Businessmirror september 08, 2017

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Friday, September 8, 2017 Vol. 12 No. 330

PHL to Asean: Exhaust efforts to hasten RCEP

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By Catherine N. Pillas

@c_pillas29

he Philippines on Thursday pressed its fellow Asean members to consider flexibilities that would allow them to achieve substantial progress in negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

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TOBACCO FARMERS, BUYERS FAIL TO REACH AGREEMENT ON NEW 2-YR FLOOR PRICES

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In a speech delivered during the Asean Economic Ministers (AEM) Meeting in Manila, Trade Secretary and AEM Chairman Ramon Continued on A2

Continued on A12

Lopez: “Let us not miss the opportunity of announcing a substantial conclusion of RCEP negotiations especially in November.”

Terror fight, rebuilding Marawi to cost $1.1B

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Continued on A12

business news source of the year

he National Tobacco Administration (NTA) said talks on the probable hike in the floor prices of tobacco for 2018 and 2019 between the farmers and private sector ended in a deadlock due to their failure to find a “middle ground”.

NTA Administrator Robert L. Seares told the BusinessMirror that tobacco farmers wanted a P16.77-per-kilogram (kg) hike across all grades of all varieties, but the private sector insisted for a status quo on the current floor prices.

“The private sector wanted a status quo, given the current situation of the industry being challenged by [Executive Order] 26 and the increase in the price of cigarettes due to the excise tax,” Seares said in an interview on Thursday.

“Meanwhile, the farmers want the increase from the floor price

by P16.77 all throughout from AA to the reject, but they could not convince the [industry] players. Their proposal was based on their current cost of production,” Seares added.

He said some members of the private sector argued that they

Labor group wants 4-day workweek to be optional

h e A s s o c i at e d L a b o r Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (A LU-TUCP) has adv ised the gover nment to merely issue department-level orders in implementing an optional four-day workweek scheme.

“Let’s keep it simple and adaptable to circumstances, unlike a legislation that is politically messy and hard to amend,” said Art Barrit, ALU-TUCP education head and spokesman.

He noted that a department order (DO) making the four-day workweek voluntary or optional and subject to consultations with workers will suffice.

He said ALU-TUCP is urging the government to keep the issue simple, the same way it issued the Department of Labor and Employment DO 178 banning the compulsory wearing of high heels by female workers.

“A DO reached through consultations with employers and workers on resorting to an optional

2016 ejap journalism awards

NOTHING BUT Paolo Duterte (left), the eldest son of President Duterte, and the President’s son-in-law Manases Carpio, a lawyer, take their oaths in the continuing Senate probe on the more than half a ton of the illegal drug methamphetamine hydrochloride, locally known as shabu, worth $128 million (P6.4 billion) from China, which passed through the Bureau of Customs. AP/Bullit Marquez

Meralco customers should expect bump in bills

By Lenie Lectura

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@llectura

lectricity rates are on the rise this month after overall generation charge for the August supply month went up mainly on account of higher spot-

PESO exchange rates n US 51.1360

market prices and the continued depreciation of the peso.

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) on Thursday said power rates increased by P0.8642 per kilowatt-hour for a typical residential household, thereby bringing the overall rate from last month’s

P8.3849 per kWh to P9.2491 per kWh this month. This will be equivalent to an additional P173 in the total bill of a household consuming 200 kWh. The said rates, Meralco said, returned to pre-refund levels after completion of the refund Continued on A2

ebuilding the besieged Philippine city of Marawi could cost about P56 billion ($1.1 billion), according to Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana.

Months of fighting between Philippine troops and Islamic State-led militants have left the once vibrant city on the southern island of Mindanao a virtual ghost town, displacing more than 230,000 people.

“There’s a need to rebuild the infrastructure, provide social assistance to those traumatized by the war, restock Armed Forces ammunition and replenish its funding,” Lorenzana said in a September 5 interview, adding that he expects the conflict to be over within three weeks.

At le a st 7 70 pe ople h ave been killed since fighting began on May 23, when hundreds of militants laid siege to the city, prompting President Duterte to declare martial law. As the conflict dragged on, the cost has mounted and the most recent estimate is equal to more than a third of the budget for defense this year.

Lorenzana said current estimates indicated that P50 billion

LORENZANA: “There’s a need to rebuild the infrastructure, provide social assistance to those traumatized by the war, restock Armed Forces ammunition and replenish its funding.”

would be needed for the rehabilitation of Marawi City. Up to P3 billion had already been spent by the military since fighting began, and another P3 billion for social welfare and other services, he said.

The government may need to ask lawmakers for an additional P10-billion budget this year to start reconstruction. On top of that, an estimated P7.5 billion is needed to hire 20,000 soldiers and 10,000 police, he added.

He said that for every 10,000 soldiers, the government would need at least P2.5 billion a year to train and equip, compared with the P4billion projection of military chief Eduardo M. Año.

T he government this week announced it plans to sell P30 billion of bonds in the fourth quarter to help fund Marawi’s reconstruction. Bloomberg News

n japan 0.4682 n UK 66.7069 n HK 6.5346 n CHINA 7.8345 n singapore 37.8785 n australia 40.9037 n EU 60.9490 n SAUDI arabia 13.6363

Source: BSP (7 September 2017 )

A2 Friday, September 8, 2017

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PHL to Asean: Exhaust efforts to hasten RCEP Meralco customers should expect bump in bills Continued from A1

M. Lopez underscored the need for Asean economic ministers to agree on contentious issues.

“We need to take a collective stance and arrive at a clear consensus on the vital elements for this agreement.

“Let us not miss the opportunity of announcing a substantial conclusion of RCEP negotiations, especially in November,” Lopez said in his speech during the opening ceremony of the AEM Meeting on Thursday.

Trade Undersecretary Ceferino S. Rodolfo, who also leads the country’s Trade Negotiating Committee, said in a previous interview that these sticking points relate to “value-adding mechanisms”.

These value-adding mecha-

nisms—the ratchet mechanisms and the automatic most-favored nation (MFN) treatmen—would rest r ict a cou nt r y ’s f le x ibi lity in policy-making, according to Rodolfo.

The ratchet mechanism practically locks in future trade reforms.

For instance, if the Philippines commits to a llow 50 -percent foreign-equity participation, the government can no longer scale this back.

With the automatic MFN treatment, RCEP members should ensure that concessions in its other free-trade agreements would at least be on a par with those indicated in the Asean FTA. Rodolfo said these are “highlevel commitments” and that the Philippines is not the only Asean

member grappling with these mechanisms. These two schemes were introduced by Asean partners that are part of the TransPacific Partnership (TPP), which is now in disarray following the exit of the United States.

“Given that we are only three months away from the Asean Leaders’ Summit in November, we are presented with a chance to continue the momentum during the Fifth RCEP ministerial meeting,” Lopez said.

Another sticking point, he added, is the coverage of the goods to be liberalized. He hinted that one member can’t commit to the 90-percent liberalization level.

Given these challenges, Lopez told Asean economic ministers to look at other “flexibility options”

to forge ahead with negotiations on the RCEP. “I enjoin all parties to exert utmost efforts to constructively resolve outstanding issues and seek options that provide flexibilities to move the negotiations forward,” he said.

In an interview in May, Lopez said he is open to giving an “optout” mechanism to Asean membereconomies who are not capable of meeting commitments if they are deemed too difficult.

Under the opt-out mechanism of the Asean Minus X formula, any member, while approving an initiative, can back out of a provision or economic commitment it feels ill-prepared for, but may want to join later on when it is ready.

China’s widening trade surplus remains a red flag for Trump

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onald J. Trump is threatening to stop trade with any country doing business with North Korea. Tit-for-tat actions are heating up, with the United States probing China’s intellectual-property practices and China reviewing antidumping measures on some American products.

Meantime, the main irritant to Trump—China’s massive trade surplus— keeps on growing.

Data last Friday is set to show that the world’s largest exporter’s surplus grew to $48.5 billion in August, from $46.7 billion a month earlier, a Bloomberg economist survey shows.

The gap with the US has already

swollen to $143.5 billion in the first seven months of this year, from $135 billion a year earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations based on Customs Administration data.

American data paint a similar picture. In July the US’s goods-trade deficit with China widened by 3 percent to $33.6 billion, the highest since August, Commerce Department data showed on Wednesday. That tally includes trade from Hong Kong while China’s total excludes the special administrative region, which publishes its own economic data separately.

With White House rhetoric failing to move the trade-balance needle,

the expanding surplus further dims the prospects for Trump’s push to narrow that gap. It also likely adds to his frustrations as he seeks to increase pressure on China to help rein in North Korea.

“The US-China bilateral trade imbalance is mainly the result of China being the last assembly stop of the global supply chain,” Gene Ma, chief China economist at the Institute of International Finance in Washington, wrote in a recent research report.

Despite rising trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, China’s export growth is projected to edge down to 6 percent in August, from 7.2

percent the prior month. Imports probably expanded 10 percent, compared with an 11-percent growth rate in July.

One early indicator signals the country’s exports remains robust. The Caixin China Manufacturing Purchasing Management Index for new export orders climbed to a seven-year high last month.

China has pledged to import more from the US, and there’s been some progress: The Asian nation is buying American beef again after a 14-year ban, approving more biotech products and increasing US natural-gas imports. But making any real dent in the US deficit will take a major overhaul. Bloomberg News

Continued from A1

of over-recovery on pass-through charges from January 2014 to December 2016, totaling around P6.9 billion.

Meralco’s petition for refund with prayer for provisional authority was granted by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on May 11, for implementation from June to August 2017. The refund was not shown as a separate line item in the bill, but was reflected as reductions in the different pass-through charges of the bill, which include generation, transmission, and system loss charges and lifeline and senior citizen subsidies.

For residential customers, the refund translated to a monthly reduction of around P0.88 per kWh, including taxes.

A typical residential household consuming 200 kWh enjoyed a total bill reduction of almost P530 over the three-month period.

Overall generation charge, which is the largest component of an electricity bill, increased this month by P0.5615 per kWh to P4.5378 per kWh, from P3.9763 per kWh in August. The August generation charge incorporated a reduction of P0.5355 per kWh, representing the refund approved by the ERC. Purchases from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) increased by P1.7263 per kWh,

as prices in the spot market increased due to higher power demand in the Luzon grid. The cost of power from power supply agreements (PSAs) also registered a slight increase of P0.0263 per kWh, mainly due to the peso depreciation and lower plant dispatch. The shares of WESM and PSAs this month stood at 12 percent and 42 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, despite the weakening of the peso, the cost of power sourced from the independent power producers (IPPs) decreased by P0.1117 per kWh due to improved dispatch of First Gas-Santa Rita after undergoing scheduled maintenance in the preceding month. The share of IPPs t his mont h stood at 46 percent.

Transmission charge of residential customers decreased by P0.0510 per kWh, and taxes and other charges have also gone up by P0.3537 per kWh. Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges, meanwhile, have remained unchanged for 26 months after registering reduction in July 2015. Meralco reiterated that it does not earn from the pass-through charges, such as the generation and transmission charges. Payment for the generation charge goes to the power suppliers, while payment for the transmission charge goes to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

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House to tackle impeachment complaints vs CJ Sereno and Comelec’s Bautista next week

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

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he House Committee on Justice is expected to start next week the hearings of all impeachment complaints filed against Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno and Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres D. Bautista.

