LRT-1 operator to spend P100M for CCTV system

November 30, 2018 | 12:03 am

LIGHT RAIL Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) operator Light Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC) said it is allocating P100 million to upgrade its surveillance system.
In a statement on Thursday, the company said it tapped Filipino firm Commsec, Inc. for its new closed-circuit television (CCTV) system, which is expected to improve safety in the train line.
“Commsec will install almost 500 high resolution surveillance cameras with increased storage capacity to ensure the safety and security of passengers and employees in and around LRT-1’s passenger stations, depot and other facilities,” Juan F. Alfonso, LRMC president and chief executive officer, said in the statement.
The new CCTV cameras will monitor the train doors, which will be projected on a monitor that the train driver will see. LRMC said this will ensure all doors are safely shut as a train car moves from one station to another.
The new surveillance system would also be equipped with technology that could count the number of passengers in a station’s queue line. It will likewise keep an eye on guarded locations for any security breach.
“With the upgrade, which is estimated to take two years to complete, crowd monitoring will be more effective. This will also later on feed into an automated system that will inform passengers which stations are heavy, moderate or light, thus helping them plan their trips better,” Mr. Alfonso added.
LRMC is the consortium of Ayala Corp., Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte. Ltd.
Metro Pacific Investment Corp. is one of three Philippine subsidiaries of Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being PLDT, Inc. and Philex Mining Corp. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., maintains an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group. — Denise A. Valdez

Bahrain readies austerity push, keeping wary eye on opposition

November 30, 2018 | 12:03 am

DUBAI — Bahrain’s new parliament is expected to swiftly pass sensitive austerity measures needed to secure a Gulf aid package, but the U.S. — allied government may implement the belt-tightening in stages to avoid provoking public anger.
The Sunni-led authorities have kept a lid on dissent since a Shi’ite uprising in the island kingdom in 2011 was quelled with the help of neighboring Saudi Arabia, which fears instability in Bahrain will encourage unrest among its own Shi’ite minority.
But Bahrain, a cornerstone of US military power in the region, could face a fresh test of its ability to curb opposition unrest as it implements reforms to subsidies and pensions required by Gulf Arab donors to avert a debt crisis.
Authorities are expected to phase in the changes, hoping to soften the impact, to prevent protests by opposition forces who see the assembly as illegitimate after they were barred from contesting last week’s elections, analysts said.
Bahrain, which lacks the vast oil wealth of other Gulf states, needs to slash state spending because its finances have been hit by an oil price slump since 2014. Bahrain has struggled to curb outlays while avoiding public anger over fiscal reforms.
“The economy will be the biggest issue for the new House of Representatives,” said Jamal Fakhro, deputy president of Bahrain’s upper house. “The new parliament has to be aware that there are some issues that can’t be delayed, because any delay won’t be in Bahrain’s interest.”
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain’s main backer, along with the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, offered Manama a $10 billion aid package over five years to 2022 to bail out the government if it pushes through fiscal reforms to achieve budget balance.
The austerity measures are likely to face resistance from Shi’ite Bahrainis who say they are already deprived of jobs and government services and treated as second class citizens in the country of 1.5 million, home to the US Fifth Fleet.
The authorities deny discrimination and accuse Iran of fomenting unrest that has seen protesters clash with security forces, who have been targeted by bomb attacks. Tehran denies the charges.
Activists have described the elections as a “farce” after the government dissolved the main opposition groups and barred their members from running.
The opposition may use austerity measures to challenge the legitimacy of the new parliament.
“We are studying calling for protests and moving the street against austerity and new taxes,” said Ali Al Asawad, a leader of closed opposition group al-Wefaq, who lives in self-imposed exile in London and has been sentenced in absentia to life in prison on espionage charges, which he denies.
Al-Wefaq, Bahrain’s biggest opposition group, once controlled almost half of Bahrain’s lower house with 18 seats in 2010. Opposition groups boycotted the 2014 elections.
ECONOMIC PINCH
While Bahrain may see rallies against rising costs, anti-austerity protests are unlikely to be widespread, said Glen Ransom, a senior analyst at Control Risks Middle East, noting that previous subsidy cuts, the introduction of excise tax and approval of value-added tax did not cause significant unrest.
“The government will attempt to reduce any public backlash by easing the impact on Bahraini nationals, which may include targeted subsidies and a phased approach to austerity measures.”
Most candidates running in last week’s elections defended the economic reforms as necessary to maintain stability.
“The VAT has to do with the political will and is part of the obedience to our guardians… and in everybody’s interest,” Jamal Daoud, a lawmaker and candidate said on social media.
Bahrain released a 33-page fiscal plan last month after signing the Gulf aid agreement to fix its finances and abolish its budget deficit by 2022. Manama had projected a $3.5 billion budget deficit in 2018.
Bahrain is due to receive up to $2 billion by the end of the year as a first aid package installment after legislators approved introducing value-added tax (VAT) in 2019.
Bahrain’s parliament has limited power but the two houses approve the state budget and economic policy.
“The new parliament will be involved in every step of the government’s Fiscal Balance Program,” a government spokeswoman told Reuters.
Ali Al Aradi, deputy president of the outgoing House of Representatives, said the government plan would be approved in January, and the state budget for 2019 and 2020, which are expected to see more cuts, by next April.
Other wealthier Gulf states have passed similar subsidies and tax reforms after oil prices plunged in 2014.
Bahrainis are being asked to accommodate austerity measures at a time when their incomes and opportunities are stagnant, said Elizabeth Dickinson, Senior Analyst for the Arabian Peninsula at the International Crisis Group.
“These trends align with growing sentiment among many Bahrainis, particularly the communities that backed the government in the 2011 uprising and its aftermath, that the pace of economic change and the improvement of social services is just too slow.” — Reuters

