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Life

‘The year of the poor’

POCKET PLANNER AND PRAYER BOOK, FR. SAL PUTZU, SDB AND LOUIE M. LACSON, HFL Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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Friday, January 8, 2016

EONARDO DiCAPRIO, now approaching a quarter-century as a movie-major leaguer, redefines film stardom, demonstrating a willingness to challenge himself that few of his counterparts can equal. In romance, drama, comedy and science fiction, he radiates heavyweight acting talent combined with megastar cool. Swinging from role to role like Tarzan on a vine, he has never risked a freefall like he faced in the artistically risky and physically dangerous The Revenant. In this savage epic of survival, DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, a real-life 1820s frontier guide left for dead by fellow explorers after he was mauled by a bear. With a broken leg and open wounds, the vengeful, nearly silent character, hunts down the expedition members who abandoned him. He repeatedly crosses paths with Indian tribes seeking to take their own revenge against the settlers who imposed pain and suffering on them. Traversing freezing rivers and icy wilderness, gnawing raw flesh and facing physical danger were not just shocking episodes in the film but perilous ordeals of DiCaprio’s performance. In a recent phone conversation he explained how, during a grueling nine-month shoot in frigid tracts of Canada and Argentina, he literally suffered for his art. This film production has been described as one of the most difficult in the industry’s history. Temperatures at some locations in the Canadian Rockies reached 40 below. What’s the benefit of taking part in such a harrowing project? It makes you conscious of what these men really had to do, living in these harsh elements. And you think of people who live without power, electricity or water around the world. You can’t complain too much that you’re reenacting the story of Hugh Glass with the help of an entire crew, and a team of people around you to make sure you’re safe and ultimately warm. As far as making movies is concerned, I think this was definitely the most difficult movie for, I think, everyone involved unanimously. (Director Alejandro González Inarritu, who won three Oscars last year for Birdman, said the filming “almost killed me.”) How do you keep the focus of your acting mind-set in place when you’re exposed to punishing conditions like that? Well, I haven’t been on a movie set since! The thing that was hardest for all of us to deal with was the subzero temperatures, the cold. It was a constant struggle for everyone to stay warm. Especially when you’re out there all day and you’re in period gear and all the actors needed to stay conscious about not getting hypothermia. That was your main challenge. It must also be a tremendous acting challenge. You’ve never played a role this dialogue-free. What is it about a role that depends on the expressive power of your eyes and your face and your gestures that draws you to accept it? I’ve always been a fan of silent cinema. It’s always interesting to watch actors work without the ability to articulate what they’re feeling. I have played so many characters that are talkative and vocal, from J. Edgar Hoover to Howard Hugh—certainly the real-life ones—getting their viewpoint across with words. As much as was written in the script, I tried to scale it down even more so. I wanted it to be an almost silent performance, because whenever Hugh Glass (whose throat was slashed in his bear attack) said something out loud, it had to have meaning and it had to have a purpose. He was essentially a character who had to disappear in a harsh landscape in order to survive. He had to use his words very sparingly. One of the key motivations for me, besides acting for Alejandro, was to try to give a performance that was reactive and based on instinctive responses to what the surroundings were. That meant a lot of preparation beforehand (such as learning how to load and fire flintlock rifles) but forgetting everything once you arrive on set and just being in the moment. Frederick Manfred wrote the book Lord Grizzly about Glass in 1954. Part of his research was to physically crawl for miles as the wounded man did. What was the research process you followed to capture this character? This is based on a novel about Glass (Michael Punke’s 2002 biographic drama The Revenant) but there’s little that’s historically known about what really happened. To me it’s almost like a triumphant short story of the American frontier—what the new American was at that time and what it took not only to survive in nature but conquer nature. In a lot of ways it represented the pre-Industrial Revolution idea of being able to take over nature. Ultimately for me the whole movie was about finding the poetry with Alejandro about what it meant to persevere, surviving and what you lived for. And what revenge is. If you follow that sort of undertaking, will it become something even more existential when you’re out there? That was what we were out there to explore. It was very straightforward and it was up to us to weave in all the stuff the natural world gave us on the journey.

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO

Even a historic epic like this is in some way a reflection of its time. How does this story about a lawless land relate to our world today for you? To me, it’s very pertinent because so much of what this movie is about was discovered in the process of making it. To me, with the theme of man dominating nature, you have this time in American history when it was discovering new territory. Before (President James) Polk decided to wage the Mexican war and take over the Oregon Territory, this was all lawless land. It was land that was facing the first extraction of its natural resources by killing the animals and sending their very expensive furs off to Europe. It’s the first wave of American capitalism out West. The undertext of this movie is very much about the indigenous people that lived there. The Native Americans. How they became displaced, how their culture was lost, how there was really a genocide of an entire population of people at that time. We think we’re so much more advanced today and we can learn from history. But you look at what’s going on all around the world, with extraction of natural resources—from oil to mining to hydroelectric dams to cutting down rain forests—we’re still making the same mistakes. The story perpetuates itself and has incredible meaning today.

AND SUFFERING FOR HIS ART

LIFE

By Colin Covert | Star Tribune

PHOTO COURTESY OF 20TH CENTURY FOX

■ The Revenant opens February 3 in Philippine theaters nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

NOKOR’S H-BOMB A6

The World BusinessMirror

Friday, January 8, 2016

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NORTH Koreans watch a news broadcast on a video screen outside Pyongyang Railway Station in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Wednesday. Pyongyang has long claimed it has the right to develop nuclear weapons to defend itself against the US, an established nuclear power with whom it has been in a state of war for more than 65 years. AP/KIM KWANG HYON

NOKOR’S H-BOMB CLAIM ELICITS

CHORUS OF CONDEMNATION

EIJING—North Korea’s claim that it had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb on Wednesday elicited an angry, if familiar, chorus of condemnation from countries including the United States, South Korea, Japan, China and various arms-control organizations. But Washington and the international community may yet again find it hard to muster the will to strengthen sanctions or take bold steps to lure North Korea back to the bargaining table any time soon, experts said.

The UN Security Council condemned Pyongyang’s assertion that it had exploded a “miniature” hydrogen bomb, calling it a “clear violation of council resolutions.” In a statement issued after emergency consultations on Wednesday, the council said it had previously expressed its determination to take “further significant measures” in the event of another North Korean nuclear test and would begin work immediately on a new resolution. Successive rounds of UN sanctions have not persuaded Pyongyang to rein in its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles programs, however, and the council did not specify what new measures would be considered. Aides to US President Barack Obama said military options remained on the table if North Korea continues to pursue nuclear weapons, but added that the president is currently focused on diplomatic responses. “North Korea continues to be one of the most isolated nations in the world, and their isolation has only deepened as they have sought to engage in increasingly provocative acts,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. If confirmed, it would be North Korea’s fourth nuclear test since

2006, but the first using fusion technology. North Korea’s nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013 are all believed to have used plutoniumbased, or perhaps uranium-based, atomic weapons.

Not consistent with H-bomb

THE US government’s initial analysis of underground activity in North Korea was “not consistent” with the country’s claim of having used a hydrogen bomb on Wednesday, Earnest said. Hydrogen bombs, also called thermonuclear bombs, can potentially be much larger than atomic weapons, which rely on fission for their explosive power. However, the initial data indicated the blast was not substantially larger than the country’s 2013 test, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association (ACA). “If indeed it was a nuclear test, whether H-bomb or A-bomb, we can expect another round of largely symbolic sanctions against North Korea, plus public condemnation from China,” said Denny Roy, an expert on Northeast Asia political and security issues at the East-West Center in Honolulu. “I don’t expect that this will fundamentally change South Korean,

Chinese or US policy toward North Korea,” he added. “This will worsen Pyongyang’s relations with China, but the North Koreans have weathered that situation before and know the Chinese fear losing all influence over the [North]. Beijing concluded long ago that the only thing worse than putting up with North Korea’s bad behavior is the danger of a collapse of the Kim regime.”

US committed to allies

SECRETARY of State John F. Kerry said the US was committed to defending the American people and honoring its security commitments to allies in the region. “We do not and will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, and actions such as this latest test only strengthen our resolve,” he said in a statement. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter spoke by phone on Wednesday with Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of US forces in South Korea, and South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo to discuss the North’s apparent nuclear test. “Secretary Carter and Minister Han agreed that any such test would be an unacceptable and irresponsible provocation and is both a fl agrant violation of international law and a threat to the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and the entire Asia-Pacific region,” Pentagon Spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement. Carter and Han agreed that the provocations should have consequences, Cook said, but he did not disclose what those consequences might entail. UN diplomats told the Associated Press that a new resolution could add more people to the sanctions list and impose limits on the travel of senior North Korean officials. How robust the measures will be will depend largely on China, North Korea’s traditional ally on the Security Council.

China resolutely opposed to tests

BEIJING said it had no advance warning of the test. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hua Chunying said China remained resolutely opposed to such tests and urged Pyongyang to take steps to prevent further deterioration of the situation. She also called for a resumption of the so-called six-party talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to abandon its

nuclear program. Those talks—involving the US, North Korea, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia—broke down in 2009 after six years, not long after Obama took office. Whether Obama has the desire—or the bandwidth—to make a bold move to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table before his term runs out in about a year remains unclear. Washington and Seoul have insisted that Pyongyang show sincerity by taking concrete steps toward denuclearization before resuming dialogue. But China, Russia and North Korea have called for an unconditional return to talks. “Obama put in a tremendous effort to secure the Iran nuclear deal which has been a successful and historic breakthrough. It shows that when the United States conducts deft, effective diplomacy to deal with a proliferation threat, it can work,” said Kimball of the ACA. “He has not taken the same political and diplomatic risk with North Korea during the course of his presidency. But I think it’s vital that in the final few months he lays the groundwork for a more effective strategy that is focused on making sure there is no further harm done by additional nuclear test explosions or long-range ballistic missile tests.”

Pyongyang not serious in negotiating

AT a joint news conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Washington last October, Obama said he saw no sign that Pyongyang was serious about negotiating. “At the point where Pyongyang says we are interested in seeing relief from sanctions and improved relations, and we are prepared to have a serious conversation about denuclearization, I think it’s fair to say that we’ll be right there at the table,” he said. “We haven’t even gotten to that point yet, because there has been no indication on the part of the North Koreans as there was with the Iranians that they could foresee a future in which they did not possess or were not pursuing nuclear weapons.”

Challenge to China

IN addition to testing Obama, Pyongyang’s actions are a fresh challenge for the Chinese leadership, which is increasingly trying to assert itself as an effective major

On the US side, she sees a similar intractability. “There has been no voice in this administration that has been advocating a rethink of our approach to North Korea,” Glaser said. She recalled one official saying that US bargaining in the past had taught Pyongyang that it was “OK to pee on the rug” and what was now necessary was to not get hysterical every time they “engage in bad behavior.” For now, it appears North Korea will at least come in for a new round of knuckle-rapping. Park, chairing an emergency meeting of South Korea’s National Security council on Wednesday, called the purported test “a grave provocation to our national security.” South Korea also said it would “take all necessary measures…so that the North will pay the price for the nuclear test.”

player in global affairs. The apparent nuclear test is the first conducted by the North since Xi Jinping officially took office as China’s president in March 2013. Although China is considered North Korea’s only remaining major ally, and Xi is the most-traveled Chinese president in history, Xi has not visited North Korea, nor has he hosted a visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “China does have the ability to curtail trade and enforce the UN Security Council sanctions much better,” Kimball said. “Their leverage is sometimes I think overstated, but still they do need to do more, and that can make an important difference on the margins.”

Sign North Korea wants to talk

SHI YUANHUA, deputy director of the Center for Korean Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said it was up to Washington to shift its stance to get Pyongyang back to the bargaining table. “Compared to the US, China is still an outsider in this matter,” he said. “Technically, the US and North Korea are still at war. They need a peace treaty and then to normalize diplomatic relations.” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last fall urged all parties to get back to the bargaining table, Shi noted, but Washington responded “coolly.” This week’s test, Shi said, was a sign that North Korea wants to talk. Bonnie S. Glaser, an expert on China’s foreign policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said there was little chance of either the Obama administration or Beijing shifting gears. China, she said, would be willing to step up diplomatic pressure on the North. But in the absence of a larger package on the table, it would be loathe to embrace tougher sanctions and abandon its “bottom-up strategy” of promoting economic engagement with North Korea, because that could create instability on its border.

Japan to strengthen sanctions

IN Japan, Nihon Television reported that officials close to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were discussing strengthening sanctions. Abe told reporters that Japan would join forces with the US and China to take “firm countermeasures,” according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK. Russia also condemned Pyongyang’s announced test as a “violation of international law.” But Leonid Petrov, an expert on North Korea at the Australian National University, said any push for a resumption of six-party talks could be undercut by continuing tensions between Washington and Moscow. “I’m sure China is going to be very angry about this, but Russia’s response will probably be more balanced and less adverse,” he said. Russian experts have expressed doubt that North Korea has the technology to produce a true hydrogen bomb, Petrov added. “If it is confirmed they do have a thermonuclear weapon, Obama should spend the rest of his term negotiating with North Korea rather than abstaining,” he said. Rep. Mac Thornberry, Republican-Texas, the chairman of the US House Armed Services Committee, said the US cannot afford to focus only on Islamic State, Iran or Russia. “We must be prepared to protect our national security against many threats,” he said. “Unfortunately, the view around the world is that US leadership is in decline while the administration’s inaction only fuels those concerns.” Los Angeles Times/TNS

WORLD

China is missing link

“A LOT of people think China is the missing link, and if only it would get on board with sanctions, that North Korea could be compelled to give up its nuclear weapons. The Chinese just don’t look at it like that,” she said. “The Chinese think the situation won’t get much worse and…their current policy is the best they can do.”

