BusinessMirror November 10, 2015

B M. S F. ASpecial to the BM

LONDON, United Kingdom—Even as the outrage over the tanim-bala (bullet-planting) scam has dominated Philip-

pine social media, the trending tweets in the United Kingdom last Tuesday evening was #VisitPhilippinesAgain2016.

About 200 UK-based travel media,

bloggers, TV celebrities, “influencers,” travel trade partners and investors trooped to Searcy’s, a private club at the top of the iconic The Gherkin, for the launch of the global campaign for VPA2016 of the Depart-ment of Tourism and its marketing arm, the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB).

Filipino-American rap artist apl.de.ap of The Black Eyed Peas sang a catchy new tune titled “It’s More Fun in the Philippines”

especially composed for the campaign. In the song, he narrates “places to go, the things to see” when a tourist visits the Philippines. “You can walk along the beach, the sun shin-ing on your feet, wine and dine, our food is unique, go dancing in the moonlight...” he rapped, as a music video played on the screen behind apl. de.ap showing the images he was narrating.

In a brief message, Tourism Secretary

Ramon R. Jimenez Jr. expressed his apprecia-tion for the guests at the event, and extolled everyone to “just visit the Philippines.”

In a separate interview, he said, “Visit Phil-ippines Again 2016 is going to be the most massive retail-focused effort the Philippines has ever made. We’re negotiating with tour operators and travel agents for incentives to give returning visitors to the Philippines.”

He added, “We’re putting together

packages and rewards, so that when a tour-ist returns to the Philippines for a second or fifth time, he will get discounts in sev-eral establishments.” Other musical performers at the event in-cluded Jessica Reynoso, a finalist in the first season of The Voice of the Philippines. Calling her “the next big star from the Philippines,” apl. de.ap served as her mentor during the

Abad said a bill in Congress that will mandate the salary in-crease was endorsed as urgent by President Aquino to Congress, so it can be implemented start-ing January 2016. The proposed salary increase for government workers will cost P226 billion in four years.

The proposed salary increase will be implemented in four tranches over the next four years starting January 2016, and will result in an

overall increase in salaries of up to 45 percent upon full implementation. “It is about time for another round of increase. Joint Resolution 4, which mandates the review of compensation every three years, was fully implemented in 2012. From then until 2015, the purchas-ing power of the pay of govern-ment workers has been eroded due to inflation,” Abad said in a news conference.

B L S. M 

INFRASTRUCTURE conglomer-ate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) has incurred more

than P3 billion in foregone revenues due to the four-year delay in toll-rate adjustments for the expressways that it operates, forcing it to file notices of claim against the gov-ernment that continually refuses to approve the tariff hike despite it being a provision in its contract with the state.  Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. Pres-ident Ramoncito S. Fernandez said he hopes that the arbitration panel will act in favor of his camp, given

that the government has failed to fulfill its part in the contract.  “We have done our part and we have already filed our claim. It’s up to the government now to act on it,” he told the BMin a recent interview at his office in Makati City.  Broken down, the group has sought for the payment of P2.4 billion for the foregone revenues in North Luzon Expressway (Nlex) and P700 million for the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway (Cavitex). Still, his group is seeking for the toll adjustments that have been in limbo for more than four years now. 

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PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 46.9020 n JAPAN 0.3808 n UK 70.5922 n HK 6.0507 n CHINA 7.3827 n SINGAPORE 33.0762 n AUSTRALIA 32.9994 n EU 50.3915 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.5072 Source: BSP (9 November 2015)

www.businessmirror.com.ph n Thursday 18, 2014 Vol. 10 No. 40 P. | | 7 DAYS A WEEKn Tuesday, November 10, 2015 Vol. 11 No. 33

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MYANMAR’S opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday hinted that her party will win the country’s historic elections, and urged

supporters not to provoke their losing rivals. In her first comments after Sunday’s elections, Suu Kyi told a crowd gathered at the National League for Democracy (NLD) party that the results won’t be announced soon, “but I think you all have the idea of the results.” “It is still a bit early to congratulate our candidates who will be the winners,” she said. “I want to remind you all that even candidates who didn’t win have to accept the winners, but it is important not to provoke the candidates who didn’t win to make them feel bad.” Officials across Myanmar were counting votes from

the election in which the NLD is expected to finish with the largest number of seats in Parliament. But its road to forming a government remains filled with hurdles even though the country will move a step closer to greater democracy. “Dawn of a new era. Millions vote in historic election,” was the banner headline of New Light of Myanmar, a government-owned newspaper, on Mon-day, reflecting how much Myanmar has changed since the military gave up its half-century rule in 2011. Sunday’s vote was billed as the freest ever in this Southeast Asian nation, which has been run by a quasi-civilian government for the last five years in a scripted transition toward democracy. Many of the eligible 30 million voters cast ballots for the first time, including

Suu Kyi, the epitome of the democracy movement. Although 91 parties contested, the main fight was between the NLD and the ruling Union Solidarity Development party, made up largely of former junta members. A host of other parties from ethnic minori-ties, who form 40 percent of Myanmar’s 52 million people, are also running. “I’m really happy because, from what I heard, the NLD is winning. I couldn’t sleep until 11 or 12 because I was looking everywhere for results,” said San Win, a 40-year-old newspaper vendor. “Things will change. If it does Mother Suu will do her best for the country,” Tun Khin, another vendor, chipped in, referring to Suu Kyi with the affectionate term that many here use. AP

MYANMAR’S opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi waves after delivering a speech in Yangon, Myanmar, on Monday. Suu Kyi hinted that her party will win the country’s historic elections, and urged supporters not to provoke their losing rivals. AP

SUU KYI HINTS AT ELECTION WIN,TELLS SUPPORTERS NOT TO GLOAT

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BUDGET Secretary Florencio B. Abad on Monday announced plans for a new round of salary increase

for the 1.53 million government workers, including the grant of mid-year bonuses equivalent to one-month basic salary starting next year.

₧226-B bonanza for stateworkers certified urgent

INSIDE

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Life Life Life Life BusinessMirror

Life Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Life | [email protected]

Life Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

Life The Spirit glorifies

DEAR Lord, we always depend on the Spirit for guidance, in-spiration and light. The Spirit

glorifies and testifies of Christ (John 15:26 “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Fa-ther, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, He will testify to me; John 16:14 He will glorify me”)Let the Spirit lead us to righteousness until the end of time. Amen! Life Life Life THE THINGS THE HOLY SPIRIT DOES, T DOES, T GEMMA AND LOUIE M. LACSON Life ACSON Life Word&Life Publications • [email protected] Life [email protected] Life

B M C GTribune News Service

WHEN you have a crazy lifelong obsession with décorating, like I do, and you get to play with new styles, colors,

patterns and décorating trends at work all day, it’s hard to pick the one look for your home that’s your favorite. Maybe that’s why I tweak my home décor on a regular basis, especially when the seasons are changing. Right now, as the weather has turned cooler, I’m adding little touches here and there to make my cottage warm and snug.

IN MY LIVING ROOM,IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PLAIDI AM over the moon about all menswear fabrics. Show me a paisley, check or stripe, and my heart races. I love how these sophisticated, timeless patterns blend together to make a space rich, complex and unique. But my favorite fabric for fall and winter, hands down, is plaid. You’d think that after I’d been interned in Catholic school for years, dressed in that infamous plaid skirt uniform, every ounce of plaid passion would have been squeezed from my heart. But plaid and I, we are married for life. As the weather gets colder, I swap out my lightweight summer pillows for fall pillows, with their heavier weights and richer colors. Every year I indulge myself in some new pillows just to keep things fresh.

My new favorite, easy-as-pie trick to instantly warm up my décor is to poke in throw blankets. Especially when they are plaid. I always have at least one blanket on the arm of my sofa or tossed over the back of a chair. I keep a basket �lled with throw blankets tucked under a table in the living room so I can pull one out to wrap up snug while I’m drinking my co�ee every morning.

MY DINING ROOM IS SET FOR FUNTHESE days, my husband Dan and I are a little less formal and a little more spontaneous when it comes to entertaining. I love to have friends over on a whim. To make instant dinner parties stress-free, I decided to come up with a tabletop design I would keep in place all

B D AThe Sacramento Bee

MORE than any �ower, one bloom signals holiday season in California: poinsettias.

But this tradition didn’t get its start until the 1920s. Back then, a San Diego County nurseryman, named Paul Ecke, took a Mexican native plant that was growing wild along the Southern California coastline and started experimenting. At his ranch in Encinitas, he developed more than 100 new varieties of poinsettias.

Just as important, he �gured out how to make poinsettias bloom reliably in late November and early December—just in time for Christmas. He also mastered ways to keep them compact and thrive in pots. In the wild, poinsettias—which are woody perennials—grow up to 12 feet tall and bloom in spring.

WHY ARE POINSETTIAS SO POPULAR?“TRADITION!” said Ron Wolford, a University of Illinois horticulturist and author of the online Poinsettia Pages. “Plus the fact that Christmas is associated with the color red. Even though poinsettias come in a variety of colors, red is still the most popular color choice.” Apparently, that choice is being made by women, who account for an estimated 80 percent of the market.

Wolford developed his popular Poinsettia Pages about 20 years ago, because his Chicago o�ce received so many queries each Christmas about the plant.

�e most common question?“No. 1 by far, people want to know how to get it to

rebloom next year,” Wolford said. “It’s not easy. �e plants need absolute darkness. It’s fun to do, maybe once. But it’s so much easier to go buy a new one.”

KEY POINTERS ON POINSETTIASn �e poinsettia, a tropical member of the Euphorbia

family, is native to Mexico and Central America. �e Aztecs called it cuetlaxochitl, or “star �ower.” �e red petals—actually bracts or modi�ed leaves—were used for dye. �e plant also was used medicinally.n Joel Poinsett, the �rst US ambassador to Mexico, is

credited with introducing the plant to this country in 1828. He raised the plants in his South Carolina greenhouse and gave them to friends. National Poinsettia Day is celebrated December 12, the anniversary of Poinsett’s death.n �e red, or otherwise, colored bracts frame the plant’s

actual �owers, which appear as yellow clusters at the center of the bracts. �e plant drops its bracts and leaves soon after those �owers shed their pollen. For the longest-lasting poinsettias, choose plants with little or no yellow pollen showing.n Contrary to popular belief, poinsettias are not

poisonous to humans or pets, although their white sap can cause skin irritation and nausea if eaten.n Poinsettias are not frost-tolerant. �ey will grow

outdoors in temperate coastal climates, such as Southern California beach communities. Planted in the ground, they can reach 12 feet tall.

HOW TO KEEP YOUR POINSETTIA ALIVEYOU’VE brought home one of those irresistible potted poinsettias or received one as a gift. How do you keep it beautiful through the holidays?

Today’s poinsettias can last longer than ever, often for months. To help yours stay pretty, follow this advice from Ron Wolford, creator of the Poinsettia Pages:n Place your poinsettia in indirect light after bringing

it home. Poinsettias need six hours of light daily (fluorescent light will work).n Keep your plant away from cold windows, warm or

cold drafts from furnaces or air conditioners, and open doors and windows.n Poinsettias do best at daytime temperatures of 65

dregrees to 70 degrees. Higher temperatures will shorten the plant’s life.n Check the soil daily. Punch holes in the pot’s foil cover

so water can drain into a saucer. Water the plant when the soil is dry. Allow water to drain into the saucer and discard excess. Wilted plants will tend to drop bracts sooner.n Don’t fertilize poinsettias while in bloom. If kept past the

holiday season, apply a houseplant fertilizer once a month.nNew varieties of poinsettias last longer. It’s not uncommon

for poinsettias to retain their bracts for several months.For more tips, go to goo.gl/kTkbQP.

IF one’s living space could be used to judge a person’s character, then the living spaces designed and decorated at this year’s “Ultimate Shopping and Design Show” must have been pretty interesting characters. Based on

selected client pro�les, studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units were transformed into living spaces complete with furnishings and interior décor. From the sleek but bold red lines that exude masculinity, to soft shabby chic, some of the country’s rising designers came up with brilliant and edgy designs that transformed the bare units of Avida Land’s Centera Towers into dream spaces that anyone would want to live in.

