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BSP could go either way in next policy move By Bianca Cuaresma

@BcuaresmaBM

FTER keeping its monetarypolicy settings unchanged in its last meeting, it is unclear whether the Bangko Sentral’s next move would be toward tighter or more relaxed interest rates owing to the diversity of potential developments it has to consider in the policy horizon. Bank of the Philippine Islands associate economist Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa said that, while BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. has clearly communicated to markets the appropriateness of its current settings, the central bank’s next move will depend on what will happen in the local and international scene. Mapa said if local economic activity shows signs of slowing, markets will be on a lookout for the central bank’s hint toward potential easing measures to help bolster growth, possibly through cutting rates further from where they currently are. However, aside from growth, the BSP also has to consider inflation trends, the Federal Reserve’s (the Fed) next move and cash supply. As such, should inflationary trends begin to build ahead of the Fed rate hike, and should strong liquidity in the system still prevail, the BSP will likely push for higher local interest rates by substantially increasing its weekly auction volumes. Mapa also said the central bank may opt to unveil a number of macroprudential measures, possibly in key sectors like real estate, in order to arrest any inflationary pressures or areas of excessive risk-taking behavior from the recent string of negative real interest rates. Tetangco: “Increased uncertainty over prospects for growth and monetary-policy action in major advanced economies warrants prudence in policy settings.”

Sunday, September 25, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 351

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Foreign investors still bullish on Duterte, economic growth

By Roderick L. Abad | Contributor @rodrik_28

HE private sector remains bullish on the Philippines as an investment hub in the region, given its strong macrofundamentals and the political will of the new leadership to implement drastic changes in the country. Asia CEO Awards Chairman Richard Mills said the Philippines has the fastest-growing economy in the world, and is earning the confidence of investors that it is the center of growth in Southeast Asia. “We feel the Philippines is the whole region’s focus of investment,” he said at the media launch of the Asia CEO Awards 2016 at the Marriott Hotel in Pasay City on Friday. Mills, also the chairman of Chalre Associates, said the Philippines continues to be the preferred trade destination in the region by foreign investors. “If you look at the other places, Singapore and Hong Kong are wonderful places, but they are the most

Continued on A2

MILLS: “We feel the Philippines is the whole region’s focus of investment.”

expensive in the world to do business. They’re aging societies; they have small geographies and small populations,” he told the BusinessMirror. “The opportunities now are in places where most people are and centralized locations, like the Philippines. It’s right in the geographical center, has a very young and Continued on A2

President Duterte smiles, as he is presented with a pilot’s jacket on the anniversary of the 250th Presidential Airlift Wing on September 13 at the Philippine Air Force headquarters in Pasay City. Despite the “colorful, mercurial and impulsive style” of Mr. Duterte, which is “introducing a lot of uncertainty” to investors’ perception of the country, economist Dr. Bernard M. Villegas said this will not cast a shadow over the “certainty” of things where the country’s economic growth is concerned. AP/Bullit Marquez

DOE to fast-track processing of proposed projects By Lenie Lectura @llectura

INTO THE GROVE Elysha Dinn Rasay, who recently won the title Princess of the World 2016, visits a papaya plantation of FarmOn.ph near her home in Bannawag Sur, Quirino. The award was given to her on June 27 in the City of Nesserbar, Bulgaria. LEONARDO PERANTE II

PPA: Seaports not congested, can take more cargo traffic By Lorenz S. Marasigan

@lorenzmarasigan

Tetangco announced in its postpolicy meeting the BSP decision to maintain interest rate on the central bank’s overnight reverse repurchase facility at 3 percent. All corresponding interest rates on the overnight lending and deposit facilities were also kept steady and the reserve requirement ratios unchanged. Tetangco said their main considerations include a subdued and manageable inflation, solid-growth expectations and slower global economic activity. “With these considerations, the Monetary Board believes current monetary-policy settings remain appropriate. At the same time, increased uncertainty over prospects for growth and monetary-policy action in major advanced economies warrants prudence in policy settings,” Tetangco said.

A broader look at today’s business

ESPITE registering dynamic growth in both passenger and cargo volumes in the first seven months of the year, the country’s seaports are far from being congested and can still accommodate more traffic. Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) General Manager Jay Daniel R. Santiago said traffic in and out of the various ports in the country remained free flowing, despite cargo volume reaching 141.77 million metric tons (MMT), and passenger volume hiking by 11 percent to 42.492 million through end-July. “The strong performance of the cargo segment underscores the country’s economic resilience. The strong numbers in the passage sector also suggest the continuing vibrancy of both the local and international travel industries, and more people

PESO exchange rates n US 47.8350

are now considering traveling using ships,” Santiago said. “Nonetheless, despite the surging numbers, we guarantee that our ports remain clog-free, and can accommodate the increasing cargo, passenger and shipcall volumes,” he said. Santiago said the ports of Agusan, Mindoro, Panay-Guimaras, National Capital Region, North and Negros Oriental-Siquijor posted the biggest growth percentage in local and foreign cargo, while the North Harbor in Manila remains the top performer in terms of domestic cargo volume. Containerized cargo traffic, meanwhile, soared 9 percent for the period under review to 3.676 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), from 3.368 million TEUs last year. The Manila International Container Terminal Services Inc. remains the country’s top handler of foreign cargo, processing 1.241 million TEUs for the period in review, followed by the Manila South Harbor handling 584,598 TEUs.

Shipcalls for the period went up by 9 percent, from 234,468 in 2015 to 255,037 this year. Domestic and foreign shipcalls grew by 8.45 percent and 21.91 percent, respectively. At the moment, combined yard utilization at the two Manila ports is at 40 percent, meaning approximately 32,600 TEUs are inside the terminals, while yard productivity remains high, ranging from 20 to 30 movements an hour. The efficient yard management for both terminals is attributed partly to the truck Terminal Appointment Booking System imposed recently that catapulted port efficiency by at least 96 percent. Prior to it, the average daily gateouts at the Manila ports was at 4,500 TEUs to 5,000 TEUs, as compared to the postTABS imposition of 7,000 TEUs to 7,500 TEUs daily gateouts. “With this kind of yard utilization, we can say Philippine ports are ready to handle the expected increase in the volume of cargo due to the runup to Christmas,” Santiago said.

HE Department of Energy (DOE) vowed to shorten the processing days of applications filed before the agency, in a bid to fasttrack proposed energy projects of the private sector. “From 45 days, we would like to make to 25 days the permitting process, in order to reduce the backlog. This is in line with what the President said,” Energy Undersecretary Felix Willam B. Fuentebella said. The agency earlier launched the Energy Vehicle One Shared System (Evoss), a Web-based monitoring of renewable-energy (RE) applications. Originally patterned after the One-Stop Facilitation and Monitoring Center Web Portal for Mindanao RE projects, spearheaded by the Mindanao Development Authority together with the DOE and other concerned agencies, the Evoss aims to facilitate and streamline the process of RE applications sideby-side the increase in the efficiency of all concerned agencies while fostering a strong privatepublic sector partnerships built on good governance, transparency and accountability. “We are using Evoss. We are also looking at processing

two services—the technical and the legal aspects of the applications—at the same time, so that it’s faster also for other agencies to act and resolve on these applications. As you know, some applications have to secure the approval of other agencies, not only the DOE, that is why on our part, we are already fast-tracking the processing of applications,” Fuentebella said.

Fuentebella: “From 45 days, we would like to make to 25 days the permitting process, in order to reduce the backlog. This is in line with what the President said.”

He also said the Evoss is the most transparent way to track the status of RE applications. The Evoss can track the number of days an application is pending with a certain government agency. It tells the status of an application and states how long before an approval is secured, among others. The Evoss is a joint undertaking of the DOE with the United States Agency for International Development Building Low Emission Alternatives to Develop Economic Resilience and Sustainability (B-Leaders) Project.

n japan 0.4749 n UK 62.5825 n HK 6.1683 n CHINA 7.1753 n singapore 35.2765 n australia 36.5555 n EU 53.6135 n SAUDI arabia 12.7584

Source: BSP (23 September 2016 )

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, September 25, 2016

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Foreign investors still bullish on Duterte, economic growth Continued from a1

dynamic population, and now the fastest-growing economy in Southeast Asia. Plus, you’ve got a very popular President who has done things like we’ve never seen before. You’ve got great stories from many companies and people from different countries. So these make a lot of sense,” he said. These attributes of the country have lured regional companies to move parts of their regional operations and even global businesses to the Philippines, the top executive said. “It’s only a matter of time before the most senior ranks of the ladder also get to move here. That is what we see in the future,” he noted. Mills allayed concerns on recent reports that some foreign investors in the country are pulling out their money from the local bourse and even potential investors are either shying away from doing business here or still in the “wait-and-see” attitude. Concerns reportedly include extrajudicial killings, peace-andorder problem brought about by the Davao bombing incident and the derogatory remarks hurled by President Duterte against the United Nations, the United States and the European Union. Based on data from the Philippine Stocks Exchange (PSE), around P25 billion has been already pulled out from the stock market in 22 days, or over P1 billion per day. The PSE index fell by 0.5 percent, or 38.75 points, to 7,723.60 at the close of trading on Friday.

