Businessmirror september 19, 2016

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Monday, September 19, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 345

Govt eyes fisheries pact with Indonesia T

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

he Department of Agriculture (DA) said the government is currently in talks with Jakarta to allow Philippine fishing vessels to traverse Indonesia’s territorial waters en route to tuna-rich spots in the Pacific Ocean.

INSIDE

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the forging of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for this was one of the agenda of President Duterte’s re-

After 10 years, U.N. chief disappointed in many world leaders

cent state visit to Indonesia. “The Philippines is asking the Indonesian government to allow Filipino fishing vessels to pass through their territorial waters.

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PPPs and ‘Pokémon Go’ as game changers PPP Lead

384,942 MT The volume of tuna caught by Filipino fishermen last year

The government is hoping to have an MOU with them,” Piñol told the BusinessMirror. He said Indonesian President Joko Widodo has instructed his technical panel to study and review the proposal of the Philippines. The MOU, Piñol said, would reduce the cost incurred by Filipino fishing firms when they go to the western sea pocket or High Seas Pocket 1 (HSP1) of the Pacific Ocean to catch tuna. See “Fisheries,” A2

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Duterte admin looking at illegal parking as cause of traffic woes

Alberto C. Agra

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hy should publicprivate partnerships (PPPs) and the mobile-phone game “Pokémon Go” (PG) be game changers? Will PPPs become as popular as PG? What are the similarities and dissimilarities between them? What can PPP advocates learn from PG players? Yes, your columnist is a PG player. He searches for the nearest PokéStop; uses his Ultra Balls to catch hard-to-find Pokémons; and brags to his relatives the list of characters in his Pokédex. Continued on A14

PERSPECTIVE

e4

PHL ATTRACTING MORE VIETNAMESE TOURISTS

HOW TO TALK POLITICS AT WORK WITHOUT ALIENATING PEOPLE

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@Pulitika2010 Special to the BusinessMirror

W monday morning

e1 The parking lot at the Mall of Asia in front of the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. ROY DOMINGO

Technology at Paralympics

Part One

S sports

c1

TUDIES conducted in the last decade showed that onstreet parking in Metro Manila is not properly monitored and apprehended, despite having an illegal-parking law implemented since 1964. Vehicle owners simply park their cars along streets—even on busy highways and secondary roads—causing a backlog along a

PESO exchange rates n US 47.5710

₧200 The fine for illegal parking

street whose traffic should have been moving freely. According to a study by civil engineers Marc Lim, Eriko Luis Hallare and Jesus Briones, on-

street parking “slows down and impedes vehicles, and disrupts the flow of traffic, especially when vehicles are maneuvering in and out of the curb.” However, “when on- st reet parking is properly designed, properly regulated and properly incorporated in the estimation of road capacity with the use of an equation model, this could lessen the disruption caused by the

ITH their rising standard of living and increasing wealth, the Vietnamese are fast becoming outbound travelers, a number of whom have made their way to the Philippines. Visitor arrivals from Vietnam in 2011, for instance, amounted to only 17,781, but last year they reached 31,579, up almost 6 percent from 2014. From January to June 2016, tourists from Vietnam rose by almost 7 percent to 17,881, already exceeding more than half of the arrivals in the entire 2015. The Department of Tourism (DOT) considers the country as a high-growth market being part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). As such, Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo led a Philippine delegation to the 12th Inter-

national Travel Expo Ho Chi Minh City (ITE HCMC 2016), Vietnam’s foremost tourism-trade event. The travel expo was held at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center from September 8 to 10, according to a news statement from the DOT. At the same time, Teo attended a closed-door Ministerial Meeting with other representatives of national tourism organizations from Southeast Asia and China, which was also held in Ho Chi Minh. Teo said, “In addition to promoting our country as a short-haul destination, we learned new things about the policies discussed during the Ministerial Meeting and our participation during the ITE HCMC, and how it grew to be the largest travel event in the country’s Mekong region.” She said the event promotes leisure tourism, luxury travel, MICE See “PHL,” A2

Continued on A2

n japan 0.4660 n UK 62.9792 n HK 6.1319 n CHINA 7.1216 n singapore 34.8966 n australia 35.7448 n EU 53.5031 n SAUDI arabia 12.6856

Source: BSP (16 September 2016 )

A2 Monday, September 19, 2016

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Duterte admin looking at illegal parking as cause of traffic woes Continued from A1

on-street parking to the flow of traffic,” the authors said in their study in 2012, which was presented in Bangkok, Thailand. The authors concluded that onstreet parking, as well as the maneuvering of vehicles in and out of an onstreet parking, “prolongs the travel time of moving vehicles whether they be parallel or angled to the curb.” There are laws in place with regard to parking. For one, Republic Act 4136, or the law that lists relative land transport and traffic rules, stipulates that parking is prohibited in specific places. “No driver shall park a vehicle, or permit it to stand, whether attended or unattended, upon a

highway in any of the following places: within an intersection; on a crosswalk; within 6 meters of the intersection of curb lines; within 4 meters of the driveway entrance to fire station; within 4 meters of fire hydrant; in front of a private driveway; on the roadway side of any vehicle stopped or parked at the curb or edge of the highway; and at any place where official signs have been erected prohibiting parking,” the law read. According to the Land Transportation Office (LTO), the fine for illegal parking is a mere P200. Transportation Spokesman Cherie Mercado-Santos said her camp would like to implement traffic rules—specifically parking laws and memos—especially on nation-

PHL. . .

Continued from A1

(meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions), medical and aesthetics tourism, spa and wellness, “and even education tourism in Vietnam, as well as neighboring countries like Cambodia and Laos.” Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, formerly known as Indochina, are considered by the Philippines as “friendly neighbors”, but also “our immediate competitors in travel and tourism. Experiencing firsthand how they do tourism marketing and communications will help a lot in the planning and implementation of our own programs,” the DOT chief added. Begun in 2005, the annual ITE HCMC has an average of 300 exhibiting travel companies, international and regional hosted buyers, and media. In 2015 it recorded a total of 23,000 visitors, including consumers. The DOT set up a 36-meter booth during the three-day travel expo and showcased Boracay, a top destination for Vietnamese

al roads and major choke points. “We want a stricter implementation of the ‘no parking rule’ on major thoroughfares and identified Mabuhay lanes,” she said in a text message to the BusinessMirror. Santos added that the transportation department is trying its best to implement this rule under the newly formed Interagency Council on Traffic, which has been apprehending motorists who have parked illegally since its formation last month. “Right now, with the Interagency Council on Traffic, enforcers apprehend 70 to 80 illegally parked vehicles per day,” she said. The traffic-management body is composed of the Metropolitan Manila Development Author-

tourists, and featured other destinations in the Philippines, as well. Six Filipino tour operators met with current and prospective Vietnamese travel-trade partners to promote the country’s many interesting attractions. The tour operators— Ang’s Tour Inc., HRG Philippines-Marsman Drysdale Travel Inc., Jeron Travel, Pan-Pacific Travel Corp., Travel Experts Inc. and Uni-Orient Travel Inc.—were able to generate bookings to the Philippines from tour packages developed with their Vietnamese travel-trade partners, the DOT said. As they are just new at international travel, the Vietnamese still speak with travel agents face-to-face to book their trips and holidays, unlike tourists from other Asean countries who are now savvy at making their air and hotel reservations via the Internet. This was why it was important for the Philippines to attend Vietnam’s travel fair, Teo said. Vietnamese also prefer short-haul or neighboring destinations for holidays. In 2014 about 4.3 million Vietnamese took interna-

it y (MMDA), Highway Patrol Group (HPG), Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB). Tr a n s p or t at ion S e c re t a r y Arthur P. Tugade said his camp decided to move the impounding facility to Cavite from Quezon City to decongest the LTO’s on East Avenue. “On the average, we have 60 to 70 vehicles illegally parked. Do the math,” he said. “The one who caused inconvenience is not entitled to convenience.” Lawmakers have been pushing for a “no garage, no parking” legislation since the time of President Aquino, but it has yet to be discussed in the 17th Congress.

tional leisure trips. The United Nations World Tourism Organization considers Vietnam as a significant outbound tourism growth market, forecasting holiday trips to reach 6.4 million by 2020. Vietnam’s economic growth has been speeding at a fast clip, with GDP projected to expand by 8.5 percent this year, with GDP per capita reaching $2,132, according to the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook. By 2017 and 2018, its GDP is projected to slightly tame to 7.7 percent, with GDP per capita reaching $2,474. According to a study commissioned by the American Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam, “the middle and affluent class [MAC] in Vietnam will double in size between 2014 and 2020, from 12 million to 33 million. MAC consumers, whose income is from VND15 million [$714] or more a month, are also spreading out to other provinces and cities.” “By 2020, Vietnam’s average per-capita income will rise from $1,400 to $3,400 a year,” the study noted.

Under the proposed bill, patterned after similar models in congested cities like India and Japan, people seeking to buy a car or two will have to show proof that they have a sufficient parking space before being allowed purchase. With the Philippine economy growing annually at 6 percent, consumers now have more money to spare on cars. In 2015 alone, there were 300,000 new vehicles that hit the road in 2015. Data from the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. showed that car sales during the first six months of 2016 reached 167,481 units, about 36,000 units higher than the year prior. Car sales, according to the

Fisheries. . .

Continued from A1

“If Indonesia will not allow our Filipino fishing boats to pass their territorial waters, they would have to take a longer route, which is more expensive,” he said. In 2013 the Philippines was granted extended fishing access to HSP1 of the Pacific Ocean until 2017 by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC). The Philippines caught a combined total of 384,942 metric tons (MT) of various tuna species in 2015, according to the annual report submitted by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar) to the WCPFC last month. In the same report, the Bfar said 35 out of the 36 allowed vessels in the HSP1 zone caught a total of 26,510 MT last year.

‘No to DFAR’

While he initially wanted a separate department to oversee the fisheries sector, Piñol said he decided to abandon the idea of putting up a Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Dfar) after careful study. During the campaign period, Piñol said he authored a book, titled Feeding Millions: The Duterte Food Security Blueprint. It focused on how then-presidential candidate

automotive group, will grow to 370,000 by year-end. According to Uber Manila General Manager Laurence Cua, one of the short-term solutions to the chronic traffic congestion in Metro Manila is to limit the number of cars on the roads. He advocated the use of ride sharing to reduce the number of cars along the cities’ arteries. Losses from traffic congestion in Metro Manila alone is at P2.4 billion per day since 2014, according to a study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The amount is expected to balloon to a whopping P6 billion daily should the sorry traffic situation continue to persist through 2030. To be continued Lorenz S. Marasigan

Rodrigo Duterte “will reformat Philippine agriculture and enhance food production not only for the needs of the Filipinos but also to provide jobs and income to people in the farming communities.” The book served as the basis of the agricultural platform of President Duterte. In it, Piñol made a pitch for the creation of the Dfar. He said he abandoned the idea of creating a separate department for the fisheries sector when he realized the difficulties of coordinating various agencies that are no longer under the DA. Piñol cited as an example the transfer of agencies previously attached to the DA—the National Food Authority (NFA), National Irrigation Authority (NIA) and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA)—to the Office of the President. Before he could implement an agricultural program, he needed to coordinate with the Office of the President if it will involve the NFA, NIA, or the PCA. “Just to illustrate, I am currently addressing the cocolisap infestation in Basilan, and I need to help coconut farmers. I have to provide livelihood programs for those affected,” Piñol said. “However, I cannot just tell coconut farmers to approach the PCA, because it is no longer under the DA,” he added.

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Monday, September 19, 2016 A3

Comprehensive housing road map to be completed by Q1 2017–HUDCC

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By Cai U. Ordinario

@cuo_bm

he Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) has pushed back its timetable for the completion of the comprehensive housing road map to the first quarter of 2017.

205,000 units The number of houses needed in Supertyphoon Yolanda-affected areas

the need to craft a comprehensive road map. Robredo added that the HUDCC’s current data came from last year’s housing summit. Robredo said the postdisaster response is also needed, especially after she discovered the housing problems in Supertyphoon Yolan-

file photo

HUDCC Chairman and Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo said the World Bank is helping the HUDCC create the road map, as well as a postdisaster shelter response policy and program for the housing sector. Robredo said only the postdisaster shelter response policy and program, which the World Bank is also crafting with the HUDCC, will be completed by the end of the year. “The World Bank said maybe we will not be able to complete the road map by the end of the year. They asked to be given until the first quarter of next year,” Robredo said. “We’re willing to wait as long as everything is in order.” She said she recently met with the World Bank and raised

da-affected areas. Three years after the typhoon, affected residents in the Visayas have not fully recovered and many still live in temporary shelter made of coco lumber, which is not strong enough to protect its residents should another typhoon hit the area.

“With this delay, what will happen if there’s another strong typhoon? These residents will experience a double disaster,” Robredo said. She said the funds to build houses are available. The problem, she added, is the stringent requirements of the Commission on Audit

that prevents houses to be built. Earlier, she said one of these requirements is a land title. Unfortunately, in many provinces nationwide, only tax declarations are available as proof of landownership. Getting lands titled takes anywhere from two to three years. This

long process, Robredo said, is one of the things which the HUDCC wants to amend to hasten the provision of houses for the homeless, particularly in disaster-stricken areas. Robredo pegged the housing requirement in Yolanda-affected areas at 205,000 units. But reports received by the HUDCC indicated that only 25,000 were completed and only 2,500 of these are currently occupied. “I told my office I want to see these 25,000 houses with my own eyes,” Robredo said. “If we need 205,000 houses and only 2,500 are occupied, we are very far from our target.” Earlier, she said there may be a need to relax land-title requirements to speed up efforts to provide housing units in the Visayas. In Eastern Samar alone, Robredo said only 200 houses are being constructed of the 900 units needed. Further, even after three years, Robredo said none of the 200 houses have been completed. The HUDCC chairman said she has tasked the National Housing Authority to provide a matrix of all unfinished housing projects and other problems that need to be addressed in areas affected by Yolanda.

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A4 Monday, September 19, 2016

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House members to scrutinize proposed tax-reform measures T

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

he tax-reform packages being proposed by the Department of Finance (DOF) will have to be reviewed first by members of the House of Representatives before said proposals are referred to Congress, a leader of the lower chamber said. “[The government will] reduce PIT maximum rate to 25 percent over time [from the current 32 percent], except for the highest income earners, to maintain progressivity and shift to a modified gross system to simplify PIT system,” the DOF said. Among the offsetting measures for PIT and consumption tax are the expansion of value-added tax (VAT) base by limiting exemptions to raw food and other necessities; increase excise tax on all petroleum products and index to inflation; levy a tax on sugary products and index to inflation; relax bank secrecy for fraud cases; and include tax evasion as a predicate crime to money laundering. The DOF also seeks to reduce the CIT to 25 percent, from the current 30 percent, and simplify other CIT

Majority Leader and PDP-Laban Rep. Rodolfo C. Fariñas of Ilocos Norte said the lower chamber would thoroughly study the DOF’s taxreform measures, including the offsetting measures that would address the revenue losses from the tax-policy packages. “The DOF presented [its] tax packages [during our recent meeting at the Palace]. We will discuss [these proposals] with our House colleagues. We will inform you once the bills are ready for filing,” Fariñas told the BusinessMirror. Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, during his recent meeting with the House Committee on Ways and Means, said his agency’s tax-reform packages include personal-income tax (PIT) and consumption tax, corporate-income tax (CIT), property tax and capital-income tax.

provisions to improve compliance. To implement the tax cut for companies and corporations, the DOF said Congress should rationalize fiscal incentives; sunset provisions to existing incentives; expand the coverage of the Fiscal Incentives Review Board to include all incentive recipients beyond government-owned and -controlled corporations; replace the 5-percent gross income earned tax rate to a reduced CIT rate of 15 percent; strictly limit VAT zerorating to direct exporters; give full VAT refund in cash and abolish tax-credit certificates. The DOF also seeks to lower the rate of the estate and donor’s tax and reduce the rate of transaction taxes on land. Among the offsetting measures for this property tax are rationalize valuation of properties; increase valuation closer to market prices and review valuation every three years and adjust accordingly. The agency also seeks to reduce the tax on interest income earned on peso deposit and investment from 20 percent to 10 percent. However, it said Congress should harmonize capital income-tax rates for dollar deposits and investment, dividends, equity and fixed-income rates toward 10 percent and increase tax on stocks traded in the stock market from 0.5 percent to 1 percent on gross selling price. The DOF also wants to impose

taxes on fatty food; luxury, such as automobiles, yachts and jewelry; mining taxes; revisit sin taxes on tobacco and alcohol for health purposes; on carbon; and lottery and casino. “The tax-reform packages will allow the government to generate P368 billion from the tax policy, comprising a loss of P198 billion and a gain of P566 billion by 2019,” according to the DOF. Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate of Bayan Muna, citing a study of IBON Foundation, said the proposed increase on excise tax on all petroleum products would result to it being indexed to inflation. “The petroleum excise tax is a fixed peso amount levied on every liter of particular petroleum products. Indexing this to inflation means the tax will be periodically adjusted higher, which means a perpetually growing tax on petroleum products and correspondingly higher prices,” Zarate said. He said the excise tax would not just affect fuels with direct effects on consumers, such as diesel, liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene. “Items, like bunker oil and asphalt, are currently not levied an excise tax but would now be included,” he said. “On the other hand, there are excise taxes of up to P4.50 per liter or kilogram on oil products, like gasoline, aviation fuel, lubricating grease and oils, naptha and others.

