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Wednesday, September 7, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 333
Duterte admin wants to extend QR on rice
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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
@jearcalas
he Philippines will not likely honor its commitment to scrap the rice-import quota next year, as the Duterte administration is inclined to ask the World Trade Organization (WTO) for another extension.
INSIDE
smart unveils new state-of-the-art flagship store
2.4M The number of rice farmers in the Philippines
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol made this pronouncement while President Duterte is in Lao PDR, where he is meeting with other leaders from Asean countries, including Vietnam and Thailand— See “Duterte,” A2
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Estero tales: ‘Bayanihan’ marks Filipinos’ flood-control initiatives
P25.00 nationwide | 6 sections 36 pages | 7 days a week
Terrorism Teddy Locsin Jr.
free fire
D
OES terrorism work? Richard English asks in his new history of alQaeda, the Irish Republican Army, Hamas and ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna), the Basque separatist group by that name. English’s aim, says moral philosopher Thomas Nagel, “is to interpret the campaigns of these four as the work of rational agents, using violent means, in the pursuit of political ends… “All four examples have been explicit about what they want and how they hope to get it. And all of them failed in their main aim,” says Nagel, “with a few important exceptions.” Continued on A10
LIFE
D1
Neda: Keep cost of utilities stable
relaxed urban living in the veranda BusinessMirror E1 | Wednesday, September 7, 2016 Editor: Tet Andolong
By Cai U. Ordinario
The Veranda Tower artist’s perspective
Relaxed urban living in The Veranda
U
By Rizal Raoul Reyes
@brownindio
RBANITES living in the concrete jungle need a relaxed environment to give them solace and comfort. In response, Ayala Land Inc. subsidiary Alveo Land introduced The Veranda into the market to enable buyers to experience a relaxed urban living in the Arca South commercial business district (CBD). Since it was launched in 2014, The Veranda has shown an impressive performance, as all four towers projected to sell out in four years has sold out 74 percent of its current inventory in less than four years. “The Veranda appeals to a market looking for the convenience of a CBD without the hassles of city congestion,” said Antonio Sanchez III, Alveo Land senior division manager for project development. “With only 13 to 14 floors and 15 units to a floor, The Veranda lends its residents breathable living spaces, and a sound investment over time being part of Arca South.” Alveo Land saved the best for last, as North Veranda, the final building, proves to be a cut above the rest with all of its units facing prime views of plush gardens and parks. The 195 units making up the total inventory for the fourth tower include unit sizes ranging from 29 square meters to 30 sq m for a stu-
dio; 58 to 75 sq.m for one-bedroom; 81 sq m to 96 sq m for a two-bedroom, and a spacious 120 sq m to 147 sq m for a three-bedroom unit. Located in a quiet portion of the 74-hectare Arca South CBD, which connects to major lifestyle and commercial centers Makati City and Bonifacio Global City, as well as the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3, which is 5 kilometers to seven km away, The Veranda jumpstarts a fresh beat on lifestyle. With close proximity to generous open spaces in Arca Main Street, and complemented by distinctive lifestyle office and retail hubs, such as Ayala Malls, Seda Hotel, Qualimed and Ayala Land offices businessprocess outsourcings (BPOs), The Veranda is seamlessly intertwined in a walkable in-city campus environment—creating a vibrant place to live, dine, work and invest. In terms of environmental elements, The Veranda has introduced
ArcA South site development map
the unique Aeroflux System, designed to usher in natural lighting and ventilation into the home with the bifurcated tower plan, atriums, skylight and corridor windows. “Together, they all work to bring fresh air in while pushing warm air out,” Sanchez said. Investing in Arca has shown to be also lucrative. When West Veranda and South Veranda were launched in the fourth quarter of 2014 with an initial price of P130,000 per sq m, rates have gone up the average price at P140,000 per sq m. Total sales value of the four towers is P1.9 billion.
Sanchez said The Veranda has given premium to relaxation and recreation as part of the relaxed urban setting it has allotted 40 percent of The Veranda with intimate scaled amenities and lush greens spread. It has also a courtyard garden, pool, gym and children’s play area. He said the main targets of The Veranda are the young working professionals and early nesters looking to buy a more relaxed lifestyle within the metro.
Arca South
Food Terminal Inc., is Ayala Land’s 74-hectare master-planned estate with a 50-50 commercial and residential mix. It is one of the largest, integrated, mixed-use developments south of the metro. The first phase of development of Arca South represents an P80billion investment that covers the development of Ayala Malls’s transit-oriented mall, regional mall and lifestyle mall; the Arca
South Corporate Center comprised of six BPO buildings, Seda Hotel Arca South, as well as the district’s main thoroughfare, Arca Main Street. A 250-bed Qualimed quaternary hospital will also rise in the district. Arca South will be a pedestrianoriented estate with wide sidewalks and dedicated bike lanes. Furthermore, 40 percent of the estate will be connected through integrated basement parking, which frees up the streets for walking. The “incity campus” concept is consistent throughout the whole development with mid-rise buildings spanning 15 to 18 floors across the area, and large open spaces for landscaped greens. Forty percent of the estate has been dedicated to these open spaces, as well as dedicated bike lanes. Access to Arca South will be easier when the construction of the 5.57-hectare South Integrated Transport System (ITS) terminal is completed. ITS is a multimodal terminal with a centralized ticketing facility, passenger waiting areas, trip information displays, retail establishments and a car park. The Skyway and C5/C6 connector project will be inaugurated soon, which will provide another exit to Makati City from the estate. The smallest units are selling for P4.1 million to P4.6 million and one-bedroom units for P7.4 to P10.5 million. The two-bedroom units are priced at P11.1 million to P13.6 million and the threebedroom units at P15.1 million to P21.9 million. North Veranda will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020.
PROPERTY
ArCA South, the former site of
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E1
no all-williams open rematch STudio model unit
Two-bedroom model unit
Sports C1
| Wednesday, september 7, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana
VENUS WILLIAMS couldn’t quite get past a woman a dozen years younger and never before at this stage of a Grand Slam tournament. AP
NO ALL-WILLIAMS
OPEN REMATCH Venus Williams failed to convert a match point and lost, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3), to 10th-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the fourth round of the US Open on Monday, despite vociferous support from the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd down the stretch.
By Howard Fendrich The Associated Press
N
EW YORK—Venus Williams went from down and out to a point from victory, then back again. In the end, she couldn’t quite get past a woman a dozen years younger and never before at this stage of a Grand Slam tournament. Williams failed to convert a match point and lost, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3), to 10th-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the fourth round of the US Open on Monday, despite vociferous support from the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd down the stretch. “I really played the perfect point there,” the sixth-seeded Williams said about her chance to end things while up 5-4 in the third set, and Pliskova serving at 30-40, “and she managed to stay alive.” At 36, Williams would have been the oldest woman to reach the quarterfinals at any major since Martina Navratilova was 37 at Wimbledon in 1994. Williams made it that far at Flushing Meadows a year ago, before losing to her younger sister Serena. This time, they had been on course for an all-in-the-family showdown in the semifinals; Serena followed Venus in Ashe and beat Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-2, 6-3, in the fourth round for her 308th Grand Slam match victory, breaking a tie with Roger Federer for most in the Open era, which dates to 1968. Pliskova managed, just barely, to make it to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at age 24. Until
18 AND N FIGHTING ANA KONJUH, calm and collected as ever, reaches her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. AP
EW YORK—Trying to serve out the biggest victory of her career, 18-year-old Ana Konjuh was startled—right along with everyone else under the roof in Arthur Ashe Stadium—by a piercing noise coming from the US Open arena’s sound system during a ball toss. The Croatian recoiled, let the ball drop and put her left hand to her chest. Once Konjuh realized nothing bad was going on, she smiled, then resumed playing, just as calm and collected as ever, and finished a 6-4, 6-4 upset of No. 4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska on Monday night to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. “I just said to myself, ‘Stay in the game. Don’t rush,’” Konjuh said.
Estero de Paco in Manila NONIE REYES
Serena notches most slam wins N
BusinessMirror
EW YORK—Serena Williams now owns more victories in Grand Slam matches than anyone else in tennis’s Open era, surpassing Roger Federer with her 308th. So, Serena, who’ll wind up with more? “I don’t know. We’ll see,” Williams said during her on-court interview after reaching the US Open quarterfinals by beating Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-2, 6-3, on Monday. “Hopefully, we’ll both keep going,” she added. “I know I plan on it. I know he does. So we’ll see.” Federer turned 35 on August 8. Williams turns 35 on September 26. Williams’s very first win at a Grand Slam tournament came way back when she was 16, a 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-1 victory over Irina Spirlea in the first round of the Australian Open on January 19, 1998. Williams’s first loss at a major came in her next match, which happened to come against older sister Venus. Nearly two decades later, through plenty of highs and lows, from championships to health scares, the younger Williams is still at it—and still winning. “It’s a huge number,” she said about getting to 308. “I think it’s very significant, actually. I think it’s something that just really talks about the length of my career, in particular. I’ve been playing for a really long time. But also, given that consistency up there—that’s something that I’m really proud of.” Although her 36-year-old sibling is active, many of Williams’s contemporaries have come and gone, including Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, who are both younger, and Martina Hingis, who is only a year older. “I definitely never thought I would be playing still,”Williams said. “Now I don’t really see when I’m going to stop, because I’m just enjoying these moments out here, getting to break records that I didn’t even know existed or I didn’t even know was possible.” Over her career, she is 308-42 at the majors, for a winning percentage of .880. Here’s the victory breakdown: 88 at the US Open, 86 at Wimbledon, 74 at the Australian Open, 60 at the French Open. Federer is 307-51 (.858) and can’t increase his total until next season, because he is sitting out the US Open and the rest of 2016 because of problems with his surgically repaired right knee. Indeed, he recently tweeted pictures of himself hiking in the Swiss countryside . Williams, meanwhile, still has work to do at Flushing Meadows as she pursues another mark: most Grand Slam singles titles in the Open era, which began in 1968. She pulled even with Steffi Graf by collecting her 22nd trophy at Wimbledon in July. Against the 52nd-ranked Shvedova, Williams hit a tournament-leading 126-mph serve, totaled 11 aces, won 28 of 30 points when a first serve landed in, and didn’t face a break point. So far, through four matches, Williams has not been broken at all, facing only a single break point. “She’s hitting much harder than a regular player. And the placement and the bounce is much different,” Shvedova said. “It’s harder to reach.” Williams has reached at least the quarterfinals in each of her past nine appearances at the US Open. A year ago she was stunned in the semifinals by Roberta Vinci, ending the American’s bid to become the first player since Graf in 1988 with a calendar-year Grand Slam. She’ll try to get back to the semifinals by beating No. 5 Simona Halep next. “I just feel like I’m going out there, doing what I need to do,” Williams said. “I’m not overplaying, I’m not underplaying.” AP
“To be honest,” Pliskova said, “it was really difficult...when I lost my serve.” Somehow, though, she pulled herself together enough to get through the tiebreaker as Williams faltered. “In the ‘breaker, I went for a little bit more,” Williams said, “but I didn’t put the ball in enough.” Pliskova will face 92nd-ranked Ana Konjuh, an 18-year-old from Croatia who upset No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4, 6-4, by compiling a 38-9 edge in winners. Also reaching the quarterfinals with a victory on Monday was 2014 French Open runner-up Simona Halep, who eliminated No. 11 Carla Suarez Navarro, 6-2, 7-5. Now it’s Halep’s turn to try to deal with the serve of Serena Williams, who reached a tournament-best 126 mph, delivered 11 aces and won 28 of 30
first-serve points against Shvedova. In men’s action, 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro became the lowest-ranked man in the US Open quarterfinals in 25 years, advancing when No. 8 seed Dominic Thiem stopped in the second set because of an injured right knee. Del Potro missed two-and-a-half years’ worth of major tournaments because of a trio of operations on his left wrist, so he’s ranked only 142nd. Jimmy Connors was 174th when he made a stirring run to the semifinals in New York at age 39 in 1991. The 2012 title winner at Flushing Meadows, Andy Murray, eased into the quarterfinals for the 22nd time in his past 23 majors, beating No. 22 Grigor Dimitrov, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, at night. Murray now faces 2014 runner-up Kei Nishikori, who advanced by beating No. 21 Ivo Karlovic, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4). Murray defeated Nishikori in the semifinals of the Rio Olympics last month en route to an unprecedented second consecutive singles gold medal. Del Potro has been playing as well as ever lately, winning the silver in Rio and picking up recent victories over Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka. In the quarterfinals, del Potro’s opponent will be No. 3 Wawrinka, a 6-4, 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-3 winner against Illya Marchenko. “He will be the favorite to win in that match,” said del Potro, who beat Wawrinka at Wimbledon. “But,” del Potro added, “anything can happen in this event for me. I got the power from the crowd in every match.”
interrupted the previous match, Andy Murray’s victory over Grigor Dimitrov, just before its final game, but then the wet weather quickly disappeared. Before Konjuh vs. Radwanska began, the cover was closed atop the arena. Asked whether she was told why by a tournament official, Radwanska said: “Well, the risk of rain. But, well, there was always risk of rain, I guess.” Would she have preferred for the match to be played without the roof? “I don’t know what would happen if that would be open. Sometimes,” she added, “I just don’t understand why they’re closing the roof.” Konjuh didn’t care, even saying she was “real happy” she got a chance to play with it shut. She said the conditions suited her better
than Radwanska. “I didn’t have any wind or sun or anything that’s going to distract me,” Konjuh said, “so I just played my game and gave my best.” This year at the All England Club, Konjuh held three match points against Radwanska but lost their second-round match 9-7 in the third set after accidentally stepping on a tennis ball and injuring her right ankle during a point at 7-all. Konjuh next faces 10th-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who eliminated Venus Williams in three sets. Pliskova, who is 24, has never played in a major quarterfinal, either. Wednesday’s other quarterfinal will be Williams’s sister, No. 1 seed Serena, against No. 5 Simona Halep. AP
this tournament, she never had been past the third round in 17 appearances at majors. “I was prepared that I’m going to play
Venus— it’s going to be tough, because all the people are cheering for her,” said Pliskova, who leads the tour in aces in 2016 and produced eight in this match. It took her a while to finish off this one, despite going up an early break in the third set and leading 4-2. Just as it seemed she would run away with it, Williams turned things around enough to go up 5-4 and hold a match point. But Pliskova erased that with a swinging forehand volley—the sort of shot Williams loves to hit—and followed it up with another aggressive forehand winner. Then Pliskova broke to lead 6-5 and served for the match, getting three chances to close it at 40-love. After Pliskova frittered away one with a double-fault, Williams steeled herself and stepped up, smacking a volley winner, cross-court backhand winner and two forehand winners to break back for 6-all.
