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n Sunday, November 8, 2015 Vol. 11 No. 31

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Dominant telco braces for Telstra’s entry

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By Lorenz S. Marasigan

HE entry of a new network player in the Philippine telecommunications market will be marked by fanfare and novelty, with many consumers eager to try the product of the company that promises to cure the ills of Internet speed in the country. week ahead

ECONOMIC DATA PREVIEW Local currency

n Previous week: The peso moved nearer the 47 territory in the previous week, as sentiment continued to shift slightly toward the dollar.

The local currency started the week at 46.845 to a dollar on Monday, to hit 46.815 to a dollar on Tuesday. The peso hit its strongest on Wednesday at 46.76 to a dollar to revert back to a weakness of 46.935 to a dollar on Thursday. The peso ended the week at 46.935 to a dollar on Friday. The average trade of the peso during the week was at 46.858 to a dollar—weaker than the previous week’s 46.748. The total traded volume was at $2.88 billion.

n Week ahead: With lack of leads in the local scene, the market will likely seek data from the Untied States for direction. Crucial upcoming data will likely come from the US’s jobs numbers and nonfarm-payroll number.

Given this, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan expects that Telstra Corp. Ltd.’s launch in the country will have an immediate impact on his company’s profits, as the new player is expected to acquire a portion of the two incumbent telcos’ subscriber base.

Although the top brass of See “Telstra,” A2

PANGILINAN: “We need to protect our market share for prepaid and postpaid.

We’ll feel it immediately, but it depends on what their tactics are.”

Private-bank economists see no BSP rate change

By Bianca Cuaresma

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ESPITE the very low inflation being experienced by the country, international privatebank economists see unchanged monetary-policy levers from the

Bangko Sentral in an upcoming meeting on Thursday—echoing the hints earlier expressed by the central bank governor.

Ample liquidity and the expectation that the inflation will likely go up going into 2016 are mainly the reasons the central bank will opt to keep all the See “Rate Change,” A2

BSP monetary-policy stance

November 12, Thursday

n Previous monetary-policy stance: In its sixth monetary meeting for the year, the Monetary Board reaffirmed that the current monetary setting remains appropriate for the present economic conditions in the country—keeping the repurchase rate (RP), or overnight lending rate, at

See “Outlook,” A2

Employment Surge Flashes Go for Fed Rate Liftoff This Year

In this October 6 file photo, job applicants fill out and turn in forms during a job fair at Dolphin Mall in Miami. AP/Wilfredo Lee

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ORGET about nuance. The October jobs report left little doubt the US labor market is back with a vengeance, after a two-month lull.

The 271,000 gain in payrolls was the biggest this year and exceeded all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists, a Labor Department report showed on Friday. The jobless rate fell to a seven-year low of 5 percent, and average hourly earnings over the past 12 months climbed by the most since 2009.

Treasuries tumbled and the dollar strengthened, as the report allayed concerns of a hiring slowdown after weaker payrolls advances cooled in August and September. Such improvement will probably mean a green light for Federal Reserve (the Fed) officials, who last month held out the possibility of a December rate increase.

“It’s a solid labor market,” said Michael Feroli, chief US economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York and a former economist at the Fed.

“The report is pretty good across the board.

December is now a very high likelihood for the Fed to hike rates.”

Investors have raised to about 70 percent the probability of a rate increase by policy-makers’ December meeting, according to pricing in the federal funds futures market. That compares to 56 percent on Thursday, and assumes the effective funds rate averages 0.375 percent after liftoff.

The report also showed diminishing labormarket slack. The number of Americans working part-time because of a weak economy fell to 5.7 million in October, the lowest since June 2008.

Survey results SMILE DAY Francis Canuto (from second from left), Megaworld Foundation president; Kevin L.

BusinessMirror media partner

Tan, Megaworld first vice president and head of commercial division; Lourdes Gutierrez-Alfonso, Megaworld COO; Edith Villanueva, Operation Smile chairman; and Wayne Zinn, Operation Smile global COO, with the kids at the country’s first-ever celebration of Smile Day Philippines at Eastwood Mall Open Park in Libis, Quezon City. Megaworld Foundation and Operation Smile will provide free reconstructive surgery for Filipino children with cleft lip and palate. Stephanie Tumampos

PESO exchange rates n US 46.9060

THE median forecast called for a 185,000 advance in payrolls. Estimates of 75 economists in the Bloomberg survey ranged from gains of 75,000 to 250,000.

Revisions to prior reports added a total of 12,000 jobs to the August and September readings. Still, employment only averaged 145,000 those months.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the US currency against 10 major peers, rose 1.1 percent at 11:50 a.m. in New York. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury climbed 10 basis points, or 0.1 percentage point, to 2.33 percent.

The unemployment rate, which is derived from a separate Labor Department survey of households, is the lowest since April 2008.

Employment in October was led by the biggest gain in retail payrolls since November, the strongest hiring in construction in eight months and a pickup at temporary-help agencies. There was no change at the nation’s manufacturers.

Average hourly earnings rose by 0.4 percent from the prior month. Worker pay increased 2.5 percent over the 12 months ended in October, the most in more than six years, following a 2.3-percent gain the prior month. They had been stuck around near 2 percent on average since the current expansion began in mid-2009.

The underemployment rate—which includes part-time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want to work, but have given up looking—fell to 9.8 percent, the lowest since May 2008.

In addition to growth in payrolls and wages, “we’re also seeing a number of other important bellwethers of progress,” Labor Secretary Tom Perez said in a telephone interview. “We’re continuing to have the wind at our backs.”

The participation rate, which shows the share of working-age people in the labor force, held at 62.4 percent.

Fed officials said last month that they would consider a rate increase at their next gathering, and Fed Chairman Janet Yellen this week echoed See “Employment,” A2

n japan 0.3854 n UK 71.3346 n HK 6.0517 n CHINA 7.3907 n singapore 33.3613 n australia 33.5378 n EU 51.0478 n SAUDI arabia 12.5080 Source: BSP (6 November 2015)

NewsSunday A2 Sunday, November 8, 2015

Telstra…

BusinessMirror

Continued from a1

the largest telecommunications company in the Philippines seems unfazed when asked questions as to his comments and plans on Telstra’s foray into the Filipino soil.

He did admit that his group will have to intensify efforts to protect its consumer base by improving its services by expanding its network coverage and capacity.

“We need to protect our market share for prepaid and postpaid.

We’ll feel it immediately, but it depends on what their tactics are. It’s hard to speculate. But, really, they wouldn’t come in without a fanfare. The novelty of a new entrant... some people will be lured to try it,” he said.