As per the Bloomberg report, this is the longest exit of foreign funds from the country since the 2007 financial crisis. “I think those are just in the minority. The majority of companies here are still happy as they are growing in the Philippines. The most important thing is the people here, who are nice, hardworking and have positive attitude toward their work. And this is what’s most important to running your business. Definitely, we’re here to continue with our business,” he said. Meanwhile, ADEC Innovations CEO James M. Donovan said the stock market is just a shortterm investment that when investors divest from it, the divestment does not create a big impact on the nation’s investment reputation. “It’s not a true measurement of the investability of the country. The long-term foreign direct investment—or the long-term money—is absolutely still on track to continue to invest in the Philippines. And those long-term dollars, yen or euros are really what the country needs to seek. The ups and downs of the stock market happen all over the globe for various reasons: [business] sentiments, interest rates and many different things,” he said. The challenges the country needs to address, he said, are its infrastructure and capability enhancement to deliver public-private partnerships (PPPs) in an efficient timely manner. “We have the numbers, positive investment [climate] and the

capability of long-term future for the Philippines. They are absolutely on track and the investments are there to back it up,” Donovan said. Another area the country needs to work on, cited Synchrony Global CEO Darcy Mark Lalonde, is tourism, which remains to be “very underutilized.” “The people are great, whose service orientation and English communication are commendable. The culture, the history and the beaches are wonderful. Unfortunately, tourism is still underutilized. So I still believe again with the strong governance [and] some regulatory overlay that our tourism will improve. And that’s why I see that the current government is bringing those things to the forefront,” he said. Commenting on the “colorful, mercurial and impulsive style” of President Duterte, which is “introducing a lot of uncertainty” to investors’ perception of the country, Dr. Bernard Villegas, an economist, author and professor at the University of Asia and the Pacific, said this will not cast a shadow over the “certainty” of things where the country’s economic growth is concerned. He said the foul remarks of the Chief Executive to some international personalities are just expletives and that he really did not mean to insult them. “All those reports that he’s insulting others are wrong. I’m not in any way excusing him for his bad manners. He’s giving a very bad example to young people. He has to

control his language. But to be fair, he has not insulted any top personality. It’s just an expletive that he uses, especially in Cebuano,” he said. But whatever Mr. Duterte says in the future, Villegas is certain of the $28 billion to $30 billion worth of remittances coming to the Philippines year in and year out. “I’ve researched this for the last 10 years that whatever happens to the rest of the world, we will have a 3-percent to 5-percent increase year in and year out in remittances. Our more than 10 million workers [abroad] will still continue to remit,” he said. He also noted the businessprocess outsourcing (BPO) industry

will reach $22 billion to $25 billion in terms of revenue, increasing by 15 percent to 18 percent no matter what the situation worldwide is. “What we’ve heard is that we are building more and more office buildings for the thousands of people being employed by BPOs. Then all of these income that are coming are stimulating to multiplier effects, such that we see 40 million Filipinos as domestic tourists,” he said. “All these are certainties. They will not change whatever happens to the President.” Villegas, though, suggested, Duterte needs to tone down a bit in the way he speaks, especially if it concerns the nation as a whole.

He is positive that if the President controls his impulsiveness and implements his economic agenda well, the country’s gross national product rate could even surpass its target. “If he can, little by little, change his impulsiveness, then we can count on his decisiveness in putting up infrastructure, and next year if they’re able to implement those 15 to 17 PPPs that have been already announced by his Cabinet, then our growth rate by next year will be eight percent. If not, it will only be six percent to seven percent, which is still the highest growing economy in Asia,” he said.

HELPING SAVE PALAWAN’S ECOLOGY Fishermen in San Vicente, Palawan, transfer coral stones in the bay of Palawan, to maintain ecological balance in the area. LAILA AUSTRIA

Aboitiz power firms expect profit hike By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

LOWER income-tax rate for the two hydropower plants of SN Aboitiz Power (SNAP) Group may improve the latter’s earnings, according to COL Financial. “The earnings of Magat and Ambuklao Binga hydroelectric plants [SNAP Magat and SNAP Binga] could surprise on the upside once the income-tax rates for the two plants are reduced to 10 percent [from the current 30 percent],” the country’s online stock broker said. “Based on our estimates, the lower income-tax rate for Magat and Ambuklao-Biunga could increase AP’s 2017 net income by P560 million, or 2.5 percent.” SNAP Group is the collective name of SNAP-Magat and SNAPBenguet.

SN Aboitiz Power-Magat Inc. owns and operates the 360-megawatt (mW) Magat Hydroelectric Power Plant (HEPP) at the border of Ramon, Isabela, and Alfonso Lista, Ifugao. SN Aboitiz Power-Benguet Inc. owns and operates the 105-mW Ambuklao HEPP in Bokod and the 140-mW Binga HEPP in Itogon, both in Benguet. COL Financial said this is line with the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 (RE law), which grants renewable-energy power producers a preferential income-tax rate of 10 percent against the normal corporate-tax rate of 30 percent. “However, management said the trade-off of obtaining the preferential income-tax treatment is that the ownership of the plants is transferred to the government after 50 years. Nevertheless, based

on the Aboitiz Power internal estimate, choosing the 10-percent income-tax rate scenario is still more value accretive for the company in the long run,” it said in its September 23 report. The 10-percent income-tax rate will be applicable for the two plants once the Energy Regulatory Commission awards the certificate of compliance for the two plants. Earlier, the Aboitz group expressed interest to bid for Chevron’s 40-percent stake in the Philippine Geothermal Production Co. Inc., which develops and produces steam energy for the Tiwi-Makban geothermal-power plant. The power company would have to set aside higher capital expenditure on the steam field to bring back the capacity of the geothermal complex back to the original 700 MW from 400 mW.

SMEs find allies for inclusive growth with DICT

ILIPINO entrepreneurs can now look forward to a more progressive journey toward financial empowerment with the successful creation of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). With technology playing such a big part in the lives of millions of Filipinos these days, the DICT will be highly instrumental in laying down the groundwork for the Filipino entrepreneurs’ foray into global e-commerce. The long-standing relationship between the public and the private sectors is expected to be strengthened further as both parties will play significant roles in advancing the interest of the Filipinos in the digital age. In a recent interview, Information Secretary Rodolfo A. Salalima said, “The ICT industry is fast becoming the country’s top dollar earner. Its capacity to generate jobs is projected to surpass the big dollar remittances of overseas Filipino workers [OFWs] to the Philippines.” The DICT’s first objective, as mandated by President Duterte during his first State of the Nation Address, is to

develop the country’s “national broadband plan” to accelerate broadband deployment across the nation. This, thought leaders believe, will greatly help Filipino small and medium enterprises (SMEs) confidently take the jump onto the digital platform. For Filipino entrepreneurs, it is seen to complement the implementation of key initiatives geared toward pursuit of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) 2020 E- Commerce Road Map. Genaro V. Lapez, UnionBank of the Philippines EVP, who also happens to be the chief advocate of the UREKA Forum-the Philippines’s most comprehensive e-commerce mass conversion movement, welcomed this development. “The creation of the DICT is a huge step forward towards realizing this goal, but the real success of this endeavor will also need the all-out support of stakeholders from the private sector,” Lapez said. “Obviously, a lot of work needs to be done to radically improve our Internet infrastructure and put the Philippines at par with the best in region, if not in the world.”

The partnership between government and the private sector is the catalyst for change the SMEs are looking for, as this allows more Filipino entrepreneurs to gain access to more efficient tools they need to enjoy a rewarding e-commerce journey. “Technology is a great leveller in the development of business sector as it opens up growth opportunities for entrepreneurs who would not have enjoyed the same opportunity of bringing their businesses to the consciousness of more potential customers,” Lapez said. The Philippines ranks as the 16th country housing the most number of Internet users worldwide. However, despite being tagged as one of Southeast Asia’s “hottest e-commerce markets,” the Philippines has yet to fully utilize e-commerce as a unique business edge and a significant economic-growth contributor. Unfortunately, only 1 percent of Filipino SMEs have a working website, despite the fact that they comprise over 95 percent of all registered businesses in the country and employ 62 percent of the labor force.

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo

Sunday, September 25, 2016 A3

Comelec junks Peña’s poll Aguirre doubts JB is govt informant protest against Abby Binay J By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

HE Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday dismissed the poll protest filed by losing mayoral candidate Romulo Peña Jr. against Makati City Mayor Mar-Len Abigail Binay.

In an 11-page resolution, the Comelec First Division cited Peña’s failure to cite specific allegations of acts of electoral fraud in junking the complaint. The poll body said the election protest is insufficient in form and in content. “The Comelec’s First Division cannot sanction the emergence of question to the integrity of the assumption of a public official without showing that there are causes for such question. These causes must be stated with utmost particularity as to disturb the very results of the elections this Comelec considers sacred,” the resolution said. The election protest, accord-

ing to the Comelec, did not indicate where the alleged offense happened. “The protestant did not indicate the particular precincts where errors in the scanning of the ballots or appreciation thereof by the vote-counting machine

peña

binay

took place,” it pointed out. It noted that the allegations that votes cast do not accurately reflect the election receipts, votebuying, harassment and intimidation allegedly done by Binay’s camp, as well as vote-shaving were mere general statements. Under its rules, the Comelec

may summarily dismiss an election protest on the ground of being insufficient in form and content as required. “The reasons required by the rule must specifically show how and where the electoral fraud, anomalies or irregularities took place. The commission’s First Division is not convinced,” it added. In May Peña asked the Comelec for a manual recount of votes in the polling precincts in District 2 of Makati City, after claiming that the results in the said precincts are not reflective of the actual votes cast owing to the presence poll irregularities. The Comelec proclaimed Binay as the winner in the Makati race after garnering 160,320 votes against Peña’s 142,257.

