F RANKFURT, Germany— The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on Monday agreed to jointly finance projects in the road and water sectors. ADB President Takehiko Na- kao and AIIB President Liqun Jin signed a memorandum of under- standing (MOA) here on Monday on the sidelines of the ADB’s 49th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors. The first of the projects that will be cofinanced by the ADB and AIIB is Pakistan’s M4 highway project, which costs $300 million. M4 is a 64-kilometer stretch of motorway connecting Shorkot to Khanewal in Punjab Province. The ADB and AIIB agreed to strengthen cooperation, includ- ing cofinancing, at the strategic and technical levels on the basis of complementarity, value added, institutional strengths and com- parative advantages, and mutual benefit, the MOU states. “I am very pleased to have this framework of collaboration with a new and strong partner in Asia,” Nakao said. “The ADB has been working closely with AIIB throughout its establishment process. We will further strengthen our coopera- tion in promoting sustainable growth, reducing poverty and combatting climate change in the region,” he added. For his part, Jin said he welcomes AIIB’s collaboration with the ADB. “AIIB looks forward to deepen- ing our already strong relationship and expanding our collaboration as we seek to address the significant infrastructure-financing needs in the Asia region,” he said. Through cofinancing, knowl- edge work and joint policy dia- logue with member-countries, the two institutions will work together in the areas, including energy, transportation, telecom- munications, rural and agricul- ture development, water, urban development and environmental protection. The two institutions will un- dertake regular high-level consul- tations and joint data collection B EING so close to the main Philippine island of Luzon, the Scarborough Shoal is a particularly sensitive piece of real estate. The uninhabited coral reef was exploited both Filipino and Chinese fishermen, and was used as a bombing range by the United States Air Force until Washington closed bases in the Philippines in 1991. In 2012 Chinese vessels seized the shoal, following a tense standoff with Filipino ships. The South China Morning Post reported, citing an anonymous military source, that Beijing will start reclamation work on the shoal later this year and may add an airstrip to extend the air force’s reach. Transforming the shoal into another military out- post so close to Manila and the busy Luzon Strait, which connects the South China Sea with the Pacific Ocean, would be the biggest challenge yet for the Philippines and its ally, the US. China did not confirm nor deny the report. The Philippines has contested China’s vast claims in the South China Sea at a United Nations tribu- nal, which is expected to rule soon in what many believe will be an unfavorable outcome for Beijing. China has refused to take part in the proceedings, and there are worries whether it might respond by cementing its island holdings, or even expanding them by fortifying Scarborough, too. Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines College of Law’s Institute for Mari- time Affairs and Law of the Sea, cited historical documents showing the US ceded the shoal to the Philippines as part of American administered ter- ritory at independence in 1946. This is evidence that the shoal is covered by the Mutual Defense Treaty, and thus, the US has an obligation to pre- vent it from being permanently controlled by China, he said. C A S “ADB,” A PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 46.8870 n JAPAN 0.4415 n UK 68.3847 n HK 6.0446 n CHINA 7.2380 n SINGAPORE 34.8680 n AUSTRALIA 35.5966 n EU 53.7513 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.5025 Source: BSP (2 May 2016 ) A broader look at today’s business BusinessMirror www.businessmirror.com.ph n Tuesday, May 3, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 206 P. | | 7 DAYS A WEEK MEDIA PARTNER OF THE YEAR 2015 ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP AWARD UNITED NATIONS MEDIA AWARD 2008 B C U. O @cuo_bm F RANKFURT, Germany—The Asian Development Bank (ADB) confirmed on Monday that the $504-million electric tricycle (e-trike) project, which it is financing, has encountered technical issues. C A C A Technical kinks placed e-trike project in limbo Are PHL airports ready for Brussels-type attack? Gomes: Returning money to Bangladesh should be one of P-Noy’s final acts INSIDE BMReports B B C @BcuaresmaBM B ANGLADESH Ambassador to the Philippines John Gomes, while trying his best to remain diplomatic, could not hide his dismay over the delay in the return of the “money of hard- working people of Bangladesh.” Amid the continued noise cre- ated by the cross-border $81-mil- lion bank heist from Bangladesh to the Philippine banking system, Gomes told the BUSINESSMIRROR that his country is optimistic that the money will be returned, although they could not understand the drag in the process of the local justice system. His appeal is now directed to the Aquino administration. “I think that this thing should be finished definitely before the next government comes into power. It will be an achievement of this government if they can wrap it up. I am not frustrated. I am not at all thinking this money will never go to Bangladesh…. The only thing is that Bangladesh expects this money to go fast and they want to see some results. This delay is the only concern,” he said. Gomes added that the govern- ment of Bangladesh is grateful for the help extended by Philip- pine officials, but said the money should be returned to them by the end of this administration’s term. “Now, the date of hearing, the first [hearing] is on the third of May. And then we have to wait and see how much longer it takes for the next hearing. We have faith on the systems over here. The secretary of justice was very nice to me, very cordial. The complete thing should be completed before the next administration comes,” Gomes said. Earlier, casino junket opera- tor Kim Wong has returned some of the stolen money in tranches to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC). On March 31 the casino junket LEADING PRIME-TIME SHOWS KEEP EDGE C1 | T, M3, 2016 [email protected] [email protected] Editor: Jun Lomibao Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana Sports BusinessMirror HEAT MELT HORNETS M IAMI—Miami Heat ousted the Charlotte Hornets from the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs with an emphatic 106-73 victory on Sunday. Miami won two elimination games to take the series, 4-3, and will play Toronto in the Eastern Conference semifinals starting on Tuesday night. “Just great competition,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said, lauding the Hornets. “Our hats go off to them. They made us better.... I think our basketball team needed to go through that, to be pushed and find a different level, which we showed in the last two games.” Goran Dragic scored 25 points in his first Game Seven, Gerald Green added 16 and Luol Deng scored 15. Dwayne Wade finished with 12 and Hassan Whiteside had a 10-point, 12-rebound, five-block clincher for the Heat, who have won their last four Game Sevens. Frank Kaminsky scored 12 for Charlotte, which got 11 from Courtney Lee and 10 from Nic Batum. The Hornets’ two biggest stars, Kemba Walker and Al Jefferson, never got going—combining for 13 points. “I thought we had a great season,” said Walker, who shot three-for-16. “We were really resilient. We had a lot of injuries but we stuck together all year. When guys’ names got called to make plays and step up, they did. A lot of people didn’t even think we’d be here.” A contentious series, with too much attention getting placed on courtside fan behavior and NBA officiating reports, pushed Miami to the limit. Charlotte had a chance to close out the Heat on its home floor in Game Six, wasting the opportunity. The Hornets never had a chance in Game Seven. Miami led the whole way, taking a 12-point lead at the half and stretching it to 24 by the midpoint of the third quarter—the period that has been a problem for the Heat all season but became the catalyst to what became a rout on Sunday. And with that, it was obvious that Charlotte’s season was going to be bookended. It started with a loss in Miami. And it ended with a loss in Miami. “I still thought at halftime, we were fine,” Hornets Coach Steve Clifford said. “And then in the third quarter, it got away from us.” Wade has played in 29 postseason series; the Heat have won 22 of them. And under Spoelstra, the Heat are now 15-4 in post- season series, 8-4 when facing elimination games and 15-5 in games when they have a chance to oust an opponent. “I’m not a prophet or anything,” Wade said, “but I knew we were winning this game.” AP B S A USA Today O AKLAND—Just before Klay Thompson headed to the Oracle Arena media room to discuss his latest playoff feat, a 37-point outing against the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday, in which he became the first player in National Basketball Association (NBA) history to hit seven or more three-pointers in three consecutive postseason games, the Golden State Warriors’ other Splash Brother saw something even more rare. A Stephen Curry miss—from point-blank range. The injured Most Valuable Player was sitting at his locker when it happened, chatting with Thompson about how the Warriors dominated yet again without him, in a 118-106 win that put them up 1-0 in the Western Conference Semifinals. Sporting black street clothes and a carefree smile, he fired an empty sports drink bottle toward the nearby trash can and...brick. Maybe they don’t need this guy after all. At least not this round. When Curry went down like a melting Gumby doll in Houston on April 24, you never would have guessed that their prospects for a title defense would be so promising one week later. A second-round matchup with the Clippers was still in play back then, as the basketball world didn’t learn until two days later that Chris Paul (broken hand) and Blake Griffin (quadriceps tendon tear) were out for the postseason. Enter a Blazers team that is your classic happy-to-be-here group, having lost four of five starters last offseason and severely overachieved to even get to this point, and the Warriors’ fortunes had taken a turn for the better just when it seemed like it couldn’t get any worse. From then until now—halftime of Game Four against the Houston Rockets all the way through Sunday—the Warriors have outscored the Rockets and the Blazers by a combined 82 points (307-225), while Curry cheers with all the spirit of a mascot from the bench. The right MCL sprain he suffered in Game Four against Houston isn’t as bad as feared, either, as he even hinted to ESPN’s Lisa Salters during an in-game interview that he could be back for Game three against Portland. What’s more, the beauty of Curry’s absence is that, with the spotlight having shifted, it has forced us to appreciate Thompson’s special talent. Amid all the Curry madness, it’s often forgotten that some wondered whether he was the best player on his team just two summers ago. During Team USA’s gold medal run at FIBA World Cup in Spain, the combination of Thompson’s shooting and relentless defense was enough to make it a conversation. That same summer, even the Warriors were guilty of not fully knowing what they had. As has been well-chronicled, they gave serious thought to trading Thompson to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a deal that would have landed them Kevin Love. They ultimately declined, in large part because of concerns about what it would do to their defense. From owner Joe Lacob on down, they’ve been reminded why it was such a wise move to keep him ever since. “Not many guys in the league who could chase Damian Lillard around for 37 minutes and score 37 points, too,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Klay is a tremendous two-way player, and that was really an amazing night for him just in terms of his all-around play.... That’s a big burden to have to play both ways like that. He was awesome.” Thompson not only led a high-powered offensive effort but spent 37 minutes smothering one of the game’s best point guards in Damian Lillard (eight-of-26 shooting for 30 points and a minus-19 plus-minus rating). He called Lillard the Blazers’ “head of the snake” afterward—as good a clue as any that there will be more where this came from in the coming games. On the other end, he did the kind of Curry impression that few, if any other shooters could pull off. A reporter noted afterward that Thompson had been ....” The injured Most Valuable Player Stephen was sitting at his locker when it happened, chatting with Klay Thompson about how the Warriors dominated yet again without him, in a 118-106 win that put them up 1-0 in the Western Conference Semifinals. Sporting black street clothes and a carefree smile, he fired an empty sports-drink bottle toward the nearby trash can and...brick. T ORONTO—DeMar DeRozan scored 30 points and Jonas Valanciunas had 15 rebounds and 10 points, as the Toronto Raptors beat the Indiana Pacers, 89-84, on Sunday night in Game Seven of the first-round playoff series to advance to face Miami in the conference semifinals. Rookie Norman Powell added 13 points while Kyle Lowry had 11 points and nine assists and Patrick Patterson had 11 points to help Toronto win a seven-game series for the first time in franchise history. The Raptors won their first postseason series since a five-game triumph over the New York Knicks in 2001, ending the National Basketball Association’s longest active drought between playoff series victories. Paul George led Indiana with 26 points and 12 rebounds, George Hill scored 19 points and Monta Ellis had 15. Up 78-64 after three quarters, the Raptors didn’t make their first basket of the final quarter until a three by Powell at 8:19. Joseph followed with a pullup jumper to make it 81-67, leading to an Indiana timeout. The Pacers responded by scoring 12 of the next 14 points, cutting it to 85-79 with 3:23 remaining. Indiana cut it to three at 85-82 on Ellis’s three-pointer with 2:37 left but Lowry answered with a driving lay-up. George made a pair of free throws with 52 seconds left to pull Indiana within three again at 87-84. After DeRozan missed a three-pointer, Solomon Hill grabbed the rebound and Indiana called a timeout to draw up a play for George but he turned the ball over. DeRozan made the steal then got fouled at the other end and made both with 6.5 seconds left, giving the Raptors an 89-84 lead. George missed a three with 3.9 seconds left, Biyombo grabbed the rebound and Lowry heaved the ball to the other end of the court as time expired, sending Toronto into the second round. DeRozan scored 13 points in the first quarter, overcoming 12 by George and the Raptors led 28-23 after one. DeRozan’s first-quarter total was more than he had in either Games Four or Six, when he scored eight points. De Rozan made just one of five field goal attempts in the second but Powell came off the bench to score 10 points. DeRozan also scored 13 points in the third quarter. AP Raptors snap out of drought HEAT center Hassan Whiteside (21) converts against the Hornets in the first half of Game Seven on Sunday. AP KLAY THOMPSON scores 37 points in another brilliant performance for Golden State. AP SPORTS C1 WITH OR WITHOUT CURRY AVIATION Explosive Ordinance Disposal Management Unit member PO2 Lorna Tolentino and her K9, named Edd Sanc, inspect baggages inside the Naia Terminal 3 in Pasay City. She is just one of the members of the Aviation Security Group, which, composed of armed men in all-matte black uniform, is also part of the agencies that monitor them. Some of them could be seen boarding vehicles, sometimes with a K9 team in tow to sniff out bombs. NONIE REYES B R M @rectomercene R A @reneacostaBM Second of three parts F AR south from the three international airports in Manila, a war continues to rage: a war against terror. Waged by combined police and military forces, the war has recently unveiled the presence of a group fearfully linked to interna- tional terrorist groups. The death last week of two reported members of the terrorist group Ansar Khilafa Philippines (AKP) fanned belief the Islamic State (IS) has already made its presence in the country or, as what the government maintains, has ADB, AIIB to cofinance road, water projects in Asia SOUTH CHINA SEAWATCH: SCARBOROUGH SHOAL AS A RED LINE IN this April 16, 2012, file photo, protesters display placards during their rally outside the Chinese Consulate at the financial district of Makati City, to accuse poaching by Chinese fishermen at the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. AP SHOW D3 GOMES: “Bangladesh expects this money to go fast and they want to see some results. This delay is the only concern.” S “G,” A Terrorism in Southern Philippines fans belief threats to security intensifying $504M The cost of the e-trike project that involves the purchase of 100,000 electric tricycles ADB-funded Market Transfor- mation through Introduction of Energy-Efficient Electric Vehicles Project. “There are many issues. It was not only the batteries, it was also ADB Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department Director Preety M. Bhandari made this pronouncement in a news briefing here on Monday. The $504-million project involves the supply and delivery of 100,000 units of e-trike. This is part of the
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FRANKFURT, Germany—The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on Monday agreed to jointly finance projects in the road and water sectors. ADB President Takehiko Na-kao and AIIB President Liqun Jin signed a memorandum of under-standing (MOA) here on Monday on the sidelines of the ADB’s 49th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors.