Yes, she acknowledged later, she was scared for a moment by the odd sound. But nothing really threw her off her game on this night. Not the stakes or the setting— playing with the roof closed atop the largest tennis stadium she’d ever set foot in. And definitely not Radwanska, the 2012 Wimbledon runner-up. “I’m real excited about my performance tonight. My serve was pretty good tonight,” Konjuh said. “I don’t think she had any answers.” Konjuh, who is ranked only 92nd, was the junior champion at Flushing Meadows in 2013. A fearless big hitter, Konjuh compiled a 38-9 edge in winners against Radwanska, who is 27. Radwanska is now 0-5 in fourth-round
matches at the US Open, the only Grand Slam event where she hasn’t been to the quarterfinals at least once. “I just couldn’t do any more, I guess, today,” Radwanska said. “I was really trying. I was just too slow today.” She wondered aloud at her news conference why the match was played with the new $150 million retractable roof atop Ashe shut. A shower briefly had
sports
By Psyche Roxas-Mendoza @PsycheRoxas
T c1
Conclusion
he man at the other end of the phone had a sunny voice in an afternoon of dark skies and intermittent rain. “Yes, the water on Concepcion Creek recedes fast, in a matter of 15 to 30 minutes,” said Oliver Villamena from the Marikina City Environment Management Office. Before, once the water rises because of typhoons or the monsoon,
PESO exchange rates n US 46.5650
it would take two days for Concepcion Creek to ebb to its normal level of 1/2 meter, he said. And like his local government counterparts in the communities surrounding Tullahan River and Lingunan Creek, Villamena credits the Adopt-an-Estero/Water Body Program (AEWBP), spearheaded by the Environmental Management Bureau-Department of Environment and Natural Resources (EMBDENR), for the “quick rise-quicker ebb” behavior of Concepcion Creek. The Adopt-an-Estero project
was started in 2010 to “transform heavily clogged and highly polluted creeks and waterbodies to livable communities, actively engaged in water quality and solid-waste management.”
P90 million
The clincher in the concept is the inclusion of private companies and corporations that acted as privatesector partners, which “adopted” an estero or water body near their plants. Adoption entails the Continued on A2
@cuo_bm
idespread flooding caused by La Niña and possible hikes in electricity and water costs are seen as major factors that could cause prices to spike for the rest of the year, necessitating prompt actions from the government if it hopes to tame inflation, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said the government needs to hasten preparations for La Niña, which may begin developing in the fourth quarter of the year. The weather phenomenon, he said, could increase the cost of agricultural products nationwide and even cause flooding in urban areas. These could make food and nonfood commodities more expensive toward the end of 2016. “There is also a need to ensure that prices of utilities, such as
PERNIA: “Existing petitions for upward adjustment in power prices should be reviewed comprehensively.”
electricity and water, are stable. Existing petitions for upward adjustment in power prices should be reviewed comprehensively, as it remains an upside risk in inflation rates,” said Pernia, also the Neda director general. The country, Pernia added, may end the year at the low end of its 2 percent-to-4 percent inflation target for 2017, after the average rate of increase in prices in August slowed to 1.8 percent from 1.9 percent in July. Inflation in the January-toAugust period averaged thus 1.3
n japan 0.4502 n UK 61.9734 n HK 6.0047 n CHINA 6.9741 n singapore 34.3349 n australia 35.2870 n EU 51.9246 n SAUDI arabia 12.4196
Continued on A12
Source: BSP (6 September 2016 )
A2 Wednesday, September 7, 2016
BMReports BusinessMirror
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Estero tales: ‘Bayanihan’ marks Filipinos’ flood-control initiatives Continued from A1
lending of financial and technical support toward the cleaning of these waterways as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) thrust. For Concepcion Creek, privatesector partner Petron provided a P90-million funding assistance spread over a five-year period (2011 to November 2016) or an annual financial support of P18 million. The amount, so far, has been spent for infrastructure development for the repair and rehabilitation of Concepcion Creek. These include riprap and restoration of a 3-meter legal easement, dredging, desilting and surface cleanup, plus donation of cleanup tools for partner-schools and home owners’ associations (HOAs) in Marikina. Petron also donated a backhoe to Marikina City for regular maintenance of its creeks. The Petron Corp.—together with the City Environmental Management Office (Cemo) of Mariki-
Duterte. . .
Continued from A1
the two top rice exporters in the region. “The quantitative restriction [QR] on rice must be extended for at least two more years [as] rice farmers need more time to prepare,” Piñol told the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview. The chief of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said the Cabinet will discuss the extension of the rice QR next week. Piñol said he is cognizant of the fact that the Philippines must
na—provided support for publicawareness campaigns through the conduct of seminars and distribution of EMB materials on climate change, proper solid-waste management, and septage and sewage management. The Marikina Cemo and EMB conducted lecture and orientation seminars on solid-waste and waterquality management.
Three communities
Regular cleanup drives play a significant part in the social lives of residents in three creekside communities: Concepcion Uno, Parang, and Santo Niño—all heavily populated barangays. Concepcion Creek, one of the major tributaries of Marikina River, is about 3,110 meters in length. It traverses A. de Guzman Street in Concepcion Uno, all the way to Sumulong Highway. Catalino Olanio, 64, has lived in Marikina for 15 years. His job is to guard the creek from taong pasaway or people who throw trash and other offer concessions to retain the rice QR, which has protected local farmers from the deluge of cheap imports. “We are not throwing one commodity under the bus, simply because we want to protect Filipino rice farmers. But the rice sector is the biggest in the Philippine agriculture,” he said. “It’s not that we are sacrificing [other farm subsectors] but we have to be practical about it, millions of rice farmers will be affected,” Piñol added. Earlier, Manila said remov-
garbage in Concepcion Creek. Married and with four children, Olanio said he actively participates in the river cleanup drives because his house is near the creek. “We need to keep the creek clean, so that there will be no floods, so I stop children from throwing things there.” He added that the presence of the local government of Marikina and a private partner, like Petron, convinced him that the Adopt-anEstero program of the DENR-EMB was solid. Concepcion Uno has a regular Saturday cleanup. “Every Saturday, we collect the garbage and grass, as well as rotting plants and the broken branches of trees that accumulate in the river,” Olanio said.
Marikina’s Cemo has helped establish an Ecological Solid Waste Management facility for all 42 HOAs in the city. Situated at the Agora Complex in Barangay Santo Niño, Marikina City, the centralized Materials
Recovery Facility (MRF) includes a solid waste-transfer station, dropoff center, composting facility and a recycling facility. “It receives solid waste collected from 16 barangays for final sorting, processing and storing of compostable and recyclable materials,” Villamena said. He added that the segregated recyclables are then picked up and sold by junkshop dealers within 24 hours. “The resulting residual waste is then loaded to the larger vehicles of the private hauler, which then bring the waste to the landfill in a matter of hours of its receipt.” Other than an MRF, the city also has a Marikina River Management Council. It is composed of the EMBDENR, Laguna Lake Development Authority, Petron, local government of Marikina, all barangay captains along the adopted creek, representatives of the Department of Education-Marikina and selected teachers from schools along the adopted creek.
Since its launch in 2010, the Adopt-an-Estero program has achieved partnerships under 640 memoranda of agreement, resulting in the cleanup and maintenance of 408 esteros and water bodies all over the country, EMB-DENR officials said. EMB NCR Director Vizminda Osorio said her team super vises the EMB’s regular water- qu a l it y monitor ing of
ing the rice-import caps would threaten the livelihood of 2.4 million rice farmers, who are small landholders. Upon its accession to the WTO in 1995, the Philippines was allowed to enjoy the rice QR for 10 years. Manila was able to secure an extension when it lapsed in 2004. After it lapsed in 2012, Manila again negotiated for an extension. In 2014 the WTO gave its go signal to the Philippines to implement the QR for two more years or until June 30 next year. The DA chief said the govern-
ment was not able to prepare rice farmers to go head to head with its counterparts in Asean counterparts, like Thailand and Vietnam. Economist Pablito M. Villegas, who is also spokesman of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Fisheries Inc., said the Philippines can still negotiate the extension of QR, but this may not be viable anymore. “I think that’s impossible already. The problem is not whether you win or lose the negotiation, but the question is: under the QR regime, did the farmers benefit or
even the Philippine agriculture?” Villegas asked. Based on his own observation, he said the QR has not really benefitted the local farm sector. Villegas said the position of the National Economic and Development Authority on the QR is “valid,” especially since the scheme encouraged rice smuggling. “It opened the gate for more smuggled rice. If the DA can prove that it can solve market distortion and smuggling, then it’s okay to extend the QR,” he said. “You want the QR because your intention is
MRF, River Council
Among its duties and responsibilities is to develop a comprehensive plan intended to reduce pollution and improve the water quality at the Marikina River starting in Concepcion Creek and other creeks that will be identified under the program. By the end of the partnership with Petron, the Marikina River is expected to be in continuous compliance to the DENR Standard for Class C Waters. This means that the water is good enough to propagate the growth of fish and other aquatic resources.
Coordination, expansion
adopted esteros in NCR. Efforts are also under way to expand on the initiatives of the Adopt-an-Estero/Water Body program to include the participation of organizations, like the SEED4COM (Let’s Do It Philippines), International Coastal Clean-up and other organizations, EMB Director Gilbert Gonzales said. “There is a nationwide cleanup of rivers and creeks along barangays in cities and municipalities on September 17 under the ‘Bayan ko, Linis ko’ program,” Gonzales said. Residents of creekside communities remain upbeat about the prospects of keeping their esteros, creeks and rivers clean. Kagawad Annie Baluyot of Tullahan’s Barangay Ugong, Valenzuela, said: “Now that there is a new administration and a new President, we wish to remind all national agencies and LGUs, including private partners, that we, in the communities, are always willing to help clean our rivers and other water bodies.”
to protect the Filipino rice farmers. But the thing is, smuggling has dominated the market, so the farmers didn’t benefit either way, with or without QR,” Villegas added. Under the QRs, rice imports within the minimum access volume (MAV) of 805,200 metric tons per year are slapped with a lower tariff of 35 percent, while imports in excess of the MAV are slapped a higher tariff of 50 percent. He also said the DA should redirect its focus toward attaining food self-sufficiency rather than making the country self-sufficient in rice. “The DA should redirect its efforts toward diversification of crops, such as planting of high-value crops, like onion and vegetables, as well as the establishment of enterprises, so that farmers would earn more,” he said.
More co-ops
The Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) said it is in favor of the scrapping of the QR on rice, as this would force Filipino farmers to band into cooperatives and make production more efficient. C DA C h a i r m a n O r l a n d o Ravanera said the lifting of the rice QR would make Filipino farmers rethink their focus from rice toward higher-value crops, which could be processed. “The trend now is to shift to cooperativism. If we want to be competitive, we have to have a sustainable agriculture, which can only be done if our agricultural products go through the value chain,” Ravanera told the BusinessMirror. “In this era of economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [Asean], if you sell raw products, you should be charged for a crime,” he added. He said that, instead of focusing on producing rice, Filipino farmers should instead focus on adding more value to their products by processing high-value crops. “If you sell raw, our neighbors will merely buy it from us then sell it back to us in processed form. Which is why we should focus on crops, which we could turn into more profitable by-products,” Ravanera said. He said Philippine cooperatives should look into producing more coconut sugar, coconut syrup, dairy milk and chopsticks from bamboo, which have big markets abroad instead of trying to catch up on rice production in which the Philippines has clearly fallen behind. With a report from David Cagahastian
BMReports BusinessMirror
A4 Wednesday, September 7, 2016
news@businessmirror.com.ph
Palace, DFA rush to repair ties with US as Obama cancels meeting with Duterte
A
By Recto L. Mercene
@rectomercene
PPARENTLY, in a rush to repair the friendly relations that are near breaking point, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Tuesday said: “President Duterte today [Tuesday] affirmed that he continues to value the alliance with the United States, noting that both our countries share common goals in their pursuit of the war against drugs, terrorists, crime and poverty.
“We also thanked President Obama for the United States’s firm support for the Philippines during the G-20 [Group of 20], where President Obama emphasized the importance for China to abide by its obligations under international law and underscored the United States’s unwavering commitment to the security of its treaty allies.” The Philippines’s and the US’s delegations to the Asean Summit in Lao PDR, however, agreed that in the light of the issues that still need to be worked on, the bilateral meeting between the leaders of the two nations will be postponed to a later date. Obama canceled his scheduled meeting with President Duterte, after the latter issued a bristling statement that he would not stand for being lectured on human-rights issues from Obama. The pair had been due to hold a bilateral meeting late on Tuesday on the sidelines of a gathering the Asean Summit in Vientiane, the Laotian capital. “President Obama will not be holding a bilateral meeting with President Duterte of the Philippines this afternoon,” US National Security Council Spokesman Ned Price said. “Instead, he will meet with Presi-
dent Park [Geun-hye] of the Republic of Korea this afternoon.” The acid-tongued Mr. Duterte bristled at warnings he would face questioning by the US president over a war against drugs in the Philippines that has claimed more than 2,400 lives in just over two months. “You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you [Obama] in that forum,” President Duterte told a news conference shortly before flying to Laos to attend a summit. “We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs, if you do that to me.” Mr. Duterte explained that the press reports that Obama would “lecture” him on extrajudicial killings led to his strong comments, which, in turn, elicited concern. He regrets that his remarks to the press have caused much controversy. While asserting the intent to chart an independent foreign policy and promote closer ties with all nations, he expressed his deep regard and affinity for Obama and for the enduring partnership between our nations. “The President looks forward to ironing out differences arising out of national priorities and perceptions,
Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) applaud after posing for a group photo at National Convention Center in Vientiane, Lao PDR, on Tuesday, September 6. Leaders (from left), Myanmar’s State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang, Laos Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, President Duterte, Brunei Foreign Minister and Prime Minister Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak. AP/Gemunu Amarasinghe
and working in mutually responsible ways for both countries. President Duterte stressed that in securing and preserving the rights and liberties of our people, it is imperative that the fight against illegal drugs, terrorist, crimes and poverty must be won in order to preserve the principle and values upon, which our democratic way of life is anchored,” the DFA said. Earlier in his administration, President Duterte also caused a diplomatic faux pas when he called US Ambassador Philip Goldberg bakla (gay) before soldiers in Cebu, because the latter criticized the President for his off-the-cuff comment about an Australian nun who was a victim of rape. In a news conference on Monday before he left for the Asean Summit, Mr. Duterte said he is not beholden to anybody. “Wala akong pakialam sa kanya [Obama]. Who is he? [I don’t care about him. Who is he?]” “I am the President of a sovereign state. And we have long ceased to be a colony of the United States,” President Duterte added.
