Businessmirror june 13, 2015

HISTORY COMES ALIVE The centuries-old Aguinaldo Shrine in Kawit, Cavite, came alive as the country celebrated its 117th Independence Day on Friday. Images from the country’s history were projected on the structure and interacted with its architectural details, creating optical illusions that added extra dimensions into the structure. Story below. nonie reyes

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OECD official recommends measures to improve tax collection, fight money laundering

‘Abolish bank-secrecy law’ INSIDE

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n official of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has called on the Philippines to abolish the banksecrecy law to improve tax collection and more effectively fight corruption and money laundering.

periscope surfaces At the beginning of this day

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h, holy Spirit, creation’s first dawn, You came forth to give form and life to all. Hear us, at the beginning of this day. Shape our life today in the image of Christ. Let nothing unpleasant or sinful be found in us. Illumine our life’s horizon with Your light. Dispel all darkness and doubts from our mind and soul. Light the fire of love in our heart and be the light we radiate today and every day of our life. Amen.

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Don’t lose your chilDren! tips for parents in crowDs

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PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT, LAURIE LIGSAY AnD LOUIE M. LAcSOn Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

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Saturday, June 13, 2015 D1

Will broadcasting app Periscope’s best side surface?

maybe Periscope is all going to make us more self-conscious and less private, a new breed of alwaysbroadcasting showoffs, who can’t ever be off-camera.

But I’m also seeing incredibly compelling stuff on Periscope, video I don’t want to ignore, dismiss or underestimate.

By Omar L. Gallaga

I

broadcasters the option to make replays available, but only for 24 hours. You can find a list of videos a user has created, but you can’t watch them after that, unless the Periscoper saves the video and reposts it somewhere else. (The video will be missing chat messages and hearts.)

5. Let’s talk about those hearts and chat messages. Hearts are a way for Periscope viewers to say they like something. But, unlike Facebook, where you can “Like” something once, hearts can be freely given many, many times by tap-tap-tapping the phone screen while watching. The hearts, represented as different colors for different heartgivers, float to the top of the screen, then fade, like fleeting emotion. Chat messages also fade after a few seconds and a popular Periscope stream can feel like a blast of thoughts coming from all directions, punctuated by hearts.

6. Other things I have done on Periscope: I tried to strap my phone to a small drone and fly it. It did not go well; the drone wasn’t powerful enough to support the weight. But the video was a huge hit, drawing thousands of viewers and hearts. I’ve painted miniature zombie figures while narrating the process (very popular), hosted a microwave-oven marshmallow Peeps jousting Olympics (a bust) and streamed interviews and events.

7. A few weeks ago, Oprah Winfrey started using Periscope. I haven’t watched Oprah on TV for years, but I was mesmerized by her on Periscope as she aimed her phone backstage at Late Show With David Letterman or took charge at her magazine, asking questions of her managing editor with Gayle King always within viewing range. Oprah is great at Periscope. Without the layers of camera operators, editors and TV signal clutter, when it’s just a phone between you and Oprah, it feels like magic. Oprah magic.

8. Authors are using Periscope in clever ways.

Friends who have books published have used Periscope to show readers what their writing spaces look like. Actually writing anything while broadcasting via Periscope is not so exciting, but some visual artists, such as Amanda Oleander, who has about 100,000 Periscope followers and 12.5 million hearts, are becoming celebrities within the medium. Talented Periscopers, such as Oleander, are almost inventing a new language, doing what they do in front of a camera while also keeping a running dialogue with the fast-scrolling messages on screen.

9. Other things I’ve seen on Periscope: a woman on a set of stairs crying after her boyfriend broke up with her. much of the manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd mayweather boxing match on may 2, Periscoped dubiously (and probably illegally) from people’s living-room PPV, encumbered by party noise and shaky-camera hands. Sleepy comic Nick Kroll answering viewer questions before going to bed.

People trying on the Apple watch.

10. Popular formats on Periscope: “Ask me anything” chats with tech reporters, children and even sock puppets. Bored Dog walks or strolls

Austin American-Statesman

’m struggling with a relatively new piece of technology called Periscope, an app purchased by Twitter and relaunched in late march.

Not “struggling” in the sense that I don’t know how to use it or I’m frustrated by its limitations. Quite the opposite. I’m charmed by Periscope in a way that a lot of people I know are not; I see huge potential in it, the way I did my first year on Twitter back in 2007. But I also have huge reservations about what Periscope may turn us into.

Remember when we worried that Twitter might shorten people’s attention spans? What were we talking about just now?

Oh yes, Periscope. I have some thoughts. Ten of them. Writing about these things usually helps sort out mixed emotions.

1: Let’s clear up what Periscope is and what it’s not. People have been live-streaming video of themselves online for a while, using everything from Skype—best for intimate chats—to services such as Qix (R.I.P.), Twitch and Ustream.

Earlier this year, an app called meerkat got lots of attention, especially at South by Southwest Interactive, for making it dead-easy to broadcast from an iPhone. iPhone cameras are much better now than a few years ago, mobile Internet connections are faster and more stable, and people are more comfortable sharing video online in this age of selfies. meerkat grew quickly. Then Periscope came along shortly after with a more polished, less buggy interface.

Guess which one seems to be winning the war for live-streaming iPhone owners? For now, at least, Periscope seems to be the one to watch from iPhones and iPads, on the Web or, at some point this year, from Android devices. (It is now available for Android devices.–Ed.) 2. One of the things I love about Periscope is that it’s in the experimental phase when users— from celebrities to tech early adopters to artists to would-be social-media gurus—are throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks. When Vine, a short-video service also owned by Twitter, debuted in 2012, it was a mess, but it didn’t take long for clever shooters to create stop-motion dramas and comedies told six seconds at a time.

Periscope feels like that right now.

3. my first Periscope involved pointing a phone at one of my computer monitors at work and playing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” on YouTube in a loop. I realized soon that anyone watching online could overhear chatter from the newsroom as audio. It suddenly felt dangerous and a little intrusive. I turned off the feed.

4. One of the ways that Periscope (and to an even greater extent meerkat) feels different from previous live-video apps is a sense of the ephemeral. meerkat doesn’t archive streams at all; once you miss someone’s video, it’s gone. Periscope gives

through airports. Bad weather and spectacular sunsets. Boring news conferences and slightly less boring photoshoots with models who do their best to ignore lascivious chat requests.

And, most promisingly, breaking news events such as riots in Baltimore and disaster coverage after horrific storms. Tedious video on Periscope is just tedious. But the good stuff is dangerously watchable and very interactive.

maybe it’s all going to make us more selfconscious and less private, a new breed of alwaysbroadcasting showoffs, who can’t ever be offcamera. But I’m also seeing incredibly compelling stuff on Periscope, video I don’t want to ignore, dismiss or underestimate.

Is Periscope the next Twitter? No, not at all, but it’s something to watch with occasional nuggets of gold inside a huge mountain of rocky terrain.

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children & crowds Parentlife BusinessMirror

Saturday, June 13, 2015

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Don’t lose your children! Tips for parents in crowds

By Kelly Aiglon

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Chicago Tribune

eeping track of kids at an amusement park or other crowded venue, is a roller-coaster ride in itself. And the bigger the crowds, the more loopy you’re bound to get.

A parent’s biggest fear? Losing a little one in the melee.

You’ll be able to breathe easy and enjoy the day if you set up family guidelines and what-if plans in advance of your trip, says pattie Fitzgerald, founder of the safety advocacy program, Safely ever After and author of Super Duper Safety School: Safety Rules for Kids & Grownups!

The age and maturity of your children will influence the amount of freedom you give them. Fitzgerald says it’s best to put safety first.

Here are a few of her tips for keeping the family together in the bustle of crowds.

DRESS IN BRIGHT COLORS: neon green. notice-me yellow. Fluorescent blue that screams, “i’m here!” Dress your kids to stand out from the crowd, instead of in typical character tees or sports jerseys. (One mom we know used to make matching, brightly colored tie-dye shirts for her three boys, making it easier to spot them—and also easier for them to find each other.) And hey, Mom and Dad: not a bad idea to wear bright colors too.

MAKE A GAME OF IT: “it’s hard for younger kids to stay with their parents when you’re someplace fabulous and there is so much to see.

Telling them to ‘hold hands’ and ‘stay near’ is boring,” says Fitzgerald, who claims you need a “buy in” to compel kids to not wander off. For example, turn it into a game and challenge your child to only be three giant steps away from you at all times. Or, if you have more than one child, empower one with the task of doing a head count every 15 minutes. “Just keep them involved and make it fun,” Fitzgerald says. “it can be exhausting to parents, but it works.”

KEEP PHONE NUMBERS HANDY: Younger kids might not be able to remember their parents’ phone number, they should have your name and cell-phone number written on a piece of paper and slipped into their pocket. if you want a more visible cue, try a custom temporary tattoo from SafetyTat that includes a child’s name and emergency contact information.

DON’T FEAR THE BACKPACK LEASH: in fact, don’t even think of it as a “leash,” says Fitzgerald, in reference to the child backpacks that include a tether that a parent can hold. While these backpacks get a bad rap from those who think they’re over the top, “they are cute and fun, and actually give your child more freedom,” Fitzgerald says.

“You don’t have to hold their hand so they

get to roam and explore a little bit.”

How picture books can help your kid learn to read

COACH KIDS ON AN ACTION PLAN: Discuss what to do with your child if he or she does happen to get lost in the crowd. This should include telling them to stay where they are— and never to go back to the parking lot to wait at the car. instead, encourage them to “freeze and yell their parents’ names,” Fitzgerald says. “if that doesn’t work, coach them to find another mom with a kid. Statistically, that’s the safest stranger and is low risk.”

By Regan McMahon Common Sense Media

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nyone who’s “read” a picture book can tell you that you don’t need words to tell a story. Pre-reading toddlers and preschoolers can follow a story told in pictures, a parent or child can narrate the action and the cozy, empowering experience can help kids develop positive associations with books.

And even though kids aren’t reading words, it turns out that wordless books can develop important skills:

TAKE A FAMILY PHOTO BEFORE YOU GO: Rally everyone together once you’re all dressed and ready to leave home. get the kids to pose and make it fun. But the secret behind it is that, if you do lose them, you won’t get stuck trying to explain what they look like and what they’re wearing. “You’ll have it all right there on your cell phone,” Fitzgerald says.

LITERACY Toddlers and preschoolers can learn how a book works: front to back, left to right, top to bottom. They practice listening, comprehension and interpreting visual

images. Following a story helps kids understand the structure of storytelling: cause and effect; conflict and resolution; character development; and a narrative arc with a beginning, middle and end.

VOCABULARY AND VERBAL SKILLS By reading a wordless book with an adult or a more knowledgeable peer, kids can learn to identify objects, people, places, animals and actions, and narrate a story based on visual cues. This helps kids understand stories once they start reading and can inspire them to write their own stories—an expression of literacy.

CONFIDENCE A toddler or preschooler is proud to have finished a favorite book and to have understood the whole story from start to finish without adult help.

A LOVE OF BOOKS AND ART Wordless books can be enjoyed by readers of all ages, and can develop a taste for reading for pleasure and delight in illustration.

EASY ACCESS Books without text are great for kids who speak different languages, are learning english, or have developmental or learning difficulties that make reading words challenging.

Kids still need exposure to print, especially kids who may not have a lot of books at home. And how many literacy skills a child gains may depend on how involved the adult reader is in pointing out and reinforcing elements and vocabulary in the story. But the bottom line is that wordless books are loads of fun to read together and can be entertaining and empowering for kids of various ages to read on their own.

Back-to-school shopping made easy

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usT when you thought you’re done with the madness that is back-to-school shopping, you find out that there is more shopping to be done. Bring the fun back to back-to-school shopping with these tips from Daiso Japan, Japan’s no. 1 hyakuen that carries the biggest collection of cute, funky and unique Japanese merchandise in kawaii designs. With prices starting at P88, the store is a haven for bargain hunters looking to stretch their peso with quality items that are affordable, adorable and functional.

MAKE A LIST The cardinal rule for shopping smart is having a list and sticking to it. But first, make sure to do a closet sweep before trooping to the mall. you want to know the things you already have and those that you may need. It is addicting after all to pick up anything and everything while cruising along Daiso Japan’s goodie-filled aisles.