The first of the projects that will be cofinanced by the ADB and AIIB is Pakistan’s M4 highway project, which costs $300 million. M4 is a 64-kilometer stretch of motorway connecting Shorkot to Khanewal in Punjab Province. The ADB and AIIB agreed to strengthen cooperation, includ-ing cofinancing, at the strategic and technical levels on the basis of complementarity, value added, institutional strengths and com-parative advantages, and mutual benefit, the MOU states. “I am very pleased to have this framework of collaboration with a new and strong partner
in Asia,” Nakao said. “The ADB has been working closely with AIIB throughout its establishment process. We will further strengthen our coopera-tion in promoting sustainable growth, reducing poverty and combatting climate change in the region,” he added. For his part, Jin said he welcomes AIIB’s collaboration with the ADB.
“AIIB looks forward to deepen-ing our already strong relationship and expanding our collaboration as we seek to address the significant infrastructure-financing needs in the Asia region,” he said.
Through cofinancing, knowl-edge work and joint policy dia-logue with member-countries, the two institutions will work together in the areas, including energy, transportation, telecom-munications, rural and agricul-ture development, water, urban development and environmental protection.
The two institutions will un-dertake regular high-level consul-tations and joint data collection
BEING so close to the main Philippine island of Luzon, the Scarborough Shoal is a particularly sensitive piece of real estate.
The uninhabited coral reef was exploited both Filipino and Chinese fishermen, and was used as a bombing range by the United States Air Force until Washington closed bases in the Philippines in 1991. In 2012 Chinese vessels seized the shoal, following a tense standoff with Filipino ships.
The South China Morning Post reported, citing an anonymous military source, that Beijing will start reclamation work on the shoal later this year and may add an airstrip to extend the air force’s reach. Transforming the shoal into another military out-post so close to Manila and the busy Luzon Strait, which connects the South China Sea with the Pacific Ocean, would be the biggest challenge yet for the Philippines and its ally, the US.
China did not confirm nor deny the report.
The Philippines has contested China’s vast claims in the South China Sea at a United Nations tribu-nal, which is expected to rule soon in what many believe will be an unfavorable outcome for Beijing. China has refused to take part in the proceedings, and there are worries whether it might respond by cementing its island holdings, or even expanding them by fortifying Scarborough, too. Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines College of Law’s Institute for Mari-time Affairs and Law of the Sea, cited historical documents showing the US ceded the shoal to the Philippines as part of American administered ter-ritory at independence in 1946. This is evidence that the shoal is covered by the Mutual Defense Treaty, and thus, the US has an obligation to pre-vent it from being permanently controlled by China, he said.
C A
S “ADB,” A
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 46.8870 n JAPAN 0.4415 n UK 68.3847 n HK 6.0446 n CHINA 7.2380 n SINGAPORE 34.8680 n AUSTRALIA 35.5966 n EU 53.7513 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.5025 Source: BSP (2 May 2016 )
A broader look at today’s businessBusinessMirrorBusinessMirror
www.businessmirror.com.ph n Tuesday, May 3, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 206 P. | | 7 DAYS A WEEK
MEDIA PARTNER OF THE YEAR2015 ENVIRONMENTAL
LEADERSHIP AWARD
UNITED NATIONSMEDIA AWARD 2008
B C U. O @cuo_bm
FRANKFURT, Germany—The Asian Development Bank (ADB) confirmed on Monday that the $504-million
electric tricycle (e-trike) project, which it is financing, has encountered technical issues.
C A
C A
Technical kinks placede-trike project in limbo
Are PHL airports readyfor Brussels-type attack?
Gomes: Returning money to Bangladesh should beone of P-Noy’s final acts
INSIDE
BMReports
B B C @BcuaresmaBM
BANGLADESH Ambassador to the Philippines John Gomes, while trying his best
to remain diplomatic, could not hide his dismay over the delay in the return of the “money of hard-working people of Bangladesh.”
Amid the continued noise cre-ated by the cross-border $81-mil-lion bank heist from Bangladesh to the Philippine banking system, Gomes told the BUSINESSMIRROR that his country is optimistic that the money will be returned, although they could not understand the drag in the process of the local justice system.
His appeal is now directed to the Aquino administration.
“I think that this thing should be finished definitely before the next government comes into power. It will be an achievement of this government if they can wrap it up. I am not frustrated. I am not at all thinking this money will never go to Bangladesh…. The only thing is that Bangladesh expects this money to go fast and they want to see some results. This delay is the only concern,” he said.
Gomes added that the govern-ment of Bangladesh is grateful for the help extended by Philip-pine officials, but said the money should be returned to them by the end of this administration’s term. “Now, the date of hearing, the first [hearing] is on the third of May. And then we have to wait and see how much longer it takes for the next hearing. We have faith on the systems over here. The secretary of justice was very nice to me, very cordial. The complete thing should be completed before the next administration comes,” Gomes said.
Earlier, casino junket opera-tor Kim Wong has returned some of the stolen money in tranches to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC). On March 31 the casino junket
LEADING PRIME-TIMESHOWS KEEPEDGE
WITH ORWITH ORWITH ORWITHOUTWITHOUTWITHOUTWITHOUTWITHOUTWITHOUT
CURRYCURRYCURRY
C1 | TUESDAY, MAY 3, [email protected]@businessmirror.com.phEditor: Jun LomibaoAsst. Editor: Joel Orellana
SportsBusinessMirror
WITH ORWITH ORWITH ORWITHOUTWITHOUTWITHOUT
CURRYCURRYCURRY
HEAT MELTHORNETSMIAMI—Miami Heat ousted the
Charlotte Hornets from the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs
with an emphatic 106-73 victory on Sunday. Miami won two elimination games to take the series, 4-3, and will play Toronto in the Eastern Conference semifinals starting on Tuesday night. “Just great competition,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said, lauding the Hornets. “Our hats go off to them. They made us better.... I think our basketball team needed to go through that, to be pushed and find a different level, which we showed in the last two games.” Goran Dragic scored 25 points in his first Game Seven, Gerald Green added 16 and Luol Deng scored 15. Dwayne Wade finished with 12 and Hassan Whiteside had a 10-point, 12-rebound, five-block clincher for the Heat, who have won their last four Game Sevens. Frank Kaminsky scored 12 for Charlotte, which got 11 from Courtney Lee and 10 from Nic Batum. The Hornets’ two biggest stars, Kemba Walker and Al Jefferson, never got going—combining for 13 points. “I thought we had a great season,” said Walker, who shot three-for-16. “We were really resilient. We had a lot of injuries but we stuck together all year. When guys’ names got called to make plays and step up, they did. A lot of people didn’t even think we’d be here.” A contentious series, with too much attention getting placed on courtside fan behavior and NBA officiating reports, pushed Miami to the limit. Charlotte had a chance to close out the Heat on its home floor in Game Six, wasting the opportunity. The Hornets never had a chance in Game Seven. Miami led the whole way, taking a 12-point lead at the half and stretching it to 24 by the midpoint of the third quarter—the period that has been a problem for the Heat all season but became the catalyst to what became a rout on Sunday. And with that, it was obvious that Charlotte’s season was going to be bookended. It started with a loss in Miami. And it ended with a loss in Miami. “I still thought at halftime, we were fine,” Hornets Coach Steve Clifford said. “And then in the third quarter, it got away from us.” Wade has played in 29 postseason series; the Heat have won 22 of them. And under Spoelstra, the Heat are now 15-4 in post-season series, 8-4 when facing elimination games and 15-5 in games when they have a chance to oust an opponent. “I’m not a prophet or anything,” Wade said, “but I knew we were winning this game.” AP
B S AUSA Today
OAKLAND—Just before Klay Thompson headed to the Oracle Arena media room to discuss his latest playoff feat, a 37-point outing against the Portland Trail
Blazers on Sunday, in which he became the first player in National Basketball Association (NBA) history to hit seven or more three-pointers in three consecutive postseason games, the Golden State Warriors’ other Splash Brother saw something even more rare. A Stephen Curry miss—from point-blank range. The injured Most Valuable Player was sitting at his locker when it happened, chatting with Thompson about how the Warriors dominated yet again without him, in a 118-106 win that put them up 1-0 in the Western Conference Semifinals. Sporting black street clothes and a carefree smile, he fired an empty sports drink bottle toward the nearby trash can and...brick. Maybe they don’t need this guy after all. At least not this round. When Curry went down like a melting Gumby doll in Houston on April 24, you never would have guessed that their prospects for a title defense would be so promising one week later. A second-round matchup with the Clippers was still in play back then, as the basketball world didn’t learn until two days later that Chris Paul (broken hand) and Blake Griffin (quadriceps tendon tear) were out for the postseason. Enter a Blazers team that is your classic happy-to-be-here group, having lost four of five starters last offseason and severely overachieved to even get to this point, and the Warriors’ fortunes had taken a turn for the better just when it seemed like it couldn’t get any worse. From then until now—halftime of Game Four against the Houston Rockets all the way through Sunday—the Warriors have outscored the Rockets and the Blazers by a combined 82 points (307-225), while Curry cheers with all the spirit of a mascot from the bench. The right MCL sprain he suffered in Game Four against Houston isn’t as bad as feared, either, as he even hinted to ESPN’s Lisa Salters during an in-game interview that he could be back for Game three against Portland. What’s more, the beauty
of Curry’s absence is that, with the spotlight having shifted, it has forced us to appreciate Thompson’s
special talent. Amid all the Curry madness, it’s often forgotten that some wondered whether he was the best player on his team just two summers ago. During Team USA’s gold
medal run at FIBA World Cup in Spain, the combination of Thompson’s shooting and relentless defense was enough to make it a conversation. That same summer, even the Warriors were guilty of not fully knowing what they had. As has been well-chronicled, they gave serious thought to trading Thompson to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a deal that would have landed them Kevin Love. They ultimately declined, in large part because of concerns about what it would do to their defense. From owner Joe Lacob on down, they’ve been reminded why it was such a wise move to keep him ever since. “Not many guys in the league who could chase Damian Lillard around for 37 minutes and score 37 points, too,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Klay is a tremendous two-way player, and that was really an amazing night for him just in terms of his all-around play.... That’s a big burden to have to play both ways like that. He was awesome.” Thompson not only led a high-powered offensive effort but spent 37 minutes smothering one of the game’s best point guards in Damian Lillard (eight-of-26 shooting for 30 points and a minus-19 plus-minus rating). He called Lillard the Blazers’ “head of the snake” afterward—as good a clue as any that there will be more where this came from in the coming games. On the other end, he did the kind of Curry impression that few, if any other shooters could pull off. A reporter noted afterward that Thompson had been practicing his deep threes of late, backing up near the logo at the team’s practice facility in the same kind of way that Curry has for so long. Thompson, whose seemingly-endless swagger is such a unique juxtaposition with his desire to avoid the limelight, grinned when asked about it. “I’ve seen Steph do [that shot] a lot, so I’m just trying to be like him,” he said. “Those are shots that you don’t really want to take that much during the game, but if you make five or six in a row and you feel your guy is off you....” Fire away. With or without Curry, the Warriors just can’t seem to miss.
The injured Most Valuable Player
Stephen was sitting at his locker when it happened, chatting with Klay
Thompson about how the Warriors
dominated yet again without him, in a
118-106 win that put them up 1-0 in the
Western Conference Semifinals. Sporting
black street clothes and a carefree smile,
he fired an empty sports-drink bottle toward the nearby
trash can and...brick.
TORONTO—DeMar DeRozan scored 30 points and Jonas Valanciunas had 15 rebounds and 10 points, as the Toronto Raptors beat the Indiana Pacers, 89-84, on Sunday night in
Game Seven of the first-round playoff series to advance to face Miami in the conference semifinals. Rookie Norman Powell added 13 points while Kyle Lowry had 11 points and nine assists and Patrick Patterson had 11 points to help Toronto win a seven-game series for the first time in franchise history. The Raptors won their first postseason series since a five-game triumph over the New York Knicks in 2001, ending the National Basketball Association’s longest active drought between playoff series victories. Paul George led Indiana with 26 points and 12 rebounds, George Hill scored 19 points and Monta Ellis had 15. Up 78-64 after three quarters, the Raptors didn’t make their first basket of the final quarter until a three by Powell at 8:19. Joseph followed with a pullup jumper to make it 81-67, leading to an Indiana timeout. The Pacers responded by scoring 12 of the next 14 points, cutting it to 85-79 with 3:23 remaining. Indiana cut it to three at 85-82 on Ellis’s three-pointer with 2:37 left but Lowry answered with a driving lay-up. George made a pair of free throws with 52 seconds left to pull Indiana within three again at 87-84. After DeRozan missed a three-pointer, Solomon Hill grabbed the rebound and Indiana called a timeout to draw up a play for George but he turned the ball over. DeRozan made the steal then got fouled at the other end and made both with 6.5 seconds left, giving the Raptors an 89-84 lead. George missed a three with 3.9 seconds left, Biyombo grabbed the rebound and Lowry heaved the ball to the other end of the court as time expired, sending Toronto into the second round. DeRozan scored 13 points in the first quarter, overcoming 12 by George and the Raptors led 28-23 after one. DeRozan’s first-quarter total was more than he had in either Games Four or Six, when he scored eight points. De Rozan made just one of five field goal attempts in the second but Powell came off the bench to score 10 points. DeRozan also scored 13 points in the third quarter. AP
Raptorssnap out
of drought
HEAT center Hassan Whiteside (21) converts against the Hornets in the �rst half of Game Seven on Sunday. AP
KLAY THOMPSON scores 37 points in another
brilliant performance for Golden State. AP
SPORTS C1
WITH OR WITHOUTCURRY
AVIATION Explosive Ordinance Disposal Management Unit member PO2 Lorna Tolentino and her K9, named Edd Sanc, inspect baggages inside the Naia Terminal 3 in Pasay City. She is just one of the members of the Aviation Security Group, which, composed of armed men in all-matte black uniform, is also part of the agencies that monitor them. Some of them could be seen boarding vehicles, sometimes with a K9 team in tow to sniff out bombs. NONIE REYES
B R M @rectomercene R A @reneacostaBM
Second of three parts
FAR south from the three international a irports in Manila, a war continues to
rage: a war against terror.Waged by combined pol ice
and military forces, the war has recently unveiled the presence of a group fearfully linked to interna-tional terrorist groups. The death last week of two
reported members of the terrorist group Ansar Khilafa Philippines (AKP) fanned belief the Islamic State (IS) has already made its presence in the country or, as what the government maintains, has
ADB, AIIB to cofinanceroad, water projects in Asia
SOUTH CHINA SEA WATCH:
SCARBOROUGH SHOAL AS A RED LINE
IN this April 16, 2012, file photo, protesters display placards during their rally outside the Chinese Consulate at the financial district of Makati City, to accuse poaching by Chinese fishermen at the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. AP
SHOW D3
GOMES: “Bangladesh expects this money to go
fast and they want to see
some results. This delay is the
only concern.”This delay is the
S “G,” A
Terrorism in Southern Philippines fans belief threatsto security intensifying
$504MThe cost of the e-trike project that involves the purchase of 100,000 electric tricyclesADB-funded Market Transfor-mation through Introduction of Energ y-Eff ic ient Electr ic Vehicles Project. “There are many issues. It was not only the batteries, it was also
ADB Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department Director Preety M. Bhandari made this pronouncement in a news
briefing here on Monday. The $504-million project involves the supply and delivery of 100,000 units of e-trike. This is part of the
to promote the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the COP21 climate agreement. Manila-based ADB is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth and regional integration.
