BusinessMirror November 14, 2014

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Friday, November 14, 2014

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SAND, SANDALS & JOEL EDGERTON THE AUSTRALIAN ACTOR, ALONG WITH COSTAR CHRISTIAN BALE AND DIRECTOR RIDLEY SCOTT, REIMAGINES THE BIBLICAL EPIC BATTLE BETWEEN MOSES AND RAMSES.

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JOEL EDGERTON PHOTOGRAPHER LORENZO AGIUZ

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OEL EDGERTON has been on some big—very big—films in the past but nothing has compared to Ridley Scott’s biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings.

The scale of Scott’s production— which filmed at Pinewood Studios in London and on location in Spain and on the Canary Islands—was staggering, he says, and some of the beautifully crafted artefacts created for the film were mind-bogglingly impressive— not the least a 50-foot-tall statue of Edgerton’s own head.

Starring alongside Christian Bale as Moses, Edgerton plays Ramses, an Egyptian Pharaoh regarded as a living god by his subjects—hence the enormous likeness of his head made by the Exodus props department. As Edgerton points out, Scott has already successfully reinvented the swords and sandals genre with Gladiator, and now he’s set to do the same with the biblical epic. “I was joking with Ridley and said, ‘You realize you started all of this...,’” he laughs.

“Every year since he made Gladiator, there has been a couple of those movies and some of them are fantasy and some are legend or based in true fact but he started that.

“He reignited the flame when he made Gladiator and here he is doing something very different. It’s an interesting movie in a way because it has a huge scale to it but it isn’t just like a series of fights, although it is a battle of wills for sure between Ramses and Moses.

Filmed in 3D, Scott’s film will tell the story of Moses, abandoned as a baby by a desperate mother after the Egyptian rulers orders the murder of all boys born to slaves.

He is found in the bulrushes by the Pharaoh’s daughter and raised in the royal household, where he grows up alongside Ramses, the future monarch.

As a man, Moses has a vision from God and turns his back on his privileged life and leads his people, the Israelites, from enslavement.

Scott’s film will feature groundbreaking special effects, including the plagues visited upon Egypt, and the parting of the Red Sea. Edgerton was born in Sydney, Australia, and studied drama at the University of Western Sydney. His impressive film CV includes Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones, Ned Kelly, King Arthur, Smokin’ Aces, Whisper, The Square, Animal Kingdom, Warrior, Zero Dark Thirty and The Great Gatsby.

We’ve just been looking around your set here and the scale of it is huge. It’s a big film.

It really is. Ridley shoots big movies and I gather that this is one of his bigger ones. It’s definitely one of the biggest that I’ve ever been involved in. The scale of the sets, the amount of people around—the crew and the hundreds of extras we have on some days—and the epic scale of the story, it’s really staggering.

What does it give you as an actor when you walk on to a set like this?

Yeah, well, it’s pretty good right? (Laughs)

Everybody is great on this movie. I don’t know much about the London movie scene but I do know about Australia and the crews there and generally certain directors can get the best of the departments that they want and I get a feeling that Ridley is one of those people.

And I also notice that there are a number of people on this movie who tell tales of Prometheus and they tell tales of Kingdom of Heaven, which just goes to show that a majority of the crew have been around the block at least twice, sometimes three, four, five times with him, which means that he is a good general. And he really is like a general when you think about it, because the amount of people he is inspiring with his vision and getting them on the same page with him to tell the story is huge.

It kind of does baffle me to look around and think, “How did they know how many people to get? And how to dress them? How many buildings to put up?” And I heard the other day that he does these incredible preproduction prep meetings where he basically orchestrates the whole thing.

Tell us about the character you play.

Well, it’s interesting because the worst description of Ramses is that he is a bad guy.

And why I say it’s the worst version is because it’s the easiest description. But the way the script is constructed is that Ramses is very much like family to Moses or Moses is family to him. And I think the best version of a villain is that it’s someone who, in their own movie, could be a hero.

And he just has opinions on a number of things very different to Moses’s but they could be justified and valid in their own context.

What would that be?

That perhaps Moses has lost his mind, that Moses is making very immediate and irrational demands, and that Moses is suddenly changing his opinion because he understands something different about himself, that Moses claims to have talked to God. So for me, I want to find somewhere between doing my job of being that villainous component of the movie, that counterpoint to the hero, but also finding the humanity within that because then I think then it’s a greater contest. I’ve always felt that when I’ve watched other movies—that if I’ve understood the bad guy, then I cheer for the hero more.

So he’s not an unreasonable man? He’s not some kind of crazy guy?

Yes, he surely is unreasonable. (Laughs) I mean, he’s racist and that’s clearly unreasonable. He’s a tyrant and a dictator, and he thinks of himself as a god, but that wasn’t outside of the parameters of Egyptian thinking.

I’m very curious about that actually—if you are ordained as a living god, surely there is part of your brain that doubts it?

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cosmic first: European spacecraft lands on comet

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World

1 CELEBRATING scientists in the main control room appear on a video screen at the European Space Agency after the first unmanned spacecraft Philae landed on a comet called 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko, in Darmstadt, Germany, on Wednesday. Europe’s Rosetta space probe was launched in 2004 with the aim of studying the comet and learning more about the origins of the universe. AP/MICHAEL PROBST

The

2 THE picture released by the European Space Agency on Wednesday was taken by the Rolis instrument on Rosetta’s Philae lander during descent from a distance of approximately 3 kilometers (km) from the 4-km-wide 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet. Hundreds of millions of miles from Earth, the European spacecraft made history by successfully landing on the icy, dusty surface of a speeding comet. AP/ESA

B3-1 | Friday, November 14, 2014 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Cosmic first: European spacecraft lands on comet

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ARMSTADT, Germany— Landing with a bounce after traveling 4 billion miles, a European spacecraft made history on Wednesday by successfully reaching the icy, dusty surface of a speeding comet—a cosmic first designed to answer big questions about the universe.

The landing by the washing machine-sized craft after a decadelong journey required immense precision, as even the slightest error could have resulted in stellar calamity.

BRITAIN TO OFFER FASTTRACK VISAS

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HE United Kingdom will expand its fast-track 24hour visa service to include New York City, the United Arab Emirates and Paris, Prime Minister David Cameron announced.

The expansion of the service, which is already available in China and India, will help to boost investment and tourism to Britain, Cameron said in a statement as he traveled to Australia for the Group of 20 summit in Brisbane.

The program—which will also include Thailand, Turkey, South Africa and the Philippines—will give people an answer on their visa application in 24 hours on payment of a £600 ($950) fee, Cameron’s office said.

The processing center in Paris will enable the 25,000 thirdcountry nationals who apply in the French capital each year to fast-track the process.

“We are determined to do everything we can to back business, support investment and create jobs,” Cameron said.

“This new 24-hour service is another way we can help—it will persuade more business travelers, investors and tourists to visit Britain, to trade with Britain and to expand in Britain.”

Companies have warned the government that lengthy bureaucracy around visa applications is deterring investors, business travelers and wealthy tourists.

About 40 percent of visa applications in New York already use the priority visa service, which turns applications around in three to five days, indicating there will be demand for the new service, Cameron’s office said.

Cameron is scheduled to meet with around 30 CEOs on November 14 at the B-20 for businesses that runs alongside the Group of 20 meeting. Bloomberg News

Indications were that the spacecraft touched down almost perfectly, save for an unplanned bounce, said Stephan Ulamec, head of the lander operation.

“Today we didn’t just land

once. We maybe even landed twice,” he said with a chuckle.

Ulamec said thrusters that were meant to push the lander, called Philae, onto the surface, and harpoons that would have anchored it to the comet failed to deploy properly. Initial data from the spacecraft indicated that it lifted off again, turned and then came to rest.

Scientists were still trying to fully understand what happened and whether those failures would affect the lander’s ability to remain on the comet, called 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. But, so far, most of the instruments were working fi ne and sending back data as hoped, Ulamec said.

“Tomorrow morning we should know a lot more,” he said.

The landing team at mission

control in Darmstadt had to sweat through a tense seven-hour wait that began when Philae dropped from the agency’s Rosetta space probe as both it and the comet hurtled through space at 66,000 kilometers per hour (kph).

During the lander’s descent, scientists were powerless to do anything but watch, because its vast distance from Earth—more than 300 million miles—made it impossible to send instructions in real time.

Finally, at 16:03 GMT, the agency received a signal that the lander had touched down.

While it may take a while to determine the exact state of the 100-kilogram lander, the fact that it was resting on the surface of the comet was already a huge success—the highlight of Rosetta’s

decade-long mission to study comets and learn more about the origins of these celestial bodies.

The head of the European Space Agency underlined Europe’s pride in having achieved a unique first ahead of its US counterpart, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa).

“We are the first to have done that, and that will stay forever,” said the European agency’s director general, Jean-Jacques Dordain.

Nasa contributed three instruments to the mission and its Deep Space Network of giant radio antennas has been key to communicating with Rosetta.

Eight-time spacewalking astronaut John Grunsfeld, now associate administrator for science at Nasa, called the landing “a breakthrough moment in the exploration of our

solar system and a milestone for international cooperation.”

“The data collected by Rosetta will provide the scientific community, and the world, with a treasure-trove of data,” he said in a statement.

Scientists have likened the trillion or so comets in our solar system to time capsules that are virtually unchanged since the earliest moments of the universe.

“By studying one in enormous detail, we can hope to unlock the puzzle of all of the others,” said Mark McCaughrean, a senior scientific adviser to the mission.

Earth billions of years ago, giving them a key role in the evolution of life on our planet, said Klim Churyumov, one of the two astronomers who discovered the comet in 1969. AP

Myanmar troubles jeopardize Obama’s foreign-policy goal

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AYPYITAW, Myanmar—For President Barack Obama, Myanmar’s stalled progress on promised political and economic reforms is jeopardizing what was to be a crowning achievement for his foreign policy legacy.

Obama arrived in Myanmar’s capital of Naypyitaw on Wednesday amid persistent questions about whether the government would follow through on its pledges— and whether the US had made too many overtures to the long-isolated country too soon.

