B L L I T’S still too early to determine if Manila Electric Co. (Meral- co) power rates for April will increase following the upward adjustment in feed-in tariff allowance (FiT-All). “We still need to determine what the final rates will be for April C A S “W,” A PESO EXCHANGE RATES ■US 46.4930 ■JAPAN 0.4154 ■UK 66.8337 ■ HK 5.9973 ■ CHINA 7.1638 ■ SINGAPORE 34.1860 ■ AUSTRALIA 35.237 ■ EU 52.2674 ■ SAUDI ARABIA 12.3991 Source: BSP (22 March 2016 ) A broader look at today’s business BusinessMirror www.businessmirror.com.ph ■Thursday-Saturday, March 24-26, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 168 P. | | 7 DAYS A WEEK MEDIA PARTNER OF THE YEAR 2015 ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP AWARD UNITED NATIONS MEDIA AWARD 2008 Wheat imports from US seen rising to 4.8 MMT EXPANDING POPULATION, LOW PRICES TO HIKE WHEAT CONSUMPTION Taiwan holds media tour to boost South China Sea claims Meralco eyes ₧ 0.08-per-kWh hike after FiT-All rate tweak OUT NOW ARTISTIC DEVOTION A painter puts the finishing touches to a mural in one of the tents built for the “Kalbaryo,” an annual tradition celebrated during Holy Week in Poblacion, Makati City. In these tents, the Pasyóng Mahal, an epic narrative of the life of Jesus Christ, is recited nonstop for several days, ending on Good Friday. NONIE REYES Turning Points: Global Agenda 2016 is a year-end package of opinion pieces and features, photos and cartoons covering events and trends in 2015 that will influence 2016 and beyond. To order, e-mail us at bmturningpoints@businessmirror. com.ph or call 893-1662, 814-0134 to 36. Available in all National Bookstore and Fully Booked branches. B M G P T HE country’s wheat imports from the US will likely rebound in the next marketing year (MY) beginning June 1, due to the expanding population, continued economic growth and low prices. TAIWAN’S newly named Premier Lin Chuan speaks to the media at the Democratic Progressive Party headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan. President-elect Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday named former Finance Minister Lin as Taiwan’s next premier, tasked with reinvigorating the island’s slowing high-tech economy and stabilizing relations with neighbor China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory. Lin and Tsai will take office on May 20. AP T AIWAN’S government says it will take international me- dia on a tour of its largest island holding in the South China Sea in a bid to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. Deputy Foreign Minister Bruce Linghu said the trip on Wednesday to Taiping aims to counter the Philippines’s conten- tion in a case brought before the Permanent Court of Arbitration that the island is merely a rock and not entitled to territorial waters and other rights. Linghu said the visit would demonstrate that Taiping has the ability to sustain human habitation and, therefore, meets the definition of an island under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. He said Taiping meets that definition, “whether from the perspective of history, geography or inter- national law.” The Philippines “distorted the facts and misinterpreted the 4.3 MMT The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Philippine wheat imports will increase to 4.8 million metric tons (MMT) during the period, a recovery from the projected 4.3 MMT for the current MY ending May 31. “Current expansion of the flour- milling industry, as well as the con- tinued consolidation and modern- ization of the local hog and poultry industries, [is] expected to result in increased overall imports in MY 16/17 [enhanced by record global wheat production and low prices],” a USDA report said. The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in Manila said the drop in imports in the current MY is due to the ample beginning stocks in the country. The FAS noted that the local flour industry is still operating at roughly half of its capacity. There are cur- rently 15 mills in the country, with an Projected wheat imports from the US for the current marketing year ending May 31 aggregate capacity of over 4.1 MMT. Two new mills are expected to oper- ate in crop year 2016. According to the report, the local wheat industry anticipated demand for milling and feed-grade wheat to steadily grow as incomes rise, a result of the strong performance of the Philippine economy. However, increased food con- sumption, as a result of campaign spending leading to the May 2016 elections, was less than expected. “Hence, MY 15/16 milling wheat demand was pared down, but is still expected to slightly grow compared What is certain is that FiT-All rates will have an increase of P0.08 per kWh, and this is reflected as a separate line item in the bills of consumers.” —Z S “T,” A
Transcript
B L L
IT’S still too early to determine if Manila Electric Co. (Meral-co) power rates for April will
increase fol lowing the upwardadju st me nt i n fe e d - i n t a r i f f allowance (FiT-All). “We still need to determine what the final rates will be for April
C A
S “W,” A
PESO EXCHANGE RATES ■ US 46.4930 ■ JAPAN 0.4154 ■ UK 66.8337 ■ HK 5.9973 ■ CHINA 7.1638 ■ SINGAPORE 34.1860 ■ AUSTRALIA 35.237 ■ EU 52.2674 ■ SAUDI ARABIA 12.3991 Source: BSP (22 March 2016 )
A broader look at today’s businessBusinessMirror
www.businessmirror.com.ph ■ Thursday-Saturday, March 24-26, 2016 Vol. 11 No. 168 P. | | 7 DAYS A WEEK
MEDIA PARTNER OF THE YEAR2015 ENVIRONMENTAL
LEADERSHIP AWARD
UNITED NATIONSMEDIA AWARD 2008
Wheat imports from USseen rising to 4.8 MMT
EXPANDING POPULATION, LOW PRICES TO HIKE WHEAT CONSUMPTION Taiwan holds media tour to boost South China Sea claims
Meralco eyes ₧0.08-per-kWh hike after FiT-All rate tweak
OUT NOW
ARTISTIC DEVOTION A painter puts the finishing touches to a mural in one of the tents built for the “Kalbaryo,” an annual tradition celebrated during Holy Week in Poblacion, Makati City. In these tents, the Pasyóng Mahal, an epic narrative of the life of Jesus Christ, is recited nonstop for several days, ending on Good Friday. NONIE REYES
BusinessMirrorMEDIA AWARD
nonstop for several days, ending on Good Friday.
Turning Points: Global Agenda 2016 is a year-end package of opinion pieces and features, photos and cartoons covering events and trends in 2015 that will influence 2016 and beyond.
To order, e-mail us at [email protected] or call 893-1662, 814-0134 to 36. Available in all
National Bookstore and Fully Booked branches.
B M G P
THE country’s wheat imports from the US will likely rebound in the next marketing year (MY)
beginning June 1, due to the expanding population, continued economic growth and low prices.
TAIWAN’S newly named Premier Lin Chuan speaks to the media at the Democratic Progressive Party headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan. President-elect Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday named former Finance Minister Lin as Taiwan’s next premier, tasked with reinvigorating the island’s slowing high-tech economy and stabilizing relations with neighbor China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory. Lin and Tsai will take office on May 20. AP
TAIWAN’S government says it will take international me-dia on a tour of its largest island holding in the South China Sea in a bid to reinforce its territorial claims in
the contested region.Deputy Foreign Minister Bruce Linghu said the trip on
Wednesday to Taiping aims to counter the Philippines’s conten-tion in a case brought before the Permanent Court of Arbitration that the island is merely a rock and not entitled to territorial waters and other rights. Linghu said the visit would demonstrate that Taiping has the ability to sustain human habitation and, therefore, meets the definition of an island under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. He said Taiping meets that definition, “whether from the perspective of history, geography or inter-national law.” The Philippines “distorted the facts and misinterpreted the
4.3 MMT
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Philippine wheat imports will increase to 4.8 million metric tons (MMT) during the period, a recovery from the projected 4.3 MMT for the current MY ending May 31.
“Current expansion of the flour- milling industry, as well as the con-tinued consolidation and modern-ization of the local hog and poultry industries, [is] expected to result in increased overall imports in MY
16/17 [enhanced by record global wheat production and low prices],” a USDA report said. The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in Manila said the drop in imports in the current MY is due to the ample beginning stocks in the country.
The FAS noted that the local flour industry is still operating at roughly half of its capacity. There are cur-rently 15 mills in the country, with an
Projected wheat imports from the US for the current marketing year ending May 31
aggregate capacity of over 4.1 MMT. Two new mills are expected to oper-ate in crop year 2016.
According to the report, the local wheat industry anticipated demand for milling and feed-grade wheat to steadily grow as incomes rise, a result of the strong performance of the Philippine economy.
However, increased food con-sumption, as a result of campaign spending leading to the May 2016 elections, was less than expected.
