BusinessMirror January 22, 2015

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Life

Encounter with Pope Francis

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

Well-told tales of travel

Thursday, January 22, 2015

How did you pick these 35 pieces—and how did you find them?

I drew up a wish list of writers I would love to work with and sent e-mails to them, their agents, their publishers. That’s how I got almost half the writers. I also have a pretty good stable of writers whose work I love; that was maybe another 15 stories or so. I then opened the theme up to the world at large, inviting travelers and travel writers via social media; four or five came from that.

One piece appeared in an online publication but hasn’t been in print. All the others were written for this anthology.

TRAVEL enthusiast Rovilson Fernandez enjoys an afternoon of water sports with his buddies, CJ Jaravata and Marc Nelson, in SeaBreeze Water-Sports @ Wavehouse Sentosa.

From sun up ‘til sun down FEW places in the world offer the kind and range of experiences like Singapore. Want to go on an epic food trip? Hawker centers, celebrity-chef and Michelin-star restaurants are within walking distance from each other, allowing foodies to start a meal with a bowl of spicy, savory laksa and a plate of hearty chicken rice before indulging in artfully crafted and sophisticated desserts by a celebrity chef. Want to redefine what it really means to shop till you drop?

Iconic shopping malls packed to the brim with cutting-edge fashion from homegrown designers and refined haute couture from international labels sit comfortably alongside quirky, almost bohemian bazaars, so even the most sartorially obsessed traveler will find an outfit or two to take home.

Only a little more than a three-hour flight away from Manila, Singapore has long been one of Filipinos’ favorite destinations, with airlines like Cebu Pacific offering daily flights from Manila and Cebu. Offering more than just food and shopping, Singapore (www.yoursingapore.com/ph) is also home to literally thousands of concerts, shows and artistic performances every year. From concerts and music festivals by chart-topping superstars to legendary musicals and plays, from avant-garde art installations to A-list parties that end only when the sun begins to rise in the horizon, the country has no shortage of things to see or do any time of the year.

This dynamic range is exactly what celebrities, travel enthusiasts and The Amazing Race alumni Marc Nelson, Rovilson Fernandez and CJ Jaravata came to experience in Singapore during their most recent trip. The trio enthusiastically shared their favorite destinations and top activities from their barkada trip.

“It’s cosmopolitan but traditional, modern but timeless, laidback but high-energy. Singapore is a study of contrasts,” says model, sportsman, and television host Nelson, who shares that he enjoyed a variety of activities ranging from flying 30 feet into the air with the JetLev Water-Propelled JetPack at SeaBreeze Water-Sports @ Wavehouse Sentosa, to appreciating the vibrant Singaporean art scene at the Arnoldii Art Club, and to savoring an authentic Italian lunch by the waterfront at SolePomodoro Trattoria Pizzeria in Quayside Isle, a new dining and lifestyle destination at Sentosa Cove. “Singapore is many things, but boring is the last thing anyone would call it.”

Television host and media personality Fernandez, in turn, says, “There’s really so much to do in Singapore, but the great thing about it is that even over a weekend, you’ll be able to experience so many things.” Counting Singapore as one of his favorite places to visit, he raves about Hidden Finds, an annual three-day pop-up market by Public Garden featuring over 120 local vendors. His mustvisits on every trip to Singapore also include feasting on a delicious spread of hawker fare at Makansutra Glutton’s Bay while taking in a fantastic view of the Marina Bay skyline; knocking back drinks at the world’s highest rooftop bar and multiexperience lifestyle joint, 1-Altitude; and exploring the interactive Alive Museum Singapore.

Model and actress Jaravata shared the two guys’ excitement during the trip, saying, “Food, shopping, art, entertainment.... What more could you want?

Singapore just has so many layers that you’re sure to find interesting places to go and things to do that you’ll inevitable fall in love with the city.”

What else do their tales share?

Ignorance at the start, definitely. And they grab you from (the) first few paragraphs and take you on incredible journeys.

What’s the humor-tragedy mix?

I’d say maybe 80 percent have moments of mild or possible tragedy that end up being happy. The rest are sad but moving and meaningful. One is about a guy traveling through Sri Lanka, just before the civil war began in the 1980s. He was in a charming village with charming kids. Later, he was reading news reports about revolutionaries who swept through that area and pretty much destroyed the village and killed the villagers. One night, back home, he looks up at the constellations—as he had during his wonderful trip to South Asia—and was thinking that the people he had such a good time with are probably no longer there.

Which story has the least travel?

There’s one by a guy who lives in California and who spent his life traveling around the world. His story takes place in Nevada, at the annual Burning Man event. Of all his life-changing experiences, he chose this place just hours from his home to write about. Of course, Burning Man is like an alternative universe in other ways. The story I chose to end the book was by an Australian who traveled around the world. She writes about coming home, and how home was so incredibly different than it had been. It’s poignant in a way—full circle—that symbolically everything changed. I think that’s what travel is all about: You have incredible experiences, come home, and because you’re now different the world you return to is different.

Your own story is the book’s introduction.

It’s about when I went to Europe after graduating from college: I went there thinking I’d take a year off, kind of live there, see what it was about, then go back to grad school, get a PhD in Comp Lit and become a tweedy professor. That was the plan. I went to Paris for three months and then had a fellowship to teach in Athens for a year. I took the Orient Express there and by the end of that year had fallen in love with the experience of being out in the world and how you learn so much every day when you’re living abroad.

I realized that for me the classroom was the world, and vice versa. Rather than go for a musty, ivy-clad brick building I’d much rather be out in bazaars, marketplaces and temples. This really changed my life. Later, I lucked out and became a travel writer. ■

Mövenpick Cebu supports PAL new flights from Cebu to Osaka, Nagoya THE flight crew of PR 480 bound for Nagoya, Japan.

FLAG carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Mövenpick Hotel Mactan Island Cebu, one of the province’s fivestar hotels, forged a partnership to further promote tourism in Cebu and provide excellent service to tourists.

The partnership commenced in late December when PAL, responding to clamor for more routes to Japan, inaugurated new flights from Cebu to Osaka and Nagoya.

Known for its excellent flight service, PAL lives up to its high standards by tapping Mövenpick Hotel Mactan Island Cebu as its premier partner hotel in Cebu.

Mövenpick Hotel Mactan Island Cebu revolutionizes the hospitality industry by providing exceptional service, comfortable and soothing accommodation, the best in food and drinks, and world-class entertainment.

The alliance kicked off last month, with Mövenpick participating and extending its service to the passengers of PAL’s maiden flights from Cebu to Osaka and Nagoya.

The hotel provided the passengers with refreshments before boarding.

An array of sushi, fruit and chocolate muffins, cheesecakes and chilled juices were served. Completing the experience in style was the serving of the award-winning Manny O. bubbly to the passengers and VIPs who attended the inauguration rites.

The event was attended by the Consul of Japan in Cebu Shoji Otake; Department of Tourism Regional Director Rowena Montecillo; PAL Senior Assistant VP for Philppine Sales Harry Inoferio; and PAL Head of Cebu Sales Christopher Lebumfacil. Also present during the

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NE of the more unusual travel books out this year is An Innocent Abroad: Life-Changing Trips From 35 Great Writers.

Great includes Tim Cahill (a founding editor of Outside magazine), Jan Morris (war correspondent, author of 19 travel books, notably Venice), Jane Smiley (Pulitzer-winning novelist of A Thousand Acres), nonfiction best-seller Simon Winchester (The Professor and the Madman) and thriller novelist David Baldacci (The Innocent).

But this Lonely Planet anthology also features pieces by stellar storytellers you never heard of.

The tales, all short, were assembled and edited by Don George, long-time travel writer and currently an editor-at-large for National Geographic Traveler, and editor for the BBC’s travel web site. We talked to him recently about the book.

What do the 35 stories have in common?

Transformation. It’s the innocence the writer brought to experience. It’s an alchemical effect—something that changed the writer’s life.

In some stories, it’s something small. Jane Smiley’s is about taking a horseriding trip through France. Her horse goes lame and she ends up traveling with her husband, who rents a car and keeps getting lost. But her experience leads to some beautiful, revelatory moments. Then there are bigger stories, where a person’s life is actually changed. One I love is by Anna Vodecka; it’s an amazing story about a youth ministry trip to Europe.

launch were Lapu-Lapu City Tourism Head Hembler Mendoza, Mövenpick Hotel Mactan Island Cebu General Manager Knuth Kiefer and Manny O.’s Richard Miller.

PAL operates four weekly flights (Monday/Thursday/Friday/Sunday) between Cebu and Osaka on PR 410,

and three weekly flights (Tuesday/ Wednesday/Sunday) between Cebu and Nagoya on PR 480. Both flights have a total of 199-passenger capacity.

Capping off the celebration was a water-cannon salute to the maiden flights.

life

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JAPAN WEIGHS RANSOM IN ISLAMIC STATE THREAT TO KILL TWO HOSTAGES The World BusinessMirror

B3-6 Thursday, January 22, 2015

4 men in Paris court are 1st to face terror attacks charges P AR IS—French antiterror prosecutors sought on Tuesday to charge four men in connection with the attacks in Paris that left 20 people dead, which would be the first suspects charged in the country’s bloodiest terrorist attacks in decades.

The four men awaited an antiterror judge’s decision early Wednesday on whether to open preliminary investigations against them.

The possible charges were expected just hours before the French government was to unveil new measures aimed at helping head off future attacks, giving police more power to tap phones, monitor web sites and force Internet companies to block messages of hate posted online.

Prime minister Manuel Valls will present new security measures on Wednesday that will include efforts to increase intelligence-gathering against jihadis and other radicals, block their activities on the Internet, and prevent them from collaborating inside prisons or traveling abroad to fight, President François Hollande said. France is on high security alert after the country’s worst terrorist attacks in decades. The court case and the arrests came as Valls urged his nation to do some soul-searching about the country’s deep ethnic divisions and declared that fighting hatred, anti-Semitism and racism was a top priority, especially in France’s impoverished housing projects.

The street sign near the offices of French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo, where Brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi killed people in a terror attack is replaced with a poster reading “Place of the freedom of expression,” in Paris on January 20. AP

The Paris prosecutor’s office said the four men in court on Tuesday were suspected of providing logistical support to Amedy Coulibaly, one of the terrorists killed by police, and requested they be detained longer on weapons and terrorism charges.

Coulibaly shot a policewoman to death on the outskirts of Paris and then killed four hostages inside a kosher supermarket before being shot dead by police. It is not clear whether the four suspects, all in their 20s, were involved in plotting the attacks or even aware of Coulibaly’s plans.

Five others arrested in the investigation were released without charge, prosecutors said.

No one has been charged with direct involvement in the January 7 to

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Japan weighs ransom in Islamic State threat to kill two hostages

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9 Paris terror attacks.

Coulibaly claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group, while the two brothers who attacked the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly said they were backed by al-Qaeda in Yemen.

In Bulgaria a court on Tuesday agreed to extradite a Frenchman who knew one of the two Kouachi brothers who massacred 12 people at the newspaper. Fritz-Joly Joachin told the Bulgarian court he was innocent and wanted to return to Paris to clear his name. Five others arrested in the investigation of the terror attacks in France were released without charge, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, France honored a Mali-born employee of the kosher market who saved lives there by granting him citizenship. AP

AIRO—The Islamic State (IS) group threatened to kill two Japanese hostages within 72 hours, demanding a $200-million ransom in a video posted online on Tuesday that showed a knifebrandishing masked militant standing over the two kneeling captives.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was traveling in the Middle East, vowed to save the men. But with his military only operating in a self-defense capacity at home, Abe faces a hard choice: openly pay the extremists or ask an ally like the US to attempt a risky rescue inside Syria.

Tuesday’s video, released via militant websites associated with the IS group, mirrored other hostage threats the extremists have made. In it, the captives, 47-yearold Kenji Goto and 42-year-old Haruna Yukawa, were shown in orange jumpsuits with a rocky hill in the background, a black-clad militant standing between them. The scene resembles others featuring five hostages previously beheaded by the IS group, which controls a third of Iraq and Syria.

Speaking in English with a British accent, the militant demanded $200 million for the men’s release and appeared to link the ransom to a pledge Abe made on Saturday of nonmilitary aid to help the government of Iraq and to assist Syrian refugees who have fled the IS’s brutality.

“To the prime minister of Japan... you willingly have volunteered to take part in this crusade,” said the masked man, who looked and sounded like the militant shown in other filmed beheadings.

“And to the Japanese public: Just as your government has made the foolish decision to pay $200 million to fight the IS, you now have 72 hours to pressure your government in making a wise decision, by paying the $200 million to save the lives of your citizens,” he said.

“Otherwise, this knife will become your nightmare.”

Japanese officials said they would analyze the video to verify its authenticity, though Abe offered no hesitation as he pledged to free the men.

“Their lives are the top priority,” the Japanese leader told journalists in Jerusalem as he wrapped up a 6-day visit to the Middle East. “Extremism and Islam are completely different things.”

Abe and others in his government declined to say whether they would pay a ransom, though

Abe dispatched his deputy foreign minister, Yasuhide Nakayama, to Jordan to seek the country’s support in resolving the hostage crisis.

Agreeing to the IS group’s demands would run contrary to allies like the US and Britain, which have a strict policy of not paying ransoms. The State Department had no immediate comment on whether the US was urging Japan not to pay. Secretary of State John Kerry planned to speak later with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on the hostage crisis, spokesman Jen Psaki said.