Instead of letting the public just imagine how images on a magazine would look like in a condominium unit, or how a bare condominium unit would look like with particular pieces, the Ultimate Shopping and Design Show vividly illustrated to existing and prospective unit owners how it would appear in real life.

“Avida and Real Living [the monthly magazine, an exhibit partner]

share the same objective of helping Filipinos achieve the dream home,” said Tess Tatco, Avida Land’s corporate marketing head. ”Who better to partner with than the country’s best-selling home magazine? It also happens that Real Living is everyone’s ultimate consultant when it comes to home design.”

The recent design shows tapped some of the country’s most exciting interior designers. Considered as the largest showcase in the event’s three-year run, 11 designers took part in styling five condominium units into spaces that every homeowner could aspire to.

Each design group had a living space to work with based on a client profile. The designers who participated this year are: Misty Floro and Pai Edles of modern-edgy firm Mofosis; Kristine Neri- Magturo, co-owner of furniture shop Urban Abode; John Viglia, formerly of Budji Layug + Royal Pineda design firm; Paul Baes and Joel Salazar of Lucina Home; Vera Villarosa, a graduate of the University of the Philippines and a go-to designer for the

Real Living Makeovers.; Allen Oblena, who is known for his mix of classical and vintage-mix designs; and Camille Besinga, an editor and a stylist.

“We especially selected these designers and stylists because they had unique interior looks that differed from one another,” said Rachelle Medina, the magazine’s editor in chief. “This way, they could show readers and potential homeowners that they could personalize their condo spaces in myriad, creative ways. No one should be limited to just a single style.”

Aside from giving attendees a strong dose of style inspiration, the design show had a strong shopping aspect, which was one of the key components of the event. Guests had the chance to purchase several of the featured products in the spaces, as well as shop represented the brands through exclusive discounts offered by this year’s partners and sponsors. Additionally, guests were able to attend a mini-trade fair to meet with representatives from brands like Yale, Boysen, Kuysen and American Standard, as well as shop for home and craft products from more than a dozen vendors.

Life Life | [email protected]

Life | [email protected]

Life Editor: Gerard S. Ramos

THE author’s fabric for fall and winter, hands down, is plaid.

How to cozy up home How to cozy up home décor for the season

PPPoinsettiasoinsettiasoinsettiasoinsettiasoinsettiasoinsettiasoinsettiasoinsettiasoinsettiasoinsettiasoinsettiasoinsettiasoinsettiasthe red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the red standard of the holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday seasonthe holiday season

Real living for condo dwellers

TWO of the spaces featured in Avida Land’s recent design show.

season. The place settings are at the ready, so all I have to do is swoop in after work and dish up the carryout.

Instead of a tablecloth, which is harder to launder, I topped my table with two fabric runners, nestled under the place settings so I don’t need placemats. My rule of thumb is to use only two runners on the table, then to put placemats under the table settings at the ends of the table.

My centerpiece is about as easy as it gets: A potted plant I grabbed from the A potted plant I grabbed from the A�oral section of the grocery store �anked by two hurricane lamps. For fun, I looped a fall ribbon through the stack of plates. �e ticking napkins are really dish towels. I like their generous size and that they launder so well. When I change my table design for my holiday look, these cuties are going to

replace the nasty, worn out dishtowels I’ve been using for way to long.

I can’t seem to ever set my table without using my set of simple white dishes. I’m caught up in their magnetic �eld, and I can’t seem to extract myself because they are so darn fun and easy to décorate around. Everything looks great with them. I added some texture with my go-to wicker chargers and dotted in some color through these majolica dishes.

THE OUTDOOR SPACESARE DRESSED FOR FALLTHIS is our second fall in our little lake cottage. But I wanted our garden to look full and mature, like it had been in place for decades. Since I don’t know the �rst thing about gardening, I hired Bill and Richard

to come up with a landscaping plan. Some women overspend on clothing, shoes or jewelry. Me? I have sunk every dime of my little nest egg into paving stones, bushes and �owers. My wardrobe looks like hell, but my garden is magni�cent

I love to spend time outdoors on crisp fall evenings. Most nights, Dan builds a �re and our neighbor wanders by with her dog Augie, our dog Lyric’s best friend. While the dogs run around the lawn, we gather by the �re, wrapped up snug in blankets, unwinding after a long day at work, in our little cottage by the lake. �anks for joining me at Innisfree during this quiet respite before the hurly-burly fun of the holidays!

n�is article was adapted from Mary Carol Garrity’s blog at www.nellhills.com.

Life EVERYBODY LOVES LEEROY NEW»D4

The WorldBusinessMirror [email protected] | Tuesday, November 10, 2015

George W. Bush speaks with father’s biographer 

It was a reminder the father’s legacy could have a powerful impact if another of his sons, Jeb Bush, wins the White House.

George W. Bush made the ac-knowledgement in a public forum on Sunday, talking about his fa-ther’s biography with the book’s author, Jon Meacham.

During their conversation, Meacham recalled a conversa-tion he’d had with George W. Bush for the book: “I think you downplayed at times how much you talked to your dad.” The younger Bush nodded.

The forum at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas touched on the father’s early career as a Navy pilot, his disappointing loss to former President Bill Clin-ton in 1992 and his reflections on his son’s tenure in the White House. The talk came two days before Meacham’s “Destiny and

Power” becomes publicly available.In the book, former President

George H.W. Bush criticized his son for setting an abrasive tone on the world stage and failing to rein in hawkish Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense chief Donald Rumsfeld. That sensitive topic was not addressed in the Sunday forum where the younger Bush was asking the questions.

The biography is the fullest account yet of the elder Bush, the only modern ex-president not to write a full-length mem-oir. It draws on diaries Bush kept from the 1960s to the 1990s and interviews the author conducted from 2006 to 2015.

On some days he sounded like he was “a step away from the grave,” Meacham said, referring to the exhaustive schedule kept by Bush. Meacham praised the elder Bush for his candor in recording his own

history. “This is a man who turned on the tape recorder and told the truth. Even when he was having the worst possible day he would talk himself back into the game,” Meacham added, citing Bush’s discouraged but determined diary entry on the evening he lost his bid for a second term as president.

In the book, Meacham por-trays the 41st president as the epitome of genti l ity and grace, bred for power but also humbled by it . In contrast to Ronald Reagan, for whom Bush ser ved eight years as vice president, or R ichard Nixon, whose patron-age he enjoyed, Meacham said on Sunday that Bush saw poli-tics as a noble undertaking, in the mold of Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “where public off ice was an ex-tension of yourself.”

In 1965 after losing an elec-tion to the US Senate, Bush, at 41 years old, declared his inten-tion to become president.

“He had a sense of destiny, a sense that he was meant to do great things,” Meacham said, adding that his father and in-laws had both pre-dicted his rise to the White House.

“When you write the book on me, you’re not going to find anyone predicting I’m going to be presi-dent,” Bush quipped.

Toward the end of the discus-sion, Bush and Meacham turned

to former President George H.W. Bush’s ref lections on his son’s presidency. In the book, Bush says onetime Pentagon chief Rums-feld “served the president badly” when George W. Bush was in the White House and that former Vice President Cheney “built his own empire” and asserted too much “hard-line” influence.

He worried about his son’s “cow-boy image,” Meacham writes.

“I do worry about some of the rhetoric that was out there — some of it his, maybe, and some of it the people around him,” Bush said in the book.

Bush disliked the term “axis of evil,” which George W. Bush used to refer to Iraq, Iran and North Korea in his 2002 State of the Union address. During his son’s years in office, George H.W. Bush devoured the news.

“There’s another difference, I didn’t read The New York Times,” Bush told Meacham with a chuckle.

T he e lder Bush was a far more emotional person than the image he presented publicly, Meacham said.

Criticized during his presidency for raising taxes after pledging as a candidate, “Read my lips: no new taxes,” Bush consistently put the country’s interests ahead of his own, Meacham added. That pledge enraged many conservatives in his own party. AP

DALLAS—Former President George W. Bush acknowledged on Sunday that he may have

downplayed how much he sought advice from his father during his presidency, a sign of the influence George Herbert Walker Bush still has over his son.

OKINAWA, Japan—Apart from rogue hackers, crim-inal organizations or even

state-backed cyberwarfare units, Japan’s businesses and  govern-ment agencies are facing a unique cybersecurity foe: themselves.

Even with the frequency and severity of cyberattacks increas-ing rapidly worldwide, efforts by t he world ’s t h i rd- l a rgest economy to improve its data security are being hobbled by a widespread corporate culture that views security breaches as a loss of face, leading to poor dis-closure of incidents or informa-tion sharing at critical moments, Japanese experts and  govern-ment officials say.

Improving cybersecurity prac-tices has emerged as a top na-tional priority for Japan, stung in recent years by embarrass-ing leaks at Sony Pictures, the national pension fund and its biggest defense contractor, Mit-subishi Heavy Industries, which possibly suffered the theft of submarine and missile designs.

Toshio Nawa, a top Japanese secur ity consultant who is ad-vising the Tokyo 2020 Olympics orga ni zers, sa id he encou n-tered a tel l ing instance this summer when he was ca l led to investigate a breach at a major Japanese government agency.

Nawa found that five differ-ent cybersecurity contractors em-ployed by the agency had discovered the breach, but not one reported or shared their findings.

With evidence from the con-tractors pooled together, Nawa matched the digital fingerprints to a Mexican group that he be-lieves was responsible for a previ-ous attack on Japanese diplomatic servers. The breach was patched, but Nawa walked away f lustered.

“In the US, if they find a problem, they have to report,” he said. “The Japanese engineer feels he fails his duty if he escalates a report. They feel ashamed.”

To be sure, the cybersecurity industry around the world, not just in Japan, frequently echoes the call for greater transparency within and among organizations. The US Senate last month passed the Cybersecurity Information

Sharing Act to ease data shar-ing between private companies and the government for security purposes, although civil liber-ties advocates warned it posed a threat to privacy.

But the problem may be particu-larly acute for Japan’s private sec-tor behemoths and  government ministries. These sprawling bu-reaucracies are wrapped in a “nega-tive culture that cuts against want-ing to communicate quickly,” said William H. Saito, the top cyberse-curity adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. While rank-and-file workers fear reports of security lapses may get them punished, the problem reflects a broad lack of understanding of cybersecurity among the top ranks of Japanese executives, Saito said in an inter-view on the sidelines of the Cyber3 conference in Okinawa.

“ T his is Japanese cu lt ure where in some situations the up-per management doesn’t know how to use e-mail and IT [info-mation-technology] integration is voodoo magic,” said US-born Saito, also an executive at Palo Alto Networks, a security firm. “The reality is companies either have been hacked or wi l l be hacked. My message is, ‘It’s not your fault.’”

In 2013, the latest year of avail-able data, the Japanese  govern-ment network faced an eightfold increase in cyberattacks from two years prior, with attacks spread-ing into civil infrastructure, as well as the telecommunications and energy sectors.

Against that backdrop, the Abe administration has pinpointed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a chance to upgrade Japan’s na-tional security capabilities while calling for a more hands-on gov-ernment role to nudge companies to take cybersecurity seriously.

A Cabinet-level cybersecurity agency in September published a strategy paper that proposed, among other things, extending government-run cybersecurity classes to companies, awarding financial incentives for firms that demonstrate improved security capabilities and requiring compa-nies to fill a chief cybersecurity officer role. AP

Japan is its own enemyin push to improvecountry’s cybersecurity

LOS ANGELES—A bright, colorful light that streaked across the California sky,

startling residents and leading to a flurry of calls to law enforcement, turned out to be an unarmed mis-sile test-fired from a Navy sub-marine off the coast on Saturday evening, officials said.

Kevin Stack was walking to dinner with his young son in northeastern Los Angeles when he was stopped in his tracks by what he thought was an espe-cially intense light from a police helicopter—except that it was completely silent.

“It intensified then shot across the dark sky, leaving a green trail,”

said Stack, 41. “Then it fizzled and appeared like a dying dot on an old television screen.”

Stack’s 5-year-old son, Black-stone, was under no il lusions about what he had just seen.

“It was an alien,” Blackstone said. Not quite, said Cmdr. Ryan Perry, a Navy spokesman. Navy Strategic Systems Programs con-ducted a missile test at sea from the USS Kentucky, a ballistic missile submarine, Perry said in a statement.