‘Duterte’s foreign policy will protect Philippines’ By David Cagahastian

he ruling party PDP-Laban defended President Duterte’s pro-China and seeming anti-United States foreign policy as his way of protecting the national interest and keeping the Philippines out of the “line of fire,” amid the brewing political rivalry between the two superpowers. In his recent public pronouncements, Mr. Duterte had been balking at US interference in domestic affairs. Palace officials had explained that the Philippines is not diverting to China and is not cutting ties with its traditional ally, the US, but is merely adopting an independent foreign policy free from interference from anybody. “This reorientation to have an independent foreign policy comes at a crucial time where the economic and political rivalry between US and China, along with Russia, is intensifying. With the shifting global realities, it is more prudent for President Duterte not to put his country in the line of fire. US forces’ presence in the Philippines may be perceived by China as a threat,” a statement from PDP-Laban’s Policy Studies Group head Jose Antonio Goitia said. China’s Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told a Philippine delegation to Beijing on Wednesday that the bilateral relations between the Philippines and China is at a new turning point after having “sunk to a low edge for reasons everyone knows,” alluding to the arbitration case recently decided in favor of the Philippines by the United Nations’

AP PHOTO

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@davecaga

Permanent Court of Arbitration. Presidential Communications Secretary Martin M. Andanar said the recent pronouncements by Mr. Duterte, which was seemingly welcomed by China’s vice foreign minister, do not signal any “diversion” of the Philippines’s foreign policy toward China. “When you create an independent foreign policy, it’s really just saying that we are a sovereign state and we are not beholden to any country. That’s all that we’re saying. We’re not severing ties with our allies, and our friendship with the Americans go a long way,” Andanar said in a news conference on Thursday. However, the Philippines is ad-

mittedly trying to become “less dependent” on the US for support, as Presidential Spokesman Ernesto C. Abella said when asked to clarify whether the recent pronouncement of the President for US soldiers to leave Mindanao was immediately executory. Abella said there was no directive for US soldiers to immediately leave Mindanao, and that Mr. Duterte’s pronouncement “was not policy yet.” The ruling party’s policy thinktank believes that Mr. Duterte’s apparent shift to China as the country’s main ally is a strategic move to push for the national interest. “Contrary to what the critics are saying, pursuing an independent

foreign policy and the call to pull out troops from Mindanao are not only part of the President’s antiBarack Obama stance, but more important, it is President Duterte’s way of protecting the national interest and security,” Goitia said. “In the face of the West Philippine Sea territorial dispute, the least the Philippine government can do at this point is not to project itself as a threat to China. What is at stake are not only the natural resources of the contested areas in the West Philippine Sea, but also the livelihood and safety of the overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China,” he added.

The DOF said it wants to impose a tax of P6 per liter on diesel, among others, which is commonly used by public-utility vehicles and by trucks transporting goods, as well as on LPG and kerosene, which are directly consumed by poor households. It may also raise existing excise taxes to up to P10 per liter or kilogram,” he said. “We agree with IBON that the higher excise tax on oil products will raise P178.2 billion in revenues, but these billions are ultimately taken from consumers’ pockets when they buy oil products directly or when these are passed on in higher prices of goods, services and transport fares,” he added. For his part, House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Dakila Carlo E. Cua of Quirino described the DOF tax-reform measures as “balanced package.” “It’s a balanced package, which I think should be paired with tough tax administration reforms. So while the committee tackles the

task of legislating the proposed reforms [filed by lawmakers], it is also bent on discharging it’s oversight function to support the President’s drive on improving tax administration, particularly combating corruption and simplifying the process,” Cua said. Meanwhile, the House Committee on Ways and Means will start on Tuesday its deliberations on several bills filed at the lower chamber seeking to reduce incomeand corporate-tax rates. Nineteen bills were filed reducing the income tax imposed on individuals by amending the National Internal Revenue Code. On the other hand, six bills were filed seeking to restructure the income tax imposed on individuals and corporations. Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez said the tax-reform proposals are included as priority measures of the 17th Congress. Alvarez, however, said he cannot give a timeline for the passage of these tax proposals.

The tax-reform packages will allow the government to generate P368 billion from the tax policy, comprising a loss of P198 billion and a gain of P566 billion by 2019.”—DOF

Expect competition among PHL telcos to intensify–Fitch C

OMPETITION in the local telco industry is expected to “intensify” in the next few years after the two players, in the hotly contested sector, gained access to a swathe of soft infrastructure that has forced them to increase capital spending for the next three years. According to Fitch Ratings, PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. is expected to elevate their capital expenditures in the coming years, thanks to their recent acquisition of San Miguel Corp.’s telco business. The transaction, which is currently being questioned by the competition watchdog, paved way for the two rivals to gain access to a swathe of frequencies previously held by the food-toinfrastructure firm. “We believe domestic competition will further intensify in the next year due to PLDT’s aggressive strategy to acquire market share,” Fitch Ratings said in a note on Globe’s issuer default ratings. The credit-rating agency said Globe’s robust expansion into the long-term evolution (LTE) network will keep its capital expenditures and revenue ratio elevated at 27 percent to 28 percent from 2016 to 2018. It also noted that PLDT’s aggressive promotional campaigns and handset subsidies, which are meant to drive data usage levels in the long term, are also likely to weigh on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. Capital requirements of PLDT for 2016 has been elevated to P48 billion from P43 billion, while that of Globe may be increased to $760 million from $750, as the two telcos push to increase capacity using the San

Miguel frequencies. Under a threeyear network deployment plan, both telcos aim to accelerate network expansion, broadband infrastructure and Internet access coverage to cover over 90 percent of the country’s cities and municipalities by 2018. According to BPI Trade CEO Mike Oyson, investors can now focus on Globe’s fundamentals, after the Court of Appeals (CA) stopped the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) from investigating its purchase of San Miguel’s telecommunications assets with rival PLDT. To recall, the PCC wanted to place the transaction under review as it poses threat to competition. The two telcos filed for separate injunction cases against the evaluation, and the appellate court decided on their favor. Through the Office of the Solicitor General, the competition council asked the appellate court to set aside the injunction order for being “contrary to the law.” Stocks of listed telcos have been erratic ever since the transaction. PLDT ended Friday’s trading at P1,666 each, or a 1.48-percent slide, from P1,691, while that of Globe closed at P1,961 apiece, a 1-percent reduction the day prior. Oyson expects a “rebound in telco stocks since they can now move forward with their planned capital expenditures to improve service.” He added that the CA decision lifts the “overhang or pall of uncertainty” over the telco sector. “As better service starts to be felt by the consumer, it will be very difficult to reverse the decision. At the end of the day, what is in the mind of the President is the impact to the consumer,” he said. Lorenz S. Marasigan

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AseanMonday BusinessMirror

Indonesians declare $8.9B of Singapore assets for tax

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ndonesians have declared 117.3 trillion rupiah ($8.9 billion) of assets held in Singapore under the government’s tax amnesty, though only a small proportion of that figure has been brought back home, Indonesia’s Finance Ministry said on Friday.

Of the total Singapore assets declared to the Indonesian government as of September 15, only 14.1 trillion rupiah, or about 12 percent, has been repatriated, the ministry said. Under the amnesty launched in June, Indonesians can pay a tax rate starting at 4 percent on declared assets that they choose to leave overseas. The rate increases in stages to 10 percent as the amnesty draws to a close in March.

Indonesians who agree to repatriate their assets, for a period of at least three years, are offered a rate of only 2 percent, as well as a range of possible investments. Indonesia is banking on securing 165 trillion rupiah of tax revenue from the amnesty, which would help offset traditionally poor taxcollection rates while keeping the budget deficit under a mandated 3-percent threshold. Last month the central bank said it was get-

ting ready to stop the rupiah from strengthening too much on the back of funds coming home as part of the amnesty. In an indicator that the collection program might be faltering, Indonesia’s Finance Ministry earlier this week removed a progress bar it was using to compare amounts received against the 165-trillion-rupiah target from the web site it set up to provide information on the tax amnesty. The government has received 22.7 trillion rupiah so far, the ministry said on Friday.

Ambitious target

“Indonesia’s ambitious tax revenue and fiscal-deficit targets look to be under threat, given the anemic tax-amnesty inflows so far,” analysts at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. said in a report on Friday. Jakarta also faces political backlash from the amnesty, which has been criticized by the Organisation

for Economic Co-operation and Development as offering rates that are unfair to law-abiding taxpayers. On the other hand, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court could clear up some doubts about the future of the program when it rules on petitions brought by civil-society groups that are seeking to nullify the amnesty.

Positive ruling

A positive ruling “should remove the uncertainty that may be hampering more participation,” said Euben Paracuelles, a Singapore-based economist with Nomura Holdings Inc., in a report on Friday. “We also see it likely that as the number of participants increases, this could snowball and encourage even more participation.” Earlier this month, two of Indonesia’s wealthiest men said they will participate in the tax amnesty to clear their past omissions, boosting the credibility of the program. Bloomberg News

Monday, September 19, 2016 A5

mazda aims for 8-percent market share in thailand

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azda Sales (Thailand) has set an ambitious short-term goal of increasing its market share to 8 percent by 2018, from 5 percent last year. New President Chanchai Trakarnudomsuk said the Japanese carmaker’s market share is expected to rise by one percentage point each year until 2018. This year’s projection is driven by a rise in vehicle sales, up 23 percent to 28,184 units from January to August. Mazda’s year-to-date market share is 5.7 percent and the full-year target is 6 percent. “We increased our sales target this year from 42,000 to 45,000 vehicles, a 14-percent rise from last year,” he said. The company expects sales to rise at least 10 percent annually from 2016 to 2018. Chanchai was promoted last month and is the first Thai to serve in this position. He said his top priority is to develop 147 showrooms and service centers nationwide to achieve Mazda’s goal. “Our after-sales services remain weak and only 20 percent of dealers have improved their sales and services quality to meet Mazda’s standard,” Chanchai said. Mazda just cancelled its dealership contracts with four dealers because they refused to improve their sales and aftersales services. He said improving the sales and service quality will improve customer satisfaction,

encouraging more repeat customers. The 147 dealer outlets are scheduled to be finished by 2018, with at least 14 undergoing a makeover this year, Chanchai said. The key to success for car companies is to rank above the market average on both the customer service index (CSI) and sales satisfaction index (SSI), he said. Marketing consultant J.D. Power ranked Mazda below average for CSI in its 2016 survey, but above average on its 2015 SSI survey. In a related development, the Hiroshimabased Mazda Motor Corp. announced on August 31 it would increase the annual capacity at its engine assembly plant in Chon Buri to 122,000 units in the first half of 2018. The plant is operated by Mazda Powertrain Manufacturing (Thailand) Co. (MPMT). Mazda is investing ¥22.1 billion (7.54 billion baht) for this expansion. MPMT’s engine assembly plant began full-scale production in October 2015. The plant produces SkyActiv-D 1.5-liter diesel engines and SkyActiv-G 1.3-liter petrol engines that serve AutoAlliance (Thailand), a joint-venture plant between Mazda and Ford in Rayong. The expansion is aimed at exporting engines to Mazda’s production sites in Asean. The SkyActiv-G 2.0 engine will be added to the output. Chanchai said the Board of Investment already approved this project. TNS

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NAM meet turnout low amid Venezuela crisis

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ORLAMAR, Venezuela—Crisishit Venezuela’s economic and political problems are keeping world leaders away from a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) that was supposed to hit its full stride on Saturday.

Only 12 heads of state have arrived for the two days of meetings taking place on the Caribbean island of Margarita, including the leaders of Iran, Cuba and Zimbabwe. More than 30 world leaders attended the last summit of the Cold War-era group, held in Iran in 2012. President Nicolas Maduro had touted NAM’s 17th summit as an opportunity to increase international solidarity for his socialist government as the oil-dependent economy reels from widespread food shortages and triple digit inflation. But the scarce attendance after months of shuttle diplomacy handing out invitations is likely to embolden Maduro’s opponents, who are pushing for a referendum to remove him from office before his term ends in 2019. They say the low turnout is a sign of Maduro’s increasing isolation. Of those leaders present, more than half are Maduro’s close ideological allies and recipients of oil subsidies in Latin America and Caribbean. The first leader to arrive was Zimbabwe’s 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe, who was slow descending from his aircraft on Thursday but showed no hesitation addressing delegates on Saturday with a stinging criticism of foreign military intervention in conflicts in the Middle East

and northern Africa by a country or countries he did not name. The low turnout was even more remarkable because leaders are making their way to and from New York, a five-hour flight away, for the annual United Nations General Assembly. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who attended the last summit of the largest political group comprised of UN member nations, sent a video message. Maduro addressed the gathering in a speech that laid out an 11-point agenda Venezuela will promote as the group’s temporary president, including UN reform, support for Palestinians and a call for Puerto Rico’s independence. He spoke defiantly about Venezuela’s problems, blaming them on the country’s foreign enemies. “Venezuela is facing a global attack, which is against all of Latin America and Caribbean,” he said. “An attack that aims to impose a political, economic and cultural reorganization of our countries with the old oligarchy.” Venezuela’s Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino also said he’s trying to build consensus around a fair price for oil to help economies like his own that have been battered by the collapse in crude in recent years.