In a statement, she said the US “strongly condemns ISIL’s [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] threat to murder Japanese citizens,” and called for the immediate release of all hostages. “The US is fully supportive of Japan in this matter. We stand in solidarity with Japan and are coordinating closely,” the statement said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon also called for the immediate release of the Japanese hostages and all other captives.

Though Abe has said he wants a more-muscular Japanese military, he has ruled out sending troops overseas and Japan’s constitution, drafted during the American occupation following World War II, commits the country to pacifism. That would put the onus on partners like the US to attempt any hostage rescue. In early July US special forces launched a secret raid into Syria to try to free American hostages held by the IS group, killing several militants, but finding no captives.

The two Japanese hostages said nothing during the video.

Goto is a respected Japanese freelance journalist who went to report on Syria’s civil war last year.”

I’m in Syria for reporting,” Goto wrote in an e-mail to an Associated Press journalist in October, before he was abducted. “I hope I can convey the atmosphere from where I am and share it.”

Yukawa, the founder of a private security company, was kidnapped in Syria in August after going there to train with militants, according to a post on a blog he kept.

Nobuo Kimoto, an adviser to Yukawa’s company, told Japanese

television station NHK that he had worried “something like this could happen sooner or later.”

Tuesday’s video marks the first time the IS group has publicly demanded cash. The extremists requested $132.5 million from hostage James Foley’s parents and political concessions from Washington, though neither was granted, US authorities say, and Foley was subsequently beheaded.

They asked for a similar amount for two other American hostages, authorities have said.

The IS group has suffered recent losses in US-led air strikes, and with global oil prices down, their revenue from selling stolen oil has dropped. The extremists also have made money from extortion and robbing banks during its August offensive in Iraq.

Before the oil price drop, the IS group made as much as $2 million a day selling pilfered oil, and used the funds to pacify as many as 8 million people living in its selfdeclared caliphate, said Greg Ohannessian, an analyst at the Dubaibased Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.

“Now with oil dropping by 60 percent, that is going to be cutting into their income,” Ohannessian said. “That is definitely going to have an impact on their capacity to maintain the population.”

The group released some 200 mostly elderly Yazidi hostages in Iraq over the weekend, fueling speculation by Iraqi officials that the group didn’t have the money to care for them.

Besides Foley, the IS group has beheaded American hostage Peter Kassig, Israeli-American Steven Sotloff, and British captives David Haines and Alan Henning.

The group has also shot dead hundreds of captives—mainly Syrian and Iraqi soldiers—and has celebrated its mass killings in graphic videos.

The extremists still hold British photojournalist John Cantlie, who has appeared in other extremist propaganda videos, and a 26-yearold American woman. US officials have asked that the woman not be identified out of fears for her safety.

This is Abe’s second Mideast hostage crisis since becoming prime minister. The first came two years ago when al-Qaeda-affiliated militants attacked an Algerian natural gas plant, killing 37 foreigners, including 10 Japanese. Seven Japanese workers survived.

What Abe and others in Japan fear is a replay of 2004, when followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi beheaded a Japanese backpacker, Shosei Koda, over the country sending troops to Iraq to do humanitarian work. A video by al-Zarqawi’s group, which later became the IS group, showed Koda begging Japan’s then-prime minister to save him. AP

Egypt’s el-Sissi says protest rights secondary to stability

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AIRO—Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said on Tuesday that those questioning his government about human rights and freedom of expression are ignoring the fact that his country of 90 million lacks development, investment and desperately needed stability.

Speaking during celebrations of national Police Day on Tuesday, el-Sissi said he respects human rights but that his country—with a massive segment of Egyptians living in poverty—is facing exceptional circumstances and some violations are inevitable.

El-Sissi focused, in particular, on critics of a controversial protest law

passed by the government last year which punishes all unauthorized demonstrations with up to five years in prison and hefty fines.

These critics says the law aims to quell all forms of dissent amid an intense government crackdown against Islamists and other dissidents—including secular activists who led the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

They also point to the irony that el-Sissi wouldn’t be president if not for massive 2013 demonstrations against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, that prompted el-Sissi—then the defense minister—to oust Morsi.

El-Sissi’s government has repeatedly dismissed those criticisms, saying the law doesn’t ban demonstrations but rather regulates them.

On Tuesday and only days before the January 25 anniversary of the uprising against Mubarak, el-Sissi repeated his depiction of protests as a force for distraction and instability.

“Ninety million want to eat, drink, live and be reassured for their future,” he told a room packed with police officers and public figures. “I am not saying protests are rejected, never. But I am saying that we gave the issue of the protest such a space...but those 90 million want to eat.” AP

WORLD

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narrow escape Sports BusinessMirror

C1 | Thursday, January 22, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

Sharapova SaveS 2 match pointS, advanceS at auStralian open

NARROW ESCAPE

By John Pye The Associated Press

M Maria Sharapova watches her return to alexandra panova during their second round-match at the australian open. AP

ELBOURNE, Australia—Maria Sharapova had a narrow escape in the second round of the Australian Open on Wednesday, saving two match points with big forehand winners before beating No. 150-ranked Alexandra Panova 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.

Roger Federer dropped the first set, and asked for medical advice on his sore right pinkie finger, before beating Simone Bolelli 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the third round.

The No. 2 seeds didn’t get it entirely their way on Day Three.

Sharapova made 51 unforced errors as she went for the lines, but kept swinging hard and saved some of her best ground strokes for when she needed them.

She faced two match points in the 10th game of the third set, stepping into a return winner on a weak second serve and later ripping a forehand winner deep into the corner against fellow Russian Panova, a qualifier who entered the Australian Open without a single match win at five previous majors.

Sharapova, who won the 2008 Australian Open and has five Grand Slam titles, struggled with her serve in the second and third sets as the match extended to two hours, 32 minutes in a temperatures topping 33 degrees Celsius (91°F).

“I’m just happy to get through—I was one point away twice today from being out of the tournament,” Sharapova said, who started the season by winning the Brisbane International title.

“I was not playing my best tennis today.

“I think she played a pretty inspired match. She came out here with not much to lose and swinging freely and going for her shots.”

Sharapova raised her intensity in the final set, screeching loudly as she fought to control rallies and clenching her left fist as she prepared to receive. She is the only Grand Slam champion remaining in her half of the draw.

In earlier second-round matches, No. 10 Ekaterina Makarova beat Roberta Vinci 6-2, 6-4; No. 21 Peng Shuai had a 6-1, 6-1 win over Magdalena Rybarikova; No. 22 Karolina Pliskova beat Oceane Dodin 7-5, 5-7, 6-4; and Carina Witthoeft defeated Christina McHale 6-3, 6-0.

Federer was bothered by pain in his right hand, and took a medical timeout after the first set, before recovering to beat No. 48 Bolelli.

“It felt like a bee stung me. I was like ‘This can’t be possible—I never had this pain before.’

It was disturbing me,” Federer, a four-time Australian Open champion, said. “I knew that to tape it wasn’t an option.”

Three-time finalist Andy Murray didn’t let the parochial crowds in Margaret Court Arena bother him as he beat Australian Marinko Matosevic 6-1, 6-3, 6-2, while No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov beat Lukas Lacko 6-3, 6-7 (10), 6-3, 6-3.

EStEr Satorova watches his fiancée tomas Berdych plays against Jurgen Melzer. Satorova and Berdych announced their engagement. AP

BERDYCH GETS ENGAGED WITH CZECH MODEL MELBOURNE, Australia—Tomas Berdych popped the question at the beach. And his now-fiancée, Czech model Ester Satorova, has tweeted a picture of the ring.

The couple announced their engagement at the Australian Open, where the 29-year-old Berdych advanced to the third round on Wednesday and said he had proposed during a holiday late last year.

“It was simple,” said the No. 7-ranked Berdych, when asked for details about the proposal. “It was after dinner on the beach.”

His fiancee offered a bit more color.

“Our secret from last year holiday is OUT,” she tweeted, with the hashtags “Maldives” and “engagement ring.” She attached a picture of her hand inside a heart etched in white sand, a large diamond on her ring finger.

The ATP said in a statement announcing the engagement that the couple started dating in late 2012. Berdych, a 2010 Wimbledon finalist, said he feels a good balance between his personal life and tennis career.

“I can talk with my partner about basically everything.... I can just completely switch off from the tennis,” he said. “Then once you step back on the tennis side, then you are absolutely focused [on] whatever you do...so for me, I think it’s a great combination.”

Matosevic’s first-round opponent, Alexander Kudryavtsev, accused boisterous Australian fans of behaving like “animals” after losing in five sets to the Melbourne resident.

After Wednesday’s match, Murray laughed as he said: “It was a fun atmosphere to play today. Even if not everyone was supporting me.”

Seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych advanced with a 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-2 win over Austrian qualifier Jurgen Melzer, moving into the third round along with No. 14 Kevin Anderson and No. 24 Richard Gasquet.

Berdych, a Wimbledon finalist in 2010, lost to eventual champion Stan Wawrinka in the semifinals last year at Melbourne Park, where he

has reached the quarterfinals or better ever since 2011.

Three of the men’s seeds were beaten, with 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis defeating No. David Goffin 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0; Viktor Troicki beating No. 26 Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0; and No. 32 Martin Klizan retiring after one game in the fourth set against Joao Sousa.

Doubles play opened on Wednesday, without some regular starters. Serena and Venus Williams withdrew from their first-round match, but tournament officials did not immediately specify a reason. Both of the Williams sisters have secondround singles matches on Thursday.

SISTERS VENUS, SERENA PULL OUT OF DOUBLES EVENT MELBOURNE, Australia— Serena and Venus Williams have pulled out of women’s doubles at the Australian Open, where they’ve won four titles.

The Williams sisters were scheduled to play their first-round match on Wednesday against Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan.

A tournament official confirmed the Williams sisters had withdrawn, but did not specify a reason.

Both sisters won their first-round singles matches in singles on Tuesday.

FOOTBALL STAR RONALDO BREAKS UP WITH GF portugal’S Cristiano ronaldo (right), irina Shayk end their five-year relationship. AP

By Barry Hatton The Associated Press

LISBON, Portugal—Portugal and Real Madrid soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo confirmed on Tuesday he has broken up with his longtime girlfriend, Russian model Irina Shayk.

“After dating for five years, my relationship with Irina Shayk has come to an end,” Ronaldo said in a written statement sent exclusively to the Associated Press. “We believed it would be best for both of us to take this step now.”

Ronaldo said he was making the statement to end speculation about their relationship, and to end recent rumors about his private life. He did not specify the rumors, but media in Portugal have reported that Shayk fell out with members of Ronaldo’s

family, and that he was seeing another woman.

“I wish Irina the greatest happiness,” Ronaldo said.

He gave no further details in the brief statement.

The couple, both 29, has had huge international success, and their relationship has featured in newspapers and magazines worldwide. They were not believed to be living together, as Ronaldo was based in the Spanish capital, while Shayk traveled extensively.

Ronaldo recently picked up the Ballon d’Or after being voted the world’s best player, but Shayk did not accompany him to the ceremony in Zurich. Her absence triggered rumors that their relationship was over. The couple remained silent despite days of intense media speculation.

Ronaldo retained football’s

highest individual honor after scoring 61 goals last year. His record tally of 17 in a Champions League season helped Madrid win an unprecedented 10th European Cup title.

Born in the Portuguese island of Madeira, Ronaldo played as a teenager for Sporting Lisbon before moving to Manchester United in 2003. He transferred to Real Madrid in 2009, building his reputation and his wealth through endorsements and sponsorships. He has millions of followers on social media.

Ronaldo has a 4-year-old son, called Cristiano Junior, but he has never disclosed the mother’s identity.

Shayk won international fame as a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, and a lingerie model. She made her acting debut last year opposite Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the film Hercules.

sports

By Lenie Lectura

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B J B The Charlotte Observer

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P25.00 nationwide | 6 sections 30 pages | 7 days a week

Plant shutdowns thin power supply

Well-told tales of travel D

Tuesday, 18,2015 2014Vol. Vol.1010No. No.105 40 Thursday,November January 22,

D.O.E. SAYS COol WEATHER KEEPING DEMAND LOW, BUT SUPPLY ALREADY CRITICAL

INSIDE

EAR Lord, the moment the plane of Pope Francis was visible, our hearts were in deep jubilation. We thank God that at last, he landed in Philippine soil for the first time.

The well-planned activities for him were exceptionally realized.

The unending routes were all filled with thousands of people from all walks of life. Many braved the sun and rain just to be around to see the pope even from a distance. Many were teary-eyed because of joy; many felt a breeze that swept all over their skin. Many say the pope’s holiness was indeed the cause of many unexplainable experiences. This encounter with Pope Francis will forever be remembered by all the people who witnessed his presence in our beloved country. Amen.

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U.S. FIRMS WANT PPP POLICIES IMPROVED

he Department of Energy (DOE) could only hope for now that no more power plant will conk out anytime soon, as latest data indicate that a total of 2,532 megawatts (MW) of power have already been shaved off from the Luzon grid due to forced and scheduled shutdown of power plants.

Among the power plants that are on scheduled maintenance shutdown include Malaya Unit 1 (300 MW), GN Power Unit 2 (300 MW), Masinloc Unit 2 (315 MW) and Quezon Power (460 MW).