The reasons required by the rule must specifically show how and where the electoral fraud, anomalies or irregularities took place. The Commission First Division is not convinced.”—Comelec

USTICE Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II on Saturday cast doubt on former Justice Secretary and now Sen. Leila M. de Lima’s claim that drug convict Jaybee “JB” Sebastian is a government asset. Aguirre said Sebastian should not even be tapped as a government asset, considering that he is the one leading the illegal-drugs trade operation inside the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City. “Paano ako maniniwalang asset si Jaybee Sebastian, asset ba ang isang tao na pinapayagan mo manguna sa drug trade sa Muntinlupa at iyan naman alam natin sa mga testigo na hinarap natin,” Aguirre said. “Kung asset iyan, dapat nasa listahan ng mga investigative agencies not DOJ [Department of Justice] secretary. Dapat ang nag-asset lamang mga NBI [National Bureau of Investigation], PDEA [Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency], [Bureau of ] Immigration...mga nasa investigation,” he explained. It will be recalled that in December 2014 de Lima personally led the raid at the maximumsecurity compound of the NBP, where aut hor it ies recovered contraband items, such as illegal drugs, firearms and ammunition, cellular telephones,

Aguirre

de lima

pornographic materials, luxury items and cash. De Lima subsequently ordered the transfer of 19 high-profile inmates to the NBI as part of the crackdown on illegal-drugs trade inside the NBP. However, Sebastian was not among those who were transferred to the NBI. In July 2015 the 19 high-profile inmates were transferred to Building 14 of the NBP’s maximumsecurity compound. Three months after, Sebastian was also transferred to Building 14. Witnesses presented before the House of Representatives’s Committee on Justice hearing on the proliferation of the illegal drugs inside the NBP testified that Sebastian was given preferential treatment by de Lima because he was tasked to collect drug money to help finance the senatorial bid of the latter. Joel San R. Juan

SundayV

Busine

A4 Sunday, September 25, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

No one is indispensable in a democracy

By Oscar Arias Sanchez | Inter Press Service

AN JOSÉ—I have put a great deal of thought into whether to return to politics. Groups from different political parties, and without party affiliation, have expressed their concern over the current situation in the country and have offered me their support. And the opinion polls indicate that I would have a chance at a third presidential term. The support of so many people fills me with gratitude. There is no greater reward for me than feeling the confidence and trust of the Costa Rican people, because it is based on deeds and actions, on knowing me for over 45 years, and knowing that, with all my defects, I always say what I think and do what I say. The approval of my first two administrations is a reflection of what we managed to do together. In the 1980s we brought peace to a region crushed by war, and we, thus, put Costa Rica on the world map. Ten years ago, we inserted our small country in the international economy, and we put it on the map again when the United Nations approved the Arms Trade Treaty, Costa Rica’s biggest contribution to humanity in its entire history. For many months I have weighed the contribution that I can still make, serving Costa Rica once again, against the need to give a boost to the emergence of a new generation of Costa Rican leaders. And I’m not thinking about the next four years. I’m thinking about the next 40. I have enough strength and enough ideas to serve them again. But I also know I’m not indispensable. No one is indispensable in a democracy. This is something I have said many times: One of the main obligations of a political leader is to foster new leadership. The future of a country depends on the continuous emergence of new cadres willing to take up the baton. Only tyrants cling to power. Democrats, of whom I am one, understand the importance of stepping aside. I believe the next generations must be given space, and this is the main reason for not running again for president. The second reason arises from the political ungovernability in Costa Rica. The opposition doesn’t bother me; on the contrary, I have always believed that in a democracy, if there is no opposition, it has to be created. I believe a good government requires someone on the other side of the sidewalk, reminding it of its commitments and holding it accountable. Unfortunately, there is a segment of the opposition in our country which, instead of demanding that the government in office make good on its promises, uses any tool to keep it from doing so. Rather than allowing it to implement the government plan that voters supported at the polls, they spend four years carrying out a continuous election campaign, standing in the way of progress in the direction that the people said they wanted. On May 8, 2006, when my second government took office, I made the following appeal to Costa Ricans, which continues to apply today: “I hope that we learn that no party or social segment has a monopoly on honesty, patriotism, good intentions and love for Costa Rica. I hope that we can understand that the responsible use of political power is much more than pointing things out, complaining and hindering, and consists, above all, of engaging in dialogue, working together and building. “I hope we will be able to tell the difference between adversaries and enemies; understand that willingness to compromise is not a sign of weakness, just as intransigence is not a sign of strength. I hope we can do away with the pettiness of our political debate, raise up our heads, look forward and think big.” The third and last reason that pushes me to make this decision is that I think there are many ways to work for the people of Costa Rica. They say that someone who is only good at being president is not even good at that. That is, if you can only exert influence from the presidential seat, it will not be a strong influence.

The economics of armed conflicts S

INGAPORE—Some people may think that economists have little contribution to make in analyzing military conflicts. Such an idea is misleading and wrong!

Database

By Cecilio T. Arillo

In this column, two-time Costa Rican president and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Oscar Arias sets forth his reasons for not accepting the implicit and explicit invitation from large sections of society to run for president for a third time.

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The management of conflict, once just the domain of political scientists, has now attracted the interest of economists. Since conflict involves strategic interactions between adversaries, there are opportunities for applying game theory with conflicts analyzed in terms of games of bluff, chicken-and-egg theory and tit-for-tat (e.g., deterrence; brinkmanship; and mutually assured psychological destruction). There are extensive literatures on arms control and whether such control results in war or peace. Overall, economists usually analyze conflict in terms of its likely benefits and costs for the participants. Economists as management experts have made further contributions to the analysis of conflict. They have examined the belief that democracies do not go to war with each other and they have been used to advice on target selection in military conflicts (e.g., allied bombing of oil fields, ball bearing and fighter aircraft plants in World War II). Furthermore, their analysis of collective action and military alliances applies also to peace as a public good with nations having incentives to free ride on the actions of the alliance leaders. However, despite the large number of military conflicts, there is a relative absence of empirical studies of conflict by economists. Often, empirical work, including case studies of conflicts (e.g., World War II and now, terrorism), has been undertaken by scholars from other disciplines. In the Philippines economists must seriously assess insurgency and separatism in terms of their likely costs and benefits to the adversaries. On this basis and from the Philippine perspective, there will be direct military costs, as well as costs imposed on the civilian economy.

Such costs might be short and long term. “Much depends on the scenarios assumed, all of which will be characterized by uncertainty,” said a book, Management of Violence: A Strategy for National Security and Public Safety, soon to be published here and in the Philippines, and written by this writer. For instance, armed conflict with leftist insurgents, Moro rebels, as well as the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, will incur military costs over its duration followed in the longer run by possible extra costs to the defense budget, as the government continues its incremental adjustments in relation to its existing policies, and faces a possible budgetary increase thereat to curb terrorism and insurgency using conventional forces under a unified command structure. For example, the proposed 2017 P240- billion budget combined for police and military represented a huge increase by 30 times, compared to Marcos’s last budget of P8 billion in 1985-1986, adjusted to inflation and other causes such as graft and corruption. Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the budget of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) was substantially increased to support President Duterte’s war on drugs, criminality and terrorism. “The proposed budget for the PNP alone amounted to P110.4 billion, or 24.6 percent higher than its 2016 budget, for the National Police force to hire more personnel, and purchase more guns and patrol vehicles to intensify its suppression of criminality,” Diokno said. He told Congress the proposed budget for the AFP is P130.6 billion, 15 percent higher than the 2016 budget, to complement the AFP’s modernization program, including P25 billion to better equip soldiers for counterterrorism. The Duterte administration has also sought an increase in the salaries of military and police officers through the passage of a new law for a new tranche of salary standardization to increase the

base pay of uniformed personnel and the pension of retirees. The insurgency war also involved short-run costs for the civilian economy, such as higher oil prices, impacts on such sectors as the airline industry, tourism and share prices of consumer products, a loss of investor confidence, as well as the recession in the world economy. Some sectors benefited, such as defense industries (e.g., orders for ammunition, communication equipment and combat boots). In the longer run, there might be implications for the level of public spending on social- welfare programs. For a country whose poverty level is 70 percent of its more than 100 million population, spending too much for the armed services, inordinately very large for its kind of threat, is, indeed, a strong manifestation of poor political and economic judgment. From the view point of strategic management, it doesn’t make sense fighting 30,000 Moro, Abu Sayyaf and communist terrorists with 10 army divisions, 30 brigades and 90 battalions, 10 separate marine battalions, five engineering brigades and one armored brigade, each with its own headquarters complete with line services (personnel, intelligence, operations and logistics). In essence, our policy-makers must think of the enormous sums of money that went to overhead expenses alone maintaining multilayered headquarters, with overlapping functions and responsibilities, and the requirements in terms of infrastructure, armaments, ammunition, transportation and communications that runs into billions of pesos, money that could have been saved and diverted to provide the men in uniform decent salaries and allowances and, thus, avoid corruption, favoritism and patronage, the very problems that fed on the military rebellion in the past few years.

To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@ gmail.com

Taxi industry must adapt to survive S

By Michael Farren | The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

OME dinosaurs escaped extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period 65 million years ago by evolving into birds. Taxi companies around the United States face a similar cataclysm today, thanks to upstart ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft. Like the dinosaurs, taxis must adapt

or die. Unfortunately, cities like Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Chicago are holding onto regulations that will seal the taxis’ fate. Ride-sharing’s rise has been as unexpected and tumultuous as the dinosaurs’ demise. Though the industry is barely five years old, ride-sharing drivers already outnumber taxi and limousine drivers by at least two to one nationally.

Data from cities around the country show that ride sharing—while not completely replacing taxicabs—is substantially eroding the industry’s business, even as it grows the overall size of the market. Recent research by me, Chris Koopman and Matt Mitchell at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University illustrates how the taxi industry has fallen into a trap of its own making. Since the Depression, taxi companies have lobbied

for regulations that stifle their potential competition. For example, the Philadelphia Parking Authority, or PPA, limits the number of taxicabs that can provide service by restricting “Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity,” known as COPCs. Other approaches, like allowing only certain kinds of taxicabs or dictating the minutia of how to provide service, can raise rival companies’ costs, leaving more established companies relatively unscathed. The result is monopoly-like power for established companies. Regulators attempt to mitigate this with price controls and quality standards, but industry insiders are often able to influence the final regulations so they end up serving special interests rather than controlling them. Economists call

this counterintuitive result “regulatory capture.” In the end, taxi regulations create a stagnant market with little opportunity for entrepreneurs. Our research shows that even Washington’s relatively light taxi regulations can increase the cost of starting a taxi company by nearly $2,650. This doesn’t count the 33 extra bureaucratic hurdles that an aspiring driver must jump over. By comparison, the PPA’s taxi regulations are fairly draconian. For example, the PPA also limits COPCs for taxi dispatchers, thereby controlling the primary source of customers for taxi drivers. This inhibits competition by restricting entry to the market—a taxi driver co-op was denied authorization as a new dispatcher for six years.