Pag-IBIG’s housing loans hit P58.7B

November 30, 2018 | 12:03 am

THE HOME Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) logged higher housing loans in the first 10 months of the year, boosted by its robust disbursements last month.
In a statement on Thursday, Pag-IBIG Fund said housing loan releases reached P58.78 billion in the ten-month period, 15% higher than the P51 billion released the previous year. The loans funded homes of 70,561 families, 11% higher than the 63,496 families recorded a year ago.
The mutual fund lent P7.02 billion for housing in October alone, helping 7,896 families. This amount, Pag-IBIG Fund said, is the highest non-December monthly disbursement in the fund’s 37-year history.
“Pag-IBIG Fund’s performance in October stands out as the best month so far this year in terms of our home loan disbursement,” Pag-IBIG Fund Chief Executive Officer Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti was quoted as saying in the statement.
He added that its low interest rate fuelled the disbursements in October.
If demand for housing loans is sustained in the next two years, Pag-IBIG said it will be able to release P73-75 billion worth of housing loans, which will exceed its full-year target of P71.5 billion.

On the front-line

November 30, 2018 | 12:03 am

By Richard Roeper
Movie Review
A Private War
Directed by Matthew Heineman
MARIE COLVIN was one of the great combat correspondents of our time, covering conflicts everywhere from Chechnya to Sierra Leone to Sri Lanka to East Timor, and breaking stories of great impact in a career spanning more than a quarter-century.
I say “was,” because Marie Colvin is gone. It’s one thing to issue a spoiler alert or to avoid revealing the fate of the lead in a fictional tale, but it feels like it would be disrespectful to the memory of Ms. Colvin to treat her life — and her death — like a plot point.
Ms. Colvin, who had been a foreign affairs correspondent for the British newspaper The Sunday Times since 1985, and the French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed on Feb. 22, 2012, while covering the civil war in Syria and the Assad regime’s massacre of thousands of men, women and children.
A Private War is a straightforward and conventional but also appropriately grimy and bloody chronicle of the last 12 years of Ms. Colvin’s life. Despite the occasional moment when the depiction of newsroom procedures doesn’t quite ring true, or a supporting character delivers a line that’s a little too perfect and succinct for the moment, most of what transpires feels grimly authentic and true to the real-life characters and events.
The British actress Rosamund Pike, who often gives off a vibe of cool reserve (even when it might not be ideally suited to the part), admirably throws herself into her portrayal of Colvin. Ms. Pike’s husky, no-nonsense delivery is a spot-on take on the real Marie’s voice (as heard in TV and radio interviews), without sounding like an impersonation. Ms. Pike is equally believable in scenes when Colvin is crawling through the muck and dodging gunfire in hellish war zones, or when she’s gliding through a London soiree in high heels and a black dress.
Director Matthew Heineman and screenwriter Arash Amel (adapting a 2012 Vanity Fair profile by Marie Brenner) alternate between chaotic, sometimes murky docudrama-style sequences of Colvin’s harrowing experiences in some of the darkest and most dangerous pockets of the world and her time back home in London, where she tried to play the part of the dashing, wisecracking, life-of-the-party, rock-star journalist at cocktail parties and awards ceremonies, even as she was battling PTSD and sinking ever deeper into alcoholism.
(Little wonder director Heineman so expertly re-creates the war zone sequences, given his work as a documentarian includes Cartel Land, an unflinching look at the Mexican drug wars, and City of Ghosts, about the Syrian citizen journalist activists known as RBSS.)
In one of the most intense scenes in a movie filled with intensity, Colvin is felled by a grenade blast while covering the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2001 and loses her left eye.
Cut to a posh event in London, where Colvin sports an eye patch and copes with her situation by engaging in dark humor, as when she tells her editor to stop standing on her immediate left because she literally can’t see him from that angle.
Rather than resting on her laurels and taking a desk job, Colvin insists on returning to the most dangerous assignments imaginable, even though she’s haunted by nightmares and is becoming increasingly volatile and reckless, especially when she’s drunk.
Tom Hollander has the most thankless role in the film as Marie’s editor, who fusses about and throws little tantrums when she defies him, but doesn’t take her out of the game even after she’s clearly damaged, inside and out. The charmingly scene-grabbing Stanley Tucci wanders in out of nowhere as a wealthy businessman who falls for Marie. (He’s a composite character who might as well be wearing a nametag saying, “I’m a composite character.”)
The most surprising — positively surprising — performance in the film comes from Jamie Dornan as Paul Conroy, the Royal Artillery soldier turned freelance photographer who becomes Marie’s longtime partner in journalistic madness/bravery and her fiercely loyal friend.
Mr. Dornan was about as mesmerizing as a window display mannequin in the Fifty Shades movies, but he’s absolutely terrific here, delivering a lovely and warm performance as arguably the most sympathetic and relatable character in the entire film. He essentially serves as the stand-in for all of us, who admire the hell out of Marie Colvin and are eternally grateful for the work she did — especially when she put a name and a face on certain atrocities and thus made it impossible for the world to ignore them — but also lament that Marie couldn’t, or wouldn’t, find a way to come home and stay home, and let others take up the front-line charge. — Chicago Sun-Times/Adrews McMeel Syndication
Rating: ★★★
MTRCB Rating: R-13