This, after the House Committee on Rules referred the complaints against Sereno and Bautista to the justice committee on Thursday.

House Committee on Justice Chairman Reynaldo Umali of Oriental Mindoro said the first hearing on the impeachment complaints is set next Wednesday, September 13.

He said the committee will first tackle the two impeachment complaints against Sereno, which was filed by PDU30 Constitutional Reform to Federalism President lawyer Lorenzo Gadon and the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), together with the Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution. The impeachment complaint against Bautista was filed by Rep. Jacinto Paras of Negros Oriental and lawyer Ferdinand Topacio.

A complaint filed by any citizen should get the endorsement of a congressman before it will be transmitted to the House Committee on Justice.

Based on the rules, the House Committee on Justice has to decide first if the impeachment complaint against Sereno and Bautista is sufficient in form and substance before endorsing it to the plenary.

If the committee finds by a vote of the majority of all its members that a probable cause exists on the basis of the evidence adduced before the committee, it shall submit with its report a resolution setting forth the Articles of Impeachment. Otherwise, the complaint shall be dismissed.

Also, under the rule, a vote of at least one-third of all the members of the House is necessary for the approval of the resolution setting forth the Articles of Impeachment.

If the resolution is approved by the required vote, it shall then be endorsed to the Senate.

On the other hand, should the resolution fail to secure the approval by the required vote, it shall result in the dismissal of the complaint for impeachment.

Meanwhile, in their joint complaint endorsed by 16 lawmakers, the VACC and Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution accused the Chief Justice of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust.

The complaint said Sereno culpably violated the Constitution for issuing an administrative order creating the new Judiciary Decentralized

Office and reopening the Regional Administration Office in Western Visayas in the absence of an authority from the court en banc. “[Sereno also] violate[d] the constitutional provision that appointive government officials shall not hold another public post unless provided for by law, in appointing Atty.

Solomon Lumba as her staff head.

Lumba was a faculty member of the University of the Philippines College of Law when he was appointed as Chief Justice staff head,” it said. “[The Chief Justice also] appoint[ed] Atty. Brenda Jay Mendoza as Philippine Mediation Center Office chief by mere memorandum, which was not referred to the court en banc for its consideration,” it added.

The complaint also said Sereno granted her staff travel allowances for foreign travel charged to the SC funds without court en banc approval.

Sereno also allegedly betrayed public trust through “inexcusable negligence” for sitting on the applications for the vacant posts in the SC, the complaint added.

For his part, Gadon has also filed a separate impeachment complaint against the Chief Justice. He said Sereno committed a culpable violation of the Constitution when she failed to truthfully disclose her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth, or SALN. On the other hand, Paras and Topacio accused Bautista of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution amid allegations of P1-billion ill-gotten wealth by his wife Patricia Paz Bautista.

“Bautista culpably violated the Constitution and/or betrayed the public trust when he failed to truthfully, accurately, or completely disclose to the public his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth as required under Section 17, Article XI of the 1987 Constitution Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards Act,” the complaint said.

The complainants also said Bautista also neglected his duties and responsibilities as head of the agency, particularly collecting and further processing of personal data, which led to unnecessary exposure of personal and sensitive information of millions of Filipinos, and obstructed justice when he cleared Smartmatic and Comelec IT specialists of any wrongdoing for the so called script tweak during the consolidation/canvassing of results in the May 2016 elections, among others.

According to the complainants, Bautista betrayed public trust for failing to adopt safeguards under the Data Privacy Act, or Republic Act 10173, that could have prevented the data breach or hacking of the Comelec web site.

Duterte’s alliance with Left ‘on the rocks’ after Mariano, Taguiwalo CA rejection

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By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

ollowing the rejection of Rafael V. Mariano as agrarian-reform secretary, the government’s alliance with the Left is now “on the rocks”, Malacañang admitted on Thursday.

At a news briefing, Presidential Spokesman Ernesto C. Abella said the administration’s alliance with the Left is somewhat difficult to explain and comprehend at this point, as the two camps continue to send mixed signals to each other.

“It’s complicated,” Abella said, with slight amusement. “The President continues to be open, and, I believe, he will continue to be open [to the Left]. However, there must be an agreement on both sides,” Abella added.

Mariano’s appointment as head of the Department of Agrarian Reform was rejected on Wednesday

by the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA). The CA cited, among others, Mariano’s alleged bias toward farmers that disadvantage landlords and purported links to the New People’s Army as reasons for his rejection.

Mariano has denied the allegations of the CA, and said he is only carrying out his mandate to serve farmer-beneficiaries of the agrarianreform law. The rejection of Mariano prompted the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives to reassess its alliance with the so-called supermajority of the Duterte administration. According to the Makabayan

Two Indonesian kidnap victims freed as Army slays five ASG bandits in Sulu

By Rene Acosta

@reneacostaBM

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he military recovered on Thursday two Indonesians held by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in Sulu since last year after snatching them in Sabah.

The recovery of the kidnap victims came as elements of the Army’s 41st Infantry Battalion killed five ASG members during a firefight also in the province.

Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the military’s Joint Task Force (JTF) Sulu, said Saparuddin Koni and Sawal Maryam were recovered at Barangay Bunot in Indanan, Sulu.

Sobejana said the two Indonesians were aboard a Toyota Tamaraw FX when soldiers intercepted their vehicle at around 6 a.m. on Thursday.

“The two kidnap victims were brought to KHTB [Kota Heneral Teodolfo Bautista] Station Hospital for a medical examination. Subsequently, a custodial debriefing will be conducted at headquarters JTF Sulu, Barangay Busbus, Jolo in Sulu,” Sobejana said.

The Joint Task Force Sulu put up checkpoints in the province as part of its intensified and continuing operations against the ASG and members of other lawless groups.

Thirty minutes before the recovery of the kidnap victims, elements of the Army’s 41st Infantry Battalion engaged at least 20 bandits led by ASG subcommander Idang Susukan, killing five terrorists.

Sobejana said the bodies of the slain bandits were recovered by troops, along with three high-powered firearms.

The firefight, which occurred at around 6:30 a.m. at Barangay Upper Binuang, Talipao, Sulu, also resulted in the wounding of five soldiers.

Sobejana said they were establishing connections between the firefight and the recovery of the two Indonesian kidnap victims.

DENR to lead coastal-cleanup, ozone-preservation events

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

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nvironment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu has called on Filipinos to take part in the forthcoming International Coastal Cleanup Day and the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer slated this month.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will lead the twin celebration, aiming to raise public awareness on the protection of the seas and the ozone layer. Both events will be held on September 16.

In a news statement issued on Thursday, Cimatu said, “These two global environmental events will not only educate Filipinos about the current situation of the environment but also heighten the consciousness of the general public on the dangers that may come if we do not properly take care of our water resources and the ozone layer.”

With the theme “Sama-sama para sa Karagatan”, this year’s International Coastal Cleanup Day is organized by the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau, in partnership with the International Coastal Cleanup Philippines, under

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Friday, September 8, 2017 A3

the Washington-based environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy and the Philippine Coast Guard.

The institutional partners include the departments of the Interior and Local Government, Education, Transportation, Public Works and Highways and Tourism.

Now on its 31st year, the event aims to engage people to remove trash from beaches and waterways around the world, identify the sources of the debris and change the behavioral patterns that contribute to pollution.

In the National Capital Region, simultaneous cleanup activities will be held in Manila Bay near the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City, Centennial Park and Fish Port in Navotas, Pinagsabugan creek in Malabon, Pasig River and at the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area.

The DENR advises participants in clean-up activities to bring their own industrial or garden gloves, reusable containers and utensils, and wear comfortable clothes. Children aged 16 years old and below are discouraged to join the activity.

The observance of the International Day for

the Preservation of the Ozone Layer coincides with the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion.

This year’s theme is “Caring for the life under the sun” and the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau has lined up some activities, including seminars and workshops on the inventory of greenhouse gases (GHG) in relation to the country’s commitment to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Montreal Protocol and the Kigali Agreement.

A global climate deal reached in Rwanda last year, the Kigali Agreement is an amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which aims to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, a family of potent GHG by the late-2040s.

On September 14 the United Nations Environment Programme will launch the web site for its newest campaign www.ozoneheroes.org, as well as #OzoneHeroes, which will be used in social media to raise awareness on the accomplishments of the Montreal Protocol.

bloc, it seems that the government is insincere in its relation with the left after it rejected the appointments of Mariano and former Social Welfare Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo.

Mariano and Taguiwalo are two of the three Cabinet secretaries nominated by the National Democratic Front and appointed by President Duterte as part of goodwill measures to revive the peace talks with the communist rebels.

The remaining leftist leaders in the Duterte administration are Liza L. Maza, lead convener of the National Anti-Poverty Commission; Terry L. Ridon, chairman of the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor; and Joel B. Maglunsod, undersecretary of the Department of Labor and Employment.

In spite of the waning relation with the left, Abella said the government will appreciate if the remaining Leftist leaders in the government stay.

“It’s going to be their call if they resign or not,” Abella said. “But you know…it’s quite regrettable that people of opposing beliefs are not there because [they] would really add to the richness of the dialogue,” Abella added.

It’s complicated.

The President continues to be open, and, I believe, he will continue to be open [to the left]. However, there must be an agreement on both sides.”

—Abella According to Abella, there was no word from the President if he will reappoint Taguiwalo and Mariano to other government posts. However, the President’s spokesman said Duterte will continue to listen to opinions, whether affirmative or dissenting, from the Left.

Palace orders probe into de Guzman’s death

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alacañang on Thursday said it is “profoundly dismayed” over the manner by which 14-yearold Reynaldo de Guzman was killed.

“It is with profound dismay that we regard the disturbing death of 14-yearold Reynaldo de Guzman,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto C. Abella said during a Palace briefing.

He added Malacañang is determined to thoroughly investigate the youth’s killing and assured that there will be no whitewash.

“The National Bureau of Investigation has already been ordered to conduct a thorough investigation and case build-up over the killing of the young boy Reynaldo,” he said.

“We call on authorities to bring the perpetrators of this suspicious crime to justice,” Abella added.

De Guzman’s body was found in Gapan, Nueva Ecija on Tuesday.

His body bore 30 stab wounds, with the head wrapped in packaging tape.

De Guzman was last seen with 19-yearold Carl Angelo Arnaiz, who was killed in Caloocan City in an alleged encounter with city police.

The two teenagers went missing on the night of August 17 after leaving their homes in Cainta, Rizal, for midnight snacks.

Abella said Malacañang would not speculate on who was involved in the killing of de Guzman. PNA

Economy

A4 Friday, September 8, 2017 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

Malaysia remains upbeat on ‘robust’ PHL economy

By Recto Mercene

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@rectomercene

alaysia made a big splash on Wednesday by launching the Malaysian Chamber of Commerce Inc., at the Mariott Hotel. Minister for International Trade and Industry Dato Sri Mustapa Mohamed said that, despite the lingering presence of terrorists in southern Philippines, Kuala Lumpur will aggressively pursue adding more to their businesses in the country “No. 1, we say it [terrorist presence in some portions of Mindanao] is a temporary aber-

ration, [and] there are ups and downs in any country. It’s unfortunate what’s happening now, but we believe in the medium, longer term, this region will become very stable, very peaceful,” he said at the sideline of the event.