Marilyn Smolenski uses a mock gun to demonstrate how to pull a handgun out of an undergarment she designs for concealed gun at her home in Park Ridge, Illinois. Interest in clothing that allow women to carry a firearm concealed is rising. Pioneers in the industry say they allow women to avoid looking frumpy and still carry a firearm safely and effectively. AP/Tae-Gyun Kim

Tensions have been running high on Margarita in the run-up to the summit, with the opposition trying to use the media attention focused on the gathering to embarrass Maduro. In one high-profile incident caught on cell phone videos two weeks ago, Maduro appeared to have been chased away by a group of angry, pot-banging protesters after his caravan stopped in a poor

neighborhood. The government has put a brave face on its problems, importing food and water so that shortages that have devastated the once-booming resort island aren’t felt by visitors. Officials also unveiled next to the summit venue a nearly 3-meter tall bronze statue of the late Hugo Chavez with his hand raised. The opposition has compared it to one of Saddam Hussein that was toppled

in Baghdad following the US invasion in 2003. While international visitors have largely shunned Margarita, home to about 600,000 residents, the government is helping bring in throngs of die-hard supporters from all over Venezuela. Hundreds are camping in tents pitched on a beach near one of the island resort’s toniest neighborhoods. At night, loud reggaeton music

blaring from a giant concert stage competes with the din of banging pots and pans in a war of noise between the two sides of Venezuela’s deep political divide. “It’s very important to say no to capitalism, to imperialism,” said 14-year-old Jose Luis Rodriguez, who traveled 12 hours in a stateprovided bus from the central state of Carabobo. “What country in the world doesn’t have a crisis?” AP

Summer bonuses from big Merkel’s refugee policies put to test in Berlin polls firms hit nine-year high

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ummer bonuses continue to grow at major Japanese companies, this year rising 1.4 percent on-year to the highest level since 2007, according to Health Ministry data released on Friday. Bonuses for the 374 companies with available data were on average ¥843,577 ($8,250) this summer, just shy of levels nine years ago when additional compensation was at its highest on record. Services and energy producers both saw more than a 15-percent increase in bonuses, but precisioninstruments manufacturers cut theirs by 19 percent on average and steelmakers decreased theirs by 13 percent. Summer bonus amounts have climbed for four years in a row since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came into power in late 2012, and after

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the Bank of Japan introduced record monetary stimulus measures. The growth has been slowing, though. In 2014, summer bonuses surged 7.3 percent from a year earlier. There are also year-end bonuses. Last year, they rose 3.7 percent from the end of 2014 to 830,434 yen, according to the ministry. Bloomberg News

erman Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy is facing its second electoral test within weeks as Berlin voters cast their ballots on Sunday for a new city government. Polls suggest the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) will take about 14 percent of the vote in the capital, with support set to decline for both Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democrats, who have governed the nation’s biggest city for 15 years. Projections based on exit polls will be published at 6 p.m. local time. Two weeks after beating Merkel’s CDU for the first time in a regional election, the AfD is seeking to extend a string of successes spurred by last year’s refugee crisis. Three polls released in the last week showed Merkel’s party just four

percentage points ahead of the AfD in Berlin, which is also one of the country’s 16 states. Merkel campaigned this week in Berlin against the AfD, criticizing populist “lies” spread on social media. The comments were the chancellor’s latest signal that she’s sticking to her course on refugees even as Alternative for Germany captures voters from established parties in state elections across the nation. “Right now it’s hard to reach some people with reasoning and still we have to keep trying again and again,” Merkel said in a German radio interview. “I believe that we shouldn’t give up on people who are now casting a protest vote, but rather keep courting them with our policies.” Faced with a domestic and European backlash against her openborder policy for asylum seekers,

Merkel said this past week that finding jobs for refugees would take time. She also acknowledged a “need for discussion” within her government amid a split in her coalition over her refusal to set an immigration cap. “Voters in Germany use state elections to teach politicians at the national level a lesson,” said Nils Diederich, a professor at the Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science in Berlin. “At the moment this is particularly true with regard to the refugee policy and statements on refugees in general.” Horst Seehofer, head of the Bavarian sister party to the CDU, told Der Spiegel in an interview published on Friday that his Christian Social Union was linking support for Merkel for another term as chancellor with setting an upper limit of 200,000 refugees annually. Merkel has not said whether

she intends to run again in next year’s election. After about 1 million asylum seekers entered Germany last year, the government is projecting that number to fall to 300,000 in 2016. Merkel’s party was beaten into third place by the AfD on September 4 in the eastern region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the party took almost 21 percent of the vote. In Berlin, a decline in support for the two biggest parties could bump Merkel’s party out of the city government, where it’s been the junior partner since the last election in 2011. Nationally, Merkel’s CDU is still in the lead in all surveys, with more than 30 percent backing. Polls suggest the AfD could win as much as 15 percent of the vote in a federal election, giving the party seats in the lower house of parliament for the first time. Bloomberg News

Putin party expects to win at parliamentary elections as officials avoid unrest

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ussians are going to the polls for the first parliamentary elections since a disputed vote in 2011 sparked the biggest protests of President Vladimir Putin’s more than decade-anda-half rule. The pro-Putin United Russia party is expected to emerge from Sunday’s ballot with an increased majority, as election officials seek to avoid the unrest that was triggered by widespread allegations of vote-rigging five years ago. The format of the election has been changed, with the restoration of single-member constituencies for half of the Duma’s 450 seats seen as favoring the ruling party, while new restrictions limit access for local observers to monitor the vote. “We provided equal conditions for an open and fair competition

by all participants,” Putin said in a televised statement broadcast nationwide a few days before the vote. “I’m convinced that we all want to see worthy, competent, energetic and honest people in the State Duma.” Putin, 63, is widely expected to seek re-election in March 2018. Anger over ballot-stuffing in 2011 sparked huge protests that continued through his return to the Kremlin in 2012. The authorities reacted with new laws to suppress the opposition movement, including jailing activists. Putin’s popularity also hit record highs on a surge of patriotism after he annexed Crimea in 2014, even as international sanctions helped push the economy into recession. Still, the Kremlin’s concern to prevent fraud allegations is marring this contest and spurring a new

wave of opposition to him. Exit poll findings are due to be released at 9 p.m. Moscow time, with most official results expected by Monday morning. The latest opinion sur veys showed United Russia’s support falling to 40 percent from 60 percent 18 months ago as Russians endure the longest recession in two decades provoked by the collapse in oil prices. It won around 50 percent of the vote in 2011, gaining 238 seats in the parliament. Putin picked a long-time human-rights advocate, Ella Pamfilova, earlier this year to oversee the elections, while Russia has also invited about 500 observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). But he also toughened restrictions on the work of Russian vote monitors and set up a paramilitary force of

340,000 troops in a new National Guard whose tasks include suppressing mass demonstrations. Golos, an independent Russian vote-monitoring group, had to cut its presence in half compared to 2011 to 3,000-4,000 observers because of the new limits, said its cochairman, Grigory Melkonyants. Monitors are now required to register 72 hours in advance at specific polling stations. Voting across the 11 time zones of the world’s largest country started at 8 a.m. local time (11 p.m. Saturday Moscow time) in the far eastern Chukhotka Peninsula opposite Alaska. It will end at 8 p.m. in Kaliningrad, Russia’s westernmost territory, one hour behind Moscow. About 111 million people were registered to vote at 94,000 polling stations. While vote-counting will be rela-

tively clean in cities such as Moscow and Saint Petersburg, where the largest protests took place after the 2011 elections, “anything could happen” in areas where there are no observers, Melkonyants said. Surveys by the independent Levada Center show a third of Russians are dissatisfied at the direction the country is taking, amid declining real wages and budget cuts in a second year of a recession that’s pushed millions into poverty. The same polls show that only about a tenth of respondents are willing to protest for their rights. Even so, the authorities are taking no chances and ensured the governing party got most election coverage on state television and dominated access to voters in campaigning, Melkonyants said. A preliminary report by the OSCE’s observer mission noted the

“low key” campaign and complaints about “misuse of administrative resources.” It also welcomed the new leadership of the Central Electoral Commission, simplified registration for parties and the fact that independent candidates have been allowed to stand for election. Still, with at most a handful of opposition lawmakers likely to get elected, Putin can count on maintaining the status quo in parliament, where United Russia and three other loyalist parties— the Communists, the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and Fair Russia—currently have all the seats. “The Kremlin is feeling quite calm,” said Nikolai Petrov, a professor at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics. “It’ll be satisfied if these four parties maintain their grip on the Duma.” Bloomberg News

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European Union pledges quick nod of Paris climate accord

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uropean Union (EU) leaders gave a political nod to the fast ratification of the global climate accord, a step that could enable the pact to come into force less than a year after it was agreed to by more than 190 nations in Paris. “Not only will the European Parliament vote in October; now all members of the EU stand ready to ratify the accord as soon as possible,” French President François Hollande said on Friday after an informal summit of 27 leaders from the bloc in Bratislava. The UK didn’t participate in the summit, which was called to debate the future of the region after Brexit. The most ambitious scenario sketched by the Slovak presidency of the EU assumes the approval procedure at the union level can be finished by October 7, said Jos Delbeke, director general for climate at the European Commission, the bloc’s executive. The fast-track route would need formal backing by the bloc’s 28 national environment ministers, with Slovakia calling an extraordinary gathering for September 30. The EU Parliament’s next plenary session is scheduled from October 3 to 6 in Strasbourg, France. The Paris deal, the most sweeping agreement to combat global warming to date, needs to be ratified by at least 55 parties accounting for 55 percent of global emissions to take effect. The EU, which accounts for

around 12 percent and wants to lead the fight against climate change, is under increasing pressure to formally join the deal after US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping ratified it on September 3 at a Group-of-20 summit. Those two countries are responsible for around 38 percent of global emissions. “The EU will probably trigger the entry of the agreement into force” should the ratification procedure be finished within the next three weeks, Delbeke said. The climate deal will be enacted 30 days after the ratification thresholds have been reached. If they’re triggered by October 7, the first meeting of the parties to the agreement, known in the climate jargon as CMA, could take place during the nearest annual United Nations climate conference, scheduled to start in Morocco on November 7. Poland, which signaled last week it will ratify the Paris deal only after it makes sure its interests in relation to the European climate policy are secured, said on Friday it was ready to support ratification at the EU level if it wins unanimous support from the bloc’s environment ministers. “At the same time, we are in a dialog with the European Commission and with member-states on the EU climate policy,” Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski said in a phone interview from Bratislava during the summit. AP

German protesters oppose transatlantic trade deals

A man dressed like the Statue of Liberty attends a demonstration against the planned Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement in Berlin on Saturday. Thousands of people are rallying in cities across Germany to protest against planned European Union trade deals with the United States and Canada. AP/Markus Schreiber

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rotesters gathered in seven German cities on Saturday to oppose transatlantic trade agreements between the European Union (EU) and the US and Canada. More than 320,000 people turned out, the organizers said in an e-mailed statement. In Munich, thousands met on the central Odeonsplatz square and adjoining Ludwigsstrasse in heavy rain as the annual Oktoberfest opened just a few miles away. “There is no bad weather, there are only bad trade agreements,” Karl Baer of the Munich Environmental Institute said in opening remarks before a crowd wielding signs and flags of organizations including the Green party, labor unions, local farmer groups and non-governmental organizations such as Attac and Greenpeace. Protesters argue that the trade agreements would favor industrialized agricultural processes over craft-based food production that’s not genetically engineered. They say the deals would cost thousands of jobs and lead to lower standards in employment and food safety. EU trade ministers are preparing to meet in Bratislava, Slovakia, on September 23. EU government officials, such as France’s Minister of Foreign Trade Matthias Fekl and

German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, have talked down the prospects for a consensus on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Their skepticism reflects mounting concern across Europe and in the US over the impact of free-trade agreements. While TTIP’s advocates point to the economic benefits of an accord and the introduction of global standards, its detractors say it would erode wages and conditions. A populist surge is meanwhile feeding protectionist sentiment that further complicates the conclusion of trade agreements, such as an EU-Canada deal, the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (Ceta). Germany’s Gabriel, who leads the country’s Social Democratic Party, expects fellow party members to approve Ceta at a convention on Monday in Wolfsburg, Bild am Sonntag reported, citing an interview. If they don’t, nobody will take the EU seriously and China and the US will set the standards of global trade agreements, he told the newspaper. At the Group of 20 summit in China this month, global economic leaders said the populist mood sweeping many developed nations threatens trade, and called on governments and businesses to keep goods flowing across borders. Bloomberg News

Monday, September 19, 2016 A7

UN: Leaders to focus on refugee crisis, Syria

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IN this September 28, 2015, photo, United States President Barack Obama addresses the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN Headquarters. AP/Mary Altaffer

NITED NATIONS—World leaders meeting at the United Nations starting on Monday will be trying to make progress on two intractable problems at the top of the global agenda—the biggest refugee crisis since World War II and the Syrian conflict now in its sixth year that has claimed over 300,000 lives.

Against a backdrop of rising ethnic and religious tension, fighting elsewhere in the Mideast and Africa, extremist attacks across the world and a warming planet, there are plenty of other issues for the 135 heads of state and government and more than 50 ministers expected to attend to try to tackle. “It’s no secret there’s a lot of fear out there,” US Ambassador Samantha Power told reporters on Thursday, citing the uncertainties sparked by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, the threat posed by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, and attacks in many parts of the world by IS and others. But Syria, where a tense cease-fire brokered by Moscow and Washington went into effect last Monday, remains at the top of the agenda at the UN General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting. An apparently errant air strike on Saturday in which the US military may have unintentionally struck Syrian troops while carrying out a raid against IS could deal a crushing blow to the US-Russianbrokered cease-fire. The cease-fire, which does not apply to attacks on IS, has largely held for five days despite dozens of alleged violations on both sides. The UN Security Council held a closed emergency meeting on Saturday night at Russia’s request to discuss the airstrike. The acrimonious meeting offered a harbinger of the difficulties ahead as the US and Russia remain suspicious of each other’s intents in Syria. Power accused Russia of pulling “a stunt” that is “cynical and hypocritical” in calling for the meeting while

65.3M The total number of people worldwide who are displaced, an increase ofmore than 5 million from a year earlier and the highest number since World War II according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees

not taking similar action in response to atrocities committed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he had never seen “such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness” as displayed by Power. The acrimony over the air strike could spill over into a Security Council ministerial meeting on Syria scheduled for Wednesday. Russia was pushing for a resolution to endorse the cessation of hostilities and look ahead, but the US refused to make public details of the cease-fire deal citing “operational security.” Churkin earlier had called the US uncooperative and said most likely “we’re not going to have a resolution." With the truce still fragile, no sign yet of humanitarian aid deliveries, and supporters and opponents of the Syrian government trading accusations, diplomats said there may be a meeting on Tuesday of some 20 key countries on both sides who are

part of the International Syria Support Group to chart the next steps. The spotlight during the week is also certain to shine on three leaders scheduled to speak at the opening ministerial session on Tuesday morning. UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon who steps down on December 31, and US President Barack Obama who will leave office in January, will be addressing the 193-member world body for the last time. And British Prime Minister Theresa May will be making her debut less than three months after the vote to leave the European Union. In UN corridors and at private meetings, the question of Ban’s successor will be a hot topic. Portugal’s former Prime Minister Antonio Guterres has topped all four informal polls in the Security Council but he could be vetoed, possibly by Russia, and rumors of new candidates are constant. The US presidential race already has captured attention, and no doubt leaders will privately discuss the impact of a victory by Hillary Clinton, or especially Donald Trump, on the UN, where the US is the largest financial contributor and has veto-wielding power in the Security Council. In one of the week’s highlights, the secretary-general has invited leaders to a first-ever UN Summit on Refugees and Migrants on Monday. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, an “unprecedented” 65.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2015, an increase of more than 5 million from a year earlier and the highest number since World War II. They include 21.3 million refugees, 3.2 million asylum seekers, and 40.8 million people internally displaced within their own countries. “More countries must resettle more people who have been forced from their homes,” Ban told reporters on Wednesday. “And everyone, everywhere, must stand up against the animosity that so many refugees, migrants and minority communities face.” The political declaration set to be adopted calls for separate Global Compacts for refugees and migrants

to be adopted within two years. But human rights groups complained that it was watered down, eliminating Ban's proposal to resettle 10 percent of the world's refugees annually. At a follow-up summit on Tuesday called by Obama, at least 45 countries are expected to make pledges that will meet or exceed US goals of increasing humanitarian aid by $3 billion, doubling resettlement and lawful admission spots, and increasing access to education for 1 million youngsters and access to employment by 1 million, a US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the summit. “We are not going to solve the refugee crisis on Tuesday,” US envoy Power said, “but I think you’ll see an important show of political will from leaders around the world.” According to the United Nations, 545 meetings have been requested and Ban will take part in 62 events. The UN chief, who has made climate change a top priority, has organized an event on Wednesday for countries to deliver their ratifications of the Paris Declaration to tackle global warming. He is hoping to get the required 55 countries representing 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, if not Wednesday, by the end of the year. Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama, whose government is battling the confronting the Boko Haram Islamic extremists, told reporters on Friday that addressing “this global phenomenon of terrorism” will be high on his country's agenda along with tackling the UN development goals for 2030 and promoting a new UN body to focus on youth. The Security Council is holding a ministerial meeting on Thursday on improving aviation security, and it could meet again if agreement is reached on a resolution to support the nuclear test ban treaty which will likely single out North Korea, the only country to conduct tests in the 21st century. The parties to the Iran nuclear deal are also scheduled to meet on Thursday as well as the Quartet of Mideast mediators—the US, UN, EU and Russia—who are trying to get Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. AP

A8 Monday, September 19, 2016

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Mistaken US-led strike on Syrian troops strains truce

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mistaken air strike by USled coalition forces that Russia blamed for the deaths of 62 Syrian government troops put further strain on faltering cease-fire efforts by the two powers.

Another 100 Syrian soldiers were wounded in the attack on Saturday on a military base in the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor besieged by Islamic State (IS), the Russian Defense Ministry said, citing the Syrian military. Russia’s call for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council was granted and was held on Saturday in New York. Moscow demanded US explanations for the first attack by the coalition on Syrian government forces in that nation’s civil war. US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power told reporters outside the Security Council meeting that the US regrets the attack on the Syrian army and is investigating the incident. She called the emergency meeting a “grandstanding” stunt by Russia. Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin walked out of the meeting, saying he was leaving in protest at Power’s comments. The defense ministry said US-led coalition aircraft, two F-16 and two A-10 warplanes, entered Syrian airspace from Iraq and struck the air base four times. The coalition had carried out an air strike south of Deir Ezzor, targeting an IS position it had been tracking for some time, according to an e-mail from US Central Command, based at MacDill Air Force Base in

ian army we are coming to the frightening conclusion for the world—the White House is defending Islamic State,” Zakharova said in televised remarks.