Established in 1966, the ADB in December 2016 will mark 50 years of development partnership in the region. It is owned by 67 members—48 from the region. In 2015 ADB assistance totaled $27.2 billion, in-cluding cofinancing of $10.7 billion. AIIB, located in Beijing, is a mul-tilateral development bank that focuses on the development of in-frastructure and other productive sectors in Asia, including energy and power, transportation and telecommunications, rural infra-structure and agriculture develop-ment, water supply and sanitation, environmental protection, urban development and logistics.
Cai U. Ordinario
[email protected], May 3, 2016A2
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Technical kinks placed e-trike project in limbo C
Are PHL airports ready for Brussels-type attack?C A
managed to influence some groups.What National Police (PNP) operatives
found at the site of the killing of two AKP members on Thursday failed to douse such rumors. At Sitio Bulat, Barangay Daliao, Maasim, Sarangani, the PNP found a Bar-ret rifle, homemade bomb components and a black flag bearing the symbol of Isis.
Unlike the Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsam-oro Islamic Liberation Front (BIFF), which have pledged their allegiance to the IS two years ago, the AKP has been listed as a sleeper cell and a direct offshoot of the IS in the country.
Again, the military claimed there was no direct links between the AKP and IS.
Daesh or IS?THE raid in Sarangani showed the tentacles and the operations of the AKP has spread in Mindanao. The group’s existence was initially learned by the public through the massive operations by the military in Butig, Lanao del Sur, in February.
The military operations broke a group—called by the military as a “foreign-allied local terrorist group”—with more than a hundred men led by the Maute brothers. The group was strategically settled in a well-entrenched camp located in what was supposed to be a stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
During the weeklong firefight that also forced the evacuation of more than 30,000 people, the military killed dozens of “ban-dits.” Those slain included their leader Omar Maute and two of his brothers, in-cluding Matti. The terrorist group is led and controlled by the six Maute siblings.
After the camp was overran, it yielded IS flags, the same symbol that the group’s members flew during the fighting and wore as bandanas. In the aftermath of the operations, mili-tary spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla then said there was no direct link between the IS and the foreign-allied terrorist group. There were no reports also that tend to indicate local terrorist groups, including the ASG and the BIFF, were getting support from the IS. “Based on information at hand, there’s no presence of Daesh [Arab acronym for the IS] in the Philippines,” Padilla said. “It has not been established. There’s no direct relation between the group here and the bigger terror group Daesh out there.”
DismissalARMY chief Lt. Gen. Eduardo Año has down-played the Maute group as nothing but a band of criminals.
“They were just a bunch of guns-for-hire, extortionists and bandits who wanted to be recognized as Isis,” Año said.
What Año and Padilla failed to say con-cerned the group’s affiliations—that it has ties with both the Southeast Asian terror group Jema’ah Islamiyah and IS.
It was not also stated that the group in Butig, with more than a hundred men, was the main body of the AKP in the country. Likewise, it was not said that months before the operations, IS flags were already being displayed in several gatherings by young Moro groups in Basilan, Sulu and Zamboanga peninsula.
Padilla has maintained the rumor that Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) is already in Mindanao is just that, a rumor.
“That rumor has no basis, especially the one that says that they have established a caliphate in Mindanao,” Padilla said, adding that Daesh, instead of Isil, is the appropri-ate name for these terrorists. Daesh is preferred over Isil because it is essentially political and ideological. Gov-ernments have noted that calling the ter-rorists ‘Islamic State’ confers it legitimacy —acknowledges its claim to being the “ca-liphate” and, thus, the supreme authority all Muslims should bow to.
This not only raises their stature, it also insults the mass of Muslims worldwide who consider the Isil no more than a bunch of murderers and terrorists, according to per-sons familiar with the matter. Also, the claim of being the “Islamic State” is at the core of the IS’s propaganda, and its primary recruitment strategy. Arab governments have, in fact, been using Daesh for quite some time now.
Isil wannabeARMED Forces of the Philippines Spokes-
man Col. Restituto F. Padilla Jr. dismissed the reported presence of Daesh members in Mindanao as “Isil wannabes.” “There are many groups sympathetic or inspired to the bigger Daesh, that’s the better word to use for this particular group.” Padilla added these groups within the Philippine territory “style themselves in the context of what they see is the fad in the world outside.”
He said when terrorist groups Jema’ah Islamiyah and al-Qaeda became bywords a few years ago, these lawless groups and ban-dits in Mindanao have styled themselves as belonging to these groups. Padilla said academics who claim the existence of a caliphate in Mindanao and wrote about them like experts have not even set foot in Jolo and Basilan, bastions of these bandit groups.
“They [bandit groups] are just wan-nabes,” Padilla said. “Up to this moment the Armed Forces has not seen any clear and verifiable or direct links with Daesh.”
He explained that the Isil are funda-mentalists or jihadist militant group who follow an Islamic fundamentalist law, the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam.
Padilla noted the Isil is also different from the Abu Sayyaf. “The Abu Sayyaf is nothing but a bunch of bandits who are more interested in money by demanding ransom.” Aviation Security Group (Avse-group) Chief Supt. Francisco Balagtas also dismissed reports IS and Isil is present in Mindanao.
“They behave differently than home-grown terrorist,” Balagtas, Avsegroup com-mander, said. He added that Isil forces need to acclimatize in the country before they could do their dirty work, which would be
difficult for them because of our culture.” “It takes time to acclimatize,” he said. “They have to undergo a case-buildup first, then surveillance.”
Abu SayyafIT was through social media that Filipinos were introduced again to the brutality of the Abu Sayyaf. The group posted a video of their hostages, one of which they beheaded: John Ridsdel of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. That single act brought the Philip-pines to the center of world attention and brought the issue to Filipinos terror is as closer to home as it is in France and in Brussels, Belgium. These terror attacks brought fresh memories of the 2013 bomb-ing at the Boston Marathon.
The authorities in these countries en-gaged in a devoted search for the culprits, found them after a thorough manhunt and either killed or imprisoned the perpetrators.
In the Philippines President Aquino and other high officials commiserated with Ca-nadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who denounced the killing of his own citizen as a “heinous act.” But overall, there was no sense of panic from the citizenry and, instead, the overall response was one of weariness on hearing that Mr. Aquino has ordered the security forces to apply the full force of the law and bring to justice the extremist Abu Sayyaf Group. The people have heard the same refrain from the highest officials before. When asked how prepared is the Armed Forces to deal with a terrorist attack, Pa-dilla said he would throw back the same question to the reporter: “Have the Filipi-nos been able to experience the things that happened in the US, Paris and Belgium?”
30,000 The number of people evacuated during a military operation in Butig, Lanao del Sur, in
February against bandits allegedly led by the Maute brothers
in terms of what kind of produc-tion capacity could be set up in the Philippines and local procurement,” Bhandari said.
“There is also an issue as to whether the Philippines should be doing more on the transportation or on the energy efficiency side,” she added. In February the Department of Energy (DOE) awarded the con-
tract to supply only 3,000 e-trikes to Japanese firm Uzushio Electric Co. Ltd.
The $504 million-worth project is financed by the ADB and the na-tional government. Manila will set aside $99 million as counterpart fund for the project. But Bhandari said there are now discussions with the Philippine
government, and the project is ex-pected to get “back on track soon.” Also, the ADB’s country of-fice in the Philippines confirmed that efforts to save the project have progressed. The Manila-based multilateral development bank extended a loan of $300 million for the project. It will also be financed through a
$100-million loan and a $5-mil-lion grant from the ADB Clean Technology Fund.
In 2012 the ADB announced that it has approved the $300 million for the “groundbreaking” project that will replace 100,000 gasoline-burning tricycles in the Philippines with clean and ener-gy-efficient electric tricycles.
The ADB noted that about 3.5 million gas-fueled motorcycles and tricycles are currently operating in the Philippines, typically serving as short-distance taxis, with the average tricycle driver earning less than $10 a day. The Manila-based multilateral development bank said e-trike drivers will save upward of $5 a day in fuel costs and increase their
income, as it could carry more pas-sengers. E-trike drivers saw their daily incomes more than double during a pilot program in Metro Manila.
The e-trikes, which run on an electric motor and rechargeable lithium-ion battery, will be intro-duced to Metro Manila and other urban centers across the Philippines under a lease-to-own arrangement.
T h e A DB s a i d r e p l a c i n g 100,000 gasoline-powered trikes will enable the Philippine gov-ernment to save more than $100 million a year in avoided fuel imports, while decreasing an-nual carbon-dioxide emissions by about 260,000 tons.
The DOE said the project will reduce the country’s reliance on foreign oil imports. Fabricating and assembling the tricycles domesti-cally will create up to 10,000 jobs. In line with the government’s plan to develop a national e-vehicle industry, the project will support the establishment of an e-vehicle parts industry, battery supply chain and charging stations, including five off-grid solar-charging stations.
ADB. . . C A
Mga minamahal kong kababayan:
I lang araw na lamang at halalan na. Nais kong magpasalamat sa milyon-milyong Pilipino na patuloy na naniniwala sa akin.
Hindi kayo nagpalinlang sa kabi-kabilang paninira. Nanindigan kayo na ako ay hindi nabahiran sa aking kakayahang pamunuan ang ating bansa. Makakaasa kayo, at ito ay aking panata, na ako ay magiging matapat, malinis at totoo sa aking paglilingkod sa ating mahal na bayan. Ako ay manunungkulan na may malasakit at buong paniniwalang maiiangat ko ang buhay ng bawat Pilipino. Nararapat lamang na tayo ay mamuhay sa ating bansa na mapayapa, maunlad, meron
JOJO BINAY, PAGKAPANGULO NG PILIPINAS
disiplina at may pagsunod sa batas ng Diyos at ng tao. Hindi matitinag ang aking kaibuturang pagmamahal sa bayan kahit na anumang unos ang aking dadaanan. Una ang bayan sa aking pamumuno. Una kayo, bago ako. Ako ay hindi natatakot at nangangamba, at lubos palagi ang aking paninindigan sa dakilang kakayahan ng bawat Pilipino. Hindi tayo bibitaw sa liwanag na bitbit ng pag-asa. Ipapatupad natin ang daan sa makabuluhang pagbabago. Ipagpatuloy natin ang ating paniniwala sa kabutihan at kakayahan ng bawat isa. Piliin natin ang magmahal sa Diyos, magtangkilik sa bayan at gumalang sa kapwa Pilipino. Itaguyod natin ang pangarap ng maginhawang buhay para sa lahat. Ako ay mamumuno na isang magandang halimbawa sa kabataan. Isasakatuparan ko din na ang bawat kabataan ay merong tamang edukasyon, aking pangangalagaan ang inyong kalusugan, ang mga kababaihan ay pahahalagan at ginagalang, ang mga mahihirap ay maiangat at merong trabaho para sa bawat Pilipino. Aarugain ko ang matatanda. Papaunlarin at papalaguin ko ang ekonomiya. Palalakasin ko ang ating sandatahan. Maging maayos ang pagsagawa ng infrastruktura. Susugpuin at aalisin ang lahat ng uring kasamaan at pangungurakot. Tayo ay mamumuhay sa isang bayan na mapayapa, maunlad matibay at may pagmamahal. Magiging taas nuo tayong lahat. Samahan niyo po ako. Tayo ay magdasal, magkapit bisig at magkaisa sa ating pagtataguyod ng matatag na Pilipinas. Kasama ko kayong bubuo ng isang dakilang yugto sa kasaysayan ng ating bansa. Ang bawat Pilipino ay kilalaning magaling, maginhawa at marangal. Lubos ang aking paniniwala sa Diyos at sa kapwa ko Pilipino. Pagpalain tayo lagi ng puong maykapal. Ako po si Jojo Binay, handang maglingkod sa pagkapangulo ng Pilipinas.
POLITICAL AD PAID FOR BY LUISA PIGAO UNIT 808 RAFFLES CORPORATE CENTER, EMERALD AVE. PASIG CITY.
BusinessMirror www.businessmirror.com.ph Tuesday, May 3, 2016A4
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The shoal, therefore, represents “a red line” to the US and its allies, he said. China says Huangyan Island—Chinese for Scarborough—appears on maps as Chinese territory starting in 1935. Last week the new US Air Force contingent from Luzon flew sor-ties near Scarborough, drawing a mild rebuke from China. The Wall Street Journal quoted US officials as saying that Navy ships canceled a freedom of navigation operation scheduled for April, in order to “lower the temperature” in the South China Sea.
US lawmakers wantmore naval operationsMEMBERS of the US Congress are urging the Obama administration to order more naval operations in the South China Sea.
“I don’t know why we are not doing it weekly, or monthly,” said Republican Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, noting the US has about 60 percent of its naval vessels in the Pacific region. Sen. Cory Gardner said sending US ships into the area every three months “is simply insuf-ficient to send a strong message to China.”
Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said such operations will take place regularly. Blinken agreed with Sen. Marco Rubio that China’s objective was control of the en-tire South China Sea. Blinken said China was
alienating its neighbors and risked “conflict, instability and isolation,” unless it changed its approach and clarified its claims in ac-cordance with international law.
China’s ‘consensus’ with 3 Asean members questionedCHINESE Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s statement that Beijing had reached a consensus with Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia and Lao PDRon the South China Sea has been met with some skepticism—and concern from other Asean members.
Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan said that no new agreement with China on the issue has been reached. Laos and Vietnam, which is also squabbling with China, issued a joint statement pledging to accelerate the settlement of disputes in line with international law. They also called for a binding Code of Conduct to govern dis-putes, something Beijing has been reluctant to conclude.
Singapore’s senior diplomat Ong Keng
Yong said Beijing may be trying to split the regional bloc. “Having [the Chinese] foreign minister announce that two of non-claimant states, namely, Cambodia and Laos, have decided that they are not going to do this and that, seems to me like interfering in the domes-tic affairs of Asean,” said the former Asean secretary-general. China asked Singapore to clarify Ong’s comments. AP
SCARBOROUGH SHOAL AS A RED LINE
Duterte told supporters on Sun-day night at the Liwasang Bonifacio square in Manila that he will defend Philippine claims in the contested waters while remaining open to the possibility of joint exploration for en-ergy assets with China. He may also ask China to help build key railway projects connecting Manila to prov-inces, and for assistance with a long-standing plan for a train system in Mindanao, his home region.
