BusinessMirror May 23, 2015

‘ONE DAY WITHOUT SHOES’ Thousands of

people walked barefoot to support a fund-raising initiative of a footwear company in celebration of its ninth anniversary at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

Dubbed as “One Day Without Shoes,” the project aims to raise awareness about safeguarding children’s health and ensuring their access to education, and to give 1 million pairs of shoes to children in need. NORIEL DE GUZMAN

BusinessMirror

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

U.N. MEDIA AWARD 2008

A broader look at today’s business Tuesday, November 2014 10 226 No. 40 Saturday, May 23,18, 2015 Vol. Vol. 10 No.

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

■ ■

MANILA TO MAKE PITCH FOR WTO TRADEFACILITATION AGREEMENT, BORACAY AGENDA AT APEC MEETING

PHL wants trade barriers dismantled T Life B C N. P

INSIDE

HE Philippines will use its hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting this year to pitch for the World Trade Organization (WTO) trade-facilitation agreement (TFA), which Manila believes will be an important tool for its micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

CAMPING GETAWAY

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Day by day

EAR Lord, we seek and praise You, day by day. Everytime we wake up in the morning and retire at night, every journey we make, every trial we face, every joy and happiness we find, every sadness and burden that we encounter, every triumph and glory we attain, every heavy cross and torment we carry, and every breath and sigh we make.

Day by day, we remember You always. Amen!

7 THINGS NOT TO SAY TO YOUR TEENS (AND WHY) »D3

LOUIE M. LACSON, TEMPLETON DRIVE, CARMICHAEL, CALIFORNIA, USA Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

“ART ART in the Sky” will teach you how to make your own kite and fly it along with other campers.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

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GO camping with your family at SandBox in Alviera.

Cap the summer with a camping getaway under the stars

I

B A S

N other countries, such as the United States and certain parts of Europe, camping is a summer requirement. No summer is complete without a night in the wilderness, under the stars and nestled by nature.

For those who are looking to veer away from the tired equation of summer and beaches around these parts, camping is the way to go with the Alviera Brightscape Campfest on May 30 and 31 at the SandBox, an outdoor play park at Alviera in Porac, Pampanga.

A camping festival never before experienced in the Philippines, Brightscape will bring art, music, recreation and adventure all in one place.

The overnight campfest will provide around 400 eager campers with their own tents, campfire treats, stargazing sessions with telescopes, and many other fun field-day events and activities at the 1,125-hectare Ayala Land development that is poised to become the commercial and residential growth center in Central Luzon. “Brightscape Campfest is an exclusive summer experience that only Alviera can provide. It’s a unique and great way to celebrate and crown the summer,” said John Estacio, Alviera general manager. “Visitors will even have a choice between staying the whole day and taking in the breezy plains of Porac, or they can go weekend camping with us overnight. We welcome everyone to enjoy the outdoors with us here.”

Brightscape will start off with “Art in the Sky,” an event that is all about the lost art of kite-making and kite-flying. Next up, “Wildernecessities” will bring a camper closer to the wild side with lessons in basic nature and survival skills from local experts. Learn

to drink water from bamboo stalks, kindle a small camp fire, and pick out edibles from the available plants around. Ever marched to the beat of your own drum? Find your rhythm and feel the beat at “Pulses & Artbeats.” Led by the high-energy Adinkra Lumads Djembe Community, join this community drum circle and experience pulsing drumbeats like no other. If you’re into moving with the beat, learn the basics of “Flow Motion” from the experts at Flow Arts Philippines. Swing and sway with various classes using poi, hoops and other props.

As the sun sets, the outdoor stage show opens with “Ring of Fire,” a sunset spin jam featuring the flow artists and Djembe musicians. “Shadowtales” follows suit, a silhouette puppet-theater performance written and performed exclusively for Brightscape Campfest.

Aside from what Brightscape has in store, campers can also enjoy all of SandBox’s outdoor adventures and attractions such as the Adventure Tower, the Avatar One rollercoaster zipline, Giant Swing, Aerial Walk, the 9-kilometer Alviera-Columbia Bike Trail, mini-golf, archery, the children’s playground and ATV/UTV rides.

Evenings at Alviera are breezy and cool, marked by a beautiful night sky. To cap the night, the “Brightscape Music Jam” features a concert under the stars from some of the hottest names in music. The evening culminates with the soundtrack to a sizzling summer courtesy of Barbie Almalbis, Imago, Quest, The Ransom Collective, Chocolate Factory, Brisom, Absolute Play, and the Adinkra Lumads.

Simultaneously, overnight or weekend campers will be treated to exclusive Camper Field Day Events, such as tent-pitching 101 from Coleman’s camping pros, a bonfire session complete with marshmallows on stick

with provided s’mores treats, plus stargazing and starmapping sessions.

Campers can choose to avail themselves of the Day Adventurer package (P1,990 per person) that comes with roundtrip transportation from Manila to Alviera (with travel insurance), free use of all SandBox thrills and attractions, access to all Brightscape Field Day Events,

passes to the Brightscape Music Jam, as well as an event kit filled with surprise Brightscape Campfest freebies; or the Weekend Camper (P2,990 per person) that entitles participants to all Day Adventurer inclusions, plus an overnight campsite stay, access to campsite-exclusive activities, free use of Coleman tents, and a hearty buffet breakfast the morning after. ■

CEDRIC VALERA (from left), Travel Factor managing partner; Jules Rodriguez, World Traveller/Game Plan host; and John Estacio, Alviera general manager, join hands for the Alviera Brightscape Campfest on May 30 and 31.

LIFE

NONIE REYES

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WEDDING INSANITY Relationships BusinessMirror

D4 Saturday, May 23, 2015

www.businessmirror.com.ph

8 easy ways to prevent wedding insanity

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ET’S not beat around the bush: planning a wedding is work. With all those decisions and responsibilities, it’s easy to see how some brides and grooms get completely consumed in the minutiae. So how do stressed-out, site-seeing, menu-sampling couples get their eyes back on the ball? By taking a breather from the planning process. Get ready to clear your schedules and forget about picking the favors. These eight stressbreaking activities will help you remove yourselves from nuptial hassles and restore your sanity.

1. Declare a wedding-free weekend. For a full 48-hour period, pretend you’re the two people you were before you got engaged (and, in the meantime, remind yourselves of why you wanted to get married to each other in the first place). No wedding planning or fighting allowed! No talk of hors d’oeuvres, seating charts, or first dance songs. Hang out, laugh, have fun and flirt with each other for a change.

2. Have a night out with the girls (or boys).

With all the “togetherness” of being a future bride and groom, remind yourselves you’re individuals, too. Book a night out with your respective same-sex posse (again, no wedding talk). Hit the town like a swinging single and stay out past midnight.

Take advantage of the fact that your future spouse isn’t around to do something with your friends he or she doesn’t like to do—we’re talking chick flick, batting cages, steak dinner, manicures. Then entertain each other the next day with tales of your exploits.

3. Go on a fancy date. Chances are, for the past few months you’ve been scrimping and saving every extra nickel to supplement The Budget. If you’ve done well, reward yourselves for your miserly skills by spending a little of that cold hard cash.

Book a table at the fanciest restaurant in town and go for the full monty: fine wine, appetizer, entree, dessert and after-dinner drinks. Afterward, stop in a local jazz

club and catch a torch singer belting out inspiring tunes de l’amour.

4. Take a drive. Reserve a weekend afternoon and head for the open road. Check out that little place a couple of towns over that you always mean to visit. Test each other’s map-reading skills. Play road games like— who can spot the most out-of-state license plates? Sing along to cheesy songs on the radio. Buy a souvenir at a highway truck stop. Stumble upon a romantic restaurant for lunch or dinner before heading home.

5. Mastermind a movie marathon. There’s nothing like a good movie to transport you from reality to fantasy. Take the phone off the hook, rent a whole slew of films, and spend an evening in, snacking on popcorn and Sno-Caps. The trick here is to stay away from wedding-theme fare—sorry, this includes Father of the Bride—while keeping the romance theme going with a steamy story like The Lover. Or opt for the comic relief of a Jim Carrey or Eddie Murphy flick—laughter, after all, is still the best stress-reliever.

6. Get in some game play. Sometimes a little healthy competition serves to make you closer, right?

Challenge your mate to a night of games: Pictionary, Scrabble, backgammon, even good old cards. If you own a Sony PlayStation, take the high-tech road to fun.

Rather venture out?

Head for the nearest bowling alley—or look into gocarts, ice-skating, and tennis tournaments for other fun and sporty activities to enjoy a deux.

7. Revert to childhood. There’s nothing like a good amusement park to get you feeling like a kid again.

Wake up extra early to avoid long lines, then get your fill of roller coasters, log flumes, and Ferris wheels.

Challenge your future mate to a bumper car race. Fill up on cotton candy, funnel cake and waffle cones. Take an old-fashioned photo. Then spend an hour or so trying to win a supersize stuffed animal to take home as a memento of the day.

8. Engage in an eat-a-thon. If you both love to cook, compose a special theme menu for a romantic athome date. Go shopping together and pick the freshest produce around (maybe there’s a farmer’s market near you)—and remember to include some aphrodisiac ingredients! Nab a bouquet and some candles to pretty

up your table while you’re at it. Once at home, take time to really enjoy the meal prep process. Line up all your ingredients on the countertop and open a bottle of wine.

And take lots of liberties when it comes to recipes— nothing’s better than creating signature dishes together.

WEDDINGCHANNEL.COM/TNS

The chemistry of love B G M Los Angeles Times COME for the romance, stay for the oxytocin. That’s the neurobiological bottom line on monogamy, according to a new study.

Men spritzed with oxytocin, a hormone from the pituitary gland, showed a renewed attraction for the faces of their romantic partners, but not for equally attractive strangers, according to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

And the men weren’t just saying so.

Their brains were hyped up in areas associated with reward and motivation, according to the study.

“Monogamy is actually quite costly for humans, so there must be some form of benefit,” said Rene Hurlemann, a psychiatrist at the University of Bonn in Germany who led the study.

“We’d expect humans, especially males, would disseminate their genes.

That would be a very strong evolutionary force driving male behavior. But what drives males to stay in a monogamous relationship?”

The answer may lie in a steady diet of oxytocin that triggers dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with reward, motivation and addiction, according to the study.

Only about 3 percent to 5 percent of mammals form strong pair bonds, and

among them, the prairie vole is perhaps the most studied.

Monogamous voles, according to those studies, have more receptors for dopamine and have more oxytocin receptors in the cortex and several lower brain areas in the reward loop.

In humans, overtures of social support, hugs, massages and sexual intercourse all release oxytocin. And oxytocin, in turn, has been shown to induce pro-social behavior—we tend to trust each other and feel more attached to others in response to the chemical.

Hurlemann, who has delved into the mystery of monogamy for years, built the current study on the somewhat surprising results of a previous experiment that

showed monogamous men spritzed with this putative love potion tended to seat themselves farther from a potential new mate—an attractive female.

This time, Hurlemann and his colleagues took 20 men who were in longterm and passionate romantic relationships with women, hooked them up to functional magnetic resonance imaging scanners, and showed them photos of their loved ones interspersed with images of an unfamiliar but equally comely stranger, or a house.

Some men were spritzed with oxytocin, others with a placebo.

To test whether oxytocin varied only with familiarity, they substituted highly familiar faces for the house images.

Afterward, the men filled out

the Passionate Love Scale questionnaire, which showed that their inner Romeo prevailed over their inner Lothario.

They were fixated on their current romantic partner.

