Businessmirror november 30, 2016

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Wednesday, November 30, 2016 Vol. 12 No. 49

The departments of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on Tuesday launched a “convergence” program aimed at putting in place more roads in ecozones.

The DTI and the DPWH signed a

Nobility of failure Teddy Locsin Jr.

free fire

@c_pillas29

he government is planning to construct more roads leading to key manufacturing and economic zones, in a bid to entice investors to set up shop in rural areas.

memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the convergence program, dubbed as the “Roads Leveraging Linkages for Industry and Trade (ROLL-IT) Program.”

The MOA aims to establish the working arrangement between the

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Govt to make ecozones rural investment magnets ₧324.5B T

By Catherine N. Pillas

2016 ejap JOURNALISM awards

K

ate McKinnon celebrated, yes celebrated, the defeat of Hillary Clinton in a tearful rendition of Leonard Cohen’s famous song, “Hallelujah”.

She wasn’t putting down, but lifting up, the loser in the last American election. It’s a tradition, distinctly Japanese, called the Nobility of Failure, in a study of that name by the scholar Ivan Morris.

The amount of fresh investments OK’d by the BOI from January to November, up 35.5 percent

DTI and the DPWH to jointly undertake the study and creation of infrastructure projects in priority economic and manufacturing zones in the Philippines.

Through better road infrastructure connecting the industries, the government hopes to attract more investors in rural areas.

Continued on A11

BMReports

See “Ecozones,” A2

SoKor leader to resign once Cow, sheep and goat power-transfer plan is ready raisers ruminate

South Korean President Park Geun-hye makes a live televised address in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday.

The embattled president said she will resign her office once parliament develops a plan for a safe transfer of power. AP

PESO exchange rates n US 49.7770

hee, whose rule also abruptly ended after he was assassinated by his spy chief in 1979.

“I will leave the matters about my fate, including the shortening of my presidential term, to be decided by the National Assembly,” Park said on Tuesday in a live address to the nation, referring to parliament.

“If the ruling and opposition parties discuss and come up with a plan to reduce the confusion in state affairs and ensure a safe transfer of governments, I will resign from the presidential position under that schedule and by processes stated in law.”

O p p o s it io n p a r t i e s h a d b e e n closing in on an impeachment motion against Park, and even her allies in the conservative ruling party have called for her to “honorably” step down rather than face impeachment. An impeachment motion vote had been planned for Friday.

The country’s two largest opposition parties were also planning on Tuesday to nominate a special prosecutor to independently investigate the scandal.

Continued on A12

future as govt stops importation tack

NONOY LACZA

S

outh Korean President Park Geun-hye said on Tuesday she will resign her office once parliament develops a plan for a safe transfer of power, amid prosecution claims that she colluded with a friend who wielded government power from the shadows.

Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in Seoul each Saturday for the last five weeks to demand that Park step down, amid prosecutors’ claims that she colluded with a confidante, who allegedly manipulated power from the shadows and extorted companies to amass an illicit fortune.

Park would be the first South Korean leader to resign since the country’s first president, Syngman Rthee, quit and then fled to Hawaii amid a popular uprising in 1960.

The succeeding government was overthrown by a coup by Park’s late father, the military dictator Park Chung-

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

A

Conclusion

BLESSING. This was how Allan, a cattle raiser in Bukidnon, described his experience when he received an imported breed of cattle from the government.

“It’s really a big blessing

for us to receive imported breeds. I think it was in 1997 when we last imported live animals,” Allan S. Bernales told the BusinessMirror.

“In fact, with the distribution of imported live animals, we already shortcut the breeding process, as we can already input the semen of choice to these

n japan 0.4441 n UK 61.7882 n HK 6.4174 n CHINA 7.2054 n singapore 34.9410 n australia 37.2083 n EU 52.8084 n SAUDI arabia 13.2767

Continued on A2

Source: BSP (29 November 2016 )

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A2 Wednesday, November 30, 2016

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Cow, sheep and goat raisers ruminate future as govt stops importation tack Continued from A1

heifers. You can choose to have hybrid animals or Brahman pure, depending on what you want.”

Bernales’s organization, the Federation of Cattle Raisers Association of the Philippines Inc. (Fcrap), received a total of 760 heads of purebred commercial Brahman heifer from the Bureau of Animal Industry’s Expanded Beef Cattle Lease Ownership Program (E-Bclop) this year.

Fcrap, which is comprised of 200-strong cattle raisers, allotted a maximum of five heads for each of their raiser-member, said Bernales, the group’s president.

He explained they cannot distribute more than five heads to each FCRAP member. Bernales said this is to meet the group’s goal of spreading the genetic lineage of these animals across the Philippines.

“And not all [Fcrap members] received the imported breed, because some didn’t qualify, such as those who have insufficient capacity to handle these breeds,” he said, adding that about 150 FCRAP members received the imported breed.

Bernales said he didn’t allot some for himself, even though he is capable of growing such so that he would not appear biased to other members.

Database

ASIDE from the outright animal repayment intended for the second-line farmer recipients, the Fcrap member-beneficiaries are expected to submit to the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) the performance records of each animal’s progeny weights at birth, on its 200th, 400th and 600th days.

The data will be incorporated in the database of the National Ruminant Registry of the Central Data Management Unit for generation of estimated breeding values and continuing genetic-improvement agenda of the Department of Agriculture.

Latest government data show there are about 2.56 million head of cattle in the country. Of the figure, 93.58 percent are raised in backyard farms, or those who own a maximum of three cows, while the remaining cattle population is found in commercial farms.

To meet the growing demand of Filipinos for protein-sources, such as the meat of ruminant animals (cattle, goat and sheep), the Department of Agriculture (DA) started a series of importation program in a bid to develop local ruminant-animal industries in the Philippines eight years ago.

One of those programs was the locally funded E-Bclop, which benefited Bernales’s group.

Burden

BERNALES knows that with blessing comes some burden afterward. He pointed out that not all cattle raisers in the Philippines are

capable of handling imported breeds, such as the Brahman heifers.

“It’s really difficult to handle these animals, especially when it comes to food and nutrition. We lack quality feeds in the country,” Bernales said.

He explained that, in terms of nutrition, imported cattle need maximum patience as their body requires high amount of nutrition in order not to stunt their growth or grow sickly.

But Bernales said there are already various types of tropical grasses available in the Philippine market—such as Mulato, Mombasa, Guinea and Star—that can compete against imported grass from the US and Australia.

“As much as possible, you feed them with grasses alone, but sometimes raisers combine some legumes, because they are cheaper,” Bernales said. “And you might, as well, think of adding some nutrition supplement of sort to enhance their body, because you’re just giving rice straw to your cattle, then that’s really not enough to raise them well.”

What matters most is that we continue the genetic improvement of cattle and other ruminant animals in the country.”

Still, Diosamia M. Sevilla, Agip assistant project manager, said they considered their importation programs successful, as it stirred awareness of ruminant animal raising among the Filipino livestock growers in the country.

“I would say that programs were effective, as there are still some Filipino livestock raisers requesting for certain breeds of ruminant animals when they learned about the programs,” Sevilla said. “They thought the importation was unlimited. Usually, our response to them is that the programs are already in phase two, where they can apply as recipients for the redistribution of collected offspring repayment.”

already in Phase 2, where they can apply as recipients for the redistribution of collected offspring repayment.”

And since Piñol has no official marching order yet on the status of the Agip, Limson and Sevilla said they are just going to focus on the collection and distribution of repayment animals and monitoring of the growth of the offspring of the imported breeds.

“For now, we are just going to focus on the island-borne ones,” Sevilla said.

“It’s up to the government to evaluate the cattle raiser, given that there is least number of people interested and enthusiastic in terms of cattle raising and even goat raising in the Philippines,” Bernales said.

He just hopes the government continues to improve the genetics of cattle in the country.

Components

Weekenders

ASIDE from dietary-nutrition problems, Bernales said cattle raisers in the Philippines face the challenge of shrinking land areas allocated for ruminant-animal raisers like them.

“Unlike before when native cattle has the luxury of wide areas, today land for cattle raising has become compact,” he told the BusinessMirror. “There has been a lot of competition in the agriculture sector, such as the entry of multinational companies that convert agricultural land.

I think, before in the 1960s, there’s about 3 million hectares of land for cattle raising, but now there’s only around 100,000 hectares devoted to cattle.”

Bernales said the need to improve the land comes as the population of cattle in the Philippines continues to grow.

“We have to improve the land area, as the current area for cattle raising is not capable enough to supply the nutrition needed of the animals,” Bernales said, adding that the ideal land to cattle ratio is 1 hectare to one cattle (1:1).

TO date, there are three more other importation programs that were all clustered under the so-called Animal Genetic Infusion Projects (Agip), the BAI’s flagship program on genetic importation.

One component is the Accelerating the Genetic Resource Improvement Program for Beef Cattle and Small Ruminants (Agripbes). Another is the Goat Production Project for an Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program (GPP-AHMP). Both of these are US-funded importation programs. The third component, which is locally funded, is called the Mutton Development Project (MDP).

It was the importation of sheep that Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol halted. Piñol told the BusinessMirror he didn’t give the go signal for the importation of 3,4069 head of sheep under the MDP, because the cost of each sheep was overpriced.

“It was really overpriced and besides, we already have a lot of sheep in the country,” Piñol said. “Go to Mindanao, and you will see a lot of sheep there. Let’s just focus on growing and multiplying the current sheep population.”

Data from the BAI show that, as of April 2010, the country’s sheep population reached 49,747. About 56.12 percent, or 27,919, were raised by backyard raisers.

Breakthrough

Success

Ideal

LIKE the blessing they received, Bernales and his group accepted the fact with arms wide open the DA’s decision to halt the importation programs of live ruminant animals.

“We understand their decision because maybe they [DA] saw the whole trend of the agriculture, and they have different priorities for it,” Bernales said. “But we hope that the government pushes through other genetic-development programs, such as artificial insemination [AI] or the proposed embryo-transfer [ET] breeding.