The launches are conducted on a frequent basis to ensure the continued reliability of the sys-tem and that information about such test launches is classified

prior to the launch, he said. The lack of information about the streak of light just after sunset led to panicked calls to police and lit up social media as people posted photos and video of the celestial sight.

Julien Solomita just happened to be shooting some video footage in a Los Angeles neighborhood when his group saw something odd up above.

“It was very wild watching this in the sky,” he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “I can’t really say what I thought it was because I’ve never experienced anything remotely close to it.” The light was visible for hundreds of

miles (kilometers), startling peo-ple in Nevada and Arizona and as far north as California’s Sonoma Valley wine country.

“A nybody else see the big white ball of light in the sky?” wrote California state Sen. Mike McGuire on Facebook. “Wow.”

It wasn’t clear whether the test was related to the rerouting of nighttime flights into and out of Los Angeles International Airport because of an active military air-space from Friday to November 12.

Flights usually arrive and de-part over the ocean from midnight to 6:30 a.m. to minimize noise, but they will have to go over commu-nities east of the airport. AP

Naval missile test off California creates streaking light 

THIS November 7 image from video provided by Julien Solomita, shows an unarmed missile �red by the US Navy from a submarine o� the coast of Southern California, creating a bright light that streaked across the state and was visible as far away as Nevada and Arizona. A Navy spokesman told The San Diego Union-Tribune that the Navy Strategic Systems Programs conducted the missile test at sea on Saturday from the USS Kentucky, a ballistic missile Kentucky, a ballistic missile Kentuckysubmarine. JULIEN SOLOMITA VIA AP

FORMER President George W. Bush (left), listens to Pulitzer Prize winning author Jon Meacham, talks about his biography of Bush’s father, former President George H. W. Bush on Novermber 8 at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas. AP/JEFFREY MCWHORTER

IN this December 18, 2014, �le photo, a man walks out from the headquarters of Sony Corp. in Tokyo. Improving cybersecurity practices has emerged as a top national priority for Japan, stung in recent years by embarrassing leaks at Sony Pictures, the national pension fund and its biggest defense contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which possibly su�ered the theft of submarine and missile designs. AP/EUGENE HOSHIKO

THE WORLD B23

HOW TO COZY UP HOME DÉCOR FOR THE SEASON

GEORGE W. BUSH SPEAKS WITH FATHER’S BIOGRAPHER

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Celebrities grace ‘Visit Philippines Again’ 2016 London launch

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PHL REAPS BENEFITS OF ‘LOPSIDED’FREETRADE AGREEMENT WITH JAPAN

B C N. P

Conclusion

DESPITE the gains observed in trade and investments, some provisions of the Ja-

pan-Philippines Economic Partner-ship Agreement (Jpepa)—particu-larly on sections covering some ag-ricultural product lines and move-ment of natural persons—need to be renegotiated soon to enhance the entry of more goods and pro-fessionals to the Japanese market. Seven years after the country’s

only bilateral free-trade agreement (FTA) entered into force, the Philip-pine negotiators are now preparing to meet with their Japanese coun-terparts anew for the renegotiation of the deal next year. The Philip-pines’s goal is to improve market access of the country’s agricultural exports and expand the coverage. Trade Assistant Secretary for Industry Development and Trade Policy Ceferino S. Rodolfo said the review of the Jpepa is slated for the first quarter of 2016, which was confirmed by Trade Under-

secretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. in a separate interview.

Jpepa reviewCRISTOBAL said the Philippines wants to push for the inclusion of agricultural products currently not in the original economic-partnership agreement. “There are two aspects to the review, one is on the implemen-tation side [the schedule on tariff reductions], and the other is both sides want to renegotiate some tariff

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INTO THE BRIGHT LIGHTS Don Jaime Zobel de Ayala and his grand children stroll under a canopy of colors at the Festival of Lights on Monday at the Ayala Triangle gardens. Their promenade highlighted a fantastic light-and-sound display meant to welcome the long Christmas holiday season that comes early for most Filipinos. Also in photo is Patricia Zobel de Ayala, Philippine ambassador to Morocco. NONIE REYES

MPIC losses due to delayed toll-rate hike now at ₧3.1B The toll regulator has not acted on the company’s two petitions for the rate increase of Nlex, one filed in 2012 and the other in 2014.  The first petition was due on the first of January 2013. The second one, submitted on the 30th of Sep-tember last year, would bring the cumulative toll-rate adjustment to 15 percent, of which 12 percent is long overdue. The concession that the Pang-ilinan-controlled company holds allows for toll adjustments every two years.  Current toll fees at the thor-oughfare (from Mindanao Avenue to Santa Ines) amount to P218 for Class 1 Vehicles (cars, jeepneys, pickup trucks and vans); P544 for Class 2 vehicles (two-axle trucks, buses and vans); and P652 for Class 3 vehicles (trucks and trailers with three or more axles). For the Cavitex, the company is

seeking a 25-percent increase in tariff, as its last adjustment was given in 2011. It was supposed to implement adjust-ments in 2014, as its contract with the government allows for such surges.  In absolute terms, the peti-tions for a rate hike for Cavitex are as follows:   ■ Class 1 vehicles, including cars, jeepneys, pickup trucks and vans, to P27 from P22; ■ Class 2 vehicles, including two-axle trucks, buses and vans, to P54 from P44; and, ■Class 3 vehicles, including trucks and trailers with three or more axles, to P81 from P66. “Whether they grant the increase, of course, that’s the ultimate objec-tive for them to grant the increase,” Fernandez said.  “They should not forget that they have arrears. Hope-fully, they can address both pending adjustment plus arrears.”  Government officials were sought for comment, but none were available as of press time. 

A study conducted by the government indicated that middle managers, comprised of directors in the government service, get only about one-third of what their counterpar ts in the private sector are getting, while government executives get only about one-fourth of the salaries of their private-sector counterparts. In a separate news conference last week, Customs Commissioner Alberto D. Lina said highly technical government positions are hard to fill because the salaries are very low compared to what private firms abroad are willing to pay. For example, a meteorologist who can interpret weather patterns are very much in demand anywhere in the world, making the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Service Administration hard-pressed to keep its meteorologists from being pirated by foreign firms. The proposed Salary Standardization Law 2015 (SSL 2015) starting next year will at least try to keep up with what local firms are willing to pay middle managers and executives, Abad said. “Higher salaries help attract and retain critical talent. We want to attract the best and

brightest managers and executives to join and stay in government. More than a proposal for a salary increase, SSL 2015 is an advocacy to further improve government service. With competitive compensation, we intend to bolster the recruitment of agencies that need to fill up vacancies in senior technical and middle management positions,” Abad said. According to data from the Department of Budget and Management, there are still 191,988 unfilled positions in the government. Many of these positions are considered hard-to-fill positions because the qualifications require highly technical skills for the prospective recruit. The salary grades (SG) that are hard to fill are senior technical positions from SG 21 to 25, where vacancies are between 26 percent to 41 percent of the total authorized positions for the respective SGs. Among the positions that belong to these SGs are senior accountants, lawyers and division chiefs. SSL 2015 mandates a four-year P226-billion compensation increase for the national government’s 1.53 million civilian, military and uniformed personnel. The compensation package is composed of a salary increase, a mid-year 14th-month pay and an enhanced performance-based bonus (PBB) system. The bill seeks to increase the basic salary

of covered employees on the average by 27 percent, while the 14th month pay will further raise compensation by 8 percent. The enhanced PBB is equivalent to one to two months’ salary, or an average 10 percent increase in salary. Currently, government pay, on the average, is only 55 percent of market rates. “The adjustment is mandated by the Joint Resolution 4 of Congress of 2009, which provided for a review of the compensation and position classification system after three years from the last year of the adjustment (which was June 1, 20t12) to determine the competitiveness of government pay in relation to the private sector and the compensation strategy to bring government pay closer to market rates,” he said. Accordingly, with the help of private-sector consultant Towers Watson, the DBM undertook and completed the study in July 2015. “In structuring the compensation ad-justment, we were guided by five parameters: (1)The minimum basic salary—Salary Grade 1—shall be raised from P9,000 to P11,068 a month; (2)To attract and retain competent and committed personnel, the new compensation level for all salary grades shall be at least 70 percent of the market;

(3)To recognize differences in duties and responsibilities, there shall be no salary overlaps; (4)The link between pay and performance shall be strengthened, especially for those in the higher salary grades, and (5)The structure of the adjustment should temper the cost of benefits (i.e. Government Service Insurance System premiums and Philippine Health Insurance Corp. contributions) and allow for higher take home pay, especially for those in the lower salary grades,” Abad clarified. As a consequence of RA 10653, which raised the amount of benefits exempted from tax to P82,000, for majority of civilian employees, those belonging to Salary Grades 1-11, and who are only receiving the existing tax-exempt 13th month pay, the cash gift and the productivity enhancement incentive (PEI), their full 14th-month pay and full PBB will also be exempt from tax. For those belonging to Salary Grades 12-16, who also are only receiving the existing tax-exempt 13th-month pay, cash gift and PEI, only their full 14th month pay will be exempt from tax. “The first tranche of the adjustment will take effect on January 1, 2016, and the subsequent three tranches on every January 1 thereafter until the final tranche in 2019,” Abad added. With PNA

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widely watched first edition of the musical competition. They also sang a few numbers together. Another much-applauded per-former was Princess Ybañez, a violinist in the mold of Vanessa Mae, who modernized classical violin pieces to reach a wider and younger audience. After the musical performances, apl.de.ap took to the stage again, this time as a DJ, playing dance tunes, which brought all the guests to their feet. Several tweets called the event “the best #WTM2015 party ever” (@ImplausibleBlog), an “amazing @TourismPHL event” (@Pommi-eTravels), with one even saying, “Seriously, after last night’s party at @Searcy’sGherkin, I can’t wait to get to the Philippines in the new year.” (https://storify.com/ako-sistella/dot-launches-vpa2016-in-london#publicize) The VPA2016 global launch was part of the DOT’s activities during the World Travel Market (WTM) 2015, held from November 2 to 5 at the ExCel in London. About 5,000 exhibitors participate in this lead-ing travel event to showcase their destinations, products and ser-

vices. According to its web site, “the organizations use WTM as a platform to reach 50,000 travel professionals” who were expected to flock to the show. Exhibitors were organized in two massive halls by geographical region: Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the UK and Ireland, as well as “Global Village.” The Philip-pines has been attending the annual event since 1980, when the WTM was first conceived. In a related development, TPB COO Domingo Ramon Enerio III told the BusinessMirror that the Philippines will be hosting the Travel Bloggers Exchange (Tbex) from October 13 to 16 next year at the PICC in Pasay City. “We’re expecting 700 delegates. We believe that social media is an effective tool to send out more good news and stories about travelling in the Philippines.” After the main event, he said the bloggers will travel to different appealing destinations around the country, such as Boracay, Cebu, Pal-awan, to name a few. “We’re still fi-nalizing the dates for the post-event trips, but definitely this will be all over the Philippines,” he added.

lines, those that weren’t covered by the Jpepa. On our part we have a strong interest in other agricul-tural products and for them, they are interested in certain industrials and services—automobiles being the obvious one,” Cristobal said. Cristobal, however, did not provide specifics on the new agricultural products that may be included in the review. Another trade official added that the existing agricultural products covered—such as bananas, pineapples and frozen chicken—will also be set for renegotiation, as the Philippines has already maximized the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) imposed on these agricultural exports to Japan. “We have to get additional access for these products because we already maximized our offensive interest in this area,” said the trade official, who asked not to be named. The TRQ is a trade-policy tool used to protect domestically produced commodities by the im-porting market, while conceding that certain negotiated quantities may be expected by the parties to be charged lower import duties.

PHL bananas losingIn the Jpepa, Tokyo is imposing TRQs on fresh pineapples, fresh bananas and poultry meat cuts from the Philippines. Philippine banana producers have been

pushing specifically for tariff elimination for banana exports, due to the disadvantage it now faces with Japan lowering to zero the tariffs on banana imports from other countries. Japan has successfully negotiated with a slew of other countries—namely Costa Rica, Indonesia, Mozambique and Vietnam—for economic partnerships and bilateral FTAs, al-lowing these countries’ banana exports to enter Japan at zero duty. Philippine banana exports to Japan are still slapped with a tariff ranging from 8 percent to 18 percent, causing a slowdown in export volume.