Dangerous path

62 The number of Syrian government troops who were killed by a mistaken air strike by US-led coalition forces; 100 soldiers were wounded

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speak to each other at a Commonwealth of Independent States, former Soviet republics, summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Saturday. Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Tampa, Florida. As soon as Russia informed the US that the attack might have hit the Syrian military, the strike was halted. “Syria is a complex situation with various military forces and militias in close proximity, but coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military unit,” the US military said in the statement. “The coalition will review this strike and the circumstances surrounding it to see if any lessons can be learned.” The attack came as Russia and the US clash over the implementation of a cease-fire agreement in Syria that took effect on September 12. Russian officials have blamed

the Obama administration for not stopping rebel violations, and the American side accused the Syrian government of blocking humanitarian supplies. Washington and Moscow are due to start coordinating strikes against IS and the al-Qaeda wing in Syria if the agreement holds for seven days. The US had informed Russia in advance of the air strike, which was in an area that the coalition had struck in the past, Central Command said. Russian warplanes were carrying out bombing raids in the vicinity at the same time, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition monitoring

group. Top Russian military officials denied that, saying that they intervened later to help Syrian forces repel advances by IS formations after the US-led attack.

‘Deadly incident’

“The Russian air force is continuing to strike Islamic State fighters near Deir Ezzor and back up government forces,” Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said in televised comments. “We believe this deadly incident happened because of the coalition’s ignorance of the situation and the US unwillingness to coordinate their actions against terrorists in Syria with Russia.”

Manhattan explosion leaves 29 hurt; 2nd device probed

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EW YORK—An explosion in a crowded Manhattan neighborhood on Saturday night left 29 people injured, and authorities said a second nearby site was also being investigated. Mayor Bill de Blasio called the blast an “intentional act,” but said there was no terrorist connection. “Tonight, New York City experienced a very bad incident,” de Blasio said at a news conference near the scene in Chelsea. “We have no credible and specific threat at this moment.” De Blasio said the blast was “an intentional act” and tried to calm any fears among nervous NewYorkers, saying the explosion had no terrorist connection and was” t related to a pipe-bomb explosion earlier on Saturday in New Jersey at a charity run. A law-enforcement official told The Associated Press that a second device that officers were investigating four blocks from the scene appeared to be a pressure cooker attached to wiring and a cell phone. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation, said the device was found inside a plastic bag on West 27th Street. The law enforcement official also said the explosion appears to have come from a construction toolbox in front of a building. Photos from the scene show a twisted and crumpled black metal box. The blast happened on West 23rd street, in front of a residence for the blind, near a major thoroughfare with many restaurants and a Trader Joe’s supermarket. Witnesses say the explosion at about 8:30 p.m. blew out the windows of businesses and scattered debris in the area. Officials said no evacuations were necessary. Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro said several people were taken to hospitals with injuries. One of the injured suffered a puncture wound that was considered serious. He said the other injuries were minor, described as scrapes and bruises.

Deir Ezzor is about 130 kilometers from Raqqa, the capital of IS’s self-declared caliphate, which is the target of a US military campaign with the involvement of Kurdish-led ground forces. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Maria Zakharova said the strike was either a mistake, or possibly proof that the US is ready to back even IS to further its goal of regime change in Syria. Russia intervened with an air campaign in 2015 in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom rebel groups backed by the US are trying to dislodge from power. “After today’s strikes on the Syr-

Obama to African-American voters: Protect my legacy

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Firefighters arrive at the scene of an apparent explosion in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, in New York, on Saturday. A law-enforcement official tells The Associated Press that an explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood appears to have come from a construction toolbox in front of a building. AP/Andres Kudacki

Police Spokesman J. Peter Donald tweeted a warning to residents near the second site that officials are investigating, saying: “As a precautionary measure, we are asking residents who live on West 27th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan to stay away from windows facing 27th Street until we clear the suspicious.” A number of New York City subway routes were affected by the explosion, which rattled some New Yorkers just weeks after the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. Chris Gonzalez, visiting from Dallas, was having dinner with friends at a restaurant in the area. “We felt it, we heard it, the restaurant went real quiet,” the 26-yearold Gonzalez said. “It wasn’t like jolting or anything, everyone just went quiet.” Rudy Alcide, a bouncer at Vanity Nightclub at 21st Street and 6th Avenue, said he, at first, thought something large had fallen. “It was an extremely loud noise, everything was shaking, the windows were shaking, it was crazy,” he

said. “It was extremely loud, almost like thunder, but louder.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security officials, along with the ATF arson and explosive task force, were also at the scene. The White House said President Barack Obama has been apprised of the explosion in New York City and will be updated as additional information becomes available. In Saint Cloud, Minnesota, the police said multiple people were injured at a shopping mall on Saturday evening in an attack that possibly involved both a shooting and stabbing. The suspect was believed to be dead. Hillary Clinton says she has been briefed “about the bombings in New York and New Jersey and the attack in Minnesota.” She says the nation needs to support its first responders and “pray for the victims.” “We have to let this investigation unfold,” she said. Donald Trump moved ahead of New York City officials when he declared a “bomb went off” in the city before officials had released

details. He made the announcement minutes after stepping off his plane during a rally at an airport hangar in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “I must tell you that just before I got off the plane, a bomb went off in New York and nobody knows what’s going on,” Trump said. He continued, “But boy we are living in a time—we better get very tough, folks. We better get very, very tough. It’s a terrible thing that’s going on in our world, in our country and we are going to get tough and smart and vigilant.” The Republican presidential nominee made the comments around 9:10 p.m., shortly after the explosion and as emergency officials responded to the blast. A spokeswoman for Trump did not respond to an e-mail asking whether he was briefed about the incident before taking the stage. The reports of a possible blast come hours after a pipe bomb exploded in Seaside Park, New Jersey, shortly before thousands of runners participated in a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors. No injuries were reported. AP

President Vladimir Putin had said earlier on Saturday the US side can’t distinguish between terrorists and the moderate opposition and this is a dangerous path, adding that extremists are using the truce to regroup and maintain their military readiness. A senior Russian military official, Lt. Gen.Viktor Poznikhir, complained that the Syrian government has done everything required from its side, warning that the US will “carry the responsibility” if the truce collapses. The United Nations has criticized the Syrian authorities for withholding permission for an aid convoy to the besieged rebel-held part of the city of Aleppo, where some 300,000 civilians are trapped. Russian officials say the insurgents haven’t complied with an agreement to withdraw from the main artery into Aleppo, meaning Syrian army forces haven’t been able to pull back either. The cease-fire is the latest effort by Russia and the US to ease the five-and-a-half-year conflict in Syria. They reached an agreement at talks in Geneva last week that the truce should lead to the establishment of a joint coordination center to fight terrorist groups in the Middle East country, a resumption of peace talks, and provision of humanitarian aid. The war has killed at least 280,000 people and caused millions to flee, provoking the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II and helping to create a haven for Islamic State to conduct a global terror campaign. Bloomberg News

A SHINGTON—President Barack Obama said on Saturday night he will take it as a “personal insult” if the African-American community fails to turn out for the presidential election and encouraged black voters to support Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Obama delivered his final keynote address to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, symbolically passing the torch to the person he hopes will succeed him next year. Clinton, his former secretary of state, was honored for becoming the first female presidential nominee of a major party. Obama said his name may not be on the ballot, but issues of importance to the black community were, including justice, good schools and ending mass incarceration. “I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election,” Obama said with a stern look and booming passion. “You want to give me a good send-off, go vote.” In her own pitch to African-Americans at the same dinner, Clinton implored the crowd to help protect Obama’s legacy, warning of a “dangerous and divisive vision” that could come from Republican opponent Donald Trump. Obama joked about the “birther” issue long promoted and now dismissed by Trump, telling his audience that there’s an extra spring in his step now that the “whole birther thing is over.” But his main message was about voter turnout among blacks. He turned quite serious when speaking about voting. He said Republicans have actively added barriers to voting by closing polling places mostly in minority communities, cutting early voting and imposing more voter ID requirements. He called the efforts a national scandal, but even if all restrictions on voting

were eliminated, African-Americans would still have one of the lowest voting rates. “That’s not good. That is on us,” Obama said. He then told the crowd if they wanted to give Michelle Obama and him a good send-off, “don’t just watch us walk off into the sunset, now. Get people registered to vote.” Obama also sought to blunt Trump’s recent efforts to reach out to black voters, saying Trump, at one point in the race, had said there’s never been a worse time to be a black person. “I mean, he missed that whole civics lesson about slavery and Jim Crow, but we’ve got a museum for him to visit,” Obama said, a reference to next week’s opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. “We will educate him.” Obama may have been referring to an ABC interview with Trump in 2015, when he asserted the nation’s first black president had done “nothing” for African-Americans. “They are worse now than just about ever,” he said. Clinton gave a shorter address. She did not mention Trump by name but showered the president with praise and said the upcoming election would be a pivotal choice for the country. “It’s not about golf course promotions or birth certificates. It comes down to who will fight for the forgotten, who will invest in our children and who will really have your back in the White House,” Clinton said. “We need ideas not insults, real plans to help struggling Americans in communities that have been left out and left behind, not prejudice and paranoia. We can’t let Barack Obama’s legacy fall into the hands of someone who doesn’t understand that, whose dangerous and divisive vision for our country will drag us backwards,” she said. AP

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A9

Amid tourism drop, Turkey hoping to weather storm

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STANBUL—With the onset of autumn this month, Turkey is counting the cost of a tough year that saw a string of terrorist bombings and the fallout from a diplomatic spat with Moscow that cut deep into the country’s crucial tourist trade. And then right bang in the middle of summer, the economic backdrop got more precarious after an attempted military coup that saw more than 270 people killed, the imposition of a state of emergency and the subsequent arrest and dismissal of thousands of supposed sympathizers. Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek conceded the failed coup on July 15 and its aftermath have “weakened” the economy, even as he praised its resilience in the face of such adversity. Tourism, a crucial foreign-currency earner for a country in constant need of foreign currency to plug a yawning current-account deficit, has borne the brunt of the economic fallout. That’s mainly due to a precipitous 89-percent drop in Russian tourist arrivals after a diplomatic fallout between the two countries brought on by Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane last year. Russia was Turkey’s second-largest tourist market with 4.5 million people visiting places, like Turkey’s tourism capital Antalya, in 2014. With many Russians holidaying elsewhere, Turkey stands to lose between $8 billion and $10 billion in tourism revenue by the end of the year, according to Cetin Gurcun, secretary-general of Turkey’s travel agency association Tursab. No amount of deals could fully plug that gap. “If we consider the volume of the Russian market, it’s not easy

to fill the void,” Gurcun told The Associated Press. Turkey-Russia relations are now back on track, but Gurcun doesn’t expect the Russian market to rebound before next year. It wasn’t just Russians who have stayed away from Turkey’s beaches and the cultural delights of places, like Istanbul. Thomas Cook, the British-based holiday company, said recently that demand for Turkish holidays was “significantly below last year’s level” and that its overall bookings for the summer 2016 season were down by 5 percent largely because of this particular “geopolitical disruption.” Official Turkish figures for the whole of the summer tourist season have yet to be released. But it’s clear there’s been a hit. June and July alone saw tourism arrivals plunge an annual 40 percent and 36 percent, respectively. And with fewer tourists, retail sales have suffered. Sami Kariyo, head of the United Brands Association, an umbrella group representing 150 member-companies and 500 brands, said lower tourism numbers have translated into a 5-percent drop in revenues. Industry too. The most recent figures showed that industrial production in July fell by almost 5 percent year-on-year in July, the sharpest fall since the start of the current-data series in 2005. “The coup attempt in July seems to

UN refugee agency puts focus on educating kids fleeing war

Tourists take a selfie at the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. AP/Petros Karadjias

have a very marked negative impact on economic activity,” said William Jackson, senior emerging markets economist with Capital Economics. All in all, the Turkish economy has suffered a shock—or series of shocks—and growth forecasts have been revised down. Turkey is expected to post what—at first glance— looks like reasonable growth this year of a little more than 3 percent. But before the attempted coup, most independent economic forecasters had penciled in Turkish economic growth of around 4 percent this year. That’s a big change, especially for a developing economy that’s been used to way-more over much of the

$10B

The amount Turkey is expected to lose in tourism revenue with the Russians going elsewhere

past 25 years or so. Living standards could face a squeeze, further exacerbating the uncertainty many feel within the country. Erhan Aslanoglu, professor of

economics at Istanbul’s Piri Reis University, said Turkey’s economy is tough enough to weather the worst of the storm, but needs more than 4-percent growth to continue pushing down on unemployment. “It’s better than many European countries, but not enough for Turkey,” he said. Another concern is that foreign investors will look elsewhere if Turkey turns increasingly authoritarian Turkey. Foreign investors are badly needed for the financing of Turkey’s sizeable current-account deficit, which stood at around 4.5 percent of the country’s annual GDP in 2015. The great fear for many is that

Turkey is moving toward a more authoritarian model of governance— a trend that could further dent any hopes that the country has of joining the European Union. Since the coup was seen off, tens of thousands of civil servants and government bureaucrats have been dismissed, while scores of businesses have been shut down over suspicion of being linked to Pennsylvaniabased Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey blames for the attempted coup, a charge Gulen rejects. “The rule of law is extremely important,” said Atilla Yesilada, an analyst with emerging-markets consultancy GlobalSource Partners. AP

Colombia town to witness last meeting of rebels

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was kidnapped and held captive by the FARC for several months in 2006, said most people don’t even remember the last time the rebels attempted to carry out an attack on the town of 40,000. While sympathizers still clandestinely distribute pro-FARC propaganda from time to time, the fear arising from such actions has largely dissipated and shopkeepers said they’re no longer being extorted by the FARC to pay “vaccines” guaranteeing their safety. “The permanent siege by the guerrillas doesn’t exist anymore,” said Sanchez, who belongs to the conservative Democratic Center party that until recently never would have dreamed of gaining a toehold in what Colombians refer to as the “sanctuary” of the rebels. Starting on Saturday, several hours from the town by a muddy and

strut-busting dirt road, the FARC is holdings its 10th and final conference as a guerrilla army to ratify the agreement reached last month with government negotiators in Cuba. In an area known as the Yari plains, rebels have been busy building makeshift bamboo structures to house hundreds of delegates who will, for the first time, be debating their future political strategy instead of battlefield tactics. Hundreds of journalists have been invited to witness the proceedings in El Diamante, a tiny settlement in the larger San Vicente Caguan municipality, which is the size of Haiti. Sanchez says Caguan’s role as host of the event is a small sacrifice in the path to peace that he hopes will be repaid by the government dedicating more resources for the town’s development.