“No. 2, this [Philippine] economy is rapidly going 7 percent to 7.5 percent, one of the fastest-growing economies in Asean and…there’s a lot of infrastructure spending in this country [which is] 2 percent of GDP,” Mustapa said.

“This gives a lot of promise to countries involved in infrastructure to develop and the Philippine population is large. You have a large

young population, growing middle class, and which will be important formulation and impact on companies,” he added.

“There are at least 790,000 Filipinos living and working in Malaysia, while there are an estimated 673,000 Malaysians in the Philippines,” Mustapa said. He added trade between the two countries in 2015 reached $4.5 billion (P218.8 billion), or 3.6 percent, of the country’s total foreign trade. Exports to Malaysia amounted to $1.2 billion (P58.35 billion), while imports reached $3.4 billion (P165.31 billion) in the same year.

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Cusi to ERC: Bare clear-cut bidding rules on P52-billion VisMin power grid project

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By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

nergy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi on Thursday said he wants the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to issue clear-cut guidelines on the bidding rules involving a multibillion grid interconnection project.

“I asked ERC for the bidding guidelines to be very clear. The guidelines should be laid down by the ERC. I want the consumer groups, the Commission on Audit [COA] and the National Transmission Corp.

[Transco] to be part of the Bids and Awards Committee [BAC],” Cusi said.

This, after the ERC issued a provisional authority (PA) to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to proceed with its P52-billion Visayas-Mindanao Interconnection Project albeit with conditions.

For one, the proposed project shall be subject to optimization based on its actual use and/or implementation during the reset process for the next regulatory period; NGCP is required to conduct competitive bidding for the purchase of major materials in the implementation of the project; and NGCP’s payment of the permit fee.

“We must exercise transparency in the conduct of the bidding because it will be the consumers who will eventually pay,” Cusi said.

The project involves the interconnection of the Visayas and Mindanao via Cebu and Zamboanga. The converter stations in the Visayas and Mindanao will be in Sibonga, Cebu, and Aurora, Zamboanga del Sur, respectively. The project is estimated to be completed in 46 months with an estimated cost of a less than P52 billion.

The Visayas-Mindanao interconnection Project is in support of the government’s vision to interconnect the major grids into a single national grid, which is expected to help improve the overall power-supply security in the country as sharing of reserves will already become possible.

The project also aims to reinforce the operation of the electricity market by maximizing the use of available energy resources and additional generation capacities in the Visayas and Mindanao, which include the

renewable-energy resources.

“The provisional approval granted to NGCP to implement the Visayas-Mindanao Interconnection Project will enable powersupply importations among the Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao grids. For instance, the deficiency of supply in [the] Visayas may be supplied by importing power from Luzon or Mindanao. Hence, this VisayasMindanao interconnection will help address the insufficient power supply and will also help optimize the available power supply in the Philippine grid,” ERC Officer in Charge Alfredo J. Non said.

I asked ERC for the bidding guidelines to be very clear. The guidelines should be laid down by the ERC. I want the consumer groups, the COA and the TransCo to be part of the BAC. We must exercise transparency in the conduct of the bidding because it will be the consumers who will eventually pay.”—Cusi

PSA reports 42% subsidy decline to wholesale, retail traders in 2015

By Cai U. Ordinario

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@cuo_bm

overnment subsidies extended to companies engaged in wholesale and retail trade declined 42 percent in 2015, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

This was based on the preliminary results of the 2015 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry (ASPBI) for the Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles Sector.

The subsidies extended by the government declined to P3.3 billion in 2015, from P4.7 billion in 2014.

“Subsidies are special grants received from the government in the form of financial assistance or tax exemption or tax privilege to aid and develop an industry,” the PSA said.

In 2015 only the wholesale of food, beverages and tobacco (FBT) industry and retail sale in nonspecialized stores received subsidies.

The FBT industry received a total of P2.9 billion, while retail sale received subsidies of only P381.5 million from the government, respectively.

In 2014 three sectors received subsidies—wholesale of food, beverages and tobacco industry, P4.4 billion; retail sale in nonspecialized stores, P358 million; and retail sale of other goods in specialized stores, P13.8 million.

Meanwhile, the sector generated a total income amounting to P3.6 trillion and incurred a total expense valued at P3.5 trillion in 2014.

“More than two-thirds, or 68 percent, of the total income, as well as the total expense, was contributed by establishments

with TE [total employment] of 20 and over,” the PSA said.

Data showed retail sale in nonspecialized stores earned the highest income of P633.5 billion, or 17.4 percent of the total, followed by wholesale of household goods, with P462.2 billion, or with 12.7 percent.

The retail sale of other goods in specialized stores ranked third with an income of P414.9 billion, or 11.4 percent of the total.

However, nonspecialized wholesale trade made the lowest earnings of P2.4 billion.

Likewise, retail sale in nonspecialized stores had incurred the largest expenditures at P603 billion, or 17.3 percent of the sector’s total expenses.

The wholesale of household goods and retail sale of other goods in specialized store spent P441.8 billion, or 12.7 percent, and P395.4 billion, or 11.4 percent, respectively.

The PSA said nonspecialized wholesale trade incurred the lowest expense of P2.2 billion. “The income per peso expense yielded an average ratio of 1.05 in 2014,” the PSA said.

The 2015 ASPBI results showed there were a total of 8,332 establishments with TE of 20 and over, engaged in Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles.

Among industry groups, retail sale in non-specialized stores registered the highest number of establishments, accounting 1,459, or 17.5 percent of the total.

Retail sale of other household equipment in specialized store ranked second with 1,116, or 13.4 percent, and establishments engaged in retail sale of other goods in specialized stores came in third with 1,045, or 12.5 percent.

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

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Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Friday, September 8, 2017

DA vows to solve fisheries sector ills

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

he Department of Agriculture (DA) will craft a 10-year road map that will detail the interventions the government will roll out to address the problems besetting the Philippine fisheries subsector.

A g r icu lture Secretar y Emmanuel F. Piñol on Thursday said he will convene next month the country’s fisheries industry stakeholders for the preparation and creation of the DA’s 10-year fisheries development road map.

“The road map which I proposed during the opening ceremonies of the 19th Tuna Festival in General Santos City will identify the problems and challenges in the fisheries industry and the government interventions needed to address these,” Piñol said in his Facebook page.

“While the Philippines ranks first in the world for having the

longest coastline at 39,284 kilometers, the country continues to import fisheries and aquatic products to fill the needs of the local market,” he added.

Piñol said the depletion of freshwater-fish sources caused by overfishing and destructive fishing practices is the biggest problem confronting local fishermen.

The DA chief said the Philippines loses an estimated P3 trillion annually due to illegal fishing, which includes poaching by foreigners who own modern fishing fleets.

“Many of these poachers are now operating in the 25-million hectare Philippine Rise, formerly

called the Benham Rise, which has been acknowledged by the United Nations as part of the continental shelf of the Philippines,” he said.

The DA chief also noted that the government has neglected captured fisheries program and focused support on the production of bangus (milkfish) and tilapia (St. Peter’s fish).

Under the proposed 10-year road map, the DA will institutionalize programs to ensure the continuity of the government’s efforts in revitalizing the Philippine fisheries sector, according to Piñol.

“The 10-year road map will also institutionalize the Malinis at Masaganang Karagatan (MMK) Program of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), which recognizes the cleanest coastal communities,” he said.

“It is also expected to institutionalize the Project Basil, or Balik Sigla sa Ilog at Lawa, which involves the seeding of lakes, rivers and creeks with indigenous and non-invasive fish species fingerlings, and the Fiberglass Boats Distribution program,” Piñol added.

He said the road map will identify rich fishing grounds in the

Lawmakers want probe on Golden Rice project

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

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he Makabayan Bloc in the House of Representatives is seeking an inquiry into the impact of the development of Golden Rice, or vitamin A rice, on human health, environment and local farmers.

Party-list Reps. Arile Casilao of Anakpawis, Carlos Isagani Zarate of Bayan Muna, Emmi de Jesus and Arlene Brosas of Gabriela, Antonio Tinio and France Castro of Act Teachers and Sarah Jane Elago of Kabataan filed House Resolution (HR) 1294, calling for an investigation into the Golden Rice project.

The lawmakers said many scientists around the world have expressed “serious” concerns regarding the safety of genetically engineered food and its effect on human health and the environment.

“A number of studies have shown that genetically engineered food cause a wide variety of negative health effects in animals, including allergic reactions, stomach ulcerations and disturbed liver, pancreas and testes function,” HR 1294 read.

The lawmakers noted that Golden Rice is genetically engineered to “force” the rice plant to produce beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A. It is being developed and tested presumably to address the problem in vitamin A deficiency (VAD).

It was developed from Golden Rice 1 (from bacteria and daffodil genes, which produce low levels of beta-carotene) and later to Golden Rice 2 (with genes from bacteria and corn, which, supposedly, has higher levels of beta-carotene).

“Golden Rice now has a set of new genes that never before existed in rice,” the resolution read.

The lawmakers noted that the technology, methodology, seeds and variety

to advance the Golden Rice are owned by Syngenta, an agro-chemical transnational corporation which profits by investing in the global seed industry.

They also said the claim that Golden Rice can address the problem of malnutrition and blindness due to vitamin A deficiency is “baseless and unscientific”.

“Golden Rice is merely a promotional product of agro-chemical corporations using public institutions to make possible the social acceptance of genetic engineering in food and agriculture”, their resolution read.

In the Philippines the lawmakers said the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) is the agency that leads the field testing and commercialization of Golden Rice. They added that PhilRice has bred the Golden Rice variety with PSB Rc82 and other local rice varieties.

The lawmakers said three seasons of Golden Rice field testing was done in five areas in the country and was harvested in 2013.

“Early this year, the proponents again filed two applications for Golden Rice at the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry (DA-BPI). The application involves the Direct Use for Food, Feed and Processing and Field Trials of the said GM product in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, and San Mateo, Isabela,” the resolution read.

Citing the International Rice Research Institute (Irri), the solons said the average yield of Golden Rice was lower than comparable local varieties already preferred by farmers.

“Local rice varieties are more suitable to the country’s environment and climate and the same assures the farmers of better yield, and should be conserved and protected from contamination from genetically modified organisms,” the resolution read.

Cargill donates equipment to govt to help contain bird-flu outbreak

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o help mitigate the risks of the avian virus spreading further in the country, Cargill said it has donated 100 sprayers to the Bureau of Animal Industry.

The sprayers will be used in the affected farms and the quarantine stations and checkpoints across the 7-kilometer control zones in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija to aid in the disinfection against the virus.

“This is the first time that the Philippines has seen an outbreak of the Avian Influenza and Cargill wants to provide all the assistance it possibly can to contain it,” Philip Soliven, president of Cargill in the Philippines, said in a statement.

“Learning from similar situations in China and Thailand in the past, we hope to be able to use our expertise and the experience we

have gained in helping the country through this outbreak,” Soliven added.

In Asia Pacific Cargill has poultry-processing operations in China, Thailand and Indonesia in addition to the Philippines.

Food safety is of utmost importance to the 150-year-old company, which has a worldclass bio-security program to prevent its poultry products from being infected.

The DA has declared a 1-kilometer radius quarantine area from the outbreak locations in the towns of San Luis, Pampanga, and Jaen and San Isidro in Nueva Ecija, while another 7-km-radius controlled area has been declared. The DA has also isolated the movement of poultry products from the controlled area and has set up quarantine stations to prevent the virus from spreading.