GOING AFTER CHEATS Sports

GOING AFTER CHEATS B S W The Associated Press

ONDON—Nearly 500 doping samples from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin have been retested with improved techniques to try to catch any cheaters who escaped detection a decade ago, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Wednesday. The IOC did not disclose whether the retests had produced any positive cases, saying it would announce any findings “in due course.” The IOC stores Olympic doping samples so they can be retested years later when enhanced detection methods become available. Any positive findings can lead to retroactive disqualification and loss of medals. The original eight-year statute of limitations was recently extended to 10 years under

the World Anti-Doping Code. Next month marks the 10year anniversary of the Turin Games. The IOC said it retested 489 Turin samples—out of a total of 1,219—at the World Anti-Doping Agencyaccredited lab in Lausanne. “The reanalysis program included the application of new and improved methods of detection since 2006,” the Olympic body said in a statement. “The IOC cannot, and will not, issue further comments with regard to this process, nor will it answer questions, at this point in time. Further communications will be issued in due course.” It wasn’t clear exactly when the new tests were carried out, or whether they included previous retests. When the original eight-year deadline was set to expire in 2014, the IOC announced in 2013 that it would retest about 350 Turin samples based on intelligence that targeted athletes and events considered most at risk for doping. The IOC said it would use an improved test that could detect steroid use going back months, rather than days. The results of those tests were kept confidential for legal reasons. At least one positive case was believed to remain under review. In 2014 the Estonian Olympic Committee said retired cross-country Olympic champion Kristina Smigun-Vahi was suspected of doping based on retests of Turin samples. In 2010 the IOC retested some Turin samples for insulin and blood-booster Cera but all came back negative. Those samples were destroyed, so the latest tests are on different samples.

(583). Rodriguez, who served a yearlong drug suspension in 2014, remains active. Thome’s first appearance on the ballot will be in 2018. Curt Schilling rose from 39 percent to 52, Edgar Martinez from 27 percent to 43, and Mike Mussina from 25 percent to 43. Griffey was known simply as “Junior” by many as a contrast to his father, three-

23. Trevor Hoffman, on the ballot for the first time, was 34 short. The vote total dropped by 109 from last year because writers who have not been active for 10 years lost their votes under new rules. There were significant increases for a pair of stars accused of steroids use. Roger Clemens, the only seven-time Cy Young Award winner, rose to 45

percent, and Barry Bonds, the only seven-time Most Valuable Player, to 44 percent, both up from about 37 percent last year. Mark McGwire, who admitted using steroids, received 12 percent in his 10th and final ballot appearance. Half of MLB’s top 10 home-run hitters are not in the Hall: Bonds (762), Alex Rodriguez (654), Jim Thome (612), Sammy Sosa (609) and McGwire

Messi, Barca prevail B

ARCELONA, Spain—Lionel Messi scored two goals and set up two more to lead Barcelona’s 4-1 win over crosstown rival Espanyol, which finished a hottempered Copa del Rey clash with nine men on Wednesday. Felipe Caicedo grabbed Espanyol a ninth-minute lead at Camp Nou, but Messi hit right back four minutes later. The star forward put the hosts ahead with an unstoppable free kick just before halftime, and assisted Gerard Pique soon after the interval. Messi then set up Neymar for the fourth goal after Espanyol’s Hernan Perez and Papakouly Diop were sent off, and Caicedo and Marco Asensio were lost to injury. Tempers flared as the game dragged on, with Messi,

rules” in line with the global code. Last November Israel was one of six countries declared by Wada to be noncomplaint, along with Andorra, Argentina, Bolivia, Russia and Ukraine. Belgium, Brazil, France, Greece, Mexico and Spain were given until March 18 to come into compliance. In Aigle, Switzerland, cycling’s governing body has banned former one-day classics specialist Michael Boogerd two years for doping during his career. The International Cycling Union gave no details of the retired Dutch rider’s agreement to accept a ban running through December 21, 2017. Boogerd was an official with the Dutch second-tier team Roompot Oranje last season but is now suspended from working in the sport. Now 43, Boogerd admitted in a 2013 television interview that he used Erythropoietin and banned blood transfusions when he rode for the Rabobank team. He won the Amstel Gold Race in 1999 and had several podium finishes in the premier Dutch event. Boogerd had two stage wins in the Tour de France, with a best finish of fifth in the dopingmarred 1998 race won by Marco Pantani.

HALL OF FAMERS

KEN GRIFFEY JR. (left) and Mike Piazza are installed to the Baseball Hall of Fame. AP

EW YORK—Ken Griffey Jr. was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame with the highest voting percentage ever on Wednesday, and Mike Piazza will join him in Cooperstown this summer. A star slugger of the Steroids Era never tainted by accusations of drug use, Griffey was on 437 of 440 votes in his first appearance on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot. His 99.3 percentage topped the previous mark of 98.84, set when Tom Seaver appeared on 425 of 430 ballots in 1992. “Happy and shocked,” Griffey said on Major League Baseball (MLB) Network, “that I get to be in such an elite club.” “In case you don’t know, I’m really superstitious. I’ve played in the Hall of Fame game three times and I’ve never set foot in the building. I’ve never even seen the front of it,” Griffey said. “The one time I wanted to go in there, I wanted to be a member.” After falling 28 votes shy last year, Piazza received 365 in his fourth time on the ballot and will be inducted along with Griffey on July 24. “Incredibly special. Wow,” Piazza said on a call with MLB Network. “I sat here with my mouth on the floor.” A player needs 75 percent to gain election, and Jeff Bagwell missed by 15 votes and Tim Raines by

Only one positive case was recorded during the Turin Games, with Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva stripped of a silver medal after testing positive for a banned stimulant. In addition, Italian police raided the lodgings of the Austrian cross-country and biathlon teams during the games, seizing blood doping equipment and other substances. No Austrians tested positive at those games, but the IOC later banned several for life. Five athletes were caught in retests of samples from the 2004 Athens Olympics, including men’s shot put winner Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine. Retests of samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics led to five positive cases for Cera—with Bahrain runner Rashid Ramzi stripped of gold in the 1,500 meters. The IOC said last year it plans to retest hundreds more samples from the Beijing Games before the deadline expires in 2018. “Even if it’s five or 10 years later, it’s really an important thing to do,” IOC Medical Director Dr. Richard Budgett told The Associated Press in an interview last March. “It’s not ideal. You want to do it as close as possible to the time, but if you’ve got no option but to do it later, then that’s what you have to do.” Israel, meanwhile, has fallen into line with the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada). The Wada said its foundation board has voted to remove Israel from the list of countries found to be noncompliant with the world antidoping code. Wada said Israel has “drafted and adopted antidoping

RALLY ROUTE A family poses for pictures as they visit the Uyuni salt flats at sunset in Uyuni in Bolivia on Wednesday. The Dakar Rally will pass through parts of Uyuni starting on Thursday. AP

Neymar, and Luis Suarez receiving yellow cards, along with eight for Espanyol. The referee’s report also mentioned a heated exchange between opposing players after the match. Espanyol’s Gerard Moreno said some Barcelona players “were waiting for them” and “provoked” him and his teammates. “There was tension and intensity,” Barcelona Coach Luis Enrique said. “The referees mark the limits, not the players or the coaches. They are the ones charged with ensuring this is soccer and not American football.” Espanyol, which held Barcelona to 0-0 in the Spanish league on Saturday, will have the return leg of the

time All-Star outfielder Ken Griffey, who played alongside him in Seattle during 1990 and 1991. The younger Griffey became a 13-time All-Star outfielder and finished with 630 homers, which is sixth on the career list. After reaching MLB in 1989, he was selected for 11 consecutive All-Star Games from 1990.

Wanting to play closer to his home in Florida, he pushed for a trade to Cincinnati—his father’s old team and the area he grew up in—after the 1999 season. But slowed by injuries, he never reached 100 runs batted in again, and finished back with the Mariners in 2009. While Griffey was selected first in the 1987 amateur draft and became the first No. 1 to make the Hall, Piazza was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers with the 1,390th pick in the 62nd round in 1998. He’s the lowest pick to make the Hall since the draft started in 1965. Piazza became the top offensive catcher in MLB history, hitting better than .300 in nine straight seasons and finishing with 427 home runs, including a record 396 when he was in the game behind the plate. He was a 12-time All-Star with a .308 career batting average. After reaching MLB with the Dodgers in 1992, Piazza was dealt to Florida in May 1998 before he could become a free agent, then traded eight days later to the Mets. He remained with New York through 2005, hitting a memorable go-ahead home-run in the first game in the city following the 2001 terrorist attacks, and retired after the 2007 season. Piazza and Bagwell were drawn into the steroids controversy by some who pointed out their powerful physiques, but both have denied doping, and no substantive accusations have been made. AP

LIONELL MESSI scores two goals against crosstown rival Espanyol. AP

round-of-16 tie at its stadium next week. Elsewhere, Athletic Bilbao, last year’s finalist to Barcelona, scored three times in the second half to erase a two-goal deficit and beat Villarreal 3-2, while Atletico Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla and Deportivo La Coruna got positive results. Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal, used as a substitute, debuted for Barcelona, after the club finished its ban on new players during 2015 for breaking International Football Federation’s rules regarding the transfer for youth players. Espanyol found its opener when Caicedo used an excellent first touch before slotting in a ball he received from Asensio, who started a counterattack by

SPORTS

intercepting Dani Alves’s pass. But Messi quickly responded when he caught Espanyol’s defense off-balance after Andres Iniesta played him forward to beat goalkeeper Pau Lopez. Caicedo went down holding his left thigh near halftime, but the visitors’ defense held firm until Messi sent his free kick streaking in off the underside of the crossbar. Espanyol’s hopes took another blow when Asensio was substituted after he apparently picked up an injury during the halftime warm-ups. It was all Barcelona the rest of the way, as Messi set up Pique to tap in his goal after Iniesta’s incisive pass started the move.

Perez’s second booking was followed by Diop seeing red for something he apparently said to Suarez in the 75th. The undermanned Espanyol resisted until Messi flipped the ball forward for Neymar to put in. Bilbao also fell behind at home after Villarreal scored twice on counterattacks finished off by Leo Baptistao and Samuel Garcia. But Benat Etxebarria set up Inaki Williams to pull one back, striker Aritz Aduriz soon leveled, and Aymeric Laporte completed the comeback in the 81st. Atletico trailed after Nacho Martinez struck from long range for Rayo Vallecano, but Saul Niguez scored against his former team in the 67th to get an away goal in a 1-1 draw. AP

SUBARU LEVORG

MOTORING

OWER rates for areas served by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) are set to go down in January. In the succeeding months, however, expect the rates to go up. Electricity rates for January, Meralco announced, will drop by P0.21 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) compared to December rates, translating to a P41.30 reduction in overall electricity bill for a typical household consuming 200 kWh. For those with an average monthly consumption of 300 kWh, a downward net adjustment of P61.95 would be reflected in the January bill. For households consuming 400 kWh and 500 kWh, the corresponding price cuts of P82.60 and P103.25, respectively, would be reflected. Meralco, however, warned of higher power rates in the succeeding months, as more power plants are scheduled for maintenance shutdowns. “Rates are bound to be affected by the simultaneous scheduled plant outages and the expected increase in demand due to the reported impact of El Niño,” said Meralco Spokesman Joe

PESO EXCHANGE RATES ■ US 46.9500

CHINA, MILITARY DEAL ON TABLE IN PHLU.S. TALKS IN MIDJANUARY

The budget allocated for the Manufacturing Resurgence Program this year

“The CARS Program, we see it as a template for focused and targeted industry development. This year we are looking at the industry road maps we have. We would like to package three to five more programs of this kind,” Cristobal added. C  A

ZALDARRIAGA: “Rates are bound to be affected by the simultaneous scheduled plant outages and the expected increase in demand due to El Niño.”

Zaldarriaga said in a text message. On Wednesday, the BM reported that eight power plants in Luzon, with a combined capacity of over 4,500 megawatts (MW), are scheduled to implement maintenance shutdowns this year. Meralco announced on Thursday that the reduction in the overall rates in January was primarily due to the generation-charge component, which decreased by P0.21 per kWh from last month. At P3.92 per kWh, January’s generation charge is the lowest since January 2010. C  A

Shock waves from China send markets, oil tumbling

₧289B

Power rates to go down in Jan, then rise in succeeding months B L L

B C N. P

Trade Secretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. said more industries will enjoy government incentives under the Manufacturing Resurgence Program (MRP), after Congress increased the budget for the MRP, this year. For 2016, the MRP was allocated P289 billion, higher than the P239-billion budget it received last year. Cristobal said the government will soon announce the industries that will enjoy an incentives package similar to that offered by the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) Program for the auto industry. “The MRP will continue in implementation. To achieve inclusive growth, we believe that the manufacturing resurgence we are seeing now must be sustained,” he said.

BusinessMirror

| FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph

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

More industries to get perks to boost PHL manufacturing

SIDE from automotive, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will select four more industries that will get “high impact” incentives as part of the government’s efforts to sustain the resurgence of the country’s manufacturing sector.

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO EAR Lord, as “the year of the poor” ends, the challenges it poses continue. The poor are our less fortunate brothers and sisters who sigh and groan under the crushing weight of the most varied forms of poverty. PCP II has listed some of these “street children, the unemployed, the poor fishermen, the poor farmers, the underpaid workers, the exploited women, the slum dwellers, the sidewalk vendors, the beggars, the tribal Filipinos and the many others who live at the margin of society.” (PCP II #314). We can reduce it and transform these challenges into as many opportunities to see Christ in all the “poor,” respect them, empower them and love them. Amen.