Mr. Duterte said nobody can force him to explain anything to anyone—especially on how he deals with the country’s problems on drugs. “I do not—I said, I do not kneel down before anybody else, except the Filipino in Quiapo walking in misery and in extreme poverty and anger,” President Duterte said. “I do not have any master, except the Filipino people. Nobody but nobody.” In a statement released by the Palace on Tuesday, Mr. Duterte said, “While the immediate cause [of the cancellation of the bilateral meeting] was my strong comments to certain press questions that elicited concern and distress, we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the US president.” “Our primary intention is to chart an independent foreign policy while promoting closer ties with all nations, especially the US with which he have had a long-standing partnership. We look forward to ironing out differences arising out of national priorities and percep-
tions, and working in mutually responsible ways for both countries.” Presidential Communications Secretary Martin M. Andanar said President Duterte has affirmed that he continues to value the alliance with the US, and that the two countries share the common goals to fight illegal drugs, terrorism, crime and poverty. M a l a c a ñ a n g c l a r i f ie d t he statements made by Mr. Duterte before leaving for the Asean Summit on Monday. “All the President tried to relay was he is not answerable to another country for doing his job as President of the Philippines. His accountability is not on anybody except to the Filipinos. And even President Obama is not allowed to meddle into the affairs of the Philippines, and how he does his job to rid the country of the illegal-drug crisis, to address terrorism and to cleanse the government of corruption,” a Malacañang statement said. The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), meanwhile, said it is solidly backing the Duterte
administration’s move to declare a state of lawless violence. The business group, however, conceded that the administration may benefit from toning down the inflammatory rhetoric against the US. At the sidelines of the 14th MAP International CEO Conference on Tuesday, MAP President Perry Pe reiterated the group’s support for the administration’s declaration of state of lawless violence, the proclamation of which was signed on Monday. “What’s important is the show of political will, and [the President] has shown that,” Pe said, saying impact on business will be negligible. On Monday Pe defended the proclamation of state of lawlessness as a “prerogative of the Chief Executive,” and based on the Constitution. Pe reasoned that long-standing and embedded hurdles—citing the lack of physical infrastructure and economic restrictions enshrined in the Constitution—are more pressing issues. As for the recent anti-US comments of President Duterte—which prompted the Western superpower to scrap a bilateral meeting with the Philippines—Pe conceded that “perhaps, the administration will benefit from a softer tone against key partners.” Last month a delegation of American businesses met with the Mindanao Business Council to explore opportunities in the sectors of agriculture, infrastructure and energy. “We’ll continue promoting Mindanao as an investment destination,” Pe reassured. Meanwhile, American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (AmCham) Senior Adviser John Forbes expressed “regret on the cancellation of the Potus [President of the US] of the planned meeting,” and underscored the importance of keeping relations friendly. “AmCham greatly regrets that the twopresidentsarenotmeeting.Aslongtime allies, excellent relations between our two sovereign nations are very important to the business environment,” Forbes said in a text message. With David Cagahastian and Catherine N. Pillas
Tough-talking Duterte makes international debut amid Obama spat
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resident Duterte has threatened to swear at US President Barack Obama, dangled the prospect of leaving the United Nations and insulted the pope, all without leaving the country. Now he’s ready to meet the world. Mr. Duterte, whose antics have repeatedly made headlines since he took office two months ago, is making his international debut at a pair of summits that start on Tuesday in Vientiane, Lao PDR. The meetings will be attended by Obama plus leaders from Southeast Asian nations, Russia, China and Japan. Before the summits even begin, President Duterte has caused a stir. Hours after an expletive-laden outburst as he headed for Laos, in which he warned Obama against questioning him about his war on illegal drugs, the White House announced their scheduled tête-àtête was off. “President Duterte is the mosttalked-about leader in Asean and in the world,” his Communications Secretary Martin M. Andanar said in a recent radio interview, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Yet, Mr. Duterte will also be the most diplomatically inexperienced leader at an event often dominated by thorny issues, like the South China Sea. The Philippines under predecessor Benigno S. Aquino III was a vocal critic of China’s actions in the disputed waterway, though President Duterte has signaled a potentially more pragmatic approach
with his biggest trading partner. He faces a tricky time with military ally the US, given he has criticized those who called into question his violent war against drug suspects that has seen 2,400 people killed, so far. The US is among those who have expressed doubts as to whether the campaign adheres to human-rights norms. Mr. Duterte and Obama planned to meet at Laos. But before flying there on Monday, President Duterte told reporters if the US president questioned him, “I will curse you in that forum.” “I don’t care about him,” President Duterte said. “Who is he?” “The Philippines is not a vassal state,” he said. “We have long ceased to be a colony.” The comments prompted Obama, speaking to reporters in China, to refer to him—with a slight grimace—as a “colorful guy.” Nationa l Secur it y Counci l Spokesman Ned Price said in a statement early on Tuesday that Obama won’t proceed with the Duterte meeting. He didn’t give a reason. As mayor of a city of 1.6 million people for two decades, Mr. Duterte had little experience on the international stage before sweeping to the presidency with his populist rhetoric. "This is Duterte’s first major diplomatic event, and it’s hard to know exactly how he will present himself," said Gregory Poling, a Southeast Asia specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Still, Duterte can be a pragmatist, he said, and “regularly tones down his bombastic rhetoric when necessary.” This will be the first meeting of Southeast Asian leaders since a tribunal in the Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in July, rejecting China’s claims to most of the South China Sea, which hosts more than $5 trillion in international trade each year. China’s assertions to the area, where it has reclaimed thousands of acres of land and boosted its naval presence, are often a focus of Asean summits as they overlap those of Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia. China wants the disputes settled on a bilateral basis and in the past has pushed Asean allies Laos and Cambodia to stop the bloc, which operates on a consensus basis, from issuing statements on the dispute that criticize Beijing. Duterte’s vision for how he will manage ties with the US and China has varied wildly. He has shifted between saying he is open to co-operating with China on resource exploration in the South China Sea to warning of a “bloody” fight if Beijing pushes too far. He’s also questioned the US commitment to protecting Philippine interests and irked Washington by indicating he is open to direct talks with China.
‘Most closely’
“The country watching Duterte most closely is probably the US,” said Christian Lewis, a Southeast
Asia risk analyst with Eurasia Group. "From China’s perspective, Duterte is at worst neutral and at best a positive change from Aquino. From the US perspective, Duterte is at best neutral and at worst a negative change from Aquino.” Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto R. asay did not say how Duterte would approach his time in Laos. “I do not want to speculate on that other than to assure you that he will do what is right and in the paramount national interest,” he said in an interview last week. The area where Duterte has bristled most has been criticism of his drug war. He’s lashed out at statements from the United Nations and the US, threatening to leave the UN and responding to comments from US Ambassador Philip Goldberg by calling him a homosexual.
Duterte outburst
Speaking to reporters on Monday before his departure, President Duterte blasted the US for its own record on human rights, having previously criticized it for a high death rate among black Americans. “I don’t want to pick a quarrel with Obama but certainly I would not appear to be beholden to anybody,” he said. “Nobody but nobody should interfere. This is an independent country.” “Nobody has a right to lecture me,” Mr. Duterte added. “God, do not do it. We will end up disrespecting each other if you do that to me.” Bloomberg News
AseanWednesday BusinessMirror
news@businessmirror.com.ph
Tourist influx not translating to Singapore hotels income
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n influx of tourists to Singapore this year has brought little joy to the city’s hoteliers, as a glut of rooms sends a key revenue measure to a six-year low. Revenue per available room, a metric used by the hotel industry, slumped 7.4 percent in June to S$179.40 ($132) a night, the lowest since 2010, according to data from the Singapore Tourism Board. Even as tourist arrivals have risen each month this year, room rates have fallen because of shorter trips by visitors and a 5-percent increase in the number of hotel rooms.
$132
The revenue per available room in Singapore in June, lowest since 2010
There’s no relief in sight. Of the 2,866 hotel rooms slated for addition this year, about two-thirds were expected to open in the second half, according to UOB Kay Hian Pte. Marriott International Inc. and the owner of the Holiday Inn Express chain are among operators that have planned new hotels in Singapore this year or already opened them. “The high supply of new hotel rooms will be a headwind for room rates,” Macquarie Group Ltd. analysts Ken Ang and Tuck Yin Soong said in a note to clients. “While visitor arrivals have increased, average length of stay is falling, including from a higher proportion of day visitors,” said the analysts, who have a negative rating on hotel stocks. Chinese visitors, the largest group of tourists to Singapore, posted a 53-percent increase in June from a year earlier, the tourism board data showed. However, many price-conscious tourists are stopping over before crossing into Johor Bahru in Malaysia, which is about a 30-minute drive from the city center, according to Derek Chang, an analyst at UOB Kay Hian in Singapore. “Chinese tourists are coming in from secondary cities in China and they are more budget conscious,” Chang said. A pull back by Chinese visitors has also hurt hotels in Hong Kong. Average room rates in Hong Kong were down 9.2 percent to HK$1,337 ($172) last year, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board. In Tokyo, a popular destination for Chinese tourists but which has a shortage of hotels, average daily room rates last year rose 9.4 percent to ¥18,225 ($176), data from Savills Plc. showed. The glut of rooms is hurting Singapore hotel operators. Shares of Hotel Properties Ltd., which owns the Four Seasons, Hilton and Concorde hotels in Singapore, have fallen 10 percent this year, compared to a 1.1-percent drop in the benchmark Straits Times Index. Global Premium Hotels Ltd., which runs a chain of budget hotels, has dropped 12 percent.
Zika virus
AN outbreak of the Zika virus may further dissuade tourists. More than 240 cases of the mosquito-borne virus have been detected since the city’s first case was identified last month. When Singapore was hit by SARS in 2003, visitor arrivals plunged 70 percent in the first three months of the pandemic, sending hotel occupancy plunging more than 40 percent, and room rates down as much as 17 percent, UOB Kay Hian said. Bloomberg News
Editor: Max V. de Leon • Wednesday, September 7, 2016 A5
Obama trade setbacks undercut gains in Southeast Asian ties
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hen President Barack Obama envisioned making his final visit to Southeast Asia as leader, he probably imagined being able to promote the sealing of a massive US-led Pacific trade pact.
The reality is Obama arrived late on Monday in Laos amid doubts on whether the 12-nation TransPacific Partnership (TPP) will even get through Congress, let alone be implemented, given the protectionist mood in the US election year. Meanwhile, despite Obama’s much-touted military and economic rebalancing to Asia, which has included a more visible naval presence, China’s military is increasingly active in the disputed South China Sea and the country more economically intertwined with the region, promising hundreds of millions of dollars for infrastructure and other investment. The current bright spot in Obama’s pivot is the fact he’s the first president to visit Laos, a small, landlocked Southeast Asian nation that the US had largely forgotten since the end of the Vietnam War more than 40 years ago. At an ornate welcome lunch for world leaders on Tuesday, Obama said he hoped a “new partnership will mean greater progress and opportunity for the people of Laos.”
Laos aid
The White House announced on Tuesday the US will give $90 million to help clear unexploded ordnance in Laos. The country bears the scars of fighting from the Vietnam War, skirmishes that, at the time, were barely acknowledged because the conflict was said to only be in Vietnam, which Obama visited in May. “We should help,” Obama said at a briefing on Monday before arriving in Vientiane. The aid, he said, “ensures that innocent kids who are running through a field, or a farmer that’s trying to clear a field, or a business that’s trying to get set up—that they’re not endangered by the possibility of an explosion.” Obama’s trip to Laos “sends a message about where the US is gaining influence in the region,” Brett Bruen, president of the Global Situation Room consulting firm, said of
$90M The funding committed by Obama to help clear unexploded ordinance in Lao PDR
Obama’s presence in Laos. “While it may be a small country, it also can be an indicator of how the US is hopefully on a trajectory to strengthen its relations not only with Laos, but with the region more broadly.” Rather than being the architect of a lasting trade agreement covering 40 percent of the world’s economy, the legacy of Obama’s pivot to Asia may be a warmer reception and more open relationship with Southeast Asian nations, such as Laos, that in recent decades have been more likely to cozy up with China than the US. Under Obama’s watch, the US has secured greater access to Vietnam, both strategically and economically. It has renegotiated access for its military in the Philippines, and built a regular calendar of joint naval exercises with Southeast Asian nations. It flies surveillance flights over the South China Sea from planes that are maintained in Singapore. But the behavior of the new Philippine president, Rodrigo R. Duterte, suggests potentially tricky times ahead. Mr. Duterte has called out the US for its criticism of him over his war on drugs that has seen a spike in the shooting of suspected drug dealers. On Monday he said Obama will need to listen first and talk second during a meeting planned between the two leaders in Laos, warning that if Obama questioned him, “I will curse you in that forum.” Hours after those comments from President Duterte, the White House announced that Obama had
U.S. President Barack Obama walks down the steps from Air Force One upon his arrival at Wattay International Airport in Vientiane, Lao PDR, on Monday. AP
scrapped their meeting, which was scheduled for Tuesday. Mr. Duterte later issued a statement expressing regret for his remarks. Some Southeast Asian nations have expressed concern about the fate of the TPP, warning it can’t be renegotiated. Regional members include Singapore—Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a US visit last month that US credibility was on the line over the pact— Malaysia and Vietnam. Economists have said Vietnam’s emerging economy would be one of the biggest beneficiaries among TPP nations from its ratification and implementation.