“Hence, MY 15/16 milling wheat demand was pared down, but is still expected to slightly grow compared
What is certain is that FiT-All rates will have an increase of
P0.08 per kWh, and this is reflected as a separate line item in the bills of consumers.” —Z S “T,” A
BMReportsMeralco eyes ₧0.08-per-kWh hike after FiT-All rate tweak C
law” in its arguments, Linghu told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday in the capital Taipei. A verdict in the Philippine case arguing against China’s vaguely defined claim to virtually the en-tire South China Sea is expected within months. Taiwan shares an overlapping claim with China, but has remained largely passive among the ongoing disputes. Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou made a similar push for Taip-ing’s island status during a January visit that was met with a rare dose
of criticism from the US.Taiping is the largest naturally
occurring island in the Spratly group, where China has been ac-tively producing man-made islands by piling sand atop coral reefs and adding runways, harbors and mili-tary installations. Taiwan, which lacks diplomatic ties to negotiate with the five other governments with claims in the South China Sea, is spending more than $100 million to upgrade the island’s airstrip and build a wharf capable of allowing its 3,000-ton coast guard cutters to dock. The is-land is garrisoned by a coast guard detachment and also has a 10-bed hospital, a lighthouse and an aid station for stricken fishing craft. AP
to the previous year’s level,” the report read. Demand for milling wheat for MY 16/17 is seen to continue in-creasing modestly as a result of the growing food needs of an ex-panding Philippine population, the USDA added. Meanwhile, MY 15/16 feed-wheat consumption is projected to still beat the previous year’s level. Feed-wheat consumption in the next MY is also expected to modestly increase due to ro-bust animal-feed demand and competitive prices.
USDA data showed that the Phil-ippines was the third-largest US wheat market globally in crop year 2015, with sales reaching $522 mil-lion. Wheat was the second-largest US agricultural export to the Phil-ippines during the period, next to soybean meal. There continues to be no com-mercial production of wheat or “small grains” in the Philippines. As a result, the country is a major importer of milling-quality wheat, with the US its largest supplier. Milling wheat imports over the past several years have remained in the range of 2.1 million to 2.3 million tons per year, with the balance of total wheat imports consisting of feed-grade wheat.
coming from an overall reduction of P0.19 per kilowatt hour in March. What is certain, however, is that FiT-All rates will have an increase of P0.08 per kWh, and this is re-flected as a separate line item in the bills of consumers,” Meralco Spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said in an interview.
The Energy Regulatory Com-mission (ERC) has provisionally approved a new FiT-All rate of P0.1240 per kWh, up by eight cen-tavos from the current FiT-All rate of P0.0406 per kWh.
The FiT-All rate represents roughly 2 percent of total Meralco bill, according to Zaldarriaga. Gen-eration charge is still the largest component of an electric bill.
The new FiT-All rate will be reflected, according to the ERC, in April power bills. The FiT-All serves as an incentive to renewable energy (RE) developers to ensure the viability of their projects. RE includes wind, run-of-river hydro, solar, geothermal and biomass. Consumers are the ones who shoulder the FiT-All, a separate line component in the power bills.
The distribution utilities (DUs) are the ones that collect the FiT-All from end-consumers. They then remit this to the National Trans-mission Corp. (Transco), which was tasked by the ERC to administer the FiT-All fund. The FiT-All fund, in turn, will be used to pay the FiT-All rates of RE
projects. The National Renewable Energy Board (NREB), meanwhile, welcomed the ERC decision.
“This is a welcome development, as it will enable Transco to meet the deficit and fully pay the FiT eligible RE plants,” NREB Chairman Pedro Maniego said in an interview. The NREB is the body tasked by the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 to recommend policies, rules and stan-dards to govern the implementation of the law, which granted fiscal and nonfiscal incentives to RE projects. While the FiT system does spell out an extra few centavos in ad-ditional power rates, it, nonethe-less, encourages more RE plants to be built.
I ndu st r y e x per t s poi nted
out that RE plants help temper prices in the Wholesale Electric-ity Spot Market, as it pushes out the more expensive plants, l ike diesel-fed plants, since RE prices are not subject to the volatility of the market.
Moreover, they pointed out that “for a few centavos, it will help im-prove or, at least, stop the worsen-ing of air quality, which has led to different ailments like asthma for those living in the metropolis.”
RE power plants, the indus-try experts added, allow the dis-placement of other more polluting sources of electricity, such as coal and oil. This, in effect, lessens the carbon emissions otherwise emit-ted by these plants.
B L S. M
THE Department of Trans-portation and Commu-n i c at io n s h a s mo v e d
the submission of qualification documents for the P170.7-bil-lion North-South Railway Project-South Line deal by 15 days to “give prospective bidders sufficient time to prepare.” The submission was moved from March 31 to April 15, Trans-portation Undersecretary for Op-erations and Public-Private Part-nership Implementation Edwin R. Lopez said in a bid bulletin. The proposed railway line covers Metro Manila to Legazpi City, Al-bay, plus a number of existing and proposed branch lines totaling to approximately 653 kilometers. It will consist of commuter-rail-way operations between Tutuban and Calamba, Laguna, and long-haul railway operations between Tutuban and Legazpi, Albay, includ-ing extended long-haul rail opera-tions on the branch line between Calamba and Batangas and exten-sion between Legazpi and Matnog. The railway between the exist-ing Tutuban station and the city of Calamba, in Laguna province, is a 56-km section of the project and is proposed to have commuter-rail operations in addition to long-haul rail operations of train line. This section represents an ex-isting Philippine National Railway right-of-way, which runs through Metro Manila. Currently, the project has a narrow-gauge railway. But exten-
sive rehabilitation and reconstruc-tion is needed to bridges and road crossings to bring them to safe operating condition. The South Line is expected to be completed by 2019. It is part of a two-phase railway-construction project that is supported by the Japanese government. The other phase involves the construction of a 36.7-km nar-row-gauge elevated commuter railway from Malolos, Bulacan, to Tutuban in Manila. It is seen to be completed by the third quarter of 2020. This project is imple-mented under an official develop-ment-assistance package from the Japanese government. The two-phase project is part of the P4.76-trillion Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure Develop-ment for Metro Manila and its Sur-rounding Areas, otherwise known as the Dream Plan, which was for-mulated by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. T he Drea m Pl a n l i sts t he t ranspor t inf rastr uct ure re -quirements of the Philippines, facilities that are expected to al-leviate potential losses and gain from prospective savings. If the transport road map would not be implemented through 2030, the Philippines stands to lose roughly P6 billion daily in traffic costs. Currently, it loses P2 billion a day in transport costs. A large chunk of the list will be implemented under the public-private partnership scheme, which has been gaining traction since its launch in 2010.
DOTC moves bid deadline to April 15 of P170.7-B North-South rail project
Wheat. . . C A
Taiwan. . . C A
THE Army expects to receive additional fire-support vehi-cles and artillery pieces this
year, as it boosts its capabilities under the ongoing modernization program of the Armed Forces. This was revealed by Lt. Gen. Edu-ardo Año, Army commander, during the service’s 119th anniversary cel-ebration at Fort Andres Bonifacio, Makati City, which was attended by top defense and military officials. “We are also expecting the ar-rival this year of additional in-fantry fighting and fire-support vehicles, 155-millimeter howit-zers, light- utility vehicles, 60-mm mortars, 40-mm grenade launch-ers, rocket launcher light units and 50-watt armored vehicle-configu-ration radios,” Año said.
He said the equipment should allow the Army to respond to chal-lenges against national security, in-cluding those coming from the Bang-samoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Abu Sayyaf and other threat groups.
Año said that last year, the Army received its delivery of 56,843 piec-es of M-4 carbines, 124 armored vehicles, including six armored vehicles with remote-controlled weapon systems and more than 300 light-utility vehicles.
The armored vehicles included those that have been delivered by Elbit Systems of Israel and the US, which turned over refurbished APCs under its Excess Defense Ar-ticle program. “These deliveries will beef up our ground forces in conventional or un-conventional fighting,” Año said.
Likewise, the Army chief said the service has received more than 2,000 radio transceivers and other communication equip-ment for effective command and control system.
Meanwhile, a senior officer partly blamed for the slaughter of 44 Spe-cial Action Force members during an antiterrorism operation in Ma-masapano, Maguindanao, last year, led this year the Army’s awardees.
Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, commander of the Sixth Infantry Kampilan Division, was recognized for his “role in promoting peace, reconciliation and development in Central Mindanao.”
The Army said Pangilinan “re-ceived the Gawad sa Kapayapaan award for his significant con-tributions to internal peace and security and for supporting the government’s peace initiatives in Central Mindanao.” Rene Acosta
AFTER the coconut-levy is-sue took centerstage at the second presidential
debates on Sunday, former Sen. Francis Pangilinan reiterated his call for the Senate to pass the Coco Levy Trust Fund measure already passed on third reading by the House of Representatives.