Voices

essMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph • Sunday, September 25, 2016 A5

UN rapporteurs U

NITED Nations rapporteurs have been invited by President Duterte to come over—but not to insult our government or the views and feelings of most of our people about the drug problem and the solution adopted to solve or expunge it.

Free Fire

By Teddy Locsin Jr.

UN rapporteurs work for us and not for themselves or for their personal countries. They work for us as a nation united with other nations on terms of equality. It is in the UN Charter: One country one vote—our vote is the same as that of the United States outside the Security Council. The rapporteurs are invited here to ascertain the precise facts, and determine the real count, of the killings taking place of alleged drug pushers who are—and this the UN rapporteurs must swallow—destroying our race by addicting them, like the British addicted a third of the Chinese, in order to enslave them. The UN rapporteurs cannot be here to condemn us—before a court

in which we sit as equal judges. They will be here to uncover and to present to us the true extent of the drug problem, and the propriety of the solution we adopted in the face of the problem—as that problem has been accurately assessed by us and by them. They are here to discover for how much of that solution is our government responsible, and how much of it are drug lords and dirty cops just cleaning up after themselves. But they cannot tell us not to attack drug lords and the drug problem, so that we will not be forced to kill them. They cannot tell us to do next to nothing about a problem, just so

that we shall not be forced to adopt an extreme solution. That is out of the question. They can tell us if our solution is too much or too little, insufficient or inappropriate, to successfully eliminate the drug problem. It is not and never shall be the job of UN rapporteurs to tell us, their bosses, that drugs are not a problem, and that killing its pushers is wrong in every case. President Barack Obama has regularly used drone strikes to solve another bad-people problem: The problem of terrorist resistance to the demands of the US. There is no other way. UN rapporteurs cannot criticize

the drone warfare of the US unless they can propose another practicable way to destroy the threat that drone attacks eliminate. The job of a UN ambassador, so far as I can see—and I have yet to consult the experts, like Philip Mabilangan who have had a deeper look—is to make the UN work, work for all the peoples whose nations are united in it. And that includes us, ourselves. And while we answer to the United Nations, it is only to the extent that we answer to the commitment we made when we joined the United Nations to achieve its benign purposes. But never, ever, to insult ourselves.

Harvard does a trade you should never make T

By Barry Ritholtz | Bloomberg View

HE Harvard Management Co., which oversees Harvard University’s endowment and other investments, just released its 2016 annual report. It’s grim reading: The fund had a negative return of 2 percent and was worth about $2 billion less than a year earlier, underperforming its benchmarks by a significant margin. At $35.7 billion, the university’s endowment is the biggest in the world. And let’s get it out of the way quickly— anyone can have a bad year. But here’s what should be of greater concern to alums and donors: The processes that the university and the management company use to look after this huge pile of money. First, a little history. Harvard’s endowment wasn’t always a problem student. It once was one of the best in the land. But the combination of academic hubris and political correctness led to a series of terrible—and expensive—decisions. Let’s start with Dr. Terry M.

Bennett and alums like him. He is Harvard Medical School, class of 1964 and, at one time, a regular and generous donor to the medical school. He also was one of the alums quoted by the New York Times in 2004 who was threatening to withhold future gifts if Harvard didn’t cut the compensation for money managers who, at the time, were delivering above-benchmark returns. “The managers of the endowment took home enough money last year to send more than 4,000 students to Harvard for a year,” Bennett told the Times. At the time, the high-earning Harvard endowment-management team was delivering 12.5-percent returns, beating lower-paying arch-rival Yale (8.8 percent). Eventually, Harvard bent to the wishes of its alums and faculty, which also objected to management-company pay levels. Harvard then went ahead and replaced the outperforming team of active money managers with another team of active managers.

Investment performance has never recovered. After years of reliable returns and management stability, both are lacking; the in-house management arm is now looking for its fourth CEO in a decade. That sort of turmoil is never good for performance. Yet, through it all, Harvard has continued to have the highest-paid endowment management team of any university. The issue now should be over the investment process, especially how much Harvard is overpaying to achieve subpar results. According to the annual report released by the management company, the endowment is festooned with expensive private equity, hedge funds and commodities holdings. Consider two of the three biggest portfolio components: Private equity made up 20 percent of the endowment’s investments—the biggest of any sector—and delivered a 2.6-percent return (and a 0.3- percent relative underperformance during the past five years).

Meanwhile, hedge funds, which made up 14 percent of the endowment’s holdings, returned negative 1.2 percent. But what seems to be missing here is information on the fees and charges for these notoriously expensive investments. For all we know, returns were significantly worse after fees. Among some pension funds and university endowments, investments in these areas were all the rage during much of the early and mid-2000s. But high costs and a decade of underperformance have taken much of the shine off these so-called alternatives. That is why the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, abandoned hedge funds in 2014. Perhaps, most surprising has been the dismal returns of the equity portion of Harvard’s portfolio: 400 basis points worse than the benchmark. If ever there was an argument for endowments to turn to passive indexing, Harvard is it. There’s an important lesson here,

and maybe Harvard is learning it. Investment management that outperforms benchmarks, as Harvard’s once did on a fairly consistent basis, is a rare and delicate thing in a world where so much can go wrong. So when that balance is upset because of interference (for all the wrong reasons) by those who lack an understanding of this or are ill-informed, it shouldn’t be surprising that returns suffer. Investing luminaries, such as Charlie Ellis, Jack Bogle and Burton Malkiel, have argued for ages that simpler and cheaper is better—and maybe less subject to the second-guessing of outsiders who think they know better. This is true even for $36-billion endowments, like Harvard’s. Here’s how I see it: Harvard saved about $50 million in pay for money managers. On the other hand, it looks like it may have sacrificed billions of dollars in investment returns by hiring less-capable asset managers. It almost doesn’t need saying this is a trade you should never make.

Opec could build some sandcastles in Algiers S

By Liam Denning | Bloomberg View

ELLING sand to Arabs is, as the saying implies, a challenge. But Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) freeze 2.0 talks in Algiers next week could mean Arabs actually helping to sell some sand themselves. It’s still hard to believe anything tangible will actually come of those talks, especially as Opec’s biggest frenemies, Saudi Arabia and Iran, don’t seem to have reached an understanding this week in Vienna. But if something does transpire —or even the promise of something transpiring eventually—it would benefit one set of companies: US exploration and production companies. Anything that lifts oil prices will alleviate pressure on balance sheets and help fund more fracking. And fracking needs sand. Lots of sand. When drillers fracture shale rock,

they pump in sand to prop open the cracks formed so that the oil and gas down there can escape to the surface. As you can see here, US drillers couldn’t get enough of the stuff when oil was trading in triple digits, but that feels like a long time ago now: By April, frack sand demand had dropped by almost two-thirds from its peak in October 2014 As E&P firms laid off workers and held off completing wells, they didn’t need that sand. But something else also happened: They started using a lot more sand in the wells that they did complete. In some shale regions such as the Permian Delaware and the Utica, the amount of sand per well has roughly doubled or tripled since 2013. This makes sense. Apart from forcing E&P companies to focus on their best acreage, the squeeze on cash flow has pushed them to experiment with longer wells and more-intense fracking

to get more oil and gas out of each well more quickly. And falling sand prices mean using more of it doesn’t necessarily push up the overall cost. In the Eagle Ford, for example, proppant cost has stayed flat since 2013 at about $200 per lateral foot of a well, despite the amount of sand per foot jumping more than 50 percent in that time, according to data from Wood Mackenzie. Drilling intensity is likely to keep increasing as E&P firms try to adapt to lower oil and gas prices. But any increase in prices from here—perhaps, helped along by Opec rhetoric or even action—will also boost the number of wells drilled and completed. There are tentative signs of this already. The number of horizontal rigs in operation, at almost 400, remains roughly 70-percent below the peak in late 2014, but has been rising since May. And the large backlog of drilled-but-uncompleted

wells has started to be worked off: A drop in the number of uncompleted wells translates directly to more fracking and sand demand The multiplier effect of more wells, drilled to greater lengths and with more proppant per foot, bodes well for a recovery in demand for sand—even if well completions don’t get back to the frenzied levels of 2014. Earlier this week, Fairmount Santrol Holdings, one of the biggest sand providers to the oil industry, announced it had raised prices for Northern White, a premium grade it mines in the upper Midwest. Like its competitor, US Silica Holdings, Fairmount’s stock has rallied hard already from the trough earlier this year, though it remains far below its IPO price. That rally is one reason for caution on sand stocks. Another is that, as with everything fracking-related, E&P companies have been experimenting with

cheaper grades of sand in their quest to lower costs. Jonathan Garrett, a principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie, cites Pioneer Resources and EOG Resources as two companies doing this, but adds it’s too early to tell if this will become a broader trend. Cheaper sand is, after all, likely to garner inferior results from fracking; and even if E&P companies use more of it, they may still mix it with higherquality proppants, such as Northern White or resin-coated sand, to boost their yield per well. Even so, provided the current $40-abarrel range for oil is the bottom for the market, sand providers should remain beneficiaries of the E&P industry’s continuing efforts to wring further efficiencies from their operations. Opec members could even provide a helpful nudge by freezing production—which is one more reason doing so wouldn’t be in their best interest.

