BusinessMirror April 17, 2015

BusinessMirror

THREETIME ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDEE 2006, 2010, 2012

U.N. MEDIA AWARD 2008

A broader look at today’s business TfridayNovember 2014Vol.Vol.1010No.No.19040 Friday, April 17,18,2015

www.businessmirror.com.ph

SM’s Boni lot contract valid–SC T

GÜNTER GRASS

Life

D

EAR Lord, it is good to know that Saint Paul was deeply convinced that those who had been called to the faith were the object of God’s special love. He also believed that God would bring to completion in them the work of salvation brought about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Though life is still fraught with dangers and the attacks of “the flesh,” the believers need not be afraid. They should stand firm, for God is on their side. Amen.

EXPLORING GOD’S WORD, FR. SAL PUTZU, SDB AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

‘GLEE’ STAR MATTHEW MORRISON FINDS HIMSELF BACK ON BROADWAY »D4

BusinessMirror

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

B J R. S J

Friday, April 17, 2015

D1

GUNTER GRASS AND WRITING AS A MORAL RESPONSIBILITY B D L. U Los Angeles Times

active duty. When? Why? Since I do not know the exact date and cannot recall the, by then, unstable climate of the war, or list its hot spots from the Arctic to the Caucasus, all I can do for now is string together the circumstances that probably triggered and nourished my decision to enlist. No mitigating epithets allowed. What I did cannot be put down to youthful folly. No pressure from above.”

As he acknowledged to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, “I was young, and I wanted to leave home.... I considered the Waffen-SS to be an elite unit. If I had been born three or four years earlier I would, surely, have seen myself caught up in [war] crimes.”

That’s an astonishing admission, and coming, as it did, 60 years after the war, it caused an uproar. Why had Grass withheld his relationship with the SS? The truth, of course, was far more complicated; Grass had long discussed his war experience as a way to address the complicity of German society in its Nazi past, although he had avoided talking about the SS, he acknowledged, because of shame.

Complicity is one of the lessons of The Tin Drum, as well as of the other two novels in the so-called Danzig Trilogy: Cat and Mouse and Dog Years. For Grass, writing, self-expression, was a moral responsibility, regardless of the controversies it might stir. “[W]riters,” he declared in his 1999 Nobel Prize lecture, “should consider the condition of permanent controversiality to be invigorating, part of the risk involved in choosing the profession. It is a fact of life that writers have always, and with due consideration and great pleasure, spit in the soup of the high and mighty. That is what makes the history of literature analogous to the development and refinement of censorship.”

Grass spent six decades operating out of such a premise, as a novelist and essayist, a playwright, artist and poet. (His final book, which has yet to appear in English, was a third volume of memoirs.) Beginning in the late 1950s, he wrote speeches for Berlin Mayor and West German Chancellor Willy Brandt; later, he was an outspoken opponent of reunification, arguing that, because of its history, Germany had abdicated the right to be “strong and united.” This sense of commitment unified his work and public posture, his stature as both artist and human being.

Or, as he explained in 1991: “Writers are involved not only with their inner, intellectual lives but also with the process of daily life....

Both my writing and my drawing are invariably mixed up with politics, whether I want them to be or not.” ■

H

OW will Gunter Grass be remembered? The German Nobel laureate, who died on Monday at age 87, was not just a novelist, but also a political figure, a voice of conscience, a provocateur.

Or, perhaps, it’s more accurate to say that he was a person of letters in the classic mold, in which literature is defined by its engagement with the world.

Certainly, that was true of Grass, who came to international attention in 1959 with the publication of his first novel, The Tin Drum.

There, he told the story of Oskar Matzerath, a man who, in the physical and metaphoric sense, refuses to grow up.

“Writers should consider the condition of permanent controversiality to be invigorating, part of the risk involved in choosing the profession,” Gunter Grass declared in his 1999 Nobel Prize lecture.

“One must always seek out fresh perspectives,” Grass told the Paris Review about the character. “A dwarf—a child even in adulthood—his size and his passivity make him a perfect vehicle for many different perspectives. He has delusions of grandeur, and that is why he sometimes speaks of himself in the third person, just as young children sometimes do. It is part of his self-glorification.

It is like the royal ‘we.’”

What Grass was tracing was not just the elusiveness of the line that separates adults and children, but also the way stories can explicate, in some fundamental way, the essence of our circumstance. Grass, who published more than 30 books, came by this perspective honestly.

Born in 1927 in Danzig (now Gdansk), he spent six months in the latter part of World War 2 as a teenage tank gunner in an SS unit before being wounded and captured by Allied forces.

“In 1943, when I was a 15-year-old schoolboy in Danzig,” he wrote in 2007, “I volunteered for

LIFE

D1

S. KOREA FERRY DISASTER The World BusinessMirror

B3-2 Friday, April 17, 2015

Tears, anger mark 1st year of S. Korean ferry disaster

news@businessmirror.com.ph

H

HE Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed with finality its ruling directing the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) to subject to a competitive challenge, or to a so-called Swiss challenge, the unsolicited proposal of SM Land Inc. (SMLI) for the acquisition and development of a 33.1-hectare property in Bonifacio South in Taguig City in exchange for P25.9 billion for the government.

In a 13-page resolution penned

by Associate Justice Presbitero J. Velasco Jr., the Court’s Special Third Division denied the motion for reconsideration filed by the BCDA president seeking the reversal of its ruling issued on August 13, 2014.

VIETNAMESE VILLAGERS BLOCK TRAFFIC TO FIGHT COAL PLANT POLLUTION ANOI, Vietnam—Hundreds of villagers in central Vietnam blocked traffic on the country’s main artery for hours to protest pollution from a coal-fired thermo power plant, a local official said on Thursday.

Nguyen Thanh Sang in Binh Thuan province said the villagers threw rocks, bricks and gasoline bombs at riot police who were trying to direct traffic on Wednesday night. About 10 policemen suffered minor injuries.

Sang said the 500 protesters left after authorities said their concerns will be addressed, adding traffic on Highway 1 was running early Thursday morning.

Tens of thousands of vehicles

P.  |     | 7 DAYS A WEEK

HIGH COURT ORDERS BCDA TO SUBJECT SM LAND’S UNSOLICITED PROPOSAL TO SWISS CHALLENGE

INSIDE

The work of salvation

■ ■

had stood still on dozens of kilometers on Highway 1 for hours, he said.

Sang quoted the villagers as saying they blocked traffic to get attention from the central government after repeated demands in the past were not met.

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai urged the power plant and relevant agencies to control pollution from the plant, the government said on its web site on Thursday.

Two turbines at the nineturbine Vinh Tan 2 power plant went into operation a year ago.

Many power plants have been built in Vietnam in recent years to meet its power demands that are increasing by more than 10 percent a year. AP

The High Tribunal, in that decision, granted the SMLI petition seeking the nullification of the notice issued by BCDA President and CEO Arnel Paciano D. Casanova terminating the Swiss challenge.

C  A

Small aircraft lands on US Capitol lawn; pilot arrested

W PEOPLE release balloons during a ceremony to commemorate the first anniversary of the Sewol ferry sinking at a port in Jindo, South Korea, on Thursday. PARK CHUL-HONG/YONHAP VIA AP

S

EOUL, South Korea—Tears and grief mixed with raw anger on Thursday as blackclad relatives mourned the 300 people, mostly high-school kids, killed one year ago when the ferry Sewol sank in cold waters off the southwestern South Korean coast.

In contrast to the near universal shock and outrage in the weeks following the sinking, the first anniversary of one of the nation’s worst disasters saw more complicated emotions.

There is widespread frustration among many South Koreans who see their government as having failed to meaningfully improve

safety standards and hold high-level officials accountable for a disaster blamed in part on incompetence and corruption.

Some also express fatigue with the continuing focus on the sinking.

Hours before she was to leave on a diplomatic trip to Colombia, South Korean President Park Geun-hye visited a small port on a southwest

island near the site of the sinking to offer her condolences to the bereaved relatives.

However, the relatives refused to meet her to protest the government’s handling of the sinking, the presidential Blue House said.

Flags in public buildings were lowered to half-staff and a minute of silence was observed in Ansan, the city that lost nearly an entire class of high-school students on a doomed field trip to a southern resort island.

A total of 304 people died when the ferry Sewol sank.

The city was expecting thousands of visitors at an afternoon memorial service at its mourning site, where Prime Minister Lee Wan Koo visited in the morning, only to be turned back by angry relatives.

Relatives of the victims threatened to cancel the service if the government didn’t announce firm plans to salvage the ship and promise a new investigation into the cause of the sinking, according to Pil Kyu Hwang, a lawyer represent-

ing the families.

The estimated cost of raising the ferry is between $91 million and $137 million, and it could take as long as one-and-a-half years.

Many relatives gathered in Ansan. Some wept and touched pictures of their lost loved ones as they recalled helplessly watching on television as the ferry slowly sank into the sea.

Hundreds also gathered at Paengmok Port hours before Park’s visit.

Dressed in black, they walked to a lighthouse where hundreds of yellow ribbons were tied to handrails in memory of the victims.

A candle light vigil was planned in downtown Seoul, where relatives of the victims have been holding protests for months.

Also Thursday, South Korean lawmakers adopted a resolution urging the government to salvage the ferry.

Of the 165 lawmakers in the National Assembly session, 161 voted to adopt the resolution, two voted against it and two abstained. AP

Bahrain reforms don’t end rights violations, AI says

D

UBAI, United Arab Emirates—Government reforms put in place by Bahraini authorities in the wake of widespread antigovernment protests four years ago have failed to end serious violations of human rights in the strategically important Gulf nation, Amnesty International said in a report released on Thursday.

The 79-page report documents what the London-based group calls a “chilling crackdown on dissent” that includes the continued jailing of activists, bans on protests in the capital and instances of torture and other mistreatment of detainees.

Western-allied Bahrain, a small island kingdom that is home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, was rocked by large-scale protests in February 2011 that were led by the country’s majority Shiites seeking greater political rights from the Sunni monarchy.

Bahraini authorities, backed by security forces from nearby Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, crushed the demonstrations, but low-level unrest continues.

