BusinessMirror December 12, 2015

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Thursday 2014 Vol.12, 10 No. 40 Vol. 11 No. 65 Saturday,18, December 2015

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

FDI outflows, inflows spiked in Sept

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B B C

HE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported a very sharp spike in the withdrawal of foreign equity placements in September, totaling $553 million, from withdrawals of only $11 million the previous August.

AMID DISPUTES, CRITICAL PARIS CLIMATE TALKS RUN OVERTIME

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INSIDE

Over 2M Pinoy kids have hazardous jobs

BRIGHT FUTURE Sports BusinessMirror

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| SATURDAY A , DECEMBER 12, 2015 AY mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

BRIGHT FUTURE B M B

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Los Angeles Times

AN ANTONIO—Despite all the chaos that’s rammed into the Los Angeles Lakers, Jordan Clarkson has remained their steadiest player.

He can score, with accuracy no less, and he’s got a determined, make-ithappen mind-set.

He’s also one of the keys to the Lakers’ off-season, a slightly complicated piece of the gigantic cash pie available to them next July.

Kobe Bryant’s $25 million will be off their books and Roy Hibbert’s $15.6 million, too. Add the league-wide salarycap increase from $70 million to about $90 million and you have a spending party for a team with only seven players under contract for 2016-2017 at a combined $26.3 million.

But Clarkson will get a big raise as a restricted free agent after making $845,000 this season. The possibilities are many because he’s a second-round draft pick who received a two-year contract when the Lakers plucked him out of obscurity with the 46th pick in 2014.

Luckily for the Lakers, Clarkson, 23, will be subject to the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) so-called Gilbert Arenas provision next summer, meaning other teams will be limited in what they can offer.

The Arenas provision was created because Golden State was unable to match Washington’s offer in 2002 to Arenas, a second-round draft pick whose career was on the rise after only two NBA seasons. Golden State was hamstrung by the salary cap, so Washington was able to pry him away.

Teams with enough salary-cap room can give Clarkson a max of $57.8 million over four years, or $34.1 million over three years. Clarkson can sign an offer sheet with only one team, which the Lakers have the option of matching.

Or the Lakers could swoop in before he starts talking to other teams and offer a four-year contract up to $88.9 million.

That would obviously get a deal done, but would be a lot of money for a promising

player whose primary accomplishment so far was making the NBA all-rookie team.

“The Lakers’ options are open right now,” salary-cap expert Larry Coon said.

“They can either let him try the freeagent market knowing that, at the very worst, some team is going to spring an Arenas contract on him that they won’t mind matching. Or they can offer him a slightly better deal that’s still better than he can get anywhere else.”

There’s little doubt the Lakers want Clarkson in their future. He’s averaging 15.2 points on commendable 47-percent shooting. Bryant, in contrast, is averaging 15.9 points on 30.9-percent shooting.

“I think he’s been remarkably consistent,” Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said of Clarkson in a recent interview. “He did have to make the adjustment from playing the second half of the year last year with basically a free rein to a team where there’s more ball-handling guards. That takes away a little bit of what he gave us in the second half of last year.

“Having said that, he worked on his game during the summer, he’s a much better shooter, he’s just as competitive.”

Because of the Arenas provision, he’s a virtual lock to be on the Lakers several more years.

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Jordan Clarkson will get a big raise as a restricted free agent after making $845,000 this season.

The possibilities are many because he’s a second-round draft pick who received a twoyear contract when the Lakers plucked him out of obscurity with the 46th pick in 2014.

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MORE COACH KOBE?

IN a surprise move, Kobe Bryant yielded playing time to the younger players late in a 123-122 overtime loss on Wednesday to Minnesota.

It was the right gesture on his part, considering his erratic play this season.

The key question—will it continue?

Bryant seemed to enjoy it.

“I did a lot more teaching, coaching them along from the sidelines,” he said.

“I played 20 years. I’m not really tripping about minutes or anything like that.”

Bryant has repeatedly said he doesn’t want to coach when done, entirely sensible given his legendary impatient demeanor.

Just the same, Julius Randle endorsed him.

“If he wanted to, he’d be pretty good at it,” Randle said. “He was patient [Wednesday]. It was good.”

DURANTT POWERSS OKC VS AATLANTA

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KLAHOMA CITY—Kevin Durant had 25 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in his seventh career triple-double, as the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Atlanta Hawks, 107-94, on Thursday.

Russell Westbrook had 23 points and 10 assists. It was just the second time both Durant and Westbrook had at least 10 assists in the same game, and the first time it happened in a win.

Durant got his final assist on a pass to Westbrook for a three-pointer with 1:14 remaining.

Serge Ibaka had a season-high 23 points and 10 rebounds for the Thunder, who won their third straight.

Kent Bazemore scored 22 points and Jeff Teague had 18 for the Hawks, who had won their previous two games. Kyle Korver added 12 and Thabo Sefolosha finished with 11.

The Thunder outrebounded the Hawks, 52-34. In Chicago, Pau Gasol scored 24 points as Chicago beat the Clippers, 83-80, to end a threegame losing streak.

The Bulls caught a big break midway through the third quarter, when Clippers All-Star Blake Griffin was ejected for a hard foul against Taj Gibson, and they came away with the win after blowing a 16-point lead.

Jimmy Butler finished with 14 points after pouring in a career-high 36 the previous night against Boston. Derrick Rose scored all of his 11 points in the second half, and Gibson finished with 12 points and eight rebounds. Griffin led the Clippers with 18 points. Chris Paul scored 12 but missed the tying three-point attempt, while DeAndre Jordan added 10 points and 14 rebounds. The Clippers hit 10 of 22 three-pointers but came up short after winning three straight and six of seven.

Andrea Bargnani scored a season-high 23 points, and Thaddeus Young had 18 points and 11 rebounds, as Brooklyn beat Philadelphia, 100-91. Brooklyn won for the sixth time in its last seven home games.

Philadelphia fell to 0-13 on the road.

Shane Larkin scored 14 points and Bojan Bogdanovic had 10 for the Nets.

Jahlil Okafor had 22 points and 10 rebounds, and TJ McConnell scored 17 points for the 76ers. AP

JORDAN CLARKSON could get a hefty raise in off-season. AP

‘VERY ERY COMPLICATED’ COM M

NOT even Barcelona is off limits for Cristiano Ronaldo. AP

ADRID—Cristiano Ronaldo is really serious about keeping his options open for the future. Not even Barcelona or Manchester United’s rivals in England are off-limits.

Ronaldo told the Associated Press (AP) on Thursday that he knows it would be “very complicated” to play for these clubs, but it’s something that the Real Madrid star doesn’t rule out either.

He said nothing is certain in soccer, so he will not close doors to any leagues or teams, not even Madrid’s biggest rival.

“It’s a little more difficult, but...,” he said, with a long pause, not dismissing the possibility.

“There are things that you kind of already have an idea, that to play one day for Barcelona would be almost impossible, or to play for another English club other than Manchester, it’s very complicated,” he said. “But that’s not 100-percent guaranteed. As I said before, there are no certainties in football.”

In his interview with the AP, the Portugal forward made it clear that when it’s time to decide about his future, he will consider all options on the table.

“Everything is open, all leagues,” he said. “I may end my career here with Real Madrid. I’m just being honest. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. If I was 75-percent certain, I would say so, it wouldn’t be a problem. But I have no idea.”

Speaking before the launch of his new product with nutrition partner Herbalife, Ronaldo said he may even decide to be somewhere else other than Europe, and that it’s not impossible for him to be playing in the United States’ Major League Soccer.

“Right now I don’t see myself playing in the American league, but that’s right now,” he said. “In two or three years I may think differently.”

He said that in the future he may be at a stage of his life in which he might prefer playing in the US, instead of the more traditional European leagues.

“These are always difficult questions to answer because we never know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” he said. “And as a football professional, this is always an unknown, so I prefer to stay in the present. The present is good and I’m enjoying being at Real Madrid. But in a few years I

don’t know how I’m going to be thinking.”

Ronaldo has a contract with Real Madrid until 2018, but there has been widespread speculation about him leaving the Spanish club—despite having become its all-time leading scorer. Those rumors gained ground after his brief sideline meeting with Paris Saint-Germain Coach Laurent Blanc in a recent match at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, but Ronaldo has been downplaying any immediate move out of Madrid.

“When it’s closer to ending my contract I’m going to have to make decisions, whether it’s staying at Real Madrid or going to another club or ending my career in a few years,” the 30-year-old Ronaldo said.

“It’s normal. That’s why I’m not worried, because I know that everything has a beginning and everything has an end. I’m ready for that. I’m ready to stay at Real Madrid, to leave, to end my career when it’s time. It’s part of my job.”

The Portugal star, voted the best player in the world three times, played six seasons with Manchester United before joining Madrid in 2009. AP

SPORTS

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VER 2 million Filipino children are working under hazardous conditions nationwide, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In the final results of the latest Survey on Children (SOC), the PSA reported that Filipinos aged

5 to 17 who are in dangerous occupations in the country reached 2.05 million, accounting for 61.9 percent of the total number of working children.

SOC data showed that there were 3.3 million working children nationwide. They accounted for 12.4 percent of the estimated C  A

2 KOREAS HOLD HIGH-LEVEL TALKS TO EASE ANIMOSITY

STREAKS of light are created, as vehicles move on the right side of the road while the other side halts due to a traffic jam in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dhaka holds sprawling slums to which millions have fled when seas swallowed their coastal homes. Global losses from flooding in coastal cities are already averaging about $6 billion a year, according to a 2013 study published in the journal Nature. Those losses could rise to $52 billion annually by 2050, it said. AP/A.M. AHAD

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BusinessMirror

World The

B2-1 | Saturday, December 12, 2015 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

HWANG BOOGI (left), South Korea’s vice minister of unification and the head negotiator for high-level talks with North Korea, shakes hands with his North Korean counterpart Jon Jong Su, before their meeting at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in Kaesong, North Korea, on Friday. KOREA POOL/YONHAP VIA AP

2 Koreas hold high-level talks to ease animosity

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EOUL, South Korea—North and South Korea on Friday held high-level talks at a North Korean border town, a small step meant to improve ties battered by a military standoff in August and decades of acrimony and bloodshed.

No major breakthrough was expected at the meeting of viceministerial officials in Kaesong, but analysts see even these relatively low-level talks as meaningful, because they seek to carry out previously agreed reconciliation efforts—something the rivals have often failed to do in the past.

South Korean officials want to discuss more reunions between aging family members separated by

the 1950-1953 Korean War. Analysts have said cash-strapped North Korea might seek the South’s commitment to restart joint tours to its scenic Diamond Mountain resort, which were suspended by Seoul in 2008 following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist there by a North Korean soldier.

“There are a lot of issues to discuss between the South and North.

[We] will do our best to resolve

them one at a time, step by step,” said Hwang Boogi, South Korea’s vice minister of unification and the head negotiator for the talks, before leaving for Kaesong.