Myanmar won wide sanctions relief from Obama after its sudden and unexpected shift from a half-century of military rule, but

there’s little certainty about the country’s future.

“Progress has not come as fast as many had hoped when the transition began,” Obama said in an interview with Myanmar’s The Irrawaddy magazine. “In some areas there has been a slowdown in reforms, and even some steps backward.”

White House officials say Obama has always been realistic about the challenges ahead for Myanmar, a country that in many cases lacks the infrastructure and capacity to enact the reforms its leaders have outlined. But critics of the administration’s policy say the US gave up its leverage too quickly by rewarding the government for

promises, rather than results.

“With so many avenues for pressure lost, it can indeed seem like the US doesn’t have a lot of cards left to play,” said John Sifton, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Critics also contend that the president got caught up in the notion that opening Myanmar to the outside world would be a central part of his legacy as America’s selfproclaimed Pacific president.

Indeed, a successful democratic transition would fit neatly into Obama’s broader Asia strategy, which includes deepening US political and economic partnerships in the region, particularly with countries seen to share America’s values.

The so-called pivot to Asia has raised concerns in China—Myanmar’s neighbor and largest trading partner—that the US is seeking to contain Chinese influence.

Despite Obama’s hopes for Myanmar, optimism within the administration has faded somewhat since the president’s trip here in 2012. He was the first sitting US president to visit the country, and aides still fondly recall the massive crowds that lined the streets to watch his motorcade pass.

Yet, there’s little question Myanmar has failed to make good on the promises its leaders made to Obama during that short visit.

More than any other issue,

White House officials say it’s Myanmar’s persecution of minority Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine state that threatens to alienate the US and other nations that have been drawn to the country. Attacks by Buddhist extremists since mid-2012 have left hundreds of Rohingya Muslims dead and 140,000 trapped in dire conditions in camps.

With presidential elections in Myanmar looming next year, the status of the Rakhine state has become mired in politics. The Rohingya are deeply disdained by many in Myanmar, and most officials dare not publicly call for better treatment, not even the country’s pro-democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi. AP

EIJING—It was a warm gesture on a chilly night when Russian President Vladimir Putin wrapped a shawl around the wife of Xi Jinping, while the Chinese president chatted with Barack Obama.

The only problem: Putin came off looking gallant, the Chinese summit host gauche and inattentive.

Worse still were off-color jokes that began to circulate about the real intentions of the divorced Russian president—a heartthrob among many Chinese women for his macho, man-of-action image.

That was too much for the Chinese authorities.

The incident at a performance linked to this week’s Asia-Pacific summit originally was broadcast on state broadcaster CCTV and spread online as a forwarded video. But it was soon scrubbed clean from the Chinese Internet, reflecting the intense control authorities exert over any material about top leaders, while also pointing to cultural differences over what’s considered acceptable behavior in public.

“China is traditionally conservative on public interaction between unrelated men and women, and the public show of consideration by Putin may provide fodder for jokes,

Continued on A2

U.S. President Barack Obama (left) chats with Chinese President Xi Jinping (second from left), as Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) puts a blanket on Peng Liyuan, wife of Xi Jinping, as they arrive to watch a fireworks show after a welcome banquet for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing, China, on November 10. AP

which the big boss probably does not like,” said Beijing-based historian and independent commentator Zhang Lifan.

Xi’s wife, Peng Liyuan, was once a popular folk singer more famous than her husband, and, in contrast to her predecessors, she has taken

on a much more public role, prominently joining her husband on trips abroad as part of China’s soft power push to seek global status commensurate with its economic might.

Propaganda officials have built the image of Xi and his wife as a loving couple. Photos of Xi shielding his

wife from rain on a state visit, picking flowers for her, or simply holding her hand have circulated widely on China’s social media, prompting much oohing and aahing.

“When the president personally held up the umbrella for the madam, it complies with the interna-

tional norm of respecting women,” blogger Luo Qingxue wrote on the news site for the party-run newspaper People’s Daily last year, after Xi was seen holding an umbrella over himself and Peng on a state visit to Trinidad and Tobago.

But Putin messed up the script on Monday night while Xi chatted with the American president.

In the video, Peng stood up, politely accepted the gray shawl or blanket offered by Putin, and thanked him with a slight bow. But she soon slipped it off and put on a black coat offered by her own attendant.

It spawned a flurry of commentary on China’s social media before censors began removing any mention of the incident.

Li Xin, director of Russian and central Asian studies at Shanghai Institute for International Studies, said Putin was just being a proper Russian and did nothing out-of-line diplomatically.

“It’s a tradition in Russia for a man of dignity to respect ladies on public occasions, and, in a cold country like Russia, it is very normal that a gentleman should help ladies take on and off their coats,” Li said. “But the Chinese may not be accustomed to that.” AP

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OKYO, Japan—The government of Japan aims to expand its international aid flow starting 2015 by introducing amendments to its official development assistance (ODA) program’s charter, which was last revised in 2003.

From simply extending grants and providing loans, the Japanese government is now revising its ODA program to include partnerships with its recipients, said Kaname Araki, senior coordinator at the Aid Policy and Management Division of the Japanese International Cooperation Bureau.

“We would like to change the position from assistance to cooperation. We will put more emphasis on partnership to enlarge our partnership with developing countries,” he said.

This means that the name of the program will also be changed to Official Development Cooperation, a move that would further expand Japan’s contribution to the international community.

DOU ZECHENG of China hits a shot from a bunker on the 11th hole during the final round of the HSBC Champions golf tournament at the Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai over the weekend.

AP

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C | F, N ,  mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

BABY STEPS B D F The Associated Press

HANGHAI—The graceful movement was enough to get the full attention of Adam Scott, who knows a good golf swing when he sees one.

Scott only remembers her name as Tina. She was one of several Chinese juniors afforded a chance to play with the pros for one hole on the eve of the HSBC Champions.

And she made quite an impression.

“I played with an 11-year-old girl this week who if she does nothing but continues to play, I’m sure she’ll be on the LPGA [Ladies Professional Golfers Association] Tour in about five years,” Scott said.

“She played off my tees on the 17th, 205 yards. Hit a three-wood to 15 feet and lipped it out. Made an easy three. Just looked beautiful.”

Four years ago, Tiger Woods was introduced to a 12-year-old on the same hole at Sheshan International. Woods was amazed at the poise the boy showed in hitting over the gorge and onto the green with the largest gallery on the golfcourse watching. His name was Guan Tianlang, and two years later he became the youngest player to make the cut in the Masters.

Each year brings more advancement by Chinese golfers, and the inaugural year of PGA Tour China would appear to be accelerating that growth.

With three events remaining on the 12-tournament schedule, one of the top five golfers in position to get his Web.com Tour card is Li Haotong, a lanky 19-year-old who has shown signs of competing against stronger, more experienced players The China Golf Association (CGA) gets limited spots for its players when tournaments are held in China, and Li is coming off two solid weeks.

He tied for 43rd in the BMW Masters on the European Tour (on his home course at Lake Malaren). A week later in the HSBC Champions, a World Golf Championship event featuring 40 of the top 50 in the world ranking, he closed with a 67 for the second-best round on Sunday. He tied for 35th with Jimmy Walker and Jordan Spieth.

Baby steps.

“It’s a good opportunity,” Li said of PGA Tour China. “If not for PGA competition, I would not be able to have a chance to go to the US to play.”

Li believes his game is technically sound enough to compete. What he lacks is experience.

And that was the whole idea of the fledgling tour in China.

“We’re seeing some good players, and some wins

by Chinese players,” said Paul Johnson, the PGA Tour senior vice president of international business affairs. “That’s the start of the process. They have to play a lot and win tournaments. We’ve been encouraged by the early success. That said, we have a very long-term view. Our hope is to have one or two players come through early. And if it doesn’t happen in the short term, we stay with the plan.

“The talent is there,” Johnson said. “It’s getting the competitive experience.”

The one setback on PGA Tour China was the other Chinese winner—Zhang Xin-Ju, whom the CGA banned for six months after he was disqualified for the second time for turning in an incorrect scorecard. He is leading the money list on the PGA Tour China, though the ban means Zhang cannot play on any tour until the middle of March.

The PGA Tour will not comment on whether it plans its own sanction.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem described it as an “individual thing” and said the topic did not come up in two days of meetings with

Chinese golf officials.

Finchem said the goal was to develop elite players, and the first gauge of true progress could come next year if Zhang and Li get to the Web.com Tour. “Next year will be really good because it will be a combination of seeing how the guys who qualify for the Web.com do, and then we’ve got some growth going on here,” Finchem said, who expects an additional three events on the 2015 China schedule. “We’re not looking to change the world overnight. It’s a long-term project.” China is still an infant in golf.

Zhang Lian-Wei was the first Chinese player to win on the European Tour in 2003 when he beat Ernie Els by one shot in the Singapore Masters. He was the inspiration for Liang Wen-chong, who shot 64 in the third round at Whistling Straits and tied for eighth in the 2010 PGA Championship.

Wu Ashun has qualified for the British Open the last two years. Wu wonders how much easier it would have been had the PGA Tour China been around earlier.

“It would help me develop my career better,” he said. “It’s very lucky for the Chinese players. They will benefit from the tour. They can stay in China to play tournaments, but it’s a passage to the PGA Tour.” Finchem recalls the World Cup going to China in 1995 and a gallery that pressed against the ropes without truly understanding what they were seeing. The fans are more sophisticated each year, and some of the Chinese players had the largest galleries behind only the likes of Scott, Rickie Fowler and HSBC winner Bubba Watson.

“It’s early days since the start of the century that we started coming here,” Scott said.

“Fifteen years isn’t that long to build world-class players. Maybe we’re five years away from seeing really great players.”

EACH YEAR BRINGS MORE ADVANCEMENT

BY CHINESE GOLFERS, AND THE INAUGURAL YEAR OF PROFESSIONAL GOLF ASSOCIATION TOUR CHINA WOULD APPEAR TO BE ACCELERATING THAT GROWTH

ADAM SCOTT knows a good golf swing when he sees one.

FOR the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw, it was a unanimous, but for Cleveland’s Corey Kluber, it was close. AP

LYDIA KO

TOP ROOKIE DAYTONA BEACH, Florida—Lydia Ko has become the youngest player to win the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour’s rookie of the year award.