DIOSAMIA M. Sevilla, Agip assistant project manager, said they still considered their importation programs successful, as it stirred awareness of ruminant animal raising among the Filipino livestock growers in the country.

“I would say the programs were effective, as there are still some Filipino livestock raisers requesting for certain breeds of ruminant animals when they learned about the programs,” Sevilla said. “They thought the importation was unlimited. Usually, our response to them is that the programs are

LIMSON said Filipino cattle raisers and ruminant animal growers should really embrace various technologies in the breeding process particularly AI. “Filipino raisers and growers have this mentality where they are just going to duplicate what has been successful and effective from their neighbors,” Limson said. “Unlike them, foreigners would study a certain technology or breeding process, and then they will risk their money.”

Limson said Filipino ruminant animal raisers prefer live animal breeding, as this is way easier than the AI process. Besides, Limson notes, most of these Filipino raisers are just “weekend farmers”.

“They just put a cow there, for example, just on their land. They are not serious in terms of raising cattle as an enterprise or business,” Limson said. “And for those who take this enterprise seriously, they prefer the live breeding, because you don’t have anything to do, as long as you feed the bull, then they will mate. But they have to remember that time will come the bull will grow old, and in-breeding with its daughter cannot be avoided.”

Limson said that through AI, the raisers could easily choose a good breed for the offspring and would do away of the struggles of raising an imported breed.

“The technique in AI is that the raiser should have the patience in understanding the ‘heat’ or estrus of their animal,” Limson said. “It still boils down to the farmers’ skill.

Because if the farmer doesn’t know how to read signs of heat of the animal, then nothing good is going to happen.”

For the more than 97-percent backyard farmers in the Philippines, the BAI offers subsidized artificial-insemination program, wherein interested raisers will only have to pay for the service rendered by their AI technicians, which costs around P500 to P1,000 only, Limson said. Limson added there are about 1,700 registered and qualified AI technicians around the country.

Road Map

PIÑOL is aware of the shortage of cattle in the Philippines.

“And for a country of 105 million Filipinos, we only have 2.5 million [head of] cattle,” Piñol said in front of a Filipino community in Las Vegas during his trip there in early November.

In a statement that he posted on Facebook, Piñol said the local cattle industry will be receiving a “massive” support starting 2018.

“I have directed Assistant Secretary for Livestock [Enrico Garzon] to draft a 10-year Philippine Cattle Development Program,” Piñol’s post said. “The program aims to increase the Philippine cattle population to at least 10 million by 2028.”

The DA chief is keen on introducing the ET technology in the local cattle industry, after he visited a biotechnology laboratory in south of Buenos Aires in Argentina.

“Tauron Biotech officials [are] interested in helping the Philippines to increase its cattle population by using the embryotransfer technology,” Piñol said. “Tauron and its scientists have the capability of producing sexed embryos from the Brangus strain, actually a cross-breed of Brahman and Angus, which then could be introduced to healthy heifers in the Philippines.”

Sustainability

THE DA secretary added that the technology has a 99-percent accuracy of producing a female calf, the cost of which is less than $100 per embryo and a success rate of between 35 percent and 50 percent in calving.

“I have directed ASec Garzon to start the program with about 10,000 heifers next year as part of the trial period,” Piñol said. “If it is proven successful, as it was in Brazil, then we will launch a massive cattle production program starting 2018.”

“By 2018, I will allocate sufficient funds to undertake the embryo transfer on 100,000 heifers, which after two years would be ready to be recipients of another round of embryos of Brangus from Argentina.”

Piñol hopes to hit a 10 million cattle population in the Philippines by 2028.

There are about 2.56 million head of cattle in the country. Of the figure, 93.58 percent are raised in backyard farms or those who own a maximum of three cows.

The remaining cattle population is found in commercial farms.

“Why am I making a 10-year plan for cattle development to end in 2028 when my term as agriculture secretary will end in 2022?” he said. “I believe that agricultural programs should be sustained, and these should not be tied with the political term of the President or the number of years of service by the agriculture secretary.”

Ecozones. . .

Continued from A1

The DPWH said it will allocate funds for the program in 2018.

The ROLL-IT program is a cornerstone of the Duterte administration’s “golden age of infrastructure,” which aims to allocate P8.2 trillion, or 7 percent of GDP, for infrastructure projects.

Investment pledges

The government’s bid to spend more for infrastructure projects has made the Philippines more attractive to investors, according to the latest figures from the Board of Investments (BOI).

Investment pledges registered with the BOI in November reached P28.5 billion in November, nearly double the P14.4 billion recorded in the same month last year.

The November haul pulled up investments in the January-toNovember period to P324.5 billion, 35.5 percent higher than the P239.5 billion posted in the same period last year. Jobs generated from the 323 projects in January to November reached 55,813.

Some of the big-ticket investment pledges came from the Light Rail Manila Corp., with P30.36 billion, Limay Premiere Power Corp.

(P23.29 billion); GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (P16.75 billion); and Energy Development Corp.

(P16.75 billion). Trade Secretary

and BOI Chairman Ramon Lopez said in a statement the growth of investment pledges augurs well with the administration’s socioeconomic agenda of uplifting the lives of the Filipino people.

The largest share of approved investments from January to November 2016 is intended to finance projects in the power sector, which accounted for P150.26 billion of total approved investments during the period.

Other sectors that topped the list of investment approvals include construction with P62.27 billion; real-estate activities, including the mass housing subsector, P48.95 billion; the manufacturing sector, P30.40 billion; and transportation and storage sector, P15.38 billion.

Investment pledges in the manufacturing sector alone are expected to create 13,268 jobs.

“The continued growth of the manufacturing industry is a clear indication of the efforts to boost the growth and further development of the sector through the Manufacturing Resurgence Program,” Lopez said.

Topping the list of foreign country investors in January to November is Singapore, with investments worth P13.26 billion. The Netherlands came in second, with investments amounting to P10.77 billion, followed by Japan, with P6.833 billion; South Korea, with P6.42 billion; and the United Kingdom, with P2.34 billion.

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news@businessmirror.com.ph

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

A3

S&P: PHL to see fastest growth in Asean

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By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

nternational credit watcher Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings (S&P) retained its 6.5-percent fullyear growth forecast for the Philippines despite the economy’s better-thanexpected performance in the Januaryto-September period that saw the GDP expansion averaging 7 percent.

Nonetheless, S&P said in its Asia-Pacific Credit Outlook 2017 the Philippines will continue to outpace the growth of its Southeast Asian neighbors this year.

The 6.5-percent forecast is the fastest among the rated Asean countries and one of the fastest in Asia Pacific, next only to S&P’s 8-percent forecast for India and 6.6 percent for China.

“The Southeast Asian economies are seeing stable growth, with the Philippines outperforming the region,” S&P said. The report did not say if the third-quarter economic performance has been factored in.

The international credit watcher attributed its positive outlook for the Philippines to its growing middle class, business-process outsourcing boom and expansionary fiscal policy with emphasis on public infrastructure.

Across Asia Pacific, meanwhile, S&P noted the region’s economic growth appears to be steady, amid uncertainty over the policies of the

6.5%

The S&P’s growth forecast for the Philippines this year

incoming Trump administration, a sentiment dominating financial markets worldwide.

Just this week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it is looking to revise upward its growth forecasts anew for this year, as the third quarter growth outcome went above its expectations.

IMF Resident Representative to the Philippines Shanaka Jayanath Peiris said the Philippines could grow stronger than their earlier 6.4-percent full-year growth forecast, which was already upgraded from 6 percent just this late-September.

“The third quarter GDP outturn

Court junks plea to nullify FAB, CAB pacts with Muslim group

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HE Supreme Court (SC) dismissed on Tuesday the petitions filed by several groups and individuals seeking to declare as unconstitutional two agreements signed during the Aquino administration with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that allow the establishment of a Bangsamoro government, in lieu of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

At a news briefing, SC Spokesman Theodore Te said the magistrates, during their regular en-banc session, decided to dismiss the petitions on the ground that these are “premature”.

The SC noted that there is no Bangsamoro basic law that has been passed just as yet, thus, questions on the constitutionality of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) dated October 12, 2012, and Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) dated March 27, 2014, are “premature and not ripe of adjudication.”

“Until a Bangsamoro basic law is passed by Congress, it is clear

that there is no actual case or controversy that requires the Court to exercise its power of judicial review over a coequal branch of government,” the Court said.

Even if there are bills pending in Congress, the SC said it cannot exercise its power of judicial review over such bills until they are passed into law. Otherwise, it would be tantamount to the Court rendering an advisory opinion on a proposed act of Congress.

“The power of judicial review over an act of Congress comes into play only after the passage of a bill not before,” the SC said.

Dismissed were the petitions filed by the Philippines Constitution Association (Philconsa), et al; Tanggulang Demokrasya, Rev. Vicente Libradores Aquino, et al.; and Jacinto Paras and Rev. Elly Velez Pamatong, et al.

In its petition, Philconsa through its president Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said the FAB and CAB granted “unconscionable” financial, social, economic and political benefits to the MILF. Joel R. San Juan

PHL slips in world talent ranking

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ow education investments, as well as the lack of teachers and women in the work force, caused the Philippines’s rank to decline by seven notches in a survey that assessed the efforts of countries to develop talent.

Data from the World Talent Ranking released by leading global business school IMD showed the Philippines’s position settled at 51st out of the 61 countries surveyed.

The World Talent Ranking evaluated how 61 countries develop, attract and retain the talent pool necessary for businesses to maximize their performance. “[There is a] lack of development of local talent, particularly with regard to the paucity of public-sector investment in education,” IMD’s World Competitiveness Center Director Arturo Bris said.

“This and related issues mean Asian

countries perform poorly in some of the most important measures that we use to gauge an economy’s overall competitiveness,” he added.