Monday 2014 Vol.8,102016 No. 40 Vol. 11 No. 92 Friday,18,January

■ ■

INSIDE

A broader look at today’s business

CHINESE Defense Minister Liang Guanglie (left) shakes hands with his Philippine counterpart Voltaire T. Gazmin at the Defense Headquarters in Quezon City in this May 23, 2011, file photo. Guanglie’s visit came amid renewed tension in the disputed Spratly Islands, which are claimed by China, the Philippines and four other Asian countries and territories. AP/AARON FAVILA B R A

HINA’S presence in the West Philippine Sea and a military deal would be on the agenda in a meeting between Filipino and defense officials next week. The bilateral meeting scheduled on January 12 will be held among Defense Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin and Foreign Secretary Albert F. del Rosario, and their two US counterparts. The meeting’s announcement came on the heels of Beijing’s landing of a civilian aircraft in the Fiery Cross Reef. The landing drew diplomatic protests from Vietnam and the Philippines and scathing remarks from the United States, with an accompanying appeal to China not to step up the heightening tension in the West Philippine Sea, traditionally called the South China Sea. The Philippines has accused China as the source of this tension, after the world’s second-largest economy started reclaiming reefs within the Philippine-claimed territory. “We will talk about our bilateral relations. [The goal is] to enhance our relations. And probably one of the subject matters would be the South China Sea,” Gazmin said on Thursday, after receiving top military officials for the traditional New Year’s Call event, organized jointly by the Department of National Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Gazmin said they would also discuss the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca). This agreement calls for increased rotational visits of American forces and the storage of US military assets and equipment in selected bases of the AFP in Central Luzon and in Palawan. C  A

LOBA L m a rkets shuddered, as turmoil emanating from China spread around the world. European shares fell the most since August; crude oil tumbled to a 12-year low; and South Africa’s rand sank to a record, after a slide in Chinese stocks halted trading for the second time this week. Haven assets extended gains, with Treasuries rising for a sixth day and the yen reaching a four-month high. China’s tolerance for a weaker yuan is being seen as evidence policymakers are struggling to revive an economy that’s the world’s biggest user of energy, metals and grains. Those concerns helped wipe $2.5 trillion off the value of global equities in the first six days of this year. Billionaire George Soros warned that markets are facing a crisis, while the World Bank cut its global growth forecasts for this year and next, as China’s slowdown prolongs a commodity slump and contractions endure in Brazil and Russia.

$2.5T of 2016

The value of global equities wiped off in the first six days

“China has a major adjustment problem,” Soros said on Thursday at an economic forum in Colombo, Sri Lanka. “I would say it amounts to a crisis. When I look at the financial markets, there is a serious challenge, which reminds me of the crisis we had in 2008.”

Stocks

THE Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 3.5 percent as of 9:26 a.m. in London. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 2.7 percent, after the US benchmark slipped on Wednesday to its lowest level in three months. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 2 percent. A gauge of Chinese shares listed in Hong Kong slumped 4.2 percent, and the Hang Seng S “S ,” A

■ JAPAN 0.3964 ■ UK 68.6972 ■ HK 6.0563 ■ CHINA 7.1619 ■ SINGAPORE 32.6995 ■ AUSTRALIA 33.5261 ■ EU 50.6591 ■ SAUDI ARABIA 12.5083

Source: BSP (7 January 2016 )

A2 Friday, January 8, 2016

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China, military deal on table in Phl-US talks in mid-January Continued from A1

According to defense officials, the Edca has been conceived as a part of the defense and security strategy of the Philippines. It is currently under review by the Supreme Court, after several groups—even the Senate—called the agreement unconstitutional. The Senate maintained that the deal needed its concurrence. “The area of common concern right now is the passage of the Edca. This is what they [the US] are also awaiting, and so we don’t know yet what is going to happen,” Gazmin said. “It is still very premature to talk about the Edca.”

McCain, Manila

THE face-to-face meeting between

the US and the Philippines comes at a time when both countries are struggling hard to contain China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea, which was lately reinforced by Beijing’s landing of a civilian aircraft in the Fiery Cross Reef. Military officials said the landing could be a prelude to the stationing of Chinese military aircraft in that reef, thus, cementing China’s military position in the West Philippine Sea, which the US and its allies wanted to remain open to international navigation. Hawkish US Sen. John McCain reacted to China’s latest action, while also criticizing the US over its sputtering freedom of navigation patrol in the region, believing the reason Beijing was becoming bolder is because US ships

and aircraft are irregularly present in the West Philippine Sea. McCain was reported to have been surprised why there was no sustained US patrols in the international waters that Beijing claims is China’s. Gazmin tossed to the Department of Foreign Affairs the matter of taking action over China’s latest exercise in the West Philippine Sea.

Building capability

GAZMIN said the military is continuing to build its capabilities for territorial defense. “We are continuously preparing our defenses to be able to defend our territory. [Such preparations are] not directed to any country for that matter,” he said. On the other hand, AFP Chief of Staff

Gen. Hernando Iriberri said the military is following the government’s track in resolving the territorial dispute with China. “We have followed the track, the three tracks of diplomatic, political and legal. That’s why we have filed our arbitration. That is the track we are following,” he said. Iriberri further explained the AFP “is only a part of the entire government bureaucracy and government organization.” So whatever will be the decision, whatever national policies that will be imposed or be given by our national political leaders, we will follow.” Meanwhile, Gazmin said the military is also closely following the developments and even tension between South Korea and North Korea, which

was heightened by the reported nuclear testing by Pyongyang this week. Likewise, we are keeping abreast with the developments between Saudi Arabia and Iran, he added.

Helicopter sighting confirmed

The military confirmed on Thursday that a helicopter, which volunteers claimed was from China, hovered above Pagasa Island, while 48 members of the Kalaayaan Atin Ito, led by former Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon, were there for a peaceful protest against Beijing. The confirmation was made by the Armed Forces Western Command commander Vice Adm. Alexander Lopez during the New Year’s Call made by top military officials, headed by

Iriberri, on Gazmin. However, the military commander was still cautious in his reply, especially when military reporters asked him whether the aircraft was a Chinese military or even owned by China, which has troops in reefs it has reclaimed in the West Philippine Sea. Lopez said the helicopter could have been used by fishermen in the area, but he was certain the chopper was not from the Western Command. Earlier, the volunteers claimed that a Chinese military helicopter made fly byes while they were on Pagasa Island, where they stage a six-day peaceful protest trough a voyage around the reefs and islets, in response to Beijing’s occupation and continued development in the country’s territory.

Power rates to go down in Jan, then rise in succeeding months. . . Generation charge is the largest component of an electric bill. Meralco said power plants under the power-supply agreements (PSAs) registered a decrease of P0.49 per kWh. This was mainly due to the reduction in capacity fees of Pagbilao, Sual, Calaca and Ilijan, which offset the higher charges from the independent power producers (IPPs) and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). This reduction in capacity fees is due to the annual reconciliation of outage allowances under the contracts approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). The average rate of the IPPs increased slightly by P0.04 per kWh. This was due primarily to the lower dispatch of Quezon power and San Lorenzo power plants. Meanwhile, charges from the

WESM registered an increase of P0.35 per kWh, largely caused by billing adjustments from prior periods. The share of IPPs, PSAs and WESM to Meralco’s total power requirements stood at 48.7 percent, 46.7 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively. Aside from the drop in generation charge, Meralco also reported that taxes decreased by P0.02 per kWh. Transmission charge, on the other hand, registered an increase of P0.02 per kWh due to lower load factor. “Consumption was lower in December, which resulted in lower load factor and consequently increased the transmission charge per kilowatt-hour,” Zaldarriaga said, when sought for comment. Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges remain un-

changed, after registering a reduction last July. Meralco reiterated that it does not earn from the passthrough charges, such as the generation and transmission charges. Payment for the generation charge goes to the power suppliers, while payment for the transmission charge goes to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines. This month’s rate adjustment, which stood at P8.40 per kWh, is lower by P1.27 per kWh, compared to January 2015, and is the lowest since January 2010.

Maintenance shutdown

The power plants that are scheduled to go on shutdown, or are still on shutdown for this month, are the Calaca 1 (October 30,2015 to January 24, 2016); Calaca 2 (November 19, 2015 to January 15, 2016), Ma-

sinloc 1 (December 21, 2015 to January 31, 2016); Santa Rita Module 40 (January 9 and 10); and Santa Rita Module 30 (January 16 and 17). Next month Calaca 1 is again scheduled to go offline, from February 1 to 7; Santa Rita Module 10, from February 11 to 15; and Quezon Power, from February 16 to March 15. For March and April, only Masinloc 1 and Pagbilao 1 are scheduled to shut down, from March 1 to 12, and April 1 to 30, respectively. From June to September, the following power plants will not run: San Lorenzo Module 50 (June 11 and 12); San Lorenzo Module 60 (June 18 and 19); Santa Rita Module 40 (June 15 to 29); Santa Rita Module 30 (July 2 and 3); Santa Rita Module 20 (July 23 to August 26); Ilijan 2 (July 31-August 3); Calaca 1 (August 1 to September 14); Ilijan

2 (August 4 to September 3); and Santa Rita Module 30 (August 27 to September 30). From October 1 to November 30, Sual 1 will shut down again. At the same time, San Lorenzo Module 60 will also be out from October 1 to 5, while San Lorenzo Module 50 is from October 6 to 10. Calaca 2 is again set to undergo maintenance from November 27 to January 10, 2017; San Lorenzo Module 50, on December 17 and 18; and San Lorenzo Module 60, from December 24 and 25. Meralco Head of Utility Economics Lawrence Fernandez said these are among the plants with which the utility firm has contracts. Based on this list, more than 700 MW of capacity from three power facilities in Batangas are on scheduled outage for the month of

Continued from A1

August. These are the 190-MW Ilijan combined-cycle power plant 2; the 330-MW Calaca coal-fired thermal power plant 1; and the Santa Rita combined-cycle natural-gas plant Module 20, with a generating capacity of 255.7 MW. For September, there is almost 600 MW of power-generating capacity coming from Santa Rita Module 30 (265.5MW) and Calaca 1 that would be shaved off from the grid. The 647-MW Sual 1 Power Station in Pangasinan will also be out in October and November this year. “As mentioned by Mr. Oscar Reyes, the scheduled outages are bunched up in January and the months of August and September, with one unit of Sual going out from October to November,” Fernandez said via e-mail.

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A4 Friday, January 8, 2016

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PSEi plunged near 2-year low on China worries

By VG Cabuag

HARE prices plunged on Thursday, with the main index losing almost 3 percent, after the Philippine market was dragged by Chinese markets that again halted trading for the second time this week after a steep fall.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped 195.02 points, or about 3 percent, to close at 6,618.88 points. The closing price was the lowest since April 28, 2014, when the index ended at 6,604.35. It was also the second-biggest one-day drop in terms of percentage after August 24, 2015, when the market fell by 6.7 percent. “There is too much bad news hanging over the trading floor and there seems to be no silver lining—at least not the obvious type—emerging from the horizon,” said Justino Calaycay Jr., trader at Philstocks Financials Inc. “China, as somewhat expected, has risen to the totem pole of these concerns. Again, as it was last year, these were things we knew—only that we didn’t know it was going to as bad as it has apparently turned out,” he said. China markets triggered another circuit-breaker mechanism when it plunged 5 percent after it opened. C h i ne s e s to c k s — S h a n g h a i Composite Index and Shenzen Composite Index—dropped 7 percent that triggered a trading halt for the rest of the day. Latest manufacturing data from China suggest the sector may be stabilizing, but still not growing. The December PMI reading improved marginally to 49.7, from 49.6 the previous month. Figures below 50 indicate contraction. This is the fifth straight month of contraction with pressures coming from excess capacity such as those seen in steel and shipbuilding. Meanwhile, nonmanufacturing

3% Total drop in share prices at PSE on January 7, 2016

PMI went up to 54.4, the highest since August 2014. The Shanghai Index fell 7 percent, Shenzen Index lost 8 percent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged 2.33 percent and the Hang Seng Index plunged 3 percent. Wall Street indices also dropped overnight. At the PSE, volume of trade was still anemic at P5.41 billion. Losers edged out gainers 162 to 22, and 26 shares were unchanged. Other subindices also fell, the biggest of which was felt by the Holding Firms Index that lost 202.23 points to 6,285.66. The broader All Shares Index fell 99.07 to 3,814.48, the Financials index dropped 17.01 to 1,505.11 and the Mining and Oil index retreated 356.21 to 9,737.76. Jose Mari Lacson, head of research at Campos Lanuza and Co. Inc., said most of the conglomerates felt the brunt of the fall. Most actively traded was Ayala Land Inc. that fell P0.85 to P32.25. The Bank of the Philippine Is-

In this file photo, a trader answers a client’s call at the Philippine Stock Exchange trading floor. Share prices plunged on Thursday as the market was dragged down by current developments in China. STEPHANIE TUMAMPOS

lands was down P0.30 to P81.70. GT Capital Holdings Inc. was steady at P1,350, while SM Prime Holdings Inc. retreated P0.70 to P20.50. Ayala Corp. plunged P23 to P709. “We will continue to be in a bear market,” Lacson said. A bear market is a technical term when prices fall by 20 percent. Mike Oyson, BPI Securities CEO, said the market pullback is also driven by heightening geopolitical risks in the Middle East. “There are also concerns that China may allow the currency to weaken and impact the other currencies of the emerging market,” he said.