EXTRAS Buy extras of the materials that your kids tend to lose.

It’s always a good idea to take advantage of Daiso Japan’s

budget-friendly goods before stocks run out.

BUY FUN STUFF THAT WILL DELIGHT YOUR KIDS GeT supplies that will make school a lot more fun and interesting. For instance, choose colorful and bright pencils, pens, pencil cases and notebooks.

LET THEM CHOOSE AlloW your kids to make their own choices whenever possible and let their personalities shine through. They may want those bento boxes with matching utensils, or cheerful-looking stationery pads where they can scribble their school notes. or those face towels, water bottles and foldable fans that are always fun to have in their school bags.

BONDING TIME leAve the little ones at home when shopping. This way, you can focus on what you have to buy and at the same time bond, with the older kids. After shopping, you can also treat them to lunch or an ice cream snack before heading home.

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naturally. unlike most toothpaste in the market, human nature natural Toothpaste is 100-percent free from harmful chemicals. It contains no triclosan, no sls and propylene glycol.

Brushing your teeth is also a pleasant experience with human nature. While most natural toothpastes taste unpleasant, its new toothpaste product was painstakingly developed in the human nature natural Care labs for three years to be both free of harmful chemicals and great tasting.

In addition, human nature natural Toothpaste is safe for children. For children below 6 years old, a peasized amount and adult supervision while brushing is recommended. equally notable is that human nature natural Toothpaste takes care of planet earth, while keeping your smile bright. It is biodegradable and contains

no plastic microbeads. Plastic microbeads are used in many personal care products as exfoliants and abrasives. Plastic microbeads are too small to be filtered out by wastewater treatment facilities, making them ocean and waterway pollutants. how’s that for something to put an even bigger smile to your face?

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SERIES TIED Sports BusinessMirror

Philippines should also cooperate with other countries in the mutual exchange of information on matters involving taxpayers.

Last year the Philippines signed the OECD’s Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters to Enhance Tax Compliance to also allow the country to run after nonresidents who have tax liabilities in the Philippines.

The Internal Revenue Commission then extended the maximum period during which a taxpayer may be left in the dark as to the existence of a request for financial information made by a foreign tax authority See “Bank-secrecy law,” A2

| Saturday, June 13, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

Pistons land Ilyasova, Bucks get 2 players

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ILWAUKEE—The Detroit Pistons have acquired Turkish veteran Ersan Ilyasova from the Milwaukee Bucks, adding a longrange shooter to their frontcourt.

Detroit sent forwards Caron Butler and Shawne Williams to Milwaukee in the trade announced on Thursday.

Ilyasova is under contract through the 2016-2017 season. He was the longest-tenured player on the Bucks with seven seasons in Milwaukee.

Pistons Coach Stan van Gundy said the 6-foot-10 Ilyasova is a player Detroit has coveted. He averaged 10.7 points and six rebounds in 453 games, all with the Bucks. He is a career 37-percent shooter from three-point range.

“Not only is [Ilyasova] a proficient three-point shooter who can stretch the floor, he is a high-energy, hard-playing guy who fits extremely well with how we want to play,” van Gundy said. AP

WArrIOrS EVEN NBA FINALS WITh A DOMINANT GAME 4 WIN

SERIES TIED

By Mike Bresnahan

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Los Angeles Times

LEVELAND—LeBron James wasn’t unstoppable.

The Cleveland Cavaliers fell back to normalcy.

The Golden State Warriors surprised everybody by starting a small lineup and then rediscovered their offense in a 103-82 victory on Thursday in Game Four of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals.

The Warriors tied the series at two games each and ripped back home-court advantage as Stephen Curry scored 22 points and Andre Iguodala matched him with 22 after being promoted from reserve status for the first time this season. Game Five is Sunday at Golden State.

James fell way off his 41-point scoring average through the first three games, totaling only 20 on seven-for-22 shooting in 41 minutes. He was scoreless in the fourth quarter, taking only two shots.

“I ran through those 12 minutes in the third quarter and was gassed out,” James said.

He didn’t have much help, obviously missing injured All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.

Cavaliers guard Matthew Dellavedova wasn’t effective after being hospitalized two days earlier because of cramps and dehydration. He had 10 points on threefor-14 shooting after scoring 20 in Game Three.

Cavaliers forward Iman Shumpert was also fairly silent, scoring five points in 39 minutes while playing

ENEVA—International Football Federation’s (Fifa) top spokesman left his job on Thursday, hours after Sepp Blatter was urged to do the same by the European Parliament.

Fifa responded by announcing that its executive committee will meet on July 20 in Zurich to decide when from December to February the election to decide Blatter’s successor should be held.

That meeting will also discuss how to reform Fifa after American and Swiss corruption investigations unleashed turmoil on the organization two weeks ago.

The latest upheaval saw Communications Director Walter de Gregorio, closely tied to the embattled president since 2011, abruptly exiting Fifa three days after telling a joke about soccer’s governing body on a TV talk show.

Still, Blatter praised Fifa’s handling of the ongoing corruption crisis in the organization’s in-house magazine.

“Fifa is going through difficult times,” Blatter said in an excerpt of his column released on Thursday. “This makes me all the more proud that our organization runs smoothly in a crisis.”

Blatter appeared to be referring to the smooth-running Under-20 and Women’s World Cups in New Zealand and Canada. However, in what seemed like strange timing, the advance extract from Blatter’s weekly column in a Fifa online magazine was released two hours after de Gregorio’s exit was announced.

On Monday de Gregorio was a guest of host Roger Schawinski on German-language station SRF. Schawinski closed the show by asking the former sports and politics journalist to tell his favorite joke about Fifa.

De Gregorio set up the punchline by saying the Fifa president, himself and Secretary-General Jerome Valcke were in a car, so who was driving?

After a pause for the host to comment, de Gregorio gave the answer: “The police.”

Glut in oil supply forces Asian refiners to buy more crude

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“I think the key challenge for tax administration globally—in the Philippines or everywhere, in dealing with money launderers, in dealing with tax evaders, in dealing with corruption—is information,” said Richard Parry, head of the Global Relations Division of the OECD’s Center for Tax Policy and Administration.

Parry said the trend in the international community is toward the abolition of bank-secrecy provisions, and cited a G-20 observation way back in 2009 that said bank secrecy is either dead or dying.

Parry added that, aside from the abolition of the bank-secrecy law, the

GET A HEAD START mAKInG that early trip means shorter lines at the cashier, less people and more time to browse through shelves and think about your purchases carefully.

A natural way to clean healthy teeth mIlInG is the easiest way to spread goodness:A smile boosts your mood, decreases stress, lowers blood pressure and makes you look instantly more attractive.

A healthy set of pearly whites has become synonymous to confidence and beauty. With all these benefits, it’s not surprising that Filipinos brush their teeth religiously. unfortunately, most synthetic toothpastes in the market contain chemicals that may harm your health. human nature (www.humanheartnature.com), the country’s largest genuinely natural personal-care brand, brings you goodness you can smile about in its all-new human nature natural Toothpaste.

The toothpaste is powered by Greenmineral Plus, a natural formula with zinc citrate, calcium carbonate, fluoride, sesame seed oil, spearmint oil and peppermint oil. The formula helps fight plaque, tartar and cavities while keeping your breath fresh

By David Cagahastian

with a bruised right shoulder that caused him considerable pain in Game Three.

The Warriors were tired of averaging 92 points in their previous two games and shook up their lineup by going very small, making Draymond Green their starting center, all 6 feet 7 of him, and sending struggling 7-footer Andrew Bogut to the bench. With Iguodala in the mix, Golden State’s starters averaged slightly more than 6 feet 6.

Warriors Coach Steve Kerr fibbed a couple of times before the game—at the team’s morning shoot-around and then 90 minutes before tipoff—by saying there would be no lineup changes when asked by reporters.

A secret is a secret, especially in the Finals.

“I lied,” Kerr said. “If I tell the truth, it’s the equivalent of me knocking on [Cavaliers Coach] David Blatt’s door and saying, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do.’

“Sorry, but I don’t think they hand you the trophy based on morality. They give it to you if you win.”

The Warriors looked like winners almost from the start at Quicken Loans Arena.

After a surprising number of poor quarters in the series, they unveiled a 54-point first half. Green was a spark in his new role, with 13 points, four rebounds and three assists as Golden State took a 12-point halftime lead.

The Cavaliers didn’t go quietly and trailed by only six going into the fourth quarter. But then came a 12-point fourth quarter from them.

They finished four for 27 from three-point range (14.8 percent) and shot 33-percent overall.

Big men Timofey Mozgov (28 points, 10 rebounds) and Tristan Thompson (12 points, 13 rebounds) had plenty of success against the Warriors’ undersized lineup, but there were depth problems for the Cavaliers.

Only two reserves played until the game got out of hand—J.R. Smith and James Jones—and totaled four points on 15 shots in 44 combined minutes.

Was fatigue playing a factor? It looked like it.

“The third game in five days, including the trip back from the West Coast, and it seemed to have an impact on us, yes,” Blatt said.

James continued to play heavy minutes, as if there was anything else he could do. He had 12 rebounds and eight assists.

He went down hard after being fouled by Bogut with 4:43 left in the second quarter. The foul wasn’t overly aggressive, but James went headfirst into a courtside TV camera. James immediately clutched his head, which was cut, and stayed down a couple of minutes before eventually heading to the free-throw line, where he made one of two.

“It was hurting. The camera cut me pretty bad,” James said, later adding he had a slight headache.

James wasn’t tested for a concussion, but he required stitches after the game.

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GOLDEN State Warriors center Andrew Bogut (left) blocks the shot of Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James. (Below) Warriors guard Andre Iguodala celebrates after hitting a big shot. AP

FIFA’S TOP SPOKESMAN LEAVES JOB

DE GrEGOrIO

Earlier, lawmakers from 28 European nations meeting in Strasbourg, France, voted on a resolution calling for Blatter to speed up his announced resignation and let Fifa appoint an interim leader.

“Fifa is perplexed by the European Parliament’s resolution,” said the Zurichbased soccer body which is not obliged to heed the parliament and previously dismissed criticism by lawmaker groups, including the Council of Europe.

Blatter is a target of the American investigation of corruption in soccer, and Swiss prosecutors are leading a separate probe into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests.

If Blatter left before the election, Fifa rules require Senior Vice President Issa Hayatou of Cameroon to step up as interim president.

Hayatou was reprimanded in 2011 by the International Olympic Committee for taking cash payments in the 1990s from Fifa’s then-World Cup marketing agency. He also steered through two changes of the Confederation of African Football presidential election rules in the past two years to protect his position.

Hayatou is among 10 past and current Fifa executive committee members who Swiss authorities want to question in their probe of possible financial wrongdoing in World Cup bidding contests won by Russia and Qatar, respectively.

On Thursday the European Parliament urged its member-states—which do not include Switzerland—to “cooperate fully with all ongoing and future investigations on corrupt practices within Fifa.”

However, Russia is not a member of the European Union, and its President Vladimir Putin has criticized American authorities for meddling in Fifa’s affairs and seeking to have his country stripped of World Cup hosting.

Russia and Qatar have consistently denied wrongdoing. A Fifa investigation concluded last year that unethical behavior by most of the nine bid candidates did not affect the outcome of votes by Fifa’s executive committee.

Those December 2010 votes were the starting point of Fifa’s current crisis, Blatter suggested last month. He blamed American justice officials and media in England, noting that both countries were losing World Cup candidates.

De Gregorio defended Fifa at a May 27 news conference called hours after the governing body’s headquarters were raided by Swiss police, and seven soccer officials were arrested at a luxury Zurich hotel.

Then, the Swiss spokesman said it had been “a good day” for Fifa, which he said was committed to fighting corruption.

De Gregorio joined Fifa after working on Blatter’s campaign team during the 2011 presidential election. Fifa said de Gregorio “would be retained as a consultant until the end of the year.”

Valcke said in the Fifa statement that he was glad “we will be able to continue to draw on [de Gregorio’s] expertise until the end of the year.”

De Gregorio’s deputy, Nicolas Maingot, will step up to the director’s position. AP

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he surge in oil supplies that has crushed prices is prompting some refiners in Asia to buy more crude that can be delivered immediately rather than at some future date, adding to pressure on sellers.