“The Senate has a window after the elections between May 25 and June 9, when they can pass the law,” Pangilinan said.
“This measure is so critical that the House passed it last October and the President certified it as urgent also last October,” Pangilinan said.
According to a draft poverty re-duction road map for the coconut in-dustry, 3.5 million coconut farmers and farmworkers work on 3.4 million hectares planted to coconut in 68 of the country’s 81 provinces.
The road map prepared by the National Anti-Poverty Commission, in consultation with coconut farm-ers, said about 25 million Filipinos are dependent on the industry that takes up about 26 percent of the total agricultural lands.
Highlighting the sorry situation of coconut farmers, Pangilinan said
the average annual income of coco-nut farmers is P15,000. “That’s P50 a day,” he said.
“Nothing at this stage prevents the Senate from passing the law. Any time during that May 25 to June 9 period, the Senate can pass that law, and both Houses of Congress can ratify it,” Pangilinan added.
He said that when passed into law, the measure would benefit co-conut farmers who contributed part of their earnings since martial law to the fund created purportedly for their benefit.
The Supreme Court has ruled that part of the fund, transferred to Marcos crony-owned corpo-rations and used to buy various financial instruments and now valued at about P73 billion, com-prises government funds. Pangilinan, who helped craft the bill as presidential assistant on Food Security and Agricultural Modernization, said that under the measure, the P73 billion is turned into a perpetual fund, with the prin-cipal staying intact.
A body of coconut farmers and government representatives wil l implement the road map
and decide on the type of high-yielding investment into which it can put the money, without using the principal. The road map focuses on coco-enterprise development, Pangilinan explained, because traditional copra is no longer profitable and other products, such as virgin coconut oil, coco sugar and coco water, are higher-value products that farmers can go into for bigger earnings. The coco-levy fund started as 55-centavo-per-100-kilogram fee collected from each coconut farmer beginning in 1973, purportedly to be used to stabilize the domestic price of coconut-based consumer goods like cooking oil.
The Philippine Coconut Author-ity was used as conduit for these collections to finance the develop-ment of a hybrid coconut tree. Many coconut farmers who opposed or questioned the collected levies for which they did not benefit were har-assed, imprisoned and killed during the imposition of martial law. For a long time, the fund has been stuck in court disputes, until the SC awarded in 2012 a 24-percent bloc of the Coconut Industry Investment
Fund-San Miguel Corp. (CIIF-SMC) shares, bought with coco-levy funds, to the government to be used for co-conut farmers and the industry. From September to November 2014, 71 coconut farmers marched from Davao to Manila to seek public and government support for their call to release the then-P71 billion of the coco-levy fund made finally available to them by the Supreme Court decision. Acting on the coconut farmers’ appeal, in March 2015, Malacañang issued two executive orders that aim to give coco farmers access to their fund, detailing the judicious steps to be taken and the stakeholders involved in the process.
Executive Order 179 requires the “inventory, privatization and reconveyance and in favor of the government of all coconut-levy as-sets, including, but not limited to, the shares of stock in the United Coconut Planters Bank, Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF)companies and CIIF holding com-panies, as well as the 5,500,000 San Miguel Corp. shares registered in the name of the Presidential Com-mission on Good Government.” PNA
B J M N. C
TWO female lawmakers are pushing for a measure re-pealing Article 247 of the
84-year-old Revised Penal Code (RPC), allowing a legally married man to kill his spouse caught hav-ing sex with another person.
In House Bill 5104, Party-list Reps. Emmi A. de Jesus and Luz-viminda C. Ilagan of Gabriela said Article 247 of the RPC violates the 1987 Constitution.
Under Article 247 (Death or Physical Injuries Under Exceptional Circumstances), “Any legally mar-ried person who having surprised his spouse in the act of committing sexual intercourse with another person, shall kill any of them or both of them in the act or imme-diately thereafter, or shall inflict upon them any serious physical injury, shall suffer the penalty of destierro [banishment].”
Article 247 also provides that “if he shall inflict upon them physical injuries of any other kind, he shall be exempt from punishment.”
“These rules shall be applicable, under the same circumstances, to parents with respect to their daughters under 18 years of age, and their seducers, while the daughters are living with their parents,” the law added.
Also, the law provides that any person who shall promote or facili-tate the prostitution of his wife or daughter, or shall, otherwise, have
consented to the infidelity of the other spouse, shall not be entitled to the benefits of this Article.” According to the lawmakers, the article violates Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution, which prohibits the taking of life without due proc-ess of law.
The lawmakers said that far from being a penalty, destierro or banishment is not really intended as a penalty but to remove the killer spouse from the vicinity, and to protect him or her from acts of reprisal principally by relatives of the deceased spouse.
“So, not only does the law absolve the killer, it also affords him or her protection via the imposition of des-tierro [or banishment],” de Jesus and Ilagan added. They, citing legal ex-perts, added that Article 247 does not actually define a crime since the accused will still have to be charged with parricide if the act resulted to death or physical injuries.
“Article 247 is only utilized as a defense which must be proven by the accused,” they added. They said the law considers the spouse or parent, acting in a “ jus-tified burst of passion,” had been cited as the justification for the existence of this article in the Re-vised Penal Code. “Sad to say, this is the Philippine version of honor killings being prac-ticed in other countries, but which is universally condemned by vari-ous human-rights organizations,” the lawmakers said.
B R A
THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has sought the full assistance of the National Police
Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) in its crackdown against big-time tax evaders in the country, citing the expertise of the ACG in examining digital evidence needed in ensuring the prosecution of the country’s tax dodgers.
Thursday-Saturday, March 24-26, 2016 • Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo
National Police joins campaign vs tax evaders Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, ACG commander, said that following talks between the Na-tional Police chief, Director General Ricardo Marquez, and BIR Commis-sioner Kim Jacinto-Henares, his unit would extend full assistance to BIR agents going after identified tax evaders in Metro Manila and other parts of the country. In a first case, Eleazar said that at around 8 p.m. on Monday, his men, led by Supt. Darwin Miranda, assisted a BIR team in serving a search warrant issued by Judge Nadine Jessica Cora-zon Fama of Branch 79 of the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City against spouses Ruben and Erlinda Asedillo
for alleged violation of tax laws.The raid on the residence of the
couple, located at 56 Nicanor Reyes Street, Varsity Hills Subdivision, Loyola Heights, Quezon City, led in the seizure of three Apple computers, various digital evidence and docu-ment, including five boxes containing “invoice receipts, delivery receipts, sales’ receipt, application for payment order,’ under the names of different persons and unregistered delivery and purchase receipts and sale invoices.”
“We have been asked by the BIR to conduct digital forensic examina-tion on the pieces of digital evidence recovered during the raid, which was witnessed by the couple’s lawyer,
Ramon Ampil, and local barangay officials,” Eleazar said. The result of the ACG digital fo-rensic examination on the recovered pieces of digital evidence will be used in the filing of multimillion-peso tax- evasion cases against the couple.
According to Eleazar, a BIR team, led by Chief Revenue Officer IV Elmer F. Carolino, went to the ACG headquarters in Camp Rafael Crame, Quezon City, to personally ask the help of the unit in imple-menting the search warrant, citing the ACG’s expertise in handling cyber-related offense and conduct of digital forensic examination.
The official said the joint BIR-
ACG operation was triggered by in-formation that the Asedillo couple installed an unregistered Account-ing Software called the Peach Tree Program in the computer system of their jewelry business. The BIR-ACG operation was also prompted by reports that the re-spondents were allegedly involved in the smuggling of jewelry in the country, “prejudicial to the interest of local manufacturers of jewelry items and the BIR, since they are not paying appropriate taxes.” Eleazar said one of the sales re-ceipts, in the amount of P5 million, seized during the raid was found without any BIR registration.
Also, the lawmakers said Ar-ticle 247 violates international conventions and domestic laws, such as the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women, convention on the rights of the child, RA 7810 (Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act) and RA
9710 (Magna Carta of Women). “So while Gabriela Women’s Par-ty is aware that there is an ongoing efforts to overhaul the antiquated Revised Penal code, Article 247
must be immediately repealed to protect and preserve life, protect children and promote women's rights and gender equality,” the lawmakers added.