A fact-finding inquiry into the initial uprising called for overhauls in the political system and investigations into alleged abuses by security forces. Authorities have since put some reforms in place and created new institutions, such as an ombudsman’s office at the Interior Ministry, tasked with hearing

A BAHRAINI anti-government protester holds up a picture of jailed opposition human rights activist Zainab al-Khawaja as she participates in a prayer for al-Khawaja’s freedom after a march in Malkiya, Bahrain, in 2013. AP/HASAN JAMALI

complaints about police misconduct.

Amnesty says more must be done.

“The international image the authorities have attempted to project of the country as a progressive reformist state committed to human rights masks a far more sinister truth,” said Said Boumedouha, the group’s deputy director of its Middle East and North Africa Program.

“Four years on from the uprising, repression is widespread and rampant abuses by the security forces continue,” he added.

Bahraini officials did not respond to a request for comment on the report.

Amnesty’s report includes accounts of alleged abuse by police over the past year, including claims by unidentified Bahrainis that they were struck by birdshot or tear gas canisters.

Police earlier this month detained prominent rights activist Nabeel Rajab over online social media posts related to Bahrain’s participation in Saudi-led air strikes in

Yemen. He already was appealing a verdict in a separate case involving earlier Twitter comments deemed insulting to government ministries when arrested.

Other activists and government opponents are also behind bars, including Ali Salman, the head of alWefaq, the country’s main Shiite opposition group, who is charged with incitement to forcibly topple the government. He denies the allegations.

Said Haddadi, the lead researcher on the report, told the Associated Press that Amnesty was allowed to carry out its research on the ground in Bahrain in May of last year and again this past January. While the visits were each limited to five days, Haddadi said he had access to activists as well as government ministers and other officials.

“In terms of the access, we didn’t have any issues,” during the trips, he said.

The rights group urged Bahrain to take a number of steps, including a sweeping reform of the judiciary and the release of those jailed “for lawfully exercising their right to freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly.”

It also called on Bahrain’s allies, particularly the US, Britain and other European countries, to do more to raise concerns about rights abuses and to push for a comprehensive reform of the justice system. AP

ASHINGTON—Police arrested a man who steered his tiny aircraft onto the lawn of the US Capitol, which houses Congress, after flying through restricted airspace around the National Mall on Wednesday.

The pilot was Doug Hughes, 61, a Postal Service worker from Florida, according to a person who was briefed by Capitol Police and revealed the information on condition of anonymity.

On his web site, Hughes took responsibility for the stunt and said he was delivering letters to all 535 members of Congress to draw attention to campaign finance corruption.

“As I have informed the authorities, I have no violent inclinations or intent,” Hughes wrote on his web site, thedemocracyclub.org. “An ultralight aircraft poses no major physical threat—it may present a political threat to graft. I hope so.

There’s no need to worry—I’m just delivering the mail.”

A second source, a Senate aide, said Capitol Police knew of the plan shortly before Hughes took off, and said he had previously been interviewed by the US Secret Service.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the investigation. Capitol Police declined to publicly confirm the man’s identity.

Capitol Police identified the open-air aircraft, which sported

the US Postal Service logo and landed about half a city block from the Capitol building, as a “gyrocopter with a single occupant.”

Hughes flew to Washington from the vicinity of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which took about an hour, said Ben Montgomery, a reporter with the Tampa Bay Times.

Montgomery said Hughes discussed his plan in advance with the newspaper, had meticulously plotted his flight and considered himself on a mission that was “sort of a mix of P.T. Barnum and Paul Revere.”

House of Representatives Homeland Security panel Chairman Michael McCaul said the pilot landed on his own, but authorities were prepared to shoot him down if he had made it much closer to the Capitol.

“Had it gotten any closer to the speaker’s balcony they have long guns to take it down, but it didn’t. It landed right in front,” McCaul said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the pilot had not been in contact with air traffic controllers and the FAA didn’t authorize him to enter restricted airspace.

Airspace security rules that cover the Capitol and the District of Columbia prohibit private aircraft flights without prior coordination and permission. Violators can face civil and criminal penalties.

The White House said President Barack Obama had been briefed on the situation. AP

WORLD BANK: CHANNEL REMITTANCES TO INFRA

briefs

AUSTRALIA’S NAURU REFUGEES WILL BE SENT TO CAMBODIA CANBERRA, Australia—Refugees rejected

by Australia will soon fly from the Pacific atoll of Nauru to be resettled in Cambodia, the Australian government said on Thursday.

A charter flight could fly the first refugees to be resettled in Phnom Penh as early as Monday, according to a copy of a fact sheet that the Refugee Action Collective advocacy group said

has been circulated at Nauru.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s office did not specify when the first group would fly under a bilateral agreement signed by Cambodia and Australia last September. “The first group of volunteers is anticipated to depart for Cambodia in the near future,” his office said in a statement. AP

PARTY TREASURER NABBED IN BRAZIL KICKBACK CASE RIO DE JANEIRO—Federal police on Wednesday detained the treasurer of Brazil’s governing Workers’ Party in the wide-ranging investigation into corruption at state-run oil giant Petrobras, and the party said later he had asked to resign the post.

Joao Vaccari Neto was detained in São Paulo as he was heading out for an early morning jog, police and judicial

officials told reporters at a news conference in the southern city of Curitiba, where the investigation is being led.

An arrest warrant also was issued for Vaccari’s sister-in-law and his wife was questioned in connection with a series of unidentified deposits in her account that investigators suspect might be related to the kickback scheme at Petrobras. AP

EX-COLOMBIA MINISTERS CONVICTED OF BRIBES BOGOTA, Colombia—Colombia’s Supreme Court convicted two close aides of former President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday of bribing lawmakers to support the conservative leader’s 2006 reelection.

Former Interior Minister Sabas Pretelt and Social Protection Minister Diego Palacio were each sentenced to more than six years in jail.

A former congresswoman in 2008

accused the Uribe aides of offering her favors and political appointments in exchange for supporting the lifting of a constitutional ban on presidential reelection. The legislation was approved and Uribe became the first Colombian president in over 100 years to stand for reelection, winning easily thanks to his USbacked military offensive against leftist rebels. AP

WORLD

B32

RECKLESS FIGHTER? C1

Sports

| FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015

BusinessMirror

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

RECKLESS FIGHTER?

MANNY PACQUIAO (right) gives a thumbs-up as he shadow-boxes during a workout on Wednesday as Floyd Mayweather Jr. works out with his uncle Roger Mayweather in Las Vegas. AP

Manny Pacquiao: Reckless fighter?

That’s how people like me and love me, because they like an exciting fight.... We call this boxing, (and) boxing is more punching.

We talk about punching.

L

B G B The Associated Press

OS ANGELES—Manny Pacquiao intends to put on a show when he faces Floyd Mayweather Jr. in twoand-a-half weeks.

He really hopes Mayweather is also coming to fight, for the fans’ sake—and maybe for his own strategic purposes, as well.

Pacquiao radiated confidence and excitement on Wednesday at the Wild Card gym in Hollywood before his latest workout in preparation for their bout on May 2, in Las Vegas.

With the most anticipated fight in recent years looming ever closer, both boxers kept their public comments civil and mostly respectful this week. But Pacquiao laughed when told that the defense-minded Mayweather had called him “a very reckless fighter” on Tuesday.

“Reckless fighter? That’s how people like me and love me, because they like an exciting fight,” Pacquiao said. “We call this boxing, [and] boxing is more punching. We talk about punching.”

Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) has rarely skimped on excitement during his remarkable career as an eight-division champion, but the Filipino congressman realizes he is facing the greatest defensive fighter of their era. Mayweather (47-0, 26 KOs) has been nearly unhittable for most of his opponents during his perfect career.

But Pacquiao hopes Money realizes that the best way to get paid is to put on a fight worth

seeing. After all, they’re counting on fans to pay a record $99.95 for the pay-per-view, a figure described by no less than Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum as “ostentatious consumerism” if a fan bought it to watch all by himself.

And if Pacquiao is trying a bit of psychological trickery, it isn’t very subtle: He didn’t even try to hide the fact that a brawl would be his best chance to win.

“If he [does] that, that’s good for me,” Pacquiao said. “I like that. We’ll see. That’s what I want, and that’s definitely what the fans want—action.”

Unlike Mayweather, Pacquiao knows what it’s like to be knocked out and to get back up. Pacquiao lost both of his bouts in 2012 and ended his fourth fight with Juan Manuel Marquez facedown on the canvas in the sixth round.

Pacquiao took time off after that bout, but returned to the ring and won three more fights before Mayweather finally agreed to get in the ring with him, five years after fans first called for the matchup.

Yet the former knockout machine hasn’t stopped an opponent since November 2009, when he finished Miguel Cotto in arguably the greatest performance of his career.

This fight has captured the full attention of Pacquiao, who has found time to actually study film of Mayweather during his chaotic life among his entourage, his large family and his congressional duties.

Trainer Freddie Roach hasn’t seen Pacquiao watching film of his opponents in

‘IT’S ALL ABOUT TIMING’ B L P

L

Los Angeles Times

AS VEGAS—Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s crafty, well-plotted style in the boxing ring carried over to his decision of choosing when to fight Manny Pacquiao too, he said.

At his gym on Tuesday, on media day for a fight that is expected to destroy pay-per-view and live-gate records, Mayweather (47-0, 26 knockouts) detailed why he finally agreed to fight the record eightdivision champion from the Philippines.

“Everything in life is about timing,” Mayweather said. “I don’t regret anything. The time is now.

“Before, I don’t think this fight was as big as this. With me going out there getting bigger and bigger, not just in boxing, but outside the sport, and him stepping outside boxing and continuing to grow outside the sport, the names are much bigger now than they were before.

“You can’t rush everything in life. Certain things aren’t meant to be [rushed].”

Mayweather, 38, and Pacquiao, 36, first began fight negotiations more than five years ago, but a series of disagreements and Mayweather’s general apathy kept boxing’s super-fight on pause.