Malaya 1, which was shut down since March 31, 2014, due to high turbine vibration, is expected to be back on line in July; GN Power 2, which went on a planned outage since December 30, 2014, will be back on line in March; Masinloc 2, which is on a scheduled annual maintenance outage since January 1 this year, will be restored by the end of January; and Quezon Power, which also underwent a scheduled maintenance since January 17, is expected to resume operation by February 25.

Meanwhile, the power plants that went on forced outage include the Limay 6 (60 MW), due to high turbine vibration; Limay 8 (100 MW), due to undetermined cause; Malaya 2 (350 MW), due to main fuel heater leak; GN Power 1 (300 MW), due to actuation of generator fault problem; Tiwi 2 (27 MW), due to low vacuum; Ilijan A, due to undetermined cause; and BacMan 2 (20 MW), due to stillundetermined cause.

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PESO exchange rates n US 44.6790

By Cai U. Ordinario

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based on a nine-dash line drawn on a 1940s map that loops down like a cow’s tongue to a point about 1,800 kilometers (1,119 miles) south from China’s Hainan island. The area overlaps claims from Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam and Taiwan.

The HS 981 oil rig episode last year illustrates the tensions. When it was first deployed for exploration work in 2012, China National Offshore Oil Corp. Ltd. (CNOOC) Chairman Wang Yilin described deepwater rigs as “our mobile national territory and strategic weapon for prompting the development of the country’s offshore oil industry.”

he government needs to structure the country’s key public-private partnership (PPP) deals better to get the interest of American companies, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Kurt Tong of the US Department of State Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs said.

Tong recognized that structuring PPPs is not simple because of the careful balancing act involved in designing the projects. The PPP deals, he said, need to be viable on the revenue side for the private investor. It must also be practical and have clearer rules and plans.

“I think they [American investors] are [interested] but I think these partnerships need to be structured in a way that will work for private business. I think your government is putting a lot of effort into that,” Tong said. “I think that if structured well, foreign investors could be quite interested in this and not just Americans.”

Tong said the US government has a few facilities that can help improve project design and implementation.

These government agencies include the Trade and Development Agency (TDA), which can extend grants to help design projects either for public or private financing.

Another agency, Tong said, is the Overseas Private Investment Corp., which can help American firms hedge their risk when participating in overseas projects.

US-based firms, he said, would be keen on participating in PPP

Continued on A2

See “US firms,” A8

See “Oil,” A2

bringing back the grove A boy in Bacolod wades through a mangrove area that is being rehabilitated by the local government. NONIE REYES

All about the base: Oil drop unlikely to ease tensions in South China Sea

W

hen it comes to territorial tensions in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), it’s more about what goes through it than what lies beneath it.

Oil last week dropped below $46 a barrel to more than five- year lows.

The biggest collapse in energy prices since the 2008 global recession has prompted companies from Royal Dutch Shell Plc. to Norway’s Statoil ASA to scrap projects not considered viable at current prices and drawn attention to the future of costly deepsea exploration.

Yet in the South China Sea, where Chinese and Vietnamese boats clashed last May after China parked

an oil rig in disputed waters, political and security considerations will keep territorial tensions simmering, fueling military spending by countries that border the area. The South China Sea contains some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and is a vital artery for China’s energy supplies from the Middle East.

“The South China Sea dispute is not some struggle for energy,” said Shi Yinhong, director of the Center for American Studies at Renmin University in Beijing and an adviser to China’s State Council. “This is a dispute for maritime territory and there is no compromise over claims.”

China says it is entitled to about four-fifths of the South China Sea,

n japan 0.3761 n UK 67.6663 n HK 5.7630 n CHINA 7.1898 n singapore 33.4274 n australia 36.7124 n EU 51.6221 n SAUDI arabia 11.8986 Source: BSP (21 January 2015)

A2

News BusinessMirror

Thursday, January 22, 2015

news@businessmirror.com.ph

ITS Southwest deal goes to Megawide

T

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

he transportation agency is set to award the P2.5-billion Integrated Terminal System (ITS) Southwest Terminal deal to Megawide Construction Corp. this week, a senior official said.

Transportation Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo M. Lotilla said the agency’s chief only needs to affix his signature on the notice for the

awarding to push through.

“We haven’t signed the notice yet.

But we want to award within this week,” he said, confirming that the

deal will “most likely” be awarded to MWM Terminals of Megawide.

The bid, he said, is compliant to the rules.

“They offered the lowest fee; so in all likely it is theirs. The signing of the concession agreement will be by next week,” Lotilla explained.

Megawide, which is a mainstay in the government’s public-private partnership (PPP) front, only sought for a P100-million annual grantor payment—simply put, a subsidy—to win the deal.

The offer would mean that the government has to shell out P100 million annually for the rest of the 35-year concession period of the project.

Hence, the government will have paid an aggregate amount of P3.5 billion to the winning bidder after the concession period.

Rival Filinvest Land Inc., the only other party that submitted an offer for the deal, sought for a higher P650-million annual subsidy.

This is the second key infrastructure contract in which Megawide and Filinvest clashed.

The first one being the P17.5bi l l ion M ac t a n - Cebu I nte r national Airport, a deal whose awarding was delayed because of legal hurdles.

Megawide won the battle for the airport-construction contract.

The multibillion-peso trans-

port terminal contract, meanwhile, provides for the construction of an intermodal terminal near the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway to connect passengers coming from Cavite to urban transport systems in Metro Manila.

It will include a passenger terminal building, arrival and departure bays, public information systems, ticketing and baggage handling facilities and park-ride facilities.

The government has awarded eight contracts since the infrastructure program’s inception in 2010. It aims to sign at least 15 contracts by the time President Aquino steps down from office in 2016.

Global economy. . .

Continued from A8

that fueled demand for everything from Australian iron ore to European luxury goods.

Few think the Chinese slowdown will do much direct damage to the strengthening economy of the US. The US is enjoying sustained improvement, with healthy job growth, falling oil prices, rising auto sales, low interest rates and an easing of government cutbacks fueling steady expansion.

The pain will be more intense in countries, such as Australia and Malaysia that rely heavily on the Chinese market, said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS. “Those most hurt will be the commodity-exporting countries in Africa and Latin America and China’s neighbors,” Behravesh said.

Chinese businesses are bracing for a more painful year.

“Competition will be even more difficult,” said Han Yi, a sales manager at Tianjin Yihsin Packing Plastic Co., which employs 700 people making plastic cups and cookie packaging in Tianjin, about an hour southeast of Beijing.

Han complained that sales in 2014 dipped about 5 percent from the year before and the company had to improve product quality and reliability to compete for new clients.

Even then, it was able to win only one new account from a rapidly expanding customer.

“The situation would be much worse if we could not win this new client,” he said.

China’s slowdown is partly intentional: Beijing wants to move the country away from super fast growth based on often-wasteful investment in factories and real estate to sturdier but slower growth based on spending

by Chinese consumers.

The slowdown “is by and large a good thing,” S&P’s Sheard said. “China was growing at an unsustainably fast pace.”

But the transition, already difficult because consumers have never been the driving force behind China’s growth, has been buffeted by a range of problems. They include a slumping property market and uneven exports.

Some analysts expect China to gradually provide economic stimulus this year to prevent growth from fading too fast. But they don’t expect a major spending splurge. Debt is already at worrying levels after the government engineered a credit-fueled response to the 2008 global crisis.

“Credit risks will likely continue to prevent policy-makers from using monetary policy too aggressively in order to shore up growth,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics, who forecasts 7-percent growth in China this year.

Consumption should receive a boost from the slump in global oil prices. But it’s unlikely to fully offset the slowdown of investment in areas already suffering from overcapacity such as property and heavy industry, he said.

Chinese officials have tried to lower expectations by saying growth below the official target would be acceptable. AP

MAYOR STILL Manila City Mayor Joseph Ejercito Estrada jubilates over a news conference following the Supreme Court dismissal on his disqualification case filed by rival Alfredo Lim. See story on A3.

ROY DOMINGO

All about the base: Oil drop unlikely to ease tensions in South China Sea Continued from A1

Vietnam riots

When it was sent into waters disputed with Vietnam in May last year, deadly anti-Chinese riots erupted in Vietnam and the US called the action “provocative.” The rig was removed in July, a month before schedule.

Project manager China National Petroleum Corp. claimed to have detected oil and gas, but gave no further details.

“You have to ask: what was the rationale by the Chinese last year?,” said Philip Andrews-Speed, a fellow at Singapore’s Energy Studies Institute. “If you believe it was a one-off political gesture, to say ‘hey, we can do this,’ then the oil price isn’t going to make a difference.”

The slow trickle of production from the area gives credence to the view that China is mostly interested in being able to freely deploy its navy to protect its trade routes, and seeks sovereignty in order to act as it wishes. Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin last May described the sea as ‘‘a maritime lifeline.’’

Justifying claims

“The South China Sea is far more important for the hydrocarbons that sail through it than those that lie beneath it,” said Bill Hayton, author of The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia, published last year.

China uses “oil as a pretext to stage a national territorial claim and justify it because they argue that it is rich in oil.”

Almost a third of global crude passes through the South China Sea, or 14 million barrels of oil a day,

according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The countries bordering the South China Sea produced about 1.26 million barrels of oil a day in 2011, according to the EIA —just 1.4 percent of the 89 million barrels a day the International Energy Agency says is consumed globally.

Estimates of the potential for discoveries in the South China Sea vary wildly. The EIA says the area has proved and probable reserves of about 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Coastal areas

Most of the undiscovered oil lies in coastal regions that aren’t disputed, according to the EIA. In addition to the geopolitical tensions, the EIA notes, the contested areas face geological and technological challenges, not least the depth of the waters and frequency of typhoons.

China’s estimates dwarf those of the US organization. In 2012 Cnooc’s chairman estimated the area holds around 125 billion barrels of oil and 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to a report in the Financial Times. Cnooc did not respond to an e-mail sent to its media unit. These numbers have been dismissed by some western observers, including Hayton, who argue they are based on estimates from the 1990s when China’s oil self sufficiency was ending just as its economy was beginning to take off.

“Once these official sources declared these numbers to be true, it was very hard for any other official to declare them nonsense.” Hayton wrote in his book. Cnooc became

“a powerful voice within the system amplifying the sea’s potential. The bigger the reserves appeared to be, the stronger the case for winning more funding from the state.”

Deepwater projects

Others say China may not be exaggerating.

“I don’t think there is any reason to dump money into the ocean if they don’t believe that,” said Gordon Kwan, the Hong Kong-based head of regional oil and gas research at Nomura Holdings Inc. While Kwan doesn’t expect China’s oil explorers to dramatically reduce work in the South China Sea, he equally doesn’t expect them to boost investment after oil dropped almost 50 percent last year.

“Certainly restrained cash flow will lower their capex and they have to rationalize whether deepwater exploration is still worthwhile,” he said. “If they believe the oil price will rebound by the time the deepwater projects start producing, they make take a different view.”

Frontier area

In the meantime the world’s major oil companies are staying away.

“There has been limited exploration in the disputed areas and it will need resolution between China and the other claimants before we see any ramp-up,” said Andrew Harwood, a senior researcher at energy consultant Wood Mackenzie in Singapore. “The majority of the South China Sea is considered a frontier area, which means high risk and high cost, but potentially high reward.”

There are other potential flash points in the seas, which host enough fish to comprise about 10 percent of the globe’s total catch, according to the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center.

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said on January 7 it detained an Indonesian fishing boat and four crew for suspected fishing in Malaysian waters. Days later, Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was ready to discuss the sinking by Indonesia of a Malaysian vessel for illegal fishing.

Fishing boats

Further north, Vietnamese newspaper Tuoi Tre reported Chinese boats chased and damaged three Vietnamese fishing boats near the Paracel islands on January 7 in separate incidents.

Claimants regularly argue over reclamation projects, the most recent Vietnam’s complaint over China’s expansion of an airport on an island in the Spratly area. In August China rebuffed efforts by US Secretary of State John Kerry to secure a freeze on any actions that might provoke tensions in the waters.

“Although the perception that the South China Sea is rich in energy resources remains a key driver of the dispute, there are many other factors at work,” said Ian Storey, senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “Nationalism, attempts by the various parties to enforce their historical and jurisdictional claims and geostrategic rivalry will keep this issue at or near the top of the regional security agenda.” Bloomberg News

Plant shutdowns thin power supply Continued from A1

It is not unknown as to when the Limay units, Malaya 2, GN Power 1, Tiwi 2 and BacMan 2 are expected to be back on line. Ilijan A, however, is expected to resume operations on February 25.

As of January 21, Luzon grid’s power reserve stood at 1,717 MW even as demand has hit 6,831 MW. Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla said there are still no reported power outage incidents in Luzon amid the high number of power plants going offline because demand is still manageable.

“The grid’s condition is still white, meaning normal.The cool weather keeps the demand low. We are hoping for the best,”he said when sought for comment.

Separately, data from the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) three-year grid-operating program showed Masinloc 1 (315 MW) is scheduled for a shutdown from March 1 to 12; the Santa Rita 1 (250 MW), March 7 to 11; LimayA1 (60 MW), March 15 to 22; Limay A2 (60 MW), May 24 to 31; Limay A4 (90 MW), February 5 to 7; and Lima yB1 (60 MW), April 8 to 15.

Some hydropower plants are also expected to go offline. These include the Angat, Binga, Magat, Pantabangan, Bakun, Casecnan and San Roque.

For now, the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) is till the government’s solution to address Luzon’s power woes. It banks on the issuance of a joint resolution that will grant President Aquino “special powers” to make the program work.