House bill seeks repeal of law on honor killing
Pangilinan asks Senate to pass Coco LevyTrust Fund bill before next Congress
Army waiting for more vehicles, artillery pieces
SUMMER COOL A vendor arranges the ingredients she uses in making halo-halo. The cool drink is again in demand owing to the summer heat that envelops the country. The photo was taken on Libertad Street in Pasay City. ROY DOMINGO
DID Jesus Christ have blue eyes? Jeffrey Hunter did. He had the bluest
pair of eyes, tender and interrogating. Those eyes qualified him to be the actor
to play Christ. The talk was that Hunter, strappingly handsome, went on to play the Savior in the film King of Kings. No one ever doubted his qualification. What was appealing were those eyes that pierced the screen and made everyone—his fans, particularly—never commit any sin again. At least, until the film was being shown and talked about.
Hunter was not an unknown before playing Christ. He starred in many films directed by John Ford, the acknowledged master of the Western genre.
Hunter was in his 30s when he played Christ but he looked so young, people had the impression Christ was being presented as a teenager. Hunter would gain popularity in television, and would quickly shed the memories of being once Jesus Christ.
Nicholas Ray directed King of Kings.The next question might be quite irreverent for
Christians, Catholics, in particular: Did Christ have the bone structure that would have qualified him as a male model? Perhaps not, but Pier Paolo Pasolini would secure the services of an economics student, Enrique Irazoqui, from Barcelona, Spain. Strikingly photogenic with the brooding looks of someone fit
to endorse men’s cologne rather than contrition, he went on to play one of the more acclaimed portrayals of Christ. The film itself would be reappraised much, much later in 2014 as one of the best interpretations of the life of Christ.
Pasolini was a communist who was shunned by the Communist and a Marxist who was criticized by fellow Marxists for his indulgence of a story that ran counter to Marxist ideology. Critics would describe the film, The Passion According to St. Matthew, as a nonbeliever’s perspective through a believer’s point of view. The film would figure on the lists of the best films of all time
In 1965 a Swedish actor—a Viking!—Max von Sydow would be tapped to play the Christ in the epic (well, all Christ films are technically epic) The Greatest Story Ever Told. Wearing his Christ hair short, the personality projected by the actor was one of severity. If not for the force on the acting and the voice that was a bit on the gruff side, Max von Sydiow’s Christ would have been a failure. The steely courage in that face would make the actor more compelling as an exorcist of the devil rather than the heavenly force in William Friedkin’s iconic horror classic The Exorcist. In the minds of his fans, Max von Sydow would remain as one of the many characters in the chilly landscape of relationships in the many masterpieces of Ingmar Bergman.
The choice of Max von Sydow seems to be part of the discourse when it comes to selecting the actor to portray Christ, that he must not have a reputation or image connected with other films and characters. Sydow’s participation in the film would be his first that would require him to speak English. The actor came from the chilling landscape of human relations found in the films of Bergman.
The Greatest Story Ever Told is also unique for having been shot not in the Middle East or Europe, but mostly in the United States. George Stevens directed this film,
which saw John Wayne, the epitome of the American cowboy, as a Roman centurion.
Jim Caviezel is the Christ of Mel Gibson in The Passion of the Christ. Remove the crown of thorns and one has a face that seems to have been battered by a hundred thugs in an action-packed film rather than in a biblical retelling. With dialogues in Aramaic, Hebrew and Latin, with English subtitles, the film has the reputation of being the top-grossing film in a foreign language. The film has also acquired fame as the highest grossing film based on the Bible, with a box-office gross topping $600 million
There is no such thing as too real but the reality of violence in Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, we were not quite ready for. We are rather prepared for the Bible according to Hollywood.
The film was based on the account of the four Evangelists and took more details from some other sources, including those related to apparitions. The stories from the set also revealed a production that was attended by mysterious and dark disturbances, giving a credence to the rumor that the Devil himself was inserting himself in what other sectors called a “sinful” version of the life of Christ. Gibson is said to belong to a strand of Catholicism that favored a more traditional reading of the religion.
Before Caviezel, there was another Christ in a film called Jesus of Nazareth. A TV series made into a full-length film, its Christ was Robert Powell. Gaunt, ascetic, Powell’s Christ satisfied the Filipinos image of the Savior who, even in suffering, remained forgiving. The upturned face, the hollow cheeks and those eyes reminded everyone of Christ’s eyes in religious iconography. It was back to the old charm of Hunter once more.
Stellar was the cast of Jesus of Nazareth, with Anne Bancroft as Mary of Magdalene and Olivia Hussey as the Virgin Mary. Hussey was a fresh choice for Mary, imbuing the Virgin with a youthful beauty and
strength and looking even more so young as the older Mary. Completing the cast were actors like Ernest Borgnine, Ian McShane, James Farentino, Michael York, James Mason, Laurence Olivier, Anthony Quinn, Claudia Cardinale and Valentina Cortese, to name just a few. To film Christ, it seems you need to surround him with big stars. After all, Jesus Christ is the original Superstar. ■
JEFFREY HUNTER as Jesus Christ in the 1961 Biblical epic King of Kings.
�ursday-Saturday, March 24-26, 2016 • Editor: Angel R. Calso
OpinionBusinessMirrorA6
Catholics must go to confession
editorial
ONE of the most basic things the Church re-quires of Catholics is found in the Code of Canon Law, which says: “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged
to participate in the Mass. They are also to abstain from such work or business that would inhibit the worship to be given to God.”
As good Catholics, we go to Mass every Sunday. Most of us also receive Communion, a most intimate encounter with Christ, in which we sacra-mentally receive Him into our bodies.
In John’s gospel, Jesus summarized the reasons for receiving Commu-nion when He said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you; he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is real food, and My blood is real drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the liv-ing Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever” (John 6:53–58).
Following the words of Jesus, the Church encourages Catholics to receive frequent Communion, even daily Communion if possible, and mandates reception of the Eucharist at least once a year during the Easter season. Before going to Communion, however, here’s an important thing we need to know: It is ill advised to receive Communion without the certainty of forgiveness. Confession gives us that security.
Catholics go to confession because Christ gave His first priests, the apos-tles, the authority to forgive and retain sins: “As the Father has sent Me, so I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” It was His intention that all sins be forgiven though the Church by aural confession of sins to the priests.
Going to confession is never pleasant or enjoyable, and it can feel so much worse if we have not done it in years. But it is always worth it. Confession lifts from us the guilt of the most terrible things we have ever done. When we confess our worst sins, our relationship with God, which we may have thought was damaged beyond repair, is more than just mended again—it is completely restored. And through that, our own broken human relation-ships can begin to heal once more.
Confession is Christ’s wonderful gift to us, for He assured us, thus: “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
We must have the courage to confess the sins that are preventing us from having a close relationship with God. We must not let fear, or our pride, get in the way for us to avail ourselves of Christ’s amazing gift.
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OUTSIDE THE BOXJohn Mangun
REPUBLICANS act shocked that their party might as well be one of Donald Trump’s hotels with his name plastered on it. He is almost certain to win the Arizona primary on
Tuesday, and barring a miracle or a coup at the convention, he will be the Republican presidential nominee. Many millions have been spent by the anti-Trump forces, to no avail. A prominent mainstream member of the party recently told me that donors met secretly in a restaurant to plot their next move, but the only deci-sion they have made was how they would like their steak done.
FROM the comments I have read from ordinary citizens, as well as journalists, and other experts about the Bangladesh Bank cyber heist, I suppose I should start this discussion with: “My
thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Bangladesh in this hour of great tragedy.”
How Republicans licensed their brand to Trump
The Bangladesh Bank cyber heist
No one should be surprised. It takes a big tent to house both Trump—the non-Golden Rule bil-lionaire with New York values and five children by three wives—and Billy Graham, but that’s what the Republicans built. The party of Main Street hung out a welcome sign to resentful white southern-ers, Tea Partyers, home schoolers, antitax, antispend fiscal conserva-tives, evangelicals and militiamen; those who embrace creationism and reject science, and anyone with a grudge, not to mention isolation-ists and hawks. To those who long to deport undocumented immigrants, love automatic weapons and believe global warming is an Al Gore hoax,
the party said “come on in.”Trump rushed into the vacuum
created by the open-door policy. His brassy showmanship, his garish success and his big checks to candi-dates earned him a celebrity perch similar to Clint Eastwood’s before he talked nonsense to an empty chair at the 2008 convention.
It all came in handy as he cam-paigned in Arizona this week with the endorsement of a fellow Re-publican politico-celeb, the tough, immigrant-baiting Sheriff Joe Ar-paio. Despite an increasing Hispanic population, he’s won six straight elections in Maricopa County, which contains almost two-thirds of Ari-zona’s population. Others pursued
Except, virtually all of those comments and long-winded articles show utter ignorance of what actu-ally happened.