Youth leaders
During his three-day trip, Obama will visit the capital of Vientiane, as well as the cultural jewel of Luang Prabang. Laos landed its spot on the president’s final Asia itinerary because it’s the site of the East Asia Summit and where he’ll meet with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whom he hosted in California earlier this year. He’ll also speak with young leaders, continuing a focus on youth across Southeast Asia and other developing regions. Obama hopes such a program endures after his presidency as a way of engendering
support for democracy and human rights in parts of the world where leaders may not adhere to the same principles. The president arrives in Laos following his stop in China for the Group-of-20 summit. Obama said in China the TPP remains his top trade priority and expressed hope he can still get it through Congress. With a potential focus on human rights, Obama brings a message to Laos akin to what he said in Vietnam—where he criticized his host’s human-rights record—and Myanmar, a country that has revamped relations with the US and that Obama has visited twice in its shift toward democracy. “It’s useful to see what’s happened in the evolution of our relationship with Vietnam,” Obama said on Monday at a briefing in Hangzhou, China. “At the outset when we’re trying to build trust, a lot of work can be done around war-legacy issues.” Southeast Asian nations may not take too kindly to Obama calling them out on human rights. And the US faces a challenge in countries, like Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, to displace China’s influence. While Myanmar’s de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi will visit the US later this month, she just made a trip to
China where she spoke of her desire for ties to be “further consolidated and developed.” Still, “this trip is an opportunity for the president to cement his legacy,” said Bruen, who worked as director of global engagement in Obama’s White House National Security Council. “It’s not one that necessarily has achieved all that some hoped it might in his presidency. But there are certainly some important accomplishments, and he’s going to hold those up.” Michael Green, senior vice president for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted that every president has made Asia a priority since Richard Nixon opened US-China ties. But Green, a former George W. Bush administration National Security Council senior Asia official, said “filling in the Southeast Asia piece” is Obama’s hallmark. “Historians will probably say if they look closely at the rebalance or pivot that the most significant legacy for the president is going to be engagement with Southeast Asia,” Green said before the trip. “This is probably the most deliberate and sustained engagement with Southeast Asia since the Vietnam War.” Bloomberg News
Asean Summit opens, overshadowed by Duterte flap
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summit of Southeast Asian leaders to discuss issues ranging from terrorism to South China Sea tensions opened on Tuesday, overshadowed by the Philippine President’s intemperate comments in his debut appearance at the annual meeting. The insult was made more egregious because of who the target was—President Barack Obama. Philippine President Duterte occupied center stage on the eve of the summit on Monday when he made comments about Obama that included a “son of a bitch” remark. He was again in the spotlight on Tuesday when he trooped into a conference hall in the Laotian capital of Vientiane wearing a traditional Filipino shirt with sleeves rolled up, and hands in pant pockets. The other male Southeast Asian leaders were dressed in dark business suits. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi wore a mauve traditional dress. Filipinos wear the barong shirt on formal occasions too, but with sleeves buttoned down at the wrists. Rolled-up sleeves are considered too casual for any formal setting, let
alone a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). Mr. Duterte rolled his sleeves down and buttoned them when Laotian President Bounnhang Vorachith gave a speech to open the summit. “Multifaceted security challenges have occurred in many parts of the world, such as terrorism and extremism, natural disasters, climate change, migration crisis, trafficking in people, territorial disputes and armed conflicts,” Bounnhang said. “At the same time, although the global economy has gradually recovered, growth remains slow and fragile.” “There is a need for us to closely follow these developments and continue to enhance Asean cooperation and collaboration with the international community,” he said. The 10-nation Asean comprises Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The summit will be followed by a series of other meetings on Wednesday and a summit on Thursday between leaders from Asean and other countries, including the United States, China, Russia,
India, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Obama arrived in Vientiane on Monday night and will attend Thursday’s summit. Mr. Duterte also arrived on Monday night. But hours before his arrival, President Duterte dropped a diplomatic bombshell by saying he doesn’t want Obama to ask him questions about extrajudicial killings that have occurred amid an ongoing crackdown on drug dealers in the Philippines. More than 2,000 people have been killed in the crackdown since he took office on June 30. In his typical loose-tongued style, Mr. Duterte said: “I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody. You must be respectful. Do not just throw questions. Putang ina, I will swear at you in that forum,” he said, using the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bitch.” Obama later canceled a bilateral meeting he was scheduled to have with President Duterte in Vientiane. On Tuesday Mr. Duterte expressed regret over the remarks, but the damage was already done.
President Duterte is also planning to ask China’s premier at the Vientiane meetings whether China is trying to develop a disputed reef, Scarborough Shoal, off the Philippines’s northwestern coast, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana said. The shoal is part of the larger dispute in the South China Sea between China and some Asean countries. An international arbitration panel recently ruled that China’s expansive claims in the sea are illegal. Beijing has rejected the ruling as a sham. Although Asean has the power of the ruling behind it, its summit is unlikely to mention it in its final declaration, a reflection of Beijing’s diplomatic clout. But according to a draft of the final statement Asean is scheduled to release on Thursday, the region’s leaders will express strong concern about Beijing’s construction of manmade islands in the South China Sea, which Southeast Asian countries fear could destabilize the region. Mr. Duterte said last week the Philippine coast guard has sighted Chinese barges at Scarborough, which he said could presage the
transformation of the Chineseheld reef into another man-made island. One of the Chinese vessels had what appeared to be a crane, according to a Philippine official who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss classified intelligence. China sparked widespread alarm when it converted seven reefs in the Spratly Islands into islands that the United States says could be transformed into military bases to reinforce Beijing’s territorial claims and intimidate rival claimant countries. President Duterte has taken a more conciliatory stance toward China than his predecessor. But a confirmation of Chinese reclamation activities at Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground where Filipino fishermen have been forced away by Beijing’s coast guard, could impede relations. US officials have also expressed deep concern over the possibility of China developing Scarborough into an island or starting to erect concrete structures there, which could reinforce Beijing’s control over a swath of the South China Sea. AP
The W
Business
A6 Wednesday, September 7, 2016 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
Militants storm charity building in Afghan capital
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ABUL, Afghanistan—Militants stormed a building housing an international aid organization in Kabul, provoking an overnight firefight with security forces in which three gunmen and one civilian were killed, Afghan officials said on Tuesday.
91
The number of people wounded in the attack in central Kabul, according to Ismail Kawasi, Afghanistan public health ministry spokesman
The attack took place a day after twin bombings near the Afghan Defense Ministry killed at least 24 people and wounded more than 90 others. The police special forces killed all three gunmen involved in an overnight attack in the Shar-e Naw district of the Afghan capital, Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Afghan interior minister said. At least one civilian was killed and six others were wounded as a result of the attack, he said. An Interior Ministry statement said that a suicide car bombing struck close to a building belonging to the charity CARE International in Shar-e Naw late Monday night, after which three more attackers entered the building. “The police special forces immediately
reached the site of the attack and started rescuing people from the building...42 people who were trapped were evacuated by the security forces,” the statement said. The area is home to several guest houses and many foreigners and diplomats reside there. Security forces have blocked all the roads leading to Shar-e Now. The shooting comes after at least 24 people were killed on Monday in twin bombings near the Afghan Defense Ministry. Two security force generals were among those killed in the attack, which was claimed by the Taliban.
Officers slain
PUBLIC Health Ministry Spokesman Ismail Kawasi said another 91 people were wounded in the attack in central Kabul. Sediqqi, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said a district police chief and five other police officers were killed. De put y Defen se M i n i st r y Spokesman Mohammad Radmanish said the second bombing was caused by a suicide attacker who struck the area of the first blast after security forces had gathered there. He said the attack took place as ministry employees were leaving their offices for the day. Senior
police investigator Faredoon Obiadi said the suicide attacker was wearing military uniform. A district police chief and an army general were among those killed in the attack, three officials told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. Dozens of ambulances raced to the scene after the blasts, and security forces blocked off roads leading to the area. Ashuqullah, 34, who like many Afghans has no surname, described the scene of chaos he witnessed. “The second explosion was so strong, and many people, including security officials, were killed and wounded,” he said. President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack in a statement, saying “the enemies of Afghanistan have lost their ability to fight the security and defense forces of the country and thus attack highways, cities, mosques, schools and common people.” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said his group had carried out the attack. The insurgents have been fighting to overthrow the US-backed government for 15 years, and frequently target Afghan security forces. AP
Stats on drug trafficking, race don’t back up Maine governor
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O R T L A N D, M a i n e — N o l a w enforcement statistics even come close to backing up Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s assertion blacks and Hispanics account for “90-plus percent” of herointrafficking arrests in his state. LePage, who previously told the Portland NAACP chapter to “kiss my butt” and blamed out-of-state drug dealers for impregnating “young white” girls, sparked another racial uproar when he said on August 24 that data he’d collected indicate out-of-state blacks and Hispanics accounted for “90-plus percent” of heroin-trafficking arrests in Maine. FBI data contradict LePage’s assertion, and a criminologist called the governor’s data “laughable.” Meanwhile, members of the black community in Maine, the whitest state, fear LePage’s comments strengthen racial stereotypes and tacitly approve of racial profiling. “I think this fear-mongering and these us-against-them kind of statements do not advance the community conversation, do not address the real issue of drug abuse,” said the Rev. Kenneth I. Lewis Jr., pastor at the Green Memorial A.M.E. Church, Maine’s oldest African-American congregation, in Portland. The Maine Department of Public Safety doesn’t include race when compiling and analyzing crime data. And the most recent crime data from the FBI suggest the governor’s claim doesn’t pass muster.
FBI data
FBI data show that blacks accounted for 14 percent of a total of 1,211 drug sale and manufacturing arrests and 7.4 percent of 5,791 total drug arrests in Maine in 2014, the most recent numbers available.
Broken down by type of offense, the data showed that blacks accounted for 36 percent of arrests for selling or manufacturing cocaine, opium and their derivatives and 26 percent when synthetic narcotics, including most prescription narcotics, were included in the tally. The FBI doesn’t include a category for Hispanics in its statistics. Far from “90-plus percent,” the FBI figures could reflect even higher numbers of black offenders than reality because of small sample size, racial profiling and other factors, said Jack McDevitt, director of Northeastern University’s Institute on Race and Justice in Boston. At a town meeting, LePage made these comments: “Let me tell you this, explain to you, I made the comment that black people are trafficking in our state. Now, ever since I said that comment, I’ve been collecting every single drug dealer who has been arrested in our state. I don’t ask them to come to Maine and sell their poison, but they come, and I will tell you that 90-plus percent of those pictures in my book, and it’s a three-ringed binder, are black and Hispanic people from Waterbury, Connecticut, the Bronx and Brooklyn.”
Completely inaccurate
LEPAGE said the contents of the binder are news clippings, not scientific data, that he began collecting in January after being criticized for saying out-of-state drug dealers were impregnating “young white” girls. Prof. Gia Barboza, of Northeastern’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, described the governor’s “90-plus percent” figure as “laughable” and “completely inaccurate.” AP
Kashmir rebel becomes what India has long feared S
HAAR-I-SHALLI, India—Go to the villages of south Kashmir and they’ll tell you stories about Burhan Wani, the militant commander shot by security forces as he tried to escape through the back door of an isolated hideout. They say Wani would slip out of the forests sometimes just to visit, a 22-year-old with an AK-47 and an easy way of talking that made him so different from earlier generations of Kashmir’s insurgents. They say he’d play cricket with village boys, and visit orphanages. They say he’d pay for the weddings of poor young women. In the weeks since Wani was killed on July 8, the stories have grown into such a mythology—the polite teenager who left home to become a Himalayan Robin Hood, the powerful insurgent commander who remained a man of peace—that it’s no longer clear how many are true. But in death, Wani has become something that India has long feared: a homegrown militant openly lionized across the embattled region, a powerful symbol against Indian rule who has united Kashmir’s many factions. Today, rock-throwing high-school students paint his name on shuttered storefronts— “BURHAN OUR HERO”—while everyone from fearsome insurgents to moderate politicians mourn him.
Militancy
WANI had already rejuvenated Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest of Kashmir’s militant groups, attracting dozens of new recruits with postings on Facebook and other social-media sites. Young, handsome and charismatic, he looked more like a college student than a gunman. He sometimes posted photos of himself in the forests, a smile on his face and an assault rifle in his hands. If he was more a savvy recruiter than a menacing fighter, that only made him more popular. But his killing, and the public fury it set off, now threaten to give new life to a Kashmiri militant movement that had withered in recent years, reduced to just a couple hundred fighters in scattered rebel outfits.
Wani’s death sent tens of thousands of protesters into Kashmir’s cities and villages, beginning a cycle of protest-and-crackdown that has left more than 70 civilians dead—most killed by government forces—and thousands injured. Strikes, curfews and intermittent communications blackouts have effectively shuttered the region for more than seven weeks. It has also helped make the militancy, which had once been at the extreme end of the Kashmiri independence movement, into something mainstream. Villagers, who had learned long ago to hide any sympathy they felt for fighters, now speak of them openly with reverence and warmth.
Face
WANI has become the face of the militants’ cause. “He was a good man, a gentle man,” said Abdul Majeed, a farmer and elder in the village of Shaari-Shalli. “That’s why people cared about him.” Late one night in mid-August, Indian soldiers had forced their way into dozens of homes in Shaar-i-Shalli, driving dozens of men into the town square. Over the next five hours, they beat the men so brutally that one villager died and a general was forced to apologize. The soldiers, military officials later said, were offended that village elders had not wanted to meet with them. On a recent morning, Majeed and more than a dozen other men from the village crowded into the home of the dead man—Shabir Ahmed Mangoo had been a literature teacher at a nearby college, and his wife had just had their first baby—to talk about what had happened. A scowling young man also named Shabir Ahmed (many men in the village share the same name) suddenly interrupted Majeed. He had jet black hair and a long beard, and could barely control his fury. “People used to be afraid to say that they support the militants. But with the death of Burhan we have overcome that fear,” he said.
In this September 1 photo, Kashmiris hold a Pakistani flag during a protest in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir. The current wave of protests began after the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani. AP
Setback
K ASHMIR has been at the center of the conflict between India and Pakistan since they became independent in 1947. The Himalayan region is divided between the two countries, though both claim it in its entirety. Militants have been fighting since the late 1980s for independence for Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state in India, or its merger with overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan. At its height, in the 1990s and early 2000s, a seemingly never-ending series of bloody insurgent attacks and brutal crackdowns by Indian security forces had given Kashmir the feel of an occupied state, a place of informers, torture centers and soldiers on nearly every corner. The attacks of September 11,
2001, and subsequent US pressure on Pakistan to rein in militants based there, were a major setback for the insurgent movement. Indian security forces largely crushed the militancy after that, though popular demands for azadi—freedom—remained deeply ingrained in Kashmiri culture. In the last decade the calls for freedom have shifted to unarmed uprisings, with tens of thousands of civilians repeatedly taking to the streets to protest Indian rule, often leading to street battles between rock-throwing residents and Indian troops. Immense protests, some lasting for months, shook Kashmir in 2008 and 2010.