Top on his wish list are reopening commercial flights the town’s airport and construction of a government-run vocational school for 3,000 young adults. But already the town has seen major improvements, such as the installation of streetlights and a new plaza, as a result of oil royalties that have poured in and the permanent presence of an elite military unit. Some residents, still embittered by years of mortar attacks and kidnappings committed by the rebels, say they plan to vote against the peace deal in a referendum scheduled on October 2. Others are more willing to forgive and even express some disappointment that they couldn’t play an even larger role in Colombia’s reconciliation. “The peace deal should’ve been signed here,” said Tatiana Pineda, a 36-year-old store vendor. AP

Actress and UN refugee agency special envoy Angelina Jolie talks to a child during a visit to a Syrian refugee camp in Azraq in northern Jordan on September 9. Jolie is calling on the international community to end the protracted Syrian civil war and increase support for refugees across the region. AP/Ahmad Alameen

AN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia—Fifteen years after negotiations with leftist rebels collapsed in a fury of violence, the road to peace in Colombia once again passes through this remote southern town near where leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are gathering in a jungle conclave for their last meeting as an armed insurgency. Once a rebel safe haven, San Vicente del Caguan today is a thriving center of commerce serving cattle ranchers and oil drillers who have arrived in droves. Since the government moved in 2002 to take back a Switzerland-sized demilitarized zone it had ceded to the FARC, the population has tripled, crime is down and the government is making its presence felt in a way it never has before. Mayor Humberto Sanchez, who

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Islamic site near Mecca among few still preserved

ENEVA—Food, water and shelter are obvious basic needs for people fleeing war. But with refugees now spending roughly 20 years in exile on average, the UN refugee agency is calling on the world to do more to ensure refugee children have access to education as a fundamental right. Over 3.7 million school-age children, or about 62 percent of the children covered under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, have no schools to attend, the agency said in a report issued on Thursday. Entitled “Missing Out: Refugee Education in Crisis,” the 48-page report’s release comes as the UN General Assembly is preparing to host a summit on refugees and migrants in New York next week. UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi says that, while education is vital for all children, it’s especially crucial to help equip refugee children

to succeed in work and life. “Education is also a key contribution to keeping the hope of refugees, and in situations in which despair is so prevalent, going to school, learning, acquiring knowledge and skills are fundamental,” Grandi told The Associated Press in an interview. Comparing its own count of children attending school with global figures by the UN educational agency, UNHCR estimated that only half of all refugee children have access to primary education—compared to a world average of over 90 percent. And that rate only gets worse as refugee children get older. Fewer than one in four of refugee adolescents attend secondary school compared to a global average of 84 percent, and only 1 percent of refugees attend university compared to about one in three people worldwide, according to the comparison with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization figures. AP

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ECCA, Saudi Arabia—Just outside the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia lies one of Islam’s most important historical sites—a cave where, according to tradition, the Prophet Muhammad spent time in seclusion, contemplation and self-reflection. It was here, inside Hira Cave near the top of a steep hill called Noor Mountain, where Muslims believe God revealed to the prophet the first verses of the Koran through the angel Jebril, or Gabriel as he is named in English. Today, the site is among few still preserved from the prophet’s time— with help from Pakistani workers in the kingdom. Each year, observant Muslims deepen their prayers and supplication in the final 10 nights of the Islamic month of Ramadan,

Pakistani beggar sleeps on Noor Mountain, where Prophet Muhammad received his first revelation from God to preach Islam, on the outskirts of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. AP/Nariman El-Mofty

believing that it was during this time some 1,400 years ago that the miraculous revelation took place on Noor Mountain, also known as the “Hill of Light.” The hill itself is not part of the annual hajj pilgrimage, but its location so close to the holy city of Mecca and its significance as a place of enlightenment draws thousands of pilgrims here every year. But present-day visitors encounter a markedly different summit from the one the prophet experienced. For starters, there are now more than 1,000 steps that guide pilgrims up the rocky hill to the secluded cave. Along the way, entrepreneurial Pakistanis sell bottled water, snacks and tea to pilgrims exhausted by the climb. AP

Tourism&Entertainment A10

BusinessMirror

Monday, September 19, 2016

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Lost in the gardens of Singapore

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Story and Photos by Army Alcayaga-Granada

loud Forest. Flower Dome. Botanic Gardens. Supertrees. Just hearing the names of these places are enough to make one lust for another getaway. And you don’t even have to leave the city to experience them. In our minds, we conjure an image of modern technology when we think of Singapore. But the vision of the people in this country is far from what we imagine. It lies in their belief that plants and other living things are the future. Without them, there is no life. Armed with this wisdom, Singaporeans have gathered and created the largest collection of flora in the world. Singapore is a horticulturist’s dream. Laypeople can only be in awe of the incredible plant life that this urban kingdom has grown.

Singapore Botanic Gardens

After a giddying afternoon of shopping at the famous Orchard Road, there is a place that, without doubt, will give you back your lost chi. At the end of Cuscaden Road, just minutes away from Regent Hotel and Tanglin Mall, is hectares of sprawling land covered with lush trees and vegetation imported from all over the world. The Singapore Botanic Gardens, which was established in 1859 and designed by Lawrence Niven, encloses innumerable terrestrial and aerial plants, exotic birds and barely discernible creatures that thrive in trees and underground. Because of its massive herbarium collection, “the people’s garden” has been a research center for botanists around the world. Inside the immense and curlicued gray gates are trees that have stood there for decades.

Many lovers tread the winding paths, experiencing romantic walks through English Gardens that boast of gazebos and ponds. Joggers breathe clean air and run on roads dappled with shadows of leaves. The trees whisper and one can only savor solitude and silence in this beautiful sanctuary. A man made waterfalls surprises visitors, and around the bend, a statue of an angel hiding behind ferns elicits smiles. Once within these walls, the visitors walk along paved roads that meander inside a forest “far from the madding crowd,” as one would say. Breathing becomes a welcome exercise and getting lost is the aim. It is a welcome break from the ordinary and escape from ennui. There are pocket parks with varied themes, like healing for medicinal plants, aroma from fragrant flowers, ornamental plants for display and primitive plants for wide-ranging use. The English Garden-themed parks have been styled after the English landscapes of the 18th century. No wonder 4 million people visit this paradise every year.

Statue of a goddess at the Singapore Botanic Gardens

Refreshing and inspiring English parks to soothe your spirit dot the Singapore Botanic Gardens

est. Just like actual cloud forests that are situated in mountainous regions, this man-made greenhouse is swathed by mists. The cloud is a vital element in the maintenance of plant life in cloud forests. The indoor waterfalls, the biggest in the world, so far, contributes to the fog that maintains the vaporous setting that these plants need to survive. Aside from the spray of the falls, there are man-made geysers that produce steam. The trail starts on the ground floor on suspended bridges spiraling upward around a mock-up mountain covered with exotic plants. Guests could walk to see the view of the mountain and experience the vaporous atmosphere, which gives the place an otherworldly feels, as if you have stumbled in a land before time. It would not be hard to imagine dinosaurs roaming the premises. The Flower Dome is the conservatory that houses an infinite variety of plants and flowers around the globe. As we walk by the dazzling floral parade, we are immersed into a world where the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome paves the way to people’s consciousness about artificial ecosystem that would be necessary to sustain earth life in the future.

Gazebo

Gardens by the Bay

The Marina Bay Sands, a conversation piece in itself towers haughtily over two shell-shaped domes that house futuristic gardens, much like the 1970s image of civilization in planets that has no breathable atmosphere. One of these is the Cloud For-

Clock at the Singapore Botanic Gardens

Supertrees

A bench at the Singapore Botanic Gardens

Stately and astonishing, the Su-

TPB presents bigger Phitex 2016 PHITEX Deputy Secretary General Susana Del Mundo and TPB Deputy COO for International Promotions Maricon Basco-Ebron

More than 200 international buyers from 37 countries and 199 local sellers from 132 companies across the Philippines joined the business-to-business sessions

ing Asian countries, such as South Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam, were given an opportunity to experience fun and exciting pretours with hotel inspections around the country’s capital, Metro Manila. The pretours conducted on September 3 included a visit to the famous walled city of Intramuros to get a glimpse of history during the Spanish colonization. Buyers visited Fort Santiago, which houses the Rizal Shrine museum where memorabilia of the Philippine National Hero Dr. Jose Rizal are displayed. They also visited San Agustin Church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site; San Agustin Museum, and enjoyed a brief cultural show at Casa Manila. Buyers also inspected some of the city’s most luxurious hotels, namely, New World Hotel Makati, Makati Shangri-La Hotel, Fairmont Makati, Marco Polo Ortigas Manila, ShangriLa at the Fort and Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila, to name a few.

The posttours are just as exciting since it will feature the Philippines’s premier destinations, including world-class accommodations, entertainment and convention venues and business facilities. Buyers get to choose a tour that fits well with their interests and offerings. The Ilocos module includes a tour to the Northern region of the country, where there is an interesting blend of local and Spanish cultures. Another module takes the buyers a trip to Southern Luzon and experience exotic beauty of beaches nestled against the jungle. Buyers can further discover the wonders of Palawan, which is recently named as the Best Island in the World. They can ride a paddleboat to Puerto Princesa Underground River, considered one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. Some buyers can also travel to the east, where Bicol, a region for adventures—volcanoes, beaches, coves and lakes—will also

Mt. Faber Trail

Mount Faber Trail is a path of elevated metal bridges built for the sole purpose of convenient hiking. The trail goes on for hours and hikers cannot just go down the bridge anytime. There are points where they can get off. The Mount Faber Peak looks out at a vast track of forests that can be conveniently hiked via metal bridges. Walking along the bridges and looking down and into the canopy of leaves, one can stop and think clearly. There is nothing impossible to a mind that has the audacity to imagine. Singaporeans pride themselves for tackling global warming head on by creating breathtaking gardens. The domes are prototypes of selfsufficient structures, which are a glimpse of the future. In this case, beauty is not just an excuse for being.

Stay, sip and savour with new all-inclusive stay and dine package

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he Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) presents a more enhanced Philippine Travel Exchange (Phitex), the most important annual travel trade event. With the theme “#Phitex2016: Bigger Business,” the event is set to accommodate more than 200 international buyers from across 37 countries worldwide and 199 local sellers from 132 companies across the Philippines. “Phitex has been instrumental in boosting the Philippines’s image as a top tourist destination. The event also strengthens international relationships among the industry’s key players to further the growth of Philippine tourism,” Phitex Deputy Secretary-General Susana J. del Mundo remarked. Highlight of the event is a series of business-to-business sessions between foreign buyers and local sellers. This year the number of sessions has increased to 40, as compared to 28 in the previous years. This aims to broaden their chance of interaction and to encourage more in-depth discussions on tourism and trade opportunities. Phitex 2016 gives the buyers an opportunity to meet the Philippine sellers where they will be introduced to the Philippines’s best offerings in terms of travel and tourism products and services. This can be considered a momentous time for Philippine sellers, for they will be given an edge to offer globally competitive tour packages to the international market and learn of other countries’ trade strategies to apply in their own practices. Buyers from as far as the United States, Norway, Italy, Denmark and Germany and even from neighbor-

pertrees attract thousands of people to the Gardens by the Bay. They are solar-powered generators and have flowers for their skin. Outside the domes they stand guard, giving a majestic. Viewed from afar, the Gardens by the Bay look like a 1960s television program of a futuristic world. The Supertrees are connected to each other by walkways, called OCBC, and an astounding view, lasers and stars are fused into a memorable evening.

DOT Secretary Wanda Teo

Delegates and guests were treated to performances by some of the country’s multi-awarded talents such as Baihana, Buganda Dancers and Drumbeaters, Candice and Carissa Adea, Sindaw Philippines Performing Arts Guild and Whiplash

be awaiting the guests. The Cebu/Bohol posttour will give the buyers an opportunity to catch a glimpse of historical landmarks, a taste of lechon in Cebu, and an iconic view of the majestic Chocolate Hills in Bohol. They can also take a selfie with tarsiers in Bohol. For a unique mix of diversity, heavenly retreat and exciting adventure, buyers may also opt to join the Davao module. “Phitex will only grow stronger and more competitive through the coming years with the continual commitment and dedication of everyone—our partners, buyers, sellers and exchange visitors. Your immeasurable support only fuels us to push and go further. I believe that through our cumulative effort, we create and become the greater nation,” Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo said.

Now on its 15th year, Phitex has gained popularity and recognition in the global tourism market. By making the event bigger and better, TPB is giving foreign travelers more reasons to visit the Philippines again. Led by Philippine Airlines, as the official flag carrier, and Marriot Hotel Manila, Phitex 2016 is also supported by TTG Asia as the official media partner, Manila Bulletin and Philippine Daily Inquirer. Other sponsors include Resorts World Manila, Tourism Infrastructure Enterprise Zone Authority, Duty Free Philippines, Philippines Craft Distillers, Marco Polo Manila, SedaBonifacio Global City, Bellevue Resort, Sofitel Philippine Plaza, Fairmont Makati, Makati ShangriLa Hotel, Radisson Blu Cebu, Park Inn by Radisson, Plaza del Norte and The Mind Museum.

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hangri-La Hotel, Singapore presents an all-inclusive “Stay, Sip and Savor” room package (from $585 per night) where guests may enjoy a stay in well-appointed guest rooms enhanced with privileges for two guests, including complimentary buffet breakfast, semibuffet lunch at The Waterfall, buffet dinner at The Line and unlimited soft drinks during lunch and dinner. End the day with a nightcap; enjoy a complimentary bottle of wine as a turndown per night of stay. Guests may also delight in complimentary Wi-Fi, access to the swimming pool and Health Club facilities, and scheduled shuttle-bus service to Orchard Road. Prices are subject to 10-percent service charge and prevailing government taxes. Offer is available until May 31, 2017 and not valid in conjunction with other offers and promotions.

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Monday, September 19, 2016 A11

Bullet Train, Longest Bridge, and Towering Skyscrapers I

Castrillo@50 Instagram contest is extended

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n Au g u st , S a m s u ng a nd Yuchengco Museum launched Culture Connect: Castrillo @ 50, an Instagram contest which aims to strengthen Filipinos’ patriotism and appreciation for public art. The Instagram contest commemorates the works of nationalist Filipino sculptor Eduardo Castrillo as he celebrates 50 years of being a professional artist. Known as the monument maker, Castrillo created masterpieces such as Binhi ng Kalayaan found at Rizal Park, and the People Power Monument located along EDSA, which are vivid reflections of Philippine history and culture. Culture Connect: Castrillo @ 50 has run through the entire duration of August, and will be extended until September 30 to accommodate more entries. The same contest mechanics apply: 1) Post a photo of any of the select public art monuments on Instagram, and tell us what it means to you as a Filipino. Be as expressive and creative. Tag @ CastrilloCultureConnect and use the hashtags #SamsungCultureConnect and #Castrillo50; 2) Up to three entries per person may be submitted under the professional or open category. First-place winners under each category get a Samsung Galaxy S7 edge and a Gear VR. Winning contest photos will be featured on the Culture Explorer mobile app; 3) Winning entries will be announced online on October7, and will be awarded on October 13. Winners are to be contacted regarding the awarding through Instagram. For more details, visit www.eduardocastrillo.com, and follow @CastrilloCultureConnect on Instagram.

Story & Photos by Henrylito D. Tacio

uring my recent trip to China recently, I did three things I had never done before: riding a bullet train, traveling on top the longest ocean-crossing bridge, and walking through a glass floor in what used to be the world’s highest observatory.

Shanghai’s skyscrapers

Bullet train

Inside the train terminal in Beijing

Of course, I had ridden a train before—but not a bullet train (so nicknamed because of its appearance and speed). I only saw them in the movies, particularly those being filmed in Europe and Japan. So, when I learned that we would be traveling from Beijing to Ningbo City, a distance of about 1,800 kilometers. By plane, it will take about two hours and 20 minutes to travel. But with a bullet train, it takes about six hours. Although it is longer, bullet train is more beautiful and relaxing. Inside a plane, you get to see only copassengers and clouds. But with bullet train, you get a glimpse of other cities along the way. And what is interesting about our ride was that we were able to take some photos even though the train was very, very fast at 302 kilometers per hour. The ride was so smooth that we didn’t notice we were actually moving. You know you are moving only if you see the window and see the sudden change of scenery. “ The development of highspeed railway, as the integration of modern high-techs and the symbol of railway modernization, ref lects the national comprehensive power of a country,” explains the booklet, “The Rapid Development of China’s HighSpeed Railways.” “ The Chinese government attaches great importance to the development of high-speed railways.” The booklet goes on to say: “After years of technological research, engineering practices and safe operation, China has become the country with the longest length of high-speed railways both in operation and under construction. High-speed railways keep changing the Chinese people’s way

Legarda Wants Folk Arts Museums in Every Region

Land between the Sea and the Sky

of traveling and living, as well as stimulating economic and social development in China.” I agree. I am hoping that one of these days, there is already a train that travels from Davao City going to Cagayan de Oro City. Or even in other big cities of Mindanao. And then perhaps, a bullet train from Davao City to Cebu and then to Metro Manila. In the Philippines, the longest bridge spanning a body of seawater is the San Juanico Bridge (with a total length of 2.16 kilometers). It is part of the Pan-Philippine Highway that stretches from Samar to Leyte across the San Juanico Strait. San Juanico Bridge is only about 0.06% of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge. With a length of 36 kilometers, it is the longest ocean-crossing bridge in the world, spanning across the Hangzhou Bay on the East China Sea and crossing the Qiantang River at the Yangtze River Delta. Instead of flying from Ningbo City to Shanghai, we crossed the said bridge. A website gives this bit of information: “(The S-shaped bridge) shortens the ground transportation distance from Ningbo to Shanghai by 120 kilometers and travel time from four hours to two and half hours. It is a six-lane, two-direction highway with a 100 kilometer per hour speed limit and a 100-year, service guaranteed, cable-stayed design.” But what is interesting is that about 11 kilometers away from the south bank, there is a 12,000-square meter-big sightseeing platform named “Land between the Sea and the Sky.” This was used before as a home base for offshore workers during the construction period. Today, it is now the world’s only sightseeing zone over sea. Decorated in blue

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Hangzhou Bay Bridge

and white, it consists of a viewing platform and tower. “ The viewing platform is a 24-meter high steel structure, resembl i ng a n eag le spreading its wings,” the Travel China Guide notes. “It has six floors: the first and second floors are parking lots; the third floor is the main viewing area with an outdoor viewing zone, an indoor café, a multimedia theater, and a museum, among others. Shops and restaurants are located on the fourth floor and on the fifth floor is a 5-star hotel, equipped with a meeting room and banquet hall. The sixth floor is for the staff only.” We stayed in China for almost a week and two days of that were spent in Shanghai, the most populous city proper in the world (with more than 24 million people). On our first night, we did the cruising on the Huangpu River, which has

become a must for most visitors to Shanghai. After all, it is the best way to see the city’s classic skyline view of colonial architecture and modern skyscrapers along the river. Speaking of skyscrapers, our tour guide, Yan Xu Dong, told us that the Shanghai Bank of China Tower was one of the three buildings that were part of the filming of “Mission: Impossible III.” It is the building where Tom Cruise did a bungee jump. The Shanghai Bank of China Tower is a 53-story tower in the Pudong District. It was built for the Bank of China by the Japanese architectural firm Nikken Sekkei. But it is not Shanghai’s tallest building. The record goes to the Shanghai Tower, which is 632 meters (2,073 feet) tall with 128 floors. It is currently the tallest building in the People’s Republic of China and the second tallest in the world.