These are the facts. The money does not belong to the people or to the government of Bangladesh. No Bangladeshi is going to go hungry (or any hungrier) tonight because that money was stolen. The money was part of the foreign-currency reserves of the central bank of Bangladesh—Bangladesh Bank (BB). Neither the government nor the people have any claim on the money. It is what the BB
uses to exchange Bangladeshi taka into foreign currency for import payments.
Further, the $81 million repre-sents less than 0.30 percent of BB’s total reserves of $28 billion. This is less than what Bangladesh spends on one day’s worth of imports of $115 million. The effect on the economy is virtually nonexistent. However, the Bangladesh govern-ment may have to spend some money to shore up BB’s financial position. If they gave BB that $81 million, it would be equal to what
Arpaio’s help (including Sen. Ted Cruz) even though he is known for rounding up Hispanics and has pend-ing civil-contempt charges for defy-ing orders to stop the practice. For fun, he’s forced jail inmates to wear pink underwear and to live outside in tents in searing heat.
Trump’s likely victory in Arizona will show that a right-wing populist can use racist undertones to thrive, by enraging and engaging the forgot-ten white working class without ac-tually helping them. He’s not even in favor of raising the minimum wage.
Arpaio and Trump are exemplars of what Republican National Com-mittee Chairman Reince Priebus warned against in his autopsy of the party’s 2012 drubbing. He said that if the party was ever to regain the presidency, it would have to give up anger and tearing down in favor of optimism and building up. It’s too late. Trump and Arpaio rose to prom-inence, as leaders of the angry birther movement committed to tearing down Obama. Trump’s name recog-nition made him a regular spokes-man on television and his money-funded investigators aiming to prove that President Barack Obama wasn’t a natural citizen, but a Kenyan-born Muslim socialist. If a Republican, save Sens. John McCain and Lind-sey Graham, blasted this crazed ef-fort to delegitimize Obama, it went unnoticed. Polls found that while
62 percent of Americans said they believed Obama was born here, 24 percent thought he wasn’t and 14 percent were unsure. Of the doubt-ers, 62 percent were Republicans.
And Arpaio and Trump had back-up. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell fed the base by pledg-ing to do everything in his power to make Obama a one-term president. The obstruction continues with his refusal to give Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, as much as a meeting with Republican senators, citing non-existent precedents.
Trump is not an outlier but what the party should have ex-pected. While the sit-downs in non-smoke-filled rooms continue, the party is cooked. Some Republicans are lining up behind Trump—Govs. Chris Christie and Rick Scott, Ben Carson and the former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich. Others dance around it. Speaker Paul Ryan condemns spe-cific Trump outrages—the stoking of anger and violence, the attacks on Muslims, the lack of seriousness—but says that he will “respect the pri-mary voter.” Still others are whisper-ing cheerfully that Trump might pull off the hat trick of enraging minorities but winning anyway with an outpour-ing of angry white males.
The big tent worked out. Trump was let in. Now the Republican Party is another Trump-branded property.
the Bangladesh government budget spends in 10 minutes.
The BB heist was not traditional computer “hacking” as my crime detective partner, fellow columnist Teddy Locsin Jr., and I pointed out last week on social-media platform Twitter. This may have been an “in-side job,” despite comments about malware being used. To enable this international wire transfer from the BB account at the New York US Feder-al Reserve Bank required something similar to a “PIN” number that came from the BB itself. The wire instruc-tions went in on a Friday—when the BB is closed for the Muslim Sabbath and the BB was unable to contact the US Federal Reserve the following day because the Fed was closed for the US weekend.
While the Philippine antimoney- laundering law must be changed to include all institutions like ca-sinos and remittance companies, the transfer of the money to the individual bank accounts rests with Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC). Through impropriety or incompetence, these transactions
took place without any red lights flashing at RCBC.
However, the Philippine bashers damning the Philippine banking system are wrong. BB, by its own ad-mission, said it took them two days to notice that they had been robbed. Further, by the time BB had notified the Fed and the RCBC with “stop or-ders,” the money had already left the Philippines.
As the Financial Times news-paper wrote, “The origins of the disaster lie at the Bangladesh end of the transactions. Bangladesh, including its government institu-tions and its banking system, is notoriously corrupt and prone to bank frauds.”
The Fed takes no blame saying all protocols were followed. Wel-come to the age when the computer speaks, and we all listen like duti-ful servants.
E-mail me at [email protected]. Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.
PRESIDENT Barack Obama dangles US dollars before the Castros, while Congress stonewalls Puerto Rico’s pleas for debt restructuring. The Tampa Bay Rays take the field in Havana
as San Juan fends off New York hedge funds wielding legal baseball bats. The Rolling Stones play a free concert for Cubans; Puerto Rico can’t get no satisfaction.
CAMPAIGN contributions and expenditures are the common cash inflows and outflows during election period. In order to regulate the same, the Omnibus Election Code, the Fair Elec-
tion Act of 2001, and the Synchronized National and Local Elections Act of 1991 set the limit as to how much a candidate can spend, as well as the types of lawful expenditures that a candidate can spend on. All these expenditures and contributions must be summarized in the statement of contributions and expenditures to be filed with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) after the conduct of elec-tions. Attached to the statements are the receipts and invoices issued relative to election campaign.
As Cuba rises, Puerto Rico falls
Election spending and taxesvalue-added tax official receipts.
As for the tax treatment of campaign contributions and ex-penditures, the circular stressed that, by their nature, campaign contributions were given not for personal enrichment of the con-cerned candidates but for the pur-pose of utilizing such contributions for campaign. Thus, these are ex-empt from income tax. However, the circular provides three exemp-tions whereby these contributions become taxable:
(1) In the event that these con-tributions were not utilized for elec-toral campaigns, these unutilized or excess funds shall be considered as subject to income-tax and therefore must be included in the candidate’s taxable income as stated in his/her income tax return (ITR) to be filed at the end of the year;
(2) In the event that any candidate fails to file with the Comelec the ap-propriate statement of expenditures, the entire amount of such campaign contributions shall be directly sub-ject to income tax; and
(3) In the event that these contri-butions were spent before and after the campaign period as set by the Comelec, the said contribution shall be subject to donor’s tax.
In the case of campaign expen-ditures, the circular clarified that
there shall be 5-percent creditable withholding tax (CWT) for every payment made by political parties and candidates for their purchase of goods and services as campaign ex-penditures. The 5-percent CWT shall be remitted to the BIR not later than the 10th day following the month of the payment. What happens then if the candidates or political groups failed to withhold the same? The cir-cular stressed that the full amount corresponding to said expense shall be reported as unutilized campaign funds subject to income tax.
In summary, with the above Com-elec and BIR rules and regulations, election spending is seen to influence the positive tax-collection outturns to the government and empower the participatory process in shaping good governance due to simpler tax and election compliance.
The author is a junior associate of Du-Baladad and Associates Law Offices (BDB Law), a member- firm of World Tax Services (WTS).
The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substi-tute for tax, legal or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported therefore by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the ar-ticle, you may e-mail the author at [email protected] or call 403-2001 local 350.
Cheating for Olympic goldB M K | TNS
OLYMPIA, GREECE—Athletes competing in the ancient Olympic games were venerated for their prowess and ability. Here, on these original Olympiad grounds of now-
toppled temples and former glory, visitors are reminded of the elevated role honor played within competition.
Relating the above requirements to taxes, the Bureau of Internal Rev-enue (BIR) released a circular (RMC 30-2016) on March 14, which clari-fies the tax obligations of the can-didates and other participants in the May 9, 2016, national and local elections. The essential information in the circular falls into two broad categories: BIR registration, and tax treatment of campaign contribu-tions and expenditures.
As for the BIR registration, it requires all candidates and politi-cal parties, including the party-list
groups, to register with the BIR, issue official receipts and withhold taxes.
The registration of the candi-date shall be made with the RDO having jurisdiction over the politi-cal subdivision where the candidate is seeking election or over their principal residence or registered address as the case may be. For po-litical parties or party-list groups, registration shall be made with the RDO having jurisdiction over their head office or principal office. In-cluded in the registrations are the books of accounts and the non-
DECISIONS affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people should be made using the best possible information. That’s why researchers, public officials and anyone with
views on social policy should pay attention to a long-running contro-versy in the world of statistics.
The value of that p-value
Two thousand years ago com-petitors heading toward the sta-dium tunnel walked between two rows of statues. On their right was a famous marble row of heroic athletes, victors all.