So, do men become addicted to love via oxytocin? The metaphor may not be far off the mark, Hurlemann suggests.

The data suggest the mere proximity of a partner—in this case, a photo—could touch off the same reward and motivation circuitry behind addictive behavior.

So, a steady diet of sexual activity, hugs and other forms of physical contact may be enough to override the desire to spread genes, keeping a man at home.

In other words: Keep the home fires burning.

CRISTINA GONZALES-ROMUALDEZ

Victoria’s secret PATIO Victoria, with its old-world charm within the walled city of Intramuros, is ideal for weddings and events. It’s a one-stop shop for brides who want a beautiful, fuss-free wedding, with everything a couple needs to plan their wedding—invitations, souvenirs, flowers, cake, makeup artists, string quartets and others. Patio has its own expert wedding coordinators, bridal cars, photo and video coverages, live band or singers, emcees, even butterflies to add beauty to an event.

Former actress-turned-politician Cristina Gonzales-Romualdez knows how stressful wedding preparations could be, as her dream wedding to Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez was “a major T production that needed intense preparation.”

“Preparations were really stressful. But I enjoyed it. Of course, he left to me the decisions on color motif, my gown and the entourage’s wardrobe, invitations, designs of everything. I got a wedding planner to help me since it was quite a big wedding.”

At Patio Victoria, cobblestone walkways, antique wooden gates, lush foliage, and an old-fashioned fountain greet guests. T Two gardens and an air-

conditioned banquet hall can accommodate 1,000 guests. The gardens have gazebos and a covered area on the side to protect guests from the sun and light showers. In case of heavy rains, the reception can move to the banquet room.

“Patio Victoria offers a wide selection of international and Spanish cuisine. House specialties include callos, paella, lengua and lasagna. We also offer free food tasting for two because we’re sure our clients will fall in love with our dishes,” Cristina says.

The wedding package includes use of venue for four hours, a fine selection of food from various menus, bottomless drinks, an elegant gazebo, three-tiered fondant cake, mobile system, chocolate fountain, cake table with floral arrangement and skirting, torch or sword parade for the couple’s grand entrance or cake cutting ceremony, bottle of champagne for the ceremonial toast, decorated dove cage with doves, guest book, photographic tarpaulin, complementary use of the Cristina Executive Suite, red carpet, flower arrangement for the buffet and table, Tiffany chairs with ribbons, skirting for the presidential table and location map.

RELATIONSHIPS

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WARRIORS UP 2-AND-OH

Sports

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| SATURDAY, MAY 23, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

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WARRIORS UP 2-AND-OH

JAMES HARDEN crumples to the floor and buries his head, his last-second opportunity to win the game dashed. AP

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B D L San Jose Mercury News

AKLAND, California—Stephen Curry looked into the Oracle Arena crowd and punched the air after having ended the cookout between him and James Harden.

Harden crumpled to the floor and buried his head, his last-second opportunity to win the game dashed.

The Golden State Warriors edged the Houston Rockets in a nail-biting 99-98 win in Game Two of the Western Conference finals on Thursday to take a 2-0 lead in the series. Curry in the end brought along a friend in Klay Thompson to seal it, as they forced Harden to lose the ball just before the buzzer.

“Two guys who get a lot of credit for their offense made the best defensive play,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said.

“They call it a home-run trot when you kind of jog back. That was a championship trot right there.

Everybody sprinted back and got into position and made a play.”

Harden scored a game-high 38 points, but Curry poured in 33 points and got the win after the

S Hawks forward DeMarre Carroll limped off the court and the final outcome all but decided in Wednesday’s opening game of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Eastern Conference finals, many longtime Atlanta sports fans were visited by a familiar, relentless dread.

It is the playoffs, after all.

It’s an expectation born from experience. Braves fans have seen the Cardinals (twice), Giants (twice), Diamondbacks, Cubs and Astros celebrate playoff series clinchers at Turner Field—and that’s just since 2000.

Falcons fans watched the 49ers do the same after winning the 2012 National Football Conference Championship at the Georgia Dome, costing Atlanta a chance to advance to its second Super Bowl. The team’s only Super Bowl appearance is best remembered for the arrest of starting safety Eugene Robinson, who was charged with soliciting a prostitute the night before the game.

“Sometimes it feels there’s nothing you can do but wait for things to go wrong,” said Atlanta native Dallas Hudgens, 51. “When you watch bad things happen over and over, you worry even when it’s going well.”

Even though they’ve made the playoffs each of the last seven years (the longest current streak in the NBA), this year marked a breakthrough for a franchise that had teetered on irrelevance in a sports landscape dominated by football and the Braves.

After setting a franchise record for wins, they stand just one series win away from the NBA Finals for the first time in 45 years. Expectations have risen, and though the disappointing Game One loss put a damper on that optimism, some fans say they still believe.

“I don’t go to games anymore hoping we don’t lose,” said Atlanta divorce lawyer Randy Kessler, a season-ticket holder since 1999. “Now, I’m thinking they’ll win.”

Warriors blew a 17-point lead.

The slugfest saw the top 2 finishers in the Most Valuable Player race each go 13-for-21 from the field, but the Rockets’ final charge was met with a defensive stand.

Harden grabbed a rebound with 6.9 seconds left, but on the other end of the court, the Splash Brothers had him surrounded. The ball was fumbled away, leaving Harden on his knees, exasperated that he wasn’t able to attempt a shot.

“It’s just don’t let him get a shot off and try to be the hero,” Curry said of the defense.

Harden knocked down a curtain in frustration on his way back to the locker room and later said, “It hurts, but they did what they had to do. They won two games at home.”

Pressure on Curry forced the Warriors into an eight-second backcourt violation with the Warriors leading by three points. Harden then tossed an alleyoop thrown down by Dwight Howard to make it 99-98 with 33 seconds left.

Howard finished with 19 points and 17 rebounds playing with a brace two days after spraining his left knee, but it wasn’t enough as the Warriors brought muscle with them, as well. Andrew Bogut, who, at one

point, had his mouth bloodied by Howard, had 14 points, eight rebounds, five blocks and four assists.

“This was more of a street fight, more of a traditional game involving big guys protecting the rim and hard fouls and blocked shots,” Warriors Coach Steve Kerr.

Curry went to work in the fourth, scoring on a layup five seconds after checking back into the game. Harden hit a floater to cut the lead to 89-85.

Curry found Thompson on an inbound pass for the layup to make it 91-85.

Curry followed with a fadeaway jumper. After Harden’s three-pointer, Curry dished to Bogut, who scored as he was being fouled to make it 96-89. Curry’s stepback jumper made it 98-90 to seemingly seal the win with 1:39 left before Harden scored six straight points to make it close.

“It doesn’t matter if James has 40 or five [points],” Thompson said. “It’s whether we win or lose.”

For a moment in the second quarter, Andre Iguodala delivered the powerful message that the Warriors were coming, and there was little the Rockets could do to stop them. He soared before throwing down a dunk off a stolen inbound pass. The hobbled Howard could only step aside at the sight of Iguodala elevating.

The slam was part of a 12-0 run that pushed the

HAWKS FANS NERVOUS, HOPEFUL

DEMARRE CARROLL lies on the court in pain. AP

lead to 16 at a time in the game when Curry was on the bench. Harrison Barnes’s three-pointer pushed the lead to 17, and the Warriors were feeling confident, as they entered the game 53-0 this season when opening up leads of at least 15 points.

But the Rockets responded to the gut punch by erasing that deficit over the final seven minutes of the quarter as they closed the first half on a 23-6 run capped by an alley-oop to Howard that tied the score at 55. Harden scored 12 straight points at one point, and then came out in the third quarter and hit a threepointer to give Houston its first lead.

The Rockets took a 65-59 lead before the Warriors responded with a 12-2 run, highlighted by a monster dunk from Thompson and Curry hitting his fifth three-pointer.

Curry had spent the better part of the first quarter making things look easy for Golden State. Given open looks, Curry was four-for-six from three-point range, racking up 15 points to give the Warriors a 36-28 lead.

Warriors turnovers enabled the Rockets to stay within striking distance. Golden State committed seven of them in the quarter, leading to 11 points for Houston.

By halftime, the Warriors were up to 11 turnovers due in large part to sloppy passing.

Instead they laid an egg. But for once, it could’ve been worse.

Carroll’s injury, initially thought to be a season-ender, at best, turned out to be just badly bruised knee. He’s now listed as “questionable” for Game Two. Maybe, just maybe, Atlanta’s playoff worm has turned.

“I’m still optimistic,” said Jay Winter, a regular in Philips Arena’s “Sixth Man” section, filled by the most rabid Hawks fans. “We lost the first game of the Washington series and the sky didn’t fall.”

And there’s this: If any city’s sports teams are cursed more than Atlanta, it’s Cleveland, which hasn’t won a championship since 1964. They’ve come close since, including 20 years ago, when the Indians won a franchise-best 69 percent of their games, advancing to the World Series for the first time since 1954.

Standing in their way? The Braves, who won the series in six games to claim the city’s first, and only, title.

“Our one shining moment came at their expense,” said Matt Gove, 44, a lifelong Braves, Hawks and Falcons fan. “Cleveland may be the best thing we’ve got going for us in this series.”

Still, Gove said he’s conditioned to expect the worst.

“When the Hawks beat the Wizards, that was as good as I’ve felt about an Atlanta sports team since 1995,” he said. “After so many years of pessimism I allowed myself to be optimistic again.”

Then came on Wednesday night.

“Cue up that all-too-familiar Atlanta sports numbness of another missed opportunity with the world watching...sigh,” tweeted Bud L. Ellis, 41, of Cumming, after the Game One loss.

A die-hard Atlanta sports fan since he was a kid, Ellis was hopeful that Atlanta’s luck was bound to change. The Atlanta Journal-

SPORTS Constitution

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ings, and the Philippines continues to push for the adoption of the Boracay Action Agenda Plan by the end of the MRT meeting.

The Boracay Action Agenda Plan consists of specific, concrete and practical interventions that Apec economies can implement to provide MSMEs wider opportunities to integrate into the global or regional trade arena, either through global value chains, or as direct exporters of finished goods and services.

According to Domingo, the TFA, C  A

PHL’S TOURISM POTENTIAL AIG Hospitality & Leisure Industry Practice Group leader Lance Ewing talks about the potential of Philippine tourism to boost economic growth during the Asia CEO Forum held at a hotel in Makati City.

PUBLIC SHIELDED FROM UNDUE CALAXTOLLRATE HIKESDPWH B L S. M

BusinessMirror

Houston’s James Harden loses control of the ball as time expired, allowing Golden State to hang on for a 99-98 win against the Rockets on Thursday and take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals series that is developing into a showdown between Harden and Stephen Curry.

“There are many interventions that can help micro and small businesses, in particular, to participate in global value chain, since these two segments are usually left out.

Among these is the support for the TFA of the WTO,” Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo said in a media briefing before the commencement of the Apec Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) meeting in Boracay, Aklan.

The theme, “Fostering MSMEs Participation in Regional and Global Value Chains,” has been the general focus of Apec trade-related meet-

HE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has assured the public that the hiked premium-bid requirement for the P55-billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax) deal will not result in higher toll rates for the proposed thoroughfare.

“The public is protected. We have already established the base or initial toll—something that the winning bidder cannot adjust,” said Ariel C. Angeles, DPWH Public-Private Partnership (PPP) officer in charge.

Angeles was responding to a

PESO EXCHANGE RATES ■ US 44.5100

BM report on Friday that quoted business chambers as saying that the project’s rebidding —which required at least P20.1 billion in premium payment—places the consumers at the losing end.