The company’s top telecommunications provider is spending P43 billion this year to improve customer access to both 3G and 4G networks; expand its fiber reach and capacity; enhance indoor and outdoor coverage; and to continue network optimization through the augmentation of network resilien-

cy and redundancy, among others.

“We are preparing the network, with Telstra’s entry or not, in terms of speed and coverage,” he said.

However, the entry of a third core player will definitely be taken into account in the company’s plans for next year.

“We haven’t given any outlook for 2016. But, obviously, planning assumption for 2016 includes the prospect of Telstra’s entry into the market,” Pangi­ linan said. “We just have to be ready for that eventuality.”

Specifically, the company will have to prepare its network to lure more customers to subscribe, and secure the loyalty of its current base.

“There are certain essential things we have to do: The network has got to be up to snuff—it has got to be up to world standards. We have to make sure the availability of 3G, 4G and service-delivery platforms, which should be up to world standards,” Pangilinan said.

He added: “Also, resiliency and

Rate change…

policy rates unmoved again in its November 12 meeting.

The central bank has been keeping its guns on hold in all its six meetings thus far this year. The last time that the central bank adjusted the rates was in September last year, when it increased main policy rates by 25 basis points as a preemptive measure for the pending US normalization.

“Although inflation has gone to low levels, the BSP continues to expect higher inflation into 2016, back into the BSP target range.

The central bank sees upside inflationary risks primarily stemming from El Niño and weather-related factors,” Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. economist Joseph Incalcaterra said, citing reasons for his “unchanged policy” forecast this meeting.

capacity of fiber-optic backbone must be improved. Optimization should be a permanent feature of our network, because the landscape of the country, once a new building is built and an old building is torn down, the mobility environment changes. On the content side, we have to make sure that the digital experience must be felt by the subscriber.”

“Independent of whether there’s a new entrant or not, we will do all of these things,” Pangilinan said.

Telstra is expected to debut in Manila in 2016, through San Miguel Corp.’s Bell Telecommunications Philippines Inc. It plans to invest roughly $1 billion in a wireless joint venture with the diversified conglomerate.

San Miguel is expected to hold 60 percent of the said company — requiring it to invest as much as $1.5 billion — while the remainder will be held by the Australian telecommunications giant.

Continued from a1

Maybank ATR Kim Eng head research economist Luz Lorenzo said that, aside from her expectations of a steady monetary policy, the policy bias of the central bank going forward is also neutral.

What the central bank and market ought to look at, meanwhile, is the coming GDP growth set for release next month, according to Singapore-based DBS Bank economist Gundy Cahyadi.

“Thus far, GDP growth momentum looks fairly robust, but any disappointment in the third quarter of 2015 GDP data will definitely provide more reasons for further policy loosening from the BSP,” Cahyadi said, whose baseline outlook also remains to be an unchanged policy for the upcoming meeting.

Cahyadi further said that the central bank may now be favoring a weaker peso toward the end of the year.

“The fact that the peso has been somewhat weaker in recent months is also important to note.

We have been arguing how the BSP may tolerate a softer currency, in an attempt to ease monetary policy going into the year-end,” the economist said.

Currently, the repurchase rate stands at 6 percent, while the reverse repurchase rate stands at 4 percent. The special deposits account rate is at 2.5 percent.

The November 12 meeting is the seventh meeting for 2015 and the second to the last for the year.

The last monetary-policy setting meeting of the central bank for this year is on December 17.

Outlook…

Continued from a1

6 percent and 4 percent for the reverse repurchase rate (RRP), or overnight borrowing rate. The interest rates on term RRPs, RPs and special deposits account were also kept steady. The reserve requirement ratios were, likewise, left unchanged.

The seven-man monetary policy-making body of the BSP decided on keeping its fire on hold for the seventh consecutive time owing to its assessment of benign inflation for this year and the next two years.

n Upcoming monetary-policy stance: The central bank has sent strong signals that it will still keep all the rates unchanged for the year, following the recent announcement of the 0.4-percent rate in October. In his statement following the announcement of October’s inflation print by the Philippine Statistics Authority, central bank Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. sent the signal that they will not ease their policy rates next week, no matter the space to do so, given the low inflation trend. “While there seems to be room to ease given the relatively lower inflation at the moment, risks to the outlook remain—El Niño and pending requests for utility rate hikes, for instance,” Tetangco told reporters on Thursday. The central bank governor further said that domestic demand is steady, and “there doesn’t appear to be a need for further monetary support.” International economists also mirror the sentiment, saying that no change is apparent for the BSP this week (see related story on A1). Bianca Cuaresma

Employment…

Continued from a1

the view by saying that December was a “live possibility.” One of the central bank’s preconditions for liftoff is “some further improvement” in the labor market. It next meets on December 15 and 16, and an increase in the benchmark rate would be the first since 2006. It has been near zero since December 2008.

American manufacturing has taken a hit with softening sales in overseas markets, a stronger dollar and oil-sector weakness depressing demand. Services, which account for about 90 percent of the economy, are relatively shielded and faring better. Bloomberg

NewsSunday

A4 Sunday, November 8, 2015 • Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo

BusinessMirror

Monetary Board OKs lenient treatment of banks in Lando-devastated areas

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By Bianca Cuaresma

ENDERS affected by Typhoon Lando (international code name Koppu) will be subject to less strict regulatory measures on loans and will be allowed to extend financial assistance to their employees as part of the regulatory aid granted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The policy-making body of the central bank, the Monetary Board, recently approved the granting of a regulatory and rediscounting relief measures to banks whose head offices or branches were devastated by the typhoon.

Among the areas covered by the relief measures from the central bank were the places severely affected by the recent typhoon as declared by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

The temporary relief measures will allow all banks to provide financial assistance to their officers and employees who were affected by the calamity. These include those assistance that may not be within the scope of the existing Bangko Sentral-approved fringe benefit program.

For all thrift, rural and cooperative banks in the areas affected, the central bank will exclude existing loans of borrowers from the computation of past due loan ratios as long as these are restructures or given relies.

T he BSP w i l l a lso lift the imposition of penalties on lega l reser ves deficiencies and delays of submission of supervisory reports of smaller banks in affected areas.

A moratorium will also be given on monthly payments due to

the BSP for banks with ongoing rehabilitation programs.

The booking of allowance for probable losses on a staggered basis over maximum of five years for all types of loans extended to borrowers will also be allowed subject to the BSP approval.

For all rediscounting banks in the area, the regulatory relief package includes the granting of a 60-day grace period to settle the outstanding rediscounting obligations as of mid-July.

T he cent ra l ba n k a l so a llowe d ba n k s to re st r uc t u re the outstanding rediscounted loans if borrowers affected by the calamity.

Similar relied measures were extended previously by the BSP to banks in cities and provinces affected by the previous natural calamities.