Rankings are aggregated from performance in three categories—investment/development, appeal and readiness—compiled from a wide range of factors.

These include education, apprenticeship, employee training, worker motivation, language skills, cost of living, quality of life, pay, tax rates and brain-drain.

In terms of investment and development, the country ranked poorly in pupil-teacher ratio (secondary education) at 61st or last place. The pupil-teacher ratio in high school in the country was at 35 to one. The country also ranked poorly at 60th place in pupil-teacher ratio in elementary education. Cai U. Ordinario

in the Philippines led by a recovery in agriculture and continued strength of private consumption and gross investment, was faster than anticipated than in our 6.4-percent growth forecast for 2016,” Peiris said.

Several international economists have already upped their forecast for the Philippine eco-

nomic growth just last week, cementing the country’s path as a fast-growing economy, amid socio-political friction in and out of the Philippines.

In particular, Japan-based Nomura Group Research, HSBC and Barclays Capital Inc. all made upward revisions to their views of the local economy following the

announcement of the 7.1-percent Philippine growth rate in the third quarter of the year.

Nomura now has the highest forecast among the three, with a projected expansion of Philippine growth to reach 6.9 percent, from its earlier forecast of 6.7 percent.

Barclays, meanwhile, now put Philippine growth hitting 6.8 per-

cent from the earlier 6.6-percent forecast for 2016 on the back of an accommodative monetary-policy stance and an expansionary fiscal stance.

HSBC upgraded its view of the Philippine economy from 6.5 percent to 6.8 percent for this year and expects 6.5 percent for both 2017 and 2018.

ExportUnlimited

A4 Wednesday, November 30, 2016 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

More Negosyo Centers and more students needed to achieve DTI’s 2020 e-commerce road map

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By Roderick L. Abad

@rodrik_28

HE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said it is opening more Negosyo Centers nationwide, bringing their total number to 550 next year.

DTI Undersecretary Zenaida C. Maglaya said this is part of their plan to cover the entire country with “go-to” places for business start-ups and, eventually, help achieve their 2020 Philippine ECommerce Roadmap (PECR).

Launched earlier this year, PECR underscores the pivotal role of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and e-commerce in promoting sustainable and inclusive economic development.

Specifically, the key objectives of this road map are to activate no less than 100,000 MSMEs into e-com-

merce in the next four years and enable them to contribute significantly to the Philippine economy.

At present, there are 950,000 DTI-listed MSMEs—89 percent of which are at the micro level— accounting for 35 percent of the country’s GDP. “It’s low [compared to] other neighboring countries that reach around 45 percent. So we want to hit 45 percent by 2020, or maybe by the end of the [Duterte] administration. We would like to look at that in our MSME Development Plan so we can really see their big contri-

bution to the economy because 63 percent of jobs come from this sector,” Maglaya told reporters at the launch last week of Ureka E-Cadets Program in Mandaluyong City.

By law, the DTI is mandated to build Negosyo Centers in all provinces, cities and municipalities.

“And that’s about more than 1,600. But we are not doing this in one big blow. We’re doing this strategically to make sure we are in the right places, covering the cities first, then the first-class and second-class municipalities where we have really the proliferation of our MSMEs and where the resources are. So if we’re looking at the 2020 Plan, hopefully, by then, I would say we should have Negosyo Centers in each of these cities and municipalities, with the help of the local government [units] and budget support, of course, from the DBM [Department of Budget and Management],” she said.

Currently, there are 382 Negosyo Centers established across the country that provide service

and assistance to MSMEs—from giving information to promoting their business, as well as creating product design, development and marketing in a most efficient and cost-effective way.

“We could have a total of about 400 [Negosyo Centers] before the end of the year and another 150 by next year,” she said.

The trade agency has partnered with the Ureka Forum—the country’s most comprehensive e-commerce mass conversion movement— for the youth-based project called the E-Cadets Program, which serves as a training ground for students where they learn the basics of onboarding and converting traditional entrepreneurs from the brick-and-mortar business model to “brick-to-click” through a complete and one-stop online shop setup.

“A thriving SME sector, where even the humble local producers profit and enjoy the same kind of attention as the bigger, more established ones, is vital in promoting economic growth that is truly in-

clusive and sustainable,” said Union Bank of the Philippines EVP and Ureka lead proponent Genaro Lapez. “Through the Ureka E-Cadets Program, we intend to collaborate with academe and pave the way for these homegrown businesses to rise as global enterprises.”

Throughout the entire course of this program, students from business, commerce, information technology and computer science/ studies degrees will be taught on how to strategically and effectively recruit SMEs and help them set up digital shops online. This will be done using a full-service platform, complete with a payment channel and a logistics partner.

As for the program’s launch, Lapez told the BusinessMirror they have already enlisted around 350 students comprising the first batch of E-Cadets. He said they plan to conduct the training on a quarterly basis starting in 2017, with around 250 student-participants, to reach over 4,000 E-Cadets that could be of help in achieving the 2020 PECR.

“The Ureka E-Cadets initiative supports the mandate of the DTI to bring more Filipinos into the global e-commerce stage. Through this program, we aim to expose the E-Cadets to a more strategic and more practical ecosystem of doing e-commerce and integrating business innovation,” Lapez said.

Seeing the impact of the program to the road map, Maglaya lauded the academic sector, particularly the students, for being an “added force” to achieve their target.

“What we want to happen is for our MSMEs to really try it and to be confident enough to really do marketing through e-commerce.

And I would believe that with the E-Cadets—who can help them really set this up, teach them how to do it, make them more confident because they know that there’s someone who can help them and hold them all the way—would really be a good way to do this and be able to achieve what we want to happen by 2020 or even earlier,” she said.

DTI, DLSU partner in educating future entrepreneurs

calata

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rivera

HE Export Marketing Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), in partnership with the De La Salle University Manila (DLSU) RVR-College of Business and the Parents of University Students Organization (PUSO), recent ly conducted a seminar, entitled “Unlad Buhay: Pagbabahagi ng Talino at Karanasan sa Negosyo,” at the Teresa Yuchengco Auditorium as part of the Lasallian Mission Week Celebration, with the theme “Pagsasabuhay sa Lasalyaong Misyon sa Panahon ng Pagbabago.”

The seminar, which sought to inspire and empower future en-

trepreneurs with knowledge and secrets of developing a successful business, was participated in by professors and students from private and government universities, and members of Ka-Entrep Micro and Small Entrepreneurs Organization of the Philippines Inc. T he prog ra m i nc luded we lcome remarks from DLSU-PUSO Vice President for Internal Affairs Joy S. Fajardo and an inspirational message from DLSU alumnus and DTI-EMB Assistant Director Anthony B. R ivera. R ivera underscored the business and export opportunities in the global market and urged the par-

The European Union—A strong economic partner of the Philippines

By Jose Antonio Buencamino

Foreign Trade Service Corps Department of Trade and Industry

MARKET DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

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Part One

HE European Union (EU) is the largest single market and trader in the world. It is a €12.6-trillion economy, larger than the United States (€11.5 trillion), China (€4.6 trillion) and Japan (€4.2 trillion) in 2015. Its strong market position is achieved by its 28 member-states acting as a single voice on the global stage, resulting in a position where the EU currently accounts for 16 percent of the global trade.

ticipants to take advantage of the Philippines’s existing free-trade agreement w ith A sean and its si x partner-economies— China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

The highlights of the seminar were the success stories narrated by Joseph Calata, chairman/ pre s ide nt a nd C EO of C a l at a Cor p.; Marco Reyes, managing director of Hancole; and Sherill R amos Quintana of Or yspa Spa Solutions Inc. Calata is a self-made billionaire who serves as the chairman/ president and CEO of Calata Corp., the largest combined distributor The EU is a highly attractive integrated market to do business with, as it has more than 500 million consumers with a gross domestic product per capita of €25,000. The EU is the top trading partner for 80 countries in 2015 (in comparison to the United States—the top trading partner for just 20 countries).

Importantly, the EU is one of the most open economies committed to freer trade, especially with developing countries, with over 70 percent of developing-country exports coming in at zero or less-than-MFN duties.

The EU is one of the most important trading partners of the Philippines. Total two-way trade in 2015 amounted to €12.9 billion, or 11 percent of the total, making the EU the Philippines’ fourthlargest trading partner.

The broad stroke numbers

IN terms of exports, the EU is the thirdlargest market of the Philippines with exports of €5.7 billion in 2015. Within the EU, 90 percent of EU-Philippine trade is concentrated among eight EU member-states—Germany, France,

of agro-chemical feeds, fertilizers and seeds. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management of Financial Institutions from DLSU Manila, Calata joined J. Melvin’s Trading, a small poultryfeed store located in Plaridel, Bulacan, which he transformed into the country’s largest distributor of agriculture products and veterinary medicine. He is prominently known for being the youngest businessperson to ever list his company through an initial public offering.

Reyes serves as managing director of Hancole Industries Ltd., a leading trading company and global supplier specializing in oleochemicals, oils and fats, surfactants, food ingredients and cosmetic raw materials. Hancole is in a tie-up with oleochemical manufacturers, major coconut oil refiners, and detergent manufacturers in the Asia Pacific and also has ongoing business relationships with strategic manufacturers in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Iran, Brazil and Argentina.

Quintana is one of the inspiring Filipina entrepreneurs who has managed to grow her busine s s e x p o ne nt i a l l y. T h i r t e e n years ago, armed with a passion for aromatherapy, she started as a homegrown company that manufactures aromatherapy products in Laguna. As her way of giving

the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Denmark.

The Philippines’s main exports to the EU are office and telecommunication equipment (44.9 percent of the total), machinery (15.1 percent), food products (12.5 percent), and optical and photographic instruments (11.1 percent). While the main exports of the EU to the Philippines are transport equipment (30.9 percent), machinery (14.9 percent), food products (13.2 percent), chemicals (11.5 percent) and electronic components (11.3 percent).