New HMO regulations out by June–IC

he Insurance Commission (IC) on Thursday vowed crafting a complete set of rules and regulatory guidelines for health maintenance organizations (HMOs) within first half this year, according to a high-ranking industry regulator. On Thursday Deputy Insurance Commissioner Ferdinand George Florendo, who supervises financial examinations, said the guidelines for HMOs should be ready for implementation before June this year. The proposed regulations cen-

PHL to notch above 6% growth in next three years–World Bank By Cai U. Ordinario

he Philippine economy is expected to post growth of above 6 percent in the next three years, according to the World Bank. In its Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report, the Washington-based lender said the economy is expected to post a 6.4-percent growth in 2016 on the back of the May elections. Growth, however, is expected to ease in 2017 and 2018 to around 6.2 percent. “In the Philippines, growth is projected to firm to 6.4 percent in 2016, reflecting accelerated implementation of public-private partnership [PPP] projects and spending related to the May 2016 presidential election. In 2017 to 2018, growth is forecast to ease to 6.2 percent,” the World Bank said. The global lender said the projections for 2016 and 2017 were both reduced from the June 2015 expectations of the bank. Growth expectations were reduced by -0.1 percentage points each from 6.5 in 2016 and 6.3 in 2017. The World Bank also significantly reduced its growth forecast for the Philippine economy in 2015 to only 5.8 percent. The forecast was reduced by 0.7 percentage points from the bank’s

6.4%

World Bank’s 2016 growth estimate for the Philippines, to be driven by the May polls 6.5-percent estimate in June 2015. “Among the large developing Asean economies, growth in the Philippines and Vietnam will benefit from rising household incomes caused by low commodity prices, a diversified and competitive export base [Vietnam], and investment driven by robust FDI [foreign direct investments] flows. Risks to the outlook remain tilted to the downside, stemming from a largerthan-expected slowdown in China and tightening global financing conditions,” the World Bank said. The growth of the Philippine economy, the World Bank said, will be driven by domestic demand, particularly due to low food prices. The bank said that while domestic demand remains low compared to precrisis levels, emerging economies, like the Philippines, Pakistan and India, where food accounts for

the largest share in consumption, will continue to see domestic demand grow. This has caused a significant reduction in headline inflation, which continued to boost consumption growth. In the Philippines inflation averaged 1.4 percent in 2015, the lowest in more than a decade. In 2015 the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) stated, the country’s headline inflation rate slowed to 0.4 percent last September and October mainly due to cheaper food and oil prices. The country’s annual average rate of the Food Alone index in the Philippines slowed to 2.6 percent in 2015, from 7 percent in 2014. It can also be noted that food inflation averaged 0.7 percent, the lowest in 2015, during September and October. Among the food items, the country’s staple, rice and corn, posted low inflation rates in 2015. Rice prices contracted 2.6 percent in 2015, even lower than the contraction of 2.4 percent in 2014. Corn prices, meanwhile, posted a slightly higher increase of 0.4 percent in 2015 compared to flat growth in 2014. “Partly reflecting uncertainty about the outlook, consumption growth remains below its precrisis and long-term averages, despite the increased real incomes due to

declines in food inflation and oil prices. In several countries, these developments have sharply reduced headline inflation, especially in countries with a large share of food in their consumption baskets,” the World Bank added. However, the World Bank said that in terms of FDI, the Philippines continued to lag behind its neighbors. Indonesia, the World Bank added, saw its highest FDI inflows since 1990, both in dollar terms at $23 billion and relative to GDP at 3 percent. Thailand, another Asean country, saw its FDIs rise to precrisis levels in 2014. Further, in Vietnam, FDIs continued to be robust and were directed to labor-intensive manufacturing production. “In the Philippines FDI has lagged, partly owing to regulatory restrictions,” the bank said. Developing economies are forecast to expand by 4.8 percent in 2016, less than expected earlier but up from a post-crisis low of 4.3 percent in the year just ended. Growth is projected to slow further in China, while Russia and Brazil are expected to remain in recession in 2016. The South Asia region, led by India, is projected to be a bright spot. The recently negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership could provide a welcome boost to trade.

ter on policies affecting capital, investments, assets and other financial matters. The IC commissioner earlier said that on the matter of claims, complaints and grievances, no change in policy should be implemented for the time being so as not to confuse policyholders as regulatory oversight transits from one government body to another. The regulations are part of the transition of regulatory powers over HMOs from the domain of the Department of Health (DOH) to the Department of Finance (DOF). President Aquino issued an

Executive Order (EO) on 12 November 2015 transferring the regulation and supervision over HMOs from the Department of Health (DOH) to the Insurance Commission (IC). EO 192 transferred the regulatory and supervisory powers of the DOH to IC as these pertain to their establishment, operations, and financial activities. The IC shall be responsible for the rules and guidelines on the establishment of HMOs (e.g., minimum capitalization) as well as their licensing and registration. Bianca Cuaresma

More industries to get perks to boost PHL manufacturing Continued from A 1

The MRP is considered the DTI’s broad strategy to ensure the continuous growth of the country’s manufacturing sector. The CARS is a subprogram for the automotive sector under this strategy. Under the CARS Program, P27 billion worth of government incentives will be provided to qualified car manufacturers to ramp up production and make the Philippine auto sector more attractive to investors. The Board of Investments (BOI) said it will open the application period for the CARS Program next week, after the implementing rules and regulations for it. Cristobal met with local car makers at the BOI office in Makati City on Thursday. “On industry development and promotion, we will fast-track the implementation of the CARS Program this year,” Cristobal said. Trade Assistant Secretary for Industry Development and Trade Policy Rafaelita M. Aldaba said interested participants have a month from next week to submit their application. Cristobal had mentioned in a congressional hearing on the DTI’s budget last year that Toyota Motors Philippines Corp. (TMPC) and Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. are “strongly interested” in joining the CARS Program. Sources said the TMPC has already submitted a sourcing plan

to the DTI for its Vios model. The plan breaks down the imported components of the model versus the locally sourced parts. Incentives under CARS will be given in the form of tax-payment certificates, which will defray any tax and duty obligations of participants to the national government, specifically excise tax, income tax, import duties and value-added tax. But before participants could tap the P27-billion incentive package, they must meet certain conditions which include the manufacture of key auto parts being imported into the country and the production of at least 200,000 vehicles a year. These conditions will entail substantial investments in production and technology on the part of CARS participants. Aside from providing incentives to industries, the MRP will also fund projects of government agencies. These include the Department of Science and Technology’s die and mould making program; the DTI’s localization program for the rubber industry; and the creation of fabrication laboratories for small businesses. The DTI implements the MRP in coordination with a number of government agencies including the Departments of Agriculture, Labor and Employment, Energy, and the Philippine Coconut Authority and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

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BusinessMirror Friday, January 8, 2016

3 nations clouding future of Asean open-skies scheme

SSOCIATION of Southeast Asian Nations’ (Asean) ambitious open-skies scheme has clearly missed the 2015 year-end deadline, and its full implementation appears elusive.

Three members of the 10-nation bloc—Indonesia, the Philippines and Laos—seem reluctant to join the scheme for full liberalization of Southeast Asia’s aviation sector. The three have reportedly not committed to the Asean Single Aviation Market (Asam) and still restrict airlines based in fellow member-states from flying from the home country to all cities in the three countries. Indonesia has only opened up Jakarta; the Philippines has excluded Manila from the open-skies list; and Laos is not keen to free up Luang Prabang and Vientiane for Thai carriers. The other Asean members have complied with the scheme to create a single integrated market for the region’s airline industry. This is in line with the broader aims of the Asean Economic Community, which took effect on the same December 31, 2015, deadline.

Spoilers Indonesia, the Philippines and Laos are reportedly still reluctant to fully liberalize Asean’s aviation sector. For Asam, much work remains for economic and market integration of the aviation sector, while technical and regulatory integration is still in the early stages, said Alan Tan, an aviation law professor at the National University of Singapore. “It is, thus, likely that Asam will have to be extended or have a second stage declared for the post-2015 period to tackle both unfinished and

Malaysian antigraft body finds corruption in bauxite mining

alaysia may expand its crackdown on bauxite mining, after the nation’s antigraft agency said it found “elements of corruption” committed in the extraction of the ore. The government imposed a threemonth ban on bauxite mining in its largest producing state on Wednesday. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission “has received many complaints on environmental pollution from uncontrolled bauxite-mining activities in Pahang state,” the agency said in a statement following the ruling, adding that it won’t hesitate “to take action against those found involved in corruption or misuse of power.” Malaysia, the biggest shipper of bauxite to China, will stop mining the ore from January 15 to cut river and sea pollution, according to Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan Junaidi Jaafar. Exports will be allowed during the moratorium to reduce port inventories, and after the suspension the government will limit bauxite production to the nation’s capacity to ship the material, he said. The commission didn’t give details on the nature of the corruption it found or the complaints it received.

Top supplier

Malaysia supplied more than 40 percent of China’s imports of the aluminummaking raw material last year, after Indonesia imposed a ban on shipments in January 2014. China produces about half the world’s aluminum used in everything, from aircraft to door frames and drink cans. The country’s exports of the metal and its products surged 36 percent in November from the previous month, helping push global prices down 19 percent in 2015. The ban would have to last longer than six months before it starts to hurt China, said Paul Adkins, managing director of consultancy AZ China Ltd. “I doubt there will be much of a price-spike reaction. The market is acutely aware that Chinese smelters appear to be slowing down, and with so much material in stockpile, there will be no interest by Chinese buyers to pay more.”

40%

Share of Malaysia in China’s imports of bauxite last year.

Red dust from trucks carrying ore to Kuantan port had blanketed roads, trees and plants, threatening air purity and water resources, said Fuziah Salleh, member of parliament for Kuantan, capital of Pahang. The government should suspend exports until proper laws are in place to ensure mining is sustainable and to curb illegal operations, she said on Tuesday. “Things are just out of control at the moment,” Fuziah said. “I’m very concerned that the damage may be irreversible.” River pollution from bauxite mining poses long-term health risks, Malaysian Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said at a media briefing, according to the Star newspaper on Thursday. “If at all the river becomes polluted, then my view is the ministry shouldn’t allow bauxite mining at all,” he said, the paper reported.

Illicit operations

All the inventories at Kuantan port have to be exported or moved to a central area equipped with proper drainage, washing bays and filtration, according to Minister Wan Junaidi. The government will extend the moratorium if the industry fails to take the necessary steps within three months, he said, while the central stockpile will only be accessible to legal miners to prevent illicit operations. Malaysia supplied 21 million metric tons of China’s imports of 49 million tons in the first 11 months of 2015, according to Chinese customs. The government will allowing shipments under existing permits and has stopped issuing new export licenses.

new matters,” he said. “In other words, Asam remains very much a work in progress.” A liberalized aviation sector would boost air traffic in a region home to 625 million people, stimulating air connectivity, encouraging higher service quality, and lowering ticket prices for passengers as competition increases. Fear of competition among Asean carriers is a sticking point for member-states that continue to drag their feet to protect their own airlines, according to aviation analysts. The Asam process of liberalizing market access is currently limited to so-called third-, fourth- and fifth-freedom rights, Tan said. The upshot is airlines must still begin and end their flights at home-state points. For instance, a Thai carrier cannot station aeroplanes in Indonesia to connect Jakarta and Manila (i.e., the “seventh freedom”). At best, it can operate a Bangkok-Jakarta-Manila-JakartaBangkok route—a fifth-freedom operation that starts and ends in Bangkok but enjoys traffic pickup rights in Jakarta going both ways. Tan said the seventh freedom must be addressed explicitly in the post-2015 period and allowed to flourish. MCT

Thai-Lao border to be upgraded for fruit export to southern China

hailand suggested to upgrade a temporary Thai-Lao border checkpoint in Nakorn Panom province through which fruits can be transported on land to southern China. Charnyudh Upapong, head of the provincial chamber of commerce, said on Wednesday the volume of varied Thai fruits, currently exported to southern China, will likely increase if the temporary border checkpoint is upgraded as a permanent trading spot in near future. Thailand and Laos are part of the newly established Asean Economic Community, where regional trade and investment, as well as cross-border tourism, are planned to expand. The Baan Paeng—Bolikhamxay border checkpoint currently accommodates some $277 million in value of the China-bound fruits from Thailand, including longan, durian, mangosteen, banana and pomelo in a year, according to the head of Nakorn Panom’s chamber of commerce. Large quantities of the Thai fruits are transported by truck from Baan Paeng district in Thailand across Mekong River to Bolikhamxay province in Laos, then forwarded toward Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, and finally delivered to Guangxi province in southern China, he said. Nakorn Panom, about 740 km northeast of the Thai capital, is among 10 Thai border provinces already declared “special economic zones,” where major infrastructural, commercial and other facilities, as well as tourist industry, are to be developed to meet the speculated regional economic growth. Thailand has declared “special economic zones” for two other northeastern provinces sharing borders with Laos, namely, Nong Khai and Mukdaharn, in addition to Nakorn Panom. PNA

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North Koreans watch a news broadcast on a video screen outside Pyongyang Railway Station in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Wednesday. Pyongyang has long claimed it has the right to develop nuclear weapons to defend itself against the US, an established nuclear power with whom it has been in a state of war for more than 65 years. AP/Kim Kwang Hyon

Nokor’s H-bomb claim elicits

chorus of condemnation

2006, but the first using fusion technology. North Korea’s nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013 are all believed to have used plutoniumbased, or perhaps uranium-based, atomic weapons.

Not consistent with H-bomb

The US government’s initial analysis of underground activity in North Korea was “not consistent” with the country’s claim of having used a hydrogen bomb on Wednesday, Earnest said. Hydrogen bombs, also called thermonuclear bombs, can potentially be much larger than atomic weapons, which rely on fission for their explosive power. However, the initial data indicated the blast was not substantially larger than the country’s 2013 test, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association (ACA). “If indeed it was a nuclear test, whether H-bomb or A-bomb, we can expect another round of largely symbolic sanctions against North Korea, plus public condemnation from China,” said Denny Roy, an expert on Northeast Asia political and security issues at the East-West Center in Honolulu. “I don’t expect that this will fundamentally change South Korean,

US committed to allies

Secretary of State John F. Kerry said the US was committed to defending the American people and honoring its security commitments to allies in the region. “We do not and will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, and actions such as this latest test only strengthen our resolve,” he said in a statement. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter spoke by phone on Wednesday with Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of US forces in South Korea, and South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo to discuss the North’s apparent nuclear test. “Secretary Carter and Minister Han agreed that any such test would be an unacceptable and irresponsible provocation and is both a flagrant violation of international law and a threat to the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and the entire Asia-Pacific region,” Pentagon Spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement. Carter and Han agreed that the provocations should have consequences, Cook said, but he did not disclose what those consequences might entail. UN diplomats told the Associated Press that a new resolution could add more people to the sanctions list and impose limits on the travel of senior North Korean officials. How robust the measures will be will depend largely on China, North Korea’s traditional ally on the Security Council.