In the interim, Mayweather in 2013 signed a six-fight deal with Showtime/CBS that has given him four purses in excess of $30 million, including record sales for his September 2013, victory over Mexico’s Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

Forbes said Mayweather earned $105 million last year, becoming the second athlete after Tiger Woods to reach $100 million in a year.

Hopes for the super-fight took a dark turn when Pacquiao was knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012, but he has rallied with three convincing victories, knocking down previously unbeaten Chris Algieri six times in a November victory by decision.

“I didn’t really say anything [after the Marquez loss], I just thought

years, yet Pacquiao came to him with ideas and plans for the fight. Pacquiao is clearly a student of Mayweather’s techniques, even doing a serviceable impersonation of Mayweather’s famed shoulder roll to entertain Roach.

“I haven’t really seen him have this much speed and power in a long time,” Roach said. “My chest hurts really bad right now.

You can see how much it means to him. He lives for these huge moments, and he knows what this fight means. Floyd is in trouble.”

Pacquiao confirmed his eagerness to make the fight happen, pointing out that he agreed to every term proposed by Mayweather over the past several years of intermittent negotiations. Pacquiao also agreed to a 60-40 split of the proceeds.

“If my concern is myself alone, I don’t [think of] the fans,” Pacquiao said. “Then the fight, it’s hard to make happen. Because of course, I don’t want to take 60-40, a disadvantage and everything. I agreed with that for the sake of the fans. I agreed to make the fight happen.”

Pacquiao also said he felt a virtual duty to make a possible nine-figure payday resulting from this bout to further his charitable work in the Philippines, where he plans to give away a significant portion of his cut.

“I cannot see them being hungry and not helping them,” Pacquiao said. “I’m not materialistic.... I have to use it for the glory of the Lord, and also for my family and for helping people.”

hopefully he’d be able to bounce back,” Mayweather said of Pacquiao. “And he bounced back. It was the right thing for the sport of boxing and for himself.”

Mayweather has previously taken verbal shots at Pacquiao for remaining with Mayweather’s former promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank Inc., but declined to do so on Tuesday.

He said he told his closest advisors nearly a decade ago, when he decided to part ways with Arum, that he’d be the first fighter to make $100 million for a bout.

For this bout, it’s believed Mayweather, who’ll earn a 60-percent purse split to Pacquiao’s 40 percent, could earn nearly $200 million.

“I always knew if I made the right moves...eventually I’d get to the next level,” Mayweather said.

For this fight, Mayweather said he has taken to the most basic of training techniques, including chopping wood, while also incorporating swimming workouts. “[There’s] more excitement, [but] it’s been smooth and comfortable

and I’m happy with my performance,” Mayweather said.

Mayweather’s father/trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr., said his son’s intelligence will prove too much for Pacquiao. The elder Mayweather went as far as predicting a knockout.

“It’s not going to be the [toss-up] fight that people think it’s going to be,” Mayweather Sr. said. “The Mayweathers are like this: When we see what a guy’s doing, and see him keep doing it, we know what to do.”

Pacquiao, said Mayweather Jr., is “a very, very reckless fighter,” leaving himself open to punches.

Mayweather also cracked jokes about Pacquiao’s height disadvantage—“he wears lifts in his shoes”—and raised his eyebrows and flashed a smile when someone took note of his reach advantage.

“My career wouldn’t have lasted this long if I had been a reckless fighter like that,” Mayweather said of Pacquiao. “A guy can land a good shot, but one thing about Floyd Mayweather: I can make adjustments.

“Always.”

SPORTS

C1

T

HE World Bank has some novel ideas for remittances coming into India, China, the Philippines, Mexico and Nigeria: build infrastructure.

Money sent home from citizens working overseas as engineers, teachers, nurses, sailors and domestic helps reached about $583 billion last year, according to the World Bank. Of that, India received about $70 billion; China, $64 billion; and the Philippines, $28 billion. And those are just the official flows.

Traditionally, this money has been used to send kids to school, pay for weddings, buy a car or build a home. Now, the World Bank wants migrants to put their hard-earned money to more productive use for their countries.

“Migration and remittances can be leveraged for innovative

PESO EXCHANGE RATES ■ US 44.5550

financing,’’ said Dilip Ratha, lead economist for migration and remittances at the World Bank’s Development Prospects Group.

“I would love to see a bullet-train system in India; an international airport in Nigeria; another Suez Canal in Egypt; a hydro-project in Pakistan; a community-development program in the Philippines—all financed by mobilizing the power of remittances and diaspora savings.’’

Remittances are critical: In the Philippines they accounted for about 10 percent of gross domestic product in 2013. Globally, they totaled more than double the official development assistance, or international aid last year. In addition, diaspora savings held by migrants from developing countries in their host nations were about $497 billion in 2013.

C  A

ENERGY Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla during The Round Table forum held at the BUSINESSMIRROR offices in Makati City.

ROY DOMINGO

DOE to look into TSI’s claim blackout damaged its facility B L L

E

NERGY Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla on Thursday said his office would investigate Therma South Inc. (TSI), a subsidiary of AboitizPower Corp., whose power facility in Davao City was damaged by the recent Mindanao-wide blackout.

In a discussion hosted on Thursday by the BM, the energy chief bared an inquiry into the cause of the power failure and the damage it wrought, implying this could have been avoided entirely had the company put in place preventive measures in the first place.

“My question to them is simple— Where is their circuit breaker? Why are they the only ones affected? They can say all they want, but they are a party of interest. We will investigate this,” Petilla said.

Company representatives did not reply when sought for comments.

There was a seven-hour power outage that hit Mindanao on April 5. TSI President Benjie A. Cariaso Jr. said initial findings show the disruption wrecked the auxiliary components to the boiler equipment of Unit 2.

In particular, the auxiliary components to the boiler of Unit 2 of TSI’s 300-megawatt (MW) coal-

power plant were damaged. Affected machinery and components included the air preheater, as well as the electrostatic precipitator, which is part of the power plant’s pollution-control system.

The property damage will delay the commercial operations of Unit 2 by approximately 10 months, or until February 2016. Units 1 and 2 of the power plant have yet to be turned over to TSI by their contractors. TSI was scheduled to put online Unit 2 with the Mindanao grid last week. Full commercial operations were supposed to happen a month later.

S “B,” A

■ JAPAN 0.3740 ■ UK 66.1241 ■ HK 5.7476 ■ CHINA 7.1803 ■ SINGAPORE 32.8455 ■ AUSTRALIA 33.9338 ■ EU 47.6159 ■ SAUDI ARABIA 11.8810 Source: BSP (16 April 2015)

A2

News

BusinessMirror

Friday, April 17, 2015

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Japan back as top holder of US Treasury debt

J

apan overtook China in February as the top foreign holder of US Treasury securities, a position Japan last held in August 2008.

In its monthly report on bond holdings, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday total foreign holdings of Treasury debt dipped 0.9 percent in February to $6.16 trillion, down from a record of $6.22 trillion in January.

The holdings of China, nor-

mally the top holder of Treasury debt, slipped 1.2 percent to $1.22 trillion. Japan’s fell 1.1 percent from January. China’s decline was a bit larger, allowing Japan to jump into the top spot, $700 million above China.

China overtook Japan for the top

spot in ownership of US Treasury debt in 2008 as the financial crisis and a deep recession pushed up US government borrowing to finance government deficits. The US deficit topped $1 trillion annually for four consecutive years.

Private analysts had been forecasting that Japan would surpass China’s holdings of Treasury debt this year given current economic trends in both nations.

China’s economy has been slowing and growth of its exports has been tapering, giving the country less to invest overseas. It has also been

seeking to diversify those investments, leaving less to invest in US government bonds.

The Japanese central bank, meanwhile, is engaged in an aggressive effort to boost the country’s money supply to bolster the economy and fight low inflation. That means there is more money to invest overseas. Japanese investors have been attracted to dollar holdings because of higher rates of return on dollardenominated investments.

Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at the Smith School of Business at California State Uni-

versity, Channel Islands, sees those trends continuing, with Japan’s holdings of Treasury debt growing faster than China’s.

“Economic growth and export growth are slowing in China and, as a result China has less money to invest overseas, while Japan’s central bank is pursuing policies that will keep the Japanese yen weaker against the dollar and, thus, make dollar investments more attractive to Japanese investors,” Sohn said.

Japan’s holdings of Treasury debt are $13.6 billion higher than they were a year ago, while China’s

SM’s Boni lot contract valid–SC. . .

The Court rejected Casanova’s argument that the BCDA and SMLI do not have a contract, giving the latter the right to demand that its unsolicited proposal be subject to a competitive challenge.

Casanova pointed out even if such an agreement exist, such may still be terminated if public interest so requires.

However, the Court ruled that a valid agreement between SMLI and the BCDA existed, such that its breaching resulted in the filing of a complaint against the erring party.

The SC noted that consent, the first requisite of a perfected contract, “is manifested by the meeting of the offer and the acceptance upon the thing and the cause which are to constitute the contract.”

In the case of SMLI, the Court noted that when it submitted the unsolicited proposal to the BCDA on December 14, 2009, such submissionn constituted an offer to undertake the development of the subject property.

The BCDA then entered into negotiations with SMLI until it finally accepted the terms of the final unsolicited proposal.

This agreement was later put into writing through the issuance of the certification of successful negotiations where the meeting of the parties’ minds was reflected therein.

Subsequently, both the BCDA and SMLI, represented by Gen. Narciso L. Abaya and Ana Bess Pingol, respectively—affixed their signatures on the

Certification of Successful Negotiations and had it notarized on August 6, 2010.

“The elements of a valid contract being present, there, thus, exists between SMLI and the BCDA a perfected contract, embodied in the Certification of Successful Negotiations, upon which certain rights and obligations spring forth, including the commencement of activities for the solicitation for comparative proposals,” the Court said.

“This agreement is the law between the contracting parties with which they are required to comply in good faith. Verily, it is the BCDA’s subsequent unilateral cancellation of this perfected contract which this Court deemed to have been tainted with grave abuse of discretion,” it added.