A fisherman hauls a 40-kilogram yellowfin tuna in Occidental Mindoro. Philippine-caught yellowfin tuna are processed and exported to a host of international destinations. The Department of Agriculture on Thursday said it will soon launch a 10-year road map to preserve the country’s fishing grounds and increase fish output. Photo courtesy of WWF

country where the government would establish postharvest facilities, such as ice plants and coldstorage warehouses, to reduce the losses incurred by fishermen.

“The stakeholders will also be asked for their inputs on what should be done to protect the countr y’s fishing interests in the West Philippine Sea and the Philippine Rise, two of the rich-

est fishing grounds where illegalfishing operations are ongoing,” he said.

“Other aquamar ine potentials will be identified and the small fishermen will be assisted by government in an attempt to address poverty in the sector,” Piñol added.

Once completed, he said the 10year road map will be submitted

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to President Duterte.

Earlier, Piñol said he has directed Agriculture Undersecretary for Fisheries Eduardo B. Gongona to craft a road map that would outline the strategies for hiking Philippine seaweed production by 5 percent annually until 2022.

The country’s fisheries output in the second quarter of 2017 declined slightly to 1.1 million metric tons (MMT), from 1.12 MMT a year ago, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The PSA attributed the decline to bad weather conditions.

The government is keen on growing farm output by 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent annually starting this year until 2022, when the President steps down from office, according to the draft of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022.

The previous administration had targeted to increase annual agriculture and fisheries output by 3 percent to 5 percent.

“The sector has yet to overcome recurring challenges related to productivity, competitiveness, climate and disaster risks and resource degradation and depletion,” the draft PDP read.

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S. Korea bolsters missile shield as ICBM test fears rise

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our launchers for a United States missile shield arrived at a military base in South Korea on Thursday, as Seoul warned North Korea may launch a new missile as soon as this weekend.

South Korea had said already that Pyongyang might be gearing up for another rocket test in the aftermath of its nuclear detonation last Sunday, as it seeks to improve the capacity of its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program.

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said at a conference in Seoul on Thursday that North Korea may launch its next missile on Saturday—the anniversary of its founding—adding there isn’t much time until the regime becomes a fully nuclear-armed state. The yen strengthened on Lee’s remarks.

South Korea has said the launchers for the US missile-defense system, known as terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad), would be installed in the face of the growing threat from Pyongyang. The move has

already drawn a rebuke from China, which says Thaad could upset the regional security balance and be used against its own missile systems.

The deployment of Thaad “does not help addressing the security concerns of relevant countries,” Geng Shuang, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said at a briefing in Beijing on Wednesday. “It will only severely undermine the strategic balance in the region, jeopardize strategic and security interests of the

regional countries, including China, aggravate the tension and confrontation and further complicate the Peninsular issue.”

On coming to power in May, President Moon Jae-in opposed the early installation of the shield. But North Korea’s ICBMs launches in July prompted him to order his government to discuss deployment of the four remaining launchers at the Seongju military base, 220 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

Moon and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed at a meeting in Vladivostok to increase pressure as much as possible on North Korea, including seeking stronger sanctions, such as a cut off in oil shipments.

On Wednesday Moon sought to find common ground with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on sanctions, though Putin opposes further penalties on the regime. Putin and Abe are set to meet later on Thursday.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo that his country was preparing for various scenarios, including North Korea’s development of electromagnetic pulse attack capability.

China protest

The initial decision by Moon’s predecessor Park Geun-hye to install Thaad led China to slap painful economic penalties on South Korea. It ordered travel agencies to stop selling tour packages to South Korea and took steps against Lotte Group, one of South Korea’s largest family-run conglomerates, which offered up the land that hosts Thaad’s missile battery.

There were 2.3 million fewer Chinese tourists in the five months through July from the same period last year.

The system, made by Lockheed Martin Corp., is designed to destroy shortand medium-range ballistic missiles at high altitudes in their “terminal” phase, as they descend. It’s different from conventional defense missiles, which seek to get close to a target and self-detonate to damage or deflect the threat.

Oil embargo

The US is circulating a draft resolution at the United Nations that would bar crude-oil shipments to North Korea, ban the nation’s exports of textiles and prohibit employment of its guest workers by other countries, according to a diplomat at the world body.

The proposal, which also calls for freezing the assets of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has been circulated to the 15 members of the Security Council, according to the diplomat, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. The US has said it wants the council to take up tougher sanctions at a meeting on September 11.

The bid for the toughest penalties yet against North Korea comes despite renewed warnings against such moves by the leaders of China and Russia, which have veto power in the Security Council.

US President Donald J. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke for 45 minutes on Wednesday, amid Pyongyang’s stepped-up pace of nuclear and missile tests.

“We will not be putting up with what’s happening in North Korea,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday after the conversation. The two leaders had a “very, very frank and very strong call,” he added. Asked about possible US military action, the president said “That’s not our first choice, but we’ll see what happens.” Bloomberg News

China military holds drills near Korean Peninsula

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EI J I NG — C h i n a c a r r ied out military drills in waters near the Korean Peninsula two days after North Korea said it exploded a hydrogen bomb, the Chinese defense ministry reported.

The ministry said that the exercise in the Bohai Gulf was aimed at “boosting the forces expulsion mission capability” and not at any specific nations or targets. The drills had been preplanned as part of routine training, according to the statement posted late Wednesday on the ministry’s official Sina Weibo microblog account.

While it is usual for the Chinese military to hold drills in the Bohai Sea off its northeastern coast, the timing of Tuesday’s exercise has drawn special attention. China has repeatedly said it will not tolerate an armed conflict on its doorstep and says there can be no

military solution to the current tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

In May China test-fired a new type of missile into the Bohai Gulf, amid anger over South Korea’s deployment of a sophisticated United States antimissile system to which China has fervently objected.

The feud, which shows no sign of waning, has severely impacted diplomatic and economic ties between the two countries. The Bohai Gulf lies just west of the Yellow Sea, which separates China from the Korean Peninsula.

Outside experts have been unable to verify North Korea’s claim that it tested a hydrogen bomb last Sunday, but say it’s plausible.

China’s defense ministry last week said that it had not made any changes to its military posture on the North Korean border. AP

Tough path for GOP on immigration as Trump just make things harder

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EW YORK—On immigration, there were few easy answers for t he Republ ica n Pa r t y ’s most vulnerable members. And President Donald J. Trump just made things harder.

Endangered Republicans from California to Colorado and Nevada to New Jersey have struggled in recent days to defend their president’s decision to end the program that offered deportation protections for young people living here illegally who came to this country as children.

The Trump administration gave Congress six months to agree on an alternative, yet it’s far from certain that a divided Congress can do so.

And on the ground in key states and swing districts across America, a concerned Hispanic community is getting even angrier at Trump’s Republican Party as next year’s midterm elections loom.

“Those candidates who need Latino voters are on their own, and they’re struggling,” said Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. “If he continues with this behavior and this

rhetoric, things could get worse.”

In isolated instances, Republicans facing difficult reelections joined Democrats in condemning the president’s move to end protections for young immigrants.

The vast majority, however, praised Trump for ending what they viewed as an unconstitutional Obama-era program, even as they vowed to find a compassionate solution.

The varied responses highlight the GOP’s struggle to balance competing interests. On one side: Trump’s small but energized white nationalist base.

On the other: a growing Hispanic community, which is poised to play an increasingly powerful role in national politics over the coming years.

“Although people in the Hispanic community in my district are not happy with the president, the fact is that he did give us some breathing room on this issue,” said Rep. Mike Coffman, Republican-Colorado, who has sponsored legislation that would give Congress an additional three years to protect the so-called Dreamers, young adults brought to the United States as young children in many cases. AP

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Trump strikes deal with Dems on debt limit and Harvey aid W

ASHINGTON—President Donald J. Trump struck a deal with Democratic congressional leaders on Wednesday to increase the debt limit and finance the government until mid-December, blindsiding his own Republican allies as he reached across the aisle to resolve a major dispute for the first time since taking office.

The agreement would avert a fiscal showdown later this month without the partisan battle that many had anticipated by combining a debt-ceiling increase and stopgap spending measure with relief aid to Texas and other areas devastated by Hurricane Harvey.

But without addressing the fundamental underlying issues, it set up the prospect for an even bigger clash at the end of the year.

In embracing the three-month deal, Trump accepted a Democratic proposal that had been rejected earlier in the day by Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin.

Trump’s snap decision at a White House meeting caught Republican leaders off guard and ref lected friction between the president and his party.

After weeks of criticizing Republican leaders for failing to pass legislation, Trump signaled that he was willing to cross party lines to score some victories.

The deal to keep the government open and paying its debts until December 15 represented an extraordinary turn for the president, who has, for much of his term, set himself up on the right flank of the Republican Party. But it remained unclear whether Trump’s collaboration with Democrats foreshadowed

a more sustained shift in strategy by a president who has presented himself as a master dealmaker or amounted to just a one-time instinctual reaction of a mercurial leader momentarily eager to poke his estranged allies.

Trump not only accepted the spending-and-debt plan advanced

by Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leaders, but also aligned himself with them on immigration.

A day after rescinding President Barack Obama’s program protecting younger unauthorized immigrants on the grounds that it went beyond a president’s authority, Trump said he wanted to work with Democrats to legalize the program.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (second from right, front), Republican-Kentucky, speaks after a weekly luncheon, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on September 6. Pete Marovich/The New York Times

“We had a very good meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer,” Trump told reporters after the Oval Office session without mentioning that Ryan and other Republican leaders had also attended.

Regarding the immigration program, Trump said, “Chuck and Nancy would like to see something happen, and so do I.” Republican leaders looked grim but resigned afterward and attributed Trump’s fiscal deal to a need for unity after Harvey struck Texas and as Hurricane Irma barreled toward Florida.

“Look, the president can speak for himself, but his feeling was that we needed to come together to not create a picture of divisiveness at a time of genuine national crisis, and that was the rationale,” said Sen.

Look, the president can speak for himself, but his feeling was that we needed to come together to not create a picture of divisiveness at a time of genuine national crisis, and that was the rationale.”—McConnell

US seeks UN consent to interdict N. Korean ships

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ASHI N G TO N — T h e T r u m p administration on Wednesday circulated a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council that would effectively empower the United States Navy and Air Force to interdict North Korean ships at sea, inspect them to determine whether they are carrying weapons material or fuel into the country, and use “all necessary measures” to enforce compliance.

The language is included in a remarkably broad draft that would ban the shipment of all crude oil, refined petroleum and natural gas to North Korea, essentially seeking to plunge a country of 25 million people into a deep freeze this winter if its leaders fail to begin giving up their nuclear weapon and missile programs.

The resolution— circulated three days after the North conducted its largest nuclear test to date—would also seek to block all the assets of Kim Jong Un, the country’s leader, and virtually all the assets of the country’s military and its sole political party.

The resolution, which the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki R. Haley, said this week she wanted to bring to a vote by next Monday, seems certain to meet vociferous objections from China and Russia. Both hold veto power at the Security Council.

But if the sections authorizing interdictions at sea survive, it could set the stage for some of the tensest encounters on the high seas since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when President John F. Kennedy ordered a complete blockade around the island to prevent Soviet missiles from

being installed. The resolution calls for something far less comprehensive than a total blockade, which is widely considered an act of war. But it would authorize a committee of the Security Council to “designate vessels for nonconsensual inspections” and authorize all members of the UN—using military vessels and aircraft—“to inspect on the high seas any vessel designated by the committee.”

