TCR Volume 2 Issue No 25 by The CenSEI Report

Strategic Analysis and Research by the

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CENTER FOR STRATEGY, ENTERPRISE & INTELLIGENCE

T H E

Who are we trying to impress? ... I am not sure if we should touch our own reserves, which are for the protection of our economy, in order to protect huge economies whose irresponsibility led to their own problem ~ Former National Treasurer Leonor Briones on $1-billion Bangko Sentral loan to the International Monetary Fund for its financial rescue resources

Report

Volume 2 - Number 25 • June 25 - July 1, 2012

This is an act of humility. We are saying we recognize that we could be vulnerable to any spillover effect from Europe … It is not showing off but an action to stop the spread of the problem into emerging markets ~ Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo

BUSINESS

4 Marketing by Cellphone and Tablet

NATION

12 The Party-List Poopers

WORLD

20 Cooling Dragon, Stumbling Elephant

Mobile communications is changing the way shoppers shop — and how companies catch customers and build brands • Mobiliz-Asian: With half the world’s cellular lines, the region is Gadgetland

Abuse of the party-list system has hijacked for the powerful a system created for the underprivileged and marginalized • So what? Seven out of every ten voters don’t know or care about party lists

As if the euro zone crisis weren’t scary enough, the global economy has a new fear: the coming end of breakneck growth in China and India

32 Wanna Be the Next Mark Zuckerberg?

TECHNOLOGY

Techno-preneurs hoping to follow Facebook’s billionaire founder look to venture incubators for start-up capital, plus words of advice and encouragement • VC primer: Video on venture capital basics • Beyond Silicon Valley: The world’s 25 leading incubator centers • Crowdsourcing creativity: Cast a wide Internet for innovation

HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

CONTENTS

40 The Cancer Threat in Receding Hairlines

Young men balding before most others should have prostate check-ups early too • A hormone thing: Testosterone spurs growth in prostates, not on scalps • Hope for the hairless: Remedies for male pattern baldness

BUSINESS

NATION WORLD TECHNOLOGY

POINT & CLICK You can access online research via the Internet by clicking phrases in blue

HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

Center for Strategy, Enterprise & Intelligence provides expertise in strategy and management, enterprise development, intelligence, Internet and media. For subscriptions, research, and advisory services, please e-mail report@censeisolutions.com or call/fax +63-2-5311182. Links to online material on public websites are current as of the week prior to the publication date, but might be removed without warning. Publishers of linked content should e-mail us or contact us by fax if they do not wish their websites to be linked to our material in the future.

Here’s to Your Health and Long, Full Life! In providing readers what was strategic, enterprising and intelligent, The CenSEI Report cannot but eventually cover one indispensable foundation for everything in world, national, business and technology affairs: human life. Take away a person’s fully functioning faculties, and his or her appreciation of and contribution to social, political, economic, artistic, scientific, technological and other aspects of civilization diminishes. At the same time, living life to its full potential in physical, intellectual, emotional, social and cultural terms is one ultimate end in the pursuit of progress in the world, the nation, the economic and technological spheres. What does it profit a human being if he achieves double-digit increase in gross domestic product if the statistic does nothing for him and his fellows’ lives, for their longevity, fitness, harmony, joy and edification? Hence, the new Health & Lifestyle section was an inevitability for The CenSEI Report to give readers a fuller coverage of what was immensely, if not ultimately matters for humanity. In fact, the publication has covered health and living, including full articles on remedy-resistant tuberculosis, the spread of HIV-AIDS, eight technology trends that would change people’s health, digital TV, and amusement parks, among other topics. Now, with its own section, strategic research and analysis on health and lifestyle concerns do not have to masquerade as or be inserted into articles on international affairs, politics, society, business and technology. Moreover, the medical, fitness, sport, leisure, entertainment and other health or lifestyle aspects of such stories need not be toned down so as not to look misfit in the original sections where they used to run. Speaking of misfit articles, some may wonder whether personal health and lifestyle would have any place at all in a weekly strategic analysis and research report. But we at The CenSEI Report have to retort, why not? As noted earlier, physical well-being and fulfilling lives are certainly of paramount strategic value for full human development, often driving the march of politics, economics, society and civilization. Moreover, as with any other topic, health and lifestyle very well benefit from the CenSEI approach of strategic focus on what holds great fundamental importance and impact; solid grounding in intelligence, comprising information and insight; and the innovative, enterprising search for novel ways to resolve problems and issues. That applies equally to new threats to global economic health as China and India decelerate, the perversion of a people-power institution like the party-list system, and testosterone’s shriveling of hair follicles and inception of prostate tumors. So here’s to health and full life, with strategy, enterprise and intelligence!

BUSINESS

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How Mobile Raises the Bar for Brand Communications A guide to capturing the growing segment of digitally connected consumers By Marishka Noelle M. Cabrera

CONTENTS BUSINESS NATION WORLD TECHNOLOGY HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

How mobile raises the bar for brand communicationsa

STRATEGY POINTS As smartphone and tablet usage grows, the mobile trend presents both challenge and opportunity for brands to reach their target market in the digital arena Maintaining consumer interest and engagement requires a more interactive and innovative approach, such as the use of new technology, mobile-friendly websites, and active presence on social networking sites

raditional media – print, television, radio – will always have a place in any marketer’s strategy. But as a new generation of consumers becomes increasingly connected and mobile, with smartphones and tablets serving as their means of accessing the world, technology is reshaping the marketing landscape.

comprised of “a series of regular actions and engagements that form a core part of their experience.” For brands to be able to penetrate this world and reap the benefits, they must satisfy one or more of the core consumer needs: experience, independence, convenience, relevance, and reassurance.

A 2012 study from global consultancy group TNS affirms the mobile trend is raising the bar for brand communications. Findings show that adopting a mobile strategy is imperative for any brand, and “that a proper understanding of consumers’ relationship with their phones is essential if advertisers are to master the world’s most ubiquitous communications platform.” Researchers of Mobile Life, the annual TNS study, spoke to 48,000 mobile phone owners in 58 countries about their behavior, motivations, and priorities.

Consumer engagement is going digital. According to a 2011 Yahoo! study, “Mobile Modes: How to Connect with Mobile Consumers,” mobile online usage can be grouped into seven modes: Connect refers to the different ways to communicate using the mobile phone; Search or the information-seeking behavior of the user; Entertain by playing, viewing, and listening to various media; Manage involves coordinating aspects of everyday life; Inform covers viewing news and educational sites; Shop refers to online purchasing, price comparisons, and the like; and Navigate entails locating destinations via online maps or directions.

Consumers, the report reveals, are creating a “very personal mobile world”

The

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6 “[M]obile phones help consumers manage their lives better, making them feel more in control of the details,” the study notes. In addition, users are now spending more time on a mobile device browsing the web, watching online videos, and talking and texting, than reading a newspaper or magazine and listening to the radio. The TNS report echoes that sentiment: “The increasingly interactive user experience provided by mobile gives consumers the potential to empower and personalise their

experience of the world.” It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the number of smartphone users across the globe is rising. Consumers are empowered because of the mobile platform. The mobile platform has given rise to the savvier, more empowered consumer. Because of the always-on nature of mobile internet, product information, price comparisons, reviews from independent sources, up-andcoming brands, and pretty much what’s cool and what’s not are now accessible

Asia’s smartphone revolution is in full swing Asia Pacific alone accounts for half of the world’s mobile population, according to an interview with Rohit Dadwal of the industry group Mobile Marketing Association. The managing director for Asia Pacific cites estimates from the International Communication Union saying that by the end of 2010, there were 2,897 million mobile subscriptions in Asia Pacific, while there were 969 million in the Americas and 741 million in Europe. Noting the potential of the Asian mobile market, especially since online connectivity is less advanced here than in North America and Europe, he says: “Combining mobile with traditional media gives marketers the opportunity to extend the reach of their campaigns far beyond what was initially imagined.” In a press release, market research firm GfK says “the smartphone revolution is in full swing,” with its share of the mobile phone pie growing to 66% from last year’s 50%. Findings for the first quarter of 2012 show the seven key markets – Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, and Cambodia – registered “spikes in demand for smartphones in the range of 40 to 400% more over the same period last year.” In a Philippine Daily Inquirer report, the Philippines was tagged by GfK Asia as the “fastestgrowing market” because the value of smartphones sold grew by 402% in the first quarter of 2012 over the same period last year. “In developing Southeast Asia where smartphone penetration is still nowhere near saturation levels, we can be sure that the current sales spurt will carry on for at least the next few years,” GfK Asia digital technology account director Gerard Tan says in a statement.

CONTENTS BUSINESS NATION WORLD TECHNOLOGY HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

How mobile raises the bar for brand communicationsa

Source: Pingdom

with a touch of a finger, allowing for more informed purchase decisions. In research carried out by Oxford Economics in cooperation with AT&T, Cisco, Citi, and SAP, the global forecasting and research firm investigates how both technological and economic trends (i.e. the “new normal” economy brought on by the global financial crisis) are reshaping the global business landscape. One such “megatrend” is the ubiquity of mobile devices—which are believed to aid businesses over the coming years more than any other technology. “Indeed, with more than five billion mobile subscribers across the globe today, mobility of

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communications and computing power is dramatically improving connectedness, making the world a smaller place and opening new market opportunities,” the report explains. More importantly, consumers nowadays are more value-driven, and it is technology that is providing a wealth of data to help them get the most bang for the buck. “Consumers are faced with more opportunities and more information about products. Whether it is a luxury good buyer or a cost-conscious consumer, they are spending more time in the research and investigation phase,” Matt Gierhart, head of social strategy for Oglivy & Mather, is quoted in the report.

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8 As such, the Mobile Life report suggests strengthening the brand by “delivering relevant tools that help to satisfy consumers’ increasing demand to do the things that matter to them, wherever they are.” It is about engaging the customer and enriching the shopping experience, whether it be through mobile-optimized websites, brand presence on social networking sites, advertisements, locationbased services, mobile payments, or the use of more sophisticated technology, such as augmented reality. A mobile-friendly website. While online presence is practically a given in any marketing strategy now, with the advent of mobile technology, businesses are developing sites that are optimized for mobile browsing. The share of web traffic in Asia coming from mobile devices has risen dramatically since 2010, based on an article from Pingdom, a website monitoring company. In Asia, mobile browsing share was a mere 6.1% in 2010 and grew to 17.84% in 2012. Worldwide, mobiles account for 10% of the total web traffic, which the article says is a figure that is growing fast. Presence on social networking sites. With practically everyone on – or at least aware of – Facebook and Twitter, it is hard to ignore the power of social media, especially with an on-the-go, constantly connected market. Being active in this digital environment can be extremely helpful in getting customer feedback, tracking trends, promoting the brand, and keeping consumers interested and updated. A Entrepreneur article says a business’s Facebook page is just as important as a face-to-face encounter with a customer.