The SC said the BCDA could not abandon its obligation to subject the unsolicited proposal to a competitive challenge having signed a perfected contract with SMLI. It also said the BCDA gave assurance that it would respect the rights of SMLI under the agreement. The SC, however, clarified that its ruling did not award the project to SMLI, but merely directed the BCDA to subject its proposal to a competitive challenge.

“The alleged adverse economic impact on the government, in finding for SMLI, does not constitute, under the premises, a valid cause for the reversal of the assailed decision,” the SC stressed.

“Consequently, any alleged disadvantage the government would suffer is speculative at

most, as there is no final award for the project as of yet,” it added.

The Court explained that the project’s perceived low floor price, based on SMLI’s proposal, remains a floor price and that there is still an opportunity to increase the price and the government share through a competitive challenge.

“Such offers can even surpass the property’s current market value and, in which case, constitute sufficient consideration for the project.

Without first subjecting SMLI’s proposal to a competitive challenge, no bid can yet be obtained from PSEs [private sector entitiess] and, corollarily, no determination can be made at present as to whether or not the final bid price for the project is, indeed, below the property’s fair market value,” the Court said.

The SC said the government previously accepted offers from private entities and subjected them to a Swiss challenge like the proposal of Metro Pacific Investment Corp. for the expansion of the North Luzon Expressway, as well as its integration with the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.

Prior to the controversy, the BCDA opened for disposition the subject property which prompted SMLI to submit an unsolicited proposal for its development through a public-private joint-venture agreement.

The property is composed of lands occupied by the Army Support Command and Special Services Unit of the Army, the Bonifacio Naval Station and

Blackout. . .

Continued from A1

Continued from A1

the Marine Corps of the Navy.

It is between Newport City and McKinley West near the posh Forbes Park.

Six real-estate developers have expressed interest in the property. These are Ayala Land Inc., Filinvest Land Inc., Jones Lang La Salle-Leechiu, Megaworld Corp., Robinsons Land Corp. and Rockwell Land Corp.

Following a series of negotiations, SM Land submitted its final revised proposal with guaranteed secure payments amounting to P25.9 billion.

Afterward, a certification of successful negotiations was issued by the BCDA, wherein the latter agreed to undertake a Swiss challenge of the SMLI proposal.

However, instead of subjecting SMLI’s offer to a Swiss challenge, the BCDA decided to dispose of the property through open competitive bidding.

The BCDA said it set aside the unsolicited proposal of SM Land pursuant to the Office of the President’s directive.

It argued that it will be more advantageous to the government to conduct open competitive bidding for its land assets, since it will not only result in getting the best price but the best development for the property.

Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta and Jose Catral Mendoza.

Associate Justices Marvic Mario Victor Leonen and Martin Villarama dissented from the majority ruling.

Sea code. . .

Continued from A8

“It allows them to exert basically greater influence over what’s now a contested area,” Locklear said.

China claims much of the South China Sea, and Beijing has asserted its right to undertake any activity in territories it claims. In late 2013, China unilaterally declared an air defense zone over disputed, Japanese-held islands in the East China Sea. The US, Japan and others have refused to recognize the move.

Locklear also noted an increase in Russian military activity in the Asia Pacific, with longrange maneuvers toward the US in the past few months. He said Russia is improving its strategic nuclear deterrent on its east coast in the northern Pacific, and its submarine forces, which operate in the Arctic and in Northeast Asia.

He said there was a greater Russian military presence in Southeast Asia this year, too.

US ally Japan said on Wednesday that the number of scrambles by its warplanes has surged to levels nearly matching the Cold War era amid growing activity by China and Russia.

Butch Fernandez, AP

holdings are $49.2 billion lower than a year ago.

China is also being pressured by the Obama administration to allow its currency to rise in value against the dollar.

American manufacturers have complained for years that China is manipulating its currency, keeping it undervalued against the dollar as a way to gain trade advantages.

A weaker Chinese currency compared to the dollar makes American goods more expensive in China and Chinese goods cheaper for US consumers. AP

More than 20 distribution utilities and electric cooperatives have signed up to receive capacity from TSI. The TSI official assured the public that the status of Unit 2 will not affect the commissioning of Unit 1, which remains on schedule, and should reach commercial operation by end-June.

“We will update all stakeholders of further developments. We remain committed to do everything we can to support Mindanao with its power needs,” Cariaso had said.

A more detailed assessment of the extent of the repairs needed is being conducted.

TSI also intends to conduct a full review to determine all contributing factors that led to the plant incident to ensure appropriate measures are taken.

Early this month, Mindanao suffered a seven-hour power outage. Officials reported of a grid disturbance caused by a detached conductor that hit the capacitor voltage transformer (CVT). The conductor connects the CVT, which is a metering equipment, to the Agus switchyard that, in turn, is connected to the Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric power complex in Lanao del Sur. The Department of Energy has ruled out sabotage in the Mindanao grid-wide blackout.

The energy chief formed a team to conduct an investigation. Petilla said a report was already submitted to his office but he has yet to read it. “Part of investigation is to identify which areas are not likely going to fail so this will not happen again,” he said.

Bloomberry. . .

Continued from A8

Razon said the company may seek a local partner to provide them the expert knowledge they need.

Bloomberry only last month further expanded its South Korean footprint after the purchase of another island and signed another agreement with a group of shareholders that owns the T.H.E. Hotel Vegas and Casino.

The company also said it has signed a realestate sales agreement to purchase Silmi Island, a 21-hectare property within the Incheon Free Economic Zone.

No other details were disclosed on the deal that will be carried out by Solaire Korea Co. Ltd., the local Bloomberry unit.

Silmi Island is adjacent to the 12.2-hectare Muui Island that Bloomberry aims to acquire in an earlier regulatory. The site is set for conversion from economic zone at present into a leisure and tourism complex with entertainment facilities. VG Cabuag

World Bank: Channel remittances to infra Continued from A1

These investments can be mobilized through diaspora bonds marketed to overseas citizens, and future remittance flows can be used as collateral for international borrowings, Ratha said. Because these are large and more stable than many other types of capital flows, they can enhance a country’s sovereign credit rating, thus, lowering borrowing costs and lengthening debt maturity.

Indeed, rating companies recently started accounting for remittances in their sovereign credit ratings, and the World

Bank-IMF low-income country Debt Sustainability Framework includes them in evaluating the ability of countries to repay external obligations and undertake borrowings. While the pace of remittance growth is expected to slow this year because of continued weakness in Europe and Russia and the depreciation of the euro and ruble, they are still seen rising to $586 billion. And the money will keep coming: $610 billion in 2016, and $636 billion in 2017, according to the World Bank.

That could mean several new airports and rapid transit systems in countries that need them. Bloomberg News

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Lumads in historic ‘sacred gathering’ in Davao City

D

AVAO CITY—Tribal groups belonging to the progressive bloc would hold the first inter-tribal conference across Mindanao to address intermittent intrusion of soldiers in tribal schools and killings of their leaders.

Called “Dumalongdong Mindanaw,” the five-day conference begins on April 21 here.

B’laan leader Monico Cayog, chairman of the tribal group Kalumaran, said participants would include a cross section of their society: datus (chieftains) and women and youth leaders. Groups would come from many areas in Mindanao.

“Lumad leaders coming from the different regions of Mindanao would gather to unite various indigenous peoples’ communities in Mindanao to defend their ancestral lands from plunder and militarization in their communities,” Cayog said.

He explained the dumalongdong is a traditional and political gathering that advances intertribal, intergenerational, and intergender unity and solidarity against the Lumad people’s common enemies: land grabbing, state violence, and national oppression.

The gathering also calls for the disbandment of Lumad paramilitary groups, stop of attacks of Lumad schools, extrajudicial killings and trumped-up charges, according to Dulphing Ogan, secretary-general of Kalumaran.

There would also be a conference of the Datu and the Bai (men and women leaders), documents provided by Ogan said. Other activities would include the commemoration of the Earth Day on April 22, a fluvial protest at the Davao River, education festival and a concert. Manuel T. Cayon

The Nation BusinessMirror

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Friday, April 17, 2015 A3

Palace still vetting for new PNP chief

M

By Butch Fernandez

ALACAÑANG officials are still awaiting President Aquino’s word on who would finally be named new chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) “in a more permanent capacity.”

We still don’t have a particular information on that, Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. said in Filipino on Thursday.

Coloma told reporters that all he knew, so far, is that the “vetting process” to pick a permanent police chief to take over the post currently occupied by PNP Officer in Charge (OIC) Gen. Leonardo Espina.

What I do know is the decision-making process continues, likewise, including “the process of considering possible candidates for the position of PNP chief,” the Palace spokesman said.

Coloma, however, could neither deny nor confirm reports that Espina had already tendered a resignation letter in March, signifying readiness to give way to Aquino’s unnamed appointee.

Still, the Palace official admitted Aquino would not be rushed into making a hasty appointment to fill up the top PNP post.

“Sabihin na lang natin na dahil sa kahalagahan

ng posisyon ay isinasaalang-alang ng Pangulo ang prinsipyo na ang dapat na manombrahan dito ay kuwalipikado at magagampanan ’yung tungkulin sa pinakamahusay na paraan, na aani din ng pagtataguyod at suporta ng officers and men of the PNP,” Coloma said.

The secretary also pointed out that while Espina is performing his duty as PNP OIC, “hindi naman naaapektuhan ’yung principle na siya pa rin ang responsible doon sa lahat ng mga kaganapan diyan, at sa nakikita naman natin ay ginagampanan niya ’yung kanyang tungkulin sa pinakamainam na paraan.”

Coloma reported that even the National Police Commission recently passed a resolution conferring upon Espina “certain specific authorities” as PNP OIC. “I think this is regarding the appointment of some personnel at the PNP” that addresses the agency’s operational requirements albeit the absence of a permanent police chief, Coloma added.

Lawmakers to Aquino: Address media killings

S

EVERAL lawmakers on Thursday urged the Aquino administration to address the increasing cases of media killings in the country.

Lakas Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez of Leyte, chairman of the House independent minority bloc, said the Philippine National Police and the Department of Justice should work double time to end the impunity against journalists.

“The poor handling of cases regarding killings of journalists is very evident and we should do something to solve the problem,” Romualdez was quoted in a statement issued after the murder of Batangas-based journalist Melinda Magsino on April 13.