SM Prime cited in Southeast Asia Property Awards

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M Prime Holdings Inc., a leading integrated property company in the Philippines, was cited for three major awards in the recent Southeast Asia Property Awards in Singapore.

SM Prime was recognized as the Highly Commended Best Developer with its mall brand SM Supermalls as

the Best Retail Architectural Design for SM Mega Fashion Hall, the upscale expansion of SM Megamall, SM’s largest mall in the country.

“We humbly accept this recognition that serves as our inspiration to provide innovative and sustainable lifestyle cities for the greater good of the

communities we serve, thank you,” SM Prime President Hans T. Sy said.

The Southeast Asia Property Awards was held on October 21 at the ShangriLa Hotel, Singapore.

On July 9 SM Prime won the Best Developer Award in the Philippines, the highest award given by Ensign

Media in the Philippines Property Awards 2015 at the Raffles and Fairmont Hotel, Makati. This made SM Prime the Philippine entry to compete against other developers coming from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in the Southeast Asia Property Awards.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Complaint baseless, without merit–Senior TeaM Energy officials

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EAM Energy has branded “baseless and without any merit” a complaint recently filed with the Department of Justice against the company, along with the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM).

“We are shocked and perplexed by the reported charges brought against our companies, TeaM Sual Corp. [TSC] and TeaM [Philippines] Energy Corp. [TPEC], as published in various media outlets. These charges are baseless and without any merit,” Toshiro Kume, officer in charge of TeaM Energy Corp., said in a press statement.

Kume said the company’s track record will show that it has “abided by and respected all the country’s laws and regulations” and that it has operated “with utmost integrity” in all its business dealings and contracts.

He made the statement in reply to a complaint for plunder filed by San Miguel Energy Corp. (SMEC) against TSC, TPEC and PSALM in connection with a memorandum of agreement (MOA) entered into by the said entities involving the Sual Power Station, which SMEC is the Independent Power Producer Administrator.

Kume emphasized that the

MOA in question is “legal and above-board,” pointing out that it had even gone through the approval process of the respective boards of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) and PSALM. The boards of Napocor and PSALM jointly include the secretaries of Finance, Energy, Budget and Management, Trade and Industry, Interior and Local Government, Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources, and Justice, and the National Economic and Development Authority director-general.

“For the record, our Sual Power Plant was designed and constructed to produce a net capacity of 1,200 megawatts [MW] and only 1,000 MW has been contracted to the Napocor under the Energy Conversion Agreement dated May 20, 1994.

TSC is being paid by Napocor for the 1,000-MW contracted capacity only,” Kume said.

“TSC owns the 200-MW excess capacity. Contrary to the assertions of SMEC, the 200-MW excess capacity already existed when the plant was built in 1999. TSC and TPEC had various agreements with the government regarding the excess capacity and such excess capacity has been sold to various customers for the past 16 years,” he added.

Science

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PHL holds nuclear congress in Dec.

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he country will hold Third Philippine Nuclear Congress (PNC) that will gather representatives from the agricultural, industrial, medical, the government and academic sectors from December 7 to 9 in Manila. The nuclear congress will assess the state of nuclear science and technology and its contributions to national development. The third PNC will focus on the theme “Meeting Challenges through Nuclear Science and Technology for Sustainable Growth.”

Organized by the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Nuclear Research Institute and other partner agencies, the PNC is a multisectoral forum for reviewing the global, regional and national scenarios in nuclear science applications for technological development and inclusive growth. It also aims to expand the participation of the different sectors to establish stronger linkages with the collaborating institutions and individuals. During the three-day event, experts in the nuclear field will present and discuss applications in food and agriculture; health and medicine; industry; and the environment; as well as current developments in nuclear safety, security and safeguards.

Exhibits by scientific societies, government agencies, and members of the academic and research sectors will be featured, along with posters from selected contributors.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano will be the keynote speaker. Amano visited the Philippines in January 2015 as part of his tour of the IAEA member-states in Southeast Asia. He cited the country’s efforts not only in advancing the uses of nuclear science and technology but also in contributing to the development of the nuclear field in our neighboring countries.

Hans Joshua Dantes/S&T Media Service

BusinessMirror

Sunday Sunday, November 8, 2015 A5

Global alliance sets standard for sustainable rice production

By Ramon Rafael Bonilla | Special to the BusinessMirror

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global alliance in agriculture called for a strong international action for sustainable rice production as the world braces for challenges in rice-resource efficiency, with the Philippines facing insufficiency in the coming years.

It its recent fifth Annual Plenary Meeting and General Assembly attended by stakeholders, such as agricultural research institutions, agrifood businesses, public sector and civil society organizations, the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) pledged to pursue rice security through environmentally sustainable and socially responsible rice cultivation.

It said there should be efforts to attract more partners for a stronger solution to maintain the stability of rice for more than 3.5 billion people around the world that depend on it.

The SRP launched the world’s first standard for sustainable rice, which

sets new and more efficient standards for rice cultivation. The SRP Standard for Sustainable Rice Cultivation uses environmental and socioeconomic benchmarks to maintain yields for rice smallholders, reduce the environmental footprint of rice cultivation and meet consumer needs for food safety and quality.

The development of the standard draws on global experience in other sustainable commodity initiatives, such as sugarcane, cotton, coffee and palm oil. It is made up of 46 requirements ranging from productivity, food safety, worker health, labor rights and biodiversity. It is supplemented by a set

of quantitative performance indicators to enable farmers and market supply chain actors to gauge the sustainability of a rice system, and to monitor and reward progress.

“It’s a big deal. It is a major concern not only for us, but to the whole community. This is the first time that an initiative addressed a challenging problem that will determine the importance of global food security,” said James Lomax, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) program officer for Agriculture and Food, who initiated the SRP in December 2011.

He also acknowledged that “it is a collective effort of governments, international agencies, profit and nonprofit organizations, and research institutes” to alleviate the prolonged agony that should not be neglected as the world population continues to erupt in the recent decade.

“We should see today that the value of rice should call the attention of more people to extend their help to address its critical importance,” he added, with the SRP now having 29 institutional members. Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) which co-founded the SRP, said: “The SRP Standard represents the world’s first initiative that

will set environmentally sustainable and socially responsible rice production management standards. Our key challenge now is to incentivize and scale up adoption, especially among resourcepoor small farmers.”

In the Philippines, which 99.88 million population in 2014 had the fastest growth in recent memory, palay production hit its target of 19.07 million metric tons (MMT) last year, eclipsing its goal of 18.88 MMT for the year and the 18.04 MMT in 2013. Yet, as the SRP projected, the country’s population braces for 141.67 million count in 2040, wherein the total rice utilization per paddy production should be at 34.12 MMT, compared to the present 24.01 MMT. In contrast, the figures show that as the population grows in the coming decades, more and more demand for rice are needed for consumption. The total harvesting area may diminish faster than expected as only 3.14 million hectares is a far cry from today’s 4.74 million hectares. To address this, the Department of Agriculture (DA), together with the Philippine Rice Research Institute, indicated top priorities for effective rice cultivation.