China resolutely opposed to tests

Beijing said it had no advance warning of the test. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hua Chunying said China remained resolutely opposed to such tests and urged Pyongyang to take steps to prevent further deterioration of the situation. She also called for a resumption of the so-called six-party talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to abandon its

Pyongyang not serious in negotiating

At a joint news conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Washington last October, Obama said he saw no sign that Pyongyang was serious about negotiating. “At the point where Pyongyang says we are interested in seeing relief from sanctions and improved relations, and we are prepared to have a serious conversation about denuclearization, I think it’s fair to say that we’ll be right there at the table,” he said. “We haven’t even gotten to that point yet, because there has been no indication on the part of the North Koreans as there was with the Iranians that they could foresee a future in which they did not possess or were not pursuing nuclear weapons.”

Challenge to China

In addition to testing Obama, Pyongyang’s actions are a fresh challenge for the Chinese leadership, which is increasingly trying to assert itself as an effective major

Sign North Korea wants to talk

Shi Yuanhua, deputy director of the Center for Korean Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said it was up to Washington to shift its stance to get Pyongyang back to the bargaining table. “Compared to the US, China is still an outsider in this matter,” he said. “Technically, the US and North Korea are still at war. They need a peace treaty and then to normalize diplomatic relations.” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last fall urged all parties to get back to the bargaining table, Shi noted, but Washington responded “coolly.” This week’s test, Shi said, was a sign that North Korea wants to talk. Bonnie S. Glaser, an expert on China’s foreign policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said there was little chance of either the Obama administration or Beijing shifting gears. China, she said, would be willing to step up diplomatic pressure on the North. But in the absence of a larger package on the table, it would be loathe to embrace tougher sanctions and abandon its “bottom-up strategy” of promoting economic engagement with North Korea, because that could create instability on its border.

China is missing link

“A lot of people think China is the missing link, and if only it would get on board with sanctions, that North Korea could be compelled to give up its nuclear weapons. The Chinese just don’t look at it like that,” she said. “The Chinese think the situation won’t get much worse and…their current policy is the best they can do.”

Japan to strengthen sanctions

In Japan, Nihon Television reported that officials close to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were discussing strengthening sanctions. Abe told reporters that Japan would join forces with the US and China to take “firm countermeasures,” according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK. Russia also condemned Pyongyang’s announced test as a “violation of international law.” But Leonid Petrov, an expert on North Korea at the Australian National University, said any push for a resumption of six-party talks could be undercut by continuing tensions between Washington and Moscow. “I’m sure China is going to be very angry about this, but Russia’s response will probably be more balanced and less adverse,” he said. Russian experts have expressed doubt that North Korea has the technology to produce a true hydrogen bomb, Petrov added. “If it is confirmed they do have a thermonuclear weapon, Obama should spend the rest of his term negotiating with North Korea rather than abstaining,” he said. Rep. Mac Thornberry, Republican-Texas, the chairman of the US House Armed Services Committee, said the US cannot afford to focus only on Islamic State, Iran or Russia. “We must be prepared to protect our national security against many threats,” he said. “Unfortunately, the view around the world is that US leadership is in decline while the administration’s inaction only fuels those concerns.” Los Angeles Times/TNS

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Friday, January 8, 2016

N. Korea’s nuclear claim

could raise threat of war

What is believed to be improved versions of the KN-08 ballistic missile are paraded in Pyongyang, North Korea, during the 70th anniversary celebrations of its ruling party’s creation on October 10, 2015. AP/Wong Maye-E

ASHINGTON— North Korea’s claim to have detonated a thermonuclear weapon in an underground test has raised worldwide worry about what really happened, whether the isolated nation is closer to being capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear missile, and whether it brings war closer. Here are some questions and answers about what the Pentagon called an “unacceptable and irresponsible provocation” that threatens peace in Asia.

Why is this a big deal?

The weapon test, if confirmed, could mean North Korea is on a path to possessing a bomb of far greater destructive power than the types it detonated in three previous underground tests—in 2006, 2009 and 2013. So if the North Koreans were to field such a weapon, known as a thermonuclear or hydrogen bomb, then it could raise the stakes in a longrunning struggle to reunite the Korean peninsula under its own terms. That, in turn, would force tough decisions on the US, which has a treaty obligation to defend South Korea— with nuclear weapons if necessary. On the other hand, North Korea is believed to already possess a number of atomic bombs and is developing longer-range missiles to deliver nuclear warheads.

Might the North Koreans be bluffing?

That’s a possibility. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said on Wednesday that early US analysis of the underground explosion is “inconsistent” with the North’s announcement that it conducted a successful hydrogen bomb test. Private analysts also expressed doubts about Pyongyang’s declara-

The number of years North Korea has been working on hydrogen bomb

tion. Anthony Cordesman, a defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the North might have tested an enhanced atomic weapon, rather than a hydrogen bomb, as a means of celebrating the rule of its leader, Kim Jong Un.

What’s the difference between an atomic bomb and a hydrogen bomb?

In technical terms, the difference lies in the manner in which they release energy. An atomic bomb uses nuclear fission, or the splitting of atoms, to create its energy. Hydrogen bombs use fusion, in which atoms are combined rather than split. The “H bomb” actually is a two-stage device that uses the implosion of a “primary” fission device of plutonium or highly enriched uranium to set off a “secondary” fusion component fueled with hydrogen isotopes. Details of the hydrogen bomb design are highly

A TV screen shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a shop in Tokyo on Wednesday. North Korea said it conducted a powerful hydrogen bomb test, a defiant and surprising move that, if confirmed, would be a huge jump in Pyongyang’s quest to improve its still-limited nuclear arsenal. AP/Eugene Hoshiko

classified by the US government. A hydrogen bomb is vastly more powerful than an atomic bomb. Robert Norris, a nuclear historian, makes this illustrative comparison: The American atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945 had a yield of about 15 kilotons, whereas a “starter” hydrogen bomb is 1,000 kilotons.

How can the US tell whether North Korea did test a hydrogen bomb?

The US and the international community have a variety of means of analyzing an underground explosion, including seismometers that measure ground motion. Also, the US Air Force operates aircraft specially equipped to detect telltale airborne signs of a nuclear explosion, and it operates a global network of nuclear event detection equipment,

called the US Atomic Energy Detection Systems, which can detect nuclear activity underground, underwater, in the atmosphere or in space. The UN Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization has monitoring stations around the world that detected radioisotopes from earlier North Korean nuclear tests. Lassina Zerbo, who heads the organization, said its monitors are looking for radioisotopes from Wednesday’s explosion to determine that Pyongyang carried out a nuclear test—and whether it was a hydrogen bomb as Pyongyang claims.

Is it reasonable to think the North Koreans could have graduated to the technical skill required to build a hydrogen bomb?

One way of looking at that is to compare how long it took other nu-

1,000kt The power of hydrogen bomb, which is more powerful than atomic bomb’s 15 kilotons clear powers to move from the atom bomb to the hydrogen bomb. For the US, which was first in both cases, it took 87 months, or more than seven years, to go from its first atomic bomb test in 1945 to its first hydrogen bomb test in 1952. It took China 32 months, or less than three years, according to Norris. North Korea conducted its first atomic bomb test in 2006, which

some think was unsuccessful, followed by a second test in 2009 and a third in 2013. So it has been working on this for at least 10 years.

If North Korea did obtain a nuclear weapon that it could attach to a long-range missile, would the US have a way to defend against it?

The Pentagon has built a battery of ground-based missiles designed to knock down long-range missiles before they hit US territory, and the system is configured specifically to defend against missiles launched from North Korea. But whether the interceptors would work as intended is anyone’s guess. The interceptors are based in underground silos at Fort Greely, Alaska, and at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. But they have never been used in combat. AP

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Friday, January 8, 2016

briefs

Obama expected to name new commander for Mideast WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is expected to put a special operations officer in charge of US Central Command, the headquarters that oversees US military operations against the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, as well as the war in Afghanistan, a senior defense official said on Wednesday. The president’s choice is Army Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of US Special Operations Command, to succeed Army Gen. Loyd Austin, the official said. The unusual choice of a special operations commander to head Central Command aligns with Obama’s heavy reliance on special operations forces in the intensifying war against the IS, as well as the prominent role that the commandos are playing in Afghanistan a year after the US combat role there officially came to an end. Votel, 57, is a former commander of the 75th Ranger Regiment and a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He headed the secretive Joint Special Operations Command before becoming commander of Special Operations Command in 2014. Austin, 62, is expected to retire. AP

US colleges tell students: Leave hoverboards at home

DiCaprio happy leaders taking climate change more seriously

NEW YORK—Leonardo DiCaprio feels optimistic that the debate over climate change has begun to wane, and world leaders are finally starting to take it more seriously. “The scientific community has been screaming out loud. Ninetynine percent of the scientific community is in agreement that man is contributing to [climate change],” DiCaprio told the Associated Press on the red carpet for his new film, The Revenant on Wednesday. “The argument is over. Anyone that doesn’t believe that climate change is happening doesn’t believe in science,” said DiCaprio, who has remained an active player for the issue. The actor previously has addressed the United Nations on climate control, donated millions of dollars to environmental causes, and narrated the 2014 short film, Carbon, which presents ideas for climate-change solutions. AP

Ghana takes in 2 Yemenis released from GuantÁnamo ACCRA, Ghana—Two men who were captured in Afghanistan and held at the US base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for nearly 14 years without charge have been released and sent to the West African nation of Ghana for resettlement, officials said on Wednesday. The two Yemenis are the first in a wave of 17 expected to be released this month as President Barack Obama’s administration seeks to whittle down the population of low-level prisoners as part of a broader effort, opposed by many in Congress, to close the detention center and move remaining detainees to the US. There are now 105 held at the Navy base, including nearly 50 who have been cleared for release. “The United States is grateful to the government of Ghana for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” said Navy Cmdr. Gary Ross, a Pentagon spokesman. Both of the men released on Wednesday, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, were held as enemy combatants, accused of training with alQaeda and fighting with the Taliban. AP

Pakistan asks Bangladesh to withdraw diplomat

ISLAMABAD—A senior Pakistani Foreign Ministry official says Pakistan has asked Bangladesh to withdraw its senior diplomat, Moushumi Rahman, in an apparent tit-for-tat move after Dhaka asked Islamabad to withdraw a Pakistani diplomat last month. In Dhaka, Foreign Ministry official Shahriar Alam confirmed that Rahman has been asked to leave Pakistan in the next 48 hours. He said Rahman was expected to join the Bangladeshi Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal. AP

A young man rides a hoverboard along a Manhattan street toward the Empire State Building in New York. Amazon is warning British customers that their hoverboards may be unsafe, the latest in a string of warnings about the popular scooters. Amazon says some of the boards it sold are unsafe because they have “a noncompliant UK plug” and should be disposed of at a recycling center. AP/Kathy Willens

OSTON—One of the holiday’s hottest presents is now considered contraband at many US colleges. At least 20 universities have banned or restricted hoverboards on their campuses in recent weeks, saying the two-wheeled, motorized scooters are unsafe. Beyond the risk of falls and collisions, colleges are citing warnings from federal authorities that some of the self-balancing gadgets have caught on fire. “It’s clear that these things are potentially dangerous,” said Len Dolan, managing director of fire safety at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. The public school of 14,000 students issued a campus-wide ban effective on Monday, telling students in an e-mail that any hoverboards found on campus would be confiscated. “These things are just catching fire without warning, and we don’t want that in any of our dorms,” Dolan said.

The number of largest airlines which have banned hoverboards

Outright bans also have been issued at schools such as American University and George Washington University, both in Washington, D.C. Other schools said they will forbid the scooters in dorm rooms or campus buildings, a policy adopted at colleges including Louisiana State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Arkansas.

Fires the US Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating that are tied to the motorized scooters After banning hoverboards from dorms last December, officials at the University of Hartford in Connecticut are now considering a full ban because of concerns over how to store them safely, said David Isgu, a school spokesman. Some of the reported fires have occurred while the boards were being charged, authorities say. At Ohio State University and Xavier University in Cincinnati, students were told they can bring a hoverboard only if it came with a seal showing that the board meets certain safety standards. Bryce Colegrove, a sophomore at Shawnee State University in Ohio, got an e-mail from his school on Tuesday telling students to leave

their hoverboards at home after the holidays. It was bad timing for Colegrove, who had just received one as a gift from his girlfriend and had even plotted his new routes to class. “Honestly, I was really disappointed,” said Colegrove, 20. “I don’t think it’s right to ban them. I mean, it’s a college campus; it’s not a high school.” Others took to social media to voice their frustration, with some saying they planned to bring their scooters to school anyway. Hoverboards, which are made by several brands, already have been banned by the three largest US air lines, citing potential fire danger from the lithium-ion batteries that power them. The devices also are prohibited on New York City streets, and a new law in California requires riders to be at least 16 and wear a helmet in public. On Monday the US Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that it’s now investigating 28 fires in 19 states tied to the motorized scooters. Fire officials from New Jersey to California have blamed the boards for fires that damaged homes. The federal commission also said there have been serious injuries caused by falls. AP