“The killings of journalists are very lamentable and I condemn these in the strongest possible terms and authorities should run after perpetrators and unmask the masterminds [sic] to stop these continued violence against media persons,” Romualdez added.

Liberal Party Rep. Alfredo Benitez of Negros Occidental agreed.

“Suspects should be prosecuted with dispatch while the strong arm of the law should be applied,” Benitez said.

National Unity Party Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of Cavite also demanded to “make accountable the perpetrators of media killings.”

The London-based International News Safety Institute (INSI) ranked the Philippines as the third most-dangerous country in the world for journalists in 2013.

According to INSI, Syria is the deadliest country for media workers for two consecutive years, followed by Iraq and the Philippines. A total of 14 journalists died in the Philippines in 2013.

A separate report by the Swiss-based Press Emblem Campaign ranked the Philippines as the seventh most-dangerous country for reporters in 2012. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

Economy

A4 Friday, April 17, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Most Filipinos still have no bank accounts–report

A

By Cai U. Ordinario

lmost 70 percent of Filipino adults do not have their own bank accounts, making the Philippines one of the laggards in terms of access to financial services in the Asean, according to a report released by the World Bank.

In the Global Findex Database 2014: Measuring Financial Inclusion Around the World, only 31 percent of adult Filipinos have bank accounts.

Some 38 percent of those who have bank accounts are women.

Also only 18 of the poorest 40 percent of Filipino households have bank accounts nationwide.

“Access to financial services can serve as a bridge out of poverty. We have set a hugely ambitious goal—universal financial access by 2020—and now we have evidence that we’re making major progress,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said.

“This effort will require many partners: credit-card companies, banks, microcredit institutions, the United Nations, foundations and community leaders. But we can do it, and the payoff will be millions of people lifted out of poverty,” Kim added.

In Asean, Singapore consistently topped the list with a 96-percent bank-account penetration among adults in the poorest 40 percent of households.

Malaysia was consistently in second place by registering an 81-percent account penetration among adults; 78 percent among women; and 76 percent among adults in the poorest 40 percent households.

The report also stated that the Philippines is one of only a handful of countries worldwide whose citizens are most likely to borrow from private informal lenders to access credit.

It stated that more than 10 percent of adults reported borrowing from a private informal lender in the Philippines, Myanmar, Panama, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Data also showed that 15 percent to 20 percent of Filipinos would send and receive domestic remittances through money-transfer operators.

“In Colombia and the Philippines people are most likely to use a money-transfer operator.

About three-quarters of adults who reported

sending or receiving remittances said that they used this method,” the report stated.

With this, the report stated that moneytransfer operators have more counters compared with bank branches in Colombia and the Philippines.

Further, the report stated that domestic remittance businesses were built on existing infrastructure that these operators are also set up to receive international remittances.

Meanwhile, the report stated that between 2011 and 2014, the percentage of adults with an account increased from 51 percent to 62 percent, a trend driven by a 13-percentagepoint rise in account ownership in developing countries and the role of technology.

In particular, mobile money accounts in Sub-Saharan Africa are helping to rapidly expand and scale up access to financial services.

Along with these gains, data also show big opportunities for boosting financial inclusion among women and poor people.

Between 2011 and 2014, the report estimated that 700 million people became account holders at banks, other financial institutions, or mobile money service providers, and the number of “unbanked” individuals dropped 20 percent to 2 billion adults.

“The 2014 Findex found there is still more work to be done to expand financial inclusion among women and the poorest households.

More than half of adults in the poorest 40 percent of households in developing countries were still without accounts in 2014,” the World Bank said. The report stated that the gender gap in account ownership is not significantly narrowing. In 2011 some 47 percent of women and 54 percent of men had a bank account. In 2014 around 58 percent of women had an account, compared to 65 percent of men.

Regionally, the report stated that the gender gap is largest in South Asia, where 37 percent of women have an account compared to 55 percent of men, an 18-percentage-point gap.

DISASTER OPERATION CENTER His Eminence Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, archbishop of Manila and cochairman of the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation

(PDRF), signs a Declaration Commitment To Partnership establishing the PDRF Disaster Operation Center and the Role of Business in building the Nation’s Resilience. Also present in the Disaster Operation Center First Stakeholders’ Forum are Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (left), chairman/CEO, Ayala Corp. and cochairman, PDRF; and Manuel V. Pangilinan (right), chairman, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co./Smart Communications, cochairman, PDRF. NONIE REYES

Wholesale prices of construction goods fell 1.2% in March

By Cai U. Ordinario

W

holesale prices of construction materials in the National Capital Region (NCR) fell for the fourth consecutive month in March due to low fuel cost, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

PSA data showed the Construction Materials Wholesale Price Index (CMWPI) in NCR posted a negative rate of 1.2 percent in March from a growth of 2.4 percent in March 2014.

The CMWPI has been posting contractions since December 2014. In February it

posted a contraction of 1.4 percent.

“The decrease was brought about by the decline in the annual rate of fuels and lubricants index at -21.5 percent,” the PSA said.

Data also showed that contributing to the downtrend were slower annual gains in the indices of sand and gravel, 2.5 percent; G.I. sheet, 1 percent; and reinforcing steel, 1.2 percent.

Other construction materials that contributed to the slowdown include structural steel, 1.1 percent; tileworks, 0.9 percent; and plumbing fixtures and accessories, 6.6 percent.

“The rest of the commodity groups either had higher annual mark-ups or retained their last month’s rates with the machinery and equipment rental index still registering a zero growth,” the PSA said.

On a monthly basis, meanwhile, the CMWPI in NCR grew by 0.4 percent in March.

This was due to the 3- percent growth in the fuels and lubricants index.

The PSA also said the index of sand and gravel and electrical works posted a 0.2-percent growth, followed by the hardware index, 0.4 percent; plywood and plumbing fixtures and accessories indices, 0.6 percent; and lumber index, 0.1 percent.

Candidates told to be transparent on net worth, campaign spending

G

overnment watchdog Gov’t Watch is calling on all candidates, especially those seeking national offices, to submit their statement of assets and liabilities when they file their certificates of candidacy in the interest of transparency.

“This will show their net worth before seeking public office,” Gov’t Watch Chairman Raul T. Concepcion said in a statement.

Gov’t Watch said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should also strictly monitor campaign spending as candidates may try to recover their expenses once elected.

The group also urged the Supreme Court (SC) to fast-track the resolution of the petition seeking to nullify the Smartmatic-Total Management Information Corp. (TIM)Comelec refurbishment deal so the poll body can move forward and prepare for the crucial 2016 presidential elections.

The SC has issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the warranty contract between the government and Smartmatic-

TIM, which brought the repair, refurbishments and recalibration of the voting machines to a halt.

Concepcion said once the Smartmatic case is resolved, the Comelec can immediately resume work on the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines or pursue alternate automated election technologies.

However, in case the TRO is lifted, Gov’t Watch said the Comelec and Smartmatic should address allegations of past omission of certain requirements prescribed by the automated election law.

“These include the lack of UV lamps that prove the authenticity of ballots, voter verification-paper audit trail that correctly ensures that every vote is counted and enables an independent audit of results, digital signatures that authenticate results and electronic transmission and mandatory source code review that proves the integrity of digital instructions and commands,” Gov’t Watch said.

Economy

news@businessmirror.com.ph

BusinessMirror Friday, April 17, 2015 A5

EU team in town to evaluate safety system of local airlines

A

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

five-man safety-assessment team from the European Union (EU) is now looking into the operations of Manila-based carriers, which are hoping they would finally break free from the bondage of being included on the list of airlines that are barred from flying into the 28-member bloc.

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) Director General William K. Hotchkiss III reported on Thursday that the delegation, led by European Ambassador to Manila Guy Ledoux, is in town for a weeklong evaluation of the safety oversight system of local carriers.

The team will stay in the country until April 24 and will thoroughly review each airline on the list of banned carriers to fly to Europe.

Topping the list of carriers are AirAsia Philippines, Tigerair Philippines, South East Asian Airlines International, Philippine Airline (PAL) Express, Skyjet and Island Aviation.

The delegation will also assess the capabilities of the air-safety regulator, which is headed by Hotchkiss, a retired military officer.

The safety-assessment visit to the Philippines seeks to confirm that the government has successfully

addressed the root cause of previous areas of safety concerns and was able to conduct effective oversight of air carriers certified in the Philippines.

AirAsia Philippines Director Alfredo M. Yao said he is hopeful that the result of the assessment will be in their favor this time.

“As far as our group is concerned, we always meet the safety standards required by the European Union,” he said in a phone interview.

The 28-member bloc placed the Philippines on the aviation blacklist in 2010, after the then-Air Transportation Office was demoted by the US Federal Aviation Administration from Category 1 to Category 2 status in 2008. The country regained the highest status in April last year.

Currently only flag carrier Philippine Airlines and low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific are out of the list of airlines that fail to meet international aviation standards.

H&M to add more stores in PHL

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo Special to the BusinessMirror

H

ennes & Mauritz AB (H&M), a Stockholmbased clothing retail company, is bullish on the Philippine economy, and will be adding more stores soon.

In an interview with the BusinessMirror on Wednesday, at the sidelines of the brand’s launch of its new exclusive collection under its Conscious line, Frederik Famm, country manager for Southeast Asia, said: “We have been very well received since we opened six months ago. We believe a lot in the Philippines and obviously, we’re looking at a number of store locations in Manila, but also outside of Manila.”

At present, H&M branches are at SM Megamall, SM North Edsa (The Block), SM Makati, Robinsons Place in Ermita, and Robinsons Magnolia along Aurora Boulevard.

For most retailers, the usual major markets outside Manila are Cebu, Iloilo, and Davao—highly populated urban areas with a growing middle class and affluent population.

Unlike other foreign clothing brands, which have partnered with local retailers and department stores, H&M’s investment in the Philippines is its own. The Retail Trade Liberalization Act of 2000 allows foreign entities to full ownership of their Philippine retail operations.