Angeles explained that the base toll was “at a fair price” relative to the project cost. The public, he added, is also protected by the concession agreement, which requires bidders to seek regulatory approval before imposing toll increases.

This places most of the risk to the winning concessionaire.

“If the private sector fails to make money out of it, then it’s their

problem,” he said.

Angeles also announced that his office already opened the technical bids of San Miguel Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. for the project on Friday. With this, results of the evaluation of the two bidders’ technical proposals will be out by Friday.

“The process shouldn’t take that long. It’s quite impossible that they didn’t comply with the rules,” he told the BM in a phone interview. “I believe that they have done their assignments already.”

Earlier, business chambers scored S “C,” A

ALYSA SALEN

China, US assert right to patrol disputed sea

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HINA said on Thursday it is entitled to keep watch over airspace and seas surrounding artificial islands it created in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, following an exchange in which its navy warned off a US surveillance plane.

Malacañang, meanwhile, said it is verifying the full details of the latest Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reef incident reported by CNN, where Chinese military repeatedly warned a US Navy Orion aircraft to “go away”.

Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. on Friday said the Philippine government stands fast on its diplomatic track to pursue its case

against China under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Coloma added that the Aquino administration is also prodding the Asean to adopt a legally binding Code of Conduct covering all claimants in disputed territories.

In a news briefing, the Palace official acknowledged that the CNN report indicates the stark reality of heightening tension caused by illegal Chinese reclamations and Beijing’s nine-dash line, claiming almost the entire South China Sea. He expects that discussions in Tokyo last year—where all Asean members rejected Chinese notion S “D ,” A

■ JAPAN 0.3677 ■ UK 69.7160 ■ HK 5.7410 ■ CHINA 7.1828 ■ SINGAPORE 33.3184 ■ AUSTRALIA 35.1053 ■ EU 49.4595 ■ SAUDI ARABIA 11.8693 Source: BSP (22 May 2015)

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News

BusinessMirror

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Disputed sea. . .

of imposing “Air Defense Identification Zone” in both East and South China Sea—would soon be revived.

Coloma asserted it is not just freedom of navigation, but also “freedom of aviation,” that impacts global commerce.

As far as he knows, the secretary said there is a continuing study by government lawyers on the legal aspects of the Philippine petition before the UN Arbitral Tribunal.

The US said its aerial patrolling was in accordance with international law and “no one in their right mind” would try to stop it.

Neither side says it wants confrontation with the other, but as China seeks to assert its expansive claims to the South China Sea, the US is pushing back and trying to demonstrate that China’s massive land reclamation does not give its territorial rights.

A news crew member from CNN reported it witnessed an incident on Wednesday, in which a Chinese navy dispatcher demanded eight times that a US Navy P8-A Poseidon surveillance aircraft leave the area as it flew over Fiery Cross Reef, where China has conducted extensive reclamation work. It said the US crew member responded that they were flying through international airspace, to which the Chinese dispatcher answered: “This is the Chinese navy...You go!”

The Center for Strategic and In-ternational Studies think tank posted more video on Thursday of the aerial patrol above the Spratly Island chain, which, it said, had been released by the US Navy.

Speaking at a regular daily briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei reiterated

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Beijing’s insistence on its indisputable sovereignty over the islands it has created by piling sand on top of atolls and reefs.

While saying he had no information about the reported exchange, Hong said China was “entitled to the surveillance over related airspace and sea areas so as to maintain national security and avoid any maritime accidents. “We hope relevant countries respect China’s sovereignty over the South China Sea, abandon actions that may intensify controversies and play a constructive role for regional peace and stability,” Hong told reporters.

In Washington, Daniel Russel, the top US diplomat for East Asia, said the flight of a US reconnaissance plane in international airspace over the South China Sea was a regular and appropriate occurrence. He said the US will seek to preserve the ability of not just the US but all countries to exercise their rights to freedom of navigation and overflight.

“Nobody in their right mind is going to try to stop the US Navy from operating. That would not be a good step. But it’s not enough that a US military plane can overfly international waters, even if there is a challenge or a hail and query” from the Chinese military, he said.

“We believe that every country and all civilian actors also should have unfettered access to international waters and international airspace,” he said.

China’s construction has intensified frictions among competing parties in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety along with its scattered island groups. The area that is home to some of the world’s busiest commer-

cial shipping routes is also claimed in part or in whole by the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Vietnam.

The US and most of the 10 Asean members want a halt to the projects, which they suspect are aimed at building islands and other land features over which China can claim sovereignty and base military assets.

The US says it takes no position on the sovereignty claims, but insists they must be negotiated. Washington also says ensuring maritime safety and access is a US national security priority. China is also at odds with Japan over ownership of a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are controlled by Tokyo, but also claimed by Beijing, leading to increased activity by Chinese planes and ships in the area, which lies between Taiwan and Okinawa.

Both sides have accused the other of operating dangerously, prompting fears of an incident such as the 2001 collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a US surveillance plane, in which the Chinese pilot was killed and the American crew member detained on China’s Hainan island.

Also on Thursday, the Chinese air force announced its latest offshore training exercises in the western Pacific as part of efforts to boost its combat preparedness.

People’s Liberation Army Air Force Spokesman Shen Jinke said the exercises were held in international airspace but gave no specifics. In its report on the drills, state broadcaster close-circuit television showed a video of Xian H-6 twin-engine bombers, a Chinese version of Russia’s Tupelov Tu-16, in flight and landing at an air base, although it wasn’t clear when the video was shot. AP, Butch Fernandez

news@businessmirror.com.ph

PHL wants trade barriers dismantled Continued from A1

part of the Bali Package being negotiated by the WTO, will simplify processes for cross-border trade for micro and small enterprises.

These smaller businesses are currently burdened by various regulations preventing them from exporting such as rules of origin requirements. These requirements also block micro and small businesses from taking advantage of free-trade agreements.

“For medium enterprises that have a lot of people, lawyers and tax accountants, this is not a problem.

But for micro and small, they are

Calax. . .

largely left out,” Domingo said.

Updates on the progress of the TFA will be aired by WTO Director General Roberto Azevêdo, who is in the country to participate in Apec meetings.

Azevêdo, at a roundtable on “Multilateral Trade for Inclusive Growth: Progress and Prospects” held at the Asian Development Bank headquarters, said “good governance, openness and dynamism have combined to build a strong trading economy here.”

“The Philippines is one of the fastest-growing economies in the region—thanks in no small part to the competitiveness of its exports.

Good governance, openness and dynamism have combined to build a strong trading economy here. And I think it is fair to say that the World Trade Organization has played a role in underpinning this success.

After all, the Philippines has been a member of the WTO since Day 1,” he said.

Noting that the Philippines is in the global spotlight as the chairman of Apec, he asked for support in the ratification of the TFA, and expressed hope for further progress in expanding the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement at the upcoming Apec Ministerial Meeting in Boracay.

the part of Optimal. It was four days short of the required cover period that could result in a few millions of pesos in losses should the concessionaire fail to deliver the infrastructure above board.

Team Orion of Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. topped the original auction with a P11.33billion offer on top of the project cost. Metro Pacific trailed behind by a hairline difference.

This result outraged disqualified bidder Optimal, whose chairman is the uncle of President Aquino.

It sought to overturn the results of the auction—to which it claims to have topped with a P20.1-billion premium offer—by taking its battle to Malacañang.

It took the government quite sometime before it finally decided on the matter. Several petitions from Team Orion and Optimal reached the

PPP Center, the Palace, and the public works department, both seeking to contradict each other’s position.

The two parties, however, came to a consensus that the road network is a pressing necessity, hence, Mr. Aquino should come to a conclusion.

He did. The Chief Executive called for the rebidding, voiding the clean and transparent tender that was launched in 2013.

This move received both the cheers and jeers of investors.

Business group—such as the Makati Business Club, the American Chamber of Commerce, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines—called the rebid an inopportune and illadvised decision.

The effect, they said, is now manifested by the decrease in the number of Calax bidders from four to two.

Continued from A1

the government for “milking” money from investors by rebidding the Calax deal with a high-premium bid requirement.

Industry players said the unnecessary rebidding created a suction in the government’s thrust to improve the quality of infrastructure in the Philippines.

The government moved to place the deal under a rebidding to increase its supposed revenues from the premium offer of bidders. It placed a P20.1-billion floor price for the auction, reflective of disqualified bidder San Miguel’s alleged proposal.

Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc. sought President Aquino’s intervention, after the DPWH decided to disqualify the firm from the auction due to a technicality.

The “minor” technicality involved a defective bid security on

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Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Saturday, May 23, 2015 A3

Malacañang verifying report on China-US face-off at WPS

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By Butch Fernandez

ALACAÑANG is verifying the full details of the latest Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reef incident reported by Cable News Network (CNN), where Chinese military repeatedly warned a US Navy P-3 “Orion” aircraft to “go away.”

This developed as Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. on Friday said the Philippine government stands fast on its diplomatic track to pursue its case against China under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

Coloma added that the Aquino administration is also prodding the A ssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to adopt a legally binding Code of Conduct

(COC) covering all claimants in disputed territories.

In a news briefing, the Palace official acknowledged that the CNN report indicates the stark reality of heightening tension caused by illegal Chinese reclamations and Beijing’s nine-dash line claiming almost the entire West Philippines Sea (WPS, South China Sea).

He expects that discussions in Tokyo last year—where all Asean

members rejected Chinese notion of imposing an air-defense identification zone in both East and South China Sea—would soon be revived.

Coloma asserted it is not just freedom of navigation, but also “freedom of aviation,” that affects global commerce.

“Kailangang beripikahin ang mga ulat sa media hinggil sa umano’y naganap na insidente na kinasasangkutan ng isang eroplano ng Estados Unidos sa South China Sea,” he told Palace reporters at a briefing on Friday.

Coloma added: “Gayunpaman, nagiging matingkad ang reyalidad ng pagkakaroon ng tensyon bunsod ng isinasagawang reclamation activities, at ng patuloy na paggamit ng teoryang nine-dash line sa kabila ng malinaw na isinasaad sa United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.” Reiterating earlier assurances, Coloma told reporters the Aquino administration is committed to abide by the Unclos. “Patuloy na tatalima ang Pilipinas sa Unclos at sa

diwa ng Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, at patuloy din po tayong makikipagugnayan sa mga miyembro ng Asean sa prinsipyo ng Asean centrality at sa paghubog ng isang legally binding Code of Conduct.”

House leadership sets crackdown on absenteeism to expedite bills A

The lower chamber uses viva voce voting for second reading, while it applies nominal voting for final reading.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. admitted that “big effort” is needed to pass his economic Cha-cha in the House of Representatives.

Belmonte said at least 197 votes are needed for RBH 1 to pass the final reading.

The resolution, filed by Belmonte and Sen. Ralph Recto, is eyeing to amend economic provisions on the 60-40 rule that limits foreign ownership of certain activities in the Philippines.

The resolution will include the phrase “unless provided by law” in the foreign-ownership provision of the Constitution, particularly land ownership, public utilities, natural resources, media and advertising

industries. Under Article XII of the Constitution, which was ratified during the term of the President’s mother, then-President Corazon Aquino, foreign investors are prohibited to own more than 40 percent of real properties and businesses, while they are totally restricted to exploit natural resources and own any company in the media industry.

Besides the peace measure and the economic Cha-cha, the chamber is also eyeing to pass on second reading the controversial Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act (Timta) before the Congress’s sine die adjournment.