A close look at the export data of the Philippines to the EU from 2002 to 2013 reveals a steady decline of exports from €8.5 billion in 2002 to €5.1 billion in 2014. There was an increase in 2015 of 13 percent, when exports amounted to €5.8 billion.

Hopefully, this positive increase will continue, especially with the GSP+ and the prospect for an EUPhilippines free-trade agreement. We return to these two trade instruments later in this article. To be concluded

back, Quintana continuously provides livelihood trainings for rural women in Laguna and serves as an active member of their provincial and local tourism councils.

She is currently an active member of the Philippine Franchise Asso-

ciation and the Philippine Wellness association.

Her book, entitled A Small Entrepreneur’s Journey, which talked about how to start, survive and succeed in business was also launched during the seminar. Gari Ann Valera

upcoming events Compiled by Louise Kaye G. Mendoza DTI-EMB Knowledge Processing Division

DEC 1-16 (DEC 1-OPENING)

Time: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Event: OTOP Showroom featuring Ripples Plus Enrollees Venue: DTI Main Building, 361 Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City

DEC 5-9

Time: 8 a.m.-7 p.m.

Event: Exporters Bazaar Venue: Glorietta Atrium

DEC 5

Time: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Event: Usapang Exports

* Updates on Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP); * Export Outlook for 2017 Venue: Penthouse, 5th Floor, DTI International Building, 375 Sen. Gil Puyat

Avenue, Makati City

DEC 6

Time: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Event: Usapang Exports

* Leveraging the Asean Integration: Building, Mentoring and Exporting Homegrown Brands; * Packaging Trends and Visual Merchandising * Phytosanitary Export Certification Procedures of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) Venue: Penthouse, 5th Floor, DTI International Building, 375 Sen. Gil Puyat

Avenue, Makati City

DEC 7

Time: 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Event: National Export Congress 2016 Venue: Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC), Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue

corner Roxas Boulevard Pasay City

DEC 8

Time: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Event: Usapang Exports * Interactive Statistics and Business Matching Platform;

* Digital Marketing for Beginners; * Virtual seminar on Nontariff Measures (NTM) and Doing Business with the UN Venue: Penthouse, 5th Floor, DTI International Building, 375 Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City

DEC 9

Time: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Event: Usapang Exports * Israel, Russia, Mexico, South Africa and India Venue: Penthouse, 5th Floor, DTI International Building, 375 Sen. Gil Puyat

Avenue, Makati City

news@businessmirror.com.ph

AseanWednesday BusinessMirror

Editor: Max V. de Leon • Wednesday, November 30, 2016 A5

Hanoi tweaking economy even without TPP

A

S Donald J. Trump prepares to kill the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the 12-nation trade pact is helping to spur the biggest overhaul of Vietnam’s economy in decades.

The communist government in Hanoi plans to push ahead with more than 30 separate pieces of legislation proposed to comply with the trade deal, including rules on labor, business, foreign trade and small and medium enterprises. Since a new Constitution was adopted in 2013, Vietnam’s lawmakers have passed more than 100 laws—a scale of change unseen since the nation introduced the market-oriented “Doi Moi” reforms in the 1980s.

“We will continue carrying out what we’ve planned to do,” Nguyen Duc Kien, deputy head of the Vietnam National Assembly’s economic committee, said in an interview in Hanoi last week. “It’s the technologies and corporate governance that we need to improve. It’s crucial.”

30

The number of measures that Hanoi plans to pass to comply with the TPP

Vietnam has long been seen as one of the biggest potential winners from the TPP, with increased market access for everything from clothing to electronics to footwear.

The deal also stood to complement a growing strategic relationship between the US and Vietnam, which opposes China’s territorial claims

in the South China Sea. Yet all isn’t lost: The TPP also helped serve as an impetus for longneeded structural changes in a nation with 90 million people that’s forecast to grow more than 6 percent this year—one of the fastest rates in Asia. While Vietnam first announced plans to reform its state-owned enterprises in 2011, progress has been slow, with the stakes sold often too small and many companies pulling back on plans to list on exchanges.

‘Good preparation’

“WE wanted to have good preparation, with or without TPP,” said Vu Thi Thuan, chairman of Traphaco JSC, Vietnam’s second-largest listed pharmaceutical company. “We still have to make sure we are able to compete with foreign rivals because Vietnam is more and more integrating into the global economy,” she said.

Thuan said Traphaco has spent heavily to increase its competitiveness, including the construction of a $22-million factory to prepare for the expected rise in foreign medicines entering Vietnam if TPP came into effect. Other companies in export

industries, such as textiles and garment, footwear, seafood, wood furniture and agricultural products, have also made investments, according to Nghia Trong Pham, deputy director general of the Department of Laws at Vietnam’s National Assembly Office.

“This preparation contributes to improve their competitiveness even if the TPP is not taking effect,” Nghia said in an e-mail. “It is reasonable to conclude that the period of 2011 to 2016 is the biggest reforms in Vietnam since Doi Moi. TPP is one of the important actors for this process.”

Reform momentum

Nghia said TPP has also helped raise awareness among key stakeholders, including state officials, employers, trade unions, workers and the general public, on the implications of free trade. Vietnamese business leaders also appear keen to maintain the reform momentum generated by TPP. Alan Pham, chief economist at Vietnam’s largest fund manager VinaCapital Group, says TPP is a kind of road map for Vietnam as it integrates further into the global economy.

“Whether we have TPP or not, Vietnam will still have to reform,” Pham said. “The trade pact is really useful for the government and for Vietnamese business to know what are the steps they will need to take to really become part of the global economy.” Last month the ruling Communist Party adopted a resolution on International Economic Integration that confirmed Vietnam’s commitment to further opening up the economy. The Finance Ministry has recommended moves to support start-up companies, including cutting the corporate income-tax rate for small- and medium-sized enterprises to as low as 15 percent, from the current 20 percent.

China pact

The TPP includes Japan, Malaysia, Australia and Canada—but excludes China—and would represent nearly 40 percent of global economic output worth $30 trillion if it came into force. The World Bank estimates the pact could raise GDP by an average 1.1 percent in member-countries by 2030. China is now pushing a separate 16-nation agreement called the

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. That would include Vietnam along with the rest of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said last month Vietnam would pursue greater international integration through 12 other free-trade agreements it had already signed even if the TPP falls through.

“So it’ll be very good to have TPP, but if not, we still have other integration plans to go with,” Phuc said.

Those agreements, including with the European Union and China, are enough for an economy with nominal GDP of roughly $200 billion to capture growth opportunities in the years to come, Saigon Securities JSC, the country’s biggest brokerage, said in a November 11 note to investors.

Vu Tu Thanh, chief Vietnam representative of the US-Asean Business Council, said that, while the TPP’s collapse isn’t good, “it’s also not very bad” because the Southeast Asian nation will have more time to prepare.

Bloomberg News

A8

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

The World BusinessMirror

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

briefs

Syrian govt captures part of eastern Aleppo

BEIRU T— Sy r ia n gover nment forces captured more than a third of opposition-held eastern Aleppo on Monday, touching off a wave of panic and f light from the besieged enclave as rebel defenses in the country’s largest city rapidly collapsed.

The dramatic gains marked an inflection point in Syria’s nearly six-year-old conflict, threatening to dislodge armed opponents of President Bashar al-Assad from their last major urban stronghold.

Reclaiming all of Aleppo, Syria’s former commercial capital, would be the biggest prize of the war for Assad. It would put his forces in control of the country’s four largest cities, as well as the coastal region, and cap a year of steady government advances. AP

Great Barrier Reef sees record coral deaths this year

CANBERRA, Australia—Australian scientists say warming oceans this year have caused the biggest die-off of corals ever recorded on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

T he Austra l ian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies said on Tuesday the worst-affected area was a 700-kilometer swath in the north of the World Heritagelisted 2,300-km chain of reefs off Australia’s northeast coast.

It found that the northern swath had lost an average of 67 percent of its shallow-water corals in the past nine months. The center based its findings on dive surveys in October and November.

The governments of Australia and the state of Queensland will update the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Her itage Center this week on progress being made to protect and improve the reef, including their response to coral bleaching. AP

North Korea in 3 days of mourning for ‘great comrade’ Fidel Castro

TOKYO—North Korea is observing a three-day period of mourning for Fidel Castro, who was seen by the North as a comrade-inarms against the common enemy of the United States.

Flags outside official buildings are being f lown at halfstaff to honor Castro, who died on Friday at age 90. Reports from Pyongyang said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the Cuban Embassy to pay his respects. A delegation of senior North Korean officials has left for Havana to attend Castro’s memorial services.

“We feel pain of the loss of the great comrade, the great comrade-in-arms,” Kim wrote in a condolence book at the Cuban embassy, the North ’s official Korean Central News Agency reported on Tuesday. AP

Ohio State attack: Terrorism eyed as police seek more info

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Investigators are looking into whether a car-andknife attack at Ohio State University that injured 11 people was an act of terror by a Somali-born student who had once criticized the media for its portrayal of Muslims.

The attacker, identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, plowed his car into a group of pedestrians on campus shortly before 10 a.m. on Monday, and then got out and began stabbing people with a butcher knife before he was shot to death by a campus police officer, authorities said.

A motive was not immediately known, but the police said they were investigating whether it was a terrorist attack. Artan was born in Somalia and was a legal permanent US resident, according to a US official who was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The FBI joined the investigation. AP

Head of the Middle East and North Africa division at Total, Stephane Michel (second, left) and Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh (center) at the conclusion of signing documents in Tehran, Iran, on November 8. AP/Ebrahim Noroozi

Iran is fastest-growing oil consumer

I

ran is pulling ahead in the race for market share in the world’s fastestgrowing oil-consuming nation, India, weakening the hold of rival Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) members amid the group’s struggle to agree on output cuts.

Iran, which dramatically boosted crude sales in 2016 after they were curbed for years by sanctions over its nuclear program, is challenging the sway of Saudi Arabia and Iraq as it offers perks for refiners to help rebuild its standing in Asia’s third-largest economy.