While brand officials have declined to reveal its actual investment in the Philippines, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed foreign direct investments from Sweden, jumping to $22.05 million in 2014, from only $80,000 in 2013, or a substantial increase of 274.63 percent.

Famm added, what makes the company feel optimistic about the growth of its business in the Philippines is “you have 100 million inhabitants, a young population interested in fashion, the economy is growing, so of course there are a lot of possibilities. The size of the country makes it an interesting country.”

Asked why it took so long for the 68-year-old H&M to open its doors in the Philippines whereas other foreign clothing brands have already made their way in, the brand official explained: “It’s an ongoing worldwide expansion and obviously we cannot do all countries at the same time. In the last years we have been been focusing on Asia, so it’s also a very natural step for us to enter the Philippines now and start the expansion, because Asia is a growth market.”

Comparing its sales in Manila, he said: “We believe very much that fashion is global. The same thing that sells in Paris and London sells in Manila. So we have been received well in Manila the same way it's been well received in Paris and London. Of course, we are never satisfied but I think we have been very well received. We are doing well [here].”

H&M’s Conscious line are clothes made of organic fabrics from plants that are grown without the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Its exclusive collection, which focuses on dresses, said Famm, uses organic leather and organic silk, with embellishments like sequins and beads made from recycled plastic. “It’s the third time that H&M is doing this collection, where we are basically showing that sustainable clothing can really be fashionable.”

A publicly listed firm, H&M said in its first quarter from December 1, 2014 to February 28, 2015) report to stockholders that group profit after tax increased by 36 percent SEK 3.61 billion (P18.43 billion). It is targeting to increase the number of its stores by 10 percent to 15 percent “with continued high profitability. For full-year 2015 a net addition of around 400 new stores is planned. Most new stores in 2015 are planned to open in China and the US. There are also still great opportunities or expansion in other existing markets as well as in new markets.

“Taiwan, Peru, Macau, South Africa and India are planned to become new H&M markets in 2015.”

According to its web site, the H&M Group has more than 3,500 stores in 57 markets, including franchise markets.

PLDT puts up P1-B data center in Clark

M

ultimedia conglomerate Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is building a new data center in Clark Freeport Zone, worth roughly P1 billion, to cater to the growing demand for data offloading infrastructure in Central Luzon.

The investment is in line with PLDT’s goal of being more competitive in the data-center space, company Executive Vice President Eric R. Alberto said in an interview on Thursday.

“We did a ground breaking two weeks ago in Clark, and that’s going to be a 1,400 to 1,500 racks additional.

So when we finished that by first quarter of next year, and hopefully we finished the one in Makati City by end of this year, our total rack capacity would be over 8,000 racks, nearly fulfilling our aspiration to be a clear leader in the data-center space in the country,” he explained.

Enterprises, Alberto said, could generate savings by offloading information-technology requirements to the data center.

“Colocating and hosting outside the place of your

place of operation is certainly a better or safer alternative than hosting your IT elements where your place of operation is,” the executive added.

He noted: “If, God forbid, a major calamity strikes, you are susceptible to a very high risk of losing your data, that is very critical to run your business in any calamity whether earthquake or super typhoon sets or even a human made errors or infusion.”

When completed, the data center in Clark will be the eighth of such facility for PLDT. In a related development, PLDT’s unit that caters to the requirements of small and medium enterprises hosted Tech Island 2.0 in Ocean Adventure, Subic on April 15 and 16. Tech Island 2.0 opened its first day to key business owners in a high-level forum that established the changing digital landscape in the Philippines.

Around 1,000 IT professionals, business owners and developers gathered for a plenary and workshops with some of the country’s top technology brands.

Lorenz S. Marasigan

Therma Mobile gets reprieve from court in case vs PEMC

By Lenie Lectura

A

local court stopped mark e t o p e r ator Ph i l ip pi ne Electr icit y Market Cor p.

(PEMC) f rom imposing pena lties against Therma Mobile Inc. (TMO), a subsidiar y of Aboitiz Power Corp., which had been accused of violating the “must-offer” rule of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).

The Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 157 issued a writ of preliminary injunction preventing PEMC, through the PEMC Board, from collecting from TMO the amount of P234.9 million in financial penalties and charging interest on the financial penalties and having the same accrue.

It also prevented PEMC from transmitting its investigation report to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), until the dispute is finally resolved through the dispute resolution process of the WESM

Rules and Dispute Resolution Market Manual (WESM DRMM).

TMO filed an urgent petition for the issuance of interim measures with the Pasig RTC, which, in turn, found its petition “meritorious.”

In the same order, the court made a prima facie determination of the existence of an arbitration agreement between TMO and PEMC, and ordered the parties to continue with the dispute-resolution process embodied in the WESM Rules and WESM DRMM. Early this year, PEMC said TMO withheld capacity during the November and December 2013 supply period and imposed financial penalties. TMO argued that it did not withhold any capacity, as it was physically impossible for TMO to transmit more than 100 megawatts (MW) to Manila Electric Co. Although TMO’s rated capacity is 234 MW, it could only safely, reliably and consistently deliver 100 MW during the period under in-

vestigation because of the thermal limitations of its transmission lines and the technical and mechanical constraints of its generating units, the company said.

Aside from TMO, PEMC also imposed penalties against the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) and Panasia Energy, Inc. for the same reasons.

In its report, PEMC said PSALM’s violation covers the 140-MW Casecnan hydro plant and 650-MW Malaya thermal power plant. PEMC imposed a total of P89 million in penalty against the state firm.

Panasia Energy, which operates the 620-MW Limay power plant in Bataan, was also fined by PEMC for violating the must-offer rule. Panasia is owned by Millennium Energy Inc. Under the must-offer rule, generation companies registered in the WESM must declare and offer the maximum generating capacities of their power facilities in the spot market.

A6 Friday, April 17, 2015

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Philippines: Commit to AIIB now

T

HE Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was proposed by the Chinese government in October 2013. One year later, on October 24, 2014, the AIIB was officially launched in Beijing at a signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding. The Philippines was a signatory to that agreement, along with such diverse countries as Qatar, India and Thailand.

The need for the existence of the AIIB is clear. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Institute published a report in 2010 that said Asia requires $8 trillion, to be invested from 2010 to 2020, in infrastructure in order to continue economic development.

The “reason” for the AIIB is also clear. Asia, led by China, must push away the dominance on global financing institutions by Europe, the United States and, to a lesser extent, Japan.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is controlled by the Europeans. The World Bank is under the Americans’ thumb. Japan and the US each control 15 percent of ADB shares but the presidency of the third-largest multilateral lender has never left the hands of the Japanese since 1966. Every president of the IMF has been European. Every president of the World Bank has been a US citizen.

The Philippines should be in the forefront of the beginning of the AIIB. However, the Philippines is “still considering” the option of becoming a founding member.

A decision of this importance should be given some time for thoughtful consideration.

Ticktock, ticktock.

We thought it over. The Philippines should make a firm commitment to join the AIIB now.

Indonesia thought it over, and is so enthusiastic that President Joko Widodo went to China to discuss building the AIIB headquarters in Jakarta. Taiwan was rejected as a prospective founding member (PFM) due to political differences with Beijing, but still is applying for ordinary membership. Even North Korea wants in, but was rejected, since it will not furnish its economic data.

Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said they are ensuring that the AIIB is multilateral in nature. We can help address that question. United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced that Britain had agreed to lend money to the AIIB. France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Poland, Denmark, Spain and Brazil are among 34 PFMs in the Asian region and 16 PFMs outside Asia. China has even agreed to give up its veto power over AIIB decisions.

Why would the Philippines hesitate at all?

Perhaps, the answer lies in the government’s desire to use our membership as a way to snub China for its moves in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). If that is the case, it is an example of shooting yourself in the foot.

Perhaps, it is to appease and gain favor with the US, which has badly embarrassed itself by unsuccessfully putting pressure on the Europeans not to join. If so, we are backing the losing side.

If the government does not join or delays joining the AIIB, the only country to suffer will be the Philippines.

Learning from a Clinton James Jimenez

H

spox

ALF past three on Monday morning, Hillary Clinton posted on Twitter, “I’m running for president. Every day Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion.” A few minutes later, she tweeted, “I’m hitting the trail to earn your vote.”

Note how she said “I want.” None of that “public clamor” rhetoric we so often hear coming from our local politicians.

This presidential candidate took ownership—and, more important, personal responsibility—for her decision to run for office.

When a politician claims that he is running as a response to a public clamor, he is portraying himself as a kind of reluctant seeker of the position, conformably with the Filipino aesthetic of overweening modesty.

There is no denying that this tactic will work on some voters. In a political situation, however, invoking public clamor comes very close to being disingenuous. Running for office will always be a personal decision and, whether we admit it or not, whatever public demand there might be will probably only serve to boost the intention that was already there to begin with.

It is also undeniable, however, that invoking the will of the people as a justification for running for office provides a kind of blanket justification for everything the candidate eventually does in pursuit of his ambition. Illegal postering, for instance, can now be conveniently blamed on “overeager supporters,” as one local presidential candidate once said.

More obliquely, claiming to simply be “giving the people what they want” provides a ready-made justification for refuting a loss at the polls. After all, the argument goes, how can you possibly lose when it was the voters who wanted you to run in the first place? This sort of logic, I am sad to say, lies at the heart of many claims of having been cheated out of a win.

It seems obvious to me, therefore, that a candidate who admits to what he wants is preferable over someone who can’t even come clean about his own

ambition. With that honesty comes the assumption of responsibility for the outcome of the elections. Rather than shifting the burden of winning onto the electorate (“Hey! You wanted me to run, so make me win!”), or to some other external force (like, say, a cheating election-management body), such a candidate makes it clear that if he loses, then it’s he at least bears part of the fault.

Note also how Clinton subsequently tweeted that she was hitting the campaign trail “to earn” the people’s vote.

Locally, I think we would all benefit from hearing more such assurances from candidates, that they do not consider themselves, de facto, entitled to a victory. Admittedly, assurances can be as empty as air, but at the very least, to hear a candidate declaring that he intends to “earn” his victory sends several crucial messages that might make us feel more comfortable about ticking off their names on the ballot.