The Timta, which is one of the priority bills of the 16th Congress, seeks to promote transparency and accountability in the grant and administration of tax incentives. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

LAWMAKER said on Thursday that the lower chamber would require the attendance of legislators starting June to approve important pending measures, including the proposed Basic Law of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region as well as the economic Charter-change measure.

Party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe of AKO Bicol, who sponsored Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 1, or the economic Charter-change measure, said that a quorum is needed to pass important measures pending at the Lower House.

He said after the approval at the House Committees on Appropriations and on Ways and Means, the basic law will be submitted to House in plenary session on Tuesday or Wednesday next week for second reading and third reading, as it

was certified as urgent by President Aquino.

On Wednesday the House Ad Hoc Committee on Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) approved the proposed Basic Law of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region at the panel level.

The basic law aims to create the new Bangsamoro juridical entity replacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Moreover, Batocabe also said the lower chamber is eyeing to approve the measure amending the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution next week.

“The lower chamber is set to approve on final reading two important measures—the BBL and the economic Cha-cha—before the sine die adjournment on June 12 so the attendance of lawmakers are important,” Batocabe said.

National ID system bill passes second reading

Jaycees centennial celebration set May 30

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AGUIO CITY—House Bill (HB) 5060, or the “Filipino Identification System Act” co-authored by Independent Rep. Nicasio Aliping Jr. of Baguio, has been approved on second reading by the House of Representatives.

Aliping on May 22 said copies of the amendments on the National ID system have been distributed, ready for third and final reading.

“The National ID card will help speed up government and other official transactions in lieu of other government IDs,” Aliping said. The bill will “institutionalize a national information card for all Filipinos that would ensure facilitation and streamline government transactions, and help promote a progressive society through an efficient delivery of basic services,” Aliping added.

The bill shall gradually consolidate all existing government initiated identification system into one integrated and efficient identification system,” he said.

Aliping noted that there are many Filipinos who have no official IDs and it is a hindrance in doing official transactions.

“Many official IDs need to be registered yearly but Section 4 of HB 5060 provides that every Filipino, whether residing in the Philippines or abroad, is mandated to register personal information required by the ID system and, upon application, shall be issued a nontransferable Filipino ID card with an ID number that shall be valid for life,” Aliping said.

“The National ID system will be the official ID card a Filipino must have, government and private establishments shall be mandated to honor it.” PNA

J

CI Philippines will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Junior Chamber International (JCI) movement on Saturday, May 30, at the Solaire Grand Ballroom in a gala fund-raiser event.

JCI Philippines 2015 National President Marc Brian Lim said the JCI movement was started on October 15, 1915, by an active citizen who had a passion for positive change.

“Since then,” Lim said, “millions of other young citizens have united together to create sustainable impact in their community.”

Lim, who is vice mayor of Dagupan City, added: “As each year of the JCI movement has passed, we become one step closer to better communities and a better world.”

The Dagupan City leader urged the nation to join JCI in celebrating its 100 years of impact.

Bea Jarantilla, national committee chairman, can be contacted at (0920) 927-4376 or at beajarantilla@ yahoo.com regarding the celebration of the momentous occasion. Committee members include Glenn So, Richard Marinas, Rommel Gerodias,

Steve Arquiza, Maximo Alexis Tan, Redford Erfe-Mejia, King Christopher Camba, Reginald Yu and Emmanuel Bamba.

Among the prominent JCI Philippines members are Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Washington Sycip, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario, Sen. JV Ejercito, Sen. Sonny Angara and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III. JCI is a world membership-based nonprofit organization of young citizens ages 18 to 40 who are dedicate to creating positive change in their communities.

Unicef-Philippines champions adolescent agenda

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HE United Nations Children’s Fund-Philippines hosted the Global Network Meeting on Adolescent Development and Participation this week.

The purpose of the meeting was to develop the organization’s strategic direction with regard to adolescents’ needs and development, with particular focus on those most disadvantaged and marginalized.

The Philippines, with a strong history of adolescent programming, has also successfully pioneered innovative adolescents programming in emergencies in Typhoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) response and in Mindanao, and thus is a natural choice to host the global meeting.

Formally opened by UnicefPhilippines Representative Lotta

Sylwander, the Manila event sees the convergence of specialists and delegates from Nepal, Zambia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Romania, Jordan and the Philippines. Unicef officials from the New York headquarters and East Asia Regional Office are also in attendance.

Youth leaders from Zamboanga, Eastern Samar and Manila, sharing personal experiences focused on health and empowerment programs for adolescents, are the heart of the meeting.

“While we have made great progress in saving young children across the globe by improving child survival and development, historically, adolescents were not given adequate attention. This is now a critical opportunity to further accelerate progress for our youth. It

is an investment in the future, with dividends of creating a generation properly equipped to become responsible citizens,” Sylwander said in her opening remarks.

The 2013 Philippine National Demographic and Health Survey indicates that at least 25 percent of unmarried young people are sexually active and 10 percent of adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 are already mothers or pregnant with their first child.

Meanwhile, a 2015 Department of Health report released in February, revealed that more than a quarter of the 23,709 confirmed HIV cases in the country are in the 15-to-24 age group. At this time the Philippines has one of the world ’s fastest-growing HIV-AIDS epidemic.

As far as he knows, the secretary said there is a continuing study by government lawyers on the legal aspects of the Philippine petition before the UN Arbitral Tribunal.

“Patuloy na pinag-aaralan pa rin ang mga legal aspects ng ating petisyon

sa UN Arbitral Tribunal, at ang pagbubuo ng ating posisyon sa patuloy na diskusyon sa loob ng Asean hinggil sa pagkakaroon ng legally binding Code of Conduct. Iyon ang naipabatid sa atin hinggil sa napag-usapan,” he told Palace reporters.

Japanese fugitive finally deported after 16 years

By Joel R. San Juan

A

FTER 16 years, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) was finally able to deport Junichi Inoue, a Japanese who is a fugitive in his country for robbery.

In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison said Inoue’s deportation on May 20 is considered to be a victory for the bureau in view of the many challenges involved in the process.

Inoue had been quarantined at the BI Warden Facility (BIWF) since 1999, when a deportation order was issued against him.

He is considered the longest staying inmate at the BI facility.

Inoue was arrested and quarantined at the BIWF based on Section 37(a)(7) of the Philippine Immigration Act, or for violation of the conditions of his stay.

His passport has been canceled by his home country at the time of his arrest and he subsequently requested for voluntary deportation, which was granted on May

13, 1999.

However, the BI was prevented from implementing the deportation order against Inoue because of criminal cases in several courts— violation of Batas Pambansa 22 (BP22) cases pending before the municipal trial courts of Cainta, Rizal; Biñan, Laguna; San Pedro, Laguna; and Cabanatuan City.

Under BI rules, a foreign national subject of a final deportation order may not be physically deported if he has pending obligations with the Philippine government, especially if the obligation arises from a criminal liability.

“We have endeavored and exerted our best efforts to seek court clearances and expedited resolution of the cases filed before four different courts, which have dragged on for more than 16 years,” Mison pointed out.

“We are glad to have finally deported him to his native country considering that the bureau is not in the business of detaining but of deporting,” Mison added.

ARMM ready to accept migrants, boat people

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OTABATO CITY—The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on Friday said it is ready to extend assistance to Rohingya people who fled Burma should they happen to enter ARMM waters, Gov. Mujiv Hataman of ARMM said.

Hataman said the ARMM joins the international call for governments to show compassion and humanity to the Rohingya people who have fled Burma in the face of massive persecution and human-rights abuse.

“As they are trapped at sea and are desperate for help, their sufferings exacerbated by the refusal of other countries to welcome them and provide them with refuge, we must offer them a glimmer of hope for a bright future and a peaceful life,” Hataman said.

“The plight of the Rohingya people reminds us of the plight of our very own Muslim brothers and sisters who were driven away from Sabah, the Halaws, who had to flee in the midst of fear and uncertainty, back to the Philippines,” Hataman said, adding, “This displacement also touches a sensitive chord in the life and history of Mindanao Muslims who suffered harrowing episodes of evacuations because of violence.”

“As Muslims, we are concerned

about how women and children are facing this perilous journey to freedom, only to find an ocean of uncertainty and crushing indifference from the world outside Burma,” the regional governor said.

He added that these migrants have seen too much violence and hostility. “They deserve, more than ever, our sympathy and kindness,” he said.

With this in mind, Hataman said the ARMM government reiterates its support and solidarity with the migrants.

“We express our willingness to host them in the ARMM. We believe that even with the current conditions on the ground, even with our own experience of migration and internal displacement, there is always room enough for us to show our hospitality and care for them,” he said.

“We commend the Aquino administration for expressing its willingness to provide for the welfare of the Rohingya people. We applaud this gesture of kindness,” Hataman said.

“This is proof of our country’s readiness to respond to a humanitarian crisis in as humane a manner as possible,” he added of the national government’s decision to open its arms for the migrants now at seas, fighting hunger and uncertainty. PNA

Economy

A4 Saturday, May 23, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

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Meralco aims to expand prepaid electricity service in Metro Manila

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By Lenie Lectura

HE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is looking forward for the approval of 100,000 more prepaid electricity meters, following the approval of a previous batch of 40,000 meters recently approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

Meralco Senior Vice President Alfredo Panlilio said there are already takers for the 40,000 approved meters. “We filed for 100,000 more, so that more can apply,” he said in a text message.

The utility firm has so far received 20,000 applications for its prepaid retail electric service (Pres). The said service will be initially available in some parts of Manila, Cainta, Quezon City, San Juan, Caloocan, Pasig and Cavite.

Panlilio said that, aside from the residential customers, the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) are also interested to enroll in Meralco’s Pres. The NHA alone, he said, is interested to apply up to 40,000 meters for its housing projects.

“The service will be offered to other areas...,” said Panlilio, adding that “other local government units, such as San Juan, Mandaluyong, Las Piñas and Quezon City, are also interested.”

Meralco has 5.63 million customers as of end-March.

Pres shall be offered on a voluntary basis. To avail himself of the service, a customer may go to any of Meralco’s business center and pay an initial consumable load of P200.

Meralco will not require a bill deposit.

Pres customers may purchase load in denominations of P100, P200, P300, P500 and P1,000. The customer will receive a top-up confirmation from their mobile phones.

On a daily basis, Pres customers will receive a free short message service (SMS) informing them of their remaining prepaid amount. The customer will also receive a warning via SMS three days before estimated depletion of load and disconnection.

Based on the Pres rules, customers will be allowed to experience Pres on a trial basis for six months.

Thereafter, they may continue to avail themselves of the Pres or revert to postpaid.

On rates, the ERC ruled that retail rates shall be the effective postpaid retail rate at the particular month the credited load was consumed. At the end billing period, there will be a

true-up or monthly adjustment of the customer’s expenditures to reflect the actual rate applicable to the customer based on consumption for that particular billing period. Any change in the tier on the default prepaid rate shall require the ERC approval.

“Meralco shall use the postpaid rate applicable to customers consuming 201 to 300 kilowatt-hour until its system can implement a dynamic prepaid pricing, where the customer’s default prepaid rate for a particular billing period shall be the rate of the immediately preceding billing period of the said customer,” the ERC said.

“At the time of the true-up, in case the remaining balance of the customer is no longer sufficient to cover

the deficit, Meralco shall inform the customer in order to allow him to load the necessary amount within 48 hours before implementing the true-up and actual disconnection,” the ERC added.

The utility firm is also required to submit to the ERC a report on the implementation of its Pres one year from approval.