With the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) pumping the most in almost three years and the US producing the most in three decades, the refiners are showing little concern that prices will suddenly surge. Japan’s

JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp., South Korea’s SK Innovation Co. and Indian Oil Corp. are among the processors seeking to boost profits by purchasing more in the spot market, while shrinking what they buy under long-term contracts, where prices are generally higher.

The shift is a challenge for producers—such as Saudi Arabia, the largest exporter—that sell crude through term contracts, undermining their attempts to defend market share with more output. Demand

A boy holding an umbrella, decorated with the Philippine colors, takes a photo of a giant Philippine flag at the Rizal Park in Manila.

Top government officials attended the flag-raising ceremony in celebration of the country’s 117th Independennce Day. ALYSA SALEN

D.O.T. project breathes life into Aguinaldo Shrine for 117th Independence Day celebration

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

Special to the BusinessMirror

W

ITH the images of a huge Philippine flag and that of the young Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo staring down from the façade of his old mansion, accompanied by patriotic music playing in the background, one couldn’t help but get goose bumps and feel a burst of pride on the eve of the 117th anniversary of the country’s Independence Day. On Thursday the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the local govern-

ment of Kawit, Cavite, unveiled to the media the first video mapping of a national monument, in this case, the Aguinaldo Shrine.

The 18th-century structure was lit up using video-mapping technology, which uses digitally produced images based on the architectural lines of a structure to tell a story, create an impression and bring any structure to life. Aside from stirring historical events leading to the declaration of the country’s independence from the Spaniards in 1898, images of iconic Philippine tourist spots, like the Mayon Volcano and the Banaue

Rice Terraces, were also flashed, with the shrine acting as a huge projection screen for the digital show.

The 20-minute video-mapping show was created by OptimumShow Philippines at a cost of some P25 million, and was funded by the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza), an attached agency of the DOT. In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr. said: “The project has two parts. One is the permanent building façade-lighting program Continued on A2

Continued on A8

PESO exchange rates n US 44.9660

n japan 0.3667 n UK 69.8457 n HK 5.7997 n CHINA 7.2455 n singapore 33.3972 n australia 34.8763 n EU 50.9420 n SAUDI arabia 11.9916 Source: BSP (11 June 2015)

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BusinessMirror

Saturday, June 13, 2015

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DOT project breathes life into Aguinaldo Shrine Foreign investments to decline sans ‘economic Cha-cha’– for 117th Independence Day celebration. . .

Continued from A1

that gives the mansion monumental prominence as an evening attraction.

The other is the digital video-mapping show that allows us to stage a highimpact presentation of Philippine revolutionary history—powerful enough to join the ranks of ‘most viewed’ viral videos to create stronger awareness for the Philippines’s cultural offering.”

He added that “both projects are expected to set the new standard for monuments around the country. We chose the Aguinaldo Shrine, as it is the site most associated with the Philippine struggle for independence and an ideal ‘day trip’ offer for tourists in Manila. We hope that other local government units [LGUs] and private sponsors will be inspired, as well. The Kawit LGU has been super supportive all the way.” The National Historical Commission of the Philippines, which maintains the shrine, also supported the project.

The video-mapping show is ongoing until June 15, with show times at 7:30 pm, 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm. The shrine is, likewise, open to the public and houses a museum featuring personal effects of Aguinaldo, as well as popular items in his time, while the mansion itself showcases its unique interior design and the family’s furniture. Kawit is barely a 45-minute drive from Makati City via the Cavite

Expressway.

A formal ceremony for the Independence Day feature will be held on June 15, to be attended by Jimenez, as well as other Cabinet officials, members of the diplomatic corps, historians and heritage experts, members of academe and other tourism stakeholders. The ceremony was originally scheduled on June 9, but, DOT sources said, important equipment for the show were stuck at the Bureau of Customs, thus the postponement.

The same sources also said the initial plan was to video map Intramuros, but Jimenez responded that this was “too complex and expensive.” Still, he said, the agency is preparing to bid out the façade-lighting program for the Walled City and other historic buildings, like the Manila City Hall and the National Museum.

The DOT is also considering restaging the video-mapping show during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit in November.

OptimumShow Philippines is headed by one Richard Thomas, who, with his team, a Tieza officer, said, “was responsible for several similar programs, which include the special lighting design and show programming for the Tower Bridge of London during the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, and

Bank-secrecy law. . . to the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Parry said that, aside from these measures, the Philippines should abolish the bank-secrecy law to meet international standards in

several light, sound and image projects in Morocco, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai, Europe and Libya.”

Despite several attempts, efforts to interview company representatives proved futile. The company didn’t have a web site until Thursday and, as of press time, said the site just showed the company’s name. An Internet search also failed to turn up any background on Thomas and the company, although DOT sources said some of the team members are French.

Industry sources confirmed that video mapping, or spatial augmented reality technology, was not unique in the Philippines and has been used by several local video companies for their clients. Video Sonic, for instance, used the Microtel Mall of Asia’s façade as screen for the launch of the Mitsubishi Mirage in 2013.

In a separate interview, lawyer Guiller Asido, assistant COO for Tieza’s Architecture and Engineering Services Sector, told the BusinessMirror that the “project was undertaken through public bidding, as required under the Government Procurement Law. The cost of the project is P24.9 million to cover the artistic and technical study, and use of the highly valuable technical equipment.”

He added that the objective of the

project is to have a video-mapping show that will be able to “retell the history of the Philippine Independence; highlight the house and the piazza/plaza in front of the shrine, where Filipinos once stood while waiting for the Philippine flag to be raised for the first time; and to make the audience feel like they are transported back to 1898, and to feel the anticipation and excitement of the people back then.”

He stressed that this is the first time in the Philippines that a video-mapping show had been undertaken using a national heritage structure as site. “This technology has been done in various parts of the world.”

The 14,000-square-foot heritage mansion was the ancestral residence of the Aguinaldos and the birthplace of Emilio, who later became general of the Philippine revolutionary forces and first Philippine President. The residence was declared a national heritage shrine after the death of Aguinaldo in 1964.

Constructed in 1845 from wood and thatch materials, the Aguinaldo Shrine has undergone several renovations in 1849 and in the early 1920s. Its most historic spot, known as the “Independence Balcony,” was where Aguinaldo declared the country’s independence from Spanish colonial rule and the birth of the first Philippine Republic.

meets the level standards, which means the abolition of bank secrecy,” he said.

He added that abolishing the bank-secrecy law would also boost

the government’s efforts against corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, leading to higher revenue collection to fund its social and economic projects.

Continued from A1

cooperating with other countries in tax and financial matters.

“So, the Philippines needs to be engaged in that process. You need to have legislation in place, which

business groups. . .

Legislation promoting competency and productivity of human resources include Ladderized Education Program; Iskolar ng Bayan Act; and the Open Learning through Distance Education in Post-Secondary and Tertiary Levels Act. Expected to become law soon include the Open High School System for Out-of-School Youth and Adults and the bill on the Promotion of Positive Discipline and Nonviolent Discipline of Children, which was passed on third reading.

Belmonte said that under bicameral consideration are the Unified Student Financial Assistance for Higher and Technical Education, the Act Strengthening the Probation System. The amendments to the Cabotage law should soon be sent to the President for signature.

The Speaker, however, noted the historic ratification of the Bicameral Conference Committee Report on the Fair Competition Act, or the AntiTrust Act, which had been pending in the House of Representatives since 1989—a clear 26 years between its inception and approval.

The measure, Belmonte said, would transform the economic landscape of the country into a modern, outward-looking economy that benefits and provides opportunities for the vast majority of the people.

Likewise, the House passed on final reading the Magna Carta for the Poor and the Internal Displace-

Continued from A8

ment Act that aims to expand the benefits from economic growth, Belmonte said.

On the crucial issue of proper utilization and protection of the nation’s natural resources and environment, Belmote said the following measures got the green light: Prevention of Marine Pollution; Delineation of the Maritime Zones of the Philippines; and Establishment of Archipelagic Sea Lanes in Philippine Waters.

To help sustain and institutionalize the fight against corruption and to help promote good governance were amendments to the Sandiganbayan law that enhance its organization and operational efficiency in discharging its functions.

“Let us, therefore, look forward to the challenges of the third regular session, confident that we have remained true to our people but ever conscious of and committed to what remains to be done,” Belmonte said.

He also credited the House of Representatives for its “golden harvest of legislation” that includes 35 republic acts; 541 measures that passed on third reading, 24 approved on second reading; and 215 resolutions that were eventually adopted.

“Amid the rising political noise anticipating 2016 and its attendant distractions, we did not succumb to empty grandstanding, opportunistic photo-ops and cheap sloganeering,” Belmonte said.

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Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Saturday, June 13, 2015 A3

Military: 5 jihadists operating in Mindanao

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By Rene Acosta

HE military confirmed on Friday the presence of five foreign jihadists in Mindanao, three of them Malaysians including a former member of Malaysia’s Special Forces, working with the local bandit group Abu Sayyaf.

The reported presence of foreign terrorists in Sulu and Basilan was confirmed by the Armed Forces Public Affairs Office chief, Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, who cited reports and the previous sightings by soldiers of the foreign jihadists.

“We have monitored the presence of foreign jihadists on Basilan Island since last year, but we could not ascertain their affiliation to IS [Islamic State] as they claim,” he said in response to reports that five Malaysian terrorists were currently in Basilan and were working with their local counterparts.

Reports said the foreign jihadists were members of the IS, but Cabunoc said there are no confirmed reports that could support this claim, since “it is too easy to claim membership with the Middle East-based international terrorist group.”

In one of the previous encounters in

Basilan by the military with the Abu Sayyaf bandits, who were believed to be in the company of the foreign jihadists, soldiers recovered what appeared to an IS flag.

Cabunoc said the military has already determined the identities of the five jihadists, three of them Malaysians.

“We have identified their names and some of them went to Sulu, to join the fight with [Abu Sayyaf commander] Radulan Sahiron,” he said.

“There was one encounter sometime in April which resulted in numerous injuries among the soldiers, and at least two or three of them went to Sulu.

We are not sure if they have come back to Basilan,” Cabunoc added.

A source said that one of the Malaysians was a former member of Malaysia’s Special Forces who was discharged by the Malaysian Armed Forces after he went on absent without official leave.

The former soldier later ended up in the company of Malaysian terrorists, who have traveled to Mindanao to work with local bandits.

“As of May, there was an encounter between the Scout Rangers and the Abu Sayyaf somewhere in Tuburan town, which led to the recovery of improvised bombs and these bombs were traced to a group of foreign jihadists,” Cabunoc said.

“There was one Malaysian who was identified with them and they were able to escape, but the bomb factory was seized by the government forces, particularly by the Third Scout Ranger Battalion and the 18th Infantry Battalion,” he added.

Cabunoc ref used to conf ir m t he report that the five foreign jihadists were members of the IS, noting the scheme of local terrorists and their foreign counterparts to easily declare that they are part or members of the international terrorist group just to solicit international funding.

He, however, admitted that Sahiron and even the late Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, have pledged allegiance to the IS. “They declared allegiance to ISIS using that black flag, and one reason for them to do that is to project that an international terror group is existing locally so that they can get funding from international organizations,” Cabunoc said.

Aside from the five, at least one foreign terrorist identified as Amin Baku, also a Malaysian, was sighted in Central Mindanao in the company of members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

DOJ forms 5-man fact-finding team to investigate immigration ‘bribery’

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By Joel R. San Juan

HE Department of Justice (DOJ) has formed a five-man fact-finding panel that will look into allegation of bribery against high-ranking officials of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) officials in connection with the case of Chinese fugitive Wang Bo. In Department Order 459, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima designated National Bureau of Investigation executive officer Peter Lugay and agents Cesar Reyes, Arnold Diaz, Catherine Camposano-Remigio and Glenn Quimio to dig deeper into the alleged bribery to prevent Wang’s deportation to China.

Wang is wanted by International Police Organization (Interpol) and the Chinese government for allegedly embezzling $100 million in illegal gambling.

“A special group consisting of National Bureau of Investigation officials and agents is hereby constituted to conduct a fact-finding investigation on the possible commission of either criminal or administrative offenses of the deportation proceedings by the BI against Wang Bo, a Chinese national charged to be an undesirable and undocumented alien,” the order read.