Expectations for Friday’s meeting dropped last month when both sides in preparatory negotiations settled for a meeting at the vice-ministerial level. This likely ruled out discussions on more important issues.

Still, any negotiations between the rivals, which are separated by the world’s most heavily armed border, should improve upon the situation in August when they threatened each other with war over land mine explosions that maimed two South Korean soldiers.

The standoff eased after marathon talks and an agreement on efforts to reduce animosity. Those included a resumption of talks between senior officials and a new round of reunions for war-separated families, which were held in October.

Analysts say quick improvements

in ties are unlikely because the rivals remain far apart on major issues, such as Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons ambitions and the broad economic sanctions the South has imposed on the North since 2010, when Seoul blamed a North Korean torpedo for a warship sinking that killed 46 South Koreans.

Improving relations with Seoul is a priority for young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who likely wants tangible diplomatic and economic achievements before a convention of the ruling Workers’ Party in May, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Dongguk University.

It is widely expected that Kim will use the congress, the party’s first since 1980, to announce major state polices and shake up the country’s political elite to further consolidate his power.

The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war, because the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. AP

Prominent Chinese tycoon missing B

EIJING—The Chinese conglomerate that owns Club Med suspended trading of its shares on Friday following a news report that its chairman, one of China’s most prominent business leaders, is missing.

Fosun International employees were unable to contact Guo Guangchang beginning at midday on Thursday, the magazine Caixin said on its web site. It cited what it said were messages on social media that Guo was last seen with police at an airport in Shanghai.

Guo’s disappearance comes in the midst of a sweeping anticorruption crackdown led by President Xi Jinping in which dozens of executives at stateowned companies have been detained or questioned.

GUO GUANGCHANG attends the opening ceremony of the new Internet bank MYbank in Hangzhou in east China’s Zhejiang province in this photo taken on June 25. CHINATOPIX VIA AP Businesspeople in previous investigations have been held for weeks for questioning with no public notice.

Fosun and its pharmaceutical unit

suspended trading of their shares in Hong Kong. They cited the pending release of an announcement with “inside information.”

Phone calls to Fosun’s media and investor relations departments weren’t answered.

Guo, 48, is one of China’s biggest investors abroad. Fosun, which he cofounded in the 1990s, has businesses in real estate, steel, mining and retailing.

The Financial Times dubbed him “China’s Warren Buffett” for following the legendary American investor’s approach of using the cash flow from insurance operations to buy other businesses.

Fosun won a bidding war this year to take over Club Mediterranee, the French resort operator. Last year it paid €1 billion

($1.1 billion) for Portugal’s biggest insurance company, Caixa Seguros. In 2013 it bought the 60-story tower at 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza in New York City for $725 million.

In the United States it owns Meadowbrook Insurance Group Inc. and 20 percent of insurer Ironshore Inc. Guo had denied earlier he was the target of a graft investigation.

According to Caixin, a court in Shanghai said in August he had “inappropriate connections” with a former executive at several state companies, Wang Zongnan, who was sentenced to 18 years in jail on charges he misused corporate money.

Guo has a net worth of $7.8 billion, according to the Hurun Report, which follows China’s wealthy. AP

BULLET TRAIN, NUCLEAR DEAL TOP AGENDA OF JAPAN’S ABE IN INDIA

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EW DELHI—Prime Minister Narendra Modi hopes the visit this weekend by Shinzo Abe will be a major step in transforming India into an economic powerhouse with Japan’s help in building bullet trains, “smart cities” and accessing nuclear technology.

India and Japan are set to sign a $15-billion agreement for a high-speed train linking the Indian financial hub of Mumbai with Ahmadabad, the commercial capital of Modi’s home state, Gujarat. The train would cut travel time on the 505-kilometer route from eight hours to two, and would eventually be extended to New Delhi, Indian officials said.

For Japan, still smarting from losing out to China over a similar agreement in Indonesia, firming up the Indian deal was crucial. Tokyo has promised technical support to New Delhi for the project, and a large chunk of the financing would be with a low-interest 50-year Japanese loan.

The deal would benefit Japanese companies with contracts for manufacturing rail cars, tracks and operating systems.

Other major priorities during Prime Minister Abe’s three-day visit include discussions on a civil nuclear agreement, military purchases for India’s armed forces and Japanese aid to upgrade India’s creaking infrastructure.

Maritime security and strategic cooperation would also be an important theme of the talks, an Indian official said on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

As India tries to balance its economic growth with sustainable development, New Delhi is keen to increase its use of nuclear power. India wants Japanese companies to set up nuclear power plants, but there were still some wrinkles to be ironed out, Indian officials said.

Analysts said that Japan, which has long been seen as a pacifist nation and a firm supporter of nuclear nonproliferation, will have strong reservations about signing a civil nuclear agreement with India, because New Delhi

has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

“Tokyo will want some kind of commitment from India that it will not conduct a nuclear test. But India will have concerns about its strategic autonomy being curbed if it agrees to conditionalities,” said Lalima Varma, professor of Japanese studies at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.

“While it’s unlikely a civil nuclear deal will be signed during this visit, the two sides will air their concerns.

That could be construed as progress,” she said.

In 1998, when India conducted its nuclear tests, Japan imposed economic sanctions and cut off financial aid to India. The sanctions were lifted in 2001 and relations have since improved significantly.

India has been trying to upgrade its military equipment and a potential defense agreement to sell US-2 amphibious aircraft to India could turn out to be Japan’s first major military sale after it lifted a postwar ban on the export of defense equipment in 2014.

Japan’s navy uses the US-2 aircraft, which can land and take off from the sea, for maritime surveillance and search and rescue operations.

The two countries are also likely to sign an agreement allowing the transfer of defense technology and coproduction of arms and military equipment.

Abe and Modi are expected to explore ways to boost their surprisingly low trade. Analysts say despite a 15-percent annual rate of increase in two-way trade, India accounts for only 1.2 percent of Japan’s total trade, and Japan for 2 percent of India’s.

In contrast, China accounted for 18.3 percent of total Japanese exports in 2014, said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist for IHS Global Insight.

Modi has said that he wants to attract Japanese investment into Indian manufacturing and infrastructure development, including his grand scheme of building around 100 “smart cities” with integrated transport and communications. AP

‘BM’ REPORTER WINS SUN LIFE PLUM Sun Life Financial Philippines awarded the winners

Fully integrated Syrian refugee family embraces Christmas spirit in Germany

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WICKAU, Germany—Christmas carols sound in the medieval square and the scents of hot spiced wine, anise cookies and beeswax candles waft through the air at Zwickau’s traditional Christmas market.

The four children of the Habashieh family, Syrian refugees, wander from stand to stand, looking with big eyes at all the mouthwatering delicacies—filled with joy that they will be spending their first German Christmas in the warmth of their own home.

Only weeks ago, Khawla Kareem,

the matriarch, was so desperate about life in Germany that she said she would rather brave the bombs in Damascus than spend another day in a cramped shelter with no privacy, no school for her children and fear of racist attacks.

Today she couldn’t be happier.

Following months in a succession of squalid asylum centers, German authorities found them an empty apartment where they could live with modest dignity. The Muslim family has joined in the Christmas spirit of their neighbors, decorating the door of their flat with glittery red bells

and tree branches in green and gold.

“We’re fully integrated now,” Reem Habashieh, the family’s oldest daughter, says with a twinkle in her eye. Her little sister Raghad, 11, even has a toy Christmas calendar like most German kids, where each date is a door that opens to reveal chocolate in the countdown to Christmas eve.

The Habashiehs’ journey has been one of hardship and heartbreak: braving choppy Mediterranean waters in a dinghy to Greece; trekking through Balkan cornfields with no water in scorching heat; jumping across barbed wire in fear of Hungarian border

police; paying Romanian smugglers thousands of euros to take them to Berlin in a minibus; spending countless sleepless nights in asylum centers with unspeakably filthy toilets.

It all now feels like a bad dream.

Now they are living a new German dream which is playing out to the tune of Yuletide cheer. At the Christmas market, there’s a long line in front of a stand with Dresden yeast bread which looks tempting, with its melted cheese and sour cream topping. But once the children discover it contains tiny bits of bacon—definitely not halal—

they opt instead for a vendor selling gingerbread hearts, glazed apples and cotton candy.

Yaman, 15, orders a bag of candied almonds in the German he is quickly sponging up—and the children begin munching away at the warm, sugary nuts. Little Raghad goes for a ride on a merry-go-round, beaming as she sits on a yellow elephant, its blue-greenish eyes blinking into the winter evening.

Then, giggling and teasing each other, the four children begin to make wishes to Santa Claus.

“If I could make a wish,” says

19-year-old Reem, “I’d really love to go to university soon.”

“I wish and pray for peace in Syria,” says 18-year-old Mohammed, taking a drag on his cigarette.

Raghad’s wish is the same as countless German 11 year olds: “I’d like a Barbie doll.”

These happy mornings, Khawla Kareem gets up before dawn, makes herself a strong Arabic coffee and listens to the tunes of Lebanese star Fairuz, just like she did in Damascus—explaining that the start to her day would be incomplete without the legendary singer’s voice. AP

WORLD

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in the Second Sinag Financial Literacy Journalism Awards, which honors journalists whose works help in promoting financial literacy among Filipinos toward their financial freedom and a brighter future.

In the photo are the three winners in the print category: Raymart Escopel, winner for the Visayas; Kristianne Marie Fusilero, winner for Mindanao; and BUSINESSMIRROR reporter David Cagahastian, winner for Luzon (fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively). With them are Sun Life Philippines President and CEO Riza Mantaring (third from left) and Sun Life Philippines Chief Marketing Officer Mylene Lopa (right).

The judges for this year’s Sinag Awards are lawyer Mike Toledo (left); Salve Duplito (second from left); Tina Colayco (seventh from left); and Maria Ressa (not in photo).

Puregold may cut capex next year S

UPERMARKET operator Puregold Price Club Inc. may allocate a lower capital expenditure (capex) by next year but still expects to grow at double-digit rates, as it tries to saturate the market with its brand of grocery stores.

John Marson Hao, the company’s vice president for investor relations, said the company may set a P2.6-billion capex for 2016, mainly for the organic expansion of Puregold stores and S&R membership shopping.

This year’s capex, on the other hand, is seen ending at P3.4 billion.

“But this year, we spent P1.5 billion for acquisition cost,”Hao said. The said amount was spent for the combined acquisition of the NE Bodega stores and Budgetlane Supermarket.

“We have no budget yet for acquisition cost for next year,” Hao said. The company said it will spend some P1 billion each for 25 new Puregold and two S&R stores for next year, P450 million for 75 Lawson convenience stores and P150 million for its 10 stores of quick-service S&R New York Pizza.