Meralco on Friday said it welcomes the ERC approval to implement the Pres, which allows customers to monitor and control their consumption through daily balance notifications and save up to 20 percent in electricity expenses.

The ERC decision, dated April 27, states that Meralco’s application is compliant with the provisions of the

Pres rules mandated by the ERC. Included in this decision is an affirmation that: n Meralco will use an Advanced Metering Infrastructure Integrated Solution, a system that allows customers to monitor their electricity consumption, balance, loading history and account information; n Meralco’s prepaid metering system is capable of interoperating with different brands of meter; n the meters to be used, which are, likewise, compliant and typeapproved to standards of the American National Standards Institute, will be provided by Meralco and shall be tested and sealed by the ERC prior to their installation in service.

Agusan del Norte tourism road

Photo shows a recently completed road-improvement project of the Department of Public Works and Highways that is expected to give extra boost to the tourism industry in Agusan del Norte. The 6.8-kilometer upgrading project of NRJ Tagcatong-Vinapor Road in the municipality of Carmen provides better road access for tourists bound to Jurassic Beach Resort in Bolihon Beach and the unspoiled Diwata Cave. PNA

CHED, DOLE sign pact for job-search kiosk creation nationwide

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abor Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Dr. Patricia Licuanan on Friday signed an agreement to promote better and faster access to employment opportunities for jobseekers through the deployment of job search kiosk (JSK).

The signing took place at the CHED Auditorium on Carlos P Garcia Street on UP campus in Diliman, Quezon City, shortly before noon.

Under the memorandum of agreement, Baldoz said that the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will provide labor market information (LMI) to facilitate employment and operate the JSK, a standalone labor- market information system capable of employment facilitation, like job search and skills-matching facility. Baldoz added that the DOLE has decided on the project to reach and enable jobseekers to get employed free of charges.

Licuanan, on the other hand, said that the CHED, as a part of the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster, seeks to address the issue of job-skills mismatch and high incidence of youth unemployment by providing appropriate and knowledge on the realities of labor market to students and parents for more informed career decision.

Licuanan said the CHED supports the promotion of JSK as an effective employment strategy to allow free access to pertinent and reliable information on job vacancies, and trainings, as well as the DOLE employment programs. Both government agencies spelled out their respective responsibilities clearly.

The labor department is mandated to provide the CHED with 17 JSK for distribution nationwide, assign permanent and alternate JSK focal person for monitoring and provision of technical assistance to CHED personnel.

It will also coordinate with designated CHED personnel for the operation, maintenance and updates of contents of the JSK at agreed schedule, provide necessary training to the CHED personnel in operating and basic trouble shooting of the JSK; and regularly monitor the status of the deployed JSKs through SiteRemote monitoring system and the CHED personnel report.

CHED, on the other hand, will place JSKs at LMI corners established in identified state universities/colleges or CHED offices; provide conspicuous space with enough ventilation, with no exposition to direct sunlight, rain, flood or harsh weather; provide power supply and Internet connection for JSK for free; and provide access to the public who seek to use JSK. The CHED will also identify a responsible person who shall act as liaison to DOLE JSK focal person in charge of operating and safekeeping of the JSK; report immediately to the DOLE any technical problem or damage to the JSK system. PNA

PHL reaffirms commitment to ‘green’ growth

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ORACAY, Aklan—The Philippines reiterated its full commitment to make green growth a reality by creating a climate conducive for trade and investments in the Environmental Goods and Services (EGS) sector during the Second Apec Public-Private Partnership Dialogue on Environmental Goods and Services in Boracay, Aklan, recently.

Trade Undersecretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. said the Philippines is amplifying efforts to promote trade and investment in the environmental goods and services sector to support green growth; build sustainable and resilient communities and businesses; and advance efforts to address climate change in the Asia-Pacific region.

During the meeting, industry representatives and policy-makers from Apec member-economies exchanged views on issues that hinder EGS trade and investments; undertook capacity-building activities relevant to their commitments for sustainable green growth; identified best practices to promote EGS trade and investment; and discussed the role of public-private partnerships (PPP) in facilitating trade in the Apec region.

“Our vision is to achieve a greener future for Apec membereconomies at the lowest possible cost; create new green jobs; and utilize the latest environmental technologies to benefit all Apec member-economies,” Cristobal said. He added that improved market access for environmental goods would stimulate trade and investment, reduce cost and contribute to efforts addressing climate change.

The Philippines has committed to align approaches to standards and conformance in the environmental goods sector and reduce the tariff rates of 54 environmental goods to 5 percent or less by the end of 2015.

Philippine initiatives to mainstream the environmental sector into regional and global value chains have so far resulted in the inclusion of the country’s photovoltaic (PV) industry in the environmental global value chain.

A recent report of the International Trade Centre explained that the increase of Philippine exports of PV cells to over $1 billion in export value in 2013 can be attributed to a number of foreign companies outsourcing parts of their manufacturing process to the Philippines.

PV cells are used to draw the sun’s energy and converting it into direct current electricity. A PV system uses solar panels to supply usable solar power. The direct conversion of sunlight to electricity does not use moving parts and does not result to environmental emissions during operation.

Issues that affect environmental goods and services identified during the dialogue have been forwarded to the Committee on Trade and Investment, which, in turn, will discuss the acceleration of initiatives to increase trade and investments in EGS. PNA

GOLDEN HARVEST Three woman-farmers harvest rice at their farm in Barangay Motag, Malay, Aklan, on May 22. The lady farmers use the traditional wide-brimmed hat to protect themselves from the scorching heat of the sun. PNA

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briefs

BATAAN SMEs GEAR UP FOR E.U. MARKET

BALANGA CITY, Bataan—Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in this province on Friday said they are preparing to penetrate the global market, like the European Union (EU) after attending a seminar conducted here by the Export Marketing Bureau of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

“The seminar is a big thing. Our minds opened on how to compete globally, on what to do to penetrate the foreign market,” said Amanda Battad, president of the Bataan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. that counts about a hundred members.

“We will begin in improving our products more to prove that we can compete even in the international market like the European Union,” said Battad, whose company produces the best smoked and dried fish and sautéed bagoong, among other processed marine products.

Nelin Cabahug, DTI provincial director, said Bataan produces good coffee and cashew that could pass the export requirements of the EU. “It only needs more attention. The volume of production should be increased,” she said. PNA

PHL urged to improve human capital devt to be competitive

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ORACAY ISLAND, Aklan— The Philippines must develop its human capital by orienting it toward science and technology to enable the country to compete in the global market, a foreign affairs official has said.

“Everything boils down to human capital development. As I have said before, we cannot compete unless we capacitate ourselves,” Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Laura del Rosario said at a conference here on Thursday.

Del Rosario, who chairs the A sia-Pacif ic Economic Coop eration 2015 Senior Officials’ Meeting, was asked by reporters how the Philippines could compete with other Apec member-

economies as the trade bloc moves toward liberalization.

The country’s education program, she said, must give emphasis to science-and-technology (S&T) courses, for instance, engineering and mathematics.

“If you just look at the statistics of the CHED [Commission on Higher Education], the number of graduates in these fields is so little and, for me, that is something that we should address,” she said.

Del Rosario pointed out that for the country to be competitive, it should focus more on S&T rather than the arts.

While other economies are producing smartphones, androids, smart bracelets and smart cars, the

baldoz hails sc resolution against gamca ‘decking system’ Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz on Thursday lauded a Supreme Court en banc resolution that denied the motion of GCC Accredited Medical Clinics Association (Gamca) to stop the Department of Health (DOH) from implementing the prohibition of the so-called medical referral “decking system.”

Gamca is a group of 19 medical clinics accredited by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which is the association of countries of the Persian Gulf, for the medical examination of overseas Filipino workers bound for member-states Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.

“The Supreme Court resolution is a welcome development for thousands of overseas Filipino workers [OFWs],” Baldoz said.

“The medical referral ‘decking system’ brought inconvenience and unwanted delays to aspiring OFWs, as it required them to line up at the Gamca Manila office or file online requests, just to get forced referrals to medical clinics that were far from their places of origin,” Baldoz said. PNA

country talks about singers, dancers and animators, she noted.

“It is different because, sometimes, when we talk about creativity, we talk of our dancers, our singers, our animators. That is a different field,” she said.

“But I’m talking about the innovative fields that are really hard science and hard technology. And this is where wealth comes from,” del Rosario said, citing the success of Korea’s Samsung in overtaking Taiwan’s HDC; and how because of innovation, Nokia, once a leading cell-phone and gadget manufacturer, has been pushed out of competition.

She further said that to improve the country’s agricultural sector,

it must become science-based and Filipino farmers must take research studies on farming seriously to increase their yield.

“We can have more resilient products, so that our rice stalks are not easily felled by floods, so that our fruits do not easily rot, so that everything we produce from land could compete with other products,” she stressed.

She also emphasized that farmers need to abandon traditional farming methods.

With climate change, the country needs to do research on the viability of its agricultural products to enable them to survive rains and droughts, which are real challenges in agriculture, she said. PNA

Palace tosses proposal to scrap 12% VAT on PWDs to DOF, BIR

house panel, e.u., d.o.e. to sponsor 1st energy seminar for lawmakers The House Committee on Energy on Friday announced that it will conduct the first energy seminar for legislators on Monday at Luxent Hotel in Quezon City.

In cooperation with the European Union’s (EU) SWITCH Policy Support Philippines, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and the Department of Energy (DOE), Rep. Reynaldo V. Umali of the Second District of Oriental Mindoro said the seminar aims to deepen the understanding of congressmen on the energy sector and the challenges it faces, particularly in the generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity, renewable energy, energy efficiency, privatization of assets and the impact to the environment.

He said the seminar will highlight energy’s contribution to the economy, inclusive growth and sustainable development, as well as several important issues and opportunities for the Philippines that need to be addressed through legislation.

“Power precedes development, and the reason the Philippines is underdeveloped is because we are underpowered,” Umali, chairman of the House Committee on Energy, said, adding that sufficient and reliable power supply attracts investors and therefore leads to increased economic activities.

“As legislators, it is our priority to craft laws for the benefit of our constituents and the country as a whole,” Umali explained.

Saturday, May 23, 2015 A5

By Butch Fernandez

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Bangsamoro business forum Businessmen Manuel V. Pangilinan (fourth from left) and Jaime Augusto Zobel deAyala II (left) have expressed support for the draft Bangsamoro basic law (BBL), in a recent forum in Makati. With them are Noriaki Niwa, chief representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica); Richard Bolt, country director of the Asian Development Bank; Megumi Muto, Jica deputy director general; and lawyer Michael T. Toledo, head of the MVP group Media Bureau and senior vice president for Public and Regulatory Affairs at Philex Mining Corp. Dubbed “Bangsamoro Business Forum: A Roundtable Discussion on Investment Opportunities for Peace and Inclusive Development in Mindanao,” the event was organized by the Philippine Business for Social Progress, to bring together the country’s top businessmen and heads of international development organizations in support of the BBL, on which lawmakers went through the motions of voting in the Lower House on Monday. Mohagher Iqbal, chief negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, also attended the forum.

MCIAA offering 100% discount to airline operators to lure flights

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EBU CITY—The MactanCebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) will give incentives of up to a 100-percent discount in fees to airlines to attract more flight routes.

Airline operators will get a 100percent discount on landing and parking fees for new international and local routes to and from Cebu.

Existing flight routes, meanwhile, will get a 50-percent discount.