The team has been directed to scrutinize and evaluate all documents pertaining to the case of Wang.

Also part of the tasks of the panel is to conduct an interview on personalities involved in the arrest and deportation of Wang, including the Chinese fugitive himself.

“After the conclusion of the fact-finding investigation, the team shall evaluate the testimonies, documents, and other evidence they have gathered in the course of such investigation and, thereafter, determine the possible criminal and administrative offenses committed by any individual in said case, if any,” the order stated.

De Lima has signed the deportation order of Wang but decided to defer its implementation pending the conduct of the investigation.

If not for the issue of bribery hounding the BI, de Lima said the Philippine government would have immediately sent Wang back to China.

She explained that deporting Wang to China while the bribery investigation is still ongoing might raise a suspicion that they are protecting the Chinese national.

De Lima said she is interested in determining whether the allegations hurled against the BI officials were true.

Wang has been detained at the BI jail in Taguig City since his arrest on February 10 upon his arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport from Malaysia.

The Chinese embassy sought the BI’s assistance in arresting Wang, saying he was wanted for illegal gambling and that his passport has been canceled.

Among those to be questioned are Immigration Commissioner Siegfred B. Mison and Associate Commissioners Gilberto U. Repizo and Abdullah S. Mangotara.

Economy

A4 Saturday, June 13, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

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FPI backs Villanueva’s proposal to revive CISS, SS at Customs

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By Catherine N. Pillas

he Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) is pushing for the revival of two transparency programs at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to effectively curb smuggling and corruption prevalent at the government agency.

The business group, in a recent forum hosted by the Penpower for Democracy and Good Governance, voiced its support to bring back the Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) and the Selectivity Scheme (SS) but in a

“modified” manner.

The proposals were put forward by former Customs Commissioner lawyer Titus B. Villanueva during the forum, and were readily endorsed by the FPI. The SS and the CISS would essen-

tially cut down on human intervention on the handling of cargo from entry to delivery to firms, said Villanueva, thus, limiting the avenues to conduct back-door deals.

The two programs, however, were cut short as importers did not latch on to the concept of SS, and CISS was deemed too costly to implement.

The SS involves classifying importers as either red or green, with the former passing through more BOC requirements being tagged as dubious, while the latter go through a simplified channel where physical examination cargoes are no longer required.

According to Villanueva, this system failed as “green importers” were still forced to route their shipments through Customs personnel before release.

The CISS, on the other hand, entails an import supervisor examining

the cargo from the country of origin and submitting reports on value, tariff classification and quantity. The said system was used for 13 years until 2000, when it was deemed too costly to sustain.

A modified SS and CISS is seen to be more effective if reimposed Villanueva said.

Under the new SS, shipments of green importers would no longer be subjected to Customs processing before delivery of the cargoes to the consignee’s warehouse, he said, adding that this would also contribute to decongesting the ports.

The SS would also put checks and balances in place by having random inspections while cargoes are being delivered. To “reward” importers for keeping a clean track record, red importers may be reclassified as green.

“Without facilitation money, more honest and big importers would

be encouraged to apply for accreditation under the green category. As a result, more importers would be applying under this category,” the former Customs commissioner said.

Under the CISS as modified, now known as Import Supervision Scheme (ISS), only importations of red importers would be subject to the ISS. The smaller import coverage would justify its revival because it would no longer be costly.

Villanueva also said that a Risk Management Unit (RMU) should be created. The body would be composed of at least five individuals with reputation of honesty and integrity directly under the supervision of the commissioner of Customs.

The RMU should ensure the proper identification of the green, as well as the red, importers and would oversee the implementation of the joint ISS-SS reform program.

Franchise Asia PHL 2015 Sen. Cynthia Villar (center) in a photo opportunity at the

opening of this year’s two-day Franchise Asia Philippines 2015 International Franchise Conference held at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. Villar and Trade Undersecretary Ponciano C. Manalo (eighth from right) were both presented the plaque of appreciation by Philippine Franchise Association (PFA) stalwarts led by PFA Chairman Emeritus and universally acknowledged “Father of Philippine Franchising” Samie Lim (sixth from left); PFA Vice Chairman Ma. Alegria “Bing” Sibal-Limjoco (sixth from right); PFA Chairman Elizabeth “Yvette” Pardo- Orbeta (eighth from left); PFA President Franklin Go (seventh from left); Franchise Asia Philippines 2015 International Franchise Expo Chairman Jose “Joemag” P. Magsaysay Jr. (fifth from left); Franchise Asia Philippines 2015 Overall Chairman Robert F. Trota (seventh from right); Franchise Asia Philippines 2015 International Franchise Conference Chairman Dr. Alan L. Escalona (fifth from right); (from left) PFA Director Richard V. Sanz; Regional Director Glenn Yu; Corporate Secretary lawyer Ferdinand Negre; Regional Director Siu Ping Par; Marketing and Promotions Committee Chairman Malou Santos; Directors Rebecca Bucad and lawyer Leo Dominguez; and Conference Committee Chairman Vicente Gregorio. Franchise Asia Philippines 2015, the biggest four-in-one franchise show in Asia which runs from June 10 to 14, is organized by PFA and supported by the World Franchise Council, the Philippine Retailers Association and the Asia Pacific Franchise Confederation. PNA

DOE sets prebid terms Lawmaker seeks deeper probe into for Mindanao Coal publication of DepEd’s ‘sick books’ plant power output

By Jovee Marie de la Cruz

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By Lenie Lectura

nergy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla said interested bidders vying for the selection and appointment of the independent power producer administrators (Ippas) for the bulk energy of the Mindanao Coal-Fired Thermal Power Plant (Mindanao Coal) would be informed about the imposition of a lock-in period ahead of the actual bidding set in September this year.

“In the prebidding, bidders were not yet informed. But PSALM [Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.] can do another prebid if it has to inform everybody because the lock-in period will be included in the terms of reference,” Petilla said.

It can be recalled that the Department of Energy (DOE) and the PSALM have agreed not to hold off the bidding for the output of the Mindanao Coal plant. Instead, a lock-in period of two to three years would be imposed so as not to trigger any spike in power rates.

“In our discussion with the PSALM OIC, I asked for a suspension of the privatization. A counteroffer was made. The privatization will push through as scheduled but there will be lock-in period of two to three years,” Petilla said.

The power plant supplies about a fifth of Mindanao’s power requirements. Petilla earlier raised concern that an early auction could result in power-rate hikes. He explained that electric cooperatives would be forced to source power from the winning bidder, which, in turn, could dictate prices due to lack of competition.

Petilla had wanted to delay the privatization until such time that the new power plants of Aboitiz Power, Alsons and San Miguel Corp. are put up. More power plants would mean more choices for electric cooperatives and distribution utilities to source power from.

These new power plants are expected to come online by the first half of 2016. Petilla admitted though that an imposition of a lock-in period between the winning bidder and the off-taker would discourage potential bidders to join the auction.

During the lock-in period, the winning bidder would have no choice but to adopt the existing power rate sold by current plant operator Steag State Power Inc. of Germany.

“In this way, electricity rates will not go up because the rates that will be used are the rates currently imposed based on the contract with Steag. Yes, it is possible that no one will be interested anymore, and if that happens, then the asset won’t be privatized. However, consumers will be spared from high electricity rates,” Petilla explained.

Located in Misamis Oriental, the Mindanao Coal plant was constructed in 2006 under a 25-year build-operate-transfer-power purchase agreement scheme with the government. The cooperation period with Steag officially ends in 2031.

The power facility is made up of two units with a generating capacity of 105 megawatts each.

PSALM has scheduled the bidding for the Mindanao Coal Ippa appointment on September 23.

“We will still present the additional terms to our board. Then we will inform all bidders through supplemental bid bulletin,” PSALM OIC and Vice President for Finance Lourdes S. Alzona said.

There are 12 prospective bidders for the Mindanao Coal, namely, Conal Holdings Corp.; FDC Davao del Norte Power Corp.; FirstGen Northern Power Corp.; GDF Suez Energy Philippines Inc.; Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd.; Meralco Powergen Corp.; Nexif Pte. Ltd.; SMC Global Power Holdings Corp.; SPC Power Corp.; Team (Philippines) Energy Corp.; Therma Southern Mindanao Inc.; and Vivant Energy Corp.

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lawmaker on Friday urged the House of Representatives to investigate the cases of “sick books” published by the Department of Education (DepEd) after a self-styled crusader revealed that one textbook for 10th graders contains 1,300 errors.

Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian of Valenzuela said that people who are responsible for the DepEd’s “sick books” should face sanctions, saying errors are a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Gatchalian, a majority member of the House committees on basic education and culture and on higher and technical education, said that allowing textbooks with errors to be used by teachers and students amounts to mismanagement of taxpayers’ money.

The Grade 10 English textbook in question is titled Diversity:

Celebrating Multiculturism (sic) through World Literature, which Antonio Calipjo Go, academic supervisor at Marian School of Quezon City, said is “shadowed by a penumbra of infirmities, inconsistencies, deficiencies, defects and instances of plain stupidity.”

Education Secretary Bro. Armin A. Luistro, FSC, for his part, claimed that the 508-page book, obtained by Go from two public-school teachers who attended the DepEd’s May 15 National Training on Trainers, is only the first draft.

The DepEd also earlier admitted that there was an “editorial lapse” in the Grade 10 textbook Filipino: Panitikang Pandaigdig. Photos of two pages from the said book spread like wildfire on social media because it incorrectly stated that Harry Potter is a novel from the United States and that the “Epic of Gilgamesh” is from Egypt.

University of the Philippines Prof.

Maria Serena Diokno has previously slammed the DepEd’s flawed system of evaluating public-school textbooks, which allows books to get a perfect grade even if it has three major errors, showed a media report.

Omissions are not even considered in the system that uses a scale of one to six with six as the highest score.

Moreover, Gatchalian said that the erroneous books are detrimental to the intellectual growth of students. “The DepEd should conduct a comprehensive review of all their textbooks and learning materials.

Having errors in books is tantamount to wasting scarce public funds on useless and humiliating learning materials. We need a law penalizing those responsible for the errors in school books, including government officials,” Gatchalian said.

Gatchalian also urged the DepEd to revisit their evaluation system and to shape it up as errors still appear in public textbooks.

Nevada court blocks Marinduque’s Barrick Gold suit

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AS VEGAS—A Philippine island province that experienced mining waste disasters in the 1990s lost a final appeal on Thursday to have a Nevada state court hear its claim for damages against Barrick Gold Corp.

“This case lacks any bona fide connection to this state,” the Nevada Supreme Court said.

A lawyer for the Province of Marinduque said losing the decision on a jurisdictional question only means that he can move to the next step and argue the merits of the case in another venue.

“We think it belongs here and that Barrick is every bit the Nevada corporation that most people believe them to be,” attorney James McCarthy said. “But whether it’s the Philippines or Canada, we’re now on the merits.”

McCarthy, in Dallas, noted the procedural question took nearly 10 years to decide. He said he didn’t immediately know which venue he would seek. He

has already taken the case to US federal district and appeals courts, which routed the jurisdiction question back to Nevada. The case was originally filed in Nevada in October 2005.

McCarthy also noted that the Nevada court imposed conditions of dismissal, including the waiver of a time limit on the claim to ensure that another forum could be found to hear the case.

A Barrick spokesman and Steve Morris, the lawyer who argued the Supreme Court appeal for the company, didn’t immediately respond to messages.

Morris’s wife, Nevada Supreme Court Justice Kristina Pickering, was not involved in the appeal.

The unanimous decision by the six Nevada justices who heard oral arguments in January upheld a Clark County district judge’s finding in the case, which originally was filed against Placer Dome Inc., a company Barrick acquired in 2006.

Judge Valerie Adair in Las Vegas

decided in 2010 that because Barrick is based in Canada, the case would be better handled in Toronto or in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Placer Dome ceased operations in Marinduque in 1997 after more than 30 years as a minority partner with a Philippine government company, Marcopper Mining Co., and a year after a mine waste pool dam failed. The lawsuit alleges that a river leading to Marinduque’s capital city, Boac, was polluted and millions of tons of waste laden with dangerous arsenic, cadmium, lead, manganese, nickel and sulfate smothered forests, river basins and coral reefs.