“As far as I am concerned, the ILP can still be recruited up to the start of summer but we need Congress’s issuance of the joint resolution for this to be operational,” Petilla had said.

ILP works by calling on business customers with loads of at least 1 MW to run their own generator sets, if needed, instead of drawing power from the grid.

Based on latest ILP figures, the program is still not enough to cover for the projected power-supply gap. Still, the DOE continues to hold negotiations with prospective ILP participants.

“In times like this, we need the collective effort and assistance of those who are willing to extend their hands…our search has never been in vain. In fact, ILP participants have been growing, reflecting the private sector’s role in this initiative,” Petilla said.

Jollibee. . .

Continued from A8

The company, at the moment, has 399 stores in China, mostly composed of brands catering to the local market. In the US the franchise has 83 stores composed of 30 under the Jollibee brand, 31 under Red Ribbon, 19 under Chowking and three under Jinja.

Most of the stores cater to the overseas Filipino market, while the Jinja bar and restaurant, all in New Mexico, serves Asian cuisine and targets the general public.

Jollibee’s net income rose in the third quarter of 2014 to P1.2 billion, a 15-percent increase from previous year as both its domestic and international operations continued to expand.

The company said that its operating income grew 16 percent to P1.41 billion as revenues increased by 11 percent to P22.05 billion.

Its third-quarter figures brings its income for the three quarters of 2014 to P3.71 billion, some 18 percent higher than previous year’s P3.14 billion.

BSP. . .

Continued from A8

The BSP was also able to generate P16.04 billion from so-called other sources of income during the period. This proved lower compared to other income of P23.17 billion in the same period in 2013.

However, revenues collected by the central bank from their various operations were not enough to cover expenses during the period.

The BSP reported expenses in the first 11 months of 2014 totaling P63.25 billion. This was lower compared to the P76.98 billion 11-month expenses seen in 2013.

Interest expenses continued to be smaller in 2014 compared to the previous year. Interest expense stood at P42.48 billion as of end-November 2014, lower compared to interest expense of P53.96 billion reported the previous year. Other expenses were at P20.97 billion, up from the P23.02 billion in the same period last year.

The Nation BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Thursday, January 22, 2015 A3

Erap stays as Manila mayor

By Joel R. San Juan

F

Mr. Estrada as absolute, thereby restoring Mr. Estrada’s qualifications to stand as candidate in the last mayoralty elections,” Te announced.

Te added that Estrada’s acceptance of the absolute pardon removed the disualifications arising under Section 40 of the Local Government Code in relation to Section 12 of the Omnibus Election Code.

Under Section 4, those sentenced by final judgment for an offense involving moral turpitude or for an offense punishable by one year or more of imprisonment, within two years after serving sentence.

Estrada, who has barely oneand-half-year left in office, won against Lim in the 2013 mayoral race with 343,993 votes, while Lim got 308,544 votes.

In her petition initially filed before the Comelec, Vidal asked the poll body to declare Estrada disqualified to run for mayor of Manila in the May 13, 2013, elections.

She insisted that Estrada’s conviction for plunder and being sentenced to life imprisonment in 2007 rendered him disqualified to run for public office.

ORMER President Joseph Estrada will stay in his post as mayor of Manila City after the Supreme Court (SC) affirmed the ruling issued by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) which declared him eligible to run for mayor during the 2013 elections.

SC Spokesman Theodore Te said that during Tuesday’s regular en banc session, the Court voted 11-3 to dismiss the petition filed by former Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and his lawyer Alicia Risos-Vidal seeking the reversal of the Comelec’s decision issued in 2013.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, the Court considered the “characterization” of the pardon given by former President Gloria Macapagal-

Legislator pushes revival of ‘nutribun’

Arroyo after the latter’s conviction for plunder in 2007.

It can be recalled that de Castro was the chairman of the Sandiganbayan’s Special Division that convicted Estrada in 2007 on four separate charges of plunder and perjury for his acceptance of jueteng payoffs, diversion of tobacco excise taxes and involvement in the anomalous sale of Belle Corp. shares.

“The majority characterized the pardon extended by Mrs. Arroyo to

N

ATIONALIST People’s Coalition Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian of Valenzuela is pushing for the revival of the “Nutribun” program, which was popular among students of public elementary schools during the latter part of 1970s up to the 1990s.

Gatchalian, a member of

the House Committees on Basic Education and Culture and on Higher and Technical Education, is set to file a bill to institutionalize the supplemental feeding program well ahead of the school opening in June.

“We can revive the Nutribun program and implement it

JANUARY 22, 2015 | THURSDAY

nationally in all public elementary schools to make sure our children will be able to perform well and achieve their potential without worrying about having an empty stomach,” Gatchalian said.

He said institutionalizing the Nutribun feeding program is crucial to ensure a yearly budget

JAN 23 FRIDAY

for its operations.

The said program was first implemented by the government in cooperation with the US Agency for International Development.

Nutribuns—short for nutritious buns- were made from wheat blend flour, non-fat dried milk, and later on, soy flour.

JAN 24 SATURDAY

METRO MANILA

22 – 32°C

22 – 32°C

TUGUEGARAO

19 – 27°C

19 – 28°C

JAN 25 SUNDAY

LAOAG

BAGUIO

LAOAG CITY 19 – 28°C

TUGUEGARAO CITY 19 – 27°C

BAGUIO CITY 13 – 21°C

SBMA/ CLARK

SBMA/CLARK 22 – 30°C TAGAYTAY CITY 18 – 28°C

TAGAYTAY

LEGAZPI

PHILIPPINE AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (PAR)

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

JAN 23 FRIDAY

JAN 24 SATURDAY

JAN 25 SUNDAY

22 – 31°C

METRO CEBU

24 – 30°C

24 – 30°C

23 – 30°C

19 – 29°C

TACLOBAN

23 – 31°C

23 – 30°C

23 – 31°C

20 – 30°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO

19 – 28°C

13 – 21°C

23 – 30°C

19 – 28°C

20 – 29°C

24 – 32°C

24 – 32°C

25 – 31°C

METRO DAVAO

14 – 21°C

25 – 33°C

24 – 33°C

23 – 31°C

24 – 33°C

24 – 33°C

19 – 28°C

14 – 21°C

23 – 31°C

ILOILO/ BACOLOD 24 – 30°C METRO CEBU 24 – 31°C

TACLOBAN CITY 24 – 31°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 24 – 31°C

ZAMBOANGA CITY 23 – 33°C

PUERTO PRINCESA

ILOILO/ BACOLOD

22 – 30°C

22 – 30°C

ZAMBOANGA

SUNSET

MOONSET

MOONRISE

6:25 AM

5:50 PM

7:41 PM

7:35 AM

22 – 29°C

NEW MOON HALF MOON

23 – 32°C

JAN 27

12:48 PM

CELEBES SEA

11:21 PM

1.21 METER

Partly cloudy to at times cloudy with rainshowers

24 – 31°C

25 – 31°C

24 – 31°C

Cloudy skies with rain showers and/or thunderstorms

Weekday hourly updates: 6:00 AM on Balitaan, 7:00 AM & 8:00 AM on Good Morning Boss!, 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM on News@1, 3:00 PM, 4:30 PM, and 6:00 PM on News@6

www.panahon.tv

SABAH

6:33 AM

-0.24 METER

Partly cloudy to at times cloudy with rain showers and/or thunderstorms

Watch PANAHON.TV everyday at 5:00 AM on PTV (Channel 4).

METRO DAVAO 25 – 33°C

LOW TIDEMANILA HIGH TIDE SOUTH HARBOR

JAN 20

23 – 31°C

24 – 34°C

SUNRISE

9:14 PM

23 – 31°C

25 – 33°C

19 – 29°C

LEGAZPI CITY 22 – 29°C

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 23 – 30°C

Nutribuns were initially distributed for free to elementary schoolchildren in the 1970s but it was eventually sold at around 50 to 75 centavos per bun. The program ended in 1997 as the US saw countries other than the Philippines to be in more need of food aid.

NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING NORTHERN LUZON. (AS OF JANUARY 21, 5:00 PM)

Northeast Monsoon locally known as “Amihan”. It affects the eastern portions of the country. It is cold and dry; characterized by widespread cloudiness with rain showers.

METRO MANILA 22 – 31°C

T

the filing of the charges before the Sandiganbayan.

Estrada, in his petition, said the Ombudsman’s resolutions should be set aside as it was issued in violation of his right to due process and the equal protection of the laws.

He argued that the Ombudsman’s resolution “grievously ignored, trampled upon and violated” his Constitutional rights to due process when it first denied his request and then later on filed charges against him using those affidavits which he added were “not disclosed to him.”

Te, however, said the Court dismissed the petition “for failure of petitioner to obtain the required number of votes to grant the reliefs prayed for.”

Those who voted for the Carpio ponencia were Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Diosdado Peralta, Mariano del Castillo, Martin Villarama Jr., Jose Perez, Bienvenido Reyes, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Marvic Leonen.

Those who dissented were Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, Lucas Bersamin and Jose Mendoza.

Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza inhibited from the voting owing to his previous participation in the case as Solicitor General. Joel San Juan

HE Supreme Court (SC) has given the go-signal for the Sandiganbayan to proceed with the trial of the plunestrada der and graft charges filed by the Ombudsman against detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada in connection with his alleged misuse of his multimillion-peso pork-barrel funds.

At a news briefing, SC Spokesman Theodore Te said the court voted 9-5 in favor of the decision to dismiss Estrada’s petition seeking to declre null and void the joint resolution and the joint order issued by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales on March 28, 2014, and June 4, 2014.

The decision was written by Associate Antonio Carpio.

On March 28 the Ombudsman issueed a resolution which found probable cause to indict Estrada along with Senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Juan Ponce-Enrile and several others for plunder and graft.

It is June 4 order, the Ombudsman denied Estrada’s and his co-accused’s motion for reconsideration of the March 28 resolution and ordered

She added that the executive pardon granted to him by Arroyo did not restore his right to seek or hold public office.

When the Comelec junked her petition, Vidal elevated the matter before the Court which gave due course to the petition only in April last year.

Lim filed his petition-in-intervention to Vidal’s petition after.

Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez said the Court’s decision “reflects the decision of the Comelec.”

Estrada earlier said he was confident he will remain in his position, saying he has a pardon from Arroyo.

Those who concurred in de Castro’s ponencia were Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Arturo Brion, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo, Martin Villarama Jr., Jose Perez, Jose Mendoza, Bienvenido Reyes and Estela Perlas-Bernabe.

The three justices who voted for Estrada’s disqualification were Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Marvic Leonen.

Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza recused from the case.

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

TODAY’S WEATHER

...but Jinggoy will be tried by Sandigan

@PanahonTV

Light rains

Economy

A4 Thursday, January 22, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

Aklan generated P40.705-B tourism revenue in 2014

I

LOILO CITY—The Department of Tourism (DOT6) regional office reported that an estimated P40.705-billion income derived from tourism industry has been generated by the province of Aklan in 2014.

The DOT-6 said with the revenue, Aklan now is considered as a billionaire province throughout the country.

Meanwhile, the provincial government of Aklan is targetting to reach 1.7 million tourist arrival in Boracay Island for 2015.

Provincial Tourism Operations Officer Roselle Ruiz said his office set a higher target despite its failure to attain the 1.5 million tourist arrival set last year.

She said they are optimistic to reach this year’s goal due to the expected visit of almost 16 luxury cruise liners in this island resort this year.

Apart from the cruise ship, there are also chartered international flights coming in and out of the Kalibo International Airport and other Asian neighboring countries.

Ruiz, likewise, acknowledged the big help of DOT for its marketing effort in promoting Boracay to other countries in the world to further strengthen the tourism industry in the province of Aklan.

A jewel of Aklan, the islandresort of Boracay is also considered the cruise ship destination in Asia. PNA

BusinessMirror

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Traffic, infra delays seen to bring down Aquino’s satisfaction rating in ’15, ’16

T

By Cai U. Ordinario

he heavy traffic, infrastructure delays, and the other logistics issues under the Aquino administration could bring down the President’s satisfaction rating this year and next year, according to a local economist.

Action for Economic Reform (AER) Coordinator Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III said that, while Mr. Aquino’s net satisfaction rating was at plus 39, based on the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) data, this can change as the President is already on his last year in office.

Sta. Ana said this is consistent with the trend in previous administrations where former Presidents saw a dip in his or her net satisfaction rating toward the end of his or her term.

President Aquino, however, continues to enjoy a relatively higher net satisfaction rating compared to previous Chief Executives.

“The last few years of his administration, that is 2015 and 2016, will be tough, quite tough. The problems relating to infrastructure and logis-

tics as exemplified by the decrepit public transportation, heavy traffic, congestion in ports and airports, looming power crisis, etc., are now exacting their toll on the economy.

Each, in turn, will affect, probably adversely, the President’s satisfaction rating,” Sta. Ana said in his response to the 2015 SWS Summary Survey presented on Wednesday.

Sta. Ana said these problems resulted from President Aquino being a “historical accident.” He said the President was not able to carefully plan his presidential agenda because he only became a contender for the presidency after his mother died.

The SWS data showed this in its 2009 Presidential polls when Mr. Aquino dominated the charts in the last two quarters prior to the filing

of candidacy from not being part of it all.

One concrete example of poor planning is the Metro Railway Transit Line 3 and Light Railway Transit Lines 1 and 2 fare hike. Sta. Ana added the opposition to these measures may not have been that strong had the Aquino administration introduced the measures during the honeymoon period of his administration.