The DA noted three main steps: increase productivity of land resources; diversify sources of farm income; and

encourage healthier consumption.

In increasing the productivity of rice, the DA noted that shortening the riceproduction cycle should be prioritized through direct seeding, use of early-maturing varieties, synchronous planting and appropriate mechanization.

In his message at the plenary session, Agriculture Secretary Proseso J. Alcala hailed the initiative of SRP and other contributing sectors in helping the agency in providing Filipinos a better stance against rice scarcity.

“This occasion augurs well for the country’s national rice program. The SRP underscores the crucial role of interagency partnership and interaction with key rice stakeholders in enhancing sustainability in the rice sector,” Alcala said.

“With the valuable assistance of the IRRI, we have taken a giant step toward ensuring increased productivity of farmers,” Alcala added, as he admits the vital role of the global community in helping rice efficiency in the Philippines.

“The involvement of global networks will provide the DA the necessary exposure to ideas and technologies in helping our farmers. Together with different sectors, we can promote competitiveness and higher income for the Filipinos,” Alcala said.

A6 Sunday, November 8, 2015 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Speed up Yolanda reconstruction work

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WO years after Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) struck central Philippines, most of us are still in the dark as to what has happened to the promised rehabilitation and reconstruction of the people and communities affected by the calamity.

We know that more than 7,350 people either lost their lives or went missing in the storm, thousands of homes were smashed to smithereens by the winds and hundreds of communities were swept away by the ocean surges. Citizens and elements of the private sector donated huge amounts of resources to alleviate the sufferings of the survivors. Foreign governments and private groups extended assistance worth millions of dollars. Our own government is said to have allocated billions of pesos to the reconstruction work.

What now is the score? We are hearing conflicting versions as to the current state of affairs. As reported, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said the government allocated a total of P150 billion to the reconstruction effort and has spent some 60 percent of it on roads, bridges, schools and giveaways to survivors as start-up capital.

Chito Cruz, chairman of the Housing Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), said that for the housing need of the 205,000 families identified by the government for resettlement, the government is expecting to build a total of 92,500 housing units, of which 21,500 units are to be finished by December 2015, and the remaining 71,000 units by the year 2016.

Taken by themselves, these numbers might seem impressive, but they pale into insignificance when compared to the task at hand. Some observers are saying that 1 million survivors remain homeless, hundreds of communities remain devastated and normal life in many localities is far from restored.

The United Nations is lamenting the slowness of progress and is urging the Philippine government to speed up the reconstruction work. Citing official records, the news agency Reuters is saying that of the targeted housing units of 21,500 for 2015, only 2.5 percent had been completed by June. The National Housing Authority, or the NHA, itself had finished only 542 units and is completing work on another 4,900 units.

The Neda and HUDCC are saying that reconstruction work is severely hampered by land-acquisition problems and strict government-procurement procedures.

Whatever the state of affairs, we join the national and international community in demanding faster action. The government must speed up the work, come hell or high water, with no excuses, to respond to the needs of the stricken people, many of whom had been in extreme poverty even before the typhoon struck.

There is an obvious need for new approaches. The call for a reconstruction czar is old but needs to be reiterated. Relative to housing, what about bidding out the construction work to the private sector? We have a feeling that this way of getting the job done will result not just in the acceleration of the pace of work, but in the building of units of superior design and the saving of considerable amounts of public funds.

Will we find the resources to create a better world?

C

Inter Press Service

By Palithan Kohona

Gospel

Sunday, November 8, 2015

OLOMBO, Sri Lanka—The UN General Assembly adopted the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a global summit of world leaders in September. They agreed on 17 new universal goals and 169 targets that will provide the framework for economic and political policies of UN member-states over the next 15 years to make the world a better place for humanity.

The indicators, against which their performance will be measured, will be finalized by March 2016.

Some, including the UK and Japan, wanted fewer goals. The trilliondollar question, despite the familiar hype that follows the launch of any UN initiative, is whether the resources so necessary for the realization of the SDGs would be generated through the goal: revitalization of global partnerships.

The SDGs are expected to seamlessly expand on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Agreed by governments in 2000, the MDGs, numbering eight, were also to be accomplished in 15 years. Impressive successes were recorded by some countries with regard to these goals, mostly through their own efforts.

The MDGs were essentially intended to accelerate the development of developing countries in the eight sectors identified. The substantial nonrealization of the last goal, global partnerships, including the nondelivery of the expected level of development assistance by developed countries, impacted on the full attainment of the other goals in many poor parts of the world.

The SDGs will apply to every country. Even their partial attainment in the coming 15 years will pose a gigantic challenge to all of humanity. In a world where, embarrassingly, more than 1 billion

A

people still live on less than $1.25 a day; more than 800 million go to bed hungry; 57 million children have no access to education; 2.4 billion live without proper toilet facilities; 663 million lack access to safe water; one-third of all schools lack safe water and toilet facilities; millions of women still die in childbirth; and many more children do not live to reach their fifth birthday, the SDGs may turn out to be simply too daunting.

One pressing and distracting challenge ballooning from a destabilized Middle East is the massive outflow of displaced persons across borders. More than 38 million remained displaced the world over in 2014.

The targets, assiduously refined by the negotiators, have given substance to the SDGs. A target under goal one, for example, includes reducing by at least half the number of people living in poverty by 2030 and eradicating extreme poverty (people living on less than $1.25 a day).

The enormous cost of meeting these goals has not begun to be fully absorbed yet. Even if the world will eventually pat itself on the back for achieving some of the goals, the cost of reaching them is simply mind boggling.

Rough calculations made by the intergovernmental committee of experts on sustainable development financing have put the cost of providing a social safety net to eradicate extreme poverty at $66 billion a year, while annual investments to improve infrastructure (water, agriculture, transport and power) could be up to $7 trillion globally.

The Addis Ababa conference on Financing for Development in July, which preceded the SDG

ND in His teaching, He said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go about in long robes, and to have salutations in the market places and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense, make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

And He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the multitude putting money into the treasury.

summit, formulated conclusions with a view to identifying funding sources for the SDGs. The UN ritually hailed the Addis Ababa action agenda as containing “bold measures to overhaul global finance practices and generate investment” for tackling the challenges of sustainable development.

On closer analysis, the commitments made by the multilateral financial institutions, the UN agencies, the private sector charities and the bilateral donor community, though impressive, do not appear to come even close to the sums required to achieve the SDGs. The search for funding for the SDGs continues to be constrained by thinking based on an old framework that really did not deliver the desired results.