Jay-Z seeks to halt arbitration against Iconix

November 30, 2018 | 12:03 am

NEW YORK — Jay-Z on Wednesday sued to halt his private arbitration with clothing company Iconix Brand Group Inc, saying the company’s inability to find an African-American arbitrator to hear the trademark dispute was unfair. The multimillionaire rapper said in a petition filed in Manhattan Supreme Court that the lack of racial diversity among arbitrators at the American Arbitration Association (AAA) was discriminatory under New York’s state constitution and a New York City human rights law. Iconix could not immediately be reached for comment, and a spokeswoman for the AAA declined to comment. The dispute is the latest in a series of legal wranglings arising from Jay-Z’s 2007 sale of his Rocawear clothing brand to Iconix for about $204 million. Iconix has since written off almost the entire value of the brand, and in 2017 sued Jay-Z in Manhattan federal court over trademark rights. That case remains pending. In 2015, Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, and Iconix settled some disputes, and agreed to address future claims in private arbitration, according to Jay-Z’s petition. Last month, Iconix accused Jay-Z of breaching the 2015 settlement and demanded an AAA arbitration. But Jay-Z said the AAA found only three potential African-American arbitrators, out of the hundreds it uses, for his case, and one already represented Iconix in related litigation. He argued that the lack of “more than a token number of African-Americans” made the arbitration contract void. “It would stand to reason that prospective litigants — which undoubtedly include minority owned and operated businesses — expect there to be the possibility that the person who stands in the shoes of both judge and jury reflects the diverse population,” the petition said. Jay-Z, 48, is famous for songs including “Hard Knock Life,” “99 Problems,” and “Big Pimpin’.” The Brooklyn native has won 21 Grammy Awards, most recently in 2015 for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance for “Drunk in Love” with his wife, pop star Beyonce. In May, a federal judge ordered him to respond to a US Securities and Exchange Commission subpoena related to the Rocawear sale. The SEC said it was looking in to writedowns by Iconix, and wanted to ask Jay-Z about his personal involvement with the brand. — Reuters

Local firms bid for Antique, Bukidnon airport projects

November 30, 2018 | 12:02 am

SEVERAL companies participated in the Department of Transportation’s (DoTr) bidding for the airport projects in Antique and Bukidnon.
The DoTr qualified seven bidders for the P332.7-million Antique Airport Development Project, while nine were qualified for the P408.837-million Bukidnon Airport Development Project.
DoTr officials opened the bids at the department’s office in Clark, Pampanga on Thursday.
The seven bidders for the Antique airport are Verzontal Buildings, Inc.; F. Gurrea Construction, Inc.; Vicente T. Lao Construction; Persan Construction, Inc. — R.R. Encabo Constructors, Inc. joint venture; BSP & Company, Inc.; MAC Builders; and A.M. Oreta and Co., Inc. — IBC joint venture.
For the Bukidnon Airport, the nine bidders are B.M. Marketing; Fiat Construction Services; P.E.R.R.C. Construction Development Corp.; Vicente T. Lao Construction; Dumduma Construction and Trading Corp. and Amarro Construction and Realty Developer joint venture; Green Asia Construction and Development Corp.; MAC Builders and Ulticon Builders, Inc. joint venture; SCP Construction; and Unimasters Conglomeration, Inc.
The qualified bidders will advance to the detailed evaluation and comparison of bids.
The government said it targets to name the winning bidders for both airport projects by December.
The Antique airport concessionaire would have 540 days or a year and a half to finish the project, while the Bukidnon airport concessionaire will get 360 days or almost a year.
Earlier this month, the DoTr invited local companies to join its efforts to develop the Antique and Bukidnon gateways.
The contract for the Antique airport project involves the construction of a passenger terminal building, landslide and airside facilities and strip grade correction with improvement of drainage system. The Bukidnon airport involves site development works.
Based on the bid documents for both airport projects, the detailed evaluation would determine the “lowest calculated bid,” or the bid with the lowest financial component. This company would then move forward to undergo post-qualification tests.
Under the post-qualification phase, the bids and awards committee will determine if the company’s technical and financial submissions are compliant and responsive to the bidding conditions. If it passes this hurdle, the company may then be recommended for awarding of the contract. — Denise A. Valdez