But Sta. Ana said it is not too late for the President to catch up to his poor planning. One of the ways to address this is to institute key policy measures such as adjusting excise taxes.

Sta. Ana added adjusting excise taxes for inflation will increase it to around P7 per liter from the estimate of P5 per liter. This could reach an aggregate value of 2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

An excise tax is a tax on the production, sale or consumption of a commodity in a country. Sta. Ana said excise taxes have not been adjusted since 1997 and increasing it now can help the government address logistics and transportation issues.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue said the highest excise tax on petroleum products that is collected by the government is for lead premium gasoline at P5.35 per liter.

Unleaded premium gasoline, on the other hand, is slapped with a P4.35per-liter excise tax.

“Part of this can be earmarked for public-transportation subsidy, for the modernization of the Metro.

Pag nag-subsidize ka, ma-neutralize mo ’yung impact sa mga mahihirap tapos, for example for the transport sector, para ma-exempt sila, mapipilitan silang mag-consolidate which is needed in public transport. No. 2, you can impose conditonalities, sabihin mo, bibigyan ka namin ng subsidy pero green technology, tanggalin mo na ’yang boundary system etc.,” Sta. Ana said.

SWS President Mahar Mangahas said the President’s net satisfaction rating only dipped below the “good” or plus 39 to 49 rating only once.

Other Presidents, including his mother, saw their net satisfaction rating drop to moderate or lower more than once.

The lowest net satisfaction rating posted by any post-Marcos President was former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo whose net satisfaction rating even reached the “very bad” or negative 50 to 69 rating.

“The quality of national governance in 2014 was quite decent,” Mangahas said. “President Aquino fell below the good only once in his entire term so far. That’s very remarkable.”

PNP asks DBM to release P772M to fund police retirees’ pension

T

he Philippine National Police (PNP) had asked the Department of Budget and Management to expedite the release of P772 million that will be spent to pay for the pension of police retirees.

Director Rolando Purugganan, director for comptrollership of the PNP, said the fund would cover for the pension differentials of retired members of the PNP. On instructions of PNP Officer in Charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, Purugganan asked the budget department to hasten the release of the money as retired policemen have been asking for their pension differentials.

According to Purugganan, the P772 million represented the six- month pension differentials due to 40,728 police pensioners.

Specifically, the amount covered the first tranche of the pension adjustment from January to June 2010 under the salary standardization law.

Earlier the DBM, through a letter dated December 29, 2014, informed the PNP that the money that was requested is still subject to “confirmation.”

Last year the PNP improved its financial services by opting to pay for the pensions of its former members through the Advice to Debit Account (ADA) and no longer with the Modified Disbursement Scheme (MDS) checks.

The ADA allowed police retirees to receive their pension payments through automated teller machine pension accounts, which veered from the long-practiced of personal check payments.

Purugganan said the ADA expedited and ensured the timely release of police pension.

Rene Acosta

C3E ask Congress PCSO launches to cite Brillantes in Ultra Lotto contempt ‘for lying’ 6/58 game next month

D

O you want to be an “ultra millionaire”?

The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) opens the year with a new lotto game that offers the highest minimum jackpot prizes among its games.

The PCSO board of directors gave the go-signal on January 13 for the implementation of the new Ultra Lotto 6/58 game, which was approved in concept with other new games in 2013.

“We’d like to make Lotto playing more exciting,” PCSO Vice Chairman and General Manager lawyer Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II said.

“Our new product provides players more chances to be a millionaire, and allows us to raise more funds for charity.”

The minimum jackpot of the new game is P50 million. There are also consolation prizes. Second prize (five out of six winning numbers) can go as high as P280,000. Third prize (four out of six) might reach P3,800. Fourth prize (three out of six) is P20.

The mechanics of Ultra Lotto 6/58 are similar to those of other Lotto games. A player selects six numbers from one to 58 for only P20 per combination.

The first selling day for Ultra Lotto 6/58 is on February 7, and the first draw date is on February 8.

There will be two draws every week, every Friday and Sunday. The draws will be televised, like the other Lotto games, live over the People’s Television channel.

The last time PCSO rolled out a new Lotto game was four years ago.

“We hope the public will support this new game, “ Rojas said, “and help us raise more funds for medical and calamity assistance and PCSO’s other charitable programs.”

Other new and exciting games are in the pipeline.

“We look forward to welcoming the new ultra millionaires in the coming months,” Rojas said.

By Joel R. San Juan

E

LECTION watchdog, the Citizens for Clean and Credible Elections (C3E) on Wednesday called on Congress to cite Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes in contempt for allegedly lying during a hearing of the joint congressional oversight committee (JCOC) on automated elections.

Lawyer Melchor Magdamo, C3E co-convenor, noted that Brillantes had claimed that he and two other commissioners were no longer participating in the deliberations of the poll body in deciding on matters related to preparations for the 2016 elections since they are already retiring.

Magdamo noted that during the hearing, the minutes showed Brillantes as telling the committee: “For the record, hindi na ho kami sumasali sa deliberations. Sa steering committee na. Silang apat.

Kaming tatlo, medyo matatanda na kaunti. Hindi na kami sumasali [For the record, we don’t participate in deliberations anymore. It’s all in the steering committee. The four of them. We three are quite old already. We don’t participate anymore].”

Magdamo, also a former Comelec lawyer, said Brillantes’s claim was a blatant lie.

“He lied through his teeth before the joint committee,” Magdamo said.

“It’s very clear in the minutes of the JCOC meeting,” he added.

Magdamo said Resolution 9922 of the Comelec en banc clearly showed that Brillantes, who is set to retire next month, lied about not participating anymore in deliberations on the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines and Smartmatic.

He cited the December 23 resolution of the Comelec where it extended warranty agreement between Smartmatic and the Comelec for a P300-million diagnostic inspection of 82,000 PCOS machines.

Brillantes, along with outgoing Commissioners Lucenito Tagle and Elias Yusoph, voted in favor of

Retail icon The increase in the number of shopping malls, boutiques, bazaars and even convenience stores in Metro Manila is not enough to stop this trader from nearby Luzon province to continue to promote and retail the country’s native products through the traditional way—moving from place to place using a bull- or horse-drawn caretela or carriage—like the one shown in photo taken along Aurora Boulevard near Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City on Wednesday. PNA

the negotiated contract along with Christian Lim and Al Parreno. Commissioners Arthur Lim and Luie Tito Guia voted against the deal.

The Comelec action was widely assailed by watchdog groups, information-technology experts, Church and religious leaders, nongovernmental organizations, civic groups, and people’s organizations for being a suspicious “midnight deal” between the poll body and reseller Smartmatic.

“How can he say he was not participating anymore when the resolution showed he actively took part in the act of practically gifting Smartmatic with the entire P2-billion project package before Christmas?”

Magdamo said.

Magdamo asked Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III and Rep. Senen Sarmiento, co-chairmen of the joint congressional committee, to cite Brillantes in contempt.

“Brillantes testified under oath and that oath did not mean anything to him. He should be cited in contempt for lying not only to the committee but also to the Filipino people in his haste to the award multibillion-peso contracts to Smartmatic,” he said.

Terminate PCOS deal

Pimentel on Wednesday urged the Comelec to stop the negotiated contract for the repair of 82,000 PCOS machines.

Pimentel, chairman of the Senate

Committee on Electoral Reforms, said the decision of the Comelec to resort to direct contracting has no legal basis.

“This goes against the procurement law,” Pimentel said, referring to Comelec’s negotiated contract with Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Corp. to conduct diagnostics and repair of the PCOS machines.

He stressed public bidding is the only way for the repairs of the PCOS machines that will be used in the 2016 national elections.

“The open public bidding would afford the Comelec an opportunity to pick the best offer and secure the lowest bid for the services and products being bought by the gov-

ernment,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel urged Brillantes, Tagle and Yusoph to allow their successors instead to handle preparations for the next elections.

The three Comelec officials are set to retire next month.

The lawmaker from Mindanao said the P300-million negotiated contract with Smartmatic-TIM has raised suspicion of a “midnight deal” on the eve of the three officials’ retirement.

Pimentel said it does not also level the playing field, saying procurement modes must be exhausted and opened to ensure that the contract is compliant with Republic Act 9184, or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

By Butch Fernandez

M

ALACAÑANG is still keeping its options open on declaring long holiday breaks when the Philippines hosts a series of events leading to the Asia-Pacific Economic Coooperation (Apec) Leaders’ Summit in November, despite misgivings aired by employers over its adverse effects on businesses during the extended no-work period the Palace mandated for the five-day papal visit.

But Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. clarified on Wednesday that the Palace has yet to reach a final decision on whether to declare another extended holiday period during the Apec events.

“We will assess what happened during the papal visit and decide what to do for Apec Summit,” Coloma told the BusinessMirror.

Businessmen were reported to have raised concerns that declaring such long hioliday period is bad for business, more so for millions of minimumwage workers who are employed on a no-work, no-pay basis.

During the recent state and pastoral visit of Pope Francis in Manila and Tacloban, Malacañang declared a long nowork period from the time the pontiff arrived on January 15 until he left to fly back to the Vatican on January 19.

Palace Spokesman Secretary Edwin Lacierda also told reporters at a news briefing that the Palace is now focusing its attention on equally elaborate preparations for the expected arrival of several Asia-Pacific heads of state to attend the upcoming Apec events.

Lacierda, however, made no mention of plans to declare another extended holiday period during the Apec to avert traffic jams.

It was earlier reported that apart from Manila, the Philippines will be hosting the 2015 Apec forums in at least nine venues including the Clark ecozone in Pampanga, Albay, Bataan, Boracay, Iloilo, Cebu, Bacolod and Tagaytay.

The Palace estimated that in the days leading up to the February 6 and 7 Senior Officers Meeting (SOM1) at Clark Freeport Zone, about 1,700 delegates will be taking part in a series of related technical meetings to be held in Clark and Subic.

“During their SOM1 discussions, Apec senior officials will take into account the results of these technical meetings, in addition to recommendations from the Apec Business Advisory Council, which will have their first meeting this year from January 27 to 30 in Hong Kong, China,” the Palace statement added.

It announced that the inaugural gathering of Apec senior officials for this year’s Philippine hosting will cover discussions on a range of issues relevant to the AsiaPacific region. “Among others, these include the Free Trade Area of the AsiaPacific, trade facilitation and implementation, environmental goods and services liberalization, as well as efforts toward development and against corruption,” it added.

Business

A4 Wednesday, January 21, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon Thursday, January 22, 2015 A5

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Palace studying Apec extended holidays, too

Econo

Economy

Poverty reduction gets Port logjam lowered Peza investments in lion’ 2014s sh

I

N support of the Aquino administration’s driveduring the “Malaki epekto ng port congestion. intensified port logjam as exports NVESTMENTS registered by Those who were planning to expand first 11 months of the year reached torethink reduce poverty the billion country, had to their expansion plans in $40.518 which fell 8 percent the Philippine Economic Zone because their raw materials were not short of target, Department of Budget and San Pascual said.

Authority increased by a marginal the coming in and they, likewise, can’t 2013’s export haul is at $42.873 ship out their finished(DBM) products,” on billion, he added. said Tuesday 1.21 percent in 2014, a consequence of Management San Pascual said.

The saving grace that kept haveexports beengrowth allotted He social added thatservices some manufacpositive, added the truck ban in Manila that triggered that turing firms even had to divert San Pascual, are the electronics 36.6 percent, or P952.7 a seven-monthlong congestion in the with the production of some product products,billion—the specifically semiconlines to their other Asean faciliductors, as imports are the flown in largest of all sectoral allocations—of capital’s main gateways. ties just to keep up with export and finished goods are likewise schedules.

Others incurred hefty national flown out. budget.

2015 P2.606-trillion

I

According to Peza Head for Promotion and Public Relations Group Elmer San Pascual, investments as of

December 2014 is at $279.477 billion, which fell short of the 10-percent target for 2014.

costs as they resorted to shipping products by air just to meet The allocation toward the admintheir commitments. istration’s poverty-reduction pro-the Exports were also hit by grams reinforces President Aquino’s key message for the 2015 fiscal year: “No one, especially the poor and the

“After Christmas, Seipi [Semiconductors and Electronics Indusvulnerable, should be left behind.” tries in the Philippines Inc.] was The social services of already coming outcomponent with figures, the 2015 budget program of P952.7 billion—up by 13.2 percent compared to last year’s budget—will help

the national government achieve its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing poverty incidence saying their November and Deto cember 16 percent by 2016 while sustainexports increased...malakinging equal opportunities for all. bagay yon kasi lahat members Budget Secretary Florencio B. ng Seipi are locators in Peza. But, Abad said, ensure thatang the8adhindi pa “To rin ma-reach perministration can sees properly reach out cent. If Seipi a double-digit to growth, the country’s wetranslate had to that poorest, will only ensure sufficient funding supportfor to plus 1 percent or 2 percent forus,” programs under our agencies said San Pascual, adding on that theelectronics front lines of poverty reduction.” take up 60 percent of One total of these agencies, the Detheir exports. partment of Social Welfare and Employment figures, however, Development (DSWD), was already are more positive as Peza said that setastoof receive a largerdirect share from the November, employees then-proposed 2015 national budget are at 1,154,214, or a 10.3-percent even before the latter’s congressional improvement over the same period review andofapproval.

In the end,N.the in 2013 1,046,431.

Catherine Pillas DSWD received P108.2 billion, 29.8 percent higher from its 2014 budget.