Cargoes to fill strategic petroleum reserves helped Iran emerge last month as India’s biggest supplier for the first time in 2016, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Iran’s progress in building market share assumes significance amid a glut that’s more than halved oil prices since 2014. Members of

Opec meet on Wednesday to try to finalize the terms of a production decrease with some countries, including Iran, reluctant to agree to reductions.

India’s $2-trillion economy imports more than 80 percent of its crude requirement, and the International Energy Agency expects it to be the fastest-growing consumer through 2040.

“Everyone is looking for an alternative to Saudi crude because of high dependence,” said R. Ramachandran, director of refineries at India’s second-largest state-run oil processor Bharat Petroleum Corp.

Ltd. “Iranian crude can provide a better yield pattern in some cases and can be fetched within a week.

It will gradually compete with Saudi and Iraqi crude for higher share in India.”

56% The percentage of increase of Iranian oil supplies in October to 759,700 barrels per day from a month ago

Iranian supplies in October rose 56 percent to 759,700 barrels per day from a month ago, while shipments from Saudi Arabia were 717,000 barrels per day and Iraq’s 488,000 barrels a day, shipping data compiled by Bloomberg show.

I n t he Ju ly - to - S e pte mb e r quarter, Iran overtook Venezuela

to become India’s third-largest crude supplier, with shipments growing 51 percent from the previous quarter. The top shipper Saudi Arabia saw sales climb 10 percent, while Iraq’s grip on the No. 2 position loosened with an 8-percent drop. Oil futures in New York traded 0.5 percent lower at $46.85 a barrel on Tuesday.

Freight discount

Iran h a s of fered at t rac t ive terms like 80 -percent freight discount and 90 days of credit this financial year, Indian Oil Cor p.’s Director Finance A. K. Sharma told Bloomberg in September. Imports from the nation may rise further once it starts exporting its new heav y grade as that will be preferred b y c omp a n ie s l i k e R e l i a nc e Industries Ltd., owner of the world ’s largest refining complex, said London-based Ehsan Ul Haq, principal consultant at K BC Advanced Technologies.

One wrinkle in the story may be the $13 billion acquisition of Essar Oil Ltd.’s Vadinar refinery by

Russian giant Rosneft PJSC and a consortium of Trafigura Group and United Capital Partners. Rosneft may supply the refinery on India’s west coast with Venezuelan crude, hurting Iran, according to Tushar Tarun Bansal, director at Ivy Global Energy. For now though, Iranian crude continues to be attractive for Indian refiners.

Imports from Iran by state-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. and Bharat Petroleum are being used to fill India’s strategic petroleum reserves in Mangalore over October and November. The nation has bought six million barrels of Iranian crude for the 1.5-million-metric-ton underground cavern.

“With old buyers such as MRPL returning, Iranian crude is expected to see increased demand in India, displacing other Middle Eastern barrels,” said Ivy Global Energy’s Bansal. “The Saudis are seen as a more reliable supplier than Iraqis and their quality is also more stable, hence Iraq is expected to see greater impact overall.” Bloomberg News

Trump’s threat to end US-Cuba detente may rouse GOP conflict

W

A SHINGTON—Presid e nt - e l e c t D on a l d Trump’s threat on Monday to “terminate” the US detente with Cuba could trigger opposition from some Republican lawmakers and corporate leaders who favor continued engagement with Havana. Since 2014, when President Barack Obama began to normalize relations with the island, the United States has taken numerous steps to increase commercial travel, commerce and the flow of information to Cuba.

On Monday the first regularly scheduled commercial flight in more than 50 years from the US to Havana landed while passengers aboard the American Airlines jet cheered.Following Fidel Castro’s death Friday at age 90, top aides to Trump signaled that the Cuban government must move toward enacting greater freedoms for its people and giving Americans more in return if it wants to keep the warmer US ties that Obama initiated.

C a st ro’s you nger brot her, 85-year-old Raul Castro, took control in 2006, and later negotiated

with Obama to restore diplomatic relations. Trump’s aides said nothing on Cuba has been decided. But Trump tweeted on Monday, “If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the US as a whole, I will terminate deal.”

Sen. Jeff Flake, RepublicanA r izona, a frequent cr itic of Trump during the presidential campaign, cautioned in a statement aga inst retur ning to a “get tough” policy that isolates H av a n a a nd rest r ic t s t r ave l and business activities. Such an approach, Flake wrote over the weekend, will hurt the Cuban people and make the US government “a convenient scapegoat for failed socialist policies.”

Flake, who accompanied Obama during a visit to Cuba in March, said “allowing more frequent and consequential ties between Cubans and Americans is more likely to accelerate the desired change in Cuba.”

White House Spokesman Josh Earnest suggested pressure from both US corporate interests and supporters of the detente would

keep Trump from dramatically changing course. Earnest cited the new, daily commercial flights, new licenses for US hotel operators and agricultural investment as examples of the sort of cor porate investment that could not be undone without dealing an economic blow to both US businesses and Cubans.

“It’s just not as simple as one tweet might make it seem,” Earnest said. “To cancel all of that would deal a significant economic blow to those Cuban citizens.”

Several airlines began routes to other Cuban cities earlier this year. Monday morning’s American A irlines f light was the first of the new Havana-bound service and the first of four daily f lights the airline plans out of Miami International.

The travel industry is eager to capitalize on the recent detente with Cuba, which is 90 miles from Key West, Florida, and has the potential to be a top Caribbean destination. The Miami Herald has reported Jet Blue will start twice-daily service from Orlando on Tuesday and Fort Lauderdale

on Wednesday. On Thursday Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines begin flying from Fort Lauderdale and Delta flights will take off from Miami, New York’s JFK airport and Atlanta. Southwest starts daily service from Fort Lauderdale on December 12.

Sen. John Boozman, Republican-Arkansas, has pushed for expanded trade with Cuba and in June backed an amendment to a government-spending bill that would lift the ban on private banks and companies offering credit for the export of agricultural commodities to Cuba.

“We’ve had good intentions behind our isolation policy toward Cuba, but the results have not changed,” Boozman said. “It’s time to try a new approach.” A spokesman for Boozman said his attitude toward Cuba hasn’t changed and he still supports a path toward normalizing relations.

Carlos Gutierrez, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce’s US-Cuba Business Council, said in an interview with The Associated Press that ending the detente would be “unwise.” He said Trump is probably

hearing only from staunch opponents of normalization with Cuba and would benefit from input from people who back the engagement.

“This seems to be the wrong time to turn our backs on young entrepreneurs in Cuba,” said Gutierrez, a former commerce secretary under President George W. Bush.

But Trump’s hard-line stance on Cuba strikes a chord with other GOP lawmakers, including Sen. Marco Rubio.

While Obama opened portions of US investment and travel to Cuba through executive order, Republican leaders in Congress have staunchly opposed his calls to end the 55-year-old US trade embargo of the island.

Rubio, whose parents were born in Cuba, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that the US focus must be its own security and other national interests and encouraging Cuba to move toward democracy. “We should examine our policy toward Cuba through those lenses,” Rubio said. “And if there’s a policy that helps that, it remains in place. And if it’s a policy that doesn’t, it’s removed.” AP

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

The World BusinessMirror

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

A9

Modi cash shock tripping up accelerating econ

R

ather than highlighting how far India’s economy has come under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s progrowth administration, Wednesday’s GDP report will underscore just how much there is to lose from his shock clampdown on cash.

Expansion probably accelerated to 7.5 percent in July to September, according to the median of 25 estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

However, analysts are cutting forecasts for growth to 7.4 percent, from 7.7 percent for the year through March as Modi’s November 8 move to invalidate 86 percent of currency in circulation dents demand in an economy where 98 percent of consumer payments are in cash.

“Attention has shifted to the impact of the demonetization initiative on the real economy,” Radhika Rao, an economist at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore, wrote in a report on Monday. Growth in October to December could dip below 6 percent, she said.

Such a slowdown would imperil India’s position as the world’s fastest-growing major economy. A bigger concern, though, is how soon the $2-trillion market can fully rebound from the effects of Modi’s measure.

“Macroeconomic effects of the cash crunch include a temporary delay of consumption and investment, disrupted supply chains, farmers being unable to buy inputs and some loss in productivity due to time lost to deal with cash issues,” said Thomas Rookmaaker, director in Fitch Ratings’s Asia-Pacific Sovereigns Group. “The impact on GDP growth is clearly going to be negative in the short run and depends to a large extent on how long the cash crunch is going to take.”

By some estimates, Modi may need until May to replace the 23 billion bank notes he’s sucked out.

Others, such as Morgan Stanley’s Chetan Ahya, estimate that about 98 percent of cash required for transactions will be in the system by mid-December. That means consumption—which accounts for 60 percent of GDP— will recover from the April to June quarter, though private investment will take time to improve, he said.

India’s GDP will grow 7.4 percent in the current fiscal year through March, according to the median of 15 estimates in a Bloomberg survey conducted after Modi announced the cash clampdown. A separate survey comprising five economists predicts October to December expansion at 6.6 percent and January to March at 7.6 percent.

Cyber Monday frenzy transforms as shoppers are more connected

N

EW YORK—The Monday after Thanksgiving is still a time when millions of Americans pause to check out online deals and check off items from their gift list— but a one-day Cyber Monday frenzy appears to be going the way of the dial-up modem.

Shoppers who have high-speed connections at home and on their phones are pouncing on deals that stores are spreading out over several days, leaving the so-called Cyber Monday online-shopping bonanza in danger of losing its title as the top online sales day.

“Because Cyber Monday is no longer about the connection, it’s just another sales day that I can plan for, like a Labor Day sale or Fourth of July sale,” Gartner analyst Gene Alvarez said. “I know it’s coming: Does it fit into my schedule, and will I do my holiday shopping that day, Black Friday or wait to see what comes up later?”