US women earn half the income of men, new study finds

November 30, 2018 | 12:02 am

WOMEN earned roughly half the income of men in the United States over a 15-year period, taking into account time off for family or child care, according to a report released on Wednesday, which found the pay gap is far greater than has commonly been assumed.
In an examination of women’s income from 2001 to 2015, the Washington-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that women’s income was 51 percent less than men’s earnings, which includes time with no income.
“Much ink has been spilled debating whether the commonly cited measure of the wage gap — that women earn 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man — is an exaggeration due to occupational differences or so-called ‘women’s choices,’” Heidi Hartmann, president of the institute and a co-author of the study, said in a statement.
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“But our analysis finds that we have actually been underestimating the extent of pay inequality in the labor market,” Hartmann said.
The study, “Still a Man’s Labor Market,” showed that the wage gap has narrowed since 1968, with women’s inflation-adjusted income rising to an average of $29,000 for the period from 2001 to 2015, compared with $14,000 from 1968 to 1982.
But women are nearly twice as likely as men to take at least one year off work, and they pay a high price for it. Women who left the workforce for a year earned, during their years on the job, an average of 39 percent less than men, the study found.
Companies are likely to pay their employees less, regardless of gender, if they leave their jobs at some point. But women are more often hurt by that pay cut, the study found, because they are more likely to take time off.
With paid family and medical leave and affordable child care, women are more likely to stay in the workforce and earn higher pay, according to the study. — Reuters

A good man with a gun

November 30, 2018 | 12:02 am

By Noel Vera
Video Review
Wichita
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
(Yet another film on the soon-to-vanish [Nov. 29] Filmstruck — in this case easily found on other venues [Google Play and iTunes] but difficult to find in Cinemascope; even Turner Classic Movies has resorted to showing the cropped pan-and-scan version. Filmstruck presents the film in its original aspect ratio, and if ever the term “quietly glorious” applied to a picture it applies to this. Again the plea: make the site [or one like it] available again — and make it available to other countries!)
SAY THE name “Jacques Tourneur” and the first word come to mind for most folks is “horror” (the second is possibly “cat”). Tourneur had been directing since 1931, mainly shorts, finally made a splash early ’40s working for producer Val Lewton in Cat People (low budget, eerily beautiful) and I Walked With a Zombie (despite the pulpy title, my favorite adaptation of Jane Eyre). Say “Tourneur” and the word “westerns” rarely pops up — but some of his westerns do in fact represent his finest work.
Wichita is late period Tourneur, halfway through a decade when he went freelance (before this he was with RKO, working his way up from B pictures like Cat People to A projects like Out of the Past). It was his first film in Cinemascope which, unlike other filmmakers, he embraced: Cinemascope “reproduces approximately our field of vision” he notes, adding that the format, because of the expanse of space on display, “makes it necessary to compose.”
Tourneur composed all right, but not in the flashy manner of a Welles or a Hitchcock. Critic Pauline Kael sniffed that his films with Lewton “aren’t really very good,” suggesting they’re afflicted with good taste; I submit they’re more understated than anything — a distinct dark sensibility subtly suggested.
In Cat and Zombie and in the classic noir Out of the Past, Tourneur used shadows to great effect, evoking a claustrophobic twilight world of perverse lust, supernatural transformations, and the undead. In Wichita, Tourneur worked in color, where shadows are less pronounced, and in widescreen, where shadows are less effective at evoking confinement — which compels one to wonder: what can Tourneur evoke, in a world of bright hues and vistas?
Tourneur answers the question in his opening sequence: a cattle drive led by one Clint Wallace (Walter Sande) stops for the day, to allow the animals to feed and fatten up prior to selling them at their destination; suddenly a speck is spotted moving across the low hills of the horizon. The cowboys gaze at the speck warily, wondering if it was alone or friend or foe; eventually one of the hands is assigned to ride out and settle the issue.
What do vast spaces evoke? Why fear — the sense of constant vulnerability. Anything can come at you in those spaces, from any direction; and thanks to guns (which all the folks in the plains carry) anyone can strike you where you’re standing. From evoking claustrophobia in Cat People and Out of the Past, Tourneur, in his one major Cinemascope effort, teaches us to appreciate the different but equally fine terrors of agoraphobia.