Under Republic Act 6958, or the MCIAA Charter, the Airline Incentive Plan for Landing and Take-off Fees aims to encourage, promote and develop international and domestic air traffic to help the region become a center of trade and tourism.

“The MCIAA is in charge of improving and promoting new traffic routes to the Visayas and Mindanao.

It is our job and objectives to increase flights to and from Mactan airport,” MCIAA General Manager Engr.

Nigel Paul Villarete said.

Villarete said the board of directors formulated the plan to level up the airport’s marketing of its airtraffic growth.

He cited different airports in the world that had welcomed the idea of fee incentives, such as the Changi Airport in Singapore, the Hong Kong International Airport, Incheon International Airport in South Korea,

and airports in Atlanta and Northwest Florida in the United States.

“We are in a globally competitive area,” Villarete said.

Villarete said they are finding ways and means to alleviate the congestion in the airport.

He said there are two kinds of congestion, namely, congestion of terminal services and runway congestion, as he pointed out that the MCIAA is operating “above capacity.”

Villarete said the MCIAA had coordinated with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) for introducing a second runway in the airport to address airport congestion.

“We are coordinating with Caap to get technical requirements in developing a new runway. Hopefully we are targeting a long-term proposition we hope to attain by 2020,” Villarete said. PNA

FOLDED AND HUNG A dry-goods store attendant in Manila neatly folds her merchandise of school uniforms at her stall, more than a week before the start of the school year early next month. Stephanie Tumampos

alacaÑang on Friday tossed to the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) “for further study” Sen. Ralph Recto’s proposal to scrap 12-percent value-added tax (VAT) for persons with disability (PWDs) because of its implications on revenue targets earlier set by the Aquino administration.

This, even as Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. also assured the administration remains committed to ease the burden of PWDs. He explained that the Recto proposal will impact revenue projections, and thus requires serious study.

Recto earlier filed Senate Bill 2483 recommending that PWDs be allowed to enjoy the same benefits accorded to senior citizens once the bill granting them tax exemption is signed into law.

In filing the bill, Recto cited a study by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific which said that

PWDs are often among the poorest segments of the population.

“Bearing that in mind and the fact that selected purchases by senior citizens are now exempt from VAT, we are now moving to exempt PWDs from the 12-percent VAT on purchase of selected goods and services,” Recto said.

He added that the proposed 12-percent VAT exemption is on top of the 20-percent discount PWDs currently enjoy under the law.

“Once enacted into law, PWDs would be able to earn additional savings from their purchases and effectively place them at par with our senior citizens in terms of privileges and incentives granted under Philippine laws,” the senator said.

The Recto bill provides that the 12-percent VAT exemption will cover services in hotels and other lodging establishments, restaurants, recreation centers, cinemas, concert halls, amusement parks, medicines, medical and dental services (including professional fees, x-rays, laboratory fees, CT scan and blood tests), domestic air and sea fares, and public transportation.

BIMP-Eaga execs set Palawan visit to strengthen transportation linkages

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enior officials and cluster heads from Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-the Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga) member-countries will visit the Philippines for the post Senior Officials Meeting, which will be held in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, on May 25 and 26.

This will serve as a follow-up activity of the 11th BIMP-Eaga Summit held at Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia, on April 28 to review the progress and implementation bottlenecks on priority programs and projects identified during the 2015 summit.

Trade Undersecretary Prudencio M. Reyes Jr., also the Philippine senior official, will be attending the post- senior Officials’ Meeting as part of his role in promoting the Philippines’s ties with other Asean nations in pursuit of achieving BIMP-Eaga deliverables.

“As the Philippine senior official, I have high hopes that this convention will encourage interaction and exchange of ideas among the participants to cover all areas of concerns and obtain substantive results at the end

of the meeting,” Reyes said.

Senior officials and cluster heads will tackle 2nd Generation Priority Infrastructure Projects (PIPs), which include road projects, seaports and airports expansion for a stronger connectivity within BIMP-Eaga. Reviving air links between the Philippines and its Eaga counterparts is currently one of the priorities of the Mindanao Development Authority to maximize the travel-tax exemption approved by the Philippine government for travelers from Mindanao and Palawan heading to any of the BIMP-Eaga destinations. Currently, the Philippines has been enhancing its transport connectivity systems in BIMP-Eaga through strengthening the following transport facilities: Davao-GenSan-Bitung Shipping Service, Brooke’s Point Palawan-Kudat Roro service, and Davao-Manado air linkage.

“We are hopeful that agreements will be reached on the long-standing issue of BIMP-Facilitation Center so that we can fast-track the implementation of these priority infrastructure projects,” Reyes concluded. PNA

A6 Saturday, May 23, 2015

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Aliw Broadcasting: Another 25 years of service

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HE first commercial radio broadcast occurred at 6 p.m. on November 2, 1920, in the US state of Pennsylvania. That date was chosen because it was Election Day, and radio station KDKA announced the results of the presidential race long before the newspapers could get to press. The rest is history.

In this age of instant communication by cell phone and computer, the radio is still a lifeline during emergencies, a source of constant entertainment, and a way to get ideas and information to everyone equally. The cheapest batterypowered radio can compete with the most expensive high-tech gadget.

Aliw Broadcasting Corp. (a sister company of the BusinessMirror), through its nine radio stations, has been bringing quality radio to the Philippines for nearly 25 years. Under the guidance of Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, Aliw Broadcasting chairman emeritus and founder, the management and staff take seriously their responsibility to the public.

American radio pioneer Harry von Zell once said, “Radio is the most intimate and socially personal medium in the world.” It is just you and your radio.

The 1987 Philippine Constitution enshrines the freedom of speech and the press and media. Subsequent Philippine law requires that a broadcasting franchise be approved by the House of Representatives to ensure that the broadcaster be financially sound, responsible for proper infrastructure, and that the publicly owned airwaves are respected.

On Wednesday the House of Representatives approved House Bill 5391 of Majority Leader and Liberal Party (LP) Rep. Neptali M. Gonzales II of Mandaluyong City. This bill will renew the franchise of Aliw Broadcasting for another 25 years. Deputy Speaker Joseph H. Durano of Cebu City said legislators gave their unanimous approval to Aliw Broadcasting. Gonzales said, “Aliw Broadcasting, through the years, dedicated and committed itself to efficient and effective public service by way of timely, accurate and useful dissemination of information to Filipino listeners.”

The measure was sponsored by House Deputy Minority Leader and Partylist Rep. Silvestre H. Bello III of 1-BAP at the Committee on Legislative Franchises, headed by LP Rep. Marcelino R. Teodoro of Marikina City.

In reviewing Aliw’s past performance and financial strength, Gonzales said, “Since its original franchise is expiring in 2017, another legislative authorization to continue its public service and operation is indispensable.”

Under the congressional-granted franchise, Aliw is required to “promote public participation in community programming; assist in the functions of public information and education; conform to the ethics of honest enterprise; and provide at all times sound and balanced programming.”

We at the BusinessMirror congratulate Aliw Broadcasting on receiving this approval from the House as an indication of the legislature’s confidence in Aliw to continue to provide a valuable and important public service to all Filipinos. We look forward to another 25 years.

What’s right with the PSE? John Mangun

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OUTSIDE THE BOX

NLOVED and underappreciated is the best way to describe the perceptions about the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).

The most common criticism is that the PSE is an “Old Boys’ Club,” where a select group of insiders control what happens.

That may or may not apply to the corporation PSE Inc., since the company that owns the stock exchange is a closely knit group. But when it comes to the stock trading, those broker-members probably wish it was controlled by the “old boys and girls.”

The stock exchange is manipulated, and an average investor cannot get a fair shake. Let’s assume for a moment it is true that, from time to time, certain issues are “pushed” in a certain direction. When you see stocks that are up 50 percent in succeeding days, the natural assumption is that some people are buying with knowledge that others do not have. Has it happened many times?

Of course.

But you must also understand this. No one puts a gun to your head to buy stocks. If there is a group pushing prices higher, that means it is buying in the hope that, at some point in the future, someone else will buy from the group at a higher price.

If no one comes in after the price is up 200 percent and buys, the “manipulators” are left holding the bag.

That, too, has happened many times.

The best and may be the only protection against being caught in a manipulative scheme is to not play the game. Look at it this way. There are dozens of scams, from pyramid schemes to the famous “1-2-3,” that can remove your money every day.

When people lose, they portray themselves as victims in the same way a genuine victim might have their jewelry snatched. But a person who willingly gives his money to another person in the hopes of gaining a reward is not a victim. He is a participant. He may be ignorant and dumb, but he is not a victim.

The PSE does the best it can to protect the public from unscrupulous stock-market operators. But even the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the courts, has

ruled that regulatory agencies do not have the responsibility to act as loco parentis, “in the place of a parent.”

However, I will agree that both the regulatory agencies and, sometimes, the courts have been too lenient in meting out punishments for these crooks.

The best protection for not being taken advantage of is to not put yourself in a situation to be cheated.

There are dozens of quality bluechip stocks that you can invest in that are not going to be subject to this nonsense.

The leadership of the PSE has evolved and changed for the better.

Current President and CEO Hans B. Sicat is excellent at his job, because he understands both how and why a stock market should function and how the market fits in to the capital markets.

The biggest failure of the leadership has been with bringing more Filipinos in to invest. Part of the reason that regulatory fees and taxation make mutual funds—a great vehicle for new and small investors—a difficult business to turn a profit. Therefore, the funds are must focus too much of their promotion activity on the larger potential clients.

The PSE is a human-driven market, as I have said before. The fact that high-speed computer trading does not control this exchange, as in the developed countries, keeps the trading “cleaner” and more honest.

The major criticism I have is that

Takata is the real safety hazard William Pesek

BLOOMBERG VIEW

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HE dubious honor of triggering the largest consumer recall in US history—once held by Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol—now belongs to the Japanese auto-parts supplier Takata. Thirtyfour million of the company’s airbags, having been determined to have caused at least six deaths and injured more than 100, will have to be replaced. But it’s not too late to hope some good can come from this misfortune. Ideally, it will serve as a wake-up call for the Japanese government and the global auto industry.

It’s fair to wonder what exactly Takata knew about its defective products and when. The company, however, has never felt compelled to divulge itself. Since revelations began trickling out in 2008, Takata has resorted to Japan’s standard playbook for corporate scandals. Ignore, deny, delay—then bow deeply, apologize and get back to business as usual.

The Japanese government and the media have enabled the company’s obfuscations. Takata Chairman Shigehisa Takada and his team weren’t ever hauled in for a parliamentary grilling.

And Japan’s notoriously docile media consistently soft-pedaled stories that

threatened to shame the national brand.

Fortunately, foreign media—and US lawmakers, who initiated their own investigation of the airbags—weren’t so quick to let Takata off the hook.

Even so, eight years on, Takata has yet to offer a satisfying explanation for its defective products. Preliminary findings from a German firm the company hired to supplement its investigation haven’t been very illuminating.

And that should raise troubling questions about the company’s competence. If it can’t locate the flaw that’s linked to the deaths of consumers, perhaps, it shouldn’t be in the

business of supplying automakers around the world. (In the absence of further information from Takata, even the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has had to admit it’s unsure if the company’s replacement airbags will be any safer over the long run.)

The Takata debacle is a microcosm of all that’s wrong with Japan’s insular corporate culture—and, to that extent, it’s an opportunity for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The prime minister has argued that stronger corporate governance will revive Japan’s economic fortunes, but his efforts to that end have so far been half-hearted. Abe has passed new stewardship and corporateconduct codes into law, but it’s no secret that those measures lacked the teeth to bring an 82-year-old behemoth like Takata to heel.