How Robert Downey Jr. and friends honor American way

By Jonathan Bernstein | Bloomberg View

ET’S talk celebrities and politics. Joss Whedon (creator of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show and director of the two blockbuster Avengers movies) has formed a pro-Clinton PAC with $1 million of his own money and is producing a series of videos with big Hollywood celebrities. The first one urges voters to register to vote and features movie and TV stars, including Avengers Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo. Meanwhile, Donald Trump campaigned on Tuesday with boxing promoter Don King and former college basketball Coach Bobby Knight, while many actors from The West Wing are traveling to Ohio on behalf of Hillary Clinton. To begin with: No, voters aren’t going to base their vote choice on what

some actor or sports hero tells them to do. The celebrities doing these things, whatever their intentions, are probably doing more to promote themselves than to promote their candidate. At best, the direct effects of anything like this is really small. It’s not as if very many people are going to switch away from Clinton because actor Clark Gregg likes her, or away from Trump because reality star Omarosa supports him. So it’s unlikely any of this does any harm to the candidates. And collectively, it’s probably true that these sorts of things are real cues to voters who aren’t particularly interested in politics that, hey, there’s an election coming! For some of us, the election has been going on forever and we’re counting down the

days until it finally ends—but for many other Americans, politics is sort of a droning background noise most of the time, and they only really pay attention in last few weeks of the campaign. That might be more helpful now than it was in the old, pre-Internet days of three broadcast networks and a public television station. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, it was harder to be isolated from big political news. So it’s not that any one particular ad does much, but collectively, these things do eventually remind people that it’s time to pay attention. My real defense of celebrity participation in politics, however, is that even if it has no effect at all it’s still good, healthy fun. In particular, over the last two or three decades the US has become a

nation with more patriotic rituals that evoke its military (such as flyovers at sports events) rather than those that are centered in democracy as the core of the nation. With all due respect to the military, this should dismay us. The US should be proud of its democracy, and that means (among other things) celebrating elections, which are symbolically (and to some extent, substantively, although that’s more complicated) the central action of a mass democracy. Which seems to be what Whedon’s celebrity-studded video is all about: registering to vote and voting. I’ll choose to interpret the celebrities’ message not as the elitism of famous people, but as one of participation for everyone. And that’s worth celebrating.

Does Don Cheadle count as an Avenger? I guess so. Disclosure: I was in college with Whedon, although he was a couple of years behind me and as far as I know we never met. Still, my kids might think I was cool if he (or any of the celebrities in this story!) followed me on Twitter or something like that. Even the ones they know and like. Bobby Knight and Don King? Really? For someone who is a true 21st century television star, Trump’s ideas of who is well-known and popular seem to be at least 30 years out of date. “God Bless America,” the ascendant patriotic song of the 21st century, does not reference the military, although it’s often presented in a military context—but it also fails to cite democracy, or even freedom.

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A6 Sunday, September 25, 2016

Judge, bodyguard survive ambush

UTUAN CITY—A regional trial court (RTC) judge handling a significant number of drug cases and his driver-bodyguard early Friday survived an ambush by a group of men with high-powered firearms blocked their way and fired at their vehicle. Chief Supt. Rolando B. Felix, Caraga police commander, said Judge Hector Salise of Branch 7 of the RTC in Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur province, was on his way to his office onboard a red Toyota

Innova, bearing license plate SKF 719, driven by his driver-escort, Police Officer 3 Edmund Narvasa. They were blocked by the armed men who were onboard a gray sports-utility vehicle when they

reached the diversion road at Purok 3, Barangay Lemon, in this city. The armed men who had taken ambush positions, suddenly fired at the judge’s vehicle, hitting Salise and his driver. Narvasa, though wounded, was able to maneuver the vehicle back and sped away until they reached a community police assistance center (Compac) in Barangay Villakanangga. The armed group did not follow them and, instead, fled toward Agusan del Sur after the incident. A police force at the Compac responded to the crime scene, while members of the Butuan City Public Safety Company rushed Salisi and his driver to the MJ Santos Hospital here. Responding police investiga-

tors gathered 15 spent 5.56-mm and .45-caliber cartridges at the scene of the crime. Salise sustained four gunshot wounds in various parts of his body, while his driver had three. The two were declared in stable condition after undergoing an operation. Felix condemned the act and announced a thorough investigation to identify and arrest the suspects. He also said adjacent municipalities had been ordered to put up checkpoints and prepare for hotpursuit operations. Felix said they still have to establish the motive. Salise is currently hearing a number of drug cases at his sala and he is also responsible for the issuance of anti-illegal drug search warrants. PNA

Manufacturing posts 19.44-percent growth By Cai U. Ordinario @cuo_bm

HE total value of output of the manufacturing sector posted a 19.44-percent growth in 2013, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). PSA data showed that the value of the output of the country’s manufacturing sector reached as much as P4.3 trillion in 2013, higher than the P3.6 trillion recorded in 2010. “The combined output value of the top 10 industries accounted for P1.9 trillion, or a combined share of 43.9 percent of the total,” the PSA said. Data showed that in 2013, semiconductor devices and other electronic components contributed the biggest output of P538.8 billion, or 12.4 percent of the total.

This was followed by refined petroleum products with P476.3 billion, or 11 percent of the manufacturing sector’s total output for the year. PSA said completing the list of the top 10 contributors to P1.9 trillion worth of output included computers and peripheral equipment and accessories with P206.2 billion, or 4.8 percent of the total. Three contributors accounted for slightly over 2 percent of the total value. These were powdered milk and condensed or evaporated milk with P125.6 billion, or 2.9 percent; cigarettes and cigars, P115.1 billion, or 2.7 percent; motor vehicles, P108.5 billion, or 2.5 percent. Meanwhile, the manufacturing sector also received a total of nearly a billion pesos in subsidies from the national government. In 2013 subsidies received by all manufacturing establishments amounted to P912.2 million. The PSA said these subsidies are special grants, such as financial assistance, tax exemption or tax privilege provided by

the government to aid and develop an industry. “Among the industry subclasses that received subsidies in 2013, the top 3 industries received a combined share of more than three-fourths, or 78.6 percent of the total,” the PSA said. Parts and accessories for motor vehicles and their engines received the highest subsidies amounting to P387.1 million, or 42.4 percent of the total. Printing and finishing of textiles placed second and third, with P184 million, or 20.2 percent, and P145.8 million, or 16 percent, respectively. In 2013 there were a total of 25,149 manufacturing establishments in the formal sector of the economy. The top 10 manufacturing industries comprised more than half, or 57.2 percent, of all manufacturing establishments in the country. These companies were engaged in baking bread, cakes, pastries, pies and similar “perishable” bakery products that accounted for 6,618 establishments, or 26.3 percent of the total. Bottled water ranked second with 2,411 establishments, or 9.6 percent, while printing came in third with 1,458 establishments, or 5.8 percent of the total.

SM partners with UN in training PWDs on disaster preparedness By Marvyn N. Benaning Correspondent

M Cares, the corporate social responsibility arm of SM Prime Holdings, has joined hands with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) to train persons with disabilities (PWDs) on disaster preparedness. It recently hosted the Disabilityinclusive Disaster Risk Reduction ELearning Course at the SM Mall of Asia to enhance the capability of PWDs to avoid getting victimized by disasters. A recent projection by volcanologists, seismologists and metrologists showed that 35,000 people would be killed in Metro Manila and 175,000 would be injured when a major earthquake hits. Many of the casualties will be PWDs and the elderly because of their physical condition, the global disaster experts added. SM Cares said SM Supermalls is leading efforts to empower PWDs and the elderly in coping with calamities and giving them a voice in discussions involving disaster response and management. The seminar, which was attended by representatives from national and local governments involved in disaster response and leaders of different PWD groups in the country. It sought to broaden the information drive through the Internet-based e-learning course and start with the discussion in crafting a nationwide policy for PWDs in times of natural calamities, such as typhoons and earthquakes. Escap has linked up with government agencies, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and various stakeholders to coordinate efforts in crafting an efficient response when calamity strikes. Bien Mateo, director of SM Cares

Program on Persons with Disabilities, welcomed the participants, saying SM Supermalls is “one with you in educating our society the importance of inclusive disaster risk management.” Mateo noted that SM hosted in July a disaster-resilience conference participated in by more than 1,200 PWDs and senior citizens. “SM Supermalls has started such preparedness in building its new malls to adapt to these climate changes to support the business model that is geared toward a resilient society,” Mateo added, citing the need for all stakeholders to share their experiences. Forum speakers from Escap, namely, Aiko Akiyama, Puji Puno and Alex Robinson, discussed the measures to prepare PWDs and the elderly in coping with earthquakes and typhoons, as well as standard protocols for the community. Disaster preparedness and risk reduction is a community undertaking— a recent global survey revealed that in 137 countries, 86 percent of the people had not participated with community disaster management and risk reduction, while 72 percent are not equipped with any knowledge of a personal preparedness plan in the event of a disaster. Escasp said that from 2000 to 2012, some 2.5 million people in the region were affected and nearly 800,000 were killed. It added that the Asia-Pacific region saw the sharpest increase in the incidence of natural disasters over the past 30 years. “The inseparable relationship between disability and disasters warrants greater policy action by governments and relevant stakeholders to achieve disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction and incorporating disability perspectives in all phases of disaster-risk reduction,” Escap said in a statement.

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CEGP hails dismissal of libel case versus UP Baguio editor

HE College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) has hailed the acquittal of former University of the Philippines (UP) Baguio Outcrop Editor in Chief Jesusa Paquibot in the libel case filed against her by a UP professor in 2011. CEGP said the court rendered a landmark decision that upholds the freedom of the campus press. The Regional Trial Court in Baguio City cleared Paquibot of libel, after it found that the lampoon article from which the case stemmed is not defamatory. Moreover, the prosecution failed to prove actual malice. Defamation and malicious intent are among the requisites for an article to be considered libelous by a court of law. “After five long years, the case against Paquibot has been finally

put to rest. We laud the court for coming up with its favorable decision, as we believe that libel is an instrument to infringe on the civil and political rights of the people, more specifically journalists,” said Jose Mari Callueng, CEGP national president. In line with the recent victory, Callueng maintained that libel should have been decriminalized a long time ago. “Libel is inconsistent with press freedom and democracy, in general. The existence of libel as a criminal offense can only result in media groups, including the campus press, exercising self-censorship, which jeopardizes, first and foremost, the freedom of the press, speech and, expression and, ultimately, the right of the people to know. The Guild stands firm that libel must be decriminalized,” Callueng said. Marvyn N. Benaning