The speck grows into a buffalo hunter named Wyatt Earp (Joel Mcrea), who’s traveling in the same direction as the drive, hoping to establish a business in Wichita. He’s guardedly offered dinner (Tourneur has Earp on his horse in the background looking down on the cowboys as they’re arrayed in a row facing him: while he’s perched high up and they’re crosslegged on the ground, their shadowy implacable backs radiate cautious hospitality); later two of the men, brothers Hal (Rayford Barnes) and Gyp (Lloyd Bridges) Clements attempt to rob him, an attempt which he easily rebuffs. Turns out Wallace’s earlier speculation was right after all: the man does represent a threat, but not in an immediate straightforward way.
When Earp does arrive in Wichita, the camera ranges easily indoors and out; the buildings (painted an intriguing combination of warm wood, mint green, lemon yellow, burnt red, and the like) keep out the craze-inducing horizon, giving the impression of sheltered greenery in the midst of the Great Plains. Earp is soon offered not a business proposition but a job: the fast-growing town is about to receive an influx of cowboys (Wallace’s crew, earlier encountered) and is about to be torn up in a fit of drunken exuberance. Would Earp consider being marshal, to help keep the peace?
Earp turns the offer down; the cowboys arrive, bringing with them the wildness of the plains they spent months crossing. In a wide high-angle shot Tourneur records the teeming chaos of men running riot, a street lamp standing useless guard to the left corner; suddenly a cowboy on horseback rides across the screen, smashing the lamp’s bulb.
Tragedy strikes (Tourneur’s abrupt staging — a sustained buildup, a clutching of a small chest — underlines the randomness of that tragedy) and Earp feels compelled to pin on the tin star and be sworn in to duty. In the same sense of quiet but implacable authority with which he subdued the Clement brothers, bank robbers, now the wild-partying cowpunchers, Earp declares a gun ban in Wichita.
Does the film support gun control (and since when was gun control a serious issue in 1955?)? Yes, basically — Daniel B. Ullman’s script and Tourneur’s way of causing one’s skin to crawl whenever walls fall away and the ground stretches out for over a mile — make their stance clear. But there are ambiguities: it takes guns to enforce Earp’s ban, plus a double load of buckshot (as Earp points out “I figure I can take out about five of you at this range.”). It also takes — as the NRA often asserts — a “good man with a gun” to keep the ban effective. Granted Earp was backed into taking the position of marshal and that he’s a duly sworn lawman — how many Joel McCreas can you count on to ride into town and keep the peace?
Where other actors radiate charisma or sexuality, McCrea comes across as decent — not exactly a quality you look for in a Hollywood star. But McCrea is decent in a believable way, charming and perhaps a little clueless on any subject outside of his immediate occupation, whether journalism (Foreign Correspondent) or small-town spirituality (Stars in My Crown) or this film — he’s so damned likeable you can be forgiven when he declares martial (marshal?) law and you let him get away with it.
That’s perhaps the price Tourneur is willing to pay to tell this story: McCrea’s Earp, like the present president of the Philippines, is willing to wage a ruthless war on guns (as opposed to drugs — but it could be any issue) but is also willing to do so judiciously, responsibly. No careless killings (several times he had the chance and refused), no delegating the task to incompetents (at most he hands a firearm over to the soon-to-be-equally-famous Bat Masterson [Keith Larsen] who acts as his deputy), no “collateral damage” among civilians, at least none directly through his actions. Earp, unlike Duterte, is a genuinely good man with a gun, “good” in the sense that he not only means well, he’s effective at his job.
And it’s not just Earp as the good man; Tourneur carefully sketches the members of the community and the folks outside that community. Businessmen Sam McCoy (Walter Coy) and Doc Black (Edgar Buchanan) are the kind of elderly white men who control the town, who like Earp’s lawman integrity, who are dismayed when his integrity runs roughshod over their business interests. Tourneur often shoots them in groups conferring and plotting on how they would handle Earp, and when they surround him to try reason with him your skin crawls yet again — they’re like wary wolves surrounding a bull, looking for a weak spot. You want to hiss at Wallace and his hands, but when the cattleman learns of a second tragedy he has the decency to express regrets — besides the unlikeliness of Earp, yet another element that feels so fairy-tale in this day and age: people aren’t hypocritical when they express regret over a gun death. They pause and look for change.
If Tourneur ultimately relegates the film to the realm of fable (the real Earp was a mere police officer, not the town marshal, and left because he had gotten into a fistfight with his boss’ political enemy and was dismissed), at least the director gives us this particular fable: modestly scaled, gracefully told, honest in the way its characters respond to the shocks and disruptions of Tourneur’s world. He gives us — no, he reminds us — of how a legal and effective gun ban might look like, and considering the conditions of either the country of my birth or the country that has adopted me, that world with its strict ban looks better and better by the day.