The 17-year-old Ko clinched the points-based award with three tournaments remaining on the LPGA Tour schedule. She already has two victories, two runner-up finishes and nine other finishes in the top 10.

Laura Baugh was 18 when she won the LPGA Tour rookie of the year in 1973.

Ko is No. 3 in the world ranking and No. 4 on the LPGA Tour money list with just over $1.5 million going into the Lorena Ochoa Invitational this week in Mexico.

She’s third in the Race to the CME Globe, which culminates next week in Florida with $1 million going to the winner. Ko, of New Zealand, was born in Seoul, South Korea. AP

KERSHAW, KLUBER WIN CY YOUNG AWARDS NEW YORK—Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw was a unanimous choice for his third National League (NL) Cy Young pitching award, and Cleveland’s Corey Kluber edged Seattle’s Felix Hernandez to win the American League (AL) honor for the first time.

Kershaw led the majors in victories and earned run average (ERA) and threw a nohitter, going 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA for the NL West champions.

Now, the big question: Is he the Most Valuable Player (MVP), too?

The 26-year-old lefty with a wicked curveball will find out Thursday if he’s the first NL pitcher to sweep the MVP and Cy Young honors since Bob Gibson in 1968.

As expected, Kershaw earned the pitching prize for the second year in a row, getting

all 30 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced on Wednesday.

“Pretty cool,” Kershaw said after the Major League Baseball Network telecast.

Johnny Cueto of Cincinnati was second with 112 points, followed by Adam Wainwright of Saint Louis (97) and World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner of San Francisco (28).

“As far as the regular season is concerned, it was a ton of fun,” Kershaw said.

Voting was completed before the start of the postseason. Kershaw went 0-2 with a 7.82 ERA in a Division Series loss to Saint Louis, leaving him at 1-5 with a 5.12 ERA in his postseason career.

Kluber received 17 of 30 first-place votes and 169 points, while King Felix got 13 firsts

TOKYO TO EXPAND O.D.A. COVERAGE,TYPES IN 2015

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

Baby steps

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oreign fund managers have fled for safer havens and have, thus far, repatriated some $1 billion in so-called portfolio funds, more known as “hot” or speculative money, in the first 10 months, putting at risk this year’s target portfolio inflows of at least $1.3 billion.

Putin’s gallantry upstages China’s Xi at Apec event

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and 159 points. Chris Sale of the Chicago White Sox was third with 78 points.

“I think I’m definitely surprised,” he said.

His plans after the announcement were far from flashy.

“Probably go home and give my daughters a bath,” he said.

A 28-year-old right-hander, Kluber went 18-9 to tie for the AL lead in wins. He had a 2.44 ERA in his first full major league season and 269 strikeouts, two behind league leader David Price.

Kluber pitched consecutive 14-strikeout games in September, the first to accomplish the feat since Arizona’s Randy Johnson in 2004. He became Cleveland’s fourth Cy Young winner, joining Gaylord Perry (1972), CC Sabathia (2007) and Cliff Lee (2008). AP

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By Bianca Cuaresma

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), portfolio funds have been uprooted on net basis during the period and invested in places where the promise of returns are higher and certainly a lot safer than if the funds remained in the Philippines.

The bulk of the repatriated funds, a phenomenon known as capital flight in the investment community, went straight to the US, whose steadily improving economy, and the country’s largest trading and investment partner, has

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BusinessMirror

Friday, November 14, 2014 Vol. 10 No. 36

$180-M ‘hot’money left in Oct

Sand, sandals & joel edgerton H Jesus, we believe that You are really present in the most holy sacrament of the altar. We love You above all things, and we desire to receive You into our soul. Since we cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into our heart. We embrace You and we unite ourselves to You as if You were already there. Let me never be separated from You. Eternal Father, we offer You the most precious blood of Jesus Christ in atonement for our sins, in supplication for the holy souls in purgatory, and for the needs of our Mother the Church. Amen.

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FOREIGN PORTFOLIO INVESTMENTS CONTINUED TO EXIT PHL, WITH U.S. AS TOP DESTINATION OF OUTFLOWS

INSIDE

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A broader look at today’s business

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PESO exchange rates n US 44.9130

Continued on A8

ASIA CEO AWARDS SM Prime President Hans Sy (on the podium) receives the Lifetime Contributor of the Year Award (Private Sector) for his father, Henry Sy Sr., during the Asia CEO Awards 2014 held at the Solaire Hotel and Casino. Presenting the award are (from left) Management Association of the Philippines President Jun Palafox, San Miguel Corp. Vice President for International and Asia CEO Awards 2010 Lifetime Contributor awardee Oscar Sañez, Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines for mer President Richard Mills, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Vice President and General Manager Martial Beck, Korean Chamber of Commerce Philippines Inc. President Edward Chang, ICT Committee Chairman and Founder and American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines former President Don Felbaum and the BusinessMirror Publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon. See story on B2. ALYSA SALEN

World leaders focused Singapore’s IE labels PHL on Islamic State, sea as Asia’s next bright spot row in Myanmar talks

By David Cagahastian

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nited States President Barack Obama and other world leaders wrapping up a series of summits in Myanmar on Thursday were expected to offer tepid expressions of concern about issues ranging from territorial disputes in the South China Sea to the Islamic State group, but no firm recommendations.

But some experts still say the meeting is more than just a talk-shop, and that it is a chance for political foes to sit down together in a safe atmosphere.

Millions of dollars were spent in hosting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the East Asia summits, and Myanmar—emerging only recently Continued on A8

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he International Enterprise (IE), the agency promoting the overseas growth of Singapore’s private companies, has cited the Philippines as Asia’s next bright spot with its strong growth in gross domestic product and a lot of investment opportunities coming up.

The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center said the IE also promoted to Singaporean investors the $17 billion worth of PPP infrastructure projects that could drive more

investments into the country and ramp up economic growth.

“With an annual $20 billion in overseas remittances spurring consumer demand and $17 billion worth of PPP projects in the pipeline, the Philippines is Asia’s best growth story today,” IE said during its hosting of the event, titled “The Philippines: Asia’s Bright Spot iAdvisory Seminar.”

In the seminar sponsored by IE on November 12, Philippine government officials presented See “IE labels,” A2

n japan 0.3886 n UK 70.8952 n HK 5.7921 n CHINA 7.3313 n singapore 34.8352 n australia 34.8352 n EU 55.8628 n SAUDI arabia 11.9711 Source: BSP (13 November 2014) Continued on A2

News

Friday, November 14, 2014

BusinessMirror

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$180-M ‘hot’money left in October so-called safer havens.

The bulk, or 71.4 percent of the repatriated investments, was uprooted from the Philippine Stock Exchange in the form of investments in listed securities.

The foreign funds financed the purchase of equity stakes in holding firms, banks, property companies, telecommunications firms and utilities companies.

The rest of the investments were made in peso government securities and accounted for the remaining 28.6 percent.

The central bank named the United Kingdom, the US, Singapore, Luxembourg and Malaysia as the top 5 investment destinations for the month with a combined share of 83.3 percent of the total repatriations during the period.

According to the BSP, the US remained to be the top destination of the outflows during the period, receiving 72.3 percent of the total for the month.

The government earlier anticipated net inflows of $1.5 billion by

Continued from A1

showed more signs of economic strength and recovery.

The BSP said registered foreign portfolio investments posted a net outflow of just under $180 million in October, sustaining last month’s net outflows of $324 million.

October’s net outflow was a reversal of the $969-million net inflows in the same month last year.

The outmigration of foreign funds in October helped magnify the 10-month outflow of portfolio money to $1.077 billion, and a steep reversal from last year’s $3.6-billion net inflows totaling $3.597 billion.

The central bank attributed the outmigration to the investors’ reaction on the International Monetary Fund’s downgrade of the 2014 forecast growth for the global economy and the continuing unrest in Hong Kong during the period. The central bank also cited the end of the quantitative-easing program of the US as one of the reasons behind the flight of capital to

IE labels. . . continued from a1

to Singaporean investors the infrastructure and market opportunities in the country. PPP Center Executive Director Cosette Canilao discussed the PPP infrastructure projects, which could provide investment opportunities for Singaporean firms.

T hese inc lude t he newly approved projects of the National Economic and Development Authority Board on October 17, namely the Operations, Mainte-

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

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NOVEMBER 14, 2014 | FRIDAY

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nance and Development Project of the Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao and Puerto Princesa airports; regional prison facilities through PPP Project; and Davao Sasa Port Modernization Project.

Other projects for rollout that were previously approved are the Operations, Maintenance and Development of New Bohol (Panglao) and Laguindingan airport projects. The said PPP projects that

NOV 17 MONDAY

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the end of the year. To hit the target, the Philippines must attract $1.3 billion in the remaining months of the year.

The target foreign inflows, however, is subject to possible recalibration and retargeting this month.

The outmigration of foreign funds is a direct consequence of the end of the monetary stimulus, or quantitative easing program of the US, whose interest rate structure should soon lift and its regulators endeavor to ensure the resurgent strength of the world’s largest economy was not prematurely arrested.

Analysts have said the prospect of greater interest rate rewards in the US and other so-called safe havens have compelled foreign fund managers to recalibrate their exposure in emerging markets as the Philippines.

This development has also made US dollar-denominated instruments more attractive, weakening such regional currencies as the Japanese yen, Thai baht and the Philippine peso.

were recently approved have an indicative cost of P183.17 billion, or $4.07 billion.

After the iAdvisory Seminar in Singapore, the PPP Center will conduct a PPP Investment Forum in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia.

Australian-based investors, operators, contractors, developers, lenders and fund managers are expected to attend the Australia investment road show.

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Tail-end of a cold front is the extended part of the boundary, which happens when the cold air and warm air meet. This may bring rainfall TAIL-END OF A COLD FRONT AFFECTING SOUTHERN LUZON. NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING NORTHERN AND CENTRAL LUZON. (AS OF NOVEMBER 13, 5:00 PM)

eastern portions of the country. It is cold and dry; characterized by widespread cloudiness with rains and showers.