Poor customer service online, such as ignoring or deleting a service-related inquiry, can be damaging to a brand. Instead, the article recommends: responding quickly, being proactive, and sharing positive feedback with the team. Keeping on that note, a recent Wall Street Journal piece shares best practices from companies like Dr Pepper, language-learning firm Rosetta Stone, and Dell Inc. Using QR codes and augmented reality. A QR or Quick Response code is a two-dimensional matrix bar code used to identify products, according to PC Mag. Lately, the technology is being used for fun, creative marketing strategies, as shown in a feature in Mashable. For instance, supermarket giant Tesco brought the shopping experience to “time-strapped Koreans” by enabling them to scan products from virtual supermarkets found in subways with their smartphones to be purchased and delivered at home. “Mobile barcodes represent the shortest distance between a brand’s message and the target audience, unlocking a relevant, dynamic, and interactive experience,” according to the report “Mobile Barcode Best Practices” released in 2011 by NeoMedia Technologies, a pioneer in the mobile barcode industry. On the other hand, augmented reality is described in an article in howstuffworks as a relatively new technology wherein the real world is enhanced by graphics and sound thanks to smartphones. “The basic idea of augmented reality is to superimpose graphics, audio and other sensory enhancements over a real-world environment in real time,” the article states.

CONTENTS BUSINESS NATION WORLD TECHNOLOGY HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

How mobile raises the bar for brand communicationsa

Belgian beer brand Stella Artois launched an augmented reality iPhone app that locks in the user’s location, after which markers for nearby bars serving Stella Artois pop up on screen Video from YouTube

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How mobile raises the bar for brand communications

This YouTube video demonstrates how users can control a virtual BMW Z4 and drive it around their desktops using a webcam and a printable symbol

This “digital layer over the real world” is particularly effective in reaching the “millennials” —those born in the 80’s whose lives are constantly connected to technology. An article from Inc. suggests thinking about augmented reality as another dimension of advertising. Benefits of utilizing an AR campaign include: your company being seen as innovative; inexpensive compared to print ads; emotional connection with customers because of the

immediate and sensory nature of AR; repeat engagement; geo-targeting by utilizing GPS data to “immerse users in a brand experience”; and driving offline sales. While not every aspect of the mobile trend can be adopted, one thing is for certain: the consumers’ desire to make more informed purchase decisions presents brands with an opportunity to play a bigger, more integrative role in how consumers live and shop.

CONTENTS BUSINESS NATION WORLD TECHNOLOGY HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

NEWS ON THE NET Business

PHL accounted for 4% of Asian fraud cases, says report The U.S.-based Association of Certified Fraud Examiners said cases of fraud in organizations in Asia, including the Philippines, from January 2010 to December 2011, resulted in a median loss of $195,000. The certified fraud examiners investigated 1,388 cases from 96 countries, more than 40% of which occurred outside the U.S. The Asian median loss was higher than the global median loss of $140,000, the report said. Of the 204 fraud cases in the region, China posted the most number of cases (35), followed by India (34), Malaysia and Indonesia (20 each) and the United Arab Emirates (15). The Philippines recorded 13, or 4% of the total case studies in Asia. The report showed that more than half (104 cases) of the fraudulent acts in Asia involved corruption, with a median loss of $250,000. Other fraudulent acts committed by employees in Asia were: stealing or misusing of non-cash assets (20.1% of cases); billing or issuing payments by submitting invoices for fictitious goods or services, inflated invoices, or invoices for personal purchases (14.7%); skimming or stealing cash before it is recorded in the company’s books (13.7%); cash larceny or stealing cash after it is recorded in the company’s books (12.7%); claiming of fictitious or inflated business expenses (12.7%); theft of cash on hand (12.3%); financial statement fraud (9.3%); check tampering or intercepting, forging or altering a check drawn

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on a company’s bank accounts (6.4%); making false claims for compensation (4.4%), and; making false entries on a cash register to conceal the fraudulent removal of cash (2.9%). In Asia, 43.6% of fraud cases were detected through a tip, followed by internal audit (19.6%), management review (14.2%), by accident (4.4%), and account reconciliation (3.4%).

PHL ‘paying it forward’ in lending $1B to IMF By extending a $1-billion loan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Philippines is “paying it forward” to the multilateral financial institution that had helped the country in times of need, according to President Aquino’s spokesman. Edwin Lacierda told a news briefing on Thursday that the loan, drawn from the Philippines’s record-high foreign reserves, can be considered as the country’s investment in global stability. “We have been a recipient of IMF assistance for the past 40 years. Now that we have been considered a creditor nation, we feel it is our obligation to assist those nations who require funding from IMF. This would also help in stabilizing the crisis that’s going on in Europe,” Lacierda said. The Philippines first became a creditor nation in December 2006, when the government refused to draw the final disbursement under the extended fund facility of the International Monetary Fund, and instead paid in advance the outstanding balance of $219.7 million. The last loan from the IMF was set to mature in April 2007 yet but the growing strength of the

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country’s external sector at the time, best illustrated by its gross international reserves totaling $22 billion, helped boost the country’s ability to terminate its IMF commitments ahead of schedule.

Gov’t seeks ₧31-M Italian aid to enhance exports The government is seeking some ₧31 million ($742,320) in aid from Italy that will be used in a “traceability” project, which will help exporters and food producers comply with international standards and hurdle technical barriers in their shipments abroad. Trade Undersecretary Merly Cruz said on Thursday the Philippine Traceability for Agro-industrial Competitiveness Enhancement (PTRACE) project would ensure the safety and suitability for export of Philippine food products. The proposed financing for the project, amounting to ₧31,279,138, will be generated through the “debt-for-development swap” agreement between the governments of Italy and the Philippines, she added. Cruz said that the fund will be allocated to finance policy studies, capacity building, technical assistance and particular traceability analysis and planning activities. Once they have traceability capability, local food makers and exporters will be able to track the movements of their goods and raw materials every step of the process. In case of an alert on possible contamination or defects, the exporters will be able to immediately identify which part of the process needs to be corrected instead of going over the entire chain.

• June 25 - July 1, 2012

NATION

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The Philippine Party-list System: Not Just for the Marginalized

TCR examines a swirl of issues surrounding the system originally designed for societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s under-represented sectors By Pia Rufino

STRATEGY POINTS The party-list system was developed to provide representation for marginalized sectors in society, but now also appears to be a vehicle for traditional forces to increase their representation According to a national survey prior to the last national elections, only three out of ten voters had any idea as to what the party-list system was about While some argue that the system ensures that party-list groups will remain marginalized, others argue that the presence of party-list organizations has brought a focus on issues not given as much attention before

CONTENTS BUSINESS NATION WORLD TECHNOLOGY HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

The Philippine party-list system: Not just for the marginalized 13

he party-list system was introduced in the 1987 Constitution, to ensure that the voices of the marginalized sectors of society would be heard in Congress. In concept, this would be accomplished by allocating 20% of the seats in the House of Representatives for representatives of the party-list groups, which are supposed to be from marginalized and underrepresented sectors, or those belonging to “labor, peasant, fisherfolk, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, elderly, handicapped, women, youth, veterans, overseas workers and professionals, with the exception of religious groups,” as defined in Section 5 of Republic Act 7941, also known as the Party-List System Act, which was enacted in 1995. Among the 56 party-list members of the 15th Congress is Juan Miguel Macapagal Arroyo, the son of former president and current Pampanga congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Juan Miguel (popularly known as Mikey) sits as the representative of party-list group AGP (AngGalingPinoy), which claims to represent security guards and tricycle drivers. The young Arroyo’s credentials were questioned by various candidates in the 2010 elections, who wondered how the former President’s son could represent tricycle drivers or security guards. However, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) allowed the young Arroyo to sit as a party-list representative, citing a provision in the Party-list System Act that states that a person can become a party-list representative “as long as you are a member of the party, not necessarily

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a member of the marginalized sector,” COMELEC spokesperson James Jimenez told ABS-CBN News Channel. Meanwhile, Ako Bicol (I am Bicol), the biggest party-list group in the House, by virtue of receiving the largest number of votes for party-list organizations, represents the interests of people from Bicol province. The Business Mirror, in its June 10 editorial, noted that there are already 16 congressional district representatives from Bicol (apart from having four senators who happen to be from the region), with another two districts being considered, and wondered how Bicolanos could be considered marginalized and underrepresented. COMELEC accused of selling partylist accreditations. Aside from being accused of accrediting non-qualified party-list groups and representatives, the COMELEC is also facing bribery allegations related to the accreditation process. In House Resolution 2472, two party-list lawmakers, Representatives Teodoro Casiño and Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna, called for a congressional investigation into reports that COMELEC officials were asking for millions of pesos from party-list applicants in exchange for accrediting their organizations, according to a June 5 Business Mirror report. The lawmakers cited figures from a public-policy organization, Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), indicating that, “of the 57 nominees from 43 party-list groups in the 15th Congress, 12 are members of political clans, while nine are affiliated with or openly endorsed by religious groups. Meanwhile, 79% of the party-list

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14 groups were classified as ‘traditional,’ or those having links with traditional forces, administration, political clans, big business and emerging religious dynasties.” In GMA-7’s report on the afore-mentioned House resolution, COMELEC spokesperson

these petitions, the Court chose to uphold former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban’s position, which disallowed major political parties from participating in the partylist elections if they did not represent the marginalized and underrepresented as identified in Section five of the Party-List System Act. participate

'If we allow major political parties to in the party-list system electoral process, we will surely suffocate the voice of the marginalized, frustrate their sovereignty, and betray the democratic spirit of the Constitution' -- former Chief Justice Reynato Puno Jimenez said that such bribery attempts inside the commission are “unlikely.” In a text message, Jimenez reportedly said: “Considering how strict the COMELEC is with party-list accreditations, and how transparent the whole process is, it is, in my opinion, unlikely that COMELEC officials would make those kinds of promises.” Marginalized representation. Ibarra M. Gutierrez III, Assistant Professor of University of the Philippines College of Law, in a 2010 paper, “The Judicially legislated concept of marginalization and the death of proportional representation: The Party List System after Banat and AngBagongBayani,” recounts that in 2001, several petitions were filed before the Supreme Court challenging COMELEC Resolution No. 3785, which approved the participation of 154 parties in the party-list elections, including several mainstream political parties. In the cases -- AngBagongBayani-OFW Labor Party v. AngBagongBayani-OFW Labor Party Go! Go! Philippines et al, and Bayan Muna v. COMELEC—which arise in

For its part, the COMELEC said political parties are allowed to participate in the party-list elections, noting that that party-list system is a “mechanism of proportional representation in the election of representatives to the Congress from national, regional, and sectoral parties or organizations or coalitions, which was not exclusive to marginalized groups.” In 2009, former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, who was part of the majority in AngBagongBayani, declared that: “if we allow major political parties to participate in the party-list system electoral process, we will surely suffocate the voice of the marginalized, frustrate their sovereignty and betray the democratic spirit of the Constitution. That opinion will serve as the graveyard of the party-list system.” Gutierrez cites the disadvantage of restricting the party-list system to the marginalized sector and excluding major political groups, saying that with the policy, party-list groups will remain marginalized. This is because, as soon as a party-list group grows in strength, membership, and electoral capability ultimately becoming a major political party, it ceases to be marginalized, and hence ineligible to participate in the party-list, he explained.