Bill on Islamic banking framework filed in Senate

November 30, 2018 | 12:02 am

SENATOR Sherwin T. Gatchalian has filed a bill seeking to establish a regulatory framework for the development of Islamic banks in the Philippines.
Senate Bill No. 2105 filed on Nov. 21 gives the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) regulatory powers and supervision over the Islamic banks operations. The agency is also mandated to issue implementing rules and regulations on Islamic banking, taking into consideration its “peculiar characteristics.”
It also empowers the BSP’s policy-setting Monetary Board to authorize the establishment of Islamic banks and to allow conventional banks to engage in Islamic banking arrangements through a designated Islamic banking unit within the bank. The Monetary Board may also regulate the number of participants in the Islamic banking system.
The Monetary Board may also prescribe and authorize foreign Islamic banks to operate in the Philippines under any modes of entry as provided under Republic Act No. 7271 or the law liberalizing the banking industry.
The bill likewise mandates Islamic banks to constitute a Shari’ah Advisory Council, which will be composed of experts in Shari’ah, banking, finance, law and other related disciplines. The council is tasked to provide advice and to review applications of Shari’ah principles. The council is not allowed to be directly involved in Islamic banks operations.
Under the proposed measure, Islamic banks will be allowed to perform banking services, such as accepting or creating current, savings accounts and investment accounts, accepting foreign currency deposits, as well as acting as correspondent banks and institutions, among others.
In a statement on Thursday, Mr. Gatchalian said the proposed measure provides opportunities for the country’s Muslim population, especially entrepreneurs to have access to banking and financial services that are compliant with the Shari’ah principles or Islamic laws.
He added that it will also help the government in developing the Bangsamoro region.
“It will likewise enable the country to tap into the growing pool of Islamic investors across Middle East and Southeast Asia,” Mr. Gatchalian said.
“With this bill, we are recognizing the vital role of Islamic banking and finance in creating opportunities for greater financial inclusion, especially for the underserved Muslim population,” he added.
The Al-Alamah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines, created through Republic Act No. 6848, is the only bank in the Philippines authorized to offer Islamic banking services. It has eight branches in Mindanao.
The House of Representatives approved on second reading last month House Bill 8281 or An Act Providing for the Regulation and Organization of Islamic Banks. — Camille A. Aguinaldo

A tale of three Grinches

November 30, 2018 | 12:02 am

By Richard Roeper
Movie Review
Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch
Directed by Scott Mosier and Yarrow Cheney

With How the Grinch Stole Christmas
In Nineteen Fifty-Seven
Dr. Seuss made such a splash
We were all in Whoville Heaven!
For years and years and years
The book remained a hit
So they made a cartoon special
And folks liked THAT quite a bit!
A man named Boris Karloff
Who starred in Frankenstein
Was the voice of the mean green Grinch
And he did much better than just fine!
The highlight of the TV show
Was a very funny tune
With words and phrases so very gross
If you were eating you’d put down your spoon!
Mr. Grinch was called a foul one with termites in his smile
With all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile
His heart was a “dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots”
His soul was “rubbish … mangled up in tangled-up knots”
We moaned and groaned and moaned and groaned
At this very garbage-y song
But we loved it every year
And sang it all night long!
The years passed by and by
But the Grinch was still quite groovy
So in the year 2000
They gave him a full-length movie!
Jim Carrey played the Grinch
And he was pretty funny
The movie was not great
But it made a lot of money!
(One problem with the movie
Was the residents of Whoville
Their makeup was so creepy
They could have been from Boo-ville)
Here’s a bit of Grinch-ian lore
You might find somewhat news-ical
It’s even been a Broadway play
That’s right, a full-fledged musical!
The kids who read The Grinch at first
Have children fully grown
And some of THOSE children
Have squiggly wiggly kids of their own!
So now comes a new take on the tale,
And this is quite a match:
The Grinch is voiced — just wait for it —
By the man called Cumberbatch!
It’s an animated, full-length adaptation-interpretation
And while it’s kind of sweet, it’s not really a sensation.
The thing about this Grinch, from the moment he’s onscreen
He’s mostly lost and lonely, and really not so mean
Even when he’s scheming to completely foul things up
We see he’s just a softie, when it comes to Max the pup.
Cumberbatch is fancy, like Eggs Benedict
I’m a fan of his, I am, I am, I am
But I wish his voice work as the Grinch
Had contained more Green Eggs and Ham
(Sorry!)
We get lots of slapstick chases
As they try to stretch the story
But all that does is make us think:
Sometimes LESS is more-y.
Rashida Jones adds a warm touch as Donna Lou Who
Cameron Seely sparkles as little Cindy Lou
And even though it feels as if the movie is overlong
Kenan Thompson provides some laughs as the cheerful Bricklebaum.
There’s a new take on “You’re a Mean One …” from Tyler, the Creator
And yes, that’s Pharrell Williams stepping in as the narrator
Two great talents! I was hoping to feel glee!
But in both cases, the work was fine but too low-key …
From time to time you’ll laugh and maybe shed a tear
But this isn’t the kind of Grinch you’ll want to see each year.