DENR’s Lake Lanao watershed restoration project to start soon

HE restoration of the watershed area in one of Mindanao’s most important water bodies will begin soon, after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Lanao del Sur’s local government recently signed an agreement to implement the Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management Project (Inremp) covering Lake Lanao. One of the major projects of the DENR’s Forest Management Bureau (FMB), Inremp aims to manage the upper river basins and component watersheds to support poverty reduction, watershed management, biodiversity conservation and climate-change policy objectives by developing the capacities of local government units (LGUs), institutions and upland communities as development partners. The implementation agreement for the Inremp in Lake Lanao, a highly important water body in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), was signed by the DENR Region 10 Director Ruth M. Tawantawan and Lanao del Sur Gov. Soraya A. Adiong in simple rites held at the Sulo Riviera Hotel in Quezon City. The signing was witnessed by top DENR officials led by Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez and ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman. Also in attendance were Secretary Datu Abul Khayr Alonto, chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority, and Environment Undersecretary for International Affairs and Foreign Assisted Program Jonas Leones. “I have no doubt in my mind that we will make a difference in Mindanao, and we’re gonna start in a big way here in Lanao del Sur,” Lopez said, stressing that the change in the quality of people’s lives covered by the project is the real measure of its success. Lopez added that she hopes to see within the next six months changes in the quality of life of people around the lake as a result of the project. Some 30 towns, consisting of 800 barangays, can be found within the area. Lake Lanao is the second largest lake in the country with an approximate area of 32,000 hectares, next only to Laguna de Bay. For her part, Tawantawan said that the Inremp project in Lanao del Sur “is the most challenging” of the four Inremp sites, owing to its “uniqueness” and “many firsts.” “We are managing a reservation that is directly under ARMM, but done through a national government agency,” Tawantawan said, adding that the project showcases

“a first and big project” in terms of giving assistance to Lanao del Sur under the Duterte administration. “ This is purely assisting a group of people that have not been given assistance for so many years,” she said. Hataman, on the other hand, expressed optimism that the project will help bring lasting peace in Mindanao as the project addresses crucial developmental issues in terms of providing sustainable economic activities within and around the lake. Hataman noted that livelihood activities in and around the lake area are “environment-based and dependent on rural infrastructure,” which the project seeks to strengthen, eventually benefiting the entire province. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), 11 of the 20 poorest provinces in the country are in Mindanao, with Lanao del Sur topping the list with a 74.3-percent poverty incidence for the first semester of 2015. Inremp also has a project in Bukidnon (Northern Mindanao), which is also one the 11 poorest provinces in Mindanao, benefiting 22 towns and covering 535,908 hectares in the Upper Bukidnon River Basin. Considered the deepest in the country and one of the major tropical lakes in Southeast Asia, Lake Lanao supplies 70 percent of Mindanao’s electricity with hydroelectric power, aside from providing irrigation water and various fishes of commercial potentials. The other two are the Upper Chico River Basin (442,906 hectares) in the Cordillera Administrative Region and the Upper Wahig-Inabanga River Basin (60,859 hectares) in Bohol. The program’s main objective is to address sustainable watershed management concerns in upper river basins. It also aims to reduce and reverse the degradation of watersheds caused by forest denudation and unsustainable farming practices. Inremp also seeks to provide incentives to local communities, the local governments and the DENR for improving the natural resource management by generating sustainable and economic benefits. The project is funded with a loan from the Asian Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development and grants from the Global Environmental Facility and the Climate Change Fund of the Philippine government. The total fund for the project is $154.12 million. PNA

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Sunday, September 25, 2016 A7

Bolts ground Enforcer, enter semis stage

ARCHERS UNSTOPPABLE By Joel Orellana

E LA SALLE remained unbeaten after five starts, easily disposing the challenge of Adamson University, 9175, on Saturday in Season 79 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball at the Mall of Asia Arena. In a highly anticipated match of the top 2 teams, the Green Archers were simply too much against the Soaring Falcons, who, except for sporadic rallies, hardly gave La Salle a fight and saw their two-game winning snapped to go slide to 3-2. Ben Mbala recorded his fifth straight double-double game for the Green Archers with 21 points and 16 rebounds, but the bench support was also key for the Taft-based team in nailing the victory. “We were able to execute our game plan on both ends of the floor,” said La Salle Head Coach Aldin Ayo, who had five players in double figures in scoring, their most this season. “Gusto ko ang ganoong sistema na kalaban, disciplined, structured. Pasok sa sistema ko na panggulo,” Ayo added. Jeron Teng contributed 15 points, while Aljun Melecio and Kib Montalba came off the bench and netted 13 and 12 markers, respectively. Thomas Torred hit 11 points for the Green Archers. Jerrick Ahanmisi led all scorers with 22 points to lead Adamson, while Robbie Manalang added 15, all from the three-point area. Papi Sarr had 14 points and 15 rebounds for the Soaring Falcons. But Head Coach Franz Pumaren failed to draw support from his second unit, unlike in their huge wins against Ateneo de Manila (62-61) and National University (64-51). Mbala already had a double-double game after the first half, leading La Salle to a 49-34 cushion, although the Soaring Falcons managed

La Salle, UE down respective rivals

E La Salle and University of the East (UE) bested their respective foes to stay within reach of defending champion National University (NU) on Saturday in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 79 women’s basketball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena. Camille Claro and Jamie Roxas combined for 26 points as the Lady Archers downed Adamson University, 69-61. Love Sto. Domingo had 18 points and nine rebounds, while Eunique Chan tossed in 12 points and six boards to lift the Lady Warriors past Ateneo, 60-50, for their fourth straight win after a seasonopening loss to the Lady Bulldogs. De La Salle and UE are now in joint second at 4-1, half-a-game behind NU, which is undefeated in four contests. No Lady Falcons entered in twin digits, with Jamie Alcoy and Rose Rosario scoring nine points apiece. Hazelle Yam and Jollina Go had 13 points apiece for the Lady Eagles, who played minus suspended Coach John Flores. Adamson University and Ateneo fell at 2-3. Action resumes on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena with a doubleheader starting at 8 a.m.

N.U., U.P. NEAR FINAL 4

EFENDING champion National University (NU) and University of the Philippines (UP) moved closer in clinching the first two Final Four slots in the men’s division after blanking their respective foes on Saturday in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines Season 79 badminton. The Bulldogs overpowered old nemesis Ateneo, 5-0, while the Fighting Maroons rout Adamson University, 5-0, as the tournament reached the halfway mark at the Rizal Memorial Badminton Hall. While extending its perfect run to 22 ties, NU kept its joint hold of the lead with UP at 4-0. The Blue Eagles fell at 2-2, while the Falcons slumped to their fourth consecutive defeat. In other ties, Far Eastern University (2-2) defeated University of the East (1-3), 4-1, while De La Salle (2-2) prevailed over University of Santo Tomas (1-3), 4-1. The Bulldogs and the Maroons shoot for semifinals slots against the Red Warriors and the Tamaraws, respectively, in the resumption of ties starting at 8 a.m. on Sunday.

to trim the lead to 11, 50-61, on Ahanmisi’s triple, 1:13 left in the third canto. But Melecio anchored the Green Archers’ last push in the period with a three-pointer and a drive to put their lead back to 66-52. Mbala hardly played in the fourth period due to foul trouble, but Teng, Montalbo and Torres carried the load to pull away, 83-66, over three minutes remaining. “Hinigpitan namin ang depensa, especially in the backcourt, and we were able to execute our offense,” Ayo said. “In our previous four games, our offense has always been absent, this game we were able to execute our offense. Pero nasa 75 percent pa lang kami ngayon. We started slow. Against FEU [Far Eastern University], nasa 15 percent lang kami,” he added. Ayo also commended the game of Montalbo, who missed last season due to an ACL injury. “He’s [Montalbo] a steady player. He prioritizes defense, gives us the intangibles and he goes with the flow with our offense,” Ayo said of his veteran guard. In the second game, Ateneo de Manila joined Adamson at second spot after beating University of the East, 84-69. The Blue Eagles needed a strong second half to pull away from the pesky Red Warriors, who dropped their fifth straight game and remained winless in the tournament. Anton Asistio led Ateneo with 21 points, while John Wong added 17 markers for the Blue Eagles, who improved to 3-2. “We knew UE is going to go all out. The score does not tell the whole story how hard this game was,” said Ateneo Head Coach Sandy Arespacochaga, who drew 11 points each from Michael Nieto and Chibueze Ikeh. Alvin Pasaol paced the Red Warriors with 22 points while Bonbon Batiller added 11. UE remained at the bottom with 0-5 mark.

De La Salle’s Jeron Teng (center) passes the ball to a teammate, as Adamson’s Sean Manganti (left) and Frederick Tungcab (right) deny him a clear shot. ALYSA SALEN

YEO, WRIGHT SHINE FOR MIGHTY

HILIPPINE Basketball Association star Joseph Yeo and Filipino-Canadian Matthew Wright took charge this time, leading Mighty Sports Apparel Philippines to a masterful 105-78 win over the Westport Malaysia Dragons and into the semis of the 2016 Merlion Cup on Friday night at the OCBC Arena in Singapore. Like in their scary 92-87 win over the Seoul Samsung Thunders, the country’s representative to the tournament revived after 20 years of hiatus started slow and trailed the Dragons,17-16. But the anxiousness Yeo keyed an 8-2 run to put Mighty Sports ahead, 24-19, at the end of the first quarter. That was the start of Mighty Sports’ rampage as Wright and imports Dewarick Spencer and Al Thornton and Kiefer Ravena joined the fray to practically settle the outcome of the game, after only three quarters as they surged to a commanding 77-51 advantage. With the win, Mighty Sports, backed by HC Technology Pte. Ltd., Huishi International Group Co. Ltd., Cebuana Lhuillier and Scratch It, completed a two-game sweep of the Group B elims. Mentored by Charles Tiu, Mighty Sports arranged a one-game semis showdown with the