Barrick, which bills itself as the world’s largest gold producer, operates on five continents. It owns five mines in Nevada and has a stake in a sixth. Its Nevada operations produce more than 2 million ounces of gold per year.

Gold was selling at $1,181.50 per ounce on Thursday. AP

briefs

MERALCO SEEKS ERC NOD FOR LOWER POWER RATES

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has asked the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to allow the firm to lower its distribution and metering charges at an average of 10.4 percent. ”Meralco asked the ERC for authority to implement an interim rate that is on average, across all customer classes, a 10.4-percent reduction from its current distribution, supply and metering charges,” the company said in a news statement issued on Thursday.

According to the petition, the 10.4-percent reduction amounts to P1.39 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from the current P1.55 per kWh, which expires this month. This will bring reduction in customer billings of P52 for those with 200-kWh consumption, P89 for 300 kWh, P134 for 400 kWh and P201 for 500 kWh. Meralco explained the decrease was due to the removed second regulatory period (RP) under recovery component, which contributed to the current third RP prices. Meralco distributes power to most of the Luzon island. PNA

HOUSE APPROVES FREE PUBLIC WI-FI ACT The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading the proposed free public wireless Internet access in public buildings, terminals, parks and plazas nationwide.

“The proposed Free Public Wi-Fi Act seeks to address the country’s problem of interconnectivity by providing free public access points in major public places,” the authors stressed.

House Bill (HB) 5791 is entitled “An Act Providing Free Public Wireless Internet Access in Public Buildings, Terminals, Parks and Plazas Throughout the Country.” The original HB 1550 was principally authored by Kabataan Partylist Rep. Terry L. Ridon. The substitute bill was defended in plenary by the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology chaired

by Rep. Joel Roy R. Duavit of the First District of Rizal and Ridon himself.

Co-authors of the substitute measure include: Reps. Xavier Jesus D. Romualdo, Mariano Michael M. Velarde Jr., Francis Gerald Aguinaldo Abaya, Monique Yazmin Q. Lagdameo, Antonio L. Tinio and Jonathan A. dela Cruz.

HB 5791 mandates the installation of broadband hot spots in the following areas: all national government offices; buildings of state universities and colleges; public parks and plazas; public hospitals; and public transportation terminals. PNA

TREATMENT OF FILIPINOS WITH END-STAGE RENAL DISEASE PUSHED A lawmaker has filed a resolution directing the Department of Health (DOH) to adopt a measure that would treat Filipinos with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Rep. Rene L. Relampagos of the First District of Bohol and author of House Resolution 2115 said, under the proposed Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) First Policy for Filipinos with ESRD, patients are given affordable, accessible, available and adequate treatment of their disease.

“This will benefit especially those who cannot afford Hemodialysis given its high cost and those who live in the far-flung communities who cannot go on a regular basis to medical facilities,” Relampagos said.

“Not every patient is qualified to undergo PD. There are certain restrictions and criteria that must be met in order for a patient to qualify for the program. A patient still needs to undergo a thorough medical analysis to find out if PD is suitable for them,” Relampagos said.

Relampagos added that it is imperative that patients suffering from ESRD be informed of the available and suitable treatment/s and be afforded the necessary information to make an informed choice.

Relampagos said the cost of medical treatment for kidney disease is usually exorbitant and beyond the reach of ordinary patients, while renal transplant is limited due to the expense and the shortage of donors.

“Unfortunately, treating kidney failure is a burden borne not only by the patient, but by the entire family,” Relampagos said. PNA

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DOTC, LTO move to replace vehicle registration plates illegal, Recto says

By Recto Mercene

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enate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto on Friday called for an immediate halt on the ongoing replacement of all motor-vehicle license plates, amid doubts on the soundness of such a policy, while more complaints are being aired by the motoring public.

Recto said the Land Transportation Office (LTO) should stop its ill-adviced policy of directing all vehicle owners to replace their existing plates for no other reason than to collect more money from them.

“Dapat itigil ang policy na iyan. Wala namang problema ang mga plaka, bakit nila pinipilit na palitan? Anong pakinabang n’on kundi pahirapan lang at pagastusin ang publiko,” the senator said.

Recto said the questionable policy must be stopped immediately and that those who have already paid for the new set of plates be reimbursed until such time that the LTO can show the Senate and the motoring public that something good can come out of it, “like making our vehicles less vulnerable to carjacking once these plates are installed.”

At the last hearing of the Blue Ribbon Committee led by subcommittee Chairman Sen. JV Ejercito, Recto questioned the officials of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the LTO on how they intend to bid out P3.8 billion to procure motor-vehicle plates when the DOTC was only given a P180-million budget for that purpose.

“To begin with, they had no authority to bid out that P3.8-billion project.

What they did is illegal because there was no funding for that project in the 2013 budget,” Recto stressed.

“Normally, you can only bid out a project when there’s Saro [Special Allotment Release Order]. In this case, there was no Saro. Kaya nakapagtatakang nai-bid out nila itong napakalaking proyekto,” Recto said in explaining the budget process.

Recto said the DOTC and the LTO should, instead, concentrate their efforts on easing the daily traffic jam that is plaguing the metropolis and in making sure that our mass transport, like the Metro Railway Transit 3 and Light Railway Transit 1 and 2 are working fine.

“Asikasuhin nila ang nakakabwisit na traffic at ang problema sa MRT 3 at LRT 1 and 2, at hindi iyung pagpapalit ng plaka ng sasakyan na wala namang problema,” Recto said.

In the next Senate hearings, Recto said he will ask the DOTC and the LTO to think of ways on how to bring down the cost and shorten the process of vehicle registration.

Earlier, Recto had said he sees no problem if the government will allow motor vehicles to keep their old license plates and limit the installation of new plates to brand-new vehicles up for registration.

He said there is no logic to the plan of the DOTC to replace all existing plates with a new design.

“No matter how I look at it, walang pakinabang dito kundi dagdag na gastos lang sa taongbayan. At ang kikitain ay mapupunta lahat sa manufacturing company ng plaka na kwestyunable pa ang bidding,” Recto said.

Saturday, June 13, 2015 A5

Sereno eyes creation of a committee to review SALN of justices, judges

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By Joel R . San Juan

HIEF Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno disclosed on Friday that the High Court is contemplating to adopt more measures that would further promote transparency in the Judiciary.

Speaking with reporters at the sidelines of the Independence Day celebration at the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan City, Sereno said she is mulling over the creation of a

committee that would review Statements of Asset, Networth and Liabilities (SALN) of judges and justices.

The chief magistrate made the announcement after the Court had

voluntarily released to the public the summary of the SALNs of the 15 members of the High Tribunal on Thursday.

“We agreed we would show the people our net worth, our assets and liabilities, so that they can already see whether, at the start, we can already be trusted,” she said.

It was the first time that the summary of SALNs of Supreme Court (SC) justices was uploaded to its web site and simultaneously released to the media.

Sereno said the decision of the High Court to voluntarily release the SALNs of its justices for the first time without the need for formal request was a move “to demonstrate to our people especially in the Judiciary

that we [in the SC] can be trusted.”

“The summary [of SALNs] alone is not the end of our desire to be transparent. We have been looking at the processes in Court that we can open more to our people. We shall be unrolling more of these in the days to come,” she said.

“I am already looking at setting up a committee to review the SALNs of members of the judiciary,” she revealed. Sereno added that the High Court has already been transparent in its budget, expenses and financial figures, which are posted on its web site.

Meanwhile, Sereno lamented the apparent neglect of the Constitution in the political branches of the government, which she considered as a

challenge to the Judiciary.

“You know our deep concern is that, sometimes, our Constitution is not being considered very seriously in the discussions that are going on in other branches of the government and, maybe, even by some sectors,” she lamented.

“So our duty is to ensure that everything that comes out is always in accordance with the Constitution....

The challenge for the SC is always to look at the Constitution intently,” Sereno pointed out.

While Sereno did not make reference to any issue, her statement came on the heels of debates on the proposed amendments of the economic provisions in the Constitution and the Bangsamoro basic law.

OMF installs solar power system in E. Samar school

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Free haircut at the Luneta

A hairstylist gives a free haircut to job seekers to promote Technical Education and Skills Development Authority’s short courses during the Araw ng Kalayaan job fair at the Rizal Park in Manila on Friday. ALYSA SALEN

Aquino hints at enlisting people power to pass BBL

By Butch Fernandez

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resident Aquino hints at enlisting people power as he conceded on Thursday that, despite a vigorous Palace lobby for the early enactment of the Bangsamoro basic law (by BBL) in a Congress known to be dominated by his administration’s allies, he could not guarantee passage of the controversy-laden BBL before he vows out of office in June 2016.

“Well, all I can do is try and convince the leaders of both chambers and their members of the importance of this particular bill and that it turns into a law,” Mr. Aquino had told reporters earlier in Iloilo, where the President led Friday’s Independence Day rites.

President Aquino noted that, based on talks he had about the BBL with senators and congressmen belonging to the majority and

minority blocs in the two chambers of Congress, the lawmakers conveyed their awareness of the need to quickly pass the measure.

“Sa dami naman ng nakakausap ko cognizant sila na talagang kailangan natin ito [BBL] at kailangang maipatupad as soon as possible,” he said.

Mr. Aquino pointed out that the Palace recognizes the strong efforts made by Congress leaders to facilitate passage of the BBL, to no avail, noting that the marathon meetings he and other Executive officials had with senators and cogressmen even during holidays and weekends.

He added: “So, ang punto, ’yung detalye [ng BBL] talagang sinusubukang himayin nang husto at kinikilala natin ’yung talaga matinding efforts naman ng both chambers. Nakailang meetings na tayo na ’ke holiday, ’ke weekend, na ’yung isa nga naging marathon session mula 12 ng tanghali hanggang 2:30 ng umaga, tapos nagkaroon na naman tayo kamakailan, e. Was it Saturday

or Sunday? Sunday, another meeting to discuss this and what we were supposed to do?”

Mr. Aquino admitted they are now “slightly” behind the timetable they had set earlier with Congress leaders to pass the BBL before going on a four-week recess on June 11 and hinted he may enlist people power to help pressure Congress into finally passing the BBL. “So ’yung more or less, I think, we’re slightly behind schedule, but, sa dulo po nito, lahat naman ng poder nanggagaling sa taumbayan.

Kapag ’yung taumbayan na ang nagsabi na mismo, puwede ba madaliin niyo ang pagpapasa ng batas na ’yan. Iyon siguro ang pinakagarantiya, lalo na napipinto ang eleksyon na lahat makikinig sa mga boss,” he said.

“Sana ’yung mga boss natin ay lalong magpadinig ng kanilang boses na gusto nilang magkaroon nitong BBL sa lalong madaling panahon,” Mr. Aquino said.

RAS, Eastern Samar—One Meralco Foundation (OMF), the corporate social responsibility arm of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), has installed solar panels in a public school here through its school-based electrification program.

Launched in 2012, the program has been helping schools in remote communities with no access to electricity like the Sta. Monica Integrated School (SMIS) in this town.

OMF installed a 1-kilowatt solar system to supply power to all classrooms and audio-visual room of the school. Along with installation of solar panels, OMF also donated computers and projectors.

Zaldy Porteza, school principal, thanked the foundation as the use of modern instructional materials is a way of letting students experience technology-advanced education.

“This is a big help to the school in terms of security or safety of the students, as well as school equipment. Computers will aid students in their research works,” Porteza said.

Other beneficiaries of similar projects in the province are Hilabaan National High School in Dolores town and Homonhon National High School in Guiuan town.

Rainier Manguiat, in-charge of OMF’s school-electrification program, said that aside from providing access to electricity to far-flung schools, the initiative also aims to elevate students’ learning in the field of technology.

“Without electricity, students will not be able to use computers. We would want them to be knowledgeable about technology so that they will be able to cope with this modern age,” Manguiat said.

OMF allocates P660,000 per school to carry out its electrification program that targets 50 schools nationwide this year.

Every year, the number of school beneficiaries expands.

The foundation has assisted six schools in 2012, 24 schools in 2013 and 40 schools last year. In implementing the program, OMF partners with the Department of Education, which provides them list of schools that need such kind of assistance.

Initially, OMF has identified schools in Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Cebu and Bohol for this program.