“If negotiations will be in still wa-ters in one or two years, I will talk to the Chinese,” Duterte, 71, told a crowd of about a thousand people.
Bilateral talks would mark a de-parture from the policy of outgoing President Aquino, who has brought China before an international arbi-tration panel to try to resolve the dispute, leading to a deterioration in bilateral ties. China has been more aggressively asserting its claims to more than 80 percent of the water-way in recent years, reclaiming more than 3,000 acres of land to build out artificial islands that will better al-low it to project force in waters that are a rich fishing ground for the Philippines.
Senators, meanwhile, have yet to forge a clear consensus on Malaca-ñang’s rejection of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s call for bilateral nego-tiations to resolve the brewing ter-ritorial dispute in the West Philip-pine Sea, even as the Palace awaits the decision of the United Nations affirming formal claims lodged by the Philippine government before the UN Arbitral Tribunal.
Sen. Sergio R. Osmeña III, an administration ally, endorsed the Palace option to stick to the UN ar-bitration track taken by the Aquino administration, which seeks a clearer definition of maritime entitlements in the West Philippine Sea, effective-ly rejecting bilateral negotiations to explore a settlement of the brewing sea row with China.
“Yes,” Osmeña told the Busi-nessMirror when asked if the Senate should support Malaca-ñang refusal to sit down for talks with China in the midst of the ongoing arbitration proceedings. But Senate Deputy Minority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III took an op-posing position
Sotto, in a separate interview,
indicated he was not inclined to back the Palace refusal to sit down for talks with China. Instead, Sotto suggested the Executive could still consider other available options to finally resolve the sea row.
“If there is a chance for negotia-tion, we should listen first,” Sotto said in a separate text message to the BusinessMirror yesterday.
However, other senators sought for comment on the issue were not ready to bare their positions for or against the latest Palace position on the raging sea row.
The matter of considering an additional tack—making an effort to engage China bilaterally, or, at least, stepping back from the exclu-sive strategy of relying solely on the UN tribunal’s ruling, which China is certain to defy anyway—was raised last week by a former justice secre-tary and solicitor general.
Duterte has said he will tout the Philippines’s alliance with Western powers, such as the US to get China to accept the Philippine position. He also said he would ride a jet ski to a disputed island occupied by China and personally stake the Philip-pines’s claims.
China has failed to recognize the legitimacy of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague to deal with the dispute, and said it will only engage in bilateral talks with claim-ant states over the water, which hosts about $5 trillion in shipping a year. China’s claims to most of the South China Sea overlaps with those of the Philippines and four other states.
Duterte was leading the field of five candidates for the May 9 elec-tions with 33-percent support, with Sen. Grace Poe in second place with 22 percent, according to the latest opinion poll by Pulse Asia Research Inc. released by ABS-CBN on April 29.
Duterte, who ruled Davao for 22 years and is credited with improv-ing security and the economy of the southern city, also told supporters during his May 1 speech that he won’t live in the presidential residence; has no plans to hold a big inaugural event; and will shun banquets with foreign envoys. He also pledged to appoint a nonpolitician to head the trans-portation department, pursue a fair peace deal with all Muslim rebels and work for genuine land reform that will improve the lot of farmers. His administration will pour P1 billion, or $21 million, per region to boost small and midsized businesses.
The mayor, accused of not declar-ing tens of millions of dollars in as-sets, questioned how Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes IV got access to information on his bank accounts when Philip-pine laws guarantee deposit secrecy. Trillanes and Duterte’s lawyer are meeting on Monday at the Julia Var-gas branch of the Bank of the Philip-pine Islands to discuss the mayor’s alleged undisclosed accounts.
Speaking before the Rotary Club of Manila at the Manila Polo Club on April 28, former Justice Secretary top Philippine lawyer Estelito Men-doza said the “portent of war” on Phil-ippine territory appeared imminent with Manila’s single-track approach, and suggested that President Aquino “take pause from the election cam-paign to ‘cool down’ the simmering heat in the South China Sea.”
Mendoza went further, saying: “And with the expiry of his term as President on June 30, 2016, I suggest
that the Philippines ask the Arbitral Tribunal to suspend the proceedings on the Arbitral claim of the Philip-pines and to defer rendering judg-ment at least until July 31, 2016, in order that whoever may be elected president in our May 9 elections may have time to consider the matter.”
Malacanang over the weekend thumbed down Xi’s initiative to hold bilateral talks to negotiate a settle-ment of the territorial dispute in the South China Sea pending a rul-ing by the United Nation Tribunal. Speaking for the Palace, Presidential Communications Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III said the Aquino administration prefers to trust the process under international law for resolving territorial disputes through arbitration.
This even as the Palace official also assured that the outgoing Aqui-no administration will comply with any UN decision on the pending ar-bitration case lodged by the Philip-pines before the UN body.
According to Quezon, the Palace expects the UN Tribunal Permanent Court of Arbitration to promulgate in the next few weeks its decision on the case filed by the Philippines against China in 2013. He said the awaited ruling is expected to finally resolve the territorial dispute.
China, however, steadfastly re-jects UN intervention to settle the raging sea row, refusing to recognize jurisdiction of the Arbitral Tribunal.
The Palace spokesman affirmed that the Philippine government maintains it’s official stand reject-
ing China’s “invalid claim” over the disputed territories situated well within the Philippine boundaries recognized by international law.
Still, Quezon conceded China’s “right to ventilate” their position, but affirmed that the Philipines has “a strong case” and will abide by the UN Arbitral Court’s ruling.
For his part, Mendoza in his presentation to the Rotary Club of Manila, proposed convening of the National Security Council “whose spectrum of membership includes the leadership of both the Executive and Legislative departments, repre-senting the majority and minority parties, as well as past presidents of the Philippines and private citizens, as the President may designate, be convened at the earliest possible time to consider” what Mendoza described in his presentation as the “buildup of armed might in the South China Sea: portents of war on our land.” Mendoza said the Philippines should, 70 years since World War II, learn the lessons about the cruelty of war, and seek every effort to avert armed conflict, especially since China has been responding to Manila with a militaristic approach.
He described the so-called ar-bitration that Mendoza hinted was egged on by western powers, as sim-ply a “political provocation under the cloak of law aimed at negating China’s sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, instead of resolving the dispute.” The UN tribunal has no jurisdiction over territorial disputes, Mendoza noted. In the past, Philippine law-yers have been careful to note that Manila is seeking a clear definition of its maritime entitlements in the South China Sea, and not seeking a declaration of territorial claim.
With Bloomberg News
CHINA has denied a United States carrier strike group’s request for a port visit to
Hong Kong next week amid escalat-ing tensions in the adjacent South China Sea.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs notified the US on Thursday of its decision to deny the USS John C. Stennis and its escort ships access to the former British colony, Dar-ragh Paradiso, a spokeswoman for the US Consulate General in Hong Kong, said by phone. The ministry provided no explanation for the move, she said.
The decision follows weeks of increasing diplomatic sparring be-tween China and the US over Bei-jing’s claims to more than 80 percent
of the South China Sea. The nuclear-powered Stennis has played a central role in US efforts to demonstrate its continued security presence in the disputed waters, with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter visiting the warship on patrol there earlier this month.
The Stennis has become a “sym-bol of efforts to spark strategic ten-sions between China and the United States,” said Shi Yinhong, director of the Center on American Studies at Renmin University in Beijing and a foreign-policy adviser to the State Council. “The cancellation is a snapshot of the current intensity in China-US security relations. With-out significant security need, rou-tine port calls would not have been
canceled.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.
Port visitsCHINA’S claims to the South China Sea have fueled disputes with other Southeast Asian nations that assert rights to the area, including Viet-nam and the Philippines. Tensions are running high, as the region brac-es for a ruling by an international arbitration panel on a Philippine challenge to China’s claims.
While US warships frequently visit Hong Kong, port calls have been canceled at times of diplomatic strain between the two Asia-Pacific powers. In 2007 China denied access to the city’s port by the aircraft car-
rier, the USS Kitty Hawk.“We have a long track record
of successful port visits to Hong Kong, including with the current visit of the USS Blue Ridge, and we expect that will continue,” Parad-iso said, referencing the US Navy command ship already moored in the city.
Beijing has reclaimed more than 3,000 acres to build up artificial islands, some of them featuring ports and runways that will allow it to better assert its claims to a waterway that hosts more than $5 trillion in annual shipping. The US, which is not a claimant, contends that the militarization of the is-lands may hinder navigation in the waters. Bloomberg News
Front-runner Duterte open to talks with China on sea row, but senators divided
B B F @butchfBM
RODRIGO R. DUTERTE, the tough-talking Davao City mayor who is leading Philippine presiden-
tial polls, said he will hold bilateral talks with China to resolve a territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), if the current multilateral discus-sions don’t bear fruit within two years.
China denies US carrier Hong Kong visit
If negotiations will be in still waters in one or two years, I will
talk to the Chinese.”—D
No matter how many and how frequently US ships come to
the South China Sea, that would not change the fact that the islands and adjacent islands are China’s inherent territory.”—C D M S C. W Q
[email protected] Editor: Max V. de Leon • Tuesday, May 3, 2016 A5
AseanTuesdayBeaches of dead fish test new Vietnam government’s responseMILLIONS of dead fish
stretched out over 200 kilo-meters of central Vietnam-
ese beaches are posing the biggest test so far for the new government.
The Communist administration led by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has been criticized on social media for a lack of transparency and slow response, with thousands protesting on Sunday in major cities and provincial areas.
The government says it doesn’t know why the wild and farmed fish were found dead on the coast of four provinces from April 6 to 18. The phenomenon “caused economic and environmental damage, hurt the fishery industry and particularly re-sulted in puzzled sentiment among citizens,” it said in a statement on April 28.
In a country where public protests are rare, anger over the dead fish has created a challenge for officials on how to react: While an offshoot of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics has been questioned over the incident and drew ire on social media, the gov-ernment must also assure foreign companies it welcomes their busi-ness, given the focus on investment to drive the economy.
“It’s their first crisis and it’s really a delicate one,” said Fred Burke, man-aging partner at law firm Baker & McKenzie (Vietnam) Ltd. “Millions of livelihoods are at risk. The popu-lation is extremely unhappy.” Burke is a member of a government council and advises on foreign-investment projects in the country.
With information scarce, the inci-dent has heightened concerns about damage to the environment, food safety and how businesses are regu-lated. State media raised questions about a waste pipe running into the sea from Formosa’s steel plant being built in Ha Tinh province.
Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp. “is deeply surprised and sorry about” the fish deaths, it said in a statement on April 26, adding there is no proven link to the incident. It said its total investment in the Vietnam plant was $10.5 billion, including $45 million for a wastewater treatment system. That system has regulatory permits and meets national standards, it said.
The government has said there is no evidence for now to show Formosa was responsible. The fish may have been killed by toxins discharged by
It’s their first crisis and
it’s really a delicate one.”—B MK
Anger spread on social media af-ter a local Formosa official said Viet-namese should choose between their seafood industry or a steel plant. The company later apologized for the comment, according to local media.
Still, hundreds of people have used Facebook to urge the govern-ment to close the plant. “For people’s health and our motherland protec-tion, let’s ask Formosa to compen-sate for the fishermen and kick it out of our country right away,” a user named Truong Thu Ha said. More than 100,000 people signed a peti-tion calling for US President Barack Obama to raise the issue with Viet-nam in his visit this month.
Confidence crisis“VIETNAMESE who are rarely con-sulted about and aware of invest-ment projects face a big crisis of confidence,” said Thi Nguyen, a Ho Chi Minh City-based independent environmental consultant. “Foreign investment is important but the Vietnamese government shouldn’t attract foreign investment at any cost, and this disaster proved that.”
Vu Tu Thanh, the chief Vietnam representative of the US-Asean Busi-
ness Council, said the government must walk a line between assuag-ing public anger and not unnerving foreign businesses. Companies based in Vietnam from nations including Japan and the United States are watching to see if the country moves to retroactively amend regulations, Thanh said.
Vietnam’s government has sought foreign investment to help it achieve this year’s growth target of 6.7 percent. The economy grew 5.46 percent in the first quarter, versus 7.01 percent in the last quarter of 2015, as income from crude oil and agriculture production dropped.
Oil rigTAIWAN was the third-largest inves-tor in Vietnam in the first quarter, after South Korea and Singapore. It invested $465.6 million in the pe-riod, according to Vietnam govern-ment figures.
Formosa has been the focus of public anger in Vietnam before. In May 2014 it and other Taiwan-ese businesses were attacked by protesters after China placed an oil rig in disputed waters off Viet-nam’s coast. Formosa said the riots,
where one Chinese worker died of heat stroke, caused $3 million in losses, and it received 30 billion dong in compensation.
“What the government is wor-ried about is if they are too vocal in criticizing them, it will still stir up anti-Chinese sentiment and cre-ate trouble,” Burke from Baker & McKenzie said, referring to Formosa. “But if they are not vocal enough, they are viewed as coddling these guys who are seen as being disre-spectful of Vietnam and its envi-ronment.”
The latest incident adds to con-cerns about food safety. Local media have reported recently that toxins are sometimes found in pork and vegetables. While the government banned the use of the dead fish in central provinces for food or animal feed, many locals expressed concern it may be processed into fish sauce, a family staple.
“I’m stocking enough sauce for a year,” said housewife Nguyen Thi Lan, as she piled sauce bottles into her basket at a supermarket in Ha-noi. “I need to avoid sauce made out of dead fish before it spreads.”
Bloomberg News
BOGOR, West Java—Indone-sian President Joko Widodo reiterated the importance
of sea security in the border areas when he announced the release of 10 Indonesian ship crew members held hostage by Abu Sayyaf militant group in the Philippines so far here on Sunday.
In view of that, a meeting relat-ing to it would be held here on May 5 between Indonesian, Malaysian and Philippine foreign ministers and defense-forces commanders.
At the end of April before the re-lease of the 10 hostages, Widodo has initiated a joint patrol by Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
“This week we will invite mili-tary commanders and foreign ministers from the Philippines and Malaysia to meet here. We will set up a joint patrol to assure the shipping lane in the area is safe,” Widodo said.
He said the process of releasing the 10 hostages who were abducted by an armed group in the Philip-pine waters some time ago was not a simple matter.
All parties must understand and know that the issue of hostage-tak-ing was not a simple matter, as ef-forts to release the hostages involved many parties, including formal and informal ones, he said.
In view of that, Widodo expressed thanks and appreciation to all parties that have been involved in the efforts to release the hostages so far, includ-ing the Philippine government.
Indonesia Defense Forces Com-mander General Gatot Nurmantyo said efforts are still being taken to release four other Indonesian citizens that are still being held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf Group in the Philippines.