CONTENTS BUSINESS NATION WORLD TECHNOLOGY HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

The Philippine party-list system: Not just for the marginalized

“Limiting party-list participation to marginalized parties, therefore, serves as a built-in disincentive for these parties to grow, develop, and broaden their participation in other electoral arenas for fear that it will cause them to lose their seats in the party-list. The party-list system, therefore, becomes a perpetual kid‘s table for the marginalized, where those who are unable, or unwilling, to compete in open, regular elections are afforded the chance to enjoy limited, perhaps even token, participation in governance,” he said. Party-list representatives bring ignored issues to Congress. According to the Oct. 2008 Institutional Reform Paper “Is There a Party in the House?,” published by the Ateneo School of Government and political foundation Konrad-AdenauerStiftung, party-list representatives pushed

legislative process worked. Many of these bills, including the bill to amend the party list law itself, got stuck at the committee level, according to the paper. Nonetheless, the party-list presence brought to Congress many issues that were never tackled as much nor given as much attention. For the first time, the paper noted, sectoral issues — agriculture, trade unions, human rights including civil and political rights, women’s rights, and economic issues articulated by cooperatives and energy sectors -- were brought to the House. “Issues are articulated and presented from the perspective of the underrepresented and marginalized, even as the representatives themselves did not originate from such background.

In this video, Ramon Casiple, and Electoral Reform, discusses a basic limitation of the party-list system

a good number of bills as soon as they entered Congress. The party-list groups authored or co-authored a total of 1,572 bills and resolutions during the 11th Congress, 422 in the 12th Congress, and 774 in the 13th Congress. However, the bills count declined when they realized how slowly the

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Most representatives identify with the marginalized through their long years of experience in organizing and advocacy as well as their autonomy from the politicians. These representatives are not the traditional politicians, so to speak,” according to the reform paper.

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Voters unfamiliar with party-list system Among a random sample interviewed in the afore-mentioned GMA-7 Reporter’s Notebook documentary uploaded in May 2010, no one seemed to be knowledgeable about the party-list system and its importance. The sample in the documentary would appear to reflect the results of Pulse Asia’s January 2010 Pre-election Survey for Party-List Group Preference, where nearly seven out of 10 respondents of admitted they were still “unaware” of the party-list system and its functions in government, despite its more than a decade of existence. Findings from the Pulse Asia survey revealed that only three (31%) out of 10 Filipinos had heard or read anything about the party-list system. Meanwhile, it was only in the National Capital Region where a majority or 51% of the voters was aware of the party-list system, the public opinion polling body said. (See table below) AWARENESS OF THE PARTY-LIST SYSTEM 2010 VOTER’S AWARENESS OF PARTY-LIST SYSTEM (in percent)

INTRO: In this election May 2010, Filipinos will also vote for their representatives in the Lower House. Twenty percent (20%) of the seats in the House of Representatives are reserved for so-called party-list representatives. The party-list system is being implemented to give smaller parties/groups/organizations the chance to put their representatives n Congress. Voters will choose only one group among all those who are under the party-list system. RP

NCR

BALANCE LUZON Total

Aware Not Aware

31 69

51 49

29 71

North 24 76

South 33 67

VISAYAS Total

West

MINDANAO

Central 27 73

East

Total

Reg. 9, 12 ARMM

26 74

Reg 10, CARAGA 32 68

Reg 11 24 76

Question: Have you or have you not heard or read anything about the country's party-list system? Source: “Pulse Asia's January 2010 Pre-election Survey for Party-List Group Preference,” Pulse Asia

The level of awareness dropped by half compared to the findings from a 2007 survey conducted about the same concern, where nearly six out of 10 Filipinos said they knew about the system. Moreover, the low level of awareness is the lowest that had been recorded across the surveys conducted by Pulse Asia from early 2004. (See right table)

The paper notes that 13 party-list organizations won seats in Congress in the first party-list elections of 1998, while during the 12th, 13th , and 14th Congresses, 12, 16, and 14 party-list groups joined the House respectively. However, when asked about the influence of party-list representatives in passing

legislation, in GMA-7’s Reporter’s notebook May 2010 report (link is to a video uploaded to YouTube by reporter Ralph Guzman), Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform told GMA7 that with only 20% of seats in Congress allotted for party-list representatives, they cannot pass even a single bill

CONTENTS BUSINESS NATION WORLD TECHNOLOGY HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

The Philippine party-list system: Not just for the marginalized

In his own paper, Issues and Challenges In the 2007 Elections, Ramon Casiple of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform identified lack of voter education about the party-list system as a major issue. Despite being in place for nine years by then, the party-list system was still not understood by many voters and even election officers. “There remains the huge requirement for voter education and public information,” he said. Casiple’s presentation also cited Bantay-Eleksyon, a local election observer, which said: “A considerable effort needs to be done both in amending the law and in voter education, in order for this system to be useful in fulfilling its mandate role in bringing marginalized and underrepresented sectors to Congress. As it was in the 2007 elections, the party-list system has become a vehicle for political dynasties and unscrupulous people to enter the halls of power.” COMPARATIVE AWARENESS OF THE PARTY-LIST SYSTEM, 2004- 2007

INTRO: In this election of May 2010, Filipinnos will also vote for their representatives in the Lower House. Twenty percent (20%) of the seats in the House of Representatives are reserved for so-called party-list representatives. The party-list system is being implemented to give smaller parties/groups/organizations the chance to put their representatives in Congress. Voters will choose only one group among all those whoe are under the party-list system. Have you heard or read anyhing about the party-list system or not? (Base: Registered Voters)

AWARE

January 2010 April 20072 April 20072 March 2007 January 2007

31 69 53 49 55

NCR 51 71 62 51 66

BAL LUZ 29 56 49 41 46

VIS 30 66 60 63 70

MIN 28 53 48 46 50

ABC 52 77 68 59 61

D 33 60 54 49 55

E 22 55 46 44 53

April 2004 March 2004 January 2010 April 20072 April 20072 March 2007 January 2007 April 2004 March 2004

44 45 69 41 47 51 45 56 55

54 49 49 29 38 49 34 46 51

37 40 71 44 51 59 54 63 60

48 55 70 34 40 37 30 52 45

48 42 72 47 52 54 50 52 58

61 59 48 23 32 41 39 39 41

48 46 67 40 46 51 45 52 54

32 38 78 45 54 56 47 68 52

NOT AWARE

Location

Class

Notes: (1) Pre-Election Survey of April 3-5, 2007 (2) Pre-Election Survey of April 21-25, 2007 (3) Figures may not add up to 100% due to rounding off or to Don't Know Refused responses

Source: “Pulse Asia's January 2010 Pre-election Survey for Party-List Group Preference,” Pulse Asia

without support from regular geographicdistrict representatives. Party-list system plagued with problems. The 2009 compilation of papers entitled “Reforming the Philippine Political Party System,” published by German nonprofit political foundation Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, offers different perspectives

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from the academe, reform advocates and legislative staff on the challenges that political parties face, the efforts undertaken to strengthen their position within the political system, and the gaps that still need to be addressed. Joy Aceron, Instructor at the Political Science Department of the Ateneo de Manila

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The Philippine party-list system: Not just for the marginalized

University and Program Coordinator of the Ateneo School of Government, indicated that the partylist system was created to produce political parties that would eliminate personality- and moneybased politics. “This experiment, however, was not successful in giving birth to a real and stable party system. Instead, over the years, the party-list system has been plagued by fragmentation, controversies and now, even the traditional politicians are winning party-list seats. This is further aggravated by the COMELEC’s lack of concern for organizational credentials in registering party-list groups,” she said. Meanwhile, Julio Teehankee, an Associate Professor of Comparative Politics and Development Studies, and Chair of the International Studies Department at De La Salle University, Manila, offers a deeper insight into how political parties strive to bridge together the state and its citizens. Despite the major deficiencies in the Party-list law, he said, the partylist system has allowed for “a window of political opportunity for social movements and elements of civil society to participate in elections and penetrate the narrow pathways to the legislature.” “In the past ten years, the party list system has seen the active participation of the Left and/or reformist parties and has allowed them to participate in the national

political discourse. While it may still take a longer time to institutionalize the gains of the party- list system, the lessons learned from the political experiment will inform the continuing efforts to push for political party reforms in the country,” he said. For 2013 polls. In the midst of the various issues surrounding the party-list system, one change will be instituted in the next elections. Unlike in the past, the presentation of party-list groups on ballots will no longer be in alphabetical order for the May 13, 2013 midterm elections. In a resolution, the COMELEC said the order of appearance of party-list groups on ballots would now be determined through a raffle to be held in December. In an earlier story about the COMELEC considering random printing of partylist organizations on ballots, Jimenez said that party-list groups at the top of the ballot usually get more votes because voters tend not to browse through the whole list. The Philippine Star report noted that of 172 party-list organizations applying for accreditation in the May 2013 elections, 64 have names beginning with the letter A. “For us, what is more important is for voters to have an informed choice and not just pick whoever is on top of the list. If you really want to vote for a certain party-list group, you’ll make an effort to look for the name of that group,” he said.

CONTENTS BUSINESS NATION WORLD TECHNOLOGY HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

NEWS ON THE NET Nation

Measures to boost capability against dirty money enacted President Benigno Aquino III signed into law two legislations intended to prevent the demotion the Philippines on the Financial Action Task Force's list of vulnerable jurisdictions. The amendments to the latest anti-money laundering law, as described in “An Act To Further Strengthen The Anti-Money Laundering Law,” authorizes the Anti-Money Laundering Council to look into suspected bank accounts without informing owners, while the “Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012” criminalizes the act of providing funds to support terrorist activities. Earlier, the Philippines had been downgraded by the FATF, from the "gray" to "dark grey" list of vulnerable jurisdictions. The government is hopeful that these two measures will serve as sufficient compliance with FATF standards.