On the left, however, stood 16 statues of Olympic cheaters, eter-nally dishonored and living in in-famy. Their chiseled names remain visible to this day.
The Olympic message was as clear then as it is today: Don’t cheat!
Unfortunately, the high stakes of national pride, professional ath-letics and simple hubris have led others to conclude that the more important lesson in sports compe-tition is different: Don’t get caught cheating.
Doping, steroids, gender faking, age falsification, judge bribing, op-ponent knee-capping, hitchhiking to a marathon finish…the list of cheats is long and creative. Yet, de-spite millennia of getting caught, cheaters abound.
Cheating and bribery, however, are not limited to individual ath-letes. The practice has infected Olympic host-country bid com-mittees and multiple other global sporting institutions, like the in-ternational soccer federation Fé-dération Internationale de Football Association.
As the world prepares for the 2016 Rio Olympics, Brazil’s po-litical leaders are caught up in the country’s largest bribery and kick-back scheme broadly involving gov-ernment construction contracts that include Olympic facilities. Brazilian private contractors, like oil giant Petrobras, were caught bribing and skimming around con-struction deals.
The consequence has brought millions of demonstrators into Brazil’s streets and shame to the country’s current President Dilma Rousseff and former leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. While the competition for global corruption and graft is stiff and includes Fifa, Brazil’s widening bribery scheme may win this year’s gold medal for greed and stupidity.
Russia’s Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics were a great way for
President Vladimir Putin’s cro-nies to score corrupt cash. Russian Olympic competitors preparing for this summer’s Rio games were caught juicing it up in a scheme that had domestic labs testing their nation’s athletes. The regulatory regime found faked results and may disqualify Russia’s best from competition this summer.
Suddenly, up pops another po-tential Olympic doping scandal starring Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova.
Pressure on athletes to enhance their performance seems to be con-centrated in Russia this year, per-haps where popular sports glory can deflect rising disapproval of Russian politics and policy. Mos-cow is suffering from international economic sanctions, bleeding in a hybrid Ukraine war, and pursuing coy military actions in Syria.
While foreign Olympic corrup-tion is exasperatingly abundant, the United States is not innocent. The 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics scandal and indictments were a study in bad judgment and worse bid execution.
Cheating is in direct contraven-tion to the Olympic spirit. But so is war. During the quadrennial Olym-pics in Greece, an important part of the games was the peace truce that held during the games.
Some politicians work hard to stop war during modern Olympi-ads, but peace is more an Olympic ideal than reality. Olympic peace remains elusive.
The modern Olympics continue to reflect the highest athletic stan-dards, and inspire awe and respect. It is time to create credible and effective international oversight and audit structures to assure the spirit of international sporting is not overtaken by cynics at a cheat-ers’ orgy.
As Los Angeles awaits word on its 2024 Summer Olympics bid, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and his host committee can show the world that transparency, inclusiveness and fair play represent athletics’ true spirit. As the winged Greek goddess of victory, Nike, may have said: Just do it!
The lesson to be drawn from this debate: Whenever you see a claim of the form “x is significantly related to y,” watch out.
At issue is a statistical test that researchers in a wide range of disci-plines, from medicine to economics, use to draw conclusions from data. Let’s say you have a pill that’s sup-posed to make people rich. You give it to 30 people, and they wind up 1 percent richer than a similar group that took a placebo.
Before you can attribute this dif-ference to your magic pill, you need to test your results with a narrow and dangerously subtle question: How likely would you be to get this result if your pill had no effect whatsoever? If this probability, or so-called p-value, is less than a stated threshold —often set at 5 percent—the result is deemed “statistically significant.”
The problem is, people tend to place great weight on this declaration of statistical significance without understanding what it really means. A low p-value does not, for example, mean that the pill almost certainly works. Any such conclusion would need more information—including, for a start, some reason to think the pill could make you richer.
In addition, statistical signifi-cance is not policy significance. The size of the estimated effect matters, too. It might be so small as to lack practical or explanatory value, even though it’s statistically significant. The converse is also true: An esti-mated effect might be so strong as to demand attention, even though it fails the p-value test.
These reservations apply even to statistical investigation done right. Unfortunately, it very often isn’t—
as the American Statistical Associa-tion made clear earlier this month in what amounts to an academic cri de coeur. Researchers commonly en-gage in “p-hacking,” tweaking data in ways that generate low p-values but actually undermine the test. Ab-surd results can be made to pass the p-value test, and important find-ings can fail. Despite all this, a good p-value tends to be a prerequisite for publication in scholarly journals. As a result, only a small and unrepresen-tative sample of research ever sees the light of day.
Why aren’t bad studies rooted out? Sometimes they are, but aca-demic success depends on publish-ing novel results, so researchers have little incentive to check the work of others. One rare replica-tion project managed to confirm the results of only 11 out of 18 pa-pers published in leading economic journals. That looks pretty good compared with psychology, where a similar (albeit contested) study of 98 papers produced a replication rate of less than half.
What to do? Journals that pub-lish research, and institutions that fund it, should demand more transparency. Require researchers to document their work, including any negative or “insignificant” re-sults produced along the way. Insist on replication. Supplement p-values with other measures, such as con-fidence intervals that indicate the size of the estimated effect, as well as its statistical precision.
Most important, users of statis-tics need to wise up to the limits of the science. Empirical studies are a vital guide to policy, but must be used carefully. Look at the evi-dence as a whole, and beware re-sults that haven’t been repeated, or that depend on a single method of measurement. Hold findings to a higher standard if they conflict with common sense.
Policy-makers can’t ask statis-tical analysis for certainty. That’s unattainable. But they can and should demand conclusions that are clear and realistic enough to withstand scrutiny.
As Cuba rises and Puerto Rico falls, it’s worth considering the di-verging trajectories of these two ex-Spanish colonies that the Puerto Rican poet Lola Rodríguez de Tió de-scribed more than 100 years ago as “two wings of the same bird.” Even as the resumption of diplomatic ties with the US opens new possibilities for Cuba, Puerto Rico’s current status as a US commonwealth has turned into an ugly dead end.
Puerto Rico is defaulting in slow motion on $70 billion worth of debt. Its economy has shrunk nine of the past 10 years. A few hundred miles to the west, meanwhile, economic reforms are creating new livelihoods for self-employed Cubans, whose material conditions are improving. Buoyed by the arrival of new tourists, remittances and foreign investments, Cuba’s economy grew by 4 percent last year. And when the US embargo is lifted, Cuba—which for much of the 19th and 20th centuries was the Ca-ribbean’s predominant economy—is likely to take a growing bite out of
Puerto Rico’s fortunes, in tourism, manufacturing and services. And that’s before accounting for Puerto Rico’s existing fiscal straits, which will lead to shrinking government services, higher costs imposed by utilities under siege from creditors and a string of broken social prom-ises and busted pensions.
True, Cubans don’t have democ-racy. Then again, at the national level, neither do Puerto Ricans: Despite being US citizens, they can’t vote for president or in Congress, which these days mostly ignores them. Cubans may face the threat of arbitrary deten-tion and abuse. But they’re much less likely than Puerto Ricans to be shot dead on the street, or to be victimized by drug traffickers or other criminals.
In fact, by many other yardsticks, you’re better off being born in Cuba than Puerto Rico. Don’t take my word for it. Look at the World Factbook put out by those raving socialists at the Central Intelligence Agency. Lower infant mortality? Check! Same with lower unemployment, higher literacy
and a lower overall death rate.Things weren’t supposed to turn
out this way for the island that Presi-dent John F. Kennedy touted three months after the Bay of Pigs invasion as “a source of hope and inspiration to those of us deeply concerned with charting new courses of social prog-ress for our Hemisphere.”
The proximate cause of Puerto Rico’s current distress is its crushing debt, which has tripled since 2000. And yes, irresponsible and corrupt legislators and executives (and the voters who elect them) deserve much of the blame. But the larger problem has been Puerto Rico’s relation-ship with its federal overlords, who have oscillated between patronizing micromanagement and malign ne-glect—devising ill-suited develop-ment strategies, granting and then revoking economic benefits, impos-ing regulations that undermined the island’s competitiveness and creat-ing disincentives for work.
Consider the Washington-backed effort to turn Puerto Rico into a manufacturing hub. During the late 1940s, US companies were given fed-eral and local tax breaks to locate on the island. But US minimum-wage laws and trade agreements with other nations gradually eroded Puer-to Rico’s competitive advantages. Moreover, instead of investing in the island, US companies brought their profits back to the mainland.