A worryingly emerging development is the determined effort by traditional donor countries to shift responsibility to entities that are difficult to hold to account internationally (e.g. private charities and corporations), signaling an abrogation of their long-recognized obligation to provide development assistance.

If history were a guide, it is unlikely that even a meaningful portion of the estimated costs will be met through bilateral and multilateral development assistance. The 40-year-old commitment to transfer 0.7 percent of gross national income to developing countries, despite the recommitment in Addis Ababa, is still an elusive goal for most developed countries.

Even with the imaginative accounting practices adopted by some donors in recent times, including counting environmental assistance in development financing, the target remains distant for most.

Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two copper coins, which make a penny.

And He called His disciples to Him, and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.

For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had, her whole living.” M ark 12:38-44

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Sunday, November 8, 2015 A7

The challenge of Apec I

Free Fire

By Teddy Locsin Jr.

N the upcoming Apec CEO Summit, some of the world’s most dynamic businessmen meet with public-sector policymakers—which is to say people who live off business taxes with very little to show for it. The hope is to foster what smart business needs: Inclusive and less exploitative growth, because Warren Buffett said that business makes more money when people are better paid.

A good example is the business of shopping malls: Pay your people peanuts, and you get monkeys who can’t shop there themselves.

Doris Magsaysay-Ho and Guillermo Luz gave masterful presentations to this newspaper, underscoring the need for business and Apec governments to be clear about what each one wants before putting suggestions on the

Apec table. I would suggest that business first have a clear idea of what they do not want from Apec, which is for Apec to get in the way of business.

Indeed, the modest role that business assigns itself in Apec is worrisome, starting with the wrong idea entertained by business that Apec’s foundation 25 or so years ago accounts for the Pacific region’s economic dynamism.

Apec merely paralleled by talking what business in the region was achieving by investing without help or direction from Apec so much so that, in the teeth of Wall Street shenanigans that brought the US and other Western economies to their knees and wiped out tens of millions of American home owners, all Asian boats were seen to rise in Asia.

Sure, some rose higher than

others, but all rose on the same swelling tide of Pacific progress.

Setting aside Asian slave labor— indentured Rohingya fishers— the rich in the region became richer than was ever imaginable but there is less poverty and more prosperity for more people than ever before.

Apec had no role in Pacific progress, other than letting a bunch of passing politicians wear costumes native to the venue.

In fact, whatever its specious protestations of provenance, Apec was created as a response to former communist Russia’s moves in the Pacific that, however, came to nothing. The threat to Western economic hegemony was realized, instead, by still Communist China.

So the modest role that business assigns itself in Apec has the business tail wagging its Apec dog.

Apec at best meets to put

order in something that grew by defying order. The exuberance of Chinese economic activity, under the loose guidance of the Communist Party, matched by that of every business sector directed by its own wits in other Asian countries, often with total disregard for rules and legalities, explains the astonishing growth of the Pacific region. The race did not always go to the swift nor business advantage to the strong, but time and chance decided the outcomes, as Ecclesiastes might say; but the end result was progress and prosperity as never seen before—though there is much left to be desired on the score of inclusiveness and justice.

Apec insists on a rule of law (instead of the rule of the jungle, I suppose). But the rule of law tends to entrench the sort of

vested interests—like Smart and Globe—that dictate the content of the rule and stunt whatever growth they do not own. Such rules of law impose the sort of limits on creativity and productivity that historically tend to kill both. Examples are the WTO and WIPO. Meanwhile, business creates vibrant realities on the ground, such as spanking clean minicities inside the squalor of political entities; in the hope that bold developments will spread like a benign cancer and metastasize into a dazzling new metropolis.

And that is the challenge of Apec to business, which is to stop Apec, along with other multilateral associations, from fixing what ain’t broke and stunting what is growing in complete disregard of it.

Shoddy work compounds the failure of experiments on animals

By Alka Chandna

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals TNS Forum

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XPERIMENTS on animals have long been criticized for their cruelty, as well as for their failure to produce results that apply to humans.

The US Food and Drug Administration reports that nine out of 10 drugs that test as safe and effective in animals are found to be either unsafe or ineffective in humans.

Drugs that effectively treat artificially induced cancers in mice and strokes in monkeys, for example, don’t work in humans. Part of the reason for this failure is that all animals are different—genetically, anatomically, metabolically and so on—and results obtained from tests on other animals simply can’t be reliably applied to us.

Now, compounding these fundamental problems, several new

comprehensive studies show that experiments on animals are typically designed, conducted and reported in such a sloppy and biased way that they exaggerate results, downplay negative findings and can’t even be reproduced. A recent survey conducted by an international team of scientists analyzed thousands of published animal studies of pharmaceutical drugs and found that the overwhelming majority of these studies were poorly designed and did not even take elementary steps to prevent skewed results.

Experimenters failed to assign animals to treatment groups in a randomized fashion in order to ensure, for instance, that the healthiest animals weren’t all being assigned to the group receiving the treatment being tested. They also failed to ensure blinded assessment of the results, which is necessary in order to prevent the experimenters’ expectations of the outcome from

influencing their judgment of the actual outcome, and they failed to ensure that the numbers of animals used would produce meaningful results. These measures are fundamental to valid research, but when it comes to studies using animals, experimenters seem not to know the basics or care about them—or both.

In another recent study, scientists at McGill University analyzed hundreds of animal experiments carried out with a particular kidney cancer drug and found that data suggesting the drug had little to no effect in combating cancer were not published.

Consequently, published studies overestimated the effectiveness of the drug by up to 45 percent. The lead author of this study commented, “Preclinical animal research is plagued by poor design and reporting practices, exposing patients to harmful and inactive agents, wasting time in the lab

and driving up the price of drugs.”

These latest surveys follow a succession of similar reports of flawed experimental design and conduct and publication bias. Add to this the fact that dozens of studies have demonstrated that seemingly in— significant differences in the ways in which animals are housed and treated in laboratories—including lighting, caging, noise, smells and diet—can further confound results in ways that experimenters don’t recognize and often can’t control.

A 2014 article in The BMJ co-authored by a Yale School of Medicine physician-scientist examined these and other problems and concluded, “If animal researchers continue to fail to conduct rigorous studies and synthesise and report them accurately, and if research conducted on animals continues to be unable to reasonably predict what can be expected in humans, the public’s continuing endorsement and

funding of preclinical animal research seems misplaced.”