11 aspirants accept Chief Justice nominations Eleven recommendees for the vacant position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court have accepted their nominations: Associate Justices Arturo Brion and Roberto Abad, lawyers Soledad Cagampang-de Castro, Jose Manuel I. Diokno, Katrina

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T. Legarda, Cesar A. Villanueva, Raul C. Pangalangan, Rafael A. Morales, Comelec Commissioner Rene V. Sarmiento, retired judge Manuel Siayngco, Jr., and former San Juan congressman and executive secretary Ronaldo B. Zamora. On the other hand, four nominees declined their nominations, including IBP president Roan Libarios and former presidential candidate Gilberto Teodoro. The Judicial and Bar Council has extended the submission of applications and nominations from June 18 to July 2. Once the JBC finishes its nominee screening procedures, President Aquino will select the next Chief Justice from the short list that the JBC will submit to him.

Rotating blackouts threaten Luzon as power plants shut down Data from the National Grid Corporation of Philippines revealed that the Luzon grid’s power supply reserves remained “thin” at only 101 megawatts, placing Luzon in a yellow alert status. The NGCP said that this is likely to result in power outages, thus necessitating rotating blackouts. Energy Undersecretary Josefina Patricia Asirit explained that the low available power supply reserves was caused by the outage of several critical facilities, including the Sual powe plant in Pangasinan, the Pagbilao coal

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plant in Quezon and the Malaya thermal power plant in Rizal. According to the NGCP, a yellow allert status means that the power grid is vulnerable to additional power. The limited power supply caused Meralco to warn its consumers of possible one-hour rotating brownouts in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

Jordanian journalist in hands of Abu Sayyaf: Malacañang Jordanian journalist Baker Abdulla Atayani and his two Filipino cameramen, who were previously reported as missing, are currently in the camp of the Abu Sayyaf Group, so there is no need to send out a search-and-rescue mission for them. Malacanang confirmed that the journalist is in Sulu voluntarily to interview members of the Abu Sayyaf, and had been offered security by local government officials, which he declined. Mayor Husin Amin believes that the journalist has connections with the Abu Sayyaf, after knowing that Atyani previously interviewed the late Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo has proposed banning Atyani from the country, saying that there was an “element of deception” because he failed to disclose his intention to go to the Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked to Al Qaeda.

• June 25 - July 1, 2012

WORLD

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ASIA’S PACESETTER

Economic Data for 2009-11

INDIA 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 GDP 5.7 9.5 7.6 6.7 6.8 7.1 Private 7.8 7.9 6.9 6.4 6.6 6.9 Consumption Government 9.5 10.0 5.8 5.9 5.6 5.3 Consumption Fixed 10.8 10.4 6.0 5.1 7.4 9.3 Investement Exports -8.9 15.7 17.2 6.9 7.9 9.5 Imports -8.0 11.3 17.8 7.9 7.5 8.9

When Giants Stumble W

As the euro zone wobbles, China and India’s slowdown adds one more worry for the shaky global economy By Ricardo Saludo

STRATEGY POINTS China and India are slowing down, as they shift from export-driven to domestic-demand-fueled growth amid the worldwide slump As it achieves middle-income status, China may follow the path of growth leaders of decades past, like Japan and South Korea To resume rapid expansion, India must address corruption sapping resources and structural distortions stunting key sectors

hen it rains, it pours. That must be what global economy watchers at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund must be thinking these days. It’s bad enough that the euro zone may be veering again toward chaotic collapse, with Greece possibly triggering financial armageddon if its newly elected parliament decides to leave the European Monetary System. But now, a new fear has joined the wobbly West in worrying the world. China and India, the hoped-for alternative engines of global growth amid the industrial nations’ slump, are seeing over a decade of world-pacing expansion hit the skids. Already global trade is forecast to slow further from 13.1% growth in 2010 and 6.6% last year to 4.1% expansion in 2012, going by the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs’s World Economic Situation and Prospects Mid-2012 published this month. Now, even the global growth leader of the past half-century, developing economies in

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When giants stumble

S TAKE A BREATHER and Forecast for 2012-14

CHINA 2009 GDP 9.2 Private 9.1 Consumption Government 9.0 Consumption Fixed 22.5 Investement Exports -10.3 Imports 4.1

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 10.4 9.2 8.2 8.6 8.4 5.8 8.8 9.0 8.8 9.2 12.9

8.0

8.2

7.0

11.4

11.8

9.2

8.0

8.2

28.2 11.3 20.0 14.4

9.7 10.5

11.6 12.0

12.5 15.0

Source: World Bank Global Economic Prospects June 2012

East Asia, says the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects June 2012 report on the region, “will grow by 7.6 percent in 2012 ... sharply lower than the estimated 8.2 percent growth recorded in 2011, with China pulling down much of the regional aggregate with growth falling by a percentage point from 2011 levels at 8.2 percent.” Indeed, for the Bank, China’s slowdown is “foremost among regional headwinds” holding back East Asian expansion by reducing demand for the region’s exports, especially commodities. Denial in Beijing and Delhi? What may be more worrisome than even the decelerating growth numbers is the seeming official reluctance in both countries to get a clear picture of the economic situation, and take resolute action to address the growth slowdown. In China, where annual growth had soared at double-digit levels for two decades, the current downturn has led local and provincial officials to hide it by faking

The

economic data, The New York Times reported last week. Beijing itself is trying to keep a brave face, said the Information Daily, a U.K.based policy monitoring website, despite the warning by a former deputy research director of the ruling Communist Party of China that growth could dip below 7% in the second quarter ending this week. If a former CPC data wonk isn’t convincing enough, maybe Ramin Toloui, who manages billions of dollars in assets for global bond investment behemoth PIMCO, would be. In “Asia’s Role in Global Economic and Portfolio Rebalancing,” published by PIMCO this month, Toloui echoes current economic views of a monumental change in world trade flows, with developing economies shifting from export-driven to domestic-demand-dependent growth, thus correcting global imbalances. “Nowhere is the transition just described more difficult

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22 – or more important – than in China,” says the portfolio manager. “The key drivers of net exports and investment that powered the 10% to 11% growth rate that China has achieved over the past decade have reached their limits.” That slowdown is happening even faster right next door: India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.5% in the fiscal year ended in March, down from 8.4% in the previous two 12-month periods. “An expansionary fiscal policy stance [hogging credit needed by business], energy and infrastructure constraints, and political and security uncertainties, together with headwinds from resurgent Euro Area tensions, are continuing to act as a drag on private investment and growth,” sums up the World Bank Global Economic Prospects June 2012 South Asia Annex report. New Delhi is also accused of unduly downplaying the slowdown along with recent warnings of possible credit rating downgrades from leading global agencies Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings, with S&P warning that India could be the first of the BRIC nations — Brazil, Russia, India and China — to lose investment grade. Other worrying signs: 41% drop in April foreign direct investment, retail inflation’s spike to double digits last month, and standstill 0.1% industrial output growth. It didn’t help that loan defaults among private-sector borrowers hit a 13-year high of 6.3% in the year to March, with April’s figure not much better at 5.2%. The increased credit risk, coupled with surging inflation and deficit spending, could further squeeze business lending. No wonder Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took advantage of the BRIC summit on the sidelines of the

mid-June G-20 meeting in Mexico to pledge urgent measures to boost the economy, including reducing state borrowings. How hard China’s landing? The immediate growth issue for China is whether its economic rebalancing away from export dependence toward greater domestic demand will happen fast enough to avoid stalling the economy. In its April Regional Economic Outlook for Asia, “Managing Spillovers and Advancing Economic Rebalancing,” the IMF noted that China’s current account balance has fallen from 10.1% of GDP in 2007 to 2.8% last year. But that was due in large part to reduced demand for Chinese exports in the crisis-hit West, and rising imports fueled by economic stimulus public works spending (see Part IV of IMF report, pp. 35-42). Plainly, if Chinese exports continue moderating without being offset by sustained growth in domestic demand, growth will fall. In the past three years, investment spending, mainly statefunded infrastructure, has been the main contributor to growth (see China’s Economy Feeds on Investment charts). But that can’t go on for much longer, since public coffers will eventually run low, and the need for more roads, bridges, airports and ports would be filled. Not to mention Beijing’s clampdown on excessive or bad investments by local governments. Thus, in the first quarter of this year, investment shrank to 2.7% of GDP growth, leading to the drop in expansion below 9%. CCB International Securities (CCBIS) charted China’s growth components and inflation-GDP data in its China Strategy Update this month, titled “Deflation — the real threat to China’s economy.” When

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When giants stumble

CHINA’S ECONOMY FEEDS ON INVESTMENT . . .

Contribution of Investment, Consumption and Net Exports to GDP Growth 14% 9%

7.3

6.0

6.2

4.3

3.3

4.0

(2.2)

(3.5)

2Q09

3Q09

6.9

8.4

0.6

0.7

6.5

6.2

1.0 5.6

5% 0% (4.2)

(5)%

1Q09

6.2

4.4

(1.2)

(3.6)

4Q09

(3.9)

1Q10

2Q10

(3.8)

(3.6)

3Q10

4Q10

Final consumption expenditure

4.3

5.1

5.0

2.7

4.6

4.5

4.8

6.2

(0.4)

(0.1)

(0.5)

(0.8)

1Q11

2Q11

3Q11

4Q11

1Q12

5.9

Gross capital formation

Net exports

. . . AND FALLS IN DEFLATION

GDP Growth (bars) and Consumer Price Index % Change 14%

12%

8% 6% 5%

4% 3%

2% 1%

0% (1)%

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

GDP YoY growth

2010

(2)%

CPI YoY growth

Charts from China Strategy Update for June 2012 by CCB International Securities

consumer prices fall, as in the Asian Crisis years of 1997-99 and the global crisis of 2008-09 (see circled periods in second chart), so does growth in a mutually reinforcing trend. In sum, when economies slow down or contract, demand is squeezed, forcing businesses to cut prices and curtail investment. CCBIS fears that the same

The

deflationary spiral may happen again, partly fueled by the downturn in global economies and commodity prices. Property and factory slowdown. One price collapse that could bring about the feared China debacle is property. In his online analysis, “China — it’s time to take the risk of a hard landing seriously,” risk analyst Rodney Dickens noted that in

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24 February last year, the Chinese government scrapped a national real estate price index, which had fueled speculative buying and could have spurred panic selling and foreclosures during periods of sharp decline. The Rodney’s Ravings site also pointed to Tsinghua University professor Patrick Chovanec’s analysis of China property slump, “China Real Estate Unravels,” and his worrisome data in “The Dynamics Driving China’s Real Estate Downturn,” with successive quarterly falls in housing starts and property and land sales.