“I ask for your prayers so they can also be released safely,” he said at the Presidential Palace after flanking Widodo at a news conference to an-nounce the release of 10 Indonesian ship crewmembers.
General Nurmantyo said efforts to release the four other hostages would also prioritize safety of the hostages.
A Philippine army officer who has been helping to deal with kidnap-
pings by the Abu Sayyaf said a rebel commander from the Moro National Liberation Front, which has signed a peace deal with the Philippine gov-ernment, helped negotiate with the Abu Sayyaf for the release of the 10 Indonesians.
The hostages were escorted down from a jungle encampment in Sulu and left outside the home of Gov-ernor Abdusakur Tan II, the army officer said by phone on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
After the Indonesians were kid-napped at sea in March, suspected Abu Sayyaf militants separately attacked two other tugboats and snatched four Indonesians and four Malaysians who are believed to have also been brought by speedboats to the militants’ jungle bases in Sulu, a predominantly Muslim province about 950 kilometers (590 miles) south of Manila.
Alarmed by the successive at-tacks, Indonesia’s Jokowi said last week that his government would host talks with Malaysia and the Philippines to boost security in wa-
ters bordering the three countries.He said the meeting of foreign
ministers and military chiefs would discuss joint patrols to protect ship-ping. A Malaysian diplomat said one proposal is to harness satellite technology to keep an eye on the vast stretch of water and allow fast-er reaction by naval and maritime police forces.
When asked whether ransom was paid for the Indonesians’ release, the army officer said he was unaware of any payment, but noted that the Abu Sayyaf traditionally has released captives only after money has been paid.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen beheaded a Canadian hostage in Sulu last Monday after they failed to re-ceive a huge ransom by a deadline they had set.
Philippine troops launched an of-fensive against the Abu Sayyaf after the beheading, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has vowed to help the Philippines bring the killers to justice.
More than a dozen foreign and local hostages remain in the hands
of the Abu Sayyaf, including an-other Canadian and a Norwegian who were kidnapped last Septem-ber, and a Dutch bird watcher who was kidnapped more than three years ago.
An unusual surge in kidnappings, including the tugboat attacks, along with recent beheadings by the Abu Sayyaf and a few small extremist groups that have emerged in the southern Philippines may be an ef-fort by the militants to show off their capability and brutality and associ-ate themselves with the Islamic State group in the Middle East, terrorism analysts say.
The Abu Sayyaf emerged as an extremist offshoot of the decades-long Muslim secessionist conflict in the southern Philippines and has carved its name in blood, carrying out mass kidnappings, beheadings and bombings.
The brutal group, which is es-timated to have about 400 armed fighters split into a few factions, has been blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization. PNA, ANTARA, AP
4.45B bahtBJC’s international sales in 2015
Widodo reiterates importance of sea security in border areas
human activities or algal blooms, known as a red tide, it said.
‘Clean sea’EVEN so, thousands protested in sites on Sunday, including the capi-tal Hanoi. In Ho Chi Minh City, the crowd of 1,000 carried signs read-ing “please return a clean sea to us” and “stop discharging waste water into the sea.”
“We wanted to raise our voice to protect our environment,” said Tran Thi Thu Nguyet, who joined the rally. Facebook posts also showed photos of protests in southern and central provinces.
Police detained two people they said collected and spread informa-tion on the Internet to spur protests over the fish deaths, Vietnam Tele-vision reported on Sunday, citing provincial authorities. One person allegedly entered the Formosa In-dustrial Zone last month to film and interview local people, it said.
Fishing and tourism have been hurt. Fishermen in central Quang Binh province have lost 115 billion dong ($5.2 million), according to the local government. About 30 percent of tourists canceled visits to the province which houses Son Doong, the world’s largest cave, during a four-day holiday starting on April 30, it said.
Public apologyIN an unusually candid response, the government admitted it was slow to react, and new Environment Minister Tran Hong Ha publicly apol-ogized. “The initial handling process was passive,” the administration said in its April 28 statement. Environ-mental monitoring was “untimely, inaccurate and infrequent,” in part, as some systems weren’t linked.
FR. BERRIGAN, VIETNAM WAR PROTESTER, DIES This July 25, 1973, �le photo shows Rev. Fr. Daniel Berrigan and some friends participating in a fast and vigil to protest the bombing in Cambodia, on the steps of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. The Roman Catholic priest and Vietnam war protester Berrigan has died. He was 94. Michael Benigno, a spokesman for the Jesuits USA Northeast Province, says Berrigan died on Saturday at a Jesuit in�rmary at Fordham University. AP
SET-LISTED Berli Jucker Plc. (BJC), the trading company owned by billionaire Charoen
Sirivadhanabhakdi, has set its sights on becoming a leading operator in Asean in terms of production, sales, logistics and retail distribution.
CEO Aswin Techajareonvikul said BJC will focus on building stronger market infrastructure and new business models to grow sus-tainably. Its distribution channels will be used to understand consumer insights.
Thailand’s BJC targets Asean domination
“[The year] 2016 is the year of investment to build infrastructure, including distribution centers and retail, trading and online channels,” he said.
BJC aims to drive the market by setting Thailand as its main base, supported by a second base in Viet-nam, Lao PDR or Cambodia.
It aims for a 50-50 sales split be-tween domestic and international markets over the next five years. Its international sales in 2015 were worth 4.45 billion baht, contributing 22 percent of overall sales.
BJC’s expansion in the Asean Economic Community (AEC) will cover upstream, midstream and downstream businesses. With a fo-cus on consumer supplies and prod-ucts, it aims to mobilize investments through alliances, joint ventures or consolidations.
The company will focus its expan-sion on Thailand, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Cambodia and Malaysia.
After the launch of the AEC at the end of 2015, there have been no big movements in the market because of leadership changes in Myanmar, Lao PDR and Cambodia.
“The AEC will have more linkage after the new leaders have clear poli-cies for their countries. We expect a better impact from the AEC next year,” Aswin said.
BJC will continue to expand its retail business in Vietnam, where it changed the name of Metro Group to MM Mega Market Vietnam on January 6.
Expansion plans for both MM Mega Market stores in Vietnam and Big C in Thailand are under consid-eration. Aswin said BJC will allocate 4 billion to 5 billion baht to expand its business this year, mainly in the domestic market.
Consolidated revenue of BJC last year was 42.8 billion baht, up 2.9 per-cent, thanks mainly to the growth of glass and can businesses in the packaging supply chain.
BJC has opened MM Mega Market stores in Thailand, under the opera-tion of TCC Logistics and Warehouse. One is in Nong Khai province to boost trade between Thailand and Lao PDR and the second branch is in Sa Kaeo province for trade between Thailand and Cambodia.
BJC plans to open at least 15 new branches by 2019, especially in bor-der towns and big cities including Bangkok. The company expects to increase its 2016 revenue at a dou-ble-digit rate after seeing a gradual improvement in consumer spending in the first quarter.
Separately, Zalora, the fashion-focused e-commerce site backed by Rocket Internet, is selling its busi-nesses in Thailand and Vietnam to Thai retailer Central Group.
“Acquiring Zalora will support our move into online commerce. Online shopping has vast opportunities in this region,” a source said.
The group had been tipped to en-ter online commerce for some time, and sources say it struck a deal to buy the businesses from Zalora for about $10 million each. MCT
The WorldBusinessMirror [email protected], May 3, 2016A8
briefs
GENEVA—Scrambling to resuscitate a nearly dead truce in Syria, the Obama
administration has again been forced to turn to Russia for help, with little hope for the desired US outcome.
US forced to turn to Russia for help on SyriaPROTESTERS hold up a giant Syrian revolution �ag during a protest in front of the United Nations Headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military operations in areas held by insurgents around the country, mostly in the northern city of Aleppo, which has been the main point of violence. AP/BILAL HUSSEIN
At stake are thousands of lives and the fate of a feeble peace pro-cess essential to the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, and Secretary of State John F. Kerry has appealed once more to his Russian counterpart for assistance in con-taining and reducing the violence, particularly around city of Aleppo.
“We are talking directly to the Russians, even now,” Kerry said on his arrival in Geneva as he began talks with Jordanian Foreign Min-ister Nasser Judeh. “The hope is we can make some progress, but the United Nations Security Council Resolution calls for a full country, countrywide, cessation and also for all of the country to be acces-sible to humanitarian assistance. Obviously that hasn’t happened and isn’t happening.”
“These are critical hours. We look for Russia’s cooperation. We obviously look for the regime to listen to Russia and to respond to the international communities’
powerful statement to the UN Security Council.” Kerry spoke at length on Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to that end, and had been hoping to meet with Lavrov soon, according to US officials.
In Geneva Kerry met with Judeh and was to meet UN envoy Staf-fan de Mistura and Saudi Foreign
Minister Adel al-Jubeir on Monday before returning to Washington.
But Lavrov was not expected to be in Geneva, complicating Kerry’s efforts to make the case directly to the Russians for more pressure on their Syrian govern-ment allies to stop or, at least, limit attacks in Aleppo.
The State Department said Ker-ry, in his meetings, would “review ongoing efforts to reaffirm the cessation of hostilities nationwide in Syria, obtain the full humanitar-ian access to which the Syrian gov-ernment committed and support a political transition.”
Specif ic, v iable options to achieve those broad goals are lim-ited, and Friday’s announcement of a new, partial cease-fire that does not include Aleppo under-scored the difficulty Kerry faced.
US and other officials described that initiative, brokered mainly by Russia and the United States as cochairs of the International Syr-ia Support Group, as a “reinforce-ment” of the February truce, now largely in tatters, that they hope to extend from Damascus and the capital’s suburbs and the coastal province of Latakia to other areas.
“This is an agreement within the task force, but certainly on the part of the US and Russia that there would be a reinforcement of the cessation of hostilities in these specific areas as a start, with the ex-
pectation that this...would be then extended elsewhere,” State Depart-ment Spokesman Mark Toner said.
Syria’s military extended a uni-lateral cease-fire around the capital for another 24 hours on Sunday, and relative calm set in across much of the country after days of heavy fighting concentrated in Aleppo.
For that city, the US is consid-ering drawing up with the Rus-sians a detailed map that would lay out “safe zones.” Civilians and members of moderate opposition groups covered by the truce could find shelter from persistent at-tacks by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military, which claims to be targeting terrorists.
One US official said “hard lines” would delineate specific areas and neighborhoods. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. It was not immediately clear whether Russia would accept such a plan or if Moscow could persuade the Assad government to respect the prospective zones. Some US offi-cials are skeptical of the chances for success, but also note that it is worth a try to at least reduce the violence that has wracked Aleppo for the past week, with hundreds killed and thousands wounded.
Kerry discussed the deteriorat-ing situation in calls over the past days with de Mistura and the head
of a Syrian opposition negotiating committee. “We are working on specific initiatives to de-escalate the increased fighting and defuse tensions and hope to make tangible progress on such initiatives soon,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
For the administration, Friday’s announcement about the partial cease-fire is largely a means to measure the commitment of the warring parties to the concept of a truce that could lead to serious peace talks.
“It’s a test for the Russians and for the regime, as well as for the Syrian opposition,” Toner said.
The administration’s problem is that the Russians, the Assad gov-ernment and the opposition backed by the US and its partners have all failed that test in the past.
In particular, the administra-tion has been routinely disap-pointed that Russia has not lived up to pledges that US officials think it has made. From the start of the conflict, the administration has sought numerous times for Moscow to use its influence with Damascus to bring about an end to the violence and to advance a political transition. At each turn, those hopes have been dashed with Russia continuing, and even increasing, its support for Assad.
US officials concede there is little to suggest that will change. AP
The number of hours a unilateral cease-fire was extended by the military around Damascus on Sunday
24
FRENCH LEADER: ALL NEW SUBS WILL BE BUILT IN AUSTRALIA CANBERRA, Australia—French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says a planned fleet of French-designed Australian submarines will all be built in Australia on time and within budget. Valls met his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull on Monday, a week after Australia announced that DCNS, a French state majority-owned company, had been chosen to design 12 diesel-electric submarines. Australia expects the fleet will cost at least A$56 billion ($43 billion), although the contracts have yet to be signed. AP
CAR BOMB IN TURKEY KILLS 2 POLICE OFFICERSANKARA, Turkey—A car bomb struck the entrance of a Turkish police station on Sunday in the southern city of Gaziantep, killing two police officers and wounding 22 other people in a day marred by violence and May Day protests. Four civilians were among those wounded in the explosion, according to Gov. Ali Yerlikaya of Gaziantep province. The blast shattered the windows of nearby buildings. The police station is close to offices for the governor and mayor. Gaziantep is also home to the offices of international aid organizations focused on the conflict in neighboring Syria. AP
AIR FORCE COPTERS DOUSE MASSIVE FOREST FIRES INNORTH INDIA LUCKNOW, India—Massive forest fires are sweeping through the north Indian state of Uttarakhand and have killed at least seven people in recent weeks with no signs of abating. The Indian government joined state firefighters over the weekend in trying to douse the blaze. Air force helicopters were deployed on Sunday to drop water on the fires tearing through hundreds of acres of pine forests. State Forest Officer Bhanu Prasad Gupta said the scattered fires were spreading and were threatening two of the country’s major tiger-conservation reserves. Federal Environment Minister Prakash Javdekar said on Monday that four men have been arrested over the weekend for starting forest fires. Two consecutive years of poor monsoons have led to dry conditions, making vast areas vulnerable to forest fires. AP
KENYA OFFICIALS: DEATH TOLL OF COLLAPSED BUILDING UP TO 20NAIROBI, Kenya—Kenyan rescuers continued searching for survivors on Sunday of a residential building in a low income area that collapsed on Friday, as officials said the death toll has risen to 20 and 73 people remain missing. Japheth Koome, the police chief for Nairobi, the capital, confirmed the death toll. Authorities had initially said the building had six stories but it emerged that the ground and first floor had sunk following heavy rains. The building, next to a river, had been declared unfit for human habitation by Kenya’s National Construction Authority but was not torn down. AP
ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE EASTERATHENS, Greece—With “Holy Fire,” fireworks and solemn Masses, Orthodox Christians around the world celebrated Easter on Sunday, commemorating the day followers believe that Jesus was resurrected more than 2,000 years ago. Roman Catholics and Protestants marked Easter in March, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Eastern Orthodox churches celebrated Easter this week, using the older Julian calendar. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attended an Easter midnight Mass in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral. AP
BAGHDA D —A nt igover n-ment protesters disbanded at least temporari ly on
Sunday from the heavily fortified Green Zone they had stormed a day earlier after the Islamic State (IS) group carried out its second major attack in Iraq in as many days—a pair of car bombs that killed more than 30 people.
The country’s political crisis intensified on Saturday when hundreds of supporters of Shi-ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr tore down walls and poured into the zone that is home to the seat of the Iraqi government and most foreign embassies.