That could set up the conditions for a conflict at sea. If the crew of a North Korean ship failed to stop or resisted a boarding party, one senior military official acknowledged in recent days, the result could be an exchange of fire at a time when Pyongyang is threatening to use its nascent nuclear arsenal, and the US is warning of a “devastating response.”

President Donald J. Trump spoke with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, from the White House on Wednesday morning, just hours before the US sent its draft of the resolution to all 15 members of the Security Council.

B oth Xi and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, have opposed further sanctions, even after North Korea tested what it called a hydrogen bomb—experts have their doubts—last Sunday. “We should not act out of emotions and push North Korea into a dead end,” Putin said at a meeting in Vladivostok, according to dispatches from South Korean reporters.

“We must act with calm and avoid steps that could raise tensions.”

That sets up a confrontation at the Security Council pitting the US, Britain and France against the other two

permanent members. Trump appears to be using the resolution to highlight the contrast between the nations that support maximum sanctions pressure against the North and those seeking the status quo.

T h e Tr u m p a d m i n i s t r a t i o n o n Wednesday repeated a drastic—if highly unlikely—warning if UN action is blocked.

The Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, told reporters aboard Air Force One during a flight from North Dakota that an executive order had been prepared that would authorize a halt in trade with “anybody that does trade with North Korea.”

China is among dozens of nations that trade with the North.

Even some Democrats have joined the Trump administration in calling for an oil cutoff, including Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts.

In an interview with CBS News on Wednesday, President Barack Obama’s former defense secretary, Ash Carter, said he supported “a strategy of coercive diplomacy” that would steadily increase pressure on the North if it continued to test its missiles and nuclear weapons, and would reduce sanctions if it complied with UN resolutions.

Carter, now the director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, said he considered it “in China’s interest” to “strangle North Korea,” but added he was not optimistic, “because China has consistently disappointed.”

The fate of the Trump administration’s resolution may hinge in part on North Korean actions in the next few days.

New York Times News Service

Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader.

Democrats were grinning at their surprise victory and happy to rub it in.

“It was a really good moment of some bipartisanship,” Schumer said. “The bottom line is the president listened to the arguments. We think we made a very reasonable and strong argument.

And to his credit, he went with the better argument.”

Until now, Trump has sought to govern through the strength of Republican majorities in Congress, an approach that has not secured top priorities, like repealing Obama’s health-care program.

After castigating Democrats as obstructionists, Trump may now seek common cause on areas of mutual interest, like infrastructure projects, immigration and taxes.

Soon after meeting with congressional leaders at the White House, the president boarded Air Force One to fly to North Dakota to push for a tax overhaul. Among the onboard guests was Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, the first Democratic lawmaker to join Trump aboard Air Force One since he was inaugurated in January.

T he f l ight gave Tr ump an extended opportunity to woo Heitkamp, who faces a tough reelection battle next year in a state that gave the president an overwhelming 36-point margin during last year’s election. As

local lawmakers pointed out, Heitkamp may find it politically advantageous to cozy up to the most popular figure in the state.

At the event, at an oil refinery in Heitkamp’s hometown, Mandan, Trump called her onto the stage with her Republican colleagues.

“Everyone’s saying, ‘W hat’s she doing up here?’” Trump said as she joined him in front of an audience filled with Republicans.

“But I’ ll tell you what—good woman. And I think we’ll have your support. I hope we’ll have your support. And thank you very much, Senator.”

While Heitkamp can hardly afford to alienate Trump, she has been cagey about the tax issue.

“It’s encouraging he committed to promoting American workers as key to any tax-reform policy,” she said in a statement after the president’s visit on Wednesday.

“But, as North Dakota’s former tax commissioner, I know the devil is in the details of any reform plan as tax codes are complex.”

New York Times News Service

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

Hurricane Irma brings death, destruction to the Caribbean

Rescue staff from the Municipal Emergency Management Agency investigates an empty flooded car during the passage of Hurricane Irma through the northeastern part of the island in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, on September 6. Hurricane Irma lashes Puerto Rico with heavy rain and powerful winds, leaving nearly 900,000 people without power as authorities struggle to get aid to small Caribbean islands already devastated by the historic storm. AP/Carlos Giusti

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AN JUAN, Puerto Rico—Hurricane Irma has killed at least eight people and injured 23 in French Caribbean island territories as the dangerous Category 5 storm roared over the Caribbean, France’s interior minister said on Thursday.

Speaking on French radio France Info, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the death toll in Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy could be higher because rescue teams have yet to finish their inspection of the islands.

“The reconnaissance will really start at daybreak,” Collomb said.

Irma blacked out much of Puerto Rico, raking the United States territory with heavy wind and rain while staying just out to sea, and it headed early on Thursday toward the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

To the east, authorities struggled to get aid to small Caribbean islands devastated by the storm’s record 298-kilometer-per-hour (kph) winds earlier on Wednesday, while people in Florida rushed to get ready for a possible direct hit on the Miami area. Communications were difficult with areas hit by Irma, and information on damage trickled out.

Nearly every building on Barbuda was damaged when the hurricane’s core crossed almost directly over the island early on Wednesday and about 60 percent of its roughly 1,400 residents were left homeless, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne told The Associated Press.

“It is just really a horrendous situation,” Browne said after returning to Antigua from a plane trip to the neighboring island. He added roads and telecommunications systems were wrecked and recovery would take months, if not years.

A 2-year-old child was killed as a family tried to escape a damaged home during the storm, Browne told the AP. On Saint Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, Laura Strickling spent 12 hours hunkered down with her husband and 1-year-old daughter in a boarded-up basement apartment with no power as the storm raged outside.

They emerged to find the lush island in tatters. Many of their neighbors’ homes were damaged and once-dense vegetation was largely gone.

“There are no leaves. It is crazy. One of the things we loved about Saint Thomas is that it was so green. And it’s gone,” Strickling said. “It will take years for this community to get back on its feet.”

Significant damage was also reported on Saint Martin, an island split between French and Dutch control. Photos and video circulating on social media showed major damage to the airport in Philipsburg and the coastal village of Marigot heavily flooded.

France sent emergency food and water there and to the French island of Saint Bart’s, where Irma ripped off roofs and knocked out electricity.

By early T hursday the center of the stor m was about 225 k ilometers nor thwest of San Juan, Puer to

R ico, and mov ing west-nor thwest near 26 kph.

More than half the island of Puerto Rico was without power, leaving 900,000 in the dark and nearly 50,000 without water, the US territory’s emergency management agency said in the midst of the storm. Fourteen hospitals were using generators after losing power, and trees and light poles were strewn across roads.

Puerto Rico’s public power company warned before the storm hit that some areas could be left without power from four to six months because its staff has been reduced and its infrastructure weakened by the island’s decadelong economic slump.

State maintenance worker Juan Tosado said he was without power for three months after Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

“I expect the same from this storm. It’s going to be bad,” he said.

President Donald J. Trump approved an emergency declaration for the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies to remove debris and give other services that will largely be paid for by the US government.

Pauline Jackson, a 59-year-old registered nurse from Florida visiting Puerto Rico, said she had tried to leave before the storm but all flights were sold out.

She has a reservation to fly out on Friday and is worried about her home in Tampa. “When you’re from Florida, you understand a Category 5 hurricane,” she added.

The US National Hurricane Center predicted Irma would remain at Category 4 or 5 for the next day or two as passes just to the north of the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Thursday, nears the Turks and Caicos and parts of the Bahamas by Thursday night and skirts Cuba on Friday night into Saturday. It will then likely head north toward Florida.

The storm is expected to hit Florida sometime on Sunday, and Gov. Rick Scott said he planned to activate 7,000 National Guard soldiers by Friday. He warned that Irma is “bigger, faster and stronger” than Hurricane Andrew, which wiped out entire neighborhoods in South Florida 25 years ago.

Experts worried that Irma could rake the entire Florida east coast from Miami to Jacksonville and then head into Savannah, Georgia and the Carolinas, striking highly populated and developed areas.

“This could easily be the most costly storm in US history, which is saying a lot considering what just happened two weeks ago,” said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami. AP

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Friday, September 8, 2017

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Aid groups struggle as more terrified Rohingya flood into Bangladesh

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OX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh— Aid agencies were struggling to cope with a nonstop flood of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh, where some 146,000 have arrived hungry and terrified after fleeing renewed violence in Myanmar—a crisis the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, dismissed as a misinformation campaign.

With the influx pushing existing Rohingya refugee camps to the brink, Bangladesh pledged to build at least one more.

The International Organization for Migration has pleaded for $18 million in foreign aid to help feed and shelter tens of thousands now packed into makeshift settlements or stranded in a no man’s land between the two countries’ borders.

United Nations agencies said they were distributing food to new arrivals, about 80 percent of whom were women and children, joining about 100,000 who had already been sheltering in Bangladesh after f leeing earlier convulsions of violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

“We’ve not had something on this scale here in many years,” said Pavlo Kolovos, the Bangladesh mission leader for Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, in a statement.

“Our teams are seeing streams of people arriving destitute and extremely traumatized,” including many in need of urgent medical care for violence-related injuries, severe infections or childbirth complications.

With so many Rohingya fleeing, it’s unclear how many remain in Myanmar amid reports of soldiers burning villages and killing civilians.

Before the recent violence, aid experts had estimated about 1 million Rohingya were living in northern Rakhine state, but aid agencies have been unable to access the area since.

“We are unable to reach the 28,000 children to whom we were previously providing psychosocial care or the more than 4,000 children who were treated for malnutrition in Buthidaung and Maungdaw” in Rakhine, United Nations Children’s Fund Executive Director Anthony Lake said. “Our clean water and sanitation work has been suspended, as have school repairs that were under way.”

Turkey said that Myanmar agreed to allow its aid officials to enter Rakhine state with a ton of food and goods for Rohingya, and that its foreign minister would visit a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar on Thursday.

The violence has driven some Rohingya to f lee into forests near their villages or to beaches on the Bay of Bengal in hopes of rescue. Ba ngl adesh ’s Min ist r y of Foreig n A f fa i rs de l ivered a protest

note to Mya n m a r ’s envoy on Wed nes d ay, e x pressi ng concer n about repor ts t h at Mya n m a r ’s sec u r it y forces h ad pl a nted l a nd m i nes a long t he border, a nd dem a nd i ng i m med i ate mea su res to de - esc a l ate t he v iolence.

Seeking to counter the storm of international criticism, Suu Kyi’s top security adviser on Wednesday asserted that security forces were acting with restraint in pursuing “terrorists.”

National Security Advisor Thaung Tun told in a news conference in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, that he was “deeply disappointed and saddened by the disinformation campaign being waged around the world with regard to the situation in Rakhine.”

Meanwhile, Suu Kyi complained to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call on Tuesday that Turkey’s deputy prime minister was a victim of fake news when he posted photos purportedly showing dead Rohingya that were not related to the crisis.

The photos on Mehmet Simsek’s Twitter account have been taken down.

According to her office, Suu Kyi said such misinformation helps promote the interests of “terrorists,” a reference to the Rohingya insurgents whose attacks on Myanmar security posts on August 25 triggered the latest military crackdown and streams of refugees.

The crisis response director for Amnesty International called Suu Kyi’s response “unconscionable.”