Yet the National Institutes of Health continues to dedicate nearly half of its $30-billion annual budget of tax dollars to projects that involve inherently flawed and methodologically questionable experiments on animals, including tearing infant monkeys away from their mothers at birth in order to cause depression, injecting hamsters with steroids and forcing them to fight, addicting rats to cocaine and forcing dogs to run on treadmills until they have heart attacks. Far from producing good science, these experiments cost millions of animals their lives, waste limited resources, misinform the scientific community and give false hope to the public. By switching to cutting-edge and superior human-based research tools such as organs-on-chips, we can safeguard funding, advance human health and save animals.

Chalabi legacy haunts Iraq

By Trudy Rubin The Philadelphia Inquirer TNSForum

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ET us pause to mark the death of Ahmad Chalabi, the suave Iraqi exile beloved by Vice President Dick Cheney and top Bush administration officials.

Many people the world over have no doubt forgotten the name of Chalabi, 71, who died this week of heart failure in Baghdad.

They shouldn’t have. The fasttalking Iraqi, with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago, was the darling of President George W. Bush’s top foreign policy advisers. He was a con man who succeeded in his mission: to convince the Americans to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein.

Cheney et al. accepted everything Chalabi offered—without question—including claims that the Iraqi would be welcomed home as the country’s new leader and would establish a pro-American democracy that recognized Israel.

Anyone who knew Iraq knew this was nonsense. But such contrary views were rejected in the Bush White House and Defense Department. Chalabi told them exactly what they wanted to hear.

It is useful to reflect on Chalabi ’s machinations at a time when the botched Iraq invasion

still haunts America and the region. All the more so since some of his strongest backers, such as Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, are still politically active and some are even advising current Republican presidential candidates. This Iraqi’s story should (but probably won’t) warn US leaders of both parties of the folly of basing foreign policy on wishful thinking, especially when it involves war.

Until age 13, Chalabi was raised in luxury as the son of a wealthy Shiite merchant. (He once showed me the family’s former vacation home in a Baghdad suburb, with its outdoor lap pool, across the street from a grain silo that his father had owned.) His family was forced into exile in 1958 after military officers ousted the Iraqi king. The coup led to a succession of dictators culminating with Saddam, whom Chalabi was obsessed with ousting.

I first met Chalabi in 1992, after the 1991 Gulf War, when he founded the Iraqi National Congress (INC), an exile movement aimed at Saddam’s ouster. Through his contacts with US officials, the INC ultimately received more than $100 million from the CIA and other government agencies.

Chalabi sold the Bush team on the idea that Iraq was a middle-class country that would set up a secular, inclusive governing system.

Until age 13, Ahmad Chalabi was raised in luxury as the son of a wealthy Shiite merchant. (He once showed me the family’s former vacation home in a Baghdad suburb, with its outdoor lap pool, across the street from a grain silo that his father had owned.) His family was forced into exile in 1958 after military officers ousted the Iraqi king. The coup led to a succession of dictators culminating with Saddam, whom Chalabi was obsessed with ousting.

(In rea l it y, as Iraq e x per ts predicted, the ouster of Saddam empowered the majority of poor, religious Shiites to take power and set up religion-based parties.

The secular middle class had been decimated by years of sanctions and war.)

After 9/11, Chalabi convinced Cheney and the Bush team that he could lead the exiles back home like a latter-day Charles de Gaulle, where he would be welcomed by his countrymen. Wolfowitz told me in a November 2002 interview that postwar Iraq would

resemble post-World War II France, to which de Gaulle triumphantly returned from London.

In late 2002, I asked Bernard Lewis, the distinguished Mideast expert who was close to the Bush team and was a major Chalabi booster, how democracy would come to Iraq. He responded: “Well, Ahmad will take care of things.”

Lewis and other Bush advisers hoped the Hashemite monarchy could be restored to Iraq and that the monarch would then appoint Chalabi as prime minister. Never mind that the Hashemites are Sunnis and that the overthrow of Saddam meant that Iraq’s majority Shiites would take power.

Chalabi’s informants fed the Bush team false infor mation about weapons of mass destruction, including the famous fable of mobile vans where biological weapons were manufactured. The story was cited by Colin Powell in February 2003 at the United Nations as justification for the war, although the defector’s data was never verified.

The story bolstered the case for war. Once the Iraq invasion began, US forces airlifted Chalabi into the southern city of Nasiriyah, expecting a crowd of thousands to welcome him. To make sure the numbers turned out, CIA operatives distributed bags of money to tribal leaders, as I was told at the

time via satellite phone by sheikhs in the area who had been offered cash to show up.

But Chalabi—who had not stepped foot in Iraq since age 13—had to show support inside his country.

The welcoming masses never appeared. Dreams of an Iraqi de Gaulle were nothing but a mirage.

Nonetheless, Chalabi set up office in Baghdad’s Sporting Club, a onetime retreat for the Iraqi elite; he remained on the Pentagon payroll, to the tune of $340,000 a week, until 2004.

He was the driving force behind the country’s de-Baathification policy, which deepened Iraq’s sectarian divisions. That policy barred tens of thousands of former Baath party members from government jobs—not just those with blood on their hands, but thousands of teachers and other professionals who had to join the party to keep their jobs. By mainly penalizing Sunni Iraqis, it helped drive many into the arms of extremists.

The Bush administration finally soured on Chalabi in 2004 because of suspicions of fraud and worries about his close relations with Iranian officials, but his backers never admitted their folly in creating the myth of Chalabi as leader. Perhaps that’s because they couldn’t make him look bad without making themselves look worse.

Sports BusinessMirror

A8 | Sunday, November 8, 2015

271 days

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph

AUGUST 5, 2016

TIGERS MANGLE TAMS U

By Joel Orellana

Kevin Ferrer also had a solid game of 21 points but had to leave the game briefly after experiencing palpitation late in the third quarter.

Louie Vigil and Mario Bonleon each had 13 points for UST with the latter hitting a crucial drive after the Tamaraws threatened at 76-83.

Bonleon’s basket made it 85-76 and Abdul added a pair of free throws to seal the win for the Growling Tigers.

Mike Tolomia paced FEU with 17 points, while Francis Tamsi had 15 for the Tamaraws, whose ninegame winning streak ended.

UE, meanwhile, couldn’t wield the momentum from its upset of UST three days ago and played flat to lose, 71-74, to an Adamson University side that is already out of the semifinals race and only wanted respect as it approaches another dismal showing in the league.

But the Soaring Falcons had to contend with the stubborn Red Warriors who pricked a 20-point deficit with a fourth-quarter uprising.

Pape Sarr had another 20-20 effort for Adamson University, but Joseph Nalos’s two clutch free throws in the final 15.7 seconds saved the Soaring Falcons from a monumental collapse to improve to 3-10 won-lost— their best record in the league after a long while.