Movement of natural personsAsIde from agricultural exports, the Philippines is targeting to also renegotiate a pertinent area in the Jpepa that will enhance the country’s po-sition as a major source of talent for Japan: the movement of natural persons. An item specifically sought by the Philippines in the agreement is the entry of Filipino caregiv-ers and nurses to the northeast Asian country, considering the Japan’s aging population and dearth of labor supply in health care. even as the Philippines deployment of work-ers has gradually shifted from entertainers to healthcare workers since Jpepa was enforced, the licensure process is proving to be a chal-lenge for Filipinos. “Prior to Jpepa, you can’t practice that [health

care] profession there. What we were sending then were entertainers; but we have already changed that. The entry of skilled labor to Japan is a long-term project, but at least we already got to deploy nurses. A problem is in passing the li-censure exams; that’s a challenge,” Rodolfo said. Under the Jpepa, for the Filipino nurses to gain entry to Japan, they must have completed three years of training in the Philippines. For them to be eligible to take the licensure exam, they must have had a minimum stay of six months in Japan for language training.

Difficult licensure examsdesPITe moves by both governments to facili-tate their entry to Japan, few Filipino nurses have been able to maximize the opportunity because of the difficult licensure exams. According to the department of Labor and employment (dOLe), from 2009 to 2011, 160 Filipino candidate-nurses took the Japanese national examination for nurses. Of the 160, only 15 had passed the licensure exams, with the Philippines putting forward only one successful examinee each in the second and third batches. From 2011 onward, the passing rate has somewhat increased, said the dOLe. According to the dOLe, from 2009 to 2014, only a total of 64 Filipino nurses have passed the Japan’s national licensure exams. To improve the number, Rodolfo said

additional training will be needed. The depart-ment of Trade and Industry, together with the dOLe, will be looking at a “new model” for training programs. The aim is to intensify the program set for Filipino candidate-nurses here in the country, before they leave for Japan. still in the area of movement of natural per-sons, Rodolfo said the time is ripe to look at other categories of professions to maximize the oppor-tunities presented by the Jpepa in accessing the Japanese labor market.

English teachers“In the movement of natural persons, particu-larly, we want to improve further the frame-work, or the mechanisms, for the deployment of health-care professionals and extending that to other skilled professionals, such as engineer-ing, and opening other categories like construc-tion,” Rodolfo said. An opportunity that could possibly be ex-plored is in the area of education in view of Ja-pan’s hosting of the 2020 Olympics, the trade official added. With increased interaction and engagement of Japanese nationals during the international sporting event, educational institu-tions are now building up capacity to ramp up the english speaking and comprehension skills of their students. The Ministry of education, Culture, sports, cience & Technology of Japan has drafted an

education-reform plan enhancing the country’s english education from 2014 to 2020 throughout elementary to lower/secondary school. Filipinos’ proficiency, not just in english but in language instruction, makes them a viable op-tion, aside from the fact that their counterpart educators in Canada and north America pres-ent a higher cost for the Japanese government, Rodolfo said. “Right now, we see that as an opportunity,” said Rodolfo, noting that a licensure exam for english teaching is not a requirement, thus, mak-ing it accessible for more workers.

No toxic wastesMOReOVeR, it would seem that the warnings of environmental groups on the influx of toxic wastes into the country after the Jpepa has not happened, for now. The Philippine Institute for development studies affirmed this fact in a policy note titled “Jpepa: Highlights of an Initial ex-Post Review” by Veredigna M. Ledda and erlinda M. Medalla. According to the note: “Concerns were raised about the potential serious negative impacts of opening up the economy as a result of the Jpepa, particularly significant dislocation in the ‘sensitive’ automotive and other sectors, and environmental disasters, such as dumping of toxic waste. data show that none of the dire scenarios imagined have materialized.”

INTERTROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE (ITCZ)AFFECTING MINDANAO(NOVEMBER 9, 5:00 PM)

PHL reaps benefits of ‘lopsided’ free-trade agreement with Japan

P226-B bonanza for state workers certified urgent Celebrities grace ‘Visit Philippines Again’ 2016 London launch. . . Continued from A1

[email protected] Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Tuesday, November 10, 2015 A3BusinessMirrorThe Nation

Former University of the East Law Dean Amado Valdez said Poe should be denied a chance to seek the presidency for her failure to meet the requirements of being a natural-born Filipino citizen and the 10-year residency requirement under Article VII, Section 2 of the 1987 Constitution. The said provision provides that “no person may be elected President unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, a registered voter, able to read and write, at least 40 years of age on the day of the elec-tion, and a resident of the Philip-pines for at least 10 years immedi-ately preceding such election.” “Premises considered, it is most

respectful-ly prayed t h at t he certificate of candi-dacy of re-spondent, Mary Grace S o n o r a P o e - L l a -manzares, be canceled and denied due course and that she be de-

clared disqualified to file COC for any other elective public office re-quiring as qualification the status

of a natural-born Filipino citizen,” Valdez said in his 33-page petition. Valdez argued that even if Poe were a natural-born citizen, she lost status when she renounced her Filipino citizenship by taking her oath as American citizen in October 2001. Valdez pointed that her reac-quisition of her Philippine citi-zenship in July 2006 under Re-public Act (RA) 9225, or the Dual Citizenship Act of 2003, did not allow her to regain her natural-born status. “Since it was not possible that she was restored to her natural-born status when she reacquired her Fili-pino citizenship on July 18, 2006, because of her dual allegiance, there is no point in time that she became again a natural-born Filipino citi-zen,” he said.  “It would be unworthy of the Phil ippines and it would not have been intended by Congress to make the restoration of her natural-born status dependent upon the issuance of the Certifi-cate of Loss of Nationality by the United States. The only effect of her renunciation of alien citizen-ship, therefore, is to remove the tinge of having dual allegiance

frowned upon by the Constitu-tion,” he added. He pointed out that the fact that Poe has to perform an overt act to reacquire her citizenship by filing a Petition for Re-Acquisition of Phil-ippine Citizenship under RA 9225 does not qualify her as natural-born citizen in conformity with the provi-sions of Article IV, Section 2 of the 1987 Constitution. Article IV, Section 2 of the 1987 Constitution, he said, provides that those who are citizens of the Philip-pines from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or per-fect their Philippine citizenship are deemed natural-born citizens. “In the language of RA 9225, respondent was deemed as having reacquired Philippine citizenship but not natural-born citizenship,” Valdez said. As for the issue on her Philippine residency, he said all three dates being pointed by various parties as the possible start of the count of her residence in the country do not meet the 10-year period. Valdez said none of the July 7, 2006, when she took her oath as Filipino citizen; November 2006, as she claimed in her COC to run for senator in the May

2013 elections; and October 20, 2010, when she renounced her American citizenship are able to disprove her failure in meeting the residency requirement. “In sum, her residency amounts to four years, six months and 15 days on the day of the election in May 2016, short of the 10 years required by the 1987 Constitution. Nonethe-less, counting the years from any of the above dates, respondent will still come short of the 10-year require-ment,” Valdez said. Valdez filed the petition a day be-fore the Comelec hears the first  dis-qualification case filed by lawyer Estrella Elamparo. Poe is expected to attend Tues-day’s preliminary hearing on Elamparo’s petition scheduled by the poll body. Aside from Elamparo,  former Sen. Francisco Tatad and De La Salle University Prof. Antonio Contreras also filed separate petitions seek-ing Poe’s disqualification in the 2016 elections. Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista had earlier said the poll body has decided to just consoli-date all the three cases against the senator under the Second Division.

ANOTHER AWARD Fast-food tycoon George Yang (second from left) was given the SKAL International Fast Food Chain Award 2015 during the tourism group’s 25th awards night recently. Yang was cited for McDonald’s consistency in food service, cleanliness and the dedication to duty of its thou-sands of employees nationwide.

Disqualification cases vs Poe pile upBy Joel R. San Juan

THE disqualification cases against Sen. Grace Poe continue to pile up after a constitutionalist joined

those petitioning the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to deny her application for a certificate of candidacy (COC) for the 2016 presidential race.

By Manuel T. CayonMindanao Bureau Chief

DAVAO CITY—The Over-seas Workers Welfare Ad-ministration (OWWA) has

circulated its advisory to migrant workers and their families to take precautions when using the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) to avoid falling prey into the tanim-bala (bullet-planting) scandal. The advisory was dated Novem-ber 5 and was circulated to all its regional offices nationwide, as well as its including its attachés abroad. The OWWA regional office here has attached a statement of appeal to news outfits “to help disseminate the information to the public.” The advisory was brief, asking overseas Filipinos “to be extra vigi-lant especially with their luggage.” “They should never leave their baggage alone or out of their sight. Always make sure that they carry their luggage at all times and take all the necessary precautions to safeguard their belongings,” Administrator Re-becca J. Calzado said. “With the coming of hol i-day season, it would spread worry among those who will be coming home for their vacation. It has been said that numerous passengers, a number of whom are overseas Fili-pino workers [OFWs],  have been apprehended when bullets were allegedly found in their baggage. Many  denied these allegations and insisted they were victims of extortion,” she said, reiterating warning by OFWs that they would either skip their Christmas vaca-tion here or to seek other ports of entry to the Philippines other than the Naia. While she said it was “truly sad that some of our OFWs have been accused of possessing these illegal [items],” she added that she was confident that the authority would “deal with this concern soon so as to relieve the tension in our airports.”

MARAWI CITY—Mayor Sultan Fahad Salic has ordered all barangay

officials in this city to help secure the pylons of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) within their areas of responsibility. Salic issued the order as another pylon was bombed on Friday night in Barangay Kormatan Matampay, this city. He said he tasked the barangay officials to secure the pylons to prevent a repeat of the incident. Salic said he also directed the barangay officials to determine the motive of the incident “so the problem can be addressed.”

However, Eugene Bicar, NGCP’s Mindanao system operations chief, said the assailants failed to topple the tower. “The steel tower was not toppled down. It is still on its upright position,” Bicar said. The incident took place more than a week after two pylons were bombed and toppled down on October 29 in Barangay Patani, this city. The October 29 incident caused power outage in several areas here in Mindanao as the 80-megawatt (MW) Agus 1 and 180-MW Agus 2 plants were isolated from the Mindanao grid. PNA

OWWA Orders regiOnAl Officers tO rAise Alert On ‘tAnim-bAlA’ At nAiA 

Marawi City mayor orders barangayofficials to secure electric towers

poe

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Chinese President Xi Jinping was the latest official to confirm his trip to Manila for the November 18 and 19 AELM, ending speculations that China’s highest leader will snub the summit due to the current tension between the Philippines and China over the contested West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). “Yes, he is attending Apec,” Chi-nese Embassy Spokesman Li Ling Zhao said in a text message. “I do not know exactly the date of ar-rival yet.” Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr., Apec 2015 National Organizing Committee (NOC) director general, said there is no indication that any of the leaders of the 21 member-economies won’t be attending the meetings, which would end on No-vember 20. “At this point, no indication of anyone not attending. We have as of now 10 official confirmations and the others are coming,” Paynor said during a media forum last week. “All economies sent advance teams, a probability a lot of leaders are coming in,” Paynor added. “If we go by historical data, very few leaders did not come mostly because they could not for internal or domestic reasons, mostly an election. In fact, we were assured Canada and Aus-tralia are coming.” The leaders will be presented the results of the 229 meetings, including 48 major meetings, held

for the 2015 Apec, including the recommendations crafted in Cebu, Boracay and Iloilo. The AELM, the main culminat-ing activity after the yearlong slate of meetings, is expected to bring to the fore the priority thrust of the Philippines’s hosting, which is inclusive growth. Traditionally held at the conclu-sion of each hosting year, the AELM provides an avenue for economy leaders to expound on specific agree-ments and concrete actions resulting from the various working groups and ministerial-level meetings held over the previous year. The annual gathering would affirm the member-economies’ commitment to trade and invest-ment liberalization, business fa-cilitation and economic and tech-nical cooperation. The AELM is the main concluding platform where heads of economies are expected to choose the specific topics that they will adopt, based on the broad list of initiatives discussed during the various Apec meetings, and which will set the tone for the next country’s hosting. The policy direction of the future development among Apec economies will be announced through the re-lease of the Leaders’ Declaration after the annual meeting. This policy direction will be based on the Concluding Senior Of-ficials’ Meeting (CSOM), which is