Loudspeaker announcements on Sunday evening urged protesters to leave peacefully. When the call
came, hundreds calmly packed up and left, carrying flags and over-night bags away with them.
Later in the day, fami l ies walked through the compound’s smoot h ly paved st reets a nd snapped pictures beside its well-watered gardens, and young men bathed in a fountain. Such scenes are entirely divorced from the rest of the city’s crumbling infrastructure and neglected public spaces.
The Green Zone, surrounded by thick blast walls topped with razor wire, is off-limits to most Iraqis because of security pro-cedures that require multiple checks and specific documen-tation to enter. It has long been the focus of al-Sadr’s criticism
that the government is detached from the people.
Supporters of al-Sadr have been holding demonstrations and sit-ins for months to de-mand an overhaul of the politi-cal system put in place by the US following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
L a st su mmer, demonst ra-tions demanding better govern-ment services mobilized millions across Iraq and pressured Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to sub-mit his first package of reform proposals. However, months of stalled progress followed, and in recent months al-Sadr’s well-organized supporters took over the protest movement.
Despite the subdued end to the
latest protest, Iraqi officials fear the precedent set by the Green Zone breach will continue to undermine the country’s security.
Earlier on Sunday, car bombs in the southern city of Samawah killed 31 people and wounded at least 52. A police officer said two parked cars fil led with ex-plosives were detonated within minutes of each other around midday, the first near govern-ment offices and the second at an open-air bus station less-than-a-kilometer away.
On Saturday an IS-claimed bombing in a market filled with Shiite civilians in Baghdad killed at least 21 people and wounded at least 42 others.
The attacks were just the latest
in a series of IS-claimed bombings in Iraq. Over the past month the United Nations said at least 741 Iraqis were killed in April due to ongoing violence. On March 25 an IS-claimed suicide bombing attack on a stadium filled with children killed 29 and wounded 60.
“The political crisis is having a very negative influence on our war against Daesh,” said Iraqi law-maker Younadim Kanna, using an Arabic acronym for IS. “I can tell you Daesh is very happy that there are these demonstrations in Bagh-dad,” he said, explaining that the instability in the Iraqi capital was pulling security forces away from the front-line fight against IS and from the perimeter security of the Iraqi capital. AP
Iraq protests disband after second bombing by IS
The [email protected] Tuesday, May 3, 2016 A9
MIAMI—Passengers set sail on Sunday from Miami on an historic cruise to Cuba,
the first in decades to depart from a US seaport for the communist island nation.
AFTER FIVE DECADES
1st cruise from US port leaves Miami for Cuba
Carnival Corp.’s 704-passenger Adonia left port at 4:24 p.m., bound for Havana. Carnival’s Cuba cruises, operating under its Fathom brand, will also visit the ports of Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba on the seven-day outing.
Several Cuba-born passengers, among hundreds of others, were aboard, it said. The cruise comes after Cuba loosened its policy banning Cuban-born people from arriving to the country by sea, a rule that threatened to stop the cruises from happening.
Restarting the cruises was an important element of a bid by President Barack Obama’s ad-ministration to increase tour-ism to Cuba after the December 17, 2014, decision to restore diplomatic relations and move toward normalization.
The most recent such cruise, from another US port, was in 1978.
When it first announced the cruises, Carnival said it would bar Cuban-born passengers due to the government’s policy. But the Cuban-American community in Miami complained and filed a discrimination lawsuit in re-sponse. After that, the company said it would only sail to Cuba if the policy is changed, which Cuba did on April 22.
Carnival said the Adonia would cruise every other week from Mi-ami to Cuba. Bookings will start at $1,800 per person and feature an array of cultural and educational activities, including Spanish les-sons, Carnival’s web site says.
Seventy-three-year-old pas-senger Rick Schneider told The Sun-Sentinel that he had waited decades for the chance to make the journey. He bought a Cuban f lag for the occasion, which he waved from the deck at protest-ers who opposed the cruises. He said he once passed up taking a ferry trip to Cuba in 1957, add-ing “the time is now.” The cruise is among the many changes in US-Cuban relations since a thaw between the former Cold War foes began in late 2014. The thaw also led to a historic, two-day trip to Cuba in March by Obama, who
met with Cuban counterpart Raul Castro and others.
The Cuban government says the shift in policy removes prohibi-tions enacted when Cuban exiles were launching attacks by sea after the first Cuban revolution.
On Sunday Arnold Donald, Carnival ’s president and CEO, said the company worked and prepared to make the cruises a
reality despite the challenges. “ Times of change often br ing out emotions, and c learly, the histor ies here are ver y emo-tional for a number of people,” Donald told reporters.”
The Miami Herald reported that a boat carrying some activ-ists protesting the trip to Cuba was nearby in Florida waters before the ship’s departure on
Sunday. The report said the boat pulled away before the Adonia set sail with an expected Monday arrival in Havana.
Mary Olive Reinhart, a retired parks service ranger, told the paper that she and some friends from the Philadelphia area were drawn to the voyage by the adventure of it all. The Fathom brand said on its web site that the trip was authorized under
current people-to-people travel guidelines of the US government and wou ld inc lude meet ings with artists, musicians, busi-ness owners and families—along with Cuban shore excursions to traditional sites.
“It’s exciting to go places where we’re forbidden. For me, I want to be at home in the world—the whole world,” she added. AP
PEOPLE take photos as Adonia leaves port in Miami on Sunday en route to Cuba. After a half-century of waiting, passengers �nally set sail on Sunday from Miami on an historic cruise to Cuba. Carnival’s Cuba cruises, operating under its Fathom band, will visit the ports of Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba. PATRICK FARRELL/THE MIAMI HERALD VIA AP
BRUSSEL S —Under extra s e c u r it y, t he Br u s s e l s Airport reopened its de-
parture hall on Sunday for the first time since deadly Islamic extremist attacks in March. The air port had a lready resumed some f l ights, but passengers had been using a temporar y check-in tent because of ex-tensive damage to the depar-ture hal l from the twin suicide bombings that kil led 16 people.
Passengers on select f lights started using the newly repaired departure hall on Sunday after a special ceremony presided over by Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. Extra security checks have been added before entering the terminal.
“We all choose to resist. Today our capital’s airport is reopening. Brussels is back in business,” Michel
told a gathered crowd near a plaque bearing the names of victims, sur-rounded by photos and flowers.
Some passengers lamented the tense atmosphere at a place that they used to associate with happy vacations. Check-in clerk Veronique Goodman described her emotion at the reopening, “ for the people who lost their family, injured colleagues...no-body wants this ever to happen again. But [we’re] happy to be back with our colleagues.”
In a statement, Brussels Air-port Co. CEO Arnaud Feist called it “an important day in the recov-ery” of the airport and in efforts to revive the city’s image. Feist said he hoped the airport would be back at 100-percent capacity by mid-June. The March 22 at-tacks at the airport and Brussels’ subway killed 32 people overall. AP
TOKYO—North Korea is preparing to hold a once-in-a-generation congress
of its ruling party that is intended to rally the nation behind leader Kim Jong Un and could provide an important glimpse into Kim’s plans for the country’s economy and military.
The congress, set to begin on Friday, is the first in 36 years and follows a 70-day “ loyalty drive” in which everyone from coal miners to restaurant work-ers were called upon to put in extra hours to increase produc-tivity, as a show of their devotion to Kim and the Workers’ Party of Korea, which he leads. The congress comes as North Korea is
facing international pressure over a nuclear test in January and a series of rocket and missile launches that have led many outside experts to believe Pyongyang is much closer to having a viable nuclear deterrent than previously thought.
The North, wary of its leader’s security and always loath to re-lease any more information to the outside world than it deems ab-solutely necessary, has disclosed few details of the congress’s itin-erary. Instead, it has presented the congress as a chance for the ruling party to boast its achieve-ments and unity in the face of the “US imperialists.”
But North Korea’s foreign minis-ter told The Associated Press (AP)
in an April 23 interview that the congress would focus on demon-strating unity behind the country’s leader and on finding ways to build the North’s moribund economy even as global sanctions squeeze it ever tighter.
“One of the most important things through this party con-gress is to show to the entire world the union of our people,” Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong told the AP while he was in New York for a United Nations conference on climate change. “I’m sure our country will be even more vibrant after the party congress to build up a more prosperous and power-ful, economically sound nation.”
The event will be an opportunity
LONDON—Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon predicted rising support
for a second independence refer-endum if Britain votes to leave the European Union (EU).
“The prospect of Brexit would definitely lead to growing de-mand for Scottish independence,” t he Scott ish Nat iona l Pa r t y (SNP) leader said on Sunday on BBC television. “If we see that growing demand, no one would have the r ight to stand in the way of that.”
Voters go to the polls in local and regional elections across the UK next week. In Scotland Sturgeon’s pro-independence SNP is on course to retain control of the devolved
parl iament in Edinburgh, with ne w p o w e r s o v e r t a x at i o n . Scotland rejected independence by 55 percent to 45 percent in 2014, but the SNP went on to make large gains in the British general election in 2015, tak-ing 56 of the 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons at the expense of the opposition Labour Party.
Polls suggest that Scotland is more pro-EU than other parts of the UK Sturgeon said the country should have another referendum on whether to go it alone if there is “clear and sustained evidence that independence has become the preferred option of a majority of people.” Bloomberg News/TNS
Brussels Airport departure hall reopens after deadly attacks
Britain’s exit from European Unionwould boost calls for Scottish independence, party leader says
N. Korea party congress to show unity around Kim
IN this October 1980 photo, leader Kim Jong Il (front), the father of current leader Kim Jong Un, attends the �rst phase of the Sixth Congress of Workers’ Party of (North) Korea. KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY/KOREA NEWS SERVICE VIA AP
for Kim to assume center stage be-fore a world audience. Throngs of foreign journalists are being invit-ed to cover it. That’s all the more important because the enigmatic young leader, still in his early 30s, has yet to travel abroad or meet any other heads of state.
In the last party congress, held in 1980, K im’s late father, Kim Jong Il, was awarded a slew of top jobs in a confirmation he was in l ine to succeed his father, North Korea founder K im I l Sung.
Kim Il Sung died in 1994, so Kim Jong Il—who rarely spoke in public and never held a congress after actually assuming power—had 14 years to prepare for power. Kim Jong Un, on the other hand, was virtually unknown outside of the Pyongyang inner circle until a few years before his own father’s death in 2011.
Still, there are no signs his posi-tion as the head of the world’s only socialist dynasty is in question.
The congress wi l l g ive K im, who seems to be more l ike his grandfather and less averse to addressing big crowds, a chance to further cement his author-ity by getting its stamp of ap-proval on off icia ls who are in his favor. He has conducted nu merou s sh a ke -ups i n t he regime’s top ranks—the most prominent being the execution of his powerful uncle in 2013—to make sure he is surrounded by loyal l ieutenants.
The congress is sure to praise Kim’s nuclear policy, though it has triggered sanctions that have caused economic pain.
Te n s i o n s o n t h a t f r o n t h ave de e p ened recent ly a f -ter North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch, which led to the UN slapping its toughest sanctions on Pyongyang in 20 years, and South Korea and the United States upgrading their annual spring military drills into the biggest they’ve ever held. AP
The number of passengers aboard the cruise ship
704
Tuesday, May 3, 2016 •Editor: Angel R. Calso
OpinionBusinessMirrorA10
Do you need the bank-secrecy laws?
editorial
THE questions of how much access and how the government may get information about private bank accounts are complex and controversial. The current discussion centers on candidates
for elected office.
There is certainly justification for knowing the financial position of candi-dates, as well as health conditions, and maybe even past educational informa-tion. These issues can be resolved by the public demanding this information, as voter pressure would probably force future office-seekers—at least for the highest offices—to make a full disclosure.
However, a much more important question arises as to whether bank-secrecy laws are important for the ordinary citizen.
It is possible that the average person takes the attitude that if a person has nothing to hide, why should government be prevented from bank account in-formation? At first glance, that may make sense. But the concept of the gov-ernment being able to have increased surveillance of a private citizen who is not suspected of any crime is much more critical.
Republic Act 1405—the law on secrecy of bank deposits—and Presiden-tial Decree No. 1792 say that “All deposits of whatever nature with banks...are hereby considered as of an absolutely confidential nature and may not be examined...except when the examination is made in the course of a special or general examination of a bank and is specifically authorized by the Monetary Board after being satisfied that there is reasonable ground to believe that a bank fraud or serious irregularity has been or is being committed and that it is necessary to look into the deposit to establish such fraud or irregularity.”
This embodies the “due process of law” and the Philippine Constitutional provision of “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, pa-pers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures...for any purpose shall be inviolable, and no search warrant shall issue except upon probable cause to be determined personally by the judge.”
The purpose of both of these laws is to prevent “fishing expeditions” by any part of the government. The contention is that these rules make the job of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) more difficult. We wonder why that is the case. If the AMLC or any other agency has reasonable suspicion that a person is violating the law, they can take the evidence to a judge and get a search warrant for the bank accounts. It is the same as for law-enforcement officials searching for evidence in any other crime.
What makes a person’s bank account any less protected from “unreasonable searches” as his or her house? The same Article III of the Philippine consti-tution that protects a person’s privacy from illegal searches also protects the freedom of speech, the press, and even the privacy of your e-mails.
American founding father Thomas Jefferson wrote, “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” Maybe that is why the government wants into our bank accounts and yet the people do not have a Freedom of Information law.
Everybody’s job to fight cybercrime
Conclusion
AT the start of this three-part series I suggested that we look beyond the theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank’s account with the Federal Reserve (the Fed) of New
York by cyber criminals.nas (BSP), which is treating the inci-dent as a serious concern, has ordered local banks to institute new measures in establishing the true identities of their clients. Specifically, the BSP wants banks to request for additional proof or secondary information from their clients. In general, banks and credit card companies usually ask for an account holder’s address, birthday and maiden name of client’s mother to establish the client’s identity. One bank said it was considering the use of biometrics to help in iden-tifying customers. Banks also advise their clients to change their PINs (personal identification numbers) frequently. Credit-card companies have also been sending advisories to their clients on how to protect themselves from fraud.
Because of the numerous frighten-ing implications of the data breach, it
may not even be paranoid to say that everything has been compromised.
This is because of the increasing dependence by people and companies on the Internet for almost all of their financial transactions, from pay-ing utility bills, shopping, booking flights, buying tickets to the cinema and so forth. The digital age has made life so much easier than before the advent of computers, but we are now seeing the undesirable side. I expect that even with the Ban-gladesh heist and the hacking of the Comelec web site, the Internet will continue to expand its role in peo-ple’s lives. And it’s not even limited to the millennials, or the generation of people born in 1982 to 2000. Even members of Generation X, or those born between the early 1960s to the early 1980s, are now part of the In-ternet market.