By the end of the year, Puregold supermarket will have 257 branches mainly in

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 47.1820

Metro Manila and of Luzon, NE Bodega stores will have nine, Budgetlane eight, Lawson 10 and S&R Membership Shopping 15.

For the first nine months of the year, Puregold net income rose 6.5 percent, to P3.2 billion from last year’s P3 billion.

Puregold stores contributed a lion’s share of that income at P2 billion, followed by S&R at P1.17 billion. As of the first three quarters, the company is operating a total of 267 stores, most of these are in Luzon, and only six stores in the Visayas and seven stores in Mindanao. VG Cabuag

IGHSTAKES climate talks outside Paris will not end on Friday as planned but will continue at least one more day, as diplomats try to overcome disagreements over how—or even whether—to share the costs of fighting climate change and shift to clean energy on a global scale.

Negotiators from more than 190 countries are trying to do something that’s never been done: Reach a deal for all countries to reduce man-made carbon emissions and cooperate to adapt

to rising seas and increasingly extreme weather caused by human activity. US Secretary of State John Kerry zipped in and out of negotiation rooms, as delegates broke into smaller groups overnight to iron out their differences.

After all-night talks wrapped up at nearly 6 a.m. (0500 GMT), French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he is aiming for a final draft on Saturday.

The two-week talks, the culmination of years of United Nations (UN)-led efforts for a long-term climate deal, had been

scheduled to wrap up on Friday.

The UN talks often run past deadline, given the complexity and sensitivity of each word in an international agreement.

“I will not present the text Friday evening, as I had thought, but Saturday morning,” Fabius said on BFM television. “There is still work to do.... Things are going in the right direction.” Fabius said he wanted to consult with various negotiating blocs, so that “this is really a text...that comes from everyone.”“This represents C  A

FILIPINO CONSUL LAUDED AT WORLD CONGRESS The Fédération Internationale des Corps et Associations Consulaires a.i.s.b.l. (Ficac)-World Federation of Consuls honored recently Timor Leste Honorary Consul General Lito Jimenez during the 11th World Congress of Consuls held in Istanbul, Turkey. Jimenez was cited for his exemplary work and other meritorious efforts in promoting and strengthening diplomatic relationship between the Philippines and Timor Leste, one of the world’s youngest nations. Photo shows Jimenez (left) receiving the Ficac Medal of Honor from Aykut Eken, Ficac president and chairman of the 11th World Congress of Consuls.

The Ficac-World Federation of Consuls, a global organization composed of honorary consuls and consuls general, organized the annual Ficac World Congress of Consuls. The congress carried the “Bridging the World” theme to emphasize the importance to overcome the political, social and economic challenges that countries from around the world face today.

n JAPAN 0.3880 n UK 71.5468 n HK 6.0877 n CHINA 7.3289 n SINGAPORE 33.6222 n AUSTRALIA 34.4721 n EU 51.6218 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.5778

Source: BSP (11 December 2015)

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Saturday, December 12, 2015

Amid disputes, critical Paris climate talks run overtime Continued from A1

all of the countries in the world, and it’s completely normal to take a bit of time; so we will shift it,” he said.

Negotiators from China, the US and other nations are haggling over how to share the burden of fighting climate change and paying for a trillion-dollar transition to clean energy.

Earlier, some delegates said a new draft, presented late Thursday by Fabius, allowed rich nations to shift the responsibility of fighting global warming to the developing world.

“We are going backward,” said Gurdial Singh Nijar of Malaysia, the head of a bloc of hard-line countries that also include India, China and Saudi Arabia.

They have put up the fiercest resistance against attempts by the US, the European Union and other wealthy nations to make emerging economies pitch in to reduce global greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions and help the poorest countries cope with climate change.

The issue, known as “differentiation” in United Nations climate lingo, was expected to be one of the last to be resolved.

“We’re working on it,” Kerry said, as he emerged from one meeting room with an entourage of security agents and State Department aides.

Nijar said it was unreasonable to expect countries like Malaysia to rapidly shift from fossil fuels—the biggest source of man-made GHG— to cleaner sources of energy.

“We cannot just switch over-

night...and go to renewables,” he said, on a coffee break between meetings at 1:30 a.m. “If you remove differentiation, you create very serious problems for developing countries.”

This accord is the first time all countries are expected to pitch in— the previous emissions treaty, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, only included rich countries.

The 27-page draft—two pages shorter than a previous version— included a long-term goal of keeping global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), while pursuing efforts to limit the temperature rise to 1.5°C. The draft also said governments would aim to peak the emissions of heat-trapping GHG “as soon as possible” and strive to reach “emissions neutrality” by the second half of the century.

That was weaker language than in previous drafts that included more specific emissions cuts and time frames.

The biggest challenge is to define the responsibilities of wealthy nations, which have polluted the most historically, and developing economies including China and India where emissions are growing the fastest.

The draft didn’t resolve how to deal with demands from vulnerable countries to deal with unavoidable damage from rising seas and other climate impacts.

One option said such “ loss and damage” would be addressed in a way that doesn’t involve liability and compensation—a US demand. AP

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news@businessmirror.com.ph

FDI outflows, inflows spiked in Sept Continued from A1

The exodus of foreign equity capital originally invested for the long haul in domestic enterprises came at a time when it became increasingly clear that interest rates in the US, still the country’s largest source of foreign investments, were to adjust higher.

Data reported by the monetary authorities show equity withdrawals typically no higher than $35 million since January, except in June, when equity capital leaving the country aggregated $94 million. These are foreign capital plowed into bricksand-mortar Philippine business endeavors that generate not only employment for a substantial number of Filipinos but tax revenues for the national coffers, as well.

The numbers represent a validation of the view that foreign funds respond to interest-rate adjustments

overseas, particularly the US, whose equity and debt markets are some of the most rewarding that could be found on the planet.

“The bulk of equity capital placements came from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan, the United States and Germany. By economic activity, equity capital investments were channeled mainly to manufacturing; financial and insurance; construction; wholesale and retail trade; and real-estate activities. Moreover, investments in debt instruments increased by 89.7 percent, to $869 million from $458 million, on account of significant intercompany borrowings, particularly in the transportation and storage, and construction industries.

Meanwhile, reinvestment of earnings declined by 17.1 percent to $51 million. The surge in foreign direct invesmestments (FDI)

inflows in September 2015 reflects investor confidence in the country’s strong macroeconomic fundamentals [sustained GDP growth of 5.8 percent in the second quarter of 2015, manageable inflation, consistent buildup of foreign-exchange reserves and stable exchange rate],” the BSP said.

Equity placements in September, or the dollar value of long-horizon foreign funds invested in the same domestic business endeavors, also dramatically ramped up to $1.152 billion, from placements of only $45 million in August.

As a result, the net equity placements in September totaled $600 million, from only $34 million in August and only $161 million one year earlier.

So-called foreign-investor reinvestments for the period, representing profits generated from the various foreign-funded enterprises in

the country but immediately plowed back to these entities, aggregated $51 million versus $61 million in August, or exactly the same amount plowed back into the various businesses one year earlier.

As a result of these developments, nine-month equity withdrawals totaled only $789 million versus placements aggregating $2.228 billion.

This means foreign equity investments actually flowed inward on net basis over the past nine months, aggregating $1.439 billion, or 26 percent higher than a year ago.

Also as a result of these events, FDI over the first nine months this year show net inflows aggregating $4.537 billion, or 5.5 percent more than last year’s inflows.

In September alone, FDI totaled $1.519 billion, drastically higher than FDI of only $526 million the previous August.

Over 2M Pinoy kids have hazardous jobs Continued from A1

26.6 million children 5 to 17 years old in the country.

“Hazardous work is an employment or work where a child is exposed to any risk, which constitutes an imminent danger or likely to be harmful to the health, safety or morals of young persons,” the PSA said.

“Work performed in an unhealthy and unsafe environment exposes the child to hazardous working condition such as extreme

temperatures, hazardous elements, substances or to biological agents, such as bacteria, fungi and other parasites,” it added.

Data showed that 66.7 percent of children working in hazardous conditions nationwide are males, while the remaining 33.3 percent are females.

Around 59.7 percent of the total number of children in dangerous occupations is between the ages 15 and 17. Around 33.8 percent are aged 10 to 14, and 6.6 percent are 5 to 9 years old. Data also showed

that Central Luzon and Bicol accounted for the largest number of children engaged in hazardous employment at 10.6 percent and 10.5 percent, respectively.

The PSA said Cordillera and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao both accounted for a 2 percent share of these young workers, the lowest nationwide.

The data was obtained from the 2011 SOC, a nationwide survey designed to collect data on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of working children

5 to 17 years old.

The survey is a rider to the October 2011 Labor Force Survey. It covered about 50,000 sample households using the PSA 2003 Master Sample Design, with the 17 administrative regions ast domains.

The survey involves the collection of data through personal interviews with the household as the reporting unit. This means statistics obtained from the survey refer to the characteristics of the population residing in private households.

News BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Aquino personally denies P1.5-B bribe to congressmen for BBL votes

By Butch Fernandez

P

RESIDENT Aquino on Friday personally debunked allegations of an attempted P1.5billion bribery of congressmen at a lunch meeting he hosted at Malacañang early this week to sew up votes for the smooth passage of the controversial Bangsamoro basic law (BBL).

Fielding questions at the Bulong Pulungan media forum on Friday, the President himself denied that the Palace dangled P1.5 billion in projects to the 150 congressmen who attended Tuesday’s lunch with him, “in order to soften them up for early passage of BBL.” At the same forum, Mr. Aquino, without naming names, warned against so-called false prophets making all sorts of predictions and promises to win votes in the 2016 presidential elections.

He also squelched speculations about getting another crack at the presidency, saying, “we should not hope to stay forever...when you enter something you should have a plan for exiting.”

The President made it clear he also has no plans to play the role of critic, fiscalizer or adviser of whoever would succeed him at noon of June 30, 2016.

Mr. Aquino explained he was unlikely to do that not being one for getting unsolicited advice himself, even as some of these, he admitted, were “well meaning but not good advice.”

The 55-year-old bachelor President, however, dodged questions about plans, including the prospect of getting married, shortly after he

steps down in six months. He responded by recalling family stories, including driving for his sisters during their exile years in Boston.

“Do I have plans? I always have plans,” he said, suggesting that people while alive should remain hopeful. Asked about his administration’s achievements, Mr. Aquino replied: “I think we’ve surpassed our targets [and] we have empowered the people.” He also answered that the “biggest” achievement he is most proud of is “the change in mind-set of Filipinos.”

“They gave me an opportunity to unearth their potentials,” he said, adding, “if I achieved it, that is the best legacy.”

The President also belied reports that the Palace dangled a P1.5-billion funding for congressmen’s pet projects to muster enough votes to pass the controversial BBL. “Wala naman,” Mr. Aquino told journalists at the forum. “Ask anybody who was there,” he said, referring to the lunch meeting he hosted for 150 congressmen earlier. He added that he simply appealed to the lawmakers for support for the BBL, “nothing more.”