Advocacy
TODAY’S Kashmir is an oftencontradictory place where bloody
clashes mingle with skyrocketing real-estate prices and increasing wealth (fed, in part, by Kashmiris working elsewhere in India or abroad). It’s a place where you can buy high-end electronics or go shopping at Babelicious Fashions, but where you rarely go more than a few minutes without passing a heavily armed soldier or an armored military vehicle. Increasingly, many Kashmiris see the recent uprisings as unsuccessful. “In 2008 there were nonv iolent protests, and no change. T hen after the 2010 protests wh at h appened? Not h i ng at all,” said a young protest leader who identified himself only as Mohammed, and who hinted at ties to Hizbu l Mujahideen,
say ing he cou ld find a Hizbu l fighter “ in a few minutes” if he wanted. “This generation grew up with the idea of nonviolence, no guns. But we got nothing” from that, he continued. “What can we do but take up the gun?” While Wani’s killing sparked the current wave of unrest, it has also been fed by widespread unemployment, especially among young people, and political frustration. Most Muslim Kashmiris have been deeply distrustful of state politics since 2014, when a local political party vaulted itself to power by forming an alliance with the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which has long advocated a hard-line response to any call for increased Kashmiri autonomy. AP
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How American unity, forged after 9/11 attacks, broke apart
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EW YORK—For a time, it felt like the attacks that shattered America had also brought it together. After 9/11, signs of newfound unity seemed to well up everywhere, from the homes where American flags appeared virtually overnight to the Capitol steps where lawmakers pushed aside party lines to sing “God Bless America” together. That cohesion feels vanishingly distant as the 15th anniversar y of the attacks arrives on Sunday. Ga l lup’s 15 -yearold poll of Americans’ national pride hit its lowest-ever point t his yea r. In a count r y t hat now seems car ved up by doorslamming disputes over race, immigration, national security, policing and politics, people impelled by the spirit of common purpose after September 11 rue how much it has slipped away. Jon Hile figured he could help the ground zero cleanup because he worked in industrial air-pollution control. So he traveled from Louisville, Kentucky, to volunteer, and it is not exaggerating to say the experience changed his life. He came home and became a firefighter. Hile, who now runs a riskmanagement firm, remembers it as a time of communal kindness, when “ever ybody understood how quickly things could change...and how quickly you could feel vulnerable.”
Regained things
A decade and a half later, he sees a nation where economic stress has pushed many people to look out for themselves. Where people stick to their comfort zones. “I wish that we truly remembered,” he says, “like we said we’d never forget.” Terrorism barely registered among Americans’ top worries in early September 2001, but amid economic concerns, a Gallup poll around then found only 43 percent of Americans were satisfied with how things were going. Then, in under two hours on 9/ 11, the nation lost nearly 3,000 people, two of its tallest buildings and its sense of impregnability. But out of the shock, fear and sorrow rose a feeling of regaining some things, too—a shared identity, a heartfelt commitment to the nation indivisible. Stores ran out of flags. Americans from coast to coast cupped candle flames and prayed at vigils, gave blood and billions of dollars, cheered firefighters and the police. Military recruits cited the attacks as they signed up.
Scrubbed partisanship
CONGRESS scrubbed partisanship to pass a $40-billion antiterrorism and victim aid measure three days after the attacks, and approval ratings for lawmakers and the president sped to historic highs. A special postage stamp declared “United We Stand,” and Americans agreed: A Newsweek poll found 79 percent felt 9/11 would make the country stronger and more unified. “I really saw people stand up for America. And I was very proud of that,” recalls Maria Medrano-Nehls, a retired state library agency worker in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her foster daughter and niece, Army National Guard Master Sgt. Linda Tarango-Griess, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2004. Now, Medrano-Nehls thinks weariness from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and combative politics have pried Americans apart, and it pains her to think of the military serving a country so torn. Larry Brook can still picture the crowd at a post-9/11 interfaith vigil at an amphitheater in Pelham, Alabama. The numbers seemed a tangible measure of an urge to come together.
Now? “I don’t t hink we’re any where close,” says Brook, who publishes Southern Jewish Life magazine. To him, political partisanship and clashes over Middle East policy are walling off middle ground. Three days after 9/11, Joseph Esposito was at smoldering ground zero as Republican President George W. Bush grabbed a bullhorn and vowed the attackers “will hear all of us soon.” The moment became an emblem of American strength and resolve, and Esposito, then the New York Police Department’s top uniformed officer, was struck by “the camaraderie, the unity” of those days. He remembers the support the police enjoyed then, and how much the tone had changed by the time of the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011, when the police arrested hundreds of demonstrators, many of whom said cops unjustly rounded and roughed them up. Now the cit y’s emergencym a n a ge me nt c o m m i s s io ne r, Esposito has watched from the sidelines as a national protest movement has erupted in recent years from police killings of unarmed black men, and as the police themselves have been killed by gunmen claiming vengeance. These days, Esposito hopes his job can be unifying. He wants people to feel that the city helps neighborhoods equally to handle disaster. “The 1 percenters should not be better prepared than the 99 percent,” he says. “If everyone feels they’re getting their fair share,” he adds, “it fosters better feelings toward one another.”
Kinship signs
FOR all the signs of kinship after September 11, the first retribution attack came just four days later, authorities said. Balbir Singh Sodhi was shot dead while placing f lowers on a memorial at his Mesa, Arizona, gas station. Prosecutors said the gunman mistook Sodhi, an Indian Sikh immigrant, for an Arab Muslim. Seeing hundreds of people gather in solidarity on the night of his brother’s death showed me “the greatness of unity,” says Rana Singh Sodhi, of Gilbert, Arizona. But in the last two years, he’s felt a “change toward hatred again.” He worries politicians are stirring animosity toward immigrants and minorities. So does Imam Abdur-Rahim Ali. After 9/11, he invited first responders for tea and coffee at the Northeast Denver Islamic Center to show appreciation and emphasize that Muslims “are regular Americans.” Now, Ali, who is African-American, believes Muslims and people of color are being demonized with “incendiary and divisive” remarks. “We can’t act like racism hasn’t been a part of all this,” he says.
Collaborative tone
CAN the US feel united again? Some Americans fear it will take another catastrophe, if even that can shift the climate. Others are looking to political leaders to set a more collaborative tone, or to Americans themselves to make an effort to understand and respect one another. When Sonia Shah thinks about the push and pull of American unity since the attacks that killed her father, Jayesh, at the World Trade Center, she pictures a rock hitting a pond. The innermost ripple, that’s the tight circle of support that came together around the people most directly affected by tragedy. Outside it, bigger and more diffuse, are bands of debate over policies and politics in the wake of 9/11. “We usually see the outer rings of the arguments,” says the Baylor University senior. “But I think there always is a current of unity that goes underneath things.” AP
A crowd supports truckers blocking the highway near Calais, northern France, on September 5. Hundreds of truckers in big rigs, farmers in tractors and dockers and merchants on foot blocked a major highway in northern France on Monday to demand the closure of the Calais migrant camp known as the “jungle.” AP
Protesters, seeking closure of migrant camp, block roads
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ALAIS, France—Truckers, farmers, dock workers and merchants angry at the disruption caused by thousands of migrants in their midst in the northern French city of Calais blocked the main access route to Britain on Monday to press authorities to set the date to raze an overcrowded makeshift camp.
The action appeared to pay off and, despite tensions among protesters, blockades were being lifted 12 hours later after the region’s top state official reassured the huge, makeshift camp would be dismantled and funds made available for struggling businesses. The action with several hundred big rigs and tractors on a main access route was the first major protest of its kind in the city, for decades a magnet for migrants trying to cross the English Channel, hopping Britainbound trucks and trains to get across. Authorities have poured in the police—about 2,000—to guard roadways and built high barbed-wire fences to protect the Eurotunnel freight trains, the port and highway, but desperate migrants are using increasingly dangerous tactics to slow trucks and hitch a ride. The state says some 7,000 migrants are living in the camp, known as “the jungle,” while aid groups have put the number at
7,000
The number of migrants are living in the Calais camp
more than 9,000. All are living in a drastically downsized camp after half was razed in March.
A single step
FOR the protesters, the migrants— from Africa, the Middle East and beyond—are an economic drain on Calais and a stain on its image. “We are truckers, not migrant traffickers. Let’s liberate Calais together,” read a sign on the front of some big rigs. “They damage the trucks, they break the windshield, they cut the truck sides, they climb in the truck and destroy the merchandise,” said Bertrand Wyfolscki, a trucker from Saint Omer, near Calais. His list
of complaints did not include the heavy fines truckers must pay if migrants are caught inside their vehicles.Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced on Friday that the government would dismantle the camp “in a controlled operation” as soon as possible, but did not say when. He also promised financial compensation for businesses losing money due to migrants, but gave no details. Representatives of farmers, truckers and merchants came away from a meeting with the state representative of the region, Fabienne Buccio, with a new commitment— but no date—that the camp would be completely dismantled “in a single step.” Buccio also said a special fund to help businesses in need would be activated and more than 230 extra members of security forces brought in, bringing the total to more than 2,000.
Failure to plan
CHRISTIAN Salome, head of the aid group Auberge des Migrants, which has long worked with migrants arriving in Calais, said camp dwellers were also victims. “Refugees are the first victims of the blockading of the border,” he said, a reference to a 2003 FrenchBritish accord that effectively puts the British border in Calais, where they are stopped from entering Britain, and puts the onus of the migrant plight on France. Salome noted that 11 migrants have died this year—seven on the highways—“and the goal of the refugees is exactly the same as the goal of the truckers: put an end to this situation.” Hundreds
of big rigs, tractors and dockers, and merchants on foot blocked the main highway to the Eurotunnel and port. “We are fed up with the migrant situation in Calais. They are increasingly aggressive,” said French trucker Blaise Paccou. “We leave in the morning. We don’t know how we’re going to return in the evening because of the rocks and metal bars being thrown at us.” Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart, holding an “I love Calais” T-shirt as she walked with merchants, criticized the Socialist government for failing to provide a global plan to end the crisis.
Angry at government
AID groups warn that a hasty shutdown of the camp would scatter the migrants, aggravate the city’s troubles and worsen the humanitarian drama. While the camp conditions are dismal, migrants have access to food distribution and showers. Cazeneuve refused again on Monday to provide a date for closing the camp because of “the need for a method.” “We need to provide shelters,” he said. The Calais region has drawn migrants for some two decades, with refugees from the war in Kosovo streaming in in the late 1990s, followed by Afghans fleeing war. A huge Red Cross camp in nearby Sangatte was leveled in 2002 and the migrants pushed into Calais. “We should not be misunderstood. We have nothing against migrants,” said Frederic Van Gansbeke, who helped organize the protest. Anger, he said, was directed at the government. AP
Divided America: In recovery, many poor schools left behind
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AUKEGAN, Illinois—Consider Waukegan and Stevenson, two Illinois school districts separated by 20 miles—and an enormous financial gulf. Stevenson, mostly white, is flush with resources. The high school has five different spaces for theater performances, two gyms, an Olympic-size pool and an espresso bar. Meanwhile, Waukegan, with its mostly minority student body, is struggling. At one school, the band is forced to practice in a hallway, and as many as 28 students share a single computer. Last year Stevenson spent close to $18,800 per student. Waukegan’s expenditure? About $12,600.
And the gap has only been getting wider—here in the suburbs north of Chicago, and in many places across the nation. In the years following the 2008 financial crisis, school districts serving poor communities generally have been hit harder than more affluent districts, according to an Associated Press (AP) analysis of local, state and federal education spending. The result has been a worsening of America’s rich schools, poor schools divide—and its racial divide, because many poor districts are also heavily minority. It also perpetuates the perception that the system is rigged in favor of the haves, at the expense of the have-nots—a
major driver of America’s angst in this election year.
Not enough
THE AP found that aid to local districts from the federal government surged after the economic downturn, as part of the stimulus, but then receded. Schools were left to rely more on state funding that has not bounced back to prerecession levels. And poorer districts that cannot draw on healthy property tax bases have been left in the lurch. The effects vary widely across the 50 states. Each has its own unique funding formula. For example, per-pupil spending in poorer Missouri districts fell behind richer districts in
2013—the first time in a well over decade. Most rich districts have seen a steady increase in revenue while poorer districts— such as Louisiana RII, a predominantly white district 80 miles northwest of Saint Louis—have seen cuts since 2010. That rural district has started waiting longer to replace textbooks, and it will likely abandon initiatives to distribute new computers and to bring wireless Internet into classrooms. Todd Smith, the superintendent, said the district will likely seek a tax increase or a bond sale because there isn’t enough money for basic maintenance. “We find ourselves more and more dipping into our reserves,” Smith said. AP
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The World
Wednesday, September 7, 2016 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
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Billboards across Egypt’s capital extol austerity
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A Venezuelan living in Chile holds up a sign that reads in Spanish “The vote ousted Pinocho,” referring to Chile’s late dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, “Now Maduro,” during a protest against the government of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro in Santiago, Chile, on September 3. Protesters joined their countrymen in Venezuela who have coined recent protests as “taking of Caracas” to pressure electoral authorities to allow a recall referendum against Maduro this year. AP
Venezuelan journalist charged after protest against Maduro
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ARACAS, Venezuela—A prominent journalist on the Venezuelan island of Margarita was charged on Monday with money laundering and will remain behind bars after publicizing a protest against President Nicolas Maduro. Videos of the Friday evening protest, in which residents of a working-class neighborhood banged pots and hurled insults in Maduro’s face, became an instant social-media hit encapsulating the frustration many Venezuelans feel with the direction
of the socialist-run economy. Braulio Jatar, who is also a law yer, helped spread news of the demonstration on his Margarita-based web site, Reporte Confidencial, which supports the opposition. His family said he was picked
up by intelligence police early on Saturday on his way to host his regular morning radio show. The police allege they found him with a suitcase full of cash. The case has garnered attention beyond Venezuela’s borders because Jatar holds a Chilean passport and his sister is editor of El Planeta, a Spanish-language media outlet in Boston. A Chilean consulate official was present at his court appearance on Monday. Ana Julia Jatar, in a video posted on Facebook, said her brother suffers from chronic hypertension that must be treated with medicine. “If something happens to my brother, if he doesn’t receive his medicines, it will be the government of Nicolas Maduro’s
fault,” said Jatar, who is married to R icardo Hausmann, a prominent Har vard economist and former Venezuelan planning minister who is a frequent target of Maduro’s scorn. T he a r rest h a s been condemned by press-freedom groups a nd Ve ne z ue l a’s op posit ion , which has been decrying a crackdown on antigovernment activists amid increasing agitation against Maduro. Foro Penal, a human-rights group, says dozens of people were arrested as a result of disturbances at an oppositionorganized march in Caracas last week that drew hundreds of thousands of people into the streets to demand a recall referendum against Maduro go forward. A handful remain detained. AP
AIRO—Billboards and street signs have gone up across Egypt’s capital extolling austerity and hope, part of a pro-government public-relations campaign aimed at preparing Egyptians for sweeping economic reforms. The advertising blitz follows last month’s provisional agreement by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to give Egypt a $12-billion loan over three years to help President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi’s government overhaul the ailing economy. The agreement has yet to be ratified by the IMF’s executive board, but the first installment of the loan is expected to be disbursed later this year. The campaign’s main slogan is: “Oh, Egypt, with bold reforms, we shorten the road.” Other messages include “Fear and skepticism lengthen the road,” as well as “Rationalize our consumption, reduce our imports.” Egypt is expected to gradually lift state subsidies on fuel, basic services and food items as part of its reform program. It is also expected to devalue or float its currency, the pound, to bolster exports and stamp out a flourishing black market in US dollars. Such moves would help wean Egypt off of billions of dollars in foreign aid—mainly from Gulf countries—which has propped up the economy since el-Sisi led the 2013 military overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi, an elected Islamist.