Closely trailing is the Shanghai World Financial Center, with a height of 492 meters or 1,614 feet. In 2009, the Guinness of World Records singled out its observatory as the highest observation deck. To get to the top, you have to ride an elevator whose speed is 8 meters per second. You have to stop at the 9th floor before proceeding to the skywalk located at the 100th floor. Spanning 55 meters and located 474 meters above ground, you walk on the transparent glassfloor walkway. You get to feel that Shanghai lies at your feet. At first, I didn’t notice that I was walking in a glass-floor. But when someone pointed it out (by telling me that you can see the ground below us), I immediately shudder since I have fear of heights. Now, you know why my recent trip to China was one of the most memorable travels abroad!

enator Loren Legarda has filed Senate Bill No. 420 that will mandate regional museums to promote traditional folk arts and local cultural treasures. “For years, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) has taken the lead in facilitating the conservation and transfer of cultural heritage— expressed through the country’s various traditional folk arts, via its Manlilikha ng Bayan and School of Living Traditions (SLT) programs. This bill seeks to complement the efforts of the NCAA by explicitly requiring the National Museum through its regional museums to serve as venues in ensuring the conservation and preservation of the country’s traditional folk arts,” said Legarda. Under SBN 420, regional museums should also display traditional folk arts collection aside from the local archeological finds, objects of art, and other local cultural treasures. Furthermore, the regional museums should lead the conservation, preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage of the SLTs found within their localities. Legarda said that these museums will ensure the transmission of valuable traditional knowledge to the younger generation. “With these regional museums showcasing traditional folk arts we hope to start a cultural revolution through an immersion in the Philippine art from the ordinary folks of old. We also hope that these museums will help develop craftsmanship and industry, national identity and pride, and will help unite Filipinos,” Legarda concluded.

Science Monday

A12 Monday, September 19, 2016

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

Deep coral mapping, surveys reveal ‘twilight zone’ of Abra de Ilog

Sea fan and soft coral assemblage at 46 meters deep UPD-MSI

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A study released on September 14 indicates an increasing possibility that vaping may aid in helping smokers kick the habit. Travis Long/Raleigh News & Observer/TNS

As popularity of e-cigs rises, more smokers are able to quit

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he more that vaping takes hold in England, the better the odds that smokers there will succeed in their attempts to stop using regular cigarettes. These parallel trends, reported on Wednesday in the BMJ medical journal, don’t prove that electronic cigarettes help smokers kick the habit. But that possibility is looking more and more likely, experts said. Smoking prevalence in the United Kingdom fell significantly in 2014 and 2015, and that’s a sign that something over there is working, according to an editorial that accompanies the study. “Successful quitting through substitution with e-cigarettes is one likely major contributor,” wrote John Britton, director of the UK Center for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies at the University of Nottingham. “The challenge for public health is to embrace the potential of this new technology and put it to full use.” Health experts in England have been contemplating the smokingcessation benefits of e-cigarettes for several years. A previous study

35% The percentage of people using e-cigarettes among those who are trying to quit smoking in 2015

of English smokers found that would-be quitters who vaped were about 60 percent more likely to succeed compared with smokers who tried to go cold turkey or used nicotine-replacement products, like patches or gum. This time, researchers from University College London wanted to see whether the prevalence of ecigarette use among active smokers—and especially among those trying to quit—had anything to

do with a smoker’s likelihood of kicking the habit. The researchers examined data on nearly 80,000 smokers who took part in England’s Smoking Toolkit Study from 2006 to 2015. In the last quarter of 2006, 10.6 percent of quit attempts succeeded. By the first quarter of 2015, the success rate had climbed to 18.6 percent, according to the study. Meanwhile, the proportion of smokers who also vaped increased from virtually zero to 21.3 percent during the same period, the researchers found. Vaping was even more popular among smokers who were trying to quit, with 35 percent of them using the electronic devices in 2015. That embrace of e-cigarettes coincided with a drop in use of more conventional nicotine replacement products. The researchers found no conclusive link between vaping and attempts to quit smoking. But their calculations showed that “ for every 1 percent increase in e-cigarette use, the success of quit attempts increased by 0.098 percent,” according to the study. In addition, for every 1 percent increase in vaping among smokers trying to quit, the success rate of quit attempts rose by 0.058 percent, the study said. If e-cigarette use really is helping

smokers quit, that means 54,288 people in England who were able to stop smoking in 2015 can thank vaping for their success. Although roughly two-thirds of them can be expected to fall off the wagon, that still leaves about 18,000 “long term ex-smokers” as a result of e-cigarette use, the study authors wrote. It may not sound like much of an improvement, but it’s “clinically significant because of the huge health gains from stopping smoking,” the researchers wrote. “A 40-year-old smoker who quits permanently can expect to gain nine life years compared with a continuing smoker.” In the early days of vaping, hea lt h e x per t s wor r ied t h at e-cigarettes would encourage smokers to keep on smoking by providing a socially acceptable substitute in venues where regular cigarettes were banned. But the new study suggests that the opposite is true, Britton wrote in the editorial. (One of the study authors, health psychologist Robert West, has served as a consultant to companies that make smoking cessation products but doesn’t accept money from tobacco or e-cigarette companies. Two others coauthors, Emma Beard and Jamie Brown, disclosed that they have received funding from Pfizer.) Los Angeles Times/TNS

‘Well-preserved’ rare mammoth skull found on Channel Is. puzzles scientists

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he skull of a mammoth—possibly roaming the planet 13,000 years ago—was unearthed from an eroding stream on the Santa Rosa Island at Channel Islands National Park. Burrowed in the stream bank, the “exceptionally wellpreserved fossil” with tusks is a rare find, especially because it would indicate the mammoth roamed the islands at nearly the same time as humans. “I have seen a lot of mammoth skulls, and this is one of the best preserved I have ever seen,” paleontologist Justin Wilkins said in a statement. Wilkins, who works at the South Dakotabased Mammoth Site, said the discovery is “of high scientific importance.” Wilkins, retired National Park Service archaeologist Don Morris and preparator Monica Bugbee, painstakingly excavated the fossil from layers of dirt. Charcoal samples near the complete skull date 13,000 years, which overlaps with the age of the oldest human skeletal remains in North America. The Arlington Springs Man’s remains were found on the Santa Rosa Island in 1959 and indicated that people lived there some 13,000 years ago. Named after the site the remains were

A rare mammoth fossil was excavated at the Channel Islands National Park this week. Channel Islands National Park Service/TNS

found, scientists analyzed bone protein and radiocarbon dating to determine the age. The mammoth fossil was first discovered in September 2014. National Park Service biologist Peter Larramendy was surveying the area for a stream study when he observed an ivory tusk bulging from the gravel wall of the canyon. Scientists named the fossil Larry after Larramendy and one

of world’s leading paleontologists, Larry Agenbroad, who died in 2014. The size of the find has left the scientists puzzled because they can’t determine if it’s a Columbian or pygmy mammoth, according to the park. It’s possible the fossil could be an intermediate-sized or young Columbian mammoth, which are usually large.

Columbian mammoths appeared in North America a million years after the first mammoths appeared on the continent. Sea levels were low when the Columbian mammoths moved to the Channel Islands in the last two ice ages. The land was also closer to the coast of the mainland. Known as Mammuthus exilis, their offspring was much shorter, downsizing from 14 to 6 feet. Even more baffling is the size of the fossil’s tusks. At 1.4 meters, the right tusk coils like an older mammoth. But the left tusk is shorter and sloped like that of a juvenile mammal. Scientists are working to measure the spacing, surface thickness and number of teeth in the fossil to determine when it died and what type of mammoth it was. Meanwhile, the team will cover the specimen with burlap and plaster to protect it. The scientists will then transport the fossil by helicopter and boat to the mainland. The mammoth will be taken to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, so it can be carefully cleaned, preserved and studied. The fossil will be curated, so it can be displayed in the future. Los Angeles Times/TNS

coral-mapping project conducted in November 2015 detailed underwater surveys and mapping in the shallow (euphotic) reefs and deep (mesophotic) reefs of Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro. Shallow reef communities are found at 1-meter to 30-meter depth and have been extensively surveyed by many marine researchers and conservation managers using conventional survey methods. On the other hand, the deep area or the “twilight zone,” found at 30-meter to 150-meter depth, is among the least studied environment due to the technical limitations and personal risks involved in deep surveys. The Geophysical Coral Mapping, implemented by the University of the Philippines-Marine Science Institute (UPMSI) and funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD), attempts to address the knowledge gaps, and improve the Philippines’s technical capability in deep reefs research. The project aims to document the occurrence and biodiversity of deep reefs, provide detailed seafloor maps and hydrodynamic models. Abra de Ilog is among the first sites in the Philippines that has been surveyed quantitatively for its deep coral reefs and fish communities. Among others, the survey found a total of 66 fish species from 15 families during diver-based surveys, of which 41 species from 13 families were found in the euphotic zone and 45 species from 15 families were seen in the upper deep reefs zone. A total of 39 coral genera was also recorded, all of which were found in the euphotic zone, while 25 genera are found in the deep zone. The surveyed reefs were severely disturbed by sedimentation. Many dead and live corals were covered in silt. Live hard coral cover in euphotic zone was poor with a 21-percent cover, and even more so in the deep zone with only 4 percent. Dead coral cover was 29 percent in the euphotic and 26 percent in the deep zone. This area is surprisingly biodiverse, considering the poor coral condition, high turbidity and heavy siltation in the area. These indicate that the deep reefs should be included in conservation priorities and that they are also vulnerable to large-scale impacts like sedimentation. Deep zone reefs also differ from the more familiar shallower reefs in many ways. Unlike the shallow reefs that were dominated by boulder-like massive corals, such as Porites and Favia (in other sites,

also branching corals), the upper deep zone was dominated by flattened encrusting forms, such as Leptoseris and foliose forms, such as Echinophyllia. There are more gorgonians, black corals, sponges, invertebrates, and fishes in the deep zone that remain largely undocumented. Despite poor reef conditions in the site, overall fish community biomass was high and averaged 54-metric-tons per square kilometer. The deep zone had six times more fish biomass than the euphotic zone. Target fishes and benthic carnivores were particularly more abundant in the deep zone. Starting at the edge of the forereef, the most dominant fish species is the Banana Fusilier. At 30-meter to 35-meter deep, Golden Damselfish occurred in schools along with smaller groups of Squarespot Anthias, which are iconic species in the upper boundary of many deep reefs in the Philippines. A flurry of wrasse, surgeonfish, unicornfish, angelfish and butterflyfish species also occurred. However, the lack of large predators like the groupers, snappers, trevallies and sharks suggests overfishing that places selective pressure on these high-value fishes. The Remotely Deployed Video (RDV) system (named in honor of the late Dr. Ronald D. Villanueva, a renowned Filipino coral-reef scientist who was part of the project) was test-deployed in the site. It is a drop-type camera system that the project is developing as an alternative, less costly method to gather fish and coral data from the safety of the boat. A downward-facing camera recorded benthic cover, whereas four other cameras recorded fish assemblages. Further design improvements are needed to improve stability and ease of deployment, among others. Finally, Abra de Ilog also became a test site for semiquantitative surveys and explorations in the deep zone using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). A subsection of the upper deep zone from 30 to 60 meter was observed in one of the 13 ROV missions. The reefscape from 30 meter to 40 meter were as described above, with the addition of sea fans, sea whips, soft corals, black corals, calcareous algae and sponges. Scleractinians, particularly whisker and chalice corals, were few and far between. Large schools of fusiliers were found at 40 meter. Bigeye trevally and Silver Bigeye were found around a patch at 46-meter depth. At 47 to 61 meter, no corals or fishes were found. The ROV could go as deep as 150 meter but the seafloor was flat with mostly fine, silty sand with burrows. S&T Media Service

DOST agency inks accord on environmental protection, tech transfer and commercialization

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he Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), through its Technology Transfer and Promotion Division, has partnered with private and public agencies in the areas of environmental protection and technology commercialization. These partnerships have been formalized through memorandum of agreements in the recent 2016 National Science and Technology Week at the DOSTPCAARRD complex. In one of the agreements, Pioneer Adhesive Foundation Inc. will undertake the exploration and sponsor the coral rehabilitation in other sites through the adoption of the PCAARRD coral asexual-reproduction technology. The DOST-PCAARRD also partnered with Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (Hari) through the Hari Foundation Inc. for funding support in the implementation of the PCAARRD’s S&T Action Frontline for Emergencies and Hazards (SAFE) program. The program seeks to address social, economic and environmental impacts of climate change in communities. Under the SAFE Program, the council also partnered with the University of Southeastern Philippines (USeP) for projec ts on disaster risk mitigation and rehabilitation. The DOST-PCAARRD

previously collaborated with USeP on Typhoon Pablo project to help typhoon victims recover from the destruction and to prepare for other environmental hazards. On technology commercialization, the DOSTPCAARRD partnered with the University of the Philippines Los Baños’s Center for Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship (UPLB-CTTE). The agreement is expected to strengthen intellectual-property (IP) management and technology transfer and commercialization of the Department of Science and Technology Innovation and Technology Center, as well as that of UPLB-CTTE. At the same time, Max’s Group Inc. and the DOST-PCAARRD’s partnership focuses on providing small farmers with a sure market through Max’s and its subsidiaries as buyers. The agreement mutually eyes on ensuring a stable and reliable supply-base as advocated by the PCAARRD’s Science and Technology Community-based farms and the TechnoMart projects. Lastly, the Philippine Coffee Board Inc. (PCB) the In-Country partner of the global Coffee Quality Institute, will provide its expertise to the DOST-PCAARRD in identifying high-quality coffee through credible and verifiable system under a universal standard. In return, the council will provide PCB the technologies it has developed for coffee. S&T Media Service

Green Monday BusinessMirror

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

BusinessMirror

Monday, September 19, 2016 A13

Sarangani, bird club to study birds’ migration

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By Manuel T. Cayon | Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY—The Wild Bird Club of the Philippines (WBCP) and the Sarangani provincial government are set to conduct a study to confirm that Sarangani is a migratory flyway or roosting site of birds escaping the autumn and winter cold of northern countries. The WBCP would be joined in the study by the province’s technical working group (TWG) from September 15 to October 22, the provincial information office said. The province’s Environmental Conser vation and Protection Center (ECPC) has conducted site reconnaissance for the arrival of the migrator y birds of prey this month. The center ser ves as the secretariat of the technical working group. The study was prompted by the pattern of swarm of birds not endemic to the Philippines during the last quarter of the year, the period of autumn season in the Northern Hemisphere. The presence of migratory birds in the municipality of Glan was first noticed in 2014, and again in March this year. Lawyer Emma Nebran, ECPC executive director, said the birds arrive in the province twice a year, in September and October, and in March and April. “Some residents in Barangay Cross have noticed a thick flock of birds covering the sun, flying together,” she said. Nebram said some of the birds were also seen in Barangay New Aklan. “If they will be here, we would not be surprised, because we prepared ahead of time,” according to the

information office, quoting New Aklan Barangay Chairman Victorio Salutan. Felix Servita of the WBCP said the migration of the raptors is an indicator of the “sensitive environmental health of their target nesting or resting sites.” He said the autumn migration is likely to proceed to Indonesia, “but they will approach our country in September and October to warm up and look for roosting sites after leaving Taiwan.” Servita said the birds have been noticed to favor the Latian Complex, especially in Mount Gulo, where he suspected was an area of possible roosting site of the raptors. He added that the Latian Complex contain the desired thermal air currents for bird flight. Mount Latian Complex has been identified as one of the important biodiversity areas in the Philippines. In 2002 it was declared by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as Philippine Biodiversity Conservation priority, the information office said. The area covers the Sarangani towns of Malungon, Alabel, Malapatan and Glan, and their adjacent Davao Occidental municipalities of Jose Abad Santos, Malita and Don Marcelino.