LLEN Durham finished with 24 points and 16 rebounds to propel Meralco past Mahindra, 105-82, and advance to their fifth franchise semifinal appearance in the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup on Saturday at the Ynares Stadium, Antipolo City. The Bolts bucked a slow start and managed to retake the lead in the second quarter before slowly piling the big cushion to put an end to the Final Four dreams of the Enforcer, who booked their first playoff ticket since joining the league in 2014. Durham was just as dominant as he was in the elimination round, outplaying his counterpart, James White, who tallied 20 markers and 10 boards. “This is an important game for us. We had a slow start. Good thing we came out strong in the second half,” Meralco Head Coach Norman Black said. “The semis is not the end. We need to win the championship,” he added. Mahindra led by as many as 15 in the second period with a triple from Michael Digregorio, making it a 35-20 advantage, nine minutes left in the quarter. The Bolts regained their composure as Chris Newsome sparked a 9-0 rally to cut the lead to six. After a brief exchange, the lead melted away as veteran Jimmy Alapag, Jared Dillinger and Cliff Hodge hit three triples in succession to take the lead at 46-43 with under three minutes to play before the half. Controlling the game at 84-61 entering the final frame, Meralco weathered Mahindra’s quick 6-0 blitz and fired an 8-0 counter, capped by a drive of Hodge to pull the game away at 92-67 midway into the last period. Meralco will face the winner of the TNT Katropa-Phoenix quarterfinal match, which was being played as of press time. Katropa had the twice-to-beat advantage after finishing No. 1 in the elimination, and, if they hurdle past the first-timers Fuelmasters, it will be a sister company rivalry in the semifinals, as Barangay Ginebra also squares off with fellow Ramon Ang squad and defending champion San Miguel Beermen. Newsome complemented Durham’s efforts with 19 points, while Hodge and Dillinger added 14 and 12 markers, respectively. Ramon Rafael Bonilla

Singapore Slingers who finished second in Group A topped by the taller Shanghai Sharks. Coowned by former National Basketball Association star Yao Ming, the Sharks, likewise, swept their group elims after whipping the Slingers, 89-67. The semis matches were being played at presstime with the winners facing each other in another one-game match for the title. Mighty Sports is hoping to win its second straight title after ruling the William Jones Cup via a grand sweep in Taiwan in July. Not only the Mighty Sports dominated the paint, but they also awed the Dragons with a hail of three pointers, including one from coteam captain Edrick Ferrer in the fourth frame. Wright led Mighty Sports’ assault with 17 points, while Yeo, who plays for the Globalport Batang Pier in the pro league with 17 with Spencer, the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the Jones Cup, and Thornton combining for 30 points. In what could be their warm up before the real battle begins, naturalized Filipino center Marcus Douthit delivered 12 points, while Ravena, a two-time University Athletic Association of the Philippines MVP, chipped in eight points.

FilipinoCanadian Matthew Wright hits a jumper.

DAQUIS, GONZAGA TO LEAD PSL-MANILA

ACHEL Anne Daquis and Jovelyn Gonzaga are living their dreams, after getting spots in the team for the prestigious 2016 International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Women’s Club World Championship slated from October 18 to 23 at the Mall of Asia Arena from Pasay City. Gonzaga and Daquis vow to give their best as they try to lead the squad that also includes Jaja Santiago, Kim Fajardo, Mika Reyes, Jen Reyes, Ces Molina and the seven imports, who will reinforce the Philippine Superliga Manila squad. Daquis, who was named the team captain, is coming off from a foot injury that sidelined her in the AVC Asian Women’s Club Championship. “Hindi dahil na-injure ako mawawala ‘yung pag-asa kong maglaro and ‘yung dream ko makalaro para sa Worlds,” the 28 year-old open spiker said. “Hindi ako nagpahinga lalo akong nagdouble time at sa tulong ng mga strengthening coaches ko naibabalik ko ‘yung dati kong form.” Gonzaga, on the other hand, was fresh from her AVC stint with Foton Pilipinas and wants to double her effort in the FIVB meet. “Ang laking benefit din nito sa akin kasi gusto kong magpalakas at matuto,” the 24-year-

old opposite spiker said. “Magiging motivation ko rin ‘yung mga imports. Ang lalakas nila so gusto ko rin na mag-level up ‘yung performance ko at maganda kasi ang training sa amin ng mga coaches at mabilis mag-adapt ‘yung katawan namin.” Gonzaga and Daquis and the rest of the locals will be teaming up with Tinchaya Boonlert of Thailand, Ekaterina Krivets of Russia, Yevgeniya Nyukhalova of Ukraine, Lindsay Stalzer and Stephanie Niemer of the United States, Yuri Fukuda of Japan and Olympian Puerto Rican Lynda Morales for the tournament. The two stars of RC Cola-Army admitted that communication has been a problem, as the squad is composed of different nationalities, but they believe that they will overcome it. “Sobrang hirap pero kailangan ‘yung volleyball language na namin so hindi na ganun ka-struggle makipag-usap,” Gonzaga shared. “Ngayon medyo hindi pa ganun kaganda ‘yung jelling, pero I believe na sa one month na natitira mawo-workout namin ‘to.” “Nandito kami para tulungan din sila na matuto and alam naming makakatulong din sa team kung magkakaintindihan kami,” Daquis said. Lance Agcaoili

LASCUÑA BAGS TPC CROWN, ORDER OF MERIT TITLE T

ONY Lascuña claimed the International Container Terminal Services Inc. Tournament Players Championship crown in thrilling fashion, rallying from three down in regulation and edging Elmer Salvador in sudden death in a fitting ending to a brilliant season that also netted him the Order of Merit (OOM) title. Lascuña pounced on Salvador’s two errant drives on the par-4 18th of Wack Wack East, the first enabling him to force a playoff after a closing two-under 70 and the other, handing him the title on a routine par, as Salvador, who wavered with a 73, flubbed a par-saving putt from 15 feet. The Davaoeño aces wound up with identical eight-under 280s. “I was very lucky in the last two holes. It was uncharacteristic for Elmer [Salvador] to hit back-toback bad drives so it came as a surprise and also a blessing, because it opened an opportunity for me,” said Lascuña, who banked another P650,000 and matched his five-leg title romp in 2014 to bag the third straight OOM diadem. He lost it last year to Miguel Tabuena, who turned in a breakout season to nail his first OOM title. But with the young Tabuena shifting his campaign abroad, Lascuña reclaimed the coveted

Tony LascuÑa displays his trophy after winning the Tournament Players Championship at Wack Wack Golf and Country Club. NONOY LACZA individual crown and restaked his claim as the country’s top player with total earnings of P3.7 million from five victories, including at Luisita, Eagle Ridge, Forest Hills and Bacolod. “It’s a nice feeling closing out the season with a win—and securing the OOM crown,” said Lascuña, who also turned in a number of top 5 finishes in the circuit. It was a sorry finish for Salvador, who appeared

to have foiled Lascuña’s fightback with a clutch birdie on 15th to preserve a one-stroke lead, only to falter with a wayward three-wood tee shot on the 18th. “I thought I landed on the fairway,” said Salvador, who settled for P430,000. “But when I saw it, the ball was plugged in a muddy spot under the trees.” He failed to recover his bearing in sudden death, this time, hitting his drive to the right and needed to play out, while Lascuña displayed grace under

pressure and matched his fairway-green stint on the 72nd hole to snare the crown. Jerson Balasabas, the third man in the final group, also closed to within three with a birdie on the second hole, but reeled back just as quickly with a bogey on No. 5 and never contended the rest of the way. He wound up with a 74 for a 286 worth P240,000. Zanieboy Gialon also rallied with a 69 to tie American Micah Shin, winner of the last leg at Central Azucarera de Tarlac Open who also limped with a 74, at 287, while Frankie Miñoza ended up solo sixth at 288 after a 73. Cassius Casas bounced back with a 70 for seventh at 290, Toru Nakajima of Japan carded a 71 to share eighth place with compatriot Ryomi Miki, who hobbled with a 75 at 291, while Benjie Magada matched par 72 for a 292 and wound up 10th in the event backed by Custom Clubmakers, adidas, KZG, Summit Mineral Water, Srixon, Pacsports, TaylorMade, Sharp, Champion, Ping and Yamaha. The final leg of this year’s Philippine Golf Tour lived up to the hype as a potential thriller with Lascuña battling back from three down with clutch birdies and gutsy pars then cashing in on Salvador’s meltdown to score another win in the seventh season of the country’s premier circuit organized by Pilipinas

Golf Tournaments Inc. Wresting a one-stroke lead with a tough birdie on No. 15, Salvador failed to wrap it up in regulation when he hooked his drive on the 18th, reached the green in three and two putted from 16 feet. Lascuña, on the other hand, missed snatching the crown on the 72nd hole, missing a pressurepacked 8-foot birdie putt. But Salvador, who came into this P3.5 million championship brimming with confidence with a victory at Splendido and a joint third-place effort at Luisita in the last three weeks, sliced his drive into the woods on their return to No. 18. He played out, reached the green in three again and watched his last putt roll past the cup. In contrast, Lascuña split the fairway then twoputted from 24 feet to frustrate Salvador, complete his come-from-behind victory and cap another remarkable season for the 45-year-old shotmaker. Despite the foldup, Salvador said he was satisfied with his finish and looked forward to a more productive campaign next season. “I gained so much confidence with my Splendido win and a third place finish at Luisita. I just had some bad breaks at the finish here. But I hope to be back stronger in 2017,” Salvador said.

Sports THANK YOU, KG! A8 | S

unday, September 25, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

BusinessMirror

Garnett retires from a Hall-of-Fame career

By Kent Youngblood Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

HE Kevin Garnett era with the Timberwolves has ended. Again. Garnett, the best player in franchise history and a certain future Hall of Famer, retired on Friday. Garnett led the team to eight straight playoff appearances starting in the spring of 1997 and to the 20032004 Western Conference finals. Garnett and the Timberwolves came to an agreement on Friday, and Garnett officially retired. In an enigmatic video posted to his Instagram account on Friday afternoon, Garnett is seen walking in a quiet, empty Target Center. “I’m just thankful man,” he said. “I can’t ever put that into words. I’m just thankful. I’m just thankful for everybody and the love. I never would have thought that people loved me like this. But, for it to be reality is something else. We’re going to be all right, man. I don’t expect this to be easy. But so far so good. Stay tuned.” As the video ends, the word, “Farewell” appears on the screen. Followed by, “Thank you for the journey.” The Wolves issued a news release on Garnett’s retirement after the video was posted.