ThE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will engage private sector stake-holders for a consultation on the pro-

posed free-trade agreement (FTA) between the Philippines and the European Free Trade Area (Efta) in preparation for the fourth and possibly the last round of negotiations on the FTA scheduled later this month. A news statement released by the trade de-partment on Monday said that the consulta-tion will focus on FTA issues such as technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, trade facilitation, intellectual prop-erty rights, public procurement, competition, and trade and sustainable development. The consultation initial consultation is expected to begin on Tuesday with members of the business sector and civil-society organizations. “Our goal is to maximize benefits of our trade agreements with Europe. An FTA with Efta is a logical next step to expand market ac-cess of the Philippines in the continent,“ Trade Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. said. An earlier interview with Assistant Secretary for Trade Ceferino S. Rodolfo said that market access in agricultural goods and services are two particular areas that the Philippines would like to push.  Rodolfo stressed that Filipino workers may see an opportunity in the Efta bloc—composed of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechten-stein through the entry of more companies, and not on the exchange of workers through a particular industry. “Ang parang nakikita nating model is not

laborers seeking employment as inviduals but through companies na either mag-i-invest or Filipino companies forming joint ventures,” Rodolfo said in an earlier inter-view with the BusinessMirror.  Another area that the Philippines is urg-ing more access in is the country’s agricultural goods, specifically tuna, despite the mutual sensitivity of the products in both markets.  In terms of sensitivities, documents from the DTI showed that on nonagricultural prod-ucts, the most-favored nation  rate on almost 100 percent of the Philippines’s imports from the European bloc do not exceed 15 percent.  For agricultural products, 84.52 percent of Philippine imports from Efta also do not exceed 15-percent rate. The Philippines export inter-ests will also be high on the agenda during the fourth round of negotiations. The fourth round of negotiations will be taking place in Geneva from November 24 to 27.  The Philippines imported $400 million worth of goods from Efta in 2013, and exported $300 million from them in the same year. Both figures represent less than 1percent of our total imports and exports for that year.   Investments of Efta members in the Philip-pines also significantly declined to $37.81 mil-lion in 2013 from $13.81 billion in 2010. The Philippines only get 4.61 percent of Efta’s total investments to Southeast Asia. The PhL-Efta consultation is an initiative under the One Country, One Voice program, the government’s consultative mechanism for stakeholder participation in trade policy for-mulation. Catherine N. Pillas

By Cai U. Ordinario

POVERTY in urban areas in the Philip-pines could worsen as climate change would make basic food items more

expensive, according to the latest report from the World Bank. In its latest report titled Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty, the World Bank said higher food prices would increase the ranks of the urban poor by 32 percent.  “A climate-induced rise in food prices could increase poverty rates of nonagricul-tural households by 20 percent to 50 per-cent in parts of Africa and Asia,” the World Bank said. “With increasing urbanization rates, food-price increases could have an even more severe poverty impact.” Poverty incidence among urban house-holds may also increase to 111 percent in Malawi; 102 percent in Zambia; 95 percent in Mexico; and 31 percent in Bangladesh To address the possible impact of climate change on food prices, the World Bank urged governments to provide safety nets that will allow the poor to cope.  Safety nets are key since the World Bank expects that apart from poverty, income inequality will also widen due to climate change.   “There will be an impact on poverty and inequality because poor people [1] are more often affected by these negative shocks or trends [they are more exposed]; [2] lose

more when affected, relative to their in-come or wealth [they are more vulnerable]; and [3] receive less support from family, friends, and community, and have less ac-cess to financial tools or social safety nets to help prevent, prepare for, and manage impacts,” the World Bank said.  Fortunately for the Philippines, the World Bank said, the government’s con-ditional cash transfer (CCT) is considered one of the most advanced in the world.  The country’s CCT Program was test-ed in the wake of massive devastation wrought by Supertyphoon Yolanda. The CCT was used to coordinate and imple-ment postdisaster support. Yolanda displaced 4.1 million people and increased national poverty incidence by 1.9 percent, or an additional 1 million people falling into poverty. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which imple-ments the CCT, also has a Disaster Af-fected Family Assistance Card to monitor CCT beneficiaries and the Listahanan, a national registry used to target CCT beneficiaries and recipients of other government social programs. The DSWD also has the CCT Benefi-ciary Update List (BUL), a subset of the Listahanan. The BUL is updated every two months and contains information on poor households. The government agency also has the CCT Grievance Redress System, a component of

the CCT that allows direct queries, clarifica-tions, complaints, grievances, and appeals to the appropriate CCT committees. “The Philippines has one of the most advance SP system—backed with advanced information and delivery systems—in the East Asia Pacific region, designed to help poor households manage risk and shocks,” the report stated. University of the Philippines School of Statistics Dean Dennis Mapa earlier ex-plained that the poorest Filipinos are very sensitive to food prices.  Mapa said this can be explained by the difference in the inflation felt by all house-holds and the inflation experienced by the bottom 30 percent or the poorest Filipinos. he explained that the weight of food in the basket of goods used for the computa-tion of the inflation experienced by the poorest 30 percent is 70 percent against 39 percent for all the households. In the third quarter of 2015, the poor-est Filipinos or the bottom 30 percent of the population saw inflation slowing to 0.5 percent.  Data obtained from the Philippine Sta-tistics Authority (PSA) showed that infla-tion for the poorest Filipinos was the slow-est since the third quarter of 2009, when inflation was at 0.2 percent.  The PSA said inflation for the bottom 30 percent of households was recorded at 2.1 percent in the second quarter of 2015 and 6.8 percent in the same quarter last year.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

Climate change seen to further worsen poverty in urban areas DTI sets talks on PHL-Efta trade deal

the repository of all the activities, initiatives and policy recommen-dations emanating from the more than 30 technical working groups and committees. The CSOM will be held two days before the Leaders’ Meeting. The many ministerial meetings throughout the year produced docu-ments such as the Boracay Action Agenda, the Cebu Action Plan, the Iloilo Initiative (which supports the Boracay Action Agenda) and several sector-specific frameworks, such as the Transport Ministers’ inclusive mobility framework. These initiatives may be given support at the leaders’ level. At the CSOM, officials are tasked to process the year’s worth of work, prioritizing deliverables (e.g., action plans and statements) to be endorsed to ministers and leaders for adoption. The Apec process comes full circle when the ministers and leaders, in the form of the Joint (Foreign Af-fairs and Trade) Ministerial State-ment and Leaders’ Declaration, issue their policy guidance for the Apec year-ahead and long-term vision. For example, according to the

Department of Foreign Affairs, the national organizing committee of the 2015 Apec, a statement supporting the multilateral trading system is being encouraged for endorsement during the final leaders’ week. The statement was drafted by the Apec Geneva Caucus (AGC), which is an informal body made up of Apec representatives in Geneva to review the progress of the Doha Develop-ment Agenda (DDA) negotiations and the World Trade Organization (WTO) liberalization initiatives, as well as to find ways for Apec to ex-pedite the DDA negotiations and the WTO working agenda. The AGC, for example, under the Philippines’s chairmanship, was able to push their draft statement in May during the Apec Ministers Respon-sible for Trade. The statement touched on cen-trality and primacy of the multi-lateral trading system, antiprotec-tionism, full implementation of the Bali package, including the post-Bali work program and public stockhold-ing; meaningful 10th Ministerial Conference outcomes; the Fifth Glo-bal Review of Aid for Trade, and the

importance of small and medium enterprises; and the complementary role of free-trade agreements. Aside from the broad support for the multilateral trading sys-tem, a slew of other issues, such as the Apec Services Cooperation Framework (ASCF), are being eyed for endorsement. The ASCF is a long-term strategic document, which will set the direc-tion on how Apec’s work can facilitate trade in services. Other Apec work plans that may be endorsed is the Boracay Action Agenda to Globalize mi-cro, small, medium enterprises (MSMEs), which outlines actions that are practical and important for MSMEs participation in global trade, such as access to finance, e-commerce and markets. Apec officials have also devel-oped an Implementation Plan, which will guide economies in iden-tifying areas of convergence across Apec fora, and work with the Apec Business Advisory Council (Abac) on complementary projects and efficient use of resources in imple-menting MSME initiatives.

The Iloilo Action Plan, center-ing on Food Security and the Blue Economy, will also be endorsed to the leaders. The plan centers on food access through reduction in wastes and losses along the food supply chain, agribusiness promotion, market de-velopment and open and fair trade that enable the integration of small-scale fishers and fish farmers into global food chains. The 2015 Apec has had a total of 229 meetings, including 48 ma-jor meetings, including meetings under the Apec Finance Minis-ters’ Process, sectoral ministerial meetings and high-level policy dia-logues, and the Abac as the private-sector arm of Apec. Apec’s 21 member-economies are the US, Australia, Brunei Da-russalam, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, hong Kong, Republic of China (Taiwan), In-donesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Sin-gapore, Republic of Korea, Thai-land and Vietnam. Catherine N. Pillas, Recto Mercene

Apec leaders to adopt fresh action plans at Manila meetAll 21 leaders of the economies

making up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec)

have confirmed their attendance to the culminating 2015 Apec Economic leaders Meeting (AElM) in Manila next week and are expected to adopt fresh initiatives crafted in the over 200 meetings tabled for the entire year.

A speciAl plate is attached on one of the vehicles on Monday in a parking lot at the cultural center of the philippines complex in pasay city where hundreds of vans and sedans to be used for the Asia-pacific economic cooperation summit are parked. An estimated 500 vehicles will be deployed to transport delegates during the summit. ALYSA SALEN

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

AS the Green Climate Fund (GCF) announced the approval of $168-mil-lion funding for eight projects to aid

poor countries combat climate change, en-vironmental groups and climate justice ad-vocates remain wary, given its perception of fund misuse and corruption in government. The United Nations announcement came ahead of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) meeting of the United Nations Framework Con-vention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris, France, starting on November 30. The approved projects include three in Africa, three in Asia Pacific and two in Latin America. The Philippines is hoping to access the GCF, it being one of countries severely affected by cli-mate change-triggered natural calamities. The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ), which is part of a global network that is pushing for the GCF, said the fund is being slowly hijacked by same powers and entities who have, in one way or the other, contributed to global warming, such as the Asian Develop-ment Bank (ADB). Gerry Arances, national coordinator of PMCJ, said that ADB is a top historical supporter of coal projects across the Asian region. “Recently, HSBC have been recognized as an intermediary, and this have been highly opposed by African movements and civil-society groups in the recent GCF meeting in Africa because of its role in supporting coal projects in that con-tinent,” he added. PMCJ has been demanding for developed countries to owe to their commitment under the UNFCCC to provide climate finance and put the $100-billion commitment per year to the GCF. “With the recent issue on transparency of the hastily approved projects in the lead up to the Paris COP, the GCF is again endangering

the very institution that should have promoted the best practices not just on climate but also on safeguards,” he said. According to Arances, climate financing should redound to reducing vulnerability and addressing global warming—the peoples’ in-terest and welfare. “Transparency and due process, along with fiduciary standards and safeguards are a must in order to ensure that these projects do, in-deed, benefit the vulnerable peoples and the climate,” he said. For his part, Leon Dulce, campaigner at the Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environ-ment said that recent developments in the GCF “should be taken with a grain of salt as it most likely brings with it longstanding baggage of private-financing interests and other market-based, antipeople strings attached.” Dulce said that the GCF, as with all other critical points of negotiation in the upcoming COP21 talks in Paris, are all threatened to be “washed down” in time for the crunch time in the negotiations. “Big business and developed nation propo-nents of market-based climate solutions are try-ing to shirk from their binding obligation to not only deeply and drastically cut their emissions, but also to pay their dues and unconditional aid to the countries and communities they have left muddled in the climate crisis,” Dulce said. According to Dulce, the risk of climate-adap-tation funds ending up in the hands of corrupt governments should also be looked into. Despite massive persisting needs of commu-nities affected by Supertyphoon Yolanda (inter-national code name Haiyan) and other recent typhoon disasters, he added that the Philippine government reportedly has at least P15.74 bil-lion in various unspent disaster response funds that critics fear will be diverted to the upcoming national elections.