As property buying and building slow down, so will investment in the sector, which had been a major job creator. Manufacturing is the other big source of employment, and prospects there are also iffy. Dutch bank ABN-AMRO’s China Watch for June, “Spillovers from the euro zone,” two key manufacturing indices, which point to future output, both fell last month. The official Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), tracking mainly large firs, is now teetering at 50.4, the halfway mark between expansion and contraction, while the Markit/HSBC indicator, a pointer to smaller enterprises, already below 50 in

DYNAMICS OF A DOWNTURN

nominal rate of growth year-on-year, same period

2010

2011

YTD

2012 Jan-Feb

Mar

Apr

Property sales are falling Property sales in RMB) 18.3% 12.1% -14.6% -11.8% -20.9% -7.8% -4.5% Residential Only 14.4% 10.2% -17.5% -13.5% -24.7% -9.7% -2.9% Office 31.2% 16.1% -10.2% -14.0% -23.5% 5.9% -23.4% Retail 46.3% 23.7% 10.5 4.2% 17.2% 4.5% -9.5% ... leading to a deepening decline in new starts ... Floor Space Started 40.7% 16.2% 0.3% -4.2% 5.1% -4.2% -14.6% Residential Only n/a 12.9% -5.2% -7.9% 0.0% -9.8% -14.4% ... which is driving down land sales Land Sales Revenues 65.9% -1.9% 2.5% -13.7% 5.8% -3.6% -54.7% (in RMB) Total Land Area Sold 28.4% 2.6% -3.9 -19.3% -0.5% -8.5% -52.5% Financially pressed developers rushed to cash out whatever was already in their pipeline... Floor Space "For Sale" 4.5% 13.3% 39.2% 30.2% 45.2% 32.4% 2.8% Residential Only 2.7% 13.0% 40.0% 30.1% 47.9% 31.4% 0.8% ... but in the face of slowing sales, this only added to the stock of unsold inventory Floor Space "For Sale" n/a 26.1% n/a n/a 39.4% 35.5% 33.4% Residential Only n/a 35.8% n/a n/a 52.0% 47.4% 44.1% As burst of completions peters out, and new starts drop, investments growth noticeably decelerates... Investment in Real Estate 33.2% 27.9% 23.5% 18.7% 27.8% 19.6% 9.2% Residential only 32.9% 30.2% 19.0% 13.9% 23.2% 15.2% 4.0% ...and foreign investors pull back Foreign investments in 66.0% 2.9% -22.4% -42.9% 24.4% -91.4% -80.8% Property Development Source: "China Real Estate Unravels," May 16, 2012 entry in "An American Perspective from China," blog of Professor Patrick Chovanec, Tsinghua University

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When giants stumble

Global affairs guru Fareed Zakaria says China’s slowdown may undermine its rulers CNN

April, dropped even more to 48.4. That prompted ABN-AMRO to cut its GDP growth forecast to 8% from 8.4%. Middle-income moderation. So far, however, the prevailing consensus among multilateral and private economic think tanks is that China has the money to boost stimulus spending in the second half of the year and give GDP a fillip. But a return to the double-digit expansion of past decades seems out of the question. Public investment cannot be ramped up enough to generate that kind of boom, and consumer spending isn’t growing anywhere near enough to replicate past bonanzas. There may be a further factor at play in China and probably India’s slowdown from many years of breakneck growth: their very success. As global affairs guru Fareed Zacharia explains in his Washington Post column and CNN video blog, high-growth economies eventually plateau as it becomes harder to grow from current elevated levels

The

than it was from the much lower base of a decade or more ago. Citing Breakout Nations, a new book by Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Fund manager Rukir Sharma, Zakaria notes that Japan and South Korea also went through China’s growth surge, then settled down to moderate expansion or, in Japan’s case, prolonged slump, as the economy matured, a broad middle class emerged, and the seas of surplus low-cost labor dried up. And while Beijing can still give growth a kick with more hefty public spending, in fact, fiscal wherewithal is also reaching its limits, with public debt, including those of state corporations, now at “alarming” proportions. When politics and economics clash. Zakaria further argued that China’s slowdown may undermine somewhat the Communist Party’s legitimacy, based in large part on delivering rapid expansion and lifting millions of Chinese out of poverty year after year. What now for the

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26 CPC if the growth train slows? One thing is certain: if China’s rulers begin looking shaky, its economic prospects would get even shakier. India, too, faces its own politics-economics clash, with the downturn now blamed on state graft and inability to push reform. The title of a recent Peterson Institute for International Economics interview says it all: “Slowdown in India: Rent-Seeking Squelches Growth.” In it economist Arvind Subramanian cites factors hampering

growth. His top culprit: “the curse of rents ... in key sectors like land, coal, spectrum, there has been a lot of corruption because these are all scarce resources and the government has basically allocated them in ways that has maximized corruption and rents for certain people.” That’s nothing new to international accounting firm KPMG. Its Indian unit highlighted this widely cited drag on the Indian economy in its Bribery and Corruption Survey Report, published last

LAND OF THE LICENSE RAJ Percent of respondents who believe: Corruption is a deterrent and a key risk to the projected 9% GDP growth rate

31%

India can achieve more than 9% GDP growth if corruption is reduced

68%

India will attract lesser quantum of overall investments than its peers owing to corruption

51%

India will attract investments, but only in selective sectors

46%

Corruption negatively impacts the capital market

93%

Corruption prevents institutional investors from investing long-term in capital markets

32%

Corruption skews the playing field and tends to attract organizations with lesser capability to execute projects

100%

Corruption creates inefficiency and raises operating costs

99%

In many cases, corruption is induced by the private sector

68%

Corruption has had a direct impact on your business and reduced your company’s growth

45%

Corrupt environment increases risk attached to firms, leading to higher costs and more stringent terms for financing

36%

Corrupt environment makes it challenging for companies to access international capital whether equity or debt

31%

India’s track record in enforcing corruption laws is poor

84%

In the next two years, corruption in India will stay the same

46%

In the next two years, corruption in India will decline by 25%

33%

Source: Selected data from 2011 KPMG Survey on Corruption in India

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TV debate on Standard & Poor’s June warning on India’s credit ratings

year. Huge majorities of respondents agreed that corruption raised business costs, delayed or derailed investment, and pulled down growth (see Land of the License Raj graphic). Plainly, the so-called “license raj” — the half-century-old term for corrupt Indian bureaucrats — is very much alive. But while many critics tend to point the finger solely or mainly at the government, in fact, the private sector must also share the blame and play its very big part in the solution. Said Deepankar Sanwalka, KPMG Risk & Compliance head in India, in the report executive summary: “The regulation in India tends to focus on the bribe taker rather than the bribe payer and hence corporates do not shy away from adopting corrupt practices. However, the global environment is rapidly changing and it will only be a matter of time before Indian regulations align themselves to

The

Times of India

global anti-bribery and corruption laws and practices.” That reform is needed to spur growth is borne out by India’s own road to expansion. In the 1990s, reforms elevated the economy from decades of the so-called “Hindu rate of growth” below 5%, to join China in leading global expansion. Today, politicians, bureaucrats and businesses must again adopt change to boost growth. But like the past reforms, recasting structures and procedures reining in the economy will again be a long-term process. And that assumes that those three sectors see the need for sweeping change and are willing to embrace it and the difficulties and costs of reform. However, judging from the official rejoinders to the S&P and Fitch warnings about ratings downgrade, as seen in a Times of India TV debate, New Delhi is

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hardly in a reforming mood, and may even be in denial about its worrisome economic prospects. And if the political hierarchy and the government officialdom will not budge from longstanding practices and privileges, then neither will the private sector. Restructuring for growth. Beyond corruption, major structural constraints that have developed in the Indian economy over the decades, must also be addressed

to restore the growth momentum. Subramaniam explains further why the boom may not resume: “... that model was built on skilled labor, the IT [information technology] sector. But that is in short supply because the Indian higher education system is not able to churn out skilled graduates at the level that the economy needs.” As for the masses of low-cost workers, the economist adds: “India’s other abundant factor of production, unskilled

BACK TO THE HINDU RATE?

India’s Real Economic and Industrial Production Growth, 2006-2012 percent change over year ago, adjusted for inflation Gross Domestic Product

5 2006

2008

2010

Industrial Output

-5

-10

Jan/08

Jan/10

-10 Jan/12

Charts from TradingEconomics.com based on data from Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation

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When giants stumble

labor, we’ve never utilized because we have distorted that market via regulation and labor laws.” T.S. Papola of the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID) in Delhi cites other structural factors in his paper, “Structural Changes in the Indian Economy: Emerging Patters and Implications.” In the concluding section the economist noted that much of India’s rapid expansion has been driven by services growth, especially expert and skilled work. “Whether this could continue in future would depend on ... whether [the growing service sectors] contribute to the capacity of the economy to develop, specially in the commodity producing sectors of agriculture and industry,” Papola argues. In other words, not every Indian can join the outsourcing industry. At the same time, there is need to bring growth and development to sectors and

The

areas largely bypassed by India’s boom. Papola points out that “the high and increasing inequalities leading to growing dualism, for example, between agriculture and other sectors and between organized and unorganized sectors, with large differences in productivity, would also lead to supply side constraints to growth in terms of availability of wage-goods and inputs and intermediates for production in the formal sector.” Thus, Subramaniam and Papola seem to agree that India’s future growth must be built on a broader base than high-tech, high-skill services, so that all sectors of the economy, from unschooled farmers and factory wage-earners to MBAs and PhDs would be harnessed for economic production, rather than relegating huge segments of society to unproductive joblessness. If fighting corruption is tough, restructuring the mammoth elephant of India’s economy is even more daunting.

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When giants stumble

INVESTMENT-GRADE INDIA Government Debt as % of GDP, January 2000-January 2012

82.199 84.2

84.063

78.49

77.849

75.44 74.724 74.373

72.731

2002

2004

2006

2008

68.053

2010

2012

National Budget Deficit as % of GDP, 2000-2012

-3 -4

75 69.427

70 65 2000

81.764

-3.878

-5

-3.272 -3.5 -3.477 -3.294 -4.417

-4

-4.73

-5.1

-4.6

-7.8

-2

2002

-4 2000

2006

2008

-7

-6.9

-8

2010

2012

Current Account Balance as % of GDP, January 2000-January 2012 1.4

0.1

-1

0 -1.3

-1

-2

-1.3 -2.3

2002

-2

1.5

0.3

0 -2

2004

-5 -6

-6 -8 2000

-3

-3.1

-7

2006

2008

-2.8

-2.7

-3.7

2010

-4

2012

Charts from TradingEconomics.com based on Finance Ministery data

So will the Chinese dragon and the Indian elephant maintain at least a modicum of growth and avoid hard landing and credit downgrade? To be sure, other economies through history have undergone wrenching

debacles on the way to full flower, from America’s Great Depression to Japan’s “Lost Decade” and now, the euro zone crisis. And the key, as always, is always building real value, even when the chips are down.

CONTENTS BUSINESS NATION WORLD TECHNOLOGY HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

NEWS ON THE NET World

Poorest countries to suffer if euro zone breaks up, says Oxfam

of the entire global aid budget. The first $20 billion would come from the drop in GDP that most European countries would see without the euro.