A Thresher shark Wikimedia Commons

Cebuanos push for inclusion of thresher sharks on CITES list By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

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ebu’s water is home to whale sharks— the world’s largest fish—dolphins, sea cows and marine turtles, and to another amazing creature of the sea—thresher shark. Stakeholders—including local government officials, coastal community representatives, environmental groups, marine scientists, resort owners, divers and other tourism industry representatives— gathered at the Cebu Provincial Capitol in Cebu on Friday to call for the global protection of thresher sharks through their inclusion on the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) list of threatened species. The call was made a week before an international meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the 17th Conference of Parties to the CITES from September 24 to October 5. In a statement, Dennis Bryan Bait-it, coordinator of Migo sa Iho (Friends of the Sharks), a local enforcement group deputized to enforce fisheries law around the Shark and Ray Sanctuary of Monad Shoal and Gato Island, said thresher sharks are an essential link to Cebuanos’ way of life, especially for coastal communities. The conference participants said thresher sharks should be included

in Appendix 2 of CITES, in order to place them under global protection, including in the Philippines, as stated in the Amended Philippines Fisheries Code. Thresher sharks are vital not only to marine ecosystems but also to tourism in coastal communities. However, their population is currently threatened by illegal fishing, trading and bycatch. “We are calling on the 182 parties to the Convention for a ‘yes’ vote in Johannesburg. The inclusion of thresher sharks for protection under CITES is an opportunity to prevent unsustainable fishing and protect our marine tourism industry,” said Malapascua Barangay Chairman Rex Novabos, who is also the current president of the Association of Barangay Captains in the Municipality of Daanbantayan. AA Yaptinchay, director of Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines, said thresher sharks are in real danger of being caught in both targeted and nontargeted fisheries, as well as through bycatch. “It would be a global embarrassment not to support the CITES proposal for its protection, given its iconic status within the diving community in the Philippines. These sharks are clearly more valuable alive than dead,” he said. Monad Shoal, near the Island of Malapascua in Cebu’s Daanbantayan

The Wild Bird Club of the Philippines and the Sarangani provincial technical working group observe wild birds at the start of a monthlong confirmatory raptor-migration study. The migratory birds of prey are expected to approach the Philippines in September and October to warm up after leaving Taiwan, come and roost in Barangay Cross, Glan, and depart for Indonesia. Jake Narte/Sarangani Information Office

Wild Bird Club of the Philippines

Nebran said, “In spots where the ground is warm, the air rises, forming thermal currents. Raptors find these thermals and spiral upward without having to flap their wings. It helps them travel long distances w ithout using much energy. Raptors stick to the mountains because of thermals.” “Hence, conducting long-term municipality, is the only place in the world where thresher sharks could be viewed with certainty on a daily basis. Thresher sharks have become the main feature of the scuba-dive tourism industry in Malapascua, which accounts for most of Daanbantayan’s economy, securing the livelihood of many in the municipality and its neighboring communities. “Threshers are not just fish species that brings in tourism income, but is for us a very important icon of hope that deserves global attention and protection. Their presence has turned Malapascua Island into a major divetourist attraction, helping local residents to recover after the devastation that tropical typhoon Yolanda brought in 2013,” said Ahmad Clay Escolar, chief of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office. Cebu is the only province in the Philippines that bans the catching, selling, possession and trading of all shark species and their derivatives. Cebu also hosts the country’s first, and currently only, shark and ray sanctuary. “Sharks are valuable for both their ecological and economic value, especially for an archipelago like the Philippines. We absolutely need to ensure that their population in our seas are not depleted,” said Director Andres Bojos of Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Central Visayas. Besides Cebu, thresher sharks are also urged for local protection in Batangas City; Panglao, Bohol; and Palawan. Local protection in these provinces, however, is not enough, as thresher sharks could still be fished, hunted and traded unconditionally elsewhere. Thresher sharks’ meat is consumed locally. The fins are sold internationally, for use in shark-fin soup. “Sharks have long languished from misinformation and the bad reputation they received from thriller monster movies. But they are vital to marine ecosystems. Their protection under CITES also means that threshers will automatically be protected under Section 102 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Amended Philippine Fisheries, until such time a scientific study allows it to be traded under strong monitoring and regulation,” said Vince Cinches, Philippines Oceans campaigner of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

counts of migrating raptors can help in the study of their migration patter ns, behav iors and populations,” the bird group and the ECPC said. T he information office disclosed that the ECPC has made reconnaissance of the best bird-watching sites and identified Barangay Lag uimit as the best site. “ They are not

really monitored in our country. But studies and in-depth monitoring were done in Indonesia and Taiwan,” Servita said. “One theor y states that Sarangani might be their exit point going to Indonesia and could be the major f lyway.” The ECPC, the TWG and the WBCP will conduct the monthlong study that aims to promote coordinated actions to achieve and maintain the favorable conservation status of migratory raptors; to protect the migratory species along their flyways; to identify their important habitats, roosting sites and favored routes; and to produce a relevant research. The information office said there was an earlier study in the migratory birds in the area. Titled “Project Southern Crossing 2014: First Observations of Autumn raptor Migration at Sarangani, Mindanao, Philippines,” the report’s authors were Alex M. Tiongco, Maria Teresa A. Cervero, Adrian M. Constantino and Maria Katrina C. Constantino. It described the Philippines as

an “important link in the East Asia-Australasian Flyway, a migration route involving long sea crossings.” According to the study, in autumn and spring, thousands of raptors pass through the Philippines; some are believed in the country in winter, the information office said. “In autumn, the birds fly south from the Palearctic breeding areas, passing across southeast China and Taiwan before arriving in Luzon en route to wintering areas further South.” The WBCP Raptor Study Group (RSG) has made exploratory expeditions to map the migratory routes through the country, including entry and exit points. “During the 2014 autumn migration, the RSG decided to work in the Davao del Sur and Sarangani area,” the study said. “Initial observations in [Barangay] Cross revealed a passage of migrants from Mount Gulo and nearby roosting areas with the vantage point directly below the migration path,” it added. In all, nine raptor species were seen during the watch, six migrants and three residents. The migrant species seen were (Western) Osprey Pandion haliaetus (8); Crested Honey Buzzard (14); Chinese Sparrowhawk (47,307); Japanese Sparrowhawk (2); Gray-faced Buzzard (242); and Peregrine Falcon (2). Resident species observed were Philippine Serpent Eagle (5); South Philippine (Pinsker’s) Hawk-eagle (28); and Brahminy Kite (60). Unidentified falcons (4) and other raptors (6) were also observed. Chinese Sparrowhawk was the predominant species, comprising 99 percent of the raptors observed, the information office said. The study suggested that Sarangani “is very likely to be a major migration route in autumn for raptors crossing from the Philippines to Sulawesi.”

IUCN votes to ban all domestic trade in elephant ivory

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ONOLULU, Hawaii—The international conservation community has taken an important step toward saving African elephants from mass slaughter by voting at a major congress to call on all governments to ban their domestic trade in ivory. A resolution at the World Conservation Congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) was passed overwhelmingly by governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) last weekend, despite fierce opposition from a minority of countries, led by Japan, South Africa and Namibia. Motion 007 was the last and most contentious of 105 resolutions voted on at the 10-day IUCN congress in Honolulu. Delegates cheered and applauded as some 20 amendments put forward by Namibia and Japan were defeated, and the text of the resolution was approved. The resolution, sponsored on the government side by the United States and Gabon, aims to deprive illegal poachers of market demand for elephant ivory. Results of a recently released Great Elephant Census of 18 African countries showed that poachers are killing some 27,000 savanna elephants a year, resulting in an annual population decline of 8 percent. Activists say an elephant is being shot for its ivory every 15 minutes. Tusks end up smuggled by criminal organizations to Asia, where they are carved and sold openly—mostly in China, Vietnam and Hong Kong—under the guise of legal ivory imported before a ban on international trade came into force in 1989. “It is fantastic this was approved,” commented Susan Lieberman of World Conservation Society, an NGO cosponsor of the motion. “It is a great victory for elephants. We are calling on governments to say it is over, it is done—no more domestic trade in ivory.” The IUCN does not have legal authority to force governments to adopt policies, but as the most authoritative voice on conservation issues—it groups nearly 1,400

states, government agencies and NGOs—its policy decisions carry considerable weight. Next stop for conser vationists on this issue is the meeting of parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Johannesburg on September 24. CITES banned the international trade in elephant ivory in 1989 but allowed two major auctions of ivory in the late-1990s and again in 2008. These sales led to a spike in poaching in Africa and resulted in CITES declaring a 10-year moratorium, which expires in 2017. Delegates in Honolulu said the IUCN policy decision would make it virtually impossible that the CITES conference would agree to South Africa or other nations being allowed to resume limited sales of ivory. A motion will also be put to CITES to call for a ban on the domestic trade in ivory. Lieberman highlighted the push by most African states and civil society to ban domestic trade in ivory. Speakers at the IUCN congress calling for the ban included Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Benin, Congo, Senegal and Gabon. “The loudest voices were African from the range countries who spoke out,” Lieberman noted.But South Africa and Namibia argued that their elephant populations were growing because of their countries’ successful conservation efforts, funded in part by domestic sales of ivory. Both countries said they should not be penalized for the failings of others and that it would be a breach of their sovereignty to be ordered how to manage their wildlife. Similarly, Japan said it had strictly controlled its internal market and prevented the smuggling of ivory, and that efforts should focus on helping other countries achieve tougher regulation. A total ban on domestic trade also contradicted the concept of sustainable development championed by IUCN, Japanese Ministry of Environment official Naohisa Okuda told the Congress. “Conservation and sustainable use should go hand in hand,” Okuda said.

NGOs, however, challenge Japan’s claims to have stopped the flow of illegal ivory across its borders. Activists also suspect that the opposition coalition between Japan and the two African nations concealed an intention by Tokyo to try to persuade CITES to allow Japan to buy ivory once more. IUCN’s proposed ban will also encourage and support China to close its booming domestic trade in ivory where smugglers can earn over $1,000 a kilogram for tusks. China and the US announced jointly a year ago their intention to ban ivory from their respective markets. The US went ahead—with limited exceptions, such as ivory used in musical instruments—while China has not set a timetable. Chinese government delegates did not speak during the debate over Motion 007 but told activists privately that China welcomed the worldwide ban. NGOs are hopeful China will set a timeframe for its domestic ban by the end of this year. The US urged all IUCN members to support the motion. “Legal markets mask illegal markets. To think otherwise masks the truth,” a State Department official told the plenary session. At times the debate was heated. A speaker for Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, a South African provincial agency which funds much of its budget from business operations, denounced what she called the “pseudoscience theories” of “smart people” who wanted to tell South Africans how to manage their wildlife. Safari Club International, a pro-hunting lobby group, said the proposed ban violated the sovereignty of nations. One of the strongest statements in support of the ban came from Uganda, speaking on behalf of 29 states grouped in the African Elephant Coalition. “The people benefiting from ivory are criminals and terrorists,” said an Ugandan wildlife official, accusing the Lord’s Resistance Army that operates across four countries, of funding its operations through ivory. “I have buried 100 of my Rangers in this war,” he said. IPS

A14 Monday, September 19, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

More rice imports: Good or bad?

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HE goal saying the Philippines would be self-sufficient to meet its needs for rice has always been an elusive dream for decades. It is a problem that the government has never been able to find a policy that works, or is it that the policies have never been implemented properly?

The government policy of quantitative restriction (QR) has allowed the government to limit the amount of imported rice to protect local farmers by preventing the influx of cheap rice imports. Of course, that begs the question of why the Philippines cannot compete against the production costs of other nations like Thailand and Vietnam. Then there is the difficult task of trying to balance the needs of the rice producers with the rice consumers. The “rural poor”, who are the rice producers, need higher prices to make more money. The “urban poor”, who are rice consumers, need lower rice prices to make ends meet. The balance has never seemed to be equal with swings between higher prices and lower prices, and all the while still dependant on rice imports. The government plans to remove the QR on rice, which ends the 35-percent duty on imported rice. The objective of this move is to lower the price of rice to consumers, but certainly does not address the problem of insufficient production. This comes at an interesting time given what is happening in the global rice markets. India is the world’s largest exporter, ,followed by Thailand, the US, Pakistan and Vietnam. Vietnam and Thailand have always been competitors for the Philippine market. However, Vietnam has seen its rice exports fall in 2016. China buys 36 percent of Vietnam’s exports. But for 2016, all of Vietnam’s markets have gone down, with exports to the Philippines off by 66.4 percent, Malaysia 54 percent and Singapore 36 percent. Total export volume is down by 16 percent. While demand is lower, prices are also down. Thailand is so concerned that it is considering putting a floor on the price of exported rice. Earlier this year prices were about 5 percent higher than in 2015. Now, with the Philippines back in the buying market, Vietnam is considering lowering its prices to get the business, instead of Thailand. But all this does not solve the Philippine rice-production problem. We still need some duties on imported rice to try to protect local growers. However, no one is sure at what level those duties should be. Further, how much of the rice-production shortfall that may be a result of supply manipulation is another unanswered question. Rice importers are scrambling to raise funds to buy rice to take advantage of the new situation. But here is our concern. Financiers are being told to expect a 50-percent profit return. So, while we need to fill our need for more rice through imports, who is really going to benefit from the easing of the QR? Since 2005

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AST Monday, September 12, President Duterte led the oath-taking ceremony of the new chairman and the new general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). The new PCSO chairman is retired police director Jose Jorge E. Corpuz, who replaced Erineo S. Maliksi. Corpuz served until 2015 as the director for Integrated Police Operations for Southern Luzon. I send my sincere congratulations and good wishes to General Corpuz, as he takes on an important role as the new leader of the government’s charity agency.