Now Abe has a chance to use his bully pulpit as a way to rally support for stronger laws. He shouldn’t hesitate to deliver a public scolding of Takata, urge investigations of the company, and force some accountability on its executives.

That might increase pressure on Japanese CEOs to publicly break ranks with Takata. We already saw hints of that in February, when Honda said it had “no interest” in offering Takata a financial lifeline. But now that Takata’s mess is threatening to drag down other

the “free-float”—the amount of shares readily available in the market—is way too small. A minimum of 20 percent of the outstanding shares should be in the hands of the public. The consideration should also be how many shareholders there are who own less than 0.01 percent to 1 percent, depending on the number of total outstanding shares.

The PSE has significantly improved both the technology of its trading system and in making information easily and readily available to the public.

Perhaps, the best quality of the local stock market is the investors themselves. For all the criticism of the stock market, ultimately, it is the investors who make the thing work. My years of experience show that local investors are more prudent and sensible than those in most countries.

Local investors are more prone to trade on valid corporate news, like earnings, than only on speculation and hype. Not always, of course, but more often than not.

Our stock market needs more maturity but, as it stands, it has made much progress in the last years.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com.

Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

major Japanese companies (Toyota has said it is now setting aside money to cover the costs of Takata-related recalls), they may feel more inclined to offer such chastisements.

Takata, for its part, would be wise to take note of how Toyota responded to its own mass recall. When faced with a crisis related to defective accelerator pedals in 2010, Toyota didn’t hesitate to immediately recall several million cars. Toyota’s forthright acceptance of responsibility turned plenty of heads in corporate Japan. But the company’s subsequent success showed that, in the long run, it’s not the scandal that matters, but how you handle it.

Of course, the question of whether Takata can survive probably misses the point. The better question is, should it? It would certainly be costly for automakers to stop buying from the market-leading Takata; and alternative suppliers, like Sweden’s Autoliv and Japan’s Daicel, may not be able to immediately meet demand.

But it’s time for the auto industry to take a stand for safety.

BMW, General Motors and Toyota shouldn’t just recall their vehicles, they should recall their loyalty to Takata.

The company hasn’t earned those automakers’ business. It also hasn’t earned the continued patience of the Japanese government.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

BBL or BLBAR: ‘Same Evangelii Gaudium dog with different collar’ Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

SERVANT LEADER

Cecilio T. Arillo

database

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fully agree with Sen. Mariam Defensor-Santiago that changing the name of the Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) does not make it constitutional.

“It’s teeming with constitutional infirmities,” the senator said, adding that “changing its name would not make it less objectionable. It’s the same dog with different collar.”

Santiago, Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments chairman, reacted on Thursday, after the proposed BBL has been renamed as the Basic Law of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BLBAR), which aims to abolish the constitutionally mandated Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), create a sub-state, parliamentary in form, that would be coequal with the national government and in clear violation of the Constitution.

“It goes without saying that two different constitutional instruments cannot have legal effect at the same time and in the same territory,” she told the media. Considered one of the foremost constitutional experts in the Senate, Santiago articulated that the new version had provisions that can only be approved with a constitutional amendment.

“The proposed BBL must be consistent with the provisions of the Constitution of the Philippines. Not the other way around,” she said.

Santiago warned that “doing so, revising the Constitution instead of amending the proposed law, would be constitutional impiety.”

She said: “The Committee on Constitutional Amendments appreciates the brilliant efforts of the hardworking men and women who put the BBL together. However, in its present state, the BBL raises many insidious doubts on constitutionality.”

“Among the objectionable provisions that the House ad hoc committee introduced were issues on sovereignty, autonomy and territorial integrity,” the lawmaker said According to her, another contentious issue, which members of the House Minority raised, was the “opt-in” provision, which allows areas outside the core Bangsamoro territory to join the region if 10 percent of their constituents petition for it and if approved by a majority in a plebiscite.

The House ad-hoc document is one of three committee reports that will form the Senate’s position on the BBL issue. The two others will come from the Committee on Local Government and the Committee on Peace, Unification and Reconciliation.

Santiago expressed serious doubts that, if approved, the proposed law will create a lasting peace in Mindanao, considering that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is not the only secessionist group operating in the country. Others include the Moro National Liberation Front,

the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Abu Sayyaf, Mindanao Islamic Command and the Justice for Islamic Movement.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Council of Management (Philcoman), a nonprofit federation of technological societies, academic institutions, business enterprises and professional managers, lauded Santiago’s unwavering stand.

Philcoman said the proposed BBL is an exercise in futility, given that the MILF does not: 1) Renounce terrorism and other acts of violence; 2) Surrender its armaments; 3) Pledge allegiance to the Philippine Constitution; 4) Shed off its belligerency; and 5) Refrain from seeking intervention from foreign powers.

The Philcoman “wondered if the nation can tolerate more victims at the jihadist hands of the MILF— the same killing machine liable for the massacre of 44 elite police officers in Mamasapano and the beheading of Philippine Marines and Army soldiers in Basilan’s Al Barka; the dastardly attack on Siocon and Kauswagan, where scores of innocent civilians were sacrificed to the will of the jinns; and the bombings of the Davao Airport and the Sasa Port in Davao City, among others.

Philcoman board of directors reitrated its stand that the solution to the Mindanao problem is not the passage of the BBL or whatever you call it, but to strenghten the existing constitutionally ordained ARMM and to strictly enforce the gun ban and prosecute violators.

“Unless the government removes the guns from terrorists and criminal elements, there is no way you can achieve peace in Mindanao,” the Philcoman said.

“Right now, the government is negotiating with the MILF at the point of its guns, and is often threatened with war and terrorism if the BBL is not approved in its entirety,” the Philcoman said.

“For many years now, the MILF has been expanding its territories in Mindanao because the government failed to realize early on that a negotiating table and the cease-fire agreement with the MILF is just an extension of its battlefield as events have shown,” the Philcoman restated its earlier statement.

“We can only hope that those who voted for the passage of the ad-hoc committee-proposed bill can live with their conscience,” the Philcoman said.

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

59th part

The missionary power of intercessory prayer

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NE form of prayer moves us particularly to take up the task of evangelization and to seek the good of others: it is the prayer of intercession. Let us peer for a moment into the heart of Saint Paul, to see what his prayer was like. It was full of people: “…I constantly pray with you in every one of my prayers for all of you… because I hold you in my heart” (Philippians 1:4, 7). Here we see that intercessory prayer does not divert us from true contemplation, since authentic contemplation always has a place for others.

This attitude becomes a prayer of gratitude to God for others. “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ

for all of you” (Romans 1:8). It is constant thankfulness: “I give thanks to God always for you because of the

Tribune News Service

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EORGE Stephanopoulos— ABC’s chief anchor, chief political correspondent and a Good Morning America host—last week admitted he had donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation since 2011. The admission raised questions about his ability to cover the presidential campaign fairly, and he apologized. It turned out that PBS journalist Judy Woodruff and other media organizations and figures had also donated.

Is this proof of a media biased toward Clinton? Or is something else going on here? Joel Mathis and guest writer Julie Ponzi, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, debate the issue:

Julie Ponzi: As if on cue, we saw the political divide sharpen by outrage on one side and defensiveness on the other over the revelation that ABC’s Stephanopoulos made $75,000 in donations to the Clinton Foundation. The antagonists appear stuck on the question of whether Stephanopoulos should be considered a serious, “objective” television journalist given these revelations.

What a silly question.

What exactly is this mythical creature, “the objective journalist”? We nod our heads in obedient consensus that objectivity should be paramount to “serious journalism.” Media outlets speak of “trust” and “integrity.” Why do we believe it? We are far more sophisticated about the manipulations in advertising—at least, when we want to be. Similarly, we are far more aware of the degree to which

grace of God, which was given you in Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:4); “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you” (Philippians 1:3).

Far from being suspicious, negative and despairing, it is a spiritual gaze born of deep faith that acknowledges what God is doing in the lives of others. At the same time, it is the gratitude that flows from a heart attentive to others. When evangelizers rise from prayer, their hearts are more open; freed of self-absorption, they are desirous of doing good and sharing their lives with others.

The great men and women of God were great intercessors. Intercession is like a “leaven” in the heart of the Trinity. It is a way of penetrating the Father’s heart and discovering new dimensions, which can shed light on concrete situations and change them. We can say that God’s heart is touched by our intercession, yet in reality, He is always there first. What

A7

our intercession achieves is that His power, His love and His faithfulness are shown ever more clearly in the midst of the people.

Mary, mother of evangelization

WITH the Holy Spirit, Mary is always present in the midst of the people.

She joined the disciples in praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14) and thus made possible the missionary outburst which took place at Pentecost. She is the Mother of the Church that evangelizes and, without Her, we could never truly understand the spirit of the new evangelization.

To be continued For comments, e-mail caritas_manila@yahoo.com. For donations to Caritas Manila, call 563-9311. For inquiries, call 563-9308 or 563-9298.

Fax: 563-9306.

New World Information Order, Internet and the Global South Part 1

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By Branislav Gosovic | Inter Press Service

ILLAGE TUDOROVICI, Montenegro—More than four decades ago, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) launched the concept of a New International Information Order (NIIO).

Its initiative led to the establishment of an independent commission within the fold of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), which produced a report, published in 1980, on a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO).

The report, titled “One World, Many Voices,” is usually referred to as the MacBride Report after its chairman.

The very idea of venturing to criticise and challenge the existing global media, namely, the information and communication hegemony of the West, touched a raw political nerve, apparently a much more sensitive one than that irked by the developing countries’ New International Economic Order (NIEO) proposals.

A determined, no-punches-spared counteroffensive was launched by the Anglo-American tandem, which silenced Unesco, effectively banning the MacBride Report and excluding the concept of NWICO from the international discourse and UN agenda. The neoliberal globalization and neo-con geopolitics tide was on the rise and reigning supreme on the world scene.

The common front of the South was wavering and unsure vis-à-vis the wellorchestrated challenge from the North and its multilateral arsenal deployed via the Bretton Woods and World Trade Organization troika—and, indeed, via the global media it controlled.

On the defensive and in retreat, with individual countries and their leaders targeted, pressured and tamed, the Global South lowered its profile and, facing stonewalling developed countries, it effectively shelved much of its 1960s-1970s agenda, including its quest for NIIO. A decade ago, at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the developing countries did not have the collective will and were not prepared

and organized to raise and press these broader issues.

They focused on the “digital divide,” as their key concern, which, although important, was not politically sensitive and did not represent a challenge to the existing global information order.

The rise and evolution of the Internet found the South ill-prepared to deal in a comprehensive manner with its implications, challenges and opportunities that it presented, not only for the developing countries, individually and collectively, but also for the world order—economic, information and political—and for humankind, in general.

The UN was marginalized and not allowed in depth to analyze and, in an integrated, cross-sectoral and sustained way, to deal with the Internet, and as a result did not provide a focus and platform that could have prompted and assisted the Global South in building and evolving its own case and vision.

The Internet-related debates and analyses have largely been focused on and limited to highly specialized and technical, often esoteric, acronymdominated questions of its governance, which, though of vital importance, has helped to conceal or bypass many fundamental concerns.

Incomprehensible to the general public and not suitable for consideration in multilateral policy forums, the Internet governance deliberations have largely been under control of the world superpower and its cyber megacorporations from Silicon Valley, and the UScentric nature of the Internet has been defended tenaciously and preserved.