OMF’s private contractor for this project is the Sulo Renewable Energy Solutions (SRES). “This is our own way of helping alleviate poverty,” Oliver Dan Deluna of SRES said.

Through this effort, students will see and appreciate the power of technology and how it is a good tool for learning, Deluna said. PNA

Drilon: Ratification of antitrust law to boost PHL preparations for AEC

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he Philippines inches closer to full Asean market integration once Congress ratifies the Philippine Competition Act, Senate President Franklin M. Drilon said on Friday.

Drilon said the approval of this landmark measure by Congress before it adjourned its second regular session “will greatly boost the nation’s preparations as Southeast Asian markets unite under the Asean Economic Community [AEC] by the year’s end.” “With the Philippine Competition Act being one step away from being enacted, we are much closer to ensuring that our country is at par with our Asean neighbors in terms of preventing unfair trade behavior within our shores,” he said.

Drilon noted that the Philippines remains as the only original membernation of the Asean without a com-

prehensive antitrust law. He added that a competition law is a commitment under the AEC blueprint.

He stressed that the long-standing absence of a competition law “has discouraged and stymied the flow of investments to the country, thus inhibiting our long-term economic development.” Drilon lauded Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship Chairman Sen. Bam Aquino and the bicameral panel from both Houses of Congress for all their hard work in crafting a landmark national competition policy.

“After nearly three decades of attempts by Congress to pass this law, finally, we will have a competition law in place, which will protect businesses and consumers,” he stressed.

Drilon explained that, under the act, a Philippine Competition Commission will be established

to enforce a national competition policy prohibiting anticompetitive agreements, abuse of dominant position, and anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions.

According to Drilon, the act will penalize entities guilty of engaging in unfair business practices, with fines reaching up to P250 million, and the amounts adjusted for inflation every five years. Offenders of the Act may also face up to seven years in prison.

The Senate leader said passing the Philippine Competition act will reinforce and complement many of the economic reforms the government has been pursuing. “The Philippine Competition Act is just one of the many pro-economy reforms and policies, which are being pushed to make the country more competitive and more compliant to international standards, thus maximizing our true

economic potential,” Drilon said.

He added that the Senate has already passed economic reform measures, like the amendments to the cabotage law and the Tax Incentives Transparency and Management Act, while other proposed measures, like the Rationalization of Fiscal Incentives, and the Customs and Tariff Modernization Act, are in the works as part of its priority legislative agenda.

‘Healthy rivalry’

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the country’s largest business organization, welcomed the bicameral ratification of the Fair Trade Act (FTA), saying firms would improve their productivity with the passage of the law.

“This law will push businesses to engage in a healthy rivalry so that

they will gain more consumers. It gives us the incentive to be more efficient, and to offer the public betterquality products and services,” PCCI President Alfredo M. Yao said in a news statement released on Friday.

The bill, a priority measure of the administration, was ratified by Congress on Wednesday, and is now awaiting the signature of President Aquino. It creates an independent Philippine Competition Commission to be composed of one Cabinet secretary-level chairman and four commissioners serving for seven years without reappointment.

The FTA provides penalties for prohibited anticompetitive agreements, mergers or acquisitions that substantially restrict competition and abuse of dominant position.

Under the new law, administrative fines of up to P250 million may

be imposed, with the amounts subject to adjustment every five years.

Criminal penalties are punishable by imprisonment of up to seven years. “We have long held that anticompetitive behavior is injurious to a strong economy because an uneven playing field contributes to inefficiency and the misallocation of resources,” Yao said.

“When it becomes law, the FTA allows even small firms entry into the market with the expectation that rules will be applied equally to all,” he said.

“When businesses engage in unfair practices just because they can, because they do not have anyone competing with them for consumers, it is really the consumer who suffers through high prices and limited choices,” Yao added.

Recto Mercene with Catherine N. Pillas

A6 Saturday, June 13, 2015

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Taking away your privacy and your money

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HE US Constitution contains some of the most important legal concepts that overturned and abolished the “divine rights” of monarchies. It is difficult for people in the 21st century, who have never lived under an absolute dictatorship, to understand how precious these rights are to preserve the freedom of the individual.

The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause.”

This was in direct response to the Britain monarchy granting “writs of assistance” that allowed government officials to search and seize smuggled goods. These were open-ended without expiration and did not require any probable cause. But, of course, these writs were abused by the government to search and seize any property as they chose.

The Fourth Amendment guaranteed the right that an unbiased court, operating only on the principals of law, especially probable cause, could issue an order to allow the search of a person’s private property.

Republic Act (RA) 1405, “An Act Prohibiting Disclosure Of Or Inquiry Into, Deposits With Any Banking Institution And Providing Penalty Therefore,” secures the right to privacy of bank-account details, except in very limited cases, particularly related to the corruption of government officials.

RA 1405 has been expanded under subsequent legislation to include court-ordered examination in such cases of probable cause of money laundering and terrorism-related offenses, for example.

The Supreme Court has extended these laws by interpretation to potential “dummy” accounts.

But all these Philippine laws to protect both the rights of the individual and the rights of the state are not enough for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD is encouraging the Philippines to revise the laws to allow less secrecy and give the ability for the government to search records almost at will. In other words, the OECD wants to be able to conduct “fishing expeditions” across borders without probable cause or legal remedies to those they target.

The statement “You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide” is one of the most intellectually dishonest ideas possible. But, if that is the rational for the elimination of bank secrecy laws, then it would be easier just to require banks to publish names and account balances of their depositors openly on their web sites, which are updated daily.

We should start with the OECD Center for Tax Policy and Administration Head of Global Relations Richard Parry, whom, we are sure, has “nothing to hide.”

RA 1405 states, in part, that its purpose is “to give encouragement to the people to deposit their money in banking institutions and to discourage private hoarding.”

The OECD is introducing a new global standard for the automatic exchange of information between and among tax authorities. Note the word “automatic.”

If the Philippine government agrees to this, your privacy rights and right to due process of law regarding your money will be “automatically” gone. We may soon see a boom in the householdsafe business.

PSE: Are you prepared?

John Mangun

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OUTSIDE THE BOX

RYING to figure out the stock market is like trying to understand someone else’s marriage.

Yesterday you saw that the husband had his arm around his wife’s waist as they rode the escalator at the shopping mall.

Last week you thought sure you heard the slamming of a door and some loud words. But, then again, a few months ago, there was a new car in the driveway when they invited some friends over to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

It is all a matter of perspective and timing.

On Thursday I said, “What if, this time, unlike in 2013, we have reached a long-term top on the PSE and prices are going to fall in a long term, perhaps, in a multiyear bear market?” Naturally, some jumped on that sentence as an indication that I have gone “bearish” and rightly pointed out that, only a few months ago, I was talking about the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) moving to 10,000.

We all love trying to predict the future. In fact, this habit is probably what really separates us from the beasts of the land. My shih tzu, Vinnie, never seems to try to predict whether I am walking to the kitchen to get a coffee or to get him a doggie treat. He is ready for both outcomes, following me around as

a bantay if it’s for coffee and happily chewing his biscuit if my trip was for him.

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith, the most abused and misunderstood man in the business, once said, “Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.”

That applies most perfectly to stockmarket gurus and experts.

I have been in the stock-market business for 39 very long years and made my first stock purchase in 1963. Being voted “Most likely to stay out of jail for stock manipulation and maybe make a few bucks” in my stock brokers’ class, I always thought that predicting price behavior was what the business was all about. But, then, I had a client who traded both actively short

term and held for the longer term one single issue: Teledyne Technologies (TDY).

My client never wanted my brilliant predictions for TDY, although the price went from $40 to $8.00 to $175, while we did business together.

And this was during a bear market when the Dow Jones Industrial Average went from 1,000 to 750. He took advantage of every price movement going long and short and using options. He had great respect for the company and founder Henry Singleton and wanted TDY to succeed, but all that mattered to him was to profit from short-, medium- and longterm price movements, whichever way it went.

Perhaps, the greatest stock-market icon is Jesse Lauriston Livermore.

He correctly predicted the crash of 1907 and of 1929 based on seeing a lack of liquidity and increased volatility that, he said, would eventfully take prices lower. Shorting the stock market in 1929, he made the equivalent of $1.4 billion.

In 1940 he committed suicide at 63, broke, except for $5 million in trust funds he set up for his sons.

While his trading ideas hold much merit, the truth is that Livermore was particularly great at making money when markets went down, but not so much when markets went up.

Irving Fisher was the economist who said three days before the 1929 crash: “Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau” and continued with that

MERS infects Korea’s economy William Pesek

BLOOMBERG VIEW

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OUTH Korea’s Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak is a public-health crisis that has grown to become a political and economic problem. On Wednesday President Park Geun-hye announced she was canceling a weekend visit to the US to deal with the crisis. One day later Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Ju-yeol cut interest rates to a record low, citing the spread of MERS as a threat to growth.

Some critics suggest Seoul is overreacting to an illness that, scary as it is, has killed only nine South Koreans.

In truth, Lee and Park are still showing too much caution. After all, MERS isn’t the only acute threat to South Korea’s economic health.

Korea needs to account for the fact that China, Asia’s biggest economy, is stagnant. In May alone, Chinese imports plunged 18.1 percent—a third straight monthly decline (exports fell 2.8 percent). Producer prices fell 4.6 percent, extending declines of more than three years and pushing consumer prices toward deflation. What’s

more, Beijing’s aggressive stimulus efforts are reaping smaller returns. All this is taking a toll on Korean exports, which fell 10.9 percent last month, the fifth straight monthly decline.

Asia’s second-biggest economy is compounding Korea’s pain. Japan’s 30percent currency devaluation over the past two years has sent deflationary forces the Korean way, which won’t be offset by Thursday’s cut in the sevenday repurchase rate to 1.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the MERS drama has delivered a blow to Korea’s economic confidence, as consumers stay home to avoid any possibility of infection.

“Korea is hunkering down and uncertain,” says James Rooney of Seoulbased consulting firm Market Force.

“We need to restore confidence and get back to normal living.”

So far, Seoul’s response to the outbreak hasn’t helped. In addition to Park’s cancelation of her much-anticipated US trip, the Korean government has closed more than 2,000 schools.

The government’s response to the MERS outbreak seems to be filtered through the lens of the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic that, 12 years ago, had devastated Asia’s travel and retail industries for many months.

Park’s critics contend that she is unnecessarily indulging the public’s fears about this latest illness, at the expense of the nation’s psychological and economic well-being; they fear that Korean consumers, taking cues from the president, may needlessly cancel their own travel and shopping plans. On June 10 the World Health Organization urged Seoul to reverse its school closures. (To be fair, Park is not the only Asian official, who seems to have the Severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic in mind: On Wednesday a woman in Hong Kong was isolated in a hospital simply because she

belief for months, assuring everyone that a stock-market recovery was just around the corner. He died at age 80, just about as broke as Livermore.

I am hearing many market analysts giving reasons for the PSEi to move to 9,000, while also saying that the current down move was “unexpected.” That means they predicted the market would go higher and are now ignoring Galbraith’s admonition to maybe change one’s mind, rather than try to “prove” the prediction was right.

My trading plan that I share with subscribers is simple: Buy when prices are going up, and sell when going down. I don’t always follow that, either, because I, too, get caught up with wanting to be “right” rather than “rich.”

The key, though, is what I wrote on Thursday: “Where is the PSE going? It does not really matter, as long as you are properly and thoroughly prepared.”

Are you ready if the PSE is headed to 6,000? Are you ready if it is going to 9,000? If not, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office Grand Lotto 6/55 prize is over P200 million. And all you have to do is predict six simple two-digit numbers.

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.

had recently visited Korea. The news sent Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index to its lowest close in two months.)

Part of the tragedy is that the Korean economy was just starting to shake off the effects of last year’s Sewol ferry tragedy, which resulted in the deaths of 304 people, most of them school kids. It’s hard to exaggerate the damage that disaster did to the nation’s collective psyche—and to Park’s political fortunes. The fallout dented the president’s popularity and paralyzed her agenda.

Hence Park’s decision now to scrap her US trip and Lee’s urgency with rates. “The BOK is trying to be more preemptive in taking action this time than it was after the Sewol ferry accident,” economist Chang Jae Chul of Citigroup told Bloomberg News.