LAOAG

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SBMA/CLARK 23 – 32°C METRO MANILA 22 – 32°C

15 – 23°C

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14 – 22°C

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ILOILO/ BACOLOD 24 – 32°C

TACLOBAN CITY 22 – 30°C

METRO CEBU 24 – 31°C CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 22 – 31°C ZAMBOANGA CITY 23 – 33°C

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LEGAZPI CITY 23 – 30°C

LEGAZPI

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BAGUIO TUGUEGARAO CITY 22 – 30°C

BAGUIO CITY 14 – 23°C

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NOV 22

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CELEBES SEA

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Cloudy skies with rain showers and/or thunderstorms.

24 – 32°C

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Partly cloudy to at times cloudy with rain showers.

Weekday hourly updates: 6:00 AM on Balitaan, 7:00 AM & 8:00 AM on Good Morning Boss!, 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM on News@1, 3:00 PM, 4:30 PM, and 6:00 PM on News@6

www.panahon.tv

SABAH

10:31 AM

-0.01 METER

Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers and/or thunderstorms

Watch PANAHON.TV everyday at 5:00 AM on PTV (Channel 4).

METRO DAVAO 24 – 33°C

LOW TIDE MANILA HIGH TIDE SOUTH HARBOR

11:16 PM

24 – 31°C

NEW MOON

@PanahonTV

The Nation

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo

BusinessMirror Friday, November 14, 2014 A3

CA affirms filing of charges against Piatco director 133 Pinoy peacekeepers now on Caballo Island

T

HE 133 Filipino peacekeepers, who returned from Ebola-stricken Liberia on Wednesday afternoon, were transferred on Thursday morning for their 21-day compulsory quarantine on Caballo Island near Corregidor, the Armed Forces’ Peacekeeping Operations Center head, Col. Roberto Ancan, said.

Ancan said the 108 soldiers, 24 National Police personnel and an officer from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) completed their disembarkation from BRP Dagupan (LCC-551) before 7 a.m. on Thursday.

When asked if the troops have any scheduled activity for the day, Ancan said the contingent “will just settle down” in their Caballo Island quarters.

BRP Dagupan left Sangley Point, Cavite, at around 9 p.m. on Wednesday for Caballo Island, which is 74 kilometers away.

It reached the island at around 6:30 a.m. on Thursday.

The convoy that transported the Filipino peacekeepers arrived in Sangley Point at around 7 p.m. on Wednesday after departing from Villamor Air Base in Pasay City at 5:15 p.m.

The contingent members then boarded BRP Dagupan and had dinner onboard at around 7:40 p.m.

The 18th Philippine Contingent to Liberia flew in at Villamor Air Base at around 5 p.m. on Wednesday aboard a United Nations-chartered UTair Aviation from Monrovia. PNA

T

By Joel R. San Juan

HE Court of Appeals (CA) has denied the petition filed by an official of Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (Piatco) seeking to stop the Department of Justice (DOJ) from proceeding with the filing of criminal charges against him for alleged violation of the anti-dummy law.

In a five-page resolution written by Justice Victoria Isabela Paredes, the CA’s Special Eleventh Division held that petitioner Gil Camacho, a member of Piatco’s board of directors, failed to show a compelling reason to grant his plea for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO), or a writ of preliminary injunction, or both, enjoining the DOJ from implementing its orders directing the filing of information for violation of the anti-dummy law against him.

Camacho insisted that the filing of a “baseless information against him would not only work great injustice...but would cause him grave and irreparable injury.”

But the CA declared that “It is an established doctrine that injunction will not lie to enjoin a criminal prosecution because public interest requires that criminal acts be immediately investigated and prosecuted for the protection of society.”

“Moreover, the grounds raised by the petitioners are intricately intertwined with the main issue in the petition; hence, courts are proscribed from extending such reliefs as this has the unwitting result of passing upon the merits

of the main action without trial,” the CA ruled.

Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Ricardo Rosario and Pedro Corales.

Aside from Camacho, the DOJ also recommended the filing of criminal charges for alleged violation of the antidummy law against Cheng Yong, president of Piatco; Peter Henkel, senior vice president of Fraport; Dietrich F.R. Stiller, German counsel of Fraport; Hans Arthur Vogel, Fraport representative to Piatco; Piatco officers or directors Jefferson G. Cheng, Jason Cheng, Marife T. Opulencia, Mary Antonette P. Manalo, Katherine Agnes M.C. Arnaldo, Gil Camacho, Hachiman Yokoi and S. Samin Aydin.

The DOJ also recommended the filing of criminal charges against officers of Philippine Airport and Ground Services, Philippine Airport and Ground Services Terminal Inc., Philippine Airport and Ground Services Terminals Holdings Inc. and People’s Air Cargo & Warehousing Co. Inc., identified as Noemi S. Dacanay, Ricardo C. Castro Jr., Jorg Seyffart, Rita Bonifer and Lilia G. Cheng.

QC hosts Green Fund Summit

Q

UEZON City officials, led by Mayor Herbert Bautista, will meet on Monday with Type A retailers—shopping malls, supermarkets, department stores, grocery stores, fastfood chains, drug stores and similar establishments—to discuss the city’s Green Fund.

The Green Fund Summit was organized to help identify possible environmental projects to be implemented through the city’s green fund.

The Green Fund was raised through the P2 fee for every plastic bag used at point of sale. The fund is to be used by the above-mentioned retailers for projects that would benefit the environment.

An ordinance requires the retailers to implement the project within Quezon City and for the benefits of Quezon City constituents.

At the summit, the local government will present to the retailers the major amendments to the implementing rules of the said ordinance governing the fund.

Primary of these is the provision stating that the said retailers are required to submit project proposals to the city government through the Environmental Protection and Waste Management Department prior to the use of the Green Fund to ensure that the projects implemented would benefit the community and have significant impact on the environment.

The ordinance, also known as the Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance of Quezon City, was authored by Councilor Dorothy A. Delarmente, who will deliver the opening message at the summit. Bautista will highlight in the summit the importance of public-private partnership in achieving a sustainable Quezon City environment.

Frederika C. Rentoy, head of the Environmental Protection and Waste Management Department of Quezon City, who initiated the summit, will present to the attendees the initiatives of Quezon City in this field.

KBP

KAPISANAN NG MGA BRODKASTER NG PILIPINAS

A4

Friday, November 14, 2014

A BusinessMirror Special Feature

www.businessmirror.com.ph

‘BROADCAST MEDIA’S NEW FRONTIER’ KBP 40TH TOP LEVEL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE

I

WOULD like to welcome the participants and guests to the 40th Top Level Management Conference (TLMC). There is an old saying, which says “Life begins at 40.” Many can relate to this, including us in the broadcast industry. In the KBP’s 40th TLMC, a new era in broadcasting will commence.

We will be witnesses to a new era in broadcasting with the implementation of the digital television standards in the Philippines. Yes, digital television technology will finally be enjoyed by Filipinos. With the cooperation of our friends for the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, the Philippines and the broadcast industry’s pursuit for the full digitalization of broadcast services in the country is now at hand. Soon we will enjoy television programs with superior quality.

And what makes it more exciting is digital television’s limitless potentials. Once again, I encourage all of you to take advantage of this technological innovation to create opportunities that is economically viable to your companies and beneficial to the public that we serve.

We in the KBP are blessed to be a part of the digital age of television. Indeed, there is truth to the old saying, life does begin at 40. However, KBP has been serving the Filipinos for more than 40 years. And the advent of digital television has given new life, new opportunities, new hope, not only for the broadcast industry, but to the country as a whole.

Congratulations to all of us. Mabuhay ang KBP!

BENIGNO S. AQUINO III President of the Philippines

T

HE National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) warmly greets the members of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) as you hold your 40th Top Level Management Conference (TLMC).

Decades of broadcast innovation is aptly captured in this year’s TLMC theme of “Broadcast Media’s New Frontier”. The country’s near transition from analog to digital terrestrial television broadcast will be an important territory in this so-called New Frontier.

The KBP has to be lauded for holding its TLMC every year, as this event allows the movers of the television and radio broadcast industries to properly discuss and chart their future. The occasion continues to serve as the perfect venue for assessing the Philippine broadcast industry’s current state—an all-important introspection necessary for growth.

As the NTC will soon issue the Rules and Regulations for Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) Broadcast Service, it expects to spend more time with the KBP and other stakeholders to ensure that the guidelines set for the transition will be beneficial to all parties concerned, especially the televiewers.

The NTC sees the transition to unfold as a showcase of our country’s commitment to progress and the government’s firm resolve in providing lifesaving measures, like the Japanese system’s Early Warning Broadcast System. The coming days should remind us of that constant need for us to provide each Filipino televiewer and radio listener superior and relevant broadcast technology.

Let me thank the KBP once again for being a formidable partner of NTC all these years.

Mabuhay po kayong lahat!

(SGD.) ATTY. GAMALIEL ASIS CORDOBA Commissioner

W

ITH great pride, I welcome everyone to the KBP’s 40th Top Level Management Conference. The KBP TLMC Committee has ventured to make this year’s conference more relevant to the ever-changing times. We have invited speakers who could share their insights on Broadcast Media’s New Frontiers.

Also, this year’s TLMC will be remembered as the dawning of digital television in the Philippines. Digital technology will surely provide Filipinos better viewing pleasures and will present the broadcast industry with limitless opportunities.

As part of our effort to empower our broadcast engineers and technical personnel on the latest techonologies, we have organized a two-day technical seminar to be graced by experts from the international arena.

I wish to thank our speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, presentors, members of the board, TLMC committee, the Secretariat and you, our beloved members, for making this year’s conference possible.

Let us all look forward to a very fruitful and memorable TLMC. Mabuhay tayo…. Mabuhay ang KBP.

(SGD.) FRANCIS L. CARDONA

Chairman, 40th TLMC Committee

Economy

BusinessMirror Friday, November 14, 2014 A5

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

Metro Manila congestion to worsen with 2015 Asean integration–Jica

T

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

OKYO, Japan—Metro Manila’s vehicular traffic congestion is seen to worsen with the forthcoming integration of the economies of Asean next year, given the expected surge in the exchange of goods and services.