International humanitarian organization Oxfam warns that if the euro zone breaks up, the world’s least developed countries could see some $30 billion disappear from their economies. The G-20 leaders left their latest economic talks on Tuesday last week in Mexico without answers to the biggest, most vexing international dilemma: what to do about the faltering euro zone. Throughout the summit, traditional Western heavyweights like the U.S. and its European allies took a back seat in the proceedings to emerging economic titans such as China, Russia, India and Brazil — who together promised tens of billions of dollars to the International Monetary Fund for Spain and Greece’s failing economies. Three days before the leaders met, international humanitarian NGO Oxfam released numbers that showed the crippling effects the euro-zone crisis could have on the many countries not represented at the summit. Oxfam’s research showed that a breakup of Europe’s common currency could lead to a loss of $30 billion in trade and revenue for the world’s least developed countries. Research compiled by Oxfam calculated the monetary loss that the least developed countries in the world would suffer should the euro zone break up, and the numbers are staggering. Some 39 of the world’s poorest countries would collectively lose $30 billion in trade and investment — almost a fourth

The

be achieved without conserving biological diversity ... not only for nature itself but also for all seven billion people who depend on it," Julia Marton-Lefevre, IUCN director general said in a statement.

Paraguay president faces impeachment The Philippine Crocodile or Crocodylus mindorensis) is classified by IUCN as critically endangered on its Red List 2012

ARKIVE

Extinction threat ‘a call to world leaders’ at Rio Earth Summit On the occasion of the Rio +20 Earth Summit, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has published its latest Red List detailing the ongoing threats to biodiversity on the planet. The IUCN hopes that the red list will serve as a timely reminder to world leaders to act on the threat to extinction of endangered species. The IUCN assessed a total of 63,837 plant and animal species around the globe, revealing that 19,817 of that number are currently threatened with extinction, with 3,947 described as "critically endangered" -- the final classification prior to extinction. A further 5,766 are "endangered," while more than 10,000 species are listed as "vulnerable." “Sustainability is a matter of life and death for people on the planet. A sustainable future cannot

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Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo’s job is on the line after the opposition-controlled House of Representatives voted Thursday to impeach him for his role in deadly clashes to evict landless farmers. In a televised address to the nation shortly after the voting, Lugo dismissed resignation rumors and vowed to face an impeachment trial “with all its consequences.” The surprise move criticizing Lugo’s “poor performance of his duties” was approved by 76 votes in the lower house, after the Liberal Party withdrew support for the leftist president. Only one lawmaker voted against it. All eyes are now on the Senate, where only five of 45 senators support Lugo. An eventual trial would be held there if approved, though no date has yet been set for a vote in the upper house. “I refuse to renounce my functions and vow to abide by the political process with all its consequences,” he said. The people’s will is “under relentless attack by groups that are always opposed to change,” Lugo said. Lugo accused his opponents of trying to “rob the people of their supreme decision” when they elected him to a five-year term in 2008, ending six decades of rule by the right-wing Colorado Party.

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Wanna Be the Next Hotshot Technological Entrepreneur?

Local tech business incubators can help you bring your great ideas to life By Tanya L. Mariano

CONTENTS BUSINESS NATION WORLD TECHNOLOGY HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

Wanna be the next hotshot technological entrepreneur?

STRATEGY POINTS Startup companies have been found to significantly boost economic growth, according to a 2010 study of U.S. companies by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Big corporations have recently set up business incubators to assist budding Filipino technology entrepreneurs through funding, training, and networking Support from private entities, the government, and the academe, plus the high number of tech-savvy Filipino graduates, could help advance the country’s tech industry

o you have a groundbreaking idea – the best thing since Facebook and sliced bread combined -- but no money to get it in gear? A tech startup incubator might be just what you need, and, believe it or not, the Philippines has a couple. While Silicon Valley in northern California, London, and New York City remain the top startup hubs (based on level of activity) according to research by Startup Genome, several business incubators and accelerators – organizations that help budding technology entrepreneurs put up their companies – are popping up in the Philippines. These “fairy godmothers” to aspiring technopreneurs hope to build an ecosystem that’s friendly to local upstart companies in order to promote growth and innovation in the industry and enable the country to reap the socio-economic benefits from a robust tech sector. For an idea of how startups can contribute positively to the economy, a 2010 Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation study, using 1977-2005 data, found that in the U.S.,

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existing firms destroyed 1 million net jobs per year, whereas startups, defined in the study as firms less than a year old, created an average of 3 million jobs during their first year. Also, job creation at startups proved to be more resilient to recessions than job creation at older firms. IdeaSpace. One local incubator in particular is currently making the rounds of universities in the country looking for revolutionary ideas that can be developed into commercial products. IdeaSpace, launched by First Pacific Co. Ltd. managing director and chief executive Manuel V. Pangilinan in March, kicked off its nationwide search with a one-day boot camp in Mapua University this month, where students were given a crash course in technology entrepreneurship, reports TV5’s online news portal, InterAksyon. Similar events will be held in Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, and the University of the Philippines soon, and regional stops are being planned.

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34 IdeaSpace IdeaSpace events will provide via their the chosen Facebook page. few with funding In this video and access to from web other magazine Unbox, services and IdeaSpace resources, founding such as office members Earl spaces if Valencia and IdeaSpace founding members Earl Valencia and Marthyn required, Marthyn Cuan Cuan discuss what the incubator has been up to lately business talk about the Source: Video uploaded to YouTube by Unbox education incubator’s through recent activities. mentorship programs, and networking opportunities with industry leaders and Kickstart Ventures. Globe Telecom also investors. You can stay up to date on launched a startup incubator the same

The World’s Top Startup Hubs Startup Genome, an ambitious project that aims to “crack the innovation code” and uncover the secret of successful startups, looked at the level of activity of Web startups in a number of cities around the world and came up with a list of the top 25 most active startup ecosystems. Taking the top spots are Silicon Valley, New York, and London. Asian cities that made it to the list are Tel Aviv (5th), Singapore (7th), Bangalore (9th), and Mumbai (20th). 1.

Silicon Valley (San Francisco, Palo Alto, San Jose, Oakland) 2. New York City, New York 3. London 4. Toronto, Canada 5. Tel Aviv, Israel 6. Los Angeles, California 7. Singapore 8. Sao Paulo, Brazil 9. Bangalore, India 10. Moscow 11. Paris 12. Santiago

13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

Seattle, Washington Madrid Chicago, Illinois Vancouver, British Columbia Berlin Boston, Massachusetts Austin, Texas Mumbai, India Sydney, Australia Melbourne, Australia Warsaw Washington, D.C. Montreal, Canada

Startup Genome has also produced Startup Compass, a Web-based benchmarking tool that lets entrepreneurs see how their company stacks up against other startups, and released a report (available as a free download after registration at their website) on what makes Silicon Valley startups successful.

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Wanna be the next hotshot technological entrepreneur?

month IdeaSpace was announced. Dubbed Kickstart Ventures, the incubator will offer funding, facilities, education, and mentorship to promising technology entrepreneurs. Kickstart Ventures will have an initial capital of $2.5 million (₧107 million) for startup incubation, reports online business and finance news source, loQal. Interested applicants may send an email to info@kickstart.ph. Wireless Wings. Founded by Myla Villanueva, a self-confessed “serial entrepreneur,” having led five startups to date, Wireless Wings provides capital, mentorship, and help with distribution and marketing.

Unlike IdeaSpace and Kickstart Ventures, Wireless Wings does not provide office spaces and facilities, opting instead to offer funding and adopt an approach that is more personal and unhampered by too many rules and rigid structures, writes Villanueva on the official website. Enterprise Business Incubator Program. The University of the Philippines – Diliman, with the support of the Department of Science and Technology, also offers a six-month program to turn technological ideas in the following fields into scalable business ventures: • Information and communications technology; • Creatives and multimedia, and

According to research by the Startup Genome Project, Silicon Valley is still the best place for startups. The Asian cities of Tel Aviv (Israel), Singapore, and Bangalore (India) made it to the top 10 most active startup ecosystems worldwide

Source: “The rise of startup ecosystems: Silicon Valley vs. New York vs. London,” Startup Genome

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36 learning/education; • Electronics, industrial machinery, and materials/nanotechnology; • Health and biotechnology; • Food technology; • Social enterprise; • Energy and green technology. The program provides on-campus workspaces and access to laboratories and other facilities, mentoring sessions, networking events, and other services such as assistance in company registration, human resource, and marketing. The program application form is available here. DOST-PEZA Open Technology Business Incubator. Launched in 2009 and located at the University of the Philippines’ Advanced Science and

Technology Institute compound in Diliman, Open TBI is a collaboration between the Department of Science and Technology and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority. The program provides a support program and leasable office spaces to technopreneurs involved in information and communications technology and related fields. The program’s objectives include fostering increased collaboration and synergy between the government, academe, and private sector. Application procedures and details on payments and fees, which include a ₧5,000-processing fee and fees for office

Startup incubators defined

In this video produced by PBS News Hour, Wade Roush of Xconomy, a business, science, and technology Web magazine, talks about the basics of startup incubators, accelerators, and angel investors

Source: Produced and uploaded to YouTube by PBS News Hour

CONTENTS BUSINESS NATION WORLD TECHNOLOGY HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

Wanna be the next hotshot technological entrepreneur?

The crowd as a fast and efficient source of innovation Another way that great ideas are being noticed is through crowdsourcing sites. Many firms turn to netizens for solutions to challenges their organizations are facing, and this method has been proven to be a fast, cost-effective, and less risky means of addressing organizational issues. A pioneer of this approach is Innocentive, an open innovation and crowdsourcing website, launched in 2001, that gives cash prizes to those who present winning solutions to challenges posted on the site by different companies who work in the fields of chemistry, business and entrepreneurship, engineering and design, life sciences, computer and information technology, food and agriculture, and math and statistics. As of June 14, 2012, Innocentive has over 260,000 registered solvers from almost 200 countries and a total solver reach of more than 12 million through their strategic partners such as The Economist and Popular Science. Since 2001, it has awarded over $35 million in prizes ranging from $500 to more than $1 million. In this video, co-founder Alph Bingham talks about challenge-driven innovation and how Innocentive works. Similar sites include NineSigma, Skild, Quirky, and Your Encore.

Alph Bingham, co-founder of crowdsourcing and open innovation pioneer Innocentive, talks about challenge-driven innovation

Source: Video uploaded to YouTube by Innocentive Inc.

