitted for resolution only if the parties had already filed their respective position papers or memoranda. In cases where there are pending incidents to be resolved, as in the present case, the case cannot be submitted for resolution until the parties are given the opportunity to submit their respective pleadings on the pending incidents.

On August 19, 2016, this commission rendered a decision dismissing the administrative complaint filed by SCP on the ground that it failed to prove that the respondents therein are liable for unfair claims settlement that would warrant the imposition of administrative penalties under the Insurance Code. In summary, the following are the reasons for the dismissal of the administrative complaint filed by SCP: a) the validity of

corpses, but she is unable to. Something holds her back, Death cannot be where people are already dead.

Death is not the opposite or antithesis of Life. It is almost like Life, which stays with us. You can even say, we die because Death is always vital in us.

This is consolation of the utmost degree that, in Death, Life, most incomplete, receives a benediction of the other power on earth, that which pulls us into another realm, at the edge of the cosmos where we cannot talk to this earth anymore, nor sing anymore, but where we can only whisper words of longing that they who we always loved will sense as the tenderest of chill, or of a wind that augurs shifts in time and seasons.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.

cannot actually anticipate, save for some insurance plans. For most of us, we believe that the length of our mortal lives depends on His grace and according to His plan. Everything in between depends on how we live life as we call it. Someone famous once said, “I shall walk this life but once, any good, therefore, I can do, or any kindness I can show, let me do it now, let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall never pass this way again.”

We have to make the most out of whatever opportunity is given to us. Let’s perform random acts of kindness or share small acts of love whenever we have the chance. Give your seat on the bus to an elderly. Give your drivers and helpers extra pay, even without extra work. Say “I love you” to those you love, even to those undeserving of your love. Say “thank you” as often as you can and mean it. And say “please” every time you ask others to do things, particularly to your subordinates at work or at home. Let’s do these simple things not because we fear the certainty of death, but because we celebrate the goodness of life. People will rarely remember how you died; they will often remember how you lived. So let’s learn to live each and every day, between birth and death, as if it were our last.

For questions and comments, e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com

the insurance claim was not denied by the insurance companies as the issue or dispute is on the amount to be paid, which is now the subject of adjudication pending before the RTC of Batangas; 2) the insurance companies have shown that it performed and attempted in good faith to effectuate prompt, fair and equitable settlement of the claim of SCP; 3) BPI Asset Management and Trust Group is legally authorized to receive the preliminary payment in the amount of $450,000, which is part of the insurance claim pending the evaluation of the insurance adjuster to the exact amount of loss incurred; 4) the fact that SCP was placed under rehabilitation and liquidation affected the determination of the insurance claim payable to it; and, 5) the issue as to the amount of insurance claim payable to SCP, as well as the payee thereof, is not within the administrative jurisdiction of the Insurance Commission but with the regular courts.

(To be continued on Monday)

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12

Wake up early if you want to watch the Miss Universe Continued from A1

Universe pageant in the Philippines as “one proud moment for all Filipinos to bear witness to our reigning Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach of Cagayan de Oro City as she takes her final walk and passes on her crown to her successor, where else, but in her home country, the Philippines.”

Recalling Wurtzbach’s win early this year, Teo said: “We saw her journey on the Miss Universe stage, where she showcased to the world the characteristic Filipina beauty, intelligence, and grace under pressure. We celebrated her victorious win as the third Miss Universe of the Philippines, after our more than four long decades of waiting.”

She likewise thanked Wurtzbach for being “confidently beautiful with a heart [and for] lending her voice, as Miss Universe, to influence the youth in raising HIV awareness, among other things.”

Maxine Medina will be the Philippines’ candidate to the Miss Universe 2017. Beauty pageant fans are hoping that she would be the next one to bring home a crown, after Kylie Versoza, won as Miss International in the pageant held in Japan last October. Another Filipina, Nicole Cordoves, placed 1st Runner Up at the Grand International Competition in Las Vegas also in October.

The Miss Universe 2017 in Manila will be co-presented by the DOT, the MUO, the LCS Group headed by Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson and Architect Richelle Singson, in partnership with Okada Manila, the SM Group of Companies, and Solar Entertainment Corp., its broadcast partner.

Friday, November 4, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Govt eases socialized housing perks rules

T

he government has moved to ease the rules on the grant of tax incentives to developers and contractors of socialized-housing projects to speed up the provision of shelters to marginalized Filipinos and address the housing backlog in the country, estimated at 5.5 million units.

This is through the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the National Housing Authority (NHA).

The agreement was signed by Vice President and HUDCC Chairman Maria Leonor G. Robredo, BIR Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay and NHA Acting General Manager Marcelino P. Escalada Jr. at the Quezon City Reception House, New Manila in Quezon City.

The MOU will put into operation the availment of tax incentives for government socialized-housing

projects for the homeless and the underprivileged under Republic Act (RA) 7279, or the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992.

Under the MOU, the BIR will streamline, facilitate and prioritize the processing and issuance of the BIR Certificate of Tax Exemption (CTE) for transfers of raw land to the NHA, which are intended for socializedhousing projects.

The HUDCC, on the other hand, will submit to the BIR a regular updated master list of government housing projects under RA 7279 that are qualified for tax incentives.

For its part, the NHA will endorse See “Govt,” A2

First RGP Land Development Corp. announces the completion of its 5-hectare project inside the Uniwide Sales Coastal City in Naic, Cavite, with 1,180 socialized-housing units. Each 36-square-meter unit for Las Piñas City’s informal-settler families has a loft, kitchen, toilet and bath, and laundry area, but only costs P400,000. Photo shows Resty Perez (sixth from left), First RGP chairman and founder, showing to beneficiaries the project plan. “We spend more—and earn less—to deliver top quality.

We are giving back this early. Our customers are very happy. We are content with what is left, and feel incomprehensibly good deep inside,” he said.