So instead of door-buster markdowns on a select few products, retailers are shifting to a stream of discounts and alerts during the entire week via e-mail and social media.

Cartwheel, Target’s digital app, started offering holiday deals, including 50-percent off one toy per day on November 1. Amazon started offering 35 days of Black Friday deals on November 16. And Walmart kicked off its Cyber Monday deals on Friday for the first time, as it aimed to grab customers ahead of its competitors.

“It’s really this weeklong flow of deals,” said Shawn DuBravac, chief economist at the Consumer Technology Association. Lea Bishop from Carmel, Indiana, picked up tickets to the Texas Tenors at her local performing arts center because they had a rare buy-two-get-two-free deal.

“It’s those once-a-year deals that I’m looking for today,” she said. Otherwise, she noticed retailers have been spreading out deals.

“It seems like they should rename Black Friday to Black Friday Week and rename Cyber Monday to Cyber Monday weekend,” she said.

Matthew Cannata of New Britain, Connecticut, said he and his wife meticulously map out their shopping weekend.

They hit the stores on Thursday night and on Friday morning and started browsing online on Saturday. They saw more discounts early this year and use services, like buying items online and picking them up in the store, Cannata said.

“We are casting a wide net on any and all types of gifts,” he said. On Mondayw he bought an Amazon Tap smart speaker for $40 off at $90 on Amazon.com and Bluetooth stereo headphones for $30, $100 off the original price. AP

Central bank review

Following Wednesday’s GDP data, which is due at 5:30 p.m. in New Delhi, attention will shift to a purchasing managers’ index due on Thursday that will offer a first assessment of the impact on manufacturing. Services Purchasing Managers’ Index

is due on December 5 and the central bank will review interest rates on December 7.

Governor Urjit Patel will probably reduce the benchmark repurchase rate to 6 percent, from 6.25 percent, to arrest negative spillovers from the shock, according to Citigroup Inc. A private index compiled by BSE

Ltd. and the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy signaled a sharp surge in urban unemployment this month, as reports poured in of construction supervisors unable to pay their daily-wage laborers.

The Reserve Bank of India’s decision will be a “close call,” Citigroup economists Samiran

Chakraborty and Anurag Jha wrote in a report on Sunday. “In an uncertain economic environment since the demonetization exercise, the December monetary policy has to focus on a prudent riskmanagement approach rather than a simple growth-inflation trade-off.”

Bloomberg News

A10 Wednesday, November 30, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

India and Pakistan must pull back from conflict

R

eports of shelling, incursions and deaths in Kashmir indicate that conflict in that area between India and Pakistan is once again heating up.

No one can think that another episode of that is a small matter, or, frankly, that it is necessary between two nations that wish the world to see them as modern, developing rapidly and worthy of confidence and investment. The scrap between them has been going on since 1947, when, at the end of the British raj in India, the subcontinent was being divided between India and Pakistan.

The current skirmishes between the two include what India claims are raids into Indian-occupied parts of Kashmir originated

by Pakistan-backed Islamist guerrillas, followed by what India calls retaliatory “surgical strikes” into Pakistani-occupied parts of Kashmir.

One preeminent reason for these two countries to avoid military hostilities is that both have large armies and nuclear weapons. Another is that both live in an explosive neighborhood that includes Afghanistan. A third is that the governmental situation in both countries is such as to suggest that they should talk, without their fingers on the nuclear or other trigger.

The Indian government is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose political party can be described as Hindu nationalist.

The Pakistani government is, of course, Muslim, headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. It is going through one of its not infrequent teeters between relatively stable civilian rule and the threat of yet another military coup d’etat. Although both Indian and Pakistani governments have managed not to blow up the world for years, in spite of having nuclear weapons, conflict between them is on the list of global nightmare scenarios.

If Indian and Pakistani leaders could resist playing the Kashmir card in their own politicizing, there is plenty for each to do on the domestic front. Modi needs to work on Indian infrastructure, particularly modernizing the country’s railways, which just endured another lethal accident. The air pollution in Delhi, the sprawling city that includes the capital, is among the world’s worst, especially in winter. In Pakistan, Sharif should attack corruption and tribalism and seek to disentangle Pakistan’s armed forces from the continuing war in neighboring Afghanistan. The double game that Pakistan has played for years, giving quiet support and sanctuary to the Afghan Taliban while denouncing terrorism and helping to fight al-Qaeda, has been factored into US policy, but it cannot help relations with India.

What is needed is serious, high-level talks to which both leaders are seriously, visibly dedicated. They are both up to it. It is obvious that the Kashmir issue is not subject to easy resolution, after nearly 70 years. But, for both countries, it is a major, dangerous distraction from the serious business of nation-building, which has gone on far too long. They need to apply themselves to this problem. That should be President-elect Donald Trump’s first message to both of them when he takes office. TNS Editorial Since 2005

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Should jeepneys undergo a ‘phaseout’ or a face-lift?

Michael Makabenta Alunan

on the contrary

J

eepneys may be considered by many as a pesky lot, being old, dilapidated and terrible smoke-belchers that deserve to be phased out under the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) transportmodernization program.

While a phaseout looks good, having been crafted by scented and well-heeled policy-makers of the Aquino administration, many of whom favor more big businesses, on the contrary, there are also equally convincing technical arguments proposing a face-lift for jeepneys instead of a phaseout.

Modernization is for big boys? Transport modernization, unwittingly, favors big businesses because it calls for a vehicle or engine replacement, which can mean a P150-billion replacement market for vehicle manufacturers, dealers and the banks doing all the financing.

While it is good for them, it will mean an added burden to the drivers, who will pay the amortizations.

It also calls for some centralization or clustering to be managed by professional “fleet managers” along the traditional, more efficient big business corporate models.

While market-oriented big business models are efficient in terms of economies of scale, they reverse government’s thrust toward more inclusivity. If efficiency is a problem, there are multiple ways to achieve this, and still retain the current ownership structures and business models.

Jeepneys are microbusinesses. Most jeepneys, including the ubiquitous tricycles nationwide, are micro home-based businesses. Operators own one or just a few units. Only a few operators own more than 10 units, which are distributed to their children. Proof that many jeepneys are owned by ordinary people is the fact some of their bumper tail flaps carry messages, like “katas ng Saudi” (juice of Saudi).

Jeepneys provide so much employment and livelihood. Apart from the operator, who earns the daily “boundary income”, jeepneys provide employment to two drivers per unit.

Thus, many jeepney groups oppose transport modernization, if it translates to a phase out. Unfortunately, most oppose without taking steps themselves to comply with the program’s goals.

New jeepney group rises to the need. A new group, the National Jeepney Federation for Environmental Sustainable Transport (NJFEST), headed by Ronald Baroidan, has responded seriously to the clarion call, even adopting DOTr’s Environmental Sustainable Transport (EST) strategy to its name, but still opposing a phase out on the argument there is no guarantee a brand-new vehicle will not be a smoke-belcher after purchase. Experience shows this is a “nonsequitur” as it does not necessarily follow.

For Baroidan, jeepney drivers are the usual whipping boy of “legal” bullies from traffic enforcers, to erring cops, and to anomalous private emission testing centers, which practice rampant corrupt “nonappearance” emission compliance that do not really conduct actual testing.

Penalties won’t reduce emissions. Once caught for smokebelching, no one tells them solutions, so they go out again only to get caught and penalized anew. So they are forced to bribe their way to continue driving. But no amount of penalties or frequency of arrests will reduce emissions, nor will a vehicle or engine replacement really reduce emissions. Section 46 of the Clean Air Act requires that apart from penalties, violators must undergo a seminar on emission reduction.

Section 11 mandates that government must make available all the information on best practices, techniques and technological options on pollution control, thereby empowering motorists on making more intelligent choices. But this can’t be done fully as Section 15 on Air Pollution Research remains un-

Most jeepneys, including the ubiquitous tricycles nationwide, are micro home-based businesses. Most operators own one or just a few units. Only a few operators own more than 10 units, which are distributed to their children. Jeepneys provide so much employment and livelihood. Apart from the operator, who earns the daily “boundary income”, jeepneys provide employment to two drivers per unit.

funded and unimplemented.

It is ironic that Researchers for Clean Air (ResCueAir), a group of scientists and researchers from academe led by Prof. Edgar Vallar, PhD, from De La Salle and Mylene Cayetano, PhD, from UP Diliman, even spent their own personal money to bring in German experts and equipment to study black carbon in our ambient air, in the absence of support from the government. And yet, there are hundreds of millions of pesos with Department of Environment and Natural Resources’s (DENR) Air Quality Management Fund, and there’s P8.5 billion with DOTr’s Special Vehicle Pollution Control Fund that remain untapped.

JEEEP on the go, but blocked?

Against threats of a phase out, NJFEST sought Environmental Management Bureau-National Capital Region (EMB-NCR) Director Minda Osorio’s help to jointly launch the Jeepney for the Environment and Energy-Efficient Program (JEEEP), which attempts to develop a seminar template implementing both Section 11 and Section 46, even in the absence of funds.

Engr. Dave Garcia, NJFEST’s consultant, said the JEEEP lectureseminar is good as starters, but there is no substitute to handson practical learning, and making trial tests on all the techniques, best practices and technological options available.

After all, there is no substitute to experiential learning. Similarly, one can never learn how to drive or swim by reading guidebooks, without actual physical driving or swimming.

NJFEST requests if the EMB-NCR can fund their research by buying for them the numerous little items, such as lubricants, filters, gadgets and additives, etc., which form part

of a package of solutions for several test-jeepneys, all totaling less than P100,000. Unfortunately, adminfinance says the EMB-NCR can’t do this as what is only allowable is food for seminars, which tells NJFEST “how to cheat” unnecessarily by producing official receipts from a caterer and bloat the number of participants along with pictures as proof. As the caterer needs to get a cut for this, this reduces the net amount, and triggers unnecessary suspicions of shady deals.