This was learned from a Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) officer, who highlighted the need to improve the traffic situation in the Philippines’s capital and key cities around the metropolis.

In an interview with the BusinessMirror on Thursday, Jica Southeast Asia and Pacific Department Advisor Shunei Shinohara said the Aquino administration should fast-track the movement of public-private partnership deals, along with the improvement of transportation systems to ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila.

The current traffic situation in Manila is expected to worsen, he said, given that the Asean Economic Integration of 2015 is aimed at boosting the trade of goods and services within the region.

Hence, the expected increase in transport demand.

“In general, the existing issues will be a major roadblock for the Philippines’s transportation sector,” Shinohara said, referring to the lack of infrastructure that resulted in congestion at ports and arteries around Metro Manila.

He urged the administration to prioritize the completion of the P4.76-trillion Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure Development for Metro Manila and its Surrounding Areas, otherwise known as the Dream Plan.

“The Dream Plan should be a priority to lessen the congestion in Manila come the Asean integration, as

briefs

comply with product srp, dti tells bottled water retailers

The Trade department’s consumer protection group on Wednesday reminded retailers of select brands of bottled water to comply with the government’s suggested retail price (SRP) after the commodity was found to be grossly overpriced in airports and bus terminals.

The Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Fair Trade Bureau, a unit under the Consumer Protection Group, reported that after price monitoring activities in bus terminals and at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3, Nature’s Spring Drinking Water was the most common brand of bottled water sold above the SRP. The said brand of bottled water is P3.10 to P20.10 higher compared with the SRP. Other brands that were being sold above the SRP are Absolute, Summit, and Viva whose prices were higher than the prescribed SRPs by P2.00 to P13.00 .

The manufacturer of Nature’s Spring Drinking Water, The Philippine Spring Water Resources Inc. was not aware of the overpricing of the commodity but are, likewise, appealing to retailers to adhere to SRP. “The DTI already issued the SRPs for bottled water in February of this year which already includes the mark-up of distributors and retailers. As such, there is no reason for them to sell bottled water at very high prices,” Undersecretary for Consumer Protection Victorio Mario A. Dimagiba said. Catherine N. Pillas

trade would be boosted by the said cooperation,” Shinohara said.

The transport road map was approved by the National Economic and Development Authority Board in September this year. The Dream Plan lists the transport infrastructure that the Philippines need to remove potential losses and gain from prospective savings.

Economically, savings would amount to roughly P2.1 billion a day in savings from vehicle operating costs. But if the transport road map would not be implemented through 2030, the Philippines stands to lose roughly P6 billion daily in traffic costs.

Earlier, transport officials conceded that the lack of infrastructure is the Achilles’s Heel of the transportation sector come the Asean Economic Integration.

They said the country’s transport facilities could no longer keep pace with the rate of growth that the Philippines has been posting for the last several quarters.

Major arteries, seaports and aviation hubs have been peaking to barge past into their maximum capacities, causing congestion that has stirred anger among commuters and losses in logistics costs.

To address this, the government has been aggressively rolling out key infrastructure deals that are aimed at improving the traffic situation in key cities in the Philippines.

dpwh expands operation of hotline 165-02 in 16 regional offices

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has included its 16 regional offices in the 24/7 Call Center Hotline, 165-02 for immediate action over complaints to regional offices. Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson said that each complaint or public issue would promptly be addressed since it would be directed to appropriate field units of the department.

“We want to hear peoples’ point-of-view on the DPWH programs and projects, and policies and activities as we are prepared to listen and learn from one another,” he said in a news statement released on Thursday.

The DPWH public engagement, through Hotline Nos. 165-02, monitors and analyzes public opinion and issues, which serves as basis in the formulation of guidelines and policy improvements and/or issuances.

Aside from the 24/7 Call Center Hotline 165-02, the public may reach the department by e-mail just go to the DPWH web site www.dpwh.gov.ph, TXT 2920 short messaging system, walk-in, letter referrals, social media (Facebook and Twitter), and the media (print and broadcast) monitoring system. Operationally managed by DPWH Stakeholders Relations Service, the Call Center under outsourced contract with Pilipinas Teleserve, facilitates DPWH feedback communication with its stakeholders. PNA

Meralco firms up plan to address power shortage next year

By Lenie Lectura

A

top official of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) on Thursday said power outage will likely not occur in the summer months of next year provided that no power plant conks out.

Meralco President Oscar Reyes said the utility firm has so far mapped out additional generating capacity when supply runs thin.

For instance, Meralco will buy the output of power suppliers via interim power supply agreements (IPSAs). Reyes said Meralco is eyeing about 530 megawatts (MW) of additional capacity from IPSAs. “We are signing contracts with Global Business Power Corp., Bauang diesel power plant of 1590 Energy Corp., Limay and we’ll also sign with a new one, Makban, for 50 MW. I think, including Makban, about 529 MW of IPSA is good to cover summer [power-supply requirement] until July next year,” Reyes said.

Apart from IPSA, the utility firm is also banking on the Interruptible Load Program (ILP), which remains the viable solution to help solve the power-supply deficiency anticipated in the summer months of next year.

With the ILP, power supply from the grid that will not be consumed by participating customers will be available for use by other customers within the franchise area. Through this, the aggregate demand for power from the system will be reduced to a more manageable level, helping ensure the availability of supply during the season.

“We will continue working to get around 400 to 500 MW of committed interruptible load capacity from the ILP participants. We’ve signed up over 300 MW. Hopefully more, there’s a lot more outside the franchise area. We can sign

them all the way up to March,” Reyes added.

With these measures in place, Meralco hopes that there will be no brownout during the summer months of 2015.

“A lot depends on whether the existing plants will run. The DOE [Department of Energy] cleared March to June of maintenance shutdowns other than Malampaya tie-un. At least on scheduled shutdowns, we are okay. But when you talk about forced outages, we’re just hoping the plants will operate on good condition,” Reyes said.

Meanwhile, the DOE has assured that existing measures and methods to safeguard the supply of energy next summer are being pursued. Energy Secretary Carlos Jerico L. Petilla said he has been hands-on in the promotion and monitoring of potential ILP participants.

Since the start of 2014, the energy department has conducted and continues to conduct meetings and consultative dialogues with the participants, getting their opinions and inquiries regarding the program. “Power generation is a shared effort of both the public and private sectors.... Their participation on the ILP is a fulfillment of this promise,” he said.

The ILP is voluntary in nature, hence, it does not promise a “zero-brownout” scenario. Based on the current ILP protocol, the program will be implemented the moment red alert hits.

Also, the DOE, through the Energy Utilization Management Bureau (EUMB), is already implementing energy-conservation measures to decrease the power demands.

In a recent department circular issued in August, the DOE enjoins both government and private offices to practice energy efficiency through putting their cooling systems to 25 degrees Celsius, as well as the use of efficient lighting.

The EUMB is tasked under the circular to intensify the campaign and organize consultations to stakeholders for the effective promotion of energy efficiency and conservation.

Opinion BusinessMirror

A6 Friday, November 14, 2014

Editor: Alvin I. Dacanay

editorial

Asia: The game has changed

T

HE 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Forum, which Beijing hosted for the first time, could not have been timed better for China and Russia.

Forget about all the news releases, communiqués and joint statements.

This was like a wedding banquet, with the “grooms”—China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin—reminding the United States and Barack Obama of how being an ex-boyfriend feels like.

The Chinese media, both traditional and social, wasted no effort in criticizing Obama at almost every chance they got. Obama refused to use the official Chinese government limousine provided to all the nation’s leaders, and when he arrived at the first official function, he was chewing gum. “We made this meeting so luxurious, with singing and dancing, but see Obama, stepping out of his car, chewing gum like an idler,” wrote Yin Hong, a professor of journalism at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.

For one of the first official photographs of all the attendees, President Aquino was in front, next to Putin (who was standing next to Xi), while Obama was to the far left, in what is traditionally known as the “Wives’ Club” area. How times have changed.

While the US is trying to push its Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), China was promoting its proposed Free-Trade Area of the Asia Pacific, which includes China and Russia. The TPP leaves both those nations out. Furthermore, Australia and South Korea signed free-trade agreements with the Chinese. The US and China agreed to drop tariffs on about 200 different technologies, including semiconductors, medical-technology equipment and global-positioning system devices.

China can now import US technology, instead of “borrowing” it. In return, all those Chinese-branded gadgets just got cheaper for American consumers to buy.

During their initial meeting, both Xi and Japan’s Shinzō Abe looked like they had some bad dim sum for lunch. But this was probably more for their respective country’s media than a true representation of what went on behind the scenes.

Beijing and Tokyo do have problems stemming from their territorial dispute, but the economic ties are probably more important.

President Aquino’s conversation with Xi was described by the US media as this: “The Philippines became America’s second Pacific ally in as many days to hold ice-breaking talks with formerly frosty China.” While the Philippines must hold on to its territorial claims, it must also realize that to depend on the US is to be shut out of Asian development. It is important for President Aquino to build on this trip to Beijing.

By the end of the summit, China and Russia “won” Apec, and the score was not even close. The game has changed in Asia. Perhaps, the US will now come to realize that fact after this summit.

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Founder Publisher Editor in Chief

T. Anthony C. Cabangon Jun B. Vallecera

News Editor City & Assignments Editor Special Projects Editor

Dionisio L. Pelayo Vittorio V. Vitug Max V. de Leon

Online Editor

Ruben M. Cruz Jr.

Research Bureau Head Creative Director Chief Photographer Editorial Consultant Chairman of the Board & Ombudsman President VP-Finance VP-Corporate Affairs VP Advertising Sales Advertising Sales Manager Circulation Manager

Dennis D. Estopace Eduardo A. Davad Nonilon G. Reyes Romeo M. del Castillo Judge Pedro T. Santiago (Ret.) Benjamin V. Ramos Adebelo D. Gasmin Frederick M. Alegre Marvin Nisperos Estigoy Aldwin Maralit Tolosa Rolando M. Manangan

Think again James Jimenez

Y

OU think a return to manual vote-counting is good? You need a history lesson.