In the same forum, the President addressed the reported government underspending, explaining that delayed public-works projects now being simultaneously constructed on major Metro Manila roads, was due to legal issues. “These could have been built earlier, but we encountered legal issues in Northrail,” he said, blaming the delay on the court proceedings, specifying “iyong process ng judiciary.”

S

ECURITY teams, composed of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas, soldiers and policemen, will soon be deployed in some areas in Mindanao for security duties.

This, as the government started training MILF fighters, policemen and soldiers for joint peace and order and security operations in “critical areas” in the south under what is called as the Joint Peace and Security Teams (JPSTs).

The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Panel (Opapp) said an 11-day training program was recently concluded for a JPST, wherein its members also interacted with each other through their daily “conditioning

exercises, classroom discussions and team-building activities.” The training, which was attended by 75 MILF guerrillas, 34 soldiers and 39 policemen, was jointly supervised by the government and the MILF. “Because of this training, we were able to hear the side of our former enemies in the battleground and we realized that they really do not seek for more discord. They also desire for peace here in Mindanao,” Opapp said in a statement, quoting a member of the team, 2Lt. Emmanuel Ferrer, as saying.

“If it were possible for former enemies to achieve unity in working together toward a common goal, then peace in our country is also possible,” Ferrer added.

The Opapp said those who underwent the training would be

T

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

O contain the increasing number of squatters in the country, the chairman of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development on Friday said all national government agencies and instrumentalities, including government-owned or -controlled corporations, have been ordered by Malacañang to submit an inventory of their idle lands before the year ends.

Liberal Party Rep. A lfredo Benitez of Negros Occidental, chairman of the panel, said Malacañang’s Memorandum Circular (MC) 87, dated December 1, also creates an interagency task force to identify lands and sites for socialized housing.

“The inventory of government idle lands is an important step [to address the increasing number of informal settlers in urban areas,” Benitez said in a text message.

deployed as members of JPSTs in critical areas, as “agreed upon by both the government and the MILF to maintain peace and order.”

The JPSTs are part of the transitional mechanisms that will take key roles in the security aspect of the normalization process and will primarily be concerned with transforming conflict-affected areas into peaceful and sustainable communities.

“We play an important role in providing security during the decommissioning of the MILF combatants back to their desired quality of life, in tracking of private armed groups, and in documenting any activities transpiring in our area of deployment,” said Insp. Edwin Tono about his soon to be deployment as JPST member.

Budget passage proof House is doing job–legislator

D

ESPITE the problem of absenteeism in the House of Representatives, a lawmaker said the scheduled ratification of the P3.002-trillion national government budget for 2016 next week is “solid proof of the legislative branch’s commitment to pass on time a national budget.”

Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Rodolfo T. Albano III of Isabela, in a statement, said the cong ressiona l bicamera l

conference committee has been coordinating with the Executive department in working toward a feasible budget measure anchored on poverty reduction and expansion of economic growth.

“The passing of the 2016 budget measure on time averts the possibility of the government running on a reenacted 2015 budget,” Albano said.

He added that Congress is committed to enact the budget measure

and have it signed into law by President Aquino before the year ends to pave the way and enable the next administration to pursue the gains of the present administration and propel the country to a higher level of growth and prosperity.

Earlier, House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II of Mandaluyong said the ratification by the Senate and the House, respectively, of the budget measure will take place next week. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

RDC 3 okays P2.11-B Lando infra-rehab plan

C

ITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Some P2.11 billion have been alloted for the infrastructure-rehabilitation plan of areas damaged by Typhoon Lando

by Central Luzon’s Regional Development Council (RDC).

The implementing agencies include the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and the NIA-Upper Pampanga River Integrated System (Upris), the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) said.

“The strategy is to rehabilitate the affected irrigation systems and transportation and communication linkages using upgraded climate and disaster standards and specifications, as well as build new redundant and alternate key infrastructure

systems for improved resiliency,” RDC Vice Chairman and National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Regional Director Severino Santos said.

He added that through the assessment of project sites by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the plan aims to locate new nonhazard-mitigating infrastructures outside danger zones.

Under this plan, the DPWH will rehabilitate about 95.1 kilometers of national roads; rebuild 3.5 kilometers of floodcontrol dikes; and restore or build schools, municipal halls and multipurpose buildings with a total of 21 units at the amount of P1.8 billion. According to the PIA, the NIA will improve its system nationwide, with about 62 kilometers of main canals,

A3

Malacañang sets distribution of govt idle lands to squatters

Mindanao critical areas to be secured by separatist rebs, soldiers, policemen

By Rene Acosta

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Saturday, December 12, 2015

10 other canal structures and three diversion tops at a cost of P158 million.

“It will also rehabilitate its communal irrigation systems or irrigation systems with irrigation service areas of less than or equal to a thousand hectares; rehabilitate less than half a kilometer of canals; and improve four canal structures at about P376 million,” Santos said. Under Upris, the irrigation systems in some areas in Nueva Ecija and certain areas in Tarlac will be rehabilitated. This includes rehabilitation of main canals, line canals and gravel roads, and is projected to cost around P250 million.

RDC 3 is the highest policy-making body in Central Luzon and serves as the counterpart of the Neda Board at the subnational level. Ashley Manabat

Benitez, citing MC 87, said Republic Act 7279, or the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992, directed local governments to conduct an inventory of the idle lands and the concerned government agencies to identify sites for socialized housing.

“Despite the explicit tasks given to local government units [LGUs] and government agencies, constraints on land identification for the purpose of socialized housing

BENITEZ

still occur,” he said.

The issuance of MC 87 is part of the ongoing National Housing Summit on House and Urban Development.

The summit seeks to identify immediate solutions to the increasing number of informal settlers in urban centers, and to ensure the availability of lands for socialized housing.

The summit was initiated by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Housing and Urban Development and the Senate Committee on Urban Planning and Shelter and Resettlement.

Under MC 87, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), through the local governments, shall conduct an inventory

of government-owned idle lands in urban centers.

“For this purpose, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Land Registration Authority [LRA] shall make available its land records, such as but not limited to approved subdivision plans and surveys, cadastral maps, title of information and abstract of registry to the DILG and LGUs subject to such limitations as may be provided by law, rules and regulations,” MC 87 said.

For the purposes of the inventory, MC 87 said government idle land shall be categorized into the following: n Lands owned by any government entity that have been idle and have not been used for the purpose for which they have been reserved for the past 10 years; n Lands with existing structures and owned by any government entity but can be set aside for socialized housing; and n Lands owned by any government entity already inhabited by squatters.

It said the interagency task force should ensure the timely submission of inventory of l a nd s b y go ve r n me nt a ge n cies, and LGUs by the end of December 2015.

A4 Saturday, December 12, 2015 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Killing dengue

T

he search for a vaccine against dengue fever has been ongoing for 86 years, having first started in 1929. Now it appears that this effort has finally paid off, with the first dengue vaccine receiving approval in Mexico.

Dengue is a common illness in 100 countries. Every year 50 million to 500 million people are infected, and at least 500,000 of them need to be hospitalized for treatment. Hearing that a family member has dengue usually brings an initial feeling of dread, although the mortality rate is very low. The problem is that there is no specific treatment against the disease. The best that can be done is to keep the patient stable, until the body can successfully fight back and the virus has run its course.

French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, through its vaccines division Sanofi Pasteur, has been researching a vaccine for dengue fever for more than 20 years at a cost of $1.6 billion. After clinical trials, Mexico has approved the preventive treatment, called Dengvaxia, for all four dengue virus serotypes, but only for patients aged 9 to 45, who live in areas where the disease is endemic. Sanofi is seeking approval in an additional 20 countries.

Mexico approved the drug after trials on 40,000 people in 15 nations. These tests showed the vaccine reduced the risk of hospitalization by 80 percent, and lowered the possibility of developing the severest, hemorrhagic form of the disease by 93 percent. The World Health Organization is projecting that by 2020, the number of cases could be reduced by 25 percent from 2010. A Sanofi spokesman said “results show that if you vaccinate 20 percent of the population in 10 endemic countries that have taken part in our phase III studies, you can potentially reduce the dengue burden by 50 percent over a five-year period.”

The Department of Health (DOH) has reported, through September 2015, nearly 100,000 cases nationwide, 20 percent higher than 2014 figures. Metro Manila had an increase of 156 percent in the number of cases.

A study done in 2012 and published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene estimated that the annual cost to the nation could run as high as P15 billion, considering the cost of diagnosis, treatment and income loss for patients and caregivers. However, the study also cautioned that, due to underreporting of cases to national health authorities, the likelihood is that the total cost is much higher.

The Philippines was one of the locations for the Dengvaxia clinical trials. Both the DOH and the Philippines’s Food and Drug Administration are pushing to fast-track approval and include the drug in their vaccination program in 2016.

After all the pain and monetary cost the Philippines has suffered at the hand of the dengue virus, it is welcome news that this medical war may be over and won.

Selling financial fear John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

T

he history of movies tells a story about the concerns of society. While this is not exact, in the US there was a period of many Western movies with the “good guys” against the “bad guys” that coincided with the Cold War. Disaster movies were big for a while, with sinking cruise ships and burning skyscrapers.

The first Star Wars movie came out in 1977 at about the same time that the personal-computer revolution was born.

Movies about nuclear war, environment disasters and death from space, whether by aliens or asteroids, reflect what people are thinking about. Zombie-themed movies, along with vampires and supernatural monsters, may reflect society’s fear of dangerous forces that cannot be easily defeated.

Then again, instead of merely reflecting the current conversation, these movies may actually push the discussion.

Part of this may also be “fear mongering” to push an agenda. I do not want to talk about global warming, because I prefer not to discuss another person’s “religious” beliefs. But the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow, showing New York City under water due to “climate change,” may be more propaganda than storytelling.

The same thing happens every

day with regard to the financial markets and economics.

On one side, you have the commentators and “experts” choosing specific data to justify their “Don’t Worry; Be Happy” view of the world.

The problem with using only the “good” numbers is that the bad data must be dismissed. Poor economic numbers are usually “unexpected,” or the result of some external factor that is a onetime event. Bad economic growth in the US has been attributed to the weather being “too cold,” “too hot,” and even “not cold or hot enough” for the particular season.

On the other side are all the gloom-and-doom experts, who have been calling for the collapse of the global economy for several years, including here in the Philippines.

They use the same techniques, only discounting the good and rejoicing in the bad statistics. When their

predicted time of economic Armageddon passes without catastrophe, like the end-of-the-world religious folks, the prediction was absolutely correct but it was just the date that was wrong.

The price of crude oil is going back to $150 per barrel as in 2008, or is it going back to $20 a barrel as it was in 2002? Pick your choice and win a prize.