“It was a good morale-booster win for us,” said

NIVERSITY of Santo Tomas (UST) stopped Far Eastern University’s (FEU) with a huge 85-76 victory to earn at least a playoff for a twice-tobeat advantage in the Final Four of Season 78 University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball action on Saturday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Growling Tigers unleashed the ferocity they are expected to flash this season and dominated the Tamaraws in the second half, 50-29—turning a tight contest into a one-sided affair to bounce back from a disappointing loss to the University of the East (UE) last Wednesday.

The victory gave UST a 10-3 win-loss record. The Tigers now trail FEU (10-2) by half a game and, more important, put one paw toward the precious incentive in the semifinal round.

“The character of the team showed in this game that’s why we were able to beat the No. 1 team,” said Growling Tigers Head Coach Bong de la Cruz, who drew double figures from five players led by Karim Abdul’s 23 points.

“We really prepared hard for this game. Nobody complained in practice and we just kept on playing defense,” de la Cruz added.

Fermin, who dealt the Red Warriors their eighth loss in 12 games. “We haven’t gained the respect of other teams. Our mentality is to gain their respect and prove that we belong.”

In one stretch, Adamson University played like a Final Four contender. The Soaring Falcons exploded for 16 straight points to start the third period and turned a slim 48-44 halftime lead into a 64-44 cushion with 4:18 left in that quarter.

The Red Warriors missed their first 13 attempts in the first 6:22 of the third canto before Bonbon Battiler ended the drought with a drive and sparked a 10-1 run to trim Adamson University’s lead to 54-65 entering the final 10 minutes. UE, needing a win to stay alive for the last Final Four, was not done yet and started the last period with a 12-2 salvo to move to within one, 66-67, 3:57 left in the game.

P

and even KIA (0-3) in the hunt for the last semifinals seat in the tournament backed by Mikasa and Accel.

Army, meanwhile, guns for its fourth straight win as it battles Coast Guard on Sunday of the weekend volleyball festival, where matches are aired live on GMA News TV Channel 11.

The Lady Troopers and the Lady Dolphins tangle in the 12:45 p.m. opener, while the University of the Philippines Lady Maroons seek to recover lost grounds against Kia Forte in the 3 p.m. main game.

PLDT continued to play without injured ace spiker Alyssa Valdez, but Aiza Pontillas and Janine Marciano more than made up for her absence by drilling in 15 hits apiece. Rysabelle Devandera and Gretchel Soltones added 13 and 10 markers, respectively, to underscore the team’s balanced offensive sock.

“We made some adjustments, especially

W

ESTERN Visayas and National Capital Region (NCR) kick off their respective drive in the Shakey’s Girls’ Volleyball League Season 13 on Monday, hoping to hurdle their initial matches in separate groups for the momentum needed in the cutthroat national finals, at the Cuneta Astrodome.

Western Visayas battles Northern Luzon in Pool A in the 6 p.m. match, capping an explosive opening triple-bill in the national finals, which gathers the top 8 teams after the grueling regional finals of the annual event put up Shakey’s for the country’s leading private- and public-school girls’ volley teams.

NCR, on the other hand, clashes with Northern Mindanao at 5 p.m. in Pool B action after the Southern Luzon-Central Visayas, also in Pool B, match at 4 p.m.

Western Visayas, then represented by Saint John’s Institute, stunned NCR in a thrilling five-set duel to snatch last year’s League of Champions crown.

With members of the Central Philippine University leading this year’s squad, Western Visayas hopes to make it back-to-back in the annual event long considered as the spawning ground of volley talents in the country.

in communication with regard to our plays,” said Pontillas, who spiked her solid game with eight digs.

Navy actually started out strong and took control at 8-5 only to yield the lead as PLDT stepped up its attack midway the opening set, wresting control at 16-13 en route to the 22-minute romp.

But the Lady Sailors came out an organized lot in the second, cashing in on the Ultra Fast Hitters’ lapses behind Pau Soriano and Lilet Mabbayad to draw level.

But with Rubie de Leon dishing out another solid playmaking job, Pontillas, Marciano, Devanadera and Soltones imposed their will in the next two sets to finish off their rivals in 90 minutes.

Soriano wound up with 17 kills while Mabbayad rammed in nine attack points and had three blocks for a 12-hit output for the Lady Sailors.

AZKALS VS YEMEN

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BATANG GILAS RIPS LEBANON, FINISHES FIFTH

NAVY’S Ma. Paulina Soiano (2) and Norie Jane Diaz (3) could only watch the ball slip through them from a spike by PLDT Home Ultera’s Laurence Ann Latigay. NONOY LACZA

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ATANG Gilas poured it all in the third quarter to down Lebanon, 89-74, and settle for fifth place in the 2015 International Basketball Federation Asia Under-16 Championship on Saturday at the Britama Arena, inside the Sportmall Kelapa Gading in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Forward Jonas Tibayan, a 6-foot-4 standout from Chiang Kai Shek College, finished with a game-high 16 points on a 7-for-12 shooting he topped with five steals for Batang Gilas, which failed to match its silver-medal finish last year. Guards Kris Harvey Pagsanjan and Sam Josef Belanguel each added 13 markers, while Ateneo High School standouts Sean Dave Ildefonso and Gian Mamuyac made 12 and 10 points, respectively, for the nationals.

The Filipinos survived a huge game from guard Salim Alaaeddine, whose 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting kept the Lebanese above water during Batang Gilas’ surge.

Georges El Beyrouty and Karim Zeinoun finished with 20 and 15 markers, respectively, for the Junior Cedars. Chinese Taipei battled Korea for the crown, while Japan, which ousted Batang Gilas in the quarterfinals, faced China in the bronze-medal match late Saturday. The top 3 finishers will advance to the world championship in Spain next year. The boys of Head Coach Michael Oliver, which missed the medal round for the first time since the tournament began in 2009, had a tough time against the slightly taller Lebanese in a nip-and-tuck first period to finish with a slim 17-14 advantage.

But Mamuyac ignited a 15-6 Gilas surge for a 50-34 advantage at the half.

It was Tibayan’s turn to wax hot in the third quarter and scattered 10 points in another 12-3 Gilas run for the game’s biggest lead at 25, 62-37.

Diego de la Paz

DOMINGO

VOLLEYBALL NATIONALS ON

ULTRA FAST HITTERS IN SEMIS

LDT Home Ultera shook off a sluggish second set and fashioned out a 25-20, 20-25, 25-13, 25-13 victory over Navy on Saturday to advance to the semifinal round of the Shakey’s V-League Season 12-Reinforced Conference at The Arena in San Juan City.

The Ultra Fast Hitters came out strong from a series of lapses that enabled the Lady Sailors to draw level after two sets, blasting kills from all angels and, at times, cashing in on their rivals’ token service reception to finish with 12 aces.