In the early years of automation, the need to minimize human intervention in the vote-counting and canvassing aspects of elections was accepted doctrine. Human intervention at the precinct level introduces vulnerability to fraud at two levels: First, in the tabulation of the votes garnered by each candidate, i.e., the preparation of election returns, which could be influenced by fatigue or manipulated by fraud, or sometimes both; and second, in the hand-carrying of the finished election returns that could be hijacked, replaced or even totally lost on the way to the canvassing stations.

The pre-2004 solution, therefore, was to centralize automated counting and situate it, as much as possible, in the same place where the canvassing was to take place. In that way, the automatically generated election returns—essentially, the printout from the automated counting machines—could then be handcarried to the appropriate canvassing unit, in full view of everyone. This solution minimized human fraud and error in the production of the election returns, and ensured that no one could hijack them while they were in transit.

Unfortunately, this solution was not without its problems. Ballots that had to be transported from the precincts to the counting centers could

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still be hijacked; and even when they were safely within the premises of the counting center, the queues of precincts waiting for their turn at the counting machines rapidly grew to unwieldy lengths. The legalization of electronic transmission in 2008 changed that.

With the updated automation law, counting machines could be placed in the precincts themselves, and the results could, then, be electronically transmitted to the canvassing centers. Automatically generated election returns, plus near instantaneous over-the-air transmission to canvassing centers, meant that the results would no longer be subject to human intervention or manipulation.

Why Abe should take Krugman’s advice William Pesek

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spox

This new way of doing things had three significant side effects. First, the automation of the process drastically cut down on the time spent on manual counting, the manual preparation of election returns, the manual transmittal of returns to the canvassing centers and, ultimately, the proclamation of candidates.

Counting no longer had to take more than six hours; the accuracy of election returns would no longer be subject to human fraud and fatigue; the election returns were no longer in danger of being hijacked en route; and the electorate no longer had to suffer through weeks of “unofficial, incomplete results,” as most winners were proclaimed in a matter of hours.

Second, automation made it possible, for the first time, for the broader public—anyone with an Internet connection, really—to keep tabs on the progress of the vote-counting, thus, giving ordinary people access to information that they used to get only via the filters of spin provided by political operators and publicists.

And, third, because each ballot is taken a picture of at the time of casting, the recount process becomes a simple matter of comparing encrypted ballot images with election returns. Contrary to what most losing candidates would have the people believe, this legal remedy remains available to them under the automated system.

Reverting to manual counting, plus electronic transmission

BLOOMBERG VIEW

P

AUL KRUGMAN was an early and enthusiastic fan of Japan’s efforts to end deflation. In a January 2013 New York Times column, the Nobel laureate argued that the world should learn from Tokyo’s “breaking ranks” with the “dismal orthodoxy” of growth-killing austerity.

Krugman’s advice hasn’t changed.

Even as Japan’s economy struggles to shake off an April sales-tax increase, lawmakers are mulling over another.

In a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last week, Krugman warned that the move could be the death-knell of “Abenomics,” no matter how many yen the Bank of Japan (BOJ) prints. And he’s absolutely right. Raising taxes on households again would further crimp spending and doom any chance of reaching the 2-percent inflation target the government has set for itself.

Fortunately, Abe seems to recognize this. While the prime minister continues to say he won’t decide,

one way or another, until he sees the most recent quarterly growth figures (due next Monday), Tokyo insiders are predicting he’ll call a snap election next month to win a mandate to scrap the tax, currently scheduled for October 2015.

There are two problems with this.

First, Abe continues to face strong resistance from “austerians” within his own Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), who fear that markets will lose trust in Japan if it doesn’t get its ballooning debt—now up to 250 percent of gross domestic product—under control. They warn that a delay in hiking the tax will cause bond yields to spike—as if courting recession with

another ill-timed tax hike will win Japan points with punters.

A successful election might help Abe tame these rebels. The bigger problem is that, as Japanese leaders obsess about tax tweaks and a possible campaign, they’re not focused on the structural reforms needed to make Abenomics work. Last month BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda expanded his already extensive quantitative-easing experiment, boosting bond purchases to about $700 billion annually and buying riskier assets.

Kurodanomics isn’t enough, though.

Plans to loosen labor markets, cut trade tariffs, improve corporate governance and champion new jobcreating sectors like casinos remain in their infancy. Now they’re off the table until early 2015, at best.

Abe’s faltering approval ratings make matters worse. They took a measurable hit after a 3-percentagepoint rise in the consumption tax to 8 percent in April. With real wages down 2.9 percent in September— the 15th consecutive year-on-year decline—and the yen plunging, Japanese consumers are clearly feeling pain. Support for Abe’s Cabinet is now 44 percent versus 52 percent a month ago, according to public

and canvassing automation model now would practically eliminate those gains.

Manual counting may have a strong nostalgic appeal, but the reality of manual counting is that it is a long and exhausting process for the teachers who do it. Worse, it subjects them to threats and intimidation, and, in some cases, the possibility of death. When teachers are responsible for interpreting ballots and recording results on election returns, it is inevitable that the people who will stop at nothing to win will focus all their malevolence on those teachers. And no, giving them more money won’t solve that problem, Mr. L. And to transfer these manually prepared returns to digital format, i.e. encoding, simply creates another entry point for vulnerability at more than a hundred thousand precincts nationwide. Again, because human intervention is made a linchpin of the process, those humans are suddenly at risk once more. When you increase the number of points where the system can be compromised, you correspondingly increase the likelihood of successful attempts. You don’t need to be an information-technology expert to see that.

And all for what? So that politicians can have more opportunities to delay their loss without having to face a fair recount process?

Think again.

James Jimenez is the spokesman of the Commission on Elections.

broadcaster NHK. You can bet the farm lobby—a core constituency of the LDP—will use this dynamic to extract concessions that run counter to the prime minister’s reform goals. An election campaign will, no doubt, generate promises of new white-elephant projects.

This whole tax issue is a policy kabuki. Yes, Japan needs to tame its debt problem. Yet, offsetting the fallout from higher taxes has already forced Abe’s government to increase borrowing to support regional economies. And even if next year’s tax hike goes ahead, a considerable share of any new revenue is already earmarked for the construction of facilities for the 2020 Olympics.

Perhaps, as BOJ adviser Masahiro Kawai told Bloomberg’s Toru Fujioka: “By postponing the tax hike, Abe would lose fiscal trust, raise risk premiums and make the BOJ’s job much harder.” The bigger risk is that a further slowdown in growth will derail the kind of longterm structural changes that Abe has pledged and Japan desperately needs. No doubt the prime minister appreciated Krugman’s support last year. Abe should take the laureate’s advice now.

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Opinion

Are you (pitiful) poor?

Restoring transparency in our polls

BusinessMirror

Butch del Castillo

Dr. Luis F. Dumlao

C

ONSIDER my version of German writer Heinrich Boll’s 1963 story, similarly told

by Harris Irfan in the 2014 book Heaven’s Bankers, which refers to “heaven’s bankers” as bankers who practice Islamic finance. The original story is about an American tourist and a Mexican fisherman; in this version, the tourist is British and the fisherman is Filipino.

A British tourist sunbathes on the picturesque white-sand beach of Mindoro island and sees a Filipino fisherman docking with his catch of the day: yellow-fin tuna.

Out of curiosity, the Briton approaches the Filipino and asks, “My friend, how long did it take you to catch that?”

“Sir, only a short while,” the Filipino answers.

“Why not catch more? It’s just 10 a.m.”

“Sir, I can sell it for enough money to feed my family for the rest of the day.”

A bit surprised, the Briton asks, “Well what do you do the rest of the day?”

“Sir?” the Filipino said. “After I sell this, I eat lunch, take a long siesta, stroll along the beach, hang around with friends in the barrio before dinner, eat dinner, spend time with my wife and children while I drink my homemade lambanog, and then have a good night sleep.”

The Briton tells the Filipino in good faith, “My friend, I have a PhD in economics from Oxford University. I am a financial adviser based in London, and I can help you get out of poverty.”

Curious, the Filipino asks, “What would you advise me to do, sir?”

“First, you get on the boat on sunrise tomorrow, catch everything you can to sunset, sell your catch to feed your family and save the extra money in the bank. Do that every day for five years and you will find yourself with enough money to buy a bigger boat. Five more years, you’ll have more than enough boats to manage, that you will have others fishing for you.”

“Then what, sir?”

“It gets better. You will own an enterprise that you will eventually incorporate. In 10 years your enterprise will expand to the rest of the Philippines. You will be based in some posh subdivision in Manila.”

“Then what, sir?”

“Unbelievably so, it gets even better,” the Briton says enthusiastically. “In 10 years we go to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Stock Exchange, set up your enterprise for an initial public offering and, then, we sell your company to foreign and local investors. You will be rich!”

“Then what, sir?” the Filipino asks excitedly.

“This is the best part! You won’t have to work. For the rest of your life, you will live in a nice coastal property. You will relax, fish in the morning, eat lunch, take a long siesta, stroll along the beach, hang around with friends in the barrio before dinner, eat dinner, spend time with your wife and chil-

dren while you drink the best lambanog, and then have a good night sleep.”

To beg the question, are a lot of Filipinos we call “poor,” poor? Is the Filipino fisherman in the story poor? For those “poor” who cannot relate to him, they are actually poor. But for those “poor” who can relate to him, who eat three times a day and can live modestly while able to enjoy life with the family and community, they are not poor. They are pitiful poor.

Now consider the parable of the talents, which, by coincidence, happens to be the selected Gospel reading for Sunday. I am not a theologian, but the elementary lesson offered by the parable is that we are all given different talents, which can be loosely interpreted as our resources and endowments.Ourobligationtosocietyistoinvest these resources to do good for society. Unfortunately, many of those gifted with resources do not invest as they should. Worse, they consume irresponsibly and excessively.

American sociologist-economist Thorstein Veblen explains this through his theory of conspicuous consumption. Putting Veblen’s theory in the context of today’s society, those belonging to the “leisure class”—the ones we see so often on television, in the suburbs of Manila or in Hollywood productions—engage in “conspicuous consumption.” They proudly show off their seemingly productive activities that, really, are wasteful. For example, society sees them in the wine-and-cheese scenes on primetime TV programs, shopping-is-bliss commercials, and billboards of models endorsing medical procedures that defy age and nature. They subliminally brag about their social status through their material belongings. For example, we see people with the fastest sports cars in the midst of traffic jams, in our day-to-day interaction with people with the fanciest smartphones, etc. Unfortunately, they cause what sociologists call as “emulation.”