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Wanna be the next hotshot technological entrepreneur?

space lease and facilities rental, are available on their website. Silicon Valley in the Philippines? News of big corporations backing startup incubators has certainly generated considerable buzz in the local tech circle and, if all goes well, could significantly fuel growth and innovation in the country’s tech industry. IdeaSpace co-founder and Meralco chief information officer Marthyn Cuan also hopes that nurturing a startup-friendly business environment will provide students with alternative routes to success, reports the Manila Bulletin. Speaking at the recent “Start-ups and Technopreneurs” forum hosted by the Information Technology Journalists

Association of the Philippines, Cuan states, “You don’t have to work in multi-national corporations to be successful and add value to the country. We want to give Filipinos an alternative, and this should not be exclusive to those that come from landed families and can afford expensive educations.” With the help of capital-rich and wellconnected private entities, the support of the government and the academe, plus the huge talent pool – according to data from the Commission on Higher Education, the past decade has produced almost 900,000 graduates of engineering and technology and information technology, with some 90,000 more expected to graduate in 2012 – the Philippines may very well be on the way to becoming a tech startup hub.

CONTENTS BUSINESS NATION WORLD TECHNOLOGY HEALTH/LIFESTYLE

NEWS ON THE NET Technology

Windows Phone 8 unveiled A new, modernized operating system for Windows is coming. Microsoft unveiled Thursday its Windows Phone 8 Apollo at its Windows Phone Summit in San Francisco. Windows Phone 8 Apollo, the upcoming mobile OS, will have platform updates, will run on multi-core chips, and support three screen resolutions. Its new Internet Explorer browser features Smart Screen, an antiphishing filter that uses data from Windows PCs to block malicious websites in real time. Windows Phone 8 will share native C and C++ code with Windows 8, making it easier for developers to create apps for both platforms. This new device will also support near field communication (NFC) sharing. NFC isn't a totally new technology, but it's far from ubiquitous, so it's interesting to see Microsoft pushing it forward. Windows Phone 8 will also feature a new Wallet hub, like Google Wallet, where users can store their credit- and debit-card information, third-party loyalty and membership cards, and coupons and deals. Windows Phone 8 maps will run on Nokia's mapping technology, built directly into the onboard Maps app. The new mobile OS will come with a complete security platform with Secure Boot and encryption (which is a derivative of Windows Bitlocker). It'll make app distribution

and deployment flexible for business, offering up a mechanism for private distribution and full-on onsite management.

Earth’s orbit, board a small reusable capsule, and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, leaving the station behind them.

Cops rave about Google Earth in war on logging

Interior view of one of the capsules of Excalibur Almaz, designed to fly people to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972 Mail Online

$100M ticket to the Moon British company Excalibur Almaz is offering passenger service to the Moon at the price of $100 million. The price tag entitles the privileged passenger a complete astronaut experience, beginning with training. The price includes a ticket to a suborbital flight to space aboard the XCOR Lynx suborbital space plane, so the passenger will already have experienced weightlessness and been to space before he or she boards the Excalibur reusable capsule. On that day the passenger will ride the Soyuz launcher with two fellow passengers up from Baikonur, Kazahkstan, to one of the company's two 90-cubicmeter space stations. Once fellow passengers are aboard, an electric thruster will slowly spiral them up to an elliptical orbit around the Moon. After several days they will spiral back the way they came, re-enter

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Police in Laguna province are raving about how useful Google Earth is in their campaign against illegal logging. Google Earth is a free application released in 2005 by Google, one of the world’s biggest Internet companies, that provides satellite images and local facts about a location that Internet users wish to explore. A police official said the application helped Laguna police to locate illegal logging sites in Cavinti, Laguna, that were targets of Berde (Boost our Environment Reserves for the Development of our Ecosystem), a campaign of Laguna provincial government, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Laguna police, and the Philippine Army. With the help of the satellite image on Google Earth, police were able to determine reference points that zeroed in on the location of illegally cut lumber, said Cruz. Since the campaign was launched on April 13, authorities were able to recover 250,000 board feet of forest products and machinery used for logging in the towns of Famy, Kalayaan, and Cavinti.

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Growing Concern Over Prostate Cancer

A possible link between baldness and prostate cancer is just one more reason for early screening By Jerome Balinton

STRATEGY POINTS Severity of male-pattern baldness may predict the risk of prostate cancer, studies suggests Early screening is a big help in addressing the disease, doctors advise Both the highest incidence rate and the lowest mortality rate for prostate cancer come from developed countries because of prostate cancer diagnostic practice Asian men might still have lower incidence rates than their Western counterparts, but research indicates that the lower incidence rates are more indicative of less frequent screening for prostate-specific antigen than better prostate health

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Growing concern over prostate cancer 41

alding generally happens among men due to ageing and/or heredity, and concerns about balding tend to be motivated by vanity more than anything else. However, a recent observational study suggests that if you're going bald, you should treat it as a serious health concern. A study by Dr. Neil Fleshner, a professor of surgical urology at the University of Toronto, suggests that bald men may have higher risk of developing prostate cancer, the HealthDay news service reported. “We’re 95 percent sure it is real,” Dr. Fleshner was quoted as saying in reference to the correlation between baldness and prostate cancer. The correlation, it was also pointed out in the report, does not indicate a cause-and-effect relationship. The research, which was presented in May at the American Urological Association annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, studied 214 patients between the ages of 59 and 70 years who had high levels of prostatespecific antigen (PSA), a marker in the blood that suggests an increased risk of cancer and had been referred for a prostate biopsy.

balding pattern, the more strongly it was associated with positive biopsy,” the report summarized. It also noted that the study did not cover men with low PSA levels. According to the report, though researchers are not sure about the exact nature of the link between baldness and prostate cancer, they think that the male hormones – called androgens – may play a role in both the incidence of baldness and development of prostate cancer. The androgens, which include testosterone, can both hold back hair growth and trigger the development of prostate cells. Early screening suggested. Dr. David Samadi, a urologic surgeon at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, discusses a study from Paris that links early baldness with higher risk of developing prostate cancer, i.e., men who start to lose their hair in their 20s are twice as likely to develop prostate cancer than men who start to lose their hair in their 30s and 40s. In a Fox News Medical A Team video, Dr. Samadi says that the important message to take away from the study is that if you have a family history of prostate cancer and you’re losing hair, you should screen for the disease.

The research indicated that bald men who underwent biopsies of the prostate were more likely to have cancer than those with more hair, according to the report of HealthDay. “The more severe a man’s A link between baldness and prostate cancer

Prevalence of prostate cancer increasing in most countries. Scientists advise that early screening is a big help

Source: Fox News video on Foxnews.com

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42 in addressing this disease, which is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men in many regions of the world, with 899,000 new cases and 258,000 new deaths recorded in 2008, according to the March 21 report of the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research Cancer (IARC).

According to the IARC report, prostate cancer is occurring more often in most countries, particularly in highest income regions of the world, while mortality rates tend to be highest in low- to middle-income regions, including parts of South America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa. The report added that at current incidence and

Separate problems before, now possibly connected Men are susceptible to both baldness and prostate cancer. Male-pattern baldness, also referred to as androgenetic alopecia, is a condition where hair is lost in a well-defined pattern, beginning above both temples, according to Bernstein Medical Center for Hair Restoration. It is the most common type of hair loss among men, which is triggered by genes, changing sex hormones, or ageing. Generally, baldness occurs when hair follicles shrink over time, resulting in short and finer hair, as stated in the health information site of the US National Library of Medicine. When this happens, the hair follicles fail to grow new hair. Meanwhile, the National Cancer Institute at the National Institute of Health defines cancer of the prostate as the cancer that forms in tissue of the prostate – the gland in the male reproductive system found below the bladder and in front of the rectum. It is more likely to develop in men 40 and above. What these two conditions might have in common is dihydrotestosterone (DHT), as explained in the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide in Oct. 2004. While testosterone is essential for a man’s sex drive and other physical characteristics that are usually associated with men – deep voice, increased muscle mass, and strong bones – it gets converted into DHT, which has been identified as the main culprit in both malepattern baldness and benign prostatic hyperplasia in older men. This link provided the impetus behind the development of finasteride, which blocks the conversion of testosterone to DHT, in order to treat both benign prostatic hyperplasia (when taken in 5-mg doses) and male-pattern baldness (when taken in 1-mg doses). As if the possible connection between baldness and prostate cancer weren’t enough, the article also reported that a Harvard’s Physicians’ Health Study at the time revealed a correlation between baldness and coronary artery disease. Men with bald spots were more likely to develop coronary artery disease than were men with full heads of hair, with the likelihood increasing with the severity of baldness: men with mild vertex (crown) baldness were 23% more likely, men with moderate baldness were 32% more likely, while men with severe baldness were 36% more likely to develop coronary artery disease. The article did reiterate that while there might be an apparent connection between testosterone, DHT, and these diseases, doctors still could not explain the nature of those connections. In short, there might indeed be a connection between hair loss and prostate cancer and even coronary artery disease, but that was not necessarily a reason to conclude that hair loss itself was harmful to one’s prostate or heart.

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Growing concern over prostate cancer

ESTIMATED NUMBER OF NEW PROSTATE CANCER CASES AND DEATHS BY WORLD AREA, 2008 AREA

POPULATION SIZE

CASES n

Africa Eastern Africa Middle Africa Northern Africa Southern Africa Western Africa Asia Eastern Asia South-central Asia Southeast Asia Western Asia America Caribbean Central America South America North America Europe Central and Eastern Europe Northern Europe Southern Europe Western Europe Oceania Australia/NZ Melanesia Micronesia/Polynesia World

39,600 9,100 4,200 5,200 7,800 13,300 133,200 82,700 23,400 17,700 9,400 334,300 16,000 20,500 84,100 213,700 370,700 58,400 64,900 79,500 167,900 21,400 21,000 300 160 899,100

492,133,000 154,048,000 60,745,000 103,340,000 28,021,000 145,979,000 2,097,629,000 808,216,000 888,237,000 286,388,000 114,788,000 454,826,000 20,622,000 73,669,000 190,301,000 170,234,000 325,514,000 137,707,000 47,987,000 74,964,000 91,856,000 17,456,000 12,563,000 4,278,000 615,000 3,402,841,000

DEATHS ASR 17.5 14.5 16.4 8.1 53.9 22.2 7.2 8.2 4.1 8.3 13.8 66.7 71.1 34.8 50.2 85.6 59.3 29.1 73.1 50.0 93.1 94.5 104.2 15.8 39.9 27.9

Note: ASR - Age Standardized Rate per 100,000 population

mortality rates, the burden from the disease is anticipated to increase to 1.7 million new cases and 499,000 deaths by 2030. The statistics come from a study, “International Variation in Prostate Cancer Incidence and Mortality Rates,” by Dr. Ahmedin Jemal of the American Cancer Society and Dr. Freddie Bray of IARC, who reviewed variations in prostate cancer incidence and mortality across five continents. They examined the most updated incidence rates in 40 countries and 63 population-based cancer registries based on the GLOBOCAN 2008 and Cancer Incidence in Five Continents databases compiled by IARC, while they examined mortality rates in 53 countries from 1985