No one can stop hacking or cybercrime, but we must continue to prepare ourselves. Authorities must continue to track down these mod-ern-day criminals and put up barriers to deter their activities.
For our part, each person must be vigilant in safeguarding the con-fidentiality of personal information and careful in making online trans-actions. It is everybody’s job to fight cybercrime.
For comments, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.mannyvillar.com.ph.
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THE ENTREPRENEURManny B. Villar
YOU can tell much about the times and the conditions by listening to the language—the words that people are using. What we say reflects what is going on around us and what we
are thinking.
Watch your language
OUTSIDE THE BOXJohn Mangun
During the turbulent times of the late 1960s and the Vietnam war, the United States was seriously divided by that war. The phrase “America: Love it or Leave it” became some-what of a rallying cry of those that supported the government against the antiwar protestors. That was turned by some on the other side to “America: Change it or Lose It.”
Here in the Philippines, “Sobra na! Tama na. Palitan na” was part of the voice of those opposed to the Mar-cos government. Here again it ex-pressed a simplification of a complex set of emotions and ideas. After the
French Revolution in 1789, the most influential figure of that revolution and following “Reign of Terror”—Maximilien Robespierre—said in a speech, that the motto of France would be “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” or “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.”
These were not just words. These phrases captured the times and the thoughts of the people.
In the last few years, the phrase “Winter is Coming” has entered the lexicon of the English language. It is the motto of the House of Stark from the global television series Game of Thrones. The Stark clan lives in
the northerly inhabited part of the mythical world of Westeros and is the first to feel the social and eco-nomic effects of the “Winter” that comes at irregular times with even decades between winters.
But winter always eventually comes to pass.
Unless you are living in a moun-tain cave, you might see that the 2016 Philippine election is the most “destructive”—for want of a bet-ter word—since the snap election of 1986. When the Commission on Elections says something like “Don’t let politics destroy your friendships,” you know this time it is different. But that is a global happening that coincides with the long term global political cycle.
Let me say it again: The political upheaval precedes the major eco-nomic upheaval. That is what the cycles show. This current political situation is going to last through 2017 when peak political chaos will hit, as we see even more countries going through what the Philippines is going through right now.
Then the economic chaos will hit
in full force.But back to the language that is
now being used. Candidates get up and talk about the “paradise” they will bring to the Philippines if they win. But that is immediately followed by saying that the nation will drop to the lowest level of Hell if any of the other presidential hopefuls win. Is that what we can genuinely expect?
This is happening everywhere. Look at the US presidential election. Look at the “live or die” rhetoric as Great Britain decides whether or not to stay part of the European Union. Brazil’s constitutionally provided impeachment process is being called a “coup d’état.” Thailand though is an exception and does not have negative election rhetoric. The military gov-ernment has a solution: no elections.
What words are you now using to describe the Philippines? They are probably true and accurate.
E-mail me at [email protected]. Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.
No one can stop hacking or cybercrime, but we must continue to prepare ourselves. Authorities must continue to track down these modern-day criminals and put up barriers to deter their activities. For our part, each person must be vigilant in safeguarding the confidentiality of personal information and careful in making online transactions.
Now, it seems the “beyond” I was suggesting is already upon us. Early last month, hackers leaked the re-cords of more than 55 million voters from the web site of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). The Bangladesh heist, which in-volved the transfer of money from the Fed in New York to a bank in the Philippines, then to a casino, has been described as one of the biggest cyber theft in history. The hacking of the Comelec web site is being described as potentially the biggest data breach involving a government. These are distinctions that no Filipino would be proud of.
Concerns were raised that the release of the personal information of voters could be used for cheating in the May 9 elections. Outside of the political exercise, and to a wider and longer-time extent, the leak ex-
posed more than half of the country’s population to fraud and other risks, including identity theft, one of the common ways by which cyber crimi-nals access victims’ bank or credit- card accounts. The Comelec said the hacked web site had been taken down with the help of the justice departments of the Philippines and the United States. The damage, however, has been done. The information that has been exposed to the public includes the full names, birth dates, addresses, registration details and voter identi-fication numbers. Other voter details posted include the persons’ height and weight, passport details, and even biometric information, such as fingerprints. The leaked information could be used for illegal financial transac-tions. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipi-
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
SINCE 2012, a steady rotation of two Chinese Coast Guard vessels has effectively blockaded the traditional fishing grounds of Filipino fishermen at the Scarborough Shoal to
the west of Pangasinan. The patrol has intensified, as five more vessels were spotted there a few weeks ago, according to the De-partment of National Defense.
Reclamation at Scarborough Shoal?
The South China Morning Post (SCMP)—a Hong Kong-based broad-sheet just bought by Alibaba—re-cently quoted an anonymous source close to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy that Beijing plans to start reclamation work this year at the atoll. The move is reportedly a reaction to the increasing closeness of the United States and Philippine military and would most likely be ac-celerated once the Permanent Court of Arbitration makes a ruling on the ongoing disputes this June.
Reclaiming Scarborough Shoal—
known as Panatag Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc to Filipinos and Huangyan Island to the Chinese—is allegedly considered by Beijing a decisive step in China’s endgame of gaining de fac-to control over the vital naval routes and immense natural resources of the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
Beijing says the shoal falls within its nine-dash claim, asserting that Yuan Dynasty mariners were the first who discovered it in the 13th cen-tury and had exercised jurisdiction ever since.
That assertion has no basis at all. Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio and Dr. Jay Batongbacal of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, have pointed out that Chinese maps from the period do not even indicate the shoal and that the Chinese only started affixing a name to the geographic feature in 1983.
In truth, Bajo de Masinloc, lat-er named Scarborough Shoal, has been historically associated with the Philippines, and has appeared in 17th-century European maps of Southeast Asia. Its precise location was determined during the 1792 Malaspinas Expedition, sponsored by the Spanish government. And by the 19th century, Spain already exercised jurisdiction over it and oc-cupied it, conducting the first formal survey of the shoal in 1800.
That ownership was passed on to the Americans through the Treaty of Paris of 1898 and affirmed by the Treaty of Washington of 1900. Throughout the Commonwealth pe-riod, the US Coast Pilot Guides (US Coast and Geodetic Survey) reflected Scarborough Shoal in its navigation
maps clearly within the Philippine sovereign domain and continued throughout since the Philippine regained independence in 1946. In 1963 the Philippine Navy even bom-barded and dismantled a smuggler’s base discovered on the shoal. Dr. Ba-tongbacal argued strongly that no other government action could ex-press sovereignty so completely and convincingly than said state action.
But in addition to the Philippines’s historical title and actual posses-sion, Scarborough Shoal clearly falls within our territory, it’s being merely 124 nautical miles or 260 kilometers away from our shorelines. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea—of which China is a signatory—gives the riparian country the exclusive economic jurisdiction over 200 nau-tical miles from its baselines.
In the face of such incontrovertible facts, Beijing should exercise utmost restraint. Any reclamation would be a sharp stab at the hearts and stom-achs of many Filipino fishermen and such brazen move could unleash wide-spread grassroots outrage.
E-mail: [email protected].
IT must be borne in mind that the paramount obligation of the government to draw up a cohesive national security strategy to ensure that the safety and security of the people and territory
(air, land and sea) is of the highest priority in all circumstances.
ABOUT TOWNErnesto M. Hilario
Edgardo J. Angara
ALTHOUGH I pleaded for it, the last debate did not include the most important question for the candidates. That ques-tion is, quote, “Ten [or is it 11] Supreme Court vacancies
will occur in the next president’s term. Which law firm, or which personal lawyer in your campaign, or which business sector that you are partial to will help you fill those vacancies? Either from members of a law firm or two, or from the friends of your lawyer, or from the retainers of your business companions?” End of quote and of question.
High Court as AJM
Nobody but Binay talks about national security
Yet, none of the candidates seek-ing the highest office of the land is even talking about national secu-rity, a serious problem that has a correlation to the economic life of the nation, in particular, and its survival, in general, except Vice President Jejomar C. Binay and his running mate, Sen. Gregorio B. Ho-nasan II, a highly decorated army colonel who played an important role in the 1986 Edsa uprising.
Consider the following:1. The country today is riven
by three types of continuing re-bellions. First, the reformist rebel young officers in the armed services who are the most dangerous, having access to organic weaponry, other war materiels, and who continue quietly to operate inside the govern-ment; Second, the Moro separatists in Mindanao; and third, the commu-nist insurgents, who are separately and violently stalking the country-side and some urban centers, of-tentimes manifesting themselves in terrorism, ambuscades, political assassinations, banditry, kidnap-pings and revolutionary taxation.
2. Some government officials are loudly and shamelessly pro-claiming in various local and in-ternational fora that they are fully committed to stifle insurgency and terrorism without realizing that the country is the only one today in Asia or probably throughout the Western World without a clearly-defined na-tional security law of its own.
This is so because the Ramos administration on September 22, 1992, naively repealed the country’s only national security law, Republic Act (RA) 1700, otherwise known as the Anti-subversion Law.
The repeal, in effect, decrimi-nalized subversive organizations, created a security vacuum and saw the resurgence of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the expan-sion of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, the birth of the extremist Abu Sayyaf, and the intrusion of the dreaded Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists.
What is left in our law books to suppress subversion and rebellion is the antiquated Revised Penal Code, which, in Article 147, penalizes sub-versive and rebellious acts for only six years in prison and imposes a fine not exceeding P1,000 ($21) for founders, directors and presidents of associations totally or partially organized for the purpose of com-mitting any of the crimes punish-able under the Code.
The new Anti-Terrorism Law, or the Human Security Act (RA 9372), remains untested because of its se-rious flaw on the side of enforce-ment and prosecution of terrorist suspects.
3. The Philippines has now one of the highest number of armed rebels (the United States and the European Union classify them as terrorists): 15,000 Moro separat-ists in Mindanao (MILF, Abu Sayyaf and others) and 7,000 communist guerrillas operating elsewhere in the country.
They total 22,000 terrorists, making them one of the highest con-centration of armed combatants in any part of the world, with their own flags, constitutions, territories, and armed forces, all in violation of the Constitution.
Their combined strength is the equivalent of 44 light infantry bat-talions or more than 50 percent of the Army’s total strength of 81,000 officers and men.
Bang the gong for Digong?
IF the latest surveys up to this point are accurate, it’s all over but the shouting for Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte in the presidential derby.
As a politician, I can tell you that the House of Representatives can-not be bought but only leased—and at that only from time to time. It can never be owned in fee simple
but used only for a short time, like a motel. The Senate being smaller may be leased but on an hourly basis—pa-rang law firm in that respect. But
the Supreme Court can be packed, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to puck—saying it as Filipinos do—it for a long period of time. For all jurisprudential intents and purposes, the High Court can be-come a law firm’s or a lawyer’s or a business sector’s AJM—automated jurisprudential machine. You only need to have most of the members
with long tenures in your pocket or formerly working in your firm.
Next question, quote: “To avoid this temptation to pack the Court, will you now commit to fill up all coming Supreme Court vacancies purely on the basis of the seniority of serving judges and prosecutors, with no regard to anything but the longevity, the integrity and the fi-delity of their service to justice? Any hint of previous acquaintance or association will be sufficient on its face to disqualify the nominee.” End of question; close of quote. These questions should have been asked, for the first virtue of government is justice. If justice can be manually manipulated, meaning programed by pucking the bench, then there is no reason whatsoever to endure having a government and paying taxes to maintain it.
DATABASECecilio T. Arillo
Picture him in your mind at the Luneta Grandstand at noon of June 30 wearing a crisp Barong Tagalog, his right hand upraised, his left hand resting on a Bible, and repeating the oath of office, with his family—Sara and the two boys, plus who else?—by his side. Then, he prefaces his inau-gural speech with a loud, “P____na, magtago na kayong mga kriminal at mga magnanakaw sa kaban ng bayan!” or words to that effect. What’s wrong with this picture? That may happen, or it may not. Af-ter all, anything can take place in the last five days to Election Day, par-ticularly if the other front-running candidates make full use of their money and political machinery to muscle their way to Malacañang. But if Duterte makes it past Sen. Grace Poe, Vice President Jejomar C. Binay and Manuel A. Roxas II, he would achieve a first in Philippine political history: he would be the first city mayor to be catapulted to the highest elective position as chief executive and commander in chief of the armed forces.
Duterte’s 33-percent rating in the latest voters’ preference surveys, or an 11-percent lead over Poe, may be due largely to broad support for his core message, which is to wield an iron fist against crime, illegal drugs and corruption.
That core message of significant-ly reducing crime and corruption within six months has been ham-mered home by Duterte in sortie after sortie, even after his rivals had a headstart in the campaign, as it took him a while to make the decision to run. While it is true that the police are making headway in the war against illegal drugs, they have been unable to stop or deter murder, rape, rob-bery and petty crimes, such as cell- phone snatching. The result is that many ordinary citizens feel unsafe and insecure out in the streets and even in their own homes.
At the same time, it appears that despite the Aquino adminis-tration’s mantra of daang matuwidor straight path, corruption goes unabated from the highest to the lowest levels of the bureaucracy. Transparency International, the global civil-society organization leading the fight against corruption, ranked the Philippines 95th out of 186 countries in the Corruption Per-ceptions Index for 2015, 10 notches lower than its rank in the previous year. It said the Philippines scored 35/100 in the latest survey, which covered 186 countries in 2015 and 175 countries in 2014. We cannot overemphasize the fact that an unstable peace and order
situation and pervasive corruption will set back efforts to sustain the momentum of economic growth needed to reduce poverty to man-ageable levels and extirpate one major cause of armed rebellion. The promise to restore law and order, and curb corruption has over-shadowed Duterte’s advocacy of fed-eralism, the basic idea of which is to decentralize governance and allow the various regions to exercise real autonomy. The federalism agenda has long been pushed by PDP La-ban Chairman Emeritus and former Sen. Nene Pimentel. It is what dis-tinguishes Duterte’s platform from the rest of the pack, although this requires a constitutional amend-ment that could take time. What also differentiates Duterte’s platform from the others is his pledge to talk peace with the New People’s Army (NPA), which has been wag-ing an armed rebellion against the government for nearly five decades. Founding Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Chairman Jose Ma. Sison has even been quoted in news reports as saying he would consider returning to the country if Duterte becomes president and perhaps call a temporary cease-fire to resume the stalled peace talks.
The prospect of a political solution to the communist rebel-lion is certainly welcome. But what could complicate things is Sison having raised the idea of a coali-tion government where presum-ably, the CPP/NPA/National Demo-cratic Front would ask to be given a share of power under a Duterte administration.
Given the reality that NPA strength and political influence appear to have waned significantly since 1986, Sison’s idea of a coali-tion government at this time seems rather far-fetched and unrealistic considering that the NPA has not reached the strategic stalemate stage where it has achieved parity in armed strength and can launch positional warfare against the Armed Forces of the Philippines instead of the hit-and-run guerrilla tactics it still uses since it began in 1969. It cannot demand concessions from the other side without giving something in return. A temporary cease-fire, while talks are under way, would be a sign of good faith on both sides.