In the end, among those gifted with resources, some do invest, while many engage in conspicuous consumption. As for the rest of society, others, like the Filipino fisherman, content themselves with decency and modesty, while many revere, but cannot really imitate the leisure class. Among those awed by the leisure class, the ones who are actually poor are psychologically battered; and the ones who are not so poor, but discontented with decency and modesty, become pitiful poor.

Luis F. Dumlao, PhD, is the chairman of the Economics Department of the Ateneo de Manila University and a senior fellow of Eagle Watch, the school’s macroeconomic and forecasting unit.

A comet’s tale

A

S gee-whiz landings go, it’s hard to beat Wednesday’s historic touchdown of the Philae lander on a streaking comet about 300 million miles from the earth.

For one thing, it took a solid decade for the European Space Agency-launched Rosetta spacecraft to maneuver into position to launch the 220-pound Philae onto the surface of the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet, a.k.a. Comet 67P. This had to be...perfect.The landing craft relied on the comet’s weak gravity in its seven-hour descent. The craft had to smack the surface, but not so hard that it would bounce off. If the Philae traveled even slightly faster than predicted, it would miss its target on the 2 1/2-mile-wide comet by hundreds of yards. Or it could crash, destroying instruments designed to help scientists unravel secrets of the solar system.

Exhale.

The probe now will drill, sniff, analyze and photograph, sending back reams of data to its Rosetta mothership as it rides the comet closer to the sun.

The Philae’s 10 instruments are on a strict deadline, dictated by the craft’s battery life. As it flickered to life on Wednesday, scientists had 64 hours before the batteries will drain. The batteries are supposed to be recharged by solar panels. But scientists will have, at best, only about one hour of operation every two days. The craft is expected to operate up to three months before it gets so close to the sun that it overheats.

The main goal of the Rosetta—named after the chunk of stone that was key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics—is appropriately cosmic: To learn more about the comet’s composition, which can carry clues to how the solar system formed and evolved. Did comets seed Earth’s

OMERTA

EAGLE WATCH

oceans with water in the early days of the planet?

Did complex molecules from comets help jumpstart life on Earth?

Then there’s the show. As it nears the sun, tons of material will break off the comet’s surface, forming two blazing tails of dust and ionized gas.

Rosetta will have a ringside seat for the next year and a half, and so will we.

Space exploration often proceeds at a glacial pace. Day after day, month after month, a tiny craft hurtles toward a comet. The list of things that can go wrong in merciless space is long and daunting. If scientists dwelled on those too long, no spacecraft would ever be launched.

When Philae landed, cheers and celebrations erupted at the European consortium’s command center at Darmstadt, Germany. That reminds us that the future of many American manned and unmanned space missions remains...up in the air.

But the human quest to understand the cosmos cannot be grounded.

The United States-launched probe Curiosity is still trundling around on Mars. This summer it passed its first full Martian year (687 Earth days) on the surface. The probe has found that Mars was capable of supporting life in its distant past.

But Ashwin Vasavada, deputy project scientist for Curiosity, tells us: “We don’t know if life took advantage of it.”

We don’t know—three words that drive exploration.

Now Rosetta takes center stage. This mission isn’t about the Big Question: Are we alone in the universe? It is about a Bigger Question: How did our solar system take shape?

The more we learn, the more amazing it is.

Chicago Tribune/TNS

E

ARLY this week, we had the pleasure of interviewing Augusto “Gus” C. Lagman, a certified computing professional, during our DWIZ (882 kHz AM) noontime radio program, Business is our Business.

We wanted to get his views on the highly controversial precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines that were used by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the 2010 and 2013 elections.

Among information-technology (IT) professionals, Gus’s name never fails to ring a bell. He was, after all, the only computer-savvy member of the seven-man Comelec board (all the rest were lawyers). All by his lonesome, he fought against the extension of Smartmatic-Total Information Technology Inc.’s automation contract with the poll body right after the 2010 elections.

He has pointed out that the automation project has, so far, cost the Comelec P20.3 billion, but what benefit has the electorate reaped in exchange? It shortened the process from voting to canvassing by half a day, at the most, when compared to the manual system.

He only had to cite the many snafus and glitches that characterized the country’s first foray into automated elections.

Being Smartmatic’s loudest critic in and out of the poll body, however, made Lagman Comelec Chairman Sixto S. Brillantes Jr.’s archenemy.

Brillantes then resorted to publicly ridiculing Lagman by using such unflattering terms as “troublemaker” and “kulang sa pansin [attentiondeprived].” His relationship with Brillantes deteriorated fast, until one day, in 2012, his appointment as

Comelec commissioner, for some unexplained reason, was not renewed

by Malacañang.

The nonrenewal of Lagman’s appointment struck the IT industry as rather odd. In supervising automated elections for the first time in 2010, the Comelec had found itself in uncharted territory, and all it had to offer was a bunch of lawyers who couldn’t claim they fully understood what automating the elections was all about.

On the other hand, the credentials that Lagman brought to his job were just what the doctor ordered, in a manner of speaking. He was a four-term president of the Philippine Computer Society; a four-term president of the IT Association of the Philippines, an umbrella organization of a dozen computer associations; and the South East Asia Regional Computer Federation, composed of 15 computer societies in countries ranging from New Zealand to India.

During our radio interview, Lagman said the Comelec, despite compelling reasons it should not, insists on using those controversial PCOS machines and other automated precinct-counting technologies.

These technologies, he pointed out, violate the automation law. Section 1 of Republic Act 9369, he said, provides that, under an automated system, “the process shall be transparent and credible, and that results shall be fast, accurate and reflective of the genuine will of the people.”

Personal Tito Genova Valiente

W

annotations

ILL this be my last?

That was the question I asked myself when I got my new passport today. The document is handsome brown, compact, tiny and diary-like. The first page says it will expire in 2019. I will be a senior citizen by then, with 20-percent discount on medicines and movie tickets. It is short of one year before the Tokyo Olympics—the city, not the gathering of athletes, is my reason for having a passport. I was traveling to Tokyo when I secured my first passport: a huge, thick and more official-looking material. I only saw those kinds of passports when James Bond and other film sleuths faked their way to Lisbon and Istanbul, cities that seemed attractive for detective stories and elegant spying.

In the late 1970s, it was terribly difficult to get a passport. You needed to fake so many things, like having to show that you have voted (here, you went to the Commission on Elections) and have planted trees (you had to convince the barangay captain, who was not as powerful then as he is now).

I could not see my face on the page of the passport. The page has a particular sheen: you turn the passport around, and you see stars on

the page. Very stellar. This is good for those who may not always like their photos on their passports. For some reason, no one is a looker on passports. Not even Brad Pitt. In my case, I look harassed. My hairline has receded. My sister always teases me about looking more like our father.

I like that. I have always wanted to look like my father, be like my father.

The photo is a mug shot than a clear photograph necessary for one

Friday, November 14, 2014

A7

A glaring defect in Smartmatic’s automation system is that the PCOS machines used in the 2010 and 2013 elections hid the counting process at the precinct level. Nobody was able to see how the votes were counted.

You have to rely on the competence and integrity of the software providers, who are all foreigners. And you have to rely on the integrity of the Comelec, which may be a tall order.

In other words, there is no existing automated precinct-counting system that is transparent. By automating the precinct counting, you hide the counting process and, consequently, lose transparency.

Lagman said the only truly transparent system for precinct counting is the old manual way. In combination with a good consolidation and canvassing system and a reliable electronic transmission system, “we can finally achieve transparent, accurate and credible elections!”

As if to answer Lagman’s comments, the Comelec has declared that it would continue to use the PCOS machines and that it would never revert to the manual system in any of the phases it has already put under automation.

In the November 13 issue of The Philippine Star, an inside-page story carried this headline: “Comelec bucks return to manual polls.”

The story quotes Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez as saying during a forum that there were “renewed calls for a return to manual elections.” Actually, what Lagman and other IT experts have been advocating is to revert to manual only at the precinct-counting level to achieve a modicum of transparency in the automated process.

Some groups, including the Comelec itself, are claiming that such a move would tantamount to a “regression” or a return to the horse-andbuggy days.

Lagman, however, cited Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland as prime examples of highly developed

countries that have gone back to the manual system at the precinct level for the sake of transparency. He said that, in fact, 18 out of 30 countries with fully automated-election systems have gone back to manual at the voting level. Their common reason: the loss of transparency in automated precinct-counting technologies.

But in these countries, automating the consolidation and canvassing phases of the election remains a must. “This is what we, electionautomation advocates, have been promoting since 2008: Manual precinct-counting, electronic transmission, and automated consolidation and canvassing.”

Furthermore, if there’s cheating in manual elections, the voters and losing candidates would readily see and have a basis for their formal protests. With automated precinctcounting, nobody can see if cheating is being committed.

It is so unfair to those who have been cheated, Lagman said. No matter how sure they are that there has been foul play, it would be difficult to prove.

The protest process is, thus, very much impaired.

One prominent example is former Mayor Jose “Lito” L. Atienza Jr. of Manila. To this day he cannot accept that Alfredo Lim whipped him in the 2013 mayoralty elections of that city.

But there was no way of proving that he was cheated. There was no transparency at the precinct level.

Now Lagman gets a big kick when he asks these naughty questions: So what is it that continues to attract Comelec commissioners to entertain vendors of automated precinctcounting systems? Your guess is as good as mine. And here’s another one: Why does the Comelec want to bid out this item before February 2015?

Brillantes is due to retire shortly after that scheduled bidding. But what has that got to do with it?

crossing borders and expected to return to where he comes from. For all the themes of globalization running across our lives, countries still keep their borders. Passports are the index to show that we need to keep to our side. Of course, we can cross every now and then, but—mark this—the world system can always find a way to return you to where you belong. Belong. Owned like a piece of property.