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n 28,000 7,300 3,400 4,000 2,600 10,700 59,700 26,800 16,700 11,000 5,200 76,500 6,500 8,100 29,300 32,600 89,600 23,100 17,400 20,400 28,700 4,300 4,000 200 50 258,100

ASR 12.5 11.7 13.4 6.2 19.3 18.3 3.1 2.5 2.8 5.1 7.5 12.9 26.3 12.6 16.2 9.9 12.0 10.9 15.4 10.4 12.4 15.3 15.4 12.4 13.0 7.4

Source: GLOBOCAN 2008

using data obtained from the World Health Organization. The study concluded that prostate cancer incidence rates increased over the last 10 years of observation in majority of countries examined, and found no example of declining incidence trends. The situation in Asia. According to the GLOBOCAN 2008 report (click on the link to get an interactive home page, where your input will be required in order to generate information) on cancer in Asia, prostate cancer is the sixth most prevalent type of cancer among men, at 4.1% of all cancers (7.2 cases per 100,000 population), with a mortality rate of 2.5% (3.2 deaths per

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100,000 population), as illustrated in the following chart. The situation in the Philippines. Prostate cancer is the third most prevalent type of cancer among men in the Philippines, accounting for 6.8% of all cancers (10.1 cases per 100,000 population), while its mortality rate is 4.9% (5.3 deaths per 100,000 population), as illustrated in the following chart. According to Jemal and Brayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s analysis, while incidence rates in Asia are among the lowest worldwide, almost all countries examined registered average increases, from 3.1 cases per 100,000 population in the Philippines and Thailand, to 13.8 cases per 100,000 population in the Republic of Korea. Mortality rates were variable, with

increasing trends observed in China (Hong Kong), Kazakhstan, and the Republic of Korea, decreasing trends seen in Israel, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, and with stable trends in Singapore and Tajikistan. Jemal said that the global differences in prostate cancer diagnostic practices, particularly the adoption of prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing in higher-resource settings, are likely the major contributor to the variation in the incidence rates worldwide. Incidence rate among Asians lower but still alarming. According to Dr. Eliza Raymundo of the University of the Philippines Manilaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Philippine General Hospital, the incidence rate of prostate

CANCERS BY PREVALENCE AND DEATH RATES IN ASIA AND THE PHILIPPINES, 2008 CANCER IN ASIA, 2008

CANCER IN THE PHILIPPINES, 2008

Lung

Stomach

Liver

Prostate

Colorectum

Oesophagus

Stomach

Prostate

Leukaemia

Bladder

Other pharynx

Leukaemia

Brain, nervous system

Lip, oral cavity

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Lip, oral cavity

Brain, nervous system

Kidney

Larynx

Pancreas

Other pharynx

Incidence Mortality

Pancreas Kidney 0

Larynx

Incidence Mortality

Oesophagus Bladder 0

Source: Interactive chart generated from GLOBOCAN 2008 database

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INCIDENCE RATES OF PROSTATE CANCER WORLDWIDE FOR SELECT REGISTRIES, 2000-2004 USA New Zealand Sweden Canada Finland Iceland France Australia Switzerland Norway Brazil Ireland Austria, Tyrol Colombia Italy The Netherlands Lithuania UK, England and Wales Israel UK, Scotland Costa Rica Denmark Slovenia Spain Estonia Czech Republic Ecuador, Quito Latvia Croatia Poland Slovakia Philippines Belarus Bulgaria Singapore Japan China Republic of Korea Thailand India, Chennai

104.4 97.0 96.6 95.2 92.9 88.8 86.3 85.8 83.6 83.1 79.5 76.3

67.2 62.5 61.7 58.8 58.1 53.3 52.7 48.7 47.7 47.2 45.6 44.2 44.0 42.5 36.7 33.3 32.0 32.0 24.9 20.6 18.3 17.8 15.1 12.0 9.5 4.4 ASR (W) per 100 000 4.4

118.2

North America Southern Europe Oceania Western Europe Central & Eastern Europe Asia Northern Europe Central & South America

Source: Cancer Incidence in Five Continents

cancer in Asians is much lower compared to Caucasians, but the low incidence is still alarming because when patients in Asian countries are diagnosed with prostate cancer, it is more likely to be in the late stages. She presented findings of her study, “Prostate Cancer and the Filipino: Risk Assessment and the Screening Controversy,” at the Metro Manila Health Research and Development Consortium research forum in May.

report posted on the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development website.

“Lower economic capabilities of many Asian countries preclude widespread use of PSA screening and this has contributed to the low detection rate in Filipinos,” Dr. Raymundo was quoted as saying in the

In the Philippines, legislation aiming to establish a program for public education on prostate cancer and other leading types of cancer was passed by the House of Representatives on its third and last reading

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Public education to heighten awareness about the disease. The Philippine government has been pushing efforts to create awareness about the disease so as to encourage men to undergo screening and prevent more fatalities, and offer more comprehensive and personalized treatment for the disease.

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46 on March 15, 2011. House Bill No. 590, otherwise known as the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Prostate Cancer Public Awareness Actâ&#x20AC;? was introduced by Representatives Rufus Rodriguez, Maximo Rodriguez, Marcelino Teodoro, and Augusto Syjuco. The bill was transmitted to and received by the Senate on March 21, 2011. But even before Rodriguez and the other congressmen introduced it in 2011, there were already two versions of the same bill passed in the Senate in 2010. Senator Manny Villar filed Senate Bill 1165 on July 12, 2010, while Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago filed Senate Bill 1718 on July 21, 2010. Both bills are scheduled for hearing by the Committee on Health and Demography.

Growing concern over prostate cancer

Regrowing grass on a busy street If one needs further evidence of some kind of correlation between baldness and the prostate gland, one needs only to consider that finasteride, one of the two approved treatments for baldness, was originally developed as a oral medication for benign prostate enlargement. It was discovered that in lower doses, finasteride can also stimulate hair growth or at least slow the rate of hair loss in adult men. Meanwhile, the other approved treatment, minoxidil, was originally developed as an oral medication for treating hypertension, when it was discovered that hair growth was a side-effect of the treatment. From there, a topical solution was developed for treatment of male-pattern baldness. While there may be just two approved treatments for baldness, that hasn't stopped people from trying to add to the list. As reported on the Discovery News website in February 2011, a study found that a newly developed anti-stress hormone, astressin-B, tested on mice as a treatment for gastrointestinal disease, resulted in regrowth of hair in previously balding mice, and a stop to hair loss in younger mice. The researchers have filed a patent on the hormone, and formed a company to raise money for further development and testing. Prior to that, in December 2010, it was reported in theweek. com that Roland Lauster, a scientist at Berlin Technical University claimed to be able to regrow hair follicles from stem cells, which can then be implanted on a scalp in order to resurrect dead follicles and restore hair growth. Thus far, it's been successful on mice, but Lauster predicts that the treatment will be available for humans within five years.

Once any of these is enacted into law, a program on prostate cancer shall be created. In this program, men aged 40 above, shall be educated on the need of periodic examinations for prostate cancer, including education on the frequency and type of such examination that are appropriate for various age groups. Likewise, the program shall carry out educating males on the availability and appropriateness of procedures for detecting cancer in its early

stages, including the procedure known as prostate ultrasound. The Prostate Awareness Month of June should be devoted to more comprehensive and effective awareness activities that for sure are first steps to saving lives of Filipino men. These steps should go beyond the month of June and should be sustainable at all times.

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NEWS ON THE NET Health/Lifestyle

Salt, the world’s leading killer Researchers revealed that salt (sodium) is the leading killer worldwide during the World Nutrition Rio2012 last April. “Salt [added to food] is the major cause of death worldwide,” said Graham MacGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary, University of London. “The evidence for salt [in causing premature death] is overwhelming, equivalent to the onus of smoking,” MacGregor said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that as salt is an essential for human health, we need about 350 milligrams of salt daily. But many are unaware of how much sodium they take from mostly from processed foods. The Philippine Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism urged Filipinos to limit sodium intake to 2000 milligrams during the 3rd Hypertension Awareness celebration held May. According to Dr. Imelda Angeles-Agdeppa, nutritionist at the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology that the typical Filipino diet contains 2000 milligrams (2 grams) of natural sodium from food, plus salt added to food, about 5 grams. With the addition of salty condiments like bagoong, soy sauce or fish sauce when cooking or while dining, sodium intake increases to about 6000 miiligrams, for a total of about 15 g of salt per day. According to an analysis published in the British Medical Journal in 2009, reducing daily sodium intake by 2,000 milligrams at the population

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level could prevent 1.25 million deaths from stroke and almost 3 million deaths from cardiovascular disease each year.

A graphic image on cigarette packs in Canada with a warning that smoking could cause impotence TIME

Graphic warning labels work better Health warnings with grim images of the effects of smoking in cigarette packs works better than standard text-only, according to U.S. research. A study of 200 smokers published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that 83% were able to remember the health warning if it was accompanied by a grim graphic image. This is compared with a 50% success rate when text-only warnings were viewed. Dr. Andrew Strasser, lead author of the study, said that in addition to showing the value of adding a graphic warning label, the research also provides valuable insight into how the warning labels may be effective, which may serve to create more effective warning labels in the future. In the Philippines, an antitobacco group is pushing for the implementation of Department of Health Administrative Order No. 2010-0013, which requires graphic health warning or pictures depicting the bad effects of smoking to be printed on cigarette packs. Health Justice

cenSEI Report

Philippines said in a Philippine Star report that the DOH order has not been implemented since 2010 due to lawsuits that cigarette companies have filed in court. Senator Pia Cayetano filed Senate Bill 2340 or the PictureBased Health Warning Law on August 3, 2010, while Marikina City Rep. Marcelino Teodoro filed House Bill 5667 in February. Teodoro said said there is a need to install picture-based health warnings, as text warnings are not as effective and sufficient in terms of encouraging smokers to quit the habit.

Studies: Loneliness shortens life Two studies published online in the Archive of Medicine Tuesday last week link living alone and the feeling of isolation to poor health conditions and even death. According to a study by researchers at Harvard Medical School, people who lived alone were more likely to die from heart attack, stroke or other heartrelated problems than those who lived with others. In the period of four years, researchers followed nearly 45,000 people who had heart disease or were at high risk of developing it. An earlier study linked social isolation with poor health outcomes, including depression, heart disease, sleep problems and other disorders, but it has never been clear what is exactly about being alone that may be so harmful. The research reports that it’s not just living alone, but having actual feelings of loneliness and isolation that matters.

• June 25 - July 1, 2012