But to go back to Duterte. If Duterte wins by a wide margin over his nearest rival, that will not necessarily translate to a “peace-ful” administration. The very fact that he is targeting criminals and the corrupt early on means that he will earn their enmity. The human- rights community, not only at home, but also abroad will be closely moni-toring how the anticrime campaign proceeds, as it could very well open the floodgates to abuses and bring about, not law and order, but only the peace of the graveyard and genuine fear of repression of the freedoms guaranteed by our fundamental law.
E-mail: [email protected].
None of the candidates seeking the highest office of the land is even talking about national security, a serious problem that has a correlation to the economic life of the nation, in particular, and its survival, in general, except Vice President Jejomar Binay and his running mate, Sen. Gregorio B. Honasan.
I can tell you that the House of Representatives cannot be bought but only leased—and at that only from time to time. It can never be owned in fee simple but used only for a short time, like a motel. The Senate being smaller may be leased but on an hourly basis—parang law firm in that respect.
If Duterte makes it past Sen. Grace Poe, Vice President Jejomar C. Binay and Manuel A. Roxas II, he would achieve a first in Philippine political history: he would be the first city mayor to be catapulted to the highest elective position as chief executive and commander in chief of the armed forces.
4. The police and military orga-nizations are top heavy with iden-tical multilayered command struc-tures that are complex, confusing and expensive to maintain.
5. The government since 2001 had already spent more than P800 billion for these organizations with no end in sight to the deteriorating national security and public-safety situations.
6. An enormous foreign and do-mestic debt estimated at more than P5.9 trillion is a critical issue in na-tional security and public safety be-cause such a huge liability hinders economic growth, creates serious unemployment problems, worsens poverty and has the potential of trig-gering political and social upheavals.
It may be true that poverty does not turn poor people into instant terrorists, but a weak country, be-set with lack of direction and un-bridled corruption, is vulnerable to terrorism.
7. The country is heavily depen-dent on Middle East oil. The Asso-ciation of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which the Philippines is a founding member, commands strategic waterways, like the Straits of Malacca, Sunda, Lombok and Ma-cassar, through which oil and trade to and from Japan and East Asian countries must move.
Philippine laws on combatting cybercrimes are inadequate. The E-Commerce Act has no equivalent for the protection of national security. The Data Privacy Act prohibits the government from eavesdropping on private electronic communications without a court order, yet private individuals can intrude into gov-ernment web sites and invoke the right of information.
The National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP), with the encouragement of Vice President Binay, is not idly and passively wait-ing for the situation to turn worse. After the demise of Executive Or-der 269 that created the Commis-sion on Information and Commu-nication Technology on June 23, 2011, persisted in its cybersecurity thrusts, by conducting the Forum on Cybersecurity Awareness and Collaboration (October 26, 2011); the Cybersecurity Forum (Febru-ary 27, 2012); the Seminar Toward ICT Development and Cybersecurity Enhancement (June 6, 2012); and the Cybersecurity Enhancement Workshop (June 11, 2012). These are investments toward the estab-lishment of the envisioned Cyber-security Institute.
When the defunct CICT shut down, the NDCP’s Cybersecurity Institute started to take off. With alumni who are well versed in cyber-security, the NDCP has the potential to become, not just a national, but also a regional center of excellence in cybersecurity education, training and practice.
To reach the writer, e-mail [email protected].
FREE FIRETeddy Locsin Jr.
operator returned $4.6 million, and another P38.32 million the following week. In one of the Senate hearings, it was also revealed that Wong returned another P200 million to the AMLC. But the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) and Philrem Service Corp. (Philrem), the other two entities involved in the scam, have yet to promise return of the money, per their statements in the latest bouts of Senate hearing on the case.
RCBC President-on-leave Lorenzo Tan ear-lier told the Senate that they are to convince the bank’s Board of Directors to return the money passed on to them if found liable. The rough estimate of money that passed through RCBC is about $50 million.
Gomes said for the next Senate hearing, they want a follow-up on whether RCBC will return the money, and if Tan was able to con-vince the bank’s board to do so.
“Now this Philrem, [they have] $17 million, everyone knows it. Sen. [Sergio] R. Osmeña [III] has told it very clearly. AMLC has charged that she [Philrem President Salud Bautista] has 17 million dollars. And she is dilly-dallying over here and in the Senate…the way she is behav-ing. She should return the money. If Kim Wong has done it, she should return the money. Why is she not returning the money? What is her problem?” Gomes added.
The remittance firm denied in the Senate hearing that it is holding $17 million of the $81-million stolen money.
Gomes also said hearings and legal processes should “not be delayed” and should push through, so the money of the “hard-working people of Bangladesh” gets returned, as the stolen funds will be used for infrastruc-ture development in their country.
“We already know where the money is, and we know that [the claimant] is only Bangladesh. So it is not very difficult. If there was other claim-ant, it is okay, so that is why it should be com-pleted very soon,” he said. “It should be finished
quickly, the earlier this investigation is done and the $81 million is returned to Bangladesh and this whole chapter will close. I think it is good for the reputation of this country also.” After a series of Senate hearings on the case, the investigation in the upper chamber will resume after the May 9 elections, while the first hearing on the forfeiture case will be on May 3.
Gomez said he appreciates the Depart-ment of Justices (DOJ) help, although he has no choice but to wait and see on how things will turn out, especially since he does not know how the legal processes work in the country. “I don’t know when this money will go back to Bangladesh. The DOJ and AMLC are working together to do this quickly so it won’t take so much time. But I don’t even know what does that mean. It is a very clear case, they are saying very soon. But, like I said, I don’t know what that means,” he said.
“We don’t know the systems over here. The problem is that I just have to accept whatever your rules and regulations are here. I just have to wait and see. That is the only way to make an assessment. So far, I have not got a single dollar back. Not yet. This is a fact. The money is with AMLC in their vaults,” he added. The ambassador said he has reached out to talk to everyone involved and is still open to talk to anyone involved in the case.
Addressing loopholesGOMES also talked about the vulnerabilities of the systems, both on Bangladesh’s and the Philippines’s side. “I agree, we have weaknesses in our system —in our computer system, in our IT (informa-tion technology) system, so the hacker went inside. I agree. But not a single dollar has been taken by any other. It all has come here that is a fact. It is all accounted over here. The re-sponsibility of Bangladesh is that our system has to improve,” Gomes said. The governor of the central bank of Ban-gladesh earlier resigned following the ordeal. Gomes also revealed that Bangladesh has hired two IT companies from New York to address their
system’s flaws. “Hacking has become an epidemic now. Hacking will happen but we have to fight it, we have to be stronger than those people. We have our vulnerability, but Bangladesh now has been more strict,” Gomes said.
Gomez added that, while addressing the question of weak systems back in their country, the Philippines, too, must look into possible loopholes on how illegal money came to the local banking system. The ambassador said, while there is no problem with having a bank-secrecy law, the protection should not cover the accounts in RCBC, as they were all faked. “There are no persons here. All the ac-counts are fake and William Go says it is not mine. So that does not apply over there and that was what the senators were trying to tell them,” he said. What is also surprising to Gomes, according to him, is the amount of control the AMLC has over casinos.
“We came to know that the Philippines is one of the three countries in the world where the government does not have any control over the casinos. Now that is very strange,” Gomes said. “That was a little…I was surprised and I think this gang, they knew it. That this is the vulnerability of the Philippine system.”
Bilateral relationsGOMES said the relations of the Philippines and Bangladesh should not be affected by only “a handful of people.” “Bilaterally, we are in the best position now. This should not hurt the relationship. It is a shame that these couple of people are out to damage the emotional relationship of the Philippines and Bangladesh.”
He added: “This small group of people, I don’t think they should be allowed to just take the two countries for a right. They cheated the relationship between Philippines and Bangla-desh, they are the traitors. Not only that they have gained personally but they can hurt the relationship between two countries and we will not allow that to happen.”
“Right from the beginnings of our country, the Philippines has already been with us. That is why our relationship is so strong.”
Unbundling the southern line from the overall deal will lessen the palatability of the deal, as the railway line that will run through Matnog, Sorsogon, is still considered a greenfield project, Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center Executive Director Andre C. Palacios said.
“If we cut them up to two dif-ferent projects, it might take the long-haul line years to finish. There might not be a driving force for the quick implementation of the long-haul component of the project,” he told the BusinessMirror in a phone interview Monday.
Based on documents obtained by the BusinessMirror, the DOTC has proposed before the National Economic and Development Author-ity (Neda) Investment Coordination Committee-Cabinet Committee to split the largest rail deal to date into two—a commuter line that will run from Tutuban, Manila, to Los Baños, Laguna, and a long-haul line that will end in Matnog, Sorsogon.
Currently, at its first phase of the
tender process, the original project covers Metro Manila to Legazpi City, Albay, plus a number of existing and proposed branch lines totaling ap-proximately 653 kilometers. It consists of commuter-railway operations between Tutuban and Calamba and long-haul railway operations between Tutuban and Legazpi, including extended long-haul rail operations on the branch line between Calamba and Batan-gas and extension between Legazpi and Matnog.
“The purpose of combining the high-revenue project, called the brownfield commuter line, with the
Gomes. . . C A
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2ndFront PageBusinessMirror
www.businessmirror.com.ph
2Tuesday, May 3, 2016
3RD ZIKA VIRUS CASE DETECTED IN PHL
Splitting train projectto derail completion
B L S. M @lorenzmarasigan
WHEN the highest planning body of the government decides to approve the proposal of
the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to split the P170-billion North-South Railway Project-South Line into two, the construction of the long-haul line that will connect Metro Manila to as far as Sorsogon may potentially be jeopardized.
₧170BThe cost of the North-South Railway Project
riskier, greenfield long-haul line is for cross subsidy and better imple-mentation,” Palacios said. “If we split them into two, the long-haul line may lack the driving force it needs for quicker implementation.” Several companies have already expressed their interest in the deal, like Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Ayala Corp., Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. and San Miguel Corp.
Officials of these companies have repeatedly urged the government to hasten the bidding process for the railway line, as this is one of the pri-ority projects that should be done immediately to address the growing congestion in Metro Manila and its neighboring cities and provinces.
But with only less than two months left before the country changes its chief executive, it seems that awarding the deal right away would be far from reality, consid-ering the timelines of past tenders for key infrastructure deals. Aside from splitting the deal into two, the DOTC has also pro-posed to increase the cost of the North-South Railway Project by nearly P100 billion to change the design of the rail tracks, and to fund the resettlement package for affected communities. The transport agency sought for the change in track design to standard gauge from narrow gauge, as the former can accom-modate faster speeds above the 160-kilometer-per-hour mark. A standard gauge is wider compared to the narrow gauge and, thus, would require more right-of-way.
However, according to a Busi-nessMirror source, changing the gauge tracks at this point would be “a waste of time and government resources,” as the government
has already purchased materials such as slippers, and has even refurbished narrow-gauge trains donated to the Philippines. The South Line is expected to be completed by 2019. It is part of a two-phase railway construc-tion project supported by the Japanese government.
T he ot her phase involves the construction of a 36.7-km narrow-gauge elevated commuter railway from Malolos, Bulacan, to Tutuban in Manila. It is seen to be completed by the third quar-ter of 2020. This project is imple-mented under an official develop-ment assistance package from the Japanese government.
The two-phase project is part of the P4.76-trillion Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure Develop-ment for Metro Manila and its Sur-rounding Areas, otherwise known as the Dream Plan, formulated by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The Dream Plan lists the transport infrastructure require-ments of the Philippines, facilities that are expected to alleviate poten-tial losses and gain from prospec-tive savings. If the transport road map would not be implemented through 2030, the Philippines stands to lose roughly P6 billion daily in traffic costs. Currently, it loses P2 billion a day in transport costs. A large chunk of the list will be implemented under the PPP scheme, which has been gaining traction since its launch in 2010. T h e B u s i n e s s M i r r o r earlier reported that infrastruc-ture spending under the proposed Three-year Rolling Infrastructure Plan could reach as much as P1.07 trillion by 2019.
THE Department of Health (DOH) on Monday confirmed that a 20-year-old South
Korean tourist has contracted Zika virus infection in the Philip-pines, the third confirmed case in the country.
The DOH said the South Korean and his sibling were in one of the country’s most-frequented tour-ist spots on April 10 to 14. They left the country on April 14. The South Korean showed symptoms of the disease a few days later.
In a telephone inter view with re p o r te rs o n M o nd ay, Health Secretary Janette Ga-rin said the man was hospi-tal ized in South Korea. Ga-r in was infor med by S outh Korean health officials on April 28 that the patient had colds on April 20, rashes on April 22, and fever, sore throat and muscle pain on April 26. The virus was observed in his urine on April 27.
From South Korea, the patient traveled only to the Philippines, Garin said.
She said South Korean officials have informed her office that they had no known Aedes aegypti mosquito cases.
The South Korean was the sec-ond “exported case “ and the “ third confirmed case” in the country.
“We had one [teenager] in Cebu, and an American [woman],” Garin said.
In March the DOH confirmed that an unidentified American woman, who stayed in the Philip-pines for four weeks, was tested positive for Zika virus when she was on her last week in the country in January this year.
Garin said the patient had the virus symptoms of fever, rash, joint pain, conjunctivitis and muscle pain before returning to the United States. The US Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion (CDCP), Garin said, informed
her about the case of the patient who stayed in the Philippines from January 2 to 28. Another documented case of Zika virus infection in the Philip-pines was traced in Cebu City in 2012. A 15-year-old boy was re-ported with its symptoms but has since fully recovered after three weeks of continuous bed rest and medication. After yielding negative from tests on dengue and Chikungunya, the patient’s serum was tested positive for Zika virus. However, despite the reported cases of Zika virus infection in the country, Garin allayed the fears of the public, saying that “there is no outbreak” of the virus in the Philippines. “There is no epidemic. The pub-lic should not panic,” Garin said. Meanwhile, reporters have ob-served last week that DOH work-ers in Boracay were busy going around and urging tourists to be extra careful and use mosquito repellent to protect themselves from mosquito bites. For the first time in history, a mosquito-borne Zika virus has been identified as the cause of devastating brain birth defects. The US CDC recently con-firmed that Zika virus is to blame for severe developmental and neurological problems in new-borns. The virus is now believed to affect women throughout their pregnancies rather than during just the first trimester, the CDC reported recently. B ra z i l i s co n s i d e re d t h e “ground zero” for the Zika virus. Since Zika was detected in Bra-zil, its two states, Pernambuco and Paraiba, have accounted for 40 percent of the 6,480 reported cases of babies born with shrunk-en heads, a rare condition known as microcephaly.
Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco
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