Next week the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) will meet to decide whether to raise its base interest rate for the first time since a rate increase in June 2006. The latest odds are 80 percent that a rate increase will be done. Of course, the odds on Ronda Rousey beating Holly Holm were 99.9 percent but that’s another story...maybe.

There has been a lot of talk in the newspapers about the effect on the Philippine economy and the local stock market if the Fed does raise rates. We have been told, for example, that interest rates on local bank credit cards might go higher.

This is because the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) would probably be forced to raise its base interest rate.

A Philippine rate increase might be necessary to keep massive amounts of money from leaving the country to go to the US to take advantage of higher interest payments from bank accounts and paid on US government debt, for example.

It makes a nice theory, but the reality is something a little different.

If you loan your money to the

Philippine government for two years, you will receive a 4.087-percent interest. If you loan your money to the US government for two years, you will receive a 0.9512-percent interest. Even after a rate increase, the interest rate paid on Philippine debt would be 2.84 percent more. Considering potential Philippine peso devaluation against the US dollar, the peso would have to depreciate to over 49 to make it more profitable to buy dollars and US government debt.

That is one possible scenario.

However, the history of Fed rate increases shows that, after the last hike in 2006, the dollar depreciated and the peso appreciated from 53 to as low as 40 before depreciating again. The Philippine stock market went from 2,180 to 3,780 before going down.

The point is that no one has a clue about what is going to happen here in the Philippines if the Fed raises rates next week. You don’t know, I don’t know, and I guarantee all the experts do not know either.

But if I tell you that in my next column I will predict the exact date of economic Armageddon, I am almost sure you will buy a copy of the BusinessMirror.

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.

Republican Party, decentralized into chaos

I

By Francis Wilkinson | Bloomberg View

f you are a Republican, decentralization of power is a cornerstone of your party and political philosophy. After all, Republican demonization of Washington and the federal government stems, in part, from a belief that government is too large and power too centralized.

“Only government that sends power back to the people can make America confident again,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a speech at the Library of Congress last week.

You hear the same and more from Republican candidates for president on down to the grass roots. Yet, conservatives are perpetually frustrated because both parties spent most of the past century expanding the federal government’s responsibilities and capabilities, arguing that human need, national security and the growing complexity of modern society demanded it.

If Republicans are looking for a model of genuine decentralization, however, they have an excellent example close to home. The GOP, after all, is increasingly decentralized itself.

And, wow, what a mess.

Why can’t the party govern the House of Representatives despite its large majority? Decentralization. How can Donald Trump turn the Republican

presidential primary into a dark circus?

Decentralization. Why do Republican politicians lock themselves in to untenable positions that they know make no sense? Decentralization.

In the House, Ryan is faced with the same Republican conference that his predecessor, John Boehner, failed to tame.

There is the Freedom Caucus, which has forged its identity in opposition to party leadership. There is the “hope yes, vote no” caucus, whose anonymous members would like to support the party leaders, but fear that the type of person who ends up in the Freedom Caucus will run a primary against anyone whose antigovernment credentials slip. Those two groups make up the majority of the House Republicans.

Ryan and the party are unable to protect members from a right-wing primary challenge. Why? Yup. Decentralization. Political financing, especially in the GOP, is a scattershot affair, with super-PACs, “social welfare” groups,

billionaires, interest groups and various political committees with the words “Tea Party” in their mastheads all pursuing separate agendas, many of which don’t happen to overlap with party leaders’ desires. With power and money dispersed, the GOP is too weak to defend itself against its own allies.

That’s how a competent and broadly popular speaker gets overthrown. It’s also how former Majority Leader Eric Cantor was consumed in a Tea Party conflagration. The entertainment wing of the GOP, which needs a more plentiful supply of outrage than the Democratic Party alone can muster, must occasionally eat its own. Radio hosts Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin, who each attract almost 10 million listeners a week, aided by right-wing web sites, targeted Cantor for his eventual destruction by a marginal opponent, Dave Brat.

Viral populism—the kind that hears Trump’s primal growl and roars back in harmony—has been building for years.

Rush Limbaugh, another independent conservative power center, said that Republicans who refuse to support Trump’s crude and unworkable blockade against Muslims are basically in league with the terrorist group Hamas.

Meanwhile, Grover Norquist’s antitax group and a small cadre of billionaire funders keep the party

wedded to preposterous, debt-financed tax cuts for the wealthy that neither economists nor most voters can remotely justify.

Like a teetering kingdom beholden to petty fiefs near and far, the GOP can’t move in strategic steps without being checked by some minor prince bearing grievance, self-interest or fetish. If this is what the party hopes to inflict on the White House, it may once again meet resistance at the polls.

Would a Republican president in 2017 be able to resolve the party’s power dilemma? Conservatives would surely rally around such a savior. But with the White House and Congress under Republican control, expectations among interest groups and the base would run dangerously high. Republicans have promised wholesale repeal of the Obama era. Many Republican voters won’t be happy until the 21st century is repealed with it.

That’s a tall order. It’s also an inherently destructive one. Ted Cruz, a front-runner in Iowa, has not shied from answering it, promising to unleash a “grassroots tsunami” to smash the Washington “cartel” to pieces. The party encouraged a similar groundswell on its right a few years ago. It, too, became a tsunami. Someday, Republicans will recover from it.

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Opinion

Pro-elite government

‘Misericordiae Vultus’

BusinessMirror

Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

Cecilio T. Arillo

database

Today we continue the reprint of some excerpts from Misericordiae Vultus—the Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Year of Mercy—by His Holiness Pope Francis.

Part 5

T

HE rapacity of the elites, backed by the government, also contributed greatly to our snail-paced growth. In a July 2015 report, research group IBON Foundation Inc. said one of the clear legacies of the Aquino administration is the “wealth of the richest tripled.”

“Our country is governed not by laws, not by political institutions, but by political personalities...oligarchic influence on the highest State organs enables powerful individuals, families and clans to organize monopolies and cartels, tilt the rules of competition in their favor—and acquire privileged access to the rents and commissions generated by public investments...more and more the traditional modes of reciprocity are being replaced by cash-for-votes exchanges.”

The report further declared: “What government claims to have been inclusive growth benefited only a few families and corporations. The wealth of the 10 richest Filipinos has more than tripled at 250 percent, from P650 billion in 2010 to P2.2 trillion in 2015. Twelve Filipino billionaires have joined the world’s billionaires listed in Forbes Magazine, among them Henry Sy, who rose from 97th a year ago to 73rd wealthiest in the world in 2015.”

Another sad and sickening fact, IBON noted, is that, “In the middle of Aquino’s term, the combined net worth of the 25 richest Filipinos was equivalent to the combined income of more than 70 million poorest Filipinos.”

Huge sectors of Filipino industries are almost entirely monopolized by a few elite political families.

One of these families’ juicy cash cows is the public-private partnerships (PPPs), where the government spent billions to guarantee its profits. Proof of this is the P57.2-billion allocation for PPP projects from the 2015 national budget. Meanwhile, only a small group of corporations seems to qualify for PPP projects amounting to as much as P189 billion—those companies owned by Sy, Ayala, Pangilinan and Cojuangco.

Contrast this with millions of regular Filipino workers struggling with low income and wages. Wages barely increased, but the prices of commodities and utilities kept on increasing. According to IBON, in nominal terms, the average daily basic pay is only P367.35 for all industries, with workers in private households and agriculture receiving the lowest pay. The real value of average daily basic pay nationwide increased only by P9, or 3.5 percent, from 2010 to 2014.

As a result, the country’s few rich became richer, while the greater population, who are poor, became poorer.

This is again due to the fact that the government’s pro-elite policies are bent on serving the profit-seeking interests of big businesses, even at the expense of millions of Filipinos suffering chronic poverty.

In the words of Louie Montemar, a political-science professor at Manila’s De La Salle University, little is being done to destabilize the Philippines’s oligarchical dominance of the elite. He tells Agence France-Presse in an interview: “There’s some sense to the argument that we’ve never had a real democracy, because only a few have controlled economic power. The country dances to the tune of the tiny elite.”

The tiny elite also plays a huge role in the national and local elections.

Former Security Adviser and chief political strategist under President Fidel V. Ramos, Gen. Jose T. Almonte affirms this in a statement: “Our country still is governed not by laws, not by political institutions, but by political personalities …oligarchic influence on the highest State organs enables powerful individuals, families and clans to organize monopolies and cartels; tilt the rules of competition in their favor—and acquire privileged access to the rents and commissions generated by public investments…more and more

SERVANT LEADER

the traditional modes of reciprocity are being replaced by cash-forvotes exchanges.

“Vote-buying has inflated election costs and worsened political corruption…. Our country has lagged so consistently behind its neighbors that its critics have turned to cultural factors for an explanation….

But…our problems merely reflect structural defects in our political institutions.”

Former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno adds: “This vicious politics of patronage has allowed few oligarchs and bosses to rule us from colonial times to postcolonial times, and their rule has brought us nothing but a façade of democracy.”

Recommendations

IT is never enough, however, that we scrutinize the underlying reasons of our lingering economic backwardness. The following texts outline proposed recommendations that will focus on the essence and roots of our crisis: the lack of real and concrete reforms in economic policies.

Decolonization and debt repudiation

Article II, Section 7 of the 1987 Constitution states: “The State shall pursue an independent foreign policy. In its relations with other states, the paramount consideration shall be national sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interest and the right to self-determination.”

Reverting to this writer’s conversation with the late Harvard-trained economist-lawyer Alejandro Lichauco, what needs to be done is clearly to forge a national coalition of forces committed to recovering the sovereignty which American imperialism wrested from Bonifacio’s revolution and to transform the Philippines from the neocolonial state that it is to the truly sovereign and independent state that it claims to be and should be.

On a side note, it is worth considering that even the Vatican, as mentioned by Lichauco, strongly slams “unbridled capitalism”. In a speech at the World Meeting of Popular Movements in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, in July 2015, His Holiness Pope Francis seemed to take a stride at monetary organizations and some developed countries: “No actual or established power has the right to deprive people of the full exercise of their sovereignty.

Whenever they do so, we see the rise of new forms of colonialism, which seriously prejudice the possibility of peace and justice.”

Without a doubt, the country’s debt problem remains a huge obstacle to steer us in the direction of genuine progress, away from the clutches of foreign interventions and conditionalities. As of end-March 2015, the outstanding Philippine external debt stands at a staggering $75.3 billion.

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

M

ercy is the very foundation of the Church’s life. All of her pastoral activity should be caught up in the tenderness she makes present to believers; nothing in her preaching and in her witness to the world can be lacking in mercy.

The Church’s very credibility is seen in how she shows merciful and compassionate love. The Church “has an endless desire to show mercy.” Perhaps, we have long since forgotten how to show and live the way of mercy.

The temptation, on the one hand, to focus exclusively on justice made us forget that this is only the first, albeit necessary and indispensable step. But the Church needs to go beyond and strive for a higher and more important goal. On the other hand, sad to say, we must admit that the practice of mercy is waning in the wider culture.