The DSWD’s primary program

in hel Pamil know Trans budge gram grant holds 4.3 m Th grams T Comm Projec comm and p budge progr nity p poor h

CBCP’s Villegas issues clarification on pontiff’s statementtoontransform parenthood PCCI sees potential PHL

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HE Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the

By Catherine N.Wednesday Pillas came to Philippines (CBCP) on

the defense of Pope Francis following the HEremark Philippine Chamber of pontiff’s that Catholics need not breed Commerce and Industry (PCCI) like rabbits. is urging to maxi CBCP Presidentbusinesses and Lingayen-Dagupan Archmize Asean-Korea Trade bishopthe Socrates Villegas said theFree pope never made Agreement (AKFTA), stressing that “the rather unseemly remark that Catholics breed thelikecountry haswas thetrying potential a rabbits” but to stressto thebeimpormanufacturing hubparenthood.” by which South tance of “responsible Korea can tap the rest of Asean.

“Everyone is encouraged to read both on PCCI Alfredo M. Yao,of inthe print andPresident on social media the transcript a speech delivered to Philippine the Philippinepapal interview aboard Airlines that Korea Economic (Philkorec), flew the Holy FatherCouncil back to Rome,” Villegas said promoted use of thepope freereferring tobetter the statement of the saying trade between my Asean “somearrangement people think that—excuse expresand Korea as an to sionSouth here—that in order to beavenue good Catholics

we have to be like rabbits.”

boost business ties. what the pope did say According to Villegas, “Fur t her st rengmistakenly t hening ourthat was that some Catholics believe business ties “we means to be Catholic, oughtbetter to breedutilizalike rabbits tion of the of Asean-Ko—and priorprovisions to using that simile, he knew that it reawas Free inexpression, order harshTrade and so Agreement he said excuse the to but further trade between it was aptincrease and it brought home the point.” the parties through He also stressed thatthe theelimination Church has always of taught tariffthat and barriers, as it is anontariff Catholic obligation to be responwell creation of conducive marsibleasabout parenthood. ket conditions,” Yao said rationally during by the “Births should be planned both inauguration of always the new members, parents who must remain open to new board ofwho directors, andinto senior adlife, but must also take consideration visers of Philkorec. their physical, financial and emotional capacity Marketing toAccording raise children.toIt Export is not correct for a Catholic Bureau Director Senen Perlada, to assume the attitude: ComeM.what may! This theis traditional utilization of teaching the AKFTA, mea-was Church that the pope

reiterating, and it should be especially relevant

sured in terms of grappling the issuances of to us Filipinos who are with population certificate of origin by the BOC from issues,” he said.

2008 to also 2013, haveCatholics seen atogradual He advised remember rise the period theinmessage of Popemeasured.

Francis delivered at his A certificate of origin (CO)ofisAsia a decmeeting with families at Mall Arena laration by the to on January 18,exporter, where he submitted said that Blessed thePaul BOC validation, that shows VI infor his much-maligned Humanae Vitae hisprophetically export products comply with the understood that nations would origin requirements under be impoverished in the specified measure that they asbilateral, regional, or multilateral sume an anti-birth stance. trading which “Thearrangements experience of agingtonations withthe only a Philippines is a party to. on the jobs neceshandful of youngsters to take Data Perlada showhasthat sary for agiven country'sby survival and growth proved from 2008 havetime, shown Blessed PaultoVI2013, right. AtCOs the same Paul VI a steady increase in the to five-year urged pastors to be sensitive particularpecases,” riod, increasing as such: 2008—1,970; Villagas said. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

THANK YOU!

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HOUSE COIN BANK

A budding street entrepreneur displays his colorful collection of house coin banks to pedestrians and passersby at the Plaza Miranda in front of Quiapo Church in Manila. Each coin bank is being sold at P75. KEVIN DE LA CRUZ

plis (M hai the pro pal

South Cotabato allots P686 million for socioeconomic, devt programs

By Haydee S. Templonuevo Philippines News Agency

G

ENERAL SANTOS CITY— The provincial government of South Cotabato has allocated around P686 million for the implementation of various socioeconomic and development projects this year.

South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuentes said on Wednesday such allocation was based on the local government’s P1.28billion annual budget that was approved last month by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) or provincial board.

She said they specifically earmarked some P266 million for local development initiatives, P260.98 million for social services and P159.31 million for economic services.

The allocation for development projects represents 20 percent of the annual budget in compliance with the provisions of Republic Act 7160, or the Local Government Code of 1991.

“These funds will be utilized to implement our new and continuing priority socioeconomic and development programs and the expansion of our frontline services,” she said.

The SP earlier approved unanimously Appropriation Ordinance 2014-06, which was based on a proposal submitted by the Office of the Governor for the local government operations for 2015.

The ordinance was enacted through Resolution 374 that was endorsed by the SP committee on appropriations.

Fuentes said this year’s budget is divided into four major sectors or components, specifically general public services, social services, economic services and local development.

She said the general public services component, which funds the local government’s operations, received the highest allocation at P512.4 million.

They have also allocated some P81.95 million for contingencies and other vital concerns of the provincial government, she said.

Fuentes said the approved budget for this year has properly complied with the requirements of the Local Government Code.

She said the aggregate amount did not exceed with the province’s estimate income for 2015 and all its statutory and contractual obligations, including debt servicing, were not more than 20 percent of the regular income. PNA

Ha the WB wh Vis

T

HE ALC Group of Companies joins the nation in thanking the hardworking men and women who labored day and night to ensure the safety and comfort of His Holiness Pope Francis during his pastoral visit to the Philippines from January 15 to 19.

We congratulate the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, the Philippine National Red Cross and other volunteer groups for a job well done in service to the nation and the whole Christian community.

Maraming salamat po!

—Amb. Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Founder and Chairman Emeritus

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Opinion BusinessMirror

A6 Thursday, January 22, 2015

editorial

Pope Francis post mortem

S

EVEN million flocked to Pope Francis’s final Mass at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta last Sunday.

It was the largest “show of force” the Philippines ever saw since the days of People Power I. Although some skeptics brushed it aside as another mathematical anomaly given the size of the area and the faithful’s attendance, still the number spoke loudly of the popularity of the pope.

As the pomp and fervor simmers down and life slides back to “normal,” some ask: “Will the Philippines remain the same after that visit of the Pope?”

One cannot deny that such religious fervor is rare among Roman Catholics.

That it even displayed at this point in time suggests a number of things, one of which is the level of despair society has reached. It now is hankering not only for inspiration but change. Will that change happen?

Political, economic and social change remains to be seen. At this juncture in our lives, the challenges are still there. This year, the Asean Integration will kick off and the Philippines will again be in a frenzy to prove its economic worth in the world stage. How this country will fare in light of what Pope Francis has taught us would be a telling tribute to His Holiness’ influence in the world of business.

The sudden drop in fuel prices is already a boost as far as consumer benefits are concerned. Because of this, the Filipinos’ purchasing power has somewhat increased, allowing for other purchases outside of the usual. The International Monetary Fund has seen this coming and has predicted a 6.6-percent growth in the economy. This is far better than previous forecasts of 6.3-percent.

The question, however, is this: “Will such growth be finally felt by the Filipino public?” Pope Francis has been known to utter some of the strongest words in relation to economic growth: He said: “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.”

Known as the “Pope of the peripheries,” the Pontiff is not a believer in the economic trickle-down theory. In his eyes, an economy, to be worth anything, must benefit all—from the capitalist down to the meagre worker and man on the street. How this principle of helping the poor while doing business is a tall challenge, but not an impossible one.

All one has to do is redirect business priorities and see in the worker a familial business relationship. In the Pope’s eyes, the poor, lowly worker remains as the most precious asset any corporation can ever have.

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Founder Publisher Editor in Chief

T. Anthony C. Cabangon Jun B. Vallecera

Associate Editor News Editor City & Assignments Editor Special Projects Editor

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Ruben M. Cruz Jr.

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OUTSIDE THE BOX

T

HERE was a time when my youngest son became fascinated with the idea of ‘dog years’. Every time he heard the mention of someone’s age, he would say something like “You would be five years old if you were a dog.”

The idea of ‘dog years’ is based on the years of the normal life expectancy of a dog divided into years of normal human life expectancy. The common belief is that the divisor is 7. But that is not true. The average human life expectancy has increased while a dog’s has not gone as much higher. Further, dogs mature faster than humans and then begin to age more slowly after reaching two years.

‘Dog Whisper’ Cesar Milan says the true formula is, subtract two from the dog’s age, multiply that by 4 and add 21.

“The growth forecasts for 2015 and 2016 have been raised to 6.6 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively” International Monetary Fund resident representative Shanaka Jayanath Peiris said about the Philippine economy.

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That seems simple enough to understand. We know that gross domestic product (GDP) is “The monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period”. While there are large amounts of production ‘off the books,’ GDP does give us an idea of the total economic output.

Check one of the reliable economic data websites and you will find that the 2013 GDP of PHL was 272.02 billion in US dollars. That number is arrived at by multiplying the production value in Philippines pesos by the average 2013 peso-dollar exchange rate.

Another way to compute economic output is GDP on a per person basis. Here though, the measure used is the Geary–Khamis dollar

or the international dollar. It is a hypothetical currency based on how much of a particular commodity, say a kilo of pork for example, costs in local currency. That way more accurate comparisons can be made between economies as to standards of living.

But ultimately you still have to come back to local currency and then to currency exchange rates to determine a valid comparison. That is one reason for the Economist Magazine’s ‘Big Mac Index”. There needs to be one common denominator and it is still the US dollar.

Qatar has the highest per capita GDP in the world with PHL at 120th.

But if we measured economic output by only the number of pigs produced, PHL would be number 9 and Qatar would not even be on the list.

The point is that economic output, like dog years, all depends on the formula that you use.

The Philippine Department of Finance just stated that the country will save $6 billion (about Php267 billion) this year if oil averages $50 per barrel. But that is based on about a P45 to $1 exchange rate. But if the peso depreciated to P50 to $1, the ‘savings’ would be about P235 billion. If the exchange rate went to 60, the ‘savings’ would be completely wiped out.

Pope Francis, infallible nudger

Judge Pedro T. Santiago (Ret.) Benjamin V. Ramos Adebelo D. Gasmin Frederick M. Alegre Marvin Nisperos Estigoy Aldwin Maralit Tolosa Rolando M. Manangan

BusinessMirror is published daily by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror

HOM

How old are you in dog years?

Leonid Bershidsky

BLOOMBERG VIEW

U

PON returning from the Philippines, where he met former street children abandoned by indigent parents, Pope Francis has added another quote to a growing number of surprisingly liberal statements. “Some people think,” he said, “That–excuse my expression here–that in order to be good Catholics we have to be like rabbits. No. Parenthood is about being responsible. That is clear.”

This, of course, falls short of endorsing artificial contraception, which would be a revolution in the Catholic attitude–like the one the Anglican church effected in 1958, deciding that “the responsibility for deciding upon the number and frequency of children has been laid by God upon the consciences of parents everywhere” and that therefore it was up to the parents to decide on how to plan procreation. Pope Francis, however, cannot make such momentous decisions unilaterally. Perhaps he doesn’t even want to impose such tectonic change on the church as a whole. Instead, he is nudging the Church towards greater acceptance of modern realities, even if it contradicts a rigid interpretation of its canon.

Ostensibly, the Pope’s remarks are just a reminder of Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which contains the church’s current position statement

on family planning: “It cannot be denied that in each case the married couple, for acceptable reasons, are both perfectly clear in their intention to avoid children and wish to make sure that none will result. But it is equally true that it is exclusively in the former case that husband and wife are ready to abstain from intercourse during the fertile period as often as for reasonable motives the birth of another child is not desirable. And when the infertile period recurs, they use their married intimacy to express their mutual love and safeguard their fidelity toward one another. In doing this they certainly give proof of a true and authentic love.”

It is, however, more than that. The “rabbits” quote is a direct attack on the stereotype of Catholic sexual behavior described in the immortal Monty Python song: “Every sperm is sacred, /Every

sperm is great. /If a sperm is wasted, / God gets quite irate.” The expectation is that Catholics will have many kids, even at the expense of being able to care for them according to contemporary norms.

That stereotype only exists in the heads of many priests and lay Catholics, not in written doctrine, which makes it even harder to beat. But that is exactly what Pope Francis and his allies in the church are trying to do.

Last October, an Extraordinary Synod on the Family heard a report by Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo and his assistant, the liberal theologian Bruno Forte, calling on priests to go softer on issues like same- and opposite-sex cohabitation, divorce and remarriage. It calls for “constructiveness,” “patience” and “delicacy” in dealing with situations that lie outside the Church’s mainstream thinking. The idea is that no one seeking to be part of the Church should be rejected, even if he or she doesn’t live up to the Catholic ideal. Divorcees should be treated as members of “wounded families” and nurtured, those living together “experimentally” should not be turned into pariahs because they may have important reasons not to marry right now, and gays “have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community” which should not be rejected.

On contraception, the report says the Church “should go back to the message of the Encyclical ‘Humanae Vitae’ of Paul VI, which underlines the need to respect the dignity of the person in the

I am not saying the peso is going to go to 60 to 1. But economic numbers are subject to as much variation as dog years. My son says my Labrador is 56 human-years old; Cesar Milan would say the dog is 45.

If you measure global GDP in dollar exchange rate terms, it is shrinking at the fastest rate since 2008, falling 5 percent in dollar value in the last six months losing over $4 trillion in nominal terms.