“This is a human rights and humanitarian catastrophe,” Tirana Hassan said in a statement, noting the Rohingya streaming across the border and thousands of others displaced in Rakhine.

“In her first comments on the crisis, instead of promising concrete action to protect the people in Rakhine state, Aung San Suu Kyi appears to be downplaying the horrific reports coming out of the area,” Hassan said.

The group that claimed responsibility for the August 25 attacks on Myanmar police posts, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, said it acted to defend persecuted Rohingya communities, but has been vague about its ideology and ultimate goals.

The military said it responded with “clearance operations” aimed at rooting out insurgents, and that nearly 400 people, most of them insurgents, have died in clashes. It blamed the insurgents for setting Rohingya villages on fire.

Many displaced Rohingya, however, said it was Myanmar soldiers who set their homes aflame and fired indiscriminately around their villages in Rakhine state.

Rohingya Muslims have long faced discrimination in the Southeast Asian country. AP

Pope kicks off visit to Colombia

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OGOTA, Colombia—Pope Francis opens the first full day in his Colombia visit on Thursday with messages to political leaders and citizens alike encouraging all to rally behind a peace process seeking an end for Latin America’s longest-running conflict and to address the inequalities that fueled it.

Francis will kick off the day with a meeting with President Juan Manuel Santos at the presidential palace, where he is likely to call for a building of bridges among elites bitterly divided by last year’s peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, more popularly known as FARC for its Spanish name. It will be followed in the afternoon by an outdoor Mass in Simon Bolivar Park, that is expected to be attended by hundreds of thousands of worshippers in one of Latin America’s mostfervently Roman Catholic nations.

In between, he is to meet with bishops from around the region, including his first encounter with clergy from neighboring Venezuela, who are looking for the pope to demand accountability from their country’s socialist government and deliver a message of hope to a nation torn by political and economic turmoil. His 20th trip abroad as pope, Francis’s five-day visit to Colombia is a highly emotional one, fulfilling a promise he made to government and FARC negotiators when he visited Cuba in 2015 as negotiations between the two dragged on in Havana.

Back then, he appealed to both sides not to let the historic opportunity for peace slip by. But now that the deal is signed, the guns silenced and 7,000 rebels are transitioning back to civilian life, Colombians face the even more difficult challenge of coming together and eradicating the social disparities at the root of the half-century conflict.

Santos, the winner last year of the Nobel Peace Prize, offered thanks on Wednesday for Pope Francis pushing negotiators during difficult moments of the four-year talks. He expressed hope the pontiff’s visit will inspire Colombians to take the next step and definitively put behind them the long decades of political violence that left 220,000 dead and 7 million internally displaced.

“Peace needs a solid foundation, and reconciliation is one of those pillars that we, hopefully, will not only plant but also strengthen,” Santos told reporters.

The theme of reconciliation wasn’t far from Francis’s mind from the moment he arrived in Bogota late Wednesday afternoon to great fanfare.

In a gesture likely to mark the deep symbolism of the trip, he was presented on the tarmac with a commemorative peace dove by a youth who was born in a jungle camp to a guerrilla father and a politician mother after she was taken captive by FARC rebels in 2002. Clara Rojas, now a congresswoman, did not see her son again until she was rescued in 2008 when he was 3. AP

A10 Friday, September 8, 2017 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Another super storm

T

he ongoing devastation in the island-nations of the Caribbean Sea from Hurricane Irma is a grim reminder of our own Supertyphoon Yolanda. One of the first landfalls of the storm was at the north end of the group in the Leeward Islands. The nation of Antigua and Barbuda was directly in Irma’s path.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne toured the island of Barbuda by helicopter and has reported back that “it is a total devastation— Barbuda now is literally a rubble” with 90 percent of all buildings destroyed. “Barbuda is barely habitable. At least 60 percent of people are homeless, even where they are sheltering they are in damaged homes.” Already the US state of Florida, as well as Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands have declared states of emergency. Irma is likely to make landfall somewhere in Florida over the weekend.

The US state of Texas continues to recover from the disaster of Hurricane Harvey last week and estimates are that repair costs could be as high as $180 billion. To put that number in perspective, the entire economic output of the Philippines—as measured by GDP—in 2016 was $305 billion.

In the US social media was flooded by Hillary Clinton supporters saying that Texas deserved the death and destruction for having supported Donald J. Trump for US president. For the Philippines in the aftermath of Yolanda, discussions were taking place about the respective roles of the local government versus the national government, while bodies were still lying on the streets. The purpose of the discussion was to avoid the “blame game”. Actually, there was enough blame to go around for all government agencies, both local and national, before, during and especially after Yolanda.

Speaking of blame, Hurricane Irma is being called the strongest Atlantic hurricane in history. That may or may not be true as our “history” at best only goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. But the reality is that the strongest storm occurred right off the Philippines.

These storms are called “hurricanes” when they form in the Atlantic Ocean, a “typhoon” in the Pacific and a “cyclone” in the Indian Ocean. The strongest typhoon as measured by having the lowest barometric pressure and the largest with a wind diameter of 2,220 km (1,380 mi) was Typhoon Warling or Typhoon Tip. Fortunately, it missed the Philippines and finally made a major landfall in Japan.

The US Air Force aircraft flew 60 weather reconnaissance missions into the typhoon, making Tip one of the most closely observed tropical cyclones. Back then in 1979, when Typhoon Tip occurred, the storm was considered an ordinary part of normal weather patterns in the southwestern Pacific Ocean region that intensified because it happened to wander into a “tropical upper tropospheric trough” north of Guam. You have probably “wandered” into a closed glass door at some time also.

But in 1988 the United Nations set up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and 27 years after Tip, Al Gore wrote a book so now every major storm is here because humans chose to move out of caves and nipa huts. Maybe that is true and maybe it is not. In the meantime—as Irma is proving—there is not much we can do against these storms but to be as prepared as possible for the worst.

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started out writing about the as yet un-postponed 2017 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE). There were a lot of things to write about. The fact that Congress still hasn’t gotten around to sending the postponement bill for the President to sign into law; the fact that there are only 15 days to go before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) starts accepting certificates of candidacy for those who intend to run for Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan office; the Comelec’s recent postponement of the elections in Mindanao. The thing is, October 23 is coming at us with all the speed and inevitability of a freight train and so, of course, there’s going to be an uptick in the number of BSKE-related news and activities to discuss. So, that’s what I wanted to write about.

But then I saw that picture of the boy with his head wrapped in a plastic sheet, stab wounds clearly visible on his left shoulder and around his ribs, and I just couldn’t write on my intended topic anymore. How could

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might live in barbaric times.

Admittedly, Reynaldo de Guzman (that was the boy’s name) may not have been an innocent; these days, if you so much as throw a rock in the air, you’re bound to hit someone guilty of something. But that does not erase the fact that he—we, all of us—deserve better than the fate he suffered. And if his death is, as some say, symptomatic of a systemic rot, then our duty is clear: those with the power to bring Reynaldo’s murderers to justice should do so promptly and without trying to dismiss it as just another statistic; those of us not in that rarefied circle, on the other hand, should not succumb to the sense of powerlessness that violence such as this usually fosters.

Either in October this year, or in May or October of the next, we will be holding elections for the Barangay and Sangguiang Kabataan. If you do nothing else as a response to this killing, vote. It may not seem like much —in fact, it might even sound laughably lame—but it isn’t. At least, not while we continue to believe in the sovereignty of the Filipino people.

Law of diminishing marginal productivity and the compressed working hours

✝ Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Publisher

I? Imagine the irony of trying desperately to get people engaged in democracy, haranguing the youth about the dangers of apathy, and then completely ignoring the fact that children have been turning up

dead, under the most hair-raising of circumstances and in the most gruesome ways. At best, I’d be normalizing the situation—going about business as usual as though nothing untoward was happening elsewhere; at worst, I’d be betraying my own humanity.

A 14-year-old boy, one year shy of being part of the Sangguniang Kabataan electorate, sustained 30 stab wounds, according to newspaper reports. Whoever was behind this act of sheer cowardice—only cowards would take a mere wisp of a boy and do everything they can to make sure he can’t even fight back to save his life—should be brought to justice.

And no, I don’t mean the frontierstyle retribution some people seem to think is the equivalent of justice.

I mean arrest them and make them stand trial where they can be confronted with the enormity of their monstrosity, and given the opportunity to defend themselves, which they denied this young boy. It is only in this way that we can, as a people, prove to them and to ourselves that we are not barbarians although we

H

urray, hurray! One may finally be able to enjoy a fourday workweek if House Bill (HB) 6152 is implemented in different companies. As an employee, you may have extended your precious two-day weekend into three, making it possible for you and your friends to go on a short trip exploring Sagada or binge-watch on that Korean drama you have been wanting to watch for a long time. But in the context of economics, what does it mean for you and your company?

Competitiveness, efficiency, productivity and less traffic on the road are among the many things considered for the passing of HB 6152. But from a social scientist’s perspective, up to what degree exactly?

In a typical business scenario, to increase the output, the producer would need to increase input. Input in this context is labor hours. As what HB 6152 envisions, raising the working hours (input) from eight a day to 12 so that one can do more (output) in a compressed workweek of four days.

However, a lot of things need to be considered to make this happen.

First, consider rent on the part of the employer. One may be able to work for just four days a week, but the company will still pay the same amount of rent in a five-day workweek. Renting company space is long term. The same is true for the utilities, since one

will have to clock in longer hours at the office during that four days, the company still has to pay more or less the same amount of utility expense.

These, and other fixed payables that the company incurs, are called the fixed operating cost.

To explain the nonmonetary impact, we consider the law of diminishing marginal productivity (LDMP).

With everything constant or fixed (monthly payables for office equipment, office space rent and “free” office food as company perks, among others) and only the input increased (input is still the working hours one puts in), the output will eventually decline for every marginal or additional hour added.

At first glance, it does not make sense. One would initially think that more working hours invested should at least translate to more work produced.

However, it does not.

Imagine a typical mountain and divide it vertically and equally in three parts. The first third would be the period of the production that yields the most output. This means that an employee is most productive and can do a lot of work in a certain time of their respective office hours. Typically, it would be between the hours of 9 and 12. This is because most are full of energy since their minds and bodies are still well rested and prepared for work. Some people, on the other hand, have their peak productivity hours past lunch. They may have been invigorated by the wonderful meal they had or, perhaps, finally, they are now fully awake. Whatever the case is, it is during the initial phase of daily work that most people are productive.

That is why this part of the mountain is increasing, or steep. For both employees and employers, this is a winwin situation.

The second part of the mountain where the peak is, is the point where the employee had reached the maximum output. Each hour of work does not produce as much as compared to the first few productive hours in the office. The productivity is slowing down; the returns are decreasing.

Finally, the last third of the mountain is the point wherein any amount of additional input, in this case, still the working hour, will give no return to an employee’s effort and decrease total productivity. At this point, the employee is exhausted and no amount of overtime hours can produce decent quality of work. This is the region of the mountain that is decreasing. Both

employees and employers are losing, leading to unproductive time for the employees at the expense of company’s resources (utilities and per hour compensation).

We can be pessimistic, as we focus on the third part. Why is it that working more hours may actually negate the prime target of HB 6152, which is to increase productivity and efficiency? In the LDMP, any work past the point of the maximum productivity, say, on an employee’s third or fourth productive hour in the office, will either be subpar or sloppy.