By Manuel T. CayonMindanao Bureau Chief

DAVAO CITY—The government’s socioeconomic planning unit for Mindanao has called for an island-

wide conference of stakeholders to plan and manage the restoration of the island’s eight river basins. The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) announced that it has received the confirmation of 250 stakeholders—representatives of local governments, non-govermental organizations, community groups and academe—to the first Mind-anao River Basin Organization Conference on Wednesday and Thursday at the Grand Regal Hotel. Rolando Pinsoy, Mindanao R iver Basic program coordinator, told the BusinessMirror on Monday that the organizations would be expected to come up with their respective plans on

what activities or actions they would undertake to restore and rehabilitate the river basins. The river basins are the Agus Ranao River Basin; Cagayan de Oro River Basin; Tagoloan River Basin; Agusan River Ba-sin; Cotabato or Mindanao, River Basin; Tagum-Libuganon River Basin; Davao River Basin; and the Buayan-Malungan River Basin. The Cotabato and the Agusan river ba-sins are the two largest of the river basins in Mindanao. The river basins were once the abundant source of natural irrigation water and their headwaters come from the lush watershed forests but heavy and continued deforesta-tions have turned them into sites of regular flash flooding and landslides. Pinsoy said that the stakeholders were expected to come up with time-bound plans with corresponding budget to be incorpo-rated into a general coordinated and planned

Mindanao river basins plan. “The general plan should form part of the MinDA’s Nurturing Our Wa-ters program,” he said, alluding to the agency’s focus to restore the watershed areas and turn around the occurrence of the economically draining and fatal frequent disasters. The river basin plan was conceived as early as 2012 when the Mindanao: Nurtur-ing Our Waters program was also launched, “and the organization was started since then,” he said. Pinsoy said Cagayan de Oro City was among the earliest to be formed, and now headed by Catholic Archbishop Os-car Ledesma. The other organizations have been formed for the Cotabato River Basin, cochaired by Orlando Cardinal Quevedo and South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Fuentes, and for the Agusan River Basin headed by Catholic Archbishop Juan de Dios Pueblos.

FIRMS from South Korea are targeting to expand trade with the Philippines as they

seek for local business partners to bring and distr ibute their products here.

A b o u t 5 5 S o u t h K o r e a n companies participated in the Overseas Korean Traders’ As-sociation of the Philippines’s (OKTA) Feel Korea 2015 from November 6 to 8 in Taguig City to promote trade relations be-tween the two Asian countries.

Most of these firms came from the food and beverage, cosmetics, electronics, automotive parts manu-facturing and agricultural machin-ery sectors.

South Korea’s Jinju City also held its trade mission in Ma-nila following the same activity in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam and Guangzhou, China.

Jinju City Enterprise and Com-merce Department Director Seong-Jin Park said Jinju-based firms have seen business opportunities in the Philippine market, particu-larly in automotive, agriculture, and cosmetics sectors.

“Our MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprises] want to capture this potential in the Philippine mar-ket as they target to expand in south part of Korea,” Park said.

For the part of Myunglim Co. Ltd. CEO Sung-Jin Jang, he said the Philippines is a growing market for the company.

Myunglim manufactures en-gine parts and supplies to auto industry, as well as agricultural equipment.

Jang said that the company may look into investing in the country in the future as the cheap labor cost here is very attractive to investors.

He, however, noted that there are still challenges needed to be addressed which foreign firms find cumbersome in investing here which include infrastructure and government regulations on labor, among others.

On the other hand, KB Cosmet-ics, which is among the top cosmet-ics manufacturer in South Korea, also aims to expand its distribution partners in the Philippines.

KB Cosmetics CEO You Geun Kim said the company is eyeing for larger distributors, particularly mall owners.

Kim added that KB Cosmetics’s current partners in the Philippines are skin clinics.

He said the Philippines is its fifth-largest market in Asia and sees the business to further grow in the local market.

Aside from Asia, the company also supplies cosmetic products to Europe and South America.

South Korea is one of the top 10 trade partners of the Philippines which both are benefiting from the Asean-South Korea Free Trade Agreement. PNA

T h i s , a f t e r t h e S u p r e m e Court, in its 19-page order that was promulgated on September 28, declared null and void the right of first refusal or the right to top granted to SPC under the 2009 Naga Land-based Gas Turbine-Land Leased Agreement (LBGT-LLA).

Consequently, the SC annulled the NPPC Asset Purchase Agree-ment (APA) and LLA executed by PSALM and SPC.

The SC order stemmed from a petition for certiorari filed by Sen. Sergio Osmeña III who sought to declare null and void SPC’s “right to top” the bidding held last year.

PSALM said it has yet to receive a copy of the SC decision.

It can be recalled PSALM de-clared Therma Power Visayas Inc. (TPVI), a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corp., as the highest bidder for the NPPC with a bid of P1.088 billion, higher than SPC’s bid of only P858,999,888.88.

But SPC exercised its right to top the bid, offering PSALM 5 percent more at P1.143 billion and 33 percent more than SPC’s original bid during the previous failed auction.

This, Osmeña said, is bigger, al-most six times larger than the thresh-old to qualify a crime as plunder. “Clearly, SPC would have been will-

[email protected] Tuesday, November 10, 2015 A5BusinessMirrorEconomy

ing to offer a higher bid had it not possessed the right to top.”

The Aboitiz group hails from the Visayas. Incidentally, Os-meña, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, also comes from a political dynasty in Central Visayas.

Osmeña argued that the right to top should be held invalid as it defeats the purpose of a fair and transparent bidding for a government asset. His petition scores the right-to-top provision as it discourages interested bid-ders considering the unfair ad-vantage given to SPC. Had TPVI not participated, the government would have sold its asset at a much lower price.

PSALM said it has sought the legal opinion of the Department of Justice (DOJ) prior to any decision made by the state firm.

“For the record, the Department of Justice affirmed the legality of the right to top the adjoining prop-erties within the NPPC accorded to the owner of the Naga LBGT Power Plant in connection with the priva-tization of NPPC.

“The DOJ’s confirmation was made prior to the commence-ment of the NPPC sale process,” PSALM said.

PSALM said SPC was granted

the right to top the highest bid on the sale or lease of the prop-erties within the vicinity of the Naga LBGT-power facility to give the winning bidder the oppor-tunity to expand, subject to the payment of a premium of 5 per-cent over the highest bid on these adjacent properties. The NPPC is in the vicinity of the Naga LBGT power plant. “The right to top was provided in the LLA executed among PSALM, National Power Corp. and SPC in 2009. The LLA was executed pursu-ant to the APA for the Naga LBGT power plant,” PSALM said. The Office of the Government Corporate Counsel is representing PSALM in the SC. The NPPC consists of the Cebu 1 and Cebu 2 coal-fired thermal power plants, and the Cebu Die-sel Power Plant 1 composed of six bunker-C fed power units. The power plants are in Colon, Naga City, Cebu. TPVI, meanwhile, welcomed the order of the SC. “While we have not received the official notice regarding the Supreme Court’s decision, we are pleased with this development as this supports a transparent and fair bidding process that encour-ages open competition.

PSALM defends contract award of Cebu power plant to SPC PC

By Lenie Lectura

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) on Monday defended

a decision it made in 2014 when it awarded to SPC Power Corp. (SPC PC) the contract to own and operate the 153.1-megawatt Naga Power Plant Complex (NPPC) in Cebu City.

South Korean firms eye more trade with PHL

Green groups skeptical of GCF projects approval ahead of COP21

Mindanao body embarks on last-ditch move to rehab and restore river basins

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP Sen. Cynthia A. Villar answers questions from students of San Beda College after her speech during a recent seminar on social entrepreneurship at the San Beda College of Arts and Sciences in Manila. PNA

Tuesday, November 10, 2015 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

OpinionBusinessMirrorA6

Philippine prosperity: Losing ground

editorial

The Legatum Prosperity Index for 2015 was released last week, and the Philippines did not perform well, falling by seven places since 2014.

The Legatum Institute is an international think tank and educational char-ity focused on promoting prosperity. Its signature research is the Prosperity Index. “National success is about more than just wealth. The Prosperity Index goes beyond GDP to measure countries’ success against a broad set of metrics, covering areas such as health, education, opportunity, social capital, personal freedom, and more.”

In 2014 the Philippines ranked globally at 67th place, and now in 2015 has dropped to 74th. By comparison, Thailand in 2015 is 48th, Vietnam comes in at 55th, and Indonesia—the most improved nation climbing 21 places— ranks number 69th.

The most disturbing statistic is that in 2009, the Philippines held at 61st ranking, meaning that the country has lost 13 places under the Aquino administration. That is not a good legacy.

however, there have been some good and notable improvements in the last six years. The Philippines’s best performance is in the “governance” subindex, where it ranks 55th in 2015. In 2009 the country’s rank in this category was 66th. This measures effective and accountable government, fair elections and the rule of law. While we complain all the time, when asked in private, 70 percent of us said that we have confidence in the national government. Con-fidence in the judicial system is at 65 percent, with the military having the confidence of 87 percent.

Yet, when asked, “Are businesses and government corrupt?”, 75 percent say “Yes”.

The Philippines is doing relatively well in the other subindexes. We rank 59th in “economy.” Our “personal freedom” score stands at 53rd. “Social capital”, “education”, and “entrepreneurship and opportunity” are all in the mid-70s.

Our “health” ranking at 95th place is not good. Thailand ranks 54th. Indo-nesia is at 93rd place and Vietnam ranks 90th. The reason for our score is due primarily to the lack of health-care services, like the number of hospital beds and prevalence of diseases like tuberculosis. Further, Filipinos seek important medical treatment less often than in other nations.

We wrote this past Saturday, based on our “Global Peace Index” score, that “It’s crime that is killing us.” “Safety and security” is hurting our prosperity as we rank 122nd. As recent as 2012, the rank was 112th. Our neighbors did much better; Thailand—88th, Indonesia—70th and Vietnam—68th. even countries like egypt did better at 105th.

The “safety and security” score is based on perception and statistics. Do-mestic troubles, like our separatist movements and a history of government failures, as in the case of journalists being killed, are devastating to our secu-rity rating. But ordinary street crime is just as bad, if not worse. “Do you feel safe walking alone at night?” has 63 percent of Filipinos saying “Yes”. But 75 percent of egyptians feel safe, while 87 percent of Indonesians also feel safe.

The government is not doing a good job at protecting our safety and secu-rity, and that failure is hurting our prosperity. It is that simple.

The 1851 novel by American author herman Melville tells the story of Ahab, captain of a whaling ship, in pursuit of Moby Dick. Ahab spends months tracking the white whale.

First of two parts

The booming retail business in the Philippines has caught the attention of global brands, whose presence is becoming more obvious in the fashion segment. Local fashion companies

are now being challenged by foreign brands, like h&M, Uniqlo and Forever 21, which offer quality products at prices within reach of Filipino consumers.

‘There she blows. It’s Moby Dick!’

The restaurant business is booming, and ripples are spreading

THE EnTrEprEnEurManny B. Villar

Finally, after a final three-day chase with conditions far from ideal, the last attack is attempted. Ahab’s chief mate, Starbuck, tries to convince him to return to port and leave the whale for another time.

This past Friday, job creation num-bers for October were released in the US. One headline actually read “BOOM! Nonfarm payrolls up 271,000; jobs rate at 5 percent.” And you thought the local press and media are sometime propagan-dists for the government.

The 271,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls is better than good as the US needs a net 250,000 jobs created every month to break even against population growth. The net gain was the highest since December 2014, although the aver-age monthly gain for 2015 is at 206,000.

It is worth noting, though, that the millions spent on economic “experts” was wasted once again. estimates ranged from 150,000 at the Bank of America and global financial firm BNP Paribas

to 190,000 at Goldman Sachs. Asking a group of 5-year-old children, their pre-diction would be probably as accurate and less costly.

The internals of the 271,000 net jobs reveal the genuine condition of US employment. The largest industry sec-tor that gained jobs was in “health care and education,” followed by professional services, like tax accountants and attor-neys. The manufacturing sector of the US economy—the one that actually builds things—created zero new net jobs. No wonder the US is so anxious to push the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agree-ment down everyone’s throat to allow completely duty-free access to Asian markets like the Philippines for “Made in the USA” goods.