In 1976 the US tried again, sweet-ening the pot for companies with Sec-tion 936 of the Federal Tax Reform Act. That created new jobs in chemi-cals, pharmaceuticals and electron-ics, but at huge fiscal cost as mainland corporations gamed tax laws. When the US phased out the tax breaks, the island’s manufacturing employment took a big hit—a blow that Puerto Rico’s legislators are quick to blame for the island’s decline, not least be-cause it conveniently absolves them for their own bad decisions.
The Republican-controlled US Congress is now debating what to do about Puerto Rico’s fiscal mess. The island’s top officials have all but begged for the ability to restructure the debt of its municipalities under Chapter 9 of the US bankruptcy code—a power Puerto Rico had for decades until Congress took it away. Better yet would be the ability also to restructure its general obligation debt, which it can’t realistically pay.
Congress seems unlikely to allow restructuring. Instead, the Republi-can majority wants to impose a fiscal control board that takes over Puerto Rico’s fiscal affairs. Analysts at Puer-to Rico’s Center for a New Economy have argued against this approach’s “colonial and imperialistic overtones,” which also contradict the GOP’s devo-lutionary, small-government philoso-phy. Instead, they advocate passing a “fiscal responsibility law” with strict
enforcement provisions.As smart as this idea looks on
paper, the island’s repeated failures to put its own fiscal house in order undermine that case. On the other hand, imposing a control board with-out granting debt relief risks acceler-ating Puerto Rico’s downward spiral.
That brings us back to the central question of Puerto Rico’s sovereignty. A control board for Puerto Rico would be all-too-consistent with its quasi-colonial status: Its legislators and executives behave irresponsibly in part because the buck doesn’t stop with them. The island depends on the federal government for a quarter of its revenues, on terms that Washing-ton sets, while it’s straightjacketed by federal regulations that hurt its competitiveness and estrange it from neighboring economies.
Making Puerto Rico a state wouldn’t necessarily cure it of bad fiscal behavior (see: Illinois). And independence would bring huge challenges. But remaining a com-monwealth isn’t working either. More than a half-century after JFK called Puerto Rico a “source of hope and inspiration,” its predicament should be a source of shame for every American. Its US citizens have rates of poverty and unemployment that dwarf those on the mainland, and diminishing prospects that make a mock of the American Dream. They don’t even enjoy the full benefits of
the US Constitution.Their lot won’t fundamentally im-
prove until they seize control of their own destiny and choose between statehood or independence. And when they finally make that choice, Congress should honor it, either wel-coming Puerto Rico as the 51st state or allowing it to be independent.
Once Cuba gained its indepen-dence from US control in 1902, it became theoretically free to make its own mistakes, notwithstanding the colossus to the north looking over its shoulder. And Lord knows Cuba made plenty of them, even before its current detour through socialist privation and repression. Over the years, Cuba has nonetheless delighted in tweaking Uncle Sam in the United Nations over Puerto Rico’s “colonial” status, and is doubtless enjoying some quiet schadenfreude over its neighbor’s troubles.
Yet, these two islands can lift each other up. In addition to their shared history and culture, they face some similar demographic and economic challenges, and have some comple-mentary strengths—Puerto Rico’s pharmaceutical industry and Cuba’s nascent biotechnology sector, for instance. An unlikely partnership, perhaps. But as President Obama has noted about Cuban policy, we know what hasn’t worked. Maybe it’s time to try something different for Puerto Rico too.
TAX LAW FOR BUSINESSAtty. Ronald S. Cubero
SportsBusinessMirror
A8 | THURSDAY, MARCH 24, [email protected]@businessmirror.com.phEditor: Jun Lomibao Asst. Editor: Joel Orellana
B P OThe Associated Press
HAVANA—When President Barack Obama watched the Tampa Bay Rays play Cuba’s national team on Tuesday, it will come at the deepest moment of crisis in more than 50 years for the
island’s famed state-run baseball league. A flood of high-profile defections to the US has gutted the country’s teams. Stadiums and fields are run down, and experts and fans say quality of play is too. The national team hasn’t won a major international tournament in nearly a decade. “It’s going through a bad period,” said Ismael Sene, a Cuban baseball historian. Now authorities are considering once-unimaginable changes to save the socialist country’s national game—reforms partly prompted by Obama’s detente. Major League Baseball (MLB) is in talks with both nations’ governments on a potential deal that could make it easier for Cuban ballplayers to play in the US without having to sneak away at international tournaments or risk high-seas defections with human smugglers. Last week the Obama administration implemented a policy to let Cubans earn salaries in the US as long as they don’t pay special taxes back home. Those regulations specifically mention athletes, along with artists and performers. Victor Mesa, a retired Cuban baseball legend who’s managing the team facing the Rays, said he has dreamed of a day when Cuban players could compete in the US without abandoning their homeland. “They could go work there, they would give us work permits, the money can be brought back to Cuba—that is what we want, for our baseball players to be able to play there,” Mesa said. One key sticking point is that while Cuba now allows some players to compete in foreign leagues, they are legally on loan from the Cuban Baseball Federation, which takes a cut of their salaries. Paying money directly to the Cuban government would violate the US embargo under its current form. Yulieski Gourriel became the first big star to go overseas in the prime of his career with the island’s full blessing in 2014. He made $1 million in Japan with the Yokohama Dena Baystars and paid 10 percent of that to the federation—a huge payoff for a country where take-home salaries for Cubans average about $25 a month. But last season he ended up back in Cuba after the club canceled his contract. Then last month he and younger brother Lourdes—also considered a promising prospect—slipped out of their hotel at the
AN Azkals side minus the major pieces faces powerhouse Uzbekistan anew in a road match at the resumption on Thursday of
the Asian Qualifiers of the 2018 International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) World Cup Russia at the Bunyodkor Stadium in Tashkent. Action kicks off at 9 p.m. (Manila time) with the undermanned Azkals trying to avenge a frustrating 1-5 loss to Uzbekistan in their first Group H collision last September at the Philippine Sports Stadium. The nationals face a more daunting task against a strong Uzbekistan side without several key players, particularly skipper Phil Younghusband and Stephan Schrock. Younghusband is still nursing a knee injury, while Schrock suffered a leg injury from a recent match with Ceres-La Salle in the Asian Football Confederation Cup in Bangladesh last week. Kevin Ingreso and Stephan Palla are also on the injured list, while Rob Gier, Jerry Lucena and Paul Mulders already hung their jerseys days before the match. Team mainstays Manny Ott and Misagh Bahadoran will also miss the action because of the second yellow cards they got in a 0-1 home loss to Yemen last November at the Rizal Memorial Stadium. With the huge blow, Head Coach Thomas Dooley is expected to draw from fresh legs he called out from United Football League in OJ Porteria, Kenshiro Daniels, Dominic del Rosario, Jim Ashley Flores, OJ Clariño and Jorrel Aristorenas. Dooley will also lean on the remainder of his core players led by goalie Neil Etheridge, Patrick Reichelt, Javier Patino, Juan Luis Guirado, Amani Aguinaldo, Patrick Deyto, Iain Ramsay, Simone Rota, Daisuke Sato Martin Steuble, Luke Woodland, Tomas Trigo and Dennis Villanueva. Now with a slim chance of making it to the World Cup after a heart-pounding loss to Yemen, the Azkals will try to boost their seven points to tighten their grip of No. 3 that could strengthen their bid for the 2019 Asian Cup. The second-seeded Uzbekistan, on the other hand, shoots for the Group H lead and add three more points to its 15 markers. The Azkals flewto Tashkent on Saturday via Incheon, South Korea, with Team Manager Dan Palami, Assistant Coach Aris Caslib and Goalkeeper Coach Pascal Werner Zuberbühler. After the road match, the Azkals will face North Korea, which is currently on top of Group H with 16 points, on March 29, at the Rizal Memorial Stadium. Lance Agcaoili
they face UE (April 2), Ateneo (April 10) and NU (April 13). You can make a case that NU is playing De La Salle—of course, but not with the way they have floundered. FEU needs to solidify its position at fourth with at most two wins in their three remaining matches—UST, UP (April 3) and Adamson University (April 6). NU is on the outside looking in as they play UP, FEU and De La Salle. But the Lady Bulldogs are 2-2 this second round, 2-5 in their last seven matches. To say that they are reeling is an understatement. Again, they would have been better served had they played their current University Athletic Association of the Philippines team in the V-League, rather than let guest players bail them out. Back to the UST Golden Tigresses. They looked they righted their shaky ship after their three-set upset of De La Salle to close out their first round. They followed that up with another sweep of the hapless UE squad after which the Lady Spikers returned the favor with a three-set sweep of their own. Then they battled Adamson in a five-setter before prevailing then dropped three sets to Ateneo in a match where they were never in the game. Looking at the loss to the Lady Eagles, the young Tigresses clearly lacked maturity and big game experience, while their veterans were a no show. Chloe Cortez had three points, Carmela Tunay finished with two and Jessey De Leon ended up with one point. Marivic Meneses played better than she did in previous games but it wasn’t anywhere near enough. After Alyssa Teope faltered as starting setter, UST Coach Kungfu Reyes sent in veteran Alex Cabanos, but she wasn’t able to give the team a lift. With Cherry Rondina mostly contained, UST’s only other option was EJ Laure who had problems defensively. Listening to Reyes during their huddles, he expressed disappointment that his girls didn’t seem like they were hungry for the win. He tried everything from the simple reminders to the words of encourage-ment to even angrily issuing instructions. At this point, it’s a maturity issue or even a leadership. With Rondina more or less contained, it fell upon the others to contribute. When it didn’t happen, they fell apart. The Holy Week break will allow them to mend bruised feelings and to get over their last loss. It will also allow time to heal niggling injuries and offer some badly needed rest. Mentally, though...that’s another concern. UST is still in the hunt for the fourth spot. The sad thing is—it is out of their hands.