— Chicago Sun-Times/Andrews McMeel Syndicaiton
Rating: ★★
MTRCB Rating: PG

Predator cities in Peter Jackson’s Mortal Engines

November 30, 2018 | 12:02 am

LONDON — Oscar winning filmmaker Peter Jackson is returning to the big screen with adventure fantasy Mortal Engines, a post-apolcalyptic tale of survival in his first feature film project since his award-winning adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels. The New Zealand-born director, known for his The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, produced and co-wrote the script for the film, based on the young adult book series by Philip Reeve. Oscar-winning visual effects artist Christian Rivers, who worked with Mr. Jackson on the Tolkien adaptations as well as 2005’s King Kong makes his directorial in the film, set hundreds of years after a catastrophic event wipes out civilizations. “Once The Hobbit was done, we were looking forward to getting this made,” Mr. Jackson told Reuters at the film’s premiere in London on Tuesday. “I didn’t want (Mr. Rivers) to make his first feature with somebody else… I wanted to be part of helping him get his feature film career off the ground… He’s done an amazing job.” In the film, humans live in gigantic moving cities which devour smaller towns. A group made up of an outlaw, outcast and mysterious woman lead a rebellion against one such predator city, London. “It was the fear of saying yes because I knew how much work it would be and it was also a fear of saying no, if I said no and someone else made it and it wasn’t any good, I’d be kicking myself,” Mr. Rivers said about directing Mortal Engines. “It was a freight train, it was a big film that came in and I had to jump on and take the ride.” On top of his work in the art department, Mr. Rivers was a second unit director on the last two Hobbit films, the last of which came out in 2014. Since then, Mr. Jackson directed World War One documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, released this month. Mortal Engines features a young cast led by Icelandic actress Hera Hilmar. Matrix and The Hobbit actor Hugo Weaving also stars in the film. — Reuters

An easy recommend for all and sundry

November 30, 2018 | 12:01 am

By Alexander O. Cuaycong and Anthony L. Cuaycong
MOST GAMERS are familiar with the modern dungeon crawler, with the likes of Diablo III, Torchlight II, and Path of Exile proving to be critical and commercial successes. That’s not to say that every release in the category follows the same formula; such notables as Class of Heroes, The Dark Spire, and The Lost Child are superb takes on turn-based exploration and fighting in elaborate milieus. They’re not for everyone, though; while compelling, they generally rely on the slow burn of an interesting story to keep players hooked, and their often-complicated battle systems can be a doozy to navigate through, especially for newcomers to the genre.
If nothing else, however, Nippon Ichi Software has exhibited remarkable proficiency in making quirky, otherwise-niche offerings hold mass appeal. Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk, originally released on the PlayStation Vita in 2016, is one such example, and it’s thus not surprising to see it now find its way to the PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Personal Computer in all its uniquely captivating glory. Featuring old-school dungeon crawling mechanics combined with a distinct anime art style, it promises to hook in players from either end of the video game spectrum.
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk follows the story of the witch Dronya and her apprentice Luca, who trek to Refrain with the intent to explore its — what else? — labyrinth upon the request of the town’s current dispensation. As the area of interest is filled with poisonous miasma, she is fortunate to have in her possession the Tractatus de Monstrum, a book inhabited by the soul of the single being who just so happened to have already wandered through and out of it. It is through this tome that players navigate through the narrative and control a myriad of puppet soldiers, each with their distinct look, class, and feel, in an effort to unearth the secrets held by the village depths.
At first glance, Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk’s plot seems fairly standard. As with most other NIS titles, though, it is anything but, and the way it’s unveiled and how its characters are introduced and fleshed out make it stand out from among the genre’s dregs. It tackles dark themes with a boatload of charm and humor, not to mention presented in an art style that can be unsettling early on, but compelling in time. Parenthetically, it benefits from the evident imprints of Tenpei Sato and Takehito Harada, with an audio-visual feel that should be familiar to Disgaea fans.
To be sure, charm isn’t the only thing that gives Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk legs. It makes use of, and presents, the standard sets of stats, skills, and classes, but to effective excess. Moreover, the manner in which parties are laid out in “covens” allows players to manage groups of up to 15 at any given time. And there’s no lack of depth and customization in its mechanics. In fact, there’s an initially frightening and intimidating amount; everything from constitution to positioning to weapon choice to numbers can dictate how effective parties are — imposingly at first, and then crucially moving forward.
Indeed, the seeming complexity of Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk can serve as a barrier to entry. Going into it blind can prove overwhelming even for those who have previously partaken of Japanese role-playing games. Likewise, it requires no small measure of grinding, with the use of atypically large numbers for stat lines and the bevy of choices available all but enjoining players to buff up their characters to acute levels. Simply put, there are just some points in the journey where they’ll think they’ve bitten off more than they can chew.
Thankfully, there’s a silver lining to staying engaged, and Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk manages to reward the patient, and how. It distinguishes itself in its painstaking desire to reinvent a formulaic genre, and despite some of its flaws. And it succeeds for the most part, keeping players engrossed with an original and entertaining interface clothed in unfamiliar but comforting garb. Boasting of a beguiling storyline and true gameplay depth that never outstays its welcome, it’s an easy recommend for all and sundry.
Needless to say, Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk is best played on the PC, where it is graphically and aurally at its finest. Console-wise, the PS4 Pro comes close, running at a steady 60 frames per second and offering outstanding controls. That said, those angling for maximum portability would do well to pick up its Switch version; even undocked and with a busy screen, it suffers from no hiccups and provides no noticeable lags in feedback. In any case, it’s proof positive that, in this day and age of instant gratification, timeless gems driven by equal parts narrative and gameplay can command interest. Arguably the best DRPG on any platform to date, it’s well worth its list price of $49.99 and, most importantly, the 80 or so hours it takes to finish.