If there is one reason for the glitter on the page where your face appears, it is that feeling of elegance one gets from soft focuses. You are able to fake your youth, or its passing. Similar to that much-abused line about youth being wasted on the young, the passport wastes no youth, for we are all young on that page. One need not worry about those lines. I call them shadows.

While lines are the judgment on our days on earth, shadows are merely the vain proposal that one is as good as the light that would allow us to look good. There is also something philosophical about shadows.

My passport says “Pasaporte.”

After all the nationalistic hoopla, we still have not thought of a Filipino/ Pilipino/Tagalog term for this tiny notebook. Pasaporte it is. I imagine ports of call, where streets glisten in

the evening and blues play forever. I also see disease and violence.

I see no restrictions on my passport. My very first passport had so many restrictions, including not being allowed to travel to South Africa.

Does this mean I could go to Syria or Afghanistan anytime? Not that I want to travel to those places. I am sensing freedom. And, yet, the passport is not a document of freedom.

Read again. On the last page, we are reminded that the passport is the property of the Philippine government…even if we paid for it. Even if we were the ones who lined up the whole afternoon to go through the process of getting it. Even if we spent a fortune recovering data about birth facts that are not available anymore, because municipal buildings got burned down or the entire centro of the municipio disappeared after a typhoon.

I am careful of this passport. A bit anxious, even. On the last page, it alerts us to be careful in handling the document, because of the electronics in there. What if the electronics do not function? What if, somewhere in Bulgaria, I am not identified? What if that “thing” in there gives up on me, and refuses to yield any information about its bearer?

Those, however, are the least of my worries. What I am unsure of is what to write on the blank spaces that ask you to identify a person whom the authorities can approach when you meet an accident or die. On my first passport, it was my father. After he passed on, I filled out the blank spaces with my mother’s name… without her knowing it. My mother is 88 years old. Shall she still supervise my death or illness, at least, in so far as those blank spaces are concerned?

Perhaps, I shall leave the spaces blank. The authorities should understand. Passports are about crossing spaces. What is more appropriate in our life as we approach the final port of call than passports?

E-mail: omerta_bdc@yahoo.com.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Friday, November 14, 2014

Change in leadership seen dulling investors’ appetite

I

By Bianca Cuaresma

nvestments of global market players to the Philippines are seen to decline in the next two to three years due to the uncertainty that will be created by the end of President Aquino’s term in 2016, an international investment bank said.

In a research note on Thursday, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) said the country will sustain the country’s strong growth momentum due to private consumption. Investments, however, will decelerate due to investors’ concerns about political uncertainty.

“President Aquino’s term ends in June 2016. Investors are already asking about what impact an election might have on the economy and who might succeed the politician most as-

sociated with the country’s economic improvement,” HSBC economist Trinh Nguyen said.

Nguyen added that their forecast growth in 2015 and 2016 stays “solid” at 6.1 percent for both years, but noted investments are not seen to contribute much to this growth due to the investors’ worries over the next administration.

“Due to improved governance, much of it thanks to President Aquino, gross domestic product growth has exceeded the trend rate in re-

NGUYEN: “Due to improved governance, much of it thanks to President Aquino, gross domestic product growth has exceeded the trend rate in recent years. But President Aquino’s term ends in 2016 and investors fret about political uncertainty.”

cent years. But President Aquino’s term ends in 2016 and investors fret about political uncertainty,” Nguyen said.

“Uncertainty regarding the transition will probably mean investment will be sluggish; but favorable demographics, low household debt and steady remittance inflows will help consumption to remain strong in 2015 and speed up in 2016, thanks partly to election spending, in our view,” she added.

In the same research note, Nguyen listed a brief description and commentaries on the two leading front-runners of the 2016

presidential elections—Vice President Jejomar C. Binay and Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II. “Regardless of who wins the race, we can expect the nature and history of Philippine politics to cause investment behavior to be cautious but consumption strong,” Nguyen said.

“Whoever will take office in June 2016 will inherit an economy that has less debt, more able workers, fewer dependents, low borrowing costs and excess savings. We believe the Philippines, as an economy, in 2016, will be in the best shape in decades,” Nguyen added.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

LABOR SHORTAGE SEEN CAUSING GLOBAL ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN

G

lobal economic growth will accelerate modestly in 2015 and will slow down in the long term due to labor-force shortage, a United States research organization said on Wednesday.

The world’s economic growth, which stands at 3.2 percent for 2014, will moderately improve to 3.4 percent in 2015, Bart van Ark, chief economist of the New Yorkbased Conference Board, said at a news briefing.

Although the moderate growth rate is less than what might have been hoped for, “this doesn’t mean that we are predicting a kind of Armageddon ahead of us,” van Ark said.

The slower growth outlook was attributed to modest job growth, weak business investment and depressing productivity, he said, adding that most of the globalgrowth acceleration would come from mature economies.

The research group expected the US economy to grow at 2.6 percent in 2015 from 2.2 percent this year, which is at the low end of market consensus of closer to 3 percent.

“We feel that a soft improve-

ment in the US might just bring the economy back to the sort of 2.5-percent to 3-percent growth range,” van Ark said.

The Conference Board predicted that growth in the euro zone would improve to 1.6 percent in 2015 from 0.9 percent in 2014, while Europe, as a whole, is expected to grow by 2 percent next year.

From a longer-term perspective, the Conference Board predicted that annual global growth would average 3.3 percent from 2015 to 2019.

“Beyond 2020, we’ll see slow er growth,” van Ark said, adding that it is mostly “driven by the fact that the contribution of the labor force in economic growth is going to decline.”

He said labor-force shortage could also become a problem emerging markets would face in the future.

“We also see that in emerging markets, which now still benefit from what economists called demographic dividend—a lot of young people being added to the labor force, the force will gradually begin to decline, not overnight, but I think into the next century,” the economist said.

PNA/Xinhua

TOKYO TO EXPAND O.D.A. COVERAGE, TYPES IN 2015 Continued from A1

“The environment has changed a lot since the last revision of the charter in 2003, and domestic politics has, also, changed. The position of Japan in the international community has, likewise, been changed a lot. Thus, we intend to revise the charter this year,” Araki said in a discussion with foreign journalists on Wednesday here.

He clarified that even with the proposed changes, Japan, a $5-trillion economy, would still continue to pour in money to countries that need assistance. The program, the state official explained, would be more focused on luring funds from other states and private companies by increasing the potential of the recipient-country.

“The role of the program would be more focused on how to attract public funds; we would also like to focus on creating partnership with our partners. It doesn’t mean that there would be less grants,” Araki noted, emphasizing that the new program could be a launch pad for further investments.

“Second thing is that our domestic policy has been changed. The Abe government is committed to create a more seamless contribution to peace,” he said, referring to the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In emphasizing his point, Araki

mentioned the involvement of Japanese assistance to the peace process in Mindanao.

“We would like to aid in creating a more seamless process in attaining peace like the one in Mindanao,” he said. Japan has been supporting peace process in Mindanao since 2006, when it launched the JapanBangsamoro Initiatives for Reconstruction and Development.

In March, the Japanese government extended P38 million in assistance to the peace process in Mindanao. The package included the construction of 18 classrooms; an agricultural training center; and four vocational training centers, which mainly target the youth and women.

As of end-March, the Japanese government has poured in P300 million in assistance to aid the conflict-affected areas in Mindanao.

The government of Japan has allocated 0.7 percent of its gross national income (GNI) per capita for next year’s development cooperation, Araki said.

“We have committed to fulfill our international commitment; but in the near future it will be difficult to increase the volume of ODA. Still, we are making much effort to improve the area of our ODA, the division of the ODA charter is quite important. Included in the draft revision of the charter is our commitment of 0.7 percent of our GNI

per capita,” he said.

Japan, however, was not able to meet its target allocation last year due to debt forgiveness. According to the World Bank, Japan recorded a GNI per capita of $37,630 in 2013.

“We are to enlarge further our development assistance to development cooperation. We want to enlarge our horizon of countries, as well as areas of assistance to cooperation,” Araki added.

The draft development cooperation charter has been sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and is currently under public scrutiny.

“After public comments, we’ll have to discuss that in the government, and hopefully in December this year, we could announce the new charter,” he said.

Japan has long provided assistance to the Philippines as the latter’s top donor. As of 2012, Japan has pumped in $20.95 billion to the Philippines in a mix of loans and grants.

The Japanese ODA assistance policy mainly circles around the idea of aiding the Philippines to achieve inclusive growth. It has three priority areas, namely, to achieve sustainable economic growth through further promotion of investment, to overcome vulnerability and stabilizing bases for human life and production activity; and to develop peace in Mindanao.

World leaders focused on Islamic State, sea row in Myanmar talks Continued from A1

from a half-century of dictatorship—ran the two-day event in its purpose-built capital Naypyitaw with military-like discipline.

More than 1,300 journalists were given superficial access to participants, watching from a safe distance as participants were ushered in and out of cavernous meeting halls and then shuttling back to a far-removed media center.

Presidents and prime ministers from 10 Southeast Asian nations met on Wednesday and were joined on Thursday by Obama and leaders from China, India and South Korea, among others.Below are highlights from the draft “final’” statements, which were written ahead of the meetings and circulated even before the talks began:

South China Sea

Territorial disputes in the

South China Sea, which is of tremendous strategic importance to everyone, including Washington, need to be solved peacefully and through dialogue. Southeast Asian nations and China should work toward the early conclusion of a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.

Ebola

Ebola poses a global threat to peace and security and relief assistance is needed to help fight the deadly virus in the hardest-hit West Africa nations, home to most of the world’s 5,000 deaths. When necessary, leaders from Southeast Asian nations will seek technical assistance from the World Health Organization to help detect and respond to public health threats.

Islamic State group

Participants reiterated that they supported efforts to restore

law and order inside Iraq as it— and the world at large—struggles with threats posed by the Islamic State group. They called on Iraq and international partners to ensure the protection of civilians and access to humanitarian assistance for those affected by the conflict.

They demanded the immediate, safe and unconditional release of all those who are kept hostage by the group or associated individuals and entities.

The Asean Summit on Wednesday and the East Asia Summit on Thursday brought together more than 18 leaders. They include Obama, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is the first Asean summit for newly elected Indonesian President Joko Widodo. AP