What’s dirty with our air. This is ironic as the DENR purchases hundreds of millions of pesos worth of ambient air monitoring stations every year from the same supplier, almost on a negotiated basis. Worst, most are not functioning, and if they do, most can’t read real time. And for the few upgraded with real-time loggers with the EMB-NCR, that can now read real time, they are still inaccurate as the base equipment are considered obsolete, and have a high 25-percent deviation in accuracy, far from the world standard of 2.5 percent.

The government must invest on solutions to emissions at source, and not on yearly purchases of these monitoring stations that only reads how polluted the air is. Unless monitoring can do real-time measurement for more accurate averaging, readings will be erratic as air turbulence from sea breeze, for example, can alter actual results.

If we are truly serious to clean the air and mitigate climate change, let’s change the climate of governance, starting with the overhaul of ridiculous bureaucratic practices.

Few will know, fuel is “it”. As we keep on blaming the driver and the government for many of the problems, including air pollution, few will know that the main culprit is the presence of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the compounds present in Light Cycle Oil, which is a waste product of refineries that are blended by as much as 11 percent of diesel. It is the PAHs that are producing the black carbon.

For so long, few will know this matter present in fuel. But with the information explosion and the pollution up in the air, there is no way, in the end, for oil companies to proverbially “sweep this dirt in the air under the rug.” So before we phase out and blame jeepneys, let’s face the facts first.

E-mail: mikealunan@yahoo.com

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Opinion

Nobility of failure

Asian Reinsurance Corp.

BusinessMirror

Atty. Dennis B. Funa

Teddy Locsin Jr.

INSURANCE FORUM

Free fire Continued from A1

T

he Japanese believe there is more to be said for failure than success, for failure touches the soul, if sharply; while success polishes it with a dirty cloth. Even so, fire purifies and suffering saves, says the Lord.

I cannot sing that song. It is too lyrical. But here are the words as McKinnon sang them.

“Now I have heard there was a secret chord, that David played and it pleased the Lord.

But you don’t really care for music, do ya?

Well it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift, The baffled king composing Hallelujah.

Maybe I have been here before, I’ve seen this room, I’ve walked this floor, KI used to live alone before I knew ya.

I saw your flag against the marble arch I love that it is not a victory march, but a cold and broken Hallelujah.

I did my best, it wasn’t much, I couldn’t feel so I tried to touch, I didn’t come to fool ya.

And even though it all went wrong, I’ll stand before the Lord of song with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.”

At the end of the song, wearing a blonde wig and Hillary Clinton’s iconic white pantsuit, McKinnon said, “I am not giving up and neither should you.”

Amazing, how poetry can snatch victory, from the mouth of catastrophe.

The coming immigration clash

By Francis Wilkinson Bloomberg View

P

erhaps no battle in Donald J. Trump’s presidency will be as pitched, or public, as the coming fight over undocumented immigrants. If he pursues his stated goal of deporting 2 million to 3 million undocumented immigrants, a network of pro-immigrant cities, institutions and activists is poised to make the process as visibly contentious as possible.

Trump will have authority to deport millions. While individual cases can be contested and prolonged in immigration court—the system is already overloaded—lawsuits against Trump’s executive powers or the implementation of his plan appear to have little chance of success.

Resistance to Trump will be highly variable. The entirety of California, which is home to more undocumented immigrants than any other state, seems to be moving to high alert. In Los Angeles this month, board members for the nation’s second-largest school district unanimously reiterated their commitment to “protect the data and identities of any student, family member, or school employee who may be adversely affected by any future policies or executive action that results in the collection of any personally identifiable information.”

Immigration advocates are preparing to shield students and families. In an e-mail, activist Frank Sharry wrote: “While Trump will undoubtedly throw red meat to his nativist base, he will come up against a majority of Americans who oppose him. That is why mayors are speaking out so boldly and clearly. That is why university presidents and school superintendents are speaking out so strongly.

That is why faith leaders are offering sanctuary in their places of worship. And that is why activists plan to put their bodies between federal immigration agents and our friends, coworkers and loved ones.”

In some communities, immigrants enjoy strong political and public support. Many colleges are pledging to protect undocumented students and workers. But resistance to Trump, especially in red states,

could grow extremely costly.

Trump can inflict a lot of pain on governments and institutions that defy him. Millions in federal funding could be tied to cooperation, or lack of it, with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Arizona State University President Michael Crow issued a letter last week supporting continuation of President Barack Obama’s deferred action for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children. Crow’s letter is a kindly gesture, but it makes no assurances that the university will protect undocumented immigrants. Arizona isn’t California. The Arizona Legislature passed an aggressive antiimmigrant law in 2010; Trump won the state by a margin of 4 points.

At Iowa State University, in a state that Trump won by more than 9 points, administrators issued a Pollyanna statement on undocumented students that seems as dreamy as it is noncommittal.

“We have heard nothing from federal or state authorities to suggest there will be any changes impacting the status of undocumented students’ relationships with the university,” read the statement. Once Trump is in the White House, everything could be very different.

“We are bracing for a crackdown that, if not repelled, could go down as one of the darkest chapters in American history,” Sharry said. “Trump’s election has plunged millions of immigrant families into crisis. This isn’t a bug but a feature of the Trump strategy.” Both sides of this battle have been primed for success. Immigration restrictionists view Trump’s election as national validation of their cause.

Meanwhile, many of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US had expected a path to legalization or citizenship by now. The Senate passed legislation with such a path in 2013 by more than 2 to 1.

As Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the restrictionist Center for Immigration Studies, told the New York Times, the Trump forces and pro-immigrant activists are now engaged in a game of “chicken”. If neither side veers off course, the resulting crash could rattle the nation.

T

he Asian Reinsurance Corp. (Asian Re) is an intergovernmental organization established in May 1979. Its primary objective is to be a leading professional reinsurer in the Asia-Pacific region.

The concept of a regional reinsurer was developed gradually starting in 1972, when the third session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) passed Resolution 42— (iii) recognizing that a reinsurance market is an essential element of economic growth. In 1974 eight members of the United NationsEconomic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Unescap) agreed in principle to establish a regional reinsurance institution.

In 1976 a draft intergovernmental agreement was written and, in 1977, it was signed by seven countries. The Philippines signed the agreement creating Asian Re on September 30, 1977. In 1979 the inaugural meeting of the Council of Members was held. Today, Asian

Re is headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. The Council of Members is composed of representatives from each of the 10 regular member-states.

Upon the signing of the intergovernmental agreement in 1977, Presidential Decree (PD) 1270 was issued on December 22, 1977, establishing the National Reinsurance Corp. of the Philippines (PhilNaRe) and designated it as the national institution authorized to subscribe to the portion of the capital stock of Asian Reinsurance allotted for the Philippines. Under Section 3 of PD 1270, the insurance commissioner was designated as Philippine representative to the Council of Members of Asian Re. As of 2016, the vice chairman of the Asian Re management board is the Philippine

Wednesday, November 30, 2016 A11

insurance commissioner.

Asian Re started its operations on January 1, 1980, with an authorized capital of $15 million and a paid-up capital of $4.5 million contributed by nine countries. This was later increased to $5 million in 1993. In July 2005 the authorized capital was increased to $100 million. In 2012 its authorized capital increased to $200 million.

In December 2006 its paid-up capital was increased to $19.3 million. This increased to $28.4 million

by December 2007; to $30.8 million

by January 2009; to $78.27 million by 2014. By 2015 its paid-up capital has increased to $98.82 million.

In 2006 it had a net worth of $33.8 million; $51.6 million by December 2007; and $56.0 million by January 2009.

In November 2000 its membership was opened to developed countries and the ceiling on the capital contribution of members was removed.

Its membership is open to all state members or associate members of the Unescap.

On July 9, 2005, associate membership became open to non-Unescap member-states, private organizations, private corporations, non-governmental organizations and multilateral institutions. A year later, on December 2006, it

admitted six associate members; this increased to seven a year later in December 2007.

In January 2009 it admitted its eighth associate member; and its 10th in 2011. By 2014 its associate membership has increased to 19.

At present (2016), there are 10 Unescap member-states as regular members. They are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Iran, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Philippines.

There are 19 insurance and reinsurance companies from Asia as associate members. They include such companies as Bimeh Markazi Iran of Iran; General Insurance Corp. of India of India; Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Ltd. of Japan; The Viriyah Insurance Co. Ltd. of Thailand; Oman Insurance Co. PSC of the United Arab Emirates; Sadharan Bima Corp. of Bangladesh; and Bangkok Insurance Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand, among others.

In terms of financial strength rating, in March 2008, A.M. Best gave it a “B++” (Good) and “bbb” for Issuer Credit Ratings with “stable” outlook. In 2016 it was given “B+” (Good) with stable outlook rating from the previous rating of “B” (fair).

Dennis B. Funa is currently the deputy insurance

commissioner for Legal Services of the Insurance Commission. E-mail: dennisfuna@yahoo.com.

Does Castro’s death spell end for his revolution?

A

s a young political firebrand, Fidel Castro railed against two adversaries: Gen. Fulgencio Batista, who had seized control of Cuba in a 1952 coup, and the United States, whose influence on Cuban affairs Castro deeply resented. It took seven years, but Castro and a band of revolutionaries ousted Batista in January 1959.

The US remained a bitter foe throughout his life.

Castro’s death at age 90 was announced late Friday by his brother Raul, 85, to whom he ceded power in 2006, after undergoing complicated abdominal surgery for a stillunexplained illness.

Since then, the younger Castro has presided over a historic thaw in relations between Cuba and the US. In December 2014 the nations announced steps to reestablish diplomatic ties. In March Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit Cuba since 1928; he has called on the US Congress to end a failed 52-year trade embargo against Cuba. As the changes unfolded, the ailing elder Castro was mostly silent and rarely seen.