In some cases, the word seems to have dropped out of use. However, without a witness to mercy, life becomes fruitless and sterile, as if sequestered in a barren desert. The time has come for the Church to take up the joyful call to mercy once more. It is time to return to the basics, and to bear the weaknesses and struggles of our brothers and sisters. Mercy is the force that reawakens us to new life and instills in us the courage to look to the future with hope.

Let us not forget the great teaching offered by Saint John Paul II in his second Encyclical, Dives in Misericordia, which at the time came unexpectedly, its theme catching many by surprise. There are two passages, in particular, to which I would like to draw attention. First, Saint John Paul II highlighted the fact that we had forgotten the theme of mercy in today’s cultural milieu: “The presentday mentality, more perhaps than that of people in the past, seems opposed to a God of mercy, and, in fact, tends to exclude from life and to remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy. The word and the concept of “mercy” seem to cause uneasiness in man, who, thanks to the enormous development of science and technology, never before known in history, has become the master of the earth and has subdued and dominated it (cf. Genesis 1:28). This dominion over the earth, sometimes understood in a one-sided and superficial way, seems to have no room for mercy…. And this is why, in the situation of the Church

and the world today, many individuals and groups, guided by a lively sense of faith, are turning, I would say almost spontaneously, to the mercy of God.” Furthermore, Saint John Paul II pushed for a more urgent proclamation and witness to mercy in the contemporary world: “It is dictated by love for man, for all that is human and which, according to the intuitions of many of our contemporaries, is threatened by an immense danger. The mystery of Christ…obliges me to proclaim mercy as God’s merciful love, revealed in that same mystery of Christ. It, likewise, obliges me to have recourse to that mercy and to beg for it at this difficult, critical phase of the history of the Church and of the world.” This teaching is more pertinent than ever and deserves to be taken up once again in this Holy Year. Let us listen to his words once more: “The Church lives an authentic life when she professes and proclaims mercy—the most stupendous attribute of the Creator and of the Redeemer—and when she brings people close to the sources of the Savior’s mercy, of which she is the trustee and dispenser.”

The Church is commissioned to announce the mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel, which, in its own way, must penetrate the heart and mind of every person.

The Spouse of Christ must pattern her behavior after the Son of God who went out to everyone without exception. In the present day, as the Church is charged with the task of the new evangelization, the theme of mercy needs to be proposed again and again with new enthusiasm and renewed pastoral action. It is absolutely essential for the Church and for the credibility of her message that she herself live and testify to mercy. Her language and her gestures must transmit mercy, so as to touch the hearts of all people and inspire them once more to find the road that leads to the Father.

The Church’s first truth is the love of Christ. The Church makes herself a servant of this love and mediates it to all people: a love that forgives and

Saturday, December 12, 2015

expresses itself in the gift of oneself.

Consequently, wherever the Church is present, the mercy of the Father must be evident. In our parishes, communities, associations and movements, in a word, wherever there are Christians, everyone should find an oasis of mercy.

We want to live this Jubilee Year in light of the Lord’s words: Merciful like the Father. The Evangelist reminds us of the teaching of Jesus who says, “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). It is a program of life as demanding as it is rich with joy and peace. Jesus’ command is directed to anyone willing to listen to His voice (cf. Luke 6:27). In order to be capable of mercy, therefore, we must first of all dispose ourselves to listen to the Word of God. This means rediscovering the value of silence in order to meditate on the Word that comes to us. In this way, it will be possible to contemplate God’s mercy and adopt it as our lifestyle.

The practice of pilgrimage has a special place in the Holy Year, because it represents the journey each of us makes in this life. Life itself is a pilgrimage, and the human being is a viator, a pilgrim traveling along the road, making his way to the desired destination. Similarly, to reach the Holy Door in Rome or in any other place in the world, everyone, each according to his or her ability, will have to make a pilgrimage. This will be a sign that mercy is also a goal to reach, and requires dedication and sacrifice. May pilgrimage be an impetus to conversion: by crossing the threshold of the Holy Door, we will find the strength to embrace God’s mercy and dedicate ourselves to being merciful with others, as the Father has been with us.

The Lord Jesus shows us the steps of the pilgrimage to attain our goal: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back” (Luke 6:37-38). The Lord asks us above all not to judge and not to condemn. If anyone wishes to avoid God’s judgment, he should not make himself the judge of his brother or sister. Human beings, whenever they judge, look no farther than the surface, whereas the Father looks into the very depths of the soul. How much harm words do when they are motivated by feelings of jealousy and envy! To speak ill of others puts them in a bad light, undermines their reputation and leaves them prey to the whims of gossip. To refrain from judgment and condemnation means, in a positive sense, to know how to accept the good in every person and to spare him any suffering

that might be caused by our partial judgment, our presumption to know everything about him. But this is still not sufficient to express mercy. Jesus asks us also to forgive and to give. To be instruments of mercy, because it was we who first received mercy from God. To be generous with others, knowing that God showers His goodness upon us with immense generosity.

Merciful like the Father, therefore, is the “motto” of this Holy Year. In mercy, we find proof of how God loves us. He gives His entire self, always, freely, asking nothing in return. He comes to our aid whenever we call upon Him. What a beautiful thing that the Church begins her daily prayer with the words, “O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me” (Psalm 70:2)! The assistance we ask for is already the first step of God’s mercy toward us. He comes to assist us in our weakness. And His help consists in helping us accept His presence and closeness to us. Day after day, touched by His compassion, we also can become compassionate towards others.

In this Holy Year, we look forward to the experience of opening our hearts to those living on the outermost fringes of society: fringes which modern society itself creates.

How many uncertain and painful situations there are in the world today! How many are the wounds borne by the flesh of those who have no voice because their cry is muffled and drowned out by the indifference of the rich! During this Jubilee, the Church will be called even more to heal these wounds; to assuage them with the oil of consolation, to bind them with mercy; and cure them with solidarity and vigilant care. Let us not fall into humiliating indifference or a monotonous routine that prevents us from discovering what is new! Let us ward off destructive cynicism! Let us open our eyes and see the misery of the world, the wounds of our brothers and sisters who are denied their dignity, and let us recognize that we are compelled to heed their cry for help!

May we reach out to them and support them so they can feel the warmth of our presence, our friendship and our fraternity! May their cry become our own, and together may we break down the barriers of indifference that too often reign supreme and mask our hypocrisy and egoism!

To know more about Caritas Manila, visit www.caritasmanila.org. ph. For your donations, call our DonorCare lines 563-9311, 564-0205, 0999-7943455, 0905-4285001 and 0929-8343857. Make it a habit to listen to Radio Veritas 846 in the AM band, or through live streaming at www. veritas846.ph. For comments, e-mail veritas846pr@gmail.com.

Western officials: Iran retreating from Syria fight

By Eli Lake | Bloomberg View

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ran is beginning to withdraw its elite fighters from the Russian-led military campaign in Syria, according to US and other Western military officials, suggesting a fissure in what President Barack Obama derided last month as a “coalition of two.”

US officials tell me they are seeing significant numbers of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps troops retreat from the Syrian combat zone in recent weeks, following the deaths and wounding of some of top officers in a campaign to retake Idlib Province and other areas lost this year to opposition forces supported by the West and Gulf Arab States. As a result, the Russianinitiated offensive that was launched in September seems to be losing an important ally.

On Friday at the Saban Forum at the Brookings Institution, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Russia’s initial plan was to take back Idlib and other cities that had fallen under rebel control within three months. “It’s not going to happen because of the military difficulties,” he said, adding that the campaign to date looked to be a “failure.” He cited the “incompetence” of Syria’s army, as well as “the lack of determination of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.”

This is a surprising turn of events.

A number of Western media outlets reported this fall that Qassem

Suleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force, and Russia’s defense ministry had negotiated an infusion of Iranian forces into Syria over the summer, shortly after the conclusion of the nuclear negotiations between Iran and six other world powers. That surge was supposed to change the tide of the Syrian war that the dictator Bashar al-Assad was losing, as more of his territory fell to a coalition of rebels supported by the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others.

In October the Wall Street Journal reported on experts’ assessments there more than 7,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps members and other militia volunteers were aiding the Syrian regime. In late October Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified there were 2,000 Iranian troops in Syria leading the fight to save Assad.

Today that number has dwindled, according to US and other Western officials. One estimate shared with me by a senior Western defense official said there were only 700 Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps members now fighting in the Russian-led offensive. (That estimate does not include Iranian military advisers who have embedded with the Syrian armed forces since 2012.)

One reason Iran is now withdrawing from Syria, according to US officials, is that many officers have been killed or wounded in the heavy fighting this fall.

The US intelligence community is still trying to verify reports that Suleimani

himself was injured in late November in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

Robert Ford, who served as US ambassador to Syria between 2011 and 2014, told me reports from the region suggest that guard corps members are in the very thick of the warfare. “They are losing lieutenants,” he said. “When you lose lieutenants, it means you are losing people fighting on the front lines.” Iran has started acknowledging some of those losses in its official press.

Ford said the fierce combat the Iranians and Russians have encountered is an indication that the Western and Gulf Arab support for the Syrian opposition may be having a significant effect. The question for US policymakers is what an Iranian withdrawal will mean for Russia’s campaign.

Both countries remain steadfast that Assad should remain in power for the foreseeable future. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, even mused this week about using nuclear weapons against the Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in territory it has conquered in eastern Syria and western Iraq.

Meanwhile, some press reports say Russia is planning to open a second air base near Homs in central Syria, in addition to the facility at Latakia on the Mediterranean coast, suggesting that Moscow has decided to escalate the air war. (The media site Russia Today contradicted those reports.)

In the last week, US officials say they have seen an increase in the Russian

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air campaign in Aleppo.

Nonetheless, some US policymakers stress that the Kremlin cannot continue its air campaign indefinitely. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken made this point last week at a forum hosted by Foreign Policy Magazine, saying that while Russia’s military intervention in Syria increased its leverage over Assad, it also “increased the conflict’s leverage over Russia. Russia cannot afford to do what it’s doing in Syria for a long period of time.”

The conflict has also increased its leverage over Iran. “If the Iranians feel over the long term they need a deal, if the cost of maintaining the Assad government is too great for them, then these developments are a positive,” Ford, who is now a scholar at the Middle East Institute, told me. “If they feel the costs of the battle can be sustained for months, if not years, they may be able to pay that price. They put a high value on maintaining the Assad government as it is now.”

Since 2011, when the Syrian people began the uprising against Assad, Iran and Russia have been willing to pay that increasing price to keep their client in power. And yet, even with a new Russian air campaign and an infusion of Iranian fighters, Assad has been unable to take back his country.

The Obama administration now hopes the withdrawal of Iranian forces is an indication that at least one of Assad’s benefactors may decide to cut its losses.