But this doesn’t amount to a sustainable economic strategy. Eventually, the MERS cases will dwindle and the public’s facemasks will come off. And, at that point, Korea will still be uncomfortably wedged between a slowing China and Japan’s beggar-thy-neighbor recovery plan.

Having proven their mettle as crisis managers, Park and Lee need to prove they can tend to their country’s more chronic ailments.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

The South China Sea (West Philippine Sea)

Peacebuilding through education Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

Cecilio T. Arillo

database

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spent a lot of time over the week reading an interesting book— The South China Sea (The Struggle for Power)—breathtakingly and comprehensively written by Bill Hayton on the complexity of the subject itself “from virtually every angle.”

Published last year by the Yale University Press, Hayton’s book (in 298 pages) “does a fantastic job of covering all major dimensions of the dispute—historical, legal, resources, geostrategic, military— in a cogent, concise and compelling manner.”

Hayton “makes understandable the complex history and contemporary reality of the South China Sea through lively stories of individuals who have shaped current conflicts—businessmen, scientists, shippers, archaeologists, soldiers, diplomats and more.”

For instance, Hayton revealed that: “In July 2004, when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA to her friends and enemies) withdrew the small Filipino military contingent from Iraq, relations with Washington turned distinctly frosty. She responded by seeking ‘comprehensive engagement’ with China and the channel was then Speaker of the House of Representatives Jose de Venecia. He had already arranged for the Chinese Communist Party to host the third congress of the Inrernational Conference of Asian Political Parties in Beijing in September 2004 and during August, GMA was suddenly invited to give one of the keynote addresses. On 18 August, GMA reshuffled her Cabinet and moved Eduardo Mañalac from his job as Undersecretary of Energy to President of PNOC [Philippine National Oil Co.]. Five days later, de Venecia told reporters that GMA would lobby for joint exploration with China during her visit to Beijing.”

“We should not allow regional differences to prevent us from developing,’ he said, after delivering a speech on the impact of high oil prices on the Philippine economy.

A week later, on 1 September, Mañalac, now no longer a member of the government, signed what was called the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking with his old friend, the President of the China National Offshore Oil Co., Fu Chengyu.’”

According to the book: “The Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking, or JMSU, was the brainchild of a small group around GMA. Professor Aileen Baviera, one of the Philippines’s bestinformed regional analysts, says the Department of Foreign Affairs and the National Security Council were ‘largely excluded’ throughout the negotiation process.”

The book carries more stark details on the Philippines than any other books on the same subject I have previously reviewed for Database.

A longtime BBC reporter who covered the Asia-Pacific region extensively, Hayton “underscores its crucial importance as the passageway for half the world’s merchant shipping and one-third of its oil and gas.”

“Whoever controls these waters controls the access between Europe, the Middle East, South Asia and the Pacific, he tells his readers.”

He “critiques various claims and positions (that China has historic claim to the sea, for example), overturns conventional wisdoms (such as America’s overblown fears of China’s nationalism and military resurgence), and outlines what the future may hold for this clamorous region of international rivalry.

“As any good journalist would (and most academics don’t), he adds color to the narrative by highlighting the role of key personalities, from

“Hayton has spent much of his professional life working for the BBC, and so his storytelling is well developed. Unlike many of the academicians who have written previously on the South China Sea, Hayton presents a wholly accessible account that weaves well-thought-out arguments with vivid descriptions. He understands the importance of engaging his audience; points are explained clearly and his examples, which are as recent as the disappearance of Flight MH370 in March 2014, bring each issue to life,” Sophie Ibbotson of the Geographical said.

Grotius to Bensurto, and everyone in between,” said Ian J. Storey, Contemporary South-East Asia editor in chief.

Also an author of a previous book on Vietnam, “he tells a good yarn, even when the topic is as dry as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [Unclos]. Indeed, he may be the first person ever to have written an exciting account of a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [Asean],” said The Economist, the popular British magazine.

James R. Holmes, coauthor of Red Star Over the Pacific: China’s Rise and the Challenge to US Maritime Strategy, said: “The South China Sea is of mounting geopolitical importance, yet remains obscure to most audiences outside Asia. Bill Hayton’s book will do much to remedy that—helping governments to fashion wise policy, and ordinary people to understand the region. It is an invigorating read.”

“Hayton has spent much of his professional life working for the BBC, and so his storytelling is well developed. Unlike many of the academicians who have written previously on the South China Sea, Hayton presents a wholly accessible account that weaves well-thought-out arguments with vivid descriptions.

He understands the importance of engaging his audience; points are explained clearly and his examples, which are as recent as the disappearance of Flight MH370 in March 2014, bring each issue to life,” Sophie Ibbotson of the Geographical said.

For his part, Gregory B. Poling, of The Wall Street Journal, said: “Mr. Hayton, a longtime BBC journalist, excels in distilling the complexity and absurdity of such South China Sea disputes—which include overlapping claims by Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam—into a manageable narrative. His book offers the best combination of accessibility and accuracy so far published on the disputes. This is a book for the layperson, not the lawyer.”

According to the book, “China’s rise has upset the global balance of power, and the first place to feel the strain is Beijing’s backyard: the South China Sea. For decades, tensions have smoldered in the region, but today the threat of a direct confrontation among superpowers grows ever more likely.”

Hayton “examines the high stakes involved for rival nations that include Vietnam, India, Taiwan, the Philippines and China, as well as the United States, Russia and others, laying out the daunting obstacles that stand in the way of peaceful resolution.”

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

Saturday, June 13, 2015

SERVANT LEADER

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AST Monday, the 8th of June 2015, Caritas Manila, with the help of Radio Veritas 846, held a telethon for the benefit of its Youth Servant Leadership and Education Program (YSLEP).

Through God’s goodness and with your generosity and support, we were able to receive more than P2 million to help support Caritas Manila’s scholarship program for the benefit of deserving college and vocational students nationwide.

This year’s Caritas sa Veritas Telethon focused on “Peacebuilding Through Education.” It aimed to raise public awareness on what we—as a church—can do in peacebuilding and poverty reduction.

Caritas Manila believes that education is the most effective developmental program for poverty reduction. Approximately 24 million Filipinos live below the poverty line.

Based on studies, poverty incidence drops to 10.7 percent and 2.4 percent for households whose most educated member is a college undergraduate and college graduate, respectively.

Only 0.1-percent poverty incidence occurs in the National Capital Region among households whose most educated member is a college graduate. On the other hand, the poverty incidence of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is highest, at 13.1 percent.

With this, Caritas Manila is expanding its education program in the poorest regions, focusing in Mindanao and Superty phoon Yolanda-hit areas.

The YSLEP is one of the Church’s responses to poverty reduction. It is the flagship program of Caritas Manila, which extends financial assistance to poor but deserving youth, and trains and hones the youth not only for academic excellence but also to become servant leaders and good members of the community.

Caritas Manila’s integrated formation program requires our scholars and their parents to go through the following modules: values formation; sacramental appreciation; health and nutrition; livelihood and skills training; 3R (reading, writing, arithmetic) tutorials; and national family planning and responsible parenting.

To date, Caritas Manila has produced over 10,000 graduates and continues to provide educational assistance, values-formation workshops and leadership trainings to almost 5,000 students nationwide, with an average of 300 college and technicalvocational graduates yearly.

In this Year of the Poor, we encourage everyone to support this program to help send more youth to school. It only takes P1,000 a

A7

month (P12,000 per year) to support one scholar and help him or her to finish college.

Caritas Manila is the Archdiocese of Manila’s lead social services and development ministry. Apart from YSLEP, Caritas Manila runs diverse projects that help the poor fulfill their human potential, such as the YSLEP, All is Well Health Program, Restorative Justice Ministry, Caritas Damayan, and social-entrepreneurship programs Caritas Margins and Segunda Mana.

For those who want to support the YSELP and the other programs of Caritas Manila, donations are accepted through our peso bank accounts, with account name Caritas Manila Inc.: n BPI Account Number 30635357-01 n BDO Account Number 560045905 n Cebuana Lhuillier and PayPal For comments, e-mail caritas_manila@yahoo.com. For donations to Caritas Manila, call 563-9311. For inquiries, call 563-9308 or 563-9298.

Fax: 563-9306.

Why are threats to civil society growing around the world?

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By Mandeep S.Tiwana | Inter Press Service

OHANNESBURG—Whistle-blowers like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are hounded—not by autocratic but by democratic governments—for revealing the truth about grave human-rights violations. Nobel Peace Prize winner, writer and political activist Liu Xiaobo is currently languishing in a Chinese prison, while the killing of Egyptian protester, poet and mother Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, apparently by a masked policeman, in January this year continues to haunt us.

Civicus, the global civil-society alliance, has documented serious abuses of civic freedoms in 96 countries in 2014 alone. The annual report of the international advocacy group, Human Rights Watch, laments that the once-heralded Arab Spring has given way almost everywhere to conflict and repression, while Amnesty International’s Annual Report 2014-2015 calls it a devastating year for those seeking to stand up for human rights.

In recent years, there has been a perceptible rise in restrictions on civic space—the fundamental freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly. While the reasons for the eruption of repressive laws and attacks on dissenters vary, negative effects are being felt in both democracies and authoritarian states.

It is increasingly evident that the dangers to civic freedoms come not just from state apparatuses but also from powerful nonstate actors, including influential business entities and extremist groups subscribing to fundamentalist ideologies. This begs a deeper analysis into the extent and causes of this pervasive problem.

In several countries, laws continue to be drawn up to restrict civic freedoms. They include anti-terror laws that limit freedom of speech; public-order laws that limit the right to protest peacefully; laws that stigmatize civil-society groups through derogatory names, such as “foreign agents”; laws that create bureaucratic hurdles to receive crucial funding from international philanthropic institutions, as well as laws that prevent progressive civil-society organizations from protecting the rights of marginalized minorities, such as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community.

In this situation, it is, indeed, possible to identify four key drivers of the pervasive assault on civic space.

The first is the global democratic deficit. Freedom House, which documents the state of democratic rights around the world, has reported declines in civil liberties and political freedoms for the ninth consecutive year in 2015.

In too many countries, peaceful activists exposing corruption and rights violations are being stigmatized as “national security threats,” and subjected to politically motivated trials, arbitrary detentions and worse. There appears to be no let-up

in official censorship and repression of active citizens in authoritarian states, like China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Vietnam.

Freedom of assembly is virtually nonexistent in such contexts, and activists are often forced to engage online. But when they do so, they are demonized as being agents of Western security agencies.

Ironically, excessive surveillance and/or hounding of whistle-blowers by countries, such as Australia, France, the United Kingdom and United States—whose foreign policies are supposed to promote democratic rights—are contributing to a global climate where close monitoring of anyone suspected of harboring dissenting views is becoming an accepted norm.

The second driver—and linked to the global democratic deficit—is the worldwide obsession with state security and countering of “terrorism” by all actors, except the state. The decline in civic space began after the attack on the World Trade Center in September 2001, when several established democracies introduced a slew of counterterror measures weakening human-rights safeguards in the name of protecting national security.

The situation worsened after the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, as authoritarian leaders witnessed the fall of long-standing dictators in Egypt and Tunisia following widespread citizen protests. The possibility of people’s power being able to overturn entrenched political systems has made authoritarian regimes extremely fearful of the free exercise of civic freedoms by citizens.

This has led to a severe push back against civil society by a number of repressive regimes in the Middle East and North Africa. Governments in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have stepped up their efforts to prevent public demonstrations and the activities of humanrights groups.

Similar reverberations have also been felt in sub-Saharan African countries with long-standing authoritarian leaders and totalitarian political parties. Thus, repression of civic freedoms appears to have intensified in countries such as Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, Gambia, Rwanda, Sudan, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

Activists and civil-society groups in many countries in Central Asia

Current threats to civic space and civil-society activities are a symptom of the highly charged and polarized state of international affairs. The solutions to the grave and interconnected economic, ecological and humanitarian crises currently facing humanity will eventually have to come from civil society through a reassertion of its own value, even as political leaders continue to undermine collective efforts.

and Eastern Europe where democracy remains fragile or nonexistent, such as Azerbaijan, Belarus, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, are also feeling the heat following governments’ reactions to scuttle demands for political reform.

In Southeast Asia, too, in countries such as Cambodia and Malaysia, which have a history of repressive government, and in Thailand, where the military seized power through a recent coup, new “security” measures continue to be implemented to restrict civic freedoms.