First, a candidate who acknowledges the need to earn votes takes upon himself the burden of proving to the voters that he deserves to win. If a candidate feels this way, then perhaps he will be more conscious of the need to act beyond all reproach in all things—such as in matters involving compliance with campaign rules. On the other hand, a candidate who doesn’t feel the need to prove himself is more likely to just rely on the love that he believes voters have for him. On one level, this empowers such a candidate to play fast and loose with

small inconveniences, like spending caps and premature campaigning; on another level, this candidate will—when called to account—be probably be more than willing to cling to his position because “the people don’t want me to go.”

Second, when you say you need to earn someone’s vote, you are implicitly admitting that voters are intelligent and can be swayed by reason. With any sort of luck, such a candidate will probably think twice about sending singing celebrities and dancing girls as campaign proxies. More significantly, he might even be more inclined to presenting the voters with an actual platform of government—one that coherently describes what he seeks to achieve as an elected leader, rather than a motley collection of motherhood statements no one in his right mind would object to.

Implicitly, he also admits that some voters might actually disagree with his assessment of himself. If more politicians truly thought this way, then, perhaps, that ancient joke about how no one loses an election in the Philippines (We wuz robbed!) can finally be consigned to the dustbin of history.

So, how to summarize my predawn learning? The way politicians view voters, the way they address voters and, ultimately, how they value voters—these should be critical elements in the electorate’s decision-making process.

James Jimenez is the spokesman of the Commission on Elections.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

‘Exotic’ is in the eyes of the beholder

Friday, April 17, 2015

A7

The green leaves of summer (for ‘Manong’ Pempe) Tito Genova Valiente

Luis F. Dumlao, Ph.D.

EAGLE WATCH

“If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among My people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him.”

—Book of Exodus, Chapter 22, Verse 24

E

XOTIC derivatives are generally referred to derivatives not on the menu of normal financial-derivative packages. As in the Thesaurus, “exotic” is “mysterious,” “outlandish,” “strange,” or even “exceptional” so that these derivatives are packages where one needs to be careful with and skeptical about.

In the 1990s Procter & Gamble Co. and the Orange County of California lost $157 million and $1.5 billion, respectively, in exotic derivatives.

In 1995, due to poor oversight, poor choices and through exotic derivatives, Barings Bank lost $1.3 billion, which resulted in the bankruptcy of the financial institution founded in 1762.

In 1997 Robert Merton and Myron Scholes won the Nobel Prize in Economics for their contribution to the profession—their methods in derivatives valuation by using the Black-Scholes model in pricing a derivative called options. Roughly a year later, a company they directed and managed, called Long-Term Capital Management, lost $4.6 billion in four months, the biggest bankruptcy of the 1990s. Thanks to the use of the Black-Scholes model.

More recently, it got crazier! In the latest global financial crisis, American Insurance Group—the world’s largest insurance company and was “too big to fail”—lost $18 billion in a type of exotic derivative called credit default swaps (CDS).

These facts and many others have led Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz to propose to outlaw the use of exotic derivatives by the world’s biggest financial institutions. Warren Buffett, a known philanthropist and one of the richest men on earth, made a blanket statement that derivatives are “financial weapons of mass destruction.”

As exotic as CDS and other kinds of derivatives are, “exotic” means something strange and exceptional compared to something regularly known, the usual, normal and ordinary. For instance, derivatives, compared to normal financing like borrowing for interest, are, indeed, quite exotic.

Going back to the middle ages, borrowing for interest was already considered exotic. In fact, lending for interest, according to the Old Testament through the Book of Exodus, was a sin and illegal in terms of the Canon law. It is even more sinful if one charges an interest so high that it is already usurious and akin to loan sharking. What interest rate constituting usury is in the eyes of the Beholder. But these days, it is safe to say that the borrowing term “fivesix” (5-6) already constitutes usury.

That is: for every P5 I lend to Juan de la Cruz, he pays back P6, which equates to a 20-percent interest rate and, by modern Filipino norms, is already usurious.

Now looking back 600 or more years during the middle ages in Christian financing, there was an

exotic financial scheme referred to as contractum trinius.

Suppose I sign a contract with Juan de la Cruz for a business partnership where I will invest P5. The contract, of course, is a partnership with the view of having shared profits and risks, which is true to its Christian spirit. Simultaneously, I sign a second contract, which is an insurance contract with de la Cruz.

In the said contract, I pay him P0.1 as insurance: if business does not do well enough as it generates less than P6, he will entitle me to a claim of P6. That would be so Christian-like of de la Cruz for allowing me to pay cheap insurance premium. As for me, it would be so responsible to insure myself and my family of the P6 of assured future income.

Then simultaneously, I sign a third contract, which is a bonus contract. In this third contract, de la Cruz pays me P0.1 in exchange for him having the right to keep all revenues exceeding P6. As for me, it is so Christian-like generous to offer only P0.1 for what could be an eventual lucrative bonus.

As for de la Cruz, he would potentially rip what he sow: “For to everyone who has, will be given more and will grow rich” (Matthew 25:29).

In the simultaneous signing of three Catholic Canon-compliant laws, bundling together gives us something before the 15th century that could be considered as exotic finance. The Canon law prohibited 5-6. I didn’t require 5-6 in the three contracts I entered into with de la Cruz: I invest P5 in a partnership and owe him P0.1 for his generous insurance. De la Cruz owes me P0.1 for my generous incentive-scheme so that all is quits. I get P6 if business becomes lucrative, but I get “only” P6 if the business doesn’t do good.

But when all is said and done, the combination of the three contracts equates to 5-6!

In this day and age and according to common knowledge, borrowing for interest is conventional finance.

The scheme that used to be exotic finance over 600 years ago has become conventional finance. We are sure that, at this time of immaturity, derivatives at least must be regulated.

As to the question whether exotic derivatives will eventually become conventional or outlawed, only time will tell. In view of history, we are not really sure. The best we know, at least up to this time, is that “exotic” is in the eyes of the beholder.

Luis F. Dumlao is former chairman of the Economics Department and senior fellow of Eagle Watch of the Ateneo de Manila University.

annotations

T

HERE are no green leaves of summer in our country. All the leaves around us are green. But we have a summer, even if that season does not proceed from Spring and move into Fall. Seasons, after all, are not demarcated by nature but by man.

But I believe in the green leaves of summer, separate and supreme from all the green leaves around. I owe it to write about the green leaves of summer to this brother who passed on 16 years ago in his 40s.

Manong Pempe died of cancer.

The lungs manifested it but, in the end, we never knew from where the cells came and to where they spread.

Manong Pempe stayed in the small city, while the three of us, his siblings, ventured forth into other countries and bigger cities. We would see him every now and then, because he was also busy. He was a stage actor, a poet, a writer, an artist and an activist.

During his wake, people we didn’t know thanked us for the help he gave them. These things he never told us.

It was late October some 16 years ago when he arrived with his wife, Naomi, to our apartment in Manila.

It was a sudden reunion. He went to the hospital to undergo a battery of tests.

All the tests proved negative, until the doctor recalled that there was an x-ray done. I volunteered to fetch the film and, on my way back, I saw on the small sheet attached to the negative the words “mass” and “possible metastasis.”

That morning, he and his wife entered a doctor’s clinic. I still can recall what my brother said after coming out from that consultation: “It’s cancer.” We all echoed false assurances; that maybe it was not cancer and that maybe another doctor could offer a different opinion.

Those were all wrong—the pretense and the make-believe—before cancer and the growth that cannot be controlled.

As his disease grew serious, we would learn more about dying and death, and pain. We found out that when the patient complained about severe pains, we should not say “It will go away,” because we would not be sure it would go away. One night, at his bed, in our home, he turned to me and asked: “Where does this pain come from?”

We discovered many things about our community that year. A busy family friend would cook chicken for my brother. These were persons who actually made things bearable, quieted the anxiety and sorrow.

We discovered many kinds of doctors and experts. We saw this young doctor who touched the lump on the neck of my brother and pronounced that, if not treated soon, will burst.

We discovered cocktails of pain relievers. We finally saw the power of morphine.

Manong Pempe decided not to have chemotherapy. He said he would not want to spend his few months all weak. He talked to his three children. He promised that he would be always around them. They would not see him but he would be around, really around.

The children are now all grown up. The eldest, a son, is married and with his own daughter. The second, a daughter, is also married with her own son. The youngest is working

and working. Wherever they go, they carry with them a photo of their father, long hair and all defiant, a child of the ’70s.

The day my brother passed away was the birthday of Lia, the first daughter. Numbers and calendars are part of destiny.

I do not have a memory of his death in the hospital. What I remember was how I was able to tell the children that we should now close the lid of the coffin. That was the last they woud see their father, and I was managing good-bye.

My sister, Lilibeth, told me how, during the last hours of our brother, his face became calm once more and his eyes alive. For those who knew my brother, he was a handsome man. Beauty does come back before death—that was a wonderful assurance.

I never got to mourn the passing of my brother. The day of the funeral, I prepared a set of music to be used for the procession. Played

By Dick Meyer

Y

OU have to make several assumptions in order for Hillary Clinton’s announcement not to seem bizarre, and most of us do. That isn’t a good thing.

You have to assume, for starters, that political campaigns are primarily marketing events. The “thing” of Hillary’s announcement—the “event”—was an advertisement distributed on social media. The candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was entirely disembodied

from the traditional accoutrements of political office: party, supporters, endorsements, qualifications and, oh yeah, positions and beliefs. The brand, Hillary, was fully displayed. Is there a difference?

You have to also assume that tactics and strategy are now the important and interesting things that voters should focus on, for only in that kind of world is an announcement without any pretense of substance anything but absurd.

Hillary’s ersatz announcement was all subliminal seduction and no pretense of appealing fully to conscious reasoning.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

US education law’s reauthorization a chance to right a wrong

By Jitu Brown & Judith Browne Dianis CQ-Roll Call/ TNS

F

IFTY years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Esea), legislation designed to support education as a force for equal opportunity. As part of his “war on poverty” agenda, Johnson was convinced the law would close the achievement gap. As Congress seeks to reauthorize the legislation this year, there is an incredible opportunity to finally right some of the grave wrongs in the publiceducation system that have sustained the opportunity gap for lowincome children.