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Saturday, December 12, 2015

News

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Central Luzon workers get minimum-wage hike

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By Ashley Manabat | Correspondent

ITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) has ordered a P15-a-day increase in the minimum wage in Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales, and a P20-a-day hike in Aurora.

The minimum-wage increase in Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales shall be given in two tranches—P8 upon implementation of the order and P7 on Labor Day (May 1, 2016), the council said.

For workers in Aurora, “the increase of P20 a day shall likewise be given in two tranches”—P10 upon the implementation of the order and the additional P10 on Labor Day, the council added.

“With this, the highest minimum wage in the region is now P364 a day, which is above the poverty threshold of P248 for a family of five as of December 2012,” Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) Regional Director Ana Dione said.

In a statement, Labor Secretary and NWPC Chairman Rosalinda D. Baldoz said: “We have unanimously affirmed Wage Order RB

BALDOZ

III-19, which raises by P15 a day the minimum wage in Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales, and by P20 a day in Aurora for workers in retail and services establishments with less than 16 workers.”

Baldoz said, “with this, Dole was able to meet its target that all of the country’s 30 minimumwage rates will be above the

poverty threshold level before President Aquino’s term ends” on June 30, 2016.

“This is a victory not only for Filipino workers but for all Filipinos,” Baldoz added.

“This latest wage order applies to all minimum-wage earners in the private sector in Region 3 regardless of position, designation, status of employment and methods by which the wages are paid,” Dione said.

Those who are not covered by the wage order are household workers and those employed in personal service of another, including family drivers and workers of Barangay Micro Business Enterprises.

In issuing the wage order, the Regional Wage Board encouraged establishments to adopt productiv it y improvement schemes, such as time and motion studies, good housekeeping, quality circles and labor-management cooperation, as well as to implement gain sharing programs.

Dione said complaints for noncompliance with Wage Order RB III-19 should be filed with Dole Regional Office 3 and shall be subject of enforcement proceedings under Article 128 of the Labor Code.

Any person, corporation, trust or firm, partnership, association, or entity which refuses or fails to pay the prescribed wage rates shall be subject to penal provisions under Republic Act 6727, or the Minimum Wage Fixing law.

Create culture of drug prevention–senator

By Recto Mercene

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INCE the drug problem is rooted in the country’s poverty, independent presidential aspirant Sen. Grace Poe said the government must exert all efforts to keep children in school and to provide other learning and earning opportunities for out-of-school youth.

Poe, who included the issue of dangerous drugs on her priority agenda, said that aside from cutting off drug supply, she would turn government policies toward addressing the root causes of drug addiction and cultivating a culture of prevention.

“We recognize that the issue of dangerous drugs is a multilayered issue that has its roots in poverty, economic opportunities, health indicators and exposure to addiction.

Thus, we believe that it is critical to address the motivations for drug use, even while we relentlessly pursue drug pushers,” Poe, who is running for president, said.

The senator added that date from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (Pdea) showed that uneducated youth and unemployed males comprised majority of drug users and dealers in the country.

She also pointed out that, while financial hardships remain the top reason for youth dropouts,

substance abuse contributes to the high number of out-of-school youth in the Philippines.

In 2013 about 4 million Filipinos aged 6 to 24 were considered out of school, meaning they were not attending school, have not finished any post-secondary course and are not working.

According to the National Youth Assessment Study, 7 percent to 8 percent of children in all age brackets stopped schooling because of dependency on drugs, but 61 percent to 64 percent of them also expressed a desire to go back to school if given the chance.

“We will implement a comprehensive strategy for drug abuse prevention. We recognize that this approach will require significant interagency cooperation in government, but we believe it can and must be done for the sake of our children,” said Poe, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs.

‘Respect Poe’s human rights’

MEANWHILE, a coalition supporting Poe’s presidential bid for 2016 urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to uphold basic human rights as the pillar of civilized and democratic governments, notably the rights to nationality, democracy, fair treatment by fair courts, fair play and equality. Speaking for

the coalition, Ang Grasya ng Masang Pilipino Movement Spokesman Jose Samson lamented that Poe, being a foundling and shortly after her formal announcement to seek the presidency in 2016, has been subjected to series and continuing violation of her human rights regarding her nationality or citizenship and even her length of residency to exlude her from presidential race.

“The three elections commissioners may have been guilty of abuse of discretion to exclude Grace Poe in the 2016 presidential elections by disqualifying her for allegedly being short of residency requirement without properly scrutinizing the documents presented, such as the enrolment of her minor children in 2005, the buying of a house, securing of Bureau of Internal Revenue tax account number, the employment of her husband here—all indubitably show actual residence per law,” Samson, a Constituinal law professor, explained.

“At the very least, Sen. Grace Poe is entitled to her basic human rights to fair treatment by fair courts and in this case, the Comelec, to fair play and equality and not to favor an administration candidate so as not to distort the truth and to preserve democracy by giving the sovereign Filipino the right to choose their leader,” he added.

Sports BusinessMirror

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| Saturday, December 12, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

INDEPENDENT AUDITING

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SKATEBOARD ACTION Filipino-American professional skateboarder Sean Malto displays his skills during the recent Manila leg of the Dew Tour AM

Series at the Mountain Dew Skatepark at the Circuit in Makati City. Also in attendance in the event, presented by Mountain Drew, are globally recognized skaters Jordan Maxham and Justin Schulte. Renzo Feliciano won the leg, with Demetrio Cuevas finishing second and Al Rasheed claiming third spot.

LASTIMOSA’S 38 PTS LIFT ELITE PAST ENERGY

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ARLO LASTIMOSA played his best game so far, as Blackwater Elite earned the respect it longed for by routing Barako Bull, 116-92, on Friday night in the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Elite were in control most of the way, with Lastimosa towering mightily and wound up with a career-high 38 points, including fiveof-eight shooting from beyond the arc.

Lastimosa, drafted 20th overall by Barako Bull in 2013, highlighted his amazing game with three straight triples in the fourth quarter,

when the Energy tried to stage a rally.

The victory, however, was only the second against seven losses for the Elite. The loss was Barako’s third straight for a 4-5 card.

“We were a little bit nervous entering the game, we should have won the game against Ginebra last Saturday. That win could have given our team and the players some boost in morale and confidence,” said Blackwater Head Coach Leo Isaac, referring to their double-overtime loss to Ginebra.

“So we really have to push the players in practice. We kept telling them about the

importance of our remaining games,” Isaac added.

Rookie Art de la Cruz finished with 21 points and six rebounds, while Bambam Gamalinda poured in 15 points and 10 boards for the Elite.

Willie Wilson scored 23 points and Josh Urbiztondo added 17 markers for Barako Bull, which trailed by as many as 19 points, 23-42, midway the second quarter.

Blackwater buried 11 triples in the game and outrebounded their rivals, 51 to 40, that translated to a 21-9 margin in second-chance points. Ramon Rafael Bonilla

NU eyes sweep GOLD CUP RACE AIRS LIVE ON PTV 4 against Ateneo F

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ATIONAL University (NU) guns for a first-round sweep against titleholder Ateneo in a rematch of last season’s University Athletic Association of the Philippines juniors basketball championship at 3 p.m. on Saturday at the Blue Eagle Gym. Behind John Lloyd Clemente and Justine Baltazar, the Bullpups are looking good even with the graduation of their key players. They have racked up six straight victories. In other matches, De La Salle-Zobel battles Adamson University at 1 p.m., right after University of Santo Tomas and Far Eastern University-Diliman collide at 11 a.m. Winless squads University of the Philippines Integrated School and University of the East clash in the 9 a.m. curtain raiser.

After bowing to the Junior Archers in the opener, the Blue Eaglets, starring last season’s Finals Most Valuable Player Jolo Mendoza, streaked to five straight victories to gain a share of second place.

Tied with Ateneo at 5-1, De La Salle-Zobel is proving its worth as a title contender, as Aljun Melecio is making the most out of his final year.

The Baby Falcons, meanwhile, are tied with the Baby Tamaraws at fourth spot with identical 3-3 records. The Tiger Cubs are in sixth place with 2-4, while the Junior Maroons and the Junior Warriors lost all their six games in the first round.

OR the first time, sports fans will be able to view the biggest horse race of the year—the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Presidential Gold Cup—live on television on Sunday.

This was announced by Philippine Racing Commission (Philracom) Chairman Andrew A. Sanchez, who arranged for the event’s live coverage on the government’s People’s Television Network (PTV), in a one-hour show starting at 4 p.m.

This is the 43rd edition of the race that has been dubbed the most prestigious and most significant on the racing calendar. The first PCSO Gold Cup was won by Pedro Cojuangco’s Sun God. Last year’s winner was Mayor Benhur Abalos’s Hagdang Bato, which also won in 2012.

For the past several years, Philracom has been a cosponsor of the race, providing P1 million in additional prize money on top of the

purse allocated by PCSO. This year’s Gold Cup will be run over 2,000 meters at the Manila Jockey Club’s San Lazaro Leisure Park.

The final lineup comprises Joseph Dyhengco’s 4YO colt Dixie Gold, carrying 55 kilograms, with jockey PR Dilema; Benjamin Abalos III’s 4YO colt Kanlaon, 55 kgs., VR Dilema; Ruben Dimacuha’s 4YO colt Low Profile, 55 kgs., MA Alvarez; Antonio Tan Jr.’s 6YO horse Pugad Lawin, 59 kgs., JPA Guce; Felipe Vergara’s 4YO colt Messi, 55 kgs., JA Guce; Atty. Narciso O. Morales’s 4YO colt Tap Dance, 55 kgs., JB Guce; Mayor Benhur Abalos’s 4YO filly Malaya, 54 kgs., JB Hernandez; and Felizardo Sevilla Jr.’s 6YO horse Penrith, 56 kgs., CB Garganta.

The PCSO Presidential Gold Cup was first held in 1973 and is the longest-running continuously-held sporting event in the country.

Perpetual Help shares ‘NC’ lead

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NIVERSITY of Perpetual Help turned back last year’s tormentor College of Saint Benilde, 25-21, 25-27, 25-20, 25-20, on Friday to seize a share of the lead with defending champion Emilio Aguinaldo College in men’s volleyball action of the 91st National Collegiate Athletic Association at The Arena in San Juan City.

Bonjomar Castel led all hitters with 20 points, 13 of which came on spikes, while Manuel Doliente and Rey Taneo Jr. scattered 17 and 10 points, respectively, to help catch up on the Generals on top of the standings with a 4-0 (win-loss) record.

In women’s play, Perpetual Help also defeated College of Saint Benilde, 14-25, 25-23, 25-21, 2125, 16-14, to improve to 2-2. Cindy Imbo unloaded 19 hits as the Lady Altas stole the win from the Lady Blazers, who fell to their first defeat after a three-game winning streak. Perpetual Help made it a triple kill on Friday after the reigning champion Altalettes bashed Saint Benilde, 25-8, 25-8, 25-7, to remain unscathed in three matches.