The most astounding aspect of the job numbers will not be found in any head-line. It would show the disaster of the US economy and what the future holds for Americans. The number of jobs for those age 55 and over increased by 378,000;

Of course, competition is good be-cause it encourages local companies to come up with high-quality products, which can only benefit consumers.

On the other hand, local restaurants, which are also part of the retail business, are enjoying a boom, unfazed by compe-tition from foreign brands.

Part of the reason for the boom in the restaurant business is the increase in the middle-class population brought about by rising incomes. Increasing prosperity of Filipino consumers encourage them to eat in restaurants.

In Quezon City, Morato Avenue is no longer the exclusive holder of the title “restaurant row,” because restaurants have been rising in many other streets, like ripples in a pond, as well as in many areas far from Morato.

The same is true in Manila, Makati

City, and other cities and progressive municipalities throughout the country.

The boom in the restaurant business is influencing even the allocation of space in shopping centers. I don’t have the statistics, but my personal view is that the percentage of space for restau-rants and other food businesses in the malls is going up significantly.

Malls are now the favorite gathering places during weekends and holidays, and even after work. Not all the people who go to the malls are there to shop, but most can be expected to take a table in the food court or in any of the many restaurants for a snack or a meal.

Thus, mall owners want to attract as many restaurants as they do other re-tailers, like fashion boutiques, consumer gadget stores and appliance dealers.

T he boom in the restaurant

the number of jobs held by people between 25 and 54 years decreased by 35,000. The number of jobs held by men between 25 and 54 years decreased by 119,000 in October.

Since December 2007 workers aged 55 and older have gained over 7.5 mil-lion net jobs: workers aged 55 and under have lost a cumulative net total of 4.6 million jobs.

With the headline employment num-bers being what they are and the unem-ployment rate at 5 percent, the Captain Ahab of the US Federal Reserve—Janet Yellen—has found her Moby Dick.

The interest rate setting Federal Re-serve Open Market Committee meets on December 15 and 16 to decide wheth-er or not to raise interest rates. This may be the most important Federal Reserve (the Fed) meeting in history. It is not just a matter of a policy change but the entire credibility of the Fed is at stake.

The Fed, for months, has been say-ing that it needs to see a clear indica-tion that employment is rising and that the US economy can handle a rate increase. In addition to the employ-ment numbers, average hourly wages spike higher. Previously, the Fed said they were looking for higher economic growth, but that is just not happening. The one caution—and this is criti-cal—is that the Fed has also said that an interest-rate hike might be “some-what” dependant on global economic conditions, including an appreciating exchange rate of the dollar.

If the Fed does not raise rates in De-cember, it admits that 1) all its previ-ously noted factors necessary to raise rates were all nonsense at the end, and 2) economic policy in the US is completely dependant on global conditions.

If the Fed loses its credibility, this will create a shockwave of unknown propor-tions to the central banks supposedly have been in control of the global and individual economies for years. This would be an admission that everything in the last six years was smoke and mir-rors. The question then is, what would unleashing a near-panic-stricken free market do to currency exchange rates and government debt prices, as well as stock and commodity markets?

If you cannot trust the Fed, who can you trust?

Raising interest rates has its own problems. After last Friday’s data release, the US dollar shot up like a rocket against the euro and the Japanese yen on antici-pation of a rate increase. A strong dollar could equally shock the US economy and turn it to a recession.

Melville’s Ahab attacked Moby Dick. The ship, the Captain, and all crew mem-bers save one were lost at sea. Apparently, the whale got away.

E-mail me at [email protected]. Visit my web site at www.mangunon-markets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

business is also an increasing competi-tion, which is good for the development of local foods. Revolutionary changes are happening in the food business. every day we see or read about new concepts for food; even traditional Filipino food like kare-kare and adobo are being given interesting treatments.

The food business is also contributing to the growth of the tourism industry. In fact, food is among the top attractions for tourists in Thailand, as well as in China and Japan.

Millions visit Thailand every year not only to shop in the Pratu Nam and Pathum Wan areas or to see its famous landmarks like the Grand Palace and the Temple of the emerald Buddha, Wat Phra Chetuphon or the Temple of the Reclin-ing Buddha.

A survey conducted several years ago by the Bangkok University Research Cen-ter indicated that 63.3 percent of inter-national visitors were attracted by Thai food, compared to 46.5 percent who were attracted by the country’s historical sites and artifacts.

Focusing on food, Thailand in 2011 organized a trade fair, “health Food and Ingredients Thailand 2011,” in Muang Thong Thani, Nonthaburi province. More than 700 booths featured health- food products and food ingredients under the concept of “Creative Food, Creative Thailand.”

Back home, the boom in the food business has opened opportunities for employment (both local and overseas) and entrepreneurship. Many young people have enrolled in the more than a thousand culinary schools in the

country, both private- and government-run institutions.

In September this year, I saw an ar-ticle by Agence France-Presse (AFP), titled “Philippine cooks take over the world’s kitchens.”

The lead paragraph states: “If you are holidaying on a Mediterranean cruise ship, celebrating your winnings at an Asian casino, or dining with the presi-dent of the United States, chances are, a Filipino will be cooking your meal.”

Citing government data, AFP said nearly 72,000 head chefs were among the 180,000 Filipinos who went to work in ship galleys abroad between 2010 and 2014.

During the same period, about 65,000 Filipinos went to work in similar catering jobs in hotels and restaurants in foreign countries, AFP said.

Food entrepreneurs now include celebrities. Richard Yap, lead male star in the popular Be Careful with My Heart ABS-CBN telenovela, owns the Singapor-ean-Chinese restaurant Wangfu and the Luna J Filipino Gastropub.

Another actor, Marvin Agustin, is one of the owners of popular restaurants, like SumoSam, Johnny Chow, Tokyo Grill and Kung Fu Kitchen.

The ripples caused by the boom in the food business continue to spread, and are now taking the country to the global stage.

(To be continued)

For comments, e-mail [email protected]  or visit www.mannyvil-lar.com.ph.

OuTSIDE THE BOXJohn Mangun

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

[email protected]

Good-bye gasoline, hello Chinese battery powerBy David Fickling | Bloomberg View

RemembeR carburetors? They used to be a crucial part of pretty much every car engine. bob Dylan, Van morrison and Chuck berry sang about them. but look under the hood

of your car and, unless it’s a vintage model or you’re living in a developing country, you won’t find one. Tougher fuel emissions standards have caused them to be supplanted by fuel injection, a technology which, until the 1980s, was considered too costly for widespread use outside of performance cars.

There’s a lesson in that for the fu-ture of automobiles. We like to think the car industry is a free market where demand is driven purely by swings in consumer preference, but in practice, government regulations have shaped  investment  decisions for decades, and will continue to do so. Why is it that diesel cars make up half of europe’s auto market and barely 1 percent in the US? As bloom-berg’s Leonid bershidsky has pointed out, it’s largely a result of european Union rules favoring diesel as a way of reducing CO2 emissions.

That’s reason to pay close at-tention to China’s drive to increase the market share of new energy vehicles. Local governments in the

world’s largest car market now have to dedicate 30 percent of their fleet purchase to battery-, hybrid- and fuel cell-powered cars, and will lose fuel and operating subsidies if they fall short. The country’s state grid is accelerating the rollout of charging stations, according to state-owned media, and mobile-phone infrastruc-ture owner China Tower  is  being recruited to the task, people with knowledge of the matter said. Car parks in new apartment blocks will have to be charging-station ready, further helping to address a short-age that’s been one of the main im-pediments to electric-vehicle sales.

It’s easy to pooh-pooh the rate of this development. It took almost 18

years for Toyota to sell its  8 mil-lionth hybrid vehicle, a milestone that the global automotive industry passes every six weeks when gasoline and diesel vehicles are counted. The share of new energy vehicles sold in the US has actually declined over the past year, to 2.9 percent of the market from January through Octo-ber, compared with 3.6 percent last year. While bloomberg New energy Finance estimates the total number of new energy vehicles sold in China will rise to 1.9 million by 2020 from 154,000 over the past five years, that’s still little more than a month’s worth of total Chinese car sales, and well short of the government’s 5-million target.

but technological change is often seen most easily in the rear-view mirror: The first half of the chess-board is a lot harder to cross than the second. Looked at from the perspec-tive of the 1920s, you’d have missed the decline of horsepower over the past century. Nazi Germany  con-scripted 625,000 draft horses to haul equipment for the 1941 invasion of the USSR, according to David edger-ton’s book Shock of the Old. Few main-stream analysts forecast that wind energy would become the cheapest form of electricity in the UK and Germany  until it happened.  Five years ago, fewer than five alternative-fuel models were available in the US, according to research by bloomberg New energy Finance. That will rise to 60 by 2017.

The more important guide to the future is the behavior of automo-tive executives making long-term decisions about their money. China’s largest carmaker SAIC motor said on Thursday it’s selling 15 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) of new shares to fund development of new energy vehicles such as hybrids, plug-in battery cars and fuel-cell models. Toyota wants to reduce the emissions from its fleet by 90 percent by 2050 and is introducing an updated Prius early next year that will co pete with Nissan’s revamped electric Leaf coming on the market this fall. bmW’s research and devel-opment chief Klaus Froehlich thinks electric vehicles will make up 10 per-cent of all cars on the road by 2025, according to an interview last month with  Engineering News magazine. Given that perhaps half of the 2025 car fleet is already driving around (the average car in the US is 11.4 years old), that’s a significant slice of the market.

Gasoline cars still have decades of decent sales ahead of them, just as carburetors did in the 1970s. but with exhaust pollution  chok-ing Chinese and  Indian cities,  Ap-ple  and  Google  putting their phe-nomenal research and development budgets into electric vehicles, Tesla investors throwing cash onto elon musk’s capex bonfire,  and VW’s push to sell green diesel in tatters, the world has passed an inflection point. Automobile companies that don’t have a plan to deal with that future will suffer.

Edgardo J. Angara

IN my last column, I wrote about a looming rice-price hike, on the heels of the terrible multibillion-peso damage caused by Typhoon Lando and the further serious threat posed by el Niño

on our food production.  

Food in the time of extreme weather

Recently, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 2015 Global Hunger Index ranked the Philippines as 51st among 117 countries for hunger. Our country score of 20.1 is nearly seven points higher than the east and South-east Asia average of 13.2, putting us among countries with a “serious level of hunger.” 

Food remains regrettably inacces-sible in the country’s poorest areas, primarily because people are not

earning enough to feed themselves. A new World Food Programme survey even found that the top reason low-income households borrow money is to buy food. Hunger and under-nourishment lead to significant ugly problems, but, in particular, hit our children the hardest. A recent survey by the World bank, the Food and Nu-trition Research Institute, and the De-partment of Science and Technology found that among Asean, the pace of decline in the child malnutrition rate

was the slowest in the Philippines.Climate change will only exac-

erbate the problem. The United Na-tions recently warned that extreme weather could subject up to 600 mil-lion to malnutrition by 2080.          

Food security is a multidimen-sional goal that can be achieved only through a deliberate, well-thought out and coordinated policy response. In the short term, the following pack-age may help address the issue.

First, the Quick Response Fund of the Department of Agriculture and other departments—amounting to over P5 billion for 2015—should be released to dealers, seed grow-ers and fertilizer merchants to sell and distribute inputs to farmers at subsidized prices. Such scheme is more advantageous to farmers and taxpayers for distributors have writ-ten records of accounting and paper trail, minimizing the opportunity for ghost deliveries and scams. 

Second, the finance secretary, in coordination with the governor

of the central bank, should instruct government banks—including Land bank of the Philippines and the De-velopment bank of the Philippines—to open as soon as possible lending windows to food producers, proces-sors and wholesalers at preferential interest rates.

Third, Congress should declare tax-payment holidays to rice and corn, coconut, vegetable and fruit producers for three years to assure supply and affordable price. 

Finally, on top of all the above, a host of red tape-cutting measures should be undertaken, to ensure a more efficient and effective logistics and supply chain system.

Otherwise, continuing shortages and rising food prices will continue stalking the land.  And the projec-tion of increasing impoverishment of the Filipinos—worse, the raising of a generation of stunted citizens—will come to pass.  

 E-mail: [email protected].

YOU can’t say that the Office of the Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan have been sleeping on the job.

Just this month alone, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-morales sacked a number of government officials and employees.