The dollar is critical as that is the currency with which most international trade is settled. As the dollar appreciates, most economies suffer badly. That is why both Russia and China are so anxious to deal in other currencies.

Remittances, outsourcing, exports and even the price of oil are all important to the PHL economy.

But the foundation of this and every other economy is the local currency exchange rate to all other currencies and especially to the US dollar. The recent action by the Swiss National Bank proves that point.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com.

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

moral evaluation of the methods of birth control.” Human dignity is thus deemed more important than dogma. The report appears to reflect Pope Francis’s own views. He said in an interview last year: “Avoid just scratching the surface of a subject. The temptation to solve problems by casuistry is a mistake, a simplification of deep things. This is what the Pharisees did with their very superficial theology.”

The Pope’s approach is to act on the spirit, not the letter of Catholic doctrine.

In his own words from the same interview, that means making sure priests “consider the situation of each person and what that person can do.”

That is arguably a bigger revolution than making a few doctrinal changes would have been. If Pope Francis pressed for those, he would be accused by conservatives in the Church hierarchy of being a cynical politician reacting to polls that show most Catholics disagree with rigid rules preventing divorced people from taking communion, banning contraception and abortions. An openly populist approach of that sort would risk splitting the Church.

As it is, Francis is arguing for a mere change of attitude among the existing clergy, a shift of focus from excoriating sin to soothing and healing the spirit.

The Church doesn’t have to change its teachings to become closer to its modern flock–it just needs a more humble, more humane, more down-to-earth approach to people and the problems they face.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Salient provisions of Republic Act 10641

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HE enactment in 2014 of Republic Act (RA) 10641 now allows the full entry of foreign banks in the Philippines. Since the passage of the said law, we have been receiving queries from interested parties. Hence, it may be timely to reiterate the changes brought by this new law.

Previously, foreign banks were authorized to operate in the Philippine banking system through the acquisition, purchase or ownership of up to 60 percent of the voting stock of an existing bank, or investment in up to 60 percent of the voting stock of a new banking subsidiary incorporated under the laws of the Philippines, or through the establishment of a Philippine branch with full banking authority. Foreign ownership was limited to 60 percent ownership, except in cases of the establishment of a branch. Subsequent laws allowed 100 percent foreign ownership with certain limits.

RA 10641 now allows foreign banks to operate within the Philippine banking system by (1) acquiring, purchasing, or owning up to 100 percent of the voting stock of an existing bank, (2) by investing in up to 100 percent of the voting stock of a new banking subsidiary incorporated under Philippine laws, or (3) by establishing branches with full banking authority. But foreign banks can operate in the Philippines only through any one of these three modes of entry.

Still, foreign banks can now operate in the country either as branch or a 100-percent owned foreign subsidiary. Aside from the increase in the allowed foreign ownership, RA 10641 also amends the capital requirement for foreign branches. The law requires that the minimum capital amount should not be less than the minimum capital required for domestic banks of the same category. A foreign bank branch is now allowed to open up to five sub-branches.

In addition to the above-mentioned changes, the new law includes a new provision on participation in foreclosure proceedings of a foreign bank. Foreign banks that are authorized to do banking business in the Philippines through any of the three modes of entry shall be allowed to bid and take part in foreclosure sales of real property mortgaged to them, as

well as to avail of enforcement and other proceedings, and accordingly take possession of the mortgaged property, for a period not exceeding five years from actual possession.

However, title to the property shall not be transferred to such foreign bank. If the said bank is the winning bidder, it shall, during the said 5-year period, transfer its rights to a qualified Philippine national, without prejudice to a borrower’s rights under applicable laws. Should the bank fail to transfer such property within the 5-year period, it shall be penalized one half of 1 percent per annum of the price at which the property was foreclosed until it is able to transfer the property to a qualified Philippine national.

Proponents of the law justify the opening of the banking industry to more established foreign banks on various reasons, but collectively the economic benefits it will bring and the strengthening of the financial system in the country. Regulators also see this as a vehicle for foreign direct investments in the country.

It is interesting to observe the effects of this full liberalization of the banking industry as some sectors have also voiced their concerns on its possible adverse impact. We just hope that we gain more with the influx of bigger players. nnn

The author is a senior associate of Du-Baladad and Associates Law Offices (BDB Law), a member firm of World Tax Services (WTS) Alliance.

The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported therefore by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at julie.aranda@bdblaw.com.ph or call 403-2001 local 312.

Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr.

Alálaong Bagá

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O sinners God is kind and compassionate, and He shows His ways to the humble and guides them to justice (Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9). The Kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus calls for repentance and faith, and summons to discipleship (Mark 1:14-20).

Lord, show me Your ways IN Psalm 25 the sinner is concerned with learning the right path in life while hoping for forgiveness of his sins. It opens with a petition for divine guidance. The psalmist, keen to be doing God’s will, earnestly wants to find out God’s “ways,” “paths” and “truth;” he begs to be given knowledge, to be taught and guided. He desires to have a way of life in conformity with God’s will or with the ways He teaches and pleasing to Him. He seeks to go on the road of righteousness in God’s sight; he asks for wisdom and insight into God’s saving ways.

The psalmist looks at God as his saviour. He is coming from, and wants out of, his sinful past. He needs and begs for divine mercy and the forgiveness of sins. He prays that God would look at him and remember him in their covenant with kindness, and not be focused on his transgressions from the beginning, of the sins of his youth and stupid-

Bloomberg View

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ODAY, I attempt to translate for you the foreign policy related portions of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address:

Obama: I believe in a smarter kind of American leadership. We lead best when we combine military power with strong diplomacy; when we leverage our power with coalitionbuilding; when we don’t let our fears blind us to the opportunities that this new century presents. That’s exactly what we’re doing right now -- and around the globe, it is making a difference.

Translation: George W. Bush was dumb on foreign policy and I’m the opposite of George W. Bush. I campaigned on the idea that we needed to restore America’s image in the world and I’m going to claim that this has happened and is yielding benefits, without specifying what exactly those benefits are. The truth is, the world is on fire and there’s not a whole lot anybody can do about it.

Obama: Instead of Americans patrolling the valleys of Afghanistan, we’ve trained their security forces, who’ve now taken the lead, and we’ve honored our troops’ sacrifice by supporting that country’s first democratic transition. Instead of sending large ground forces over-

seas, we’re partnering with nations from South Asia to North Africa to deny safe haven to terrorists who threaten America.

Translation: We are outta there, Afghans, you are on your own. We will keep giving you guns and money, but that’s about it. Good luck with the Taliban. As for the other countries in the Arab Winter, we’re going to stop talking about the revolutions and focus on helping whatever tin-pot government is in place to kill terrorists.

Democracy and human rights will have to be put on the back burner for now; we need those dictators in the short term. The long term is another president’s problem.

Obama: In Iraq and Syria, American leadership -- including our military power -- is stopping ISIL’s advance. Instead of getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, we are leading a broad coalition, including Arab nations, to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist group.

Translation: I know I said “degrade and destroy” but “stopping ISIL’s advance” is about the limit to

ity. The perspective that gives the psalmist hope is the covenant with God, hence he appeals to God’s tender compassion (rahum)—that deep, loving bond as between a mother and the child she carried in her womb. He reminds God of His loving kindness (hesed) as from of old. The psalmist is confident that, in His goodness and righteousness, God will show a sinner the way and teach the poor and the humble (anawim) His ways.

God’s kingdom is at hand

AFTER the arrest of John, Jesus takes up his own ministry aware of the danger that goes with prophetic teaching and witnessing. But the good news, the gospel of the kingdom of God must out. The time of waiting is finished; the extraordinary time (kairos) of fulfilment of all expectations is come. Down through the ages the prophets have looked forward to this future time when the reign of God will be established and when all will be faithful to God unlike the

many times of the people’s infidelity and sin. The promised new life in God’s mercy and compassion is here and now possible.

Jesus’ bold declaration that the kingdom of God is at hand means that God is now actually at work in history to bring about a better world. This joyous development, as it emphasizes divine graciousness and loving kindness, demands a response from those loved and to be saved. Jesus explicitly commands that the people repent and change their lives. He calls for metanoia (conversion of heart), meaning a pagbabagong-buhay (transformation of life), the essence of which is a pagbabalik-loob (return to God). Jesus likewise calls for belief in him bearing the good news that the kingdom of God is truly at hand.

Come after me

A conversion with faith in Jesus means for the brothers Simon and Andrew a life of discipleship. It does not consist merely in learning ways and wisdom from him, but following him and joining him in his mission for the kingdom of God. They are summoned to be Jesus’ co-workers, also “fishers of men.” In this imagery of casting nets into the sea, the carpenter of Nazareth identifies with the fishermen of Galilee as these are called to come after him: saving people from the world of darkness and of destruction from the evil dweller of the abyss. The take-off from their way of life as fishermen puts the

stress on their ordinary life as the point of encounter with Jesus and even the place for carrying on the task for the kingdom of God. The abruptness of the call and of the response underlines the radical nature of the new relationships in the kingdom of God. Leaving one’s father in a patriarchal society indicates the totality of the fatherhood of God in the imitation of Jesus.

The disciples are not just to learn what Jesus teaches, they are to share his life as their new life, and eventually in his name and with his Spirit to teach, preach, heal, serve and bear witness to God’s reign.

The call by Jesus is shown bypassing questions about duties to one’s family, options, personal benefits, retirement, and even the point of practicality “Fishing? Where is your net?” (John 4:11).

Alálaong bagá, as the psalmist begs to be taught God’s way and to be shown how he is to behave in response to divine goodness, Jesus in the reality of the kingdom of God calls all for a change of heart and summons people individually to be one with him in the service of others. In the conversion which entails realignment of priorities God’s reign is absolute; everyone is called to participate in the transformation of life.

Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio-streaming on www.dwiz882.com.

Simplistic ‘Je suis Charlie’ widens cultural and political divisions

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HE public response to the massacre of journalists at Charlie Hebdo has been articulated as a gesture of solidarity: “Je suis Charlie.” It has been chanted by marchers in the Place de la Republique and repeated on Hollywood stages. It has the appeal of hashtag simplicity and bumper sticker righteousness.

But despite its seductive simplicity, that gesture not only fails to address the urgent cultural and political problems that led to the massacre, it also has made them far worse. It hardens the “us”/”them” opposition between a supposedly tolerant and liberal West and its supposedly intolerant and violent antagonist, the Muslim East.

For the rush to identify with Charlie Hebdo is not just to commemorate massacred journalists but to celebrate Western culture in general, especially freedom of expression, for which the magazine–whose main claim to fame in recent years has been the relentless lampooning of Islam–has all too hastily been made a symbol. To “be Charlie” means to affiliate yourself with freedom of speech in absolute terms, as a core principle of Western civilization.

Yet there is no such thing as absolute freedom of speech. There are always limits to what can be said, how and in what context. Especially in France, speech is subject to strict–albeit selectively en-

Obama’s State of the World, translated

By Josh Rogin

A7

Responding to the merciful and compassionate God

Atty. Julie Ann L. Aranda

Tax Law for Business

Thursday, January 22, 2015

how far I can stretch the realities here. In Iraq, the new prime minister is almost as bad as the last one, Iran is taking over, and the army is a mess. There’s no way I’m going to send more troops there (aside from the 3,000 I just sent) and there’s nobody in Syria to work with. We’ll still keep bombing and hope that does more good than harm, even if my “broad coalition” fighting Islamic State warriors de facto includes Iran, Russia and the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Obama: We’re also supporting a moderate opposition in Syria that can help us in this effort, and assisting people everywhere who stand up to the bankrupt ideology of violent extremism.

Translation: We’ll keep our commitment to the “moderate” opposition until they finally disappear, but we’ve written them off and we are going to have to build this new rebel army from scratch, if we end up ever building it at all.

My administration has to have some plausible explanation of how Syria gets solved, so let’s give the political lead to the Russians. Assad is probably going to stay anyway, so no use talking about my previous calls for him to go.

Obama: And tonight, I call on this Congress to show the world that we are united in this mission by passing

forced–legal constraints. There are laws against hate speech and against speech taken to be supportive of political violence.

For the last several years, for example, the Cameroonian French satirical comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala has been repeatedly charged and convicted of anti-Semitic hate speech because his stand-up routine contained material that is no doubt offensive to some, and because of his infamous “quenelle,” which some see as an inverted Nazi salute. The French government has worked assiduously to have his shows banned. No sooner had the government finished celebrating free speech on Sunday, than it had arrested Dieudonne because of a Facebook post that conflated “Je suis Charlie” with the name of one of the Paris gunmen.

Even Charlie Hebdo has it limits. In 2008 it fired one of its cartoonists, Maurice Sinet, for what was taken to be an anti-Semitic slur.

It is clear, then, that in France some satirical hate speech is intolerable and will be vigorously prosecuted, while other satirical hate speech, directed against different racial or ethnic targets–in particular France’s Muslim minority–is not only permissible but has now become the centerpiece of a self-congratulatory celebration of supposedly Western values.

This is particularly problematic because, looming behind the whole Charlie affair, there is a colonial and post-colonial conflict that has been for far too long articulated along exactly the same “us”/”them” binary lines: “We” in the West are rational, good, modern and free (just don’t bring up the sordid legacy of colonialism, slavery, religious wars, etc.), while “they” are backward, bad, irrational and violent. This binary structure has been used since the late 18th century to justify the use of large-scale violence against Muslims, from Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt and the French occupation of Algeria to the current French bombardments of North Africa and Iraq, all of which at least partly set the stage for the recent violent outburst.