The WSIS+10 Review will be taking place shortly. There is an apparent attempt by the West—assisted by its transnational corporations (TNCs) dominating and providing key services on the Internet—to minimize the political importance and limit substantive

Are top American journalists revealing their bias?

By Joel Mathis & Julie Ponzi

Saturday, May 23, 2015

politicians and their handlers are presenting us with “spin.” Yet, we speak in hushed tones and with feigned shades of respect when the subject is journalism—as if the world were teeming with Spock-like characters devoid of bias, emotion or even judgment. It is laughable to imagine such people writing for the papers. It is hilarious to imagine that measured souls like this are lining up to seek work on television. The joke is on us, and it has been for a long time.

Let’s out with all of this nonsense, shall we? Stephanopoulos should not lose his job. He is what he is and, armed with that information, there is something to be gleaned from even the most insipid and cliched bits of his commentary. Granted, it’s not what he or ABC, presumably, thinks it is. But there is truth to learn even in lies.

We need to be more aware of the lowcaliber infotainment we are consuming when we digest the TV dinner equivalent of knowledge about the world. If we really want to know more, there’s no substitute for the hard work of real reading, serious thinking and spirited conversation. Like eating on the fly, guys like Stephanopoulos have a role to play in that process. But we can’t consider their offerings alone as constituting a healthy diet.

Joel Mathis: Did anybody really think George Stephanopoulos could actually be “objective” when it came to the Clintons?

The man helped Bill Clinton become president in 1992, for goodness’s sake. He climbed to fame as a member of the Clinton White House. He didn’t get his first job as a reporter for ABC News because he’d slogged the hard way up through the ranks; he was hired for his public

outputs of this event.

The Group of 77 and NAM have to focus not only on the nonimplementation of the Tunis agenda, but also to work out their position concerning the basic, underlying issues, including the linkages between the Internet and the international development agenda, and, more broadly, the Internet’s relevance to the international economic and political order and world peace.

There is the risk that WSIS+10 Review may turn out to be a missed opportunity for the South, and yet another encounter forced to remain within the parameters drawn and preferred by the traditional, well-entrenched masters of the global information and communication order. Waiting one more decade for the next WSIS+20 Review may not be a recommended approach given the global economic and geopolitical trends.

This relative circumspection of the Global South regarding the nature and future of the Internet is compensated, in part, by the voices coming from some sectors of the civil society that dare stray beyond what is allowed and permissible under the reigning global paradigm.

Thus, for example, the workshop “Organizing an Internet Social Forum,” held at the 2015 World Social Forum in Tunis, articulated an alternative vision of an Internet and its directions for the future radically different from the current dogma. And, an international conference on the Internet as a Global Public Resource was recently hosted by the government of Malta and DiploFoundation.

“Global public resource” is a term akin to “global public goods.” The latter is a concept first launched by the UN Development Programme, but expurgated from its work and the UN discourse during the recent period, probably seen as unsuitable and a threat to the ideological purity of the privatization gospel, a move to accommodate the political predilections of dominant elites and the current doctrinaire aversion to anything “public”. To move the global debate and multilateral negotiations in a desired direction largely depends on the developing countries as a collectivity, the Global South.

These countries need to grasp the gravity of the systemic issues involved, on par and, indeed, in some ways more

important than those of the traditional international economic, financial, political and social agendas.

The moment is ripe for them to brush up on the original NAM NIIO initiative and the Report of the MacBride Commission on NWICO, and consider their relevance in the age of the Internet.

They should work on an alternative vision of the Internet, its functions and governance, which should evolve into the backbone of a future global information and communication order needed in a multipolar world of the 21st century.

Currently, the Internet remains a prisoner of the dominant neoliberal paradigm and its mantras forced upon the planet by the Western powers and in the service of their global, geopolitical and corporate interests. It needs to be liberated from these shackles.

Debate and study that view the Internet from humankind’s point of view need to be launched. This will require the Global South to do its homework in depth and fully on the implications and potential roles of the Internet, in order to prepare its platform and press for the initiating of all-inclusive multilateral negotiations and debate.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa together possess the necessary expertise, experience and power to provide the leadership and motor force for mobilizing the Global South’s collective stand and action on the Internet.

With the high likelihood that the core countries of the West will react negatively, pressure individual developing countries (as appears to have been the case with Brazil, which has lowered its traditionally forceful public stance on Internet issues), and that obstacles within the UN system will persist, doing something concrete independently, via South-South cooperation will be required, and, indeed, is the only way out of the current impasse.

Here many options exist, including creating supporting institutions and expert bodies and organizing regular deliberations, at both technical and political levels.

Bridges should be built with the progressive civil society and possibly with some like-minded countries in the North that are not too happy with the existing system.

familiarity and good looks. “Objectivity” didn’t really factor into the equation.

Is there a problem with bias here?

Sure. But the problem isn’t liberalism.

(Diane Sawyer, Stephanopoulos’s predecessor as ABC’s chief anchor, was a member of Richard Nixon’s White House staff, after all.) The problem is the establishment. And that problem has far bigger implications for democracy.

In an ideal world, the government and the people who report on it wouldn’t be so cozy. In real life—scratch that, in “Beltway real life,” which is real but different—people slip back and forth between journalism and politics with little effort. The result? Too little independence, too much reliance on access, and way too much timidity about breaking from the pack.

It’s why you see the president and re-

porters hanging out and making jokes at White House correspondents’ dinners. It’s why the press largely couldn’t be bothered to challenge the official, incorrect rush to war in Iraq a decade ago. And it’s why “real” reporters have such deep unease with people like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, who reveal to us—truthfully, factually, correctly—that our government has gone overboard in the name of fighting terrorism, that it has been spying on us with little regard for restraint.

You’ll notice that Edward Snowden isn’t lined up for gigs in network television. He’s not hanging around the jokey dinners. Nobody’s offering him a job in politics or government. Instead, he’s in exile—maybe never to return.

It makes the Stephanopoulos check to the Clinton Foundation look relatively petty, by comparison.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Saturday, May 23, 2015

PHL’s PPP Program among world’s best T

By Cai U. Ordinario

he Philippines’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program is now considered as one of the developed programs worldwide, according to a report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

In the 2014 Infrascope, titled “Evaluating the Environment for Public-Private Partnerships in Asia Pacific,” the EIU said the Philippines is ranked seventh out of 21 countries in the latest survey with a score of 64.6 in 2014.

In 2011 the Philippines was ranked eighth worldwide with a score of 47.1. The country is the only Southeast Asian country with a “developed” PPP Program.

“The Philippines moves up to

join the developed group of countries in this study [it was classified as an emerging country in the 2011 study]. By finishing in seventh position, it is among those which have improved the most,” the EIU said.

The EIU noted that the country’s ranking improved because of a three-notch improvement in regulatory framework, which accounts for 25 percent of the overall score of countries.

The Philippines is now ranked

fourth out of 21 countries in terms of regulatory framework with a score of 68.8. In 2011 the country was ranked seventh with a score of only 43.8.

Regulatory framework consists of consistency and quality of PPP regulations; effective PPP selection and decision-making; fairness/ openness of bids; contract changes; and dispute-resolution mechanisms.

“It recorded the most-improved regulatory and institutional frameworks, and is one of the leading countries in the study for improved investment climate and financial facilities,” the EIU said.

“The Philippines has one of the oldest BOT [build-operate-transfer] policies in the Asia-Pacific region; has introduced a new subnational regulatory framework; and has used its increased capacity and transactional experience in recent years to promote capacity-building in emerging PPP markets within the region,” it added.

It also highlighted the country’s

efforts in sharing to other countries its experiences and good practices in implementing the PPP Program.

The governments of Vietnam, Bhutan, China and Tonga, among others, have sent teams to the PPP Center to study the Philippines’s PPP Program.

Officials of the PPP Center have also accepted several invitations in the Asia-Pacific region to share and promote the program and the PPP projects.

“The Philippines has used its increased capacity and transactional experience in recent years to promote capacity-building in emerging PPP markets within the region,” the EIU said.

The overall results of the 2014 Asia Infrascope show country rankings are based on the weighted sum of the six category scores, which are regulatory framework, institutional framework, operational maturity, investment climate, financial facilities and subnational adjustment.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Asia’s fastest-growing cities aren’t all in China

M

ove over, Shanghai.

The fastest-growing city in Asia over the next five years will be Delhi, according to Oxford Economics. Chinese cities make up only three of its top-10 list, with India accounting for six. Ho Chi Minh City is the sole outsider beyond the two giants.

Delhi’s economy is forecast to grow at an average annual rate of 8.5 percent over the next five years, with the southern city of Chennai and the financial hub of Mumbai seen expanding at a pace of 7.8 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively. Beijing, which is in 10th spot, is seen growing at 6.2 percent a year.

“Our forecasts suggest that growth in China will be more evenly spread in the future than in the past, with second-tier cities gradually accounting for more economic growth,” said Richard Holt, head of global cities research at Oxford Economics. “However, that adjustment takes time. Meanwhile, the national economy is being forced to slow.”

India, on the other hand, is seeing stronger growth and rising confidence. India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth

is set to surpass China’s this year and next, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMP). If Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government makes it easier for foreign companies to do business in the country, then its top cities will be able to capitalize on their lower costs and see very strong GDP growth for years to come, Holt said.

Of the other Asian cities, Manila and Jakarta are seen growing 5.6 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively, while Kuala Lumpur will probably expand at a slower pace of 5 percent through 2019, the report showed. Singapore will outpace Hong Kong, while Bangkok will underperform the rest of Thailand, growing just 2.6 percent a year, it said.

Of course, the rapid growth isn’t without its problems. Pollution and congestion will likely get worse as India urbanizes at a rapid pace. The Delhi metropolitan area has a population of more than 16 million, and the city already has the world’s worst air. It may well be forced to follow China’s lead in cutting coal consumption and rebalancing.

Until then, there’s no stopping it. Bloomberg News

Q.C. BUSINESS SUMMIT Quezon City Mayor Herbert M. Bautista provides an update on the city’s economy during the Quezon City Business Summit 2015 held at a hotel in Ortigas, Pasig City. Bautista earlier projected the number of businesses to rise significantly once the new Quezon City Investments Code is operationalized. The code will serve as a mechanism to promote business entry and provide a framework for the issuance of incentives through the creation of a Local Economic Incentives Promotion Office. NONOY LACZA

Economy likely grew 7.3% in first quarter–Moody’s E

xpected improvement in government spending and higher infrastructure investment made Moody’s Analytics project a 7.3-percent growth for the Philippine economy in the first quarter of 2015.

“Higher infrastructure investment and government spending, alongside robust domestic demand, make the Philippines one of Asia’s strongest performing economies,’’ the economic research and analysis division of Moody’s Corp. said in a research note.

The government is scheduled to release the first-quarter growth re-

port on May 28.

Moody’s Analytics also expects a recovery in the country’s exports, bulk of which is accounted for by electronics.

It cited that electronic exports in the first three months of the year improved after global demand regained its strength, particularly that of the US. The growth forecast of Moody’s Analytics for the first quarter is higher than the 6.9-percent local-output growth in the last quarter of 2014.

Economic managers are confident of the sustained improvement of the domestic economy and the achieve-

ment of the government’s 7-percent to 8-percent growth target for this year and in 2016, on the back of the increase in the government’s expenditure program, particularly on infrastructure.

In 2014 domestic output, as measured by gross domestic product, was below the government’s 6.5-percent to 7.5-percent target due to combination of the impact of calamities in the last quarter of 2013 and the congestion in Manila ports after the Manila City government implemented an expanded truck ban from February to September last year. PNA