Mexico violence caused drop in male life expectancy

EXICO CITY—A new study suggests that Mexico’s drug violence was so bad at its peak that it apparently caused the nation’s male life expectancy to drop by several months. Experts say the violence from 2005 to 2010 partly reversed decades of steady gains, noting that homicide rates increased from 9.5 homicides per 100,000 people in 2005 to more than 22 in 2010. That has since declined to about 16 per 100,000 in 2014. The study published on Tuesday in the American journal Health Affairs says “the increase in homicides is at the heart” of the phenomenon, though deaths due to diabetes may have also played a role. “The unprecedented rise in homicides after 2005 led to a reversal in life expectancy increases among males and a slowdown among females in most states,” according to the study,

published by Jose Manuel Aburto of the European Doctoral School of Demography, UCLA’s Hiram BeltranSanchez and two other authors. The study’s authors found that life expectancy for males in Mexico dropped by about six-tenths of a year from 2000-2010. Men lived an average of 71 years in 2010, a figure that edged up to around 72 years by 2014. Figures published by Mexico’s National Statistics Institute showed a life expectancy of 70.9 years in 2000. The study found that in five of Mexico’s violence-plagued states— Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Guerrero and Nayarit—men lost an average of one year of life expectancy between 2005 and 2010, while in the border state of Chihuahua alone, the loss added up to a startling three years. “The mortality rate for males ages 20 to 39 in Chihuahua in the period

of 2005 to 2010 reached unprecedented levels,” the study noted. “It was about 3.1 times higher than the mortality rate of US troops in Iraq between March 2003 and November 2006.” By 2010 two-thirds of Mexican states had lower life expectancies than they did in 2000, despite improvements in some health-care programs. The decline largely occurred from 2005 to 2010. Mexico’s offensive against drug cartels started in 2006. The study found men were 10 times more likely than women to be killed in the violence, which was dominated by executions, shootouts and turf battles carried out by Mexican drug cartels. Juan Eugenio Hernandez, an epidemiologist at Mexico’s Center for Information on Public Health Decisions, noted it was the first time life expectancy in Mexico had declined since the country’s 1910 to 1917 revolution. Hernandez, who was not involved

in the Health Affairs study, wrote that “indeed, violence has had a big impact on life expectancy...mainly in the male population in several northern Mexico states and in Michoacan,” a state in western Mexico. He said researchers had warned the violence would impact longevity rates, which he said “haven’t diminished since the Mexican Revolution.” Mexico previously had long been on a steady, upward trend. Between 1940 and 2000, Mexicans gained an average of four years in life expectancy per decade. But in comparison with other Latin American countries, like El Salvador, Honduras and Venezuela, Mexico’s homicide rate remains relatively low. “It is likely that other Latin American countries have been experiencing even greater reductions in life expectancy from homicide,” the authors noted. AP

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L.A. County prosecutors reject Cosby sex charges

OS ANGELES—Los Angeles County prosecutors declined on Wednesday to charge Bill Cosby with sexually abusing two teenagers in 1965 and 2008, citing time limits and a lack of evidence. The decision comes about a week after Cosby, 78, was charged with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004 inside his home near Philadelphia— the first criminal case brought against him out of the torrent of allegations that destroyed his good-guy image as America’s dad. His lawyers have called the charges in that case unjustified and said they expected Cosby to be exonerated. “We are satisfied that the Los Angeles District Attorney’s [DA’s] office fully and fairly evaluated all the facts and evidence, and came to the right conclusion in declining to file charges against Mr. Cosby,” his attorney, Monique Pressley, said in a statement. Dozens of women have accused Cosby of sex assaults or attempted molestations in incidents dating back more than four decades. In Los Angeles County, the DA’s office investigated allegations by a woman who said that in 1965, when she was 17 years old, Cosby took her to a jazz club in Hollywood, bought her alcoholic drinks and took her to a home in the Hollywood Hills where he forced her to have sex. “Filing the crime of forcible rape is barred by the statute of limitations and as such, any consideration of a criminal filing is prohibited by law,” comments on a DA’s charge evaluation worksheet said. Charges also were declined in the case of a woman who claimed she attended a party at the Playboy Mansion in the summer of 2008, when she was 18, during which Cosby gave drinks to her and a friend. The woman claimed she felt dizzy and sick and Cosby offered to take her to lie down in a room where she blacked out. The woman said she awoke naked. Authorities investigated after model Chloe Goins met with Los Angeles police detectives in January to detail her allegations. Cosby’s attorney at the time released a statement denying the accusation and saying Cosby was not in Los Angeles at the time. Investigators found Cosby wasn’t listed as a guest at any 2008 summer events at the mansion and a woman that the alleged victim said was a potential witness denied knowing her or being at the mansion, according to the DA’s worksheet. The worksheet also indicated that the statute of limitations had expired to charge Cosby with misdemeanor sexual battery and indecent exposure in the case, and there was little or no evidence to back felony sex charges. Goins, who has sued Cosby, was the second woman to meet with Los Angeles police detectives to make accusations against the comedian. Prosecutors earlier rejected filing charges against him based on allegations by Judy Huth, who alleges in a lawsuit that he abused her at the Playboy Mansion in the early 1970s when she was 15. The comedian gave a deposition in the case last October. A judge has also ordered Cosby to be deposed in a defamation case filed by model Janice Dickinson, who accuses Cosby of drugging and raping her in 1982 in Lake Tahoe, California. However, on Wednesday, a California appellate court put the deposition on hold until a challenge to the case by Cosby’s attorneys is decided. A hearing is set for next month. AP

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Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • Friday, January 8, 2016

Egypt Christians celebrate Christmas amid tight security

Coptic Pope Tawadros II (left) greets Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah elSissi during Christmas Eve Mass by Coptic Orthodox Christians at Saint Mark’s Cathedral,in Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday. AP/Nariman El-Mofty

Number of Americans with no health insurance unchanged in 2015–survey

ASHINGTON—Going into President Barack Obama’s last year in office, progress has stalled on reducing the number of uninsured Americans under his signature health-care law, according to a major survey out on Thursday.

The share of US adults without health insurance was 11.9 percent in the last three months of 2015, essentially unchanged from the start of the year, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The ongoing survey, based on daily interviews with 500 people, has been used by media, social scientists and administration officials to track the law’s impact. Release of the latest installment comes after the Republican-led Congress voted to send legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act to Obama’s desk. The president is certain to veto it, but opponents say that will only help their strategy of keeping “Obamacare” alive as a political issue in the presidential election.

The sharp drop in the uninsured rate seen in 2014—the first year of the law’s major coverage expansion— now has leveled off, Gallup said in its analysis of the latest findings. “This validates concerns that similarly large reductions may not be possible in the future because the remaining uninsured are harder to reach or less inclined to become insured,” the analysis said. “Future reductions will likely require significant outreach and expanded programs targeting those who have not yet taken advantage.” The survey period included the first two months of the health law’s 2016 open enrollment season, which ends January 31. That covered the first big sign-up deadline, which was December 15 for those

11.9%

US adults without health insurance in the last three months of 2015

wanting coverage effective at the start of the year. Gallup-Healthways said it expects results for the first three months of 2016 to show another decline in the uninsured rate. How big remains to be seen. “A strong open enrollment period would allow the Obama administration to go out on a high note,” said Larry Levitt, who follows the health overhaul for the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. “Weak enrollment could intensify the debate over the Affordable Care Act, particularly as the general election approaches,” he said. “There will continue to be close scrutiny of the uninsured numbers and reports of premium increases for 2017, which will start to trickle out this summer,” Levitt added. “I believe the health law has crossed the threshold of sustainability, but

its future success depends on growing enrollment.” The uninsured rate for adults stood at 17.1 percent in the last three months of 2013, as the law’s major coverage expansion got under way, according to the survey. The drop of 5.2 percentage points by the end of last year translates to nearly 13 million adults gaining coverage. But 2015 was a lackluster year. According to the survey, the uninsured rate dipped to 11.4 percent in the period from April to June, then edged up again the rest of the year. It was the first such reversal noted by the survey since the law’s big coverage expansion began. The health law has added coverage in two major ways, bringing the nation’s uninsured rate to a historic low. Online insurance markets like HealthCare.gov offer taxpayer-subsidized private plans to people who don’t have coverage on the job. And states can opt for a Medicaid expansion aimed at lowincome adults with no children living at home. That’s happened in 30 states, plus Washington, D.C. Opposition to the law has blocked Medicaid expansion elsewhere. If major states like Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia were to expand their programs, the uninsured rate would start coming down again. Louisiana and Alabama are con-

17.1%

Uninsured US adults in the last three months of 2013

sidering Medicaid expansion. Since 2013 the Gallup-Healthways survey has found gains in health-insurance coverage among all major demographic groups except seniors, who were already covered by Medicare. The biggest progress has come among low-income people, Hispanics and African Americans. The Obama administration had no direct response to the survey findings. Spokesman Aaron Albright noted that the law “has led to millions of Americans getting access to quality and affordable health coverage.” The survey results were based on landline and cell-phone interviews conducted from October 1 to December 31 with a random sample of 42,998 adults ages 18 and older. For results based on the total sample, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 1 percentage point. AP

Seeking China reform, analyst looks past turmoil L

ook past China’s current market-turmoil firefighting, and focus instead on the Communist leadership’s commitment to addressing overcapacity in the economy. So says Tao Dong, Credit Suisse Group AG chief regional economist for Asia excluding Japan, who was among those calling attention half a decade ago to China’s fundamental shift toward stoking wages. When China’s top policy-makers last December promised a wave of reforms to shake up the economy, it was somewhat of an echo of past pledges that went unfulfilled. What may make things different this time is that the Communist leadership is coming to grips with diminishing returns to old-style monetary and fiscal stimulus. “I am increasingly feeling desperate that the policies are not delivering the jobs

they are supposed to deliver,” said Tao, who’s been covering China’s economy for two decades and is based in Hong Kong. “China needs to get rid of excess capacity in order to get out of the current mess and that is exactly where the supply side prescription could help.” The need to address deflationary pressures generated by years of debt-fueled investment into manufacturing capacity that’s going unused is so large that policymakers will be forced to pursue reforms even as they struggle to cope with current market ructions, according to Tao’s thinking. “They will stick with the plan,” he says. Recent data highlight the challenges, with signs that authorities cannot take for granted the new dynamos of consumer spending and services. A private gauge of the nonmanufacturing sector on Wednesday

slumped to the second-lowest reading since the series began a decade ago, and close to the level signaling contraction. The official manufacturing gauge contracted last December for the fifth month in a row and economists say the government will be lucky to have hit its 2015 growth target of about 7 percent. The weakness in the world’s secondlargest economy remains even after the People’s Bank of China has cut interest rates to record lows and authorities pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy. Along with tackling chronic spare capacity in industries like steel and coal, Tao said China needs to break up monopolies, run down housing inventory, cut taxes and allow space for private-sector companies to flourish, among other measures.

Some changes have already been announced: the nation’s infamous one-child policy became a two-child policy and new rules were announced that may make it easier for companies to list shares. Changes to the residency registration permit system have also been floated that may further free up the movement of labor. President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday in Chongqing that supply-side reforms are needed to curb production overcapacity, according to an official Xinhua News Agency report. In the bloated and underperforming $16-trillion state-owned enterprise sector, China Minmetals Corp., the nation’s biggest metals trader, will buy China Metallurgical Group, a governmentowned engineering and mining group. The move will combine two state enter-

prises with about $96 billion in sales. The supply-side push was formally agreed on at a gathering of the nation’s top economic planners last December, the Central Economic Work Conference. Embracing these kinds of changes would fit a broader objective of the government to rein in borrowing in an economy where total debt had soared to around 282 percent of GDP by mid-2014, according to a McKinsey and Co. report. Much of that debt stems from a $586-billion program to boost growth in the depths of the 2008 global credit turmoil, a move that opened the floodgates for a record debt surge. “Stimulus has a negative connotation nowadays in Beijing,” said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics Ltd. in Hong Kong. Bloomberg News

AIRO—Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Christians flocked to churches on Wednesday to attend Masses on Christmas Eve across the predominantly Muslim country, as the government continues to battle a burgeoning Islamic insurgency. Police painstakingly searched more than 300 churches in the capital, Cairo, alone for explosive devices, according to police Maj. Gen. Gamal Halawa. Roadblocks were set up before churches nationwide and cars and motorcycles were temporarily banned from idling in front of them, he added. Police targeted “any attempt to spoil the joy of the celebrations with decisive and firm action,” Halawa said. Militant attacks have multiplied after the military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013, spreading from the restive Sinai Peninsula and striking the mainland numerous times in recent months. Some extremists in Sinai have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group and claimed the downing of a Russian airliner that killed 224 people there last year. Egypt’s Orthodox Coptic Christians strongly supported the ouster of the first freely elected, but divisive leader. Ever since, Christian gatherings have been at a greater risk of attacks. Following Morsi’s toppling, many Islamists claimed Christians had conspired with the military against them as attacks on Christian homes, businesses and churches surged south of Cairo. “We have been late in restoring and fixing what has been burned. Everything will be fixed....Please accept our apologies for what happened,” President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who, as military chief, led Morsi’s ouster, told the Christian crowds at Cairo’s Saint Mark Cathedral in a rare public apology and acknowledgement of the attacks. El-Sissi, widely seen as a savior by Christians, received a rock-star greeting at the cathedral, the seat of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Security forces apparently failed to contain the cheering, flowers-throwing crowds on el-Sissi’s way out of the church, forcing them to turn back and leave from a different exit. Outside Saint Mark, heavily armed black-clad troops flanked the massive cathedral, as journalists and guests passed through metal detectors and had their IDs checked numerous times before they were granted entry. Metal detectors were also set up in most churches nationwide. Wednesday’s tightened security measures were, in part, a preparation for the January 25 anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Officials, including el-Sissi, have voiced concern about attempts to mark the anniversary of the revolt with protests in recent weeks. Throughout history, Egyptian presidents never attended Christmas Masses, making el-Sissi’s visit this year, the second of its kind, doubly appreciated. The grinning president was joined by Muslim Cabinet members, prominent pro-state media personalities and public figures. “He loves us and we love him,” said homemaker Nahed Maged of Cairo, who watched the televised Mass from home. “Previous presidents used to ignore us, but he comes to church, shows us respect and smiles.” Egypt’s Orthodox Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of the country’s 90 million people. The Copts have long complained of discrimination, which many say still exists even under el-Sissi. “Nothing has really changed in terms of our rights and freedoms,” said Michelle Labib, a Christian 45-year-old computer programmer in Cairo. “It is annoying how they make him out to be a hero when our lives have not improved in any way.” Labib and others say the Christian gratitude for el-Sissi’s ouster of the Islamist Morsi amid mass protests against his rule has begun to wane. The Christians widely mobilized against the ousted and currently jailed Morsi in the hope they would win equal standing with Muslims after his removal. AP

A10 Friday, January 8, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Metro Manila: Unlivable?

e have been advised by a senior advisor of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines that Metro Manila may become “uninhabitable” within the next four years due to worsening traffic fueled by increasing automobile sales. So serious is the problem that this will happen unless roads and other infrastructure are “upgraded immediately.”