Replacing me as general manager is Marine Maj. Gen. Alexander F. Balutan. I have full confidence that Balutan is more than capable of managing all the existing programs of the organization for the benefit of the Filipino people. Having worked closely with the PCSO team and our partners, I will always carry with me all the good memories, most especially the selfless service and positive intentions, of the people who have given their time and effort to help the needy. Congratulations to the PCSO’s new chairman and the new GM! nnn

In recent days and in the middle of the transition to the agency’s

new leadership, the PCSO continued to fulfill its mandate to provide medical assistance to individuals, organizations and communities that need it most. On August 16 I turned over a check in the amount of P1,145,226.29 to Mayor George Ricardo R. Gacula II of Taytay, Rizal. This is the municipality’s Lotto local government unit (LGU) share from July to December 2015, and is given as part of the PCSO’s mandatory contributions to various government agencies and communities. On August 24 the PCSO held a medical and dental mission for the benefit of the residents of Barangay Borol 1st in Balagtas, Bulacan. Around 248 residents

The PCSO has been running a medical and dental mission program, wherein free medical consultation and treatment, free dental consultation and treatment, free ancillary services and free medicines, including vitamins, are given to beneficiaries in various communities. These efforts are being done in partnership with LGUs, NGOs, civic and religious organizations, and other government agencies.

received free medical and dental consultation, and management of their conditions through the help of the agency’s medical and dental team. My personal thanks to Barangay Captain Joselito M. Cruz and councilors Jerome R. Pangan, Ariel R. Samson and Anna Liza Mapue for making the mission possible. The PCSO has been running a medical and dental mission program, wherein free medical consultation and treatment, free dental consultation and treatment, free ancillary services and free medicines, including vitamins, are given

to beneficiaries in various communities. These efforts are being done in partnership with LGUs, non-governmental organizations, civic and religious organizations, and other government agencies. Finally, new ambulance units were turned over to the City of Urdaneta in Pangasinan, the AFP Medical Center and the municipality of San Mateo, Rizal. These donations were made under the 60 percent-to-40 percent scheme of the PCSO’s Ambulance Donation Program, which provides ambulance units to hospitals, health i n st it ut ion s, mu n ic ipa l it ies, provinces and city health offices in various priority areas. Urdaneta Mayor Amadeo Gregorio E. Perez IV received the donation on August 23. The AFP Medical Center received the ambulance unit for Camp Teodulfo Bautista Station Hospital in Busbus, Jolo, Sulu, on September 8. AFP Medical Center representatives Gen. Job Yucoco, Col. Patrick S. de Leon, Col. Peter Paul Domingo, Lt. Col. Allan Aracelis and Wilfredo Robles received the donation. The municipality of San Mateo, through Mayor Cristina C. Diaz, received the ambulance unit donation from PCSO on August 16. nnn

Atty. Rojas is vice chairman and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

PPPs and ‘Pokémon Go’ as game changers By Alberto Agra

PPP LEAD

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Continued from A1 n PPPs and PG call for innovation. For proponents of PPPs and for Niantic and Nintendo, the developers of the PG game, innovation must be the driving force of the programs. While both are built from tradition, they should be envisioned and implemented with innovation in mind. This is the challenge all strategists must embrace. And for innovation to be such, they must be anchored on a core or purpose. n PPPs and PG are purposedriven. PPP’s ultimate purpose is the public good, the people. Better quality of life is the reason government and the private sector collaborate to build and maintain roads, bridges, airports, seaports,

classrooms, hospitals, markets, water-supply systems and power projects. The objective of PG may not be as noble but all gamers are motivated by the same thing. We want to complete the set of Pokémons. n PPPs should not come and go. Unlike PPPs, Pokémon, like other phone games, may just be a fad. PG is popular now until the next craze comes along. PPPs, on the other hand, because of their developmental objective, are longterm programs and are measured by the impact they yield. Life may not be better after catching all the Pokémons, but life must be better during the life and even after the life of the PPP project. n PPPs and PG require knowledge and skills. While PPP is not as

PPP’s ultimate purpose is the public good, the people. Better quality of life is the reason why government and the private sector collaborate to build and maintain roads, bridges, airports, seaports, classrooms, hospitals, markets, water supply systems and power projects. The objective of PG may not be as noble but all gamers are motivated by the same thing: We want to complete the set of Pokémons. simple as doing a curve ball, playing PG also needs certain knowledge and skills. In PPP, conceptualizing, planning, legal, technical, financial, contract drafting and contract-management know-how and skills are essential. For PG, knowing when to transfer items to the professor, knowing what to do when your bag is full and hitting

the character right smack in the middle of the target are critical for sustained play. n PPP proponents must be as passionate as Pokémon catchers. People who are addicted to this game are obviously passionate. Some buy coins; play under the rain; decelerate on the road just to catch a character (please, do not!); some walk for 5 kilometers while the game is on; and some play while writing their columns (smiley). This columnist hopes that more people will learn about PPPs, more private companies will engage government, and PPP projects will spread all over the country. n Both are game changers. PPPs and PG have changed or should change the lives of people. PPPs should instill a significant change in the lives of people. A good life, better yet, a better life must come about. For us PG players, this columnist hopes that this game (yes, it is just a game), will bring passion, drive, motivation and focus into our lives, PPPs included.

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These Republicans don’t love Trump, but they hate Clinton

New accountancy law slated Joel L. Tan-Torres

By Leonid Bershidsky

DEBIT CREDIT

Bloomberg View

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NE of the hardest things for a foreigner to understand in US politics, especially its rather extreme 2016 version, is the willingness of voters to support candidates they deemed unacceptable earlier in the campaign. Because the US presidential election narrows to a two-candidate race, the calculus of voters and political operatives shifts in spectacular ways. Plenty of this was on display in New Hampshire this week. On Wednesday New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was in the state, which gave him his best performance of the primary season—7.4 percent of the vote—to push a simple message to Republicans. “If you are a Republican and you are not working for Donald Trump over the next 55 days, you are working for Hillary Clinton,” he said at a party “unity breakfast.” This is the man who summed up his attitude toward Trump in December 2015 by saying, “We do not need reality TV in the Oval Office right now. President of the United States is not a place for an entertainer.” I saw him on the stump in New Hampshire seven months ago, and he was dismissive of Trump. Then, it seemed that the group of pragmatic, traditional conservatives with strong management experience—John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Christie—still had a chance to surge ahead of the showman. Michael Biundo, a veteran Republican consultant who worked for Rand Paul and then Kasich in the early stages of the campaign and who then mocked Trump on the social networks, has been the nominee’s point man in the state since June. He’s credited with setting up a genuine Trump ground game, with volunteers knocking on doors, a development that many analysts believed impossible just a few months ago. I asked the political consultant Patrick Hynes, of Laconia, about the apparent turnarounds. Hynes worked for Bush during the primaries, and for John McCain and Mitt Romney in the 2012 race. These are all traditional conservatives who have made known their visceral dislike of Trump. Hynes says the billionaire is not his first choice, yet he plans to vote for Trump in November and says the state’s Republican machine has fallen in line, too. “In the US it always gets down to two,” Hynes said. “There’s Coca-Cola and there’s Pepsi, and RC Cola goes the way of the dinosaurs. There’s Ford and Chevy, and Chrysler is a distant third. There’s McDonald’s and Burger King, and Wendy’s is a distant third.” Americans, of course, shouldn’t act all that differently from people of other nationalities when it comes to making decisions. People like to reduce complexity, and binary decisions are the simplest. Research by Eldar Shafir, It a m a r Si monson a nd A mos Tversky has shown, though, that sometimes having a third, middle option can simplify the choice, thanks to a phenomenon called “extremeness aversion”: As Simonson described it, “within an offered set, options with extreme values are relatively less attractive than options with intermediate values.” New Hampshire provides a prime example of this kind of thinking. Joe McQuaid, the publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, the state’s most influential newspaper, has long crusaded against Trump, whom he compared to Biff, the bully from the Back to the Future movies (Trump called him a “lowlife” in response). The Union Leader, which has been staunchly Republican for more than a century, endorsed Christie in the primary, and McQuaid has

Michael Biundo, a veteran Republican consultant who worked for Rand Paul and then Kasich in the early stages of the campaign and who then mocked Trump on the social networks, has been the nominee’s point man in the state since June. He’s credited with setting up a genuine Trump ground game, with volunteers knocking on doors, a development that many analysts believed impossible just a few months ago. claimed that the New Jersey governor promised him he wouldn’t endorse Trump if he dropped out (Christie denies that). Now that Christie has reverted to the binary logic, McQuaid has not. In an editorial this week, he endorsed the Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and his runningmate Bill Weld, because “in today’s dark times, they are a bright light of hope and reason.” To the conservative publisher, both Clinton and Trump represent extremes. McQuaid appears genuinely optimistic that a third option could be viable in New Hampshire. When I asked him what he hoped to achieve by endorsing Johnson when Republican voters are mainly united behind Trump, he replied that he didn’t “see a lot of evidence one way or the other.” “Most of the big office-holders are doing the we-are-concentratingon-state-races line,” he said in an e-mail. “As for Trump, his primary vote total here was not huge.” Trump, however, won the New Hampshire primary in New Hampshire, with 35.3 percent, or more than 100,000 votes, more than twice as many as the runnerup, Kasich. There’s little chance that Johnson will make a dent here: Everyone else I talked to said they planned to back their party nominee, and both Hynes and an operative close to the Trump campaign confirmed that the state’s Republican machine was working single-mindedly for Trump. This is probably occurring because this election’s stark belligerence makes it more about rejection than selection. McQuaid’s approach is to pick a candidate to support “without holding your nose.” This year many Republicans “have a sense of dread and despair, a sense that Washington is broken and cannot be fixed, that everybody is a crook,” Hynes says. So to them, the election is about not voting for Clinton, who embodies the status quo. Under such circumstances, Shafir, Simonson and Tversky wrote, a candidate’s negative features become more important than positives: “We propose that the positive features of options [their pros] will loom larger when choosing, whereas the negative features of options [their cons] will be weighted more heavily when rejecting. It is natural to select an option because of its positive features, and to reject an option because of its negative features.” Trump has Clinton and her strong negatives to thank for the somewhat reluctant unity of his backers here.

Monday, September 19, 2016 A15

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HE Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy (BOA) has come up with a package of proposed revisions of Republic Act 9298 (accountancy law), which was promulgated way back in 2004. In the span of more than 12 years since the passage of the law, there have been several changes and developments in the accountancy sector, locally and globally, that have arisen. Thus, the need for the revision of the archaic law of the accountants.

The proposed revision of the accountancy law provisions can be categorized in six areas as follows: 1. Structural 2. Mandate of the Accountancy Regulatory Office and the BOA 3. Practice of Accountancy 4. Accountancy Examination and Program Matters 5. Special Provisions 6. Penalties and Sanctions These proposed revisions were gathered from the various accountancy stakeholders throughout the Philippines with consultations and focus group discussions that started on April 20. After more than three months of this interaction, the BOA has compiled a list of over 25 revisions. This list was submitted to Congress on August 15 to start the legislative process. Thereafter, Congress will conduct the public hearings on the bill that will be drafted for the purpose of revising the accountancy law. The major proposals include the reform of the accountancy track governing the licensing of the professional accountants. It is proposed that there will be two levels of licensure examinations that will be given by the BoA. The first level is the examination consisting of the core accountancy subjects that all accounting graduates should take to practice accountancy. This will be called the Certified Accountant

(CA) examination. There is also the second-level examination, called the Certified Public Accountant and Certified Professional Accountant (CPA) examination, which optionally can be taken by the CA who intends to teach accounting courses and/or do public practice and sign the auditors certificates. This examination can be taken after the CA has done at least three years of meaningful work experience. This CPA examination is a one-subject test on an advanced accountancy subject that will be taken by the CA, depending on his or her specialization. The examination to be taken can either be on public practice auditing, management accounting, internal auditing, or accounting information technology. This reform in the licensure, examination approach is intended to address the specialization and practical-experience requirements of the profession. Another change being proposed is the creation of an Accountancy Regulatory Office (ARO). The ARO will assume the regulatory and oversight over the profession. These functions are currently the responsibilities of the BoA. However, due to the pressing demand on the BoA on overseeing the licensure process, the oversight of the accountancy education and the issuance of accountancy rules

standards, the stakeholders of the accountancy profession agreed that there was a need to create the ARO to handle the regulatory oversight of the profession. The proposed amendments in the accountancy law include also the institutionalization of the Financial Reporting Standards Council and Auditing and Assurance Standard Council that perform the task of formulating and recommending accounting and auditing standards for approval by the BOA. The formation of the Public Sector Financial Reporting Standards Council, Accountancy Education Council and Ethics Standards Council is also recommended to perform the other mandates of the profession. Once approved as a law, the accountancy profession will now have organizations that are properly staffed and funded to pursue their mandates. Another major proposal is allowing the public practice of accountancy under a partnership with limited liability and corporate structure. With this in place, the constraint of unlimited financial liability and risk in the public practice that result in a disincentive to accountants will be mitigated. The proposed corporate structure, as a vehicle for public practice, will also provide to accountants this option that are now available to other professionals, such as the architects and engineers. There are other provisions cited by the stakeholders who participated in the consultations. These include the oversight over the “specialized accountancy certification bodies”’, the provision of incentives for the consolidation of small- and medium-sized practices; the special treatment of micro-, small- and medium-sized business enterprises on accountancy regulatory rules; instituting a Whistleblower program, providing for the use of the title of Accountant (”Acct”) for use of the CPAs and CAs, mandatory membership of CA/CPAs in Audit Committees of corporations,, man-

dating the CA/CPA requirement for government internal auditors; and preparers of FS and revisions in the independent external-audit threshold. The wheels of change have started to move forward for our accountancy law. Congress will soon start the long legislative process for the revision of our charter. This initiative will involve the support and involvement of all the stakeholders of our accountancy profession. Our fellow accountants can now start soliciting from their respective congressmen and senators their support and endorsement of the bill that will soon be discussed in Congress. All accountants are encouraged to participate in the forthcoming public hearings that will be held. Let us all be one in pushing forward the much-needed changes in our accountancy law. Information on the revisions submitted to Congress can be downloaded at http://boa.com.ph/ revisions-in-accountancy-law/ Also, on the first anniversary of the Debit Credit column, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my 16 fellow accountants who contributed articles to this column by and for accountants. This column was launched about a year ago on September 21, 2015, and continues to provide interesting information and insights to its many readers. We encourage more of our fellow accountants to share their thoughts on relevant topics of our times by e-mailing their articles to boa.secretariat@ gmail.com. We have posted all the articles published in this column in http://boa.com.ph/debit-credit/ Chairman Joel L. Tan-Torres is the chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy. He is a Certified Public Accountant who placed No. 1 in the May 1979 CPA Board Examinations. He is concurrently a tax partner of Reyes Tacandong & Co., CPAs. He was the former commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue from 2009 to 2010.

Help American workers: Pass TPP By Michael R. Bloomberg & Thomas J. Donohue Bloomberg View

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ILLARY CLINTON and Donald Trump have both said they will oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade pact between the US and 11 nations negotiated by the Obama administration and signed in February. But their views shouldn’t matter much, because the issue should never get to the next president’s desk. Congressional consideration of the agreement has been delayed long enough. Congress should vote on the bill—and pass it—before the year is out. Antitrade sentiment has made it fashionable for candidates to oppose TPP. But while a vocal and energized faction of voters on the left and right advocate protectionist measures, most Americans— including majorities in both— believe more trade is good for the American economy. So do nearly all economists and a large majority of the business and agriculture communities. Global trade opens up new markets to American businesses, creating new opportunities to grow. In fact, the US actually runs a cumulative trade surplus in manufactured goods with our 20 trade agreement partners, and we’ve long run global trade surpluses for services and agricultural products. But you wouldn’t know that by listening to the presidential candidates. Trade also lowers the cost of goods for US consumers. Without trade, everything we buy—from food to clothing to electronics— would be dramatically more expensive. When was the last time you heard a candidate say you ought to pay more for groceries and underwear? The US will never again be the global capital for low-skill manufacturing, and attempting to re-

claim that title by turning away from trade and erecting protectionist measures would be a fool’s errand. The 1950s-era economy is gone and never coming back —more as a result of technology than trade. Most of the manufacturing jobs lost over the past two decades have been automated out of existence, not lost to trade. As goods and services are increasingly purchased online, greater access to foreign markets is essential to American businesses, including our manufacturers, which increasingly depend on foreign markets to support jobs here at home. For instance, US auto exports more than doubled between 2009 and 2014, topping 2 million cars and trucks for the first time in 2014. Shipments of “made in the USA” cars to China rose tenfold in that period. And without the growth in trade that the US has experienced during that time, many more Americans—in manufacturing and other industries—would be out of work. The challenge we face today is finding ways to create more highwage jobs and to ensure that more Americans have the skills and education they need to qualify for them. Such jobs tend to be de-

pendent on foreign markets for materials, labor and customers. Breaking down barriers to those markets, which TPP will do, is essential to America’s future in the global economy. Of course, the overall benefits of trade are small comfort to those who feel the immediate pain of losing their jobs when a factory moves its operations overseas. There is more that elected officials can and should do to help such workers, but opposing TPP is not one of them. In fact, politicians who blame trade for sluggish economic growth are merely diverting attention from their own failure to deal with critical issues that are holding back businesses, including addressing the country’s antiquated infrastructure. It’s imperative that the strong majority of voters who support expanded trade urge members of

Congress to pass TPP this year— and hold them accountable for the lost jobs that will result if they fail to do so. Walking away from TPP would give other nations—particularly China—a leg up in the competition for trade and the jobs it creates. In fact, despite what we hear from the campaign trail, it would be a huge gift to China that would cost American taxpayers in lost jobs, lost income and lost opportunity for many years to come. It would also weaken America’s ability to exert influence on matters of national security and geopolitics. America has always been strongest when we drive global change, rather than shrink from it, and seize opportunities to extend our economic reach. TPP presents an important test of whether that era of American leadership will continue.