Because, as machines overheat and need time for repair and recuperation, so do people. In short, one can only work so much.

Have you ever wondered why some companies implement flexible working schedules and output-based production? To keep a company running, the most important is the production of quality work and, at the same time, the efficient management of resources—human and nonhuman. If both employers and employee reach an agreement to work productively and, at the same time, lower operating costs, then it is a win-win situation, the one we should all be gearing up to achieve.

Before implementing the four-day workweek for 12 hours a day (computation varies on the target hours per week, between 40 and 48), one might think of one’s own point of LDMP, as it differs from person to person. Staying in the office for 12 hours a day is easy, but producing actual work for 12 hours is not. Think before you clock in to that.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

The First Amendment Long live the Virgin protects the ‘Dreamers’, too Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

Noah Feldman

BLOOMBERG

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resident Donald J. Trump’s Department of Justice claims it has the authority to use information submitted by “Dreamers” who applied for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program to deport them now. It’s obviously wrong for the government to lure people in by the promise of freedom, then use what they have said against them. It may also be unconstitutional, a violation of due process that shocks the conscience and a violation of the Dreamers’ free-speech rights when they registered for Daca in the first place.

To be clear, this issue only arises if the Trump revocation of President Barack Obama’s Daca policy is itself constitutional. A lawsuit before the courts has already been amended to claim that the reversal violates the equal protection of the laws by discriminating against Latinos.

But it will be very hard for that legal argument against the Daca revocation to prevail. The stated basis for Trump’s reversal of Daca is that the program exceeded the president’s constitutional authority. That view isn’t out of left field. The US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit so held, and the US Supreme Court split 4-4 on the issue before Trump was elected and Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the court.

Even if Daca was itself constitutional, the same theory of executive discretion that permitted it would in principle permit Trump to rescind it, at least so long as he did not act on the basis of unconstitutional prejudice. The fact that the president can very probably reverse Daca doesn’t automatically mean the government can take the documentation submitted by Dreamers and use it to deport them. There will soon be lawsuits arguing that doing so is unlawful.

Although they may be long shots, they aren’t necessarily greater long shots than the suit brought against Daca in the first place.

One argument against using Dreamers’ submissions to deport them derives from the constitutional guarantee of due process in the Fifth Amendment. Zachary Price, a professor at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law, argued last fall in the Washington Post that using the Dreamers’ own words against them would be a kind of entrapment.

Price’s core idea is that because the government actually elicited the Dreamers’ statements, it cannot now rely on them in separate legal proceedings for deportation.

To deepen the due process argument, it could be added that, by long constitutional tradition, the government violates due process when it takes actions that “shock the conscience”. As Justice Felix Frankfurter explained in a 1952 decision, Rochin v. California, the decision that a government action shocks the conscience rests with the courts and depends on the specific circumstances.

Although case law applying this standard usually relates to physical invasion by the police (in the Rochin case, the police forced a suspect to vomit up two morphine capsules), it is a plausible extension to say that it shocks the conscience to exploit Dreamers’ efforts to register for a government program intended to benefit them.

Interacting with the US government can’t be treated as a game in which the participants must gamble on whether the approach will lead to sanctuary or deportation.

What’s more, using Dreamers’ information against them bears a more than passing resemblance to forcible self-incrimination in criminal law, which is also barred by the Fifth Amendment, albeit in the different circumstances of the courtroom.

Beyond due process, there is a viable free-speech argument against

When the Dreamers announced themselves to the government, they were actively participating in the political process, standing up and saying they exist. This was speech, both actual and symbolic —the kind that lies at the very heart of the First Amendment.

Filling out the Daca application was very different from filling out any other government form.

It was a publicly significant act. deporting the Dreamers on the basis of what they said in their applications. And given the conservative Supreme Court justices’ love of free speech and distrust of expanding due process, it may have a better chance of success.

When the Dreamers announced themselves to the government, they were actively participating in the political process, standing up and saying they exist. This was speech, both actual and symbolic—the kind that lies at the very heart of the First Amendment.

Filling out the Daca application was very different from filling out any other government form. It was a publicly significant act.

If the government uses Dreamers’ statements as a basis for deportation, it burdens the speech rights that the Dreamers exercised. In effect, the government would be punishing Dreamers for standing up and saying they exist. People inside the US have free-speech rights, even if they are not citizens.

It’s true that, if you admit publicly that you’re guilty of a crime, the government can later use that statement against you without a First Amendment violation. The crucial difference is that, when the Dreamers made their statements, they were simply making assertions of legal entitlements.

For the government subsequently to treat those statements as a basis for deportation is to retroactively punish the protected speech act. It turns any public statement into a potential basis for future government retaliation, which would have a chilling effect.

A further possible First Amendment concern is that the government may not condition receipt of a benefit on waiver of a constitutional right. To deport the Dreamers for statements they made in order to receive the benefit of the Daca program arguably creates an unconstitutional condition on their past speech.

The free-speech argument isn’t a home run. The Trump administration could say that it isn’t punishing the Dreamers for speaking but simply taking advantage of the information they freely provided. Yet a court troubled by the outrageousness of the government’s bait-andswitch might reject that purported distinction.

Congress could solve this problem by prohibiting government use of Dreamers’ statements against them, an idea that has been knocking around Congress for a while.

But given how unlikely that is, it’s time to double down on the constitutional arguments—to avoid a moral crime that truly shocks the conscience.

I

N another language, the cries of men and women during the Peñafrancia Festival sound eccentric.

Today, Friday, in the city of Naga, that odd cry, Viva la Virgen, shall dominate the procession called “Traslación”.

It is a process that brings the small image of the Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia, or Our Lady of Peñafrancia, to the cathedral. The icon will stay in the cathedral for nine days, for that is what this festival is—a novena.

As with all kinds of ritual or ceremonial event, one cannot find any logic in this move. The distance between the Basilica, which is the home of the icon or even the old shrine, to the cathedral is not significant.

Indeed, one can easily travel to the shrine anytime in the most accessible tricycle or even by walking.

Could the movement be a spiritual journey for the Virgin?

Given how strange any reason for this movement, one is compelled to conjure metaphors or discover symbols behind the festival.

In certain parts of the country, the Bicol region included, there are practices where icons are moved from one village to another, from one household to another household.

The ritual involves a turning over of responsibility of one caretaker to another caretaker. The event can be emotional. During the Traslación, old residents talk about how difficult it is to move the icon from its shrine by the river to the massive cathedral. When the icon was still housed in the old shrine, which was tiny compared to the cathedral, the shift in the site of the novena made sense. Presently, the Basilica Minore from where the Virgin would come from, negates that reasoning of having bigger venue for more pilgrims.

By the time the Virgin goes back to her shrine by way of a

fluvial procession, the old men and women of the city have this feeling she is leaving one home in favor of another. And yet, there is another problem; replica of the icon exists everywhere in the churches in practically all the towns in the region.

In matter of matter, the Virgin does not really leave her Shrine because she has many shrines.

Each year Bikolanos, in particular, ask where the original image of the Virgin is. In 1981 the icon was stolen and returned only a year after. It is said the original

Friday, September 8, 2017 A11

Each year Bikolanos, in particular, ask where the original image of the Virgin is. In 1981 the icon was stolen and returned only a year after. It is said the original image became brittle it could not withstand anymore the rigors of a procession. The procession can be rowdy and chaotic with men called voyadores competing to touch the image. Each year the institutional Church discourages this practice, especially being drunk during the event. Each year the devotees continue the practice. image became brittle it could not withstand anymore the rigors of a procession. The procession can be rowdy and chaotic with men called voyadores competing to touch the image. Each year the institutional Church discourages this practice, especially being drunk during the event. Each year the devotees continue the practice.

Women are not allowed to bear

the image of the Virgin. For practical reasons, given how riotous the procession can be, this rule or tradition is understandable. During the fluvial procession, however, when the boat ride could be pleasant and safe, women are still not allowed. There is a belief that women onboard with the Virgin on the pagoda, the boat that bears the Virgin, can cause that boat to sink.

Women do not challenge these taboos. Men are silent. Is faith ever blind?

The Virgin of Peñafrancia is called “Ina” by devotees. She is a Mother foremost. Does this explain the faith that seems to ignore the odd and eccentric? Perhaps.

Perhaps, this Mother, our Mother, during the month of September, moves from her home to be with her other children. Perhaps, someday, this Mother will tell her children that everyone should be allowed to be with her, on land and by the river.

Perhaps, when that day comes, we will listen.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.

Caritas Manila launches the ‘75 Days of Charity’ Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

SERVANT LEADER

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aritas Manila, the social services ministry of the Archdiocese of Manila, is having the “75 Days of Charity”, in solidarity with His Holiness Pope Francis’s announcement of the first-ever World Day of the Poor in November.

The 75 Days of Charity runs from September 5, which is the International Day of Charity, up to the World Day of the Poor on November 19.

“So that throughout the world Christian communities can become an ever greater sign of Christ’s charity for the least and those most in need. For the whole Church, and men and women of good will everywhere, to turn their gaze to all

those who stretch out their hands and plead for our help and solidarity,” said Francis in his message for the first World Day of the Poor.

You may participate in three ways. One, by filling cans of charities. Under this program, giving and helping the poor is made easier through the deployment of drop cans (alkansya) to offices and/or to public places, like in the canteen, cashier or lobby. People can

I hope that individuals, companies, homeowners and condominium associations, schools, parishes and other sociocivic and religious organizations will show their love to the poor, not just in words, but also in deed. Let us all help the poor help themselves through the 75 Days of Charity.

then drop bills or coins in the can to share with those in need. The cans will be distributed starting September 5 and will be collected at the end of the 75 Days of Charity.

Two, by supporting the Segunda Mana Donations-in-kind program wherein preloved items, such as apparel, footwear, bags, accessories, furniture and appliances, that just take up space at home will be sold at Segunda Mana Charity Outlets. Proceeds of Segunda Mana help sustain the Caritas Manila

flagship Youth Servant Leadership and Education Program (YSLEP), which focuses on education for the underprivileged youth, supporting 5,000 scholars nationwide.

Three, you can also join through educational sponsorship through Caritas Manila’s YSLEP. Make a lasting difference in the lives of poor but deserving youth and their family by helping them get a college or vocational-technical education with a donation of P25,000 per year.

I hope that individuals, companies, homeowners and condominium associations, schools, parishes and other sociocivic and religious organizations will show their love to the poor, not just in words, but also in deed. Let us all help the poor help themselves through the 75 Days of Charity.

To know more about Caritas Manila, visit www. caritasmanila.org.ph. For your donations, please call our DonorCare lines 563-9311, 564-0205, 09997943455, 0905-4285001 and 0929-8343857.

Canada is the test kitchen for a new economic recipe

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By Daniel Moss | Bloomberg View

anada may be gearing up for a bit of an economic experiment.

With growth sizzling at 4.5 percent but inflation below its 2-percent target, the Bank of Canada hinted this week that there may be scope to allow the economy to run hot.

That’s not necessarily the view of investors who pushed the Canadian dollar higher, perhaps in anticipation that the Bank of Canada’s rate increase will be part of a trend.

(Why that rate hike surprised markets is a mystery, considering last week’s bumper growth numbers—

not to mention my columns!)

A couple of things jumped out in the central bank’s announcement that suggest a less hawkish stance.