There is no doubt that the traffic and transportation situation in the metropolis is a big mess. There is also no question that the government has been hopeless and helpless in the last few years to do anything significantly constructive to solve the problem. However, predictions of pending doom unless something is done “immediately” always seem to carry more drama than actual fact. Turn the clock back about 100 years, and if you had been living in New York City, similar comments would have been found on the pages of New York newspapers. Only, in that case, it would have been about New York becoming “uninhabitable” due to horse pollution. From the New York Times on the problem: “On a typical day, a study of urban traffic conditions counted 7,811 horse-drawn vehicles passing the busy corner of Broadway and Pine Street.” Not only was horse manure piling up in the streets and causing sickness and disease, there was a problem with the disposal of dead horses. In 1912 the city of Chicago carted away nearly 10,000 horse carcasses. The presence of 120,000 horses in New York City, wrote one 1908 authority, is “an economic burden, an affront to cleanliness, and a terrible tax upon human life. There can be only one solution; the immediate adoption of the horseless carriage.” Even a decade before, the realization came that reliance on horsedrawn vehicles was unsustainable. And new methods of transportation solved the horse problem. A few decades ago, the thought was that new technology, perhaps, like moving walkways, would solve the automobile problem. Nevertheless, predictions, like Manila will be unlivable, are based on the trend always continuing in a straight line, which never happens. Certainly it will take a couple of years to get the disaster of our lightrail transit back to properly functioning, but it will happen. In the meantime, human ingenuity and common sense will provide some stop-gap measures, as with the premium bus service starting to run on Edsa. It will take some time, just as riding the light-rail trains also took time to catch on. But, currently, about 20 percent of passengers are car owners who shifted to the new service and that is a welcome development. Situations are always changing. In 1915 a top-paying job in New York was being a veterinarian. Ten years later, the high-paying job choice was being an automobile mechanic.

Consultation James Jimenez

spox

efore the 2013 elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) came out with Resolution 9615, which contained the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for Republic Act 9006, otherwise known as the Fair Election Act. The resolution was quickly assailed by media organizations—including the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas—which took umbrage at some of its provisions. By far the biggest magnet for disagreement was the resolution’s provision on broadcast advertising time limits.

Under Resolution 9615, candidates and registered political parties for national elective positions were allowed “not more than an aggregate total of 120 minutes of television advertising, whether appearing on national, regional, or local, free or cable television, and 180 minutes of radio advertising, whether airing on national, regional, or local radio, whether by purchase or donation”; whereas candidates and registered political parties for local elective positions were permitted “not more than an aggregate total of 60 minutes of television advertising, whether appearing on national, regional, or local, free or cable television, and 90 minutes of radio advertising, whether airing on national, regional, or local radio, whether by purchase or donation.” The key word, of course, was “aggregate.” Simply put, this meant that the

broadcast ads put out by any national candidate, on any and all networks, could not run for longer than a combined total of 120 minutes for TV ads, and 180 minutes for radio. For local candidates, 60 and 90 minutes, respectively. The logic was that the idea of an aggregate total would level the playing field. Many objected to that reasoning, saying that airtime caps would not make ads any cheaper, and thus moneyed candidates would still be able to put out more ads than their opponents with lighter pockets. This argument, however, misses the point. Of course, the playing field is not literally level. Rich will always be able to outspend poor; and famous will always be able to hog the spotlight over the unknown. But these are circumstances that cannot be changed

by law. Thus, aggregate airtime caps would keep the playing field “level,” as it were, by making it impossible for wealthier candidates to amass staggering levels of airtime superiority over their less well-provisioned opponents. The playing field would still not be literally level, but the skew would at least not be totally insurmountable. The Supreme Court, however, in GMA Network, Inc. et al. v. Comelec (G.R. 205357, 2 September 2014), placed greater emphasis on the need of the public to be informed of the candidacies. Incorporating the Court’s ruling in GMA, the Comelec’s draft of the Fair Election Act IRR for the 2016 elections, now reads: “For Candidates/Registered Political parties for a National Elective Position: Not more than a total of 120 minutes of television advertising, on a per station basis, whether appearing on national, regional, or local, free or cable television, and 180 minutes of radio advertising, on a per station basis, whether airing on national, regional, or local radio, whether by purchase or donation;” and “For candidates/registered political parties for a local elective position: Not more than a total of 60 minutes of television advertising, on a per-station basis, whether appearing on national, regional, or local, free or cable television, and 90 minutes of radio advertising, on a per-station basis, whether airing on national, regional, or local radio, whether by purchase or donation.” Thus, where the rules once looked at the totality of the running time of the

broadcast ads, regardless of which network aired it, the rules will now toll the airtime cap for each broadcast station separately. Needless to say, we are now likely to be awash with broadcast election propaganda. In keeping with this new liberality, the Comelec is also considering relaxing the frequency limitations for print media. Thus, where the old rules once limited print ads to three times per week, a proposed inclusion in the rules now provides: “In case a candidate does not avail of the thrice-a-week right to have his advertisement published in a newspaper or tabloid, the ‘unused’ right for a certain week may be carried over to another week at the option of the candidate”; and that “candidates for national and local positions are permitted to cumulate their one-fourth or one-half page allocation, as the case may be, in a one-page advertisement.” Among other things, this proposed measure will ensure greater parity in the treatment of the print media, vis-à-vis broadcast media. These, and other proposed changes will be presented to the public at a consultation and hearing the Comelec will hold on the 11th of January 2016, at the Comelec main office in Intramuros, Manila, at two in the afternoon. The public is invited to attend, of course. Copies of the draft are available online, or via request sent to comelectv@gmail.com. James Arthur B. Jimenez is director of the Commission on Elections’s Education and Information Department.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Germany has the North African disease

The gods of the first days of the year

By Marc Champion | Bloomberg View

ermany is reeling from the news, hidden for several days because of its political sensitivity, that as many as 90 women were sexually assaulted by a crowd of young men of Middle Eastern appearance outside Cologne Cathedral on New Year’s Eve. This is, as the local police chief put it, a “whole new dimension of crime” for Germans to confront. No woman in North Africa, however, would be the least bit shocked. There is a lot we still don’t know about the Cologne attacks, including whether they were organized ahead of time on social media and whether the actual culprits were refugees, petty criminals who have been plying the area around Cologne’s train station for years, or both. All the police have said is that the complaints were made, in one case of rape, and that the men were aged 18 to 35, many of them drunk and of “Arab or North African” origin. No matter what the details, this will be a political dynamite for Chancellor Angela Merkel. The new mayor of Cologne, who was stabbed in the neck during her election campaign over her support for Merkel’s pro-refugee policies, is already being hounded on social media for absurdly advising women to keep “an arm’s length” from strange men during the city’s carnival season next month. Yet, this kind of event shouldn’t come as a surprise in a year when more than a million asylum-seekers arrived in Germany, many from across the Middle East. Consider Syria. During the war, rape has been used as a weapon. Women who have lost or left behind their husbands and brothers as they flee the country have been subject to systematic abuse by landlords, employers and gangs of other refugees. Human-rights organizations had already been reporting sexual abuse in Germany’s makeshift centers for asylum-seekers. The situation for Sudanese women, following that country’s civil war, is similar. In North Africa it doesn’t require a war for sexual abuse to become a routine. Some of the anecdotal stories told by victims of the Cologne attacks are strongly reminiscent of what women in Cairo have suffered over the past few years. During the 2013 protests that preceded a coup against former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, for example, 101 sexual assaults (including at least three of rape) were reported among the crowds. These, by the way, were the supposedly secular crowds, not the Muslim Brotherhood protests that followed Morsi’s removal. Here’s what would happen, according to a detailed study by the Worldwide Movement for Human Rights, a nonprofit umbrella for 178 organizations: According to survivors and witnesses, these attacks tend to form a clear pattern. Attacks are perpetrated by groups of men who single out one or two women and separate them from the crowd by forming a circle around them. The men are mainly in their 20s and 30s. The survivors are groped by the mob and dragged violently to different locations. Sometimes their clothes are removed. Many survivors report members of the group saying, “Do not be afraid, I’m protecting you,” while they are being attacked. Attacks last from a few minutes to more than an hour. Several cases of rape have been reported and some survivors have required urgent medical treatment.

Security forces under former President Hosni Mubarak used it as a tool to dissuade women from taking part in public protests. Although the government has now legislated to criminalize sexual harassment, the old ways have resumed since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power. According to the same study: Under the current regime, there have also been several reports of sexual violence against women protesters by the police and security forces. On August 16, 2013, in the aftermath of clashes and demonstrations in support of Mohamed Morsi, Al-Tawheed Mosque was raided by military forces. More than 20 women were sexually assaulted by officers from the Special Forces Unit, affiliated to the Central Security Forces, who grabbed their breasts. According to a survivor interviewed by Nazra for the journal Feminist Studies, officers said they were “whores who came here to be f___d.” The security forces were able to tap into a long-standing culture of treating lone women as acceptable targets for harassment. A 2013 survey by the United Nations found that 99.3 percent of Egyptian women said they had been sexually harassed and that 91 percent felt insecure in the street. A 2002 UN study found that 47 percent of female homicides in Egypt were so-called honor killings. Egypt, for reasons hard to explain, seems to be the worst culprit, with North Africa more generally not far behind. Relatively liberal Morocco, for example, still lacks any specific criminal offense for domestic violence and only recently removed a clause allowing a rapist to escape prosecution if he married the victim. When two young women called the police last year after men harassed them over the length of their skirts, the women were arrested, tried for “public obscenity,” and acquitted after a public outcry. What happened in Cologne will be used to confirm prejudices. It will support the view that Muslim immigrants simply cannot be accommodated in European societies. That is untrue; vast numbers have been successfully integrated. Too many others have not and to reach them is difficult and in the short term expensive. What Cologne underlines is the enormity of the task that Germany and other countries will face in integrating their new migrants from the Middle East. Language teaching and courses in the laws and customs of the host country, as well as vocational training, need to be generous and often mandatory to turn the tide of refugees that have reached Germany from a problem into a resource, capable of filling Germany’s looming demographic deficit. The North African petty criminals around Cologne station are evidence of the inadequacy of previous policies. And if, as is surely probable, recent refugees were also involved, they point to the high cost continued failure would have.

Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

hat forces of the universe rule these first days of the year? There is a belief that what you do during the first days of the year—particularly the very first day—will affect eventually your life for the remainder of that year. The taboos are plentiful during this time of the year, and our observance of them serves as an assurance that everything will go fine. The taboos, like any prohibited measures, border on the illogical. Do not buy matches during the first days of the year. Do not get a haircut on the first day; rather, have them on days leading to the New Year. There are prescriptions: wear red and wear clothes with dots on them. Polka dots become a necessity, not a fashion statement. Buy fruits that are round in shape. The vulgar explanation for this is that the round form or the circle can stand for coins of money. That is quite crass for a meditating point as the year turns. The sound of commerce rings and sings of the cash register, for as the bells peal for the birth of the new dawn, more fruit vendors and fruit distributors are richer and more of those who have linked their stars to fruits are poorer. But who are we to tell those who believe in the power of the fruits? We are a confused people when it comes to stars and destiny. We cannot, it seems, decide whether we follow the tenets of the Catholic faith—the adherents to which form the majority in the country—or mix the Buddhist (the Oriental, if

to crack down on its errant neighbor; and competing agendas among the US and its allies. Both dynamics are now changing. Under President Xi Jinping, relations between China and North Korea have ranged from barely tepid to downright chilly. China said it “firmly opposes” Wednesday’s test, which only adds to Beijing’s growing list of diplomatic headaches. And the recent landmark agreement between Japan and South Korea on the divisive “comfort women” issue paves the way for closer strategic cooperation

you wish) with all other beliefs related to nativistic or revitalization movements. On tables in offices, therefore, it is natural almost to see the Child Jesus with the image of a cat with its paw poised as if it is going to scratch someone or one whose one paw keeps moving up and down. Even those who believe in the power of symbols as having the capacity to condense opposing meanings are lost in the two figures—one a benevolent God in the guise of a child, who has decided to come down one cold day in December so he could start the complex process of redemption; the other a cat, whose power to call on luck, hinges on its capacity to catch anything. The complexity of a religion screams unfair beside a doll with its assumed, cute power. But we believe. But we persist. We are counting the passing of the days worrying almost that the first month is almost over and we have not done anything yet to improve our station in life. The resolutions are not fashionable anymore. I don’t think parents still ask their children to write down their resolutions on a piece of paper and have

them sealed in an envelope till that day, on the last day this New Year, one looks at the list and be baffled by the items mocked because they have been blatantly ignored, or promises broken because to follow them is not to follow the course of things in this culture. Pope Francis has issued a very simple list of New Year’s resolutions. They are simple in the way they are written and expressed. The wording is so basic that one tries to read in between the lines. There is nothing between the lines because the lists are what you see and what you get. First on the list of the resolutions espoused by the good pope tells it all: Do not gossip. I can think of very good managers and educators who gossip because to tell it as it is means losing their social capital. The good pope continues and what seems like the simplest statements prove to be more complex. And real. Pope Francis urges us to befriend those who do not agree with us. This should be the simplest resolution for academics who are considered to be intellectuals. It seems, though,

intellectual academic has become the newest oxymoron in this part of the thinking world. Academics, especially those who occupy top positions, are happier when those people around them are always in agreement with them. I believe many academics have been watching many bad films that it has become normal for them to think of life as rosy and that we all get to ride into the sunset always, with solutions given to towns and villages. Nah, the world is more complex than that. Let me do a Pope Francis. For the first resolution, think. There are many ways to reckon the seasons and reasons in this world. While we may feel this month is already digging its grave, somewhere, in some cultures, the old year has not been replaced, yet. So, think, are you going by the Chinese New Year or sticking to the January 1 mode. Think. Think. Think. Perhaps, there is no need to buy circles for success and good fate.

and the enabling support. I have seen this in the development programs we work with in the Empowering Communities with Hope and Opportunities through Sustainable Initiatives (ECHOSI) Foundation’s Gender Responsive Economic Actions for the Transformation of Women (GREAT Women) Platform, and through our collaborative directions to markets with other woman social entrepreneurs through the GREAT Women Brand. It has been empowering to the microentrepreneurs we have worked with so far. What few people know is that Robredo was already part of this GREAT Women Program even before we, in the ECHOSI FoundationECHOstore, as private sector, came into the partnership with the government in 2012. Before ECHOSI Foundation-ECHOstore brought in the product development and market-access directions, the GREAT