Ryuji Conrad Etorma had an all-around performance of 19 hits, nine on kills, with two on blocks and a season-high eight aces. The Junior Blazers fell to 0-3 (win-loss).

HEADER!

The United States’s Abby Wambach (back) hits a header over Trinidad & Tobago’s Tasha St. Louis (10) during the second half of their international friendly on Thursday in San Antonio. AP

AUSANNE, Switzerland—The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will launch an independent auditing of the money it gives to sports organizations in a bid to prevent the type of corruption scandals that have engulfed the governing bodies of soccer and track and field.

Noting that many sports bodies are concerned their “reputation is being tarnished” by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) and International Association of Athletics Federations scandals, the IOC executive board on Thursday adopted a “declaration on good governance in sport and the protection of clean athletes.”

“Recent incidents have shown that, in the interest of the credibility of all sportsorganizations, immediate action to reinforce good governance is necessary,” the IOC said.

IOC President Thomas Bach said an independent company would be hired to audit the revenues it provides to international federations, national Olympic bodies and games’ organizing committees. The audits, which will start next year, will look at how the money is used and how the bodies are governed, he said.

“What we want to achieve is that this money which is coming from sport is going to sport, and the decisions of who is benefiting from these contributions are being taken by respecting the rules of good governance,” Bach said at a news conference.

The IOC is providing about $1.5 billion in television and sponsorship revenues to

THOMAS BACH: What we want to achieve is that this money, which is coming from sport, is going to sport. AP

Brazilian organizers of next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The IOC also distributes tens of millions of dollars in Olympic revenues to sports federations and national Olympic committees.

Bach said the audits would cover only the operational budget of the Rio organization committee, not the construction contracts for Olympic venues. In June police arrested the CEOs of two of Brazil’s largest construction companies, including the head of Odebrecht, which helped build many World Cup and Olympic venues.

“The stadiums are not finances or budgeted by the organizing committee,” Bach said. “These are contracts between the city of Rio de Janeiro and the respective construction companies. We have full confidence in the mayor and the city.”

The IOC said it welcomes proposals for term limits and other reforms at Fifa, which is reeling from a corruption scandal that has

led to the arrests of dozens of soccer and marketing officials and the suspension of President Sepp Blatter.

“The reforms are a great step in the right way,” Bach said. “Now finally there will be term limits, and there will be other measures taken.

I think if these reforms are approved by the Fifa general assembly, it will be a sound basis for the future of Fifa.”

However, the IOC said it “remains concerned with regard to the ongoing criminal procedures in the United States and Switzerland, which according to authorities could last another five years,” it said.

The IOC urged Fifa “to take all necessary measures to clarify and resolve all the pending issues as soon as possible by further engaging with the relevant authorities.”

The IOC also reiterated its proposals for taking drug-testing out of the hands ofsports organizations to make the system more independent and credible. AP

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day, December 12, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

BRIGHT FUTURE

By Mike Bresnahan

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Los Angeles Times

AN ANTONIO—Despite all the chaos that’s rammed into the Los Angeles Lakers, Jordan Clarkson has remained their steadiest player.

He can score, with accuracy no less, and he’s got a determined, make-ithappen mind-set.

He’s also one of the keys to the Lakers’ off-season, a slightly complicated piece of the gigantic cash pie available to them next July.

Kobe Bryant’s $25 million will be off their books and Roy Hibbert’s $15.6 million, too. Add the league-wide salarycap increase from $70 million to about $90 million and you have a spending party for a team with only seven players under contract for 2016-2017 at a combined $26.3 million.

But Clarkson will get a big raise as a restricted free agent after making $845,000 this season. The possibilities are many because he’s a second-round draft pick who received a two-year contract when the Lakers plucked him out of obscurity with the 46th pick in 2014.

Luckily for the Lakers, Clarkson, 23, will be subject to the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) so-called Gilbert Arenas provision next summer, meaning other teams will be limited in what they can offer.

The Arenas provision was created because Golden State was unable to match Washington’s offer in 2002 to Arenas, a second-round draft pick whose career was on the rise after only two NBA seasons. Golden State was hamstrung by the salary cap, so Washington was able to pry him away.

Teams with enough salary-cap room can give Clarkson a max of $57.8 million over four years, or $34.1 million over three years. Clarkson can sign an offer sheet with only one team, which the Lakers have the option of matching.

Or the Lakers could swoop in before he starts talking to other teams and offer a four-year contract up to $88.9 million.

That would obviously get a deal done, but would be a lot of money for a promising

player whose primary accomplishment so far was making the NBA all-rookie team.

“The Lakers’ options are open right now,” salary-cap expert Larry Coon said.

“They can either let him try the freeagent market knowing that, at the very worst, some team is going to spring an Arenas contract on him that they won’t mind matching. Or they can offer him a slightly better deal that’s still better than he can get anywhere else.”

There’s little doubt the Lakers want Clarkson in their future. He’s averaging 15.2 points on commendable 47-percent shooting. Bryant, in contrast, is averaging 15.9 points on 30.9-percent shooting.

“I think he’s been remarkably consistent,” Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said of Clarkson in a recent interview. “He did have to make the adjustment from playing the second half of the year last year with basically a free rein to a team where there’s more ball-handling guards. That takes away a little bit of what he gave us in the second half of last year.

“Having said that, he worked on his game during the summer, he’s a much better shooter, he’s just as competitive.”

Because of the Arenas provision, he’s a virtual lock to be on the Lakers several more years.

MORE COACH KOBE?

IN a surprise move, Kobe Bryant yielded playing time to the younger players late in a 123-122 overtime loss on Wednesday to Minnesota.

It was the right gesture on his part, considering his erratic play this season.

The key question—will it continue?

Bryant seemed to enjoy it.

“I did a lot more teaching, coaching them along from the sidelines,” he said.

“I played 20 years. I’m not really tripping about minutes or anything like that.”

Bryant has repeatedly said he doesn’t want to coach when done, entirely sensible given his legendary impatient demeanor.

Just the same, Julius Randle endorsed him.

“If he wanted to, he’d be pretty good at it,” Randle said. “He was patient [Wednesday]. It was good.”

Durant powers OKC vs Atlanta

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Jordan Clarkson will get a big raise as a restricted free agent after making $845,000 this season.

The possibilities are many because he’s a second-round draft pick who received a twoyear contract when the Lakers plucked him out of obscurity with the 46th pick in 2014.

KLAHOMA CITY—Kevin Durant had 25 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in his seventh career triple-double, as the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Atlanta Hawks, 107-94, on Thursday.

Russell Westbrook had 23 points and 10 assists. It was just the second time both Durant and Westbrook had at least 10 assists in the same game, and the first time it happened in a win.

Durant got his final assist on a pass to Westbrook for a three-pointer with 1:14 remaining.

Serge Ibaka had a season-high 23 points and 10 rebounds for the Thunder, who won their third straight.

Kent Bazemore scored 22 points and Jeff Teague had 18 for the Hawks, who had won their previous two games. Kyle Korver added 12 and Thabo Sefolosha finished with 11.

The Thunder outrebounded the Hawks, 52-34. In Chicago, Pau Gasol scored 24 points as Chicago beat the Clippers, 83-80, to end a threegame losing streak.

The Bulls caught a big break midway through the third quarter, when Clippers All-Star Blake Griffin was ejected for a hard foul against Taj Gibson, and they came away with the win after blowing a 16-point lead.

Jimmy Butler finished with 14 points after pouring in a career-high 36 the previous night against Boston. Derrick Rose scored all of his 11 points in the second half, and Gibson finished with 12 points and eight rebounds. Griffin led the Clippers with 18 points. Chris Paul scored 12 but missed the tying three-point attempt, while DeAndre Jordan added 10 points and 14 rebounds. The Clippers hit 10 of 22 three-pointers but came up short after winning three straight and six of seven.

Andrea Bargnani scored a season-high 23 points, and Thaddeus Young had 18 points and 11 rebounds, as Brooklyn beat Philadelphia, 100-91. Brooklyn won for the sixth time in its last seven home games.

Philadelphia fell to 0-13 on the road.

Shane Larkin scored 14 points and Bojan Bogdanovic had 10 for the Nets.

Jahlil Okafor had 22 points and 10 rebounds, and TJ McConnell scored 17 points for the 76ers. AP

NOT even Barcelona is off limits for Cristiano Ronaldo. AP

JORDAN CLARKSON could get a hefty raise in off-season. AP

‘VERY COMPLICATED’ M ADRID—Cristiano Ronaldo is really serious about keeping his options open for the future. Not even Barcelona or Manchester United’s rivals in England are off-limits.

Ronaldo told the Associated Press (AP) on Thursday that he knows it would be “very complicated” to play for these clubs, but it’s something that the Real Madrid star doesn’t rule out either.

He said nothing is certain in soccer, so he will not close doors to any leagues or teams, not even Madrid’s biggest rival.

“It’s a little more difficult, but...,” he said, with a long pause, not dismissing the possibility.

“There are things that you kind of already have an idea, that to play one day for Barcelona would be almost impossible, or to play for another English club other than Manchester, it’s very complicated,” he said. “But that’s not 100-percent guaranteed. As I said before, there are no certainties in football.”

In his interview with the AP, the Portugal forward made it clear that when it’s time to decide about his future, he will consider all options on the table.

“Everything is open, all leagues,” he said. “I may end my career here with Real Madrid. I’m just being honest. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. If I was 75-percent certain, I would say so, it wouldn’t be a problem. But I have no idea.”

Speaking before the launch of his new product with nutrition partner Herbalife, Ronaldo said he may even decide to be somewhere else other than Europe, and that it’s not impossible for him to be playing in the United States’ Major League Soccer.

“Right now I don’t see myself playing in the American league, but that’s right now,” he said. “In two or three years I may think differently.”

He said that in the future he may be at a stage of his life in which he might prefer playing in the US, instead of the more traditional European leagues.

“These are always difficult questions to answer because we never know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” he said. “And as a football professional, this is always an unknown, so I prefer to stay in the present. The present is good and I’m enjoying being at Real Madrid. But in a few years I

don’t know how I’m going to be thinking.”

Ronaldo has a contract with Real Madrid until 2018, but there has been widespread speculation about him leaving the Spanish club—despite having become its all-time leading scorer. Those rumors gained ground after his brief sideline meeting with Paris Saint-Germain Coach Laurent Blanc in a recent match at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, but Ronaldo has been downplaying any immediate move out of Madrid.

“When it’s closer to ending my contract I’m going to have to make decisions, whether it’s staying at Real Madrid or going to another club or ending my career in a few years,” the 30-year-old Ronaldo said.

“It’s normal. That’s why I’m not worried, because I know that everything has a beginning and everything has an end. I’m ready for that. I’m ready to stay at Real Madrid, to leave, to end my career when it’s time. It’s part of my job.”

The Portugal star, voted the best player in the world three times, played six seasons with Manchester United before joining Madrid in 2009. AP