With his trademark beard, military fatigues—and, until the mid1980s, the ever-present Cohiba— Castro held fast for decades to the image of the strapping revolutionary. Though his enemies were quick to note occasional signs of declining health, he appeared fit and feisty well into his 70s, relishing any opportunity to muse aloud before a captive audience for six or seven hours. Every speech was a chance to boast about his regime’s successes—a vaunted education system, cradle-to-grave social programs, free medical care—and to blame its failures on the American

imperialists. Castro’s Cuba was a oneparty state with a virtual one-man government. He served simultaneously as president of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers, first secretary of the Communist Party and commander of the military.

Castro demanded complete loyalty and brooked no dissent. His government controlled the media and jammed radio and TV signals to prevent outside broadcasts from reaching the island. Cuba’s universities, he explained, “are available only to those who share my revolutionary beliefs.” His enemies were imprisoned or, especially in the early days, executed. The Cuban people regarded him with a mix of fear and admiration that sustained his hold on power for longer than any political figure of his time.

At first celebrated as a hero in Cuba, Castro quickly alienated the US government as he moved to nationalize commercial and agricultural industries. He confiscated thousands of acres of farmland, outlawed foreign land ownership and seized property owned by Cubans and American corporations. The US quickly severed ties and enacted the trade embargo. Disillusioned middle- and upper-class Cubans who first supported Castro fled the island, mostly for South Florida.

CASTRO

Castro, meanwhile, nursed a budding friendship with the Soviet Union.

That bond grew stronger as relations with the US grew increasingly hostile. First there was the CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion, a failed attempt by exiles to reclaim the island in 1961. By the end of the year, Castro had declared himself a Marxist-Leninist and Cuba a communist nation.

The next year the world was brought to the brink of nuclear war when the US learned that Castro had agreed to let the USSR install missiles in Cuba.

For three decades, the Soviets showered Cuba with billions in economic and military aid. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, that aid terminated abruptly, plunging Cuba into poverty. But Castro made other friends. He maintained and strengthened trade relationships with many US allies, and cultivated friendships with leftist leaders, like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, who provided billions in oil and other subsidies until his death in 2013.

By then, the ailing Castro’s rambling anti-American missives had

stopped appearing in the communistrun newspaper, Granma. His long public absences gave rise to frequent rumors of his death, openly celebrated by his enemies in the aging South Florida exile community. In Cuba, meanwhile, Raul Castro eased restrictions on travel and allowed Cubans greater access to cell phones and the Internet.

Increasingly, they are allowed to own and sell property and to run their own businesses, giving them a taste of a life they couldn’t afford on state salaries that average $25 a month.

In April Fidel Castro rallied to speak at the Communist Party Congress. Dressed in a blue adidas track suit that had replaced the olive-drab fatigues as his health declined, a frail Castro appealed to Cubans to “fight without truce” to preserve the communist ideals they have largely abandoned as self-defeating or irrelevant.

“Maybe this is the last time I will speak in this hall,” he said, and it was.

The ever-resilient Castro turned out to be mortal after all. His revolution survives him—but for how long? TNS

A TPP without the US is better than none

R

epublican and Democratic leaders in the US Congress seem willing to let the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal languish, and if anything’s certain about President-elect Donald J. Trump, he won’t push for it once in office. But even if the US isn’t smart enough to share in the benefits, the pact is worth saving. The 11 other signatories should implement it on their own.

That might not be easy, admittedly. The other governments made concessions in the talks to gain greater access to the US market. Vietnam said it would allow independent trade unions, for instance, and Japan agreed to liberalize its agricultural markets. Japan’s government seems to be hoping that Trump will change his mind before the deadline for ratifying the deal comes round in

February 2018, but there’s no sign of a Plan B in case he doesn’t.

Japan and the other partners need to see that a TPP without the US is still a lot better for them than none.

A TPP-11 would establish rules and standards that would benefit its members, including protections for labor, the environment, intellectual property and digital commerce.

The reforms required under the deal would make their economies more competitive and efficient—and might be hard to push through if governments don’t seize this opportunity. The members’ export industries will still gain from expanded trade; their consumers will still gain from cheaper goods.

There’d be wider benefits, too.

Even without the US, the TPP would put allies such as Japan, Singapore and Australia, rather than China, at

the forefront of trade liberalization, giving other nations an alternative to which they can aspire. By deepening the integration of Asia’s economies, the pact would promote stability in a critical and volatile region.

True, the other TPP partners could choose to pursue trade liberalization in other venues—including the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. But such alternatives aren’t as promising. China’s deal has limited ambitions and its prospects are in doubt; it won’t lower barriers to trade as much or as fast as even a diminished TPP. And a TPP-11, valuable in its own right, would give its members greater leverage in those and other talks.

Eventually, as the benefits of a successful mini-TPP become evident, the US might have second thoughts

and come back into the fold.

Certainly the strategic logic of the larger TPP remains compelling.

The best way for the US to maintain its decades of influence in the AsiaPacific region is to integrate the world’s biggest economy with the world’s fastest-growing markets, under rules that promote rather than undermine the liberal order Washington has supported since World War II. Sooner or later, it’s likely that the US will see the wisdom of that policy—and it would be easier to participate in an existing TPP than to reopen negotiations from scratch.

The US is making a big mistake in letting this opportunity pass this year. But the error needn’t be irreversible, and it will be easier to put right if the TPP’s other members press on regardless. Bloomberg View

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph

House panel OKs death penalty revival

T

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

HE House Subcommittee on Judicial Reform on Tuesday approved a bill reviving the death penalty for heinous crimes.

In House Bill 1, Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez, Deputy Speaker Fredenil H. Castro, Majority Leader Rodolfo C. Fariñas, Minority Leader Danilo E. Suarez and Deputy Speaker Raneo E. Abu said the imposition of the death penalty for heinous crimes and the mode of its implementation, both subjects of repealed laws, are crucial components of an effective dispensation of both reformative and retributive justice.

“There is no denying the scourge illicit drugs have foisted upon our society, and neither is there any denying the audacity with which malefactors, whether under the influence or otherwise, have perpetuated the most perverse and atrocious crimes in the most repugnant of manners,” the lawmakers said in the explanatory note.

“Our criminal justice system has had to make do with penal laws that are perceived to be less than dissuasive. There is evidently a need

to reinvigorate the war against criminality by reviving a proven deterrent, coupled by its consistent, persistent and determined implementation, and this need is as compelling and critical as any,” the lawmakers added.

They said, “It is imperative that this Congress, in the exercise of its mandate to take every conceivable step to protect the honor and dignity and the very life of each and every law-abiding Filipino, passes in the most expeditious manner such laws reimposing the penalty of death for the most abhorrent of offenses and provide for its execution.”

The bill will be submitted to the Committee on Justice for voting, and then will be passed to the chamber for plenary for debates.

The House leadership hopes to pass the bill before Congress’s Christmas break, which starts on December 14.

Alvarez filed the bill to rein-

state death penalty, pursuant to President Duterte’s campaign promise of returning capital punishment against perpetrators of heinous crimes.

Alvarez’s bill sought to reimpose death penalty on heinous crimes listed under Republic Act 7659, including murder, plunder, rape, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, sale, use and possession of illegal drugs and carnapping with homicide, among others.

Bill opposed

LIBER AL Party Rep. Edcel C. Lagman of Albay, however, scored the House leadership for “railroading” the measure reviving the capital punishment.

“The railroading has started, it hopes to reach the terminal before the Christmas break. Have a deadly Christmas,” Lagman said.

Independent Rep. Ramon V.A. Rocamora of Siquijor urged fellow members of the House of Representatives’s justice committee to rethink their stand on reviving the death penalty.

Rocamora cautioned his colleagues, arguing that the death penalty will only worsen the unequal access to justice, which favors the powerful and moneyed over the powerless and poor.

“We need clarity and calm in

dealing with a very big issue such as this. Regardless of the gravity of the crime we wish to thwart with the imposition of the death penalty, we should remember that we will have to entrust the lives of people in the hands of an imperfect justice system,” Rocamora said.

“I hope my fellow lawmakers will reflect on their decision. I still hold to the belief that it is better to allow 10 guilty individuals to live than to put to death one innocent individual,” Rocamora added.

The revival of the death penalty is being pushed by the House leadership to combat the proliferation of drugs. However, Rocamora, a public prosecutor before he became a congressman, said that in his experience, most of the drug apprehensions were products of shortened procedures.

“In my 24 years of service as a public prosecutor, 60 percent to 70 percent of drug-related crimes that I handled were trumped up. At one time, I was given an award for convicting the first drug queen in

Cebu, only to find out later that the [pieces] evidence I used against her were fabricated by the police.

Luckily, she was eventually acquitted upon appeal, because the Court recognized the poseur buyer police officer as the same one who was involved in evidence planting in Bohol. If the death penalty existed at that time, she was at risk of being executed. My conscience will not countenance that, and neither could countenance our current attempts to revive the death penalty,” Rocamora added.

“In my view, the better and more effective measure we can do as legislators is to strengthen our entire justice system. This will not be a quick-fix solution like the death penalty is expected to be, but unlike the death penalty, better training and support for our police officers, prosecutors and judges will guarantee an impartial and expedient justice system; assuring that we get the real culprit will also assure justice to the victim,” Rocamora also said.

The railroading has started; it hopes to reach the terminal before the Christmas break. Have a deadly Christmas.”—Lagman

SoKor leader to resign once power-transfer plan is ready Continued from A1

At the heart of the scandal is Choi Soon-sil, Park’s longtime friend and the daughter of a late cult leader who allegedly meddled in state affairs and pressured companies to donate millions of dollars to foundations controlled by her at the request of Park.

Prosecutors have so far indicted Choi, two ex-presidential officials and a musicvideo director known as a Choi associate for extortion, leakage of confidential documents and other charges.

Park, who has immunity from prosecution while in office, has refused to meet with prosecutors. Her lawyer, Yoo Yeong-ha, has described prosecutors’ accusations against Park as groundless. AP