TOP KITEBOARDER Spanish ace rider Julia Castro (center) holds her trophy as she poses with (from left) Mayor Andrew Ong of Cuyo Island, third placer Jing Gajisan, runner-up Paula Rosales, Corina Bleitz and Philippine Kiteboarding Association President Jay Ortiz after clinching the ladies twin tip diadem in the �nal leg of the International Container Terminal Services Inc. Philippine Kiteboarding Tour Season 3 at Cuyo Island in Palawan recently.
ACTION heats up in Season 3 of the Vios Cup. But afterthe smoke clears, the participants (below) pose for posterity.
CALMA SHINESIN VIOS CUP 3
Major League Baseball is in talks with both nations’ governments on a potential deal that could make it easier for Cuban ballplayers to play in the US without having to sneak away at international tournaments or risk high-seas defections with human smugglers.
CUBANBASEBALL IN CRISIS
Depleted Azkalstake on Uzbeks
Caribbean Series in the Dominican Republic, joining the likes of Yasiel Puig and Yoenis Cespedes in a string of high-profile defections. Photos posted on Twitter in early March showed Gourriel at the Miami airport. At the time he left, Gourriel was batting around .500 for Havana’s powerhouse club Industriales and was on pace to shatter multiple hitting records. Some of that was surely skewed by a decline in local pitching, but Gourriel is widely considered to be the finest Cuban player of his generation. “That was a symbolic blow,” said Peter C. Bjarkman, author of the forthcoming book Cuba’s Baseball Defectors: The Inside Story. Bjarkman interpreted it as a sign that no MLB deal was imminent, because otherwise Gourriel probably would have stayed: “Running out of time as he was [at age 31], he felt he had to go now or never.” Another problem is that Cuba plays in the winter. That means players who also compete in Japan or elsewhere get precious little offseason. Senior players like Gourriel would risk exhaustion
and potentially serious injury. Sene said authorities already are talking of shifting to a May-September league that would operate without players who sign with the Majors. A second, six-team league could run from October to December when they would be available to play back home after the US season ends. “I hope that can happen,” Sene said. “For me it is the solution to the general quality” of play in Cuba. It would likely be necessary, because MLB clubs that pay millions of dollars in salaries will aggressively defend their investment. “The White Sox are not going to release [Jose] Abreu in the middle of a pennant race to go play for Cuba,” Bjarkman said. Cuban baseball insiders say many players are genuinely torn between loyalty to the Cuban system that nurtured their talent and the dream of competing against the best. But MLB salaries are a powerful lure. In recent years signings have netted whopping deals for Cubans like Rusney Castillo ($72.5 million, Red Sox) and Abreu ($68 million, White Sox). “Every baseball player would like to test
himself in that league,” said Livan Moinelo, a left-handed pitcher for Pinar del Rio. “Big possibilities are opening for Cuban ballplayers to play in the Major Leagues, and we hope it turns out for the best.” Meanwhile many Cuban kids today are taking up soccer instead of baseball, and idolizing stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. While a single ball is all it takes for 22 kids to play soccer, gloves, bats and other baseball equipment are expensive and scarce. The last time Cuba’s national team won an international tournament was in 2007 at the Pan American Games, although Pinar del Rio did take first at the 2015 Caribbean Series, a club competition. Cuba sent what was considered a strong squad to the 2013 World Baseball Classic, but it crashed out before the semifinals. Since then at least seven key players from that team have defected. Bjarkman said the lack of success has prompted even more to leave. While Cuba was winning tournaments, the athletes were treated like rock stars back home. But these days, fans are more interested in the exploits of the Cubans in the Major Leagues than those still here. “They’re second fiddle to the guys who left. It’s taken away one more reason for staying home and staying in the system,” Bjarkman said. “They’re not the real heroes anymore. The heroes are the ones who left.”
OUT OF THEIR CLAWSin the Final Four. At this point, UP would like to consolidate its position when the Lady Maroons face NU (March 30), FEU (April 3) and UST (April 10), and hope that any of the top 2 squads drop games. UP could finish at 10-4, its best record in a long time, and give any of the top 2 teams a run for their money. Speaking of the top 2 teams, they would like to stick to the top 2 spots. Two wins will ensure them a twice-to-beat advantage. Two losses will put them in a tie with UP. While it is unlikely that resurgent Ateneo will drop any two of their remaining three matches when they face Adamson University, University of the East and De La Salle in that order, a second loss to the Lady Spikers will drop them to second where they could face UP in the Final Four. Ditto with De La Salle as
B R O
W ITH their three-set loss to Ateneo on Saturday, the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Golden Tigresses fell to sixth place
in the standings. While mathematically they can still make the Final Four, their fate isn’t entirely in their hands. For one, they have to win all three remaining matches—against Far Eastern University (FEU) (March 30), National University (NU) (April 3) and University of the Philippines (UP) (April 10). Second, they have to hope that UP and FEU, currently at third and fourth respectively, drop some matches. The dangerous UP Lady Maroons took a huge loss to De La Salle for the crucial twice-to-beat advantage
A NDRES CALMA shared top honors with Allan Uy in the premier Super Sporting Class, while Paolo Rodriguez and Miguel Diaz topped Race 1 and 2,
respectively, of the Bridgestone Sporting Class in the 2016 Vios Cup Season 3 over the weekend at the Clark International Speedway in Pampanga. Calma, son of Philippine Basketball Association legend Hector Calma, also won fastest lap honors in the Super Sporting Class, and was named Driver of the Day in the event organized by Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. The winners’ list included Jinno Rufino (Rota Celebrity) and Marc Martinez (Rota Promotional) in Race 1, and again Rufino (Rota Celebrity) and Oscar Suarez (Rota Promotional) in Race 2. Receiving special awards were Rufino (AVT Overall Best Male Celebrity Driver), Joyce Pring (AVT Overall Best Female Celebrity Driver), Martinez (Denso Fastest Lap Promotional Class), Tonton Ramos ((Denso Fastest Lap Sporting Class) and Sean Velasco (Motul Slingshot Award). Pring bagged three special awards—Brembo Most Improved Celebrity Driver, Adrenaline Rush and Catch Me If You Can. Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. President Satoru Suzuki welcomed the participants in a brief speech ahead of the races. “We welcome the third season of the Vios Cup displaying that we genuinely have a passion for a grassroots racing program in the country,” Suzuki said. “Waku-doki is best communicated by nothing else but by the exciting world of motorsports. Spearheaded by the locally manufactured Vios, the car not only boasts its fun features on the track but also its inherent qualities that has constantly made it the No. 1 selling car in the country.” Rounding out the top finishers in Race 1 of the Super Sporting Class were Estefano Rivera (second), Daniel Miranda (third), Uy (fourth) and Dominic Ochoa (fifth). In Race 2, the top 5 included Calma (second), Miranda (third), Rivera (fourth) and Basti Escalante (fifth). Fabio Ide finished second in both races of the Rota Celebrity Class. Bobby Pangilinan was second and Evelyn Coseteng placed third in Race 1 of the Rota Promotional Class as they switched places in Race 2 of the same category. Miko Maristela, Velasco, Diaz and Robert Lilles were second to fifth places, respectively, in Race 1 of the Bridgestone Sporting Class. In Race 2, the order of finish was Velasco (second), Maristela (third), Steve Bicknell (fourth) and Rodriguez (fifth).