Allegations of corruption
THE decision to take the government’s message to the streets ref lects concern that the reforms, which are likely to trigger a surge in prices, could spark popular unrest. Past governments have faced protests, strikes and violence when they have sought to curb subsidies. El-Sisi has repeatedly warned Egyptians in recent weeks that “difficult” economic decisions lay ahead and vowed to introduce measures to protect the neediest from price increases. El-Sisi partially lifted fuel subsidies in 2014 without sparking any significant unrest. Last month his government partially lifted subsidies on domestic electricity. “There must be appropriate solutions to achieve reform, even if they are temporarily painful,” elSisi told the editors of three stateowned newspapers last month. “But we are working to lighten the burden on those with limited incomes and the middle class.” On Thursday scores of Eg y ptian mothers w ith cr y ing babies in their ar ms protested a severe shor tage of subsidized baby for mu la. T he Cairo protest, though sma l l, offered a g l i mpse of wh at aut hor it ies
$12B
The loan given by the International Monetary Fund to Egypt to help President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi’s government overhaul the ailing economy
may face if subsidies on main items are reduced or lifted. The shortage has led to allegations of corruption, as well as suggestions that the military’s planned intervention to resolve the crisis was designed in part to enhance its image as the nation’s savior.
Crackdown on dissent
THE chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Sameer, rejected the allegations, saying on his Facebook page the armed forces and the Health Ministry were working together to break the “greedy monopoly” of baby formula importers and would import the formula directly. Egypt’s economy has been battered in the five years since an uprising toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak. Its vital tourism sector has been decimated and remittances have declined. Inflation and unemployment rates are in double digits and the pound has been steadily losing value against the dollar. The government has, meanwhile, waged a far-reaching crackdown on dissent since 2013, jailing thousands of protesters and other dissidents while battling Islamic State-linked militants in the Sinai Peninsula. Pro -gover nment ta l k-show hosts are already seeking to link any unrest over price increases to foreign conspiracies, without offering any evidence, and warning that Egypt could meet the same fate as war-torn Syria or Iraq. O t he r s h ave pu she d bac k against such rhetoric, arguing t h at t he gover nment shou ld lead by example if it expects ordinar y Eg y ptians to tighten their purse strings. “It is not possible to convince a hungry man to endure his suffering so the state can get on its feet again when he does not see one state institution adopting austerity, any measures to ensure a fair distribution of the burden among the businessmen, the middle class and the poor or any showdown with institutionalized corruption,” prominent columnist Abdullah el-Sennawy wrote on Friday. AP
UN human-rights chief slams populists, warns vs bigotry Report: Nigeria detains reporter over alleged links to Boko Haram T
HE H AGUE , Net herlands—T he United Nations human-rights chief says US presidential candidate Donald Trump and Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders are among “popu l i st s a nd dem agog ues” whose tactics of communication smack of Islamic State (IS) groupstyle propaganda. In exceptionally strong terms, and with far-right groups on the rise in the wake of extremist attacks, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein warned on Monday about the “banalization of bigotry” in Europe and the US by populists who allude back to “a fictional halcyon past” and oversimplify messages with sound bites and Tweets. Zeid, the son of a Jordanian prince and Swedish-born mother who often goes by his first name, focused mainly on Wilders in the speech at a gala dinner organized by the Hague-based Peace, Justice and Security Foundation.
But Zeid also lumped in others, including Trump, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and Nigel Farage, a former leader of Br itain’s main anti-immigration party. “Make no mistake, I certainly do not equate the actions of nationa list demagog ues w ith those of Daesh, which are monstrous, sickening; Daesh must be brought to justice,” Zeid said, using the Arabic-language acronym for the radical IS group. “But in its mode of communication, its use of half-truths and oversimplification, the propaganda of Daesh uses tactics similar to those of the populists.” “And both sides of this equation benefit from each other— indeed wou ld not e x pand in influence without each others’ actions,” he added. Wilders recently presented a one-page manifesto ahead of
Dutch elections scheduled for March calling for a halt to all a sylu m- seekers enter i ng t he country, a ban on immigrants from Muslim nations, closing all mosques and Islamic schools, and outlawing the Quran. Zeid called the manifesto “grotesque” and urged the audience “to speak out and up” against demagogues. “We will not be bullied by you the bully, nor fooled by you the deceiver, not again,” he said. In a text message responding to the Associated Press requests for a reaction to the speech, Wilders wrote: “Another good reason to get rid of the UN. I lost my freedom in my fight for freedom, and I don’t want my countr y to lose its freedom, as well. That’s why we have to deIslamize. Islam and freedom, are incompatible whatever this Jordanian bureaucrat says.” Wilders has lived for years with round-the-clock protection
because of threats against him. Zeid decried a “formula” used by the demagogues: “Make people, already nervous, feel terrible, and then emphasize it’s all because of a group, lying within, foreign and menacing.” “Then make your target audience feel good by offering up what is a fantasy to them, but a horrendous injustice to others. Inflame and quench, repeat many times over, until anxiety has been hardened into hatred,” he said. With high-minded language, Zeid used words to fight words t hat he considers har mf u l a nd d isc r i m i n ator y. “We hear of accelerating discrimination in workplaces. Children are being shamed and shunned for their ethnic and religious origins” and being told “they are not ‘really’ European,” Zeid said. “Entire communities are being smeared with suspicion of collusion with terrorists.” AP
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AGOS, Nigeria—Nigerian intelligence agents on Monday detained a journalist off an aircraft arriving from Dubai, over alleged links to Boko Haram and purported knowledge of the kidnapped Chibok s c h o o l g i r l s, N i g e r i a n m e d i a a n d a security agent repor ted. Sahara Reporters, an online news site, quoted a passenger who was seated next to Ahmad Salkida as saying the Nigerian journalist was nervous on the flight and told her he expected to be arrested by Nigeria’s intelligence agency, which knew his flight details because the Nigerian Embassy had denied him a passport and issued only an emergency travel document. The passenger said he was detained at the door of the aircraft after it landed in Abuja, the capital, from Dubai, where he lives in the United Arab Emirates, according to Sahara Reporters. A security agent at the airport confirmed that agents of the Department of State Security detained Salkida. He spoke on condition of anonymity
because he is not supposed to talk to reporters. Nigeria Army Spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman declared Salkida a wanted man last month after the journalist posted online a video sent to him by Boko Haram. Usman did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday night. It showed about 50 of 218 missing students kidnapped in April 2014 from northeastern Chibok town, with one girl begging the government to agree to a prisoner swap with detained Boko Haram leaders. The video included a masked Boko Haram fighter saying the government could use as an intermediary the journalist that the extremist group trusts. Salkida said then that he knew nothing of the whereabouts of the so-called Chibok girls. Salkida, who was born in northeastern Borno state where Boko Haram began its Islamic uprising in 2009, has reported extensively on the extremist group, as well as on Nigerian military abuses and corruption. AP
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3 DTI officials selected as this year’s Most Influential Filipina Women in the World
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alvero
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EBU CITY—Three officials of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) were recently selected as 2016’s Most Influential Filipina Women in the World (Global FWN100) by the Filipina Women’s Network (FWN). Those honored were Undersecretary for Industry Promotion Group (IPG) Nora K. Terrado, Foreign Trade Service Corps (FTSC) Assistant Secretary Maria Roseni M. Alvero and Commercial Attaché Magnolia Uy. Filipinas from across four continents representing 10 countries flew in to Cebu for the awarding ceremony held on August 23. The Global FWN100 Award is given every year by the FWN, a non-profit organization that recognizes 100 women of Philippine
ancestry who are changing the face of leadership in the global workplace. These women have done outstanding work in their respective fields and are recognized for their achievement and contributions to society, mentorship and legacy. Terrado, a two-time awardee, was first selected in 2014 under the Builders category. She was selected this time under the Innovators and Thought Leaders category. This category recognizes women who have broken
new ground in the global workplace, delivered new and unique applications of emerging technology transforming the way people think, in the fields of sports, literature, the arts and pop culture; or improved the lives of others by helping develop a product or service in the fields of science, technology, engineering, sports, arts, or mathematics. Terrado has been in the forefront of forwarding the country’s innovation agenda and currently leads the country’s trade and industr y promotional efforts as the DTI undersecretary for Industry Promotion Group. She is also known for her various contributions in implementing priority change programs at the DTI during her stint as the supervising undersecretary for Ma nagement Ser v ices Group (MSG) from 2013 to 2015. Alvero was selected under the Keepers of the Flame category, an award given to those who will ensure that the Vision 2020
of FWN is kept alive: A Filipina woman leader in every sector of the global economy. Uy was chosen under the Builders category, which honors Filipino women for demonstrating exceptional business impact at a large workplace environment; displaying deep passion for a cause through collaborative initiatives or alliances on behalf of her own organization; and demonstrating high potential and skill with measurable results in the private sector or public sector. Uy was recognized for her contribution in concluding the Philippines’s free-trade agreement with the EFTA member-countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), as well as in putting MSMEs in front and center of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agenda. Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo was also one of the awardees and served as the keynote speaker at the 13th Filipina Leadership Global Summit. Robredo received the award under the “Nicole” category, which honors Filipino women whose words, actions and activism inspire others to act and revolutionize society’s way of understanding traditional beliefs and customs, thus leaving behind a Filipino global imprint. The Global FWN100 Award is a working recognition award with a meaningful purpose and FWN’s 2020 Vision: A Filipina woman leader in every sector of the global economy by 2020. The Filipina Leadership Global Summit was held from August 21 to 24 in Cebu, at the Shangri-La Mactan, with the theme “Influence. Accelerate. Action.”
DTI chief opens 18th National Tuna Congress
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ENERAL SANTOS CITY—Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez was guest of honor during the opening of the 18th National Tuna Congress (NTC) at the SM City GenSan Trade Halls on August 31. The Congress aimed to bring back pride to the city’s most prized catch—the tuna. Lopez discussed with stakeholders the Department of Trade and Industr y’s (DTI) plans and programs in line with the directives of the current administration that may benefit the tuna industr y. The annual NTC is a gathering of local, national and international fishing entrepreneurs and stakeholders to discuss the most crucial issues, including the technological development surrounding the tuna industry. With the theme “Tuna: Gearing Up for the Future,” the 18th Tuna Festival included activities, such as topic presentations, breakout sessions and workshops, the result of which was integral to the National Tuna Management Plan. The 2016 Tuna Exhibit, like the previous years, followed the Reverse Trade Fair Concept, where the latest technologically advanced products deemed beneficial not only to the fishing industry, but also to the tuna canneries were featured. A total of 80 local and international exhibitors showcased the latest technology, equipment, packaging materials and other support facilities available to the tuna fishing industry. A Congress Plenary covered the following topics: Amended Philippine Fisheries Code and the Comprehensive National Fisheries Industry Development Plan by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources; Challenges and Opportunities of Investing in the Pacific-An Investor’s Point of View by RD Tuna Canners, Papua Guinea; and El Niño and La Niña Effects on Tuna by the Department of Marine Ecosystems. The second day of the Congress had two major breakout sessions. One was the Capture Fisheries Group which discussed: Tuna Handling: The Lagonoy and Mindoro Experience by the Gulf of Lagonoy Tuna Fishers Federation and the Occidental Mindoro Tuna Fishers Federation; Alternative Fishing Grounds in the Philippines by Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) National Marine Fisheries Development Center; and the Philippines in the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission by the BFAR.
Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Wednesday, September 7, 2016 A9
DTI, other government agencies sign agreement to improve ease of doing business in Philippines
SIGNING the agreement on ease of doing business are (seated, from left) Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, Interior Secretary Ismael D. Sueño and Information Secretary Rodolfo A. Salalima.
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AMON M. LOPEZ, trade secretary and National Competitiveness Council (NCC) cochairman, led the signing of a joint memorandum circular (JMC) to streamline the country’s business permits and licensing systems (BPLS). Other cosigners were Interior Secretary Ismael D. Sueño and Information Secretary Rodolfo A. Salalima. “The DTI’s [Department of Trade and Industry] work is geared toward establishing efficient regulatory procedures by cutting red tape and addressing bottlenecks in government frontline services. This is an effective strategy that allows our local enterprises to easily comply with requirements in starting a business,” Lopez said. In the new JMC, local government units (LGUs) are enjoined to align their BPLS with the Revised Standards on Processing Business Permits and Licenses in All Cities and Municipalities, in which (1) a unified form should be used, both in print and electronic format; (2) the processing time should only take two days for new registrations and one day for renewal; (3) registration procedures should only involve three steps; and (4) should only require two signatories, which is the mayor and the treasurer or business permits and licensing office head with alternate approving signatures. Other streamlining measures outlined in the circular are setting up of Business One-Stop Shop (BOSS) facility for business registration, conduct
of joint inspection teams, computerization and automation of business permit process, and use of online and electronic method for more efficient business processing. Lopez said the target is to have all 1,516 cities and municipalities in the Philippines adopt the memorandum circular within 30 days and implement an online processing system within the year. At present, 93 percent, or 1,419 of 1,516 LGUs (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao LGUs excluded) have already streamlined their business permits and licensing systems into five days and five steps. This is in compliance with a memorandum circular issued by the DTI and the Department of the Interior and Local Government to streamline business process in 2010. Lopez said cutting the time and costs involved in starting a business will significantly improve the services provided by the DTI’s Go Negosyo Centers, which bring government programs and initiatives closer to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Go Negosyo Centers are onestop shops that facilitate MSMEs’ access to services such as business advisory, business information and advocacy, business registration assistance through the Philippine Business Registry (PBR) System which integrates all agencies involved in business registration. To date, 296 Go Negosyo Centers has been established nationwide.
upcoming events Compiled by Louise Kaye G. Mendoza DTI-EMB Knowledge Processing Division
SEPT 7
Time: 1-3 p.m. Event: Meeting with Online Platform Providers (internal) Venue: QBO Innovation Hub, Ground Floor, DTI International Building, 375 Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City
SEPT 8
Time: 1-4:30 p.m. Event: Philippine Export Competitiveness Program
* Overview of EMB Services and Export Procedures * Doing Business in Free Trade Areas (DBFTA) * Phytosanitary Export Certification Procedures of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) Venue: Penthouse, DTI International Building, 375 Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City
SEPT 8
Time: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Event: Doing Business in Free Trade Areas (DBFTA) for Pampanga Chamber
of Commerce
Venue: Pampanga
SEPT 9
Time: 9 a.m.-12 noon Event: Meeting on Portal for Administrators, Approvers and Technical
Staff (internal)
Venue: QBO Innovation Hub, Ground Floor, DTI International Building, 375 Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City
MEETING Several officials of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) held an meeting with the Philippine
Honorary Consul General to Brno, Czech Republic, Bretislav Skacel (top photo, third from left). Joining Skacel are (top photo, from left) Lanie O. Dormiendo (chief, Europe, Middle East and Africa Division, International Investments Promotion Service, Board of Investments); Undersecretary Nora K. Terrado of the DTI’s International Promotion Group; Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez; Director Senen M. Perlada of the DTI’s Export Marketing Bureau (EMB); and Rafaelita C. Castro (chief, Market Innovation Division, EMB).
The second was the Canning/Fresh Frozen Group which covered: Commodity and Market Updates on Canned Tuna by the Tuna Canners Association of the Philippines; Commodity and Market Updates on Fresh Frozen Tuna by PhilFresh Corporation; and Market Accreditations and Certification for Philippine Fresh Frozen Tuna Products by HMA Management Consulting.
sept 9
Time: 1-4:30 p.m. Event: Philippine Export Competitiveness Program
* E-Commerce Road map * Updates on Local and Global E-Commerce Practices Venue: AVR Ground Floor, DTI International Building, 375 Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City
SEPT 10
Event: Mobile Challenge Asia Pacific (MCAP) Bootcamp Venue: QBO Innovation Hub, Ground Floor, DTI International Building, 375 Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City
A10 Wednesday, September 7, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso
Opinion BusinessMirror
editorial
Broadband for all starts with more public Wi-Fi
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he 21st-century equivalent of Herbert Hoover’s chicken-in-every-pot promise is a faster Internet connection in every home. It’s a laudable but, for now, elusive goal.
While working to reach it, however, the next president—whether that’s Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, both of whom have promised far greater investment in public infrastructure—must attain a more immediate objective: finishing the Obama administration’s work of connecting so-called anchor institutions across the nation. Stories of public-school students congregating outside schools or libraries so they can use their public Wi-Fi networks to do homework are stirring evidence of the digital divide. Addressing this inequity will require a broader definition of “anchor institutions,” which include not just libraries but public-transit systems and parks. Public Wi-Fi needn’t be confined by roofs or walls. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), roughly four in 10 of the nation’s schools, enrolling almost half of American students, do not have high-speed Internet service. Even families with broadband access at home often need the services provided by anchor institutions. Many low-income households are “smartphone-dependent,” making them more likely than other users to reach data-usage caps or to suspend or cancel service due to financial problems. And smartphones are less-than-ideal when it comes to filling out job applications or writing cover letters. There is vibrant debate about how best to expand broadband speeds and access now, while keeping the system open and flexible to further innovation. The US has made great progress in making the Internet accessible to its citizens—more than 200 million now have access to broadband at home, compared with 8 million in 2000—but it has to go much further, more affordably, and faster. Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC must conduct yearly reviews of whether advanced telecommunications capability “is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion,” and take “immediate action” if it is not. When it comes to anchor institutions, and consumers who have nowhere else to turn for vital access, “immediate action” remains overdue. Bloomberg Editorial
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nd all he means by exceptions is that the terrorists at least got revenge when they failed. The US did not retreat from the Middle East after 9/11. Bin Laden is at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.
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England was tired after World War II and the Irish Republican Army might have liberated Northern Ireland and united it with Eire— if the old Catholics living in that Protestant stronghold had wanted to live under new Catholic terrorists. Given the choice, they preferred the English devil they knew to Irish
devils still in the making. The Basque movement, never popular among Basques, failed. Basques talk a lot about a country of their own but cannot imagine living in one that is run by their masked Basque confederates. You see, Castilians can always be blamed for Basque failures, but ETA will kill
When growth isn’t good
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By Mihir Sharma | BloombergView
ndia’s just-released GDP figures show it’s still the world’s fastestgrowing large economy. Over the past decade or so, those numbers have swooped and stuttered—from the boom years of the mid-2000s, when easy money and roaring demand pushed growth up to nearly double digits, to the hard stop at the time of the 2008 financial crisis, to the dramatic, stimulus-driven recovery immediately after and finally the inexorable decline, every quarter, once the stimulus ran out of steam.
India now looks to be on an even keel. Its macroeconomic numbers are strong and growth appears solid, if slightly slower than hoped. India’s government—led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself—has reiterated this message over and over again. What officials won’t say is that the quality of India’s growth is very poor indeed. Look a little more closely, and the economy doesn’t seem anything like the good-news story the government has been telling the world. In fact, today’s growth levels appear completely unsustainable. They’re driven by the government’s mistaken belief that it can ramp up its own spending to make up for a private sector that isn’t yet optimistic enough to invest. Indeed, over the past two years, India’s growth has come to depend dangerously on an overstretched state. GDP grew in the first quarter of this financial year (India’s financial year begins on April 1) by 7.1 percent
over the equivalent quarter last year. That was slower than the previous quarter’s growth rate—7.8 percent —but still impressive enough given sluggishness elsewhere in the world. Value added by private-sector manufacturing grew almost 12 percent between April and June, and the flagship information-technology sector grew at 9.6 percent. So far, so good. But robust demand isn’t what’s fueling this growth. Another indicator the government puts out— the index of industrial production (IIP), a series that measures actual physical output—is, in fact, shrinking: Between April and June 2016, the IIP was 0.7 percent lower than it was the previous year. Other indicators of real economic activity also look weak. Steel consumption grew only 0.3 percent, for example. Perhaps, most worrying is data about how much freight Indian Railways is moving around: Rail freight was
any Basque who complains. The brightest prospect of success is Catalan independence. Even other Spaniards pay Homage to Catalonia for its courage in fighting fascism in the past, and for its moderation in pushing for autonomy today. Hamas is a doomsday machine, not because it can erase Israel, but because it can be erased by Israel only by using the same German methods that resulted in the creation of Israel. So Hamas stays. Boxed in. Shot at. But powerless to achieve its purpose of getting back a country for a vanishing race. Nagel thinks (or at least I do) that English’s book proves one thing only: that terrorism is about hatred. And hate is as strongly attached to the hateful means it uses, as it is attached to its political purposes. There is no protection against revenge. Killing the innocent among the enemy is its own reward. Even in strategic failure and tactical un-
success, the terrorist takes consolation in having taken so many of the innocent with him. So when you think about it, in the gloom of the Davao bombing—one of many in Davao’s history—the Abu Sayyaf are not terrorists of the same blend. They do not have a serious political aim. They are bandits whose aim is the extortion of anything within reach. And that reach goes only as far as the weakness of national government is deep. But there is no hatred—like bin Laden’s for America’s desecration of Islam’s holy lands by American physical presence there. Not yet. So the ASG can be talked to. But that requires keeping a tight rein on our rhetoric. (That is, shutting the fuck up.) Meanwhile, keep safe; keep mentally normal—because going crazy is not good; and keep well.
down almost 9 percent from last year, when measured in kilometertons. In other words, while the balance sheets of Indian companies still look good, they simply don’t seem to be producing or trading as much. The government seems to assume that public spending can pick up the slack, with the share of government expenditure in GDP rising. That’s a dangerous trend, however, conflicting with the government’s promise to reduce its fiscal deficit to 3 percent of GDP in a couple of years. Growth that depends on public spending is in any case of the poorest quality, unsustainable in the long run. It looks less like the high growth of the 2000s and more like the brief, government-fueled boom after the financial crisis. Even the Modi government admits that sustainable growth won’t return unless the private sector begins to invest. Its argument is that public investment is rising in tandem with overall government expenditure and this “good spending” will lead to more private investment. Yet, investment in India is shrinking ever faster, by 1.9 percent in the months between January and March, and then by 3.1 percent in the three months after that. So, when the government—or indeed multilateral institutions that should know better, such as
the International Monetary Fund— tout India as the one bright spot for global growth, investors should be asking a few hard questions. First and foremost, if things are so rosy, why aren’t India’s own businesses investing? Why should foreign capital imagine that it will be able to get sustained returns out of India when domestic capital is sitting on its hands? If Indian companies can’t identify good projects with sustainable returns, how precisely will foreign companies be able to do so? There are some signs that growth might pick up in the coming months. For one, the monsoon has been better this year than last, and India’s rain-dependent agricultural sector might expand a bit, which, in turn, might help rural demand recover slightly. And urban demand will receive a boost from the government’s decision to give its employees a hefty pay hike. But that, again, puts government expenditure at the center of India’s growth story. A growth miracle dependent on the weather and state spending isn’t much of a miracle at all. Yes, India’s growth numbers may look bright. But they also reveal an economy that’s storing up serious trouble, with low demand and crashing investment propped up by government largesse. Seen this way, India doesn’t appear to be an exception to the gloomy emergingmarkets story after all.
Opinion BusinessMirror
opinion@businessmirror.com.ph
Risk is worse when you can’t see it
Tontine insurance Atty. Dennis B. Funa
INSURANCE FORUM
Mark Buchanan
BLOOMBERG VIEW
F
inancial crises are becoming more frequent as markets and the rules that govern them grow ever more complex. New research suggests that this is no coincidence—and that a simpler system would be a lot more resilient.
Forward-thinking officials have long argued that financial regulation needs to be simpler. In his much-quoted speech “The Dog and the Frisbee,” Andrew Haldane of the Bank of England notes that dogs catch frisbees not by making complex aerodynamic calculations, but by relying on simple rules of thumb—for example, running at a speed that keeps the angle of gaze to the object roughly constant. By analogy, he suggested, regulators might do well to eschew ever more intricate calculations of the risks in banks’ portfolios and, instead, aim for rules that would be easier to understand and less likely to go badly wrong. The point also applies to the dense networks of contracts and relationships that link financial firms together. As these get more complex, a new study shows, markets naturally become less stable, because the risks become difficult to perceive and manage. This isn’t your typical economics paper. The authors include Nobel Prizewinning economist Joseph Stiglitz and renowned mathematical ecologist Robert May, who teamed up with physicists to explore the consequences of network complexity in a way traditional research has not. They sought to model a network of financial institutions connected through loans and other contracts, as well as by exposures to common assets, and to examine how its complexity would affect someone’s ability to judge the likely fallout from a default somewhere within it. Suppose a bank suddenly reneges on its obligations to several others. Without full information on who is exposed to the other banks, it’s hard to know precisely what will happen next and how far the trouble might spread. Further uncertainty surrounds the so-called recovery rate—how much one party in a contract might be able to claw back from a defaulting counterparty. This is the immediate challenge that faces
regulators, investors and financial institutions in a crisis. Increasing network complexity, the researchers found, makes this foresight problem harder. As the lead author, physicist Stefano Battiston, explained to me, the longer the chains of connected banks, the more any small uncertainty about the magnitude of losses gets compounded. Anyone trying to assess the potential outcomes will inevitably make larger errors. This provides more evidence in favor of regulations aimed at making the financial system simpler. The US process of living wills, for example, allows regulators to impose higher capital requirements on—or even break up—financial institutions that can’t adequately explain how they could be safely wound down in bankruptcy. Another idea would be to tax complexity, by levying charges related to the number and nature of banks’ connections to other institutions in the network. There’s also a lesson here for economic theorists, who tend to view the explosive growth of derivatives and other instruments as a beneficial development that makes markets more complete and efficient and, hence, less risky. This naïve belief in the virtue of complexity is founded in mathematical models that assume people have full knowledge of all the connections in the network and always make rational decisions. Needless to say, and as the study confirms, excluding the issue of complexity from models doesn’t make it any less of a problem in reality. Battiston and colleagues also argue that more complicated regulations can’t solve the problem, because they’ll only add to the complexity of the whole system. They burden financial firms with onerous reporting and compliance procedures, without necessarily making anything less risky. Haldane was right: We still have a lot to learn from the dog and the frisbee.
In bashing Turkey, the EU betrays its founding values By Omer Celik | BloombergView
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or Turks, the July 15 coup attempt marked a watershed moment not only in the nation’s history, but also in its relations with the European Union (EU). The weak response from Brussels to the most serious attack against democracy in any candidate country—which left 241 innocent people dead—raised serious questions about the EU’s reliability as a partner and its commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Whether Europe can win back the trust of millions of Turks will help establish if the union still has what it takes to survive. In recent weeks, the Turkish people have not received the kind of support from European leaders that they hoped for. Each condemnation of the coup coming from the West has been accompanied by a long list of ifs, ands and buts. Any neutral observer could easily be convinced that the coup plotters, as opposed to their victims, were the aggrieved party. Unfortunately, Europe’s failure to uphold its core principles is hardly new. In the aftermath of the 2013 military coup in Egypt that overturned a democratically elected government, EU officials rushed to meet the junta leader in Cairo, General Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. Their response was indicative of a broader problem that has haunted Europe since the mid-2000s: the rise of populism, isolationism and xenophobia. Faced with greater challenges than ever, Europe’s populists have turned to Turkey-bashing instead of addressing real issues affecting the lives of their citizens. Nonetheless, Turkey has
maintained a constructive and professional attitude, repeatedly working with Europe to overcome mutual challenges. When thousands of illegal immigrants from Syria and elsewhere flocked to Europe via the Greek islands, Turkish officials worked with their European counterparts to create a legal-resettlement mechanism that proved to be a historic success. Within weeks, the number of arrivals in Europe dropped from several thousand to a handful per day. We continue to intercept boats, crack down on human traffickers and address the needs of refugees—even though the EU members comes up with excuses for their failure to deliver on promises, including financial support on refugee costs and visa liberalization for Turks wanting to go to Europe. Turkey also helps keep Europe safe. It has not only has been a frontline country in the fight against terrorist groups, but also cooperated with European governments to stop the flow of foreign terrorist fighters from the continent into the conflict zone. More than 50,000 terror suspects, among them many Europeans, are banned from entering Turkey. Meanwhile, the Turkish authorities have notified their European counterparts about dangerous individuals—some of whom were involved in barbaric attacks against innocent people in Paris and Brussels. Most recently, Turkey, in cooperation with the Free Syrian Army, put boots on the ground to liberate Jarabulus, a key stronghold of “Islamic State” in Northern Syria. In recent days, we made good progress to accomplish our mission: secure the border, neutralize threats against Turkish citizens and preserve Syria’s territorial integrity.
T
ontine has been described as “an interesting mixture of group annuity, group life insurance and lottery”. Tontine is described as “an annuity scheme wherein participants share certain benefits and on the death of any participant his or her benefits are redistributed among the remaining participants.” It is also defined as a “system for raising capital in which individuals pay into a common pool of money and then receive a dividend based on their share and the performance of investments made with the pooled money.” The principal invested in the tontine is never paid back to the investor; rather the investor receives dividends until his or her death. If a shareholder dies, his or her shares are divided up among the surviving investors.” It is a scheme where you will receive increasing payments until the day you die. It is a form of retirement and insurance scheme in one. It was originally implemented as a fund-raising scheme by states. It was originated in 1652 by a Neopolitan (Italian) banker Lorenzo
de Tonti when he proposed it to Cardinal Mazarin of France. In its original scheme, “Tonti proposed a form of a life contingent annuity with survivorship benefits, whereby subscribers, who were grouped into different age classes, would make a onetime payment of 300 livres to the government. Each year, the government would make a payment to each group equalling 5 percent of the total capital contribution by that group. These payments would be distributed among the surviving group members based upon each agent’s
Wednesday, September 7, 2016 A11
share to total group contributions. The government’s debt obligation would cease with the death of the last member of each group.” Tontine insurance was introduced in 1868 by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States as a scheme to make insurance attractive. The premiums were allocated two ways, first for the ordinary insurance policy and, second, for an investment fund. This investment fund (or retirement fund or old-age savings plan) and its earnings will be divided proportionately among the entire active and surviving policyholders. This was also characterized as deferred dividend policies. By 1905, about two-thirds of all lifeinsurance policies in force in the US were tontines or deferred dividend plans. About 9 million tontine policies in all. The attraction was that as more and more people died, the retirement pay, which you will receive until you die, increases. In 1892 Equitable Life ran an advertisement which read: “The adaptation of the tontine principle to life insurance...has done more to place the society in its present position than all other causes.” Tontine became a hit product. Equitable Life promoted their tontine policies as “safer and more profitable than a
United States gold bond.” Eventually, after the Armstrong Investigations in New York, tontine was made illegal in 1906 in several states in the US. Today, it is no longer in use. Its concept was objectionable on the ground that a policyholder benefits from the death of other policyholders. With the arrival of corporate pension, social security and annuities, tontine insurance suffered a natural death. Tontine also became a battleground between rivals Equitable Life and Mutual Life in the US. Mutual Life strongly disagreed with the concept of tontine. Nonetheless, Ransom and Sutch wrote in the Journal of Economic History in 1987: “Considered as a financial innovation, [the tontine] was very successful. Considered as insurance, it was actuarially sound. Considered as a gamble, it was a fair bet in as much as there was no percentage for the house beyond a charge to cover administrative costs. Considered as a lifecycle asset, it proved to be an excellent investment, earning a rate of return substantially in excess of that generally available on other assets.” Dennis B. Funa is currently the deputy insurance commissioner for Legal Services of the Insurance Commission. E-mail: dennisfuna@yahoo.com.
Slumping agri causing poverty despite robust growth Michael Makabenta Alunan
on the contrary
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he Philippines now brags to be the fastest-growing economy, even beating China in the second quarter of 2016, but it seems that, even with robust growth rates, there were times in the past when poverty even worsened, mainly due to how the country mishandles its agriculture, despite surging budgets poured into the sector. The Philippines posted growth of 7 percent in the second quarter of 2016, besting China’s growth of 6.7 percent, Vietnam’s 5.6 percent, Indonesia’s 5.2 percent, Malaysia’s 4.0 percent and Thailand’s 3.5 percent. However, this spurt in growth, attributed mainly to massive election spending, is not sustainable by itself, although it has distributed income to the hoi polloi or masses, thus increasing their purchasing power. Growth reduces poverty, except in the Philippines. Our stellar economic performance has been bragged about by past administrations, but did not really translate into benefits for the poor. An Asian Development Bank (ADB) study done years back on 51 developing countries noted that for every 1percent increase in average income, poverty is reduced supposedly by 1.5 percent and even as much as 2 percent among Asian countries. The only exception, lamentably, is the Philippines, which many experts blame mainly on how our agriculture sector performs dismally, considering the fact almost two-thirds of people living below the poverty line are based in the agriculture and fishery sectors. This means if agriculture falters, poverty worsens and fuels the massive rural-to-urban migration of sons and daughters of rural folks escaping the clutches of rural misery only to end up shackled in urban poverty and contributing to attendant social and urban-poor problems, like housing backlog,
joblessness, prostitution, criminality, juvenile delinquency, etc. Statistics consolidated by Prof. Rolando Dy., PhD, and Leonardo Gonzales, PhD, noted that rural poverty in the Philippines only dropped by 14.7 percent over 14 years, from 46.9 percent in 2000, to about 40 percent by 2014, making us miss our Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty and still having the highest ruralpoverty incidence among Asean countries. One can read between the lines and make suspicious deductions, considering that it was during this period that budgets for agriculture were increased steadily and massively. In stark contrast, Thailand, which gave serious attention to agriculture, reduced rural poverty by 73.2 percent in only 12 years, from 51.5 percent in 2001 to 13.9 percent in 2013. Rural poverty in other Asean countries also made improvements, with Indonesia’s rural poverty now down to 13.8 percent in 2014, Vietnam down to 17.4 percent in 2010 and Malaysia to 8.4 percent as early as 2009. “Trickle-down” or “Trick and kill” down? Mainstream economics tell us to be patient, as it takes time for benefits of growth to “trickle down” to the poor. We can give it the benefit of the doubt, but there must be a trick hidden somewhere as people are made to take the proverbial bait—hook, line and sinker —without knowing they are headed for a fishkill, because poverty, indeed, kills slowly.
There were instances when GDP grew, but poverty did not improve and even increased. From 2004 to 2009, for instance, GDP grew by 4.9 percent, but poverty even increased to 26.5 percent in 2009. With agriculture declining by 2.1 percent from April to June this year, which is the fifth consecutive quarter of declines, let’s see how these will be manifested. Whether it is due to corruption or negligence because of incompetence, the consequences of slumping agriculture have far-reaching catastrophic repercussions that explain why poverty has even worsened in some years. Our robust growth may now be the envy of Asia, but if growth is not inclusive, people will realize we are not worth the envy. When agricultural productivity is down due to poor investments in agriculture, rural poverty and joblessness worsen. This also means fewer raw materials for industry and exports, and higher prices and fewer choices for consumers. Poverty also means slow massive death. If you total all mortality from various respiratory diseases, for instance, (i.e., Tuberculosis, bronchitis, lung cancer, pneumonia, etc.), Department of Health (DOH) records show that about 85,000 Filipinos die yearly from these diseases alone, which are all curable and preventable, but they die slowly, nonetheless, mainly because of poverty. Farmers, balanced out? Three decades back, former Agriculture Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, now finance secretary, led the campaign against the “policy biases against agriculture,” but lamentably the issues remain the same. In trying to balance all opposing interest groups, to please everybody, government ends up, unintentionally, balancing out the farmer from the opportunity equation. Our policy-makers, led by some economists, trapped in their own intelligent sophistication, or maybe sophistry, are made to believe that making the tightrope balancing act of pleasing all opposing groups is doing the right thing.
Spain condemns terrorist attack in Davao MAIL
Please e-mail your letters to the editor to oped@businessmirror.com.ph. Letters chosen for publication in this section are edited for brevity and clarity.
Spain strongly condemns the terrorist attack perpetrated at the night market in the city of Davao on Friday, which resulted in the death of at least 14 people and caused injuries to several dozens more. The government of Spain conveys its deepest condolences
to the families and relatives of the victims, to the authorities and the Filipino people, and its desire of a prompt and full recovery of those wounded. The government hopes that the coward perpetrators of this crime be brought to justice as soon as possible and be held
Caught by the mediocrity and blunder of keeping the “balance,” their good intentions may actually do more harm. One perceived conflict is the balance between consumers and producers, and there is the belief free trade alone will do the trick. I’m not totally against freer imports as a balancing tool to protect consumers, who want cheaper prices and more choices, but when you do not empower farmers through solid programs to increase their productivity on a sustained and organized manner, then trade will only benefit traders, and even convert our former producers into consumers of imports. Farm out support where they count. But the interests of consumers and farmers are not really conflicting, but symbiotically intertwined. When you become biased for farmers, which is truly balancing weights for handicaps, you enable farmers to be organized, funded with credits, equipped with technologies, postharvest and logistical support that will allow them to produce volume, which translates to cheaper prices, more variety for consumers and reduced imports. In the real world, free-market’s “invisible hand” does not correct itself and achieve the optimum “equilibrium” to the benefit of all, solely in response to pricing policy and incentives. What are not captured by the economics of pricing and interest rates are the dynamics of personal relations, culture, social and political factors, and a lot more of other factors that determine investment decisions that will increase production and create physical wealth that generate jobs, value-added earnings and other multiplier effects. We need to farm out more support to farmers, where they will count most, and not just dole outs. So far, we need so much catching up, as we have the lowest growth in total factor productivity in agriculture in Asia from 1961 to 2012, which explains mainly why poverty prevails amid robust growth. E-mail: mikealunan@yahoo.com
responsible for their actions. The government of Spain reiterates its complete solidarity with the Philippines in its effort to combat terrorism and guarantee security throughout its national territory. Embassy of Spain Makati City
2nd Front Page BusinessMirror
A12
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
www.businessmirror.com.ph
Alvarez assures massive info drive, debates on constitutional reforms
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By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz
@joveemarie
he leader of the House of Representatives on Tuesday assured the people’s active participation in the national debate on constitutional reforms.
In a news statement released on Tuesday, House Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez said free and open public debate on the issue of constitutional reforms, especially on federalism, must be encouraged between now and next year before Congress focuses its attention on the growing consensus of adopting a federal system. “We have the responsibility of providing our people all the necessary avenues and information, [and the] pros and cons on the proposed reforms promoting good governance,” he said. “The future of our people and nation is at stake.” Alvarez added that a citizenry actively participating in decisionmaking and governance should
always be prepared to sacrifice and share the burdens of national reformation. “Let us never forget that the government exists for the people,” he said. Alvarez added that the issue of what reforms should be introduced is more crucial than the question of how such constitutional change could be achieved. Earlier, PDP-Laban Rep. Alfredo B. Benitez of Negros Occidental, author of a resolution calling Congress to constitute itself into a constituent assembly (Con-ass), said the government can assign all lawmakers to conduct publicinformation campaign for federalism in their legislative districts. Also, former Senate President Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. said the
government should assure the public that all proposed changes in the Constitution will be debated nationwide. Pimentel, a delegate in the 1971 constitutional convention (Concon), said a massive information campaign explaining the merits of the proposed Charter change is very important. “Members of Congress and t hei r com m it tees shou ld go around the country and conduct public hearings and listen to what the people are saying. They should not revise the Constitution according to their preconceived ideas,” Pimentel added. Alvarez, likewise, assured the public that the discussion on the issue of Charter change will not distract Congress from the timely passage of the 2017 budget. The House of Representatives is expected to shift its focus to constitutional reforms after the proposed General Appropriations Act is submitted to the President for his signature. Currently, there are at least 24 bills and resolutions referred to the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, seeking constitutional reforms mostly by way of a Con-con or a Con-ass.
New partnership On Tuesday Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (Citem) Executive Director Rosvi C. Gaetos (seated, left) and Locale magazine publisher Dominga Rufina Cabangon Chua (seated, right) signed a memorandum of agreement recognizing Locale, the BusinessMirror and Philippines Graphic as official media partners of the Manila Fame October 2016 edition to be held from October 20 to 22 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. At the trade show, Locale magazine will be launched and will present its first Locale Editor’s Choice award during the Katha Awards ceremonies. Also in photo are (standing, from left) Citem Marketing Communications Manager Arturo Cruz Dimaano, Media Communications Head Marilou F. Cantancio, Project Management Team Manager Leah Pulido-Ocampo, and Value Creation and Promotions Deputy Executive Director Maria Rita O. Matute, with Locale Advertising Manager Gina P. Versoza and Editor in Chief Carla M. Baricaua.
House panel OKs bill seeking to postpone barangay, SK polls
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he House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms on Tuesday approved the bill postponing the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections from October 31, 2016, to October 23, 2017. Party-list Rep. Sherwin Tugna of Citizens Battle Against Corruption (Cibac) said incumbent barangay chairmen and kagawad will serve in a holdover capacity under House Bill 3384. Tugna said the bill has been endorsed for plenary deliberations and second-reading approval on Wednesday. He said the bill will be approved on third reading next week. The bill, principally authored by Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez, said “the holdover provision under Republic Act [RA] 9164, as amended by RA 9340, shall remain applicable and in full force and effect under this Act.”
Meanwhile, Nacionalista Party Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte of Camarines Sur urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to immediately prepare another round of voter registrations. “With the likelihood of the House of Representatives and Senate passing in the weeks ahead, a new law postponing the October 31 barangay and SK elections to next year, the Comelec should prepare for yet another round of voter registration, especially for the benefit of voting-age young Filipinos, and conduct this vital preelection exercise right after President Duterte signs such new legislation into law,” Villafuerte said. The lawmaker, citing a report, said some 54 million had registered for the May polls and over 3 million more registered for the barangay and SK elections. Earlier, Alvarez said the gov-
ernment could save at least P24 billion in postponing the barangay and SK elections scheduled on October 31. He said the government may use the P24 billion to hike the pay of purok leaders, barangay health workers, barangay tanod and daycare workers. The Speaker said the estimated annual budget for the SK is around P8.5 billion, while that for barangay kagawad is around P15.8 billion. Also, Alvarez said the postponement of village polls will give Congress enough time to enact laws abolishing the SK and the position of barangay kagawad. He added postponing the elections would allow the Executive department to fill up vacant government positions and enable the government to continue work n ongoing infrastructure projects, which are not allowed during the election period.
Neda: Keep cost of utilities stable Continued from a1
percent. “The relatively low and manageable inflation environment during the first eight months of 2016 is expected to continue for the rest of the year, as risks around the inflation projections are considered to be low,” Pernia said. In August cheaper food items caused the Food Alone Index nationwide to ease to 2.5 percent, from the 2.8 percent posted in July 2016. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the slowdown was mainly due to the Food Products Not Elsewhere Classified Index, which contracted 2.5 percent in August. Data also showed slower annual
growths in the indices of corn at 2.5 percent; meat, 1.9 percent; and vegetables, 6.3 percent. “The rest of the food groups had higher annual increases, with the index for other cereals, flour, cereal preparation, bread, pasta and other bakery products retaining its last month’s rate of 1.5 percent,” the PSA said. Meanwhile, inflation in the National Capital Region (NCR) increased 1.2 percent in August 2016. The PSA data showed that inflation in NCR was at 1 percent in July 2016 and 0.2 percent in August 2015. The indices for clothing and footwear and furnishing,
household equipment and routine maintenance of the house also exhibited faster annual rates during the month. “This was primarily attributed to higher annual increment posted in the heavily weighted food and nonalcoholic beverages index,” PSA said. Following the same trend at the national level, inflation in areas outside NCR (AONCR) eased to 2 percent in August. Inflation in the AONCR was at 2.1 percent last month and 0.8 percent in August 2015 due to cheaper food and nonalcoholic beverages and education.