In 2001 the Esea got off track with the passage of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind promising achievement and accountability. Public schools have since been mired in drills of standardized testing, with a focus on test results as the sole measure of achievement. Instead of increasing investment and resources for success, however, test results have led to the closure of neighborhood public schools at dramatic rates across the country. As communities of color

lose their schools in the wake of disinvestment and high-stakes testing, public-education dollars are being diverted toward privately operated charter schools.

The irony of it all: These charters, many of which are dismally low performing and sometimes profit from taxpayer dollars, are run with practically no oversight or accountability.

The testing craze has also led to the rise of zero-tolerance schooldiscipline policies, pushing many children out of classrooms. Children seen as having disciplinary problems are treated as disposable in the name of “achievement.” To avoid a failing school label, more and more students are simply pushed out. These policies lead to high dropout rates, lower academic achievement, and students being routed on pathways to prison, instead of receiving muchneeded support.

Unfortunately, the Esea has helped advance an education “reform” agenda, which is hurting the low-income children who were supposed to be its beneficiaries. These are disproportionately children of color. In the 2012-2013 school year, for example, 50 Chicago public schools were closed.

While African-Americans made

up 43 percent of all Chicago students, they were 87 percent of the students affected by the closures. Last year, in New Orleans’ Recovery School District, the city closed its last remaining public school, making it the nation’s first all-charter district. Of the students impacted, 1,000 were black.

Only five were white. The racial disparities in school discipline are also stark, with black and Latino children pushed out of classrooms at rates significantly higher than their white counterparts for the same behaviors.

These policies have not produced higher-quality education. Public schools must now compete with privately operated charter schools for federal funding and local tax dollars.

Children of color are increasingly pushed out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system. School closures disrupt the education of students who must be relocated and shuffled around, sometimes multiple times. Fifty years after ESEA, and 14 years after its reauthorization to No Child Left Behind, the achievement gap still exists.

This is not the legacy envisioned

by Johnson, and it is not the legacy that should be carried forward as Congress aims to reauthorize the legislation. Education can, indeed,

Clinton makes it official and her campaign is all about marketing Scripps Washington Bureau/TNS

over and over was the song “The Green Leaves of Summer.” Folksy, sweet, cinematic and not the kind of song played during the funeral, the song, I am certain, amused and pleased my brother.

That afternoon, in April, there was a drizzle as the funeral cortege was moving out of the old Peñafrancia Shrine. The old men and women said my brother did not want yet to go.

It was in October 1998 that he was diagnosed with cancer. In 1999 he was gone.

My brother really never left. Each year, I wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning of the 15th of April, and I see him approaching me and embracing me.

I believe good brothers come back if they are called home by the green leaves of summer.

I believe in the green leaves of summer, and of seasons made by man and not by gods.

That is normal only in a world where every voter’s a pundit.

Finally, you have to assume that the idea of a presidential campaign as a finite race with a beginning and an end is a relic of quainter time. Campaigns are now infinite, unceasing for officeholders and aspirants, punctuated by occasional moments of governing—or governing-esque posturing. Knowing that Hillary has been running for years, it doesn’t seem at all odd that the official kickoff is just another ad.

Now, only naifs and suckers don’t make all these assumptions. And isn’t

that sad? I suppose you could make the argument that there is something very honest about the way Hillary announced.

It didn’t pretend that she hasn’t already been running. It didn’t pretend that a stage-crafted, focus-group-tested media event was anything other than a marketing stunt. It didn’t pretend that her campaign has a clear message or point.

It didn’t pretend that there is a new, reinvented Hillary to unveil, announce and anoint. And it didn’t pretend that the campaign is about anything other than Hillary and the fact, as she says in the ad, that she’s “getting ready to do

something, too.” Why is she running? Because it is “your time.” Or maybe because, “Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to me that champion.” Oohahh, do I detect a populist subtext there?

Cool, substance! The 2-minute, 15-second ad has been subjected to Talmudic scrutiny already so that we might better understand Hillary’s tactics: Who is being targeted, and why? What are her proto-premessages? Did the scenes and language signal the “humility” as was the intention, according to her aides’ pre-announcement spin?

All that seems deeply trivial. The

be a powerful lever out of poverty, but only if this moment is used to reinvest in the needs of our most struggling schools and communities so that all students can succeed. This means a reauthorized law that stops the misuse of standardized testing for high-stakes decisions and ends aggressive, unregulated expansion of privately operated charter schools that are flooding our cities.

It means establishing a moratorium on closing public schools and providing resources for communityguided models for improving them, ensuring that local problems are addressed by community-driven solutions. It means providing funds to encourage common-sense discipline practices that support students and create nurturing environments.

As the promise of the Esea has become more elusive in the midst of school closures, pushouts and turnarounds, too many children are slipping through the cracks. Congress must use this opportunity to commit to the success of every student, to invest in them by investing in their schools and communities. In order to truly bring equity into our school system, where all students have the opportunity to succeed, we can do better—and we must do better.

announcement was a “feel good” advertisement for a brand exactly like 10,000 others you’ve seen and nothing more. It dropped all the traditional markings of a campaign for high office, including even a mention of what party Hillary is in.

The Hillary announcement announces little of consequence about her campaign. But in its little way, it is another step in the total surrender of politics to marketing, a moment where we stop pretending there is a difference.

“If you’re not trying to be real, you don’t have to get it right,” Andy Warhol said. “That’s art.” Politics, too.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Friday, April 17, 2015

Bloomberry to spend at least $1B in SoKor project

B

loomberry Resorts Corp., a company controlled by port magnate Enrique K. Razon Jr., bared on Thursday plans to spend at least $1 billion at its casino and property-development venture in South Korea, scheduled to break ground by 2017.

Razon told reporters that the company is only waiting for the South Korean government to link the two properties that Bloomberry purchased at the start of the year to the islands of Silmi and Muui with a bridge.

“It’s a multipurpose development. It’s not just a casino and a hotel. There is a residential aspect [and] a commercial aspect. It’s an entire planned sort of tourism community,” Razon said at the sidelines of the stockholders’ meeting of the International Container Terminal Services Inc., a company that owns most of the country’s major ports.

He said the gaming license alone costs $1 billion, roughly the price of its slot at the Entertainment City in Parañaque City, although the cost of building the South Korean project is much higher.

Razon, however, said there is a risk the South Korean government may not extend the license to Bloomberry but that Bloomberry will peruse the project nonetheless.

“Yes, there is that risk, in which case it will be purely a commercial development for tourism. The license is purely for the gaming component,” Razon said.

“It will still be more than $1 billion eventually because we have residential towers, you have hotels, a beach resort, because it’s a beautiful beach property right within the city. It’s a unique property,” he said.

See “Bloomberry,” A2

Sea code of conduct tabled at Asean meet

M

By Butch Fernandez

alacañang confirmed on Thursday that the upcoming Asean Summit in Malaysia this month will likely tackle anew the adoption and enforcement of a binding code of conduct covering disputed territories claimed by China and its neighbors in the region, including the Philippines.

Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. admitted that the Palace has yet to receive confirmation from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on the official agenda of the Asean leaders’ meeting, but added the code of conduct had always gotten “high level of interest” from member-countries.

“This is always a topic with high level of interest and priority assigned by the Asean membercountries to it,” Coloma said.

The Palace official recalled that past Asean Summits held in Cambodia (2012), Brunei Darussalam (2013) and Myanmar (2014) always took up the issue about having a legally binding Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea to comply

Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. admitted that the Palace has yet to receive confirmation from the Department of Foreign Affairs on the official agenda of the Asean leaders’ meeting, but added that the code of conduct had always gotten “high level of interest” from member-countries. with the earlier Declaration on a Code of Conduct crafted by Southeast Asian states with China in 2012.

The commander of US forces in the Pacific on Wednesday said major land reclamation by China at outposts in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) could allow it to exert more influence over the contested area and deploy military assets, such

as long-range radar and advanced missile systems.

Adm. Samuel Locklear also told the House Armed Services Committee that Russia has escalated military activity in the Asia Pacific in recent months to a near Cold War level.

Locklear’s area of command straddles a vast area of land and ocean where the Obama administration has tried to elevate

America’s presence, and where other major powers jockey for influence. He was addressing a hearing on US military strategy and posture in the region.

In the past year, China has conducted massive land reclamation at previously submerged reefs in the South China Sea despite a US call for a freeze on such construction to give time for diplomacy to work between China and its neighbors in Southeast Asia.

Locklear said China has aggressive reclamation and construction projects at eight outposts in the Paracel and Spratly island chains, including what appears to be an airfield at the Fiery Cross Reef, which is also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan. It’s one of many disputed, tiny land features in that ocean.

Locklear said the artificial islands would allow China to provide basing and resupply for its large and growing fleet of maritime security vessels.

He said China eventually could deploy missiles and radar on them, providing a platform for enforcing an air-defense identification zone if it tried to establish one in the South China Sea. See “Sea code,” A2

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Ayala Land raising P7B via bonds P

By VG Cabuag

roperty developer Ayala Land Inc. is raising P7 billion in fresh funds using the last tranche of a P15-billion bond offer that secured regulatory approval last year.

The company filed its amended registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, which indicated that proceeds of the bond offer are expected to fund its record capital expenditures (capex) for 2015.

Ayala Land started the bond offer on Thursday, and it plans to complete it by April 22. The bond will be officially issued

by April 29.

The paper carries a tenor of seven years, with an interest rate of 4.05 percent per annum, with call option after five years and six months after the issue date, as well as on the sixth year after issue date.

The bond will be listed in the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp.

Early this month, company officials said the bond proceeds will be used to partially fund its P100-billion capex for the year.

Ayala Land also said it is planning to borrow P15 billion to P20 billion to finance its capex.

“As always, we are looking at properties for our landbank. About 20 percent to 35 percent of our capex is to replenish our landbank. Right now we are in 45 growth centers in the country. Our target is to increase this to 78 growth centers,” Bobby Dy, Ayala Land president, said earlier.