Officials see Canada as uniquely placed to reflect, and benefit from, the global upswing now underway among major economies.

Two sentences toward the end of the five-paragraph statement are especially intriguing. The bank seemed to challenge the notion that low unemployment will lead as a matter, of course, to sustained gains in wages and inflation. (Policy-makers in quite a few countries are getting a little anxious that traditional models aren’t behaving.) The statement said, “There remains some excess capacity in Canada’s labor market, and wage and price pressures are still more subdued than historical relationships would suggest, as observed in some other advanced economies.”

The Bank of Canada went on in

the penultimate sentence to say that “particular focus will be given to the evolution of the economy’s potential, and to labor market conditions.”

Canada’s jobless rate is 6.3 percent. That’s not especially low compared with some of its Group of Seven partners, though it is the best performance since late 2008. So there’s room to run.

In the post-2008 world, we don’t know the point at which conventional models will kick in and push wages and inflation up to where they should be. Or whether they ever will.

Perhaps Canada will help us answer the question.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Friday, September 8, 2017

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Procedures on war on drugs need to be reviewed–Palace M

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

ALACAÑANG admitted there is a need to reexamine the procedure by which the war on drugs is being carried out.

ment is “rethinking the way we do things”.

“And so that is part now of the entire restructuring and renewing, and actually it falls within the ambit of the President’s campaign that there should be lesser crime, lesser corruption [while addressing] illegal drugs,” Abella said.

The PNP is under public scrutiny after some of its operatives were accused of killing helplessly two teenagers, namely, 17-year-old Kian de los Santos and 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz. The PNP has maintained the two resisted arrest and fought against police forces on drug and criminal charges, respectively.

Arnaiz’s missing companion, 14-year-old Reynaldo de Guzman, was discovered on Wednesday in Gapan, Nueva Ecija. His body sustained 30 stab wounds and his head was wrapped in packing tape.

Abella said the National Bureau of Investigation was instructed to conduct a thorough investigation and case buildup on the killing of de Guzman.

“We call on authorities to bring the perpetrators of this suspicious crime to justice,” he added.

Hu ma n-r ights g roup C hi ldren’s Legal Rights and Development Center (CLRDC) reported more than 50 minors have been killed in the war on drugs. In a television interview on Monday, CLRDC Executive Director Rowena Legaspi said their group has documented at least 54 cases of minors killed in the war on drugs, with de los Santos’s case being the 54th.

“So it’s [the killing of de los Santos] is not an isolated case,” Legaspi said.

The administration has received flak from local and inter-

national human-rights group for allegedly endorsing the murder of suspected drug criminals in the name of the war on drugs.

President Duterte has told police forces to shoot suspects who will resist arrest and, if they don’t, force them to fight back and plant a gun in their corpse.

“I said [to the police], if they are there [suspected drug criminals], destroy them also, especially if they put up a good fight,” the President said in a speech last December. “But if they have no gun, give them a gun. Here’s a loaded gun, fight, because the mayor said let’s fight.”

Duterte repeated the same instruction to police forces in a speech in July but with an additional tip: “If the suspect does not want to fight back, make him fight back.”

However, as he sails in one of

the toughest criticisms of the war on drugs, which is the death of de los Santos, Duterte backpedalled on his instructions to the police.

“What I reminded again the military and the police is that it should be in the performance of your duty. You are not allowed to kill a person who is kneeling down begging for his life. That is murder,” Duterte said in mid-August, following the controversial death of de los Santos.

Authorities involved in the killing of de los Santos were accused of planting evidence in the corpse of the the minor. To this, Duterte said he cannot protect them no longer in court.

“I never promised to protect those who are supposedly engaged in doing their duty but committing a crime in the process. Abuses, that cannot be done,” the Chief Executive said.

In a news briefing on Thursday, Presidential Spokesman Ernesto C. Abella said the war on drugs remains to be at the forefront of the administration’s flagship campaigns. However, Abella said the Philippine National Police (PNP) should not only scrutinize its ranks but also review its procedure in performing operations against suspected drug criminals.

“One, the campaign against illegal drugs is something that the President is entirely committed— his entire administration,” Abella said. “However, the manner in which these things are carried out need to really be examined.”

The President’s spokesman added the ongoing Senate investigation on the alleged police killings indicates the govern-

Alvarez set to file bill creating PHL Railway Corp.

Govt to owe LRMC ₧600M in fare subsidy by end-2017

By Jun N. Aguirre

K

Correspondent

A L I BO, A k l a n—Hou se Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez on Thursday disclosed that he will file a bill mandating the creation of a Philippine Railway Corp. (PRC) next week.

The planned PRC, he said, is envisioned to have at least three divisions: the Luzon Railway Corp., the Visayas Railway Corp. and the Mindanao Railway Corp.

Alvarez was here on Thursday to lead the induction of some 4, 500 new recruits of the administration party PDP Laban. The new recruits include incumbent mayors, provincial board members, municipal vice mayors, councilors and barangay officials The oathtaking ceremony was held at the ABL Sports Complex at the Provincial Capitol here.

“In the Visayas the main office will be in Cebu, but included in its geographical area the Panay Island.

There was an existing railway system in Panay. It is important that we would revive the railway in Panay to boost tourism and trade,” Alvarez said, adding that he is planning to file the said bill on Monday.

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

F

@lorenzmarasigan

ARE claims from the delayed implementation of tariff increase on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 would cost the government more than half a billion pesos by year-end, according to a ranking official of the operator of the train system.

Light Rail Manila Corp. (LRMC) President Rogelio L. Singson said the government would have owed the company as much as P600 million on fare claims by the end of 2017, a “measly amount” that the state could cover to shield commuters from the tariff adjustment.

“By year-end fare claims would be about P500 million to P600 million,” he told the BusinessMirror. “The government can easily subsidize it.” Under the concession agreement, a 10-percent fare adjustment should have been implemented in August last year. The government failed to implement this, hence the claims.

Currently, the government owes the private company, a joint venture between Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Ayala Corp., a whopping P300 million in delayed fare hike.

“Ideally, they should be implementing the provisions of the concession agreement, which means to correct the fare, so that there will be no subsidy,” Singson said.

However, Singson added, his group recommended that the Light

THIS file photo shows passengers inside a cab of the Light Rail Transit. Light Rail Manila Corp. (LRMC) President Rogelio L. Singson said the government’s debt to the LRMC would hit as much as P600 million on fare claims by the end of the year. Noriel De Guzman

Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) subsidize the cost, so as not to burden commuters from the fare hike.

“From our discussions with the LRTA, I told them they have a big budget. So, instead of adjusting it to the riders, the government can subsidize it,” he said. The regulator, Singson added, is amenable to the said recommendation.

LRMC holds the concession for the operations, maintenance and the extension of the train line to Cavite. It signed the agreement with the government in October 2014. The company will operate and maintain the oldest train system in the Philippines for 32 years.

Targeted for completion in about four years after the delivery of

right-of-way, the 11.7-kilometer Cavite Extension will connect into the existing system immediately south of the Baclaran Station and run in a generally southerly direction to Niyog, Cavite.

It will consist of elevated guideways throughout the majority of the alignment, except for the guideway section at Zapote, which

Tobacco farmers, buyers fail to reach agreement on new 2-yr floor prices Continued from A1

cannot even sell nor manufacture their current supply of tobacco leaf due to dampened demand for tobacco products.

“Conleaf [Continental Leaf Tobacco Phil Inc.] said they cannot even sell at the moment and they have about 400,000 kg of leaf in their warehouses because no one is buying.”

However, the farmers did not give in to the argument of the private sector, and insisted on the P16.7-per-kg hike due to the increasing production cost of tobacco, according to Seares. The farmers, he added, would only reduce their proposal if they would be given aid in their planting inputs, such as financial assistance or subsidies.

“We told them that the NTA will be trying to push for assistance in their

inputs, such as a 20-percent subsidy in their fertilizers, to lower down their cost of production. But we cannot assure that as we will try to get the approval of the Department of Budget and Management for the subsidy,” he said.

The NTA administrator added the farmers would also seek dialogue with their respective local government units (LGUs) for possible subsidies in their production.

Due to this, Seares said, the NTA decided to postpone the second day of the tripartite conference and restar t the whole negotiation next month. “They have to meet halfway.

They should come up with a more logical price increase for tobacco that would benefit both the farmers and the players.”

Floor pr ice is the minimum pr ice

a llowed by the gover nment for the procurement of tobacco buyers from the farmers. T his is set based on the prevailing market conditions, such as production cost, reasonable margin of profit for stakeholders and grow ing conditions.

The current floor prices for the highest grade of each tobacco type are P81 for Virginia, P68 for Burley and P70 for Native.

Based on data from the NTA Regulation Department, floor prices (per kg) for high to medium grades of tobacco in the past two tripartite conferences (2013 and 2015) saw an average increase of P4.48 per kg for Virginia, P4.80 per kg for Burley and P3.88 per kg for Native type. The previous tripartite conference was held on September 29, 2015.

The new adjustment in floor prices

for this year’s tripartite conference will be implemented during the tobacco trading years 2018 and 2019.

As mandated by Presidential Decree (PD) 627 (for all tobacco types except Virginia), PD 1481 (for Virginia) and PD 1143 as amended (for Burley), the NTA is authorized to set/fix tobacco floor prices by adopting a tripartite consultative conference, through its regulation office as the lead department.

The NTA conducts the tripartite conference to decide on new tobacco prices every two years. The biennial tripartite conference serves as a venue for the tobacco farmers and the tobacco firms (cigarette manufacturers, tobacco dealers and exporters) to evaluate and negotiate the floor prices of unprocessed tobacco leaves, according to Seares.

Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

will be located at grade.

Eight new stations will be provided with three intermodal facilities across Pasay City, Parañaque City, Las Piñas City and Cavite.

The new stations are Aseana, MIA, Asia World, Ninoy Aquino, Dr. Santos, Las Pinas, Zapote and Niyog. The intermodal facilities shall be located at Dr. Santos, Zapote and Niyog.

The new stations will be accessible to and from nearby community facilities, such as shops, schools, stadium, park, etc., and be located to suit passenger flow routes from residential areas.

Pedestrian access to all new stations will be direct, safe and easy. Details, such as lighting to distinguish access points, pedestrian cross striping and curb cuts for handicapped access, will also be provided.

It recently received two international certifications on management and environmental standards from TUV Rheinland.

It is on the lookout for railway deals in the Philippines, syncing its expansion plan to the Duterte administration’s massive infrastructure thrust.

The Duterte administration has lined up several rail-infrastructure deals in its huge pipeline of projects: the Mega Manila Subway, the Mindanao Railway, the Philippine National Railways South Long Haul Line and the LRT Line 2 Extension, among others.

Labor group wants 4-day workweek to be optional Continued from A1

four-day workweek is the best approach,” said the group’s statement, read by Barrit during the 888 News Forum at Marco Polo Plaza.

In easing traffic in urban areas, ALU-TUCP suggested that the government limit the use of major thoroughfares during rush hours to vehicles carrying at least three passengers, including the driver.

“While we are still awaiting new mass-transportation infrastructure to be put up, all private-car owners must sacrifice. The car industry must also sacrifice by following rules, which will require three passengers if a private car wants to use a major thoroughfare during rush hours.

Workers cannot just be the ones bearing the burden.

In our society, all must bear the burden and all must sacrifice for a better future,” the statement added.

Charles R. Pepito