POSTSCRIPT:
Black Clover: Quartet Knights (PS4) — In early 2015, Hungry Joker creator Yuki Tabata launched Black Clover in Japan via Weekly Shonen Jump, a manga periodical that has male teens as its principal demographic. Focusing on orphans Asta and Yuno as they strive to survive and subsequently thrive in the magic-filled Clover Kingdom, the title has been met with extremely positive reception. Its success has led to the production of a one-off video and a television series, with the latter currently on its second season and likewise localized for English audiences.
Considering the richness of the narrative, the expansion of Black Clover’s reach comes as no surprise. It tells of Asta’s intent to become the Wizard King, the second most powerful figure in Clover Kingdom, despite his utter lack of magical powers. Needless to say, the dream is shared by Yuno, whose natural abilities include control of wind magic. Even as they join The Order of the Magic Knights in pursuit of their objective, they find themselves confronting The Eye of the Midnight Sun, a rival organization out to destroy the kingdom.
Creditably, Black Clover: Quartet Knights stays true to its source material. Developed by Ilinx of Gundam Breaker fame, it has Asta and Black Bull Squad captain Yami Sukehiro trying to stop the designs for revenge of noblewoman Karna Freese. The tale is filled with potential, hence the decision to release a manga based on it early this month. It’s at heart a magic fighting game, however, and so the Story, Training, and Challenge Modes serve mostly as a tutorial for players to learn and master the mechanics of where its real value lies.
Indeed, Black Clover: Quartet Knights is set up to be best appreciated as a medium for four-on-four online matches. And, in this regard, it’s designed to give plenty of bang for the buck. Familiar characters from the series possess unique strengths that can be used in support of team victories. Among the multiplayer offerings: Zone Control, which requires taking and keeping control of a specified area in the battle arena; Treasure Hunt, which has protagonists fighting for a key to be used to open a treasure chest; and Crystal Carry, which compels the transport of a spawned crystal to a final location.
In Black Clover: Quartet Knights, choice is critical to success. The right characters support the right strategy for the right team to meet the right objectives. Players can go for ranged magic, up-close combat, healing, or support, and the ideal mix varies depending on the mode at play. Meanwhile, coordination promises to be critical to victory. And, in this regard, the assumption is that of a thriving online community where matchmaking is a breeze.
Unfortunately, this is where Black Clover: Quartet Knights falters. Not enough players seem to be available online at any given time, thus forcing the game to populate the majority of teams with characters controlled by artificial intelligence. Invariably, the required adjustments, in theory conveyed through proper and timely communication, aren’t made, leading to less-than-desirable results. And, with the game already a month old, the problem is more likely to be exacerbated than solved.
The good news is that Black Clover: Quartet Knights proudly exhibits its visual roots. It boasts of a sharp, colorful art style consistent with that of its Weekly Shonen Jump sibling. Ditto with its sound and dialogue tracks, which feature the same vibrant rhythms and voice acting as those of the television series. Animated cutscenes are smoothly rendered, but backgrounds are often static and frame rates can drop depending on the severity of the action on screen.
Taken as a whole, Black Clover: Quartet Knights should please fans of the franchise. It’s a veritable godsend for followers of the manga and anime series, offering a plethora of cosmetic and attribute customization options for familiar characters. Parenthetically, it provides a solid foundation for its multiplayer offerings. On the flipside, it suffers from the lack of online practitioners. And because servers are sparsely populated, forming teams becomes an uneven exercise at best.
Which, in essence, places Black Clover: Quartet Knights in a Catch-22 situation. It has the potential to go beyond its niche, but needs critical mass first to do so — and vice versa. Hopefully, the next console release, which is a matter of when and not if, fares better.
6.5/10

Video Game Review

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
PlayStation 4/Nintendo Switch/Microsoft Windows
THE GOOD:

• Classic NIS charm

• Compelling storyline

• Surprising depth

• Extremely accessible

THE BAD:

• Requires intense grinding

• Intimidating game design

• Slow pace

RATING: 9/10

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