Women Phase 1 Project was a government program of the Philippine Commission on Women, funded by Canadian government funds. Its focus then was to work with local government units to teach them how to create policies and programs with a gender lens that would enable women’s economic empowerment. Robredo, as a human-rights lawyer, quietly but dynamically led the Saligan Alliance to craft the first gender and development code in Metro Naga. This made real, at the municipal level, the principles of gender equality localizing the Magna Carta of Women. This made tangible, in a program rolled out at the community level, her pursuit of human-rights issues such as domestic violence with livelihood directions. And it is in GREAT Women that I meet up with her in this shared advocacy. And why I chose to speak up politically in support of a candidate as a convener of the Women for Leni Movement—to help bring this simple, hardworking, intelligent and highly able woman to “hold up half the sky” of our country, and help level the playing field for women. She represents so many of our own womenfolk—mothers who till the land or who quietly work hard in the background, yet a professional that can hold her own. She has been criticized that she has only come out of the shadow of her well-loved husband upon his death. But is this not a woman’s role? To often stay as the wind

beneath the wings of her man and support him, yet keeping her own sense of self and purpose steadily and quietly. And now she must come into her own. When I whispered to her on the side during the launch of Women for Leni that hey, this was the very first time I was coming out politically, she smiled and said, “Me, too.” And with this we laughed and said, “Let’s give it a try.” I do not know Leni on a personal level, but I will know her more, and what I know about her is enough for me to see the makings of a strong, steady and quiet leader who will work for the good of our women and the poor. When we launched Men for Leni on Facebook, I asked my male friends: Why are you voting for her? Their response: “Because I have daughters and a wife and I believe she will empower them and make the country better for women.” Another man said, “Because she has the best and longest record of grassroots community work among the VP candidates.” So you see, if women do hold up half the sky, I will place my winning bet on a woman who will help hold half this country together. Leni as VP will help bring up the other half who do hold up half our country’s economic and emotional sky!

precedent: the penalties that the George W. Bush administration imposed—and then prematurely lifted—on foreign banks linked to North Korea’s illicit dealings.) Their success will also depend on multilateral support. Legislative efforts to compel the imposition of broad US sanctions on North Korea and its enablers, and to limit the president’s flexibility in waiving them, are misguided. China, for one, will balk at unilateral sanctions on Chinese entities, and such tension could affect other important

areas of the US-China relationship. A better way to coax cooperation out of China is to make clear that North Korea’s continued intransigence will force the US and its allies to increase their military preparedness. More fundamentally, no matter how tough, sanctions by themselves will never compel a regime to give up the weapons it sees as the key to its survival. Even as the world works harder to cut off Kim Jong Un’s access to technology and assets that can go toward weapons of mass destruction,

it should do more to help ordinary North Koreans. That means shedding more light on North Korea’s human rights abuses, offering assistance during humanitarian disasters (even those that are selfinflicted), and using formal and informal cultural exchanges to give them a glimpse of the world beyond their fenced borders. This won’t be North Korea’s last nuclear test. But it could mark the start of a more effective peaceful effort to one day make them a thing of the past. Bloomberg View

A woman VP Jeannie E. Javelosa

Women Stepping UP

e’ve had our fair share of woman leaders in the country, having had two woman presidents to date. This year, we vote once more for the officials of the land. But as a woman, I have the added question: What is your agenda and programs for women?

With the advocacy work we have been doing with groups of women to support women’s economic empowerment, our women groups have started to band together to check and identify the candidates for political office this year. Under a banner question of “Is there a Women’s Vote?”, we held a forum last year and will continue with a couple more before election month. One of the participants in that first event was Rep. Leni G. Robredo of Camarines Sur, running for Vice President. And I am placing my bet on her. Never have I campaigned actively for anyone in the past but I do so now, on the platform of shared advocacies to make women a significant player in our economy. We have maintained that all the women’s right issues, such as domestic violence and rape, can be lessened once we empower women and do so by giving women economic rights

North Korea’s nuclear mistake orth Korea’s fourth nuclear test is an abrupt reminder that for Kim Jong Un, the costs of developing an atomic arsenal don’t yet outweigh its benefits. Fortunately, the rest of the world has never been in a better position to show him that his math is incorrect. The ability of the US, South Korea and Japan to change North Korea’s behavior has always been constrained by two factors: the reluctance of China, North Korea’s chief patron and economic partner,

Friday, January 8, 2016 A11

between the two countries. So the stage is set for a more robust and productive response to this latest North Korean provocation (which, despite Pyongyang’s claims, most likely was not a hydrogen bomb). The United Nations Security Council will doubtless issue new sanctions on North Korea, and China’s assent will be key to both their imposition and ultimate success. Moreover, despite North Korea’s status as a pariah state, it has not faced the stiffer sanctions that have been imposed on Iran, for instance. (One effective

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

Jeannie E. Javelosa is the chairman of the Business and Professional Women Makati and a member of the Women’s Business Council. She is the cofounder of ECHOstore, leads the ECHOSI Foundation, which is the private sector lead of the GREAT Women Brand and Platform.

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BOI-Peza investment pledges up 3% in 2015

By Catherine N. Pillas

he Board of Investments (BOI) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza)—the country’s main investment-promotion agencies (IPAs)—both registered positive, albeit modest, growth in registered fresh investments last year, former BOI Managing Head and now Trade Secretary Adrian S. Cristobal said. Cristobal said the two IPAs combined for P366.74 billion in investment approvals in 2015. “This is a slight improvement over the year before, about a 3-percent increase.” The total approved investment pledges in 2014 amounted to P354.76 billion.

In sum, there were 55 energy-related projects that the BOI recorded in 2015, with total project cost at P246.4 billion, a 41-percent increase, value-wise, year on year. “The increase in power-investment projects augurs well for the country’s goal to ensure energy

The focus has shifted to jobs generation not so much the figures.”—Cristobal For 2016, Cristobal said the BOIPeza conservative target is 5 percent. This is lower than the standard investment-growth forecast that the BOI has been pegging in previous years at 10 percent. The investment commitments in 2015 were from 358 new project approvals. The expected number of new jobs to be generated by these fresh investments is estimated at 58,252. BOI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo credited the 3-percent increase to big-ticket power projects that came in: Olympia Violago Water & Power Ltd. Co., P69.13 billion; San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co., P49.45 billion; and Semirara Mining and Power Corp., P29.5 billion.

5-5-5

Skyscrapers continue to rise in Makati City, the country’s business capital. Reports from the Board of Investments and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority show positive growth in investments in 2015. NONIE REYES

second-largest share, worth P27 billion in 2015, an increase of 10.6 percent from 2014’s P24.4 billion. The agriculture, forestry and fishing sector pulled in P6.19 billion, while information-technology and communications projects were pegged at P4.6 billion. Investment commitments from domestic sources reached P307.24 billion, or 84 percent of the total investment approvals in 2015. The remaining 16 percent, or P59.5 billion, were generated from

Percentagegrowth targets of Peza for investment, employment and exports this year security and independence. These investments support the Philippine Energy Plan (PEP) 2010-2030 to search for, discover and further develop energy sources,” Rodolfo said. Manufacturing contributed the

foreign sources. The modest growth outlook for 2016, Cristobal said, is due to the shift in focus to job generation rather than investment figures. “If you look at the past three years, the jobs generated from approved projects in the BOI have been increasing…the focus has shifted to jobs generation, not so much the figures,” the Department of Trade and Industry chief said. The drivers this year to achieve the 5-percent growth include the manufacturing sector, public ex-

PHL’s additional rice imports for 2016 may hit 400,000 MT

he Philippines is likely to import an additional 400,000 metric tons (MT) of rice this year to ensure that the National Food Authority (NFA) would have enough stocks, especially during the lean months. NFA Administrator Renan B. Dalisay told the BusinessMirror that the food agency is just awaiting the Food Security Committee’s (FSC) release of a resolution to formally declare its final recommendation on the additional rice imports for 2016. Dalisay also said the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), which chairs the FSC, is already okay with the importation of 400,000 MT of rice in the first semester of this year. “Neda told me that the final recommended volume [for rice imports] is 400,000 MT. That’s their calculation [of the volume needed] for the first semester, in preparation for the lean months. I’m asking for an FSC resolution to make the recommendation formal,” he said. Dalisay said the NFA Council is waiting for the resolution before it finalizes its rice-import plan for the first semester. He said the council will meet within the month to assess the required volume. He added that the council will also have to deliberate on the mode of procuring the additional volume. The Philippines usually buys rice via the minimumaccess volume scheme or government-to-government transaction. The administrator said the

500,000 MT Volume of rice imports initially purchased by the government this year additional imports may be procured in the second quarter of 2016, as the agency is still expecting the arrival of the 500,000 MT it purchased last year. Last month Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. announced that the government is planning to import up to 400,000 MT of rice on top of the 500,000 MT it initially procured in view of the threat posed by the prolonged dry spell. The volume is lower than the FSC’s initial recommendation of 1.3 million MT (MMT). “We have new data from the PSA showing that the expected production for [the last quarter of 2015] and the first semester of [2016] is likely going to be more favorable than expected,” Neda Director General Arsenio M. Balisacan earlier said. The drought caused by El Niño made it difficult for rice farmers to increase output in 2015. “[Based on the 2015 projected rice production at] 18.9 MMT, my barometer [for the rice-import volume] is 1.7 MMT. We need a buffer stock of almost 1 MMT, and the gap between production and demand is 700,000 MT. If you will recall, production declined to 18.3 MMT last year, from 18.97 MMT [the previous year],” Dalisay said.

MONIE REYES

By Mary Grace Padin

“Hopefully, rice output this year will be higher to reduce imports. But until we produce all our requirements, including the buffer stock of NFA, we would have to import what we need,” he added. According to data from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), the current El Niño episode is expected to persist until the first half of 2016. “The chance of El Niño is greater than 95 percent through Northern Hemisphere winter [December to February], with the event slowly weakening during spring [March to May] 2016,” Pagasa said, quoting the Climate Prediction Center and International Research Institute consensus as of October 15. Experts said the weakening of El Niño and the increase in the water level of major dams following the

onslaught of Typhoon Nona (international code name Melor) in Luzon could help ensure that the Philippines would be able to boost rice production this year. Dr. Rolando Dy, executive director of the University of Asia and the Pacific’s Center for Food and Agribusiness, said the additional volume of rice, which the Philippines plans to import, “appears to be adequate” However, the economist warned the government against importing more than the needed volume, as it might affect the supply and price situation of rice in the global market. “We need not overimport, since world stocks are ample, and rice prices in Thailand and Vietnam are low—way below $400 per MT [freight-onboard]. We have to play the market well. Importing large volumes can perk up world prices to our detriment,” Dy said.

penditure and the agriculture and fishery sectors. Peza, which caters mostly to export-oriented enterprises, notched a 5.58-percent growth in investments in 2015. “For Peza, we approved 598 projects last year. Our figures show that investments had an increase of 5.58 percent, or P 295 billion, for 2015,” Peza Director General Lilia B. de Lima said. Peza’s updated full-year figures for employment and exports are still being consolidated.

Exports, as of October, have contracted by 0.55 percent to $46 billion. Employment, on the other hand, improved by 7.7 percent, translating to 1.24 million total jobs in the first nine months of the year. Peza is, likewise, eyeing a 5-5-5 growth rates for exports, employment and investments for 2016. This is a similar target downgrading from previous years’ assumption of 10-10-10, credited by de Lima to the growing base for exports, employment and investments.

Shock waves… Index dropped 3.1 percent. Benchmark stock indexes in Australia, Japan, Singapore and Thailand all lost more than 2 percent. “The Chinese yuan is smack bang at the heart of concerns,” Chris Weston, chief market strategist in Melbourne at IG Ltd. “For risk assets to stabilize and sentiment to turn around, we are going to need a stable or even positive move in the Chinese currency. It’s clear that the market is becoming increasingly concerned by the global inflation outlook.” The Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 7.3 percent before trading was suspended. After the halt, the securities regulator announced rules to limit selling by major shareholders when a ban expires this week. The watchdog also held an unscheduled meeting on the China’s tumbling stock market without coming to a decision on policy action, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Currencies

The offshore yuan swung from a 0.3-percent gain to a 0.7-percent loss, and back in the space of about 30 minutes in early trading in Hong Kong’s freely traded market. It was subsequently 0.4 percent higher versus the greenback, while the onshore rate weakened 0.5 percent. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) cut the yuan’s reference rate by 0.5 percent, the most since the week of an August 11 devaluation that roiled global markets. “We saw aggressive intervention in the offshore yuan market,” said Zhou Hao, an economist at Commerzbank AG in Singapore. “We don’t really understand the rationale behind the market movements in

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the past few days. Obviously, these movements have reminded us of the market rout last year.” The central bank is considering new measures to prevent high exchangerate volatility in the short term, according to people familiar with the matter. China updates its foreigncurrency reserve levels on Thursday, giving traders an insight into how much its management of the yuan cost in December. The holdings fell by more than $400 billion in the first 11 months of 2015 as the PBOC bought yuan to support the exchange rate. The yen, which has been the best-performing major currency so far this year amid the demand for safe-haven assets, rose as much as 1 percent to its strongest level since August versus the dollar.

Commodities

The Bloomberg Commodity Index fell 0.8 percent and headed for its lowest close since 1999. Copper dropped 2.7 percent in London and nickel sank 2.9 percent. West Texas Intermediate crude slid 3.3 percent to $32.86 a barrel, poised for the lowest settlement since February 2004. US gasoline inventories surged the most in 22 years and crude supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma—the American hub — climbed to an all-time high, government data showed on Wednesday. Concern about a global oversupply saw crude cap its biggest-ever twoyear tumble in 2015, with Opec abandoning limits on production and US oil stockpiles remaining about 100 million barrels above their five-year average. Bloomberg News