“It has been a real joy to watch KG come into the league as a young man and watch him develop his skills to become one of the very best in the NBA [National Basketball Association],” Wolves owner Glen Taylor said in the release. “I have treasured the opportunity to see him grow as a leader. I wish him continued success in the next chapter of his life. His Minnesota fans will always cherish the memories he has provided.” The news comes with the Timberwolves first training camp under Tom Thibodeau set to begin on Tuesday. Garnett, who waived his no-trade clause in order to reunite with the Timberwolves in February of 2015 in a move orchestrated by the late president of basketball operations and Coach Flip Saunders, will not play out the second year of his two-year, $16.5-million contract. The Wolves will take the same procedural step the San Antonio Spurs took when Tim Duncan retired at the end of last season. That would be waiving Garnett, which will guarantee him the $8-million left on his contract. The NBA, thus, will lose three all-time greats—Garnett, Duncan and Kobe Bryant—to retirement in the same off-season.

Garnett’s legacy

Thus ends the final chapter of Garnett’s time in Minnesota, a two-part series that included myriad highs and a few lows, including some bruised

feelings when he was traded to Boston in a blockbuster deal that sent a bundle of players and draft picks to Minnesota in the summer of 2007. Garnett leaves Minnesota, for a second time, having played 970 of his career 1,462 games here, having scored 19,201 of his 26,071 points and grabbing 10,718 of his 14,662 rebounds in a Timberwolves uniform. Garnett finished his career ranked fifth in NBA history in games played, third in minutes (50,418), 17th in points, 11th in field goals made (10,505), ninth in total rebounds, 16th in steals (1,859) and 17th in blocks (2,037). He is the only player in league history with at least 25,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, 5,000 assists, 1,500 steals and 1,500 blocks. Garnett, now 40, became the first player in 20 years to go directly from high school to the NBA when the Wolves drafted the 19-year-old out of Chicago’s Farragut Academy with the fifth overall pick in the 1995 draft. He joined a team that had not made the playoffs in its first six seasons, losing 60 or more games in five of those seasons. In Garnett’s second season, the Wolves qualified for the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, beginning a streak of eight straight postseason appearances. With Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell , the Wolves made

it all the way to the Western Conference finals in the spring of 2004, losing in six games to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Wolves never made the playoffs again.

Contract issues

Contract disputes involving Cassell and Sprewell disrupted the 2004-2005 season. The Wolves, who won 58 games in 2003-2004, dropped to 44 wins the following season, one which saw Saunders fired midseason. The victory total then dropped to 33 and 32. In the summer of 2007, with the Wolves feeling they needed to rebuild, Garnett agreed to a blockbuster trade that sent him to the Celtics in exchange for Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair and two first-round draft choices, which became Wayne Ellington and Jonny Flynn. There were, apparently, bruised feelings in a trade that came after Garnett refused to sign a contract for less than the maximum he could get. “I guess at the end of the day, I’m loyal to a point where I feel, if someone’s loyal to me, then I have no problem with that,” Garnett said in his first press conference in Boston. “But when that changes, it’s pretty easy to move on.” In the spring of 2008 Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said he felt Garnett had “tanked it,”

by not playing in the final five games the season before, to which Garnett responded, “I have nothing to do with the Minnesota Timberwolves. That’s my past and I’m in a new chapter if my life.” Spring of 2008 was also when Garnett won his only NBA championship, with Boston defeating the Lakers in six games. The Celtics returned to the championship series in 2010, losing to the Lakers in five games. After the 2012-2013 season Garnett was traded to Brooklyn.

Return to Minnesota

But with Saunders back running the organization and the Wolves’ prospects looking up, Saunders was able to mend fences and convince Garnett, then with the Nets, to agree to a trade that brought him back to Minnesota in exchange for Thaddeus Young. Garnett made it clear in his returning press conference that he was coming back with bigger goals than just wearing the uniform again. He talked about one day being part of a group that owned the Wolves, a prospect that now seems dim. “I am,” he said when asked about being in Minnesota for the long haul. “That is the goal. At some point, I want to understand ownership and try to get into that and bring a championship to this city. That has been my goal since I became

Kevin Garnett has informed the Minnesota Timberwolves that he will retire after 21 seasons. AP

a Wolf.” But aching knees limited his role as a player to act as a veteran mentor to a young team, while playing for a franchise he appeared to have reconnected with. “It’s perfect,” Garnett said. “If you have a story, this is a fairy tale. This is a perfect ending to it. This is how you want to do it. I know these are the declining days of my playing days, but I think I have so much more to bring. This is the perfect situation. This is full-circle right here.” After returning to thunderous applause in his first game back at Target Center, Garnett played in only four more games, missing the team’s final 15 with knee soreness. Last season, with Sam Mitchell coaching the team after Saunders passed away from cancer, Garnett appeared in 38 games. He last played on January 23 versus Memphis, then missed the rest of the season with knee soreness. So much has changed since. Taylor hired Thibodeau as president of basketball operations and coach, and Scott Layden as general manager. Changes in the front office likely closed the door to Garnett one day joining ownership. Through the draft and free agency, Garnett’s status remain unresolved, with Thibodeau and Taylor remaining mum on the subject. Ultimately, with owner Glen Taylor taking the lead, the two sides were able to reach an agreement that ended Garnett’s second tenure with the franchise.

ON DIFFERENT LEVEL A

TLANTA—Dustin Johnson is playing better than anyone in the world, and Kevin Chappell can’t wait to watch him at the Tour Championship. Even if that means having to beat him. Johnson powered his way down the fairways and occasionally out of the brutal rough at East Lake on Friday for a 3-under 67, giving him a one-shot lead over Chappell and moving him one round closer to the $10-million FedEx Cup prize. The US Open champion is on a different level at the moment. Even on a demanding test, like East Lake, this year—only 10 players remain under par—Johnson is hitting his driver long and straight. His wedge game has gone from a weakness to a strength. A new putter he put in play two weeks ago when he won the BMW Championship is giving him a better feel for alignment. Small wonder that this was his seventh straight round at 68 or better during the FedEx Cup playoffs. “The game is never easy. I wish it was,” Johnson said. “Obviously, I’m playing good right now. I’ve got a lot of confidence in my game. Every week, I feel like I bring the same game, which is nice. But I put in a lot of work to get to where I am.” Johnson was at 7-under 133. Chappell, one of two players at the Tour Championship who has yet to win on the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour, was just as solid, even if it doesn’t look as spectacular. He has made only one bogey in 36 holes, quite a feat on a course where the Bermuda rough is so punishing that balls sink to the ground and sometimes can’t be seen from a foot away. He shot a 68 and will be in the final group of a playoff event for the second time this year. Kevin Kisner (70) and Hideki Matsuyama (71) were four shots behind, while Rory McIlroy overcame another rough start on the front nine to post a 70. He was in the group five shots behind, which isn’t much of a deficit at the halfway point except for Johnson being

the one they have to chase. If nothing else, Johnson all but eliminated nearly everyone not among the top 5 seeds vying for the FedEx Cup. McIlroy is No. 6 and still has a chance, though he would have to win the Tour Championship and Johnson would have to finish third. “I need to win, and I just need someone to play as good as Dustin this week,” McIlroy said. Jason Day is out of the picture. The world’s No. 1 player withdrew in the middle of a round at the second straight tournament, citing the same nagging back issues that he hopes will be cured by rest. By Day withdrawing, Johnson won the points-based PGA player of the year award and is likely to win the player vote as PGA Tour player of the year because of his three victories, with, perhaps, another to follow. But there is still work ahead of him, and that starts with Chappell. “I promise you, I’ll be watching Dustin,” Chappell said. “He’s the best player in the world right now, and it’s an opportunity for me to see where my game is. There’s a golf

Dustin Johnson hits the 18th green during the second round of play at the Tour Championship. AP

tournament going on, and I have a chance to win that. That’s the ultimate goal. But I also have a chance to see why he’s the best player in the world right now, and I look forward to taking advantage of that opportunity.” Chappell has been a runner-up three times this season and keeps running into the wrong guys—Kisner at Sea Island, Day at Bay Hill and The Players Championship. He also was in the mix at the TPC Boston until McIlroy pulled away. “It seems I like going against the hot player at the time,” he said. Russell Knox matched the low score of the tournament with a 66 that allowed him to get back under par at 1-under 139, along with Justin Thomas, who is still hopeful of a Ryder Cup pick at the end of the week. Thomas lost a shot when his ball moved right as he set his putter down behind a short par putt on the 11th hole. The PGA Tour reviewed it on videotape and gave him a one-shot penalty under Rule 18-2, the same penalty applied to Johnson at Oakmont in the US Open. Thomas disagreed with, but accepted, the penalty. His argument was it was not a flat surface and the greens were running fast. “It’s nothing against the rules officials. It’s a god-awful rule,” Thomas said. “It’s very fortunate it didn’t cost Dustin a major championship. I hope it doesn’t cost me anything. I don’t feel like I did anything wrong.” Mark Russell, the vice president of rules and competition for the tour, said, the wind was light and the ball had been at rest “for quite some time.” “And the moment that Justin put his club behind the ball and addressed the ball, the ball moved,” he said. “In that situation, the evidence is against the player and he was penalized.” That left him six shots behind Johnson instead of five. Either way, it’s a tall order for Thomas or anyone to catch Johnson. AP

DAY WITHDRAWS FROM ANOTHER PLAYOFF EVENT

TLANTA—Jason Day has withdrawn from the Tour Championship because of recurring back pain. It’s the second straight FedEx Cup playoff event that the world’s No. 1 player did not finish because of back pain. Day stopped

midway through the final round of the BMW Championship. His agent said on Friday at East Lake this was the same issue, and Day was withdrawing as a precaution. The withdrawal means Dustin Johnson wins the points-based Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) player of

the year. Johnson is likely to win the player vote for PGA Tour player of the year. Day was 3 under for the tournament when he pulled his tee shot into the water on No. 8, hit his next shot well to the right and couldn’t reach the green out of deep rough.