The victory was PLDT’s third in four games to secure a spot in the Final Four while dragging idle Army, unbeaten in three starts, into the semifinals of the season-ending conference of the league sponsored by Shakey’s and presented by PLDT Home Ultera.

Navy closed out its eliminations campaign with a 2-3 card and remained at fourth but the setback kept Coast Guard (1-3)

ADAMSON University’s Joseph Nalos slices through University of the East’s Ronnie de Leon (7) and Emil Palma (16). ROY

Lady Slammers hot in Malolos

By Lance Agcaoili

M PARTICIPANTS tackle Nuvali’s course in Santa Rosa, Laguna. NONIE REYES

FOREIGNERS RULE MTB RACE

By Ramon Rafael Bonilla

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HE foreign riders stamped their class on local soil with Milton Ramos of Honduras and Ilda Pereira of Portugal ruling the men’s and women’s elite categories of cross-country marathon in the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Series Qualifying Leg in Nuvali’s Dirt Weekend at Santa Rosa, Laguna, on Saturday.

Ramos, riding for Team Honduras Intense Bikes-Go Pro, clocked two hours, 18 minutes and 32 seconds to snatch the gold medal. He beat Tawatchai Jerravatchatam (2:20:38) of Thailand-Singha Infinite in the 65-kilometer race.

Filipino Alvin Benosa of BMC Philippines made the podium after finishing third in 2:21:02.

Team Mozinho’s Pereira, on the other hand, was dominating in the women’s

elite and won in 3:01:15. Indonesia’s Yazid Kuzmawati of Team Jabar Polygon was a far second in 3:06:42, and Filipina Melissa Jane Jaroda of Team Ground Zero was third with 3:14:45.

The top finishers each took home $1,000, with the second and third pocketing $750 and $329, respectively.

“We chose Nuvali as host because of its expertise and high standards in setting up a mountain bike [MTB] event in terms of race technicalities, safety and logistics,” UCI Race Director Geoff Kronenburg said.

Nuvali has been hosting MTB races for the last seven years, but the weekend races marked the first time that a UCI event was staged in the venue.

“We want to develop future athletes and, at the same time, promote sustainable environment through biking,” Nuvali General Manager John Estacio said.

ALOLOS CITY—Philips Gold zeroed in on a semifinals spot after outlasting Meralco, 25-12, 26-24, 25-19, in the Spike-On-Tour of the 2015 Philippine Superliga Grand Prix on Saturday at the Malolos Convention Center.

Alexis Olgard and Myla Pablo stepped up by peppering the defense with accurate smashes while Bojana Todorovic hounded the backline defense to help the Lady Slammers to their fifth win in seven games.

Philips Gold moved a win shy of joining defending champion Petron in the semifinals of the interclub tournament presented by Asics and backed by Milo with Mueller, Mikasa and Senoh as technical partners, and TV5 as official broadcaster.

Meralco, on the other hand, kissed its championship hopes good-bye with its

seventh consecutive setback.

The 6-foot-5 Olgard was a tower of power and delivered 10 kills and five blocks to finish with 16 points. Pablo had 13 points.

Todorovic finished with only nine points, but her team-high 11 digs cut the power off the Meralco girls.

“It was a total team effort,” said Philips Gold coach Francis Vicente, lauding his wards bounce-back performance following a dismal four-set loss to Foton on Thursday.

“We came from vacation and everybody was sluggish. As I always say, it happens to a team. But now, I think we already regained our form. We just have to be more focus on our reception and blocking,” Vicente added.

Liis Kullerkann had eight kills and two aces for 11 points while Mary Joy Baron and Cyd Demecillo had nine and eight points, respectively, for Meralco, which benched injured import Christina Alessi of the United States.

EAM captain Phil Younghusband leads the Azkals side that will play Yemen in the International Federation Football (Fifa) World Cup Qualifiers on Thursday at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.

Joining Younghusband on the 23-man roster released by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) on Friday are goalkeeper Neil Etheridge, Stephan Schrock, Iain Ramsey, Daisuke Sato, Misagh Bahadoran, Martin Steuble, Amani Aguinaldo, Manuel Ott, Jerry Lucena and Rob Gier.

Javier Patiño and Simone Rota are also out of the injury list and will play on Coach Thomas Dooley’s team. Patiño injured his hamstring against North Korea and Bahrain while Rota hurt his rib in the United Football League Cup. Completing the team are Kevin Ingreso, OJ Porteria, Patrick Reichelt, Stephen Palla, Roland Muller, Dennis Villanueva, Paul Mulders, Kenshiro Daniels and Patrick Deyto.

The Philippines recently dropped three spots in the Fifa rankings to 137th seed after a heart-pounding setback in a road game against Bahrain, 0-2, on October 13 at Bahrain International Stadium in East Riffa.

The Filipinos will try to keep their World Cup dreams alive as they try to improve on their 2-1-2 win-draw-loss slate for seven points in third place of Group H of the qualifiers.

Yemen has yet to win after five games.

Lance Agcaoili

Hobe Bihon unblemished in DELeague hoopfest in Marikina

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WO-TIME champion Hobe Bihon-Cars Unlimited beat Metro Pacific Toll Corp., 82-72, on Thursday night for its second-straight victory in the Fifth DELeague Basketball Tournament at the Marikina Sports Center in Marikina City.

Rodriglie Ebundo scored 19 points and four rebounds while former Barako Bulls point guard Bonbon Custodio added 17 points, five rebounds and four assists for Hobe Bihon-Cars Unlimited.

Ernest Reyes finished with 22 points he topped with seven rebounds and Raul Soyud added 10 points and 13 rebounds for

the Road Warriors who fell to 1-1 won-lost.

“At first, they were overwhelmed.

Despite their timing, they could not score so they hurried it up,” Hobe Bihon-Cars Unlimited Coach Braulio Lim said. “I told the boys to play their best so they can adjust when they face tougher opponents in their succeeding games.”

In the other game of the league supported by PSBank, Accel Sportswear, PCA-Marivalley, Angel’s Burger, Mckie’s Construction Equipment Sales and Rentals, Luyong Panciteria, Azucar Boulangerie and Patisserie, JAJ Quick Print Advertising,

Mall Tile Experts Corp., Jay Marcelo Tires, Polar Glass and Aluminum Supply and Mr. and Mrs. Dot Escalona, Power Innovation downed Philippine National Police-Quick Print, 89-74.

Ronald Roy had 16 points and three rebounds and Kazim Mirza contributed 14 points and two assists to lead the Power Innovators to first victory in two games.

Estong Ballesteros had 17 points and six rebounds and Kojak Meligrito made nine points and grabbed seven for PNPQuick Print Enforcers which dropped to a 0-2 record.