Charlie Hebdo has had many satirical targets, but it also has insinuated itself firmly into this structure, with its long-running series of derogatory cartoons directed against Muslims. This strays far from the original function of satire. The great satirists, including Swift, Byron and Moliere didn’t direct their barbs at reviled and vulnerable minorities. On the contrary, they used satire to expose the vices and the flaws of the self-confident and the powerful.

Charlie Hebdo’s satire, in contrast, descended into mere racist taunting and baiting.

And, as though on cue, the deluded young men

who carried out the Paris attacks fell for the bait.

“You” dare make fun of “us,” they said, then “you” will pay the price; “we” will turn the tables. Their act of violence was clearly wrong and misguided, but what was equally misguided–and at least as dangerous in the long run–is the binary cultural and racial logic behind it.

For the attackers were born and raised and France. They were as French and as Western as their victims. Or were they not? What does it mean to be French or Western? What does it mean to be one of “us” as opposed to one of “them”? Modern questions of inclusion and exclusion are infinitely complicated, and all of us urgently need to think about them in a collective conversation. Rallying around a simplistic slogan such as “Je suis Charlie” doesn’t further that conversation, it retards it.

Every culture has its mix of tolerance and intolerance, right and wrong, freedom and its absence.

Learning about the deep continuities and profound forms of exchange and mutuality among cultures, religions and ethnic groups, as well as their vast internal differences, is a much more productive way of trying to prevent further tragedies than merely mindlessly celebrating how great “we” are and how despicable “they” are all over again. Los Angeles Times/TNS

a resolution to authorize the use of force against ISIL. Translation: I am happy to continue to play this Kabuki theater act with Congress, where I criticize them for not passing a new AUMF and they criticize me for not working with them on it. The truth is, they don’t want to vote on my new war and I don’t want the restrictions that a new law would certainly have. Blaming each other is a win-win.

Obama: Last year, as we were doing the hard work of imposing sanctions along with our allies, some suggested that Mr. Putin’s aggression was a masterful display of strategy and strength. Well, today, it is America that stands strong and united with our allies, while Russia is isolated, with its economy in tatters.

Translation: Thank Allah that the Saudis, for who knows what reason, tanked the entire oil market.

Maybe they were trying to squeeze Iran and Putin got caught up in it?

Who cares? Now I can be the rooster taking credit for the sunrise. We chose sanctions because that’s about as much as we could stomach. It’s only Ukraine. But hey, sometimes you get lucky.

Obama: Our shift in Cuba policy has the potential to end a legacy of mistrust in our hemisphere; removes a phony excuse for restrictions in Cuba; stands up for democratic val-

ues; and extends the hand of friendship to the Cuban people. And this year, Congress should begin the work of ending the embargo.

Translation: Everybody knows there’s no way Congress is going to lift that embargo. But I’ve already made the political bet that this Cuba thaw is going to smell good in two years time, so I might as well double down.

If the Republicans don’t do anything and Cuba gets better, that will cost them. If Cuba gets worse, well, that’s Hillary’s problem.

Obama: I keep all options on the table to prevent a nuclear Iran. But new sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails -- alienating America from its allies; and ensuring that Iran starts up its nuclear program again. It doesn’t make sense. That is why I will veto any new sanctions bill that threatens to undo this progress.

Translation: Congress, I’m not going to let you wreck my single most prized foreign policy legacy item. I’m not going to let your “donors” wreck it either. If anybody is going to wreck it, it will be the Iranians or John Kerry.

I’m prepared to call anybody who is for sanctions a warmonger, whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat. You’ll probably do it anyway, but I’ll try to make it as painful as possible.

Obama: No foreign nation, no

hacker, should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets, or invade the privacy of American families, especially our kids.

Translation: I had to mention the Sony hack because it was in the news recently. But I’m not going to mention North Korea. Sure, they probably did it, but that Kim Jong Un guy is unpredictable. Also, I don’t want anyone to notice America has no real policy to deal with the overall threat of North Korea.

Obama: Since I’ve been president, we’ve worked responsibly to cut the population of GTMO in half. Now it’s time to finish the job. And I will not relent in my determination to shut it down. It’s not who we are.

Translation: There’s no way the Republican Congress is going to let me empty the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that’s obvious. So it seems the very first promise I made on national security as president will not be kept, but it’s not my fault. I’ll continue to release detainees and give them to our friendly governments to watch over, like our pals in Yemen.

What could go wrong?

Obama on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Arab Spring, alQaeda, Latin America, Hong Kong protests, human rights, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Boko Haram.

Nothing.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Thursday, January 22, 2015

US lauds PHL’s Apec initiatives

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By Cai U. Ordinario

he United States government is confident that the Philippines will do a good job in hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting this year.

US Department of State Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Kurt Tong told reporters that the Philippines, as chair of the Apec this year, has outlined an “intelligent and thoughtful” agenda that touches on key economic and trade issues.

“The Philippines outlined a really intelligent and thoughtful agenda for 2015. There are some initiatives that go on for years, year after year after year; but each year the host has a chance to set their own tone

for the discussion,” Tong said.

“The special emphasis this year is on SMEs [small and medium enterprises], on inclusive growth, and on human capital. I think it’s right on target and I really welcome the Philippines’s leadership. It’s going to be a great year for Apec,” he added.

Despite criticisms, Tong said the Apec continues to play an important role in increasing economic and trade cooperation among its member-countries.

One of these critics is Washington-based think tank Peterson

Institute of International Economics, whose Director Emeritus Fred Bergsten called for the abolition of the Apec in a policy brief titled “Pacific Asia and the Asia Pacific: The Choices for Apec” released in 2009.

Bergsten said that while Apec has been instrumental in leading trade liberalization initiatives in the 1990s, efforts have stagnated in the past decade.

However, Tong said initiatives such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership would not have been made possible without the Apec.

He added that the Apec has played and will play an important role in meeting the Millennium Development Goals and the future Sustainable Development Goals in the region.

The US official also said the Apec offers its members “ideas” and best practices that can help each membercountry achieve its economic and

TONG: “The Philippines outlined a really intelligent and thoughtful agenda for 2015.”

trade goals.

“I think Apec has played a significant role in accelerating positive trends in trade policy, in investment policy, in internal economic management in the member-economies by sharing ideas across borders,” Tong said. “There’s a tangible sense that a lot of the economies are getting a lot out of it [Apec].”

Tong also said while there are tensions such as those pertaining to the West Philippine Sea, these will not affect the level of cooperation that exists among Apec member-economies.

“Apec member-economies have a pretty good ability to leave their disagreements outside of the room, and when they’re inside the room, they talk about what’s on the agenda. Yes, there are tensions in international relations but because Apec is a mature and successful forum, everyone knows the rules,” Tong said.

Tong is currently in the country to attend the annual bilateral strategic dialogue (BSD) between the Philippines and the US. The BSD is a regular high-level consultation on a broad range of economic and political issues.

The discussions this year focused on broad strategic issues, cooperation on law enforcement, rule of law questions, cooperation and regional concerns, global issues and military concerns.

Tong chaired the economic working group for the BSD and the main topics discussed by the group were investment, infrastructure, innovation and inclusive growth.

BSP NET LOSS CUT BY 70% TO P7.19B AS OF NOVEMBER

By Bianca Cuaresma

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he Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Wednesday reported a net loss amounting to P7.19 billion in the first 11 months of 2014, based on unaudited or preliminary data.

This was nearly 70 percent lower than its year-ago losses amounting to P23.48 billion and comes at a time when its interest income, as well as income from other sources proved significantly lower than previous.

Data from the central bank’s monthly Selected Philippine Economic Indicators published only recently showed the BSP has trimmed its losses by a total P16.3 billion this time around.

If the BSP ends 2014 with yet

another net loss, this would be the fifth consecutive year that its expenses proved larger than its income resulting to another year of losses. In 2012 the BSP reported a record-high net loss of P95.38 billion. The last time the BSP posted net earnings was in 2009 amounting to P13.13 billion.

The total revenues for the 11-month period in 2014 hit P46.31 billion. This was lower compared to the P53.04 billion revenues collected by the BSP for the comparable period in 2013.

The BSP generated interest income totaling P30.27 billion in the first 11 months. This was slightly higher compared to the P29.87billion interest income reported the previous year.

See “BSP,” A2

US firms. . . Continued from A1

projects in industries suck as energy, aviation infrastructure, port management and equipment supply.

They can also put in place technology-based solutions for projects like toll highways.

“American companies are very good at systems and designing system solutions for various problems,” Tong said. “I don’t want to rule out US companies on anything to be frank but our particular strengths [include] energy.”

In October 2014 the PPP Center conducted a roadshow in Montreal and Toronto, Canada and New York and Washington, D.C., in the US. The PPP Center showcased 50 PPP projects worth $20.82 billion.

The PPP Center said the roadshow in the US showcased transpor-

tation projects, including airports, massive transport terminals, and rail lines, and highlighted the Regional Prisons Facilities Project, as well as the Batangas-Manila Natural Gas Pipeline.

The roadshow in the US alone attracted over 40 potential investors.

The forum in the US was organized by the PPP Center in cooperation with Philippine General Consulate.

The country’s PPP Program became the flagship infrastructure program of the Aquino administration when it was launched in 2010.

However, delays caused by the drafting of rules and regulations for the program came.

Since 2010 the government has awarded eight PPP projects worth $2.83 billion.

TAIPEI BY NIGHT Photo shows a view of the city of Taipei and the Taipei 101, one of the highest skyscrapers in the world. With a boosting economy on electronics and manufacturing and social services, it is home to approximately 18 percent of overseas Filipino workers out of all migrant workers, about 80,000, where their skills are in demand. Filipinos are scattered in the main cities of Taipei and Kaohsiung. Stephanie Tumampos

Global economy being squeezed by worsening slowdown in China

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he global economy, slowed by stagnation in Europe and Japan, is being further hampered by China’s decelerating growth. The Chinese economy grew 7.4 percent in 2014, its weakest performance in nearly a quarter-century. And its growth is forecast to slow even more over the next two years.

The figures released on Tuesday remain, by just about any measure, impressive. China continues to grow at more than twice the pace of the overall world and about three times as fast as the US economy. Yet its growth rate marks a sharp drop from China’s sizzling double-digit expansion in previous years.

And given its size, China has an

outsize effect on the world. China’s share of the global economy climbed from 4.5 percent in 2000 to an estimated 11.3 percent last year, according to the World Bank.

“China is the second-largest economy in the world,” said Paul Sheard, chief global economist at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. “So when it slows, the rest of the world is impacted.”

On Tuesday the International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded its forecast for the global economy for this year and next and pointed to China’s slowing economy as a key factor. The IMF said China’s growth would weaken to 6.8 percent this year and 6.3 percent in 2016. China’s slow-

down will dent growth in countries it imports from, especially in Asia, the report said.

China’s 2014 expansion was its slowest since 1990, when growth tumbled to 3.8 percent—a result of economic sanctions imposed on China after its violent crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests.

Last year’s 7.4-percent growth undershot Beijing’s target of 7.5 percent, its first miss since 1998, according to analysts.

Economists expect the slowdown to deepen, clouding the outlook for the world economy as China transitions away from an era of supercharged but unsustainable growth See “Global economy,” A2

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Jollibee beefs up war chest for US brand expansion Tan-Caktiong said a brand with a $1-billion market capitalization would be just about right as the company is shifting away from its traditional market of serving overseas Filipinos in the world’s largest economy.

By VG Cabuag

H

ong Kong—Fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. is building up its war chest and targets to acquire a US-based fast-food company with a market capitalization of at least $1 billion as it endeavors to increase its revenue flows from its overseas stores.

Jollibee Chairman Tony Tan-Caktiong said a brand with a $1-billion market capitalization would be just about right as the company is shifting away from its traditional market of serving overseas Filipinos in the world’s largest economy.

“It should be a strong regional brand so that we can expand. We don’t want a brand that’s already big,” Tan-Caktiong said at the sidelines of the Asian Financial Forum, where he was a guest speaker.

He acknowledged that since the acquisition may be too big for Jollibee, which has a market capitalization of some P226 billion, the company may also look for a partner, either private equity or a fund.

Tan-Caktiong, who has ceded the day-to-day responsibilities in the company to assume the chairman’s position, said he also sits at the boards of Singapore’s Temasek Foundation and at RRJ Capital.

He said that at his lunch meeting with Ho Ching, Temasek Holdings (not the foundation) executive director and CEO, proposed the idea of one day tapping the Singapore investment firm if Jollibee has an acquisition in mind.

“She [Ching] said, ‘Of course we are interested.’ But we did not explore but only had a chat with her. Maybe we’ll do something like that,” TanCaktiong said.

The company’s US expansion is part of Jollibee’s plan to widen the revenue sources of its stores abroad and pair them with revenues coming from the Philippines, where it has more than 2,200 stores.

The franchise has less than 1,000 stores overseas.

“We’d like to target 50-50 revenue sharing between Philippine stores and [our] overseas stores. But we cannot do that yet because the Philippine [operation] keeps growing so the ratio was kept at 80-20,” Tan-Caktiong said.

At the moment, about 80 percent of its revenues still come from the Philippines and only 20 percent from overseas.

“We have to make more acquisitions to jump-start that. The international revenues will be a combination of different markets. But it will be mainly China and the US,” he said.

See “Jollibee,” A2