The third major driver of closing civic space is the rampant collusion and, indeed, capture of power and resources in most countries by a handful of interconnected political and economic elites.

Oxfam International projects that the richest 1 percent will own more wealth than 99 percent of the globe’s population by 2016. Thus civil-society groups exposing corruption and/ or environmental degradation by politically well-connected businesses are extremely vulnerable to persecution due to the tight overlap and cozy relationships among elites.

With market fundamentalism and the neoliberal economic discourse firmly entrenched in a number of democracies, labor, land and environmental-rights activists are facing heightened challenges.

At least 29 environmental activists were reported murdered in Brazil in 2014. Canada’s center-right government has been closely monitoring and intimidating indigenous peoples’ rights activists opposing large commercial projects in ecologically fragile areas. India’s prime minister recently urged judges to be wary of “five-star activists,” even as the efforts of Greenpeace India to protect forests from the activities of extractive industries have led it to be subjected to various forms of bureaucratic harassment, including arbitrary freezing of its bank accounts.

The fourth and emerging threat to civic space comes from the disturbance caused by religious fundamentalist and evangelist groups seeking to upend the collective progress made by civil society in advancing the

human-rights discourse.

Failure of the international community to prevent violent conflict and address serious human-rights abuses by states such as Israel and Syria is providing a fertile breeding ground for religious extremists whose ideology is deeply inimical to the existence of a vibrant and empowered civil society.

Besides, religious fundamentalists are able to operate more freely in conflicted and politically fragile environments whose number appears to be rising, thereby exacerbating the situation for civil-society organizations and activists seeking to promote equality, peace and tolerance.

Current threats to civic space and civil-society activities are a symptom of the highly charged and polarized state of international affairs. The solutions to the grave and interconnected economic, ecological and humanitarian crises currently facing humanity will eventually have to come from civil society through a reassertion of its own value, even as political leaders continue to undermine collective efforts.

Beginning a series of conversations on how to respond to common threats at the national, regional and international levels is critical. Establishment of solidarity protocols within civil society could be an effective way to coalesce around both individual cases of harassment, as well as systemic threats, such as limiting legislation or policies.

Further, the international legal framework that protects civic space needs to be strengthened. The International Bill of Rights, comprising the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, leaves scope for subjective interpretation of some aspects of civic freedoms.

It is, perhaps, time to examine the possibility of a comprehensive legally binding convention on civic space that better articulates the extent and scope of civic space, so essential to an empowered civil society.

However, laws are only as good as the commitment of those charged with overseeing their implementation.

Important and urgent, to reverse the global onslaught on civic space and human rights, we need visionary political leadership willing to take risks and lead by example.

Over the last few years, analysts have noted with horror the steady dismantling of hard-won gains on civic freedoms. Many thought things could get no worse, but they did.

It is time to start thinking seriously about stemming the tide, before we reach the point of no return. Ending the persecution of Assange, Snowden and Liu Xiaobo could be a good start for preventing precious lives, such as Shaimaa’s, from being lost.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Saturday, June 13, 2015

Foreign investments to decline sans ‘economic Cha-cha’–business groups

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By Catherine N. Pillas

hree of the country’s largest business groups lament the failure of the proposed economic Charter change (Chacha) to muster the legislative process, saying that, as a result, the Philippines will miss out on foreign investment inflows in the region and make participation in regional trade pacts more difficult down the line.

The business groups bemoaned the aborted passage of the much anticipated Resolution of Both Houses 1 (RBH 1), which sought to relax restrictions on foreign participation in economic areas, as provided in the Constitution, after the House of Representatives failed to vote on the measure on Wednesday.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., principal author of RBH 1, reasoned they did not have the numbers to get approval of the resolution. A total 267 lawmakers responded to the roll call on Wednesday’s session, or more than the required 217 votes needed to pass the measure.

Makati Business Club (MBC) Executive Director Peter Angelo V. Perfecto voiced the business sector’s disappointment, saying this development will have an adverse effect on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, which are already being eaten up by the more competitive neighbors in the Asean.

“While we’re happy with the efforts of [Speaker] Belmonte on pushing the measure, we are saddened with the development as the [proposed] economic Cha-cha will put flexibility on economic areas under the Constitution,” Perfecto said in a telephone interview.

Perfecto added that, as most countries have now opened up their economies and aggressively embarked on trade liberalization, the Philippines could fall behind in terms of capturing more investments and participating in multilateral trade deals.

“I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it will now be difficult to try to participate in high-standard pacts like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the free-trade area in Asia Pacific, because those agreements require more liberalization,” Perfecto added.

“This will definitely dampen investor sentiment, but pushing for other legislation, especially the Fair

Competition Act, the Department of Information and Communications Technology, amendments to the build-operate-transfer law, and also the Freedom of Information Act, can mitigate the effects,” the MBC executive said. Also, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Alfredo M. Yao conceded this development will impact on the investment climate.

The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) expressed the same sentiment, warning that the Philippines already lags as an FDI recipient and stands to lose more to other more competitive neighbors.

“This will be a deterrent for investors to come in. Right now, FDI, which are long-term investments [that] generate employment, already go to other countries such as Vietnam and China,” Francisco F. del Rosario, MAP president, said.

RBH 1, titled “Proposing Amendments to Certain Economic Provisions of the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines Particularly on Articles XII, XIV and XVI,” aims to do away with restrictions on foreign ownership of certain sectors and industries by inserting the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law.”

This means the restrictions on foreign ownership will remain in the Constitution until Congress enacts laws to remove or change them.

The Joint Foreign Chambers has consistently pushed for the measure to encourage more foreign investments and greater foreign participation in the various growth sectors of the country.

However, Malacañang has withheld support for the measure, saying that the $272-billion

economy remains able to attract investments even without touching the Constitution.

Over at the House of Representatives, Belmonte said the policies and bills helping promote an environment conducive to growth and job creation are the top priorities of the 16th Congress, set to end in June next year.

“Congress must continue to pass several measures promoting economic growth, and that growth must translate to real employment that increases the quality of life of the poor,” Belmonte said at the recent adjournment sine die ceremony.

“We can ill afford to be complacent as our neighbors in the region and the rest of the world intensify their own efforts to strengthen their economies and make themselves competitive,” the Speaker said.

Last Wednesday the 16th Congress adjourned sine die without approving on final reading a resolution filed by Belmonte amending the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution. Congress goes on a adjournment sine die from June 11 to July 26.

The Speaker said the economic Cha-cha is a larger contributor to economic growth as FDI were seen to increase once ownership on estates and corporations, one of the issues raised by investors for not investing in the country, is relaxed.

Moreover Belmonte added that the 16th Congress will pass several measures that will provide affordable access to housing, a reformed public healthcare system, education for children, and the proper respect and protection of children’s rights.

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www.businessmirror.com.ph

International Monetary Fund sees moderate global growth this year

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AGAC, Bataan—An International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive on Thursday said global growth should remain moderate, with uneven prospects across many countries and regions, although he noted a changing recovery trend for advanced economies.

The IMF forecasts global growth at 3.5 percent this year, and 3.8 percent next year, the fund’s head for Asia and the Pacific, Odd Per Brekk, said.

Brekk, however, noted the IMF sees the growth outlook for advanced economies as improving, while that for emerging market and developing countries as slowing down.

“This reflects bigger prospects for some large emerging markets, including oil-exporting emerging market countries. And, that said, emerging markets, and especially in the Asian region, remain the global growth leaders,” he said.

Brekk considered lower oil prices as a positive factor but indicated there are risks related to financial-sector development, especially with the diverging policies of the world’s major central banks, specifically the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan. He cautioned that these diverging policies could lead to disruptions in financial markets that could, in turn, spill over to other countries.

In terms of policy requirements for this kind of environment in advanced economies, Brekk said raising actual and potential growth continue to be the highest priority, combined

with demand and structural reforms.

Emerging markets and developing countries also have an important structural reform agenda to raise potential output, he said, adding that in general, they have limited policy space to support demand.

He noted that Asia’s economic outlook remains favorable, and the region is projected to continue to be a global growth leader.

“We’re expecting growth in Asia and the Pacific to be 5.5 percent roughly, 5.5 percent this year and next year, and with domestic demand being the main driver. Although there is again considerable variance across countries in this region,” he said.

“So, what we’ve been discussing here today and we continue to discuss tomorrow is... what policies can help secure growth in the short run and in the long run?”

For the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) region, the main priority would be to bolster actual and potential growth; and to strengthen the resilience and build policy space, he said.

With this in mind, the IMF thinks monetary policies could be flexible across countries, he said, adding that it needs to respond flexibly because the situation is uncertain.

Other thrusts should include allowing interest rates to become flexible, he said, calling on countries to focus on strong micro- and macroprudential supervision and regulation, fiscal policy and structural reforms. Brekk said the Apec meetings are discussing the four policy areas contained in the Cebu Action Plan. PNA

Japan Airlines pilot suspended over stewardess-in-cockpit photo

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Japan Airlines Co. pilot who brought a stewardess into the cockpit while his partner was on a bathroom break, then took a picture with her on his smartphone, was suspended for violating flight regulations.

The pilot, 47, seated the 28year-old attendant in the copilot’s chair and snapped a selfie after

the plane had climbed to 10,000 feet. The incident took place on June 7 on a flight from northern Japan to Osaka, the airline said in an e-mailed statement.

Cockpit safety has been closely scrutinized after the copilot of a Germanwings flight locked the captain out of the cockpit when he went to the bathroom, then de-

liberately crashed the flight into a mountainside on March 24, killing all 150 people onboard. Since then, a number of airlines have insisted that there be two officials in the cockpit at all times.

Japan Airlines said it suspended the pilot immediately for violating regulations that require pilots to remain vigilant. Bloomberg News

Glut in oil supply forces Asian refiners to buy more crude. . .

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for last-minute deals may prompt Middle East suppliers to cut prices, according to IHS Inc., an Englewood, Colorado-based industry consultant.

“As competition to sell crude has intensified, refiners have been opportunistically picking up spot cargoes,” said Virendra Chauhan, an analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd. in London. “In a volatile trading environment, the opportunity to pick up cargoes at an attractive price is higher.”

Crude volatility

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Crude Oil Volatility Index averaged 54.68 in the first quarter of this year, the highest level since the same period in 2009. The measure almost tripled in 2014.

Crude prices have rebounded from a six-year low after slumping almost 50 percent in 2014. Brent, the benchmark for more than half the world’s oil, has gained about 40 percent since January 13 and traded at $64.91 a barrel on Friday. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, the US marker, was at $60.54.

WTI will slide to $45 by October as the crude surplus weighs on the

market, Jeffrey Currie, an analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in New York, wrote in a May 22 report.

SK Innovation, based in Seoul, plans to buy as much as 6 million barrels of the UK’s Forties crude in 2015 on a spot basis, Kim Hyungkun, the chief executive officer of the company’s trading division, said last month. South Korea’s largest refiner has already more than doubled the purchase of US condensate in 2015 from last year to about 900,000 barrels, said Kim Woo-kyung, a spokesman.

Oil profitability

“It’s become less important for us to secure stable volumes under term contracts because there is a lot of crude available,” said Kim of the trading division. “We now think in terms of profitability and that’s why we’re buying more spot crude this year.”

Global supplies are increasing as Opec sticks to its policy of favoring market share over supporting prices by cutting output.

There’s a “perceptible shift” from term contracts to spot purchases, said H. Kumar, managing director

at Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd., an Indian processor.

Short-term deals that in the past were about 10 percent of purchases by the nation’s refiners are now increasing and may account for as much as a quarter in the future, he said.

The need to procure oil under firm contracts has been “slightly reduced,” Tokyo-based JX’s Executive Vice President Michio Ikeda said in May. Japan’s biggest refiner buys about 15 percent of its crude through spot contracts and may double those purchases in the long term, he said.

“This is going to put some downward price pressure on Middle East suppliers,” Victor Shum, Singapore-based vice president at IHS, said by phone.

Ample supply

Term contracts accounted for about 70 percent of Mumbai-based Indian Oil Corp.’s oil purchases in the last fiscal year, down from 80 percent previously because spot agreements offer more “flexibility,” said Sanjiv Singh, director of refineries at the country’s biggest processor.

Bloomberg News