Grafters take it on the chin

Homelessness in Hawaii grows, defying image of paradise 

ABOUT TOWNErnesto M. Hilario

On November 5 eight personnel of the Commission on Audit (COA) were dismissed from the service for receiv-ing millions of pesos in additional compensation and bonuses from the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA). Four LWUA executives got six-month suspensions for approving the illegal payments.

The Ombudsman said the “COA auditors and employees were obvi-ously motivated by malicious intent to favor self-interest at the expense of the public” and that “their acts are contrary to accepted rules of right and duty, honesty and good morals.”

As for the LWUA executives, “their stamp of approval and authorization for fund disbursement as payment for the questioned benefits is a clear transgres-sion” of the salary standardization law and other COA regulations. 

On November 4 a former gover-nor of Sarangani and the provincial agriculturist were sentenced by the Sandiganbayan Third Division to 10 to 18 years of imprisonment for malversation of public funds.  The two were held criminally liable for misappropriating 1,875 sacks of rice intended for victims of La Niña. Om-budsman prosecutors proved that the sacks of rice were diverted and given to barangay and municipal officials one week prior to the 2002 elections.

Also on the same day, the Ombuds-man ordered the dismissal from the service of eight municipal employees of molave, Zamboanga del Sur, for their involvement in the procurement of ex-pired and overpriced medicines worth P1.8 million in 2009.

On November 3 the Ombudsman an-nounced the dismissal from service of three mayors and 27 other local officials from all over mindanao for various of-fenses in the performance of their func-tions. Dismissed from the government service were the incumbent mayors of Cagayan de Oro; matanao, Davao del Sur; and Ditsa-an Ramain, Lanao del Sur. They were also perpetually barred from holding public office.

The Ombudsman also said three other mayors, four vice mayors and 30 other local officials in mindanao had been criminally indicted last month for various charges, including malversation, failure to liquidate cash advances, and irregularities in the pro-curement process.

All this shows that the government is making inroads in fighting graft and corruption. but the public also deserves to know why it is mostly the small fry who end up being convicted by the courts while the big fish can get away with mur-der because they either have the right connections and can buy their way out of a legal mess.

The guiding principle for all those serving in the government is found in Article XI of the 1987 Constitution:

“Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must, at all times, be accountable to the people; serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty and efficiency; act with patrio-tism and justice; and lead modest lives.” Not all, obviously, take this to heart, and the recent decisions of the Ombuds-man and the Sandiganbayan tell us very clearly that much remains to be done to instill honesty among those who choose to work in the government service.

Will PHL win in maritime row? SUPReme Court Senior Associate Jus-tice Antonio Carpio deserves credit for his rigorous study of our territorial dispute with China and for helping the government in crafting our legal posi-tion on the issue.

According to the jurist, the Perma-nent Court of Arbitration in The Hague hearing the Philippine case against Chi-na over disputed territory in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) is likely to decide in our favor.

Why? because when the internation-al tribunal ruled recently that it has juris-diction over the case, it ignored China’s so-called nine-dash line, which includes practically the entire South China Sea.

The tribunal described the dis-puted Scarborough Shoal as “merely a rock above water at high tide and incapable of sustaining human habi-tation of its own.  Thus, Scarborough Shoal is entitled only to a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea, and not to an eeZ [exclusive economic zone] or eCS [ex-tended continental shelf].”

Carpio interprets this part of the rul-ing to mean that China’s nine-dash line “does not generate maritime zones that can overlap with Philippine eeZ or eCS.  This implies that if Scarborough Shoal is merely a rock, the Philippines has a full 200-nautical-mile eeZ in the northern sector, excluding the territorial sea of Scarborough Shoal.”

China’s claim of ownership on virtu-ally the whole South China Sea via the nine-dash line that it insists is based on historical right, Carpio says, violates the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 2002 Asean-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.

In 2002 China, along with member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, agreed that the South China Sea dispute should be resolved “in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).”

China’s aggressive island-building and reclamation activities in the South China Sea, however, indicate that it is now reneging on its earlier recognition of the validity of Unclos and the 2002 joint declaration on how the claimants should resolve the territorial dispute.

E-mail: [email protected].

By Cathy BussewitzThe Associated Press

HONOLULU—Two days before the city planned to dismantle her sidewalk home, Kionina

Kaneso had no idea where she and her daughter and grandchildren would sleep.

A full-time fast-food worker, Kaneso had bad experiences at shelters before and was hesitant to live in another, end-ing up instead in one of the nation’s larg-est homeless encampments. Desperate, she decided to try once again.

but there was no more space for families.

“Where can I go?” Kaneso asked.Homelessness in Hawaii has grown

in recent years, leaving the state with 487 homeless per 100,000 people, the nation’s highest rate per capita, above New York and Nevada, according to fed-eral statistics. Since 2010 the rise has come even as the national rate has fallen during the economic recovery.

The increase, driven by years of rising costs in the island chain, low wages and limited land, thrust the image of people sleeping on beaches alongside the state’s famed one of a relaxing tropical paradise.

Officials have tried to solve the prob-lem. They’ve offered homeless services, banned sitting and lying on Waikiki’s sidewalks and proposed using shipping containers as temporary housing. Gov. David Ige’s declaration of a state of emer-gency on homelessness in October un-derscored the depth of the crisis:

n While there are shelters and pro-grams to help the homeless, there are far fewer empty beds than are need-ed—about 550 on any given night on Oahu, where an estimated 4,900 of the 7,620 homeless people live, according to service providers.

n The state needs 27,000 afford-able rental units by 2020, but lawmak-ers set aside enough money for 800 units this year. maintaining the ex-isting public housing could cost $800

million over the next decade, according to state estimates.

n Statewide, 10,000 people wait five years or more to get into state-run public housing, and the waiting list for Section 8 rent assistance in private housing was so long, they closed the list for about a decade.

n The state’s population of unshel-tered families ballooned 46 percent from 2014 to 2015, said Scott morishige, state coordinator on homelessness. He said changes in public housing policy and mental health services contributed to the rise. A survey by service providers in August of Kaneso’s encampment found that 42 percent of the nearly 300 people were families.

Kaneso is among the many micro-nesians who moved to Hawaii in recent years as part of an agreement their na-tions have with the US government al-lowing them to work and live in the country. They come for medical care, education and job opportunities.

Kaneso arrived in 2004 and worked odd jobs as a dishwasher and assembly line worker to pay for her son’s flight to Hawaii so he could get medical treatment for a heart condition.

While the state doesn’t have a break down by race of the overall homeless population, data on homeless shelter use show that 30 percent were Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian, 27 percent micronesian, marshallese or other Pacific Islanders, and 26 percent white.

micronesians say they face language barriers and discrimination. For Na-tive Hawaiians, some of whom see the US government as an occupier since a group of mainlanders overthrew the queen and took over their land, the influx of other Pacific Islanders using services adds insult to injury.

“We should be helped first, because we really are suffering,” said Deja-Lynn Rombawa-Quarles, a Native Hawaiian and camp resident.

The city tried to create a temporary

safe zone in 2006 where the homeless could camp legally, but complaints en-sued, so it ended up closing the park every night. many of the homeless moved into hotel garages and walkways near Waikiki beach. Then the city banned sitting and lying down on sidewalks, a move backed by the Hyatt Regency, Hilton Worldwide and other major resorts, which generate much of Waikiki’s $6.8 billion in annual tourism revenue, nearly half of all visitor spending in Hawaii.

The hotels saw fewer homeless peo-ple, who then moved into other neigh-borhoods, prompting more complaints.

“People cannot camp and take over parts of our city and state property that has been built and designed for everyone, not one specific group,” said mayor Kirk Caldwell, after a group meeting on homelessness in Septem-ber. “It’s not safe.”

Honolulu spends $15,000 a week to sweep away the camps. During the sweeps, families lost possessions like the

wood they use to build their structures, found furniture and clothes. Some have filed a lawsuit against the raids.

Service providers say 40 percent of Hawaii’s homeless people are working at least part time; 30 percent need some housing assistance; and 30 percent have mental health or substance abuse prob-lems that prevent them from maintain-ing a home.

Kaneso’s job at a mcDonald’s nets her $8.75 an hour, but it doesn’t come close to what she needs to pay rent in a market where a two-bedroom apartment goes for $1,800 a month.

Honolulu officials have set aside at least $16.8 million for services and to secure apartments for homeless people in 2015, including plans to develop units out of shipping containers to temporar-ily house transients on Sand Island and the Waianae Coast.

City officials also are backing at least $32 million in bonds to finance other housing for homeless people. AP

D. EDGARD A. CABANGON (third from left) poses with (l-r) Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara, Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle, Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez, Bishop Honesto Ongtioco and J. Antonio A. Cabangon after receiving the Special Award on behalf of his father and CMMA chairman and president Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua.

HALL of Fame Awardee Fr. Bernard Nolasco (third from left) poses with Cardinal Tagle, Bishops Vergara, Iñiguez, Ongtioco and Mr. Jun Cabangon.

REV. Fr. John Tran Thanh of Radio Veritas (third from left) poses with Cardinal Tagle, Bishops Vergara, Iñiguez, Ongtioco and Mr. Jun Cabangon after receiving the Serviam Award conferred posthumously on Monsignor Peter Nguyen Van Tai.

FR. Emmanuel “Nono” Alfonso, SJ (third from left) poses with Cardinal Tagle, Bishops Vergara, Iñiguez, Ongtioco and Mr. Jun Cabangon after receiving the Pope John Paul II Award on behalf of the Papal Committee on Documentation and Coverage.

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2015 CMMA WINNERS

Outstanding and values-filledmass media works honored on 37th year

37TH YEAR OF CATHOLIC MASS MEDIA AWARDS (CMMA)

SPONSORED BY:

THE Catholic Mass Media Awards on its 37th year recognized 81 mass media professionals, individuals, and institutions, for promoting and upholding Christian values and ideals, through their outstanding works.

During the awards presentation held at the Star Theater, Star City, CCP Complex, Pasay City last November 4, 2015, awards and special citations were given to winners in the di�erent mass media categories, which included print, radio, television, advertising, music, the internet, cinema, and student CMMA. Guests and media professionals, including the �nalists, were welcomed by the CMMA o�cers, headed by Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle, archbishop of Manila and CMMA honorary chairman; and Fr. Ru�no C, Sescon, Jr., trustee and executive director. Echoing the message of His Holiness Pope Francis during World Communications Day in January, the theme of this year’s CMMA night was, “Communicating the Family: A Privileged Place of Encounter with the Gift of Love,” which underscores the import role played by the family in building and maintaining genuine human relationships, through authentic communication. The winners were chosen among the 280 �nalists in this year’s CMMA by di�erent panels of judges for the 57 categories. All in all, the CMMA Secretariat received

821 entries for 2015. The CMMA Foundation conferred posthumously the Serviam Award on Monsignor Peter Nguyen Van Tai, a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Manila who also dedicatedly served Radio Veritas Asia for 30 years. The Serviam Award was established in honor of the late Jaime L. Cardinal Sin to pay tribute to those who transmit sound values in media-based programs and projects. The John Paul II award, which recognizes groups or individuals who utilize the mass media creatively in evangelical service, was given to the Papal Committee on Documentation and Coverage, which consist of JESCOM, UST, Letran, Dominican Communication, Family Rosary Crusade, Communication Foundation for Asia, Don Bosco, Hubo, Inc., Society of St. Paul, Kerygma, and TV Maria, for its excellent handling of the January 15 to 19, 2015 visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines, through innovative use of the mass media. Aside from handing out awards and special citations on gala night, the CMMA also gave a Special Award to its chairman and president, Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, for his devoted service to the church through mass media. The award was received on his behalf by his son and newly-appointed CMMA trustee, D. Edgard A. Cabangon.

THE cast of Nathaniel pose with Cardinal Tagle, Bishops Vergara, Iñiguez, and Ongtioco, after receiving a Special Award from the CMMA.

A Special Award was also given to television series Nathaniel for promoting good values and successfully portraying that good always triumphs over evil. The CMMA was established in 1978 by Cardinal Sin, then Archbishop of Manila, as the means by which the Church pays tribute to those who “serve God by

means of the mass media.” The CMMA Awards Night 2015 will be telecast over CNN Philippines on November 20, 2015, Friday, at 10:30 pm. Following is the complete list of winners of the 37th CMMA: